To Butterfly: She's getting an entire story to herself, the third one after "Seine"; that's actually the next story I'm going to write. Counterdiction Chapter 3 was the chapter 2 days ago, but I published it about 2 hours earlier than normal because I had to run an errand ungodly early. It was either that or wait and publish it several hours later than normal, and I decided to go with early.
It was a few days later, and Mecha-Man was huddled in the cabin of another smuggling boat, this one disguised to look like a river tour boat. Killer Bee was in the boat's hold with Antoine, who had come along to provide technical support. Before leaving Rouen, Antoine had outfitted the boat with a number of small surveillance cameras, giving him a 360° view of the river surrounding them, as well as a couple on the deck. Of course, considering that the Heroes typically used a portal to appear directly on the boat's deck, Mecha-Man was unsure exactly how useful the cameras facing the river would be. Still, better than nothing…
Mecha-Man's communicator crackled with their conversation. "Have you considered miniaturizing the components?" Killer Bee was asking Antoine. "I know an engineer who's done some amazing things with miniaturization. You might even be able to make the suit small enough to fit through the hatch."
"I'm sure you do," scoffed Antoine dismissively. "But I'm also sure that anything reducing the size and weight of the suit that substantially would leave him vulnerable."
"Miniaturizing the motors and hydraulics could reduce weight," Killer Bee pointed out.
"Not as much as you would think," Antoine pointed out. "We've already reduced the size and vulnerability of the servos and hydraulics a lot since the first version. At this point most of the bulk comes from the armor, and we've already reduced that as much as we can and still protect against the miraculous users' weapons and energy weapons."
"Hey, I don't mind the extra armoring," Mecha-Man interjected. "As long as the hydraulics are protected from pointy objects like swords and claws and I don't have to worry as much about getting my legs melted, it's fine by me. Personally, I very much prefer surviving these jobs, even if it means sitting in a cabin alone instead of hanging out in the hold with you two!" To be completely honest, he thought, that's kind of a bonus! "The only downside," he added, "is that you still haven't put any games on the system for me to play."
Antoine snorted. "You would clutter up your operating system with games?"
"Games, books…"
Antoine laughed derisively. "I would not put those time-wastes anywhere near my baby!"
Mecha-Man deactivated his communicator and leaned back against the cabin wall in the sudden silence and cycled through the HUD menu to find the targeting system. He'd run the diagnostic program on it fourteen times already, but there wasn't much else to do if he didn't want to listen to the other two bicker. Still, arrogant though Antoine might be about his suit, Mecha-Man couldn't exactly argue with the results.
He lifted and moved his arms as the diagnostic program prompted, cycling through the different weapons load-outs. Everything was operating just fine. Just like everything had been operating fine the last fourteen times. Perhaps next time he would ask Antoine to give the suit access to his cameras; at the moment, Antoine's tablet was the one device that could view the camera feeds. But even if nothing happened, just being able to see the cameras and know that nothing was happening outside would help fight off the boredom of the assignment. Mecha-Man yawned and flexed his arm and leg joints before returning to his perusal of the system's menu.
A whooshing sound coming from the front of the boat interrupted his concentration and brought his attention back to the present. Mecha-Man squinted out the small round cabin window to see a portal opening over the front end of the boat. Four figures jumped through the portal: Cat Noir, Taureau Dechaine, the Heretic, and Miss Pinky. Mecha-Man switched his communicator back on and called to the other two, "We've got heroes!"
Cat Noir landed first, swung his staff, and swept three guards' feet out from under them, sending them toppling over the boat's railing before any of those on the deck had a chance to react. As one, the remaining guards drew their energy rifles and fired, but Miss Pinky landed in front of Cat Noir, spinning her rake as a shield. The heroes quickly spread out from the front of the boat, with Miss Pinky racing for the pilothouse while Taureau Dechaine and Cat Noir worked their way through the guards along either side of the boat.
"So what are you waiting for?" demanded Antoine. "Get rid of them!"
Mecha-Man twisted his right wrist to switch the arm cannon on that side to the new "Anti-Miraculous" weapon load-out before deploying the pile-driver on that arm and smashing straight through the cabin wall. At the same moment the hatch opened and Killer Bee jumped up on the deck. Miss Pinky was the closest target, and Mecha-Man shot a wad of chi-putty at her which missed wide to the right and splattered onto one of their guards. On hearing the discharge, Miss Pinky veered toward him, spinning her rake at his legs the moment she was within reach. Mecha-Man jumped over the rake head and punched her in the face. She leaned back to avoid the punch and brought her rake up to knock his arm aside, moments before he could shoot another chi-putty pellet at her from pointblank range. That pellet struck the boat's railing, centimeters from where Killer Bee had wrapped her top around Cat Noir's staff. "Why can't you stay still?" Mecha-Man grunted at Miss Pinky, locking his legs against her follow-up kick and swiping at her throat with his arm.
"Why can't you stop doing bad things?" retorted Miss Pinky. She ducked under his swipe and pushed him away with her rake head.
"We're just giving the people what they want," Mecha-Man told her dismissively. "If the people didn't want what we sell, we'd be selling something else."
"And all the people you've hurt along the way?" she demanded, eyes flashing with anger, spinning her rake to one side to block an energy blast from one of the guards. "They wanted you to hurt them?"
He kicked her in the chest. "When people get in our way, sometimes we have to get them out of the way!"
"And sometimes when people are in the wrong place at the wrong time, you use their grieving husbands to hurt more innocent people!" she shouted, pushing his leg aside and landing a kick of her own against his head.
On the far side of the boat, Killer Bee's fight against Cat Noir had come to an abrupt end as the Heretic tripped her with his quarterstaff, sending her to the deck on her back. She flipped back to her feet and jumped over the bolas he threw at her, narrowly avoiding a wad of chi-putty as she did so. The Heretic feinted to one side, but she anticipated his move and snatched the quarterstaff out of his hands with her top before throwing it over the side of the boat. He ducked under the kick she aimed at his chest, but could not avoid her Venom. He froze mid-kick when the top connected with his chest, but only for a moment; less than a minute later he was already back in the fight, pulling something off his neck.
"Focus on Taureau Dechaine!" Antoine ordered Mecha-Man. "Let the guards handle Cat Noir and Miss Pinky."
Mecha-Man grunted an acknowledgement, shot a bolas at Miss Pinky's ankles to distract her, and raced across the deck, catching Taureau Dechaine in a flying tackle where he was in the process of picking up their guards and hurling them over the side of the boat one after the other. "Let's see how you match up against me!" Mecha-Man shouted, kneeing him in the gut and springing off of him. He shot a chi-putty pellet at Taureau Dechaine's head, but he rolled away from the shot and jumped to his feet. Mecha-Man raised one arm to block the cattle prod swinging at his head and punched the enormous hero in the chest with the other hand. Taureau Dechaine caught his fist with one hand, grabbed Mecha-Man's other arm with the other, and head-butted him backward. Mecha-Man stumbled to one knee and shook his head against the sudden dizziness. He fixed his eyes on the massive hero, pushed back to his feet, braced his legs, and pushed back against Taureau Dechaine. He feinted to one side, pulling Taureau Dechaine off-balance, and slammed him to the ground. Mecha-Man unleashed his energy cannon on Taureau Dechaine, who blocked the attack by spinning his cattle prod one-handed and pushed himself up to his knees.
"You're pretty big," Taureau Dechaine acknowledged. "But I've faced much bigger than you!"
"Mecha-Man, point your cannon directly at the railing to your left and fire!" ordered Antoine.
Mecha-Man turned his energy cannon away from Taureau Dechaine and obeyed Antoine's order immediately. A moment later, he heard a quiet splash of something hitting the water. Taureau Dechaine jumped to his feet and charged Mecha-Man. Mecha-Man stepped to one side and dragged his foot, tripping Taureau Dechaine. Mecha-Man grabbed Taureau Dechaine by the ankle, picked him up, and swung him over the side of the boat. Taureau Dechaine grabbed the railing as he fell, and Mecha-Man kicked the railing as he tried to pull himself back onboard. The railing splintered under the kick, and, with a yell, Taureau Dechaine fell into the river.
One down.
Killer Bee had by this time been forced to retreat into the hold to recharge, leaving Mecha-Man and a dwindling number of guards to face the remaining three Heroes. Not having to worry about hitting his own teammate, he fired a spray of chi-putty in the direction of Cat Noir and Miss Pinky, landing a pellet on Miss Pinky's shoulder. Cat Noir ducked behind a couple of their guards to avoid the attack, and the Heretic immediately ran to remove the chi-putty from Miss Pinky. "Duck!" Mecha-Man shouted at the guards. The moment they complied, he let loose on Cat Noir with both energy cannons.
"Cataclysm!" Cat Noir called, swinging his staff with one hand to deflect the energy blasts. He reached down and was just about to destroy the boat's deck when Mecha-Man shot a bolas at his hand. The bolas disintegrated as the Cataclysm expended on it. Cat Noir glared at him.
The Heretic had removed the chi-putty from Miss Pinky by then, and she shouted, "Cornucopia," spinning her rake in a spot on the deck as she did so. Instantly a tree sapling started growing out of the deck from that spot.
"What the hell's going on up there!?" Antoine demanded moments later, panic in his voice. "We're going to be swimming real soon!"
Mecha-Man bellowed as he poured energy at the Heroes, joined by the last three of their guards who were still on their feet. Cat Noir and Miss Pinky spun their weapons to block the constant barrage, but were still pressed backward by the force of the energy beams. Finally, Cat Noir gave the other two a signal, and he and Miss Pinky each grabbed one of the Heretic's arms and all three together jumped off the boat and onto the bridge the boat was just passing under. A pair of police boats appeared from around the bend, and Mecha-Man launched a spread of smoke rockets, blanketing the river with smoke and hiding their boat from view.
The boat was starting to ride low at the front; Mecha-Man's HUD showed a list of 10° that was starting to get worse. The pilot limped the boat over to shore directly beneath the bridge, where a delivery truck had just pulled up to unload their cargo. Mecha-Man slumped against the energy-scored cabin wall and watched the new sapling grow so high the top branches scraped against the bottom of the bridge. His HUD showed an incoming call from Night Bat. "Mission accomplished, boss," he mumbled exhaustedly before ending the call.