To Lyger 0: In fairness to Lynchpin… they started it.

To Geft: Or at the very least, there is the possibility that Lynchpin has more moles. And Loubet is a candidate for Mayor, not President.


Iron Maiden folded her arms, eyeing Mecha-Man suspiciously as he finished the story. Her father had turned on the Lynchpin. Mecha-Man had defected to the French government and become part of some new super-secret covert French super-team. Her flat had been destroyed by the Lynchpin's men to punish her father for his betrayal. All of this – it had happened because of her father… because had decided to do the right thing. She frowned, swallowing back a lump in her throat. Could it even be possible? Could her father really have changed like that? When she had found out about his double life last year, that had seemed an absolute impossibility. Her father was a criminal. He had betrayed everything he had ever taught her about right and wrong! He was responsible for at least some of the violence and super-criminals plaguing the city. So she had fled from Paris, just to get as far away from him as she could.

Of course London hadn't been far enough.

When her father had planted bombs around London back in the fall, back when she had only just met Felix, she had thought that was the last straw. After he had attempted to hurt the entire city, she had been all set to never see or speak to him again. Then Mecha-Man had fought Felix while he was in Paris, to say nothing of all his other crimes. But now… To think that her father might have turned a new leaf… Beside her, she could feel the surprise coming off of Bandruí, who held tightly onto her sapling-turned-support tree. Bandruí turned to look up at Iron Maiden, a question in her eyes. Iron Maiden's mouth set in a thin line beneath her helmet, and she stared intently back at Mecha-Man. "Why? Why would you turn on the Lynchpin like that?"

Mecha-Man turned slightly in either direction and looked around the destroyed flat. "To be honest… it was because of you – you heroes, I mean," he explained, sighing heavily and shaking his head. Iron Maiden suppressed a flinch, cocking her head to once side. Mecha-Man held his hands out. "I didn't exactly set out to work for a criminal mastermind like the Lynchpin – to be honest, I don't know many working for him who did. I… fell into it, when I was laid off from work and really needed the money. I didn't see any better way to feed my family – neither of us did, me or the Engineer. Both of us went to work for the Lynchpin because we didn't see a better option. I was lucky enough to be selected as the next Mecha-Man pilot. Our… mistake… in London last year, same deal: mistake. But then we helped you heroes fight the Tarasque, and we helped out in Angola at the refugee camp, and all of that, and… I don't know. I just – I didn't want to go back to working for the Lynchpin after all that. Not when I'd gotten a taste of what it was like to do things the other way."

"So you both just… decided to go straight?" demanded Bandruí, her grip on the tree tightening as her eyes narrowed, studying him carefully.

Mecha-Man nodded. "Pretty much. It was the Engineer's idea, actually – something changed in Angola, and he came back looking like he'd seen a ghost."

Bandruí's shoulders tensed, her mouth parting the slightest bit in surprise. "In Angola… So it was…" She coughed, shaking her head clear, and stepped up next to Iron Maiden, placing one hand on Iron Maiden's arm, a pensive look on her face.

Iron Maiden blinked, hardly feeling the tug on her arm when Bandruí pulled on it. Her breathing hitched. He–he had changed! Or maybe. Maybe he had changed. But that was everything she had hoped for, laid out right here in front of her… in the middle of her bombed-out flat. Her father really wasn't going to continue working for the Lynchpin, working for criminals. And he had come to that decision in Angola – was it because of her? Butterflies fluttered in her stomach, a lightness that she hadn't felt in a year nearly lifting her off her feet. Maybe her father really was the man she had imagined him to be, had wanted him to be for the last year – flaws and all. If the attack tonight on her flat had been the Lynchpin, attempting to send a message to her father, then perhaps Mecha-Man was telling the truth! And yet…

She had been burned already; she couldn't let herself be burned again.

Iron Maiden stood frozen in place, staring down Mecha-Man without moving, heedless of Bandruí's insistent tugs on her arm. On one side of the room, a hotspot that had been hiding in the carpet flared up; with a dismissive wave, Bandruí adjusted the steady drip of water down her vines toward that spot.

"Bri, sweetheart?" Amelie's voice in her communicator pulled her back into reality. "I know this is a lot to take in, but it's okay: you are not alone here. What is on your mind?"

Iron Maiden shook her head, coming back to reality, and cleared her throat. "Thanks," she whispered, too softly for the suit to project. Louder, she added, "That all sounds a little too good to be true, especially when we're standing in a bombed-out flat you claim you didn't attack. So… what? You're just heroes now? And you expect us to believe that?"

"It's not that we don't want to believe you," Bandruí interjected edging slightly in front of Iron Maiden and raising an eyebrow at her. "We do. But you'll have to give us a little more."

After a long pause, Mecha-Man nodded. "We understand. It wasn't too long after we returned to Angola when we made the decision. We contacted someone in the French President's office," he explained. "We had to be careful; the Lynchpin has people everywhere. But in exchange for information on the Lynchpin and his operation, they relocated our families, pardoned us for what we did for the Lynchpin, and gave us a job. So we work for France now – mostly," he amended, waving vaguely to the room.

The fires had mostly died down inside; outside, Iron Maiden could hear the wail of sirens, some nearby and some approaching. "So you came here…"

"To keep the Engineer's daughter safe," Mecha-Man repeated. "Our handler didn't do anything to get her to safety since she was in England, so we came to do it ourselves. Although it looks like we didn't do a good job of it," he added, looking around the flat.

"Well, I'd say you made a right bags of it!" Bandruí retorted, pursing her lips and waving a hand toward the destroyed flat. "Look at this place! It's a complete haymes! If your partner's daughter had been here, she'd've been toast!"

Iron Maiden sucked in a breath, though the creaking of the building around them masked the sound. Bandruí, however, glanced up at her with a mildly penitent look.

Mecha-Man nodded slowly. "I know – we know," he amended quickly. "We've been trying to keep an eye on her since we found out that the Lynchpin knew that we had turned on him… but we didn't see his people around until it was too late."

"Do you know what happened?" asked Iron Maiden, forcing herself to breath slowly and calmly.

Mecha-Man glanced around the room. "In part," he answered. "I saw both her and her roommate enter the building. Then I noticed someone in the park across the street – on the university campus – who looked like the Bearator. But before I could act on that information, there was a sudden streak from the rooftop a couple buildings down. At first I thought it was targeting me, but then it hit the building. That's when I came in here to try to find her. But I can't find any trace of her – or the roommate."

Iron Maiden hummed, nodding slowly. "And you're sure she was here when it happened?" she pressed.

"Maybe she was in a different room when it happened…" Mecha-Man allowed, throwing his arms out helplessly. "But that's the only guess I have." He shook his head. "The Engineer was beside himself."

Iron Maiden swallowed back a lump in her throat, sniffling softly.

"It's okay, Bri," Amelie whispered. "You're safe." She hummed. "In fact, most of the injuries being reported by the paramedics have been relatively superficial. And all but two of the residents are accounted for…"

Bandruí leaned back to look out through the gaping hole in the wall, down toward the ground. "You know, if she wasn't in here, it's possible she's out there with the other residents," she suggested, waving toward the college campus across the street. "Maybe you can look over there. Though I'd suggest you not tell anyone who her father is," she added sharply, raising an eyebrow at him.

Mecha-Man nodded. "That may be a good idea," he agreed, clunking across the room, past Iron Maiden, and pausing at the hole. "I'm sure the Engineer will be relieved if he knows she's okay." He turned to look at them. "Will you contact us if you find out anything?" he asked, the anxious tone coming through despite the mechanical distortion.

Iron Maiden shared a look with Bandruí but nodded. "We will," she assured him. "Somehow." After a moment, Mecha-Man held out his hand, and a plug extended from one of the fingers. Bracing herself nervously, Iron Maiden held out her own hand and turned the wrist toward him. She eyed him warily as his suit connected with a port on hers. "If there's a malware in here, I will kick you out that hole," she warned him.

"Noted. But it's nothing like that," he assured her. "According to the Engineer, it's just going to establish communication frequencies which we can use with each other."

After a moment, Mecha-Man disconnected his plug, and a loading bar appeared in the lower corner of Iron Maiden's display. At a command, she scanned the program for viruses before allowing it to run. She nodded, relaxing slightly. "Okay – we'll let you know if we find anything. As long as you will do the same."

"Thank you." He let out a breath and took one last look around the devastated flat before squeezing out through the hole, his jetpack activating as he kicked away from the building.

Bandruí turned to look at Iron Maiden, her eyes wide with shock. "That–that was a lot to take in," she admitted. "And that's on top of… well… this."

Iron Maiden nodded slowly. "Yeah–yeah, it's–it's crazy." She sighed heavily. "I'm sorry my father almost got us both killed," she told her.

Bandruí waved her hand dismissively. "Far as I'm concerned, that's not something you need to apologize for," she answered. "It's not something you could control; why should you have to take responsibility for it?" She chuckled, shaking her head ruefully. "So, your oul fella actually went straight. I almost don't believe it."

"I know – I'm not sure if I believe it, either, to be honest."

"Do you think he was telling the truth?"

Iron Maiden shrugged. "I mean, I hope he was. It would at least explain why our flat is trashed.…"

"But…"

Iron Maiden let out a heavy sigh. "But I don't want to get burned – not again."

Bandruí hummed as they carefully crawled out of the flat, holding very still as Iron Maiden secured the harness to her gauntlet. Slowly they flew back in the direction of the workshop, dipping a little lower and taking a closer look at the rooftop Mecha-Man had indicated as they passed. Over the sound of the wind, Bandruí called out, "Well, no matter what, I've got your back!"

"As do I," Amelie interjected over their communicators. "And I may have found something: I just talked to Sabrina, and she said Paris' Superhero Liaison Department did raid a building they thought was the Lynchpin's headquarters."

"So maybe they were telling the truth," Iron Maiden mused, dropping lower into the gaps between the buildings to hide from Mecha-Man's view. She sighed. "Thank you – both of you. I don't know if I'd be able to do all of this without you. And… I know I already said it before, but I'm sorry I didn't tell you about my father sooner."

Bandruí nodded, holding a thumb up where Iron Maiden could see it. "As far as I'm concerned, there's nothing to be sorry about. We know now, and that's all that's important."