To Lyger 0: Unfortunately, she doesn't know he has it (though it is a reasonable assumption).
Riding a thermal above London, Mecha-Man peeked down through the clouds, following the small group with his eyes. His suit's battery pack was starting to get low for the second time that day, after spending most of the day in the air. That morning, he had fruitlessly scanned the area around the university for signs of Castutrice or the Bearator or Gardur, waiting until he might spot Bridgette and her friends. After swapping his battery pack the first time, he had taken a spin around the city, checking the east end where Castutrice had been the first time, but without spotting anything.
It had been as he was following the Thames back toward the city center, returning to Antoine's van to replace his battery pack, that he had suddenly spotted the target, walking down the Strand with two others. He hadn't noticed when Bridgette and her friends had arrived on the Strand or how they had gotten there; one moment he had been searching for any sign of the Lynchpin-ions, and the next, he had picked out Bridgette's bright pink dyed hair in the crowd, alongside the redhead who had to be her roommate. Bridgette was walking down the street hand-in-hand with a young blond man –Mecha-Man had done a doubletake on spotting him. Though there were far fewer of the advertisements up in Paris now than there had been a few years ago, he could pick Adrien Agreste out of a crowd in a heartbeat. But according to last week's gossip column, Adrien Agreste and his fiancée were supposed to be in Paris, making the final preparations for their wedding. So what was Adrien Agreste doing here – and why was he walking around with Antoine's daughter?
But that was a question for another day; ultimately, it wasn't Mecha-Man's problem to deal with.
"What are they doing?" asked the Engineer.
Mecha-Man rolled his eyes. "The exact same thing they were doing three minutes ago, boss. They're walking east down the street, back toward the university campus."
"Still those same two people with her?"
"Still them," Mecha-Man confirmed, sending him another picture as confirmation. He frowned, an itch on the back of his shoulder blades demanding his attention. Almost a week he had spent in London this time, and almost all of it he had been flying around and watching university girls go about their normal business, like some Peeping Tom. They were here to protect Bridgette, of course, but still… "Any idea where she's been staying since the…incident?" Mecha-Man asked. "I still haven't figured out where she returns to at the end of the day."
"I have sent her messages," the Engineer replied curtly. "She has yet to respond. I bet it has something to do with that boy she's been with, though."
Mecha-Man adjusted his altitude to skim as close to the bottom edge of the clouds as possible. "Know anything about him?"
"Not a thing. Although from the photos, he looks familiar…"
"You know, you could just ask her if that's her boyfriend," he pointed out.
The Engineer hummed dubiously. "I doubt she would tell me."
Mecha-Man sighed heavily. "You know I'm in this with you no matter what. But can we really keep this up permanently? At some point Cocteau will call and ask where we were, and we'll have to tell him what we did."
"She was only attacked two days ago," the Engineer retorted hotly.
"And her attackers haven't tried again. We haven't seen them since yesterday at the warehouse." Mecha-Man grimaced, stifling a groan of frustration. He had been so exhausted yesterday, everything that could go wrong had gone wrong.
The Engineer let out a breath. "I know we have been away for a while, and I really do appreciate your help. Perhaps this afternoon we send the Heroes of Paris an anonymous tip about that warehouse – the right one this time – and let Iron Maiden and her friends take care of it. If the Heroes of the UK know what's going on, then maybe we can return home in peace."
"Sounds like a plan." Mecha-Man frowned, scanning the group below him more carefully. "Hang on. Now that I look closer… that big guy has been following them for a while." He dipped down lower, out of the cloud cover, and focused his view on the man in question, almost a half-meter taller than Bridgette or her roommate, with long shaggy hair and a loping stride, walking a couple paces behind Bridgette and her two friends. Mecha-Man cocked his head in confusion. "Huh. Something about him looks strangely familiar…"
"Oh?"
"Yeah… I think I've seen him before, boss." Mecha-Man drifted a little lower, just as Bridgette glanced up, looking almost directly at him. "Shit – I think she saw me," Mecha-Man reported, rising back up toward the clouds as fast as he could. However, before he could reach the clouds, a figure in dark blue stepped out into the street from the gap between two buildings, directly ahead of Bridgette and her friends.
"Maca-Dam!" Castutrice called, swinging her oar around and slamming one end into the ground at her feet. At once the road surface rumbled and shook beneath her, knocking pedestrians on the sidewalks to the ground as dirt and rock and asphalt rose up and congealed together into the start of a massive barrier, crossing the street in front of the group and cutting them off from where they were heading. The redhead grabbed Bridgette's upper arm tightly, her eyes shooting wide open.
"Oh, God dammit it all to hell!" growled Mecha-Man, gritting his teeth and wheeling about in a tight spin, turning himself into a parabolic arc aimed toward the ground between Bridgette and the barrier. Aiming his arms at Castutrice and her barricade, Mecha-Man unleashed twin energy blasts, one at her and one at the wall, rolling around in a loop and leveling off three meters above the bystanders' heads and rocketing straight at her as fast as he could go. Castutrice's eyes shot wide open in shock, her mouth dropped open, and she drew back her oar, spinning it as a shield, blocking one energy blast and sending it into the side of a building. The barrier paused its growth with a groan, the unused material collapsing back to the ground. Car horns blared and tires screeched as vehicles veered around the barrier and turned around. Traffic snarled in both directions. People scattered along the sidewalk, racing away from the brewing fight – but not everyone fled. On the roof of a building just behind Castutrice, something glinted in the sunlight, just as an energy pulse shot out, narrowly missing Mecha-Man and streaking down toward Bridgette. With a roar, Mecha-Man clenched his fist, sending a pair of his forearm-mounted rockets back at the source of the energy pulse. Even before the rockets hit, Mecha-Man flipped himself around to land on his feet right in front of Castutrice, driving one fist into her chest the moment he hit the ground. The metal gauntlet clanged off of her oar-shield with a resounding echo. Drawing back both fists, he slammed them down together on the shield, forcing her onto her back foot as she blocked the blow. With a gasp, she skidded backward a half-step, raising her shield higher to block his follow-up strike. The moment the shield came up, however, Mecha-Man raised his knee and launched a gas cannister into her face behind the shield. The cannister spun around once in midair, releasing a cloud of purplish mist. Castutrice leaped backward over her barrier, and Mecha-Man smashed through it after her, growling. He raised his arm to fire, only for something slam into him from the side.
"Now you get what's coming to you, traitor!" snarled the Bearator, his eyes flashing with rage, as his claws came down on Mecha-Man's arm. Mecha-Man's breathing hitched, and he nearly lost his balance.
The claws bit deeply into Mecha-Man's armor before getting stuck. Planting his back foot firmly, Mecha-Man twisted his arm, jerking the claws out of the Bearator's grip and pulling him off balance. The Bearator shifted his footing, and Mecha-Man drove his free fist into the Bearator's exposed side, even as Castutrice swung her oar at him. His head rang from the impact, and his helmet struck the barricade beside him. A metallic tang filled his mouth, and he let out a growl. Glancing back through the hole he had smashed through the barrier, Bridgette and her group were nowhere to be seen. He allowed himself a quick sigh of relief… which immediately caught in his throat as Gardur raced down the street toward him with three of the men he had encountered the day before. The man with the chain hurled it at Mecha-Man, wrapping it around his arm and tugging on it. Mecha-Man pulled back on the chain, and the man stumbled forward, nearly losing his grip. But at that same moment, Castutrice kicked the back of Mecha-Man's knee, and his leg buckled, the tension on the chain vanishing only to return as the man yanked on it, pulling Mecha-Man's arm to its full extension. The Bearator wrenched one of his hand-claws out of Mecha-Man's armored arm, though Mecha-Man twisted his arm to keep the other out of his grip. On reaching the barrier, one of the other men drew back his crackling mechanical fist. Mecha-Man clenched his eyes shut, preparing to activate his jetpack – maybe that could at least get him away.
ROAR!
A deep, booming ursine roar filled the street, echoing off of the buildings around them, nearly stopping Mecha-Man's heart. The man with the electrified fist jumped, whirling around to find the source of the sound. Gardur bared his teeth at Mecha-Man, extending his razor-sharp fingernails–
–only to vanish a moment later, to be replaced by a vaguely-familiar brown bear: Oitokoisi, the Heroes of Paris had called him in Angola. Oitokoisi stood on his hind legs, head rolling back to bellow into the air, and smacked his front paws against his chest, shaking his head and sending a rippling wave through his fur. On the ground at his feet, Gardur looked up in terror as Oitokoisi came down on top of him, teeth bared. Oitokoisi snarled, snapping at Gardur's throat with his jaws, and Gardur pushed one arm into his mouth to hold him at bay. The teeth closed around his arm, and Gardur let out a scream. At the same moment, the chain wrapped around Mecha-Man's arm vanished, and suddenly the Hound stood behind Oitokoisi, the chain-man trussed up in his leash and held up off the ground.
"Need some help?" called the Hound, raising an eyebrow at Mecha-Man, the corners of his mouth turning up in an amused grin. "You seem to be having a bit of a ruff time of it!"
"I take it you decided to believe me?" Mecha-Man shifted his arm to block a blow from Castutrice, sidestepping away from the Bearator as he did so.
"Let's just say that watching you attack these chuckleheads was a point in your favor for my partner," the Hound replied, placing his free hand on Oitokoisi's back and kicking out at electric-fist.
Mecha-Man grunted and shot up into the sky, swinging a foot at Castutrice, who nimbly dodged out of the way. Hovering just above the barrier, Mecha-Man quickly scanned the road, wrenching the Bearator's other hand-claw out of his arm and tossing it on top of a nearby roof. "Glad to hear it." He chuckled. "Under the circumstances, I wouldn't exactly mind a little backup here."
The Hound's eyes lit up with exhilaration, and he threw chain-man up over his head before slamming him down into the grass beside the sidewalk. "These don't seem like so much trouble!"
Electric-fist growled, drawing his fist back and punching the Hound in the shoulder, unleashing a massive electrical surge as he did so. "We'll see about that, hero!"
The Hound yelped and jumped back away from him, spinning his leash in front of himself to hold the other at bay. Oitokoisi swung his paw at Electric-fist with a vicious backhand, knocking him aside and moving away from Gardur, driving one clawed back paw into Gardur's chest as he did so. The moment he was free, Gardur let out a pained groan, clutching his chest, but rolled away from Oitokoisi and sprang to his feet, throwing himself at Oitokoisi's side and ripping into him with his fingernails. Oitokoisi howled, as an arrow whistled past his head from somewhere to the side, only to vanish the moment it struck a parked car. Turning on Gardur, Oitokoisi bared his teeth, extending the claws on both his paws and slashing Gardur across the chest. With a growl, Gardur threw himself at Oitokoisi's middle, plunging his fingernails into his chest. Snarling, Oitokoisi slammed his paws down on Gardur's back, but Gardur somehow managed to stay on his feet.
"Let me help you out with that, big guy." The Hound spun around and lashed out with his leash, catching one of Gardur's arms and hauling him off of Oitokoisi, throwing him spinning away.
A little further down the barrier, Oitokoisi lumbered toward chain-man, his claws outstretched, just as the man started to rise. Behind him on the sidewalk, a small group of civilians huddled together, trapped between the barrier and the wall of the apartment building behind them. His eyes drifting in their direction, chain-man cocked his head, raising an eyebrow. Oitokoisi roared, barreling toward chain-man and throwing his head in either direction. Chain-man stumbled, backing away from both Oitokoisi and the civilians, and Oitokoisi passed him, turning around to place the civilians behind him, his beady eyes narrowed in rage.
A shimmering red arrow struck Oitokoisi in the flank, and Oitokoisi howled. The arrow vanished as suddenly as it had hit, and an armored figure emerged from the alleyway to the side of the building, stepping between Oitokoisi and the civilians. "I will stop you, monster," the knight called, drawing a red-tipped arrow from the quiver on his hip and laying it across his longbow. Oitokoisi turned back and forth, examining chain-man and the knight in turn.
Hovering in midair, Mecha-Man rotated quickly, surveying the scene up and down the street along Castutrice's barrier. Most of the other civilians had fled, though a few had paused, watching the fight with rapt attention. Castutrice had vanished from view, though he could just see the Bearator's shadow on the other side of the barrier. Suddenly, twin energy blasts struck Mecha-Man in the side from below, and he spun around out of control, only barely catching himself before he could hit the ground. Looking up for the source of the attack, his eye settled on a figure with a pair of energy pistols strapped to his wrists. The man fired again, repeated pulses that hit Mecha-Man squarely in the chest, stalking closer to him with each hit. Shaking his head, Mecha-Man held out his hands to protect himself, one foot sliding back in a stronger stance. Behind him, the Bearator squeezed through the partially-built wall and slashed at Mecha-Man with his one set of hand-claws. Mecha-Man turned back and forth between them and fired a glob of chi-putty at the Bearator, who dove out of the way and came up behind him once more.
Suddenly, an energy pulse from above struck the ground at energy-wrists' feet, and Iron Maiden dropped to land directly in front of him, depositing Bandruí next to her and pointing her energy cannons at energy-wrists and the Bearator. "I'm only telling you once: Leave. My. Country!"
