The Duke? This man was supposed to be Mason's arch-rival? He seemed a little insane, and slightly unhinged to go with his charisma. "Time to fulfill my revenge on you, Color Fire! Nothing will stand in my way now!"
He began cackling again at the skies, but he was stopped by something stuck in his throat from cackling again.
From the looks of Luna, this lunatic was giving British people a bad name, and everything they stood for in Great Britain - England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland alike. This man looked like someone who was too far gone to be given the most professional therapy or psychiatric methods. The Duke was bound for revenge for Mason for whatever he did to him before, or the thing that made him a sworn enemy. "Time for my long revenge, Color Fire!" he shouted.
He pulled out something that looked like a pistol a little bit, or a desert eagle handgun from him, and began shooting at the heroes.
Luckily, Luna raised her hands, and froze the bullets with her ice, and then the fun was frozen from the effects as well. "Hold your horses, mate!" Luna said: "turn back and leave us alone, before I fire a musket, and run you through!"
"Well, you are quite a feisty little blighter, aren't ya?"
"Ask anyone."
The Duke pulled out a Bren machine gun from behind him and loaded it before shooting it at Color Fire with it. Even though it has a slower fire rate than most machine guns, it was still powerful. Mason used his fire powers to melt the bullets and evade more incoming ones with some grazing houses and doors it would hit.
Having enough of this maniac, Luna charged at him and tried freezing him, but the horse suddenly galloped and she missed her target. Despite the draft horse being gigantic, he was still rather faster than a man. It gave Duke the perfect opportunity to leap off his steed, and charged at Luna with his cavalry sword in hand.
Luna was impressed, even for an old man to be so flexible like this, but she created a sword made of ice, and a duel between them commenced. This man was fighting really well for someone his age, and it looked like he could die any day now. Looks were not everything, and Luna could not underestimate him.
"You should have stayed out of this, girl." said the man as he tried to vertically slice her, but he kissed from Luna rolling to the left of him. "Meddling in the old beef between men and that Color Fire."
"Mess with my friends, you mess with me, dude!" Luna replied before slicing at him, and hitting his sword with her ice blade. She felt her face being kicked a few times, around four times, but Luna ducked the fifth kick and hit his throat with her right foot, making him gag and fall on the snowy ground.
Now Duke was getting angry. "You will pay dearly for that, lass!"
He was in a frenzy and was trying to slice at her faster than before, and Luna was getting a little overpowered by this villain's swordplay, and she was pushed by him shoving her with his right shoulder, knocking her over.
Giving a pompous laugh, he was about to finish off Luna with his sword, but then, out of nowhere, someone was blocking it with a sword of his own. It was Color Fire, and he had something like a saber or a French sword. "Get away from my friend, you wannabe noble!" then he pushed Duke back.
"You have no idea how long I have waited for this, my old adversary! You have been a thorn on my side for far too long!" then a sword fight commenced between these rivals.
Looking impressed by how well Mason was fighting with his sword, Lincoln and Luna watched the fight between them, and sounds of clashing metal were heard. "I can say the same about you, Duke. Coming all the way from New Orleans to here in Michigan?"
"At least I am away from any French and Spanish peasants!" Duke retorted before landing a few blows again. "And I can finally have my revenge!"
Alas, his old age slowed him down a little, and it gave Mason a perfect opportunity to remove the blade from his opponent's hand, making it fly out of his grasp, and Color Fire punched him in the face a few times, and he beaten him.
"Looks like you lost, monsieur! Surrender, maintenant!"
"Never! I never surrendered anything."
Suddenly, the police sirens went off in a distance and for police cars were heading toward the direction where the fight is taking place. "Attention, maniac, this is the police! Get down in the ground with your hands behind your head!"
Despite how intimidating the officer sounded, Duke wasn't scared or affected. No, instead, he got on his horse, and shouted: "hyah!" before riding off, and he exclaimed: "curse you, Color Fire!" then he was running from the law.
"Yesh, well that guy was crazy." Luna said before putting her ice sword away.
"He's not as crazy as Living Taser or Hairdoom, to be honest." Lincoln said.
Mason and Luna laughed before Mason replied: "non, that is true, Lincoln. Tres vrai."
"How long have you known him?"
"For the past five years. The Duke thinks he's better than everybody else, because of his ancestry from the Duke of Wellington, and that he thinks he is the next British Military genius in the world. He tries to remove all languages of the world with English, and no other language."
"Pfft, that is crazy." Lincoln said.
"He thinks English should be the only language of the world, and no others. And, he is a little bitter that the Uniteed States defeated Great Britain in the revolution, and that France helped them, so he likes to hold old grudges."
"What can we do?" Luna asked
"You don't have to worry about that crazy old man. I have fought and defeated him a million times before. He is my enemy. But anyway, we should really worry about that man you encountered earlier, Luna."
"Yeah, that Yakov guy seems stronger than that weirdo."
"Maybe Lisa's machine is working again?" Lincoln hoped.
"Negatory." Lisa sighed. "It will take a little while before the machine will be up and running again."
"We can still look for him," Mason said boldly, "we just have to search for him ourselves."
Silent and thinking for any ideas to find the supposed mechanical man, Luna suddenly caught glimpse of him in a distance with his winter clothes in him. She never forgets the face, and she thought she saw the probably mechanical man in the distance from out Lisa's window "Wait, I think I see him across the street," Luna said before running after him.
"Luna, wait!" Lincoln ran after her, so did Mason. "Come back! What are you doing?"
"I found the guy, bro!" Luna called back to him.
"He could be dangerous, Luna!" Mason warned. "Slow down, s'il vous plait!" Despite her brother and friend's pleads, Luna still wouldn't slow down, and looked around for Yakov. "Grr, where are ya, Iron man? she lost sight of the mechanical cyborg and didn't see where he went off to.
It was then Lincoln and Mason finally caught up to her and were panting, like they were out of breath. "Warn me the next time you run off like that next time." Lincoln panted.
"Sorry, bro. I thought I saw him around him at this spot." Luna explained, "But, I think I lost sight of him now."
"We'll get him, Luna." Mason reassured her. "It just takes patience and time. And etre-juste (to be fair), Flip deserved it a little bit. I've heard of the negative reviews his little gasoline has because of him being a cheapskate.
"True." Luna said. "I don't know when that robotic dude will show up." suddenly, the three heard a voice, and they looked at where it came from
"Hey! You kids get off of my property." it was the man himself, with his winter coat on, and his arms crossed like an angry grandparent. Yes, it was, indeed, Yakov.
"That's the guy?" Lincoln thought.
"There you are!" Luna shouted. "It's payback time." she was about to charge, but Mason stopped her.
"Luna, wait, he could one-up you like last time." Mason said.
"I have no idea what you children are talking about." Yakov raised his eyebrow.
"We heard about you. Who are you?"
"It is none of your concern about who I am! Now begone, before I call the authorities on all your three."
"Not until you answer my questions, man." Luna said, looking ready to fight. "Why did you rob Flip of his cash?"
Yakov was silent, and he saw that these children were persistent, and that he saw on the TV that- Luna probably knew the cops. "You really want to know who I am?" he said. he still looked angry, and he replied with a sigh: "very well, come inside."
"How do we know you're not trying to lure us into a trap?" Mason asked cautiously
"Does my house look like I am luring you into a trap?"
"Well, yes, to be honest." Lincoln replied.
"I have no materials to create a trap in my house, and besides, the world turned its back on me a long time ago. It is something you children would never understand." and he slightly turned his head away from the three heroes. "Look, I am in no mood for a bloodbath. Just come into my house, and I will tell you about me if you are so eager enough to find out about me." he went inside his interior of the building and the kids cautiously followed after
All three looked around to see if he was lying or not, and surprisingly, he was telling the truth about his house not being a deathtrap after all. "Okay, no tricks, old man." said Luna, "Or I will turn you into a robotic ice sculpture."
"I am a man of my word." said Yakov. Everyone stood in the living room, and it looked like it was in desperate need of renovations. "I know, I know, it is... not satisfactory for you in here, but why should I care about renovations? My life is sad enough as it is."
Luna, Lincoln, and Mason didn't exactly know what he meant. "What are you talking about?"
"My name is Yakov, and... I have had a pretty tragic life in my past." he turned away, showing them his back, and he put his hands on the counter that separated the kitchen and living room inside his house. "I was not always like this. I used to be one kf the happiest men born from Ukraine when the Soviet Union was still alive." he turned back to the kids, and he looked more serious, "but it all changed when I have got in a horrible car crash, and it did... This to me!"
He unveiled his winter coat, and revealed his almost cyborg body to the three. "Wow. I knew I wasn't hallucinating." Luna said
"Whoa! What are you?" Lincoln said, with him and Mason bewildered by this kind of appearance.
"I know, I know. You are rather... horrified by this kind of appearance I have."
"Are you a robot?" Luna said
"No, he's more like a cyborg. I mean, you can see the organs in him through his armor." Lincoln pointed.
"You're a smart child." Yakov pointed. "Indeed. I am a cyborg, and I was once pure human when the accident happened.
"Accident?" Mason asked
"Da. I don't know if I should tell you kids."
"I say yeah, because I don't want you to rob anyone else." Luna said
"I only robbed when I wanted to, Luna Frost." Yakov clarified. "But anyway, I moved out of the Soviet Union when I was a young boy with a couple of smugglers that hated communism. By the time I was a young man, I suddenly got into a car crash from a bunch of crazy drivers with their horrible hip-hop music, and it incinerated most of my body, except for my head."
The three heroes were amazed and shocked to hear this. "You survived that kind of accident?" Luna said with her mind blown
"Incroyable." said Mason in disbelief
"Sounds like you got lucky, Yakov." Lincoln added
"Heh. So you think." the Soviet man admitted. "But, I think i got very unlucky. It was when this scientist named Alfred Jones found me, and saved my life by constructing this mechanical monstrosity that you would call a 'new body'. I told him it was a curse, but he claimed that he was only trying to help me out and he saved me. But I just wanted to have sweet death take me away from this nightmare."
"He was trying to help you, man." Luna said. "I mean, come on, why couldn't you be thankful?"
"Because I have been through so much in my life!" Yakov shouted in her face, making her stand back with a fright
"Hey! Don't talk to my sister like that!" Lincoln stepped up, but he was a little intimidated when Yakov grabbed his shoulder firmly with his right hand
"How dare you talk to me like that." he narrowed his eyes
"Sorry. Sorry. I take it back."
the Soviet realized what he was doing, and he immediately took his hand off his shoulder. "No, I should apologize. I lost my temper and I lost control of myself for a brief moment," he remarked with his eyes closed in shame. I tried readjusting to my new life, but everyone I went to in my new armor that keeps me alive, everyone turns away from me as if I was a complete demon, or abomination to society, and all of mankind. I live in a world where everyone rejects me because of my new appearance, something like... Frankenstein."
Now Lincoln, Mason, and Luna were starting to feel sympathy for this cyborg. A group of people judging one person because of how he or she looks? It is wrong on many levels like during the Civil Rights Movement when Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks, and Malcolm X were still alive.
""Really?" said Mason. "I'm sorry to hear that."
"So am i." Lincoln remarked.
"Me too." Luna added.
"It matters not if you have true sympathy on me or not. Most people hushed me before they even knew me. That's why I am better off in isolation from all of humanity."
"Well, I bet that when you had that new body, people were more... judgemental and... not as accepting as today."
"Ooh, you're on to something, Lincoln." Luna said.
"Yeah, what he means is that: times have changed, and we no longer live in a world where the supernatural is... deathly scary anymore. People today are more accepting of other people." Mason explained, "so now, if people looked at you now, they would he totally amazed by how you are, and kids will think you are really cool."
Yakov was silent again, but he said: "I don't know if I can show my face looking like this in front of my neighbors. I prefer to keep it silent."
"There's nothing wrong with how you are, Yakov." Luna said with sympathy. "Ebeb with a cyborg body, you're still you. Just... better than you were."
"Better? How can I be better than my all organic self, Frost?"
"You're immune to taking damage from punches and kicks, and you... can't feel any pain anymore." Mason said first
"And you can use it for good to help others." Lincoln added. "You handled Luna well and you are very tough."
"Well, that is true. This body makes me more immune to feeling any pain or weather conditions."
"So you can use that for good and not evil.'
"I am not evil. It's just that, the world has a problem with me."
"Well we can help you fix it." Luna reassured him. "People can warm up to you."
"Just give it a chance." Lincoln added. "Do you know any neighbors?"
"Only a number of them. But I mostly like to isolate myself from everyone around me."
"Don't you have any family or relatives?" Lincoln asked with a sad look on his face."
"Well, I do. But... the only thing left of my family is my son, who is placed under foster care. I didn't want him to look at what a monster his own father had become. How can a son like a dad looking like this. For my other family members, half of them were branded traitors during the Great Purge in Russia, and were executed by Stalin and his secret police. The other half died from the famine in my home."
"Wow, i... I'm so sorry to hear that, dude." Luna said. "I didn't know that."
"Neither did i." Lincoln added
"Oui, I am very sorry for your loss."
Yakov sighed, and he said: "thank you. But, most people turn their back on me because I am a cyborg. I just need to be alone." The kids left his house looking sad and sorry for this poor soul whine Yakov was left in depression.
"We gotta do something about this, Luna." said Mason. "I think he can be a good hero once you think about it."
Luna smiled and she said: "that gives me an idea, dudes! We can help Yakov out by showing him that he can use his cyborg body for good and he can use it for awesome use. We just need to show him that it's a gift."
