To armadas: This does get intense in places. And there's a rapist on the loose. But I swear, I really do like my characters!
To Butterfly: I haven't written much horror before now, but I did have some fun with it!
To yellow 14: Savage, indeed!
To GirlPower54: Welcome! Depending on how much of the history you've read, things should explain themselves (and there's also a wiki with the basics), though I'd be happy to answer questions in a PM. I'm glad you are enjoying the suspense! Generally I do try to keep things close to reality so that it feels like it's happening in a version of the real world, though with the miraculous and magical elements there's plenty of room for creative liberty.
"Is the soup always this thick, Pup?"
The Hound planted his palm on the edge of a roof and swung over, out into the space above the alleyway separating two blocks. With a quick glance below to check that the alley was deserted, he planted his heels on the building's wall and pushed off, up and over the alley, to land on the next roof. Rolling to his feet, he continued his frenetic race. A chimney loomed suddenly out of the thick layer of fog hanging over the city, and he spun to the side, narrowly avoiding running straight into it. "Afraid you'll rust, mon Fer?"
Across the city Iron Maiden scoffed into her helmet's built-in communicator. "Please," she retorted. "Give me a little more credit than that! I might have something to worry about if I fell in the river, but this pea soup isn't going to rust anything – stainless steel doesn't rust, and these heat shielding panels are immune to practically everything terrestrial!"
"I think you mean they're immune to 'practically everything terrestrial' except my doggone animal magnetism!" His voice sounded oddly muffled by the fog.
The Hound could almost hear her roll her eyes. "I can see why you don't have a helmet, Pup," she observed wryly. "I can't imagine your head would fit in one!"
"You have no idea, my dear," his mother interjected with a laugh. Her teacup clinked; he could imagine her setting it down next to the computer in their Hero Study before rubbing her forehead. "I'm sorry to say that teaching my son humility has been an almost-18-year-long losing battle!"
"You know, I think I like your maman, Puppy!"
"Is this what patrolling together is going to be like now?" he demanded, trying and failing to keep a trace of amusement out of his voice. His eyes roamed over the city in an effort to find Iron Maiden's location. The two of them were racing around the city on opposite sides of a wide circuit, searching for any trace of criminal activity. Unfortunately, while his miraculous-enhanced senses caught the occasional hint of her location, either from the sound of her suit's motor deflecting off the buildings or from her jetpack's flame cutting through the fog billowing across the city on the light breeze, it was only a fleeting indication. "Me trying to do my job while the two of you dog pile on top of me? I had no idea you could be so pugnacious!"
"Not my fault you make it so easy!" Iron Maiden teased.
"You know, I don't have to join you on patrols now that we have this new mini-portal system in place," he grumbled, running across Lambeth Bridge along the top of the railing. A delivery truck appeared out of the fog, nearly blinding him with its headlights. He looked away from the truck momentarily to preserve his eyesight before reaching the end of the bridge. Looping his leash around a streetlight, he swung up onto the closest building's roof to continue on his way.
Iron Maiden giggled. "Are you telling me you actually have something better to do on a Friday night?"
He paused. "I have a social life," he defended half-heartedly.
"I'm sure."
"Actually, perhaps having the mini-portals will help with that social life," he mused, pausing on a roof's peak to catch his breath. "Now I don't need to waste gas whenever I want to pup over to the pup for a pint!"
"Excuse me!" His mother sounded scandalized. "There will be no 'popping over to the pub for a pint' until you're 18, young man!"
"That's only two weeks, Mother!"
"Does that matter?" she demanded. "Pegasus did not install those rings so you could use them just to 'pop over to the pub'!"
"Uh oh," observed Iron Maiden, amusement in her voice. "Sounds like mommy's putting her foot down! Does she know about the last time you stopped at a pub?"
"'Last time'?" his mother asked ominously. "What 'last time'?"
"I have no idea what she could paw-sibly be talking about," he replied quickly, peering out through the fog closing in around him. "There was no last time!"
"That's not what I remember..." Iron Maiden teased in a singsong voice.
"Quiet, woman!" The Hound smirked. "At least I know someone who is old enough to buy beer…"
Iron Maiden scoffed. "Oh, no, you're not putting me in the middle of this!"
The Hound twisted his head to work out some of the tension, and as he did so a sound of shattering glass cut through the oppressive fog from the street below. Swinging over the roof's edge, he dropped the two stories into the alley next to that building, bending his knees to absorb the fall. Peeking around the corner he saw a man hunched over a parked sedan, his hand inside the car through the open window. Strolling out into the open without a care in the world, the Hound noticed a broken cobblestone on the ground. "Trouble with the car?" he asked, a dubious edge to his voice.
The man swung around, clutching the edge of the window. He winced on cutting his palm on the broken glass. "What? No; of course not!" the man insisted, his mouth set in a pained grimace.
The Hound stopped less than a meter from him and leaned in close. "Somehow, I find that im-plaws-ible," he observed, raising an eyebrow. "Call the cops to pick this mutt up," he muttered into his communicator. Louder he asked, "I assume this isn't your car?"
"Uh…." The man turned and bolted down the street.
"They always try to run," the Hound complained, rolling his eyes. By then the man was just a shadowy figure barely visible through the fog.
"Maybe they think they can get away?" suggested Iron Maiden in amusement.
"I mean, maybe they could… but it's like they forget about the leash." The Hound flicked out his leash, placing the loop directly in front of the man's foot. The man stepped through it, and the Hound pulled it taut. The man fell flat on the ground with a yelp, his legs splaying in either direction, and the Hound reeled him back. While the man was still dazed, the Hound zip-tied his hands together before using another zip-tie to attach him to the handle on the inside of the car, his hands suspended over his head.
"The police will arrive at your location in a few minutes," his mother reported.
"They can take their time," he answered, smirking. "This loser isn't going anywhere." He patted the man on the head. "Now stay here and be a good boy for the nice police officers," he instructed him, before swinging back up to the roof to continue his patrol circuit. He frowned. "It's been three days since the Ripper's last attack," he pointed out.
Iron Maiden hummed thoughtfully. "At the same time, there have been less people out for him to target. I haven't seen too many, and my infrared cuts through the fog just fine," she noted.
"Could the weather be keeping people home?" his mother suggested.
The Hound shrugged. "I suppose it's claw-sible – that and fear."
"Speaking of, I do hope the two of you are being careful," she warned. "I would hate for either of you to get sick in this weather."
"You don't need to worry about me," Iron Maiden quickly assured her. "My suit is temperature-regulated so I don't get too hot or cold."
"You know, mon Fer," the Hound observed, his voice dropping to a deeper tone, "if you ever should get cold, I'd be happy to warm you!"
"That is a tempting offer," began Iron Maiden, pausing for a moment, "but I'd prefer keeping my metal suit on over turning you into a fur coat!" She giggled and cleared her throat. "I don't think we're going to see anything more… ready to call it a night, Hound?"
He nodded, though she wasn't nearby to see it. "I'll meet you back at your workshop," he agreed. Slowly he turned to jog down to Trafalgar Square, where he turned onto the Strand. Thanks to the fog, he just barely heard the sound of Iron Maiden's jetpack as she soared over him, its flame creating a halo in the gloom. He followed her trail through the sky until he was about three blocks from the King's College campus, where he turned left down a back alleyway. The wind howled along the Strand behind him, the only sound he could hear through the fog that suffocated him like a blanket.
A little ways down he could see a small rectangle of light spilling out into the pitch-black night. As he neared the small shed from which the light originated, he heard a light metallic whirring that abruptly cut out, followed by a low, muttered curse. Finally he stood in the light of the half-open shed door and leaned against the doorframe beside the mini portal ring that Pegasus had installed a week earlier to connect the workshop to the Manor and his dorm room. In the centre of the workshop, facing away from him, was Iron Maiden, her suit opened at the rear. The girl sticking half out of the suit let out a grunt and carefully extracted her second leg, rolling her shoulders and twisting her head to stretch once she was fully on the ground.
"I had no idea it would be this easy to convince you to undress for me!" the Hound observed, smirking.
The girl gasped and spun around in a wide-eyed panic, almost tipping the suit over. She grabbed a wrench off the workbench next to her hand and chucked it at him before her eyes finally focused and her jaw dropped. "God, Mutt, you probably just scared like twenty years off my life!" She glared at him through narrowed eyes, clutching her chest and gasping for breath.
The Hound caught the wrench easily and set it on the end of the workbench. "Easy, Maiden," he soothed, holding his hands up in a calming gesture. "I really didn't mean to startle you like that."
She gave him a reproachful look and folded her arms. "I suppose it's okay," she finally answered, though without so much as a smile. She shook her head ruefully. "I designed this thing to be easy to get into and out of, but sometimes the gears just stick – probably humidity. And when that happens… I've worn dresses that weren't as complicated to remove as this suit!"
The Hound blinked, envisioning his partner in a mini-dress – black of course to match her Halloween-coloured hair, and short enough to leave most of her legs exposed, toned as they were from running around the city while operating her suit. The neckline dipped low, drawing the eye downward. Although at the moment she was wearing a simple blouse and had a smudge of grease on her forehead, she was attractive. The way she folded her arms across her chest…
"Hound?" Her question brought him back to the present. He blinked and refocused on her face. The look she wore was a mixture between concerned and annoyed.
"Sorry, what?" he asked dumbly.
She rolled her eyes and turned to inspect her suit, kneeling next to it and running a finger across the knee joint, humming to herself. "That really was a wet fog…" she muttered, her mouth twisted up in a frown.
The Hound wagged his eyebrows. "Oh, talk dirty to me!"
The girl looked up at in him confusion, but her eyes quickly took on a mischievous glint. Slowly she rose and sashayed across the small workshop toward him. As she moved, he couldn't help his eyes being drawn down to her swaying hips. "So you want dirty, do you?" she purred, stopping directly in front of him and looking at him with lidded eyes.
He coughed, his mouth suddenly very dry.
She placed a hand on his shoulder, not breaking eye contact–
and tossed a greasy rag into his face. "Here you go," she told him, smirking. "My suit needs all the condensation wiped off, and then all the joints need a new coating of oil after tonight."
The Hound's jaw dropped open in shock, and he stared at her completely transformed expression without comprehension. Finally his eyes trailed down to the cloth in his hand and then to the suit. "Um…" he began awkwardly, backing away until his back pressed up against the portal ring. "I just remembered I have to pick up a thing for tomorrow – the guys would be disappointed if I didn't get the… thing."
Iron Maiden laughed and arched an eyebrow at him as the ring whirred to life. "Yeah, that's what I thought."
