To Lyger 0: Felix may have a little bit to learn about being a superhero. That may come up in his next chapter…
To Butterfly: This one is set in London (even down to the serial killer being a Jack the Ripper wannabe), and has a little more English flair. I try to use British instead of American, but I don't think I did it perfectly; "American" is my native language, after all! Depending on how people like this story, I have some ideas for the "British corner" of the "Mind Games"-verse moving forward…
To yellow 14: It's not nothing, nothing… but Felix isn't exactly the best at this whole "prioritizing" thing.
To armadas: So funny story about that… he was supposed to be a one-off, but then I read some reviews like yours! So this story isn't changing too much, but… And good catch! Iron Maiden was one of the future heroes in "Running out of Time" (as was Victor/Volpinax, who just made his first present appearance in "Outer Space"). She wasn't a very developed character in "RooT," and I haven't decided yet whether this is the same person or just the same hero name. This version is far more developed…
Iron Maiden sprang backward through the air, sailed over the parked car she'd been standing in front of, landed behind the car's boot, and dropped down to one knee. A spray of plasma scored a line in the pavement right where she had been standing moments before. The street in front of the Lloyd's Bank of London had turned into a warzone in the blink of an eye, deep gouges in the road surface from heavy metal boots and the repeated discharges of energy cannons, the scene illuminated by the flickering lights put off by small fires. On the opposite side of the car from where Iron Maiden sheltered stood Mecha-Man – though not exactly. She furrowed her brows inside the helmet, consulting the slightly-blurred images her helmet camera had caught when he first stepped out of the bank. His armor looked nothing like the previous iteration. Where the old armor had been sleek and aerodynamic, this new armor was bulky and angular. In lieu of the miniature internal hydraulics, it now sported smaller external pistons, similar to those on the original variant though not as obvious. The smooth silver helmet stood out in stark contrast to the multicolored plates covering the rest of the suit, some of which showed signs of repaired dents. A couple had even begun to rust through.
"What happened to you?" she taunted, her voice coming out mechanical thanks to the voice scrambler built into her helmet. "Did someone leave you out in the rain? Did you forget about the London fog?"
"I will leave you out in the rain!" Mecha-Man retorted. He spun around to face her and let loose another stream of energy at the car where she had taken cover. A pair of smoke grenades deployed from compartments on the front of his chest. The grenades hit the ground and rolled in opposite directions, spinning around and releasing twin plumes of grey smoke into the air. The smoke, combined with the multiple fires started along both sides of the street by Mecha-Man's energy blasts, gave the scene a surreal quality. Despite her airtight helmet, Iron Maiden could still smell the acrid stench of burning asphalt and plastic seeping through the suit's joints. The heat coming from a trash bin fire on the sidewalk behind her worked its way through her metal suit and caused sweat to begin running down her back.
"You know, WD-40 will clear that up nicely. In fact, if you come with me, I might have a little lying around!" She shifted positions to the opposite side of the car as Mecha-Man turned to the sound of her voice. With him turned away from her, she raised her helmet slightly to peek over the back of the car, switching her view to infrared to eliminate the distraction of the smoke still billowing from the grenades. Although the image was still confused and disjointed, she could clearly see a pair of men dragging a large crate out of the bank behind Mecha-Man. Then Mecha-Man noticed her, turned, and raised his arm cannon to aim it over the car directly at Iron Maiden's head. With a split-second to spare she ducked and rolled out from behind the car moments before he fired on her previous location, missing her and striking the building behind her, throwing up a cloud of brick shards that fell around her and dinged off her suit with a noise like hail. She came up in a crouch, steadying her right arm with her left and aimed her own arm cannon straight at his chest. "Second option: just melt it off!" She took careful aim down her arm and fired. The white plasma missed him by a handbreadth, instead striking the panel truck behind him and scoring a circular patch of paint off of its side.
Mecha-Man moved to his right to plant himself between Iron Maiden and the truck, and Iron Maiden saw her opening. She took careful aim and shot her grappling hook at the exposed crate being carried by Mecha-Man's cronies. At the same moment, a dog leash shot out from the opposite direction. Her grappling hook struck the leash and caught it through the collar.
"Dammit!" she shouted, hitting the control to retract the grappling hook, dragging the leash with it, and rising to her feet. At the same moment she stepped forward and took a blind shot with the grappling hook on her other arm, catching one of the men carrying the crate around the leg. She reversed the cord winch and jerked her arm back, pulling the man off-balance. He fell to the ground with a cry of alarm, letting go of the crate as he did so. One side of the crate fell to the ground, and Iron Maiden shot it with her arm cannon, melting a hole through the side of the crate. The crate broke in half and sent its contents cascading out onto the street as the other goon dropped his half of the damaged crate.
Mecha-Man stomped his foot in frustration. "No!" He bounded toward her and leapt into the air, bringing his fist up.
Iron Maiden dove forward and raised her arm in a block, catching his fist and deflecting it away from her face. She drove her opposite fist into his exposed chest with a metallic clang, knocking him stumbling backward. The same dog leash appeared from her right and tangled around Mecha-Man's legs, and he threw out his arms for balance before falling flat onto his back. A figure in a brown leather bodysuit with a lighter brown belt, silver-tipped boots, and floppy brown ears drooping down from the top of his head to cover his human ears leapt out of nowhere, aiming to land on top of Mecha-Man. Mecha-Man pulled back his arm cannon and shot the hero square in the chest. The hero retracted his leash and spun it as a shield below himself as he fell, blocking the energy beam and redirecting it down into the pavement next to Mecha-Man's chest, centimeters from Iron Maiden's own boot. She jumped back and glared at the newcomer in annoyance. Mecha-Man pushed himself up and slammed his fist into the hero's leash-shield as he landed. The leash wrapped around Mecha-Man's forearm, and the hero tugged and stepped on his leash, directing that arm down to point at the ground.
"A mecha-strike fight in the middle of London, and you didn't invite me," the new hero mocked, clucking his tongue in disapproval. "I'll have you know I was the reigning house champion for the last three years in tournament!"
"Are you seriously comparing this to that stupid video game?" Iron Maiden demanded, staring at him in disbelief.
The hero hummed. "I suppose that might sound a bit a-paw-ling to one of the mechs in question!" He dropped into a fighting stance, narrowing his eyes at Mecha-Man. "But we can iron out the details later."
With a whirring sound, Mecha-Man's arm pushed upward, straining against the leash directing it downward, and the new hero stumbled backward, releasing his arm. Mecha-Man trained one of his arm cannons on each of the heroes before turning his head slightly toward his accomplices. "Leave it and let's get out of here!" Mecha-Man bellowed to them, one of whom had been in the process of collecting the gold coins that had fallen out of the crate and shoving them into his pockets. The one Iron Maiden had caught in her grappling hook threw off the rope and scrambled to his feet, following his companion's example and stumbling into the truck's open side panel. The truck peeled away the moment the doors were shut. "You won this round, heroes." Mecha-Man shuffled to his right around Iron Maiden and the other hero, keeping them in his field of fire, his arm cannons not wavering, before he raced in the opposite direction from the truck, ran two blocks, and leapt over a restaurant and out of sight.
In the silence that followed the criminals' departure, Iron Maiden finally had a moment to take in the scene of destruction surrounding her. The bank's front door had caved in under the force of Mecha-Man's pile driver fist – and that before she had even arrived. Smoke still poured out of the bank's front door, with the orange glow of a lobby desk that had caught fire from her first wild shot still visible through the opening. Every car parked along the street overnight had been damaged; two were still burning, the light of the flames giving the scene an eerie quality. The street was pitted with new potholes where she and Mecha-Man had landed, with long scorch marks gouged through the pavement from the several times Mecha-Man's energy blasts had missed her. The buildings on either side of the street had taken a handful of stray shots from energy weapons, pocking the façades with new damage. The metal crate of coins smoldered on the sidewalk, partially-melted coins scattered on either side. Through the smoky haze Iron Maiden could make out the flashing blue lights of police cars approaching from several blocks away.
"You've got some nerve, Dog Boy," Iron Maiden growled, glaring at him under her helmet.
"I've got some nerve?" he scoffed, giving his leash a casual twirl before collecting it together and securing it on his belt. "You're the one causing all the property damage here, not me!"
"All of this?" she demanded, throwing her arms out to encompass the scene. "None of this was my fault! This was all Mecha-Man! He was here first, and I only came to stop him!"
"What about the crate you shot?" he retorted, pointing at it, his eyes not leaving her faceplate. "Are you telling me Mecha-Man made you shoot that?"
"No," she replied. She advanced on him and poked him in the chest. "You did! If you hadn't gotten in my way, I would have just pulled it away from them! Then there's no need to destroy it to keep them from getting it!"
He scoffed. "And you're telling me I'm the one who pulled the trigger on you destroying a box that could have held a bunch of people's priceless valuables?"
"It was either that or let them get away with their prize! I'd rather keep Mecha-Man from getting it, regardless of what that takes, than let them just get away with it!" She threw her arms down in frustration. "Ugh! I had everything under control until you showed up!"
"It sure looked like it." He raised an eyebrow dubiously, one hand resting on his hip. "So was that before or after you were cowering behind the car?"
She turned away and waved her hand at him dismissively. "If I never see you again, it will be too soon."
"Fine," he replied. She heard the leash whip through the air, and spun around, bringing one arm up to protect her head and pointing the other straight at the other hero. But instead she saw him standing in the same position with his leash caught around a streetlight further down the road. "Just let the real hero take care of this kind of trouble next time."
Iron Maiden stared at him silently, daring him to continue. Taking her silence as acceptance, however, he pulled himself into the air and flew away, swinging from building to building, angling roughly northward. Only once he was out of sight did she finally turn to head south toward the river, shaking her head and grumbling to herself darkly. "Jackass."