To armadas: Felix definitely needs someone to take him down a peg or three!
To Butterfly: These two are great! :D
To yellow 14: I couldn't make it too easy for these two to get along!
To PG.182227: There are 13 chapters total, so 5 more after this one. I have a couple ways I plan to bring the 2039-verse/"RooT"-verse characters into the main universe/timeline, but none have fit in just yet. I also have a one-shot series I started working on, set before and after "RooT" in their timeline. I'll see when/where they can pop back up! Maybe… hmm…
Bri hunched over her tablet, scribbling furiously as she worked through the last algebra problem on her assignment. The TA had finished the lecture in half the time and decided to hand them an extra exercise for practice, so Bri had taken her assignment down to the campus library, where she had found Anne sitting at a table piled high with books, researching a paper for one of her British history classes. On seeing her, Anne had pushed a stack of books about Roman Britain to one side to make room. The exercise almost finished, Bri couldn't quite manage to stifle her yawn. Without looking away from her notes she felt around for the coffee cup next to her tablet and took another long pull.
Sitting across the table from her, Anne gave her a sympathetic look. "Another late night, girl?" she whispered, kicking her shin under the table.
"You have no idea," replied Bri, equally softly. She covered her mouth to hide yet another yawn and twisted her neck in both directions to pop it.
"You probably shouldn't be staying out so late with a serial killer on the loose," Anne pointed out.
Bri scoffed. "Last I checked, you aren't my mother!"
Anne shook her head affectionately. "So does this 'special project' you've been working late on for as long as I've known you have a name?" Anne smirked. "Is he cute?"
Bri choked, nearly spitting her coffee all over the table. She eyed Anne carefully, her lips twisting up in a grin. "Maybe you do it differently where you come from, but where I come from you don't kiss and tell!"
"Oh, so there's kissing going on with Mr. Project!" Anne batted her eyelashes, stifling her giggles.
Bri rolled her eyes. "Did I say that?" she asked innocently.
Anne ran her fingers through her loose hair and giggled. "Fine, keep your secrets. But I'd prefer not to walk in on you and Mr. Project in the flat!"
Bri let out an amused snort. Considering that Anne had watched her install the new touch screen on one of her bracelets last week at the kitchen table, it was a little late for that! She finished the problem and circled her answer before reaching out to stretch one arm.
"For the passion, for the glory,
For the memories, for the money"…
The song paused as her bracelet screen blinked bright red once. She quickly stopped the music and tapped the message. With a quick glance at the details she shoved her books, laptop, and tablet into her bag, and stood up.
Anne yelped and stared wide-eyed at her sudden flurry of activity. "What–?"
"Sorry, girl, someone called in sick and the work orders are seriously piling up," Bri explained hurriedly. "I'll see you later."
"Okay, but–"
"Gotta run!" Bri walked out of the library as quietly as she could, the rush of adrenaline pumping through her veins pushing her to move faster. The moment she was out of the library proper and into the main building she picked up the pace, speed-walking past classrooms and offices, her footsteps echoing loudly on the tiled floor. She sped up with every step, until she practically ran out the door, taking the steps three at a time, her bag bouncing against her side. She was off campus in a matter of minutes. Three blocks west of the campus she veered into a back alley and pressed a button on her bracelet. Halfway down the alley a shed door opened automatically, revealing her workshop. Lights flickered on, illuminating a workbench piled with half-completed gadgets and half-dismantled electronics that took up one entire wall of the shed; a mini forge sat in the far corner. Her Iron Maiden suit, graphite-gray with cherry-red highlights on the shoulders, abdomen, knees, and elbows, filled the entire center of the room. Wires connected it to a computer CPU mounted on the wall opposite the workbench, below a monitor that woke up automatically and displayed a row of green indicators.
Bri pressed another button on her bracelet, opening the back of the suit fully just as she entered the shed. She tossed her bag on the workbench and slipped into the suit, ducking to fit her head into the helmet. Her bracelets connected to ports in the suit's gauntlets and automatically activated the program to close the back hatch. The helmet came to life, her HUD showing the suit's status, power level, and fuel level for the new jetpack, as well as the emergency alert. With a flick of her eyes she ran a quick diagnostic before pulling the wires connecting the suit to the computer out of their ports and racing out of the workshop. The program to close the door activated the moment she was outside, turning off the lights simultaneously. She jumped and slapped the control on her wrist, and her jetpack activated, launching her straight up into the air, over the tops of the buildings.
The city streets flew past below her, the HUD superimposing street names and traffic patterns as she flew. A blinking red dot appeared on Upper Thames Street near Southwark Bridge, and she veered toward it. Pedestrians looked up in surprise as she passed overhead; a little boy pointed up at her, his mouth hanging open. Iron Maiden shot past them all.
As she approached the location, her suit's audio sensors picked up the creak and groan of metal clashing against metal, the discharge of energy weapons. A loud boom thundered out, and smoke billowed from a spot near the Thames. In gaining height to fly over the last row of buildings, she finally caught sight of the disturbance.
Mecha-Man stood in the middle of the street in front of an armored truck whose front wheels he was holding off the ground by the bumper. Two men stood on the driver's side, aiming energy pistols at the driver through the armored door, black splotches on the doors indicating where they had shot it already. Behind Mecha-Man a car rocked gently on its roof in a growing puddle of petrol. Iron Maiden shifted herself upright and pointed her feet at the ground just behind Mecha-Man. The two goons didn't seem to have noticed her; the sounds of Mecha-Man's suit adjusting and the armored truck's bumper collapsing in were loud enough to drown out the sound of her jetpack, even at such close range.
Three meters from the ground, Iron Maiden clasped her hands and killed the jetpack, bringing her joined fists slamming down on Mecha-Man's helmet. Mecha-Man's head rang as she landed in a crouch behind him, kicking him in the back of one knee. His leg bent forward suddenly, and the armored car shifted to one side in his grip. One of his helpers jumped back, yelping in shock, and turned around to search wildly for the source of the disturbance. Iron Maiden kicked Mecha-Man's other knee, but he locked his leg straight and it didn't bend. With a groan he knocked the armored truck over onto its passenger side, and the back door jarred open.
Mecha-Man pushed himself up and turned to face Iron Maiden as his two helpers came around to join him, leveling their pistols at her. Iron Maiden swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat. When she had started building the suit over the summer, she had done it purely to prove that she could; she hadn't expected to really use it – and certainly not when she had only really finished it yesterday! "You know, I thought after the other day you would've had enough, Mecha-Meathead," she taunted, folding her arms and affecting more confidence than she felt.
Mecha-Man took one look at her and scoffed. "What?" he asked. "That little scrape? Please; I've cut myself worse shaving!"
"What do you shave with? A buffer?" Iron Maiden kept her focus on Mecha-Man, even as her suit tracked the two goons moving to her left to flank her. She slowly shifted her stance to keep all of them in front of herself, finally moving her helmet to either side to watch when the goons were completely on the opposite side of her from Mecha-Man.
As she turned her head a little too far to follow the goons, Mecha-Man leapt forward, jumping into the air and bringing his fist down on Iron Maiden's head. She, however, dove forward and surged to her feet behind him. The goons scattered as Mecha-Man nearly ran into them. She kicked one leg back into Mecha-Man's leg, the clangor echoing off the buildings around them. One of the goons got off a shot at Iron Maiden, but it missed and scored a gouge out of the brick storefront behind her. She charged Mecha-Man, diving into his chest and activating her jetpack, slamming him to the ground, cutting a deep gouge across the street. She skidded off of Mecha-Man and landed on her back, groaning. From several meters away twin energy blasts lanced out at her–
–only for a spinning dog leash to deflect the energy beams aside and into the roof of the armored truck.
"Come now," the Hound chided, clucking his tongue. "Not very sporting to shoot a man when he's down, don't you think? And three against one?" He lashed out his leash, wrapped it around the chest of one thug, and dragged him back, holding out an arm and clotheslining the man as he passed. "Let's even the odds a bit, shall we?"
Iron Maiden brought her legs below her chest and pushed herself up from the ground, keeping one of her arm cannons trained on Mecha-Man as he found his footing again as well, one of his cannons pointed at her head. "You again!" She groaned. "I don't remember inviting you to this party, Canine!"
The Hound wrapped his leash around Mecha-Man's arm and tugged, pulling his aim off. "That's the thanks I get when I just saved your sorry arse?" He scoffed and released the arm. "Maybe I should've just watched!"
"Well I didn't invite either of you to my retirement party!" retorted Mecha-Man, his arm cannons whirring to life and pointing at both of them. "But you're both uninvited as of now!" Twin bursts of energy shot out at Iron Maiden and the Hound. The Hound spun his leash as a shield, but was pushed back by the force all the same. Iron Maiden dove behind a parked car, but not quickly enough to avoid the blast entirely. She winced on feeling the heat course over her arm as the metal, thin as it was in that section, warped and melted. Mecha-Man turned his cannon on her position, the energy melting slowly through the car's engine block.
Iron Maiden glanced under the car past Mecha-Man and caught sight of a trash bin on the far side of the street. Grinning to herself she jumped to her feet. "Hey, Mecha-Dumb!" She shot her grappling hook past his head and into the bin, the hooks extending between two of its slats. "Catch!" she shouted, ripping the bin out of the ground and retracting her grappling hook, bringing the bin caroming toward her. Mecha-Man shot at her and she shifted position, but not fast enough to entirely avoid the energy bolt. She hissed in pain, involuntarily reaching her free hand up to rub her shoulder where he had hit her and melted through the outermost layer of armor, even as the bin bounced into Mecha-Man's legs. He stumbled backward, and the energy beams cut off at once.
As Iron Maiden leapt over the car, fists raised above her head, the Hound spun around and looped his leash around the one goon still standing. The man dropped to the ground just before the leash could tighten around him, and he rolled under a car, away from the Hound. Iron Maiden came down in front of Mecha-Man and slammed her fists into his chest as hard as she could, eliciting no more than a hollow thud. Mecha-Man slammed his helmet into hers with a clang, knocking her backward a pace. Inside her suit, Iron Maiden blinked hard against the ringing in her ears. Mecha-Man raised both his arm cannons at her and opened up, pumping energy plasma at her. Iron Maiden raised her arms to shield herself, knowing it wasn't enough, only to be slammed to the ground.
"Aaaaah!" The Hound landed on top of her, a quiet whimper escaping his lips. Iron Maiden pushed him off of her and rolled into a kneeling position, just in time to watch Mecha-Man set the armored truck back onto its wheels. The goon still standing crawled inside the truck and drove away across the bridge, bags of money spilling out the open back door as the truck bounced along the pavement. Mecha-Man followed after him with the other goon slung over one shoulder.
Iron Maiden sighted down her arm to line up a shot on the truck – even just to blow out the tires – but it disappeared into the traffic before she could fire. She groaned in frustration and slammed her fist into the pavement, leaving behind a dent. Then she looked down at the Hound, who was still lying where he had fallen, his eyes closed, cradling his side. He let out a low moan, and Iron Maiden groaned.