It was finally over: the men who had blown up her apartment were in custody – or at least most of them were. Energy-fist had escaped in the confusion of the partially-collapsed building, as had Castutrice and the Bearator. She had no idea what had happened to the sniper who had shot at her. But half the Lynchpin's people were now in their custody. Iron Maiden let out a heavy breath, watching as Bandruí tightened the vines binding Gardur and the chain-guy before adjusting the makeshift splint on Energy-wrists' arms.
Maybe this would be enough. At least for now.
Mecha-Man stood next to a nondescript van that had just pulled down the alley closest to the barrier. He folded his arms, his head turning back and forth between Iron Maiden and the Hound. Glancing back, Iron Maiden watched the unknown knight approach the Hound and Dhuan. A crowd had begun to gather on the far side of the road; a couple of people climbed up to the top of the wall, sending streams of dirt and gravel cascading down both sides. A pair of police cars, their lights flashing, turned onto the Strand, sending the gawking crowd scattering out of the street.
Iron Maiden hummed to herself and keyed off the suit's external speaker. "Amelie?" she asked. "Any chance Ladybug could fix some of this for us?"
"I will call Paris and see if she and Pegasus are available," Amelie assured her. "But I can't make any promises."
"Understood." She sighed, looking back at the damaged building. Though much of the façade had crumbled away, it had remained standing, albeit with a slight lean.
"You did well, sweetheart," Amelie told her reassuringly. "You stopped them."
"Yeah… But it wasn't just us this time."
Mecha-Man glanced up as Iron Maiden flared out a little above him and shifted to hover, lowering herself to the ground in front of him, next to the van. "Thank you for your assistance," she told him. "I'm… sorry I didn't fully believe you before."
"I suppose I can't exactly blame you, not after last fall." Mecha-Man chuckled ruefully, shaking his head. "In all honesty, I don't know if I would have believed me!" He hummed. "I'm just glad we could help you this time. I got a taste of it when we were working together against the Tarasque, and in Angola, but it's something else to be doing good just because I can. It feels nice to be helping people to help them, and not just because we've been thrown together by the Tarasque."
Iron Maiden laughed, allowing herself a smile. "I'm glad we don't actually have to fight you now!"
"I don't know if we'll have many opportunities to do this in the future," Mecha-Man warned her. "Our… handler? The agent we report to hasn't given us any indication of when or where they are going to send us. From what he's said, I don't think we're the only ones, but that's just a guess. But, if you ever need a hand with anything, be sure to let us know."
"Just as long as you do the same," Iron Maiden replied. "After you helped us so much here, I would feel terrible to never have the opportunity to return the favor."
The side door on the van beside them slid open at that, and a slightly-older man stepped out, his sandy brown hair streaked with premature white and his wrinkled shirt covered in grease. Iron Maiden's breathing hitched – apart from some signs of age, he looked no different than the last time they had worked on that drone project together, almost 18 months ago. He looked up and down the road nervously, scanning the rooftops above them warily before reaching out a hand to catch a drone that had just descended from a spot directly overhead. With a last glance at the police officers who were just starting to load the three prisoners into their cars, he turned to look at Iron Maiden. He let out a relieved breath and smiled – an all too familiar gesture. "You know that's not how it works," he told her, folding his arms and raising an eyebrow. "I'm supposed to be the one protecting you – not the other way around."
Iron Maiden froze, holding her breath and staring back at him in a mix of shock and fear. "I – have no idea what you mean, um, sir."
Mecha-Man cocked his head to one side, looking down at the Engineer. "Uh, boss? What are you doing?"
Without even acknowledging Mecha-Man, the Engineer walked over to Iron Maiden and put both his hands on her shoulders, smiling with tears in the corners of his eyes. "You have no idea how relieved I am to see you safe, Bridgette."
Iron Maiden's eyes shot wide open in realization, and she gulped. Without taking her eyes off of him, she reached up to disconnect her helmet, removing it with a hiss. "How–?"
"It was in Angola," her father explained, shaking his head ruefully. "When we were working on the space-planes together – the Ministry of Defense is begging me to give them as much of those plans as I can, you know." Iron Maiden's eyes narrowed, but he chuckled, waving his hand dismissively. "I told them I barely saw any of it, and that I could not remember much of what I did see – you can set Pegasus' mind at ease in that regard. But while we were working, you attached the coupling exactly the way that I would have. That was the first indication."
She grimaced, her cheeks heating up. "The Hound thought as much," she admitted. "I insisted on helping because I wanted to keep an eye on you; I didn't think about how I might give myself away if we were working so closely."
Her father looked mildly repentant. "I… asked him to keep you safe during that final battle against the Tarasque," he responded. "It was… eye-opening… to say the least," he told her. "It had never occurred to me before then that you might be Iron Maiden. But then I started thinking about it more. There were so many similarities between your suit and mine. Many of those could be explained away as inspiration, or else as approaching the same problem in similar ways. But not all of them. The jetpack, for instance?"
She flushed, looking away. "I… may have taken some of your plans last spring, when I saw you going to your, um, workshop. And your materials. Um…"
"No, don't be sorry," he told her, raising an eyebrow. "I am glad to see you using them – taking so much of what I taught you and improving on it far greater than I could possibly have imagined. In a way, it almost feels as though I had been assisting the Heroes of Paris long before the Tarasque appeared!"
"Uh, Boss?" Mecha-Man interjected, looking back and forth between Iron Maiden and her father. "I feel like I missed something here…"
Her father smiled warmly. "Gaston, meet my daughter, Bridgette–" she cleared her throat, raising an eyebrow meaningfully "–who prefers to go by 'Bri'. Also known as the superhero, Iron Maiden!" He chuckled. "You asked how I could tell Adine that I had heard our daughter's voice?"
Mecha-Man's helmet hissed as it opened in the front, revealing a somewhat tanned face covered with several days' worth of stubble. "You knew about this?"
"I apologize for not sharing that information sooner," Bri's father answered, sighing. "I was unsure how much of it I should divulge."
Mecha-Man shook his head ruefully. "Damn. I hope my kid turns out half as well-adjusted as yours!"
"Um… it's good to actually meet the man under the helmet… Gaston," Iron Maiden greeted him, holding out her hand.
He took the offered hand and nodded firmly. "Likewise." He grinned sheepishly. "I… Sorry I was spying on you and your friends earlier – the boss…"
Iron Maiden nodded in understanding. "Considering that that might have saved our lives, I think we can forgive you for it!" she replied wryly.
"I am certain you would have figured out your own way out if we had not been here," her father pointed out.
"Especially since Oitokoisi was with you," added Mecha-Man.
"True…" Iron Maiden sighed in relief, only to immediately throw her arms around her father in a bone-crushing hug, nearly knocking him backward into the side of the van. Catching himself, her father hugged her back tightly, sniffling. Iron Maiden swallowed, blinking back her tears, and rested her head against his chest, squeezing her eyes shut. "I'm–I'm sorry," she whispered, her voice trembling. "I'm so sorry for just leaving, for trying to cut you out of my life, for not talking to you more over the last year. I'm–I'm sorry for everything."
"No," he whispered in her ear, pressing a kiss to her cheek. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry you had to find out, and especially that you didn't find out from me. But I'm even more sorry that I did this, that I disappointed you. I–" he paused, blinking away tears. "I hope you will believe me when I say that I never wanted to disappoint you. I have always wanted to be the father you thought I was… and then I wasn't. And for that I can only say that I am truly sorry for failing you. And I am sorry that my failure put you and your roommate in danger."
Iron Maiden stifled a giggle. "Actually, we weren't really in danger," she told him. "Both of us had been living at my partner's house – with him and his mother – ever since Angola."
"Your… partner." He held her out at arm's length, examining her face for a long moment, a mix of emotions running through his eyes. Finally, let out a heavy breath, smiling and sighing in relief. "As your father, I really want to know what that actually means," he began, "but also as your father, you have no idea how relieved I am to hear that you were not truly in danger the other night."
She pursed her lips. "I'm not a child anymore," she pointed out, arching an eyebrow at him. "You can't exactly tell me what I can and can't do with my life." You haven't been able to do that since last spring, she didn't add.
He nodded. "Oh, I know you are no longer a child," he acknowledged, holding his hands up in a placating gesture. "But you are always going to be my child, and I am always going to look out for you." She frowned, and he sighed. "You have no need to worry that I will disapprove of him. I'm happy you have found someone who care for you – I can see just how much you love each other by how you fight together. But, all the same, I would still like to meet this 'partner' of yours – formally, I mean."
Iron Maiden let out a breath, butterflies fluttering in her stomach. Could it really be this simple, that she could bring both her families together? Sensing his presence off to the side, Iron Maiden glanced toward where the Hound had been speaking with Dhuan and the knight, only to find the Hound staring back at her awestruck. The moment she looked at him, he shook hands with the knight, nodded to Dhuan, and strode down the sidewalk, past a police car, and stopped next to Iron Maiden, his eyes darting nervously toward her father. Iron Maiden took his hand in hers and squeezed it, holding him tightly against her side. "Then, in that case, Father, allow me to formally introduce my partner – my boyfriend – the Hound."