AN: Hey guys! It's been a little bit since I've updated this particular story. Sorry about that; I wanted to finish episode 36 before officially continuing with this.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy :)

Chapter 17 Blazing Hero

So many thoughts were in Larry's head that, statistically speaking, there should be at least one good one. Statistically, there should be one tiny, measly thought that made him feel good, that could reassure him in this tumultuous time. And yet, as he flew over the Koopa Kingdom, none of what his mind came up with made him feel good or even tolerable. The emotions he felt were building and building, and it felt as though his heart ached from all of the impossibly difficult burdens that had been placed on it.

Without a doubt, this wish was turning out to be more than Larry had bargained for. He looked down at his hand when he flew over Thwompville, trying to prevent himself from screaming in frustration. He thought about the wires and circuits hidden behind his normal-looking skin. He thought about his battery, how his life would pretty much be over if it ran out in the wrong place at the wrong time. He thought about the future he would never have. He would never become an adult. Sure, on some level, that seemed like the biggest blessing of all. And yet, thinking about that fact now made Larry feel… hollow.

In many ways, he kind of was hollow now.

He sighed. He wiggled his fingers, trying to tell himself about the benefits and positive sides of this. Sure, he would never grow up, but that meant he would never become old and frail either. Sure, he couldn't taste anything anymore, but there were still other joys in life that he could experience! Like saving a helpless citizen from a precarious situation or a wicked villain. Just from what he had done in this past day alone, Larry could say that doing that was a very gratifying experience. He had fun being Captain Metal, being the superhero that the Koopa Kingdom never knew it needed.

But was he willing to do this for the rest of his life? Was he willing to continually put himself in danger? Of course, he couldn't feel pain anymore, but that didn't make the work any less dangerous. If he were to take one wrong step, who knows what could happen to him?

When he had this thought, Larry froze for a second. But after a little bit, he growled and shook his head. No no, he had no reason to think about stuff like that. He was Captain Metal. He saved people now; that was more or less his new purpose in life. After everything that he unknowingly gave up, shouldn't it make sense that he focused most of his time and energy on this new lifestyle? Wasn't it right for him to save people? Wasn't that what he should be doing? Lord knew that most of the other pleasures in life were inaccessible to him now; shouldn't he at least try to find fulfillment in this?

The answer was yes, of course. That was the only logical thing to do. It was the only thing he could do.

So, with that thought in mind, he continued flying over Thwompville. He scanned the area, looking for someone to save. His scanning was accompanied by frequent prayers to all the gods Larry knew about. After all, they were the ones who were responsible for creating Fortune's Comet, for locking Larry in this eternal metallic state. The least they could do was give Larry a reason to use his new powers, a justification for why he now existed in the state he did. He prayed about fifty times before seeing the answer to his prayer manifest.

A building was burning down right below him.

Larry focused on that. Frowning, he dove straight toward the building, taking note of how badly the fire was blazing. It poured out of every window, filling the air with the cloudy form of death known as smoke. Just looking at it made Larry feel a little nervous, and he only grew more nervous when he heard the people screaming. They looked out the open windows, gasping for air and calling out to anyone who was around to hear them. Their vocals sounded strained. Their faces looked terrified.

Deciding to mentally prepare himself for this, Larry took a deep breath. He closed his eyes, trying his best to push all the unpleasant thoughts out of his head. "Okay Larry," he told himself. "You can do this." He looked down at the burning building once again, his heart aching as he thought about going in there. "It's your responsibility…."

With one last deep breath, Larry zoomed down to the building. He entered through the door on the roof, looking this way and that as he made his way down the staircase. Of course, doing so was proving to be quite a challenge. The smoke was everywhere, clogging the stairwell in the darkest ways. Of course, Larry didn't have any trouble breathing this in, but he still felt nervous just being in it. His nervousness only grew the further down the stairs he got, because the smoke was growing thicker. It also grew blacker, so much so that Larry had to switch to a different vision mode just so he could continue walking. He could also hear the crackling of the flames. They beat down on his ears, practically screaming at him. He gritted his teeth, almost coming to a complete stop. He didn't, of course, because he reminded himself once again that he needed to do this. It was his job. It was who he was now.

It seemed like a miracle when Larry finally got to the first door. He swung it open, seeing orange flames everywhere. They consumed every single thing that stood in their path, including people. There were several about three burned koopas lying on the floor, unconscious. They didn't even groan; they just lied there as the fire continued to grow and devour. If it wasn't for one of his new scanning modes showing that these koopas still had a pulse, Larry probably would've assumed that they were dead already.

As such, he picked them up and carried them on his shoulders. He knew that he needed to get them out of the building as soon as possible, so he rushed toward the window. He tried to open it but found doing so was an impossibility. So, he fired a sonic blast at it, blowing it away and creating a very sizable hole in the wall. Activating his rocket boosters, he flew down to the ground. The koopas coughed once they were in the air, which would normally make Larry feel concerned. This time though, he mostly felt relieved, as some firetrucks and ambulances gathered around on the ground.

Larry rushed toward the ambulances and put the koopas onto the ground. They all winced when they did as if touching the obsidian soil with so many burn marks on their bodies was the most excruciating experience in the world. Larry's couldn't help but wince at this sight, feeling as though he had pain spreading through his own body. Nevertheless, he still knocked on the back of the ambulance in order to alert the paramedics inside.

"Yo," he said just as the door opened. "These guys need medical attention." He pointed to the koopas. "Make sure to treat their burns well, capiche?"

The medics blinked, gawking at Larry with surprise in each of their features. "Um… of course," said one. They stepped out of the vehicle. "We'll… we'll get right to that."

"Good." Larry looked back at the building, putting on a determined face as he did. "I need to go back in."

"Go back in?" the other medic asked. "Are you insane?"

"Maybe." Larry ran forward toward the firemen, who were putting ot the fire with these mechanical devices that resembled ice flowers. A freezing snow-like substance shot out of the flower's faces, smothering the flames. Larry immediately realized that he should probably carry one of those around.

"Yo, dude," he said, tapping on the shell of one of the firemen. "Can I get one of those ice flower things?"

The fireman turned, gasping when they saw him. "No way! You're Captain Metal!" He grinned. "I've heard all about you on the news! Oh man, the way you've been saving people is absolutely…"

"Yeah yeah yeah; you can praise me after we're done. I just need that ice flower thing, okay?" The fireman handed it over right away. "Thanks, man." With that, Larry rose into the air and entered the building through the same hole he had blasted in the wall. As soon as his feet made landfall, he started moving. He looked in every nook and cranny of this burning place. He saw that several of the beams in the ceiling were burning up and falling to the ground, creating obstacles in Larry's path. Needless to say, this frustrated him. He aimed the ice flower at them, putting out their flames and throwing them to the side. Once he was done with that, he aimed the ice flower at several other patches of fire. They went out easily, although Larry figured that didn't mean much. After all, the whole building was covered in fire, a fire that only had the desire to spread. So, deciding that he should probably focus solely on trying to find people, he made his way through the abode.

He exited into the staircase, which by now was also catching fire. Putting out as much of it as he could, Larry descended, praying to the gods once again that he would be able to find the people he needed to find. He ran with incredible speed, going down two stairs at a time. He figured flying down the stairs would probably be faster, but he didn't do that because he didn't want his rocket boosters to be responsible for starting any other fires. So, he continued running, not growing out of breath in the slightest.

"Help! Help!" he heard someone call out from the floor he was on. Based on the quality and pitch of their voice, they sounded like a young girl. The thought of a young girl being killed by this blaze made Larry feel sick (at least to an extent; his robotic biology didn't allow much physical sickness). He burst through the door, immediately becoming aware of the fact that the fire on this floor was one of the strongest yet. There wasn't a single inch of this room that wasn't burning up. It was like walking into an oven. It was like walking into hell.

"Don't worry!" he called through the blaze. "I'm coming!" He marched through the debris, keeping his eyes peeled. Thanks to one of his scanning modes, he was able to locate the girl rather easily. She huddled in one corner of the room behind a burning couch, tears spilling out of her eyes as the fire got closer and closer to her. When Larry emerged from the blaze, she looked at him with wide eyes. Larry immediately realized that her life depended on this going well. If he failed here, she would surely perish.

"It's okay, I'm here." He reached out and put the girl on his back. "C… Captain Metal is here to save the day." The girl didn't say anything, but Larry noticed the intensity of her crying had lessened considerably. She rested her head on his shoulder, and Larry decided that the window was their best bet when it came to escaping. He started making his way there with the ice flower held securely in his hands. He extinguished as much fire as he could, feeling he was making good progress. However, once he put out his fifth fire, his scanning revealed something to him. Something horrible, something that could potentially spell doom for both of them.

The floor underneath them was going to collapse at any moment.

"Shit," Larry said. He once again looked to the window, all the way on the other side of the room. He couldn't worry about putting out fires anymore; he needed to worry about getting to the window in one piece. He rushed toward it, noticing that the little girl was starting to cry again. Her sobs combined with the fire's crackles, creating a sound that Larry was sure sounded like hell's worst, most torturous level.

Nevertheless, Larry kept going. The window was right there; literally right there. He was going to make it. He had to make it, cause if he couldn't save this girl… well, he didn't really have a use, did he? His whole life now was going to be taken up by his time as a superhero, so if he couldn't even do that efficiently…

Larry shook his head, deciding that right now wasn't the best time to think about that. He ran across the floor, just about to reach out and grab the window…

When the floor finally collapsed. Larry and the girl screamed as they plummeted, plummeted into a smoky, hot abyss. The girl wailed like no Koopa that Larry had ever heard before. When they hit the ground, she was probably going to get hurt. And that was if the two of them didn't land on top of a fire patch; if that happened, she would probably be burned to death right on the spot.

That thought made Larry put on a determined face. No, he wasn't going to let that happen. He was a hero. That was what this girl needed him to be, and he didn't want to disappoint her. He was going to prove to her, himself, and the world that he was would be the best at this. That was the only thing he could do. It might as well be something that he could do right.

So, he activated his rocket boosters. The girl gasped when this happened, and she held onto him extra tightly. Larry shot upward, now not even worrying about the fire that he could potentially set. All he had to worry about was getting to the window before the smoke spread too much and prevented the girl from breathing. He found the window within no time at all and readied his sonic cannon. He blasted the wall away, rejoicing on the inside when he got out into the fresh air. It was a good thing he made it too, for not even four seconds after he escaped, the building collapsed in on itself. Dust and debris flew everywhere, causing the little girl to cough. Larry got her off his back and held her in his arms, stroking her face and talking to her in a soothing voice.

"It's okay," he whispered. "It's all going to be okay."

The girl could barely talk as she looked into Larry's eyes. "Th… thank you." She burst into tears and wrapped him in a hug. "THANK YOU!" she exclaimed through her sobs.

Larry's heart hurt at this display. As he hugged her back, he thought about how this would be the closest he would ever get to parenthood. He had to use all the self-control he had at his disposal to not burst into tears right on the spot. He slowly flew back down to the ground, still holding the girl tightly as the firemen and the medics rushed over to him.

"You saved her!" said the fireman from before once he saw the girl. Without any other words, Larry handed her over to him, and he immediately started comforting her. "It's okay sweetie; we'll make sure everything turns out okay." He looked at Larry, grinning from ear to ear as he did. "Thank you so much, Captain Metal!"

Larry dried his eyes. "Y… you're welcome." He looked at the girl, snuggled so peacefully in the firefighter's hands. "It… it was all in a day's work for C… Cap…"

He couldn't even talk anymore. Still battling his tears, he gave the fireman a thumbs up and bolted into the air.

…

Larry sat on the roof, trying to gather his bearings. This was all okay, or at the very least it would be. He had saved multiple people, including a child who had been in mortal danger. By all means, that thought should make him feel proud… and it did. He did feel proud of his accomplishment, and he did feel like he had ultimately done good. The thought of all the people he saved, recovering and picking themselves back up after such a traumatic event, made Larry feel as though the future was brighter than he had originally given it credit for.

At least, to an extent. While the future was bright in some areas, in others, it was still concealed in inky, charred darkness. Larry couldn't help but cry as he thought about his future. He cried harder than he would ever admit to anyone, wondering what was next for him. Where could he go from here? How could he pick himself up after everything that had happened to him, after everything that he had lost?

Larry blinked at that thought before ultimately shaking his head and casting it to the side. "Don't think about that, Lawrence." He slapped himself across the face multiple times. Sure, on some level, the fact that it didn't hurt really got to him, but again, he wasn't going to let that bother him. "Focus on the here and now. You saved people. That's something to be proud of." He stood up. "And now, you're gonna go to the internet and see if there's anyone else out there who needs saving."

And that's exactly what he did. He flipped through the different news outlets, trying to find what he was looking for. It took a while; about fifteen minutes, at least. Near the end, Larry started to feel mightily discouraged, like he wasn't going to find anybody. Thankfully, within no time at all, he found a video interview that caught his attention.

The interview only grew more interesting the more of it he saw. Apparently, a barista was talking to the police about a koopa who had… hypnotized her and killed her customers? What?

"He walked into my store and began blasting people with lasers from this jewel he had around his neck!" She could barely talk. "Then, he hypnotized me to forget all about that!" She shook like crazy. "I'm lucky that the hypnotism wore off…"

Larry could barely believe this. How could anyone do this? It was crazy! It was insane!

"We are too," said the interviewer. "Can you tell us what the Koopa looked like!"

The barista took a deep breath. "He… he had a white and orange mohawk." THAT caught Larry's attention. He listened to the rest of the description with keen interest. "He was kind of lanky, and he had wide, orange eyes. He… he kind of looked like Prince Larry Koopa, now that I think about it."

Larry stopped listening to that immediately. He faced forward, knowing exactly who the barista was talking about.

"Jasper."