Melty was running away frantically trying to escape her pursuers, the envoy taking her back home was intercepted by a group of church fanatics keen on killing her so she can't get her guilable father out of the seat of power. The guards with her stayed back to fight them, and the shadow her mother had assigned her was busy fighting a shadow from the church, so all she could do was run away and try to escape
It was while looking backwards to see if anyone was following her that she tripped and landed on something, or more precisely someone.
"Ouch! What's the big idea?" A man clad in a strange red suit, with a black and yellow belt, using white goggles with light blue lenses with a pillow seemingly stuck to his arm said as he got melty off from atop him. Melty looked around to see that she was in a makeshift camp, with a campfire that was put out and a resident
"Ah, kid? Whatcha you all scared of? Are you running away from a bear?" The man in strange clothing asked concerned as he reached a hand out to her, Melty tried to slow her breathing and return her calm when she saw that the fanatics were coming
"No, from them!" She shouted as she pointed at them, the man looked at where she pointed by twisting his head far more than it should be possible as he turned around. The fanatics finally reaching them
"Give us the girl circus freak and we might spare you, unlike those other guys back there" one of the religious maniacs said as Melty noticed the blood they were covered in, she was mortified. The man looked at her then at the fanatics as a frown formed in his face, as the pillow in his arm turned into a silver shield, catching everyone's attention
"Wait, that's the-" one of the fanatics started speaking but was quickly silenced by a hit to the face, as Melty and the other fanatics saw that the red clad man had stretched his arm beyond humanly possible while his hand had assumed a shape similar to a hammer's head
"Sorry pal, but Plastic man doesn't do business with crooks" ex-criminal safe cracker turned rubber band super hero "Eel" O'Brian revealed himself as the fanatics are scared because of the rumors of his bizarre and horrifying body manipulation while Melty looks in awe, not only fascinated by his powers but because he was part of the reason she was sent back home,
"The shield freak?! Here?!" One of the thugs questioned the odds and their luck at stumbling upon the malleable devil while they tried to kill the second princess
"Doesn't matter, we just kill them both!" Another maniac rudely replied as that just meant they could get rid of two problems of the church in one go. The fanatics ran towards them with their weapons raised, Plastic man's reply was to raise his fist and enlarge them as he started his assault,
"You guys sure don't want to calm down for a bit? I was just about to make some tea!" Plastic man said as he turned his hand into a teakettle that he swung at the fanatics, as he smirked at them
It was not a fair fight, after all, how are five guys with just swords and axes supposed to defeat someone who could spawn extra limbs and turn into anything? Plastic man answer that by turning his left hand into a pair of scissors and his right hand into leaf blower, cutting off the handle of the axe of one of the thug before blowing him away with a leaf blower with the strength to push a car, a guy tried to sneak attack Melty as she screamed but before his sword could reach her, he had a giant shark head gobble him up in one bite before spitting him at some of his fellow fanatics
"Or perhaps you guys would prefer a sandwich!" he said as he spread his arms wide open as he turned his hands into two large pieces of sliced bread before he closed it on the crooks, smashing them in between the bread
"But let's give you guys a little clean up, those blood stains are nasty" he said while turning into a giant washing machine, putting the fanatics inside and turning on as the attackers were spun around inside at high speed for a good bit before the lid opened and they were sent out roughly
"There, knocked the lights out of them" Plastic man said as he cleaned his hands, turning to look at Melty, who seemed still a bit bummed out, the forming of tears in her eyes, as he asked "You alright kiddo?"
"I am... Thanks. But the knights that were with me..." Melty said as she worries about what happened to the knights that were accompanying her, feeling guilty over their possible deaths because of her
"We'll check on them, and if they have already gone to the pearly gates, we'll give them a burial" he tried to give her his best reassuring smile, O'Brian and Melty went back to the scene, Plastic man scouting ahead and seeing that the knights were killed but not before taking some religious fanatics down with them. He held Melty back as he made sure to dig holes for the bodies, placing some rocks around them and tying some sticks to form a cross he placed in the graves, letting Melty let out her tears and give the fallen men who died in her service a pray, O'Brian had to give it to her, she was handling this very maturely for a ten or twelve year old
"... How am I going to get home to papa now?" She asked after taking one last look at the graves and a sob, plastic man gave her a few moments of silence before he snapped his fingers
"Well, I can give a ride in the plastic mobile, just hop on!" He said as he turned into a funny looking car, making a honking noise. Though as he saw Melty's confused look, he decided to take a more appealing form for a girl, becoming a cartoon pony "Unless you prefer a pony ride?"
"... I'm eternally grateful to you mister" she said with a smile as a more cheerful aura returned to her, as she hopped on to his back "my father lives in the capital, can you get there?"
"Sure thing, up up and away!" He said while spawning airplane wings with big turbines, as he took off to the sky with Melty
[Author's notes]
Plastic man is such a goofy and nice character, too bad the shield hero plotline is so edgy like I can almost try, but he wouldn't hide his powers in the summoning of the first chapter. The church could twist his powers in favor of their propaganda, but the other heroes would either be jealous or find his powers pointless, either way he works better in a comedic setting and shield hero's revenge fantasy is a bit too much of a turn but maybe he could be himself despite the setting? Like he doesn't let the circumstances affect him, keeps his smile and goofball attitude despite it all.
