Chapter Text
The metal suit skidded hard along the pavement and Gunmetal Grey winced at the noise.
His readout displayed only superficial damage but it was still gonna be a bitch to buff out. He engaged his thrusters. A high powered burst that threw him back into the air, then a more measured, controlled burn to get him back to the fight.
Pins and Needles were more or less where he had left them. Pins was still darting around, dodging every attack Locomotus charged her with, but her knives were utterly useless against him and she was slowly being moved up the street, away from her partner.
Needles, on the other hand, had moved to the top of a streetlight, one hand outstretched towards the streetlight opposite. The metal of the light ripped itself into a hundred thin, sharp shreds. Which she directed at Grey. Of course.
He pulled his body together into the fetal position and let the needles rush over and past him, sliding off the suits armour. The attack weathered, he took a high position, hovering about three stories up, and redistributed power to lasers. He levelled his palm at the villain and shot a retaliatory blast.
Needles leapt from her perch, dodging the laser and breaking down the streetlight as she pushed off. She had leapt upwards toward Grey and he dropped his offence immediately, flying another two stories up, out of her range.
He did not want to see if his suit was susceptible to her powers.
As he dodged upward he passed the lip of the building's roof-- an apartment complex. The villainess landed on the road below and began to run up the street... Trying to regroup with Pins? He redistributed back to lasers and charged up his next shot, only to miss by a country mile, thrown off by a performatively-restrained laugh behind him.
“No.” His modulated voice came out more concerned than it had the entire fight.
“Wow, Grey--”
“Noooo.” The concern became lost in exasperation.
“This fight is Camembert-essing!” He turned. Mouse Protector II stood on the roof, looking at him with that shit-eating grin. She was resting on her stupid, god damn, dull-ass sword she brought everywhere.
He could just about see her eyes through the slits in her stupid knight helmet. They glittered with mischief.
“What, no retort? You’ve gotta Brie kidding!”
In one fluid, swift, cathartic movement, Grey seized the woman by her cape and hucked her at the slowly disappearing Needles. A thrilled scream mixed with manic laughter broke out and faded as she was launched.
At the apex of the throw, to the untrained eye, she seemed to disappear. Grey knew better, though. He kicked his jets into action and followed after her, keeping high.
He pushed forward, laying down a couple shots, being careful to avoid Mouse Protector. Needles pulled the remnants of her previous perch into a tight mass and blocked the lasers. Grey smiled under his helmet and began redistributing.
With Needles’ attention and powers focused on him, Mouse Protector II was free to unshrink, growing to her full size from the pavement and putting the momentum of her growth into a fierce uppercut.
“Cheesed to meet you!” She leapt back and drew her sword.
“Needles,” She gestured excitedly to the blade, “Meet Needlemouse!” Her grin was out in full-force and she leant in, conspiratorially, “Y’know, I think that’s our ship name on the cape forums.”
Needles shrieked and threw her hands out towards Mouse, her cloud of needles followed. Mouse let slip a condescending laugh and shrunk back down, shooting with speed under the villain’s legs.
“Mice try!”
She grew back to full size and swung her sword. It hit Needles square-on and she hissed. “I will cut you to RIBBONS, ‘Mouse Protector’.”
Another mean-spirited laugh escaped from the heroine and echoed through Grey’s internal speakers, “Wow, banter is Nacho forte! Needles stab, Needles, they don’t cut.”
Grey heard a huff as Needles tensed up, clear anger coursed through her. “What if I skewered your eyes and scraped them out of their sockets?”
“Ooh, Mouse-trous!” She cackled, “Drop threats like that and I’ll be squeaking in no time! The forums’ll talk though...”
Another rageful scream and Mouse was shrunk again, appearing a moment later in a casual lean against Needles’ shoulder. Grey, meanwhile, was forced to land on a rooftop, the power in his jets fully redistributed.
“Wow.” Mouse shook her head, “Give a mouse a cookie, huh?” Needles lashed out, snatching Mouse Protector by the neck. The woman let out a hurk but didn’t move to dodge.
“I have you now...” Grey could hear the grin on the villain’s face as her needles began flanking the pair, “Killing you’s gonna buy me a lot of cred.”
Mouse tried to cough something out but the grip on her throat was tight. Needles lessened her grip, just a tad. She coughed, “You may have me... but do you have him...?”
Oh that bitch.
Needles lenses widened, she whipped around and found Gunmetal Grey immediately. The massive light emanating from his outstretched palm was not subtle. Mouse used the distraction to shrink out of her grasp and disappear.
Without a moment to waste, Grey took the shot. Needles reaction was fast, she formed her shield between the Grey and herself with speed he hadn’t seen from her before.
The shot went off, and when the blinding light finally cleared, Needles was lying in a heap at the bottom of a crater. Sensors indicated she was intact, only unconscious.
He sighed and waited for his generators to spin up enough energy for him to redistribute.
“Now that’s what I call a Gouda job.” Mouse was at his side, normal size, smirking, elbowing him, phone in hand.
Grey’s modulated voice dripped with irritation. “You gave away the plan, Mouse. She almost blocked my attack.”
She put a hand over her mouth in mock horror, “Me?! You must be Mouse-taken! I’m an angel!”
Grey sighed, he let a silence fill the air for a second. It was more companionable than he cared for.
“What are you typing?” He looked over her shoulder, trying to sneak a look. “I have my bots set to auto-delete your posts if you mention me.” He reminded her.
She huffed, grin momentarily halted, “I remember. Not very Mice of you.” She handed him the phone anyway, smirk spreading itself back across her face.
It was footage of the fight. She was already cutting it up, a highlight reel that made Needles look pathetic. Even more than the fight itself already did, he supposed.
He scrolled to the next image in the gallery and stifled a scoff. A rendered, chibi-fied version of Mouse Protector floated in the centre of the screen, her middle finger out to the viewer. White impact-font text at the top read “Fuck You Grey”, then at the bottom, “Who Said You Could Swipe”. Mouse, next to him, laughed so hard she needed to stabilize herself on the suit.
He swiped again, more of Needles. This was a picture of her in the crater, he didn’t understand the white impact-font caption for this one.
“What the fuck does Got Yamcha’d mean?”