Marvel: Playing Iron Man, Falling In and Out of Love with Jinx

"ROAR!!!"

A savage, thunderous howl shook the battlefield. Vi, surrounded by a swarm of plague rats, froze, her muscles locking up as a primal fear gripped her heart, like a beast had marked her for death.

Flames surged beside her like a tidal wave. Anything the fire touched ignited into a blazing torch, incinerated in an instant.

Vi's punching motion halted mid-swing. She stood stunned. Just moments ago, these plague rats had been fierce and unrelenting, now, nothing remained but charred husks.

Meanwhile, up on the factory roof, Caitlyn stared in shock, her hand covering her mouth. Her wide eyes shimmered as she looked upon the scene below.

A mechanical dragon, breathing fire.

Or rather, Pride.

With precise control over his fiery breath, Pride curved the flames around Vi, incinerating every last rat pouring from the factory in a single sweep.

Caitlyn blinked. Duke's motorcycle had vanished, replaced by this mechanical beast.

"H-He's Duke's bike? How is that even possible?"

"Switching between a motorcycle and combat mech mode… even my father couldn't manage that! How did he do it?"

Ratatatatatata, !

A burst of rapid gunfire jolted Caitlyn out of her thoughts. Duke stood below, wielding White Ivory in his right hand, and drawing Ebonywood with his left.

The contrast between the two legendary firearms, one black, one white, caught Caitlyn's eyes like a spell. A flicker of awe passed across her face.

"They're beautiful… I've never seen anything like those before."

Caitlyn glanced down at the jury-rigged rifle Duke had lent her. She pouted.

"Hmph. So he had weapons like that and didn't let me use one sooner?"

Had Duke heard that, he would've snorted.

Women.

His twin guns blazing, Duke's eyes were locked onto a single target, the Rat King, its form barely visible in the shadows. The creature trembled. Then, in a blur, it fired.

Its long, needle-like hairs shot toward Duke like a hail of steel needles.

Duke didn't flinch.

A blur of metal moved in front of him, Pride, shielding his master with his armored body. The sharp hairs pinged harmlessly off his plating like raindrops on a war drum.

"Hurt my father… and die."

Pride's eyes turned from blue to crimson.

His jaw opened, a red glow gathering in his throat.

Zzzzzz,

A laser beam erupted from his mouth, carving a glowing line into the ground. A second later,

BOOM!!

A chain of explosions rocked the factory. Flames swallowed everything.

The floor beneath Caitlyn crumbled from the blast. She screamed as she plummeted, only to be caught at the last second by Vi's outstretched arms.

"Little cupcake, looks like you can't handle yourself after all."

"Hmph. Like you're doing much better."

Clang!

Duke knocked on Pride's metal head with the butt of his gun, glancing at the scorched but unharmed Vi and Caitlyn. He let out a relieved sigh, then scolded:

"Don't use high-lethality weapons when friendlies are in range!"

"But Father, "

"No exceptions. When allies are nearby, destructive lasers are strictly forbidden!"

"Understood."

"Go finish off the rest of the rats. As for this one…"

Duke's gaze locked on the Rat King.

"I'll deal with it myself."

"…Okay."

With a grunt, Pride vanished into the shadows of the factory. Roars and screeches followed.

Duke sighed, rubbing his forehead.

"Raising a kid really is a full-time job…"

Swish, swish, swish, !

Once again, the Rat King fired its deadly hairs, but Duke sidestepped and raised his gun, targeting the creature's glowing heat signature.

BANG!!

A deep, thunderous shot echoed through the factory. The Rat King leapt aside, sensing danger, but not fast enough. The bullet clipped its lower body, shattering it into pulp.

THUD!!

A crater the size of a washbasin gouged the concrete.

SPLAT!

The Rat King collapsed, blood dripping from its sharp snout. Its glowing blue eyes shimmered with pain.

Duke stepped forward.

"Let's see what you really are…"

The Rat King let out one final shriek, not a rodent's cry, but something far deeper. The sound echoed through the factory, and somewhere deep inside, a hidden rat twitched, then slowly raised its head.

"…It didn't strike back. It howled instead."

Duke squinted. Edith's optics lit up, revealing the Rat King's form.

Caitlyn and Vi joined him. When they saw the ruined body, they both gasped.

The Rat King was as large as a hound. Its lower half was gone, only its front limbs and head remained. Beneath its matted fur, eerie blue veins pulsed with a faint glow.

Its eyes, too, glowed with the same unnatural light. Its neck shimmered like it had been infused with… something.

"This thing… looks a lot like…"

Vi hesitated, recalling the mutated creatures they'd once seen under the influence of Shimmer.

Duke nodded grimly.

"Probably one of Silco's failed experiments. After the lab collapsed, it must've escaped."

Vi clenched her fists.

"That bastard's poison still spreads, even from the grave."

Caitlyn stayed silent, itching to ask who Silco was, and what they meant by Shimmer, but this wasn't the time.

"This thing… let's just kill it," Vi raised her gauntlet, ready to strike.

But Duke stopped her, eyes narrowed in thought.

"Caitlyn. When you're hunting, what do you do when a beast is cornered, but doesn't fight back?"

"Hmm… Usually, that means it's defending its young or pack. It's a final warning before retreat."

"We don't shoot those," she added softly. "Even beasts have hearts."

"Well well," Vi smirked. "Didn't think you had such a soft side, little cupcake."

Caitlyn shot her a glare, but remembering how Vi caught her earlier, she said nothing.

"I see now," Duke murmured. "That explains it… it must've had offspring."

"You mean… this thing bred?"

"Even mutants obey the call of blood," Duke replied.

He raised Ebonywood and ended the Rat King's life with a clean shot. It never looked at him, not once. Its dying eyes stayed locked on the factory.

As if remembering something.

When they entered the factory, the trio was stunned. Pride had torn the place apart, not a single plague rat corpse remained; they'd all been reduced to ash.

"Damn… too much heat," Duke muttered, adjusting Edith's lens. The thermal imaging was too scrambled from the fire, he couldn't scan for a possible offspring.

"What a shame."

He waved to Pride.

"Burn it all. Leave nothing behind."

Pride obeyed, unleashing a final torrent of flames. Everything was engulfed.

"Let's go. Nothing left to see here."

Duke turned to Caitlyn and Vi.

"I've got a long trip tomorrow. Can't be staying up all night."

"You're going somewhere?"

Vi raised a brow.

"What about Powder?"

"Orianna and Mr. Collin will take care of her. And knowing her? No one's going to bully that gremlin."

Calling Pride to follow, Duke left the scorched ruins behind with Caitlyn and Vi by his side.

The three of them walked slowly, talking and laughing. The tension between Caitlyn and Vi had noticeably softened.

Behind them, deep within a sewer grate, a bloated plague rat crept out. In its mouth, a glowing blue vial.

It glanced at the Rat King's corpse, then at the trio's departing backs.

Its eyes gleamed, not with fear, but with something far more dangerous.

Hatred.

It lingered in that gaze for a long while, before waddling back into the darkness, dragging the vial behind it.

End of chapter...

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