Mecha System: Harem in The Cockpit

Mutagenic Battle

Drawing closer to the two criminals who had used their newfound mutagenic powers to rob the Bank of England, it was clear what the powers of at least one of the pair were. 

A massive duffle bag filled to the brim with glinting gold was strapped to his back, only it wasn’t a normal set of straps that had secured the bag, instead, it was the man’s own arms wrapped around himself several times. 

He had some kind of… stretchiness… to him. 

The ability to contort and extend his body in ways similar to an elastic band, and clearly some kind of super-strength to be able to carry the bag and still run around. 

It took a few moments of observation to realise what the other criminal’s powers were. 

A van of heavily armed soldiers came tearing around the corner further up the road, drifting into a stop to unload its passengers. 

But before those men could even find themselves positions to set up under cover, the second mutant had unleashed their power. 

A barrage of lasers ripped out of the criminal’s fingertips, blasting across the space between them and the soldiers that had come to put a stop to their thieving. 

It wouldn’t have mattered if they were behind cover either way, as the lasers that the man had launched from the tips of his fingers jerked and darted around corners as if they were nothing, moving in ways that light had no right moving. 

The lasers were strong too. 

Each time they impacted a soldier they burned right through the same point on their forehead, the laser light not even slowing down as it carved through flesh, bone and brain matter. Cooking the victim’s head from the inside out. 

It was a brutal display of power, and I could see why the police were having such a hard time dealing with them. 

“Are we even going to be able to take these two down?” I muttered under my breath from my vantage point on top of the corner of a building. 

“I was literally designed in part to take on rowdy mutants on worlds that got a little too uppity for their own good,” The AI from my suit replied to my question, “Sure, there are cases of some mutants being able to overcome their captors, but those cases are far and few between. This level of power shouldn’t be a problem. 

Somehow that didn’t convince me nearly as much as it probably should have done. 

Nevertheless, I was much more protected than any of the army soldiers that were being carved up by the mutant’s lasers. In other words, it was pretty much my duty to protect them at this point. 

With a deep breath, I launched myself clear of the roof that I had been stealthily observing the firefight that was unwinding down on the street below. 

My grapple hook shot free of its launcher on my arm and hooked itself onto the roof of another building, allowing me to swing over the heads of the soldiers and down onto the ground. 

The ground cracked under my weight as I landed, a heavy thud echoing through a street that had suddenly fallen very quiet. 

“And just who the fuck are you supposed to be?” The criminal with the stretchy arms shouted out across the distance. 

I thought on that for a few moments, it wasn’t like I’d come up with a special hero name or anything like that. 

“My designation is X-1 if that makes any difference to your choices,” The AI said. 

X-1. 

It was weird, but I kind of liked it. 

“I’m X-1, and I’ve come to stop you!” I yelled back as I placed my hands on my hips and stepped a foot forward. 

Okay. That was… a little bit cheesy. 

Clearly, the criminals thought so too, because they erupted into laughter. 

“Yeah, right mate,” The one with the lasers said, “You’ve come to stop us? Didn’t you see what my fingers just did to that lot of soldiers? What makes you think you’re going to do anything other than die just like them.” 

I cocked my head to the side slightly, it was almost as if the guy couldn’t see the fact that just like them I wasn’t exactly a baseline human anymore. 

They were cocky, way too cocky, and I was going to make them pay for that arrogance… but not until I gave them a chance to surrender. That was a thing that heroes did, right?

“I’m giving you one chance to surrender,” I announced, “If you don’t take it, you’re going to leave me no choice but to put you down into the ground where criminal scum like you belong!” 

Okay, maybe I was getting just a little bit too much into the heroic persona, but sue me, I hadn’t had this much fun in a pretty long time. 

“Surrender? You’re nuts mate!” The one with the laser hands said again, “Why would I need to surrender when I can just do something like this?” 

“Engaging battle mode,” The suit’s AI said, its voice suddenly much more metallic and synthesized than it had been in the past. 

It was as if time had slowed down to a crawl. 

Time moved so slowly that I could actually see the lasers build up along the fingertips of the man. Individual photons pulled themselves together into tightly nit balls of raw power before they were unleashed and sent streaking toward me. 

Yet… they were so pitifully slow. 

As the beams drew close I simply leaned to the side slightly. 

The beams passed by harmlessly, they were far too close for the man to react and have them change direction and instead they ploughed into the van that the soldiers had arrived in, causing it to explode in a crackling fireball of yellow energy. 

“Well, I guess that means you’re not surrendering,” I said, as time seemed to return to its normal pace. 

I took off in a dash toward them. They’d had their one warning.