The first one to scurry into the room was our resident rodent. Fluffy charged over some sort of raised metal circle full of fancy gizmos I would have said was inadvisable to run across. Fortunately, there were no adverse consequences I saw. Fluffy chomped on a stray bolt lying on the floor, one that I believed was likely not a coincidence.

“Looks like Flasher took off that way,” I commented. “Should be bits of his leg.”

The room was strangely open, and I chose to walk around the circle, along with everyone else. Midnight stopped to look for a moment, though. “Looks like a crude teleporter. Most likely, he had a bunch of tech shoved inside him to make him work like a freestanding node.”

It seemed like we had both been lucky and unlucky Fluffy wasn’t holding onto him at the time. It was unclear if Fluffy could have finished him off alone or not. Flasher should have been pretty damaged, but if he only had to fight the poor rust mole he could have stomped on him, or maybe stabbed him. His stoneskin had pretty much been used up already.

We followed Fluffy down a short corridor, as he was the best at sniffing out our quarry- and he only rarely left bits and pieces. Maybe some oil, but the floor was already pretty grungy. Soon enough we came to an exit door of some sort- it opened from our side easily, leading out into what looked more like sewer tunnels.

Sorority hung behind and propped open the door. She also moved ahead and followed just behind Fluffy. It was a short chase, during which there was one serious ground tremor. And then…

“He’s gone up to the streets,” Sorority commented, rapidly climbing a ladder ahead of Fluffy and poking her head out. She held her hand up to her head. “Command, Flash Circuit has broken the perimeter at my pinged location. He should be injured.”

Our guidance came rapidly. “With your other objectives completed, move to support Great Girl against Iron Shell. Defeat her by any means necessary.”

Fluffy was still trying to figure out how to climb up the ladder. We had just let him drop down the other one, and while we could lift him up Zeb was explaining we didn’t need to chase that guy.

We did a quick team assessment. “I’m practically out of mana,” I said. “Midnight?”

“Pretty low. I could perform one decent spell, but my suit will still provide practical support.”

“Right. I don’t think my gun will do anything to Iron Shell, but I might be able to disrupt any super tech she’s got shoved into her with my staff.”

“I’d probably be a liability,” Kick admitted. “I’ll remain on the perimeter and look for any interference.”

I was pretty close to being a liability myself. But I was pretty close to level 39, and other than myself only Midnight could properly activate the staff. I obviously wouldn’t try to brawl with Iron Shell alone, though. I had some self-preservation instinct.

“I’m still functional without extra enhancements,” Sorority added.

Shockfire nodded. “I have plenty of stored power. And if I’m allowed to just use all the best fire I have, I should be able to cause serious damage.”

“Fluffy needs to rest,” Zeb said. “But he should probably follow after people so he’s not alone. Maybe grab some turret bits to keep him busy before you get near Iron Shell?”

That was a task I could accomplish, so I would scoop stuff up under my arm. We had updated maps, now, due to various assault teams. Great Girl’s location had been sent out to us.

We ended up saving a lot of distance when Iron Shell crashed through the wall on our way towards them. These weren’t plaster walls, either.

At the moment we just had one Sorority, to maximize her innate boosts. She reached out for Iron Shell’s arm to hold her down, but the cyborg woman tossed her away as she rapidly stood to her feet. She rapidly shifted into a fighting stance, and an explosion behind her elbow propelled her arm forward towards Great Girl who was springing through the gap after her. The fist went right towards Great Girl’s head… and then over it.

It looked like Great Girl had gotten faster at shrinking. A moment later, I saw that also extended to expanding again. How she didn’t tumble over… well, it had to be training. Lots of it.

Great Girl’s suit was tattered, with burn marks and bloody gashes all over her. Iron Shell wasn’t looking so hot herself, with all sorts of dents and some missing armor panels. Great Girl lunged forward in a low tackle, and though Iron Shell elbowed her in the shoulder she still slammed into the cyborg’s waist.

There wasn’t much room for too many people to get involved. Shockfire, Kick, Midnight, and I hung back. Sorority was already in the brawl, though her strength and durability were inferior compared to either of the two others. Zeb was yelling at Fluffy to stay back, but all he saw was a tasty cyborg that he’d determined was our enemy.

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The good news was that Iron Shell was clearly slower than Flasher. The bad news was she was highly durable, and I’d seen an entire building fall on her before. I ducked as a random laser came from her arm. Kick moved further down the corridor, but the rest of us were ready when Great Girl managed to force Iron Shell back into the larger room they’d come from.

We poured inside, spreading out to come at her from all sides. Fluffy was clinging on Iron Shell’s leg. Either he had a limit to his metal weakening abilities or she was a lot more durable than Flasher. Probably both.

Great Girl and Sorority moved together, managing to snag an arm each. That would have been it for me, if I ended up in such a situation. Iron Shell released a burst of lightning around her that forced back everyone on her, except for Fluffy who was stubbornly clinging on.

A moment later, she kicked him away- and I saw his teeth still embedded in her leg. Uh, mole teeth grew back right? Probably. Were they rodents? Were rust moles actually moles? I actually had a lot of questions about that.

After the lightning, a barrier surrounded her. I recognized the feel of a Bunvorixian one. Most likely, Great Girl had battered her way through it earlier.

Well, this was what I was here for. I lunged forward, Iron Shell responding with a shoulder mounted laser. I poured all of the dispelling magic from my staff into disrupting that barrier, which seemed to be generically good at disrupting anything but not as efficient as a single use ability. The laser still blasted into me, and I was going to need a good medical checkup after this. But the barrier went right back down, and then Iron Shell was dealing with a wall of flame covering her.

Midnight still had Celmothian lasers, and without the barrier in play he just blasted the general area where Iron Shell was inside things. The instant the surge of flame stopped, he used most of the rest of his mana for an Energy Ward, restricting Iron Shell’s lasers if only for a moment.

Great Girl and Sorority were moving a bit slower after the shock, but they still rushed in with determination. Iron Shell didn’t seem much the worse for wear from all the fire, though, and she knocked both of them away. Realizing her lasers didn’t work for the moment, her body transformed and revealed more conventional weaponry.

At that moment, “Iron shell!” someone yelled from the other side of the room. “Prepare to meet your ferrous doom! It is I, Magnet Man!”

Iron Shell turned one arm towards him, and one towards Sorority, presumably to take her down swiftly. She opened fire. “I’m not magnetic,” I vaguely heard through the gunfire. Chunks of ceiling rained down near me.

“Hey, me neither!” Magnet Man called back to her. Iron Shell was moving oddly as her arms pointed up towards the ceiling, her body swaying as she almost dangled from them.

Oh yeah, we did have a guy like that in the Brigade, didn’t we? Wow, it sure would suck to be made pretty much entirely out of metal and fight a metal controller.

Iron Shell didn’t give up easily, though. Her lasers had been constantly active, and soon burned through the Energy Ward. And unlike the conventional guns, they didn’t need to be aimed directly. Small adjustments allowed lasers to shoot out of her at many different angles. Until Magnet Man began ripping out tiny pieces of Iron Shell, I thought we were in for a pickle. Instead, all of her lasers rapidly stopped working.

By that point, Great Girl got behind her and put her in a headlock. I wasn’t sure what good that was going to do, because I wasn’t sure if she could be choked out. Her neck was all metal and stuff and-

Great Girl’s head was scraping the fifteen foot ceiling in the room. The sound of twisting metal indicated she wasn’t doing quite what I’d thought. Iron Shell tried to stab her with about a hundred different things, but she was finding her body didn’t open up its various compartments smoothly. It didn’t seem like Magnet Man could completely lock her down himself, but he had the strength to hold her arms and affect small scale bits. A few bolts and wires were torn out and landed near Fluffy, who began licking them even as he lay on his side.

The sound of wrenching metal- and in fact pretty much all sound- stopped. Great Girl stepped back from Iron Shell, holding her head. That gave us a pretty good view of how much of Iron Shell had been replaced. Because there was no flesh in the neck. A synthesized voice from the head still called Great Girl some rude things, until Shockfire stepped up and drained her remaining power.

I wondered if she could survive that. I think the official Power Brigade status was that we didn’t care. Maybe she had some non-powered components keeping her brain functional just in case.

Magnet Man didn’t immediately let Iron Shell’s body flop to the ground, instead making sure we confirmed that the head was actually important. Once that was over, Great Girl breathed a sigh of relief. All of her size and amplified muscle proportions flowed out of her and she collapsed into what I hoped was an exhausted pile.

Several of us rushed forward, but her pulse was steady. We still needed to get her to a medic, though. I was going to pick her up, but Sorority tossed Great Girl over her shoulder. Yeah, she was probably better at that than me, huh? Aside from being pretty big, I didn’t have any supernatural strength.

We took the various pieces of Iron Shell away, the main body dragged along by Magnet Man. I carried Fluffy. We met up with a large number of other Power Brigade members, with captured Mod Squad members being carted off in special containment vehicles.

We hadn’t caught Flasher, but I supposed a good second place was taking down Iron Shell. No wait, she was the leader so this was actually way better. Cool.

And I had gotten a level.

Fluffy needed new teeth though. He couldn’t exactly recover them naturally without being able to eat his normal diet though. Maybe he could eat lasers?

Eh, it would be easier to just have them regrown. I happened to be friends with an animal loving individual who I could probably convince to push him to the head of the line. She might even do it for free- though I’d try to convince the Brigade to pay since Zeb and Fluffy were working with us. She was still short of being an official member, but maybe after this. The whole Bunvorixian and Martian incident had calmed down anyway.