Hero's Entrance

"But you're the only vehicle I want."

"Leon, you..."

Leon's absolute sincerity left Arcee, who was both insecure and guilt-ridden, flattered beyond measure. Too embarrassed to say anything else, she went mute again.

Just then.

Tony's ill-timed voice came from the side, interrupting the somewhat ambiguous atmosphere developing between Leon and Arcee.

"Uh, I mean..."

"You two, this isn't the time to flirt. We're almost there."

Far beyond the range of the naked eye.

Gemira, occupied by terrorists as their territory, faintly came into view. The haze brought by war blanketed the skies above Gemira, making it look from afar like a giant mushroom cloud with dense fungal growth underneath.

"Tony, when's the next time you're meeting a cover girl?"

Leon asked with a "smile."

"Why are you asking that?"

Tony was puzzled, though his guard immediately rose.

"Nothing."

Leon chuckled, finally showing his hand. "I just want to kick your ass hard in front of her!"

With that said.

Leon drove Arcee into a second burst of acceleration and surged ahead, leaving Tony alone to stew in the Jet Glider's exhaust flames.

"Oh, right, Arcee."

"Mm?"

"Do you know why the Inertial Counterforce Field Generator malfunctioned just now? Normally, something like that shouldn't happen. Tony wouldn't leave such a low-level design flaw behind."

"..."

What Leon truly wanted to ask was which of Arcee's organs the Inertial Counterforce Field Generator now corresponded to. But he was afraid of upsetting her again, so he did not dare ask too directly.

However.

Even so.

After giving a soft, puzzled sound, Arcee once more expertly played dumb.

"Fine."

"Forget I asked."

Leon shrugged helplessly.

In truth.

Arcee did not refuse to answer for any particular reason. She was simply shy.

Because, in a sense, the inertial counterforce field was equivalent to her love for her driver.

The "love" here did not necessarily mean romantic love. It could also mean friendship, affection, admiration, respect, passion, fondness, care, tenderness... and so on.

But in the end, for Leon and Arcee, who had only known each other for such a short time, this rate of emotional progress might still have been a little too fast.

Then again, how could anyone expect a woman who had been lonely for who knew how many ages, and who suffered from post-war trauma, to stay calm?

As for what kind of "love" Arcee felt for Leon, only she herself knew.

After all, love was the most unreasonable emotion of all.

[Notice: Arcee's Partner Mode has been unlocked.]

"Woohoo!"

Leon shouted excitedly, unable to hide the smile on his face.

"Leon, what are you laughing about?"

Arcee asked in confusion.

"I thought of something happy."

Leon grinned and continued:

"Arcee, Partner Mode."

"What?"

Before Arcee herself could even react, her body instinctively obeyed Leon's command and began transforming, this time compressing down in size.

Very soon.

The sedan-sized Jet Glider beneath Leon vanished.

In its place.

Was the Cyber Succubus in Leon's arms, as tall as a person, with a sexy, graceful figure in silver, gray, and black, accented with purple at her knees, waist, chest, shoulders, and both cheeks!

"Arcee, this mode of yours is pretty good-looking."

Leon praised her from the bottom of his heart.

"!!!"

Yet Arcee did not seem to appreciate it. Covering her chest with both hands, she shot Leon a furious, embarrassed glare before immediately transforming back into Motorcycle Mode.

"Leon, if you ever make me transform into Partner Mode in public again without warning, I swear I'll never... I won't speak to you for a whole week!"

This time, Arcee was so angry that her chest hurt.

After all.

Her Partner Mode was also known as the "Emperor's New Clothes" mode. It was equivalent to an ordinary person wearing absolutely nothing.

As for why a robot would have such a concept, all that could be said was—Cybertronians were amazing, weren't they?

"Uh..."

Leon had not expected that simply asking her to transform into Partner Mode would provoke such a huge reaction. It seemed he had stepped on another one of her landmines without realizing it.

This was an important lesson for training and development. He had to write it down in his little notebook.

JARVIS, make a note of it... Oh, JARVIS isn't here anymore. Looks like Leon would have to prepare another physical notebook for Arcee himself.

That way, she would not find it if he recorded it in an electronic notebook.

Cybertronian was great. Leon wanted to learn it—loved learning it.

After all that fuss.

Gemira was already right before them.

"Woohoo~"

From ten thousand meters in the air, Leon leaped off Arcee's waist in a leap of faith.

Having seen Leon use his flying superpower before, Arcee was not worried about him.

It was not until Leon's descent speed grew faster and faster, without showing the slightest sign of slowing, that Arcee truly panicked. She dove down at top speed, chasing after Leon.

But it seemed too late...

"Leon!!!"

Arcee cried out in alarm.

Yet beneath her astonished gaze, Leon performed a superhero landing, plunging into the ground like a steel needle and embedding himself half a meter deep.

Other than kicking up a huge cloud of dust, he rose from the crater as though nothing had happened, his handsome, mature figure standing tall upon the earth.

—The hero had arrived!

Immediately afterward.

Tony, wearing the Mark 3 and completely forgotten by both Leon and Arcee, made a cushioned superhero landing beside Leon.

Finally, Motorcycle Mode Arcee arrived late.

But the instant she landed, accompanied by a series of hollow clanks and rattles, she transformed into a five-meter-tall humanoid Battle Mode.

Duang! Duang!

Two metallic crashes rang out as the furious Arcee slapped the posing brothers once each, knocking both of them to the ground.

"What the fuck!"

"Why did you hit me too?"

At the sight of Arcee in Battle Mode, Tony was utterly shocked, followed immediately by indignation.

But when he saw Arcee ferociously grab Leon by the collar, effortlessly fling him into the air, and interrogate him, Tony instantly shut up. This woman looked like trouble. Where the hell had she come from?

"Don't let it happen again, Leon!"

Arcee was nearly short-circuiting from the scare Leon had given her.

She dared swear that in the brief time she had known Leon, her emotional ups and downs had already rivaled the total of the past several hundred years. What a thrill ride!

To the terrorists currently rounding up able-bodied men from Gemira's residents' homes, the scene was even more fantastical than a fairy tale—what the hell? Motorcycles could become spirits these days?

Only after Leon repeatedly promised her did Arcee finally agree to put him down.

Seeing this, Tony walked over to Leon, pointed at Battle Mode Arcee, whose shoulder they could barely reach even if they stood stacked atop each other, and said:

"Leon, I think I need an explanation for Miss Arcee too."

"There's nothing to explain. Didn't JARVIS already say it? I picked her up."

With that said.

A tungsten steel-Vibranium shield instantly emerged from the system space and landed in Leon's left hand, while his other hand drew the Infinite-Ammo Desert Eagle from the holster on the right thigh of his uniform. He entered full combat readiness.

Seeing how perfunctory Leon's explanation was, Tony could not be bothered to press further. His palm cannons began charging as he aimed them at the dumbfounded terrorists.

"Hey, bro, how about we make a deal?"

"What?"

"You leave these guys to Arcee and me, and you go destroy the weapons they've stockpiled. How about it?"

"Works for me."

Tony lowered his palm cannons, looked up at Arcee beside them, and instructed her, "I don't know where you came from, but Leon is in your hands, Arcee."

"Mm."

Her arms transformed into two plasma beam cannons, and Arcee nodded solemnly.

This time.

Until her spark was completely extinguished, she would never let go of her partner again.