[Combat, Brainwashing]

New Spero. A city that was full of trouble. Whether due to the villains that hid in every little corner and alleyway that they could, manipulating the common man to do what they wanted, or due to the many psychics that ran amock with their various powers, grinding their victims into the ground, or worse.

Today, one such villain was more than happy to make toys out of the overall populace. In the downtown parts of the city, a pink-haired man named Vulcan was causing his very own brand of chaos as he strolled through a mall. Whoever dared try to run towards him quickly found themselves being encased in heavy suits of iron armor that restrained them and bent them to his will, while anybody that tried to flee met a similar fate as his armors would outpace them and consume them. Regardless if you ran or not, you'd find yourself turning into one of his knights in mere moments.

"Hah! To think that I could just do this all with the flick of a wrist? They don't make humans like they used to. After all, they've only made one of me!" The narcissistic young man laughed to himself as some of his converted knights gathered around him, kneeling before him in a show of obedience. They were utterly devoted to his cause, as any good armor should be.

He briefly looked around the ground floor of the mall, licking his lips as he caught the scent of a certain little treat that he adored. "My oh my, somebody must be trying to win my favor. That delicious sweet bread that I crave... I can sense it, I can practically taste it on my tongue at this very second!" The egomaniac laughed yet again as he raised his hand, making his knights rise in turn. "Apprehend the bakers that made this wonderful treat! I do not wish to squander their talents, even if they are inferior to my own! I need my treats now!"

The magenta-colored iron entities stomped their way towards a nearby bakery, following the scent that their master had described... only for an onslaught of spike-shaped bloody projectiles to pierce their way through the armors, knocking them to the ground without injuring the people within. Their master didn't even realize that they had been felled, as a young woman wearing a maid uniform approached the fallen knights.

"Tsk. Of course, there's somebody that wants to cause trouble now of all days. Right as I was going out to grab dinner for that old prick." The maid-like girl, Mia, scoffed and clicked her tongue as her bloodied red arm descended upon the knights, calling back the blood that she had discarded to pull off that attack, restoring her arm's proper size as a result. "Now, who would actually make things like these? These aren't robots, they're people, so it has to be..." She mused as she looked around, only to scowl as she noticed an unmistakable shade of pink. She couldn't recognize who it was, but there was only one kind of person that'd dare rock that kind of hair in a mall on a day like this.

Vulcan impatiently tapped the side of his elbow, growing progressively frustrated. "They're late, my sweets should've been here ages ago! Don't they know that I'm a picky-" The metal-manipulating youth struggled to find the words that he needed before he drew his blade and angrily slashed at one of his armored knights with a furious look in his eyes. "You don't even know anything! You're just encased in armor, I didn't teach you anything! Yet you think that gives you the right to be awful at your jobs!? Do you!?" He vented his anger at a knight that hadn't done anything, to the point where the knight collapsed from the sustained damage.

"Oi! Prick! If you want to hit anybody with that sword of yours, how about you pick on somebody that can actually fight back!?" The pink-haired young man heard a voice call out towards him, prompting him to lift his hand to command the armor that he had seemingly critically injured. Seconds later, the knight took a blow meant for him, blood dripping from the wounds it had sustained before it was unceremoniously dropped onto the floor...

The pink-haired psychic brushed his hair to the side as he stared straight at his opponent, pointing his sword at her. "Aha! You must be the one who's impeded my knights from bringing my sweet treat. Engarde, so you may prove my inferior!" He cared naught for the actual damage his knights had sustained, he was more interested in proving himself superior. What a complete egomaniac with no regard for anybody else but himself. To that end, he took a single powerful step forward, thrusting his sword forward...

A move that sent the tip spiraling forward like a drill, seeking to impale Mia with the speed at which it extended. Unfortunately, the Maid wasn't exactly slow, as she rolled out of the way, splashing blood-like bullets in his direction at the same time. Another knight intercepted this attack, however, leaving the ranged approach as an inferior option in the long run. "Offense like that and defense that takes advantage of other people. Gee, old man, couldn't you have told me about him before I went out to shop!?" The girl complained to nobody in particular, even if the source of her frustrations no doubt heard it. That old man knew far too much.

"What's the matter? Aren't you able to deal with a superior combatant? Of course, you aren't, you're a mere weakling trying to seem like so much more. But don't you worry, you'll make for a great Knight of mine once I've bested you. You'd look so much better in the service of your better, anyhow!" Vulcan laughed as he swung his sword, the swing causing it to split up into many smaller swords that shot straight at the maid.

Not wanting to fall for a trick that was almost like her own, the young red-armed maid quickly dove behind one of the felled knights, shoving it up to use it as a shield, causing the smaller blades to harmlessly plink off it. "Keh. Sorry about this, guy, but I need some of this!"

The metal-manipulating egomaniac watched his enemy's arm erupt into tentacles that penetrated through the knight's armor, visibly suckling the lifeblood out of it to empower herself and recover at the very same time. By the time that the life within the armor was about to be extinguished, the tentacles retracted. "Oh my, you're stooping to such a low level. Draining mere peasants of their blood. And you consider yourself a hero? You really are inferior!"

"Do you ever shut up!?" Mia shouted in the pink-haired bastard's direction as she retracted her arm, which was now twice the size of her torso. "Or do you want me to smear you against the floor until you're nothing but a smear of blood!? Because I can do it, and I'm definitely not afraid to!" The angry maid continued to shout from her heart as she broke into a sprint, arm pointed directly towards the sword-wielding ponce.

Vulcan merely laughed as he lifted his hand, calling the pieces of his sword back to him as it reconstructed in seconds within his hand. Once he had a tight grip, he swung it and clashed with his loudmouthed enemy, grinning from ear to ear. "Really, you can't even keep your composure! You should just shut up and join my knights, maybe then somebody might actually care about you! Not me though, I don't care about my subjects. They're mine to toss away as I please, whether or not they do a good job!" He kept gloating, even as his sword start to bend from the pressure...

"I'm not a goddamn hero, how hard is it to get through to you!? You're the thickest guy I've ever met, and I've met an old man so bad that I can't actually kill him for the things he's done to me!" The maid continued her aggravated assault as she suddenly shifted that massive arm into the shape of a cannon. The sudden change in mass surprised her opponent, as he was blasted at point-blank range by a massive ball-shaped projectile, knocking him into a wall and then some, as it seemed like he had been embedded...

Mia gasped and panted just a little as her arm shriveled back to its normal size from the loss of blood, her sight getting blurry as a result of overclocking her power. "God... Never doing that again, not unless I've got the supply to back it up..." She muttered as her mood started to improve ever slightly. "At least he shut up. Now, to find out who and what he was..." The words continued to slip from her lips as she approached the seemingly defeated villain, rubbing her throbbing arm to try and make it calm down...

Only for a single armor to suddenly appear from behind a sign, standing between the maid and its master. "What, you want to defend somebody that degrades you time and time again? Why do you care!? Why do people listen to awful men!?" The maid's anger was quickly roused back into action as she turned her arm into a simple blade, pulling it off her stump as she dashed towards the metal structure.

Her blow landed, shattering the armor into many pieces that rattled to the floor. "Hmph, why did I even get so worked up. You're just pieces of scrap instead of-" The maid attempted to insult the pieces with what anger remained in her, only to suddenly realize that one of the boots had managed to collapse around her foot. "W-Hey! What the f-"

Before Mia had much of a chance to curse, she found the helmet being forced on her. Then the gauntlets, the shoulders, the chest piece, and so on. No matter how much she struggled, she couldn't manage to get even a single piece off her. And only as the skirt of the armor was about to slip on her and complete the set, did she realize that the young man wasn't embedded in the wall any longer.

"Bravo! You're not as bad as I thought you were! I mean, you were still rather bad, especially when compared to yours truly, but it was a valiant effort! If this had been a proper sporting competition, you might've actually received a prize for being a runner up to a proper medal. That is if my knights wouldn't already have claimed every position above you." Vulcan continued to gloat, laughing his heart out before he paused for a brief moment, lifting his former enemy's chin with his sword to look into her helmet-covered eyes. "Of course, you're going to be one of them. Be proud, young lady. You'll be better now. Better than you could ever be!"

She didn't get a chance to cuss him out before she felt the skirt slipping on... and her mind slipping away at that very same time. The instant she had been fully dressed in armor, she was subjected to the full scope of the pink-haired bastard's powers. Every single inch of her body was now under his full control, thanks to being clad in the armor. And that included her mind. It had only taken a second, but her entire identity, her everything... it collapsed. There was only another faceless knight left behind, ready to serve the pink-haired villain.

Being quite pleased with himself, the pink-haired psychic laughed as he turned towards the many knights that she had felled. With a simple snap of his fingers, every single one of them got back on their feet, regardless of the damages that they had sustained. If she had managed to land a killing blow on him, maybe they would've returned to normal... but since she stopped just short of it and fell into a trap, it was easy for him to reassemble everything he needed.

"Hah! Well, I would've wanted a nice treat about now, but I think those blasted bakers must've run away. No matter, I have what I ultimately came for. More grunts for the sake of Superego. Perhaps now they'll stop breathing down my back, acting as if they own me. Actually, perhaps I should turn my eyes towards them instead, show them that they're trash like the other common folk. They'd make quite the great kind of knights too, now that I think about it." Vulcan mused aloud as he talked to himself, walking out of the mall with his expanded army hot on his heels. None of them looking any different from one another. They were just happy to serve...

Even the angry maid, the girl who had stood against him, was nothing more than a thrall at this point. She carried no expression as her body moved like a heavy puppet, following behind her new master. Her next objective would no doubt be to cause more chaos for his entertainment, or even discard herself further and allow her armor to convert another. Whatever was in store for her, she'd do exactly as asked of her. It was the only thing an inferior being could do.

She would stay inferior for the rest of her days, serving under her superior until the day she perished.