Oregon…That night, the Crusaders found themselves at the mansion of Prometheus Innovations' CEO, Simon Christos, who was holding a party. The team's high public profile and lack of any present assignments made them the best choice for Christos to bring in as security, a precaution he needed to take for what he intended to present his guests with. The mansion was massive and immaculate, the walls all shining white as the huge golden chandelier hung in the main room above the red carpet, where the rich and well-dressed conversed and drank complimentary champagne around the expensive paintings and classy furniture. Starbolt and Mind Master stood among the people on the ground, while Red Cross and Nocturne patrolled the balcony beyond the massive glass window overlooking the enormous backyard, and Techsmith and Gunk stood watch on the roof above the front door. The four inside had donned formal wear in an effort to blend in, all in identical suits and wearing sunglasses to protect their

"Are we just not going to acknowledge the fact that what we just witnessed may have been the most badass thing… ever!?" He responded, earning an enthusiastic nod from Techsmith."No. Instead, we're gonna get this job done. So I reiterate: what's the plan?""Fascinating." Gunk muttered to himself. Starbolt snapped out of fanboy mode to attempt to formulate a plan."Right. Techsmith, Gunk, you two go find that thing. I severely doubt it's down and out from that, amazing as it was, considering what we've already dished on it so far. Mind Master, Nocturne, you're our big guns. Stay prepped in case you're called on. I'll get in contact with Alderman for a status update on Christos.""What about me?" Red Cross asked as she shakily stood up."Try to rest. Alright, you all know your parts. Get to it.""Rousing." Nocturne flatly commented. Techsmith flew through the hole in the window with a blue contrail behind her, while Gunk took the form of a ball of jelly and bounced after her. Quickly cl

"Well, uh…sure." She replied. "So, what do I talk about?""Anything you like. I'll maintain full attention." She hesitated for a moment, but chose to embrace the opportunity. It may never come again."Well, our first mission was a bust, wasn't it?""I suppose it was on the larger scale, but the monster was certainly stopped.""I, um, I heard you had a…experience out there." Gunk blinked for a moment, his mind registering the words as they came. "Lizzy told me last night. Sounded, uh…rough." Gunk too took a chance to express himself that didn't come about very often."It most certainly was. I didn't know I could be capable of an act such as that. And I didn't even mean to do it. I mean, I wanted to stop the monster…""But you didn't mean to beat its head into nothing with its own leg.""Right.""Well, at least you did something.""What do you mean? You helped the evacuation of the guests.""You could've done that. In fact, you did.""You healed Andrew.""But he was, like, taken by surp

Doctor Anarchy's base…"-leaving you." Starbolt finished as he appeared in the middle of the dark room on a Spearhead Platform. He felt his mental connection to the others broken as he glanced around, trying to work out where he was. At the console in front of him on the far side of the room stood Doctor Anarchy, who was visibly displeased with the results of his extraction."I must admit, when I locked onto the Apollo's signal after AC-18 broke down the protective measures, I didn't expect to bring anything close to YOU back." Starbolt kept his cool, taking a cue from Mind Master and not immediately attacking."So you're the big bad, eh? And you would be?" The Doctor bowed with a jovial smile, his arms outspread."Doctor Anarchy." Starbolt succumbed to his initial impulse, firing an energy bolt with his free hand. Anarchy frantically ducked behind the console to dodge the blast, giggling in joy at how off-guard he had been. He pressed a button on his goggles, and the inside of his ey

Moments later, Nocturne found himself leaping across the heads of the monsters with swords swinging in hand to hold them off, as Gunk rolled across the undyed rock ground as an amorphous green sphere. At the centre of his form was Mind Master, who himself was curled into a ball, safe and sound from any physical trauma the monsters could inflict barring any stray electric bolts. Weaving past the monsters as they attempted to swarm on their ever-agile vampiric distraction, the two smashed down the metal entry door with their momentum, and Mind Master leapt into the metal hall from within Gunk as he retook his standard form on all fours. With a two-fingered salute and smile, Mind Master bid his teammate farewell and ran down the entry hall in pursuit of Starbolt and Techsmith. Gunk, still holding the metal door in his hands as he turned, saw Nocturne using his sorcery in attempting to keep the monsters from scaling the crater to the Star Cruiser, where Red Cross maintained position with