The Crusaders -Volume 1

Chapter 4 or 3.5

"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 clearing a stretch of the yard as they took in the surrounding forestry, the two reached in the middle of the grassy expanse of field, finding a massive crater of dirt and soil, but no sign of the monster.

"Where did he go?" Gunk pointlessly asked.

"Let's find out." Techsmith ran her environmental scan throughout the nearby trees, which formed a vast forest too large to search on foot. Suddenly, Gunk screamed as electricity coursed through him. Techsmith turned to see the monster charging from the trees to the right. She immediately opened fire, her missiles slowing the monster and lasers burning into its skin, but not stopping it. As Gunk's entire body still quivered in pain, his body losing flexibility, Techsmith was left alone to fend off the monster. The monster seemed mostly immune to her primary weapons, which she fired in between dodges of its punches while her suit scanned for any possible weaknesses. Her weaving alternated between aerial hovering and ground-based rolling as she kept out of the way of the massive fists. "You're a persistent bastard, aren't you?" She uttered. Her attacks as fruitless as the last few, she determined that removing the electric core in its chest must be the only conceivable way to stop it. Gunk stood up, seemingly fully recovered from the attack, and Techsmith had to yell over the crackling the creature's electric towers let off with every spark. "Listen, Gunk! I know that fighting isn't your thing, but I could really use the help!"

"What for?"

"I just need you to keep this guy down long enough for me to take out his core! That should shut down his attacks!"

"I'll give it a shot." He stretched out his arms to grab a nearby tree, pulling it from the grass roots and all and spinning it around to hit the monster. The monster took its attention away from a still-shooting Techsmith and grabbed the trunk it in its arms. With a slight yank, it pulled it across to bring Gunk his way. After tossing the log away, it fired off several more bursts of electricity from its towers to weaken the Crusader, before pummelling him with electrically-charged fists that proved capable of causing the gelatinous giant physical injury. Capitalising on this weakness, the monster generated a bubble of electricity around the two of them from the towers in its back that left Gunk helpless. Techsmith's continued barrage of lasers and missiles were of little help, and her own suit's vulnerability to electricity kept her from jumping in.

"Try reaching for another tree!" She suggested. Suddenly, Gunk grabbed one of the monster's fists before it hit, and in a moment of pure rage and shockingly little restraint, tore off its arm in a single pull. The electric bubble disintegrated as the monster cried out, and Gunk, now repowered, viciously slapped the monster with its own arm before tearing off its other arm and knocking it face-first to the ground with it. "Or you could do that." Techsmith watched as Gunk, silent and exhibiting a fury previously unthought of, threw aside the arms and dismembered the monster's legs with minimal effort, deciding to use one as a bludgeon. Against its own metal heel, the monster's head was crushed into nothing more than a splatter on the dirt while Gunk's face twisted into a monstrous terror, his eyes slowly turning red and the green of his body dimming. He failed to even see the disturbed Techsmith, whose arms were shaking as she aimed her weapons at him. Then, just as suddenly as the brutal beating had started, it stopped. Gunk's eyes reverted to their usual yellow and his face twisted not in fury, but despair at what he had wrought. He dropped the leg and stumbled backwards with eyes widened at the spectacle. While he was clearly shaken, Techsmith remained focused on the task as she powered down her weapons, briskly walked over, and waved her hand over the monster's chest. Its skin tore open at the technopathic command, revealing a white orb pulsing with electricity connected to several cables. Her curiosity reignited, she rashly pulled the core from the torso and disconnected the cables. The orb still coursed with light, and in an instant, a dozen ideas flickered into her mind about what to do with it. She pulled her communicator out of her armour and contacted her teammates in the mansion.

"Good news, guys." She announced. "Our Frankenstein is down." As she raised her head from the orb and looked upon her teammate, who was staring upon his handiwork with faintly horrified eyes, she considered the notion that her enthusiasm may be ill-timed.

"Bad news, guys." Starbolt replied. "Alderman told me that Christos never made it to the DSA Safe-House. This Frankenstein thing was a distraction while our kidnapper made his real move. Red Cross swears he made it to a car, so the kidnapper must have been his driver or something."

"Do we have any clue who our culprit is?"