Second String Heroes Episode 1.2

Meanwhile Crusader and Betony were in the thick of it. Abominatron: The Steam Powered Terror was short one fist and several legs thanks to a series of lucky and almost skillful attacks by Crusader. Its tesla coils flickered intermittently discharging arcs which hit the surrounding area, scorching the ground at random.  Its attacks had slowed down very little. Lurching forward it swung and missed at Crusader who managed to keep it at bay.

 

The Electrocutioner on the other hand was completely active and absolutely livid. The electro-whips he kept forming and flaying at Betony repeatedly missed and struck everything other than the flying girl that he was aiming at. The yellow energy scorched and cleaved through almost everything it came in contact with as he lashed out.

 

He snarled at her as an electro-whip arced through a spot she was in moments before “Stop your fluttering about and hold still witch!”

 

“I’m not a witch I am a druidess!” she said dodging and shooting off a purple and green beam at him in return “Witches are evil, Druids aren’t! I’m sick of people saying that. And hello?! I’m wearing white and gold.” Gesturing to her white flowing gown, golden necklace and belt with a hand.

 

His only reply is another electro-lash in her direction.

 

“Crusader, how are you doing over there?” Betony called over her shoulder as she heard a crash and the sound of rending metal behind her.

 

“Getting tired,” he pants, dodging a swinging fist “I had no idea I was this out of shape. I need to join a gym or something. And Abominatron isn’t slowing down too much. I hope Grande and Sun Wolf get back soon.”

 

At that moment the two tired combatants hear a loud heavily accented voice ring out “Deid I hear someone say my name? Grande to the rescue!”

 

Caught off guard the Electrocutioner started to turn toward the pair of returning heroes when he is blindsided from behind by a tackle.  Electricity crackles down his arms illuminating his lightning tattoos and starts to shoot from his body in a miniature electrical storm. Yelling at the top of his lungs he struggled to get free, lightning striking Grande several times. But the sparking electricity hardly seemed to faze him, only making smoldering spots on his pants and mask as Grande went for a sleeper hold on the surprised villain.

 

“Betony! Sleep spell heim. Just heim!”

 

The Betony started at Grande’s order and the surprised druidess chanted for a long moment and a pale green roiling mist filled the air around the Electrocutioner’s head. He thrashed around for a moment or two trying to break free while the lightning emanating from him getting got more and more fierce before he gave up, took a breath and slumped over, out cold.

“Awoooooooooo!” A wolfs howl cut through the air as a golden furred form flew down from the sky to land with a 2 footed kick to the Victorian menace’s crab shelled lower back. Abominatron staggered back and nearly collapsed as several of its damaged legs buckled and sparked from the unexpected weight.

 

“Nice hit Sunwolf!”

 

“Thanks Crusader! I’m going to try to grab its arm.” She said acrobatically dodging around a weak pulse of energy from the flickering teslas.  “And...”

 

“And I’ll wack it a good one!”

 

A swift flurry of dodging and attacking Sun Wolf managed to retain her footing on the smooth bronze and steel carapace of the robot and get a good enough grip to lever The robot’s functioning arm back. Crusader charged in, his attack seemingly guided more by his sword than his personal skill. The gleaming blade glowed with a faint blue light as it seemed to effortlessly cleave the steam powered arm from its socket.

 

More sparks shot out of the malfunctioning teslas as the enormous robot shuddered and clanged for a few moments, random gears cogs and wires falling from the arm socket, before it slumped over and halted movement with a whistle of escaping steam.

 

Its speaker played what sounded like music from a carousel that was slowly losing power. The notes getting longer and more drawn out. “Notoothinnng caaann stooopp meee….” Abominatrons voice faded out over the top of those sounds before it could say any more.

 

The whole team cheered, fist pumped and high fived as their final opponent was downed.

“Yeah we did it!” Whoohoo!” “All right!” “Ole!”

 

It was about then that Crusader noticed the news crews from the local news.

He quickly covered his mouth and pretended to cough into the side of his fist.

 

*cough*”Cameras!”*cough*

 

The others quickly looked about and saw more than 1 news team as well as local PD. Almost instantly they became more professional. Grande immediately began barking orders.

 

“Crusader,” he gestured. “Secure Electrocutioner. The taskforce from Granite Island weill hopefully be here soon to get heim. We don’t want him getting away like Psiren deid.”

 

Crusader muttered under his breath as he walked over to the prone villain. “It was one time, and he never lets me live it down. She fooled everybody, not just me. But does he remember that? Noooooo.”

“Sun Wolf gather the junk from Abominatron. Betony, do ummm something magicy I am gonna go talk to the News.”

 

Betony smirked a bit. “You go ahead and do that Grande, I will be right back here.”

 

 

The mobile news truck was in the middle of setting up its microwave antenna when Grande swaggered over. He waited there patiently almost posing while the crew finished their set up, occasionally wiping off a bit of dust and grime from his multiple collisions with the ground and other objects. The news crew seeing him waiting hurried up their prep work to interview the battered luchador.

 

Meanwhile the rest of the team, while subtly keeping an eye on the unconscious Electrocutioner, was busy gathering the random chunks of brass and steel belonging to Abominatron and waiting for the MCTF (Mega Crime Task Force) containment units to show up.

 

Glancing over at Grande Crusader shook his head. “That guy loves giving interviews. He puffs himself up and takes most of the credit for stuff we all did.”

 

“Why don’t you give an interview or two?” Betony asked “I think you would do a good job if you tried.”

“No no no no.” he said holding his hands up. “Not me. My costume sucks. I don’t want to get recognized.”

 

The girls laughed lightly as they gathered the junk.

 

“I mean seriously. Think about it, everybody has a better disguise than me. Sun Wolf you shape change and Betony you have that amulet. All I have a bandana and this chain maile coif I bought online.” he smirked “I couldn’t face my friends or family if they learned about this. It would be soo embarrassing to admit when I’m not at work or taking classes that I attack guys in spandex with a magic sword.  Can you picture explaining that at Thanksgiving dinner? “

 

Poorly imitating an old woman’s voice he went on “So dear I have been reading about these “makes  finger quotes with hands “ ‘alternative lifestyles’ on the internet. Do you belong to one? I was talking to Muriel at my bridge club and she said her nephew joined one then went and built a robot in his garage and started wearing spandex. Are you planning on doing that? Or does a sword mean something different? Why can’t you find a normal job and a nice girl? Not all those hussies in skintight spandex and odd colored hair that we seem to see you with all the time on the news. Your mother and I worry about you.”

 

“Or maybe even worse, if they accept it” he said before he went on in the old woman’s voice “the Hendersons down the street lawn is terrible and they have loud music late at night. I think they might be supervillains. Can you get a bunch of your friends to kick their door down? I’m moving next week, can you get that speedy girl and that 4 armed guy to move furniture?”

 

The girls were clutching their sides and almost dying with laughter at this point.

 

Grande was right in the middle of his interview when he heard the loud laughter erupt behind him from the girls. He glanced over his shoulder, frowned at his joking team mates and turned back to the microphones.

 

“Sorry ‘bout that, they were probably relieving stress. Can you repeat your question?”

 

The Asian woman in the expensive plumb colored suit and perfect hair smiled and spoke into the microphone “Does your team have a formal  name yet?” and pointed it back toward Grande.

 “No not yet. That eis the one beig argument that we seem to have every few days. Personally I think that sometheing like Grande’s Guardsmen would be pretty cool and has a nice reing to it. But they say no.” He shrugs “Oh well. You can’t have a good quality name like the Emerald City Defenders without a beit of thought.”

 

They both chuckled at that.

 “I, I mean we, respect that group and what they can do. But we are not ein their league. We need a name just as good that feits us.”

 

As he was speaking off to his left a large grey and maroon armored vehicle with MCTF in big black letters on the side rumbled over to the fallen villains and stopped with a hiss of air from the brakes on its six large tractor sized wheels. A ramp folded down with the sound of strong industrial motors.

“Well that’s my queue to wrap theis up. Eit was nice talking to you Susan, but duty calls.”

 

“Thanks for the chat Grande” Turning back to the camera. “This is Susan Kim Chanel Six Action News. Back to you in the studio.”