As the Protectors arrived at Crusader Citadel, they could see storm clouds wrapping the entire top of the building. Realizing what that meant, Spectrum and Psytrix rocketed into the air and engaged Stormlord. Meanwhile, Mach raced up the side of the building to scout out the roof and look for a way in. She cleared the edge and had just started to look around when she felt an overwhelming presence filling her mind. Marionette was on the roof as well. Mach tried to resist, but as Kali and Windsor arrived, she succumbed to the mental mastery of the mighty mind mistress! (Ah, alliteration...)
Mach ran at Windsor who barely managed to evade her attacks, and Kali managed to get a hand on Marionette. From there, it was a four arm wrap-up as the battle above concluded with Spectrum and Psytrix joining the fight against Marionette, and Stormlord crashing to the roof unconscious. The combined force put down Marionette all but instantly and freed Mach from her dominance.
Spectrum took a crack at their security system, dubbed it "adequate" and then promptly overrode it to allow the team to get into the Citadel. They advanced quickly, and managed to find the med bay, along with the Crusaders, all wrapped up and knocked out in their own medi-pods! Some more quick work bolstered the good guys' ranks by a whole other team, and they all advanced into the master control room, the home of the Crusaders' AI, Teacher.
The remaining Crushers were in the room, trying to transfer the secret files of the Crusaders to a remote network so that they could sell the information to the highest bidder. The good guys weren't really keen on this happening, so the battle royale began!
Of course this time, the odds were really against the remaining Crushers. Mocker, Hauntress, Temper, Vulture, and Hornet did their level best, but against two teams, and with most of their true heavy hitters already down, it was a curbstomp. The only one who proved hard to take out was Hauntress, but Laserfire and Spectrum overloaded her with teamed attacks and discorporated her essence. Eventually the battle wound down and the Crusaders thanked the Protectors profusely for rescuing them. In return, they offered to look after Surge since a normal hospital would be less advanced in treating Supers.
The teams parted on good terms, and the Protectors headed back to Peake Harbor, just in time to meet with a representative from the Governor's office who gave them their official status as state troopers. They also got the lease for their base. It used to belong to the former Peake Harbor team; the Teeny-Boppers, a group of teen heroes formerly mentored by Mach and Kali.
So they had a base, official status, and everything was moving along so easily.
Mach and Kali commented that it was too easy. They had been through the whole process of getting a base, getting police powers, and all the rest, and it never, ever went this quickly or with this little issue. They assumed it was due to the influence of Light Industries who was bankrolling the team, but when Spectrum "called his boss" his accountants and lawyers also remarked that this was going almost too perfectly.
Something was up.
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