2013.10.14 - Case File: Krudge the Trampler

Place: Alleyway behind a high end SoHo boutique.
Time: 22:15 - Sunday
The sight of a homeless person digging through a dumpster is certainly nothing new, at least not in one of the most concentrated population centers in the world. At first glance, there would be nothing odd about the young man who is digging through the garbage somewhat late at night. But as always, it's the details that matter.
So here are the details: 1. Although bent over the dumpster, his feet reach all the way to the ground, which puts him well over seven feet tall. 2. The feet are completely bare, and have multiple cuts and abrasions on them, which would explain the crusted-over dried blood that sticks to the sides of his feet and to his toes. 3. He's wearing, not clothing, but some sort of medical gown. 4. He's covered in scales, some of which glow softly via some form of bio-luminescence.
So how is it that a rather large monster man has managed to make his way through SoHo without being accosted? The answer is that he has not. Several feet away from the dumpster are two headless bodies. Several feet away from the bodies are two bodyless heads.
Earlier today, reports of exactly this kind of behavior began cropping up. People have been found with their heads literally torn from their bodies. At the homes of these people, all of the batteries in the house have been removed.
One hears WEIRD THINGS when they live in the Greater New York/Metropolis area. Missing batteries, homeless men, weird medical experiments, HEADLES BODIES! HEADS! Things happen! But when these things all start to coalesce into the sort of thing you're more likely to see in an episode of X-Files than actually encounter in honest to god real life.
But Dazzler is not an 'ordinary' person, it's not even on her resume, and frankly as soon as it comes down to beheadings she's getting to the bottom of this right the hell now.
So, taking in the sight of the vaguely glowing scaled gowned homeless-ish thing hunched over a dumpster... "Jackpot." Dazzler's nose wrinkles. "Yay me." Not so much.
Very, very slowly (dramatically?) the oversized scaly man begins to stand up straight. As he pulls his hands out of the dumpster, he lets one of them hang at his side. In the other one, a couple of common batteries of different types are clutched tightly. "Slow... too... slow..."
He turns around, staring at the interloper. The oversized hand is brought up to his mouth, and the batteries are dumped inside quickly. The sound of metal cracking can be heard as he begins to chew the batteries. "No... still... too... slow..."
One foot is slowly placed in front of the other, and the creature begins shambling in the direction of the poor woman who had the bad luck of drawing this particular monster. Apparently there was already someone investigating the Bigfoot sightings. The creatures arms stretch out, and his mouth opens wide, letting lots of drool and bits of metal fall to the ground.
%r"Oh NO you don't!" Ali says loudly - theatre loud, rather than shouting. A warning shot laser of white light *ZARKS!* from her pointed finger tip right over the man...thing's shoulder, close enough to hopefully draw his attention AWAY from his next intended victim.
"You know, there's NO WAY all that acid is good for your teeth!"
Meanwhile...
"Still no sign of the creature, but the last report of his energy signature was less than an hour ago. I'm confident that given the creature's weakened state he will be unable to effect an escape until he has refueled."
On a street not far from the creature's current location, a man in blue uniform sits on the back of a bike, staring into the monitor between his handlebars. The bike idles, it's engine all but silent as it rests on the side of the road, legally parked. On the bike's monitor, the face of a man who doesn't look 'quite' human can be seen talking back to the man on the bike.
"We have operatives stationed around all of the major power distribution centers, but we will need you to continue doing sweeps, Guardian. If this creature were to find a source of energy capable of triggering the transformation... Well, I needn't remind you of the likely outcome."
"Roger that. I'll conti... hold the phone...
Not far away, the sound of a voice that carries can be heard, accompanied by what appears to be discharge from a Science Weapon. "I think I might have something."
In a flash, the man has snatched a golden shield from its place on the front of the bike, and the man known as Guardian is running down an alley in the direction of the disturbance.
Definitely a disturbance - Alison, having leap-frogged over the lumbering creepazoid to buy the other woman time to escape, has begun to spin her wheels ideas-wise. Flash-fry the thing? What if it's not totally in control of itself? It killed people, but eye-for-an-eye isn't really her style either. Landing lightly, a wiggle of her fingers brings into being a great cascade of batteries. Holograms of batteries. But maybe she can lead him to crash himself into a wall or something.
The noise the creature makes as he is vaulted over is almost as ridiulous as something a classic Scooby-Doo villain would have made. "Aroooo?" This is followed by the slightly more articulate "Need... faster..." as he shambles in the direction of the holograms. He appears to be only slightly less stiff and awkward since eating the batteries, but anyone watching the creatures face would notice that he looks slightly less confused than he did only a few short minutes ago.
However, this has given the woman enough time to get up on her feet and book it out of there. On the way down the alley, she nearly runs into the rapidly-approaching Guardian, and lets out a scream. "Ah... so he's this way. Don't worry citizen, the situation is under control. In fact, try to forget you saw anything." It's fairly likely that even if she does remember something in the morning, someone from Cadmus will make sure she forgets.
As he runs into the open space around the dumpster, Guardian finds that the monster is already being handled by a... pop star.
"Careful, citizen. This particular individual is to be considered armed and dangerous."
 
Alison, having taken a wallop from the beast when she turned her head to look over at the incoming Guardian and hitting the ground with a visibly uncomfortable but practiced motion. The impact jars her concentration enough for the holographic batteries to blink out. Looking up at Guardian, she furrows her brow at him -- "You think?" 
Turning, though remaining on the ground, Dazzler grunts, "Luckily so am I!" Aiming her lasers, this time Ali aims for the thing's chest. ZARK! ZARK!
Before Guardian can respond, the creature has already been fired upon. Instantly, his expression shifts from one of wariness to one of genuine worry. "Oh no!" He quickly places his fingers on the underside of his wrist, and begins talking into the watch there. "I have located the creature, send all available units to my current location. Inform them that the creature is about to activate!"
With the sudden influx of energy, the bioluminescent scales covering the mancreature begin to glow more brightly. "Yes... faster... much faster. Do that again!" The look on his face has gone from 'blankly stupid' to 'sneeringly evil' in the space of just a few seconds. He lunges toward Dazzler, suddenly as nimble as a gymnast.
"Oh for cryin--" rolling backwards into a standing position -- "Making it /stronger/ was not on my agenda! He's been eating /batteries/, why is /light/ charging him?" This last Ali directs at Guardian, because OBVIOUSLY he knows something about the thing.
 Of course, Dazzler is on the move again -- because when one is being chased by a thing that eats energy and one is also an energy source... well. Math. Badness. "Is it possible to overload it? Or is it a hungry hungry hippo?"
"There is nowhere to run from Krudge the Trampler!" As his body glows more brightly, 'Krudge' goes through a metamorphosis that is so quick that one might miss it entirely if one blinked. His feet grow to nearly three times their original size, and blade-shaped scales begin sliding out from underneath nearly all of the glowing scales over his body.
"Yeah... no.... we basically just need to run."
%r"You're kidding!" Incredulity, thy name is Dazzler. Oh god, blade-scales. "Ok, so once we start running THEN WHAT?" because she's already running. "As long as there's plenty of sound I can make plenty of light, are you SURE he won't just overload?" In the meantime, running. KEEP UP! "How the hell did he get out of lock-up, anyway?"
Guardian is right there with her, running... not 'quite' as fast as his enhanced legs can take him. But pretty fast. Even at what would be considered a dead sprint for humans, he is able to speak pretty clearly. "I have no idea, but I reeeally don't want to take the risk of turning him into Krudge the SuperTrampler. Dubbilex, could that happen?" He yells into the wrist communicator, and the man on the other side can be heard saying. "I don't 'think' so... let me check."
Meanwhile, Krudge is catching up pretty rapidly. The blade scales are getting even longer, making him look exactly like a porcupine, if a porcupine was designed by a collaboration between Lovecraft and Clive Barker. "Flee! Flee from Krudge the Trampler! Your world is mine to trample beneath my bladed feet!"
"What do you mean 'how' did he get out? Look at him!"
 
"He didn't START like that!" Dazzler yells defensively, starting to panic a little bit as he keeps coming and now he's getting even STRONGER? SERIOUSLY? "Is he absorbing his own kinetic energy?! What a CHEATER" She spares the glance over her shoulder while fleeing to shout "CHEATER" at Krudge directly.
"We can't just keep running, Shield," for lack of a better term to call Guardian, who she doesn't know. "We're gonna tire out before he does at this rate, we need a plan!"
"I've got a plan, and it's a great one." Taking long strides, Guardian makes his way out of the alleyway, but he keeps pace with his co-escapee." From behind them, Krudge begins pulling some of the blades out of his skin and throwing them in the direction of the sprinters. Guardian knocks away two of the blades that get closest with his aforementioned shield.
"Pleeeease tell me you know how to drive a motorcycle?" Lo and behold, Guardian's motorcycle is exactly what they're running toward. "I'll distract it while you get the bike started up. Just say 'Override: Clearance 436-Tango.'" And with that, he stops running, and turns around to face the monster who will almost certainly kill him if someone doesn't make with the quick rescue.
 
"You are in luck," Dazzler answers as she heads right for the 'bike. Repeating the phrase exactly, she revs that bad boy up and practically coos. "You're also my new best friend!" is shouted over in Guardian's direction. Revving up gives her sound-drinking mutant cells a thrill, and she practically burns rubber rearing to go. "C'MON C'MON C'MON!"
Krudge seems to find Guardian's about-face pretty hilarious, and actually pauses for a second to laugh about it. This is probably what keeps Guardian from being murderated and smeared all over the street. However, when Krudge throws yet another bladed implement Guardian's way, and Guardian once again deflects it, the laughter becomes more subdued and a more direct approach is taken. He leaps into the air, landing almost directly on top of Guardian, but fortunately Guardian is able to roll out of the way in time and take a flying leap toward the back of the bike. He lands pretty gracefully, and shots "GO GO GO!" into Dazzler's ear. She's a pop star, she's come closer to inner ear damage before, surely.
 
Nowhere near it, ever, actually, but such is the beauty of absorbing sound for a living. "So," Dazzler asks, as the normal sounds of a motorcycle rapidly throttling upwards towards full speed *COMPLETELY DISAPPEAR*, "Where are we going? How fast does this baby GO, anyway? Which of these is the eject button, and which of these sprays the ground behind us with axel grease to maximize hilarity?" She's kidding. Mostly. Probably.
Regardless of how fast the bike is going, Krudge the Trampler is gradually gaining. He leaps over vehicles, lands on a few, leaves potholes in the pavement, and generally makes a mess on his way toward the bike. From not near enough behind them, his voice can be heard "You are not as brave now that you are no longer my jailor! Flee coward! Cling to your pitiful life before I trample it!"
"This 'baby' goes plenty fast, don't be shy with the throttle." He holds up his shield just in time to deflect another of Krudge's projectiles. "And there's no button, but if you click the menu on the monitor, you'll find the command to release the low viscosity fluid under the 'Countermeasures' tab..."
 
"Oh em gee, you're not kidding," comes Dazzler's impressed reply. She doesn't waste ANY time going through the menu, sparing only enough eyeball and attention span to, you know, watch where she's going. "There we are!" The nozzles jut out of their casings in the back of the bike and hose down the pavement behind them for the pre-programmed deploy length - HOPEFULLY that helps a little bit, "So... knife-scales, absorbs energy, runs damned fast.. He's super-strong and durable too, right?" Because at this point, OF COURSE HE IS.
"Victor Four Tango Charlie Six. No! Charlie Six!" Guardian yells into the watch on his wrist while simultaneously deflecting the odd projectile. He's especially careful to keep any of them from touching the bike, because that'd be a catastrophe at this speed.
"I'm sorry, were you saying something?" Between the roar of the engine (which isn't really all that loud, compared to most bikes) his own yelling, and Krudge's rantings, Jim is having a hard time keeping up with anything Dazzler has to say. "Just keep heading east! You're doing great! Watch out for that milk truck!"
"Just trying to STRATEGIZE, don't mind me!" Ali answers, only a LITTLE annoyed and deciding to veer just a LITTLE bit harder than necessary to avoid crashing into the milk truck at full speed, but not enough to seriously endanger either of them. "Seriously! Do you have a cavalry coming or something? Or is your Dick Tracy watch busted?"
"Dick Tracy? How in the world are you old enough to remember him? Are you a clone?"
Krudge has gotten so close not that he's practically breathing down their necks. Guardian is literally batting away his bludgeoning, knife-covered fists with his shield. It looks pretty grim for Our Hero and The Damsel Who's Currently Doing Most of the Saving.
But at the exactly most dramatically-appropriate moment, a craft that looks more like a UFO than a helicopter silently swoops down several hundred meters in front of the bike. "HA! How's that for cavalry! Head toward that big floating silver thing!"
Of course whether she wanted to head toward it or not, there's really not much else in the way of choices on this street. And there's not much in the way of reaction time when the bike and the craft are both going so quickly. A ray from the craft is fired, holding steady on the suddenly-frozen form of Krudge. "EAT SCIENCE YOU DIRTBAG!"
 
"Floating silver thing, check!" ... Wait a minute, "NO I'm not a CLONE, there was totally a movie with Warren Beatty and Madonna in 1990! Also, SOMETIMES I read a Newspaper!" Harumph offense! Slowing down, since Krudge has been frozen by a 'Paraly-beam' or whatever it is, Dazzler gives a low, impressed whistle. "God bless Science."
"I know what you mean, I'm going to kiss someone with glasses as soon as we put this monster back in his cell." Guardian looks at the now paralyzed form of what was just a few seconds ago about to tear his head off.
As the craft gets closer, a door in the front opens in traditional UFO style, and a ramp is lowered to the road. Needless to say, anyone on the road is compltely flipping out about it.
"Yeah, just head up in there, Ms. I Read Newspapers Sometimes. The boys will clear this mess up."
 
"Meanwhile I get a ride in an Unidentified Flying Science Object," Dazzler grouses mildly, though at this point is mostly just pleasantly surprised to be alive and in one piece and able to make smart comments. Once 'on board,' Dazzler stops the bike and leans it into park, then turns half around and offers her hand to Guardian. "Actually, my name's Alison Blaire. Ali, if you like. You are?"
Outside the UFSO, a bright light suddenly flashes. A bunch of people just forgot anything ever happened. Hope they don't get brain cancer.
Inside the UFSO, the man with the awesome bike offers a gloved hand in return. "Well, if you promise not to tell anyone... my name is Jim."
He looks around the craft, to ensure that nobody has yet entered the 'cargo bay' or whatever it is. "Actually, I'm going to need you to jump out real quick. You seem like a swell girl, I'd rather you remember tonight. Just, you know, don't ever talk about tonight."
The hatch to the area begins to open, prompting Guardian's tone to get just a bit more urgent. "Okay, off you go."
 
Handshake. "Good to meet you, Jim. Someday we'll meet somewhere over a beer and you'll tell me what the hell just happened." Ali grins, then doesn't... ACTUALLY argue over /bailing/ before getting her short-term memory wiped. "Thanks for letting me drive!" she calls back behind her as she beats feet for the exit.
She manages to get out of the way just as an alien-looking guy enters the room to find Guardian sitting on his bike alone. "See? What'd I tell you, Dubby? I had it all under control."
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