Week 31.1 – Crushed

Previously: Twain was trying to save Yi Fan from the cable constricting around her body while Metalord had so far been unable to hurt the Cobalt Czar. And now…

Twain stared helplessly at the cable as he tried to find the solution to the problem. If the cable were merely binding her, he could find a way to cut it in one spot and it would automatically loosen. He had nothing to cut it with, however.

There was another possibility, however. Every interaction he had with the crystal made him more and more sure: the crystal was a power source, one that could strengthen him. If he could tap its power to make himself super strong, he might be able to unwrap the cable.

Could he do it in time, though? The big problem was that Metalord’s power controlled every inch of the cable. Getting it to unwrap was just part of the solution; he also had to find a way to make it stay unwrapped. And that’s if he could budge it at all.

He took a deep breath and began the thought exercises the old man had taught him to help him focus his chi.

***

“You’ve lost,” said the Cobalt Czar. “I would kill you now, but you don’t have any pants on. Would be too humiliating, no? Besides, I like those Japanese girls. You go home, tell the girls to come visit me sometime.”

“I haven’t lost, dude,” Metalord said. “I’ve barely started to fight.”

“You’ve lost,” the Czar asserted again. “What can you do? You move metal and shoot lightning. You’ve tried both. Your lightning tickles and the cars bounce off me like gnats. And this freezer? Pathetic. I’m beginning to lose patience, little Chinese. Go while I still let you.”

[blockquote type=”blockquote_quotes” align=”right”]What can you do? You move metal and shoot lightning. You’ve tried both. Your lightning tickles and the cars bounce off me like gnats…”[/blockquote]Rage robbed Cole of all thought for a moment. It took him a moment for his thoughts to cool back into words he could give voice to. “Are you kidding me? Don’t you know who I am? I’m not somebody you just dismiss, like I’m not worth your time. I’m Metalord!”

He gestured and the freezer burst apart into its component sections. Shreds of metal skin whirled around both of them, along with long kinked stretches of copper tubing and the component parts of a compressor motor.

The Czar stood impassive, watching the show, perhaps amused but apparently not impressed.

Cole separated out the copper tubing, kept it off behind the Czar as he fashioned it into a possible weapon. He had lots of things he could try before resorting to that. “You think all I can do is throw cars? If I can’t hurt you with force, I can try a thousand cuts.”

The storm of debris shifted, whirled around the Czar, so densely that Metalord could barely make out the blue figure within the maestrom of metal. But even though Metalord was sure he saw the sharp-edged metal fragments strike the Czar multiple times, not a mark appeared on the dictator’s skin.

So he had come up short with blunt force, lightning, the freezer and cuts. It was time for plan–what the hell plan was he up to now? E?

What could Plan E possibly be? Join us for the next exciting episode!

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