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read her Origin Story

Together, they devised a plan: Chito-Man would shrink down in his nano-tech suit and start travelling up the pipes, monitoring the pH as he went. “Let’s get crabby with it!” Chito-Man shouted, busting out his signature dance move while he shrunk to a molecular level and started traveling up the pipes. “Do you read me?” he asked Super Sampler into his earpiece. “Signal is strong, and readings are good. Keep your eye out for any identifiable source of metals,” she replied. 

After traveling up the system several miles, Chito-Man’s muffled voice came over the coms: “I think I hear something!”. As he got closer, the sound of crackling electricity got louder and louder, until the team heard a voice scream out “Crack-a-lack!”, and suddenly they all knew the source of the pollution!

So, it was Ion-X inside these pipes, slashing and strafing the old infrastructure with her energy whips. The Baron had sent her into the control structure to break down illegally dumped pollutant materials, whipping those dangerous materials into ionic particles and spreading them around to degrade the water quality by. “Alicia, stop!” Chito-Man yelled. He thought that by using her real name it might reason with her sensibilities. It did not! “Stop? You want me to stop?!”, she yelled. “You took everything from me! You stole my technology, and you bought your fame! You left me high and dry. Well, I’ve got a new partner—The Baron, and he said he’d fund my projects—MY projects--if I polluted the water and killed the fish here so he could sell his bottled water, and his alternative fish patties at restaurants! Crack-a-lack this!” she exclaimed. With that, she lunged at Chito-Man and cracked her energy whips up and down, attacking him. Chito-man took evasive action and attempted to initiate his Electro-Shield, but she was too fast, and he didn’t have time to allow the shield to form. He changed tactics and tried to restrict her with Coagulant Filter Ties. “I’m sorry!” He shouted at Ion-X. “I’ve told you I’m sorry! I know taking your technology without your permission was wrong—I’ve already said this to you! I offered you a deal to make it right and give you the recognition you deserve! What else do you want?” Ignoring him, her violence increased! He dodged and evaded. They went back and forth but Ion-X was getting the upper hand. “I’ll never forgive you, Chito-man! Never!” she shouted. Chito-man hit the distress button on his coms and yelled to Super Sampler, “Inject the pH buffer and Chitrex into the system!” “Won’t you get dangerously bound up in the materials?” asked Super Sampler. “Just do it!”  yelled Chito-Man, desperate to stop the degradation. Super Sampler quickly located a drain above where they were fighting and injected the formula into the system.

Immediately, materials began to bind together, coagulating within the water column. Large metal particles started to form. To the tiny versions of Chito-Man and Ion-X who were inside the pipes, it was like dodging large falling boulders or flying through asteroids. Ion-X was distracted, her attention focused on whipping and dodging the dangerous metal particles. It gave Chito-Man just a split second to finally get his shield up and protect himself. He knew her whips could not penetrate his shield, and Alicia knew it too. “I’m not done with you, Ben and I WILL get what you owe me!” Ion-X screamed, as she turned and flew through the pipes in the opposite direction, slashing, whipping, and dodging the barrage of particles as she escaped. “She’s gone! I’m ok, Super Sampler! I’m headed back out!” Ben shouted into his coms. When he got to the surface, he changed back to his original size and flashed a grateful smile at Super Sampler. “Thanks for the quick response,” he said, as he moved back to the treatment equipment near the pipes. She replied, “I’ve got your back, Chito-Man. Ion-X really doesn’t like you. It sounded like you needed some help!”