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Mammoth charged through the wall of the bank.  “Mammoth wants money!”  he shouted.  “Give Mammoth money!”



A few people screamed.  Most dove for cover.



Mammoth’s shaggy coat hid a naturally armored hide.  When a guard pulled his gun and opened fire, bullets just bounced off or embedded in his thick skin without reaching any vital organs.



The guard had reason to open fire.  Mammoth had become one of the most well-known super-henchmen in the United States.  He was too low-functioning to operate on his own, but villainous bosses who didn’t want to get their hands dirty would send him in to do their work for them.



Mammoth screamed in rage.  “Bullets sting Mammoth!” he shouted.  Then he grew to double the 12-foot height he had been when he entered.  “Now Mammoth sting gun-shooter!” he roared.



Mammoth grabbed the guard’s head in his hand.  He had every intention of squeezing when he realized he was hearing loud sounds and vibrations from outside.  He turned to see a truly enormous hand gloved in black leather reaching through the opening he had made in the wall, and reaching right for him.



Confused, Mammoth dropped the guard.  He had no time to do anything else before he was grabbed by the hand and pulled outside.



Once outside, Mammoth could see he was in the grasp of Elevator Girl, wearing her black leather uniform.  She was kneeling on the ground.  Now she stood up, towering 250 feet tall.



“Listen, big man,” Elevator Girl said, “Don’t you know better than to rob a bank in my city?”



But Mammoth was now enraged.  He grew rapidly this time, scaling up to where he broke Elevator Girl’s grip in less than  two seconds.  His feet hit the ground due to growth before he could fall.  Still he swelled, expanding to 400 feet tall before he finally stopped.



Elevator Girl swallowed hard.  She’d never faced another size-shifter before, and Mammoth’s changes seemed to be fueled by rage.  He was enough of a berserker that she wasn’t sure one of her favorite tricks -- shrinking into an adversary’s ear canal and throwing off their balance -- would matter with him.  She was going to have to match him brute strength for brute strength.



Mammoth took a swing at Elevator Girl.  She ducked, and he hit a skyscraper with a glancing blow.  Elevator Girl was glad it had only been glancing as she watched the building shake; a direct hit would have knocked the building over, costing hundreds, perhaps thousands, of lives.  She had to get the fight out of the city.



Turning, Elevator Girl bolted for the most direct route she could think of to the harbor.  She could head out into the lake and get the fight away from people.  There might be some risks to people in and around the harbor, but that number would be lower than anywhere else she could think of.



As she ran, Elevator Girl tried to think of how to stop Mammoth.  If he grows when he gets angrier, then fighting him couldn’t be the answer unless she could take him out with one blow.  She’d never been that big before -- she’d rarely been as big as she now was before -- and there was no guarantee she could make that work.



Just as she got to the harbor, Elevator Girl got an idea.  She dove into the water and hit the up button on her elevator bracelet.  In seconds she rose from the water, now more than 1,200 feet tall.



Mammoth stopped and stared up at her.  She was taking off her gloves as she turned and smiled down at him.  “There you are, sweetie,” Elevator Girl said.  “Come to Auntie Ellie now.”  She reached out her arms to him as if inviting him into a hug.



Mammoth looked confused, but he wasn’t getting any angrier.  Elevator Girl continued smiling as she gently, lovingly picked up Mammoth, who was, to her colossal form, the size of a toddler.  “C’mon, Mammoth,” she said in a sing song voice.  “Give Auntie Ellie a hug.”



Tears began to stream down Mammoth’s face as he slowly started walking toward Elevator Girl.  She lovingly scooped him up and hugged him, then began to gently pat his back.  “My poor, tired Mammoth.  You must have burned a lot of energy with all that smashing and growing you’ve done.  “Would you like to snuggle in for awhile?”



Mammoth yawned.  Elevator Girl realized he was starting to slowly shrink.



The giantess sat down on the edge of the pier.  She cradled Mammoth in her arms, rocking him back and forth and quietly singing him a lullaby.  After just a few minutes, he was asleep.



Elevator Girl smiled.  She’d managed to defeat a fairly major baddy, and done it while preventing any more injuries.



But she was also troubled.  The robbery took place during her regular after-school patrol.  There was only a narrow window of time between when she got out of school and when the bank closed.  Since she was obviously a teenager, it wouldn’t take a genius to figure out you should rob the bank when she was in school, not when she would be patrolling the area.  Mammoth wouldn’t be capable of picking his time for the robbery.  This must have been planned for after she got out of school.  But why?



Elevator Girl realized she would have to shrink.  Mammoth had dropped to under 100 feet tall now, and she ran the risk of dropping him.  If he woke up after that kind of fall, it might undo what she had done.



When Elevator Girl hit 200 feet tall -- by this time, Mammoth was around 75 feet tall and shrinking fast -- she heard a voice calling up to her from a megaphone.  “Elevator Girl!” called a woman.



Elevator Girl looked down.  It was Kiera Long, a local news TV reporter.  “Elevator Girl!  I need to talk to you!”



“Shhh!” said Elevator Girl.  “You’ll wake the Mammoth!”



Once police were able to sedate Mammoth, Elevator Girl, still about 18 feet tall, turned to Kiera.  “I don’t do interviews,” she said, turning away as she regrew to grab her gloves.  Since they were off when she shrank, they were still far larger than she was.  She had to put them back on to reduce them with her.



“It’s not about an interview,” Kiera said.  “It’s for a dying kid.”



Elevator Girl turned back.  “Go on,” she said.



“Well, he’s got a potentially terminal illness, anyway,” Kiera said.  “The Wish-Granters Foundation contacted all the media in the region, hoping one of us could find a way to reach you.  See, this kid about your age with a cancer has made his wish.  He wants to go on a date with you.”



Elevator Girl’s lower lip quivered ever so slightly, but it was more obvious due to her gigantic stature.



“What’s wrong?” Kiera asked.



“I lost … someone close to me to cancer,” she said.  “I’ll grant that wish, if I can.”



In fact, in her real identity as Kellie Ross, Elevator Girl’s father had died of brain cancer.  His loss -- wanting to make him proud even though he was gone -- was one of the forces that motivated her as Elevator Girl.



“Great,” said Kiera.  She reached up and started to hand the giantess a cell phone.  “This prepaid phone’s number won’t trace back to you, so you can use it to contact the foundation office and set up the date.  Do it from some neutral site, so no one has any chance of triangulating the signal to trace your identity.”



To keep it from being too tiny and changing sizes with her, Kellie shrank to seven feet tall and took the phone.  “OK,” she said.  “What’s in it for you?”



Kiera smiled.  “As the reporter who got you the message, I can cover the date, or parts of it -- if you’ll let me.”



Kellie nodded.  “Thank you.  I think I can live with that, and I want to do this.”  Holding the phone, she grew and left the scene, striding away as a skyscraper-size colossus.



Once she was out of sight, Elevator Girl proceeded with her patrol.  Kiera’s story was probably true, but the superheroine couldn’t take a chance on this turning out to be some sort of trap, either.  It would be easy enough to check the matter out when she got home.



The rest of her patrol uneventful, Kellie headed for her home neighborhood.  She shrank in a secluded spot, then slipped in the coal chute that served as her secret entrance.  Her mom was waiting for her, having prepared some supper for them to share.



After supper was over, Kellie went to the phone book and looked up the local office of the Wish-Granters Foundation.  It matched the number programmed into the phone.  Since she knew the phone book was nearly a year old, which predated her superhero career of less than three months, Kellie knew the number was legit.



Kellie took a walk down to the creek near her home, in the vicinity of the cave that had served as her first headquarters, before Mom found out her identity.  She placed the call and set up a meeting for the next day at the foundation’s office just after her patrol was over.



When it came time for the appointment, Kellie, still in her leather costume, arrived at the meeting.  In the office were Kiera and a man introduced to Elevator Girl as Micah Rice, the local foundation chapter chief.  He directed Kellie, who was at her “standard” Elevator Girl noncombat height of 7 feet tall, to a seat,



“Our wish-maker is a 14-year-old boy who has non-Hodgkins lymphoma,” Rice said.  “His condition, like that of many with that condition, is up and down day to day, depending in part on where he is in his treatment regimen.  He’s looking at a good cycle right now, and he wants to attend his school’s homecoming dance -- with you.  That’s his wish.”



Kellie nodded.



“Kiera tells me you lost someone close due to cancer,” Rice said.



“Yes,” Kellie said.  “Even without wanting to help a very ill teen, I’d want to do this just to honor … my loved one.”



Rice patted the young heroine’s shoulder.  “Then you know some of what this young man is going through, at least,” he said.



Kellie turned to Kiera. “So, what’s your role in all this?”



“It’s a great story,” the reporter said.  “We want to record the beginning of the date, from when you pick up your wish-kid to shortly after you get to the school for the dance.  After that, we’ll split.  We don’t plan to release anything about what’s going on ahead of time, or until after the date is over.  Not only would that mean we didn’t get an exclusive, but it also could put your date and the other students at risk.”



Kellie nodded again.  “And when and where are this dance?”



Rice sat on the corner of his desk.  “It’s a week from Friday at Jackson High School.  You‘ve rescued the students there twice.  That may have factored into why he wants a date with you.”



Kellie’s eyes went wide at that statement.  Suddenly, she had an awful feeling she knew who the “wish-kid” was.  She knew someone who went to Jackson High -- her own school -- who was 14 and had non-Hodgkins lymphoma.  He had been her best friend when they were in elementary school.



“They rescued me the last time,” Kellie asked.  “And what’s this boy’s name?”



“Dakota Greene,” Rice said.



Kellie had a hard time holding back her emotions.  It was her childhood best friend, for whose health she had been fearing.  They weren’t as close lately, but he was often on her mind.



Kiera leaned in.  “Elevator Girl?  Are you all right?”



Kellie smiled.  “It’s just … you know, baggage.  History.”  She looked to Rice.  “Of course, I’ll do it.”



“Great,” said Rice.  “Here’s the address.”  He handed her a slip of paper that had information Kellie didn’t need; she knew exactly where Dakota lived.  “The dance starts at 7 p.m.  Would you like a limo to take you?”



“Did … Dakota say something about travel in his wish?” Kellie asked.



Rice shrugged.  “Actually, he said he’s like you to carry him to and from the dance, using your powers.”



That sounds like Kota, Kellie thought.  She said, “Then that’s what I’ll do.  Are there any other specifics to the wish?”



“You, the carrying and the dance,” said Rice.  “That’s it.”



“OK,” said Kellie.  “I’ll plan to be there a little before 7 to pick him up -- literally, in this case.”  She turned to Kiera.  “I’d rather just carry my date, if that’s all right.”



“Understandable,” said Kiera.  “We can shoot footage of you from the ground, and get some more at the school once we get there.  That will be plenty for us.  Then you’ll have the evening to yourselves -- well, as much as you want to, anyway.”



Kellie smiled on the outside.  Inside, she was panicking.  How would she get through this one without tipping off her identity?  But she couldn’t have turned it down -- it was a kid with cancer, and if Kota’s wish was a date with her, how could she say no to that?  Especially when she wanted it.  But she wanted a date with him as Kellie, not as Elevator Girl.  But she was Elevator Girl.



Realizing the tangled knot of her thoughts and emotions wasn’t helpful now, Kellie smiled and stepped into her role as charitable celebrity, at least until she left the office.  She’d have to sort all this out later.

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