This was it. This was the final straw. When one or two things went wrong in a week, fine, so be it! But this was entirely too much. The young lady threw open the door to her room, striding inside and casting aside her bag as the feelings of intense frustration burned in her belly. She could feel the pink hues on her cheeks as she tried without success to suppress the rage as it boiled over.

With a shaky inhale, Belinda closed her eyes and paused. Perhaps the week could still be salvaged so long as nothing else happened. Turning towards the window overlooking the rest of town, she took one step and felt a wet crunch under her shoe. An unpleasant shiver shot up her spine as her shoulders flared, fingers curled reflexively.

Peering down at the floor, the young lady retracted her foot and saw the remains of a spider caked to the carpet. Teeth gritted and groaning in distaste, she wiped her sole off on the ground before marching over to the window. The city sprawled away onto the horizon, carpeting the terrain as far as the eye could see. Lights sprang on gradually as the sun sank over the mountains, bathing the view in tinges of orange and purple.

Retrieving her phone from her pocket, Belinda brought up her recent messages and punched out a text.

“Hey, you busy right now?”

“I was about to go to rehearsals, why?”

“Could you tell me again about that device of yours?”

“… Any particular reason?”

“Helensville is looking way too smug right now.”

Silence hung in the air as she awaited the response. At first she thought that perhaps her friend’s previous offer no longer stood, but a minute later…

“I’m on my way.”

…

“Alright m’dear, what sort of stress relief are you looking for here?”

“Beg pardon?” Belinda stood behind Maxwell, peering over his shoulder as he sat hunched over the laptop-sized object on the table before them. It didn’t look tremendously impressive, but she knew from long conversation just how potent it could be.

“Well I mean, the Universal Save-Point here can do a whole lot of things, but it depends what you’re after. I’m assuming you don’t just want a holiday generator, so what sort of powers are you looking for here? The Matrix? Dragonball Z? Avatar? Godzilla?”

“Godzilla. Definitely; though without the scales.”

“So basically just yourself except bigger and able to shoot lasers out of your mouth?”

“… Yeah, that sounds about right!”

“Right; rampage-mode it is then.” With a few flicks of his fingers an image flared to life over the device. Belinda recognized it immediately to be herself, albeit quite simplified. As the clicks and settings continued, a projection of Maxwell appeared beside her, head and shoulders taller than her own. “So, how big are we talking?”

“Bigger than that, obviously.” She replied with a matter of fact tone.

“Clearly; let’s see…” Opening his fingers rapidly, the projection reacted to the gentleman’s motions, scaling up rapidly in size until his own image stood roughly at the lady’s ankle. New images appeared in reference: trees, cars, telegraph poles and a building of roughly equivalent height to the young woman.

“Bigger.”

Another motion followed, scaling up the image again until it was the building’s turn to wind up around ankle-height. The older projections of man, tree and car vanished into barely perceptible dots as dozens of other structures sprang to life along the floor. Maxwell glanced back over his shoulder.

“Seem about right?”

“Eeehhhhh…” Belinda held her palm out horizontally and tilted it back and forth.

“… Bigger?”

“Bigger.” She affirmed.

“This is going to be quite an eventful evening.” He commented idly, sizing up the projection until the tallest towers in the surrounding region barely reached beneath the lady’s knees. “Pretty sure even Godzilla wasn’t this big.”

“It’s hardly my fault if the King of Monsters lacked ambition, is it?”

“No indeed. Do you want there to be any obstacles?”

“Explain?”

“Oh you know, opposition; military strike-teams, aliens, giant robots, other monsters, that sort of thing.”

“Nah… I mean, I’ll definitely ask if I get bored and want to wrestle a squid-monster or something, but I doubt that’ll happen. I mean, put stuff in if you think it’ll be more fun, but I think I’m fine as is.”

“… More fun huh? Oh I’ve got an idea, but that’ll be a surprise.” As he said the words, a brief image labelled ‘Project W.W.W’ appeared in the projection before vanishing. “Aaaaand done! The Save-Point is ready; are you good to go?”

“Wait wait hang-on, how do I end it when I’m ready to stop? How long does it last? Is there anything else I should know?”

“OH yes, right. Well, in a nutshell, it will normally run for twenty-four hours after activation, but you can end it early by saying ‘My dream is done’. If you need something altered, just say ‘My dream is changing’. It won’t do anything directly, but it will contact me… y’know, assuming I’m still alive.”

“Still alive?!”

“Yeah? Dude, you’re going to be stomping around Helensville pulverizing several buildings at once, not to mention the thousands of squishy mortals. There’s a pretty decent chance that I’ll wind up stuck to your foot at some point.”

“Can’t you just, like, program a safe space you can watch from?”

“I could, but where’s the fun in that? What’s life without a little risk?”

“A little risk?” Belinda responded with an incredulous raise of her eyebrow and a grin on her face.

“Weeellll  you know,” Maxwell said with flippant grandeur, “what’s the point in going out at night if there’s not the possibility of gruesome, crunchy death?”

“Isn’t this a save-point though? You’re not really dying.”

The man waved his hand dismissively. “Semantics.”

A brief chuckled passed between the pair before Maxwell straightened up.

“Alrighty, we’re basically ready to go! Head on outside and we’ll get this started!”

Belinda nodded, a spark of excitement building in her heart. Turning on her heel she strode out the door, stopping only when she heard the voice of her friend calling after her.

“WAIT WAIT, forgot to ask…”

“Yeah?”

“Do you want to keep your clothes during this process or…” She poked her head back around the door and narrowed her eyes at him. “… Yeah, sorry, stupid question. Go go!”

…

There were many things Belinda had imagined she might experience during life: travel, theatre, music and magnificent food. Until started making regular acquaintance with certain tall, bearded oddball however, she had never considered that she might experience the sensation of a beam of pure destructive energy spraying from her mouth. Streaks of smoking, fiery ruin lay in her wake along with the great prints of her feet in the rubble.

To say she felt giddy would have been an understatement. Occasional spurts of small-arms fire rang out across town as criminals and police alike tried in vain to slow her down, but the bullets pattered off her like rain. All it took from her was a single stomp in retaliation to silence most resistance. She liked to think that on most days she was a fairly reasonable person of a decidedly less-than-homicidal disposition… but she’d be lying if she said this wasn’t some of the greatest fun she’d ever had. Considering that it would all be undone at the end of the night, it really was the best of both worlds; all the satisfaction of indiscriminate destruction without any of the messy consequences.

A fresh spurt of bullets streaked across her cheek as a helicopter swung past, strafing from as far away as it could.

“Oy! Piss off!” Lunging out towards it, Belinda swatted at the chopper. The blades shattered on impact with her skin and the vehicle spun wildly downwards, belching smoke behind it. The towering titan paused for just long enough to let the thing collide with the pavement before she stepped on it like an irritating cockroach, twisting her heel until the wreckage was indistinguishable from the rubble. “Is that the best you’ve got?”

A thundering hum of engines filled the air. Rolling her eyes, the giant peered back over her shoulder at the fleet of military helicopters that had emerged across the outskirts of the city.

“Spoke too soon it seems.”

The crackle of megaphones sprang to life as they drew nearer, circling the colossus as she stood amidst the smoking ruins.

“Attention aggressor; get on your knees, place your hands behind your head and cease your assault or we will be forced to open fire!”

“Yeah, because that’s been so successful so far.” She replied with a smirk.

“We will not repeat ourselves again; obey the instruction or we will be forced to destroy you!”

The impossibly large lady paused before nodding.

“Okay then. Tell you what I’ll do you a solid. I will get on my knees…” Lowering herself carefully to the ground, Belinda felt a few wayward structures that had thus-far evaded her rampage crumble beneath her knees. “… put my hands behind my head…” Her arms raised slowly until her palms were pressed against the back of her skull. “… Aaaand I’ll continue my assault.”

Her mouth opened wide, a beam of crackling blue devastation roaring forth into the line of choppers. The unit was almost completely obliterated by the strike, smoke and cinders spiralling down as the last two vehicles turned tail and fled as fast as their rotors would allow.

A rumbling, thunderous laugh left Belinda’s throat as she clambered back to her feet, hands on her hips as she surveyed her handiwork.

“Well, I think I’m just about done with this… Guess I’ll-”

The tingle up her spine was the only warning she got before she was sent flying forwards, hitting the ground and rolling through several suburbs before grinding to a halt by the shore of the ocean. Flipping herself onto her back and scrambling to a standing position, adrenaline pumped through the giant lady’s veins as she stared at her assailant.

Crouched over the city, iron legs bristling with energy, was the hulking form of a clockwork spider. Smoke billowed from vents in its back as iron pincers snapped menacingly.

“…Okay, first off, someone’s been watching some cheesy old Will Smith movies. Secondly, what the Hell?”

With a surge of motion the behemoth lumbered forwards, legs clanking as it scuttled toward its prey.

“Oh fuck everything about this!”

Stooping down, Belinda curled her fingers around a fallen tower near the harbour. Raising it like a club, the lady trembled in place as the metal monster barrelled down upon her. At the last instant she darted aside, swinging the spire down in an arc and smashing it into the iron torso. The smoking spider buckled briefly under the strike before twisting in place, leaping at her with unexpected agility. She yelped as she felt herself knocked over, the bulk of the beast pressing against her legs. As it scuttled up either side of her torso, mandibles lunging at her throat, Belinda’s hands whipped up and seized hold of the pincers.

She gritted her teeth furiously, struggling to keep the clanking creature at arm’s length. Inside its boiling engine, red light began to build. Belinda’s eyes opened wide as she realized what was about to happen. With her legs now free from its crushing weight, she tucked them under its abdomen and kicked upwards with all her might.

The spider was launched into the air – only a small distance comparative to their size, but it was more than enough to expose the mechanisms of the underbelly.

A moment later a beam of incandescent energy blasted a gaping hole straight through the machine. Less than a heartbeat later, a crash of flailing iron limbs filled the air, heralding the demise of the monstrosity. Belinda stood up gradually, heart still hammering in her chest as she walked cautiously over to the wreckage, peering inside the wound she’d opened up. Oil and steam spewed forth around an opening that was unmistakably meant for a pilot.

“… Whoever’s in there is getting the ass-kicking of their life!”

Sinking down onto one knee, the titan stuffed her hand inside the twisted iron beams and fished around for whatever was still moving. After a few seconds of furtive searching, she felt the distinct sensation of something struggling between her fingertips. Withdrawing the pilot into the open air, Belinda was all set to unleash a verbal tirade until she recognized the tiny bearded face.

“Maxwell?! What the actual fuck!?”

“Hey; had fun did you?” The miniscule voice wafted up to her ears.

“… A spider? A giant spider?! Dude, uncool.”

“I did say it would be a surprise! Haha, besides, you can’t say it wasn’t exciting.”

There was a pause.

“… You said that if you died during this save, you’d be fine when it reset, right?”

“Yes, but wh-”

Before he had a chance to finish the sentence, Belinda’s palm was pressed against her open mouth, tossing her friend inside. With a single tilt of her head, she gulped him down - uniform and all.

“Fucking… spiders, I swear. Ew. No.”

Standing back to her full height, the lady looked around at the rubble.

“… I wonder if I can get to the capital in time to do this all again?”