"Hypothetically infinite possibilities..." the mysterious older scientist uttered that fateful night as electricity crackled from his finely crafted machinery. It had been years, seemed like decades that he had worked on this collider, even since things went so awry during his first attempt. But he knew better now, and he knew that the results could be worth it. He could finally prove his theories, he could explore the unknown, see what else was out there.
But like any chaotic system, which is what he dealt in, there were sure to be variables he didn't expect.
At that very moment in the embattled kindgom of Quartzaria, Vektor and his two cohorts, Emerald and Sapphire continued their battle against the advancing forces of darkness.
"To your left!" Vektor shouted, firing an energy beam that just missed Sapphire but instead disintegrated the advancing monster. He'd sign in relief but his relief would be short lived as a small tremor shook them both.
Emerald's eyes widened, as she watched a crack in the very fabric of space open up behind her leader, Vektor.
"Ummmm... that doesn't look normal..." an anxious Sapphire observed, pointing to the continuing rip in the space-time continuum, as the atmosphere itself seemed to fracture like so much glass. As she cautiously advanced away from it, Emerald seemed fascinated by it. She peered through it to see what appeared to be another world on the other side.
"Emerald!" Vektor warned, briefly held captive by one of the black crystallic creatures before breaking free of its grip, "be careful! we don't know what that is"
"Precisely..." Emerald sneered, her eyes glowing red for a moment. Vektor's own eyes went pale with shock. Oh no.
"You're ..." Vektor stammered, but it was too late.
In a moment Emerald grabbed onto Vektor and wrestled him towards the portal.
"Ummm... what's going on?" Sapphire stammered
"Th-This isn't ... Emerald..." Vektor grunted, trying to push back against the imposter but to no avail. Emerald gave a great thrust and chuckled as Vektor flew through the portal, before turning her attention to Sapphire who lay on one knee in pure shock. She'd draw her sword but Emerald would simply shrug, slowly shapeshifting before Sapphire's eyes.
The scene would continue to play out, its results unbeknownst to the now banished Vektor who found himself in the lab of Dr. Giovanni, electricty continuing to surge as the portal grew more and more unstable.
Giovanni, panicking, attempted to power down the machine but it seemed to have a mind of its own now, as the portal fluctuated greatly, a few of the black crystallic beasts also finding their way in, along with a few jagged bird like creatures, also made of some kind of onyx like gemstone.
As the doctor tried desperately to reason his way out of the situation, his phone rang. He slipped his hand on the speaker phone button to bring up Roxie's voice as she asked him for more money. Again, one could say this wasn't exactly a good time.
"Who the hell are you?" the confused black armored gentleman with a V across his chest asked, pointing at the doctor with great disdain. He was about to confront him further when he found himself again attacked from behind by one of the black crystal monsters. He grunted and threw the assailant aside, making a charge for the frightened doctor. "Tell me who you are!"
Vektor was infuriated, even moreso when he noticed the portal behind him closing. He was now trapped in this strange dimension and he couldn't let the doctor, the only person who seemed to know how this all worked, get away. Dr. Giovanni made a break for the door but Vektor cut him off with a red energy blast that seemed to meld the door shut, contorting its metal handle into a pretzel.
"L-Look ... I don't know who you are or what you want..." Giovanni cried out, "but clearly there's been a mistake ... let me reactivate the machine and I can ..."
To Giovanni's horror, that wouldn't be possible as he watched the myriad of interdimensional creatures wrecking his life's work, banging relentlessly on the metal tubing that comprised the delicate system of particle colliders. The machine was all but unsalvageable now and Vektor looked concerned, not just for his own fate but that of the doctor, who would soon be under attack from the creatures.
"Get back!!" Vektor grunted, taking a blast in the chest for the doctor. He seemed relatively unfazed despite how strong the blast was. Vektor glanced back at the doctor, a bit concerned.
"Do you have anybody ...?" Vektor asked, "...who can get you the parts you need ... to repair that portal machine?"
"I ... I might be able to ..." Giovanni asked, "but I doubt they'd listen to me at this point"
"Make them listen..." Vektor sneered, fighting off an advancing horde of creatures.
Just in case that plan didn't work, Vektor had a plan B. He briefly scanned the doctor in his own mind, his eyes flashing red as a lined laser passed through them as if scanning an item at a grocery store. A laser grid surrounded Dr. Giovanni and a hologram seemed to funnel into Vektors chest plate. Giovanni, unharmed but confused simply watched on in utter bewilderment.
"Look out!" Giovanni cried as Vektor was overwhelmed by a swarm of horrific looking crystal eagles who blasted past him and furthermore melted a hole in the door. Giovanni, overcome by anxiety found himself making a break for it as Vektor was left to fend for himself.
And that would be the night all the chaos began ...
------
As Leah was checking out a store for all the latest fashions, although she seemed less than impressed by the selection, Lexi was at one of those silly mall kiosks that sold flashing glasses and other gimmicky plastic paraphanalia.
"Hmmm..." Lexi murmured to herself as if in deep thought, trying on a necklace that would flash when you hit a button on the back. "How much for this one?"
The tired looking woman manning the stand would turn over one of the necklaces on the counter and shrug, "9.95..."
Lexi wouldn't answer but would simply gingerly slip the necklace back into the container she got it out of, instead looking at more of the knick knacks, seeing a Spider-Man bouncy ball, the kind thats clear on the outside and has the black and white eyes of Spidey in the middle with the red and black webbing pattern to represent his face. She could see on the price tag that it was only $2.95. This gave her greater reason to consider it as a displeased looking Leah Henderson came out one of the stores, simply called "Fashion".
"Name of the store is misleading in my opinion..." Leah sighed, not even holding a single bag as she watched Lexi looking at what was basically a kids stand full of glowing stuff and bouncing balls "...uh whatcha doing?"
What Lexi was doing had been in many ways self explanatory as she was poking some kind of rubber penguine on the beak and watching in glee as it bobbed up and down ... or at least she had been doing that until noticing her 21 year old friend observing her childish behavior
"Oh I was just uh ..." Lexi chuckled, doing an about face, "shopping for a uh ... gift for Josh"
"Oh right, his birthday's coming up" Leah nodded, before giving Lexi a confused look, "wait ... you're not thinking of getting him something from ... here? No offense"
"None taken" the disengaged girl at the kiosk shrugged, flipping pages in a magazine.
"W-Well I don't know..." Lexi whimpered, "m-maybe..."
Leah gently touched the hand of Lexi's which held the ball causing her to deposit it back in the plastic container and she'd kindly escort her best friend away from the kiosk
"Look, ... strange thing is I actually COULD see Josh liking that ball ... a lot actually..." Leah stuttered, finding herself seemingly overcome with conflicted emotions over what she was about to say, "...like I could see him naming it and throwing it all over campus but ... no ... look, Josh is your friend, he's a good friend... you gotta get him more than a rinky dink bouncy ball..."
"He IS a good friend" Lexi replied sincerely, looking away a bit as she thought of him a bit more fondly, "He's really helped me out of some tough scrapes and sometimes, like the other day, he'll really make me laugh without even meaning to ... I was over his house and he was trying to make pizza bagels and the microwave spinny thing got stuck and ..."
Leah smirked a bit, content to just listen to Lexi's rambling story involving the microwave, pizza bagels and the exterminator. Yeah, there was an exterminator in there somewhere. You just had to be there, I guess.
"Heh, sure he's not maybe more than a friend...?" Leah teased
"Huh? No, no, of course" Lexi scoffed, as if the idea were so unthinkable.
Josh and Lexi had been friends since pretty much day one at college though. It was true they had some things in common, although while Lexi would be a bit of a closet comic book fan, with a deep love of Sonic the hedgehog but other than that, not much gaming, Josh was deeply involved in Dungeons and Dragons and had a nearly encyolopedia like knowledge of vintage comic books through the current day, especially ones involving his favorite iconic web head, Spider-Man. They had some things in common, but not everything and she still to this day wondered how he pulled off some of the unusual feats he was able to with such ease while struggling with such simple things as getting pizza bagels out of a microwave. Still, she often wondered where she'd be without her trusty friend Josh.
----
As for Josh's whereabouts, he had finally trekked into the local computer shop, Aztek Parts and More to look into some parts ... well, maybe more than that. He needed a new propeller for his drone and maybe some extra sheet metal to build a stronger outer casing. As he perused the store before approaching the man at the front counter, a kindly old gentleman who he sweared looked familiar, he found himself marveled by what he saw. The store had a pretty impressive selection for what seemed like a fairly common type of operation.
"Can I help you, young man?" Mr. Trevor Hilfmann, owner of the store asked the awestruck Joshua James as he carefully set his drone on the counter, "Oh ... been working on drones, I see"
The topic of drones was something that had a deep history with Trevor Hilfmann, formerly (or maybe always) known as Trevor Hoffnung. While he found the feat of them impressive, he worried of their implications in terms of privacy. Some drones these days were small enough to basically work as mobile security cameras, spying on people with fairly easy to attain GPS technology -- and of course that was to say nothing of the applications of drones in a war time situation.
That was something he was all too familiar with having spent some time in the weaponry division at Enormo Enterprises, a branch of the company very few in the public eye knew about.
"Enormo Enterprises!" Josh said all of a sudden, eliciting even more of a traumatic flashback in the mind of the computer technician behind the counter.
"Huh?" Trevor asked, quite alarmed, while not letting it show
"I can't quite remmeber your name ..." Josh confessed, "but I remember you from the tour of Enormo Enterprises that my class went on..."
"Oh uh ... um...." Trevor stuttered, suddenly remembering the young man as well. He had been a very curious young science student and the kind who seemed to have a conspiracy theory for nearly everything. He didn't want to admit then or now just how true a lot of Josh's theories were. In fact ... he remembered even moreso the young man being a direct target of Dr. Max's drones. He'd raise an eyebrow and clear his throat a bit, wanting to dispose of the current conversation as quickly as possible. "I ... I'm afraid you're mistaken... I go by Mr. Hilfmann and I'm a computer scientist only ... I may have stopped by the Enormo facility as a guest a couple times but I never..."
"No no it was definitely you" Josh nodded, "I asked you where they keep the electric eels and you made some joke that this wasn't the Amazing Spider-Man 2 movie..."
"HUh ... yeah ... I ... I don't know where you got such an ... over active imagination..." Trevor sighed, trying again to deflect, and he would do so by trying to turn his attention to the young man's homemade creation, the fairly impressive drone with a rusty but valiant attempt at a purple paint job. In fact if he looked closely, he could see the letters S and G on one of the tips of the rudders. "S-Say is that ..."
Now it was Josh who seemed a bit precarious, watching as the Doctor inspected his drone. "Hmm?"
"Oh ... oh nothing ... you're uh probably looking for drone parts, right?" Trevor chuckled, "funny enough that IS something we have here outside of computer parts, it's a bit of a niche thing but I have some ... some things I can probably let you take a look at"
"Oh sure, that would be great ..." Josh said, nodding, although wondering why the older gentleman had spent so much inspecting the homemade drone. It was almost like he knew more than he let on. Then again, Josh suspected that about pretty much everyone. It was probably just his imagination. Probably.
-----
"I still say Josh wanted to ask you to the Valentine's Day dance!" Leah commented, the girls mall trip now at a different point as the couple sat down to eat. Lexi wasn't quite sure though why Leah had jumped back to the subject of their friend Josh.
"Leah that was like 4 months ago" Lexi shrugged
"I know but like ... he had some girl he wanted to ask out, I know he did, but he'd never say who" Leah sighed between bites of her burger, seemingly frustrated that she hadn't officially cracked the case.
"He was probably just shy about it" Lexi shrugged, "him and I don't really talk about that stuff"
"Well yeah he doesn't talk about it with YOU...." Leah replied, "because YOU'RE the one he likes, what's he going to be like ... hey Lexi, I really like Lexi?"
"Are you like ... in a bet or something?" Lexi joked, "it seems like you WANT him and I to get together"
"Nah nah ... I mean I think it's kinda cute when you get all geeky with him but ... yeah I don't know" Leah shrugged, "I kinda see you ending up with Mara ... maybe Chrissy"
"Definitely not Chrissy..." Lexi groaned
"Oh, you not into her anymore?" Leah asked
"Well, I can't even really say, I mean we've barely talked since everything happened with the bombing and even before that, we hadn't been super close..." Lexi sighed, "I like her a ton but ... yeah ... I think I really scared her off... she hasn't answered any of my calls since it happened ... last time she saw me I was fighting off a maniac and trying to get a bomb off her ..."
"At least you were trying to get the bomb OFF..." Leah sighed, "I doubt she's mad at you or anything"
"No, I know she's not" Lexi admitted, "I just ... I don't know ... just too much on my mind right now ... what were we talking about again?"
"Well this all started, funny enough, because you were going to get Josh a Spider-Man bouncy ball" Leah giggled, the sentence even sounding funny as it trickled out of her mouth.
"I was not going to get him the ... okay yeah I was totally going to get him the bouncy ball..." Lexi conceded, "it's not that I don't WANT to get him something better, it's just ... until I get another job or heck, any kind of plan, I need to conserve what little money I have ... Josh will understand, he already made it sound like he didn't want anything anyway"
Leah just let out an exascerbated sigh, "look if this is about money... I can lend you some..."
"No no" Lexi replied sternly, "you know what money does to any friendship ... and ... no. I appreciate the offer but ... no thank you ... besides, you can't be doing too great on spending money either, didn't your dad say you had to get a job this summer or he'd 'cut you out'?"
"That's a LITTLE dramatic way of saying it..." Leah replied, "but ... yeah, and it's no big deal, I actually may be getting a job up at Sally's in the next couple weeks"
"Sally's, the cute little fashion boutique?" Lexi asked, to which Leah nodded, "that's awesome hon! Why didn't you tell me?"
"Well it's not like official yet but ... it's possible ... turns out Debra from home ec class is Sally's daughter and ..." Leah started but the end of her sentence would soon become vaporized by an overeager Alexis Cole
"Sally? Like THE Sally?" Lexi giggled
"You ... are surprised that there's a 'Sally' running 'Sally's'?" Leah chuckled a bit, resuming eating for just a moment before her eyes shifted to a TV screen on the column behind Lexi. The french fry she had started to eat trickled out of her mouth as an uneasy gaze filled her eyes. Lexi was all too quick to notice which is what Leah Henderson feared most. "Oh Lexi, no need to look ... it's always just ..."
It was too late
Lexi found herself quickly fixated on the flashing news bulletin that read "MANHUNT CONTINUES FOR ROXANNE WRIGHT ... MOTORCYCLE SPOTTED DOWNTOWN...."
As the news caster spoke on the muted mall TV, little bits of closed captioning filled in what she was saying and Lexi studied the words, mumbling them to herself attentively. If only she could put as much vigor into her actual studies.
"Lexi ..." Leah whined, "C'mon ... let it go... please... I beg of you ..."
"You know I can't, Leah..." Lexi sighed, her voice suddenly downtrodden and a lot less jovial, "I let her get away ... again ... and worse, she killed someone... it's my fault"
"Not everything is your fault, Lex, for real" Leah frowned, also seeming a bit angry. It seemed like she could rarely get any relaxing time with her best friend without some kind of superhero drama or general depression coming on. She struggled to relate to the severe degree of Lexi's guilt but this wasn't the girl she knew, at least not since she donned the purple and gold and became ShrinkGirl.
"I know ... I just ..." Lexi sighed, her voice trailing off as she recalled again that horrible night where her friends were almost killed and her job was blown up by Roxie and Sugar Rush. She was able to save them with some quick thinking but not everybody was so safe, as the officer who took Roxie into custody ended up dead behind the wheel and the reckless criminal, even with an injured arm was somehow able to escape.
Since then Lexi had vowed to do everything in her power to bring Roxie to justice if another opportunity arose but for the most part, it hadn't. The usually vivid and obvious supervillainess had gone completely quiet since the incident. Lexi wasn't naive to the fact that she was likely pulling heists under the radar but she knew it was only a matter of time before she slipped up and got herself exposed. Now might have been her chance. At the same time ... was it really the right time for this? The young woman's heart was again torn and seeing Leah's disappointment only furthered her emotional struggle.
Leah finally stopped, finishing her meal and not really looking happy or sad, just concerned and a little guilty herself.
"I'm sorry Lex" Leah nodded, "I don't know what it's like to be in your shoes and I ... I shouldn't just assume it's so easy to forget about things like that ..."
"No, you're right..." Lexi nodded, trying to return that trademark smile to her face, "I should be focusing on you, and us, and our time together"
"And Josh" Leah smirked
"And Josh ... wait, why did you say it like that?" Lexi smugly smirked, "you cheeky bitch ... there is NOTHING going on between us"
"Oh....." Leah giggled, "I never said there was, but now you got me wondering..."
Lexi shook her head and was about to return to her sitting position, facing away from the TV when she read something in the closed captioning. It not only detailed an ongoing chase between the police and Roxie but it mentioned her whereabouts as "east Minitropolis" which wasn't too far from the mall.
"Lexi ..." Leah sighed, an uncomfortable grimace crossing her face, "you're not thinking about going after her, are you? I mean, it's not like we even know where she is..."
Lexi shrugged and looked a bit like a little kid who got caught doing something they weren't suppose to as she took out a small police scanner from her purse and tuned it to a clear frequency. The speed at which she did this startled Leah, just a little.
"You happen to carry a portable police scanner?" Leah asked
"Josh is right..." Lexi answered, very matter of factly, "it really is the best way to go ... signal is a bit weaker but you get a decent range and you're always ready to go in case there's trouble"
"He really is your Andrew, huh?" Leah smirked
"Andrew?" Lexi asked, tilting her head curiously
"You know, the old guy from Batman?" Leah struggled, "always helping him out and stuff?"
"You mean ALFRED?" Lexi giggled as she simultaneously listened to the scanner for any hints of trouble or clues.
"What did I say?" Leah asked
"You said Andrew" Lexi replied
"Who's Andrew?" Leah asked
"I don't know, I think Andrew was that guy you liked in 3rd period math for like 5 minutes" Lexi shrugged, finally able to hear what she was waiting for.
"Yeah we have Roxie's motorcycle, it's an exact match on the plates..." the police officer said through fuzzy static
"She has a license plate on her motorcycle?" Leah asked, "isn't that kind of ...?"
"Stupid?" Lexi nodded in agreement, "extremely ... she literally doesn't care if the police find her ... I think she finds it to be some kind of game..."
"To be fair, you are using a tracker right now to find her" Leah shrugged, although her curiosity had overcome her for the time being. It was kind of exciting being part of the action, even as a minor participant.
"We got her doing 90 going up East Boulevard heading up towards State Street"
"That's only like 5 minutes from here" Lexi stuttered, looking over at Leah a bit nervously, "...of course... we could just forget the whole thing"
Leah let out a long drawn out sigh as she had already committed to discarding her remaining food and hoisting her purse onto her shoulder, goading her best friend into joining her.
"C'mon..." Leah sighed, "let's go get your bad guy..."
"REALLY?!" Lexi giggled, as if she were a kid about to get ice cream
"Yeah...." Leah rolled her eyes as the two made their way for the mall exit with some haste. At least Leah thought she had Lexi alongside her but a quick look away would reveal otherwise. Lexi had stopped yet again at the toy stand. "...Lexi...."
"How much again for the Spidey ball??" Lexi asked the less than engaged saleswoman at the stand. The girl peered over her magazine for barely a second, finding Lexi's curiosity and spunk cute for the most part and simply handed it to her.
"You sure?" Lexi asked
"Yeah, knock yourself out, kiddo" the girl chuckled, to which Lexi instantly hugged her
"Thank you!!" Lexi said in a really cute tone, running off and showing Leah her "prize"
Even the unengaged saleswoman who hadn't had the best of days found herself smiling warmly. It was hard not to when Lexi was at her absolute cutest.
"You happy now?" Leah chuckled as her best friend broke into a slow jog to catch up
"I will be ..." Lexi smirked, "there's just one thing I have to say to make this mission official..."
"Oh no..." Leah sighed, already knowing what was coming, "Lexi, can we please not ..."
"To the LEAH-MOBILE!"
Giantess World
