-Prologue-

“Halt, you fiend! If you want to cause trouble in Megalopolis, you’re going to have to answer to ME!”

In the center of downtown Megalopolis, a small crowd cheered at the appearance of Enormica, the busty blonde superheroine who watched over the city.  Gracefully sliding from her rocket-powered Sky Bike, Enormica landed in front of the giant robot that was halfway through destroying the façade of the First Bank of Megalopolis. Resting gloved hands on her green-spandex-clad hips,  she cleared her throat and called out.

“The money inside that vault belongs to the bank… No, to the people of this city! It represents thousands of hours of hard work and dedication! It would be a travesty to allow you to remove even one cent of it, especially considering what you might have planned! Such misdeeds will never prevail, so long as I’m around! Now…” Enormica turned her head toward the growing crowd and flashed a confident smile, then lifted her right hand and pointed up toward the robot’s gigantic chest, “…surrender yourself to justice, before I squash you like a bug!”The crowd roared at the heroine’s catchphrase, but were quickly interrupted by a loud squeal of audio feedback from the robot.

“Squash me like a bug, you say?” The high, nasal voice that rang out sounded amused. “Just what do you intend to do, if you don’t mind my asking? As you may have noticed, my robot is considerably larger than you are, and its tritanium alloy armor proved a match for even  Captain Brawn! It can move at speeds over sixty miles per hour, and can withstand temperatures up to—“

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, we get it. It’s a big tough robot… Spare us the technobabble, will ya?” Enormica contemplated the large buttons on her utility belt for a moment, then pressed the blue one and rested a hand over the E-shaped belt buckle.  She looked back up at the robot. “This is your last chance, squeaky! Surrender now, and you might have a chance to eat prison food with a fork instead of a straw.”

Rather than respond, the robot raised one of its claw-like appendages above its head, then brought it crashing down. Enormica leaped to the side and pressed down on her belt buckle. “To carry out the will of justice… ENORMISIZE!” The people watching cheered and applauded again, even as they hurried away from  rapidly growing woman. Enormica straightened up and flexed her enormous muscles, then grinned down at the robot. She was now more than a head taller than it.

There was another squeal of audio feedback, followed by the voice of the robot’s pilot. “Wha.. What ARE you?! How is that even possible?!”

“Maybe you’d understand it…” Enormica suddenly lunged forward, laying punch into the robot’s chest that caused it to tumble backward, “…if you had dedicated your scientific work to good rather than evil!”

Enormica walked up the fallen machine, smirking at the faint sound of cheering from the streets. She put a foot on the center of its torso and leaned over its faceless, domed head. “So, you gonna come quietly?” The robot’s arm jerked in from the right and planted a solid blow on her head, sending her reeling off to the side. Enormica stumbled back into a tall building, putting her elbow through one of the windows and crushing a small fountain underfoot.  Rubbing her cheek, she mumbled an apology in the general direction of the building and extricated her elbow.

The robot was back on its feet and facing her, what looked to be some kind of weapon rising from its back. Enormica slowly circled to the left. “HAHA!”, screeched the voice from the robot, “You may be tough, but let’s see how you handle a little heavy firepower! Take THIS!”

With a loud grinding sound, a missile shot out of the weapon on the robot’s back. Enormica dove toward the bank and snatched her Sky Bike out of the air, then in one fluid motion twisted back toward the missile, the vehicle in her hand transforming to resemble an oversized pistol. With a guttural battle cry, she pulled the trigger on her weapon. A concentrated wave of energy sprang forth, encompassing the missile, which lost momentum and crached to the ground.

Enormica stood up, shaking tree limbs out of her hair. “I guess adding an electromagnetic pulse function wasn’t such a bad idea after all...” She focused her attention on the robot, leveling the transformed Sky Bike as she approached it. “You may have a… A tinctanium alloy, or whatever, but I’ll bet robots ain’t too fond of EMP bursts, eh?”

“Oho, what happened to the strong, hero-of-the-people way you were talking before? Can’t keep it up under pressure? Kehehe!”

“Laugh it up, robot boy, but at the end of the day you’re the one staring down the barrel of a gun.”

The pilot let out another high-pitched laugh. “That may be true, but guns can’t solve… Everything!” On the last word the robot’s claw crashed into a nearby building, and a moment later pulled out three panic-stricken office workers. “Now, let’s seeif you can… CATCH!” The robot flicked its arm upward, effortlessly throwing the people into the air.

Enormica cursed under her breath, pressing a red button on her belt and holding the belt buckle. She rapidly expanded in size,  and held her hand under the people, who were still flying upwards. In just a few seconds she overtook them, her hand managing to come up under them before they started to fall.

“Are you guys okay?” she asked, squinting at the tiny people in the palm of her hand. Being smaller than her fingernails she couldn’t hear them, but they didn’t appear to have any broken bones. “Hang tight, you’re going to be okey!” Enormica cast about for a second, then shrugged and carefully set them inside the largest compartment on her utility belt.

“Th-This is ridiculous! H-How can this be?!”

The robot was nearly doubled over backward to take in her new size, the pilot seemingly having giving up on fighting. Enormica frowned down at the machine, which now no taller than her knees. “Do you know how much it costs to make me this big?!” she boomed, pushing the robot over with her foot. “Not to mention all this collateral damage! Do you know how much you’ve cost the city today? What do you even need money for, anyway? If you can build a giant robot just to rob a bank, I don’t think you’re exactly hurtin’ for a payday. We’ll have a nice, long talk about it down at the fifth pricinct, though.”

The pilot seemed to be regaining his composure. “Oh, it’s not money I was after… and I’m afraid I won’t be visiting any precincts, either.”

Enormica bent at the waist and took the robot by the shoulder with one hand, squeezing. The metal groaned and bent, and there was a loud grinding sound as the servos in the arm failed. “Is that so?”

Another screeching laugh from the pilot. “Yes, well. It’s a shame that it had to end like this, as I quite liked this unit, but it would be… Unfortunate, if you learned anything of its construction. Until next time!” With that, the robot went ridgid, and a soft beeping issued from its speakers.

Enormica blinked. She took the robot’s head in her hand and wrenched it off, then looked inside; circuitry, but no cockpit. Swallowing nervously, she got down on her knees and, exerting all of her strength, ripped open the robot’s torso. No cockpit. She sat back on her heels, cleared at a loss. The robot beeped again. Enormica learned forward and looked down at the remains of the robot. Inside the chest cavity, barely visible at her size, was a digital readout showing 00:07.

The giant woman sprang to her feet, eyes wide. “It.. It’s a bomb!” She cast about for just a moment before coming to her senses and hitting it with an EMP blast. The digital display flicked and went out. Enormica breathed a sigh of relief, setting the Sky Bike on the nearest building. The robot began to beep again, this time in quick succession.

“SHIT!”

Enormica, out of ideas, grabbed the robot by its undamaged arm. Hauling up on it with all the strength she could muster, she flung it as high into the air as she could. Less than a second later, an enormous explosion rocked downtown  Megalopolis, shattering windows for miles around. Enormica dropped to her hands and knees, breathing heavily. Thousands of tiny people were flooding in from every direction, cheering in the streets. Some of them were even beginning to organize a clean-up effort.

“That was WAY too close…” Enormica muttered as she stood to look for her Sky Bike. Tucking the vehicle/weapon under one arm, she reached for the blue button on her belt. “Oh, wait! Damn, another close one.” She opened the largest compartment on her utility belt and carefully scooped out the two tiny people inside, then lowered them into a crowd below. She smiled  at the faint sound of a thousand cheers, then used the blue button to return to the size she was before the robot had taken its hostages. With a flick of her wrist, Enormica changed the Sky Bike back into its vehicle form and set it aside. Finally, using the belt’s green button, she shrunk down to her normal civilian size of 5’4” and was immediately swarmed by the cheering crowd.