The Unfriendly Skies

AN: This story is a lot shorter than most of the ones I've been writing for Animewave recently, especially the big one we've still got waiting in the wings.  That said I don't mind the fact that its rather to the point since it was intended to introduce a pair of new characters who if not exactly members of Keitie's team, you can expect to see as allies to her in the future.  Enjoy!

"Well this is different."  Commented Keitie Anim (also known as the superheroine Rubbergirl) as she looked over at her best friend/girlfriend Judy/Crimson Fury.  

Judging by the several long stretches of silence which had filled their shared booth, the two's relationship seemed to be off to a rather rocky start.  It had nothing to do with the fact that they were a pair of crime fighters who now had to worry about concealing their identities (and to a certain degree their sexual orientation) from the public surprisingly enough.  

Instead the reason that the current pair were exchanging more awkward glances per minute than two vegetarians and a barbecue was due to something far more mundane, the friendship gap.  Because Keitie and Judy had been friends for so long, there was precious little for them to make small talk about.  

Both already knew the other's casual desires, foibles and pet peeves, not to mention a few dark secrets.  Luckily, they had wisely decided to share a booth in the restaurant, sitting side by side instead of directly across from one another.  That spared them the indignity of having intensely studying their own feet being the only alternative to making eye contact with the other.  

Instead, they each inspected the restaurant (however mundane) which surrounded them, hoping to hit upon some new topic of conversation.  Eventually Keitie decided to ask a question she already knew the answer to just to end the silence.  

"So, tell me Judy, which do you prefer, cats or dogs?"  The blond asked in a voice so devoid of emotion it could have put a chartered accountant to sleep.  

"Dogs."  The redhead answered instantly.  

"You see dogs embody loyalty, they follow their masters commands above all else!  Be a jerk to them and they don't complain, the never once beg for a paycheck!  They truly are the great servants of man!"  Judy exclaimed proudly.  

Keitie raised an eyebrow slowly at the mention of "they never complain", finding it hard to believe.  She had known her friend's "pet" Hans for quite a while, and he had never been shy about expressing his opinions through a seemingly endless variety of methods.

After that breif burst of conversation the painful silence returned with a vengeance.  This time it would eventually be shattered by Judy as she decided to return to the one topic of conversation that always proved fertile if somewhat risky for the pair; superheroics.  

"So Keitie, what do you think of Rubbergirl's new sidekick?  The blond haired girl with the swords?"  Judy inquired with a look in her eyes that was too sly by half.  

"Well its hard for me to say.  If it is true that she saved Rubbergirl from a giant slime monsters, then I'm sure she's extra glad to have someone so dependable on her team."  Keitie replied honestly.  

Judy began to roll her tongue around in her mouth, clearly plotting out exactly what her next veiled comment would be.  Before she could come up with it however a loud scream filled the restaurant.  

"OH MY GOD, WHAT IS GOING ON, THAT WOMAN, SHE'S.... MUTATING!"  Bellowed a frightened masculine voice.  

Keitie and Judy locked eyes with one another and slowly a grin grew upon both of their faces.  Judy turned her head towards the ceiling to mouth a quick "thank you, thank you so much" and the she proceeded to pull a some large denomination bills out of her purse and dropped them on the table, even though their meals hadn't arrived yet.  

The two then proceeded to dash out of the restaurant, and into the nearest alleyway.  

Judy simply concentrated for a few moments, using the powers of the Psystone to transform her normal every day clothing was into ruby red battle armor while her hair lightened to a bright blond color.  

For her part, Keitie simply tossed aside the outfit she was wearing, thanks to the minimalist nature of her costume she was always able to wear it in place of more traditional undergarments.  

It was a little risky of course, but if by some unforseen circumstances they ended up getting revealed to other people, Keitie could just claim she was a Rubbergirl fan.  It helped that there honestly were stores selling copies of her costume as lingerie, and only a an inspection of its elastic properties could prove Keitie's version was the real deal.  Another quick moment of contemplation was able to transform her blond hair to a more dramatic green color.  

Being properly outfitted and ready for crime fighting, the pair promptly wasted a few seconds being captivated by each others new appearance.  Keitie was entranced by just how fierce and beautiful Crimson Fury looked, while Judy was mesmerized by how much of Rubbergirl's lovely slender and stylish body was put on display in her skimpy costume.  

Then they remembered that saving the day had to come before play, so they ran back out of the alley to find out just what had gone wrong.  The superheroines found themselves face to face with one of the strangest problems imaginable, a woman was trapped in her car.  

That itself wasn't so unusual, except that the car had not been mangled by any sort of accident or attack.  The car was fine in every way imaginable, except that it was too small.  

The woman had to be at least nine feet from head to toe, and she was now squished into the backseat of the car, having already crushed the headrest behind the driver's seat.  As they watched the woman grew a little bit larger, jamming her cheek up against a window.  

The woman's face became a rictus of rage, and she twisted to the side.  The brown haired woman had somehow sprouted a jagged metal tail which now proceeded to poke several large holes in the car's roof.

This was followed up by her arms transforming from flesh and blood to a shining silver metal.  Those hands easily reached through two of the holes made by her tail and ripped the car's roof apart like it was made of tinfoil.  As she exited her now convertible vehicle, the woman let out a scream of pain.  

The onlooking superheroines stood transfixed as she lay flat on top of the car and started growing at a tremendous rate.  In no time at all  her own car ended up collapsing beneath her considerable weight, as a few more vehicles ended up getting squashed against nearby buildings as she just get growing bigger and bigger.

As she expanded the clothes she had been wearing were torn to pieces, but luckily like Keitie she was wearing something less conventional beneath it.  

In this woman's case that meant a pair of blue boots (with a small heel like Keitie's) leading up to yellow leggings.  Her outfit seemed to be made of some sort of metallic substance, with pauldron like plates falling over either one of her hips.  

The section that covered her upper body was predominantly blue with yellow stripes down either side and proper pauldrons attached to her elbows.  A blue band with a strange cerulean jewel now encircled her forehead, but the strangest thing about her was her eyes.  They were blue, but directly above and below them were stretches of red skin like form a recent wound in the shape of a large tooth.  

Neither Rubbergirl nor Crimson Fury knew quite what to make of this giant girl who slowly started to regain consciousness and stand back up.  She had to be about seventy feet tall now, and with another pained moan the woman her now much longer (even if they were still to scale with the rest of her figure ) arms.  

Sadly in the process she a water tower sending a miniature flood headed straight for the street.  Keitie knew that her duty as a superheroine was to make sure as little damage as possible occurred to other people's property... but that didn't mean she had to like it.  

Thus with a heavy heart Rubbergirl quickly elongated her neck over in the direction of the falling water and opened her mouth extra wide.  

The stuff flowed into her in an instant, causing Keitie's formerly perfect figure to become an entirely different sort of perfect, perfectly spherical.  

Judy teleported to her friend's side and began to roll Keitie a little further into the street.  From this position Keitie was able to spew the water out straight into a storm drain one galloon at a time.

Once that task was accomplished Keitie got on the move.  Trying to talk to this giantess while standing on her toes was sure to be less than productive, so instead she began to make herself taller and taller until she was able to shift herself onto the roof of a nearby building with one careful step.

Judy joined her there via a strategic teleport and the pair found themselves being looked down at the by brown haired woman.  

"I'm sorry..."  She suddenly muttered taking both of them by surprise.  

"That's great and all."  Judy suddenly cut her off.  

"But, do you happen to have a name we can call you other than 'really huge lady' by any chance?"  Crimson Fury inquired tactlessly.

"You can call me Goddess Anna."  Their newest acquaintance informed them.  

Choosing a name like that as her secret identity made "Goddess Anna" sound utterly full of herself, but at least they now knew what to call her.

"Like I said before, I'm sorry about causing all of this."  Goddess Anna lamented.  

"But my powers just went out of control.  I normally drive a car that's big enough for me, but all of a sudden my legs were so long I couldn't take them off the gas!  I had to struggle to shift my other leg onto the break and then, well you saw what happened to my car didn't you?"  She explained mournfully.   

Keitie nodded while wincing on the inside.  She wasn't sure how much money Goddess Anna had, but she doubted it would be enough to let her easily replace a car.  Nor would it help that "acts of superheroine" were notoriously hard to get insurance payouts on.  

"Well can you at least promise us that you won't be growing any bigger?"  Keitie asked, hoping that she wouldn't find herself having to deal with another out of control giantess.  

"No...  I normally keep a serum on me which can reduce me back to normal size when something like this happens, but it was in the glovebox of my car... until I flattened it.  Luckily, I do have a friend who keeps a dose of the stuff on him at all times, but I'm not sure how long it will take me to find me."  Goddess Anna reflected sadly.  

Before Keitie could offer up some hopefully comforting words (chiefly along the lines of how Goddess Anna would hardly be difficult to locate at the moment) all of a sudden there was a gigantic "WOOOSH" so powerful that it swept both Keitie and Judy off their feet.  

They wound up on their backs gazing up at the woman who was responsible for their spill.  

She had brown hair, but unlike Goddess Anna who wore it free, this woman's was tied back into a ponytail and held in place by a single yellow scrunchie.  She was also dressed in almost eye searingly bright outfit made up of red, yellow and blue stripes.  

A cape that was blue with what seemed like red tipped feathers hung about her shoulders.  It secured in place by a green stone the size of your average index and middle finger curled against one another, and embedded in the middle of a yellow necklace.  

Her green eyes were slanted downward in disgust and fixed firmly upon Goddess Anna.  

"Hold it right there you fiend!"  She announced dramatically.  

Keitie meanwhile was slowly regaining her footing, tilting her head upwards at the caped girl.

"Excuse me, but I don't think that this is a situation which really calls for name calling."  She tried to let the new comer know.  

Sadly, the flying woman clearly didn't know how to take a hint.  

"I don't know who you are, and it doesn't matter!  I saw this behemoth destroy valuable city property!  Unless she comes straight with me to the largest jail cell I can find, she'll have to face the wrath of Condora!"  Vowed the woman who Rubbergirl assumed was Condora.  

"I can't afford to be in jail, he'll never find me there in time!"  Goddess Anna blustered and took a step backwards.  

Due to her extreme size this caused her body to brush up against the side of another building, knocking several concrete chips loose.    

"Really?"  Scoffed Condora.  

"Given your habit for reckless destruction of innocent masonry, I'd say that would be exactly where 'he' should think to look for you first!"  The overzealous superheroine replied.  

"Wait, wait, wait, WAIT!"  Keitie cried out at the top of her lungs, trying to get the attention of both a giantess and a woman floating a couple dozen feet overhead.  

As she cried out, Rubbergirl let her right arm grow ever longer until it was able to wrap around Condora's right leg, and sent her left heading for Goddess Anna's shoulder.  Her limb looked pathetically minuscule next to the latter's proportions, but at least no one could accuse her of playing favorites.  

"The two of us got here a bit before you and I'm pretty sure this entire thing is just an accident."  Rubbergirl pleaded trying to get everyone to cool down.  

In response Condora began to kick out with her ensnared leg, before deciding to fly even higher up.  When this still failed to free herself from Keitie's grip she finally turned her gaze upon the green haired girl.  

"Unhand me at once you malleable monster!"  She ordered in the exact same overly pompous tone of voice she'd been using since she first arrived.  

In response to her tirade Rubbergirl sent her arm slithering even further up the flying woman's body, encircling her waist as well now.  

"Not until you calm down.  You may not realize this Condora, but my name is Rubbergirl and I've been a superheroine around these parts a lot longer than you have, so if you'd just..."  Keitie never got a chance to finish that sentence sadly.  

Instead Condora proceeded to simply fly even higher up into the sky.  She did so with such speed that Keitie wasn't able to extend her arm fast enough to create the necessary amount of slack.  Thus, Rubbergirl was yanked right off of her purple boots and found herself dangling awkwardly in midair.  

Her situation got even more awkward when Condora proceeded to make a beeline for a nearby building, she zipped over it with plenty of room to spare, but once more Keitie couldn't manipulate the length of her arm fast enough to avoid diaster.  

With a wet "SPLAT" she slammed against the side of the building, temporarily transformed into a two dimensional version of herself by the impact.  Her arm went limp in shock and Condora was now easily able to wriggle free from its grip before pulling a tight U-turn to approach Goddess Anna once more.

"There, now that I've dealt with your lackeys I can finally give you the attention you deserve!  Put your hands above your head and kneel down on the ground or else!"  She warned while wagging a finger at the giant woman.

Anna just staired at Condora who was comparatively not much larger than a doll to her, completely flummoxed by the situation.  Before she could think of anything to say in response to such a demand Judy did.

"You... birdbrained... bitch... nobody... hurts... Rubbergirl!"  Cried out Crimson Fury in between teleports.  

While she could use her powers to move to any position she wished, there was no way to guarantee her staying there.  Thus when she teleported to some spot nearby Condora, she started to fall almost instantly.  The only way to avoid plummeting downwards was to teleport yet again, which still left her with barely enough time to get a word in edgewise.  

Her most recent teleport brought her within arms reach of Condora, something she planned to take advantage of.  Though she refrained from summoning her energy blades, Crimson Fury still packed a mean right hook.  

Yet, somehow despite teleporting directly behind Condora before launching her assault, Judy's fist ended up striking only empty air.  

Even before she was finished properly cocking back her arm, Condora sensed a disruption in the air currents caused by Crimson Fury's sudden arrival and gained still more altitude to avoid the blow.  Then she spun around with shocking speed and gestured downwards at Judy.  

A gust of air from nowhere suddenly buffeted Crimson Fury, pushing her downwards at an alarming rate.  Cutting her losses, Judy decided to teleport to the roof of a nearby building rather than betting her life on being able to keep one teleport ahead of gravity's grip.  

With Rubbergirl still reinflating herself and Judy forced to sit on the sidelines Condora focused her attention once more on Goddess Anna, seeing that she had done nothing since her last warning.  

"So that's the way its going to be ehh?  In that case you can sample the power of my windslash!"  Condora cried while making a dramatic motion, as if throwing an uppercut, but without bothering to clench her hand into a fist first.

Goddess Anna let loose with a yelp of surprise as all of a sudden a "small" (in the sense of only a foot or so across on her superiszed form) wound appeared on her right cheek.  It was horizontal in nature, a red line which intersected vertical one already located below her eye.  

"Didn't like that did you?"  Condora crowed with delight.

"Well that is just a taste of my true power, if you don't submit..."  When Condora saw how her target was reaction to her first attack she stopped talking and flew as fast as she could.  

Goddess Anna raised her right arm, the metallic hand melding itself into a new shape almost instantly, transforming into some kind of cannon.  To be exact, the kind of cannon whose mouth glowed with translucent blue energy before firing off a sphere of the stuff.

It zipped through the air almost as quickly as Condora, only to suddenly explode sending waves of energy in all directions.  Condora began to wiggle back and forth slightly, like a surfer being buffed by a great wave, but she managed to increase her speed yet again and fly free of the blast.  

Judy knew that there was no way she'd be able to catch up with the flying superheroine at the moment, so she'd have to stick take a different approach to stopping this battle.

She teleported to Anna's shoulder feeling awkwardly like the conscience representing angel from someone's imagination.  

"You, really, really, really need to stop doing that." She suggested to Goddess Anna in the most low key tone of voice she could manage.  

It still wasn't enough to stop the Crimson Fury from finding herself the target of the largest scowl she had ever received in her life.  

"Why should I?  She started it!"  The giantess shot back while her arm was clearly charging up another blast of blue energy.  

"I'm aware of that... considering that she scrapped my girlfriend off on the side of a building, I can't imagine any way for me to possibly be more aware of it in fact!.  That said, even if she's behaving cuckoo, that's no excuse for causing property damage and possibly even harming people!"  Judy protested.  

"Property damage?  Harming people?  Me doing that should be the least of your worries.  My arms blast disperse harmlessly without any sort of shrapnel  The worst that is going to happen is I'll rattle some skyscraper's windows!"  Goddess Anna replied confidently as her left arm decided it wanted to be a glistening energy cannon also.  

She scanned the surroundings looking for Condora, as did Judy, hoping that she wouldn't have to find out what happened if those things were fired at a target near street level instead of flying high in the sky.  

In the end, neither of them saw Condora coming until it was too late.  

While Goddess Anna had been busy talking with Judy, Condora had used her extreme speed to take the longest loop around possible and approaching the pair from the side and so close to ground level her she had to weave in and out of traffic.  

Then she rose upwards slashing at the empty space around her, once more summoning the powers of wind to her aid.  

"AHHH!"  Goddess Anna screamed in pain as the metallic tail connected to her spine was severed by an invisible and incalculably sharp blade made of pure air.

Without her tail Anna's body began to sway wildly and Judy got while the getting was good, teleporting to the top of a building on the far side of the road.  Sure enough, Anna staggered about for a few more seconds before she tripped and fell face first against a city street.  The one small blessing was that said street had become completely devoid of traffic at the first sign of the supersized woman.  

"Yes!"  Condora cackled triumphantly.

"I knew I could do it!  It's just like they say, the bigger they are, the harder they fall!  Well that looked like one pretty damn hard fall you just went through!  Now then, you can all surrender to my might or..."  Luck turned out not on Condora's side that day.  

Her dramatic speech was rudely interrupted with a wet "plop" as Keitie landed.  

Rubbergirl had gotten herself back together, climbed to the top of the building, and jumped off.  She'd also used her powers to carefully angle her body so that she land right on top of Condora.  

Her body expanded outwards like a living air bag, or at least an air bag mixed with a straight jacket.  She wrapped herself around Condora binding her arms and legs together and squishing her fluttery cape against her body just as tightly.  

Keitie wasn't exactly sure how she'd done it, but these restraints managed to make Condora drop like a rock.  The pair plummeted towards the ground, and Keitie puffed herself up even further so as to fully absorb the shock of the landing.  

When the two finally stopped rebounding about from their initial impact against the ground Condora began to wiggle about trying to break free of the elastic girl's grip.  Such efforts were completely in vain of course as few could hold a prisoner more firmly than Rubbergirl.

After finally giving up Condora spoke once more.  

"Fine, you may have won for now you pathetic piece of putty!  Just get it over with and drag me off to your evil lair!"  She demanded bitterly.  

Keitie sighed heavily and glowered at the brown haired woman.  

"Well I would do that, except for one little thing.... I AM A SUPERHEROINE!"  If Keitie had been able to shout as loudly as she wanted those last four words would have deafened Condora.  

As it was, her captive put up a few more faint struggles before looking at Keitie with wide eyed surprise, her voice suddenly much more timid.  

"Wait, really?"  She squeaked.

"Believe me, I'd love to be a supervillainess right now, if I was one then I wouldn't have to worry about working alongside a brat like you!"  Keitie admitted.

"And that other woman?  The huge one?"  Condora asked, her voice seeming to grow even fainter.  

"From what I can see she's probably a superheroine also.  One who has some seemingly rather awkward powers, but a superheroine, or at worst some kind of superpowered civilian."  Keitie explained.  

"I really made a mess of this didn't I?"  Condora pondered, a question as rhetorical as Goddess Anna was big.

She twisted about, no longer trying to escape form Keitie, but instead wanting to find a way to get her body completely contained within Rubbergirl' grip and vanish from view.  

"I mean.... well... I only got my powers a day ago, and I spent most of yesterday working on my costume and moving into my new apartment, so I just thought that I'd... you know..."  Condora stuttered and stammered, all traces of her previously bombastic personality rapidly fading.  

"Look there's more to being a superheroine than just having powers, throwing on a costume and going out to fight crime.  There's a certain amount of judgement and common sense required."  Keitie informed the rookie superheroine.  

"You know, it'd be nice if I could leave you two alone for an hour without having to worry about a good sized chunk of the city getting destroyed."  Announced a new voice.  

A white haired woman with a pair of huge arms in a green armored suit ambled onto the scene of the battle, moving with surprising grace despite how top heavy she should have been.  

A moment later Crimson Fury teleported down to the street level to great the final member of her team.  

"Look Ultra this wasn't our fault, it was this scrambled egg who went crazy!"  She blustered while pointing at Condora.

Ultra Striker turned her attention to the still huge Goddess Anna who was laying on the ground.  

"So what exactly were you two planning to do about this not so little problem?"  Asked the team's technological expert.  

"I can't stand up... too dizzy...."  Moaned Anna who was still face down in chipped concrete.  

"She just wants to get back to normal size... and we should probably do the same for her tail also...."  Keitie filled in her teammate.  

Ultra Striker nodded and made a few quick hand motions which caused a small device to pop out of her gauntlets.  

"Well it just so happens that while I was on my way here I caught delayed helping a guy out of his car after it got wrecked in a minor accident.  Said his name was "Tisin" I believe.

It just so happens he was wearing a blue jewelled headband just like you are.  The stone even had the same symbol on it, a circle with a wavy loopy line after it.  Sorta like a sperm with an extra long tail to be honest."  The huge handed superheroine began to explain.

"Tisin?  Was he hurt?"  Anna asked showing a sudden burst of emotion.

It was followed up by her body flailing about wildly, before she recalled how utterly messed up her sense of equilibrium was, and going back to just laying there passively.

"Nothing was bruised but his ego and his wallet.  Now then, he said that he needed to get this injector to some 'goddess' or other, I assume that's you?"  The white haired woman clarified.

"Yes, and by the way that 'sperm' is the noble zodiac symbol for Leo!"  Anna retorted before Ultra Striker proceeded to drive the syringe into the other woman's back.  

Almost instantly Anna began to decrease in size and she slowly dwindled away until she was back to being only a bit over seven feet tall instead of her formerly truly titanic proportions.

After being fully shrunk Goddess Anna awkwardly climbed to her feet though her eyes were still a bit wide and her steps unsteady.

"My tail... we're going to need to get my tail back on before I feel normal again."  She lamented.

In response Catherine flipped out yet another device with a smile on her face.

"Look, this shrink ray isn't much good in combat because it needs to be focused on someone or something for around thirty seconds without them moving, but it should get your tail back to normal size so we can carry it back with us."  She said before getting to work.

Clearly this was going to be a long day for all of them.

----


"There that should do the trick..."  Ultra Striker announced as she removed the goggles she had put on in order to weld Goddess Anna's tail back on.  

Just to make sure everything was in proper working order Goddess Anna twitched her tail a few moments and then shot the others a smile.  

"Thanks, believe me you don't know how grateful I am.  My body is... well it is really weird."  She said while finally sitting back up.  

Though Goddess Anna could walk on her own, she had been so awkward that both Judy and Condora had offered to support her on their journey back to Rubbergirl's home.  Once she had arrived the blue and yellow armored woman had collapsed onto the couch and she'd been laying there on her back the entire time as if experiencing the worlds worse case of vertigo.  

"I'm sorry about this all yet again... its just... I mean those metal arms, that spiky tail, the way you took out a water tower, you totally looked like a supervillianess to me."  The now much less exuberant Condora admitted.  

"Look lets just make sure this never happens again..."  Ultra Striker replied while she proceeded to pull out a pair of devices from her gauntlets, and proceeded to toss one to Goddess Anna and Condora.

"Since we're all on the same side, there's no reason that we shouldn't be in contact with one another.  Goddess Anna you can use that to contact me if you have any more unexpected and untreatable growth surges.  Not that you should since the reason it took me so long to fix your tail was that I also was improving it, its now got a small compartment in it to store your special serum."  Ultra Strike explained.

Goddess Anna got off the couch and twisted her tail around, and without explanation made it move in just the right way to cause a small metal needle to poke out of it, with the special liquid still stored safely within the tail itself.  

"Perfect!"  Anna declared in delight.  

Ultra Striker now turned to the other new superheroine in the room.

"Condora, my gauntlets have a built in database of all known supervillians and supervillianesses in the world along with three dimensional holographic display.  If you haven't gotten where this is going, next time you're not sure if someone is a bad guy or girl, call me up and ask me.  

So that should take of both of you, and as for my teammates..."  She then turned to her more long term teammates and slowly raised an eyebrow at each of them before finally speaking hr thoughts.  

"Well clearly the only way I'm going to feel safe again is if I manage to find a guy I like so that we can double date."  She contemplated aloud.

Keitie and Judy exchanged awkward glances and then both nodded.  

When Ultra Striker started talking in her current dead pan tone of voice there wasn't going to be any point in standing up to her, no matter what kind of superpowers you had to back you up.