...where earlier today a team of machine-gun toting bank-robbers were apprehended by Velocity and The Phazer. Authorities released a statement claiming the criminals were under the employ of Master Disaster, the arch-criminal assumed to be behind a recent outbreak of man-made Tsunami's which have leveled the South Pacific...
Reaching to his car's dashboard, Travis Adams changed the radio station for the fifth time in as many minutes. He hated listening to the news while driving; the two and a half hour trip from his parent's rural Missouri home back to Gateway City University was boring enough without making it worse by dull news-talk. He found a top 40 station and settled there despite not favoring the song, vowing to install a stereo with a compact disc player as soon as he could afford it. Fortunately for his boredom Travis had reached the outskirts of Gateway City and was nearly returned to school.
Unfortunately, his trip was about to grow suddenly exciting.
On the opposite side of the freeway, where traffic was oncoming, a car in the process of carelessly changing lanes had inadvertently cut-off a semi-truck and trailer. To avoid hitting the reckless driver the truck was forced to swerve and careen across the median directly into opposite traffic – directly towards Travis. He watched it all happen as though it were occurring in slow motion – the truck kicking up grass and dirt as it barreled over the median, its heavy trailer swaying dangerously behind it. The truck driver slammed on his brakes and cranked his steering wheel, attempting to steer the truck out of opposing traffic, but this simply jack-knifed the trailer so that it was sliding sideways across the freeway.
"Oh shit!" Travis yelled wide-eyed, seeing his own death sliding towards him. Driving the sixty-five mile-an-hour limit there was nowhere to go. No time to stop. No chance to steer his car out of the way. All he could do was duck and lay across his front seat to avoid being beheaded.
A thunderous crunch echoed all around him as the bottom of the semi-trailer swiped the top off of Travis' sedan, the sound of ripping metal and shattering glass causing him to clench his eyes shut and curl up the best he could. The car became wedged beneath the trailer, its momentum violently halted, throwing Travis against the dash and to the floor of his vehicle. He hadn't been wearing his seatbelt, a fact that saved Travis' life; had it been on he wouldn't have been able to lie across the seat and avoid losing his head.
With the bottom of the semi-trailer above him, pinning him inside the car, Travis reached for the passenger door handle and tried opening it, but the door was wrinkled by the impact and refused to open. He wouldn't have panicked save for the fact that smoke was pouring through the dash from a fire in his car's engine compartment. Something hot pressed against his foot and Travis glanced down to see flames licking at his sneaker from beneath the brake pedal. He yanked on the passenger door handle again, helplessly trying to escape the twisted wreckage that was his car.
"Help!" he screamed, "Can anyone hear me?!"
Travis was sure he was going to die. He'd either be burned alive, or his car would explode when the flames reached the gas tank. Travis hoped it would be the latter, assuming an explosion would be the quicker death. He found himself wondering if cars really did blow-up, or if that only happened in the movies.
"Help!" he yelled again, kicking at the flames in a futile attempt to quench them. He pulled at the door handle repeatedly, pulled it so hard that it snapped off and ended any hope he held for escape. He thought of his parents, whom he had seen only two hours prior, and his older sister, who was attending school a half-country away. He wanted to say goodbye to them. To tell them he loved them...
With thoughts consumed by his own doom, Travis suddenly heard the groan of metal above him. The semi-trailer began to rise off his car as though levitating. It was a miracle! Would he live? Could he escape?
Travis tried to scramble to freedom only to have his hopes dashed when he discovered the car's steering column had bent downward in the collision, pinning him at the hips.
He heard a confident feminine voice, "Stay calm, I'll have you out of there in a second."
Able to lift his head and look over the side of his mangled automobile, Travis saw that the trailer wasn't levitating. A girl, a young woman, was lifting it! The trailer had to weigh at least thirty tons but she held it above up-stretched arms as though it were no heavier than an empty cardboard box.
She tossed it to a clear ditch on the side of the highway, away from the multitude of stopped cars parked in the middle of the freeway. It landed with a thunderous sound and rolled twice into a field of marshy grass.
The girl wore the uniform of a superhero. It was a spandex outfit, like a one-piece swimsuit, except with long sleeves, colored in red and blue with black trim. A mask covered the top half of her face though her long, wavy blonde hair was unobscured. Black and blue boots rose up her ankles to just beneath the knee, baring the entirety of her golden-tan thighs. Travis recognized her instantly from the dozens of times he had seen her on television.
It was Mega-Girl!
"Help!" he cried, suddenly remembering the flames licking at his feet.
Mega-Girl turned as soon as she had tossed the semi-trailer clear of the scene and saw flames rising from Travis' car's engine. Spreading her arms wide, she slammed her palms together in a massive clap sending a shockwave-burst of air towards the car, instantly snuffing out the fire. With her bare hands she bent the steering column off Travis and ripped the driver's side door open as though it was made of paper-mache.
Scrambling out of the wreckage, Travis heard dozens of onlookers suddenly start cheering. People were standing all around the highway next to their cars having witnessed the accident, raising their fists and clapping at Mega-Girl's heroic efforts. Some of them held their cell phones in the air filming the event on digital video.
"Are you all right?" she asked, ignoring the throng and examining Travis' person for signs of injury.
"I-I think so," he answered, somewhat in shock at the fact he was even alive. His shoulder was sore from the initial impact with the semi, but it wasn't severe. He sensed nothing was broken.
"The authorities are on their way," Mega-Girl told him, lifting a hand to a blue-tooth device attached to her ear. "But you better have the paramedics check you out just in case."
And then she abruptly turned.
"Wait!" Travis urged before she could fly away.
Mega-Girl paused to glance over her shoulder.
"Thanks for saving my life."
She smiled, "You're welcome."
The smile was radiant, Travis thought. And her blue eyes, visible through the openings in her mask, were nothing short of stunning. He didn't want her to leave, "Um, would you want to get some coffee, sometime?"
Mega-Girl giggled, unable to hide her amusement.
Travis winced as soon as he said it, hearing how cliché he sounded.
"Are you asking me out on a date?" she asked with a smile.
"No!" Travis blurted, realizing how out of place his offer was in that moment. "N-no, I just... I'd like to thank you properly. You know, by buying you a cup of... um, yeah. I guess that's kind of silly, huh? As though a cup of coffee is worth my life."
"Usually after I save someone they want an autograph, or to take a selfie with me on their cell phone. No one has ever asked me out before."
"I hate selfies," Travis replied, dusting some broken glass off his tee-shirt. "I just... I mean... if it wasn't for you I'd be dead. And... please, let me properly thank you."
"So you're not asking me out?" she teased.
Her smile was infectious and a goofy grin decorated Travis' dirt-scuffed face.
Mega-Girl heard the sound of sirens in the distance and sensed the crowd of on-lookers closing in. She didn't want to be mobbed by a crowd seeking a small piece of her fame and began to rise into the air. "I'd love to get some coffee with you," she laughed.
Watching her float upwards Travis was stunned at her answer, "Really? Uh, do you want my number? How will I find you?"
"Don't worry," she smiled in reply. "You're about to get your fifteen minutes of fame. I'll be able to find you."
And then she was gone, careening across the sky under her own power of flight. Travis watched her form until it was a speck on the horizon and he became surrounded by people.
"...that was Mega-Girl!"
"...what did she say?"
"...oh-my-gawd she's so awesome!"
"...I've never seen anything so amazing!"
"...she totally looks taller on television..."
=======
Michael Blonsky had it good. He had risen from his days as a teenaged punk running scams in the back-alley mazes of Gateway City's warrens to become the personal bodyguard for Tony Cicero – Tony was one of the fastest rising stars in Gateway City's notorious criminal underworld. No longer would Blonsky have to sell fake jewelry from the trunk of a rusted-out sedan, or hire himself out as muscle for loan sharks who needed to give deadbeat clients a broken leg. Blonsky was somebody. He had a nice apartment, a nice car, and wore thousand-dollar suits every day. How many other ex-thugs from the warrens could say that? Not many, he knew. Few ever made it out of the warrens.
It was those proud thoughts of his elevated station that occupied Blonsky's thoughts as he stood guard outside Tony Cicero's penthouse suite at the Arches Hotel. Blonsky was on top of the world; he could handle anything that came his way. Or so he thought when the doors of Tony Cicero's private elevator slid open to reveal a woman.
Her figure was stunning and scantily clad. She was wearing lacy panties with an equally lacy corset that lifted her breasts into obscenely glorious bulges of flesh. Sheer thigh-high stockings and high heels did nothing to hide the perfection of the woman's legs. Everything was white, except a feathery masquerade mask concealing the top half of her face, which was black. The mask's color matched her long curly hair, which fell in bouncing rings just past the blades of her bared shoulders.
