TERAWOMAN AND TITAN GIRL

By Ace Corona

NOTE: This story takes place after the events in "Megawoman & Goddess-Girl"

Seferino Pico shouted with joy in his garage laboratory. "Eureka!" he said, "I've discovered the world's strongest alloy!"

He rushed into the living room of his house and told his wife, "You see, do you see? After all these years of you telling me I was wasting my time I finally did it! This alloy is at least ten times stronger than titanium!"

He held up a thin piece of wire and ushered her into the garage and put the wire in a vice. He tightened the vice, then hit the wire with a hammer. "Do you see?" he asked her. "This hammer doesn't even dent this strand of alloy!"

"I think you should contact a research firm with your discovery. You'll be rich!" his wife told him.

"Yes," he agreed, "and I know just where to go!"

Meanwhile, at the local junior high school, Corky was conducting cheerleader tryouts. A Hispanic girl in a miniskirt walked up and introduced herself to Corky.

"Hi!" the girl said, "I'm Rose Pico! I'd like to try out for the school cheerleader squad."

"Okay," Corky replied, "Let's see what you can do!"

Rose did a somersault and worked a couple of handstands into her routine as she moved to the rhythm of the music being played by Corky's boom-box. When she was done, she raised her hands in the air and bowed, awaiting Corky's decision.

"Vanessa, Becky, and Susan...you three made the squad. The other three of you...I'm sorry, you just didn't make the cut."

As Corky unplugged her boom-box, Rose became angry. "I worked hard on my routine, and I think I did better then Vanessa and Becky!"

"I'm sorry you feel that way," Corky replied as she picked up her radio, "but I think I did a fair job of judging the competition. You can try again next semester!"

"You just want cheerleaders with blonde hair and blue eyes! You didn't pick me or Miranda because we're Mexican!"

"That's just not true," Corky replied.

"Yes it is! And you haven't heard the last from me!"

That afternoon, Corky's older sister Kate was standing in the office of her father's secretary at the Campbell research facility. "I'm sure it's okay to send you in, Kate!"

Kate walked in, and saw her enemy Tara Pico standing next to a man who was talking to her father Cornelius. "Oh, Kate!" Cornelius said, "I'd like you to meet Seferino Pico! He's a new client of mine!"

Kate shook hands with him. "I know your daughter," Kate said to him. "She was going out with my boyfriend Quentin before I got to know him."

"Don't you mean you stole him from me?" Tara asked, "tell the truth, Kate!"

"Now, now!" Cornelius said, "There's no reason we can't all get along, despite any past differences you girls might have. Kate, Mr. Pico has just developed a revolutionary new alloy that's close to a dozen times stronger than titanium! I'm paying him a 50 million dollar advance to let our facility have exclusive use of his formula!"

"Cool," Kate answered, "I can't wait to tell everyone at school!"

"You must do nothing of the kind!" Cornelius urged. "I want you to keep quiet about this, Kate. I don't want a rival company finding out about this alloy and stealing the formula!"

A while later, Rose walked home to her humble house as her father and her sister Tara pulled up in the driveway. Mr. Pico told Rose about the alloy and the advance, and pulled out a wad of hundred dollar bills. He peeled off five hundred dollars for Rose.

"This is the coolest day of my life!" Rose said to Tara. "Now if only we could get revenge on the Campbell sisters, my victory would be complete!"

"What's stopping us?" Tara asked. "Professor Corona's laboratory is at the Campbell research facility. It's public knowledge that the time travel technology that made Kate and Corky grow a few weeks back is in that lab. I'll tell you what, Rose...I'll drive you over there and wait for you while you steal the gadgets that'll make us grow!"

"Okay!" Rose said.

They pulled up around the block from the Campbell research facility, and Rose got out of the car. She ran to the side of the building that faced a hill, where she knew professor Corona's lab was located. The huge construction crew that was working on repairing the damage when the time-probe grew gave credibility to the fact that Rose was in the right place.

She walked through the huge open bay door and snuck in. Soon, professor Corona saw her, and said "Hi!"

"Hi," Rose replied, "I came here to do a school report on the technology that Corky and Kate Campbell utilize to make themselves grow."

Professor Corona, both gullible and eager to help out anyone interested in the sciences, broke out all the equipment related to the time travel experiment. He laid out the latest gadgets, and explained how Corky and Kate would activate them. He went into detail about the scientific theory, and explained that the devices Rose was looking at now were functional back-up units designed to replace the units Kate and Corky currently had.

Rose picked up the device and tethered it to her wrist. "And I activate it by punching in a size on this display?"

"Yes," the professor answered, "but you'd better be outside if you were to actually activate it."

Rose walked through the bay door. Professor Corona pleaded with her the whole time to take it off, but she wouldn't listen. Once outside, she punched in 200 feet and activated it! In an instant, Rose was 200 feet tall..."Henceforth, I shall be known as Titan-Girl!"

Her laughter thundered over the lab as she walked away toward town. Professor Corona could still see her after she was more than a mile away, because she was so big!

Titan-Girl raised her foot and stomped a car into the ground. "I'm so powerful! I really am a Titan-Girl!"

She ripped a tree out of the ground and threw it a sixteenth of a mile. She stomped on another car, then another and another. Her laughter filled the air as she was intoxicated with power. She was heading downtown...

Meanwhile, Tara got out of the car and watched her sister stomp off toward town. She closed the door of the car, and ran to professor Corona's lab. When she got to the area where the construction workers were, she knew sh'd found the right place. "Professor Corona!" she said, "what happened to my sister?"

"She took one of my temporal phasing initiator devices and grew to the size of a Titan! I can only imagine what she'll do with her newfound power!"

The professor turned on a televison and turned it to the local news channel. There was an image of Rose, 200 feet tall, marching toward downtown. She could be seen stomping on cars along the way.

"Good heavens!" the professor said, "she'll destroy everything in her path if somebody doesn't stop her soon!"

"Leave that to me, professor! I'm her older sister, and I can get her to listen to me! Give me one of those size-expander wristbands!"

"It's a temporal phase initiator!" the professor answered.

"Whatever! Just give me one, so I can grow and stop her!"

The professor gave her the wristband device, and she strapped it on and went outside. Once clear of any obstructions, Tara punched in 250 feet and activated the device. She grew instantly, and when she was 250 feet tall, she said: "Let the world live in fear of the reign of Terawoman!"

With that, she stomped off in the direction of her sister. Professor Corona could only stand and watch as she stomped off. "Perhaps I've made yet another mistake!" he said to himself.

Meanwhile, Titan-Girl got bored stomping the downtown area of San Luis Obispo. "I'm going to Corky Campbell's mansion!" she said, and stomped off in that direction. Tara got downtown just after Rose had left, and surveyed the path of destruction. Looking off in the distance, she could see her sister, so she headed in that direction.

On the way to Corky's mansion, Titan-Girl saw a potential victim on the street below her. It was a photographer from a newspaper, and he was taking photos of her. She reached down and grabbed him.

"Prepare to surrender to the belly of Titan-Girl!" she said, and thrust him into her mouth. After a few moments, she swallowed the helpless man.

Rose arrived at the mansion, and stomped on Cornelius Campbell's Mercedes. She yelled out a challenge to Corky: "Come out and face me, bitch! Now I'm just as powerful as you! If you have a problem with Mexicans, why don't you tell me to my face?"

Corky stepped out of the front door in her blue and gold cheerleader uniform. Looking up and seeing Rose, she keyed in 200 feet in her wristband and ran clear of the mansion, then activated the temporal phase initiator. Corky ballooned up to match Titan-Girl's height.

"What's your problem with me, Rose?" Corky asked. "I told you I judged you by your performance, not your race! Why can't you just accept that?"

Rose picked up the smashed Mercedes and threw it at Goddess-Girl. Corky blocked it with her forearm, and it dropped to the ground, even more smashed up than after Rose had stepped on it.

Meanwhile, a couple of miles away, professor Corona was being escorted to the Campbell residence in a military jeep. Several jeeps were on their way there, armed with a unique weapon.

"So what is the weapon that we're carrying?" Professor Corona asked. A strange futuristic cannon was in the back of the jeep.

"It's an alpha-wave maser!" the driver replied. "Don't ask me why we're using it--all I know is they don't want to shoot this 'Titan-Girl' with ammunition, so they figured this was the best alternative. Personally, I think we should just shoot her with real bullets!"

Titan-Girl could now be seen in the distance fighting with Goddess-Girl. They were both about 200 feet tall. The corporal armed and powered up the generator that supplied power to the alpha-wave maser, and took aim.

Titan-Girl's arm was in the air at that exact moment, the arm the temporal phasing initiator was strapped to. The corporal opened fire, and the wristband exploded. Titan-Girl screamed!

The military soldiers and officers cheered because the corporal had scored a direct hit. The maser beam had hit Titan-Girl's wrist, arm, and head. She dropped to the ground with a loud THUD!

When they approached the Campbell property in their jeeps, Titan-Girl was waking up. The strap on her wrist had been burned off, so she shouldn't be able to grow or shrink now. But she started growing!

"She doesn't have temporal phasing initiators! How can she possibly be growing?"

"Of course!" professor Corona said to the corporal, "That TPI technology uses alpha-waves to generate the dimensional phasing...since the human brain generates alpha-waves, Titan-Girl is now somehow able to control her growing ability through the force of sheer will!"

"You mean," the corporal asked, "she can grow now, just by using the power of her mind?"

"Yes!" professor Corona said, "and you people are responsible for it!"

Rose Grew to about ten times bigger than Goddess-Girl, who was already standing at 200 feet in height. At 2000 feet tall, Titan-Girl raised her foot to step on Goddes-Girl. Goddess-Girl jumped out of the way just in time, and keyed in her wristband and grew to match Titan-Girl's size.

Terawoman keyed in her wristband to match the size of Rose and Corky. The three titanesses were engaged in battle, and things didn't look good for Corky. Suddenly, in the distance, Megawoman could be seen!

She was about 2000 feet tall, and she was walking around the edge of town to avoid stepping on houses. As Terawoman and Titan-Girl punched Goddess-Girl relentlessly, Megawoman showed up and jumped into the air, kicking Terawoman in the stomach. knocking her down. She fell into the servants quarters, completely smashing it. Luckily, there was nobody inside.

Terawoman got up to hit Megawoman back, but Megawoman held out her hand and said, "Stop! Both of you! This has to stop right here, right now!"

"Kate," Corky said, "Rose has the power to grow on her own, without a wristband!"

"Are you serious?" Kate asked.

"Yes! She can grown and shrink using the power of her mind!"

"Why should we listen to you?" Titan-Girl asked Megawoman.

"Because," Megawoman answered, "you can be charged for any damages or injury you cause when you're at giant-size. The city isn't your playground!"

"Well," Titan-Girl countered, "who's going to stop us? We can just keep growing!"

"The military can stop you!" Kate answered, "you're not invincible, you know! They can kill you, if they try hard enough!"

"Kate's right," Tara said, "we need to surrender, Rose!"

Later that after noon, in the professor's laboratory, professor Corona was administering syrup of ipecac to Rose, so she could regurgitate the man she had swallowed at giant-size. When Rose puked him up, he was still alive, and the professor used his equipment to re-enlarge him back to normal-size.

One of the military men, General Barger, was overseeing the situation. "Now that Titan-Girl has the power to grow at will, I want Kate and Courtney Campbell to wear those size-changing wristbands at all times!'

"They're temporal phase initiators!" professor Corona corrected.

"Whatever!" General Barger said. "Just make sure they have those wristbands at all times!"

"No problem, General Barger!" the professor said.

THE END