So... school is a place where children learn about the world around them and develop both skills and social bonds, before moving out into the world to forage for themselves?" Diana questioned as they were walking around what was known as the 'field of foot'. Which was strange, considering all fields were meant to be traversed by foot. She was still getting used to the customs of this strange new world, which include this daily ritual of going to the same building for eight hours of man's times through five days of the week.
"Yep." And her best guide for man's world, Iruma, followed closely by her second best guide, Barbara, answered her question with a nod. "We go there, go to classes, do homework, quizzes, and exams based on the stuff we're taught. Then we get graded based on how good or bad we did."
"Ah, so they criticize us harshly and severely for failure?" Just like mother did to make sure she improved her skills daily.
"Pretty much." Barbara nodded. "We're graded on a letter system, from A to F., F for failure and A for success!"
"Wouldn't it be S for success?" Diana asked. "And A for average?"
"No, C is for average." Iruma explained.
"I did not know average was spelled with a C."
"No, it's based on how close you are to the first letter of the alphabet." Barbara explained.
"Aaaah, A for Alpha!" Now she was getting it.
"...Pretty much." Iruma shrugged for some reason. "Anyways, the more A's you get, the better you do in school, which will lead to more opportunities in the future for yourself."
"Then I shall get nothing but A's for my stay in school!" Diana exclaimed with vigor. "This, I swear!"
"Sweet! Now all we got to do is narrow down your electives." Barbara took out a list of paper. "These are extra activities you can do to increase your grades pad out your resume, like Gymnastics, track and field, for me personally I've joined the school marching band-"
"I shall sign up for them all." Diana nodded firmly.
"… All of them?" For some reason Barbara's enthusiasm seemed to die out.
"Correct. If they shall increase my grades, then I must prove successful in all of them." She nodded.
"I don't see a problem with that." Iruma nodded. "I have twenty five jobs, school activities don't seem that bad by comparison." Exactly.
Diana turned her head, noticing something pleasant. "Wow, it's nice to see such a wonderful bonding of students. They are helping Karen by carrying her to her class."
"They're what now?" Barbara turned her head to see a girl in orange holding up Karen by the collar as she carried her.
"Uh uh... Doris, I'd... I'd love it if you'd please put me down..." The meek and shy Karen spoke out.
"Oh, I will." Said girl smirked, vanishing inside the locker room.
"Uh... I don't think they're helping her." Iruma muttered.
"Why else would another student of clearly physically stronger stature carry around another of smaller and meeker stature under their arm like a pair of luggage?" Diana asked.
"...Does the concept of bullying exist on Themyscira?" Barbra asked.
"We herd male bovines for feasting while the females provide milk."
"Hold on, I've been reading up on Greek mythology." Iruma looked at a book. "They are... I wanna say the closest equivalent would be followers of AresEris that technically don't break the laws set by man."
"So she is a chaotic, no- good scoundrel that deserves to be driven into exile to live out their delusions of madness in isolation?"
"Yeah, hand me that book, I'm gonna be using it all day." Barbara snatched it from Iruma. "Point is that you're on the mark with the scoundrel bit. That girl is a bully, and bullies don't treat people very nicely, especially smaller and weaker people like Karen."
"Ha!" Diana scoffed. "Karen may be small, but she is by no means weak. Surely this 'bully' has been brutally defeated and thwarted by her superior intellect and technology as we speak."
"Hahahaha!" Said 'Bully', a red headed girl with a slight resemblance to the tales of the trolls of old in a yellow sweatsuit. "Seriously, it's like she was born to be stuffed in a locker. I haven't dented any of them with her short head."
"Honestly, it's sad how easy it is to break that kid's spirit." Spoke a girl with black hair and a blue stripe. "Maybe we should try looking at some of the new girls and see how easy it is to make them cry."
"... And it would be illegal if I threw them off a cliff, correct?"
"Very." Both Barbara and Iruma answered.
"Decapitate?"
"Don't even start." Iruma crossed her arms.
"Poison?"
"If it ends in death, the answer's a no, even if she WAS committing felonies and crimes." Barbara added.
"And if you poisoned their food, then we'll REALLY have an issue to talk about." Iruma added.
"Very well., Comecome sisters, we must confront and assist Karen in her time of need." She took them by the arms and walked over to the locker room.
"Ah, you're talking about the girl's locker room." Iruma slipped out of her grip.
"Yes, we as sisters in arms are confronting our fellow sister in arms in the bathing chamber for the female attendance of this school." Diana nodded in confirmation. "Is there some sort of issue that prevents you from doing so?"
"Just …" She sighed. "Alright, how about I try working out against the bullies in a way that isn't wrong, while you and Barbara talk to Karen?"
"Ah, a division of labors." She nodded in understanding, patting the blue haired girl's shoulder. "May Artemis be with you on your hunt."
"And may Hera… help you talk with... Karen..." Iruma shook her head before walking away.
"... You REALLY can't see it?" Barbara asked with her brow raised as she pointed to Iruma. "Like… it's not that hard to figure out."
"I can… she is a true sister through and through." Diana nodded.
"...uggh.." Barbara groaned in frustration before walking inside. "Karen, you in here? We saw you get dragged in by that walking pile of meat in the shape of a girl and wanted to see if you were alright."
"In here." Spoke one of the lockers.
"132, that's Sara Jones, locker combination is her birthday …" Barbara muttered as she spun a dial, before opening it up to reveal Karen.
"... I'm afraid to ask how you know that."
"I'm a bat, which means I'm a detective, which means I gotta observe my surroundings and examine everything. I'm halfway through memorizing every locker combination in this school!"
"Excellent work." Diana nodded. "Now Karen, what strange and esoteric power made you lose such a brawl?"
"I…" Karen sighed. "I didn't fight."
"... Jessica, your pacifism is proving to be detrimental to this team." Diana grumbled. How many times did she need to pummel the girl before she learned the value of hitting your enemy into submission?
"No, no it's not that, I... I just... She's bigger and stronger than me—--"
"And you're smarter and have more well developed armor." Diana countered. "Why do you not fight back?" She asked. "Or ask for help against this mighty foe?"
"If you help me, Doris is just going to wait until I'm alone and make it even worse." Karen said with a frightened expression. "And I'm NOT strong! In case everyone forgot, my armor makes me smaller and weaker than everyone around me."
"Didn't you get started on the laser system we've developed." Barbara asked.
"Yeah, but if I make it any stronger than a bee sting then it'll use up more power than the solar panels can absorb." Karen explained. "And it's not like I can take out my armor in the middle of her chasing me or beating me up, then it's bye bye secret identity and hello an eternity of grounding."
Diana still didn't understand secret identities, but all of her sisters held great value in it, so she would respect their choices. "You're still smarter than your opponent, that much is clear." Diana stated.
She looked down, remained self-doubt. "Yeah, but that doesn't matter if she pounds me before I can do anything."
"Then we must work on your evasion." Diana accepted the answer. "Let us train, sisters!"
"But we still have classes-" Karen ducked underneath a punch. "Ahh!"
"We shall train on our way to class!" She exclaimed. "You can always fit training into the most mundane of activities!"
"We're not suppose to!"
"Well, today we shall change that!"
"Don't worry, Karen. I grew up in Gotham, I'm great at stuff like this." Barbara carried Karen's arm and dragged her away from another punch.
"Are you as good as Iruma!?"
"... Let's not talk about that and keep running!"
How did Iruma keep getting dragged into stuff like this? Cause you care. Riiight. To help people. Especially those close to him. He may have not known the others that long, but he's been around long enough to know he hit the jackpot when it came to friends, and he wasn't going to let it go at any rate.
And if one of those friends was being harassed because someone found it fun, that was his problem too. Now the question was how was he going to go about it? He didn't like fighting people, and jerk or not., Itit wasn't like the girl was a supervillain like Lex or Lena Luthor.
Maybe he could talk it out? Teenagers were more reasonable than adults at times. They probably just wanted lunch money or something like that. Admittedly, Iruma was still getting used to school himself. He wasn't Diana levels of naive, but he wasn't as experienced as Barbara was at it either. Fact was, this was the first time in a long time he's been around so many other kids his age for a long period of time.
In fact, the closest he got to people his own age the last seven years were Onee-san, Ollie, and like five or so Atlanteans. He had hoped Tula didn't want to pierce his chest and rip out his heart…
Iruma shook his head. Time to find the girl, talk to her, and hope that a simple conversation would be enough to get her to back off. Now lets see where she was- "Doris, wait, I did all your homework like you said!" The familiar voice of Garth rung in the air as Iruma turned his head around the corner of the hall.
"It better be straight A's, or I'll figure out something smaller to fit you in than a locker." The buff looking red head grumbled as she shoved Garth in. "You barely fit as it is with that beach ball you call a stomach."
"I'm not fat, I'm just growing—--" The locker door was slammed in the Atlantean's face.
"Yeah, yeah, keep telling yourself that." The girl, Doris apparently, rolled her eyes. So that explains how Garth got stuck last time.
Okay, so it wasn't just just Karen, it was Garth too, and probably more people Iruma didn't know. Now he was really invested in this. "Excuse me." He greeted. "I heard you were bullying my friends."
"Iruma, run!" Garth shouted as the girl slammed her hand on the locker door.
"Quiet, nerd, or I'm smashing you like a can of tuna!" The girl shouted as she turned around. "What do you want?" She looked at him in a threateningconfused manner.
"Well I'd like you to stop bullying my friends for starters." He replied bluntly.
"What, you got a problem with me or something?" She glared down at him intensely.
"I literally just met you." He responded. "It's everyone else that has a problem with you." Okay, so she might not have been the brightest bulb in the drawer either. "Karen and Garth. They're my friends and you're messing with them. Stop it, please."
"Ooooh, you said pweease." The girl said in what Iruma assumed to be a pandering tone. "I guess I have no choice but to stop and change my ways from here on out."
"Great, I'll hold you to it, and if you go back everyone here will call you a liar." He waved as he walked away, not letting her get in a word. "Wow, that was easy." Highschoolers were MUCH more easier to negotiate with than leprechauns and monkey demons. "I don't know why people say it's hard—–-"
SMACK
Iruma found himself ducking to the right as the girl's hand swung his way, making a slight dent in the locker. That was either cheap metal or slightly above human strength. In this school, both were equally possible. "Where the hell do you think you're going?" Doris growled.
"... To class?" He asked in confusion.
"Right after you have the balls to walk up to me and DEMAND me to do something!?"
"... You said you had no choice." Iruma asked in confusion. "Aren't you contradicting yourself?"
The girl snorted. "Wow, you're definitely not a nerd if you actually believed that, which means the only use you have for me is as a punching bag!" She went to punch him again, and Iruma ducked, making her just hit the air.
"People make terrible punching bags. One wrong punch and you break your wrist against the bone of the skull." Iruma spoke out. "I'm sure you can find plenty of other healthier alternatives."
"You saying I don't know how to throw a punch!?" She tried again, missing.
"No, I'm saying you throw meaningless punches that don't help you." Iruma clarified. "I mean, what's the point of punching people who can't fight back? You're not challenged, you're not gaining experience, you're just waving your hands in the air. At that point, it just seems like you're walking through life on a handicap. If anything, doing what you're doing constantly would only make you weaker."
"..." The girl's face was glowing red, steam actuallying coming out of her face, as the crowd around them began giggling. "Did you... just call me... WEAK!?"
"No, I called you dumb." he stated bluntly. He tilted his head in honest confusion of whether she can actually understand him or not. "I said your methods just make you weaker."
"Wow, Doris." The girl with black and blue hair snorted, holding a camera in the air. "You gonna take that from a shrimp?"
"...Like HELL!" Doris shouted, getting the attention of everyone around them, charging at Iruma like a bull.
Iruma ducked between her legs, letting her run past him and into the wall. "So can we wrap up our conversation about you not bullying my friends anymore? Class is starting soon and this is just unproductive."
Iruma dodged again as she hit a locker.
"Gaaaah!!"
"Can we talk now?" He asked as she went for another swing, hitting another locker door. "It would be a lot better for both of us." He didn't want to hit another high schooler.
"Stand still so I can pound you!" She began repeatedly punching the air as Iruma began walking backwards, dodging each punch.
"...Why?" Iruma blinked. "Getting hurt has no benefit to me and you attacking me has no benefit to you given how exhausted you look now."
"That little boy's beating up Doris Zeul!"
"And he's not even lifting a finger!"
"Go, Japanese kid!"
"Make her punch herself in the face."
Okay, too much attention., Hehe better wrap this up now and talk with Doris later. Maybe trip her into a trash can or something– "Okay, I think we've gotten far enough away from Diana." Iruma heard Barbara's voice pant in exhaustion as her and Karen were sweating. "Now we can— Iruma?"
"Hey, Barbara." He waved as he avoided another punch. "Just a sec." He moved back more, getting an optimal distance between himself and her. "Okay, class is starting soon., Let'slet's end this now, Doris."
"Yes, let's end this!" Doris charged at him again, and he just needed to roll out of the way and move, then she'll hit the wall... The wall where Barbara and Karen were standing.
"Karen, we need to move out of the way!" Barbara tried to pull on the girl's arm... And didn't budge. "Karen!"
She was stilled like a statue, terrified. "Legs too stiff… can't move.. Can't move from fear!"
"...Aww nuts." Iruma sighed. He didn't want to get physical, but it didn't look like he had much choice. He waited until she was close enough, throwing a punch with all her might. One of the most important lessons he learned while training with the Rogues, when an enemy had a greater momentum than you, use said momentum to your advantage. That and always aim for the eyes... unless they had laser vision. Seeing as the latter half wasn't relevant, he grabbed the girl's arm, tripping her leg as he used her energy and speed …
Crack
And slammed her body into the floor. "Okay, let's get a move on before a teacher gets us." Everyone for some reason was staring at him. "...Seriously, go. Class starts in like three minutes." He rolled his eyes. Maybe this school was just teaching bad time management. "You guys coming?"
"...Yeah... yeah… we are." Barbara blinked, looking bewildered as she finally managed to make the scared frozen Karen move from her spot. "Where… where did you learn that?"
"The basis of it in Central city, perfected it during my time in Japan, and developed the muscle during my time deserted on an island." Iruma summed it up. "Seriously though, we should move."
"Yeah… yeah…" The shorter girl blinked continuously. "You... You beat her..." Karen looked shocked and amazed.
"You guys fight people regularly. This is pretty small compared to what you do." He smiled at her.
"But… she's bigger than you..."
"... And?" Iruma raised an eyebrow. "Most people are bigger than me. Heck. Aside from you, all my friends are older and taller than me."
"Yep, and your cowlick still grows more than you do." Barbara chuckled, messing with it.
"Sadly true." He mumbled. "So we should leave before—–-"
"He beat up Doris Zeul!"
"He German Suplexed her!"
"Wouldn't it be a Japanese Suplex?"
"Who's he going to beat up next?"
"...Well so much for keeping my head down at school..." Luckily he didn't have a secret identity he needed to balance… not yet anyways. "Now let's—--"
"How …" Karen asked, looking pleading. "You don't have any tools... I couldn't …"
"Sure you may not have your gear, but that doesn't mean you can't bite back. Everyone with teeth can do that." He smiled. "Plus it's only because you were so small that you blew up Lena's mech. Being small is more handy than being big a lot of the time."
The girl blinked. "I …"
"Who did this!?" Shouted the principal, standing over the unconscious body of Doris. A few seconds later, everyone pointed to him.
"... Like now. Now being small would be perfect." Iruma groaned. It was worth it to help his friends… but that didn't mean he wasn't still annoyed.
What the fuck what the fuck what the FUCK!? Doris lost to a shrimp! A nerd! A dumbass who never threw a punch! What the HELL!? "GAAAAAAH!" She didn't know what happened, one second she was just doing her usual thing, making fun and beating up people, and then some random chinese kid or whatever came up to her and acted all holier than thou on her, like he actually could be better than her! HER! Doris Zuel, the strongest girl in the whole school!
It was supposed to be simple! She beat him up, stuff him in a locker, and then she'd go on with her day like usual… And now she was the whole school's laughingstock, especially with Leslie uploading a video of the whole thing online, the jerk. She would get her back later, right now she had a more annoying and shrimpy target to grind into the ground.
And Doris knew just how to do it. She walked up to her house, slamming the door open as she marched past the kitchen. "Hi, sweetie." Her dumb nerd mom greeted like always. "How was school?"
"It was fine, shut up nerd!"
"Glad to hear it!" Her dumb nerd dad smiled like an idiot. "So how did you do on that science test last week?"
"It was two weeks ago, F plus." Doris rolled her eyes.
"Wow, you managed to count past two weeks, congratulations honey!" Her dumb nerd mom clapped her hands.
Friggin freaking feerrggggg… She marched past the two deadbeats that focused more on dumb papers than anything else, making her way to their lab. As much as it hurt to admit, she needed a lot more power than what weights could give than if she wanted to beat up that brat.
Doris looked around the lab at the various experiments. "Regen formula, aquatic adaptation, photosynthetic absorber …" Nothing good! Wasn't there anything to make her faster, better, stronger, bigger, able to crush any puny nerd!? "Come on, can't you people make something useful for once!?!?!"
"You hungry for dinner, little lab monkey?"
"I told you to never CALL ME THAT!" She shouted as she slammed the wall… making a couple of those dumb beakers shake… beakers labeled 'growth hormone. "Finally, something I can use!" She wasn't a nerd like her parents, but she didn't need to be to understand that growth 'hormone' or whatever meant bigger muscles, and bigger muscle meant she could wreck that little bastard up!
Grabbed it, looking over the papers. "Inject into the bloodstream for maximum results, remains active for fifteen hours." Heck yeah!, fifteen hours of awesomeness! "Long term usage may result in damage to cell-blah blah blah." Her parents came up with these lame labels all the time just so she wouldn't touch anything, cause they both thought she was somehow too stupid to understand how to be careful, SHE WAS PERFECTLY CAPABLE OF BEING CAREFUL!!
She grabbed one of their needles, placing it inside, and injected the stuff inside of her arm. "Now... now I'll have the muscles to crush that brat." And not a single problem would- "AAAHHH!" Her body was spasming, every muscle aching worse than when she would do a ten hour rep. "FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK WHY DIDN'T THEY WARN ME THIS WOULD BE PAINFUL!?!"
"Honey, did you stub your toe again?"
"NO NERD! I'M IN AGONIZING PAIN BECAUSE I'M TRYING TO PLOT REVENGE ON A LITTLE SHRIMP!!"
"Well just make sure you do your homework before then, little lab monkey."
Not even questioning... the nerds never question... dumb dumbs always... always... "Why does it hurt for Doris to think?" She asked, feeling the muscles twitch again …
Riiiiip
As her tracksuit began tearing apart... as she got bigger... "Hahaha... Doris is huge... Doris is gigantic!" She am bigger than everyone else! Bigger than all the shrimps! She was stronger than everyone now… strong enough to do anything she wanted. "Giganta… strongest in the world!" She leapt through the wall, which ripped apart like paper.
"Have fun out there, our little Lab Monkey!"
"ME NOT MONKEY! ME AM GIGANTA!!"
"Sure you are honey, you can be whatever you want to be." Dumb dumbs very annoying.
"Okay, this time for sure." Karen nodded, looking at her bag. "This time I'll make sure it grows, not shrinks." She would finally be able to do something instead of just cower and hide. She'd stand up for herself. She wouldn't just run away, and she wouldn't have her cute friend– her boy friend– her FRIEND that just so happens to be a boy, deal with her problems. She could do this, she could totally do this!
"And you're at the mall…why?" Kara asked as the rest of the girls walked beside her.
"I need higher quality parts than the ones I get at the scrapyard or make out of random old objects my parents throw away." She answered. "So I was hoping to get something better at electric city."
"Oooh, nice, I needed new parts for my battracker!" Barbara grinned as she held up the device. "I keep putting one on Iruma but the signal always dies before I find out where he lives."
"... So many red flags." Jessica deadpanned.
"Why do you require tracking Iruma?" Diana asked. "You could simply ask me. We are neighbors."
"I want to do it on my own merit." Barbara nodded. "He thinks I'll never figure out what happened to him in the last seven years by myself, but he's wrong! I'll figure it out and then I'LL be the one with the cheeky smile and laugh and finally prove myself as the world's second greatest detective!" She laughed maniacally.
"Why second?" Zatanna asked.
"Batman, duh, no one's ever going to be better than Batman." Barbra pointed out. Fair enough.
"Well, good luck with your stalking, I'm gonna hit the food court." Kara waved off as she walked away.
"And I'm going to be busy performing." Zee said.
"And I'm going to be protesting the use of animals during said performance." Jessica added.
"Oh nice, we can carpool." Zee snickered.
"And I shall look for more weapons to aid me in the hunt for tonight's dinner." Diana nodded as she walked off.
"I guess it's just the two of us." Barbara grinned as she held Karen's hand, leading her to where they needed to go. "We're gonna make your super suit the baddest, more butt-kicking super suit ever! How much do you want to grow? Fifty feet? A hundred?"
"I think three stories is enough." She smiled. "That way, no one can push me down ever again. I'll be the tallest!" She grinned. "And then maybe I won't have to be invisible 24/7!"
"Hey, being invisible isn't all that bad." Barbara chuckled. "In Gotham, the more invisible you are, the better. It's helped me a million times with stealth when I was perfecting my Batgirl style of crime fighting."
"… Barbara." Karen started. "You shout all the time and wear bright purple, you aren't stealthy."
"What?! Come on! I'm totally stealthy. No one sees me coming." She grinned as she waved her hands… smacking a guy carrying five bags of clothes and burying himself as they fell all over him. "... When I concentrate."
"Well, at least you can fight without needing a suit." Karen sighed. "I just don't understand where you guys get so much confidence."
"All in the attitude, Karen." Barbara grinned as they walked into the store. "Excuse me good sir, we would like to-"
"Hey Barbara." Iruma waved. "Oh hey Karen, what can I help you with today?"
"Iruma?" Karen blinked. "What are you doing here?"
"I work here." He pointed to his employee badge. "These guys will hire anyone who can build a computer from the nineties."
"...You build computers?" Karen asked.
"Yeah, like I said, I'm into analog." Iruma shrugged. "Just something you pick up when the only thing you have to work with is the scrap metal in a Gotham alleyway."
"...That's fair." Most of Karen's stuff was made from scrap.
"... I have so many questions." Barbara said. "But sadly, the first among them is why analog?"
"Digital is super hackable." The boy shrugged. "Speaking of, could you please stop leaving these in my hair?" Iruma handed Barbara a little beeping bat shaped device. "They beep during class and Mr. Chapin thought I was texting something when he pulled me into the office. I was already five minutes late for work from the detention against Doris, I don't need more."
"So-sorry again about that." Karen sighed.
"Hey, it's cool." He shrugged. "She was the one not being reasonable. I just tried to tell her to stop bullying my friends and she wanted to punch me for some reason." Iruma rolled his eyes. "And people say Gotham criminals are deranged."
"Yeah... yeah I don't really know what's wrong with her… she's been picking on me ever since middle school." Karen lamented.
"Classic bully psychology." Barbara waved off. "They have no control of their own life, so they instead abuse the control they have on those weaker than them."
"Wait, does she work for a mob boss?" Iruma asked.
"Probably not?" Barbara shrugged. "I mean it is possible-"
"I'm just going to look for the parts I need before you two remind me how scary the world is." Karen sweated as she looked toward the circuit boards. "Okay... maybe I can make work of these gamma converters... or maybe reversing the polarity would reverse the size division …"
"Would being bigger really help you?" Iruma asked from behind.
"Of course it would." She said. "If I'm bigger, I'm stronger. I can't do something as I am if some villain walks through the front door."
CRASH
"... Make that crash through the wall." Barbara said plainly.
"Giganta smash!" Shouted… a terrifying looking giant. She was bulking huge, standing at five stories with bulging muscles all over, curly red hair that flowed downward, and dressed in a leopard skin loincloth. "Giganta crush puny nerd store!"
"Hmm …" Iruma blankly stared at the killer giant. "It doesn't look like venom …"
"Yeah, and they talk more like Solomon Grundy." Barbara tilted her head.
"... So are you two gonna …" He gestured between them and said giant monster.
"I'm still building my suit!" Karen shouted in fear, setting out the parts as she got to work.
"Giganta hate puny nerd store! Giganta hate puny nerds!" The bulging cavewoman shouted as she shook the store... and looked directly at Iruma. "Giganta hate dumb looking blue boy even more!!!" And proceeded to raise her first at him.
"Oh no you don't, you ferocious feline covered fiend!" Barbara may have had a point about the stealth thing. She was somehow already behind the giant in her Batgirl costume. "Not while Batgirl's on the case!" She threw a smoke bomb into the giant's face, followed by a series of batarangs, before sliding under as she used her grappling hook to form a tripping wire. "Aha, this maneuver is enough to handle Bane AND Blockbuster, so it'll definitely handle you-"
Snap
And with one move of a leg, Giganta broke through the wires and grabbed Barbara by the arm. "… So did you eat your wheaties to get this strong?" Batgirl chuckled nervously. The giant swung Batgirl, winding back, and throwing her into the food court like she was a baseball.
"Now then... crush blue boy!" She screamed, raising a foot.
"Sadly not the first time I've heard that!" Iruma shouted as he rolled out of the way. "Karen, you alright!?"
"I'll be fine, just go!" Karen shouted, pushing him out of the store. "Run, and the screaming and smashing should alert the others!"
"Already got Batgirl thrown at me!" Shouted Kara, as she smashed into Giganta, knocking her into a wall. "Don't worry you two." She cracked her knuckles. "I can handle one overgrown toddler."
"Giganta not afraid of Super man's baby sister!" The giant shouted as she punched Kara back, actually managing to send her through a pillar of concrete.
"... Well now I'm only half terrified." Iruma said blankly. "Because those are literally the worst words you could have told her."
"You… you are so dead!!" Kara shouted in anger as she shot back out and slammed Giganta into the ground.
"That'll buy me at least ten minutes if not solve the situation entirely." Karen noted as she got to work, removing plates and altering wires.
"As long as Kara doesn't get distracted we should be alright." Iruma nodded. "I mean, she doesn't have kryptonite or red sun energy, there isn't much she can do to break skin, let alone bones."
"You seriously trying to mess with me? I'm Supergirl." Kara chuckled as Giganta repeatedly punched her. "Brute strength ain't going to cut it, cavegirl."
"At least Giganta not wear stupid cape!" Giganta shouted as she trapped Kara by the cape, and began spinning her around and around, smashing her through more walls, before throwing her upwards ... into the ceiling... and past orbit.
"... Anyone else come with you?" Iruma asked.
"Fear not dear sisters, for I am here to take down this poorly dressed troll!" Diana jumped into action.
"Heck yeah, now we're really talking!" Karen cheered. Diana had Kara level strength AND the experience in fighting.
"Maybe keep working on your suit just in case?" He asked.
"Oh definitely, but just saying it's more encouraging when the team leader is stepping in."
"Me Giganta!" The giant shouted, trying to land a blow on Diana, who rolled under her legs. "You squashed!"
"Your power means nothing to amazonian might!" She shouted, landing a cut on the girl's arm. "You, brutish warrior, can't possibly comprehend the skill of an Amazon! You wouldn't last one hour in my home!"
"You not last five minutes with me breaking your head!" Giganta caught one of Diana's arms and smashed her into the ground repeatedly. "Puny woman like living doll to rag on!"
"Not puny! Simply compact!" She then lifted Giganta by the arm after planting her feet, sending her into a wall that led to the mall sports center.
"So, ETA on the suit?" Iruma asked.
"I just need to adjust the solar compressors so they diver enough energy into the growth sequence…" Karen explained as she began sweating. "I just need like two minutes!"
"Compact this!" Giganta shouted as she grabbed a barbell with five hundred pounds of weights on it, swinging it around like a club and smashing Diana in the face.
"I shall... compact-" Diana's dazed state was taken advantage of with a kick through a wall.
"Now... blue boy!" She screamed.
"Live for two minutes! I can do two minutes!" Iruma screamed as he ran out the building. "But try to push that limit if you can!"
"I've been pushing the limit already as it is! This is sensitive equipment!" Okay, three members of the team were out and the other two were far away from the mall by this point, which meant she was the only one preventing Iruma from getting squashed like a blueberry. You could do this, Karen.
"Giganta, crush puny boy!" The monster screamed.
"Not that I'm one to question this stuff, but why do you want to smash me?!"
"Blue boy look dumb, dumb things annoy Giganta!"
"…That's kind of weak, I'm not going to lie-aahhh! Still running, still trying to not die!"
Okay, tighten that bolt, make sure the positive connects with the positive... "Giganta hit blow on puny boy!" She roared, ripping off an escalator and throwing it.
"Okay, this'll have to do!" Karen screamed as she put her hand in the suit, her upgrades allowing it to slip on her no problem within seconds. "Don't fall alway don't fall apart don't fall apart!" She activated the wings and dashed towards Iruma-
Kablaaassh
The escalator hit the ground... just as she managed to push him out of the way. "Ah... ah that.. that was too close..." Iruma huffed and puffed, looking at her gratefully. "Thanks Karen-wow, your new suit looks shiny... and less duct tapey."
"Yeah, thanks. Been a work in progress to get it this far." She chuckled nervously.
"Giganta crush tiny people!" They shouted.
"No you won't!" Karen exclaimed, pressing the buttons as her suit began to glow. "For now... I am... a GIANT!" She exclaimed... before the world got bigger. "... What-oh come on! I'm still tiny!?"
"Actually I think you shrink even smaller." Iruma noted. "You like a tiny ball of light now."
"THAT ISN'T HELPING!!" Karen shouted. "How is being smaller supposed to help me fight that!?"
"Giganta smash glowing bug before smashing dumb blue boy!" Giganta raised her hand, bringing it down on her...
Whooosh
"… " And felt nothing. "I thought death was supposed to be painful?" She asked aloud.
"Nah, when you die the adrenaline counters the pain, but you're not dead." Iruma explained. "You just slipped through her hands."
"Huh?" Giganta blinked, before glaring again. "Giganta smash puny bug!" She went to smash her again... and once again, Karen felt nothing as she slipped through the cracks.
"... You are a terrible aim." She said bluntly.
"Giganta still hit puny blue boy!" Giganta went in to throw a punch at Iruma, who dodged it as the villain slammed through the wall.
"See, this is what I meant earlier about it being good to be small." Iruma chunked. "It's harder to hit something if you're too small to be hit."
"Smaller target..." Karen blinked. "Being smaller means I'm harder to hit!" She jumped with glee. "I've been blind this whole time."
"Giganta still destroy all of you!"
"This is why I don't build muscles!" He shouted, kicking a grate. "I can still fit through vents!"
"Right, still in the middle of a fight!" She flew up to the giant's face. "Eat my new laser, Gigantic Loser!" She exclaimed, firing right in her face.
"Gaaaah!" The villain called out, waving her hands out widely trying to blast her. "Bee stings annoy Giganta! Giganta getting more angry!"
"Giganta's getting dumber and uglier by the minute too!" Karen... no... Bumblebee laughed as she shot a laser into her ear. "You're not so tough! You can't even hurt a fly!"
The giant punched at her, which obviously missed... and crashed through the electric city. "Puny bug is nothing to Giganta! Puny bug is weak!"
"Puny bug is also kicking your butt." She landed on top of her head. "But just to be fair, I'll let you get a few licks in. Come on; just one strike, unless you're afraid the tiny bee will sting the little pea that's your brain."
The giant took the bait and began punching herself in the head to get her. "Giganta-gah-smash-gah-puny bug!!"
"Why you hitting yourself? Why are you hitting yourself." It was almost terrible just how much fun she was having with this. "Come on, it's just one wittlie bee. Don't tell me you're scared of getting stung."
"YOU LITTLE PUNK!" She screamed, smacking herself one more time... before falling to the ground, dazed.
"I did it... I beat up a supervillain!" Karen cheered. "I did it all by myself, and I didn't even have to punch anybody!" She took down a giant!
"Huh.. weird that Jessica wasn't around for that." Iruma stuck his head out of the vent. "I feel like she would use this moment to brag."
Karen smiled as she hugged the boy. "We did it! We took down the villain!"
Crash
… They both turned to the destroyed Electric City.
"...Sorry..." Karen winced.
"Not your fault, believe me when I say this has happened to be me before." Iruma groaned. "So… wanna head to the food court and see what hasn't been destroyed?"
"Yeah, sure …" Karen smiled, before looking at the giant. "... We call the cops first, right?"
"Oh yeah. She's a jerk that needs a lesson.. and a tutor probably." He muttered. "I mean, who doesn't know pronouns?"
"You'd be surprised." Karen smirked. She... she felt better about herself than she had in a long time... small, little Karen.
Zatanna groaned as she and Jessica finally made it back to the mall. "You had to incite the angry mob." She didn't like dictating other people's life choices, but Jessica's choice to be a protester was really... REALLY irksome.
"Hey, I had it under control..." Jess grumbled.
"Until they brought out the torches." Zee glared. "Seriously, for someone who hates violence you seem to cause a lot of it."
"I don't cause it-"
"The Lex bots you refused to fight when they're just robots…"
"Okay, I know I needed to get my head in gear-"
"The bunnies..."
"That was mostly Kara's fault."
"Star Sapphire."
"That one was all on Hal." Jess glared.
"He just broke up with a girl he didn't like." Zee responded.
"Over text... on Valentine's day." Jessica pointed out. "You can't tell me you wouldn't be just as mad if something like that happened to you."
"I'd be mad for sure, but I have something called self control." She pointed back.
"Oh really?" Jess smirked. "Like your self control when you turned Barbara into a bat?"
"She was insulting my family tradition." Zee rolled her eyes as they walked to the food court... seeing it completely totaled. She winced at the amount of damage. "Yeesh, what guy ticked off Kara?"
"I would've guessed Iruma went on a food binge with the free samples." Jessica made a note as they walked through the rubble. "Where is everyone?"
"–So then by the twelfth explosion, I finally managed to figure out that metal didn't go into a microwave, and from then on, I've pretty much figured out how to build one with my eyes closed." The voice of Iruma himself spoke out with a light laugh.
"That is the most extreme method of learning the inside of a machine that I've ever heard." Karen's voice giggled. "I should know, I've LITERALLY been inside machines."
"Well I couldn't exactly afford caution considering it was either cook or starve. As much as I can eat it raw, it's still better cooked." Iruma said as the two walked by. "Oh, hey guys." He waved to them. "Don't worry, Giganta's taken care of."
"Who is what now?" Zee asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Oh, a new villain showed up, knocked Diana and Barbara out, and threw Kara into orbit." Karen brought up. "Speaking of, is she alright or …"
"Okie dokie pattie cakie …" Spoke a clearly concussed Batgirl, giggling deliriously as she stumbled into a broken table. "Let's get into the baker's pan–" Barbara looked around, slumping onto Iruma's shoulder. "Hey Irrurur, where'd the muffin man go?"
"To jail." The boy spoke plainly as he took out a gauze and some bandages. "Here, let me wrap this around you till we get back to the secret lair."
A finger was pushed to his lips. "Ssshhhh... It's a secret …"
"Okaaay …" Jessica said with concern, helping Iruma lift her up. "And where's the villain?"
"Unconscious." The boy said. "Karen took her out."
"...Karen did?" Zee spoke in disbelief.
"Yep!" The short girl cheered.
"Oh, so you finally figured out how to make your growth tech work?" Jess asked.
"Sadly, no. But I didn't need to!" Karen laughed. "I was so small she couldn't hit me. I just flew on Giganta's head and forced her to knock herself out, pacifist style."
… The Green Lantern began crying. "I... am so proud of you." The tall girl hugged the small one. "You've proven that pacifism is the way to go!"
"And all it took was for you to not be here for said pacifism." Zee smirked.
"Don't you dare take this away from me, Zee!" Jessica called out.
"But yeah, I just used my small size and I won… I think the name Bumblebee is starting to grow on me." Karen chuckled. "The super tiny super smart superhero!"
"See, told you there was nothing wrong with being small." Iruma nodded. "I've been small all my life and it's worked pretty well for me."
"Yeah, you did." Karen smiled, as the ironically small hints of a blush formed on her face. "Thank you, Iruma." She gave the boy a hug. "You… you really had my back…"
The boy grinned, hugging her back. "Happy to help."
Zee felt a small twitch on her eye, but otherwise shook her head. "Well, it looks like everyone had quite the busy day. Let's find Diana and head on home." She grabbed the two, separating their hold as she pushed them ahead.
"She was knocked into a sportswear store, but I haven't seen her since." Iruma nodded. "I'm more surprised she hasn't come to join us sooner."
"Sisters, I request assistance!" They turned, seeing the girl, wrapped in her own lasso and a couple of rubber arm stretchers. "I have become entangled with my own lasso and these elastic devices of torture, and I struggle to get myself free due to the magical confines of my rope!"
"Wait, you can't escape your own lasso?" Karen asked.
"No …" The girl blushed as the lasso began to glow. "Mother made this lasso for when I misbehaved as a young one."
"Oh really?" Zee smirked. "How often was that?
"I recall the number being two thousand two hundred and twenty one times last I checked."
"Yeowch." Iruma winced. "Stand still, I'll try to unbind you. I'm pretty good with knots."
He walked over, leaving Zee and Karen alone. "Sooo…" Zee awkwardly tapped her foot. "You and Iruma?" She gave a knowing look. "Pretty chummy there for someone as shy as you."
The short and shy girl nervously shook. "What? Nah, it's... It's nothing big, just... Just being appreciative, that's all." Karen laughed a bit brokenly. "Nothin' there, just friends."
"Good..." She stated lowly, before blinking. "I mean, good for you, you know, knowing what you want and what boundaries to set. Why rush into anything, we're young and got years to figure anything on that front out."
"Exactly. I'll just keep my head down, graduate early, win a nobel prize when I'm twenty and see what happens from there."
"Good… good…" Why was she focusing on this? It wasn't like Zee liked Iruma like that.. Right? She just enjoyed his company and he made her feel like a princess… perfectly normal feelings, wasn't it?"