1990-

Tokyo was under attack by a giant made of stone when the three amateur heroines

arrived. They decided to fly over and get a look before asking the locals what the

cause could be before throwing their weight around. This was their first mission.

They didn’t want to mess it up before they got started.

“It has a central core.” Eleanor called to the others. “It’s hooked up to other smaller

cores. It looks like remains are inside the thing.”

“Remains?” Money grimaced as she flew at the front of a lightning bolt. “Dead

people?”

“Looks like,” Eleanor pointed to a tent on the ground. “Let’s see what the authorities

have to say.”

As they descended toward the tent, a giant of gray metal exploded from the city. It

punched the stone pile in the face with a wrecking ball fist. It followed up with a kick

to keep the attacker from the intact buildings.

“That’s one of the Robot Rangers.” Carrie smiled. “At least we won’t have to do this

alone.”

“That gives us more options.” Eleanor waved at the people on the ground as she

touched down. Her sisters touched down behind her to form a triangle. At least the

soldiers didn’t try to shoot at them.

“Excuse me,” said Eleanor in perfect Japanese. “We are here to help with your

problem.”

“Americans?,” said a man with untidy curls of red hair turning gray. “I’m Stanley

Craft. I’m the control for the Rangers.”

“I’m Elle Mark.” Eleanor indicated her sisters. “This is Blaster and Lightning. What

can you tell us before we get started?”

“The Rangers and I were doing research in the Sea of Japan when this started.” Craft

indicated a small jet to one side. “Apparently one of the local apartment buildings

came to life and ate its residents. Then it started toward downtown to eat as many

civilians as it could. We arrived and engaged it to keep the loss of life down. Growth

and Multiple are keeping it back while I try to think of a way of stopping this thing.”

“We should kneecap this joker, Elle.” Carrie looked at the stone giant. “That’ll keep

him from the people until we figure out how to stop it.”

“Right.” Elle frowned. “There’s no telling what would happen if we get close to the

core. It might try to take us and add us to the meal list.”

“If you can open the thing up, I can get a ranger inside to dismantle things.” Craft

touched his watch. “That will let us end this situation without anyone else getting

killed.”

“That won’t be a problem at least.” Elle looked at the stone giant. She agreed with her

sister. A kneecapping looked like the right thing to do.

“This is what we’re going to do.” Elle launched herself into the air. Her sisters joined

her. “Lightning is the distraction. Blaster and I hit the knees. It goes down. The legs

have small cores in them, so they have a space to let one of the Rangers in. If not,

we’ll have to blast a tunnel through the thing to get the core out. We don’t know if

that thing can use us for fuel, and I don’t want to find out.”

“Why do I always have to be the distraction?,” asked Money. She had picked a yellow

jumpsuit with a black stripe on the outside of the arms and legs to be her more heroic

dress. She still presented as the youngest, but her other form was her in the late teens,

instead of the fourteen year old she actually was.

Elle had settled on something that looked like what a figure skater would wear. It was

light green with the Mark’s twelve pointed star in the middle of her chest. She was

still slender but looked like someone in their late twenties.

Carrie had gone in for something that she had seen on television in the orphanage.

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She had always liked Mrs. Peel, so she had copied the black leather look in light

purple. She looked like a late twenties woman who had become a lot curvier with age.

“You’re the fastest.” Elle shook her head. “And you leave a visible trail.”

“When you put it that way, I am pretty great,” said Money.

“Let’s do this before I have a panic attack.” Carrie looked at the giant’s legs. “Which

leg you want, Elle?”

“I’ll take the right.” Eleanor frowned as she gauged the distance. “We’re going to

need room to make our runs. Go ahead, Money. We’ll be back in a couple of

seconds.”

“On it, sister.” Money flew down at the giant’s head. She created a ribbon across its

vision with her lightning trailing behind her as she circled around the thing.

Eleanor and Carrie flew out over the ocean and then turned around. They headed back

to land, burning the air with their passage. They corrected for the ranger slamming

into his enemy while it was distracted. Then they sliced through the back of the knees

in a one-two punch. The giant fell on its back, trying to recover by boosting its upper

body with its hands. That allowed the ranger to kick it when it was down.

A cube of gray matter hurried out from cover on legs that were stubs with feet at the

bottom of them. It threw itself into the opened channel created when the right shin

had separated from the right thigh of the stone giant.

Another Ranger adapted himself into a pump to pull water from a broken water main

and spray it into the leg after his colleague.

Eleanor caught a giant fist trying to strike at the giant ranger. She held it back with

both hands as she waited for the Rangers to finish the job. How long could it take?

She glanced at the inner workings of the living machine. The ranger filled all of the

inside heading toward the chest. All of the orbs inside the machine were knocked

down from their web of tissue as the robot expanded with the help of the water.

The ranger hit the central core and tore it lose in a liquid metal wave. The orb hit an

inner wall and broke apart. The fist that Eleanor was holding back collapsed to the

ground in pieces.

The part of the left leg that had been separated from the main mass started to change

as the main body collapsed into a pile of concrete and steel beams. It took on a more

humanoid appearance and picked itself up on two legs.

A giant metal foot came down on the smaller block man. The weight of it crushed the

menace against the street. Its central core popped like a balloon under the impact.

“I didn’t get to do much on this,” said Money. “I thought we would have something

to make us famous.”

“Shoot some lightning in that other shin piece.” Eleanor pointed at the other foot. It

was still intact. “I don’t want it to get up and start moving around.”

“On it.” Money dropped down so she could see the hole in the top of the shin. She

pointed both hands. Lightning blasted into the inner workings of the thing. It

collapsed immediately.

“That takes care of that.” Eleanor smiled. “This heroing business might be easier than

I thought.”

“What do we do now?,” asked Money. “Go home, get something to eat, find a club?”

“We help clean this mess up.” Carrie smiled at her expression. “That is part of our

job.”

“Where do we start?” Money looked down on the path of destruction. It was a miracle

if no one else had been hurt in all this.

“I guess we should ask the authorities where they want things.” Eleanor nodded at the

soldiers coming out on the battlefield. “Then we can start helping move things

around.”

“This was pretty easy.” Money smiled. “I thought it would be harder.”

“We’ll be on body detail unless they think some civilians survived this.” Carrie shook

her head. “That’ll be hard enough.”

“Oh, not that,” said Money. “Can we pass?”

“No.” Carrie shook her head at her younger sister. “Who else could get to them?”

“I’m not liking that all,” said Money. She descended on a lightning bolt to land in

front of the scientist they had talked to earlier.

“Nice job, ladies.” Dr. Craft and an older Japanese man with gray hair and neat

mustache smiled. “The Mark would be proud.”

“How else can we help, Doctor?” Eleanor doubted the Mark would be proud. He

might say good job, or something. Spiffy might give them a friendly headbutt.

“My associate, Dr. Yamada, has asked me to request that you help with rescue work.”

Craft indicated the other man. “The Rangers are also going to help out until we move

things out of the city, and find all the survivors.”

“We can do that.” Eleanor glanced at her sisters. They nodded to confirm they would

help out. “We’ll fly over to where the attack began and start looking around.”

“Thank you.” Craft said something in Japanese. The other man nodded. He responded

with several short sentences. “Dr. Yamada said the attack started five miles away to

the west.”

“We’ll find it.” Eleanor nodded. “Thanks.”

The trio took to the air, heading west. The trail of destruction was obvious from the

air. They headed for the original resting point of the altered building.

Some people were trying to help others from the wreckage with whatever they had

at hand.

“Let’s get to work.” Eleanor flew down and lifted a car off a trapped woman.