Well calling it City 19 was a bit of a compliment. ‘Ruin 19’ was more fitting. The city had been razed to the ground when the Kaiju War was in full swing during late 2189, what remained was a crumbling pile of cement and iron. Not even nature had retaken this place even twenty years after, as kaijus kept entering the continent through here.

Not the big, radioactive ones of the early war period. Not the ones that made headlines. This one wasn’t big enough to even make it to the front page. This was a cold blooded stray motherfucker trying to nest in the ruins and the army just gave up on the operation.

So that’s when they called Zoey.

“Are you sure this is entirely worth it?” she asked, to the person on the other side of the phone.

“Completely,” said Anna, her handler. “It might not be big enough but it's entirely within your pay grade, Zoey.”

“I’m just here because the army chickened out, Anna, they are completely capable of-”

“You’re here because of another thing entirely and you know it”

“Oh, yeah, that, uh…”

“I’m not here to cheer you up, but part of my job description is to motivate you, so think of the lizard as a big piñata, and once you break it, thousands of candies that wipe debt away come out”

Zoey sighed audibly.

“I’m not a child” she said.

The two women were interrupted when the kaiju in the distance roared. Both reminded that while not particularly dangerous, these things were a serious threat, and they needed to be exterminated.

“Well, catch you later Anna, I have a piñata to break”

“Oh and, before the M.E.G.A. injection kicks in, there’s a civilian in the combat zone.”

“Oh- a WHAT!?”

“Yeah if you rescue them you get a fifteen percent bonus! Go get them!”

With that, Anna closed the call, and the timer for the M.E.G.A injection started. Zoey took her parka off, revealing the nanite suit, on whose back a green liquid vial was slowly being injected into its fibers, which would proceed to get it to her bloodstream: the military elite growth agent, M.E.G.A., a name from the past. Zoey was neither military nor an elite, she was just a part timer trying to get student loans off her back.

But the name was catchy, and it stuck even after the war.

Fifty seconds. The motorcycle in which she had arrived retreated along with her belongings and her parka to a safe zone.

Thirty seconds. A loud blast from the Equipment Teams shooting a payload consisting of Zoey’s sword into the battlefield.

Ten seconds. M.E.G.A. injection begins.

Five seconds. The all too familiar feeling of stretching.

Zero. Boom.

Zoey shot in an instant from her usual 5’5” to an astounding almost ninety meters tall. Her blonde kept to neck length almost irradiated with power, as did her blonde eyes. Her unprotected hair and eyes. Part-timers didn’t get the full suit.

Along with the explosion in size came the familiar sound of the payload containing her sword, a bright green katana, impacting like a meteor into the ground.

The kaiju noticed, so Zoey made a run for it.

The ninety meter tall woman leapt across buildings and ruined streets until the black rectangular package was within reach. Part-timers didn’t get the automatic opening so she had to press the buttons on the handle in the correct order to get it.

She messed up twice, and the kaiju was running towards her, roaring.

“Anna…” she called from the intercom. “They changed the combination again…”

“Oh, wait, the app didn’t give you the notification?”

“Notification?”

“It was on the last update.”

“The last-”

“You didn’t update the app didn’t you?” Anna said. Zoey could feel her in the command room shooting daggers at her.

“No…”

“Ugh, three-nine-four-eight-six! Now get to it!”

Zoey immediately tried the combination and the sword was let loose from its prison.

One swing, one bit of debt out of my fucking back. She thought.

Finally, the kaiju appeared. A big, bulky reptile, with a spine full of spikes and three eyes glaring with a red light filled with anger at the intruder. Zoey sighed once again and wondered why she even bothered to get the sword out.

The kaiju was barely forty meters tall…

It took literally one swing to slice it in half, splitting its blood on the grey pavement.

“That thing barely accounts for the cost of using M.E.G.A. at all…” Zoey muttered.

“I heard that,” Anna replied. “Now the civilian, she says she’s eager to meet you.”

“She?”

“Yeah, apparently she’s the one who made the call, left a five star review by the way, and even if she’s not in any immediate danger you should stop by and say hi.”

Anna shut the intercom off, and a green arrow appeared on Zoey’s visual implant, indicating the location of the civilian. With her steps taking hundreds of meters each, it wasn’t long until she met her.

A messy looking, scared black haired woman on top of a building.

“Oh… uh… HI!” the woman said. “I gotta say I’m a big fan and-”

“Woah, woah, quiet… I need to take you out of there, that building is leaning dangerously right, it can crumble at any-”

“YEAH, I NEED TO BE RESCUED!” the woman said, almost gleefully.

“There’s no need to-”

“A BLACK KNIGHT IS GOING TO RESCUE ME!” she screamed.

“Ugh, and how am I supposed to rescue you? Look lady I don’t trust my hands at this scale, I could burst you open like a grape and-”

“Uhhh… oh… like a grape…” the woman said, lost in her fantasies.

“Did you set yourself up for rescue?”

“N-no…”

“That’s a crime”

“But I didn’t do it…”

“Riiiight” Zoey said, rubbing her temples. “Look, there’s no way I can carry you to safety with these giant hands… so-”

“SO!?” asked the woman, knowing what the Black Knights usually did in these situations.

“Ugh, hope you don’t mind a little saliva…”