BVLJ #1: Sparrow Squad Flies!

***Welcome to Orias City, where heroes and villains with untold powers vie for control! In the debut episode of Big Villainy, Little Justice, meet Sparrow Squad, a plucky team of heroes rapidly assembling to take on a new monster in town...***

“We’ve got a big one!” Sparks cried, racing into the rec room. “Literally!” She skidded past the coffee table where her two teammates were playing cards and snatched her cape off the wall.

“Official call?” Bird Brain asked, standing. Brain was the cautious one of their hero team, smaller than the others and a seasoned thinker. She didn’t like chasing unsolicited calls from the police scanner; insurance companies used any excuse not to pay out, and ‘unauthorised vigilante justice’ was a favourite.

“No, no”, Sparks replied with an eager grin. “Commissioner Fields herself requested us. The Extras are out of town, the Mighties have their hands full with some cosmic squid, so we’re the closest.”

“Yes!” Strongjon smacked both fists into the table, scattering chips and cards, forgetting his own strength as usual. He looked at the mess with apology, then flashed a warm smile. “It’s Sparrow Squad’s time to shine!”

With Sparks and Strongjon clearly sold, Brain nodded acceptance, making the others cheer. Sparks said, “Alright, suit up and I’ll explain on the way.”

They jumped into action, grabbing their gear and dressing as they ran up the stairs to the roof. By the time they burst through the door, all three were dressed in head-to-toe indigo jumpsuits, beak helmets covering their eyes and wing capes flapping around their arms. Sparks led the charge to the edge of the building and dived off with a whoop, letting herself drop for an exhilarating moment before spreading her wings and catching the air to curve up.

Strongjon boomed, “Sparrows, fly!” to announce his own leap and Bird Brain leaped out silently after.

“It’s a disturbance at Suke Square,” Sparks called back over her shoulder, leading them in a triangle formation high above the streets of Orias City, tall skyscrapers forming canyons around them. Civilians pointed up in wonder.

“Something big, you said?” Bird Brain called back, speeding up to get closer.

“A giant woman!” Sparks said, hardly able to keep the excitement from her voice. The bigger the villain, the bigger the spectacle – though super-sized evildoers were seldom much trouble. Sure, they caused a lot of damage falling over and there’d be a mess with the insurance afterwards, and complaints from the political parties over the city giving superheroes too much leeway, but the citizens loved to see heroes knock a villain about. Especially so when that villain was big enough for everyone to see.

“A woman?” Strongjon sounded disappointed. While Brain worried about breaking civil rules, he was restricted by his principles. Never hit a woman.

“A woman the size of a building,” Sparks replied.

Strongjon processed that, doing slow sums to decide that yeah, the optics would be fine if the target presented a massive threat, no matter what gender they were. His concern turned to an accepting smirk and he punched a hand into the opposite palm. “Well, the bigger they are, the harder they fall!” He boomed a laugh as though he’d just come up with that, thrilled with himself. Sparks couldn’t help laughing too; he could be such a dork.

They banked sharply around the Vinson Building, pillared by huge chrome warrior statues, and flew up the six-lane Sin River, one of Orias’s main arteries, jammed with cars. People leant out of windows to watch them fly over – some cheered, a couple jeered.

“Go get them, Sparrow Squad!” a street vendor shouted, waving the hot dog he was serving. Sparks gave him a quick salute, heart lifting at the recognition. They’d be on the evening news, today’s Saviours of the City for sure – the hugely popular Hero Feed channel would give them interviews, there’d be sponsorship deals, the lot. Finally a high-profile case.

“So what’s this woman doing?” Brain shouted. “Robbing a bank, taken a hostage?”

“That last one,” Sparks replied. “She’s got a busload of tourists or something. Police should have Suke Square blocked off; Commissioner said she’s waiting on a negotiator.”

“Waiting on a fight, more like,” Strongjon said. “Gotta know there are heroes on the way.”

“Another hopeful wanting to prove themselves,” Brain sighed. It was typical, and never ended well for anyone; in the erratic, sprawling Orias City, where people were continually stretching the boundaries of the believable with freak science projects, mutated genes and whatever else triggered unnatural powers, villains continually crawled out of the woodwork to threaten the status quo. Where they didn’t have a particular agenda in mind, their main goal tended to be just to prove themselves. Cause a scene and wait for a hero to come along, then duel with the world watching.

The idea, Sparks had always thought, was to get people scared enough that they could do whatever they wanted. Except one way or another the good forces of Orias City always prevailed, because with as many freakish villains out there as there was, there were empowered people who still believed in justice, too. Sparrow Squad were among them: a trio of ornithologists who’d survived a bizarre accident during a Himalayan research trip. An explosion during an electrical storm, an experimental bird container and a red-billed blue magpie had combined to kill two research assistants and leave one man paralysed for life, but left these three alive and with new powers. They could all fly and had taken on additional individual traits: Strongjon could lift fifty times his bodyweight, Bird Brain could produce a psychic mind fog, and Sparks generated flashes of light with her hands. And today, it was Sparrow Squad’s turn to showcase their gifts for the criminals of Orias City.

They zipped down 16th Avenue, where the traffic was at a standstill, unable to turn with a cordon of police barriers and vehicles blocking the road. The Sparrows flew over them, to the intersection where the road expanded to Suke Square. It was essentially a large intersection, where four major roads converged on a stretch of commercial buildings lit up by garish signs.

As expected, the giant villain was merely waiting. She was sitting on the ground with the bus resting across her raised knees, one hand on its roof, holding it in place – and she was breathtakingly huge. The neon lights of Suke Square’s electronic billboards rose around her to create a backdrop of brand names and posing models who competed with the villain for height – except the road was cracked with craters of footprints and the woman looked very real.

She was smooth-skinned with a slightly upturned nose, on the muscular side of slim and with an expansive head of mane-like auburn hair that fell down past her shoulders. Her eyes were lined black, and she was wearing a low-key ensemble of faded black slacks, purple high-top Converse, a khaki jacket with rolled-up sleeves, and a low-cut white tank top, showing off the enviable curves of her breasts. Almost like a punk teenager, except her face looked older, maybe in her 30s. There was intelligence in her eyes as she picked out the approaching Sparrows.

“Whoah, she is a big one,” Strongjon chuckled as the three of them came to a stop, hovering at the edge of Suke Square. The giant woman stirred, moving onto her knees, and the crowded police and onlookers at the intersections backed off as the asphalt cracked under her weight. She held up the bus like a toy, panicked people pressed to the windows crying out for help.

“One hundred feet, I believe,” Bird Brain decided, contemplating the problem ahead. “We can tackle her exactly as we did Massivia last month.” The Sparrows nodded agreement; the city’s most famous giant villain, Massivia, lacked any kind of grace and was easy to get around; they’d had a too-easy confrontation with her in the relatively empty Munwich Park. This huge woman would surely be little more trouble, at her tremendous, ungainly height, but before a much bigger audience. Brain reminded them of the tactics: “I’ll send her a wave of confusion then you do a fly-by, Sparks, light her up so she drops the bus and can’t see Jon coming.”

“Then it’s lay down the captives and a quick pop to the kisser,” Strongjon finished for her. “Goodnight giant.”

“Ready?” Brain said.

“Ready!” Sparks announced, then they split up, spreading out over the square. Their movement stirred the giant villain to stand up, unfolding above them like a tower being erected before their eyes, punctuated by the yells of people tumbling around in the bus as she held it at her side.

“That’s it,” Brain said, putting her fingers to her temples in readiness to use her power. “Let her say her piece while I get in there.”

“Sparrow Squad?” the giant woman said, booming voice rattling the nearby windows. She sounded disappointed and – Sparks realised with unease – very cogent. Massivia had spoken slowly, clumsily, but this giantess sounded almost normal. She had stood more smoothly, too. “I’d hoped for someone . . . bigger.”

“Don’t worry, honey,” Strongjon called out, with confident humour. “We’re gonna show you that when it comes to justice, size doesn’t matter!”

People along the cordons had their phones out, taking videos and pictures, and encouraging shouts came up as the civilians rooted for the heroes, the police doing a half-hearted job of pushing them back.

“Cute,” the giantess said. “I’m going to squash you for calling me honey.”

“No list of demands?” Sparks joined in, drifting further from Brain as the psychic started humming, honing her focus. “Come on, what brings a giant bombshell like you to a neighbourhood like this?”

“Oh, you want my story?” The giantess smiled, fully predatory, white teeth on show. “It’s simple; I was so pleased with the latest results from my size-matrix that I thought I’d pop out for something to eat. But this bus cut me off.” She raised the bus with a shake that tossed everyone about inside, drawing new screams of terror. Sparks glanced at Brain, urging her to hurry up. “I admit I lost my temper, smashed a few things, and got terrible ideas, thinking, that’s what they’ll call me now, Darcy the Destroyer.” She sighed. “But by the time I caught hold of this little nuisance, and saw the police blocking things off, waiting on heroes to come, I realised I had a unique opportunity. I want to treat myself to a better class of meal. This is a celebration, after all.”

She spread her arms to show herself off, a titan before the buildings.

“Is she talking about eating people?” Strongjon called out, more confused than shocked.

“Not just people.” The giantess, Darcy, grinned wickedly, and raised her free hand to point at him. “Heroes.”

Sparks and Strongjon exchanged an uncertain look – her confidence and eloquence were unsettling. The big ones weren’t supposed to retain this kind of intelligence or speed.

“Now,” Brain hissed and her energy pulsed through the air. Darcy was hit as though punched, and stepped back. Sparks darted in from the side, raising her hands and waiting for the giantess to spot her coming. The second Darcy looked her way, Sparks lit her hands up with brilliant light. The giantess blinked, dazed, as Strongjon sped in from the other side. Her fingers closed on the bus, rather than let it go, and the metal groaned and twisted in her grip, windows shattering. Strongjon slammed into the back of it, jarring out of the giant hand, and Sparks flew past the reeling giant’s vision to distract her again.

As Sparks produced another dazzling flash, her path was suddenly blocked – her eyes bulged as she froze mid-air, gaping at the massive hand spread before her. How had the giantess moved that fast? Sparks had scarcely processed that it was there when Darcy snatched the hand forwards, grabbing her out of the sky.

“Oh shit!” Sparks cried, dragged through the air in the giant fist, waiting for it to arc and release her at force. She braced for the impact of being thrown hard through a wall – but the arm only dropped down to the giantess’s side, fingers thick as logs tightening to hold her in place. She shunted her shoulders, trying to get loose, but she was held fast, forced to watch as Darcy turned her attention back to the others.

Strongjon was laying the bus down on the edge of Suke Square when the giantess raised her foot high off the ground.

“Go go go!” Brain shrieked, flying down to help pull passengers clear of the bus.

Strongjon flew up towards the sole of the massive sneaker that hung above them, as Darcy stomped down, and the tiny man disappeared under her shoe. Darcy gave a faint wobble, stalled as he collided with the shoe, holding her leg up. Her other arm flapped up, reaching around to keep her balance.

“Push her down, Jon!” Sparks screamed encouragement, hearing the giantess growl with effort. Though a bug to her, he was carrying the massive woman’s weight all on his own, while Brain pushed the last of the civilians out of the way.

There was a terrible crash as Darcy’s hand went through the nearest building, and a billboard cracked and sparked, masonry and glass falling in a cloud around her. Going down, Sparks thought – but the arm came back forward, tearing out of the building, having met just enough resistance to steady her. Rebalanced, Darcy wavered back out over the road and with a fierce snarl pushed her foot down hard.

The sneaker slammed into the road, driving Strongjon down under it and making the bus jump off the road. Sparks yelled, “No!”, but the giantess ground her toe into the asphalt, back and forth, churning up chunks of asphalt.

Brain flew quickly up to intervene, hands on her head as she shouted, “Try me for size, bitc –” She didn’t get to finish as Darcy’s other hand closed over her.

“I will, thanks,” Darcy said, horribly pleasantly, and tossed Brain into her mouth like a piece of popcorn. Sparks screamed in horror as her friend disappeared into the giant woman’s maw, and renewed her struggles to get free as Darcy worked her jaw. The giantess swallowed with a deliberately loud gulp, Brain visible as a small bulge in her throat, there and gone in a second.

“You monster!” Sparks roared, tears on her face. She was going to get free and kill this giant, tear Brain out of her stomach. But Darcy laughed at her anger, and turned her attention back to the ground. She lifted her sneaker, revealing Strongjon sprawled amongst the rubble, bloody and bent but groaning, alive. Sparks shouted, “Get up Jon! She’s going to –”

Too late. Darcy crouched and plucked Strongjon from the ground, holding him by an ankle to shake off debris. Strongjon’s senses started to come back and he twisted in her grip, saying, “Oh hell no –” He tried to heave himself up, reaching to prise her fingers apart, as she carried him to her widening mouth. He paused and said, “What the –” before falling between her lips.

Darcy’s head jerked to the side, Strongjon’s famous strength at work as he struck her cheek from the inside, but Sparks’ hopes at him fighting free were dashed as the giantess opened her mouth then – as Strongjon flopped out – quickly clamped her jaws closed. There was a horrific crunch as his waist was crushed between her teeth. He cried out, with no strength left – his arms were limp as noodles as the monstrous woman slurped him in. She gulped Strongjon down and blew out a satisfied noise.

Sparks yelled curses as the giantess more slowly lifted her. It was useless, though – there was nothing she could do to get free, and the woman was plainly murderous. Justice was supposed to prevail at all costs, good was supposed to win – but this woman wasn’t playing by the rules. She had size and speed and intelligence, and she had Sparks trapped completely in one hand.

The giantess was moving away now; one massive step took her over the police and the closest crowd, her sneaker crushing a car like paper, the people in it too slow to get out. Another step and she was down a side street, away from the congestion, and she started shrinking. Sparks went still, watching with amazement as the buildings flew up past them, the world seeming to expand massively.

Oh no – Darcy was shrinking and she was shrinking along with her.

Another step and Darcy was on the sidewalk, aiming for a narrow alley, as people scattered away from her former hugeness. They were suddenly alone, then, and Darcy was briskly walking between buildings, Sparks tossed about in her swaying hand. There were no more onlookers back here – no chance of help.

She was going to get away! She’d eaten Sparks’ friends and would live to fight another day; this wasn’t possible, not how it was supposed to go.

“Well Sparrow Squad,” Darcy murmured, lifting Sparks to her face, “you should probably have been called the Swallows.” She smirked at her own joke as Sparks thrashed her head about in mad resistance. “And I guess you can call me Darcy the Devourer.”

The villain’s mouth opened wide over Sparks, and she got a terrible view of torn clothes and blood on the boulder-like teeth as she was shoved in. Sparks landed with a splat on the soft, wet tongue, and rolled over, tossing her hands up and firing flashes. It was all she could do, lighting up the fleshy cavern with moments of blinding light, as Darcy’s mouth contracted and swallowed.

Sparks slid down the wet tunnel of her throat, thrashing about but unable to stop her fall, until she plopped out into the open cave of a stomach. She flew at once, lighting her hands to reveal walls of rolled, pulsing flesh all around, the pool of stirring acid below – a body submerged in it. Sparks screamed and flew down, flashing light and trying to pull her friend up, but her hand touched the acid and burned, making her retreat, too fast, so she bumped the stomach lining. Sparks lowered herself, shoulder wet, and hovered in the dark, chilled by the wet sounds of Darcy’s body moving, alive around her. She adjusted her height, watching as the walls and acid rose and fell, the woman who’d eaten her on the move.

“Brain?” she called out. “Are you down here?”

There was no answer, just Spark’s voice echoing back. The only remaining Sparrow alive, fluttering in the stomach of a villain.

***NEXT TIME ON BIG VILLAINY, LITTLE JUSTICE: Dr Jennifer Howard has a mishap with a size-ray – and finds herself reduced to mouse-size before master thief, Ali Cat! Coming May 16th, 2022***