Battle with Enorma, 6

A wave of nausea washed over Enorma.    She slumped to her knees.  Somehow she found the strength to hold onto Power Girl, who still dangled helplessly in her grasp.

"Not now," she kept repeating to herself, the look of fear emblazoned on her face.   Her size and strength were not due to science, but to sorcery.    She had been warned that overly strenuous battles could weaken the spell temporarily or even nullify it permanently.   In the three years since being granted her power, she had participated in many battles as an agent in the Sisterhood of Retribution, under whose membership she had found purpose in life.   She had never experienced any adverse effects.  She had even decided that the prophetic warning was issued only as a simple deterrent to any overreaching ambitions that she might develop.   She cursed the witch for not being explicit.  Why can't magic-users ever talk straight, she thought for a moment.

The sudden realization of her limitations threatened to undo a near perfectly planned and executed engagement.   Lin, the leader of the Sisterhood of Retribution, had secured advance knowledge of Wonder Woman's patrols with the League.  Weeks in advance she put a photographer in contact with a recently paroled Enorma.   The ruse was simple yet effective.    A staged photo shoot with Enorma lifting a car ominously over an actress playing a fear-struck civilian would attract Wonder Woman and her partner as they flew on patrol.   Wonder Woman had already been brandished with some justification as a dangerous hot-head by the media.   That coupled with her dislike of Enorma, against whom she had suffered two well publicized beat downs, would almost certainly precipitate a fight.  The location they had scouted in advance would minimize civilian casualties but property damage would likely be significant.  The end result of an unprovoked battle would be a huge publicity blow to the League, which had already come  under increasing scrutiny and heat for the past year.   A number of anti-superpowered groups increasingly ballyhooed civil sanctions and criminal charges.  At best this might be the situation to tip the kettle or at worse add fuel to the fire.

The photographer, a well-known fan of Enorma, would never be aware of any subterfuge or ulterior motives.   The origin of Enorma's power made her extremely resistant to any kind of mind control or mental probing.  She would not reveal anything.  Her own motivation  for the charade would be economic, for the photographer promised to pay her for the exclusive shoot.  

Wonder Woman and Hesperia had taken the bait.   As soon as they spotted Enorma seemingly in the act of a rampage, they reacted without thinking.   The civilians in the vicinity scattered in terror the moment they heard Wonder Woman's war cry as she rocketed down from the sky like a possessed tomahawk missile.   The heroines paid the photographer no mind.  It was beyond commonplace for a number of civilians at any encounter to put themselves in grave danger as they risked life and limb for that exclusive photo.   They thought no different this time.  The photographer didn't stick around to protest: it didn't take much urging from Enorma for her to flee for safety' sake.

The only deviation from their game-plan had been X-V being taken out by Hesperia and Power Girl's untimely arrival.   Yet Enorma had persevered.  All that was left was one humiliating payback punch against Power Girl before she would tie them all up with Wonder Woman's lasso, which lay gathered in a heap after it had been yanked from the Amazon's hands.  Afterwards she would call the authorities and wait.

Now everything seemed at risk of catastrophic failure, and Enorma was afraid.  She was terrified of being reduced to her former self.  She was scared most of all of letting down Lin.  She had often been at odds with the Sisterhood's elected leader.  She butted heads with Lin almost daily, playing the role of devil's advocate.  She did so because of a sense of inferiority.   She, in fact, craved not only Lin's attention, but sought her respect.

All thoughts were at once buried under an avalanche of pain that ran from her head to her toes.   And then without any spectacle she transformed and was the behemoth Enorma no more. 


* * *

For the next part, see .

For the previous scenes, see     .


For an earlier and unrelated appearance of Lin, see Having Bat for Dinner.