Maxima!!

TRACK 26: THE MAXIMA

"Boss? I think she's still alive."

A heartbeat brought Rosie back to the park. She dragged her eyelids halfway open. It didn't take much to spot the thugs that treated her like fresh game from a hunt; plenty of them, in their machines or otherwise, laughed, grinned, and posed as they snapped pictures of their conquest. The bravest piloted their way across her colossal contours. Neither a thought nor an impulse ran through her mind, though. She barely had the strength to keep her eyes open.

But her heart kept thumping.

"You serious?" Gustav asked. She heard his mech click its metal tongue and stomp closer. "All right, anybody got a stake the size of a monument?"

That got some laughs out of the thugs. Not Rosie. Her heart just thumped a little louder.

"Bruce, you still got the big guns? Shoot her in the head."

"Gotcha, Boss!" She heard Bruce gear up his truck -- or at least, he tried to. "Uh, hold on. Think the gun needs recharging."

"How long's that gonna take?"

"Beats me."

Rosie twitched as her heart thumped louder.

"Well, hurry up." She made out The Champ as it ran a fist across its mouth. "I'm ready to get back to a normal life."

Rosie's heart thumped again. Louder. Harder.

"Huh. That's weird," said Bruce. "Now I can't get it working at all."

"What, the gun?"

"Anything. It's like the engine shut off or something."

"What, did you break it or --?" Rosie spotted The Champ as it tried to approach, but its movements grew jagged and clumsy. Five seconds later, it only moved inches at a time. "The hell? What's wrong with this thing?"

Rosie's eyelids opened by another third, spurred by a climb in temperature. Every single machine seized up. As her breathing increased, she started to understand why: pink energy surged and swirled around them. For most, that left chrome parts swarmed by ghostly mists. For some, pink sparks snapped from edge to edge. But for all of them -- including Rosie herself -- pink petals, birthed from some holy flower, fluttered throughout the park.

But she had it wrong. Those "petals" went beyond the park. Well beyond. Into the city. How deep, she couldn't begin to guess. For the most part, they swirled around the park as if caught in a whirlpool. As if carried by a certain will. A power.

It hit Rosie all at once. She remembered the words spoken in that forest.

The will deep inside.

She let out a sharp gasp as her eyes jolted wide open. Her back arched into a bridge, high enough to send thugs and machines rolling off. Well before she even processed the thought, Rosie started to stand up. The earth distorted under her. Hundreds of tons of metal tumbled from her body. The petals swirled ever more, while pink mists poisoned the park and the streets beyond.

She rose. Slowly. Steadily. She went from laying supine to a seat, to a kneel, and then up she went. As her legs pushed her skyward, the city switched between alive and dead. Whatever lights she hadn't knocked out loosed a blinding shade of pink. Only a dice roll decided whether bulbs flickered, blackened, or burst like bombs. That went on for miles.

The thugs' whimpers filled the air. "Boss? What's going on?" Bruce asked between tears.

Gustav tried to start up his mech, yet failed like everyone else. "CHAOS?" he asked. "Is it 'cause of her?"