Day of the Goliath

I did this story as a favor for a friend, who wanted to adapt a superhero story into a comic. The characters are based on a serial that I'm thinking about doing, but if I did, the continuity would disregard this paricular one.

It had to be kid friendly, so you won't find any of the usual carnage and madness that are in my stories. Still, I like the way it turned out.

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It was a day like any other in the sprawling metropolis of Victory City. It was an early Monday morning and the streets were already filled with congested traffic of people going about their daily routines. At the corner of 1st and Main Street 16 year old Collin McManus stood with his backpack over one shoulder as he yawned. He looked down at his watch. It was 7:30 in the morning. He had plenty of time to get to school. He whistled to himself as he heard someone yelling out his name from a few feet away.

“Collin!!” He turned his head and saw the brown haired girl waving as she ran to him.

“Hey, Beth.” Collin smiled as she reached him. Once the crosswalk sign changed, the two of them began crossing the street.

“Are you okay, Collin?” Beth asked him, noticing that he looked tired.

“Huh? Oh, yes, I’m fine. I’m just a little tired.” He answered.

“Were you up studying for that history test?” Beth asked him

“We have a history test?!” Collin asked, a look of despair crossing his face.

“Well, what exactly were you doing
that’s left you so tired?”

“I was…out…”

“You were patrolling, weren’t you?” Beth questioned. “You know you shouldn’t do that on school nights.”

“I know, but I was bored.” Collin admitted. “Plus, we’ve got to use these powers as often as possible to get used to them, right?” He held out his hand, which suddenly ignited in flame.

“Don’t do that!” Beth quickly grabbed his wrist, just below the flames, and forced his arm down. “Someone might see you.” She warned him. “Remember, we’re still new at this whole “super-hero” thing.”

“Yeah, I know…” Collin pouted, putting out the flames with a thought. It was a miracle no one had seen him.

“If we’re to ever reach the level of someone like Artemis or Arsenal, we have to be able to keep what we can do a secret.”

“I know, I know…” Collin hung has head as Beth gave him that speech for what he felt must’ve been the millionth time.

“Now come on, let’s get to school.” Beth put a hand on Collin’s shoulder and smiled.

Collin looked up at her and smiled as he followed.

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Downtown, in the Victory City’s industrial district

An abandoned warehouse was busy with activity inside as disgruntled Skytech industries robotics expert, Cassandra Carmen, was building welding pieces of metal together, the blinding light from the torch reflecting off of her goggles. The only light in the building, the flickering light from the torch also temporarily revealed a massive object buried beneath a white sheet.

“I’ll show those fools…” She muttered to herself. In the back of her mind, she thought about how she had been fired from her job. How they told her that her designs were far too dangerous. Scattered on the floor were newspaper clippings about the prototype VX-09 “Vector” model escaping and going on a rampage, causing people to get hurt in the process. When Artemis, one of the city’s more infamous heroes, stopped the rampaging automaton, as illustrated by a front page photograph, the media traced it back to Skytech, who immediately fired the robot’s creator amidst a massive media blitz. Headlines about the police searching for this woman in order to bring her to justice for what her machine did also littered the floor as she worked diligently. As she finished installing an essential circuit, she smirked when she noticed movement. The object on the bench in front of her, which revealed itself to be merely a gigantic, metal arm, twitched as its fingers moved into a fist before opening back up. As the arm moved of its own volition, Cassandra smiled and looked back over her shoulder. She lifted her goggles up and eyed the giant white sheet behind her. With the completion of this arm, her greatest creation was finally ready.

“Vector!” She yelled out.

Out o the darkness of the warehouse stepped her other creation. He was a spitting image of the robot that was destroyed, right down to the green and black shell and the optical sensor slit that made up his face.

“Here to serve, master.” Vector II acknowledged her.

“The Goliath is finished, I just need you to connect his arm and power him up.”

Showing an impressive display of strength, Vector II grabbed the arm by one of the fingers and begins dragging it towards the rest of the robot covered beneath the sheet.

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Victory City High School

While Beth listened intently to Ms. Vargas, the history teacher, Collin sat directly behind her drawing something as he eagerly waited for class to come to an end.

“…and now class, I’ll be handing out today’s test.” The teacher announced.

A “deer in the headlights” look crossed Collin’s face when he heard her say those words. Panic began to set in as he tried to think of a way to get out of it. Beth turned back to give him on of the test papers that had been passed her when she noticed the look on his face.

“Try not to worry…” She tried to assure him. “Just try to remember what Ms. Vargas went over earlier this week and you’ll be fine.”

“I’d give anything to get out of this…” Collin groaned and put his head down on the desk. It was then that the glass gasped almost collectively when something caused the very building to rumble. Collin looked up and everyone felt it again, but this one was slightly larger.

“No one panic…” Ms. Vargas tried to keep order over her students when the familiar blare of the city’s air raid horns could be heard. A good majority of the children in the classroom got up and ran to the window to see if they could tell what was happening. Police helicopters tore past the window. There was a flash of light as a beam of energy tore through one and caused it to explode near the window. The kids screamed and got back as the window shattered from the force of the explosion.

“Everyone downstairs!!” Ms. Vargas suddenly yelled as the panic stricken students ran out of the room and into the hall, where the other students from other classes were evacuating as well.

Collin looked up from where he fell to the floor when Beth grabbed his arm.
“Come on, this is where we come in!” She ran out with Collin in tow.

It wasn’t long before they got outside. It was easy enough to get away from everyone else in the panic. Collin suddenly seized Bet’s arm and quickly pulled her back into the school doorway as a car flew threw the air before slamming into the ground.”

“Thanks.” Beth said to him

“Oh boy…” Collin muttered when he saw the cause of the flying car, the explosions, and the minor tremors.

Beth looked around and bolted across the street.

“Hey, wait!!” Collin ran after her, following her into an alley.


Just down the road, Cassandra’s robot, the Goliath, was running amok of the city. As Victory City citizens scrambled so as not to be smashed by the 5 story tall automaton, police cars and helicopters were swatted and kicked away like pathetic bugs. Its emerald green eyes glowed as lasers tore across a random building before an explosion followed. Cassandra, with Vector II at her side, stood on a rooftop not too far away pressing buttons on a remote control as she watched her giant destroyed everything in its path. Police choppers flew over her head, but didn’t notice her. They were suddenly smacked away and spiraled out of control when Goliath turned and hit them away. The choppers slammed into each other and as metal bent and twisted the two choppers fell to the ground. The pilots inside panicked as their vehicles were falling too fast for them to eject, but their falls were slowed dramatically by a small cyclone that eased them down onto the street.

Beth, now in dark green costume and mask, held out her hands and dissipated the cyclone as the pilots managed to get the doors open and climb out.

“Oh thank you, Whirlwind. You saved us!” One of them proclaimed.

“Get to safety, I’ll handle this.” Whirlwind pointed in the opposite direction. The two pilots nodded and ran off.


“Those blasted costumed interlopers.” Cassandra muttered as she lowered a pair of binoculars through which she was viewing Whirlwind. “Smash her, Goliath!”

The machine’s eyes glowed and it took off in a run towards Whirlwind, who turned and quickly flew up to avoid being crushed when she realized Goliath was bearing down on her.

“Look out!” a voice suddenly yelled.

Whirlwind turned around. “AHH!!” She yelled with wide eyed surprise as she quickly moved to the side of a fast moving fireball that hit Goliath in the chest and caused the robot to stagger back. Torch, Collin in an orange costume with black flames, ignited another fireball in his palm as Whirlwind landed next to him.

“You’re the one who wished for this,” She said to him.

“But I didn’t say a giant robot,” He held Goliath back with another explosive fireball to the chest.

“Nevertheless, it’s our problem now.” Whirlwind turned and faced one of the cars that Goliath had thrown and smashed. She lifted her hands, causing a powerful wind to lift the car as she hurled it at the robot.


“Grrrr!” Cassandra growled when the car hit Goliath in his head and a third fireball exploded against his chest. She frantically pressed buttons to try and make Goliath fight harder. Whirlwind zigged and zagged through the air, dodging Goliath’s eye lasers as they tore apart building, vehicle and asphalt alike. She zipped through the air to get behind Goliath while Torch, who didn’t have the luxury of flight, ran down the middle of the street, narrowly avoiding another car that the robot tried and failed to slam down on his partner. Torch then dove and rolled between Goliath’s legs before getting back up and eyeing a car that hadn’t yet to be touched by the robot’s rampage.

“Whirlwind!!!” Torch yelled to her.

She looked down at him and saw him pointing to a car, nodding, she generated another blast of wind strong enough to lift the car, and threw it at the towering machine. As physics carried the car, Whirlwind began concentrating and gathering even more powerful winds. Torch raised his arm and timed his shot as the automobile’s underside was exposed. Wind violently ripped around the area, but he managed to remain grounded as a small tornado materialized behind the robot, picking up all sorts of debris in its fury.
A small fire ignited on Collin’s fingertips. He then shot a thin, concentrated beam of heat energy and punctured the gas tank of the vehicle when it was close to Goliath. The resulting explosion knocked the gigantic mecha back where he was caught up by Whirlwind’s tornado.


“No!!” Cassandra growled when she saw the powerful cyclone whip her robot about as though it were a rag doll. “Vector!”

“Master?” The green robot stepped up.

“Destroy those two kids.”

“May I remind you that I am not combat capable, master. My chances for survival are 2 percent. Chances of my victory are practically non-existent.”

“What are you talking about? You are too combat ready!”

“Negative. My predecessor was a combat automaton. My initial design was combat capable, but when you needed a laboratory assistant and lacked the funds to build a second unit, my prime directive was altered.”

“Gah!” Cassandra slammed down Goliath’s controller in frustration, smashing it into a million pieces. “Come on. We’re leaving!”


Goliath slammed hard into the ground, his metal exoskeleton shattered beyond repair as transistors, circuitry, oil and robotic innards spilled across the road. Whirlwind landed on a part of Goliath’s rubble as Torch walked up to her.

“Good job,” He climbed up in the rubble and stood next to her. He then peered over Whirlwind’s shoulder when he noticed she was shifting through the rubble.

“What are you doing?”

“I knew it!” Whirlwind pulled out a small, see-through device.

“What’s that?” Torch blinked.

“It’s a short ranged wireless receiver. This robot was being controlled by remote, and whoever was doing it was close.”

“Yeah, ‘was’ being a key word.”

“They’re most likely fleeing in the direction that the robot came from.” Whirlwind stated as she began hovering. “Listen, could you make sure everyone is all right? I want to see if I can find them.”

“Sure thing, but…Whirlwind!” He yelled after her when she flew away.


Whirlwind flew low and scanned the rooftops for anything suspicious when she found the smashed bits and pieces of the remote. Landing on the roof and looking around, Whirlwind kept an eye out for suspicious movement. She took to the skies once again to get a better view.


“Come on, Vector! Move it! The police might be around!” Cassandra hissed as she and Vector moved through the alleys to try and make their escape.

“It would have served us better to use a conveyance, master.”

“Shut up…” Cassandra growled. She suddenly came to a stop when Whirlwind lowered to the ground in front of her with her arms folded.

“Eheh…” A nervous laugh escaped Cassandra when she saw Whirlwind. “Umm…hello, Ms. Whirlwind.”

“You’re that scientist whose robot hurt those people a few months ago…”

“Well, yeah…I am. Doesn’t look like I did much better this time, huh?”

Whirlwind shot a glance at Vector, who stood silently and as though her were a statue.
Cassandra noted this movement and quickly smirked. “But you might want to back off, because this one’s even more dangerous than the big one you just took down.” She pointed to Vector.

“Then give him the command to attack.”

“Wh…what?” Cassandra blinked, not expecting that to be the teenaged superhero’s response.

“Have him come at me.” A confident Whirlwind answered.

“Well, you heard her Vector! Get her!”
Whirlwind hovered before them, arms still folded as she waited, but Vector did not move. Silence hung in the air for several minutes before Cassandra broke it.

“Vector!!” She yelled, pushing the robot in the side of the head. The robot swayed and fell to the ground with a thud. He had shut himself down, probably when he saw Whirlwind and realized they had been caught.

“You stupid…!” Cassandra screamed as she kicked the downed robot, but yelled in pain when she stubbed her toe on his metal exterior.

“Whirlwind!” A voice yelled from behind her. When she turned around, two uniformed policemen had just arrived.

“Torch told us you came this. Did you find anything?” One of the officers asked.

“Right there, officer.” She pointed at Cassandra.

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Sometime later

As clean up on the downed Goliath began and the roads were taped off, people gathered around the police tape and watched. Collin, who saw Cassandra being put into the back of a police car with the still deactivated Vector being put in as well, turned when Beth finally arrived.

“Hey, good job out there today.” Beth smiled at Collin.

“Thanks, you too.” He smiled in response. “We keep this up and soon enough I’ll have my own movie and you’ll get to meet your hero.” He grinned.

Beth laughed and patted her friend on the back. “Of course,”

They both suddenly turned when each of them felt a hand on their shoulder. It was Ms. Vargas, their history teacher.

“There you two are. I’ve been looking all over for you.”

“Uh, sorry Ms. V. We got separated from the rest of the class. We hid in another room until we were sure it was over.” Collin quickly came up with an alibi.

“Oh, alright then.” Ms. Vargas seemed to buy it. “Come back inside,” She looked at her watch. “We can still get this test in before school actually lets out.” She turned and went back inside.

Collin hung his head in despair when he heard they were still going to have to take their test.

“You know, a giant robot would be so out of the ordinary, that it’d disrupt daily activity in most cities…” Beth said as she walked back into the school.

“You think if I make another wish a second robot’ll pop up?” Collin asked as he followed her back in.

END