Tricia landed gracefully onto rooftop after rooftop as her superhuman legs propelled her skyward at her whim. "WHEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!" giggled Tricia as she reveled in the incredible power she know posessed. As she launched herself across the span of yet another city block to spied down and smiled as she saw a poor, unsuspecting Arnold running full sprint, looking over his shoulder constantly. Tricia almost burst out laughing at the notion that Arnold thought he had eluded her.

"Tsk, Tsk....Foolish little, weak Arnold!" said Tricia as she landed like a cat, slowing peering down on the city street 6 stories down, making sure Arnold could not see her. "Hmm....what do you know and better yet, what are you up to now?"

Arnold panted heavily as he paused, bending over with his hands on his knees desperately trying to catch his breath. Looking up at the street signs, Arnold's brow furrowed as he began to notice famialr surroundings, confirmed as his galnced up at the street sign that read: "7th Street" and "Cypress Avenue".

"Yes!!! That's IT!" exclaimed Arnold as he spun himself westward and began to walk excitedly towards the unmistakable red signage that read: "COSMIC COMICS"

Ding! Ding!

The familiar tiny door chime rang as Arnold opened the door to his familiar haunt as he pivoted and walked past the Manga aisle and the glass case of Harry Potter figurines, glancing momentarily to take stock of the new Hermione Grainger bust that he hadn't recognized before.

"Hmm, must be new...." thought Arnold as he shrugged and walked -- almost programatically -- to the 3rd aisle where the comic back issues were kept. Smiling and sighing heavily, Arnold felt as if he was in his element here! And even better, he had an idea! Who would know a better way to figure out how to stop 3 rampaging superpowered beings than comic book writers themselves? Arnold looked to both sides, flanked by "long boxes" housing thousands of pages of reference material to help get him out of this predicament. Sure, the situation he was in was extraordinary -- almost outlandish -- but it wasn't any more crazy than other tales in the comics.

"Time to get to work!" said Arnold to himself as he pulled out a longbox and started flipping through the "A's" for any comic that he thought might lend itself a good idea or solution....

-------

"What the hell is he doing in there?" thought Tricia standing atop one of the buildings that looked down on the comic shop. She was getting impatient and more than a little annoyed. There was a grinding sound as Tricia looked down and saw her fingers begin to sink into the red brick like tiny jackhammers. Tricia smiled as she clenched her hands into fist, her fingers shredding through the course Chicago Brick like it was pudding. Holding up two handfuls of brick fragments in her hands, Tricia gave an experimental squeeze of her fists and was rewarded with the muffled sound of the rocs being pulverized inside her palms. Tricia smiled evilly as her dusted her hands off and turned her attention back to the entrance of the comic shop. "OK, Arnold....I'll give you ten more minutes and then I'm coming in after you and getting answers if I have to beat it out of you!"

--------

Inside the comic shop, Arnold wiped his brow as he continued to flip through the comics, periodically pulling any issue out that he thought might be useful -- about 12 issues so far. He looked at his watch impatiently, jumping both times he heard the door chime, wondering if Tricia had found him. "Damn!" thought Arnold as he looked around and realized he was only at the "F's". As he continued his persuing, Arnold let out a surprised "Aahhh!" and dropped the issue he was holding as a female hand grasped his shoulder gently from behind.

"Geez, Arnold! Chillax!" said the red headed girl as she bent down and picked up the issue he had dropped, glancing at the cover.

"Whitney?!?! What are you doing here? I thought y-y-you only worked on the weekends?" stammered Arnold as he tried not to lovertly stare at her.

"I do, but I came in to help with inventory and stuff!" Whitney said behind her strangely sexy red-rimmed glasses as she sucked almost seductively on a grape-flavored Tootsie Pop. Arnold signed momentarily.

Whitney Attaway had worked at the Cosmic Comics for the last two years, and within 48 hours of her hiring, word had spread like wildfire through the local fanboy community. Whitney was a self-professed geek who was into video games, cosplay and most especially comics. With an exception of himself, Whitney had probably the most comic knowledge of anyone he knew which was enough to endear her to any prospective fanboy suitor. Whitney, however, wasn't your run-of-the-mill geekette in any way, shape, or form! Especially in shape! Whitney herself looked like she had stepped off the pages of a comic book herself with a body that could only be summed up as incredible. Illustrated by the incredible response every year to the store's Halloween Sale which seemed like simply a facade for people to ogle at whatever costume she planned for that year!

Suddenly, Arnold's head snapped down (trying to get the picture of Whitney dressed as Vampirella from last October out of his head) as he extended his hand and hastily grabbed the issue Whitney picked up for him. "Thanks, Whitney!"

"Femforce #17, huh? I thought you had all those issues..."

"Yeah, well....I....um....lost this one......" muttered Arnold as he felt his head begin to tingle slightly.

"Yeah, cool issue! Origin of Thunderfox! You know, where that guy makes her appear for real after he draws her! That would be so cool to be turned into a superheroine cause someone draws it, huh?"

"NO!" screamed Arnold inside his head as he tried blocking out Whitney as she continued to ramble.....

Hmm...." pondered Whitney as she glanced the cover again and saw Thunderfox's red hair. "Maybe I should do Thunderfox for next Halloween? I've always wanted to be a superpowered red-head! Oh! Oh! How bout the other Femforce members? What do you think Arnold? Would you like me as a supersexy soceress like Nightveil or sexy blonde superstrong bombshell like Ms V? ARNOLD?!?! What's wrong?"

Whitney bent down as Arnold slumped to the floor almost catatonic as he knew it was futile effort on his part to stop his mind from "drawing" what it didn't want to do. He peered up at Whitney glassily and simply shrugged "I guess.....how bout all of them?"