Dynamite Rave

Dynamite Rave is the 16th Track in Kiwi Blitz. It is named for “Dynamite Rave (B4 Za Beat Mix)” by Naoki.

Summary
The police have been ambushed by Alter. Things look bad until KiwiBot arrives on the scene. Steffi, Ben, and 42 spread out among the various small battles in progress and turn the tide in each of them. Heinrich is also in KiwiBot and he and Reed set out in it to join Heinrich's daughter Steffi and Reed's father Chief Bahia.

Plot
The first two pretitle pages remind us of the various battles in progress: Cho and Canis around a building corner from each other, the latter with a machine gun; Flores and Barnes in their police car, undriveable after Taurus landed on it and punched out Flores, with Barnes trying to revive Flores, while Taurus remains next to them; Reed Bahia shooting a firebomb at Jones, who dodges it. Would you really kill me, she asks. If necessary, he replies. Then, in the last panel of the second page we hear "That won't be necessary, Mr. Bahia." And the third and last pretitle page shows the arrival of KiwiBot. "I believe we can take it from here." We don't yet know exactly who "we" includes, nor do we know how Team Steffi learned about this situation or where it's happening -- probably more computer magic from 42.

And after the title page, that guess is confirmed. Steffi's intervention starts out well; KiwiBot shoots out a chemical smoke that knocks Jones out. Barnes's stun gun has no effect on Taurus, but then 42 arrives. Taurus, remembering what happened when he tried to punch 42's face in the Fuzzy Navel, is afraid of her, and when she threatens to destroy him (a bluff; she's not allowed to harm humans) he runs off. Canis is pointing his machine gun at Cho, but Ben, in a cute new blue and gold costume, is pointing a revolver at Canis. Canis asks Ben who he's supposed to be, and Ben says "If she's Blitz, I guess I'm Donner." Steffi interprets this as the German word for thunder, but in fact Ben was thinking about the reindeer Donner and Blitzen. This is in fact a subtle bilingual pun, because "Blitz" is German for "lightning." "Blitzen," the verb form, means "flash."

What's Ben doing with a gun? He collected it from Natrix's desk drawer as they were leaving the club. Canis tries to bluff this kid he's up against: "The safety's still on." But Ben responds, "Revolvers like this don't have safeties," letting both Canis and the reader know that he's an expert on guns. Ben has the drop on Canis, but the latter has a machine gun, so it's not clear who'd win this standoff, but we never find out because the distraction allows Cho to shoot Canis with her stun gun.

So far, Team Steffi seems to have everything under control. Alas, there's one more battle in progress, and Chief Bahia is under attack by Piggy, Taurus, and Tigris. Taurus knock him down, and Tigris is about to attack him with her sword, when suddenly she has Steffi's boot in her face. We then get a full page of Steffi saying "Maybe you haven't heard, but this is my show. And it's the kind where nobody dies." This is a promise to the reader, as well as to the gang members and the police.

Then comes a one-page flashback to the previous night, when Heinrich presents to Steffi her new body armor. That helps us understand the following page, on which Piggy shoots Steffi without effect. Steffi pulls her cape around in front of her, and the bullets bounce off it. But Steffi is still fighting three bad guys, so things don't look promising.

Meanwhile, back at KiwiBot, we see Reed, the unconscious Jones, and... Heinrich! He appears from inside the mech and introduces himself to Reed. Reed says he has to go find his father, and Heinrich says he has to go find his daughter. Fortunately they're in the same place, so Reed and Heinrich stash Jones in the back of KiwiBot and head off for what's now the main battle scene. Steffi, feeling that the odds aren't in her favor, calls for help from Ben, who sets off to find her as the track ends.

Sound Bite
Steffi, Ben, and Heinrich are sitting around eating fruit pops. Ben wants to know why KiwiBot has wing decals. Do kiwis even have wings? "They must, right?" says Steffi. She then appeals to Heinrich to settle it. "Of course they do. They're birds." But they don't look it, Ben persists. Heinrich says he assumed they "tuck them in." "To ''where?" ''Ben inquires. (The answer, according to Wikipedia, is that the kiwi has "vestigial" wings, but they're so small you can't see them through their feathers.)

This sound bite page is the first to be pencilled by Grace Liu, who continues in this role through Tracks 17 and 18.

Characters Introduced

 * Canis
 * Piggy