Weapon of Choice

Weapon of Choice is the first track in Kiwi Blitz. It is named for “Weapon of Choice” by Fatboy Slim. Most pages of this track have been redrawn by the artist, Mary Cagle.

Summary
It's Steffi's 14th birthday. Her present is KiwiBot, a mech, and she announces that instead of entering it in the Robot Battle League competition, she's going to use it to fight crime. We also meet her friend Ben and her father Heinrich.

Plot
Before the title page: Police are chasing someone who stole a mech from World War 3. A reporter gives an emergency notification, but then notices a bright green mech, much smaller than the stolen one, facing the latter on the road. Inside what we'll later learn is called Kiwibot we see a teenager dressed in vivid purple and orange. But her most noticeable physical characteristic, at this point, is her bright pink hair, with thick curls around the sides and back of her head. A not-yet-named-or-seen collaborator, not inside Kiwibot, calls her "Steffi." She prepares to attack the stolen mech, but we don't yet know anything about her weaponry, if any.

After the title page for the track, we go back in time by a month. (On the title page we see another aspect of Steffi's appearance: She has a metal left leg.)   We are in an arena, with an audience in the background. An elephant mech is fighting a rat mech. They're not quite to scale, but the elephant is quite a lot bigger than the rat. The announcer suggests that "EB's pilot" doesn't have a plan; Steffi, smiling inside Elephantbot, replies "Klappe." The announcer says "she seems to be cursing me in German again." ("Klappe" is in fact a somewhat rude, but not obscene, equivalent to "Shut your trap.") It's clear that the two are old friends.

Ben (whose name we haven't yet learned) is giving Steffi advice through a video screen inside Elephantbot. Steffi ignores him. Ratbot gets behind Elephantbot and attempts to drill into Elephantbot's hull, but Steffi does a backflip and lands on top of Ratbot, causing maximum damage to the mech. Steffi receives an award for winning the match and then meets Francis, her father's assistant, who drives her home. Francis asks about the tournament, but Steffi just says that everyone in her division sucks. Steffi notices that they're driving down a different route than the usual, but Francis tells her that the Raccoon is planning a heist at the art museum and that all roads in the vicinity are closed in preparation. Steffi says that the Raccoon seems like a real pain in the ass, but Francis admires him as kind of like a comic book villain. Steffi says that the Raccoon can succeed only because the police are underfunded nowadays. Francis notes that there are supervillians but no superheroes in their city, and (in an ironic foreshadowing) Steffi replies, "'cause none of the crazy people are interested in helping."

When they arrive at the Frohlich house, Steffi is surprised when she opens the door to see a birthday party for her. It's a small party: Steffi's father, Heinrich, and the boy we saw on the screen inside Elephantbot, who refers to himself as "Benzene." He's generally called by his nickname, Ben. Steffi thought that her dad was going to France for a meeting, but he says he wouldn't miss his daughter's birthday. They eat some cake, and then follow Heinrich to the garage to see her present: he and Ben have built a Kiwibot just for Steffi. She is amazed at the mech and starts noting all of its cool features. Ben says they'll register Kiwibot for RBL (the Robot Battle League) tomorrow. Steffi says no, because instead she can use Kiwibot to fight crime. This is a remarkable turnaround from her attitude in the earlier conversation with Francis! Ben sensibly disagrees with this plan, but Heinrich supports his daughter so he will seem like a better parent than Steffi's mother. The track ends with Ben saying, "This is why your wife left you!"

Commentary
The importance of the RBL scene, apart from explaining why a KiwiBot is a good present for Steffi, is that it establishes the point that she's unbeatable regardless of who has the stronger mech, which is why she expects to be unbeatable as a superhero. She's just in the habit of always winning! Also, the way she wins the RBL battles is by inventing unexpected tactics on the fly; this is a persistent characteristic of her KiwiBot battles.

Characters

 * Steffi Frohlich
 * Benzene Contractor
 * Heinrich Frohlich
 * Francis Freeman
 * RBL Announcer
 * Newscaster Cliff Trench