Panda Hero

Panda Hero is the 12th Track in Kiwi Blitz. It is named for “Panda Hero” by Hachi.

Summary
Chandra, in love with Steffi, agrees to help her get Natrix, a member of the gang Alter, arrested. Reed is fitted for a new arm. And Team Steffi prepare to infiltrate the furry club where Natrix works.

Plot
The three pages before the title page show us a late-night phone conversation between Steffi and Chandra. The purpose of the call, with respect to the heroes-and-villains aspect of the story, is for Steffi to convey to Chandra Reed's request for a lever into Alter. Chandra very reasonably replies, "You do realize you're asking me to help get my friends arrested." But she nevertheless promises to think how she might help without betraying the Alter members who are her friends.

But a second purpose of the call, for the readers, is to advance the friendship between the two girls. We see this because the call begins and ends with Chandra blushing. At the beginning it's because, when Chandra complains that Steffi should have called earlier to let Chandra know she's still alive, Steffi replies "Aww, sorry, kid! I didn't know you were that worried about me!" But Chandra was worried, of course, and isn't ready to be teased about it. At the end of the call, Steffi thanks Chandra for trying to solve Reed's problem, and Chandra says "thank you" back. What for? "For, y'know, being straight with me. ... and not turning me in." Steffi replies, "Of course! That'd make me a pretty awful friend." Chandra very much wants to be Steffi's friend, but until now wasn't sure she was; Steffi really should have called Chandra right away. And even now, Steffi hasn't told Chandra her name.

After the title page, Reed gets several visitors in his hospital room. First comes his girlfriend Jones, who admires his temporary prosthetic arm and brings stuff from his home. Then come Steffi, who hides as she sees Jones on her way out, and her friend Dr. Barry Ghanem, the prosthetist. He asks how Reed wants his arm equipped. "I know Steffi thinks guns are cooler, but I think knives have more practical uses." Reed, naturally, replies "Wait, what?" He was expecting just an arm, something that looks and behaves like an arm. Steffi and Barry are very disappointed at that response. Reed, confused, asks if Steffi's legs have concealed weapons. "Of course not. That'd be illegal for me," says Steffi with a wink. It is more powerful than a standard leg, though. (Is that wink a bluff? Probably, but we aren't told for sure.)  Barry says, "You'll just be disappointed if you try to make it like you never lost the arm.  I like to think of artificial limbs as a kind of upgrade, rather than a poor substitute." And so Reed comes to understand what Gear meant by saying she was doing him a favor by cutting off his arm. In the end, he agrees to get something "not too crazy."

The next scene takes place in Chandra's math class. She is the very picture of intense concentration, and her teacher thinks it's math she's thinking about, but what she's really doing is drawing a big heart with a Raccoon and a Blitz inside it; thus we learn that this is not only a friendship, but a crush. She's also worried about whether she can trust Blitz to entrap the one Alter member she wants the police to get without betraying other members, but she remembers Blitz sending her away from the battle with Gear to keep her safe.

Meanwhile we stop in at Mecha Machen, just long enough to watch Heinrich designing some technology that'll be helpful to Steffi while fighting outside of KiwiBot, as she's done most of the time apart from her first battle with Arachbot.

Late that night, Chandra calls Steffi. (Apparently she does know Steffi's phone number, even though not her name.) She's decided there's one "super creepy" Alter member she wouldn't mind seeing arrested. His code name is Natrix, and his body-mod animal is a snake. His job in the gang is to negotiate with people who want illegal surgeries, whether for cosmetic purposes or for a serious medical reason. He holds court at a night club, but they can't just have the police raid the place because Chandra doesn't want other Alter members who work there to be arrested. So Steffi will have to find a way to do it without the police. The scene ends with a closeup on Steffi's smile; she gets to be a hero again.

The next scene is a strategy meeting between Steffi and 42. Steffi will approach Natrix as a candidate for surgery. 42's job is to get them past the door security system at this members-only club. They are interrupted by the doorbell; it's Ben, who wants to check on Steffi's wound and catch up on what she's been doing. He easily sees on her face that it's something she thinks he won't like. "A'ight, let's hear it," he says with a grim expression. After Steffi fills him in, he surprises her by saying that he doesn't expect to be able to stop her, "but I am coming with you." He explains that he's better at hand-to-hand combat and also at keeping secrets. "Even your poker face sucks." In one of the nicest bits of dialog in the comic, Steffi replies, "Your face sucks!" with a big frown. Ben thinks their next step should be to find out how the club is laid out and start developing a strategy, but Steffi overrules him. The first thing is to pick out their animal costumes! "For someone who mocks furries, you sure seem excited about that," Ben correctly notes. Steffi wants to be a rabbit, like her pet Winston; Ben opts for a wolf; and Steffi decides that 42 can have "whatever's cheapest." The track ends with Steffi saying, "To the mall!"

Sound Bite
Steffi heads to the laundry room with her dirty clothes, but finds the machine in use and a naked, all-metal 42. "That answers some questions I was too terrified to ask."

That's the end of the sound bite proper, but there are two more pages of "nonsense" art. First, fans of both Kiwi Blitz and Mary Cagle's other comic, Sleepless Domain, asked to see Steffi as a magical girl in that other universe, so Steffi is shown as Pop Blitz, who fights monsters with her teammates Rock Blitz (Ben) and Techno Blitz (42). When this team actually makes a cameo appearance in Sleepless Domain, they are joined by Swing Blitz (Chandra).

On the final page, the team are portrayed as Dungeons and Dragons characters. Steffi (riding a kiwi) is a Knight. Ben, who uses knowledge as his power, is a mage or wizard. Chandra, of course, is a thief. 42, not pictured, is perhaps a golem.

Characters Introduced

 * Dr. Barry Ghanem
 * Natrix (pictured but not actually in the scene)