Mini-Grand 5801 [Round 1: Gridlock]

Before the trio could approach the safe, they were interrupted by a loud noise as something collided with their van.

Moments before, Anne had realized two things. First, that her truck was unlikely to have enough force to knock the van out of the way; and second, that her magically animated truck didn't have working brakes.

She jumped out, hitting the ground hard. The shock of the impact changed her back to normal.

As she picked herself up, she noticed the large, hideous man approaching her. This was going to be trouble.

With little time to react, she simply reached into her wallet and took out the first card she found, then activated it.

The flash of light as she changed caught the hideous man by surprise. He was even more surprised when she started speaking into a microphone.

"Good evening, everyone!" she said to nobody in particular. "I'm Anne Korman, and our top story today: I've been entered into a battle to the death! As a result, I'm on this highway in the middle of the desert, where a van full of unsavory types has just stumbled upon a safe containing one of my opponents, the Abomination. Live on the scene, here's Krelgor with the story. Krelgor?"

The hideous man found himself compelled to reply. He didn't even wonder how she knew his name, or why there was a microphone in his hand all of a sudden.

"Thank you, Anne. I have here with me two members of the gang, Johnny and Seagull." He thrust his microphone towards the girl. "Johnny, what do you know about this 'Abomination'?"

Johnny shrugged. "Well, uh... nothin'. Seagull just picked some unusual movement, so we stopped to check it out, and then we found that safe floating over there."

"I see." Krelgor shifted his microphone to the man. "Seagull, can you tell us why you found the movement unusual?"

"Well, uh... it seemed like whatever was moving wasn't touching the ground. But it seemed to big to be a bird, and it wasn't really moving like one? So I figured we should stop and check it out."

"Have you examined the safe yet?"

"Uh, no. We were about to," Johnny said, looking around nervously. "Is that a problem?"

"According to experts, if the Abomination is released from that safe, it will destroy the world. How do you respond to this?"

"Well," Seagull said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully, "I guess that means it'd be a bad idea to open it."

"Oh, hey!" Johnny cut in. "We could grab it, though! And then we'd say we'd open it unless people gave us stuff!"

"Well, you heard it here first. This unruly gang is going to take the safe and use it to threaten the entire world. We can only hope that the Abomination's powers of temptation will not cause them to open it while it's in their possession. Back to you, Anne."

"Thank you, Krelgor," Anne replied. "And now, over to Ryan Simfitch with the weather."