Your Cholesterol Might Be A Little High

SANTA MONICA BEACH

Today the popular beach was even more crowded than usual. A Food Bazaar had set up for the week, drawing in all the young folk, foodies, and assorted gourmands of fast food cart culture. Burgers stands, fries stands, burger and fries shacks, pizzas, popcorn, corndogs, hotdogs, soda, churros, tacos, burritos, deep fried fish and chips, wraps, ice cream, floats... Even asian food like Dim Sum and Korean Kimbap had a small representation. Every conceivable foodstuff seemed to converge at the bazaar, and there were plenty of cheerful smiles and loud burps.

While all sorts of people were enjoying the other attractions, like surfing and the ferris wheel, there was a particular group that seemed to take enjoyment of food to an extreme. They were an odd bunch, a group of six or so attractive young girls in skimpy or beach going attire, skinny and dolled up, yet they were literally eating large servings of every snack available. They were also livestreaming it, and taking photos of themselves. The Hottie Foodies, as they were so imaginatively called.

"This is Brooke, taking on John Cappadocia's delux pizza!"

"This is Emma! Taking on Burrito Grande!"

"Audrey! Hashtag Quadruple Bypass burger!"

One person though, wasn't a happy foody at Santa Monica today. Sitting alone on a bench, which creaked under their surprising weight, Elisa Ann Watson, the Anndroid, looked at her favorite food, a sky blue cotton candy. She had bought it on instinct, along with a few candy bars and a hot dog, before remembering that she could no longer eat. While she had already faced this fact before, holding her favorite treats at one of her favorite spots, she couldn't help but fight back crying to herself, that strange tearless cry that her robot body produced, interpreting her emotional distress the best it could.

Reflexively she reached for her phone and checked what was trending on Instagram. "Hottie Foodies? What the hell?" she checked it out and found the amounts of food they ate a bit too obscene.

"So like share and subscribe! Select followers get to find out the Hottie Foodies' secret to staying totally hot while eating anything you want!" The Hottie Foodies would finish their posts with this, and hundreds of young girls would immediately start begging how to be a Hottie Foodie.

"Must be some kind of drug..." Elisa thought, though those with an astute eye for the mystical signs would be able to catch the Hottie Foodies all have a common tattoo... in a very old, and very extinct language.

Sure, it looked odd for a bunch of skinny girls to gorge themselves on fatty foods, but it did get them a bustling new following online. Not Danny Big, but it was respectable. "There is no way I can do that." Danny let her fingers tap against her cheeks as a loose strand of hair fell from behind the sunglasses resting on the top of her head. The sun and lack of air conditioning on the cabana made her blue bikini more comfortable with a pair of white shorts. She had a shirt, but she left it somewhere. "I have no clue what they are doing, but it must be working."

"Sucks to be you." Bliss pushed her finger around a spherical cube in her whiskey. A light white tank top hung over the hem of a pair of jean shorts with a pair of flip flops. "Oh, and the bikini top isn't making you look fat. The man arms are."

The skin under Danny's lip tucked into her mouth. "Those are muscles. Something a 90 pound weakling like you wouldn't know."

"Danny, I don't want to make you look bad right now, the bikini top is doing that, but if you run your mouth, I'm going to- oh wait, you actually complimented me." Bliss stopped rubbing her ice cube and started drinking. "Maybe you should focus more on important thing and leave roller derby behind."

"I do cheerleading. These are triceps." Danny looked over to the six girls. Then back to Bliss. "Keep talking and I'll show you what I can do with them. And, I do not have man arms."

If those six girls were demons, Danny would still prefer them over Bliss. Danny stood up and walked over to the six girls. "Hey! This looks- like fun? I'm Danny. Danny Tamamoa, maybe you've heard of me?"

Technically, she wasn't even supposed to be in the States yet. And technically, she wasn't working for Golding Horde anymore. Technically. But that didn't exclude UN interests, and the CIA calling in a favor but leaving the NSA and FBI in the dark. Why? Because the mere mention of the Golden Horde Operative GH-O0195 "Kashmir" would set off the bells and whistles of the local civil securities, media, and conspiracy theorists who followed her in cultist level fashion. Call it a black op, or a deep state project, call it whatever, it wouldn't change the fact that Kashmir was walking around practically nekkid in a itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini on a California beach.

The least amount of clothes the agent had ever worn on a mission, she cut an exotic image, and elicited more than a few glances as she passed among the food stalls. copper tone skin. Spare build covered in definition that was the result of brutal calisthenic and weight related work-out sessions, she exuded an unusual level of power for her stature. Dark eyes that seemed to glow with the sun and a black head of long, exquisite braids that brushed her bikini bottom that clung tight on breath taking hips, it almost seemed as though her hairdo was accentuating the area by design.

Turkic Central Asian Delight.

Some women were resentful of their boyfriends' gazes, some women were resentful of their girlfriends' appreciative leers. Kashmir never looked back, but smiled to herself under the hot September sun as a wolf whistle and cat a couple calls from a group of Latino frat boys followed her on her way over to a food stall. Grabbing a wad of bills tucked into the cleavage of a perky C-cup, Kashmir bought herself a corn dog, and found herself some bench.

Next to the Anndroid.

She nibbled at the tip of the Corn dog before taking a larger bite of the carnival favorite. She savored loudly. Then looked over at Elisa. She wasn't eating the plethora of wonderful fair before her, and she clearly looked (as well as sounded) distressed.

"One last splurge before dieting?" Kashmir asked at length.

Elisa was not expecting company, sulking as she was by herself. She was also conscious about the amount of skin on display, but not surprised. This was a beach in California just before Fall set in. She kept to a simple long sleeved cotton blouse to keep people from seeing the seams in her robot body.

Elisa was still sobbing without tears, and was taken by surprise by Kashmir's arrival. Her mind quickly made up some excuse, showing the Gorgeous Gourmand's live feed, and they were just a few meters away. "N-no... No, I guess I just lost my appetite watching these people gorge themselves on everything 'Murica. I can't believe what people do for attention these days. Or their claim that they eat whatever and not get big. Want some?" She offered her bright blue cotton candy to the girl, not wanting to waste her food.

= = = =

The food fair was busier than ever, dozens of people moving about and buying food in quantities. Quite a few young people took away some form of business card from the Gourmands, as well as selfies with their ravenous idols. The trend seemed quite popular with this particular demographic, young females eager to try anything to slim down without any actual hard work.

Despite the fact that gorgeous gourmands were occupied with their overeager consumption of comestibles, they noticed Danny well enough when she approached. Popularity was a valuable commodity, one the group was eager to have more of.

A shorter butch girl with a pixie cut got up from the table and approached Danny first, welcoming her introduction. "Hi, um. Danny! I'm Audrey. I follow... you and a bunch of superheroes. Like Dragon Girl in Korea. So uh... these are the Gourmands... Brittany, Rachel, Zoe... and the first Gourmand in our group, Emma."

Emma, young blonde and confident, looked Danny up and down, oddly enough nodding her approval. In contrast, now that she got closer, Danny could see the Gourmands weren't just maintaining their figures, they seemed to be getting thinner. And paler. "So, I guess you're tired of always being told to exercise and eat right and not quite get the results you want huh? Wanna sign up?"

"Dragon Girl? That's a good one." Danny thought back about her time with the incredibly tall, incredibly strong super heroine. "The Gourmands? Sounds tasty." The crawl of food spread across the table proved Danny wrong. "Yeah, I'm going to pass on- all of this, but it's great that you guys are able to not have heart attacks while breathing around this food."

"Is there a reason you guys are following supers?" Danny popped out her phone, more for investigative reasons rather than personal. "And you guys aren't looking so great. You're looking, oddly thin from this food."

"Bluh bluh, I'm Danny. Bluh, bluh, cheerleading, bluh bluh, Instagram." Bliss refroze the ice cube in her drink. "I could do Instgram if I had unhealthy self esteem or a stupid need to be liked by ten million morons." It was during her moment of clarity she spied possibly the primary viewers of this spectacle. "Someone needs more attention than they are actually worth."

Taking the cotton candy, Kashmir looked at it skeptically, then, tentatively took a bite. Brown eyes widening, brow scrunching, and lips puckering, the Golden Horde operative let out a low little squeal. Then she took several more hurried bites; the sticky substance coating her lips.

"Sweet!"

Kashmir exclaimed, finishing the fair with several more bites.

"Thank you; that was very kind." she said to Elisa with the corners of her now tinged blue lips curling upwards. Then, she caught sight of The Hottie Foodies, or Gorgeous Gourmands, and the two individuals who had walked up to talk to them. Eyes narrowing, the smile on her face froze. A slight twitch to the expression gave way to the reality that it was no longer genuine like it was mere moments ago. Now it was forced. Now it was tensed. Maybe even scared.

She remained seated next to Elisa, her firm grip crushing the cone that once held the cotton candy. Then, several breaths followed, and Kashmir visibly settled, turning to Elisa with serious eyes, and blue tinged lips an expressive horizontal line.

"There could be some trouble here in a moment...you may need to get clear..."

It wasn't that her eyes caught the light of the sun, but emanated a glow akin to it. This glow brew brighter as. Turning the shining gaze upon the unusual gathering, Kashmir wolfed down the corn dog, setting the vacant stick it occupied, and the crushed cotton candy cone down next to her. Then she cradled her hands in her lap, cupping them together. Light formed between her palms faintly, swirling into a flickering ball.

"..maybe." Kashmir added soberly.

At the ready, she waited. For what was anyone's guess, but she would bide her time patiently. She was good at that.

"Looks like trouble."
Anndroid eyed the situation and didn't like it. It almost looked like some social faux pas was about to pass, but her new, erstwhile companion decided to whip out the kamehameha. 'Metahuman' came up in Elisa's mind, but her inner geek spoke truer wrods. "Oh wow. Are you like, Ryu from Street Fighter? Can you do a Hadoken?"

= = =

"Ugh, what, us? Follow superheroes? superheroes are lame. Don't you find it weird wherever there's superheroes, there's most definitely going to be super villains who wreak havoc?" Emma the leader pointed out rather angrily, shooting Danny a mean look. "I mean, I don't even follow you and I know you get into trouble with dragons and witches."

"Actually it's just me that follows supers. ah..." Audrey fought the awkwardness for a minute, before the tension between the exclusive group and the mighty Danny was broken. One of the Gourmands stopped eating and had a look of realization on her face. The look was followed by violently retching up those hot wings she was working on.

"Rachel!" Audrey, the one who liked Danny as a superhero moved to help the redhead girl, holding her in a very worried expression.

"...I don't... don't feel so good..." She whimpered to Audrey, holding on to her for support before they quickly evacuated for the bathrooms.

That was when Danny's IG messenger sounded a notification. It was from Audrey. It was an address in one of the posh beach neighborhoods, followed by a brief message. The plain text somehow relayed a sense of dread and worry from Audrey.

"Meeting with Lead Girl at 11pm tonight. Was supposed to help with Rach's eating disorder but it got worse. Will be there but you didn't hear this from me."

"Oh well, I guess-" Any heroics Danny could do to avert a situation shifted with her quick foot work to avoid projectile vomit catching between her toes. "Is she okay? I mean other than the fact you guys are eating all of this gross, fat stuff?"

As the scene continued to play out in disgusting detail, Danny felt her phone vibrate. "Yeah, get her to the bathroom. She should feel better with a few more- oh, oh, she's got this. Don't need my help." She fished the phone out of the back pocket of her shorts and let her eyes peer down to the notification. "Weird. When did she send this?"

She decided it did not matter. The address plugged into her phone easy enough. Not that she wanted her to come along, but Danny did make sure to send a notification to Bliss, whom she could no longer see. "Must have found something else to torment tonight." Then her fingers ran over her contacts. Another ping was sent out. "I need to check this place out, but Lead Girl sounds like a superpowered person, and I do not want to head over there without backup."

The brief walk Danny took finally caught the attention of a pair of headlights. Danny walked up to the door and got inside. "Thanks Tori."

"No problem." The a blue bandanna was tied around Tori's hair, keeping the ponytail sticking out through a the tie. She wore a T-shirt with a pair of blue shorts, not taking in the beach, but still enjoying down time. "So, we're checking this place out because there is a Lead Girl?"

"Yeah." Danny buckled up as the car rolled off towards their destination. "No clue if she is good or bad, or what powers she might have. I just know the address and Audrey will meet us there."

"Who's that?"

"She eats a lot of terrible food for social media fame and follows superheroes on Instagram." The sign to turn towards their destination lit the car up.

"So you plugged your Instagram account. Smooth."

"Not even." Danny shot her head towards Tori, rolling her eyes with her lids closed. "She already followed me."