Jainson is a small village set up by other victims of the Direct Affection. The ones that had lived to tell the tale, at least. They were from all over the world…the US, the UK, and Russia…everywhere. The population of Jainson Village has risen to over 5,000 men, women and children. At this point, they seemed to have discovered something…

“Sir!” someone ran up to a taller man, “Reports are in! Someone else is coming!”
“How many more?” the tall man said.
“Two, I think…”
“Get it ready. I don’t want them to die. Maybe they’ll have a way out of here…”

“Do you know what you’re doing???” the young man wearing black asked the other young man.
“Of course, I do, Elliot. You’ve gotta have a little more faith in me than THAT.” The second young man said.
Elliot scratched his head, “Ian, I’m just saying that if this…this ‘Direct Affection’ Mode works, we’ll be IN the game! This is still illegal! Everyone who has used it seems to have disappeared! The governments are aware of this and so they’ve banned it!”
“That’s because the people that went weren’t ready for anything.” Ian said, grinning, “I’ve played Final Fantasy 7 enough times so that I know when everything happens! Trust me!”
Elliot rolled his eyes, “That’s not the point! We have a problem!”
Ian quirked an eyebrow, “How so?”
“Simple. Your plan is to use this…Direct Affection mode in order to stop Sephiroth from killing Aeris, right?”
“Yeah, so?”
“That MEANS we’ll have to deal with Sephiroth!” Elliot said, finally.
“…” Ian didn’t say anything until a few minutes later, “Uh…Ok…um…maybe we’ll save Aeris some other time.”
Elliot shook his head, “The only reason you wanted to do that in the first place was because you like her.”
“Shaddup.” Ian muttered, “So what if I find her attractive? It’s natural.”
Sipping at his Coke, Elliot shrugged, “Yeah, fine…whatever. So, if we’re not going there, where ARE we going?”
“How the hell should I know? You killed my first idea…anyhow, I still wanna see Aeris.”
Elliot laughed, “Heh-heh-heh…you can see her. I wanna see Tifa!”
“You would…”
“But, seriously, man! She is HOT! Hot as hell!”
Ian rolled his eyes, “Look, we wanna see them both. Where can we go to do that?”
The two were thinking for a long time.

“Hey, take a look at the screen!” someone said.
The tall man stared at the screen. Two boys were thinking about…something.
“They’re thinking about the transportation coordinates?” he asked.
“Yeah. They still don’t know where to go.”
The tall one paced, “Two more victims…join our fray.”
“Should they be brought to our village?”
“Where else? Out in the open? I think not. Bring them here…as soon as they’ve made up their minds…” the tall one spoke. He was obviously the leader.

“Then it’s settled!” Ian said, grinning, “Costa Del Sol! Here we come!”
Choosing ‘Yes’ for enabling the Direct Affection Mode, Ian and Elliot got ready for whatever came to them. Before they could do anything, they blacked out.

Ian saw only black but he heard voices, “Are they alive?”
“I think so…one’s breathing. The other seems to be coming around.”
All of a sudden, he heard Elliot’s voice, “Huh? Where the hell?? This ain’t Costa Del Sol!”
‘To hell with it…’ Ian thought, ‘I’ll take a look…’
He groaned as he sat up. His head was pounding and his back was sore. Standing, he stumbled about a bit before being caught by some other people. He took a look at them and then over at Elliot, “What the HELL??? Where are we???”
“Calm down…” the tall guy said. He was dressed in a uniform-type outfit but it was torn and Ian could see numerous scars on his face. He also had an English accent and didn’t appear to be any older than 23.
“Who…the hell are you? And where are we?” Ian said, somewhat calmly.
Elliot breathed slowly, “This ain’t Costa Del Sol…”
“Nay…it isn’t.” the tall man said, “My name is Jeron.”
“I’m glad to see you’re human…” Ian said, a bit relieved, “But…where ARE we?”
Jeron smiled, “Look outside.”
Ian looked to Elliot and then shrugged, going to the nearest window. From all over the town of Jainson, a loud cry could be heard, saying, “HOLY ____!!!!!”
He was staring straight across the village at a tower-like structure. Several pinkish sections jutted out from the top of the tower. Ian could hardly believe what he saw, “Is that a…a…”
“A flower…yes.” Jeron said, coming up behind him.
“That means we’re…we’re…” Ian said, stuttering again.
“Unfortunately, yes. That means we are small. Very small, in fact. The size of insects.” Jeron nodded, sadly.
”But…HOW?” Ian said, still staring at the enormous flower tower.
“We believe…” a woman said, “…that it has something to do with the ‘Direct Affection’. No one is as big as they are in real life with it. We are all shrunken down to about 1/100th of our size.”
Ian heard the woman’s voice and asked, “Who…might you be?”
The woman looked down, “M-my name is Lena.”
Elliot was shaking, “Th-that’s terrible! Now I know why no one has returned…”
“To make things worse…” Jeron said, turning from the window, “…is that the effects are permanent…as far as we know.”
Ian slowly tore his gaze away from the gigantic flower, “So…you’re telling us that we’re stuck like this…for GOOD!?”
“Unless someone comes up with something that’ll return us to normal size.” Jeron nodded, “Even if we are unable to return home, we would still like to live a normal life here.”

“Where is here???” Ian asked, not believing his ears.
“Well, this is the game ‘Final Fantasy 7’.” the woman said, “Jainson is located in the flower bed near Aeris’ house.”
Ian’s face slowly turned upwards in a grin, “Aeris’ house, you say?”
Elliot quirked a brow, “Uh, Jeron, is that uniform a British Military uniform?”
“It is.” Jeron replied, turning to Elliot again, “I was sent here along with a search party to find our missing citizens that disappeared while using this cursed Gameshark. Before long, it seemed like everything was peaceful and we settled here.”
Ian stared at a picture on the wall. It was a picture of a somewhat city-like area. The buildings were mainly all wooden, it appeared.
“And this place…is it a neighboring city?” Ian asked the woman.
The woman looked away and bit her lip, “No…that…that’s what Jainson was before ‘She’ came.”
Ian quirked an eyebrow, “Uh…she? Who is ‘she’?”
Jeron looked over to Ian, a solemn look on his face, “Aeris, I’m afraid…”
The blood in Ian’s veins ran cold as he stared at the picture, “A-Aeris???”
“I’m afraid so…she was here almost two months ago.” Lena said, obviously fighting back tears, “As she was picking flowers from this bed, she neared our city. Most ran but others remained behind…my husband included.”
Now she let it out, she sobbed, “All it took was one of her footsteps to crush and decimate the city. All the people that remained in the city were squashed into the ground…like bugs. That’s all we are to her now!”
Ian was shocked, “But…d-does she even know what the hell she is doing???”
Jeron shook his head, “We don’t believe so. She is completely oblivious to what she does every time she takes a single step. In the grass under her feet, we’ve lost most of our food supply, several stores of weapons…”
“Weapons?” Elliot asked, “What weapons?”
“We use blades.” Jeron said, grinning, “Luckily for us, there are blades EVERYWHERE!”
Ian looked out the window, “Um…all I see is dirt, twigs and grass.”
“Blades of Grass.” Jeron said, triumphantly.
Ian shrugged, “Whatever works, I guess…”
“Anyhow…” Lena said, continuing, “…When the ones who escaped returned to see everything with built up lying, crushed, on the ground in a footprint, we mourned our dead and began to rebuild.”
Jeron sighed, “As you can see, the city will never be what it used to be. We only had enough to turn it into a village.”
“And all this death and destruction from a single footstep of that beautiful goddess…” Ian mused, “Remind me to tell my little sister not to step on anymore anthills, Elliot…”
“Gotcha…”
Suddenly, an alarm-like noise blared, “THIS IS A CODE RED! JERON TO THE MAIN TOWER! EMERGENCY!”
Jeron’s face went grim, “On my way. Lena and you two come with me.” He said, gesturing to Ian and Elliot, “What’re your names, anyway?”
I’m Ian …” Ian said, “And he’s Elliot.”
“Good. Let’s head to the tower.” Jeron said as he dashed off.

Aeris exited her house and she took a few steps heading towards the flowerbed when something stopped her.
“Aeris!” a voice behind her said. Aeris turned around and smiled as she saw Tifa running up behind her.
“Hi, Tifa. Glad to see you made it.” She said, still smiling.
“Yeah.” Tifa said, brushing a leaf off her shoulder, “So, what’re you doing?”
“I was just heading over to the flowerbed. I need special herbs for my mother’s recipe. Do you think you could give me a hand with it?”
“Sure.” Tifa said with a grin, “I always enjoy being around your flowers. They give the feeling that everything is right in the world.”
Aeris smiled again, “Yes…one of the many reasons I do what I do.”
“Let’s get to it, then.” Tifa said, starting off with Aeris.

“Good God!” Jeron shouted as he looked through the telescope, “She’s coming again! She’s not alone either!”
”Oh, great…” Ian muttered, “Who is it?”
Jeron’s eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets, “Whoa! That other girl sure has some huge knockers!”
Ian looked at Elliot, who shot a look back to Ian. They knew who it was.
“That’s Tifa!” they both said.
Now Lena looked worried, “Oh, dear…ok…keep a cool head and announce the evacuation, Jeron.”
Jeron nodded and reached for a microphone-like device. He cleared his throat and turned it on, “Attention, citizens of Jainson…RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!!! DROP EVERYHTING AND F**KING RUN, DAMMIT! RUN!!!!!”
Ian winced, “Eesh…so much for a cool head.”
“SOLDIERS, GROUP AT THE CENTER OF TOWN! LET’S GET THEM BEFORE THEY GET US!!” Jeron shouted.
Elliot snapped his view to Jeron, “What the hell are you doing???”
Jeron turned to look at him; “We’re preventing them from destroying any more that we’ve built up here. We’ll get them!”
“With what?” Elliot scoffed, “Your grass blades?”
“Our B-Fighters.” Jeron said with a smug smirk.
“B-Fighters?” Ian asked, quirking an eyebrow.
“We’ve killed many a flying wasp and now we’re using their dead bodies for fighters.” Jeron kept the smirk.
Ian whistled, “Impressive…you do realize that will be an incentive for them to continue…”
Jeron shook his head, “If anything, it will teach them not to step on our cities.”
Elliot had already started to back away, “Fine…do this on your own. I’m outta here!”
Ian turned, “Where the hell are we gonna go, you idiot!”
“I’m going to warn them!” Elliot said, dashing down the staircase.
“WHAT???” Ian yelled, running after him, “YOU IDIOT! YOU’RE GONNA GET YOURSELF KILLED!”

The two slowly approached the flowerbed. As they entered, Tifa tapped Aeris on the shoulder, “Um, do you mind if I take my boots off?”
“No…not at all.” Aeris said, nodding, “I had better do the same.”
As Tifa took off her boots, Aeris wrinkled her nose slightly, “Uh…how long have you had those boots on?”
Tifa rubbed her chin with a delicate hand, “Um…a few days, I guess…how about you?”
Aeris lost the wrinkled nose and smiled again, “Same with me.”
Tifa chuckled, “Our feet smell, don’t they?”
“It would appear that way.” Aeris laughed, “I hope the flowers don’t wither and die.”
The two laughed as they neared the bed.

Elliot ran like hell towards the feet of the two giant girls with Ian behind him, “Elliot, come back! Don’t do it!”
As he got closer, Elliot, fell to his knees and started coughing, “Oh, GOD!”
Ian ran next to him, “What is it?” He sniffed the air and coughed as well, “Oh, man…this is horrible! What the hell is that stench??”
Elliot looked up and saw the two girls, looking about, towering over them, “OH, STUPID SHIT!”
Ian looked up as well and his eyes bugged out, as the smell got worse, “That smell…it’s coming from their feet…”
“Oh, really, you think? Don’t they ever take their boots off, for crying out loud?” Elliot asked rhetorically as he stared up at their huge forms.
“DOES THIS LOOK LIKE A GOOD SPOT?” Tifa’s booming voice spread throughout the entire flowerbed.
“YEAH. WE’LL SORT THE HERBS HERE!” Aeris’ voice joined Tifa’s.
A buzzing sound overhead caused Ian and Elliot to look up. Wasps. There were four wasps…and they were flying right at Aeris and Tifa.
“Oh, shit! We’re too late!” Elliot cried.

Tifa squinted her eyes at a swarm coming in, “Wasps!”
Quirking a brow, Aeris stared, “In this season? Impossible…”
“I don’t like them, whatever they are…” Tifa said, swatting one down.

Ian and Elliot dove out of the way as the B-Fighter crashed to the ground, it’s pilot, moaning and groaning in pain.
“GOT IT!” they all heard Tifa say, “I’LL FINISH IT OFF QUICK!”
The B-Fighter pilot looked up and screamed to see a gigantic sweaty and smelly sole descending upon him. He reached frantically for the eject button. When he finally did reach it, the foot had already dropped onto the fighter and was compressing it into the ground. The pilot yelled for help but before any could come, his pleas were replaced with a wet, crunching sound.
Elliot screamed, “My God! My God! She f**king SQUISHED him!”
Ian was breathing rapidly, “I know…I know…calm down…they’re going towards Jainson. If we run past THEM, we won’t get hurt!”
“But what about Jainson? The people are still there!” Elliot protested.
“Look, if you just wanna stay here and have them see you…” Ian began.
“NO!” Elliot shouted, “Let’s go!”

Jeron was mad as heck, “That was Gregorov! Oh, you bitches have HAD it!” he screamed as he flew at Aeris.
Suddenly, there was the sound of energy being drained, wings slowing down. Jeron stared at the B-Fighter, “No…not now! NOT NOW!”
It didn’t listen as it plummeted to the ground, crashing into the earth below.
Jeron was thrown from the cockpit as it crashed. He lay there for a few seconds, motionless.
“Ugh…damn it…” he muttered as he came around. The first thing he noticed was he was on the ground. Secondly, he noticed he was in the shadow of something. As he looked up, he quivered in fear as the sole of Aeris’ gigantic foot was starting to come down on him, “MISERABLE INSECT!” she said as her foot made contact with the ground and Jeron. Jeron pushed against the overwhelming weight of the foot with all his might.

“Jeron!” Ian cried, looking back at the little man struggling against Aeris’ foot. He dashed off towards Aeris’ other foot.
“Ian! NO! Come back!” Elliot called out after him, behind both Tifa and Aeris’ feet. Ian kept running like mad at Aeris’ foot but before he could do anything else, a muffled, blood-curdling scream erupted from Jeron as Aeris lifted her foot up and then slammed it back down on Jeron with tremendous speed. The scream suddenly silenced and the sound of squishing could be heard. Ian could a little pool of blood forming around her foot.
“NO!!!!” Ian screamed as he watched Aeris twist her foot into the ground, grinding Jeron’s remains. Elliot came up behind him, “Dammit, Ian, there’s nothing we can do! Let’s go!” With that, he grabbed Ian’s arm, running back towards the safe zone.

Tifa looked over to Aeris, who seemed to be angry, "That was…rather vicious of you, don't you think?"
Aeris shook her head, "Not really…I just can't stand these things. They steal the pollen from the flowers. The take too much and the flower dies…"
"I see…" Tifa said as she stomped on another grounded B-Fighter.

"Oh, God! I gotta get outta here!!!" the remaining B-Fighter pilot screamed as he tried to flee. He didn't get too far as Aeris swatted him down. The last B-Fighter crashed into the ground. The pilot, seeing what had happened to his comrades, jumped out and began running for the hills. A shadow blotted out the sun once again and the pilot fell as Aeris' toes came upon him. He struggled to free himself from under the smelly toes but he wasn't strong enough.
"DOES THE LITTLE INSECT LIKE THE SMELL DOWN THERE???" he heard Aeris say, laughing. He was terrified and cried aloud for help. He received none as Aeris' big toe smashed his head into the ground over and over until it smashed like a grape.

Ian retched, "I'm not gonna eat for a while…"
"What about the village? What about Jainson??" Elliot asked, hysterical.
Ian sighed, "If you want to stop them, be my guest. We can't do anything, Elliot. We can only keep our lives. They can't see us. Even if they did, we'd probably end up like that pilot over there."
"THEN WHAT THE HELL ARE WE GONNA DO???" Elliot screamed, shaking him.
"CALM DOWN!!!" he yelled back to Elliot, "We'll find a way out of this!"
"Look!" Elliot was pointing after the girls, "They're nearly on top of the village! Literally!"

Lena watched in stony silence as the two pairs of bare feet approached Jainson. The others had evacuated but now that Jeron was dead, she had opted to stay behind. Someone had to go down with the town. She was it. All Lena was doing now was sitting by the window staring at a picture of herself and her husband, occasionally looking up to see the feet approaching. It didn't even take a minute for them to be right near the town.
"Soon, Damien…soon…" she spoke softly, "I'll see you soon…"
She glanced out the window again. One of the two girls' smelly, wrinkled soles rose above the village, shadowing it totally. Looking back down to the picture, Lena smiled, "Soon…it will finally…end."
The only thing left to see was darkness as the gigantic foot connected with the grass, the ground and the town, impressing all of it in a footprint.

Aeris looked down at where he stood. Tifa stopped and turned her head to look at her, “What is it?”
Aeris picked up the foot and leaned it against her knee, looking at her sole, “I think I stepped on something…guess it was just a few twigs…”

“Little twigs???” Ian was pissed, “A few frigging twigs???”
“DO YOU HAVE THE HERBS?” Tifa’s booming voice asked.
“YES. ONCE EVERYTHING IS DONE, I’LL GIVE YOU A CALL.” Aeris replied.
“SEE YOU THEN!” Tifa piped happily as she turned around and headed away with booming footsteps.
Elliot watched her go, “Bye, Tifa…”
“Elliot! Now’s our chance!” Ian yelled as he ran towards Aeris’ soles, “We need to get out of here!”
“ARE YOU CRAZY???” Elliot screamed as he ran after him.

Aeris looked about and smiled. Just another day in her garden. It made everything seem peaceful. As she turned around, she heard something. Someone was calling her name…lightly. She looked around. Tifa was nowhere to be seen. Then who in the…?
“AERIS!!!!!!!” Ian was screaming at the top of his lungs. Soon, Elliot was joining him. Ian saw Aeris look around and then, finally, look down at her feet, where both of them were screaming and jumping up and down.
“Am I…seeing things?” she said quietly as she gazed down at the two tiny figures, “…or are these…two…tiny…” She crouched down to get a better look. Both of them filled one eye, “…humans?”
Ian looked over at Elliot and grinned. She saw them! Saved!
Aeris stared at the two shrunken men and nearly freaked. Before she could, Ian spoke, “AERIS! PLEASE HELP US! TAKE US WITH YOU! I’M BEGGING YOU!”
Aeris’ face went from a flushed, pale color back to its normal color. She smiled sweetly, “Of course.”
She lowered her hand onto the ground, waiting for the two to climb on. Quickly, she slid her hand down into her herb basket and let the two fall in.
Elliot looked over at Ian, “You think this is a good idea?”
“You have any better ideas?” Ian replied with his own question.
“Good point…”
Ian grinned and extended his hand to Elliot, "This is gonna kick ass!"
Elliot connected with a lo-five, "Damn right!"

END