Hear Me Roar - Part 1

The bright, shining sun hung in the almost-clear blue sky, bringing with it warm, temperate weather typical of the summer season. It beat down, high above the surrounding buildings and high-rises as Samuel trekked on the sidewalk of one of the busiest streets in the city. Mostly keeping to himself, he walked with and against the flow of the many other men who too were headed to their own destinations. He occasionally glanced upwards, towards billboards and other buildingside advertisements marketing the usual things such as the latest in male fashion, the latest film, or the hottest gadget.

One popular billboard displayed a man's tan, toned bare chest and abs, with its text making mention of the Power+ protein drink. Plastered on the side of building beside it was a vertical advertisement depicting two handsome, confident men in black business suits, their bodies facing each other but their torsos turned towards the camera; they each had one loafer-covered foot planted firmly on the head of a despondent blond woman laying on the floor, with its text stating to "Stand Proud - Stamp Weakness". As his eyes lingered upon this particular billboard, he accidentally brushed against the shoulder of a larger, bulkier pedestrian.

"Watch it, asshole!!" the angry man barked.

Samuel winced as the man yelled at him. "S-sorry!!"

The man groaned and muttered something under his breath, before going about his own business.

Samuel sighed a breath of relief; relief that that ended without a prolonged altercation. He too continued on with his walk.

Around this particular area were various businesses, from restaurants, to book and electronic and clothing stores, to even one of the city's police stations. As Samuel approached the outside dining area of an Italian-esque establishment, his attention was caught by two young men, both of whom were holding hands with each other, one smiling and blushing. Watching this brought to mind old footage that Samuel happened across online, depicting a time when men and women did the same, whispering sweet nothings to each other and sharing romantic kisses. Such a time, where men could love anyone regardless of their sex and not be shunned for it, seemed to be long gone. Now, if a man did the same with a woman in public, he would be beaten, and she would be dragged off and-

Samuel shook the rest of that thought out of his mind, and continued on, walking away from the restaurant.

He arrived in front of an electronic store, with a display of several 60-inch flatscreen televisions in the window. All of them were showing the same thing on their screens: a video of the city's mayor Buck Adams giving an impassioned speech about the merits of the city--that it contained some of the best and brightest minds in the Western world, encompassing various industries such as science, technology, finance, military, astrophysics, and so on--and how he aimed do his part to make it even greater than before. It was a speech that Samuel had heard many times already, and frankly, he was sick of it. He moved on.

Eventually, he reached his destination: the lush city park filled with oak and pine trees, in which there were already a bevy of men inside enjoying themselves. On such a nice, sunny Saturday afternoon, why wouldn't they? Some men held picnics with each other, others partook in athletic activities such as jogging or throwing footballs at each other, and some even simply sat on the benches and read the paper or played with their phones. It was a nice park, but even it was not free from the reminders of the nature of the city.

As he approached the rather impressive water fountain in the dead-center of the park, he gazed upon the meticulously-crafted statue set upon a pedestal right in its center. The statue was carved in the likeness of the city's founder and the initiator of--as it was known--the Great Masculine Revival, Theo Cleveland. As seen in many pictures of the man itself, the statue displayed him in a suit and tie over his rather portly build, and his hair was combed to the side. One arm was held up, while the other was on his waist. His mouth was opened, as if he was caught in the middle of one of his many declarations. Truly, this was a man that commanded attention--and most would say, respect--wherever he went. Perhaps it was no wonder that he and his ilk were able to turn society upside-down.

Samuel sighed, and sat down on one of the benches surrounding the fountain, in particular picking out one not facing the Theo statue. Then, he dug into his pocket to pull out his phone, but as he did so, loose change also found itself being pulled out. He caught most of them, but one quarter fell onto the concrete and started rolling away on the ground.

"Man..." Samuel complained as he got up to chase after the coin.

The coin rolled and turned along as Samuel pursued it, the young man amazed at how far it had traveled without running out of kinetic energy. His attention was completely locked onto it, almost to the exclusion of everything else. So much so that he was not able to stop himself as both his head and the quarter collided with something in front of them, both of them being knocked onto the ground.

"Oww..." Samuel muttered as he rubbed the top of his head. He looked towards the now-settled coin to see what it--and he--had run into.

The coin was flat on the ground in front of a pair of feet; however, these were not like the rough, masculine feet that he was accustomed to. This pair was more slender and dainty, with no sign of any sort of hair on them; additionally, each of its toenails had been painted a bright pink, which matched the shade of the thong sandals that adorned each foot. A pink thong on each sandal traveled from the big and second toes on each to the shin, where the thong was attached to another strap that buckled around the ankles.

As his gaze shifted upward, he was led along two slim pillars of milky-white legs, bare even past the knees until he saw the blue denim shorts, bound by a tan belt. Upon the lean torso was a pink tanktop shirt under a white light jacket and above the cleavage of the breasts was a heart-shaped sapphire pendant. Finally, he looked upon the face, a youthful, beautiful and smooth white face with pink lips, blue eyes, and no sign of any facial hair aside from the eyebrows. Most of the blond hair on the scalp was tied into a high ponytail behind the head, with the rest of it forming split bangs on the side of the face.

Samuel was stunned past the point of moving; he could not believe what he was seeing.

It was a woman.

He had seen pictures and videos of them, but never had he seen one in the flesh, let alone one as young and as breath-taking as the lady that stood before him.

"Uhh..." Samuel struggled to find the right words as her blue eyes looked down at him still on the ground.

"You dropped your quarter," she noted.

"O-oh, right." Finally making a move, he reached over--nearly touching her toes in the process--and retrieved his runaway coin. "Sorry for running into you."

"It's alright," she said. "Don't worry about it."

"Okay..." Samuel said as he returned his quarter to his pocket. At that point, the reality of the situation completely hit him: not only was there a woman out in public--especially a young and beautiful one such as her--but that what she was wearing was something very inappropriate for them. There were already eyes shooting beams at her from the surrounding area, and he could even hear some of the men chatting amongst themselves. Some had even started making calls on their phones.

He shot to his legs, now full of worried concern. "Wait, no! You have to get out of here!"

She blinked in confusion as she stared into his face. "Why? Is it dangerous?" She asked as she looked around herself.

"What do you mean, 'is it dangerous'?! Of COURSE it's dangerous!! You're a woman!! You need to get back to where you came from!!"

She leered at Samuel. "Well, that's a bit sexist. And here I thought you'd be the chivalrous type. Don't worry about me. I'll be fine."

"But-"

She moved her face closer to his. "I'll. Be. Fine."

Samuel recoiled backward. Her blithe unconcern was mystifying to him. Did she not know where she was? Of course she did; this city was known the world over, and then some. She would have had to have been living under a rock for all of her life to not know.

"Don't you know where you are?!" Samuel frantically yelled at her.

"Whoa, calm down there," she chided as she pulled back. "Take it down a few decibels. Now, where am I?"

"You're in-"

"Hey, you!!" called a gruff voice from behind him.

Samuel turned around, and saw a tall Black man approaching the two of them. He was rather burly, as if he exercised and worked out almost every day he could. Even now, his brow and parts of his tank were wet with perspiration.

Samuel could feel sweat forming on his own brow as the man reached them; this was exactly what he was afraid of.

"Hey, what is this female doing here?" he asked Samuel. "You know better than to bring your property out here, especially dressed like that!"

"She's not mine," Samuel plainly and nervously stated.

"Yeah, that's right," the woman added. "I don't belong to anyone. God, first him and now you? What's up with the men around here?"

Samuel was rather stunned to hear this from her, as well as the fact that there was no hint of fear on her at all. Did she truly not know?

An eager grin appeared on the athlete's face. "No shit? You looked too poor and scrawny to afford one, anyway," he said to Samuel before turning back to the blonde. "Well, then I guess I'll grab her and take her with me!" He reached for her arm, but she pulled away from him.

"You shouldn't grab strangers like that, pal," she scolded him.

"Bitch, I can grab you however I want! Let's go."

"No. Now get away from me before I really lose it, you meathead."

In addition to her belligerence, her insult seemed to have struck a nerve with the athlete; with a firm hand, he slapped the woman across the face. The sound of his palm striking her soft pale cheek made Samuel cringe, and he was preparing himself for the sound of feminine wailing that was sure to follow.

However, not only was she not crying, but she was not even moved from her spot. There was not even a hint of water pooling in her eyes; all she did was rub her struck cheek a few times. Samuel was rather amazed; he was always taught that women were weak, fragile creatures who cried easily, but this woman seemed to tank the blow from a man that was perhaps twice her size. Just who was she?

She sighed in exasperation. "Okay. I was going to let you walk away, but because of that, you need to be taught that you can't just assault strangers."

"Bitch, what're you talking about?" The athlete asked, still ticked off.

With a smirk, the woman pointed her index finger to the man, and from its tip, a current of what looked like white lightning fired forth. It struck the athlete, who was coated in a similar white light as the jolt. Samuel was both stunned and scared; the fact that she had this sort of power was rather astounding, and he expected the brute to be rendered to a crisp husk.

Instead Samuel was even more shocked to see the man rapidly reduce in size. As the young woman's lightning kept pouring onto him, the athlete's body dwindled down, losing more and more of his perhaps proud stature until--from Samuel's perspective--he could hardly see nothing more than a glowing spot on the ground before the lightning finally ceased.

As the glowing faded away, the man looked around and was quite dumbfounded at his new surroundings, as was Samuel as he watched the man.

"Whoa, what did you do to him!?" Samuel asked the woman, who also observed the man.

"Are you blind? I shrunk him," she answered.

"How did you do that?"

"...Again, are you blind?" she repeated.

"No, but... I've never seen anything like that!" Samuel enthused. "Do you have superpowers?"

"Something like that," she answered, before turning her attention back to the tiny man beneath her. "Anyway, this guy was so big and strong before, thinking he could just put his hands on anyone he wants. Now, look at him. Barely two inches tall and completely at my mercy." She licked her lips, perhaps eagerly.

Samuel's gaze shifted from her face watching the man, to the man himself, who seemed to be scared motionless at seeing the giants above him.

"What are you going to do with him?" Samuel asked.

"Step on him," she nonchalantly answered.

Samuel was taken aback by her quick response. "Wait, what-"

Before he could blink, her right foot had moved, and the tiny shrieking athlete disappeared beneath her sandal as it hit the hard pavement. There was a loud crunch, and blood exploded from beneath her sole, after which she twisted her heel from side-to-side to seemingly ground the man into dust, her pink toes flexing with each motion that brought with it wet, squishing sounds.

Samuel was at a loss of words. Seeing this supposedly-weak woman reduce a strong man to a bug under her foot was horrifying... and yet, on some deep level, a bit satisfying. At the very least, it was karma for him mistreating her, and she seemed to believe so herself.

After several seconds, the grinding then slowed to a halt, and she removed her foot from upon the athlete. Or, what had been the athlete. Samuel was almost reluctant to see at what he had been reduced to, but he looked anyway, and saw that the musclehead had been completely flattened and shredded, everything about him--from his bones to his flesh to his clothes--having been mashed into a red paste by her unmistakably-feminine foot. The sight of the man's remains rent in such a fashion almost made Samuel gag from disgust.

She smiled proudly. "Guess that'll teach him."

Samuel stared at her, his mouth agape, still struggling to find the best reaction. Though once again, the gravity of the situation hit him; she had now murdered a man, and that put a large red target on her forehead.

"Shit!" Samuel blurted. "Now you really have to get out of here!"

"That again?" She sounded rather annoyed. "What now?"

"You just killed a guy, in front of everyone!" Samuel pointed to the many men in the park that had witnessed the whole thing. Some were horrified, some were furious, and some were a mix of both.

"Yeah, so?" She legitimately did not see any cause for worry. "If they saw the whole thing, then they would know he had it coming."

"I saw some of them making phone calls earlier," Samuel continued. "They were more than likely calling the cops on you! Women aren't even supposed to be out in public, and now that you've killed someone, the cops are gonna kill you once they get here!"

It seemed that his words finally cracked her exterior, as her eyes widened in mild surprise. Though overall, she still seemed unconcerned.

"Okay," she said, folding her arms. "Tell me: just what kind of city have I ended up in?"

"You're in-"

"There she is!!" Interrupted another shouting voice, this one more commanding.

Both the strange woman and Samuel watched as nearly two dozen police officers spilled into the park. All armed with assault rifles and wearing body armor and helmets, they rushed in and surrounded the two of them, the woman in particular as the barrels of their weapons were aimed squarely on her. Samuel's heart raced as his eyes shifted from each of those guns; surely all of those guns against one woman were more than overkill. And yet, as he turned to the woman, once again she did not appear to be worried.

"We saw what you just did, wench!!" One of them, perhaps their commander judging by the badges on his sleeve, spoke. "How dare you kill that man!! You, a weak, pitiful woman who should not have even stepped foot out from your containment, especially in that scandalous outfit!!"

"I didn't step out of-"

"Quiet!!" The commander interrupted, his arms holding his rifle shaking with rage. "You don't even deserve to be sent back to the breeding chambers!! We're going to blow you so full of holes that you'll be like swiss cheese!!"

"You sure?" The woman said. "What makes you so sure I won't shrink you all as well?"

"Look around! You're surrounded!! You may get one or two, but you can't zap us all at once. The instant one of us gets you, it's over!!"

She smirked again, even chuckling a bit. Samuel wondered just how far this young blond woman's arrogance stretched.

"Young man," the commander addressed Samuel. "Step away from her and get behind us if you want to live."

"Yeah, that's good advice, actually," the woman added.

Samuel's nervous glance shifted from the commanding officer, to the woman, and to the other surrounding policemen, before he rushed away from her, squeezing out of the circular wall of armed men. He ran behind one of the nearby benches, and took cover by ducking behind it. He still kept watch on the woman, even though he was scared for her, scared that her life would be ending in only seconds.

"Okay," the woman spoke. "If you're so deadset on killing me, fire away."

The commander angrily grunted, and then shouted. "Officers, FIRE AT WILL!! BLOW HER HEAD CLEAN OFF!!!"

Immediately after, the air was filled with the sound of bullets being fired. Samuel closed his eyes and covered his head as over the course of the next minute the officers fired perhaps over two hundred rounds at the blond woman. As he listened to the loud noise drown on, he could not help but feel a deep sorrow for the woman; that in her arrogance she had died a very gruesome death. He wondered just what her deal was, and just who she was that she did not know the ways of this city.

Eventually, the gunshots lingered to a stop, and as smoke wafted through the area, he could hear the police's horrified gasps. Samuel turned his head to the group, and saw an astounding sight: not only was the woman still alive, but she was completely unscathed. Surrounding her on the ground were dozens upon dozens of smoldering bullets, all crushed in as if they had impacted a hard surface.

"W-What happened!?" One of the stunned officers said.

"It's like... There was a force field around her!!" said another.

"Who... What are you!?" wondered a third.

She simply turned and looked at each of the armed men surrounding her. "Is that all? No more bullets? ...Well, I guess it's my turn, then."

She crossed her arms in front of her, at which point a white light formed on both of her hands. Then, she swung both arms behind her, letting lose a wave of energy that washed over every single one of the surrounding officers and coated them with a white light not unlike what was seen with the athlete. Like the athlete, all of the officers shrunk down to a minuscule size, and as the light faded, it appeared that they were perhaps made smaller than the athlete was--perhaps half his size--though from Samuel's vantage point, he could not be sure.

Before the officers could recollect their bearings, the woman stepped over to one immediately in front of her, flashed a twisted grin, and then stomped down on him, crushing him flat. Samuel could hear the faint yet unmistakable cries and shrieks of terror from the officers as they all began to run and scurry about, but the woman did not let them get away.

One by one, her thong sandals made quick work of each of the officers, mercilessly stomping, smashing, and grinding each one into the pavement; sometimes getting two or even three of them under one dominant step. Though it was a horrific, gruesome sight, Samuel could not avert his gaze; he kept watching as the beautiful blond young woman ran down and tread upon every single one of the police officers without the slightest hint of clemency.

Before long, there was only one tiny officer left. He tried to scurry away, but she stomped down in his path, and then kicked him to the ground.

"Well, commander," she said as she slightly bended over him. "Guess all your firepower wasn't worth anything."

The commander said something to her, but Samuel could not make out what it was.

"Oh, before I was a weak woman, but now you're begging me to spare your life? Not really a proud, strong man right now, are you?"

The commander cried out something else to her, though all Samuel could just barely discern was the word "please".

"Yeah, I don't think so." The blond woman then lifted her foot over him, let it linger above him briefly, before dropping it. The commander was crushed flat by its weight, and she twisted her foot on him for good measure. "Not so strong now, are you?"

Samuel stood to his feel and slowly approached the blond woman, while also looking at the pavement around her. It was littered with red splatters, marking where each of those tiny officers had fallen to her feet. Some of the bodies within those splatters were simply flattened--their uniforms coated red and their flattened innards bursting from their torn bodies--while others, including that of the commander's, were torn and mangled beyond recognition.

"Oh my god..." Samuel was in astonished horror.

As for the rest of the men in the park, they had since taken to fleeing the area in terrified screams, though a few were still on their phones while running. This woman's troubles were far from over.

"Now, you," she said as she turned towards Samuel when he returned to her. "Tell me: What the hell is up with this city?"

"U-um, well..." Samuel started. "This city was made by men, for men. Men rule everything, while women are just sex slaves and breeding tools. They're not even allowed to show their faces in public without a male escort, and even then, only rich guys can afford to have them."

The blond woman became visibly disgusted. "What the hell!? Whose idea was it to make a city like that!?"

"The founder, Theo Cleveland," Samuel answered, drawing her attention to the fountain statue. "This was like 200 years ago, but from what I read online, he didn't like competing with women in business, and hated that they were making strides to narrow the professional, economic, and social gaps between the sexes. So, he and some like-minded guys--who all happened to be rich and have some control in the government--worked to make it illegal for women to take high-paying and influential jobs."

"How did that even pass? Wasn't there opposition?"

Samuel nodded. "Yeah, lots of it. But it also brought out more and more bitter men from the woodworks who felt marginalized by women, and they started to convince more and more men that women needed to go, until their voices were the only ones left. Then it snowballed from there; they started to make all these rules on what women couldn't do: they couldn't take ANY job, they couldn't drive, they couldn't manage any money, they needed a male escort everywhere, they couldn't wear what they wanted, girls had to leave school at the age of 10, women could not refuse sex from men for any reason... And so on."

The blond woman attentively listened to his history lesson.

"Then came the hail mary: Cleveland said that from then on, all women and girls were to be rounded up and taken to underground facilities. The men who tried to protect them were executed, as were any women too old to reproduce. Cleveland then decided to rechristen the city to 'Mascopolis' to reflect the extreme male focus."

The blond woman's blue eyes stared at him for a few seconds, before letting out a sigh. "'Mascopolis', huh? That's a pretty blatant, silly name, don't you think? But whatever. Now I actually have a good reason to do what I'm about to do."

"What do you mean?" Samuel asked, taking curious note of her last remark. "What you're about to do?"

"What's your name?"

"Samuel." He answered.

"Sam, I appreciate you for telling me all this, and apparently being the only guy in the city who gives a damn about a woman such as myself. ...Now, I need you to step back."

"Why?" Samuel asked.

She smiled. "You'll see."

Samuel did as he was told, and took several steps backwards, moving away from the strange blond woman. Then, he watched as she extended her arms below her, opening her palms and spreading her fingers wide. Her hands then started to glow with the same light from before, but instead of firing out towards him like part of him feared, the light flowed from her hands and started to coat her entire body, from the top of her head to the tip of her toes. He wondered what she was doing; was she shrinking herself?

No... Samuel was shocked to see that, instead, she had started to grow, quickly at that. As her sandal-clad feet expanded, soon encroaching upon him, he turned around and fled from the growing woman, taking cover behind the fountain as her glowing, enlarging feet forced benches, bushes, and other structures to move out of place. Peeking out, he watched as she grew ever higher into the air above him, surpassing the fountain and even the surrounding trees. 75 feet... 100 feet... 150 feet... and so on, long since blocking the sun and leaving him in her ever-expanding shadow. Watching this process was mesmerizing, but also dizzying at how big she was making herself.

Eventually, the glowing upon her body ceased, and her growth came to a stop. She pulled her arms back to her body, and then looked around herself, before turning her attention downward, specifically towards Samuel. He crept out from behind his hiding spot and staggered towards her; he gazed upon her now massive feet taking up much of the immediate area, and thought of what those men she shrunk earlier must have felt seeing the same thing. If she wanted to, she could stomp him flat just like the others.

That was to say nothing about the rest of her. Her legs were like pillars, which lead to the rest of her otherwise lean body and perky breasts. The blond beauty stood proudly in the park, her new size leaving her taller than some of the building surrounding the park.

"Whoa..." Samuel found her more breath-taking than before.

"Alright, Sam," she addressed him as he stood besides her left foot; her voice bellowed through the whole area. "Since you were nice to me--in your own way, I suppose--I'll give you the chance to get out of here. Leave the city as fast as you can."

"What are you about to do?!" Samuel yelled up at her.

She smiled eagerly. "Destroy it, of course!"

Samuel's mouth dropped agape. "What!?"

She folded her arms and looked towards the sky. "...Though maybe I should have made myself bigger- nah, I'll be fine. Three-hundred is good. For now, at least."

"What do you mean, you're gonna destroy this city!?" Samuel shouted. "You can't do that!!"

"Can and will," she responded with zeal as she focused back on Sam below her. "It's not like this is the first city I've destroyed, but at least this one gave me a real reason."

"What?!" What did she just say? She's destroyed cities before? Samuel had never heard of such a thing being reported anywhere online or by the media; surely such a titan demolishing a city would have been widely-reported news.

"Sam, you're not trying to stop me, are you?" she asked. Then, as she begun to lift her foot, "If so, then I'll just have to squish you like the other-"

"NOOO!!! Samuel cried. "Please don't do that!!"

She smiled teasingly as her foot returned to the ground. "Okay, but like I said, you need to get out. ...Or you can come with me. That might be the smarter choice, since you may be seen as an accomplice now. Some of those other men might think you can't control your woman, right?"

"Err..." That suggestion of hers gave him pause.

"Frankly, I don't care what you do, but you need to hurry up and decide."

Thinking a bit about it, Samuel knew that she had a point. It was possible that he may have been reported by one or more of the other men, especially with how she had spared his life twice. Furthermore, he was not confident that he would be able to escape the city in time, especially with the panic and fervor that would no doubt be sweeping the city. If he chose to flee, it was possible that he would even eventually fall victim to the blond giant. ...Or others who had seen or learned of him being her "friend".

It seemed he would have no choice but to go with her. Even if that would truly make him a pariah, at least--if she was successful--there would be no Mascopolis left.

"I'll go with you," Samuel decided.

"Alright." She kneeled down and placed her hand onto the ground, its palm upturned. Samuel climbed onto the soft, pale flesh and stumbled onto the center of the hand, after which she stood back up and placed him onto her shoulder.

"Umm..." Samuel said to her, now much closer to her ear, which bore a sapphire piercing in its lobe. "I never got your name."

"It's Iris," she answered.

"Oh. Well, it's pleased to meet you, Iris."

"The pleasure's all mine, little guy," she said with a happy tone. "Now, watch as I destroy your goddamned city!"

"S-sure..." Samuel said, anxiously in his voice.

"Let's start with this." Iris turned towards the fountain, the lovely spring that was one of the landmarks of the city, especially with Cleveland's likeness in the middle. Iris pulled her right foot back and then kicked forward, her foot striking the statue with such force that it broke and shattered from its base and was sent flying through the air. Some of the pieces impacted buildings, some of which crashed through the windows.

Samuel looked down at the broken fountain, as water sprayed out wildly from where the statue had been. Though she was a giant, it was still rather amazing seeing the power that she wielded. He had to admit that it was a bit of a poetic justice seeing a woman that Cleveland deemed inferior punting his likeness away like it was nothing. He almost wished that the man himself was still alive to experience it instead.

"Now, hold on real tight, Sam," Iris said. "Because this is going to be one hell of a ride!"

"A-alright..." Sam held onto the cloth jacket as tight as he could, just as Iris went on the move.



[TO BE CONTINUED]

Part 2

The mayor's office was in a frantic uproar; men in uniform--both business and military--constantly rushed into and departed from the room, practically tossing sheets of paper onto the oval mahogany desk belonging to Mayor Buck Adams.

Even as his subordinates constantly reported to him the latest developments outside of the building's walls, Mayor Adams could still hear the panic outside; the crashing, the screams of terror, sirens blaring as loud as they can. Though she was still rather far away from the town hall, he and everyone there could feel the constant tremors from her sheer size. In truth, many of his workers had already evacuated, and only the top-ranking employees remained to relay the constant stream of news to Mayor Adams.

"Sir!" General Kilmark said as he rushed to the desk. "She's at 26th street as we speak! You need to take shelter!"

Sitting at his desk filling up with sheets of paper, Mayor Adams slowly shifted his head towards the rigid fellow standing before him. Even in this disaster, the 50-year-old, greying-haired General--over a dozen ribbons and emblems decorating his uniform--kept a cool face, but Mayor Adams could easily tell that he was concerned, scared even; he could see it in the slight quivering of his irises and the beads of sweat on his brow. Mayor Adams did not blame him at all, of course; none of them had ever experienced or expected a crisis such as this.

"What's the plan to stop that monster?" Mayor Adams asked.

"We're still hashing it out," General Kilmark replied. "But we're deploying our military as we speak, and we're prepping the Gungnir. We've also called in support from the U.S. Air Force; they're flying in as we speak."

"I see..." Mayor Adams clasped his hands together before his face, and let out a deep sigh. "Will it be enough?"

"That bitch may be big, but even she won't be able to ward off such an assault. Either way, you need to leave, now. We can't risk losing you."

Mayor Adams stared at the General for a few seconds, before nodding. "Yeah, you're right. I'm too important to this great city, and once you take that monster down, you'll need me to get things back in order."

"That's right, sir."

Mayor Adams stood from his seat, just as another subordinate slapped down another sheet onto his desk. "...But first, I need to boost morale to our citizens. Let them know that we won't fall to such a beast."

"The bunker has a P.A. system. Though it hasn't seen use in years, so I'm not sure if it still works."

"I'll try it. I'll leave everything in your hands, General Kilmark."

"You can count on me, sir." General Kilmark stood firm and saluted.

Mayor Adams nodded, and after gathering a stack of reports and stuffing them into his briefcase, he took the case in hand and stepped away from his desk. However, he stopped briefly and turned his attention towards the 60-inch monitor hanging upon the wall to his right. It displayed footage of the crisis currently unfolding in the city: that of a several-hundred-tall monster ravaging the metropolis, destroying buildings and slaughtering innocents.

Said monster took the form of a young blond woman.

"A woman..." Mayor Adams muttered to himself, still in a state of shock at the sudden outbreak of events. "Unbelievable..."

~~~

The city's warning sirens had since begun to blare loudly. Cars and vehicles sped out of the way. Crowds upon crowds of men screamed in horror as they fled. Other men took cover inside of the surrounding buildings.

From his vantage point upon the giant's shoulder, Samuel watched as the mysterious blond woman named Iris strode through the city, her heavy footsteps rocking the whole area. Down on the streets below, he could see many men try to get away from Iris as she walked; those who were not fast enough or had tripped or were knocked over in the frenzy were tread upon by her sandaled feet. The same with the cars, most of which sat abandoned in the middle of the road, though a few still contained passengers who were unable to escape in time; with a roar of buckling steel, those cars--and the men inside--were also rent asunder by her power. None of the fleeing men on the streets had made any effort to help the trapped men from their cars.

"I always love seeing them run," Iris remarked as she too watched the panicking men below. "Especially when they start shoving each other around. I guess no matter what, humans will always look out for numero uno."

As the droves of civilians ran, a handful of police officers shielding themselves behind their cruisers fired bullet after bullet at Iris. The projectiles however were far too small to make any sort of impact on her, and eventually, they too fled as their cruisers were flattened by Iris' feet.

However, a sole officer remained behind up ahead on the road, his assault rifle spraying a stream of hot metal up towards Iris' head. Samuel even heard the brief whiz of a bullet passing by his ear, which made him duck deeper onto Iris' shoulder. The giant merely brushed her cheek with her hand before her pace increased slightly, taking her right in the officer's direction. The frantic cop continued firing at her, even as he was overtaken by her shadow, until she lifted her foot over him. With a yelp, he dropped his firearm and attempted to run away, but to no avail; Iris' foot came right down on him, stomping him into the pavement and reducing him to a bloody mess on the now-cracked pavement. With a dominating twist of her foot, Iris shredded the poor gunman into a red pulp, before stepping off of him and moving on.

Samuel crept around and looked behind at the street below; there was no sign of life at all in the immediate area. Everyone who was down there had either fled, or were killed. The road was littered with mangled steel and flattened bodies bleeding onto the pavement. Quite a gruesome sight; he shuddered to think that all of them--full-grown adult men--were simply stepped on like they were mere bugs.

Coming to a cross section of streets, she made a right turn, where it seemed that the men there--who had observed the fleeing crowd--were taken by sheer horrific surprise to see Iris' massive form. They too took to running, as the vehicles on the road attempted to make u-turns; some crashed into building walls, other cars, and even people in their attempts to get away.

Iris smiled amusingly. "Say, Sam. How many people live in this city?"

"Just over 4 million," Samuel answered.

"Really? Sweet. Looks like I have a lot of work to do."

She chased after the running pedestrians, though simply walking versus their running. Samuel could hear them all scream in fear as she gained on them; no matter how fast they ran, they were just too small in comparison to her. The men at the back of the crowd soon found themselves being mashed underfoot by Iris as she followed after them, leaving a fine red paste in the road.

As Iris kept trampling on the men, she stretched her right arm forward, and from its hand an amber sphere of pyroclastic energy shot from it. The blast hit the road far ahead, exploding with the might of a ton of TNT that shattered nearby windows and left a smoking crater in its wake. The men caught in the blast were quickly burnt to ash, while those near it were painfully seared, and the shockwave from the explosion sent more flying backwards. More importantly, the crater had obstructed the crowd's escape, causing the men to attempt to pour into the nearby buildings.

"You guys need to chill out," she said as she stretched her arms out to the sides. This time, what looked like blue ice poured from her palms. A chilly wind wafted through the area as the buildings were all coated with a layer of ice, preventing the men from entering them. Their bodies shivering from both the coolness and terror, most all looked up in extreme fear at the giant woman who stood above them, while others desperately attempted to break through the ice with whatever they could find.

There was nowhere else for them to go; they were completely, utterly trapped.

They could do nothing but scramble about as Iris continued to walk forward, crushing handfuls of men with each step. The men's cries for mercy were only met with her sandal hitting the concrete, silencing their pleading as she painted the road a deep red. The men who were trying to break into the ice were kicked away from the bluish, reflective wall; some died on impact with the ground, while others barely survived only to get smashed flat under Iris' foot.

"You guys spent so much time stomping on women," Iris said, "how does it feel to be on the other side of the foot? Poetic justice, I'd say."

Some men--betraying everything that had been instilled in them since birth--dropped down to their hands and knees and began to grovel before her and beg for mercy.
Iris simply scoffed at their cries for pity and trampled them into the hard cement.

"That was kind of mean," Samuel remarked.

"Yeah, I don't care," Iris replied. "I need to show them that there will be no mercy to anyone here."

Her blue eyes scanned the bloody street for any signs of life, before immediately stomping on one of the few stragglers left. From where Samuel perched, he could see little more than the red stains on the ground; he was rather thankful for that, as the image of her first victim, the brash man in the park who had slapped Iris and was rendered into a fleshy goop, as well as the officers, came to mind.

"Okay," Iris said. "I think they're all dead on this street. But before we move on..."

With a swipe of her hand, she sent flames flying to her sides. The streams struck the buildings, melting the walls of ice but also setting the structures ablaze. As smoke billowed upward from the buildings, she smiled in satisfaction and walked onward, easily stepping over the crater that her earlier fireball had created.

"I have to ask," Samuel said, "are you gonna rescue the women here?"

"Eh, it's not on my radar," Iris answered. "I didn't even plan on having a tagalong. All I really planned to do is destroy the place."

"What if you end up killing them by accident?"

Iris shrugged. "Tough shit... Though it probably wouldn't be an accident."

"Huh... I kinda had you pegged for a comic book antihero who fights injustices in her own way, but you're more of an all-out villain," Samuel remarked. "Too bad you don't look the part."

"You don't need to dress in a skintight leather suit to wreak havoc," Iris said. "I could be out here in a bikini and flip-flops--or even naked--and the result would be the same." She spotted a lone man on the street below her, trying his best to escape from her wrath. "I'm the big monster ruining their day." She stepped on the unlucky man, his body exploding violently underneath her sandal, and her pink toes flexed as she twisted her foot to-and-fro to grind him into paste on the concrete. "...And having fun while doing it!"

"Eh, if you say so," Samuel muttered.

The sirens continued to sound throughout the city, and by now, there were helicopters--with the "News 6" logo emblazoned upon them--hovering around in the sky, their inhabitants observing the carnage that was unfolding below them. As Samuel glanced at them, Iris hopped onto a small, one-story building, its roof and structure collapsing under her weight. With both feet, she stomped into it, breaking it down more and more with each blow. One man managed to survive the carnage and rushed away, only to be zapped to a crisp by a jolt of electricity from Iris' index finger. She stepped off of the now flattened building, and moved on.

Iris looked upward at one of the choppers and gave it a smile and a wave, before reaching over to her left and casually pushing over a tall office building slightly shorter than she was, the structure hitting the ground with a deafening roar of steel, glass, and whatever else inside. Many men spilled out from within, most of whom died on impact.

Stepping over the collapsed tower, Iris then lobbed more fireballs towards the nearby buildings, some striking the walls with a massive explosion while others penetrated the windows and quickly spread throughout. Either way, they quickly went up in flames, and soon after men perhaps foolishly began to pour out of them and run through the streets.

"What a bunch of stupid men," Iris remarked, as she bore on them and began to tread on as many as she could. "...But I guess it's either that, or stay inside of a burning building."

She made one big echoing stomp in front of her, capturing at least a dozen of men underneath her sandal, before she pulled it back and smeared red blood and shredded along the road with it. As more men tried to escape between the buildings, Iris did what she could to impede their progress, using her abilities to fill the gaps with ice, encasing some of the men inside within the ice while others scrambled to find another path. She also sent streams of fire between other buildings, with the victims caught in the inferno screaming in agony as they were burnt to a crisp.

As she kept slaughtering the unfortunate, hapless citizens below, all Samuel could think about was how lucky he was that he was not down there with them. Judging by her earlier comments, she may have started this murderous rampage regardless of whether or not she knew of the city's nature, and had he been even five minutes late going to the park, perhaps he would have been counted among the slain.

Samuel let out a sigh of relief, before his nerves were rattled by a loud toning noise all around him.

"What-" Samuel frantically looked around, before he realized that it was the city's loudspeakers coming online.

"What, they have something to say to me?" Iris asked, also recognizing the source of the noise.

"Proud citizens of Mascopolis!!" said the deep, boisterous male voice whose words resounded all through the city; it was a voice that Samuel knew all too well. "This is your mayor, Buck Adams, and I am here to give you all words of encouragement!! Though this situation may look bleak, rest assured that we will guarantee that we will rid our great city of this creature that plagues us!! Right now, all of our military personnel are moving to engage this vile woman, and we are also receiving support from our brethren outside!!"

Samuel was hit with a sense of nervousness upon hearing this, that the mayor was perhaps-understandably pulling out all the stops to bring Iris down; he knew that he would be caught in the crossfire, and he was unsure if Iris would have cared that he was. Meanwhile, the giant blond woman merely yawned mockingly at the mayor's speech.

"I ask all citizens to take cover if you are unable to flee beyond the city borders," Mayor Adams voice continued. "To save yourself from both this woman's assault and our engagement against her. She may be a hulking giant, but she is still a woman; we will not let her make a fool of us!! When we bring her down, we will prove once and for all the superiority of men over women!! Yes!! We will annihilate her, and build Mascopolis to even greater heights on top of her ashes!!"

"Hey, Mayor Douchebag!!" Iris called, just as her right fist smashed through the upper levels of a nearby building. "If you were a real man, you'd come out here yourself instead of hiding in your playpen!!"

"Mark my words: We will avenge our fallen brothers and destroy her, completely and utterly!!" Mayor Adams continued, seemingly ignoring her taunt. "For the glory of Mascopolis!!" With that, his voice went offline.

"Whatever," Iris said with a roll of her eyes. "Is that guy always such a ham?"

"Yeah, he gives speeches like that all the time," Samuel answered. "But if he has access to the city's PA system, then he might still be in the city. I thought he would have been one of the first ones to evacuate, honestly."

"Sweet, then I can find out where he is and stomp him as well," Iris enthused. "Where is he?"

"Well, he could be at the town hall," Samuel replied. "...Or he could be underground somewhere. Actually, that's more likely where he is."

Iris sighed. "Asshole coward. ...Whatever. I'll just keep killing time killing peop-"

Before she could finish her sentence, Samuel was suddenly startled as several explosions hit the blond giant's backside, singeing small parts her white jacket somewhat. Iris stumbled a bit, and then turned around to seek out the source of said blast. Right away, they both saw them: green metal tanks, about a dozen of them, rolling through the street and making a beeline towards her. Each one of them constantly fired rounds at her, which collided with her massive torso and burned parts of her pink shirt.

Despite the assault, Iris merely smirked amusingly, and charged a large sphere of lightning in her right hand, after which she threw towards the leading automobiles. The two in the front swerved to avoid it, and the crackling orb harmlessly hit the pavement. Iris threw two more orbs at the approaching tanks; one missed, while the other hit its mark, with the tank in question sparking violently with electricity before exploding, killing whoever was inside before they could escape from within.

Changing up her stratagem, Iris sprayed ice towards the tanks, the frost hitting the ground before them and forming a wall glistening in the sun's rays. However, they quickly blasted through the ice, the wall shattering and melting from their power, and they continued firing away at her.

"Yeah, I didn't think that would work," Iris commented, before she started flinging both fire and lightning at the armored vehicles. While some dodged her attacks, four of them were destroyed by her powers.

"Screw this," Iris said, right as she ran towards the approaching tanks.

Samuel held tightly onto her jacket as she rushed forward, meeting their assault head-on. Before he knew it, one of the tanks had been stomped flat by her sandaled left foot; he found this a bit surprising considering the lightness of said sandal, but her immense size made up the difference. The tanks moved about, their turrets still aimed upon her torso as she lifted up and brought her right foot down onto another tank, its steel buckling under the pressure and exploding. She simply brushed off the volley of fire as she went and flattened a third one.

She then brought her right foot back and swung it towards the ground, delivering a mighty kick that collided with two tanks and sent them flying off into the distance, until they crashed into a faraway high-rise that collapsed from the impact. Two tanks remained on the road below her, still continuing their assault; by now, Iris' shirt had acquired a few small singed holes from the constant volley, but she did not seem to pay it any mind.

Iris reached down for one of the tanks and picked it up. Then, with her other hand, she tore open the hatched, flipped the machine upside-down, and let the two men inside pour onto her open palm. She dropped the now-empty tank onto the ground--which hit the pavement with a loud crash--and brought the two soldiers close to her face. Even from where he was positioned, Samuel could detect the sheer terror in their being, even if they were trying their best to keep a brave facade, so much so that one pulled out his pistol and began firing at her face.

"You really think that's going to hurt me?" Iris chided the man. "Your tanks couldn't even do that."

The man let out an angry yell, and continued to fire his gun, and his companion joined in on the barrage. Samuel could make out several expletives being hurled at the giant as well, including--of course--the word "bitch".

Iris smiled amusingly. "How do you guys feel about that being your last act ever?"

With her other hand, she quickly brought it down onto the men, smashing them flat between her palms. She pressed them against each other briefly and then rubbed them, after which she wiped the blood and gore off on her shorts.

"Dumb little shits," Iris commented to herself, before focusing her attention back on the street below her, towards the final tank still firing upon her, its artillery striking her massive cream-color pillars known as legs. "You think I forgot about you?"

She reached down to pick up the tank, and like with the previous one, completely tore the hatch from the tank and turned the vehicle upside down, the two men inside spilling onto her bloodstained hand. Releasing her grip on the tank, letting it fall to the pavement far below, she again watched as these two men--unlike the previous duo--cowered in her palm. She smiled amusingly; these men were scared to death of her, and rightfully so. Their lives were literally in her hands, and she had long since proven that she had no mercy to spare to anyone in the city.

"At least you guys know your place," Iris said to the men as her blue eyes focused on them. "You know that your little tanks and guns won't do anything to me. I'm invincible."

"Isn't that's a bit arrogant?" Samuel asked. "I mean, you have superpowers, but-"

"Shut up, Sam," Iris curtly ordered. "Anyway, I'm invincible, and the sooner you men understand that, the better off you'll be." She gave the men a smirk. "Now, I want you to tell me that women are great."

"NEVER!!" The soldier on the left, perhaps regaining his bravado, blurted out. "I would never say such a thing!! You're proof that women have to be subjugated, or they will go out of control!!"

"So that's what you're choosing to go out on? I guess I shouldn't be surprised." With her free hand, Iris took the belligerent man in between her finger and thumb and plucked him from her open palm. Caught completely between the tips of her massive digits--their nails painted with the same shade of pink polish present on her toes--the man struggled and flailed about, all the while keeping up his angry tirade on the inferiority of women and cursing Iris.

Then, the fingers clamped together, and just as quickly, the man's life along with his ranting came to an abrupt end with a crunch and an explosion of blood from between her fingertips. The remaining man on her palm screamed in terror as he watched his comrade's life spill out from inbetween her flesh.

"Now you." Iris turned her attention onto the shivering soldier. "What do you think about women?"

The man's body remained frozen in fear, yet he still mustered just a little courage to answer her. "You... You're amazing!"

Iris was somewhat surprised to hear this from him, though Samuel felt it possible that she was feigning. "You really think so?"

"Y-Yeah! I never really agreed with how this city treats women in the first place!" The soldier stood up. "It's about time it got its comeuppance!"

Iris nodded as he spoke, but then her neutral expression turned into a scowl as she picked up the solder with the same bloodied fingertips that had just smashed his comrade.

"Sellout," Iris said as she brought the man closer to her face.

"N-No, lady!!" The soldier shouted, the fear returning to his disposition. "It's true! I've always held a secret respect for women!"

"Is that so? Well, I guess you won't mind coming with me, then?"

A look of relief formed on the soldier's face. "Oh, yes! Thank you, miss!"

Iris smiled. "No prob."

She pulled the man closer to her face--or more specifically, her pink lips, which soon opened into the dark cave within. The man started to panic again, though Samuel did not get much of a chance to see much else from him, as he soon disappeared within Iris' mouth, and her fingers returned sans soldier. Her mouth closed, shutting out his screaming, and Iris pulled her head back slightly; Samuel could then see her swallow something--likely the soldier--into her insides.

"You ate him!?" Samuel found this rather disturbing, even in the context of her other atrocities.

"Yeah, why not?" Iris nonchalantly answered.

"But that was a person! People aren't supposed to eat other people!"

"Yeah, and people aren't supposed to grow several hundred feet tall and go on a city-destroying killing-spree, but here we are."

"But..." Samuel did not have much to say in contest.

"If you have a problem with it, I can eat you as well," Iris calmly said. "No skin off my back."

"No, please!" Samuel pleaded.

Iris giggled. "That's right, we're partners-in-crime here."

"Right, 'partners'..." Though Samuel felt more like a hostage than anything.

"Alright, with those soldiers disposed of, let's go have some more fun!" Iris said.

With that, Iris resumed her destruction. Despite the well-publicized carnage and the constant cry of the emergency sirens, there were still crowds of people in downtown Mascopolis. She stomped through the roads, squashing anyone unfortunate enough to find themselves in her way, most of them deliberately; those who managed to avoid this fate were met with a much more electrifying end as she zapped them with her lightning. Men trying to escape between buildings were frozen solid in large slabs of ice or fried to cinder with streams of fire that also ignited said buildings.

Many cars and other vehicles sat abandoned in the road. Most were either crushed underfoot or knocked aside by her gait. She would occasionally reach down and pick up a vehicle or several, and throw them across the skies. The automobiles crashed into the walls of buildings--leaving a nice dent or crack in its wake--through windows, or miss them completely and land on the ground somewhere, on one occasion falling right upon a small group of men in the distance.

She used her powers to blast through many more buildings and towers as she came across them. Most were set on fire, the flames spreading not only from floor to floor but also to surrounding buildings. Men inside either perished from the flames, or met their ends under Iris' feet as they fled from the buildings. Other structures were also bombarded with ice, either being frozen over with a layer of ice that trapped its inhabitants inside, or Iris would create spears of ice and fire volleys of them through buildings, the diamond-like projectiles slicing through them like an arrow through a sheet of paper. Most buildings collapsed from the assault, while others remained standing, dangling wires and falling furniture and wood visible through the holes.

One such tower was a 50-story-high monolith--belonging to a well-known tech company called "Mars Corp"--which Iris set ablaze with one large fireball. Another fireball caused its collapse soon after with a deafening roar, spawning a toxic cloud of dust, debris, ash, and glass to billow through the area. Needless to say, every man inside lost their life in its wake. Samuel himself was met with a rather hollow feeling upon its demise; he rather much loved the products that they had developed.

Another police force, dozens of men strong, was waiting for her several streets over; once intercepted, the force all at once fired round after round at her torso and legs from their assault rifles.

"Oh, please," Iris scoffed as she rushed towards them, lifted her foot high into the air, and then brought it down on nearly all of them and smashing a footprint-like crater into the road. With a deafening thud, the lives of all of those caught underfoot were reduced to nothing more than a film on the bottom of her sandal. "I took down twelve tanks already; you all are just worms in comparison."

Seven of them had escaped and continued to fire upon her as they fled. Coming across another tall building to her side, she pushed it over onto the road in front of her, its brick exterior crashing onto the street and onto six of the remaining officers. As she stepped over the fallen building, the last officer discarded his weapon and bolted as fast as he could. However, Iris' foot was much faster, and he joined his fallen comrades on the sole of her thong sandal, and she grinded him into a pulp against the road for good measure.

Perched atop of Iris' shoulder, Samuel kept watch of the carnage, still ever so thankful that he was not down on the streets, the ever-shifting ground zero below. It was becoming clear that as of now, the city did not stand a chance, not with the abilities that Iris was displaying. The will to live and protect one's own must be a powerful instinct, even if it was like shooting pellets into brick wall. Despite that, he knew that this was only the beginning, that eventually, the heavy guns would be brought out against her, not the least of which was the dreaded Gungnir. He wondered just how far her abilities went, and if she truly stood a chance against that machine.

...And if she did end up failing, what would become of him?

The billboard from earlier--displaying the tanned man's toned abs--caught Iris' attention. "Ooh! Hey, sexy!" she flirted as she tore the billboard from the roof of its department building and ogled over it as she held it in both hands. "I wonder if his face is as hot as his body?"

"It is," Samuel answered. "He's a pretty popular model, and yeah, he's very hot."

"Wait, you said he's hot?" Iris sounded a bit surprised to hear this. "Are you gay?"

"...I'm not sure what that means."

"Uh, you like other men? Like, romantically?"

"Well, yeah. All the guys here do. It's normal for men to fall in love with each other; some would even say it's natural."

"And I'm guessing it's 'unnatural' to love women like that?"

Samuel nodded. "Women only exist to continue the species. Or to be sex toys to use, abuse, and throw away when they're used up. ...But I'm saying what the common belief is, not that I believe it," he quickly added.

"Yeah, of course you don't," she teased. "Well, I'll just throw this away. But first...”

Iris dug through one of the pockets of her jacket and pulled out her white smartphone, the device bearing the insignia of a brand that Samuel did not recognize; he believed it said something along the lines of "HTC". After taking a couple of photographs, she returned the phone to her pocket, set the billboard ablaze, and chucked it across the skies.

"No comment on that ad right there?" Samuel asked, pointing out the ad on the brick wall of the nearby building displaying the two men standing on the hapless blond woman.

"Yeah, that's wrong, but I'm not really surprised at this point." She folded her arms. "But I'm sure that's only the tip of the iceberg. You all have much worse ads flying around, right?"

"Err... Kinda, but they're still regulated," Samuel answered. "Nothing too violent or sexual is allowed to be shown in ads."

"I guess even this society has to have some standards. Anyway, it has to go, too."
Iris shot a large fireball towards the display, the blast exploding upon impact and blasting a large hole into the wall, its loose bricks raining down onto the ground below. Samuel tried his best to peer inside of the building, but could see no signs of life anywhere in there.

"...But about that guy with the abs... You think I can find that hunk and squish him as well?" Iris wondered. "Or maybe I already have?" She lifted up the backend of her left foot and briefly examined its sandal's bloodied sole, and did the same with her right.

"He doesn't live here," Samuel said. "He's in L.A.."

"Oh..." Iris sounded rather disappointed. "Oh well." She shrugged.

"I thought you were gonna say that you were going to go find him in L.A.." Samuel chuckled sheepishly.

"I should, but I already have my hands full here," Iris answered. "By now, they should be about ready to deploy the big guns. After all, if they even want to have a chance of saving their city, they're going to need to throw everything they have at me. Even nukes, but those would defeat the whole point of saving their city."

"You sound really confident," Samuel noted.

"Of course. I've destroyed many cities before, most for far less reasons than this one."

There it was again; her mention of having destroyed more cities than just Mascopolis. But that was impossible; no such thing had ever been recorded in their world. Thinking back onto various comic books that he had read--much of their cast possessing superpowers just as Iris did--and some of their more intricate plotlines, an epiphany popped into Samuel's head. But was it possible?

"Iris, I've never heard of any other cities being destroyed by you," Samuel told her.

"Of course not," she responded. "That's because this is the first time your world has seen something like this."

Samuel came into a shocked realization. "Wait, so you ARE from-"

Before Samuel could finish his spoken revelation, several sonic booms resounded from the sky above. He flinched upon hearing these, and both he and Iris looked upward just in time to see four fighter jets speed by. The four jets flew off into the distance in the western sky, but curved back around. As Samuel's focus on that part of the sky became clearer, he could see more jets approaching, much more. In fact, a quick look around revealed jets coming in from all points in the sky, and it was possible that they numbered well beyond a hundred.

Iris grinned eagerly. "It's about damn time."

Despite Iris' gung-ho confidence, Samuel could not help the nervousness that he was feeling at the moment. All of those aircraft, no doubt armed with the most powerful weaponry they could find, were zeroing in right on them.

"There must be over a hundred- maybe even two hundred planes coming here!" Samuel exclaimed. "You sure you can take them all?"

"What do you take me for, Sam? One of your weak breeder women? You should know by now what I'm capable of."

"Yeah, your superpowers..."

"Uh-huh! ...But they're pretty high up."

"Can't you just hurl your powers up there?" Samuel asked.

"Yeah, that's the plan," Iris answered. "But I'm going to have to make myself bigger first."

Just as she finished speaking, her body took on the same glow that it had when she started her initial growth in the park. Her shoulder around him then began to expand, as did the rest of her body. The buildings--what were left of them in the area, at least--started to sink, with some completely falling out of his line of sight. He held onto the cloth of her jacket by the fistful, but even the fabric was becoming too coarse to maintain a solid hold of.

Before long, Iris' quick growth came to an end, as did the glowing light upon her body. Taking a look around himself, she appeared to have more than tripled her previous size, if he had to estimate.

"How big are you now?!" Samuel shouted up at her.

"One thousand feet," Iris answered, her voice booming throughout the area and crashing against his eardrums like thunder.

"Ahh!" Samuel covered his ears from the pain.

"Man up, Sam," Iris scolded as she turned her attention towards the approaching jets coming in from every angle. "The real fun's about to start!"



[TO BE CONTINUED]

Part 3

Mayor Adams could feel the tremors around him as he and several of his aides and military chaperones sat inside of the bunker, a dingy and dusty room that had not seen the touch of human hands in decades. The lights in the room constantly flickered, a sign that the power grid was being compromised by the giant monster's attack. Miraculously, the LCD television still functioned, its screen displaying the carnage that was occurring on the surface; the Air Force was currently engaging the giant monster, but both Mayor Adams and his men were shocked when the monster was coated in a strange white light, and then grew over three times her previous height.

Even worse, she was making short work of the fighter jets.

"What the hell!?" one of the soldiers spoke in a mix of shock and anger. "How can she be winning so easily!? They're not even putting a dent in her!"

"She has some kind of... magic powers?" said another. "How are we supposed to beat that!?"

Magic powers, Mayor Adams thought as he stared intently at the old flatscreen. It would have sounded unbelievable before, but there was no denying what was currently being fed into his eyes. It also lined up with the reports from the park, which mentioned her shrinking several men and utilizing a force field.

This whole situation was putting the flaring of his nerves into overdrive.

Just as he let out a deep sigh, another one of his aides burst into the room. The young, bespectacled fellow wore a disturbed look upon his face as he held a few sheets of paper in his hands.

"Mayor," the young man spoke. "We looked into this woman... We scoured our database of women to see if we could find a match, and they did find a young woman who matched the giant's appearance almost 100%. In fact, we are almost certain that it's the same woman."

The aide handed Mayor Adams a sheet of paper, containing a photograph of the woman in question. Indeed, the likeness was uncanny, though she was far more unkempt in the photo than she was on the television screen, and her lips in the photo were turned into a hopeless frown in opposition to the lively and arrogant grin that the giant had.

Mayor Adams could feel the indignation rising inside. "So, one of the women somehow found a way to rebel in such a manner?!"

The young aide shook his head. "It's not her. We checked, and her owner--Mr. Clark Henderson--confirmed that the woman we pulled up is still in his possession. He was just as shocked as we are, though."

"A lost twin, maybe?" Another aide suggested, to which the bespectacled aide shook his head.

"No. She does not have a twin or even any other sisters."

"But how can this be?!" Another aide spoke up.

Mayor Adams folded his arms and lost himself in thought, trying to make even an ounce of sense of this situation. If she was not a lost twin or sister, then just who--or what--was she? How did she acquire such strange powers? What exactly is her end goal? Dare he think it; did his city even have a chance at prevailing?

The frustrated mayor let out a deep sigh.

"Nearly all the weapons we intended to use on her won't have much effect anymore," a soldier remarked, his smartphone in hand. "General Kilmark is still just about ready to deploy the Gungnir, but if it's not up to the task..."

"Mascopolis is done for..." another aide wearily spoke up.

Mayor Adams folded his arms and bowed his head briefly, before turning around to address his group, his concern hidden behind a brave mask.

"No, we are not finished," he started. "We WILL not fall here. No matter what, we will be sure to take that monster down and restore our city to glory!"

"But-"

"Do you doubt me?" Mayor Adams asked the aide.

"N-no! Yeah, you're right. We have the Gungnir, the greatest weapon in the world. There's no way she'll beat us!"

The other men all nodded in agreement, and they seemed to have regained some confidence--perhaps even overly-optimistic faith--over the situation.

Mayor Adams feigned a confident smile of his own. "That's right. And once that maniac is dealt with, we can rebuild the city and help the survivors settle back in."

The men in the room let out a cheer. Even if the situation seemed bad, Mayor Adams just knew that, in the end, this city--the great city known as Mascopolis--would emerge from this crisis greater than ever.

"Mayor Adams," the smartphone-holding soldier called. "General Kilmark wants to know what to do with the guy on that woman's shoulder."

Mayor Adams and the other men looked towards the chaos on screen. The news helicopters with the cameras filming the assault had settled on top of a rather faraway tower, and while the giant was constantly moving, on her right shoulder they could make out the faint spot of a companion of sorts.

"Is he one of ours?" Mayor Adams asked.

"We did research on him as well," the bespectacled aide said. "His name is Samuel Atkins, and according to eyewitness reports from the park before this all started, he was the first man that the woman came into contact with, and is also one that she seems to have made a conscious effort to spare."

"A traitor!?" One of the soldiers indignantly suggested.

"We are unsure. For all we know, she could be holding him hostage. ...Anyway, what should we do about him?"

Mayor Adams folded his arms, his mind thinking over on this young man and how to deal with him. "...We can't afford to hold anything back while taking her down. If he winds up as collateral damage, so be it. We will just count him as among her slain, and honor his memory along with the others once this is all over."

"Alright, I'll tell him to not concern themselves with his safety, sir," the soldier said before relaying the order to General Kilmark on the other side of the line.

"I'll go back to the rest of the team and see what else we can find out," the bespectacled added, nodding before turning around and exiting the room.

Mayor Adams glanced once more at the screen, watching as his allies put their lives on the line to expel this monster. In truth, Mayor Adams felt rather useless, doing nothing but hiding deep underground while that giant monster terrorized his people above. However, he knew that his safety was of utmost important, that he would be needed to pick up the pieces of the shattered city and restore morale.

...And to ensure that nothing like this ever happened again.

His eyes wandered back down to the young lady's photo in his hands, the doppelganger to the monster destroying their city. With this young woman having no sister or twin, there was no way to make sense of the resemblance. ...But such a mystery was of low priority to him at the moment. He had to focus instead on rebuilding the city once the monster had been slain.

The mystery of her identity would be one to solve afterwards.

~~~

Samuel had long since stopped counting; the last number that he mentally logged was fifty-eight. Fifty-eight Air Force fighter jets--and counting and counting--that have been blasted out of the air. It was not like they were not putting up a fight, either; they fired artillery and missiles at the hulking Iris, but she mostly shrug off their attacks, and retaliated with her own assault.

She hurled a massive orange fireball in the direction of three jets which all veered out of the way; the fireball exploded further away in the sky. Another fireball hit its mark and destroyed one of the jets, with its burning shrapnel falling to the ground below and even striking the other passing jets, which caused said jets to lose control and crash into buildings.

"Come on, you can do better than this, right?" Iris taunted.

A volley of missiles struck her from behind, which caused her to stumble forward a bit. After the eight jets responsible for this attack passed overhead, she launched several arrows of ice in their direction as they circled back in her direction. The spears pierced through the wings of the planes, causing each of them to spin out of control in trails of black smoke and hit several buildings with loud explosions. Said buildings went up in flames, with the smaller ones collapsing almost immediately upon impact.

Still, more of the Air Force came and kept up their attempt in warding off the seemingly-unmovable giant woman. Their attempts failed one after another after another, succumbing to the fire, ice, or lightning that Iris threw at them with rather pinpoint accuracy.

A shell struck Iris' shoulder, scarily close to Samuel. He flinched and scooted away from where the shell had hit.

"This is getting dangerous..." Samuel muttered to himself, as Iris kept fighting--or rather, destroying--the planes.

One plane was struck and coated with lightning from Iris, and the pilot inside ejected himself as his jet fell from the sky. Slowing descending from the air with his parachute, he wound up falling right in front of the giant woman, who flashed him an evil grin before closing her open palms onto him, crushing him inbetween with a loud clap that reverberated throughout the surroundings.

"Loser," Iris commented as she rubbed her hands against each other.

A trio of aircraft broke off from the rest and quickly descended towards her, each one firing their two missiles in the process before curving back upwards to avoid the bolt of lightning shot in their way. With her hands, Iris batted two of the projectiles away--the missiles impacting and exploding on the nearby buildings--while the other four of them struck her chest and adding to the collection of small, burnt holes on her shirt. Of course, she did not seem particularly bothered by it.

"She's gonna need a new shirt," Samuel jokingly remarked.

"I'll deal with that later," Iris responded.

"Wait, you can hear me without me shouting?" Samuel asked.

"Yep, so you don't have to strain your vocal cords," she teased.

She shot a blizzard-like blast of ice which billowed into the sky, creating a floating wall of ice crystals that hung in the air. Several of the jets collided with the bluish, shining cloud, and then exited from the opposite end plummeting towards the ground, smoke and oil pouring from the breaches made by the ice. Several of the pilots ejected before the planes hit the earth, their parachutes opening up and allowing them to safety descend to the ground. ...Or they would have, had Iris' fire not rent each of them to burning ash.

Over half of the jets had been exterminated by then, but the Air Force showed no signs of giving up the fight, and neither did Iris. Another group swooped down and fired their artillery at the giantess, but the shells proved to be about as effective as ping-pong balls hitting a brick wall.

Or so Samuel thought.

"Ahh!! Fuck!!" Iris blurted as she recoiled backwards. She had one hand covering and nursing her right eye. "Damn, one of them hit me in my eye."

As she rubbed her eye, Samuel was extremely surprised to see a sign of weakness in what until then had been a very confident--if not cocky--young woman who balked at any resistance she was confronted with. He knew that the Air Force noticed as well, as they seemed to redouble their efforts in toppling her, launching all sorts of firepower at her from all directions, the projectiles exploding on her face, hair, and torso, though she did not seem to pay any of it any mind.

"I thought you said you were invincible," Samuel teased, though he immediately regretted it as soon as those words passed by his lips.

"...Sam, shut the fuck up," she curtly retorted.

Samuel shuddered. Her irritation was clear, and he knew better than to add anything else, lest she completely turned on him as well. Instead, he bowed his head in submission and apologized. "I'm sorry..."

"You'd better be."

Seemingly getting fed up with the barrage of missiles and shells, she moved her free hand before her, which glowed afterwards. Immediately after, Samuel could see a very transparent, spherical violet light surround the air around Iris. The volley of missiles that had been striking her just seconds before were now exploding in the surrounding air, none of them reaching the giantess at all.

"The force field?" Samuel asked.

Iris nodded, as her other hand pulled away from her eye. As for the jets, perhaps sensing the futility of their current assault, ceased their attack and flew back up into the skies. A few of them circled the sky above Iris, while others stayed in place and awaited her next move.

Samuel sighed a breath of relief. Though the jets were targeting her, he was glad to have even a tiny reprieve from the shells and missiles flying all around him.

"So, what now?" Samuel asked.

"I just need a little breather," Iris answered, as she briefly rubbed her injured eye again.

"Are you alright?"

"Don't worry about me. This is nothing."

"It didn't sound like 'nothing' before."

"...Sam." Iris scolded.

"Yeah, I know," Samuel relented.

Iris looked upward towards the circling jets in the sky above, spinning around on a blue canvas framed by white clouds and black smoke. "Look at them. Circling around, waiting for the perfect chance to strike. They're like vultures. I really hope that didn't think they were able to crack that shell. That was nothing more than just sand in my eye."

Samuel's glances shifted from the planes in the sky to Iris' massive head besides him speaking about them, and then back up to the awaiting jets overhead.

"Sam," Iris said. "You may want to hold on tight. Right about... NOW!!"

Samuel did as she suggested, his hands clenching tightly the fabric of her jacket, just as she stretched both of her arms upward--causing a steep incline on the shoulder that Samuel was upon in the process--and fired off two lightning bolts from each hand, each blast going off with a sound of thunder. The lightning broke through the surrounding purplish barrier, which immediately dissipated, and continued onward to the sky above with great speed, towards the circling jets.

However, despite the swiftness of the electric blasts, the jets aptly dodged both bolts.

"Goddammit, stand still!" Iris barked as she maintained the streams of lightning, now shifting her arms to aim them at different areas of the sky in an effort to take down the aircrafts. At the same time, every one of the crafts resumed their own assault.

Even as an increasing number of the jets were destroyed in an exploding blast upon making contact with the lightning, they did not give up. Shells and missiles filled the air and exploded on Iris' body as she kept pumping out volt after volt. She took a few steps forward as she tried to keep up her accuracy, and turned her body as needed to properly aim at the flying planes as they circled around for another charge. Seemingly taking a break from the electricity, she begun to hurl a rapid barrage of fireballs with both hands, most of which missed while a few clipped the wings of one plane while another one struck a second jet head-on; in either case, both planes were destroyed.

Samuel fought to hold on as hard as he could as the giant blonde's body constantly moved to target the attacking aircraft, the shoulder incline relaxing and rising as her arm acted. All around him were the sounds of the jets and their passing sonic booms, the sounds of their projectiles being launched, the sounds of them hitting their mark but having little effect, and the sounds of Iris' powers blasting away towards their marks.

Another shell struck Iris' shoulder just inches away from Samuel's position. The spark made his heart race, and he feared that the next such bullet may spell his doom.

"I really hope they don't end up shooting me..." Samuel lamented.

"Don't worry about it, Sam," Iris said as her ice beam encased another jet in a block of ice. "You would have been dead by now if they really were targeting you."

"That's reassuring..."

The amount of missiles shooting through the sky seemed to decrease as time went on, and eventually the remaining jets had no choice but to rely on their guns. However, by now, there were only less than three dozen of the aircraft left in the airspace, and that number was decreasing still as Iris--who seemed to lack the jet's resource limitations--picked them off one-by-one with her powers.

A rather brave jet dove in and sped towards Iris' head, blasting away with its gun all the while. Iris blocked her face with her hands; the plane made the fatal mistake of flying too close to the giantess, and she was able to swat it away with a swing of her giant hand, causing it to spin out and crash into a nearby office building with an explosion of shrapnel and glass.

Five more jets attempted to dive in, all of their guns blazing in a hailstorm of shells upon Iris, who stretched her left arm out and let loose a stream of flames that engulfed and melted all of the bullets and striking one jet, knocking it out of the sky and onto the earth with a bang. She then moved the stream around to hit the other jets. They tried to evade the flame, but were unsuccessful and all too were annihilated by the fire blast.

With her other arm, she shot ice crystals off like missiles on their own, the six aircraft on the other side of the sky doing their best to evade the ice but ultimately succumbing to their might. The sharp, frozen blades sliced through the steel like a hot knife through butter, and they plummeted into the building and ground one after another. Some of the pilots ejected and floated down on parachutes, though Iris seemed to ignore them to focus on the planes that remained.

"You're not frying those guys?" Samuel asked her.

"Fuck them," she dismissed. "They're harmless now. ...Not that they were a threat to me to begin with."

At this point, less than a dozen jets remained in the skies. However, with what appeared to be their decreasing reserve of firepower as well as the futility of their mission, the planes ceased firing upon Iris, circled around in the sky above, and proceeded to flee the area, their mission clearly aborted, either via an order from above, or from their own self-preservation, or both.

"They're running away," Samuel noted as they sped off into the southern sky.

Iris nodded. "Yeah. Let me give them something to remember me by."

She pulled her right arm back, and a spherical flame began to form in her hand, its mass rapidly growing larger and glowing with an ever-increasing intensity. Then, with a "huff" she threw the fireball with as much might as she could--so much so that Samuel had to catch himself from being tossed from her shoulder--towards the aircraft. Despite their speed, her fire was much faster, and just as it seemed like the planes had completely disappeared into blue, so did the flame pinpointed by an glowing amber speck of light. Then, said speck was replaced by a massive explosion, accompanied by several smaller ones, a sign that it had hit its mark and destroyed most of not all of the remaining aircraft. Either way, that skirmish was a sure victory for the blond giant.

"Heh, I win." Iris smirked.

"Um... Congrats," Samuel said.

Iris turned her head slightly and smiled in response, before digging with her right hand in her jacket's pocket and pulling out her "HTC" smartphone. Her fingers swiped and tapped at the reflective screen, before she held the phone overhead, grinned proudly, and gestured a V-sign with her free hand, and manipulated her right thumb to press a particular spot on the screen. Samuel could hear a "snap" sound from the phone, and afterwards she brought the device back down, looked at its screen again, and returned it to her pocket.

"I'll post that on Facebook when I get back home," she said.

"'Facebook'? What's that?" Samuel asked.

"You all don't have Facebook here? Huh. Well it's a social media website that lets you stay connected with your friends. ...You do have social media here, right?"

"Yeah, of course. Ours is called 'NetPals', and it's really popular. ...But I don't have an account; I don't really have too many friends... Or any, really..."

"Aww..." She cooed. "Well, anyway, it's time for me to continue wrecking this town. And with my new size, even! ...You hear that, Mascopolis!?" She shouted, to the comparably diminutive city around her, her voice echoing throughout, so much so that Samuel had to cover his ears tightly. "Is this really the best you have?! If so, then you all are fucked!! Heehee!!"

With that, she went on the move once more, her footsteps resounding throughout the area and shaking the world like violent tremors.

~~~

Mayor Adams and his men had watched the entire thing on the bunker's television. They had watched with horror how that blond monster terrorizing their city had almost effortlessly defeated the United States Air Force. Those powerful aircraft had made barely a dent in her hide, and perhaps more insultingly, she appeared to celebrate her victory by doing something--perhaps taking a picture--with her smartphone and then calling out the city on their presumed weakness.

Despite their earlier zeal, everyone in the room was stunned silent. The news choppers filming the chaos took to the air again just as the monster went on the move, and resumed her destruction of the city, her much larger size tearing apart buildings and toppling towers with ease just by walking.

Mayor Adams could feel the rage swelling up within him; deep down, he and perhaps everyone else there knew that the Air Force would do little to rout her, but seeing her so proudly and arrogantly declare her victory made him furious. Perhaps his companions could sense this, as all of their eyes were nervously upon him.

He turned to one of the soldiers to his left, and held out his hand. "Give me your phone. Now."

The soldier dug into his pants pocket and handed the mayor his smartphone. Practically snatching the device from the soldier's hand, Mayor Adams operated the screen and pulled up General Kilmark's name and tapped it. Bringing the phone to his ear, he heard the line on the other end ring four times, before a voice on the other end spoke.

"What is it, Private Stevens?" General Kilmark's voice asked.

"It's Mayor Adams, General," Mayor Adams said.

"Sir!" His tone became more receptive, almost submissive. "What can I do for you?"

"Is the Gungnir ready to be deployed? I'm getting sick of that bitch prancing around like she owns the place."

"We're still getting everything online. But with a weapon this size, you know it takes time to fully prep."

Mayor Adams sighed. "I'm well aware."

"Trust me: I want to get out there and turn her into cinder as much as you do, especially after the Air Force failed spectacularly just now. We are working as fast as we can to deploy the Gungnir."

"Work faster. I want her gone."

"Yes, sir."

Mayor Adams disconnected the call, and handed the phone back to its owner. He focused his attention back on the monster currently wreaking havoc on the city, the screen displaying her wanton destruction.

"...Bitch..." Mayor Adams muttered under his breath. "Just you wait."

~~~

If the buildings toppled easily before, they were even more like toys now compared to Iris' added height, making her stand higher than nearly all of the structures in town. Not even most of the roads were wide enough to contain her, as just by the act of moving pushed the various buildings apart, some falling over completely. Still in the heart of Mascopolis, she easily broke through high-rises and offices with nothing more than her physical strength, and kicked over others which toppled against nearby structures like dominos, while even smaller ones were stomped flat by her might. She giggled and laughed as she continually destroyed each and every tower and high-rise she came across, leaving a sure path of destruction in her wake.

She was gleeful to encounter another large group men running on the road far below; at her size, they were more like small ants to her than anything else. It took no effort at all for her foot to crush them all with a hard, loud stomp, leaving behind a sandal-shaped, blood-soaked crater in the pavement.

Turning to an office tower to her left--one that rose as high as her shoulders--she used both hands to completely tear off the roof and upper floor, dropping the heavy combination of steel, glass, and wood to the ground below. Inside were several men, all in separate office rooms now littered with debris and all petrified at the sight of the murderous blond giant above them.

"Hi, guys," she greeted, before she brought up her right hand and focused its index finger on one man in particular. "Bye, guys."

Before the man could run away, her digit met with his being and violently smashed him into the floor, his body giving away and exploding with a red burst. Then, she proceeded to one-by-one do the same with the other men, her fingertip crushing almost every one of them before the few survivors escaped. Iris brought the bloodied fingertip to her lips and licked the gore from her pale flesh. After which, she placed both of her hands on the sides of the building, and then set it ablaze, before moving on.

Cutting through several city blocks, her large body pushed aside and toppled several more structures, the cries of the people inside drowned out by the roars of steel and glass striking the ground. Iris arrived at another tall building--about 65 stories high--and tore the top from it as well; there was no one inside, and she wore a clear look of disappointment on her face before pushing it down with a shove of her hands. Its collapse took down several more nearby buildings in a chain-reaction before they all hit the ground, their windows shattering and people, furniture, and other objects spilling out onto the earth.

They all crunched beneath her sandaled feet as she walked on the fallen masses and began shooting more of her fireballs across the city, the orange spheres exploding upon hitting their marks and bringing down buildings and blasting roads. One such blast destroyed the Echols Overpass Bridge off in the distance, which Samuel could see held a number of vehicles all trying to escape the city but all caught in a hectic jam. The vehicles--and people inside of them--either were destroyed in the fire blast, or fell to their doom in the Echols River below.

All the while, the Channel 6 news choppers kept flying nearby while still keeping a safe distance. Samuel wondered just how many people in the city were even still watching the news at this point, but he figured that by now, the news of what was going on in Mascopolis was making international headlines, and perhaps people around the world were witnessing live the fall of what had been considered until then the "Greatest City in the World".

"I guess you're famous all over the world, now," Samuel remarked.

"Yeah, if you want to call it 'fame'," Iris said. "It's more like fear. They're scared of me. Afraid that I might come for them next."

"Are you?"

"Maybe." She blasted a stream of ice at a large swath of her surroundings, coating it under a thick layer of frost. "But even if I don't, the fear will be enough. That's why I always leave a few news choppers around to keep filming."

This comment made Samuel recall his earlier epiphany, about her origins. By now, it was all but clear that she was not from this world; there were too many clues leading to that conclusion. If it were true, it would explain a lot; why she seemingly came from nowhere in the park, why she knew nothing of Mascopolis or its customs, her comments about having destroyed cities before, and her confidence that Mascopolis would be yet another tally on her wall, so to speak.

"Iris," Samuel called. "...You're from another world, aren't you?"

"You got it," Iris confirmed with a nod. "Another Universe, to be exact."

"Whoa..." Samuel almost could not believe it. This mysterious, admittedly-attractive blond woman truly was from an alternate Universe. The fact that Universes beyond their own was fact and not some theory confined to some physicist's blackboard was mind-blowing to him as it were, but that there was actual interaction between the Universes was absolutely astonishing.

Iris stomped on several more groups of men that she had spotted on the streets at her feet. "Whenever I need to blow off some steam, or if I'm feeling really whimsical, I saddle up and leap into another Universe. It's completely random each time, so I never know what kind of world I'll get until I get there. There were some that I had to back away from immediately; trust me, when dealing with the Multiverse, you can see some really freaky shit."

"Yeah, I can imagine," Samuel said.

Iris peered through the windows of a building in front of her. "But then, you get worlds that are not too different from where I come from. The ones with cities and towns not all that different from the ones in my world, with regular people going about their business or having a nice outing with their family." She smirked, and then shoved the building over. "Those same people start screaming and running for their lives once I grow big and start stomping on them."

"And those people did nothing to you?"

"Nope. In fact, this is one of the very few worlds that actually provoked me; the rest, I just blew in and started wrecking shit." She chuckled. "It's always fun seeing them try to run away from me. Men, women, young, old, I don't care; they're all bugs to me."

Perhaps Samuel should have expected this attitude by now, but hearing Iris so casually talk about killing people in leisure deeply disturbed him, especially considering that the people of those other worlds did nothing to incur her wrath.

"But don't you care that you're killing a bunch of innocent people and tearing entire families apart?" He asked. "I mean, I can understand on some level why you'd want to destroy Mascopolis, but from the sound of things, those other people did nothing wrong to you!"

Iris paused in place. "Sam, I'm gonna let you in on a secret: the only Universe that matters is mine. The rest of you are just a big sandbox for me to play in."

"Whaa...?" Samuel was rather stunned to hear that she had very little- more like, no regard for the lives of anyone beyond her original Universe. That everyone else--his world and the countless other worlds beyond this Universe and her own--were nothing more than playthings for her to do whatever she wanted with.

Iris went back on the move, using everything she had to destroy each and every building she came across. One building went up in flames and eventually collapsed; another had holes punched into it with her ice, which eventually collapsed as well. Iris grabbed the top of another high-rise with both hands, and pulled it down, the structure snapping and hitting the road quite violently. She happened across more men on the road, though rather than crushing them underfoot, she extended her palm downward and unleashed a jolt of lightning that fried each of those men to smoldering chunks.

Moving several streets over, she spotted a bus six streets over speeding away from the scene. It was just one of several vehicles still on the road within eyesight, but she had zeroed in on the bus in particular. She chased after it--stomping on and smashing through smaller businesses and structures in the process, her footsteps violently rocking the area--and reached the long white vehicle in seconds. Kneeling down, she reached and plucked the bus from the road and held it inbetween her index finger and thumb, and brought it closer to her face.

"There's a bunch of guys in here," Iris noted as she stood back up. "Guess they all tried to catch the express bus to safety. Too bad."

She adjusted the bus in her grip so that the back end stuck farther out from her digits, and then used the thumb and finger on her other hand to tear off the back of the bus, the steel acting more like aluminum foil under her strength.

"Sam, what do you think I should do with the guys in here?" She asked, as she turned the open end towards Samuel.

Moving his body closer to get a better look inside, Samuel could see the dozens of frightened, screaming men inside. Some had already been injured from the violent shifts the bus took during its retrieval from the road, and they lay on the floor perhaps unconscious as there was no movement of their bodies that Samuel could discern.

"Maybe something quick and painless?" Samuel suggested.

"Hah, no," Iris dismissed. "Screw it, I'll just swallow them all."

"Ergh..." Samuel could feel his own stomach churning.

The men inside of the bus understandably began to panic as the vehicle moved away from Samuel and moved closer to Iris' face. She pulled her head back, opened her mouth and stuck out her pink tongue. Then, holding the open end over her tongue, she shook the bus and poured the men out onto her appendage, Each shake brought out more men; Samuel imagined that they were doing whatever they could to hold on inside of the bus, but it was ultimately a fruitless effort. Meanwhile, the men on her tongue tried their best to escape via crawling and stumbled dashing despite how high up from the earth they were. Perhaps sensing their futile efforts, Iris' tongue retreated into the cavern of her mouth, and seconds later Samuel could see a lump on her neck move from her jaw down to her chest, a sign that she had swallowed the hapless men.

"How's that for 'quick and painless'?" Iris mocked before she looked inside of the bus, and then chucked it as far as she could, the long vehicle spinning around in the air. Samuel saw three men get flung from inside of the bus as it sped through the sky, and they all crashed violently into buildings or on the ground just as the bus itself pierced the upper floors of Heichman Tower, a banking firm.

"You really don't care for the suffering of people, do you?" Samuel commented. "I mean, the people outside of your Universe."

"Not at all," she nonchalantly answered. "I thought that was clear by now. I mean, look what I'm doing to your place. Everyone here is suffering in one way or another, and I really couldn't give a shit about it."

"I have to be honest: it's scary being with someone with so little regard for human life."

"Stop making such a big deal out of it," Iris chided. "Life's too short to worry about stuff like that. That's why we have these powers."

"'We'?" Samuel noticed her referring to herself as a collective.

"Oh, I'm not the only one with powers in my world," Iris said. "You can just go online and order them from the manufacturer's website. Though they're pretty expensive, like fifty thousand dollars, and that's just for the cheapest pack. Luckily, my family is filthy rich--like, multi-billionaire rich--so I could easily afford the deluxe pack."

"So there are people from your world right now trampling cities across the Multiverse?" Samuel asked.

"Maybe. ...But what they use their powers for is up to them. Some just want to tour the worlds without interfering with them; some have this hero complex and use their powers to fight 'evil'. And then there are people like me, who delight in destroying as many worlds as they can, however they feel like it. I don't know how many grow into giants, though."

"Are there any issues with people using their powers in your world to cause trouble?" he asked.

Iris stomped on a number of one-story establishments, her flat sandal completely pulverizing the structures that filled the city block below. "No, because the powers only fully function outside of my Universe, and even they could, the price gate prevents just anyone from getting their hands on them."

"Huh..." Samuel wondered if Mascopolis was simply destined to be destroyed at some point, if not by Iris, but by someone else down the line. He wondered if that person would have also grown into a giant just as she had, or if they would have utilized some other method to bring the city to its knees. Perhaps one of those self-proclaimed heroes that Iris mentioned might have been so gung-ho as to not only tear down the city, but rescue the enslaved women in the process.

"...So yeah," Iris said as she toyed with a pick-up truck with her right foot, the red vehicle completely minuscule in comparison to her massive ped. "Destroying a city is always fun, especially when they try to fight back. It's like a huge rush that very little can compare to." Her foot compressed the truck beneath its might.

"Sometimes," she continued as she broke through more tall buildings, causing the contents--and men who had been trying to hide--to spill out and splatter on the hard ground. "When me and my sorority sisters get together, we all go to destroy whatever city we arrive in. You think they'd have their hands full with only one of us, try six!"

She cackled as she plucked out a number of inhabitants from the office building that she had just punched into. They all panicked and did what they could to escape from her palm, while Iris watched their fruitless attempts.

"Though there was this one time, we didn't grow giant," she said, as she simply closed her fingers around them, balling her hand into a fish that she squeezed tightly. "We went out and all together gathered up about a hundred hot guys, shrunk them, made a circle around them, and stomped all of them to death." She chuckled. "Oh, they all ran and cried and begged for their lives, but you know what we did? Laugh." Blood dripped out from within her closed fist and splattered onto the ground.

"Shit..." Samuel could easily picture that scenario in his head, of half a dozen young women treading upon those helpless men, while Iris and her buddies laughed as if they were having a good time; because in actuality, they absolutely were.

"A patrolling cop saw us as when we were almost done," Iris said, "and was horrified to see what we were doing. Melanie then set the cop on fire right as he was calling for backup. Though once we squished the last of them, we got out of there before more cops could show up. We all had a good laugh about all of it when we got home, too." She smeared the gory remains of the mangled men in her grasp onto the windows and outside walls of the very building that they had worked in.

It was all too clear that Iris' empathy and concern for the lives of anyone beyond the bubble of her home Universe was nil; if not just how freely and gleefully she killed the many people that day before Samuel's eyes, but also from the stories that she was telling him. For the inhabitants of Mascopolis, this was perhaps the absolute worst day of their lives; for Iris, it was just another game. Thinking on it, it was a miracle that she kept him alive for as long as she did, but he wondered how his own day would conclude by the time the day ended. Would he escape with his life, relatively unscathed, or would he become yet another red stain on the bottom of her sandal?

"And then," Iris continued reminiscing, "on my third date with Jacob--my boyfriend, FYI--we topped the night off by jumping to another Universe, growing gigantic, and... Well, we fucked, right in the middle of the city."

"Whoa, that's too much info," Samuel commented. He could picture that as well, her and her boyfriend engaging in sexual intercourse on top of a smoldering town. Though he of course had no idea what this "Jacob" looked like, so his mind substituted him with the tanned model from the earlier billboard. "But you really did that?"

"Yep. Also, he didn't finish inside of me. He pulled out and let his splooge spill out on the city. A bunch of people still around for some reason got caught in it and drowned."

Samuel shuddered to imagine such a thing. "Ugh, that's disgusting."

Samuel turned around and noticed the news choppers still following after them. Due to her size, Iris' voice bellowed throughout the entire area, so no doubt that the reporters inside were getting a huge info dump from the blond giant. Physicists the world over would have been jumping for joy at the news of actual alternate Universes if they had not currently been on the edge of their seats due to the Mascopolis crisis.

"Iris," Samuel called. "If you were able to and could get away with it, would you demolish a city in your world?"

"Hell no," she quickly answered. "I already said that my Universe is the only one that matters. That aside, I love my world--faults and all--and I love my family and friends too much to put them through that anguish. I would- I could never do this to my world."

"So, you do have some empathy."

"Of course I do. I'm not completely heartless."

"The people of those other worlds would disagree with that."

"Sam, quit trying to guilt-trip me; it's not gonna work." Iris pushed the office before her over with one hand, and then walked away from it, the structure hitting the ground with a deafening crash.

Samuel sighed, deciding to give up on trying to make Iris see even a tiny bit of wrong in the horrors she's inflicted upon an unknown number of alternate worlds. At that point, he truly did not know who was worst between Iris and the men who ruled Mascopolis; the men in power subjugated women, raped and beat them, used them only as sex toys and for breeding stock, performed all sorts of horrifying experiments on them, and in the end, disposed of them once they had fully served their purpose. Meanwhile, Iris has committed mass murder and sheer destruction on a multi-Universal scale, seeing absolutely no wrong in what she is doing or any worth in the lives of people beyond the scope of her home Universe, and will likely not stop traveling to other worlds just to destroy them.

This truly was a case of Evil vs. Evil.

After tearing through several more city blocks, all the while stomping on abandoned vehicles and the occasional person littering the roads below, she spotted a particular set of white, important-looking buildings, the four of them forming a square arrangement surrounding a grassy garden, in the middle of which was the flag of the City flailing on a very tall pole; unlike the three hall-like buildings before it, the fourth one in back stood three stories high and was much more spacious. The four-set edifice was interconnected among each other. A walkway led from the street to the complex, the path flanked on both sides by pristine green grass, bushes arranged in a repetitious pattern along the walkway, and a number of trees here-and-there on the surrounding grass as well as more flagpoles, these flying the United States flag. A few cars were parked on the road in front of the complex, and a parking lot could be seen behind the largest building that also contained a number of vehicles, though there was no doubt that every one of them sat abandoned.

"That's the town hall," Samuel stated.

"Yeah, it does look pretty important," Iris said as she approached the complex. "Wonder if anyone's in it?"

"Maybe a few people, but the of course Mayor's more than likely gone. I have no idea where he is; it's kind of a top secret, for obvious reasons."

"Yeah, yeah." Her shadow completely enveloped the complex as she reached it. The smaller forebuildings were barely taller than Iris' toes resting in their pink sandals. Samuel looked down as closely as he could for any signs of life, but it was all but impossible with how high up from the ground that he was.

"What are you going to do with it?" Samuel asked. "...Wait, do I even need to ask?"

Iris chuckled. "You're learning, Sam."

The blond giant lifted her foot from the ground and held it over Town Hall.

"Say 'good-bye' to town hall!" she announced with excitement.

However, just as she began to bring her foot down, the ground started to rumble. Feeling this, Iris pulled her foot back and settled it next to its twin, as she curiously looked around the city.

"What's that?" She asked. "An earthquake?"

"No, I don't think so," Samuel answered. "But... It could be..."

Samuel looked far ahead, far past Town Hall, and spotted a large and wide runway--approximately the size of sixteen city blocks--in the distance, surrounded by a small military bases. Very few planes or jets had ever made use of it, but of course, it was off limits to everyone except authorized personnel. The rumbling was joined by loud horns blaring short bursts of alerting sound, all coming from the direction of the base.

Then, it started to split open, slowly but surely. Split in half, the two halves pulled away from each other and disappeared underneath the pavement. A small cloud of steam briefly billowed out from within, before something started to rise up from the massive hole. Even as its very top peaked up, Samuel could tell that this metallic object was also massive, and as more of it showed itself to the light, it exposed its sleek, silver frame, armed with various firearms--including a large reddish one dead center on its frame--and possessing several docked aircraft, all of which were molded from the same sleek design as the behemoth itself. It bore four appendages, two on its sides like arms, and the others on its back not that dissimilar to wings; the arms were tipped with another set of guns, while the "wings" were folded. On both the top and in the middle were turquoise windows, though the material appeared to be one-way, even from a distance. It completely exited from its containment, revealing a size rivaling that of Iris' own.

Samuel's heart skipped several beats when he realized what exactly it was that he was looking at. It was a superweapon feared the world over, at one point considered Mascopolis' secret weapon.

This was none other than the Gungnir.

Before today, Samuel never thought that he would have seen this war machine with his very own eyes, and yet, there it was, ready to defend Mascopolis from Iris' wanton destruction. He feared that he would be caught in the crossfire, and was now more than before starting to regret not taking his chance to flee the city while he could at the park.

"Oh, my!" Iris purred; there was no hint of fear in her demeanor and in fact sounded eager. "Sam, what is that thing?"

"That's the Gungnir," he answered. "Mascopolis' one-time secret weapon, and what made the rest of the world fear us. It can take down whole fleets and demolish entire cities with ease."

"I suppose this is their last line of defense. Saving the best for last, eh? Well, I'm game."

Samuel nervously watched the Gungnir as it started to approach Iris.

"You think you can beat it?" Samuel asked, just as several of the fighter jets broke away from the much bigger craft and sped towards the giant.

Iris simply grinned in anticipation. "Of course."



[TO BE CONCLUDED]

The Finale

The facility was in an uproar, as the technicians and security personnel rushed all over the place. The former were gathering up as many notes and equipment as they could carry, either in hand or on carts or inside other containments, while the guards assisted their escape. They had been given the order to evacuate, even if the present crisis was occurring far away from where they were, in the heart of downtown.

The various men were so busy with their own tasks that they were all but ignoring the large group of female stock standing around in the lobby. Donned in nothing but white robes and slippers, some of the women watched the constant shuffle of the workers, but most of the women's eyes were glued on the television screen hanging on the wall, displaying a live feed of downtown Mascopolis and the events transpiring there. On the screen was one of them: a woman. However, this young blond woman was a stark contrast from each and every woman in the room; the blond woman was clean and pretty, not disheveled and plain like the women there; the blond woman's clearly had her own sense of fashion, as opposed to them who were forced into rags; the blond woman was lively and confident, unlike the forlorn and empty outlook the women possessed. Even more, this woman was massive, defying natural law by growing into a giant and lobbing all sorts of ethereal weaponry all over the place.

After she had defeated the Air Force, the news choppers trailing her caught the conversation that she had with the near-indiscernible young man riding on her shoulder. According to her, she arrived from an entirely different Universe.

Unfortunately, the true significance of outside Universes was beyond the understanding that the women there were allowed to maintain. But perhaps it explained so many things about the blond woman's being.

"Hey..." Ling-G0323 called to Tracey-G1129, who kept watch on the screen. "What do you think is going to happen to the city?"

Tracey-G1129's head turned to meet that of the young Asian woman's. Her dark brown eyes were dull and listless, her skin pale and marred with a number of blemishes, though she was hardly alone in this regard. That said, Ling-G0323, being one of the younger and prettier women of the Green Division, found herself the target of constant use--and abuse--at the hands of the men in this facility. To think that someone who had not even turned 20 yet had already given birth four times.

"Tracey..." She called again as Tracey-G1129 was lost in her somber thoughts.

"I don't know," she answered.

"Will she destroy us as well?" Ling-G0323 asked, a hint of worry in her tone.

Ling-G0323's concern was not unfounded, as the blond giant did mention a love for destroying cities, and did not appear to have emancipation on her agenda. It seemed that she only had one goal in mind: destruction. Perhaps seeing a woman--someone deemed by the men of the city to be lower than the scum on the bottom of their shoes--tearing down everything the men proudly held dear would instill a sense of pride and optimism in the stock women's hearts, but it would do them no good if they wounded up dead as well.

"If she does kill us, at least we'll be free," spoke up Emma-G0916, a brown-haired woman older than the both of them; so old, in fact, that she had perhaps only a few years--maybe even less--before she would be considered "barren" and then euthanized. "It's about time something was done about this city. If we all have to die to make sure it goes down, then that's how it is. It's not like we're good for anything else."

"Emma..." Tracey-G1129 chided with a sigh. Emma-G0916 had grown very bitter and numb over the years, and seemed to welcome death at that point. However, her blunt words seemed to frighten Ling-G0323.

"I don't want to die..." Ling-G0323 was on the verge of tears.

Tracey-G1129 shot a brief, scolding glare at Emma-G0916, and then turned back to Ling-G0323 and tried her best to give her a reassuring smile; a tall order, if there ever was one.

"We won't die," she said. "We'll be fine."

Ling-G0323 stared at her for a few seconds, before nodding slightly and wiping her eye with her finger. "Okay..."

Before Tracey-G1129 could say anything else to her, a loud male voice interrupted whatever thought process that was going through her head.

"You women!!" shouted a security guard standing at the double-doorway, holding a rifle in his hands; he was accompanied by another guard as well as a lab technician. "You all're goin' downstairs!! Move yer asses, let's go!!"

He was clearly on-edge. The women had long since known better than to debate even the most trivial demand from the men running the facility, and so they all began to file out of the room. The guard continued to yell orders at them and rush them as they all exited the room.

"And don't y'all get any ideas watchin' that monster wreck the town!" the guard barked. "You try something, you gettin' a shell through your skull!!" He cocked his rifle.

Tracey-G1129 took one last look at the television screen before the technician went and turned it off; before the screen went black, it displayed a gigantic machine rising from the earth and then immediately starting its own assault upon the blond giant.

As she along with the other women left the room and entered into the hallway, she placed her hands on her slightly-bulging belly. According to a technician during a previous routine check-up, she was four months along...

~~~

Samuel held onto Iris' shoulder with as much strength as he could muster, even as the wind threatened to blow him away. All around him were the sounds of speeding jets, explosions, and crashing. He could hardly look behind himself to see what was behind, but he already had a good idea as to what he would see.

For the first time that day, Iris was on the defense.

Just minutes before, Iris had attempted a preemptive strike of her own, tossing a large fireball at the Gungnir. The flame exploded upon contact with its body, but as the smoke cleared, both she and Samuel saw little damage upon the machine's frame. Meanwhile, the jets that had launched from the Gungnir had started firing upon her. The Gungnir's fighter jets were in a class above what the Air Force had used; they were larger, more nimble, and fire off blasts of plasma as opposed to standard missiles and bullets.

That was before getting into the Gungnir itself. From the barrels on its body, it fired off dozens of rounds towards Iris. She covered herself with her arms to block their barrage, but eventually the hot plasma burned through her jacket and started hitting her skin. Eventually, she simply turned around and started to run.

She ran through the city, as the four jets chased and fired after her. Some struck her back, while others hit the various building and other structures. Iris made a right turn on a wide street, though the jets were undeterred and made a very sharp turn to continue their own assault. Iris stretched her arm back and unleashed several bolts of lightning. It nicked the wing of one of the jets, but aside from some slight turbulence it was otherwise unharmed.

"Shit," Iris muttered.

The jets retaliated with more fire, as Iris made a sharp left turn through a partially-demolished city block. However, from her right side came the other set of jets, all of which were charging a sphere of plasma on a barrel beneath each of their noses. Then, they all launched the stream of plasma in her direction. Stopping in place, Iris stretched both of her arms to her side, and the air around her took on the same purplish hue as before. The plasma from both groups of jets hit the surrounding force field, their energies completely neutralized.

"I don't get why you didn't just do that before," Samuel remarked, as he tried to relax and catch his own breath.

"I didn't think they'd come at me with such ferocity," Iris responded as she too panted slightly. "Man, they burned through the sleeves of my jacket, too." She examined both sleeves; indeed, the white fabric was littered with burnt holes throughout its length. "And those blasts actually stung."

"So, what are you going to do?" Samuel asked.

Before Iris could answer, the gigantic war machine known as the Gungnir appeared before them. It charged plasma on its central barrel, before firing off a large stream at Iris' barrier. The blast struck the force field, but the barrier held. However, as the Gungnir kept pouring on the energy, both Samuel and Iris noticed white cracks forming at the site of impact. Cracks that were rapidly expanding.

Iris gasped. "...Okay, that's bullshi-"

Before her expletive could complete, the plasma stream completely breached the barrier, taking both the blond giant and Samuel by shock. The impact of its piercing knocked Iris back several city blocks as her barrier quickly dissipated, and she wounded up falling backwards onto the ground, taking several building down with her as well. Despite the force, Samuel still managed to maintain his grip on her shoulder and held on for dear life, as it was still a long way down for him.

The Gungnir did not waste any time. Unfolding its back wings--revealing boosters underneath--it flew after her and charged another beam of plasma on its central barrel. She quickly got up and fled just as the Gungnir fired, the ray striking the earth right on her heel. Meanwhile, the jets flew around and fired a barrage of plasma bullets and beams. Iris ran between buildings so that most of their fire struck and immediately destroyed them, but some still managed to hit her body. She flung more lightning towards them, most of the jets dodging the blast. She sent another powerful stream of electricity out towards the swarm, this time striking a bull's-eye on one of the Gungnir's jets; the pilot appeared to lose control of the jet, which soon crashed headfirst into the Jethro Building, a general office building made up of various suites. Its powerful explosion caused the structure to immediately collapse.

"That's one down," Iris said, but as she turned around, she found the Gungnir itself bearing down on her.

With its right arm, it swung at her, which she parried with her own arm. However, it immediately rebounded and swatted her with its other arm. She was sent flying onto another collection of buildings, all of which gave away under her might. As the Gungnir pounced on her, prepping another plasma charge, she stretched out her arms, put both of her hands together, and unleashed a massive jolt of lightning at the machine. The bolt struck right in the center, above the central barrel, and the force of her blast pushed it several city blocks away, plowing through multiple buildings in the process.

"God, this is actually a bit more challenging than I thought it'd be," Iris muttered to herself.

"Yeah, I told you that that thing was powerful," Samuel added, once again hanging on for his life.

"...You're still alive?" Iris seemed genuinely surprised to discover that he had survived both of her violent knockdowns. "You're pretty tenacious, like a little roach."

"Ha ha... So, what now? The Gungnir seems to have an edge-up on you. It even broke your force field"

"Yeah, and that's a problem," Iris said as she begun to pick herself up. "That's the first time I've ever had the force field get destroyed. It's going to need time to repair itself." She regained her footing. "Which means that I can't use it until then."

"What!?" Samuel was shocked to hear this. "So how will you block their attacks?!"

Iris sighed. "I can't. Not completely."

"But... What if one of them shoots at me?"

"Then you'll be dead," she nonchalantly answered.

Samuel nervously watched as the Gungnir--having recovered from Iris' attack upon it--proceeded to fire upon her again, this time with various lasers. She guarded herself by crossing her arms in front of her face, but the lasers still did a considerable damage upon her, with more of her clothing getting damaged and burnt, and her skin getting singed with each blast. The jets soon joined in and rained plasma down upon her. Samuel ducked as low as he could to make himself less of a target, but even a few of the bolts struck way too close to comfort.

"Damn, this might be it..." Samuel lamented.

~~~

The air inside of Mayor Adam's bunker was thick with anticipation, as all eyes were intently upon the television. On the screen, they watched as the Gungnir laid on its assault upon the blond monster, or invader, as Mayor Adams had begun to refer to her as.

The news choppers had caught practically all of her conversation with her companion Samuel, and it revealed a number of things, ground-breaking information. Information so ground-breaking that Mayor Adams was almost disappointed that it came from the mouth of a woman. This blond woman had arrived from a completely different Universe, one that--from the looks of things--had men and women in equal standing; the thought of such a world disgusted him, especially after Mascopolis' efforts to spread its own masculinist influence on a global scale. It did explain why she was an exact doppelgänger of the blond woman that his aide had shown him earlier; he would not have been surprised if there were more copies of her, as well as countless doubles of himself, across the vastness of the Multiverse, as she called it.

Furthermore, the people of her Universe could purchase powers to use in the same manner that she had. He wished that he could travel to her world and acquired the knowledge used in manufacturing those powers; he would distribute them among his men, as well as use them himself. Not only would they make controlling--or disposing of--their women easier, but they would also be able to very easily rule the entire world. Perhaps even the Multiverse if they so desired.

Though the one thing he perhaps took a bit of solace in about her being was that her attack on Mascopolis was nothing personal; it was just another toy box to her, just one of many that she had "played" in across Universes. Mascopolis just happened to be the card that she drew for this excursion.

However, Mayor Adams mind was going off on a tangent. At present, the Gungnir and its jets were pouring pounds of hot plasma upon the blond invader, and it seemed that she could do nothing but defend against it or run. He was very delighted when the Gungnir broke through her force field; in fact, the entire room cheered. She mentioned that it would take a while for her barrier to repair itself, so he knew--and he knew that General Kilmark inside of the Gungnir's mainframe felt the same--that now was the time to go for the decisive blow.

"Yeah, take that bitch down," Mayor Adams said as he kept watch.

"Wow, this is like a total 180 from how she was before," spoke the soldier behind him. "She’s struggling to even get a shot in."

"She did shoot down one of the jets, though," stated another.

"A noble sacrifice necessary for ridding our city of that monster," Mayor Adams said.

The giant, seemingly tiring of the barrage upon her, finally took off running, all while unleashing her powers upon the Gungnir and trailing jets. A spear of ice managed to pierce into the cockpit of one of the aircraft, netting her her second kill as the plane spun out midair and then crashed onto the ground with an explosion. Considering where that ice shard had struck, it was likely that the pilot was dead or at least mortally wounded before the craft hit the ground.

She created a large slab of ice behind her, perhaps in an effort to block the fire from the Gungnir chasing her. However, it simply broke through the ice, its metal frame shattering it with ease. The Gungnir quickly ascended higher into the air and unleashed a blast from its central barrel upon the city towards the giant. The stream marked a trail along the earth as it rushed towards her; unfortunately, she leapt out of the way, and as the beam died off, massive explosions along the beam's trail erupted from the ground below. Many buildings and roads crumbled from the blast; they could even feel the tremors resulting from the impact.

"That thing's doing more damage to the city than to her," an aide besides Mayor Adams remarked.

"I never expected the city to come out of this completely unscathed, especially not after what that monster has done to it already," Mayor Adams said, as the giant launched large fireballs up in the air towards the looming Gungnir. "...But it'll be a small price to pay compared to having that monster have her way with the city... With the world, even!"

"True..."

Even so, Mayor Adams still hated how much destruction was being brought upon the city. It would take years and cost hundreds of billions to fully recover from that day's events. The survivors could find themselves displaced or without means to take care of themselves, meaning more funds devoted to feeding and sheltering them. The U.S. Government could step in and help foot the bill, but it would still cost a fortune.

But like he told the aide, the hefty price would be worth it to rout that giant monster once and for all.

His attention went back to the television, where the Gungnir was still engaged in combat.

~~~

Iris' five fireballs each struck the body of the Gungnir in the air above with powerful explosions. Each one caused the war machine to stagger, and the blasts managed to destroy two of the minor barrels, which broke off and fell onto the city with metallic clangs. Still hang in the air, the Gungnir moved its arms outward, aiming the guns attached to their tips at the blond giant. Iris turned and bolted right before they fired upon her, leaving the plasma bullets to strike the ruins in her wake.

Samuel himself was in a fight of his own, to maintain his grip on the increasingly-frantic blond giant's shoulder, the jacket which covered it littered with charred holes.

He noticed the Gungnir's assault jets flying in from his left. "Hey, the jets are coming!" he warned.

"I see them, Sam," Iris said as she turned her body and sprayed a stream of fire in their direction.

The jets all evaded the flame by splitting in different directions, though Iris adjusted her aim to target one of them, trailing it with repeated blasts of fire until one of them finally hit its mark, the resulting explosion upon impact destroying its right wing. The pilot inside ejected from the cockpit as the jet went down in a trail of smoke and flame, until it crashed into the ground. The pilot floating down on his parachute was annihilated by another blast of fire.

Running into another group of untouched buildings, Iris stomped through and on the city block, either crushing smaller enclosures beneath her heels or pushing taller ones aside with her legs and torso. The Gungnir itself kept firing at her, though its bullets did a better job at finishing Iris' destruction of the surrounding buildings than hitting her. Iris launched a large icicle towards the flying machine; it sharp tip managed to pierce the upper cockpit of the device, which made the Gungnir recoil from the impact and lag behind.

"Heh, gotcha," Iris said with a short laugh.

The five remaining fighter jets, however, were undeterred and began to shot plasma beams down towards her. She quickly dodged the rays, before tearing off the roof of a nearby office tower and lobbing it at them. The jets easily maneuvered around the projectile, though Iris caught two more of them off guard by unleashing a large blast of ice crystals at them. The ice shards pummeled and eventually broke into their cockpits and tore through their frames, resulting in significant damage to both; one of the pilots ejected while the other--perhaps too wounded to do anything--went down with his jet.

"You got over half of them down now," Samuel remarked. "If you hurry up and take out the rest of them, you can focus on the Gungnir itself without any distractions."

"Yeah, I know that, Sam," Iris responded to his analysis.

As if on cue, the Gungnir fired off a bevy of plasma rounds at Iris. They struck the side of her torso, burning holes in her jacket and even into her pink tank top. She let out a slight gasp of agony as she staggered a bit. The machine then charged full speed towards her and went for a melee attack with a swing of its arm. It struck her in the upper chest and knocked her backwards, though she was able to keep her footing. However, the Gungnir went at her again and attempted another strike as she was recovering from the last one.

"Watch out!!" Samuel warned.

"I see it, Sam," Iris responded, clearly frustrated.

She parried its second attack, and then its third after it turned and tried to hit her with its other arm. Iris lifted her leg up and delivered a heavy kick upon its frame, pushing it back through several buildings that tore from its might. She threw several powerful fireballs and lightning bolts at the Gungnir, each ethereal projectile exploding with a magnificent display that also dealt more damage to the surroundings and obscured the machine itself behind a cloud of smoke.

As she prepared another fireball, the three remaining jets dove in from the sky and each fired a beam towards her.

"Get the fuck away from me!" Iris barked as she sidestepped their plasma rays, causing them to burn streaks into the concrete as they flew.

Iris threw the flame that she was holding in their direction, but they split up in three days and rebounded and went for her again. She lifted both of her arms up--causing Samuel to almost roll off towards her neck--and charged a large rotating fireball within her hands, the flame quickly growing in size. Once the planes came within a close distance of her, she thrust her arms forward, and from the fireball a massive vortex of flames was sent forth. It sped at the jets at a speed that they did not anticipate, and two of them were caught within the tunnel and sent hurling backwards to the distance, where the flame impacted the earth with an explosion.

"Whoa!!" Samuel said as he marveled at the crimson spiral. "Why didn't you do that sooner?!"

"It's something my boyfriend does," Iris answered as the flame petered out. "I didn't think I'd be able to pull it off so well." She smiled, as if proud of herself.

"Maybe you can do that on the Gungnir?" Samuel suggested.

"...I don't know. That thing is-" She turned her attention towards where the smoke that had been concealing the gigantic war machine had been. It had since faded away, but she looked just in time to see it charging another round on its central barrel. "Shit!"

She leapt out of the way of its blast right in the nick of time, the intense plasma ray cutting it very close and searing a tear in her jacket. Still firing the beam, the Gungnir then began to turn in her direction, and she took off running as the beam kept trailing her, its might burning through each building it passed through. Eventually, the plasma gave away, and the Gungnir slowly floated after her.

"The jet!" Samuel announced, as the last jet came rushing towards her from the sky ahead.

It fire off artillery at her, but rather than block it, Iris kept running in its direction, her legs picking up speed.

"What are you doing?!" Samuel asked.

She did not answer. Instead, once the jet was within twenty feet of her, she bent her knees and jumped into the air towards the jet. As it drew near, she stretched her right arm out towards it just as it flew overhead.

She caught the plane in her right hand.

Landing back on the ground with a huge thus that sent shockwaves around her, she tore the jet in half and poured the pilot inside onto her left hand, afterwards dropping the torn aircraft onto the ground below. She looked behind her at the slowly-approaching Gungnir, perhaps trying to regenerate the energy it spent with its last attack.

"I don't have time to toy with you," she told the shivering pilot in her hand, his very being minuscule compared to her massive palm. She took the tiny man in between her right index finger and thumb, and pinched them together, crushing the hapless man into a red paste.

With all of the jets routed, Iris could freely focus on the main machine, the behemoth of a weapon that stalked after her. Even with its busted barrels and shattered upper visor, it still appeared to have much more fight inside of it. The dozens of men operating the machine inside of it seemed determined to see this fight out to the end.

"Alright, Mr. Gungnir," Iris said to the machine as she walked towards it. "It's just you and me now. No more distractions. I'm going to turn you into a bunch of scrap metal."

As if in response to her words, the Gungnir instantly picked up speed with the rockets on its unfolded wings and charged at her. Iris herself fired a powerful stream of lightning at the machine, which struck inside of the broken cockpit on its "head" and completely blasted it from the body. However, despite the loss, the Gungnir still kept up its momentum and rammed fullspeed into Iris, sending her flying several city blocks backwards and knocking her down onto the earth once more. Samuel had braced himself for impact right before it happened, so he once again managed to avoid being thrown off from her, though he wondered how long his luck--and stamina--would last.

The Gungnir flew higher into the air and loomed high above Iris, and went to building up plasma energy upon its central cannon once again. Then, it unleashed it downward, right towards the fallen giant. Iris quickly rolled out of the way and picked herself up right before impact. The beam struck the road, causing a massive explosion that created a deep, wide crater in the earth, with the rubble of surrounding structures pouring into the hole.

Still hanging high above, the machine charged another beam and fired it at the running giant. It missed again, this time completely destroying the remains of the city block that it had struck.

Iris skidded to a stop and turned around. She stretched her arms above and went to charging her flame again, the fire spiraling into a rotating sphere with ferocity. Then, she unleashed it upward, the massive vortex of fire flying right in the direction of the Gungnir as it too charged a third round. Iris' flame moved at high speeds, so fast that the Gungnir appeared to underestimate its quickness and attempted an evasive maneuver.

Iris' flame managed to strike its right arm, completely blasting it away from the main body. The metallic limb and its debris from its joint went flying backwards and landed onto the ground some distance away, its fall taking down more buildings with it. The strike caused an upward jerk as soon as it fired its plasma beam, sending the powerful blast up into the atmosphere.

Smoke billowing from the point of impact, the Gungnir floated back onto the ground, as Iris ran towards it, her footsteps rocking the earth around her with each footfall. Using its remaining limb, the Gungnir fired rounds from its gun, but the approaching giantess shrugged off each bullet as she drew closer. The machine then used the arm in an attempt to strike her, but she caught the limb in one arm and placed her other upon its side. Then, with all of her might, she picked up the machine and slammed it onto the ground with a heavy thud that echoed across the city and broke into the road.

"Whoa..." Samuel marveled at this display of strength from Iris.

As the Gungnir struggled as it was embedded in the cracked pavement, Iris held her arms high above again, but instead of creating flames, this time a large, cone-shaped iceberg formed above her hands. Then, she thrust the sharp end of the iceberg into the central windshield. The first blow did nothing but create large cracks upon its reflective glass, but the second strike broke through. Leaving the iceberg in place, she lifted her sandaled foot and then stomped down onto the flat top of the ice, lifted her foot again, and then delivered a second stomp, each blow pressing the ice deeper inside of the cockpit.

She held out her arms towards the protruding ice, and then launched a continuous, intense stream of lightning from both of her hands. The lightning was channeled though the iceberg and infiltrated the inside of the Gungnir via the hole. Iris kept it up, constantly pumping volt after dangerous volt into the machine, so much so that the ice eventually shattered from the force. Still, Iris kept up, even as Samuel swore that he heard loud screams emanating from within its frame.

After a minute had passed, Iris' lightning assault stalled to a standstill, and soon after the Gungnir started to vibrate violently. Cracks formed throughout its body, smoke seeping out from within, and electricity began to ripple all over its body. Taking several steps backwards, Iris and Samuel watched as the crackling became more magnificent, as did the ferocity of the machine's shaking, until the inevitable happened.

The Gungnir exploded.

~~~

"NOOOO!!!" Mayor Adams screamed at the top of his lungs.

The entire bunker was filled with shock and fear as they had witnessed the blond invader do what was thought impossible: destroy their prized Gungnir. Even when it seemed like they had her cornered, she somehow managed to turn things around and not only wipe out the accompanying jets, but prevail against the Gungnir as well.

"NO, NO NO NO NO!!!" Mayor Adams flew into a rage, flipping over the table and throwing chairs, pots, and anything else light enough to pick up. "GOD-DAMMIT!!!"

The soldiers rushed to restrain him, but he fought off their attempts. "Calm down, Mayor!" one of them shouted.

"DON'T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN!!" he yelled back. "How can I remain calm when that bitch has destroyed everything!?"

Mayor Adams picked up a glass vase and threw it towards the flat television. It shattered its screen, leaving behind a large black spot at the point of impact with black cracks forming away from it. The rest of the screen constantly shifted from the view of the city above, and white static.

"Ugh!" Mayor Adams broke away from the soldiers' grasp and fell to his knees. Suddenly, while still furious, he was hit with a feeling of despair. "I can't believe this... Everything that we have worked for, it's gone... It's all gone."

"Mayor..." A younger aide called, apprehension in his tone. He anxiously glanced at his peers, who all wore the same uncertain, forlorn looks upon their faces. Even the normally-brave soldiers were trepidatious.

"What do we do now?" Another aide asked.

"There's nothing we can do," Mayor Adams solemnly answered.

The men in the room all turned their attention on Mayor Adams again.

"It's over... Mascopolis is finished."

~~~

It was quite a spectacular display. The explosion was extremely loud and violent; Samuel had to cover his ears to protect them from the soundwave, which shattered windows, or what were left of the windows in the immediate area. Metallic debris was sent flying everywhere, as were dozens of lifeless and near-lifeless bodies and limbs of the men who had been operating the machine inside. They all rained down on the surroundings and upon Iris' legs and feet, and at the ground zero, nothing remained but black smoke rising from the sparking husk of what had once been considered the most fearsome war machine in the world.

Iris smiled in triumph. "I win."

Samuel, however, was stunned almost beyond words. "I can't believe it! You did it! You actually beat the Gungnir!"

"You doubted me, Sam?" Iris asked.

"To be honest, there was a period where I thought you were going to bite it. ...Please don't eat me."

Iris chuckled. "Don't worry. Besides, if things had gotten way too hairy, I would have cut my losses and bolted."

"Wow, really? You would have just run away?"

Iris nodded. "I do value my life. I have too much to live for to die far away from home like that."

"I see..."

"So... There are no more machines? Is that all?" Iris asked.

"Yeah, I believe so," Samuel answered. "I did read that they were trying to secure funding to build a second Gungnir, but it hadn't happened yet. ...And I guess it never will."

"Too bad." Iris stepped closer to the remains of the Gungnir, debris and human remains crunching beneath her sandals. She pulled out her smartphone and took a couple of photos of the wreckage, which contained more bodies, all charred and bloodied. "Well, since there's nothing left here to challenge me, I guess it's time for the grand finale."

"'Grand finale'?" Samuel repeated.

Iris returned her cell phone into her jacket pocket. "You're gonna love this, Sam! ...Brace yourself."

"Wha-"

Before Samuel could comprehend anything else, there was a bright light from Iris' body, and he completely whited out.



Samuel could hear the wind blowing all around him as he regained consciousness. His eyes slowly opened, and saw the white of Iris' jacketed shoulder. ...However, it seemed to stretch out further than it did before, extremely further, like it covered the distance of several city blocks. Above him was the vast blue sky, which appeared to have a bit of a deeper azure shade than before; he noticed that he could not see a single cloud around him. He turned to his right, and saw Iris' head, which appeared to have grown at an alarming rate. He could not even take it all in, and even beginning to do so overwhelming his senses.

He also felt something around his head, and when he brought up his hand to feel it, he found that they were protective headphones, with a small microphone attached.

"Wha... Where'd this come from?" Samuel asked.

"I gave it to you," Iris answered, her extremely loud voice booming all over. "Now, you're so small that I couldn't hear you at all, so that's what the mic is for, and the headphones is to protect your ears from my voice."

"Whoa... How big are you now?"

"About five miles," she answered.

"Shit..." The knowledge of being so high up from the earth made him lightheaded. ...Though it could have also been due to how thin the air was.

"Take out your smartphone," Iris ordered, to which Samuel complied.

"Done," Samuel said. He then noticed that on the screen, there was an additional icon upon his home screen that was not there before. It resembled a caricature of Iris' head, and underneath had the text "Live Feed". He clicked on it, and the screen instantly started displaying Iris standing seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

Turning the phone sideways to orient the screen properly, and upon closer inspection of the ground at her feet revealed the city of Mascopolis, which resembled a model city more than it did an actual, real-life metropolis. A few clouds could be seen around her, while smoke and fire rose in certain spots in the city that had been destroyed by the combined might of Iris and the Gungnir. The sun behind her was casting her shadow over a significant portion of the city, and Samuel could just barely see all the way to the outskirts, as well as the surrounding badlands; these more than anything drove home how insignificant the city--and its people, himself included--was to her.

Samuel was astonished. "Your powers let you do all of this? ...Wait, why didn't you just grow like this when you were fighting the Gungnir?"

"I could have but they didn't really give me room to pull it off," Iris answered.

Samuel did not completely buy her answer, but he decided to not debate it. "So, what is your grand finale?"

Iris giggled. "Do you even need to ask? Just hang tight and watch the screen."

Samuel did as he told, just as Iris lifted her foot high over a certain part of the tiny city and then, with as much might, brought it down, the ped hitting with an intense roar. The foot crushed whole blocks underneath its might, which all sunk into the earth and left behind a sandal-shaped footprint filled with ruin and rubble.

With the prelude over, she moved on to the main event: stomping and trampling upon Mascopolis. Entire buildings buckled and broke beneath her feet, being crushed flat into the earth, as the sheer might from the force of her stomps creating shockwaves that flattened the surrounding areas. Iris laughed as she repeatedly trod upon the city, devastating not only areas that had already been ruined, but moving around to flatten parts of the city that had been relatively untouched by her earlier assaults. Massive, dust-filled footprints were being left all over the city, and Iris slid her foot from one side to the other to sweep a path of destruction with her sandal, taking buildings and such off their foundations and either moving or shattering them across the city.

She began launching fireballs down upon the city as well, though these also were sent to the further parts of Mascopolis, which until then had been spared from the combat. The fireballs exploded upon impact, bringing the devastation that the city had experienced to the outskirts as well.

The news choppers that had until then filmed the entirely of Iris' assault upon the city were caught in one such fire blast, and were completely destroyed in the flames, their metal melting in the intense heat.

"I think I still see some little guys running around," she said, right before she stomped down and twisted her foot from side-to-side. "Not anymore!"

She laughed manically as she kept trampling the city, doing her absolute best to bulldoze and burn every corner of the defeated metropolis. More and more of the once-proud city was replaced with footsteps as her sandaled feet demolished everything they fell upon, or they were burnt to ash by her flames.

~~~

The bunker was shaking extremely violently, while the lights flickered continuously. The live feed on the television had since been interrupted even with the damage that had been previously done to the screen. Wood and debris continuously rained down from the ceiling as Mayor Adam's men frantically tried to get the Mayor to move from his spot on the floor.

"Mayor, we need to get out of here!" one of the aides tugging on his jacket warned.

"There's nowhere to go..." he responded. Before the feed had been cut off, they were able to see the blond invader's size multiply at an alarming rate, so much so that all the news choppers could really see were her lower legs once she had finished growing. And now, she was treating his city as if it was a literal doormat, or a child's toy city.

"Mayor, we can't stay here!!" the aide retorted. "We'll be buried alive if we don't escape!!"

"He's right!" one of the soldiers added. "At least if we get out, there's a chance of our survival!"

"Mayor, please!" said the aide. "The city needs you... WE need you!!"

Mayor Adams did not want to move from his spot, for he knew that there'd be no point. The only thing that awaited him above ground was devastation as far as the eye could see. The city that had elected him--three times, even, the third unopposed--the city that he worked to build to even greater heights, the city that the rest of the world strived to be like, it was gone. Completely gone. As was his reason for living; without Mascopolis, he had nothing- he was nothing.

...No, that was not true. Mascopolis may be gone, but as long as he was alive, the spirit of the city would live on. But where would he go? Would the blond invader stop at Mascopolis? Would she take her bloodlust across the country? After they had failed to slay her with the Gungnir, no other city had any way of stopping her. Especially now that she stood higher than some of the clouds, and who was to say that she could not grow even bigger? There was no weapon on Earth that could take her down, and nothing could stop her from destroying the world if she wanted to.

Perhaps his men were right in that he could not remain where they were. Even without a city, he was not ready to die yet. He had to escape, at least grab onto the minute chance of survival.

Mayor Adams slowly stood to his feet, and let out a sigh. "Let's get out of here. Fast."

The aides and soldiers all shared delighted looks upon their faces, and the entire group rushed out of the room and entered into the hallway, which was almost pitch black from the now-inactive lights.

"We need to hurry," Mayor Adams said. "The sooner we get out, the-"

However, he was interrupted by a loud roaring sound. He and his companions all turned to their left, and were horrified to see the ceiling collapsing. Wood, steel, debris, and other material rained down rapidly, and the downfall fastly approached their position. They all screamed and bolted in the opposite direction, but to no avail; the collapse outsped them, rendering them unable to escape its dark grasp in time.

Mayor Adams and his men were buried alive underneath five stories worth of rubble...

~~~

Samuel watched as Iris gleefully kept trampling the city flat, her feet kicking up massive clouds of dust that also mixed with the smoke of the flames that billowed from the various fires throughout the city. In fact, by now, Mascopolis was being covered by a haze of both smoke and dust, and the haze would only grow thicker as the destruction continued.

Several city blocks disappeared beneath her sandal, replaced by a foot-shaped depression in the ground.

Another neighborhood was completely set upon by flames, the powerful blaze consuming everything in its path.

Bridges, overpasses, and full highways were totally obliterated by both explosions and brute force.

With each footstep, a quake rippled from the epicenter and shook the foundations of everything, some buildings unable to withstand the tremors and collapsing on their own.

The Town Hall soon found itself below Iris, and she lifted her foot high in the air and brought it down. "Don't think I forgot about you," she said right before her foot hit the ground and pressed the complex and its surrounding land deep into the earth.

With just another step, she had reached the nearby runway from where the Gungnir had risen from. Its hatch was still open, but it too was much smaller than Iris' foot. The runway and the facility underneath all were destroyed as she jumped upon it with both feet, and afterwards she moved on while stomping on everything that she could.

The city was already completely torn as is, but Iris kept going, whether it was by her feet or by her flames, she kept up her destructive ways, her laughs filling the air. Cheerful laughs that sounded as if she was having fun, that she was taking great delight and joy in flattening a city that--despite its ideals--housed over four million people. Four million people, who all had their homes and livelihoods destroyed by a young woman who was only on a fun trip.

"Not so great now, are you, Mascopolis?!" she taunted as she blasted a crater into the land with her fireball, the explosion searing everything within off of the face of the earth. "To think, this all happened at the hands of a woman! So ironic!" She blasted more fire at the city below.

"Don't you think that's enough?" Samuel said, his mind a roller-coaster of emotions, not helped by the dizziness he was feeling from the thinner air from being do high up.

"Mm? Sam, what do you mean?" Iris asked as her foot easily crushed one of the few standing structures flat. "You're not trying to stop me, are you?"

"No- Well, I mean-"

Iris chuckled. "Well, even if you aren't, I'm pretty much done here anyway. Take a look."

Samuel looked closely at the city on his screen, though there was not much of a city left. What was left was nothing more than dozens of deep footprints with flames mixed in between them, and walls of fire covering the outskirts. The layer smoke and dust that was constantly building up in the air was working to obscure Samuel's view of the city, but there was no denying the amount of devastation that had been wreaked upon this once great city.

There was no denying it: Mascopolis was completely and utterly destroyed.

"Maybe now they'll think twice about treating women like slaves," Iris said. "...Not that I care anyway, but still. It'll be a big lesson to them."

"Most of them are dead," Samuel commented.

"The survivors, then."

"Also, you likely killed a bunch of women, too," Samuel added.

"Whatever." Iris pulled out her smartphone again, and took a selfie of herself from above. On Samuel's phone, she smiled proudly, as all around her, the ruins of Mascopolis painted a far more gruesome backdrop.

~~~

Samuel almost felt relieved to have solid ground back under his feet, but the sensation was spoilt by his surroundings. All around him was ruin, complete and utter devastation. The blue sky was completely blocked out by the layer of smoke and dust, some of which even floated freely below and made it into his lungs. He checked his smartphone; the "live feed" icon that Iris had given it was gone, as were the signal bars at the top of his screen, signifying a total loss of network connectivity.

Once proud and tall buildings lay wasted in the distance, while his immediate surroundings were marred by the burning manors of what was once an affluent neighborhood. The road--littered with busted and broken cars and vans--was torn beyond the point of which any vehicle could make use of, most of the streetlights had been knocked off their bases and were lying on the pavement, and various trees, bushes, and other greenery were also on fire.

There was no immediate sign of life that he could see.

"So, what do you think?" Iris asked, having since restored herself back to her normal height of approximately 5-foot-6; her skin had also been cleansed of its earlier burns and blemishes, and her clothing had been completely repaired. "About your city, I mean."

"I... don't know what to think," Samuel responded as he returned his phone into his pocket. "You said you'd destroy it, and you really delivered, but... I don't know. Everything I knew- everything I owned, and it's all thanks to you."

Iris smiled. "Don't be like that. Material goods can be replaced, and you can always pick up and restart your life somewhere else."

"Easy for you to say. You're a billionaire. I worked a crappy helpdesk job earning just enough to get by."

"Still, as long as you're alive, you can start over."

"Err..." Samuel found it hard to dispute this, as much as he hated having to start his life from square one in another city. Though due to Mascopolis' worldwide influence, no matter where he went, they would be feeling the effects of that day's events for years to come.

"Now, come here," Iris said as she once again retrieved her smartphone from her jacket and opened her camera app with her thumb. "Let's get a picture together."

With one arm around Samuel's waist, she held her phone out in front of both herself and Samuel, and then pressed a round white circle on the screen with her thumb, the clicking sound confirming the photograph being saved. She looked at the screen, and smiled, before turning the camera towards Samuel and showing him the photo. Iris wore a happy grin on her unblemished, bright face, while Samuel's weak smile did nothing to hide his solemness.

"Every pic I took today is going right on Facebook," Iris declared as she returned the phone into her pocket and broke away from Samuel. "I have a whole album of my cross-Universal exploits."

"Even that pic just now? What will your boyfriend say?"

Iris waved her hand dismissively. "Ah, he won't care. Besides, you're no threat to him at all."

"Okay..." Samuel felt insulted by her remark.

Suddenly, a male voice called out to them, taking them both by surprise. "Hey, hey!!"

They turned towards the source of the voice, and saw an older man in a suit rushing out towards the two of them from the collapsed ruins of a nearby manor. This handsome, sharply-dressed black-haired man could not have been any younger than forty, and possessed a cleanly-trimmed mustache and beard on his face. Behind him were two younger men, both donning black tuxedos running behind him, one blond-haired while the other possessing sandy brown hair. Considering the older male's appearance and the neighborhood, perhaps these two were his butlers.

"You!!" He said as he reached the duo, while Iris braced herself for what was perhaps an attempt on her life.

"What do you want?" Iris asked, hostility in her voice.

"Please, don't get the wrong idea," the man said as the two younger gentlemen also caught up. "I'm not going to attack you or anything."

"Sir, that woman is dangerous!" the brown-haired butler spoke.

"Not now," he chided, before turning his attention back to Iris. "My name is Clark Henderson. I sit on the board of directors of Heichman Bank. Err, I used to, before you tore it up."

"Okay...?" Iris was clearly already annoyed by Mr. Henderson.

"Anyway, I must say, I'm impressed at how you demolished this city, and you even took down that dreaded Gungnir. That thing was a waste of money from the outset."

"I didn't destroy Mascopolis to impress you," Iris said as she folded her arms.

"No, of course not. But anyway, as for why I'm here, I have a proposal."

"A proposal?"

Mr. Henderson nodded with a smile. "Yes. With Mascopolis gone, the survivors will need a new place to call home. But due to our city's reputation, we have found ourselves with few allies we can depend on. Our influence may have been worldwide, but that was only because we were in the position to call the shots, mainly due to the threat of the Gungnir. We say 'jump', and they say 'how high?', but now, they can go back to the way things were."

"Get to the point," Iris said.

"I want to create a new city where the survivors can live, but we will need help," Mr. Henderson continued. And since the other cities will be unwilling to pitch in or help a bunch of outcasts, they will need to be... coerced. That's where you come in. I want you to be my enforcer."

Iris raised an eyebrow. "Your enforcer?"

"I'll pay you handsomely, of course. All you have to do is go in, grow giant, and threaten them with extinction if they don't pony up the cash."

"You're rich, right? Why don't you just pay for your city yourself?" Iris asked.

"Even my money can only stretch so far," he said. "Besides, I need to keep up my own way of living if I am to properly run my city."

"I see..." Iris said, before unfurling her arms and taking a step closer to the older man. "You see me as a tool to fulfill your selfish ambitions."

Mr. Henderson took a step backwards. "N-no!"

"Yes you do. This isn't about you wanting to make a city for the survivors. That's just a cover so you can amass a fortune by using me as your own superweapon."

Mr. Henderson shivered and took another step back. "No, you're all wrong, young lady! Listen, how about I do this: I'll allow the women complete freedom in my city. They can do and live freely just as we men could. I'm sure that would do your heart good, seeing your fellow womenfolk able to choose how they live their own lives. What do you say?"

Iris lowered her head briefly and let out a short, rather sinister laugh. Then, after bringing her head back up, she shot a glare at Mr. Henderson.

"Go fuck yourself," she coldly responded.

Iris shot a bolt of white lightning from her index finger at Mr. Henderson. Before he could react, the ray struck him, and as his body took on a similar white glow, he began to rapidly diminish in stature. Samuel instantly got déjà vu vibes witnessing this, his mind bringing back the very first time he had seen her use her powers in the park earlier that day. Just like the athletic man who struck her, Mr. Henderson found himself being reduced to the size of a lowly insect.

"Mr. Henderson!" The blond-haired butler called out in worry.

"Stop it! Turn him back, now!!" The brown-haired one pleaded to Iris.

Iris simply turned her dark gaze upon the two of them. "You two can join him."

Once her shrinking of Mr. Henderson was completed--leaving him at only two inches high--she turned the shrinking ray upon the two butlers, using both of her hands to shrink the two of them at the same time before they could flee from her. They too lost their size, being shrunken down to a mere two inches tall just like Mr. Henderson.

They all looked up at her and yelped as her shadow--what little of it could be discerned due to the lack of atmospheric light--fell upon them. Then, they took off running in the opposite direction, screaming in terror all the while.

"By the way, Clark," Iris said as she slowly stalked after the trio of scrambling men. "I'm already rich, so your money meant nothing to me. Now, eat dirt."

She stepped down on Mr. Henderson, his tiny form crunching instantly beneath her sandal. Her pink-polished toes flexed as they worked to twist and grind the man into a bloody pulp on the pavement. Satisfied with his death, she then lifted the same foot--revealing the flattened, shredded remains of the proudly-rich and overly-ambitious man--and brought it down upon both of the butlers, their yelling and pleading extinguished as they were both crushed like bugs. Her foot did the same to them, twisting to further pulverize the two young men against the pavement.

"Did you really have to..." Samuel started to speak, but simply shook his head in defeat and gave up the thought. "Nevermind."

She slid her foot back, her sandal scrapping against the pavement as it smeared their blood and bits of flesh and cloth along with it. Both men had been melded into a singular, flattened, grotesque mass, so much so that one could forget that they were once living, human beings.

"Well, that's the end of them," Iris said in a satisfied tone as she turned back towards Samuel. "Who did he think he was, trying to use me like that? Can you believe that?"

Samuel shook his head, but then something else caught his eye. Off in the distance, from where Mr. Henderson and his men had come from, was another group of people cautiously approaching, this one far more ragged. However, from their long hair and more curly figures despite their loose clothing, it was easy to tell that this group was all women.

As the group drew near, once woman in particular caught Samuel's attention. A blond-haired, blue-eyed young woman with a very familiar face. A face that looked very similar to Iris' own. ...In fact, upon closer inspection, it was her face, an exact replica. Samuel had to wipe his eyes to be sure that he was not seeing double, but sure enough, she was indeed Iris' twin. The double's face was far more pale and ragged and had some blemishes and bruises upon it, but the resemblance was unmistakable.

Iris herself had noticed as well. "Well, well... What do we have here?" She said inquisitively as the group had reached them, Iris' double standing ahead of the pack.

"It's you!" Samuel said, still stunned. "An exact copy of you!"

"I'm not surprised," Iris said. "You have to expect stuff like this when dealing with the Multiverse."

"Err... There won't be a paradox with the two of you in the same spot, will there?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Iris dismissed, before focusing upon her twin. "Anyway, what can I do for you, err... Name?"

"Mr. Henderson called me Rose," the double said.

"Huh, nice theme we have going," Iris mused. "Anyway, what do you want?"

"We saw what you did," Rose said. "To both the city and to Mr. Henderson just now. And on behalf of all of us here, I have to say, thank you."

"You're welcome, but I didn't do this for you all," Iris said. "I did this to have fun. Nothing more. nothing less."

"Still, the fact that you did it at all is all that matters," Rose said. "That young man there probably told you what kind of city Mascopolis was, and for years, we had to sit by and let the men do whatever they wanted with us. But now, we're free."

"Not quite," spoke up another woman, a caramel-skinned woman with curly black hair. "You see, we may be free, but there are still many women locked away in facilities and in other places across the city. We need to free them as well."

Rose nodded. "That's right. We can't do anything on our own; we don't have the power or knowledge. But with your amazing powers, you'll be able to free them easily. So, I'm asking you? Will you please help us save our fellow women?"

By that point, Iris was already wearing an annoyed expression on her face. "What is this: 'Beg Iris for Help Hour'? I refuse."

The women's own expressions became a mix of disappointment and anguish.

"But you're also a woman!" Rose said. "You're me! How can you be so heartless to our plight?!"

"Listen, Rose," Iris said. "I couldn't give two shits about your 'plight'. Like I said, I only came here to have fun wrecking the place, and that's it. I couldn't care less about the politics that goes on here, and I especially hate you all trying to use me for your own agendas."

"But..." Rose hung her head in sadness.

"Iris," Samuel called. "Are you really that heartless? I know you don't care about anyone outside of your Universe, but these women are begging you for help. There has to be something you can do to help them out."

"Sam, I already said-"

"Imagine if it was your world," he continued. "Imagine if some big hairy giant came in and stomped your town with his big hairy feet. Wouldn't you want someone to help you and your family and friends once it was all over?"

"You're forgetting that in this case, I am that giant," Iris remarked. "It wouldn't make sense for me to help the people that I just terrorized."

"Maybe if you had completely shut yourself away from them. But now they're here, right in front of you, asking you for a little help to make their lives easier." At that point, part of Samuel feared that she would turn her powers upon him and the women, and then slaughter them all as well.

"And what are you expecting me to do, Sam?" Iris said. "Go in, all guns blazing into some secret facility and kill every single man inside? ...Actually, that does sound fun, but I'm not doing it. At least, if I do, it'll be on my terms."

"Miss Iris," Rose said. "If there's anything you can do for us, please find it in your heart to do so."

"Iris," Samuel said. "She's you. Can you really deny yourself of help?"

"Ugh!" She sighed in exasperation, before folding her arms and beginning to mull something over in her head; Samuel could see the gears turning, so to speak. "...Fine."

The women all became excited. "So you'll come with us!" Rose said.

"No, but here's what I'll do," Iris said. "How many of you are there?" She started counting each of the women with her finger. "...Six, seven, eight. Am I right?"

"Yes," Rose confirmed.

"Alright."

Iris stretched out her hand and held its palm up. Then, white orbs started to form on her hand, coming into existence one-by-one until their numbers totaled eight. They all danced in her palm, before they were sent flying towards the group of women. Each orb hit a different woman, and their bodies glowed with a white tint as the orb was absorbed inside. Once the last orb had found its mark, Iris' arm receded.

"Okay, I've given you all powers," Iris said.

The women shared surprised gasps, as did Samuel.

"You can do that!?" he exclaimed.

"Yep," Iris replied. "It's part of the deluxe set I mentioned earlier. You all have most of the same powers as me. You can shoot fire, ice, lightning, you can create forcefields, you can shrink and unshrink matter, and you can grow yourselves into giants, though only up to like a hundred feet. In fact, since these are shared powers, all of your abilities are much weaker than what I'm capable of. But it should be more than enough to do what you need to do."

"Oh, Miss Iris!" Rose said, tears of happiness welling up in her eyes. "Thank you!!"

"Don't thank me just yet," Iris said. "You still need to rescue your friends, right? You all are the only ones who can do that; you cannot share your powers with anyone else, so if you fuck up and get yourselves killed, then that'll be it. Oh, and you can't leave this Universe, either. Whatever happens, you're all sticking things out here for better or for worse."

Some of the women were already testing out their powers, sending flame, ice, and lightning flying into the air or onto the ground, or making forcefields around themselves.

"You know, I'm surprised that super speed and flight are not part of that package," Samuel quipped.

"They're still working out the bugs on those," Iris responded as she turned away from the group of women. "Once they're out, I'll get a free shipment." She smiled.

"Oh, and Iris?" Samuel called. "Thank you."

"For what, Sam? Like I said, hold the thanks until after they finish their mission." Iris put on a mask of appearing too proud of accepting their appreciation, but Samuel had a feeling that, deep down, she was happy to assist. At least, he wanted to believe that. "...And what about you?" she asked him. "What will you do?"

Samuel had not thought about his own goals. "I'll figure it out."

"Alright. ...Well, if nothing else needs to be said, I'm getting out of here," Iris said, before turning to Samuel. "You know, I have to admit, it was nice having you around with me, Sam. You're a good guy, even if you did work my nerves sometimes."

Samuel blushed. "T-Thank you, Iris."

She smiled. Then, she pulled in and planted a kiss upon his right cheek, which became even redder in response.

"A little something to remember me by. ...Even though you probably won't need it." She glanced towards Rose, who was chatting--perhaps planning--with her companions.

"Are you off to destroy another city?" Samuel asked.

"Maybe later," Iris answered. "But first, I'm gonna go home and soak in a nice, hot bath." She walked away from Samuel. "Anyway, goodbye Samuel. And good luck. Same to the rest of you."

She smiled and waved, before the air around her began to distort. Samuel and the women watched as her body glowed while the dimensions surrounding her twisted around and around, until there was a bright flash. An instant later, Iris was gone, having completely exited from the bounds of this Universe.

Such a strange, marvelous woman, Samuel thought. Who would have thought that a woman--a being that he had had no interaction with beforehand--would completely and utterly change his life in such a raw and brutal display? Still, she was a very beautiful person, and while her ethics were screwed, she had demonstrated that she was still a good person at heart. Samuel found himself afflicted with a strange feeling, something he had not felt since pining after Lewis Vance in high school. Was it love? Perhaps, but it did him no good. She was already involved with another man, and even if she was not, she was gone, very likely forever, never to step foot in this Universe again.

No, that was not completely true. After all, there was always her doppelgänger, Rose.

Samuel glanced towards the group of women, who had returned to their battle plan. However, Rose noticed him, and motioned him over.

"What's your name?" she asked.

"Samuel," Samuel answered as he approached the group.

"Samuel, we're going to need your help."

"Wait, you're going to entrust me with this, even though I'm a man?"

"Yes," Rose answered. "Iris spared you, so she must have had a reason. Furthermore, you stood up for us and made her give us these powers. I can tell you're a good man, nothing like Mr. Henderson or his butlers."

"Oh. Okay, what do you need me to do?" Samuel asked.

"We need your help breaking into the facility," a black-haired, tan-skinned woman spoke. "None of us can read or work computers, so we'll need someone who could cover those bases."

"Don't worry, we'll protect you from harm," said the curly-haired woman.

"Wait, how do you know if the facility is still standing?" Samuel asked.

"...I guess we won't know until we get there," the tan-skinned woman said. "But we need to take the chance."

"What do you say, Samuel? Will you help us?" Rose asked.

Samuel mulled this decision over, though all things considered, it was a rather easy decision. It was not as if he had anything else going for himself right then, but at least he could give these women a chance at true freedom and true happiness. "Yes, I'll help you."

The women smiled and rejoiced. "Thank you, Samuel!" Rose happily cheered.

"When do we leave?" Samuel asked.

"Might as well head out now," the tan skinned woman said. "And we'll also rescue others along the way."

"Alright, let's go free our sisters!" Rose announced, to which the other women let out a cheering war cry.

Samuel was rather amazed at the bravery and leadership that Rose was displaying, but for all he knew, perhaps she was always like that. She just had little opportunity to show it off while being under Mr. Henderson's thumb, but now, she could freely express herself.

Though with her powers, he wondered if having them would go to her head. Along with the other women, as well. He wanted to stick by them not only to help them, but to also keep them from straying off the beaten path, lest they become just like Iris or the men of the city, replacing one tyranny with another. This was an opportunity to bring about true equality, though he admitted that he did not know much about it firsthand.

As the group marched along, Samuel's thoughts went back to Iris. He wondered if she would one day find her match and--god forbid--meet her untimely demise. He would hate for that to happen to her, especially being so far away from her home and her loved ones. He hoped that one day, she would see the error of her ways and learn to appreciate and embrace the lives of those in the Multiverse. ...Perhaps his interactions with her would prove to be the catalyst of this breakthrough. Not just him, but the women as well, all of whom broke through her exterior and managed to get her to assist them in her own way.

These thoughts caused Samuel to lag behind the group.

"Samuel, are you alright?" Rose's voice brought him out of his thoughts.

He looked up at her, and for a split second saw Iris' own face in hers, though Rose's more pale face soon dominated the imagery. That said, he did not mind either, as they were both very beautiful blond women, even with Rose's pale skin and blemishes.

Rose's deep blue eyes stared into his own. "Samuel?"

"I'm fine," Samuel answered. "Sorry, I was thinking about something. I didn't mean to hold you up."

Rose smiled. "Good." She took him by the hand, and the two of them rejoined the group, as they continued marching towards their destination.

Samuel's life would certainly change from this day forth. Before, he was just another man living his life in the chauvinist metropolis Mascopolis; now, said metropolis had been completely demolished, and he along with Rose and her companions had a chance at changing the world--his part of it, at least--for the better. His heart raced in uncertainly; no doubt that they would see fierce resistance from the guards of the facility, determined to keep them out at best or murder them all at worst. However, whether their mission was a rousing success or an utter failure, he was determined to see it out to the bitter end.

In a way, he was thankful for Iris for providing him with this opportunity to do something truly meaningful with his life.

And to think, it had only been less than two hours since Samuel and Iris first met in the park.




[THE END]