Alex looked at himself in the large piece of polished steel. He didn’t recognize the person staring back at him. Of course he looked to be about seventeen, but this wasn’t the seventeen year old he remembered. He had no pimples, freckles, moles, or even that small red birthmark under his right eye. Of course his other features were pretty much the same, except his upper body. He looked more defined and muscular. He had a six pack and a well chiseled chest. Strange thing was that Alex never worked out as hard as he used to.
“Your metabolism is different now. Your body doesn’t store fat like it used to,” he heard the voice of his friend. “In fact, I wish we could bottle it up and sell it.”
“Where did all my scars go? I noticed the same thing with the others,” Alex said, still looking at his reflection.
“Your body repaired itself through the whole growing process. In fact, it still is. Today you’re twelve feet, seven inches tall. Your skin is UV resistant. Your eyesight is better than twenty-twenty. Everything about you Alex is far more superior then when you were human,” Vin said from his place on the catwalk.
“Amazing,” Alex muttered. Then that strange feeling came over him again. He watched his reflection stretch. The sensation of growing felt like a tingling in his body. Vin got out his notepad and wrote something down. Alex stood near the wall again.
“Twelve feet, eight inches,” Vin proclaimed. “This is amazing. Oh, before I forget, I have some more news for you, Alex. I’m going to allow for you to have that voice activated computer you requested. The tech guys are setting it up in the private room as we speak,” Vin then said.
“That’s great! My employees and partners probably thought I dropped off the face of the earth. This is the longest I have ever been out of contact with them. I did send out an e-mail the day we came here stating that Emma and I were taking a long vacation and I wasn’t sure if I would be able to communicate in some of the places we were going,” Alex said.
“I’m glad I can make your day, old friend. I advise you to only use e-mail and voice chat for now. No video conferences for another eight weeks. By then you should look twenty-five,” Vin said.
Alex waited until the tech guys were out of the hangar. Alex sensed that some of Vin’s staff is starting to get fearful of him and Emma. The staff started calling them mega-humans behind their backs. Emma was very hurt by these comments. “They make us out like we’re Godzilla or something,” Emma sobbed one night in the private room. Alex did his best to soothe her. He didn’t want her to know that he was hurt by those comments too. Then to add insult to injury, the government sent the military in to watch over all the secret clinics across the country. No fly zones were even declared and citizens were told to go to the emergency room at the first sign of the virus. Little did the public realize that they were getting sent away to these 'secret clinics’?
Vin was even getting watched like a hawk. He was now required to do psychological evaluations on all his charges. They even wanted to do genetic testing of varying kinds and even experiments that the good doctor found questionable. Vin wrote the president a formal letter stating his views. Little did the man in charge know that one of Vin’s patients was very high profile. The president answered Vin’s letter immediately.
“Consider the computer setup as good news,” Vin said to the open doorway of the private room. Vin looked like a small child standing in the fourteen foot doorway. He looks to the makeshift desk approximately six and a half feet tall. On the desk was a sixty inch screen television with a computer tower hooked up to it. Alex sat down in the makeshift chair made from whatever heavy wood that could support a giant’s weight.
“What do you mean, Vin?” Alex asks the child sized man.
“The president is visiting all the ‘clinics’. Ours is going to be the first. Seems some of the bureaucrats want to start legislation for what is getting dubbed as ‘mega-humans.’ They want to start a registration system for all those affected by the virus. They even want to try segregating the so called mega-humans from the normal populace for fear of what you might be capable of. I think it’s a bunch of bullshit,” Vin said, scratching the back of his head.
Alex slammed his hand down on the table, causing the wood to crack. His face turned red with fury. Vin had never witnessed anger from any of his patients and this was a first. Most of his staff would cower at the sight of this outburst, but Vin knew that his friend’s anger wasn’t directed at him.
The staff feared Alex out of all the charges. He was the biggest of all the others with Steve only a close second. Steve was five ten in his previous life. Now he stood around eleven feet, five inches. The males scared the staff more than the females. Allison was the shortest of the four. In her previous life she was a petite five foot three and now she stands ten feet, two inches. Emma was the only fully grown one of the four. She has grown into a respectable eleven feet, six inches. Her height has remained the same for about a week now and she looked the legal age of eighteen.
“I’m sorry, Vin,” Alex quickly apologized when he realized how scary he appeared at that moment.
“You have every reason to be angry. Hell, I know I am. I’ve been by your side from the beginning of all this. I know for a fact that those who are unchanged have nothing to worry about. If anything, it would be a benefit living alongside your kind. It pisses me off when I hear them call you mega-humans,” Vin said.
“Emma says it makes us out to be a bunch of Godzillas,” Alex said, grateful to have his friend on his side.
“I don’t see you breathing fire. If anything, I’ve seen you guys solve complex problems that no other person had been able to solve before,” Vin said and Alex smiled down at his friend. “Oh yeah, I have to tell you this, but promise not to get too angry.”
“I promise, Vin. That was a onetime thing, besides I can’t afford to give myself some more work,” Alex said, looking at the crack in the wood.
“You’re not going to like it, but I must tell you before you get online and find out.”
“What is it?”
“Other countries have come public with this whole evolution thing. They are forcing the newly evolved into their militaries. Some of the dictatorship countries have been slaughtering them because of their refusal. The women are destroyed the moment the virus strikes. They are unaware that you guys are above all that. You’re not pacifistic giants, but your world views are different from ours,” Vin explained and Alex frowned. He felt like crying for his fellow brothers and sisters. People he will never know.
Alex has grown into a different person this time. At first he never wanted this. He would miss his sports cars and long drives in the country. He would miss the sound of the stock market when his company made high earnings or the smell of new custom made Italian shoes. Those things didn’t matter to the new Alex. Those things were just that, things. Just materials that didn’t mean a hill of beans to a giant. Instead of his custom made suits, he now wore cotton pants and tunics designed for his constantly growing body. It wasn’t stylish and he didn’t care.
Vin left the room and Alex resumed with booting up the computer. He had a stick he used to press the start button. He got up and shut the door. Everything in this room was as close to scale as possible. Even the doorknob on the door was put to Alex and Emma’s level. The room was sparse with only the makeshift desk, eight box springs and eights mattresses all arranged to look like a giant bed. Not the most comfortable of arrangements, but Alex and Emma couldn’t afford to be picky. Even the blankets on the makeshift bed were expertly sewn together.
Vin did the best he could to make his giant friends comfortable. Vin knew how important it was for them to feel as normal as possible. The private room was created just for them. No cameras and soundproofed walls. It was the only sanctuary the giants had. There was even one at Steve and Ally’s hangar.
Alex used the voice activation. He told the computer to go to his e-mail and the computer did just that. He used his stick to hit the scroll down button on the keypad. He found an e-mail his secretary recently sent. It was regarding his new top secret venture. Seems the board is questioning Alex’s sanity. Caroline Honeywell was Alex’s most trusted employee. She had been his secretary since the company first launched. She was well aware of Alex’s new project, but never questioned much. She trusted his instincts, but now she was truly concerned. Alex looked at the clock and decided to make a personal phone call to Caroline via the computer. He gave the computer his order and soon he heard the dial tone of his secretary’s phone.
“Anderson Corporation, this is Honeywell. The boss is out of town. Can I take a message?”
“Caroline? It’s me, your boss,” Alex answered, a little excited to be talking to someone other than a lab tech. A voice from his old life.
“Mr. Anderson! So good to hear from you! Are you on a bad connection or something? Why are you shouting?” Caroline said. Just then Alex realizes that the tone of his voice must be twice as loud as it used to be. He brought himself back together before speaking again.
“No. It this better?” he asks in a softer tone.
“You sound like you again,” Caroline chuckled. Alex grinned.
“I got your e-mail. What’s going on?”
“Oh, I sent that a couple of days ago before the news came out.”
“What news?”
“The news about the giant people. It’s been all over the place. Are you on some deserted island or something?” Caroline said. Alex caught himself smiling. “The partners thought you were off your rocker when you started Colossus Wear. They thought it was some kind of big and tall line until they saw the government contracts. Then they thought you were playing some kind of prank until they turned on the news and saw the footage of some giant teenagers in London. You should’ve seen their faces. They thought it was some kind of hoax at first until the prime minister gave his address,” Caroline explained in a chuckle.
“I wish I could’ve been there,” Alex answered, thinking there was no way in hell he could fit in the boardroom much less the revolving doors to get into the high rise, or even the elevator and stairs. Vin told Alex that he was the tallest one on record at the moment. Boy, the board member would piss their pants if they saw him now.
“I can’t believe you haven’t seen it. People over ten feet tall mingling in the London streets with normal folks. The prime minister is letting them be for the moment. He says that they are citizens just like anyone else. Funny, but I haven’t seen anybody like that here yet. I think it has to do with that weird virus going around. Did you know about this?” Caroline said. ‘Yeah, Emma was like the very first case,’ Alex thought to himself, but didn’t want to say it out loud.
“Just call it my gut instinct,” Alex answered.
The door opened to the private room. Alex didn’t turn around to see who it was. He didn’t need to. He knew that is was his Emma. She was the only one besides Steve and Ally that could enter the private room without knocking.
Emma looked stunning in her simple cotton dress that hugged her curves in all the right ways. Alex still couldn’t believe how amazing she looked and Emma felt the same about Alex. “Who are you talking to, honey?” Emma asked in her regular tone. Alex gestured to her to lower her voice.
“Caroline,” Alex answered.
“Must be that bad connection again? Tell Emma she doesn’t need to shout,” Caroline’s voice said over the computer.
“I’m sorry, Caroline. It’s good hearing your voice again. How’s everything going,” Emma asked.
“Just filling your husband in on the latest developments. I hope all is well with you, Emma? I miss seeing your smiling face around here,” Caroline said. She wasn’t just buttering up to the bosses’ wife, Caroline really did like Emma.
“I hope so,” Emma mumbled but Caroline didn’t hear it.
“Oh yeah, before I go, the board wants to see you at the next meeting. You think you can make it? It’s about six weeks from now,” Caroline said.
“I don’t know. I’ll keep you informed. We may have to do it elsewhere if I can make it. I’ll talk to you soon, Caroline,” Alex said and Caroline said her good-byes as well.
Alex got up out of the chair. Emma instinctively embraced him. Alex was the only normal thing in Emma’s life right now. Ever since her growth, Emma has felt a bit out of place. Alex made her feel like herself.
“Alex, I got something to tell you,” Emma said, looking up into his beautiful blue eyes.
“What is it, sweetheart?”
“Vin wants me to keep it secret from the others. Ally and Steve are the only ones other than Vin that knows about,” Emma said in her nervous way.
“What is it?” Alex asks her softly.
Emma looked to the door to see if it was shut tightly. She was rather nervous and she didn’t want the lab techs or the military people hearing her. Alex leans his head down to her so she could whisper it in his ear.
“I’m pregnant,” she whispered and Alex’s face lit up. He was so happy to hear those words. Ever since the private room was built, Alex and Emma made all the use of it they could.
“That’s great, baby,” he said, giving her a warm smile, but Emma frowned. “Aren’t you happy? Haven’t you always wanted one of your own?”
“Before all this. Alex, we need to get out of here. I don’t want to be subjected to anymore test. I don’t want our baby being treated like some sort of science project either,” Emma sobbed. Alex held his wife. He knew that she was right. “The baby is going to be like us,” she then whispered.