Gemma and Stamitos sat on the sofa in the living room, his muscular arm around her shoulders for comfort. They had been released from the hospital, cleared as in good health, and now were watching the Monday evening newscasts on TV.
“Carol, you were at the scene when Elevator Girl rescued Gemma Ross this morning. How would you describe what you saw?” the anchor asked.
The camera cut to Carol, standing by the scene at the harbor. Police tape still cordoned off the area where Dekker’s body had been, although it was now removed.
“Sam, it was horrific,” Carol said. “It was a nightmare, especially for Elevator Girl. She had grabbed an ice ship, apparently one of the three involved in kidnapping Gemma Ross and Dakota Greene yesterday, then went inside. After a short time, the ship exploded. Elevator Girl was able to save herself and Gemma Ross, but Dakota Greene wasn’t on the ship, and the kidnapper, who has been tentatively identified as Dr. Christine Dekker, was horrifically burned. Elevator Girl kept her from dying in the fall, but Dekker succumbed to her wounds shortly after she was down.”
Carol’s voice choked with emotion as she continued. “That was when we saw a side of Elevator Girl we had never seen before.”
The camera cut to footage of Elevator Girl, slumped on Gemma’s shoulder and bawling despondently, as Carol’s voice continued. “We’ve tended to think of Elevator Girl as just a superhero, one of those stoic types who makes wisecracks and defends us from danger and goes off into her private life. But today we saw another side of our city’s heroine: the teenage girl who cares deeply about those she’s fighting to protect.”
The audio cut to a clip of Elevator Girl, talking to Gemma, saying, “I don’t know how to find him! How do I find him? How do I save him? I can’t just leave him there in the cold -- all alone …”
Carol’s voice resumed. “But then, our young heroine composed herself and made a statement to the press.” They played Kellie’s statement.
“You have an amazing daughter,” Stamitos said.
“She’s going to have an amazing stepfather soon,” Gemma said, smiling weakly, patting Stamitos’ thigh.
“What we saw today was a teen handling a nearly impossible situation, and handling it as well as anyone could,” Carol said. “We saw Elevator Girl demonstrate what makes her a hero -- and we saw a teen girl who cares about all the responsibilities she has.”
“Carol, Elevator Girl had become close to Dakota Greene, right?” Sam asked.
“Yes, she had, Sam,” Carol said. “She first met him on a Wish-Granters Foundation date, and she had saved his life and worked with him to establish the Greene-Ross Foundation. It was Greene who brought in Gemma Ross as the person in charge of the rights to the technology the foundation is developing. Not surprisingly, she’s become close to him. But her remarkable composure under pressure -- after a difficult rescue, and witnessing a truly horrific death -- after seeing the young girl, and not just one of the uniforms -- has shown how truly tough, yet compassionate and, frankly, young, she is.”
“Almost all the reports are like that,” Gemma said. “Except for one or two crackpot commentators, they’re all either praising Elevator Girl, or at least sympathetic.”
Kellie walked in. She was still wearing the same uniform she’d worn when rescuing her mom, and was talking on her Elevator Girl cell phone.
“Thank you, General,” Kellie said. “Yes, I wish it was better news, too. I know, you’re doing all you can.” Her voice cracked with tears as she said, “Thanks to you and your superiors for your efforts. They mean more than you know. Yes, we’ll find him. We’ll find a way to bring him home. Goodbye, sir. Thanks again.” She hung up the call.
Gemma glanced at Stamitos before turning back to Kellie. “General?”
Kellie closed her eyes and took a shallow breath. “That was the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” Kellie said.
Gemma’s jaw dropped. “The Joint Chiefs … You mean from the Pentagon? The man answers only to the Secretary of Defense and the President?”
Kellie nodded, staring at the floor. “Apparently, the Governor called the Pentagon to get help trying to figure out what happened to Dakota, and it got booted all the way up the chain of command to the President himself. He authorized for someone to check all the satellite and radar data and relay the information, including weather, NASA, military and air-traffic-controllers, and the General himself called with the news.”
“It didn’t sound like good news,” Stamitos said.
Kellie shook her head morosely, still staring down. “The ship they tracked all the way was the one that crashed at the riverbank,” she said. “The one they tracked part way was picked up again today; it’s the one Dekker was using, the one that blew up with us in it. But the third ship -- the one with Dakota in it -- never registered on any radar, any satellite cameras. There are no heat signatures showing for it, and there’s no evidence of any objects such as the ship launching into space.”
Kellie sighed, sagging to the floor. “He’s gone. He’s simply … gone.” She broke down again, bawling and sobbing.
Gemma joined her daughter, covering her with her arms and rocking her in the hope of providing some form of comfort.
Just then the doorbell rang. “I’ll get it,” Stamitos said.
He opened the door and said, “Oh, hello. Are you one of Kellie’s friends?”
“I’m Jenna,” the girl at the door said. “I need to see her, please.”
“It’s not a good time,” Stamitos said.
“Let her in,” Kellie said, trying to pull herself together. “She knows, Stam. Let her in.”
Stamitos gestured broadly. Jenna couldn’t help but admire the magnificent arms on the man as he did so, but that lasted less than a second as she ran to her friend. Gemma instinctively backed off, letting Jenna hug Kellie.
After a moment, Jenna brushed strands of tear-soaked hair off Kellie’s mask and face. “Are you OK?” Jenna asked.
Kellie shrugged sadly as her only answer.
“Any word on Dakota?”
Kellie shook her head, starting to breath oddly due to her heavy emotion.
“What can I do to help?” Jenna said.
“You’re doing it,” Kellie said, hugging her friend.
After a moment, Gemma asked, “So, Jenna, when did you find out?”
“Yesterday,” Jenna said. “You were kidnapped, the Greenes were in protective custody, Mr. Stone was in the hospital and Kellie was afraid the house was being watched. She needed help and a place to stay, and she told me what had been going on.”
“Yesterday,” Gemma said. “To me, it’s today that I was kidnapped, not yesterday. For me, for my mind, no time passed while I was in suspended animation. The odds are, that’s what Dakota’s in, too.”
“I think Dekker planned to keep one or both of you that way for a long haul,” Kellie said, wiping her nose on her sleeve. “She kept referring to you two as leverage. She wasn’t going to let that leverage go. I think she planned to hold Dakota to keep forcing me to do what she wanted, or to just stay out of her way.”
“Do you think he might be … y’know … dead?” Jenna asked.
Kellie shook her head. “If I hadn’t moved when I did to fight her, she might have killed him remotely, once she realized I’d given her a fake bracelet. But she never got the chance, so I’m pretty sure he’s alive. He’s just asleep … somewhere.”
Kellie glanced at her friend. “Speaking of bracelets,” the heroine said, “I guess I owe you a new one. The one I borrowed from you blew up with the ship. Sorry.”
“I’m not,” said Jenna. “It helped save your mom’s life, and maybe yours. I can get another bracelet. Where am I gonna get another best friend, especially a super-powered one?”
Kellie sobbed silently three times, then said, “Thanks, Jenna.”
The teens hugged briefly. After that hug ended, Jenna looked around at all three people in the room before focusing back on her friend. “Kellie, it looked like the Greenes were coming back into their house when I came past,” she said.
Kellie stood up straight. “Right,” she said. “I need to see them, to talk to them.”
“What are you going to tell them?” Gemma asked.
“Everything,” Kellie said.
Everyone else froze for a second. Then Gemma said, “Everything? As in … everything? As in, that you’re Elevator Girl?”
“As in the whole story, including that I’m Elevator Girl,” Kellie said.
“Are you sure that’s wise?” Gemma asked. “I mean, they might tell the media your secret.”
“Yeah,” said Jenna. “Mr. Greene can be kind of a loose cannon.”
Kellie looked at them, her resolve evident on her face. “Dakota was kidnapped because I’m Elevator Girl,” she said. “He’s missing, lost, because I’m Elevator Girl. My secret has had a tragic impact on their lives. They deserve to know the truth -- the whole truth. But I will change clothes first. I want to face them as Kellie … without a mask to hide behind. Dakota once chided me for hiding behind my mask when it came to feelings. I can’t hide behind it now.”
Kellie started up the stairs. Gemma raised an arm, and said, “But --”
Stamitos gently touched Gemma’s shoulder. “Let her go, Gemma,” he said. “Let her do this.”
Gemma started to protest. “But what she’s doing --”
“Is what she thinks is the right thing to do, even if it costs her -- and she’s right,” Stamitos said. “Gemma, doing the right thing even when it hurts is what heroes do.”
Gemma nodded and leaned into Stamitos’ chest as he hugged her.
Jenna turned toward the adults with an eyebrow raised. Looking at Stamitos, she asked, “How would you know what a hero does?”
Stamitos smiled. “I’ve had some experience,” he said. “I used to be Granite Man.”
Jenna was still stunned by that news when Kellie, dressed in some jeans and a T-shirt, came downstairs. She gestured to the others as she walked for the front door. “Come on,” she said. “If it’s OK, I want all of you with me.” She looked each of the others in the eye briefly. “I’m going to need all the moral support I can get.”
“On my way,” said Jenna.
“Let’s go,” said Gemma.
“We’re with you all the way, Kellie,” said Stamitos.
Kellie closed her eyes to cope with the tears. “Thanks, all of you,” she said.
The four of them exited the house. Jenna glanced behind her. “Should we be more careful?” she said. “I mean, if Dr. Dekker had a henchman, or was monitoring anything electronically, and the house is bugged --”
Kellie shook her head. “Dekker didn’t want anyone sharing any level of her power with her,” she said. “She was a solo act; she didn’t want the warmth of human relationships. Besides, the first thing I did when I got home was to go through the house for electronic bugs. I actually found two -- both by the exterior doors. Neither was live, though. I wish they were.”
“You wish they were?” Jenna repeated. “Why?”
Jenna sighed, then said, “If they were live, they would have been sending a signal somewhere. I could have worn the costume I wore today and shrunken small enough to ride the electronic signals back to the source -- which might well have led me to Dakota, or at least to a clue to his whereabouts.”
The rest of the walk was in silence until they got to the Greenes. Lakota was looking out the window, as if she expected someone to arrive. She flung open the door before Kellie and the others were to the porch.
“Any word?” Lakota asked.
Kellie shook her head. “I need to talk to your parents,” she said.
Lakota pulled back slightly. “About what?” she asked.
“Elevator Girl,” Kellie said.
Now Lakota looked terrified. Hesitantly she said, “OK. Come in. I’ll get them.”
The group came in. Mrs. Greene hurried in almost as soon as they were all in the door, with Mr. Greene close behind.
Mrs. Greene enveloped Kellie in a hug. “Oh, I’m so glad you’re all right, dear,” she said. Then she moved to Gemma. “Thank God you’re out,” she said. “Are you all right?”
Gemma nodded.
“And you, Mr. Stone?” asked Mr. Greene.
“I’m all right now,” Stamitos said, “and my name is Stamitos, please.”
Mr. Greene smiled. “I’m Nick, and my wife is Laura.”
Mrs. Greene had spotted Kellie out of the corner of her eye. Both Jenna and Lakota were right beside her. Lakota could tell Jenna now knew the truth; why else would she be here now?
“Mr. and Mrs. Greene,” Kellie said, shutting her eyes,” we came here because I have something to tell you, something you need to know … about me.” She opened her eyes and looked at the Greenes directly. “You may hate me when you know this, and I don’t blame you, but with Dakota still missing, you need to know the truth. The whole truth.”
Laura Greene looked into Kellie’s eyes, and her own eyes widened. “Oh, my God!” she said. “You’re Elevator Girl, aren’t you?”
Kellie looked astounded.
Lakota smiled. “Now you know where Dakota gets it from,” she said.
Kellie stood up straight. “Yes, I am,” she said. “I’m Elevator Girl.”
Then Nick Greene did something no one had expected. He walked over and enfolded Kellie in a bear hug. When he released her, she had tears streaming down her cheeks and a confused expression.
“I … I don’t understand,” Kellie said. “Why did you do that?”
Nick’s lower lip was sticking out as he fought back his own tears. “You saved my boy’s life back in December,” he said, “and you kicked the ass of the frosty bitch that kidnapped him.”
“But Dakota’s still missing, and I can’t find him,” Kellie wailed. “How can you hug me? How can you not hate me for losing him, for being the reason Dr. Dekker took him?”
Laura walked over and hugged Kellie, too, then pulled back, still holding the girl’s shoulders. “Kellie, Dakota loves you,” she said. “How can we do anything less?”
Kellie looked distraught. She staggered to the sofa and collapsed into a seated position in the center of it. “I don’t understand at all,” she said, shaking her head. “I screwed up your lives, Dakota’s life. Now he’s missing. I lost it in front of the media. I lied to Jenna for months, kept this secret from you for months.”
Stamitos sat down next to her. “What’s wrong, Kellie?” he asked.
Kellie pounded her legs. “Why doesn’t anybody hate me?” she shouted. “I let everybody down! Why doesn’t everybody hate me? Why? Why?”
Stamitos placed a brawny arm around his old ally’s granddaughter. “Kellie, do you know what a hero is?”
Kellie looked at Stamitos as if he had just asked a stupid question.
“A hero may not be what you think,” he said. “A hero isn’t someone who fights crime, or stops villains or has powers. It’s certainly not someone who plays sports; a lot of them are the opposite of the definition I’m about to give you.”
Stamitos looked the girl in the eye as he continued. “Kellie, a hero is someone who, by what they do, inspires others -- to dream, to help other people, to find courage, to find hope.”
Stamitos looked up at the Greenes. “What I’m about to say is going to blow another secret, but if the Greenes know yours, they can know mine,” he said.
Laura pointed at Stamitos. “You’re Granite Man!” she said.
“I was,” he said. “I’m not anymore; now I’m human again.”
Laura sighed. “I knew I recognized those muscles,” she said. Nick rolled his eyes in response.
Stamitos turned back to Kellie and placed a hand on her knee. “Kellie, I knew you were a real heroine the moment I first saw you, when all of those students at your school were fighting on your behalf. Your actions to protect them inspired them to protect you. You were their hero, and you still are.”
“That’s why most of the media has been so kind,” Gemma said. “I saw their looks at the harbor this morning, They felt your pain, your heartache. Your caring inspired them to compassion, to see the girl in Elevator Girl.”
Lakota stepped forward. “Dakota told me about the date he had with Elevator Girl, before he knew your identity. Do remember what he told you about what she did for him?”
Kellie nodded, the tears welling up again. “He said I gave him hope,” she said.
“He’s not the only one,” Nick said. “And that’s still not all you’ve inspired. Dakota’s too young to sit on the Greene-Ross Foundation board of directors, just like you‘re too young to be legally in charge of the patents your grandfather left in your name. Dakota may be the face of the foundation, but I’m the one on the board. Do you realize that the only reason we got the foundation put together so easily was because of Elevator Girl? It wasn’t because of your stipulations about the technology. Some of these corporations have lawyers who could get around that for lunch. But they knew that, if Elevator Girl wanted it done, it was something worth doing. Yeah, they saw the commercial value in being able to point to that -- but they also knew that, if you wanted it, it was the right thing to do.”
“And who did you have helping you try to find Dakota today?” Gemma asked.
“The Governor and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” Kellie said, causing the eyes of the Greenes and Jenna to widen in astonishment.
“And NASA, and air-traffic controllers, and the National. Weather Service -- and the President of the United States!” said Gemma.
“The … President?” said Lakota in a tiny voice.
Kellie nodded silently, still looking forlorn, but no longer distraught.
“Kellie,” said Stamitos, “do you really think that some sports star could get all those people to help them? Heck, at the height of our careers, none of the Super 6 could have gotten that kind of help, and we had some pretty good heroes on the team. Kellie, everybody knows that you do what you do because you care, even though it costs you to do it. That inspires other people to help you when you need help. And that’s why none of us hates you now. How can we hate someone who’s what we all want to be?”
“That’s not to say everyone will always love you, or that there won’t be times when most people try to tear you down, especially in the media or on the Internet,” Gemma said. “But the good you’ve already done has made things better for so many, inspired so many. And that will go on. Your dad and grandpa would be proud of you.” She hugged her daughter. “I know I am.”
Stamitos turned the heroine’s shoulders to face his. “Actually, Kellie, when I grow up, I want to be just like you.”
The girl hugged him tightly.
Laura turned toward Nick. “The President is helping look for our boy?” she said.
“Well, he gave the orders, anyway,” Kellie said.
Nick sniffled. “Well, it sounds like Dakota’s faith in you was justified,” he said.
Kellie stood up and faced the Greenes. “I will bring Dakota back,” she said. “I will find him, and I will bring him home. I promise you, I will bring him home -- whatever it takes, I will.”
After a few minutes of hugging, more tears and chatter, Kellie excused herself. She walked, alone, down to the spot that overlooked the cave where her first headquarters had been. She stood atop the charred remains of the site of her New Year’s date with Dakota.
Amid the scorched grass, Kellie saw small dot of color. It was a tiny buttercup. Looking around to make sure she was alone, she shrank down beside it, and inhaled its scent deeply.
It’s just the kind of thing Kota would do, Kellie thought, to bring me a splash of hope in the midst of my despair. He’s my hero.
Kellie stared at the blossom. “I love you, Kota,” she said. “I will find you. I will bring you home, and I will tell you, ’I love you,’ to your face. I promise you, whatever it takes, I will bring you home, my love.”
She knelt beside the flower, crying bitter tears.
Giantess World
