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]