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Up above, the accidental destructor tied her black hair back in a ponytail to keep fluttering strands out of her eyes. She had to remain focused now if she was going to avoid causing any further mayhem. An entire high school, the surrounding city block, plus hundreds of trees and an entire power plant were mulched beneath the doughy rivets of her flip-flop. Not to mention dozens upon dozens of innocents dead. None of it had been on purpose, and most of it wasn’t even noticed until long after the damage was done.

            She was dangerous at this size, and she knew it. The only question was, what could possibly be done? Her eyes welled involuntarily with overwhelmed tears.

            “HELP!” she boomed, trying to control the volume of her voice which nonetheless flooded the valley again. “Can’t someone please HELP ME?”

            Though vaguely aware of the insect-like cars and trucks on the streets below becoming traffic-jammed around the city as they all attempted to flee in the opposite direction, Andrea noticed something new on the outskirts of the little suburb. A determined, camo-hued battalion of armored ground vehicles and helicopters, none of them much larger than newborn ants. The entire troupe of army implements was rolling through the streets and toward the towering woman who now dwarfed them so comically.

            “Oh, thank God!” Andrea gasped, hand over her heart. It wouldn’t be pretty, explaining how all this had happened, but surely once she was in contact with some tiny authority figure in a flea-sized chopper, this insanity could all be reversed, and she could properly explain how none of it was her fault. They would have to see that, right? She was only a victim of a crazed teacher’s overzealous twisting of physical law.

            The helicopters arced higher and higher toward her torso like a swarm of gnats. Andrea held herself still as a statue, her tanned, olive legs outspread at the same awkward angle at which she’d caught herself to prevent falling upon the forest below. An ovular, shoe-sized crater where she’d originally stood still remained over the flattened remains of her school. The only suggestion of its previous stone shape was molded in the zig-zag shape of her flip-flop treads, weighted down by her pretty if not murderously titanic foot.

            An impressive gathering of tanks and APCs collected in formation nearest the site of Andrea’s destruction. She could spy the moving specks of actual tiny human beings, to her appearing less than a tenth of a centimeter in size, emerging and arranging equipment from their support vehicles. It looked an awful lot like weaponry: machine gun turrets and missile launchers. What possible reason could they have for needing such things? Couldn’t they see she was just an eighteen-year-old girl, scared and in need of assistance?

            “Hello,” Andrea boomed. She waved a hand, too late realizing the breeze caused by her swaying fingers knocked most of the helicopters out of their flight path. However, they managed to right themselves. In no time, thirty choppers hovered in front of Andrea’s dark-chocolate eyes; a complementing swath of fighter jets circled her head, buzzing near her ears like whining flies. The girl couldn’t help but flinch with discomfort. Didn’t they have any manners? She blinked, refocusing her attentions squarely on the miniature bead-sized military hardware floating in front of her eyes.

            It was hard not to smirk and even chuckle softly at the humorous sight of it. They were so small and frail by comparison to her smallest movements. If a friendly wave of her hand could cast them aside with typhoon-like force, Andrea couldn’t help but wonder what might happen if she actually touched those flying metal insects and their pathetic pilots the size of lice.

            “Attention!” the central helicopter of the swarm shouted out through an improvised speaker system. “You will have one chance to reverse whatever you’ve done and return to human size. Non-compliance will be taken as a sign of aggression and met with equal hostility. You have been warned.”

            “Whatever I’ve done?” Andrea scoffed. “This wasn’t my fault. Listen, my physics teacher just wanted a volunteer to test out a new device, honest! All of this is because of his machine. I’m so, so sorry about what happened down there, under… under my shoe, but I can’t reverse this, understand? I didn’t do it!”

            There was a pause before the command helicopter answered. The screech of the jets sounded in Andrea’s ears again.

            “You have until the count of five to respond in the affirmative,” the crackling voice from the chopper shouted.

            “No!”

            “One… two…”

            “I didn’t do anything.”

            “Three… four…”

            “You’re making a big MISTAKE!”

            “Five! Open fire!”

            A pelting wall of high-caliber bullets from the entire fleet of helicopters pinged on Andrea’s cheeks. Somewhere to the side, she felt the whiz of the jets performing fly-bys and launching pellet-sized bomb payloads at her ears and neck. Down around the crater, the tanks took aim, as did all of the ground support, firing a flurry of ordinance into Andrea’s contentedly resting foot and bobbing toes.

            Andrea winced. The attack reminded her a lot of being tickled by a baby. Bullets and explosive devices alike bounced off her gentle flesh like mosquito kisses. She laughed joyously, and shook her head. What a show. They’d warned her, after all.

            And she’d warned them.

            Her hand rose up, fingers flat, and swept through the sky void in front of her face. Every single helicopter was taken out in a single swing, splattered in a metallic mess like swatted bed bugs on the creased terrain of her palm. She tucked her fingers against the heel of her hand and flicked the crushed specks away. The jets took slightly more effort, but by clawing her fingers out as she reached, the young woman easily collected those pesky creatures into her closing fist. She felt them demolish as easily as bubble wrap under the iron strength of her thumb.

            In the same motion, Andrea lifted her foot. With delicacy not befitting a leviathan so immense, she pried her toes past the arched thong of the flip-flop and heaved her voluptuous foot out of the darkened indent of her pink shoe. Wriggling her newly freed digits above, she cast the entire army in shadow. Then her foot came down, heel and all.

            Andrea’s ped made landing on the ground below with the force of a hurricane. Before, she’d merely set her foot down with the intention of catching herself, but now, there was power and intent behind the unthinkably massive piston that was her athletic leg. Her toes pile-drove into the earth, scattering entire streets and pebble-like houses in the blast. Concrete ripped as easily as dry leaves between the girl’s bucking, grasping digits. Her tan flesh came to rest in the ravaged earth, above where half of the army had previously made its assault. The lucky remainder of the tanks and APCs off to the side had halted their firing.

            The three-mile teen smiled to herself. She waggled her fingers in a slow, beguiling wave goodbye to her attackers. Her foot arched up again.

 

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