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Epilogue The World’s leaders were as shocked as their peoples, even if they could not show it. In public, everyone offered their sympathies to the President of the United States, but privately they all had tasked their intelligence services with finding out whether the giant woman had been the result of an overambitious military project.
 
Surprisingly enough, her sudden disappearance had done nothing to ease the world’s tension. Images of Laura Anderson wading into the Pacific Ocean, walking towards the sunset just before diving into the dark waters, had been as repeated on worldwide TVs as those of her finishing the army just a couple hours before or the multiple scenes of the giant destroying most of one of the nation’s largest metropolis.
 
Two questions were being repeated incessantly in the news, which now took practically all the air time of every TV station: how did Laura Anderson become a skyscraper-sized giant and where was she now.
 
Seven billion people suddenly became jumpier than they had ever been. Every incident of rough weather, every loss of any kind of ship… it was invariably associated to the giant. Governments had to assign specific spokespeople to deny the multiple rumors about Laura Anderson that arose the days after her rise and disappearance. All the while, they were busy deploying military reinforcements to every large coastal city and, more importantly, trying to find the whereabouts of the giant monster.
 
Satellites, spy planes, sonar networks… they all proved to be useless in a task that had initially felt much easier: to find a woman who was over a thousand feet tall and weighed half a million tons.
 
Formal offers for help were made soon. The USA respectfully declined them, fueling the suspicions of those that saw their hand in the emergence of the giantess. Tensions arose between countries arose, hidden at first, in plain sight just a few days later.
 
Suddenly, images of Laura Anderson started to share the screens with speeches and statements from leaders across the world that suggested anything but peace. After a month, the risk of nuclear war started to beat the return of the giant as the most immediate threat in the world’s minds.
 
The United States population, still mourning the tragic loss their country had suffered, was outraged at the accusations from former allies and rivals. In the rest of the world, the initial wave of sympathy at what had happened in Emerald soon gave way to suspicion.
 
Why had the US army not nuked the giant? How in the hell was it possible that they could not find her? The theory that Emerald had been a failed field test and that the giant had later on been subdued and addressed to her home base started growing in the net. In them, the thousands of soldiers sent to attack her where but a smokescreen to divert people's attention. The truth was that the United States had a new weapon and they were getting ready to use it on whoever they saw fit.
 
It was in that context that the Reconciliation Conference was held, one month after the infamous day of July where a large city in the Pacific Coast had been razed to the ground.
 
Only the permanent members of the Security Council were in the room. Other countries were kindly told that they were not expected in the core talks. Still, one hundred and sixty-four out of the one hundred and ninety-three member-states of the UN were in the headquarters in New York City, waiting for the permanent Security Council members to reach an agreement and address the General Assembly.
 
"Your intelligence services had not been able to find anything," the US President said.
 
"That does not mean that it does not exist," the Chinese chairman said.
 
“Who in their sane mind would release a weapon that killed over a million of his countrymen?” the US President replied, trying to keep his tone neutral.
 
"It would not be the first time in History" came the Russian President.
 
Talks when on like this for a while. Finally, the US President said:
 
"Look, we need your help. And we are willing to pay any price you put on the table to get it."
 
There were a few moments of silence.
 
“What for?”
 
"We need to find her. Before there is another attack", he finally said.
 
"We are already devoting as many resources as we can to that task," the UK Prime Minister said sharply.
 
“We need to coordinate efforts. DARPA believes they have a way to detect her movements, once they happen. But it is intensive in manpower. We need you to agree. Once you do, the General Assembly will do to” the US President said.
 
The translation from the Chinese chairman took a couple of seconds to come.
 
"So, you are asking us to give you the power to coordinate all out resources. A convenient way from getting them away from where you don't want them to."
 
It went on like that for an additional hour. And then…
 
An alarm rang, and the safety doors of the Security Council room shut down. They were designed for the event of an armed assault on the building, and they protected, the assaulters out. Of course, the also had the effect of keeping those in the room in. A similar scene was happening in the General Assembly room.
 
Dozens of security details were reaching for their radios and trying to make some sense out of what was happening. None was getting a good enough answer. Looks of mistrust repeated themselves inside the room.
 
 
 
Those in the Verrazano-Narrows bridge were the first ones to see her, her hair first emerging like some sort of underwater forest, giving way soon enough to a face the entire world's population knew very well by now. Her huge body kept on rising, water cascading down her slim figure as she got higher and higher.
 
The water surface did not even reach to her knees by the time she was standing at her full imposing height, her face so high up that the terrified drivers that were packing the bridge could not even read her expression.
 
They did not need to. Dozens of doors opened and hundreds of people took to the road in an instant, forming a frenzied mob that was doing its best to get as far away from the giant as possible. They did not have to wait for her to do or say anything to react. They had already seen what she was capable of.
 
Laura did not even give the bridge’s occupants the consideration of paying them any attention. Taking a step forward, the goddess started wading her way to Upper Bay, the bridge effectively being the gate to it.
 
Her thighs broke through the feat of civil engineering as if it had been made of matchsticks, not even slowing Laura down as she went on. She remained silent, her face determined, as she progressed towards Manhattan.
 
Those that had hoped that the bridge had merely been an accident were shocked when Laura diverted her path only slightly, enough for her to set her foot on top of one of the multiple ferries that operated in the bay, crushing it and the hundreds of people inside beyond recognition and embedding it in the ocean bed.
 
Liberty Statue did not deserve much more of the Titan's attention than a kick that sent it well into New Jersey, shortly before her left foot finished another large ferry with ease.
 
News of her sudden appearance was starting to spread along the city, but the very few minutes she had used to cross the bay and plant herself in front of Battery Park had been clearly insufficient for anyone to react.
 
Those that did first were the thousands of soldiers that had taken the waterfront, their artillery and rockets starting to hit, as unsuccessful against Laura’s impregnable skin as any weapons had been so far.
 
Laura ignored them. Instead of reacting to the mites, she just placed her hands on her hips and gazed into the city, a look of superiority on her face.
 
Her voice thundered to every corner of the world’s capital as she addressed it.
 
“People of New York. Behold!”
 
There were a few seconds of puzzle as people wondered what she meant. Then, a low rumbling noise filled the city. Finally, someone said:
 
“Oh my God! She is growing!”
 
Laura did not alter her pose or expression as her body started expanding. Her initial scale was making the process look slower than it actually was, dozens of feet being added to her height every second.
 
She loved it, the gradual stretching of her skin feeling wonderful as her own point of view of the world below got higher and higher.
 
Rockets and shells continued breaking against her, each a bit more negligible than the previous one. She just sneered at the pathetic attempts as her body kept on growing.
 
She soon crossed the two-thousand-foot mark, her head now clearly standing taller than any building in the city, her height having almost doubled since everything started just a couple of minutes before. Her expression and the rate of expansion itself suggested that she was far from done.
 
Panic spread through the streets of New York as fast as Laura’s own growth. She savored it while her body kept on expanding. She soon was half a mile, the Empire State now barely able to get to her clean-shaven crotch. It was still not enough.
 
Upper Bay was less and less able to cover any meaningful part of Laura’s body, the water level now getting as low as her ankles. Laura looked down and smiled as she saw a small tourist boat hopelessly drifting towards her expanding feet, the currents too strong for its engine to be able to fight against her own growth. A minute later, her advancing toes trampled it while her head got taller and taller.
 
It had been less than fifteen minutes since she had got in position and the city was already collapsing. She was eager to play with it. She was not done with growing, though.
 
News choppers were having a hard time keeping the pace with her height increase, their pilots climbing to the limits of their rotors as dozens of news crews reported what they were seeing while trying to make some sense of what was happening.
 
It was still not enough.
 
Laura's toes were now poking over the bay's surface, tidal waves washing against the coastline, making the job of the thousands of soldiers there harder if that was even possible.
 
Still not enough.
 
She did not stop until the Freedom Tower was below her knee, knowing that this put her somewhere above the one-mile mark.
 
Laura slightly changed her pose and expression after cutting her growth off, but remained mostly motionless, letting the city and the entire world understand what had just happened.
 
A quick look down showed her many explosions still going on in her calves and thighs. God, the tiny army guys, were not giving up, were they?
 
"I am your goddess," Laura said, her new proportions ensuring that she did not have to raise her voice to be heard as far as New Jersey.
 
Bringing a hand forward, she turned it with her palm upwards and started to lift it.
 
Tanks, Humvees and thousands of tiny green army men were suddenly detached from the ground, being pulled by a massive but invisible force. Laura kept the gesture as the tiny dots populated the sky in front of her, climbing higher, now about to get above the top of the Freedom Tower.
 
Millions of people in New York were watching in awe at what was going on. They should have already been much more prepared than they had been a month before to accept the supernatural. And still, seeing the woman they had dreaded so much multiply her size in front of them and then play some type of godly trick on the soldiers that were trying to protect them from her was too much to accept.
 
Laura did not change the position of her hand until the army detachment that had tried to stop her from getting into the city was as high as her eyes, more than a mile over the city. They were helpless.
 
"I will not tolerate challenge," she said for the entire population to hear. Then, in a swift movement of her hand, much as if she wanted to backhand someone, she sent the would-be army flying for miles, their ranks landing wherever into the Atlantic Ocean.
 
"I will punish resistance" Laura then said, taking the first step out of the water and flattening two entire city blocks under her sole.
 
"I am your goddess. You will obey me, or you will die"
 
Laura waded across the city, bringing much of Manhattan down as she walked, killing thousands in the process. A minute later, she was standing right in front of the UN building.
 
Kneeling with care, she dug fingers of both hands on both sides of the emblematic structure and reached deep, getting below its foundations. A piece of Manhattan holding the building and its surrounding grounds tore with ease once she pulled up. Laura held it with pride, much like a trophy, resting it in one palm only and seemingly offering it to the swarms of shocked journalists flying around her in news choppers.
 
"World leaders," she said in a solemn voice. "I'm here to negotiate the terms of your surrender to me."
 
And then, she turned and walked back to the bay, more of New York disappearing under her soles. News helicopters did their best to keep their pace, the reporters on them frantically speaking to their microphones as they elaborated theories about where the goddess was heading to.
 
She was knee-deep into the Atlantic Ocean when she turned, facing the swarm of followers.
 
"I need some privacy. You'll be let know when I'm ready to make my next announcement."
 
Without warning, she pushed her lips out and blew softly. It was more than enough to send four dozen news helicopters spiraling without control until they crashed into the water below.
 
 
 
 
The last thirty days had been admittedly boring, especially after the excitement of D-day. So, the re-emergence of Laura was welcome to Laya, who once she had chosen to side with her mentor and place herself outside of the Council’s law had no other choice but to go until the end.
 
She was less surprised that she had been at the discovery of Laura's new abilities. After all, Laya had already known about them, even if just at the theoretical plane.
 
She followed the new-minted goddess path after she had taken hold of the majority of the world's leaders until she got to her destination, an abandoned island in the middle of the Atlantic. It was evident that her actions had obeyed to a carefully laid out plan.
 
Laya was curious about how the exchange between Laura, who had now reduced herself to a more manageable height of a 1000 foot, and the leaders trapped inside the UN building. She knew what the ultimate result would be, in any case.
 
When the door slid open, Laya was surprised to see Quo standing by it. She had not been feeling too well, lately, so she had been following the events on Earth from her stateroom. With things having been mostly quiet, this had meant that the two of them had seldom seen each other over the last days.
 
“How are you feeling?” Laya asked.
 
"Better. I'm still old, though" Quo said. "You'll need to take care of me."
 
"Of course," Laya said. Then she added: "She's back."
 
"You knew she was going to be back," Quo said.
 
"It does not make it any less exciting though," Laya said. "So, now what?" she asked.
 
"Now, the really fun part of our work begins."                                                                                                                                                                          The End

 

Chapter End Notes:

Please review! The Plan ends here (at least for now) and it would be great to get your feedback about the things you liked, the ones you did not like so much, any tips to improve... in the end, feedback is what keeps me going and keeps me improving! 

You can see more about Laura, including some art about her, in my DeviantArt profile:

https://papayoya.deviantart.com

 

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