And so we ran.

Once we were beyond the front doors of the school, I broke out into a full sprint. Legs that had been trained to run for weeks in some of the most dangerous conditions known carried me towards whatever relative safety could be found. Jenny, still in her amazonian form, required no effort on her part to match my pace. Still I led her away, focusing on putting some distance between us and the school before anything else.

Jenny claimed that she wasn’t the source behind Monica’s growth. There was such fear in her voice when she had said so. Had she tried to stop Monica? Reverse what was going on? Nothing had changed, which meant that Jenny was no longer monitoring the game, if this even was one. She wasn’t acting like this was. I think that, more than anything else, is what drove me to keep running. We didn’t stop until a great crash came from behind us. Even though I knew what to expect, I still had trouble watching it. Our school was blown apart by the force of a giant being merely standing to her feet. Monica appeared to have finally stopped growing, topping herself off at a nice 500ft tall. Her clothes had ripped right off of her, yet she had somehow come across a pair of white sheets, bigger than I had ever seen before, and had wrapped them around her upper and lower body. She looked like a beautiful, African-American version of the 50ft Woman. The school was emptying itself of students, who were doing a great impression of the screaming masses from the same movie. Brushing the rubble from herself with a mighty hand, she looked at the fleeing teens at her feet curiously.

“John?” she called. “John, where are you?”

In one step she cleared the distance the furthest student had run, and began making her way towards the city, calling my name the entire time. Jenny and I, who had been standing in an alleyway, went by unnoticed, and took the opportunity to catch our breaths. Well, I caught my breath, Jenny was fine.

I turned to her, panting. “Jenny . . . what . . . the hell . . .”

Jenny bit her lips in the way that she normally did when afraid of something. “I-I don’t know. I . . . I just tried to help her headache go away.”

“I remember that, but then something else happened.” I told her. “You sounded like you were afraid back there. What happened?”

“I . . .” she shook her head. “I’ve never felt anything like it. I sensed something in her mind. I tried . . . I don’t know, exploring what it was. Then . . . it felt like something in her mind reached out and latched onto me.”

“Latched onto you?” I asked.

“Yeah, onto my powers. It felt like she . . . somehow grabbed onto my powers and just pulled them right out of me.” she explained.

I blinked. “Wait . . . you don’t . . . you don’t have your powers anymore?”

“I- I managed to break her grip on me before she could take them all but John . . . she has most of them.” Jenny admitted in a horrified whisper. She ran her fingers through her hair, and her eyes grew watery as the implication of what she was saying fully hit home. “I can’t change her back. I can’t stop her.”

I felt like I had just been kicked right between the eyes. I walked a few steps away to get a better view of what Monica was doing now. She was still headed for the city, with sirens and screams rising up in a chorus around her. I could already hear the POPs of gunshots in the distance. But if any of them hit the giantess, she paid them no more notice than the air. Why would she? I’ve seen Jenny endure attacks thousands of times worse. And now she had all of her powers . . . Monica had all of Jenny’s powers. Powers that were almost limitless! And right now she was headed for the city, 500ft of stature, and . . . and . . .

“Why a giant?” I heard myself ask.

Jenny looked up. “What?”

“Why a giant?” I asked again, looking over sharply at her. “Ok, she took your powers. We don’t know how, but she did. Fine. Now she can do anything she wants. Anything. So what does she do?”

Jenny blinked the tears out of her eyes, trying to grasp at what I was asking. “Uh . . . she just . . . grows . . .”’

“Exactly, just like you.” I said. “But Monica isn’t you. She has her own wants. Her own desires. Odds are she isn’t much into giantess fetish things. At the very least she’s never been interested whenever you would play games with the school. She’s only ever been afraid. So it’s not her thing. But then why be a giantess?”

Jenny looked as if she were about to answer, but instead went silent as she considered it. “I . . . I don’t know.” She stood up straighter, telegraphing determination with the single act. “I’m going after her.”

My eyes widened. “Jenny, if you don’t have your powers anymore then that’s the absolute last thing you should be doing.”

“What choice do I have John? They’re my powers she’s using, so this is on me! I can’t sit back and do nothing!” she exclaimed. “Stay here if you want but I have to fix this!”

I swallowed nervously as I considered my friend. Standing in front of me right now at 15ft tall, Jenny looked as much a giant as one could imagine from a human being. I wasn’t even as tall as her upper thigh. Yet next to Monica she was nothing more than a praying mantis among ants. With barely any powers to help, what did she expect to do against Monica other than die? For that matter, what could I expect to do against her?

But does that excuse me from letting my best friend go in alone?

Taking a steadying breath, I nodded once to Jenny. She crouched down and placed a heavy hand on my shoulder. “I can only do small things right now. Teleporting us a few miles to the city is relatively small next to growing bigger than the planet, but I can’t do anything much more impressive than something like that. Are you ready?”

“No,” I confessed.

She allowed herself a slight smile. “Same.”

In a flicker we were suddenly in the middle of the city or, more accurately, the warzone that was formerly just a city. Crowds fled in masses all around us like a screaming tide. They’d have trampled us had Jenny not been so large, forcing them to skate around her. As it were they ran around us, horrified for their lives as buildings collapsed in the distance behind them. The poor fools thought they could outrun a living natural disaster. I can’t say I blame them. I failed at doing that more times than I can count. Cars swerved down other streets, hoping to avoid the crowds while still beating a hasty retreat. Most inevitably ended up crashing into something. The passengers inside barely took time to shake off the impact before they were continuing their escape. Tremors perforated the ground so thoroughly, everything trembled as if the city was experiencing one long, continuous earthquake. Monica soon appeared above the rooftops, still wearing her Nancy Archer-style robes. Despite being on the skinnier side, Monica still had a robust figure, both in regards to her chest, and behind. Those assets were somehow exemplified by the white sheets. The only other thing she wore on her was a smile of pure delight. Her eyes scanned the ground in front of her.

“Oh John,” she called in a booming voice. “Where are you? Don’t you want to play today?”

Monica stopped for a moment to get a good look at the fleeing citizens going by, probably to see if I was among them. Fortunately Jenny and I were much further ahead and off to the side. The giantess placed her hands on her hips as she considered the little bugs in front of her. Then, with a merry grin, she started forward.

“Fee, fi, fo fum.” she taunted with each step. “You better watch out John, because here I come!”

“This isn’t her. This isn’t Monica.” Jenny whispered. “What the hell is going on with her? She’s not like this!”

“I know. Based off everything I know about her personality, Monica wouldn’t act like this if she turned into a giantess out of nowhere.” I affirmed. “If anything she’s . . .”

I blinked. “She’s acting like you.”

Jenny looked wide eyed towards me for a silent moment, then looked back at Monica as she toyed with the people at her feet. “Um . . .”

“She’s acting like she’s playing a game with us,” I continued. “Like this is an everyday thing. Like she remembers every game you’ve ever played with us. But you erased her memories after everyone-”

I paused. “You did erase her memories of our games together, right?”

Jenny opened her mouth, but then hesitated. “John, uh . . .”

“You mean to tell me she remembers your games! Every one!” I shouted.

“Not directly!” Jenny protested. “I just . . . made it so that whenever we played a game involving her, her brain would just think of it as a dream she had. You know, so she would still remember everything but not know anything.”

“Why!” I roared. “Why play with her brain like that!”

“Because!” she yelled back, only to quiet down sheepishly. “Because I . . . I thought it would help her to like you if she remembered you acting all heroic and stuff . . .”

I bit down on the next remark I had planned to shout at her when her explanation hit home. Jenny was acting as my wingwoman this whole time?

“Jenny that’s . . . that’s . . .” I shook my head. “No one’s ever done anything like that for me before.”

“I . . . I was just trying to help,” she muttered sadly to herself.

I reached up to hold her hand, trying to provide the amazon with whatever comfort I could give her. “I . . . appreciate what you tried to do for me, Jenny. Thank you.” 

I tried to sound just as gentle as I delivered home the bad news. “The problem is you might have played with her mind a little too much. And now that she has your powers, she remembers everything we’ve ever done together, only she thinks she’s you.”

Jenny shook her head in disbelief. “I have to fix this. I have to-”

Above our heads came the roar of military planes. Five F-15’s streaked over our heads, launching a volley of missiles directly at Monica. Each projectile found their target, marking their accuracy with a visible explosion. The impacts themselves could be felt in the pits of our stomachs. The jets themselves flew past her, preparing to circle back and hit her again. More noise behind us somehow managed to tear our attention away from the great battle. Bursts of sound, much closer than the missile impacts came from behind us. We turned towards the source of the noise to see a squad of tanks heading towards us. Their barrels were all pointed at Monica, and they fired periodically. Everything that was in their way, from cars to buses, were either flattened or blasted apart as they rolled down the street. Jenny and I had to get off the street to make room for them. We stood in another alley and watched the battle continue. Only after the tanks were passed us did the trucks of soldiers come. Each was stocked piled with as many brave men and women as they could fit into a single transport. They practically ran out of each truck and began setting up a perimeter from which to fight behind.

“How the hell did these guys show up so quickly?” I asked aloud.

“It’s her,” Jenny answered. “She’s making them appear.”

“. . . . Are they real?” I asked. She didn’t answer me.

They set themselves about, preparing mini guns and RPGs, while planes and tanks tried to keep Monica distracted. For all of their efforts, however, they could do nothing to stop her. They couldn’t even scratch her. At the very best she seemed to have to expend some effort just to walk through the blasts, but that was it. They fought a losing battle. There was no sign on the soldiers’ faces that told of how well they comprehended this fact. At one point a squad of helicopters arrived on the scene, blasting at her like a King Kong movie. Of course to Kong, the helicopters had been like vultures or hawks at worst. To Monica, they were much closer to hummingbirds, and far less threatening. She revelled in the attention they paid her, smiling and twirling her arms through the air as if they were dancing together. They might as well have been for all the good their attacks did. Monica glided through all of it, snapping her arms about in great flourishes that scattered helicopters about, trying their best to avoid her counterattacks. They managed to keep ahead of her by sheer force of will and dumb luck.

But luck runs out eventually. You’d think it would have been a spectacular event. A godlike sweep of the hand, one that could level mountains, like an attack from Hera of greek mythology in real life. But really it only took a small brush of Monica’s hand. Almost like she was gently shooing away a dog. A flick of the wrist as harmless as that was enough to knock a helicopter, not just out of the air, but across five city blocks of distance. It streaked through the air like a shooting star entering Earth’s atmosphere. It sailed over the heads of the men and women holding the line in front of us and crashed down in a horrendous wreck. The sound echoed through the streets, and hit us like a physical force. My legs gave out from under me as I watched such a dangerous weapon of the American military reduced to a wreck of twisted metal. One body was thrown clear of the copter when it landed, while another one hung limply out of a broken windshield window. Who knew how many else were trapped inside. None moved.

They just . . . didn’t move . . . 

I was vaguely aware of Jenny sobbing behind me. I couldn’t move to comfort her. I couldn’t move in general. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the carnage before me. All the while the soldiers kept on firing while Monica swatted more helicopters and planes out of the sky. Some crashed near us, while others landed at other ends of the city. I wanted to say something. But what could be said about this?

“John . . .” Jenny breathed. “. . . John we . . . we have to stop this.”

My jaw moved for a few seconds before any actual words came out. “Stop this? Jenny . . . we can’t stop this. Nothing on Earth can stop her.”

“John, please don’t do this to me,” she sniffed, fighting to hold back her sobs. “Please I need to do something to end this and I can’t do it without you.”

The entire time I never looked back at her. My brain demanded that I keep soaking up the sights before me. Still, I shook my head at her. “Jenny this isn’t a game anymore. Whatever is going to happen, you can’t carry me through it. Unless Monica wants to be stopped there’s literally nothing I can do against her-”

Without warning I was seized by Jenny’s hands and pushed against the alley wall. Even though she was on her knees before me, she towered over my head. It would have been frightening had she not been crying.

“Listen to me!” she wailed. “You’re not some useless little bug she can just step on! You’re the smartest, most resourceful, most capable guy I know! I’ve never carried you through our games once! Everything you’ve ever achieved, you did it yourself. Every time you’ve gotten the better of me, every time you’ve outsmarted me, every time you’ve gotten away, that was all you!”

She took a few seconds to catch her breath and get her emotions under control. I only stood there with my mouth hanging open in shock. She continued.

“Ever since that first time I chased you through the school, you’ve been able to think on your feet and keep ahead of me. You’ve made weapons out of nothing to help get away like a fucking hero! I’ve played games like this all over the world, and no one has pulled off the stuff you have! You’re literally the only person on Earth who can help me and I need to do something to stop her! They’re my powers! My responsibility! Everyone who dies, their blood is on my hands!”

A switch went off in my head.

. . . . Blood!

Without a word I pushed passed Jenny and ran straight for the wrecked helicopter on the ground. More specifically, to the body of the man that was thrown from the craft entirely. The body lay sprawled face down on the asphalt street, not moving at all.

Not unless you got close to it.

I hadn’t noticed it at first, I was too far away. But what I had noticed should have been obvious from the start. How the hell had I not been suspicious when there was no blood?! Pushing over the soldier’s body, I found the entire front of him to be untouched. It was like he was knocked out, rather than dead. But of course he wasn’t dead. His chest was still moving. Sure enough there was a pulse to him as well. Running over to the pilot hanging limp through the windshield, I found the same scenario. They weren’t dead. In fact, they were entirely unharmed.

“They’re not dead!” I announced when I heard Jenny’s footsteps behind me.

She sniffed. “Wh-what?”

“They’re not dead!” I yelled again in triumph, running towards her. Grabbing Jenny by the hand, I began leading her at a running pace towards Monica’s direction. “Monica! She- she made them indestructible! Just like you do whenever you’re a giantess!”

Jenny soaked that in while easily keeping pace with me, her eyes starting to blink away tears as they stopped flowing. “S-so . . .”

I felt myself smiling fiercely. “So she’s not carving a path of destruction because she thinks she’s you! She’s playing a game!”

My friend sniffed heavily, finally getting herself back under control. “So no one’s dying? She’s just playing because she thinks she’s me?”

I nodded, looking over at the approaching giantess I was heading towards. “Exactly.”

“So then why are we running towards her?” she asked.

“Because,” I answered, smiling over my shoulder. “You want to get your powers back? We’ve got to win!”