Gearing Up

By VivettaVenray

(WARNING: Contains cruelty, vore, digestion, strange internals, and gore among other things.

As another important warning, the main giant character of this story has a steampunk-inspired mechanical body. She's arguably "technically" a cyborg, but only her brain and consciousness are human in origin. The body is very human-like however, [a giant brass woman, basically] and it is still capable of vore, among other fun stuff.

(NOTE: This story takes place in a steampunk setting on an alternate version of Earth. Despite featuring analogues of real world countries, this story isn't really trying to make any grand political or philosophical points. Any implication of such is most likely just an incidental result of trying to set the setting, advance the plot, or otherwise serve some story or size-y purpose.

The only reason it takes place on an Earth setting with real world country analogues is because I knew the story would feature a lot of travel and conquering, and I thought it'd be tedious to make up and keep track of a bunch of fantasy country names and such.

On another note, the first few chapters don't feature as much, if any, size-content. Also, they could probably be better refined. I think they tell more than show, and are a bit too heavy on exposition. Those chapters should probably be edited and reduced/consolidated, but editing is not nearly as fun as writing.

So, sorry in advance. I do hope the story is still enjoyed!)

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Chapter 1: A Meeting

Belle Braxley was the kind of woman who’d only be caught dead at The Golden Gear. As in, she would have been shot for trespassing like any reporter would be in New York City’s most fanciful restaurant. Yet, there she was, at the top floor of the Maycock building with two brawny men in suits holding the elevator door open for her.

She stepped inside. The sound-dampening metal doors clanked shut behind her. She rode up one floor. The door opened.

Belle found herself in awe.

Everyone had heard of The Golden Gear, but it was another thing entirely to be inside it. Her flats clacked against durable plexiglass, under which spun a tapestry of gears both elaborate and elegant. That thick transparent barrier protected the ears from their incessant spinning noises that surely accompanied such machinery.

Left, right, she looked.

The restaurant was the very top floor of the building, and designed circular with clear, strong curved windows lining the walls to provide a panoramic view of the city. All 360 degrees were accounted for, there wasn’t a single angle of view one couldn’t have over Manhattan here. The sun had just began to set, so it was truly gorgeous with the colorful hues of the sky reflecting about the copper and bronze of the city.

The tables were flat topped with a varnished surface, and connected to the floor via a thick, sturdy plexiglass leg connected to the floor. More gears were inside, as orderly and functional as those in the floor. The chairs were similar: one pillar with gears affixed to the floor by their associated sitting spot. Of course, those chairs pillars could slide forward and back along a small divot. This way, the more ‘portly’ guests could be accommodated. That build was far more common among the super rich of the city, who were the establishment’s standard clientele.

Every single table was empty, except for one on the other side of the circular room. There was her contact, clad in a fancy black suit with a carefully groomed mustache, dark as his slick hair. He held up a glass of bubbled water.

“Ms. Braxley, you’ve arrived right on time. Come, have a seat.”

“Belle is fine.”

She walked over.

Belle was a young reporter, just 20 years of age. Her contact had told her there was no need to dress up for the meeting. She was incredulous, but believed him, and thus wore her usual “compromise” attire of a long-sleeved white top with a knee-length black skirt. Her shoes were some flats, brown as a tree in color.

It was a compromise as it wasn’t so fashionable as to be impractical, yet it wasn’t so tilted towards athleticism and comfort that she’d be mistaken for a vagrant or street hustler. Lots of pickpockets out and about, and although she knew those tricks herself, she didn’t much care to advertise it.

A chime echoed through the room. The man set his glass down, holding it tight.

“What timing! Stand still a moment won’t you?”, he said.

The gears beneath Belle’s feet spun fast, as did those within the tables. Everything in room did, in fact. She felt her body twisting with the motion of the spinning floor. Yet, from her perspective, the view of her contact didn’t change. His table, as did all the tables, spun along with the entire top circular floor so as to keep their positions the same even as the view shifted.

After a few seconds, the gears calmed down a bit, and the outside view changed. The man spoke up and Belle resumed her saunter over.

“Marvelous, isn’t it? It’s a work of art as much as it is engineering. Like clockwork, the view rotates every five minutes. It’s about one 12th of a circle too. If you stay here for one hour, you’ll get the full view of the city from one of the tallest buildings it has to offer. You’ll also spend a fortune most likely!”

He laughed.

Belle sat down across the man, who seemed to be in his early 30s. His dark black hair was slicked into a rightwards part, whereas her own brown locks hung just about past her jaw. Her bangs were short, and the side was cut shorter as well so as to not get in her way.

Her green eyes met his gaze. The man had eyes too blue too be true, like the eyes of a doll.

She spoke first, her hands on the table as opposed to the more polite choice of her own lap.

“Is that how long this meeting will take?”

“An hour? Oh no certainly not. I’m a busy man. I’d be surprised if it takes us much more than another 5 minutes for your to process what I have to say.”

A woman in a tight corset, leggings, and a petticoat skirt stepped out from what must’ve been the kitchen elevator door. She had a tray of water alongside some aromatic little dishes.

She said nothing.

“Care for a drink? The best wines are served here.”, said the man.

Belle shook her head. “I don’t drink liquor.”

The man smiled. “Don’t want to cloud your judgment I take it?”

She nodded.

“Very wise. Well, how about some bubble water and a bite to eat then?”, the man asked.

“I’m alright.”

“Are you sure? This is probably the only time you’ll get to taste the food here? People wait weeks for a reservation here, and for someone like you, well...”

He let the sentence hang. Belle’s nose twitched as whatever delicious treats the waitress held was enticed her further.

“Alright, I suppose a little couldn’t hurt.”

Soon as she spoke the waitress walked over. She set the tray down and pour a glass of bubble water for Belle while refreshing the man’s own. The dishes set, the employee took the water and left back through the kitchen door.

Belle didn’t know what to call the array of foodstuffs before her. Probably french names. It seemed to be an array of appetizers, with little fancy forks of polished brass to use. There was only one per dish, though.

“You’re not eating?”, she said.

“I ate earlier.”, he replied. “But please, try some.”

Belle pierced some succulent looking mix of bread and vegetable. The flavor was so delectable, so divine she had to stop herself from audibly “mmm”ing. She chewed it quickly, each bite squirted out some buttery sauce over her tongue and reminded her this was how the top of the top ate every day.

She swallowed and set down the fork.

“You don’t want anymore?”, said the man.

“A bite was enough.”

“You’re not afraid it’s poison are you? I’m an informant for you, a whistle-blower of sorts, it’s in my interest you live long enough to get the scoop I desire.”

“It could be a slow acting poison. Weeks.”, said a smiling Belle.

The man chuckled.

“Very clever! But, no, although all I have to offer you on that is my word.”

Belle took a sip of the bubble water. The fizziness of it tickled her tongue.

“Clean steam is used in the carbonation process: no exhaust, like from the carts you’re used to on the streets.”

He leaned in, kept talking.

“You know, I think I know why you stopped after a bite.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because of what I said. It’s unlikely you’ll get food this luscious again. Why spoil yourself, it’ll just make you long for it later right? At the same time, not having a bite means you never got to taste it at all. Your life experience would be a bit less in that case. I think you struck a good balance.”

Belle looked a tad offended, and in a manner which leaked to him that he was right and she knew it.

“Perhaps I merely ate beforehand.”

“Not enough to not be hungry for food this good: at least not on a reporter’s salary. Say, I noticed another thing about you. When you came in, the first spot you looked was down. Not forward, or at the view, but at the complex gears spinning around under our shoes.”

He tapped his fancy black dress shoes across the floor. She noticed they had to be shined not more than a couple hours ago.

Belle smirked.

“I was saving the best view for last.” she said.

He scoffed. “You mean, yours truly?”

“No, behind you.”

Just behind the man, a glimmering airship came into view. It was sleek as any steam-powered aerial contraption could be. The brass piping on its exterior and similarly shining cogwork made it clear it was an upper-end model of the Aerozep line.

“The airship is quite pretty, I admit.”

“I prefer the skyline myself actually. That said, are they spying on us? Rivals of yours?”, said Belle.

“No.”, he said. “I know that specific craft. It’s part of a new sky tour service. It’s for people rich enough to afford such a view of the city, yet not so rich as to always afford one by buying a top-floor penthouse or similar. They will pass by shortly onto the Granger building, then other sights our city as to offer.”

“Fair enough. Anyways, I don’t appreciate you trying to analyze me sir. I believe you said you had information for me.”, said Belle.

“Forgive me!”, he said. It was at this moment it sunk in how he had his hands on his lap this whole time chatting with her.

“Although, you’d be surprised,”, he continued. “At just how important analyzing people is when it comes to my work.”

Belle decided to try. She pointed at the cog-shaped ornament he had on his lapel. It was too small for a broach, a bit big for a pin, and its gold sheen was something she had noticed right when she entered.

“What is that?”

The chime rung through the restaurant as it rotated once more. The view of the city from the windows shifted. Belle now overlooked one of the few pits of pristine park left. Tall brass-made buildings loomed around it, as though they were waiting for that last bit of nature to shrivel up and die so they could move in.

“A badge.”, he said while the rotating restaurant settled. “Though it looks like a pin or broach to some. All the top executives for my employer wear it when not in the public eye. Helps others of the upper classes, and those who wait on us, know who we serve.”

“And your employer is...”

“Are you ready to learn? I told you the information I had would be very big. Big enough to buy out The Golden Gear for the day.”

That sentence tingled the woman’s reporter instincts.

“That’s right, I remember others in the Maycock building being told this was closed. But, how did you buy the entire restaurant for a day, and why? Why not just an hour?”, said Belle.

“Ah I knew you were astute. As to the first, simple question: money.”

“That must’ve been a high fortune.”, said Belle. She took a sip of her glass.

“Indeed, but even an executive at Voxhaben has more wealth and sway than most business owners and heirs in the whole city.”

Belle nearly spit out her drink. Her head cocked back.

“Voxhaben? Voxhaben LLC?!?”

“As to your other, cleverer question...”, began the man.

“I’m sure you think it more economical to rent this place out just for an hour or so, but that’s too suspicious. By closing the entire place for the day, I was able to plant the cover story that The Golden Gear was undergoing maintenance. Even gears treated with Voxhaben’s patented lubricant need some tending to, on occasion. As you noticed, some of the cogwheels here are made in part of actual gold. A very flashy choice, but one that benefits from polishing.”

“Voxhaben, you work for Voxhaben? Which means that pin of yours...”

“Was given to me by Mr. Cogston himself, yes.”

“Inventor of the radio among other innovations? Private owner of the most lucrative company in all the US? That Victor Cogston?”

“He is my superior. You now understand the kind of information I can offer you. The biggest scoop there is to get, the one that newspapers have made fortunes merely speculating on.”

“The Voxhaben Complex...”, muttered Belle.

“Yes, I know what’s inside.”

The Voxhaben Complex was the name for the enormousness, multi-block building that the company had built in lower west Manhattan. A sprawling gray rectangle, it spanned over at least a dozen blocks and streets in size. Most impressive of all, it loomed over 1000ft in height. It must’ve cost tens of millions to build at least.

No one knew what was inside, but everyone wanted to. Spies from rival companies tried to get in, all failing. Moreover, despite being in the nation’s capital, there were even rumors that the USA government couldn’t discover what was inside.

Voxhaben LLC said nothing on the goings on inside other than that it was “important work.” It’s said that the enigmatic and eccentric owner of the company, Victor Cogston, spent most of his work hours there despite the company have dozens of other offices and properties in the city.

Whatever was going on in there, was something big. It was on the mind of the elite and ‘pleb’ alike. Private and public minds wanted to know, but no one but the top people of the company ever came out of it.

“Tell me!”, said Belle. Her eyes were wide. This would indeed be the scoop of the century.

“Patience. I know you’re dying to put your paper on the map, to cement your status as the nation’s best reporter. Well, at least I think you just might.”

“Well, tell me then.”

“I can’t.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s something no one would believe, not without evidence. That’s where you come in.”

“What do you mean?”

The man put his hands on the table, interlocked at the fingers.

“I’m going to give you the means to get into the building. A press badge. As far as the company is concerned, you are reporting on just the outermost, least-secret facilities. I suggested the idea to Mr. Cogston as a way to pacify the public and keep the papers and government off our back.”

He reached into his coat and pulled out a fancy looking document, signed. For a moment, Belle saw the glimmer of cog-ladden tools hidden in his coat. Figures someone high up wouldn’t be unable to do dirtier business.

She took the sturdy pass and listened to him continue.

“Security will be lax though, by my orders. You’ll be able to sneak deeper into the complex, into the biggest, most central room. There, you’ll see what I’m talking about.”

“What sort of proof am I to get?”

“Whatever you can. You can sketch right? Sketch what you see, anything that looks important. Take any documents that seem important. In fact, if you can somehow manage to sneak one in, go and take one of those photographic cameras inside with you.”

Belle scoffed. “Even if I had the money for such a thing, it’d be far too impractical.”

The man grinned.

“Of course, but the point is to record and take what you can. You will need it. What’s going on inside is truly that unbelievable.”

Belle flipped the pass over, inspected it.

“This is all...”

“Too good to be true? I can imagine. A single bit of gossip from a place like The Golden Gear is often enough to sustain any paper for a solid month. Your expectations must’ve been high walking in here and, I can’t lie, it’s joy to surpass them.”

Belle moved the pass into a pocket on her top.

“But, why me, why my paper?” said Belle.

“Ah yes, your paper. The... Squeaky Wheel. It gets the grease, after all?”

He laughed, and she was not amused.

“Well, Belle, a small paper like yours seems perfect for breaking out a story like this. Just call it a hunch. Your paper is known for more scandalous takes on things, but never falsehoods. That’s important, I need the future story to be believed.”

Belle waited.

“As to why you, well, I like to think I’m good at analyzing others, I suppose.”

Belle pursed her lips to the side a moment. It was far from the most satisfying answer, but the pass seemed legitimate, and the man didn’t seem to be lying. He did buy out the restaurant for a day.

“But, why betray your employer like this, especially after how well he’s obviously treated you? Something doesn’t add up here...”

“Ah.”, said the man. “No, you are just a nobler sort than most. ‘How could he risk all he has?’, you must think. Well, for more, of course. It’s just business. That’s all the detail I’ll give on my motives, and all you have to worry about.”

“What if you try to betray me?”

“You think I’ll treat you as another cog in some machination of mine? Well, we at Voxhaben take good care of our cogs.”

He laughed, and she was once again unamused.

“Don’t worry Belle, I want you to get a story out. Once you do, you will be the most famous reporter there is. The rewards you’ll have will be well worth keeping my identity a secret, not that you know my name anyways. Everything will work out, far, far better than you can even imagine, possibly.”, said the man.

“I’ll go there now.”, said Belle.

“Oh no, no. Today is a Friday. It’ll be too crowded. You’ll go tomorrow morning, on the weekend when workloads are less, citywide.”

The chime rung out again. The restaurant started to spin. The view shifted to some buildings in a rich business area. Company HQs no doubt.

“That’s 10 minutes.”, said the man. “More time than I planned for. Let’s hope you’re worth it, Belle Braxley.”

He stayed sitting, silent. It was clear to Belle she was meant to leave. She stood up.

“I’ll get the story, whatever it is.”

“Well.”, said the man. “I’ll tell you one thing. What’s in there, it’s revolutionary. It’s going to be the biggest shakeup to human society in more than 50 years, a century, even millennia. It’s perhaps going to be the defining moment of human history as we know it.”

Belle stood for more information. He offered nothing more, till the elevator doors opened and Belle stepped inside. Right before the doors closed, he said one more sentence just loud enough to hear in the quiet restaurant.

“It’ll change the world.”

Chapter 2: New York City

It wasn’t hard to get near the Voxhaben complex. You could get as close as you wanted to the outside of the building. There was no harm in that. The only windows weren’t actually windows, but assumed to be one-way mirrors, and they were so high up as to preclude vandalism in most cases.

It was another feeling to be so close to such massive, looming walls of gray. Most business buildings chipped out for at least copper ornamentation, and a company like Voxhaben could afford solid brass. Yet, this was all concrete with iron latticing. Pure business.

The young reporter craned her neck high to look at the walls and felt a bit dizzy.

‘Imagine working on the top floors of this thing’, she thought, assuming it simply must have dozens of floors.

Belle had mentioned to her superior she had some information on the Voxhaben company, but he said he wanted to hear no more.

“No one can do business in the city if on Voxhaben’s bad side. If that Cogston has his way, as I think he will one day, then no one in the nation will be either to either. There’s rumors about people diving in the city ponds for pennies again. Go check that out instead.”

‘As if’, thought Belle.

She thankfully didn’t mention the contact she had met, or anything else she knew. Just the name “Voxhaben” was enough to make her crabby bossman shudder. It made her shudder too: with excitement.

The story was big. She could see it in her mysterious contacts eyes. Once she had the scoop, whatever it was, she had feeling The Squeaky Wheel would *have* to print it. And if they didn’t? Well, she’d just go to some other paper. They’d be drooling over themselves to publish her story.

Anyone who figured out what was going on inside the Voxhaben Complex would be a legend.

‘Belle Braxley, legendary reporter.’, she thought.

The young woman had a ways to walk to the front entrance, which was on the south end of the building. There were other entrances, but those were mostly for deliveries. Delivery trucks and employees were the only ones seen going in and out on the regular. No one, far as she knew, was in contact with any of the employees inside. Did they ever come outside? Victor Cogston, the owner, did now and again for events. He refused any and all interviews though, even before he started building the place.

Belle stopped at a street corner from the sound of a loud honk. A steam automobile wizzed right by the strips of white on the road. Its be-goggled pilot laughed at her as he sped past.

The vehicles were a rather new contraption.

‘Don’t you want your own, sleek geartank? A private locomotive, rails-free!’, read the ads.

There was some truth to the marketing. It did look like someone had taken the raw front of a train, affixed four even sized wheels, cut the top and replaced it with retractable fabric, then finally slapped on a propulsion engine then called it a day.

Far as Belle was concerned they were death traps. One crash and that boiler at the back of the craft could explode, rupturing hot water all over and shooting chunks of copper left and right.

Despite it all, they were popular as ever. Each steam automobile or “car” was for those who were wealthy, but not so rich as to afford a private airzep. They were for the up-and-coming: the richest of the middle classes and the poorest of the upper ones. Best of all, they get cheaper and cheaper every year.

The fad got to the point that the city started accommodating for them. Belle remembered when they were closing streets in mass for work, only to reopen them with more than half the walking space gone, replaced with “automobile-zoned roads.” Now, there’s a crosswalk on every block.

She crossed the street and kept moving.

Up above her the airships moved. Mostly private airzeps for the richest. They probably laughed at those in cars, just as that automobile’s driver laughed at her.

More cars every day, some new airship model out every week too it seemed. Always the obsession with air among the rich. In fact, there was fanciful talk of flying cities being worked on in the far east.

‘A world where the richest soar above, the lesser rich race by, and where does that leave the rest?’

Belle shivered at the thought, but she was on her way up. She would have something they wouldn’t, she’d make history with a big story.

This was her day

The streets were crowded even so close to the ominous Complex. Belle was no stranger to the city. She had lived in it all her life and knew how to navigate and survive it.

A man in an ally, dressed in, begged for pennies. Belle felt bad, but knew damn well that while passing out change his unseen partner would try and swipe her shoulder bag.

Later on, a woman in a flat cap was approaching her from the other end of the street and looking shifty while doing it. A pickpocket no doubt. Belle hugged her bag tight to her body. The woman saw that Belle was no easy mark and moved her gaze elsewhere.

Yes, she knew the streets well, but was lucky enough to manage an education despite her upbringing. She wouldn’t let it go to waste as a pickpocket or beggar, but it was nice to know how those ways of life worked in case the reporting business didn’t work out.

‘No.’, she thought.

‘This is it. My day. I’ll get the story.’

New York City was said to be the wealthiest city in America. The most “welcoming”, the most “opportune”. Belle thought it the most ironic. Ironic that it was the nation’s capital despite being a British hotspot during the country’s colonial history. Ironically, the chief embassy building near central Manhattan had since become the capital building and the workplace the nation’s president.

Sadly, that wasn’t the only way it was ironic. The city was home to richest in the nation as well as the poorest. It was home to the latest innovations in steamtech on the western hemisphere, yet safety and security were hoarded by the rich as crime plagued the lower classes.

Belle had a feeling she’d be above all that soon enough. She never cared for fortune, she just wanted to leave a mark on history. To be memorable in such a crowded and bustling world.

Closer to the complex’s front, the streets grew less crowded. Belle brushed her clothes with her palms to settle her nerves and make sure they were as presentable as possible. She had another dilemma in her outfit. She needed to be able to move fast if need be, but also had to look like an actual professional reporter worthy of the press pass she was given.

To that end, her outfit looked much like it did the prior evening. She had on a dark blue long sleeved top, with a copper lock-picking set stowed to cloth loops snug against her inner arms. She had the black skirt as when at The Golden Gear, albeit lightly laundered just in case. It was long enough just cover her knees alongside the knife strapped to the inside of her right thigh.

Her shoes were the same too. However, she affixed spatterdashes to them. They were becoming something of a more common fashion accessory among women, but she wore them for another reason. The felt things were buttoned across her ankles, covering them as well as the top of her foot. Securing them meant looping a strap under and around her flats though. That meant her shoes were more tightly secured to her feet, making it far less likely they’d fall off mid-sprint.

Yes, she was prepared. At least, that’s what she kept telling herself till she saw them. Right at the double-doored entrance to the complex were two tall tough men clad in dark black suits. One had a darker complexion, the other light. Both were bald, and each of them wore gear-oggles.

That eye-wear cost a pretty penny. It wasn’t just the fancy minute gears needed to swap the magnifying lenses in the goggles that kept the costs high. The finely cut and calibrated lenses themselves were costly to make and integrate into the construction. That stuff was military grade, often for snipers, and thus far impossible to mass produce with ease. You wouldn’t waste that gear on run-of-the-mill goons.

Belle approached, swallowing her fear with a gulp and steadying her nerves with her little mantra.

‘This is it. My day.’

She swore she heard the click of their lenses as they turned to look at her while she approached from the side. The street was empty save for them. Once she was close enough to speak, she saw the lenses slide aside and got a good look at their eyes without magnifying lenses distorting them. Both the guards studied her carefully.

Belle’s tone was chipper. Her smile bright.

“I’m with The Squeaky Wheel. I believe you’ve been expecting me.”

She moved to reach into her shoulder bag.

“Slowly”, barked the man on the right.

“Of course.”

She obliged. Slowly moving her hand into the bag. Her wallet and the press pass were inside, alongside a simple sketch pad and plenty of empty space. She didn’t want to risk keeping suspicious tools there in case the bag was searched.

Belle carefully brandished her sturdy paper press pass. She did her best to keep her hands from shaking as the men leaned down to inspect it.

They nodded their heads.

“You are to stay in the front three rooms ONLY.”, said one of the guards. “You have an allotted time of 2 hours maximum. If stay longer you will be retrieved and escorted out. If you go deeper than the first three rooms, company protocol dictates you’ll be treated as a spy, and disposed of accordingly. Understand?”

Belle nodded.

“Yes sir.”

“Good.”

Both the men opened the doors and she stepped inside.

Chapter 3: Infiltration

To Belle’s surprise, no one was immediately inside. The front room was massive in width with an unmanned reception desk at the front. Fancy steamtech toys lingered as decorations, but there was no one to take her name, no staff to lead her around and keep an eye.

The brunette looked over her shoulder just to make sure that front door stayed shut. She was worried about those guards poking their heads in. After a few seconds of that she got to work.

She played the part just in case anyone was watching from somewhere she couldn’t see. She took out her sketchpad and scribbled the desk. She wrote a brief description of the room, too, before flipping the page of her pad to a new one and walking around.

She squinted left and right, up and down but there were no mirrors for which someone to watch her on the other end. Two sets of double doors lead deeper into the complex, both evenly spaced left and right of the big empty desk. Once sure she was unwatched, she took the right doors and went in deeper.

The next room after was boring. It looked like a lobby of sorts, with some simple, small models of automobiles, airships and other steam vehicles on display.

The room immediately after was very similar. More mundane diagrams of slightly improved airship designs, and fancy steampipe layouts scribbled on parchment, proudly displayed on the wall and yet entirely above her ability to fathom. She didn’t know the exact significance of what these developments were, but she knew two things. First, they were probably interesting enough for a story and a follow up that would be best sellers for the paper. Secondly, she knew it wasn’t what she was looking for.

Prototype models were interesting stuff, but far from “world changing” like her contact had said. She had to go deeper, to the building’s center. But, she knew once she opened the doors leading deeper, if caught, it’d be her end.

Belle took a deep breath and opened them.

Once again, the young woman was shocked. She was in a long, wide corridor. It was lined with doors, yet almost entirely empty of objects and completely bereft of any employees. The doors on the sides had windows, and she peeked through as she moved along. There were diagrams of unreleased steam automobiles, geartanks, and airships. There were also rooms with the walls covered in diagrams of complex pipework. There were also plenty of normal offices as well.

Belle didn't investigate any of that closer. She knew the most important project in the complex, its main purpose, would have to be smack dab in the center room. It just made sense. So, she continued her march down the hallway with only the taps of her flats and the gentle hum of steam rushing through the copper pipes high up on the walls.

The young woman was impressed at how wide and tall the hallway was. It stretched dozens of feet in the air, and was wide enough to fit probably half-a-dozen geartanks side by side. She imagined it would be exhausting working here and walking around so much.

She kept moving, and moving. The hall stretched for at least two blocks, and although it had some left and right junctions, she never once turned. The middle of the facility was her goal.

As she drew nearer to the facility’s center, some opened boxes started to pop up more and more on the side. Thick shipping crates. She paid them little mind till, at last, doors on the other side of the long hallway came into view. Then, she heard the knob turn. There was talking and chatter too, echoing down the hallway. It was something about “sweeping the area.”

With her heart thumping deep in her chest, Belle thought to hide. She ducked behind a horizontal box that was itself hidden behind two vertical ones. She heard them walking her way, though she had just a bit of time. She was hidden then, but soon as they walked past she’d be spotted if they so much as turned to the right. She couldn't’ move the boxes, that be too much noise.

‘The lid, however...’

Belle waited for a particularly loud hiss from the steam pipes crawling atop the halls. Then, she quickly slid the lid of the horizontal crate just enough to slide her lithe self inside. Lucky for her, it was a shipment of raw cloth, so not only did she not make much noise ducking down inside, but she was rather comfy. Certainly, she was more comfy than if it were a shipment of raw gears or stud-nails.

Belle waited. She held her breath but couldn’t do anything about the thump of her heart in her chest. Over a very stressful couple of minutes, the footsteps of the guards came, then went. She waited a solid minute of not hearing them before finally slinking out of the crate, sliding the lid back into position and heading down the hall.

More junctions, more opportunities to turn back and retreat. Belle kept going, even as the piping increased above, the side rooms grew sparser, and the sounds of steam flowing increased. She had no fear, eyes on the prize, she tried and opened the doors at the end of the hallway at last.

It was locked, but no problem for Belle. She slipped a lockpick free from her arm and had it opened in a few seconds. It seemed odd to protect the room with such a simple, basic common lock, but given the trouble to get in here it made some sense.

She opened the doors.

As soon as Belle was inside the complex’s central chamber, she was stunned. Belle was not surprised, not shocked, but in absolute, unsteady awe. It was immediately clear to her what her contact was talking about, why everything was so secretive and, finally, why the complex was so huge.

Looming near the far end of the room, towering at around 1000ft tall, was a gigantic, stark naked figure of a woman.

It was entirely inert, and the solid brass of its construction was thoroughly polished. Iron and bronze scaffolding surrounded it, covered in platforms and complete with slews of steps and ladders for navigating around the work of art. All said scaffolding seemed very firmly welded to the ground and affixed to the wall at the back. All sorts of steamtech, grabber and tool-tipped arms jutted out from the scaffolding towards the gigantic model.

From where Belle stood, she could crane her neck and just barely make out its face. Its head was pointed slightly down, like a doll at rest. The craftsmanship on the face was very lifelike. She wondered what kind of details it held if she could get even closer. She wished she had some gear-oggles at that moment. Still, even from a distance she could tell that they even carved out nails for the fingers and toes.

Of course, it was decidedly inhuman as well in that its hair was solid, rather than than individual strands. The ‘style’ was short, flared a little at the edges to further emphasis its femininity. It wasn’t much shorter than Belle’s own, though. Even though the strands weren’t individual, they were molded to seem as such. She could even make out the waviness in the ‘hair-do’ which helped bring the sculpture to life.

‘No way, could that be it? All this fuss for a giant sculpture?’, Belle thought.

Yet, a sculpture didn’t seem right. It seemed too simple for all this effort. A couple things didn’t make sense to her. The colossus's head was tilted slightly forward and looking down. That wasn’t the most photogenic pose if this was to be propped up somewhere. Metal bands about its wrists, ankles, arms, and legs held it to the scaffolding behind it. These kept the arms and legs against the wall, but also meant the posture was just a bland, standing one.

Belle looked closely and realized the eyes were glowing. A gentle golden light emitted from the irises of the construct. At least, it seemed gentle from this far away.

‘They can’t display it like that, which means it has to be able to move. But, if it can move then... it’s a machine? A gigantic, humanoid machine. It has to be. I need to get closer’, thought Belle.

The reporter took out her sketch pad. She frantically drew a base sketch of what she saw while moving forward.

The room had a lot else going on too.

It was clear this was where the real work was done. The gigantic room was held stable by a wide variety of towering, thick pillars of solid bronze. Each one was a fortune to erect, no doubt. Desks were scattered about in an open floor plan style that she was somewhat familiar with as a reporter. A slew of papers and documents littered each, with diagrams between the desk areas for all to see and peruse.

The central chamber served as a workshop as well as a workplace. It was entirely self-sufficient with its own printing press at the front right corner with respect to Belle, and a smelting furnace far, far in the opposite corner with plenty of room and pipes to help manage the heat.

Pipes crisscrossed on the walls and lead everywhere towards the ceiling. Belle craned her head up to see, to her amazement, docked airzeps! They were the sleekest kind of airships, too, but the fact that entire airships, even the smallest, were used to navigate in here blew Belle’s mind. They seemed specialty made too, with gear-jointed limbs jutting off the bottoms for manipulation and work.

Yet, the only thing tall enough to ever need an airship would be that brass colossus.

“Is this, all this, just for that brass creation...”, mused Belle.

“Voxhaben really spared no expense.”

Belle quickly noticed a large diagram showcasing the colossus, only with its arms held at its sides and its legs slightly more spread. It was titled “Brass Woman”. She walked up to that first desk it was near for a closer.

“Brass Woman, so that’s what they call it. Fitting.”

There were some pamphlets on that nearby desk, and she stuffed one in her shoulder bag while quickly flipping through another. It had very few words, and simply showed the colossus in various poses. Strangely enough, there were little diagram drawings of movement.

‘Movement, but how? There’s no joints on it, no visible gears.’

Belle looked to the center of the room, where the largest two desks were. Each was absolutely covered in papers that were all neatly stacked. The scene was like the border of a square, cut down the middle and pried apart to make the two large desks. A slew of diagrams stood between the two workspaces there, and they looked a good deal more detailed and different than the one she just saw.

The reporter ran over. She remembered that she only had an hour to get and record as much information as possible. She still wanted to get close to the colossus, see if there were hidden bits to see up close, but that could wait till her bag was filled to the brim with documents and dossiers on this thing.

All the while, her mind was racing.

‘It’s a weapon. If it moves, it has to be. But, that seems so impractical. Why not make a 1000ft tall tank instead? Or just make a really big bomb...’

Questions, so many questions. She reached those central desks and didn’t know where to began. She flipped through one diagram--it was on a tri-legged stand like the others--and saw some internal details. There were gears inside, that was much certain, but she had no idea how any but the brightest mind could comprehend it. She certainly couldn’t, especially not flipping the pages as fast as she did.

She couldn’t take such a large diagram with her, but she saw the stacks of documents on the left desk. Each was different from the other. This was it. Just one of these would be proof enough, but she flapped open her bag and just started stuffing them inside.

It’s at that moment that every door to the chamber swung open, and security guards swarmed. The lights were on her, literally, as from atop the scaffolding near the ceiling great big lanterns were pointed her way.

Belle reached for the knife on her thigh and started moving to run, but it was too late. It was too late the moment she entered the room. A militia’s worth of gear-oggled goons rushed to her, holding rifles or pistols in hand. At the same time, radio-speakers across the chamber echoed out a warning.

“Raise your hands. Do not move or you will be killed.”

The security staff had mostly the same dark suit on as the ones outside. Two goons grabbed her arms and held her steady, she saw a very important man walking her way.

His cane tapped against the floor with every one of his steps. He wore a long gray coat decorated with some copper trimming. It made his obviously skinny physique seem a bit more wide. Short black hair just poked out from beneath a tall top hat that rotated with not one, not two, but three full decorative cogbands on it. His shoes were dress, slate gray.

Belle knew who he was. Everyone did. He offered a black-gloved hand to shake, and the guard on the right released the associated arm of hers from his grip.

“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you. My name is Victor Cogston. I believe you already meant my associate, Henry Fib.”

Another man stepped out from the throng of security staff behind Victor. Belle’s heart sank. It was the mustached contact she yet met just a day ago. He smiled as he spoke.

“Just Henry is fine.”

Chapter 4: Briefing

Belle’s eyes were wide. Her blood pumping.

“Now, I’m sure you have a lot of questions to ask.”, said Mr. Fib.

“You set me up, you bastard!”, said Belle.

With one hand free, the reporter rejected Victor’s hand to reach towards her skirt. Before she could grab the knife, the guard behind her right grabbed her arm again, hard. She let out a yelp.

“Careful!”, barked Victor Cogston. “I don’t want a single hair on her head harmed.”

“But sir, she was going for something.”

“Yes, and you could've grabbed her arm more gently and stopped her all the same.”

Victor turned to her, and she take in the details of his face. Somewhat aged, early 40s. His eyes were brown and stared at a face just a moment before looking up at her hairline of all places. His jaw was weak, face clean shaven and smooth. His voice, even when shouting, was a tad on the softer side.

Belle was up close with the richest man in the nation, and she thought him oddly feeble.

“Belle Braxley. My associate here will release your arm and you are to slowly retrieve whatever weapon is stowed against your thigh and drop it to the floor. It would be unwise to try anything in the process.”

He gave a gentle nod to the man holding her left arm, and he pointed a pistol to her face.

Belle slowly did as she was told. This wasn’t the first time her life was threatened, though it was the first time it was with a gun.

‘If you got out of that, you can get out of this. Just play it calm.’, she thought.

“How do you know my name?”, she asked.

“My memory is near eidetic, and I memorized the faces of all the candidates.”

Belle dropped the knife to the ground and slid it over with her foot. Some security guard picked it up and took it away for disposal.

“Candidates?”, she said.

“You don’t think I just tipped off one reporter?”, chimed in Mr. Fib. “Do you remember, Belle, when I said analyzing people was an important part of my job duties? What do you think I was doing at The Golden Gear all day? I was there all day, I wouldn’t put a full day’s booking to waste.”

He chuckled, and Belle grew only more confused.

“I don’t understand.”

“I’ll explain it to you, everything, including why you’re here.”, said Victor. “I ask only for your patience and good manners. You won’t get away from us now anyways, so there is no point to resist. Do you understand?”

Belle paused a moment then nodded.

With a snap of Victor’s fingers the guards released their hold on her arms and ever so kindly moved the pistol muzzle from her left temple.

“Is your arm ok? Bruised?”, said Victor.

She rubbed it. “No, just squeezed a little tight I suppose.”

“Good, let’s walk and talk.”

Victor Cogston walked alongside Belle. Behind him was Mr. Fib and a group of security guards. The desks were large, dozens of feet in length. Towards the middle were most of the diagrams, which was where they were walking under the watchful eyes of security guards at the other end of the furniture and high up on the scaffolding at the roof.

“I’m sure you’ve no doubt noticed the giant brass woman?”, said Victor.

“You know, now that you mention it, I suppose that is a thing.”

He laughed.

“Good, a sense of humor is a good trait.”

“What is it for?”, she asked.

“The future.”, he answered without skipping a beat.

“What does that even mean?”, she asked.

“Ah where to begin.” he paused a moment, then spoke.

"Steam technology: developed independently by the British and Chinese; refined and improved by the Americans and Japanese. It spread everywhere, including to the imperialized colonies, only to be used by the native denizens in successful rebellion. It's a marvelous technology. The one uniter of countries across the globe is the mutual race in arms, productivity, and leisure with steamtech. I believe it is very much the key to humanity's glorious future, but the current trajectory points to a rather gruesome end."

They stopped walking at the center of the two desks in front of all the diagrams. He looked to the ones at the left, which displayed all sorts of things, though the center one was the largest, with the Brass Woman on the front.

“So you’re a doomsday theorist?” said Belle.

“No.”, said Victor. “I’m a realist. Surely you, a reporter, read the news?”

Belle smirked. Victor continued talking.

“The French are bitter about losing hold on their colonies in Africa. I say it serves them right, but they don't see it the loss as a learning opportunity even though they’ve had decades to do so. Their persistent, destructive, and futile efforts on the north of that continent are the only thing that keeps their ceasefire with the British going. The British, meanwhile, have used their vacation from fighting the French to harass Norway for resources they don't need, but want.”

He paused for a breath.

“Russia and Poland have decided to pick at the Ukraine, who’s enlisted the Ottoman’s to the south. While Europe is tangled in this web of avarice and alliances, China has started licking its lips at Korea, if the scarce reports of troops near Korea’s northern border are anything to go by.”

“What’s your point?”, said Belle.

“My point is that the world is at the precipice of an explosion of conflict. The moment things turn into an invasion in any of the locations I mention, I fear there will be an all out war. Alliances are tangled, grudges high. With all the mutual interests at odds, I fear a global war is on the horizon.”

“There have been wars before.”, said Belle.

Victor frowned.

“Are you being absurd on purpose? Playing devil’s advocate? You know war is horrible, but, there is a small truth to your words. There have been wars before, but not global, and not with the technology on hand or what is to come. Things are advancing rapidly in the field of airships and armaments. I worry the weapons of a new war could ravage human civilization beyond repair. We are in a unique situation where almost every country on Earth is excelling in terms of growth and development, yet wouldn’t bat an eye to stab their neighboring nations for a bite of their dinner.”

“So, is that why you built that giant woman? To make the machine of the future before anyone else?”, asked Belle.

“It’s no mere machine.”, said Victor. “It’s a body.”

He waved his hand at Mr. Fib, who dutifully moved to the center diagram with the Brass Woman on it. His fingers flipped the page to reveal a new diagram, showing a bit of an inside view to the thing. Belle had seen a similar view to this on the other diagram, but this one focused more on the pipes running through it. They looked almost like veins in the numbers and complexities of their neat arrangement.

“So, it is piloted?”, said Belle.

“Only in the sense of how your brain pilots your body, yes, you could say that. But, it’s not as though someone is in there with goggles, pulling levers and turning knobs.”

Belle was stunned. Mr. Fib turned the page again, showing a close up on the face of the colossus. There were detailed instructions for the flow of the hair and minutia of the face shape and symmetry.

“Impressive, isn’t it? I hired some of the best artists this nation had to offer. While designing the body, my goal was to treat the Brass Woman like the legends of Aphrodite. She was to be the perfect female form, with all deviations from it imperfections that make others unique. A paragon, divine.”

“And what do those artists think of your plan?”, asked Belle. “Your super weapon?”

Victor laughed.

“What did they think of my plan? You don’t even know my plan Belle.”

“’Did?’”, she interrupted. “Past tense now?”

Victor sighed.

“I took no pleasure in it, but once they knew of the working conditions here, and what the final goals were, most of them got cold feet. They wanted to leave the project. You know those artists types, always loving the ideal over the practical, always valuing freedom over their safety. Most had to be disposed of, but some saw the light of my vision, and are under my employ even now. Occasionally, a scientist or two, too, would get a sudden nerve to try and leave, but for the most part we are unified here at Voxhaben LLC.”

“So you... what is your final goal then? Your vision that’s worth those lives?”

Belle was angry, but also afraid. This was clearly a man willing to kill. She cheered herself up with a simple thought.

‘If I make it out of here, I’ll have one heck of a story.’

Victor clutched his cane tightly.

“Belle, although that body will be the greatest super weapon the world will ever see, I didn’t make it for something so crude. If I wanted a mere super-weapon, it wouldn’t look remotely human. It’s something for people to look to, admire, obey.”

Her turned to look her right in the eyes.

“The grand project of this complex, the effort I’ve sunk over half the company’s and my own personal fortune into isn’t the creation of a weapon: it’s the creation of a god.”

Belle’s jaw dropped.

“What? That’s... that’s mad!”

“Well you write the papers, you should know what kind of man I am: crazy!”

He laughed.

“A joke. I assure you, I’m entirely serious.”

“I... what?”

Henry Fib silently flipped another page on the diagram. This new one showing a design of some gears inside the body where the elbows, knees, and other joints were.

“Of course, important points of articulation are aided via gear systems. I wanted this body to sacrifice none of the flexibility afforded to a human one. Sacrificing speed was acceptable, but not flexibilities. Ah, next page Mr. Fib, it’s a good on.”

Henry obliged. The next page showed the space in the body between the outermost brass. It seemed there was a cavity there, and little puff-like drawings were speckled about within that area.

“Do you see this?”, said Victor. “It’s how the body feels a sense of touch, heat, and cold. Steam permeates cavities just under the body’s surface, and responds to vibrations against the colossus’s surface. Through some very complicated processes, this conveys touch to the body’s brain. I really wanted this body to be, well, a body: more than a contraption. I hope this doesn’t sound egotistical, but I’m confident more steamtech innovations came about from this project, *solely* for this project, than worldwide in the past decade at least.”

“A god, you said? Even if that wasn’t mad, how does that help your issue?”, said Belle.

“Think clearly here Belle. Here at Voxhaben we are leaders in securing military contracts. More than half the geartanks in the armed forces are our make, and that’s to nothing of the steam canons, pistols... If I wanted to just make a super weapon I could’ve done so far quicker and cheaper, but, what do you think that would accomplish.”

“Well, you could probably prevent that war. Strike first right?”

Victor laughed.

“Yes, if I wanted to make just a super weapon, I could develop the first ocean-traversing airship and fly an armada of them across the Atlantic. I could’ve researched more explosives and steam cannons, and used this army to conquer Europe, no the world, in the name of the United States government. Or, if I were particularly daring and self-centered, I could conquer it in my name with a private army. Then I’d be king of the world, but then what?”

“Well... I suppose you’d eventually die.”

“Exactly, and when I do, there’s a struggle for power. I can set up procedures for succession, but I can’t guarantee they’ll be upheld. That’s all assuming I’m not overthrown while I’m still alive. Even if I were immortal, something could go wrong. People could rebel, or lock me underground.”

“I... so you’re making a god?”, said Belle.

“Yes, because that’s what the people need. They need something to revere, to admire, to obey because it is inherently better than they are. The body is a super weapon, but it’s also a super idol. Too big to ignore. Too marvelous to deny.”

He smiled as he turned towards the Brass Woman, standing tall among the scaffolding and its shackles.

“The problem is human nature. People view the world as zero sum, as a hierarchy. I see greed in the rich as well as the poor. The evils of humankind are pervasive. Someone needs to keep it in check and guide humanity to the future. Someone beyond humans needs to prevent future conflicts by cementing itself as an absolute authority.”

Belle shook her head side to side.

“That’s ridiculous. So you’re going to put yourself in that in that giant body and call yourself a god?”

Victor shook his head fast.

“Oh no, no I spent too much money on surgeries to ever be seen as a woman again.”

Belle tilted her head.

“Ok, fine, but then why didn’t you build a giant male body?”

“Because that’s not my body. Its yours.”

“What?!?”

“I’m not fit to be a god. It takes more than engineering genius to be as successful as me. I’ve created inventions that have put tens of thousands out of work. For every government contract I won, others lost out. I knew rivals would go out of business for decisions I made, but I made them anyway. The owners were usually fine, having their banked funds and such. But what of the employees? How many jobs have I killed? How many people became homeless because of me, or starved? People think this stuff doesn’t weigh on me, but it does. I see the state of the city, and for all the good I’ve done there’s still so much negative consequences. Troublesome externalities abound in business, mine especially.”

He shook his head side to side.

“No, I’m as greedy and corrupted as most. I lack the traits needed to be a good god. But you, Belle, you’re the one.”

“I really don't understand what you mean. Why me of all people?”

“You passed my tests.”

“Tests? You mean, with Mr. Fi-, Henry over there.”

“Yes. Tell her, Mr. Fib.”

“When we met, you were neither obsequious nor egotistical”, said Henry. “You declined liquor, valuing the integrity of your judgment over cheap thrills. When it came to the food, you didn’t pig out on it, even though you knew you’d probably never have as rich a meal again in your life. At the same time, you weren’t so prideful as to resist sampling it: you were open to experiences.”

“Ok, no, I think you are all reading too far into this.”, she said.

Henry continued.

“All that lead me to giving you the better of the two press passes I kept with me. It was the one that got you past the doors to the complex, instead of marking you as a failure fit for termination by the front guards.”

Belle was still processing all this, so Victor chimed in.

“Don’t be frightened, the vast majority of people didn’t make it that far. Just reaching the front gates showed that you were brave enough to risk your career and reputation. You brought up having a tip about Voxhaben to your boss, did you not? He contacted our company shortly after, sending a courier to deliver a letter, ratting you out to try and curry favor with us.”

“He did?”, said Belle.

“He did, but I can’t blame him. No newspaper would dare to write a story I wouldn’t like. I own portions of many of the news companies, you see, and the ones I don’t are easy enough to bully into disgrace should the need arise. You probably remember a few such cases. It’d be career destruction to write a story leaking my company secrets, but you were willing to do it anyways.”

Belle listened, managing to resist the urge to run from the creeps all the while.

“Of course,” said Victor. “Getting to the central chamber was another feat. Those guards were sent on a scheduled patrol, but you showed cunning in hiding from them. Lastly, in entering this, the project room, you showed the bare minimum of resourcefulness by managing to overcome a simple lock.”

“And that’s it? That’s the prerequisites for your god plans? I’m just some woman you found; I’m no god.”, said Belle.

“Well, that’s not all. I did want to choose a woman. People seemed to prefer goddesses over gods in history’s past.”, said Victor.

Belle began to worry now. She was supposed to get a story and get out, not be roped into some gigantic steamtech... thing.

“W-what about the others?”

“If there were others, Belle, you would’ve met them in this room. You were the only one with a proper pass to get this far. No one else risked their career. Some of those who behaved poorly with Mr. Fib did reach the front doors, motivated by their greed with their fears tempered by stupidity no doubt. They had to be disposed of.”

“But, I don’t want this. I just wanted a story. I just wanted to be a great reporter.”

“Belle Belle Belle,”, said Victor. Her turned to face her and approached, arms spread wide with a smile. She crept backwards.

“I know you’re frightened, but you shouldn’t be resisting the idea this much. You’ll be much more than than a reporter. You’ll be humanity’s future. A god. A GOD! Don’t you want to be something more than human?”

“We can guide you along the way.” chimed in Mr. Fib, which earned a glance from Victor.

“yes, we can help you.”, said Victor.

“I don’t want to. I don’t want to be stuffed inside that body.”, said Belle.

“Relax, the surgery will be over before you know it.”

“Surgery?!?”

“Your current body is useless. Less than useless, a hindrance. A distraction. Only your brain is needed. We need to take it out of course.”

Victor took some steps forward. The security guards behind Belle slipped on some rubber gloves and slowly moved in.

“Get away!”, said Belle. She kept creeping back.

”Perhaps more details can calm you down. It’ll feel like your current body, only bigger, better. You’ll feel powerful. Mr. Fib, flip another page.”

Henry obliged and Belle glanced in horror at the next diagram. It showed a horde of... something running around the body. A single bit of that ‘something’ was connected by a line to a circle signifying a ‘zooming in’. In the circle was some weird spider-looking creation with a rectangle body holding oodles of thin pipes and poles on it.

“What are those?!” cried Belle.

“Ah, that’s not the best page. Forget it Mr. Fib.”

Henry flipped back to the previous page. Belle looked and saw that same spider-like thing on a diagram behind her. She also saw a stark black intermingling of cubes on another diagram.

“What is that? What is all this stuff? I’ll have no part in your mad experiments.”

She made a break for it, giving in to her body’s fear response. The guards were faster, stronger. Then grabbed her by the sides, wrapped their arms around her, and held her steady.

Victor moved in.

“Don’t worry, I’ll explain it during the procedure. Those diagrams will be coming with us as references.”

“No! I don’t want this!”

“I’m afraid there is no choice in the matter. The future of humanity is at stake. Just do your best to stay calm, it’ll make this all easier.”

Victor raised his cane and pressed the bottom of it against her abdomen in a poke. He pressed a button and a shock wracked Belle’s body.

She was limp, but conscious while they dragged her away.

Chapter 5: Inside Scoop

Belle was restrained to an operating table, bound by her wrists, ankles, forearms, and above her knees by leather straps. In this sense, she was kind of like that inert Brass Woman already. To make matters worse, she was at the top of that construct’s scaffolding: about 1000ft above the ground.

Doctors and scientists surrounded her, wearing masks and gloves. Victor Cogston was there too, with his own mask. Although, Henry Fib wasn’t. She had seen him split off to the lower levels of the scaffolding while Victor and the operation team took her to the top via an airzep.

‘Figures, the first time I ever ride in one it’s against my will AND entirely indoors.’

That cheeky thought was her only comfort in the moment.

She had learned why the colossal body had its head tilted ever so slightly down on the way: the back of the head was open, unfinished perhaps. Belle had briefly seen the inside of that things head and saw the interlocking of pitch-black cubes there, connected to a series of hundreds of pipes in varying lengths stretching around the skull cavity.

It was just a glimpse. They had quickly turned the table so she was facing the other way.

They had let her keep her clothes on, though as she writhed futilely in the restraints, one doctor was hard at work shaving her brown hair. She had only recently regained the use of her body since that jolt, and Victor noticed.

“Sorry about that.”, he said, waving around the cane. “This is a remarkable little toy though. My design. Electrolyzed steam is stored in the hollow shaft of the cane, the tip is pressed against the target. A touch of a discrete button on the handle and the steam is released, sending a lightning sensation to the target’s nervous system which is both incapacitating and harmless.”

“Harmless? Harmless? That thing stung.”, said Belle.

“Oh it hurts I’m sure, but it’s not frying your nerves or anything. One downside, the cane is useless until refilled, which is a bit of a process at the moment.”

He dropped the cane to the floor. Then, he started to laugh.

“What’s so funny? Is it this condition you thrust me into?”, said Belle gritting her teeth. She continued to push her wrists and ankles against the binds.

“No no, I’m sorry. I was just thinking. Decades ago, there were many people who saw fit to study the power of lightning instead of steamtech. This was because back then the only efficient fuel we had for steam engines was coal. Coal burns black, sours the air, and no one wanted a smoggy future. So, a search for clean coal began, a better fuel. Clean coal... an oxymoron really, but there was some truth to the phrase.”

Victor reached out into his pocket and pulled out some shiny engine fuel in solid form. They glimmered from the lamplights as they rested in his palm. He continued.

“Coal’s purest form: diamond. I always keep some on me just in case. By accident, someone discovered the perfect softening agent and spilled it on their diamond ring. Applying it to these shiny stones turns one of the world’s hardest materials into a burnable, efficient, and clean source of fuel. Just like that, the steamtech innovation of the century came about. And to think, people thought to wear these as jewelry at a time. Fuel as earrings, absurd.”

“What is wrong with you?!?”, said Belle. “You’ve kidnapped me, are stealing my brain, you’re about to cut me open and you’re rambling about history and diamonds and your new fancy cane.”

Victor frowned behind his mask.

“You must see that what I’m doing is the new innovation of the century, of humanity. I’m not stealing your brain, I’m liberating a worthy self from an unworthy vessel. From my perspective, you’re the one behaving irrationally. You’re going to be a god, so why complain?”

Belle still thought him mad, she was still ticked off, but saw it futile to protest the matter. Her eyes were drawn to a diagram some staff brought over. She had seen it earlier: both the diagram and what it depicted. Unlike the other drawings this one was completely colored in with black ink. It was that strange, large, mass of seamlessly interlocked cubes she saw in the colossus’s head.

“What on Earth is that?”, she asked.

“Ah that, that... where do I even begin? It’s perhaps the most complicated bit of steamtech ever made. I designed it myself, well, with a bit of special help.”

“Special help?”

Victor looked her dead in the eyes.

“This may sound crazy to you.”

“Oh really?! Try me!”, said Belle. She fidgeted indignantly in her bindings as her head was shaved by a billionaire’s minions so her brain could be obtained.

“Well, I received tips about that device in my dreams. Every time I got stuck on the design I’d receive a fabulous insight that night, something I could’ve never come up with myself. I’d see it via images or, if complex enough, hear it via whispers in my dreams. It was like something already beyond humanity was helping me with my goal. I’m ashamed to admit as a result I’m not even fully sure how it works, and until your brain is inside we won’t really know it does.”

“Ok, yes, you had some detailed dreams. How very relieving and not at all disconcerting but... you haven’t said what it is.”

“Ah yes, well, it’s the container for your brain basically. It will allow your mind to interface with the brass body properly. It does look a bit scary though, doesn’t it? Otherworldly, even? I went through a few name ideas for it, the Dark Brain, the Devil’s Machine, the Mind Chamber. I settled on “The Black Box”. On the surface it’s a bunch of boxes sort of mashed into each other without any sign of force, but the biggest cube, in the center, is the one your brain will be in. That’s the most important don’t you think.”

“I-”

Team members brought two more diagrams. There was the one of the body from earlier, flipped to some internal details page showing a stomach filled with steam with gears just outside the cavity. The other diagram caught her interest. It was a big spider-like machine. She had recognized it from earlier.

“What are those? I saw them earlier, in the body diagram.”

“Ah, now these little things are perhaps the second most complicated bit of steamtech I ever made. Second most expensive too. The size of the gears on these is minuscule. Each one of those ‘spiders’ is just one millimeter long, so I call them minibots. The smallest bit of fuel can keep them going for quite some time.”

“Minibots, so there will be automatons within that body, crawling around?”

“Yes, but you shouldn’t view them them as distinct from the body. I’m not sure how versed you are on biology, but it might be helpful to think of them as cells. It’s not a perfect analogy, but the minibots are essential to your new body’s functions. They are also most responsible for repairing the colossal form and even improving it. Their spindly arms carry all sorts of tools on them, and each minibot is equipped with a miniature analytic engine. That is, a mechanical device for solving all sorts of mathematical, logical, and navigation issues.”

“So, they’re just going to scurry about doing whatever they think is best?”

“Not exactly. There’s some basic movement functionality preloaded as a ‘program’, which is what we call sequences of operations for an intended goal. For the most part, they will listen to you though. That is, your unconscious and subconscious needs, wants, and desires. Through the Black Box and an encrypted radio signal, your mind will feed the minibots orders, share with them your will. They will carry it out, if possible, to the best of their ability if the resources permit.”

“That’s...” Belle was tired of calling things mad. She didn’t know what word to use to qualify what was going on around her, or this eccentric rich man’s plans.

‘Surreal’, she thought. ‘Maybe that’s it.’

“Now,”, began Victor. “Consciously manipulating them might be a tad overwhelming at first, likely not even possible at the start, but the potential is there if your mind advances enough.”

“My mind advances? What do you even mean-”

A loud noise interrupted her. It came from just behind and above her shaved head. She could only see a part of the machine, which was held in a masked woman’s hands. What Belle saw revealed an assortment of dials, lights, but also, being able to see the front, she saw a cavity bordered at the entrance by spinning saw blades.

“What is that? What the damn is that?”

“That is the scooper. It will be extracting your brain.”

Belle really started fidgeting. Staff rushed to grab her arms and legs and help hold them steady.

It had really sunk in to Belle that her brain was about to be removed. She was going to be cut open.

“No, stop, it’s not to late to change your mind. Stuff your own brain in that dumb monster of yours!”

“Belle, please.”

One doctor help up a large syringe filled with some strange purple liquid.

“Am I gonna feel that? Those blades on that ‘scooper’ of yours?”

“I’m afraid we cannot anesthetize you Belle. You need to be alert for the operation.”

“What? No you can’t!”

“Belle, listen, your brain must be in as active a state as possible for the transfixing into the Black Box. If anesthetized, then the brain could fail to integrate at best, or, at worst, it’d integrate with your mind in a diminished capacity. We don’t need a 1000ft tall body controlled by an intelligence equivalent of a chimpanzee, do we now?”

Belle was jabbed in the shoulder by the needle. She let out a scream.

“Then what the damn did you just inject with me? You damnable monster”

“A paralytic, and something to prevent your body from going into shock. If your current body can move, it’ll make the process difficult. The Black Box cost more than half my fortune to make. Even if I had the money for a second shot at this, it uses materials from outside our planet. There’s not enough time to wait for more meteors to fall. I’m not going to rely on luck with comet showers. I’m making history here, Belle, I’m making a superior being. You are going to be that being. Show some constitution, some resolve, some joy!”

Belle started losing feeling in her body, starting at her toes but spreading everywhere fast enough. Soon, she couldn’t even move her mouth to speak. She could only blink, rapidly and in horror as the sound of her skull getting sawed filled her ears.

Then, she heard a disconcerting popping noise.

“Don’t worry Belle.”, said Victor. “It’s all going to plan. Pretty soon, for the last time, you’re gonna feel like you’re asleep.”

“And when you wake up, you’ll be the greatest thing the world has ever seen!”

For Belle, everything went dark shortly after.

Chapter 6: Settling In

Belle dreamed of her life. She remembered the things she had done to get as far as a measly reporter in the city. She remembered pick-pocketing someone to get the money for new clothes to interview with. After numerous failures, she practically begged for ‘just one shot’ at her interview with The Squeaky Wheel. She recalled the joy she felt when she got the gig, and how that joy lingered even as her knees were to the streets, knelt down, sketching tiny bugs for some cute expose on the “Beetle Species of New York.” It was her first article, just a few words among her sketches.

It was something, though.

She also dreamed of the events of the day. She dreamed of walking through the doors to the Voxhaben Complex, hiding in its halls. Her dream jumped to when she was on the operating table. Everything proceeded as it did before, only she could see what was going on as her brain was removed. In her dream, she watched in horror as masked men and women simply dropped her brain on the floor. There was no table, no scaffolding beneath their feet. Only darkness: a void.

Soon, even those doctors disappeared and it was just her brain, laying there, alone, in the endless dark.

--==--==--==--

Belle’s eyelids shot open. She started panting as blinding light hit her senses: among other things. Noise reached her, wracked her. It sounded like... clapping? Slowly the visual of where she was came into view. The noise became clear.

“It worked!”, shouted Victor from below her. “I knew it would, but golly does it feel sublime.”

“Excellent work sir.”, said Henry Fib.

“Great job.”, said another voice Belle had heard.

“Incredible.”, said another.

Belle was not nearly as excited. She tried desperately to clench her fingers, but nothing. She tried to flail her limbs, but they wouldn’t listen to her. She felt some movement on her face. She darted her eyes side to side as the images became more clear. She tried to yell, and a noise like the blaring of a pipe organ came out of her mouth, along with a tuft of steam.

She tried to say some words, but all that came out was loud gibberish. Discordant, it was loud to staff crowding the scaffolding surrounding her body from her head to her feet. They had only a bit of space away from her body per spot, a dozen feet, where they each presently stood.

“Silence everyone silence!” shouted Victor. His staff stymied their gasps and yelps at the noise. His voice was transmitted over some speakers to the far side of the scaffolding. Belle’s vision grew clear enough that she could see him speaking into a microphone on a dial-laden console.

“Speak very slowly Belle. Your new larynx is a series of pipes and bellows. It will likely take some getting used to. The bonding process of your brain with the brass body is still ongoing. You’ll be happy to know your new brass head is fully intact though, no more hole.”

Belle was still in a panic. She felt disturbed all throughout her body. But, she managed to speak, slowly, with pauses between her words.

“I, can, f-fuh, fuh-eel kuh-rwaling. I can feel crawling inside me.”

Even without screaming her voice positively roared with authority. As predicted her voice sounded much the same, with the Black Box interfacing with her brain and having directed the minibots to adjust the orientation and thickness of the pipes to replicate her pitch and tone. Alas, the technology had limits, so it carried a brass-timbre to it now. And, of course, at Belle’s size her voice was loud and echoing.

“I can feel them crawling!!! I can’t move!!”

“Patience Belle!”, spoke Victor. “Those are the minibots, hard at work now that you are finally awake.”

“Guh-get them out. Get them out of me!”

“Relax Belle, it’s a novel sensation to you. In time, your new body will be used to it. Your brain will tune it out except when you focus on feeling them specifically.”

“It’s like mites!”, she roared. “Mites under my skin. I can’t move!”

“Belle, look at me.”

She obeyed, and focused her eyes on Victor. He, Mr. Fib, and some guards and scientists were on a platform on the scaffolding about level with her bare navel. As a minor amusement, she had noticed Henry Fib just recovering from the shock of her voice again. He seemed the most timid of the crowds around her.

A light shined on them, and she realized it was coming from her eyes. It was a gentle gold-orange.

“Good, good. Your eyes are a complicated series of mirrors, lenses, and lanterns. Your vision should be just as crisp as a human’s, but it’ll only get better. It already is better. Belle, try looking at me real close. You should have movement in your face, everything else will come later, don’t worry. Just, look at me.”

Belle once again listened to the man who had yanked out her brain once. She tried to focus on his face and, with a shocked gasp, found herself zooming in on him. The faint sound of clicking echoed from her eyes during it.

She could see the full details of his face, then kept zooming till she saw small little marks on it: the imperfections a woman like herself might hide with makeup or the like.

It shocked her enough that she thought about seeing ‘normal’ again. With more clicks from her eye sockets, her vision was so. She saw as any human might, not-zoomed in.

Assuming, of course, said human was 1000ft tall.

“Impressive, wasn’t it? Your eyes can swap in magnifying lenses. They are a lot like gear-oggles now, only, you merely need to think to activate them. Even as you tower above people, you’ll still be able to hone in on just one.”

“I... I still can’t move. When can I move?” said Belle. She felt that crawling sensation die down as she stopped paying attention to it. The minibots moving around felt more like tingles now rather than hundreds of thousands of scurrying ants.

“In time Belle, in time. First, lets test your sense of touch. Go on Frederick!” he said.

Far down at Belle’s feet were more of Victor Cogston’s employees. They stood before towering Brass toes about twice their own heights. One of them had a small wooden mallet, and stood before her right foot. He brought the hammer up and then down on her big toe with all his might. The hammer cracked, though her body was just as fine as ever.

“What was that? Did one of you poke my toe?”, said Belle.

“Ah so you felt it!”, said a jubilant Victor. “Good, very good. As I said before, there’s a layer of steam in a cavity below your ‘skin’. When something hits the surface of your body, it vibrates it, or cools it, or heats it. The changes in expectations create the sense of touch you just felt, and they’ll help you to tell when hot or cold as well.”

“Did you let me feel pain too?”, said Belle.

“The expectation now is just touch and temperature. Something that would be hot enough to burn a human or freeze their skin solid would feel hot and cold, respectively, but not enough to be uncomfortable. The vapors within your body dictate your body’s temperature far more than the outside. Just as we humans keep our own temperatures ideal for our bodies.”

“You keep referring to yourself as humans. I’m human still.”

“No, Belle, you’re already so much more.”

“You just put me in some machine. My brain is still human!”

“Given your interfacing with the Black Box, that’s now a matter of debate.”

Belle grunted, the voice vibrating in her new and dry pipe of a throat. She was growing angrier. With all her focus, she tried to move again. She tried to reach out and grab Victor and everyone else on that platform.

She didn’t. She didn’t even move her wrist. All she managed was moving her fingers and wiggling her toes. There was another quick bit of fanfare from Victor and his staff. Down at her feet, those employees gathered there took some steps back as they felt the floor vibrate from the giant metal digits moving around.

“Bravo Belle! Yes it’s all working so far. You just moved a bit: it makes sense it’d be the fingers and toes first, but soon enough you’ll be able to walk with this new body.”

He sighed, happy.

“It’s another novel innovation that you are able to move at all in that giant brass body. Even with gears at the joints, surely you noticed that your elbows, knees, and so on are entirely solid on the outside. Under normal expectations, the gear-joints would try to move, but either get stalled from your immobile brass finger or, worse, break trying to push it. Well, that’s where the layer of steam under your surface, and the minibots, come in.”

He grinned. Victor was always happy to explain how his inventions worked: anything to do with the Brass Woman most of all.

“When you moved your finger, steam within you and around the area was super-heated in order to make the metal more pliable, malleable, moldable. I didn’t choose brass just because it’s the shiny, luxury metal of the past, present and future. That was a factor for your divine form, but, no. Brass also has a low melting point for a metal. The prevalence of it in your make allows these movement mechanisms to function. With this design, you’ll be able to move just as good as a human body in time: better, even. This same process will help you self-repair and, in even more time, self-improve.”

Belle tried to blink her eyes out of disbelief, only to find her eyelids wouldn’t fully shut.

“Wait, so if there’s intense heat to my fingers when I move it, then won’t my metal skin melt off?”

“Well you don’t have skin so much as an exterior surface now, but good question. Just like a human’s skin, your surface is covered in a thin layer of a sort of oil. A coating. The minibots help exude it through tiny, imperceptible holes that dynamically form and seal on the outside of your body. Don’t worry though, the coating is thin enough at your size to not be felt, so it’s not as though anything will slip and slide in your palms normally. Your surface will feel sleek and smooth to a human’s touch, in part thanks the oil which has other functions than just keeping the surface cool. But, it will feel dry rather than slick.”

Belle focused and managed to shake her new and giant head now. Victor talked a bit longer.

“You see, if the joints were on the outside, they could be susceptible damage. With this process, the surface of your body is always hard as metal, even when the inside softens to permit movement. Once the movement is done, the metal is cooled, when it begins again, it’s once again heated and so on. Since your exterior is always hard metal, you get the benefits of sturdy resilience while still being able to move with this process. Elegant, simple, powerful, divine!”

‘Shut up shut up shut up’, thought Belle. ‘All you do is ramble about your dumb innovations. You’ve ruined my life.’

But, she held her metal tongue, which seemed to move with the same steam temperature nonsense he had just monologued about. She knew her chance to nab him would come, and then she’d escape.

“Ok, very interesting.”, she said. “Now, can you undo these shackles please?”

“No not yet, we still need to run more tests. It’s no good for anyone if you fall over cause you aren’t used to moving your legs yet.”

There was some truth to that, she still felt like she could only really move her hands and feet. Everything else felt numb.

“But,”, said Victor. “Let’s loosen the binds on your wrists to see if you can move your hands. You heard the order everyone!”

“Sir, are you sure that’s wise?” said Mr. Fib, right by his boss’s side.

“It is, don’t worry. She must learn how to move.”

Some staff on the scaffolding by Belle’s giant brass hands moved towards the shackles. The platform on the scaffolding was able to be slid in and out through controls on the platform itself. So, with a whir, the platform slid close enough for them to slide in some giant metal key into a slot by her wrist shackles.

Belle wasted no time trying to move her hands to reach out and grab Victor. Alas, in her haste, she had forgotten about the shackles just below her elbow, preventing her forearm from moving and her hands from reaching the platform on by her navel. Her palms stopped a bit short of it.

At least she had moved fast enough to shake the scaffolding and knock a few of the employees over. Her fingers even grazed one of the people level with her hands, knocking him out cold as his head collided with the literal tons of metals making up her pinky. He was quickly dragged off as others cleared the area.

Victor clapped his hands while Mr. Fib trembled, having let out a small yelp at the sudden movement, and taken a few steps back since.

“Very good, very good!”, said Victor. “I do hope you weren’t thinking to crush me out of this mortal world though, there’s still much to go over. Why, did you know there are speakers in your body, including in some small cavities near your cheeks? You’re your own radio station, Belle, and you can intercept any frequency there is once you figure that out. I made the protocol, and you have a built in decrypter unrivaled in complexity. With it, you can tune into any channel to snoop, while your own private channels exist just between you, your minibots, and who knows who else in the future.”

“When I get my hands on you Victor I will pop you like a grape.”

“Whoa whoa, easy now Belle. I know this is all upsetting to you-”

“My life is gone!”

“It’s only just begun, but, listen, I think you’re just a bit cranky. Perhaps you should eat.”

“Eat? What are you talking about now?”

Victor leaned into the microphone on his console.

“Reveal the prisoner. It’s time to taste the digestive functionalities.”

On the highest scaffolding, level with her mouth and chin, some of the security guards fanned out. Belle looked at them, the light from her eyes falling upon them as they shifted out of the way to reveal a woman, bound at the ankles and wrists. Arms behind her back, a burlap sack rested on her head with a small hole left where her nose would be.

“Alright Belle, open wide.”

“What, who is that?”

“A dirty spy.”, said Victor. His voice was a bit more stern. “We caught her snooping around just yesterday. Normally they’d be terminated on the spot, but this one is special, especially cowardly and bereft of morals. I decided to imprison her, given how close we were to finishing this project. Now, she’s your food. Your first living meal.”

“You want me to eat people? That’s absurd! Why would I even need to eat at all if you turned me into this construct?” bellowed Belle. She turned her head away from the security guards as they lifted up the writhing woman and brought her close to Belle’s brass face.

“Belle!”, said Victor. He sounded offended. “For one your brain still needs energy, but I didn’t just make some giant shiny idol for people to bow down to. I’m no fool, you might get into some scuffles in the process of cementing your superiority. The Brass Woman was designed with the capacity to break down anything consumed into fuel and processable components. With minibots help the resources can be used for repairs or even improvements. Your body was meant to evolve, Belle, to always be ready for and beyond any challenge it could face.”

“Why people then you monster? Why not just feed me diamonds and steel?”

“Your body can make its own diamonds by pressuring other sources of carbon if need be but, a fair question. Organic materials are needed. Carbon is used in many of the lubricants for your gears, and its used in that coating over your exterior I mentioned. They provide a variety of essential minerals to be repurposed too, and the complexity of the human mind means it has some of the densest neuron clusters.”

Belle continued moving her face away from the guards bringing the woman near her mouth. She thought to blow on them, but didn’t want to knock that poor woman Victor captured off the scaffolding with them. Besides, even doing that to just the guards would be the first time she’s killed someone.

“Who is she?”, roared Belle.

“I already told you, she was a spy we found. No one important in the grand scheme of things. Just another scheming rat in the city, driven by greed and disrespect towards places they don’t belong.”

“No, what’s her name? where’s she from? She’s a person!”

She turned to the guards.

“Get away you persistent gnats!”

Belle held her lips, a slightly darker shade of brass, closed. The guards were practically pushing the woman against her mouth to force the prisoner in, but Belle talked with tight lips to thwart them.

Victor talked into the microphone again.

“Belle none of that should matter to you as a god.”

“Well if I’m your damn god I order you and your goons to stop this.”

“We can’t Belle, not yet.”

“Am I not the god you were calling me, the one you were trying to make? Do as I say then!”

“Think of this as a test. All humans must be viewed as expendable to you Belle. I’m trying to teach you more than how to move your new body. If you can’t bring yourself to kill people, you’ll be in trouble. You can’t ignore people as sustenance, and there will be many who refuse to yield to your whims more violently than I am now. You need to be able to do away with them and, if you can, get something out of them all the while.”

“I refuse!”

“Then we’ll never release your shackles. You can spend as much time in this central chamber as you want then. We are still in the learning phase of things here Belle. Why, if we undid the shackles you’d just fall right over much likely. But, there are more than just physical lessons to learn here. I insist you devour the prisoner. If it helps, we would simply shoot her otherwise. That’s an important thought, you know. Only you are eternal. Every human you meet will eventually die, won’t they? So, what’s it matter if you take their life yourself as a higher being?”

Belle puffed steam out of her nose with a grunt. She didn’t need to breath of course, yet her body reacted to her desire to make a fuss. Still, it’s clear Victor wouldn’t back down from this. She could feel a bit more of her body than just her extremities now, but she was still too numb to try and bust out.

Then, Belle had an idea.

“Fine.”, she said. “I’ll eat her.”

The giant brass head turned to the guards. She stared daggers at them. Her eyelids couldn’t close, but they could contract up to the point her luminescent pupil wasn’t covered. It was to help with making expressions. Here, it let Belle squint at them, letting the guards know she didn’t approve.

“Aaaaa”

The sound vibrated from her pipework voice-box. She let the noise roar over the group as she slipped out her tongue. The former reporter could feel and manipulate that part of her body pretty well, but she held it stiff and steady like a welcoming rug. The guards, looking just a tad intimated, quickly shoved the bound woman onto that dark metal organ.

“One important note Belle.”, said Victor into the microphone. “It’s recommended you swallow things whole when possible. The processes within your body will be more efficient that way. You shouldn’t have a gag reflex anymore, so it should be very simple.”

Belle slowly brought her tongue back into her mouth. Belle couldn’t taste the woman, but she could feel the prisoner doing her best to not move till the tongue was in her mouth. Once there, Belle quickly discovered she had ‘saliva’ of some kind as her mouth felt a little wet. Some steam even emitted into the cavity.

She swished her tongue around a little making a show of things. Then, she made a swallowing motion.

“Good show!”, said Victor. “That wasn’t so bad was it. Now, how does it feel?”

Belle paused a moment, she had to think.

“It feels weird. Am I supposed to feel her inside me like this?”

Victor smiled.

“Yes, that’s normal.”

Belle smiled just a little. She had guessed right.

Chapter 7: Breaking Out

Angelica tried and failed to get her bearings in the metal mouth. She very quickly learned that tongue had far, far more strength than she could hope to resist. The fluid and steam around the spy served to disorient, and the faint light filtering in through the burlap of the sack on her head served only to confuse rather than help her see.

She thought her assignment would be an easy one. Get in, steal some documents, record some data, get out. But, for the first time, she was captured. A routine intelligence gathering operation quickly turned into something out a fantasy. Before they had put the burlap sack on her head, they had let her witness the gigantic brass woman who was presently swishing her around like a candy.

Thankfully, the damndest thing happened. The tongue nimbly maneuvered her beneath it, then held her there. This Belle woman wasn’t going to eat her! Some watery fluid and steam still sprayed and pooled around Angelica, but that was all that was swallowed down. She was safe. The colossus was hiding her, merely pretending to have eaten her.

Angelica played along: holding as still as possible and making no noise.

On the outside, Victor proudly talked about yet more of the colossus’s capabilities.

“Very good. I’m sure you noticed the moisture in your new mouth Belle? Small jets in the oral cavity spray both steam and a mist of slightly viscous watery fluid. Just like the role of saliva, this preps your meals for digestion. Although your throat is kind of like one big pipe, a series of pistons allow it it to flex. This simulates peristalsis and makes sure your meals reach your new stomach as safely and efficiently as possible. A series of small lights in your mouth, throat, and stomach illuminate the process for any involved, while also aiding the minibots in assisting your digestion.”

“My digestion, huh?”, said Belle.

“Yes, the meals in your stomach are treated with super-heated steam. That combines with some other sprayed compounds and a bit of churning to soften up and break down anything into useful parts. Some of it goes into further pipes, other bits are taken by the minibots themselves. It’s another technological marvel, really.”

Belle cocked her brass eyebrows.

“Super-heated steam? Sounds unpleasant for any living thing I eat.”

Victor made some hand gesture before leaning into the mic: at once admitting the issue while waving it off.

“Well yes, there was no way to engineer away the pain of a living morsel in there. That woman you ate is basically being cooked alive. I imagine it’s quite agonizing, but as a proper god it might help to view as the ultimate sacrifice. They suffer for your own benefit. Anything you eat can be used to make you stronger, better, and even bigger later on.”

While Victor talked, Belle noticed Henry Fib trembling once again. The talk of being melted alive frightened him. It seemed he, more than others, realized that Belle might not exactly be grateful for her unwilling apotheosis.

Belle smirked, and slyly tested the other shackles on her her. They were thick and sturdy bonds of metal, but she knew was stronger. The main problem for her now was the numbness in her body. Only recently was she able to move her wrists. Still, focusing, she felt more and more.

“Now let’s see, what other processes are there to go over.” said Victor, thinking aloud. “Ah, your heart, which you may be able to hear or feel, helps pump the steam around you now. You have mechanical lungs as well to assist with moving steam in ways too, mostly for speaking. Aside from that, well, I think that’s most of the obvious and important mechanisms elucidated.”

“I don’t care.”, said Belle. “I’m sick of listening to you ramble. You’ve ruined my life, so I’m gonna end yours Victor.”

Henry seemed to notice Belle’s arms wiggling. The sound of those metal bands clanking and groaning against Belle’s own brass exterior. In a bit of panic, he moved forward leaned into the mic on that console.

“I know you might be upset still, but we are here to advise you Belle. I can assure you that woman deserved her fate.”, he nervously cleared his throat. “Even once you can move, we can give you tips on how to influence others. Voxhaben has a bustling PR department after all. I worked there myself briefly. We can tech you the best tactics of rulers throughout history, methods of conquest for the inevitable resistance.”

Victor looked at him, annoyed.

“My partner is correct, we’re here to help you as long as you see fit.”

Belle smirked down at those two, and all the others on the scaffolding platform near her navel.

What happened next happened fast. Her shoulder shifted and with one great thrust her metal right arm tore free of the few bands restraining it. Those shackles shattered, and the several tons of metal composing their make crashed down on the floor or flew out towards the scaffolding, tearing into it. A few people near Belle’s feet, which shifted some, were crushed by the remnants of that which used to restrain her. Belle paid it little heed. She quickly reached out towards Victor’s platform and curled her fingers around him, Henry, and a good chunk of the scientists and guards surrounding their bosses.

Henry screamed, and even unaided by speakers his voice was picked up by the complicated auditory mechanizations resting inside Belle’s body near her ears.

“No, stop. Our advice is crucial to your future! You can’t do this. You weren’t supposed to be free yet!”

The scientists and guards in Belle’s mitts were similarly alarmed, trapped by 10ft thick fingers on a palm more than 50ft wide. Oddly enough, Victor himself was laughing.

“Now now Mr. Fib, part of making a god is that they can do whatever they like. It’s ultimately not our place to assume what a super being should or could do.”

The scaffolding shook and groaned with everyone one of Belle’s movements. She quickly managed to free her other arm, this time cleaving the limb through the scaffolding to her left and taking much of those onboard it down with it. That wasn’t on purpose so much as her currently limited mobility. Though finer movements like her fingers, toes, and tongue seemed easy enough, moving her arm felt like swinging a rigid log. Her elbow bent slow as she lifted victor and the others up more towards her head.

“I must admit I’m impressed. Moving your arms this soon, however clumsily... Why, you’re exceeding expectations Belle!”

Belle grinned, showing off the lighter shade of metal which made up her teeth. Her left, free hand moved up towards her face.

“I hope I’m subverting them too.”

She opened her mouth and lifted up her tongue to show Angelica alive, albeit a bit wet. With forefinger and thumb she delicately pinched up the woman.

Victor talked with surprise creeping into his voice. “Ah you tricked us. How sly!”

“Aren’t you upset I kept your prisoner alive? Defied your wish to devour her?”

Victor replied.

“Sometimes a test can have multiple right answers. Just because this turn of events isn’t the one I preferred, doesn’t mean I’m not excited you passed.”

“Well I’m done with your tests, Victor. I’m done with this complex. I’m getting out of here and fixing this mess.”

As this all went on staff tried to flee the scaffolding entirely, or at least to the safer lower levels. It was a rather long path down though, with guards, doctors, and engineers scrambling into each other as the metal walkways shook with every movement of Belle’s. Strangely, though, no guards seemed to try and help Victor, even the ones safe on the ground. They simply readied their arms, but didn’t fire. They had orders not to, not while Victor was still safe and in sight.

Belle tilted the hand with Angelica. The woman yelped while loose bindings and gravity let the burlap sack free from her blonde-haired head. The moist environment of Belle’s mouth had made the ropes easier to slip free of. The spy was working her wrists and ankles through the knots around them as she hastily spoke.

“I can help you Belle. I work for the US government! We can help fix this.”

“Such dexterity in your fingers Belle!”, said Victor, ignoring the spy’s words for the moment.

“Ha!”, said Belle. “Saving her life wasn’t just the right thing to do, it seems to have given me a way to turn this all around. I’ll get back to normal and be done with this nightmare.”

Victor’s laughter more than overpowered Henry’s whimpers.

“That rat will say anything to save herself. It’s foolish to think you can return to what you used to be Belle, but even more foolish to *want* to! To try and regret this gift, why, you’re acting just like any other short-sighted person on the street. Mere insects to you now. Think of it Belle! You are beyond them.”

Belle sheltered Angelica in the curl of her fingers. She brought her right hand close to her face. The roar of steam and air from her vocal processes escaped her mouth to assault her captors as they squirmed.

“What I’m beyond of is listening to you, Victor. For all your talk of the evils of people, calling them rodents and bugs, you’re one of the worst. I had no say in becoming this, you had no right!”

“What’s done is done, Belle. You’re a god, embrace it. Now, what are you going to do? Crush us? I can think of no better way to prove our place as ‘insects’ before you.”

He laughed, clearly the only one finding this amusing.

“No.”, she said. “For all your infatuation with your project, your making of a ‘god’, I think you should suffer that ‘ultimate sacrifice’ you were gushing about earlier.”

She let out a curt chuckle, speaking sarcastically.

“What better way to prove your devotion, right?”

Henry was in tears, screaming. The other staff in her hand wailed at the idea. Victor, meanwhile, kept his spirits high for the moment.

“Ah harsh punishment. Good. A god should be good at disciplining the lowly mortals. You’re a fast learner Belle! I knew you were the right choice! Ha, ha, ha!”

Belle paid it no mind. She opened her mouth wide. The orifice stretched dozens of feet in width: more than enough to accommodate them all. She pressed her palm to her mouth and tilted her head back, body nosily clanking with the movements.

Her lips shut, Belle moved the mass around with her tongue a bit. She had used a bit too much pressure and mangled one of the scientist’s arms in the process. Those inside her mouth screamed from it.

She didn’t toy with them long. She wanted to be done with them. Belle swallowed.

Victor and the rest were hit with the saliva spritz, soaked, by the time the tongue tilted. Her swallowing came with a great roar of pipes. Victor has thought it possible he might die to the body of his creation, but he hadn’t thought it would be like this. He was getting a tour of the digestion system he designed.

The throat was line with rivet-sized lights so that the minibots, and meals, could see. Thus, he missed no details on the path down. Although the main throat pipe could flex and bend like a human’s, it wasn’t made of flesh. The metal was dryer and a good deal harder.

As the pistons worked the pipe to tug them along, he witnessed Henry’s leg caught in a rougher part of the peristalsis. More specifically, he saw and heard the agony as Fib’s fibula fractured when faced with the indomitable might of Belle’s throat. For the most part though, the throat did it’s job of getting them to the stomach relatively unharmed, if a bit battered or bruised.

Victor and the dozen or so others landed in the stomach proper. The sound of hissing steam and spraying fluids reached them over the incessant spinning of gears. Like the roar of a metal whale, the metal stomach grumbled in a welcome, shaking, vibrating ‘churn’.

The atmosphere was boiling. It wasn’t long before everyone erupted into screams. The staff all ran about, trying to move to escape the omnipresent super-heated vapors. It was pointless, their skin was searing, their clothes sloughing off. The boiling heat was omnipresent and inescapable.

Victor laughed it off at first. It was an ironic end, and, ultimately, his project seems to have been a success. She acted on your own, doing what she thought was best. But, no pride nor madness could protect him from that level of pain. Pretty soon, he was screaming in agony like the others, tears welling in his eyes.

His last thought wasn’t about the satisfaction of his body going to a greater being. It was neither about thrill of his god project brought to fruition, nor even of the mysterious whispers which helped him make it a reality. No, his last thoughts were of regret for not having a cyanide tablet embedded in his tooth, like his doctors once suggested in case of kidnapping--or torture.

Back outside, Belle smiled. She had disposed of the man who had brought her harm, and seemed to have a path forward. She opened the fingers of her left hand but a tad and gazed at the spy.

Angelica looked upwards. She was trembling a little.

“Don’t be afraid.”, said Belle in her booming brass voice. “We’re in this together.”

“Can you... can you feel them, still?”, asked the spy. Despite her fear, she was morbidly curious.

Belle paused, focusing.

“Yes. I can feel them. It feels weird but... not entirely bad. It’s almost tickling: the most similar sensation I suppose would be like the bubbling of soda, with some larger movements thrown in. I guess I can feel them flopping around in there or something.”

The spy shuddered, but got to her feet. Belle took a closer look at her. She had the clothes on when she was captured it seemed: namely, a red long-sleeved top with trousers and some laced boots. Not the most professional outfit, but very comfortable and highly fitting for spying and infiltration, so it made sense. The woman’s blonde hair was short, her eyes blue, and she quickly regained much of her composure even facing the 1000ft being that just ate a dozen or so people.

“My name is Angelica Pankhurst, and I answer directly to the president. If we get to the capital building, I can talk to her and get help I’m sure, but we need to be leave, and be careful.”

As if on cue bullets started to fly. The guards on the ground and the few brave or stuck ones on the scaffolding started shooting at Belle. The bullets from their pistols and rifles bounced harmlessly off her exterior, not even denting it as far as the former reporter could tell. They did, however, scare Angelica a decent amount as they ricocheted off those towering fingers. She ducked behind the middle one as cover.

“Belle, we have to get out of here.”

The 1000ft tall being nodded.

“Yes, of course. Let’s go just, bear with me here, my legs feel even stiffer than my arms.”

Belle focused and, with a grunt, bent her legs enough to pop those shackles right off. A swipe of her right arm cleaved the upper half of the scaffolding completely off. She then raised her right foot and hovered it over the scaffolding lower to the ground. People were still stuck there, but she had given them more than enough time to escape. Some of them even shot at the bottom of her brass sole.

Needless to say, she wasn’t feeling too merciful towards them, nor all that guilty when she stepped down.

Her sense of touch was less refined than when her body was human. It was a good deal more ‘gross’ rather than ‘fine’. Still, she was able to feel people beneath her step pop, as well as feel the tough metal scaffolding flatten and crumble like paper.

Belle’s first step in her new body had killed well over a few dozen people. It also shook the complex as a whole, quaked the ground a little, and echoed with an audible thoom.

Belle almost fell over though, she steadied a hand against the nearby wall, cracking it.

“Careful!”, cried Angelica, who was held close and safe to one of Belle’s sculpted, naked brass breasts.

Her legs felt like they were partially asleep: like she had sat on them wrong, and they were a bit numb. She managed to reorient herself though, with her left foot falling over a dozen or so more people. They had tried to run, but her feet were about 150ft in length and 50ft in width. There wasn’t nearly enough time, even when she moved slow and clumsily by human standards.

Of course, Belle wasn’t a feeble human. She was far stronger. They stood no chance against her. The scaffolding about her was entirely collapsed now, having broken against her formidable form. All the restraints were since snapped.

“I’m leaving!”, she shouted as her heels twisted into the floor, regaining her footing. “If you want to live you’ll stay away! I don’t want to hurt you, but I’m not gonna shed any tears if I have to.”

‘I wonder if I can still cry with this body?’, thought Belle as an idle notion.

She shook her head and got back on task.

Some of Voxhaben staff actually obliged and ran to the far corners of the facility. Yet, many still fought Belle as she slowly moved to the side wall of the chamber. Unknown to her, Victor had a contingency plan in place. In the event she became hostile to Voxhaben, the guards were to shoot at her and try to stop her. All knew the idea was futile, but he was adamant that they couldn’t make “escape too easy”. A bit of compensation to their loved ones meant that much of the guards still followed this duty.

Some shot at her from the scaffolding near the ceiling, but Belle just reached up and, with one big tug, brought most of the rafters up there down. Parts of the roof collapsed too in the process, letting in a bit of that springtime afternoon sun.

Others fired at her feet, but they served only to tickle her as she stomped down without a care. She had looked towards them at least, but it was more to keep her own footing in check then try and dodge them.

Belle noticed that some staff were neither fighting nor running from her. They were bowing down, worshiping, praying.

“Are you seeing this Angelica?”

“No, I can’t risk a stray bullet poking through her fingers if I get close to the spaces between, what’s going on.”

“They are bowing to me, but, why?”

“We have a dossier on Victor Cogston, several actually. He was very strange, and wasn’t afraid to hire strange employees. It’s not out of the question he’d have a cult before the choice of god was even ironed out.”

Belle eyed those worshipers oddly: when they were to her side. Some of them stayed in front of her, refusing to move. She didn’t want to risk taking any sort of awkward step to avoid them, only to trip and end up killing them anyways while making her life even more complicated. The sight of smooth brass sole was the last many of these ‘worshipers’ would see.

“Urhg, yuck, I never thought I’d feel a person explode against my body like this--no, a body. This monstrous machine isn’t me.”, said Belle.

She noticed, as did many on the ground, that none of the gory viscera from a stomped person seemed to stick to her exterior surface. Her body seemed to self-clean. It come along in part due to the compound-coating process to her exterior, that which kept her movement processes from melting her most outside self. All the dirt, blood, and smashed bones her body should have marring it instead just fell right off onto the ground, assuming it ever stuck to her at all.

“What kind of god is dirty, after all?”, was a phrase Victor had once said to his team that designed said cleaning processes with him.

Belle certainly didn’t complain about it, even as she felt a tiny bit guilty at being mess free from all the lives she took.

One thundering step after another, amid the useless fire of the bug-like people below, she moved. It wasn’t too long before she was at the wall. With her left hand holding Angelica safe, she raised her right arm back.

“Hold on!”, she shouted.

Her fist punched right through the central chamber leaving a huge hole in the wall. Belle moved her entire body towards it, crumbling what was left of that barrier between her prison and the city outside.

The center chamber of the Voxhaben Complex collapsed behind her. Bare brass feet slammed down into streets, toes digging into the buildings at the other ends.

At last, Belle was back outside again.

Chapter 8: A Stroll Through Manhattan

Belle was overjoyed, but sadly the same couldn’t be said of the people around here. Regarding the Voxhaben Complex, the cat was out of the bag so-to-speak. No one nearby knew what to make of the gigantic, 1000ft tall brass female smiling like a goof in south west Manhattan.

The former reporter was quick to notice she had caused a bit of damage. Those buildings her toes poked through were collapsing down on her feet. She frowned as she noticed a few people fail to get out in time.

“Damn.”, she said.

“It can talk?”, said one frazzled person on the street.

“It’s alive?”, said another.

They quickly ran off in directions both opposite each other and away from Belle.

A voice piped up from the colossus’s left hand. It was Angelica of course.

“Belle.”

“Damn, I can’t believe I did that. I just was so excited to be free at least I-”

“Belle! Focus, we need to get to the capital. I’m sure you know where it is, just a bit north of Central Park.”

“That’s so far.”

“Not that far for you.”

“But, think of the people in the way.”

“You can just take it as slow and carefully as you can.”

Belle paused a moment. She looked down at her feet. A speeding automobile crashed into the side of her left foot, exploding. It felt a little warm, but she was otherwise fine. People on their own feet darted away from her.

“That’s gonna be tough.”

“A little damage is expected and ok, we need to get to the bottom of this, and I need to explain things.”

Belle turned her head around. The steam inside her body near her neck warmed up to permit the movement. The clanking of some gears rung out. She looked back at the Voxhaben complex.

“Actually, I have an idea.”

Belle turned around and stepped back into the complex, which stretched from south to north. She slowly turned her massive form north-wise, then started walking. She raised her right hand high to cleave through the ceiling as she walked through the complex, crushing all the walls in her way while flattening much of it underfoot in her march.

“What are you doing?!?”, said Angelica amid the sound of crumbling concrete and metal.

“This complex stretches for a few blocks. If I walk along it, I’m not stepping on the street where innocent city-goers are. Plus, I’m destroying what’s left of this horrid place. That’s a nice little bonus don’t you think?”

Angelica bit her tongue. Who knows what kind of steamtech advancements still lingered within, hoarded by the private company. Still, Belle’s logic was hard to deny, it would result in less risk of causalities and chaos in the city.

It ultimately wouldn’t matter though. Belle proceeded through the complex for just two more blocks. Her outstretched arm ripped up the roof while her legs cleaved through the walls and her feet fell down upon the stragglers, hiders, and brave few Voxhaben employees that saw fit to try and fight her off. In the end, her march through the complex was cut short: because it blew up.

From the northern and southern end of the Voxhaben Complex came explosions, cascading towards the already ravaged middle. The loud sound of bursting gunpowder prompted Belle to reflexively clap her brass hands over her ears, though that wasn’t needed. She weathered the explosive sound even as it vibrated her body.

Angelica yelped as she was suddenly pressed against the lukewarm metal of Belle’s left ear. She managed to protect herself from the racket best she could, even as she balanced precariously on a curled finger.

The explosions completely leveled the complex. Every portion of it collapsed and smoldered in jagged ruins. Belle and Angelica were no worse for wear at least; there wasn’t a scuff on the former’s brass exterior. Belle gasped, remembering Angelica and lowering her left hand back down to make sure her new government friend was safe. She was, but she look dismayed.

“No...” muttered Angelica. “Damn that madman.”

“What do you mean?”

“The blasts were thorough, but controlled. Victor had planned for a self-destruction of the facility. My guess is he didn’t want anyone to pick through it, try and repeat what he did to you. That bastard... all that steamtech, lost.”

“There were people in there, all his employees.”

“Ha, it was probably one of his employees who set it off. Orders given in advance to someone most loyal, someone will to go down with the ship as they say.”

“While taking everyone else with them.”

The streets were pandemonium now. A 1000ft tall brass woman was walking the streets, and the largest building in Manhattan had just blown up.

Belle moved her legs free from some rubble that had around the limbs. She raised her foot up to take another step north, but quickly realized an issue.

“I can’t keep walking here. The ruins are too jagged.”

She took the step, feeling the chunks of metal and concrete slowly give to the bottom of her foot.

“You didn’t have any issues with that?”, said Angelica. She now watched from between Belle’s massive, curled fingers.

“My legs still feel stiff. I don’t wanna trip here. That could get you hurt.”

“We have to go to the streets then.”, said Angelica.

Belle made a sighing noise. “Seems so, at least the roads are flatter. I just, feel bad about it all. All of this, what a disaster.”

Belle stepped back into the street, which had since cleared. She then reoriented North and went on the move.

At her immense size, the brass woman was wider than pretty much every street New York City had to offer. She was able to walk close to the ruins of the Voxhaben Complex, but even then her right foot simply had to pass through a few buildings. Even though the buildings were evacuated, the damage was wracking up to the million dollar mark real fast.

“Wait.”, said Belle. “Why can’t I just stay here and wait for the government to show up and you talk to them?”

“A few reasons Belle. One is that the government is probably on their way to try and kill you. The other is that most people at the government don’t know I work for them. Victor confiscated the relevant paperwork I usually have on hand to prove I’m a top level agent. Far as any soldier would know, I’m just a disposable hostage or, worse, an accomplice to the giant machine wrecking the city.”

“I’m not a machine!”, protested Belle.

“Sure, but they won’t be easily convinced. The only people who know I work for the government are at the capital, and I’m sure madam president has a lot of questions. Just get me there.”

Belle though it a bit absurd, but some of what Angelica said made at least a little bit of sense.

So, she kept moving, and it wasn’t long till she had cleared the area immediately around the Voxhaben Complex, and reached the blocks where people had run to. There was still a ways to go till getting to the capital building though, and now the streets were packed.

Automobiles were honking at each other. People were hit by one or two, speeding by, even if the driver just crashed shortly after. People were simultaneously trying to flee buildings while a few idiots thought to hide in some. Belle looked down at the chaos near where her toes settled onto cracked pavement. People scrambled back from her till they could no longer move.

“Uhh, hello. Sorry I mean you no harm. Just, please, clear the way.”

Belle waited, and many did manage to squeeze out of the streets due in front of her.

“You can’t wait forever Belle.”, said Angelica.

“But they’re people.”

“Yes, but this is a poorer area of the city. My intel is vital.”

“So you want me to step on them?”

“Step on as little as you can manage, but if you wait too long some airships will show to blow you up, then we’re both dead and you’re never getting back to normal!”

Belle sighed. Once again, Angelica made just enough sense for her to go along with things. She lifted her foot up and it hovered more than the width of the street before her.

“I’m sorry!”, she said. “But I need to keep moving.

She stepped. The cacophony of intensified screams reached her, a haunting chorus, then, silence once her foot fell. The screaming intensified back up soon after. She felt half a building collapse over the top of her right foot, with the other half already crumbled beneath her metal sole.

Another deep breath, then another step. She got past another few blocks that way. One morbid silver-lining was that when she stepped, she helped thin the crowds enough that they had room to move again. Her first steps were the ones that crushed the most innocents.

“Steady, steady.” muttered Belle. She had gone from having her legs bound to walking several blocks all within the span of an hour. The limbs were still stiff.

Despite that, she was making pretty good progress, getting the hang of her stride. Then, with the start of central park in view, Belle’s right foot cleaved through a building. Nothing unheard of there, but the central pylon of the structure was a tiny bit sturdier than she had anticipated. Her toes still tore it free, but her balance wavered.

The unthinkable happened, Belle tripped.

Thinking fast, the colossal woman pressed Angelica tight to her chest. Her right arm stretched out to brace herself, but it was too little and too late.

She fell forward and right, diagonally. Scores of people had left her direct path to head in that direction. The looked up to see the shadow of her naked front coming down upon them.

With a crash and a loud clanging like some giant gong, all 1000ft of Belle fell over several blocks. Buildings cracked against her chest and face. Their resistance was paltry enough to rival egg shells against her might and weight. No one beneath her stood a chance. A scant few lived in the space behind her crossed left elbow, but it was only for a moment.

Belle quickly move to get herself back up, her arm sliding back to take care of those few stragglers with her hardly noticing. She was too emotionally exhausted, enough that she slammed her free hand down as a closed fist.

“Dammit! These stupid legs.”

She slammed her right foot down, knee bent, and rose with care and sluggishness.

“How many people did I just kill there you think? How many lives gone cause I’m a klutz?”, said Belle.

“Belle,”, said Angelica. “Get it together. We’re almost at Central Park. Everyone already fled from there. Once we clear that, it’s just a few steps--your steps at least--to the capital. We’re almost there.”

Belle flicked some rubble off her shoulder. The rest fell off on its own from whatever cleaning-coating nonsense she had going on. She sighed.

“You’re right, you’re right. Still, it’s a shame to crush all that nature.”

“Central Park is a big place, and it’s better to flatten trees than people right.”

“Yeah.”, said Belle.

She went on the move again.

“You’re right.”

Central Park once stretched for a couple miles, though now it was down to just 1 in length. Business owners had lobbied, successfully, for permits to build closer and closer. The towering fancy brass-decorated structures formed a border to the green-laden area. Belle’s body burst right through a few of them on the park’s south side.

At last, she felt greenery under her feet instead of cracking streets and bursting bodies. Angelica was right, the area had cleared out once word of the giant steamtech woman had spread. For once it seemed like she’d have an easy time.

Then, coming into view were the airships. Military ones: primarily airzeps, but there were a few larger standard airships and even one formidable armored airblimp hanging in the back.

The sleek airzeps were coming in fast. Belle used her new eyes to zoom in on them and take inventory of the steam cannons lining their sides and beneath the bottom gondola where the crew worked.

“Do you see that Angelica?”, said Belle. She returned her vision to normal. Her left hand was since outstretched again, with Angelica able to peek through the slight gaps between Belle’s sturdy fingers.

“The government dirigibles? Yes, they are the official airforce for the city. There’s a military base not far off. I’m honestly a little surprised it took them this long to arrive.”

“Well, they’re gonna shoot me! Victor kept playing up how this body was strong and all, but I’d rather not be shot... just in case at least.”

“Just try not to harm them, it’ll make my job more difficult.”

“Well they’re heading this way, the littler ones nearly as fast as I can walk. I’d rather not-wait, I have an idea. Do you remember what Victor said? I have a radio in me.”

Angelica paused.

“Actually, yes. He brought me out to the central chamber when your surgery was done and they were finishing putting the metal back on that body’s head. He wouldn’t shut up about all the features. He talked about the ability to intercept any radio, crack it, and send your own messages.”

“Well, I’ll just do that to talk to them from afar, before they start shooting at me. I know you said you’re a top secret agent but, surely there’s something you can say to them to get them to back down? A codephrase or something?”

“Well... yes, right again. Good thinking Belle. Tell them you are carrying a Classified Class Agent 2977, and you need an escort to the capital building for a top secret report.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

“And you think that will work given the circumstances?”

“It’s better to at least try than just get shot at, right?”, said Angelica. She smiled a tad.

“Alright, I’ll try.”, said Belle.

She looked inward, trying to tune into her new, gigantic, steamtech body as though it were flesh. Sadly, she wasn’t that in tune with this body, at least not yet. It made sense, as she didn’t exactly remember being able to ‘feel’ her liver or spleen back in her old form.

So, with the armed airships fast approaching, she tried another tactic. Simply ‘wanting’ to use her built in radio functionality. Victor had mentioned that the “Black Box” provided an interface for her body to respond to her desires.

She thought long and hard about tuning in. To her amazement, she started hearing staticky noises in her mind as though the noise was coming from within. She heard some music at first, quickly learning she had tuned into the wrong station. So, she focused on tuning into whatever channel that had the closest activity.

It felt like her mind was trying to break down a door for a moment. She pushed and pushed, but eventually got in. Whatever decryption stuff Victor had rambled about seemed to have worked, and all the sudden she heard some words neither hers nor Angelica’s.

“Approaching target, nearing range of fire.”

“Damn.”, said Belle aloud. She quickly focused on trying to send them a message. Her best idea of how to do this was the same: want it, and think it really hard.

Something clicked for Belle, and not the usual clicking of gears in her body. She was able to communicate without sound coming out of her mouth.

The captain of the city air-force was lounging in the airblimp when an unfamiliar voice came over the radio.

“Hello? Hello can you hear me. Don’t shoot! Please don’t shoot.”

Across all the airships, the voice was heard.

“I repeat don’t shoot!”

The captain leaned forward into her console.

“Who is this? Identify yourself?”

“I’m the giant brass woman you’re shooting at, my name is Belle Braxley and I mean no harm!”

“Preposterous!”, said the captain. “But if what you say is true then stand down immediately.”

Belle looked down at Angelica and spoke.

“They want me to stand down?”

“They’ll just shoot you anyways if they do that. You’ve caused millions of dollars worth of damage. Just say the phrase I taught you already!”

“Alright.”

Belle talked over the radio again.

“Classified Class Agent 2977, I was told to say that. The woman in my hand isn’t a hostage or anything, she works for the government. We need an escort to the capital building for a top secret report on the Voxhaben Complex!”

“What the...”

There was silence on the channel for a bit. Occasionally bits of static were heard. Unknown to Belle, that captain was contacting superiors on a higher channel.

Then, contact came for Belle again.

“This is... the weirdest thing Ms. Braxley, but your request was approved. Government staff put out a special announcement over all city radio channels. You have your escort too.”

“Thanks.”, she said over the channel before tuning out from it.

“It worked!” she said aloud to Angelica: and anyone else in a radius of at least several hundred feet by virtue of the volume.

“Great!”, said the spy.

The airships were still heading over, but on better terms.

Chapter 9: Government Aid

Belle had walked through central park before, but not quite like this. It was definitely a novel experience to stroll through greenery taller than the tallest trees. It was even more novel to actually feel said trees break underfoot. To her credit, Belle was trying to keep her steps on the more easily replant-able grass and shrubs, but she wasn’t about to try and do any fancy footwork either. If she tripped, then she would ruin far more foliage than her feet alone could manage.

The airships hovered at a safe distance to the brass woman, but close enough still that anyone knew she was with them. Some scouted ahead, honking their horns to help disperse whatever few stragglers were still near the area.

A bit further into her stroll through the park and Belle had a realization.

She was naked.

The events had been such a flurry of emotions and developments, that it wasn’t until that moment she had truly comprehended the implications of being stark nude at 1000ft tall. The former reporter suddenly felt very shy.

The body felt at once her own and yet not. Even as she got more comfortable moving the thing, it still wasn’t her fleshy form. It was different. Perhaps that was why Belle didn’t seem to mind till now, she thought.

It was only once she reached the current level of comfort and familiarity with her brass form that she began to think “damn, my tits are out.”

Though far from the most pressing of her concerns, she was still quick to try and cover herself. She curled her fingers back over Angelica despite the spy’s protests. That arm crossed over her chest, with her left hand now hugging Angelica close to her sturdy right brass breast.

Her right hand quickly slid--as quick as her lumbering movements could be, at least--over towards her crotch.

The body’s design had an appropriate ‘shape’ where her vagina should be, but it was just for aesthetics and design: non-functional. That is, it was just the appearance of having the genitals rather than actually having them. There was an exterior relief of folds and a slit. It was like a sculpture, only of brass rather than marble. There were no ‘parts’ past the appearance of folds. There was no ‘depth’ to it. She couldn’t even pry the shaped ‘lips’ apart.

Belle wasn’t exactly in the mood to get frisky, but the fact that she couldn’t even if she wanted to stung. She simply had to get out of this body before she lost anymore. It was ironic to her, that the more she became in tune with this brass form, that the more she realized she was missing something.

She tuned back into the military radio channel as she walked. Upon reaching the edge of Central Park, the captain was trying to relay orders on how exactly to move her feet to cause the least amount of damage.

Belle paid it little heed. For one, she was not in the mood for such minutia directions, and secondly, she knew better than them just how awkward it was to move with her form. She had grown more in tune with it, but her legs still felt a bit stiff.

So, she ended up stepping on some small bank building on the outskirts of Central Park’s north side, rather then cleaving her left leg through some newspaper company’s HQ which was a taller building. They chastised her over the radio for it, but said if they didn’t pipe down she’d have to tune out of the station.

That got them to calm down, which made Belle feel a bit better.

To their credit, the military’s announcements over the civilian radio seemed to have worked pretty well. The streets were about as clear as they could be on short notice. Though plenty buildings still crumbled, at least partially, into her footprints, the amount of people caught in them had dropped to near-nil.

When the capital building finally came in sight, Belle’s mood perked up a little. The stately building had a domed top and was wider than it was long. It laid within its own private, walled-in courtyard complete with green grass and a private little fountain and pond no less than 50 square feet at the center.

“Walled-in” meant something entirely different to the 1000ft tall Belle, though, and she simply stepped over the fencing which hardly crested her metal toes. She felt the grass flatten deep into dirt beneath her brass feet.

The courtyard was cleared in advance, and the lack of any panic clearly meant the president had a heads-up.

Belle stood just outside the right-front of the building, facing it. Her width was about the distance between the structure and that private pond. Carefully, she started to squat down to sit on her haunches. While the airships hovered nearby, Belle started lowering her hand to the ground outside the front door. Even at her gentlest, there was still an audible clang when the back of her hand cracked the ground.

Everything was simply so fragile to Belle now.

Some staff rushed out the front door to help Angelica down, but the spry spy simply hopped off the fingers herself, landing flawlessly.

“Ms. Pankhurst”, said one of the suited men. “President Griswold is waiting for your report.”

“Wait.”, said Belle. “I wanna talk to her too.”

“I’ll bring her out when I get the chance. Just wait here Belle. I’ll fill her in on everything.”, said Angelica.

Angelica brushed her hand through her hair and dusted herself off, then followed the men inside.

Belle watched her recent ally disappear behind the doors. She had covered her chest once again with her arm, and her bent legs serving to conceal her crotch. Despite her supposed invulnerability--if Victor’s words were anything to go by--she felt very vulnerable with all the airships watching her.

Seconds passed with the only noises being the propellers and whirrings of the airships. Then, a few minutes later, Belle heard some rumbling through the streets. With large barrels and clunky treads, big bronze geartanks were driving through the nearby roads. Belle grew a tad concerned.

“Angelica, what are those doing here?”, she called out aloud. But, even if Angelica could hear her booming voice through the layers of the capital’s building materials, it seems she couldn't hear Angelica’s response. That was assuming she even saw fit to reply. She certainly didn’t run outside to reassure Belle’s concerns.

So, Belle reopened the radio channel the airships used and talked to them.

“What’s with the geartanks?”

“Ah, one moment.”

Silence for a few seconds as the captain surely consulted someone.

“They were called into the area when we were”, she said. “They just arrived now. Nothing to worry about.”

“Ok.”, said Belle. And, she proceeded to worry about it even more.

Over 15 minutes passed, and Belle began to wonder what was going on in there. There was no attempts to contact her: no aids to the president walking outside to rely information, and certainly not the president herself like Angelica had promised. Meanwhile some of the smaller airships, the ‘airzeps’, had moved to hover not that far from her shoulders.

Belled turned to the left to look at the pond.

‘Such a stately, clear body of water.’, she thought. ‘Shame they closed so many of the public ones.’

It cheered her up for just a moment, then sadness hit her like a locomotive. The face looking back at her from the reflection was not her own. It was a beautiful face, made by the world’s best artists. The hair, the eyes, the mouth and nose: it was all shaped to perfection in its proportions. It was beautiful, more so than her old face but, ultimately, it was not hers.

Belle had lost her old face, her old body, and as big and beautiful as this one is, it wasn’t the same. She didn’t want to be a giant. She didn’t want to be a god. She just wanted to be a reporter people would remember. Yet, here she was, naked on the president’s front lawn, freaking out over the prospect of never getting her old body back.

She was getting impatient. She couldn’t risk waiting too long so that her old body, whatever it was, might rot. She still held out a silly hope that her body wasn’t in the complex when it blew up, but even if it was...

‘The government scientists had to have some spare body around right?’, she thought.

And her thoughts went from sadness to panic. Anxiety that she’d be stuck like this. A tad of frustration that she still didn’t have answers. So, in her haste, she did something rather stupid.

Belle turned towards the roof of the capital building. She moved her hands over near the spherical dome of its center. Her fingers clenched, digging through the stone like it was butter. With a fast movement from her arms, she quickly lifted the roof away before any dangerous rubble could fall down. She haphazardly dropped it in the pond after, where the concrete and bits of metal sank much as they could in the shallow waters.

Naturally, this prompted the nearby airzeps into firing at her. She felt their bullets against her exterior thanks to that steam-based sense of touch under the surface. They were faint tickles if even. Hardly harmful feeling, and indeed they didn’t manage to even dent her exposed shoulders. But, they were distracting nonetheless.

Once again, without thinking, she stretched her arm out to swat one of the airzeps down. Her fingers tore through the balloon part of the craft, even with the metal-shielding over it. The dirigible fell fast into the courtyard.

A call for ceasefire came over the military radio.

“Stop shooting. The president is in the area.”

Belle heard it, then tuned out of the military channel once more. She moved her head over the hole she had made in the building. Part of her face now hung over the leader of the US government, Angelica, and a group of military personnel and scientists who had entered the president’s office.

“Sorry.”, said Belle. “But it’s been awhile, what exactly is going on in here? Can you help me or what? Angelica? Madam President?”

The expression on the president’s face matched those of everyone else in the room: shock. Madam President herself was one Cleora Griswold. She was a career politician with tan skin and silver hair. Close to her 50s, she was still sharp as a tack. Like many presidents in the nation’s recent history, she seemed to care more for the economy than the welfare of the people.

She did want to do what’s best for her country, but in her mind that meant keeping the big business interests happy so that the state of development could keep in the race with all the other nations in the world. To this end, she was most skilled at keeping policies and positions at the precipice of widespread tolerance. Her administration was known for being slow, but calculated and predictive.

Yet, no one could predict the events of today. Oddly enough, the president was the first to speak, even before Angelica.

“Ah! M-miss Braxley. I, I’m sorry but that was not necessary and over the line.”

“Yes I’m sorry madam president, but Angelica said I would get a chance to speak to you, and it’s been awhile.”

“I said to wait!”, said Angelica. Although no rubble fell, she had some dust on her person and wasn’t happy about the fact, brushing it off with a huff.

“You can’t just rip off the roof of the capital building, circumstances be damned.”, said Angelica.

“Angelica!”, said the president. “This is just a misunderstanding.”

“Look, I think at least one of you in here is a scientist right? You, with the coat.”

Her eyes focused on a bespectacled man. The light of her irises shone upon him to make that clear.

“I just want to know if you can put my brain back in my body, or any body, if there’s a way to come back from this. You can, right?”

There was silence in the room for a few seconds. Though Belle was past feeling pain, it felt agonizing all the same.

+“Answer me!”+, she bellowed, her voice shaking the chamber and causing everyone inside to cover their ears.

“Yes!”, said Cleora. “We can do it, we’re just... discussing how. If you can give us more time, we’ll get back to. Just, please, stay still and don’t move or touch anything. These are... unprecedented circumstances. Angelica has filled me in on the events of the Voxhaben Complex. I’m... sorry for your current fate.”

Belle seemed to calm. She nodded, her face conveying a hint of shame as she turned back away from the building.

“Thank you.”

With one loud little mini-quake, she let her brass rump fall to the courtyard in a proper sit. Some shrubs flattened beneath it, but Belle didn’t care. She hugged her knees close to her chest for comfort, and waited.

And waited, and waited about a bit more before she started to realize she heard something. Little voices growing louder. It was those inside. Without the roof in the way, she was able to start picking up their conversations even though they seemed to whisper. The auditory mechanisms in her ears were shifting: it felt odd, just like much about her body at times. Still, it resulted in their voices being better picked up. Bits and snippets. She had wanted to hear them, and her body responded.

“We... need more men for that... else... not work...” said Angelica’s voice.

“Too... strong for that...”, said a man’s voice. A bit squeaky, probably that scientist or doctor from earlier.

“I... don’t want to risk... all those men... can’t... abide... this level... destruction.”, came the president’s voice after.

Belle grew concerned again. Something was going on. She felt another sense of hers tingle. It was a new one: the sensing of radio waves. There was a channel being used nearby inside the capital building. IT was encrypted like the military’s. Belle focused on listening to it. If cracking the military’s channel was like kicking down a door, getting access to that channel was like blowing apart a solid metal wall. Still, it couldn’t resist her for long, and she was able to listen to the channel.

“This is Doctor Smith of the termination and analysis team, responding to the inquiry set out by Angelica a few minutes ago. Relay my response to her and the president. No matter if the technology is understood, we can cut into whatever ‘Black Box’ container is used for the brain and just terminate the subject thus. Although we had to use executive powers to do so, we also managed to acquire enough metal cutters for the job. I don’t think any sedatives can reach the brain obviously, so it’s probably best to just trick her into laying down or something.”

Belle wanted to scream, but she kept her mouth shut, and she refrained from ‘talking’ onto the channel herself. It sounded like some aid was getting a message from some team: a team meant to cut her open and ‘terminate’ her.

She didn’t want to believe it, but her ears focused, listened to the building. The elaborate cones and gears in her ear shifted. She could hear the pitter-patter of some flats against the smooth hardwood. She heard the door open, and she heard some woman, whispering into into the ears of the President and, then Angelica. She knew it was them, as she recognized the faint, hushed “understood” they each gave off.

‘Those monsters, they don’t think I can hear them. They thought to kill me.’

Belle moved to rest on her knees now. The building shook from her shift in position. Her face hovered over the gaping hole of the executive office where Angelica, the President, and the others were still gathered.

“Ah, Belle, A bit more time please dear!”, said the President.

“What a damned worm you are.”, said Belle.

“I-I beg your pardon!?”

Belle moved her hand into the room. Everyone inside screamed. She pinned the President, Angelica, and a few of the others under her brass thumb.

“Belle, what the damn are you-”

“I heard it, all of it. Where’s my body? You said you could help me.”

The President stammered.

“I-”

“Don’t play dumb. I heard the radio. Seems you didn’t adapt quick enough, maybe Angelica didn’t rely that I could listen in to radio did she? Slipped her mind? I heard you whispering too. I’ll ask again, where’s my body!”

The people squirmed beneath her digit. She could feel them.

‘Worms.’, she thought again.

“Guards, do something-”, said the President, but she was interrupted.

“It’s gone.”, shouted Angelica. “You ate it.”

“What? I would’ve remembered that.”

“I saw it. I saw everything once they extracted your brain. Victor made me watch. He said it’d serve as the first bit of fuel for ‘our new god.’. The first ‘sacrifice’. His words... not mine. The man was mad, Belle.”

“No, that’s not true, I would’ve felt that, like I felt it when I ate him and his goons.”

She pressed harder with her thumb. Someone’s something cracked, she heard it, but it was a man’s, so not Angelica or the president. Cleora did let out one heck of a scream though.

“It was hours before you awoke. You were asleep for some time after they put your brain in the Black Box thing. Think about it Belle, the back-part of your head wasn’t on when you underwent surgery, yet was seamlessly and smoothly integrated when you woke up. That took time, all the while your freaky steam stomach was cooking your brainless corpse.”

Belle felt a surge of anger run through her. She was tempted to pop them all beneath her thumb than and there, but Angelica spoke the truth. She had to be.

“By the time you were awake.”, spoke Angelica. “You already ‘digested’ your old body. There’s no going back Belle, we can’t put your brain in a new body: that’s just absurd. We did bring it up to the doctor here, honest, but no one knows how to connect neurons like that. Damnable Victor didn’t even know how that Black Box of his fully worked, and that’s the only example of a brain interfacing to any body other than the one it was born in.”

Belle slowly moved her finger away, but her anger still boiled.

“Fine, I believe you, but you were still gonna kill me, give up on me.”

Angelica replied, slowly rising to her feet. Her ankle had been twisted, but she hid the pain well.

“Belle, just walking to the capital you’ve ended dozens of lives and caused more damage than the city has ever seen. You’re gigantic, you weigh several tones. The city can’t handle you.”

“And that’s an excuse to kill me? I’m a reporter, not some common idiot. I’ve read about the government’s scandals. You were gonna cut up my body, study it, weren’t you?”

The President herself chimed up.

“Belle, there’s steamtech within you decades ahead of our current levels. If we can figure out how that works, the United States will be able to cement ourselves as leaders of the world. Our country will prosper, our interests secured. Yes you’d die, but you’d be a hero. You’d be a patriot.”

Belle scowled.

‘Damnable drivel, all of it.’, she thought.

Angelica spoke again.

“Think about it Belle. You always wanted to be remembered right?”

Belle paused. Rage coursed through her body. She was losing track of her emotions again. She could feel the minibots again took, her body took in all the tactile sensations it could get.

Then, after some tense seconds, she spoke.

“I understand.”

Belle slowly started to stand up to her full and imposing 1000ft height.

“Y-you, you do?”, said Cleora.

“Yes, I understand perfectly. “I understand that for all his repulsiveness and evil, Victor was right about one thing...”

Belle lifted her right foot over the middle of the capital building. Her metallic sole glistened above as they screamed.

“You politicians are rotten, scheming worms.”

Angelica muttered. “B-belle!”

The brass woman wasn’t having it. She put all her might into her right leg and stomped.

Just like that, Belle had assassinated the president of the United States: underfoot. The building crumbled as chunks of rubble sprayed out from the impact. Angelica, Cleora, and some of the government's top military officials, scientists, doctors, and aids were crushed flat beneath her step.

Belle was still angry, pissed. Yet, a new feeling reached her.

She felt powerful.

The president, their top spy, and their much of their cabinet had just been flattened under the eyes of the military nearby. The airzeps gave a bird’s eye view, after all.

As Belle twisted her colossal foot in the remains, smiling, the airships started to fire at her.

Belle talked over their radio channel, as well as aloud with her normal voice.

“None of those ticklish pebbles of yours are hurting me. I’ve got a lot of stuff to think over right now, how about you just surrender, and give me some space for a bit.”

The fire intensified, with the captain ordering other the channel to unleash everything they had on Belle. Then, the captain said to keep the communication low, as that ‘monster’ could hear.

Belle sighed.

Chapter 10: Attack of the Colossus

“I figured you’d be dumb enough not to leave me alone.”

Belle spun around, swinging her arms through about 3 of the airzeps. What bits of them didn't explode outright did when they crashed into the ground.

She turned around and flattened the wreckage of one under foot, then she took a step in that pond of the capital courtyard. It crumbled and leaked, but she appreciate the feeling of cold water against her metal foot.

“I mean, I guess I expected it to some extent. All my life I’ve seen people too egotistical to do what makes sense.”

An airzep flew close to her head, peppering it with machine-gun fire from the rapid-fire gun on its gondola. Belle moved her neck back and then slammed her forehead into the craft, utterly obliterating it.

Screams came out over the radio. Belle smirked.

“I think I’m just gonna talk normally for now. I think I’m loud enough for you all to hear, but before I do that, let me give you one more message: I’m going to wreck this rotten city till you finally surrender to me. How long that’ll take is up to you. I’ll still keep listening in though, don’t you worry about that.”

Belle backhanded another airzep out of the way and took a turn towards the geartanks lined up at the east. Although the streets were more free of the civilians, the city’s assigned military forces were absolutely packing them. Between the slew of geartanks were plenty of normal soldiers, with their rifles clad in uniform and ready to fight.

Belle walked up to the very front of those forces, and simply stepped down on them. She was big, lumbering, but at her scale even her slower movements were hard to escape and react to. It didn't’ matter if her foot took 3x as long to fall as a human’s if it was hundreds of times as big.

The brass bodied woman felt the explosions of warmth beneath her tread. She took another step, then again, methodically stomping out chunks of the forces at a time. It felt almost massaging: the warm explosions followed by the slightly cooler blood of the pilots and soldiers also smashed under sole.

There were still more to be thwarted, but she turned her massive body once more and marched straight into a slew of buildings. She felt them break against her legs and feet, with a few taller structures even crashing against her thighs instead.

It did little to calm her though. Belle was pissed. It was clear to see on her brass face. She was done being mislead, used. She rampaged through the army and city not to get them to submit, but to unleash her anger. Her boss hadn’t supported her, some business man stole her brain and, to top it off, Angelica betrayed her. Even the government itself cared little for her wants and well-being.

Some people had moved to the roof of a nearby skyscraper rather than evacuate. They were on their hands and knees atop the flat-surface there, begging. Belle moved close to them, saw how their tears stained their fancy suits and dresses. In the moment, they repulsed her.

Smiling, she pursed her lips and blew them off the tower. While they plummeted to their doom, she brought her elbow through the building and sent it folding down over into a pile of rubble atop her toes.

“That made me feel a bit better. Hmmm.”

More bullets were hitting her: against the back of her knees and even a few shells against her perfectly proportioned, petite brass butt. She laughed.

“I see, want more attention? Fine, I’ll give it to you! You little insects can’t even let me have a moment to myself, can you?”

Belle started walking towards the row of tanks to the west, faster and faster until, smiling, she started running. It was all the span of a few seconds, but the thoom and thud of her footfalls made for a few mini-quakes that knocked the un-expecting soldiers off their own little feet. She came to a stop by raising her left foot and slamming it down in the center of the armed throng.

“Haven’t you learned you can’t do anything to me? Just give up already!”

She arced her right leg back and brought its foot in for a kick. Geartanks and soldiers flew through the air, and a few hit the airships which were coming in. They had looped around Belle and we’re ready to strike: well, the ones not ‘sunk’ out of the air by soaring geartanks at least.

Belle wondered how they had coordinated this without saying something over the radio. The radio was mostly quiet, save for the occasional, fruitless call for ‘help’ from the odd radio-equipped geartank.

‘Help huh, when I asked for help, you government bastards were gonna try and scoop out my brain for the second time.’

Belle zoomed in on some of the airzeps, and noticed a few had some colorful flags waving out their windows.

“Semaphore huh? Clever.”

She took some steps towards the fleet, utterly uncaring of where said steps land or what poor fools they ended beneath.

Then, there was chatter over the radio. Something new this time.

“Fire!”, came the voice of that captain woman from earlier.

Shortly after, the long barreled steam cannon on the largest dirigible in the pack fired.

A large iron shell ripped through the air, 5-feet in diameter and shaped like a bullet. Belle saw it coming and, her human instincts in-tact, raised her arm to shield herself while simultaneously ducking to the side. Despite that effort, the powerful shell still managed to slam into her right shoulder.

Belle’s feet stumbled some from the blow, stomping out a few more geartanks before her heels found a steady place to rest after crushing down a building each.

She tilted her head towards the impact point, and noticed the slightest dent. Before her very eyes, the depression in her brass body began to un-depress, albeit slowly.

“The minibots.”, Belle muttered. “They must be at work, a bit slow though.”

Belle faced the airship fleet, grit her teeth, and charged at them.

“I didn’t think you could hurt me, but thanks for keeping me on my toes!”

She leapt just before them, bringing her hands together before slamming it down on the airblimp. Though it was longer than her face was wide, it still wasn’t tough enough to withstand that. Belle heard the captain’s screams as the dirigible careened to the ground. She raised her foot to finish it off. A twist and it was fully deflated and flat.

“Ha, little air rodents.”

The airships started to clear the area now that their flagship was ruined, but Belle wasn’t having it.

“Cowards, no you do not!”

She reached out and snagged two handfuls of airzeps, which amount to about half-a-dozen each. Her fingers curled to start to crush them, but before finishing them off, she took another look at the dent on her shoulder.

Then, she turned back to them.

“You know, that dent you gnats put in me is healing slower than expected. Let’s see if I can speed it up with a bit more materials to work with.”

Belle opened wide and listened to the confused screams coming over the military radio. All the airships were suddenly faced with her open maw. She stuffed them inside, give them a quick swirl with her tongue, then gulped, and gulped some more.

Even with no gag reflex, she didn’t swallow all of them at once. They went down in clumps of 3 or so, following after each other in the tuggings of her pipe of a throat. Once they landed in her stomach, she felt a fluttering and heard from their barely functioning radio systems the most desperate pleas for help yet--and the most visceral screams yet too.

A few quick punches and spins of her arm took out most of the remaining airships before the stragglers dispersed. Belle reached down and behind her, where some geartanks were rolling in. She chucked a few at those escaping dirigibles while popping a couple of the tanks in her mouth. She tested her teeth, chomping the vehicles just enough so the pilots couldn’t escape. Then, she swallowed.

“Ah, there we go. I guess if I want anything from you government bastards, I got to take it.”

As she spoke, she looked at the dent on her shoulder, which quickly healed to be as good as new. At the same time, she felt a subtle feeling, like her body was pushing out. Looking at her fingers, she realized she had indeed grown slightly. Very slightly: probably on the order of a few feet.

“Interesting.”

The military was now actively dispersing. The chatter over the radio, few as it was, was panicked.

“She’s unstoppable!”
“I’m retreating!”

Belle had finally scared them off a bit, but there was still no surrender from the government, so she would still let off some steam—so-to-speak. And, she knew just where to go next.

“I wonder how my old workplace is doing~”

Belle sauntered over towards The Squeaky Wheel’s office building. She strode with pride, her feet meeting no resistance as she stomped right through a few more buildings. Some of the people had evacuated to this area too, which meant more popping sensations as she moved.

Belle was growing more comfortable in her new body. Her movements were nearing her old human fluidity. Whereas before it felt like she had to walk with knees she could barely bend, she now had no trouble shocking the insects on the ground with a surprise stomp or two to the left or right.

She was strong, immense, near-invincible! Even a airblimp’s heavy weapon could barely dent it, and that was already healed.

Belle felt she could take on anything, destroy all beneath her. She felt something she hadn’t felt that often as a human. That feeling she felt earlier.

Powerful.

Pretty soon she was upon her old workplace. It was a rather short squat building. She could fit it square under foot if she raised her knee up just a tad. Focusing her ears, she could some sniveling inside. It was from her old boss: and numerous hiding employees. She had never heard him snivel before, only yell at her, call her stupid or order her to go do some meaningless story on park trees or a new road renovation.

She chuckled above them all, knowing they’d recognize her voice even now. She angled her foot so the toes where lightly spread and the ball of her foot near touched the roof of the place.

“I quit”, she said.

Then stomped.

A flood joy reached her as she felt the building just collapse. Their screams silenced in the span of a second. A second was all it took to destroy her old workplace, her old means of living.

Belle had never felt so satisfied. She had to admit it: her dream of becoming a famous reporter was well and truly dead. She had a new goal now.

To be the god she was meant to be.

It just made sense. It was too fun to wield this power, too thrilling. If humans are gonna constantly try to ruin each other to get ahead, she might as well take charge of it all herself. She could make a better world: who better to trust with running it than herself?

Belle talked aloud and over the military’s radio channel again.

“Hello, this is Belle. Just a reminder you have yet to submit the United States Government to my divine authority. I’ll keep listening to this channel, so just let me know when you finally capitulate. It’d be a shame to have to level my home city, and more, to get you to see there’s no choice in the matter.”

“But just you damn well go and try me, see what happens. In the meantime, I think I’ll go and visit the upper-east side...”

The upper-east side of New York City was known as a more rich area. Top donors to the government lived there, business men and women. There were also plenty of elite financial institutions headquartered around there too.

Belle ran straight towards it. The very quakes of her steps caused all sorts of issues, but the impacts of such fast moving feet from a metal colossus just ruined the city infrastructure oodles with every step. Once she reached that rich-district, she spared no mercy, no hesitation. Her arms cleaved through the tallest skyscrapers, her feet flattened anything she could lift them over.

The streets deemed with panicked people. No one had really evacuated out of the city, and she was at the North-eastern edge pretty much, with no military to slow her and the people looking at her like bugs before a bird.

The streets ran red with blood that cleanly glided off her brass body. Unstained by the mess of their burst bodies, Belle was in a gory rapture of delight with her rampage. She had pivoted her foot above an entire crowd of people, letting them run and trip over their overly long dresses or the cracks her step-echoes had made in the streets. Before any escaped she pressed down, squishing them all.

Belle moved to a taller building, decorated with brass reliefs and gargoyles with gold trims. It was the headquarters of one of the leading financial institutions in the nation, and she bent her knees to clench part of her thighs around it. Her arms draped over it too in a gentle hug. The building began to shake.

It was at that moment she heard chatter over the radio. It was a woman’s voice in a no-nonsense tone that leaked her age: probably late 30s.

“Hello, hello. This is general Verd Kadwell speaking, leader of the North Eastern Division of the United States armed forces. I’m acting on behalf of former Secretary of State and acting President Ralph Barman. I’m here to let you know we surrender, unconditionally. Please, stop this destruction.”

Belle grinned.

“About time.”

She finished her hug, pressing her legs together and squeezing to finish off that skyscraper. The rubble fell from her body like surf from stone.

“Hey!”, said a man’s voice moments after. “This is Ralph, we surrendered, so why do that?”

“Just one more for fun, and don’t talk to your superior like that.”, she said, aloud and via her radio-speak.

“I-”

“From now on, let it be known I’m the divine ruler of this nation. Its new god. Now call a task force to the sight of the capital building.”

Belle smiled to herself.

“I’m sure there’s a lot of work to do.”

Chapter 11: Practicalities

Belle had proclaimed herself god of an entire nation, and the nation had officially submitted. There was one problem though.

They had submitted only officially.

It wasn’t exactly realistic to expect the entire nation to bow down right then and there. She had learned from General Kadwell that a surrender was approved by her and Ralph as soon as Belle had destroyed the fleet of airships. However, military and government leaders across the nation did not exactly agree with the decision.

For one, states were numerous and prone to squabbling and egotism. A giant brass woman wasn’t rampaging in *their* backyard, so why should *they* have to surrender to her? As another matter, not everyone believed she existed. Although word had spread over the nation about a giant brass woman having attacked the city--and it came via official government stations, no less--ultimately that was a hard pill to swallow. Many thought it a prank, some even thought it a political tactic to sway votes or some other wacky theory.

Ralph Barman had confessed that he surrendered with the knowledge that only the North Eastern area of the country would agree with it, as that was the area Kadwell commanded. Even then, plenty of towns and even a city or two would probably resist.

You just simply couldn’t say “I’m god” and conquer the masses. People were just too stubborn.

Two weeks with by, with only the surrounding towns yielding to Belle’s rule thus far. Kadwell’s forces, even after the hit from Belle, were enough to quell any concerns there.

At the same time, New York City was being repaired by Belle’s orders, as it’s partial destruction had left the North Eastern economy in shambles. The city would be in a riotous chaos if not for the colossal self-proclaimed “god” woman presiding over it all.

Belle didn’t need to sleep, so she quickly stomped out any night-time meetings of rebellion or the like. People got used to seeing her around, stomping through the area near the capital-building. She was kind enough to stay there to avoid crushing the streets and buildings as a few were undergoing repairs.

But, Belle was impatient. Repairing the city would take time, as would a war. The United States was nearly 3000 miles wide and about 1500 miles from north to south at the maximums. Her loyal forces were also recovering from their foolish resistance against her.

Belle had a plan though. She had noticed she had grown from all the tanks and blimps she had consumed. Moreover, though she didn’t need to eat, she forced herself to consume some of the building rubble the reconstruction crews were unable to repurpose: scrap metal and concrete and the like.

This was because Belle had noticed she had grown. From her fight with the city weeks back, it was a couple dozen feet. But, having eaten more building metal and the like, she had increased a couple hundred feet or so.

Eating made her grow, as she had been told and seen in practice now.

One problem was the process was slow, but a boon was that it seemed to be more efficient the more she ate. She didn’t just get bigger with more materials, but she improved overall. She felt more in tune with her body, faster and more flexible.

So, she devised a plan. Get big, better, to the point of unstopability. In the process, she would use her might to help conquer the nation herself. Her goal was to conquer the country before the majority resistance could figure out some way to kill her. That involved striking as fast as possible, improving--and growing--as much as she deemed fit at the least.

And so, a little over two weeks into her rule, Belle gathered some members of her new divine government. They traditionally met before her, where the capital building used to be. They met on sunny days mostly, as she liked to look at them when they gathered at the long and wide table laid out by her toes while she sat.

She issued them a harrowing order.

“The prisoners in the city?”, said General Kadwell.

“Yes.”, said Belle.

“All of them? Even those with minor offenses?”, said Ralph.

“Yes, don’t make me say it again. I wanted them delivered to me. Use the spare cargo geartanks to transport them. I’ll do my best not to ruin the vehicles.”

Ralph frowned. Belle had zoomed in to see it. “And you’re really gonna-”

“Eat them, yes. Now don’t make me repeat myself. They’re just prisoners anyways, the old government showed no pretense of treating them like humans, so don’t let my treating them like food rattle you.“

“But-”

“If you want to keep your place in my new world, you’ll stop questioning my orders like this.”

Ralph nodded in solemn understanding.

Within the day, her order was carried out. Dozens of troop-transport and cargo geartanks rolled into the courtyard, each carrying dozens of prisoners in their own right.

Belle didn’t even wait till all the drivers left the transports to dig in. She scooped up a handful of the vehicles at a time, easy when each was scarcely larger than a marble to her in size.

The only thing securing the backdoors to each transport was a metal rod through the hollow door handles. Holding her prizes over her mouth, said rod usually fell free from shaking, though when that failed she simply pinched the very rears of the transports as delicately as possible, and that typically dislodged the backdoors of the vehicles entirely.

Murderers and loiters alike fell screaming into her awaiting maw. Spritzes of ‘saliva’ and steam were waiting for them. Belle was so massive that a single human being was a good deal less than half-an-inch tall in comparison. She scarcely needed to swallow: they simply fell down in mass.

Belle didn’t care for their crimes, to her they were simply food. Once she had drained a transport of its ‘prizes’, she set it down for the usually quite terrified driver to run off and away from. Although it was tempting to feast on the transport trucks, she was careful enough to not damage any of them pass repair. They’d have uses moving her troops later: as well as future prisoners of war. She was thinking ahead.

As this went on, many of those loyal to Belle were watching from the edges of the courtyard. Their faces were often ones of revulsion. Belle noticed, and addressed them as she scooped up another half-dozen transports or so.

“Look at you hypocrites. It wasn’t too long ago that you were gonna cut me up and analyze me like some dissected bug. Now you have the audacity to judge me for putting prisoners to better use than you ever did?”

She finished the latest handful, ignoring the please of the driver who’s door grew loose from her shaking. The poor woman fell in with the convicts into Belle’s merciless mouth. Her lips sealed and she gulped, finishing the last transport of that handful before reaching down for another.

“When I first escaped the complex, a lot of that ‘monster’ talk was getting to me. Part of me believed it, but now I see. In the wild, animals always ate the inferior ones. You may see this as cannibalism, but it’s not so. I’m a superior being, a god. This government of mine is divine rule. It’s my right to devour you if I see fit. Consider these sacrifices: their bodies will be broken down, the minerals and metals flowing through their bodies reconstituted along with the rest of them. Their pieces will be the bricks to build a better me: to keep your god in advancement and smooth operation.”

Belle loomed her face into the handful. Her sensitive hearing functions picked up the whimpers from those beneath her luminescent gaze.

“When I was told humans were one of the most productive things for me to consume, I didn’t believe it at first. It seemed too outlandish, but after eating a bunch I realized the odd truth of the matter. There’s really no better organic food source for me.”

She pinched up a transport and shook out its contents. Dozens more people, sent to her metal guts to for processing.

“And from cooking alive in my stomach, they’ll give me more power, more scale. In this way, even those who refuse my rule can still aid me.”

Belle scooped up the last handful of transports.

“Shame these people never even got to chance to even try and resist. Ha~”

She opened wide and just swallowed it all down: vehicles included. Even with how she ravaged the North-Eastern Division weeks ago, she figured they could make up for a loss of 6 measly transport geartanks and drivers.

They protested over the radio nonetheless.

“Silence!”, said Belle. She rose to her full height and the ground rumbled.

“My will is law now, and their sacrifice was appreciated. Honor their memories however you see fit, but also hear my next order. I’m no fool, conquering this country properly will require my direct aid, at least at the start. People are nice, but to really grow I will require metals, stone, more dense and heavy mass.”

Belle trailed her fingers over her flat a perfect brass tummy. Screams echoed within while they danced up a fuss.

“It’s just the nature of physics. I need a hearty, inorganic meal to grow more at the speeds we need. But, you can’t exactly spare any more tanks, can you General Kadwell.”

Kadwell spoke on the radio, where Belle had talked simultaneously as she did aloud.

“W-we’d prefer not to.”

“Exactly, which is why you are to inform the two nearest towns that they are to be evacuated.”

“Evacuated? But why, and where?”, said Ralph.

“They can move into the city. We had a lot of causalities of late right? It could use the re-population effort.”

“But we’re already-”

“Oh so now you care about overpopulation in the city? Crowding? Give me a dammed break.”

Belle scoffed, the brass timbre of her voice’s thoom echoing. She continued.

“It’s wasteful to have people living anywhere but cities. All their automobiles for travel, all their homes and shops are better used as fuel for me. I got a hunch those two towns will be thousands of feet of growth for me, each, not to mention other refinements to my body. They’ll adjust to city living fast enough.”

Ralph moved to speak, but General Kadwell spoke first.

“I-I understand. We’ll rely the directive over radio to Coalbarrow and Whealguard. I’ll also send forces there at once to carry out the orders.”

“Perfect.”, said Belle. She walked towards Kadwell and the others, her brass foot casting them in its shadow a moment as she walked safely over them. It settled with a loud thoom.

“I’ll meet you there.”

And so, Belle moved to leave the city. By her orders, a long western swath from the capital area out was not to be repaired. It served as her own personal ‘road’ for movement, though the military could also use it to move through when safe.

The journey to the nearest town of Coalbarrow took Belle mere minutes. At more than 1000ft tall, she could travel over 500mph simply walking. Needless to say, she was faster than the force Kadwell dispatched. So, she stopped by a nearby hill to Coalbarrow and sat on it, watching the town from afar. She tested the capabilities of her zoom functionalities: managing to see the details of buildings from thousands of feet away.

She was sure the villagers saw her on the horizon. They would have heard the radio by now, but probably wondered why she wasn’t already there, upon them, chowing down on their homes.

‘In time’, thought Belle.

The loyalist military came into Belle’s view. She walked with them to the town, reveling as her steps lightly jostled those tanks on the move.

Belle had her legs lightly spread, hands on hips as she looked over the town. People moved with sullen expressions, guided by Belle’s troops to the vehicles waiting to help move them to the city. Everyone was permitted just one bag, as they had to leave any owned automobiles behind as well.

Once the town was clear enough, Belle fell to her knees and started devouring it. Her hands crushed buildings between her fingers, then she let the rubble fall into her maw. Every car and building either fell before her brass form as it crawled over the town in her feast or, of course, fell into it via her throat.

Belle actually had to pause to digest a couple times. Though her stomach was advanced, it still took a bit of time to break things down. Although she didn’t feel hungry, she could tell when she was full after all. Though it was possible to expand her stomach out of proportion by heating the metal ‘walls’ of it and molding them outward, Belle didn’t want to deform her perfect brass body’s appearance, nor make the internal “organ” larger out of its current proportion.

Entire houses could be swallowed whole, albeit with a little bit of effort. Steadily, Belle began to grow, making more room for the town till her breaks in feasting became less frequent and, soon enough, the entire town was devoured.

Belle rose to her new full height, more than a thousand feet taller already. She stretched her arms up not out of any physical urge to, but just to revel in her being.

Whealguard was just a short walk away for her. Her feet trod over plenty of trees and such on the way. She was considerate enough not to step on the roads and make her forces trip to the city or elsewhere any harder.

Her forces were already at the second town when she arrived. The last bits of the evacuation were just finishing up. She zoomed in to see the horrified and awed expressions of her citizens, as they looked up at the gigantic brass woman who was gonna devour the livelihoods they left behind.

“Your god thanks you for sacrifice~”, she thundered from on high.

Her knees slammed into the earth, and once more she indulged in what her people had to offer. As she felt her body steadily grow she knew, too, that her rule would soon grow with it.

Chapter 12: Strike

As crude as Belle’s plan seemed to her forces, it did work. Over two more weeks, she had more than doubled her height.

Her loyal forces spent the time increasing their ranks through drafts and repairing their vehicles when possible. The city, too, got a bit better. The factories therein were repurposed for the war effort: Belle’s divine war.

She had a secure hold on the Northeast, but there were still states a bit to the west and south that resisted her. The North-Eastern forces had an advantage in technology, as most airships were stationed either there or to the far northwest of the continental United States. Still, they ran into issues as they tried to assert their hold to the west and south at first.

They were Belle’s forces, however, and she herself did not shy from the battlefield.

Illinois was something of a holdout, with the city of Rigglen being both a rebel stronghold and the latest wall for her military to try and surpass. Belle’s forces were concentrated on some mobile camps not too far from both Rigglen city and the two suburbs of Terrastead and Bolmore which also persisted in the so-called “Illinois Independence Alliance”

After some scouting, Kadwell had thought it finally time to strike.

When they did, rolling and flying off to the city, Belle was with them.

The ‘god’ herself stood in the battlefield at about a mile in height. She had started in the back of her forces, but quickly overtook them as her formidable feet stomped down, cracking the terrain to the front of the advancing tanks.

This was the first real battle Belle would be in, and she was ready and willing to show off.

Rigglen was situated near a military base, in which their power laid. They were already prepared to defend the city with rows of their own geartanks, gun-mounted automobiles and a slew of airships of their own.

All but the largest dirigible was, to Belle, naught but a bug. They had heard of the giant brass woman of course, and many even believed in her, but none could believe she was this big. News of her growth had yet to reach them.

Now, with her brass form shining in the morning sun, many began to think it she was indeed the god she proclaimed to be.

That wouldn’t save any of them though.

They had refused calls to surrender earlier, so Belle’s forces went right into the attack. Her bronze geartanks fired at the city’s forces, which were crudely painted with the colors and patterns of the state’s flag.

Belle’s airship pilots were a bit more skilled than the opposition, and they typically shot down there of the cities for every one of their won at the least.

Yet, for all the skill of her forces, it wasn’t even really needed. Belle was unstoppable, unassailable. The Illinois Independence Alliance couldn’t even dent her. One of their commanders had ordered a synchronized fire of tanks against her body, but all that did was waste ammo on a target far beyond their capabilities.

Her feet stretched for over 700 feet while being hundreds in width. That alone made short work of swath after swath of tanks. The airships cracked against her shoulders as she walked: all but the fastest far too slow to even escape her taunting pace.

More than her pace taunted, as she spoke both aloud and over every nearby radio channel at once. She had learned how to talk over multiple simultaneously, even though her human mind could only ever really comprehend listening to one.

“Surrender, Illinois. Can you really not see that I am beyond your ability to defend against? That my claim of rule is absolute?”

She walked over to some battling airships. She dragged her fingers through the enemy ones, clipping one or two of her own air-force in the process. Whatever she raked from the sky collapsed into her palm, which was then brought to her mouth and devoured with ease.

“Your forces are but meals to me, toys~”

She raised her foot above a large mob of fleeing enemy shoulders, then stomped down.

“Surrender at once, and I’ll spare what I see fit of you all. In fact, I’ll even guarantee a spot in my forces for whatever commander does so.”

While the Illinois forces did their best to quell any mutinous talk of surrender, General Kadwell spoke over Belle’s military channel.

“Belle, it seems they are retreating into the city. We’re ready to advance to take it.”

“No need.”, spoke Belle over the channel, covertly. “I’ll handle the city myself.”

“But-”

“The force you offer isn’t needed. They are push overs. Split your forces between Terrastead and Bolmore, seize them for me and round up its peoples as prisoners. Also, monitor the city radio station’s for directives of surrender on their end. Once one comes out, let me know. I’ll be listening to this channel.”

“As you command, Belle.”

Smiling, Belle looked down at the city while her forces split away. The soldiers within looked confused as they heard that news over the radio.

“Don’t you get it?”, she bellowed from above. “I don’t need an army to take your city. I’ll do it myself.”

She lifted her foot up over the paltry city wall, hastily erected weeks ago. She slammed her right foot down into the metropolis while the toes of her left brushed through several other buildings in her stride.

“You’re just bugs, to me. Bugs and I am the queen. Ha!”

She planted her left foot down than swept it side to side as a gross show of force. Entire city blocks were demolished. Rigglen was something of an artsy city, and priceless brass buildings of architectural genius disappeared beneath the side of just one foot.

“It’d be a waste to just step on you all though, fun, but wasteful. This entire country is mine, it just doesn’t realize it yet. All will know me for ever, and you will all remember this day. But, even a pretty gal like myself has to eat right?”

Without warning, she crashed down to her knees. The quakes from the movement were enough to level more structures on her own.

Belle clawed her hands down into the city, specifically targeting areas where the military and screaming crowds were at their densest. This typically was around a few of the taller buildings, which were foolish deemed as acceptable cover.

“My stomach is a bit brutal, the steam within will scald you past the bone. But, this is wartime isn’t it? Don’t expect any mercy from me.”

Laughing a moment, Belle yawned her mouth open and wiggled her fingers. Buildings, tanks, soldiers and civilians fell inside. The hard, slick metal surface of her tongue was ready to catch and curl them down her throat to her doom. Most just fell right in, her mouth opening about 200ft wide and nearly as much tall to give plenty of room.

They landed onto a pile of already torn-apart airships. The steam hit them hard, and they screamed while swarms of minibots ripped apart the dead and inanimate before their eyes. Her stomach was lit, the ability to see within a cruelty rather than a mercy.

After just those two handfuls, Belle received word from General Kadwell.

“Belle, we just received a surrender order. The lieutenant of the Alliance shot the general, and has surrendered on behalf of the forces. Said forces seem to be in agreement with his decision.”

“Good.”, said Belle. “Accept their surrender and disarm them. Take the lucky and smart lieutenant, and put him with 25% of the forces. Take the other 75% and put them in another pile.”

“For what purpose-”

“Terrastead and Bolmore are to be evacuated. This city is on lock-down as of now.“

Belle reached out towards another block of the city. She brought it to her mouth and swallowed it down.

“B-belle, they surrendered.”

“I’m aware, and I’ll leave them alone, once I’ve have a little more of my fill.”

Chapter 13: Spoils

Belle continued rampaging and devouring Rigglen. Even as the people screamed and bowed with submission, she paid it no heed. Her fingers found them all the same, and they and their edifices went into her gob and into her brutal mechanical gut.

At least, until about a third of the city was in shambles--or digesting inside her. At that point, she stood up and spoke while walking out.

“The rest of you are spared.”

She stepped over the wall on the south end, doing her best not to make any more damage.

“As you repair yourselves over the coming months, remember my mercy, and let the cracks in the shape of my feet remind you and everyone else in this country what happens to those who resist me.”

Belle moved over towards the former Illinois Independence Alliance’s military, which was being rounded up into two groups as she requested. It was not yet finished, though.

“I’ll be back, hurry up now my loyal servants.”

She chuckled as she moved off towards Terrastead, which was fully evacuated. There was no pretense or fanfare, she dug her hands into the town and started devouring it. More fuel for the engines, both literal and figurative, of Belle. At a mile in height, she was able to finish the town with just one break in between. Of course, she was growing as she ate. The process was a tad slow to her, but definitely visible to those below. They saw her exterior lightly shift as it briefly melted to press forward, than rapidly cool.

She grew in proportion, with her minibots working in tandem to keep it that way. Dozens of feet at a time, she expanded. Her digestive system was handling its fed matter much more efficiently, as were the minibots. She wasn’t just bigger over the past weeks, but more efficient, more in-tune with herself. She could even feel the minibots if she focused, and found their crawling a pleasant tickle rather than the disgusting skittering sensation she had felt when she first woke up in her brass body.

Belle sauntered back over to the battlefield, right outside the city where the former enemy force had at last been broken into two groups as she had ordered.

She settled her toes outside the smaller group, letting her brass digits loom precariously close to those masses. Her big toes loomed over 50ft in height on their own.

She addressed them.

“Congratulations, you’ll be put to use in my divine army.”

She pivoted her right foot on its heel, and let the shadow of her smooth brass sole hang over them.

“Just remember, it’d be easy to end you all should you turn against me. Once second chance is more than enough.”

Her foot slid back to its former place with a thoom, many of the soldiers it just shadowed now shivering in fear.

“A second chance is also more than many get~”

Belle walked over to the other, larger group. She sat on her haunches, straddling them as toes tug into the earth.

“You all will serve as an example instead, and a meal.”

She reached down and took a handful of the captured ex-enemies, devouring them quickly. Of course, those stuck in that group tried to run away, but Belle’s forces had penned them in with a circle of geartanks and soldiers. Anyone pushing hard against the boundary was shot.

Belle heard.

“Shoot them in the stomach or legs, my digestive processes are better when they are still alive. My body’s lovely and complex like that.”

Belle reached in for another fistful, letting her fingers spread so the captured prisoners drifted into her mouth in steady clumps. Her tongue was outstretched, she simply gulped them down as the subtle jets within her maw blasted them with gouts of steam and misted ‘spittle’.

General Kadwell’s voice came over the loyalist channel.

“Belle, won’t the make it difficult to get others to stand down in the future?”, she sounded slightly irritated, which Belle graciously overlooked.

“You are thinking too simply. This will have our enemies surrendering before our forces even show up. I’ll spread the word right now via radio.”

Belle reached down for another handful, while her ‘radio-senses’ latched onto any channel in her formidable range. She spoke over all those channels at once, knowing the message would be propagated from then on.

“This is Belle, rightful god of this nation. To all those who resist my hold over the government, rejoice at this opportunity. Anyone who surrenders in the next month, before combat starts with my forces, will be spared. Your cities will be intact, your lesser towns merely evacuated. Resist and I’ll smear a third of your city under-step, and send at least three-fourths of your people to my stomach: soldier or no. You cannot resist me forever, your defeat is inevitable. Be wise, and submit now. You don’t want to end up like these former soldiers, do you?”

Belle swallowed her latest handful, letting the noise of the gulp carry into the message via a microphone within her form. She hadn’t used it before, instead using ‘radio senses’, but she felt the gesture would add a bit of extra flare.

That done, she finished her messaged and smiled.

There were still plenty of soldiers to eat. Another handful and she spoke to Kadwell again over one of her own channels.

“See to it that the message I sent gets reiterated. I expect your work to become a bit easier in the coming days.”

“As you wish, Belle.”, said the general back.

Another handful, then another. Pretty soon there were just a few cowering dozen left, penned in on one corner, clutching their knees in despair and hopelessness.

She, of course, ate them too.

Belle rose up to her full height, feeling all the people instead her stomach shift with that movement. She laughed as they screamed, cooking alive as one big bunch of agonized, scalded humanity.

“I trust you know how to train new troops and all that. You’ll get our new lucky recruits up to speed. I’ll be back at the camp once I finish off the infrastructure of Bolmore.”

“Of course, Belle. As you wish. Come on, we’re retreating to camp, mission completed. Good job, soldiers.”, said Kadwell over the radio.

Belle laughed as she stood outside Bolmore. It was completely empty of people, her troops having evacuated them now back towards Rigglen.

Belle feasted, as she had done before.

Chapter 14: Blowing Off Steam.

Once again, another morbid plan of Belle’s had worked. Her cruel dilemma had cities and militias surrendering to her all across the nation. Many resisted, foolishly, but Belle’s own forces were able to subdue them on their own now--most of the time. Belle didn’t exactly mind showing up on the battlefield that often. It was always good fun and a show, and she would be there to reap the spoils of conquered towns regardless, surrender or no.

Belle’s plan worked because she knew a lot about people. She had written about them, watched them and, from her time as a mere human, had been cheated and wronged by them dozens of time. She was sure to give her offer a time-limit: just one month. People were always afraid of missing out on something, and they often made decisions fastest under pressure.

She was clear. There were no negotiations. No other deals. No bargaining table to sit at. People either acknowledged her official, divine rule over the country, or they would lose most of their lives for even trying to resist.

Belle wasn’t much of a history buff, but even she knew her little civil war was currently progressing to be one of the fastest conflicts the world had seen yet.

The former reporter had to admit that Victor was mostly right about people. She had learned through experience that her divine, insurmountable force was needed to control what portion of humanity she did.

Yes, all that rambling on how her body worked even came in some use. She had experimented some, knowing that he was right about how living people were better to eat than the dead. Though a tank gave her more size, people seemed to improve her a lot in plenty of other ways. After eating many of the stubborn resistance members, she found her hearing better, her sight more acute and easier to zoom in and out with. Her movement grew more fluid, even as she passed 2 miles in height.

Yet, for all his advice, and despite putting her into the brass body in the first place, she still hated that deceased bastard.

Aside from not given her a choice in the matter, he had also neglected to put a functioning cunt on the colossus.

Belle had her theories why: chief among them being some misguided notion that the ‘god’ he was trying to help create shouldn’t distract herself with sexual pleasures.

For one, everyone knew from history that trying to stop people from self-stimulating was a fool’s errand. Secondly, as ‘well and good’ as that idea might’ve seen, the design didn’t account for the fact that her brain was human before being put into the body, and her libidinal urges didn’t just ‘go away’ or anything as a ‘god’.

They were present, building over the weeks as Belle started to really get into uses of her power. She reveled in it. Power was more than just exhilarating, it was stimulating. Yet, she was unable to get release. All she had was a sculptured slit: a shape of a vagina, but not the real thing.

But, Belle vowed to change that.

As her army moved west via mobile camps, they eventually ran into a stubborn city that didn’t surrender till Belle herself gave their forces a big stomp. She surprised her subordinates by announcing not all of the sacrificial portion of the prisoners would be eaten. She instead told her troops to select the most beautiful people from the conquered area. Men, women, it didn’t matter to her; she enjoyed both. They would be brought back to the camp for her to enjoy.

The uglier prisoners were, unfortunately, sorted out and eaten.

Belle had been at work at a personal project with her body over a few days. She had remembered being told she’d have some conscious control over her body, but it wasn’t till recently she felt she could influence improvements and changes more directly herself.

Simply and crudely put, Belle had built herself a functioning steamtech pussy. It came about partly from simply wanting it enough and the minibots responding. They had shaped out the associated cavity and gears, and built the needed jets for the dispersion of steam and specially made ‘fluids.’

Yet, Belle found herself with a lot of creative, direct control. She had something of intuitive understanding of how it should work, and how to make it work. Not just her body improved wit her meals, but her brain too. She felt more alert and somehow, subtly aware of engineering principles. She was getting smarter, but even then her knowing how gears should work together for something like this seemed like more than just getting smarter.

Belle wondered if her digestive systems had advanced to the extent that she was able to assimilate the knowledge of her living victims. It seemed very far fetched, but how else could she go from a humble reporter to someone able to design a state-of-the-art mechanical cunt so fast? The concepts and ideas seemed to just ‘click’ much like the cogs of gears themselves.

On the other hand, there was still stuff she didn’t understand. Like, she didn’t know how exactly she could get the stimulation of mechanical parts to translate to pleasure for her brain. That was something her body seemed to handle automatically. The minibots laid their complex connections of pipe and gears and she just assumed, and hoped, it would work.

Belle figured she grew more evolved and improved, her understanding of the minutia of how her body works would increase. Perhaps she’d even understand that “Black Box” in her head in its entirety someday.

But, Belle paid those thoughts little mind at the moment. She was far too pent-up as it was, and the brass god was excited and ready to put her new and improved genitalia to the test in a well-deserved release.

She had cleared an are of several miles to lay in, more space than she needed. Her troops had been ordered to march those more aesthetically pleasing prisoners from earlier up to her lounging form. From there, they were to back off far enough for their own safety, but not so far they couldn’t keep watch of any escapes. The group was warned in advance that anyone escaping would be shot in the knees, stabilized, and simply served up to Belle later as food. In this way, fear kept other fears in check.

That city was big, and had a lot of people to offer Belle for her session. Thousands and thousands. All of them, grouped up by the curls of her fingers, look much like a throng of dots: a mass of insects. But, she knew they were people, she was able to zoom in on them, even, which made her plans all the more appealing.

Laying on her back, she sprinkled some over her tits. Her metallic nipples were a different shade than the brass breasts they belonged to, and by her will the steam-touch-systems were more sensitive there as well. The erogenous functionality she had willed was in place, as she felt tingles on her spine as people mere hundredths of inches in comparison to her scrambled over the area.

Her body vibrated with a purr. She moved her other hand down towards her navel, sprinkling people piecemeal over her exterior there. Many fell into her navel. She’d deal with that later, but for now their screams of anguish trapped in such a dark ‘pit’ egged on her libido. Their ticklish fidgeting helped too.

Belle only had so many veritable sex slaves with her at the moment, she didn’t want to waste them all as body sprinkles. She took another handful and brought them towards her awaiting crotch. It was time for the test run of her new and improved snatch.

Her brass genitals loomed over a couple hundred feet in ‘height’, which meant there was plenty of room for her fingers to slide in, bringing dozens of the people stuck to her hand into the brass cavern of lust.

That first group of people found themselves in a metallic tunnel, already slick with some viscous lubricating substance Belle’s body had learned to produce. She needed to keep the area slick for her fingers, of course, which immediately go to work against her metal folds the moment they slipped inside.

“Too long, it’s been too long~” she muttered.

Naturally, most of those inside were crushed by fingers moving just as fast and with more force than a train in there. A scant few made it to the sides. They could see in there at least, as Belle thought some of her victims might get a tad bit of enjoyment that way. At the very least, it made most more fearful, which added to her fun.

“Nnf, more.”

She had underestimated her sensitivity, even knowing this would’ve been ‘intense’ given all the time that had passed, and the novelty of things of course. It was tempting to leave her finger in there, but there was still so many people who could be packed inside.

Belle scooped up a handful, then another. Her palm slammed against her cunt, pressing many inside while others were just flattened against the rigid exterior of her steamtech sex.

People inside quickly found more dangers than just Belle’s eager brass fingers. The climate inside was *hot*. Belle had no waste system, at least other than steam her functions produced. Much of this steam was redirected to her stomach for digestive purposes, heated up along the way if need be. But, still some escaped from her mouth and nose in the heat of battle, or was more subtly exuded through her exterior via dynamic ‘pore’ formation. That latter bit was near impossible to see.

However, Belle was now redirecting some of it to her cunt. The boiling water vapor filled her cunt to make the environment more, well, steamy. Belle had wanted a sense of warmth, so it made sense. However, warm to Belle was something else to a mere human. Her sense of heat was just as sensitive, but she had a far higher tolerance for discomfort with hot: namely, she hadn’t felt uncomfortable with any heat so far.

Not so for the people in her cunt. The steam was boiling, scalding them as she masturbated. Those not pulped by her sliding fingers were slowly, painfully dying to the ambient hit and searing vapors. Even the liquid fluid burnt. Belle could have cooled it down some to make it a bit less painful, but she enjoyed the added feeling against her fingers, and the growing warmth as her arousal increased.

Indeed, the faster she moved her finger, the more steam she technically produced as exhaust, which was funneled to the area since it wasn’t needed in her stomach. If anything, the death via ‘cooking’ was slower and thus more agonizing than in her gut, given that the functionality of the ‘organ’ was different.

Belle grabbed another handful soon as the last one stopped squirming within her. She then took another and sprinkled it over her tits only to bring her hand down to her bosom and rub them out for her own pleasure. Another handful was scooped up, though instead of entering her sex, she just dumped them in her mouth: working some ‘food’ into her fun.

Orgasm was coming, fluids were leaking out of her lips with how excited and, thus, lubricated she was. It would be her first one with her new, godly body and she wanted it to be really fantastic. So, she reached down and, with a series of scooping motions, snatched up pretty much everyone left. Handful by handful she stuffed them inside. She was packed so tight with humanity, that people actually had some issues fitting, and thus fell from her exterior ‘folds’ to their doom.

They were lucky ones.

The others were packed tighter than canned bread when Belle’s middle finger slid in. It just pushed right through them, gibbing them into bits and pieces to splatter all over those crowded around. That was fun and stimulating in its own right, especially with the shifting of her inner ‘walls’ taking out a few as well.

As one finger moved as deep as it could, she curled another to stimulate her ‘clit’, which she had designed like a ‘button’, pressable with just a bit of give. She kneaded it over and over as her middle finger circled about to further stimulate herself while swirling hundreds of victims into a bloody mess.

“Aaaah!”

Her voice roared across the hills as she climaxed. The churning of gears and pumping of pistons was heard by her victims in tandem. It was those series of pistons in her body around the crotch which were the main mechanisms for her vaginal walls contracting. She had wanted to feel the tightness she had known before, and had it. That it resulted in crushing almost everyone inside her cunt was just yet another added bonus for her.

Almost everyone inside found themselves crushed as the walls squeezed against Belle’s finger. She clenched so as to extract every bit of pleasurable sensation, which meant even more poppings from the people within. Like blood balloons, they burst to further lubricate herself ever so slightly compared to her own fluids.

Said fluids were gushing of course, and they were the source of death for those who weren’t crushed by the clenching walls of metal. They drowned in the burning fluids, assuming the searing steam hadn’t got to them already.

Belle’s entire, multi-mile body twisted and turned with delight. Those on her tits fell over, many to their doom on the ground below. Others lived on the surface of her tummy until a self-groping hand fanned over them, crushing them with careless ease. Her toes dug deep into the earth. Her camp, miles away, shook the quakes of her pleasure.

The hand which had been rubbing herself moved the palm over her slit, catching most of the remnants of people as they were gushed outwards. She brought them to her face, studying their mangled forms. A few still twitched, many were even entirely fine if not for the burns.

The fluid was sticky enough to hold them to her palm as stuck out her tongue. She lapped up her bounty, along with the victims stuck inside it. Her lips pursed over her palm as she cleaned her hand thus.

She swallowed, finishing a meal and letting the matter of her victims be recycled to a better cause: her body. Perhaps some of their organic matter would be turned into lube for her next orgasm. The thought titillated her in her warm afterglow.

She had debated making her cunt another stomach of sorts where, after climax, her minibots would come in to take up everyone left inside. They still did that to help clean the area, but Belle decided against that idea as a whole.

Her stomach was her stomach, and would digest. Her pussy was hers, for her fun. One mouth and one stomach would be enough. She had a divine image to keep, and as fun as something like multiple vaginas seemed in theory--or two mouths, or mouths on her hands--she wanted to keep a sort of natural beauty in her form. She didn’t want to get too ‘weird’ or anything, as some ideas she had seemed unappealing even to her.

Still, Belle had climaxed as she wish. She had a working cunt back. It was at that moment she realized she was missing nothing from the time she was human. She had only gained power, functionality.

And, as time went on, she knew she still had plenty of growing and evolving to do.

Chapter 15: Victories

Belle was on a roll.

Over the next months, her military had victory after victory. Preemptive surrenders had peaked, but that was no issue, since her army was large and skilled enough to handle almost any form of resistance thrown their way.

Of course, Belle could have trivialized the war easily by more actively fighting, but she wanted to encourage a form of self-sufficiently in her forces. They grew with every victory, not just in size of course, but with skill.

Belle needed that, for as powerful as she was, there was only one of her. She wanted to conquer the entire world, after all. The world was still a big place even for a gargantuan titan like her.

The world was also hearing about her, slowly but steadily. Her forces had only recently secured as much of the country as they did, and the North-west was still a hold out. They managed to get closed land borders and a navy blockade going, but before that came up, and even with it up, some resourceful people slipped free of the United States. When they arrived, often in Europe, they told tales of a giant brass woman attacking the country, claiming dominion over it while others resisted.

Naturally, these reports were treated with heavy skepticism. A gigantic brass titan sounded a bit too fantastical to be true. The reports of a civil war were believed at least, but that didn’t mean the other nations of the world would do anything about it.

For one, pretty much every nation was embroiled in its own business of alliances and rivals. Almost every country had its own problems at home. Moreover, as tempting as it was to strike a country during a civil war, it would also be foolish.

Every nation, but especially the USA, was known to put aside internal differences to fight an exterior foe. It was just a part of human nature. No one wanted to risk the ire of such a large nation against themselves, especially when their own enemies would be eager to join in. At the time, the USA was also self-sufficient militarily, finding little need for alliances to secure its interests. That meant invading it wouldn't accomplish anything other than potentially winning their resources which, while tempting, was too risky.

So, there was no intervention to come from Europe, or Canada, or Mexico and certainly not from distant Asia or other regions of the globe. Reports of a giant brass woman were dismissed as the misunderstanding of large steamtech weaponry and vehicles by the confused and stupid peasants who arrived to foreign lands seeking refuge. That was good, as although Belle didn’t fear foreign invasion, one world make things a little more chaotic and complicated.

It also helped that Belle wasn’t participating in the battles too much herself: only when the mood arose of late. She instead spent her time enjoying the spoils, both as food and fun. Her forces were competent enough to take almost the entire country in her name on their own.

Almost.

The very North-West still held strong. The city of Seattle was the final stronghold of the resistance forces. They had numbers and technology on their side, being a city whose advancement was rivaled only by New York City’s before Belle made her claim to the country.

And so, Belle and her army moved onto the state of Washington for a grand assault.

Her airship fleet arrived first for scouting, retreating back when they were able to get a little inventory of the Washington Alliance forces. It was by far the biggest resistance they’d ever face, but when told information on their numbers Belle simply laughed.

She knew twice or thrice the number of tanks, troops, and airships wouldn’t matter. She’d welcome it, even. It'd just be more food and thus advancement for herself.

Belle let her forces move in first. She stayed miles away while the battle started and, when it finally did, she stirred from her camp with a thundering of earth.

Belle had been busy all those months, and when she appeared on the battlefield, it was at a size of over 5 miles tall. Her very feet now were around 4 times her old height when she first broke out of the Voxhaben Complex. It took a lot of sacrifices to make her that big, as the bigger she got, the more matter she required to increase her size further, even if her digestive and evolution mechanisms only grew more efficient.

The battlefield was miles away from her camp, but she was still upon it within minutes. She could walk more than 10,000 miles in a single hour, to reach Seattle was hardly even a stroll.

Her feet slammed down into the fray, flattening almost all of the enemy tanks in one step, and most of the scant ‘rest’ with another. Her own forces fell under her heel, prompting protests over the radio from General Kadwell.

“Divine Belle, you just crushed dozens of our own troops and geartanks.”

“Consider it recompense from my forces for not being able to handle this city on their own. Now clear our airships from my path, I wish to enact my wrath on Seattle’s.”

“A-as you command, divine one.”

A veritable swarm of airships flew towards Belle to try and attack her. It was a foolish mission, but pride was a powerful drug to those death-defying pilots. Their defiance didn’t last, though, as Belle simply walked over to them and slowly brought her hands to either side of their amassed formation, which hovered pathetically by her navel.

“Pitiful gnats.”, she said, and her voice echoed through the city and their ears alike.

An even greater sound rung out as she brought her hands together for a deafening clap. The enemy airship had been smashed like bugs, though Belle brought her palms to her mouth, sucking off the wreckage into her mouth. She didn’t want to waste even a meager meal of such advanced steamtech.

In but a few more steps, her toes towered outside Seattle. The city was abuzz with panic and activity.

“This is it, the last stronghold of the resistance. How do you all feel? Do you feel proud for resisting me this long? Do you still feel courageous, cast in the shadow of a body so big you can’t even see more than my foot at once?”

The city had some forces station inside. Several dozen airships flew up, heading towards Belle. They were equipped with heavy duty explosives, and aimed to simply crash into her as a last bit of heroism.

Belle squatted down. Her face was upon the airships, which she countered by simply opening her mouth a bit and sliding out her tongue. One lick, and that last-ditch assault was thwarted. She overemphasized her noisy, mechanical gulp.

“Was that supposed to intimate me? Hurt me? Pathetic, utterly pathetic. But, this is a time to rejoice. You’re the last stronghold, after all, once I finish dealing with you, the entire country is de-facto under my control, rather than merely de-jure. For that reason, I think I’ll devour half of this city instead of the usual third, as celebration. That’s assuming, of course, you have the good sense to surrender. I can certainly make room in my stomach to steam you all down to your mushy parts.”

Belle laughed as their screams reached her hyper-sensitive ears. She zoomed in on parts of the city with her powerful eyes. As she spoke aloud, her voice of course carried through their radio channels as well.

“As expected, you’re all running like the little cowards you are. Delicious, but you cannot run from this coming storm.”

Belle shifted down to her knees, leaned in, and pursed her lips above a large part of the city.

She then began to inhale.

Belle didn’t need to breath, but she could. Her mechanical lungs were a powerful force, powerful as any storm and more than enough to rip buildings right off their foundations. People, geartanks, and structures all swirled up into her mouth as though carried away by a tornado. With no need for a gag-reflex, she simply sucked them right on down her throat.

As she feasted she encouraged her forces to finish cleaning up whatever resistance still lingered outside the city or in any nearby settlements. General Kadwell had relied they had an official surrender order once about 10% of the city was sucked up but, true to her word, Belle was intent on devouring 50% of it.

From the ground, her open mouth filled much of the afternoon sky. An all consuming mouth from which they were drawn into by irresistible winds. Those who thought to shelter the storm in buildings weren’t even safe, as they bounced around the floors while the structures rocked up in a torrenting motion.

Belle had her fill, as always. Seattle was quickly sucked free of about half of all it had to offer. She swallowed for good measure, then licked her lips.

“And with that, this civil war is over.”

She rose back up to her full 5 mile height, speaking over her radio channel as well as aloud.

“Prepare the remaining population for slavery. Sort them the civilians by skill-sets, intelligence, and appearance like usual.”

“Yes, my divine liege.”, replied General Kadwell.

“I’ll return to the camp later. I think I’ll go for a little walk for now. Prepare some of the beautiful ones for me later this evening, I plan to have a bit of a celebration.”

“O-of course, Divine Belle.”

With a smirk for a moment, Belle marched westwards towards the Pacific ocean.

Her feet slammed into the beach, She stood there, brass feet in the sands, for few seconds before deciding to dip them in the ocean itself. Still standing, she laughed a little as the waves couldn’t reach the tips of her toes.

Looking down at the waters, she saw her reflection. Her face stared back, and she smiled, drawing her hand across her cheek to feel its divine smoothness.

‘To think,”, Belle thought. ‘I wanted to give up this body, *my* body at a point. To give up this power. Ha!’

Now, Belle didn’t even want to morph her giant body to resemble her old one, even at the same massive scale. She preferred this new, more beautiful face and form now.

‘To think I, Belle Braxley, merely wanted to be remembered, rather than eternal.’

‘To think, that I was once content to be human, rather than a god.’

Chapter 16: Research and Development

Little over a year had passed since Seattle’s fall. Belle had complete control over the United States, and she had received word this morning that her forces had received the last surrender from the South American territories. Canada and Mexico were long since conquered.

By now, all of the world had heard about her: the gigantic, brass, self-proclaimed god of a woman who seemed intent on conquering the world. The reports were too consistent, and respected leaders in Canada and Mexico had sent overseas missives early on during their conflicts. But, there was little they could do about it.

Belle was well over 15 miles tall.

On top of that, the only way to invade the Americas would be via sea. Dirigibles capable of overseas travel were still but a pipe-dream. Normal sea faring vessels could reach over, but then Belle’s airforce would be present, with the enemy’s absent. Her navies were formidable even without that, and of course Belle herself could simply walk to the coastline and stamp any so-called ‘threat’ out.

Belle herself wasn’t content to merely rule over the Americas. She was determined to be the god of all of humanity. She had the body, intelligence, and will for it after all.

She typically stayed near New York City. Her home while just human remained the closest thing one could call a home for her now. Her gigantic form typically stayed outside the city though, binging on prisoners shipped from the wars north and south, while continually investigating her body’s functions. She had grown ever more in-tune with herself, to the point that she considered her movements beyond human-equivalents of speed and fluidity. Her minibots were always hard at work improving her.

Belle called a meeting, which she had done now and then. This time, though, she insisted for the top scientists of her so-called “domain” to attend as well.

Chief officials her government made their way alongside top brass and top minds to a large circular platform out in the flatter lands close to New York City. Though the platform had a bit of a climb, being several dozen feet off the ground, it was shorter than Belle’s toes were tall.

To that end, Belle awaited them laying prone on her belly. Her army-flattening feet kicked back with her legs, while her head rested on crossed arms. With her youthful countenance, there was a sort of cuteness to how she oversaw some of her theocracy's officials.

Of course, when she spoke, the bellowing brass timbre of her booming voice made it clear she was no cutesy observer.

She was a god.

“Good morning everyone.”, she said, speaking over radio to them as well. Speakers were built into the platform for that purpose, even though she could interface with radio protocols simply with her mind. Her body could produce the needed waves with the tone of her voice intact, even if the volume was far more amicable to mortal ears.

“I’ve called you here not just to congratulate our ‘top brass’ for the recent successful campaigns in the southern continent, but also to announce we’re finally going to invade the rest of the world. It will a decisive, continuous campaign. To ensure its success, I want to create the much sought-after intercontinental airship at last. This is why you scientists and engineers are here. I’d like to refine my ideas.”

The people atop the platform screamed as Belle lowered her finger toward it. Her very finger was thicker than most buildings were tall, and it filled their view. The very tip of the digit opened up with elegance, and out came a swarm of moving brass machines. Human eyes had difficulty seeing their details, but they were in fact minibots. Belle had since gained the ability to control them directly, even ‘see’ with them, though that was still a little tricky for her.

The minibots swarmed the area immediately in front of those Belle had called to assemble. The throng of them clumped up for a moment, then spread out to reveal some models of airships, completely new to human eyes. The models were, of course, roughly the size of humans and not ‘to-scale’. Once done, the minibots swarmed back into Belle’s body via her finger, which quickly sealed its metal exterior back up.

“As you can see, I have some designs already. They will work, but I want them to be faster. I don’t suppose any of you have ideas?”, said Belle.

It was rather rare thing for her to ask for advice like this. The scientists and engineers fell over themselves trying to please their brass goddess: be it out of genuine admiration, or fear of being seen as less than useful.

One engineer spoke up.

“What about more propellers?”, he said.

Belle scoffed.

“Though that would increase speed, these are meant for war. Since there’s already propellers on the middle-back of gondola and balloon, I could only ever add them in pairs. If even one is shot that means the entire airship is now askew unless the associated member of the pair is also shut off. Too much of a liability and complexity issues to be worth it. I’d rather save the metal for more airships than more propellers.”

Some woman spoke up, wearing a white coat.

“What about the balloon size, or shape? Perhaps it could be adjusted?”

Belle made a grunting noise.

“Terrible suggestion. Do you think I haven’t optimized the topology myself?”

The woman trembled.

“W-what if it could be dynamically adjusted?”

“And how would that work?”, bellowed Belle. “We can expel air from the balloon during flight, but where will new dirigible-quality lifting gas come from? We can’t just suck it from the environment? Ambient ocean air isn’t lighter than air? How much fuel would it take to generate such gases via mechanisms within the airship itself? Did you really not think this idea through? Perhaps you just wanted to try and impress me or save face.”

“I-, B-but-”

Belle’s unamused countenance hung high, though only her mouth was easy to see, and feel as the air from her harsh words berated the platform.

“Take this one away and put her in today’s food group with the other prisoners. Her crime is wasting my valuable attention and thought-processes on drivel-quality ideas.”

“Wait, no D-divine Belle!”, screamed the scientists, but some soldiers were already on her, dragging her away and off the platform.

“As for the rest of you thinker types,”, began Belle. “If you don’t think you have the qualifications to actually contribute here, raise your hand now and I’ll have you assigned to vehicle repair in the military. Your meager minds will be better spent there, even if it’s a bit more hands-on work. I know none of you can match my divine intellect, but the level to which some of you can’t even approach is frankly pathetic. Otherwise, your incompetence will be noted and you’ll serve my stomach, getting a lesson in how hot steam reacts to flesh just like that other woman will.”

Several of the thinkers raised their hands, taking that fate rather than risking irking Belle with a bad, or no, suggestion. Some soldiers escorted them out.

Plenty of scientists and engineers still opted to stay.

“Well?”, said Belle. “I’m waiting.”

One sheepish looking engineer with circular glasses and a ponytail spoke up.

“Um, if I may, Divine Belle, what about fins?”

“What about them, we have some already.”

“More of them, I notice there aren’t that many on the balloon portion itself.”

“That would add to weight.”

“Divine Belle, if I may suggest a mechanism: the armor plating over the balloons is a genius idea of course, but it’s not needed while in transit over the ocean, as combat won’t be needed there. Assuming the weather isn’t stormy of course! In that case, if there was a way for the armor to slide off, at least partially, into the shape of fins-”

“Then it’d be more aerodynamic when safe to do so.”, said Belle, completing the sentiment.

Belle leaned down and squinted at the scientist--and everyone else on the platform by extension.

Her finger reached out again, nearing the models she set up. Another swarm of minibots surged forth to alter the models. Said models were now a bit more ‘alive’ in that the armor on the balloon portion of their figure was now a series of interlocking brass triangles and, through the clicking of gears, said triangles could extend out for speed or back against the balloon for protection.

The engineer was in shock. Yes, she had come up with the idea, but Belle had essentially devised an implementation for it within the span of seconds. Despite feeling like she contributed, she was still reminded that she was wildly outclassed by their country’s living god.

“Very good idea. What’s your name, little mortal.”

“E-emeline Napper, oh gracious Belle”, said the bespectacled young woman.

“Well Emeleine, aside from the honor of your name rolling off my divine tongue, you may pick a sex slave from my collection to spend the night with.”

“D-d-divine Belle. T-thank you for the honor, but that is not necessary.”

“You would dare refuse a reward from me?”, bellowed Belle. Her ‘breath’ once again buffeted the platform.

“N-no of course not.”

“Good, the soldiers will show you to the nearest camp for them once this meeting is done. Simply cuddle with your choice if you wish, but I won’t abide such obstinate refusal.”

“O-of course Divine Belle, forgive my idiotic obstinance.”

Belle grinned. The minibots swarmed back into her body which sealed them back inside.

“Now, there is one more item on the agenda. I’m happy to announce to the military leaders present I’ve made another innovation. It’ll be an even safer way to launch attacks, and a for more efficient form of ‘setting base’ than mobile camps.”

General Kadwell spoke up.

“A-and what might that be, Divine Belle”

Belle grinned wider.

“I’d rather it be a surprise when it’s ready, which should be soon. Don't worry, I can handle most of the logistics involved with it on my end.”

“O-of course, oh magnanimous Divine Belle.”

“This meeting is over.”, spoke Belle. “Clear this platform as it will be used as an eating plate for the latest shipment of prisoners from our war to the south. I trust some disassembled town infrastructure will be accompanying the delivery?”

“Yes Divine Belle, all is on schedule.”, said Ralph, who, over time, has essentially become the chief of staff and logistics on the civilian side for Belle’s rule.

“Excellent. Ramp up military drills, generals, and have the factories start replicating my airship designs soon as I have scribes just the diagrams down. I intend to start my invasion of Europe within the year.”

Belle listened to the acknowledgment of her orders, and watched the comparatively minuscule people leave her sight.

Chapter 17: Invasion

Several more months passed since Belle’s meeting.

The intercontinental airships were manufactured in mass, and she finally had enough for a proper invasion of the rest of the world. She had made it clear to her people it would be a continuous conflict till the entire world was hers, but, with her on their side, she figured it wouldn’t necessarily be all that long in the grand scheme of things.

Belle’s forces were first spotted via telescope from the western shores of Portugal. There were super fast airzeps coming up first, as Belle had sent them ahead to scout just on the off-chance Europe had developed some super weapon against her.

They had not, and she received reports over radio that the usual steamtech tanks, artillery, and airships were all that waited her. Despite knowing of her existence, that was all Europe had to offer.

Belle laughed, and the sound was heard far and wide.

She quickly came into view, waves crashing around her towering legs. Brass pillars, as divine as the rest of her.

Belle had since grown another 10 miles, standing more 25 miles tall. She had treated herself to all but the biggest settlements in the Americas to do so.

Those in Portugal found her not matching the scant descriptions they had received from America’s immigrants and refugees. They had heard she was a sleek brass woman of immense stature, and indeed her form was beautiful, but there was more to it, more ‘on it’.

Zooming in with their lenses, the Portuguese navy noticed entire buildings, attached to her shoulders and jutting outwards. Rings of brass adorned her limbs and body like hula hoops, and they were filled with windows with which to see the outside world. They made out some more buildings within said regions on her body, and even some vehicles moving around.

Belle had molded a metal city on her body, and set up much of her forces there. In this case, she became something of a living, mobile base of operations. A walking citadel. Only a scant few soldiers in the Portuguese navy had figured it out before they were capsized. Belle was so immense that the swishing of her legs in the comparatively shallow ocean waters created the fiercest typhoons that country had ever seen. The entire navy was defeated before Belle even touched them, although her miles-long brass feet did step on most of their sunken vessels for good measure.

Belle took two big, powerful steps onto Portugal’s landmass. The toes of her right foot fell over a coastal village, too small to be worth bending over to eat. She looked down to watch the flooding ocean waters wipe out even more settlements.

“Pathetic”, she bellowed, her sentiment carrying across the lands. She quickly reached out with her radio sense, getting inventory of, and cracking, every civilian and military radio Europe had to offer. She had, of course, learned all the languages of the continent, and spoke in the appropriate one for each region’s radio.

“I expect my invasion will be over even quicker than I expected. Let it be known that you should surrender as soon as possible. As soon as I set foot in a country, I don't intend to leave it intact. The time limit you have is as long as it takes for me to walk over to you, which even for the farthest is, I promise you, not very.”

That said, Belle got to work. She looked down at her feet as she marched, taking extra care to make sure they landed on the arrays of geartanks which seemed to here like the little patches of dots--assuming she didn’t deign to zoom in on them. She also took pleasure in snuffing out the middling settlements dotting the landscape along the path to the nation’s capital.

Once actually reaching that city, she marveled that she could snuff it out in but a few steps. She refrained, though, instead letting airships fan out from small--to her--holes in the anklet-like rings surrounding her ankles.

Once they were out, as she could tell, Belle slid her toe into the city, wiping out over a third of it just like that. Many thousands of lives simply smeared out before her sliding brass digit.

“I trust you can all secure the region from here.”, she said to her forces over radio. “Our geartank transport vessels probably won’t arrive for another week at least, so full reconstruction will wait till then. Just focus on suppressing, for now.”

“As you wish, Divine Belle.” came some commander’s voice.

That done, Belle moved into Spain. As her titanic form moved, complicated gyroscopic systems kept the buildings on her shoulder from shifting too much, and of course that applied to the hoops filled with troops and vehicles which she wore as casually as jewelry. Though, one didn’t usually have jewelry melded to their form, but then again, most women were not made of brass and other metals.

Spain fell easily, so easily Belle was offended. She pursed her lips to spit her saliva-compound on the capital, Madrid. The troops she had dispersed from her form instead focused on subduing the other major cities, although on her way to France, Belle took a small detour to Barcelona, digging one mile-and-a-half wide hand into the settlement before stuffing that which she snagged into her gob.

Upon reaching the middle of the France-Deutsch allied region, Belle came into contact with a battalion of airships. She simply laughed as she let them pelt at her legs a bit, which was all they could reach. Once her fill was had of laughing at their impotence, she crouched down so the entirety of that air-force was level with her metallic womanhood. She moved her hand behind the swarm of middling airships, and shot gusts of steam from dynamically formed holes in her finger tips.

The hot winds blew the airships with ease, sending them on a crash course right against the slit of Belle’s colossal cunt. The warmth of the ensuing explosions was enough to get the barest coo of enjoyment from Belle’s mouth. It echoed across the country.

“Alright.”, said Belle over her radio channel, which was as mobile as her now.

“The time has come. Disperse to the north. Secure the British Isles in my name before moving on to Norway. As stated, we’ll meet in Russia. Given all the advancements in explosives technology I’ve made, I expect your victories to be swift and decisive. If I have to walk back from Russia later to do the job myself, I’ll be most displaced.”

“Of course, gracious Divine Belle.” said General Kadwell.

She and thousands of others left Belle’s body via airships, heading north to carry out her will. All over Belle’s body, takeoff runways extended out from her hoops and the base-buildings atop her shoulders.

The exodus of dirigibles from all over her body was an impressive sight to behold, though those on the ground could only really catch glimpse of it, as Belle was simply too immense. If one could see it from a perspective as big as Belle’s, it would look like a swarm of gnats, or smaller, creatures, escaping her form and soaring north. She was the living host to her very invasion forces, after all.

That done, Belle retracted the appropriate extensions of metal needed for them to disembark, and got back to her duty of subjugating or destroying mainland Europe.

The France-Deutsch alliance fell fast, and Poland didn’t last longer. More of her forces split south to toke out Italy and Greece, while she continued moving eastwards into Russia.

The chill winds didn’t bother her at all as she moved towards St. Petersburg. There was resistance, but it was quite beneath Belle to even notice it. Nothing smaller than a town or city caught her eye, and even then she simply snuffed those out under-step, or dug her hands into their very foundations, bringing them to her mouth for consumption.

By the time she had actually reached St. Petersburg, Russia had surrendered. It came too late though. Belle crouched over the city, dipped her finger in her mouth, then brought it down towards the settlement. She had briefly modified her saliva compound to be slightly more sticky, which meant buildings and people stuck en-masse to the finger which seemed to them like some long plane of bronze.

They were brought to her mouth, consumed with ease to join thousands upon thousands of others steaming away in her cruel and efficient mechanical gut.

A that time she had received word from her forces that the invasion of the British Isles was looking to wrap up within a day. Belle and her forces had annihilated pretty much any city that refused to surrender. The invasion of Europe was looking to close very soon.

Belle smiled, it was indeed even easier than she had thought. She informed her forces they’d be settling Europe over the coming week, and that once the conflicts were over, even the dead should be gathered up and burnt for her consumption. Though live prisoners were more efficient as a source of food, she wouldn't want to waste the useful organic compounds that even corpses could offer her.

Indeed, cremating the dead first was more for ease of transport than any sort of ‘ick’ factor on Belle’s end. She had evolved past such a petty human idea.

Belle worked through the night to take out the Kazakhstan region as well. She would save Asia for later, when the foothold of her forces in Europe was stronger and Belle was, of course, far, far bigger.

She wanted to really enjoy the last few continents on her quest for world domination.

Chapter 18: Conquest

The shipment of geartanks and tens of thousands of more troops arrived on schedule, just about over a week since Belle’s invasion of Europe had begun.

Things were already surprisingly stable. Belle had learned to harness her image, and the idea that a giant living metal god could step on one’s city quickly had every settlement forming in line.

She had made good use of that time, spending it conquering the middle eastern regions nearest to the regions of Europe. She also, of course, devoured countless prisoners alongside all but two cities in every nation, per nation, that she had recently claimed.

Her state of being was beyond. Her movements were fluid, faster than a human’s would be at her old, fleshy size. Her digestive processes also advanced to become far more efficient, to the point that nearly every atom of a meal was put to use. Her body was truly a marvelous thing.

The nations in Asia knew it, which is why they did nothing other than prepare a defense for her inevitable arrival. They couldn’t actually strike first, and the most intelligent leaders knew they would likely fail.

Belle was, after all, about 50 miles tall.

Indeed, she had more than doubled in size. Such was the state of her advancement. The complexities of her processes of growth and evolution could only said to be understood, even in part, by Belle herself.

When those geartanks arrived, Belle knew her hold was truly stable enough to leave Europe for a bit. She recalled some of her vast fleets of airships into the military city-plus-base on her body, then marched towards China.

As soon as she laid her bare brass feet in the region, she knew it’d be her favorite land to invade yet. It teemed with steamtech cities, each one about as marvelous as New York City itself--before she had broken much of it when she first broke out of the Voxhaben Complex over a year prior. Similarly, the cities were dense as the American Capital too. Billions of people inhabited the region, and they were all going to be Belle’s.

She felt her mouth water at the thought, already prepping herself for the feast to come.

The Chinese forces were formidable and numerous. Their troops and geartanks were packed dense enough to swarm the scant few countrysides in the vastly industrialized land. Their airships were plentiful enough to blot out the sky. For any other foe, that would have been an effective deterrent: something that could annihilate any force.

But, not so for Belle’s forces. Her steamtech was more advanced, and she herself was invincible. They couldn't’ even dent a toe of hers firing their tanks in unison. Few mountains could claim to crest her ankles. What hope did a middling tank have? A mere soldier to do anything to her?

She lifted a 7 mile long foot above much of their army, reveling as her immense shadow covered even their airships. Though it was wasteful, she couldn’t help but step down. Entire towns disappeared with the bulk of the Chinese military that had been set to greet her. All of it fell beneath the smooth underside of her foot--unless it found shelter beneath the arch, of course.

There was no better metaphor for her supremacy over humanity, Belle Thought, than being able to leave entire armies in her foot prints.

But, that was also a little less efficient than just capturing and devouring them. Her forces would harvest everything she had crushed for her consumption later, but she tried to be a little more considerate of efficiency when taking on the rest of China.

Just a little.

She still stepped on entire towns, and a couple more cities, but eventually she moved to a crawling position and assailed the nation that way. Her fingers could curl around entire metropolises, bringing them into her mouth and her body one gulp at a time. With a teasing smile on her face, she traveled the country thus, eating cities along the way till she at last reached the capital of Beijing. The city housed millions, and was several times New York City in raw area.

Opening wide, Belle lowered her tongue to its surface and lapped more than half of it yup.

“Yum~”, she said, letting her voice thundered over the land and every Chinese radio channel in the appropriate dialect.

While troops split off from her body, she moved into Korea next. The nation was another technologically advanced one, and Korean artillery was something to be feared worldwide.

By anyone but Belle, of course.

They had long steam cannons, with barrels extending for hundreds of feet at max. These were capable of lobbing shells halfway across their country if need be. Said shells managed to reach as high as Belle’s toes. She wiggled them, ushering in a quake which ravaged the region.

“Ha, that tickles.”, she said. “Cute weaponry, try some of mine~”

As she marched across that country, she looked down, pursed her lips, and blew. Thick clouds of boiling steam rushed out her mouth to fan over the land in her march. The searing storms destroyed entire towns and cities, ruined fields of crops, and cooked the enemy forces alive. Pilots boiled in their geartanks and airships.

That much of Belle’s own airships were caught up in the heat of things didn’t seem to guilt her one bit.

She quickly reached Seoul and just dug her entire hand into the city. It was scooped up like a great big brittle cookie. She chomped into half of it, gulping it down before clenching her fist. The other half, rather than be spared as usual, was instead crumbled to rubble. She let it drift into her open, city-devouring maw with mere wiggles of her fingers.

“Another nation, mine.”, she declared. No surrender had come in yet, but it would shortly. It was either that or perish entirely.

The last major player in the Asia region was Japan, which meant Belle got her toes wet as she waded over from Korea. It wasn’t long till Belle reached that island nation, and what laid before her gaze impressed even her.

The rumors were true, it seemed that some Asian nations were indeed working on floating steamtech cities. Japan was the one to have them, as well.

Hovering off the coast of the mainland were dozens of hovering settlements. Each was held aloft with a complicated series of propellers attached to vast platforms of metal on which massive gears visibly spun. Great big armored balloons also were attached via thick metal poles to the far corners of each floating settlements, on which teemed elaborate brass pavilions and other beautiful architecture which made up these rather expensive looking cities.

These were built not just for proof of concept, but also because Japan had to deal with its growing population crisis. There were more people than ever, but only so much land on the islands themselves. More land could be acquired by war, but the leaders refused to invade not just for humanitarian reasons, but also because they worried about deluding their culture and inadvertently disseminating steamtech secrets.

So, the rich moved to these flying cities, receiving supplies via airships when needed, such as for food which didn’t grow hundreds of feet up in the air.

Said rich were the first to be devoured or destroyed in Belle’s invasion as a consequence. Her massive form leaned down and real close to a cluster of two flying cities.

“Splendid.”, she said. One divine compliment before her tongue came out to curl around the cities and claim them.

Even flying as high as they did, Belle still had to at least crouch to reach reach them. She gathered most of them between her hands, keeping them as intact as possible before slurping them up.

What few she didn’t devour were simply stepped on as she took her first step onto the landmass proper. Dense settlements were crushed alongside more forces by just one of her unstoppable feet.

Belle found that enjoyable, yet repetitive. She elected to spice it up. Her next step wasn’t a step so much as a stomp. Her left leg bent, foot high in the air as she brought it down smack-dab over Japan’s main island.

She then stomped again, and again. Terrible earthquakes ravaged the region. The very island itself began to crack and tear in pieces. She clenched her toes into the ground there, furthering ripping the landmass apart.

After a few good stomps like that, she bent down and started devouring the pieces of the land itself. She ripped off the top of Mt. Fuji and savored it as a treat cool against her tongue.

‘This is how far I’ve come, where my body digests mountains.’

The thought filled Belle with joy. She laughed and her mirth carried across the countries she had just ravaged.

Surrender notices flooded in from those three countries she had just destroyed, along with the remaining areas of Asia she had yet to even touch.

‘Ah, what a wonderful thing it is to be me~’, though Belle.

‘But it could be even better.’

She looked down at her toes, zooming in as those airships of hers fanned out from the hoop-barracks and hangers on her ankles to help assess and control the situation below.

‘I could've done pretty much all of this on my own, after all. What do I even need people on the surface for.’

Belle giggled to herself as she came up with a fantastic idea then and there.

Chapter 19: World Within

Belle had waited a day to announce her idea. She needed that time to prepare, as it required modifications to much of the inside of her body. It was her largest ‘personal project’ yet. She also had some growing to do: another 20 miles to be precise: putting her at around 70 miles tall. Enough that almost any city would fit square under one foot.

So, the morning after she conquered Japan, she was standing outside Paris. That was the city considered the center of her European presence over a week into the invasion, after all. It was the most populated both with her own troops and the conquered citizens of the surrounding areas.

She had told her forces the day before that she wanted as much of them back within the city on her body as possible, especially the high ranking officers. She did this under the guise of wanting them to get even more accustomed to living inside her, which was technically true, although even knowing the full extent of her plan, they were in no position to resist.

Belle looked down, smile on her face as she zoomed in her vision to the city at her toes. She addressed them aloud and over every radio channel in range. All homes had speakers equipped to hear their god’s words. That was one of the first things her forces helped setup during occupation. Her forces listened via the speakers within the buildings inside the hoops on her limbs and the few buildings atop her shoulders as well.

“Good morning my loyal subjects. It is I, your divine and gracious god. My plans for control over all humanity are progressing well, and I’ll be invading Australia, Africa, and the other left over countries soon enough to wrap things up.”

Cheers erupted in the city from her more ‘enthusiastic’ and faithful subjects. She smiled.

“But, I got to thinking. What kind of god rules a world while on it? A true god should instead *be* a world unto herself!”

As she spoke, minibots began to swarm the city and buildings attached to her body. Her form was essentially ‘reabsorbing’ all she had made. Holes in her body formed for the buildings she wished to keep to be drawn inside. The hoops on her limbs shrunk back into her. Everyone on her was being taken inside her with a chorus of surprised screaming. Only the most devout seemed happy about this development.

“The future of humanity is within me, and the future of me is not being constrained on one big rock of a world. This planet isn’t my home, it’s my future food. The old model isn’t just foolish and unworthy of my being, it’s wasteful too. Why let cities exist outside me, when I could breakdown all those buildings to make myself bigger? Why have a planet at all, when its mass can be mine?”

Belle bent down towards Paris, which began to scream in near unison. As her hands touched it, minibots escaped her body to help prepare everyone for a safer journey to her mouth. She wanted them alive.

“Of course, I also thought about humanity in general. Humans have value, all of them, but for some, that value is simply serving as my meal. For many, the most they can hope for is being turned into the clear oil compound which keeps my body shiny, clean, and smooth. Do not worry though, as those who are worthy will live on--inside me. The rest will have the high honor of giving their lives to me.”

She brought Paris up to her mouth.

“Thank you for your service everyone, and welcome to a new world.”

She stuffed the city into her mouth and swallowed.

The people of Paris were the first to experience Belle’s new way of ingesting people. Upon being swallowed, they were brought to her throat, which now had many branching paths. Inorganic matter was sorted out right away and sent to her stomach, but the people were all clumped up. They rested on a sealed metal floor, thousands of feet in radius, while minibots swarmed.

Belle had sensed gained the ability to see through all her minibots at once. They skittered past every person, pinching them as they took blood samples for testing purposes. Even they had evolved: they were part of Belle, of course, not distinct so much as extensions of her will and desires.

Those in engineering and science outfits were taking to one chute, where a pipe carried them off. Others who were fit, typically already clad in military uniform, were pushed by shifting metal to other chutes, which lead to other series of pipes for further sorting. The especially beautiful and handsome were also separated. Swarms of minibots helped to usher them, willing or no, to chutes which sorted them based on the appeal and quality of physical characteristics--according to Belle’s aesthetic tastes. Her tastes were diverse though, varied, but generally boiled down to having an appealing body with symmetrical facial features.

There was a lot of sorting done on the journey to her body, but for all of it the vast majority of those she had swallowed stayed where they were. When at last everyone else was sorted, that primary group had the ground fall under them. They plummeted down Belle’s main throat all the way to her stomach. They were the unremarkable, the less important. In her mind, they were better off being cooked alive and picked apart by her digestive system for useful bits of matter to repurpose.

They were more valuable as additional mass or even lubricant than as living, breathing people to their divine brass mistress. The realization almost invariably hit them at the moment digestive processes really started to scald them.

Belle spent about a week carefully devouring and taking in the cities she had conquered. She walked east from Europe back to Asia, then crossed the Pacific over to the Americas and devoured her first conquered landscape without a hint of guilt, even as she sorted the vast majority of its population into her stomach.

Her plan was to grow, evolve, and only after “integrating” what was left of her already conquered cities would she take on the last few countries that resisted her rule.

As she grew, so too did her insides, which people could see up close for the first time. She had illuminated every cavity of her body in preparation for this plan, so the future of humanity could see inside their new world. They could see alright, and most would choose to describe her interiors as “overwhelming”.

Gears the size of buildings spun all around the metal cities she had molded within her body. There were all sorts of pipes crisscrossing every which way. It was orderly, elegant, but extremely complex. Her body was far and away the most advanced and confusing steamtech the moment it was put together in the Voxhaben Complex, but since then it had only further evolved in complexity. Her insides were labyrinthine to many.

That was all well and good to Belle though. If she needed to move people around, her minibots would take them on a tide of of their millions-strong mass. There were also pipes for transport, which propelled humans from one part of her body to another at speeds *just* slow enough that the people didn’t die from the raw forces of movement. It still left many thinking their insides would launch right out of their throats, even though they never did.

The people lived in cities of Brass, walking on the smooth metal grounds of her inner cavities. Complicate gyroscopic mechanisms kept them from bouncing as she walked, or if she saw fit to sit down or even lay on her side. It didn’t, however, prevent some vibrations from reaching them. The buildings were made by her, and thus resistant, but it meant for bumpy walks down between the various looming brass and blocky spires.

Of course, there was plenty of work to be done. Belle still expected the military to undergo their fitness and training regimes, even as she had proclaimed to taken over the rest of the planet by her self.

Every now and then engineers and scientists were taken to parts of her body to fix issues. She could of course do it herself with minibots, which she often did, so there was almost always a catch when she made humans do that kind of work.

One time, one of the steam pipes in her body had a bit of an issue as an associated valve which was supposed to turn on its own had gotten stuck. It needed manual hands to turn it once so it could start again. She ordered some engineers to turn the massive valve, which they did, at which point hot steam rushed forth from the freshly opened ‘hanger’ on the pipe, burning them to crisps and filling much of that entire cavity with deadly steam.

She had not wanted to send the minibots for that task, as that much concentrated, super-hot steam might affect their integrity. The number of minibots she would have to send to fix it, put at risk, would be more than the value of the humans themselves in matter. That is, it would potentially destroy more minibots to fix the issue than would be able to be produced by simply melting the human crew down. So, it made sense to have people fix thee issues and pay with their lives for it.

Their remains were collected and processed by Belle’s body regardless.

Another time, some gears near her stomach region were jammed. Fixing this was a high priority, and she sent some of the handiest people in her body to go fix it. The issue was a long rod of bronze stuck in one of the cogs. It had fallen from another complex bit of machinery above, which her minibots had since fixed.

The engineers managed to get the rod out, and Belle thanked them over radio before promptly shoving them into the gears via some nearby pneumatic ‘arms’. The people screamed as the cogs ground them to a fine, slick paste.

She did this because once the gears were moving again, they needed to be lubricated as soon as possible to avoid risk of further damage. Once again, the value the minibots expended to fix the issue would be more than making humans do it. At least, that was the case when she realized their liquefied bodies would make a fine and fitting lubricate for the gears.

By far, the hardest work was to be had in her mechanical snatch. Her crotch was were the people she found most beautiful lived, via cities close to her womanhood. They all had shifts, going on 24 hours, which essentially involved stimulating Belle night and day.

They wandered the slick, moving tunnel that was Belle’s cunt, throwing themselves into the walls amid a steamy atmosphere under the watchful eyes of her minibots. She had since lowered the temperature in the region to be far more hospital since her earlier sessions of stimulation, but that didn’t mean it was a safe place to be.

Indeed, it was the most dangerous by far, as her orgasms still sent scalding hot fluids everywhere, threatening to gush the workers right out of her body if they were too close to her slit, and unable to grab any of the minute handholds molded into her vaginal walls in time.

There was one moment, while feasting on her cities, that a gear was under-performing in her pussy region. Fixing it became a top priority, and cost over one thousand engineers their lives as she moved them over to the region, practically throwing them at the issue until it was remedied. The issue never actually hindered her enjoyment during those times, but the mere threat that it could meant she was willing to sacrifice hundreds of lives of humanity’s brightest.

That’s cause she knew they didn’t matter all that much. The brightest mind wasn’t even one hundredth of hers in intellect. The strongest human couldn’t lift her finger even if they were multiplied thousands of times over. The best airship pilots couldn’t do more damage than she could with but a wiggle of her toe.

Indeed, when Belle had finished ‘integrating’ the last already-conquered city in her surface empire into her body, she stood hundreds of miles tall. Her head was technically in space. She was simply better than any human in every sense of the world. She was very, very much beyond them.

And so, when she at last swallowed New York City, the last city that was left, she announced over her internal speakers the good news: that it was time to take over and take in the last remaining countries on Earth.

Chapter 20: Obsolete Earth

It took Belle a bit of time to devour all the cities she had conquered, but that still wasn’t enough time for Australia to prepare.

Belle appeared looming above the country. Her body was since back to its old smoothness, no buildings or hoops on her body since she had absorbed those all earlier when she decided humanity’s future was ‘within’. To that end, she looked on the outside just as she did when she first escaped the Voxhaben Complex.

Only bigger, far, far bigger.

Belle was so vast that the ocean’s depth didn’t even crest her toes. She spoke to the people of Australia via radio, hijacking every station effortlessly. If she spoke aloud, her voice would simply destroy them all on its own, so this was the only means of communication she saw fit.

“Australia, good to finally meet you all. You’re actually one of the more recently developed and steamtech-ified countries there is, which means you still have plenty of natural resources to plunder and devour. How considerate.”

She laughed, then crouched down. The entire planet groaned.

“I expect it’ll feel wonderful jostling down my throat, as will all of you. Of course, to be honest, most of you won’t have the honor of living within me for long. I’ve decided to re-purpose nearly all of humanity that’s left. My criteria for preservation has grown rather strict, you see. There’s already so many people inside me, squirming around. I can feel all their little feet pattering as I speak.”

She laughed again, her superior hearing picking up a country’s worth of screams.

“But, don’t worry, even with such stringent criteria, I expect at least 10% of you will live on within me, and that’s more than enough. Now, without further ado, it’s time for me to dig in.”

Belle stuck her hands into Australia, quite literally “digging-in” to it. Her fingers tore through layers of the planet like butter. She was at the size where she was eating landmarks more than cities. Mere settlements were simply along for the ride.

She was thankful she still had no sense of taste, as she imagined eating rocks and dirt wouldn’t be ideal. Then again, she wondered why she didn’t simply design a sense of taste for herself, and make everything taste sublime?

It was something she considered for the future. For now, she was simply concerned with devouring the Australian continental regions. Belle was doing this to further her power and advancement more than for fun.

The fun, as always, was merely a bonus.

Belle had taken care to swarm minibots from her hands to the surface of the country, so that the people were safe as she shoved them into a mouth far, far too vast for them to comprehend. They heard the sound of her ‘breath’ though, and knew what it was. They were of course spritzes with steam and saliva as well.

She devoured the country, handful by handful. Millions more were sorted by her body’s merciless machinations, all the while she gradually tore into the landmass. The ocean began to flood into the spaces made by Belle’s greedy hands. By the time she was finished, what was left of Australia was but a few layers of earth, now deep beneath the ocean which had pooled over it.

Just like that, Belle had eaten her first country. She made a quick detour to New Zealand to the east and did much the same before finishing up Indonesia. Yet more millions now digested within her, or were lucky enough to live in her internal cities, where their every move was watched, every word heard by the omnipresent minibots within.

There was only one area left to consume. Belle had eaten her first country in a day, land and all, and it was time to devour her first continent.

From those devoured landmasses she had accrued enough size to quickly grow big enough that it made more sense to float around the Earth than walk on its surface. As it was, her every step was a global calamity. A wiggle of her toes had brought tectonic plates to fragments, so this simply made sense to her.

Her body moved through space via a series of jets she had molded from metal on her body. The steam moved her gigantic body, nearly one thousand miles tall, with effortless ease in zero-gravity. It was trivial for her to resist the Earth’s gravity as well, just a vast amount of literal tons of steam jetted from from her front side was all that was needed there.

Belle hovered over the continent of Africa, letting her jets relax so she fell a bit towards it.

Once a colonized region, the people there had since resisted their imperial aggressors and divided into advanced nations at peace with one another. They were self-sufficient and independent. It was overall a beautiful tale of perseverance and determination, but Belle thought little of it. It didn’t matter to her. The entire continent was food. Human history before her rise didn’t really matter now. In her eternal rule, she figured pre-Belle times would be spoken of only in whispers if at all.

Thus, the ancient pyramids and modern steamtech cities alike went down her throat. The people were all sorted according to their skill-sets and her fancies. All the beautiful landscape features, too, were devoured. Mount Kilimanjaro was no more, a mere snack to her that fit in her mouth with no more than two bites.

They had their military force ready to defend. It did nothing, nothing but fill her more. A continental chorus of screams rung out as she dug her hands so deep the resulting quakes alone started breaking up the continent.

‘All the better’, Belle thought. ‘That’d it’d crack into palm-sized bites just for me~’

She had thought it a tad ironic that the continent form which all humans were said to have come from, as some scientists argued, would be the last one to have any living humans on it. All others were since picked clean. She figured no scientist of any sort would have been able to predict, before the creation of her beautiful brass body, that the future of humanity would be within one woman.

Belle finished devouring the continent, feeling a bit stuffed. She had to wait to finish digesting all that matter. It was the first time she felt she had to wait between meals in quite some time.

Indeed, she still had meals to go. Belle planned for the entire Earth to be her snack.

Chapter 21: Natural Resources

Eating a literal continent, particularly one of the largest ones, had given Belle an immense infusion of size and advancement. She had never once felt more in-tune with her body. She could nimbly navigate the environment of near-Earth space like it was nothing. Earth’s gravitational tug against her was but an afterthought with how efficient her body’s steam jets had become. She had them on the back of her titanic ankles, hands, and about her limbs.

Belle glided across the globe like a bird through the sky, circling its prey. She laughed, overjoyed, as she dipped her hand into the world’s surface. Fingers larger than countries easily tore entire continents from the surface. By now, they were bereft of all human life, and thus she showed little care towards the stuff as she moved it into her mouth.

Her toes were titanic terrors as she dipped them onto the surface of North America, just to see how it would feel. It felt like she was stepping on water. The ground felt liquid when faced with the sheer force exerted by the scale of her existence. She swirled her foot around but once, whipping the continent into a molten frenzy before she resumed her ‘flight’ and feasting.

She licked at Antarctica, biting into it as well. Even without a sense of taste she could feel its refreshing cold as it slid down her throats.

Asia, Europe, and what was left of the Americas was handedly consumed soon after. She had eaten all the land the planet had to offer. The Earth cried out in agony, and bled molten lava which swarmed the globe to boil the ocean.

She pursed her lips to that fiery hot bounty and brought it into her being as well. Matter was matter, and she had evolved to process all energies the Earth had in store. There was nothing the planet had that she couldn’t handle, basically.

Belle slurped the planet’s erupting lava. She sucked up the oceans. She grew all the while, bigger, better. She grew large. By the time the Earth was picked clean down to its hot, rocky iron core, her form was so megalithic she could wrap her lips around it like a piece of candy.

She did so, and swallowed. Her digestive system got to work, and she experienced her biggest growth spurt yet.

The power was intoxicating, her existence in that moment so sublime that she couldn’t help but moan. Belle had gone from reporter to world eater within the span of 2 years or so. She was phenomenal. Never before had she felt so good.

Perhaps the millions salving away in her sex had something to do with the feeling, too. The thought made her laugh.

As the Earth’s core digested, she converted the vast energy and mass it offered into numerous improvements and plenty of growth. Her metal form stretched out, jets retreating as she devised more subtle ways to move through space. Parts of her body took on a glassy sheen for a moment, as she invented, then and there, ‘panels’ which could get a head start on harnessing the energy of the sun.

Belle decided to address her people. The humanity she owned. Her subjects, her minions and worshipers.

Her voice rang out across every speaker in her body.

“How is all of humanity doing? This is your gracious Belle speaking, the divine being you’re lucky to have as your god. I just wanted to let you all know that I just finished swallowing down planet Earth, your old home.”

She laughed, witnessing the mixed faces of joy, revulsion, and confusion among the millions filling the cavities of her steamtech body.

“I hope you all can appreciate being within me. I’m the only thing protecting humanity form deep space, after all. That alone is proof of my godhood over you. I could easily kill you all with but a thought now, just some laxity on my end and you’d all be exposed to the cold, depressurized void of space.”

Once again, she laughed.

“Don’t worry though, I wouldn’t do that. I’ll always hold the human race in high regard, even as I expand my domain to encompass much more.”

She started to drift towards Mars, licking up Earth’s moon along the way.

“That’s right, I plan devour every planet starting at Mars, before looping back to take on that sweet, sweet star. After that, well, my universal conquest will begin.”

Belle paused a moment, just to smile to herself.

“I’m sure you’re all very happy at this news, I know I am.”

Chapter 22: Space Empress

Much time had passed since Belle had consumed her home solar system.

Top Zleetdek officials were currently entertaining two so-called “Brass Ambassadors” of Belle’s empire. The fancily dressed, four-armed, purple-skinned alien elites sat in their chairs as the two beings, who had simply teleported in, finished speaking.

Both were female in shape, adult-human in size though made entirely of brass. They looked different from one another, one having longer hair and the other short. Each looked like a living statue that clanked as its limbs moved with gesticulations, and their sculpted forms included the shapes of some old Earth clothes. One wore a suit and the other a short skirt, made of metal and molded into their forms, of course.

“So you see.”, said the one with shorter hair. “It is in your interest to submit at once. Otherwise, Belle herself will be forced to show up and she won’t be pleased with anything other than unconditional surrender.”

The longer haired brass woman spoke.

“Indeed, the future will be within her divine self, so it’s the sensible thing to do to. Just give in to the divine empress and your peoples’ journey into her body will be a more pleasant affair.”

Both the ambassadors bowed with respect.

The aliens banged their fists, outraged by this insolent demand. They had known of Belle’s Empire via rumors and credible energy signatures. They knew she was massive, but they were a civilization spanning a dozen planets in their star system. They would not be intimated.

“No.”, they said. “How dare you even suggest such a thing?! Guards, take them as prisoners at once!”

The guards moved in towards the “ambassadors”, but paused as the entire chamber lit up with warning lights. A message came over a spherical speaker nearby.

“Warning, a massive being has entered our territorial space. She’s larger than any planet, and scanners show made up almost entirely of metal: mostly a combination of copper and zinc. We believe it to be Belle.”

“All planets unleashed their defenses.”, shouted one of the Zleetdek officers.

The two brass women laughed, their bodies slowly shifting to nude ones, to identical shapes of a perfect human female form. They looked exactly like Belle did, in fact, only smaller.

“You idiots.”, they talked in unison. “I was already here. ‘Brass Ambassadors’? Please, as if I’d trust any consciousness but my own with diplomacy. I was merely testing you, to see if you had the good sense to surrender peacefully, even without faced so directly with your doom. You failed, and now I’m sure you’ll try to resist me, wasting energy on such a futile task when you could simply slide down my throat, no fuss, if only you’d cooperate.”

The guards readied to attack these bodies of Belle, but those bodies struck first. She made short work of the guards, tearing into them with strength and speed far exceeding what metal bodies that size should’ve been able to exert. Blue Zleetdek blood sprayed all over the room as they ripped the guards and soldiers in half.

The two bodies ran towards where the elite commanders sat. They morphed their hands into brass blades and spinning saws, and carved right into them.

Soldiers flooded the chamber and, with substantial firepower, managed to eventually disable the bodies. Still, they were aware though, and had killed all but one of the commanders in the room.

Their severed heads laughed.

“It doesn’t matter. These bodies, this matter, will be reclaimed and repurposed. Just as your entire species will be.”

With that, the view of the stars from the windows was occluded. Outside the mother-ship, Belle’s true and megalithic form had opened wide to ingest the ship. She swallowed it down, whole.

That done, Belle turned to face the planets before her. Even the largest was but a grape in scale. She smiled as they swarmed with start ships. Slits opened on her bare brass shoulders, and she sent forth her own vast armada, millions strong, to attack.

The steamtech spaceships were often piloted, as she had designed the controls to be not too dissimilar to those of the airships her forces were familiar with on Earth. Still, the Zleetdek forces had their own tech, and though it was inferior, they still got some lucky shots off.

Nevertheless, Belle was winning, as she always did.

Her massive body moved to the nearest planet, on which billions of Zleetdek’s ran about in a panic. Word had already gotten around they were under attack, and the entire sphere swarmed with space ships, shooting at Belle’s lips.

She simply parted her lips, stuck out her tongue, and tugged the comparative-grape-sized world inside. One swallow and it was gone: an entire world eaten.

It wasn’t her first.

Far away, unmanned steamtech spaceships of hers crashed into planets. They exploded into a swarm of minibots, which proceeded to fan over the various distant planets to facilitate her invasion. The spread like locusts, circumnavigating the globe at unfathomable speeds.

They then dug to the planet’s core, to begin construction of the terrifying and confusing energy harvesting mechanisms Belle placed on her victim planets.

Some minibots stayed behind though, billions actually, and they gathered up into one another, taking the shapes of Belle herself. They’d fuse into smaller bodies of hers, titanic, which would proceed to toy with the ground forces. They’d stomp resistance out under their feet, while digging into the cities and devouring matter both organic or not.

The starting sizes of the other bodies varied from hundreds of feet to miles in height, but the goals were the same. They’d devour as much as they can, grow, and eventually be reintegrated by Belle’s main form when it at last hovered over.

Belle moved from the first planet towards the last, gobbling up opposition along the way. She could generate suction with ease, and simply engulfed the swarms of spaceships sent to try and stop her between planets. Once actually reaching the worlds, she was pleased to see they were already almost entirely picked clean by her lesser bodies. She simply opened wide and took them in.

It wasn’t long till she was at the last planet the star system had to offer. She pinched it up between her fingers, admiring the brass energy harvesting structures her minibots had already built. She took it into her being.

“Ah.”, she said, talking over the communications means possessed by the scant few billions of Zleetdek spaceships which had still managed to evade her forces and her forms.

“It’d seem the only thing left your star system has to offer me is your star. A pity.”

She floated over towards it. In the process, her planet-ruining toes dashed through a battle between billions of Zleetdek ships and millions of her own forces. The action had plenty of friendly-fire on her side, but still tilted the conflict in her favor nonetheless.

The massive, red dwarf of a star was calling to her. She set her hands on the thing, and her minibots started to swarm the surface of it. It began to glow bright and vibrate as she prepared it for ‘processing’. Oddly enough, it began to shrink as she deliberately disrupted its ongoing fusion reaction.

Once small and dim, Belle took the star into her body, and then effortlessly finished off devouring what was left of the Zleetdek people.

Another star system, all hers.

Chapter 23: Internal Apocalypses

Life inside Belle had grown very complicated ever since she started eating planets.

Her planetary meals were suspended in strange machinery all throughout her body while she slowly and efficiently sucked their energy dry. Indeed, the vast majority of planets she ate were still intact, and never went to her stomach at all. She did make a point of digesting at least one planet every time a star system refused her rule, which was the fate of that first Zleetdek world she gulped down.

Indeed, entire planets were had been cooked alive in her stomach steam. Such was Belle’s will.

For the most part though, the planets were steadily drained. In many cases, people were still living on them! They were the ones Belle saw fit not to sort for other purposes. By the time the planet was sucked dry of its energy, they would be digested as well. Until then, the planets were contained via gravity manipulating cogwork to be as safe and stable as possible.

Belle had become more conscientious of her digestive processes. She wanted to be as efficient as possible, as she had big plans. The entire universe was to be hers. To that end, the stars she devoured weren’t even touched yet, other than the Sun, which she had digested best she could at the time.

Instead, Belle handled stars by reducing them to black holes and containing them within special steamtech devices in her body. She was optimizing her storage of stars, waiting for the day with her massive intellect finally finished calculating how best to harvest all that energy and mass. When that fateful day came, she planned to harvest the stars all at once.

Belle had hundreds of them.

Needless to say, Belle’s mind had advanced far past the point that she needed scientists and engineers. The were all since liquidated and repurposed. She showed no special preference to the human ones from her past ruling Earth, and had indeed digested them without guilt. She didn't even need the beings within her to help fix issues as much, as she had since optimized her body to the point where it didn’t ever need manual maintenance. Even if something could wound her, her minibots were capable of fixing it without much risk at her current, hyper-complex design.

All the new incoming alien scientists and thinkers were steamed and processed by her mechanical stomach similarly. Despite how smart they thought they were--and many were indeed several times smarter than the smartest normal human--they were still, ultimately, but an insect of intellect when compared to Belle’s expansive, hyper-intelligent mind.

On top of that, she was at the point where she assimilated the knowledge of all she consumed: memories too. Simply put, she lost nothing they had to offer, however meager it was, by simply digesting them outright.

She still had some uses for all the billions of incoming sapient species though. Particularly strong and skilled warriors were enlisted into her military forces. They were trained in the operation of her spaceships, which assisted in her various conflicts across the stars. Even then, they served more as distractions than something needed. Belle was honest with herself, too, and if not for the nostalgic thrill of her Earthly battles she would have liquidated the military classes of her subjects as well.

One class that never went away though was the ‘aesthetic’, as Belle often called them. Despite the fancy title they were essentially glorified sex salves, force to labor in Belle’s crotch, stimulating her in long shifts. As she started devouring entire alien species, she found herself admiring some of the humanoid ones. A lot of aliens looked just like humans, only with pointer ears, more colorful shades of skin, or some other fanciful and often alluring trait. So, many of the most beautiful aliens had a place and task waiting for them once ingested by their new god.

Her cities had expanded, spanning planets in area for those she did choose to keep. She experimented with architecture, making spires as tall as small countries just for her own artistic amusement.

One day, the time had come. Belle had cracked that code she sought so long to crack. Her voice echoed in the minds of all those within her. She had since surpassed radio communication to develop telepathy, and found herself able to force her words into the mind of any lesser being—namely, anyone--with extreme ease.

“Rejoice, subjects of me, the divine Belle. I have finally deduced the optimal means of digesting stars. The time has come, my universal conquest nears its end. The power I’ll wield will near the level of omnipotence at last. Your god is going to take the cosmos, as she rightfully should.”

All across her body, the stars started to glow bright as the complex digestion processes commenced.

“Get ready, your going to have to get used to a much bigger god to live in.”

She laughed as she absorbed the stars all at once. Blinding light filled her body, along with a deafening moan.

Chapter 24: Galactic

In the throes of ecstasy, Belle’s body had burst forth from an arm of the Milky Way Galaxy. Billions of stars broke against her body, their extinguished remnants brought inside by her ever helpful minibots which now numbered in the countless quintillions.

She wasted little time. Alight with joy, she quickly conquered the Milky Way Galaxy by devouring it one handful at a time. Scores of star stuff filled her palms, looked at for not even a second before it found its way down her throat.

From finally digesting those captured stars of hers, she had advanced more in a few seconds than she had ever done since exiting the Voxhaben Complex years ago. Whatever she swallowed was immediately processed with optimal efficiency, and her growth was near instantaneous.

Her brass form waded through the galaxy, reaching the black-hole at its core, she claimed with a lap of her tongue. After that, she was large enough to just suck the rest of the galaxy into her being.

The most advanced species across the universe realized they had no chance. They reached out to her with faster-than-light radio-like communications, easily picked up given Belle’s mastery of of technology and physics itself.

They surrendered, unprompted and en masse. They offered her all their services. They could build her towering temples of bronze, bigger than star systems. They’d give her everything they had in exchange for the continued existence of their advanced empires.

Belle thought that sounded nice, but it was not worthwhile. She knew she had reached near the peak she could be while still allowing external matter to exist. She was so close to true omnipotence, and would not be tempted now.

She reached out to those who had contacted her via her mind. Her telepathy quickly found them, wiggled into their brains.

“I appreciate the deference, supplicants, and I do accept the surrender portion of your offer. As subjects of my new, universal domain, please lay down and await your consumption without resistance. Thank you, and thank you for contacting me: that transmission makes you all easier to find~”

She listened to their mental dismays on her way over to the Andromeda galaxy, which took here but a few seconds with her space-warping body. At that point, it was laid before her as little more than a plate. Belle reached out to its arms and just tore them off via the force of the motion as well as by manipulating forces of gravity. She slurped down the arms of stars like thick, luminescent noodles.

Andromeda was finished off within a minute, with many of those advanced empires who had contacted her gone with it. She digested them, became aware of all their knowledge, and found it quite lacking.

With galaxies rapidly digesting within, Belle expanded and evolved at a rate incomprehensible to even the most intelligent and advanced aliens and artificial intelligence. She bumped into them in her growth, and anything which made contact with her was taken in via dynamically opening ‘pores’ across her brass exterior.

All was processed. There was no more sorting. Matter, energy: it was but her food. As she steadily grew out to the edges of the universe, she began to digest everyone within her. Her minibots swarmed, carrying them to her stomach which now steamed entire galaxies whole.

“Do not worry.”, she said directly into her minds. “Your consciousnesses are trivial things. I can remake without issue, and rewind them as easily as a watch if I see fit.”

Her laughter wracked their brains.

“Forgive me, but I’m just so happy I couldn’t help but laugh. Why, your consciousnesses can be saved even if you foolishly try to self-destruct ahead of time. My probability engines will see to that.”

With her stomach full of star stuff, she willed auxiliary digestive mechanizations into place and started bringing sapients, planets, and other matter to there.

“But that probably won’t be necessary. Soon, the universe will be mine. Time itself will be at my command. I’ll be able to bring your consciousnesses back from any state I deem fit. Even those who died before my time will not be able to evade my new domain. They, too, will have a place. So rejoice.”

Belle felt her bare brass feet nudge against the bounds of the universe.

“When the time comes that you return, that all return, it will be in a better universe of my design, will, and complete control~”

Chapter 25: Clockwork Universe

Gears and brass towers stretched as far anyone could see. The endless spinning of cogwheels and movement of steam being the background ambiance making up the noise of the universe.

Belle’s universe, which was Belle herself.

Everyone who ever existed was there, their consciousnesses brought back in better, mechanical bodies far more fit to serve her and the numerous avatars, gargantuan or not, which roamed a universe’s worth of space.

She was endless in her appetites. Countless complex, unfathomable structures were built to engage and amplify her pleasure. Many of them towered far, far higher than any structure made for the habitation of lesser beings in her domain. She was kind enough to give them an hour’s rest everyday. Of course, no one could sleep anymore, and said rest was spent meditating on Belle’s greatness.

Yes, everyone existed for Belle, and to serve her. None could escape the steamtech realm that was her being. All were cast under its orange-gold skies, beneath its brass suns that kept all anyone knew in a state of light, except when she fancied to mimic the darkness and twinkling stars. No one could easily navigate the vast, complex and unfathomable realm save her own avatars.

She still moved people though. When her subjects had a purpose to fulfill, she simply teleported them around. Belle did this often, mostly to send them to her avatars for pleasuring sessions. However, she did use people for fun experiments now and then. She was always trying to advance herself, and her understanding of anything that there was and could possibly be. Her subjects could and were always brought back after with but a thought.

Said avatars were the only remotely human-shaped parts of Belle. In order to fully utilize all the universe’s space, she had to give up a human’s shape. She quite literally existed up to the bounds of the universe, which slowly expanded alongside her brass, amorphous true form. Her exterior topology was the shape of the universe, which made sense as for all intents and purposes she *was* the universe.

Thus, there was nothing in the universe she didn’t know or possess. She had figured out how the Black Box worked long ago, back when she had eaten her first planet: Earth. Now, she could design a device several times as complex in the time in an instant.

Yet there was still more out there. She sensed hints of it. The beings that had influenced the creation of the Black Box were external to the universe: if they weren’t, she would have assimilated their knowledge when she devoured the old cosmos like the treat it was. She had sense made a sense of taste for herself of course, along with other new senses that she likewise pampered at all times.

She could feel ripples against her exterior. There was something external to the ordered universe she once knew and had since usurped. There was more than one paltry universe for her. There was something external to her, which was something she could not abide. There was something past the universe that was her, waiting to be explored, devoured, and known.

Whatever beings may have been out there wanted her to become this, or should have at least considered the possibility. Still, she didn’t have an answer, admittedly, to the question of why they encouraged the development of such a brain interface to mere mortals? Was it just to sow chaos? Could it be for their entertainment?

‘Is that what I was to these higher beings, a mere wind-up clockwork toy? Destroying the universe like how such a toy might bumble into a stack of blocks?’

She thought the thought just once, before coming to an answer.

‘No, I am more. So much more, and I will show them. I am Belle, and I am the apex being.’

Every one of her days, which were 24 hours still, were filled with progress as well as pleasure. Belle was not afraid; she feared nothing, and overcoming the fear of harm is what let her become the god she was meant to be in the first place, she reasoned.

Belle continually analyzed the very borders of existence and reality as she knew them. She did so cause she knew there was more out there.

And it would be hers.

And she’d have fun taking it.

Fin.