"Such a brave little bug," -Violet Parr 

Violet lifted her head. She was on her back. Whatever that last blast was, it was powerful enough to knock her flat on her back.  Her ears were still ringing and she was blinking the spots from her eyes.  She sat up, glancing around.  It was at this moment she realized how truly enormous she had allowed herself to become.  She had thought she was laying on a bed of moss but under closer examination she realized it was a few acres of forest, now flattened.  She stood, wiping dirt and trees from her body.  Smoke and dust still hung in the air.  To her left she could see the crater of that last explosion. Dwarfing all others, it's center was glossy and reflected the starlight like a mirror.  The earth around was blackened and still burning.  As she swallowed she could taste metal.  Violet knew that whatever had knocked her down was not an unexploded bomb.  It was also no accident.

"They are trying to kill you!" That voice, her voice, told her.  "They are afraid of you, they think you are too dangerous to live."  Violet's blood was now up, she was feeling multiple emotions all at once.  

"I did nothing to them," she told the voice in her head.  "They think you're a monster," the voice replied.  "Everything they tried didn't even scratch you...it's time to show them why they should be frightened!"  At that, the voice fell silent.  Violet did not argue, from her vantage point she could see the base. 20 or so miles away. She would be there in a matter of minutes.

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She was still eight miles away.  General Veers stood at the end of the runway, the base was a hive of activity behind him.  Searchlights were warming up and men awoken from their barracks.  General Veers knew all of their preparations were pointless but it kept them busy,  busy enough not to think about what was coming.  To his front was a tree line and beyond that he could see her, a dark silhouette moving closer.  This would be his moment, it was all up to him.

The general was a student of military history, all the best generals were in his opinion.  At this moment he thought of Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox of WWII.  He thought, not of the man when he was a general like himself, instead of Rommel as a lowly captain in WWI.  

Fighting on the Romanian front, Captain Rommel and only two subordinates had been conducting reconnaissance in thick fog.  He found himself surrounded by the enemy and hopelessly outnumbered.  It was at that moment Rommel showed his quality.  He simply demanded the enemy's surrender.  The Romanians, blinded by his bravado and authority, obeyed.  Rommel and two men took the surrender of an entire enemy garrison on simple bluff and bluster!

General Veers knew such a trick would be his only hope.  She may be half a mile tall but she was still only a fifteen year old girl.  Besides, the general had foreseen this eventuality and had planned accordingly.  The possibility that she would not give him a chance to speak was very real.  In such an eventuality he would be the first to die.

He had searchlights positioned to illuminate Violet when she approached. One light he had positioned behind himself so she would be able to see him.  Everyone else was evacuated back toward the other end of the runway.

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Violet stopped, she stood at the edge of the base.  Looking down she saw the shadow of a man stretching towards her.  Following it back to its source, she could see General Veers standing at the end of the runway illuminated by a large spotlight.  Suddenly four other lights were directed at her, lighting up her face and body.  

From her perspective he was no more than an ant.  An ant that sent her into a trap.  She lifted her foot and brought it hovering over General Veers.  Her action caused the men manning the spotlights to momentarily waver.  She thought how her little action must be striking fear in them all.  "In them all," she thought, until she looked around her foot at the general.  

Her foot, easily 100ft from toe to heel, hovered a few hundred feet above his head.  General Veers had steeled himself and had not moved a muscle.  He stood as he was before; hands behind his back at an easy parade rest.  He could see this action had the desired effect.  She paused, her face still filled with wrath.  He could see something else as well: she was waiting, he now held the initiative!

Violet was surprised.  She had expected the little general to flee at the thought of being squashed like the bug he was.  He had remained motionless looking up at her. "Such a brave little bug," she thought.  She kept her foot hovering. She would still crush him, she would crush them all.  Looking closer, she couldn't believe what she saw.  He was gesturing for her to come closer!

The movement was slow and deliberate. He had raised his arm and, with only his index finger, he beckoned Violet to come closer.  His gesture was nonchalant, as if he was attempting to get the attention of a waiter at a restaurant to refill his glass of water.  General Veers was also smiling, he had no idea if she could see this or not but it was all part of his bluff.  For the time being it seemed to be working.  Her foot still raised, Violet's face now showed distinct confusion, replacing the earlier fury.

"Come closer, I'd like to talk to you," the general said in a normal tone, he was not going to shout or use any form of amplification.  Violet would do this completely on his terms for it to work.

Violet couldn't quite be certain from her vantage point, the general's mouth looked like it was moving.  "Was he talking to me?"  The odd nature of the last few moments had caused most of her rage to dissipate, now replaced with curiosity.  She put her foot down,  Violet then knelt and leaned forward as low as she could, her enormous hands now on either side of the ant-sized general.

"What are you saying?" Her voice thundered down onto him.  To the General, it was barely a voice at all and only by its cadence and inflection did he guess its meaning.  He continued his gambit.  He spoke normally and again beckoned with that single finger for her to come closer.

She was still angry, but now other voices in her mind could be heard.  Was she really going to destroy this base? How many people?...a thousand?...ten thousand?  And what about James only a few miles away?  Thinking it out she realized there would be no coming back from that decision.  "What are you saying?" she asked the general.  The moment she spoke, she felt foolish.  It was her that couldn't hear him and it was her that had the power to change that.  She began reducing herself.

General Veers smiled.  The danger was far from over, but he now saw his chance.  Violet sat up, still kneeling.  She was still an awe inspiring 200 feet, "More than enough if this was a trick," she had thought.  She could see him much more clearly and she could hear him as well.

"Violet.  I am so glad you are alright!  You will need medical attention immediately!" General Veers' words were not at all what Violet had expected.  

"You tricked me, you tried to kill me!"  the general could see her getting slightly bigger as her anger rose.

"Things are happening much faster than expected.  This required me to move quickly Violet,  We are all in grave danger and you are the key."  He could see her confusion.  "You alone may be our only hope,  What you experienced out there..."  General Veers gestured back towards the bomb range.  "What you experienced was a test of sorts."  He could see her anger once again dissipating.  "Please Violet, you need to see our base doctors immediately!"

Violet remained guarded.  "Why? I am fine.  Like you told me in your car, 'not much more than firecrackers.'"  Her face broke into a smile.  The general could see that she was proud their weapons had been ineffective.

"Good," he thought to himself, "very good."

"Violet..."  General Veers leaned forward and lowered his voice as he had done earlier with her in his car that day.  She likewise leaned forward to listen.  "After that last explosion, was there a metallic taste in your mouth?"  Violet froze.  All thoughts of vengeance, of being tricked, even of being attacked vanished from her mind.  She held her breath and the general continued to speak.  "You have been exposed to radiation from a nuclear bomb and require immediate medical attention.  I will explain everything I promise.  But as I told you, your safety is paramount.  Please!"  General Veers allowed himself some emotion at the end for added effect.  

Nothing he had told her was false.  The device used during phase 3 was very 'clean' in terms of fallout but Violet's proximity still meant exposure.  Her size at the time of the detonation had saved her from a worse fate, the thickness of her skin and tissues had protected her from the deadly ionizing radiation.  Nevertheless, she had been inside the radioactive dust cloud, she was covered in this dust some of which she had taken into her lungs.

General Veers could see fear in her eyes.  This was good, fear meant she was thinking.  "If she is thinking," the general reasoned, "then she is past simply reacting out of anger."  He still held the initiative.  "Violet, the doctors cannot treat you like this.  I will explain everything, please come with me."  He watched as she reduced down to a frightened 15 year old girl, still kneeling and staring at the ground in shock.  The general walked to her and, looking down with sympathy, held out his hand for her to take.  She looked up at him, fear and shock still on her face. She took his hand.

General Veers had proven his quality.

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Violet sat on the edge of the examination table.  Before entering the building, she had been thoroughly scrubbed to remove any residual fallout.  The crackle of the dosimeter as it touched her suit had provided her with the final proof that General Veers spoke truthfully.  An hour before she had been an invincible god, ready to pour her wrath onto the mortal world.  Now she was simply scared.  She had been given iodine tablets to remove any remaining radioactive particles in her system.  The door opened and the general entered the room.  

"Violet, the doctors tell me you will be fine.  Anyone else would already be dead.  Your 'condition' saved you."  He sat down in the chair across from the examination table.  "I had to test you Violet, heaven knows I didn't want to...but we had to know..."

"Know what?" she asked hesitantly.  

"Know if you could handle being attacked by firepower that would normally devastate an army." General Veers smiled weakly and continued. "The world is not a safe place, your parents know this.  They have spent their lives protecting men and women from those who wish to harm them, to control them.  On a larger scale, countries are not that dissimilar to those citizens your parents protect.  There are those who wish not to harm or control hundreds or even thousands, but millions.  These villains, if we can call them such, create problems too big for heroes like your parents to deal with...but not too big for a hero like you..."

Violet was silent.  She never thought of herself as a hero.  She was a nobody, unseen and unnoticed.  That voice, her voice, spoke to her. "You were a nobody, not anymore."

Violet looked at General Veers.  "What do you need me to do?"