Barry's story begins several weeks ago at the beach, where he found a blue spherical gemstone in the sand.

He had lost a close race on the shoreline against Keith, a longtime friend and runner. After the two friends said their goodbyes, Barry grabbed his shoes and shirt and walked up the sandy beach to his car. As he marched upward, he felt something cold press against his bare foot. He looked down and saw a round, shiny blue stone approximately the size of a golf ball peeking halfway out of the sand, amid seashells and pebbles. Curiously, Barry gathered it from the sand and held it up to the sun for further study. When he spun the sparkling object in his hand, his eyes were instantly struck with rays of blinding white light that were so intense that he cried out in pain.

It took over a minute of kneeling down on the ground with his face buried in his hands for Barry to safely reopen his eyes without being overwhelmed by normal sunlight. When Barry’s senses were restored, a switch in his head had flipped on; he had developed a greater awareness of the universe and all within it. His mind expanded with knowledge of space, time, matter, the laws that governed them, and the power to manipulate all three. It was like nothing he ever experienced. However, Barry still had questions as to the nature of the blue gemstone: specifically, how it transmitted such power to him and why it was located on the beach of all places. He knew those questions would not be answered on their own. Therefore, he pocketed the stone and returned home, eager to explore the limits of what he had learned.

Although Barry gained a fantastic power, the stone - which he had set down on his desk for ornamental value - did not impart upon any specific guidance as to how that power should be used or for whose benefit. A lot of the information was abstract, some of it hard to make sense of, but it all related to the practice of transporting cities into containers – that he knew. Barry had the power to transport a city and its population, from any world apparently, directly to his immediate location and scale them down to a size of his choosing. The process would take only minutes. The snag was that where these other worlds originated, whether it be outer space, another dimension, or a parallel universe (if any of that were even possible) was unclear to Barry. It was as though the instructions in his head were missing a step. However, the basic idea of it was as so: Barry could project his mind outward, almost like a probe, until he sensed a concentration of knowledge, memory, emotion, and will: the makings of intelligent life. From whom and where he found a concentration of those things were the parts he could not control. What he did know was that once he sensed them, he could transport a physical piece of their world and “size it down” through sheer force of will. He could select their destination, but never their origin. The idea greatly appealed to Barry. He spent a single night at home pondering the matter, but deep down he already knew what he wanted to do. He was given a rare power that no other human may ever have again; it should be used, he concluded. He needed to explore what he was capable of. Therefore, he would use the power to accomplish what he believed it was designed for: to transport cities. He thought that perhaps using the power would help him to explore the origin of the spherical, blue gemstone and unlock other mysteries.

Within a week, Barry transported five cities into his basement, each from different worlds. All were reduced in size to fit within 12-inch-tall glass gallon jugs that Barry had prepared on shelves in his basement. Each miniature metropolis contained thousands of tiny beings who, compared to Barry who was over 6 ft tall, were barely perceptible specks: tinier even than fleas. The tallest skyscrapers were 10 or 11 inches tall. Each miniature world had its own character and architectural style: one had buildings that were all gold in color, with sharp pointy spires that pierced into the sky like needles. Another had buildings that were all round, like marbles but of all different sizes and colors. In its center was a large baseball sized sphere with advanced looking lights of many colors. Yet another city he brought forth had buildings that were tall, rectangular, and box-like in shape, no different than the buildings one might see in any major American city.

Fascinatingly, each city within its bottle maintained its own atmosphere, including even faint layers of clouds that swirled at the very top of their containers. Barry always left the glass bottles uncapped and even still, the ecosystems tied to each city sustained; they were inherent parts of their worlds. The large glass bottles he selected proved to be the perfect vessels to both contain and observe the collection of cities that he sized down. Through them, Barry could see much. He need only take a magnifying glass to a container's side to appreciate even the mundane comings-and-goings of those within, such as aircraft zipping about, tiny vehicles driving through streets, and even tinier people walking, working, and playing.

Barry's ordinary life seemed to matter less and less as he became increasingly immersed in his newest hobby over the weeks. Although Barry was doing reasonably well for a guy in his early-mid 20's who lived on his own, he had felt a lack of direction sometimes. Slim, tall, and athletic, he was genial, well-liked, and regarded as a good-natured guy with just the perfect touch of machismo -- a gentleman in the eyes of most. Prior to this new discovery, Barry had been only partially satisfied with that persona: he knew he was well-liked and good-looking, but he was still just an ordinary guy at the end of the day, often hungry for purpose.

The power he obtained through the blue sphere changed that: he felt more purpose than he ever had before. Isolated in his basement and surrounded by shelves holding tens of thousands of tiny, intelligent beings who regarded his every move with awe and trepidation, Barry felt larger than life itself, symbolically and physically. On the outside world, he was a trim, lean guy of above average height who spent his free time running in the neighborhood or racing at the beach. That had been great, but in his subterranean domain, Barry was so much more: a lumbering giant who shook the earth with each step, so gargantuan in size that his body cast a shadow upon entire cities. He loomed over thousands like a god.

Barry embraced his role as an omnipotent titan with great enthusiasm. To the five populations he brought forth into their glass containers, he acted as a benevolent god-like figure. He afforded them respect, self-determination, and had even provided them with gifts such as thimbles full of fresh water which he set down using long, metal tweezers through the quarter-sized opening above each city. Knowing that dropping them or even accidentally shaking them could be catastrophic to those within, he took gentle care whenever he adjusted or relocated their bottle. Barry took pride in how his tiny adorants flourished under his influence, so much so that he would sometimes simply sit and stare at them closely through the glass, watching their comings and goings with fascination. Soon even they became used to their colossal caretaker. Although at first they would flee or tremble in terror at the distant crushing *THOOMs* that could be heard and felt whenever the giant's heavy footsteps approached, the tiny beings quickly began to regard Barry's unmistakable arrival and goings-on as routine. Even with his vast form, seen from the waist up, overtaking the sky, many had adapted to going on with their business like he was not there. And so, things went that way for several weeks until Barry became restless and eager to use his power again. Not only were his five cities doing well, but they were also self-sufficient. For Barry, the usual routine grew monotonous and he wished to explore what else he was capable of. He decided he would start by expanding his collection.

*****

Barry entered the back door of his house, out of breath. He had just run 6 miles, something he had done most days for years. "Home at last!" he said as he exhaled. Breathing heavily, he ran his hand across his perspiring brow and looked down at his feet, then sighed. Slightly muddy on the sides and heavily grass-stained from running through a few wet fields, he wiped the bottoms of his damp running shoes against the floormat and then squeaked across the kitchen floor. There had been light rain; he pulled off his shirt, damp from both perspiration and the weather, and tossed it into the laundry basket. His shorts were mostly dry, however. Deciding he would take a second shower later, he thundered downstairs to the basement bare-chested, wearing just his shorts and sneakers.

Safely within the quiet of his basement, Barry got to work. Like each occasion before, he placed the glass container on a clear space on the floor and stood far back against the wall. He brushed the perspiration from his forehead one more time, still cooling off from his early morning run. When he felt as relaxed as possible, Barry closed his eyes and used the power of his mind to bring forth another city from the beyond. Although he had never made a mistake in sizing down a city to fit precisely within its container, the process did require space to work with as he manipulated its slowly materializing form. While a city that was slightly too small provided them space for construction, transporting a city that exceeded the container’s circumference by any amount would be very problematic. If he were not careful, Barry risked causing many of the city's miniature buildings, along with any number of inhabitants to materialize outside the glass and right on his basement floor uncontained, where he was all too likely to accidentally step on them.

Fortunately, this transport went as smoothly as it had last time. The faint image of a city formed in the glass. It only took a couple minutes for Barry to adjust its size - expanding it a little, shrinking it a little, until the city's edges and its tallest structures were safely contained within the glass structure. Through his power, thoughts gave way to reality. When he was satisfied with his manipulation of its dimensions, Barry willed the city into physical form.

From a distance, everything looked good. Barry smiled. Eager to make sure the sizing-down process was successful, he proceeded toward the center of the room excitedly, his wet sneakers still squeaking along the way, and planted his feet just short of the city itself. Standing high above the glass structure in between his feet, Barry leaned forward and searched the floor on all sides of the bottle for any tiny, displaced structures. Instead of any structures, he saw only a small black spider crawling slowly in front of his foot, oblivious to the danger it was in. Barry casually moved his toe forward, followed its movement for a second, then quietly stepped on it. *crunch* After pressing it under his sneaker, he lifted his foot. All that remained of the spider was a gooey tangle of limbs compacted deep into the crisscrossing grooves of his sneaker tread. Satisfied, Barry brought his foot back down and crouched to the floor. He gently wrapped his hands around the glass, picked up the bottled city, and brought it in front of his face. Another successful transport! Taking care to keep the city level, he stood up to his full height. He held the glass close to his bare chest as he walked it across the room and placed it on its intended shelf, down by his waist.

Barry crouched to his knees in order to look through the glass one more time and smiled triumphantly at the new addition to his collection. "See you little guys later!" he said cheerfully. He looked around at his other cities, then stood up. As he spun around, Barry felt his elbow carelessly bump into his new glass city, pushing it back several inches. "Oops!" Fortunately, Barry's quick reflexes kicked in, and he steadied the bottle with his massive hands. Everything looked intact, but through the glass wall he faintly heard thousands of distant screams below. "Uh...sorry," he said to the panicked populace. Thinking it best he let these guys settle in, Barry decided he would check back on them in a couple hours or so after he got some work done around the house.

*****

On an early Saturday morning in a quiet suburban neighborhood, a high school senior, having celebrated his 18th birthday the night before, slept soundly in his bed.

*Thoom*

Cole woke up from his sleep, turned over in his bed, and looked at his clock: he had no school and had wanted to sleep in, so why was he awake? Cole scratched his eyes, and then his bed shook up and down lightly as he heard a sound like thunder cracking in the distance.

*Thoom*

Cole immediately sat up in his bed: "What the...?" He looked around his room.

*THOOM*

The entire room shook this time with a louder thunderclap, and Cole sprang up out of bed and went for the door. "What the hell is--” *THOOM*

Seeing no one else, Cole ran for the stairs, but another crushing *THOOM* caused him to stagger in the hallway and a picture of his family to fall off its hook. He ran down the stairs as another quaking *THOOM* exploded, and he heard a dish break in the kitchen. He made it out the front door safely and saw his parents on the porch. "What's going on?! Is there an attack?!" The two adults said nothing. Their eyes and mouths were wide open, staring up and into the distance in confused fear. *THOOM* Cole looked up, barely maintaining his balance. Most of the sky was obscured; it was a broad expanse of blurry yellow lights, high above in the distance. On the horizon were distant brown objects and grey shadows. The entire sky was distorted in all directions by an unnatural, transparent wall that surrounded them. Cole looked down the street and saw all the neighbors pouring out of their houses. Suddenly, a massive white thing flew out of the dark sky with terrifying speed and violently landed in front of the town, just outside the transparent wall.

*THOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

A near-deafening sound of earth cracking, crushing, and shaking overwhelmed Cole’s sense of hearing as the entire street shook up and down violently from the alien impact. Cole fell backward. He was about to push himself up but then he saw a second huge, alien-like object fly at him from the darkness like a meteor. He clenched his teeth and covered his ears as it landed on the other side of town.

*THOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM* After the second quaking impact, Cole opened his eyes and carefully stood up. Then, his jaw dropped wide open. Beyond the artificial wall were two long, white alien objects, identical in size and appearance. They spanned the length of a countryside, both taller than mountains and extending past Cole's neighborhood on either side. Cole's heart almost stopped when he realized what they were: they were two titanic sneakers, containing two titanic feet to match. They were larger than anything he had seen in his life.

Cole could hardly believe his eyes: they were men's running shoes, made in a size that should not even exist. Yet there they loomed, containing the feet of a giant. The synthetic monstrosities were mostly white, silver and blue in color, but they were faded and worn. Various components of porous mesh and spongy white fabric housed the owner’s feet, glued at the bottom to a layer of thick, white blown rubber that extended from heel to toe. The sides of his scuffed rubber soles looked recently wet, Cole observed, with numerous thick grass stains and streaks of mud. The rubber material was rife with divets and other imperfections from frictional wear and tear. Cole could even appreciate details such as the long creases in the foam siding of the heel, collecting dirt as they slowly collapsed under the weight of its massive owner over time.

"My god...he's gigantic." Cole was both horrified and in awe by the enormity of this being. Just one of the gargantuan running shoes could have smothered Cole's neighborhood and countless others beneath it. Suddenly Cole heard a loud, sticky, squelching sound as one of the dirtied rubber soles peeled off the ground, like a wet sneaker in a school hallway. The massive, damp running shoe lifted into the air and slowly advanced forward like a flying aircraft carrier along the side of the glass wall, revealing underneath a vast, dark surface of maze-like, mud-impacted treads. The big shoe hovered forward slowly and precisely like a giant spaceship, as though it were locked on to a moving target that its owner intended to crush beneath it. Sure enough, the giant sneaker came to a near complete halt, then began its steady descent upon its unfortunate target. *THOOM*

Although the ground still shook, the giant's footstep was not nearly as loud as his earlier steps. Cole sighed in relief. For the few seconds, the titanic sneaker stayed there, groaning and squeaking under the owner's shifting weight. Above his white, low-cut sock that was only barely visible above the side of the shoe’s opening, Cole could see the giant's bare-skinned ankle and then his calf stretching ever higher, dotted with distinctly masculine hair. This was an adult male, Cole realized. "Jesus," he said aloud, "how is he so big?" The giant lifted his massive sneaker once more into the air, causing another squelching sound as it separated from the floor. The giant then tilted the sneaker to its side as though he were glancing at the bottom. Just under the toe area of the treads, amid mud-filled crevices and torn up grass blades, Cole saw a mass of ugly, black limbs and yellow goo pressed into the grooved tread design. "Ew..."; Cole would not have wanted to be whatever that was, he thought. After a couple seconds, the foot came back down. *THOOM*

By this point, no one seemed to know what was going on. Everyone was out of their houses and in the streets, confused, frightened, and fixated on the giant's every move just like Cole had been. Just when Cole was about to meet up with his parents, he heard: *SQUELCHHH* The same sticky, squelching sound rang out again as both giant’s sneaker soles peeled off the ground partially, at the heels, then stopped as the owner bent his knees and crouched down.

The world was shaken once again when the sky was suddenly engulfed by large pink hands on both sides. Long massive fingers and palms pressed tightly against the glass walls. The hands were so massive in scale that Cole could see the grooved indentations of giant fingertips pressing against the glass. Cole lost his balance again and his stomach sank as though he were going up in an elevator. A second later, he saw beyond the glass the huge visage of an adult male, older than himself and maybe in his mid-20s. Cole gasped: He looked like any guy he would have seen on the street. He was bare-chested and had a big beaming smile on his face. Cole had a bad feeling about this. Suddenly, the giant lowered them to his lean, well-muscled chest, where they rocked up and down to the sound of the giant's thundering footsteps below. He was carrying their entire city in his hands, Cole realized. The ground shook again as the giant lowered them and placed them on some surface down at his waist, where Cole could see the top of a pair of mesh shorts with two elastic drawstrings.

The giant crouched down once more, smiling excitedly at them through the glass. Cole wondered how well he could even see anybody at his scale. Suddenly, a mighty voiced boomed: "See you little guys later!” The sound was deafening, and everyone on the street covered their ears as the thundering voice echoed through their glass enclosure. Then, without any warning, the back of a huge, fleshy arm rammed into the glass, and everyone on the street was flung back several feet as the earth shifted violently beneath them. Cole lay on his side curled up in pain; he had been thrown into a parked car, his shoulder scraped and bleeding. Gritting his teeth in pain, he saw several other people laying on the ground, injured as well. Sound filled the chamber again: "Uh... sorry." Cole's body hurt too much to cover his ears. He lay there, groaning. *THOOM* *THOOM* *THOOM* *Thoom* *Thoom* *thoom* *thoom* The giant had marched off, the ground shaking gently with each mighty step, until the noise faded into the distance. Cole knew his relief was going to be temporary. Life was never going to be the same.