There was quiet for a moment. Silence for a sweet single second after the dust had settled. But the brief respite, the last calm before the storm, had to pass, and the world below sprang to life amidst the chaos and confusion. Far away, or rather, far below, Melissa could hear it. Sirens of emergency response vehicles piercing the air, their shrill wails signalling a hopeless response to her terrible, unfortunate arrival.
The plan had accounted for this. Even with the square cube law sorted, there was simply no way to grow a person large enough to observe the entire earth without causing massive, irreversible damage to the planet. And if she were able to completely grow without touching the ground, her exhalations and breath would wreak inexplicable havoc on the world’s weather patterns. Her latent body heat would cause untold damage to the world’s polar caps. Her mere gravity alone would rend the planet apart. While these geological “concepts” didn’t exactly fall in line with her narrative for the flat earth, Melissa wanted to be considerate, to prove her point without causing any harm. Thus, the phase trick was conceived.
With a simple button press on the node controller, Dr. Melissa Thorne could render herself “out of phase” with our reality. She would become untouchable, intangible, a ghost by all accounts, able to observe the world without coming into potentially ruinous contact with it. The plan had always been for her to complete her experiment by growing entirely out of phase, a failsafe to ensure a catastrophe like this never happened at all.
But it was too late.
Melissa stared at the absolute devastation under her legs, the bright orange shade of her tight-fitting yoga pants contrasting with the drabness of the grey and black rubble and ruin below her knees. Her apartment was gone, the entire building, the entire street, the entire postal code had been swept to dust beneath her impossible 3021ft size. All it took was one mistake, one fumbling of the controlling remote, for Melissa wreak unfathomable havoc so suddenly that she hardly had time to process what had even transpired. Down below, chaos enveloped the areas immediately bordering the site of her abrupt arrival. Smoke and dust poured into streets as debris rained down upon the light evening traffic and startled pedestrians. Most of the downtown infrastructure was ruined instantly upon Melissa’s terrifyingly quick occupation of the space. Roads buckled and split as skyscrapers rocked free from their very foundations, the earth-shattering force from the ambitious doctor’s growth causing untold devastation to the surrounding area far beyond the space she physically claimed. She was too large. Simply too big to move without causing further damage.
Several blocks away from the epicentre of the disaster, a large black, rectangular object lay strewn across a busy 6-lane street. It's glossy plastic shell caught flits of light as it blocked traffic, indiscriminately trapping scores of vehicles as they sought to flee the strange disaster happening behind them. While undefinable and foreboding to the tiny people it dwarfed, the strange monolithic object was actually far more integral to their plight then they could ever possibly deduce. It was the controlling remote, the device that allowed Dr. Melissa Thorne to control her size at will, designed to grow with the person using it. The soft rubber buttons on it's control surface jutted skyward, the mind-bendingly large device sitting motionless on the street as it's operator scanned for it from above. Unmoving, Melissa peered down over the rooftops of the downtown core, eyes wide as she carefully searched for her controller, the one thing that would get her out of this mess.
“Where the fuck did it go?” The massive woman asked aloud. Although she spoke softly, not meaning for her question to be heard by anyone but herself, her powerful voice carried deeply, rippling off the world below and reverberating in the confused chests of people in the surrounding area, unsure of what exactly their ears were experiencing. She leaned forward, trying to extend the range with which she could see, but to no avail. The massive remote had fallen just behind a line of buildings, obscuring itself from the spirited scientist's view. She muttered another quiet curse to herself and exhaled a sharp sigh, accepting the truth of her situation. There was just no way to find the remote from her current position, meaning that in order to fix things, Melissa would have to move. It was simply unavoidable, she would have cause more damage if she'd have any chance at taking control of the situation.
Down at street level, people were doing their best to evacuate the immediate area, an admirable effort by all accounts considering the sudden arrival of a gigantic woman was the last thing anyone would have included in their disaster-planning checklist. The lingering dust and smoke had made it impossible to see, leaving most to amble in a direction they thought may lead to safety. Nobody within the downtown core could see Melissa in her entirety anyway, but it was clear that something large, possibly living, had set itself down atop their city. The damaged roads made cars all but useless, prompting most of the confused population to flee on foot while a brave few tried in vain to maneuver their vehicles over the ruined terrain. Amidst the panic, people stopped for nothing. Not for the arriving police trying to instill some sense of order, not for the sake of others that fell to the mercy of the stampeding crowds. Nothing.
Until.
“Hello? Can anyone hear me?”
Her voice rang through the world, loud and all-encompassing, it's tone somewhat shaken as it got the attention of the people below. Many continued to run for their lives, but slowly, people came to a stop and turned toward the direction the sound came from with intrigue.
“I hope.. I hope I can still speak at a frequency your ears can interpret.” This voice, feminine and powerful, continued. As these words echoed throughout the city, more and more people took notice, standing at attention as this strange, disembodied voice washed over them from all sides. While the circumstances of the situation were still unknown to everybody present, it became clear to a clever few that this booming presence must have belonged to the strange figure at the epicentre of the damage So, they stopped, and listened.
“Um. I don't really know where to start. I guess with my name?” The powerful voice asked, Unsure of what to say.
“My name is Dr. Melissa Thorne, I'm a scientist and, uh, an experiment has not gone according to plan.”
Murmurs and concerned whispers began to fill the air as the people of the city, reasonably confused turned to one another to try and understand what they were being told. A scientist? An experiment? Sure, that was easy enough to grasp, but crucial details were lacking and the frightened populace grew uneasy the more they heard.
“You see, I had developed a piece of technology to help me prove that the earth is actually flat, but I accidentally dropped the remote in my apartment and...” Melissa trailed off, remembering why she addressed the people in the first place.
“Look, that stuff's not important. What is important is for me to get that remote back so I can fix this.”
As her words hung in the air, more and more of the dust and smoke settled around her, allowing a perceptive few to finally see the strange shapes rising into the evening sky for what they were. In place of the high-rises and skyscrapers that used to populate the area, colourful, unnatural shapes shot upward, dwarfing everything else around them. As the view became clearer, more details fell into place. Through the screen of dust, text seemed to appear along the ominous object's side, massive letters in bold white print that read “ATHLETICA”, following the curve of the strange shape. It was in this moment that, for some, the situation clicked. One such man, closer to the source of the strange voice than he'd have liked, noticed the vivid lettering along the towering, bright-orange unidentified object. It was a brand, Athletica, a sportswear and athleisure company that specialized in women's designs and clothing. These were the legs of the very scientist that was booming down at him and the rest of the insignificant world he lived in.
“Anyway.” Melissa's voice boomed overhead.
“I know you're not going to like this, but I need to find that remote, which means I'm going to have to move a little bit.”
Without any further warning, Melissa began to stir. The ground shook at the slightest movement she made, knocking the helpless man off his feet. He felt his entire world spasm, violently quaking as glass shattered and buildings crumbled against in the soft darkness of the waxing night. He tried to find solid footing but struggled, his legs like jello on top of a paint mixer, unable to keep him on his feet. High above, Dr. Melissa Thorne was moving, leaning forward, her arms outstretched in search of somewhere to be set down while causing as little damage as possible. It was an admirable effort, but the infrastructure of the city proved less than accommodating to the colossal doctor's plans. Her enourmous hands, 171ft wide in just the palms alone, slammed into the soft earth with a tremendous crash, redistributing some of the 8,114,199 tonnes and 1699 pounds of Melissa's crushing weight off of her modestly shapely legs that threatened to demolish everything their curves touched. Her hands sank deeply into the softness of the urban terrain, the oddly pleasant sensation of tearing through asphalt and steel as easily as cardboard catching Dr. Thorne by surprise. If only for a second, a mischievous smirk pulled itself across her vibrant features, perhaps so quickly that even she didn't notice. But the man below, however, did.
For a second as he collapsed to the quaking ground, his eyes travelled straight up, and he finally saw her the rest of her, the one who had caused all this commotion. To his surprise, she was prettier than he expected, almost frustratingly so. Perhaps he had expected the face of his destroyer to be more fearsome, more frightening. Instead, it was just a girl, a young woman with dark auburn hair and a pretty face. She had a baggy light-grey hoodie on, completing the casual ensemble she was clad in, as though she had just finished jogging before this all happened. For a half second, the man's latent panic subsided as he pondered her attire. It must truly have been an accident like the doctor said, he thought, if she'd have meant for this to happen on purpose, she probably would've decided to dress more seriously. If he could have chuckled to himself, he would, but the unending vibration rocking the ground beneath him became disorienting to the point of fatigue, and the man found himself unable to stand, unable to do anything but stare up at the godlike figure above him. And it was as he looked on in delirious stupor that he saw it, the devious grin that stretched along the doctor's glossy lips as she pressed her hands into the ground. Perhaps it was a relativistic thing. For Dr. Melissa Thorne, the subconscious smirk lasted less than half of a second before her serious demeanour reclaimed itself and she continued her grim mission to find her remote. But to the man, the smirk seemed to last for ages, it's sly curve belying a maliciousness he couldn't quantify, something sinister on a level the world had never seen.
Resting her hands in front of her, the young scientist leaned forward carefully as she lifted her massive body upward and outward in search of her prize. Her gigantic frame eased slowly as she peered over row after row of downtown businesses and looked around the winding corridors of the high-rises left untouched by her ascension. Below her, more and more people saw the visage of the young doctor loom large overhead, resuming the panic that Melissa had attempted to dissuade with her warnings. But it would not matter for much longer. As she pulled herself further forward, the glossy sheen of her prize glistened against the faint neon and lights of the undisturbed city ahead.
“Aha!” Melissa boisterously announced, carelessly unaware of how loud her voice boomed.
“Sit tight, everybody. We’re almost out of this mess.”
Carefully, Dr. Thorne reached for the remote, her fingers, almost 200ft long, outstretched delicately as she contemplated how to retrieve the device with minimal collateral damage. With caution, Melissa scooped her pinky through a narrow side-street, hoping to hook the remote and gently prop it up with enough dexterity to allow her to lift it off the ground with rest of her hand. The gigantic digit made contact with the remote, nudging it slightly, pushing the massive plastic shape into the rows of traffic it had blocked.
“Oops. Shit.” Melissa hissed, watching her mistake plough into the lines of tiny cars, the shine of their headlights disappearing as the remote crashed violently through the street, the slightest accident yielding grave consequences. The young scientist sat still for a moment, staring at the unfortunate chain reaction with silent and solemn contemplation. Perhaps the delicate approach was not what was needed, Melissa thought. Perhaps the solution was to be deliberate and quick, to minimize the damage by grabbing the remote as swiftly as possibly, akin to removing a bandaid in one sharp pull. She considered this for a moment, reaching again for the remote as she prepared herself to exact her more direct plan of action, but paused. Her conscience getting the better of her for a moment, Melissa opted again to go for the gentle approach, this time successfully plucking the remote safely off the ground with a sigh of relief.
“Ok, everybody. I have things under control.” Dr. Thorne said, her voice echoing across the basin of the downtown area. Indeed, with the remote in hand, Melissa had everything necessary to reverse her mistake, but as she stared vacantly at the black rectangle in her hand, she found herself hesitating, an uncertain thumb hovering over the controls. Far below, the sound of sirens once again filled her ears. They never really went away, Melissa realized, their shrill song constantly piercing the night air amidst the rest of the noise down on the streets, reminding her of a fact she hadn’t considered.
Even with the remote, the ability to shrink back down in hand, the damage was done. Buildings were levelled, lives were likely lost. There was no way any legal authority was going to let her walk away from this, no matter how noble she believed her crusade to be. Historically, society was never on the young doctor’s side in her pursuit to expose the truth of the flat earth to the masses. From the naysayers online to her colleagues at STS, people outside the flat-earth ideological community were quick to judge, and quicker to justify their unfair vitriol against Melissa and her likeminded brethren’s beliefs as “fact”. If she were to return to her normal size and try to explain this mess away, It was doubtful that anybody was going to be sympathetic to her or her cause when the dust cleared and the scope of the damage became truly evident. It wasn't fair, she thought. The evening's events were an accident, it wasn't her fault the remote misfired when she dropped it! All the sullen girl wanted was to prove the flatness of the earth in peace. It was too late for that now, her dreams of becoming the most revered scientific mind of her generation were fading quickly with each passing second as she looked at the punished landscape behind her.
Clenching the remote tightly in her hand, Melissa looked on for a few quiet moments more, before rising to her feet, suddenly and without warning. In a matter of seconds, she stood upright, to her full height of 3021ft, dominating the modest metropolitan skyline with her massive stature. The people of the world below watched with enraptured curiosity, waiting expectantly for the giant scientist's promise of reversing the effects of her experiment to be fulfilled. Looking past the device in her grasp, Melissa saw the flashing lights, blues and reds, of the fire trucks and police cars that pulled up as close to her socked feet as the ruined roads would allow. How pitiful they all looked down there, next to her dirtied soles, mindless drones there to enforce the spherical lies of their shadowy masters. They'd likely just shoot as soon as she shrank back down, willing to silence her right then and there to preserve the lie they'd sworn to uphold. There would be no negotiating with these indoctrinated brutes.
Looking up at the dizzying academic, the sharper-eyed people below were able to see the shift. The distant look on the face of Dr. Melissa Thorne changed, now adorned with a scowl the likes of which no human had ever seen. Her blood was boiling as, high above the city, Melissa thought to herself more and more about how persecuted she was for chasing her beliefs, how wrong the people beneath her feet were. Philistines, ignorant fools clinging to archaic lies. In truth, the emergency responders below were simply trying to do their job, to take control of the situation and keep people from harm, not that the titanic scientist cared. To her, they were ideological enemies, the whole city was rotten with sheep unworthy of reeducation. She would prove her point in time, but for now, the young giantess was going to assert herself in a way only she could. Her expression changed again, the scowl shifting to a smug grin, one of self importance and unquestionable malice. Without a word, Melissa lifted her left foot off the ground, raising it higher and higher, her vibrant orange Athletica yoga pants stretching along the crook of her leg. The world below merely watched in horror, such a gesture leaving little room for ambiguity as the massive foot of Dr. Melissa Thorne hung a thousand feet up in the air. And then the inevitable happened.
With unimaginable force, the towering doctor slammed her foot into the collection of firetrucks and ambulances and police cruisers that had assembled before her, sending ruinous ripples throughout the soft earth below. She ground her sock-clad heel against the impact site, giggling with sickly-sweet innocence before taking another step forward. Remote in hand, the super-sized scientist strode off towards the untouched parts of the downtown area.
It was time to introduce the world to Dr. Melissa Thorne.