Veronica Pauli had striven her whole life to reach the seat she was occupying by now. She was the evening anchorwoman of CNS, the most influential news network in the region. She had had to pass through all the sexism, lack of professionalism and nepotism, but she had made it. She could direct the evening cycle, and she was the first face the city was going to look at before learning about the last developments in whatever from far away conflicts to the last piece at the Central Theater.

That evening was not going to be unforgettable due to the necessity to reiterate the worn out debate on the school districts borders with the politician her network could gather. Apparently someone had blown off a sign delimiting city district and claimed anonymously that the gesture was linked to the new asset proposed. At least there had been the small earthquake swarm; almost every nerd she interviewed agreed it was no big deal, but she still managed to sell it as an important event. When the fourth section of her cycle was over she was going to relax, finally drinking a glass of water after two hours live. But her moment of rest was abruptly interrupted.

A good portion of the unessential crew was looking mesmerized at a screen. “That’s crazy!” Dennis from soundcheck uttered. “Oh God! How is that even …?” This time it was the voice of Prince from accounting. “This can’t be real!” Helena from the make-up concluded. Veronica had learned a pretty extended set of qualities and abilities in her career, but one for sure she never lacked since she was a college sophomore. The ability to recognize a news from people reaction. And, given that the week before the report of a coup d’etat down in the south of the continent had been received with general indifference, whatever was on that screen must’ve been huge.

She fought her way forward until she was right in front of the tv screen. It was News24, a red-haired woman was talking in the microphone. Veronica knew all the professional reporter at News24, but not this one. Either Carl Crouch had hired another of those girls more akin to fulfill his very peculiar desires, or this one must’ve been a freelance. Given that the reporter was young but not that young, she leaned for the second option.

It was ten o’ clock in the evening, but it was both to bold and too unusual for News24 to leave the stage to a freelance reporter just like that. Without skipping a beat she asked everyone around her.
“C’mon, guys! What’s the fuss about? The economy section will be over in fifteen minutes and we will be on air again for the final section of the cycle!” Nobody dared answering.
“Chuck – veronica addressed the only producer on the scene – what’s going on?” He was pale.

Like everyone else he had witnessed the images transmitted a minute before by the screen. They depicted something that every normal brain needed quite a bit to process properly. Two human figures but of immense proportions compared to their surrounding, walking, then in another shot grabbing and swallowing things from the ground, things that very realistically resembled wrecks of cars, trucks, washing machines and so on. And very realistically looked like crumbles and candies in the hands of those things.

Vince Lawn had explained that for what they knew all the images were real, the content had not been manipulated, that really was the city landfill, those were really vehicles and home appliances and those were really two incomprehensibly big people. Veronica was pretty upset by the silence treatment she was receiving and she decided to get in charge of the situation. She opened the cabinet under the screen and found the controls. She raised the volume pretty high and removed her microphone set. The voice of the redhead was swift and calm, but Veronica could detect the excitement the young reporter was hiding.

“… these are the images from the city landfill! As you can see a good portion of the area in which there were garbage piles had been cleared. This is just one of the effect of what we tried to show in the video transmitted moments ago. In the following minutes my crew and I will try something unprecedented. We will communicate with the woman. - All that prologue came as insufferable to Veronica for the verbosity, and affectation of the tone. But deep down even she could recognize the most of her feelings were envy and expectation for what could have shocked all her colleague – The following images may result even more … sensitive than those shown before. I am obliged to warn all our viewers.”

Then the camera shifted, it didn’t change the frame nor the zoom setting, it just shifted to the left and it didn’t capture the redhead anymore but something both pretty common and never observed before. The sudden realization that every viewer could experience of what they were actually looking at affected everyone in seconds. Kate from the catering almost fainted on the second cameraman. Veronica, like almost everyone else, didn’t even notice.

On that screen, there was the most astonishing and terrifying thing everyone of them could think of. A black woman in her early thirties, a little bit chubby in her shape, with long curly hair, and the unusual feature of being taller than any skyscraper in the city even if just sitting on the ground. In the background it could still be heard the voice of the reporter explaining the difference in size and describing the first appearance of what for Veronica counted as the biggest scoop ever in the history of the city, and worst of all in the history of her career. And then the camera got back again to the redhead which was now in the middle of a dramatic pause and then she spoke.

“Sorry … ma’am, can you hear me?” In that moment, whatever emotion or thought anyone in front of the screen was having was bulldozed by the next novelty.
The gigantic woman answered. “Yes, I do!”
That was it. That was too much for many. Kate from the catering, on her behalf, fainted for good. Chuck could hardly retain his gag reflex due to the stress he was accumulating. Veronica was holding the sides of the screen in her hands like she feared she may fall into some deep abyss of her imagining if she’d let go.
“My name is Missy Portnoy and I am taking this interview for News24. Can I ask for your name?”
“Of course, you can. Sweetie. I am Selena.” Something completely unexpected was the apparent calm and sense of control the giantess expressed. Every eye was glued to the screen, every ear was up in the air waiting for the next exchange between this unknown reporter and this flesh and blood deity. Every eye and ear, except those of Veronica, which was marching straight to the production room. She was not going to miss that story. She was Veronica Pauli and she had not done all she had done to arrive second behind a red-haired no one. Meanwhile, the interview went on.

“I am sorry to be so direct, miss Selena, but I need to ask you what everyone at home is wondering by now. Why are you this big?” Missy and Selena didn’t settle, before the interview, for specific questions, but more or less, Selena knew that something like that would have come out sooner or later.
“Well, it’s … difficult. First of all, it was not in consequence of any action of mine. Until this afternoon, I was a common woman, like you. I was a biologist. And then … well. I was born in the city, but I’ve not lived here for a while now. I was coming today for a visit – Selena stopped. She didn’t want to mention her sister and aunt Betty. Who knows what could the people of the city do. She hoped they were following her instruction, but she couldn’t risk they had stayed home where they could be recognized and harassed. - ... I came to visit my old hometown, and I was at the last gas station in the planes. I was going to fill my car and get something to drink when … well, when the giants arrived.”

Missy gulped down, this was a pretty difficult information of process.
“I am sorry, miss Selena. Are you saying there are other … giant people around?” Selena didn’t know that nobody in the city knew yet of the giants that had wreaked havoc on the gas station. She thought the news was already widespread. Still, she managed to recompose herself and go on.
“Yes, I can confirm that. At least two of them.” She looked at Todd, which was sitting in a darker spot some hundreds feet away from her. He was holding three fingers up in the air.“At least for what I’ve seen” she decided not to correct herself.

The news of other giants was a further shock for everyone. For the people looking at the television, of course. But also for Missy and her crew. If there were other giants around, they may have been the object of other news coverage. On the other had, she got no news, nobody at the networks believed her until she sent the first tapes of Selena and Todd, so maybe this was still the first time the larger public came into contact with the giants. Missy had anyway just the duration of the technological delay between her position and Eric’s one in Selena’s ear to think about all these. She adopted a show must go on strategy.

“So, what happened then? What everyone is wondering now is, if you were not … born this way, how did you find yourself in this … condition?”
Selena knew this question was coming, and the last thing she wanted to do was to tell the truth about it. She also knew from the fact she was a kind of rebellious teenager, that lies call for further explanations which call for further lies to the point of contradicting oneself and getting caught.
“I don’t know!” she answered calmly “There was a lot of commotion when the giants arrived and I suffered a loss of consciousness due to an impact with some debris. When I woke up again, I believe at least one hour later, I was this big, and …” she thought she had been pretty convincing, but then she remembered. “Oh, and Todd here was as big as me.”

The camera set on the other titan, which waved in embarrassment. Todd was instructed before in not speaking if not necessary because the instruments were set on Selena’s voice and relative position. So he could just smile trying to be as reassuring as he tried to be to the customers at the gas station when he was a security guard. The thought that, for the sheer fact of his current size, his experience as a security guard was over hit him. He thought of his colleagues. He thought what kind of job could he perform now. He brushed all these thought from his head at least for now. His main intent was still to help Selena in the purpose. Meanwhile he heard Selena briefly presenting him, being as shy as he was this made him get red, but still he was extremely grateful Selena was doing it. He was as high as a mountain but he was absolutely sure he could never grasp enough courage to speak in such a direct interview. He was also conscious that not everything Selena had said was true, but he decided to trust her. And apart from that, there was more than one detail which he thought was not suited for the news networks, or any other networks her mother would have allowed him to watch. Todd’s train of thoughts was interrupted by Selena answering yet another question he could not hear. Not having a personal Eric in his ear, he could just guess the content of the journalist’s questions by Selena’s answers.

“Yes, it was shocking at first. But … I think, after some hours I got increasingly comfortable with it. Or, at least, it became easier and easier to move, understand were I am and how to deal with this whole new world.”
Another pause followed. Selena’s next answer confirmed to Todd that they had reached the question hoovering over everyone’s mind in the city and possibly the whole region.
“I can’t confirm that” A dramatic pause followed.
“But, of course, I did my best to avoid any further damage to things or people … well, at least until we arrived here at the landfill.” Question.
“Well … apparently, this peculiar condition of mine, came with some collateral perks. It seems that I, and my partner, can consume all kind of materials regardless of their composition. I can’t confirm the effects on the long term, for now. But, at the current moment, it was meant to fill our bellies … and it looks like it worked just fine.”

Selena smiled. Her intention was to reassure everyone that they could satisfy their physiological needs without bothering human food resources. And still, the terms “all kind of materials” pronounced by a walking mountain retained a sort of sinister allure. Missy was impressed as well, she had witnessed with her bare eyes the power of the giants’ maw in action. And still, that last sentence sounded like a superhero revealing another superpower. Her next question was the one question was the one every authority watching the news was waiting for.

“What are your current intentions, miss Selena? I mean, what are you going to do now that you reached the city?” Missy gulped.
The titaness had been extremely kind and welcoming, she accepted to concede an interview, waited patiently for the technicalities to be set up and now was answering calmly and gently to every question with the charm of an ongoing guest in some morning show. And still, Missy could feel a sort of hidden tension in the giantess’ answers. Like she was limiting her speech not just to meet the precarious condition of the technology, but also to hide something. What if the giantess had malevolent intentions and she was using her and her crew to announce her evil plan live. She could switch from intrepid reporter to evil monster’s megaphone in a whiff. And Selena had a plan, which, at least in her mind, was far from evil and in no way dangerous for the city inhabitants. A plan she was still absolutely unintentioned at communicating in that interview or any other intercation with anyone, ever.

“I think … we are not leaving …” Selena took her time to better define her next words. She wanted to explain why they would stick around for some time after the interview. But she didn’t want anyone to poke around and possibly witness how giants are born. “… for the night. We will spend the evening on the outskirt of the city. We won’t try to get any closer than this, though. Because, given the current difference in … scale, it would become more and more difficult to avoid damages.”
Another short pause.
“For this reason, I’d ask to all the viewers … to all our fellow citizens, not to venture in the national reserve, where we will remain. It is dark to us as it is to you. And, unfortunately, we lack proper lighting gears.”
Selena added a small smirk to this last consideration. “We will do our best, but we can’t promise absolute safety in our vicinity.”
Another short pause followed.
But then Selena thought it may have been better to be safe than sorry and use her serious tone. Thus, just before Missy could speak again she expressed one final remark.
“The same goes for the news. Todd and I are very happy to concede this interview so that people in the city can understand the current situation without unnecessary worries. We would kindly ask to respect our privacy, at least for tonight. We won’t concede other interviews, nor get in contact with other news teams. I’ll repeat one last time. Don’t come too close, for your safety!” She decided to remain vague in order to let the imagination run.

Hopefully this would have functioned both as a warning to anyone looking for further scoops, and to the authorities to know they were no threat for those in the city, and those in the city only. To the people on the ground and most of the people in the city, the message seemed clear. It was impossible to trust the giantess only on her word, but still it seemed kind of reasonable to avoid a nighttime exploration of the zones right under the titan’s soles.

“Don’t you plan on getting in contact with authorities?” Missy asked as a closure on this point.
“Starting from tomorrow, I, and my partner, will address the situation with whomever will be available in helping us better understand the whole thing. But only starting from tomorrow. For tonight, we will just enjoy the landscape and this starry night. And for as difficult as it may seem, I’ll ask one last time everyone to respect our will and our privacy.” Selena tried to express as much authority as she could both with her tone and her posture. And given that her posture allowed her to tower over skyscrapers even sitting, it worked pretty well.
“I want to ask you one last question. You talked about other giants. Do you know, or knew them? And could you tell us where they may be now?”
Selena thought about the couple of colossi that destroyed her previous life, and gave her a new one. Did they do it on purpose or was it just an unintended consequence of their lust and disinterest for human life? Who were they? Where had they gone? It was still a little worrying to think about these giants on the loose, who knows where. The only reassuring feeling was that they were not a threat anymore to her or to Todd. And soon, also Cass and aunt Bettie would have been out of peril. If anything, this was another reason to hurry up, find them and proceed to the growing.
“I am sorry. I had never met those people before. As I said, I fainted almost immediately and when I woke up they were gone. Todd has the same experience. I think, though, they will be easy to spot around.” She smiled again. “That said, I’d like to thank you again for this opportunity, and salute you. Todd and I will proceed on our evening. Once again I salute also the viewers. Stay safe, remain within the borders of the city. Good night.”
Selena’s closure was a bit abrupt, but still Alfred managed to switch rapidly from the camera set on the giantess to the smaller one set on Missy’s figure. He signed her to keep going. “And thus, our interview closes here. We had the opportunity to talk with miss Selena, which happens to be the one of the largest persons to ever visit our city … or our planet. I am Missy Portnoy, this is News24. To all the viewers and citizens, good night. Stay safe.”
“aaaaaaaaand stop!” Missy was in tears for the nervous tension. She had made it. This was the interview of the year, probably the decade. And the whole city now knew her name. She was standing frozen, trembling for the emotion overload. Alfred surrounded her slowly with his arms, and she let herself go on his chest. After a good minute silently hugging each other, they let go and looked at each other. They were interrupted by Eric, which was on the ground, with the audio technology at his feet, and was puking. He had felt nausea since his first travel up to Selena’s ear, but he had gulped everything back. But now that he was on the floor he released himself.
Missy run in his aid. In a couple minutes he was over and sat on the ground to finish recovering. Alfred was passing him a bottle of water when the three of them saw the most terrifying sight possible. One of the giantess’ sole was hovering over them. It was massive, they could hardly distinguish the completely flattened shapes of cars, fridge and such not because of the light but because of the immeasurable difference in size. Alfred dropped the bottle, Missy’s mouth was wide open. The immense shape surpassed their position and the foot was planted in the ground just behind the artificial hill. The shockwave was strong but something the trio was used to at this point. Other tremors confirmed the giants were leaving the landfill. Selena had been clear in the will not to be followed by anyone. For what could concern Missy, Alfred and Eric, they had no intention to disobey that request.