After we parted with Mimi’s parents, it took us just a couple minutes to reach the border of our hometown. And finally, there it was. A diorama in scale of our previous life. I could easily distinguish many landmarks. The school of course with the sports area behind it. I could see there were people in the various fields probably involved in the summer sport projects. And then one of the main routes where many important stores stood in line.

The imposing volume of the Palace of Justice were my mom had spent a good portion of the last seven years looking for justice with all the other relatives of the victims which died like my father due to the poisoning of the material his factory made them work with unprotected and unaware. The whole structure was no bigger than a box of shoes compared to us, and yet it dominated the landscape. Taller but smaller was the town hall, not far on the left.

Closer to our position there was the only really big structure in the whole place. The shopping mall with the movie theater attached. It was a little outside the urban space and surrounded by its own parking space and some fields. Its distinctive doughnut shape could be clearly distinguished from above. It was supposed to be a round structure with bulky sides and a large circular square in the middle. Right at the center there were fountains sprinkles coming directly from the ground. They turned them on only in the summer and in fact they were working at full power right not. They were supposed to perform ten meters streams. I could barely distinguish them thanks to the shadow they projected on the ground. The whole thing had a discrete diameter of seven or eight hundred feet, less than half Mimi’s height. And it wasn’t taller than one hundred feet in its highest point.

Our arrival had probably been already announced by the aforementioned earthquakes. Those outside the mall, in the parking lot and the surrounding area may have seen us approaching for a while now and had more time to react. Even if there were still plenty of people and a distinguishable mayhem among the lines of parked vehicles when we stepped in (but mostly on) the parking lot.

I had grown accustomed enough to the general rule of not paying attention about whatever was flattened under my feet. At this point it would have felt strange if I didn’t felt something being annihilated under my soles. And yet, I could not spare at least a thought about the fact that there was the not remote possibility that, for the first time, I may be stepping on someone I knew. The mailman, the old lady at the office supply store near the school, the driver of the garbage truck that always took the time to salute and cheer whomever he encountered on his track. This one time, among the red spots left on the ground in my footprint, could be a person I saluted just a week before or so. I didn’t even want to consider the possibility it could be one of my teachers or schoolmates.

Anyway, at least these people could watch us get closer and closer from afar and try to flee. But for those in the shopping mall enclosed square it must have been a different kind of shock to finally see up above the edge of the building these two unfathomable standing figures getting taller and taller in perspective and finally stop to look down at them as if they were the proper inhabitant of an ants' terrarium. Some fell to their knees or tripped while running, some managed to escape inside the building, many remained still looking up at their impending destiny.

We were just standing there since a minute. Faint noises of screams and tires screeching on the concrete due to the acceleration of cars fleeing the scene came from below but since we were completely motionless and many were frozen in fear or at least in anticipation the atmosphere had gone pretty much silent. Mimi broke the silence with a sudden scream that shook me off my own thought. “Oh my God! Is that … Samantha?!”

It took me more than a couple seconds to rewire my brain in a form in which those words could make sense. Samantha was one of Mimi’s classmates. She was also the first girl I came to know in her class, being my first romantic interest. For a while, when Mimi and I were still just friends, she even tried to be my wing-woman with her. Of course, it didn’t last long. The third time we hanged out together to attempt a “casual” encounter with Sam, we ended up in the wrong party, we left early, we went for a consoling ice-cream and an hour and half of heart to heart conversation later we were making out like there was no tomorrow. We became a couple soon after and this inciting incident wasn’t recalled too much subsequently.

But Samantha remained Mimi’s classmates and she was by far one of the most classically popular girls in school, due to her look and her extrovert personality. On the one hand, she was kind of the egocentric type and took every occasion for a show off in the school; she excelled in dancing and was a great singer for her age, she had also become pretty soon the star of the theater club and the lead of the supporters in the home matches of our school team. On the other hand, she was a very kindhearted girl and never really mean to anyone, she even stopped more than one episode of bullying and in the last school year had promoted a campaign against sexism in school. The fact that she had promoted her campaing by launching a “Bikini-day” initiative confused more than one person. And yet she managed to have two hunderd boys coming to school shirtless and wearing a bikini top. I was among them and we even ended up on some national newspapers.

Mimi was a far better student and was elected class president, but was clearly far less conspicuous as a personality and she knew it. She wasn’t exactly envious of her classmate, but she didn’t like when I brought her up in any discussion between us or among others, which was kind of a problem given how many discussions at school were about Samantha. If we’d have been there in a “normal” condition, casually walking inside the shopping mall and coming across her, we could’ve just waved in her direction and then moved on with our afternoon. A minuscule part of me irrationally hoped we could actually do that even in our current condition.

But this was impossible, since our current condition was that of being over a couple thousands feet tall, standing above the shopping mall like it was the aforementioned terrarium and Samantha, and the other girls around her were involuntarily playing the role of the ants. Another consideration fleshed in my mind, another one I had completely removed since a while but that could not be ignored further. I was naked. Mimi was naked. We were both naked.

My penis, her nipples and her vulva were all on display. If it were just for the unknown shopping goers it would’ve remained an unconscious knowledge. But now, Mimi’s intimate parts and especially mine were clearly on display in front of the most popular girl in my school. Even the thinnest and shortest of my pubic hairs was longer than a train coach and thicker than the steel bars that reinforced concrete in buildings. It was probably half as thick as Samantha herself. And yet, I felt minuscule by being exposed like that to her gaze.

Apart from all that, I didn’t have such a good sight as that of Mimi and I couldn’t in fact distinguish any specific person among the crowd in the shopping mall square. I squinted my eyes and instinctively took a step closer to the building. Many more parked vehicles were erased by that step, and finally I could see the long red hair of my girlfriend’s classmate. I could also recognize the other girls with her. Erika and Prathi from the same class and Samantha’s cousin Ellie which was one year younger.

Four girls with four different facial expressions communicating differing reactions to our appearance. Erika’s mouth was wide open as well as her eyes, her jaw was trembling a little. Prathi was slowly backing up getting further and further from the other three looking up at the titans with terror printed on her face. Ellie had fallen to the ground with an arm stretched in front of her as for repair. Samantha was wearing very large sunglasses which almost completely covered her nose and her lips were sealed in a single straight line. She didn’t even look scared as much as disappointed for the disturbance or embarrassed for not knowing how to properly behave.

At first, she just lowered the glasses to have a better look at the two titans. Then her instinct kicked in and she rushed to help her cousin getting back on her feet. Mimi broke the stalemate by kneeling down. The movement generated a powerful shockwave of course and many fell to the ground in the mall square. From behind I could see the bottom of Mimi’s left sole still covered in countless remaining of cars, trucks, shopping carts and possibly the people which were pushing them. Since the giantess also leaned forward projecting her immense shadow on the surface of the square many took that as a final invite to run for their lives.

Prathi was among those and rushed inside abandoning her three friends. Erika and Ellie were now bracing themselves looking upward. Mimi’s head got closer and closer, almost within the edges of the shopping mall. The square was completely darkened by the titaness’ shadow. The tension was palpable. And it was broken only by Mimi’s imposing pronouncement.
“Hi Sam! Hi girls!”. She also waved with her right hand and smiled closing her eyes. Useless to say, the enthusiasm in her words matched the volume which was pretty medium from my perspective but clearly determined a sonic boom that pushed many below to cover their ears in pain.
“Ouch … sorry!” Mimi started whispering “Hi Sam, hi girls!” She repeated unabashed.

None responded. Everyone kept looking at the titaness. Many spent more than a second looking around and trying to figure out who she may be talking to. Finally, Samantha responded by raising her hand in sign of salutation. Samantha, among all the people present was probably the most courageous. She surely was a bit advantaged from the fact of knowing the source of the threat, but yet she was confronting a couple thousands feet tall titan without flinching and instead maintaining a discrete politeness.

The same could not be said of Erika and Ellie which were crouching while embracing their friend almost to the point of sitting on the ground. Many other were crouching either out of fear or because still a bit unsettled by the volume of Mimi’s voice. Among all those people practically on the ground, Samantha looked like the only one standing. Somehow, she looked like the paladin of the crowd confronting the gigantic monster. It was impossible to know what was going on in Mimi’s mind, or Samantha’s. They were just there staring at each other. The ginormous teen colossus extending wide in the sky and the minuscule speck of a hottie in the middle of a surrendering crowd. Was that a challenge? A gauntlet from the human to the titan? Was Samantha’s attitude and posture a final declaration of rebuttal to any form of moral capitulation? Was Samantha this brave and stupid and yet brave?

Mimi could just let drop the smallest amount of spit to the ground and that would’ve sufficed to encompass the infinitesimal girl and her two friends. She could blow the softest whiff and yet make her fly into the closest wall at an astonishing speed. She could above all just end her whole existence with the tip of the tip of her smaller toe. And yet, Samantha was there, looking upward and keeping her hand raised in a sign of salutation. She didn’t move, and didn’t falter. And finally it was Mimi who retreated a little.

She nodded, as if she had decided that was enough of a test. She put her second knee on the ground causing it to shake a little more, and sat on her heels raising her back. She then looked around examining the content of the parking lot. After a couple more seconds she finally seemed satisfied, and moved her hand on her right close to one of the shopping mall entrance. There were people fleeing out of it in that moment and many fell to the ground watching the gigantic hand approaching. Mimi finally reached her objective, a lemon shaped fruit juice kiosk. There was a young cashier in it. Mimi raised it effortlessly from the ground and tilted it enough for the cashier to jump off mostly unharmed. She then arched back forward in the direction of the mall square.

Samantha was still there, standing and waiting. Aware that the conversation was far from over. Mimi tore off the upper part of the lemon-cart and threw it behind her back. It landed in the lands surrounding the parking lot, probably ruining a good portion of someone’s cauliflowers field. And then she leaned toward Samantha and the other girls holding the incredibly small cart between her fingertips.

She whispered again to the crowd “Sam, you really don’t bow to no one! And I don’t think you should! Now, please come forward.”
Samantha pondered only a moment those words before obeying gracefully. She was still in Erika and Ellie’s grip which tried to retain her by the legs, but she evaded them easily. They were left sitting on the ground sobbing and mumbling. Mimi laid the half cart on the ground. Samantha slowly approached the mutilated vehicle constantly keeping eye contact with Mimi.

I was following her walk so at first I didn’t notice it, but when she was almost arrived she was reached by her younger cousin which grabbed her by the arm and dragged her away. Samantha looked at her younger relative and tried to shrug her off. Mimi interrupted the confrontation by whispering.
“Don’t worry, Sam. It’d be better if it is the two of you.” She then addressed Ellie directly.
“Ellie! Do you want to follow your cousin or you’ll let her go alone?”

Samantha turned to Mimi and stared her interrogatively, like asking with the sole force of her gaze if her cousin was in any danger. Mimi looked at her classmate and blinked smiling trying to reassure with her expression that none was in danger. Something pretty strange to affirm considering that several people had lost their lives under her feet just a couple minutes before without her giving to that the slightest attention or care.

Samantha talked to her cousins. It was impossible to hear anything from my position. Probably not even Mimi could figure out anything of what the mite sized girl had said. We could just see Ellie hesitating and holding Samantha’s arm with both her hands. She was clearly sobbing, her eyes full with tears and her nose running. And yet, in the end, she nodded and hugged her older cousin. Samantha caressed her back reassuring her, she then jumped on the cart and leaned back to help her cousin mount in.

When both girls were set into the makeshift container, Mimi took it from the ground very slowly. It took her a while to bring it up to the level of her chest. She was still kneeling in front of the shopping mall. Many more people had left the square repairing into the building. Some were attempting to reach their car and flee from the whole situation. 
I was the first to interrupt the silent tension. "Meems, what the heck are you doing?"