Volume II

Chapter 4

There Are No Heroes

‘Tap, tap, tap…’

“Alright commander Ghywin, we are ready for this debriefing. Please, what details can you provide of the recent raid against the southeastern warehouse facility?”

‘Tap, tap, tap…’

Ghywin sat upright, placing his arms on the table and addressing the multiple individuals crowded around the table, including that of his own task force. Clearing his throat, he prepared to speak.

‘Tap, tap, tap…’

“The intel we received from government contacts led us to the warehouse, which was tied with financial documents in the other two raids performed by my covert task force,” Ghywin explained. “After monitoring the facility for forty eight hours, the go ahead was given and we sent Annie into the facility to dispatch the hostile targets.”

‘Tap, tap, tap…’

“Yes we know that much,” the higher official scoffed. “Let’s cut to the chase. Your aid has committed war crimes, do you understand? If not for your covert status, do you understand what crimes you’d be facing? Not to mention the extensive damage to the raid sites, the contamination of evidence, and the slaughtered remains of these hostiles, as you call them.”

‘Tap, tap, tap…’

“Understood sir, however…” Ghywin was interrupted.

‘Tap, tap, tap…’

“For the love of all that is holy, Annie! Would you stop tapping the bloody table!?” The higher official lost his patience, as Annie had been tapping at the table with her nails incessantly, gazing off into the distance with a monotone expression.

“Oops, sorry! You were just boring the hell out of me, that’s all,” Annie quipped.

“Have you nothing to say for yourself? ‘Gullivette’?” He responded angrily.

“Sure I do,” Annie stretched her arms, leaning back into her chair and kicking her boots up onto the table. “I slaughtered evil bastards trafficking innocent women and children to be used in despicable and vile ways, and somehow that makes me the baddie? Ha! What a joke.”

“What the hell did you just say to me you little-!?”

“Annie,” Ghywin interrupted them both, “now isn’t the time. Please, compose yourself for once.”

“Apologies, sir…” Annie smirked, but kept her position with her boots on the table.

“Sir, Annie is right,” Ghywin defended her. “There is a reason that Annie was trained and utilized for the past decade to become a part of this task force. She had no reason to comply, we all know she could have run off anytime she wanted. None of us here are ignorant to the raw power that Annie possesses. To say that Gullivette is our biggest asset, wouldn’t even be the start of it!”

“That may be so, but her lack of self control is a risk to this operation! Not to mention the devastation she leaves in her wake every time we allow her into the field!”

“You aren’t there when this all goes down,” Ghywin argued. “The organization we are trying to dismantle, the very reason for our task force exists, is because of how intricately sewn into our nation this criminal hivemind has become! The vile and despicable things we have seen, that Annie has single handedly put an end to, wouldn’t even describe the dent we’ve put into this organization!”

“I’ve seen the reports, commander,” the higher official retorted. “Devouring some of the men alive? Crushing them under her feet slowly and getting off to it? I heard on the second raid, she even crammed a man up her asshole! How am I possibly to trust an agent who can’t even withhold her perverted fantasies when in the field!?”

“Hey!” Annie inserted. “That guy deserved it! He was being an asshole, so I put him where he belonged!”

“Annie!” Ghywin held up a hand to silence her.

“Sir, her tactics may seem cruel, but her reputation as Gullivette is beginning to break the minds of the criminals we’re taking down,” Ghywin declared. “They are terrified of her by name, now. Slowly they are breaking, and it is allowing us to siphon more and more intel from these disgusting pieces of shits with every new raid, and that's because of how Gullivette handles her duties. Besides, are we really going to defend sex traffickers? They chose this line of work, and Gullivette is their just and fated punishment. I stand by this declaration, sir. I ask that this table puts out a vote, those in favor of maintaining Annie as a pivotal asset to this task force.”

The others at the table looked at one another sheepishly, but ultimately the hands began to raise. Ghywin raised his hand also, seeing that the majority of the table favored his view on Gullivette’s way of handling her operative duties.

“It seems the majority is in agreeance,” Ghywin said.

“For now,” the higher official snared. “If any word of this ever makes it to the public, you all know the outcome.”

“Which is why our duties are confidential and sealed at the highest government level,” Ghywin retorted.

“Let’s address the other elephant in the room, or should I say mouse, considering the size of those rescued from the recent raid?”

Annie’s demeanor changed, her smirk turning into a frown as she returned her feet to the floor.

“Ghywin, your own report declares that Annie had a panic attack upon seeing the tiny individuals who were part of the victims that had been kidnapped and shipped to that facility,” the higher official declared. “Mentioning of a Jacob? What are we to gather?”

“Annie? Care to explain?” Ghywin turned to face her, as she looked up at him somberly.

“It was a long time ago, the memories are broken and shattered, but I do remember bits and pieces,” Annie revealed.

“Do tell,” the higher official scoffed. He wasn’t about to let Annie get off on not explaining herself. Especially due to the nature of her specific ability to change her size and grow to enormous heights.

“I don’t remember much about my childhood, most of those memories are replaced with the trauma I experienced,” Annie explained, her demeanor more serious now, which surprised even Ghywin.

Annie continued. “There were several of us, test subjects I mean. All I know was the program was illegal, and not government sanctioned, but I still have no idea who was responsible, even to this day.”

“What kind of experiments were you a part of?” The higher official asked.

“It wasn’t entirely certain, but I think it was something to do with strength enhancing, maybe even increasing density to make people more invulnerable to various levels of harm. All I know is that my outcome was by complete accident. It was a byproduct of their true goal. Though, technically, they did succeed.”

“Please, the details? This information should have been divulged a long time ago, Annie…”

Sighing, Annie leaned forward. “There were twelve of us, including me, at least initially. Four of them died during experimentation, the rest of us suffered, might as well been tortured brutally, it all felt the same. Then everything changed, when a new test subject arrived at the facility.”

“Who was it?”

“His name was Jacob, a year older than me,” Annie revealed. “He was different though, they kept saying that he was the key to their success.”

“How?”

“He possessed some sort of ability, though I don’t know what it was exactly, his power evolved much later when they performed their final tests on him and myself.”

“Explain, I want to know everything.”

Annie rolled her eyes, but obeyed. “I never saw him in action, but I did speak to him a few times. Jacob was timid, and looked very innocent. He was always so sad, his eyes always had tears in them. I felt sorry for him, he was tested on more so than anyone else in the facility. I wanted to help him, but there was nothing I could do. I was the only one who ever managed to get close to him, he never spoke to anyone else but me.”

“What did they do with him?”

Annie shifted in her seat, becoming nervous and uncomfortable. These memories began surfacing, things she had long buried and tried to forget. However, if Jacob was alive, and responsible for what she witnessed at the facility, then she had to reveal everything she knew about him.

“We were just children, I hardly knew what they wanted from us,” Annie explained. “But looking back, I think that Jacob  possessed something that allowed their research to evolve, and suddenly their experiments were becoming increasingly successful. Despite this, the subjects were still dying off, until I was all that remained, including Jacob.”

“You survived, however. How so? What was different?”

“They realized that Jacob’s DNA was the secret. Something about it was different, it’s what gave him the stability of his powers. They wanted to enhance his gifts, make him stronger, and turn him into a weapon. They wanted to replicate his power and adapt it into others, but I was the only subject that remained. They learned from their mistakes, and made a final serum that was infused with parts of Jacob’s DNA. It was the last experiment. Ironically, they never found out if it was successful or not. My power didn’t manifest until the explosion happened.”

“Explosion? What happened?”

“They took Jacob into the research wing, they had another experiment they wanted to run on him. His power was supposedly uncontrollable, they always kept this headband on him that was metal and had a battery, I think it was to keep his power disabled or something. This experiment was supposed to amplify Jacob’s abilities, and also give him more control by expanding certain receptors and pathways in his brain to make the power more easy to control.”

Annie leaned forward some more, locking her fingers together as she looked around at every person at the table. They were all disturbed by her story, not realizing that there was such a traumatic past that Annie had been through. Her bubbly personality and outrageous conduct in the field had blinded them, Annie was a woman filled with a traumatic past, and her personality was a coping mechanism, nothing more and nothing less.

“While they had me strapped in a room, waiting to see if the serum would kill me or empower me with the very abilities that Jacob had, there was a massive explosion,” Annie described. 

“I was hurled through three walls, the explosion was in the room adjacent to mine. I thought I was going to die, as I saw the wall above crumble and fall towards me. I reached out my hands to stop it, and that’s when my powers triggered and I grew for the first time. It was only twenty feet or so, but enough to survive. I smashed through the facility and escaped by jumping into the ocean. That’s when I learned the facility was on an island, several miles off the coast. I swam to shore, my size changing repeatedly, it took me forever to realize how to control it before I was able to return to a normal size.”

“And what about Jacob?”

“I thought Jacob had died,” Annie answered. “Honestly, I never knew what Jacob’s abilities were. They kept him harnessed with that head band, I only heard rumors occasionally from the researchers and the guards. I only wondered if his powers were similar to my own, and what form they might have taken. I think I know the answer to that now, I think that Jacob has the power to shrink others. I think he survived that explosion, and I think that Jacob is the reason we found those tiny people in that shipping container in our last raid…”

“So someone with the ability to reduce the size of others, meanwhile we have an erratic operative who can grow as big as seventy feet, and is bloody naked in the process?” The higher official scoffed. “There are no heroes in this world, Annie. Don’t forget the reason you are here, the state we found you in.”

“My allegiance is to this operation,” Annie assured him. “I won’t pretend to think I am a hero, no. I am as evil as anyone else, but I will use that evil to defeat evil… When I look into the eyes of my victims, all they see is the same fear and despair that they’ve inflicted into those who are innocent and victimized!”

Annie stood to her feet, slamming her palms onto the table.

“If you don’t like the way I handle our missions, then you can make the call to remove me from the operation. But know this, Jacob is out there, and it seems he is somehow involved with the enemy organization. How long will you allow this nefarious trafficking ring to go on? No matter how many raids we perform, those at the top seem to have covered their tracks at every angle! If Jacob is indeed in cahoots with them, I may be the only one who could stop him!”

“Assuming Jacob isn’t still controlled by those responsible for yourself, Annie. However, you may be right. I don’t approve of your methods, but that’s the very reason this task force is deep beneath the radar. After everything I’ve heard from you today, I at least trust you are aligned to this task force. Don’t do anything to jeopardize that trust, got it?”

Annie was surprised, had the higher official been testing her patience this entire time? Was his harsh ridicule of her tactics simply a way to test her devotion to the force, to gain insight onto the reason she was here to begin with?

“I will do everything to prove to you that I am the woman for this job,” Annie answered confidently. “I’ll learn the identity of whoever is responsible for this organization’s existence, and I’ll find out how Jacob is involved. No matter what, day and night, I’ll never give up!”

“Good to hear it,” Ghywin chimed in, smiling at Annie with pride.

“Now what of this O’Dias character?” The higher official mentioned. “Despite our attempts to get him into an interrogation room, he has flown off the radar. Do we have any solid evidence of his involvement aside from some loose financial records?”

“Nothing at all,” Ghywin responded. “There is no doubt he is involved, though. It’s just a matter of proving it in court, but we are struggling to locate his current position.”

“Make him your prime target, then. It seems to me if we can find O’Dias Karn, we can find out who is responsible for running this trafficking organization, the largest and most nefarious one we have ever encountered in the last two decades!”

“Mark my words,” Annie inserted. “I will find him, and I will make him talk. Any way I can.”

“And I would love to be there to see it, Gullivette,” the higher official nodded, before gesturing to the room to clear and gathering his belongings. “The details of your next mission will be posted tomorrow. We will waste no time, I want you to follow the paper trail as best you can.”

“Understood,” Ghywin nodded, as the officials left the room until it was only him and Annie left.

Annie sat back down, resting her head back and sighing loudly. “I thought that would never end. I hate debriefings.”

“You never told me about your past with such detail before,” Ghywin noted. “I didn’t realize you had such a horrific past…”

“Yeah well don’t sniffle about it,” Annie scoffed playfully, looking over and smiling at him. “It’s the past, and I only revealed it because of the change of circumstance. Besides, I consider you guys my family now… And I suppose you of all people deserved to hear the truth.”

“I may not understand your way of handling hostile targets,” Ghywin commented, “but I never judged you for it. They are evil, and you have been wronged heavily, Annie. I think the truth is, the way you deal with those at your feet when you grow so large… I think it’s your own therapeutic way of dealing with the trauma you’ve suffered when you were a child.”

“Ick!” Annie rolled her eyes. “Don’t get all weird on me now! Don’t tell me you’re gonna offer yourself as my little plaything or something! Therapy? Ha! Please.”

“What!?” Ghywin blushed, not all expecting that response. “That’s not what I meant! I mean, I was trying to say, uh! Oh geez…”

Annie bellowed with laughter, standing out of her chair and roughing up Ghywin’s hair with her fingers. She leaned down and kissed him on the cheek, before leaning close to his ear.

“Oh relax…” She cooed, “I was only teasing you! You’re right, anyway. Every time I step on one of them, or eat them, or cram them somewhere inside of me… I imagine they’re the same assholes that tortured me for all of those years… So you’re right, Ghywin, maybe it is a type of therapy. You always knew me the best out of anyone else, didn’t you? Don’t you?”

“Annie… I… I don’t know what to say to you sometimes…”

She got even closer to his ear now, her breath hitting the side of his face softly. It smelled of strawberries, likely the sucker she had enjoyed before the debriefing. Ghywin grew nervous, almost feeling her lips make contact with his earlobe. Never had Annie been so playful towards him, not like this, he wondered if she was trying to tell him something.

“You ever wonder what it would be like?” Annie cooed gently into his ear. “To be that small? At my mercy? Does it ever cross your mind? Does it ever wander through your dreams? Hm?”

“Annie… I’m your commander… I shouldn’t…”

“Shhhh,” Annie took her hand and firmly placed it over his mouth, gripping his mouth and chin with her hand. The strength of her grasp was shocking, as Ghywin nervously shifted his eyes and looked at her.

“They pop when I crush them, you know.” Annie revealed. “When I devour them, I feel them squirming inside of me. Even when I return to normal, they seem to shrink down with me, still squirming helplessly inside of me…”

“Mmph…” Ghywin tried to speak, but Annie wouldn’t let him.

“I love feeling their heads explode when I crush them, their guts spilling onto the floor while their criminal friends watch in horror and run for their lives… It makes me happy, very happy, Ghywin.”

Finally she released her grip, and Ghywin rubbed his sore jaw as he turned and looked at Annie in shock. He was at a loss for words, not a single thought of how to respond to any of what he’d just heard.

“If you ever want a sneak peak, all you have to do is ask me out sometime!” Annie winked at him. “I’ll see you tomorrow when they debrief us on our next mission. Sleep tight, Ghywin!”

Leaving the room, Ghywin was left alone as he wiped the sweat from his forehead. Taking a deep breath, his heart racing, he laughed to himself and shook his head in disbelief.

“I don’t know if that woman turns me on, or scares the shit out of me…”

Ghywin shoved the thoughts aside, grabbing his things and leaving the room last, as he always did after a debriefing.

Pulling into the driveway, Jacob turned off the engine and exited his vehicle. The long drive to Blaire’s house from the facility had given him plenty of time to cool off, and heal the bruises that Deita had left on his face when she mercilessly crushed him into the floor beneath her heel. Scowling, he slammed the car door shut as he recalled his interaction with the lustful woman. He had always hated her, but now he didn’t know what to feel about her.

It was an odd turn of events, for starters he was dumbfounded by Deita’s stealthy nature. Not only had he not heard the door open, but at his size, he didn’t even notice her lumbering footsteps. Despite the hit to his pride, Jacob had to admit that Deita had proven to get one over on him. Never had he suspected he’d be on the receiving end of her sadistic fantasies, crushing him under her heel so violently. If he hadn’t increased the density of his body so quickly, she may have actually killed him.

Then, as if it made any sense at all, it turned out that she had fancied Jacob far more than he may have realized. The look in her eyes, it was like she was a puppy or something. Jacob couldn’t stand for it, no, he felt something also. She had been the first person to force him into a submissive state, his life in her hands, beneath her foot. While it made him enraged, it was only because of how confused and terrified he had become in that moment. At Deita’s foot, at her complete control and desires. If she had really attempted, perhaps Jacob might not be alive right now.

Instead it turned out she was in love with him, or something to that nature. It was clear she was infatuated with him, having revealed this to him so abruptly. He almost killed her, yet it seemed as if she wouldn’t have been against it. Could it be? Could Deita be so infatuated with him, that she’d be willing to let him shrink and murder her? But how? What exactly would Deita want him to do? He didn’t even want to think about it, it was disgusting to him. He would never crush someone like that, not for any sexual reasons. He would never devour them, or do the nasty things that Deita had done to Liz, that’s for sure.

But what if the roles were reversed? Being crushed so callously, forced to submit to the goddess that was Deita… Was Jacob starting to fancy the idea? Recalling all of the details of Deita’s desires, Jacob began to wonder if he truly was disgusted by her lustful nature, or if he was perhaps intimidated by it. He began to question why he hated her at all, but he knew why. He hated how easy she made it seem, Deita that is. All he felt when he spoke to her, was that Deita was feigning aspects of her personality. Perhaps if she gave up the act, and revealed her true nature, then Jacob might have been more fond of her.

Shaking his head and clearing his mind, he approached Blaire’s front door as he lifted his hand to knock. The door opened before he could do so, as Blaire greeted him quickly and gestured for him to come inside. Without either of them exchanging a verbal greeting, Jacob entered her home.

“Have you seen the news today?” Blaire blurted, rushing over to the counter and grabbing the newspaper from it as Jacob fell into the couch and rested on his back.

“Nope, why?”

“It’s that woman!” Blaire cried, shoving the paper into his face, “see?”

“Who is this?” Jacob took the paper and squinted at it. Suddenly, he felt his heart stop.

“It’s that cook you used to work with, remember?” Blaire reminded him. “Elizabeth Sanchez! I think you called her Liz, maybe?”

“Oh,” Jacob murmured, gazing at the headline in disbelief. “How’d you get this?”

“What?”

“The paper, where’d you get it?”

“I subscribed to the daily paper,” Blaire was confused by his question. “I just wanted to keep up with Valdez stuff, like events and whatnot, but I didn’t expect this! She’s still missing, you know! Not even a trace according to her family!”

“Damn…” Jacob was scrambling to put on a new appearance, feigning an expression of concern as he tried to reel himself back into the identity he had craftily made when around Blaire. “What do you think happened to her? I can’t believe she’s missing!”

“I don’t know, nobody does,” Blaire answered. “They said she never came home from work one day. It’s terrifying to think about… You think she was kidnapped?”

Jacob swallowed nervously. “Kidnapped? What makes you say that?”

“I mean what else!” Blaire began to pace back and forth. “What if she was raped! Killed! Oh God… After everything that’s happened, Valdez isn’t feeling so safe to me anymore! I feel like running away!”

“Nothing will happen to you!” Jacob rushed over and held her shoulders gently, gazing into her eyes. “I’d never let anything happen to you, Blaire!”

“I’m just so scared…” Blaire admitted. “First my family sends a private investigator to bring me home, and now someone you knew closely has gone missing? I looked into it, and there’s been a few other disappearances too! There was a girl I read about in an older paper, her name was Alicia I think. I’m really scared, Jacob!”

“Don’t be!” Jacob hugged her tight, realizing that he had underestimated Blaire’s ability to research completely random things on her own. Her mere interest in the paper had clued her into Liz’s disappearance, and even worse that led her to look into Alicia, and Jacob realized where this would ultimately end. He refused to allow that.

“I’ll be honest, I heard about these not too long ago,” Jacob bluffed.

Blaire pulled away from her, a look of betrayal in her eyes. “Why… Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I was going to, but then Charles revealed himself to us that day,” Jacob lied, trying to tie the details together to make them more believable. “After seeing how upset he made you, I felt as if I’d be evil to make you feel even worse by revealing Liz’s disappearance. Alicia, I read about her a month ago.”

“I understand… But…” Blaire composed herself, staring at Jacob with disappointment. “I don’t appreciate you feeling as if you have to protect my feelings. I’m an adult woman, Jacob. I prefer to be treated as such.”

“You’re right…” Jacob nodded, his smile fading. “I’m so sorry… I fucked up. There is no excuse for it. Please… Forgive me, Blaire. I’ll never withhold anything from you ever again, you have my word.”

“You promise?” Blaire pushed him gently by the shoulder, glaring at him. “I want to hear you say it! I don’t want your word, I want you to promise me! Damn you Jacob, I really like you! I really, really like you… Please don’t make me regret that…”

Swallowing nervously, Jacob sighed as he looked down at his feet. Her words were messing with his head, the idea of betrayal and trust mixing his personal beliefs and allowing him a moment to reflect on what to do or say to make this right with Blaire.

“Blaire,” Jacob finally spoke. “You’re right, I shouldn’t withhold anything from you. Not after it’s been this long, and we are so clearly into each other. I think I’m falling for you…”

“What?” Blaire’s face flushed red, as she looked at Jacob who kept his head down.

Jacob looked up at her, smiling sheepishly. “I think I’m in love with you… I was afraid that if you heard about Liz, you might want to leave Valdez, but I’m stuck here. I didn’t want you to abandon me in this remote town…”

Despite trying to remedy the distrust he had planted between them, surprisingly, Jacob found that what he said was indeed truthful, minus a few details.

“Jacob, I forgive you… I feel the same way, but I wouldn’t leave you here,” Blaire placed a hand on his cheek, smiling at him. “You could come with me! We can go anywhere, start fresh!”

“You really want that?” Jacob smiled at her, surprised that she would even offer such a life changing option.

“I… I think I love you, Jacob,” Blaire blushed. “I don’t want to lose you, I feel like you’re all I have left…”

“I see,” Jacob closed his eyes and smirked. “Well I love you too, Blaire… Unfortunately, I’m not quite ready to leave Valdez.”

“Jacob…” Blaire wanted to argue, but he interrupted her.

“There’s a property north of here, closer to where I work,” Jacob revealed. “We can move there, together. You’ll see me more often, and you’ll be somewhere away from the town, safe. Would that be alright with you? And after my security consultation period is up, we skedaddle out of Valdez and never look back. Move somewhere warmer.”

“I’d like that…” Blaire smiled, hugging him tight again and resting her face against his chest. “I’d like that a lot…”

Jacob wrapped his arms around her, but his smile faded. Moving Blaire closer to his place of work was an unwise idea, but he had to ensure that Blaire felt safe in her own town. He wasn’t ready to abandon this gig, not yet. There was one factor that tied him down to this organization now, one that obliged his obedience to Avaramix for the indeterminate future.

He had to know, for certain. Jacob had to see this Gullivette for himself. Her very existence meant that his past was not yet at end, his very origins that led him to this very moment, was still ongoing. This was the closure he needed, as he kept trying to figure out what was bothering him. It was starting to piece itself all together.

Jacob had indeed cared about the fate of Elizabeth. His realization that Blaire had indeed won his heart, made him realize that he had indeed developed separate feelings for Liz. He saw her as a friend, and he betrayed her, and now he had betrayed Blaire. This betrayal made him realize the error of his ways, but there was not much to be done about it.

He should have killed Liz when he had the chance, spared her from the cruel fate that awaits her. Then Deita surprised him, revealing her true feelings towards him, but Jacob had to shut it down, despite how harsh it had been to do so. A part of him wanted to find out what sort of relationship could spark between him and Deita, but he despised her weakness, the inability to accept her nature before others, something that Jacob refused to do, or did he?

Realizing the hypocrisy behind his every thought and belief, his world was dismantling all around him. He hid his nature before Blaire every day, how was he any different than Deita at all? Why did Blaire get spared his wrath, but Liz was fated to suffer at the hands of Deita? Because Jacob loved Blaire? Was that it? He couldn’t understand himself anymore, and he felt his mind picking itself apart.

“Jacob…” Blaire whispered, her head still resting against his chest.

“Yeah…” Jacob responded gently, resting his head atop hers.

“Let’s… Let’s go to the… To the bedroom?” Blaire slowly pulled him in tight, pushing her breasts firmly against him.

Jacob snapped out of his thoughts, his lust starting to take over. It was so abrupt, unexpected even, yet he wasn’t about to say no.

“Yeah,” Jacob answered her. “Let’s do it.”