Chapter Fifteen


"What details can you give me?" I asked, trying to steady myself in the seat.

The transport rumbled over the terrain at such fast speeds that the cabin shook and rolled. Then again, the motion might have been due to the tremendous footsteps that slammed into the ground nearby. Sarah was managing to keep pace fairly well, not going too far ahead and not falling behind. I was keeping my mic switched on so she could hear the conversation in the vehicle.

"Not much," Chloe replied, a grim look on her face. "All the men we've sent in to the area are either confirmed dead or MIA. Our choices were to either nuke the city or use you."

"But you have the means to kill her," I persisted. "Those shock devices."

"They only work at close range," said Chloe sadly. "The closest we've managed to get to her is at her feet, and the boots insulate the shock."

"What about air support?"

"Every time we get a plane near enough, she swats it out of the air."

"So what you're saying," I said slowly, "Is that we're here to provide a distraction so you can neutralize her."

Chloe nodded.

There was a tremendous noise from above which I came to realize was Sarah bending over and talking to us. "How exactly am I supposed to distract her?"

"We left that up to you," Chloe said carefully.

There was a pause, and a huge shake in the car as Sarah took another massive step. "I guess I could think of something." was the rumbled response.

Minutes later we were at the outskirts of the city. Looking at the windows I caught a flash of fire through the blur. I thumbed my mic. "Sarah, stay low and keep out of sight until we've got everything planned out. If she sees you our cover is blown."

"Got it," she said so quietly that I only heard it over the link.

The transport began to slow, then came to a jarringly abrupt halt. I shook myself and followed Chloe and the soldiers as they piled out of the vehicle.

I wasn't prepared for the level of destruction I saw. The city looked like a warzone. Debris was everywhere, and none of the buildings in sight were whole. Fires were raging in several of the wrecked stores and apartments. Worst, however, was the eerie silence that seemed to fill the air,

I stood there transfixed for some time, trying to reconcile this burnt-out husk with the city that I knew. Chloe eventually took me by the hand and began to lead me through the devastated streets. "We've set up a makeshift command center this way," she explained as we walked. "Currently we have about thirty men staffing it, reinforcements are due within the hour."

"How much has been destroyed?" I asked, still dazed by this derelict that I once called home.

"The preliminary satellite scans seem to indicate that most of the business sector has been reduced to rubble, and she's gone on rampages in a few other areas as well."

We approached a small area walled off by sandbags, filled with thirty people talking quietly but urgently. Chloe approached a small laptop perched precariously on one of the small sandbag embankments and began to type rapidly. She then pulled up an overhead view of the city.

"Here's our satellite feed," she said, then quickly punched in a few more commands. The view was suddenly brightly colored in blues, greens, and splotches of red and yellow. There were two big splotches that dominated the map. Chloe gestured to them. "These are the giantesses," Chloe said. "Obviously, the one next to us is Sarah. But the one over on this end of the map..."

She pointed to a large red spot in motion.

"So, she's currently in the Financial District," I said. "But she's in motion..."

"Shit," said Chloe. "She's coming this way."

"You sure?"

"Positive," she muttered. "Everything between her and us is destroyed. She hasn't done the same area twice thus far." As she spoke I could see the tremendous red blotch moving towards us on screen."

"What do we do?" I cried.

Chloe responded by yelling to the assembled soldiers. "Battle stations!"

A hush grew over the crowd, which was quickly broken by the instant scramble to different sides of the enclosure. Soldiers ran to the sandbags, picking up all kinds of strange experimental weaponry as well as the more conventional bazookas and RPGs. There was a rumbling audible from far off, and I glimpsed tremendous movement from behind some of the buildings. Chloe pulled me down to the ground, and I hid behind one of the barriers, peeking out just enough to see what was happening.

The huge toe of a black leather boot rising sixty feet into the air slammed down onto the pavement just a few yards from the sandbags, creating massive cracks and fissures in the tarmac.

"Well, well, well," boomed a cruel female voice from high above. "What have we here?"

The top of the boot came forward and a massive hand touched the ground as Vanessa bent forward. "Looks like another army outpost." When she spoke, her voice blew against the mesh canopy of the command center, buffeting it about and making me worry. If it blew away, our cover was blown as well. "Don't you little insects know any better?" she said, her voice a mockery of innocence and playfulness.

She resumed standing, blocking out the sun once more. "I guess they've all run away. None of them want to play with me... But how did they run away so fast?"

"She's toying with us," I gritted through my teeth. "She's going to kill us all." Chloe didn't respond, but looked at me with fear-filled eyes.

"I bet some of them are still in there," Vanessa continued in the menacingly childish tone. "But they're hiding from me. Looks like it's time to find them..."

I closed my eyes, covered my ears and crouched, waiting for the beginning of the end.

Instead, there was a tremendous thump from somewhere behind me. "Leave him alone, you bitch." The voice was as powerful as it was feminine, its sound as seductive to me as it was threatening to the person it was directed to. It was my woman, here to save my life.

"Let's move," I said to Chloe. "Things are about to get ugly."

Chloe signaled the soldiers to fan out quietly, and all of us began to creep out of the command center in different directions. When I was about twenty feet away, I stopped and looked up. The sole of Vanessa's spike-heeled boot was suspended precariously above us, ready to squash all of us flat. But just opposite her was Sarah, eyes blazing with fury and hatred.

"If you step on them," Sarah warned, "I will see to it that you die in the most painful way imaginable."

There was a pause, and then a girlish giggle from above. "You actually care about these little ants?" Vanessa said scornfully.

"They're not ants, they're people."

The boot moved away from over our heads, to be ground-shakingly replaced on the pavement nearby. Vanessa's attitude had shifted from demonically playful to deadly serious, and it was evident on her face. "Do you actually believe that these - these worthless specimens qualify as people?" Vanessa half-shouted, her face twisted with rage. "They are nothing more than our playthings, toys designed to amuse us goddesses."

'They are people," Sarah repeated coolly. "They have emotions and intelligence. And I am here to avenge the ones you have slain."

In that moment, I was filled with more than just love for Sarah, but also with awe and admiration. In that moment, she was more than a woman, even more than an avenging angel. She was everything that Vanessa had attempted and failed to be. She was a goddess. Not like the impersonal deities I was taught as a child, but a true, just and fair goddess that was the protector of us all. The other soldiers were frozen in position, staring at Sarah, equally admiring their savior.

Vanessa was visibly shaken by this bold statement, but managed to recover her scornful, cold tone. "So, you think yourself their protector?" she snickered. "Foolish woman. You could have been above them. You could have found your own city to dominate, we could have divided this world between us, so I would never have had to see your pathetic face again. But instead you wish to confront me. What you don't realize, is that this city is not big enough for the both of us."

"Bitch," Sarah said calmly, "I knew that all along."

"Run," I yelled out as loud as I could as the two giantesses moved towards each other. The soldiers below scattered, and I ran as fast as my legs could carry me, Chloe by my side. Once I thought I had reached a safe distance, I turned and watched the clash begin.

It was an awe-inspiring sight. The two titanic women were locked together, Sarah trying to get her opponent in a headlock, Vanessa using one knee to keep her at distance. I saw Vanessa's foot hook around Sarah's heel. Judo. She was throwing her off balance.

The move worked flawlessly, but for one problem. Sarah clutched the other woman to her, and they both fell together, slamming into a ten-story office building and causing it to instantly disintegrate. The two giantesses plummeted to the earth in their fatal embrace, causing a minor earthquake which shook the ground even at my vantage point one hundred yards away. I realized that a few of the less lucky soldiers would have been killed from the impact.

Sarah then rolled to her right, smashing into another building but putting herself on top. She got to her knees, straddling the military woman, then began to drive pounding roundhouse blows into her face, deviating slightly from the standard self-defense courses. With each punch she threw she screamed a curse.

Even from afar I could tell that the raven-haired woman was beginning to succumb. But as the blows continued I realized, sickeningly, that it was just a show. There was a wicked smile forming on the thin lips even as the beatings continued. As Sarah came in for the finishing blow, Vanessa reached up and grabbed the incoming fist, twisting Sarah's wrist. There was a loud snapping sound that echoed through the air, and Sarah cried out.

Vanessa used this momentary pause to slide herself away from Sarah, her tremendous backside destroying numerous street signs, telephone poles and traffic lights in the process. She got to her feet, then quickly smashed one of her boots into Sarah's face. Sarah tumbled backwards, creating a small crater as she fell.

Vanessa then leapt on top of her, clawing and tearing at her. The two women fought savagely, snapping at one another, pulling each other's hair and destroying much of the surrounding city in the process. But as the fight continued it was clear that Sarah's strength was on the wane. This was no act - she was panting, and there was a bewildered look in her eyes that showed that she'd lost the rhythm of the battle.

"She's not going to hold out on her own much longer," Chloe said to me.

I nodded my agreement. "I think it's time we show Vanessa what two little insects can do."