Chapter 17. Aftermath

Joe’s reaction to her growing again had been encouraging. Of course Ron had briefed him before letting him into the room, but still Joe had taken the new situation much better than expected. Lisa cried when talking through it with him. After talking to Joe, she felt much better and, for the first time, she was convinced that everything was going to be all right and that she would get back to normal.

Her encouragement had been short lived, though, since soon enough Joe told her about what he had learned regarding Kelly and Casey.

“Ron?” she asked, narrowing her eyes as she looked at him

“Look Lisa, it’s complicated…” Ron tried to offer

“Where are Kelly and Casey?” Lisa asked

“They are both in Hollner, now” Ron admitted

“And what are they doing?” she asked again, her voice sounding more serious than it ever had before

Ron was obviously trying to find the right words. Lisa did not make it easy for him; she just kept her enormous deep blue eyes locked on him.

“What are they doing?” she asked again

“Kelly… well Kelly” Ron started. Lisa thought that there was something about Kelly that was especially startling Ron, but she could not imagine what it was. “Kelly was playing…” Ron finally said.

“Playing?” Lisa asked, surprised

“She used her size and she seemed to like it” Ron finally said

“Kelly knew that this was not a good idea, when we were big in Henford” Lisa said, surprised by the news

“Well, she seems to have changed her mind” Ron finally said, still sounding weird

“And Casey?” Lisa asked, afraid of the answer

Ron shrugged and finally said:

“Casey is a psycho. You know that” Ron finally said

Lisa did not say anything. Ron just added:

“Six years in prison have not made her any better than she was”

“What is she doing?” Lisa asked

“What is she not doing?” Ron replied. Then, he seemed to break. Even with the distance and the difference in size, Lisa thought that she could see some tears. “This is all my fault” he said in a sobbing voice.

Lisa did not say anything. Ron kept on sobbing.

“What happened in Henford…. And this… I could have avoided it” he said

Lisa did not feel like comforting Ron. She was incredibly upset with him. It was Joe who walked towards Ron and said:

“Come on Ron, I’m sure you are going to find a way to fix it…”

“She’s killed hundreds of people, Joe. Hundreds! The ones you’ve seen on TV and the ones you haven’t!” he yelled

Lisa did not want to believe what she was hearing, but the truth was that she knew that it was perfectly possible. In a very cold tone, she addressed Ron:

“How close are you to finding a way to make Casey small again?”

Ron looked up at her and said:

“I don’t know”

“You have to know” Lisa replied, still very serious

“I don’t know, for God’s sake. I have no fucking clue. We may be incredibly close or it may take weeks. I don’t fucking know!” Ron yelled

Then, Lisa surprised even herself when she said:

“You have to kill her, Ron”

Ron looked up, his eyebrows raised.

“You have to kill Casey, Ron. Before it’s too late. Kelly can be reasoned with. You know that. But if Casey has already done what you’ve told me… things are only going to get worse. And you know it”

Ron then started to laugh hysterically. Lisa did not understand. Then, Ron said:

“They already tried”

Lisa remained silent. Then, Ron laughed hysterically once more and said:

“They tried to kill Casey and they tried to kill Kelly”

Lisa was afraid that she would not like what came next.

“They fucking obliterated the force that was sent to stop them. And they were not even scratched”

Lisa remained motionless for a while. She did not know how long. She remembered the first conversation she had had with Ron, when she had been taken by force earlier in the day. He had been afraid of this; he had told her that he did not know if the military would be able to stop Casey and Kelly. Then, with her eyes lost in the distance, she said:

“I’ll do it”

“What?” Ron asked

“I’ll stop Casey”

It was Joe who reacted this time:

“What the hell are you saying?”

“Someone needs to stop her. And I’ve done this before”

Ron looked up at her and said:

“I don’t think this is a good idea. I cannot authorize…”

Lisa cut him with an angry tone:

“Shut the fuck up! I wasn’t asking you for permission. I was telling you what I was going to do. I only expect three things from you: get me some clothes, make everything ready for me to get out and then get the fuck out and let me talk to my husband alone!”

There was only a group of soldiers left between Casey and her. There were only four of them. Kelly saw Casey’s eyes locked on them and knew that they were as good as dead. They were closer to her, though, so in three steps she softly set her left foot on them and finished the job.

She told herself that they had attacked her and that they would have ended dead, anyway. And, with Casey’s attention now fully focused on her, she needed to make a point. Once she was done, she looked up at the other giant woman, her look hiding some traces of defiance.

Casey’s smile was as wide as she had ever seen it before. She was walking towards her.

“Girl, you weren’t kidding when you visited me in prison. You really like this”

Kelly felt a little uncomfortable at the comment, but, of course, it was not the best time to convince Casey of the contrary. Instead, she just kept a serious face and said:

“Those fucking bugs challenged me. They had to be taught a lesson”

As a matter of fact, she wasn’t lying. She was still incredibly upset at having been attacked. Her mind was now divided between that and the disturbance caused by Casey’s unexpected presence.

Stopping a couple of paces in front of her, Casey looked at her, still smiling, and said:

“God, you are even hotter than I remembered you”

Kelly was taken by surprise. She hoped that she was not blushing in shame. Then, Casey added:

“Doesn’t all this make you incredibly horny?”

This time she knew she had blushed for real. Casey did not say anything else. She just walked towards her, put her hands on Kelly’s shoulders and pushed her down with a strength one could have not expected from the petite woman, at least in relation to her.

Soon, Kelly’s ass hit the ground as Casey crouched and kept on pushing, until she was lying down. Her hands then found her way to Kelly’s breasts.

“You sure have amazing tits” she said

Kelly did not know what to do. She just remained still. An instant later, Casey’s head was between her legs.

Kelly wanted to fight back, to push Casey away from her. But she didn’t. Instead, she started screaming wildly as Casey’s tongue found its way into her.

She did not know how long it lasted. She knew that she had been screaming all the way through it. She had really been horny. By the time Casey removed her head from between her thighs, Kelly had already reached the climax and was panting. Lying sideways next to her, Casey asked:

“Was it good?”

“I’m not a lesbian” Kelly said, not really knowing why she had chosen those words

“Neither am I” Casey replied casually

“Why did you do that?” Kelly asked

“I felt like it… and it felt like you needed it” Casey casually closed the conversation

Sykes was incredibly shocked at what he had just seen through the large screens of the Federal One status room. Still, he could not prevent feeling some traces of satisfaction at General Archer’s quite obvious panic.

“You are not so arrogant anymore, are you, asshole?” he thought

Sykes knew better than to talk if not addressed first. He was still in an incredibly ugly position. But now General Archer was not in a much more solid one. Sykes knew that he had made two huge mistakes: he had engaged the women without waiting for the bulk of his forces to arrive and he had done so without getting any advice from the scientists back at the FSD. It was not that Sykes appreciated them too much, but he knew how things worked and the protocol said that in front of unprecedented emergencies, military leaders should consult with experts in the matter.

“You wanted a quick win, didn’t you? Did you do it out of urgency for getting Hollner rid of the threat of the giant bitches? No, I bet this is not what made you hasty. If you had been so concerned for the well being of the population you would not have ordered your pilots to shoot missiles in the middle of a city, would you? I wonder how you are planning to get the dozens of collateral victims out of the official report. You moved quickly because you wanted to be he hero of the day, didn’t you? Was your staff already planning for a press conference right before the evening news?”

General Archer had gathered his staff, the agent in charge of the FBI in Hollner and Sykes. He asked for a situation report. One of the aides replied in a very cold tone:

“The two Apaches were lost, along with their crews, the OH-58 is still operational and transmitting” he said, referring to the two attack helicopters and the observer chopper. “All the tanks in the 1st tank platoon were lost, along with their crews. All transports and light vehicles on the 62nd company were lost. 43 soldiers of the 62nd company have reported back from different positions and in different conditions. The status of the remaining 197 is unknown” the aide finished

Sykes knew as well as the aide that the remaining 197 soldiers were most likely dead. General Archer, of course, also knew. He swallowed hard and asked:

“What’s the status of the reinforcements?”

“Reinforcements?” Sykes thought. The reinforcements were the main body of army units that had been mobilized from Fort Andor. Why General Archer had been assigned to command instead of letting General Madsen lead the operation, Sykes did not know. Maybe he was considered a better tactician. Or maybe he was more skilled in politics. General Madsen was anything but brilliant. Sykes knew him and he was a pretty gray man. But he would have never thrown an obviously too small unit at the women in a hurry. When doing so, Archer had made two very big mistakes: he had stupidly sacrificed a lot of good soldiers and, by forgetting about the main body of forces, he had delayed them.

“The 13th infantry brigade, a tank regiment from the 168th cavalry brigade and a squadron of attack helicopters from the 127th are en route. The air force also mobilized two A-10 squadrons out of Neville. ETA in Hollner is 35 minutes. They will need 20 more minutes to get in position”

“One hour?” General Archer asked

“Yes, sir” the aide replied in a low tone

General Archer looked down. Then he looked at another aide and said:

“Is the conference with the FSD ready?”

The aide nodded; General Archer made a gesture with one hand and a second later the large screen of the conference room was filled with the image of an elderly man in a white coat.

“Doctor Mendel?” the General asked

“Yes” the elderly scientist replied. “I’m leading the investigation on the causes behind the growth of the two women”

Sykes looked at the image of Mendel. He had not seen him for a while until he had shown up at FSD that morning. No one had really known what had happened to him, but rumor had it that he had been fired for crossing too many red lines during his investigation. In a semi-secret organization like the FSD, that was not accountable to the public, it meant that he had gone really very far away.

He had never liked the old bastard. Next to him, Ron Howard even looked humble. Sykes had not cried when he had suddenly disappeared. If he had to chose between Howard and him, he would still have chosen Mendel ten out of ten times. He could be the most arrogant son of a bitch he had ever known, but at least he was not a naïve teenager with no clue on how the world really worked.

“What have you found so far?” General Archer said

Doctor Mendel adjusted his glasses and said:

“I’m afraid that nothing conclusive, yet. But you’ll be pleased to know that we’ve managed to replicate the process in the third girl from Henford, Miss Lisa Cooper”

Sykes was not surprised. They had let the scientists do anything they wanted without any type of military or even political supervision, so this was logical enough to expect. The fact that he announced it as if he were giving a lecture in college unnerved him, though. General Archer was obviously not so used to the way things were being done in the FSD and asked:

“What do you mean by replicate?”

“We made her grow” Doctor Mendel casually replied; he almost smiled.

The puzzle was very evident in General Archer’s face; most of his aides look as startled.

“What the hell have you done?” he yelled

Very calmly, Doctor Mendel went on with his lecture:

“It was necessary. In order to understand what happened to Miss Hanson and Miss Morgan, we needed samples that they were not willing to provide. The only option was to get them from someone else and Miss Cooper was the obvious option”

“We have our hands full with two giant women. We did not need a third!” General Archer yelled once more

“Oh, don’t worry about that. I assure you that Miss Cooper is far more docile than any of the women that have engaged your forces. I would have advised against confronting them; it’s a pity the many demanding responsibilities of your position did not allow you to consult with me before the confrontation”

Sykes thought that General Archer would throw his chair at the screen. Instead, he just stood up, red faced, and looking straight at Dr. Mendel, he asked:

“So, how would you suggest we proceed, next time?”

“We have solid reasons to believe that the physical abilities of Miss Hanson and Miss Cooper have been greatly enhanced as a result of the transformation they have gone through. We cannot be certain of the exact effect, but some of the models would predict that their strength and endurance would be too great for conventional weapons to be effective. The only field data available so far would seem to confirm those models” Dr. Mendel went on

Sykes thought that General Archer was going to choke. He just remained silent.

“We are uncertain about the effects of other types of weapons, but would also advise against using them until we have been able to have better models” Dr. Mendel concluded

“So, what are you suggesting? That we let them have a field day in the city?” General Archer asked

“We are working on countering the effects of her growth process. I cannot give you a timeline, but we have been progressing a lot over the last hour. I would advise you to try to keep the women as restrained as possible until we can finish the development of the counter and administer it to the women”

General Archer swallowed hard and then said:

“Thank you Doctor”

Just then, red lights flashed behind the doctor on the other side of the screen.

“What is going on?” General Archer said

Someone was talking to the doctor, outside of the camera. Doctor Mendel looked puzzled. Then, he turned towards the screen and said:

“There seems… there seems to be an unexpected development… Miss Cooper… she has been set free and is now heading towards Hollner. She declared her objective was to stop Miss Hanson and Miss Morgan”

General Archer’s jaw dropped. Sykes did not know if he should laugh or cry. Soon a live feed from a helicopter showed them a very large blonde woman stepping over the fence of the FSD building and into the field next to it. She was covered in what looked like white makeshift bra and skirt.

General Archer needed a few seconds to react. He turned towards an aide and asked:

“Do we have any units between her and Hollner?”

The aide shook his head.

“This is going to be a hell of a party” Sykes said. “If it were me, I would wait for the three to be together and then drop a nuke on them, but of course, I’m not going to be the one to say that aloud”

Casey led the way to the river. Kelly was to the left and a little behind. Their destination was not very far away, merely eight blocks. From her height, Casey could see that their path would be mostly deserted.

She still did not know why she had done what she had done with Kelly. Even in prison, Casey had not fallen into that. But she had felt like it. She told herself that being as horny as she had been since she had grown through the prison’s roof and meeting the only other person on the world that shared her size had momentarily clouded her mind. Still, she did not regret it.

Now she could think clearer, though. And she realized that she did not trust Kelly. She had known her since they were little girls, but she had never felt like she had really known what she thought. And she had the same feeling right now. Even if she had seen her dealing with the army, there was an alarm on the back of her head telling her not to trust her.

Was she getting paranoid? Or was it just a logical consequence of having met someone that could match her when she was already imagining herself above everyone else?

She would need to deal with the feeling.

She was momentarily distracted by a movement at street level. Then she saw her. It looked like the street was not so deserted in the end. The tiny woman was hiding behind a car, as if this would prevent Casey from seeing her, from her vantage point of view. Without warning, Casey crouched down and plucked her from behind her cover. Standing up, she faced Kelly, who had stopped to check what was happening.

Casey let the woman roll into her palm and showed her to her giant colleague.

In a mocking tone, she said:

“She thought she would be able to hide from me”

“She was stupid, then” Kelly said, her face not revealing anything

“Do you want her?” Casey asked

“Nah. Finders keepers” Kelly said

“I’m not going to keep her long” Casey said, keeping her eyes locked into Kelly’s, trying to see if her expression betrayed her. It didn’t. Her former friend would have been a very good poker player

“Your call” Kelly said

Just then, Casey started to close her hand around the screaming woman. She did not lose sight of Kelly as her hand turned into a tight first.

“You really are a good poker player” Casey thought. “But I’ll figure you out”