Chapter 22. Priorities

Ron was pulled out of the chopper the moment it hit the roof of the Federal Building they had been commanded to land on. The rotor was still on and he felt the strong wind it caused, but the tall and muscular soldiers did not seem to be affected by this as they carried out orders. Orders that must be coming from someone that was very disappointed, Ron realized.

He was pushed down the stairs and straight into a conference room. A red-faced man with a two-star General uniform was waiting for him. He was clearly the one in charge. Ron barely had time to quickly scan the room. He did not know anyone… wait… he then saw Sykes in the back. He felt some anger growing into him and replacing part of the frustration and disorientation he still felt at what had happened.

“What the fuck happened out there?” the very angry General barked at him

Ron needed some time to react, then said:

“My… my team… we… we were…”

“We are bringing them here now!” the General barked again. “I thought you had a counter to make those damned bimbos small again!”

The truth was that Ron had been absolutely convinced of it. He could still not understand what had happened, and he tended to feel very uncomfortable when he was in situations where he did not have all the necessary information.

“I… I don’t know… for all we know, it should have worked” Ron finally managed to say

The General pointed at one of the screens on the room and Ron realized that it was playing a live feed of Casey and Lisa fighting each other not so far away from there. Right now, Casey had one of Lisa’s arms trapped and had kneed her in the stomach.

“Well, it does not looked as if it worked” the General said

“I’m sure we can make it work… I’m sure we got the theory right… we just need to work a little more on the chemical…” Ron said

“We don’t have more time!” the General yelled. “I have three women destroying Hollner’s Downtown” he added in the same upset tone.

“Sir…” Ron said, finding some resolve. “Attacking them is a mistake”

“Trusting you damned white coat nerds was the mistake in the first place” the General said

“Sir, you have to listen to me…” Ron tried

“I will listen to you” the General said. Ron had a brief moment of hope, then the General added: “if you can give me another counter in 5 minutes”

Ron’s expression changed.

“What? This is impossible… we need more time…”

“We do not have any time!” the General repeated. Then, the turned to someone in a Coronel’s uniform and said: “Give green light to operation Goliath”

Operation Goliath? Ron didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry at the stupid arrogance of the General and the stupid name he had come up with for what was a much worse mistake than the one his team and him had made. He was thinking on how to reply when an alarm sounded.

“What the hell is happening?” General Archer asked

One of his aides was talking on a communicator. He then turned and said:

“One of the giant women is coming this direction”

The look in the General’s face changed instantly. Ron looked at the screen and saw Casey and Lisa still engaged on their fight, this time Lisa managing to score a hit in Casey’s face. This only left Kelly. He felt a knot in his stomach.

“Wha…what?” General Archer said

“The woman identified as Kelly Hanson is coming in this direction. We believe she has followed the helicopter’s path”

Ron could see General Archer swallowing hard. He was no expert in military tactics, but it seemed pretty obvious that the General’s eagerness to yell at him, which had made him order the pilot of his helicopter to immediately bring him to the Federal building, had backfired.

“We should evacuate, sir” the aide told him

“Yes… yes. Start evacuation” General Archer said, sounding a little confused.

There was a water glass in the table next to Ron. When the water started to ripple he knew that it was too late. Soon, the shakes became noticeable to everyone on the room. The General and his staff were getting ready to go to the roof and take one of the choppers that had got him into the building and that was getting ready to evacuate them.

The General had commanded him to go with them; less than a minute later they were hurriedly walking through a hall in the direction of the roof stairs when the shakes made some stuff fall from the desks and the light coming in through the windows was blocked by something.

An instant later, some words thundered through the building:

“You are not going anywhere”

They did not understand who the voice was referring to until it said:

“This chopper is going to be a pile of junk in ten seconds. I’d rather have you get out of it, but it’s your call, really”

Less than half a minute later, they heard an explosion coming from the ground, several stories below. Then, the voice made the windows rattle again:

“Now, you will tell me who you were carrying in this chopper and into this building”

Ron felt the knot in his stomach tighten as he heard the question. The party was no longer advancing towards the roof access stairs. They had remained still, as events unfolded. Ron was probably the most nervous person in the group, but the rest did not seem t be in much better shape.

A few seconds later, Kelly’s voice came back. It sounded somewhat excited as it said:

“Interesting”

If Ron had had any doubts on what had happened, they were clarified when the light through the windows changed as the massive woman outside their building moved. Soon, a large face appeared in front of the windows of the top floor, where Ron was. Enormous hazel eyes started scanning through the windows when Ron, quite instinctively, dropped to the floor.

He felt her thundering voice closer than ever as it called his name:

“Ron, I know you’re there”

He felt a shiver run down his spine as he heard it and his mind wondered about Kelly’s intentions. He had been very intimate with her just a few days ago, but after what he had seen and heard of her on TV he was more scared than anything.

“Come meet me at the roof if you don’t want me to start looking for you floor after floor” the voice said again

At that moment, Ron felt several people looking at him. He swallowed hard.

Kelly knew it was critical to learn what those choppers had tried to do to Casey and Lisa. She was pretty sure that the gas they had released on them was some sort of reducer, but given the lack of effects, she could not know for sure. It may have very well been an attempt at poisoning them, as Casey had accused them of.

Once she had seen the choppers landing on the roof of a not so distant building, she knew she should pay them a visit.

“I should have imagined that they would try something like this” she thought as she advanced through pretty empty streets. “It was never going to be so easy, was it?” Kelly thought, realizing that it had been too naïve to think that people would quickly accept the new situation. “In the end, you always knew that you would need to dirty your hands more than you wanted to admit” her mind added.

The sounds of Casey and Lisa destroying more of downtown as they kept on they never ending fight momentarily caught her attention.

“It would have been much easier if they had not shown up, though. They’re both idiots. They cannot appreciate the gift they got. One is too wimpy and the other is too vicious”

She kept on advancing, closing the distance with the building very quickly. She let her feet trample power lines and abandoned vehicles, but she was careful to avoid the few scattered people on her way.

For the first time since she had emerged from the hotel, she did not feel in control. And it was horrible. She had already partially felt like this when Casey had forced her to do things she had not planned, but she had the hope that she would be able to rein her in, to trick her out of her behavior. Now, after Lisa had shown up, she knew it was impossible. She had tried, but she had soon realized that the three would never agree on anything. She was willing to commit, to be flexible… but Casey and Lisa were not.

And to make things much worse, the army, or whoever that chopper had belonged to, was now attempting the only thing she was truly scared of: reducing them. Kelly felt… she knew that she could not be defeated while she was big. But she had already been reduced before, and she knew that she would be helpless if that happened again.

She was trying to form a plan in her head… but there were too many variables. She needed more information. And she knew where she would get it.

She was in front of the building in no time. It was pretty characteristic, with its conical shape and its rather large heliport on the roof. But it was not that big. Somewhat distant from the city center, the building’s top was barely level with Kelly’s prominent chest. After a long while walking around buildings that were much taller than her, the feeling of towering over this one was refreshing. And, knowing that she had to intimidate the people inside, it also was welcome.

The helicopter on the roof had turned the rotor on. She had clearly been spotted. She easily stopped the rotor with a finger and then threatened the pilot and his co-pilot out of it. A second later, he was dangling in front of her eyes, ready to be questioned. He was cooperative enough, so she set him and his co-pilot in a nearby roof before casually dropping the chopper into the road below.

She was quite excited when she stooped to look through the windows. From the description of the pilot, there was no doubt that Ron was here!

She really wanted to get her fingers on him. She knew that he would be the best source for answers but, at the same time, she still felt very mad at him for the attempt on her life.

She called for him, ordered him to go to the roof. After a while, nothing had happened.

“Ok, as you want” Kelly said in the direction of the building.

Then, she easily broke the left-most window of the top floor with two fingers and dragged them all the way to the right, easily breaking glass and plaster as they advanced. In a matter of seconds, the entire top floor was exposed to her curious eyes.

“Fuck, that was close” a sergeant said as he and Ron hid behind a desk in the empty office they had dashed into

Ron still felt a little shocked from all the destruction that was happening around him, his mind having trouble to associate it to a casual gesture from a woman he had known since elementary school.

He risked a peek through one of the windows of the office that showed the large status room. He felt horror and something close to guilt when impossibly large fingers entered the status room and closed around a panicked woman. She was quickly pulled out of his view.

“I’m searching for Ron Howard. About 24, rather tall, nerdy? Have you seen him?” Kelly’s powerful voice said from outside

He could not hear the woman’s reply, but after a while, Kelly’s voice came back again:

“I already know he’s in there. I need to know where he is”

Some more time passed when Kelly’s voice, this time sounding a little bit more frustrated, made Ron’s bones rattle once more:

“You’ve been quite useless. But you told the truth”

Ron did not know what was happening outside, but he hoped that Kelly’s words were matching her attitude and that she would not hurt the woman.

Her voice came back:

“If anyone knows where Ron Howard is, make yourselves a favor and deliver him to me in the roof. It’s going to be much worse for everyone if I have to look for him”

Ron heard the sergeant cocking his gun and whisper to him:

“No matter what happens, stay behind me”

Less than a minute later, the door to office he was hiding in brusquely opened. A man in a suit got in, with a gun in his hand. He turned and when he saw Sergeant Jeffries, he tried to aim in his direction. Sergeant Jeffries shot first. A scream was caught up in Ron’s throat as he saw blood from the gray-suited man splatter the wall behind him.

“Fuck!” the sergeant said. “We need to get the hell out of here”

Kelly was surprised by the sound of shots inside the building. She was not expecting that. At least, not without her being the target. She was wondering what might have happened when some movement on the roof caught her attention. There were some people getting out of the access door. Curious, she stood up and looked at them, searching for Ron. He was not among the four people in there, all of them in military uniforms and holding a rifle in their hand.

The moment they noticed her eyes locked on them, the four men stopped and took aim. A second later, bullets were harmlessly bouncing of the skin of Kelly’s cheeks, neck and breasts.

While this was much more expected, it pissed Kelly off enormously anyway. Without warning, she swiftly moved her right hand to the roof, curled her fingers and flicked one of the soldiers, sending him flying for over two blocks before he started falling down.

Another soldier followed the same fate before the other two had time to react. They stood from the firing position and tried to run to the access door. Not in the mood for subtleties, Kelly swept her hand over the roof and sent them flying too.

Her voice was significantly more upset as she said:

“If you keep trying to shoot me, I may start thinking that bringing the whole building down is a good idea”

She heard more shots, but, once more, they were inside the building. Forgetting about the unsuccessful but very annoying attempts to hurt her, Kelly felt curious again about what could be happening inside the building

“Sergeant… please… let it go” Ron said as Sergeant Jeffries returned some of the shots that were coming from the other side of the aisle. According to him, there was a group of three people closing on them.

“I have orders to protect you” the sergeant said

“It’s pointless” Ron mentioned. “Too many people have died already because of me. I don’t want anyone else to die” he said in a very sad tone

“Sorry, doc, but this is not up to you to decide” the sergeant said

Ron rolled his eyes as the sergeant returned one more shot.

Then, he reached for the desk behind him, grabbed a very heavy paperweight and slammed it on the back of the sergeant’s head. As he dropped to the floor, unconscious, he moved closer to the door and said:

“I’m Ron Howard. I will go to the roof by myself. I’m going to come out”

Kelly was prepared for some other stupid attempt when she saw movement in the door that gave access to the roof once more. Her muscles tensed as she straightened up, getting ready. She relaxed almost as quickly when a single figure was pushed through the opening and the door was slammed shut right behind it. Her lips drew a very wide smile in her face when she realized who that figure was.

“Hello Ron” she said in a soft but excited voice

Surprisingly enough, Ron looked more depressed than scared. He looked up as he walked in her direction, something that was definitely new for her. Stopping in the middle of the roof, he said:

“Hello Kelly”

“You and I have a lot of catching up to do” Kelly said

“I know” Ron said in a resigned tone

“Stand still” she said as she reached out for him. She was careful as she picked him by the sides with two fingers and raised him in front of her eyes. “Let’s go someplace quiet”

And then, she turned and walked down the street. She knew perfectly well where she was going. From her height, the park at the end of the street was very visible and very beckoning. As she got there, she let herself drop, her hard ass making the ground shake as it sat on the soft grass. Cupping her left palm under her face, Kelly then dropped Ron, who had still been dangling on the fingers of her right hand.

He needed a few second to recover from the ride. She observed him with a mix of curiosity and disappointment as he did.

“I would have climbed into your hand myself, if you had asked me to” Ron said, his tone slightly accusing

“I don’t ask for things anymore. I take them” Kelly said, authoritative.

“I thought you didn’t like being a giant” Ron said in a slightly accusing tone

Kelly knew where he was coming from.

“I never said that. I said that I did not regret having taken the counter, back in Henford”

“You lied” Ron said

“I guess I did. The truth is I love being a goddess” Kelly replied

“This is insane” Ron said

“What would be insane would be giving this away” was Kelly’s simple answer

“What do you want from me?” Ron asked

“Answers. You lied to me as well” Kelly said

“I… I did” Ron admitted

“You are going to tell me all the truth, now” she said

“I can’t” Ron said

Kelly could not prevent a laugh.

“Come on Ron. Let’s make this easy, shall we? You know you are going to tell me, so why not telling me before I need to do anything you will regret”

“Are you threatening me?” Ron said, his voice sounding hurt

“Says the guy who sent a couple of hitmen to get rid of me” Kelly said, getting a little more upset

“It wasn’t me” Ron said almost immediately

“They worked for the same guys you do” Kelly quickly added

“It was … someone else” Ron said

“Who?” Kelly asked

“Colonel Sykes” Ron finally said, reluctantly

The name did not ring a bell. Ron must have seen the confusion in her face as he said:

“He was the responsible for security at FSD”

“Where is he?” Kelly asked

She could see some hesitation in Ron’s face. Then, he said:

“He’s in the Federal Building. He was there with me”

He had hesitated, but he had finally done what his gut was telling him. He hated Sykes, he had been the ultimate responsible for what was happening in Hollner right now and he deserved to pay for it. He knew that with his words he had most likely sentenced him, but with his own life pretty much in a similar situation, Ron decided that he should not feel guilty. Everyone had to be responsible of his own actions and Sykes had been the responsible for the attempt on Kelly’s life.

Kelly frowned. Ron imagined what was going on through her head. She did not give it away, though. She just changed topics.

“What was the green gas you shot at Casey and Lisa?” Kelly asked

Ron hesitated, then he said:

“A reducer”

“It did not work” Kelly observed

“Really? I had not noticed” Ron replied with sarcasm in his voice

“Do you know how to make us small again?” Kelly asked

Ron thought for some time. Then, he replied:

“Right now? No, I don’t. That gas was my best bet”

“Will you eventually find out?” Kelly asked

Ron hesitated for even more time. Then, he said:

“I think I will. Not on my own, but there is a full team of people working on this, back at the FSD”

Kelly frowned slightly as she said:

“You see, Ron, that is a problem. Because I really don’t want to get small again”

Kelly could see Ron swallowing hard. Then, he asked:

“Are you going to kill me?”

He did not sound scared or angry. He sounded resigned.

Kelly waited a few second to reply. Then, she said:

“No. I kind of like you”

Ron laughed hysterically.

“And I thought you were just fucking me for information”

“I was. But you are cute, anyway” Kelly said. “In any case, I don’t need to kill you. I just need to delay you”

“What are you going to do?” Ron asked, sounding curious

“Do you really think I’m going to tell you?” Kelly asked in a slightly mocking tone. “It’s good to know that you won’t be able to make me smaller for a while, though” she added.

“They will fight you, in any case” Ron said

“Do you honestly think that they have any chance?” Kelly asked him

Ron did not reply.

“They don’t have any chance against Casey or Lisa either” she said in a questioning tone.

Ron nodded.

“I will need to take care about them myself, then”

Ron looked puzzled. She felt compelled to explain.

“I can’t let them around, especially Casey. But Lisa is never going to win that fight. I was planning to let them settle things themselves, but after you showed up with the first attempt at a reducer, there is no time anymore”

“What are you going to do?” Ron asked again

“I’m going to take care of Casey and Lisa and then I’ll let everyone know who is in charge”

Kelly then stood up and looked around. She found an adequate enough spot for her intentions soon enough. Crossing the park, she crouched and grabbed a small boat by the shore of a lake. Then, she straightened back up and set Ron inside. Then, she walked in the direction of a tall communications tower on the other side of the park and set the boat in one of the arches that the structure, that looked like a scaled-down version of the Eiffel Tower. There was no way Ron would be able to get down and finding him and getting him out would take anyone with enough will to do it some time. It was all Kelly needed.

“Bye Ron” she said in a soft and almost caring tone

“Kelly, you cannot stay like this” Ron tried for a last time

Smiling at him, Kelly said:

“You see, Ron… you are right on this one”