Chapter 15. Big Apple

Kelly took a quick look at Brooklyn to her right and Staten Island to her left as she calmly made her way to Manhattan through the bay. The sun was already setting in the horizon and the breeze that cooled her body was welcome, after an entire day of roaming naked under a fierce sun.

Her skin had got a nice tan. Thankfully, the sun had had no further effect on it. Being sunburnt after not having been harmed by hundreds of missiles would have really been ironic.

Kelly’s feet sank deep in the bay’s mud, but still, the water could not make it to her ankle.

New York’s skyline was a thrilling sight. She had been to New York once, when she was sixteen, and she had loved it. Its skyscrapers, its busy life, the skyline by night … She had been amazed. She remembered having felt frustrated when she had to go back to Henford.

Of course, she now had a very different perspective of New York, but even at its much smaller scale, the city still had charm.

The fact that she had got there as dusk was getting close had been coincidental, but very welcome. The lights of the city were all lit up, highlighting its skyline even more. It also made it easier to see that every single street and every single highway in the island or in any of the other four boroughs of the city was packed with cars. The alignment of white and red lights easily marked the roads and the directions of their lanes.

So it seemed that, predictably enough, people were trying to evacuate the city. Kelly realized that she did not like it. And in her mind, she should not have anything she did not like.

“They need to understand who is in charge” she thought as she headed for Manhattan.

She made a stop first, though. It was impossible to let it pass. Walking until she had one foot on each side of Liberty Island, she chuckled as she saw that the Statue of Liberty could not even reach to her knees.

Crouching, she ripped it from the ground and held it in her hand. With its pedestal, it felt just a little taller than Lisa had been. Bringing the hand that was holding the statue high, mimicking the gesture the statue itself made with the torch, Kelly addressed the city:

“You don’t need a Statue of Liberty anymore. You have me!”

Chuckling, she moved her hand back down and kept on moving towards the city. She stopped when she saw a Ferry dangerously close to her left foot.

Kelly realized that any movement of her foot would probably be fatal for the ferry. The ferry and her foot shared the same length, but she had no doubts about which of them would have the upper hand in terms of sheer strength. She thought on taking just a longer step, but then she realized that even that would probably be dangerous, as her foot would cause massive tidal waves when it moved, and being so close to it, it was likely that the ship was caught on them.

Keeping still for a while, she realized that waiting for the ferry to get clear of her was not an option either. It was painfully slow!

Tired, she just crouched down and scooped the ferry in her free left hand. Standing back up and looking through its windows, she thought that it looked pretty packed.

In a lecturing tone, she addressed its passengers:

“Haven’t you tiny people learned already that getting into mass transportation when I’m around is not a good idea?”

Without further word, she walked back to Liberty Island and set the ferry in the ground as she said:

“Stay here”

Turning, she headed back towards the city, noticing that the entire scene had excited her again. Her nipples were harder than they had been and she felt a little warm once more.

“Of all the things I can do, bossing the people around and mocking their attempts at anything is still the one that gets me off the fastest… curious”

She then looked at the statue she was holding in her hand and thought:

“Well, it’s smaller than the obelisk, but it looks just the right size…”

She did not need it… yet. But she was about to boss the largest city in the country and ask the leaders of the world to surrender to her, so she was pretty sure that she might need it sooner or later.

“Whatever made me grow seems to have made my libido grow in proportion” Kelly thought, not ashamed at all. After all, who was going to tell her what was right anymore?

She reached the edge of Battery Park soon enough. From there, she had a privileged view of the entire island, of its landmark buildings and parks, on its neatly laid out streets and avenues… and of the hundreds of thousands of people desperately trying to get out.

She was going to take care of that…

Clearing her throat, she addressed the entire city:

“People of New York. Pay attention to your Goddess. I’m here mostly for business, but I’m planning to do some sightseeing, once I’m done. Which means that I cannot have you packing the streets. I command all of you to stop your cars, get out and get back to your homes. If you are far away, get into any other building. But don’t try to get out of my city. I will be walking down the streets soon enough. I will do my best to avoid damaging the buildings too much, but I won’t care at all about anything that’s on the roads and that happens to end under my feet, understood?”

She did not think that she needed to repeat anything. She was pretty sure everyone would have been able to listen to her. So, without further consideration, she turned right and started heading north through East River.

New Yorkers were convinced that she meant business when she carelessly walked through the different bridges she found on her path.

Hundreds of cars sunk deep in the river as her shins easily broke through Brooklyn Bridge and then repeated the operation with Manhattan Bridge and a little while later with Williamsburg Bridge.

Kelly did not even notice the small NYPD boat that was dragged under her feet by the strong currents they were creating as she kept moving north while she admired the view to her left.

She loved New York from her new perspective. Hollner had been a big city, but New York was something else. It felt different, even from her present height. She was looking forward to spending a pleasant evening on it.

She just needed to finish taking over the world first.

She was standing in front of the very characteristic UN building soon enough. It did not reach much higher than her knee, which forced her to kneel and stoop in order to have a good enough look.

“First things first” she thought as she put the Statue of Liberty down and then removed her makeshift collar and set the Washington Ferris Wheel into the ground, next to the UN building.

“George, Charlotte, get out, if you are so kind” she said

Then, taking for granted that they would follow her instructions, she looked back at the building. She wondered what to do. Then, Kelly opened her palm wide and moved it towards the façade with as much care as she could.

She barely let her palm touch the surface. It was enough to make most of its windows shatter, sending glass raining down below. She removed her palm with care. The vast majority of the building was exposed to her curious eyes.

The UN headquarters was bustling with activity. There had to be hundreds of people inside. Now, they were all running around, she also thought that the majority of them were screaming.

“Pay attention to me” she said in a soft voice. “I’m not here to hurt anyone. I just came to present my terms” she added

She gave them a few moments. Of course, the commotion she had caused was not going to die right away, but she felt that they were a little quieter, so she went on.

“As I announced a while ago in Washington, I have the intention of ruling the world and the power to make it possible. Now, everyone knows there are two ways this can happen. I’d rather have the easy way. I hope that you have already seen what happens when you choose the other way”

She gave them a couple of seconds and went on:

“My demands are really very simple. I want to be the absolute ruler of the planet. This means that ultimately, every single person in the planet belongs to me and needs to obey my orders. Now, I’m willing to be flexible in the way to get to that. You can keep your countries, your symbols, your laws, your religion and anything else you want. I just demand that you submit to my rule. Rewrite your constitutions, do any changes you need to make and behave like it, and we’ll be fine. I don’t care how you organize yourselves. If you want to vote for your leaders, I’m fine with it. If you have other systems… well, I guess that I can no longer be considered a paladin of democracy, can I?” Kelly said, with a chuckle

She went on:

“The only thing you need to take into account is that I’m above all you. Every wish of mine will be a command to you. If I ask you to do anything, you’ll do it, no matter what you have to do. If you have to change your laws, you will. Understood?”

She gave them some more time to let her words sink in. Then, she delivered the final message.

“You have until tomorrow at sunrise to submit to me. My new President will negotiate the terms with you. Any country that has not accepted my rule by tomorrow morning will be considered rogue. Hopefully, none of you will be stupid enough to make a wrong choice, but if there are those that do, I’m prepared to make an example of you. And I’m ready to do anything I need to do to ensure that you submit to me. And believe me, I can do quite a lot”

Then, she set her finger in the ground right in front of where George and Charlotte had exited the Ferris Wheel and waited for them to climb in her fingernail. Bringing her finger back into the building, she waited for them to get out.

“Close the details. I will come back for them tomorrow morning. If anything happened to either George or Charlotte, I can promise you that I will bring this building and the entire city down to make sure that none of you have the minimum chance of escaping”

Taking the Statue of Liberty in her hand again, she stood up, she looked down at the knee high building and said:

“Don’t be stupid. I really don’t want to destroy anything else”

Kurt was a janitor in the Empire State Building. Of course, the building had been closed ever since the evacuation had started, but he had still managed to sneak inside. Most people were afraid of this woman. He was a little afraid too. But he was more fascinated than afraid. And this fascination got him to the roof.

He had seen her wading north through East River. Now she was wading south. She was magnificent. At normal size she would have already been a sight to behold. Her voluptuous body was a gift to the eyes. Now, standing taller than any feature in Manhattan’s skyline, she was even more impressive.

Her movements were fluid, natural, clearly conveying the fact that she was not a monster but a human being of prodigious size. Her way of walking was sensual and transmitted a very evident confidence. Of course, Kurt could imagine that there was no way anyone could feel more confident than this woman was feeling right now.

Kelly reached Battery Park once more and prepared to get into the city. She could have walked straight from the UN building to her final destination, but she wanted to see some of the most popular places in the city that she would have missed if she had done that. Nine years later, it was time to do some sightseeing of New York again, only from a new perspective.

The roads had emptied a bit since she had issued her warning, but they were still ridiculously packed. She pondered giving them a second chance, but she decided against that. People had to learn what happened when they did not follow her instructions. And she did not feel that at her current status she should be repeating things twice.

She mentally chose her path through the city. Fifth Avenue seemed wide enough, even if barely.

She started to slowly advance along it. She was forced to walk as a tightrope walker, to prevent her hips from making too much damage to the buildings on both sides. In every step, she waited until her foot was firmly planted on the ground, covering the span of the road from sidewalk to sidewalk and then, she lifted her other foot and carefully set it right in front of the first one.

It was slow and it was tiring, but it was what she had to do to prevent bringing part of the city down as she advanced. It also had the side effect that almost nothing on the road was spared as her feet set on it very close to each other.

She could relax her stance a little as she got next to ground zero. Looking at it from above, a thought crossed Kelly’s mind:

“What would I do if something like this happened while I’m in charge?”

She realized she did not know. Which made her realize that ruling was not going to be easy all the time. Then, an idea came to mind:

“So far, you have solved any problems by crushing enough people so the guilty paid. Why wouldn’t you do the same in this case?”

Up to a point, she knew this approach might not be fair. But it was effective. When her subconscious told her that this could mean crushing an entire country, the only thing she could think about was: “You could, if it was necessary”

She really hoped it would not be necessary. The stupidity of the tiny people had not ceased to amaze her over the day, but sooner or later they had to learn, didn’t they?

She got back on her way, tightrope walking along Fifth Avenue. Her next stop was obvious enough.

Kim knew that she should probably barricade herself in the deepest room of her apartment, but she realized she couldn’t. She had been glued to the window of her fourth floor apartment, curtains dragged and eyes locked in the advancing woman. Or rather on the parts of her she could see.

She had not been able to get a clear view of the giantess for a while, now. The last time she had been able to see her whole, she had already looked massive, and she had been over twenty blocks away, the tallest buildings not making it much higher than her mid-thigh.

Now, Kim’s view was restricted to her legs, mostly.

The speed at which she could move was amazing. In a matter of seconds, the distant shakings had turned into an earthquake that forced her to take a good hold of the window frame to keep her footing.

She took her eyes away from the woman for the first time in over a minute when the screams from the street right below her window got loud enough to get her attention. Fifth Avenue was packed. Cars formed seven or eight different lines that were no longer following the lanes and took as much of the sidewalks as urban furniture allowed. None of them could move an inch. Some of them tried, but the only result was a crash with the car in front. People on foot crammed the very narrow aisles between them. They were trying to run, even if it was hard to do so in such a tight space.

Their screams were anguished. The giant woman was getting very close. Some drivers got more nervous, if that was even possible, and tried to ram cars out of the way. The only thing they managed to do was to run people over and crush them between cars.

Kim was thrown off her feet, the shaking so strong that there was nothing she could do to hold herself. The glass shattered an instant after she landed on her butt. Then, parts of the wall cracked and she was afraid that the building would come down on her. It held. The light getting through the window had darkened.

Kim managed to stand up right away and look through the window once more. Her morbid curiosity had defeated her survival instinct. All she could see was a polished surface the size of a small swimming pool. It took her a second to realize it was the woman’s toenail and that it was standing as high as the apartment of her neighbor on the third floor.

Kim’s jaw dropped. Her mind was too busy processing her surroundings to let her do anything else. Then, Kim realized that something was missing: the screams.

The skin right behind the toenail flexed and then, a never-ending mass of pinkish skin moved in front of her window and disappeared. Light got through again. Kim took a step towards the glassless opening and looked down.

The entire avenue had sunk three stories into the ground. And its now uneven surface was covered by dozens of deformed metal slugs and hundreds of too recognizable red stains.

Kim felt her legs failing her and fell back on her butt. She opened her mouth to scream, but she did not manage to produce any sound.

Kelly had set her eyes on the Empire State Building as soon as she had got to New York.

In the twilight, with its lights on, the Empire State looked magnificent. It was almost the same height as the Millennium Tower, back in Hollner, but it was way more iconic.

The Millennium Tower was a pretty impressive display of modern architecture, and it was not as if Kelly had not liked it, but she very much preferred the charm of the Empire State.

The first problem the Empire State posed was that there was really not too much space around it. It would be hard for Kelly to get next to it without any part of her body damaging the cityscape around her. She partially solved the problem by standing on the corner of the building, with one foot in Fifth Avenue and the other on 33rd street. Even like this, she had to be careful, since she knew that the slightest of her movements could wreak havoc.

As the Millennium Tower, the Empire State reached to her impressive chest. Its spike got as high as her chin, which was a little higher than that of the building in Hollner. She decided against ripping it off, in this case, though. She liked this building too much to damage it.

The sight of the spike reminded her, then, of the famous King Kong scene. She chuckled as she thought that the giant ape would look a couple of inches tall to her, now.

Well, the truth was that there was not any single movie monster that could even compare to her. Godzilla would be nothing more than a small lizard.

“Not even in their wildest fantasies, humans have been able to imagine anything like me” she thought

Her attention was caught by something between her tits. Or to be more precise, by movement in the observation deck that was at the level of her glorious chest.

It took her a second to realize that it was a tiny man. She chuckled when she realized that the man was actually jumping and waving his hands. He was trying to get her attention.

“Curious” she said in a very soft tone as she set her eyes on the man

Trying to get a closer look, she stooped a little. This proved to be a very bad idea. Being so close to the building, stooping forced her to move her thighs and hips back a little, to create some space for her chest and face to get down. This proved to be fatal for the building behind her. Its top floors did not survive the contact with her hard ass and fell to the street below.

“Fuck” she muttered

The man, now closer to her face, stopped waving and looked worried. Kelly offered a smile to him and said:

“Don’t worry. It’s not your fault. I’m clumsy”

The man seemed to relax. Then, without addressing anyone in particular, Kelly said:

“I guess one should be careful when she can bring a building down with her ass”

The man was suddenly motionless. She smiled at him again and asked:

“What’s your name, tiny?”

Kurt could not believe he was holding a conversation with the massive woman. Her face alone was the size of a small skyscraper. She was so close that Kurt could not see it in its entirety. His eyes moved from her enormous full lips to her billboard sized eyes from time to time.

He told her his name. She asked him why she had tried to get his attention. When he told her, she chuckled.

“You like me being this big?”

“Yes” he admitted

“You remind me of someone I met this morning” the giant woman said with a smile.

“I was not so big, then, though”

“I like you bigger” Kurt said

The woman chuckled once more and asked:

“Why?”

“It makes you more powerful” he said

Kelly had expected people to accept her power and submit to her, but she had never imagined that she would have fan boys as she took over the world.

“You tiny people are really curious” she said

When the man looked up at her with questioning eyes, she said:

“I don’t think that I would like anyone to have so much power over me as I have over you. Of course, I’m biased. After a full day being so much above everyone else, it’s hard to imagine not being the one on top”

She got distracted by the sound of a rotor. Turning, she saw a helicopter hovering right behind her. A quick look told her that it was not the cops. Focusing a little more on it, she realized it was not the press either.

The pilot did obviously not like her sudden attention, so he was trying to pull up and get away from her. Holding the Statue of Liberty under her armpit, she had no problems reaching out and pinching it by its tail. Bringing it in front of her curious eyes, she tried to read the sign on its side. Then, she asked aloud:

“A fucking tourist chopper?”

Setting it on her palm, she commanded in a voice that offered no options:

“Get out!”

They complied soon enough. Pinching the chopper again, she carelessly tossed it over her shoulder, reminding too late that Manhattan was one of the most densely built areas in the world.

There were two tiny figures in her hand. She asked:

“What were you doing?”

One of them finally answered:

“He paid me to get him near you”

So, he was the pilot. The other guy did not have anything remarkable. She just said:

“I’m not a fucking tourist attraction. I am your new goddess”

The man who had paid suddenly dropped to his knees as he said:

“Please, Goddess, forgive us. We just wanted to see your magnificence”

It made Kelly laugh.

“Stop it!” she said. “It’s pathetic! I’m not that kind of goddess”

The man looked puzzled. Then, Kelly had an idea.

“Honestly, I was not expecting this… but it seems that some of you guys like me like this. I don’t want to be annoyed unnecessarily, but I kind of like the idea behind this” she said. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to crush you or anything”

The kneeling man seemed relaxed, but also a little embarrassed.

“Maybe I should offer guided tours of myself. In the end, I guess one could say I’m a wonder of the world now. I have some business to take care of, right now, but once I finish taking over the world and doing some sightseeing, I may schedule some time where I let people visit me and talk to me. Maybe this makes me a more popular goddess, after all”

Looking at the pilot, she said:

“Maybe I’ll employ you as an official pilot for the tour. I’ll need to find you another chopper, though”

“I would pay anything to be the first one” the ‘tourist’ finally said

Kelly chuckled and said:

“Do I look like I need money?”

He looked embarrassed again.

“Anyway, I should get going. It’s been a long day and I’m getting tired. Now, I have two options for the three of you. I can either set all of you in the roof and leave you alone or you can come with me. I guess you can sleep in my navel or some other spot.

Kurt decided for everyone else, but of course, no one was going to complain. So, easily ripping the protective fence on the Empire State’s observation deck, Kelly pinched Kurt with two fingers, released it in the same hand where she was holding the others, and got on her way.

A couple of minutes later she was in Central Park. She was proud that she had been able to minimize the number of accidents as she tightrope walked along the city.

The park was really big, even for her new standards. And it looked comfortable enough. Finding an adequate spot, she sat on the ground and looked at the three passengers on her hand.

With a mischievous voice, she said:

“When I told you that I was going to sleep I really omitted something important…” Showing the Statue of Liberty to them, she said: “I’m a woman… I have needs, and this world domination stuff makes me incredibly horny”

Laying back a little, she dropped the tiny people on her belly button and marveled as they fit inside.

“Hold tight. I think it may get bumpy” she said as she let her back drop completely to the ground and blindly brought the Statue of Liberty to its destination.

As she let out the first moans, Kelly thought:

“It seems that I’m getting keen on fucking famous landmarks. What’s going to be next? The Golden Gate?”

Her mind then wandered and told her:

“The world is full of them. You may enjoy a little tour after you’re done with the whole take over stuff”

“Those are good news” Catherine McAllister said when she learned that Lisa Callaghan was under the FSD custody again

“We did not tell the President” Director Brown said

“Not yet?” Catherine asked, surprised that she had learned about this first

“We decided not to tell him. At least, until we can get results. We cannot be completely sure that he will not order us to kill her right away” Director Brown said

Catherine sighed. She understood.

“He is not getting better” she said. It was not a question

“Things are not getting better” Director Brown concurred

“What haven’t you told me yet?” Catherine asked

“Ever since the Pentagon went down, there has been very little coordination between our armed forces. Different generals are reacting in different ways. Some are keeping a low profile, but some are not. And they have a direct line with the President”

“Who is it?” Catherine asked

“Admiral Ward” Director Brown said

She knew him. She would have expected another name. Admiral Ward was from an older generation, and she would have not labeled him as a maverick.

“What has he done?” Catherine asked

“Nothing… yet. He proposed a plan to the President to get rid of the threat from the giant woman. And the President has approved it”

“What does the plan consist on?” Catherine asked

“I don’t know. I’m trying to get the details, but he did not submit the plan to the cabinet. He submitted it to the President himself. The only thing I’ve been able to get so far is that the President has authorized the use of nuclear weapons as part of his approval”

“Oh my God” Catherine said