A few minutes earlier…

Lisa was horrified. Standing in the river, she could not take her eyes away from Kelly. She could not believe what she was seeing. The woman who had once been her friend had already reached the outskirts of the city. She stood much taller than any of the buildings there. Lisa had seen her blowing dozens of helicopters out of the sky. Her sight was surprisingly good and had shown her an unexpected level of detail of the scene. She would have preferred not seeing it. Lisa knew that there had been people inside each of the choppers and felt sorrow for each of them. Still, she had felt much worse when she had seen buildings crumbling in Kelly’s path.

“How can she be doing this? Kelly is not like this!” Lisa thought. “She is not like Casey!”

She took a quick look over her shoulder to see Casey, standing a few steps behind her in the river, as petrified as her. Her face showed incredulity, but it was of a different kind than her own, Lisa knew.

Lisa felt a very brief moment of relief when she thought that things would have been even worse if Casey had been the one to grow so much. Casey was the dangerous one. After all, Kelly had helped her to subdue Casey, when she had let the size get to her head, back in Henford.

Then, Kelly crouched and she heard some more screams in the distance and she felt despair taking over her again. No, Kelly was not the same person any more. She had been clear enough, when she had told her what she intended to do after she had grown again. She might not be as bad as Casey, but there was no doubt that she had lost her mind to her size, too. And now that she was so much bigger, God only knew what she was planning to do.

She could not see the exact consequences of Kelly’s actions at ground level. The buildings still standing blocked her view. But her body language, together with the regular explosions around her, did not leave too much to imagination.

She heard Kelly’s voice. Despite the distance, she sounded like a stadium’s speaker system. She was addressing the soldiers at her feet. Her words were clear enough on what her intentions were.

“Why are you doing this, Kelly? You don’t need to! They cannot hurt you!” Lisa’s mind screamed

Casey was still shocked. Her eyes were locked on Kelly, in the distance.

She felt a combination of frustration and rage. After growing through the prison’s roof she had felt liberated. And powerful. She had felt as if she could take over the world. And for most of the day, the feeling had only grown in intensity. Every interaction with the tiny population had reinforced it.

She had felt a little jealous and also a little concerned when she had met Kelly, at first. But after her former friend had proven that she would not be messing with her, this time, she had gradually relaxed. She would have rather been the only giantess around, but she could share her status with someone else.

All her expectations had been shattered, now. How in the hell had Kelly managed to get that big? Her mind had been going over this question during the last minutes, but she still had no clue on the answer.

She was starting to have an idea on the consequences of this new situation, though. And she did not like them at all.

Kelly had already expressed her intentions to them. She was the one in charge and she would tell Lisa and her what to do and how to behave. And with her new size, there was nothing Casey would be able to do to challenge that. The moment she had picked her up… had been horrible. After an entire day of towering over everything and bullying everyone, feeling like a doll in Kelly’s hands had been as frustrating as the time she was reduced, back in Henford. Casey had felt powerless again, and in her mind, there was no worse feeling than that.

In the distance, she watched Kelly stand up and deliberately step on what Casey assumed would be the remainders of the army she had been methodically finishing. A new feeling started gaining room to frustration and rage inside Casey’s mind. It was envy. As much as she hated her right now, she could not deny that Kelly looked magnificent.

Her size was impressive. Casey had not lost sight of her actions and had marveled at the sheer power she now possessed. Kelly’s attitude had changed as she had grown. Apparently having finished with the futile resistance of the army, she had turned and was now heading back towards downtown Hollner. Her expression, her body language, the way she walked were more … regal.

“She walks like a Goddess” Casey thought. “Looks like one, too” her mind added. Casey had been thinking about herself as a Goddess for most of the day, but with Kelly around she could not fool herself anymore. Kelly was the real thing. She possessed the real power. And Casey knew she was at her mercy.

Despite the frustration and her concerns, Casey could not prevent feeling some admiration at what she was seeing.

“Having so much power must be amazing” she thought

She tried to imagine how it must feel to be so powerful, to be able to end hundreds of lives under one foot, to crush an entire city block in one step.

Casey assumed that Kelly was heading back to the river, to take care of Lisa and her. She wondered what she had in mind. She trampled a few buildings on her way. Her expression barely changed as she did, as if she was oblivious to them.

“And you were the one that was telling me that I had to control myself” Casey thought about the irony of the situation.

She could not waste too much time on thoughts like that, though. Her mind had to focus on what Kelly would do and what would her new plans be. Casey had to decide how to play things from there onwards.

Her first reaction, driven by pride, was to fight back, but even someone as impulsive as her knew that this was stupid. There was no possibility to fight Kelly, in the current circumstances.

Then, it hit her. Her mind had been so clouded by the new situation that she had not realized about it before, no matter how obvious it seemed now. If Kelly had managed to get that big, there was no reason why she shouldn’t be able to get bigger too! Kelly herself had hinted about the possibility when she had told Lisa and her that they would never find out!

“You have always underestimated me, Kelly. You’ve always thought you were smarter. But you are not. I will show you”

A plan was starting to form in Casey’s mind. As much as she hated the idea, she would need to play along with Kelly. Not too much… she had to fool her, and Kelly would not be expecting her to give up so easily. She had to be convinced that Casey had realized that there was no other option. And in the meantime, she would find out how to make herself bigger. And when she did, she would show everyone who was really in charge. She suppressed a sneer and focused on keeping a poker face. She was starting to feel better, in any case. Anyone who was expecting her to give up in front of the new situation would be in for a big disappointment.

Kelly stopped about half the way to the river, though. She was next to the Millennium Tower. The tallest building in Hollner now barely reached to her prominent chest. Once more, Casey felt jealous. But at the same time she felt some excitement, imagining that she was actually the one in Kelly’s position. She would soon be. She just needed to find how to make herself bigger, but she was convinced she would succeed.

She wondered if Kelly would bring the building down. That’s what she would have done. Instead, she just reached out and plucked its famous spike from it.

“Are you wimping out again?” Casey thought. “When I get as big as you I will show you how a Goddess should behave!”

Kelly looked in the general direction Lisa and her were in and then, she spoke. The power of her voice sent shivers down Casey’s spine, despite the distance. Her former friend, now turned Goddess, addressed the entire city. Casey had little doubt that she could be heard in every single corner of Hollner.

“People of Hollner! People of the world! I am Kelly Hanson and I am your Goddess. As you have just seen, my power is absolute. And I expect absolute obedience. If you comply, you don’t need to be afraid of me. I want to be a merciful Goddess. But if you challenge me, I will destroy you” she said

“I realize that getting used to this new situation will take a while, but you better start working at it right away. I’ll give you some time to adapt, but I’m not a patient woman” she went on

“Taking over the world?” Casey thought. “Not without me!” her mind added.

Casey expected Kelly to head to the river then, to resume her conversation with Lisa and her. She was trying to make up some quick talking points in her head, to be ready for the conversation they would be having soon enough.

She was surprised by what happened. And from her reaction, standing just in front of her, Lisa was surprised as well.

Instead of heading towards them, Kelly just turned and walked towards the outskirts of the city once more. She did not say anything as she did that. Had she left any remainders of the army there and was she going to deal with them? Less than a minute later she walked past the spot where she had fought the most one-sided battle in History and went on.

“Where are you going?” Casey thought as Kelly’s colossal figure kept on getting farther away in the distance.

Then, Lisa turned and looked at her with a worried face. She forgot about Kelly for a moment and locked her eyes on Lisa’s.

The situation was getting worse and worse, Lisa thought. Watching Kelly deal with the army had been horrible. She had been tempted to intervene, but she had realized that she was powerless to stop her, which had made her feel even more frustrated.

Her speech, once she had headed back into the city, had felt like a hammer blow. True, Kelly had already stated her intentions to Casey and her before, but still she had not been prepared to see her former friend standing bigger than even the tallest buildings and announcing her intentions of taking over the world. Her threats on what would happen to whoever stood in her way were especially disheartening.

There sure must be something Lisa could say to talk Kelly out of such madness. She had known her forever, and while she was quite self-centered and it had always been hard to know what she was thinking, Lisa could not believe that Kelly really meant what she had just said. As a matter of fact, she could still not believe that she had done what she had done with the army. Kelly was not like Casey!

Thinking about Casey made her look at her through the corner of her eye. With the situation being as bad as it was, she thanked God again for the fact that Casey had not been the one getting so enormous. The less gloomy side of what had just happened was that Kelly would, at least, keep Casey under control.

Then, Kelly turned and walked away from the city. Lisa was expecting her to stop, wondering what she was going to do in the outskirts again. Then, Kelly went on. And on. She kept going, until her enormous figure started looking smaller in the distance. She felt Casey moving behind her. She turned and looked at her, worried.

Both women stared at each other for a few seconds. Then, Lisa said:

“We need to wait for Kelly to come back”

The situation had changed too unexpectedly. Casey was caught unprepared. Still, she instinctively knew that she had a window of opportunity. She just did not know for how long and for what. She managed to suppress an urge to jump at Lisa and resume their fight. It was what her body was asking her to do, but she knew it was not a good idea. She would have done it if she had felt that she could finish her quickly enough, but their previous fight had taught her than even when she was a much better fighter, Lisa was tough enough. And Casey knew that the worst thing that could happen was that Kelly returned and caught them fighting again.

She needed a plan, but she did not have one yet. She needed some time.

“You look worried” Casey said, observing Lisa’s stance, which told her that she was ready to fight if needed

“Think, Casey, think” she told herself

“Should I be?” Lisa said

“Look, I’d love to beat the crap out of you, but we both know what I can’t do that. Not with Kelly around” Casey said

Lisa did not seem satisfied with the answer. Casey couldn’t care less.

Then, a memory flashed through her mind. She had to exert a lot of self-control to prevent her sudden excitement to show on her face.

“Of course!” she thought. “How have I been so blind? It was so obvious!”

She figured all out in a couple of seconds. She knew what she needed to do. She just needed to get Lisa off her back.

“Kelly told us to stay in the river” Lisa said

She was so stupid that she had even shown her the way, Casey thought.

“Well, while she is not here I’m still the bigger fish, so I don’t see why I should not enjoy” Casey said

“I won’t let you harm the people” Lisa replied

Casey just turned and started running towards a bridge upstream. A quick look over her shoulder showed her Lisa following.

She had a nice head start, so she reached the bridge before Lisa could intercept her. Joining her hands in a double fist over her head, she waited for Lisa to be just one step away and then she just slammed them on the bridge as hard as she could.

It was spectacular. And, after the frustration of the last few minutes, it felt good.

A large section of the bridge shattered into pieces and fell onto the water below. On both sides of that section, the parts of the bridge that were left standing tilted and dozens of cars and people started falling into the water as well. Casey felt Lisa push her with all her strength. She was thrown forward, landing face first into the water. She did not care. It was part of her plan. Standing up, she looked at Lisa’s face, filled with rage. She sneered.

“You monster” Lisa yelled. “Leave the people alone!” she added

“Come on, it was just a little bridge. You did not know anyone on it, did you?” Casey said, sneering

“I’ll kill you” Lisa said

“You are welcome to try” Casey replied

From her position, Casey could hear the screams coming from the people on the water.

“If you move, I swear that I’ll rip your head off your body” Lisa said

Casey crossed her arms on her chest as she moved from an alert to an apparently relaxed position. Then, she said:

“I won’t be going anywhere. I just felt like relieving a little tension”

“I will tell Kelly” Lisa said

“Do you think this little bridge will make a difference?” Casey said, chuckling

“How can you talk like this about killing people?” Lisa protested

“Oh, come on!” Casey said in a casual tone. “They are tiny! And there are lots of them!” she added, knowing perfectly well how mad her words would make Lisa

“One day you’ll pay for everything you’ve done!” Lisa said

“I’ll wait for that day to come” Casey replied

People kept on screaming, down in the water. Casey observed Lisa, as she looked at her and then at the victims that were trying to swim away from their doom. It was a matter of time. Lisa finally bent down and started helping some of the people on the water, as Casey had expected. She waited patiently. She just needed a window of opportunity, and she knew that it would come, sooner or later. She had to wait for a while, but finally, Lisa turned to help some people at her back.

Casey knew how to be sneaky, when she wanted. Six years in prison had helped her develop this skill. Lisa did not realize that she had closed the distance with her until she brought one hand between her legs and the other to her neck. Before the blonde giantess could react, Casey had lifted her above her head, in a feat of strength she was no longer surprised about.

She held her there for a couple of seconds, knowing that there was nothing Lisa would be able to do to free herself.

“Let me go, you bitch” Lisa yelled, waving her arms frantically and kicking with her legs.

Casey was not worried at all. She had grabbed Lisa in a way she knew she would not be able to free herself. She enjoyed the moment. It was too bad she would not be able to use the advantage to hurt her too much. What she had in mind was not bad either, in any case, she thought.

“In a minute, bimbo. Just some parting words, if I may” Casey said. Then, she went on: “I don’t have time for you right now. I have something else I need to do. But don’t worry. I’ll be back. And when I am, I will finally put an end to your sorry excuse of a life. And once I’m done with you, I’ll make sure I’ll find anyone you’ve ever cared for and turn them into a stain under my foot”

“Mindless monster!” Lisa screamed

“I’ll see you soon. I promise” Casey said

Margot was observing the scene in the river from the top floor of the Crystal Tower. Like everyone in the meeting room she was at, she had felt enormous relief when she had seen that the taller giant woman had turned and left the city. After seeing what she had done in the area where she had fought with the army, she knew that she did not want her anywhere near the building they were at.

No one in the meeting room was feeling very worried about the other two giants, though. The reason was no other than the fact that they were not big enough. As tall as they stood, they would still not reach halfway to the top of the building they were in, and this made them feel safe enough to observe the entire situation with some distance.

There certainly was panic in the room, but not nearly as much as when they thought the taller giant would be heading their way.

The events of the last couple of minutes were getting weird. After a while observing what the taller woman was doing, the two giant women in the river were now looking at each other and apparently arguing about something. Margot had only heard some unconfirmed reports about what was going on, but the body language and attitude of the woman with dark brown hair were much more concerning than those of the blonde one.

Suddenly, all hell broke loose and the dark haired woman ran towards a bridge upstream. The sight of her easily breaking a large section of the bridge and sending dozens of cars and hundreds of people to the water below reminded Margot that despite the fact that she was much smaller than the woman that had just left, she was still very deadly.

The second woman got to the bridge an instant before the first one and pushed her, sending her flying much farther away than Margot had expected. The dark haired woman stood up and Margot saw that they were arguing again. Then, the blonde woman did something weird. It took Margot a while to realize that she was trying to help the victims from the bridge.

When the blonde woman turned and the dark haired one sneaked behind her Margot caught herself yelling, as if trying to warn the blonde giant, who seemed much more good natured. Of course, she could not hear her.

Even if she had already accepted their sizes, Margot had a hard time to believe it when she saw the brunette easily holding the blonde giantess over her head for a few seconds. Then, she drew her arms back and in a feat of strength that her mind could not grasp, she tossed in her direction.

Margot’s blood froze as the body of the blonde giant rose into the air and started to become bigger. Then, screams erupted around her as everyone realized what was going to happen. A second later, the room was filled with darkness as the Sun was blocked.

In her last second, Margot said:

“Oh my God”

Lisa felt almost weightless when Casey tossed her in the direction of the city. Then her weight started kicking in again as she began to fall. She was trying to move her neck, to find out where she was, when she felt her body crashing into what she knew could be nothing more than a building. It tore through it, concrete and glass breaking. Then, she broke through the opposite side and kept on falling.

A quick look down showed her one of the most tightly packed sections of the city. She was heading straight there. Lisa screamed. Her body tore through another building… and then another. Her head and upper torso crashed through the façade of a fourth building as her body hit the ground with the strength of a bomb. She felt the ground sinking under her and heard more things crumbling around her.

She was bruised. Very badly bruised. She was unsuccessfully trying to push herself upwards when she felt the weight of an entire skyscraper falling down on her, burying her upper body. Her mind started feeling numb. Everything started fading to black.

She had no strength anymore. A voice in the back of her head told her to let go, to fall asleep. Everything would be much better when she woke up. Then, she heard some screams and a rush of strength surging along her body. She pushed again. It took her a lot of willpower, but she finally managed to get her head out of the pile of rubble it was buried in, which had been several stories high.

Trying to regain her strength, Lisa sat down and look around her. Her blood froze.

She was basically sitting in the middle of what could only be described as ground zero. She was surrounded by rubble. She realized that it belonged to at least half a dozen buildings which, judging by the ones that were still standing, had to be taller than she was.

She could not make the math of how many people that could mean. Her mind rejected the task. Looking in the direction of the river she saw that there were even more victims of her flight. A tall shiny building was now reduced to its bottom half and two more skyscrapers were partly crumbled.

The screams made her look back to where she was. She had overlooked them at first but now they were easy enough to spot. There were victims. Dozens of them. A more careful look showed her hundreds that were not moving.

Lisa screamed, horrified. The survivors were sent to their knees, hands on their ears.

Then, she started crying.

She thought she would have more than enough time, but Casey decided not to waste any, in any case. As she dived deep into Hollner’s bay she realized that she could hold her breath for much longer than when she was “normal-sized”. It was a welcome discovery.

She had to resist the temptation to mess with some of the boats overhead. She could clearly see them, the light that filtered through the surface more than enough to give her a clear view underwater.

She had never been a great swimmer, but another of the side effects of her size seemed to be a significantly better performance underwater. She crossed below the Harbor Bridge and got into the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Then, she turned south and kept on diving, determined not to emerge until she ran out of air. She went on for a very long while.

Lisa’s tears were running down her cheeks. She knew there were thousands of people dead around her and she knew that she was to blame for that, at least partially. She felt depression taking over her.

Then, a memory of Casey’s last giggle, just before she tossed her into the city, made her tighten her fists. Casey! It had all been her fault!

Almost without thinking, she stood up in a rush and looked around, anger building up inside her. She would make her pay! This time she had gone way too far. She did not care about Kelly or what she would say. She was going to kill Casey!

Pushed by her anger, Lisa walked towards the river. She got there soon enough. The only problem was that Casey was nowhere to be seen.

“Where the hell are you, you fucking monster?” Lisa asked aloud

No one replied.

Getting into the water, she crossed the river as quickly as she could and emerged on the opposite back. There was no trace of Casey there, either.

“Oh fuck” Lisa thought. Then, she remembered Casey’s last words, just before she had tossed her. She had told her that there was something she needed to do. Lisa realized that the entire purpose of what Casey had done was to get rid of her while she left. She got nervous. “Where the hell would Casey want to go?” she thought, but she could find no answer.

She got deeper into the city, but there were no traces of Casey, or even visible consequences of her actions. After some minutes of fruitless search, she got back to the river. She took care not to step on anyone on the way.

Lisa was getting increasingly nervous. She was mad at Casey and wanted to make her pay for what she had done. But not finding her had much worse consequences than just not being able to have her vengeance. Casey was now basically alone, without Kelly to overlook her or Lisa to at least try to stop her. She was heading somewhere and wherever she was going, people there would be facing her without anyone that could stop her. She knew how that would end.

“I need to find her before it’s too late” Lisa thought