Chapter 4. Adaptation

Kelly ignored the highway as she calmly walked along its path, keeping a safe enough distance so that the effects of her presence would not be deadly for the people still trapped on it. She was pretty sure they could still feel them very intensely though, and she unconsciously enjoyed the idea.

“Why shouldn’t they? Everyone should know who I am” Kelly thought as she advanced

There was a shockwave as she took a step forward. She was already beginning to get used to them. They just happened, when she walked at a good pace. Suddenly, Kelly stopped and let a laugh out. Slapping her ass with her hand, she let out an even louder chuckle. She had just realized what those shockwaves were.

“Am I walking faster than the speed of sound?” she thought

She had suddenly remembered about something she once saw on Discovery Channel. At that moment, she instinctively knew that it was the only possible explanation for the phenomenon. She felt thoroughly impressed with herself. Kelly was not an expert in aviation, but if what she thought was true, then she was moving faster than a jetliner just by walking!

Her previous question about how long it would take her to cross the country was partially answered: less than a plane flight. And that was if she just stuck to walking. She tried to imagine how fast she could be if she ran, but the idea was hard to grasp.

She had enjoyed enormously her previous size. It had definitely been much more convenient to play with the world around her. But the prodigious nature of her new dimensions was beginning to sink in.

“I thought I was a Goddess before, but I was a mere giant, like Lisa or Casey. Now I am really a true Goddess. One that can walk faster than sound. One that can change the landscape at her will” she thought as her foot dug another crater the size of a football pitch

She took a quick look at the highway, her billboard sized eyes quickly focusing on the thousands of people on it. She wondered if they realized.

“Of course they realize!” her mind screamed. “How could they not? I am the most extraordinary sight they’ve seen in their entire lives” it added

She took a couple more steps as she kept looking at them.

“I cannot be challenged anymore. I’m too powerful for that. They should have learned by now. I’d rather not have to destroy another army to make my point” she thought. “I’m not interested in mindless destruction, though. I’m not Casey” she thought, trying to convince herself.

She reached a hill that stood almost as tall as her navel. It seemed to be part of a range of short mountains. Well, at least they looked short to her. The only way through them was along the highway, but as packed as it was, she knew that going that way would inevitably mean ending hundreds of lives.

She stopped to observe the landscape beyond the hill, before making a decision. She could not prevent a smile as she looked at the first town she had met since she had left the FSD. It could not be more than fifteen miles away. A short distance, by Kelly’s new standards.

It was not too big a town. Of course, nothing looked too big to Kelly anymore, but in the distance, the town did not appear to be larger than Henford. She doubted it would hold more than twenty thousand people.

“Who would have imagined that a town like Henford would look so small?” Kelly wondered, remembering her short trek around her hometown when she and to a larger extent Lisa had stopped Casey. She had definitely done a lot of growing, since then.

Of course, she felt very attracted by the small town. Attracted enough to accept a little bit more collateral damage. She was about to head towards the highway and the only pass toward the valley beyond when a flash of the fight between Lisa and Casey came to mind. She had an idea. She thought it was worth a try.

Kelly bent her knees and then jumped. She had not expected the results to be so spectacular. Shot upwards by an incomprehensible force, Kelly’s titanic body easily cleared the hill and landed well past it.

What had been an easy hop to Kelly was much harder for her surroundings, though. Her legs sank on the ground well beyond her ankles and massive cracks shot outwards in all directions. Quite unwillingly, Kelly had caused a Magnitude 6 earthquake, its epicenter right under her bare feet.

As she removed herself from the crater she had created, she saw a bridge crumbling in the distance and wondered if it would not have been better to “just” step on a few dozen cars through the easy route.

Well, what had been done was done, so there was no point on wailing about it. And, setting aside the consequences, Kelly felt quite impressed with what she had accomplished.

In any case, if she had tried to find a way to announce herself to the population, she could not have found a better way.

Bridge aside, the town did not look to be in such a bad shape anyway, so Kelly thought that it would serve her purpose well enough. And her purpose was no other than to explore a little. She wanted to spend some time with a real town from her new perspective. She had left Hollner in a hurry, trying to get to the FSD before anyone could react to her new presence, and apart from the highway, this was the first time she met a population center.

She kept her pace calm as she closed the distance with her target. She covered it in less than a minute. Widening her stance so that each of her feet would be on either side of the main road getting into the city, Kelly placed her hands on her hips and observed. Her lips were curled in a permanent smile as she did.

The little town was wider than she was tall, but not by that much. The observation made her feel, once more, magnificent.

“I’m not building sized anymore. I’m town sized!” she thought

The hill she had so easily cleared had hidden her approach until quite late, so basically, she had caught the population unawares. As she stood and watched, though, more and more people started filling the streets and headed towards the different exit points in the city that were not straddled by a titanic woman.

Standing where she was, Kelly had a Google Earth view of the entire town. The image felt curious. It was almost as if she were flying over it in a chopper, even if both her feet were firmly planted on the ground.

The town was very typical. It featured a very typical main street and some very typical neighborhoods filled with brown houses, each of them with its own yard. Closer to the center, there were some taller buildings. It was hard to tell what they were, from up above, but Kelly was pretty sure that one of them would be the bank. The city hall was also easy enough to spot.

She had remained silent and motionless for a little over a minute, as she observed. It had been time enough for the streets to fill with people. She had to acknowledge that they had been remarkably quick. Without knowing very well why, Kelly enjoyed having this effect on the population. As she followed the erratic movement of the newly formed mob with her eyes, she noticed something weird. She could hear the screams. True enough, they were distant and feeble, but she could hear them.

“Curious” she thought

She was pretty sure she had not been able to hear screams ever since she had grown to her new stature. Especially from that far away.

“Am I getting used to the size, maybe?” she thought.

She was eager to check, so without saying anything, she crouched and realized that the screams, while still sounding feeble, were just a notch louder. Keeping on the catcher’s position, Kelly observed the little town from a lower height. She marveled at the amount of detail she was able to make. Focusing on a particular street, she could even identify the makes and models of cars and the colors of people’s clothes. This actually reminded her she was dealing with people. Thousands of them.

Standing again, she adopted a commanding pose once more and prepared to address her audience.

“Hi there my tiny people” she said, her tone cheerful enough. She kept it at a regular volume, certain that she would have no problems to be heard. “Unless you’ve been watching the news, I guess that you’ll be wondering who I am. My name’s Kelly and I am kind of your new Goddess. You can all see how big I am, so there’s no point in me explaining the obvious. I have one single rule for you: obey me and things are mostly going to be fine”

It had not been her best speech, but it did the job. Back at her full height, she saw some cars and people getting closer to some of the other exits in town. She did not like that.

“I thought it would be pretty obvious, but I’ll say it, anyway. I don’t want anyone leaving the town. I plan on spending some time with you and I want you all there”

A few people seemed to have second thoughts, after her words, but most were still trying to make it out of town.

“The smaller they are, the stupider they get” Kelly thought

There was no point on repeating her orders when it was so easy for her to enforce them. So, without saying anything else, she took her hands from her hips and started walking around the small town. She got to the next big road in two steps. The first cars were already getting into it.

For a second, Kelly was tempted to finish the dozen or so cars, to make an example out of them. In the last moment, though, she felt a little sorry for the tiny people and just set the foot in their path, replacing the road and the land around it by an impassable crater.

Without even stopping, she got to the next road in two more steps and repeated the operation.

The third and final road ended on a small bridge that crossed a dry creek, quite similar to the one in Henford. From her height, Kelly could see that some cars had already made it to the bridge. Crouching, Kelly turned her left palm upwards, placed it under the bridge and ripped it from its foundations. Standing up again, she brought the bridge in front of her face, trying to keep it balanced enough so that cars would not roll out of it. There were four vehicles on it.

She was satisfied at what she had achieved. She did not think that she had killed anyone, but people on the town must have surely realized that there was nothing they could do to challenge her, now.

She had a grin on her lips as she kept her stare on the little bridge and the cars on top. Almost whispering, she said:

“Get out of you cars”

She waited a few seconds. There was no reaction. She did not raise her voice. She just whispered again:

“Get out of your cars or I’ll toss you into the next county”

A couple of seconds later, a few doors started to open and two people got out. Encouraged by that, the rest of drivers soon joined them.

They started screaming right away. Their voices were shadowed by Kelly’s loud chuckle. She could hear them! She could hear them well enough, as a matter of fact.

“Shut up” she whispered. She got the intended result almost immediately.

She needed to check that what she thought was true. She would need some cooperation for that. She was sure that she would get it.

“You. The guy in the red T-shirt” she said, addressing the most noticeable man in the group. His scared movements told her that he had understood her. “Tell me your name” she commanded

The man turned, unsure. Still, he managed to gather his courage and shouted:

“Rick”

Kelly felt a wave of satisfaction taking over her body. She had perfectly understood the man’s words. And that was amazing!

She was very sure that she had not been able to hear the people back on the highway so well, even when holding them next to her ear, so what had happened could only mean one thing.

“I’m definitely getting used to the size. My body is adapting, somehow. I think it already happened, when I grew the first time” she thought, very happy with the situation and remembering how it had taken her a while, after she had grown through the hotel’s roof, to be able to focus her sight and to get used to moving with the ground constantly sinking under her feet.

An idea then came to mind. She was about to discard it when she thought “What the hell!”

Addressing the people on her palm in the same soft whisper she had used until now, she said:

“Stay still. It’s for your own good”

Rick was a good enough option, so she brought her free right hand up and then moved her thumb and index fingers carefully towards him. He realized what was going to happen soon enough. He had no time to react. Before he could even turn, she had locked him between her two fingertips. Then, she focused hard on trying to keep the very fine balance between holding him strongly enough so that he would not fall and crushing him. Her previous attempts had all been unsuccessful… and a few unlucky people had ended up becoming gory stains.

It was different this time. Her fingers were already a few inches over her palm and Kelly could feel Rick squirming between them. The accomplishment felt exhilarating! Turning her fingers so that she had a direct view of Rick, she smiled very widely when she saw him safely pinched between them, alive and kicking.

“This is amazing” she said aloud

In her fingers, Rick kept unsuccessfully fighting. Kelly was not concerned at all about it. She knew that she could hold him like that forever without hurting him, now. She felt incredibly proud of herself. And even more powerful than she had ever felt before.

“I hope you realize that you are a very special person, Rick” Kelly said. “You are actually the first person I pick that doesn’t end up crushed”

Rick was obviously scared by her words. She did not care at all.

“Do you realize what’s going on?” Kelly asked him. “I can bring an entire city block down with one step. Hell, I can even cause an earthquake if I want. But I can also hold you, the puniest thing in the world, and not hurt you. Isn’t that amazing? Doesn’t this make me the ultimate Goddess?” she asked

Pinched between her fingers, the quarter inch Rick nodded frantically. Kelly liked that.

Without further word, she turned her palm upwards and let Rick go. He rolled all the way to its cupped center. Not feeling the need to explain herself, Kelly just crouched again and was as careful as she could when she set the bridge back on the bottom of the creek. She did not fool herself into thinking that there had not been at least a few broken limbs as the bridge and the cars had rolled from her tall hand, but she was reasonably sure that no one had ended up dead. Of course, one could never know, with the little people being so fragile as they were.

She was not interested in them anymore, though. She was still focused on Rick. Standing up, she opened her palm and looked at him. He did not look so well. Kelly blushed a little when she realized that her two simple gestures had made Rick drop well over a thousand feet and then had made her climb an identical height in a matter of seconds.

She patiently waited for him to recover. It was taking him long enough, though. Trying to find something to entertain herself with, she moved the hand holding Rick to the side and looked down at the little town again.

“Don’t you think I’ve forgotten about you” she stated, her tone half cheerful half threatening

Seeing some cracks on Main Street, she realized that they must be a consequence of the earthquake she had unwillingly created before.

“I’m sorry about the entire earthquake thing, by the way” she said, sounding anything but sorry. “I know you are not used to them in these parts” she went on. When a naughty idea came to mind, she decided to give it a try. “I don’t think you are too used to hurricanes either, right?”

No one but Kelly knew what she was talking about. She did not even crouch. She just stooped slightly and puckered her lips. Then, she started to blow a soft, steady kiss in the direction of the town below.

She did not put nearly as much force in her kiss as when she had been really trying to harm the army, but still, the soft exhalation of her lungs produced warm winds in excess of 200 mph. The moment they hit the streets, people and cars were send flying around and trees were uprooted. Surprised by the effects of what she had intended as a game, she cut it soon enough.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to be so rough” she said. “I’m still getting used to the size and power” she tried to justify herself

More than sorry, she was feeling very impressed with the possibilities of her new size, though.

 “Earthquakes, hurricanes… I seem to have a talent at creating natural disasters” she thought proudly

A quick look at Rick showed her that he seemed to be quite recovered, so she focused back on him.

“Feeling better?” she asked

Rick nodded.

“You don’t have to worry. I don’t want to hurt you” she said

“Please don’t” Rick said. She understood him perfectly

“What’s the problem?” Kelly asked. “Don’t you trust me?”

Rick visibly did not know how to reply to her tease.

Something weird in the cacophony of noises coming from the town streets made her look down once more. It took her a while to realize what was going on. When she did she felt anger quickly rising inside her.

“Are you fucking shooting at me?” she asked in a tone that everyone on the city would have preferred not to listen

Of course, there was no way she would be able to feel the effects of the bullets. But the bangs of the rifles could still be heard over the screams of the people and soon enough Kelly’s keen eyes identified the flashes the shots produced. Focusing some more, she recognized four agents in brown uniforms and hats doing their best to try to hurt her. Of course, their best was orders of magnitude away of even being able to bother her.

This did not mean that she wasn’t mad at what they were doing.

“Of all the stupid things you could have done, this is the stupidest one” Kelly said, angry

Then, she lifted her right foot and moved it in the direction of the offenders. They dropped their rifles and started running away when they realized what was about to happen. It did not matter. Kelly’s foot was so massive now that it would have taken the cops quite a while to run a distance equivalent to its length. She set her foot down without hesitation. The four cops were gone. Together with a couple dozen cars and half a dozen houses.

Kelly removed her foot and observed the results of her little act of retribution. Its impact in the town was noticeable enough. She knew that dozens if not hundreds of innocent people had shared the cops’ fate, but she rejected to feel guilty. If anyone was to blame, it was the cops.

Of course, her gesture had brought the panic in the small town to a whole new level. She did not care. She actually felt mad at them. She felt mad at the entire city, as a matter of fact.

“You fucking ants!” her voice boomed from above. “How dare you attack me?” she asked angrily. “Give me a reason why I shouldn’t turn this entire town into rubble?”

The answer came from her palm. She ignored Rick’s squeaky words at first, but finally she managed to calm down enough and look at her ant-sized pet.

“What?” she asked, still angry

“Please, the people of the town have done nothing to you” Rick said

“Nothing?” Kelly said. “They have shot me! Do you know how it feels being shot by something as worthless as you?”

“You cannot make thousands pay for the mistake of a few” Rick said

“I can do anything I want” Kelly replied, her anger clearly clouding her mind

“Why not make the real responsible pay, then?” Rick said

Kelly frowned. What the hell was he saying?

“I’m sure the cops were just following the mayor’s orders. It’s just like him to do something like that”

Narrowing her eyes, Kelly remained silent for a couple of seconds and then said:

“Ok”

She bent down and sat on her knees. She was not too careful when she did that, and she could see that her little movement had had its impact on the city, but she did not care. Keeping Rick secure in her right hand, she reached out with her left arm. The city hall was within arm’s reach.

“I’m being told that the mayor may be the one responsible for that ridiculous attempt at attacking me. I don’t have time to check. I don’t care, actually. I just want everyone to see what happens when I get pissed off”

Then, Kelly closed her left hand in a fist and slammed it on top of the city hall. A second later, the building was no more. When she removed her fist, its remainders were barely recognizable in the bottom of a fifty-foot deep crater.

She looked back at Rick, who was now lying on his back. He had not been able to keep up with movements that had been easy to her.

“Happy?” she asked, her voice still showing some anger

“What did you do?” Rick asked

Of course, he had not been able to see. She had not realized about that. Shrugging, Kelly said:

“I crushed the city hall”

She used the same tone one could have used to announce she had opened a box of cookies. Rick’s reaction took her by surprise.

“There were dozens of people there!” he screamed in his squeaky voice

Kelly shrugged again and said:

“It’s better than flattening the entire town”

Her voice sounded as if that had been the most logical explanation in the world.

“You have killed hundreds of people!” Rick screamed. “You are a monster!”

She was very close to slamming her free hand on him. Something in the back of her mind stopped her. Rick did not realize how close he had been to death. From the vast palm of her hand, he just saw as the woman’s massive face remained motionless for a while, her truck-sized eyes apparently lost in the distance.

“Am I just like Casey?” something in Kelly’s head asked. She realized that she had probably killed hundreds of people almost without wanting. True, she had been attacked… but she also knew that she could not be hurt. Under that premise, her response had clearly not been proportional.

Then, the wilder side of her mind took over and silenced the voice in the back.

“The response was proportional to my power!” it screamed. “If it had been Casey here, there would be no town left!”

Then, something in her subconscious reminded that those collateral victims in town were far from the first ones. There had been others. Many others.

“And there will be many more” her dark side told her. “I don’t know why I keep wasting my time getting concerned about it” she then thought

Rick’s panic returned when the giantess’ face came back to life and her enormous eyes locked on him. He did not realize about her approaching fingers until it was too late. A second later, he was being held between both, compressed between two massive walls of flesh.

Kelly observed the ant-sized man between her fingertips for a couple of seconds before addressing him. The idea of just bringing her fingers together and be done with him passed through her mind. She decided against it.

“A monster?” she asked, her voice carrying all over town and probably all over the county. Kelly let out a short chuckle.

“If I were a monster you would have been a stain between my fingers long ago” she said plainly. “It would have been easier for me than just keeping you alive, as a matter of fact” she added.

She stood silent for a second and then said: “I’m not a monster. I am a Goddess”

Then, Kelly remembered something and let out another chuckle.

“When I went to bed last night I was a stripper trying to get out of some financial issues. But now I have absolute power. I have the power to rule over everything and everyone, and there is nothing any of you tiny mites can do to change that. The sooner everyone realizes about that, the fewer people will die”

Trapped between her fingers, knowing that just a slight change in the amount of pressure would finish his life, Rick looked at the building-sized face of the young woman with terror. Her expression looked even more determined than when she had been approaching the town.

Her lips parted again and she said:

“You’ll live”

Her words, pronounced like the sentence of a supreme judge, eased him a little.

Then, her face moved out of his field of vision and he felt sick as he descended at an impossible speed. It took him a while to recover when he felt solid ground under his feet. When he did, he realized where he was: in the middle of a crater that had replaced the previous location of the city hall.

A voice from the sky thundered. He realized it was addressing him:

“Don’t forget to tell everyone about what you’ve learned”

He looked up just in time to see her turning and taking a first step. He felt some relief when he realized that she was heading away from the town. He bounced when her foot met the ground for the first time. The bounce was almost as intense when her other foot joined the first. The next step was a little easier on him… she was moving away at an amazing speed.

Rick caught himself haunted by the image of the departing woman, her hourglass figure swaggering as it moved, her hard buttocks rhythmically bouncing. Then, he looked to the side and screamed when he saw some shreds of bright floral clothes between the smashed ruins of the city hall building.

“Hopefully people won’t be so stupid in the next town I find” Kelly thought. “I just wanted to play with them!” her mind protested as she quickly got away from it.

So far, her new size had allowed her to display power in a much easier way, but while that was becoming increasingly important in Kelly’s mind, she still wanted to enjoy her status. This meant playing. And her excitement at discovering that she was getting better at using her massive size when interacting with the population had been countered by their stupid reaction to her presence.

She wondered, not for the first time, if she had not got too big for that. She was starting to regret having grown so much. Then, she blocked that thought. It was just a matter of adapting: for her and for the population. She felt that progress on her side was very good. Now she only needed the people to cooperate. She knew that she would get them to, sooner or later. In the end, she could now force anyone to do anything she wanted.