AJ stormed into Ben’s apartment, grabbing him by both arms and squeezing tight. 

“I take it something bad happened,” Ben said indifferently.

“Genie’s out of the fucking bottle, Ben,” AJ said, “then he smashed the bottle on the ground to make sure he’ll never go back in again.”

“Seems genies were a bad idea.”

“Very. And everyone was so sure we could control them,” AJ continued. She broke off eye contact with Ben, and just stared at the floor, shaking her head. “We had backup plans and countermeasures and contingencies and... We had growth inhibitors, remotely deployable. If the giants get out of control, zap! Back down to regular size. We even had other candidates for giant growth in case the originals needed to be physically reigned in. And now, zip.”

“Slow down. What are you saying?”

“We were so ready for things to go wrong with what we knew could go wrong! But nobody predicted that one of our giants would gain some sort of fucking mind control!”

Ben raised a hand and shook it insistently in front of AJ’s face. “What. Happened.”

“Everything associated with this growth project has been destroyed. All the research. All the equipment. And the researchers did it themselves, Ben! They trashed everything, and then they all forgot their own work! How is that even possible?”

“I suppose if Jason used his pheromones-”

“Yeah no shit Ben. That’s what I’m saying! But you’ve worked with things like this. How long can those effects last? Can they ever recover their own memories?”

Ben shook his head slowly, searching for an answer. “Maybe. Maybe not. People have been using scopolamine for decades to enslave and manipulate their victims. Sometimes people break the spell. Sometimes they don’t. We don’t even know what receptors in the brain Jason’s pheromones bind to, or how to block it. That could take years to sort out. I don’t know. When did all this happen?”

“Last night. We discovered the damage this morning. And one of our top scientists along with a high-ranking military official have been missing for a few days.”

“You don’t think..”

“I do. I think Jason ate them both. He gained all their knowledge about our defenses, and then he destroyed them. He’s nearly unstoppable now. We’re defenseless. We’re small. And we have no way to get on his level. All that’s left is a single holding cell that prevents its prisoner from growing.”

“Why would he leave that?”

“Isn’t it obvious, Ben? He wants a backup in case Heather turns out to be a threat to him. He really thought this through.”

Ben felt lightheaded. He knew this day would come, but it hadn’t completely registered until this very moment. Now the truth of it was finally sinking in. They were already living in Jason’s world. He would make the entire human race his playthings. But he might not, Ben thought for a moment. He might just crush the enemy, end the war, and enforce peace until the end of time. Maybe we’ll all be better off living under his boot.

No. The horrors of the past few weeks came crawling back into Ben’s mind. Jason made Ben grovel, and beg, and cry, and break, and bend, and bow. Jason craved subjugation, and he reveled in his own supreme power. Ben shuddered, filling with hopelessness.

AJ tapped his face with an open palm repeatedly. “Hey. Pay attention. I’m here for a reason,” she said, shaking Ben a little at the shoulders. “We still have one chance to make this right.”

“Heather.”

“Do you think she’d help us?”

“I don’t even know how to reach her. I don’t even know where she is.”

“She’s on an aircraft carrier in the ocean, ready to embark on their final attack on the enemy. The men on that boat don’t even know what’s happened here. We don’t have long before they’re deployed.”

“I suppose the military just gave you the phone number? 1-800-AIRCRAFTCARRIER?” Ben said, not completely allowing himself to believe there was still hope.

“I’ve got a friend onboard. It’s a long story,” AJ smiled for a glimmer of a moment, recalling her night with a shrunken soldier. “Assuming we all survive this, yeah, I’ll tell you later.”

###

Heather reclined on a cot, alone in her cabin aboard the USS Horizon. While she waited to be summoned to battle, her mind fought its own battle against itself. All this conflict, the hundreds of thousands of lives lost, the incalculable toll two nations rendered upon each other, would finally end today, if only she had the courage to do what’s necessary. But the necessary thing was horrific. It’s one thing to drop a bomb on a city, letting its explosive wake incinerate human flesh and bone into ash. That’s a cold act, set into motion by the push of a button by a faceless executioner a thousand miles away. But there was no hiding from what was required of her today. She would smite a million lives with her bare hands, up close and personal. Their blood would stream down her knuckles and through the creases of her fingers. Their pulpy bodies would be smeared under the soles of her feet. Thousands of them will drown in her saliva as she breaks her three-year vegetarian diet. Their entire civilization will be sundered by her divine retribution.

And they’re people. People with lives and families and hopes and pain and joy and suffering and love. Heather sobbed a bit at the thought. But she wasn’t naive. She knew the cold calculus of war. People will always be washed away by the tide of battle. The real question is - will it be our people or theirs. Heather recalled all the people she loved, and the decision was made. It won’t be ours. The enemy’s people have to go. In the long term, this will save lives. She will save lives.

Her mind turned to Jason. He claimed to share her good intentions, but she saw how much he relished his size and power. There were times when she too embraced her power with joyful abandon, and that part of her was terrifying. At least she was honest with herself. Jason didn’t seem to be honest with anyone anymore. He wasn’t the person she once loved, nor the person who excited and aroused her when he took mercy on the enemy fleet months ago. Something in him was changed. He looked the same but Heather could see it just beneath his skin. 

And Ben. Poor Ben. Her stomach turned at how lost he was in the midst of all this chaos she brought into his life. They were supposed to live these simple lives together, grow old, then retire in the country and raise horses. They didn’t even know anything about horses, but they romanticized about it all the same. That could never happen now. She had invited Jason back into her life and he would be inescapable. For the first time she realized that Jason made her feel afraid, where once he made her feel perfectly safe. 

There was a knock on the door. 

“Come in,” she said, with an awkward voice that hadn’t been used for nearly a day.

The door opened, and a man entered in a standard camouflage uniform. A nameplate sewn on his shirt read “CPL DAWES.”

“Is it time?” she asked.

“Soon. Ma’am, I have a call for you,” he said, handing her a satellite phone.

She put the receiver to her ear, looking confused. “Hello?” she asked quietly.

“Heather,” Ben’s voice crackled from the other side of the world.

She held her hand against her face to hide her emotions, tears instantly streaming down her face.

“I love you so much. There’s not much time,” Ben continued.

“Ben,” she squeaked, her throat tightening from a mix of joy and sadness. It was the first time she’d heard his voice in weeks.

“Listen, Jason’s done some things here,” he went on. “Some bad things. And, Heather you have to stop him. You have to-”

“I know what I have to do,” she injected, quickly regaining her resolve. “I already made up my mind. You can leave it to me. I love you.”

The corporal signaled that time was up, trying to stay on his feet while the boat rocked in the ocean’s rough waters.

“I have to go. I’ll be home soon,” she said, smiling, cradling the phone like it was Ben’s head.

“He can read your mind, Heather. Cloud your thoughts with something else,” Ben said.

“Alright. I will,” Heather responded dutifully. “...Ben.”

“Yeah?”

“Whatever happens, whatever I do out here, whatever you see... Please. Just... Don’t hate me.”

“I never would.”

Click. The phone hung up. Now Ben was crying. 

“Did you tell her I said hi?” AJ asked, patting Ben on the back.

Heather ascended the stairs to the deck of the horizon. She knew what was necessary. She would outgrow Jason, then use her leveraged power to reduce him to a more controllable size. It was the only way. If he outgrew her first, she could never catch up. Even climbing the stairs Heather slowly grew her height, ready to reduce him the moment she laid eyes on him. She stumbled, bracing herself against the railing, as the seas tossed the Horizon about. She was over seven feet tall by the time she reached the top of the stairs. I have the power now, I have the leverage. I’m going to end this.

She emerged onto the flight deck, ready to declare victory. But everything was wrong. The entire expanse of sky took on a tanned skin tone. Her chin quivered and knees began to buckle. “Where is the sky?” she whispered, half of her brain knowing the truth while the other half screamed and refused to admit it. It was Jason. Submerged to his abdomen in an ocean three miles deep, his torso and head shooting two miles toward the heavens. While she was debating the finer points of military ethics in her cabin, Jason was already growing, ready for war. The carrier and its crew were inconsequential specks to him. He was five times larger than Heather could ever hope to be, and she despaired.