“You need to do something, and you need to do it now!” Secretary Burton barked to the men in the improvised meeting room. The command plane did not feature as much space as the base, but they still had a place to gather.

“We know, Mr. Secretary. We are working on it,” General Colt said, his response sounding a bit mechanic.

“She has killed more people in the last thirty minutes than in the rest of the day. We need to stop her!” the Secretary went on.

“Mr. Secretary, we are fully aware of the situation,” the General replied, trying to remain calm.

“Then why are you not doing anything about it?” the Secretary yelled.

“Because we are not ready yet!” General Colt finally yelled back. “Do you want to repeat the same mistake we made last time we were not ready?”

The Secretary of Defense looked shock by the General’s outburst. It was even more surprising coming from a man that always measured his responses. The rest of attendees in the room felt the tension build up. Then, the Secretary stood up and moved to the door.

“I need to inform the President,” he said.

“Of course,” the General replied, his tone cold again.

*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*

Lucia was wading back towards the city, leaving a wake of destruction behind her on the bay. Kingston’s famous skyline was beckoning the giantess as she made her way back into the metropolis. Different than in the previous occasions she had enjoyed the view, Lucia reflected that none of its elements could now make it taller than her chest now. This was just how amazing she had become. Amazing enough to take over the city. And then, the world.

Finally without obligations or looming threats, Lucia was free to make her own decisions without constraints. She knew what she wanted to accomplish. It was the only logical objective, considering her new status: to take over the world. She had also decided she would start by Kingston, the city where she had lived for the last years and that had witnessed the worst part of her life. This was going to change. From now onwards, Kingston would be the city that would be associated to her ascension.

It had been years since the last time Lucia had been to church. Raised a Catholic, Lucia had usually attended mass on Sunday with her parents. She still believed in God, but the frequency of her visits had started decreasing back in College. She had definitely stopped practicing when her life had started going south, right after she had moved into Kingston. Her faith had suffered over the last five years of misery, but deep inside, Lucia still believed that there was someone up there, watching. Only it seemed that this someone did not like her very much.

How things had changed! Had her life up until now been a test before she was given the ultimate power? Lucia did not know. She did know that no matter what the reason behind her current condition was, the implications were clear. She was invincible. Weapons could not hurt her anymore. And if, by any chance, the pesky mites managed to find a way to harm her, they would only end up making her larger and more powerful. They had no way to deal with her. She, on the other hand, had every possibility to deal with them. There was nowhere she could not reach, no one she could not force into compliance, nothing that could resist her new strength.

In Lucia’s mind, she had become a goddess. Not in the sense of being a mystical being that had to be worshipped. She could not have cared less about it. But she now possessed the ultimate power. And she expected unquestioned obedience in exchange.

The cacophony of screams and other sounds coming from the city reached Lucia’s oversensitive ears as she got closer to the shore, welcoming her back. She mentally drafted her next actions as she was about to step on dry land.

Kingston Avenue was the largest artery in the city, and the obvious choice when it came to getting to the heart of it. So, as soon as the giantess stepped on the docks, water cascading down her calves like the Niagara falls, she maneuvered to face it. She stopped on her tracks when she was rejoined by her most faithful followers ever since she had grown: the news helicopters.

It seemed like ages ago, but Lucia guessed it had been barely a couple hours since her first fight with the army, when the choppers had fled, most likely warned by the military. There had been so much happening since then! In any case, here they were, back. And bringing friends, it would seem. The original flock had more than doubled, and Lucia counted about two dozen of them, their bright colors still noticeable in the dwindling light of dusk, even at their new, diminutive sizes. Each of them seemed to be about as big as a bee.

Lucia smiled, pushing her prominent chest out. The aircraft were a welcome sight. A very welcome sight. After all, they represented a nice change versus their military comrades. Lucia was happy to have them following her again. It was then, as she stood admiring her recovered entourage, that Lucia realized that they offered a great opportunity to get her message across. Lang had recommended her to talk. Well, she would hardly get a better audience than the one she had now.

Lucia instinctively posed for the two-dozen cameras she knew were trained on her. Then, she addressed the helicopters, her voice so powerful that it reached every confine of the city. Of course, she had no problem being heard by her intended receivers, despite the loud noise of the rotors of the aircraft they were on.

“Welcome back, my lovely little choppers,” she said. “Get ready. From now on, your task is to show the world everything I do or say. I’ll work with a loose leash, but you will follow my instructions unless you want to find yourselves swatted down like flies, understood?”

Of course, she did not have any way to get an answer, but she assumed that there was no way they would not agree with her, so she just went on:

“I am going to address the world, so get ready.”

Lucia waited for about a minute, assuming they would need some preparation time. Then, she started addressing seven billion people through the lens of the cameras that were shooting her every action. It was time the world learned just how big of a change it had gone through.

“Hello, tiny citizens of Earth,” she started. “As you will all know by now, my name is Lucia Torres and I am a 27-year-old woman. As you also know and can see, the term woman can hardly start to describe what I’ve become. I may have been one of you, yesterday, but I am something else now. I am taller than a skyscraper, invulnerable to all your weapons, stronger than an entire army. I am a goddess, all-powerful. And you have already witnessed what I am capable of.”

Lucia felt her nipples harden as she went on, talking about her power feeling almost as arousing as exercising it.

“You have tried to stop me, several times. I don’t have a single scratch. All you managed to do was to make me bigger, more powerful. I crushed your police force. I crushed your army. And I will crush anyone else that challenges me. You cannot stop me, so you have no other option buy to obey me.”

Lucia’s womanhood was starting to feel wet, following the lead of her breasts. The giantess wondered how she would take care of this particular need now. A bus would certainly not do. In any case, she would worry about that later. She had a job to finish now.

“From now on, you are mine. You will do as I say. Else, you will be crushed. I will be ruthless and merciless about it. This world is mine to rule. You don’t need to like me. You only need to fear me. And obey me. If you do, I’ll find the way to make this work. If you don’t, well tough shit. Understood?”

Lucia guessed she had been understood. There was nothing too complicated about her speech, was it? It was time to start enforcing it, though.

“I will start with the city of Kingston. I’ve lived here over the last five years and this will forever be the city where I became a goddess. I also want it to be the first city that formally submits to me. As everything, this can happen the easy way or the hard way. Let me tell you how the easy way looks like,” Lucia went on.

She took a second to breathe and continued.

“I am going to walk my way to the City Hall. By the time I arrive there, I expect Mayor Logan to be waiting for me in the plaza. There, I will accept his unconditional surrender of the city to me and I will give him my first instructions. I will spare the lives of those who serve, including him. Now, I don’t think you want to learn about what I have in mind when it comes to the hard way, so let’s all assume that Mayor Logan will not be an asshole and will do the right thing.”

Lucia took another breath and finished:

“That’s all for now. For those of you watching at home, expect my visit sooner rather than later. The world has suddenly become much smaller!”

It had not been a great speech, but Lucia was sure that it had done the job. It was time to walk the talk.

She disregarded the choppers, assuming that they would find the way to follow her and faced Kingston Avenue once more. She was at it in three steps, each of them leaving a deep crater on the road that could have easily contained an Olympic swimming pool. It was there that she realized about the first challenge she would face. The city was simply not designed for a creature her size.

Lucia had not minded too much bringing buildings down after her latest growth spurt. After all, she had been fighting with the army, back then. She did not think that she could apply the same approach now. After having declared herself ruler of the city, the last thing she could do was to bring half of it down, right? At least, not until she was challenged again, which she was sure she would, sooner or later.

The problem, simple as it was, was not that easy to solve: she did not fit the streets. After taking a good look at the city from her vantage point of view, Lucia decided to try her luck in Kingston Avenue, the route she had already chosen. After all, it was the most direct route to Central Plaza, where the City Hall was located. And it was also the widest road in the city, with five lanes in each direction.

And yet, it was obvious that the only way she would be able to make it down the road without wreaking havoc would be by placing one foot directly ahead of the other, walking slowly, much like a tightrope walker.

Three blocks down the road, Lucia was already tired. Her wide hips had brushed the tall façades on both sides of the street a couple of times, sending all sorts of debris raining down to the road below. None of the buildings seemed to have suffered severe structural damage, so Lucia did not get too worried about that. What concerned her was just how long it had taken her to cover the apparently short distance. Combined with just how much care and focus she need to put on something so simple as merely walking, the giantess regarded the twenty or so blocks that separated her from her destination like an ordeal.

Things got worse when a block later she started meeting the laggards of the crowd. They had done a decent job of emptying the first few blocks from the sea. After all, one thing that could be said about her is that she could be clearly seen approaching. Eventually, she would always end up catching anyone, though. No matter how slowly Lucia thought she was moving, it would always be orders of magnitude faster than what the tiny microbes could achieve.

And so, as the sun started to set, Lucia found herself in a situation quite similar to the one she had lived earlier in the morning: there were people on her way.

Lucia was a different person, though. Not only was she much larger, but her regard for human life had also shrunk in proportion. Lucia eyed the “obstacles” on her way with contempt. One thing was trying to avoid bringing buildings down, and the other was being slowed by mere people. Her mind was more than made up, but still, Lucia decided to do something she had not done in a very long while: give them a fair warning.

“Ok, microbes, in case you have not yet figured it out, I’m walking down Kingston Avenue. I will not stop or slow down, so if you are in my way, there is only one thing this will end up for you: splattered. Now, I am doing my best not to damage the buildings and I’m certainly not planning to take any of the side streets. So, get in the lobbies or get in a different street and you will be safe, understood?”

Her next step already took care of a few dozen of the ones that did not understand. The body count only increased from there onwards, the crowd’s thickness growing as she kept making her way deeper into the city.

Kingston Avenue turned out to be a source for all kinds of surprises. Lucia’s feet kept making short work of the crowd down the road when her attention was suddenly taken by a roof three blocks ahead. Had she not possessed the exceedingly keen sight she had, Lucia might not have realized about the people’s presence, but she did. And once she had seen the group of a dozen or so quarter-inch people, there was nothing they were able to do to evade her attention, even if they tried to hide as well as they could.

Lucia was standing next to the building in question half a minute later, its roof reaching somewhere below her massive breasts. The giant wanted to turn sideways in order to get a better look, but it was hard to do it without her feet creating too much of a mess. She finally found a solution making use of the intersection, bringing one foot to each street, keeping them in a somewhat straight angle as she used the space to face the building and the roof in question from an angle. Looking at it almost straight from above, there was nowhere the tiny “observers” were able to evade her attention, even if they had crouched as low as possible beneath the railing.

Lucia felt way more curious than upset, her mood having considerably improved since she had returned to the city. To her, the fact that they were trying to hide from her was more an amusement than a challenge.

“I can see you,” she said in a playful tone.

The dozen people looked up at her smiling face. They were as scared as everyone she had met before, even if, for once, Lucia did not have murderous intentions.

“Was I too much of a view to let it pass?” she asked, cocky. “Well, what do you say about having a much closer look?

They did not know what she was referring to until she stooped, bringing her left breast much closer to the roof and to her captive audience. Needless to say, her little movement was less well received in the roof. She understood that they thought she was going to crush them under her boob. Giggling at the realization, Lucia stopped before her tit touched them and maneuvered so that it rested on the roof, but away from the group.

“God, even my nipple is larger than you!” she said, mocking.

Lucia had all sorts of ideas on what she could do to the group of onlookers, from giving them a private tour to teasing them some more. She did not want to waste too much time, though. She still had things to do and she’d rather close the formalities with Mayor Logan and indulge later than invert the order.

“Kiss it and I’ll leave you alone,” she finally said in her best bedroom voice.

They hesitated.

“Unless you’d rather have me smoosh you with it, of course,” she added casually.

The first brave members of the group took a step to the front an instant later. Lucia looked at them with curiosity and anticipation. She was, for the first time, commanding people. The fact that it was for a somewhat naughty idea made it even more thrilling.

Her massive breast had partially dug the roof, bringing her nipple to the level of the teeny crowd. Lucia felt a shiver run down her spine when she could feel the efforts of the first three men. Even if feeble, the physical stimulation was there. The side effect was unsought though. Stirred by the kisses and licking, her nipple swelled too quickly for the three men to react, pushing them on their backs.

“Oh, my goodness!” Lucia said cheerfully as she removed her breast from the roof. “Let me take my boob away. I really don’t want to crush you, but you guys are just too puny!” she then mocked.

The group in the roof did not know how to react. They were relieved at having her a little further away, but somewhat offended at all her mocking.

She thought about playing with them a little more, but there was no point in doing it. Still feeling playful, Lucia winked at them and used once again a sensual tone to address them:

“I have some stuff to do. Wait for me here and I’ll pick you up when I’m done. Those of you that are here when I return are in for reward only a woman like me can deliver!”

And with that, she repositioned herself in Kingston Avenue and resumed her torturous trek along its path, getting back to the routine: left foot first, wait for it to settle, right foot just in front.

Her little delay with her fans had been amusing. It had also had the added effect of reminding Lucia that Sharon was still waiting for her. She debated whether to pick her up before or after her encounter with Mayor Logan. But she had waited long enough already. And she wanted her only friend to be there when the city they both had lived in was formally delivered to her.

Thankfully, it was a small detour to the spot where she had left her to wait. The issue, of course, was that if Kingston Avenue was hard enough to walk along, the roads she would need to take to get to Sharon would be plainly impossible. Lucia stopped, frowning. What should she do?

The fact that she would need to make some more damage to get to Sharon, whether it was now or later, made her mind up. She knew for a fact that she was getting to her friend, and a few dozen buildings and a few thousand people were not going to avoid that. Not when she would soon have eight million people under her rule.

Lucia was about to divert when she thought that there was nothing wrong it using what was going to happen to her advantage. She beckoned the ever present news choppers, which quickly complied, and addressed them with a challenging expression.

“You have seen me trying to be nice. This is how I want things to be,” she said, ignoring the fact that hundreds had probably died under her feet. “But you need to understand how this will work if you make me upset. So, just so that you cannot say you did not, let me give you a taste of the alternative.”

Lucia had a couple of options. From where she was, it was merely half a dozen blocks to where she had left Sharon. She could try to take the road leading there, which would end up with her legs and hips making short work of the buildings on both sides of the street. Or she could simply ignore the roads.

She realized that, while more spectacular, the second option would also end up with less victims. It was the perfect choice.

She did not provide any further warning before she turned, her feet plowing through the bottom floors of the building to her right, a skyscraper that reached a bit below her neatly trimmed Brazilian strip. Her knee was the next part of her body breaking through it’s façade. Soon, both legs were embedded in the structure, bringing its integrity to the limit and making it collapse like a sand castle. To Lucia it had merely been a step. One of many.

From her vantage point of view, it felt like wading in the see, the buildings barely proving to offer a bit more resistance than the water. She stopped halfway to Sharon to look over her shoulder and admire the wake of her destruction, three city blocks turned into a pile of ruins with rising clouds of smoke where she had only walked. Encouraged, she took another step, bringing half of another building down. The other half promptly followed as her hips followed the lead of her foot.

God, it was so easy! Everything was so easy! The world felt so weak that it was significantly harder to keep it in one piece that bringing it down. She would have cared if she had given a damn about people or their cities. She did not. Not anymore. Not when she soon would have billions under her. In that light, a few tens of thousands or a small section of a city did not matter. They could not stand the comparison to her and her will.

Lucia slowed down as she was about to reach the high-rise where she had set Sharon. It was considerably shorter than its neighbors. The reason she had chosen it was that she had been able to reach its roof, back when she had been a quite smaller giant. She would not have this issue ever again.

The building’s relatively short height had hidden its roof from Lucia’s sight up until now. Its neighbors had shadowed it. Now, barely one block away, Lucia finally got direct view. Her blood froze when the roof showed up, but not Sharon.

Concerned that she might damage the building, Lucia crossed to the opposite side of the road, bringing another high-rise down instead. Then, she crouched, her ass and thighs taking care of yet another skyscraper. She did not mind. She barely noticed it. All she cared about now was Sharon.

Lucia’s head was directly over the roof where she had set her friend. In that position, there was no place to hide from her sight, not even for someone as small as Sharon. And then again, why should she hide from her?

Lucia’s heart shrunk in her chest when she thought about the possibility that Sharon had left. Was she afraid of her? Or even worse, was she too disgusted about what she had done? Had she become too much of a monster even for her best friend to accept?

Lucia felt tears forming behind her eyes as the worst case scenario unfolded in her mind. Then, a strength from within stopped all the wondering and any possible blaming. It was a strength she had not known she had, a strength she had certainly not felt before. It worked. Her billboard-sized eyes changed their expression from blame to determination in an instant.

Sharon would not have left. Even if she had been upset about her actions, she would have stayed and told her. And Lucia knew that no matter what she had thought about what she had done, Sharon would still be loyal to her.

So, ruling the possibility that Sharon had abandoned her on her own volition only left another.

Lucia’s hand cupped like an excavator. Soon, her fingers were plowing through the building’s façade as if it had been made of wet paper. The three top stories of the building, along with its roof were soon resting in her palm, ripped from the building. Lucia simply tossed the rubble over her shoulder and observed the dozens of scurrying mites in the floor that was now open to her. Even in their panic, they could not prevent looking up at the magnificent sight she was.

She did not think she had ever sounded so angry as when she addressed them:

“My friend Sharon was waiting for me in the roof of your building. Now she’s not there. I want to know what happened to her. And I want to know it now!”

Lucia did not give them time to react. Instead, she started picking up groups of people between her fingers and dropping them carelessly on her waiting palm. Five or six scoops later, she had about fifty people, who she brought closer to her face.

“So?” she asked.

When she got no answer, Lucia simply pushed a fingertip in a random group of people, turning them into a bloodstain.

“Tell me what I want to know and live,” she said.

As if to prove her point, she crushed three more people under her index finger. It took four more random punishments for someone to finally yell to her:

“There were helicopters landing on the roof. Military.”

Lucia’s eyes narrowed. Then, she felt a stab of guilt in her heart, realizing that she had been too naïve. Of course the army had seen her talking to Sharon. Of course they had learned that she was important to her. And of course they would do something about it. In a way, Lucia had put a target on her friend. And now, the military had her.

The guilt was very quickly replaced by the anger that was welling inside her, though. They had taken Sharon! The tiny fuckers had taken the only person she cared about! She would show them!

It took Lucia a great deal of self-control not to crush everyone on her palm in one swift motion. She still managed not to, though, keeping her rule of honoring deals. She needed the world to fear her. But she also needed people to know that she would keep her word.

She was not gentle as she dropped her captives back in the building they had come from though. A second later, she was standing up and looking down at Central Plaza in the distance.

Lucia’s eyes were on fire as she made her way to her destination, ignoring people, streets and buildings, carving a new path of destruction in the heart of the city. Finally unconstrained, she reached her destination soon enough. The price had been a few tens of thousands of people. She was more than willing to pay it.

Her mood was very different from the one she had expected when she reached the plaza where the City Hall was located. She had come back from the with high spirits, but she was now even more upset than when she had been attacked by the army. They had taken Sharon!

The entourage of news helicopters followed her new, devastating path, the reporters speculating about the causes for the sudden change in the giant’s attitude. She finally looked up, searching for them. Her eyes set on the flock of aircraft soon enough. She did not give them time to get ready in this occasion. Instead, she just addressed them, sounding louder and angrier than ever.

“I warned you! I told you not to piss me off! But you just cannot listen, can you? Some of you have taken Sharon Higgins. I want her delivered to me within the hour. Or else!”

Lucia raised her left foot as she finished bellowing her command, resting it briefly on the roof of a knee-high building before pushing down and turning it into a pile of rubble in a fraction of a second. She then crouched, digging her hands into the ground and ripping the City Hall building off its foundations. She was holding it at chest level as she said:

“Where is the fucking Mayor? I want Logan on the roof in a minute!”

*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*

Lieutenant Lewis Cohen had remotely piloted Reaper drones for three years, in which he had seventeen confirmed kills. He had flown over four dozen missions and had seen almost everything through the remote eyes of his aircraft. He had never seen anything even close to the image on the screen of his console.

Even from the safety of being a thousand miles away, the sight of the gigantic woman standing in the middle of the metropolis was awe-inspiring. He could not believe her size. And he could not believe the realism of it all. Because, of course, she was real.

His instructions had never been simpler. He did not need to search for a target. He did not need to isolate it. He did not need to ensure a precise impact, avoiding collateral damage. All he had to do was to fly his Reaper straight into the woman, hitting her as close to her face as possible. He did not know why. He did not need to know. If Command had decided this was what he had to do, it was only a matter of doing it.

Lewis knew he was far from the only pilot that had been engaged in this mission. For all he knew, every single available pilot in Creech had been called. He did not know about other Air Bases. And still, the sight of countless friendly dots in his situational screen was amazing. He had seldom flown with more than a wingman, and there had to be over fifty other drones with him this time.

Lewis turned the magnification off soon in his approach. His target was easy enough to see. The challenge was not crashing with a building. He had cut the distance with the giant woman in half when he realized that she had noticed them.

It was when he noticed that she was holding something in her hands: an entire building.

“Sir, instructions,” he asked.

“Proceed as planned,” he was responded from the radio. He shivered at the thought of just how easily Command had written off the lives of whoever was inside the structure the woman was holding.

*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*

Lucia was still at the peak of her anger when she noticed the approaching dots in the evening sky. She narrowed her eyes and zoomed in with her enhanced sight, only to identify a large number of aircraft heading in her direction. She did not need a lot of deduction to realize that they were military.

“Tiny fuckers!” she muttered.

They were really going to attack her! After all they had seen, they were going to strike her again! Lucia could not believe that they were so damn stupid. Or maybe she had been the one that had been too naïve. After everything that had happened, she had assumed that the brass would have realized about the new balance of power. At the very least, they should have retreated and reconsidered their position. But no, here they were, ready to throw some more useless stuff at her.

Because, it would be useless. She would most likely not even be scratched by it. And if she did, if they managed to hurt her enough, they would only make her grow. She was so pissed off that she even wished for them to be successful. Maybe she needed to become bigger and show them!

Lucia took a deep breath as the dots got closer. She was big enough. She was not in a hurry to get even more massive. And she certainly did not need to become larger in order to show the damned mites just how big of a mistake they were making. Because she would. That was out of the question.

Had she not been brutal enough? Had they not understood her true power? It certainly seemed they had not. It was time for them to learn the real truth. Combined with the anger at having had Sharon abducted, the approach of the attack craft worked to break the last dam in Lucia’s mind. Her lips curled in a sneer as her action plan settled in her mind. She would let the planes throw their stuff at her, weather the attack. Then, she would bring the city down, up to the last stone. The world needed to learn that Lucia Torres could not be fucked around anymore.

She kept the City Hall in her grasp, holding it at chest level as she waited for the barrage to come. It did not. For a moment, Lucia wondered if the fact that she was holding a building full of people was making the army guys change their minds. She got her answer soon enough.

Lucia was still wondering why the weird-looking planes did not seem to have a cockpit when the first one crashed against her, hitting her in the cheek. In a way, it was not that different to being hit by a missile. Three more crashed against different parts of her face. Then half a dozen hit her in the chest. They seemed to be trying to avoid the building, but they were certainly not avoiding her.

Lucia relaxed when she noticed that the impacts were not even hurting. Their annoyance came from the fact that they were attacking her, not so much for their capacity to even sting. Her eyes were narrowed as she waited for their ranks to dwindle.

And then, as fast as they had come, the planes were gone. Every single one of them had ineffectively crashed against her, in what had to be the stupidest attempt from the army yet. The attack was so pointless that Lucia even wondered whether to execute on her threats.

She coughed as she thought on that. If anything, the kamikaze planes had managed to create a cloud of smoke around her. Lucia coughed again, the cobalt-toned gas rejecting to dissipate and becoming denser by the moment.

“What the fuck?” Lucia muttered. She coughed immediately after saying it.

The giantess then noticed that her heart was beating faster, pumping blood and adrenaline along her bloodstream at an increased rate. She initially associated this to the thrill of the incoming fight, but when the heartrate kept accelerating rather than slowing down, Lucia started to become worried.

The first sharp sting came only a second later. It made her react, crushing the building between her hands as she unwillingly contracted them. Lucia felt sweat forming in her forehead and armpits. Her heart kept increasing its rate.

“Oh, fuck!” she muttered, again, realizing that something was wrong. Something was very wrong. What the fuck had that smoke been? What in the hell had the army done to her?

The next sting was so sharp that Lucia felt as if she had been stabbed through the heart. She unwillingly dropped to her knees, shaking her surroundings for miles, as she clutched her chest with both hands, trying to rip whatever it was that was crushing her heart off. The pain, which had been intermittent, was now here to stay. Lucia tried screaming. She barely managed to produce a shriek.

She took a deep breath, trying to slow her heart down. It did not help. It got her enough air to let out a final:

“Noooooooo!”

Every window in Downtown shattered. And then, Lucia collapsed, dropping on her back as her eyes closed.

*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*

Tension could be cut with a knife in the command plane’s meeting room. Multiple windows showed the approach of the Reapers as the main screen kept focused on Lucia Torres, now standing in Central Plaza and threatening the city with even more suffering.

General Colt knew this was their last chance. At least, for now. If whatever the redhead woman had prepared did not work, they would have no option but to retreat. He was convinced they would eventually find the way, but he also knew that this would mean leaving Kingston and its eight-million people at her mercy for God knew how long. And he had no hopes about what the consequences of that would be. Not when he had seen her bring down two dozen city blocks as if they had been a house of cards.

Secretary Burton had not said anything in a long while. Whatever it was that the President had said to him, the man had been silent ever since his conversation with him. He could see the tension in him too.

Colonel Sherman seemed to be the only member of his staff with some degree of optimism. The man trusted the scientist, that was easy enough to see. It was also obvious that the only reason for that was that he liked the way she talked and behaved herself around the bigger fishes. Which was a pretty slim reason.

The drones started hitting the giant woman one after the other. General Colt reflected about just how much taxpayer dollars he was betting on this attempt as the counter with the number of active Reapers decreased at high speed. The counter finally reached zero. Not even a fly could be heard in the room.

And then, the woman coughed. He could see some hopeful sighs. Then, she coughed again. Her hands unwillingly crushed the City Hall a moment later. It was curious to see how this was taken as good news by most, having already added everyone inside the building to the list of victims even before they were dead. Another cough. Her face reflected some discomfort. Then pain. Even General Colt was starting to feel hopeful.

The first smiles appeared when she dropped to her knees. Barely a minute had passed by the time she fell on her back. Cheering erupted an instant later. He did not think he had ever been so happy at the result of a mission. And he certainly had not seen his staff look so exultant.

The screams were deafening. Soon, people started turning to Doctor Keane. And then, they started to hold her. The lack of sound in the screen delayed the people’s reaction to what happened next. The main screen shone brightly, finally starting to attract everyone’s attention. It then went dark, with a “no signal” text in the middle.

“What has happened?” General Colt asked.

No one knew the answer. Staff members hurriedly operated the controls to try to bring the image back. He crouched and looked through the window.

“Oh my God!” he muttered.

It was gone. Kingston was gone. A mushroom-shaped cloud was starting to rise in the spot that had previously been occupied by the city.