The young woman fidgeted on the chair, stroking the tips of her long brown hair. Her feet kicked back and forth, her flip-flops barely brushing the floor. She cast nervous looks at the window, the only adornment in the otherwise unfurnished little room.
Valerie gazed back at her. "Dr. Leichtsinn, you didn’t answer me," she said, "is it safe?"
"Absolutely, that’s four inch thick leaded glass," muttered the short, bespeckled scientist.
"Yes, I see that," she said, "I mean is it safe for Mariposa. She’s a volunteer." She glanced at her phone. "After this I have to return her safe and sound for her… uh… Advanced Basket Weaving class."
"I’ve taken that," said the doctor. "I mastered french randing, triple twining with a step up, and ti-twining."
"Splendid. So what’s the experiment?"
"An exciting new alternative to caffeine," Leichtsinn explained, as he fiddled with knobs and checked dials. "The device—if it succeeds this time—will imbue Ms Arges with enough raw energy to keep her awake for a month."
"And the device is?" asked Valerie.
"A glueball collider." said the doctor, "to stimulate her up quarks."
"Her what what? Wait. Have you done this with animal test subjects?"
"Good heavens, no," Leichtsinn replied, "I like animals," and he slammed down a heavy 3-pole knife switch.
The lights in the control room flickered and dimmed. Around Mariposa sprang a radiance of indescribable colors. Her dark eyes widened. The eerie glow closed in upon her, seeped into her flesh, into her hair, her t-shirt, and jeans. A shuddering quake shook the floor. The switch slammed back to its original position, and the control room’s light brightened, but a deep pervasive, humming sound remained, like the toiling of vast, distant engines.
"Holy shit," snapped Valerie, "is it over?"
Leichtsinn peered over his spectacles. "I sincerely hope not." He keyed a microphone and spoke into it. "How do you feel Ms Arges?"
"I feel weird," the girl stammered, her soft voice thundering through the lab.
"Doctor," snapped Valerie. "Does this glass magnify images?"
"No, I shouldn’t think so," he said. "Why do you ask?"
"Son of a..." Valerie growl. She threw the heavy door open and lunged into the room. Grabbing Mariposa’s hand, she tugged. The girl stood up, easily overtopping Valerie by a foot.
"Maybe the top quark would have been better," mused Leichtsinn.
Both women glanced down at their hands. Valerie felt Mariposa’s fingers growing larger within her grasp, it was a strange sensation. And the pervasive humming sound seemed to emanate from the girl herself.
"Maybe it’ll stop soon," said Mariposa anxiously, her soft voice pounding the air.
"We should be so lucky," growled Valerie. "Come on, let’s get you out here." She stomped out of the room, and jabbed a finger in the direction of Leichtsinn, "I’ll be back for you later, mister."
Together the two women quick stepped down the long hallway to the elevators. Valerie punched the up button, and murmured a silent ‘thank-you’ as the doors immediately parted.
They crammed in and Valerie selected the button for the lobby. The doors slid shut, the car rose from the 3rd sub-basement to the 2nd, and stopped.
Valerie swore viciously, and when the doors opened on a pair of custodians she barked, "Emergency! Take the next car!" and slammed her fist against the close button.
Mariposa warned, "I don’t think I’m going to make it."
"Nonsense," said Valerie. She glanced at the girl, and her jaw dropped. Mariposa stood hunched over, with the back of her head and neck pressed against the ceiling. The floor groaned beneath them, and the weight warning alarm sounded.
Valerie frantically jabbed the button for the 1st sub-basement, but it was just passing. She hit the emergency stop, triggering another klaxon. Valerie grabbed at the right half of the doors, trying to open it. It moved half-an-inch, a full inch.
"Help me!" she yelled. Mariposa, wedged now against the back of the car reached over her.
Her gigantic hands fumbled for a purchase. She tugged with strength she never knew she had, and the doors crumpled into their slots. Valerie stumbled out, spun about and pulled on the still growing girl. "Hurry," she urged.
Mariposa slipped forward onto her hands and knees, wiggling her hips to squeeze through the doors. Fortunately, the hallway was more spacious, and she climbed ponderously to her feet, forced to hunch over against the 15’ high ceiling.
Valerie looked up and down the hall, getting her bearings. "The nearest door is that way," she said, pointing down the corridor. "Try to keep up," and she jogged down the hallway, her bootheels clicking harshly against the tile floor. Mariposa breathed heavily, her massive body occupying more and more of the hallway. When Valerie arrived at a fire door she turned and stopped.
"That’s going to be narrow," she warned. "Don’t let it stop you."
Mariposa nodded. She dropped to her hands and knees, and pushed one shoulder against the center post. It resisted for a moment before bending and breaking. The rest of the frame twisted and deformed as the huge girl forced her body through it, tearing a portion of it from the wall. She started to stand back up, but couldn’t, so dropped back down and continued to crawl.
Valerie sprinted in front of her, coming to a sliding stop at an intersection. She clenched her fists and swore loudly. "God damned flu shots!"
Mariposa peered around the corner, with her head well above Valerie’s. The hallway was packed with people staring back at her, all of them queued up to get into one of the side rooms.
For the space of three heartbeats nobody moved, nobody said anything. As if on cue pandemonium erupted. Some pushed through the crowd to leave. Some stared. Some held up their phones, snapping pictures. The brouhaha drew people from the room, adding to the confusion.
Valerie looked up at Mariposa. "This is the fastest path out. If you have to push people, then push. We don’t have time to go any other way."
"Okay," said Mariposa, her soft voice throbbed with crackling power, and she crawled forward, squeezing her ever increasing bulk through the hallway.
This wasn’t exactly how Valerie planned it. Caught between the colossal and still growing girl, and the clueless and increasingly panicstricken mob. Now that she was committed she yelled and charged towards the people, waving at them to move, all the while keenly aware of the way the floor shook beneath Mariposa.
Some of the men and women ducked back into the room, climbing over those trying to see what the fuss was all about. Others stood and gawked, clearly having trouble comprehending their predicament. The remainder bolted for the far end of the hallway.
Valerie dashed by the onlookers. That impelled some to follow. Shrill screams made it clear this wasn’t a good plan, but the loudest cries came from one man knocked away from the wall. Mariposa hesitated, but Valerie yelled, "Don’t stop, dammit!" and so she crawled over him. He squealed as her knee landed on him, making his eyes bulge. Bones crunched. He spat up blood. But Mariposa kept moving over him.
Dozens bunched up, jostling for space in an alcove with two elevators. Others yanked open the stairwell doors. A hundred feet down the hallway Valerie spotted the loading docks.
"Clear this space!" she yelled. "Go up the stairs, or down the hall. We’re not waiting!"
It was the right idea, but the wrong result. People poured out of the alcove into the hall, fighting to get to the stairs. More stopped as Mariposa approached, her growing body ripping through the walls, her head tearing through the ceiling. More phones popped out, which Valerie slapped away.
"Move!" she shrieked.
"I can’t," said Mariposa, and it was true. She was wedged firmly into the hallway, pressed from all sides.
Valerie sprinted back, thinking fast, shutting out the noisy clamor of people escaping. She looked up at Mariposa’s face. "We’re under the lobby. Push up. Break into that space, turn left, and get outside."
"Are you sure?" asked the girl, gasping for breath. Huge cracks split the walls to either side as her massive body kept growing.
"Yes! Stand up!"
Mariposa pressed her lips together, she pulled her arms close and pushed against the floor, straining, her face turning red. The humming sound intensified. The ceiling heaved against her back. Pipes and rebar tore from the concrete. With a groan Mariposa lifted the weight of the ceiling, her arms straightening out, her shoulders plowing through the floor above.
Valerie sprang forward next to Mariposa’s left foot, using the giant girl’s body as a shield from the tumbling debris. Screams of terror shook the air as Mariposa burst into the lobby, rising through the floor, still growing, her legs straightening as she stood up.
"Go left," Valerie yelled. But it was too late. Pushed back by the swiftly expanding flip-flip, she was forced her to clamber onto Mariposa’s bare toes. They grew beneath her. Looking up Valerie narrowed her eyes. Dashing forward along the huge instep she kicked off and grabbed the cuff of Mariposa’s jeans. She pulled herself up and clung to the stitching.
Far above the Mariposa found herself pressed up against the 30ft ceiling of the lobby. She squirmed against it, her eyes wild as she tried to move, but with her feet still in the sub-basement she couldn’t extricate herself.
With a rending crash Mariposa’s head and shoulders burst through the lobby ceiling. The bodies of people dislodged from the floors above rained down around her growing body. Her breasts pressed against the ceiling next, lifted it, ripped through it. She squirmed up through the guts of the office building, smashing through floor after floor, destroying its structural integrity.
The building rubbed against Mariposa from all sides, crunched and broke against her breasts, hips, and thighs. She caught brief glimpses of terrified people disappearing under toppling walls, lifted and smashed against ceilings, and tumbling down around her, until finally the building couldn’t take it anymore. With a long, ruinous crash, like grinding boulders, the entire structure sloughed down the length of her massive body, crashing and avalanching around her feet.
Mariposa stood in the midst of it all, a stunned look on her face, looking down at the city blocks around her. The humming sound faded. Her growth slowed and stopped, leaving her standing several hundred feet tall.
Lifting one huge foot dislodged a pile of smoldering rubble. She stepped out of the shattered remains of the building. Something tickled her. Glancing down she spotted Valerie sliding down her instep and onto her toes. Mariposa bent, and carefully gathered up the miniscule woman, before standing back up to her new height.
"That didn’t go very well," said Mariposa.
"We’ll worry about that later," said Valerie breathlessly, keenly aware of the vast height of the girl, her heart pounding as she clutched one titanic thumb,."How do you feel?"
"I feel…" Mariposa started to say, then paused as something on the ground distracted her. Valerie inched forward far enough to peer over the edge of the giant girl’s hand. Far below Dr. Leichtsinn shuffled across the grounds. He lifted a megaphone to his lips.
"This is just a minor setback," he said, "I’ll stimulate your down quarks and have you back to normal in no time."
Mariposa raised her eyebrows. Valerie saw the wheels turning in the girls mind and yelled frantically, "Wait...think about it!" But it was too late. Mariposa lifted her left foot and casually stepped on the tiny scientist with a liquid crunch as she crushed his guts out. She twisted her huge toes back and forth over that spot.
"I’ve decided to stay this way," she explained. "It feels good. I like it. Do you have a problem with that?"
Valerie looked up into the girl’s dark, gleaming eyes, and slowly shook her head.