The Orphanage (Finale)

[Jaypat]

MIKEY

The mid afternoon sun beat down on the lazy road as it wound through the quiet forested countryside. A lone squirrel, nose twitching, sauntered out onto the blacktop unconcerned. Cars seldom bothered this lonely stretch, and there was nothing to impede the squirrel’s natural curiosity about what lay on the other side.

Or was there?

Something was coming, not down the road, but from the woods. A tremendous disturbance deep in the forest was slowly and relentlessly moving forward, coming closer and closer to the road. The squirrel froze for a split second and then vanished into the woods just as, in an explosion of leaves and branches, a large figure burst out onto the road. At first glance the figure was a young man, but a young man of such gigantic proportions, that he almost transcended the definition and required a new classification. Covered in dirt and grime, he was nearly eight feet tall, and his build – muscular was an understatement. His only clothing was the raged remains of a pair of shredded jeans, which like an overstressed loin cloth, stubbornly clung to a body much larger than they were ever intended to cover.

The young giant looked around for a moment, surveying the emptiness of the area, before he reached into the tattered rag he wore and pulled out a small object—a plastic kazoo. He raised it to his lips and blew “shave and a haircut” before turning around and calling into the trees.

“It’s ok,” he said. “We made it.”

Answering his call, a procession of teenage boys stumbled out of the forest and walked out on to the road blinking at the assault of direct sunlight. They were all just as grimy as the giant, but ordinary in size and fully clothed. They looked up and down the road, completely disoriented.

“We made it where, Mikey?” asked one of them. “It doesn’t look like anyplace, just a road.”

“Just a road?” the giant answered. “There’s no such thing as just a road. This road, this highway, this thoroughfare will connect you with any other road, highway, or thoroughfare in the entire country. You can go anywhere you want. A thousand miles that way,” he said pointing to the right, “and you’ll wind up in New York City. Two thousand miles that way,” he pointed to the left, “and you can be surfing the Pacific.

“Or if you’re not feeling that ambitious, you can go about a mile down, hang a right and head into town.”

“You think we should go into town?” asked Rob.
“Granted the Big Apple has a better theater district,” said Mikey, “but local hotel rates are far more reasonable.”

“But we don’t have any money at all.”

Mikey looked down at the diminutive teen standing beside him and sighed. He didn’t know why they expected him to lead them. Maybe it was because he was so damn big. Or maybe it was because he always had the best ideas. Ok, maybe he did know why they expected him to lead them.

“Go into town,” he said. “Tell them you don’t remember who you are or where you came from. Someone will take you in, clean you up, feed you, put you up for the night.”

“You sound like you’re not coming with us.”

“I’m not,” said Mikey. “I’m going back.”

Shock and surprise radiated from Rob’s features, but almost instantly settled into a grim determination. “Then we’re going with you.”

“Don’t be stupid. What can you do?”

“I don’t know. What can you do?”

Suddenly Mikey slammed his massive fist into a tree. The trunk splintered and the tree came crashing to the ground.

“Ok,” said Rob. “Point taken.”

“Just take the rest of the guys into town, Rob.”

“That’ll probably work for tonight but what about tomorrow? Some of us are going to start growing.”

“I don’t know,” he said. “How are you feeling?”

“Me? Fine.”

“Any pins and needles, you know, like when your foot falls asleep?”

Rob slowly shook his head. “No.”

“Then you still have some time. If things go well at The Orphanage, we’ll come for you. We won’t desert you. If things don’t go well…” He paused. He wasn’t quite sure how to say it. “Look, if there’s one thing I do know it that if there’s a place for us in this world, it’s not going to be something we find. It’s going to be something we make. And if we don’t come for you by tomorrow, you’re going to have to make it without us.”

Rob looked stunned, as if he’d never considered the possibility of going on without the other guys. “You’d better fucking come for us,” he finally said, the words coming out thickly from his throat.

“Count on it, bro,” said Mikey, and he turned and walked quickly back into the forest. He hadn’t gone far when he suddenly broke into a jog. He could move faster now—now that he didn’t have the little guys to worry about, and he was in a hurry. Not just to get into battle, although that was certainly weighing on his mind. The real reason he was hurrying was to get back to someone he had left behind, someone who meant an awful lot to him. Just how much, he was only starting to realize.

***

KEVIN

“I’ll do it. I just need a minute,” Kevin shouted at Caleb. “Now, get out of here. Go find Mikey and the others. Stick with them. You might just get your heroic last stand after all. Although I really hope you’ll find a better way.”

“But—”began the short, skinny13-year-old.
“No more buts. Get out of here while you still can.” What was the matter with the kid? Didn’t he know what was about to happen? Why was he hesitating? “Go, damn it!”

Kevin watched Caleb hesitantly turn and disappear into the front hall. At last the kid had seen reason and left. Now all the normal kids were gone. Only the behemoths were left, the behemoths and him. And soon, even though he wouldn’t be leaving, there would only be behemoths. He stared dully at the syringe. He knew what he had to do. But could he actually do it?

“Holy chri—“came a muffled shout from the front hall. Kevin, still clutching the syringe, hurried to the gaping hole in the wall where the door used to be and peered out. One of the guardsmen had clearly come up to the house to get Gibbons. Glen had grabbed him by wrapping one of his mammoth hands around the soldier’s head, covering not only the man’s mouth but his entire face. That explained the muffled shout. Then, with his massive shoulder barely tensing, Glen lifted the man up off the floor. The guardsman’s arms and legs were flailing around, trying to break himself free from the colossus that held him, but it was obviously useless. Glen had a shit eating grin on his face. It was clear he liked watching the soldier vainly struggle against his vastly superior size and strength. Matt stepped up and removed the man’s gun, and crinkled it up in to a wad before he tossed it on the floor.

“That’s one down,” he said.

“What do I do with him?” asked Glen who suddenly started laughing.

“What’s so funny?”

“I don’t know. He’s biting me. It tickles.”

“Put him down,” said Kevin, stepping forward unable to take anymore.

“You mean let him go?” asked Glen clearly shocked.

“No, just stop torturing him.”

“Ok,” said Glen and with a flick of his wrist he sent the man flying against the wall where he slumped down unconscious next to Gibbons. Kevin rushed over to the guardsman, and putting his syringe down, he checked the soldiers pulse.

“He’s alive,” he said.

“Who cares?” said Glen. “These guys are going to try and kill us.”

“He’s right, Kev,” said Matt. “When they fire those tanks at us, they won’t be loaded with blanks. We won’t be able to play nice then. It’s kill or be killed, us against them.”

“Maybe he thinks he can weasel out of it,” said Glen. “Maybe that’s why he hasn’t changed yet. Maybe he thinks he can fool them into believing he’s still normal.”

“That’s not it at all,” said Kevin.

“Then why haven’t you changed yet?” asked Matt.

Kevin stood, looking up at Matt, shocked to the core. The one person he thought might understand, and he was just like all the others. “I can’t believe that after all I’ve done for you guys, you think I’d just run off and leave you.”

“I know you won’t,” said Glen from behind him, and then Kevin felt the prick of a needle. He whirled around, but it was too late. He could only watch as Glen tossed the empty syringe to the floor. “Time to muscle up, Dude.”

Kevin was stunned. What had Glen done? He felt like he’d just been killed. It was over. Life as he knew it was over. No more pizza joints. No more Saturday afternoon movies. No more video games. Everything was gone. Everything he knew was gone. And it was Glen. Glen had done this to him, taken the decision right out of his hands. He’d been betrayed, betrayed and violated.

Kevin felt himself grow angry. He didn’t get mad often. He kept the emotion out, resigning himself to the general unfairness of life. But now Glen had gone too far. The damn broke and the emotion flooded him. He became furious. “You shouldn’t ought to have done that,” he said. It was only a whisper, but there was ice in it, sharp, frozen ice. And even the fire he felt shooting through his veins could not melt it.

“You shouldn’t ought to have done that,” he said a little louder.

“Yeah? Well, I did,” said Glen smirking.

Sixteen years of putting up with people’s crap, of being the victim of stupid, selfish, pettiness, sixteen years of putting up with everybody’s fucking shit and it was all descending upon him at once. Every indignity he’d ever suffered flashed in front of him at once.

“YOU SHOULDN’T OUGHT TO HAVE DONE THAT!” he screamed, so incensed he couldn’t see straight. All he could understand was fury, all he could see was Glen’s smirking face, and suddenly, as if his anger had been given form and motion, his body began to change. Every vein, every muscle, every ligament started squirming under his skin. He could feel them writhing like a nest of angry snakes. He was fucking changing. He was fucking loosing himself. He looked down at his hand and watched horrified as one by one his fingers distorted and elongated, and his hands stretched out unnaturally. Strange alien growths began swelling up under his shirt, like pustules of wrath, bumps and bulges that were not him, shouldn’t be any part of him. He swatted at them, as though he could knock them off. But all that his fingers met was hard, unyielding flesh. He tried to grab a comforting handful of his fat roll only to feel it boil away under his fingers. Gone. Like so much else, it was gone. With every second his body became stranger and stranger to him. The familiar easy going chubbiness was dissolving, giving way to strange, hard protrusions that were suddenly heaving and swelling and straining his shirt. He could feel himself disappearing. Slowly slipping away and being replaced by something monstrous.

“YOU SHOULDN’T OUGHT TO HAVE DONE THAT!” he cried. And his writhing flesh, using his fury as nourishment, began to grow thicker and longer, bunching up in places, growing wider and longer in others, pushing its way out of his shirt. Buttons were popping, and cloth was tearing as engorged python-like tendons writhed and forced their way out, ripping through his clothing. He watched helplessly as his shirt was reduced to rags, torn from his back by the swelling, pulsing, angry reptile-like things his muscles had become.

And now that his chest was bare, he could hardly stand to look at its unfamiliar shape. Strange swelling mounds covered it like alien tumors, while the monstrous creatures of Rage still swarmed and bulged and grew beneath his skin, engulfing him, swallowing him whole, engorging themselves on him and then swelling out all over his body, until there was barely a speck of him, the real him, left.

But his muscles were not creatures of Rage alone. They also brought its friend and lover, Power. The monsters were rank with it. And as much as Rage consumed him, so did an overwhelming feeling of Power. And as dark and horrible as Rage was, its influence was pale and feeble next to the seductive nature of its lover. It called to Kevin. Accept the monsters, give in to the rage and he would have Power, unbelievable, raw, raging physical Power. And Power felt good, better than good, it felt awesome. It wasn’t pizza or video games, or Saturday matinees. But those things were gone. He could never have them again, but he could have Power. And it did feel really good. All he had to do was give in, give up that one last spark that was Kevin and let the rage take him, devour him, become him. And he did. He let go. And the effect was dramatic.

Already huge, he exploded with size. Gone were the snakes and tumors. At last he could see the masses of flesh for what they truly were: huge, bulging, heaving muscles, the very essence of Power, his new master, his new lover, his new all. And he wanted more, needed more, and of his master, demanded more.

And his master was generous.

Eight feet, ten feet, twelve feet tall, and still he didn’t stop. Grunting with a savage euphoria, he watched his biceps expand from the size of watermelons to car tires to tractor tires, unimaginably huge with thick veins like garden hoses running all around them and up to his planetoid sized delts. What fucking massive arms he had! They were just bulging all over with impossible steely Power. An animalistic lust for it filled him and mixed with the ever present Rage. This was what he was about now, what he’d surrendered his soul for. He must have more. He had to have more. He would be empty without it. He focused every ounce of his will on it, and it was working. His every dimension was expanding explosively. Strength and unimaginable power were flooding into him, and he derived an orgasmic pleasure from feeling his body explode all over with muscle and gorge itself with mass.

Gargantuan traps erupted from his back, thick with bulk, and angled up across his massive broadening shoulders to a neck as big around as a jumbo sized trash can. More. His lats kept spreading out wider and wider. Six feet, eight feet, ten feet across, they bulged out at least two feet thick with rock hard, undulating muscle. More. His titanic pecs bulked up as large and round and destructive as two iron wrecking balls. I must have more. His stomach exploded into twelve titanium bricks, harder and stronger than any stone ever though of being. FUCKING MORE! His legs expanded until each one was the width of two fucking oil barrels, all of the dozens of muscles outrageously huge and individually defined under his skin. And as the growth faded he let out a thundering bellow, full of pain and anguish for what he’d lost, and a savage joy for what he’d become. He surveyed his body. It was a landscape of massive undulating sinew. Nothing so powerful had ever walked the earth. And it was a tool now, a tool for his rage.

He looked around. The other behemoths stared up at him slack jawed. Next to him, they were children. He was more than three feet taller than the tallest of them and broader than three of them put together. He felt a guttural growl forming in his throat as he looked down at them. Slowly they began to back away. Suddenly his eyes focused on one of them. He was the one. He had done this to him. He had stolen everything away from him, and created the rage. And now he was going to reap his reward.

Blam! He struck out with his fist like lighting, hit his target in the jaw and sent him flying into the staircase. The wooded structure collapsed and buried the behemoth in an avalanche of broken, splintered wood. He took a step towards him, but before he could move again, the other behemoths were grabbing at him, trying to hold him back, spouting nonsense words like Stop, Kevin. What are you doing? Calm down. Words he had no use for.

One of the behemoths, Danny, was hanging on his arm. He stopped, grabbed him, and threw him off as hard as he could. The huge kid flew backwards across the room, through the wall into Gibbons office, completely destroying the room, before he flew right through the outer wall and rocketed into the world beyond. After that he lost sight of Danny. After that he didn’t care.

Glen was pulling himself out of the rubble of the staircase, and staring white faced at him. “I’m sorry, ok? Jeeze!”

But it wasn’t ok. Thanks to him, nothing was ok, and it never would be. He lunged at Glen. But his lunge was slowed, even stopped, by the ten guys who were now hanging on him, pulling him back, dragging him down.

“Jesus, Kevin,” said Matt, “calm the fuck down. Glen is not your enemy. The enemy is out there, remember?”

Vague memories of something else, some other concern, threatened to cloud his anger, so he dismissed them. He tried for Glen again, but ten guys, lay on top of him pinning him down. Ten were too many. And now they were chattering.

“Kevin’s a little pissed,” said Phil.

“Gee, you think?” said Matt. “Why the fuck did you have to shoot him up like that, Glen?”

“How was I supposed to know he’d freak. No one else did.”

“No one else had it forced on them.”

“How’d he get so big?”

“How the fuck should I know? But he’s fucking huge and its taking all fucking ten of us just to keep him pinned down. What’s the army doing?”

Glen looked out the window. “Oh fuck, they’re coming, the whole fucking bunch of them, they’re coming. They must have heard something.”

“Of course they fucking heard something. They all have to be cold stone fucking deaf not to have heard something. And we’ve got a fucking problem.”

***

FISH

Fish sat back on his cushioned seat and watched the countryside fly by. They were traveling fast, very fast, in fact he was sure it was unsafe. But he wasn’t really worried about an accident. Let it happen. It would be a shame to lose the vehicle, but he was in absolutely no danger. The car he was in—really it was more like a modified truck—could be reduced to a flaming mass of twisted wreckage and he would still rise from it completely unharmed. Of course his clothes would be ruined, and that would be a shame, too.

He ran his fingers over the turtleneck he wore. It was a very fine material, obviously very expensive, and designed especially for him. It clung to his body, showcasing his massive pecs, and the prominent muscle bricks that comprised his steel-like abs, leaving no doubt about the power that rested just beneath the cloth. The jacket, too, was cut deliberately tight in the arms so when he bent his limbs, his biceps pulled at the sleeves, showcasing their size and power. And Fish, himself, liked being reminded of that, it made it easy to put up with the discomfort of wearing such a tight garment.

Once again he looked out the window. They were traveling fast but it would still be sometime before they reached their destination. He picked up the remote and turned on the flat screen TV. He flipped through the channels idly. It was the middle of the afternoon. Of course, there was nothing on. And there hadn’t been time to stock up on DVD’s. Oh well, maybe he could get some from his old room for the return trip. In the mean time, he’d just have to settle with a little Halo 3.

***

ROB

Rob tried to flag down the pick-up as it raced past, but it was no good. They didn’t even seem to notice him or the rest of the teens sitting in the shade by the side of the road. They had been walking for some time now, and had just settled down for a brief rest. Three other vehicles had passed since they had started down the road. None of them had stopped.

He sat back down on the grass. This was just wrong. Something didn’t feel right. He shouldn’t be doing this. He should be back there helping.

He started rubbing his hands together. He was starting to feel pins and needles in them as though they were falling asleep. Suddenly, he remembered the last thing Mikey said to him. It was the fist sign, the first sign of the change. He stood up. “I’m going back.”

“What?” cried Todd, “Are you crazy?”

“Maybe,” he said. “Maybe not. Can you feel the pins and needles?”

Todd looked down and started unconsciously rubbing his hands, and Rob knew he could.

“That’s the change, Todd. Those of us who didn’t get our shots this morning, we’re starting to change. It shouldn’t be long before we start to see it.”

Todd looked himself over, looking for any difference, but it was obvious he couldn’t see one. “Yeah, maybe we are starting to change, but there’s no way you’ll get big enough to go against a tank, at least not soon enough to do any good.”

“Probably not. But there maybe something else I can do. Anyway, anything’s better than running away.”

“What about the rest of us?”

“I’m not asking anyone else to come with me.”

“I’ll go with you,” said a voice.

Rob turned and saw Anthony standing there.

“You? But you’re not… You’re not going to change.”

“Not today. Apparently I’ve got another twenty-four hours.”

“Then it’s insane for you to go.”

“Why? I don’t like running away either. And I have another reason.”

Ron looked to Todd for help, but his friend just threw up his hands.

“No, I’m sorry,” said Rob, “You can’t come with me.”

“Then I’ll just follow behind you. I’ve made up my mind. I’m going back even if you don’t.”

“Fine, come,” said Rob. “But if you get killed, it’s your own fault. Todd, you take the rest of the kids into town. It’s all on your shoulders now.”

Todd nodded and then Rob and Anthony started the long hike back.

***

GIBBONS

Loud noises invaded the blackness, and pulled Gibbons up the long tunnel back into consciousness. He instantly became aware of the pain. His whole body ached and his head was splitting. It quickly came back to him: the lab rats and the fight. What happened? How did it end? Where was he? Cautiously he opened his eyes. Pandemonium, he saw pandemonium. One of the subjects was on the floor. Gibbons was shocked at the size of him. He was mammoth, fifteen or sixteen feet tall, far bigger than he should have been. And his muscles were gigantic, engorged, veined mountainous masses. Gibbons started thinking about the power this thing must have and he got frightened. He’d seen a much smaller one single handedly demolish a five story building. Imagine what this one could do. It was obscene.

What’s more, it was clear something wrong with it. The mammoth one was having some kind tantrum or fit. And the other bloated rats were trying to pin him down, hold him back. It was all they could do. Gibbons didn’t want to think what would happen if they lost control of him. One of those things having a tantrum? The possibilities were too horrible to contemplate. But they were all completely engaged in containing the Mammoth. All but one, who seemed to be standing guard by the window. What had happened here? What was going on?

Carefully he took in the rest of the room. An unconscious soldier lay beside him. The National Guard was here. Good. That gave him leverage. He could save the specimens yet. Personally, he didn’t care if they got blown to kingdom come, but there were those who would care, some of whom he had to answer to.

“They’re coming,” said the one by the window. “What do we do?”

“Give yourselves up,” said Gibbons, rising to his feet. “You don’t stand a chance.”

The mammoth seemed to quiet down a little and one of the rats lifted his head to look at him. It was the leader kid, the one who had grabbed him. “Shut up, old man.”

“You sure you want me to do that, boy? Because I can get you out of this. I’m the only one who can.”

“Why would you want to help us?”

“Because each one of you cost a king’s ransom to develop, and I’d hate to see all that money wasted.” The boy grew quiet and Gibbons could tell he’d made an inroad.

“What did you have in mind?” the lead rat asked.

“You’re not going to listen to him, are you Matt?” said the one by the window.

“You can’t trust him,” said another rat.

“Yeah, he did this to us,” said a third. “This is all his fault.”

And suddenly the Mammoth stopped struggling, and Gibbons saw the thing turn its head and look at him. If rage had a face, Gibbons was now looking at it. And all that anger encased in that freakishly colossal body was a thoroughly terrifying sight. The thing let out a low, guttural grunt. It reminded him of a bull snorting. He took an involuntary step back. “What the fuck happened to him?”

“You’re asking me?” said the one called Matt. “You’re the brilliant fucking scientist. You tell us.”

“I’m not a scientist, I’m a military man, which is how I know you don’t stand a snowballs chance in hell against the Guard, unless I help you.”

“I’m listening,” said Matt.

“Matt, no!” shouted the one by the window.
“Shut up, Glen. I mean it. Or we’ll let Kevin shut you up.”

“Kevin?” said Gibbons. “Was that its name?” And suddenly the mammoth started struggling again. Only this time, Gibbons noticed the thing was staring at him. And that kid Matt noticed it, too. Time to stop fooling around. “This is what you’re going to do,” he began. “In the lab there’s a canister. It’s filled with a kind of sleeping gas. Get it. Open it. Go to sleep. That’s all there is to it. I’ll take care of the rest.”

“You want us to surrender ourselves, completely helpless, to you?”

“It either that or face those tanks. You’ll only get this chance once, boy. What’s your answer?”

“You want my answer? Ok, here it is.” He turned to the other rats. “Turn him loose, guys.”

“What?” said a rat. “Are you crazy?”

“Just do it. It’s time we showed this asshole the exit.”

Gibbons didn’t wait to hear more. He turned and ran as fast as he could. He had just made it through the gap where the door used to be, when he heard a thunderous enraged bellow coming from behind him. The sound was so powerful he could feel the vibration of it, like when he once sat too close to a subwoofer.

The vanguard of the guard unit was nearly on the porch. They had frozen at the deafening sound.

“Fall back!” shouted Gibbons. “Fall back!” And then the front of the house exploded outward. Instinctively Gibbons dropped to the ground and covered his head, trying vainly to shield himself from the shit storm of jagged wood and flying glass. He took a shard of wood in his right arm and cried out in pain. And then he felt the porch shake and heard the unmistakable boom of the mammoth’s footsteps approaching from behind. He didn’t have a second to lose.

He leapt to his feet just in time to hear the click click of automatic weapon bolts. And suddenly he was facing the business ends of an entire vanguard of rifle barrels that were pointed, primed and ready to fire.

And behind him—he didn’t have to look. He could feel the ominous presence of the mammoth towering over him like the shadow of death. It roared. He covered his ears just as the Guard opened fire.

When the first bullets struck him, his thoughts were of the incompetence of the Guardsmen. They should have let him get clear before they opened fire. Then as he fell to the ground and looked up, he caught sight of the mammoth. And he was once again horrified by the overwhelming size of the beast. And his last thought, before the final darkness came, was that he didn’t blame the Guard at all.

***

BRAD

Brad covered his eyes as he emerged from the tunnel. He was grateful for the ability so see so well in the dark—without it he’d never have found his way out of the mine—but now that he was back out in the sun, everything was a white haze.

As he blinked several times and his eyes started to adjust, he began to wonder what to do next. He was dreading going back to the house without Mikey. Mr. Gibbons wasn’t going to be happy he’d let the guy get away. And how was he going to explain where he’d been all this time. Yeah, Mr. Gibbons was really going to be mad. Brad wondered what kind of punishment he was likely to get. Maybe Gibbons would shrink him back down the way he was. He wouldn’t like that. He liked being big. He flexed and felt his huge right arm. Yeah, he liked it a lot. Maybe he shouldn’t go back. But he had to. He owed it to Gibbons. He owed it to the Orphanage.

Slowly he started making his way toward the road. He knew exactly in which direction it lay, exactly the same way he knew what tunnels would lead him out of the mine. It was a little weird, but it came in handy, so he accepted it.

He hadn’t gone far when he heard something coming, and coming fast. It took him a moment to realize that the commotion was still a long way off. He kept forgetting how much better he could hear these days.

Whatever it was, it was heading in his direction. Curiosity got the best of him and he decided to wait and see what it was. He doubted a few more minuets would make much difference, and after all, he wasn’t in that big of a hurry to see Gibbons again.

He sat down on a moss covered boulder and trained his eyes toward the sound. It wasn’t long before he could see leaves tremble and branches break as they were pushed out of the way of something big. Brad blinked. He couldn’t believe his eyes. It was Mikey, the person he most wanted to see in the world, and he was heading right for him at full speed. It wasn’t too late. He could still come out of this looking good. All he had to do was get Mikey back to Gibbons and everything would be fine.

Brad took a careful look. Mikey had definitely grown. He looked well past the eight foot mark. He’d gotten bulkier, too. But it wouldn’t help him. Brad was much fucking bigger than that, oh yeah, much fucking bigger. He waited until Mikey was only a couple of yards away before he stood up and blocked his path. “Hello, Mikey. Happy to see me?”

Mikey stopped dead in his tracks. “Brad, what hole did you crawl out of? No, wait, I think I know.”

“You are so dead.”

“That’s what you said last time. Didn’t work out that way, though, did it?”

“No mine shafts around here, asshole.”

“You sure about that, Brad? Are you really sure?”

Suddenly Brad wasn’t sure. There were abandoned coal mines all around this area. Who knew how many openings they had? He did a quick look around to see if he could spot anything. The last thing he wanted was to find himself at the bottom of another black hole. When he looked back, Mikey was gone. Fuck!

But it only took him a second to spot him again. He was running as fast as he could right for the mine. Oh no, he wasn’t going in there. Brad never wanted to see the inside of that place again. He had better get Mikey before he got there.

“Stop!” he shouted.
“Stop?” he heard Mikey call back over his shoulder. “Stop? Is that the best you can do? Why do people always call “stop” at the people they’re chasing. I mean, in the entire history of the world, has that ever once worked?”

Brad shook his head. What was that asshole babbling about? But that was ok. Let him talk. Brad was both bigger and faster than Mikey, and that’s what really counted. And in the end, he was right. Mikey was about ten feet from the mine entrance when Brad tackled him. He tried to put up a fight, but Brad outweighed him by about 900 pounds. Mikey was pinned in .67 seconds.

Brad grinned as he looked down on him. “This seems familiar,” he said. He raised his fist to pound Mikey into unconsciousness.

“Wait, wait,” said Mikey. “Don’t I get a choice?”

“Choice?” he said lowering his fist.

“Don’t you remember last time, you know, awake or not awake?”

“No, no choice.” He raised his fist again.

“Oh come on,” said Mikey “You’ve got to give me a choice.”

“Why? I don’t even like you.”

“Because, I know what’s been going on since you’ve been—you know—stuck at the bottom of a deep dark mine shaft.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Things have changed, Brad. Gibbons is out. We took over.”

“I don’t believe you.”

Mikey sighed explosively. “Ok, where were you going to take me, I mean, after you rendered me unconscious?”

“Back to the house. Where’d you think, dufus?”

“And where do you think I was going when you caught me?”

“To the mine.”

“Well, kind of. I was actually going to the house through the mine.”

“There’s no way to the house through the mine.”

“There is now. That’s what I was doing down there, opening a passage.”

“You’re a fucking liar.”

“Well, yes, but that’s beside the point.”

Ok, that was it. Brad had had enough. He raised his fist again.

“Hold it, hold it,” said Mikey. “I’ll make this simple for you. You want me to go to the house. I want me to go to the house. Therefore, I will give you no trouble.”

“I don’t trust you.”

“I don’t blame you, but in this case, you don’t have to. I make one false move and you can always pound me into oblivion.”

That sounded reasonable.

“So, will you let me get up?” asked Mikey.

Brad grunted and got up off of Mikey.

“Thank you,” said Mikey pulling himself to his feet. He turned and took a step toward the mine.

Brad grabbed his shoulder. “Where the fuck do you think you’re going?”

“Through the mine to the house.”

“I don’t think so. We’ll go through the main gate and right up to the front door—er… what’s left of it.”

“We can’t go through the front door. There’s an army on the front lawn and I don’t think they’ll let us pass.”

“An army on the front lawn? That’s got to be the stupidest lie you’ve ever told. I’d have to be a complete moron to believe that.”

Mikey opened his mouth to say something, but then seemed to think better of it. “I just can’t argue with that. You’re right. You’d have to be a complete moron. We’ll go through the front door.”

“Now you’re talking sense.”

“Fine, I’ll lead the way.”

“No, I’ll lead the way.”

“Look, Brad, if you lead the way, I’ll be walking behind you.”

“Yeah. So?”

“If I’m walking behind you, you wouldn’t see me if I tried to slip away.”

Brad had to think about this. He was pretty sure Mikey was trying to trick him, but try as he might, he just couldn’t find the hole in the logic. “Ok, you lead the way.”

“Good, let’s go.” And Mikey started off leading Brad in the most direct route toward the house, which was pretty easy since Brad had pretty much cleared a wide path on his way towards the mine that morning. As they approached the front gate, Mikey motioned for Brad to stop.

“What is it now?” asked Brad.

“It’s too quiet,” said Mikey. “An army should be making a lot more noise.”

Brad grunted disgustedly. “There is no noise because there is no army.” And Brad took three strides up to the front gate and froze. The Orphanage had a really large front yard between the gate and the house; it was about the size of a football field. And there, in front of him, was an army, in formation, fully deployed and slowly advancing on the house. He took three strides back and looked shell shocked at Mikey. “There’s an army on the front lawn,” he said.

“You’re imagining things,” said Mikey.

“No, seriously, there is an army on the front lawn.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Go look for yourself. There is a friggin army on the front lawn.”

Mikey walked up to the gate with Brad behind him and the two of them peered around the corner.

“Oh yeah, look at that,” said Mikey. “Whoever would have thought?”

Then they heard the bellow.

“What the…?” in stereo.
Then Gibbons came running out on the porch shouting, “Fall back! Fall back!” Then the entire bottom floor just seemed to explode outwards. And the being that strode out through the dust and debris took both their breaths away.

“Who the fuck is that?” said Brad.

“I don’t know. He’s too far away. I can’t see the face.”

“He’s fucking massive.”

“No, Brad. You’re fucking massive. He goes a little beyond that.”

The army opened fire and Gibbons went down.

“Holy Christ! They shot Mr. Gibbons! Why would they shoot Mr. Gibbons?” cried Brad.

“Why not shoot him? He was a terrible director. All those illegal genetic experiments going on right under his nose.”

“What do you mean, under his nose? He knew about it. He was running them.”

“Hm,” said Mikey, “kinda proves my point.”
And then the two boys saw the Gargantuan One wade into the army. The soldiers shot at him but it only seemed to tick him off more, and he was pretty pissed already. One swing of his arm sent about a dozen of them flying. He bellowed again, and then as if it were a signal the rest of the titans came rushing out of the house and began engaging the army.

“What are they doing?” cried Brad. “We’ve got to stop them.” Then Brad rushed out into the yard yelling, “Stop! Stop! Stop!”

Mikey buried his head in his hands. “Sheesh, “stop” again. Doesn’t that guy ever learn?”

Brad ran toward the battle. What was wrong with those guys? You weren’t supposed to fight the army. They were the good guys.

The rear most platoon caught sight of Brad. “Look,” cried the sergeant, “There’s another one!” The platoon turned around and leveled their guns at Brad.

“Wait,” cried Brad, “I’m on your side.” And then they opened fire.

Brad turned and ran back for the gate, but not before taking several bullets in the chest.

“AH FUCK! THAT HURT!” he shouted and leapt back through the gate and tumbled to the ground. He lay there looking up at Mikey. “They shot me! Why the fuck would they shoot me? I’m on their side.”

Mikey looked down at Brad and shook his head. “First of all, are you hurt bad?”

“I don’t think so,” said Brad, sitting up. “Stings like hell.”

“Good,” said Mikey. “Look out there, Brad, what do you see?”

“A big fucking battle.”

“That’s right. It’s them vs. us. And like it or not, you are one of us.”

“No, I’m loyal to The Orphanage.”

“And what is an orphanage, Brad? It’s a place for orphans. I’m an orphan, they’re orphans and you’re an orphan. You’re one of us.”

“I’m loyal to Mr. Gibbons.”

“Mr. Gibbons is a corpse. For God’s sake, Brad. You live with us, you look like us, and even the goddamn army can see you’re one of us. Why the hell can’t you?”

“But, I don’t want to be one of you,” said Brad.

“Well, I don’t want to be one of you either,” answered Mikey. “But I think we’re stuck with each other, Bro.”

“Fine. Alright, fine,” said Brad. “So, what do we do now?”

“We go help the orphans kick some army butt.”

“But I like the army. I’m going into the army. The army is my friend.”

“Well Brad, if my friends put seven bullets in me, I’d have to seriously reconsider the future of our relationship.”

“Yeah. Right. Fine. I guess so.” Then Brad stood up. “Well, if we’re going to do this thing, let’s do it!”

Then the two orphans turned and charged back through the gate and into the front yard.

***

AARON

Aaron pushed down as hard as he could, trying to keep Kevin pinned. He and Ethan only had to worry about Kevin’s right arm, but that was bad enough. Sometimes Kevin would lift it up and both of them would go with it. It was all they could do to hang on to it, try and weigh it down. It bucked and leapt like a fucking wild bronco. They almost lost control of it twice. And Aaron couldn’t get over the size of it. There were compact cars that were smaller. His bicep and triceps alone had to be about the size of a Mini Cooper.

So, when Matt gave the order to let him go, it was kind of a relief—scary, but definitely a relief. As soon as they released the arm, it shot away and they fell back on the floor. Then they quickly dodged out of the way as the arm came slamming back down so it could help push the rest of Kevin’s ponderous bulk into a standing position. Jesus, his head was actually brushing the ceiling, and the sheer mass of him made the voluminous front hall seem small and cramped. Then he flexed, upgrading those Minies to Yugos, and he bellowed. Aaron covered his ears. What a fucking sound! It was so freaking loud and low, it created a vibration that shattered most of the windows. Kevin took a couple of steps forward before he slammed the front wall with those construction-crane-arms of his and blew the whole thing apart. Fuck…

Aaron rushed forward and arrived just in time to see the Guard open fire on Kevin, and to see Gibbons get caught in the middle. Good riddance.

All the orphans were around him now. They all watched as Kevin waded into the soldiers and started knocking them away as if they were nothing more than swarming rats. Kevin would pick up a soldier and just throw the guy about a hundred yards over the wall and out into the forest. Then he picked up this one guy who just aimed his gun and shot Kevin in the head. Kevin took that guy and tossed him a hundred yards, through the wall, and into the woods. The devastating power of the guy was truly awesome. But somehow Aaron couldn’t help wondering if Kevin would ever calm down. He had just been completely pissed since he changed. What if he never got over it?

“Well what about it?” yelled Matt. “Are we just going to sit here and let Kevin do all the work?”

“What about those tanks?” asked Kenny.

“They can’t use the tanks,” said Matt, “not without hitting their own guys. So, are we going?”

“Hell, yes!” shouted Glen.

Kevin bellowed again and suddenly they were all rushing out on to the lawn. At first, Aaron was scared. There was a lot of gun fire, and Kevin bellowing, and men shouting. But as soon as he got out there amongst the soldiers, he realized just how puny the Guardsmen were. Having spent the past couple of hours almost exclusively with his fellow behemoths, he had forgotten just how massive they all were. The tallest of the fucking army guys was only half his height and ten of them couldn’t match him for muscle. Even one of his arms outweighed two of the soldiers put together, and it was even bigger around. His fucking pecs were three times the size of their little helmeted heads. His legs were so thick with muscle that three of the soldiers could stand behind one and you’d never see them. Not to mention the fact that he was stark naked. His fourteen inch member was out there flopping free. You couldn’t tell him that wasn’t a little intimidating.

He looked down at his massive biceps and watched them bulge up into powerful boulders as he flexed them. It occurred to him he didn’t know exactly how strong he was. Sure he’d moved a few big rocks with Mikey in the mine, but what could he really do? He guessed it was time to find out. Now that he was out amongst normal guys, he felt gigantic, incredibly powerful and ultimately unstoppable. He was ready to kick some ass.

The first time a soldier aimed his weapon at him, Aaron simply reached down and ripped it out of his hands. Then, displaying it in front of the pasty faced soldier, he slowly grinned while he crushed the gun into a shapeless mass. He loved the feel of his powerful fingers pressing into the case hardened metal as though it were silly putty. Aaron could hardly believe the incredible strength in his arms. Then, not knowing what else to do with the destroyed weapon, he beaned the soldier with it, and knocked him senseless. Aaron spotted another soldier standing nearby who had obviously witnessed the whole thing. He raised his weapon, but he was shaking like a leaf.

“I don’t think you want to do that,” said Aaron.

The soldier shook his head but he didn’t lower his weapon.

“You really don’t want to do that.”

Suddenly the soldier dropped his gun, turned and ran.

“I knew he didn’t want to do that.”

POP!

“FUCK!” shouted Aaron, as he felt the bullet enter his back. He turned around and came face to face with a gun barrel. He grabbed and ripped it out of the solder’s hand, looked down at him and screamed, “You trying to get my attention? Well, you fucking got it, dude.” Then he looked down at the soldier’s weapon in his hands. He really wanted to freak this guy out. What could he do? Suddenly he had an idea. Just how strong were his teeth? He placed the gun between his teeth and clamped down. He felt his teeth sink into the metal. It was kind of like chewing through ice, except the gun was hot, and it tasted like crap. But the look of terror on the soldier’s face was worth every disgusting mouthful so he proceeded to chew right threw it. When he was done he threw the two halves to the ground and spit the bite size pieces right at the soldier’s chest. The impact knocked the guardsman to the ground.

“Get the fuck out of my face.”

And the soldier did. First scuttling backwards, then getting to his feet, and then running as fast as his feet would take him.

Next time, Aaron wasn’t so dramatic. He just ripped the gun away and nailed the soldier with a right cross. The guy flew back about twenty feet collided with another couple of soldiers and they all went sprawling.

Then POP POP POP. Aaron flinched as three bullets impacted his shoulder. AHHH! It stung like hell. He quickly identified the shooter. He was standing about twenty yards away.

“You want a piece of me?” he shouted. “DO YOU WANT A PIECE OF ME?” Almost without thinking he threw the gun he was holding at the soldier, and nailed him in the head. Down he went. Fuck yeah! He was the man! He was bad fucking ass!

Suddenly he heard a tremendous boom. Was that a tank? They weren’t supposed to be using tanks. Didn’t Matt say they wouldn’t use the tanks? He turned just in time to see Kevin flying backwards, a black smoky patch on his chest. Fuck. They shot Kevin with a tank. Aaron swiveled quickly around. It didn’t take him long to spot the culprit. It was a tank all right. And its cannon barrel was smoking. Fuck.

But didn’t they have, like, three tanks? He looked around and spotted another one on the far side of the yard. And the third… where was that? He turned around and spotted the third tank about ten yards directly behind him—with its big gun aimed right at his head! Oh shit! He dropped to the ground just as the gun went off with a deafening explosion. Aaron’s head hurt so much, that for a minute he wasn’t sure weather or not the tank had missed. It had, but his head was splitting exactly as if it hadn’t. He guessed that was the downside to having such good ears, loud noises hurt like hell.

Still clutching his ears, he staggered to his feet and made a bee line for the tank. Suddenly he saw the turret swivel toward him and he dropped again. KABOOOM! Fuck! He felt the wind of it pass above him. He had his hands over his ears, so it hadn’t hurt quite so bad that time.

Quickly he rolled to his feet. He had to get to the tank and stop that gun some how. He decided to try and zigzag but he hadn’t gone five feet before the turret swiveled again. Fuck! He dropped. KABLAAM!

What the hell was he going to do? The closer he got to the tank, the harder it would be to dodge those fucking shells. He needed a distraction. And suddenly, that’s exactly what he got.

Just as he was preparing himself for the next dash, he heard another earth shattering bellow. It was Kevin. Kevin had survived. He looked over and saw the monstrous titan making a run at the tank that had shot him, a patch of smoldering blackness still on his chest. KABLAAM! Kevin’s tank fired on him. But this time the behemoth jumped up over the path of the shell, landed and kept right on running. Fuck. Aaron was wondering if he could jump that high. He didn’t think he could. KABLAAM! Kevin leapt again. And then there was another KABLAAM, but this one came from the tank directly in front of Aaron. The shell impacted Kevin on his right side and knocked him about thirty feet where he hit the ground and sent up an eruption of dirt and grass. Ooo, that had to hurt.

Aaron jumped up. He knew he only had a matter of seconds before the turret turned on him again. He started running as fast as he could toward the tank. Almost instantly, the turret started swiveling toward him. His mind was moving a mile a second trying to calculate if he had enough time to reach the tank before the gun fired on him.

He didn’t.

Suddenly the world slowed down. He could hear each click of the turret as is swung toward him, feel the impact each time his foot hit the ground. He was aware of each breath he took and every drop of sweat as it beaded on his forehead and started rolling down his cheek. He heard the metallic clunking as the shell moved into the chamber. In an act of sheer desperation, he leapt up just as the gun fired. He didn’t leap as high as Kevin but it was high enough, and when he came down, he landed right on top of the tank. WHOMP! Time for a little payback.

It didn’t take him long to find the hatch. He planted his feet on either side, grabbed hold of it and pulled. He expected it to come right off. It didn’t. This was definitely a different kind of metal from the guns. It fought back. He squeezed the hatch trying to get his fingers to sink in the way they did with the guns. But it wasn’t anywhere near as easy. His massive forearms bulged with the effort. His thick veins stood out and his muscles looked and felt like they wanted to explode right out of his skin. But slowly his huge fingers began to sink into the armor. Yes! Then, using his new self-created hand holds, he began to pull again. He felt all the muscles on his gargantuan back answer the call, swelling thick and hard with power. He heaved and heaved, feeling his gigantic steel-like triceps pull his skin tight around them as they became completely pumped and engorged. He loved the feel of all that power coursing through his limbs, and soon he was rewarded with the sound of wrenching, buckling metal as the hatch began to distort and then to bend and finally rip free.

POP POP POP. Snippets of pain striking his arms and legs. The ground troops had found him again. POP POP POP POP POP. AHH! FUCK! Aaron took the hatch lid and threw it like a Frisbee, taking out three of the soldiers at once. Being on top of a tank must have made him target #1. He couldn’t stay there long. He reached down into the hatch and felt around. He heard a muffled pop. AHH! There was a sharp stinging in his hand. Someone must have shot him. POP POP POP. Crap! Wouldn’t these guys ever let up? He grabbed the first thing that felt like cloth and pulled. There was a metallic thunk as whatever he’d grabbed got hung up on the tank roof. He worked it around and tired again. POP POP POP POP POP. Holy Christ! He didn’t know how much more of this he could take. Finally he got his prize into position and started pulling it out of the hatch. It was defiantly a guy. Aaron could feel some resistance as his victim’s fellow soldiers tried to pull against the behemoth to keep their comrade in the tank. Yeah, like they had a chance.
As soon as he got the guy on top with him the gun fire stopped. Aaron had been going to pound the soldier when he got him out, but now he was rethinking his plan. The other soldiers wouldn’t shoot and risk hitting their friend. And all Aaron really wanted to do was stop the tank. Aaron looked at his captive. The dude was completely out cold—must have happened when he hit the tank roof. He slung the guy over his shoulder and moved toward the big gun. At first he thought he’d try to bend the barrel, but he realized he wouldn’t have the best leverage from there, so he settled for trying to pinch the gun barrel closed. He wrapped both hit titanic hands around the hot metal shaft and squeezed. The effort it took was tremendous. Once again he could feel all strength in his mammoth frame swelling up hard all over his body. He squeezed and squeezed and squeezed and finally began to feel the barrel collapse under his fingers. Yes! In a couple of moments it was pinched shut.
Aaron leapt off the tank and lay the unconscious soldier on the ground. He looked around and saw ten guns aiming right at him. Then he heard the unmistakable click click click of the tank’s gun turret rotating behind him. Suddenly all the soldiers seemed to forget about Aaron, and began waving at the tank, yelling, warning it not to shoot. It was too late.
Aaron turned and saw the pinched gun barrel—which just happened to be aimed right at his head—shutter as an explosion rocked the tank. Flame debris and smoke issued out of the open hatch. They had obviously tried to use their main gun and the pinched barrel had caused it to backfire.
The tank was history.
Aaron would have shouted for joy, but those ten gun barrels were suddenly right back in his face. He leapt up and came back down on the four middle guys. He grabbed one of their guns and started using it as a club to take out the remaining soldiers. POP POP POP.
AH! FUCK! He may have stopped the tank, but the battle was far from over.

***

MATT

Matt was running back and forth across the chaos of the battlefield. He should have planned this better. All the guys were off on their own, each one fighting their own little skirmish. He couldn’t help thinking things would be much better if they were all fighting together. He thought about trying to rally them all but he had no idea how to actually do it. Damn, he wished he’d thought this out better.

He kept looking around, trying to keep track of everyone, trying to see if anyone needed help and then rushing over to do what he could. He was still looking for Danny. He hadn’t seen him since Kevin knocked him through the wall.

Kevin bellowed. Fuck, that dude was a monster. Two hits from a tank and he was still going. It looked like he was getting ready to charge the tank that originally shot him. Aaron had already finished off the other one. Way to go, Aaron!

Then suddenly Matt spotted him. There at the other end of the yard was Brad. Shit! Here comes trouble. Matt wasted no time making his way over there. In one flying leap he had tackled Brad and knocked him to the ground.

“You traitor!” yell Matt.

“Get off me, you fucking queer, I’m on your side now.”

“Yeah, right.”

“I am, Godamnit, I am.” Brad cocked his head to the side. Looking at someone standing next to them. “Aren’t you going to say something?”

“I’m thinking about it,” came the answer.

Matt looked over and saw Mikey standing there. Jeeze, why didn’t he see him earlier. He still looked kind of small, but all help was welcome. “Can we trust him, Mikey?”

“I’d trust him till the day I die.”

“That could be today.”

“Well, there you go.”

“Jesus, Mikey, is it possible to get a straight answer out of you?”

“Yeah, you can trust him—probably.”

“Thank you very much, asshole,” said Brad. “Now, get off of me, faggot.”

“What’s with all the faggot shit?” asked Matt rolling off Brad and standing up.

“Dude, you were laying on top of me and you’re fucking naked.”

“We’re all fucking naked… except you. Where’d you get the jumpsuit?”

“They got a whole bunch of them.”

“Now, he tells me.”

KABOOM! The three of them turned toward the sound. The tank fired at Kevin who leapt over it, and landed right next to the armored vehicle.

Mikey was looking around. “Where’s Kevin?”

“Ah…,” said Matt, “you’re looking at him.”

At this point Kevin had wrapped his arms around the tank and was now rocking it from side to side.

Suddenly Mikey burst out laughing. “That’s pretty good, Matt. Now, seriously, where is he?”

“No, dude, that’s him. Glen shot him up when he wasn’t looking, and he just totally lost it.”

Kevin had stopped rocking the tank, but he hadn’t let go of it. He had planted his mountainous legs sturdily in the ground on either side of it and was now slowly lifting the tank up off the ground, grunting with the effort. His grunt sounded like a bull on a megaphone.

“Nah, that can’t be Kevin,” said Mikey. “Kevin never lifts tanks before dinner.”

The troops had surrounded Kevin and were emptying round after round into him. He barely seemed to notice. But Phil and Kenny ran over and gave them something else to worry about.

Meanwhile, Kevin was slowly raising the tank higher and higher. Every mind blowingly massive muscle on his tremendous body was bulging with the effort. Veins like a maze of fire hoses ran over and around every engorged inch of him. Kevin had so much muscle bulging out all over his frame that Matt half wondered if he still had bones and organs; it didn’t look like there was any room left for them.

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Finally he got the tank so he was actually holding it over his head. At first Matt was sure he was going to throw it, and he tried to figure out in which direction it would fly. But after a second he realized that wasn’t what was happening at all. Kevin, holding the tank with one hand on each side of it, had a look on his face like he was calling on every ounce of strength he possessed. Matt knew it wasn’t just the effort of holding the tank up. There had to be something else going on. And it was only a matter of seconds before he saw what it was. He began to hear the grinding and squealing of stressed metal, and has he watched, he began to see the tank squeezed in upon itself like an accordion.

The hatch popped open and three soldiers hopped out, jumped to the ground and took off running. Kevin let them go, and continued to reduce their armored vehicle to a metallic crushed eggshell, which he then let fall to the ground in an unrecognizable heap.

“I think I’ll go say hi,” said Mikey. “Think he missed me?”

“Dude, I wouldn’t do that. I think he’s a little…”

“Insane? Crazy? Bat shit? One fry short of a Happy Meal?”

“Not exactly. I just don’t think, you know, he’s really there anymore.”

“Are you kidding me? Of course he’s there. How could you miss him? Come on, I’ll show you.” And before Matt could do anything Mikey started off toward Kevin. Against his better judgment, Matt followed. Brad didn’t.

The fight in the immediate area seemed to have calmed down for the moment. Most of the troops had rallied over by their one remaining tank at the far end of the yard, and about half a dozen behemoths were keeping them more than occupied.

Mikey marched right up to one of Kevin’s sequoia-like legs. Matt couldn’t help notice that Mikey was only half Kevin’s height, but it didn’t seem to bother Mikey any. He yelled up at him. “Hey Thunder Thighs! Down here.” Mikey turned to Matt. “He hates it when I call him that. He’s a little sensitive about his weight.”

Kevin looked down at Mikey and for a second Matt feared the worse, but then something happened. That rage-filled look on Kevin’s face softened a little. Maybe he wasn’t completely gone after all.

Then Kevin leaned down and grabbed Mikey with both hands and lifted him up.

“Hey look,” Mikey cried, “I’m Fay Wray, or maybe Jessica Lange, or even Naomi Watts—although that movie was a fucking waste of time.”

“Jesus, Mikey, be careful,” cried Matt.

“Kevin, buddy,” said Mikey, “I’ve got an idea. When this is over we should go to New York so you can climb the Empire State Building. Can you imagine the looks on people’s faces? Of course we’d have to get you a monkey suit.”

Kevin started rapidly shaking his head.

“What, you mean no monkey suit? It wouldn’t really work without the monkey suit.”

Kevin was emphatically shaking his head.

“Sorry, dude, it’s too perfect,” continued Mikey. “It has to be done. Like when we switched Gibbonses breakfast sausage with Chihuahua shit? It’s just got to be done.”

Kevin let out a snort. Matt wasn’t sure, but it was almost like a laugh-snort.

“So, we on for New York?”

Kevin shook his head.

“Why the hell not?”

“Too many muggers,” said Kevin in a gravely voice.

Mikey broke out into a big grin. “Somehow I don’t think that’s going to be a problem.”

Matt could almost see the light seeping back into Kevin’s eyes. “Welcome back, Kev,” said Matt. And suddenly he saw awareness flood Kevin’s face.

“Mikey?” he said, as if seeing the friend he held in his hands for the first time.

“Yeah, Kev?”

“Oh my God, Mikey? What happened? You shrank!”

“Ah… no, Kev.”

Kevin caught sight of his impossibly huge arms, let out a cry, and dropped Mikey.

Matt rushed over to him. “You ok?”

“Did you ever get the feeling you’ve been dumped?” asked Mikey, picking himself up.

Kevin was padding his body all over. “Oh my God, I remember. That fucking asshole gave me the shot and now I’m a freak!” Matt saw Kevin looking down at him, horrified, probably at how much bigger he was than the rest of the behemoths. “No, I’m not just a freak. I’m king of the freaks!”

“Well, your majesty,” said Mikey, “as one of your freak subjects, let me be the first to welcome you to your realm.”

Kevin started looking around. “What happened here? It looks like some kind of a battle?” Then he noticed the wreckage at his feet. “Holy crap! Did I… Did I crush a tank?”

“Ye… No… Well, maybe a little one.”

Kevin sat down on the ground, wrapped his arms around his knees and started rocking back and forth. “I’m a freak. I’m a freak. I’m a freak,” he kept repeating over and over again.

“There,” said Mikey to Matt. “See how much better he is?”

“I’m a freak. I’m a freak. I’m a freak. I’m a freak. I’m a freak.”

“If you say so, Mikey,” said Matt shaking his head.

“Trust me. This is just Kevin’s way of working things out. He’s going to be fine—probably.”

“I’m a freak. I’m a freak. I’m a freak. I’m a freak. I’m a freak.”

“I guess I’m going to have to take your word for that,” said Matt.

“I’ll just stay with him for a while,” said Mikey, “You know, until he calms down.”

“I’m a freak. I’m a freak. I’m a freak. I’m a freak. I’m a freak.”

“Yeah, well, I gotta go,” said Matt a little awkwardly. “The battle is not over yet,” and Matt took off toward the one remaining tank, wondering if there might be some way to piss Kevin off again.

***

ANTHONY AND ETHAN

Anthony and Rob looked tentatively through the front gate, and were shocked by what they saw. The whole front lawn had been churned up. Gaping pits and mounds of dirt covered the once green expanse. And, in a couple of places, piles of smoking wreckage sent plums of black smoke seeping into the air, filling it with the acrid smell of burning patrolium, grass and…was that flesh?

On their way to The Orphanage, in the distance, Anthony had heard the sounds of gunfire and the occasional boom of a cannon, but it wasn’t until he saw the front yard that it was actually real. They were at war.

At the far end of the yard, he could see the towering behemoths and the soldiers scurrying around them like cockroaches in the light. He couldn’t make out the faces of his friends; they were too far away. And there was one face in particular that he was very anxious to see.

“What do we do now?” he asked.

“Well,” said Rob, after a brief and silent deliberation, “we came here to help, and we can’t do much standing around here.”

“Right,” said Anthony.
“Right,” said Rob. He started off towards the skirmish, and Anthony followed quickly after him. The closer they got to the fighting, the more often Anthony wondered why he had come at all. Those were serious looking guns the soldiers had. The behemoths might be able to take several bullets, but Anthony could be killed by just one shot. Still, Anthony knew he would not turn back. There was someone up ahead, someone he had to see and something he had to tell him, something important, something he should have said a long time ago, but never did.

Suddenly, ahead of them in the churned up grass was a mound of flesh. It was one of the behemoths. He was lying on the ground, covered in bullet holes and blood, unconscious and breathing heavily. It was Phil.

“He looks pretty bad,” said Rob.

“I thought those guys were indestructible,” Anthony suddenly getting very concerned.

“I guess not,” said Rob.

Anthony looked over at the battle and for the first time noticed the behemoths seemed to be hurting. All of them seemed to be bleeding, several were limping. He wondered how long until they all ended up like Phil. “What do we do?”

“I don’t know,” replied Rob. “I only know basic first aid. He looks like he needs an emergency room.”

Suddenly he heard a tremendous KABOOM. Anthony looked up and saw the tank’s gun smoking, and one of the behemoths flying backwards. He hit the ground sliding, plowing a trench in the earth about fifteen feet long and two feet deep, before he came to a stop only a few feet away from them.

Anthony followed Rob over to the fallen colossus and gasped. It was Ethan. He was unconscious and his arm was bleeding badly.


“Oh my god!” cried Anthony falling down on his knees beside Ethan. “Ethan! Ethan, can you hear me? Ethan, come on, wake up. Open your eyes. Come on Ethan, speak to me.”

Rob placed a hand on Anthony’s shoulder. “I don’t think he can hear you.”

“What are we going to do? You’ve got to do something.”

“There’s not much I can do.”

“But he’s got to wake up. There’s something I need to tell him.”

Rob looked down at the massive teen and shook his head. “I can make a tourniquet for his arm, but that’s about it.” Rob stripped off his shirt, twisted it into a rope and tired to wrap it around Ethan’s gigantic upper arm, but it wasn’t big enough. Anthony pulled off his shirt and handed it to Rob. “Maybe you could tie them together.”

Rob knotted them up and the two shirts did the job. Anthony was so involved watching Rob and worrying about Ethan that he didn’t see the gigantic figure approach until its shadow fell over Ethan. He looked up. It was Aaron.

“What are you guys doing here? Are you crazy?” asked the behemoth.

“We wanted to help,” said Rob.

“What can you do?”

“I may not be big enough to battle a tank, but I know a little about bandaging,” said Rob.

Aaron’s attitude softened immediately and he looked down on Rob tending Ethan. “How is he?”

“I don’t really know, but I think I can keep him from bleeding to death.”

“Death?” blurted Anthony. He just couldn’t imagine Ethan dying. The thought was just too horrible.

“I know it’s hard,” said Aaron. “But try not to worry too much. He’ll be alright. We’re pretty tough.”

“How’s it going out there?” asked Rob.

Aaron shook his head. “Not too good. It’s that last tank. It’s kicking our butts. We can’t get near it. I thought I could get it. I mean, I got one already. But either I got lucky before, or the guys in this tank are really good. Either way…” he trailed off. “What we really need is Kevin.”

“Kevin?” said Rob and Anthony simultaneously.

Aaron filled them in on Kevin’s phenomenal growth, his tank crushing feat… and his subsequent reduction to a total basket case.

“Mikey’s trying to bring him out of it, but…” he trailed off again. “I’ve got to get back,” he said. “Take care of Ethan.” Then Aaron loped off toward the fighting.

Anthony got up.

“Where are you going,” asked Rob.

“To Kevin and Mikey. I think I can help.”

“I’ll come too.”

“No. Please stay with Ethan. I’d feel better if I know you were here.”

“But—”

“I think I can help Kevin and Mikey, but it might work better if it’s just me. Anyway, I think Ethan needs you. You can do a lot more for him than I ever could.”

“Ok, I guess.”

“Thanks.” And Anthony started across the lawn to where Aaron had indicated Kevin and Mikey would be. They weren’t hard to spot—at least Kevin wasn’t. He knew Kevin had gotten bigger than the rest of them, but still Anthony hadn’t been prepared for the colossal size of him. Kevin was sitting on the ground and the top of Anthony’s head still only came up to his shoulder. And what a fucking shoulder. Anthony doubted he could wrap his arms all the way around it. And sprouting out of them were arms like tree trunks. His bicep alone was probably four times the size of Anthony’s entire body. Just standing in his presence was a completely awesome experience… or it would have been if Kevin hadn’t been rocking back and forth repeating “I’m a freak. I’m a freak I’m a freak,” over and over again.

Mikey was standing next to Kevin patting him on the back and saying, “It’s gonna be ok, Kevin. Everything’s going to be alright.”

“I’m a freak. I’m a freak. I’m a freak.”

Anthony watched for another minute before he spoke. It was obvious to him what had to be done, but he didn’t know if he could convince Mikey. “Oh for God’s sake, Mikey, tell him.”

Mikey looked up, noticing Anthony for the first time. “Not you guys! I got you guys out of here! Why did you come back? I know it wasn’t the food.”

“It’s just Rob and me,” said Anthony. “We came back to see if we could help… and I had another reason.”

“Let me guess, an overpowering urge to be splattered?”

“It’s Ethan… he was pretty special to me… and I never really told him,” said Anthony, starting to tear up. “And now I might have lost my chance.”

“I don’t think I need to hear this,” said Mikey.

“Yes, you do,” said Anthony. “There’s no one on the planet who needs to hear it more. You still have a chance.”

“A chance for what?”

“To tell him,” said Anthony pointing at Kevin. Mikey looked back and forth between Anthony and Kevin.

“I’m a freak. I’m a freak. I’m a freak.”

“Y-you got it all wrong,” said Mikey.

“I don’t think so. I’ve seen the way you guys are together. There are signs and yours are pink neon and flashing.”

“You’re crazy.”

“Fine. I’m crazy, just another crazy gay boy. But if you can’t admit it for your own sake, admit it for his, because right now, you’re the only one who can help him.”

“I can’t help him. I’ve tried everything. I’ve talked to him. That was a little one sided. The only question he answers is “So Kevin, what are you?

“I joked with him—and I’m damn funny. He didn’t even crack a smile. I’ve even tired to comfort him. Nothing works.”

“Tell him how you feel, I mean how you really feel.”

Mikey looked more than a little uncomfortable. “What good would that do?”

“You’d be surprised.”

Mikey shuffled around a little, obviously nervous and undecided.

“You know there’s a tank over there, and it’s hurting our guys. They could really use Kevin right now. I’m not sure how much longer they can hold out on their own.”

Mikey looked off into the distance at the raging battle, and Anthony could see he was fighting an inner battle of his own.

Finally Mikey walked up to Kevin, and spoke directly in his ear. “Kevin, I love you, man, truly, deeply, madly, and I don’t know what I’d do without you. So, come back to me, lover, come back.”

Suddenly Kevin stopped chanting and looked over at Mikey with a scared, uncertain expression on his face. He was still rocking back and forth.

“Kevin?” said Mikey, “Kevin?” but there was no reply, unless you counted rapid breathing and blinking.

“I don’t know what else I can say,” said Mikey.

“You did fine. You don’t need to say anything else,” said Anthony.

“Then what…?”

“Do I have to spell it out for you? Jeeze, haven’t you ever seen a fairytale?”

Mikey raised his eyebrows. “You’re fucking kidding me.”

“It couldn’t hurt.”

Mikey turned and brushed the stray locks of hair from Kevin’s face, then he leaned in and gave him a tentative kiss on the lips. At first it looked like he was kissing a mannequin, but slowly Kevin started to respond. In a minute Kevin was wrapping his king sized hands around Mikey’s head and pulling him in. And then suddenly they were rolling on the ground—until Kevin rolled on top of Mikey.

“Oh God,” came Mikey’s strained and muffled voice. “Kevin, you’re squashing me.”

“I’m sorry,” said Kevin, rolling off him. “I’m so damn big. I’m just a fre—”

“NO!” interrupted Mikey. “No, you’re not. It’s me. I’m not big enough yet. That’s what it is. It’s got nothing to do with you.”

“Did you mean what you said?” asked Kevin. “Do you really love me?”

“Of course I do. I guess I always have. I just didn’t know it til, you know, you went away.”

Kevin turned away.

“What’s the matter?” asked Mikey.

“You wouldn’t love me if you knew.”

“If I knew what?”

Kevin kept silent.

“Come on, Kevin, I can’t imagine there’s anything about you I don’t know. And if there is, it couldn’t possibly be that bad.”

“You don’t know this.”

“Then tell me.”

“Back when I saw that smashed tank at my feet, I suddenly remembered everything.”

“Everything?”

“My growth, the battle, everything.”

“So, that’s good, isn’t it?”

Kevin shook his head. “When I crushed that tank… I liked it. No, I fucking loved it. I was really getting off on destroying an armored vehicle with my bare hands. I loved the destruction I caused. I reveled in it. I’m a fucking monster, a freak!”

Mikey sighed. “There’s that “f” word again,” he said. “Let’s make a deal, right here and now, you never use the “f” word ever again. Ok?”
Kevin nodded.

“As for that liking destroying that tank , so what? You’re fucking huge. You can crush tanks. That’s pretty cool. You know how many of our guys you probably saved when you did that? So what if you liked it? If I could crush tanks, I’d probably like it, too. You have an insane amount of power in your body; you’re allowed to like it. It doesn’t make you bad. And I have no doubt you’ll fine really constructive ways to use it. And the whole tank crushing thing, once in a while it’s fine. Just don’t make a habit of it.”

Suddenly Kevin reached down and scooped up Mikey in his mammoth arms and hugged him tight. There was an audible crack.

“Ah fuck!” said Mikey. “I guess they were right. Love hurts.”

Kevin quickly set Mikey down again, apologizing all over himself.

“That’s ok,” said Mikey. “In another couple of days, I’ll be big enough I won’t even notice. But right now, I think there’s a tank that needs crushing.”

Kevin’s face lit up. “Where?”

***

CALEB


Yeah, I was there when the battle ended, when everything changed. I almost missed it though. When I climbed out of the cellar and into the front hall, I knew something big had happened. The place was a wreck. Practically the whole front of the house had been blasted out. I heard the KABOOM of a big gun and felt the shock as it rocked the whole building. For a second I thought it might come down around me, but it didn’t. Why it didn’t, I’m not sure. It had to be in pretty bad shape. The entire third floor had been practically destroyed, and there were walls missing everywhere. It couldn’t be very safe.

I was pretty sure everyone was already out in the battle, but I couldn’t shake the feeling someone was still in the house. I thought maybe it was Kevin. I thought maybe he hadn’t changed yet, maybe he couldn’t bring himself to do it. I found out later I’d been half right. But I didn’t know that then. I decided to check out the lab to see if he was still in there. He wasn’t but the scientists were. They were still out cold. I couldn’t help thinking that if the house collapsed they’d be killed.

There was another KABOOM as a big gun fired, and a piece of the ceiling actually did fall in. I was pretty sure if I turned around and left now, those scientists would die. I knew they probably deserved it, but for some reason, I couldn’t just leave them there. I was pretty big now, just about eight feet, so I figured I could take one under each arm. I’d have to come back for Dr. Sawyer. I grabbed Dr. Myers and Dr. Burns and headed for the back door. I figured the back yard would be safer for them. Of course as it turned out it wasn’t that safe for me.

As soon as I stepped out the back I ran into two soldiers.

“There’s another one,” cried one of them, “and he’s got two hostages.”

Hostages? Was he serious? But they both trained the weapons on me so I guessed they were serious.

“These aren’t hostages,” I said. “I’m rescuing them from the building.”

“Jesus, he talks,” said the other one.

“Of course I talk”

“The other ones didn’t talk,” said the first one, but he was speaking to his friend, not me.

“Maybe this one’s different. He is kind of small.”

“Small?” I roared. “Who are you calling small?”

“Ok, Jumbo,” said the first guy, aiming right between my eyes, “just take it easy and lay the hostages on the ground.”

“They’re not hostages.”

“Then you won’t mind laying them on the ground.”

“That’s what I was going to do anyway,” I said as I set the two scientists down.

“Good, now you get down on the ground.”

“What?”

“You heard me. Get down on the ground.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Unless you want a bullet between the eyes, you’ll do it and do it now.”

I had to think about it for a second. Glen had been shot a bunch of times and it didn’t hurt him much. But he had been fully grown and I wasn’t yet… at least I hoped I wasn’t. I probably shouldn’t risk it, but then I didn’t want to get down on the ground either. I knew I’d better come up with something else.

“There’s still a guy trapped in the house,” I said.

“What do you mean?”

“The house is going to fall down any second. If I don’t go back for him, he’ll probably die.”

“What, you mean a real guy, or another thing like you?”

“Hey,” I said, balling my fists and taking a step forward, “I am not a thing!”

“Get down on the ground now!” yelled the soldier gesturing with his gun.

“Fuck you!” I said as I reached out and grabbed his gun while he was waving it around, and yanked it out of his hands. POP! POP! POP! There was an explosion of pain in my side. “FUCK!” I cried and I swung around and clubbed the other soldier, who had just shot me, with his friend’s gun. He flew back about 15 feet before he hit the ground. He didn’t get up. He must be hurt pretty bad. Oh my God, what if I’d killed him?
The pain in my side was killing me. I sat down on the ground and I don’t know how it happened or why but I just suddenly started crying. The tears just flowed out of me. I couldn’t stop them. It wasn’t fair. I was a behemoth now. I shouldn’t be crying.

The other soldier was just standing there. He looked petrified at first, but then he seemed to get over it.

“Why did you have to be such a dick?” I asked him. “I didn’t do anything. All I wanted to do was get those scientists out of the building. I wasn’t going to hurt you. Why did you have to be such a dick?”

Then he looked at me really closely and he asked, “How old are you?”

“Fourteen… almost.”

“Jeeze, you’re just a kid.”

“We’re all kids,” I said.

He looked completely shocked. “What, all of you?”

I nodded, sniffling.

“How’d you get so big?”

“They were experimenting on us,” I said, nodding at the unconscious scientists.

“Experimenting on kids?”

I nodded. “But we found out about it and then they wanted to kill us.”

“Kill you?”

“That’s why you’re here isn’t it, to kill us?”

“Kill you? No… Is that what you thought?”

I nodded. “Then why are you here?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know actually. We all thought it was some kind of a joke, marching out to an orphanage in the middle of nowhere. Then those things attacked…”

“We’re not things.”

“Ok, you’re not things, but you don’t look much like kids either. You know one of you single-handedly crushed a tank.”

“Seriously?”

The soldier nodded and stuck his hand out. “I’m Frank.”
“Caleb,” I said, taking his hand, but it hurt my side. It was like fire was running through it.

“Are you hurt bad, Caleb?”

“I don’t know. I think maybe I might be.”

“Wait here a second,” and Frank ran over to where I’d knocked his buddy.

“Is he ok?” I called after him.

“He’s still breathing and his heartbeat is strong, but I don’t think he’ll be waking up anytime soon.”

“Good,” I said, then I realized what that sounded like so I added, “I mean, I’m glad he’s not dead.”

“Me, too,” he said making his way back. “Is there really someone else trapped in the house?”

I nodded. “One of the scientists.”

“Is he on the ground floor?”

“Un huh, in the lab,”

Then Frank started up the steps and into the house.

“Be careful,” I called after him.

As soon as he left, I began to feel it. The pressure was building again. I began to feel an incredible pump in my muscles. God it felt good. Even through the pain, it was fantastic. I was growing again. I knew it was wrong to enjoy it under the circumstances, but I did. I was swelling up getting harder, bigger and stronger. I loved it, wanted it, needed more. I raised my arms and watched them get thicker, the biceps growing higher and wider, while the cords in my forearms became cables. God, I was so fucking strong now. My legs were stretching out further in front of me and I noticed my head was getting farther from the ground. And I could also feel something else; it was like ants crawling all over my side where I had been shot. It only lasted a minute but when it was done, the wound in my side had stopped bleeding and there wasn’t anymore pain.

It was just about then, that Frank came out, carrying Dr. Sawyer over his shoulders. He laid him on the ground next to the others and then started staring at me. “Caleb,” he said, “You’re bigger.”

I nodded, grinning. “I’m still growing.”

“You sure are,” he said looking me up and down, he couldn’t hide his awe. It was all over his face.

Suddenly I felt like I could confide something to him. “I know what they did to us was wrong, but I kind of like this.” I flexed, showing off my new gi-normous guns. “No, I really like this.”


“How big are you going to get?”

“I don’t know, probably about as big as the others.”

“I don’t know what that means. You guys seem to come in different sizes.”

“We do?” I was a little confused. Last I saw, we all grew to about twelve feet.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “We’ve got more important things to think about, like stopping this battle.”

“How do we do that?”

“I’ll go to the Major. He doesn’t know we’re fighting a bunch of overgrown kids. He’s a family man. He’s got kids of his own and using you guys as ginny pigs… I can’t believe he’d stand for that.

“You go to your friends, and we both get them to stop fighting.”

“Will that work?”

“We can only try.”

So we set off for the front of the house where all the fighting was going on. I spotted Matt pretty quickly and took off at a jog leaving Frank in the dust. Oh well, he was going someplace else anyway.

“Matt,” I cried as soon as I got close enough.

“Caleb, buddy, good to see you,” he said when he saw me. “Not fully grown yet, but we could use all the help we can get.”

I kind of winced when he said “not fully grown,” but he was right. I felt pretty huge but I was still about three feet shorter than he was and I didn’t have anywhere near as much muscle.

“It’s that last tank,” Matt continued. “It’s kicking our butts.”

“Matt, we’ve got to stop fighting.”

“What? Are you crazy? Or just sacred?”

“I’m not scared.”

“Good then get out there and take out a few of those soldiers. You ought to be big enough for that.”

“But I was talking to one of them. They don’t want to kill us.”

“They don’t? You could have fooled me.”

“He’s going to talk to their Major, try and get them to stop.”

“That’s great. When they stop, we’ll stop.” Matt did a quick look around at all the fighting. I could tell it was entirely for my benefit. “Looks like they’re not going to stop,” he said. “Are you going to help or what?”

The ground started shaking. At first I thought it was the tank firing again, but there was no KABOOM. I looked up and holy crap! It was a behemoth, but one far more massive than any of the others. He was carrying a guy about my size under his arm and he had a normal sized guy sitting on his gargantuan shoulder.

“All right!” shouted Matt. “You ok, Kev?”

Kevin? That was Kevin? Holy shit!

“Fine,” he answered his booming voice not much softer than the cannon blast. “Now what’s this I hear about a tank?” He set the two guys he had with him on the ground. I instantly recognized Mikey and Anthony.

Matt just pointed. “There it is. Go get it.” And Kevin took off running, those fucking massive legs moving at an unbelievable speed.

“No! Stop!” I cried.

Mikey tapped me on the shoulder. “What is it with you guys? Shouting stop never works. Never.”

I braced myself to see Kevin go against the tank. If he did, I knew that would be the end of any possible peaceful solution.

I’m not exactly sure what happened next. I don’t know if the shock knocked me to the ground, or I heard the explosion. But when I looked up, I saw the old orphanage house explode in an enormous ball of fire. The heat from the explosion was searing. Bits of wood and plaster and pipe, were flying through the air. Just about everyone was knocked to the ground, except Kevin. But he had stopped his charge and had turned to look at the fiery spectacle.

Then stepping out from seemingly nowhere was a huge figure, definitely a behemoth, but one all dressed up in a fancy suit. And he was balancing a smoking rocket launcher on his shoulder. As the smoke started to clear I finally got a look at his face. It was Fish. Holy crap! Where did he come from?

“And now that I’ve got your attention,” he shouted, to the behemoths and soldiers alike. “It’s time to end this little war and talk this out.”

“That’s how you do it,” said Mikey. “That’s much fucking better than shouting stop.”

And so they held this council. I didn’t go. Only Matt and Kevin went to represent us. But Fish was there and the Major and a couple of his guys, and then there were four guys in business suits that came with Fish. They looked kind of like lawyers.

While the meeting was going on, another army arrived, but this one was of paramedics. They came with so many trucks and vans, it was like a huge mobile hospital. They treated all the injured and examined everyone. I was told that eventually I’d have to have the bullets removed from my side, but that I was in no immediate danger, so they left me alone and moved on to the next guy.

I was happy to find out none of the behemoths had died from their injuries. They were all expected to recover. But the National Guard wasn’t so lucky. A number of them had lost their lives. All in all it was pretty tragic and every one felt very bad about it.

I went and found Frank. He had had about as much luck convincing the Major to stop fighting as I had had with Matt. Good think Fish showed up when he did, otherwise things could have been a lot worse.

When the big meeting was finally all over, Matt and Kevin came back with Fish to explain everything to us. Fish had apparently been knocked out by one of those gas bombs while he was in the city. When he came to, he had met Mr. Gibbs and Mr. Stanley. Apparently they worked for the people who set up the whole Orphanage project to begin with.

“They’re a group of Fortune Five Hundred companies that do a lot of business overseas,” Fish explained. “Since it’s getting so dangerous to send their executives outside the US, they decided to develop the ultimate bodyguards—essentially one-man-armies—to protect them. That’s us.”

“So they altered us, without our knowing about it?” asked Glen. “That’s not right.”

“No,” said Kevin, “and they admit that.”

“But the process had to be performed on kids who were past puberty and still growing,” continued Fish. “By the time a kid hit eighteen, when he was old enough to give legal consent, he would be too old for the procedure.”

“That still doesn’t make it right,” said Glen.

“That’s where their plan went wrong,” said Kevin, looking at the ground “According to them, on the day we left the orphanage, this was all going to be explained to us and we would have been given a choice. If we didn’t want to change, all we would have to do is stay on the inhibitor for five to seven years, after which the change would no longer be physiologically possible.”

“But I found out about their experiments,” said Mikey, “told you guys and screwed everything up.”

“Don’t worry about it, Mikey,” said Matt. “You didn’t know, and I would have chosen to change anyway. This is pretty fucking awesome.” And he illustrated his point by flexing his massive arms.

And then all the other guys were slapping Mikey on the back and telling him it wasn’t his fault.

Mikey looked up at Kevin. “Can you forgive me?”

“There’s nothing to forgive,” said Kevin. “You did what you thought was right. Besides, the future could be a lot worse. These guys still want to hire us, and they’re pretty fucking generous. They’ve already guaranteed to support any orphan who has already changed for the rest of his life, weather or not he takes a job with them. And they will offer the choice to any who haven’t changed yet. They plan to build a special community designed to cater to our unique needs, larger houses, cars, even movie theaters,” grinned Kevin.

“What about girls?” asked Glen. “No girl’s going to want to take this,” he said grabbing his cock. “Hard, it’s twenty-four inches of throbbing pulsing manhood.” The other guys laughed slyly.

“Yeah, I kind of brought that up,” said Matt. “Mr. Gibbs says he thinks he can accommodate us. Not sure what that means, but we’ll have to see.”

“I still think this whole thing stinks,” said Glen.

“Yeah, it does stink,” said Kevin, “about as much as anything can. But we have to be practical. There is no infrastructure currently out there in the world that will support us. These guys have the resources to help us create one. Once we get established, we can look around and see what other options there might be for us. But for now, I think our best bet is to go with them.”

After that it was pretty much decided to go along with Mr. Gibbs and Mr. Stanley’s offer—not that we had much choice. But Kevin was already talking about forming some kind of guild, for collective bargaining and to look out for our future interests. No doubt about it, life was not going to be boring.

While we were meeting yet another army of people showed up. These guys were erecting giant circus-type tents all over the front yard. They were going to be temporary shelters while our new community was constructed on nearby pastureland.

Tailors were making clothes for us and carpenters were fashioning furniture. It was amazing the speed and efficiency with which it was all done. By nightfall, we had really nice places to sleep. Dividers had been set up in all the tents giving us each our own private space. And there was a special kitchen tent that served up a huge feast. There was plenty of delicious food, more even than we could eat.

The next day Fish went into town with a group of suits to try and find the other guys, the ones who hadn’t changed yet. Strangely enough, there wasn’t a sign of them. But we didn’t worry too much. We knew eventually we’d find them. How could you miss them?

Well, it was getting late, and I was just thinking about going to bed, when the tent flap opened and Mr. Gibbs came in holding a clipboard. Behind him were a bunch of delivery guys carrying giant pieces of what looked like black, shag carpet. When he saw me, Mr. Gibbs looked startled.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I was looking for Kevin and Mikey.”

“Oh,” I said. “They’re just next door.”

He thanked me and turned to go but then stopped and turned back.

“I was wondering if you could help me,” he said. “I’ve asked Kevin and Mikey but I can’t get a straight answer out of them. But maybe you might know.”

“Know what?”

“What on Earth do they want with a giant monkey suit?”

THE END

[rextorres]

You know, Jaypat, as much as a hurry as you were to end this tremendous story, I hate to say it, but... This thing is just flat out SCREAMING for a sequel. I honestly can't understand why you were in such a hurry to end it. It'll be interesting to see what some of the other readers will say. Either way, thanks for writing and congratulations on completing another great story! This has definately been your most fun story since Second Puberty, which ranks among my personal favorite stories on this site.

I love your characters and I really like your use of dialogue a LOT (the dialogue between Mikey and Brad is CLASSIC!), I just wish you would have taken more time to come up with an ending where you brought all the orphans together, including the "normal" kids, rather than leave them out on the highway. Again, it's a shame because you have great characters, wonderful dialogue, and a good plot, and you start out the story really nice and slow, taking time to show each character with a full chapter devoted entirely to each and every one, but I get the impression that you become impatient or you grow tired of writing your own story line, and you end up rushing through it and end it in a hurry. Have you ever thought about collaborating with somebody on a story? I just finished writing a 300-page story with someone, and it helps a lot! I'm bringing this up, not to make you feel bad, but because I make the exact same mistake as you do! My lack of patience gets the best of me, and I just rush through a story and then I ruin the ending. Maybe something to think about...

Other than that, I REALLY enjoyed this story, just like I enjoyed Second Puberty. I always read everything you post, because I KNOW that everything you write is GREAT STUFF! Thanks again for giving us The Orphanage, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what you're going to come up with next...

[Maverick0095875]

be4 i read i just wanna say thank you!!!!!

[tagsnola]

... You never EVER disappoint! Great finale!
- TagsNOLA

[TheMM]

@ Rex: Screaming for a finale....Do you mean like this?:

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I would love to see at least an epilogue. Especially if it involves a giant monkey suit.

[rextorres]

Originally Posted by TheMM

@ Rex: Screaming for a finale....Do you mean like this?:

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I would love to see at least an epilogue. Especially if it involves a giant monkey suit.

I KNEW there was a reason for me to stay up late tonight and visit the site one more time... Hehe... I said screaming for a SEQUEL, not a finale...

I would like to read more about these giant muscle kids... Maybe they "convert" the other kids? What happens to them? Where will they live? What will their new place look like? Maybe other kids will receive the serum and grow, too? How will the BIG kids interact with the "normal" kids from the old orphanage? What happens when these kids grow older? What happens when some of them reach puberty, in their already super-muscular form? What if they meet a few girls and reproduce after a few years, how will their offspring look? No, this story is NOT over...

[Jaypat]

How to address this?? First of all, I don?t like ending my stories by wrapping everything up in a neat little package. I like leaving my readers with the feeling that the characters are going to go on and live full and exciting lives, lives that might, sometime in the future, be worthy of another story.

I know some writers (like J.K. Rawling) like to project their characters ten or fifteen years into the future at the end of their stories and show them living a quiet, tranquil domestic life. You get the feeling that nothing exciting is ever going to happen to these people again. To me, that?s a horrible fate to condemn a character to. It?s almost a living death.

In The Orphanage I feel I completed all the major story arcs. I purposely left one or two dangling threads on minor plot points which I may pick up again sometime in the future. But even if I never do, I think the story still stands just fine on its own.

As for the giant monkey suit, let?s just say they?re going to have a wild weekend in New York, and I?ll leave the rest to your imaginations.

I also want to mention that ?O? did a fantastic illustration for the finale, but photo bucket disallowed it. Does anyone know where I can post it, so you guys can link to it--someplace whose standards are a little less strict?

[Maverick0095875]

post it on epic lust

[skumbum]

Fun fun story

[omelissokomos]

Originally Posted by Maverick0095875

post it on epic lust

I'd appreciate it if it wasn't. That goes for any of my other artwork/morphs.

Anyway, I uploaded the image to CYOC while I work on getting this story re-posted on my site.

[redkage]

Congrats on your finale Jaypat! And personally, I think your story is fine without having one of those closure endings. Besides, you had an action packed finale anyhow, so I don't think you need to go out of your way to provide us with an epilogue. Sometimes leaving us hanging is a good thing.

Anyways, I want to thank you for your hard work and dedication to your story, and wish you good luck in all your future projects.

Write on!
-Red

P.S., NICE picture O.

[muscl4life]

Catharsis literally means "purification of the soul through tragedy" - since it comes from the ancient Greek Drama(where the stories were divided into two categories Tragedy and Comedy) we can explain that when the audience exults before a great Tragedy, crying, suffering, relating to the characters in the show, it means much more than a standing ovation and all the emotion provoked by a genuine masterpiece, such comotion will actually be a blessing for the viewrs, because they have ideally purged their souls.

Nowadays, we use this term to express those amazing moments where we forget all about the dividing line between fiction and reality - suddenly we are transported to the universe created by the writer and we firmly believe in all the premises set by the "God" of this particular reality.

So, after explaining this, I must say that when I read the scene where Mikey and Kevin finally kiss - for one moment everything stopped - the next thing I noticed I was applauding, whistling and cheering like my team had scored. I am not just saying this, within this chapter I must have felt a dozen of different emotions - I laughed with the scene of Mikey and Brad in the mines, I've felt my tears filling the eyes when Anthony thought he had lost Ethan, I felt just as desperate and revolted as Caleb when his growth hasn't fully kicked in, I felt just as infuriated as Keving when Glenn overlooked his feelings - not to mention that Kevin's growth scene is BY FAR the hottest one in the whole story, so my cock went easily cathartical too .

Anyway, the entire story is AMAZING and the ending just made justice to all the incredible chapters you've previously delivered Jaypat - congratulations for being coherent to your premises, for being so dedicated to such laborious work, for being so creative, trying to reinvent yourself on each chapter, exploring several different approaches of the muscle growth fantasy, it was not just erotica, it was a novel about love, adventure and muscle growth - the classic "Fairy Tale" kiss was the crowning piece - who could be more charming than Mikey? And who needed to be resuced more than the massive, gargantuan, super muscular yet sensitive and disappointed Kevin?

That being said, I must say that I agree with you Jaypat - this story is as perfect as it is - I usually like to write epilogues for my stories, but that's just when I feel there wasn't practical time within the drama to end all the smaller stories that needed to be told, which is definitely NOT the case of this saga - the story was phenomenally executed within its own ringes, all the parallel stories were closed - using Caleb to be final storyteller was just very clever not to mention that a non-omnipresent narrator can only relate what he was told and saved a lot of necessary dialogues if the final meeting and the explanation for the Project.

Of course, such fantastically written saga will leave a different impression on each person, and this reader would give anything to read a bit more about his favorite character, or probably to see what happened to the other kids who haven't changed. All justifiable reasons, yet, it is my opinion that The Orphanage story was perfectly concluded - the King Kong joke still will echo in my head as one of the greatest conclusion lines I've EVER read (not just muscle growth stories, all kind of literature and I must say I have read A LOT)

Anyway, I know you must be tired of hearing the same compliments over and over, Jaypat, so I just wanted to let you know that after months of such hard work (especially if you get hard while writing which is my case) now it's time to relax and enjoy the fruits of your novel, although I truly wish the Muses don't leave your side ever, in fact they could just be already "torturing" you to start a new project - this is the bittersweet fate of any writer - and you, my friend is one heck of writer.

Cheers

[michaelv2]

I just wanted to add my shouts to the thunderous applause. Well done. Very well done.

[nvb2]

Very nice. Thank you for all of the work that you put into the story!

I, too, was on pins and needles awaiting each installment. Now that this story is ended I really need to compliment you on a great plot, wonderful character development, excellent character points of view and dialogue, and thrilling climax and anti-climax. I thoroughly enjoy your writing style, and, as rextorres suggests, hope to see a sequel develop over time, perhaps "The Mega-Orphans."
Mike

[ieny24]

That was such a great story! Thank you so much for all the time and effort you've put into it. And like other guys here wrote, it would be really great to see a sequel or spin-off one of these days...

[Jaypat]

I?m really kind of surprised by all the great things people are saying about The Orphanage. Looking at the numbers it was getting, I got the feeling that not too many people cared that much about it. I even thought once or twice about abandoning it. But there were still a few people who seemed to be enjoying it, so I brought it through to its conclusion. As Rex pointed out, for a while there I was trying to rush it to an end. But the story just wouldn?t be rushed and I wound up writing everything I had originally intended to. It?s great to see that it did have its fans.

I?m not saying I?ll never write a sequel or a spin off to it, but right now it?s not on the schedule. I am currently working on a spin-off to Second Puberty. I actually started this spin-off before I started The Orphanage, but it was coming out way too dark. I guess I was just in the mood to write something dark?so I wrote The Orphanage. And now?as you might be able to tell from reading the Orphanage finale?I?m getting back in the mood to write something lighter. So, here comes the story of little Colin Jones. I hope you guys will enjoy it.

[chocomus]

Lol, the monkey suit hilarious
Nice story I really liked the ending