Anyone have "Head and Shoulders Abve the Rest"?

[sarasister]

thanks, it was a great story.

[musqlure]

I have a copy of it, assuming it's the same story. The one I have is a macro story about two bodybuilders named Craig and Dennis.

[buford]

love that story, too! would LOVE to find a copy of it!

[Lionor_King]

SAME HERE!! please if you would

[Maverick0095875]

anyone have a link for this?

[musqlure]

If you want a copy of the story, PM me with your e-mail address.

[sarasister]

can someone pls post it?

[musqlure]

HEAD AND SHOULDERS ABOVE THE REST

anonymous [2]

Professor Norm Behrens looked at the clock as he tied up some loose
ends in the lab. It was nearly time for two of his subjects to
arrive. For years he had attempted size-altering experiments, and had
achieved a limited degree of success, but finally it seemed he was
onto something. Last year he had actually altered the size of several
different types of lab animals. Not much--usually only about ten
percent, although in a couple of instances he was able to increase or
decrease their size by fifty percent or more. Still, such success was
encouraging, and his theories seemed to indicate that much greater
size alteration would be possible with a different type of subject,
one that was especially attuned to their own body's physiological
processes.

To test his theories, he had set up a study of a group of
bodybuilders, who seemed to be ideal for the experiment. For months
he had monitored them while they were on various diets and weight
programs, and while they practiced various mental exercises he gave
them, ranging from simple visualizations to meditation and variations
on eastern philosophy. Quite a few of them thought these mental
exercises were bogus, but as long as they were being paid for their
part in the study, they tried them anyway. Most of them got some
benefit out of the exercises, finding that they were able to focus on
their goals better, which in this experiment specifically meant
achieving greater control over their bodies. Two bodybuilders in
particular had a definite knack for the mental part of the experiment,
in addition to being gifted physically. Norm was meeting these two
this afternoon.

Up until now, Norm hadn't told any of them that his ultimate goal was
size alteration. Not that he was particularly secretive--no more than
any other research professor--but mainly because he didn't want that
knowledge to skew his experiment, given that he theorized that the
subject's mental energy could affect the outcome. He wanted to choose
the most promising men from the test group before he moved on to the
next part of his experiment, and to do that he had to monitor their
progress without allowing them to know what the goal of his experiment
was.

A knock on his office door brought him out of his preoccupied
thoughts. Craig and Dennis were here. They both stood about 5'10",
approximately Norm's height, but whereas he was on the thin side, they
were huge, even by bodybuilder standards, weighing in the 250 pound
range, depending upon how they were training at the time. Aside from
the similarity of their physiques, they looked quite different. Dennis
was dark-haired and good-looking; Craig was blond and more average
looking, but even more thickly built than Dennis. They were wearing
shorts and tank tops to show off their massive arms and the rest of
their physiques. Both of them had extremely confident, almost
arrogant attitudes, but fortunately they sort of liked Norm. They
obviously thought of themselves as superior, but at the same time,
they didn't think of him as a typical science geek. They thought he
knew what he was doing, so they went along with his experiments, and
they got along OK.

"What's up today, Doc?" asked Dennis. "More time on the monitors?"

"Geez, not the monitors again," said Craig in dismay, rubbing his face
with his hand. "Can't we do something different?"

"Well, actually I've got something different planned today," said
Norm. "I think I'm finally ready to go on to the next part of the
experiment, and of all the people in the group, you two seem the best
suited for it."

The two grinned at that. "I told you we're the best, Doc," said
Dennis. "Well, I am, anyway. Craig's a distant second."

"Like hell!" said Craig with a mischievous gleam in his eye. Punching
Dennis lightly in the shoulder, he said, "My guns'll beat yours any
day of the week. You're just a little runt compared to me."

"Before you two have a pose-down, let's get some work done," Norm
interrupted dryly. "Come into the lab with me, and I'll show you what
this experiment is all about." The two followed him down a long hall
and into a warehouse-sized lab that they hadn't been into before. "For
years now," said Norm, "I've been working on a device that will change
an object's size, making it either bigger or smaller. What I've found
is that it doesn't work very well on inanimate objects, but it works,
to a limited extent, on living things. So far I've only managed to
alter animals like these lab mice about ten to fifty percent of their
original size. Even though that doesn't seem like much, it's actually
quite an accomplishment," he said with some pride. "But obviously I'd
like to achieve more. And according to my theories, in addition to
physiological makeup, the subject's mind-set has an influence on the
process. That's why the group was doing all those mental exercises.
But out of the entire group, you guys seemed by far to be the best
subjects for the next test."

"This is pretty weird, Doc. You sure you haven't been smoking
anything?" kidded Craig.

Still serious, Norm said, "Let me show you what I'm talking about."
From among the animals, he took a caged mouse and placed it, cage and
all, on a table. From the corner of the room, he wheeled over a
medium-sized device--about the size of a dishwasher--over to the
table. On top of the device was a control panel and a 6-inch
satellite-style dish. "This is the size-changer," he said. "Not a
fancy name, I know, but when I actually get it working they way I want
it to work, then I'll worry about being clever. The science behind it
is complex, but the machine itself is pretty simple. This setting
determines whether the object will shrink or grow, and these other
settings adjust the rate of change. You aim the dish at the subject,
set the controls, and press 'start.' When you want to stop the
process, you press 'stop,' though so far the subjects have all stopped
growing or shrinking before I had to stop the machine. Like I said,
they only changed by ten to fifty percent, so it didn't take very
long. No further use of the machine would make them grow or shrink
any further, though I was able to use it to bring them back to their
original size.

Slowly, Craig said, "So you're saying . . ."

"I'm saying I'd like to try it on you guys. You can either grow or
shrink, whichever you want, though I assume you'd like to grow, even
if it's only temporary?" The two grinned at each other. Arching his
eyebrows in an exaggerated show of patience, Norm returned to his
explanation. "Based on my previous experiments, you ought to grow
somewhere between six inches and three feet taller, and of course your
weight will increase accordingly. However, because of your physiology
and your training in this experiment, I'm hoping that you'll be able
to grow even more than that--maybe even twice as big as you are right
now."

"That would be awesome! Let's give her a try, Doc!" said Craig.

"Yeah, I'm totally up for that," echoed Dennis.

"Good," said Norm. "I was hoping you would, which is why the
experiment is set up in this particular lab. It's the biggest one we
have, and since it's warehouse-sized, even after you grow you'll still
have room to move around comfortably. Who wants to go first?" "I will," said Craig enthusiastically, stepping forward.

"Let's go over towards the center of the room, so we have lots of
space in every direction," said Norm, as he plugged in the
size-changer and wheeled it to the middle of the room. "Craig, take
off your shirt and shoes. I want as much of the ray to hit you as
possible, and your clothes will only diffuse it. Then stand directly
in front of the dish. When I start the machine, it will focus an
invisible ray on you. It won't hurt, but it might feel a little
strange. Actually, I don't know exactly how it feels, because I
haven't been able to ask a subject to explain it to me before. My
best guess is that it's either like that feeling you get when your
foot falls asleep, or else maybe it's a tingling sensation. Also, you
might feel a little disoriented during the procedure, but I don't
think you have to worry about any pain or nausea. However, if you
want to stop for any reason, just say so. Does that still sound OK to
you?"

"Yeah, no problem," said Craig. "No pain, no gain, right?"

"Good," said Norm, "but what I want you to do, no matter how hard it
might be, is focus on getting bigger--not just like your biceps or
anything, but your whole body expanding. Use those visualization
exercises we worked on, and draw on whatever you have to, but remember
to focus on growing. That ought to help the procedure."

"Gotcha," said Craig. "Let's do it!" He closed his eyes and shook
himself into a relaxed pose as he stood in front of the size-changer.
When he opened his eyes again a few seconds later, Norm looked to make
sure he was ready, then adjusted the controls and pressed "start."
At first, Craig felt a slight tingling, but nothing happened. After a
few seconds, though, he felt energy welling up inside him, and he
started to grow slowly. His head felt kind of fuzzy, and it was hard
to concentrate. But he remembered Norm's instructions, and when he
focused his mind on growing, his rate of growth instantly doubled. He
was still growing a few seconds later when Norm pressed "stop." Even
though Craig's eyes were open the whole time, he was only dimly aware
of his surroundings, so only when the growth process stopped was he
was able to take stock of the situation. At first he didn't see Norm
or Dennis, and he wondered where they went. But a second later, he
realized that they hadn't gone anywhere; he hadn't seen them because
they were only waist-high to him! He was about twelve feet tall,
towering over the two of them. Although he didn't know the equation,
and couldn't have done the math in his head anyway, at this height
Craig literally weighed a ton. Despite this, he didn't feel any
heavier, as his thickly-muscled legs were now the size of tree-trunks,
easily supporting his massive weight.

"Doc, this is so cool!" said Craig as he flexed his legs, then his
arms, admiring his huge new proportions.

Elated, Norm said, "It worked even better than I hoped! In fact, you
would have kept growing if I hadn't stopped the process. It's
impossible to tell, but based at the rate you were going, I think you
could have gotten quite a bit bigger. Interesting, too, that the
clothing you were wearing--your shorts and your neck chain--grew along
with you. Inanimate objects don't grow by themselves, but apparently
they grow in tandem with a living object. Hmmm . . . Anyway, what
did it feel like to you?"

"Like you said, Doc," Craig replied. "No pain or anything, just a
little tingling, and everything around me seemed kind of distant and
hazy. I could tell I was growing, but when I focused on it, I could
feel it really take off. I just started to get the hang of it when
you turned off the machine. I think I've got a lot more in me. Let's
see how much farther I can go!"

"Not right now," said Norm. "I need to collect some data. Besides,
we ought to wait a while before trying any more. You know, make sure
there aren't any side effects. And I want to try it on Dennis, too."
"Whatever, Doc," said Craig, disappointed. "Still, even this size is
cool. Maybe I should take up basketball. I could make a few mil in
the NBA, no problem." Looking at Dennis, he said, "You think you
could post me up, shrimp? Or how about wrestling? At this size I
could pin a bull. A shrimp like you couldn't even wrap his arms
around my quads to try a take-down."

"You just wait 'til I get to be that size, big man. Then I'll show
you," countered Dennis. "Come on, Doc," he said impatiently, "use
that thing on me, too."

"Just a minute," said Norm, distracted. "Like I said, I need to get
some data first, and . . . oh crap. I left a couple things in my
office. Let me go and get them, then we'll finish with you, Craig,
and then I can try it on Dennis. I'll be right back."

After he had gone, Craig looked down at Dennis and said, "You have no
idea how cool this is." Flexing his biceps, he asked "How huge are
these guns now?"

"Shit, man!" Dennis exclaimed. "They're way bigger than my legs!"

"Damn straight. And I tell you what, I don't feel like waiting for
Doc to come back and do all his science crap before I find out how big
I can get. I know I've got a lot more in me, and I'm gonna do it
now!" Going over to the huge warehouse door, Craig punched the button
that opened it. As the door rose overhead, he grabbed the
size-changer, which was toy-sized to him now. He wheeled the machine
outside into the nearly empty parking lot as far as the cord would let
it go--about ten feet. Putting all the settings on maximum, he pushed
'start,' then stepped around in front of the machine, giving himself
plenty of room to grow.

With all the machine's settings maxed-out, Craig immediately started
growing at a rapid pace. Then, as Dennis watched, Craig seemed to
concentrate. As he did so, he shot upwards at an astronomical rate,
cresting 100 feet in mere seconds. Then 200 feet. Then 300. Just
then, Norm came back into the lab and saw what was going on. Dropping
his equipment, he raced towards Dennis, who stood awestruck at the
feet of a gigantic--and still growing--Craig. "What are you doing?!"
Norm shouted.

"Craig wanted to see how much further he could go, and I couldn't have
stopped him, even if I wanted to," Dennis answered.

By this time, Craig had crested 500 feet. "What the hell got into
him?" said Norm as he pressed the 'stop' button. "I hope we can undo
this." Craig's growth had slowed on its own before Norm pushed the
"stop" button, but even so, he stood about 600 feet tall, massive and
godlike before them. From where they stood, dwarfed by his enormous
toes, they could see that his heels had sunk into the pavement in the
distance, about 85 feet away. His incredible weight had pulverized
the asphalt of the parking lot, cracking it like eggshell as his feet
sank into the ground. To either side the asphalt was heaved and
broken, with cracks radiating outward in every direction, like when a
person stood on thin ice.

"LOOKS LIKE IT WORKS EVEN BETTER THAN YOU THOUGHT, DOC!" Craig boomed.

Craning their necks upward to see his face, Norm and Dennis saw Craig
looking down at them with an inscrutable expression.
"Craig, this is insane! We've got to get you back to normal," said
Norm.

"NO WAY, DOC. I LIKE IT UP HERE," replied Craig. "FROM NOW ON, THIS
*IS* MY NORMAL HEIGHT."

"But we've got to shrink you back down," Norm repeated. "You can't
stay that size!"

A bemused, yet slightly dangerous expression crossed Craig's
face. "WHAT DID YOU SAY, DOC? I CAN'T? I THINK YOU JUST GAVE ME AN
ORDER--AND I WOULDN'T DO THAT IF I WERE YOU." He paused, staring hard at Norm, whose stomach quailed. After a moment he continued, "YOU'RE LUCKY I LIKE YOU, DOC, 'CAUSE IF ANYBODY ELSE DID THAT, I'D SQUASH HIM LIKE A BUG."

Suddenly an alarm from the warehouse drew their attention. Norm and
Dennis turned around to see that the big door was closing. A security
guard had pushed the emergency close button, which overrode the door's
safety stop. It was dangerous and probably lethal for anyone caught
underneath, but it was there for high security. "WHAT THE HELL?" said
Craig when the commotion started. As the door was closing, he slid a
gigantic foot forward, filling the entire doorway. About seven feet
above the floor, the door ran into Craig's foot. Unable to finish
closing, the mechanism ground and squealed until the motor burned out.
Grinning down at them, Craig said, "CAN'T HAVE THEM LOCKING YOU OUT,
EH DOC?" Before Norm could say anything, Craig flexed his toes
upward, forcing the door up several feet. Pulling his foot back, he
crouched, grabbed the door in his huge hand, and pushed it back up.
With a grating shriek, the door shot backwards along its track. Craig
left it there--open, but bent, jammed, and ruined.

"Craig, what are you doing?" said Norm, dismayed.

With a mischievous gleam, Craig said, "OH, RIGHT. I GUESS YOU'D
RATHER USE THE SIDE DOOR," gesturing towards the smaller, reinforced
steel door with a small glass window that most personnel used for
entering the lab. "YOU WANT ME TO OPEN IT FOR YOU?" he said as he
leaned forward slightly, his enormous arm looming over Norm's head,
and tapped a tree-sized index finger on the door. Reinforced steel or
not, Craig's tapping pounded it like a battering ram, denting it and
breaking the window.

Looking up fearfully at the crouching giant who blotted out the sky
overhead, Norm pleaded, "Come on, Craig, please don't!"
"IT'S NO TROUBLE, DOC," he said, and he gave it a sharp jab with his
finger. The door was blown inward, where it slammed hard against the
wall. Twisted and dented, it hung feebly from its top hinge, which
remained partially attached, but the rest of the hinges were torn from
the doorjamb, and the lock was sheared off. "WHOA, THAT'S GONNA HAVE
TO BE REPLACED," said Craig. "I MIGHT AS WELL TAKE IT OUT RIGHT NOW."

Only one monstrous finger would fit through the doorway, which kept
him from picking up the door. Instead, he pushed down on it with his
finger, tearing off the one remaining hinge as though the steel was
mere cobweb. Then, holding the door firmly under his finger, he slid
it towards him, scraping it along the floor. It caught on the
doorway, but with a sharp tug he pulled it through, further battering
the door, and blowing out the doorjamb as well. Picking it up to
examine it, he said, "THEY OUGHT TO MAKE THESE STURDIER. THIS THING
IS WORTHLESS!" As he said that, he folded it in half between his
thumb and forefinger, as though it was made from thin aluminum rather
than reinforced steel, then tossed it aside. It landed with a
resounding clang halfway across the parking lot, and skidded until it
crashed into a concrete tree planter.

"Come on, Craig, think about what you're doing!" said Norm, half
frantic.

"I DON'T NEED TO THINK ABOUT IT, DOC," said Craig. "I LIKE BEING THIS
SIZE. SORRY, BUT I DON'T FEEL LIKE FINISHING THE REST OF THE
EXPERIMENT. I THINK I'LL TAKE A LOOK AROUND TOWN INSTEAD." Standing up from his crouched position, he towered over the parking
lot. Looking down, he said, "CATCH YA LATER, DOC!" Turning to Dennis,
he said, "YOU TOO, BUG. I'LL TRY NOT TO STEP ON YOUR CAR WHEN I
LEAVE." Grinning maliciously, he looked around for a second, then
turned and walked towards the street. Each booming step shook the
ground, powdered the pavement beneath his foot, and left a
crater-sized footprint behind. Because of the time of day and the
part of town they were in, there weren't many people out on the
streets. However, the few who were in the neighborhood ran for
shelter, terrified by Craig's approach.

All this time, Dennis had been standing dumbfounded. Now, though, he
jerked himself out of his reverie. Craig was heading towards where
his car was parked along the street. "That bastard!" said Dennis.
"He wouldn't . . ." But before he could finish his sentence, Craig's
foot came down squarely on Dennis's car--and on several other cars
beside it. The cars that narrowly escaped being crushed bounced into
the air at the impact, then rocked crazily back and forth. Cracks
radiated out from beneath his foot, spreading through the street and
the sidewalk. Jagged chunks of concrete and rubble from the shattered
street and sidewalk were scattered beside his foot, and a car alarm
started going off nearby. Craig lifted his foot to reveal another
huge footprint, this one containing several cars that had been crushed
like tinfoil, reduced to wafers of scrap metal.

"You bastard!" shouted Dennis without thinking. It was probably just
as well that Craig couldn't hear him.

"DAMN!" said Craig. Looking back toward Dennis, he said,
unconvincingly, "I DIDN'T SEE YOUR CAR THERE." Meanwhile, the car
alarm was still going off. Annoyed, Craig looked down, lifted his
foot, and stamped down hard on the offending Acura. In addition to
the Acura, two more cars disappeared completely under Craig's foot,
and mangled portions of several others poked feebly out from
underneath. They hadn't caught the full force of the blow, but they
were destroyed nonetheless. The car alarm was squelched instantly,
but the booming impact of Craig's foot shattered windows and set
nearby cars bouncing again. "I ALWAYS HATED THOSE THINGS," said Craig
as he ground the flattened wreckage of the car under the ball of his
foot. When he was satisfied that the offending car had been
obliterated, he turned back towards Dennis and Norm and said, "LATER,
FELLAS. MAYBE I'LL COME BACK AFTER A WHILE AND TELL YOU HOW MUCH FUN I'M HAVING." With that, he turned and walked away, his thunderous
footsteps fading in the distance.

Norm ran to the street to follow him, but there was no way he could
catch up with Craig; even now he was several football fields' distance
away. He thought about going after Craig in his truck, but decided
against it. For one thing, the street was nearly impassible now,
strewn with debris and blocked by huge craters that Craig's footsteps
had punched in it. Norm would have to zig-zag down side streets
rather than following directly, and there was little chance he could
catch up that way. Even more sobering, there was no guarantee that
Craig wouldn't just step on him if he got close. Craig's newfound
power seemed to have gone to his head, and even if he recognized
Norm's truck as it approached, he might not care that "the Doc" was
inside. "That's ironic," thought Norm. "That cocky arrogance is what
helped him grow in the first place, but now that he's grown, it makes
him doubly dangerous."

As Norm stood half stupefied, half lost in thought, Dennis walked up
to him, grabbed him by the shoulders, and shook him. "Come on, Doc,
we can't just stand here. Who knows what he's going to do?"
"I know, Dennis," said Norm, "but at that size, he's unstoppable."
"Maybe not," said Dennis. "I'd be a match for him if I were his
size."

"Nice try, Dennis," said Norm, "But we don't have time to mess around
with any more experiments. We've got to call the police, and maybe
the military."

"Yeah, right," Dennis snorted. "What are they going to do? Set up a
roadblock? An ant has just as good a chance of stopping you,
Doc. He'll just laugh, and then walk right over them."

Desperate, Norm said, "But they've got weapons they can use against
him . . ."

"Like what?" said Dennis. "A pistol? A bazooka? You think a bug
with a pistol could stop you? They'll just make him mad. Besides,
Doc, what if they actually hurt him? How will that look for you?"
Dennis continued relentlessly. "No matter what happens, they're gonna
blame you, because it was your experiment."

Norm's face was anguished. He knew Dennis was right, but he didn't
know what to do. After an agonized minute of thinking, Norm said,
"There's no way he's going to let me shrink him back to normal, but
maybe you could distract him and keep him from doing any more damage
while I got close enough to use the size-changer on him. After I got
him back to normal, I could bring you back to normal, too. Then I
could try to figure a way to talk my way out of this disaster--that
is, if I'm not ruined already," he concluded despondently.

After a
minute's pause, though, he smiled wryly and said, "But who would
believe such a story anyway? A size-changing machine? Gimme a break!
They can hardly blame me if the whole story is incredible. But before
I worry about saving my ass, we've got to stop Craig. Turning to
Dennis, he said, "Would you help me out? I'd enlarge myself, but
there's no way I could run the machine after growing to that size."
"Sure, Doc," said Dennis. "Besides, even if you were Craig's size,
you still wouldn't be a match for him. I'm the guy for the job."
"You've got a point," said Norm. "All right, the plan is to enlarge
you so you can keep him busy, and then I'll follow and reduce you both
back to normal, first him, then you. Got it?" "Let's go, Doc!" said Dennis, nodding affirmatively.

Fortunately, even though the parking lot was in shambles, and the
warehouse looked like it had been hit by a hurricane, the size-changer
hadn't been damaged. "Stand over there," said Norm, motioning Dennis
toward an uncluttered area, away from the crater-footprints Craig had
left. "Take off your shirt, shoes, and socks, and . . ." Norm
repeated the instructions he had given Craig.'

When Dennis indicated he was ready, Norm started the machine. Just
like Craig, Dennis started growing slowly, then rocketed upwards once
he got the hang of it. Suddenly Norm found himself standing at the
feet of a gigantic Dennis, just as Craig had towered over them
earlier. The experiment had worked again! Dennis had grown to the
same unbelievable height as Craig. Unfortunately, there wasn't any
time to exult in his success. They had work to do.

"Can you see him Dennis? I'm going to load the size-changer onto my
truck, then I'll follow after you guys. I'll need to find a power
source when I'm ready to use it, but that shouldn't be too hard."
Preoccupied with making preparations to follow the two giants, Norm
hadn't noticed the look on Dennis's face.

"I CAN SEE HIM, DOC," said Dennis. "BUT I DON'T THINK YOUR PLAN IS
GOING TO WORK."

Stopping what he was doing, Norm looked up and asked, "Why not?
What's wrong?"

"I'M SUPPOSED TO DISTRACT CRAIG WHILE YOU SHRINK US BOTH BACK DOWN, RIGHT?" Not waiting for Norm's answer, he continued, "WELL I DON'T FEEL LIKE DOING EITHER OF THOSE THINGS. IT FEELS AWESOME TO BE SO HUGE, AND I WANT TO HAVE SOME FUN INSTEAD."
As Norm watched, Dennis lifted one gigantic foot. Frightened, Norm
cringed as it hovered overhead momentarily, but in the next instant it
whooshed ponderously in the opposite direction, towards one of the few
cars in the parking lot. With his big toe, itself about as large as
the car, Dennis pushed the gray Toyota four-door towards the
warehouse. The car lurched, skidded, and rolled towards Norm as
Dennis's foot pushed it inexorably along. Before it was halfway across
the lot it was totaled, the roof crushed and all the windows broken
out. It only took a few seconds, but it seemed to happen in slow
motion to Norm. Finally, it came to rest on its side about thirty
feet from him. With one last nudge from his big toe, Dennis flipped
the battered car back onto its wheels. "I'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO BE
HUGE, DOC," said Dennis, "BUT I'VE NEVER HAD POWER LIKE THIS!"
Dennis's foot rose, overshadowed the car, then stomped it flat. Norm
nearly lost his balance at the impact, and he could hear things
crashing and falling in the warehouse lab behind him. Dennis lifted
his foot, and Norm saw a scrap of crushed gray metal embedded in the
footprint. "SEE THAT, DOC?" said Dennis. "I CAN FLATTEN CARS AND
SMASH BUILDINGS WITHOUT EVEN TRYING." To emphasize his point, or maybe just for the fun of it, Dennis crouched and grabbed the big warehouse door that Craig had forced back on its track earlier. As
hopelessly bent and jammed as it was, Dennis pulled it out
effortlessly. With a grating, metallic shriek, the door was wrenched
from its track and pulled out of the building. Steel cables snapped
like threads and swung wildly as they dangled from the
ceiling. Holding the big metal door in his hand, Dennis stood up and
crumpled it into a ball about twelve feet in diameter. With a
negligent flick of his wrist, he tossed it at a car dealership across
the street. The huge metal ball didn't hit the building directly, but
it crashed into the front lot, completely crushing one new SUV and
partially damaging another. Bouncing slightly, it kept going,
crashing through the front wall of the dealership, shattering all the
plate glass windows as it did so. It hit at an angle, so its momentum
propelled it through a side wall, too. After tearing through that
wall, most of its momentum was used up, and it slowly rolled into the
side lot, coming to a stop as it partially crushed another new car.

Norm was aghast. There were people working in that building, and they
might have been killed or injured! But before he could say anything,
Dennis continued, "IT'S AWESOME, DOC. I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANT, AND THERE'S NO WAY I'M GIVING THAT UP. AND TO MAKE SURE OF THAT . . ." Once more Dennis's foot rose, this time swinging towards Norm.
Terrified that he was about to be exterminated, Norm ran, all the
while knowing there was no way he could escape. He was overshadowed
by Dennis's foot for a second, but it continued past him. It dawned
on Norm that Dennis wasn't after him; he was after the size-changer.
Even now the gargantuan foot was hovering over the machine, which
looked tiny as a sugar cube in comparison. To Norm, losing the
product of years of research was nearly as bad as death itself. "No!"
he howled in dismay as Dennis's foot descended on the machine. Parts
popped and snapped under the unimaginable pressure, a blue spark
flashed, and the size-changer was no more. Somewhere beneath Dennis's
foot, crushed under countless tons of weight, lay Norm's life's work,
destroyed in a second. Not content with merely crushing it, Dennis
dragged his foot backward, shredding the remains of the machine,
leaving only fragments scattered in the riven asphalt.


"Why?! Why did you do that?" shouted Norm, heartsick at the loss.

"BECAUSE I'M GOING TO ENJOY LIFE AT THIS SIZE, DOC, AND I DON'T WANT ANYBODY TRYING TO SHRINK ME BACK DOWN." Hearing police sirens in the distance, Dennis looked around, grinned, and said, "THANKS, DOC, AND SO LONG. I THINK I'LL GO GIVE THE COPS A BIG SURPRISE." Looking back at Norm, he continued, "AND DON'T TRY TO FOLLOW ME. YOU CAN'T STOP ME ANYWAY, AND I'D HATE TO STEP ON YOU BY ACCIDENT. IT WOULDN'T BE PRETTY." As he said that, Dennis stamped his foot a mere ten feet away from Norm, who jumped to get out of the way of the earth-shaking
blow. Bruised and scraped from diving on the asphalt, Norm looked up
at Dennis with his heart in his throat, wondering whether Dennis would
actually crush him. "DON'T WORRY, DOC," Dennis said. "I'D NEVER STEP
ON YOU . . . ON PURPOSE." Seeing Norm sprawled on the ground in fear,
Dennis laughed a slightly cruel-sounding laugh, then turned and walked
away, his booming footsteps receding in the distance, punctuated from
time to time by other crashes as Dennis had his "fun."

Norm picked himself up and walked over to the remains of the
size-changer. The pain from his scrapes was starting to subside, but
he felt a hollow emptiness inside as he looked at what was left of his
years of hard work. All he could see was shattered fragments embedded
in a giant's footprint, buried in the torn and pulverized asphalt.
After a minute or two, Norm roused himself out of his stupor. The
people at the car dealership across the street! What had happened to
them? Looking across the street, he saw a few people milling about
outside the building, and he heard an ambulance's wail getting
closer. If anybody was hurt there, help was on its way. There was
nothing he could do. However, he racked his brain to think of a way
to undo this whole situation. Unfortunately, the size-changer was
gone, and although he had the designs for it in his office, it would
take months to build another. Meanwhile, two giants were roaming the
city, and Norm was responsible for them. He might not be able to
shrink them back down, but he had to try to stop them before they did
any more damage. He couldn't physically stop them, of course, but he
thought that maybe if he reasoned with them he could get them to act
responsibly until he could build a new size-changer.

Clinging to this desperate hope, he resolutely got into his truck and
started after them. Just getting out of the parking lot wasn't easy,
torn up as it was and filled with craters--footprints from Craig and
Dennis walking through it. Fortunately, Norm's pickup was a
four-wheel drive and had a high suspension, so it didn't bottom out
when driving across the rough ground. Even so, his path was blocked
twice by gigantic footprints. He was forced to drive down into the
footprint where it was shallowest, jounce across the rough terrain
inside, then gun the engine to make his way out at the shallowest part
on the other side of the footprint. After getting out of the parking
lot, he followed the giants' path, which wasn't too hard, as the
immense footprints were easy to follow--though occasionally they,
along with other debris, forced him to detour. In addition to the
footprints, crushed cars, damaged buildings, and downed power lines
testified that Craig or Dennis had been there. Norm just hoped he
could catch up to them before something even worse happened.

* * * * * * * * * *

People in Craig's path had no warning he was coming, and they were
naturally shocked and terrified when suddenly an enormous giant came
striding down the street. Craig got a kick out of watching people
scatter along the sidewalks and bolt inside the nearest building, as
though they would be safe there if he decided to go after them.
"Maybe later I'll do a little hunting," he thought, but for the time
being he was enjoying himself just watching them scurry like ants.
Occasionally he would stamp his foot near them or block their path,
just to scare them more. The buzz Craig got from his power was
electric. Already he had crushed quite a few parked cars as he walked
along. He didn't really try to step on them, but he made no effort to
avoid them, either, especially since they made a tiny, satisfying
crunch underfoot. So far he hadn't stepped on any people--that he
knew about, anyway--but he didn't step around anything in his path.
If it was in his way, he crushed it. Cars driving down the street
swerved wildly to get out of his way, some running up onto sidewalks
or colliding with other cars. Most drivers who saw Craig coming from
a distance managed to speed away on cross streets, but because each of
his strides covered about half a city block, he was usually right in
front of them before they knew what was happening.

Although the streets were fairly busy as usual, most people were
inside buildings when Craig thundered by. When his footsteps were far
off, people in a place like a caf? felt slight tremors, which were
nothing remarkable here in California. However, as he got closer,
each step produced a stronger jolt. Silverware, coffee cups, and
other loose items rattled; the next step bounced dishes, glasses, and
other loose items across the tables and counters; finally, the closest
impact threw most things off the tables, knocked pictures from walls,
and set off car alarms outside. And if his foot hit directly beside a
building, windows cracked and shattered, tables and chairs overturned,
and everything inside was thrown into disarray. Outside, the impact
turned pavement into rubble and set cars bouncing wildly.

Craig stopped to savor his giant status. He had never felt so alive,
so tingling with energy--except for the times he was shot full of
energy by the size-changer. "I don't have the machine," he thought,
"but I wonder if I can't grow some more anyway. Doc said a big part
of it was mental, and I think I've got that part down."

Concentrating, Craig focused on growing, and once again he felt
himself expanding ever larger. After a few seconds he stopped and
looked around. It worked! He couldn't tell whether he was drawing on
people's fear of him, the energy in everything around him, or his own
mental energy, but whatever it was, it worked. He now stood nine
hundred feet tall, half again as tall as he was just a few seconds
ago. The people scurrying below were a mere half inch tall to
him. "THIS IS FUCKIN' GREAT!" he boomed. Flexing his huge muscles
intimidatingly, he crowed, "I'M YOUR NEW GOD, BUGS, SO WATCH OUT!"
Noticing an abandoned car on the street in front of him, he dropped
his muscle pose and lifted his foot, positioning it so that the car
was overshadowed by his big toe. Slowly he lowered his toe, crushing
the car beneath it. He couldn't hear the tires blowing out or the
windows shattering, but he could feel the crunch the car made, and he
enjoyed it. A lot.

Nearby, another car was trying to turn around and speed away, which
wasn't as easy as it sounded. Eduardo, the driver, had to avoid
running into abandoned cars, and he definitely wanted to avoid the
open street, rather than drive directly into Craig's
path. Unfortunately for him, Craig was feeling mischievous. On the
other hand, he was lucky that Craig was only feeling mischievous. When
Craig saw the car, he nudged it off-course with his toe. Eduardo had
just gotten his car turned when he looked out his side window and saw
a garage-sized toe heading straight for him. He frantically stepped
on the gas, but before he could move, the gigantic toe slammed into
the driver's side of his car, shattering the windows and pushing it
sideways about twenty feet. Eduardo braced himself for the crushing
blow that would end his life, but instead the gargantuan foot pulled
back. It was about twenty feet away, where the giant stood, unmoving.
Although the car was damaged, Eduardo was fortunate that it hadn't
rolled over. He had also been restrained by his seat belt during the
impact and the skidding, so although he was bruised and shaken, he was
unhurt.

When the giant still didn't move, Eduardo seized his chance to escape.
Battered as it was, the car still ran, and when he gunned the engine,
it took off down the street. But before he went far, a shadow passed
overhead, and suddenly the giant's foot crashed down in front of him,
completely blocking the street, the impact causing his car to bounce.
Eduardo slammed on the brakes, but he was unable to get his car
completely stopped before it ran into the side of Craig's unmoving
foot. Relatively unhurt by the crash, Eduardo was nonetheless dazed.
As he cleared the cobwebs from his head, he heard a deep, permeating
chuckle. "WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING?" asked Craig. Suddenly
the car lurched backwards, throwing Eduardo forward, where he banged
his head on the steering wheel again. Tires squealed and skidded
along the asphalt as the building-sized foot pushed the car backwards,
until there was a jolt from the rear, and the motion stopped. Eduardo
saw that he had been pushed back about sixty feet, until his back
bumper collided with a parked car. His own car was half on the
sidewalk, half off, and it was now damaged on three sides; only the
passenger's side remained intact. The engine had died, and one quick
try told him that he wasn't going to get it started again. Trying to
escape by driving had been futile anyway, so in desperation he decided
to make a run for it. He tried to look up and see what the giant was
doing, but Craig towered so far above that Eduardo really couldn't see
anything above his ankles. Deciding this was as good a time as any,
Eduardo unbuckled his seat belt and crawled to the passenger side.
Steeling himself, he opened the door, jumped out, and ran for his life
into the nearest building.

High above, Craig watched Eduardo escape. He could have stomped the
puny man flat before he got away, and part of him wanted to, but
instead he benevolently let him go. However, knowing that Eduardo and
many other people would be watching, he knelt and picked up the
car. It sat tiny and fragile between his redwood-sized thumb and
forefinger, as he held it by the front and back bumpers. At his size
it was easy to accidentally exert too much pressure, and he scrunched
the front and back ends more simply by picking it up. The passenger
door still hung open, and Craig brushed it backwards with his finger,
snapping it off like a flower petal. Not bothering to watch as it
fell to the street below, Craig reached down to pull up a
toothpick-sized utility pole. As he grabbed the pole, his fingers
brushed aside the electrical lines as though they were finest cobweb,
where they fell hissing and sparking to the street below. Despite the
tremendous voltage in them, Craig didn't even feel a spark. He stuck
the pole through the car's open passenger-side doorway and punched the
driver's-side door open with it. He plucked this door off, too, and
let it fall to the street. Then lifting the pole, he ripped off the
roof of the car. Looking towards the doorway through which Eduardo
had escaped, Craig said, "NOW YOU'VE GOT A CONVERTIBLE." With an
amused expression, he tossed the utility pole aside, sending it to
crash through a storefront window, and closed his fingers on the
driver's and passenger's seats. He had to grip them together, because
his fingers were too big to take them one at a time. Effortlessly
pulling them out, he tossed them towards the building's doorway, so
Eduardo would see them. Next, he worked his fingernail between the
dashboard and the steering wheel. Prying slightly with his nail, he
broke the steering column and popped off the wheel, which he then
flicked away. Holding the car upside down, he grasped the rear axle by
the wheels, snapped it off, and dropped it. The front axle followed
in short order. By this time, there wasn't much left of the car.
Squeezing it between his fingers, he compressed the front and back of
the car together until it was a mere fourth of its original length.
"I GUESS I BROKE YOUR CAR," he said, "OH WELL. HOPE YOU'VE GOT GOOD INSURANCE!" Tossing the compacted remains of the car onto the
sidewalk in front of the building, Craig stood up, nonchalantly
crunching a half dozen parked cars in the process, and walked away.
As he took another stride down the street, he felt something catch at
his little toe. Stopping to look down, he saw that he had snagged a
street light, ripping it from its concrete mooring when his foot swung
past. Now it was caught between his toes like a two-inch stem of
grass. Crouching, he plucked the street light from between his toes
and twirled it between his thumb and index finger. Snorting
contemptuously, he bent it in half and tossed it aside, where it
crashed into the side of a building and fell to the sidewalk with a
clang.

While he was crouching, he took a look at the area at his feet. He
saw that while he was removing the street light, he had turned his
foot sideways, where it sat partially on the sidewalk. He hadn't
noticed it at the time, but he had negligently swept several cars onto
the sidewalk ahead of his foot, and parking meters and street signs
were bent underneath like they were made of soft butter. Most of them
were completely under his foot, but the end of one poked out feebly.
Nearby on the corner was a mail drop box, alongside several newspaper
vending machines, each smaller than his fingernail. His eyes lit up.
"TARGET PRACTICE!" he said, and started flicking the newspaper
machines. One by one, his finger hit them with the momentum of a
speeding truck, sending the battered remains flying across the street,
where they crashed into a building. After he had shattered them all
against the stucco wall of the building across the street, he turned
to the mailbox. First he placed his index finger on top of it without
pressing down. The metal box groaned under the weight of his finger,
but held up, although when his finger shifted slightly, the mailbox's
legs bent, and the bolts anchoring it in the concrete broke. Then,
with one push of his finger, Craig collapsed the mailbox like an
accordion. Smiling in satisfaction, he tapped his finger on it,
pounding it into the broken concrete. On a whim, he picked up a
nearby Honda and impaled it on the corner traffic light. He didn't do
it for any particular reason; he just did it because he could. And he
thought about how funny the owner's face would look when he saw his
car fifteen feet in the air, impaled on a traffic light. Such random
acts of destruction were pointless, but Craig didn't care. He was
just enjoying his newfound power.

Looking in the street-level windows, he could see dozens of frightened
people peering out, watching him. A mischievous smirk crossed his
face, signalling trouble for the people inside. "DON'T YOU WANT TO
COME OUT AND PLAY?" he asked. Not surprisingly, nobody came out. They
were trapped inside with no escape, since Craig loomed over the
building, and even if they left through the back entrance he would see
them. "OH, I GET IT," Craig said. "YOU WANT TO PLAY HIDE-AND-SEEK."
Closing his eyes, he said, "OK, COME OUT, COME OUT, WHEREVER YOU ARE!"

Opening his eyes again, he dug his thick fingers into the corner of
the one-story building's roof. Sliding them inside and underneath, he
broke off large sections of the roof and dropped the debris in front
of the building's side and back exits. After he had removed the
entire roof, Craig could see a couple dozen people cowering in the
dust and rubble. "FOUND YA!" he exclaimed. Reaching inside, he
chased people away from the walls and corners with one hand, and when
most of them had moved towards the middle, he scooped up a handful of
people and debris, knocking over an interior wall or two as he did so.
The feeling of a dozen tiny people--no, they weren't tiny, he reminded
himself; he was gigantic--squirming in his hand gave Craig a huge
buzz. While they squirmed, pleaded, and cowered in terror, Craig
flicked the bigger chunks of debris out of the palm of his hand.
After doing that, he held his palm up intimidatingly close to his
face, and stared unblinkingly at his captives. With the exception of
a few who continued sobbing, most were unnerved into silence. Then,
suddenly Craig took a deep breath and blew. The gale-force blast
knocked down any people who were standing, and they were all blinded
and choked by the dust as Craig blew away the remaining debris.
"NOW THAT I'VE CAUGHT YOU, WHAT SHOULD I DO WITH YOU?" Craig
asked. Although he could faintly hear their voices, he couldn't make
out what they were saying, and he didn't care. Holding a dozen people
in the palm of his hand, all of them pleading for their lives, gave
him a huge rush. In fact, he didn't even think of them as people any
more. He was immense and all-powerful, and they were tiny and
insignificant. They were his, and he could do whatever he wanted with
them. And, he slowly realized, right now he had a perverse urge to
swallow the entire handful of them--not because he was hungry, but
because the thought of ingesting all those little beings gave him a
heart-pounding rush of power. Looking down at them, his nostrils
flared with aggressive anticipation. He would swallow them and absorb
them, and their energy would make him even more powerful.
"SINCE I'M THE BIG, BAD GIANT, I GUESS I'LL EAT YOU," he said, which
drew screams and more squirming from the people in his hand. They
were powerless, though, and in the next instant, Craig lifted his hand
and opened his mouth. As they futilely tried to avoid it, Craig's
apartment-sized tongue came at them, knocking several of them down. In
the next instant, his palm tilted backwards, spilling people towards
his mouth. Four unlucky ones were scooped onto his tongue as it
thrust forward underneath them. As soon as they tumbled
unceremoniously onto its vast, wet expanse, they were drawn back into
his mouth. Before they could see much more than the monolithic teeth
all around them, Craig's cavernous mouth closed, leaving them in utter
darkness. It was oppressively hot and humid, and all they could hear
was the vast, dull roar of air rushing up and down Craig's throat as
he breathed. Some captives pleaded for mercy; others impotently
punched and kicked the monstrous tongue beneath them, but all they got
for their trouble was a coating of saliva. After a few minutes of
struggling, a deep, deafening sound echoed all around them and made
their very bones vibrate, and they were thrown back and forth as Craig
chuckled malevolently. After a few seconds he stopped, and the people
held their breath, hoping to be let go. But that wasn't to
be. Instead, saliva welled up around them, and the huge tongue lurched
and undulated beneath them, sending them screaming, sliding inexorably
towards Craig's throat. Mercifully, as they shot over the edge and
were swallowed, they were either knocked unconscious or passed out
from fright.

Several people in Craig's hand also passed out when they saw him
swallow. "AAAHH!" said Craig in an exaggerated manner. "WHO'S NEXT?"
After letting his remaining captives squirm for a minute in abject
terror, he said, "AW HELL, I THINK I'LL JUST HAVE YOU ALL AT ONCE."
Tilting his hand towards his mouth, Craig dumped the rest of the
screaming people in. They slid down his hand and bounced over his
lips and teeth to land in a tangled heap on his tongue. They were all
wearing their shoes and clothing, but he was so big that it didn't
bother him. In fact, he hardly noticed. Closing his mouth, he had
some fun moving them around with his tongue. If he felt a kick, he
pressed the offender against his teeth or the roof of his mouth,
holding them there under the crushing force of his tongue--not pushing
hard enough to kill them, but enough to pin them and squeeze the wind
out of them. He enjoyed feeling them thrash and writhe in a futile
attempt to break free. When their struggling stopped, or if he felt a
jab in another part of his mouth, he let the first one go, and turned
his attention to a new victim. Soon, though, he got tired of his
game, and with two big gulps he swallowed the lot of them.

Although what he had done was evil and appalling, Craig didn't think
of it that way. In fact, he didn't think of people as "people" any
more. He was vastly superior to them, and because they were tiny and
insignificant, he was free to do whatever he wanted with them. Even
when he was his normal size, his conscience didn't bother him very
often; but in his new gigantic form, the only thing that mattered was
what he wanted, and now there wasn't anything that could stop
him. "Compared to them, I'm a god," he thought. Consequently,
whatever he did was OK, simply because he did it. And at this size,
the world was his playground. With haughty contempt, he turned his
attention to the rest of the people cowering in the ruined building.

Dan was among the last people trapped in the building. He had watched
in awestruck horror as the giant's fingers had broken through the wall
and began peeling off sections of the roof. Like everyone else, he
had been herded away from the walls, pushed and flung into a big group
in the middle of the large room. Fortunately, he hadn't been scooped
up with the first handful of people, though he was scraped and bruised
from being knocked around. While the giant was focusing on the people
he had just captured, everybody looked frantically for an exit. Those
who went to the side and back doors found them completely blocked by
rubble. Nobody went to the front door because it was right in front
of the giant, and his foot wasn't far from the door. But since there
was no other option, Dan thought it was worth looking. When he got to
the door, he saw that the sidewalk to the left and right was blocked
by debris, meaning that the only escape route was directly under the
giant. For the time being, he decided to wait, and he hid himself in
a small alcove by the door. After the giant swallowed the first group
of people, Dan realized that there was no other escape, and that he
would have to make a run for it, hoping to make it across the street
without the giant seeing him. After the giant had gathered up a
second group of people, leaving only a few remaining in the building,
Dan made a break for it. Sliding through the door and closing it
quietly behind him, he looked up to make sure the giant wasn't
looking. Taking a deep breath, he sprinted from the doorway towards a
store across the street. He had to run alongside the giant's foot,
and as he did so, he noticed that he couldn't even have reached up as
high as the top of the giant's big toe. Before he had made it to the
heel, though, the monumental foot lurched beside him and slid forward.
Looking back over his shoulder, Dan saw that a couple other people had
followed him. The giant had noticed them escaping and slid his foot
forward to block the doorway. In the process, his foot hit the two
men and sent them sprawling. A third person attempting to escape was
crushed in the doorway as the giant's enormous toe slammed into it.
As the giant dropped a pile of rubble in front of the doorway to block
it, he noticed the two men who lay dazed by his foot. As he shifted
his stance so he could pick them up, Dan cringed. The foot he was
running alongside suddenly moved away, but the other one dropped
squarely in front of him about thirty feet away, crunching the asphalt
beneath it like eggshell. Desperately trying to run around this new
barrier, Dan heard a booming, "ANOTHER ONE, HUH?" The next thing he
knew, the giant's hand cast an ominous shadow over him, just before
two enormous fingers slammed into him and he was pinned painfully
between the giant's thumb and forefinger. The pain from his broken
ribs almost distracted Dan from the dizzying, stomach-churning feeling
he had as he rocketed upward in the giant's grasp. Nearly unconscious
and unable to breathe, Dan heard the giant say, "THERE'S ALWAYS ROOM
FOR ONE MORE," just before the huge mouth opened and the head tilted
back. Dangled over the giant's mouth for a second before the fingers
dropped him, the last thing Dan remembered was the sight of
boulder-sized teeth waiting below him as he fell towards the cavernous
throat. He was knocked unconscious as he hit the back of the giant's
throat, and he remembered no more.

* * * * * * * * * *

Meanwhile, Dennis was enjoying his new size, too. As he cut a swath
of destruction down the street, he came across a police station, where
there was a flurry of activity. "I think I'll make sure they're busy
for a while," he thought.

Inside the building, a security camera in the lobby began to shake
violently as Dennis approached, as though filming a series of
progressively stronger earthquakes. Suddenly the wall at the far side
of the lobby exploded inward, sending debris flying and people
screaming. Right behind the flying debris, something huge entered the
building. What appeared to be a gigantic foot came through the front
wall, pushing everything in the lobby ahead of it. Most of the lobby
furniture was propelled along in front of the toes and crushed against
the rear wall of the room, before that wall also gave way. A few
chairs and lamps were caught beneath the gigantic foot, becoming
flattened and scraped to fragments as it slid forward.

All this happened in a few seconds. Shortly, the enormous foot slid
back and withdrew, causing the damaged and now unsupported second
floor to collapse into the far side of the lobby. For a few seconds,
the security camera captured pictures of the ruined lobby: shards of
concrete, steel, and twisted furniture were everywhere, and a thick
blanket of dust hung in the air. But suddenly, without warning, the
camera shook crazily and showed a few, disorienting images of flying
debris--this time much closer to the lens--before the picture went
black.

After kicking out the front supports and collapsing the front of the
building, Dennis stepped over the police station and swept his foot
through the back of the building, leaving it a pile of rubble, too.
Then he turned his attention to the parking lot, where he destroyed
all the police cars, as well as any others that happened to be there,
too. With each step he completely crushed between five and eight
cars, and he damaged several others that he partially stepped on.
However, he saw to it that they didn't stay partially crushed for
long; he flattened them in turn. At last, just one car remained.
This one he pulled underneath his toes and crushed it by clenching it
in their grip. It wasn't as flattened like the rest, but it was
totaled nonetheless, so he was satisfied. Reaching down, Dennis
pulled up the two street lights from in front of the ruined station.
With a few effortless motions, he turned them into a huge metal
twist-tie. With a contemptuous smirk, he tossed them on the rubble
that had been the police station, and turned to leave.

Before he moved on, though, he saw a vehicle coming towards him,
weaving around the debris and his footprints in the road. "What the
hell's wrong with that guy?" he mused to himself. "Whatever it is,
he'll be sorry he came looking for me." As the vehicle came near,
Dennis took a step forward and stamped his foot down, blocking the
street. The vehicle squealed and skidded to a stop just before it ran
into Dennis's foot, but before it could move, Dennis crouched and
picked it up.

Norm's heart was in his throat when Dennis's foot crashed down in
front of him, blocking the street. He managed to stop his truck
without overturning it, but before he could try to get Dennis's
attention, matters were taken out of his hands. A shadow fell over
the truck, and Dennis's redwood-sized fingers closed on it, holding it
by the sides. Norm could hear the side panels crumpling under the
pressure, and the driver's and passenger's side windows shattered. In
the next instant, Norm was thrown backwards as Dennis stood up and
held the truck up to his face for a better look. As he rocketed
upward, the tremendous G-forces crushed him into his seat, nearly
causing him to pass out. The next thing he knew, he was staring
through the windshield at a gigantic eye. Although Norm couldn't see
much more than the single glaring eye, something in Dennis's
expression changed as he recognized the driver of the car. "DOC!"
Dennis thundered. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING? I WAS THIS CLOSE TO STOMPING YOU FLAT!" Although Dennis thought he was holding the truck steady, every slight motion of his moved the truck several feet,
tossing Norm back and forth in his seat. Luckily, he was restrained
by his seat belt.

"Dennis, I need to talk to you," said Norm, but Dennis couldn't hear
him. Fortunately, though, he could see that Norm was trying to talk
to him. "HANG ON A SECOND, DOC," he said. Placing the truck flat in
his left palm, Dennis said, "OK DOC, GO AHEAD AND GET OUT NOW."
Sitting on the vast plain of Dennis's palm, Norm felt it was safe to
get out. He unbuckled his seat belt and tried the door, but it was
jammed shut, having been damaged when Dennis picked up the truck.
Dennis watched for a few seconds and saw that Norm couldn't get the
door open. "LET ME GET THAT FOR YOU, DOC," he said, and picked up the
truck by the front and rear before Norm could rebuckle his seat belt.
With his other hand, he pried at the driver's side door with his
fingernail. Dennis had short, stubby fingernails, but at his current
size they were hard as iron, and long and thick enough to pry the door
open. It was all Norm could do to brace himself inside the truck to
avoid being thrown into the steering wheel or the windshield as
Dennis's tree-sized index finger thudded against the driver's-side
door. Norm could hear the metal buckling as Dennis wedged his
fingernail between the door and the frame and began to pry. With a
ringing crack, the latch broke and the door swung open. Dennis
negligently brushed the door back with his finger, snapping it off its
hinges and sending it plummeting to the street below.

Gently placing the truck back in his palm again, he said, "OK, DOC,
NOW YOU CAN GET OUT." Carefully and shakily, Norm crept out of the
truck to stand on Dennis's palm. When he was out, Dennis flicked the
truck with a huge index finger, sending it tumbling over the edge of
his palm. After it disappeared over the edge, it seemed an eternity
to Norm before he heard the faint crash of the truck on the street far
below. "What did you do that for?" Norm demanded. "OH COME ON, DOC.
IT WAS NEARLY TOTALED ANYWAY," said Dennis. "BESIDES, I CAN GRAB YOU A BRAND NEW ONE, AND IT WON'T COST YOU A THING. WHAT ARE YOU FOLLOWING ME FOR, ANYWAY?"

"You and Craig have to let me get you back to normal," said Norm.
"You can't stay this size. It's dangerous, and it's my fault, so I've
got to fix it."

With a bemused, mischievous look, Dennis said, "DANGEROUS, HUH? I'M
NOT IN ANY DANGER, DOC. AND I'LL MAKE SURE NOTHING HAPPENS TO
YOU--ESPECIALLY SINCE YOU'RE THE ONLY GUY WHO COULD POSSIBLY SHRINK US BACK DOWN."

Seeing Norm's fearful expression, Dennis said, "OH, DON'T WORRY, DOC.
I'M JUST GOING TO MAKE SURE YOU CAN'T GO OFF AND DO ANYTHING STUPID."

Scanning the immediate area, Dennis saw what he was looking for: A
store that sold rock-climbing gear. Squatting next to it, he peeled
back the roof to expose the interior and frightened people
inside. "YOU!" he said, pointing an enormous finger at a worker who
was coughing and wiping dust from his eyes. "I NEED A HARNESS AND
CABLE, SOMETHING THAT CAN SUSPEND ONE OF YOU LITTLE PEOPLE FROM MY NECK CHAIN." For emphasis, he fingered his gold neck chain, which was
thicker than the biggest logging chain. "MAKE SURE IT'S THE BEST
STUFF YOU'VE GOT," he said, "IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG, YOU'LL REGRET IT!"

Shaking in terror, the salesperson complied. Lowering his hand,
Dennis said, "PUT IT IN MY PALM, THEN GET IN." The man tossed the
equipment into Dennis's palm, but hung back. "I SAID GET IN!" Dennis
repeated. "IF I HAVE TO PICK YOU UP, IT'S GOING TO HURT . . . A LOT."
At that, the man climbed up on a chair and scrambled into Dennis's
palm, where he found himself beside Norm.

"PUT THE HARNESS ON HIM," Dennis ordered, gesturing towards Norm.
Once that was accomplished, Dennis told the man, "NOW ATTACH IT TO MY
NECK CHAIN," and held his palm up to his neck, so that the massive
chain lay across his palm, within reach. Obediently, the man hooked
Norm in his harness onto Dennis's chain. When he indicated that he
was done, Dennis asked, "ARE YOU SURE IT'S SECURE?" The man said it
was, and Dennis lowered him back down and dumped him unceremoniously
onto the roof of a building.

Meanwhile, Norm was suspended in the harness, hanging slightly below
Dennis's clavicle. Although he wasn't bothered by heights, his
current situation had his heart pounding. It didn't help that he
swung freely when Dennis moved. Sometimes he swung back and forth,
and other times he swung out away from Dennis's body as the giant
bodybuilder leaned forward, only to swing back and thud against the
rock-hard chest, which was like slamming into a cliff wall and
occasionally knocked the wind out of him. However, Norm eventually
started to get relatively used to his situation, and managed to break
the impact of crashing into Dennis's chest. That notwithstanding, he
was no closer to getting Dennis back to normal size than he was when
he started.

As Dennis continued walking along, Norm saw that they were approaching
Craig. However, as they got closer, it was apparent that something
had happened to him. He was 900 feet tall, half again as tall as
Dennis. Dennis was gigantic, but Craig towered over him like a
nine-foot-tall person would loom over a normal six-footer.
As Dennis approached, Craig smirked down at him. "STILL A RUNT, HUH?"
he said.

Mouth agape, Dennis said, "SHIT MAN, WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO YOU?"

"I TOLD YOU, I FELT LIKE I HAD A LOT MORE IN ME," said Craig, "AND I
DID. I DIDN'T NEED DOC'S MACHINE TO HELP ME GROW, EITHER."

"YOU JUST DID THIS ON YOUR OWN?" asked Dennis.

"YOU GOT IT," Craig said. "NOW I'VE GOT POWER I USED TO ONLY DREAM
ABOUT." Saying that, he struck a double-biceps pose to show off.
Then, dropping his pose, he looked down and contemptuously crushed a
car beneath his building-sized foot.

"WHADDAYA THINK, DOC?" said Dennis rhetorically to Norm, who dangled
out of his view, beneath his chin. "IF HE CAN DO IT, I CAN, TOO."
Before Norm could say anything, Dennis had begun to concentrate. Soon,
Norm could feel Dennis growing. With alarm, Norm saw that Dennis's
neck chain was growing, too. Terrified that the expanding chain would
snap the harness--which wasn't expanding--Norm pounded on Dennis's
chest, trying to get his attention, but to no avail; Dennis was lost
in concentration and wasn't noticing anything. Fortunately, though,
Norm saw that the way the harness had been rigged, it wasn't about to
snap. Dennis would have to grow a lot more before the harness either
snapped or strangled Norm. Eventually Norm noticed that Dennis had
stopped growing, and that he stood the same height as Craig. "YOU'RE
RIGHT," Dennis thundered to Craig. "THIS IS FUCKIN' AWESOME!"
Crouching, Dennis picked up two cars from the street below. The two
sat in his hand while he marveled at how tiny they were--how huge he
was--and decided what to do with them. Then, with a devilish smile,
he popped them into his mouth.

Julie's car had stalled, and she was frantically trying to get it
started when it was suddenly engulfed in shadow. In the next instant,
unimaginably huge fingers closed on her car. Metal crumpled and
groaned, and she felt the earth drop rapidly beneath her, pinning her
to her seat and making her nearly black out. The next thing she knew,
she was thrown roughly forward, saved only by her seatbelt as her car
dropped onto some huge surface, which she soon realized was the
giant's palm. Panicking, the only thought on her mind was escape,
even though she was held hundreds of feet above the ground. Before
she could do anything, the vast plain moved beneath her, carrying her
backwards, and sending her car tumbling into a dark, gaping
chasm. Bruised and disoriented, she turned on her headlights, which
revealed that she was inside a huge, wet cavern. When she saw the
rows of boulder-sized teeth, she realized that she was in the giant's
mouth. The other car, which was empty, sat not too far away on the
vast, glistening tongue. Screaming in uncontrollable terror, she was
thrown around again as the tongue undulated, rolling both cars towards
the enormous molars. Battered but still conscious, Julie saw the
other car thrust onto the molars, where it sat for an instant before
it was crushed as the giant chomped down on it.

Thinking it would be a real rush to eat an entire car, Dennis popped
the two cars into his mouth like peanuts. However, he hadn't thought
about what would happen if he chewed one up. When he crunched down on
the car, he was treated to the taste of gasoline, oil, and other vile
engine fluids. With a grimace, he spat the cars out of his mouth,
sending them flying through the air to crash into the street several
blocks away. Still spitting to clear the oil, gasoline, and broken
glass out of his mouth, he grabbed a produce truck and cracked it
open. Inside was a load of watermelons, which amounted to only a tiny
mouthful for him, but he ate them rind and all, just to get rid of the
awful taste. The next time he ate a car, he'd be sure to swallow it
whole!

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" asked Craig.

"I THOUGHT I'D EAT A CAR," said Dennis, "BUT IT TASTED TERRIBLE. I
GUESS THE TRICK IS TO SWALLOW THEM LIKE OYSTERS, AND DON'T CHEW 'EM!"

"FORGET CARS," said Craig. "IF YOU WANT A REAL RUSH, EAT SOME OF
THEM," he said, gesturing towards some people who were frantically
fleeing the area.

"THOSE ARE PEOPLE, MAN, LIKE DOC, HERE!" exclaimed Dennis, gesturing
towards Norm. "YOU CAN'T JUST EAT THEM. THAT'S SICK!" As he said
that, though, it dawned on him that he actually wanted to try it. For
some reason, the thought of having that much power over people aroused
a predatory instinct deep inside him.

Looking straight at Norm, Craig said, "MAYBE DOC IS OK--AS A SLAVE OR
A PET, THAT IS." Dismissing Norm and looking at Dennis, he continued,
"BUT THE REST OF THEM ARE JUST BUGS TO US. THEY'RE LUCKY THEY DON'T GET STEPPED ON. AND IF THEY DO, BIG DEAL. WE'RE GODS TO THEM, AND WE CAN DO WHATEVER THE HELL WE WANT!" To emphasize his point, Craig bent down and picked up a fleeing man. Straightening up again, he held the tiny man before his face and said, "YOUR NUMBER'S UP!" Ignoring the man's desperate pleas for mercy, Craig opened his mouth and placed him on his tongue. He held the pleading man there for a few seconds
before suddenly snapping his mouth shut, tossing his head back, and
swallowing him. "AAAAHH!" said Craig. "GIVE IT A TRY. IT'S A TOTAL
RUSH, DOWNING SOME PUNY LITTLE RUNT LIKE A PROTEIN SHAKE. I CAN ALMOST FEEL MY BODY ABSORBING HIS ENERGY."

Norm was sickened, appalled, and terrified. Dennis, however, was
succumbing to the allure of his new godlike status. His power-lust
was piqued, and the predator in him was emerging. "SOUNDS GOOD TO
ME," he said to Craig. Pointing towards a nearby amusement park, he
said, "LET'S GO HAVE A LITTLE FUN ON THE MIDWAY. I FEEL LIKE A
SNACK!" With that, the two thundered towards the amusement park,
casually crushing everything in their path.

* * * * * * * * * *
Brian had just bungee-jumped off the platform when Craig and Dennis
came into view. Everyone around him began to flee, and he was left
hanging helplessly upside down. His bouncing had stopped, but he felt
a new vibration shaking the platform and causing him to sway in the
air. As he hung upside down, he could see a massively-built blond
giant coming closer, each thunderous footstep shaking the bungee
platform more and more. The next thing Brian knew, the giant was
standing right beside him. An enormous foot covered the ground
beneath him, and he was staring directly at the giant's ankle. The
giant crouched, and a titanic hand reached out towards the bungee
platform. Brian was bounced up and down a bit as enormous fingers
closed on the bungee rope. Suddenly, Brian shot upwards and found
himself dangling hundreds of feet in the air in front of the giant's
face. With an amused expression, the giant began to bounce him up and
down like a yo-yo. Yelling in terror, he plummeted downward until he
thought the rope would snap. It held, though, and sent him flying
back up into the sky. Next the giant spun him in circles, and when he
had picked up enough momentum, began winding the bungee rope around
his tree-sized finger. As it wound shorter and shorter the G-forces
were nearly unbearable. Just as Brian thought he was going to pass
out, the last of the rope was used up, and he smashed against the
giant's finger, knocking the wind out of him and bruising his ribs.
Battered, dizzy, and nauseated, Brian hoped the giant was finished
using him as a toy. As he was thinking that, the rope began
unwinding, and he once again found himself dangling in front of the
giant's face. He begged for mercy, but the giant just smirked.
Instead, the giant tilted his head back and opened his mouth, and he
was swung forward to hang over the gaping chasm. As he pleaded
frantically, he was dropped onto the apartment-sized tongue. The
mouth closed behind him, leaving him in darkness. Whimpering in fear,
he tried to stand up, but he wasn't able to get a firm footing on the
slimy, uneven tongue. When he couldn't stand, he decided to sit still
in order to avoid going anywhere near the throat. As he sat in the
oppressively hot, humid darkness, he felt himself being slowly covered
in saliva. It was disgusting, but there was nothing he could do,
other than try to avoid directly touching the hot, wet tongue beneath
him. It was bad enough that he was sitting on a giant's tongue, but
the thought of touching it totally grossed him out.

It was relatively quiet, except for the dull roar of the giant's
breathing in the back of his throat. Suddenly, though, everything
lurched around him, and without warning, the bungee rope that was
still attached to Brian's ankle pulled tight. Scrabbling for a
handhold, he was dragged towards the clenched lips. As the strain on
the rope increased, he was pulled painfully hard against them. Just as
he thought his ankle was about to break, the giant opened his mouth,
and he went shooting out, up into the air. Screaming, Brian felt his
ascent slow, and then he began falling. When he stopped bouncing at
the end of his rope, he found himself dangling in front of the giant's
face again. He was only there a few seconds before being dropped once
more into the cavernous mouth. After the giant repeated his game
several times, a thoroughly battered, exhausted, saliva-soaked Brian
wondered when this was going to end. He found out all too soon.
The fifth time he was dropped into the giant's mouth, Brian felt the
giant take the bungee rope between his teeth and snap it off. He
still had a short length of rope attached to his ankle, and there was
no way for him to escape, but at least he knew he wasn't going to be
bounced like a yo-yo anymore. However, some uneasy thoughts dawned on
him. "I wonder what he's going to do with me now," he worried. As if
in response to his thoughts, the tongue underneath him suddenly thrust
upward, knocking him off balance and pressing him painfully against
the roof of the giant's mouth. A deafening, hungry "MMMMMMM!" rumbled
around him and rattled his bones. He was held for what seemed an
eternity, unable to get his breath. Just before he passed out, the
pressure vanished, and he was no longer being crushed by the giant
tongue. However, he hadn't even caught his breath when he felt saliva
pooling around him. The giant was going to swallow him! Brian
struggled to get as far away from the throat as he could, but the
tongue deftly moved him back and propelled him towards the
opening. The last thing he remembered was being flung by the huge
tongue, shooting over the edge, and hearing a resounding "GULP!"

* * * * * * * * * *

While Craig was busy with the bungee platform, Dennis surveyed the
rest of the scene. Close by, he saw a carney run away from the
tilt-a-whirl he was operating, leaving ride running and abandoning the
screaming passengers to their fate. He didn't get far, though. With
a sneer of contempt for such cowardice, Dennis stomped him flat. The
carney disappeared like a bug under the sole that could have crushed a
dozen cars, let alone one insignificant man. Not giving him another
thought, Dennis turned his attention to the tilt-a-whirl. With one
sweep of his foot, he cleared away a cotton-candy stand, the beanbag
toss, and the bumper cars. Then, squatting beside the tilt-a-whirl,
he dug his fingers underneath it and clamped down with his thumbs on
top. Instantly the ride stopped, causing the cars to spin crazily out
of control. The gears and motors groaned and shrieked in protest
before breaking under the strain. Effortlessly Dennis lifted the ride
and held it like a plate in his left hand, his thumb dwarfing the cars
that it sat between. People were trying to get out, but the crazily
tilting surface forced them to stay in their cars--as though there was
anywhere they could have gone if they got out. "TIME FOR A SNACK!"
said Dennis, drawing more screams from the people he held. With his
right hand he took a car between his thumb and first two fingers.
Tiny by comparison, the car easily snapped off. Holding it up to his
face, Dennis looked at the terrified occupants and said, "DOWN THE
HATCH!" Tilting his head back and opening his mouth, he shook the car
upside down until the people fell out. When they were all out, he
closed his mouth, crushed the tilt-a-whirl car, and flung it aside.

Just like Craig said, the power was awesome. He felt his blood surge
as he toyed with the helpless people and then swallowed them. They
were hardly a mouthful, though; there were only two people in the car,
and they were so small that his thumb was thicker than any of the
people were tall. Looking down at the ride he still held in his hand,
he said, "WHO'S NEXT?" Amid screams, he plucked off another car and
downed its occupants, too. When he finished with all the cars, he
flung the remains of the tilt-a-whirl like a frisbee, sending them
crashing into a ferris wheel.

* * * * * * * * * *

At this point, both Craig and Dennis heard an unfamiliar sound, one
that was getting louder. Looking around, Dennis saw the source:
Helicopters. "CHOPPERS," he said. "MILITARY ONES."

"OH YEAH?" said Craig with a feral gleam in his eye. "WHO DO THEY
THINK THEY'RE MESSING WITH? BRING IT ON!"

"YEAH, BUT WHAT IF THEY'VE GOT MISSILES AND SHIT?" countered Dennis.

"SURE, WE CAN WIPE OUT THE CHOPPERS, BUT THERE'LL BE MORE ON THE WAY, AND THEY'LL PROBABLY HAVE BIGGER WEAPONS."

"THEN LET'S MAKE SURE THEY CAN'T TOUCH US," said Craig. "IF WE'RE BIG
ENOUGH, IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT THEY FIRE AT US." And with that, he
concentrated and started growing. Dennis quickly followed suit. As
the two grew to incomprehensible proportions, Dennis unwittingly
snapped Norm's harness in the process, sending him falling to his
death. When he stopped growing and realized what had happened, Dennis
felt a pang of regret, but like Craig, he had stopped thinking of
people as "people"; they were inconsequential to him now, and Doc
wasn't any different than the rest of them.

The two of them each stood about a mile tall now, towering like
mountain peaks above the city. The amusement park lay in ruins at
their feet. Or, more accurately, most of the park was now under their
feet, having been crushed underneath as they grew. "I THINK THOSE
CHOPPERS ARE IN FOR A BIG SURPRISE NOW," said Craig.

By now, military helicopters were buzzing around them. The pilots
were confused as the giants grew to even more mammoth proportions. One
minute the pilots were closing in on the giants' heads, only to find
themselves hovering at knee-level the next. It seemed futile, but
with resigned desperation the pilots kept to their mission. Heading
upwards, they flew past the titanic, chiseled, godlike physiques until
they neared eye-level, where they could fire their missiles.

To Dennis and Craig, the helicopters were about the size of flies, and
were hardly any more dangerous. The lead helicopter fired a missile
at Dennis, who felt nothing at its impact. However, one swat from him
in response shattered the copter, sending the fragments hurtling to
the ground far below. Meanwhile, another one fired a missile at Craig
and struck him on the cheek. It didn't hurt him either, but he felt a
tiny sting. His blood rising, his nostrils flared like a bull as he
glared at the helicopter. Before it could fly out of range, he opened
his mouth and leaned forward slightly. The helicopter suddenly found
itself flying inside Craig's mouth. Before the pilot could make his
way out, Craig closed his mouth, trapping the helicopter inside. With
one flick of his tongue, he smashed the copter against the roof of his
mouth, destroying it. He felt a pinprick from the rotors, but that
only lasted a fraction of a second. Then, with one swallow he
disposed of the helicopter and its crew. Turning a fearsome look on
the rest of the helicopters, he thundered, "THAT'S PRETTY TASTY,
BOYS. WHO'S NEXT?"

Before Craig could go after any more helicopters, Dennis said, "I'VE
GOT AN IDEA. WHY NOT PUT THE MILITARY TO WORK FOR US? WE'D HAVE A WHOLE ARMY OF SERVANTS!"

"AN ARMY OF BUGS, YOU MEAN," said Craig.

"SURE, THEY CAN'T DO MUCH, BUT THEY COULD HELP US GET FOOD AND STUFF," said Dennis. "BESIDES, PLAYING WITH ARMY MEN AS A KID WAS FUN. NOW WE'VE GOT THE REAL THING! HERE'S WHAT WE SHOULD DO . . ."

* * * * * * * * * *

Minutes later, Dennis and Craig had split up and were each on their
way to a military base on the outskirts of the city. Covering about a
third of a mile with each stride, they thundered their way across the
hapless city in a matter of minutes, quickly outdistancing any
ground-based pursuit.

At ground level, their passage was truly fearsome. As residents felt
the thunderous earthquakes Dennis or Craig caused with each step, they
ran outside and saw a huge, mountainous entity looming over the city.
Houses for several blocks around were damaged by the impact of each
footstep, with those closest being shaken off their foundations or
completely leveled by the shock. But the most unlucky residents were
those caught directly beneath a descending foot;
one-and-three-quarters blocks long and over half a block wide, there
was no escape. Each step created an enormously huge, deep crater, the
mountainous weight crushing everything into utter oblivion.
One neighborhood in Craig's path watched as the titan approached, each
step closer breaking more windows and shaking more leaves from the
trees. Dogs barked in terror and people ran frantically, trying to
get away, though of course there was no way they could escape; all
they could do was pray that they weren't in Craig's path. Soon, his
foot crashed down just blocks away, setting off car alarms, shattering
every window in the neighborhood, and causing some houses to slide off
their foundations. A deep shadow covered the neighborhood as Craig
loomed overhead, not paying any attention to the vast destruction
below. As he continued walking, his other foot swung forward, passing
directly over the neighborhood like the Death Star. An even deeper
shadow momentarily covered the neighborhood, and then it was gone,
leaving a swirling, gusting wind in its wake, like hundreds of
semi-trailers passing overhead en masse.

But this neighborhood was lucky. Not so far away, in a rougher
neighborhood, a couple of rival gangs were having a shoot-out. They
noticed the quakes, but were preoccupied with shooting at each other
and didn't wonder about the cause--that is, until a huge shadow
blotted out the sun overhead. Looking up, they first saw Craig,
followed shortly by Craig's foot, which paused directly over them.
Time seemed to stand still, and they could see that in a few places,
debris from crushed houses or large, shattered tree limbs were
sticking into the incredibly thick sole of his foot. Incredible as
this was, these were tiny splinters to Craig; they went unnoticed by
him--as did the city block beneath his foot. The sounds of gunshots
were replaced by screams of terror, and in the next instant Craig's
foot began to descend.

* * * * * * * * * *

Similar scenes accompanied Dennis's trek to his military base. One of
his footsteps fell directly across a busy multi-lane interstate
highway, a major traffic artery to and from the city. Hundreds of
vehicles from each direction were unable to stop in time and crashed
into his foot. Behind them, hundreds more piled up in a chain
collision. Dennis, however, was oblivious to all this. Thinking only
of getting to the base, he wasn't looking down, and he didn't even
notice the gnat- and fly-sized vehicles crashing into his foot. With
his next step, his titanic foot rocked ponderously forward, then
lifted, sending many vehicles that had crashed into it tumbling into
the chasm-sized footprint. As his foot whooshed away from the site of
the cataclysm, strong wind gusts whipped behind it in its wake. With
his foot gone, parts of the unstable footprint walls collapsed,
sending precariously-perched vehicles tumbling over the edge, to pile
up at the bottom of the chasm.

When Dennis arrived at the base, the military continued to attack him.
Insect-like fighter jets buzzed around him, and on the ground, tiny
tanks appeared to be firing at him--at least, he assumed they were
tanks, though they were so small that he couldn't see what they were
unless he stooped to look, and he didn't care enough to bother.
Neither the tanks, guns, or jets had any effect. It was laughable how
even when there was a particularly large explosion--at least to the
people scurrying on the ground--the most he ever felt was a tiny,
momentary sting. Stopping to look contemptuously down at the frantic
activity around him, Dennis was fully aware of how unstoppable he was.
Out of the swarm of aircraft, two jets and a helicopter ventured too
close. With a negligent swipe of his hand, Dennis swatted the
mosquito-like jets as they buzzed past the left side of his head. The
planes shattered on impact, not even giving the pilots time to eject.
The last thing they saw was a hand as wide as a football field
suddenly appear out of nowhere, heading straight for them, just before
everything went black. But Dennis wasn't paying much attention to
them; they were just a peripheral annoyance. He was focusing on the
helicopter directly in front of him.

Inside the helicopter, the crew was preparing to launch a rocket at
the giant's face, attempting to blind him. They had to get quite
close to have a chance of hitting accurately, and such proximity put
them in extreme danger. They knew they were likely to die, but they
had to try anyway. At this distance, one of the crew hastily
estimated that the giant's face must be somewhere in the neighborhood
of forty to sixty stories high. And when the huge gaze turned to
focus directly on them, even the pilot, a steeled veteran, nearly wet
himself. Bracing themselves for the deadly impact of the giant's hand
swatting their helicopter, the crew continued to close in. But the
giant hadn't raised a hand since brushing aside the fighters, which
kindled a faint hope in the crew that they could get close enough to
fire a telling shot. However, just then the giant's expression
changed to a slight, unnerving smile, shaking their confidence.

Suddenly, as they were nearly in range, the giant calmly drew a huge
breath. Before the helicopter could adjust its course, he leaned
forward and blew a tremendous blast of air directly at them. The
hurricane-force wind slammed into the tiny helicopter, buffeting it
wildly and causing the pilot to lose control. He tried frantically to
pull it out of its dive, but both the rotor and the stabilizer had
been damaged by the gargantuan blast. Careening wildly, the doomed
helicopter rapidly lost altitude, finally crashing to the ground and
exploding at the giant's feet.

Towering like a mountain above the base, Dennis held up his
hugely-muscled arms, palms outward, in a "stand back" pose. "BACK
OFF," he thundered, "OR I START DESTROYING BULIDINGS." When the tiny
planes continued to buzz around him, he gave them a demonstration of
his power. On the ground, soldiers saw him take another step forward,
crushing dozens of troops and vehicles as they either rushed to their
posts or frantically tried to escape. But as fearful as such
effortless destruction was, Dennis wasn't even paying attention to
them. His other foot swung forward to hover over an airplane hanger,
which was a hive of activity. The huge hangar held many planes, but
Dennis's foot dwarfed it. The soldiers watched in disbelief as Dennis
stamped down on it. Steel screamed and buckled, followed by a colossal
boom and shock wave as the building was instantly pancaked under his
foot. Aghast, the soldiers could see no trace of the former hangar.
Dennis's foot rested flat on the ground, showing no indication of the
crushed building beneath it. All that was visible were some steel
panels and other debris, scattered around the periphery of Dennis's
foot, where they had been blown by the impact.

"I CAN KEEP THIS UP LONGER THAN YOU CAN," Dennis warned. "EITHER
SURRENDER OR I'LL DESTROY YOU ALL." It was pointless to resist, but
the soldiers were trained not to surrender. Another wave of fighters
strafed him, and several lines of tanks advanced, unnoticed, at his
feet. Seeing the planes approaching again, he smiled grimly and said,
"SO YOU WANT TO DO THIS THE HARD WAY, HUH?" Ignoring the planes,
Dennis took another stride forward, randomly crushing more tanks,
jeeps, and solders on the ground below, and raised his foot over the
next closest building, which appeared to be a huge barracks complex.
With one stomp, the barracks disappeared beneath his foot, flattened
and driven into the ground by his powerful leg muscles. Looking
around, Dennis grinned intimidatingly, "I'M JUST GETTING STARTED. YOU
GUYS LET ME KNOW WHEN YOU'VE HAD ENOUGH!"

The scenario was repeated twice more, with another barracks and part
of the motor pool being obliterated by the colossal bodybuilder.
Finally, after these completely ineffective and disastrous sorties,
the commanders seemed to realize the futility of the situation and
withheld further attacks. Dennis saw that they had ceased
attacking--the planes were retreating, and the tiny tanks were pulling
back from the area around his feet--and so he withheld further
destruction of his own. In the sudden calm, he noticed one tiny
vehicle slowly advancing by itself. Crouching, he saw that it
appeared to be an official vehicle, carrying a tiny white flag.

The general inside the jeep was shocked at the ease with which Dennis
had decimated the base, and by the sheer power and indestructibility
the gargantuan bodybuilder possessed. Knowing that the outcome was
inevitible, he ordered the attack broken off, and in his official jeep
drove forward to discuss terms--not that there would be much to
discuss; he would have to accept whatever Dennis decreed. The huge
form above them crouched as they came closer, but the giant made no
threatening gesture. He peered at them closely, but otherwise waited
for them to make the first move. Finally, when the jeep was suitably
close, the general ordered the driver to stop. Looking up at the
heavily-muscled mountain crouching above him, the general offered
surrender. Although he was far too small for Dennis to hear him, he
managed to convey his message by his actions--and with the aid of a
loudspeaker.

A similar situation played out at Craig's base. Soon the two giants
had reached an agreement with the tiny people, and the local leaders
had contacted the national government as well. Initially, they hoped
to be rescued by additional forces, but when Craig and Dennis
demonstrated that they could easily match any opposition, operations
to retake the city were put on hold. For the time being anyway, a
weird d?tente held, with Dennis and Craig effectively ruling a
city-state of their own. How long this would last was anybody's
guess, but nobody wanted to suffer Craig and Dennis's wrath by
provoking another conflict just yet . . .

* * * * * * * * * *

A few weeks later, Dennis went walking into the city from his military
base. By now, the soldiers held Dennis and Craig in utter awe and
were fanatically loyal to them, obeying their every command without
question.

In addition to their military bases, Craig and Dennis had each taken a
few mansions around the city for their own. If they saw one they
liked, they just told their soldiers to go and take it for them. They
could easily take it themselves, and it was occasionally fun to shrink
down to a mere one or two hundred feet tall and forcefully evict the
owners, but they usually ended up trampling the grounds, breaking
windows, and damaging walls and roofs. In effect, the houses were
usually destroyed in the process, so if they really wanted a mansion
for themselves, they sent their soldiers to take it instead.

As a diversion, sometimes the two liked to shrink down to about ten
feet tall and go bar-hopping. Even at a mere ten feet tall they were
freakishly strong, and the two hulking bodybuilders would overturn
cars, break down doors, shatter furniture, bend railings, and
generally act like a couple of drunken college guys, itching for a
fight. However, any tough guys who tried to challenge them soon found
they were making a big mistake. No matter what their size, bullets and
knives wouldn't give them more than a nick or scratch. For some
reason, their bodies repelled physical attacks, and on the rare
occasions that they were injured, their wounds healed at superhuman
speed--possibly a side-effect of their being able to alter their size
at will. Even if a group of people tried to attack them when they
were "slumming," they could each easily take care of themselves. As
evidence, once or twice Dennis or Craig had gotten really pissed off
in a bar fight, grew to gigantic proportions, and snuffed out the
offenders with one swat--damaging or destroying the bar in the
process, too. Knowing this, people didn't dare mess with them,
regardless of how they acted or how much they tried to provoke a
fight. However, once in a while there was somebody drunk or stupid
enough to challenge them. When that happened, people cleared the area
in a hurry.

Aside from the occasional bar fight, several people in the city's
underground resistance movement had tried and failed to kill Craig and
Dennis. Each had met a very gruesome, very public death. Now no one
so much as whispered a bad word about them, for fear of retribution.
Assassination plots were unthinkable, since their loyal armies had
eyes and ears everywhere looking for hints of rebellion. And if that
wasn't enough, not only were Craig and Dennis virtually immune from
physical attacks, poison didn't harm them either, as a couple of
would-be assassins found out the hard way. Just why they were immune,
nobody knew, but it was probably because of their altered physical
makeups. Whatever the reason, the two were invincible, and they
reveled in it. And in fact, as they gained an increasing ability to
manipulate their anatomy and physiology, they noticed that they seemed
to have stopped aging, too. If so, then not only were they
invincible, they would soon be immortal as well.

Though both he and Craig could alter their size at will, at this
moment Dennis was 600 feet tall, one of his favorite sizes. As he
walked along, he overtook a jeep full of soldiers. Seeing their
Overlord coming, they quickly pulled to the side, where they saluted
and stood at attention until he passed. For his part, Dennis didn't
even acknowledge their presence, though if they hadn't stopped and
saluted, he would have crushed them without a second thought. But his
soldiers were fanatically loyal, always saluted, and always obeyed
unquestioningly, as did Craig's. It was a good thing for them,
because there was no second chance; your first screw-up was your last.

Though Dennis didn't really care one way or another, he generally
tried to avoid stepping on his own army's vehicles--though he had once
or twice crushed jeeps full of his own soldiers, either because they
didn't obey orders fast enough, or because they stupidly were right in
his way. Despite this, his own vehicles were generally safe. Any
others, though, traveled at their own peril when he was
around. Usually, though, military transport trucks or patrol jeeps
were about the only vehicles seen on the formerly busy roads, partly
because they were about the only vehicles that could get around. In
large sections of the city, cars could still maneuver on side streets,
but most major streets were full of gigantic footprints left by Craig
and Dennis, rendering them impassible to anything but all-terrain
vehicles. Dennis and Craig found this amusing, reinforcing their
sense of godlike superiority, and it gave the people a daily reminder
of how insignificant they were to their Overlords.

With spring in the air, Dennis's blood was racing, and he felt like
having some fun, so he was heading into the city to find a few
beautiful women. He could have sent his troops to do this for him,
but it was more fun to play the marauding giant himself. Even though
there was no shortage of women who would have willingly come at his
command, pursuing them was much more fun. Once he had caught a few,
he would carry his captives back to one of his mansions and shrink
down to "normal" size for a bacchanal. For such occasions he still
preferred to be big, usually somewhere around seven or eight feet
tall. Any larger, and there were certain unique pleasures he couldn't
enjoy.

Similarly, Craig enjoyed striding through the city as his fearsome
self, an immense, haughty Zeus selecting women for his pleasure. Of
course he enjoyed having sex, but even more he loved the thought of
creating his own legion of miniature Craigs. Many women were already
pregnant with his offspring, although Craig didn't care whether he
ever saw them again, or even whether he ever saw his progeny.
Naturally he wanted to see what some of them looked like, but even
though they were genetically superior to other people and would
proudly trace their lineage back to him, to Craig they were merely
tiny, insignificant humans: Slightly interesting, but hardly even
worthy of being called his descendants. Still, the thought of
spreading his genetic material far and wide, creating an army of tiny
replicas of himself, made him feel powerfully immortal. Maybe he
would reward some of them by making them favored servants or part of
his elite army corps.

Meanwhile, as terrified people scattered before him, Dennis wondered
whether it wasn't time for him and Craig to subdue another city . . .

the end

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Sorry for the funky formatting, folks, but that's how it pasted. You've got the text now at least.

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Inspiring..