Big Trouble in Little Dock
Commissioned by nobody! A HarmonyMotion original production
Big Trouble in Little Dock
Written by HarmonyMotion with Au Goose
Edited by Au Goose
Shard-Strike Universe created by Au Goose
Chapter 1
“Look at this mess!” Titaness groused, knee deep in rubble. And she was currently twenty feet tall.
“Stop complaining and get to work. I can’t clean up if you’re just going to complain the whole time.”
“Ugh! I’m Titaness, not ‘Crane Girl’.”
Titaness kicked a particularly large piece of rubble into the air with her bare feet. She was dressed in her more casual wear: a black sports bra and painted-on lycra-looking shorts. It complimented her voluptuous figure well, but that was merely a side effect. It was also a bit of misdirection. People assumed she had to wear expensive fabrics that could expand to over 100 times their size and not tear into little pieces if she wanted to keep her modesty. The truth was far stranger, and gave her an edge she hadn’t had to use. Yet.
Raceway waited impatiently below as Titaness’s shadow loomed ever larger, her foot blurring as she tapped it on the concrete rubble.
“Ahhhh…” Titaness groaned as she stretched her limbs at their maximum height.
“Careful!” Raceway blurred away.
“Oops, sorry. Feels good to go full size once in a while, you know?” Titaness extended her arms above her head and twisted her torso. Her thirty-foot tall calves also swelled with muscle as she curled her foot, resting on its heel and exercising that elegant swell of power also. Her soft sigh of excitement echoed through the financial district.
“Come on, come on, let’s get to work,” Raceway urged impatiently.
“Okay. Sheesh, I forget how old you are sometimes. You look as young as me!”
Raceway rolled her eyes. But it was true. At 39, she didn’t look a day over 20. Mature enough not to be offended, Sofia accepted the backhanded compliment with grace. Besides, she couldn’t deny that she loved the way she looked ever since that fateful Shard Strike.
Titaness picked up some of the larger pieces of the rubble of 239 Montgomery Street Suite. The large pieces of useless mortar looked like mere toy blocks in her enormous palms. She crushed the useless material into dust.
Titaness reached for another one.
“No, not that! That can be salvaged!”
“How can you tell?” Titaness’s voice boomed from above.
“It’s marble! Expensive marble! Can’t you tell?”
“I dunno. It all looks the same to me.”
“Dura,” Raceway muttered under her breath.
“I heard that!”
The two continued their tag team cleanup, Titaness crushing the larger valueless pieces to dust while Raceway zipped around the perimeter, sweeping the small pieces out of the way and performing general tidying. She also supervised her large teammate to stack up the salvageable material.
“I swear, can’t Marathon behave himself for once? I can’t believe he brought down the whole building and cratered the street!”
“Must have been quite powerful girl he found too. Maybe Trace. Enhanced toughness, perhaps?”
“Guess she’d have to be to survive… this. And you know how embarrassed he gets in bed. He’d really have to know that the girl could handle it.”
“Oh really?” Raceway asked, raising an eyebrow toward Titaness’s head far up in the sky.
“I mean, I mean, I heard! Come on! You know the rumors,” Titaness blushed.
“Okei.”
“I’m just saying, for once, he should clean up after himself.”
“Ah, to be young again,” Raceway smiled in amusement as she stacked up another column of rubble for Titaness to stomp to dust. A small crowd of fans watching from beyond the safety line cheered. Titaness had always had her special fans since she’d revealed herself as part of the Golden Guard.
“Don’t tell me you approve!” Titaness crossed her arms underneath her bust and huffed.
“You will understand when you get to be my age. The children need to have fun and love too. Marathon is good one. I forgive him.”
“Oh come on, you can’t be excited to have to clean up after him! He should fix his own mess, like a proper adult!”
“He’s responding to store robbery. You are too big for this.”
“I bet he’s just having another go! I bet there’s nothing left of that store but rubble after he’s done with his new lady friend.”
“Marathon is good one,” Raceway reiterated. “And what about you, Titaness? We all know what happen when you first experimented with your power. Hmm?”
“That’s different!” Titaness looked away as she crushed more asphalt to dust under her bare sole.
“Nudaaa…” the Russian expat speedster moaned.
Chapter 2
Last Year
“Come on Markus, I have something to show you!” Cathy ran toward the campground, practically dragging her boyfriend along.
“Slow… down… Cathy…” Markus panted as he was nearly pulled off his feet!
“Come on! Really! I don’t think I can contain it much longer!”
“Contain what!?” Markus managed before he had to swallow his voice to keep up with her new, inexplicably more beautiful girlfriend whom he’d lost contact with for a month. He’d made detective during their hiatus, but his big surprise for her barely even registered on the scale compared to her… developments.
Finally they reached the vacant camping space she’d reserved in the middle of November. Thanks to the hard nighttime chill of the Mojave desert in winter, the remaining campsites were completely unoccupied. Plus, people were still worried about the strange fires that had broken out that had happened just a few months prior. People thought it might have been another one of the shard strikes that had changed the world.
Cathy knew first hand they were right.
They stood in the open clearing, surrounded by empty storage and trash bins, fire pits, and vacant parking spaces. Markus was clutching his chest with both arms, shuddering from the cold and sucking in chilly air into his burning lungs.
“Aren’t… you… cold?” he asked in between raggedy breaths.
Cathy was dressed in nearly nothing! Just a plain white bra and a matching pair of briefs. He would’ve admired her new, incredible good looks if he weren’t so exhausted and worried about her well-being. And not only had she somehow become more beautiful, her bosom so full, her legs so long clad in her flawless brown skin, she seemed… taller too.
Okay, didn’t just seem taller. Was taller. …And growing taller by the second?
What the hell!?
“I was out here when the fires happened. It was one of those things. A Shard Strike, Markus!” she chirped gleefully as she grew from her original slightly above average height to around what must have been just over eight feet tall, judging from the gnarled desert trees which she now stood as tall as.
“Are… are you okay?” Markus asked stupidly as he craned his neck to meet her eyes.
“Pfft. What do you think?!”
Cathy’s head continued to rise, surging past those twisted branches. Her torso lengthened, her legs grew longer and packed on more flesh to support her incredible height, and her bosom expanded to keep pace with the rest of her body.
Markus could no longer meet his girlfriend’s gaze, but he didn’t have much to complain about. Cathy’s normal sized bra should have barely covered her brown, protruding nipples now, but somehow it was keeping up with her. So were her panties, until she slipped them off, dropping the now massive undergarment where it almost completely covered an unsuspecting joshua tree. Her luscious legs towered over him in such glorious, real-life high resolution, so smooth and bare, fit and toned. Even her bare feet looked fucking irresistible.
And Markus wasn’t even into feet.
Staring at the most glorious underboob the world would ever witness, Markus was content to just drink in the sight of his still-growing girlfriend. Those breasts had to be as large as basketballs now, but they simply looked normal-to-large on her sky-piercing frame.
Cathy playfully arched her back, a slight look of concentration. She kept growing but now her bra didn’t, In seconds, the fabric could take no more. Her last scrap of clothing exploded, the cloth blown away by the wind along with her delighted laughter.
“So…” Cathy’s voice rang out from above. “What do you think?”
She was still growing!
“Cathy! Um… can you even hear me up there?” Markus asked, both fascinated and nervous.
“Yup, I can hear you just fine. I’m reaching my limit!”
“How tall are you!?”
“Dunno. Haven’t really been able to measure it,” she giggled. “Certainly way taller than the Getty or Griffith Observatory.”
“Well, no shit.”
Cathy squatted down, bending at the knees. Her long legs flared outward, surrounding him on both sides. Her bare, glistening sex was on full display, still taller than him. He gasped as he stared at that wonderful gate. He couldn’t decide if he was more aroused by her brazen nudity or more fascinated by the most detailed diagram of the fairer sex’s reproductive system that he’d ever seen.
“So… you like it?”
Her slim but enormous arms rested on her knees. She was leaning forward far enough that Markus could actually see her face, should he choose to. But there was so much luscious flesh on display that he had trouble looking away from her heavy breasts, her chiseled abs, or her smooth, polished thighs.
“Earth to Markus. Or maybe I should say, ‘Sky to Markus’.”
Cathy laughed at her own joke.
“Huh. Uh, yeah. It’s really… um… cool.”
“You really think so?” Cathy smiled. Even at her size, she could see the erection tenting his jeans. “That’s all you think about it? It’s cool?”
“Um, I dunno what to say. I guess the Strike really changed you, huh? It’s not just the growing thing… you’re really sexy too. I mean! Even sexier than before. By a lot.”
Markus cringed at his lame attempt at a compliment. It probably sounded more like an insult.
“No worries Markus, I’m a big enough woman to admit it’s true. These last few months really did wonders for my looks somehow. Just like it seemed to do for all those other people too. Who would have thought…”
“So you’re not cold? At all?” Markus stole a not-so-subtle glance at Cathy’s stiffening nipples, large as dinner plates.
“No. Just turned on,” Cathy smiled wide. “Wanna have sex?”
“But… how?”
“Oh, I dunno. I was thinking of using you as a dildo. Maybe stick you in my mouth and tumble you around. Swallow you whole?”
“Cathy! Uh, no, I’m gonna… um…”
Markus began to back off nervously. But Cathy’s hand reached around behind him and scooped him right up. Her little finger was taller than his entire body!
“Get naked,” Cathy whispered mischievously.
“Cathy, no, I…”
“Trust me, you’ll like it,” she promised conspiratorially.
Feeling completely powerless, Markus stripped off his clothes and placed them on her open palm. The cold air bit into his skin. He covered his shriveled manhood with his hands, awaiting who-knows-what was to come.
Cathy wrapped a few fingers around him, encircling him fully, and dumped his clothes to the ground. Her grip was gentle, yet utterly unbreakable. If she so much as squeezed a little tighter, Markus was sure his bones would bend and snap. Or if she did the opposite and opened her fist, he would probably just be a sticky paste on the dry desert floor. He was completely at her mercy.
Bringing him up to her face, she licked her dark, plump lips, opened her fingers, and placed a gentle kiss along his entire body. The warmth of her sweet breath was comforting.
“You taste good,” her steamy breath wafted over him.
“Cathy, I don’t… hrrg!”
Markus seized up as Cathy’s enormous tongue gave his penis a little lick. It began to flicker to life.
“Don’t worry. Growing myself is only part of it. Just wait…”
She set him down on top of a rounded boulder, rapidly shrinking down until she was also standing on the tan stone, only slightly taller than him. She stepped forward, wrapping him in a hug, her spectacular breasts compressed against his own firm chest.
“This really should work…” she whispered in his ear, rubbing her luscious body all over him.
Suddenly, Markus felt disoriented as an unfamiliar energy poured into him. Cathy’s delicate face stayed eye to eye with his, her lascivious moans growing louder, but his vantage point launched upwards. He was… he was growing!
“Oh god! Cathy!” he cried as he somehow felt his immunity to the elements growing stronger along with his new stature.
“Yes? You like it?” she had a shit-eating grin plastered on her face.
The boulder crumbled under their combined weight. They both had to perform an awkward little dance to keep their footing. A shocked Markus looked downwards and panicked as the floor seemed further and further away, but Cathy just surged forward, surrounding him in her embrace again, her skin smoother and silkier than any model’s. Any non-enhanced model anyway. Her embrace, and her amazing power enveloped him fully.
“Whoaaaa!!!” Markus gasped as he surged above the trees wrapped in Cathy’s firm, athletic arms.
There the two giants stood, almost eye-to-eye.
“This is… amazing!” Markus voiced his excitement. “This is like some sort of dream!”
“Oh, it’s very real. And I’m not done yet…”
She wrapped her soft fingers over his burgeoning erection and gripped it firmly. With a sly look in her eye, she gave it a little pump, and it responded. Cooing at his helpless reaction to her ministrations, Cathy’s hand had the faintest glow as she focused her power solely on his sex.Then she grew again, her head rising above his as his throbing cock grew with her.
Markus moaned as he felt the caress of Cathy’s energy infusing his hardness. They lashed and tickled at his balls as well, and before he knew it, he was at the brink of an orgasm!
“Ohhhh Cathy, it feels… it feels…” his eyes were squeezed tightly shut.
And just before he was about to explode, Cathy let go, and the overwhelming sensation subsided. Markus panted desperately from her little tease.
“Take a look, Markus.”
Still unused to his new height, he looked at his surroundings once again before Cathy directed his line of sight down with a little nod.
He was huge! Not just huge because they had to be over twenty feet tall, but huge even in proportion to his body! His balls were swollen, and the veins on his enormous, tree-trunk sized erection were clearly visible and throbbing. He was already leaking, and that little drop would probably splash down like a gallon of water!
“Cathy, you can do this!?”
“First time trying,” she smiled. “Now, I want to lose my ‘big girl’ virginity. What do you say?”
She reached down and gripped him with her powerful, silky fingers once again, pumping furiously and rapidly. Markus tried to hold her back, but he was no match for her strength.
“Cathy, I’m gonna…”
“Yes you are, aren’t you?”
She swiveled his helpless, desire-addled body to a side and continued to stroke him, forcing him to ejaculate all over the desert landscape. His fluid pumped in high arcs over the trees before splashing down furiously, soaking everything in its wake.
“Haha! Like a firehose!” Cathy giggled, her fingers still swirling over his slick head, squeezing every last drop out of him.
“Ungg!” Markus groaned. “Cathy! Stop, stop! I’m too sensitive!”
“Aww, my poor little man,” she teased. But she relented.
“You’re so… strong too,” the chiseled Asian man marveled as he hunched over, struggling to recover.
“The taller I get, the stronger I become. And I have a good few feet on you too. You’re just no match for me,” she smiled. “And I like it that way. You… you don’t mind, do you?”
Markus looked at the glistening desert he’d just soaked.
“No, I don’t mind. That was… that was something. Wow. But you said you wanted to lose your virginity. I don’t think I can go again so soon.”
“That was another thing I wanted to try,” Cathy’s lip bent crookedly as she reached for his steely erection once again.
Five seconds later, she squatted above him, plunging his once again enhanced and expanding member in and out of her, flattening trees and rocking the earth with her greedy intimacy. As Cathy got lost in the sheer ecstasy of fucking Markus and processing the brain-blasting pleasure of being filled so completely by an enormous erection of her own making, he began to shrink away as he emptied the tempestuous storm bubbling in his loins, expending all of the parantural energy that Cathy had infused him with.
In the end, a regular sized Markus remained fully snuggled between Cathy’s mountainous breasts, both of them breathing heavily and drifting off to sleep.
The desert national park was declared off limits for the next month as their sexual fluids seeped into the earth and dried up.
Chapter 3
Titaness rested on a bench outside of Golden Guard’s headquarters. She greeted some of the janitorial staff as they made their way into the building. They waved back without ceremony and went about their jobs, used to the sight of the gorgeous eight foot tall desi woman lounging around in the morning sun.
But Markus showing up was wholly unexpected.
“Hey, Markus! How are you doing?”
“Hey, Cathy.”
“Uh oh. I know that tone.” Cathy’s eyes narrowed. “That’s the bad news tone. What’s wrong, is the police department upset at something the GG did? Again?”
It was no secret that Markus Shi and Cathy Joshi—no, Titaness—served as the liaisons between their two respective parties. Their relationship pre-Shard Strike was the perfect bridge to coordinate between the police department and the vigilante actions of the superhero group led by Marathon. Marathon alone made the Golden Guard a power to be reckoned with, but with close to a dozen members now including the part-timers, their pledge to work with the city made the mayor of Los Angeles nearly a world leader.
“No. I wish it was something GG did.”
“Oh. …Oh.”
So it was really bad.
“Cat—Titaness…” Markus corrected himself as other workers trickled into GG headquarters. “There’s been a record number of kidnaps. Abductions. Missing persons report.”
“Uh huh. I know.”
“Well… Kareena Wright is on the missing persons report for this morning.”
Titaness just stared blankly as she processed the information. Was she being targeted? Were the Guard’s enemies finally trying to hurt the vigilantes by going after their family members?
Then the emotions hit her like an indomitable ocean wave. They took Kareena!? Those fuckers!
“Who did it,” Titaness asked coldly. She was already beginning to grow larger.
Markus blinked. He was suddenly in shadow, eclipsed by his growing girlfriend. “Titaness! Stop, your head is going to hit the building!”
“Who. Did. It.”
“Listen Cathy,” he consciously used her real name. “Calm down. We don’t know yet. I let the chief know Kareena’s a person of interest to the Guard and badgered him into making me the lead detective on this case. There’s been a lot of disappearances lately. I need to talk to the others, knock on some doors with the trafficking task force. see what they know. Maybe get a jump start.”
“Okay. I’ll help. Throw me in their direction. They’ll regret trying to hurt me!” Her fist was clamped shut. Even as the rest of her stopped growing, her fist continued to expand ever-so-slightly.
“Listen to me!” Markus took on a tone that he rarely used. Cathy’s fist stopped swelling. “You have to sit tight for a while. I just wanted to let you know. I don’t think it has anything to do with you. Unless people know you personally, they wouldn’t even think that you and Kareena are related, right?”
“…Right.”
“I just want you to tell your family. Let them hear it from someone they know. Can you do that for me?”
The emotions began to overwhelm Titaness. A single, large tear rolled off her cheek.
“Yeah Markus, I can do that.”
“Thanks Sakshi. We’ll get to the bottom of this. I’ll keep you informed… just… don’t tell anyone, okay? And don’t do anything rash.”
“Love you too, Markus.”
Cathy and Kareena were camping in the Sierras when the fateful event happened. She’d tagged along with her cousin’s family for their yearly trip for the first time.
Kareena’s family had gone to the local campground supply store to restock, leaving the two twenty year olds to watch over their belongings. They were gathering loose sticks suitable for Kareena to whittle down for stabbing and roasting marshmallows. Some supermarket sausages were sizzling in their cast iron pan over the fire when the fateful event happened.
As the two girls returned, bundles of sticks in tow, a large, half transparent, half opaque pink crystal crashed into the middle of their campfire. Before the two could even scream, more shards blinked into existence, exploding all around them.
Jagged bolts of pink electricity emanated from the crystals, creating a dense barrier that the girls could not escape. Their bodies went rigid as the arcing light shot through them, paralyzing them in midair as it tried to ignite the girls’ flesh, charring them to a crisp like the rest of their surroundings.
But Kareena and Cathy were made of sterner stuff.
Instead of burning, the two girls began to absorb the energy, their fortified bodies more than strong enough to handle the influx. Kareena’s already fetching silhouette became outright seductive, radiating untold promises of unbridled lust and elegant debauchery. The previously short girl felt her body contort and lengthen, adding more than a few inches to her height, almost all in her legs. When Kareena could manage to open her eyes, they darted in panic as they saw her cousin floating next to her.
Curious what was happening to both of them, she took a look at her own body as she floated horizontally above the sage brush covered soil. She could see the brown skin of her ankles peeking out from underneath her full length jeans now. In shock, she watched as they expanded in front of her very eyes!
Those foreign limbs looked so sleek, so smooth as they continued to elongate. Was this really happening? This must have been some kind of dream! SHe’d heard stories from other people who’d survived the Shard Strikes and changes. She must just be dreaming it had happened to her.
Just a dream.
But the pressure of her denim fabric and the ripping of the threads told her otherwise. Her jeans were far too tight around her supple thighs now, and her new, simultaneously larger and tighter rear began to bulge around the fabric as well. It wasn’t long before the stiff fabric actually felt painful, pinching around her expanding lower body. Finally, Kareena felt relief as the whole thing ripped apart loudly, exposing her magnificent lower body to the mountain cold.
With that transformation seemingly complete, Kareena was able to wiggle her dainty feet, still adorned in her hiking boots. They seemed to have remained untouched by this mysterious energy’s influence.
Her torso began to tighten up too, her baby fat melting away as she began to look more mature, more experienced in the ways of the world—a full on temptress and expert in the ways of carnal pleasure.
Her hips widened simultaneously as her waist cinched inward, finishing up as Kareena sucked in a deep breath as if to allow a corset to be tightened up to its highest knot. And just as appropriately, her expanding breasts hefted upward, ignoring the effects of gravity, presenting acres of delectable, soft, brown flesh on full display.
Kareena just watched wide-eyed in amazement as they continued to swell, pointing proudly at the sky. Her back was arched elegantly as the electricity continued to shoot through her, and it wasn’t long before she could no longer see her lower body as those luscious orbs dominated her vision while jewel-colored lightning played between her long thighs, tickling her sex.
She looked over at her cousin Cathy, wondering if she was undergoing the same process.
Cathy was growing, all right. Longer legs, larger boobs… but… no, she wasn’t just transforming into some sort of vixen. No, she was actually growing!
Kareena thought her own inexplicable, expanding body was one thing, but Cathy absolutely dwarfed her now! Her cousin’s limbs extended far outside of the pink electric field, and there was no sign that she was stopping! She probably could have gone into the Guiness book of world records already for tallest woman, but there was no hint that her body was anywhere near done. No, in fact, her growth seemed to be accelerating!
Unlike Kareena, who had only lost her jeans and turned her t-shirt into a crop top that showed off the incredible definition of her new abs, all of Cathy’s clothes exploded into little bits of fabric as she continued to biggenfy all over. Her hair trailed down, blanketing the entire campground. Kareena winced as she saw it laying over the fire, but Cathy’s silky black hair seemed completely unharmed as it smothered and snuffed out the flames.
She watched in fascination and a bit of jealousy as Cathy underwent the same beautification process, only on a much larger scale. Literally. Her cousin was absolutely massive now, her limbs expanding and crashing into the surroundings. More and more of the jagged electricity found its way into her body, a natural consequence of her massively increased surface area, feeding into the transformation process even more.
A deep rumbling moan formed in Cathy’s throat. Kareena could feel the vibrating echoes in her chest.
Cathy squirmed, flailing her long, strong limbs around, actually knocking Kareena out of the field! She tumbled on the cold earth before standing up to watch the rest of the events unfold. She felt vibrant, healthier, full of vitality. And the feeling had returned to her body some minutes ago. Apparently the mysterious force was already done with her.
But Cathy just continued to expand, her prone, hovering body now covering the length of three campgrounds. The crystal strikes which had been ongoing, crashing and shattering into the earth, began to slow as Cathy absorbed it all up.
When all was said and done, Cathy crashed to the floor, causing the earth to bounce, Kareena along with it. She finally opened her enormous, bulging eyes. Kareena stared at those huge, light brown pupils, as large as the cast iron pan they had been cooking with before.
Cathy pulled her legs in as she sat up. Hugging her knees to her chest, her feet and calves were already the height of two or three people!
“Ka… Kareena? What’s happened!? You’re so small!”
“Cuz! You’re… you’re huge! You’re a giant!”
“Wha…? Oh my god!!”
Cathy glanced at her surroundings. She was half as tall as the trees surrounding them, and she was still sitting!
She gathered her legs beneath her and began to stand up. Experimentally, she reached out and grabbed one of the shorter pine trees which only came up to her chest. Cathy plucked it out of the earth as if it weighed nothing. The complex network of roots came out of the ground with it, tearing the ground apart.
“Cathy! Careful!!” Kareena stumbled as she tried to get out of the way.
“Sorry! It’s just… this is crazy! This tree feels like a little toy!”
Cathy reached for the thick trunk with her other hand and snapped it in half. Then, she placed the two segments down on the earth gently, not wanting to cause any more effortless destruction.
“Um… what are we going to tell my parents?” Kareena asked as Cathy squatted down, hanging multiple stories high above her cousin.
“Forget your parents! What am I _going to do!? I’m… naked! I can’t just walk through the mountains like this, can I? Well, I mean I _can, but you know…”
“How am I supposed to know!? And we’re both naked!”
“Well, how come you aren’t big? Did you do something to shrink back down to normal?”
“Shrink back down!? No, I didn’t get huge like you! I just… got prettier. A lot prettier. But nothing compared to you!”
“What!? Why am I the only one like this!”
“How am I supposed to know!?” Kareena repeated. “Can’t you… you know… shrink yourself down?”
“I’ll try…”
Hours later, the Wright family gathered in their SUV with their niece/cousin huddled in the backseat/trunk of the car, draped in a large cloth. She’d only been able to get herself back down to seven feet tall.
“Sakshi, this is just crazy!” Kareena used Cathy’s Indian name.
“I know! Why couldn’t I just get what you got!?”
“What do you mean, what I got! What you got was way cooler!”
“How am I ever gonna live a normal life like this!?” Cathy whined.
“Normal? Who wants normal! Besides, you’re just tall like… like a volleyball player. Apparently with the option to go as tall as five volleyball players. What’s so bad about that?”
“I guess…”
“Not gonna lie though cuz. I am excited to go back to school. Show all the boys the new me!”
“Kareena, young lady, you will dress appropriately and cover yourself up!” Her father yelled from the driver’s seat.
“Okay, okay Dad…”
Kareena winked at Cathy. Both girls giggled. Kareena’s parents sighed.
Chapter 4
Cathy left a sobbing Aunt Sona and a somber Uncle Charles on their own to grieve about their missing daughter. She promised she would get Kareena back at any and all costs.
` Cathy. Meet me at this address. FBI operation approved. GG assistance requested. You’ll want to be there. `
The text came from Markus. Cathy slipped on her loose and revealing superheroine outfit and drove to the indicated address in her specially designed car built to accommodate her now default seven foot frame.
“Officers, what can I do for you?” she asked as she arrived on the scene and ducked down, not wanting to draw any suspicion. She’d been on enough of these raids before to understand what to do.
“A few blocks down, we have the location of a gang warehouse. They move their stashes constantly, but we’ve been up on this one really fast. Culmination of a lot of careful and hard work. We saw them bring in girls just last night. Hopefully Kareena’s in there,” Markus briefed Titaness.
“Got it. What are we waiting for? Let’s go.”
“Roger.”
Cathy lingered behind as the SWAT team floored it to the warehouse, sirens blaring. She wouldn’t fit in a squad car anyway, and she could cover the distance herself in a few steps.
Crouching down and growing larger, she peeked over the tops of buildings, monitoring the ambush. When she saw that the team had the building surrounded and were battering down the door, she made her move.
Within a single breath, she surged to near her max height and strode over the buildings, arriving at the warehouse in three steps. Shrinking back down just about ten feet, she nodded at the raid team near one of the back entrances and dug her fingers into the large, steel, sliding doors.
“FBI! Don’t move! Drop your weapons!” they shouted as Titaness crashed through the metal sheeting, using it as cover for the entire team. They followed behind her as she cleared the corners.
“Clear! Clear!” she yelled as she swiveled around, taking a quick appraisal of their surroundings.
A shot fired out, but it clanged uselessly against the improvised, thick metal shielding.
“Who did that!? Put your weapons down!”
The SWAT team emerged from behind Titaness under cover of raid shields. They grabbed and threw the surrendering gang members to the floor and leaned on their backs, cuffing them.
Titaness continued to survey the warehouse. Large boxes and shipping containers filled the space. What were they doing here?
She grew another ten feet as she began to inspect the upper floor. Finding an unsuspecting gang member up there, crouching in fear, she pushed against the steel crate he was using as cover, pressing him up helplessly against the wall.
“Ummmf!” he cried as the air drove out of his lungs. He could only watch as Titaness’s large, brown hand picked him up and deposited him next to the SWAT team. He was bound in cuffs in moments.
Titaness scanned the remaining upper floor, picking up large crates with her fingers.
“All clear!” she announced, shrinking back down to only ten feet.
“Fuck! Fuckin police!” some of the gang members shouted.
“Talk! Where are the girls you moved here!”
“Don’t tell em nothin!”
“Fuckin pigs! Fuck you!”
They escorted all of the gangers back out to the squad cars and drove off. A few detectives, Markus included, stayed behind along with Titaness.
“Titaness! Over here!” One of the detectives called out.
She dashed over, expanding in size once again in preparation to use her super strength.
“I hear tapping in here! Let’s get them out. Carefully!”
Titaness jabbed her fingers into the roof of the shipping container, displacing the rusty metal with a loud screech. Then, she pulled downwards, peeling off the entrance like a tin can.
A bunch of beautiful, frightened, mostly naked girls began to slither out of the metal box, shivering in fear. Titaness towered over them, looking for Kareena. But she wasn’t part of the group.
The police escorted all of the victims away, leaving their liaison Markus to debrief Titaness.
“Don’t worry, Cathy. We’ll get them yet. These slavers have to be related to the people who rounded up Kareena. We’ll interrogate all of them. I’ll let you know as soon as we find something. Promise.”
Cathy sniffled as she reduced back down to her normal seven foot stature.
“I’ll be back at the GGHQ. Will be waiting for your call.”
The two nodded and parted ways with a lingering kiss.
Chapter 5
“Where’s Marathon?!” Cathy stomped around the wide open area near HQ. “Tell him to fly his superpowered ass over here! I need him! He could scout for us!”
“It’s his day off,” Raceway replied.
“He’s such a goodie two-shoes, I bet he’d come right over! Let me just tell him what’s up…”
“You’re right. He is. That’s why he’s helping in an operation in Europe somewhere.”
Cathy growled. He really was too good for his own good.
“Titaness. It will be okay. Probably.”
“Probably!?”
“Just being realistic,” Raceway explained somberly. “When I was little girl, we often had attractive young girls disappear too. I was not one of them. But once in a while, someone who knew someone I knew, or really rarely, someone I knew personally, would disappear. It was… one time, we saw her again, years later, working in brothel far away from Russia. In Germany. At least, we think it was her.”
“Is this supposed to be helping!?” Titaness wailed.
“I am just saying, we live in a different world now. And this is first world country. Not rural backwater where I grew up. You have powerful friends. We will do anything and everything to find your cousin. …Only people close to you know that she is your cousin, yes?”
“Yes, it’s not exactly a secret. But I don’t advertise it. And we don’t spend that much time together.”
Titaness plopped onto the large, grassy field glumly and idly wiggled her bare feet. They were as large as the main entrance to the GG.
“So you weren’t targeted. She is unlucky victim. Police will find her. I will text Marathon when he is free. He will come. You know he will.”
Titaness sighed. “I know. I know. Thanks Sofia.”
“You can call me too if you need anything. I will come running.”
“Thanks. Really.”
“I will go back inside now. Need to snack. You know how it is with me. You want to come?”
“Ha! You know I can’t fit in there. And sometimes, well, I lose control of my growth…”
“You need to eat. Not as much as me, but you are still growing woman.” Raceway chuckled at her oft used joke.
“Heh. I’m fine for now. Enjoy your snack, Sofia.”
“Very well. I will bring some for you after I am done.”
In a blur, Raceway was inside on the second floor cafeteria. She took a seat near the window as she devoured the first of many scoops of ice cream before ravaging bowl after bowl of rice and noodles. The two women smiled and regarded each other warmly.
Cathy. Come to the helipad quick. We're flying down to San Diego. I'll brief you on the way.
Another text from Markus. 1:00 AM. Cathy rubbed her eyes.
` Oh, bring dark clothes. `
Cathy got dressed in her black sports bra and briefs, one of her primary uniforms. It was a good thing she had dark skin.
She drove to the meeting point where she found Markus and a few others waiting. They climbed into the copters, with one especially large, open spaced one for Titaness to climb in. She hung her long legs outside the door as Markus climbed in beside her.
“We tracked them down to the San Diego docks.”
“San Diego? Couldn’t we just drive? Or I’ll just carry you as I stomp down the state” Titaness asked as the chopper blades began to spin, knowing full well that the logistics she was suggesting were impossible. “I hate these things. I barely fit!”
“No time. We think the girls are shipping out today. A rather large group of them. We’re lucky we caught it in time. Kareena is probably part of the bunch.”
Titaness immediately ceased her childish complaining.
“Okay. What’s the plan?” She was all business now.
“Local Fed team is going to arrive first and scope it out. We have support coming in from the SDPD. We don’t know how heavily armed they are or anything like that. No time at all. But with you around, we think we’ll be fine.”
“Yes. We will definitely be fine.” Titaness cracked her knuckles.
“We’ll do some quick reconnaissance. You’re not the most… subtle, but if you can keep it down and keep low, we should be okay. The shipping containers are stacked up three or four high, so they should be tall enough to provide you cover.”
“Recon huh? Is that why you don’t have the spiky hair today?” Titaness ran her fingers through Markus’s normally crunchy, spiked hair.
“Heh. Uncomfortable under the beanie.”
They sat in relative silence after the quick, haphazard briefing. Titaness got out her cell phone and texted Raceway. She probably wouldn’t be awake for another two hours. For once, Titaness was thankful for Sofia keeping old person hours.
They landed at 5:00 AM. It was still dark out, but the sun would be up in no time. A police squadron was there waiting for them, and they drove out to the docks.
“Teams of two,” Markus ordered as they arrived on site. “Keep it quiet. We’re looking for containers of girls. Scout the warehouses if possible.”
They crept along quietly, Titaness keeping her power in check as best she could. The adrenaline was pumping, and she trembled from the exertion of remaining small.
“Titaness!” Markus hissed.
“Sorry! I’m trying!”
Titaness’s heart pounded in her chest as they continued along the dark alleyways. For five whole minutes, they found nothing of interest. Just large containers filled with freight, waiting to be picked up.
She was so focused on the surroundings below her that she bumped her head straight onto a container that had been placed perpendicular across an aisle.
“Ah! Fuck!”
“Titaness!” Markus hissed again.
“Fuck! Why did they place this one like this!” she hissed back. It didn’t hurt, but the sudden startle caused Titaness’s restraint to crumble, and she began to grow.
“Titaness! Stop! You’re getting bigger!”
“Dammit!”
She closed her eyes shut tight and steadied her breathing, forcing herself back down to merely seven feet. When she opened them again, they were surrounded by foreign men in beanies and thick, dark sweaters.
Markus raised his hands in the air. Titaness followed his lead.
“I’m police,” Markus announced loudly. “Don’t do anything rash here, boys.”
“Police, huh? Don’t recognize you. Let’s bring him in and make sure for real.”
Markus looked Titaness in the eye as they surrounded and pushed the pair along. Maybe this would work out to their advantage. They probably didn’t know Titaness was a full on apex. Maybe they would find out when it was too late.
Chapter 6
“Fuck. He really is police,” the tall, unflappable, Caucasian gang leader commented as he saw Markus’s police paraphernalia.
Just from demeanor alone, Markus knew he had to be high up in the organization. Perhaps even the kingpin, judging from the sudden silence and deference when he had walked in the room.
They had tied Markus and his particularly tall, attractive Indian friend securely to some wooden chairs. His now smashed police radio, badge, and gun were resting on a table.
“Long way away, though. LAPD. Must be something precious you’re after here. We’re just some dock workers doing business.”
The man was smooth as silk. His speech, even in their slangy accent, was refined, his confidence unshakable.
“Yeah. Dock workers who tie up people and interrogate them, no doubt,” Markus spat.
“WHERE’S MY COUSIN!” Titaness blurted out.
“Shh!” Markus hissed. But it was too late.
“Cousin, huh?” Their captor didn’t miss a beat. Intelligent too. “Sounds like we got ourselves a good hostage here, boys!”
“So you admit it!” Markus declared.
“Ain’t you supposed to be a detective? Ain’t dicks supposed to be smart? You think I’d be here talking to you in person if…”
“If you weren’t planning to kill us,” Markus completed his thought.
“Long way from home,” the gang leader grinned, his teeth straight and gleaming. “And these waters are awful choppy. It’ll be a minute before anyone finds you. And we’ll be long gone by then…”
Titaness had already begun growing larger as Markus tried to goad as much information out of them as possible.
“And the hostages? The girls?”
“Oh, we ship them all over. Hungary. Dubai. It’s so easy to tell a Trace from a normal, once you’ve had enough practice. There’s just that… something, how do the French say it? About them. That… mmm!” He licked his lips for show, really driving a stake into their hearts. “It makes them so… desirable. Enough for people to pay a pretty penny for them.”
“And her cousin?”
The leader spat. “You think I know who that is? Why the fuck would I care about that? But if she’s particularly close to you, I could give her some… special attention.”
The whole crew laughed, whooping and hollering.
“That’s… that’s Titaness!” A strangely pretty, waifish, out of place woman pointed. She was dressed in all black, with black face paint all over her pale face. “She’s a core member of the Golden Guard!”
“What!?” The leader looked to his female henchwoman who’d issued the warning. “We got a fuckin’ superhero in here!? They working with police!?”
Titaness effortlessly ripped apart the scratchy rope that was binding her wrists as she grew. Her head burst through the roof, raining rubble down upon them.
Markus was long forgotten as he got up and attempted to hop away, still tied to his chair. The gang members had all drawn their guns and were pointing at Titaness. Those who weren’t shielding themselves from the falling roof, at least.
“GIVE ME BACK KAREENA!” Titaness screamed as she lifted her foot.
The last thing the gang leader saw was the bottom of her silky soles before she crushed him into paste underneath her foot, grinding her heel to make sure he was well and truly pulped.
“Oh fuck! Boss!??!”
All of the gang members opened fire.
“Everyone, get out! You don’t stand a chance!” The petite woman immediately tried to take charge. Those nearest her acknowledged her words, but her voice didn’t carry over the sound of rapid gunfire. Not like the man whom Titaness had just stomped.
But Markus made a mental note of it. She appeared to be second in command. And she was composed and decisive.
Titaness shielded herself from the bullets with her arm. At her current maximum size, the metal pellets merely stung. They would leave some welts, but she would be fine within a few days.
She grabbed one of the shipping containers within reach and twirled it until it was facing long-side down. Using it as a huge mallet, she brought it up and through the roof before crushing the fleeing gang members as if they were ants.
One by one, she squashed the people who had dared to threaten Markus and kidnap her cousin. Bloody red stains and lumps of unrecognizable flesh dotted the building floor, covered up by huge chunks of plaster and wood.
The woman now in command fled, surrounded by a group of other thugs who were clearly protecting her.
The sound of gunfire could be heard all around the dock. The sun was starting to come up.
“Titaness! Free me! We need to go after her! She’s important!” Markus yelled.
Titaness leaned down and broke apart the chair that Markus was bound to and left him to his own devices. He could take care of himself.
“Kareena! Kareena! Where are you!” Titaness yelled as she crashed through another side wall of the building.
“Officer down! Officer down!”
“Fuck you pigs!”
“Ahhh!”
It was a pure firefight now. Titaness stomped across the arena, flattening gang members by shoving large containers onto them, swatting them with her hands, or stomping them to death with her strides.
“Titaness! Titaness! Stop!” Markus yelled at her, but she was too far gone in her rampage.
“Where’s my cousin!?” she screamed.
The sound of a crane operating caught Titaness’s ear.
“Stop! Stop loading that ship!” She ran her way over.
The ship already had four containers on it, about to be five.
“Drop it!” The goth-looking woman from before commanded.
“And lose this shipment?!” cried out the operator.
“Yes! You don’t drop it, we lose everything! Boss is gone! I’m in charge now!”
He let the crane tilt and watched as the container full of slaves began to tip and slide.
“Nooooooo!” Titaness made a running leap to catch the precious crate of potentially kidnapped girls.
She heroically grabbed the container, trying to be careful about not jostling it too much as she stood knee deep in the shallow ocean. Bullets pinged off of her exposed back. She winced and bore the pain as she set the long rectangular tube down gently along the dock.
All the while, the henchwoman had her eyes closed, her hands crossed in a hex, and was muttering some dark incantation. A dark blob of energy flowed out of all of the corpses of the deceased that littered the dock, congealing between the dark sorceress’s hands into a pure bolt of maleficent energy.
“Titaness! Look out!!!” Markus cried out as he took aim with his trembling hands at the henchwoman.
The bolt of energy fashioned into a wickedly barbed spear, its portent tip pulsing ominously. She let the projectile fly with one final incantation, opening her black, soulless eyes wide, dark aura blazing.
Markus squeezed the trigger twice. His aim was true. Both shots pierced the sorceress in the heart.
She gasped in pain as her burning, blurry glow began to fade. But with one last effort of will, she put her own soul into the deadly bolt, fashioning a black feather at the end of her arrow before expiring.
It was all over in an instant. Her bolt struck Titaness in the back as she had just begun to stand up. She screamed in pain, but only for a moment. Then her eyes closed, and she fell forward, face first, onto the concrete docks. Unconscious, she began to shrink, stopping at double her civilian size.
“Titaness! Titaness!!!” Markus screamed as he made his way over.
“Cathy! Cathy, are you okay!” he sobbed as he cradled his girlfriend. Her pulse was faint, but it was still present. Just barely.
The police had the smuggling boat surrounded. They licked their wounds and began to open the containers. Kareena was not among them.
Chapter 7
“Shit! Fuck! Cyka blyat!”
Raceway was huddled over Titaness’s limp body. She was dressed in her superhero outfit, along with an out-of-place looking backpack full of her sugary snacks.
“You are her friend? Markus?”
“Yes,” he nodded, tears still falling from his eyes.
“What happened? I came as fast as I could. It is long distance for me… sorry I am late.”
“There was this… paranatural. I don’t know what she did. It looked like… black magic. I shot her dead, but it was too late.” He pointed at the dark wound that was festering in Titaness’s flesh.
“Fuck. I am calling Marathon.”
Marathon was dressed in his blue and red uniform with his yellow emblem of a man running on his chest. His superpowered apex girlfriend, Melody Park, flew by his side.
“We’re getting close, Melody. Here, hang onto me. Just act like you can’t fly or something.”
“We really need to get our story straight,” she rolled her eyes as she flew into his arms. He carried her, pressing the long legged, busty, slender Korean-American witch against his burly chest.
Well, this wasn’t so bad.
Melody wrapped a slim arm around the back of his neck and held on like a damsel in distress. She chuckled at his mask, admiring his thick beard, knowing that underneath that sleek latex hid underneath a shiny, bald head.
“Something amusing?”
“Just you. Thinking about jumping your bones when we finish up here. You know you’re no match for me, right? And that’s your own damn fault,” she sniggered.
“Melody, this sounded serious. Raceway never texts me on the emergency line unless it’s serious.”
“Hey, I said after, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, yeah,” he brushed her off. “One more thing…”
“I know, I know. No magic. Don’t wanna upset the unwashed masses.” Melody sighed.
The two made the trip from San Francisco to San Diego in two hours. The police appeared to be arguing amongst themselves. And at the center of it… was that Markus, their liaison?
He saw a blue blur that heralded Raceway. That’s how she managed to get his attention from above. She led his eyes with her streak of color, leading him to Titaness’s body.
“Titaness!!”
Marathon flew over as fast as he could.
“Oh shit…” Melody was no longer playful.
“Raceway! What happened! Is she alive?”
“She was hit. With… magic. She is alive. Can your friend help? You said she has some paranatural investigative abilities?”
“Yes, let me take a look,” Melody stepped in.
“Very, very pretty,” Raceway whispered to Marathon.
“Not now, Raceway. Let’s give my friend some space,” he looked knowingly at Melody. “What’s going on with the police?”
“They are trying to decide what to do. Titaness went… she killed a lot of people. Bad guys. But still.”
“What!? She was always impulsive, but…”
“They took her cousin. Is blood, like sister. Her closest family.”
“Shit.”
“Police are discussing if they should arrest her as well after taking her to a hospital. But paramedics have come and don’t know what to do.”
“Let’s go talk to the police and Markus. Maybe he can help us sort this out.”
“He is fighting them for us. Trying to put her into our custody.”
“God…”
The two made their way to the crowd of police.
“Is your friend alright?” one of the officers asked.
“Yes, please, is she alright?” Markus chimed in desperately.
“We don’t know yet. But she’s breathing. That’s something,” Marathon declared assertively.
Markus turned away to hide his disappointment.
“Marathon, Titaness may have broken a lot of laws today. I’d say there’s bodies everywhere, but it’s more like… stains, not corpses. We may need to detain her once she’s healthy. Detective Shi has been arguing to release her into your custody for now. We understand your Golden Guard has a good reputation back home, but to us, you’re just a bunch of masked vigilantes. You’ll need to answer to the law.”
“Sorry Marathon, it’s the best I could do,” Markus added.
“Thank you. I understand. We shall see what happens when Titaness is recovered. Due process will be observed.”
“We leave her in your care for now. Good luck.”
The SDPD rolled out. The slave girls had long since been unloaded, and any surviving gang members had been rounded up.
“You’re not going to release her to them, are you?” Raceway asked when it was only Markus and Marathon remaining.
“You can’t!” Markus yelled.
“I… I don’t know,” Marathon sighed. “We’ll get the best lawyers.”
“I thought she was your friend! A teammate!” Markus continued.
“Detective Shi, please calm down. I have no desire to see Titaness in handcuffs. But we must show we are not above the law…”
“Aren’t you!?” he yelled. “If people want the good that you do, they may have to accept the reality that you are human too! You can’t just let those meddling bureaucrats throw Titaness into the system! You can’t!”
“Detective Shi, please calm down,” Raceway interrupted.
She’d always had a way with words and tone. Both men, quite a bit larger, simmered down.
Melody took the brief window of silence to trot her way over, remembering not to fly.
“What have you discovered?” Raceway asked.
“Please, tell me she’s okay!” Markus whined.
“She’s… I don’t know. Marathon, can I talk to you? In private?”
“Yes, Ms. Park.”
The two walked back to Titaness’s body. Her wound was festering and looking blacker than ever.
“Zack. That’s a fucking death curse.”
“A… what!?”
“I recognize some of the symptoms in my auntie’s spellbook. This is some of the blackest magic. Powered by souls of the departed. I need to take her to my apartment. You need to make some sort of excuse for this to happen.”
“Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. Can you heal her?”
“I don’t know, Zack. I don’t know.”