Head and Shoulders Above the Rest

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 café 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 détente 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