I hid my face in the dirt, the pounding, the annihilation behind me horrified me.

Why did this happen?

What could I have done differently?

Fuck.

-------

I laid there on the ground for the longest time. Until silence returned, then I waited some more. Rising to my knees, tears streamed down my face when my eyes encountered the flattened remains of a formerly bustling metropolis...

The city was gone, and so was Violet.

My Violet.

Then the sound of footsteps behind me startles me, I jump to my feet, spinning to face whomever dared make a sound, and I come face to face with Persistence.

I nearly collapse after tensing up so hard, she takes my shoulders and steadies me, "Alice, this wasn't your fault, you remember who stole Violet?"

My voice filled with anger, I look to the ground, "Of course I do, it was Richar."

She takes her marble hand, lifting my chin, and raising my head, "So what do you need to do?"

Realizing that I have the power to do something... I look Persistence in the eyes, "I need to save her."

I tap my wrist, "Ed, come get me. ASAP."

I look into the distance as The Arrow rapidly approaches us, Persistence grabs me again, "Alice, be careful!"

I turn and hug the marble woman, "Thank you for getting me out of the dirt, I didn't know what to do..." The sound of the Arrow's RCS thrusters fill the air, while the ship resizes itself to match my current stature, Persistence screams, "don't... eyes..."

"Goodbye!" I yell out as I scramble into the Arrow. I march to the front of the ship, rapidly returning it to it's normal size, and initiating forward thrust. As we climb into orbit, Ed inquires, "Where is Miss Violet?"

I sigh, realizing that while Ed is a smart AI, he doesn't know much about anything outside the ship, "Richar stole her Ed, and I'm going to get her back."

He inquires again, "Where is Miss Violet?"

It is at that moment that I realize, I have no idea where she is.

However, I do have the Arrow's scans of the area, I pull up today's readings, quickly finding the orbital charts of the sigil planet we were on.

I soon find the positional data of Richar's ship, and realize that he is clearly feeling confident about his plan, because he didn't bother masking his position. Then I realize that he may have amplified the signal, probably to taunt me.

"What an overconfident son of a bitch." I run my fingers along the path, tossing out some wavering in the line. "Ed, based on what I have on my screen can you extrapolate a destination for this trajectory?"

The charts appear in Ed's holo-projection as he processes the data. His avatar disappears, laying out a star chart, the line runs through a several star systems, but only through one planet. When the planet appears on the screen I stare in disbelief.

I turn to my console, plotting the course and initiating it.

Ed's avatar appears to my left, "Miss Alice, this course is highly inefficient."

I look back to the shimmering AI, "Yes I know that Ed, but it is much faster then an efficient route."

He pulls up some warnings on my screen, "Miss Alice, be advised, we will have insufficient fuel for a safe landing."

I swipe the warnings away, ignoring them entirely, "I'll drop from orbit if I have to."

Then the AI asked an unexpected question... "Miss Alice, are you okay? Your vitals seem erratic."

I stare back at Ed pausing for the longest time as the engines continue to increase in volume as the universe outside red-shifts out of sight. "No Ed, I'm not okay. I just watched as my girlfriend was stolen from me... and I'm not sure I know what I'm doing..."

Ed quietly responds, "I'll leave you be." His avatar shimmers away, leaving me in the cockpit, alone. I rest my head on the console in front of me and allow the tears to flow. The adrenaline of my growing retaliation had helped the pit in my stomach, but right now I needed a moment to think.

The unfortunate thing about thinking though, is when a person is sufficiently exhausted, they tend to pass out.

-------

The shuddering of the ship as it rapidly approached its destination and fell under the effects of gravity awoke me. The source was the big ball of blue growing on the display before me. The place where this all started.

Auru.

I check the instruments, "Ed did you slow us down?"

"Of course. You needed the rest Miss Alice."

I rub my temples, and place my hands on the controls, taking back navigation. When I check the radio, Auru was already sending out alerts... Planetwide disaster alerts. Violet was already on the ground, obliterating thousands with every single step.

Several alert appear on my control interface, "Miss Alice, due to your expedited route we have insufficient fuel to adjust course, and I cannot adjust to pull us into orbit, we are going to crash planetside." Ed's normally calm and collected voice seemed to be cracking which was strange, because despite being an AI, Ed sounded genuinely scared.

That was when I realized the magnitude of what was going to happen, this ship, and everything on it was doomed.

I jumped out of my seat, it mattered little what I did as a pilot now, but I needed to save Ed! He may just be an AI, but he is nonetheless my friend. I dodge past the kitchen as the proximity alarms sound, the screens all over the vessel, red with the course shown to warn me.

Goddess what am I doing?

Oh right, this is fucking insane.

Passing through the kitchen I notice our jar of men sitting on it's side. Shit.

They did attack us, but I don't believe they deserve to die this way. I grab the jar, yelling a bit too loud as most of them hold their heads like the sound is painful. Shit. I don't want to hurt them, "Do you have a leader?"

The little guys look around, and one of them raises his hand, I lower my hand into the jar, inviting him to climb on. Pulling him out of the jar, I grab a mass manipulator and start growing the little guy to my size. He certainly seems to enjoy the feeling, but he still recoils when I speak to him, despite now being about my size.

I place my hand on his shoulder, "As you may be able to tell, this ship is about to crash. I'm giving you a chance to save your crew. Take this." I hand him the mass manipulator.

He looks at the device with a look of bewilderment, "What do you want me to do with it?"

I laugh and show him how the device works, "Take this mass manipulator, your jar of comrades, use one of the parachutes by the door, when the door says it is safe to eject, you can leave."

He smiles and places his hand on mine, a stray tear rolling from his eye, "Thank you..." he pauses, "I speak for all of us when I say sorry for attacking you."

I smile, rolling my eyes and softly patting his back toward the door. "Try not to abuse this chance okay?"

Once he starts putting on his parachute, his jar of crew-mates held tightly, he yells, "We won't."

Waving, I run to the back of the ship, and slide down the ladder under the engine core where Ed's memory is stored.

Tapping the panel open, there is a pulsing blue light, running around a large array of chips, small pieces of paper label the components, I find the label which indicates Ed's memory. "Ed, shut down."

His avatar pops up on a nearby screen, "Why Miss Alice?"

I look him in the eyes, something which doesn't happen to him often, "I'm going to pull your memory, and take you with me."

Ed's face changes, as he almost cracks a smile, his avatar eyes close as his systems shutdown.

Once all the indicator lights drain, I pull the chip and slip it into one of my leg pockets.

The atmo noise continues to amplify as I pull myself out of the maintenance area, the ship starts to creak heavily... I run through the ship catapulting over the kitchen table and sliding into the cockpit.

What I see as I regain control is terrifying, "Shit!" I scream as I pull back on the stick, because I am headed directly toward one of the atmospheric tethers which hold Auru's orbital elevators in place.

I deploy some of the aerobrakes in an effort to vear way from the tether, knowing that if I hit it at this altitude, both my life, and the lives of many below would end with the tether wrapping all the way around Auru nearly a dozen times.

As the tether looms directly in front of me I pull left and send the Arrow into a tailspin, avoiding the tether, but at this velocity is a very bad idea.

Then it hits me, Violet taught me that the narrowest part of the ship pointing into the atmosphere will become the atmospheric anchor... I belt myself into my seat and focus on my screen, because I can fly this bitch backwards.

I tinker with the interface to reverse the controls, and pull an exterior view as I soar into the stratosphere. Even the decompression of the cabin as the enlarged pirate opens the escape hatch cannot faze me. I proceed to dump what is left of the fuel into the engine, and despite the warnings Ed is no longer standing there to stop me.

I ignite the fuel and a huge explosion rocks the ship as the ignited fuel places massive strain on the main structural beams which hold the Arrow together. Parts of the engine are blown out the back of the ship and crushed back into the sides of the ship by aerodynamic forces.

Suddenly I lose all control as the dorsal aerospike is severed by the sudden deceleration and the impact of the freed engine components, I watch as it pumps the side and pulverizes one of the cockpit's visual sensors, resulting in several seconds of black screen.

Fortunately, the systems reconfigure, and I regain some control, but it is much less then I previously had. As I past into the lower atmosphere, things become abundantly more clear. Before me is the love of my life... Violet

She is close to fifty kilometers in height, crushing her beloved home under her... bare feet.

He made her take her clothes off? Isn't it enough to force a woman to do something she doesn't want to do? Did he really need to sexualize the act? Goddess... she is beautiful though. Her curvy hips, literally kilometers wide make me more then a little damp...

Her bikini clad breasts hang proudly, casting shadows ten kilometers long covering massive swaths of city. The blue fabric shimmers in the light of the sun. Violet looks fantastic.

Which would be great if her gorgeous feet were standing on a beach, but the city beneath her probably appreciates her beauty less since her beautiful soles are effortlessly collapsing everything beneath her.

I furrow my brow and focus on my trajectory, because imagining being between her breasts or inside her lovely feminine cavern is very distracting. Stealing one more glance at her colossal form, I nearly shed a tear at the radiant beauty of my lover.

I need to end this.

I need to get her back.

As I look for a safe place to crash, I notice an even better target, Richar's bulbous ship was floating right in my path.

I let the fins balance out and let the ship accelerate for the last couple kilometers, as I trust my life in the providence of physics.

I am suddenly pushed into my harness as the tail end of the Arrow crumples into itself, the engine implodes on impact, sending the kitchen table slamming into Violet's empty seat, crushing it against the console and collapsing the right side of the cockpit. I now have no control, as the power to my console is severed when a massive shower of sparks is emitted from the port power control system. An ungodly creak rises through the ship as a crack in the hull breaks through my display.

As wires split and sparks fly, I slam the emergency eject panel with no response.

I can't believe it. Of all things to break.

Brandishing my disbelief, I hit the panel again... with no evident response...

"Fuck it." I brandish my energy blade, slipping the hilt under my harness and activate it, slicing the harness in half, now free to move, I push off the seat, through the breach, activating my wings the moment I am free.

My foot narrowly escapes the Arrow as my wings slow me significantly relative to the crumpled mass of both ships. They fall several more kilometers, impacting the ground at near terminal velocity, collapsing several nearby buildings and coming to rest near a skyscraper which appears to be relatively undamaged despite the tremors caused by Violet's footsteps.

Now that I am gliding down I take a moment to breath, and look up. My eyes run along Violet's tantalizing curves, and what I see informs me that I am still in danger.

Apparently, Richar had complete control of Violet, and since I broke his concentration with my kamikaze strike he now has other things to think about.

I realize that as a result, Violet is falling., and I am staring straight up at her gorgeous falling ass.

I dive down in an attempt to accelerate away from her beautiful round bottom, I hope to reach an area her ass isn't about to annihilate.

The wind generated by Violet's falling behind helps push me to safety, and not a moment too soon, because the next moment her ass suddenly meets Auru, snd forever changes the world. The crust of the planet couldn't hope to withstand her mass.

The surface structures collapse into oblivion as two massive cracks spread outward, radiating out from her hips. Magma is suddenly ejected kilometers into the air through the fissures, coming to rest on some nearby buildings, melting them like milk chocolate.

I am protected from oblivion by the small of her back, which reaches nearly two kilometers above the surface. The massive swath of city before me is untouched because her body is so large that the small of her back rises two kilometers above the surface.

Unbelievable.

I land on the skyscraper near the crashed vessels, deactivating my wings, and proceed to smash through an access door into the structure. I call an elevator because I need to get to the ground. I need to stop Richar, because if anyone could live through that crash... that fucker could.

This elevator sports a view of the city outside, and any other day it would be a peaceful vista. Today we can see only the waistband of a bikini and a woman's back rising over the structure, entirely filling the sky.

The elevator stops several times during the descent, filling with women who are clearly in shock... in disbelief over a woman so exceedingly large. Size changing is a fact of life for Aurunites, they are used to the concept. Although it is a common concept, the mass manipulators which are so common in society have limits. A woman can only grow so large, perhaps a power worker might grow enough to work with large towers, but fifty meters is a far cry from Violet's fifty kilometers.

She is beyond enormous. The sight I am met with as I leave the lobby confirms how small I truly am... Violet's blue bikini panty is the entire western horizon. The ribbon which holds the panty on looks to be over a kilometer wide. The excess ribbon falling from the knots on each side, fall all the way to the ground carving large swaths of city under the weight of a ribbon. Just then one of the atmospheric tethers collapses to the ground...

Violet's arm must have severed one of the tethers...

The tether remains tout as it is pulled off the surface of Auru. It is strange to see something which seemed to be attached to the planet. My intuition would tell me it should come crashing down. Instead of falling, the tether rises. It rapidly accelerates and produces a deafening explosion as the mass breaks the sound barrier as it flies out of sight.

Goddess. This is insane.

The smoke around me chokes people, fortunately my suit filters out all the particulates, I set myself to finding Richar, and stopping him. I realize that he must still be in the command center of his ship. It is easy to enter the ship, the holes all over the hull make that step easy. The jackpot was finding the main elevator shaft.

Looking down the tube, it seems to reach all the way to the command area. I start walking up, contemplating the possibilities. I know that this is dangerous, Richar is clearly unstable, and he is probably my size if I had to guess from what I've seen earlier.

I pull out my mass manipulator... and the display is disheartening because it is devoid of power. I sigh, placing it back on my belt.

I am alone in this fight, no help, no backup.

Stepping into the command center is like stepping into hell itself, the ceiling is collapsed in, sparks fly in all directions, one of the Arrow's aerospikes is lodged through the main helm. Some fuel covers the floor. It smells horrible, like burning brakes.

I did this, this was all me.

Just as I am celebrating my victory, I see a movement of light in my periphery, as quickly as I respond, I am met with a fist to the jaw. I twist and fall to the ground. Catching myself I turn back around and grab the little asshole, he holds the sigil in his hands, "Now you too will work for me."

Nothing happens, I feel fine, and he seems confused. "Get off me." he screams as I grab and pull his leg up toward me. It starts to crack from my suit augmented strength.

I know why he can't control me... it now made sense why Persistence mentioned eyes, you need to make eye contact to use the power of the sigil on others.

I laugh as I amp up the power, collapsing Richars leg in my hands. He gives out a horrific yell, as he collapses to the floor. As I reach down to finish him off, the ship shakes as the ceiling is removed.

Violet, on her hands and knees, uses her kilometer long digits to manipulate this tiny pile of wreckage. She grabs me with the nails of her index finger and thumb, the nails are as thick as I am tall. As she pulls me out I think she is helping me, but the laugh of Richar tells me that this is his doing, that he is still in control.

I have never felt this small or pressured in my life, it hurts so bad. as my legs twist and buckle together. My armor helps, but even the strong semi-metallic polymers in the suit start to yield to Violet's incredible grip. My cracking legs suddenly feel wet... not a good sign.

Suddenly pain exacerbates from every corner of my being as the pressure exerted on me rapidly shifts. A small motion for Violet, but one which may have obliterated my hips. I howl. Tears stream across my face, as the visor of my suit seems to shift red.

I have to block out the pain, I need to think, then she opens her hand, and I meet her beautiful face... the sun shining behind her, glowing, radiant, and beautiful. Her blue hair flowing in the wind, and discoloring the light, leaving me and the city below in a strange blue shadow.

There is only one problem, her face is completely blank.

I don't know what to do...

I cannot move.

I cannot fight.

I can barely breath.

So, after a moment of contemplation I decide to give love a try, and I scream, "Violet... I love you!"

Moments pass as my tiny voice carries through the air, what must be 10 kilometers, all the way to Violet's ears.

Her pupils refocus as she suddenly regains some control. Her nails retract as she whispers, "Alice?"

Suddenly, without the support of Violet's nails, I am in freefall and my wings shudder into existence as the world around me slows down, I turn myself downward and focus. I need to end Richar, that will end all of this. I fall into the command center as gracefully as I can, slamming my boots into Richar's chest. The pain is excruciating as my legs are certainly broken, but I need to do this, not even this blinding pain can stop me.

Knocking out his wind was only the start.

I drive my elbows down into his head and start whacking his head with my fists. He tries to speak, I don't care. Nothing he can say can stop me.

Not a fucking thing.

It doesn't matter what he says. This man must be stopped.

He stops moving, but he is still conscious, I flip my visor open as I pull his sigil from his hand, revealing my eyes.

I make eye contact with him, and for the first time, I use my sigil.

Richar starts to rapidly dwindle under my gaze, his body shrinking smaller... and smaller.

Tears trace my face, as I scream at the bastard, "Why would you do something like this? You steal Violet's work for years, you follow her, you track her, then you use her. You used her to kill MILLIONS of people. You made her into a brutal weapon against her will. For what? Your power trip?"

He looks back up to me, "I was jealous, she always overshadowed me, beat me."

I look down on the pathetic man, slamming my fist into the ground beside him, "You... bitch."

I should want him to die, I should crush him under a single finger, a pathetic end for a pathetic man.

But, as I look down at him, I realize he doesn't deserve to die... that is an easy way out for this pathetic man. I think about it for a moment, as the world starts to go black.

I feel... dizzy. Lightheaded... like my body is giving up. "You deserve to die Richar..." I choke out.

Goddess. Is this what death feels like?

Is this the end?

"But I can't do it..." I collapse, my chest armor covering Richar completely, but protecting his pathetic body from my weight.

I look to the side, a massive shadow of a hand enveloping me as the world goes black, I can only hear my heart pounding in my ears.

As a light appears in the distance.

It fills my vision, as the heartbeat is silenced.