Hear Me Roar - Part 1

The bright, shining sun hung in the almost-clear blue sky, bringing with it warm, temperate weather typical of the summer season. It beat down, high above the surrounding buildings and high-rises as Samuel trekked on the sidewalk of one of the busiest streets in the city. Mostly keeping to himself, he walked with and against the flow of the many other men who too were headed to their own destinations. He occasionally glanced upwards, towards billboards and other buildingside advertisements marketing the usual things such as the latest in male fashion, the latest film, or the hottest gadget.

One popular billboard displayed a man's tan, toned bare chest and abs, with its text making mention of the Power+ protein drink. Plastered on the side of building beside it was a vertical advertisement depicting two handsome, confident men in black business suits, their bodies facing each other but their torsos turned towards the camera; they each had one loafer-covered foot planted firmly on the head of a despondent blond woman laying on the floor, with its text stating to "Stand Proud - Stamp Weakness". As his eyes lingered upon this particular billboard, he accidentally brushed against the shoulder of a larger, bulkier pedestrian.

"Watch it, asshole!!" the angry man barked.

Samuel winced as the man yelled at him. "S-sorry!!"

The man groaned and muttered something under his breath, before going about his own business.

Samuel sighed a breath of relief; relief that that ended without a prolonged altercation. He too continued on with his walk.

Around this particular area were various businesses, from restaurants, to book and electronic and clothing stores, to even one of the city's police stations. As Samuel approached the outside dining area of an Italian-esque establishment, his attention was caught by two young men, both of whom were holding hands with each other, one smiling and blushing. Watching this brought to mind old footage that Samuel happened across online, depicting a time when men and women did the same, whispering sweet nothings to each other and sharing romantic kisses. Such a time, where men could love anyone regardless of their sex and not be shunned for it, seemed to be long gone. Now, if a man did the same with a woman in public, he would be beaten, and she would be dragged off and-

Samuel shook the rest of that thought out of his mind, and continued on, walking away from the restaurant.

He arrived in front of an electronic store, with a display of several 60-inch flatscreen televisions in the window. All of them were showing the same thing on their screens: a video of the city's mayor Buck Adams giving an impassioned speech about the merits of the city--that it contained some of the best and brightest minds in the Western world, encompassing various industries such as science, technology, finance, military, astrophysics, and so on--and how he aimed do his part to make it even greater than before. It was a speech that Samuel had heard many times already, and frankly, he was sick of it. He moved on.

Eventually, he reached his destination: the lush city park filled with oak and pine trees, in which there were already a bevy of men inside enjoying themselves. On such a nice, sunny Saturday afternoon, why wouldn't they? Some men held picnics with each other, others partook in athletic activities such as jogging or throwing footballs at each other, and some even simply sat on the benches and read the paper or played with their phones. It was a nice park, but even it was not free from the reminders of the nature of the city.

As he approached the rather impressive water fountain in the dead-center of the park, he gazed upon the meticulously-crafted statue set upon a pedestal right in its center. The statue was carved in the likeness of the city's founder and the initiator of--as it was known--the Great Masculine Revival, Theo Cleveland. As seen in many pictures of the man itself, the statue displayed him in a suit and tie over his rather portly build, and his hair was combed to the side. One arm was held up, while the other was on his waist. His mouth was opened, as if he was caught in the middle of one of his many declarations. Truly, this was a man that commanded attention--and most would say, respect--wherever he went. Perhaps it was no wonder that he and his ilk were able to turn society upside-down.

Samuel sighed, and sat down on one of the benches surrounding the fountain, in particular picking out one not facing the Theo statue. Then, he dug into his pocket to pull out his phone, but as he did so, loose change also found itself being pulled out. He caught most of them, but one quarter fell onto the concrete and started rolling away on the ground.

"Man..." Samuel complained as he got up to chase after the coin.

The coin rolled and turned along as Samuel pursued it, the young man amazed at how far it had traveled without running out of kinetic energy. His attention was completely locked onto it, almost to the exclusion of everything else. So much so that he was not able to stop himself as both his head and the quarter collided with something in front of them, both of them being knocked onto the ground.

"Oww..." Samuel muttered as he rubbed the top of his head. He looked towards the now-settled coin to see what it--and he--had run into.

The coin was flat on the ground in front of a pair of feet; however, these were not like the rough, masculine feet that he was accustomed to. This pair was more slender and dainty, with no sign of any sort of hair on them; additionally, each of its toenails had been painted a bright pink, which matched the shade of the thong sandals that adorned each foot. A pink thong on each sandal traveled from the big and second toes on each to the shin, where the thong was attached to another strap that buckled around the ankles.

As his gaze shifted upward, he was led along two slim pillars of milky-white legs, bare even past the knees until he saw the blue denim shorts, bound by a tan belt. Upon the lean torso was a pink tanktop shirt under a white light jacket and above the cleavage of the breasts was a heart-shaped sapphire pendant. Finally, he looked upon the face, a youthful, beautiful and smooth white face with pink lips, blue eyes, and no sign of any facial hair aside from the eyebrows. Most of the blond hair on the scalp was tied into a high ponytail behind the head, with the rest of it forming split bangs on the side of the face.

Samuel was stunned past the point of moving; he could not believe what he was seeing.

It was a woman.

He had seen pictures and videos of them, but never had he seen one in the flesh, let alone one as young and as breath-taking as the lady that stood before him.

"Uhh..." Samuel struggled to find the right words as her blue eyes looked down at him still on the ground.

"You dropped your quarter," she noted.

"O-oh, right." Finally making a move, he reached over--nearly touching her toes in the process--and retrieved his runaway coin. "Sorry for running into you."

"It's alright," she said. "Don't worry about it."

"Okay..." Samuel said as he returned his quarter to his pocket. At that point, the reality of the situation completely hit him: not only was there a woman out in public--especially a young and beautiful one such as her--but that what she was wearing was something very inappropriate for them. There were already eyes shooting beams at her from the surrounding area, and he could even hear some of the men chatting amongst themselves. Some had even started making calls on their phones.

He shot to his legs, now full of worried concern. "Wait, no! You have to get out of here!"

She blinked in confusion as she stared into his face. "Why? Is it dangerous?" She asked as she looked around herself.

"What do you mean, 'is it dangerous'?! Of COURSE it's dangerous!! You're a woman!! You need to get back to where you came from!!"

She leered at Samuel. "Well, that's a bit sexist. And here I thought you'd be the chivalrous type. Don't worry about me. I'll be fine."

"But-"

She moved her face closer to his. "I'll. Be. Fine."

Samuel recoiled backward. Her blithe unconcern was mystifying to him. Did she not know where she was? Of course she did; this city was known the world over, and then some. She would have had to have been living under a rock for all of her life to not know.

"Don't you know where you are?!" Samuel frantically yelled at her.

"Whoa, calm down there," she chided as she pulled back. "Take it down a few decibels. Now, where am I?"

"You're in-"

"Hey, you!!" called a gruff voice from behind him.

Samuel turned around, and saw a tall Black man approaching the two of them. He was rather burly, as if he exercised and worked out almost every day he could. Even now, his brow and parts of his tank were wet with perspiration.

Samuel could feel sweat forming on his own brow as the man reached them; this was exactly what he was afraid of.

"Hey, what is this female doing here?" he asked Samuel. "You know better than to bring your property out here, especially dressed like that!"

"She's not mine," Samuel plainly and nervously stated.

"Yeah, that's right," the woman added. "I don't belong to anyone. God, first him and now you? What's up with the men around here?"

Samuel was rather stunned to hear this from her, as well as the fact that there was no hint of fear on her at all. Did she truly not know?

An eager grin appeared on the athlete's face. "No shit? You looked too poor and scrawny to afford one, anyway," he said to Samuel before turning back to the blonde. "Well, then I guess I'll grab her and take her with me!" He reached for her arm, but she pulled away from him.

"You shouldn't grab strangers like that, pal," she scolded him.

"Bitch, I can grab you however I want! Let's go."

"No. Now get away from me before I really lose it, you meathead."

In addition to her belligerence, her insult seemed to have struck a nerve with the athlete; with a firm hand, he slapped the woman across the face. The sound of his palm striking her soft pale cheek made Samuel cringe, and he was preparing himself for the sound of feminine wailing that was sure to follow.

However, not only was she not crying, but she was not even moved from her spot. There was not even a hint of water pooling in her eyes; all she did was rub her struck cheek a few times. Samuel was rather amazed; he was always taught that women were weak, fragile creatures who cried easily, but this woman seemed to tank the blow from a man that was perhaps twice her size. Just who was she?

She sighed in exasperation. "Okay. I was going to let you walk away, but because of that, you need to be taught that you can't just assault strangers."

"Bitch, what're you talking about?" The athlete asked, still ticked off.

With a smirk, the woman pointed her index finger to the man, and from its tip, a current of what looked like white lightning fired forth. It struck the athlete, who was coated in a similar white light as the jolt. Samuel was both stunned and scared; the fact that she had this sort of power was rather astounding, and he expected the brute to be rendered to a crisp husk.

Instead Samuel was even more shocked to see the man rapidly reduce in size. As the young woman's lightning kept pouring onto him, the athlete's body dwindled down, losing more and more of his perhaps proud stature until--from Samuel's perspective--he could hardly see nothing more than a glowing spot on the ground before the lightning finally ceased.

As the glowing faded away, the man looked around and was quite dumbfounded at his new surroundings, as was Samuel as he watched the man.

"Whoa, what did you do to him!?" Samuel asked the woman, who also observed the man.

"Are you blind? I shrunk him," she answered.

"How did you do that?"

"...Again, are you blind?" she repeated.

"No, but... I've never seen anything like that!" Samuel enthused. "Do you have superpowers?"

"Something like that," she answered, before turning her attention back to the tiny man beneath her. "Anyway, this guy was so big and strong before, thinking he could just put his hands on anyone he wants. Now, look at him. Barely two inches tall and completely at my mercy." She licked her lips, perhaps eagerly.

Samuel's gaze shifted from her face watching the man, to the man himself, who seemed to be scared motionless at seeing the giants above him.

"What are you going to do with him?" Samuel asked.

"Step on him," she nonchalantly answered.

Samuel was taken aback by her quick response. "Wait, what-"

Before he could blink, her right foot had moved, and the tiny shrieking athlete disappeared beneath her sandal as it hit the hard pavement. There was a loud crunch, and blood exploded from beneath her sole, after which she twisted her heel from side-to-side to seemingly ground the man into dust, her pink toes flexing with each motion that brought with it wet, squishing sounds.

Samuel was at a loss of words. Seeing this supposedly-weak woman reduce a strong man to a bug under her foot was horrifying... and yet, on some deep level, a bit satisfying. At the very least, it was karma for him mistreating her, and she seemed to believe so herself.

After several seconds, the grinding then slowed to a halt, and she removed her foot from upon the athlete. Or, what had been the athlete. Samuel was almost reluctant to see at what he had been reduced to, but he looked anyway, and saw that the musclehead had been completely flattened and shredded, everything about him--from his bones to his flesh to his clothes--having been mashed into a red paste by her unmistakably-feminine foot. The sight of the man's remains rent in such a fashion almost made Samuel gag from disgust.

She smiled proudly. "Guess that'll teach him."

Samuel stared at her, his mouth agape, still struggling to find the best reaction. Though once again, the gravity of the situation hit him; she had now murdered a man, and that put a large red target on her forehead.

"Shit!" Samuel blurted. "Now you really have to get out of here!"

"That again?" She sounded rather annoyed. "What now?"

"You just killed a guy, in front of everyone!" Samuel pointed to the many men in the park that had witnessed the whole thing. Some were horrified, some were furious, and some were a mix of both.

"Yeah, so?" She legitimately did not see any cause for worry. "If they saw the whole thing, then they would know he had it coming."

"I saw some of them making phone calls earlier," Samuel continued. "They were more than likely calling the cops on you! Women aren't even supposed to be out in public, and now that you've killed someone, the cops are gonna kill you once they get here!"

It seemed that his words finally cracked her exterior, as her eyes widened in mild surprise. Though overall, she still seemed unconcerned.

"Okay," she said, folding her arms. "Tell me: just what kind of city have I ended up in?"

"You're in-"

"There she is!!" Interrupted another shouting voice, this one more commanding.

Both the strange woman and Samuel watched as nearly two dozen police officers spilled into the park. All armed with assault rifles and wearing body armor and helmets, they rushed in and surrounded the two of them, the woman in particular as the barrels of their weapons were aimed squarely on her. Samuel's heart raced as his eyes shifted from each of those guns; surely all of those guns against one woman were more than overkill. And yet, as he turned to the woman, once again she did not appear to be worried.

"We saw what you just did, wench!!" One of them, perhaps their commander judging by the badges on his sleeve, spoke. "How dare you kill that man!! You, a weak, pitiful woman who should not have even stepped foot out from your containment, especially in that scandalous outfit!!"

"I didn't step out of-"

"Quiet!!" The commander interrupted, his arms holding his rifle shaking with rage. "You don't even deserve to be sent back to the breeding chambers!! We're going to blow you so full of holes that you'll be like swiss cheese!!"

"You sure?" The woman said. "What makes you so sure I won't shrink you all as well?"

"Look around! You're surrounded!! You may get one or two, but you can't zap us all at once. The instant one of us gets you, it's over!!"

She smirked again, even chuckling a bit. Samuel wondered just how far this young blond woman's arrogance stretched.

"Young man," the commander addressed Samuel. "Step away from her and get behind us if you want to live."

"Yeah, that's good advice, actually," the woman added.

Samuel's nervous glance shifted from the commanding officer, to the woman, and to the other surrounding policemen, before he rushed away from her, squeezing out of the circular wall of armed men. He ran behind one of the nearby benches, and took cover by ducking behind it. He still kept watch on the woman, even though he was scared for her, scared that her life would be ending in only seconds.

"Okay," the woman spoke. "If you're so deadset on killing me, fire away."

The commander angrily grunted, and then shouted. "Officers, FIRE AT WILL!! BLOW HER HEAD CLEAN OFF!!!"

Immediately after, the air was filled with the sound of bullets being fired. Samuel closed his eyes and covered his head as over the course of the next minute the officers fired perhaps over two hundred rounds at the blond woman. As he listened to the loud noise drown on, he could not help but feel a deep sorrow for the woman; that in her arrogance she had died a very gruesome death. He wondered just what her deal was, and just who she was that she did not know the ways of this city.

Eventually, the gunshots lingered to a stop, and as smoke wafted through the area, he could hear the police's horrified gasps. Samuel turned his head to the group, and saw an astounding sight: not only was the woman still alive, but she was completely unscathed. Surrounding her on the ground were dozens upon dozens of smoldering bullets, all crushed in as if they had impacted a hard surface.

"W-What happened!?" One of the stunned officers said.

"It's like... There was a force field around her!!" said another.

"Who... What are you!?" wondered a third.

She simply turned and looked at each of the armed men surrounding her. "Is that all? No more bullets? ...Well, I guess it's my turn, then."

She crossed her arms in front of her, at which point a white light formed on both of her hands. Then, she swung both arms behind her, letting lose a wave of energy that washed over every single one of the surrounding officers and coated them with a white light not unlike what was seen with the athlete. Like the athlete, all of the officers shrunk down to a minuscule size, and as the light faded, it appeared that they were perhaps made smaller than the athlete was--perhaps half his size--though from Samuel's vantage point, he could not be sure.

Before the officers could recollect their bearings, the woman stepped over to one immediately in front of her, flashed a twisted grin, and then stomped down on him, crushing him flat. Samuel could hear the faint yet unmistakable cries and shrieks of terror from the officers as they all began to run and scurry about, but the woman did not let them get away.

One by one, her thong sandals made quick work of each of the officers, mercilessly stomping, smashing, and grinding each one into the pavement; sometimes getting two or even three of them under one dominant step. Though it was a horrific, gruesome sight, Samuel could not avert his gaze; he kept watching as the beautiful blond young woman ran down and tread upon every single one of the police officers without the slightest hint of clemency.

Before long, there was only one tiny officer left. He tried to scurry away, but she stomped down in his path, and then kicked him to the ground.

"Well, commander," she said as she slightly bended over him. "Guess all your firepower wasn't worth anything."

The commander said something to her, but Samuel could not make out what it was.

"Oh, before I was a weak woman, but now you're begging me to spare your life? Not really a proud, strong man right now, are you?"

The commander cried out something else to her, though all Samuel could just barely discern was the word "please".

"Yeah, I don't think so." The blond woman then lifted her foot over him, let it linger above him briefly, before dropping it. The commander was crushed flat by its weight, and she twisted her foot on him for good measure. "Not so strong now, are you?"

Samuel stood to his feel and slowly approached the blond woman, while also looking at the pavement around her. It was littered with red splatters, marking where each of those tiny officers had fallen to her feet. Some of the bodies within those splatters were simply flattened--their uniforms coated red and their flattened innards bursting from their torn bodies--while others, including that of the commander's, were torn and mangled beyond recognition.

"Oh my god..." Samuel was in astonished horror.

As for the rest of the men in the park, they had since taken to fleeing the area in terrified screams, though a few were still on their phones while running. This woman's troubles were far from over.

"Now, you," she said as she turned towards Samuel when he returned to her. "Tell me: What the hell is up with this city?"

"U-um, well..." Samuel started. "This city was made by men, for men. Men rule everything, while women are just sex slaves and breeding tools. They're not even allowed to show their faces in public without a male escort, and even then, only rich guys can afford to have them."

The blond woman became visibly disgusted. "What the hell!? Whose idea was it to make a city like that!?"

"The founder, Theo Cleveland," Samuel answered, drawing her attention to the fountain statue. "This was like 200 years ago, but from what I read online, he didn't like competing with women in business, and hated that they were making strides to narrow the professional, economic, and social gaps between the sexes. So, he and some like-minded guys--who all happened to be rich and have some control in the government--worked to make it illegal for women to take high-paying and influential jobs."

"How did that even pass? Wasn't there opposition?"

Samuel nodded. "Yeah, lots of it. But it also brought out more and more bitter men from the woodworks who felt marginalized by women, and they started to convince more and more men that women needed to go, until their voices were the only ones left. Then it snowballed from there; they started to make all these rules on what women couldn't do: they couldn't take ANY job, they couldn't drive, they couldn't manage any money, they needed a male escort everywhere, they couldn't wear what they wanted, girls had to leave school at the age of 10, women could not refuse sex from men for any reason... And so on."

The blond woman attentively listened to his history lesson.

"Then came the hail mary: Cleveland said that from then on, all women and girls were to be rounded up and taken to underground facilities. The men who tried to protect them were executed, as were any women too old to reproduce. Cleveland then decided to rechristen the city to 'Mascopolis' to reflect the extreme male focus."

The blond woman's blue eyes stared at him for a few seconds, before letting out a sigh. "'Mascopolis', huh? That's a pretty blatant, silly name, don't you think? But whatever. Now I actually have a good reason to do what I'm about to do."

"What do you mean?" Samuel asked, taking curious note of her last remark. "What you're about to do?"

"What's your name?"

"Samuel." He answered.

"Sam, I appreciate you for telling me all this, and apparently being the only guy in the city who gives a damn about a woman such as myself. ...Now, I need you to step back."

"Why?" Samuel asked.

She smiled. "You'll see."

Samuel did as he was told, and took several steps backwards, moving away from the strange blond woman. Then, he watched as she extended her arms below her, opening her palms and spreading her fingers wide. Her hands then started to glow with the same light from before, but instead of firing out towards him like part of him feared, the light flowed from her hands and started to coat her entire body, from the top of her head to the tip of her toes. He wondered what she was doing; was she shrinking herself?

No... Samuel was shocked to see that, instead, she had started to grow, quickly at that. As her sandal-clad feet expanded, soon encroaching upon him, he turned around and fled from the growing woman, taking cover behind the fountain as her glowing, enlarging feet forced benches, bushes, and other structures to move out of place. Peeking out, he watched as she grew ever higher into the air above him, surpassing the fountain and even the surrounding trees. 75 feet... 100 feet... 150 feet... and so on, long since blocking the sun and leaving him in her ever-expanding shadow. Watching this process was mesmerizing, but also dizzying at how big she was making herself.

Eventually, the glowing upon her body ceased, and her growth came to a stop. She pulled her arms back to her body, and then looked around herself, before turning her attention downward, specifically towards Samuel. He crept out from behind his hiding spot and staggered towards her; he gazed upon her now massive feet taking up much of the immediate area, and thought of what those men she shrunk earlier must have felt seeing the same thing. If she wanted to, she could stomp him flat just like the others.

That was to say nothing about the rest of her. Her legs were like pillars, which lead to the rest of her otherwise lean body and perky breasts. The blond beauty stood proudly in the park, her new size leaving her taller than some of the building surrounding the park.

"Whoa..." Samuel found her more breath-taking than before.

"Alright, Sam," she addressed him as he stood besides her left foot; her voice bellowed through the whole area. "Since you were nice to me--in your own way, I suppose--I'll give you the chance to get out of here. Leave the city as fast as you can."

"What are you about to do?!" Samuel yelled up at her.

She smiled eagerly. "Destroy it, of course!"

Samuel's mouth dropped agape. "What!?"

She folded her arms and looked towards the sky. "...Though maybe I should have made myself bigger- nah, I'll be fine. Three-hundred is good. For now, at least."

"What do you mean, you're gonna destroy this city!?" Samuel shouted. "You can't do that!!"

"Can and will," she responded with zeal as she focused back on Sam below her. "It's not like this is the first city I've destroyed, but at least this one gave me a real reason."

"What?!" What did she just say? She's destroyed cities before? Samuel had never heard of such a thing being reported anywhere online or by the media; surely such a titan demolishing a city would have been widely-reported news.

"Sam, you're not trying to stop me, are you?" she asked. Then, as she begun to lift her foot, "If so, then I'll just have to squish you like the other-"

"NOOO!!! Samuel cried. "Please don't do that!!"

She smiled teasingly as her foot returned to the ground. "Okay, but like I said, you need to get out. ...Or you can come with me. That might be the smarter choice, since you may be seen as an accomplice now. Some of those other men might think you can't control your woman, right?"

"Err..." That suggestion of hers gave him pause.

"Frankly, I don't care what you do, but you need to hurry up and decide."

Thinking a bit about it, Samuel knew that she had a point. It was possible that he may have been reported by one or more of the other men, especially with how she had spared his life twice. Furthermore, he was not confident that he would be able to escape the city in time, especially with the panic and fervor that would no doubt be sweeping the city. If he chose to flee, it was possible that he would even eventually fall victim to the blond giant. ...Or others who had seen or learned of him being her "friend".

It seemed he would have no choice but to go with her. Even if that would truly make him a pariah, at least--if she was successful--there would be no Mascopolis left.

"I'll go with you," Samuel decided.

"Alright." She kneeled down and placed her hand onto the ground, its palm upturned. Samuel climbed onto the soft, pale flesh and stumbled onto the center of the hand, after which she stood back up and placed him onto her shoulder.

"Umm..." Samuel said to her, now much closer to her ear, which bore a sapphire piercing in its lobe. "I never got your name."

"It's Iris," she answered.

"Oh. Well, it's pleased to meet you, Iris."

"The pleasure's all mine, little guy," she said with a happy tone. "Now, watch as I destroy your goddamned city!"

"S-sure..." Samuel said, anxiously in his voice.

"Let's start with this." Iris turned towards the fountain, the lovely spring that was one of the landmarks of the city, especially with Cleveland's likeness in the middle. Iris pulled her right foot back and then kicked forward, her foot striking the statue with such force that it broke and shattered from its base and was sent flying through the air. Some of the pieces impacted buildings, some of which crashed through the windows.

Samuel looked down at the broken fountain, as water sprayed out wildly from where the statue had been. Though she was a giant, it was still rather amazing seeing the power that she wielded. He had to admit that it was a bit of a poetic justice seeing a woman that Cleveland deemed inferior punting his likeness away like it was nothing. He almost wished that the man himself was still alive to experience it instead.

"Now, hold on real tight, Sam," Iris said. "Because this is going to be one hell of a ride!"

"A-alright..." Sam held onto the cloth jacket as tight as he could, just as Iris went on the move.



[TO BE CONTINUED]