My name is Ryan Jones and I am a 21 year old college dropout living in the city of Gran Escala. I’ve been doing a lot of odd jobs lately but about a year and a half ago I became a cameraman/photographer working for channel 52.  My “boss” is a super cute Japanese reporter by the name Donna Matsumoto who’s really more of a big sister to me than a boss. A few months ago she sent me on a routine coffee run which led to the greatest day of my life.

I was driving through the downtown area of the city to get to Donna’s favorite coffee shop, a little place next to the new Regal Pastures that’d just opened up here. I went inside going over the order a thousand times in my head, not paying attention to anything going on around me. Now, in most instances not paying attention is generally considered a bad thing but that day it was the best thing I could ever have done. As I was walking up to the counter, my eyes glued to my cell, I accidentally bumped into a woman who was completely focused on her own drink and phone. As I recall, when I bumbled into this ebony goddess her left arm jolted into the air causing her latte to float for a second then fall onto my shirt.

“GAHHH!!! That’s hot!” I remember screaming

“Oh my gosh! I am SOOO sorry!” said the woman in front of me

I looked up into her eyes and saw her beautiful face. It was enough to calm me down to the point where I was able to recognize I’d been staring for a full 15 seconds.

“Uhm, sir? Are- are you okay?” She asked

“Uh, yeah, yeah I’m fine. Totally my fault.” I turned to Donna’s friend Vinny, the guy who owned the shop and said “Hey, Vin, one for Donna and could you get…” I paused.

“Breanna, Breanna Thompson.” Said the woman

“Thanks, and could you get Ms. Thompson another drink too? Put it on my tab.”

“Sure thing Ry.” Vinny replied

“Hi, Ry, was it?” Breanna said

“Hi, actually it’s Ryan. Vinny’s the only one who calls me Ry.”

“I like it, it sounds cute.” Breanna said with a giggle

“Thank you Breanna. Again, I’m really sorry about all of this. I should’ve been paying more attention to where I was going.”

“Yes, Ryan, yes you should have.” I could tell by her tone she was joking

“If there’s anything I can do for you a-“

“Actually, there is something you can do for me, Ry.”

“Oh?”
“Yeah, you see I’m the new manager at the Regal next door. I don’t have my own car and riding my bike from here to my apartment is a bit of a hassle with these big ol’ thighs of mine” she said pointing to her gloriously meaty legs “so I was wondering if you’d consider giving a girl a ride home tonight after I get off?”

“Uhm, sure! Sounds reasonable. What time?”

“Well since it’s opening day I’m not sure. What’s your number?” I handed her my business card “Oooh, so professional! I’ll call you when I’m ready. Okay?”

“Sure thing!”

We waited for a while as Vinny got our orders ready, talking about our lives, I could tell from her accent that she wasn’t exactly from here and we just dove into a conversation from there. Eventually I got a call from Donna telling me that she needed me at the office a.s.a.p. so we said our goodbyes and went on our separate ways.

I showed up at the station about 20 minutes later and immediately rushed to Donna’s office, coffee in one hand and a bag of croissants in the other.

“Hey *pant* I’m *wheeze* here!”

“About damn time. The fuck took you so long? We’ve got a lead on the Halcones!” Said Donna

“Sorry, sorry, I ran into this girl at Vinny’s and I-“

“No time! Story! To the news mobile! There’s justi- wait-a-minute, a girl you say?” I could tell from the look in her eyes that I’d just made a fatal error.

Elsewhere…

My name is Antonio Cain Perez. I am an agent of a company known as Essex corp. A company with so many secret hidden agendas their secrets’ secrets have secrets. Today I have been sent out on assignment to my hometown, Gran Escala, with a squad of 6, highly trained, Essex soldiers.

“A while back I was affiliated with a gang known as the Halcones. Recently the Halcones have been acting in a more terroristic fashion than my employers find… tolerable. And for the purposes of this mission that is all I have deemed you worthy to know.”

“Understood sir!” was their response.

We dropped into one of the Halcones bases of operations. The seven of us were able to incapacitate 3 of their men, the other 34 we executed on the spot. I approached the most senior of our captives, a boss by the name of Damian Perez, my brother. I removed my faceplate and before I could even get a word out my baby brother had opened his stupid mouth.

“Cain!? What the fuck are you doing?! You leave us to go to work for the god damn government!?”

Before I replied to my brother’s remark I turned to one of my men

“Can I borrow this?” I asked pointing to the trainee’s rifle

“Uhm, yes sir, all yours sir!”

“Thank you, trainee.”

I then turned to Damian and said “Hi, Cain. How are you doing? Oh, I’m fine Damian, thanks for asking! Would that have been too much to ask for?”

“What are you T-GLAAAARGHHH!”

I slammed the rifle into my brother’s jaw. It broke. He was coughing up blood. A lot of blood.

“WGHYYY DLD YUGH DDDO THKT?!” Damian said, gargling through his blood

“Because no one, and I mean no one, interrupts Cain.”

BLAM! I fired the rifle directly into his skull, returned the gun to the trainee, then focused my attention onto the my brothers right hand man, then said

“Now, we would like to discuss some business.”

Sometime later…

“So this Bree girl” Donna said to me “she sounds like a keeper if you ask me, stretch!”

“Yeah, but I don’t know. Maybe she was flirting, maybe she wasn’t, who knows?”

“You’ll know if she ever decides to call back! It’s been hours since we checked out that Halcones base. You’d think she’d have b=gotten off by now.”

“Yeah well she did say she’d be working some extended hours. And don’t you think it was weird how that entire warehouse was cleared out? I mean nothing was in there and we took pictures of that place two weeks ago and it was fully stocked!”

“They must have gotten word and left shop. Don’t worry Ryan, they’ll turn up eventually.”

Just then I felt my phone vibrating.

“Hey, shhh, it might be Breanna!” I whispered to Donna

“Hey! It’s Breanna!”

“Oh, hey” I said trying to play it cool “You ready?”

“Yeah, meet me here in about 15?”

“I’ll be there.” I said

“Sooo?” Donna asked

“I’ve got to get my car from the office pronto!”

“Fine, fine, let’s go!”

I dropped the news van and Donna off at the station then headed downtown.

“Geese, took you long enough mister!” she said in a mock annoyed tone

“Sorry, work stuff!” I got out of the car and opened her door for her

“Such a gentleman!”

“I try.”

We drove to midtown where her apartment was and she directed me to the building. When we got there I let her out and grabbed my camera. I walked her to her door, keeping the camera behind my back the entire time, then as we were about to say goodbye I felt the presence of something massive standing directly behind me. Breanna let out a high pitched squeal and yelled out

“CAAAIN!!!”

“Hey Bree, told you I was going to swing by” said the stranger.

I turned around slowly as I looked up at this hulking monstrosity of a man. I’d never really felt short before standing at a height of six foot three inches tall but this Cain guy had to be at least 7 feet even and weighing in at nothing short of 300 lbs. of pure muscle!

“Sup man?” Cain said looking down at me from above. I must’ve been staring again.

“Uh, nothing, nothing, I, um, I was just leaving actually.”

“Thanks again for the ride, Ry!” Bree said from behind me

“It was nothing.” I said dejectedly

“Who was that guy?” I heard Cain say as I was walking down the stairs

“Oh, just a guy I met earlier.”

My heart definitely took a blow that night but it was nothing I wasn’t accustomed to. Not like the next time I met Breanna Thompson.

Later that night…

I was showering off in the new apartment, still can’t believe the company set me up with such a nice new place, when I heard Cain come into the bathroom. He was walking up to the shower, slowly, building up some suspense probably, when he moved the shower curtain away, revealing my newly remodeled form, a trick I learned from Cole, complete with a slimmer stomach and waist, DD breasts, and an ass the size of two beach balls, I just looked at him, as menacingly as I could and said

“If you wanted to shower with me you could’ve just asked, Mr. Perez.”

“If I’d asked you would’ve just said yes and I wouldn’t have gotten to see that pretty angry face of yours, now would I Ms. Thompson?”

“No, I suppose you wouldn’t have. Tell me Cain, have you talked to your cousins about me lately?”

“Lara & Oliveria? No, we… haven’t spoken about you. Why do you ask?”

“Mmm, come here; hold me while I tell you a story.”

“No arguments here.”

“Once upon a time there was a fat little black girl living in a small town. She had a few friends, sure, but none more… exciting than the Latin that got away.”

“Tell me more about this Latin.”

“He was cute, and slim, and always taller than the little girl but for some reason he always looked at the girl with the same look in his eyes that she had in hers. She knew that someday he’d be perfect for her!”

“But…”

“But then the little boy moved away, to be back home with his family. Every summer the little boy would come back, taller and stronger than before and the little girl would keep falling deeper, and deeper in love.”

“Aww”

“Until one summer the boy stopped coming altogether, no letters, no calls, nothing. For years, the little girl wondered whether or not the boy still cared. She’d given up on her boy and found a new toy to play with. That didn’t last but one day the little girl finally got a sign! She flew away to a far off land and found the boy now a man, and the two lived happily ever after”

“The End.”

“No, Cain, not the end. Not just yet.”

I felt the energy begin to flow through my veins, it hurt a little at first but it was worth it. I focused the energy and the pain into my hands and as Cain had his arms around me in the shower I began to shrink him down

“B-BREE?! WHAT’S GOING ON?!” he shouted in terror

“The little girl’s been busy while the boy’s been away.”

I shrank him down to a manageable 3 inches before I let go. I picked him up and held him up to my face.

“I’m just trying to make a point Cain; I love you more than anyone in the whole world! BUT. I swear to God if you EVER try to leave me again I’ll fucking kill you. Got it?”

“YEAH, I GOT IT!”

“Good!”

I laughed for a good while before regrowing Cain to his normal height. I told him the story of the week I’d had with Cole and Lara back home and we came to terms with everything. He was surprisingly okay with all of this actually. We went to sleep in my new bed and I got up before him to go to work. I left a note on his chest telling him that I was borrowing his car for the day and that I’d see him later tonight.

Later that morning…

I went into work after picking up breakfast from Vinny’s. I wasn’t sure as to whether or not I should stop at Regal Pastures to talk to Breanna at first but I opted out. When I got to her office Donna asked me how last night went. I told her the entire story Breanna, that Cain guy, what I heard from the stairs and yet she optimistically managed to say

“Don’t worry Ryan! She’s just one girl! An average height, scrawny, blond haired, blue eyed guy like you is BOUND to be able to find someone better eventually!”

“That’s the thing; I don’t think there IS anyone better!”

“Ouch, hurtful much?”

“Ha-ha, very funny, you’re married, remember?”

“Oh yeah, I keep forgetting.”

“The wedding was two weeks ago…”

“Yeaaah, it was wasn’t it? Aaanyway, I’ve got another lead on the Halcones. Turns out one of my informants says they were assaulted by a group of paramilitary thugs in full body black and gold armor. These seven guys took out the entirety of his gang. He was hiding inside of a lead lined crate so he wasn’t noticed but he heard everything. They’re working for some company by the name of…”

A few dozen miles out of town, in the desert, at the exact same moment…

“…Essex corp. all new mod-sphere tech Agent Perez” said Doctor Merritt.

“It’s a gold ball Doctor.” I replied

“Not just ANY gold ball! This sphere has the capability to nullify the abilities of subject M-0 & subject M-1! With it you can stop them in their tracks at any moment!”

“When do I use it Doctor? I can’t let her know what I am just yet. I’m still establishing trust.”

“You’re establishing a lot more than trust I’d say, dear boy!”

“Can it old man. But seriously, when?”

“Oh, believe me Agent, you’ll know.”

At the store…

It’s been a long few days. New city, new job, all new everything! My name is Breanna “Bree” Thompson. After exposure to a mysterious purple compound my ex-boyfriend, Cole Pryde, developed the ability to compress, rearrange, and, for all intents and purposes, control matter. After prolonged exposure to his genetically morphed bodily fluids I, myself, was changed into some sort of mutated freak too but that’s all in the past. Really that’s all part of his little tale. This however? This is MY story.