"Breathe nice and slow, Celeste. Just focus, relax, and there's nothing to worry about. It's just a store and you have a mask. A very nice, nice N95 mask," I said to myself, releasing my fingers from the grip they had on the steering wheel.

I didn't like being outside. Even with this experimental immune system bolstering drug flowing through my body, I still didn't feel safe. Not while the virus raged around us in Texas. I was immunocompromised, after all. A virus like this one wouldn't just ravage my body like the other people catching it. It would simply blow me away off the face of our world in a snap of a finger and a thumb.

I pulled my mask on and removed my hair from underneath the elastic straps that went around the back of my head. I should be safe, according to what the doctors have said. My system should have recovered enough to risk something as mundane as getting groceries.

"After a week or so, enough of your cells should have recovered for you to go outside. Just follow the guidelines from the CDC -- social distance, wear a mask, and don't spend a lot of time indoors if you don't have to. Keep moving. You'll be no more at risk than anyone else out there, and that's some amazing news for a case like yours," Dr. Becker told me before I had been released.

Of course, my rapid recovery came with one caveat. A special note attached to this first attempt at the drug. One that certainly struck me as odd, but I was going to adhere to it as best as I could.

"Just one thing I need to repeat to you, Miss Winterbell. Please keep your emotions in check for three weeks now that your treatment has completed, and the same goes for strenuous activity. The remnants of the drug could have adverse effects if your heartrate should dramatically increase. We certainly want to keep you safe."

Dr. Becker's words echoed in my head as I walked across the parking lot carrying my purse and reusable bags, wind flinging my neck length bob in every direction. My nerves were certainly calming down as the warm air passed over my skin. It felt nice to be outside again. Felt nice to be confident too. It was a great day to be out. Perhaps I shouldn't be so paranoid.

The second I walked through the automatic glass doors of the Target, however... well. Maybe it wasn't the virus I should have been worried about in the slightest.

The woman towered over the mousey man standing outside of customer service. The first thing that struck me was their height difference. The woman in her heels was easily 6'1", her blonde haired head looking downwards into the 5'9" man's eyes. The second thing that struck me, of course, was the fact that there was no mask around her face like everyone else in the store.

"What do you MEAN I can't shop here? What do you MEAN I have to leave!" she loudly screamed at the employee standing before her in his red shirt. He winced, hands upwards trying to descalate the situation.

"Ma'am, as I said when I first approached you, businesses like ours can set policies to deny services to those who aren't wearing masks to help protect others from COVID-19. It's Texas law. You're welcome to come back when you have a mask, otherwise you're going to have to leave."

Oh boy. This argument again. I heard about this plenty online, but this was my first time seeing such a thing in real life. I still couldn't believe people were this stupid. The virus doesn't care about your political beliefs. The virus doesn't care if you believe in it or not. And it was people like this who put people like me at risk.

The woman was looming over this guy. His discomfort with this debacle was seeping out of his pores into the pits of his shirt. No one should be put in a position like this. All he was doing was trying to not only do his job, but also keep people safe. Yet no one was speaking up. Other people were coming and going in the store around me, just skipping past the scene. Many averted their eyes. Some ducked their heads. They didn't want any part of this because it wasn't their position to care. 

I know that sometimes you can make a difference. All it takes is a few sentences. What I didn't know is that sometimes a few sentences can also make a difference in your life in ways you never expect.

"Ma'am, please, he's just trying to do his job. Leave him be and just go grab a mask. I can give you an extra from my car," I offered. It seemed like an easy way to defuse the situation. She didn't have to drive all the way home and I'd feel better knowing that she wasn't potentially exposing anyone else. It should have been a win-win.

"Excuse me? Who the fuck do you think YOU are?" Her sunglassed glare turned to me. "Keep walking, bitch."

I held my hands up innocently, discomfort now lodged on my face. This is the last reaction I wanted. "No, ma'am, all I'm saying is I'm happy to go get you a mask. For... for free. I-I-It's just in my car."

The lady turned away from her prior prey and strutted her way towards me, golden jewelry and bad spray tan coming along for the ride. If she loomed over the other guy, she towered over me. I was 5'6".  It was like little bird versus orange striped tiger. "I'm not wearing a mask. I have FREEDOM. I have RIGHTS. I'm an AMERICAN."

"But... the CDC..."

She shushed me and looked down with her blue eyes riding the top rim of her sunglasses. "Is a fucking DEEP STATE controlled mafia! The virus isn't so bad! It's the FLU. We get it EVERY YEAR. Our President says it's just gonna go away. They just want to make him look bad. The fake news is everywhere, so stop getting your facts from memes. Now step the fuck back from me and mind your own fucking business."

What was she talking about? She got up in my face and all I want to do is just be six feet apart. This bitch was lucky if we were six inches apart right now.  I pulled back a bit, not knowing what she was going to do in the heat of the moment. "Look, this just means a lot to me, I'm immunocompromised and..."

"No such thing."

You could probably hear the crack of my mind breaking. I couldn't do anything but look up at her confusedly. "Excuse me?"

She cackled and smirked. "All you crying liberals are the same. You don't need medicines shoved down your throat by doctors. You just didn't get outside enough as a kid. Maybe you should get to a gym."

I shook my head rapidly. "No, that's... that's not accurate at all! I was born with this! The only reason I'm outside is because I recently got a treatme..."

"I'm sure you're gonna say you're disabled and can't work next, like all little welfare leeches do. Yet you're out here, dawdling around, and you're completely fine. A little liberal liar in the flesh. I make my money legitimately! My husband is a PARTNER at Kovach and Myers here in the City."

I kept backing off from her, bumping into the rack of carts behind me. "Please, look, if I catch anything it could be bad for me. Please stay back from me," I pleaded. I could see the staff member in the back finally came out of his stupor and went to his desk to grab a wired phone. I hope he was trying to get someone to come out in help. This was getting to be too much. My heart was pounding. I started to feel slightly dizzy. I just kept trying to focus on keeping myself calm but this was getting to be too much. I was nervous. Afraid. I didn't really have anywhere to go and she just kept coming forward.

It felt like someone had poured ice water into my veins. Everything started to feel cold. I could feel myself slightly begin to shiver. I even noticed goosebumps starting to poke up on my arms. Damn. I really was freaking out.  I could even hear the thumps in my head. I hadn't been in a confrontation like this since high school, and we were both way, way past high school. Or at least we should have been.

This bitch didn't want to let up, no matter how I looked. Instead of being sensible, she slipped those big ass sunglasses off of her face and clapped one arm shut, slipping the other into the top of her flowery summer, probably very expensive dress. Nothing on this lady could have been less than 500 bucks. I guess that's what lawyer money gets you when, you know, your husband makes it.

That's when she threw the last straw.

She leaned in and coughed on me. Twice.

"See? You're fine. Some illness."

My vision was hazy at this point. My heart was like a machine gun in my chest. That's when it felt like it stopped. Just thumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthump... silence. I couldn't hear it anymore. My head was spinning and I just... I couldn't. I couldn't anymore. I had to give up with this keeping things level shit. There was no way this was going to work.

I could have sworn I was seeing colors. A lot of people say they see red when they get mad. For me, it always looked like blue. I was certainly seeing a lot of blue right now. "Don't you even DARE!" I growled at her. My hands moved faster than my mind could process. I reached out and I pushed her. It wasn't even a big push. I felt too weak to muster up anything than a tap that was more of a crappy fall forward.

It was shocking, to say the least, when she flew backwards from me. She made it look like I had pushed her full force, the fucking faker. Toppled over onto her ass, glasses flying off of her dress, purse going into the wall. I started coughing uncontrollably. I felt like shit. My lungs were burning and the inside of my nose just felt raw. I kept pulling in as much air as I could and that's when I first noticed something that looked wrong. I could have sworn I saw mist come off of my breath. A slight, tiny little puff of mist that popped out of my mouth, but maybe it was the light. Maybe it was also me just, you know, feeling like absolute shit. I still couldn't feel my heart beat. Was I having a heart attack?

"Get... get the hell away from me!" the Karen cried out from the gray carpeted floor. She used her high heels to push herself back from where I was leaning against the carts, a hand over my heart.

I gasped for breath again, forcing down what air I could. "Lady, I can barely stand the FUCK up!" Shit, I could barely speak. "Stop fucking faking. I'll go." I lifted myself back up off the red carts and started to hobble to the doors, shivers now wracking my body hard. Certainly made it difficult to walk. I pulled my arms around myself, completely forgetting my bags on the ground. Felt like the AC was blasting on me in this place.

"She's a... she's a fucking monster." This Karen didn't know when to quit. I did a short about face and just looked at her as coldly as possible. If she wanted to play the scared little girl, then here was a golden opportunity. Maybe she'd remember to be nicer if I could actually give her a shake like the ones I felt.

When I looked into her eyes, however, I didn't see an act. I saw fear. Legitimate fear. The second I looked into her she began pushing herself away from me again. Something about this was very wrong. She towered over me. She was as set in her ways as a brick in mortar. Something between before the push and after it changed her tune.

"What do you mean, monster, you bitch? I'm just like you," I flatly stated, taking a few steps further towards her. More scampering. She even flipped over onto her stomach in an attempt to run, but failed to pull herself up off the ground.

Something finally caught my eye as I kept walking towards her. The glimmering of an odd light reflecting towards me. My irises snapped up towards it, realizing it was coming from one of the mirrors stationed above the customer service desk. You know, one of those weird bubbly store mirrors that they use to glance up and see if there's anyone around a corner, or in an area at a moments glance. That's where the light was coming from.

Yet I was wrong. The light wasn't coming FROM the mirror. It was coming from MY reflection IN the mirror. My irises, once deep brown, were now shimmering with an iridescent blue light. They looked like an aurora at night. That wasn't the only change. The same blue glow was beginning to drip through my veins, highlighting them against my skin. I looked down at my arms in a panic, just to see the blood vessels on them too begin to light up. One by one the blue glow leaked down my arms in a steady stream. It looked just like when you put a few drops of dye into water. That slow swirl of color as it stained the water.

I began to stammer, but I didn't say anything. I couldn't say anything. What the hell was I going to say? I looked like I had been stuck into a nuclear reactor or something. It was leaking everywhere into me, going all the way down to my fingers. Was this it? Was this the side effect the doctor warned me about? My hand shot to my chest again as I vainly attempted to feel my heart. I gripped my B cup chest, trying to feel something, anything going underneath my breast.

That's when I finally picked up on my heartbeat. My mistake was expecting something normal in a situation that was very abnormal. Now that I had a second to think and focus I could feel my heart moving. It was like listening to a hummingbird's heart. So quick and fast that I could barely feel it fluttering underneath my ribs. It was muted. Almost silent. What the hell was happening with me?

The air escaped my lungs and I saw it clearly this time. Mist poured out of my mouth like warm breath in the depths of a December in the northern states. The only problem here... well... another one of the problems was that it was summer. In Texas. And it was 90 outside. I couldn't be hallucinating this. How could I be hallucinating something that this Karen, of all fucking people, was reacting to?

As my hand held my chest I began to feel this sense of energy rising in my body. I was still cold, still shivering, but it felt like tension was beginning to build everywhere within me. My muscles were beginning to tighten up. I took another breath and as I did I could feel my breast begin to grow underneath my hand. The lump slowly pushed my fingers outwards, skin squeezing between the cracks. My hips were beginning to push against the formerly loose waistband of my jeans.

I couldn't do anything but simply watch myself change in the far away mirror in awe. My white t-shirt began to slide slightly upwards, exposing my naval. The muscles in my arms began to expand outwards slowly, never giving me a "cut" look like I had pumped iron in the gym, but a very fit look that I certainly didn't possess a few minutes prior. My thighs were definitely thicker and still growing, granting me a bit of a pear look as the rest of me morphed before my very eyes. Was that...? I had to squint... but was that the color blue I saw at the root of my hair? Bright blue hair hiding underneath my brown?

"Ah... ah ma'am... s-s-s-should I call a d-d-d-doc... 911?" the spineless staff member asked me from behind his desk, slightly beginning to crouch a bit as the phone shook against his ear. I didn't have a response. I was too mesmerized by everything I was watching. Even Karen's gaze was deadlocked onto me.

My shoes were feeling tighter, the toes pushing hard into the tips. Even my mask was beginning to pull taut around my face. Everything about me was growing! My bra was figuring out how to juggle my new assets as they kept swelling, the writing on my t-shirt was pulling horizontally across my chest. It use to say some "inspirational" phrase, "Love conquers all." In this moment, I didn't feel much love. Just terror. It probably needed to go.

Lucky for me it was certainly going. The stitching on my shirt's short sleeves was beginning to pop as my arms continued to thicken. It was a mixture of new buffness and additional... me? Fat? I don't know how to put it. They were fucking wider, okay? And my pants were getting really damn tight. I was pretty sure my ass was growing too, I just couldn't see it.

The metal button on my jeans popped off with a crack, the zipper starting to tick down like a clock while the bottoms were rising upwards. The lacing on my shoes was giving way as my feet outgrew them, finally tearing off like paper and letting me kick the useless things away. I looked down at my fingers, right at my glowing blue veins as my nails began to thicken and harden, growing outwards and discoloring into a bone white shade. My whole body was beginning to steam slightly, wisps of white curling around me and fading into nothingness as they got too far away.

Everything inside of me was simultaneously cold and white hot. I could only assume it was what dry ice feels like when you touch it. There was so much energy... so much tension. The weakness was fading and giving way to this sense of being alive for the first time in my life! The color blue was now pouring down my hair, strand by strand, and I could feel it begin to hit my shoulders. It too was growing outwards in a wild way, like I had just gotten out of bed and didn't bother combing. My panties were not only getting super tight, but they were also clinging to the folds of my womanhood, damp. I squeezed my legs together, which didn't take much considering the new thickness of my thighs, and electricity rocketed through my body. Fuck it felt SO GOOD!

One of the hooks on my bra blasted off as the girls were becoming too much of a weighty proposition to contain. The cups were rubbing against my nipples which only made them harden and stick out under my tight shirt. I looked down at my new almost D cup assets and gave them a squeeze, nails easily tearing open my shirt in four precision rips. They were so ripe and so soft. My palm literally bumped by nipple and it was a feeling that pleasured my entire body, from toe to top. I watched as the ground began to rise further and further away. I was sooooo much taller now. Wider. Thicker. Powerful. It was a storm inside of me pushing my body to new heights. My bones cracked like thunder as they pieced themselves back together rapidly to accommodate my new form.

Karen finally had enough. She pushed herself up again and tried to run, screaming at the top of her lungs like someone stuck a spit into a live pig. My attention snapped away from myself and narrowed onto her.

"And where do you think YOU'RE GOING?" I boomed. My deeper, sensual voice barely caught me off guard at this point. I barely had to sprint. In four short bounds I had caught up to her, reaching down, yes, reaching the fuck down to grab her shoulders. I pulled her up against my chest, squishing her into my soft bosom and restraining her under her shoulders. She kicked against me as I kept growing, my pants finally ripping down the sides and revealing my meaty legs, but every hit just felt like a tap.

Karen's feet slowly left the floor as we both rose up further, my head now surpassing the top of the opening to customer service. That had to have been over seven feet up and I was showing no signs of stopping. My bra popped off of me like a rubber band and my tits finally bounced down, still swelling like two basketballs on my chest with her caught in-between. Even the tears I had previously made in my shirt were giving way, exposing more and more skin to the outside. My socks ripped. My mask snapped off of my face and I could see a new pair of cold blue lips in the slowly disappearing mirror. Those lips quickly curled into a smile.

I could smell her fear. I don't know how I knew that, I just knew in the core of me that I was literally smelling the scent of fear billowing off of her as we embraced. Her stature was so insignificant now compared to me. I could feel my hair slowly trickling down my back and slipping down my front. My right nipple was definitely peeking out of the rips on my shirt. I didn't care about that. I didn't even care about my panties ripping off of my body, or the fact that my jeans were a messy set of rags that were only holding on to me as they slid up my growing toned, growing waist. All I cared about was her.

I flipped her around to face me like she was a toy in my grip. I finally stopped growing just as I felt the top of my beast-like hair touch the ceiling of the place. My glowing, sparkling eyes studied my prey carefully as she continued to slightly squirm, her own nipples pushed out against her dress.

"Cold in here?" I asked her. "Or is it just ME?" I heavily breathed down on her, mist washing over her as a tide does to a beach. My own emotions were just crashing around inside of my head. I was elated, turned on, pissed, and overjoyed all at once. Everything about this moment was thrilling. I could come right now just thinking about it. Shit, I could have came right then if her feet touched the right spot.

A few last jolts of pleasure wracked my body as my transformation completed. She looked at me, a newly born giantess, in abject fear. "Please don't eat me. Please... please... I'm sorry."

"Eat you?" I asked. I pulled her close like I was about to kiss her, but I instead stuck out my tongue. It was longer than before, and way more pointed. I probably looked like a demon who was taking a taste of her prey. Saliva spilled over her face and messed up her hair. She was such a fucking Barbie compared to me now. "I don't eat pieces of shit. And you need to learn social distancing."

I pulled her in close, letting her stare up into my big eyes and feel the air coming into my nose. "See this? This isn't social distancing." I chuckled. After keeping her there for a moment I then secured my hands entirely around her waist and pushed her back out at arm's length suddenly, forcing a peep of fright out of her. "This? Now this is social distancing. Do you understand the difference now, Karen?"

"My... my name isn't... Karen is such a slu..."

"That's not an answer to my question, Karen. Do you understand social distancing?" I arched my eyebrow. This lady couldn't be that fucking dense. Especially not in my grip.

"Yes! Yes I understand social distancing!"

I smiled that same wicked smile. "Good. Let's move on to lesson two. Come with me." We turned around and I put her under my armpit, carrying her like a package. She hung there limply as I ducked way down and pushed myself through the large garage door opening they used to bring carts in from outside. We took a much shorter walk to my car.

My fingers reached down and attempted to open up the driver's side door, but I ended up pulling it off of its hinges instead. I really needed to get use to this level of strength. With a shrug I dropped the door next to my car, instead reaching my fingers in like a tweezer and finding a tiny piece of cloth I had left on the passenger side seat.

I held up my extra mask in front of her face. "What are you gonna do with this?" She looked up at me, teeth gritted tightly.

"You may be a freak but you can't make me..." I squeezed my arm around her just a little bit tighter.

"Karen. What are you going. To do. With this?" I asked again, politely.

She sighed. "I'm going to wear a mask because of COVID-19."

"And how often are you going to wear that mask?"

"...when I'm outside in public, or around groups of 5 or more people."

"See Karen? You did listen to the things you should have done, before arriving here. Now. Put it on and then be on your way before we have to have another, longer chat." My big fingers dangled the mask in front of her and she grabbed it, sliding it over her face and hooking it onto her ears. I placed her gently back onto the ground.

"And don't do that thing where you pull it down from your nose. That's a bunch of crap, Karen. Everyone else can suck it up. So can you, Miss America."

"You're going to hear from my husband!" she shouted back up at me.

"I don't care. Just go shopping, for fuck's sake." The bitch finally got the memo. She looked down, eyes still slightly furious, and she began walking back into the Target just as the guy from customer service came running out with a few bags.

"Ma'am! Um, excuse me, Miss! I'm... I'm so sorry to bother you but..." he bent over to catch his breath. He must have been running for a while inside of the store, because the bags were pretty full. "You're a little... well... these clothes are on the house! We just grabbed some stuff for you, considering you helped me out and consider your new... um... size? We... we don't know if this will fit... but..."

My hand reached out and gently took the bags from him. I looked inside and tried my best not to give a threatening grin. "I guess I can only find out." More people were beginning to stop and stare. Even cars were just stopping dead in their lanes. I could only imagine how much of my ass was poking out of what was left. Not to mention I didn't have much shirt left.

"Maybe... you could change behind the building? Just a forest back there. I hope something there fits for-for you. Ma'am." Bless his heart, he was trying to avert his eyes and not stare as much as he could.

"Thanks for the tip, Greg."

"How... how did you know my name? Are you like, also psychic?  Because the air around you sure is damn frigid. That's pretty neat." I snorted in response, flipping the bags onto one of my fingers and beginning to walk towards the back.

"It's written on your nametag, dude."

"What's your name?" he called after me. "Are you gonna pick something cool?"

I glanced over my shoulder with a smirk, a hand placed over the quiet rattling in my chest. "I have an idea."

------------------------------------------------------------------

By the time I got there the alarm was wailing. I steadied myself in the street, luckily able to gaze across the rooftop to spy a lone shape standing alone, glowing brightly in the night.

Life had certainly changed for me since that day at Target. Had to go through more than a few bouts of training to realize I could change between my giantess form and my normal, human stature. Luckily, each transformation was... uniquely pleasurable. Just had to make sure I didn't do it in any small spaces like my house. The doctors had more than a few questions for me, sure, but they didn't harrow me too much. Our city was becoming a bit more understandable when it came to people like me.

The clothing Greg gave me that day fit, more or less. The maxi-skirt was more of a mini skirt. The panties certainly didn't fit, no matter how big they were. The top was more of a boob covering than the Kiss t-shirt it was suppose to be, but I didn't mind. I enjoyed my new assets a great deal. If you got it, flaunt it, right? I certainly had it.

I wrapped the belts around my wrists like bracelets, and the one chain belt he gave me made an excellent necklace that plunged towards my canyon of bust as it pushed out between the rip I made down the middle to better fit the fabric. The boots though? Those were custom. The people on the phone thought I was crazy when I gave them measurements, but people shut up when you pay them well enough.

"Hey, you! Don't even think about moving!" I yelled at the figure. She held up a single finger to me in response, flipping me off. I folded my arms over my chest. Charming. "I know exactly who you are, lady. And you're not going anywhere. Not on my watch."

That got her attention. I could see one of her piercing purple eyes finally turn towards me, her hair continuing to defy gravity as it danced around her.

"If you know who I am, then you should know I don't scare easily. Not even from a big girl like you. Now, please, I have things to do. A spell to cast. Places to be. You're already too late." Her voice had this weird echoing quality, like it reverberated in the air around us. I wasn't going to be intimidated though. I brought up my fists and pulled myself into a fighting stance like my sensei taught me.

"The way I see it, you're not far enough away from me to finish your concentration. And I'm not afraid to hit a pregnant bitch like you. Butcher," I sneered.

She cackled back at me, finally fully facing my direction. Runes of purple light were etched across her face, glowing softly in the street lights around us. She slowly began stepping towards me, her twin, snake-like, glowing ribbons beginning to rise up over her shoulders and form into blades of energy.

"Good," She stated. "Makes this confrontation less one-sided. I guess we should do the introduction thing quick before it comes to blows, seeing as we're being polite. The name's Acela Void. And yours?"

I cracked my neck and looked back to her. "I was always a fan of cyberpunk before all of this," I began with a sigh, my signature mist seeping out between my lips.

"The name's Wintermute."