The Star-Spangled Giant (Chapter 7) (Patreon)

[Star-Spangled Giant POV]

I stood up straight as I shot toward the ceiling, hands on my hips and boots spread wide, looking rather heroic if I do say so myself, and swelled to eighty feet tall in just a few bats of an eye. Though I usually reserve this pose for making my punctual entrance at some catastrophe, just before I turn the bad guys into tinker toys, my audience today wasn’t a terrified public, but one very special little lady. I say little, but as soon as I could get her to believe in herself, she wouldn’t be so little anymore.

“That’s all there is to it,” I announced, speaking down with a probably-goofy smile at the temporarily human-sized Nancy. We stood alone in the cavernous training facility. She looked so adorable, all dolled up (somewhat literally, when you compared our statures) with her sleek ginger hair and newly minted costume post-rebranding of her superheroine identity, and a part of me wished to reach down and scoop her up for a cheek-nuzzle, if not a little more, but I held back. We both had some serious learning to accomplish today first.

“Easy for you to say,” she teased with a sly smirk. I could see her green eyes widen at the sight of me growing so huge in front of her, to the point that my leather footwear came up the scale of cars next to her. “You’ve been doing this since the forties. You can probably do it in your sleep.”

“I have, actually. Believe me, my family wasn’t terribly pleased the first time I had a nightmare, and accidentally made the walls of our bedroom fall out when I grew past them. But, you live and learn, and we made sure to steel-reinforce the house after that,” I replied.

“See, that doesn’t make me feel any better about myself,” Nancy sighed. “The fact that someone so talented as you can still have slip-ups, and then there’s me. I’ve only grown, what, five times now? And I only even got the power two weeks ago.”

Self-berating was the little redhead’s custom, but she was relentless at peppering compliments into our conversations. Then again, we each had our reasons to be complimentary of one another. Though she too had her ways of maintaining her youth, albeit in the form of slow aging instead of a rejuvenation procedure like me, at age fifty-one Nancy was still practically a child compared to me, even though she didn’t appear a day over twenty-nine. I knew she looked up to me in a great many ways, chiefly being the fact that I so often was required to swell into a tower-sized woman in her presence when duty called, but also for my experience and know-how.

Truth be known, I’m still making things up as I go along, like everyone. But she was sweet all the same. And now, shortly after her arsenal of super-strength, durability, and agility had been augmented with size-altering power too, I felt a certain responsibility to be her mentor, as well as her very close “friend.”

“The last two times I’ve watched you grow, you were perfect. Like you’d been doing it your whole life,” I insisted.

“You’re forgetting the other times though, when I almost ripped this place apart because I grew too big too fast.”

“That won’t happen. I’m right here to help you, too. C’mon, cutie-pie. You’ve got it in you. I know it.

Nancy’s cheeks blushed rose. Neither of us has admitted it openly, but I know she gets a kick out of being called kiddish pet names that imply her smaller size whenever I’m the bigger one between us, which is often while on the job. Though, if I could just get her comfortable growing and shrinking at will, we’d probably be spending a lot more of our time at the same height, while the world around us reduces down to plaything-status.

“Okay,” she relented. “Here goes nothing.”

I took a step back, giving my little friend plenty of space, as she clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. For me, growing is just a matter of will, and it happens easily as breathing, but I do recall around the time I was first developing my powers that it took some real effort. That was particularly the case when I made “growing” my main hat trick over “shrinking,” and became the Red Giant for a short lovely time before finally arriving at the more patriotic moniker of Star-Spangled Giant. So I was patient, and also ready to block her from destroying the facility if she suddenly grew big as Godzilla, but I had faith it wouldn’t be necessary.

Right on cue, Nancy started to expand, though slowly. It was a stuttering progression, as she received growth spurts of a dozen or so feet at a time before pausing to concentrate some more, and I have to admit it was a bit amusing to witness, though of course I stifled a giggle so as not to hurt her confidence. In stages, she advanced from the scope of an action figure, to a garden gnome, then a toddler and at last relatively normal-sized next to me, which meant she was getting close. She was quite adorable, really, and though she obviously didn’t have perfect control of her abilities yet, Nancy was a fast learner. In less than a minute, she’d arrived at the seventy-five-foot marker, just a few shy of my eight-story stature.

“I knew you could do it… Gargantua,” I said, beaming at my clearly-proud protégé. I laid a hand on her shoulder and held on just a little longer than most mentors probably might, but then again our relationship wasn’t merely educational. “How did it feel?”

“Great, once I found the right muscles to twitch,” she said semi-jokingly. Her gaze flitted occasionally to my hand affectionately caressing her shoulder, trying to hide her smile. “I still don’t think I’m used to people calling me that name. Gargantua. I swear, the marketing people wanted to use it as soon as my first ability manifested.”

“Face it. Growing heroes are the in thing this decade,” I cheekily responded.

“Which I guess means you were ahead of the curve, huh, B?”

“If you’d like to say so. I couldn’t possibly judge for myself.”

“I’ll go ahead and say it, then. You are the in thing this decade, and last century too. I… don’t know if I ever told you this, but I… used to have your posters up on my wall when I was little.”

Both flattered and flustered to imagine my much-younger fellow grower looking up to me even then, it was now my turn to blush as hot as her. I let go of her shoulder, hopefully not too quickly.

“All right, all right. No need to make me feel like the old hag that I am,” I said with a wink. Thank goodness my power-upping procedure also melted the years off my appearance. I balled my gloved hands into fists and posted them in a boxing stance, bouncing on my heels. “Now put up your dukes.”

“I insulted your age, and now you’re gonna beat me up, huh?” Nancy taunted.

“The two events are unrelated. We’re going to have a little sparring session now, as part of the lesson.”

“Are you teaching me to grow while I’m getting slugged in the jaw?”

“You can use your powers mid-fight, sure, but especially if you’re facing off with a monster, you’re going to want to hold your ground and resort to good old fashioned fisticuffs instead of making a scene with all the fancy midair growing-and-shrinking tricks. Once you’re an expert, you can work some of that flair into your style. But for now, we’re just going to make you the best jumbo-size fighter on the team. They’ll want you at peak performance, now that they’ve upgraded you to the A-squad.”

“I still can’t believe they did that when I’ve barely had the chance to get used to these new powers,” Nancy sighed. “All right, you’re my teacher. Get me ready for the big time. I already know how to fight. What’s so different about fighting when you’re tall as a building?”

“I guess you’ll find out,” I replied, a twinkle in my eye. “Here I come. Better use some defensive maneuvers. Say “uncle” if you surrender.”

I advanced on the gigantic ginger. Her stylish green spandex accentuated her curves and toned limbs so gloriously, and I’m sure it must’ve been a sight to see the humongous pair of us in costume, our every footstep quaking the gym, as we moved in for a thunderous punch-em-up.

Of course I had no intentions of really harming Nancy, especially since Gargantua is expected to serve a vital and literally huge role on the primary American defense team, but that didn’t mean I was going to go easy on her, no matter how I felt about her, and I knew she wouldn’t have it any other way. I faked a jab, which she dodged, but left herself vulnerable to a leg-sweep. I took advantage of this, and knocked the giant heroine’s feet out from under her. Just as quickly, I recovered, and caught her in my arms before she could hit the ground. Not only would it have been a particularly seismic fall for any normal-sized heroes and technicians working in nearby offices, but I also couldn’t resist the chance to get closer with Nancy.

She didn’t seem to mind, either, holding back a snicker and leaning her face into my neck somewhat intimately as I helped set her back on her feet. We remained for half a minute in this near embrace, before we both let go, and regarded my titanic protégé with a smile that I hoped wasn’t too smug.

“Have any guesses about the differences now?” I asked.

“A few,” she said with a hearty nod. “I guess I haven’t tried extreme movement as much while I’m this size. When I’m standing still, I don’t notice, but when I have to move fast, it… almost feels like I’m driving my own body. Like a giant robot suit. Does that make sense? Is that… normal?”

“That’s a good way to describe it. Don’t worry, that feeling will go away with practice,” I reassured her. “Let’s go again. You’ll get the hang of it.”

She nodded, and stepped back for round two. I approached again on the offensive, and I could tell she was ready to receive both a right-hook and a kick. What she wasn’t prepared for, however, was me to shrink instantaneously down to the size of an average human again. Suddenly the wide stance of her green-booted limbs formed an arch big enough to have stretched over a bridge, and I was standing in the prodigious presence of this redheaded marvel, or rather far below her. She was truly magnificent, a living monument of a woman, but I kept my focus, and also my momentum. Before she could react, I sprinted at top speed between her legs.

Startled, Nancy altered her defensive position, and swung her arm down at me. Her emerald-gloved hand, now plainly large enough to have scooped me up like a doll instead of vice-versa, opened wide, fingers splayed to snatch, but I was far too quick and far too familiar with the trajectory of a giant body in motion. Effortlessly, I dodged her tree-trunk-like fingers as they clapped into a fist, and then I made my move, leaping to the vulnerable area behind her back, where I promptly grew back to eighty feet tall, and put my trainee in a forgiving yet firm chokehold.

“I… thought… growing… wasn’t part of the fight?” she muttered, as she struggled to remove my arm from over her neck.

“I said we’d start with the basics for you. But you’ve been in this business long enough to know that you have to be prepared for anything, no matter what resources you have at your disposal.”

“All right, I get it. Uncle, uncle!” she chuckled, and I released her from my iron grasp.

I gave her a second to catch her breath, while I tightened my gloves until they snapped like surgical implements, and straightened my mask. I could tell my hair had gotten a little messy, but there was no point in correcting it when we still had some serious practice to get in. Though it was obvious that Nancy was a little irritated at herself after my debatably cheap use of the classic shrink-behind-then-grow-back maneuver, there was a sense of mischief in her gaze, not to mention a hint of, mercy me, lust. It was almost enough to make me want to call a break on the training session, but then what kind of tutor would I be?