The Star-Spangled Giant (Chapter 9) (Patreon)

“It’s so nice to see you back on your feet,” Barbara declared from the apartment doorway. She pulled up her collar, ensuring her superhero suit was still hidden under her clothes, and casually flicked away a speck of grit leftover from a battle downtown.

“You’re just saying that because you were sick of being my Florence Nightingale,” George joked, cracking a smile as he took several shaky steps. “Right?”

“Not at all. You know there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to take care of you,” Barbara sighed. The woman crossed the room, kicking off her shoes and wrapping George into a gentle hug. Even without the boost from her footwear, she still towered half a head over him, which conveniently allowed the recuperating patient to nuzzle into the woman’s buxom chest. She allowed this with a soft snicker, and even pulled him tighter, though not too hard, using only an infinitesimal fraction of her true strength. This seemed to help him relax. “Now that you’re up and about, have you been getting any memories back about that day? I know everything got a little fuzzy for you after you hit your poor head.”

“B-Barb, there was… something I’d been meaning to talk to you about. Before everything went crazy in that mall. It wasn’t that hitting my head made me forget it, I was just too scared to say it out loud to you after. But, well… since I came so close to getting crushed under a building, I thought I should just get it out in the open now.”

“Yes?”

“I’ve… been in love with you for a while now,” George said. “And the reason I was at the mall was to buy a ring for you, to… to ask you-”

“I know,” Barbara sweetly sighed.

“You… do?”

“Yes. You may know your way around big numbers and dollar signs, George, but you’ve never been very good at keeping secrets.” Though she teasingly smirked, the woman spoke with total conviction and affection.

“I… suppose that’s true. I’ve been trying to get a loan together, hoping maybe I could leave all this government work behind, and we could work for ourselves. You know, a fresh start.”

“Oh, I knew that part too. And I thought it was adorable. All of it. Some girl is going to be very lucky to have you in the future. But… I’m afraid it can’t be me.”

“Ah…” George grunted. He hung his head, trying to conceal his disappointment, but as with the expression of his love, he didn’t quite succeed in doing so. “I see.”

“It’s not what you think,” Barbara whispered. She touched his cheek, even gently tipping his chin upward by an inch to look her in the eye again. “I care very deeply for you, George, and want only the best for you. And I do love you very much, but not in the way I think you may have hoped. I have for a long time, in fact. Much longer than you know.”

“What do you mean?”

“I… have secrets of my own,” Barbara admitted. “It’s possible I’m a little older than you think I am.”

“I always thought you were younger than me,” he replied in confusion.

“Not quite. I actually knew your grandfather quite well. We were good friends, and because of that, I’ve always felt a certain duty to watch over you. Not that it’s an obligation, of course. You’re a sweet thing, my little slice of normalcy at the end of the day, smart and funny and good-hearted, even if we don’t always see eye-to-eye.”

“How is that possible?” George gaped. He appeared to have calmed a little following this bit of genuine kindness from his roommate, especially while she continued patting his cheek, but his bewilderment was only growing.

“Maybe you ought to sit down first.”

After he had, Barbara weighed her decision in her mind, then reached into her coat pocket and removed her cat-eye-shaped mask, pressing it to her face. Smoothing her brunette locks down to complete her costumed appearance above the neck, she took a step back for George to see.

“Look familiar at all?” she calmly asked, knowing it might come as a shock.

Indeed the young man’s eyes boggled and his jaw dropped.

“T-That… can’t be,” he murmured in a daze. “Y-You’re saying you’re… you’re…”

Despite his delirious reaction, Barbara could see George still wasn’t quite grasping the reality in front of him. He looked like he’d descended into a dream. Rather than continue to look down upon him, the superheroine knelt beside his chair and took her cherished friend’s hand, gripping it tightly.

“On second thought, it would be easier to show you. Don’t be afraid, George. I’ve always been here for you, and I always will be. Only… maybe now you’ll know me just a little better. C’mon.”

With that, Barbara led him to the balcony of their apartment overlooking the street. Winking at him, she took a dive over the edge. Gasping, George rushed to the railing just in time to see Barbara “rising” back up toward him, but not because she’d bounced off the ground. In fact, her feet were planted firmly on the earth, but her sightline also matched his, as she expanded bigger and taller, higher and higher, until she met his gaze on an even level at her fifty-foot height. The memory of that day in the mall came rushing back, when George had witnessed this same incredible process as Barbara grew to take on the monster, and suddenly his remaining doubts were put to rest.

For a full minute of silence, George marveled at the magnificent giantess that was his dear friend, as she’d abandoned her civilian clothing and taken on the full physique-touting spandex uniform in its slick patriotic glow. It was remarkable to witness the swelling of her lovely figure, her toned musculature and classic hourglass silhouette in exact proportion, up from her toes to the top of her head, and every bountiful curve in between. She’d always been “tall” as far as George knew, but this was a whole different ballgame. He couldn’t stop himself from drinking in the complete sight of her, the ultimate woman who so happened to suit his every deepest fantasy, but first and foremost he looked upon her with an even greater respect and appreciation than he’d already felt.

“You’re the Star-Spangled Giant,” he gulped in amazement. He realized it probably sounded obvious to say aloud, but that was all he could come up with.

“Guilty as charged,” she said, showing off those winsome pearly whites and brushing back her hair again. “I’ve been doing this for a long time, George. And… I have a responsibility to this city, this world really, and all the people in it.”

“I… understand,” he said.

Even in the afterglow of sadness from learning he wouldn’t be wedded to Barbara after all, George surprised himself at his own contentment with the situation. Upon learning she didn’t share his romantic feelings, his first fear had been that she’d laugh at him before cutting ties altogether. Instead, she’d recommitted to remaining close with him, while also providing the most exciting-ever reason why she couldn’t run away with him. As a lifelong adorer of superheroes, and in particular the Star-Spangled Giant, George would’ve been the last person to keep Barbara from her destiny.

“I’m so glad,” she quietly responded. Pulling on her red gloves to complete the outfit, the five-story-tall superheroine held out her giant hand by the balcony, right where George could step in. “Care for a lift?”

Though he hesitated, aware of the stark drop if he toppled from Barbara’s grasp, one more look in her trustworthy eyes told George he had nothing to fear. He already felt safe in the woman’s presence, of course, an indefinable quality that made her feel like a guardian, and now he understood exactly why. He clambered over the railing, into the soft rubbery firetruck-red platform of the woman’s gloved palm. Using her humongous fingers as a bannister, George happily regarded his gargantuan friend as she continued to hold him perfectly even with her own sunny face.

“So this is what you must see all the time,” he said, peeking down.

“Sometimes. Actually, this is a bit smaller than I usually make myself. I have to get pretty darn tall to take on the kaiju in this town. Sometimes double this size. Would you… like to see?” Barbara asked.

“Yes, please.”

The superheroine swiftly grew higher again, looking to the sky, yet still never lowering her hand containing George, so he felt he was still right beside her the whole windy way upward. She was larger than life, so grand a being, that the man could feel his one-time burning desire settling to admiration, though still in love with her wit and kindness, but no longer panged with the thought of becoming her husband one day. Barbara’s palm expanded around him, naturally, making it tricky to continue using her fingers as railings, but she helpfully curled them down to help protectively fence the guy in, much as she’d been doing over all these years without his knowledge, until now.

“Enjoying the view?” the hundred-foot hero questioned.

“Absolutely,” he said, then added in a nervous mutter: “I just hope…”

“Yes?”

“I just hope this doesn’t change anything between us, knowing what you know about me and how I’ve felt about you,” George said. “It’s not what I’d thought would happen, but… now that I’m here with you, the real you, I… couldn’t be happier to have gotten to know you, Barb.”

“Oh, I could never change how I feel about you, George,” she insisted in a soothing yet booming voice that echoed through the open air. “I would hope the same could be said the other way around, and what you know about me now. If my “job” makes you anxious… if you wanted to move away or keep a safe distance from my life, I completely understand.”

“Are you kidding? This is the coolest thing I’ve ever known about anyone!” George gushed, which earned a lilting, thunderous laugh from the Star-Spangled Giant.

“I’m so pleased to have been given the chance to be near you too, George. To… keep you safe,” Barbara warmly stated. Getting a mischievous twinkle in her eye, she puckered her huge pink lips, leaned in, and planted a wet smooch on the side of her hand-passenger’s head while he blushed.