Kindred Spirits (Chapter 3) (Patreon)

“Again, I apologize for this. Really,” Megan whispered to the tiny woman. “But I don’t have a choice. Just don’t struggle, and I’ll keep you safe until someone arrives to-”

The giantess was interrupted, however, by a show of great force from those tiny hands pressed against the flesh of her prodigious feet. Now it was Megan’s turn to go slack-mouthed and goggle-eyed as she stared at the ground, watching the redhead enlarge with just as much swiftness.

In seconds, the unknown woman was as long as one of Megan’s feet, which allowed her to pry them apart like a pair of compressed boulders, then after combat-rolling to safety, continued rising up and swelling in immaculate proportion. It was an unbelievable sight, and Megan witnessed the upward transition in full, until the unassuming ginger, with pretty green eyes and freckles, had grown seamlessly into a giantess of equal size. The pair of strangers stared at one another in shock and awe, both looking up and down each other’s towering bodies, then back at the miniscule landscape below, as if confirming this was real and not a dream.

“I… thought I was the only one,” the redhead murmured at last, breaking the silence.

“Me too!” Megan squealed.

She knew it was dangerous to remain this size out in the open for so long, especially with the added landmark of a second kaiju-scale giantess, but she couldn’t help it. After so long without anyone to connect with, it felt like Megan had found a familiar soul in this woman, and she didn’t even know her name. Then the guilt hit her like a freight train.

“Oh my God, I… I’m so sorry for what I did just now! Trying to block you in like that with my feet,” Megan gasped, nervously fidgeting her toes in the sand again. “I don’t know what came over me. I… wasn’t going to step on you or let you be hurt, you have to believe me, but I just didn’t know what to do.”

“Don’t worry,” the redhead said with a nod. “I believe you. I… think I might’ve done the same, if I saw you standing down there instead.”

“Please, what’s your name?”

“Natasha. And yours?”

“Megan. W-Wow, I… d-don’t even know what to say. H-How are you-”

“Wait a second. I’ve heard of you!” Natasha said.

“You have?”

“Yes. I work… well, I did work… in the facility where I think your powers were developed. By the time I was brought on to study their findings, you had already been stationed here on standby, and all the video records of your progress were kept confidential, so I didn’t know what you actually looked like, but I heard your name from some of the people who helped you. They… were very fond of you, and sad to see you go.”

“I see. So how did you end up here? And how are you just like me?”

“There was an… incident,” Natasha said with reluctance. Casually she paced back and forth on the dunes, crushing the sandy hills under her pale soles and playing with a narrow tree trunk in the grooves between her toes. “Someone in the agency was passed over for a promotion, so he planned to come in and sabotage all our research. Maybe even take it for himself. You see, they’ve been trying to replicate your abilities.”

“I guessed they would. A whole squadron of growing soldiers could keep the planet safe from kaiju for a long time,” Megan said. More relaxed now, she took a seat on the beach, but didn’t take her eyes off this unexpected new neighbor. It was disorienting, to say the least, for Megan to have to look up to meet someone’s gaze while still grown to one hundred and fifty feet tall. “Did they, though? Succeed in copying my powers, I mean?”

“They hadn’t at the time, no,” Natasha replied. “And what happened to me was a complete accident. I saw the agent trying to steal some synthetic plasma samples which we believed held the key to replicating your powers. So I went after him, which was probably stupid because he was armed and I was just a lowly lab tech, but I had to try. That was months of research in those vials. I caught him, we struggled, and I think he might’ve wanted to shoot me, but then one of the canisters exploded and I inhaled a big dose. The next thing I knew, I was waking up in the same testing chamber where you learned to use your powers, I was stuck at four hundred feet tall, and they told me that after I grew and went unconscious, the sample andthe agent were crushed into the rubble under my body. They still had no idea how to replicate it, either, so they decided just to help me train to use my abilities like you. Even then, I didn’t know much about you except your name and that you could grow and shrink at will. It sounded like you learned how to control it much faster than me, though…”

“Don’t feel bad,” Megan chuckled. “It’s not exactly like learning to ride a bicycle.”

“You’ve got that right,” Natasha sighed. “But, I did eventually get the hang of it. As you can see. Either that, or they were sick of spending resources on “developing” me, because they told me they were transferring me somewhere secluded to wait for the call of duty. Which I guess means they’d want me to help fight kaiju, too, though… I didn’t get practice defeating one like you did. And I don’t even know if I’d be able to fight back at all. From what I heard, you took that thing down like a master snake charmer.”

“It… was just instinct,” Megan said, blushing deeply. “Don’t worry. It’ll be just as freaky for me when or if they ever do want me to go to war with a big monster, too.”

“So here I am,” Natasha said, finishing her tale. She marched over the narrow stretch of beach, her steps thudding the sandy ground and splashing up the foamy waves like a rain puddle. Then, arriving at the abandoned lighthouse nearby Megan’s home, she leaned against the spiral-painted tower like a lamppost and gazed across the early-morning oceanic horizon. “I thought I was going to be alone here. They never mentioned you, never even said when they’d call back.”

“Same here.”

“But… I guess I’m… not alone, am I?” Natasha said, showing a hint of a smirk now.

“No, you’re not,” Megan agreed. “How long have you been here?”

“Two weeks, and already it feels like forever.”

“Oh, gosh. I’ve been here ever since I finished training six months ago.”

“Ugh. That’s horrible,” Natasha responded, placing a hand over her heart. “I’m sorry you had to go through all that time alone. Time goes so slowly when you don’t have anyone to lean on, though I guess a girl as tall as you or me has to be careful who she leans on, so they don’t get squished. This really might be the smallest town I’ve ever been to, and I mean that whether I’m giant or regular-size at the time. Have you… met anyone around here?”

“Not a soul. Well, until today, at least,” Megan said with a sly smile.

“I’m so glad I ran into you this morning.”

“Are you SURE about that?” the brunette giantess joked. “I’m not sure that I’d want to start my morning by getting bullied by a stranger as tall as a small skyscraper. Especially not with feet as big as mine.”

“Are you kidding? That’s the first thing that’s “happened” to me since I arrived here! Heck, I’d let you wrestle me while tiny with your feet every morning, if that’s what it took to make a friend around here,” Natasha fired back with just as much mirth.

“I promise, I won’t try to make you fight my feet again,” Megan vowed with a serious tone but a twinkle in her eye. “But you can still be my friend. God knows I could use one.”

“Me too,” Natasha concurred. She strode back to her seated compatriot, then stooped and held out a hand to help Megan up. Obliging with a grin, the original giantess accepted the aid, and was impressed at this demonstration of the redhead pulling a fifteen-story megaton body up to her feet with the greatest of ease.