Giganti By LBP


Giganti

By LBP

 

Part 1

 

An immense roar echoed across the stretch of once green turf, now trampled to brown by the feet of hundreds. There was turmoil as people stepped and almost fought, some trying to leave the scene, others stubbornly staying to see more. Most rushed to their cars, trying to beat the inevitable traffic that would block the roads for miles in a slow dead lock. By then it would be too late; probably two or so in the morning and hardly enough time to find any other means of entertainment.

 

There was one person, however, who wouldn't have such a problem. Nela signed a few autographs and made small talk with the fanatical teeny-boppers who followed her every move from day to day. Then, after almost fifteen minutes, her bodyguards shooed everyone away, explaining how she had to get on the tour bus for another day's concert. They had gotten their own performance well-rehearsed.

 

"Thank god...," Nela muttered.

 

Her primary bodyguard, Albert, handed her a bottle of water.

 

"I can't stand those chattery little twits," she seethed through gritted teeth.

 

Albert cracked a bit of smile, his pearly white teeth making a bold contrast to his rich, black skin. Within seconds of turning the corner of the hall, Nela's entourage formed around her. Another bodyguard took up the rear to ward of any crazed fans. Gil was quite good at it and even seemed to enjoy the verbal grappling needed to deter the mild psychotics.

 

Andrea Polster, Nela's manager, and Nela's personal assistant, Gina, were at once by her side.

 

"I called ahead at the airport and had them delay tomorrow mornings flight until ten a.m. so you had some time to get some sleep," Andrea started.

 

Nela immediately dug into Gina, "Where's my goddamn perfume?! I don't want to smell like a fucking sweat factory!"

 

Gina was used to the berating from Nela, the Latin pop star who had soared into success and acclaim all over in just a few months. But this was extremely daunting because Nela had already asked for her 'goddamn perfume', something which was usually requested as they reached the limo. Gina frantically dug around in the tote bad used to carry all of Nela's necessities.

 

"The concert in Chicago as been moved up to Thursday," Andrea went on.

 

"Thursday? What happened to the sold out stadium in Atlanta?!"

 

"Chicago just sold out a couple days ago and its on the way," Andrea reasoned.

 

Nela turned on Gina again, "Come on! What's taking so long!?"

 

Gina grabbed the first thing that resembled the size and shape of the perfume bottle and handed it to Nela.

 

"Cigarettes?!" Nela batted the box out of Gina's hand.

 

Gina must have stuck them in there without thinking. She didn't expect to have Nela in such a mood this time. She continued to rummaged through the bag.

 

"What are you trying to do, ruin my voice or kill me?!" Nela shouted.

 

Gina was frightened with such a jolt, some the contents of the bag leapt out and rained onto the floor. She got to her knees, trying to pick up the notebooks, and dayplanner, the pens and sunglasses and earrings. The entourage went to a dead halt, waiting for her.

 

"Do you believe this shit?!" Nela shouted to Andrea.

 

Gina turned to look up at Nela. She seemed imposing and strong, though without any shoes on at all the twenty year old pop star was only four foot eleven. Nela was also had skin quite pale for a Latin woman, it was simply a light tan. But her incredibly dark brown eyes had the exotic curves and long, sensual eye lashes that made her infamous, and, at times like these fiery. Her full lips then rang out in a clear voice, "What is this bullshit?!"

 

"If you don't shut your mouth, we're not going to any fucking shows and you'll sit on the goddamn bus for all I care," Andrea responded.

 

That shut Nela up.

 

Gina stood, having gathered all the things back into the bag. She handed Nela the perfume, even now she towered over the tiny diva, standing at five foot nine. Andrea herself was a giant to Nela; she stood at five foot ten. And Albert, he was six foot four aside from being of the normal bodyguard girth.

 

Nela glared at Gina with her fiery eyes. She took the bottle of perfume from her hand.

 

"Thank you," she said.

 

Her eyes lingered a second more. Gina could feel them burning into her. Gina felt huge standing in front of her. Gina was rather thin, but then so was Nela. Though, Nela did have a tight little butt and well-curved hips. This was still nothing to Gina's obvious height difference and larger bust. Nela wanted to shout at her, something, anything but withdrew. She walked ahead with Andrea, discussing the problems of the tour dates. Albert and Gina took up the back ranks letting the third bodyguard, Ralph, walk with Andrea and Nela.

 

"What the hell is her problem...," Gina muttered quietly.

 

"Her sister," Albert answered.

 

Gina wasn't prepared for an answer, not realizing he'd know what the hell she was talking about. She looked to him curiously, tossing her light brown hair over her shoulder. Her hazel eyes blinked expectantly at him.

 

"And her brothers actually," he went on. "You see, you look like her sister, and... Her sister and brothers all picked on her. They still do. Even with all this money and fame and perfume."

 

"Oh...," Gina pondered. It still didn't explain much. "Well, why?"

 

"She's the oldest, and they're all... well, much taller than her," he chuckled. "Its kind of funny to see a sixteen year old kid pick up his sister and hang her from a hook on the wall..."

 

Gina smiled, a bit guiltily.

 

"Man... Was she mad," he reminiced. "But all her kicking and screaming didn't do nothing. They all just laughed at her."

 

"And where were you?"

 

Albert tried hard not to laugh, "Laughing right along with them..."

 

He couldn't contain himself and busted out laughing. Gina chuckled right along with him. Andrea and Nela turned around; Andrea's look more inquisitive and Nela's more annoyed. Albert and Gina straighted up, stopping their laughter. Albert gave another smile of his pearly white teeth which was enough to make Nela turn around.

 

Gina and Albert glanced at each other again, smiling secretively. They reached the doors to exit the stadium, only to be met by a barrage of reporters, photographers, cameras and more fans. It was useless to have the ropes up because they all leaned over them with wreckless abandon. The camera flashes started up at once. Some photographers just started shouting her name to get her attention.

 

"Nela!"

 

"Nela! Is it true you're delaying the Atlanta tour date?!"

 

"Nela!"

 

"Nela, over here!"

 

"Nela, is it true you've disowned your parents?!"

 

"Are you having an affair with president of SuperStar Records?!"

 

"Nela!"

 

"Over here!"

 

The madness was soon over as they piled into the limosine. Nela's face was red with anger, embarassment, and fatigue. She sat alongside Andrea, having Albert and Gina face her in the seat across from them. Gil and Ralph took their usual seats section closer to the front so they could watch ESPN and catch up on the day's games. The doors closed, but the people outside could still be heard and the flashed still flickered against the mirrored glass.

 

Maybe it had been a long day. Maybe it was the non-stop touring since New York two weeks ago. Maybe it was all the crowds. Or maybe it was the all the provcative questions. Maybe the camera flashes had something to do with it. Maybe it was the fact that even now, everyone in the limosine sitting around her looked so big. For whatever reason, Nela started to cry.

 

Andrea turned to her, reaching her arms around Nela so to hide her face. Andrea's auburn hair sheilded most of Nela's head, but the sobbing was still apparent. Gina stared in awe at this, it looked as though Andrea was consoling a child, a little girl. Gina turned to Albert who guiltily kept his mouth shut tight.

 

 

 

Part 2

 

By eight fifty the next morning, all of Gina's sympathy for Nela had subsided. One of the reasons for this was that when she approached the door to Nela's hotel room, it was obvious there was a loud verbal exchange going on. Gina lightly tapped her knuckles against the door and found that the door was still somewhat left open. She slid her way into the room quietly.

 

The scene she entered was a chaos of clothes and opened luggage. Nela had dumped everything all over and was now on her hands and knees in search of something. Andrea was impatiently standing over her like a frustrated mother.

 

"We don't have time for this!" Andrea reminded.

 

Gina turned to Albert who was sitting in a chair nearby the door. He slowly turned to her and said simply, "Good morning."

 

"But I can't find it!" Nela argued to Andrea.

 

"What can't she find?" Gina asked Albert, who had resumed watching the scene.

 

"I don't know... A belt, I think," he answered. Then said, "Do you think they'll serve breakfast on the plane?"

 

"Gina!" Nela shouted in her direction, though it wasn't an angered yell; a strange change from the ordinary that took Gina off-guard.

 

"Come help, quick, please!" Nela waved her over enthusiastically.

 

Andrea rolled her eyes with more frustration as Gina approached them.

 

'This girl is crazy,' Andrea thought to herself.

 

Gina got on her hands and knees as well and began digging through the clothes, "Um, what are we looking for?"

 

"It's my belt, the studded one I got from Prada... I've been looking all morning."

 

Gina searched the floor for only a few seconds more before stopping and standing up. She walked to the gym bag sitting on the center table of the hotel room and unzipped it. It was a bag Nela frequently used to keep a change of clothes for after concerts. And, since she had a couple advertisement contracts with several designers, she had more than an adequate selection of clothes. Gina stuck her hand into the gym bag and pulled out the belt.

 

"This one?" Gina asked.

 

"Yes! That's it!" Nela smiled, jumping to her feet.

 

She ran to Gina and wrapped her arms around the woman. Gina felt like she was being hugged by a small child with an incredible grip. She realized Nela was only a few years younger than herself, and that only made Gina feel quite large in comparison.

 

Andrea looked to Albert, expecting to get the same thought that was running through her head, 'Talk about mood swings...'

 

Instead, Albert vocalized the thought, "I wonder how the fans never figure out she always takes a plane..."

 

Now two thoughts ran through Andrea's head. One, Albert must be high, and two, the plane leaves in less than an hour.

 

"Alright, let's get moving," Andrea ordered.

 

Nela quit the embrace with Gina and began putting on the belt with a smile. Gina smiled back, having to tilt her head down to Nela. Having to look up a Gina bothered Nela a bit and her smile faded. She finished buckling the belt, just as Gina's smile became uncertain and faded as well.

 

"Let's clean this crap up," Nela said and began scooping her clothes up back into the suitcases.

 

 

 

By the time they piled into the limo, there was no way they were going to make the plane. Andrea sighed and pulled out her trusty cell phone. She dialed up a few numbers, did some sweet-talking and gave out a couple of tickets to the concert in Los Angeles. That's all it took to charter a private plane to Chicago. The technicians and equipment had been driving since last night and were well on their way to the city. They never traveled with Nela and the entourage. Even Ralph and Gil went ahead on their own separate flights. Andrea had figured out that the less people around Nela, the better.

 

Smaller planes always feel more turbulence than the larger types. Despite the fact that she knew this, it didn't seem to make Gina's stomach sit any stiller. She had a horrible bout of motion sickness, even sitting in the back of the plane which she thought was supposed to be better. Although now she was unsure if it was the front or the back. Albert lay across four or five seats, dead asleep. Andrea was sure he was high now, but her watchful eyes passed from him and onto Gina briefly as the woman stood and made a bee-line for the on-board restroom. Andrea then turned her attention to Nela who sat by herself several rows up in a little lounge area. There were magazines piled onto the table with cover titles like, "SUPERSTAR RECORDS MEGA-STAR" and "NELA TOPS THE CHARTS--AGAIN!" These were simply the magazine covering the tabloids which lay below them. They had titles such as, "NELA AND JACOB SITTIN' IN A TREE, S-E-X!" or "NELA GIGANTI TO PARENTS, STAY OUT OF MY LIFE!"

 

But Nela wasn't reading them. She was staring out the window of the plane with vacant eyes. Once in a while she would push a few fallen strands of her dark hair which was a couple inches short of shoulder length. Andrea's moment of empathy was cut short by the sound of Gina's vomiting in the restroom behind her. Andrea signed heavily with a slight bit of disgust. Her cell phone chimed.

 

Instinctively, she answered it, "Hello?"

 

It was Martine, the concert director at the next show.

 

"Yes, we're going to be a little late, but we'll be there... I'd say, maybe a half hour. Hello? Hello?" Andrea pushed a button or two on her phone.

 

Interference.

 

Just then, Gina groggily stepped out of the restroom. She was trying to make her way back into her seat as Andrea was standing up and moving to the back of the plane to get a better signal. As they fought to go their separate ways, Gina looked up to see Nela sitting up in her seat, still staring out the window, but more intently. She was definitely looking at something it seemed.

 

Andrea pushed past Gina, and Gina jerked forward. She thought it was her footing, but then a huge jolt hit the plane. A blinding pale orange light came through the window Nela was looking through. A second later, the plane was moved so hard and so suddenly Albert flew off the row of seats and startled awake. The plane was going down. Fast. Gina was freaking out. She was going to die she knew. All at once, the world spun. Not just in her mind, the plane itself was in a powerful tailspin. It gradually stopped, there was another jump that startled her.

 

They were alive. The plane regained altitude and the pilot came on the intercom, "Sorry about that, I hit a pocket of turbulence that I couldn't anticipate fast enough. We're all right, though. We should safely land in fifteen minutes."

 

"Hello? Hello? Andrea?" Martine's voice came through the phone.

 

"I'll call you right back," Andrea answered and quickly hung up. Gina got to her feet, as did Albert who tried to appear as though he hadn't been sleeping. They were all fixated on Nela who lie on her back staring up at the ceiling of the plane. She was motionless, but seemingly unharmed.

 

Andrea ad Albert looked to each other, then to Gina. If anyone was going to be the brunt of Nela's fury it might as well be her. They both nudged Gina forward. She hesitantly stepped toward the young woman's quietly resting body.

 

"Nela?" she said softly, with a slight crackle in her voice.

 

There was no answer.

 

She neared the young woman cautiously.

 

'God,' Gina thought. 'Has she gotten smaller?'

 

Gina stood over Nela, looking right down on her face. Nela's dark brown eyes now looked blacked due to her pupils being so hugely dilated. Her expression was complacent, but without a smile.

 

"Nela?" Gina asked again.

 

Albert and Andrea moved toward Gina, more for Gina's sake in case Nela decided to kick her in the face from her position on the ground (something which she had done before and was quite amazing as it seemed she had such short legs). Albert and Andrea stood right alongside Gina, the three of them looking down on Nela who lay there motionless. She only blinked rapidly, once in a while.

 

"Are you O.K.?" Andrea asked.

 

No words crossed Nela's lips, but a single thought did cross her mind as she stared up at them, 'Everything looks gigantic.'

 

 

 

Part 3

 

Very little was said by anyone after the jaunting plane ride. The pilot, of course, apologized in person but really there was no more than a few words exchanged between the travelers, all for different reasons. Albert was fairly embarassed he had not been awake during most of the incident, realizing also he could have died in his sleep. Gina, aside from fearing death on her own part as well, was also thinking about that strange illumination that had hit Nela, wondering if anyone else had seen it. Andrea was shaken, but concerned with the concert, and more importantly, her performer, who even now, was wide-eyed and vacant and hadn't said more than three words since they stepped off the plane.

 

Now that they were in the limo, Andrea felt the need to ask, "Are you O.K.? Can you go on tonight?"

 

Nela nodded. But Andrea wasn't convinced. It took another hour in traffic before they reached the arena and by then Andrea persisted, "Are you sure you can go on?"

 

"Yeah," Nela answered.

 

'Well,' Andrea thought, 'at least she's speaking now."

 

To Andrea's relief, the concert went on without a hitch. In fact, Nela gave the best performance of her young career. That seemed to be enough to awaken the status quo of Nela and her entourage. After the concert and the backstage mingling, it was the same thing.

 

Albert swept her away from the fans and led her down the hall, handing her a bottle of water.

 

"Thank god...," Nela muttered, taking a swig of water.

 

Albert only cracked a smile in response.

 

As soon as they turned the corner, Andrea and Gina appeared, taking up ranks on either side of her. Gil took up the rear, fending off more fans.

 

"That was magnificent!" Andrea grinned. "We're going to knock them dead in L.A. next week! And we'll probably sell out seats in Dallas now..."

 

"We hadn't sold out in Dallas?" Nela asked with some annoyance.

 

Andrea's cell phone rang, "We did now!"

 

She answered it.

 

Nela gave a slight roll of her eyes before taking another drink of water. She turned to Gina, and ordered, "Perfume."

 

Gina was already ready for this request and handed Nela the bottle instantly. She spritzed herself liberally with the perfume and handed it back to Gina as they walked. But Gina was unprepared for the reception of the bottle, as it was she was digging through the tote bag for the next thing Nela might ask for. And so, the bottle, brushing Gina's fingertips and leaving Nela's, hung in mid-air momentarily before falling straight down to the linolieum floor below. Albert's eyes went wide and he gritted his pearly white teeth in his jaw, knowing there was nothing he could do to stop the impending situation.

 

Glass and liquid odor shot across the floor from the epicenter of the impact. all movement stopped. Nela looked to Gina with those dark fiery eyes, and didn't waste a second, "You clumsy, useless idiot!"

 

Her shouting seemed to cut short. There was a brief uneasiness. A light-headedness. Was she back on the plane? Nela swayed a bit, being caught by Andrea whom she fell back into a second later.

 

"Are you all right?" Andrea said, clutching her cell phone between her shoulder and ear.

 

"Uh... yeah, yeah... I think so," Nela said softly.

 

Gina finally exhaled.

 

"I'm sorry," Gina said weakly.

 

"It's fine," Nela answered in her normal tone. She stood from Andrea's grip. Andrea hung up her phone conversation.

 

"Are you all right?" she asked again.

 

"Yes, for the last time I'm fine!" Nela responded. She felt a shake run through her, almost losing her footing again.

 

Albert caught her this time, "Maybe you should see a doctor."

 

"Yes, that's an excellent idea, Albert," Andrea agreed.

 

"No, no, really, I'm fine," Nela answered. "Just, like... stressed, you know?"

 

Andrea looked to Gina, not angry at her, but moreso to see how startled she was. It was apparent Nela had erupted on Gina with great intensity because Gina looked as pale as she did on the plane.

 

"Alright," Andrea shrugged. "I guess we're good to go."

 

"Good," Nela said.

 

She go to her feet and turned to Gina, "I'm sorry..."

 

They continued to make their way out the arena doors, into the crowds, where Nela added, "Sorry you're such a fucking moron."

 

Instantly, the light-headedness returned, much less this time so Nela was able to pass it off as nothing more than a near stumble as they reached the limo. All she wanted to do was get to the hotel and fall into bed. They had a whole day of nothing to do before they would fly to Denver for the next concert and Nela wanted to spend that whole day sleeping.

 

As soon as they checked in, Nela made her way upstairs to her suite and jumped right onto the bed. She didn't bother to turn down the sheets, and simply passed out.

 

 

 

The next morning, the slight rapping of Andrea's fist on the door to Nela's suite awakened her. It was eleven thirty and so she was satisfied with the amount of sleep she had recieved. Nela climbed out of bed, smirking when she saw she was still wearing the clothes she had worn to the concert that night. She opened the door.

 

"Good morning, sleepyhead," Andrea smiled, wearing Spandex clothes and slinging a towel around her neck.

 

"Morning...," Nela smiled rubbing her face awake.

 

"Sorry to bother you, Nela, but you have the key card that opens up the weight room downstairs," Andrea said.

 

"Oh," Nela said.

 

She dug into the pocket of her tight-fitting black Lycra pants trying to reach the key card she had stuffed in there the night before. Try as she might, she just couldn't seem to squeeze her hand in far enough. Nela struggled to get her fingers in far enough to grasp the key card, "I...uh! can't seem to... get... this... fucking... thing... out!"

 

Andrea watched her battle her own pants for the moment before suggesting, "Here, maybe if I hold the pocket open."

 

So Andrea pulled the rim of the pocket out and Nela dug her whole hand in, still finding the effort to be arduous and the fit far too snug. She was, however, able to pull the key card out and hand it to Andrea.

 

"Here," she said with an exhausted breath. "I hope you don't need any gum later, because I'm pretty sure that's lost forever in my other pocket..."

 

Andrea smiled, then looked to Nela, "Would you like to come along? It's always fun to see Albert benchpress two hundred and eighty pounds."

 

"No thanks," Nela sighed. "I have a date with the TV and the room service boy."

 

Andrea laughed, but gave Nela a curious look after a moment. Nela caught this and was a bit troubled by it, "What? What is it?"

 

"Oh... it's nothing, dear," Andrea shrugged, feeling the need to pull away from this conversation immediately.

 

"No, no, no... You looked at me like I had three heads, what's the matter?"

 

"Well...," Andrea began, she couldn't think of a lie. Why couldn't she think of a lie. She lied all the time to people, all day. Maybe it was because they were on the phone and couldn't see her face to face. Shit, she thought, if only I had a decent lie.

 

"You're looking a little... chunkier."

 

Nela gave Andrea a look like her eyes were shooting ice picks at her, "What?"

 

Oddly, Nela felt her pants go even more snug.

 

"Forget it, I just better go," Andrea said.

 

"Yeah, good idea," Nela answered and shut the door before Andrea could turn away. She got a degree of satisfaction hearing the muffled, "Ow!" from her manager. But upon walking away, Nela did feel as though her pants were too tight. She turned from side to side in them.

 

'It must have been because I slept in them,' she thought. 'It crinkled the material...'

 

She yanked them off and switched to a pair of basketball shorts, and did nothing but lounge in the hotel room all day long.

 

 

 

Part 4

 

A little time away from one another was probably what the entourage needed most. They had been on tour with each other for over two weeks now having started in Europe and making their way across the Northeastern United States. The long distance of traveling just made it feel longer. Andrea took the extra day to relax, and turn off her cell phone. Unfortunately, when she turned it back on the next morning she had accumulated twenty-seven messages on her voice mail. Albert had taken the day off to sit around the hotel's pool and that night he even took some of the women he met poolside out to the clubs. The next morning, hoever, he had to get them all out of his hotel room.

 

Gina had vanished completely that day. She left the hotel and roamed Chicago at her leisure. When she awoke, however, she had found her credit cards cut up and bags of clothes set around the room. She wasn't the only one who had been a spend-thrift, though. Despite the fact that Nela wanted no human contact that day, she had tallied up quite a bill charging room service. It was so much so, that when Gina knocked on her door the next morning there was a loud rustling and clinking of food wrappers and silverware as Nela approached the door.

 

The door opened and Gina saw a half dressed Nela trying to zip up a pair of low-rise jeans.

 

"Yeah, come on in," Nela muttered walking away from the door.

 

Gina was in awe of the mess all over the floor and on the counters and tables.

 

"What the hell is all this?" she whispered in amazement.

 

A second later, a little knock came to Nela's door. Andrea pushed the door open and in her usual hurried pace said, "Alright, let's get mov--holy shit..."

 

She looked to Gina with the same amount of shock with which Gina had entered.

 

"You've to be kidding me...," Andrea said, stepping over the bags of take out.

 

"I-I-I don't know what the hell she was thinking," Gina tried to offer an explanation, but fell flat.

 

Andrea sighed. There was no time to clean it all up, or any reason to bother. The hotel maids would take care of it, Andrea would just have to leave them a decent tip. She dug around in her coat pocket looking for some extra cash.

 

"Nela? Are you ready yet?" Andrea asked.

 

"No!" Nela called out from the bedroom.

 

"Go see what's taking so long," Andrea said to Gina.

 

Gina headed for the bedroom. She often wondered why she did everything on command like that, without thinking about it. She knew she was inevitably going to get yelled at or berated. Maybe she just didn't care any more. Or maybe she enjoyed it.

 

She stopped at the door to the bedroom, "What's the matter, Nela? Need me to help you finish packing?"

 

Gina fished for reasons, knowing the right one anyway.

 

"No...," Nela struggled. "These jeans are too tight..."

 

"Can't imagine why...," Gina muttered, looking to the mess that was even in her room.

 

Nela swung around, "What's that supposed to mean?!!"

 

Gina grabbed the door frame with a start, she didn't think she had spoken loud enough for Nela to hear. Nela felt her jeans squueze tighter on her thighs and hips. Her underwear felt like it was going to nearly cut off her circulation. But she didn't seem to notice these slight pains much as she stormed toward Gina, pains which she simply recognized as being due to her aggravated movement.

 

"I-I-I-I-I-I-I...," Gina stammered.

 

"Are you saying I'm fat?!" Nela shouted up at Gina.

 

"N-No, no, no, I was just..."

 

"Then what were you trying to say?!" Nela's eyes blazed at Gina.

 

She suddenly felt her ass grow too large in her jeans. Nela's mouth dropped open, her eyes lost their fix on Gina, and she quickly slapped her hands onto her bottom. Gina's mood suddenly changed as well. She was now very curious as to what Nela's problem was because from her standpoint, nothing of notice had happened.

 

"Uh, are-are you all right?" Gina ventured.

 

"I-I'm fine," Nela answered, trying to give Gina that same look as before, but coming up short.

 

"I was just saying I can't imagine why you'd have such a problem since everything is tailor-made for you," Gina finally got out.

 

It was a good enough cover for her first mistake, she just had to hope Nela bought it.

 

"Yeah, I know," Nela said quietly.

 

She sat on the bed and felt the stone-washed denim of the jeans pull against her thighs. She looked to her ankles. Did the cuffs always reach that far down? She though so. Not wanting to dwell on something so meaningless at this point and already behind on Andrea's itinerary, Nela stood up.

 

"Alright, we need to be out of here in the next three minutes!" Andrea called to them from the next room.

 

Seeing as how she was already stuffed into this pair of pants, Nela decided to just wear them.

 

"Could you do me a favor and pull the zipper up on these," she asked Gina.

 

"Um, sure, right," Gina moved closer to her at the odd request.

 

"Just, um, stand behind me, I guess," Nela suggested.

 

"Uh, O.K.," Gina did as she was told.

 

While Nela held the button and button-hole together, she also sucked in her flat tummy as far as it would go. Gina pulled the zipper up, with some effort, so that Nela could button up her pants.

 

Nela sighed, "See? Easy."

 

"Are we ready or what?" Andrea asked at the door to the bedroom.

 

"Yes, let's go if it'll shut you up," Nela answered.

 

"Ohhh, someone needs more sleep," Andrea smiled.

 

"I'm not cranky, just bitchy," Nela smirked.

 

Gina collected up the last of Nela's luggage in the bedroom. An odd thought passed through her head, though, it seemed much easier to zip her up than Gina had expected. Maybe not so much the strength involved, but, she didn't seem to have to reach down as far. This thought pestered her only up until the moment when Albert entered the hotel room, a big pearly white grin on his face. Gina saw the shoes. Nela was wearing a pair of sandals with heels so thick they probably boosted her up another two inches. That must have been it.

 

Gina's contemplation was broken apart by a spill out of Nela's clothes all over the ground. She hadn't closed the suitcase right.

 

"Not again!" she said, shaking her head at the fallen garments.

 

She carefully strained to bend over in her tight-fitting jeans, but Albert interrupted.

 

"Oh, no, please, allow me," he smiled with his white teeth.

 

He began putting away the clothes with happy fervor. Gina couldn't help but wonder why he was in such a good mood.

 

 

 

Part 5

 

This time they stuck to the iternary. Everything ran smoothly, especially the plane which was an air liner and not a private plane subject to turbulence. Though, as a precaution, Gina had bought dramamine during her shopping bender in Chicago. The pills were working so well, Andrea had to move to another row due to Gina's head constantly bobbing into her shoulder. She left her to slump over the seat and a half.

 

Andrea took comfort in reading the magazines Nela had passed up on the trip before. Albert sat wide awake, staring dreamily out his window, quite happy. Nela's thoughts, however, were much more obtrusive. She was very much bothered by this whole business of touring. Not so much the schedules and time tables, or ticket sales, but her image and reputation. The press was already at her.

 

Right now she was off to Denver, then to Las Vegas and then to Los Angeles for enough time to perform three more times. It was in Los Angeles where the most press scrutiny would occur. She suddenly remembered her tight fitting jeans. If she had gained so much as an ounce, the press would call it a ton. Nela dropped her head into her hand with an agonizing sigh.

 

A slight hang up occurred when they started to leave the aircraft. Gina was so doped up, she was unable to move, or hear apparently. Albert ended up having to carry her out of the plane and through the airport. Whenever a gawker gave him an odd look, he simply said, "We've just been married" or "Long honeymoon."

 

It was harmless enough and it brought a good deal of laughter to Nela and Andrea. Gina started to come to in the limo. It was a slow, gradual process that was quite entertaining to watch and brought at least another hours worth of entertainment until they made it to the hotel.

 

Unfortunately, the good people at the area's best hotel had somehow lost their reservation. This really was of little consequence and they simply moved to the Denver area's second best hotel, dragging Gina much of the way. Gina was in much of a stupor, still, even after most of the dramamine had worn off. She did remember most things, even the numerous requests Nela made while she prepared for the evening's performance.

 

More unfortunately still, Gina's motor skills and coordination were affected, making her usual clumsiness worse off than usual. Nela was in a good mood though and bared much of Gina's bumbling for the time being. She laughed a good deal of it off, too. But it was a bit more than she could take when Gina forgot the carry-on luggage in the plane (something that they discovered two hours after the fact), and in a hurry to get out of Nela's way, stepped on the young woman's bare foot.

 

"O.K., maybe you should just leave for right now," Nela suggested.

 

She knew her patience was running out and Gina surely knew it. Most unfortunately, Gina's room was an adjoining suite to Nela', so on her exit, she unwittingly slammed the door into Nela's face as Nela was going to ask her where she had left her make-up bag. The resulting blow to the head was enough to smart in Nela's nose and cause her to struggle back astonished for the moment.

 

Gina realized her mistake and quickly opened the door back up to help Nela.

 

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Gina begged.

 

As she advanced to help, Nela backed away to retreat, "No, no... don't worry..."

 

Nela tripped over the coffee table, flew onto her backside and hit her head on the sliding glass door to the outdoor patio.

 

"OW! Fuck!" she screamed.

 

Her head pressed against the glass harder.

 

Gina didn't have enough time to question her thoughts and immediately backpeddled as Nela leapt to her feet and almost simultaneously stumbled over the coffee table, landing face first onto the ground. Gina watched for a split second as Nela's buttocks filled out her jeans and her body seemed to lengthen. Was it too much dramamine?

 

She couldn't be sure because a second later Nela was on her feet again, grabbing Gina by the arms and forcing her against the nearest wall.

 

"You stupid, incompetent clutz!!" she shouted.

 

They both became aware of a slight creaking sound coming from Nela's vicinity. Nela became more aware of how big her hips had swelled in her jeans. The tightness was so great in around her stomach that she reflexively let go of Gina to keel over in pain.

 

"AHHHH!!" she wailed.

 

Gina backed away not knowing what to expect next.

 

"Help me you fucking moron!" Nela shouted, standing up straight briefly. In that second, the slight creaking from before made itself known again and the button to Nela's jeans popped off, hitting Gina in the gut. Nela dropped to the floor, reeling in pain. The scream drew in Albert, Gil and Ralph, and pushing past the mountains of muscle, Andrea.

 

She dropped to her knees to go to Nela's aid, not giving Gina a second glance. Albert solemnly moved Gina aside, "Uh, maybe you better wait in the hallway."

 

"I-I-I didn't...," Gina tried to form a sentence.

 

"I know, but...," Albert shrugged.

 

Gina quickly stepped out while Andrea whipped out her cell phone and called for an ambulance.

 

 

 

Part 6

 

There was no way around it. The Denver concert had to be canceled. It simply wasn't possible once they had gotten the ambulance and riden to the hospital. Only Andrea seemed to be upset about that much of the problem. Most everyone else was curious as to what had happened to Nela, especially Nela.

 

The bodyguards didn't much care. They were getting paid either way and so lounging in a hospital lobby suited them just fine if they could watch the evening's basketball game. While they hung out in the lobby, Andrea, Gina and Nela waited quietly in an examination room with Dr.David Moran. He was a skinny man, tall, with a bedside manner that was quite good by all accounts.

 

He looked over Nela briefly, checking out the possibilities he had laid out in his mind when he had heard the symptoms first. He checked her throat, then her hands for clamminess, her mid-back for any kidney soreness, and her stomach and around such areas for any feelings of pain.

 

Nela said she had no pain in all such places and only had a complaint with the paper gown she was wearing which made her a little cold. At that point, the doctor told her he was done with his examination and that she could get dressed. Gina had brought a change of clothes for her and cautiuosly moved to Nela.

 

"Well, what is it?" Andrea asked.

 

"I... don't know," Dr.Moran shrugged. He made a few checks to his chart.

 

"What do you think it is?" she persisted.

 

"Well, from everything I hear, it could have been an ulcer," he said. "But... all the blood work came back fine and she doesn't seem to have any other soreness there."

 

"So...," Andrea struggled to think of another question.

 

Dr.Moran answered for her, leaning forward and speaking low, "But, I did think it was weird that she just had this problem out of nowhere."

 

Andrea nodded.

 

"And, the paramedics had to practically cut her out of her jeans," he added.

 

"That might of had something to do with it...," Andrea agreed.

 

"I would think so," Dr.Moran continued. "Maybe it was just a problem with her clothes being too tight. It's pretty uncomfortable and if it stays that way for a long time, your body reacts violently. Like, whenever you've worn pumps for too long, or well, something to that effect."

 

Andrea nodded slowly, understanding the comparison. She watched Nela dress as Dr.Moran continued to make notes on his clipboard charts. Nela slipped on a pair of button-fly jeans with some effort and put on the tank top that Gina had grabbed as they hurried out with the paramedics. Nela struggled to button-up her jeans, making it to the fourth one and not being able to quite get the fifth.

 

"Jesus...! What is with you?!" she grumbled.

 

Andrea suddenly remembered Nela's frustration with getting the key card to the work out room from her tight pants eariler. Gina was standing near enough to Nela to hear the odd creaking sound resonate from her again.

 

"Nela?" Andrea said, more curious than anything else.

 

Nela ignored her and turned on Gina, "Are you purposely giving me clothes that are too small?! Trying to make me think I'm gaining weight?!"

 

The creaking resonated. Nela stretched an inch taller. Gina gasped, backing away. Andrea wasn't sure what she had seen, but she was sure the doctor hadn't seen it. She grabbed his arm instinctively to get his attention. Dr.Moran looked up from the charts and to Andrea, then quickly to Nela when he saw Andrea's eyes fixed on her.

 

"You probably think this is so fucking funny, don't you?!" Nela shouted. "I should fire your sorry ass the next chance I get!"

 

This time the creaking caught Nela's ear. She stretched an inch or so taller and the buttons on her jeans popped off, bouncing across the room. Her eyes went wide and suddenly her anger transformed into bewilderment. Everyone else in the examination room was already past that point, feeling a disturbing sense of awe that bordered on fright. Such things that they had just seen don't happen to people.

 

"What the hell was that?" Dr.Moran said, unsure for the moment if he was asking himself as a reality check.

 

"You saw it, too?" Gina asked desperately. Finally, someone else had noticed it.

 

Andrea carefully moved toward Nela who was petrified of herself.

 

"How tall are you now?" Andrea asked.

 

Nela couldn't answer, still in shock.

 

"She should be five foot one," Dr.Moran said, scanning the charts.

 

"Five foot...," Andrea began, amazed. "No, that's not right..."

 

"Those are the measurements the nurse just took when she came in twenty minutes ago," Moran argued.

 

"She's four foot eleven," Andrea argued, now marching to Dr.Moran to get a look at the charts.

 

"I'm telling you...," Moran persisted.

 

"This is wrong," Andrea shook her head.

 

"Why don't we measure her now?" Gina suggested.

 

Andrea and Dr.Moran gave each other a glance.

 

"Nela, could you step up on the scale for me?" the doctor asked.

 

Nela nervously shook her head slowly.

 

"Please, Nela," Andrea said in a motherly tone. "Just to settle this little argument?"

 

Nela stepped to the scale with some hesitation. Dr.Moran and Andrea went to her side. Moran pulled out the measure that was built into the scale and raised the leveler to lie atop Nela's head. The final measure...

 

"Five foot four?" Moran said with a crack in his voice.

 

"What?!" Andrea was double checking every part of the scale's ruler, but Nela backed off the scale frightfully quick.

 

"What's happening to me?" she whimpered.

 

"You're growing," Andrea said, still unable to believe it herself.

 

"And pretty damn fast at that," Moran added. "Nobody gains three inches in twenty minutes."

 

"Is that why my clothes have been so small on me?" she asked in a peep.

 

"I'd say that's a safe bet," Dr.Moran nodded.

 

"Ha!" Gina smiled. "See, it wasn't my fault!"

 

Nela looked to her with watery eyes, "I'm sorry... I didn't... What the fuck is happening to me?!"

 

Her body creaked again. They all watched as Nela put her crying face in her hands and grew another inch. They watched her sob for a moment, all unsure if their collective correlation was true or not.

 

"Nela...," Andrea began, "Could you stop crying for a second...?"

 

She shook her head with a sob.

 

Andrea smiled, "Please?"

 

She walked toward the young woman, putting her arms around her.

 

"I think I know what the problem is," Andrea added.

 

"What?" Nela sniffled.

 

"It happens every time you get mad," Andrea hypothesized.

 

"Really?" Nela sniffled.

 

"I think so," Dr.Moran said. "But I'd like to run a few tests to be sure. You wouldn't mind, would you?"

 

"I-I guess not," Nela shrugged, wiping her eyes.

 

"Alright, come with me," he said, walking them out of the examinstion room.

 

Gina stood there by herself, a blank expression on her face. Was she the only one who saw the danger with this strange disease afflicting Nela of all people?

 

 

 

Part 7

 

The lab results were finished by twelve thirty that night. By that time, Gil and Ralph went back to the hotel and Gina had taken a taxi with Albert to get Nela some decent fitting clothes. Dr.Moran had to call in a specialist who originally had the night off, but he was one of the best in his feild, and an avid Nela Giganti fan--hence, having the night off. Since he couldn't go to the concert, he might as well get the next best thing.

 

Dr.Sergi Fonta was a man older than Dr.Moran, and he spoke with a slight accent being that he was originally from Argentina. Tonight, his already charismatic personality was at a high point having at several cups of coffee to stay awake and being so excited about meeting this pop star.

 

Nela was gracious, of course, and more so due to the fact she was unsure what getting angry or annoyed at anything would due to her. Andrea stuck by her like a good maternal figure, asking all the questions and all the right questions for her. It had been a good two hours of light conversation before the lab results were finished processing and Dr.Fonta was able to make some sense out of them.

 

"Alrighty," he said examining the information through his bi-focals. "This is... ah... But where... hm... I see..."

 

Dr.Moran stood alongside him after a moment, looking over the charts. He had a limited understand of oncology, but enough to make sense of the information before him. Dr.Fonta gave him a sideways glance that caught Dr.Moran's attention. He tapped his finger on the pages, then scrolled down a whole column's worth of the print out. Fonta point out a row of chemical compounds and then the row below them, muttering something about "completely normal levels but an understated pattern."

 

At this point, Moran was lost.

 

"So what does this mean?" he asked Fonta.

 

Fonta let out a heaving sigh, "It means I've never seen this before."

 

He turned to Andrea and Nela, still holding the print out, "I don't think anyone has. I suppose I could check the medical journals, open some medical history books... But I doubt I'd find anything close."

 

"What is it?" Andrea asked.

 

Fonta took off his bi-focals and rubbed his nose with a sigh. He put the bi-focals back on, double-checking the print-out to make sure there was no mistake.

 

"Alrighty," he began. "The human body reacts to different situations with the release of certain chemicals or hormones. Some of these are reflex, habit, others are personality, which are also some form of habit. These reactions cause a build up of certain chemicals in the body..."

 

He could see that his attempt to simplify the diagnosis wasn't sinking in with Nela and Andrea.

 

"Um," he started over. "Like, when a bodybuilder builds muscle... He overloads his muscles so that they produce a chemical to supplement their normal state. The result is the release of another chemical to repair this first chemical because the muscle is depleted, and damaged to a degree."

 

There was a glimmer of understanding from all in the room.

 

Fonta continued, sure he had his audience in the right frame of mind, "So, in the same way, we have chemicals in our emotional response that build up and are pushed out by others to return us to our normal state."

 

Dr.Moran suddenly had an incredible tidal wave of understanding. He approached Dr.Fonta with wonderment.

 

"What does that have to do with...," Andrea began, and Moran quickly answered.

 

"It means whenever Nela gets angry, her body's natural response is to release this chemical, as it is everybody's natural response. But then, in order to make up for too much of this chemical, our bodies release another one to bring us back to our normal state."

 

Fonta nodded, "Yes... But, it seems that there is something attached to this second chemical, so when it builds up, it actually releases... Well! A couple other things that don't belong!"

 

He smiled, trying to get some levity from them. It didn't work.

 

"So why did she grow when she was crying?" Andrea asked.

 

Moran shrugged, "No idea. Maybe a residual action of the two or three other compounds in her body..."

 

"What other compounds?" Nela asked quietly. "I mean, if all this happens in a normal body, why is it different in mine?"

 

Fonta shook his head, "It's not completely normal. These extra chemicals..."

 

He took a moment to read the print out again, "Ah! One of them is obviously human growth hormone, the other is-is, well, is a hormone that should not be there after puberty."

 

Moran took a look at the print out, "The hell?"

 

"It's a chemical that tells the body when to grow and when to stop," Fonta explained.

 

"And its attached itself to the human growth hormone," Moran added.

 

"This other chemical I have never seen before but it looks closely related to H-G-H," Fonta nodded.

 

The discussion had become purely academic and Andrea needed to find a way to chisel her way in or she would be left behind.

 

"So what are we supposed to do?" she asked.

 

"Right now," Fonta said. "Nothing! We go to sleep."

 

Moran thought this was somewhat humorous and smiled.

 

"I'll send this to a friend of mine at a laboratory in Las Vegas," Fonta added. "She'll be able to give you more help than I can here."

 

"Las Vegas?" Nela asked with some relief.

 

Fonta nodded, "Yes. There's more than just gambling out there!"

 

Andrea still didn't find Fonta's attempts at humor funny, but played along.

 

"For now," Fonta added, "just keep her calm. Don't let her get mad. Watch lots of cartoons."

 

"You think you can handle that?" Andrea asked Nela.

 

"I don't know," Nela answered unsure of herself.

 

"We'll get you some dramamine," Andrea smiled.

 

"Valium might be better," Moran added.

 

"I reccommend it, personally," Fonta added. He pulled out a pen and pad, "Now, about that autograph?"

 

He smiled and Nela, of course, signed. They chatted a bit which was enough time to get Dr.Moran and Andrea one on one.

 

"I'm serious," Moran added. "Anything to keep her from getting any kind of emotional stress. Valium, quaaludes, dramamine, whatever it takes. After seeing her blow up at that assistant a few hours ago, I for one am fucking terrified of this girl right now."

 

"Wh-Why?" Andrea asked quietly.

 

"Because we don't know how this little anger-causes-growth mechanism works right now," Moran explained. "And I'm not even sure if it has a peak."

 

"A-A peak?"

 

"A stopping point. A plateau. Something that will cause the reaction to level off," Moran was almost jittery now. He lowered his voice, "She could potentially grow forever."

 

Hearing a doctor say this with a grave amount of serious was enough to give Andrea a tingle of fear in her chest. She knew from first-hand experience just how much hell Nela could raise. She looked to the smiling pop star with tense eyes, knowing she was watching a ticking time bomb.

 

 

 

Part 8

 

Getting Nela to take the valiums was easy. It would explaining to her that she had been drugged hours later that would pose a problem. Andrea had given her the pills saying it was a "stronger kind of aspirin." It was the sort of lie that could be taken any way. But for now, Andrea's guilt stayed firmly in the back of her skull. All she could think about on the plane was Dr.Moran's words over and over as she sat in the eerie and calm darkness of the plane's cabin, staring at the unconcious Nela. Gina sat quietly, tensely, a cloud of guilt hanging over her head. Albert was asleep, unaware of any of the night's events beyond the hotel room incident.

 

He had been fed the same story as everyone else in the world. It was simply an ulcer brought about by too much touring and stressful conditions. The cover up would work for now, but it was inevitable, Andrea felt, that Nela's size would become more noticeable, more of an issue. It was late, or early, depending on the state of mine one was in; 4:34 a.m.

 

So, she thought it best to put the call off until the next morning, deciding that sleep for herself was more important. As soon as they touched ground in Las Vegas, Andrea pulled out her cell phone. She dialed up the only man who could pull more strings than her, her could manipulate the public on a grander scheme. He was the same man who could raise controversy, and yet somehow avoid it himself. That's what he had done with Nela. The forty year old man and the twenty year old pop star had went on a fling of sorts. Oddly, he wasn't portrayed as the dirty old man with the incredibly young and innocent girl fawning at him. Instead, Nela was portrayed as a loose, scandalous villaness.

 

It was more than enough to raise sex appeal and supply the media with enough to blow up her career in just a few short months. And Jacob Risling knew it from the start. He was a crafty man with a shock of silvered hair, once dark brown, that was also thinning, yet in a dignified manner. The old Brit was sophisticated, despite his usually crude means of business negotiation.

 

"Hello, hello?" he answered cheerily.

 

"Jacob," Andrea sighed. She kept her voice low in the limo. "Thank god."

 

"Andrea, good to hear from you," Jacob answered. "How's out little songbird doing?"

 

"Um, better," Andrea answered.

 

"Good, good."

 

"But, wait, not entirely good, good," she hesitated.

 

"Oh. I see," Jacob muttered. "So, it isn't an 'ulcer', right. What did the doctors say?"

 

"A lot of things," Andrea said, trying to beileve it herself again. "This is going to be hard to explain."

 

"Well I am a fairly educated man, Andrea," he said good naturedly."

 

"So are the doctors and they almost didn't believe it."

 

"Oh my."

 

"Oh yes," she said quietly. She turned away from Gina and Albert, both of whom were engaged in some other conversation.

 

"Jacob," she went on, "she's growing."

 

"At her age?" he said surprised. "That is quite peculiar."

 

"No, no, no," Andrea interrupted. "It's more than that. Look, I can't explain it all right now, but she may grow a lot more soon."

 

There was a moment of silence from the other end of the line. Jacob finally answered, "Hm. This is an odd set of circumstances."

 

"You have no idea."

 

"Well, I would like to have some," he said commandingly. "Fax me a full medical report to my office as soon as you get to the hospital."

 

"O.K. What do I do til then?"

 

"About what?"

 

"Her height?"

 

"How big in blazes is she?!"

 

"Five foot four."

 

"Well that isn't much of a stretch now is it?" he said with some relief. "You had me thinking she'd become a bloody giant, for Saint Peter's sake..."

 

"Still, it's five inches in less than two days," Andrea tried to explain.

 

"But how many people have measured her at these concerts, hm?" he argued slyly. "How much time has she really had around other people? And have they all had time to discuss such things?

 

"Well, no."

 

Jacob's voice took on that dashing wit, "So, she had a growth spurt. She's been touring for weeks now, no one's seen her for quite some time, and growth spurts in women can happen as late as age twenty."

 

"I thought it was nineteen," Andrea asked lowly.

 

"It's twenty," Jacob reassured. "And that's what all the doctors are going to say."

 

"O.K., O.K., twenty," Andrea agreed.

 

"Now, if you'll excuse me," he digressed. "I have some pressing matters to take up with this new production label."

 

"Don't let me keep you."

 

"A pleasure talking with you, Andrea," Jacob said in his usual charming tone.

 

"To you, too," she smiled.

 

"Bye for now."

 

"Bye."

 

She hung up. That solved one problem. The next was going to wake up in just a few hours when the valium wore off. Andrea gently stroked Nela's cheek as her head lay across her lap. The laboratory was only an hour away now. Hopefully, all this could be straightened out before show time, Andrea prayed.

 

 

 

Part 9

 

They reached the Las Vegas Institute for Scientific Research at around ten fifteen that morning. It was about that time that Nela began to stir and make faint whimpers and garbles like an infant. The valium was wearing off and Andrea now felt as though she needed some. She decided it was best to keep the details of Nela's intoxication out of Nela's knowledge.

 

"It's O.K.," Andrea said softly. "We're here."

 

"We are?" Nela groaned.

 

"Yes."

 

"Wait, where's here?" Nela squinted, and barely pushed the words out.

 

"Las Vegas," Andrea answered.

 

Nela was about to sit up with a start, but found she didn't have the capacity, or at least the energy.

 

"No, no," Andrea warned. "Don't worry about it."

 

"But... How? Did I sleep that whole time?" Nela asked groggily.

 

Andrea smiled, "Yeah. We didn't want to wake you."

 

"Oh," she said, a trace of doubt lingering.

 

She was confused, but, maybe that was just her oversleeping. The thought passed out of her mind as the limo pulled up to a stop in front of the laboratory. Her mind now thought about what a chore it was going to be trying to stand and then walk.

 

Andrea and Albert escorted her in while Gina kept her distance. There was tension mounting in the air. An already unstable relationship between the women had been formed by the working relationship they shared. Now, it seemed, there was more to it than that. It was an odd exchange that Gina herself didn't quite understand to begin with, and this new problem posed a whole new dilemma.

 

They were greeted by a tall, skinny woman with her shiny blond hair done up in a tight bun. She wore glasses with narrow, almond-shaped frames that only seemed to illuminate her green eyes more. Dr.Moira Andrews smiled as the four traveling companions made it to the front desk at the lobby. A security guard was already prepared to check them in through the metal detector and allow them access to the labs that lie within.

 

"Hi, Ms.Giganti," Dr.Andrews smiled. "We've been expecting you."

 

Nela made an effort to turn the edges of her lips up in a smile as she nearly dragged her feet across the floor.

 

"Hi," Andrea spoke for Nela and then rest, well, except for Albert.

 

"Hello," he said with a toothy grin.

 

"And who might this be?" Dr.Andrews said with a little more of a smile.

 

Gina felt a rash of jealousy suddenly come over her. It washed away when she realized she had no idea why it started in the first place.

 

"The bodyguard," Andrea said, interrupting the possibility of any flirtation between the good doctor and Albert.

 

"Can we get this started?" Andrea asked, trying not to sound as pushy as her words would indicate.

 

"Of course," Moira smiled. "Right this way.

 

She led them through the security check point and into the halls of the lab.

 

"The results of our tests on the blood samples were very intriguing," Moira explained. "It looks like Nela has some kind of reaction going on in her body like the way a chameleon changes colors to suit its environment, or how a bird's feathers molt when the seasons change."

 

"So she's got some genetic flaw?" Andrea tried to understand.

 

"Not exactly," Moira said. "We're still not sure how this happened. Her genes are fine. They're perfectly normal human genes. But for some reason, her body's suddenly manufacturing this mechanism that alters her size and shape from stimuli, um, usually anger, it seems."

 

"So how do we fix this?" Andrea asked.

 

"We can't right now," Moira answered. "We need to figure out how this mechanism is working. At this point, we don't understand how it got there or what part of her body is making these new chemicals or why the glands have been turned on again, or why they're being turned on and off. Hell, we're not sure why there isn't an off switch for it!"

 

"Off switch?" Gina muttered.

 

"Yes, explain that one," Andrea added.

 

"In most RNA strands," Moira went on, "there is a code that tells the body to stop making this protein or performing this action. The mechanism in Nela's body either doesn't have this stop code or it ignores in a way we're not understanding."

 

"So...?" Andrea coaxed.

 

"Oh, it just means once the first action has been performed, it continues on again in a loop," Moira explained. "Waiting for the next, exact same stimuli--anger--to occur."

 

Gina and Andrea both winced quick looks of worry, both of which went unnoticed by everyone else present. The concept was a horrible one that Moira prattled on about nonchalantly. No one else seemed to understand just how bad Nela's temper was, no one, except for maybr Gina and Andrea.

 

"One theory going around the water cooler is that the mechanism is keeping some kind of RNA memory bank and so her growth is becoming propotionally larger," Moira was a little excited now. The science behind such a thing was incredible.

 

"Another idea," she said, her voice dropping in excitement, "if that at some point, the mechanism will level off or burn out."

 

She shook her head as they reached the last door at the end of the hall, her private lab.

 

"I seriously doubt that one," Moira added. "It just doesn't compute."

 

They all entered the lab. Nela had been aware of all the talking, but wasn't able to pay attention and couldn't quite make out what everything meant in her semi-conscious state. The door closed behind them and Moira went to her computer while a couple lab assistants greeted them.

 

"Just a second," she said. She then spoke to the assistants, "Could you guys hook her up, please?"

 

"Hook her up?" Andrea asked.

 

"Oh, it's just a machine used to measure her body's response to things," Moira said, still punching away at the computer.

 

Andrea felt the flutter of butterflies beginning to quarrel in her stomach, "What do you mean?"

 

The assistants took Nela by the hands and walked her to an isolated section of the room.

 

"Oh, reflexes, brain waves... yada yada," Moira trailed off.

 

She was fully engrossed in the computer program now.

 

Gina felt a discomfort as well as the assistants began placing little suction cup like sensors on various parts of Nela's body, including her head, stomach and arms. The wires of the suction cups led to a large blocky computer database that was routed to the computer Moira was plugging away on. All the while, Albert simply watched Moira's bottom in the slightly bent over position the six foot six woman kept as she fiddled with the computer keys. Gina's worry, panged with envy again, briefly, before Moira turned around.

 

"Well," she said, "I think we're just about ready."

 

She gave a smile to Albert that Gina deemed unnecessary.

 

"Ready for what?" Andrea asked as Moira passed by her.

 

"Oh, we just need to verify some speculations, settle a couple bets and figure out just exactly what happens when... well, it happens," Moira said lightly.

 

She stopped in front of Nela who had regained much of her confidence in herself since the effects of the valium had worn away sufficiently. Moira reached an arm out to Nela and brushed a little bit of the young woman's short mahogany hair aside, as it was covering her ear. She gently stoked her face, leading up to a poetic grasping of Nela's delicate chin and jaw. A second later, a gracious slap echoed in the room as Moira's hand whipped across Nela's cheek.

 

"AGH!!" Nela screamed.

 

The effect was instant. No sooner had Nela's lip curled and her brow furrowed, that her body wholely responded with an elastic sound of stretching and she rose another inch and a half.

 

"What the fuck is this bullshit!?" she shouted. "What kind of a fucking doctor are you, you stupid bitch?!"

 

The same stretching noise and sight resulted, Nela grew another inch or so.

 

Her anger switched on Andrea, "You take me to some fucking quack in the middle of nowhere for this?! We were better off with the dumb asses back in fucking Denver!"

 

Another two inches stretched up through her. Her clothes ripped and her pants became tight enough to cause the button to pop off.

 

"Shit!" she said, slightly more upset now. "Now look what you made me do! I'm too big for my clothes again!"

 

Her tank top became too small for her breasts and strained against her body as her pants tore at the seams where her legs were too curvey and her hips too wide for them now.

 

"Nela, Nela," Moira smiled. "Relax. It's alright. It was just part of test so we could see the reaction as it happened, okay? I'm sorry."

 

Nela took a moment to catch her breath. It was a trick, but a necessary one, she thought. She would let it slide. For now.

 

"Oh," Nela panted lightly. "All right..."

 

But now she was five foot nine, more than a foot taller than her original, natural height only two days ago. Andrea and Gina felt a sense of panic rising inside them as the assistants pulled the suction cups from Nela's body. Couldn't these observant scientists see that all it took was a little aggravation to set Nela off like a firecracker? The two women remained shocked by the added problem of just how much she had grown from a few rantings and ravings. There was no telling what a full blown temper tantrum could do.

 

 

 

Part 10

 

Her temper aside, Nela also had another displayed another disturbing trend. She was more quiet than usual. Though, at this point, Andrea couldn't be sure if this was a side effect of the valiums or if it was a change in her mode. Another new bit of notice could be taken to Nela's fascination with Gina. At times, there were long moments of long staring that seemed to go unnoticed by anyone but Andrea. And, Andrea couldn't exactly comment on the occurance as it was she didn't want to irk Nela, or miss out on any information the scientists could provide. Gina soon took a notice to the eerie gazing Nela gave her.

 

At first she thought it was a result of being so drained by the medicine, a sort of stoner's stare. But after a couple more instances, Gina began to feel a self-conscious, and then anxious tingle over her. Nela was fixated on her. As it was, at this point, Nela was equal to Gina in height and even at her diminutive stature, Nela exerted an incredible amount of strength that even caught Albert off guard. Gina couldn't help but feel concerned, but did her best to appear unaffected by the long, intermittant stares Nela gave.

 

Another set of stares was going on that Gina could focus on. Albert and Moira frequently gave each other momentary glances that were too long to be fleeting. Gina felt that bit of envy rise up inside her again. It would reach an unsettling tremble when their gazes were broken by smiles and often one of them would look away, or in Moira's case, resume conversation about Nela's condition with Andrea.

 

"How long before we know anything?" Andrea asked, leaning back on a counter.

 

"Well," Moira hesitated. "Soon. That is, we do know something of it already, but we're not sure of... all of it."

 

Andrea was confused, even Albert broke from his flirtatious setting to give a perplexed grimace.

 

"I don't understand," Andrea said.

 

"Heh, neither do we," Moira shrugged. "You see, we're pretty sure we can figure out how it works and even what it's doing and why. But we still have no clue as to how or why this sort of change occurred in a perfectly normal and healthy adult."

 

Andrea paused with this slight revelation. Hadn't the doctors in Denver mentioned something like this before. Gina's mind raced. She had seen it, the light that hit Nela on the plane. But she held back. She couldn't, not now. Not in front of everyone, or at least, Nela herself. Still, she wondered if it was the right thing to do. Her inner struggle went on and on, and by the time she thought she had an answer, the conversation had passed that moment in which it would be appropriate.

 

"What do you have?"

 

Moira smiled, "We have three working models on just how this mechanism is operating, and, we have two teams that have been working for a day straight already on the each of the hormones we've been unable to isolate."

 

Andrea nodded satisfactorily.

 

"That reminds me," Moira added, reaching into her lab coat and pulling out a syringe. "I need to take a blood sample."

 

"Another one?" Nela asked.

 

"Sorry, sweetie," Moira smiled. "Those crazy scientists go through blood samples like you wouldn't believe."

 

"Are they fucking vampires?" Nela asked with heavy sarcasm.

 

Moira tried not to laugh as she approached Nela.

 

"It'll just take a second," she said, reaching for Nela's arm. "You are O.K. with needles, I hope?"

 

Nela nodded, giving a little shrug.

 

"Alrighty," Moira said and quickly swabbed Nela's arm with some disinfectant before jabbing the needle into her vein. She took out a good deal of blood, at least a whole syringe's worth.

 

"Jesus," Nela said, stunned at the amount sitting in the tube.

 

Moira shrugged, holding the tiny wound closed with her thumb and forefinger, "I told you, these scientists like testing blood."

 

She handed the syringe to one of the assistants so they could divide the blood sample between the groups of experimenters. As the assistant left, Moira moved to bandage up Nela's arm. To both their surprises, there wasn't much in the way of a needle hole.

 

"Huh...," Moira said, examining Nela's arm. "Guess I didn't go in as deep as I thought."

 

She looked to Nela and smiled, "Well, all done!"

 

Nela smiled back. She was finally coming out of the drug-induced daze and feeling more like herself again, except, taller. She wondered just how long she'd have to stay at this laboratory in the middle of nowhere when suddenly there was a loud, rapid knock on the door to the examination room.

 

Before Moira could even turn around, the door swung open and in entered a slew of people she was certain couldn't have had clearance. But sure enough, taking up the final rank was their head of security, Deets, and two other guards. One face pulled its way out of the five or six people that had just entered the room, Jacob Risling. He smiled brightly and approached Moira with an outstretched arm, shaking her hand immediately.

 

"Ah, and this must be the brains behind the whole operation," he smiled. "Moira, is it?"

 

"Um, yes," she said. "And who might you be?"

 

"Jacob Risling," he grinned. "Don't worry I'm not here to get in your way just make way through and out. I've got to be in New York by three forty-five, you see, so this is just a quick stop-over."

 

He spoke so lightly and so fast that she couldn't exactly be mad at him. At once, two of the people who had entered with him began taking measurements on Nela. She didn't seem annoyed, but instead, happy. She even looked as though she remembered their faces and spoke to them with a face that was all smiles.

 

Confused, Moira didn't have time to react when Jacob said, "Well, now, if you'll excuse me."

 

He headed over to Andrea and took her hands, giving her a gentle kiss on the cheek, "Ah, my stunning beauty, how have you been?"

 

"Good. Better. Well, better now," Andrea smiled.

 

"Good! Glad to hear it," Jacob smiled. "I'll be right back."

 

He passed by Albert on his was toward Nela and said, "How's it hanging, big man?"

 

Albert smiled and they exchanged a quick handshake like old fraternity brothers.

 

"My dearest diva," Jacob grinned, "how are you?"

 

Nela coyly smiled, "They say I'm fine."

 

"Indeed," he nodded. He took notice of her new height. "You've grown up quite a bit since I'v seen you last, haven't you?"

 

She looked away, turning her eyes on the long stretch of her body, "I guess you could say that. I, I don't know if I like it..."

 

"Oh, what is there not to like, Nela?" he grinned. "You've blossomed into a marvelous young woman."

 

"I don't know, I think I'm too big," she said with some concern. "People will..."

 

"People will what, honey?" he smiled. "You're not too big. You're glamorous. Statuesque."

 

Nela smiled, so flattered she couldn't look him in the eyes.

 

"You'll be just wonderful," he added. He looked to the tailors. "How's it coming along?"

 

"Very well, sir," the first tailor nodded.

 

The designer spoke up, "Oh, yes, sir, it looks to me like she hasn't changed much."

 

Moira caught wind of this and quickly walked toward the designer as Jacob was heading back toward Andrea.

 

"Excellent, tell me when you're through," he said.

 

Moira tapped the designer, Anton, on the shoulder.

 

"Ahem, excuse me, please," Moira asked politely.

 

"Yes," the designer asked with a bit of irritation at the interruption.

 

"If it's not too much trouble, could you do me a favor and tell me her previous measurements and her present ones?" Moira smiled.

 

"Hm, yes, certainly," Anton answered. He scratched down the numbers on a the pad of paper and tore a sheet off for Moira.

 

"Thank you."

 

He didn't answer and simply let the tailor finish up the measurements.

 

 

 

"She really shot up, didn't she?" Jacob said to Andrea in a low voice.

 

"Yes, that's what I've been trying to tell you," Andrea whispered. "What are we going to do?"

 

"Stay with the initial plan," Jacob answered. "It's a growth spurt, nothing more. Just try to keep her from doing whatever it is she does..."

 

"That's nearly impossible," Andrea said, trying not to raise her voice.

 

"I'm just asking you to try, all right?" Jacob answered. "I'm paying these people a lot of money to find a cure, so they know I expect results."

 

Andrea nodded. That was Jacob for you, always on top of things.

 

"Til then, we're going to get her some new clothes, sign a couple of new contracts and play concert dates on schedule," Jacob went on. "There's nothing in this world a man can't make a dollar off of and by god, I can make money even off of this little dilemma."

 

At this point, Anton whipped out a suitcase and pulled out a selection of clothes for Nela to choose from.

 

"I really like this look, simply adore it," he said. "And the best part is, it hasn't even come out for the season yet, so you're ahead of the game."

 

"That's all well and good," Nela smiled, "but I just need some clothes for right now."

 

"Oh, fine, be that way," Anton said playfully. "Here you go, sweetheart."

 

He handed her a stack of clothes ranging from tank tops and T-shirts to jeans and shorts. While Nela was dressing, Gina took the extra moment to intterupt Moira before Albert found his way over to her.

 

"Um, excuse me, doctor...," Gina muttered at first.

 

Moira was busily calculating something on a scrap of paper.

 

"Dr.Andrews?" Gina asked again, louder.

 

"Yes?" Moira looked up with a start.

 

"I have to tell you something, it's important, about Nela."

 

"What about it?"

 

Gina leaned in, "I saw it."

 

Moira was confused, but wanted to know more, "Saw what?"

 

"It."

 

Gina got in closer, sitting alongside Moira at the computer desk.

 

"What changed her..."

 

Moira's eyes were alight with excitement. This was the breakthrough she had been looking for, "Go on..."

 

 

 

Part 11

 

Gina briefly glanced over her shoulder to make sure there was no one paying any attention to the conversation she and Moira were having. It seemed as though everyone was involved in some other bit of discussion and so Gina proceeded.

 

"It was on the plane," she spoke rapidly. "We missed the first flight and had to charter another one to Chicago, I think."

 

Moira listened intently to Gina, neither one of them noticing Albert as he finally broke away from the tedious and boring talk he was having with the security personnel.

 

"We were flying during the day and the plane hit some sort of turbulence out of nowhere," Gina explained. "I don't know if anybody else saw it, but, before we went into a downward spiral, there was this incredibly bright light that hit Nela..."

 

Moira was puzzled, hoping Gina could lend more to this mysterious light than a simple footnote. But, unfortunately, Albert made his appearance known.

 

"And what are you two ladies discussing?" he smiled with his pearly white teeth.

 

"Nothing...," Gina answered quickly. "Nothing interesting, really."

 

"Well, it must be more interesting than the new lights they installed in the security room," Albert said in a low sigh. "Those two guys could bore a dead man."

 

"I'm sure there must be something you all have in common," Moira suggested.

 

"Oh, I don't think so," Albert smiled again.

 

Getting rid of Albert was going to be more difficult than they had first imagined. Another interruption soon came along. Nela had changed clothes and Jacob was about to pack up and leave.

 

"Well, glad we could stop in!" he smiled to everyone. "We'll keep in touch. I'll see you four in Los Angeles in a couple days."

 

Andrea grabbed Jacob's arm before he turned away to leave, "What about her height?"

 

"Not to worry, Andrea," he smiled. "I've already got a press release explaining her late growth spurt and its going to over like smashingly."

 

"All right," Andrea said, letting go of his arm. "And her clothes."

 

"She should be covered for a little while," Jacob added. "Just keep her from doing... well, whatever it is she does to make it happen."

 

He shrugged, gave another quick smile and turned to the security personnel, "Gentlemen, shall we?"

 

And with that, the mogul exited the lab, his assorted entourage vanishing with him. Andrea had to be an even more watchful eye now. She approached Nela with a smile, sensing the girl was in a decent mood as of late.

 

"Well, everything seems to be...," Andrea cut her words short as she neared only a couple feet away from Nela.

 

"My god," Andrea gasped. "You're as big as I am."

 

Nela almost looked proud as she put a hand on her hip and gave a smirk, "I guess I am."

 

"You could easily grow twice this size in a couple of days," Andrea said quietly, partly to herself.

 

"So?" Nela asked.

 

"This is too freaky," Andrea whispered.

 

"What? What did you say?" Nela asked.

 

Andrea was lost in her thoughts, though, unable to imagine such a thing. She'd be taller than a basketball player in only a few days at this rate. And then what? It would be impossible to hide her giant size as some 'late growth spurt'. Would Nela grow so much that she'd be too large for any clothes or too big to fit in a building?

 

"Andrea? Andrea?" Nela asked repeatedly, trying to coax Andrea out her vacant stare. "Andrea?"

 

Even though the thoughts released her, Andrea couldn't find the words. She looked into Nela's eyes, now level with hers, and continued to watch her. Nela was becoming more annoyed with Andrea's silence, thinking Andrea had said something of importance to her and was keeping it secret. Or worse, something personal about Nela that she had said under her breath. Either way, being without such information annoyed her even more.

 

"Andrea!" Nela shouted.

 

The sudden burst of anger was enough to wake Andrea out her own head with a start and just the boost Nela's body needed to raise her up another inch and a half. She stretched in a split second, now at five foot eleven. Surprisingly, a smile crossed her lips.

 

"Whoops," she said.

 

Nela thumbed around the waist of her jeans, making sure the belt wasn't too tight, "Good thing there's a couple extra inches on these, huh?"

 

"Y-Yeah," Andrea nodded slowly. "Good thing."

 

Was it possible Nela was enjoying this? Or was she more aware of the situation than Andrea thought?

 

"Um, I'm hungry," Andrea smiled, trying to change the subject in her own head.

 

"O.K.," Nela replied.

 

"Do you want to check out the cafeteria here with me?" she suggested.

 

"Sure," Nela smiled.

 

Anything, anything to get her away from any other people, Andrea reasoned.

 

"Albert, care to join us?" Andrea called over to him.

 

"Uh, where are you going?" he asked from afar.

 

"The cafeteria," she called back.

 

He was about to answer no, but another answer came before that. Now was Moira and Gina's chance.

 

"Oh, you can get me a tuna sandwich," Moira smiled.

 

Albert wasn't going to say no to her.

 

"Well, yes, I can," he smiled.

 

"Anything for you?" Moira suggested to Gina.

 

"Um, a Chef's salad," she replied.

 

"Got it," Albert merrily went on his way.

 

"Thank god," Gina sighed.

 

"What about this bright light and the plane?" Moira begged.

 

"Oh, right, the light," Gina tried to remember where she left off. "Oh, that wasn't all... I know you're not supposed to look at light that intense, but I was a little sick at the time anyway, so maybe my senses were dulled or I just caught it at the right moment... It was Nela. She shrank. And then she grew back to her normal size. Well... I guess it was her normal size, she looked a little smaller when I saw her up close aagin."

 

While Gina pondered this minute detail, Moira was busily trying to understand this absurdity.

 

"She shrank?"

 

"Yes."

 

"How small would you say?"

 

"Oh, I don't know for sure," Gina shrugged. "Maybe half her size. Then she just stretched right back to normal in a couple seconds, maybe not even that, like a half of a second."

 

"This is all very odd," Moira muttered. "Not at all what I expected to hear."

 

"Yes, so you can imagine why I don't want to tell to many other people. I hardly believe it myself," Gina added.

 

"Hm, yes, I can understand," Moira trailed off in her words.

 

A moment later, she looked to Gina with alertness again.

 

"I know a couple people who study metereological disturbances, sky watchers, that sort of thing," Moira began.

 

"UFO hunters?" Gina smiled.

 

"Mmm, some," Moira shrugged. "You say it was over Chicago?"

 

"Around there."

 

"What time?" Moira reached for the phone.

 

"I'd say from 10am to around noon," Gina replied.

 

Moira dialed up the number to the best of her memory and waited for the dial tone.

 

"If there was some sort of disturbance or light or anything that we can pick up with instruments on Earth up there, they'd be able to find out about it," Moira explained.

 

"Even three days ago?"

 

She nodded, "They're on a constant scan. As long as the satellites work, so do they."

 

"Should we tell Andrea?" Gina ventured.

 

"Yes, definitely," Moira answered. "But not Nela."

 

 

 

Part 12

 

Gina was already quite paranoid as to what was running through Nela's mind. To her, it felt as though Nela had it in for her from the very start. Gina was forever her scapegoat and now that Nela's size was increasing and she could dish out more damage, it just might go to her head. This was something that Andrea was just beginning to notice, and fear. For as Nela's stature increased, so did an aura about her. A strength, a pride, a sense of bearing that was not only imposing but more self-righteous that Nela was ever at her natural, diminutive height of four foot eleven.

 

Gina checked the scribbled number on the paper Moira was working on.

 

"What's that?" she asked.

 

"Oh," Moira returned to the calculations with fervor. "Just a minute..."

 

She continued to work out the numbers with such quick exactness Gina could only stare in amazement.

 

"Hmph," Moira muttered to herself.

 

A second later, her mind finished processing the digits and after enough stages of division and multiplication she jotted down the figures.

 

"Now that's incredible," Moira said.

 

"What is?" Gina asked. "What is that?"

 

"It's a formula based on Nela's measurements before and after her growth," Moira explained. "Maybe a little too early to say for certain, but, it looks to me like her body's becoming proportionately larger with each little growth spurt."

 

"I'm not sure I follow," Gina said, shaking her head.

 

"Normally, a body grows and develops," Moira went on. "Animals change and become larger and develop larger parts and portions. Nela is no longer doing that. Her body's just adding more to her existing proportions."

 

Gina thought about this for a moment, "Isn't that a good thing?"

 

Moira shrugged, "For the time being. It'll be easy to make clothes for her and such things, but, well..."

 

Moira leaned forward, making Gina nervous for the first time that the walls just might have ears in this place.

 

"You told me a secret, now I'll tell you one," Moira said with grave seriousness. "There's a theory going 'round, a greatly possible one, that Nela's growth is slowly becoming exponential."

 

Not wanting to appear stupid at first, Gina wasn't clear on the answer and so begged the question, "So... What's the difference?"

 

"The difference," Moira said in a low tone, "is her growing from six feet to seven feet, which is minimal growth, instead of of six feet to thirty six feet, which is exponential."

 

"Do you really think thats going to happen?"

 

"It could," Moira shrugged. "At this stage, it's too soon to tell. All of our studies are theoretical."

 

Gina nodded. The answers were all still too vague. Everyone had questions and was waiting for results. Meanwhile, the results were speaking for themselves in the form of Nela's height.

 

 

 

It was inevitable. As all good showpersons know, the show must go on. And go on it did. Nela was slated to perform at The Mirage in Las Vegas and did so at the appointed time. To Andrea's relief, everything went smoothly. Nela was in even better voice than the last performance and Andrea couldn't figure out if it was due to her larger size, or because of the sense of dominating confidence Nela now possessed as a result of her height. Just as always, the masses of people roared in applause at the finale and it was a fight upstream to the limosine where they would be carted off to their hotel, the MGM Grand. Andrea told herself over and over, it's just a two minute walk to the limo, just a two minute walk. Surely they could walk two minutes down a corridor to the limosine with no interruptions.

 

Couldn't they?

 

Nela stormed through the double doors from the stage. She pushed them open with both hands, her head held high on her now five foot eleven build. The camera flashes and roar of the crowd were still trying to follow her as she strode down the corridor with Albert. She adjusted the low-rise black pants she wore, making sure the black belt with its square, silver buckle didn't rest too snugly against her body. Andrea and Gina appeared in time for the hotel's security to close off the doors behind them. The Las Vegas casinos didn't play the fools when it came to their talent. Their performers got the red carpet and then some. And Nela was thrilled by it all. She felt lavish and mighty, positively pious at all the special attention and precautions paid to her. And, now that she was head and shoulders above Gina, she felt even more accustomed to bossing her around.

 

"I need some more water," Nela ordered, handing the emptied bottle to Gina flagrantly.

 

"Uh, um," Gina was unprepared for this request, but apparently Nela's larger size demanded more liquid to quench herself.

 

"And please tell me you brought a change of shoes," she went on. "My feet are killing me."

 

"Yes," Gina pulled out a pair of loafers and handed them to Nela immediately."

 

"Well I can't put them on right now!" she said, slapping Gina's hand back and nearly knocking the shoes free. "Am I just supposed to stop in the middle of the hallway and change out of my heels!?"

 

Andrea knew she must step in, "Now, now, she was just making sure you were comfortable..."

 

"Then she can get me my fucking water," Nela argued harshly through gritted teeth. "I asked for that first and I still have yet to see it!"

 

The low creaking noise that stung Andrea's ears could only mean one thing, Nela was angry. The young woman adjusted her pants as she stretched taller, making sure they didn't become too tight. She rose a clear two inches taller and was about to dig into Gina again when Andrea stopped her.

 

"Here," Andrea said with urgency.

 

She grabbed a large water bottle from a cart that was being wheeled up for room service. Nela took the bottle without hesitation.

 

"Ooo," she smiled. "Pelligrino."

 

She cracked open the bottle and chugged it down as they walked. Andrea was sure of it now. Nela had practically planned that last growth spurt, she had prepared her clothes for it so they wouldn't rip or be uncomfortable. There was something more devious and sinister at work than Andrea wanted to know, but she knew she had to stop it before it was too late. The trouble would be convincing Jacob that there was a problem at all.

 

'Just a couple minutes,' thought Andrea, 'and we'll be at the hotel. Just a couple minutes."

 

She gave Gina a look of pity, but tugging more at her was a need for recognition. She wanted someone else to see what was happening. Gina let her eyes glance to Andrea. They were the usual low, brow-beaten stare and nothing more. Frustrated, Andrea pushed open the door to the outside for Nela to exit. The reporters and photographers would be waiting outside she knew it.

 

"Next time, be more prepared," Nela snapped to Gina.

 

"Get off her case," Andrea ordered.

 

They exitted the building, Nela giving Andrea a brutal stare with a snap of her neck. How dare she talk to her in such a way. Order her like she was a child. Her vicious glare was met with the glare of a camera's flash. The light filled Nela's eyes with a sharp pain that only aggravated her more.

 

"Ow!" she snarled, about to strike the photographer fiercely.

 

Although it was loud outside, Andrea could hear in her mind the sound of Nela's body growing; she could sense her belt straining against her body; her black tank top stretching as her body became larger. Andrea reacted on her first instinct, she wrapped her arms around Nela's expanding waist and tried to carry her to the limo. Albert picked up on the idea and quickly took over, rushing Nela toward the vehicle. The commotion was a mass confusion for all watching and the hotel's security quickly accosted the photographer who was not only puzzled by the sudden grab-and-run effort, but uncertain as to what he had seen happen to Nela a second before. Albert struggled to hold the fighting Nela in place as he ran her to the limosine, her body growing longer and larger by the second.

 

'It's only a minute,' Andrea thought. 'A few seconds...'

 

They dove into the limosine, the doors slamming shut around them. Albert had lost his grip on Nela and in a desperate move, tossed her into the limosine. She hit her head against the opposite window and shouted, "Ow! Watch it, you fucking dunce!"

 

The limo pulled away and they found themselves rearranging to get some better seating. Nela had to be extraordinarily mad, and immensely confident, to yell at Albert like that. She normally kept her annoyance with him bottled up, but now it was free-flowing. Andrea thought at first the anger wouldn't relent and develop into a full-blown mess, but Nela was complacent it seemed. And a second later, Andrea found out why as she moved to sit on the same long back seat as Nela. Instead, she found that the young woman was sprawled out across it, her incredibly long legs stretching out along the seat and keeping one foot on the floor. Nela had grown to six foot six, so tall she couldn't possibly sit up straight in the limosine comfortably.

 

"Sorry," she smiled to Andrea. "No room."

 

Andrea squeezed in between Gina and Albert who made room for her as they sat and silently watched Nela laugh to herself.

 

'Just two more minutes to the hotel,' Andrea kept telling herself. 'Just two more minutes...'

 

 

 

Part 13

 

They spent the night at the hotel, occupying separate rooms as usual. But Andrea wasn't about to take any chances with Nela any more. She let everyone know that tomorrow morning, bright and early, they were headed back to the laboratory for further observation of Nela's condition. The singer didn't seem to mind in the least. In fact, she was more than happy to accomodate the following day's itinerary. So, it was at nine a.m. that they arrived at the lab, to the surprise of Dr.Andrews.

 

"What a pleasant surprise...," she smiled, unprepared for the return visit.

 

"Yes, indeed," Albert smiled with his pearly white teeth.

 

Moira was captivated by the electric smile, but tore her eyes away, maintaining her professionalism.

 

"Just thought you might need some more blood samples," Andrea added, walking ahead to the security check point.

 

"Well, I-I suppose...," Moira stuttered.

 

"You can never have enough, right?" Andrea smiled, waving Nela and Gina on to follow her.

 

Within a few minutes, Moira was swept away with them, heading down the hall for the examination room. Once they had taken the blood samples, there wasn't much left for Moira to say or do for them.

 

"I really don't know what you want me to say," Moira shrugged. "Our progress has been slow."

 

She wandered toward Nela and her eyes opened with a sudden shock.

 

"Now I see the problem," Moira said.

 

She looked Nela up and down, noticing the heels Nela wore which boosted her six foot four stature up to six foot six; Moira's height.

 

"You're almost as big as me," Moira smiled slightly.

 

"I am as big as you, idiot," Nela smiled slyly.

 

Moira watched as Nela's eyes looked down on her as she rose higher. Her stretching body pulling the belt around her waist and her legs filling up the legs of the stretchy Lycra of her black pants. Once the seconds of noisy growth had subsided, Moira knew it was time to tell Andrea everything and anything possible. The trouble would be getting Nela out.

 

"Um...," Moira stuggled to think of an excuse, unnerved by the young woman's growth. As it was, Nela had grown to six foot six; six foot eight with the heels on.

 

"Is there anything new you can tell us, Dr.Andrews?" Andrea asked.

 

Moira continued to stare up at Nela, "Uh, um, not-not anything that we've confirmed."

 

Nela placed her hands on her hips, tilting to one side as she continued to grin slyly at Moira. 'It couldn't be,' thought Moira. 'Is she actually enjoying this?'

 

"Have you been able to visit the casinos yet?" Moira asked openly.

 

"No, not yet," Andrea answered.

 

"Unfortunately," Nela muttered.

 

She fixated on Moira again and her grin widened. The sound of Nela's growth trickled into Moira's ears. It was so odd, almost squeaky, like when a balloon is handled undelicately or when a large tree branch bends in gusting winds. Nela at once became so heavy that the heels to her shoes snapped with her weight. Moira stared as Nela quickly regained the lost height. She watched Nela rise higher, her bust becoming too large for the spaghetti straps of the black tank top she wore. Moira now stared up at a six foot ten Nela.

 

"We're not going to any casinos right away, Nela," Andrea reminded.

 

"Why not?" the girl finally turned away from Moira.

 

"Because you keep growing every time you get the slightest bit ticked," Andrea said firmly. "And I can't have you losing you temper in a public place like that anyway."

 

"But...," Nela's body was making the characteristic growth sound.

 

Andrea thought quickly, "You don't want any more bad publicity, do you?"

 

The creaking stopped instantly.

 

"No," Nela answered. "I guess not."

 

"Well, we have a bit of a game room on the second floor," Moira added. "It's not much in the way of a casino, but we spend hours on end in there on slow days."

 

"Hm, well, it can't be that great," Nela folded her arms.

 

"Oh, well, it is big enough to hold the office Christmas party every year," Moira answered.

 

Nela's eyes brighted up, she looked to Andrea, "Can I go to this one at least?"

 

"Is it devoid of human contact?" Andrea asked Moira dryly.

 

"I believe so," Moira smiled. "Everyone is busy right now."

 

Andrea shrugged with a sigh, "Go ahead."

 

Nela excitedly hurried out of the lab.

 

"Keep her out of trouble," Andrea ordered to Albert.

 

"But...," he began.

 

"Albert, please," Andrea said with finality.

 

"Alright, fine," he sighed and left the room, muttering, "Oh, who cares about what Albert wants..."

 

It was a momentary silence that lasted for as long as was needed for Andrea to think of an excuse to kick Gina out.

 

"Gina...," Andrea began.

 

"No," Moira interrupted. "She already knows most of what I'm about to tell you, and if it wasn't for her, we wouldn't have discovered the rest."

 

A quizzical look overcame Andrea's face and she turned to Gina, "What do you know?"

 

"I saw something hit Nela on the plane," Gina explained. "When we almost crashed..."

 

Andrea was speechless. So Moira took over.

 

"I contacted a friend who specializes in these sort of anamolies, bizarre occurences in the sky," she said.

 

"UFO hunters," Andrea asked sarcastically.

 

"Sometimes," Moira went on. "But they follow lights, unexplained meterological conditions, and strange energy flashes; which, it just so happens, is what they found."

 

"This is too weird," Andrea muttered.

 

"May be, but it's all we have for now," Moira shrugged. "As I was saying, Dr.Olin, the man in charge of the operation, said they noticed the bolt the same time your plane was hit. It had been active before your plane was on its way in, but, when you flew in its path..."

 

"Nela got hit," Andrea finished.

 

"Precisely," Moira smiled. "Now, while they don't know the exact nature of this energy source, they did tell me that they've been tracking it for a few years now. It appears to be on some sort of path with an indistinct pattern and often phases in and out over the course of a year. In one year, they've only caught it on their instruments four times."

 

"One in a million chance," Gina said.

 

"Not exactly," Dr.Andrews added. "Some years they don't see it at all. It's not there. Other times, like this year, it pops up ten or eleven times."

 

"Well, you can tell them we know what it does," Andrea sighed. "It makes things get bigger when they get angry."

 

"Not necessarily."

 

Gina and Andrea were now confused at Moira's tone.

 

"What's happening to Nela is a reaction to the energy that hit your plane, but some of the results we've gotten as a result of Nela's blood work is astounding."

 

"Astounding isn't good," Andrea said.

 

"Well, according to our theories, and from what I've seen today," Moira hesitated. "She's-she's not only getting bigger, she's growing proportionately bigger. Literally. What I mean to say is, an inch to us is an inch. But as Nela's body gets larger, an inch to her will seem smaller. So, to adjust, she may grow four or five inches to equate to an inch."

 

"Oh my god...," Andrea muttered.

 

"Today we saw her go from six foot four to roughly seven feet, just shy a few inches. The first time I witnessed her growth, it was an inch, maybe only an inch and a half. She's now growing by two inches each time."

 

"She's already doubled?!" Andrea was ready to pull her hair out.

 

"She could very well triple by the time the week is out if her growth keeps up like this," Moira added.

 

Andrea felt faint, "I need to sit down."

 

She backpeddled to a chair by the counter. She sat, taking a deep breath.

 

"We're still clueless as to why Nela wasn't burned as a result of the interaction with the energy, or where the energy came from, or why she didn't grow all at once," Moira went on. "I personally think she didn't grow all at once because of the insulation and cabin pressure on the plane. It may have buffered the actual intensity of the bolt and now her growth is coming out periodically, triggered by her temper."

 

"So how do we stop her?" Gina asked.

 

"Figure out how to reverse the growth process, or at least, stop it."

 

Andrea rubbed her temples methodically, hearing at some time in her life that it reduced a stressful headache. It wasn't working. Andrea turned Gina, hating the solution as it ran over and over in her head. She knew exactly what had to be done.

 

 

 

Part 14

 

The elevator reached the next floor and the doors opened. Nela quickly stepped off the elevator while Albert followed sluggishly. Foiled from his flirtatious advances on Moira, he contemplated the next time he could possibly see her. The only thought that persisted in his mind was that this whole problem with Nela would go on for a little while longer before they discovered a cure or something. His attention was shifted greatly when Nela opened the door to the game room.

 

It was about the size of a gymnasium, and filled with billiard tables and slot machines, one-arm bandits and pin-ball machines, and ping pong tables. Not only that it was dark and empty. Dissatisfied, Nela turned to Albert, "This isn't what I expected."

 

"Me neither," he said drably. "Oh well..."

 

He took a few steps to walk in, but felt Nela's hand push against his chest, stopping him.

 

"Albert," she smiled, "let's go to a real casino..."

 

He eyed her suspiciously.

 

"The limo's right outside, and we'll be back before anyone else even knows we're gone," she grinned.

 

"You heard Andrea," Albert said. "You're staying put."

 

Nela coughed up a laugh, "Albert... You wouldn't want me to get mad, would you?"

 

He was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Albert folded his arms, pondering, and as he did, he made sure to check that his cell phone was still tucked in the inner pocket of his suit jacket.

 

"I guess not," he said.

 

"Good," Nela smiled lightly. "Let's hurry."

 

She grabbed him by the hand and headed back to the elevator.

 

 

 

In side the examination room, Moira and Andrea were still discussing the ramifications of Nela's condition while Gina mulled over the look Andrea had given her. She got a lump in the pit of her stomach. It could only be bad news. The question was, what?

 

"Do you have any cures worked out?" Andrea asked, nearly pleading.

 

"Nothing substantial," Moira answered quietly. "We need to get some tissue samples from her as soon as we're done studying the mechanism and theorizing our brains out."

 

"This is going to get worse before it gets better," Andrea shuddered.

 

"I'd really like to get my hands on a sample of that energy," Moira said. "Or at least a read out on its wavelength. But, Dr.Olin said it would be days if and when they found it again."

 

Andrea looked to Gina again, and Gina's heart skipped a couple beats. Andrea's glance became a stare. A long stare. The kind of stare Nela had given her recently. She snapped out of it and turned back to Moira.

 

"What's more," Moira added, "it might not just be anger. Any mental stress may be enough to trigger the reaction. She appears to be in control of her emotional responses now, but, there's no telling what could happen if she loses it."

 

Andrea gave Moira a long dead-pan stare and then said, "Do me a favor and stop telling me things like that."

 

 

 

Once at the casino, the two traveling companions were all too eager to separate from each other. Albert played a patient waiting game, and sure enough, Nela found a way to lose him in the crowds despite her six foot ten height. She was easy enough to spot at a distance, though, and so Albert could keep an eye on her as he pulled out his celluar phone.

 

Andrea picked up the call in the examination room, "Hello?"

 

"Andrea," Albert said, checking on how far away Nela was.

 

"Albert? Why are you--"

 

"We've sort of taken a detour."

 

"A detour?! It's one floor away from us!"

 

"We're not in the building any more."

 

"Then what building are you in," Andrea asked, fear and anger rising in her voice.

 

"I think we're in Caesar's Palace right now," he answered.

 

"Oh my god," Andrea gasped for breath.

 

"Listen to me," Albert explained. "You need to come down here with a security team from the lab and bring tranquilizers. It'll be the only way to bring her back without making her mad."

 

"O-O.K.," Andrea said, feeling the need to squeeze her head.

 

"And hurry," Albert added.

 

"Yes. All right, see you soon," Andrea said and hung up the phone.

 

"Call any available security," Andrea ordered to Moira.

 

 

 

Lucky for Albert, Nela was on some crazy winning streak. She hand an amazing knack for craps dice and easily built several stacks of chips around herself after only a hour's worth of play. Albert wagered there were at least a couple hundred thousand dollars in the stacks combined. The casino had since been impeccably hospitble to them, catering to their every need. Albert and Nela downed as many alcoholic beverages as their stomachs could hold at one time. Unfortunately for Albert, he now had the smaller of the two stomachs.

 

"I'll be right back," he said thoughtlessly.

 

Nela patted him on the back, "Hurry back."

 

She blew on the dice and let them roll.

 

"Lucky number seven!" the pit boss shouted.

 

There was a cheer from the crowd around her as he pushed more chips her way and divided up the winnings among the other gamblers. In her drunken state, Nela had become more than liberal with the accumulated funds and now decided to bail out on the craps table and move to the poker tables, the high priced poker tables.

 

With her few hundred thousand dollars in hands, she backed out of the craps table and headed to the poker tables that began at a thousand dollar ante. With nothing more than luck on her side, she was determined to win twice as much money here.

 

When Albert left the men's room, he was given the immediate shock of Nela's absence. She should have been right there, at the craps table, but instead, wasn't. He feverishly began moving his way through the crowds. He couldn't find her. How hard could it be to find a nearly seven foot woman in a casino? Unless she was sitting down... Albert only hoped she was in the restroom.

 

His answer soon found him.

 

"What do you mean I lost?!" a familiar yell echoed.

 

It almost went unnoticed as common place in Las Vegas until a few gasps and a sudden feeling of awe gripped the room. Nela stood to her full height in front of the poker dealer.

 

"Well, y-you-you lost," he said.

 

He wasn't sure if what he was seeing was real. Was she getting taller?

 

"I have four of a kind!" she shouted.

 

"But a full house...," he muttered.

 

She was getting bigger. Noticeably so.

 

"You lying little cheat!" Nela's growth surged her larger as she flipped over the poker table effortlessly now standing at seven foot six and still growing.

 

"Oh my god...," a woman muttered.

 

"It can't be real," a man gasped.

 

The poker dealer was too busy running for his life as a seven foot nine Nela stormed after him.

 

"Come back here, you pathetic piece of shit!" she roared.

 

The casino's security team tried to subdue her, using their usual friendly violence which began by simply standing in front of an individual in an imposing manner. This had no effect on Nela who pushed them to the floor, infuriated.

 

"Out of my way!" she shouted, now at eight foot two.

 

Her pants and belt had done quite a good job keeping up with her body's increasing size, stretching to their furthest limits as she chased after the poker dealer. Her tank top, however, was having a difficult time keeping up with her growing breasts and looked ready to give up at any second.

 

"Move!" she yelled, shoving over a craps table as her pursuit continued.

 

The gamblers were more than willing to get out of her way as she passed through the casino like some Juggernaut, flipping over some tables and knocking others over with her huge thighs as she grew larger. Now at nine feet four inches, she was still no closer to catching the poker dealer who was only a few yards away.

 

Frustrated, she rushed the aisles of slot machines, plowing them into another like deformed dominos. They all shifted and fell, sparking with the potential for fire. The ten foot Nela jumped on top of the minimal wreckage and used it as an over pass to near the poker dealer who had een using the crowds to block her path.

 

He screamed in a fearful holler, "For the love of God, somebody help me!"

 

No one came to his aid as Nela giant crunching footsteps neared him, so close he could hear the crackling and feel the bits of plastic from the slot machine hit his shoulder. No one stepped in to stop her arm as it reached forward ready to grab him. And there was nothing more than the screaming panic of the crowd around him as the eleven foot Nela shouted, "Now I've got you!"

 

But just as he was snatched by her giant hand, a shot rang through the casino. Nela's neck snapped around, looking to the source of the shot and the pang that was now in her neck.

 

"Again!" the security chief from the lab ordered. "Both gunners!"

 

"No!" Nela roared defiantly.

 

But the shots came too quickly, two more hit her in the chest where her tank top was nothing more than a bra on her now. Two more shots rang out.

 

"Careful, she's been drinking," Albert told the men firing the tranquilizers.

 

"That's fine," the security cheif ordered. "At her size, there shouldn't be much damage."

 

Two more shots rang out and the nearly twelve foot Nela loosened her grip on the poker dealer. He ran straight out the back of the casino. Nela lulled momentarily in the air, her head waving limply before falling in a huge crumpled pile on the broken mess of slot machines.

 

"Evacuate the civilians," the security cheif ordered. He turned to Andrea, "What story do you want to go with?"

 

"What are my options," she asked flatly.

 

"The publicity stunt for a movie is always popular," he answered. "Then there's always the hologram explanation, but not too many people buy into that one. Oh, or, you could try the new floor show for the casino, but that involves cutting a deal with the place..."

 

"We'll just stick with the publicity stunt," she answered listlessly.

 

Had her life really become this maddening? The only thing she could hope for was that Jacob would finally see the error of his ways and keep Nela off the tour and detained in some lab.

 

 

 

Part 15

 

It was easy loading Nela's body into the van after they had evacuated everyone from the casino. All they had to do was haul her out the back door and leave the rest of the clean up to whatever poor saps Andrea hired to do so. Her mind raced, she had so much to handle in such a short time. So after calling an industrial custodial firm to help clean up the mess Nela made at the casino, she dialed up Jacob Risling's number.

 

"Hello, hello," he answered.

 

"Jacob," Andrea said.

 

"Andrea."

 

"Listen to me," she said, not in any sort of joking mood.

 

"All right, my dear."

 

"She's gotten bigger," Andrea explained.

 

"Well, that was to be expected," he chuckled.

 

"In public," Andrea blurted out. "She attacked people, practically tore apart this casino..."

 

"Oh. Well. I see."

 

"I already called a service to help clean up, but I have no idea what the damages are in total," she went on.

 

"It's quite all right," Jacob answered. "I'll take of the expenses. Tell me, what story did you give them?"

 

Andrea didn't know what he meant at first, "I told them it was some publicity stunt for a movie."

 

"That'a girl," he said pleased. "You're nearly out of the woods with this."

 

"Jacob, she's twelve feet tall!" Andrea shouted.

 

Albert and Gina, who were also seated in the limo with her, were startled by the sudden noise. They turned to each other, both thinking Andrea was headed for a nervous breakdown.

 

"That's fine," Jacob answered calmly. "I'll begin working on the ad campaign right now."

 

Andrea sighed, slouching in her seat. It was useless to argue the point with him. He only saw things in terms of money, publicity, and what he could and couldn't cover up with either. No amount of shouting or facts was going to dissuade him.

 

 

 

Once they reached the laboratory, Nela was wheeled in and taken to the examination room for observation. The scientists were curious as to whether or not alcohol had any affect on her growth process. The only thing they could determine from the course of their studies and tests was that it simply raised the level for mental stress, giving her more potential for growth. And that only put them back on their circle of questions concerning the relationship between her growth and the emotion of anger.

 

They took more blood and kept her monitored. Andrea only had two prolems now that were of immediate concern. One was Nela's awakening, and two was Gina. She had been unable to get Gina alone amidst the action of the day, and so, the problems arose in order.

 

"We've got an elevated heart beat," one of the scientists pointed out.

 

"Shit," Andrea was all too aware of what meant.

 

She marched toward the giant cot they hand Nela strapped to. It probably hadn't been a good idea to tie her down because now, as she awoke, it only caused more frustration and confusion for her.

 

"Ugh! Hey! What is this?!" she shouted.

 

"Where are those tranquilizers?!" a backpeddling scientist shouted.

 

Nela easily snapped the straps that bound her with her growing body and sat up.

 

"What the hell are you people trying to do to me?!" she yelled.

 

Her belt snapped in half, the buckle uselessly popping apart.

 

"I was wondering when that was going to break," she muttered.

 

"Nela, stop," Andrea said. "It's all right. Everything's under control. We just tied you down to make sure you wouldn't get hurt."

 

"I was unconcious," Nela growled.

 

Her pants were stretching and ripping into shorts now. Her tank top turned bra was on it last threads from tearing to pieces.

 

"Nela, please, stop!" Andrea begged. "Everything's fine! No one's out to hurt you!"

 

Nela's growth halted. She was thirteen feet five inches, but oddly calm.

 

"I'm sorry," she said in a guilty tone.

 

Andrea put a hand to her on head, "So am I... I'm sorry. Look, we've got to be in Los Angeles by tomorrow morning and you've got another performance tonight."

 

Nela smiled slighty, looking over her giant body.

 

"But I don't see how you can go out in public like that," Andrea said helplessly.

 

"Just give me some new clothes," Nela shrugged.

 

"Nela," Andrea sighed, "don't you see? You're a giant compared to everybody... People aren't used to it. And we can't afford you getting angry because of some other people's stupidity."

 

"I won't get angry," Nela said. "I won't I promise. I'll be good the whole show."

 

Andrea let out a long breath, "How you can be so sure?"

 

"I'll really try," she smiled. "The whole show."

 

"O.K.," Andrea said. "My hands are tied anyway... Jacob would probably want you to keep the concert date anyway."

 

 

 

Part 16

 

"I disagree with this completely," Moira stepped forward. "She needs to stay her for observation."

 

"Sorry, Dr.Andrews, but money talks and money walks," Andrea said. "I don't like it either."

 

But Nela loved it. She sang a whole set, then an encore and then headed off the stage as usual. Oddly, no one in the audience seemed to realize how big she was. It was probably due to the fact that the arena-style seating put everyone so far away. What's more, Nela didn't travel with a band, rather she had local groups back her up using her music. The band, however, couldn't help but notice Nela's thirteen foot height. Some good did come of her size though, Andrea wouldn't allow her to sign autographs. They rushed Nela out the back door. She had to bend down to get through the double door frames and even walk through the hallways.

 

"I would ask for water, but I don't even see how I'd be able to drink it," she smiled to Gina.

 

Gina smiled back. Was she really being nice to her?

 

Andrea had totally forgotten the dilemma regarding the press. But as soon as they reached the doors she suddenly panicked.

 

"Wait," she ordered. "Hold on."

 

The entourage stopped at the doors.

 

"What is it?" Nela asked.

 

"The reporters. And photographers," Andrea answered.

 

"Is this really a problem?" Nela asked.

 

"Is it going to turn into a problem?" Andrea asked.

 

"Hey, I said I'd be good the whole show, and the show's over."

 

Andrea gave Nela a long stare then said, "O.K., then we're heading out the other way."

 

She pushed past them, heading in the other direction.

 

Nela rolled her eyes, thinking about how uncomfortable it would be to go all that way again and then some. She felt her body stretch from the annoyance. Her khaki-colored bell-bottom jeans suddenly felt remarkably tight. She was snapped out her annoyance.

 

"Hm, maybe these were tighter than I thought," she mumbled to herself.

 

As it was, checking them out, her white top was already a size too small by the sheer virtue of its ordinary state. They made their way through the hall.

 

'Unless I've gotten... No,' Nela thought. 'Well... I have been eating a lot more, but then, look at how big I am. I need to. Right?'

 

Andrea called the limosine around, ordering the driver to head around the block a few times to lose the reporters and photographers. Once at the next exit, Andrea made sure to peek through a crack in the double doors to the outside. It was quiet enough. She saw the limosine pull up and stop.

 

"Now," Andrea said.

 

She and Albert pushed open the double doors and let Nela step out.

 

"Ahhhh...," she sighed. "Thank god."

 

She stretched so they she could crack her back, "I was getting claustrophobic."

 

"Holy shit," a reporter said, losing his cover. "She's huge!"

 

Andrea swung around to see the man, but Albert was already on top of the situation. He rushed the man, who was still too in awe of Nela's size.

 

"You little puke!" she shouted.

 

"No!" Andrea yelled.

 

But it was too late, Nela was already mad and already going after the clever reporter turned idiot reporter herself. She grew larger just turning in his direction. Gina watched from the safety of the indoors, not even stepping outside yet. She watched as Nela grew, only able to see her from the waist down and then watching as her jeans became tighter and all she could see were the woman's thighs and legs. Gina was astonished by the growth. It was unlike the other ones.

 

Nela must have noticed it, too, because she stopped her advance on the man and let Albert club him to the ground. Nela looked at her chest. Her breasts seemed huge, but, they were no different proportionally than before. She headed for the limosine, bending down to squeeze in.

 

Nela got in as far as she could before her size became a problem. Her hips wouldn't let her push in any further. Andrea was flustered. Gina had just made it to the limo and Albert was heading back after laying the reporter out when more reporters appeared. Probably drawn by the shouts.

 

And there was Nela, stuck in the limosine, her huge butt struggling to force itself in while her legs pushed against the cement sidewalk.

 

"She can't fit!" a reporter laughed. "Her ass is too big!"

 

Camera flashes followed, accompanied by some laughter.

 

"Oh, that's it...!" Nela said from inside the limo.

 

"No!" Andrea shouted.

 

Too late again, Nela hit a growth spurt, her head busting out of the opposite window and her body clearing becoming larger all around. She had grown to fifteen feet almost instantly.

 

"Oh no you don't!" Andrea argued.

 

She shoved Gina in the other door and hopped in a second before Albert joined them, slamming the door.

 

"Step on it!" she ordered to the driver.

 

"No!" Nela roared, struggling to free herself from the awkward position of the now moving car. She felt her top tear apart and the cool night air hit her bare chest. It lessened her anger and mad her realize that if she had attacked those reporters, they'd have a few nude photos of her by now.

 

 

 

Part 17

 

Andrea was beginning to question her own judgement. Maybe Moira was right and they should have stayed at the lab to keep Nela for observation. She had stopped growing for the time being, but now she was roughly fifteen feet tall and wedged into the limosine sideways and in a most uncomfortable position. The driver hurried them to the hotel, and even then, Andrea wondered if it would be best to just tell him to head for the lab again.

 

 

 

Moira, however, was a tad pleased that they had left. It gave her the time to study the chemical reaction in Nela's blood more closely and without interruption. She worked independently, keeping her findings and notes to herself and bringing no mention of any of it to the other scientists working in any of the teams. Even her assistants had no idea that she was conducting her own research. But Moira preferred it this way. She could work better and faster than with others pushing in their ideas. Within a few days she had already isolated the chemical responsible for Nela's growth.

 

It was still unclear how the mechanism acted, but Moira was certain that the bonding of the three seperate chemicals formed a compound that resulted in one time, explosive growth that was uniform throughout a living thing.

 

"Ah-ha...," she smiled.

 

She increased the magnification on the microscope.

 

"At last," she sighed.

 

She pulled her glasses off and rubbed her eyes. Now all that remained was synthesizing the chemical into a pure form, without the blood or plasma involved. A light flickered on the board on her phone. It was line one. She wondered how long she had let the call slip by. Moira picked up the call.

 

"Hello?"

 

"Dr.Andrews, please."

 

"This is she."

 

"Moira, it's Dr.Olin," he answered.

 

"Oh, I'm sorry I left you waiting for so long, Hank," she said.

 

"It's all right, we're all busy," he answered. "Um, do you still have a patient in your keep?"

 

Moira sighed, "Nope, I'm afraid not. They left earlier today..."

 

"Damn," he muttered.

 

"Why? What did you find out?" Moira asked.

 

"The energy streak that hit the plane," Olin explained, "we caught it again. For sure this time. We even got a decent read out."

 

Moira sat up in her chair, "Fax it to me."

 

"It's on its way," he said. "This is some freaky stuff, though. I haven't seen anything, anything, ever like this. We're not sure where it originated, but by the angle of the streaks that keep popping up and their different patterns, most of us here think it's from a star."

 

"A star?" Moira stuck her glasses back on.

 

The fax machine began printing out the data.

 

"Yes," Hank went on, "probably a neutron or some super hot star that's going to supernova and emitting a pulse of energy in our direction. We're not the only section of the universe getting it."

 

Moira grabbed the finished print out from the fax machine, "Don't you mean went supernova?"

 

"We're not sure," Hank added. "Energy waves this intense, it might be just now reaching the point of supernova. These waves could have been traveling for some time."

 

Moira read over the data, scanning for information she could understand. Lights and stars were not her speciality, but she did understand some things of radiation and energy.

 

"This is freaky," she muttered.

 

"I told you," Hank said almost proudly. "That's not the half of it. When this thing does go supernova, or when we get the waves from it, it's going to be some seriously intense radiation fields. I mean, if you think the ones coming in now are bad, the reciprocal energy that's going to be emitted from this collapsing star is going to be down right vicious."

 

"That's encouraging...," Moira muttered, still trying to make sense of the data. "So how long before that happens?"

 

"We don't know exactly," Hank replied. "Could be years from now, could be days. Some stars lose integrity faster than others. Some take billions of years more to self-destruct than is expected for their type. They're all individuals."

 

"Hm," Moira put down the data. "Well, what's your thinking on this?"

 

"I give it another week," he said. "Then it's ca-put. Pop. Zip. Over. Which is sad because I'd really like more time to study this phenomenon."

 

Moira leaned back in her chair, "It looks to me like its mutating living things."

 

"That's what I thought, too," Hank said, it was clear he was smiling. "Get this... The radiation we're picking up is off the charts. This stuff defies any of our categorization. We thought we had all light, visible and invisible, down and this one blows it all out of the water."

 

"So that's why I couldn't make sense of this."

 

"No one could!" Hank laughed.

 

Moira was less enthusiastic.

 

"So, where is the patient?" Hank asked.

 

"Probably on her way to Los Angeles," Moira replied.

 

"Oh, god, no...," Hank muttered. "Listen, you've got to get her back. We can't afford to lose a specimen like that or risk... She could get impossibly huge, for God's sakes!"

 

"What? I figured she was going to die of radiation poisoning with in a couple weeks."

 

"Moira, this isn't a typical radioactive incident," Hank explained. "As far as we can tell, this has no long term destructive effects on living things. She's going to grow and grow and grow and grow until she destroys us all."

 

Moira froze. She felt her body stiffen and thoughtlessly dropped the phone receiver. It cracked against the floor, leaving Hank with a confused startle.

 

"Moira? Moira!? Are you there?"

 

 

 

Part 18

 

While Moira was desperately tossing through her desk and cabinets for Andrea's cell phone number, Andrea herself had a different sort of struggle on her hands. They had convinced the limosine driver to pull off to the side road, just outside the air strip to the airport. It was insanely dark out and they were far enough from the rest of civilization to go unnoticed for quite some time. It was time they were going to need in order to get Nela out of the limosine in which she was hopeless wedged.

 

The tug-of-war seemed one-sided for some time, Nela being the winner by default. There didn't appear to be any way to dislodge her from the tight space she occupied in the car. In an effort that took some thirty minutes, everyone had landed in the dirt at some point, ten planes departed, sixteen arrived, Nela grew six more inches and the limosine driver's hourly wage went into overtime. When they finally did free Nela, the sixteen foot woman presented another problem.

 

"I don't know how to say this, but, I'm hungry," she said, trying to make a weak smile so that Andrea wouldn't be mad at her.

 

Andrea heaved a sigh, brushing the dirt that was still on her bum and pant legs.

 

"I'll go on out and get something for you," the driver suggested. He was already making more than his share.

 

"That would be great," Andrea answered.

 

"Um, how much food should I bring back?" he asked.

 

Andrea stopped dusting herself off and gave the driver a stare with eyes burning in disbelief. She then turned her head to Nela who was sitting, her back leaning against the car.

 

Andrea turned back to the driver, "A lot."

 

"Well, I can't very well pay for it out of my own pocket, can--"

 

"Here, here," Andrea said with annoyance.

 

She dug into her pocket and handed him a large wad of cash, "This should cover it."

 

"Yes it should," the driver smiled.

 

"And you go with him," Andrea said, pointing to Albert. "I'm not getting scammed tonight."

 

Albert sighed as he got to his feet. He was sure he'd pulled something. Maybe just a back muscle. In the meantime, Andrea whipped out her cell phone and began making arrangements to charter a plane as soon as possible. It was almost two in the morning, but with the right connections and plenty of Jacob's money to back it up, she would be able to secure a slight to Los Angeles within the hour. She didn't care any more. She was charging everything to Jacob's expense account. She'd try to explain it to him again, the potential problem Nela could bring, but it would probably due no use. It was best to just spend his money in the wake of it all.

 

An hour later the limosine returned and Nela couldn't wait a second longer to begin her meal. There was certainly enough to go around, but even after the four normal sized people were through, Nela continued to eat and eat and eat and eat. They were amazed at her nearly bottomless appetite. Afterwards, she let out a hearty belch and resumed her position of reclining against the limosine.

 

"Ahhhh, nice and full," she sighed happily.

 

"Don't get too comfortable," Andrea said. "We have a flight out in just a few minutes."

 

"Already?" Nela whined.

 

"Yes," Andrea answered. "Already. Let's go."

 

Nela grumbled some annoyed words, but stopped, feeling her body grow. She was already too big for the clothes she was wearing. The giant woman stood and everyone was briefly silent. They stared at her, shocked by her full height. Sixteen feet was bigger than she expected.

 

"Oh, sorry," Nela said quietly.

 

For the first time since her growth began, Nela felt different about the experience. It was almost embarassing. Normally, she liked all the eyes on her, attention was just splendid. But, this wasn't the sort of attention she desired. This was odd. It was awkward. She tried not to think about it, but Andrea had called ahead and asked the airport security to open the gates to the runway so that they could board the plane in the air strip. In front of these strangers, Nela felt more self-concious. She didn't understand it. Why? Why did this bother her all the sudden?

 

Whether or not they were looking at her, she felt eyes on her. She feared boarding the plane. What if she was too large to fit in the door? She prayed and prayed that she could squeeze in. Luckily, Andrea had also made sure to clear out the first few rows of seats entirely. Nela was able to push her way in, and sighed relief seeing that there was room for her.

 

"If you get any bigger, you're going to have to ride in the cargo hold next time," Andrea grinned.

 

Even if it was a joke, it looked to be that way. Nela was already feeling cramped and they had yet to take off. She tried not to think about it and closed her eyes in an effort to fall asleep. Albert, of course, fell asleep before anyone. Gina's mind was racing. She was certain that Nela's huge weight would bring the plane down like a stone in water but knew she couldn't say anything or Nela would get angry and just grow more. She fidgeted like a mental patient for some time until Andrea handed the bottle of valiums. Andrea was too busy to be bothered with such nonsense. She had to call Jacob and tell him that this plan was not going to work. There was no way Nela would be able to perform at this size. Unfortunately, Andrea had the nagging suspicion that Jacob would disagree. She still had the mess to deal with in handling Gina, something which she did not look forward to. At least they'd be in Los Angeles, she thought.

 

 

 

What Jacob didn't clear up on the phone, he did make up for with his expert planning. They landed in Los Angeles at a quarter to six in the morning, just at the break of dawn. Awaiting them was breakfast enough to feed Nela and the entourage, and a van to bring Nela to the lodging Jacob had set up for her.

 

But, before their trip even began, Andrea took Gina aside. There was some unpleasantness to take care of.

 

"You're fired," she said.

 

"Wh-What?" Gina was breathless.

 

"I'm sorry," Andrea said. "Think of it as being temporary. We just can't have Nela getting angry or stressed out and, well, you... you seem to being that out in her."

 

Gina was rigid, unable to speak.

 

"I was going to say something sooner, but, I never got the chance," Andrea said, trying to make the best of it.

 

"I-I...," Gina was lost.

 

"I know," Andrea sighed. She handed Gina some money. "This should be enough for a hotel room and whatever else you need for a while. Keep in touch, OK?"

 

Gina was still without words, even as Andrea gave her a hug goodbye.

 

"Bye," Andrea said, getting in the van.

 

"B-Bye...," Gina answered.

 

The doors shut and the van pulled away. Gina stood vacantly on the air strip. Where was she going to go? What was she going to do? Her whole life had been the tour, it seemed, for as long as she could remember.

 

 

 

Inside the van, Andrea's cell phone chimed. She quickly answered the call.

 

"Hello?"

 

"Andrea?" Moira panted.

 

"Yes."

 

"This is Dr.Andrews," Moira tried catching her breath.

 

"I'm hoping this is good news," Andrea asked.

 

"No, no, not at all," Moira gasped. "It's Nela. She's going to keep growing until we find some way to stop it. You have to bring her back."

 

"I can't," Andrea explained. "Look, I'm going to try to convince Mr.Risling to bring her back to the lab, but, I can't guarentee anything."

 

"Then I need to talk to him personally," Moira said. "It's insane to keep her in the outside world."

 

"I know," Andrea said, looking in the rear view mirror where Nela was visible, crammed into the back of the van, half-asleep.

 

"Listen, I'm going to call back in a few hours," Moira answered. "I'm working on a synthesized sample of the compound at work in her body. If we can neutralize it in the lab, we might be able to stop her growth."

 

"Well, that is good news," Andrea said.

 

"Don't hold your breath," Moira added. "She could still grow. You need to keep her calm."

 

Just then, the can hit an unexpected dip in the road, casuing the vehicle to jump. The seated passengers were fine. Nela, however, hit her head against the corner of the wall she was leaning on.

 

"Ow!" she blurted out.

 

The woman grew another six inches. This time her top tore in half and her pants became so unbearably tight she had to pull them off most of the way.

 

"Oh god...," Andrea whimpered. "She's going to be twenty feet tall by the end of the day..."

 

"Stop her, any way you can," Moira urged. "You can't let her get mad."

 

"Couldn't we have gotten a bigger van?!" Nela shouted.

 

Her body stretched out bigger. She topped out at seventeen feet.

 

"Stop it, Nela," Andrea stressed. "You're only making yourself grow more, honey."

 

Nela took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, "You're right, you're right... OK."

 

Andrea returned to her phone conversation, "Hurry. For God sake, hurry, Moira."

 

 

 

Jacob was already setting up for his new spin on the Nela Giganti incident that was to occur. He tipped off the top television talk show female interviewer, Maya Collins, knowing that if anyone can put a good spin on anything, its her. Jacob also made sure to prepare the newspapers, tabloids, and magazines. It was going to be one hell of a show.

 

 

 

Gina wandered the streets of Los Angeles taking in the sights she used to enjoy when she lived there some months ago. She knew she'd have to find some family or friends to stay with for a while, but, all in all, it everything should work out fine. She felt a sense of goodness come over her. There would be no more stress related to Nela any more...

 

 

 

Part 20

 

Dr.Graves led Moira into the chamber which was protected by thick panels of polarized glass. He handed her a pair of goggles which she put on immediately. He silently pointed to the large room on the other side of the glass, awaiting the projection. There was a massive burst of intensely bright light. It was slow and crackled, then disappeared, about a second later. It was the same light that had hit Nela.

 

"Is that all?" Moira asked.

 

"Watch," Dr.Graves smiled.

 

The follow-up was a half-second later when another burst of light shot from the opposite end of the original, the same intensity as before. Then it was gone.

 

"What was that?" Moira asked.

 

Dr.Graves pulled off his goggles, "We don't know. We're calling it slow light."

 

Moira took off her goggles.

 

"Apparently," he went on, "it has some imbalance of positive and negative particles. The positive run through first, then the negative return. It's all the same beam of light, just in two different rays."

 

"How is that possible?" Moira asked.

 

Graves shrugged, "We don't know... The radioactivity of the light source my have something to do with it, or the fact that it's passing through the ozone layer and becoming disrupted... As it is, this is just a simulator. The real radiation would probably be too intense for us to tolerate."

 

"So how did Nela survive...?" Moira pondered.

 

"It's a shame we don't have anything more than a simulator," Graves lamented. "At least we have a synthesizer in the chem labs..."

 

That struck a chord in Moira's mind.

 

"Oh, that reminds me," she smiled, handing Graves the goggles. "I have to go check on some things."

 

"All right, see you later then," Graves smiled.

 

Moira exited the chamber, heading down the hall to her private lab. The chemicals should have finished combining by now. The stuff that awaited her was the very compound in Nela's blood that made her grow.

 

 

 

Speaking of Nela's growth, the young woman had become too large for the clothes that awaited her at the arena where Jacob had ensured her a room large enough for her to stay until show time. Andrea's head spun as she watched Nela go through three more meals, one of which consisted of thirty extra large pizzas. It seemed to her that Nela was eating more than her body should even need. Andrea could only assume it was because of the growth potential she still had. It sounded scientific enough, like something Moira would say.

 

'What's taking her so long to call back?' Andrea wondered.

 

Her mulling was interrupted by another problem. It seemed that Anton, in his usual pompousity, was already making sideways remarks as to Nela's size and weight. Andrea grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him aside.

 

"You say one word about her size and you're fired," Andrea ordered in a whisper.

 

"But I was--"

 

"Say a word and you're fired," Andrea answered steadfast.

 

"Fine," Anton replied and walked away in frustated flamboyance. He was soon taking out his annoyance on his tailors who were having trouble even reaching Nela's body parts as she now had crossed into the twenty foot mark, just as Andrea had predicted. The auditorium room didn't even feel as though it provided enough room for her. Jacob assured Andrea that Nela would be able to walk out on stage from the auditorium, but there was still a tingle of doubt in her mind. She just couldn't stop her from growing.

 

Andrea's phone rang, like a snake catching prey she answered it, "Hello?"

 

"Is this Andrea?" a voice asked.

 

"Yes," she answered, a tad confused.

 

"This is Dr.Olin, one of Moira's friends at the meterological anamoly center," he went on.

 

"Oh right, Hank," Andrea smiled.

 

"Um, this probably isn't a good time," he said, "but I need someone to fly out here as soon as possible."

 

"Why?" Andrea asked with some confusion.

 

"I need to check them for radioactivity," Hank said quietly.

 

"I beg pardon?"

 

"I say there's radioactivity associated with the light that hit your plane," he said. "I believe Nela was hit with a positive charge and the rest of you recieved a negative charge."

 

"Wh-What?" Andrea was at a loss.

 

"It's just a theory at this juncture, but I need to make sure. I need a specimen."

 

Andrea hesitated. Everyone was busy. Everyone, except Gina. Gina who was still roaming the streets of Los Angeles and was now seriously thinking finding a motel. Her cell phone rang as she thought it was becoming too dark to be out alone.

 

She answered the call, "Hello?"

 

"Gina?"

 

"Yep."

 

"This is Andrea, look, honey, how would you like to take a quick flight out of town for a while?"

 

"Um... O.K., but didn't I just get here?"

 

"This is important, I need you to stop in Las Vegas first and see Dr.Andrews again," Andrea explained. "Try to get her to go with you."

 

"All right," Gina said, still not understanding.

 

"I'll get you all set for a flight out tonight, say around eight?"

 

"That's-that's fine."

 

"Thank you, Gina, you're the best."

 

"Uh, your welcome."

 

"Bye."

 

Gina hung up. She had no idea what she had gotten herself into.

 

 

 

Part 21

 

It was thirty minutes til show time and Nela had grown to a whopping twenty four feet seven inches. Andrea couldn't understand it. She thought she had kept everything as peaceful as possible for her, but the results spoke for themselves. Anton had somehow gotten Nela to squeeze into a giant pair of stretchy black suede pants. Nela's formidable hips looking even more imposing in the snug clothes as she stood at the center of the auditorium, her giant height dwarfing everyone. The shiny suede top that she wore fit more loosely around her huge bust, which Andrea could have sworn was remarkably bigger. There was no time to question these things, showtime was coming up. She could hear a full arena just outside the walls of the auditorium.

 

How was she going to get Nela out? Jacob obviously had thought this through at all. He was just concerned with how much money he'd be saving by not having to use any microphones or sound systems to enhance Nela's voice. It also looked like Nela was becoming claustrophobic in the auditorium, though some of it could just have been nerves. After all, no one in the public knew she had grown into a nearly twenty-five foot giantess. There was no telling how they'd react. Nela felt a tingle in her belly. She placed a hand on her abdomen as soon as the nervous tremble began.

 

"What's the matter, hon, too tight around the waist?" Anton asked.

 

"No...," Nela answered with a quiver in her voice.

 

Andrea swung around, ready to kill Anton. He felt her eyes hit him from across the room. In a split second, he turned in Andrea's direction only to find she was marching in his. He didn't have a second to protest before she ordered, "You're fired. Get out."

 

"But-But..."

 

"Albert, get him out," Andrea ordered.

 

Albert grabbed Anton by the arms and pulled him away. Nela was already checking her body. Was she too big around the waist? She couldn't tell. There was nothing to compare it too. She felt big all over. She saw Albert dragging Anton away.

 

"Hey, where are you taking him?" she asked.

 

"He's gone," Andrea answered. "Don't worry about it."

 

"But who's going to measure me?" Nela blurted out.

 

Her body creaked it's way up to a foot taller.

 

"We'll find someone else, right now you don't need him," Andrea replied.

 

"Nevermind, I'll get somebody else to do it," Nela snapped back. "Gina! Where are you?!"

 

Andrea watched as those giant hips grew even bigger and rose even higher, stretching the suede fabric loudly as Nela grew.

 

"Gina's gone, too," Andrea said. "I fired her."

 

"You fired my personal assisntant!" Nela roared.

 

She shot up five feet, her huge curves swelling and her head touching the ceiling.

 

"Only I can do that!" Nela shouted. "That's why it's MY personal assistant!"

 

The creaking growth echoed across the auditorium. Everyone froze as Nela grew larger. Her pants were now fitting like Capris and her top had lost its advantage of fitting loosely.

 

"I had to! It was either that or Gina tick you off!"

 

"You don't think I'm ticked off now!? You don't think I'm ticked!?!" Nela erupted.

 

Her body, too, erupted. She enlarged to forty feet, her head putting so much pressure on the ceiling that she had to bend to fit.

 

"Nela, stop!" Andrea pleaded. "Look at yourself! We've got almost ten minutes til show time and you're almost too big for the clothes you just put on!"

 

The words clicked Nela's mind. Andrea was right. She had to cool off or there was no telling what could happen. Nela closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She exhaled slowly.

 

"All right, all right," Nela said softly. "You're right. O.K. Let me just relax."

 

"Good," Andrea sighed. "Now all we have to do is figure out how to get you out on stage from here."

 

She turned to the double doors that led to the main stage of the arena. By Andrea's judgement, the doors were twenty feet wide by ten feet high. There was no way Nela's shoulders or hips would be able to get through. Andrea felt a horrible migraine coming on.

 

 

 

Gina had made it to the airport on time to catch the flight out to Las Vegas and meet up with Dr.Andrews. She had no idea where she was going from there. This meteorological center of anamolies was out of her leauge and, quite frankly, gave her the spooks. She could only presume the whole place was filled with fellows who had thick-glasses and all sorts of StarTrek memrobilia plastered upon the walls in glass cases. Gina's train of thought was broken by the sound of the jet engines revving up. It then dawned on her that Andrea had taken her bottle of dramamine and Andrea also had all the valium. It was to be a rought flight for both Gina and the poor chap seated to her left.

 

 

 

Part 22

 

Andrea's fingers tensed so tightly around the little bottle of aspirin she thought it might crack apart. She had taken the last two pills an hour ago and was feening for more. But there was no time. The show was scheduled to begin in a couple minutes. Worse yet, she really needed the fix. Nela was over forty feet tall at this point, far too large to squeeze through the doors. The crowd would only become more anxious. Andrea paced feverishly around.

 

She hated Jacob right now. More than anything in the world, she wanted him to take her place in this mess he had created for her and see how he dealt with it. She glanced at Nela who was doing her best to breathe deeply and calm down. It only made Andrea take notice of the young woman's giant size even more so. Andrea hastily turned away, quickening her pace.

 

Nela caught a glimpse of Andrea out of the corner of her eye and stopped her breathing exercises.

 

'Andrea?' she asked.

 

Andrea thought she was going to have a coniption. Nela's voice was absolutely huge. How was she to perform in a mezzosoprano when she had the resonance of a whale-sized tuba?

 

'Andrea? How am I going to get out of here?' she asked.

 

Nela's voiced boomed in Andrea's ears. Was it too much bass? How was she to tell? She was just a manager, not a musician or a vocal instructor. Andrea hated her life absolutely at this point.

 

'It is showtime,' Albert added quietly.

 

He had been standing in his usual bodyguard position for quite some time now.

 

Andrea looked at him, still pacing, rubbing her temples methodically. She couldn't help but think that if the same strange affliction that was making Nela grow with her emotional responses, that Andrea herself would have shot up to gargantuan proportions in the past ten minutes. Andrea chuckled to herself at the thought. Then she'd really have a problem, wouldn't she? It was enough to take her out of the situation for the moment. Albert gave her a perplexed, inquisitive squint.

 

She stopped her pacing.

 

'Everything all right?' Albert asked.

 

'Oh, what do you think?' Andrea sighed, still keeping a grin on.

 

'How am I going to get out?' Nela persisted.

 

'Give me a second,' Andrea answered.

 

She searched the room. The arena which was flooded full of people by now lie on the other side of the largest wall of the auditorium they were in. Showtime had already been passed by two minutes and in managerial terms, that was too long. Jacob had paid for everything and continued to shell out more money under the impression he could turn a profit from anything. The solution was obvious to Andrea. Jacob would pay for it. The show must go on.

 

Andrea pointed to the wall, 'There.'

 

Albert and Nela, as well as a few other members of the covert crew working with Nela turned to the wall. They turned back to Andrea quite puzzled.

 

'You're not serious,' Nela said, cracking a smile.

 

Andrea nodded, 'Just think of it as stress relief.'

 

Anton's former assistant Lewis, rolled his eyes and turned aside, 'Looks like she finally lost it.'

 

Albert nodded to him discreetly.

 

 

 

A moment later, the crowds chanting was silenced when the wall came down. It was a spectacular eruption of dry wall and girders, pipes and wires. There was a moment of astonishment as the curtains blocked most of the debris from flying out onto the crowd, but it was clear that Nela's head rose above the long sheets of cloth. The gasps reached a crescendo as the dust settled and the curtains pulled away, revealing a forty foot Nela standing on a stage before the audience. It was awkward for everyone involved. The crowd was unsure if this was a special effect or real, or how to react to the giant woman. Nela was self-concious and more so due to the audience's silence. The lingering tension unnerved her. She could feel her body's expansion slowly creeping on her, stretching the fabric of her pants tighter, and squeezing against her rib cage.

 

'Well?!' Andrea hissed loudly from behind Nela and the rubble. 'Sing!'

 

Startled, Nela uneasily opened her mouth. Andrea hissed to the mixing DJs and the members of the band, 'Play, dammit!'

 

They ran out on stage to take their positions. The brief silence of set-up was quickly covered up as they broke into the first number. All they had to do was stick to the playlist. The first melodic Spanish syllables to leave Nela's mouth began the most impressive evening anyone had ever been treated to. The added resonance of her giant voice in the arena gave everyone the perfect seat in the house. Andrea erupted with a long sigh of relief as she fell back into a chair in the auditorium behind the performance stage.

 

Now the only trouble would be explaining this to the press, to the public, to herself. She almost burst out laughing, but let out only the slightest chuckle.

 

'I'm the manager of a giant, growing pop-singer,' she thought to herself.

 

The reality was too ridiculous to accept. But there stood Nela, before a packed arena, unable to perform any footwork on stage due to the lack of room.

 

Albert looked to the group of dancers who had been scheduled to perform during the numbers. They were shocked at Nela's size, but also upset by the fact that they had literally been pushed off the stage. There was simply no place for them to dance. And Albert, being the watchful fellow that he was, took it upon himself to figure out which of the shapely, stunning females needed the most consoling as they chatted amongst each other. He caught one or two giving him a turn of the head, a peek of the eye. Albert replied with a flashing grin of his pearly white teeth.

 

 

 

 

 

At this same time, in a laboratory outside of Las Vegas, Moira and a select few other scientists had been spending hours trying to solve the bizarre reactions and origins that caused Nela's growth. Moira herself had only slept an hour in the quarters she had set aside in her private lab. Her mind was too busy ticking away, pacing around the vial. It plagued her every second the computer spent analyzing the properties of the chemicals. She herself knew the best way to find out was to test it.

 

But on what?

 

A mouse? A rat? She had none. And furthermore, would she want to deal with such a giant thing?

 

Moira's eyes shot onto her own body. At six foot four, she had always been something of a giant. It hadn't ever really bothered her. And, so, she concluded that being a tad larger would make no difference.

 

'What better way to discover the solution to a problem than by placing oneself side the problem?' she thought.

 

She reached for the vial. It was in its purest form, this odd stuff. All the chemicals and hormones floating around and reacting in Nela's body concentrated into one vial, one substance.

 

'It most certainly must be potent,' Moira nodded to herself.

 

She pulled it from the rack of vials and test tubes. A mere drop would suffice. If that. A drop of a drop. A pinhead.

 

Moira carefully slid in her fingernail to the very top of the liquid. It broke the surface of the fluid, and, as she pulled her finger out, left a clear residue of wetness that slowly collected on the tip of her nail. A drop. Moira cautiously raised her finger to her mouth and stuck her finger in. She sucked it briefly, pulling her finger out. And swallowed. Then, nothing.

 

Disappointment was replaced by pondering. Was it the wrong vial? And if so, what had she just ingested? Perhaps the chemicals needed some sort of energy to activate them, heat or electricity... There was always the possibility of the lab's chemical synthesizer completely screwing something up. It was an experimental device, after all.

 

Moira pushed a button on the screen of her lab computer, paging one of her assistants.

 

'Greg? Wendy?' she asked. 'Are you there? Or...awake?'

 

She continued to study the vial in her hand, awaiting an answer.

 

There was a groan of sleepiness, followed by Wendy's voice, 'I'm here, Dr.Andrews.'

 

'Oh, good,' Moira answered. 'Wendy, would you mind coming up to check out the chemical synthesizer in my lab. I think it may have a couple glitches.'

 

'Yeah, I suppose,' Wendy yawned. 'I'll be right there.'

 

'Thank you,' Moira smiled.

 

She took her finger off the button on the screen.

 

Curious, Moira gently swirled the vial in her hand around. The fluid inside was definitely not water, but it certainly didn't have a clear taste either. She furrowed her brow and brought the vial closer to her eyes. She was tired. Too tired to be playing some sort of game with this stuff. She knew it had to be the right compound. She was sure the synthesizer worked fine. She was even positive about the taste, though there was none. It was a simple answer. She would take more. If it didn't work, then she would try using some sort of energy in combination with it. She was not to be without an answer tonight.

 

The edge of the vial reached her lips. She tilted it ever so carefully so that the slightest bit more would enter her mouth. As soon as she felt the wetness of it hit her, she pulled it away. Still nothing. It couldn't be very potent there was still no reaction. Fed up, Moira tiled the vial once more against her lips until she was sure a well felt splash enter her mouth. The door to her lab opened and in walked Wendy. She was still sleepy eyed, and she rubbed her blue eyes drowsily, flipping a few strands of her dishevled brown hair over her shoulder.

 

'Dr.Andrews?' she asked, about to yawn. 'Where's it at?'

 

Wendy lazily swung the toolbox in her right hand, causing her well-developed breasts to bounce in her tight fitting top. She tried in vain to stand, but could only convince her legs to bend and arch in her tight white pants so that her tired body did not fall.

 

Moira had suddenly felt flush.

 

'Dr.Andrews?'

 

Moira tried not to tremble, 'Wendy...'

 

All at once, Moira's body swelled into her clothes. She felt too big for the air around her. It seemed as though her stomach was sticking a mile out in front of her, even though her flat tummy was only straining against the rim of her tan leather pants.

 

Wendy had begun walking toward her.

 

'Wendy, don't!' Moira shouted.

 

It was probably the first time Wendy actually used her eyes in the lab. She came to dead halt and stared right at Moira.

 

'What is it?' Wendy asked startled.

 

Moira couldn't answer, she was too caught up in the sensation of the barrette in her hair pulling against the back of her head and the nose of her glasses clamping against the bridge of her nose. The buttons running down the front of her white lab coat all at once became tense, straining to stay in the button holes. She felt every layer of clothing, from her bra to her blouse to the coat, to her underwear to her leather pants stretch and press against each other and her skin.

 

'Moira...?' Wendy ventured quietly.

 

'Stay back,' Moira ordered weakly.

 

It was a violent shivering all over her. She could feel it mounting. Her neck, her spine, her torso, her legs lengthening. In the same second, her glasses popped off her face causing her to flinch while barrette snapped and released her long, flowing blond hair down around her shoulders. Her shoulders quickly broadened, and the buttons of her coat burst off one by one in only a couple seconds as her bust pushed out bigger.

 

'Dr.Andrews?!' Wendy shouted, jumping back.

 

Moira felt the force welling up within her, she knew it was about to erupt, she just didn't know how much or when. It suddenly caught her in mid-thought, and she shot up two and a half feet in a split second. The jolt caught her off guard with her newly lengthened, and still lengthening, legs. She was unable to keep her balace and stumbled backward, falling onto her bigger bottom with a thump. The pressure around her tight-fitting pants was becoming too great to bear. Moira was already panicking, and for some reason the growth had increased her heart rate and breathing. She panted and gasped frantically for air, trying to calm herself, trying to resist the growth, trying to squeeze out of her pants and bra.

 

'Wh-What's happening ...!?' Wendy screamed, she was now backed up against the door.

 

'Run...!' Moira barely was able to say as she choked for air. 'Run for your lives! I'm... gro-wing... too... UH!'

 

She suddenly found relief from the strain of her clothes when her legs and hips burst to an enormous size, her left leg shooting into the ceiling and her right, busting through the wall to Wendy's left. The lab assistant screamed a shrill shriek of terror. It was exactly what Moira wanted to do as well, but was barely able to keep up her own rate of breath. Her head had plowed into the other wall and her breasts were so huge that they pressed up against the ceiling. She couldn't manuever and better angle to fit her massive torso in the room, but found that as her weight increased, the floor below her was becoming less of an obstacle. Her growth rate increased abruptly.

 

At once, her butt swelled to a gigantic size and thrust through the floor, spilling her weight down onto the few scientists below. Wendy screamed her lungs out as Moira's legs shot out and extended so hugely that they burst right through the other side of the building, flailing in the sky. Moira's breasts threw the floors above her into each other and the upper most ceiling of the building only to shoot out like a geyser of debris, Moira herself caught a glimpse of this as her head ripped through the wall and ceiling and her neck pushed further out. Her torso soon found more than enough room to sprawl out in as it was the building was demolished in all directions, inside and out by the expanding woman. At first Moira thought that the freedom would allow her to breath more easily, but this was not the case. She was having trouble keeping up with giving her growing lungs the necessary air as her heart pumped furiously to circulate blood to the vast extremities and move the blood through the channels of her body that grew longer and wider by the passing moment.

 

'Wh-why is... hhh... this...,' Moira could barely utter the words.

 

Her growth rate exceeded its last and she hit another spurt, feeling her cells swell individually larger and larger. The already two thousand foot woman found herself expanding faster and faster. She choked for air. Moira's body flooded the desert, shifting the sands and crushing rocks of all kinds.

 

'...Too... big...,' she wheezed. 'I...m... get.... hhh... too... UH!'

 

The growth accelerated to her dismay it was uncontrollable, and inevitable. An animal her size with no limit to its potential for growth and no way to supple it body with the necessary elements of life on this earth. Moira felt her head slam against a mountain side and crample the rock effortlessly to pieces around her. She felt her feet burrow in the sand as her weight increased. She was growing exponentially now. She knew it. There was no way she'd be able to keep up. As she reached the seven mile mark, Moira knew that the next couple moments of growth would be her last.

 

It accelerated again. She gasped a desperate choke of air for her body, only to have it augment to a massive eleven miles. Her heart had pumped beyond its capacity and could do no more. Having failed in its purpose, the organ simply admitted defeat, the muscles too strained to go on. In one last eruptive surge, her heart stopped and Moira topped out at fourteen miles.

 

 

 

The flight attendants waved as the last of the passenger exited the plane. Gina stumbled out, holding onto the walls as she walked. She wiped her mouth of the wretched stench that she spewed earlier in the flight.

 

'Have a...,' the flight attendant gave Gina a surprised stare. 'Nice stay.'

 

Gina groggily handed the flight attendant her full air sick bag and continued on her unsteady march through the airport. The flight attendant looked at the bag hesitantly, holding it with only two fingers before dropping it hastily in the nearest trash can.

 

 

 

Part 23

 

After two encores, the concert ended with an uproarious applause. Nela was relieved, but a tension of thoughts was wrapping its way around her mind. She was hungry. And her size, that meant she was very hungry. At the same time, she was again irked by her own giant size. A nagging self-conscious streak made its way into her head and turned itself into a swarm of butterflies in her belly. The condition worsened when she realized she would be unable to make her usual escape from the crowds.

 

Andrea quickly took notice of this oversight on her part, 'Oh... crap.'

 

Andrea leapt from her chair.

 

'We need to figure something out, quick,' Andrea said to Lewis.

 

He flippantly turned his head to her, 'We? I don't remember giving her the order to knock down the wall.'

 

Andrea rolled her eyes, Lewis was going to prove to be even more of a pain than Anton was. Andrea studied the situation briefly.

 

'The curtains!' she shouted to the stage crew. 'Close the damn curtains!'

 

The stage crew scrambled to the cranks. The long curtains on the stage slowly drew shut, sheilding Nela from the eyes of the audience. But it was to no avail, for seconds later Andrea saw another dilemma arise. Nela's posterior was swelling. The anxiety had built up enough to cause her the stress needed to trigger whatever reaction was plaguing her body. Lewis and Andrea watched, stunned, as Nela's buttocks ballooned the stretchy fabric of the suede pants, pulling the rim of the garment lower. Nela took more notice of her breasts astonished as the mammaries expanded before her. She realized the creaking sound of growth was under the hum of the crowd, and soon found that her head was reaching above the tops of the curtains. There was a wave of gasps from the audience and an unsettling silence settling over the arena.

 

Andrea knew this was only going to get worse unless something was done immediately.

 

'Nela!' Andrea hissed. 'Quick, sit down!'

 

Nela turned to her, already upset, 'Where?'

 

Andrea grabbed Lewis's arm and pull him away, 'Here!'

 

Nela slid back into the auditorium, her massive bottom flattening the rows of chairs as her pants ripped into shorts. There she sat, out of view the crowd, in an enclosure that was no more than a small cave to her now, and getting smaller.

 

'Nela... Nela,' Andrea consoled. 'It's all right, see? The concert's all over and you did beautifully.'

 

The singer nodded slowly, trying to breath in even breaths. Her head was reaching to the ceiling. She could feel her broadening shoulders rising higher against the wall.

 

'Nela,' Andrea smiled. 'The sooner you relax, the sooner you'll stop growing.'

 

The giant woman's head was now bent down fighting for room against her shoulders and looming closely above her breasts. Nela closed her eyes and the growth stopped.

 

'Good,' Andrea smiled.

 

She let go of Lewis's arm, realizing she was still holding on to him.

 

Good was a relative term at this juncture. Nela was now eighty feet tall, easily, by Andrea's estimation. And, Moira had been right. Nela's body was still that of a compact, petite woman of four foot eleven. Now it was magnified to fit her larger size, making her seem to be absolutely titanic. Andrea wondered if a taller woman would seem less massive. As it was, Nela looked more full-bodied than Andrea ever remembered. The tabloids would have a romp with the whole fiasco, probably tossing in the notion of rapid weight gain when the story lost steam. Andrea could hardly imagine any of this losing steam. Losing such a super-heated ordeal meant suddenly finding a cure. It crossed her mind that she had yet to hear from Gina.

 

In the meantime, a new problem arose, and had been arising in Nela's belly for a greater part of the show.

 

'Uh-Uh, An-Andrea...,' Nela said softly. 'I, I don't know how to say this, but... I'm hungry again.'

 

The huge woman smiled sheepishly, placing a hand over her huge stomach to hide the queasy rumble inside.

 

 

 

 

 

The cab Gina had hailed at the airport rattled down the bumpy desert road through the night air. She was dead-tired and didn't want to pursue any small talk with the driver. Though, he persisted in keeping her awake, which was most likely a good thing.

 

'So what the hell is out here?' he asked.

 

Gina barely looked at him through her heavy eye lids, 'Sand...?'

 

'You got a mansion in the desert?' he said, cracking a smile.

 

Gina snorted, 'I wish.'

 

Truth was, she didn't even have a home any more. A lot of luck this whole touring with a pop star turned out to be.

 

'Well, this road's about to turn even bumpier,' the cab driver added. 'Am I supposed to be making a turn any place?'

 

'There should be a side road just up ahead, on the right,' Gina answered.

 

She sat up so she could lean forward and look over his shoulder. The road was there, sure enough. They made the turn and began down a better paved route.

 

'Geez, you look beat,' the driver observed.

 

'Yeah,' Gina sighed.

 

She leaned back in the seat.

 

'You never told me where we're headed,' the driver went on.

 

'To a lab,' Gina answered dully.

 

'Oh,' he said, hesitating before saying, 'what for?'

 

This was like twenty questions, Gina grumbled to herself.

 

'Look, even if I told you, you wouldn't believe me,' she answered.

 

'Try me, I might,' he chuckled. 'Besides, I could use a good story, real or not, in case you haven't noticed.'

 

It was painfully apparent to Gina.

 

She made a long sigh. Where to begin?

 

'Well,' she said, 'I guess it all started after my internship with this public relations firm. I had done some work on television, radio, events, all over. I liked the entertainment side the best and, to be honest, the events were the most fun. It was all hectic, but, a fun hectic. Exciting, you know?'

 

The driver nodded with a smile. He seemed to enjoy the fact that someone else was talking.

 

Gina sat up in her seat again, 'But, that was until my last job. Then everything changed.'

 

The driver raised his brows, curious.

 

'So I had finished my internship, and I needed a place to get my foot in the door, work my way up the ladder. I found this management firm that was looking for qualified newcomers... I thought, that's me. And it was a lot of fun for a while. I'd go to concerts for free, get to party with the stars and performers, meet all kinds of agents... Until, I met Nela.'

 

'Who?' the driver asked, unfamiliar with the name.

 

'Nela Giganti,' Gina said. 'She's a little Latin pop star... I don't know, maybe you haven't heard of her.'

 

The driver shrugged, 'The radio in here's been busted, and I don't watch much of the tele any more.'

 

'It's not important...,' Gina smiled. 'The point is, she was a wacko. Still is. I guess...'

 

'How so?'

 

'Demanding, capricious, insecure,' Gina rattled off the adjectives easily. 'Short fuse, and an explosive temper. And it didn't help that she went from almost an unknown into a nearly global pop icon over night.'

 

'Well, that's just good management,' the driver smirked at Gina.

 

Gina blushed, but corrected him, 'I wasn't the manager. Just the assistant to the personal assistant. After she got fired, I became the new personal assistant.'

 

The driver nodded, following the long stretch of road with his eyes. The horizon seemed far off and darker still as the lights of the city vanished behind them.

 

'So I was now the brunt of the attacks,' Gina lamented. 'Totally sucked the fun out of the job.'

 

The driver listened, but became more attentive of the road as the seconds passed.

 

'I began to wonder if there was ever any fun to begin with,' Gina went on. 'Maybe I had imagined it, and everyone was talking to me that harshly, I just never noticed it.'

 

The driver had cut off any auditory connection to Gina.

 

'I was just ignored, set aside, and only called upon when needed. Like a slave,' she continued. 'How was I to accomplish anything while being the licker of someone's boots?'

 

The speed of the cab had slowed, and this did not go unnoticed by Gina.

 

'Wh...,' she hesitated, unable to get out the rest of the question upon seeing the landscape before them.

 

The driver slowed to a stop. They sat there, speechless, staring out into the night's darkness only to find an immense curvature being illuminated by the faint glow of the city of Las Vegas miles behind them. A tremor went through Gina's brain. It couldn't be, could it? A moment later, she was hopping out of the cab and standing in the desert sand. The driver took things more cautiously. To him, all that he knew was this thing, whatever it was, was big. Immensely so. His eyes remained fixated on the object, waiting for any sign of its movement should it stir. He was relieved and then chilled by the fact that it did not.

 

Gina, however, was more concerned with the length of the thing, rather than the portion that towered in front of them. It was smooth, contoured, soft, fleshly. Gina's fears were literally coming to light as she back away from the thing, and turned her head to the right, allowing her perspective to reveal more of the great expanse. She continued to back up finding that each passing step only left more and more to behold. The driver watched Gina and did as she did, his only reasoning being that she knew what was going on, somehow. They continued in this steady manner of revelation until one thing became apparent.

 

'It's a foot!' the driver blurted out.

 

He could see some distance away the pale outline of a giant foot in the darkness. That would put them in roughly the position of the thigh. Gina's perspective however, revealed an eight mile stretch of pelvis, torso, chest, breats, shoulders, and at some greater distance, a head.

 

'It's a woman,' Gina said.

 

'Is it real?' the driver asked.

 

Now, Gina was no one to make a judgement such as this and give a confident answer. But, knowing what she did of Nela's condition, it was plausable this could indeed be a titanic, fourteen mile woman. Which only prompted her to ask, who?

 

'Let's get back in the car,' Gina suggested.

 

'Where are we going?'

 

Gina pointed to the distance where the head lie, 'That way.'

 

 

 

 

 

The crowds were practically evacuated from the arena. There was no other place for Nela to go. She was forced to stay in due to her size as there would be no other place for her to go anyway. A cartering service was called to feed Nela. They arrived an hour later and Nela was famished. She devoured two truckloads worth of food and couldn't wait to start on the next two. Andrea took this time of partial solitude to make other arrangements, namely, the next concert venue.

 

'Well, couldn't we hold it here?' she begged the concert director.

 

It was already late at night and to reschedule such a thing was a perposterous dilemma to begin with.

 

'All right, all right,' Andrea sighed. 'Look, I have another call, I'll get back to you later.'

 

She switched lines and found herself talking to Jacob.

 

'Andrea, darling,' he said in his usual beneficient tone.

 

'Jacob,' Andrea answered.

 

It must be something amazingly difficult.

 

'I heard the preformance was a smashing success,' he chuckled.

 

'Um, yes,' Andrea smiled. 'That-that was my idea.'

 

'Well, that's what insurance is for,' Jacob said lightly.

 

'You do understand that she's bigger now,' Andrea asked with a grave undertone.

 

'Oh, yes, most expectedly,' he replied. 'It's quite all right, darling... In fact, it's perfect.'

 

Andrea was unsure how to approach his approval.

 

'You see, whilst you've been on the road, I've been setting up a campaign,' he explained. 'Don't fret, it will be quite easy to reveal to the press Nela's... problem. I've been slowly leaking out the information for some days now, and...'

 

'What?' Andrea asked in a vain attempt at sanity.

 

'Well, you can't drop a bomb like that on people now, can you?' he chortled. 'I say, would it be at all trouble to find yourselves in an interview with Maya Collins two days from now? Say, two-ish?'

 

Andrea sighed, 'And how are we going to fly Nela to New York?'

 

'Oh, no, no...,' Jacob interrupted. 'Ms.Collins is flying here, to be sure.'

 

The words didn't seem to make any sense. Andrea was too tired, hungry, and the sound of Nela's ravenous eating echoing in the auditorium was making it difficult to listen or concentrate.

 

'Will you be needing anything else? Another wall to topple, perhaps?' Jacob joked.

 

'A cure for her would be nice,' Andrea blurted out.

 

'I'm sure everything is fine,' Jacob added.

 

Just then, a call came through on the other line of Andrea's phone. She had no choice but to ignore the beep.

 

'Well?' Jacob persisted.

 

'Food,' Andrea said, pacing. 'And lots of it. She needs a decent place to stay instead of this fucking cave...'

 

Nela turned her attention to Andrea, realizing she was speaking about her.

 

'And clothes,' Andrea went on, 'she needs new clothes. And make them big.'

 

'Um, maybe a couple sizes bigger,' Nela added with a weak smile.

 

Andrea looked to her with some distress, the call on the other line had just hung up.

 

'Not saying I'm going to get any bigger, but, just in case,' Nela said softly.

 

'Yes, work on not growing for one whole day,' Andrea said to her.

 

She immediately went back to talking to Jacob.

 

'Big clothes. I mean, extra big, in case she does grow for some reason...,' Andrea turned back to Nela. 'Even though she shouldn't!'

 

Nela felt ashamed at the attack, and looked down, returning to her meal.

 

'I'm sure I can work something out,' Jacob said. 'Maybe something... stretchy. The food won't be a problem. Hm. The living quarters. You're going to have to give me a hefty lot of patience on that one.'

 

Andrea sighed, 'All right. Just, please, try.'

 

'Well, then, you sound tired, my dear,' Jacob said. 'Have a good evening.'

 

'You, too,' Andrea said somewhat ineffectually.

 

She hung up. Andrea paced a little, staring at the floor. There was no one else in the auditorium except for herself, Nela, Albert and a hand full of dancers who were also with Albert. Andrea turned in time to see the party headed for the doors.

 

'And where do you think you're going?' she asked authoritively.

 

'Whenever the night takes us,' Albert said, smiling to the dancers.

 

'No, you're staying here,' Andrea ordered. 'You're supposed to be the bodyguard.'

 

Albert raised his eyebrows. Having been cut down by his boss in front of these women was unbecoming. Luckily, he had the perfect excuse.

 

'And what am I guarding?' he asked, gesturing to Nela. 'She can more than take care of herself.'

 

Albert, satisfied with his rebuttle, turned with the women and headed for the doors.

 

'So are you quitting or do you want me to fire you?' Andrea called out.

 

Albert stopped, 'Now, I didn't say...'

 

'But you admit you're no longer needed,' she said.

 

'Well, I...,' Albert sputtered. 'I thought we were a team?'

 

Andrea gave a long sigh, 'Go ahead, Albert... Go. If you still want a job, I'll see you tomorrow.'

 

There was an awkward silence as Albert hesitantly opened the doors of the auditorium and exited with the dancers. The doors shut with a echoing clasp and left Nela and Andrea alone in the expansive, three walled room.

 

 

 

Part 24

 

The silence was broken by an abrupt ring from Andrea's cellular phone. The caller had called back after Andrea unwittingly hung up on them, or the call had simply jumped into the forefront after she had hung up. It didn't matter. Andrea wasn't in the mood for talking. She sighed heavily, walking away from Nela.

 

"I'll take this over here, you get some rest," she said.

 

Andrea moved into the arena, passing through the gaping hole Nela had made earlier.

 

"Hello?" Andrea answered.

 

"Andrea, it's Gina," she answered in a hurried tone.

 

"Oh, Gina, good... You got in all right?" Andrea asked.

 

"The flight was fine," Gina said, dismissing the chit-chat. "Listen, I found Dr.Andrews."

 

"And what did she say?"

 

"Nothing, she..."

 

"Wait, wait, nothing?" Andrea asked, still trying to keep her voice down.

 

"Andrea, I think she's dead," Gina's voice crackled on the phone.

 

"Dead?" Andrea said with uncertainty. "But..."

 

"Listen to me! I got off the plane, drove out to the lab, and found a fifteen mile tall Moira Andrews lying in the middle of the desert! She wasn't moving and I don't think she's breathing."

 

"How can you tell?"

 

"Because we were just at her head," Gina answered.

 

"Oh my god...," Andrea whispered.

 

She felt the sudden urge to sit down. Her legs bent immediately and planted herself in the nearesr corner.

 

"So where are you going now?" Andrea muttered.

 

"I don't know, back into Las Vegas I guess," Gina answered.

 

"Shit," Andrea muttered.

 

"Hold on," Gina said suddenly. "Somebody's flashing their lights at us... I-I think they want us to pull over..."

 

"Where are you?"

 

"On one of the little roads that leads to the lab, or... where the lab was."

 

 

 

The desert sand kicked up in the night as the two cars slowed down, pulling to a stop in front of each other. The driver cautiously eyed the two lights that shone before them. He gave Gina an inquisitive glance.

 

"Are you sure you want to pull over?" Andrea asked on the line.

 

"It should be all right," Gina replied to the both of them. "I'm on the phone with you, and it may be a cop or something."

 

"Or a government agent," the driver suggested.

 

The thought had crossed Gina's mind, too, but if that was the case there wasn't much that could be done. They'd be hunted down for sure if they drove away right? It was always a possibility.

 

"Let's go," Gina said.

 

She and the cab driver stepped out of their car, only to find a man already getting out of his car.

 

'At least he's by himself,' they thought.

 

The cool desert air hit them by surprise and Gina caught herself looking out into the the neverending blackness of the night for anything that might leap out of her from this world or any other. Her eyes snapped back onto the man who was becoming clearer as her eyes adjusted and as he moved into the light of the headlights. She knew, she too, must be visible. He was an older man, his brown hair thinning and graying, though not unattractively. He wore a long coat, prepared for the tempratures outside.

 

"Excuse me," he said, "you wouldn't happen to know if there's a laboratory somewhere down this road, would you?"

 

The driver looked at him suspiciously, "That depends who's asking."

 

"Oh... Well, Professor Hank Olin, I work out of a... sort of a meterological outfit in Denver."

 

"You're Dr.Olin?" Gina asked, trying not to sound too excited or relieved.

 

"Yes...," he answered, now the suspicious one.

 

"Hold on, I think we may have a back up plan," Gina said to Andrea. "I found Dr.Olin."

 

Gina turned her attention back on the professor, "You know Moira Andrews?"

 

"Yes," he smiled. "I'm looking for her. You know her?"

 

"Alright, I've got some good news and bad news," Gina went on.

 

"Oh no..." Olin sighed.

 

"Moira may or may not be dead," Gina explained. "That's the bad news."

 

"You don't even give me a choice of which I get to hear first?!" Olin blurted out.

 

"Wait, wait!" Gina continued. "The good news is, you can still help us!"

 

"How is that good!?" Olin shouted, nearly tearing his hair out. "Good for you may be!"

 

"But-"

 

"Where is she?! How did she die?!" Olin quickly approached them.

 

"Andrea, I'll call you back," Gina prattled and hung up.

 

"But!" Andrea found herself disconnected.

 

The driver immediately stepped in Olin's way, stopping his approach toward Gina.

 

"Now, now... slow down there, pal," the driver cautioned.

 

Olin gave a long, unsteady sigh, shaken by the news.

 

"Just tell me what happened. How do you know she's dead?"

 

"We were just down there," Gina said quietly. "There's a huge, titanic fifteen mile Moira lying there and from what we can tell she's not breathing."

 

"Sweet Jesus...," Olin mumbled.

 

"I-I'm sorry," Gina answered. "I didn't know her very well... Look, I didn't mean to sound so casual about it, but, there's a lot more to this than one or two people."

 

"I know," Olin said quietly, looking to her.

 

She caught a glimpse of his eyes which were considerably shinier than before, no doubt because they had watered so much. The driver backed down, stepping away from him in a compassionate gesture allowing Olin to more freely toward Gina.

 

Olin drew a sniffling breath in and let it out before clearing his throat. Then, he spoke, shakily at first.

 

"We found a chemical compound with the same properties as what's happening in the girl's body," Olin explained. "Moira must have engineered the same thing at the lab and tested it on herself."

 

"But why didn't the same thing happened to Nela?" Gina asked.

 

"Because it was manufactured by her body, slowly, as a result of the radiation," Olin explained.

 

He leaned against the cab, and wiped his eyes. His resolute manner returned as he went on.

 

"Furthermore, Nela recieved the blast of radiation probably through a pane of reinforced glass. The kind jet liners use to maintain cabin pressure. It literally slowed the reaction in her body, which is probably how she's managed to survive this long. She adapts with every new phase."

 

"So how do we stop her?" Gina asked.

 

Olin shrugged, almost cracking a smirk, "That's why I came to talk to Moira. I was out of answers."

 

"Shit," Gina hissed. Her mind went racing again.

 

"What I do know is, this radiation is only a temporary phenomena in our atmosphere and its going to be depleted in another three or four days," Olin added.

 

"And how do you know that?" the driver asked.

 

"Because it demonstrates a fascinating property we're calling reflexivity. It's a word we made up to explain how light with more positive particles switches into a negative counterpart after a half-life period."

 

"Sounds complicated," Gina smiled.

 

"It is," Olin smiled a little. "But a terrific mental puzzle. We can predict where the new streaks will come up, but, the star's going to go supernova in three or four days, so any further study will be impossible and the rest of the streak finish switching into their counterparts."

 

There was a lull in conversation. The light howl of the air passing between them for the moment hung in their ears.

 

"So, where to now?" the cab driver asked the both of them.

 

"Some place out of the cold," Gina answered with a shiver.

 

"I have a hotel room back in the city," Olin suggested. "You're both more than welcome to join me."

 

Gina and the driver glanced at each other, if not with a bit of guilt. Surely, Dr.Olin was not in the mood to be alone.

 

"We'll follow you back," Gina nodded.

 

"Good," Olin smiled.

 

 

 

 

 

There was mild disappointment when Andrea heard that Dr.Olin had nothing to provide in so far as a cure for Nela. It was almost expected that this was going to get worse before it got better. But the fact that Moira had been replaced by a colleague who was just as qualified, if not more, was promising. Maybe there was hope yet. The swirl of thoughts left Andrea dizzy and she eventually nodded off, seated in one of the auditorium chairs. Luckily, Nela didn't snore, and her loud breathing was actually quite theraputic, like some sort of waterfall. It was a gentle hush that Andrea desperately needed. She didn't stir until later that following day, around one in the afternoon. Her cell phone had been ringing repeatedly and a voice was gently nudging her.

 

"Andrea? Andrea?" Albert coaxed.

 

Andrea's eyes cracked open. She wasn't sure if she sould be happy or mad or upset or indifferent to Albert's prescence. Her eyes opened all the way and she became conscious of the cell phone's repititive ringing.

 

"I thought it would be better to try and wake you up first than her," Albert said, smiling with his pearly white teeth.

 

"She's still asleep?" Andrea asked groggily.

 

Nela continued to sleep undisturbed by anything in the room. Andrea answered her cellular.

 

"Hello?"

 

"Andrea, what's been the hold up?" Jacob asked.

 

"I was asleep," she answered matter of factly.

 

"Well hurry up and get bushy-tailed so we can kick off our little soiree... you do remember, don't you? Maya Collins is coming to town?"

 

"Oh, yes, I remember," Andrea said, sitting up and feeling a soreness in her back. The chair had not been comfortable.

 

"Very good, then," Jacob grinned. "We'll be in around two, and Ms.Collins should be there around three to set-up. We go on at four."

 

"An hour?" Andrea stood from the chair.

 

"Well, well... sounds like you did just wake up," Jacob chuckled. "I'll see you soon."

 

He hung up. Andrea did as well. Dumbfounded.

 

"He's insane...," Andrea murmured.

 

All she could do was stare at the eighty foot sleeping Nela that lay on the other side of the auditorium. Each breath seemed to inflate her larger, only to have her return to a normal, standard size that, for all purposes, was still enormous.

 

"Oh, god...," Andrea whispered in desperation. "What if she gets bigger?"

 

Albert stood alongside Andrea, placing a hand on her shoulder.

 

"I-I... I don't see how this is going to get any better," Andrea sighed. "This... whole... interview, it can't possibly--She's going to grow again, I know she is. Then what?"

 

"Then maybe this will all finally end," Albert replied.

 

Andrea turned to him, "That's what I'm afriad of, and you and I both know the consequences."

 

He turned to Andrea slowly, unable to find any words of consolation. There was no denying the outcome if Nela got any larger, aside from the resolution of stopping her. She was ruled by her emotions, and, so too was her size.

 

 

 

Part 25

 

After a night at the luxury hotel in the heart of Las Vegas, Gina was more than adequately rested for the day of traveling that lie ahead. Dr.Olin had been kind enough to give up the bed so that she could take it while he and the cab driver spent the night on the couches of the hotel room. When she did finally pull herself out of bed, it was earlier than she had anticipated and she was surprised to find the cab driver ready to leave.

 

"You're in good hands," he said quietly, and stuck out a hand for a shake.

 

Gina answered by embracing him instead, "I know it hasn't been a long time, but..."

 

He chortled, "Oh, but it's been one odd adventure!"

 

She chuckled as they parted from the hug.

 

"This adventure just got weirder," Hank said, entering from the bedroom.

 

Gina spun around, not expecting him to speak so readily. The driver's ears seem to perk up at the mention of this.

 

"How so?" Gina asked.

 

"You'd think that somebody would notice a fourteen mile woman lying in the desert, wouldn't you?" Hank explained. "But there's been nothing on the news, and I just got off the phone with my lab back in Denver... There's no sign of Moira on the global positioning system."

 

Gina was unsettled, the driver glancing at both her and Dr.Olin a bit unnerved himself.

 

"So what does that mean?" Gina pried.

 

"I haven't the foggiest...," Hank shrugged.

 

"Look, this is all very interesting," the driver spoke up. "And, I really am curious and all, but, I've got mouths to feed at home. My wife's probably wondering where I am..."

 

"I'll make it more than worth your while to drive out to the desert," Hank said, digging into his pocket for cash money. "And find out what the hell is going out there."

 

Hank produced a hefty sum of bills in his hand, and held it out for the driver to take. It was a difficult sum to refuse.

 

"But, I don't even know where I'm going back to," the driver added.

 

"I'll give you directions," Hank replied.

 

The driver took the cash.

 

"And a cellular phone," Hank added, handing him the phone.

 

"Good deal...," the driver shrugged.

 

"Well, shouldn't he take us to the airport first?" Gina asked.

 

"We've got a shuttle bus for that," Hank answered. "Besides, we don't have the time, I have a feeling something is going to go horribly wrong in the next few hours."

 

 

 

They parted ways immediately, each with a different set of worries packed into their skulls. But even their separate worries didn't begin to compare to the unconquerable mountain of anxiety Andrea was sitting atop of in Los Angelles. For the moment, she feared her hair was falling out as she twirled it nervously round her finger, a habit she thought she had left behind in grade school and suddenly become aware of at the moment. Had she reached the end of her rope and was her mind reverting to some primitive state of confusion? The question balked at her for an answer she could not provide as her attention shifted. The doors to the auditorium swung open and in walked Jacob and host of professionals ready to clothe and prepare Nela.

 

"Andrea, darling," he said with his usual swagger.

 

She couldn't believe how lightly he was taking this, even now. Her smile reflected some of that, but mostly her own distress.

 

"My god, looks like we could use a stylist for you as well," Jacob smiled, taking a lock of her crumpled hair in hair.

 

"Is this really a good idea?" Andrea muttered.

 

"Oh, it's quite alright, besides you need the pampering it looks like," he replied.

 

"I meant the interview."

 

"Of course!" Jacob chuckled. "Why wouldn't it be?"

 

Andrea leered at him, darting her eyes over to Nela as hinting as possible. Jacob either didn't catch the gesture or really was completely oblivious to the situation.

 

"Rise and shine, Nela!" he joked loudly.

 

Nela smiled, sitting up as she watched the little stylists and fashion experts surround her.

 

"You're looking more statuesque and gorgeous than ever, my dear," Jacob smiled. "These gentlepersons are here to make you even more ravishing than ever."

 

Nela blushed shyly. Andrea was amazed at how easily she was pacified by his prattle. She couldn't believe she herself had fallen for it at one time. The bolt hit her. The ridiculousness of this whole situation was brought about by one man who thought he could do no wrong, a man capable of chattering his way into and out of any such monumental business. To him, this was just another venture of capital. Andrea was stunned. She wanted to laugh. She wanted to scream. She wanted to tell all those people to leave right now, that there was no interview, that they should get as far away from this place as possible. She even contemplated leaving the planet but remembered this wasn't possible. Andrea knew she had snapped. This thoguht was instantly followed by a waning of her vision and a loss of use in her legs. The others present in the auditorium looked on in confusion as Albert tried to revive Andrea.

 

 

 

When she did come to again, the stage had been set. Her mind had not quite returned in all its glory, but was aware enough to see that the powers that be had not changed anything and still felt quite right about this whole ordeal. Andrea was propped up in a chair, feeling more detached from her body than ever as she saw that the parking lot had been converted into the staging ground with the arena in the back drop. This was obviously to suit Nela, as she didn't want to have to look at the hole she made in the arena wall any more. Albert had apparently dragged Andrea outside on Jacob's whim, to sit on the sidelines with Jacob, sure that she wouldn't want to miss a minute of this grand spectacle. A spectacle it was, right down to the hundred foot by hundred foot canvas panels used for the cubicle set up to conceal Nela until showtime. This was outdone by the enormous chair that had been constructed to suit Nela so that she may sit right across from Maya Collins during the interview, just like so many of her other guests. Maya's chair was almost unnoticeable next to Nela's. Shockingly enough, some way they had sold tickets to this open air event and filled the chairs and bleachers to capacity for a standard Maya Collins show.

 

Andrea felt a tightness in her chest and a pick-up in her heartbeat. There was a silent prayer for a swift heart attack, but one never came. She was going to have to sit through this, for as long as it lasted. Without knowing it, she squeezed Albert's hand hard, enough for him to notice. He gave her an inquisitive look, partly smiling with his pearly white teeth. Though, strangely, they weren't as pearly or white or shiny as Andrea remembered they usually were. Something else caught her eye. The trailers alongside the stage, closest to the arena and the other bus that she didn't think was carrying audience members. She presumed it was for Maya Collins, but, Andrea could have sworn that Maya had riden in a different bus. Why was there a trailer there?

 

The question pounded her sillier.

 

Who was it for?

 

 

 

The plane set down without more than a bump. Gina couldn't remember when she had been so relazed on a jet liner, except for maybe the dramamine. Hank had kept her good company, but she was unsure if it was him, or the ideas running through her mind. She hoped that the driver would call soon, finding some sign of Moira in the desert. But without his call, there was only one other call to be made.

 

 

 

Andrea's cellular phone rang. A sound that was familiar, yet distant to her. She answered it by automatic response.

 

"Hello?"

 

"Andrea, it's Gina."

 

"Hi," Andrea answered vacantly.

 

"Where are you?" Gina asked.

 

"Here."

 

"Are you all right?"

 

"Fine. You?"

 

"Listen, I have Dr.Olin with me," Gina explained. "We need to know where you are, where's Nela?"

 

A ray of hope blasted Andrea. She was almost too flustered to speak. She sat up as though her body had ridded itself of a demon.

 

"We're still at the arena! I-I don't know the address, but-but I'll find it!"

 

She stood from her chair and searched frantically around as the audience members watched her in awe. Andrea noticed Albert, who was seated right alongside her and grabbed his collar.

 

"You! Tell me where we are!"

 

Albert stared at her wide-eyed. Maybe she wasn't all there just yet.

 

 

 

Gina and Hank took a cab to the arena, sighing a bit of relief from the hectic nature of the airport.

 

"So what's your new theory?" Gina asked.

 

"I have a new theory?" Hank rebutted.

 

"Well, you said you had some ideas... But you never said what."

 

"Oh," he pondered.

 

"Still thinking about Moira?" Gina asked.

 

Hank nodded. He then shrugged. Then shook his head. He had to put it out of his mind.

 

"The reaction could go several ways, both would explain her growth," he explained. "If her cells are getting larger each time or if she's just getting more cells built up into her body, both processes would take a considerable amount of energy. This obviously isn't food energy because she'd be eating enough for more than three times her body all the time. So, I can presume its from the radiation, which leads me to believe she's got some kind of radiation poisoning."

 

"But, that would mean she's mutated...," Gina said.

 

"Yes. Very much so."

 

"But what about Moira?"

 

"Moira ingested the same components from a mutated Nela. The reaction is the same; accelerated growth in a very short period of time. The difference is Nela's body could handle it the way the mutation is progressing. I believe its triggered by the same substance that builds in people with high stress, sort of like adrenaline response. When this builds up, she grows. The trouble is, it doesn't take a lot."

 

"So how do we shrink her?"

 

"That's what I'm not sure about," Hank sighed. "I think her cells are multiplying AND growing slightly larger each growth spurt. And, in turn, they're becoming more sensitive to this stress-related component. If this... stuff... builds up too much she just might keep on growing. But then, the radiation-poisoning comes into play. The radiation is reflective and reflexive... Who knows? It could be better or worse than I thought... Or, she might growth three heads and ten arms..."

 

Gina didn't catch the joke at all and sat back in the taxi cab, absolutely terrified of the notion.

 

 

 

The stage lights went up. Andrea felt a chill run down her back. The stage director had just told everyone to remain quiet as Maya Collins faced the camera. She was a pleasant enough soul for television. Her skin was a cinnamon tan, her bronze hair was streaked with gold, and she spoke with the slightest British accent as she straightened out the tiniest wrinkles in her finely done red and black pant-suit. She director pointed at her cue.

 

"Good afternoon," Maya smiled. "We're here on location in Los Angelles for a special interview with an amazing guest."

 

The camera pulled back. Maya turned back quickly to look at the huge chair set up behind her.

 

"My goodness!" she smiled, turning back to the camera. "What an enormous chair! Now who could possibly need a seat like that? Wait, watch, and see."

 

The camera cut into the prepared video opener, but the audience was treated to the opening theme of the show. Andrea felt like she was getting on a rollercoaster for the very first time.

 

 

 

Part 26

 

Gina and Hank found themselves stuck in traffic as they made their way to the arena. The cab driver shook his head, smiling, "Happens everyday 'bout this time."

 

They were not so amused by his light-hearted approach to the matter, but remained as patient as possible. Gina, for the first time, wondered what it was they hoped to accomplish once they got there. She watched as Hank pulled her cellular phone out of her purse.

 

"May I?" he asked.

 

"Sure," she shrugged.

 

He quickly dialed up the number to his lab in Denver.

 

"Hank, what are we going to do exactly?" she asked

 

"That's what I'm going to find out right now," he answered. "Hopefully, the people back in Denver can give me some idea where the next couple streaks are going to appear over the city. We might be able to use them to shrink her."

 

Gina nodded.

 

Hank heard a pick up on the other end of the line, "Hello? Carly, it's Hank. Yes. Very well, thank you. Is Ryan there? O.K., do you know where the plotting map is...? Excellent. Can you tell me where the next streaks are going to appear over L.A.? M-hm. Any idea when? Dammit. Alright, what's the altitude on those? Hmph. Alright, thank you. I'll see you again soon."

 

He hung up.

 

"Well?" Gina asked.

 

"There's going to be two," he sighed. "One at five, the other at seven. Both of them in the upper atmosphere."

 

"And...?"

 

"And, nothing. After that, there are no more. The star's going to supernova."

 

"So what are we going to do about Nela?"

 

"I'll have to study her, up close and personal, so I can get a better idea of her condition," Hank answered.

 

The traffic began to pick back up and they prepared to resume the normal flow of traffic.

 

"Now that's more like it," the driver grinned. He hit the accelerator and they sped down the highway.

 

 

 

The theme music to the show's opener reached a crescendo, and faded down. The director gave Maya her cue. She turned to the camera with a smile.

 

"We're live in L.A. today for a special guest," Maya began. She smiled to the audience, "Now who could possibly be big enough to fill that seat?"

 

Nela heard this backstage and felt a tingle in her tummy. She took a deep breath and reminded herself it was no different than before a performance.

 

"Anybody want to guess?" Maya went on coaxing the audience. "Anybody?"

 

But the audience was more stunned that someone was actually going to sit in that giant chair. They remained clueless. A light bit of laughter passed through them.

 

"No takers?" Maya grinned. "O.K., well, how about I give you a hint? You may know today's guest from the Billboard's Top Ten, and, if you were lucky enough, the concert that was at this very arena last night..."

 

A hush hit the crowd. Some of them apparently knew the answer, but couldn't believe it.

 

"Well," Maya went on. "It's going to take a big star to sit in that chair, and nowadays there's no one bigger than Nela Giganti...! Nela, come on out!"

 

The show's theme music played again. Nela took a another breath and stepped out from behind the canvas. The shock that hit the audience was felt by everyone as quickly as Nela's weight hit the ground with each footfall. She was dressed in a silken material, stretchy but this was not so obvious as the clothing itself fit her loosely. It was a pair of pants, electric blue, and a buttonless, zipperless jacket the same color that was worn over a white, buttonless blouse. They had even made sandals large enough for her. And while not her usual tight-fitting, sex-appeal look, the looser clothing had given her a flowing, royal look that was simply magnificent.

 

Andrea's chest tightened again, her breaths were coming in pants now.

 

All eyes and necks turned up to see her. Maya almost forgot where she was, but quickly recovered. She smiled and held out a hand, as was customary to greet guests on the show.

 

Nela smiled, and, leaning over, held out her littlest finger for Maya to shake. The audience found this absolutely delightful and chuckled whole-heartedly.

 

"Ratings history, Andrea," Jacob smiled. "Ratings history."

 

The uneasiness Andrea felt in her own stomach was mirrored by the same tingle in Nela's. Unlike Jacob, Andrea understood that Nela's insecurities and vices had been magnified with her as she had grown. Things that he couldn't possibly know. Nela was actually quite slender, though was more than generously well-rounded where need be for a woman. Yet, she feared herself becoming overweight. Nela was petite and had been all her life, leaving her feeling inferior and insignificant, though at this point in her life she was quite large physically and socially. Nela also had been told what to do by others all her life, and now, even in this time of fame and fortune, she was ordered around. When those around her didn't listen to her, she became infuriated. It was her temper that combined all of these into the dangerous concoction. These thoughts clogged Andrea's mind, preventing her from doing anything more than staring at the staging ground. Andrea knew it had begun.

 

Nela took a seat in the giant chair, hearing it creak slightly with her weight. Apparently, no one else heard this and Nela exhaled with relief.

 

"My goodness, you're big!" Maya grinned, taking her seat.

 

The audience laughed at her exclamation, but this left Nela more anxious. She smiled back at Maya, trying to put off the nervous tingle in her belly.

 

"I just can't get over how big you are...," Maya chuckled.

 

Nela glanced at herself. She was big. She felt huge in front of all these tiny spectators.

 

"How tall are you, anyway?" Maya asked.

 

"I-I'm about eighty feet high," Nela answered.

 

There was an awe of amazement from the audience. Nela did her best to smile. Meanwhile, Andrea prayed that Nela could keep a sense of humor about herself and see that this was just to break the ice. Secretly, Andrea wanted to shout to Nela that this wasn't the interview yet, that she shouldn't get all flustered. Yet she didn't. Paralysis of the mind, maybe. Anything like that would "ruin" Jacob's perfect invention here. But she knew it could be ruined other ways.

 

"It must be impossible to find clothes in your size!" Maya joked.

 

The audience let out a chuckle. Nela was unamused.

 

"What?" she said.

 

"You know, because you're so big...," Maya said through a smile.

 

It was a smile that irritated Nela, though it was completely harmless.

 

"What's that supposed to mean?" Nela asked.

 

"Wh-What's going on?" Jacob asked, sitting up in his chair.

 

Andrea felt herself smirking at this.

 

"Y-You know," Maya said, "because you're so huge... and your body is... oh my god..."

 

That tiniest bit of annoyance was enough to trigger the reaction in Nela's body. It was noticeable mainly to Maya who saw that Nela's feet were taking up more room in her sandals.

 

"Are you getting fatter?!" Maya blurted out, jumping from her seat.

 

The audience laughed at this, sending Nela into confusion as she tried to keep herself calm but was now clearly growing in her chair which creaked even more loudly with her increasing weight.

 

"I am not fat!" she shouted.

 

"Well you're taking up a lot more space than before!" Maya said, still trying to lighten the mood.

 

The audience thought this was funny. Nela did not. She tried to stand from her chair to prevent it from breaking from underneath her, but found her growing bottom was stuck in the arm rests. She still attempted to stand, the chair now stuck to her butt. The audience was now in hysterics. They thought this was some kind of huge prank now.

 

"Stop laughing!" Nela roared.

 

"Oh dear...," Jacob muttered, settling back into his chair. He glanced at Andrea who was staring at him with wide, crazy eyes.

 

Nela fell backward, sitting into the chair, only to bust right through it and land on the ground with a huge earth shaking rumble. She continued to grow, faster now, reaching past one hundred feet.

 

"Stop it! Stop laughing at me!" she shouted. "You're making me grow!"

 

She rose to her full height, now at one hundred and twenty feet and the audience went silent.

 

"Now look what you made me do!" she yelled. "I'm even bigger than before!"

 

Her outburst caused her to swell up another twenty feet in height.

 

Andrea leapt from her chair, Albert quickly stood, trying to grab her arm.

 

"Are you crazy!? This is it!" Andrea screamed. "We're all fucked!"

 

Albert lunged over and grabbed Andrea's wrist at the last second, pulling her close, "Get a hold of yourself!"

 

"Let go of me!" Andrea shouted.

 

"ARUUHHHGH!!! This is all your fault!" Nela stomped toward Maya.

 

She blew up forty more feet, her clothing began straining against her body. She knew it was designed to be loose, and now for the first time, it was tightening all over just like her other clothes did. She no longer felt elegant, but instead pressured. The sandals broke apart at her feet, leaving her barefoot.

 

"Dammit! I just got these clothes and now I'm already too big for them!" Nela said, stomping toward Maya.

 

Maya was panicking. She was unprepared for a two hundred foot woman on a raging rampage. Nela continued to grow before her very eyes.

 

"It-It wasn't my idea!" Maya shouted. "I-I didn't mean!"

 

The audience and television crew ran, screaming and crying in a mad rush, some bumping into each other.

 

"Shut up!" Nela ordered. She was now on a continuous expansion with sudden growth spurts depending on her outbursts.

 

"Then whose idea was it!?" Nela screamed. She shot up thirty more feet. Her breasts filling her blouse which now began stretching to suit her. Her hips and butt were already pulling the fabric.

 

"Who brought the cameras!?" Nela asked, kicking side the rows of cameras. She grew bigger, now at two hundred fifty feet.

 

"Who brought the trailers?!" Nela shouted. She kicked at the trailers, watching as they came apart like paper and a host of people spilled out.

 

She grew another twenty feet without her control, though her mood suddenly changed. For in the trailer were her parents whom she had disowned, and her siblings; all those younger brothers and sisters who teased her about her size, locked her in closets, hung her from high places by her shirt so she couldn't get down.

 

But she was still growing, ever so subtly, a few inches more by the second.

 

"My parents...," she heaved. "My parents? You brought my parents here!? Who the fuck do you think you people are?!!"

 

Nela rose fifty more feet, darkening the ground below her with her stretching shadow.

 

"Nela! Please, stop it!" her mother pleaded.

 

"Stop it?! I can't stop it! I can't stop growing!" she blared at them.

 

Now at three hundred twenty feet high, Nela was becoming more startled by her increasing size, "Why isn't it stopping?!"

 

"Nela, you've got to calm down!" Albert shouted, letting go of Andrea's wrist.

 

"You! How dare you tell me what to do!" Nela shouted. "You're useless now anyway! I can protect myself better than anyone!"

 

She swatted a growing hand at Albert, knocking him yards away into another trailer. The trailer tipped over and began smoking. Nela caught a glimpse of Jacob trying to escape while the rest of the audience ran in terror.

 

"What's the matter with you?" she growled. "Aren't you going to fix this mess?"

 

"Nela, my dear...," Jacob said uneasily. "This is your own doing... and..."

 

"My own doing?" she asked, shooting up ten more feet. "My own doing?!"

 

She rose twenty more feet. Her eyes were insanely focused on him.

 

"You think I want to be this big?!" Nela reached past four hundred feet. Her jacket tore away and all that remained on top was a blouse, streched tightly across her bust. Her pants had tore down into a mini-skirt.

 

"Nela, you must understand, my dear. You've ceased to be statuesque and simply become... freakishly huge...?" Jacob answered.

 

Jacob watched as Nela swelled wider and broader, and expanded and stretched taller and higher, reaching up seventy more feet. Perhaps his choice of words had been too quick, too haughty, too confident she would not hurt him. A second later, Jacob Risling was no more. Nela had crushed his debonair demeanor out of existence. She swung around viciously and destroyed the stage that had been set. The arena had become just a marker for how large she used to be. She watched as the people fled in terror, speeding away in their cars. Some desperate souls ran for their lives. Nela was infuriated beyond control, she continued to grow slowly, a few feet at time, adding to her five hundred twenty foot height.

 

"I never thought I'd be this big," she panted. "I figured they'd find a cure or I'd just stop growing..."

 

She looked at her huge body. She tore the back of her blouse so that it became a backless top as she grew. Her mini-skirt had retained its state through her growths to her surprise and did an adequate job stretching enough to cover her womanhood.

 

In the near distance, a taxi cab sped toward the arena.

 

"What the hell is that?" the driver asked.

 

"I think we're a little late," Gina muttered.

 

Her phone rang, she answered it, "Hello?"

 

"Gina!" the driver from Las Vegas said.

 

"Hey!" she said, wishing she had asked his name. This was probably not the time for formalities anyway.

 

"Is the doctor there?"

 

"Yes, why what did you find?" she asked.

 

"I don't know," he answered. "The sand is wet and cold here, and there's no body."

 

"What did he say he found?" Hank asked.

 

"Moira's not there, but the sand is wet and its cold," she answered.

 

"Incredible!" Hank said, almost hitting his head on the window as the driver swerved the car to a halt.

 

"This is as far as I go, get the hell out!" he demanded.

 

"Tell him to go to the center of the wreckage," Hank told Gina.

 

"I said get out the car!" the driver shouted.

 

Hank and Gina quickly got out, barely in time before the driver of the present cab peeled out of the lot.

 

"Tell him to find go the middle of the wreckage," Hank ordered again.

 

"He says go to the center of the wreckage," Gina repeated. "What's he supposed to find there?"

 

"Hopefully...," Hank's words were cut short by the terrifying earth-shatter coming toward them.

 

"Holy shit!" Gina screamed.

 

Hank spun around to witness the steady, powerful approach of the most immense woman he had ever seen. Nela was like some foreign goddess; her dark brown hair luxuriously flowing in the wind, barely wafting to the top of her bare shoulders. Her unblemished, tanned skin gracefully flowed with the movements of her toned body whose motions were as sensual as any dance she ever performed on stage. And she grew larger with every passing second and step that brought her closer. Her exotic, deep brown eyes targeted them, almost squinting to make them out.

 

"You!" she thundered, recognizing Gina. "You're the reason I'm this big!"

 

Her pace quickened, turning into a hefty sprint.

 

"Oh my god, run!" Gina screamed.

 

Hank didn't have to be told twice. They bolted down the aisle of the parking lot, practically chasing the taxi cab driver.

 

"Oh, hell no you don't!" the driver said, looking in his rear view mirror at them. He pressed the accelerator to the floor and raced onto the nearest on-ramp.

 

Their dash was becoming more futile as the grounds quaking made it harder to run. Nela was covering the distance easily.

 

"If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have gotten so mad in the first place!" Nela shouted. She felt her rising another seventy feet. "Come back here!"

 

Nela grew another eighty feet. Her strides intensified. They didn't know it, but Andrea had stolen Jacob's limosine and with the aid of a few other escapees, were on a bee-line to rescue Gina and Hank from behind. The limosine caught up to them, and the passengers opened the doors, prompting them to jump in. Gina dove for the first door, nearly getting crushed by the tires underneath had it not been for a passenger inside grabbing both her arms and dragging her in. Hank took a different approach and leapt for the door frame, standing on it before climbing inside. The doors closed.

 

"Now!" Andrea shouted back.

 

From the sun roof of the limo, the passengers began tossing out huge light bulbs, used to light the television stage. The bulbs exploded across the ground, forming a wispy haze of shards ready for Nela's feet. The last bulb burst on her giant left toe. The sudden pain caught her off guard, and the giantess reached for her foot in mid-run only to twist her foot enough for the broken glass to penetrate her thick soles. She howled in pain, dropping to the ground and causing a hideous tremor that threw the limo into the air before Andrea turned onto the on-ramp. They sped off down the highway. Nela had landed on her belly, and grown another ninety feet at the time of the injury. She now ballooned upward and outward, gaining another hundred feet to her already gigantic stature. She swung a mighty hand at the escaping limosine, missing it by a second, but wiping out a whole section of highway and traffic. The cement crumbled into rubble.

 

"I'll get you!" Nela roared, her body enlarged ninety more feet. "I'll get you all!!"

 

She blew up in another spurt, a hundred feet larger.

 

"Are you sure that was a good idea?" Gina asked Andrea.

 

"Quiet. I'm driving," Andrea answered. "Besides, doesn't the doctor have any answers?"

 

All eyes went to Hank.

 

"Um... We're still waiting for a call back on that one," he smiled weakly.

 

 

 

Part 27

 

The sun was beginning to hit hard the dusty rocks and sand of the Nevada desert. The cab driver roamed the wasteland of debris with the feeling as though something alien could jump out at him any second. It was a flat emptiness that was riddled with scattered remains of the laboratory. From time to time, he found a piece he recognized as a wall or a pipe from a sink or gas main. Then there was the occasional ceiling tile or air conditioning vent. He feared coming across a dead body and often leapt back in fright at a pipe or pole that had been bent out of shape, mistaking it for a bone. A moment later he would think himself silly. After all, all the people were probably flattened into the ground, pressed far below the sand, as the enormous woman grew and grew.

 

It dawned on him that neither Gina nor Hank had told him at all what it was he was to be looking for. He stopped his walk across the wasteland, scanning it with his eyes. He considered abadoning the mission all together, seeing as how he hadn't found anything and this scenery was beginning to make him think he was in some post-apocalyptic B-movie.

 

He kicked a patch of sand with his shoe, feeling that he should kick himself a moment later for fear he could have unearthed a body by accident. The sand was chunky, thick, most likely due to the fact it was almost ice cold and wet. So many questions entered his mind. Among them; what was he doing here? Secondly, why was the sand this way? And, could it radioactive? Was this a health risk? The thing that kept pestering him was what it was he was looking for. The cab driver slowly picked up his feet again stepping through the snow-like sand.

 

There was a movement behind him.

 

He stopped in his tracks. Turning slowly, he tried to catch a glimpse of whatever it was out of the corner of his eye. But nothing struck him as out of the ordinary. He reasoned it was probably a desert fox or some rodent searching for scraps among the scraps. He would have left this reasoning alone, had it not been for the movement reappearing before his eyes. A sheet of some kind, white, possibly from a coat or jacket, looked as though it was being pulled behind a large chunk of what used to be a wall. Curious, he stepped carefully across the heavy sand to the misplaced piece of wall. The sheet continued to move, then stopped. Presumably, it knew of his approach. The driver questioned his next move. It could be something alien. Something that would eat his face or maim him, or make him the first victim of some intergalactic monster or disease. Then again, it was probably just a desert rat or fox and he might get rabies. Seeing as how this was the only thing of interest he had found so far, he continued to move toward it.

 

He peered over the piece of wall, finding that the sheet was covered something balled up. It was moving, breathing. The driver grabbed a nearby piece of copper wire and used it to catch the corner of the sheet. The thing stopped moving. He pulled the sheet up...

 

What was it? An alien? A rat? A...

 

He let go of the copper wire with a startle.

 

"I'm sorry...," he said.

 

The sheet fell back. He was shocked to have found a woman, probably only a foot and two inches high, cowering under the sheet. She wrapped herself in the sheet and stood.

 

"It's O.K.," Moira said quietly in her little voice. "I just didn't want to be seen like this..."

 

"This just keeps getting weirder," the driver muttered.

 

"What did you say?" she asked, stepping out from around the wall. There was no sense in hiding any more now, she had been found.

 

The driver almost wanted to laugh, "I was looking for a giant woman, and I end up finding an elf."

 

"I'm not an elf," Moira answered. "But I am the giant woman you were looking for."

 

"How?! You were dead last Gina and I saw you," he asked in bewilderment.

 

"I was?" she answered. "The last thing I remember was having this terrible pain in my chest and I couldn't breathe... Hmph. I guess, I suppose that does make sense now."

 

The driver was now puzzled beyond his abilities.

 

"Is it me or it freezing out here?" Moira asked.

 

"The ground is cold, but the sun is heating this place up," the driver answered.

 

"Must be because I'm so small," Moira muttered, looking herself over. "My god... How did this happen to me?"

 

She almost started to sob, and the driver knew he had to prevent that from happening.

 

"All right," he began. "I found you, and I know how to get in touch with the professor and Gina."

 

"Hank?" Moira asked excitedly.

 

"Yeah, Hank, Dr.Olin," the driver answered.

 

"Where is he?" she asked quickly. "Oh, wait... I can't let him see me like this!"

 

"Just wait a second," the driver sighed. "They went to Los Angelles to stop some woman Nela from growing like you did."

 

Moira's head was spinning. So many things to do.

 

"Call them, quick!" she said. "And let's get out of here while we're at it. I need some clothes... Oh, and I'll need to find some way to L.A."

 

The driver sighed as they walked to the cab, "Here we go again."

 

 

 

The city of L.A. was rumbling moreso than any of it inhabitants had ever remembered a series of earthquakes striking the land. Andrea was making her way down the highway like a petty thief who had stolen a high-octane race car. In the distance, they could see Nela getting to her feet. If they were quiet enough, they could probably hear her cursing them as well. She continued to grow, and as she got to her knees, ripped a generous portion of the highway from it foundations and flung it, cars and all, somewhere over the horizon. Nela got to her feet and smacked the nearest building, an abandoned bank. Her hand blew it apart, sending bricks flying into windows of neighboring, inhabited buildings. The occupants weren't much happy with this round of brick throwing and many went to their windows to complain. Most of them barely opened their mouths before watching an enormous, seething Nela stomp past. This was followed by the echoing fall of the bank building.

 

Nela barely fit between the buildings. The city streets were already too cramped for her expansive form. She push forward, her eyes squinty, narrowed in their focus, her lips curled and teeth bared. Her shoulders were just tilted enough to allow her to pass through the tightening alleys of buildings, but clearly arched in a pose of bitter rage.

 

She was extraordinary. Her body was both toned and firm, yet full and voluptuous. Her clothes had disappeared long ago, leaving her huge, heaving breasts exposed for the world to see. They were impressive curvatures to be sure, that hung perfectly balanced and suspended at her chest despite their obvious size and weight. But her muscles were also obvious under her skin. They tenses and flowed easily, revealing a powerful yet lithe figure which was clear by every sway of her arms, every manuever of her torso, and every tilt of her hips. Her hips flared out into illustrious rounds at her sides. With each passing step, they grew wider, shapelier, more exciting, and threatened to tear down the next building they brushed too closely against.

 

At over one thousand feet in height, Nela was going to be far harder to stop than anyone had anticipated.

 

"Have either of you thought of a plan yet?" Andrea asked.

 

"I-I didn't know that was our job," Gina answered.

 

"It wasn't really your job, per se, I was just wondering if anyone has thought of anything," Andrea remarked.

 

"Well, what did you come up with?" Gina asked, climbing forward across the limo.

 

Andrea turned her head all the way around, "The last thing I did was call the police, fire department, and the operator to notify the National Guard."

 

She grinned ear to ear and stared at Gina with the same crazy eyes she had given Jacob earlier.

 

"Andrea, please watch the road," Gina said, unnerved.

 

Andrea turned around to continue driving.

 

"Where's Albert?" asked Gina.

 

"He's probably dead," Andrea said without a moment's thought.

 

"Dead?"

 

"Yeah. Dead. Whoops," she replied. "Nela flung him across the parking lot into a trailer. I'm not sure, but, I think it caught on fire a minute later... I don't remember, we all ran in terror too soon after."

 

Gina felt sick to her stomach.

 

"I knew it, I knew it all though!" Andrea laughed. "But nobody wanted to listen!"

 

Just then, Gina's cell phone rang. She more than willingly answered it.

 

"Gina!" the driver said. "Is the professor there?"

 

"Yes, why? What did you find?"

 

"I found the lady we saw before," he answered. "Except she isn't a giant."

 

"Well, what is she?"

 

"She's about a foot high," he answered.

 

"This just keeps getting weirder," Gina muttered.

 

"I know," he added. "Put the doctor on for me."

 

"Hank!" Gina smiled. "It's for you."

 

She reached across the limosine and handed the phone to Hank.

 

"Hello?" he answered.

 

"Dr.Olin, I've got someone here who wants to say hi," the driver said, and handed the phone to Moira.

 

"Hank, its me," she said in a tiny voice.

 

"Moira! You've alive!" Hank said overjoyed.

 

"If you call this living," she snickered. "There's a bit less of me this time around."

 

"But you're alive!" he answered.

 

Moira chuckled, "I had no idea I was gone."

 

"You probably weren't gone," Hank answered. "Clinically dead, yes, but... I believe once your body's growth caught up with itself, your internals all switched on again. You were jump-started it seems."

 

"Then how did I shrink?"

 

"Shrink?" he answered in disbelief.

 

"Yes! You can't hear me?" she said.

 

Hank shook his head, "No, no, it all makes sense. The radiation, the chemical reactions. It's all part of the same cycle."

 

Gina interrupted him, "O.K., good, so how do we stop Nela?"

 

"We get her really tee'd off," he smiled.

 

"What?" Gina snapped back.

 

Hank grinned, "Once her body as it's fill of the chemical that's causing her growth; i.e., the 'anger' substance in her body, it'll top off and cause her to grow so incredibly fast she'll make her own head spin."

 

Gina was caught in a second of total confusion before Hank winked and returned to his conversation with Moira.

 

"So any chance you can get to L.A. today?" he asked.

 

"You're all crazy!" Gina shouted in a moment of clarity.

 

 

 

Nela found her huge buttocks had grown so wide they literally forced themselves between the buildings and she could not pull herself free.

 

"ARRGGHHH!!" she wailed. "I hate this!"

 

Her body surged with growth. The buildings were no longer a problem as they were quickly flung in two opposite directions by the two thousand foot woman's immense hipline.

 

"I'm too big to fit into any clothes!" she shouted in frustration, growing two hundred feet taller.

 

"I'm too big fit any of these buildings!" she screamed, shooting up another hundred fifty feet.

 

"I'm too big to even fit in this damn city any more!" she hollered.

 

Nela swell amazingly huge, unprepared for the sudden elevation in her height and the further endowments to her chest and curves. She couldn't believe how big she was becoming in such a short time. She watched her breasts push out further, and turned to see her butt do the same as her back stretched her higher and higher. She held up a single hand to watch as her fingers grew thicker and longer and bigger every moment.

 

"It's like I'm not even trying to grow any more... It's just happening...," she whispered. "I'll just keep getting bigger like this... and nobody cares... nobody cares to stop it!"

 

She made a fist and slammed it down into the nearest skyscraper, flattening it to the ground.

 

"Nela! This is United States National Guard," a voice blared from a megaphone from a circling helicopter.

 

Nela searched feirociously for the little bugger as she grew another three hundred feet into the air.

 

"Where are you!?" the four thousand foot woman roared.

 

"Nely! It's your mother!" a tiny female voice pleaded. "Please! You have to stop this! Can you hear me Nely?!"

 

"Don't call me that!" she thundered, striking her hands around in the hopes of destroying the helicopter. Her body grew and grew, adding another three hundred feet to its ever-increasing stature.

 

"Nely! Please!" the voice shouted again.

 

"No!" she roared with finality. Her extravagent bulk increased two-fold and Nela watched in her own confident awe as her body ballooned to two miles in height.

 

"IT'S TOO LATE FOR ANY OF YOU NOW! NO APOLOGIES!" she bellowed. "THERE IS NO MORE NELA! JUST GIGANTI!"

 

She towered higher into the sky, growing another thousand feet. It was a mere increase to her, as she was looking to become even more gigantic.

 

The shower of missle and bombs from below began pummeling her tanned skin. She felt the explosions as nothing more than a rash of unpleasant heat around the various strike areas. An extreme annoyance was a bomb that hit her right breast. The tingling was momentary, but the nerve of them to aim there enraged her further.

 

"YOU'RE ALL GERMS!" she said, rising more imposing into the heavens. "YOU HEAR ME?! YOU'RE NOTHING BUT A BUNCH OF FUCKING GERMS TO ME!!"

 

At almost six miles in height now, Nela was fairly sure of her calculations that normal sized people must be microscopic to her. She dropped to her hands and knees, not caring how many homes or streets were wrecked in her passing. Nela peered into the tiny cracks and crevaces of the city that she used to be able to squeeze through when she was a tiny height of four hundred feet. A fearsome smile twisted on her lips and her eyes focused viciously on the minisucle inhabitants that must surely be fleeing from her awesome might as she grew on their horizon. Strands of her giant hair flooded the city like tendrils from a deadly overgrown vine, trapping cars and people and rooting itself in buildings. She continued to grow before them. Her expanding eyes struck pure fright into those watching from the skyscrapers. They were unimaginable discs of brown, green, and black layered atop one another. The single blink of an eye and she unwittingly thrust an eyelash into one of these such buildings that was too close. The glass shattered and a few unfortunates were caught up in the dewey fibers of her eye lashes. The building itself was pushed over, only to lean precariously on other across the street.

 

Nela laughed to herself, "EXPLOSIONS... YOU WANT TO SEE A REAL EXPLOSION?"

 

Her voice rattled the buildings with its terrible bass.

 

She chuckled to herself, leaning back from her position on the ground. A couple men and women still hung for dear life by her eye lashes, unbeknownst to her. She grew steadily.

 

"I'LL SHOW YOU A REAL EXPLOSION," she laughed. "YOU PITIFUL... LITTLE... GERMS!!!!!"

 

He body exploded in growth. She began climbing in height as quickly as one watches a thermometre's mercury rising in boiling water. The tiny people holding onto her eye lashes screamed in horror as she stood to her feet, her body expanding around and over them. They went unnoticed by her immense eyes, and feared being flung off into the air with each blink she made. Most horrifying was her size. The unimaginable grasp of which left them pained by the idea of something so great it was without measure. Many of them contemplated this before losing hold of her eye lash and dropping to the ground far below. There were then those who were swept above, to ride the tops of her eye lashes. They were caught by the rippling currents of the simply turn of her head, and thrown across the sky witnessing their last sunset.

 

Nela reached a momentous ten miles in height and continued to expand.

 

 

 

From the limosine below, Andrea and the others had pulled over to the side of the road to watch the destruction go on.

 

"There has to be something we can do," Gina begged.

 

"Why aren't they nuking her!?" Andrea asked.

 

"They don't need to nuke her," Hank smiled, his arms folded. "She'll tire herself out soon enough."

 

"MY GOD! LOOK HOW FUCKING HUGE MY ASS HAS GOTTEN!!" Nela's words struck the ground with the force of a sonic boom.

 

They watched as her ass added to its own posterity and she became more gigantic.

 

"She's almost at fourteen miles," Gina said desperately.

 

"Oh, like you know," Andrea scoffed.

 

"She's getting close," Hank sighed.

 

"THAT REMINDS ME...," Nela muttered. "I WONDER WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO THAT LITTLE LIMOSINE..."

 

"Oh, god, oh god... no, please, no...," Gina felt her chest get tight.

 

"You want it!?" Andrea shouted up to the humongous woman. "It's right here! Come and get it! Come on, sister! Let's do it right!"

 

Andrea began jumping up and down, trying to get Nela's attention. Gina grabbed her arms to try and stop her, but Andrea just pushed her away. Gina looked to Hank for support.

 

"Oh, she can't her anyway," he shrugged. "Besides, she'll probably wear herself out soon enough."

 

Gina began rubbing her throbbing temples.

 

Nela dropped to her hands and knees and once again began surveying the tiny tiny city at her feet.

 

"She'll never find us," Hank muttered.

 

But Andrea continued to jump and flail her arms, "Right here, bitch! Right here!"

 

Gina felt the need to cry as she watched the monstrous behemoth that called herself Giganti swoop its nearly limitless head and neck across the landscape. What was even more mindboggling was the body that went with it, that continued to grow every second.

 

"WHERE ARE YOU?!" Nela ordered.

 

She expanded wider and larger over the search area, gaining another nine hundred feet.

 

"Hey! You! Bitch!" Andrea screamed. "Here! I'll take you right now!"

 

Hank suddenly unfolded his arms, "She's hasn't stopped growing."

 

"Well no shit," Gina said, glad someone had snapped out of it.

 

"She's grown well past fourteen miles and she hasn't stopped," Hank prattled. "Uh oh..."

 

"What do you mean 'uh oh'," Gina asked. "What's uh oh?"

 

"WHERE... ARE... YOU!?!"

 

Nela inflated a couple thousand feet with each syllable. Her breasts now hung over them threateningly. She had to fully extend her arms to keep from smashing the whole city with them. Her torso lengthened longer and wider and bigger and larger, shaping and finalizing her svelte curves and tone.

 

"YOU DON'T WANT TO SHOW YOURSELVES?!" Nela thundered. "THEN I'LL JUST GROW SO BIG I CRUSH THE WHOLE CITY!"

 

She flopped onto her back and lay across the ground, growing another mile with the outburst. She lay right next to the city, her back and shoulders encrouching on the suburban areas as the moments passed.

 

"I'LL JUST STAY HERE UNTIL YOU EITHER COME OUT, OR THE CITY IS FLATTENED," she said. "RRRRRRRRHHH!!"

 

She began expanding faster and bigger just to press into the urban sprawl.

 

"COME ON! I'M GETTING BIGGER!" she warned.

 

Her weight caused her to push into the earth. Without her knowing it, she was causing the earth around her to crack and droop, pulling in people and houses and trees like a double-edged blackhole, both inhaling and smashing everything as it expanded outward across the earth.

 

"HOW MUCH MORE AM I GOING TO HAVE TO GROW BEFORE YOU SHOW YOURSELVES?" she asked.

 

She grew two more miles. Her head hit against the mountains.

 

"OW...," she mumbled. "I'M REALLY BIG NOW."

 

She sat up, "MAYBE TOO BIG."

 

Upon witnessing her own massive size, Nela began to panic. Hunger pains started up in her belly. Yet, she knew of no food source capable of feeding someone her size for more than a couple days. And she continued to grow. Then there was the dilemma of excretion. She would surely turn the planet into one huge nasty toilet bowl in a week or so. And she continued to grow. Then there was the whole problem of air. If she did eat all the plants and animals to survive, there would be no exchange of gases for her to sustain her giant lungs. Yet she continued to grow.

 

Nela got to her feet in a panic.

 

"WHAT HAVE I DONE? WHAT HAVE I DONE TO MYSELF?!" she said.

 

Her gigantic form continued to rise, weightier and larger. She began to hyperventilate, and felt flush all across her body.

 

 

 

Watching from a safe distance away, Hank feared they were witnessing the end of life as they knew it entirely.

 

"She's going to grow out of control," he said, staring into the air. "Just like Moira did."

 

"She already has grown out of control," Gina remarked.

 

"No...," Hank muttered. "Not like this."

 

 

 

"SOMEBODY, SOMEBODY HELP ME!" she pleaded. Her panic was obvious. But at over twenty-two miles in height, little could be said or done for her. Her body didn't know this, just the hormones and chemical reactions. The same components of panic resembled the same of anger. The result, she grew. Nela felt her shoulders broaden, watching as her breasts poured up and out more titanic than ever. The trunk of her body felt detached from herself as it raised her higher and higher. Her hips and butt felt distant, but she was certain they had become huge, as if she couldn't even put her hands around them.

 

"WHAT'S HAPPENING TO ME?" she asked, checking her body. "I'M STILL GROWING, BUT-BUT I'M NOT ANGRY... WHY AM I STILL GROWING?!"

 

She rose taller and taller, passing the clouds at her waist and her wide, lovely hips. She felt her body tense up, then release an incredible amount of energy throughout itself. She doubled in height. The sudden expansion caused her great disorientation, and a second later, terror.

 

"HELP ME!" she cried. "I DON'T WANT TO BE LIKE THIS!"

 

There was both frustration and fear in her voice as it resonated across the countryside. From all around, people could see her stretching into the space above the planet. Her titanic breasts remained firm and upright in the chilling air. Nela felt her weight sinking into the ground far, far below. Nela felt her thighs brush against the clouds. Her body opened up all over, expanding quicker and quicker. She gasped, feeling the thin air shoot out of her lungs. She more than doubled her size, the continued expansion now so fast she might as well be doubling her size continously.

 

She towered now at over fifty miles.

 

 

 

Some of the other passengers from the limosine had begun to sit in a circle and pray. Others simply held hands, or embraced, and cried.

 

"Well, I'm sorry I was wrong," Hank said to Gina, looking skyward, as they all were. "But we're doomed."

 

"Thanks, Hank," Gina muttered.

 

 

 

Tears were streaming down Nela's face. The emotional and physical drain of the accelerated growth in her body was fast taking its toll. She tripled, losing consciousness momentarily before her lungs and heart regained control. Now at eighty miles, Nela was without equal in the universe and still rising. Unfortunately, despite her supreme ability to destroy any opponents, her lack of oxygen was making it harder to concentrate. She knew it was inevitable, that she would faint, and crash into the earth's crust. An impact like that would unearth the molten layer below as well as split the continent for miles. It would also probably cause a great deal of tsunamis and shift existing weather patterns into disarray. Those who survived wouldn't be around for long. Her ever-expanding lungs would suck up all the oxygen, only to return an even larger payload of carbon dioxide. And she would continue to grow and grow and grow until her body covered the Earth and she was so gigantic that she grew beyond it's borders. She would be without any life supporting elements and surely die. Nela's thoughts raced through this scenario, not doing anything to help her present plight. She felt the sudden urge to scream in agony.

 

Nela felt a sharp pain winced her backside, her eyes were filled with a blinding light. She felt dizzy and overwhelmingly light.

 

 

 

"Yes! They finally nuked her!" Andrea appluaded.

 

"No!" Hank said. "The last streak! The one at seven! It hit her!"

 

"Holy shit!" Gina laughed.

 

Nela felt a tingle run through her.

 

"WHAT'S GOING...," she lost the breath to speak.

 

The air ran out of her as she shrank with incredible speed back down to the earth. She could feel herself deflating, but not losing shape. The sky went from black to blue to cloudy to green as she saw the trees stretch overhead. The landscape expanded around her, like she was traveling a great distance backward very quickly. The sudden implosion and reversion of energy caused a massive cold spell in the air. There was a clap like a jumbo jet passing through the clouds and a minute or so later, the gentle falling of snow.

 

 

 

"What the hell is this?" Andrea asked. "Nuclear winter?"

 

"No," Hank smiled. "Reduction of energy in the system. Instant cold. It's not sound science, but it works."

 

 

 

When Nela awoke she felt incredibly weak, tired beyond a doubt. Her face was wrinkled from rage, nothing a good night's sleep wouldn't fix. Her body was still its same old proportions, just smaller. She feared at first that she had become smaller than her original size and so quickly stood to check her bearings. She was all there at four foot eleven. Instead, she recieved another surprise upon standing up. She gave away her position and the National Guardsmen quickly had her at gun point.

 

 

 

A wave of relief shook Gina and Hank. Maybe it was just the cold.

 

"So about Moira?" Gina said. "Any chance she'll ever be normal sized again?"

 

Hank shrugged, "Whether or not she has enough research on the compound, we should be able to make her normal sized again. I think I understand how this crazy thing works now."

 

"I'm glad somebody does," Gina smiled.

 

"You think she shrank to the size of a bug!?" Andrea blurted out. "Maybe we can get there in time to stomp her!"

 

Gina grabbed Andrea's hand, "Sorry, honey, you need to take a little pit stop first."

 

"O.K., right," Andrea smiled. "For boots. Or-Or maybe cleats. Yeah... cleats."

 

"How about a... sort of a rest home?" Hank suggested.

 

"Maybe later," Andrea answered. "I need some stomping shoes."

 

"Um... I'll drive," Hank said. "You have a lot to think about."

 

Andrea more than willingly got in the limosine. However, it took more than a fair share of effort by the orderlies at the mental clinic to subdue her. She was given enough dramamine to place an ox in a coma over the course of the next few days. Explaining how she arrived at such a state didn't impress the doctors much either. Although, Andrea did find herself in a much more relaxed work environment.

 

 

 

Gina and Hank met up with Moira at the airport. She was rather easy to find. Gina was disappointed that Moira and Hank were probably going to hit it off better than she, but found no room for jealousy in the matter. After all, Moira had a slight height disadvantage now, and Gina had deep pockets.

 

 

 

Her parents were present in the courtroom, but Nela said not a word to them except for, "Sorry."

 

She was hauled off in probably the most bizarre case to ever pass before any court. She plead guilty and the judge spared her the death penalty, though several groups and lawyers constantly tried to have this ruling overturned after the proceedings.

 

While in her stay at prison, Nela was probably the most quiet inmate to enter. She was prodded and poked at, laughed at and ridiculed. The other female inmates always asked her to sing to them, but she hardly ever did more than crack a smile at this. They, in turn, dealt out punishments for every nature. She took it. All of it, not saying a word. Even when her brutish female bunk mate made it a point to make her personal plaything from the first day the gate shut, Nela said nothing. The diminutive woman was often singled out for lewd sexual acts, and still she was quiet. Her life was a living hell now. But Nela Giganti kept, silently, to herself. She didn't even complain to the guards, or the warden, or her presiding officer. The only thing one of the guards did mention during a meeting by the snack machine, was that Giganti had asked the laundry department for a larger prison uniform, since hers had begun to fit too snugly...

 

 

 

The End