AN: Been a while since I worked on this story, but I needed to go where my muse took me. Glad to see people are still enjoying it though. This is more or less the end of this current story arc, next will be more of a cool down, transitional chapter.
wollyworld: Thank you. Here's another chapter to enjoy. Hopefully the next one won't take so long.
dogbertcarroll: Glad you liked it. I've been sitting on that interaction for almost a year now, so I was really happy that I finally got to use it.
Mark the Mark: Aw. Well, I'm sorry my plans didn't allow for Lucy to join in sooner, but now she's part of the team.
Mr. Haziq: Leni(Green), Lori(Blue), Luan(Yellow), Lynn(Red), Luna(Purple), Sam(Cyan), and Lucy(Black). And also Sid(Also blue, her official designation still pending). It's a full Sentai team, and then some.
qazse: Luan is actually the only girl who got the physical upgrade, and only because of the unique circumstances of her first transformation. The others are supposed to be their normal dimensions, Lucy included, save for some of the older girls being a little curvier than normal just because that's how I choose to translate their simplified cartoon designs into actual, human proportions. But none of the others have been augmented like Luan has been. At least, not at this point.
Jeff: Seven, as a super smart, artificial alien intelligence, is able to recognize pattern recognition, something that Lincoln still struggles with.
Maggie wasn't happy. Some people would say that this was her natural state of being, and often times Maggie herself would be among them. But today was supposed to have been different. She'd had a date, she'd snagged herself a boyfriend, and, for once, it seemed like she was finally going to have the chance to play the hero instead of just getting her teeth kicked in. The latter was actually far more important to her as a general principle, but her new boyfriend seemed like he was really into the hero stuff, and Maggie had been hoping she be able to impress him enough that he'd want to revisit that fun stuff they'd been getting up to right before her reluctantly assumed duties had called. Unfortunately, that hope had been distressingly short-lived. There wasn't a monster to fight, or any feats of derring-do to accomplish. There was just this stupid Ferris wheel. Technically an evil Ferris wheel, if the crackling black electricity was any indication, but it wasn't in any position to perform evil any more nuanced than the regular variety. Darn thing didn't even have the decency to come to life and make terrible puns while they had an epic battle amid the rapidly ruined theme park around them. It just spun. Really, really fast. And most frustrating of all, even that very specific brand of lameness, it was still winning.
"I really think if you just tried my plan..." Her fellow giantess began, for the umpteenth time.
"The one that requires at least five hands between two people?" Maggie deadpanned.
"Yeah, that one." The blonde nodded. "When you think about it, that's really the only problem with the plan. So if we can figure out how to get around that one thing, we should be fine."
"Get around a missing hand?"
"Neither of us is missing a hand. We just need an extra one. You just need to start thinking positively."
"I don't really..." Maggie sighed, desperately wishing she had a free appendage to facepalm with. "Look, Lenore, was it?"
"It's Leni." The other girl corrected her. "Which is short for Leni."
Maggie took a moment to process this. "I legitimately can't tell if you're serious or not."
"I'm totes serious when it comes to saving people," Leni answered, nodding solemnly. "It's supes important to me. And Linky."
"He does like his...do-goodery." Maggie groaned, regretting, not for the first time, the surprisingly stringent moral standards her new beau had unwittingly imposed upon her. "Fine. We'll try it your way. We can't safely get the passengers off the ride while its moving, and it takes both of us to hold the stupid thing in place. So how can we keep it still and rescue the passengers?"
Leni frowned thoughtfully. "Well...I guess we could always try asking Lucy for help."
"And who, pray tell, is Lucy?" Maggie asked, now thoroughly confused.
"That would be me." A voice intoned from behind her.
"GAAAH!" Maggie shrieked, instinctively going rigid as a chill ran up and down her spine very nearly losing her grip on the Ferris Wheel in the process. Fortunately, she managed to master the powerful, but thankfully brief sensation of terror before it could fully overtake her. Maggie jerked her head to the side, fully intent on letting on giving whatever had so thoroughly startled her a piece of her mind, when two things suddenly stopped her in her tracks. The first being that she was currently the size of a large building, and so it should be physically impossible for anything that could casually strike up a conversation with her, to sneak up on her so effortlessly. The second was that there was nothing behind her. Maggie's poor, distraught brain tried to process this startling revelation as fear wrapped its icy crip around her rapidly beating heart.
"Down here." Came the voice once more, now sounding decidedly more annoyed.
Almost afraid to find out where this rabbit-hole of strangeness would go from here, Maggie obediently lowered her gaze, only just now noticing the much younger, but still gigantic girl that had been just outside her line of sight.
"And you are?" Maggie asked, her voice tense from a combination of terror and exasperation.
"Gigant Black." The girl responded, cooly, and somewhat needlessly, given that she was wearing the exact same costume as every other Gigant Maggie had encountered. She supposed she only had herself to blame. Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer. Though, as her given name implied, this one was very thoroughly aping Magie's own color scheme and style, and that was surprisingly annoying. It was bad enough that they were both wearing the same colored spandex, but the new girl was also rocking the long, raven-colored hair and pale skin combination that Maggie had so thoroughly copied from her own peer group. She couldn't put her finger on why exactly, but for some reason, Maggie felt threatened by this.
"It looked like you needed some assistance." The newcomer continued, placing her hands upon her hips and holding her head high."Don't worry, I'm here to help."
Maggie inferred from context that she was supposed to be impressed, but there were a couple of problems with that. For one, the new girl was clearly much younger than Leni or herself, looking very much like an elementary schooler who had wandered away from her class trip and inexplicably grown several stories. For another, size was relative, and likely as a result of her youth, Gigant Black was only about half Maggie's size, somewhat spoiling the effect of her dramatic posing.
"Fantastic," Maggie grumbled, her eyes rolling heavenward. "Another one. At least I'm bigger than you."
"H-Hey!" In an instant, the black-haired girl's entire demeanor had changed, the air of stoicism she'd been portraying quickly crumbling, giving way to blushing and stammering that seemed much more appropriate for a girl her age. "You take that back! I'm of perfectly reasonable size for my age!" It didn't escape Maggie's notice that the younger girl glanced downward as she said this. Though, why she'd done so was beyond her.
"Lucy, what are you talking about?" A tiny voice interjected. "You're bigger than our house! That's not exactly normal"
It was only at this point that Maggie noticed the orange-clad, doll-sized figure perched on the other girl's shoulder. Much to her chagrin, the mere sight of her tiny boyfriend was enough to cause Maggie's heartbeat to quicken. Though, she found herself wishing he'd picked a better venue. She had plenty of real estate all ready for him to move into. Or onto. Either was fine by her.
"We're not talking about height, Lincoln!" The younger girl growled, drawing Maggie's attention back to the matter at hand.
"Are we not?" Maggie asked, surprised to find her words being echoed by both Lincoln and Leni in unison. The trio exchanged confused glances, before looking back to Lucy for confirmation.
"You're all impossible," Lucy muttered, crossing her arms over her chest with an exasperated huff.
"Alright...Lucy, was it?" Maggie asked, trying to get things back on track. "I'm guessing from the four-letter L-name that you're Lincoln's other...other...other, sister?" She frowned thoughtfully. "I forget how many of you I've actually met, and I can't exactly count on my fingers while I'm trying to hold this thing in place."
"You want me to do it?" Leni asked, helpfully.
"NO!" Shouted the two black-clad girls, as well as their miniature companion. Naturally, the older girl took the reprimand in good humor, and continued to hold onto her end of the Ferris Wheel.
"Yes, that's my name. So much for the superhero secret identity thing," Lucy huffed
"It's called pattern recognition." Maggie deadpanned, rolling her eyes. "I keep running into you dopes, and most of you have turned out to be related. Which, not gonna lie, is something I'm having a little trouble processing, given that your transformation involves making out with your brother."
"Blood is thicker than water." Lucy intoned. "But if that's too weird for you, I'm sure Lincoln will understand."
"Hey!"
"Fat chance." Maggie scoffed. Her eyes narrowed. "Speaking of which, hand over my boyfriend. We're still on our date."
"I don't think so," Came Lucy's curt reply. The younger girl discretely slid one hand up towards the shoulder Lincoln was perched upon, using it to block Lincoln from Maggie's view. "This is my first day, and I'm going to be needing Lincoln's...guidance."
Maggie grit her teeth, ready to complain further, but her attention was quickly drawn back to the Ferris wheel as it began trembling fiercely in her grip, suddenly becoming much harder to hold onto.
"Fine," She hissed. "Just hurry up and rescue the stupid people already! Not sure how much longer we can hold this thing safely!"
"O-okay," Lucy nodded hesitantly. She gingerly walked towards the ride, delicately stepping around the various obstacles in her way, presumably trying to minimize any damage she might inadvertently cause. Maggie clamped her mouth shut, exerting every ounce of willpower she could muster to refrain from screaming for the not so little girl to get a move on. Finally, mercifully, Lucy was standing before the Ferris Wheel.
"Alright," Lucy said softly, crouching down, so she could get a better look at the passenger pods. They were the enclosed kind, which Maggie counted as a small blessing. It was much easier to ignore the imperiled passengers that way, and if the ride had used the open-aired variety, she'd probably have to deal with their screaming. Also, she supposed being subjected to extreme g-forces was probably a lot more survivable if the passenger was in a sealed environment, but she was mostly concerned with the screaming thing.
"Just need to rescue the passengers," Lucy muttered. "Just like in Lincoln's comic books. Shouldn't be too hard." It sounded like she was trying to reassure herself. Which wasn't especially reassuring for Maggie.
"Easy..." Lucy murmured, reaching one shaking hand towards the nearest pod, gingerly taking the microscopic door handle between her massive fingers. "Easy..."
"Lucy, wait!" Maggie shouted, remembering just how delicate the structure was at their current size. She wasn't fast enough. The metal crumbled like sand in the young girl's grip, and presumably misjudging just how much force she should have applied, Lucy's fingers just kept on going, punching right through the door of the cabin, tearing it clear off its hinges.
Lucy let out a wordless gasp and tried to retract her hand, but it didn't budge, held tight by the close confines of the cabin. Panicked she tried again, pulling even harder, too desperate to undo her mistake to notice the telltale sound of screeching metal that was growing in intensity. Finally, her hand came free, but with it came the entire side of the pod, ripped forth from the unit with a cacophonous loud wailing. So horrified was Lucy by the destruction she'd inadvertently caused, that she failed to account for the inertial force she'd set into motion, and as she reeled, momentum carrying her backward, she toppled over and collapsed to the ground, landing in an undignified heap flat on her bottom. It had happened so fast that Lucy could barely process the series of events that had started with her confidently preparing to surgically extract the hapless passengers and had ended with the near destruction of the very thing she was supposed to protect.
"I screwed up." Lucy thought to herself, numbly looking at the results of her handiwork.
It had all seemed so much easier when Lynn and the others did this. They waltzed in, beat up the bad guys, and marched off for a celebratory session, often with Lucy silently following behind so she could watch the fun. She'd prided herself on her observation skills, thought she could pick up this Gigant stuff (among other things) by watching and learning. But she'd been so wrong. So very wrong.
Being big was so much harder than it looked! Her balance was completely out of whack, it was almost impossible to avoid drawing attention to herself—
"Lucy!"
—And everything was so small and fragile! All she'd had to do was open a friggin door, and she'd completed botched the job!
"Lucy!"
Just thinking about the state of the passenger pod made her stomach roll. She'd botched it. She was completely in over her head. Those poor people—
"LUCY!"
Whap!
Lucy's train of thought came to an abrupt halt as a slight, stinging sensation erupted upon her cheek. It had sort of felt like a mosquito bite. It didn't actually hurt, but there was a very primal sensation of...wrongness, that followed. Casting her gaze downward, she glimpsed the telltale sign of her brother's bright, orange shirt out of the corner of her eye.
"Lincoln?" Lucy asked, slowly. "Did you just...slap me?"
"Sorry, Luce." Lincoln apologized, sliding back down onto her shoulder so she could get a proper look at him. To his credit, he looked extremely unhappy about what he'd just done. "I just couldn't get your attention. You just sat there, mumbling to yourself and shaking, it was really scary. And we've still got a job to do."
"No," Lucy replied quickly, shaking her head emphatically. "I can't! Didn't you see what I just did? Those people—"
"Are fine," Lincoln interrupted her, pointing back towards the Ferris Wheel. "But they aren't going to be for long!"
Lucy's sense of self-loathing, which always manifested so readily, screamed at her to ignore her brother's attempts to console her. But...it was Lincoln. There was nobody in this world, or any other that she trusted more. So Lucy screwed up her courage and forced herself to look back at the carnage she had wrought.
The state of the Ferris Wheel was roughly what she'd remembered, and she very nearly lost her nerve right then and there. But, forcing herself to look on, she noticed what Lincoln had been talking about. The pod was barely standing, one side completely torn off by her erratic movements, but there amid the remains were two tiny bodies, collapsed to the ground.
"I'm pretty sure they're just unconscious." Lincoln continued. "Probably from the spinning. But the cabin's going to fall off on its own eventually, or Maggie and Leni are going to lose their grip on that thing. Either way, those people are done for if you don't finish the job!"
"You...think I can do it?" Lucy asked, softly, glancing nervously at her tiny brother.
"I know you can, Lucy." Lincoln said confidently. Then, to Lucy's surprise, Lincoln leaned over and planted a short, but fierce kiss on her enormous cheek. An unusually brazen display of affection from her normally reserved brother. In spite of the difference in their stature, Lucy instinctively felt herself hunching down as crimson began to blossom across her face, trying to stem the tide of embarrassment and affection that now coursed through her.
"A-Alright," She said, climbing to her feet, taking special care to avoid looking at whatever it was she'd inadvertently been sitting on, and feeling profusely thankful for the fact that the park had been long abandoned. Drawing herself up to her full height, Lucy glanced down at Lincoln, and allowed herself a small smile.
"What's the plan, big brother?"
Lincoln's brow furrowed in thought as Lucy approached the Ferris Wheel once more. He was reasonably certain this was going to work. The structure of the ride itself seemed stable enough, it was the people currently attached to the ride that was the problem.
"LINCOLN?" Lucy asked, drawing his attention outward once more. "I'M STILL WAITING TO HEAR WHAT THE PLAN IS."
"Oh," Lincoln replied, glancing Lucy's way. "Sorry about that, I had to wait for the transition to finish."
"THE WHAT?"
"Nothing," Lincoln waved one hand dismissively. "Just...something Luan explained to me. Anyway, you remember that time Pop Pop took us all apple picking?"
"BROADLY," Lucy said, sounding uncertain. "I SPENT MOST OF THAT TRIP KEEPING OUT OF THE SUN."
"That's...probably something I should have remembered." Lincoln conceded, "But the short version is, you're not going to pull the people out of the cabins, you're going to pull the cabins out of the Feris Wheel."
"THE CABINS. LIKE THE ONE I ALMOST DESTROYED." Lucy deadpanned.
"You got too finicky with it." Lincoln tried to reassure her. "The frame should be plenty sturdy, especially with the girls holding it in place—"
"WHICH IS GETTING MUCH HARDER TO DO!" Maggie called out to him, sounding significantly more irate than usual. "SO PLEASE SPEED UP THE PEP TALK!"
"Right." Lincoln glanced nervously at the older girl before turning back to Lucy. "Anyway, the frame is going to be taking the stress. As long as you're careful not to overdo it, I think it'll hold."
There was a beat of silence as Lucy silently considered the Ferris Wheel.
"Something wrong, Luce?" Lincoln asked.
She grimaced. "I WAS JUST REMEMBERING WHEN LYNN GRABBED THAT ONE APPLE TOO HARD AND ENDED UP WITH A HANDFUL OF APPLE SAUCE."
"And that's why you're going to be careful." Lincoln countered, "Which is totally in your wheelhouse. You've got this, sis!"
Lucy turned back to Lincoln, her lips flattened into a thin line. "NORMALLY I'D FIND THAT LEVEL OF OPTIMISM TO BE UTTERLY NAUSEATING, BUT..."
"But?" Lincoln prompted. To his surprise, Lucy reached over and gently tousled his hair with one gigantic finger.
"BUT IT FEELS DIFFERENT WHEN IT'S COMING FROM YOU." She concluded, the edges of her lips quirking upward ever so slightly. "ALRIGHT, LET'S DO IT."
She crouched down, trying to align herself with the remains of the wrecked cabin. "SO, YOU'RE SAYING I SHOULD JUST...GRAB IT?"
Lucy cushioned the cabin by placing one palm underneath it, fingers gently curling around the sides for stabilization, then placed her other hand on the Ferris Wheel itself for balance. "AND THEN I JUST..."
"Pull!" Lincoln shouted, placing his fists adjacent to one another, then pulling them apart demonstratively. He hadn't meant it to be a command. The sound of screeching metal pierced the air and the shoulder he was standing on jerked as Lucy mirrored his actions, briefly upsetting Lincoln's balance. But when he'd stabilized once more, Lucy was staring at her hands, the cabin clutched protectively within, and the passengers no worse for wear than they had been previously.
"See?" He exclaimed, leaning down and giving the Lucy surface below him a reassuring pat. "I told you, you've got this!"
"IT JUST CAME RIGHT OFF," Lucy murmured to herself, staring in awe at her handiwork. "I JUST, TORE IT OFF LIKE IT WAS NOTHING,"
"Well, you're way stronger at this size," Lincoln explained. "The trick is applying that strength. So what do you say, ready for more?"
Lucy took a few steps away and gently placed the cabin on the ground, trying to keep it well away from the area she was going to be stomping around in. Thus finished, she straightened back up, turned to Lincoln, and loudly cracked her knuckles.
"YEAH, I'M READY. LET'S DO THIS."
The work went fairly quickly after that, Lucy's hesitance lessening as her confidence grew, her "apple picking" growing more and more efficient with each successive retrieval. It wasn't long before the previously designated area was now filled with the small structures, leaving the Ferris Wheel itself nearly barren, save for two remaining cabins.
"JUST ABOUT DONE," Lucy murmured, to whether it was meant for him, or for herself, Lincoln couldn't tell. "A COUPLE MORE AND WE CAN GET OUT OF HERE."
Lincoln nodded to himself, and let the girl go about her work, deciding it was better to let devote her full attention to her task. That was when he noticed it. The cabin at the apex of the wheel's rotation was wobbling unsteadily, its undulations growing more and more erratic with each tremor that reverberated through the ride's frame.
"Lucy!" He called out, trying to sound much less alarmed than he felt. However, a glance towards his sister revealed that she was occupied with the remaining cabin, completely unaware as to what was going on above her.
He tried again. "Luc—!" But that was all he had time to utter before he was cut off by a sharp, piercing squeal. Lincoln froze in place as his eyes jerked upward, desperately hoping that sound didn't mean what he'd thought it meant. His hopes were quickly dashed as his gaze rose just in time to meet the errant cabin for an all too brief instant, before it plummeted down out of his vision. It was falling.
Lincoln slid to the edge to Lucy's shoulder, his mind frantically working as he watched gravity take its cruel toll on the structure. Everything was happening too fast. Even if he called out to Lucy again, she wouldn't be able to respond in time, and even if Leni and Maggie weren't already occupied, they weren't in position to do anything. The only person who was, was him.
"Seven," He said, drawing back the arm that was adorned with the alien device. "We're doing it, just like we practiced. On my mark..."
Need I remind you that each of those 'practice' sessions has gone disastrously? To say nothing of the scale we're working with this time, the consequences—
"I'll deal with it!" Lincoln snapped, sparing the device a withering glance, before turning his attention back to his target. "On my mark!"
Charging. Seven replied, sounding resigned. You should have just enough energy, make it count.
"I will," Lincoln promised, gritting his teeth as he continued to watch the cabin plummet to the ground. It had already passed Lucy's stomach and was rapidly approaching her waist. They were going to be cutting it really close—
Charging complete.
"Now!" Lincoln roared, thrusting his arm forward. It seemed like a futile gesture, given the distance involved, but the crackling white number of energy that erupted around the limb said differently. There was a brief rush of euphoria as the power coursed through him, but Lincoln braced himself, knowing all too well what came next. His arm began to grow. Expanding, lengthening, rapidly losing any semblance of proportion with the rest of his all too human frame. And, as it did so, gravity once again came calling. The sudden increase of mass, localized entirely to one part of his body caused the newly embiggened limb to surge outward with incredible speed, but it very quickly threatened to take Lincoln with it. He braced himself against Lucy, biting down the urge to scream as his shoulder joint lurched in its socket. He just needed to gut it out for a little longer...
Momentum was his friend. Even as Lincoln's enlarged arm threatened to tear itself off, he managed to maneuver it just below the still airborne cabin. Through the haze of pain and the sound of his blood pumping in his ears, Lincoln tried to dreg up some useful bit of advice Lynn might have given him during one of their innumerable game of catch. But, when nothing seemed readily applicable, he threw caution to the wind and made to snatch the structure out of free fall. He fumbled, his legendary ineptitude for catching manifesting at the worst possible time...or so it seemed. The cabin bounced upward, inadvertently propelled by his flailing fingers, its downward momentum momentarily arrested by his clumsy grab, but it was no longer falling, for the moment, at least. More importantly, it gave him a second chance. Mustering what little strength he had remaining, Lincoln scooped his arm upward. Exerting fine control over the oversized limb was impossible, his only hope was to make use of what momentum remained from the downward swing. His giant palm met the base of the cabin just as it resumed its descent, falling into his palm by serendipity and happenstance more than anything. Lincoln grit his teeth, counting down the seconds as both his arm, and the cabin within plummeted back to the ground. So close, almost there...
His arm hit the ground with a crunch, and an instant later, so too did the cabin, impacting against augmented skin and bone with a loud thud. The impact was excruciating, more pain piled onto the smorgasbord he'd already been feasting on. And yet, spent as he was, mentally and physically, it seemed he'd succeeded. The cabin was worn, it had taken a beating on the way down, but it was intact. He'd done it.
Time's up, Lincoln. Said Seven, his disembodied voice sounding strangely muted. You did well. Now prepare yourself.
"Yep," Lincoln wheezed, as the familiar nimbus of energy again began to encircle his arm. "Time to pay the piEEEE—!"
All thoughts fled Lincoln's mind as his giant arm began to diminish, its loaned mass retreating within itself as it began to revert to its original size. And with it, came the sickening sound of bone-crunching, pulverizing, and Lincoln's body desperately tried to conform to the laws of physics once more. Only now did Lincoln allow himself to scream. A short, intense bark of agony as his arm snapped back to its normal size, and then flopped down limply against his side. As Lincoln reeled back, both physically and mentally, his eyes met Lucy's enormous, horrified face. It seemed she'd finally noticed his plight.
"LINCOLN!" She screamed, as his world went dark, and Lincoln slipped into blissful unconsciousness.