AN: I'm pretty sure nobody was expecting this. Aside from the couple of people I'd told that I was considering doing this, obviously. But that literally encompasses like, four people, I think.
Short version of what happened here is that I was asked if I was planning on incorporating anything from the Casagrandes Movie into Gigant. At the time, the movie was a few weeks from release, and there wasn't too much information floating around about it at the time. But I was pretty sure that the answer was "no". Since I wrote the arc about Ronnie being a magical girl, I haven't really had much in the way of inspiration as to anything I could, or wanted to do further with that set up, so the plan was basically to just leave that stuff off to the side until inspiration struck, plus or minus the odd phone call Lincoln might get from Ronnie and or Sid to establish that they still existed and were off doing their own thing.
Then the trailer for the movie dropped, and one of the things that jumped out of me was the sight of what seemed to be one of the new characters, the demi-goddess Punguari, towering over some smaller characters at a height that was pretty compatible with the stuff that goes in on Gigant. Inspired, I set about drawing up a fairly basic story outline for something I might be able to do using what little knowledge I had about the movie at the time. Which pretty much boiled down to, 1) Punguari existed, and seemed like she was going to be at least a semi-antagonistic force in the movie, and 2) She could apparently change her size. I jokingly called it "Gigant: The Movie", and set it aside to see if the movie would give me anything more to work with. It didn't give me a ton beyond what I'd already seen in the trailer, Punguari doesn't even do her size-changing thing outside that one part, but I ended up genuinely liking Punguari, and now having a better handle on what her character was like, I tweaked some things in my outline and wrote this up. So, this is a thing now, I guess.
Incidentally, I would recommend seeing the movie, especially if you already have Netflix. I enjoyed the movie a lot. Not as much as The Loud House Movie, but that isn't a fair fight, since I already prefer the Louds as protagonists between the two families, but I genuinely enjoyed the Casagrandes movie for what it was, and would heartily recommend it.
That said, the movie proper doesn't actually happen in this story. Punguari has been off doing her own thing prior to the start of the story, and there's no preexisting history between her or any of the cast. And this story takes place kind of nebulously between the end of Gigant Season 1, and the start of the as of yet unwritten Season 2. And that having now been established, we can start the story. Let me know what you guys think.
The rest of the chapters for this story probably will roll out slower than this one did, but I don't expect this to be too long, so hopefully I can finish it up before I have to go into full hermit mode when my finals start at the beginning of May.
The Great Lakes City Museum of History and Cultural Acquisition, in the interest of educational enrichment, frequently played host to marvels and curios from around the world. But, however commonplace the practice may have been under normal circumstances, it was this particular shipment of artifacts that came with a bout of exposition to explain the operations of the museum. Which, to those in the know about such things, should have been a fairly blatant red flag that if something of narrative significance weren't already underfoot, it soon would be.
Were one to enter the museum at this time, and work their way through its winding corridors stuffed with historical significance from a wide variety of cultures, they might eventually find themselves at what as, at this time, the museum's sole inactive exhibit, a status enforced by the red velvet rope that barred entryway to all but people of sufficient, museum-granted authority. And people with height enough to simply step over the imposing obstacle of course...or people sufficiently lacking in height to simply duck under the obstacle unimpeded.
Above the entryway was displayed a sign that read, "The Wonders of Mexico!" A sentiment that was, perhaps, a tad optimistic at the moment, since the interior of the exhibit hall was mostly comprised of large, unopened crates. But had the museum been given enough time to prepare, the citizens of Great Lakes City would have been treated to a dazzling display of culturally significant artifacts and accouterments. In this particular timeline, however, fate had other plans…
"So, where the heck does this thing go?" Asked a museum employee who was currently buried waste-deep in one of the many crates that adorned the hall. A moment later he pulled himself out and held up his prize. A mask of red, gold, and green, ominously adorned with fins, eyes, and a pair of large tusks jutting out from its mouth.
"That's crate...24B," Muttered his companion, as he squinted at his clipboard. "Says here that's the Mask of Many Faces, shipped all the way from Japunda. So it'll go in display case...three…"
He trailed off and sighed as he caught sight of his partner. "Why are you blowing on it?"
"It's dusty," Replied the mask-bearer, giving his charge another puff. "Figured it could use a little touching up."
"It's an artifact, you nimrod!" Groaned clipboard. "The bigwigs are expecting it to be dusty. Not covered in your slobber! Now hurry up and put it in the display case!"
"Alright, alright," Grumbled the now chastised employee, walking over to the indicated display case, and carefully placing the mask upon a stand that had already been prepared for it. "Now what?"
"Now, you and I knock off and grab some chow. I'm thinking pizza."
"But it's barely eleven o'clock!"
"There's this thing called, 'pacing yourself," Replied clipboard, as he placed his narrative-convenient namesake atop one of the still-unopened crates. "Which I'll be happy to slowly explain to you over a slice."
With that, he spun on his heel and began making his way to the entryway.
"Besides," He called over his shoulder. "It's not like this stuff is going anywhere,"
"I guess," Muttered the remaining employee. He quickly glanced around the room, giving it a last once over, before shrugging, and heading off after his companion, the two sets of footsteps gradually growing more and more faint as the pair disappeared down the hallway.
Once silence had fully encompassed the exhibit hall, it was broken again almost immediately as one of the crates began to tremble. It swayed this way and that, and finally, after one last shudder, a young girl emerged from its depths.
She certainly seemed normal enough at a glance, possessed of dark hair and dusky skin, which was offset by a white top, striped indigo shorts, and a pink hair band adorned with butterflies. In most circumstances, she wouldn't have stood out all that starkly against any other similarly aged city girl, but a closer inspection would have revealed something...off about her. There were her sandals, for one thing, possessing a somewhat more antiquated design than girls her apparent age would typically opt for. But more than that, there was...a feeling, or perhaps an aura, she emitted, which would have alluded to her true nature as something decidedly more fantastical than the average city-dweller. Something beyond the ken of mortals.
There was also the fact that she had emerged from her crate, not through the top, which was still firmly sealed, but rather through the side of the crate, her slender frame passing through the solid, wooden barrier as if it had been made of smoke. Which turned out to be rather unfortunate, while her emergence was equal parts seamless and simple, whatever otherworldly trickery she'd employed to accomplish the feat of passing through solid matter also left her with nothing with which to brace herself, resulting in the girl—
WHUMP
—Taking a most undignified spill on the adjoining ground. Leaving her face first on the carpeted floor, her limbs splayed out in all directions in a ragdoll fashion. For a moment, she lay there, completely still. But eventually, bit by bit, her body began to move. And finally, she spoke.
"Mortals have the worst transportation," The girl grumbled to herself, as she tried, and failed to climb to her feet. After a few tries, she managed to find a handhold on the crate itself and used her newfound leverage to pull herself upward. It wasn't long after, that she finally found herself standing upright. Albeit, somewhat unsteadily. She sighed in relief, even as she glared at the crate, fully aware that it was the reason she was standing upright, and resenting it for its assistance.
"Last time I travel in one of these things," She growled, shooting one, last, dirty look at the crate, before she cast her gaze elsewhere, taking in her surroundings. "But it'll be all worth it if I can just…!"
She gasped, equal parts in astonishment and delight as her gaze landed upon the mask on the far end of the exhibit hall.
"YES!" She exclaimed, excitedly, as she began to stumble towards the mask, her strides growing more sure-footed with each step until finally she was lightly jogging with little trouble.
"Yes!" She squealed in delight, "Finally! After all this time, now I can…" She raised her hands to her neck, grasping expectantly...and finding nothing but her own skin. And with that, she skidded to a halt.
"No…" She whispered to herself disbelieving. "No! No! NO!" With each utterance she continued to pat herself down, her search area expanding until she was slapping at herself with great sweeps of her arms.
Still finding nothing, her face twisted itself into a snarl, and her pupils began to glow with an eerie, indigo light…
...only to snap back into normalcy, as a thought occurred to her. The girl retraced her steps until she found herself once again standing before what her brain was, much to her annoyance, still referred to as "her" crate. She crouched down, took a deep breath, concentrated, and plunged her arm into the side of the crate, the dusky limb disappearing into the wooden surface in a repeat of her earlier feat. For a moment she stood there, rummaging around in its interior, like the proverbial child fishing for cookies in a cookie jar. Her fingers brushed against something, and daring to hope, she fumbled for the object, wrapped her fingers around it, and pulled.
And it was with great joy and satisfaction that as she extracted her arm, clutched within it was the very item she sought. A light blue gemstone.
"Whew," She sighed in relief, eyeing her prize. "Thank—!"
She stopped herself, and once again glanced toward the mark, a satisfied smirk spreading across her face.
"Well," She corrected herself, chuckling in amusement. "I guess, in a bit, I'll be thanking myself."
Determined to suffer no more delays, she quickly crossed the room again, until she found herself standing before the mask. She withdrew it from its display case, pleasantly surprised, and mildly amused that there appeared to be no traps in place.
She stood there, considering the situation, literally, everything she'd ever wanted now in the palms of her hands. The mask in one, and the gem in the other. Trying to contain herself, she took her gem, the hand holding it now trembling with excitement, and after one last breath to steady herself, she inserted it into a slot on the top of the mask, the stone sliding in seamlessly, fitting into the groove effortlessly as if it had been made to be there. Because, of course, it was.
For a moment, nothing happened. The mask simply sat there, as lifeless as it had been before she picked it up, threatening to send her sky-high hopes crashing to the ground. But then, the mask began to tremble. A golden glow enveloped it as it began to slowly rise of its own accord, and it wasn't long before it was hanging there in the air, suspended at face level. Waiting for her. Her heart hammering at millions of kilometers a second, the girl braced herself, stepped forward, and placed her face within the mask.
Golden light erupted outward from the mask and enveloped her, her skin tingling as its warmth embraced her. And then she shuddered, as she could feel the mask begin to work its magic, changing her...No! Fixing her!
The mask itself trembled as it shifted, and twisted itself, comporting itself, into a shape more befitting its new mistress. Finally, the front of the mask peeled away, the previously dim light of the exhibit hall now seeming blinding after her brief submergence in darkness. But already, she could feel the changes it had wrought. Spying another display case, one with a reflective, mirrored exterior adjoining the protective glass, she darted over to examine herself...and sighed in relief.
"Finally!" She exclaimed, giggling in delight as she looked herself over. "I'm me again!"
The visage before her was both familiar and new at the same time. Gone were the garments she'd donned to blend in with mortals, now replaced with attire more fitting a being of her status. In their place, she now wore a flowing, white, and indigo sarong, which abruptly terminated at her midriff. Above that she wore an elegant top in her signature colors, and golden bands upon her wrists. Much as she had, the mask itself had also changed, improved itself, framing her beautiful face instead of obscuring it as its previous design had. It had also adopted her associated colors, as well as prominently displaying elements depicting the coyote, owl, and moth, creatures with which she'd previously born an affinity for. It was an ensemble worthy of her. Worthy of...a demigod.
But, of course, what would be the point in going through all this trouble if she was just going to stop there?
"Now for the next, and final step," She said, rubbing her hands together, delightedly, before flinging them to the sides, and raising her gaze heavenward.
"I, Punguari!" She called out, pleased as her voice boomed with a godly timbre. "Demi-goddess of the moon, summon the power of the mask!"
The ground beneath her began to tremble, and the ceiling above began to fracture, cracks appearing as a thunderous booming began to resound.
"Mask of Many Faces, I beseech you!" She continued, as the quaking continued to intensify. "Give me your magic! Make me...A GOD!"
At the moment she completed her incantation, the ceiling vanished, annihilated in an instant as a concentrated blast of lightning crashed downward, and struck her head on, completely enveloping her in its fury.
There was no pain, however. No discomfort at all, in fact. Only the thing she'd sought for these many thousands of years. Power.
Again she felt the changes overtaking her, but now they weren't simply returning her to what she had been, they were making her better. Stronger! And as her essence changed, so did her clothing. A shorter, layered skirt replacing her sarong, and an armored pauldron forming around one of her shoulders. And again, her mask shifted and comported itself, now forming itself to mimic, and prominently display a crescent moon. Her symbol, her...essence. It was her mask now. Her power, now and forever.
Drunk as she was on the incredible power that was now coursing through her, Punguari was barely able to process what was happening to her on a moment-by-moment basis. But eventually, she regained enough of her senses to become aware of...something, that hadn't been there before. It was like suddenly finding herself with an extra appendage, a finger she could wiggle, or perhaps a muscle she could flex. And, rendered delirious as she was by her overwhelming triumph, she saw no reason not to try it out. And so she did.
The effect was instantaneous. One moment she'd been standing there, basking in her victory, and the next she was staggering, vertigo overtaking her as the museum around her began to dwindle. It wasn't until her shoulders crashed through what remained of the ceiling, that she realized what was actually happening. It wasn't that the world was shrinking. Far from it. She was growing, her body expanding, seeking to become a fitting vessel for the godly might she now wielded.
She sucked in a reflexive, sharp intake of breath as she suddenly found herself towering high in the sky, finally getting a look at the environs beyond the walls of the museum. To call it a "city", was a tremendous understatement, as she understood the meaning of the word. It was a veritable urban jungle, one that sprawled for miles in every direction. So vast, that even at her new size she could not see where it ended. It was vast. It was magnificent.
...It was a fitting place for her to begin her rule.
Out of the corner of her eye, she spied a tiny metal structure. A car, her mind vaguely supplied, memories of her time blending in with mortals as she facilitated her first successful power grab, briefly burbling up from her subconscious.
A human emerged, fleeing in the opposite direction from her, and she watched them for a time, marveling at how tiny, how weak they appeared now. She considered pursuing the mortal, but her attention drifted back to the...car, and another idea emerged.
She strode through the remnants of the museum, not bothering to pick up her feet, simply crashing through the remaining walls, smirking as they gave way before her overwhelming physical might. She reached the car, and without any hesitation, lifted one foot in the air, and brought it down, hard upon the vehicle, crushing it under the sole of her sandal. She shuddered as the strong metal instantly gave way under the force of her foot, and sighed, extremely pleased at the pleasant sensations that were coursing through her.
"Oh...yeah," She chuckled darkly to herself. Raising her gaze, and taking in the myriad of things she was surrounded with. Structures that the humans had, unwittingly, built solely to be destroyed, by her.
"This is going to be fun," She said, as she looked around, eager to find her next target.
"RONALDA!"
Startled by the abrupt intonation of her name, Ronnie Anne Santiago reacted in the manner her lizard brain found most appropriate for the situation. She attempted to flee in as many directions as she could, which only resulted in her getting wrapped up in her own limbs, and tumbling to the ground in a heap. Wincing in pain, and momentarily stunned, she was forced to lay there as she regained her senses. But an all too familiar pair of chanclas stepping into her field of view did wonders for her recovery, and she immediately set about climbing to her feet.
...Dreading, as she so frequently did as of late, that she never seemed to be in a position to use her fire escape when she needed it most.
"Ronnie Anne, GET UP!" Her grandma barked, effortlessly lifting the Santiago girl off the ground with a strength that belied her age, and placing her (not especially gently) back on her bed, sitting up.
"Abuela!," Ronnie Anne groaned, still trying to shake off the effects of her fall. "I told you! I don't have school to—ACK!"
She yelped in surprise as her grandma abruptly shoved Ronnie's phone in her face.
"You've got bigger problems than that, mijita," Said Rosa. "Check your socials and your medias!"
Resisting the urge to correct her, Ronnie obediently fired up her phone and opened SwiftyPic. And, as she was immediately flooded with recordings, images, and the odd meme depicting the destruction that was overtaking downtown, she immediately wished she hadn't. While she appreciated that the particular perpetrator of this present problem possessed a certain...flair to her, that was specifically culturally relevant to Ronnie's own interests, a breath of fresh air compared to the rash of giant women that had been terrorizing Royal Woods as of late, she'd also very much preferred that those same women stay firmly across state lines. One being here in Great Lakes City would, hypothetically make it her problem, and that...was a bad thing.
"...Nope," She said, looking up at her grandma.
"What do you mean, 'no'!?" Exclaimed Rosa. "You're on duty, mijita! Get out your wand and go kick her butt!"
"With what!?" Ronnie Anne retorted, holding up her phone, and showing one of the many videos of the mysterious titaness gleefully crashing through buildings like they were made of tissue paper. "My 'powers,'" She paused to add air quotes. "And 'weapons'," More air quotes. "Are made to fight monsters that are roughly human-sized."
She gestured out her window at one of the buildings adjoining their apartment, which seemed like a serviceable demonstration of the scale at play.
"What am I supposed to do?" She asked, rhetorically. "Wrap her up with my ribbon?"
"It also has a chainsaw, sweetheart," Said Rosa, patiently, her expression making it clear that she thought Ronnie was the one being stupid in this exchange. Literally biting back a retort, Ronnie looked back down to her phone as her thumbs began to dance across the screen.
"Chill, Grandma", Said Ronnie. "I'm not abandoning my responsibilities. I'm just...outsourcing the problem."
"To whom?"
"To someone better qualified to handle something like that," Ronnie replied, as she sent a call out with one last tap of her thumb, and raised her phone to her face.
"Hey, Lincoln," She said, as the line picked up. "Sorry to bug you, but I really need your help with something."