Heist Phantoms

"Can we create a PARADOX

Build a bridge upon an empty world

Even though I'm just a simple girl

I know I'm capable"

As she rampaged through the city, she wondered just how things had gotten so strange.

She wasn't really rampaging at first. She'd just grown to twice her height. So tall that even the roomy ceiling in the hipster coffee place couldn't contain her. Her back was starting to strain from bending over at a ninety degree angle.

Besides, she was sure the barista at the counter wanted her out from the moment she sat down. He kept giving her a look, probably because she was hogging their record player.

Now he was running down the street, towards the busy looking skyscrapers that sat at the centre of Paradox City. She let him go. Her giant self, a separate entity she found she couldn't control, didn't find him very interesting.

There was something calling to her, and it was coming from down town. Though she couldn't control herself, she could tell that it felt good to be standing upright again.

Paradox City was known for it's weird happenings. It was never as weird as a ten foot tall girl with giant red claws, though there were rumors about that a while ago.

The strange happenings were usually limited to things like street names switching for two weeks, only to right themselves whenever the city council declared it would do something about them.

Then there was how ice cream flavors never tasted the same.

As she swung her gigantic fist into a pretty candy-colored window, she thought about the first time she'd tasted real mint. It was a few weeks ago when she was on was on vacation in Leipzig with her older brother Waco.

Here in Paradox City, 'mint' ice cream always tasted too fruity or like caramel. The owner of the local ice-cream franchise, Richard Lacombe, even had to go on the news once to promise people every ice cream flavor was made with authentic, fresh ingredients.

The local anchorman, Lucky Bagley, a man way too old to be going by 'Lucky', had watched Mr. Queen prepare a batch of ice cream and then had some. Though Mr. Queen had insisted it was supposed to taste like vanilla, Lucky Bagley fought back, claiming it was it was licorice flavored.

These were the sort of things she thought as her large red tail swung across a banking display. Since she'd figured out that she'd lost control a while ago, she had time to let her mind wander.

A cardboard standee of a smiling man who was in the middle of signing a cheque split in two as it connected with her tail.

That was was probably how people really felt when they had to write out cheques, she thought.

Most people were running off, but one large man stood his ground and rushed at her. Inside, she was quite terrified; he was at least six feet tall and looked like the sort of person that marked their religion on polls and surveys as 'gym'. Normally, anybody of that size would be able to crush her.

But right now she was a giant that clocked in at least ten feet tall. The giant, primal part of her that was in control didn't care what this guy wanted, it just wanted him out of the way.

Though something far off seemed to be calling her, she wasn't sure if she was really following it or just messing around angrily. Either way, he certainly wasn't part of her plans.

With one hand, she grabbed a massive bicep and tossed him aside. He spun around in the air a few times, screaming at the top of his lungs. She was suddenly struck with his frailty; what would happen if he fell? Would he hurt his head? Break every bone in his body?

She needed to stop this, but her body was already turning away.

Until it saw them.