Not-So-Peaceful Transfer of Power (Ch.5)

Uncle Sam and Portlandia had both arrived in New York. It had been a few weeks since the latter had used their alien abilities to replicate the famous and huge hulking statue in Portland, making themselves a giant, formidable, trident-carrying, greek toga-wearing foe for the manical commander-in-chief Elena Machtig.

She had gone on the run and into hiding after suffering a near defeat at their hands, and they'd subsequently searched for her all across the nation until finally getting word that she was actually sighted in the city. Portlandia easily took states in her long stride and got them to their destination as soon as she could, with Sam safely on her shoulder pointing the way again.

 "Are we really sure she's here?" the giantess asked him.

"Yeah, she's been lurking around it seems, flying in and out of the locale via those fancy superpowers of hers -my old powers that she stole from me- but there has been little sign of her in the last few days. That's strange in and of itself because you know her usual drill: she always goes public, makes a speech or two, terrorises the local population of wheverever she goes, but apparently not this time."

"Her increased intelligence and knowledge may have changed her," Portlandia replied.

"Not for the better, I'll wager," responded Sam. "But what brought her here in the first place? What's in New York? What scheme has she cooked up for us?"

As they fully arrived, the people of the city drew back and even fled when they caught a glimpse of the muscular, 50-foot tall Portlandia striding down the street. It wasn't long before this odd couple had made it to Time Square itself.

"Hey, I know this is a weird question," shouted Sam, "But did any of you guys down there happen to see our power-mad president? She is supposed to be somewhere here."

But there was no response.

"I think you're overwhelming them," Sam joked.

"Or they're struggling to hear you," the alien joked back, with a smile appearing on the massive, statuesque face. They grabbed Sam then and placed him down on the street, leaving him to peer up at the screens littering the square.

"Not even a report on the news," he said, scratching his head. "This is so peculiar. What could she be up to?"

"We're not thinking smart about this," replied Portlandia, their voice blasting across the road. "From what you told me about Machtig, she hates being bested. She hates not being number one at something. She hates playing second fiddle. If that's the case, and after being humbled by me, it's clear she'll want to go one better again. To get some sort of revenge over us."

"Well, if that's the case, then how would she do that? I mean, if you used your powers to touch the Portlandia statue to make yourself this big, then why would she be in New York in the first-"

He tailed off then, before turning his head and looking up at his partner once more.

"Oh God, I've just figured it out! She's going to use her new obscene level of intelligence to somehow give herself your ability. Through Rath's experiments and through the extraction of all of those endless scientists and their collective genius, she might now have the know-how to add your shape-shifting gifts to her array of tricks."

"If that's the case, then where in the city would she be possibly experimenting on herself?"

"I know Rath had a lab right here in New York, too. Out in the Bronx and right on the East river. I'm not sure where exactly, but we need to get out there even so and search for it in case she's done something terrible."

Portlandia reached down without saying another word and scooped up Sam in their large hand, and placed him back on their shoulder.

"Hang on!" they cried with a loud thunder, pumping their legs and smashing the road beneath their feet, suddenly pushing themselves into the air. They landed heavily before thrusting skywards again, planning on quickly jumping their way across the city and river to the Bronx, with Sam pointing them in the general direction as he tended to do. It wouldn't be long before the pair reached the borough, triggering the locals and leaving them in mild shock.

"It's OK," shouted Sam once more, "We're just trying to hunt down and confront Machtig. Have any of you seen our glorious miserable leader lately?"

There was no reply at first.

"Well, do any of you at least know if there's a sizeable lab nearby?" asked Portlandia, her voice shaking them to their core.

Thankfully, one pedestrian had the guts and wherewithal to answer, gesturing to a building visible on the skyline nearby. Indeed, that was where Rath's remaining lab lay, housed in the upper levels. Even worse, though, the citizen and others had noticed lights flashing from its windows on previous days.

"We'll have to move quickly," said Sam.

"But not so quietly," smiled Portlandia while gripping her trusty trident and leaping to the top of the nearest building. They moved from one rooftop to another, with Portlandia's gigantic female body causally leaving wreckage in their wake. They finally leaped onto the aforementioned building and started to crawl up its side with a sort King Kong-level of enthusiasm, yet with no intention of falling off. Portlandia punched their way through the window next and carefully placed Sam iinside so he could check the place out.

"I see nothing so far," he said, continuing to search the facility. It wasn't until he pushed back a large, thick white door that stood slightly ajar that he noticed it: a ramshackle, makeshift transformation chamber of sorts.

Machtig must have hastily built it on her own. A mechanical marvel brourne out of her now impossibly heightened, unmatched physical and intellectually capacity. Sam felt it also stood there as a monument to her thirst for power and dominance, and to her madness. Through it, however, he feared she might also gain the final advantage and seal her victory.

"It's been used," he said depressingly.

"What's been used?" asked Portlandia, still effortlessly clinging to the building and pressing their ear against the broken window just a few rooms over.

Surprised they could even hear him, Sam let out a roar: "I think we're too late! She's already been here done that with regards to this tech. I believe she might already be like you."

"If that's the case, then where is she now?" Portlandia cried back.

"I think I know," replied Sam grimly. "It's obvious."

There were no windows in the room, so he walked outside and back to where his friend was. He didn't utter a word and instead looked past them and out beyond the river to the sea. On it, there was a small island with a figure that reached straight up into the sky with a torch. She stood resolute and looked out upon the waves of the ever-widening ocean before her. Both Sam and Portlandia turned and looked at each other, with man and monument realising what was about to happen, and also what was at stake.

"We need to get out to the Statue of Liberty, and now!"

Portlandia couldn't jump that far, and such is the depth of the Hudson they could've possibly been submerged for good if they crashed into it, so they decided to enter the river and wade through it instead, with Sam safely held above the water in the palm of their elevated hand. Even so, they stomped their way through the water as fast as they dared, barely able to see out over the surface at times depending on the river's height, as both statue and waterway were pretty much tied. It didn't matter. They just needed to make it to Ellis Island before the process was over, if indeed it had actually begun. When they'd reached their destination, though, and looked up at the great statue, there was no sign of Machtig.

"Maybe we got lucky?" wondered a nervous Sam.

"Maybe we're early?" his companion replied, the water flowing off of their face and body to the.ground.

"Or maybe you're both wrong," another voice cried out behind them. It was familiar to Sam yet was deeper than ever before. It belonged to Machtig, and her sudden appearance then caused both heroes to turn and set their sights upon the wayward president.

"I hope you won't flee like you did before, coward," Sam replied. "You've met your match. Nay, your superior in Portlandia."

"'Nay'? Well, nay is apt because I haven't met my match at all as no one is my equal, and while your tall friend might be superior to me now, as has been so often the case in my life, I always find a way to come out on top in the end. My destiny you see is to reign supreme as no one can better me. I always rise to a challenge, and when I say 'rise' I really mean rise."

"Nonsense," Portlandia boomed back at her. "You're still puny compared to me."

"Am I?" whispered a smiling Machtig, with tears inexplicably now rolling down her face. She was caught in a paradoxical state of pain and pleasure apparently, but the other two weren't exactly sure why. They suspected though.

"What were you doing in the lab?" asked Sam.

"Come now," she replied. "My genius is so astronomical that I even predicted you coming here. I knew this conversation would occur. Indeed, you have already surmised that I have the knowledge to build a machine of my own to replicate your alien friend's power."

"You know of Portlandia's origin? How their power works?"

"Yes, one of the doctors Rath kidnapped and drained worked on the project when you crash landed. I know everything. I used the knowledge to transform myself. The tech allows me to touch a person or object and become just like it."

"Well, good thing we stopped you from going through with the process," said Sam, relieved, pointing his thumb over his shoulder and up towards the inert statue behind them.

"Did you?!" she snapped.

"Nice try, but it takes hours for the connection to work, and the process only happens while the touch remains for that length of time. Yet look at you, Machtig, you're still human, or close to it anyway."

"Poor old Sam. America's former hero. I always hated you, and took great satisfaction stripping you of your superpowers. They gave me the means to overcome any and all who wanted to take me down. That being said, I might have made you physically weak, but your mental weaknesses are all your own," she explained. "Don't you remember that I always have to better than those who challenge me? Your alien sidekick might have needed hours to replicate the form of Portlandia, but with my new tech, an instant touch is all that's needed."

"She's bluffing," said the giant, wasting no time and striking the much smaller Machtig with the back of her huge wrist and hand, sending the president hurtling over the sea and straight into the water. Both Portlandia and Sam gingerly walked over to the shore of the small island then and waited for a reaction. Yet the water became and remained rather still. Easy as it seemed, perhaps that really was the end of it. This American-made nightmare finally could be concluded on the east coast in the dying light of a September evening with the villain defeated in one single blow.

But, as we know, it's never that easy.

As Sam and Portlandia turned away, there was an unmistakable rumble coming from under the water.

"No," Sam gasped to himself, "It can't be."

He dared a look behind, with his astonishment only matched by Portandia's. However, they weren't the only ones witnessing this awesome sight. Many New Yorkers in the distance were left squinting as they watched on in horror as this spectacle unfolded before them, too. In fact, the entire country watched on.

A voice then somehow bellowed from beneath the sea and throughtout the harbour. It was this terrible sound, like thunder cracking from under the waves, as if a storm were about to rise from the Atlantic and not above it.

The tip of her crown appeared first above the current. Then her hair was visible, before her forehead popped up, and her eyebrows, too. Her facade slowly rose from the deep as the newly deified Machtig grew skywards. Next they saw her furious, unforgiving eyes staring down upon them. Then her nose moved out around the wash; and her mouth with teeth exposed and gritted. Her neck and shoulders were just as impressive. Those wide, muscular shoulders; those huge arms, her full breasts, her bulging abs, all wrapped in gigantic flowing robes drenched by the sea, pressing against her giantess form, highlighting her enormous body's details and features. Her hips and legs curved out as well, and when the transformation was complete, she was only submerged from the knees down whilst the rest of her body towered above everyone and everything.

The noise had been deafening and forced Sam to cover his ears. He would also have surely drowned if not for Portlandia lifting him up from the mini-tsunami triggered by Machtig's colossal emergence. The waves crashed against the plinth that held the original Lady Liberty up, but Machtig had not become an exact, living flesh and blood version of the Statue of Liberty. Due to her own inventions, she had become a composite of sorts: she had the sheer size of the legendary monument, her crown and wrap across her body, however she also had elements of her old pantsuit, as well as part of her exosuit that controlled the 50 Stars drone program. And, on her gigantic back, an American flag still flowed as a cape representing the power she originally took from Sam. When all was said and done, this giant version of Machtig stood at 150 feet tall, at least three times the size of formerly-imposing Portlandia.

She took a deep breath then before speaking:

"I told you I would rise," she smiled, with her voice cracking the very foundation of the island they stood on. In fact, as she spoke, even the water began to ripple around them.

Yet, despite the impossible size difference now, and the overwhelming odds, Portlandia still threw herself at their foe, clenching her trident in her hand. She meant to strike Machtig through the heart, but merely bounced off her mighty chest. She laughed then and the noise was devastating to the actual Statue of Liberty, with the vibrations damaging the basic structure. Forever determined, however, Portlandia tried again and again; their round, powerful arms thrusting the trident towards different parts of Machtig's divine body, trying to find a possible weak spot. But Machtig's just turned her head sideways, and smirked.

"Aww, that's cute," she roared from up high. "But I have a weapon now, too!" she informed them, holding out a torch similar to the one held by the Statue of Liberty. As Portlandia reached out again, Machtig smashed the torch down upon the trident, snapping it in three places.

As Portlandia tried picking up the pieces of her weapon again, she sensed the light of the sky suddenly going out behind her. While late in the evening, this wasn't a darkness caused by the setting sun, but a result of the shadow cast by Machtig's approaching monumental form.

"Get out of the way!" cried Sam, who stood beneath them both. But it was too late, Machtig bent over and easily picked up Portlandia and held her right in front of her beautiful, powerful face.

"This isn't very presidential behavior," claimed a fearful Portlandia, trying to ground the fantastical scenario they were trapped in with a little brevity.

"As you can see," she began, "Thanks to you, I'm no mere president anymore. I have overcome all and am now the ultimate goddess. You are a tryhard in comparison. Even worse, you're not even from this planet, so why don't I just send you back? From space you arrived, and to space you'll be returned."

Sam tried to call out to her before she did anything rash, but Machtig couldn't hear him. She gripped Portlandia harder then, drew her arm back before flinging them straight into the heavens above. Sam expected Portlandia to fall back down to Earth, perhaps into the sea, but such was Machtig's strength, she had indeed thrown her rival right off the surface of the planet to God knows where.

"How is that for 'Presidential behavior?" she grumbled.

Machtig then turned her attention to Sam once more.

"I could kill you right now," she declared, "In so many different ways. I could simply hold my boot above you and then slam it down, crushing you and most of the island. Instead, I want you to see me finally take this whole country, and beyond. I want you to witness my absolute victory. Your Portlandia gambit failed. I am the real deal. I am the only true American goddess, and it's about time I reminded the people of my status as I remain and always will remain, undefeated."

Sam was powerless to stop this self-declared god as she slowly took huge strides and merely stepped over his head. He looked on in awe as she made for the shore, with the panicked civilians who had previously watched from afar now fleeing for their lives. Every step from Machtig caused a tremor of the Earth and as she reached dry land she stood even taller, continuing her way towards the middle of town. She looked down upon her subjects. They seemed like insects to her now. She smiled, enjoying the utter carnage her presence created. This journey would end on Manhattan where she found a few row of high rises that were so densely packed together -with small structures in front of big one- creating a makeshift seat for someone befitting her size. Thus, she sat herself down on the buildings, placing her hands on a rooftop on each side. The great goddess Machtig had arrived on her throne. She had finally won all. She had indeed proven herself indomitable. All she could do now was laugh. A laugh that would be heard around the world.

The End.