READ WEBNOVEL Ch 49 – It’s Raining Men
~JACK! I GOTTA TAKE OVER!~
"But she might-"
~THIS ISN'T THE TIME!~
Jack let out a soft 'fuck' as he let go of the twine and surrendered to Adam, who immediately went into a power dive to gain as much speed as possible and close the gap between him and Ivy.
Ivy was clinging next to the man whom she had managed to save a mere six stories from the ground, "Hold on, Sir! I'll have you down-"
The man looked like he was going to vomit as he dangled upside down, but he had enough presence of mind to shout at Ivy, "YOU HAVE TO GET UP TO THE THIRTY EIGHTH FLOOR! HE'LL KILL EVERYONE UP THERE!!!" That was when the sound of multiple windows shattering echoed down from above. Ivy leaned away from the building to look up at the cloud of floating objects and people.
Her jaw dropped open as she watched what was once floating...
Began falling.
Her mind completely locked up as she tried to take in the sheer scope of what she was witnessing. She just gaped having no idea how to even begin to try and save someone... anyone for that matter. Even if she caught a person, the falling desks were likely to hit and kill anyone she caught. In that moment, the only reasonable course of action she could come up with was to grab the one guy she already saved and get out of the way.
Which was why her mind had locked up. She might have been able to draw such a callous conclusion, but she couldn't make her body move to even attempt it. All she could do is watch in mute horror.
"IVY!"
Ivy demonstrated that she had no bones in her body as she snapped her head around like an owl to look at the person shouting her name. In that moment she had a combination of relief and confusion as she saw Adam Angel barreling towards her like a missile.
"I'M GONNA GIVE YOU EVERYTHING I GOT! GROW AS BIG AS YOU CAN AND FORM A WEB OF VINES BETWEEN YOU AND THE BUILDING!"
Ivy nodded and leaped away from the building. She doubted this was going to work, but maybe they could catch a few of them. Better to try than not. As she tumbled and spun around to position herself, Adam put both of his hands together and a beam of blue light lanced out of his hands to hit her square in the back. It felt like nothing she had experienced before. Well, actually. She felt something like it one other time.
That time Jack boosted the table lamp.
Ivy felt like she was being directly infused with solar crack. Everything seemed to be moving in super slow motion. She could usually manage four times her usual size, topping out at about twenty feet. Pushing herself to the limit she once managed thirty, but only managed to hold it for about three seconds before she passed out. This time, as she expanded, the ground buckled beneath massive redwood-thick legs as she planted them into the ground. She inadvertently crushed a parked car in the process of shooting up to the height of eighteen stories.
Traffic up and down the street screeched to a halt at the sudden appearance of a giant green woman whose very weight was causing the street to buckle under her weight. Fortunately, foot traffic was at a minimum at this time of day, although she practically gave a hot dog vendor a heart attack as her big toe's sudden appearance launched his cart down the street. Although he wasn't half as shocked as the driver of the car at the red light when a hot dog cart crashed through the rear window of his SUV.
She reached out to spread her hands wide, causing her fingers to split and branch out again and again into multiple grasping vines. While her purpose was to try and catch the falling people, she knew there would also be injuries. This would also catch all the falling people AND the debris. In the back of her mind she hoped Adam would think to save enough energy to heal the injured. If he was fast enough, they might prevent a few fatalities. As she was thinking this, she heard Adam scream at her, "DO THE SAME THING WITH YOUR HAIR!"
This puzzled Ivy, but it wasn't beyond her ability. She flicked her head forward as she felt Adam slam into the back of her head. Not that he caused any damage, considering she currently weighed well over twenty five metric tons. Her hair lanced across to stick to the side of the building forming a second web above her hands. Adam's blue aura had just barely infused her hair as the first of the plummeting people reached it...
And slipped right through her hair like it wasn't even there.
For a moment Ivy's heart was in her throat, but a second later she caught the falling man in her dendritic fingers. She was rather puzzled to notice that he was naked. The majority of his clothing had been stripped from him and was now stuck in her hair. This was when it became apparent what Adam had done. He had enhanced the stickiness of her hair, but apparently made it possible for living things to pass right through. As the desks, chairs, cabinets and other objects impacted her hair, the people dropped through to get caught in her many fingers.
Of course this had the side effect of absolutely shredding their clothing and any inanimate objects they might have had on their person. The kinetic energy had to be transferred SOMEWHERE, but the people passed through mostly unharmed. Well, the psychological trauma would likely haunt these people for years to come, but they were going to LIVE and that's what mattered.
This also meant that Ivy was suffering damage from every impact. However, the fact she was so large and massive meant that this was at best an annoyance. It certainly wasn't pleasant as she felt the occasional strand of hair get ripped out at the root, but for the most part, the damage was superficial. Certainly nothing she couldn't regenerate.
In less than a ten seconds, she had caught the shower of falling office supplies and broken glass and had two giant hands holding over thirty rescued naked men and women. About thirty men and women of which a substantial number were currently vomiting out the contents of their lunch to the street below. But over thirty men and women prevented from becoming one with the pavement, none the less. It was all thanks to Adam, who was clinging to the back of Ivy's head as he channeled everything he had into her to the point of passing out.
Speaking of...
As Adam consciousness slipped away, so did his boost. At the first sign of feeling that she was shrinking back down to her 'normal' giant size, she flicked her hair to the side sending all the debris cascading into a pile. If she had more time, she would have picked a better spot. At least there was nobody next to, or inside, the delivery truck she buried in office furniture, shattered glass, and shredded clothing. As for the people, she rapidly lowered her hands to the ground to unceremoniously dump them into the middle of the street. Bruised, battered, and embarrassed as hell, but alive after having just plummeted about four hundred feet to an apparently no longer certain death. It was in that very moment that she finally noticed something odd.
Every last office worker was Japanese.
Her last act was to reach up and catch Adam as he slid off her shoulders. She carefully laid him down on the ground as it finally caught up to her that this whole thing had happened in a matter of seconds, even if it felt subjectively like an eternity had passed.
She was shaking all over. She felt like she was going through withdrawal. To go from being so massive down to a MERE twenty feet tall was skewing her perception of things. It was hard to focus. She was both terrified and elated. She was exhausted, yet light as a feather. She took a moment to compose herself, balled up her fists, slowly stood up, then lifted her head to look skyward.
In the frame of one of the shattered windows, she made out the form of someone standing there, looking down. Ivy tilted her head to the side and flexed her hands as she prepared to climb up there to see who it was, but in the space of an eye blink, the figure had vanished. She briefly weighed which was more important, taking care of the victims and watching over Adam, or going after the perpetrator.
The victims won out.
Sirens were approaching. Very shortly the area was going to be filled up with rapid response personnel and law enforcement. As she glanced around, assessing the damage and mulling over what she would have to fill out in her report, something that had been nagging at her in the back of her mind finally crystalized into a coherent thought.
~Where's Jack?~