Big Scoop

“Just don’t make a scene, you’re here for the tour and that’s all, no need to stress out…” the giant coyote muttered to himself. He walked the streets downtown wearing what he hoped was something inconspicuous. Being an investigative journalist was a tough gig in the best of situations. But for Mike Scoop it was practically impossible; macros weren’t well known for blending into a crowd after all. He wasn’t the largest of the large, just 25 feet tall. But even that was enough to make his job a herculean task.

That only drove Mike to work even harder for his craft. All his life he’d wanted to be a famous journalist. He spent his youth looking for ‘big stories’ and studying English all through college. Of course, with a last name like Scoop he’d dealt with his fair share of awful jokes about ‘Big Scoops’ and the like. Life was hard, but he wasn’t one to give up that easily. Most of his work consisted of simple fluff pieces for the local paper, but this time would be different. If he could just stay inconspicuous he might be able to get a scoop with the brand new tech that GroLabs planned to roll out today.

The research and development building was right around the corner of this city block. Mike took a deep breath to calm down. Inconspicuous. Blend in. Don’t make a scene. The coyote walked forward and nearly stepped on a car. The driver honked to get his attention, causing Mike to awkwardly overcorrect. He stepped backward and knocked over a light pole. The giant canine flinched when the metal crashed to the street. Well so much for being inconspicuous.

He quickly walked toward the RnD building, GroLabs emblazoned on a sign in front of the 2-story structure. Unfortunately for Mike the building didn’t look macro accessible. Down at street level was a single set of doors, barely reaching up to his knees. Mike scowled. Not very helpful at all. If he couldn’t fit in the building he’d have to be a little more creative than that.

The coyote wasn’t much for creativity though. So he scooted into the alley next to the building and tried to peek in through a window. Pedestrians on the sidewalk gave him strange looks but no one said anything yet. Mike might have been acting odd, but he wasn’t doing anything illegal. The yote had to bend down slightly to press his face to the glass. He squinted to make out what was going on.

Inside was a mad scientist’s dream. The room was lined from wall to wall with gadgets, blinking lights, lasers, potions and all manner of things Mike couldn’t easily identify. The lights were still off in the room with no one working inside. Perfect. The coyote reached into his pants pocket and pulled out an extra-large camcorder. It was much easier to take video than to write down notes in shorthand. Neither of those options was particularly subtle, but at least this way he was sure to get every detail.

“If I could just get inside,” the journalist muttered. Testing his luck, Mike pushed gently at the window to see if it was locked. When it didn’t budge he pushed a little harder… then a little harder again… CRASH. The glass shattered under the pressure of his fingers. Looking left and right down the alley he checked if anyone noticed. When nothing seemed to happen after a few seconds the coyote’s tail started to wag. At least this way he could get an up-close look inside. He gingerly pushed his hand and the camcorder through the window. It swept from side to side while the coyote tried to keep himself from looking like his hand was caught in a proverbial cookie jar to any witnesses.

What Mike had no way of knowing was that this building housed GroLabs’ newest size-alteration project. An extra powerful size ray sat beneath a beige tarp with “DO NOT TOUCH” in large block letters written on it. Of course that set the coyote’s reporter senses tingling. No one put labels like that out in the open unless it was something super important or top secret. That could definitely make for a story. Mike set the camcorder down near a lab bench, taking care to make sure it was still aimed at the covered machine. The coyote pulled the tarp off the machine with his thumb and forefinger. Pulling his hand back knocked into the size ray’s barrel, causing it to spin in place before coming to a stop aimed directly at the canine’s face.

“Wow. Wonder what it does,” he thought aloud. The mischievous yote poked at the machine a few times, hoping to get a reaction. When nothing happened his curiosity got the better of him and he tried to pull the machine closer to the window. That proved immediately to be a mistake. As his fingers clenched around the machine it pressed against a console, mashing several buttons at once. The size ray flashed with a beam of brilliant white light, striking the canine in his muzzle.

Mike yelped and pulled backward, bumping into the brick walled apartment complex on the other side of the alley. It shuddered violently when the tonnage of the canine ran into it. Cracks appeared up and down the wall in a vaguely-humanoid shaped pattern. But it didn’t fall down thankfully. He breathed a sigh of relief that he wasn’t large enough to cause more damage than that. Brushing off the dust from his collision the yote walked forward to try retrieving his camcorder only to stop in his tracks. A tingle of energy ran up the base of his spine, causing his hackles to raise and his tail to tuck. He looked down at his hand and noticed the light glow that surrounded it.

“That’s strange,” he said. That was all he could get out though as he dramatically expanded in every direction at once. A wave of growth wedged the canine in place in the alley, pinning his arms to his sides and his face looming over the top of the RnD building. Mike squirmed, attempting to free himself but to no avail. He grunted and struggled but there was no way for him to move; that could prove to be a big problem soon if he didn’t get moving. People were already staring and pointing. Another sensation of tingling shocks caused the coyote to shiver before he grew yet again. Brown furred bulk blasted through the buildings in an instant, going from wedged in place to towering over the street in the blink of an eye.

“W-Woah. Hold on, uhh. Hi everyone,” he boomed, waving down at everyone on the street. “Just what the heck was that machine anyway- Oh no, my equipment!” Mike bent over to look through the remains of the GroLabs Research and Development Department, pushing pieces of concrete and destroyed tech away with bus-sized hands. A beaten and bruised camcorder sat under the mortar, damaged but still functional. It looked comically small now compared to his oversized palms, no larger than the size of a quarter. At least it was intact. Mike smiled and dropped it unceremoniously into his pocket before standing up to full height again. The coyote felt like a proper macro now on par with the nearby skyscrapers. He padded up toward one of them to count stories; this wasn’t a scale Mike was used to, but he did know that this was the only reliable way for larger macros to measure their height.

He started to get worried once he reached double digits. Just as he was about to stop counting at 15 that familiar tingle traveled across his skin again. He’d need to start the count over now. Mike huffed in annoyance when he realized he’d gotten too tall and run out of floors to count. Oh well. It had to be around 25 stories or so, which meant about 250 feet tall. Mike took a deep breath and tried to look on the bright side. He took a seat atop a parking complex, which shook violently under his enormous rump but held firm somehow. The same could not be said for the dozens of cars that were flattened under his posterior.

Well, he was enormous. That meant his days of investigative journalism were probably over. But now he had a bird’s eye view of the entire city. He could probably use that to his advantage, right? Mike knew there was a market for traffic reports from the sky, but this way he wouldn’t need any helicopter to do it. Plus, now he could get macro interviewees more easily. It was always easier on the recording equipment when the reporter was the same size as the interviewee. Yeah, maybe this could work out after all! This wasn’t so bad. The coyote’s tail wagged back and forth, kicking up wind behind his seat and accidentally knocking the top off an office building.

Mike rose to his feet once more, looking down at the city with renewed confidence. He found that was completely misplaced confidence soon after. The white glow and tingle of energy returned once more, this time much stronger. His whole body vibrated lightly before exploding upward, causing his eyes to get as wide as plates. 250 feet looked positively puny in short order as his paws smashed over city blocks, catching buildings between his toes while clouds parted around his head.

“Oh boy, this is bad!” he exclaimed, looking down at the ground with increasing worry written all over his face.

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“We take you now to Mega-Cam One, our eye in the sky, Mike Scoops. How is the weather looking up there today, Mike?”

Mike sighed internally, but didn’t let the reporter’s smile leave his mouth for a second. He stared at the small, buzzing helicopter in front of his muzzle before addressing the hundreds tuned into their local news station.

“Thanks Jennifer. Sky is looking all clear up here, sunny and cloudless. Today’s high will be around 75 and lows in the mid-60s. Forecast is looking clear for the next two days but we may see some rain over the weekend. And be sure to avoid Central Avenue this morning, there’s traffic backed up for over ten blocks today. Back to you in the studio!”

“And that was your Channel 9 news weather, sponsored by GroLabs. Thanks for the big scoop, Mike. Have a good one up there buddy,” a female voice said in his hidden earpiece. Mike was sure the cameras were still recording so he couldn’t lose the smile yet. Just a little longer and he’d be all clear. The mega giant wasn’t even sure why anyone tuned into this station for his reports anyway; at his size the whole city could hear his reporting just from speaking alone. Ratings might have gone down for the morning weather report, but that didn’t mean people were missing the news anymore.

The coyote sighed and looked down at the city, carefully guarded on either side by his toes. The whole metropolis was dime sized at most to the colossal canine. He’d definitely gotten his big scoop a week ago. At the cost of his privacy, sure. But he definitely couldn’t complain anymore that his reporting wasn’t getting attention. The coyote sighed and waved at the helicopter as it started to descend toward the city below. Oh well. Nothing to do now but hope the scientists in GroLabs would fix this soon.