Josephine Minerva hid herself away as quickly as she saw the green gas pool through the vents. Her heart raced as she barely made it to her hospitals record room. While not entirely safe from the gas itself there was something within that’d keep her regular size.

She frantically searched the rows of records, time of the most valuable essence, until she came upon what she needed. A small envelope, not categorized under any name, date or letter. So easily found yet so out in the open no one would ever think it was anything but the information to a patient. But it was so much more than that.

Once Josephine retrieved the contents within, a pink powder enclosed within a plastic bag, she lapped it up quickly just as she was overcome by the gas that filled the hospitals halls. The effect was immediate, just as she believed it would be. She felt her skin tightening and her black business suit shrinking, yet she did not loss mass nor height. Neither her or her clothes shrank, the latter having failed to acclimate to the gas. As for her actual body, have Josephine not ingested the powder as instructed by head doctor Wesmer, than she would have fallen victim to it as well.

Though there was a minor side effect. Josephine noticed her normal tonned skin turn pale, and her light brown hair turn white. The glasses she wore proved useless as her eyes turned pink and she found her vision improved overall.

“Strange side effects...” she mused, watching as strange lines appeared throughout her body. They seemed similar in appearance to stitches.

Josephine sighed in relief, the crisis of shrinking averted for her. But then her thoughts went to those within the hospital, and how they had no sort of defense against the gas. She had no clue how they’d react to it or how small they would get. That was part of it’s design. Her design to be precise. Random effects to make the diminishing process seem more akin to a disease rather than a full blown chemical weapon. The full on process of shrinking or deformation was a seventy to thirty percent ration, with seventy being the successfully shrunk.

She wondered if the good doctor Felix fell victim to the chemical he played a role in making. If he did she’d have to dispose of him sadly. A shame really. Josephine promised him a place in her envisioned new world order.

Though this sudden exposure to the gas complicated things. For starters, the gas itself was more the first ingredient to a much larger, more important process. It needed to be made into a more tangible material, before being mixed into medicines specifically used by those of a…lesser social status. Things such as medicine for the less wealthy and food for those who couldn’t normally afford it. The pink powder, an antidote to the shrinking, would have been distributed for only the highest of classes. At a rather extravagant price of course, but it was for those who could afford it anyway. And they best part was how it wasn’t even a permanent fix. While only a small amount reversed any shrinking, side effects included, it wasn’t a permanent solution. Every month or so those who used the product would have had to re-ingest it, otherwise they would fall to the effects of diminishment.

The only one meant to have been exempt from the entire change of the worlds natural order was Josephine herself. She was meant to create a separate chemical that would have rendered her the last ‘normal’ person in a new world order. A living icon that provided the globe with a means to continue as it had prior. And those who couldn’t afford it would be placed at the feet of their superiors where they belonged. But looking upon the lines on her pale skin, and her white hair, she knew that something had come along to ruin her dream.

Had someone come to stop her? The thought did cross her mind. Perhaps Felix Wesmer grew cold feet and decided to go against his employers wishes. Whatever the case was now there was no stopping the gas. But with the powder she ingested there was ample time for her to put her plans into action, even if they were in an incomplete phase.

Quickly dusting herself off Josephine made her way to the back of the record room, a locked steel door waiting for her. It housed just what she needed to get her plans in motion. Normally labeled as confidential information the only two who had access to this room were herself and her associate.

Not bothering to lock the door behind her as she entered the room Josephine sat at the only computer in the room. Decorating the walls were several silver canisters filled with the green gas, tubes that branched off into various other medicines plugged into their bottoms.

Seemed she’d only be able to work with what she had here, placing the gas upon the medicines present. But perhaps it’d be enough to cause a chain reaction. People emulating the medicine present, perhaps as a way to figure out the coming epidemic. They’d only end up recreating the results, spreading the effects hopefully worldwide. The antidote would have to be spread out as well, perhaps sometime after the over shrinking ‘virus’ takes hold. The small amount she had was just one of many.

While the results of who shrank and who didn’t would be more varied than Josephine like she could still do this. She could still be an icon. The living goddess she believed she deserved to be.

Hours later and she was still going about the process of applying the remaining gas to cases of random medicine. The effects couldn’t be linked to one specific kind. They needed to appear as though the cause came from an unknown source. She couldn’t risk a link. Wiping her head of any sweat Josephine sighed as it looked like she nearing completion of her goal. Though altered it would be, she could still realize her dream. A lifelong dream of where she stood above all others.

It’s what she deserved, she thought. It’s what she always believed she deserved. No one was as important as her. No one was as special as her. She was unique. She was brilliant. All of these she believed wholeheartedly. It wasn’t until she heard the sound of the records room door unlocking that she was torn away from her thoughts.

There was someone who could manage that? It was unlikely. At most it must have been someone deformed by the gas. Yet Josephine had a gut feeling that perhaps that was not the case. Standing from her seat the hospitals owner silently made her way towards the steel door, not even risking it closed so as not to draw attention to herself.

She peered from the entrances edge and found a blood soaked, blue haired woman looking through the records, seemingly unaware of the metal door at the back. They frantically searched the records, quickly moving from one row of letters to the next in frustration.

Who was this woman? It was clearly someone Josephine never met before. And why was she covered in so much blood? Was it an effect of the gas? On that note, how is she even full sized? From what was seen there were no deformities upon the young woman at all.

Questions to be unanswered as Josephine quickly darted out of sight, the strange woman looking her way when she couldn’t find whatever it was she was looking for.

“Fucking shit!” Maya shouted, frustrated that she couldn’t find the records regarding her beloved six. It had to be here. She knew it had to be. Where else could it be?

“Fuck….FUCK!” Maya threw down several folders containing the information of patients, some of which she killed on her way here. But none of them were the object of her desire. It was when she was ready to give up that she saw the steel door towards the back of the room, wide opens though somebody made their way in.

Out of options and patience Maya made her way in, immediately being attacked by a much older, pale skinned woman. Though they looked quite different from how they were portrayed in the media Maya knew who this was.

“Josephine...Minerva?” the bloody woman asked in confusion, easily catching the hospital owners wrist when they tried to claw out her eye. They seemed...different. Aside from their skin Maya knew the one dubbed Saint Minerva didn’t have white hair, or pink eyes. Or even…

“Markings on your arm?” Maya questioned, perplexed that such a prominent figure was here. Granted it was their own hospital, thus the name. Though the blue haired killer never expected those of similar status to visit such places all the same.

As for Josephine she was easily pinned to the floor, the bloodied woman possessing a surprising amount of strength.

Maya scanned the room the two were in, noticing several canisters of the same gas that allowed her so much fun. The connections immediately clicked as Maya looked down to the woman she pinned down, a smile growing from ear to ear. “Oh miss Minerva~. The saint of the twenty first century. A shining example of the ‘human spirit’. Someones been up to no gooood~”

Despite her struggling Josephine was unable to throw Maya off her, the bloodied woman having sat herself upon the older womans stomach. “Not as holy as everyone thought huh? Now isn’t that a discovery?”

The eyes of the woman upon her invoked a fear within Josephine that she’s never felt before. All her life she’s known exactly what she’s wanted to do, and how she wanted to do it. She used people to get her way. She’s tested on people to get results. And not once had she ever feared for her life.

Yet the dread she felt now was as though all the fear she was meant to experience throughout her entire life was being channeled into this one moment. This one, horrible moment that spelled disaster for her whole dream.

“Y-you...”Josephine muttered, the fear quickly getting to her the more Maya smiled down upon her. “Ho-how did you...how are...who are you?”

Maya didn’t answer, instead leaning forward until she was inches from Josephine’s face cause the once great woman to flinch. She shut her eyes in fear only to feel Mayas lips press against hers. She tried to break free, despising the odd turn events. Mayas mouth tasted like iron, and when she pulled away a thin line of blood kept the two lips connected for a brief moment before parting.

“I wanted to thank you...” Maya admitted. “This wonderful night was because of you, wasn’t it?”

Josephine couldn’t say anything, her voice caught in her throat as she looked in this insane womans eyes. The blood she was covered in. the gore between their teeth. Just what had this blue haired psychopath done? She didn’t want to know, instead only wishing to understand how this woman survived the gas.

“How are you still...you?” Josephine asked. The idea that this maniac could have stayed full sized within the gas was impossible. If she didn’t shrink then deformities would have taken hold killing her. It was part of the process she designed.

Maya on the other hand chuckled at the thought, recalling how in her search for her beloved Six she found something of almost equal interest.

Months prior to her little...invasion of Saint Minervas hospital Maya had ‘procured’ an ambulance belonging to the medical facility. The clear difference for the vehicle was that it didn’t harbor any of the expected medical staff, instead holding several guards. Maya remembered the night fondly, almost meeting death as they proved more than she could handle. Yet she managed, through means even more gruesome then her executions this day. And what she found changed everything.

A single glass container holding the very same gas present. Strange, pink powder that she hardly had a use for. And a container of odd green pills that held the saints name on it.

Three items, each a key to shaping a whole new world, yet Maya hardly cared for them. Instead she viewed them as a means of finding her beloved, her arrival at the hospital and subsequent killing spree only possible because of these things. She hid the glass container within the hospitals even, cracking it’s casing to ensure a slow leak that eventually spread throughout the whole building. The green pills, she took, instructions within detailing there importance. The pink powder, she flushed. Perhaps someone else will find a better use for them.

Yet she told none of this to the saint pinned beneath her. Instead she ran her hands up the length of her arms, firmly gripping the woman's breasts as she passed her chest before finally resting her hands upon the womans throat. She gripped it tightly, the effect upon the saint immediate as the clawed into Mayas already bloody skin. The claw marks she left behind, Maya would treasure always.

Without Saint Minerva Maya would have never had such a wonderful day. Without her, everything after would seem bland in comparison. Without her, she may have never been able to walk the path towards finding her Six. So, with a smile, Maya forced Josephine Minerva, the most brilliant woman of the twenty first century, to raise their head closer to her. Maya licked the womans lips as she continued to gasp for air, the life slowly fading for her eyes.

Maya whispered into her ears, the respect and gratitude she held for the dying woman. “You wanted to change the world? Didn’t you?” Maya asked with a chuckle. “So many people thought you’d be the woman to do just that you know. Though I doubt they expected a change quite like what you had planned. Still, I can’t help but like the idea of it all.”

Maya gently kissed the womans cheek, the last bit of life finally fading from her. “You can die a Martyr for the new world. As for me, I’ll happily live in it with someone very important.”

A snap was heard as Maya tightened Josephines throat hard enough to crush her wind pipe, killing the woman who once had such a grand vision.

Maya on the other hand felt joy. The kind that could hardly be explained. Not joy over meeting a hard sought goal. Not the joy felt she normally felt when ending a life. This was a rare joy. The kind only felt when someone was where history was about to be made.

Turning her attention to the computer used to administer the gases to various medicines Maya couldn’t help but be curious over just how far Josephines plans would have reached. She looked over what it was the deceased woman was typing down, listing off a myriad of other big name medical facilities the madicine was meant to go to.

To be processed worldwide eventually, so that anyone who took the pills had a chance of shrinking.

It was outrageous, yet after today Maya wanted nothing more than to let such wonderful lunacy continue. But instead with her own added mixture.

She recalled the green pills she had taken to prevent her shrinkage, granting her immunity to the shrinking process as a whole. She remembered that within the case were the ingredients needed to make them, no doubt added by Saint Minerva herself should the pills have ever been misplaced. She recalled the ingredient perfectly, typing them into the computer so as to ensure such pills would be distributed as well. Though, as befitting of one such as Maya, she added a catch.

While some pills would hold the of granting an immunity once taken, the rarity of it happening would be so astronomically small that the chances of it happening were one in perhaps a hundred thousand. With that Maya had added herself to an extremely rare, elite group of individuals, unknowingly altering saint Josephine's plan further.

She allowed the process of of distribution of the medicine, giving them clearance should they be discovered.

After she did she focused on other matters. One of great importance to her. Noticed several files upon the computers desktop Maya found that each one held a name not present in the records before. She looked over them, their contents revealing earlier experiments of Minervas plans. Failure upon failure of shrunken individuals, each a precursor to the gas. Some were deformed and shrunk, other were made minuscule but at the cost of being unable to move freely. Only a few were branded as successes, but proved to costly to replicate.

She quickly searched through the files in search of her Six, his real name perhaps being among them. When she found it her heart skipped a beat, the odds of her beloved being one of the failures being a very real fear. Yet when she opened it she found her fears shrink away, much like her lover.

One of the few successes too expensive to do again, she found his appearance had changed drastically. She recalled how she enjoyed playing with his hair while he slept, or how she kissed his skin when the two...enjoyed each others company.

He had lost all of that now, his skin having seemingly been replaced by a bandage type material. A special ‘synthetic skin’ Josephine no doubt created in the hopes of dealing with the strain the shrinking process placed upon the body. Were it not for his name she’d have doubted he was even human.

Reading over the notes Maya saw the gamble had worked, her lovers body having endured the process, his skin being dozens of times more durable then even a normal sized humans. A good thing too as his new size baffled astonished her. So much so that she questioned her ability to find him.

She looked over the notes further, taking in the information of where he was placed once it was deemed his procedure was too costly. A trusted foster home, payed big money to ensure secrecy of what happened to those few successes. It seemed Mayas beloved was placed within said home. Her next destination after tonight.

Maya chuckled as she began to make her way out of the room, all she needed to know and do done with. As she did she heard several approaching footsteps. Police. Or maybe something better armed. Whatever the case was, Maya wasn’t concerned in the slightest.

“I hear little piggies~” Maya mused as she turned towards the canisters behind her. Some remain filled, the amount of gas outweighing the medicine present and thus weren’t mixed within them. “Or rather, soon to be little piggies~”

Maya tore the tubes from the still full canisters, allowing the gas to spread out from the room and into the hospital once more. She’d leave no gas container full, instead allowing it to spread further than it had before, perhaps even beyond the hospital.

The effects were immediate thankfully, the screams of any armed forces approaching notifying her of their quickly changing heights. Lucky for her as she was saddened her night was coming to an end. She wished to leave before any armed individuals dropped by, but now she knew her fun could continue a while longer.

Who knows. Perhaps she’ll keep a few as toys before she finds her beloved Six. She wouldn’t search for him right away, needing time to prepare herself in case she need to go about another killing spree. During that time she’d need to train her eyes to see even the smallest of details. She’d need to, if she were to be with one so small.

The world was changing, and Maya was more than glad to be a part of that change. And what better way to watch a new world order take place than by being alongside those you’d kill for.