Lexi's tired eyes fluttered open that fateful Friday afternoon -- well, maybe 10:36 AM-ish. It was one of the better sleeps she had had in a while, after deciding to a take a break from the whole ShrinkGirl thing.
The decision naturally wasn't entirely her choice, as any prolonged use (or any use) of her shrinking powers could have erratic effects so rather than even try, Lexi lived the life of a normal 21 year old girl while working her waitressing job, hanging out with her best friend Leah and Mara and just lazing about a little bit. After all, you're only 21 once ... and in this case, on this particular day, Alexis Cole was no longer 21 years old.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEXI!!" the jubilant voices of her parents arose after noticing she had woken up. Lexi waved shyly and shook her head, unable to speak before Tiny the lovable cat pounced on her mattress. She leaned forward to give the cat an all emcompassing hug.
"You guys are total dorks, you know that?" Lexi replied at last, turning bright red. "But thank you truly"
"Of course!" Lexi's mom replied, seeming happier than she did in ages as her dad joined in on the moment of celebration. "Now hurry downstairs when you're ready, we got you something"
"Is it a cake?" the goofball Lexi asked
"I told you she'd guess..." Lexi's dad sputtered, his hands on his hips with mock disappointment. Lexi giggled and continued snuggling with the bristly furred orange hairball she knew as Tiny.
Not too much time later, Lexi would come down, wearing a relaxed purple tank top with white summer shorts and white sneakers. Underneath the clothes she had on a turquoise bikini top and bottom for her day at the beach which was soon to come but for the time being she was content to spend some time with her parents on the lovely August day.
It was a much needed reprieve from fighting criminals, handling the stress of being a minor "celebrity" and shrinking so small she had to be viewed through a microscope. She knew in the back of her mind the trouble was far from over though and as if to remind her of that, a topic came up briefly in the conversation during the birthday lunch.
"So ... I'm sorry ... you said your car was ... stolen?" Lexi's dad asked
"By a crazy mad scientist..." Lexi sighed, munching on her cake but brushing the occurence off as if it were a normal one.
"Now why'd you have to go ask her that?" Lexi's mom chuckled, "it's her birthday!"
"It's fine, Mom" Lexi said, nodding as she wolfed down a small chunk of cake, "I ... probably should get the car back ... plus the poor girl inside..."
"Girl inside?" Lexi's dad asked
"Hey, you're the one who had to ask..." Lexi's mom groaned, having enjoyed the break from 'ShrinkGirl' talk for the past week.
It wouldn't be long now before Leah would arrive in the "Leah-Mobile" to pick Lexi up for some fun in the sun and while Lexi knew she couldn't avoid her 'supersized' problems forever, she had hoped to get at least one more day of "vacation" before drafting up some kind of plan to save Sugar Rush, her car and possibly more.
____________
Unfortunately, while Lexi was taking her break, plans were being set in motion at the headquarters of the dastardly Dr. Maximillian E Mumford at Enormo Enterprises. Of course this didn't happen without a few hiccups along the way. The first of which was the revelation to the cranky Doctor that about a week prior, Sugar Rush had escaped her containment chamber.
"...what do you mean she ESCAPED?!" Dr. Max shrieked with fury upon finding Dr Giovanni on his knees inspecting the containment chamber and the machinery which housed it. "She's not even THIS big! She couldn't have escaped!"
"I'm sorry, Doctor..." Giovanni lamented, trying his best to recall the disappearance while his voice notably faltered, "It was like, one second she was there ... she threw some kind of smoke bomb ... and then ... she was gone..."
Dr. Max raised an eyebrow at the story while also inspecting the inside of the ravaged containment chamber.
"Yes yes ... I see this blonde bomber made quite the mess in there..." Max sighed, noting all the damaged circuitry, cracked metal and more. "Admittedly we wouldn't have had this problem with the ... ShrinkGirl ... unless of course... it was HER that kidnapped the blonde girl ... but nein ... she would've taken the car too ... so then what GIVES?"
"Doctor Max..." Giovanni said, trying to remain as calm as possible, "I have to say ... I'm a bit ... concerned ... with your fixation on Alexis..."
"My FIXATION? MY FIXATION?!" the Doctor yelled. The cellar of the large manufacturing plant was fairly secluded so while the yells may have reverberated against the metal beams, very few heard or would even explore more of their nature. "This ShrinkGirl is a menace, I assure you! The fact that she turned that nice blonde woman into some kind of tiny maniac who did what she did should be proof of that..."
Giovanni didn't appear so convinced, but he also didn't wish to escalate the situation any further.
"She is MY responsibility..." Max lied, "Her condition is the result of MY lab's experiment gone awry ... therefore any trouble she causes is on MY hands ... the COMPANY'S hands ... you think I LIKE having to do all this? No! I would rather be on the beach sipping cocktails and ..."
Dr. Max paused at that moment.
"Anyway ... it is unfortunate we lost the shrunken girl ..." Maximillian said, although he dared not mention any more about what he had planned for Sugar Rush, had she remained. "But ... we still have the car ... and I noticed you ran a spectromagnetic scan on it not too long ago"
"Oh... oh that..." Dr. Giovanni said, seemingly also caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "I was just ..."
"You were being a forward thinker!" Dr. Max said, giving his colleage a pleased pat on the back, "and that is why it is nice to have you aboard! It is always important to inspect every piece of resource you can and in doing so, you might have found JUST what we needed..."
"I did...?" Giovanni asked, whilst not sounding extremely pleased.
"Yes!! You were right that this car ... this car is not ordinary" Dr. Max said, "I mean besides the SCALE of the car, it is giving off an amazing energy signature... unlike anything I've ever seen ... which is why our next steps will be as follows ... we take the car, we inspect every square inch and salvage anything we can of use"
"...and the rest?" Giovanni asked
"Normally I'd say sell it for scrap but who beside Mattel would want a car that size?" Dr. Max said with a chuckle, before pausing, "...that was supposed to be a JOKE, Dr. Giovanni..."
"Oh.. uh sorry Max... I'm just not used to you ... ever making them" Dr. Giovanni stuttered in surprise as his eyes continued to dart from the car back to Max, attempting to envision whatever his colleague was planning.
One thing was for sure ... Max was dealing with powers he knew very little about and that could only mean horrendous danger...
And so it went ... that next week.
Almost every day seemed to bring new results for Max's fast developing plan.
Day 1 saw him gently pry open the ShrinkMobile's door with a sharp-nosed plier, scanning it closely until he found the source of its power, or at least part of it. Inside the glove compartment were several teeny tiny gems. Each one couldn't have been bigger than a pebble and yet they exuded immense power.
Day 2 saw the Doctor attempting to pair those powerful crystals with his only other source of mystical power, the very symbol of his hated foe, ShrinkGirl and her purple and gold plated medallion. The results of such a test produced a bit more stable of a portal but still nothing lasting.
Day 3 saw the Doctor continue to modify his Maximites, making them bigger and more adpatable to new situations. In fact, the Doctor would spent quite some time on this. After all, he had a deadline to meet.
Day 4, the Doctor would continue a combination of tests on the ShrinkMobile, the portal inducer as well as keep tabs on some people he had surveillance placed on. While one of his surveillance beacons had gone off the grid for good, he was satisfied that its resulting explosion likely took a key player off the board.
Days 5 and 6 would see Dr. Max take a couple days off from the main office at Enormo Enterprises while he brought his work to the Fenster Forest sister location determined to begin construction on ANOTHER portal inducer. After all, for his plan to work he would need not only copious amounts of energy but multiple locations for his machines.
Finally, Day 7 had arrived ... a day the Doctor would refer to simply as ... B-DAY ...
__________________
"Hey hey!" Leah chimed in gleefully as Lexi climbed into her car, "Happy B-Day girl!"
"Thank you, thank you so much!" Lexi giggled, a giant smile on her face, "And thank you so much for doing all this!"
"Uh... duh... you're my best friend, you think we weren't going to celebrate your big 2-2?" Leah teased
"I think the 21st birthday is the big one, isn't it?" Lexi teased
"Eh whatever, let's just go ..." Leah giggled, wearing a vibrant pair of sunglasses with thick red plastic frames and teal tinted lenses while her hair was tied up in a pony tail.
"Those glasses are awesome!" Lexi smirked
"You like them?" Leah quipped, flipping them up for a moment, "They're part of the unofficial Leah summer collection down at the store"
"Oh yeah, you told me you've been kind of taking more control over there" Lexi said with excitement, always admiring the way Leah dressed. Even now, she looked sporty and fashionable with her light orange sundress that came down to her calfs, and at the end of those calfs would be a pair of wedge shaped heels that Lexi couldn't picture wearing herself but her bestie pulled them off nicely as expected. "How's that been going?"
"Honestly? Pretty awesome" Leah giggled, "Always been telling my friends how they should dress, so it's nice to be able to do it for a living"
"Heh, don't remind me..." Lexi teased, "Surprised you haven't given me the rundown on my current outfit"
Leah glanced over as the traffic slowed down and shrugged, "Eh purple's your color, Lex, you know that ... although not so sure about the teal bikini... but hey it's your birthday, you rock it"
"Heh thanks" Lexi said with a smile, just letting her eyes coast off to the side and watch the city as it cruised by.
Try as she might, her mind would still wander to the image of Sugar Rush ... trapped in a cage somewhere at Enormo Enterprises, likely being tortured or hurt or worse... She also wondered about Trevor who she hadn't heard from since everything went down with the drone attack. In fact, nobody had heard from the former Enormo Enterprises engineer for quite some time.
Leah slowly pulled up to the beach which said "RESERVED FOR A PRIVATE EVENT" -- she gave Lexi a smirk as if to flaunt her 'influence' in such a matter but Lexi seemed preoccupied as her brown eyes gazed out at the beautiful coastline as other friends of her were also just arriving a beautifully decorated area with streamers reading "HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEXI"
Leah peered over at Lexi, a bit disappointed to not see more jubilation on her face.
"You okay, Lex?" Leah asked with a frown
"Huh? Yeah ... yeah of course" Lexi smiled and nodded, feeling her bubbliness slowly returning.
"C'mon ... we're going to have some fun, okay?" Leah smiled. Lexi was all too happy to accept that invitation as she stepped out of the car to go walking on the boardwalk which led up to the beach.
Lexi would stroll across the sunburnt sand with her flip flops on, waving to friends and acquaintances she'd known from the past year or longer. One of them that she was pleasantly surprised to see given all the tumultuous things that had happened was her new blonde fangirl, Krystal. She'd quickly hop up to her and give her a big hug.
"Krystal!" Lexi cheered, "so glad you could make it!"
"Heh, you think I was going to miss ShrinkGirl's birthday?" Krystal replied shyly
"You can just call me Lexi, yknow?" Lexi chuckled a bit. Krystal just shrugged
As Lexi continued to socialize, she noticed none other than her friend Chris passing by, restored to full size in a pair of green swim trunks and currently wearing a black t-shirt over that.
"Heyyy" Lexi teased, "look who grew back? See, I told you it would wear ... hey, why the long face?"
"...I had a date with Sara Eckstein that night..." Chris sighed, "and I didn't grow back in time..."
"Oh..." Lexi gulped sheepishly , trying her best to put a positive spin on the situaton but even she was at a loss for words as she incurred her annoyed friends uninspired glare, "She's uh ... she's really pretty"
"...yeah ... I know" Chris grumbled
"I could ... maybe put in a good word for you?" Lexi said with a goofy grin, "see if I can...?"
"Its fine ..." Chris sighed, looking down at the sand, "it just wasn't meant to be ... I probably would've blown it anyway..."
As Chris hobbled off, Lexi did her best to offer some last consoling words but before she could she was hastily tackle hugged by another partygoer, none other than the cute blonde Chrissy.
"Oof!! H-Hey!" Lexi giggled, "glad you could make it!"
"You kidding?" Chrissy chuckled, "I wasn't going to miss this!"
Lexi held her embrace with Chrissy for an extra few moments, just letting out a content sigh. She needed something like this for the longest time. Sure, the hug was nice but it was more just the activity of enjoying some summer fun with friends.
"You ... okay Lex?" Chrissy asked, noting how long Lexi had held the hug.
"Huh? Oh yeah ... I'm just ... really glad to see you" Lexi said, "and even happier to hear that you aren't moving away ... what happened with that anyway?"
"My uh ... dad changed his mind..." Chrissy said, sounding a bit puzzled herself.
"Well whatever happened, I'm glad it did" Lexi giggled, glancing around at the all the work Leah had put into this wonderful beach gathering.
She looked around to see a volleyball net, with participants on either side bopping a ball back and forth. She also took note of the picnic table on the sand, housing a small pile of presents for Lexi herself. She also saw Josh over by a cake, shooing away some seagulls who had seemed eager to sneak a piece.
"Heh ... well it's the thought that counts" Lexi quipped, giving Josh a hug as soon as he turned around. "Thanks for coming, Josh"
"I wasn't going to miss this" Josh smirked, his eyes briefly glancing down at the table with gifts. Most were your traditional rectangular boxes but one stood out like a sore thumb.
Despite the fact that it was wrapped, it was obvious this was no ordinary gift, as it was shaped very similarly to Lexi's wrist gauntlets except it seemed a bit sleeker and longer. The wrapping paper did very little to conceal its shape as it was clumsily taped along the jagged edges. Lexi gave Josh a sheepish grin of her own upon seeing this.
"For me?" Lexi smirked, picking up one of the thinly veiled presents, she turned it to the side and gave Josh a grateful look before asking, "..do you mind if I...?"
"Oh... oh sure!" Josh said with a blush, "I'm not sure ... how much you're going to like it though ... given that ..."
Leah happened to be glancing over at Josh and Lexi's interaction and scooted over towards the picnic table herself to watch Lexi opening the gift.
"Oh, she's opening it now?" Leah asked, "this is so cool!"
Lexi grinned brightly as her two friends hung over her carefully tearing the makeshift wrapping paper to reveal what she already suspected. A new set of wrist gauntlets, but these seemed to be quite a bit enhanced. They felt more lightweight and had more of a curve to them so they'd be more comfortable to wear.
"Check out the inside..." Josh said
Lexi turned the gauntlet towards her so she could see the curved inside and notice an etching on the metallic surface. It was hard to see except in the right light but it was engraved with 3 signatures and a message.
"To our badass little heroine -- love Josh, Leah & Mara"
Lexi set the gauntlets carefully down and hugged Josh so tight, even giving him a little kiss on the cheek, to which he blushed bright red.
"I love it Josh, thank you so much!" Lexi smiled, turning and hugging Leah as well.
Mara came traipsing over at that point and she had a "guest" flapping its fiery wings behind her.
"...Mara brought the phoenix?" Lexi asked, half surprised but also not extremely so.
"...I tried to tell her not to, trust me" Leah replied wth an eyeroll as the red haired elf and her trusty fiery companion came on by to greet Lexi.
Lexi just shrugged and chuckled, giving Mara a hug and patting her back.
"Thanks for coming, Big Red" Lexi said with a smile
"No doubt" Mara smirked, noticing that Lexi had already opened the impressive wrist gauntlets that Josh had modified, "Oh I see you already got your gift ... well one of them ... what I got you is nothing special"
"I'm sure it's fine" Lexi smiled, "you guys didn't have to go to all this trouble, yknow..."
Out of the corner of her eye, Lexi spotted a wayward volleyball that threatened the livelihood of her birthday cake. She lunged forward just enough to deflect the projectile harmlessly onto the sand, sending some hungry seagulls scattering in the process.
"Sorry!" the sender of said ball announced, none other than Will from work.
"How many people did you invite?" Lexi teased Leah
"Eh just a few" Leah said with a shrug
Lexi took a moment to inspect the wrist gauntlets a bit more while her friends continued to socialize. She noticed a couple of other differences, such as little levers on the inside and indentations for her fingers to slip into.
"So ... these are pretty cool..." Josh said, attempting to explain the modifications, "There are a number of features that should help you fight Max and his robots..."
Leah gave Josh a bit of a harsh "ahem" to interuppt him, causing Josh to frown a bit, his shoulders sulking now.
"Oh ... well I mean ... IF you ... yeah..." Josh said with a sad grumble, "I designed these before ... well, everything happened with you ... and your ... yknow ... powers"
Lexi shrugged, giving Josh another hug.
"Even if I just mount them on a mantle somewhere, it's an amazing gift... and I really love it... thank you again" Lexi said with a grin.
Lexi was about to take a step towards the volleyball game when she felt her phone vibrate. She looked down curiously, eyes widening.
"Lexi?" Leah asked, "what's wrong?"
"It's Trevor!" Lexi said, rushing to answer the phone. Josh and Leah instantly leaned forward with anticipation as Lexi put the call on speakerphone.
"Lexi?" Trevor asked, his voice a bit garbled on the other end of the line which could be a result of the beach and its poor cell phone reception.
"Holy cripe, are you okay Trevor?" Lexi asked, "where have you been?"
"I'm okay" Trevor said, "I fled to upstate ... after the drone attack, I couldn't take any chances ... I apologize for falling off the grid ... but..."
"But?" Lexi asked, concerned for whatever the Doctor was going to say next.
"...never mind" Trevor sighed, "I just wanted to ... wish you a Happy Birthday, Lexi"
Lexi blushed a bit and nodded.
"Th-Thank you Trevor" Lexi replied, "But what about ...?"
"There'll be another time to talk about ... everything else" Trevor said, "Have your powers been stable?"
"Yes" Lexi said, "But you should know that Aeris ..."
"I know" Trevor said with a sigh, "Again ... we can talk about it another time ... I should be back in the city next week and ... what's that noise?"
What WAS that noise?
It sounded as if a small armada of helicopters were suddenly circling the beach. Unfortunately, that would've been a welcome distraction compared to what was really happening. Lexi and her group of friends looked up with fear as a cluster of shadows cast themselves over the sandy surface.
"I'm ... going to have to call you back..." Lexi sighed, sliding the cell phone onto the picnic table as she hung up the phone call.
Descending on the birthday party were about a half dozen robots with whirring propeller blades. A couple of such robots had large turbine like fans on their shoulders, blowing the volleyball net to a point that rendered it almost unusable. Chris, already familiar with the situation took a defensive step back, waving off the others and trying to get them to safety.
As if that weren't enough a few of Max's box-like drones landed on the beach but these were different entirely, as small crab-like legs extended from their inner chasis and they began to surround the party, their razor sharp anchor like claws allowing them to tread along the sand fairly easily. Lexi reached over instinctively for the wrist gauntlets and strapped them on, much to the shagrin of Lexi's best friend, Leah Henderson.
"Lexi, what are you doing?!" Leah said in a panic.
"I can't let these things hurt anyone!" Lexi said, bearing her fists and standing in a defensive position.
One large robot seemed to be leading the rest and its triangular metallic feet touched down on the beach, blades extending from its shoulders as the faceless head of the creature opened up like a refridgerator to reveal a staticy monitor displaying the face of her arch nemesis, Dr. Maximillian E Mumford.
"Happy Birthday, Fraulein Alexis!" Dr. Max chuckled maniacally, "I hope you didnt think I'd forget!"
Lexi stared down at the robot, also all too aware of the crab-like robots as they seemed to close in on her, snapping their claws menacingly.
Chris jumped to the forefront, conjuring up small bursts of fire from his fingertips and launching them at the crab robots. The fire would strike each one and render it immobilized but not for long as the liquid metal composition seemed to reform as quickly as it collapsed.
"Make this easy on yourself, Alexis!" Max announced through the robotic sounding PA of his machine, "turn yourself in and this all ends!"
Lexi frowned, almost considering the proposition if it meant nobody else got hurt.
She watched as the crab robots seemed to be closing in. Lexi was stunned and paralyzed with indecision. Normally she would shrink and try to fight them off that way but she knew that could be a risky idea. She watched as the robots drew closer and closer. While they were only a tad bigger than the size of an actual hermit crab, they would do some serious damage if they swarmed Lexi.
"Lexi, what are you doing?" Chris yelped, shooting some electric bolts at the creatures to deter them. Lexi backed away nervously, falling on the sand.
"Hey, careful!" Leah snapped at Chris, "She can't handle electricity... if she gets shocked ... well..."
Leah gulped, realizing she had said that out loud. Max's face on the monitor suddenly contorted into an ominous grin, as the blades retracted and now a set of electrified tentacles extended from the robot instead, whipping around wildly.
Lexi let out a helpless gulp as the electrified lassos came at her with rapid speed. She performed a backflip onto the picnic table, careful not to land her feet on her own birthday cake but it wouldn't matter as one of the snaky tentacles flipped the table entirely, sending Lexi onto her back, rolling out of the way to avoid being crushed by the table.
"What the hell do we do?" Leah asked in panic as the crab robots seemed to be circling her and Chris now.
"Stay out of the way ..." Max threatened Leah and Chris as his robot took slow thudding steps towards Lexi, "and I won't have to hurt you ..."
"Get bent" Chris said, throwing a charged blast of fire at Max's robot. The strike was successful in hitting the robots chest but it only left the outer metal charred a bit. The robot continued on its path unimpeded even as the elemental wizard futilely threw whatever he could at it.
"I have to say, that IS rather impressive" Leah quipped, "you ever get any ladies with that?"
"You know ... I never really tried" Chris shrugged.
Lexi continued to run, looking up to see a couple of drones rising up above her. She'd notice the front of the drones opening up and a couple of gun turrets becoming exposed. Lexi raised her gauntlets, screaming a bit as a myriad of bullets struck the metal. She dove out of the way and kept on running.
"Hey numb nuts!" Chris said, still giving chase to Max's robot, picking up a rock he found in the sand and throwing it at the head. "What good is Lexi to you if she's DEAD?"
"Stay out of this, foolish boy!" Max sneered, the electrical tentacles snaking backwards and snapping at Chris who backed away in the nick of time.
Leah could only watch helplessly as Lexi was cornered by a boardwalk, doing her best to stay away from the encroaching crab robots, aerial drones and Max's sentinel robot as it approached, all of them a threat to her as the claws of each crab robot began to charge a sizable amount of electricity.
Chris focused for the time being on getting the other party goers to safety while Leah looked around for anything to possibly help Lexi, only finding a parasol buried in the sand. She sighed and picked it up, running over to aide her best friend, only to get thwacked by one of Max's rope like tentacles. She yelped and dropped the parasol in the sand, causing Lexi to scream out in anguish as she watched Leah fall to the sand with a scar on her face.
"LEAH!!" Lexi yelped
"I told her to stay out of the way ...." Max said, with his usual indifferent tone. Lexi just bared her eyes with anger. "Now then ... will you come quietly ... or?"
Lexi glared at the dastardly scientist as he took a few more forceful steps forward.
"Have it your way ..." Max shrugged, suddenly turning one of the arms of his robot into a buzzsaw, which he pointed down towards Leah.
"No! No no no no!!" Lexi said, shaking her head, "I'll go! I'll go with you! Please ... don't hurt her! Please Please!!"
Max smirked, turning the buzz saw off and retracting it back into the robot.
"That's a good girl..." Max smirked
Lexi sighed, feeling defeated as she hopped down from the railing of the boardwalk and began to slowly walk towards Max's robot. She was wary of what the mad scientist had up his sleeve though and noticed the crackling electrified tentacles still weren't completely stationary.
Max seemed to be waiting for the right time to strike, and Lexi -- anticipating this, grabbed hold of the parasol that Leah felt for her.
Max shook his head and rolled his eyes.
"Wrong move, Fraulein!" Max shouted, snapping 3 of the electrical tentacles her way. Lexi hastily threw up the parasol, unfolding it like a shield only for it to get charred in a hurry but she was safe for the time being. She looked down at Leah with a frown, noticing that she was conscious but not in great shape.
Max's robot took another thundering step towards the two girls, only to be interuppted by another blast of fire, but this time from Penelope the phoenix, as Mara rode the bird as if leading a dragon to a medieval style adventure.
"Leave her alone, asshole!" Mara snapped, blasting the robot as hard as Penelope's flame powers would allow her. The robots face closed long enough to shield the monitor from being damaged as Lexi helped Leah up.
"Leah are you okay?" Lexi asked, letting Leah shoulder her weight onto her as the two hobbled towards safety. Leah gave Lexi a weary thumbs up.
"Always happy to take one for the team..." Leah sighed, nodding as she soon regained more ability to walk on her own. Lexi frowned as she watched Mara and her phoenix do battle with Max's large mech.
"I can't let her fight that alone!" Lexi said, getting Leah over to Chris.
"But Lex, you can't shrink ..." Leah said
"Maybe I don't need to ..." Lexi said, exploring some of the options on her new wrist gauntlets.
"Lex!" Josh said, "try squeezing the trigger on the inside"
Lexi nodded, watching as small but sharp purple and gold wolverine like claws covered her fingernails. She smirked a bit.
"This could work!" Lexi smirked, leaping into battle. Leah looked on with concern, hoping her hapless best friend knew what was doing here.
Mara hopped off of Penelope and grew back to her normal size.
"I don't know who you are ..." Max said, "and frankly I don't care ..."
"Awww, well the feeling's mutual, science nerd" Mara smirked
Max simply pressed some buttons on his end to activate a series of homing missiles which fired off from the backside of the robot. Mara yelped, shrinking herself at the last minute and trying to run between the blasts, making herself small enough to not be an easy target now. Lexi ran by and scooped up the tiny elf, smirking down at her.
"Need a hand?" Lexi grinned
"My hero..." Mara swooned.
Lexi nodded, gently setting Mara down on the sand and allowing her to grow back.
"At least ONE of us can still use shrink powers" Lexi shrugged
"Is this whole world crazy?!" Max snapped, "first the fairies ... now ... THIS ... what is going on here?"
"Fairies...?" Lexi thought to herself, "how did Max know about the fairies...?"
It was then she remembered that fateful night at the fairy colony when Max's drones attacked, although they seemed rather inert, aside from defending themselves once Lexi and her batallion took action. There had to be some kind of reason why Max wanted to know more about fairykind, and size changing in general.
"No matter!" Max snapped, swinging the powerful electrical tentacles like a jump rope at the two ladies who narrowly avoided being hit, "I can assure you, this is the last birthday you will EVER have!!"
"You talk too much!" Mara snapped, teleporting herself onto the head of the robot as she tried to somehow punch at it or loosen some of the wiring. Unfortunately her usual luck was unsuccessful and she was grabbed harshly by a robot arm and thrown to the sand.
"MARA!!" Lexi snapped, charging towards Max's robot with little regard for her own safety. Leah and the others could only look on in suspense as she took a flying leap towards the mech.
Max was quick to attack but Lexi was just a bit quicker, throwing up her new enhanced wrist gauntlets just as Max's electrical tentacles made contact with them. Unfortunately for Lexi though, metal was a superior conductor of electricity and while they were somewhat shock absorbant, Lexi had no choice but to stand her ground as she felt what seemed to be an unimaginable surge of voltage course through her.
On the other end, Max wasn't content simply to stun Lexi with some electrical blasts. He seemed hellbent on setting his mech to kill, turning up the power as high as he could even at the expense of the robots main power sources.
Lexi let out pained breaths as she tried to hold the fort, a tense tug of war emerging from the incursion. Lexi began to step forward, electricity crackling through her and the gauntlets, scattering dangerous bolts of lightning as she drew closer and closer towards Max.
Maxmillian couldn't believe what he was seeing and he set his robots shock thrusters even higher, trying to overload Lexi's body but in the process he wasn't doing himself any favors either as the large mech began to spark and crackle from the inside. Lexi was in pain but she grinned nonetheless. The new gauntlets were definitely absorbing more electricity to ensure she didn't get barbecued and while she wasn't sure how much longer they would hold, she continued to walk closer to the imposing mech, suddenly having the advantage as she let out one last cry, ripping her hands apart from their current closed stance and sending several volts of high energy electricity back at its source.
Max's mighty mech was equipped to handle SOME of this damage but the unthinkable happened as the robot was fried from the inside out, a victim of its own high voltage whch Lexi had deflected, at the cost of her own body as she was sent thrown back into the sand, the gauntlets taking the brunt of it but she wasn't immune either, sparking and writhing a bit, sending painful flashbacks into her friends minds of the tazering incident from Aeris at the lab.
Max slammed his fist down in frustration back at his console as he watched his screens go black. He had lost the battle and control of his other drones which shut down and collapsed uselessly onto the sand. The mad doctor at that moment simply continued to be mad as his head rest on the console, wondering where he had gone wrong.
Meanwhile Lexi's friends quickly hurried to the sand to find the superheroine twitching a bit. Leah was the first to help her up, brushing some sand off her brusied body. She noticed Lexi's hair was doing that thing again where it stood up on end but other than that, she surprisingly seemed fine.
"Lex?" Leah said, "Please tell me you're okay ..."
"I ... I am ..." Lexi said with a sigh, "Josh, whatever you made these gauntlets out of or whatever ... may have saved my life ..."
"Well they do have some extra protection against electrical attacks" Josh said, "Although I honestly didn't think they could take all that"
"Maybe there's just a science to how badass Lexi is" Mara quipped, patting her friend on the back, "seriously though, are you okay?"
Lexi nodded, "I am ... and you know what's kind of weird? I actually feel ... okay... like I feel like I'm in control of my powers again..."
"Are you sure about that?" Leah cautioned.
"Well, I can't say for sure" Lexi said, "but I no longer feel those weird tingly feelings despite taking that huge electrical shock"
"I suppose it IS possible..." Josh postulated, "that getting that supercharge from Max's machine actually set your polarity BACK to normal a bit"
"Heh, you mean Max actually HELPED me?" Lexi asked with a grin.
"It would appear so" Josh shrugged "At least in the short term..."
Lexi sighed, slowly unstrapping the wrist gauntlets and setting them down.
"So ... does this mean ShrinkGirl is back?" Josh asked
"I'd say she never left" Lexi shrugged, "And with friends like you guys ... well, I'd say we're all pretty damn heroic"
"Oh gag" Leah giggled, "when do we get to the cake?"
Lexi frowned a bit, motioning over to the overturned picnic table and the now ruined cake.
"...well, there IS a bakery down the road..." Leah giggled
"Heh don't worry about it" Lexi said, "this has been the perfect birthday already"
Leah nodded and tried to force a smile but Lexi always knew better when it came to Leah's emotions. She could see an unfortunate frown trying to break through.
"You okay, Lee?" Lexi asked
"It's just ..." Leah shrugged, "this has been great ... it really has ... I just ... I don't know ... it's kinda too bad you and I couldn't do something fun ... like just the two of us ... just like old times..."
"Well... the day's still young" Lexi giggled "What did you have in mind?"
Leah gave her shrinking capable best friend a mischevious grin. Lexi gulped a bit
_____________
Later that night at Leah's place, the two girls decided to do what they set out to do. Spend some quality alone time together. Although this wasn't exactly Lexi's finest moment.
"Leah....?" Lexi sighed, "are you SURE there's not something ELSE we could do?"
"Awwww c'mon ... you promised..." Leah pouted
"Okay okay .. let's just get this over with ..." Lexi sighed, currently tucked behind what appeared to be a curtain.
"And... sporting this summer's newest fashion ..." Leah giggled, taking on the voice of an announcer as she looked down at a doll sized runway with a napkin over a part of it to simulate the curtain, "...it's Alexis Cole..."
Lexi came out begrudgingly wearing a doll sized sundress as Leah hit "play" on a boombox blasting some fashion show music.
"C'mon Lex!" Leah teased her tiny best friend, "Strut! Show your stuff!"
Lexi rolled her eyes, turning to the side with a hand on her hip and winking.
"Thatta girl, you're fierce, you're a tiger!" Leah teased, making her hands behave like cat claws
"Funny... I feel more like a kitten at this point" Lexi squeaked
"C'mon, more strutting" Leah teased.
Lexi rolled her eyes and had to giggle just a bit.
"I'm just glad your dad and brother aren't home..." Lexi squeaked, "...where are they anyway?"
"Derek's over his girlfriend's and dad? I'm not sure ... he's been working a lot of late hours at Enormo..." Leah frowned
Lexi frowned a bit as well, but only for a moment before humoring Leah some more with the tiny fashion show.
__________________
The twilight hours were upon Enormo Enterprises but it seemed nobody ever got a break, including one weary accountant by the name of Dave Henderson who was about to go home for the night before finding yet another anomoly in the budget for the company. It was getting harder and harder by the day to justify some of the expenses he had to either write off or come up with some kind of crazy explanation for in case there were ever an audit.
Still, as he searched through expense reports, he saw a label that seemed a bit more specific, if not a bit vague. He leaned in to have a closer look.
"What is ... Project Epsilon?" the confused accountant asked.
Too tired to question any more, the weary man would turn off the lights and head down the hall for the exits, only briefly aware that at least one light was still on in an office down the hall, but he dare not bring the accounting incident up to Dr. Max at this hour. It was something that could wait until the next fiscal meeting.
Inside the office, Dr. Max was focused on his grand plans, watching in glee as he gazed at a series of cameras including construction going underway at a few different locations.
Everything was finally clicking into place, and despite his loss to Lexi (yet again) he still had plenty of tricks up his sleeve.
"...do you think Lexi had a nice birthday?" a voice asked, which Max could hear while watching the surveillance feed from his second monitoring device.
"I'd say so" another voice answered, this one a male. "She seemed pretty tired out when she got home though"
"I'm just glad she was able to relax for a while..." the maternal sounding woman said, "she really deserved a break"
Max simply grinned maliciously as he watched the scene play out from a camera implanted in the cell phone of Mr. Cole.
"Hehehe ... one down ... one to go ..." Max chuckled.
Giantess World
