"Ugh, Mara ... c'mon you CAN'T wear that!" a stunned but amused Leah Henderson said while holding in laughter, watching her red haired and rumbunctious friend holding a bikini top up to her bust.
The bikini top was white with red circles resembling a bulls eye. One cup said "HONK" and the other said "HERE". Mara giggled like a schoolgirl as she let it hang on its metal stud again with a sheepish shrug.
"C'mon, it's funny ..." Mara giggled, "plus since I work here, I get my 20% discount..."
"Yeah, about that ..." another employee grumbled, taking the wrongly misplaced bikini top from the shelf and hanging it where it was suppose to go, in the novelty bikini section. "...you're fired"
"What? Again? Why?" Mara asked, half miffed but mostly just curious.
"You've missed like 8 of your last 10 shifts ... including today! Right now! You're supposed to be working!" the disgruntled young Spencer's Gifts employee with the name tag "Erik" said, "turn in your stuff by the end of the day ... or don't... I don't care..."
As Erik walked off mumbling obscenities, Mara simply gave Leah a confused look
"What was that guy's problem?" she asked, "...well guess I have more free time for the party then..."
Leah simply stifled a giggle as the girls proceeded out of the store, resorting to her cell phone upon feeling it vibrate.
"Ooh a text from Chrissy!" she said excitedly, "sweet, she can come to the party too!"
"Wasn't she moving soon?" Mara asked
"That's what I thought ... I'll ask her but maybe it's not til later in the summer??" Leah replied, a bit preoccupied with her other party plans.
This year, Leah Henderson had gone all out to prepare a birthday event for her friend Lexi that was befitting of the lady's stature ... well, relatively speaking. She had even gone so far to pull some strings with the owner of Balthazaar Beach, a private beach on the edge of town that had a beautiful view of the water. Thanks to Josh's help, she was able to rent out the whole beach for Lexi's birthday afternoon which was fast approaching.
"Lexi and I haven't been to Balthazaar's in years! She's going to be super surprised and it'll be a great time for us to relax and chill and ..." Leah continued to explain her motives, all the while watching Mara nodding in anticipation, sensing her incoming remark, "and yes Mara, a chance for you to wear a skimpy bikini..."
"Psh, it's not always about that ... okay maybe it is..." Mara giggled, "Hey, can Penelope come?"
"Penelope...." Leah said, in the same sort of monotone voice she always did when the creature was referenced, "Penelope, your fire breathing, made of fire, firebird phoenix?"
"That's the one!" Mara giggled, pulling out her phone and scrolling through pictures of Penelope including a few selfies.
Leah finally relented and nodded, "Sure, why not?"
"Hell yeah!" the bubbly elf retorted with a fist pump, "So who all is coming? You, me, Josh...?"
"Yup, and Chris ... I tried to get the fairy sisters ... and Mark..." Leah said, "but they seem to be preoccupied with something ... and apparently Chrissy too ... oh! Speaking of ..."
Leah casually checked her phone, a bit surprised to read the news.
"Huh. Apparently she ISN'T moving?" Leah said, confused.
"Huh. Guess we had that going away party for nothing then ..." Mara shrugged, "although it was pretty bangin'"
"...Lexi got shrunk and kidnapped ... and Chrissy got assaulted" Leah said with a dissapointed frown.
"...oh right"
____________________
Speaking of Lexi, she was finally out of what felt like the world's longest day of work and still had one more stop to make ... an emergency therapist appointment with Dr. Sheila Hillenbrandt but she decided to take a quick detour to 'Aztek Parts and More' to see Trevor Hilfmann.
Her symptoms were, for the time, dormant as she tried to be careful not to touch anything metallic. She was beginning to see the correlation between weird electrical charges and her body size changing, even if it wasn't always consistent.
Lexi walked into the store, expecting to see the usual smattering of customers and Trevor himself manning the desk ; either that or one of the young ones he hired that never lasted long.
Instead she saw the store was more or less deserted with a sign up on the counter that said "Please Ring Bell for Assistance"
Rather than do that however, Lexi peered back as far as she could to see none other than the blue haired woman from the restaurant, hunched over at a computer in Trevor's workshop. At least that's what she was able to make out from her current vantage point.
Lexi leaned her head up, trying to get a better view before she finally decided to ring the bell, tapping it like a cat afraid to get their fur wet whilst she feared any repurcussions of hitting the metallic bell.
DIIIIING
Lexi let out an exhale of relief. She hadn't shrunk ... yet.
Trevor noticed Lexi and seemed suspicious as he made his way to the main counter to help his "customer". While Trevor excused himself, it was the young woman Aeris who also flashed a suspicious look -- one that was thankfully unnoticed to all as she briefly swiped her hand underneath the computer desk she was working on.
"Hey Doc..." Lexi said, trying to act as casual as possible, while still peering in, "Wh-What uh ... what's with big blue over there?"
"Oh well ..." Trevor said, the guilty look not leaving his face, "she's here ... uh ... I think I mentioned the young woman I was having fix my computer systems?"
"Yeah ... she just removed a virus or something?" Lexi asked, honestly not in the best frame of mind to try to deduce anything. To her, all computer issues just sounded like "Virus".
"Something like that" Trevor sighed, "....well, I decided to bring her in more full time, at least to shore up my security systems..."
"Cameras out back go on the fritz or something?" Lexi asked
"Something like that ...." Trevor sighed, "There was a ... break-in last night, or at least an attempt..."
"Shit, for real?" Lexi said, looking concerned immediately as she put each hand on the glass counter seperating her and the former Enormo Doctor, "Any idea on who?"
"Actually, I know exactly who ..." Trevor sighed, beckoning Lexi to come join him behind the counter, "...I probably shouldn't say but ..."
"But you've already started to ..." Lexi said, in an almost smug tone, feeling akin to a detective getting closer to solving a big case.
"Well ...." Trevor sighed, passing by the room Aeris was working in and giving her a friendly nod as she continued typing away.
Lexi's eyes passed by the room, which was windowed off, and briefly made contact with Aeris' -- their exchange feeling fairly hostile and charged, despite not lasting more than a couple seconds.
Maybe it was the icy blue stare or the demeanor of the woman as she mechanically worked on her task but something about her didn't sit right with Alexis Cole.
"...you sure you can trust her, doc?" Lexi asked in a bit of a dull whisper while Trevor took the young superheroine into a dark room where his security footage lived.
"Look..." Trevor sighed, "If I've learned anything in the past year and change, it's not to trust anyone ... I mean for that matter, I've been keeping tabs on operatings over at Enormo and ... well..."
"...Mad Max up to something big?" Lexi asked, raising an eyebrow.
"...Maxmillian..." Trevor said, correcting her as if still owing the crumudgeon any respect from their past days working today, "has been fairly quiet"
"That's ... good... right?" Lexi asked, the momentary chat about her adversary strangely taking her mind off her otherwise mounting anxiety.
"You would think so... but not exactly..." Trevor lamented, rewinding through some security footage to show Lexi. "It's not confirmed but from my connections on the inside..."
"Wait wait ..." Lexi said, shaking her head for yet another moment, "you have connections on the inside?"
"...I ... stay in touch here and there ..." Trevor confirmed, "I'm careful to stay away from Dr. Mumford but there are signs that Enormo's Engineering department is working on something big and keeping it under wraps ... seems a lot of research dollars have been diverted to their sister location that was built in the Fenster Forest region..."
"And this is all stuff you're just NOW telling me?" Lexi asked, seemingly upset.
"Well ... given everything you're going through and how unadvisable it would be to use your powers right now ..." Trevor said with a stern tone of voice, "I didn't see it helpful to inform you"
Lexi nodded, looking a bit apologetic.
"R-Right ... sorry ... tough day ..." Lexi sighed
"Which is why I REALLY didn't want to show you this..." Trevor continued, exhaling as he shook his head, finally pinpointing the security footage that confirmed the attempted break-in from just the prior evening. "The camera was completely short-circuited but not before it captured this footage and sent it to me through the cloud ... some criminals are just careless..."
Lexi paused and narrowed her eyes at the blurry image of the woman on screen as it almost appeared she was locking eyes with the viewer.
"Yeah ... and she's one of them ... except she's not careless ... she's just reckless..." Lexi scowled, as if directly challenging the face on screen, "that's Roxie ..."
"Yeah" Trevor said, nodding, "A quick cross-reference with police records showed me that but the weird thing is ... even though she's armed here, she didn't shoot the camera ... in fact the security camera itself is structurally sound, however all jammed up with ... what appears to be ... bubble gum..."
"Bubble gum?" Lexi asked, before again pausing, her heart almost stopping for just a second. "...no. C-Can you pause that footage for just a second?"
"Ummm sure" Trevor said, leaning in a bit to study the footage but Lexi was a bit more keen to notice something ; namely a slight shinyness from behind Roxie's shoulder that couldn't be accounted for by anything else. "Oh... oh I see that too... is she carrying a weapon or something?"
"No." Lexi said, shaking her head as her stress began to return as soon as it had taken a break. "Zoom in, please"
A closer look at the footage revealed the silvery shine was actually a reflection of light off one of Sugar's mechanical wings on her suit.
"...Sugar Rush" Lexi sighed with a groan.
Trevor instantly turned off the monitor at this point.
"Look... Lexi ..." Trevor said, shaking his head, "This is why I didn't want to bring you in on this ... no offense ... you're amazing at what you do ... heck, more amazing than people who have been doing similar for all their lives but ... you need to take care of yourself ... you know? Have you given any further thought to the course of treatment we discussed?"
Lexi nodded, holding her aching head for a moment.
"Y-Yeah ... I ... I think I need more time..." Lexi said, before reluctantly showing herself out of the office, her mind swirling with thoughts.
"W-Wait, where are you ...?"
"I gotta go ... I have an appointment to keep..." Lexi sighed, doing her best not to make eye contact again with the off-putting Aeris in the other room as she made her way out, her steps forming a bee-line to her car.
Roxie being on the loose again wasn't exactly a huge shock to Lexi but seeing Sugar Rush gave her uneasy feelings of the last and only time they encountered each other. The combination of the two was probably up to something unthinkably diabolical...
_______________________
"Got any 2s?" a non-chalant Roxie Wright would ask her houseguest while leaning a single boot on a coffee table, holding a set of cards towards her upper left shoulder. After a long silence, Roxie would peek her head over her boot to have a better look at her "opponent", the diminuitive Sugar Rush who sat cross-legged on the table's opposite side with the comparatively life-sized cards propped up in a way for her to see them. "See hon, this is where you're supposed to either say yes or go fish..."
"I KNOW how GO FISH works!!" Sugar snapped, standing up only to quickly find that standing wasn't even sufficient to get the giant Roxie's attention. She'd come out from behind the cards as if they were a changing screen, looking increasingly frustrated, "I just highly doubt you broke me out of prison so that we could play cards!"
"Eh, I'm an enigma..." Roxie shrugged, reaching over and plucking up a lime green bottle of Rolling Rock and swigging some down before shaking the bottle teasingly over Rush, "you want some? I mean ... I'm guessing it doesn't take much to get you loaded since you're ... you know ... s-sorry"
Sugar Rush gave her a dead serious death stare before sighing and going back behind the cards, trying to maintain some sense of dignity.
"Just ... why did you bother bringing me here, Roxie?" Sugar asked, a sense of anger and confusion in her voice.
"Can't a girl just ... do another girl a solid?" Roxie asked, setting the beer bottle back down.
"No. Not you ...you're not like other girls..." Rush said in a dejected way, as she caught the striking image of Roxie's German Shepherd dog "Woof" coming up to greet her in her periphery, "there's gotta be something in it for you ... and ... holy fuck Roxie, can you keep this monster away from me please?"
"Awwww, Woof's just saying hi!" Roxie cooed, vacating her seat to fall on a knee and begin massaging her pup lovingly under the chin, "Isn't that right, Woof? Yeah!! That's right!"
"Well the fucking thing's the size of a giraffe to me... just ... please..." Rush said, a sincere tone of fear in her voice as she huddled closer to the cards at the sight of Roxie cuddling the uncharacteristically docile Schaferhund.
"Okay ... okay ..." Roxie said, her face showing a rare appearance of regret as she pat Woof on the side and gently beckoned him away, "but really, you have nothing to be afraid ..."
Just then came a strange doorbell like noise that caused Roxie to almost jump.
"What the fuck was that?!" Roxie yelped, reaching under her coffee table and seizing one of her guns. Turns out she had about 50 in the living room alone.
"That ... was the doorbell..." Sugar said, looking up at Roxie confused. Why would a master criminal be afraid of such a simple noise?
"I have a doorbell? Since when?!" Roxie snorted, standing up to answer it while also sliding the gun into her back pocket, "you stay here in case this gets ugly..."
"Great..." Rush sighed sarcastically, "...anything goes down I can throw a couple playing cards at them..."
And so Roxie would go towards her door, the path somewhat impeded by various litter and her walkway towards said door not exactly stealthy as the questionably sound wood floors creaked under her boots.
Roxie would take a peek through a small glass peep-hole (something she also wasn't familiar with as she didn't exactly get a lot of visitors to her unlisted address) and be rudely greeted with a familiar but unwelcome face.
"Oh fuck, it's you" Roxie said, sighing as she kept the gun perched in her back pocket but reluctantly opened the door, or tried to anyway, a golden chain keeping it bolted so that it wouldn't fully open but it did open enough so the encroaching gentleman could peek inside.
That encroaching gentleman would of course be none other than Byron Biggs.
"Sorry didn't realize you were coming, or I would've trashed the place some more..." Roxie scoffed, then peeking around the man's shoulder, as best she could to spy one other gangly looking man with him. "Oh and you brought company ... lovely.... ever heard of calling first?"
"Ever heard of paying rent?" Byron retorted. "I allow you to live here rent free AND heat free in case you hadn't noticed"
"Oh I HAVE noticed..." Roxie shrugged, "gets fucking chilly here in the winter..."
"I meant 'heat' as in ... you know what I meant" Byron sighed, not at all in the mood for Roxie's ridiculous games. "...where is the package?"
"Is that anyway to say hello?" Roxie asked, "No 'how was your day Roxie?' 'How are the kids, Roxie?'"
"...you have no kids" Byron groaned
"And see, you know that ..." Roxie said with a playful nod, "And how do you know that? Because we got to know each other..."
"She's stalling for time, boss, she's hiding something..." the other accomplice on the opposite end of the door said
"Geez, where'd you find this one? An extra from Generic Gangster Movie #6?" Roxie chuckled, while out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a more pressing conflict taking place ... namely Woof eyeing her "houseguest" as a table scrap. That might not end well.
"Roxie ... just tell me you have her ... and get her to me so we can move on with this ..." Byron said while Roxie seemed strangely unfocused in the moment, her eyes darting back and forth.
"Hold on ... ONE second ..." Roxie said with a nervous chuckle, slamming the door hastily and making sure the bolt was extra tightened.
In the short time she had, she would swiftly approach the table to find Woof looming over Sugar Rush like a hellhound, teeth bared as he barked ferociously a few times and Rush fell onto her backside, shaking her head and scooting back. Roxie sighed, as the gangsters on the other side of the door only heard "Bad dog! Bad!"
Roxie came back to the door just a couple moments later, grinning ear to ear.
"Sorry ... dogs, amirite?" Roxie chuckled, "You got a couple pets at home, dontcha sir?"
"...I hate animals..." the fatigued Byron Biggs replied
"...no surprise there...." Roxie groaned under her breath, "ANYWAYS ... if I find her, I'll let ya know, okay?"
With that Roxie made every effort to pry the door shut all while Byron and his accomplice continued to harrass her and bang on it further.
"C'mon, we know you have her!! We sent you there to...."
"La la la la ... can't hear ya!!" Roxie sighed, walking away with a total look of annoyance. "Auf wiedersehen or some bullshit ... happy trails ... til next we meet ..."
Roxie's next words would be droned out by the sound of annoyingly loud death metal that she'd put on to silence any further yells by Byron Biggs and his predictable goon who would eventually relent.
"Ugh... let's just go ..." Byron sighed
"Come on ... she's obviously got her..." the other cohort chimed in.
"I'm wise to that ... but I've got my daughter in the car ... can't stay long..." Byron replied, "besides, she'll get sloppy at some point, she always does..."
After a period of waiting, Roxie leaned out the shot up window of her apartment, watching Byron's car pull away from the apartment complex that had a big "BIGGS REAL ESTATE" sign out in front. She sighed as she carefully slipped the secured Sugar Rush from her tight jeans pocket.
"Sorry about that..." Roxie giggled, a bright grin on her face, "I thought they'd NEVER leave ... now ... where were we? I think it was your turn..."
"Roxie..." Sugar squeaked, a bit upset, "what did they mean by the package?"
"The package...?" Roxie said, rolling her eyes, "You know those gangster types, always wanting their money or ... packages or ... oh you know what, I think I owe Pyro Pete a box of smokes ... as if that's what he needs right now is more smoke, amirite?"
"Roxie ... I heard them say 'her' ..." Rush said, "they're looking for a person"
"No ... no ... they definitely said 'it' ..." Roxie lied
"I know what I heard!" Sugar squeaked again, a bit more angrily.
Roxie sighed, leaning on the edge of her couch while keeping Rush perched in her hand.
"Okay so ... I guess we need to talk ..."
______________________
Enormo Enterprises : Maxmillian E Mumford HQ
Time: 5:34 PM
SHRINKGIRL SIMULATOR VER. 1.23
INTENSITY LEVEL : 7
Lexi was surrounded by two fierce robots with lobster like claws and furnace like grates for mouths.
"Geez, you really put the crab in CRABBY, huh, Mad Max?" Lexi teased, performing a backflip over one of the crab robots as it breathed fire at her, accidentally incinerating its partner in the process.
Lexi then shrank and landed on the back of the berzerk robot as if comandeering a mechanical bull, shrinking herself into its circuitry and beginning to toss out bolts and circuitboards as if plucking her eyebrows.
The results would be an instant KO for Maximillian's blastercrabs as ShrinkGirl came somersaulting out of the defeated robot successfully.
SHRINKGIRL WINS!
YOU LOSE!
"Son of a --!!" the angry Maximillian E Mumford cursed, thrusting his fists against the console which housed his elaborate network of computer screens. "I thought for sure the fire would get her ... and why does the simulated ShrinkGirl make such quippy puns?!"
Irrate and exhausted, Maxmillian slumped at his desk, his eyes drawn from having spent so much time in front of the flickering monitors. In the treshold stood a sympathetic colleague -- none other than interdimensional expert Dr. Giovanni Guillardo.
"Max?" Giovanni asked with a bit of cautious tone in his voice as he approached the irritated doctor. "Is this a good time?"
"...as good as any..." Max responded, "how can I help you?"
"Well ... that's just it" Giovanni said, walking into the office, peering around at the various scraps and prototypes the Doctor had been working on. "I want to thank you for all of your help to this point ... I've made great progress on the dimensional portal inducer thanks to your funding and engineering department"
"That is good news..." Maxmillian said, quickly closing out of his ShrinkGirl Simulator program before it was evident, "I could use some..."
"Everything alright, Max?" Giovanni asked, "you've been putting in some serious hours here ... I realize you're the chief engineer but .... you need to take care of yourself, yknow? I remember you always burning that midnight oil in college too..."
"Well ..." Max sighed, "...sometimes if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself ... and I'm so close to cracking this whole ..."
"...ShrinkGirl thing?" Giovanni suggested, interuppting the Doctor's train of thought. Max looked up, a bit perturbed.
"Is it that obvious?" Max sighed
Giovanni directed his gaze up at the SG medallion that Dr. Max had kept mounted like a trophy within the metal prongs of one of his machines and sighed.
"Just a bit ..." Giovanni said, "...look, I don't know muxh about this ShrinkGirl other than what I've heard on the news and well, from the Chaos Crew ... although I do remember ..."
"Yes, I know..." Dr. Max sighed, rubbing his temples from stress, "You've mentioned before that ... other ShrinkGirl..."
"I'm just saying ... the ShrinkGirl I knew ... Alexis I believe her name was..." Giovanni said, "she was a bit rough around the edges, but she was a good person..."
Max suddenly paused, deciding to redirect the conversation a bit.
"...I'm not suggesting she ISN'T a good person..." Maxmillian said, "...it's more ... well, she was exposed to one of OUR experiments..."
Giovanni nodded
"Project Delta..." Giovanni said
"You know about this?" Maximillian asked, a bit surprised.
"I've met her before, remember?" Giovanni replied, "albeit a different 'her'..."
"Well ... it's just ..." Maxmililan inhaled before continuing to speak, "...Project Delta wasn't completed when she ... exposed herself to it ... so ... the side effects could be devastating, you know?"
"So .... you're interested in capturing her ... to ... help her?" Giovanni asked, with more than just a bit of skepticism in his voice.
"Who said anything about 'capturing'?" the not so good Doctor lied, "I simply need her to come back to the lab ... to run studies... although such a thing is hard with her being such a target of criminals and police alike..."
"I see...." Giovanni said, taking a moment to study his surroundings, seemingly deep in thought.
"You're ... thinking something..." Max said
"Well ... it's just ... she was exposed to some kind of energy signature from THIS lab, right?" Giovanni said
"This is correct..." Max replied
"So ... can you cross reference that energy signature with whatever device she accessed?" Giovanni suggested, "It's ... a tad unethical but it could serve as a way to track her... she may be giving off some kind of electrical polarity you could track and ..."
It was at that moment a lightbulb went off in the dastardly Doctor's head.
"Yes!! Yes!" Dr. Max sneered, suddenly snapping back to his usual vibrant self as if struck by a bolt of lightning. "This is an EXCELLENT idea!"
"...heh, glad I could be of help..." Dr. Giovanni said, beginning to regret his own idea now. He diverted his focus instead to the shining SG medallion, "...um... speaking of ShrinkGirl ... what is the significance of the medallion again?"
"Ah! I believe it could be a key component in our ... I mean YOUR dimensional portal inducer!" Doctor Max said, "...but more on that at another time! If you don't mind ... I have some work to do..."
"Of course you do..." Dr. Giovanni said, reluctantly leaving the office while serving up one final glance back at his eagerly diligent boss and colleague Dr. Maxmillian.
_____________________
"...thank you again Dr. Hillenbrandt..." Lexi sighed, a hesitance in her voice that was rarely heard from the seasoned therapist, "...for taking the time to see me..."
"Of course, Lexi..." Sheila replied, "...but you've been seeing me for a while now, just Sheila is fine"
"Of course ... s-sorry Sheila Hillenbrandt..." Lexi stuttered, realizing she was again being too formal, "It's just ... been a lot..."
"Well, our next session was scheduled for next Tuesday..." Sheila nodded, tapping her notepad, "but you insisted I see you earlier ... so ... what's going on? Talk to me..."
Lexi sat still, her lip quivering a bit as a single tear trickled down her face.
"I ... I just don't think I can do this ..." Lexi said, her voice soft and weakened
"Do ... what? You mean ... the ShrinkGirl thing?" Dr. Hillenbrandt asked
Lexi nodded
"All of it ..." Lexi sighed, looking down at her fingers, which for the moment were fine but she was constantly hyperaware of the prospect of sudden shrinking or some kind of jolt that would affect her joints, "...I ... I try so hard to keep it together ... I ... I was a cheerleader for 6 years ... I just ... I love making people happy"
Sheila nodded and continued to listen
"...but I just ... I can't handle all this ..." Lexi sniffled, beginning to sob, her breathing getting shallow and short, "...people ... adore me ... and I don't know why ..."
"Well I know why ..." Sheila said with a warm smile, offering Lexi a tissue from a small box on her desk which she humbly accepted. "You're a very kindhearted young woman and you're always making people laugh and ... like you said, you do your best ... people like that ... people need that"
Lexi sniffled and turned away.
"I'm so sorry..." Lexi said, choking up again.
"Why are you sorry?" Sheila asked
"I just ... I don't cry ..." Lexi groaned, her cheeks swollen and her face red as the tears continued to flow, "I ... I always try my best ... to stay positive..."
"It's okay to let it out sometimes..." Dr. Hillenbrandt said, "...in fact it's healthy ..."
"I ... I'm not healthy ..." Lexi sighed, "At least not physically ... my body is ... my body is just ... messed up right now ... my shrinking powers ... are all ... fucked up ... I'm sorry ... messed up..."
"Lexi ..." Sheila sighed, putting down her notepad and trying her best to just address Lexi as a friend and not a professional, "Listen... I've dealt with a lot of patients and ... I can't always say I know exactly what they're going through but in YOUR case, I REALLY can't say that ... I can't imagine what it's like ... to have those powers ... I'm still in disbelief of it but ... whatever it is you have ... you've said it yourself before ... maybe it's a gift ... to be used for good... and you've made the most of it ... that's something to be proud of..."
"And ... what if I have to give this 'gift' back?" Lexi asked
At this, the Doctor would wrinkle her brow, a bit confused
"This ... this disturbance in my body ... could be hurting me ..." Lexi sighed, "and ... my friend ... the uh ... one I mentioned to you ... who helps me with all of this ... he said the only way to potentially stablize me would be a treatment that could ... well, undo all this ..."
Sheila nodded
"So ... you're afraid ... of no longer being ShrinkGirl..." Sheila replied, with understanding.
"Yes... isn't that weird?" Lexi said, chuckling a bit despite her sadness, "I just said how much pressure I feel being her but ... I almost can't imagine my life without it now..."
"It's not that weird, Lexi..." Dr. Hillenbrandt said, "...again, I ... can't relate but she's a part of your identity... part of who you are ... it would hurt tremdously to lose that, I'm sure ... but ... suppose worst case scenario, you did ...? Would that be the worst thing?"
Lexi would ponder this for a while, taking a pause and just looking dumbfounded.
"...I mean, would your friends stop loving you?" Sheila asked, "Would your family?"
Lexi shook her head.
"Of-of course not..." Lexi stuttered, "I just ... I don't know ... I always thought I did this for ... doing good ... but part of me ... l-likes the glory ... I know it sounds selfish but something about when people recognize me ... or see me around town and say hello ... at first it had me a bit weirded out but ... it's kinda ... it's kinda cool ... I mean ... as cool as it can be to do some of the stuff I do ..."
Sheila nodded.
"Ultimately ... it's your decision ..." Sheila said, "But in my opinion, the idea of a ... ShrinkGirl isn't so much the powers but the person underneath and ... well, I know it's probably a cliche but I do believe any of us are capable of being heroes..."
Lexi nodded and offered the Doctor a bit of a grin.
Sheila, curious about what the brunette was grinning about had to ask, "What?"
"Just was thinking..." Lexi giggled a bit, "YOU'RE a ShrinkGirl if you think about it..."
Dr. Hillenbrandt had to ponder the joke for a moment before getting it and letting out a chuckle of her own.
"Yeah ... I suppose I am ..." Sheila grinned.
"Anyway ... th-thank you so much ... for your time Dr. Hillen... Sheila..." Lexi sighed
"Of course..." Sheila replied, "never hesitate to reach out to me if you need something ... or ... your friends for that matter ... you have a lot of people who are there for you, Lexi ... and they would be happy to do so, just as you would..."
Lexi nodded, as the tears subsided.
Taking a deep breath, Lexi would collect herself noticing that her powers hadn't been acting up as of the past few hours. Maybe she was in the clear? Then again ... maybe not.
Lexi still had a decision to make ...
Giantess World
