She was going to have to leave town.  No matter how she tried to think about it, that really seemed to be the only answer.  She was just going to have to up and disappear.  Laurel worked to put together a sensible plan as she drove the twenty miles to the apartment she and her fiance Ryan shared, and the part that kept giving her trouble was how she was going to get him to understand what was going on.

Ryan loved her deeply, and he supported her as much as he could in every way she could ask.  Still, they’d had their ups and downs, and explaining how she’d almost been raped and how she’d ruthlessly murdered the man who’d attempted it by shrinking and stomping on him wasn’t going to be an easy conversation.

Just thinking about that moment, though… it sent a warm wave of pleasure running through her to the point where she could barely resist closing her eyes for a moment and just letting out another shaky sigh.  She had to feel that way again, she just had to, and she had the device.  She could do it so easily, really.

What if she showed him?  What better way was there to make him understand than to share that experience with him?  Their sex life was pretty fantastic as it was, and she’d always been pretty open-minded for Ryan before.  It would still be hours until he was home from work, but she wanted him desperately and immediately.  She fumbled with her bag and dug out her phone with every intention to call him, but another thought came to mind as she set the phone on her lap.

Why was she having to give up everything she’d worked for?  What sense did it make for her to be the one who had to run, who had to disappear and give up her home and her job and maybe even more?  What about the people who’d put her in this position?  What about the people who’d stood by and done nothing?  Didn’t they deserve to pay some sort of price?

Fuck, of course they did, and she had the power to make them pay.  She had so <i>much</i> power, and she needed to use it.  A tap on her phone brought the voice commands up, and she started in on her plan.  “New e-mail, Mom.  Subject: Can you help?  Blind carbon copy all contacts.”

*****

Laurel shut and bolted the door of her apartment behind her and promptly flopped on her couch, letting out a long sigh with the impact of her body on the overstuffed cushions.  Day after day she’d done the same thing, trying to forget the last several hours of office politics and workplace demands, and today she tried the same thing but there wasn’t the first chance of forgetting a thing.

After another moment she dug through the box at her side and pulled out the MARTI, setting it in her lap and examining the incredible machine.  She’d seen enough memos about the codenamed project to be vaguely familiar with expectations surrounding the device, and as she looked over the buttons and readings, it really was apparent that it had been designed for the working man.  Such a simple object that could do such incredible things…

The doorbell rang and Laurel bolted upright immediately.  She didn’t expect anyone so quickly, but all the same, it was time for action.  She hopped over the coffee table in haste, snatched up the MARTI and started adjusting and preparing it for use.  “Who is it?” she nervously called out, her voice breaking unexpectedly in the middle of her mundane inquiry.

“It’s your mother, dear,” the voice on the other side called back, and as Laurel opened the door she saw her standing there, wringing her hands and looking back at her with all the earnest concern she could muster.

“Hi, Mom,” Laurel flatly replied.  She hadn’t been sure she’d be able to go through with it, but it was so easy to poke a few buttons and flip a switch.

“Honey, are you alright?” Laurel’s mother asked as she took a step inside.  It took a moment for the MARTI to really rev itself up, long enough for Laurel to step forward and push the door closed at least.

“No, Mom,” Laurel softly murmured as the familiar bluish light spread from the MARTI and started to envelop the woman’s body.  “I’m not alright, not even close to it,” she continued while watching that glow start to dissipate, and when it was gone so was her mother.  All that was left in her place was this tiny, wonderful shrieking thing for her to play with, and seeing it staring upwards and squealing in shock and terror brought that hot exhilarating rush flooding back through Laurel’s body.

She started to break into that weird, giddy grin as she watched her tiny mother flailing in protest at her feet.  It was all too easy to ignore everything she had to say, but Laurel wanted to shut her up all the same.  Her boot shifted forward and smacked into the tiny woman, sending her sprawling across the floor.  “You’re going to help me feel better, though, Mom.  You and everyone else.”  Laurel could still hear her mother’s voice, possibly only because it was so familiar to her.  She bent at the knees, crouching down to hear what she had to say.

“...wrong with you?  What did you do?  You can’t do this, Laurel, you just can’t!  I don’t, I don’t even...”

Laurel plucked her up from the ground, taking her entire little body up between her fingers.  It was magnificently easy, holding her own mother in her hand, and she could just as easily do whatever else she wanted.  “Look, Mom, I absolutely can.  I can do anything I want to you, don’t you see that?”

Her fingers curled around the woman in her hand, squeezing her a little more tightly.  “See, you’re <i>little</i>.  You’re so stupidly little, Mom, and that makes you powerless.  You’re totally helpless, don’t you see that?”

She pulled her mother further into the air, holding her right before her eyes so she could really relish watching her squirm.  “Yeah, I have all the power.  I could squeeze you ‘til you popped, Mom.  I could drop you on the ground, cover you with my foot and just smash you to paste.  That worked pretty well before.”

“You… killed someone?”  For some reason this seemed to horrify her more than all the thinly veiled threats of her violent demise.

“Yeah, Mom, I did.  I shrunk my boss and crushed him like a bug, and I’m going to do the absolute same thing to you and everyone else that shows up.”  She hadn’t really thought about what she’d done as killing, but suddenly and unexpectedly the thought of it seemed even more appealing.  “What do you think about that, huh?”

Laurel felt a little awkward talking to her own mother like this, but every time she squirmed a little and wailed in her grasp it helped build her confidence.  Watching her shake her head in disbelief and shudder in horror…

The doorbell brought Laurel out of her deepening desire for tormenting her tiny mother.  “Oh, hey, someone else is here!  C’mon, Mom.  Let’s see who’s going to join you.”  She popped up, grabbed the MARTI and bounded towards the door, calling out once again, “Who is it?”

“It’s James,” her brother answered back from the other side, and Laurel broke into a devious grin.  “You said to come as quick as I could, is everything okay?”

“Come in,” Laurel murmured while charging the MARTI and opening the door.  In the next minute, her collection of tiny people had doubled, and it if things continued to go well she expected it to grow exponentially over the next hour.