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In another part of the warehouse only a few metres away from where Nightcrawler and Phoenix was hiding Captain Britain and Meggan were still getting over the fact that they had shrunk. The world around them now seemed enormous and it reminded Meggan of the Land Of The Giants TV series that she had been watching reruns of. For Captain Britain it had not been the first time that he had shrunk but it was still an unpleasant experience that he didn't want to repeat. It had taken place during his early days as Captain Britain and he hoped that he would be able to survive this experience as well.

Meggan was the one out of the two who was in the most shock. Unlike her partner this was the first time that she had ever been shrunk and she didn't like it one bit. She couldn't get over how big everything looked now and normally she probably would have entered a state of panic but the fact that Captain Britain was there with her made her feel more at ease. If it wasn't for that then she probably would have begun to cry.

The pair were standing by a stack of cardboard boxes that contained a few items that had not been stolen. Since Tanya also lived in this warehouse she needed somewhere to put her things. She didn't want to shrink those just in case she couldn't grow them back again. Unlike the stolen goods these items belonged to her personally and she didn't want to risk losing them. The boxes themselves looked to be as tall as a several storey building in comparison to the near three inch tall superheroes.

"Brian what happened?" asked Meggan as she tried to make sense out of everything that had happened.

"I think it's safe to assume that we've been shrunk," replied Captain Britain trying to lighten up the mood. He could see a sense of despair in the eyes of Meggan and he walked closer to her and held onto her to show that he was there for her. "Don't worry Meggan we'll get through this."

"I don't want to be small Brian. I enjoyed being tall."

"I know honey but don't worry, this change is only temporary and we'll be our normal sizes before you can say Bob's your uncle."

"But everything's so big." She was still in some shock but she didn't feel as bad as she did just moments ago.

"Don't worry about it Meggan, we've survived worse situations than this." He was trying to be as reassuring as he could be even he had some doubts in his mind. The last time he had shrunk had not been a pleasant event and there was always the possibility that the process couldn't be reversed. But he couldn't share his fears with her, he knew that it would only make things worse so for now he had to keep a brave face for both of their sakes. "How about this, I'll fly up and see if I can see any of the others. Then we can regroup and take this overgrown wannabe supervillain down."

His words had given Meggan some confidence and he gave her a quick hug before he flew up into the air. There was only a quarter of an inch height difference between the pair but at this scale it still seemed like half a foot like when they were full size. He didn't really want to leave her behind like that but he really wanted to find the other members of Excalibur. He expected at least one of them to be full size but when he reached a height of five feet off the ground he took a quick look around and to his horror he couldn't see any of the other members of Excalibur. His worse fears were being realised, he had high hopes of returning to normal if at least one member of his team had not been shrunk, but since it seemed that they all had been shrunk it meant that the chances of returning to his original size had been slashed. But there was still some hope remaining that they would get through the situation in one piece but he knew that they would only be able to succeed if they regrouped and worked together. But he had no idea where the others were or even how small they were. He didn't know whether they were near his height or if they had shrunk even smaller than that.

Slowly Captain Britain floated back down to the ground and almost instantly Meggan wanted to know what he had seen. He didn't tell her that he had caught a glimpse of Tanya moving towards the unconscious bodies of James and Daniel but he thought that their best option was to keep moving, they needed to find their mutant teammates and quickly. He didn't know whether the process was irreversible after a certain length of time. But much like Meggan he began to hear a voice in his head. Almost instantly he recognised it as the Phoenix attempting a telepathic link to him and he didn't resist the link. He had no fear of Rachel linking to his mind and within a few short moments he could hear her voice clearly. Meggan could also hear Phoenix's voice since the psychic connection had been placed on the both of them.

"Are you reading me Brian and Meg?" asked Phoenix as she was making sure that she had a strong link to their minds.

"Yes we can hear you loud and clear Rachel," replied Captain Britain. He didn't speak the words and merely had to think them and Phoenix was able to pick up on these thoughts. "What's the situation?"

"Bad I'm afraid. We've all been shrunk barring Lockheed and Tanya is about to try and wake up her two gorillas. Nightcrawler and I are together and Kitty is in a high place and can see everything in the warehouse. She's our eyes from up there and at least she can direct us from traffic if you know what I mean."

"Where are you and how small have you become?" These were the first questions that popped into his mind and they were important enough for him to ask. He wanted to know if his teammates were going to bigger or smaller than him.

"We're not sure where we are in comparison to you and for our size I'm guessing that we're about three inches tall after looking at the size of everything around us. Kitty is going to be our eyes and she's going to try and direct us to each other, she thinks if she can get her hands on the shrink ray that she can figure out how to make us our regular size again."

"I can just fly around until I spot you, that would probably be the easiest solution to our little problem."
"It would be the easiest but not the safest. If we're flying through the air we'll also get spotted, no staying on the ground is definitely our best option and we can fly only if we really have to."

"I can see sense in that." He felt a little stupid now thinking about it. Flying definitely would have made it easy for them to be spotted. But he didn't like the idea of running around like mice trying to hide from giant people but at this moment in time they didn't have that much of a choice in the matter. "Ok can you sense where we are?"

"Yeah I think that I can, but if you tell us what you see around you then Kitty can try and lead us to one another."

"Ok let me take a look around." He began to look at everything around him and he remembered that it wasn't the low things he had to describe but rather the high things. This was because Shadowcat would be able to see them from where she was hiding and make it easier for her to direct them. One thing that Captain Britain did notice by him was a large set of red drawers. They were definitely tall enough to be seen and he thought that it would be perfect. "Ok I see a large set of red drawers right next to me, can you see that from where you are Kitty?"

"Yes I can," replied Shadowcat through telepathy. Like the other members of Excalibur she was listening in on the conversation but she wasn't intruding, this had all been intentional. She could see the brown sofa where Nightcrawler and Phoenix was hiding on one side and then she could see the red drawers where Meggan ad Captain Britain were on the other side. "Ok I think I can direct you all to each other but I'm going to need constant updates so I know your exact position."

"That's fine," answered Phoenix as she prepared to make a move. "Just do the best that you can and don't forget to warn us if Tanya and her gorillas start getting any closer to us."

Just out of Shadowcat's cone of vision Tanya had reached the unconscious body of Daniel and she started slapping him in the face and slowly the big brute began to wake up. As soon as his eyes began to open Tanya moved onto James and did the same to him. It was only a minute or two later that both men were fully awake and back onto their feet. They were aching a little from being knocked unconscious but they were ready to follow whatever Tanya wanted them to do. They were going to receive a generous cut from the jewellery heist so they were willing to go along with whatever she had planned. But when James took a quick look around she saw that Excalibur were gone, he was greatly surprised by this and he was about to ask when Tanya finally spoke up.

"Ok listen up you pair," said Tanya in a commanding voice. She was still holding the shrink ray in hand and she didn't want to put it down for anything. "I was able to shrink Excalibur and now they're running around my warehouse like rats. I want them found and brought to me as soon as possible. Even at their size they could still blow this whole operation and I don't think any of us wanna go back to prison."

"But where are they?" asked James as he couldn't see the team. He was still a bit dazed and his senses had yet to return to him.

"They're around here somewhere, I want no stone left unturned. I want them found and I want them found now."

The two men couldn't believe that they were being bossed around by someone who was so much smaller and weaker than them but they knew that she was definitely the brains behind this entire operation so they simply did what was asked of them. Already the pair began to spread out and start looking for Excalibur but they had to be sure that they didn't damage anything in the process. They knew that Tanya would have their hides if they damaged any of her goods and with her shrink ray she could shrink them both down to oblivion.

From her vantage point Shadowcat could see the two men searching for Excalibur and although she was safe in her hiding place she knew that the others were not so fortunate. Much to her horror she saw them heading in the general directions of both pairs of hiding superheroes. Quickly she began to concentrate so that her thoughts could be relayed to all the members of Excalibur, she had been training for this for a while so it wasn't that much of a difficult feat for her.

"Guys we have big trouble," said Shadowcat with her thoughts. Thanks to Phoenix her thoughts were being picked up by all the other members of Excalibur. "Those two brutes are on their way to you right now so I suggest that you find yourself a really good hiding spot right now before they find you. At their rate of speed you have literally one minute to find a hiding spot before they reach you."

She wanted to fly down there on the back of Lockheed and rescue her teammates but she knew that Tanya would be able to shrink them both down and although Lockheed would still have some size left she would be reduced to the point where she would be invisible to the naked eye. Although Lockheed had been able to dodge all of the shrink ray blasts earlier even he wouldn't be able to dodge them forever and she didn't want to put her friend in harm's way like that.

The two pairs on the ground received Shadowcat's message loud and clear. The first to be able to find a hiding place was Phoenix and Nightcrawler. They crawled through the gap under the sofa and they hoped that they wouldn't be spotted under there. It was not the best thought out plan but with the amount of time that they had it was the best that they could think up on the spot. The pair remained in silence and only spoke to each other through telepathy. They dared not mutter a single word for it could spell their doom.

But unfortunately they saw the foot of Daniel come down on the ground just outside of the sofa. They saw the sofa itself begin to move and the pair knew that the brute was going to move the sofa and spot them. Nightcrawler placed his hand onto Phoenix intending to teleport them away but it would be risky due to his injuries that he had yet to recover from. He could teleport only once per day and teleporting someone along with him would be an enormous strain on him. But Phoenix telepathically told him to save his teleport jump since she could still help them in this situation.

Only seconds later Daniel lifted the sofa onto its side so that he could see underneath it clearly. He had hoped to see two members of the missing Excalibur but all he could see was some fluffs of dust and a couple of pennies that had rolled underneath it. He didn't realise that he was looking directly down at Phoenix and Nightcrawler but she was using her telepathy to block Daniel's view of them. To him they were invisible right now but Phoenix couldn't keep the strain up for very long. Since the mind that she was altering was so large it was taking her a lot of concentration just to perform this task. She couldn't keep it up for very long but thankfully Daniel dropped the sofa back down and the pair were safe for the moment at least.

As soon as the sofa had been dropped Phoenix broke her concentration and let down the telepathic barrier that had been around herself and Nightcrawler. The strain had been a lot for her cloaking herself from the mind of someone who was much, much bigger than her. But the mental link that she had placed upon the other members of Excalibur still held which continued their communications between them. Already she was beginning to feel a little tired but she knew that she couldn't falter, it would mean the end of both her and Nightcrawler.

The pair didn't come out of their hiding spot until Shadowcat gave them the all clear after the others had moved away from their location. Slowly they crawled out from under the sofa and started to move in the direction that had been pointed out to them. Nightcrawler was concerned for Phoenix as she looked tired but she continued on as best as she could, she was an incredibly powerful mutant but even she had her own limitations. But much like Meggan before her part of her feared that she would never return to normal size but if she dwelled on those thoughts then she would be doomed.

Meanwhile Captain Britain and Meggan were also making their way towards what they were calling the rendezvous point. They had decided to meet Phoenix and Nightcrawler at a small table that was roughly at the half way point between to two pairs. Shadowcat had noticed it from her vantage point and to her it looked to be the perfect place for the team to regroup. She thought that it were best for her to remain where she was for the time being, not just for her own safety but because she could still direct the team from where she was. Although she couldn't see them their constant updates and Phoenix's telepathy allowed her to know where her teammates were.

Meggan stayed close to Captain Britain as they walked towards the rendezvous point. The journey was very bizarre as they were looking at various items of furniture that now seemed to be gigantic to them. It was like the entire world around them had grown to giant size and they were the only ones not affected. Even what was small chips in the concrete floors seemed like pot holes to them. Both wanted to become normal size again as soon as possible but even they admitted that it was going to be difficult.

They had been able to evade the seemingly giant James as they made their way towards the rendezvous point but they didn't realise that the two brutes were not the only dangers that they would face. They didn't know that they were being followed although Meggan to catch something in the corner of her eye once or twice but when she turned to look at it she couldn't see anything. At first she thought that she might have imagined it but when she saw it again she realised that something was wrong. For a moment she stopped and placed her hand on Captain Britain's shoulder. He turned to look at her and saw the concern on her face but he thought that she was still overcome with the fact that she was now just a little under three inches tall.

"Brian I saw something," said Meggan as she looked into the eyes of her lover. She knew that sometimes she got a couple of facts wrong due to her lack of knowledge of the outside world but this was definitely something that she wasn't wrong about.

"What is it?" replied Captain Britain with some concern in his voice. He had not seen anything but if it was enough to cause Meggan this much concern he knew that it was worth noting.

"I don't know but I think we're not alone. A couple of times I saw something but when I went to look at it, it was gone. Is it normal for a little person to start seeing things?"

"No not normally." He had remembered having conversations with the American superhero Hank Pym who had size manipulation powers and never once did he mention hallucinating when he was small. This only made him feel worse about the situation, if it was not a hallucination then what was it? "I'll go and check it out, where exactly did you see that thing?"

Meggan slowly pointed to a pile of old books that were lying on the ground just a short distance away from them. Slowly he stepped towards them not knowing exactly what he was going to see. He thought that it was most likely nothing but there was always that thought in the back of his mind that warned him of danger so he was extremely cautious. If he got injured at this size the chances of him getting back to normal were slim.

The books themselves looked to be very old and when Captain Britain took a quick look at the authors printed on the side he could see many that he recognised as classical authors. Many of them had been dead for quite some time and from the age of the books he guessed that they might have been first editions and thus worth a lot of money. But in comparison to the jewellery heist that happened a few hours before the combined value of this book collection was meagre.

Suddenly Captain Britain saw something move behind the books and he stepped closer and closer. There was no draft in the warehouse so it wasn't something just blowing in the wind. He wasn't sure if he had seen a tail but as soon as he stepped behind the books he found himself knocked down to the ground. It had happened so fast that he hardly had time to react and the next thing he knew an enormous rat was pinning him down to the ground and trying to gnaw at him with its sharp teeth. Several times its jaws came close to biting his head off but each time he was able to turn it to one side so that the creature would miss it.

It didn't take much effort for Captain Britain to use his strength to free one of his arms and strike the rat. This caused the creature to take a few steps back allowing him to get back to his feet and give the rat a proper fight. Even standing up the pair were roughly the same height but the rat still had the size advantage over the shrunken Captain Britain. Meggan stood there watching, she wanted to help her boyfriend as much as she could be she knew that he was more than capable of protecting himself. He had faced impossible odds before so a seemingly giant rat wouldn't be all that big of a problem for him.

Captain Britain jumped forwards and struck the rat square in the jaw making it scream out in pain. The impact was able to break the rat's jaw and quickly it began to retreat so that it could nurse its wounds and fight another day. Captain Britain gave a sigh of relief but all was not entirely well.

The painful scream from the rat had attracted the attention of James who was now heading in their direction. Shadowcat had seen the brute change course and head towards the pair, quickly she was able to warn them thanks to Phoenix's telepathy. But unfortunately the pair were now in a relatively open space with only the books where they had seen the rat to really hide behind. But it was not the best hiding place for them but at this moment in time they had very little choice.

James was only a few steps away from them and at any moment he would have been able to see them. Quickly Captain Britain grabbed the hand of his girlfriend and the pair flew at a relatively fast speed towards what was a bin fully of rubbish. It was the perfect hiding place but they hoped that they wouldn't be spotted while they were flying towards the bin. If they did then they would have no choice but to fight back and draw more attention to themselves. That would practically be suicide for the pair.

The flight of Captain Britain and Meggan was only a few inches off the ground and they moved quickly towards the bin. They didn't hesitate in dropping into the bin regardless of what rubbish was in there. The smell was atrocious and it made Meggan almost throw up but they both kept quiet as they saw James walk past. The bin was a metal grated bin so they could see him through it. They had just made it in time because if they had entered a fraction of a second later he would have spotted them and they would likely be caught by now.

They had to wait for a good minute or two for James to stop looking around the area and move on. No sooner was he gone the two heroes made their way out of the bin and took in a good breath of fresh air. The conditions in the bin was atrocious and they were even surprised that they had been able to last that long in the bin. It would have been enough to turn the stomachs of most people and they didn't wish to go back in the bin any time soon. All they could do was continue onto the rendezvous point.

Over the course of the next few minutes Shadowcat continued to direct the other members of Excalibur towards the rendezvous point. To her it was almost like communicating with a walkie-talkie but she was using her mind rather than a piece of equipment. It was odd for her but she had been getting used to it. She had purposely been directing her teammates away from where Tanya and her henchmen were searching and a couple of times there had been a couple of close shaves but so far they had been able to elude them. This was down to the skill of the team itself and the directions of Shadowcat.

After what seemed to be a mammoth task the four members of Excalibur all met up at the rendezvous point which was a set of drawers that seemed to be around a hundred feet tall in comparison to them. They were just glad that they had finally found each other and they could see that they were beginning to make progress, but this was only stage one of their mission completed. Now they had to find a way to make Tanya release her hold on the shrink ray so that Shadowcat could get to it and figure out how to change them back to normal size. There was no guarantee that it even had a growing setting but like Shadowcat had told Phoenix that Tanya would haven't shrunk the jewellery if she had no way of returning them to normal.

Shadowcat herself remained where she was since it was risky for her to travel down to the rendezvous point. She would likely be seen if Lockheed flew her down and her vantage point was too big of an advantage to give up. She would only travel down when she could get to the shrink ray and then try and reverse its effects. That meant that Tanya and her henchmen had to be either distracted or incapacitated.

The team itself was discussing just exactly what they were going to do and for the moment there didn't seem to be much of a full plan but then Phoenix began to sense something that was going to work in their favour. She had been scanning the minds of Tanya and her henchmen as best as she could had sensed Tanya herself look at the shrink ray and see that it was low on power. The constant firing of it had drained quite a lot of its power and she needed to put it on charge much like a mobile phone. Shadowcat had seen the same herself from her vantage point and it meant that Tanya and the shrink ray were finally parted so she could actually get down to it and try and figure out a way to reverse its effects and return everyone to normal size.

"Tanya's put the shrink ray on charge so for the moment she's disarmed," said Phoenix through telepathy. The team were still not using their voices so that they didn't produce any sounds.

"So she's actually away from it?" replied Captain Britain. His thoughts could be heard amongst all the members of Excalibur. "We cannot squander this opportunity to get our hands on it."

"It is risky but I couldn't agree more mein fruends," answered Nightcrawler. "Our only real chance of being able to return to our normal size is for Kitty to try and reverse its effects while the rest of us keep Tanya and her thugs distracted."

"I should be able to figure it out and then I can make myself full size so I can actually take them down once and for all," said Shadowcat through telepathy. Even at her full height she would still have a size disadvantage over Tanya and her henchmen but she was more than capable of taking them down with some ease. Not only could she phase through their attacks but she also possessed martial arts skills that would make her world champion in any tournament.

"Are you sure that you'll be able to handle them by yourself?"

"Come on I've faced demons, psychos and people who believe themselves to be gods. Do you really think a wanna be Barbie Doll and her two gorillas are going to be a problem for me?" There was confidence in her voice and the team knew that she wasn't lying. "I promise as soon as I defeat those three I will restore the rest of you to normal size but for now it is best that only I deal with the shrink ray. If we all go to it there will be a greater chance of being caught and as long as you keep them distracted I should be able to do all the work necessary."

"Ok now we're starting to get a plan," said Captain Britain. He didn't like the idea of not being the first to become normal but he wasn't very talented when dealing with hi-tech equipment and he knew that it was Shadowcat's area of expertise. He knew that she would be able to deal with Tanya and her henchmen when she reached her full size so he was confident with the idea. "Ok so what do we do now? Do we just get their attention here attention here or do we continue to hide for the time being?"

"Its best that we cause the distraction as far away from the shrink ray as possible," added Phoenix. Her idea definitely had merit and was taken into consideration by the others. "The further they are away from it the more time that Kitty has to work on it before they actually get to her. Those seconds could be all that we need."

"Then it's agreed," said Nightcrawler deciding that he should finish off this plan. But he didn't want to sound like he was being the absolute power and as a democratic group the decision was instantly made to make a vote on whether they should go through with the plan. "All those in favour of the plan." He heard his fellow teammates give a vote of confidence in the plan. "All against?" No one spoke up and he smiled knowing that within the next few minutes they could be back to normal. "The yays have it."

Although the others sounded to have the rougher part of the deal by being the distraction it was actually Shadowcat who would be at the most risk. There was a chance that she could accidentally shrink herself further and be too small to operate the controls of the shrink ray. The others were at risk by taking on these seemingly giant people head on but if they played too cautiously Tanya might begin to smell a rat in the non-literal sense. But if they went too aggressively there was a chance that one of them could be seriously hurt and at their size it would almost spell their doom. Also it was decided that Lockheed would be the one who would pull the trigger to make Shadowcat normal again. She couldn't pull the trigger and have the beam strike her at the same time. If she had of been her full size the task would have been easy but at this size she would struggle to almost do anything normal.

Out of all of the enemies it was Tanya who was actually closest to the distraction point so the team headed towards that way. Not truly having to fear being spotted anymore the group decided to fly to the distraction point. It would be the quickest way but also so they could head off Tanya before she tried to get her hands on the shrink ray. They felt if they were spotted that she would go and grab the device again and try to shrink them further. They didn't realise she didn't intend to shrink them any further at this point in time. She wanted to keep them in cages as a sort of living trophy to show that she had defeated the team. It would make her the envy of many crooks around the area.

It only took the team a few seconds to reach the distraction point. Nightcrawler was carried by Captain Britain since unlike the others he didn't have the ability to fly. As they flew over the warehouse floor they couldn't believe how different everything looked. Below them it was almost like flying over a city but instead of buildings there were boxes of various items. If their situation wasn't so dire they would have taken a moment or two to take in the sight. But every moment that they wasted was an additional moment that they remained at this size. For obvious reasons they wanted to be normal size as soon as possible.

They landed just a short distance away from where Tanya was looking but rather than outright attacking her the decision was made to simply walk into her cone of vision making it look like they hadn't intended on being found. This would give her and her henchmen another seeming advantage when in truth it was just so they wouldn't realise Shadowcat's work. It would give her more time to work at the shrink ray and hopefully discover if it had a growing setting as well.

The team hid behind a large box as they spotted Tanya about to walk past. There was one brief nod to each of them before they stepped out into Tanya's vision and almost instantly the seemingly giant woman saw them. For a moment or two nothing happened but then Tanya dived towards them while also shouting for her henchmen. The pair quickly moved towards where Tanya was and for the moment the plan was working but it was still very risky. There was a great chance that one of them could be injured or that Shadowcat wouldn't be able to find a way to make them normal size once again.

Excalibur had been able to move out of the way of Tanya as she lunged towards them. They could see Daniel and James arrive on the scene and now the fight was going to be on. It would take all of their power and training to get through this situation in one piece. In front of them there were three giants who wanted to capture them and put them on display. It would be a terrible fate for such heroes.

"Ok guys you remember the plan," said Phoenix through telepathy so that Tanya and her henchmen couldn't hear her. "If we don't make it out of here it has been an honour serving with you all."

"Don't count us out just yet," replied Captain Britain once again through telepathy. "It's going to take more than more than a couple of overgrown steroid junkies and a pre Madonna to get the best of us."

While the battle was about to take place Shadowcat noticed that the shrink ray was now left unattended and ripe for the taking. Tanya and her Henchmen were too far away from it to fully notice her make her way down to it so with a simple command to her full size friend Lockheed she climbed onto his back and slowly floated down to the shrink ray itself. She had wondered what it was like to fly on the back Lockheed but it was an experience that she didn't want to repeat anytime soon. It wasn't because she was afraid of flying with Lockheed, if anything she felt very safe sitting on his back as he flew through the air with incredible grace. But it was because she knew that either she would have to stay small or that he would become a giant. Neither scenario particularly thrilled her and she just wanted to get back to her normal size.

It only took Lockheed less than a minute to gently fly down from the vantage point to where the shrink ray was located. It was plugged into a wall recharging and Shadowcat was amazed that something that seemed so sophisticated needed such a simple charger like it was a mobile phone. Thankfully for her the shrink ray itself was lying on its side so she didn't have to move it to get to its controls and she was surprised with what she could see. The controls themselves didn't look all the complicated and she could feel the gentle nudging in her back. Lockheed was cooing at her and she did have one moment to turn around and hug his head. It still seemed surreal that she was able to do this since she was used to him being the size of housecat. She hoped that this would change very soon but she didn't know whether it would be for better or for worse.

As she went over her examinations Shadowcat noticed that the switch was flicked down to a large letter S and that above it was the large letter G. She didn't need to have a genius level intellect to know what that meant.

"If that makes it shrink," said Shadowcat just before she used all of her strength to flick the switch up to the large letter G. "Then this must make it bigger." But while she had been flicking the switch up she had accidentally knocked the dial and she tried to place it back in its original position. She had miscalculated that part and she would soon find the consequences of that.

After she thought that she had gotten all of the setting right Shadowcat walked away from the shrink ray until she was a couple of feet away from it. The nozzle of the shrink ray was pointed directly at her and she didn't have time to test out the shrink ray itself. It would draw attention to herself so she thought that she only had one shot at this and if she blew it that Excalibur would be doomed to live a tiny existence.

She signalled Lockheed to fire the shrink ray and he was intelligent enough to actually pull the trigger. His intelligence was near human level but he still lacked the means to speak English although he was fluent in many alien languages. He cared deeply for Shadowcat and he truly hoped that this shrink ray was at the right settings and wouldn't shrink her any further. With some reluctance he pulled the trigger and the shrink ray powered up and shot a beam that bathed Shadowcat in a strange energy. Lockheed smiled as he began to look up at his friend, but soon he realised that he was having to look up and up and up and soon his smile turned into a face of horror.

Meanwhile at the other side of the warehouse Excalibur were taking on Tanya and her henchmen. The team had broken away so that each member could focus on one particular person. But Nightcrawler had been teamed up with Phoenix since they had experience working together in the X-Men. He and Phoenix were the ones who were taking on Tanya while Meggan dealt with James and Captain Britain took on Daniel. Despite their lack of size the team were still holding their own against these giant people. Their attacks were more hit and run and the team were playing somewhat defensively. They would attack so that they would keep their opponents on their toes and prevent them from trying to flee.

But they were beginning to wear out and the constant having to dodge oncoming attacks was taking their toll on the team. Captain Britain's punches did provide some damage but that was only thanks to his superhuman strength. If it wasn't for that his punches would have no effect on these giant people. His blows were causing small bruises on Daniel's face and it was almost like being punched by a regular person. But this only made the giant angry who swatted Captain Britain down to the ground. He fell down hard but thanks to his superhuman durability he was able to survive the impact but it did cause some damage. He was not out of the fight but he was definitely knocked back a little.

Phoenix and Nightcrawler were having some luck on Tanya. Thanks to Phoenix's telepathy they were able to know what she planned on doing next but it didn't mean that they were able fully dodge the oncoming attacks. At one point Nightcrawler found himself on the ground and Tanya tried to stomp on him but he was able to get away by using his one and only daily teleportations. But that also took a lot out of him and he wouldn't be able to compete the feat for another day at least. Phoenix herself was bombarding the giant woman with strong mental attacks with both her telepathy and telekinesis. But it wasn't doing much to stop her as both team members were forced to the ground. They were running out of options and would soon have to pull out all the stops if need be.

Meggan was fairing a little better against James. She was flying around him and made the brute accidentally hit himself on a few occasions but the one blow did strike home sending her down to the ground along with the rest of the members of Excalibur. She wasn't hurt but things it had took her breath away. She looked at the three towering giants before her and Tanya stepped forward towards them with her henchmen standing behind her. The night had actually turned out well for her but she thought that her victory was now complete, but she failed to notice that one of the members of the team was missing but at this moment in time she wouldn't allow that to spoil her fun.

"Well I have to admit that you gave us somewhat of a good fight there but now it's over," said Tanya with an evil grin on her face. The team was backed into a corner with seemingly no way out. "I'm going to keep the lot of you locked up and then I'll make my own private zoo. But don't worry you won't be alone for too long. I might go around shrinking other heroes and adding them to the collection. I'm sure that you'd like that wouldn't you, think about it having the Avengers in my collection or Spider-Man. Hell I might even charge people to come and take a look at you. But you will be the first in my collection but you certainly won't be the last."

Originally she hadn't thought about setting up her own zoo like this but the idea had popped into her head. She had been able to catch Excalibur and she thought that the others would follow suit. It was a new dimension of use that she could see in her shrink ray although she hadn't actually gotten it on her person right now she didn't think about the possibility of a little person actually getting their hands on it.

James and Daniel were also feeling very confident as they took in Tanya's words but they suddenly felt a tap on their shoulders. They had no idea who it could be since they thought that they were the only people in the warehouse and cautiously both men turned around. At the same time the shrunken members of Excalibur saw who had tapped the henchmen's shoulders and suddenly their situation didn't seem to be as dire as it first looked.

Both henchmen were greatly surprised to see that it was Shadowcat who had tapped them on the shoulder but now she looked different. Both henchmen were big men but this once petite girl now towered above them both. When she had tried to make herself normal she had accidentally put the settings up too high and now she was a giant in her own right. Her regular height had been around five foot four but now she was easily over eight feet tall and her proportions had also scaled up with her. She wasn't taller but bigger.

James didn't have a moment to say a word before he felt a sharp punch strike him in the face, Shadowcat's strength had increased with her size so the punch was as powerful as a heavyweight boxer's. It only took one punch for her to knock the brute out and it seemed that the tables had turned on the villains. Just a few short moments ago they seemed to have Excalibur cornered and that they had the size advantage. But now that advantage had been lost due to this very tall girl.

By now Tanya had also turned around and seen what had happen. It had solved the question of what would happen if she used the shrink ray to increase the size of a person but at this moment in time it didn't matter. All that she knew was that everything was going heading south fast and if she didn't get out of there as fast as she could she would end up in prison again and that was somewhere that she really didn't want to go again. But now there was an eight foot amazon in her way.

In a futile attempt to harm her James threw a punch at Shadowcat's chest but rather than coming into contact with it his fist went straight through her. It had been simple for Shadowcat to phase through the punch and she even yawned to show that she wasn't impressed. James looked at her in surprise after multiple punches just went straight through her. But after a few moments the giant girl had enough and grabbed onto the wrist of James and with almost minimal effort she was able to lift him off his feet and judo throw him into a pile of boxes. James was by no means a small man so to actually have this happen was both amazing and somewhat terrifying to watch. In this increased size she had the strength of an Olympic bodybuilder but now that the two henchmen were out of action that only left the ringleader Tanya remaining.

The Villainess decided that she would take her chances by running but before she could even get out of Shadowcat's reach she felt a large hand grab the back of her collar. In less than a second she was yanked off the ground and the next thing she knew she was looking into a large face wearing a blue domino mask. She struggled as much as she could but she couldn't break out of Shadowcat's grasp and the giant girl didn't look very impressed with her.

"So you like to pick on people smaller than you?" said Shadowcat with authority in her voice. She was trying to seem as threatening as she could and it was a lesson that her former teammate Wolverine had taught her. In some situations it was better to seem more threatening than you really were helped to make progress without the need to violence. "Well here I am, TRY PICKING ON ME!" Her voice was incredibly loud at this point and it greatly intimidated Tanya. She was incredibly scared at the thought of being beaten down by this enormous individual in front of her.

"I'm sorry," replied Tanya. That was all she could mutter out in a somewhat weak voice. She knew that the jig was up but she just hoped that she would get through this night with her health intact. She saw how angry Shadowcat seemed to be and she thought that she was going to use her new found strength to inflict heavy damage on her body.

"OH YOU SHRINK ME AND MY FRIENDS AND THEN YOU TRY AND PUT US IN CAGES AND YOU'RE SORRY?" Once more she was trying to be as threatening as possible in the hopes that it would put an end to the confrontation. It seemed to be working to great effect since she could see the absolute fear in Tanya's eyes and she saw that her ploy was working. But the next thing that she knew Tanya's eyes closed and her head slanted to one side, the villainess had been so terrified that she had actually fainted. "How rude? She fainted on me." Shadowcat's voice was now back down to normal. She was surprised to see that Tanya had indeed fainted but it only meant that her shrunken teammates were now truly safe from her.

"Great work there Katzchen!" shouted Nightcrawler from where he was standing. The others were glad that the threat had been neutralised and that there were no real casualties. Although James and Daniel were knocked out their injuries were not serious and they would make a complete recovery. "Now you wouldn't mind giving us a boost."

Shadowcat gently placed the unconscious body of Tanya before moving towards her shrunken teammates. The amazon got down to one knee so that she had a better view of the other members of Excalibur and she couldn't believe how small they looked. On the opposite end of the scale they couldn't get over just how large Shadowcat had become. To them she was over two hundred feet tall and they could see the look on her face. Rather than horror she could see her almost smiling at them.

"Oh you guys are so cute," said Shadowcat. She used a high pitch to show her affections and this didn't sit too right with her teammates. "I just want to pick you all up and give you a big hug."

"Very funny Kitty," replied Phoenix now actually using her voice rather than telepathy. "You're bigger than you should be."

"Yeah I kind of overdid it a little." She rubbed the back of her head and gently smiled at the group.

"A little? You're huge."

"Hey only because you're so tiny. You know I might just keep you guys this size and keep you in my pocket."

"KITTY!" shouted all four members of the shrunken Excalibur in unison. They didn't want to stay small for a moment longer and they couldn't believe that Shadowcat would even make such a statement.

"Okay, okay I was only kidding." She placed her large hands down on the ground for her teammates to step onto them. To her they were only two inches tall and she couldn't even feel their weight in her hand. But as soon as all four of them were standing in her hands she stood up to her full height and took several long strides towards where the shrink ray was still located.

Minutes later Shadowcat had tied up Tanya and her henchmen so that they couldn't escape and she had been working on making the rest of Excalibur their normal sizes. She took a good look at the shrink ray and made sure that the settings were on grow but also that the power wasn't up too high. That's what caused her to grow beyond her normal size so she turned the dial down until she thought that it was at the right level. Her fingers had grown but she found herself still able to pull the trigger.

One by one Shadowcat restored each member of Excalibur to their true size and each one were glad that they were no longer small. The experience had been traumatic but they had been able to overcome it with a combination of teamwork and a little bit of luck. If it was in a controlled environment a couple of them wouldn't have minded being temporarily shrunk again.

Phoenix was the last member of the team to be restored to normal size and when she looked around she felt that everything looked normal. She didn't feel that she was either taller or shorter than she was supposed to be. It seemed that she had reached her normal size with no additions or subtractions and that was the way that she wanted it. It eliminated the need to constantly be grown and shrank until she had returned to her normal size.

"Well I guess that's the end of that," said Shadowcat after the entire team had finally gotten back to their normal sizes. She was still over eight feet tall and for the moment she had no intentions of making herself normal again. She was enjoying the fact that she was towering over everyone for once rather than being the shortest member of the team again.

"Not quite Kitty," replied Phoenix looking up to her very tall friend. "We still need to shrink you back down to normal." She couldn't believe that Shadowcat hadn't shrunk herself down yet. She would have hated to be that height but her teammate seemed to be enjoying it.

"Oh come on Rachel." She had a playful smile on her face and she placed the shrink ray down on top of a box right next to her faithful companion Lockheed. "Can't I just stay tall? It's fun seeing everyone look up at me and being the tallest member of the team. Heck I could be the tallest woman on the planet right now." She was trying to convince the others that staying big was best for her but she knew that it was an argument that she wasn't going to win but she would still give it a try.

"No Kitty, sure there are a lot of upsides of being tall but think of the downsides." It wasn't too hard for her to pick out facts that were drawbacks to Shadowcat's new size and it would be easy for her to point them out. "First buying clothes for someone of your stature will be close to impossible, it's gonna cost you a fortune just to feed yourself and besides I think your fingers are too big to properly use a computer keyboard." She thought that she was done but she just wanted to list a couple of more just to hit home the fact. "You're going to have to look out for low signs and you won't even fit in your bed anymore."

"Ok fine you win." She folded her arms as she admitted defeat. She knew that she was going to have to shrink back down to normal at some point but she would have liked to have spent a bit more time as a giant. "But whatever you do don't make me smaller than I was already. I don't want to be looking even further up at you. Or you could make me a couple of inches taller than before."

"No I think you're better at your normal size."

Meggan was the member of the team closest to the shrink ray and after seeing it at work she wanted to try and use it herself. She didn't think anyone would mind if she was the one who used it to make Shadowcat her normal size. She had seen a couple of shrink rays on TV and she thought that simply by firing it at Shadowcat would shrink her down to normal size. She didn't hesitate in picking it up and aiming it at the towering woman.

"Let me do it," said Meggan with a smile on her face.

"No Meggan!" shouted Shadowcat waving her arms in front of her. "It's still set to..." But before she could properly react Meggan pulled the trigger and despite trying to phase through it the beam struck her at full force and almost instantly her body rocketed into the air and the team were horrified to see Shadowcat growing even bigger. She grew so fast that no one could even do anything to help her as her head struck the ceiling of warehouse and as if it was nothing more than a thin piece of paper the rest of her broke through and she kept going up and up and up. The world around shrunk at an alarming rate but eventually the change did stop but by then only her feet and shins were still in the warehouse but the rest of her body was now feeling the soft wind in the night sky. In only a handful of seconds she had gone from being eight feet tall to now being around one hundred and fifty feet tall. It was definitely much bigger than she had ever hoped to be. "Grow." It was the only words she could mutter so that she could finish her sentence. But now Excalibur's problems were a whole lot bigger and worse still was that the last blast had taken all the energy left in the shrink ray and to charge it enough for one blast would take well over an hour. So for the time being Shadowcat would remain a true giant in every sense of the word.

The End

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