“Yes.  So, how are the special interns doing?” A strong feminine voice asked Gray.

Gray leaned back in his seat.  Currently, in his office was a woman in her fifties, wearing an executive outfit and with short auburn hair.  They both had glasses of a deep, dark red wine.  “Delightful.  They’re outshining even our fully fledged scientists in innovation.  It’s all that Valerie girl.  We might just be employing one of the best scientific minds in our era.  Her team, they’ve already almost managed to reverse the shrinking process.  We've really just had her group focus on that, with all the progress they've made, and put our other teams on... other assignments.”

“Good.  That flub last year might finally be getting behind us.”  She sighed. 

Gray gave the woman a half-smile.  “A concise word for accidentally shrinking such a substantial percentage of humanity.”

“Once we develop a way to right our wrong, then we can begin the plan in earnest.”

“Indeed we will, my dear.”

“The end justifies the means,” the woman said, raising her glass somberly.

“Mmm.  So it does,” Gray said, raising his glass in reply.

—————————————————————————————————————————————

Rachel sighed.  Things were almost great.  She jumped at the opportunity at starting her internship here with her girlfriend one year ago.  Working here, with Valerie and Lucy, starting her career as a biologist was something she was proud of.  Plus, she had her own lab coat she could wear, and she loved the way it felt, and made her look like an official scientist even though she was still in school.

She stood beside Valerie, watching her girlfriend study a specimen they had been experimenting on, seeing if they could reverse the shrinking process.  Things were almost great.  Except for one thing.  Vivian.

“Nah, not quite,” Valerie said, squinting through a microscope.  “If there’s too much of that radiation, the cells begin to break down before they even think about getting bigger.” 

“Way to go, Rachel,” Vivian scowled. 

Vivian was much closer to finishing her doctorate than the others, having less than a year left.  She was in her late twenties and she had long wavy black hair down to her chest and glasses.  She was another recruit the higher-ups decided to put on their team.  ‘She’s a pain in my ass,’ Rachel thought, ‘sometimes I’d rather be dealing with my old asshole roommate.’  “I put in as much as we agreed on!”

“Yeah, Vi, chill,” Valerie said, turning to Vivian and grabbing her by the shoulders, looking imploringly into her eyes, “Come back to us Vi!  Come out from deep inside Rachel’s ass and speak to us!” Valerie joked, shaking her dramatically as she spoke.

Vivian rolled her eyes, sighing but smiling.  “Whatever.  I was just so sure your procedure would work out, I figured SOMEONE had to be messing up somewhere.”

“How do you do that?” Valerie asked, frowning, hands still on Vivian’s shoulders, “How do you be so far up two people’s asses at the same time?!”

“Ugh!  Whatever, shut up,” she said, flushed yet smiling and turning away. 

“Okay,” Valerie began, “Now that we’ve sorted out our vaginas, let’s just finish our reports and be done for today.”

Lucy had been laughing the whole time this was going on.  Fortunately for her, Vivian wasn’t ever on her case, so this was actually the perfect thing going on for her.  She had a roommate back on campus that would’ve given Katie a run for her money in terms of being the bitchiest in the school, so she enjoyed her moments away as much as possible.  She was quiet, and typically wore her light brown hair in a ponytail.  She was shy, and mousy, and didn’t talk much, but she giggled a lot.  Especially when she was nervous.

Still, just because she was safe from it doesn’t mean Lucy approved of the way Vivian’s been.  It was very much a one-sided competition where she was constantly trying to throw Rachel under the bus, or put her down.  Plus, she knew Rachel and Valerie much longer.  And if anything, she felt like Rachel was a better scientist than Lucy herself, so she didn’t understand it. 

“Alright, bitches!” Valerie said as they finished up their reports, “Bitches, dismissed!  But not you, Vi, ya batch!  You GIT OVER HERE!” she yelled in a jokingly gruff voice.  “I’ll meetchoo two outside, though.” 

Rachel half-smiled sadly at Valerie before taking her leave with Lucy.  As they left, and Valerie narrowed her eyes at Vivian, Vivian asked, almost meekly, “Yes?”

“Don’t give me no yes.  I think I’ve been patient enough with you and Rayray all this time.  I was hoping you would’ve gotten over whatever balls were up your ass about her.  So what’s wrong, Vi?”  Valerie frowned, “we need to be one big happy family here, and you’re not even trying to family Rachel.”

“Family’s… a verb now?  Well, it’s just…”

“What?  You jelly of her?  If you were nice to the both of us I’m sure we would’ve all had a lovely threesome.  Or foursome.  Maybe a moresome, if Robyn wanted to join.”

“NO!  Ew!  I’m not…  I don’t… just no.  It’s just,” Vivian sighed, “Look at you!  You have such a great mind for science and methodology.  You shine so hard they even made you the leader of our team.  And I’m okay with that, because you’ve proven that you’re just that good!  Rachel, she’s just… she’s just holding you back.”

“Oh, my bad, I didn’t realize I hired you to be my life secretary.  You’re fired, by the way.”

“But-“

“Nope,” Valerie said, silencing her by placing a finger over her mouth, “Rachel is a fine scientist.  She was the first person I recommended be brought here to work, and not just because she’s a god damn work of art and has a nice ass.”  Valerie paused, distracted by her own words, taking a deep breath.  “Ahem.  What was I talking about again?  Oh, yeah!  So, think of it this way!  If you put her down, you’re putting me down, too.”

“Fine.  I’ll do better with her.  But, it’s just frustrating.  Without all this superficial sexuality distracting you, you can be so much more-“

“I thought I fired you.”

Vivian sighed.  “Fine.  I get it, I get it.  I know.  I’ll do better.”  She turned away, rolling her eyes, before heading out of the lab.

“I know you just did not roll your eyes at me, girl.  I’ll choke ya out, I will!”

Vivian paused slightly in her footsteps as Valerie spoke, and decided she should cut her losses and continue out the door, leaving the lab.

—————————————————————————————————————————————

“You alright?” Lucy asked Rachel as they waited for Valerie.  They were in their normal attire now waiting outside the building where they worked, which was a large, pharmaceutical lab.  Both were dressed casually in jeans, Rachel wearing a button up plaid shirt, Lucy in a t shirt.  Lucy’s clothes were a bit looser on her body than Rachel’s more form-fitting outfit. 

Rachel frowned.  “Yeah, it’s just… getting old.”  She pursed her lips, looking back toward the building.  “I wonder what they’re talking about.”

“Might be setting her straight.”

“Yeah,” Rachel sighed.  “Maybe.”

“You ARE good at what you do,” Lucy said, blushing shyly.  “You know that, right?  You are.”

“Yeah,” Rachel said quietly, feeling oddly fragile, “Thanks.”

The doors behind them burst open and Valerie came out, wearing leggings, and a cardigan over a striped blouse.  “RAYRAYYY!  JUICYYY!  What up home slices!”  She said as she walked up and put an arm around each.  “Let’s git outta this popsicle stand.”

“Uh,” Rachel began, half smiling, “I don’t think that’s the right phrase, Val.”

“It is now, you BATCH.”  Valerie replied, leaning in closer to Rachel and grinning.  “I’m the boss, RESPECT me!” She turned full on towards Rachel and pulled Rachel’s head down, smooshing her face into her chest, smothering her with her breasts.  Rachel made muffled sounds of protest and tried pushing against Valerie’s body to free herself but Valerie held on tight.  “YOU’RE TOO PRECIOUS FOR THIS WORLD, RAYRAY!  BE SAFE IN MY BOSOM!”

Lucy was giggling, enjoying the show, while Rachel struggled to breathe.  Eventually, Rachel pinched Valerie’s side, causing Valerie to yelp, let go and back off.  “Light, Val,” Rachel gasped, catching her breath, laughing at the ridiculousness of it all.  “That was supposed to be safe?”

“But look how happy you are, now!  You’re all SMILEY now!” Valerie said, pinching her cheek.

“Bah,” Rachel said, blushing and pulling away.  “Let’s just go back on campus and eat, you crazy bastard.”

————————————————————————————————————————————

Meanwhile, Vivian never actually left the lab.  After some meandering she managed to procure a small, handheld shrink ray from the prototype department on site.  ‘She won’t listen to me, whatever,’ she thought, ‘That’s fine.  She’ll thank me later when she becomes one of the greatest minds in the world.  Then she’ll understand.’  She donned safety goggles and began tinkering with the device. 

————————————————————————————————————————————

Later in the evening, after dinner, Lucy left Valerie and Rachel to work on her studies.  Rachel and Valerie were now in their dorm room together, Valerie flopped down onto her futon.  “Ah, another day another dollar, am I right sista?” 

Rachel walked over and sat on her lap, swinging her legs over to rest the other part of the futon.  She leaned her head down on Valerie’s shoulder.  “Val…” she frowned, “Am I bringing everyone down?”

“What?  No!  Come on, girl.  Vi’s full of it and we all know it.”  She wrapped her arms around Rachel, pulled her close and nibbled on her neck.

Rachel giggled, blushing, squirming a bit on Valerie’s lap.  “I know… but still.  I don’t want to be the one bringing you guys down.”

“You’re not.  If anything, she is.  She’s going to be the worst when she graduates.  Imagine having to work with THAT when it’s a doctor?  Ugh!” Valerie grinned.  She ran her fingers through Rachel’s red/green hair.  “I talked with her about it.  Hopefully she’ll stop.  If not, then I’ll talk to Gray about it.  Or get Robyn to beat her up.”

Rachel gave a short laugh.  “If Robyn can take you on I’m pretty sure she can take anyone.”  She leaned her head closer into Valerie’s neck, giving it a gentle kiss.

“Aw, come on!  I’m getting better during practice.  One of these days I’ll get her.”

“Yeah, good farkin’ luck with that, considering she was special forces.”

Valerie reached down and grabbed Rachel’s butt, whispering in her ear,  “Mmm, now one thing that’s hard about working with you is looking at dis ass all day and not being able to touch it.”

Rachel blinked innocently up at Valerie, face reddening.  “What’s stopping you now then, hmm?”  She asked, tilting herself up so Valerie could grab more of her ass.

Valerie pulled her into a long, deep kiss as they let their passions and feelings play out.  All of Rachel’s fears and frustrations seemed to melt away.
—————————————————————————————————————————————

The next morning, Valerie’s cell alarm awoke them both.  “Oughhh, I hate waking up so much,” Rachel said groggily.  They were both naked under the covers, and her hand was resting just below Valerie’s neck on her chest.

“Come on, girl,” Valerie said, holding Rachel’s hand against her chest as she sat up.  “Gotta take care of bidness.”  She turned and saw Rachel falling back asleep.  “Oh no you don’t!”  Valerie started poking and tickling her all over her body.  Rachel giggled, yelling out, rolling off the bed and onto the floor.

“Light curse you, woman.”

Valerie giggled, leaning over and looking down at Rachel.  “Wakey wakey!” she sang.  “I have to be careful with you, y’know, you sleep through almost anything.”

“Ugh.  Yeah, yeah.”  Rachel slowly stood up and they both started getting ready for classes. 

It didn’t take as long for Rachel to be done, despite her lack of energy.  She opted to just brush her hair and leave it straight rather than braiding it.  She wore a similar outfit as the other day, and sat on the bed watching Valerie get herself together.  It was entertaining to watch.  ‘Kind of like watching a master artist speed draw a masterpiece,’ she thought, blushing.  She watched as Valerie expertly and quickly applied all kinds of make up, brushed and set her hair, tying it back into a stylish bun, and put on her clothes and complementary jewelry.  “Watching you makes me tired, sometimes,” Rachel said, smirking.

“Yeah?” She turned and walked up to Rachel,  “Well, seeing you in those clothes makes me want to rip them off.”  Valerie said, making a noise between a growl and a purr, playfully clawing down Rachel’s chest. 

Rachel blushed harder, grabbing Valerie’s hand.  “Oh no you don’t.  We got bidness!”

“Yeah, yeah.  Light fark you, and all that stuff you say.”  Valerie sighed.  “So, you got anatomy today?”

“Yep.”  Rachel checked the time on her phone.  “Ah, crap.  I should go.  Guess I’ll see you at lunch.”

“Not if I see you first.” 

Rachel smirked, and gave Valerie a quick kiss before grabbing her things and leaving the dorm. 

—————————————————————————————————————————————

Rachel was on her way to the cafeteria after class.  She checked the time.  ‘Looks like I’ll be the one seeing you first, Val,’ she smiled to herself.

“Rachel!” she heard someone  called.  Rachel looked up at the figure running up to her.  It was Vivian, dressed in jeans and a tank top, carrying her purse.  “Hey,” Vivian said, out of breath.  Sorry.  Can we talk somewhere?  Private?”  She seemed a bit on edge as she spoke.

“Umm.  Sure.” Rachel replied, frowning.  She thought it was kind of odd Vivian would seek her out.  But, maybe she was ready to play nice with her now?  ‘She looks terrible, though,’ Rachel thought to herself, ‘like she’s been up all night, or sick, or something.  Was Val rough on her?’  “Let’s go to my dorm, it’s on the way to the cafeteria anyway.”

After an awkward, silent walk with Vivian, they made it into Rachel and Valerie’s dorm room.  “Valerie’s still in class?” Vivian asked.

Rachel nodded.  “Yeah.  She doesn’t get out for another half hour.  So.”  Rachel shrugged at Vivian expectantly.  “Whattaya want?”

Vivian narrowed her eyes at Rachel.  “I want you to back off of Valerie, cunt.”  She pulled out the shrink ray she spent the night tinkering with.

“S’cuse me..?”  Rachel tilted her head, frowning, and recognizing the device.  “You can’t honestly-“

Rachel was cut off as Vivian activated the device.  Before her eyes, Rachel had shrunk down to a little less than an inch.  She saw Rachel’s tiny form look around her, awestruck, beginning to panic.

Vivian smiled, gazing down at her newfound prey, chuckling.  She crouched down over her, her body looming over Rachel and casting a giant shadow over her and the area she was in.  “I’m sorry?  What did you say?”

Rachel fell on her ass in shock, taking in the view of Vivian.  “What… what have you done!?” She squealed in a much lower-volume voice than normal. 

Vivian gave an evil half-grin, her hand swooping down and closing over Rachel’s entire body just below her head tightly.  She sat on the floor, admiring her handiwork, giggling sinisterly.  “You’re all mine now.”  She felt Rachel squirm in her fist, the look of terror in her face.  “You stupid little whore,” Vivian moaned, bringing her fist to her lips, “You deserve being eaten alive.”  She talked slowly, over-emphasizing her words, letting her breath wash over Rachel’s terrified form.  “And I want to be the one to do it… so bad.” She sounded as if she were about to drool, or even orgasm the way she carried on.  “But I’ve got other plans,” she chuckled. 

“PLEASE!  VIVIAN!  DON’T DO THIS!”  Rachel yelled, struggling uselessly in Vivian’s grip, “OH GOD, I DON’T WANT THIS!  I DON’T WANT TO DIE!”

Vivian gave Rachel a slow, big grin.  “That’s what all the tinies say.  Isn’t it weird?”

“PLEASE!” Rachel pleaded, starting to sob, “I… I WOULDN’T EVEN MATTER TO VAL ANYMORE, ANYWAY!”

“Oh yes, I know.  Her ruthlessness with tinies is almost legendary.  That’s part of what makes her a great scientist.  And why you,” she looked down at Rachel, her grin quickly becoming a snarl, “are shit.  And before long you will literally be shit.”

“NO!  LET ME GO!  VIVIAN!” 

Vivian’s thumb moved over Rachel’s head and pressed her down deeper into her fist so her head was surrounded by her hand on all sides, muffling her tiny cries and begging.  Vivian smiled as she felt her flail a bit harder as she did so.  “Shut up, little bitch,” she said forcefully, though enjoyably.  “Funny you mention how much Val loves fucking with the tinies, because that’s what I’m counting on when she finds you.”  She loosened her fist a bit so Rachel could free her head and gasp for air.  “Oh look what we have here,” Vivian picked up something from the floor.  It was Rachel’s shrunken book bag.  “What class was this?”

“Anatomy,” Rachel sobbed, steadying her breath, tears streaming down her face.

“That’s funny.  Maybe I should teach you a bit about that myself.  I’m sure it’s one of my duties as an,” she leaned her mouth close to Rachel’s face “UPPER class-woman.”  Vivian suddenly stretched her mouth open as large as she could before Rachel.  She stuck out her tongue and said “Ahhhhhh!” mockingly as if before a doctor, giving Rachel an uncomfortably close view of her mouth, her slick tongue, and her throat and uvula undulating randomly in the distance.  

Rachel screamed, “NO!  PLEASE!”

As Rachel begged, Vivian placed her shrunken book bag on her tongue, which conformed underneath like a scoop and pulled it into her mouth.  Rachel watched helplessly as Vivian’s mouth closed, and as her mouth and cheeks moved while she tasted and sucked on all of Rachel’s books, notes, and work.  Then, Vivian pressed Rachel against her throat and swallowed it down. 

Rachel felt her face pressed against the hard, bumpy texture of her throat, felt the throat as it bulged and forced all her hard work this semester down into her stomach with a loud, terrifying gulp sound that felt like it shook her to her core.  She was crying hysterically now, repeating the word ‘no’ over and over as Vivian pulled her in front of her face again and said, “See?  Anatomy.  I hope you were taking notes.  Oh.  Sorry!  Too soon?”  She smiled.  “I’d offer you to go inside me and try to get them out, but my stomach acids are known to be… especially acidic.  They won’t last too long in there, and neither would you.”  As she finished what she was saying, she felt a bubble rise up in her throat, and she brought her mouth over Rachel once again and let out a loud burp.  Rachel was again surrounded by Vivian’s breath, this time consisting the sour smell of bile and whatever was left in her stomach as she felt her body assaulted by the belch. 

“F-FUCK YOU, VIVIAN!”  Rachel yelled, still scared but now equally pissed off, squirming fiercely to punctuate her words, “I NEVER DID ANYTHING TO YOU!  I TRIED TO BE FRIENDS WITH YOU AND I TRIED TO BE NICE TO YOU!  FOR FUCK SAKE!  WHY WOULD YOU F-“

Vivian cut her off by placing a special, small strip of tape over her mouth.  Something the organization made just for quieting tinies that they could not easily pull off.  She poked and patted Rachel’s face to make sure the tape was snug, and Rachel tried moving her head but there wasn’t much she could do to avoid it.  “Yeah, I think you’re done now, little bitch.  I hope you know, you were never a real scientist, just some whore playing dress up.  Say high to Valerie for me.  If you can.”  She giggled, and produced what seemed to Rachel as a giant bag of gummy bears from her purse.  “Valerie’s going to have a nice little surprise when I give her these!”  She opened the gummy bear bag and held Rachel’s squirming body upside down over it a few seconds before finally releasing her.

Rachel fell, her screaming stifled by the tape and her body moving of its own accord while free falling.  She landed on her back in the midst of several gummy bears.  Reeling in pain from the fall, she sobbed, crying, completely frustrated by her inability to do anything about her situation, and breathing hard through her nose while she panicked.  She looked up at Vivian’s smiling face through tear-soaked eyes as Vivian then closed the bag and gave it a good shake.  Rachel felt herself and the entire contents of the bag get jumbled around chaotically, feeling gummy bears wind up on top of her as she was pushed more towards the center of the bag.

Vivian gave the bag a good look over to make sure Rachel wasn’t easy to spot.  “So, time to find Valerie, Rachel!” She said mockingly over-cheerful, grinning wide as she left Rachel whimpering and pinned under what felt like a mountain of gummy bears.