Apollo froze up completely.

Off in the distance, Ema was standing in the doorway, a look of confusion on her face. She looked around the room uncertainly.

She was looking for him, obviously, but the Apollo she expected to see here in her lab was normally-sized, not shrunken down to a size competitive with insects…

“Apollo…?”

He flinched. Ema’s voice was loud. She had only called out to him at just slightly above a normal speaking volume, and yet the echoing sound had sounded more like it was coming from a full set of speakers.

She started to move, and Apollo frantically darted toward a nearby object on the tabletop. It was a little container of some kind. He didn’t really care what it was, so long as he could hide behind it. He paused, wondering why he wanted to hide in the first place. It had been something like instinct, but wouldn’t it be better for him to stay out in the open, where Ema could see him?

Ema first checked back outside the door, then entered the lab proper, closing the door again.

“Where did he go…?” she wondered to herself. She approached, and Apollo huddled in close to the bit of cover he’d chosen. For some reason, he felt too scared to emerge. Ema was a good friend of his, and she wouldn’t hurt him, but still, he somehow felt… intimidated, seeing her at this astonishing scale. She rose above him like some gigantic creature of myth, her features all magnified twenty times over. She paused, almost directly in front of him. “Hmm…?”

Apollo watched in amazement as Ema reached forward, across the table. Even just her arm was incredible in size, stretching over his head with a hand larger enough to land a small plane on.

“No, no, no, seriously…!?”

Ema stared at the device on her work table, disbelief creeping up in her mind. The device was inactive, and she could see a faint trail of what looked like smoke or steam rising from it. She threw down the stack of freshly-copied documents she was holding on the table and leaned over to examine it properly. Was it so much to ask that Apollo manage to just sit peacefully for five minutes? Had he seriously tampered with the machine while she was out to run to the copier?

“Apollo, you son of a-…”

She made a low noise of frustration. This would at least explain Apollo’s sudden absence. Ema was perfectly aware that Apollo was rather afraid of her temper, and right now, he was certainly pushing her in that direction.

Pressing one of the buttons on the device’s front, Ema stared at the LCD display. It lit up as normal, but she noticed something unfamiliar. A small warning of some kind had appeared in the upper-right corner of the screen. It consisted only of a standard exclamation point in a bubble, so she didn’t have any idea of what it meant, aside from it seeming like a negative change.

On the table, Apollo watched nervously. Ema was looking all over the device, much too focused to notice him here, beneath her left shoulder.

He spotted the documents she’d just dropped onto the table, and an idea came to mind. Maybe, if he ran out of cover and positioned himself on the pages, he could improve his chances of being noticed and rescued? His red suit would certainly stand out against the plain, white pages, even at this tiny size.

It was a better plan than just cowering right here. Darting out of cover, Apollo took off at a run once again, moving past Ema’s shoulder, then her chin…

He saw something else unusual, turning his head as he ran. A loose object of some kind was lying underneath the strange device, which he suspected hadn’t been there before. It was just a small cylinder, not much bigger than he was now, but it drew his suspicion, all the same. He remembered the small component that had been audibly rattling, as well as the small opening that had been letting off the trail of vapour into the air. Was that little cylinder the same component…?

He spotted something else, as well. Another compartment had opened up on the device, this one larger. He could only see it from behind at this angle, so he couldn’t tell what was inside it. Taking note of these changes, he thought to tell Ema about them, but given his current situation, that wasn’t really an option. His first priority needed to be getting himself noticed, identified, and rescued from this tabletop. Giving Ema his input on her investigation of this strange machine could wait until after that.

If he was right, and the device was the cause of his abrupt reduction in size, he could only hope that it could reverse the change, restoring him to his original height. If not…

(No, no. Don’t think about that. Worry about the crazy sci-fi machine later.)

Shaking his head and looking forward to the papers lying on the table, Apollo got his mind back on track. He had to keep a level head, or he would be in even deeper trouble.

Panting with exertion from all the running he’d done since finding himself stranded on the table, Apollo finally reached the small stack of papers, hopping up onto the topmost sheet and moving a short distance out onto it. The lettering on the page looked quite bizarre underfoot at this scale and angle.

(OK, that’s step one out of the way. Now…)

A sharp sound of knocking made him jump in surprise yet again. He looked up, seeing Ema do the same.

“Uh-… yeah, hang on…” Ema’s booming voice called out. She backed away from the table, heading for the door. Apollo watched, still stunned -- and definitely intimidated -- by how incredibly fast Ema moved, in spite of her comparatively gigantic size.

Ema opened the door. There, Apollo saw another familiar face. Athena had arrived, at last.

“Hey, Ema!” Athena said brightly, her own voice just as loud as Ema’s. She looked… warm, like she’d been out in the sun for much too long. Her breathing sounded just a little bit on the heavy side.

“Uh, hey, Athena.” Ema responded. “What kept you so long?”

“Oh, it was horrible.” Athena said, putting on a mock expression of despair. “I was back at the office. Everything was totally fine, but I was in such a hurry to get going that I forgot my phone, plus, I was attacked by a crazy magician when I tried to get out the door!”

Ema managed a small laugh. “Trucy wanted your ‘help’ again, huh?” she inquired.

“Yeah,” Athena replied, rolling her eyes, “Since Apollo was already out, she decided I needed to help test the newest addition to her act.”

“Do I even want to know the details?” Ema asked.

“Well, that depends.” Athena answered. “Are you as flammable as I am?”

“Uhh…”

“That’s a ‘no’, then.” Athena finished. “Just trust me on this one.”

Ema laughed again, although her frustration was still plain in her voice. “Well, c’mon in, anyway.”

Athena peered around the room. “Where’s Apollo…?” she asked. “I thought for sure he’d be here already.”

“Well, he was…” Ema grumbled, shutting the door once again.

Down on the table, Apollo suddenly wished he had something to hide behind again. If it was possible, he felt even more intimidated, now that there were two gargantuan young women here in the lab with him. Athena was almost exactly the same height as he was normally, but given his present situation, she looked just as unbelievably gigantic as Ema did. Her long, red ponytail swayed with her movements, its vast size making it look more like a massive pillar of flame than just the overlong hair it really was.

Ema was sounding more frustrated now, describing her impression of the situation. As Apollo had feared, Ema had come to the conclusion that he’d tampered with the device in some way, and then bolted from the room to avoid having to explain himself to her when she returned.

“Really…?” Athena inquired, sounding quite surprised.

[What a total jerk!] chirped the synthesized voice of Widget, the spherical A.I. computer Athena wore on her necklace. Athena frowned at the little device, looking mildly annoyed by the outburst.

“No, no, I’m with Widget on this one.” Ema said, rolling her eyes. She moved a hand toward the table. “Here, I’ll give you the copy I just made. Everything you guys need should be on there.”

Apollo tensed up. Ema’s enormous hand was approaching. Her huge fingers closed around the edge of the pages he was perched on, and then he felt himself being whisked away into the air, a startled noise escaping his throat. He fell to the ground, the pages supporting him, at least. This hadn’t been his plan. His heart hammering in his chest, he tried as hard as he could not to move, terrified of being tossed from the pages and falling the immeasurable distance to the hard floor far below.

“Sit down, if you want. You can look everything over, just to be sure.” Ema offered. Apollo closed his eyes, becoming too dizzy to keep watching the scene unfold now that he’d been forced to take part in it.

“Thanks!” Athena said cheerfully. Apollo felt the papers shudder underneath him as Athena took a hold on them. Then, he was hurtling through the air again, now in Athena’s grip instead.

Athena grabbed the small stack of papers, flashing a grateful smile. Ema was gesturing toward a chair, so she stepped over, about to sit. Just before she dropped into the chair, she spotted Ema returning to the centre table. Whatever the machine on the table was, it sounded like Apollo had screwed it up somehow. That seemed uncharacteristically clumsy, even for him.

As she stood there, Athena’s arm dropped to her side, carrying the stack of documents with it. Unbeknownst to her, a tiny figure perched on the pages slipped into motion as a result, its safe platform suddenly falling away.

Apollo screamed for all he was worth, falling through the open air once more. The world spun wildly in his view, turning into a blurred mess of colours and shapes. Athena had shaken him loose without even realizing he was there, and now he was falling out of the sky, all the way down to the unforgiving-

-WHUMP-

He choked, landing on his back and bouncing slightly. The impact stunned him for a moment before he started breathing again. He was alive.

Forcing himself to his feet, he stood up to figure out where he was. He wasn’t so dizzy this time. He saw a cushion of some kind, spreading out all around him…

(Th-the chair!)

He’d landed on the very same chair that he’d been sitting on just a few minutes ago! The cushion had spared him any possible injuries from landing, mercifully. He was facing the chair’s back at the moment, and he turned around.

“A-ack-!!”

A strangled noise sounded from his throat. Before him, he had a view of two towering, violet-coloured pillars, which rose up to disappear into a massive, yellow canopy. He was staring right at Athena’s skirt from behind, her thighs and rear hovering right before his position.

For a moment, he was just embarrassed to be staring at a friend’s rear once again, but then something else hit him. Athena obviously had a reason to be standing in front of this chair, and there was really only one possibility.

“C-crap…!!” he stammered, staggering into motion. Athena looked to be at least half a kilometre in height at this scale. To put it bluntly, her ass was the size of an office tower. If she sat down on this chair right now, and dropped the full weight of her rear on him, there wasn’t likely to be much of “him” left.

He needed to get the hell out of her way, and he needed to do it right now. Breaking into the fastest sprint he could, he tore across the stitched surface of the cushion, knowing he had a few seconds at best to escape Athena’s landing zone. Far ahead, he saw her knees bending, and he screamed, closing his eyes and running whatever else he could. Adrenaline surging, he fell to the ground on his front, expecting to die under a million tons of crushing weight at any second.

-BOOM-

Apollo’s scream broke off. A mountain of weight slammed down on the cushion all around him, the force of impact knocking him right off the ground. He spiralled through the air for a second or two, and then flopped onto his back, stunned once again. He felt like his lungs were on fire, his throat raw and strained.

“H-… ho-ly shit…” he breathed. Every muscle in his body was tensed and ready to fight for survival, but as far as he could tell, the danger had passed. It had been close, but he’d made it. Narrowly escaping by a margin of seconds, he’d managed to dodge the apocalyptic impact of Athena’s rear as she sat down, her weight coming down like a meteor.

So, he wasn’t dead. He’d come incredibly, terrifyingly, heart-stoppingly close, but he wasn’t dead.

Finally, his heightened senses began to relax. He wasn’t sure of how long he’d been lying down when he pushed himself back to a sitting position again. Shakily, he got to his feet.

At his sides, Athena’s legs ran along the surface of the cushion until they fell from view past the edge. Her thighs rose up around him like high canyon walls, each probably at least sixty feet high from his diminished perspective. He looked straight up, and could see Athena holding the papers Ema had given her.

He had been so caught up in his terrifying past few experiences that he had momentarily forgotten his goal. Giving himself a firm shake, he tried to plan once more. He couldn’t do anything from this chair. Ema and Athena would never notice him here, and getting himself left behind wouldn’t do him any good.

… He had one idea. It was bad, if he was honest, but he could probably stomach taking one bad idea, given the circumstances.

“Sorry, Athena…”

The first part of his new plan was fairly simple. Right now, he was trapped on the chair, directly between Athena’s thighs. While he could wait for her to get up, that would only result in him ending up stranded and alone, so he would instead try and climb up the fabric of Athena’s violet leggings to get himself up on top of her leg. From there, he would have a lot more options. Planning further ahead would probably be better, but he doubted that he would have a lot of time for that. So, approaching Athena’s right leg, he simply tried his best to steel himself for the climb.

On the way over, without thinking, he glanced off to his right, and in doing so, immediately found his vision filled by a rather jaw-dropping view straight up Athena’s skirt. In spite of himself, he halted in place, shamelessly staring for several long seconds.

He twitched.

(What the hell are you staring for? Move, idiot!)

Athena was one of his closest friends, but even she would probably punch him square in the face if she caught him deliberately staring up her skirt. Raising a hand, he slapped himself firmly across the cheek, giving his head a solid shake. Focusing was going to be impossible if he didn’t rid himself of that memory entirely. He would just purge his mind of any thoughts relating to the visible outline of Athena’s panties against the violet fabric of her leggings, as well as any memory of her unmistakable camel-toe-…

His other hand slapped against the opposite cheek.

“… OK. Time to move.”

Reaching upward, he took a fistful of the fabric that made up Athena’s leggings. Beneath the thin layer, her muscular legs were as solid as a rock face. Muscle tone was visible on every inch of her leg that Apollo could see.

(Stop that, moron.)

He tested his grip. It seemed stable enough, even if he wasn’t especially skilled at climbing. He raised his other hand as well, seizing another fistful of the violet fabric.

Athena flipped to the last page of the documents Ema had given her, humming to herself as she looked them over. So far, everything looked to be in order. Once she tracked down Apollo, she could go over them again with him. Paperwork was probably her least favourite part of this job, but she could stand it. She had a great place to work, filled with people she loved, and whenever she was seated at her desk to fill out the many, many stacks of paperwork that came with her work as a defence attorney, she always had Apollo sitting right behind her at his own desk, in the perfect position for her to spin her chair around and strike up a conversation about whatever meaningless subject had just popped into her mind.

Things had been harder for her during the months when Apollo was away overseas, but now that he was back, Athena felt once again that her life was nearly perfect.

She was nearing the bottom of the last page.

“Looks great, Ema!” she said, smiling brightly. Ema looked up, still examining the device on her work table with care. “Thanks a bunch!”

Ema managed a small smile in return. “Any time. Uh… sorry for kinda ranting at you about Apollo.” she said.

Athena waved a hand, replying, “Nah, don’t worry about it. I’ll make sure to give him an earful for ya!”

The pair laughed.

“Ohh, boy…”

Apollo had finished his climb, crawling up onto the peak of Athena’s toned thigh, and had just enjoyed a brief moment of rest, but by the sound of it, Athena was about to get up and leave. He’d hoped to have more time to think out the next part of his plan.

Thinking quickly, he looked around. His face lit up. He hadn’t noticed before, but Athena had a shoulder bag with her, which was currently draped over the armrest of the chair. He could jump straight into it!

… Come to think of it, that wasn’t a terribly safe plan, but there wasn’t really time to debate the positives or negatives. With one quick glance up at Athena’s face high above him, he took a running start and jumped.

Arms flailing in the air, Apollo almost immediately regretted his split-second decision. He hurtled forward, the opening of Athena’s bag drawing closer and closer. It was only sheer luck that it happened to be close enough for him to make the jump, considering his utterly puny size, but that was of little concern to him.

Well into his descent now, Apollo braced himself, tumbling straight past the opening of the bag and falling into its interior. He came down against an inside wall of the bag’s main pouch, sliding along until his feet struck something stable. He wobbled, but managed to stabilize himself.

“J-jeez…”

That might have been kind of thrilling, if he wasn’t so scared for his life. He collapsed against the inner wall of the bag, letting out a sigh. For the first time since he’d found himself shrunken down on the table, he could finally relax, safely secured inside Athena’s shoulder bag. This wasn’t his original plan, but it would be acceptable. If he could get Athena’s attention at any point, she could help him get back to Ema. For now, he was ready for a rest.

He dug his cell phone from his pocket, blinking in shock at the time its screen displayed. Had it really only been fifteen minutes or so…? He stowed the phone away again, making himself comfortable. He couldn’t really see what he was resting on. It was comfortable enough, and that was all he cared about for the moment. Before him, there was a partly-emptied water bottle resting in the bag. Once again he felt intimidated by the sight of something so mundane making his minuscule size seem so insignificant. This was just an ordinary water bottle, and yet it now had to be several storeys high by his measure.

As long as he didn’t get near it, he was fine. Being crushed to death by a water bottle wasn’t something he wanted written on his tombstone.

Satisfied, Athena hopped to her feet, boots coming down on the solid floor in perfect sync. She scooped up her shoulder bag, slinging it back into place.

“OK, see you later, Ema!” she said with a bright smile, waving as she headed for the door. Ema waved back, still fixated on the device on the table.

Athena headed out the lab door, rolling up her stack of papers and stuffing it into her bag as she went. For a moment, she thought of Apollo again. Where in the world was he? It wasn’t like him to just vanish, even when he screwed something up. She wished she hadn’t forgotten her phone back at the office.

(Well… maybe he’s back there already…?)

Strolling back through the precinct, Athena made straight for the doors, waving cheerfully to the desk sergeant as she left. The older woman looked mildly confused for a moment, but waved back and let her go without any further exchange.

Stepping out into the sunlight, Athena sighed. She hadn’t taken the bus to get here, or driven for herself. Traffic in the city was such an unbearable pain, and she loved exercise too much to pass up the chance, so she’d just come on foot, running all the way from the Wright Anything Agency to the precinct in what she thought might have been record time. Admittedly, her suit jacket, tie, skirt, and leggings weren’t the most practical outfit for running that she owned, and she was feeling a bit sweatier than she liked, but she managed well enough. She reached into her bag, producing her water bottle and taking a lengthy sip. It was about half-full now. That was more than enough hydration for her to run all the way back to the office. With just a moment to slip the bottle back into her bag and tighten the strap, she set off, her bag bouncing against her hip.

Unnoticed by Athena, there remained a passenger stowing away inside her bag. Apollo had backed up to dodge the water bottle as Athena returned it to the bag near him, and now found his previously-relaxing ride to be getting considerably bumpier. Was Athena running?

… Of course she was. Apollo groaned, adjusting himself. This was going to be a long trip.