The leaves fell gracefully and gingerly from the trees in the cool but temperate environment of Miniborough University, creating an attractive swath of color on the faded green and gray surfaces of grass and pavement that littered the schools expansive landscapes.

It was autumn time, mid-October and one of Lexi's favorite times of the year. She loved the season of Autumn. Of course she also loved winter, with its cozy nights in, hot cocoa, Christmas and piles of snow to jump in. She also was rather fond of Spring, its promise of renewal, bloom and the calming, soothing colors that accompanied it. Now that she thought about it, Summer was equally as fun, with its scorching hot weather, allowing for cute and trendy summerwear, trips to the beach, shared fruity drinks with her friends and ... oh screw it, she liked all the seasons.

Things were definitely bustling in this time of year, for her, her friends and her new job at the Krazy Kookie shop, a rather popular hangout for students to grab a quick bite or a coffee in between classes or later during the day. Lexi would work there a few days a week, another favor cashed in by her college friend Chrissy who she had met earlier that semester in a bathroom stall. It's not as weird as it sounds... it's actually weirder.

What wasn't weird was the afternoon rush that was currently crashing down upon the understaffed shop, but thankfully everybody was prepared and well adjusted to handle this.

"We were so not prepared for this!" Lexi's boss, a high-strung 20 something named Stacy would quip, as she shuffled about in the kitchen behind the main counter. Lexi would come over briefly, hearing her boss stress out and nod, but also avert her eyes towards the growing line as a way to show that, while she was supportive, she would need her boss's help. "S-Sorry Lex ... we'll get em... and can I just say you really have been an asset here? It's only been a few weeks but you seem to keep the team together when things get really crazy and well, we appreciate that, we really do"

Lexi would nod and give her taller boss a smug and goofy grin as she'd salute her, her hand meeting the tip of her green visor as she'd go back to manning the coffee station. Funny enough, Lexi wasn't even a big coffee fan but from what she was told, she made a decent one, at least on those afternoons when their regular barista would call out and she'd have to fill in.

With the whole team banding together (what was currently there of them), things were going smoothly enough. Lexi was diligently keeping up with latte orders, while her coworker Melanie was working the register. Stacy was helping people who were picking out pastries and handing them to customers once they were all taken care of, and on the other side of the counter was a gathering of college students and prospective customers examining the menu, while one of them stuffed a pastry in his hoodie pocket and made a hasty getaway through the ... wait what?

Lexi would quickly scoot away from the coffee brewer for a moment and tap Stacy on the shoulder, drawing attention to the young man in the dark green hoodie.

"Stacy?" Lexi would whisper, "That guy over here..."

Stacy would sigh, already seeing it once she pointed it out.

"Sir?" Stacy would speak up, trying to get his attention, but even if he were foolish enough to turn back, her voice would likely be drowned out by the various crowd noise. Of course, Stacy and Lexi weren't the only ones wise to him, as a few other bystanders gave him annoyed looks and a couple even tried to grab at his hands which shielded his pockets from any examination. At this point he had already cleared the exit and there wasn't much that could be done. "...I appreciate you pointing it out Lexi, but there's not much we can do at this point unfortunately ... just kinda sucks because..."

Next thing Stacy knew, Lexi was no longer there, her green apron now hanging on the outside of the counter and the glass door swinging shut again as if somebody else had made their way out.

"Lexi?" Stacy would groan, already knowing her new "go-getter" employee was on the case, but at what cost?

Outside, the pastry thief would be walking at a fairly brisk pace, occasionally checking around his back to make sure nobody was on his tail. Although when he thought about it, what would they do? He stole a small cruller... he was short on cash, he wanted to have something to eat ... they couldn't prove it anyway.

Just in case, he tucked himself behind a couple of buildings, shrouded in some darkness before pulling out his stolen wares. He was about to unwrap the thefted baked good before a strange voice caught his attention. It wasn't strange for any other reason that it was seemingly very squeaky.

"Hey mister?"

"Huh?!"

There stood a brunette woman about 3 inches tall, looking up at him very pathetically and hapless. She wore a white t-shirt and a jean skirt, and in fact looked a lot like the stand-in barista from earlier, minus her green apron. "H-Hi..." she'd squeak, waving shyly, "I'm not gonna hurt you ... well, I mean look at me... how could I?" she'd let out a little giggle as she gazed up at the guilty college student, "What's your name?"

"Wh-What does it matter?" the freaked out college student would shake his head, still in utter disbelief. He had stayed up pretty late the night prior but this seemed like something out of one of those movies where the main character does too many drugs and starts seeing stuff. The gentleman would rub his hazel eyes briefly, brushing some of the unkempt hair away just to make doubly sure he was really seeing what he thought he saw.

"W-Well it matters to me..." the teeny tiny woman would reply, nodding with a sincere smile, "My name's Lexi if that helps ... I'm daring enough to give you MY real name, even though you could ... well, squish me?" she shrugged, not believing for a second the giant gentleman would but still having to point it out.

"I'm Trent..." the remorseful gentleman would respond, unable to look the woman in the eye despite their clear distance size wise.

"Okay, well Trent?" Lexi would squeak, stepping closer slowly, "I'm not going to ... like ... beg you to give that back but ... we both know you took it, right?" she'd nod, again trying not to be accusatory but also just firm.

To this, Trent would nod, still short of unwrapping the pastry entirely as his hands just kind of toyed with it a bit.

"I don't know you ... and you don't know me but I think it would be pretty awesome if you gave that back ... yknow?" Lexi would squeak giving him a warm smile upwards, "It doesn't cost a ton of money, true but a lot of us work hard to make those things and yknow... if they keep getting stolen, then the shop makes less and we can't afford to keep our awesome people employed, yknow? That kinda sucks ... and don't get me wrong, I know what it's like to not have much money ... I'm not exactly living the big life over here, huh?"

To this Trent would reluctantly snicker. It was more than a bit heartwarming to see this lady make light of her condition, and the whole thing felt strangely like the end of a corny Disney movie where some kind of moral was to be learned. In some strange way, the tiny Lexi was serving as his "shoulder fairy" despite not being on his shoulder, and not being a fairy ... if she even existed at all.

"I... I'm sorry..." Trent would sigh, re-wrapping the pastry.

"Hey ... it's okay ... I'm sure you have your reasons but ... I don't know... do what you gotta do, like I said, I won't judge you ... I just ... wanted to say hi ... thanks for not squishing me" Lexi would chuckle, before slowly taking her leave, but not before Trent shouted after.

"H-Hey ... miss?" Trent would shake his head, "I ... I don't really think I'm welcome in there again so ..."

With that he'd set the pastry down by Lexi, the entire thing being just bigger than her entire body. Lexi would nod and give him a thumbs up and a smile. "Th-Thanks..."

"S-Sorry again" Trent would nod, walking away with a hand on his head. He'd reach for his phone when he was a safe distance away, placing a phone call to a friend, "Oh my god, you are not going to believe what just happened to me"

On the other end would be a curious, but hard at work young man named Josh James.

"Oh? What happened?" Josh would ask.

Meanwhile Lexi would walk back into the cookie shop, back to normal size and holding the pastry. Stacy gave her an odd look but didn't even seem super surprised. In fact, this wasn't even the first time Lexi had prevented some kind of theft. She just wondered how she always did it without any confrontation or intervention from campus police.

"Lexi I have NO idea how you do it ..." Stacy would shake her head as the afternoon rush was beginning to slow.

"You just add a couple creams and sugars" Lexi would shrug

"You know what I mean..."

"You just talk to them, yknow?" Lexi would smile, "I think all people are inherently good on the inside and want to do the right thing at the end of the day"

"BANG BANG MOTHERFUCKERS!!" would argue a counterargument from the other side of town, later that night, the brash voice of a criminal who gave zero fucks as she'd shoot at a small crowd of thugs who pursued her.

Dazzling in both her athleticism and her tight taught body, the vigilantess would land atop some crates after firing the warning shots, laying there smugly as if to say "what took you so long" to the few rough and tough men who would flood into the blown out and adandoned apartment building.

"Now ... is it really my fault?" the woman would tsk, smelling the barrel of one of her twin guns as she leaned it against her face, "that I am so much better at your jobs than you are ...? I mean honestly... we're all looking for a piece of the pie, right? I just happened to get to the bakery first..."

With that, the cocky and arrogant young woman, and she was young, likely no more than 20, would stand atop her literal soap box ... well, crate. Her heels clacked with each step she took as it was clear stealth was not a concern to her. "So no hard feelings, okay?"

"Die, you bitch!" one of them would shout, tossing what appeared to be a small grenade her way. Even though the grenade was likely to miss her, as it whizzed past, the woman would tsk, reflexes quicker than her fast talking mouth as she seized the projectile out of mid-air and hurled it back, causing a frantic scream as it would detonate somewhere in the darkness.

"Nice talk, boys" she'd giggle, blowing them a kiss as she leapt off the crates and onto a conveniently parked silver and purple motorcycle, hastily revving up and making her getaway.

The tacky motorbike would predictably emit an ear piercing screech as it revved from 0 to 60 in a ridiculously short amount of time, leaving chaos and confusion in its wake while the swift young vixen made her way back to her hideout, another blown out apartment building where she could park her bike and slip in by removing a couple of well placed planks of wood.

Upon doing so, she'd sigh, letting her body hit the ground with as gentle a thud as could be expected and walk in slyly as if just returning from another 9-5 day at the office. As she'd walk, in addition to the clack of heels would come the very subtle hint of chains, echoing like wind chimes as she walked through her small but well stocked hideaway.

On the dingy walls would hang a few jacked up neon signs, a lava lamp on a makeshift table and a dart board ... just to stay in practice. She'd let out a tired yawn before a large and imposing German shepherd made its way into the room, eliciting an excited moan from the pups owner.

"Hiya Woof..." she'd giggle, rubbing the side of his face as she would then be careful to disarm her twin pistols and set them on a nearby dresser, now focusing her attention on the mutt. "How was your day? I gotcha something..."

She'd head to the small mini fridge and fetch out a steak which she would sling across the room, watching in amusement as Woof would go to town, mangling the piece of beef and letting out happy grunts. Feeling satisfied with her days work, she'd let herself collapse on a bright red beanbag and begin to doze, at least until hearing cop cars and more shooting from outside.

At this, she'd pry open a window and shout, "HEY, KEEP IT DOWN OUT THERE!! SOME OF US ARE TRYING TO SLEEP!!"

It was early Saturday afternoon at the local Miniborough Mall (nicknamed the Mini Mall). It's girders of dark purble and gold a seeming relic of the 1980s, but sometimes that kind of nostalgic comfort is what one needed. Lexi and Leah would get off on many "adventures" there as kids, sneaking off while their parents would be off looking at boring grown up people stuff.

Of course they'd end up spending a decent amount of time there themselves when they got older and now that Leah could drive, well ... she now had the honor of driving her best friend there at random times.

"ANY luck on the car search?" Leah would tease as she sat down with a small salad from a local eatery. Lexi by contrast had a plate of cookies and a smoothie from 'Henry's' -- the small ice cream stand in the mall run by a middle aged recluse named ... you guessed it, Henry.

"I'm looking ... it's just ... the money that's not adding up ... as in.. it doesn't add up to enough" Lexi would blush sheepishly, taking a sip of her smoothie, "MmmmmMMMM, that's good!! Keep it up, Henry!" she'd cheer boisterously towards the middle aged man in the striped ice cream cap who would just sigh and give her a begrudging nod. "I tell ya, Leah, this man is a genius with the dairy products, he just hasn't been discovered yet..."

"So if you're trying to save money, why do we keep coming here exactly?" Leah would retort, taking a careful bite of her salad

"Ummm duh, it's tradition and we don't KEEP coming here, we haven't been here since like August..." Lexi shrugged

"It's OCTOBER now ... not exactly a lifetime" Leah would shrug, taking a sip of her strawberry kiwi punch as she peered around the mall, noticing it definitely wasn't as crowded as it once was.

Part of that may have had to do with the mall's close proximity to Minitropolis, the bigger city which was a bustling hotspot for all manners of things, the most prominent of all lately being the crime unfortunately. It seemed a bad element may have been responsible for a lot of the smaller and larger businesses in the suburbs also seeing some of the effects.

"Well hey, I mean it's been a month or so and we've barely hung out" Lexi shrugged, a point that Leah couldn't deny, "I just want us to ... stay close, yknow?" she'd then look around, noticing Henry had already packed it in for the day, "Hmm, slow day I guess"

"Well what did you wanna talk about?" Leah would ask

"Well ... hey, how about boys?" Lexi would smirk, "I remember before we started you were all excited to meet some hot college boys" Lexi would laugh until she snorted

"W-Well I mean ... h-heh ... knock it off..." Leah would remark as Lexi would playfully try to throw cookies down her blouse, "I mean, there's a couple cuties here and there but ... ugh!" Leah would grunt, trying to retaliate but there was only so much she could do with lettuce as she tried to lob it towards her best friend, it would end up as a wrinkled and sad piece of foliage on the table.

After a little bit of a pause and laughter, Leah would restart the conversation, "well how about you? Anyone on the horizon? What about Chrissy?"

"Heh... I already told you it's not like that" Lexi smirked, although she had hung out with the friendly blonde a few times, when she wasn't geeking out with Josh or Leah.

"Yeah and I keep telling you it so is..." Leah raises an eyebrow, looking over for a moment, seemingly distracted and not in a good way as her eyes hooded down sadly.

"Leah?" Lexi asked, looking over to see the news on the TV monitor she was looking at.

"3 DEAD IN SHOOTING SPREE IN MINITROPOLIS ... LATE NIGHT MOTORCYCLE CHASE CROSSES INTO MIDDLE STREET"

"That's the road my dad lives on ..." Leah groans, "I just hate ... well... I know he can take care of himself but still.."

Lexi would nod, putting her hand on Leah's for a brief moment, "I get it hon... family's important and I don't like all this either ... the other day we were startled awake by some kind of police chase ..."

"I just wish the cops would get their you know what together, yknow?" Leah mentioned

To this Lexi would simply nod, seeing this visibly upset Leah. If only there was something that could be done about it. Her train of thought would be abruptly broken though by Leah bringing her back to reality, and an academic one at that. Ugh.

"Well hey, you ready for the science lab on Thursday?" Leah would ask, referring to the lone class the 2 girls shared in a chemistry class.

"Ugh not really... this with a benson burner? Not a wonderful idea" Lexi tsked

"You realize it's more than that, right?" Leah would add

"I do, why do you think I'm dreading it?" Lexi would joke, finishing off her smoothie as the pair began to take a stroll down the colorful tiled floors of the mall.

Yes, it was true that science was never Lexi's thing, hence why she was going to University for graphic design. However, at that very moment there would be a discussion ongoing at said University with a prospective new student for whom this wasn't the case.

"Well, your qualifications are certainly impressive, Mr. Wright..." Lexi's science professor, Dr. Harpin would say, sitting down with a young man of 20, slicked back black hair and brown eyes. A bit of acne but otherwise a handsome young fellow, although that seemed hardly relevant to his intelligence at this point. "Are you sure you'd be able to catch up on the work this late into the semester?"

"I'm very confident, sir" the young man would answer, an air of confidence, although not arrogance, in his tone. "I'm just looking forward to getting back to school, I've been homeschooled the past few years and I'm really hoping to get that well, college experience"

"Be careful what you wish for Mr. Wright..." Dr. Harpin joked, "it's not all rainbows and roses"

----

"Whoo!" Chrissy would giggle, following a cheer practice with her fellow ladies as they were chatting in the locker room. "Okay so maybe 'rainbow and roses' was a lame theme for our last cheer..."

"I don't know, Rachel seemed to like it" one of the girls would tease, laughing until she snorted

"Oh whatevs..."

As the girls would wrap up their talk and put their bags back in their lockers, one would stop. Chrissy looked around a bit and sniffed, "You smell that?"

"Don't look at me" Rachel scoffed, briefly sniffing her underarm. Chrissy rolled her eyes

"No... I mean ... don't you guys smell..." she'd ask, before lowering her voice a bit, "...weed?"

A hushed murmur befell the crowd. While it naturally wasn't uncommon to smell such a thing on a college campus, it was a bit weird to experience the odor pervading the ladies locker room. From behind the closed door of a shower stall, the smell seemed strongest. The ladies mostly rolled their eyes and just walked away, All except for Chrissy who was determined to investigate.

After all, everybody seemed present and accounted for ... everyone but ...

"Gloria!" Chrissy would gasp, tapping on the shower stall door to see a fully clothed, but toking up Gloria from behind the glass. Gloria would give her an annoyed look, while keeping her blunt tucked down by her waist.

"Ummm.. yes?" the annoyed black haired woman would ask, her eyes appearing a bit ultra focused despite being a little high.

"Gloria what are you doing??" Chrissy asked, with a hushed panicked whisper.

"What does it look like I'm doing...?" Gloria would quip, the blunt still snug between her index finger and thumb, "I'm de-stressing ... what? You never did it"

Chrissy would turn bright red, "W-Well yes I have ... but ... you could get in trouble having that here, you know how our coach is ... plus the new policy on campus?"

"Psh, don't worry about it ... I'll be done in a moment... alright? Geez, when did you become such a goody two shoes?" Gloria scoffed, continuing to smoke up, the aroma becoming more and more obvious. Chrissy would just put her head down and walk away, trying to act as if she saw nothing.

----

Lexi would arrive home later that evening to a shocking sight. Her mom's deep red buick was in the driveway but with a large dent in the right side. Upon seeing that, the worried girl would rush up the stairs to the entrance and come in to see her mom sitting in a seat at the dining room table, looking clearly distraught while her dad consoled her, an arm around her.

"Mom? What happened?" Lexi winced, looking horrified and worried

"It's okay Lexi ..." her mom would sigh, a cold compress pressed to her head, "I was just ... driving through Minitropolis and ..."

"And some jerkoff on a motorcycle cut her off!" her dad would snap, drawing the ire of his wife, "Sorry hon, the whole thing just has me infuriated ... the cops know who this person is, they've been chasing her for weeks and yet she's still out there terrorizing innocent people!"

"So what happened?" Lexi asked again, "somebody hit you?"

"This girl on a motorcycle..." Lexi's mom sighed, "it all happened so fast, she looked like some kind of 80s action movie villain ... leather pants, guns strapped to her waist, the whole 9 yards ... she came out of nowhere and smacked into me and I hit the brakes really fast, as did the car in front of me ... and it was just a whole mess..."

"4 car accident, 1 person critically hurt ..." Lexi's dad would sigh, shaking his head in dismay, "Your mom has a bit of a headache and some minor whiplash but she made it out the best ... I told you to stay out of the city, hon"

"We can't just live in fear of these people..." Lexi's mom sighed.

To this, Lexi would have to agree, but she was still very afraid. Between the incident near Leah's dads and now this accident involving some motorcyle gangster chick, something had to be done. Lexi wasn't sure what but she could no longer idly sit by. She hastily headed upstairs to her room as soon as the direness of the situation died down.

She'd open her dresser drawer and slide out a note, then let out a pensive sigh.

It was time to make a phone call.

A phone would ring from inside a drawer, and its owner would gasp audibly, as if not expecting this call. Of course they always knew it was a possibility but it would appear the time had come. This person would reach for the phone hesitantly, its ring growing louder as it was removed from the drawer.

On the other end, Lexi stood impatient in her room. This was a big risk she was taking ... she really wanted to have nothing more to do with Enormo Enterprises since they ... well, altered her life, sent a small army of crazy drones after her and her friends and ... well, I mean c'mon, that Mad Max guy? Nuff said.

Still she waited for a few rings, then a few more. She was about to hang up when she heard a quiet female voice answer.

"Hello?"

Lexi paused. Still time to hang up. No.

"H-Hi..." Lexi would nod, clearing her throat briefly as if to disguise her voice for some reason.

"Is this ... Alexis Cole?" the girl on the other end would ask.

Lexi was almost tempted to correct her. After all, she hated her full name, but ... eh.

"Yes, this is uh ... she" Lexi answered nervously. This is she? Who the heck says that?

"Alexis..." the voice would suddenly turn a bit more stern, "Are you okay? Have you felt any ... strange disturbances?"

"Um... no? Maybe?" Lexi answered, not really sure what to disclose and what not to. It was obvious from the tone in the note she had received that this person knew more than a decent amount pertaining to what happened to her. Why hide it? Then again, why reveal it?

"Please..." the woman on the phone would implore, her voice sounding a bit more sincere now, "any details you can offer will..."

"Okay" Lexi said, in an equally stern tone, as if she were to be the one setting the terms of the conversation, "Yes."

"Yes?"

"Yes. I have felt ... things..." Lexi gulped, again going back to her awkward self, "I have ... hold on, are we being call monitored? Is this being traced?"

"I promise you this is a private line, Ms. Cole" the lady would reply

"Okay ... because ... uh... never mind" Lexi sighed, tempted to divulge the story about the drones but it was too outlandish to even ponder. Then again, she was about to tell some female scientist that she could shrink so who knows what she'd believe? "...yes I have um... been... um... I don't know the word..."

"My main concern, Alexis... is for your health" the voice would say as calmly as possible, "have you felt woozy? have you had to lay down? is everything ... functioning properly?"

"Ummmmm?" Lexi giggled, but it was a very nervous giggle as she bit her lip, "y-yeah ... I'm ... I'm still me ... a little wooziness here and there but ... no, nothing major..."

"So ... you're fine....?"

"I wouldn't say that either ..." Lexi sighed, "Look, no offense ... what's your name again?"

"Call me Hope"

"No offense, Hope but ... I don't really know you" Lexi sighed

"You called me though" Hope replied

"I ... I did... I was hoping maybe you could ... answer some questions for me?" Lexi asked nervously

"I can try, but you need to help me help you" Hope said in a reassuring tone.

Lexi would nod, pacing the room and even making sure her parents weren't nearby as she eventually settled on her bed.

"I can shrink..." she said very quietly.

"I'm sorry, what did you say, Miss?" Hope asked

"I can shrink!!" Lexi would bark a bit louder before lowering her voice, "I... I can shrink myself ... I can even shrink objects like my clothes ... although it takes an annoying amount of effort ... I can... I'm sorry, you probably think I'm crazy right now"

There was a pause on the other end of the line but it wasn't complete silence. There appeared to be the sounds of writing or maybe even typing coming from the receivers end.

"No, I don't think you're crazy, Ms. Cole" Hope replied, "not at all... I am still concerned for your well being though ... would you be willing to maybe take a few tests? Medical type things? Just to make sure you aren't adversely affected by the ..."

"I'm not doing ANYTHING..." Lexi would say, standing up from the bed and hunching over her phone a bit, as if arguing with a cable company, "...until you give me a little more information on ... what the heck has happened to me! and just what the heck your company even DOES!"

Again, there was a long silence.

"I understand Ms. Cole..." Hope responded, her voice remarkably calm. "The best I can do is provide you some information and maybe something else to help"

"Okay? It's a start I guess?" Lexi responded, sounding understandably skeptical.

"Do you know where Promenade Park is, in East Minitropolis?" Hope asked.

"Ummmm yes?" Lexi nodded along, "Don't tell me you're going to say to go to the tree in the park and find ..."

"Of course not, Ms. Cole..." Hope would respond very matter of factly, "that would be foolish"

"Okay good, because..."

"You're going to go to the park ... and check the trash receptable at the western most point in the park ... 3rd from the entrance if you're coming in from 6th boulevard..."

"What is happening to my life right now?" Lexi would audibly groan.

"I'd be happy to meet you in person, of course" Hope would offer another option

"No! No that's okay ... I'll just ... do the park thing, I guess... should I wear like a black hood or ... what?" Lexi would ask, exliciting a small chuckle from the girl on the other line.

"Just ... come to the park around noon tomorrow if you can, the information will be there. If anything comes up, call me"

At that point, the call would terminate, leaving a very confused Alexis Cole on the other end.

"What have I gotten myself into....?" Lexi would ask herself

Early that next morning Josh would be asking himself that same question,

"What have I gotten myself into...?" Josh asked, deeply engaged in a game of D&D online

"Josh ... you ever wanna do more than just like ... hang out and play video games?" Lexi asked from behind him while laying across a beanbag chair he had on the floor of his dorm room.

"Well yeah, but I have class soon and you said you wanted to talk to me about something, so what's up?" he'd ask

"Actually, I wanted to ask you a couple things" Lexi would nod, sitting up a bit, "You haven't ... heard anything more from Enormo, right? No more weird drones or lasers or ... anything?"

"Oh son of a bitch!" Josh would exclaim, having just lost a battle to a terrible ogre, "Oh... sorry ... um... no, not really, why? I'm also good about staying off the grid if I have to"

"Surprisingly, I believe that..." Lexi would smirk, "So much so, I need to ask you if you have a ..."

"Oh yes!! I rolled a 20!"

"...a police scanner..." the confused Lexi would finish her sentence.

"A police scanner?" Josh asked

"Yeah, I know ... kinda weird..." Lexi would sigh, turning away, "just forget I asked, I'm sure you don't ..."

To that Josh would slide open a drawer under his monitor while he gamed and slide out a few options, "you looking for a 2103 or a 2017-rx? I find you get better reception with the rx but the 2103 is less likely to be detected and has better range ... really, it's all about what you believe on the consumer reports, because they're saying the new 2209 is supposed to be ..."

"Wait wait wait wait wait..." the flustered Lexi would interuppt, "you just HAVE police scanners?"

"I've got like 7 of them" Josh would shrug, "I know people"

"Should I be concerned?" Lexi would ask, taking one of the scanners

"I don't know, should I?" Josh asked, finally closing his game, "not everyday someone asks me for one ..."

"I just ... I'm worried about my parents, and Leah's" Lexi sighed, "There's been a huge crime spike recently and if I can even get a hint of trouble, I'd like to..."

"I'm gonna stop you there" Josh said, "I've been meaning to ask you something myself"

"Oh?"

"Just hear me out here ..." Josh would take a deep breath before asking, "Are you ... a superhero?"

Lexi would blink, a bit dumbfounded.

"I mean ... no..." Lexi nervously chuckled, "no more so than any of us are heroes in our own right or whatnot"

"Well I just ... I mean, you've got the perfect backstory for it" Josh exclaimed

"Oh please not the science lab accident thing again..." Lexi groaned

"You were involved in a science lab accident..."

"ALLEGEDLY!" Lexi interjected

"...you somehow defeated ALL those drones by yourself" Josh would continue, ignoring her.

"Hey, you helped!" Lexi nodded, "let's not forget you helped!"

"Yeah after you used your superpowers on them!"

"Josh, I don't have super powers, I don't... have ... any of that stuff.." Lexi would say but something in her statement felt weird as her voice wavered. In her heart, she knew comics and the such were make believe but she HAD used her powers to help her friend out. She had also been using her powers intermittently to stop some petty thefts. Maybe she WAS a superhero? No, that's ridiculous. Random college aged girls don't become superheroes. They also don't shrink out of their clothes and chase down cookie thiefs masquerading as a tiny conscience.

"Eh, maybe you're right" Josh would shrug, suddenly dropping the point altogether, "but hey if you ever need anything else, feel free to ask"

"Th-Thanks Josh, I ... I will... and thanks again for the scanner" Lexi would smile.

As for Lexi herself, she was late for a date with destiny ... well, actually her name was Hope. Actually ... just never mind.

A short time later, Lexi would find herself at the Promenade Park, a few dollars poorer from having taken some Uber rides and she'd scour the park while also trying not to look too weird as the public place was littered with people. Kids who would be climbing up on the monkey bars and said parents trying to corral said kids. She'd pass the small fountain in the center of the park and smile.

Minitropolis, or at least parts of it, really could be beautiful if you really just took a second to stop and look and listen ...

"IS THAT ALL YOU GOT, BITCHEZ?!!!" a cackling biker girl would broadcast, blazing down the adjacent road with reckless abandon as 1 cop car became 2 and quickly 3, all in pursuit of her as she weaved down a nearby dark alleyway.

"I'm sorry the kids had to see and hear that..." Lexi would think to herself before realizing the appearance and sound of the reckless biker chick pretty much matched that of her mom's assailant, as well as the one who caused so much injury -- and maybe even death -- in the city not too long ago.

As she pursued this information from Hope, she couldn't help but feel like it was somehow her duty to take this on. Maybe Josh was right ... maybe Leah was right about the police not being equipped to stop this threat. But was she? A random college aged girl who had been exposed to a lab accident? Oh great, it's turning into a superhero backstory, isn't it?

Mumbling to herself, Lexi would reach the desired location and peek inside.

"Really? All the way at the bottom?" she'd think to herself, noticing a lone packet of papers and ... something else buried deep in the trash can. She'd reluctantly reach down and seize the packet before scurrying off.

"Mommy, did that girl just reach into the trash?" a little kid would ask from a bench.

"Yup. I'm a real hero..." the young Alexis Cole thought to herself.

Jackson's Jewelers in the center of Minitropolis was one of the premier jewelry stores in the area. Not an overly big setting but still well known for their rare gemstones, diamonds and a common place for gentlemen to buy that special someone a big engagement ring. Well, unfortunately they were also a hotspot for criminal activity and tonight would be no different.

Shortly after the lights went out, a lone motorcycle would growl menacingly as it approached the side of the building and out would step the sly jewel thief herself. Unbeknownst to her, a few others had the same idea, wearing somewhat generic black winter hats and bullet proof jackets.

Unbeknownst to the thugs however was another person, perhaps a little less experienced. Emphasis on "little"

"Okay Lexi..." the brave heroine would whisper to herself in a last minute attempt to motivate herself, "you can do this ..."

What am I doing?" the counterpoint would argue in her head, "What am I going to do, small them to death?"

She'd shake her head quickly and in turn whisk away any negative thoughts. She could do this. After all, she was ShrinkingGirl ... wait, no ShrinkGirl. Yes, ShrinkGirl had a much better sound to it.

Lexi would watch intently as the criminals triangulated on the location of the jewelry store, her police scanner notifying her earlier to be on the lookout for suspicious activity. To that end, she'd see a police patrol car once in a while make its rounds around the block. She wasn't worried about them however. She was just an average college aged girl wearing a sweatshirt and long pants as she jogged around by the side of the jewelry store. There was certainly nothing more to it than that.

By the time she got to the side of the building, the biker chick was gone but her bike remained. She examined the bike for just a moment, a shiny purple and chrome motorcycle with plenty of scratches on its outer chassis. It had definitely seen some time on the road and likely been in a few gunfights as well.

"That is nice..." Lexi had to admit to herself as she found herself involuntarily brushing the stark steel surface, noting a few customizations on it in the form of graffiti like painting. One side had a skull and crossbones with a pink outline and a winking eye instead of the usual open one.

The most telling clue of all though was a name scratched into the side of the bike

"ROXIE"

Lexi would take a deep breath and sigh.

No time to get off focus now. It was time to shrink...

"Let's get little..." she'd utter to herself, realizing she probably needed a better catchphrase.

Still, she felt the warmth of the nanites activate as the shrinking process suddenly became a bit more smooth than she was used to. There was still the discomfort of shrinking out of her sweatshirt but she was prepared, for underneath she donned a sleek purple outfit, borrowed from her cheerleading days and a pair of gold short shorts, both of which shrank with her, along with her purple sneakers as the now mini Lexi escaped from her sweatshirt and began her quest towards an air-duct at the lower end of the building.

But wait? How had Lexi just done that? Where did the nanites come from? Why was she dressed like a wannabe superhero?

For those answers, we'd have to back up a bit.

At this point, young Alexis Cole was just bringing her much sought after answers from the trash can into her room ... yeah, I suppose that's a weird sentence.

Upon opening the thick file folder, Lexi would find information not too dissimiliar from that which Josh had shown her earlier. It was a whole detailed multi-page document going over the details of PROJECT DELTA, complete with diagrams and analyses, as well as projections for what could happen if a human was exposed to the technology.

"It is the hope of the company" Lexi would read, "that in a few years time, humans could be molecularly modified to be compatible with this revolutionary technology involving manipulating electrical fields to alter ones size."

Funny enough, the document also went over the hitches, risks and possible pitfalls of attempting such a thing.

"I suppose that's why Hope wanted to know if I'm okay..." Lexi thought to herself, touching her own face in concern a bit. At times she would feel some temporary numbness in fingertips, likely a side effect of electrical neurons being altered. She hadn't lost feeling in her nerve-endings or anything but she had felt different, even when she wasn't shrinking.

What was stranger still were further projections and analysis that in time the power of the affect subject could even transfer to others. In other words, they could alter OTHER'S sizes, even those who weren't effected by the treatment administered. Lexi would raise a brow at this. Clearly she had become an experimental pawn in what was already an experiment not ready to be released to the public. Then again, she had to admit it was more than partially her fault, sneaking into that lab that day.

Even so, it was the other packet that Hope had included which had the would-be heroine interested. Inside were several wet-nap style pouches that were labeled with generic logos but read "size adaptive nanites" "warning: experimental"

"Yeah, no shit..." Lexi would mumble to herself, cautiously tearing open one of these packets to see a silvery powder inside. "What do I do, add water?" she thought internally before noticing the powder was slowly finding its way out of the pouch but not in a way one would expect powder to behave. It was becoming almost liquid in nature. It would land on the carpeted surface of Lexi's floor and even expand a bit upon hitting the surface, sending Lexi chasing after it a few steps. She'd step on the moving puddle and to her shock it would wrap itself around the young woman's shoe.

"Wait ... does this mean what I think it means?" Lexi asked herself.

It did seem the clinging matter was being strangely obedient now that it had adhered itself to Lexi's right shoe. She couldn't be sure until she tested it on more clothes so naturally she did just that. But where to begin? It would have to be something I don't care too much about getting ruined if this doesn't work.

For this, Lexi would go deep into her closet, the other packets sitting benign on her bed while she sought the garments that would serve as her own experiment. For this, she'd pick out 1 of her old cheerleading outfits. She had so many of them and they were from a bygone era, so ... I mean, why not, right? She'd lay a stretchy purple leotard onto the bed and pull it taught.

"Here goes ... this...." Lexi would shake her head, dabbing the powder from another packet onto the purple cheer uniform, watching it take a similar behavior, blending into the fibers on the garment, while keeping the color intact.

"Science ... I guess" Lexi shrugged, not sure how else to explain whatever she had just watched. She'd change into the cheer outfit once she repeated the treatment on the coordinating pair of gold shorts. "Okay, let's uh ... do this thing..."

To her surprise, she'd close her eyes and undergo the shrinking transformation and find that the effected clothes shrank with her very smoothly this time.

"Huh. I'll be damned ... maybe not everything Enormo makes is total crap"

Of course a fancy new outfit would only get Lexi so far against these thugs and whatever else she was in for.

She had certainly gotten lucky that her "secret connection on the inside" was willing to help her, but of course Hope nor nobody else knew what she was planning on using these things for. She had the outfit, she had the ... superpower? I guess ... and she definitely had the attitude. She of course took it personally that this Roxie chick had injured her mom and busted up her car. She wasn't out for revenge but she was definitely seeking justice. There was no reason why the people walking the streets of Minitropolis or its neighboring area shouldn't be able to enjoy the safety they were entitled to.

Before she could deal with that though, she'd have to deal with another hurdle, a more literal one in the form of the jewelry stores internal security system as a rather complex web of lasers spread its way throughout the airducts like tendrils.

"Hmmm, does this make me no better than the criminals if I evade detection?" the morally responsible Lexi would ask herself. This question would have to wait though as she heard the clattering from above. It seems at least a couple of the thugs found another way in so she'd have to deal with what she had in front of her.

"Here's goes something" Lexi would whisper, dashing towards an intersection of laser beams forming an X in her path. She'd slide to the right and then quickly scramble to her feet, lest she get detected by the next beam or the one placed just a few inches further. Of course, a few inches was a relative measure of distance at this point as the heroine herself would only be about that tall in height as she weaved her way amongst the menacing red beams, making the tiniest of thuds and thunks as she'd have to occasionally pin herself to the metal walls to sidle by.

As she got closer to her destination, she could hear voices growing louder, in some cases literally since the people gathered in the other room were likely giants to her now.

"Alrighty boys" the overly arrogant Roxie would state, her hips swaying as she paced about, a single .45 aimed at the other 2 men, moving side to side as if on a metronome, "who wants the first bullet? Don't worry, you all get one"

"For fucks sake, you're outnumbered, and we have more coming ..." one of the men would retort

"Oh? So you'd like to volunteer? Works for me...." the sure handed Roxie would giggle, gun held straight out as she cocked it with a click.

Lexi had a front row seat to this possible homicide as she peered through the grates of the air ducts from below. She was small enough to slip through them but what was her next play. She didn't have much time to decide. While Roxie did her song and dance, gloating as she paced back and forth, Lexi was closing the distance fast, lining herself up with the biker chicks shiny black leather boot.

"And a 1... and a 2..." Roxie would giggle, taking delight in playing with her prey. She'd finally rest her finger firmly on the trigger and ... miss? She never misses! Or at least she wouldn't have, except for a certain speeding mini-heroine who suddenly wasn't so mini.

Lexi er... ShrinkGirl had dashed into the young woman's boot with enough force to trip her up. Of course a 3 inch punch in the shin wouldn't do too much but she had begun the regrowth process upon striking the blow, knocking Roxie's aim off by a few inches and now stood at full height, having plowed her over. The other 2 men were stunned seeing the sudden appearance of this 20 something girl in purple and gold. What the hell was going on?

"What the hell is going on?" the other man would snap, seemingly angrier than the one who had just been shot at.

"The fuck, you think I know? Is she with you guys?" Roxie asked, pointing her other gun, a blue painted .45 in Lexi's direction.

"Now now, we don't need to take sides" Lexi would interject

"Nobody asked you!" Roxie retorted, wasting no time in taking a shot, and she'd probably hit too, except Lexi would yelp and shrink, seemingly invisible now as she blended into the conrete, briefly, leaving everybody, even the unshakable Roxie stunned. "What in the fuckin..."

Whilw Roxie seemed unfocused, one of the men would shove her to the side, which unfortunately trigger an alarm as enough of her weight leaned on the glass to set a small flashing light off.

"Shit, we gotta go!" one of the men stated, taking off and leaving Roxie a bit worse for wear.

Meanwhile, Lexi would cautiously tip toe around the precarious scene, navigating the circumference of the young woman's boot, a distance that could likely be covered in about 2 seconds if not for her tiny stature. As soon as she was close enough, she'd regrow herself and try to wrestle the red gun from Roxy's right hand while she had a chance but she neglected the fact that the villainess was dual wielding and quickly found herself at a disadvantage as the conniving Roxie had the silver blue barrel now pressed to Lexi's chin.

"So ... what do we call you, huh? Bug girl?" Roxie would smile, a wide toothy grin that implied mischief and horror.

"Wh-What do you mean?" Lexi asked, body shaking as her heart raced, the cold unfeeling steel of the gun's chamber resonating with her as it seemed to match the tenor of the cold woman in front of her.

"Oh don't play dumb ..." Roxie would smirk, raising an eyebrow, "it was actually kind of cute ... you doing your little ... well, little thing ... do it again, huh? Get nice and tiny ..."

At this point Lexi didn't know what to think. Was this a game? Was Roxie about to kill her? Was her name even really Roxie or did she just name her own motorcycle that? These are all things that raced through the troubled heroine's mind at that point.

"Cmon... just wanna see you do that magic trick again" Roxie repeated, her voice strangely calm, almost child-like as she continued to press the gun's barrel to Lexi's chin, "no pressure... okay, maybe a little pressure"

Lexi would give her a glare but her fear still showed clearly through her trepidation.

"Look toots," Roxie would shrug, her smile fading to a look of indifference, "we got maybe 5 ... 10 minutes tops til the cops show up ... I know how to deal with them ... I doubt you do ... you look like you're late for comic-con, no offense"

Lexi was tempted to return an insult about Roxie's over-stylized look but decided to keep it to herself, given the situation.

"Look, there's no way someone like you ... got in here ... with no experience and got through without tripping any alarms ... unless you did some crazy ass shit ... and what I just saw you do just now?" Roxie nodded, showing she had some intelligence to go with that snarkiness, "...that was some crazy ass shit ..."

"Why are you doing this?" Lexi would find herself asking, her head shaking nervously against the pressure of the gun, as beads of sweat were forming all along her body

"Doing what? Just looking for a good time" Roxie would shrug matter of fact, her other hand clenching her red .45 just in case. "Girl's gotta have some hobbies"

"B-But you're so young...." Lexi would reply, her voice almost broken as she seemed notably upset about this, "I ... I don't get why you'd...."

"What's there to get, cheer girl?" Roxie barked, taking the gun off Lexi's chin and now shoving her in the chest a bit, "yeah that's right, I noticed ... looks like standard issue cheer gear ... bet you went to some nice high school your parents paid for and you live a nice twinkly amazing life..."

To this Lexi would stammer, continuing to back away a bit.

"What's your name, bug girl?" Roxie asked, cocking the gun again and aiming it for Lexi's chest

"Huh?"

"What's your name, you fucking bitch or do I need to waste you?"

"Lexi! My name's Lexi!" Lexi would shout out loud, instantly regretting it, hanging her head as the sweat continued to pool, now dripping down her hair as her eyes would also pool moisture in the form of tears. She was terrified and her only way out may be to make the situation more terrifying for herself if she were to shrink.

"Well ... Lexi...." Roxie would smirk, taking slow methodical steps towards the colorfully dressed heroine, "maybe ... I kinda like you?"

"Huh?"

"Yeah" Roxie shrugged, "I mean ... if I didn't, you'd be splattered all over that wall by now ... so maybe I really like you ... or MAYBE I just wanna see what you'd look like as a cute little bug ... I know you can do it but you won't show me ... that's fine ... probably something you have to pay for, right? Maybe on your only fans page? Or MAYBE ... I'm just stalling you for time until the cops get here and I blame this all on you"

To this Lexi would turn and run, shrinking in the process, much to Roxie's delight.

"Nuh uh uh!" Roxie would smirk, using the barrel of her red .45 to bust open another glass case, she'd grab an overturned cup that had been used to display a watch and quickly pounce on the little heroine, trapping her in it like a plastic cup but sturdier.

Lexi would scream, seeing her own reflection on the glass walls. Now she knew how a fish felt.

"Hehehehehehe, this is great ... can I keep you?" Roxie giggled, carefully digging her gloved hand underneath the cup and acting as a "floor" for Lexi as she slowly raised the cup up and set her on a counter, just giggling down at her diminished foe.

"Soooo yeah...." Roxie would continue to gloat, her body casting a massive shadow over Lexi as her finger swarmed in and poked the glass prison, emitting several small shockwaves in reverbations, "I think we're going to stick with the name BugGirl for now..."

"It's ShrinkGirl!!" Lexi would squeak, her voice basically drowned out between being under glass and the fact that Roxie was relatively far away

"What was that? Can't hear ya but hey ... hit me up if you find a way out of this one ... maybe call me from prison!" Roxie would wink, making a mad dash for the exit as the blue and red lights outside began to form.

"Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck...." Lexi would think to herself, heart racing even more than before. Is this how it would end? Her first ever mission as a hero? Caught? Under a glass of all things? It was so generic and degrading and ... no. Not like this...

Looking around, Lexi realized she couldn't grow back ... not unless she wanted head trauma or worse from bursting through glass. She took a peek down at the floor as best she could. She wouldn't have much time to pull this off but she had to try. She'd throw herself at the glass surface as if she were a hockey player going for a check but come up short, groaning in pain as her shoulder and upper arm throbbed. She had succeeded in moving the glass maybe an inch though.

"Fuck ... there's no other way ..." she'd sigh, a bit too weakened to try that manuever again but she'd lean on the glass as hard as her little body could and try to push it further and further towards the edge of the counter. By now a few cops had poured into the building but they weren't likely to notice the slow moving glass on the counter so much as they were all the damage in the store and evidence of a gunfight.

"Just a little ... more...." Lexi groaned, pushing until she could see some light below her.

"Well..." Lexi thought to herself, "how fast can you shrink?"

She exhaled as she pondered her next move. It wasn't just shrinking, she would have to grow back so she didn't wound herself falling from the height of the counter, then quickly shrink back before she was spotted and try to get out the same way she came. At this point, setting off ANOTHER alarm (if she tripped the laser grid) wouldn't be as big a deal since ... well, the cops had already arrived on the scene.

No more stalling. It was go time.

Lexi would take a deep breath and feel the plunge as she let herself slide down a bit, growing back only for a moment to lessen the fall. That moment may have been just enough for someone on the police force to spot her though as she'd hear someone yell out, "hey you!"

Everything else became a blur from there as Lexi ran, shrinking herself as fast as she could but was it fast enough? She'd have no time to know as she simply slipped through the air duct grates and made her way back outside, noticing swarms of police cars.

Roxie's bike and presumably Roxie herself were nowhere to be seen at this point.

"Fuck..." Lexi thought, breaking down and leaning on a single loose brick among a pile of debris in the flickering alley by the police cars, "th-that was fucking awful..."

The tiny Lexi would slump off in defeat, unable to grow back and give away her location. The trek that ensued would feel like miles before she felt she was at a safe distance to switch sizes again, and even worse a series of very conflicting thoughts were battling in her head.

Why did I decide to do this? What was my plan if I had somehow been successful? Did the cops see me at all sneaking out? Why can't I stop thinking about Roxie?

"Roxie ..." Lexi would continue to mutter, even into the early morning as she was somewhat trembling at the breakfast table, staring blankly into her bowl of rice crispies with milk, "Roxie ..."

"What'd you say, dear?" Lexi's mom would ask

"Huh? Oh .. uh ... MOXIE ... Moxie cola is uh ... awful" Lexi sputtered, trying quickly to snap out of it.

But of course she was still stunned from the encounter the night before, the thrill of it all, the near death experiences ... the woman with the nice blonde hair and long legs? Wait, what? No! Ugh ...

"Are you okay hon?" Lexi's now worried mom would ask, "you look awful ..."

"Thanks mom..." a very demoralized Lexi would answer as she took small gulps of her cereal breakfast

"Well, where were you last night?" Lexi's dad would ask, joining the conversation a bit late as he sat down

"I was uh ... with Leah ... studying" Lexi nodded quickly with a smile to cover up any potential super sized secrets.

"Oh well that explains it" he would chuckle a bit

"Whattaya mean?"

"You didn't study at all! You 2 were probably up all night talking boys or something" Lexi's dad would respond

"You really think that's what we girls do all night, huh?" Lexi asked, matter of factly.

"Why yes ... yes I do" Lexi's dad would smugly smirk.

Lexi rolled her eyes as she continued to attempt focusing on her breakfast.

Honestly, some boy trouble would be welcomed at this point.

----

"I'll tell you what's NOT welcomed right now" Leah would say confidently as the duo later traveled the halls down towards their impending science lab, "some boy trouble"

"Huh?" Lexi would ask, as if to ask who was putting the hidden cameras on her conversations.

"Oh Lex, you know me..." Leah chuckled, now walking backwards to face her friend as she skipped ahead of her, "I get my mind on boys, or hell, any distraction and my grades start to crumble but not this year ... no, this'll be the year of a new Leah Henderson ... the Leah Henderson who gets ... straight A's ... I've got my eyes on the prize and I'm ready to rock!"

With that, the cute and sometimes feisty Leah would gesture heroically, her goal in mind, her focus unwavering, her best friend looking like she was quite shaken up.

"Um... Lex? You doing okay? You look awful" Leah would pout, coming in closer to inspect her.

Lexi's eyes appeared drawn, even a bit bloodshot, and her usually thin but effective coat of makeup was nowhere to be seen, not that she had needed it but her face did appear to have some scarring on it.

"Were you in a fight?" Leah asked, sincerely worried

"Huh? Me ... psh, no ..." Lexi would chuckle nervously, "you know what I always say, kill em with kindness"

"Hmm,...." Lexi would think to herself as the conversation continued, "maybe kill em with kindness could be a good slogan ... certainly better than the current one of "ahh no, please don't squish me!""

"Well, I hope somebody kills you with a hug" Leah sighs, giving her friend a spontaneous embrace. To her slight disappointment though, the hug had little to no effect. Lexi felt a bit limp even, barely responding or smiling. Something was definitely troubling her friend and while she didn't want to pry, she felt concerned.

"It's okay Leah, really" Lexi answered, eventually producing a smile and trying to usher herself into the science class with Leah. After all, it was their one class together and nothing was going to get in the way of their academic friendship enhancing time.

On an unrelated note, it wasn't soon after, that the science professor Dr. Harpin would make an announcement that would surely in no way alter that original plan for the girls.

"I'd like to introduce our new student, he's joining us a bit late but please welcome Mr. Justin Wright"

At that moment, would emerge a new contender for Leah's heart. The somewhat shy, but physically striking young Justin Wright would just kind of nod and acknowledge his existence in the class before returning to his seat, a decent distance away from the 2 chattering best friends.

"Now I trust you've all studied up and are ready for today's chem lab?" Mr. Harpin would say, "since Justin is joining us late, he'll have to pair up with an existing group..."

"Ugh God, who would volunteer to join a science class?" Lexi mumbled, her grogginess catching up with her again as her head began to slip between her arms while sitting at the desk, "I can't even keep up and I've been in this damn thing since it started..." she'd add with a drowsy slur.

Leah would normally be more attentive but something about this boy, this Justin, caught her attention. He was attractive, for sure but he wasn't smug about it, nor cocky... nor even overly confident. He also liked science or so it appeared. She tried not to stare too long in his direction, but it was only natural that he would eventually perceive someone glancing his way and when he did, Leah was quick to duck a bit, as if to pretend the stare never happened.

"Lexi..." Leah would whisper awkwardly over, "I... think I may have a problem"

Lexi would raise her head long enough to surmise the situation and come to her own conclusion.

"Huh? Him?" Lexi would shrug, before flopping her head back down on the desk, "yeah, he's alright I guess"

"Lexi.... cmon..." Leah whispered

"What happened to eyes on the prize and ready to rock ... I thought you were the new Leah Smendersons... or ..." Lexi would mumble and bumble some more, consciousness fading as her head again rested on the desk.

"Lexi that's not even my last name and you know it" a miffed Leah replied.

"Ladies ..." the stern but fair Mr. Harpin would chime in, hearing their idle chatter as it was a clear source of distraction to the rest of the class, "it would seem you're volunteering?"

"Hmm? For what?" a dazed and confused Lexi would ask

"Mr. Wright needs a lab group for today ... would you and Leah be able to cease your disruptive chatting long enough to get him up to speed?" Mr. Harpin proposed. To this, Leah would be beyond delighted.

"Sure! I mean, yes ... we could ... do that ..." the outspoken, then quickly soft spoken Leah would pipe up and blush as the student next to them vacated their seat to allow Justin to sit near them.

Lexi was happy for Leah, naturally. She wasn't showing it but Leah was definitely excited, if not a bit nervous to have the new boy joining them for the science lab. Unfortunately so many thoughts of anxiety and dread currently rattled in Lexi's brunette head that it may have suffocated any happiness she'd normally feel towards her best friend or hell, even the effort to get to know this Justin fellow. After all, she had to vet the potential new beau.

"So how long you 2 know each other?" the soft spoken Justin would ask with a curious chuckle in his voice as he sat down,

"Huh?" Leah would ask, not expecting the question

"Well it seems you 2 are like super tight... not hard to notice" Justin responded with a shrug, "think it's kinda cute"

Leah would try to contain a very odd sounding squeal and would mostly succeed, although some noise would escape from her lips. Lexi would raise a brow at this. "Keep it smooth, Leah..." she'd say in mind, somehow hoping the message would find its way into her friends head through some kind of psychic connection. Of course Leah was smart enough herself to know she was overreacting but she could feel the nerves mounting.

"We've known each other basically our whole lives" Lexi responded, perking herself up long enough to make a good showing. Tired or not, she wanted to help her friend out here. "Our parents lived next door when we were kids and ... I don't know, we just kinda started hanging out, went to grade school, high school and now college together"

"Wow, that is ... super rare" Justin nodded, seemingly impressed, "like for real ... I've been to like 4 schools in my life and never got the chance to make friends like that, then I was home schooled for a while before I finally talked my dad into letting me come here"

"Oh? What's your dad do?" Leah asked, before blushing a bit, "sorry, if that's a bit personal"

"Oh no, it's fine ... he's a therapist and uh ... has a hobby for science, I know Professor Harpin really talked me up there but I honestly don't think I'm that great at it ... I don't know a test tube from a beaker" Justin shrugged

"See? I told you it wasn't obvious!" Lexi chimed in, as if this was some great point of contention amongst the two.

As the conversation continued, the group would migrate down the hall towards the chemistry lab for the practical part of the exam. A dissheveled Lexi would fumble with her books, trying to locate her science journal before finally fishing it out. Meanwhile, Leah was seemingly more organized and maybe even gaining some confidence as she sat across from her male lab partner.

Also distracting to Lexi was the presence of a vibration in her pocket, signaling a phone call coming her way. It would ring a few times before signaling a voicemail. Shortly thereafter would be another alert, which was likely a text message. She would try to shake off the distraction as she clumsily climbed onto her seat, her fingertip on the left hand briefly sparking and causing a brief shock as she made contact with the counters metal surface. She'd yelp a bit, drawing a raised eyebrow look from both Justin and Leah.

"You okay there?" Leah asked

"Heh, yeah ... just ... that kinda morning I guess" Lexi shrugs, a goofy smile on her face. As hard as it may have been, she was determined to at least try to smile through the mental and somewhat physical pain she was in.

"Well ... hope things improve for you" Justin would chime in, trying to be friendly to both his new lab partners as he'd comb through his chemistry textbook for the chapter they were on, "so ... covalent bonds, huh?"

"Yeah ..." Leah would nod, as if she was keeping up. She had retained the term of course, but she wasn't sure she quite believed the young man who had said he wasn't proficient in science. There had to be some reason he was accepted into the college level course more than a month in.

"Um... could you two excuse me one moment?" Lexi would chuckle nervously, her vision again fluttering down to her cell phone real quick to see a few missed calls, "I need to ... check on something"

She'd dismiss herself from the lab table for the time being, passing it off as a bathroom break while also giving Leah a bit of a wink and a nod, as if to say 'now's your chance to talk to him'

Leah would nod back and Justin would quickly interject with his next line of dialogue.

"So ... Lexi, she's pretty cool, huh?" Justin would ask.

At this, Leah's heart would sink, just a little bit but she'd try to hide it as best she could, although her body language heavily suggested she was uncomfortable as she squirmed in her seat, just a tad.

"Oh? Well yeah, of course ... she's just a bit tired right now, she's usually a bit more chipper" Leah answered, trying to force a smile but it came off as more of a goofy laugh followed by a snort.

"I mean, sorry ..." Justin chuckled a bit nervously, "if that sounded a bit forward, she's just kinda ... cute... I guess"

Again, Leah's head would dip.

"Y-Yeah I get it ..." the dejected Leah sighed

"Hmm? What's wrong?" Justin asked, not expecting the reaction he got.

"Oh? It's ... nothing..." Leah answered, voice trailing off

"No, tell me" Justin insisted, his face looking sincere with concern.

Elsewhere, Lexi was off attending to her own concerns. Just who had called her? Hope? Her parents? Josh? Did his checkered past finally catch up with him? She was told to enact something called "Memory Wipe Exodus" if that were the case but she wasn't quite confident enough in remembering all those locker combinations to pull it off.

No. Instead it was Chrissy. 2 missed calls and a text.

The text said "Lexi, I'm freaking out right now ..."

Lexi would pan her head down, from inside the bathroom stall, not too unlike the circumstances under which she and Chrissy first met and she'd press the phone receiver to her ear to hear the voicemail.

"Lexi ..." Chrissy would say over the phone, her voice rattled and a bit muffled from other interference as it sounded like she was walking through a breezy alley, "I... I've been suspended from cheer team ... and I may be in trouble with the cookie shop ... they found a blunt in my jacket ... I told them it wasn't mine but ... I have no proof... shoot Lexi, I can't lose this job, and my position on cheer team, not to mention other disciplinary action ... I mean, yes I've done weed, but I don't carry it on me, I'm not that dumb, yknow? Oh shoot, I don't know why I called you, Lex, I'm really sorry, you're probably in class right now ... but you just have this bubbly way about you, I don't know ... could we maybe talk about this or something? I think I know who set me up ... but ... ugh ... I don't know why I'm talking this way, I'm really sorry ... just ignore this"

Lexi would frown deeply as she put her phone to her side.

If there's one thing Alexis Cole doesn't do (and honestly, there are many such things) its ignore a friend in need.

"Now what is it you were saying?" Justin asked as he walked alongside Leah, "we couldn't really talk much about it because of well ... class, but you were saying something about Lexi?"

"I ... I don't mean to come off as ... 'that girl'..." Leah rolled her eyes as she clutched her books tight to her chest

"Hey, science, am I right?" Lexi would retort in a spunky manner, catching up to the two as they had shuffled themselves out of the classroom a bit earlier than she. She, of course had a mission in mind, to find her friend Chrissy and console her by any means necessary, but she was still invested in the current budding romance (maybe?) between Leah and this newcomer. "I thought that would never end"

"It may never end for you..." Leah teased, "if Mr. Harpin makes you resubmit your lab proposal"

"I didn't think it was that bad..." Lexi frowned, crossing her arms.

"No no not at all, making jet fuel from baking soda and pickle juice ... certainly a new one..." Justin would tease

"You're lucky I'm in a hurry, Mister..." the contentious Lexi replied

"In a hurry? Oh? Work again?" Leah asked

"No ... well, kinda ... my friend Chrissy needs a pick me up" Lexi nodded

"Oh? Is she okay?"

"Um... not really, but I'm gonna do my best to ... yknow, cheer her up" Lexi nodded, sort of scurrying away a bit preoccupied.

Leah looked on with some admiration, watching Lexi depart. It was nothing new to her, of course. She was used to seeing Lexi pretty much give as much as she could of herself to raise someone else's spirits. She already knew Lexi herself was likely not in the best headspace, yet there she was again going all out for a friend.

"She's cool ... your friend Lexi" Justin repeated, watching her leave as well, "but I wanted to know more about you, actually ... if you don't mind of course"

"Me? Well..." Leah replied, suddenly flushed and a bit taken aback as one of her books would start to slide out of her wavering grip. Thankfully she caught it before it became a spill.

"Is that ... good? You seem ... surprised almost" Justin would nod, suppressing a chuckle. Not at the books almost falling but at Leah's flustered mannerisms.

"Well ... I was trying to say before ... as kids and even ... later ... my friend Lexi got all the attention from boys ... heck, from girls too ... she's uh ... bisexual" Leah nodded, explaining, "and I mean, I'm not jealous, she's really cool and yeah ... I don't blame them. Funny enough she hasn't really been in many relationships though, I don't know why I'm talking about this, I'm sorry ..."

"Heh, it's fine, really" Justin shrugged, finding himself more and more comfortable with the chatty brunette as they continued their walk down the hallway, eventually coming to the exit of the academic building and emerging outside where it was a fairly nice day for mid-autumn. "You uh ... have some extra time?"

"I might..." Leah blushed, trying futitely to hide her growing grin, "why's that?"

"Thought maybe we could grab a bite?" Justin asked, sounding a bit shy himself now

"That would be cool, yeah" Leah replied with a friendly nod and a smile, hoisting her books up again to try to keep them in a manageable position, "may just ditch my stuff at my dorm first"

"But of course" Justin smiled.

It's funny how life works out sometimes, Justin would think to himself.

-----

There would be a knock on a door on the other side of campus after a hasty Lexi made her way down there, stopping at the dorm room of her friend Chrissy. The one who had been so kind as to provide her with a job opportunity, friendship and a decent pair of University official sweatpants.

There would be a long pause, to the point where Lexi considered her friend may not even be present, so she began to walk away before the door slowly would jar open.

"Lexi?" Chrissy asked, her voice sounding strained and tired. It wasn't immediately physically apparent but the signs were there that she had been crying. "I told you not to ..."

Lexi wouldn't let her friend go another word further without throwing herself into her for a hug, laying her head on the warm shoulder of the caring blonde.

"You have done so much for me already, Chrissy..." Lexi would murmur, talking into Chrissy's shoulder moreso than towards her ear, "and I could tell right away you needed me, so here I am..."

The more the hug lingered, the more Chrissy would find herself turning red, while also noticing how long Lexi clung to her. If she didn't know any better, she'd say the feeling was mutual in that regard, so rather than break off the hug, she simply let it go on for as long as Lexi wanted.

Lexi would finally take a deep breath, allowing herself to return to a more stable emotional space and continue the chat

"You said you think you know who did it?" Lexi asked, sounding suddenly deliberate. It was quite the change in tone from the consoling girl she was not even a moment ago

"Well yeah .. I mean, I THINK anyway..." Chrissy nodded, "...actually yeah, it really doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out, now that I look at it"

"Who then?"

"...Gloria" Chrissy said, crossing her arms, seeming none too happy to be accusing her fellow cheerleader but also one could see the derision on her face, the anger and the feeling that she had been cheated and betrayed.

"What makes you think it was her?" Lexi asked

"She reeked of weed that day, and she had a blunt in the locker room ... not her first time either but I finally called her out on it and she might've ditched it in my jacket or backpack or ... something I don't know ... but it's not like I can prove it ..." Chrissy sighed

Lexi turned away, looking a bit miffed. She turned back towards Chrissy after thinking some.

"Where is she now?"

"Huh? W-Well why does that matter?" Chrissy asked

"Please hon, where do you think she could be?" Lexi asked

"Pr-Probably at practice but ..." Chrissy stammered, not certain if she followed

"Okay" Lexi nodded

"Wh-What are you going to do?"

"Don't worry about that" Lexi would say, sounding more determined than she had all day. "We'll get this straightened out, don't you worry"

-----

Lexi had but 2 plans.

A direct approach, and if that didn't work, a more ... shifty approach. She hoped she wouldn't need to use the latter but she already had a feeling her "guilty conscience" act wouldn't work on somebody like Gloria Graff. She hadn't known the girl too too well but in their few meetings, she always came off as hostile. She expected that to be the case right now, especially as she made her way into the open auditorium to observe the cheer practice.

As she watched, she wasn't focusing too much on the actual technique. I mean, sure a couple of the girls were off on their points and a couple landings weren't quite stuck correctly but most of the girls seemed fine enough. That was irrelevant though, she found herself staring down Gloria from her spot in the bleachers, about 4 rows deep so not exactly hidden from view. Gloria took note of this too, and also noticed Lexi was wearing a purple tank top and a skirt with a goldish hue.

After practice concluded, Gloria was seemingly making a beeline towards where the locker rooms were but Lexi had other ideas, going over to meet her. Not wanting to seem like the weaker party, Gloria would reluctantly turn and meet Lexi halfway, imposing her height over the girl, of which she had about 7 inches more.

"Yes? Can I help you?" Gloria would sneer, looking down at Lexi in her wannabe cheer outfit, "You realize the tryouts are over, right?"

"And? I happen to like our school colors..." Lexi simply shrugged, hopelessly reluctant to reveal the real reason she had dressed that way.

"Okay, nice talk" Gloria replied dismissively, beginning to walk away before Lexi decided to just go for it.

"I know what you did to Chrissy" Lexi snapped

"What?"

"I know what you did ... heck, I can smell it now..." Lexi shook her head, detecting some hint of marijuana, although very faint.

"I .... don't know what you're talking about" Gloria sighed, rolling her eyes, "if you're still bitter about missing the team ..."

"No, actually I'm not bitter ... but I am upset that you would try to set up my friend and I assumed yours too, Chrissy, by putting a joint in her jacket pocket" Lexi snapped. She had been through hell the last 24 hours and had already lost one fight. She wasn't going to lose this one, in the fight for Chrissy's innocence. "So you can either come clean and make this right or ..."

"Or what?" Gloria growled, turning away again after briefly acknowledging Lexi. For a split second, it almost appeared as if she'd spit on the poor girl but she backed off, knowing an altercation would only make things worse for everyone. Instead she retreated into the locker room as per her original plan. "....yeah that's what I thought"

Lexi sighed and just shook her head as she watched Gloria leave. Plan B it is then.


------

"So what was all that with you not remembering the chemical compounds we needed?" Leah chuckled a bit, having a late lunch with her new colleague Justin Wright.

"What do you mean?" Justin asked

"Cmon ... I'm not buying your whole ... oh I don't know science ... routine" Leah shrugged, taking a long almost excessive sip of her strawberry milkshake as they sat.

"I'm telling you, I'm a relative noob" he chuckled

"Uh-huh ..." Leah giggled a bit, "Justin I saw some of your notes from before class started"

"What?"

"When we started the lab, you had some stuff written down, like quadratic formulas and that kinda shit" Leah said

"No, those were just ... those were just doodles" Justin said, although now he felt he had been busted

"Dude, if you're good at science, it's okay ... just ... just say it" Leah giggled, "what's the big mystery?"

"I don't know, okay?" Justin smirked, "I guess I was just going to ask you if you wanted to ... study sometime? Y'know, show me the ropes"

"Me ... show YOU the ropes... in science?" Leah asked in total disbelief, "yeah, okay ... dude if you wanna ask me out, just go for it"

"Okay" Justin shrugged, matter of fact, "Leah, will you go out with me?"

-----

"That Lexi girl has totally lost it..." Gloria scoffed, now in the locker room and chatting with the other girls as they wrapped up for the day.

"Are you still on her?" another girl would ask, "just let it go ... what do you have against her?"

"I had nothing against her..." Gloria replied, "until she started straight up accusing me of framing Chrissy"

After a long awkward pause, another girl softly said, "You .. did frame Chrissy..."

"What?" Gloria snapped

"I mean, we all know it" another girl said, "chill, we won't say anything but we saw you put the blunt in her jacket pocket"

"What are you ... ugh...." Gloria sighed, before flopping her arms back in defeat, "Okay fine, I put the stupid blunt in her jacket, serves her right for being holier than thou ... like she's never done anything wrong ..."

Another long pause followed before another girl chimed in,

"You know she's going to get in serious trouble for that, right?"

"And?" Gloria sighed, rolling her eyes, "she'll be fine, she'll just bat those baby blue eyes and her daddy or something will take care of that"

"That's super cruel, hon..."

"I don't know what to tell you ... not like I'm gonna do it again, but yeah I did it... so what?" Gloria scoffed, slamming her locker shut and walking away.

The sound of the locker slamming shut though wasn't the only thing heard, as the dead silence in the room allowed for pretty much any perceptable noise to reach human ears. It was at that moment the sound of plastic thudding was heard, reverbating ever so slightly.

The girls would all pause for a second to look for the sound but they'd give up after a few moments, exiting the room.

In the very corner of the room was a cell phone, flat on the ground. It blended in on the concrete with its silver sheen. But there was something unusual about this cell phone, moreso than its mere presence. It rattled and shook from below as if something, or someone was under it. Finally, the stifled Lexi overcame her "captor" and slipped out from underneath the phone, growing back to normal once she was sure the girls had left. She flipped over the phone and pressed the "Stop recording" button.

She'd let out a heavy sigh. She had what she needed and wanted to clear Chrissy's name ... but then why did she feel so bad about it?

-----

Finally, after a very tiring day, Lexi would return home, her energy levels no worse for wear as she came into the kitchen still wearing the purple and gold. Her dad would look her over and seem confused

"I thought you didn't make the cheer team" he noted

"I didn't ... I was just hanging out with some of the girls" Lexi shrugged, "wanted to ... yknow, blend in"

At this moment, her mom would enter the room, having just watched the evening news. "Whoa!" she'd yelp, stifling a reaction of surprise.

"Wh-What? Too much?" the bashful Lexi would shrug,

"No it's just ... that's crazy"

"What?"

"On the news, they were just saying, there was a break-in last night at Jackson's Jewelers... one of the criminals they identified as wearing almost that same outfit" Lexi's mom explained.

As Lexi's eyes widened and her heart raced, her parents were merely mildly amused by the sure coincidence.

"Isn't that weird how sometimes you talk about one thing and then it relates to another?" Lexi's dad would postulate.

"Yeah ... " Lexi thought to herself, "It's funny how life works out sometimes..."

Lexi would hang up the phone discouraged, having called Hope only to receive her voicemail. She'd sigh and leave her phone on the nightstand. Maybe it was for the best she didn't stay in contact with them. They may have helped her once but they were still working with the enemy. The dreaded Enormo Enterprises. Although even she had to admit, the nanites were nice. They had helped her shrink a lot easier and keep her clothes shrunk to size with her.

Lexi sat on her bed, again in deep thought as she felt the subtle brush of cat hair against her exposed ankle while Tiny made the rounds. She'd smile and lay her hands across his back a few times while thinking about everything that had happened.

"Oh I should call Leah and ask her how the date went" she thought to herself, before ultimately deciding against it. "Eh, they may still be out ... plus I'm sure she'll tell me all about it tomorrow ... which is good, I could use some good news"

Lexi would sleep remarkably peacefully that night, but by contrast, something was stirring just outside the eerie doorways into Enormo Enterprises' laboratories. Not one, not two, but 3 of the horrific metal mutations Max had experimented with were slithering their way out of the garbage, piercing the thick blue aluminum that failed to hold them in.

What would emerge was a trio of monstrous looking creatures, each a bit bigger than a common house dog and featuring the same fearsome fangs, glowing red eyes and sharp tallon like feet as they'd aimlessly wander into the unsuspecting neighborhoods. Likely a problem for another day, but still worth mentioning.

----

Back in Lexiland the next morning, young Alexis Cole decided to kill some time before work and school by practicing her shrinking powers. She had gotten very close to one trick in particular and while it may not help her out in the battlefield ... geez, it was weird for her to even think those thoughts. She never intended to get into any fights, but of course as a superheroine? I guess she could call herself that ... as a superheroine, she would need to be prepared to fight. But first ...

"Holy still, Tiny... I promise I can get this" Lexi yelped, standing just a few inches behind her timid cat. Thankfully she knew his nerves would go away once she became the smaller party, and so she wasted no time inducing her shrinking powers, feeling it a bit more effortlessly this time as she leapt onto her now tiger sized cat and began riding on him.

"Whooo!! This is awesome!" the relativity tiny Lexi would squeak, just holding on as best she could to Tiny between his firm shoulderblades as he'd run around the room a bit, "Hmmm, I uh ... heh ... have no control of this"

Not that she was a horseback rider anyway, so Lexi had no experience controlling a wild animal, let alone a cat, whose attitude would naturally carry them whereever they saw fit, and in this case Tiny was making a mad dash towards the door which was just cracked open enough for him to slip through. Lexi, however was not quite ready for that, lest she be exposed to the rest of her family.

"Tiny? Tiny, no ... bad kitty..." the tiny rider would argue, before realizing any attempt to switch courses was futile, she'd roll off him lightly and hit her shoulder on her floor, groaning a bit but also letting out a laugh as she slowly grew back to fall size, her door swinging open a bit more as a result of Tiny sliding through. She'd pull herself onto the bed and just shake her head.

"Well I rode a cat for a few seconds, that's something..." the incredulous Lexi noted in her head before hearing a knock of the door and the fairly quick response time from her mother.

"Hey Lexi, it's Leah!" Mrs. Cole would say

"Oh!" Lexi gasped, realizing she was still in her cheer outfit/superhero costume. "Just a second!"

After a mad dash to get changed, Lexi would find herself at the door to see her perky best friend holding a familiar kind of box. A pizza box with red and green trim, featuring the logo of one of their favorite places to go. Minima's Pizza in downtown Minitropolis. It was always kind of a tradition that when one of them was having a tough day, the other would bring over a box to share. Lexi saw this and instantly was overcome with joy.

"Leah ... thank you so much, but you didn't have to ..." Lexi smiled

"Well I've never HAD to, but I wanted to" Leah nodded, holding the box with two hands, "now, mind if I come in? This is getting kinda hot ..."

"Oh! Heh, of course, come in" Lexi replied, pleasantly surprised and a bit anxious as she led her best friend up to her room.

There, they'd sit and converse over the local pizzeria's infamous pie, small rushes of nostalgia rushing through their heads along with the sweet savory flavors of tomato, meat, and cheese.

"So you're thinking second date?" Lexi smirked, taking a bite

"For sure" Leah nodded, holding back a goofy smile as the cheese from her slice was pulling a bit too much against the paper plate she had it affixed to. She'd hastily retrieve a napkin to slay the mozzarella snake as it ensnared her mouth momentarily.

"That's cool though" Lexi nodded, "Sorry if I'm not more talkative ... just ... had a lot going on ..."

"I've noticed" Leah replied, "just thought maybe you'd wanna talk about it..."

"I'm not really sure what to say..." Lexi exhaled. In truth, she wanted to tell Leah about all of it. The shrinking powers, the lab accident, the crazy chick with the nice legs and great ass ... what the hell? Why did she keep thinking of Roxie in that way? She couldn't tell Leah though ... I mean, yes she could prove it by just SHOWING her but that's assuming her powers weren't suspect to some kind of "performance anxiety" and even then... her dad worked at Enormo Enterprises, and she didn't want to burden her with the kind of information she had.

"Well, just... say whatever's on your ... holy crap" Leah giggled, looking up to notice the pinned picture of 'The Shrinking Girls' on Lexi's corkboard. "You kept this?"

"W-Well of course I did..." the suddenly bashful Lexi stated, "it was ... silly, I realize but..."

"Silly? It was badass" Leah chuckled, standing up to have a better look, "Oh... I remember we even made you a custom belt ..."

Lexi would smile, looking at the picture and observing it closer. The 'SG' belt buckle would be a similar deep purple to her outfit with gold trim and golden SG letters on it. Also in the picture were a couple of wrist gauntlets which caught Lexi's eye.

"Do you remember ... what these were for?" Lexi asked Leah, pointing to the picture right around the wrist where the gold gauntlets appeared

"Oh... oh yeah ... it was kind of a reference to Wonder Woman but they would serve a similar purpose, basically to block bullets and like ... I don't know, punch people" Leah explained, before adding, "I mean, we were just kids, Lex, we just liked to draw cool stuff"

"It was cool, wasn't it?" Lexi smiled warmly, observing it closer.

The ability to block bullets, huh??


"But anyway ... yeah ... things are going really well right now" Leah added, breaking up Lexi's whirling thoughts.

"I'm glad" Lexi nodded, "did Justin ask you about the carnival?"

"No he didn't, but it's still a few weeks away ..." Leah paused, noticing the topic was still a bit sensitive for Lexi, "I want you to come though"

"Hmm?"

"If he asks me ... of course if he doesn't too, but even if he does, I want you to come with me... come with us, yknow? It'll be fun, just like old times" Leah smiled, taking another slice of pizza. Lexi watched her eat it with such reckless abandon and couldn't help but grin.

"Um ... sure, I mean if that's what you want ... I'd hate to be a third wheel..." Lexi sputtered.

"I doubt he's even going to ask me" Leah shrugged, "especially after I gain so much weight after eating all this pizza!"

"Oh my gosh, stop" Lexi giggled, giving her best friend a playful shove.

As the two continued to laugh and chat, it was good to know that at least some things hadn't changed.


----

Later that week at the mall, young Alexis Cole was going down to a metalworking store where she knew a couple friends. Yeah, Joshua James wasn't the only one with connections around here. Her goal would be to replicate, as closely as she could the Wonder Woman style gauntlets in the picture. If she were to deal with Roxie (or any gun-toting criminal for that matter) she wanted to be prepared. Plus they did look pretty cool. The SG belt buckle on the other hand? Well that would be near impossible to replicate.

While making her way through the mall, she neglected to notice a familiar couple chatting at a table around the central food court's fountain, which wouldn't really affect her anyhow, even if she was in some way an indirect topic of their conversation.

"Are you serious, Justin?" Leah smirked

"Yeah, I mean, I think it would be fun ... they're suppose to have a tunnel of love..." Justin added, "...not that I'm into that wimpy kind of stuff..."

"Uh-huh... suuuuure" Leah smiled coyly, just sliding her hand onto his, "Well yeah, I would LOVE to go with you"

After a moment of celebrating in her head, Leah's smile did waver just for a moment

"Of course, I hope it would be okay if ..."

"Yeah" Justin chuckled, knowing her well enough at this point to know where her mind was at, "Lexi can come"

"Are you sure?" Leah asked curiously, leaning in a bit

"Well yeah, you were telling me how you and her always use to go there, it's actually what kinda have me the idea" Justin replied, "I never really got to go out and do social stuff like that as a kid or even recently .. it'll be nice to see it for myself ... the fact that I'll be going with a pretty girl is just a bonus"

Leah turned bright red as she leaned in to kiss her boyfriend and winked before adding, "...2 pretty girls"

"2 pretty girls, yes of course" Justin nodded

"Oh Lexi will be so excited" Leah giggled, quick to take out her phone, "Oh I wonder what she's doing right now, she's probably at work or something.. she's always on the go"

And where was Lexi at that moment? She was off requesting the normal type of things one might expect..

"You want us to make ... this?" the young lady with dyed gray hair would ask, who's name was Taylor

"... if it's not too much trouble" Lexi replied shyly, "it's basically just the wonder woman thing ..."

"Yah yah, no I get it ... cute drawing by the way" Taylor responded, sounding sincere about that. "Is this for a cosplay or something?"

"Well ..." Lexi paused before nodding, "Yes! Yes, a cosplay!"

"Righteous" Taylor smirked, "We should have something to you by the end of the day if that works?"

"Yeah, that'd be awesome, I can swing by after work" Lexi smiled

"Oh, do you mind real quick if we just ...?" Taylor asked, leading Lexi towards a back room, "let's size up your wrists and stuff... I assume you're going to be the one wanting to wear these?"

Lexi blushed bright red and nodded, "yup, that's me ... a regular Wonder Gorl of sorts..."

"So what's the SG stand for anyway?"

"Oh uh ... S-Sailor Gale....? We were big Sailor Moon fans as a kid ... it was a ... fan character we made up" Lexi blushed, obviously lying, something she wasn't very good at.

"Right on" the chill Taylor retorted as they got to work.

-----

Elsewhere the gaze of another man was determined to track something down and this man was VERY good at lying. We are of course talking about none other than Dr. Maximillian E. Mumford ... his fingertips dancing on the dimly lit keyboard as he toiled away on what he had started.

"The trackers should be active and yet ... wait ..."

Finally it would appear the evil doctor had struck gold. His quest had paid off. He had not only designed some morphing capable killing machines but he now was able to track their whereabouts and in some rudimentary way control them.

"Unit 1 is online" Max told himself as he viewed through the grim red visor of one of the Maximites while it displayed on his monitor. The readout was something similar to a Terminator movie with gridlines and targeting reticles highlighting an area of suburban Minitropolis. The sound of creeking metal could be lightly heard as the mechanical monster turned its head left and right to look around. Max was further pleased that the joystick on his console was aiding in that movement.

"Heh, good doggy" Max sneered. "Phase 2 is complete ..."

While the Doctor worked on this, another Doctor passed by, stopping for just a moment.

"Sir?" the other asked

"Yes Dr. Hoffnung?"

"What ... is that exactly?"

"Oh this is just a new security camera prototype I'm working on" the evil doctor lied, "I have it flying around eastern Minitrpolis at the moment"

"Uh-huh..." the normally more inquisitive doctor responded. Instead he seemed rather perturbed, his mind elsewhere even.

"Lose something, Doctor? You seem upset" Max asked

"Huh? No ... No ... nothing..." Trevor answered, further jostling about to signal his discomfort with things.

"Well, I must be getting back to the work..." Dr. Max answered, "but do me a favor ... if you see Dr. Wright around, have him see me as soon as he can, please ..."

"Is it ... something urgent, sir?" Dr. Hoffnung asked

"Not terribly so, no ..." Dr. Max shook his head, "I was just hoping to hear more about a ... fact finding project I have him on..."

This was serious business now for Alexis Cole.

Of course, anytime you're tasked with saving the world ... er ... saving your small town... well technically she wasn't saving ANYTHING.... but you get the point. With great power comes great ... something something. And that's exactly why Lexi was sure to use her power responsibly and most importantly, maturely.

"Hi-ya! Yah!" the "mature" Lexi would grunt and sway as she practiced using her new 'Wonder Woman' gauntlets, mocking a fight in her room as she'd thrust and manuever about. She'd glance down at her cat Tiny who gave her a confused meow.

"Oh leave me alone, these are cool" Lexi giggled. "Although they do cramp up my wrists after a time ..."

Lexi sighed and took one off, going to get some more of the powder nanites to put on them, to ensure they would shrink with her. Would be a bit embarassing otherwise. While she went to do that, her phone would vibrate again.

Oh good, maybe it's finally Hope answering me back.

"Hello?"

"Lexi! Lexi! Guess what?" Leah exclaimed on the other end

"You actually CAN believe it's not butter!" Lexi guessed poorly

"What? ...No. Justin asked me to the winter carnival!" Leah replied

"Oh..." an emotionally uninvested Lexi responded, "well ... that's great! You gonna do the tunnel of love?"

"Don't be silly... he's not into that wimpy stuff..." Leah scoffed, "...but yeah, probably"

"Alright, well have fun ..." Lexi replied indifferently as she worked on enhancing her wrist gauntlets with the size enabling nanites.

"Lexi..." Leah whined, "I want you to come with us ... it'll be fun ... we can share cotton candy and go on some of the crazy rides ..."

"Yeah ... I mean ... maybe... I'll think about it..." Lexi sighed, both a little disappointed and preoccupied. She was happy for Leah naturally, but it wouldn't feel the same going as a +1 on a date with a guy who likely didn't want her there and would rather have alone time with his girlfriend who just so happened to be Lexi's best friend, "I mean, don't you think this is moving kind of fast?"

"Uh.... not really" Leah chuckled

"Well, I mean ... when you and Justin get your own house, where am I going to sleep? On the couch?" Lexi giggled

"Don't be silly..." Leah teased, "You'll sleep on the bedroom floor, next to our dog, Samuel"

"...You've already named the dog?" Lexi asked skeptically

"I'm thinking a beagle or a golden retriever..." Leah answered, her eyes kind of out in space now as she thought about it.

"Leah ... I just don't want to see you get hurt ... Justin seems like a nice guy but ..."

"I get it, I get it" Leah responded, "but it's no problem, it's just going to be a chill carnival date thingy and then who knows? You know I don't usually stay in relationships long..."

"Says the one who called him Mr. Right" Lexi remarked

"That is technically his name" Leah giggled

Lexi let out a reluctant giggle and shook her head, "Okay okay, I'll probably go ... when is it again?"

"Lex, you know when it is ... it's the first week of December, like always" Leah answered, sounding somewhat concerned, "are you sure you're okay? You've seemed really out of it lately and it's not like a one time thing, it's been a few weeks and you've just seemed ... off ... if there's anything you need to tell me, you know you can..."

"Yeah no, it's fine... I'm just ..." Lexi sputtered

"Is it Chrissy?" Leah asked

"Chrissy?"

"Well you said she wasn't doing so well... I thought maybe something happened with her?" Leah asked

"No No, she's fine ... well now ... I fixed it" Lexi nodded

"Heh, of course you did ..." Leah smiled, "you're such a good friend ... she's lucky to have you, and so am I"

Lexi would smile at that but quickly try to shift gears

"Anyways ... thanks for the call, Leah lovely ... and yeah ... I'm happy for you ... keep rocking it" Lexi said

"You're going to get going?" Leah asked, already familiar with Lexi's cues for wrapping up a phone call

"Yeah ... I probably should ... gotta cram for the science test and all" Lexi replied

"We could always study together?" Leah offered

"Nah, we'd probably just talk about boys all night" Lexi joked

"Huh?"

"Never mind... you had to be there..." Lexi sighed.

------

"Nothing? You have nothing for me?" Dr. Max angrily verbally assaulted his colleague Dr. Wright

"I ... I don't know what you want me to say ..." Joseph stammered

"I want you to give me some intel ... wasn't that the whole point of me getting your kid into the university? Isn't he dating the girl now?"

"W-Well yes but ..."

"But what?" Max snapped. He was in no mood for patience. Then again, he rarely was.

"I just don't think this plan is very ... ethical..." Joseph confessed.

"Ethical? Ethical ... Ethical..." Max pondered this foreign concept for just a moment before coming to his own conclusion, "you know what I think is unfortunately unethical ... is somebody LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN TO OUR TOP SECRET EXPERIMENT SO YOUNG 20 SOMETHING GIRLS CAN POKE THEIR NOSES IN AND POTENTIALLY RUIN EVERYTHING!! You are lucky I don't have you escorted off the premises at once and call the police!"

"Look ... you've ... you've made that clear..." the distraught Joseph Wright sighed, "you've made it abundantly clear why this plan was needed ... I just don't ..."

"Look Joseph, do you not want this girl to be safe?" Dr. Max asked

"W-Well of course" Joseph nodded

"Then just ... let me help you help her and help us" Dr. Max said

"H-How so?"

"Just ... the more information we can get, the more we can figure out how ... advanced her condition is..." Dr. Max nodded, lying through his teeth yet again, "now can you tell me ANYTHING about her ...?"

"I mean, my son mentioned going to some carnival with her next week..." Joseph shrugged

"Ah yes, the winter carnival ... what a lovely time for romance and wintry magic and ..." Max mockingly swooned

"Wh-Where are you going with this, Doctor?"

"I'm just thinking perhaps it's time we took a field trip ... I have an opening on my calendar" Max smirked, "Say ... next week?"


----

A lovely calm fell over the pier overlooking the Minitropolis Sound, accentuating the railings, boardwalk and overall structure that housed Minitropolis' biggest carnival each year. There would actually be 3 such events, but the Winter Carnival was the biggest, lasting about a week and attracting visitors locally and from around the region.

The turnstiles were being packed with prospective visitors, bundled up a fair amount but ready for a memorable experience as the place was lit up with twinkly white and multi-color Christmas lights and the familiar sounds of carnival melody could be heard throughout.

There was one person who seemed a touch disappointed though, even as her boyfriend wrapped his arm around her to keep her warm in line.

"Lexi, are you sure?" Leah asked, her face distorted into a pout, even while glancing at Justin every so often.

"Yeah I'm sorry Leah, I'm not feeling very well..." Lexi sighed, wearing her purple and gold, plus the new wrist gauntlets, she'd pose briefly in the mirror before shaking her head at her own idiocy, "...if I'm feeling up to it, I may catch up with you though..."

"I'm really sorry to hear that ..." Leah frowned

"Hey hey, don't let it ruin your fun, okay? Give Justin a big smooch for me" Lexi teased, her cell phone in tow as she was making her own way out the door.

"Okay ... well ... feel better soon, okay?" Leah sighed, shortly after hanging up the phone.

"Sorry to hear about Lex..." Justin sympathized as the line advanced them in, "but we'll still have a great time"

Leah would murmur but smile, "Yeah, of course!"

What Leah didn't know is that Lexi had received some intel not even an hour earlier on her surprisingly effective police scanner.

Speaking of the police, what were they up to at this point? The Minitropolis Police (affectionately referred to as the Mini Troop)had gotten a call to scramble into action when hearing that the well known motorcycling criminal Roxie was once again on the move. The question was, to where?

Moments before that call though, young Sonia Sanders was analyzing some recovered footage from the break-in at Jackson's Jewelers. There were a still a lot of things that were unclear about that night but the strangest of all surprisingly wasn't the scantily clad Roxie, but rather the young girl in purple and white who seemed to come in out of nowhere and vanish just as fast. Many on the force thought her to be an accomplice or some kind of vigilante looking for publicity.

Sonia was fairly new on the staff but she somehow suspected otherwise. She thought this person may have actually been trying to stop the robbery, although the camera footage was pretty fuzzy.

"Sonia..." a fellow officer informed, "We need you ... now... we need backup on the Roxie case, she's at it again"

Sonia would leave her video feed paused about a frame after Lexi had left the frame and she hopped into a squad car with her partner.

On the road, Roxie was accelerating at a dangerous speed, weaving in and out of oncoming traffic as the red and blue lights pulsed behind her, closing in fast.

"You guys really gotta get a life!!" Roxie laughed, throwing what appeared to be jumping jacks on the road but they were more like mini spiketraps which would puncture many of the cop cars tires, "We're going to need backup to 26th and 9th..."

"That's not too far out..." Lexi muttered to herself, listening to her police scanners updates from up on a neighboring building. She could see the chase developing and Roxie wasn't too far from interceding from her. The question is ... could she do this?

Feet on the edge of the building roof, she'd take a deep breath and fold her arms briefly as if about to dive from a high diving board. After all, that's what this would be... even moreso since she planned to shrink herself mid-jump.

"You could just leave this to the professionals, Lex..." the conflicted and distraught young heroine thought to herself. As she watched a few of the cop cars spin out of control and other cars swerve into precarious spots due to Roxie's recklessness, she knew one way or another, the violence and danger had to stop. "I may shrink ... but I'm not shrinking away from this challenge..." the young damsel declared out loud, taking the plunge. She was all in at this point.

Here. Goes. Everything.

Without a second thought or pause, the purple and gold clad Alexis Cole would leap off the roof as soon as Roxie was within striking distance but of course she'd be super obvious if she did it as was, so she also inhaled deep, feeling her mass implode with her breath, shrinking to the size of a bug as she made her descent.

"Fuck, am I going to make it....?" the startled Lexi thought, eyes open wide as she watched Roxie's motorcycle and her body itself come into view, getting closer and closer rapidly, gravity and velocity taking their course on her trajectory. She'd continue to fall like a stone, her arms reaching out and grabbing onto the first thing she could, a long jagged piece of gold metal. It stung, as she clung to the cold, wet metal but she was okay, for the most part, dangling for her life as she glanced down briefly to see nothing but galvanized rubber spinning at an insane rate of speed. A glance forward and she'd see the oversized posterior of Roxie. "Oh god, I gotta keep my eyes on the prize here..."

Lexi would desperately try to crawl herself up, the wind striking her face, the sounds unbearably loud as the police cars were within a mile, maybe less and closing quick. As soon as she had crawled up more onto the bike and had some footing, she decided to make her move.

"Fuckin' bitches, get a clue! I just ain't that into you!" Roxie joked, referring to the Mini Troop who continued to tail her.

"Hey, you're not exactly MY type either!"

Roxie's eyes would again widen, who the fuck just said that?

For the answer to that question, the volatile vixen would have to crane her neck ever so slightly to see she had a riding partner, in the form of Lexi who had her arms clenched around her waist as if acting like a seatbelt. Roxie was swift to try elbowing the heroine off her bike but Lexi simply reacted as fast as she could, shrinking and climbing onto Roxie's moving wrist.

"Oh okay, NOW you wanna play?" Roxie smirked, slowing down just a bit to focus on the "bug" on her arm, swerving a bit and changing her course. Lexi would somersault off her wrist and land right in Roxie's view, now sitting on her front mirror at about 3 feet tall and sticking her tongue out

"Eyes on the road, Roxie..." she'd tease

"Get the fuck off, cheer wench!" Roxie snapped, throwing a punch her way. She might've hit too, had her target been more reasonably sized but Lexi didn't play that way. She shrank lickety split and would slide onto the over decorated dashboard of Roxie's bike, before making a quick break for the right handle bar and grinning.

"Guess I've got a "handle" on the situation...." the tiny Lexi would smirk

"Heh, it's your funeral ShrinkBitch" Roxie sneered, twisting her wrist hard on the brake to throw Lexi backwards, but what she didn't count on was the "bug" becoming full size and basically thwacking into her lap. "You really wanna cop a feel so bad, just do it but enough of this back and forth..."

"Ugh, as if ..." Lexi blushed, although that was kind of a lie.

Still, Roxie didn't like feeling outsmarted by this newbie so she'd try to clock her in the side of the head with a swift strike from her right fist, but Lexi would respond in kind, shrinking down so that she was clinging to Roxie's tight biker shorts

"Oh sure, violate me, why don't you?" the cocky villainess scoffed.

Lexi would let out a low growl and grow herself back, now facing Roxie and glaring at her as she again got in her way of the road, "Roxie, just stop the damn bike..."

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Roxie smirked, "yknow what? Good plan ... let's head right this way..."

With a confident smirk, Roxie would continue riding ahead at full speed despite having her view blocked, it was as if her mind was set on a target. Lexi turned around, a bit shocked herself to see what it was. The Minitropolis Pier? ...the Carnival.

"Yknow, on second thought, we might be able to catch a movie..." the stammering Lexi gulped.

"Oh don't be so coy," Roxie giggled, licking her lips, surprisingly making no attempt to shove Lexi off the bike, "I hear cute couples get in free... so pucker up..."

With that, Roxie would surprisingly lunge at the confused Lexi for a kiss, to which she would shrink again, but this time wouldn't be so lucky to land on her leg but rather the space between her thighs as the motorcycle seat shook violently.

"This isn't good..." Lexi thought to herself but it was only a passing thought before Roxie clenched her thighs tight on the bug sized heroine.

"Guess I've got the ... leg up, huh?" Roxie chuckled, talking down to her latest little catch, "See? I can do the banter too..."

Lexi groaned, a helpless passenger as Roxie would begin to make her way towards one of her childhood haunts, about to terrorize the good people of Minitropolis during what was perhaps the most premier event of the year, the winter Carnival.

During this, a socially awkward couple by the names of Leah Henderson and Justin Wright would be on a swan shaped boat coasting along a questionably murky lake of water moving at a speed of about 5 MPH. Leah certainly wasn't hating it but this seemed a lot less remarkable now that she was 20, than say even when she was 16. And were there ALWAYS weird looking cupid pop-up puppet things?

"Yeah... told you this was wimpy..." Justin shrugged a bit, although he couldn't completely disguise his goofy grin

"I've seen you smile a few times on this whole thing" Leah teased, booping his nose

"Well that's just because of the lovely company" Justin winked, thinking he had just crafted the best romantic line of all time. Although as it turned out, he may not have been too wrong because Leah took his face in her hands and gave him a long passionate kiss.

"Wh-Whoa..." Justin blushed tremendously, as did the flummoxed Leah Henderson.

"Yeah... whoa..."

The moment was perfect. Absolutely perfect and tranquil and perfect... until, it wasn't.

"ATTENTION PARK GOERS! WE NEED EVERYBODY TO EVACUATE THE CARNIVAL AREA AT ONCE! THERE IS A DANGEROUS ARMED CRIMINAL IN THE VICINITY ON A MOTORCYCLE!!"

To back up this announcement was the audio evidence they could hear from the campy tunnel of love and it was the piercing sound of the motorcycle and screaming of citizens as they fled from the terror of Roxie and her currently out of side passenger.

"Geez, there are some crazy people in the city ..." Justin just shook his head in dismay and said

"Yeah ... maybe it's a good thing Lexi didn't come out tonight..." Leah pouted, just hoping everything would be okay.

Lexi wasn't sure how she was even doing this. To this point she had been fairly flawless. Terrified out of her mind ... confused, angry, and yes a bit aroused, as Roxie's strong thighs clenched down on her, but the fact that she had even made it this far gave her confidence that she could get even further. The pressure was overwhelming, quite literally, but not insurmountable.

To Roxie, Lexi had been reduced, also literally, to a joke as she just took a joyride on the boardwalk, not even resorting to draw her guns to incite fear to the crowd of children, mothers, fathers and teenagers alike. There wasn't even a reason for any of this. No sought after prize, no goal, just havoc and chaos. If she could have that and maybe tease a certain shrunken little Lexi in the process, it was a win-win.

As for Leah and Justin, they were just getting off a boat ride. A really lame boat ride and yet a fairly romantic rendezvous that was sadly cut short by the crime spree of Roxie. If only Leah knew how badly Lexi didn't want this to happen. As much as she hated that Roxie was terrorizing city folks, suburbanites and her own mother, she hated even more that this was ruining her big date with Justin. Perhaps that would fuel her most of all as Roxie began to feel a tightness in her thighs, and not the sexy kind.

It was enough of a discomfort that the once reckless Roxie was now slowing her motorcycle down. She'd sigh and come to a stop altogether, causing some the evacuating carnival visitors to stop and take notice. It was at this point Roxie did resort to pulling her red pistol from the holster and shooting it in the air which predictably sent the crowd into a panicked scatter.

Roxie by contrast seemed remarkably casual as she widened her thighs a bit, reholstered her gun and used her gloved fingers to seize up Lexi, holding her by her shoulders and dangling her over her face like a little prize. She smirked and held her head up proudly, stepping off her bike, high heels hitting the planks of the boardwalk but they were fairly quiet as she took some steps around, either oblivious or uncaring to the swarm of police cars that were soon closing in on the area.

"So Lexi, is it everything you dreamed of?" Roxie would smirk, holding her cute little foe so condescendingly as her little legs kicked. Lexi wouldn't even answer, nor did she know what she was answering to as she squirmed and kicked, her grunts sounding more like little mouse squeaks, "our first date, I mean?"

"This is ... NOT a date!!" Lexi squeaked

"Awwww, no? I thought it was...." Roxie shrugged, dangling the cute little heroine above the portion of her breasts that were exposed through her cut off leather top, "and here I was going to let you get to second base ... oh well..."

"The fuck are you doing?!" the irrate Lexi squeaked, kicking and screaming still, "don't you even care that you're traumatizing these people?! Don't you care that the police are about to arrest you? Don't you care..."

"I'm gonna stop you there, ShrinkBug" Roxie said, voice still amazingly calm as she simply took a seat at a park bench, at which a half eaten glob of cotton candy rested at an angle on its snow-cone like pedestal. "...firstly, I ain't getting taken away in cuffs.. you probably are though ..."

Lexi gave off a confused grunt

"Yeah, you been following the news, little lady?" Roxie teased, setting Lexi down finally on the picnic table beside the cotton candy and watching her cute tiny self act all stunned and dizzy. Well maybe it wasn't an act. She had been through a lot in the past few minutes, "yeah, they're after you, hon ... I mean, me? Yeah, they don't like me either but you're a mystery to them and I'm about to turn you in on a silver platter, maybe literally ..."

As Roxie spoke, the cop cars began to part through the crowd like the red sea, making it apparent where their destination was.

"We don't have much time, Lexi darling" Roxie sighed, her finger circling Lexi like a swarm of vultures going in for the kill. Not quite making her move until she was sure she had the shrunken heroine stumped.

Lexi's head was very much spinning as her emotions swum in disarray. How could this woman be so mean? How could she do this to innocent people? How could she herself, let herself get treated like a toy? She'd grunt with determination but the notion was short lived as Roxie took advantage of her weakness and flicked her callously into the cotton candy, Lexi's body and hair getting stuck in it. Lexi began to whimper as a single tear streamed down her face. Roxie simply lifted the cotton candy stick, Lexi and all to her hungry lips, her large pink tongue sliding from left to right.

"Mmmmm, I always use to loooove cotton candy..." the vixen teased, licking an area far from Lexi's predicament which only made it worse as she could hear the horrific tremors of Roxie's tongue ravaging the surrounding region.

"Roxie, please stop..." Lexi whimpered

"Aw don't worry, I'll save you some" Roxie chuckled

Even as people were evacuating, it was only natural that some would stay and spectate, even from well behind a blocked off perimeter by the police. There were about half a dozen cop cars surrounding the area of the pier that Roxie had her cotton candy and it was quite the eerie scene.

Eerier still is what was brewing just below the pier, where tendrils of twisted silver metal were getting ready to pounce.

"Roxie! We have you surrounded!" one of the police officers announced assertively as the red and blue lights were joined by a very bright spotlight flashed in Roxie's face, causing her to recoil a bit.

"Do you MIND? I was trying to enjoy a special moment here with my lover!" Roxie teased

"I am NOT your lover!!" Lexi squeaked, straining more than ever now, she'd turn to the side and rip a small tuft of her own hair off trying to escape, "Owwwwww!!"

While Roxie was distracted, Lexi tried to grow herself back.

Elsewhere, Justin and Leah were trying to get a view of the action. While they were making their way out, it would still be some time before their ride arrived.

"You said your dad was nearby?" Leah asked Justin.

"Yeah, he should be here any moment..." Justin replied, although he didn't seem very sure of it.

Meanwhile, a few police officers got out of their cars, guns drawn as they paced methodically towards Roxie, making sure she didn't have time to pull one of her own handguns on them.

"Not gonna lie, guys" Roxie shrugged, at this point discounting Lexi altogether, although she had broken free and was actually trying to pull herself off the picnic table and maybe get somewhere she could hide and grow back without being seen. "this comes off as REALLY desperate"

"This isn't a joke, Roxie..." Sonia Sanders stated, being the closest cop to detain her to this point, "This is over. We have you surrounded. Please come quietly"

"Oh dear ... that's ... just not gonna happen" Roxie shrugged, her hand inches from the blue pistol on her right hip. Sonia could see it and was just about to counter with her own gunshot as she'd have no choice. In a split second, the decision had to be made, but what happened in the next split second, nobody saw coming.

A rush of silver metal slithered from between the boardwalk planks and seemed to block Sonia's shot, and Roxie's for that matter. In its place stood a horrific silver monster, and a distraction for ShrinkGirl to regain her size while most people were focused on this gruesome spectacle.

Leah wasn't completely sure but as she was running towards safety with Justin, she could swear she glimpsed her best friend, wearing purple and white amidst all the chaos. But ... that's impossible. How would Lexi even be there? And why would she be wearing her cheer uniform?

Lexi would just stand there, shocked along with Roxie at the silver mechanation. It appeared as if it was made of mercury and some kind of moving muck. It lunged for Officer Sanders who desperately shot at it but the bullets seemed to bounce right off. The other police officers would slowly retreat to their cars, at the moment at least more concerned with this new threat.

Strangely enough though, despite having been shot at by Sonia, the menacing silver creature, with steel sawblade jaws and glowing red eyes that reflected whatever they looked at and long jagged talons wasn't focused on striking back against the police. Rather, it turned almost immediately towards Lexi, but in order to get to Lexi, it would have to go through Roxie.

"The fuck is that thing?" Roxie screeched, finally seeming rattled for the first time. She'd try a couple shots at it as well but it was to no avail and the creatured seemed to loom larger as it got closer, expanding to about 10 feet in height.

"Hey, I think we've established bullets don't work" Lexi scoffed

"What do you want to try? Cheering it to death?" Roxie shook her head and turned, which unfortunately left herself open to the creature pouncing on her, sending her plunging below the planks of the boardwalk as it all came splintering apart in a thunderous crash.

"ROXIE!!" Lexi screamed with concern, watching the creature eat through the boardwalk as if it were made of acid.

She could see Roxie down on the wet sand below, writhing in pain as the menacing beast looked down at her as if she were lunch. It could've easily finished her off but that wasn't the goal either. The creature was only after one person on the pier that night and her name was Alexis Cole.

As the boardwalk grew more and more unstable, the police began to pull their cruisers off of its crumbling surface, not sure how to proceed. Most were convinced that Roxie had died or at the very least suffered traumatic harm from what happened and now they had a monstrous threat on their hands.

Some departing tourists still watched on at the unprecedented sight, while others took out camera phones to record awkward footage of the purple and white clad woman facing the titanic threat the likes of which nobody had seen before.

Lexi had already put it together by watching the beast step over the hole it had just made in the boardwalk and advance on her.

"It's me you want..." Lexi gasped, "why is it me...?"

The beast took a few more steps when Lexi realized she most likely couldn't beat it in combat but she'd have to find a way to evade it. In that regard, she had the advantage, or so she thought. She found a knothole in the boardwalk and shrank herself to fit, slipping through and holding on tight to a beam of metal underneath that would serve as a support beam, she'd check down where Roxie was to see the wounded woman getting up and trying to stand.

She wouldn't have much time to check on her though as the metal beast would slowly begin to slip through the cracks of the boardwalk again and reform once it had into a smaller version of itself.

"You can shrink too?" Lexi gasped, somehow surprised by this most of all. She'd leap from beam to beam while the creature seemed to spit some kind of corrosive liquid slime at her, forcing her down the beams until she too was on the beach near the fallen Roxie. She slowly grew herself back, her breathing shallow, but hastened.

"Roxie..." she'd whisper as the creature was making its way down, "you okay?"

"The fuck you care?" Roxie groaned, getting herself up somewhat

"Hey...." Lexi said in a serious tone, even as the shadow of the metal beast drew nearer, "You're still a person ... and I'm not going to just watch you die"

"The fuck not?" Roxie shrugged as if this were some strange new concept.

"Look, just ... get out of here if you need to..." Lexi sighed, shaking her head.

"Yeah, fuck that" Roxie sneered, on one knee now as she drew both guns and shot them both rapidly at the advancing metal creature, "you want some of this?!"

"God damn it, Roxie, is that your answer to everything?!" Lexi snapped

"Butt out Shrink --!" Roxie would start to say but would get swiped back down to the ground by a bladed claw of the monster. It would be more of a fatal blow had the metal been solid but it was in a semi-liquified state which pinned her for a moment but left her merely bruised.

Lexi wasted no time in pouncing on the beast, kicking it square in the chest, noticing a similarly weird quality that it was both solid and non-solid at once. She may be able to stop it more permanently by leading it towards the sound. The baffled Lexi would follow up her unsuccessful kick attempt with a backwards somersault, leading the vicious creature away from Roxie and towards the massive body of water.

This time, Roxie did nothing, she could only watch and wonder why Lexi was so determined in the face of such overwhelming odds. She may not have liked her ... other than to tease her, but she had to at least give her some respect in that regard.

"Cmon, you big muck!" Lexi grunted, basically on the edge of the beach now, "you want me? Come get me"

Lexi would continue towards the water, walking into it until it was waist high. The creature seemed hesitant to follow but would proceed, each stomp becoming less menacing as the water seemed to be weakening its momentum.

"What's the matter there, buddy? Afraid of a little water?" Lexi remarked, then dunked herself under to begin swimming deeper into the water. Rather than give chase on foot, the monstrous robotic creature would lash out with a lasso like tongue that protruded from its mouth, snagging Lexi by the ankle as she tried to swim away. She'd grunt and try to pull it into the water with her, but she wasn't strong enough.

Roxie stumbled up and tried to get closer, still hobbled from her encounter. She only had but a couple bullets left in each barrel. She'd smirk a bit though as she inched closer to the creature, seeming oddly confident for somebody so physically weakened.

Lexi kept glancing over her shoulder as she swam as hard as she could. She would start to pick up some momentum in pulling the beast in, only to be bested again and again as it would find some extra strength to tug on her more, but it came at a cost. The beast was now a few feet into where the tides washed in and the wear on its metal components was becoming evident. Unfortunately Lexi couldn't do much to take advantage of that while she was ensnared by the metal tongue. But Roxie could.

"BANG BANG MOTHERFUCKER!" a triumphant Roxie decried, shooting the monster twice in a critical joint where its knee would be (if it had a knee) causing it to tumble forward. With a now compromised supporting structure around its lower half the creature succumbed to the sheer massiveness of the water, reduced to a crackling puddle of muck, the only effective component remaining being a segment of its tongue that latched onto Lexi's ankle, but without anything anchoring it, it may as well have been useless.

Lexi sighed in relief and swam back to shore, completely exhausted herself, she fell on one knee by Roxie, having seen what the young woman had done.

"I... I don't understand..." Lexi stammered, "you ... you saved me?"

Roxie shrugged, twirling the now empty guns and blowing some smoke off the barrel for special effect, "Just wanted to show you that guns sometimes ARE the answer"

Lexi gave her a bit of a cheeky smile, even as her costume was soaked and her body reeked of cotton candy, "I don't think so... I think ... you saved me"

"Think what you want ShrinkBitch..." Roxie rolled her eyes, "can we just call a truce for now? My ankles are killing me ..."

"Hey at least you have ankles left, unlike whatever the hell that thing was" Lexi chuckled, watching the creatures remains sink into the sound. Even Roxie had to crack a smile at that.

"It's too bad, yknow" Roxie shook her head

"What do you mean?"

"I mean YOU ... the powers, the resources, the determination..." Roxie lamented, "you could be a master thief with some training ... imagine being able to shrink into any security system and take what you want ..."

"That's not what I do" Lexi shrugged, "it never will be"

"I know .. it's just a shame" Roxie shrugged, beginning to hobble off.

A concerned Lexi called after her.

"W-Wait! What are you doing to do?"

"Aw how sweet, you wanna make sure I get home okay" Roxie giggled, blowing her foe a strange kiss, "I'll be fine, sweet cheeks, you just ... do you, I guess... I'll fuck you over next time"

"Now there's a comforting thought" Lexi smirked, and turned away, deciding whatever she didn't know couldn't hurt her.

Now was the matter of figuring things out. While it wasn't a sure thing, she was 99% sure where that stupid silver liquid metal came from. With more time to think and her mind finally clear, it only added up to one thing. Enormo Enterprises. After all ... size changing nanites were employed to help her clothes and accessories change size. It's not improbable that the mad Doctor himself could design something terrifying which could do the same. But why? and how?

About a mile away, Leah and Justin finally found salvation in the form of Joseph's car as it pulled up onto the grass to pick them up while others still evacuated what had been a horribly calamitous night.

"Oh dad, thank you so much for picking us up" Justin nodded, getting into the front seat of the car.

Leah was about to get into the backseat when she saw an unsettling sight indeed.

"What the actual hell is this, Dr Wright?! You got me the wrong girl?!" yelled ... Dr. Maxmillian E Mumford?!

-----

Back on the beach, the rattled Lexi picked up her thankfully waterproof cell phone and called Hope's number, her hands shaking as the phone rang and rang. She still hadn't heard from Hope again since that first encounter. She was beginning to fear the worst, that she either couldn't be trusted or worse yet, she had been punished severely for trying to help someone like Lexi.

She was about to give up on the phone altogether before there was a long silence. She waited for a voicemail message. Anything. Dial tone. Nothing.

"H-Hello?" Lexi asked. Still no response. "Look ... Hope, if you're there ... you have GOT to tell me what's going on ... what the hell is going on at Enormo Enterprises? WHY did some twisted metal mutant try to kill me and several others? You owe me an explanation Hope! Please!!"

The phone remained silent, until finally a voice shattered that silence.

It wasn't Hope's voice. It wasn't a female voice either.

"Fraulein Alexis ... so nice to hear from you again... I'm afraid Hope can't come to the phone right now...."

"....Mad Max"

"You know, you really SHOULD check out this winter carnival sometime, it really IS something..." the maniacal doctor touted, all the while keeping Lexi's best friend a hostage in the back seat of her boyfriend's father's car.

"Max ... what the fuck have you done?" Lexi asked

"Oh the language ..." Dr. Max retorted, "today's youth always with the bad language speaking"

"Max..." Lexi growled, not in the mood for games.

"If it makes you feel any better, Ms. Alexis, you were the prize I was seeking after but we got a pretty decent second prize indeed..." Max smirked, striking even more fear into Leah as she was about to scream, before the doctor put a hand over her mouth, "Mmm mmm... not yet, don't ruin the surprise"

"What surprise? Max? MAX!!" Lexi shouted, but the line went dead.

Fuck.

Lexi would work her way back up towards the carnival, or what was left of it anyway. The police were still evacuating people and even offering escorts to some who needed rides. That would've been a wise idea under most circumstances but Lexi knew better. She was considered an enemy as well, for whatever reason. In fact she took just a few steps before a gruff and stern female voice called after her.

"Hey! You! Freeze!"

Lexi stood perfectly still as the Officer held up her weapon. She was rather intimidating and a bit feisty despite her short height. Even at 5'4, Lexi had about a few inches on her but that didn't stop the auburn haired cop in dark shades from approaching. Upon closer inspection she was the same one who almost shot Roxie and was involved in the standoff that ultimately led to the deadly creature attacking. If you could call that mechination a creature, of course.

Sonia Sanders stood silent and then motioned her gun towards her car a good distance away. Lexi cautiously walked forward, without saying a word. This was going to be a tough one to explain to her parents, and anyone else. She still had the thought to shrink and run, or just run in general but it wasn't a safe move, nor would it be helpful. Maybe she could convince the police officer that she was a good person? Somehow?

"Get in" Sonia said authoritatively, directing Lexi into the car but strangely not the backseat but rather the passenger seat up front.

Lexi would nod and get herself into the cop cruiser, looking over at Sonia and hanging her head. Her feelings were as apparent as the bright purple on her crop top. She was devastated. She had tried so hard to stop things from getting out of hand and look what happened. Her best friend could be in serious danger, a young woman almost died and she just felt utterly useless as she sat in the cop cruiser, waiting presumably to be taken to the station for questioning.

Sonia set her gun on the dashboard and looked Lexi in the eye, finally taking off her shades to reveal her actual eyes, which were hazel as they drilled into Lexi's face.

"Where to?" she asked Lexi.

Lexi gave her a confused look.

"I don't have all night, ma'am" Sonia said

"I'm... confused" Lexi whispered a bit, still shaking

"You heard me ... where do you need to go next?" Sonia repeated

"You're giving me a ride? But why?" Lexi asked, honestly shocked as Sonia started her cruiser up and pulled away.

"I saw what you did" Sonia nodded, "I stayed behind to see if Roxie survived and I saw you drown that ... whatever it was ... do you even know?"

"Honestly, I don't ... but I know who made it ..." Lexi sighed, at a loss for words, "It was Dr. Max ... Enormo Enterprises..."

"I've had my suspicions about them for a long time..." Sonia nodded, "lots of weird stuff comes out of there ... nothing technically illegal although a lot of small violations ... unfortunately we can't prove much, especially since you drowned our only evidence"

"My bad ..." the forlorn Lexi replied, hanging her head.

"Hey cmon, I'm kidding you, kid" Sonia chuckled a bit continuing to drive, pulling onto the main road and swerving around some of her fellow police officers, "now keep your head down so you're not seen, my colleagues may not think so fondly of you ... well, some of them anyway"

"I'm not a bad ..."

"I know" Sonia nodded, "I don't really know WHAT you are ... no offense, but I saw you and your weird powers? You like transformed yourself? Are you ... an extraterrestrial?"

"Not exactly" Lexi shook her head, a slight smile on her face for whatever reason, "I grew up in this area and ... yeah... again, you can thank Enormo for ... this" she said, showing her fingertips which could spark just a little bit if she willed it. "Don't worry, it's not harmful..."

"It looks ... serious" Sonia commented, "are you sure you don't want to go to a doctor or something?"

"I ... I don't know" Lexi started and stopped. She did recall that Hope, assuming she was on her side, wanted to run some tests on her. In hindsight maybe she should have but she wasn't sure who to trust anymore. Heck, she kept this a secret from her best friend of all people and she historically told Leah everything.

"Would you like me to drive you home then?" Sonia asked

"Um... as much as I appreciate that, I can only imagine the line of questioning I'd face coming home with the Mini Troop" Lexi replied, keeping her head down

"Heh, can't believe people really call us the Mini Troop" Sonia shook her head,

"Can you take me to Miniborough University please? That's my school ... I may have a friend I can go to for help" Lexi nodded

"If that's what you'd like ..." Sonia replied with a sympathetic nod, before a call came blasting through her police radio.

"Officer Sanders, any progress on the location of the perpetrator or the girl in purple?"

"I'm sorry Sargeant Meyer, nothing as of right now, I'm still securing wayward park goers" Sonia responded in a stern voice as she looked over at Lexi now and then, driving towards the college campus. "I'll let you know as soon as I see any sign of either one of them"

"Y-You could get in serious trouble for hiding me" Lexi whimpered, "...I'd hate to see you lose your job over me"

"Hey, I'm a big girl" Sonia asserted, not realizing the irony of her statement, "I made my choices ... just ... maybe don't show up at any more jewel heists okay? I can't cover for you all the time ... I just know you're not a bad person... I could tell as soon as you stepped into my car and I got a chance to really talk to you"

At this Lexi smiled, as best she could. Her emotions felt like they had been wrangled into a pretzel for the past couple months with everything going on, but for a brief moment she felt a little bit of peace despite everything that happened. The real struggle was just beginning though.

"I appreciate the ride, I truly do, Officer..." Lexi thanked her sincerely as she stepped out of the car once they reached the campus parking lot.

"...Sonia. Officer Sanders" Sonia nodded, "just ... stay out of trouble kid, okay?" Sonia smiled, pulling back onto the road once she had securely left Lexi off.

Lexi would run through the campus as fast as she could, taking out her cell phone and calling Leah but the phone kept going to voicemail almost immediately. Shit. Not a good sign. She was on her way to Leah's dorm to try to check on her personally. Perhaps she had gotten away safely with one of the police cruisers.

As she approached Leah's dorm building she was greeted by another familiar face instead.

"Josh!" the frantic Lexi shouted, falling into his arms for an impromptu hug. Josh looked surprised and concerned but hugged her for as long as she needed it.

"Lexi? Is everything okay?" he asked

"I ... I don't think so..." Lexi stammered, shaking her head, "Tell me ... did you by any chance put some kind of tracker on Leah's phone?"

"Psh, you really think I'm that creepy?" Josh joked, to which Lexi gave him a sort of flat look. Josh rolled his eyes, "Ouch. But no, I didn't, I swear"

"I believe you..." Lexi sighed, "I'm just ... I'm afraid ... I've called her phone and ... oh, I could call Justin!"

"Justin? You mean Justin Wright?" Josh asked

"Yeah, they're dating" Lexi replied with a nod.

"Oh. Huh. Wonder if he's related to Dr. Joseph Wright" Josh pondered out loud.

"Who's Dr. Joseph Wright?" a suddenly intrigued Lexi asked

"Well, he was on the Enormo Enterprises tour, he's a doctor there... oh right, you weren't on that part of the tour because you acted out and got thrown out..." Josh recalled

"and you never thought to mention this until now?" Lexi grunted

"Well I mean, I didn't really think it would matter..." Josh shrugged

"I think I know where she is..." Lexi gulped with an exhale, looking out into the not so distant building looming in the twilight. Enormo Enterprises' main science facility. The place where the horror had started. If anything happened to Leah, she'd never forgive herself. "Josh, I know this is going to sound crazy but could you maybe float me a few bucks for an uber to the facility? Oh shoot, I'd still need a way past security..."

"Oh, that's easy, my friend Rufus runs security detail for them ... I'll have him pick you up in a few" Josh replied non-chalantly.

"Seriously, how do you keep..."

"I know people" Josh replied with a shrug, "but now I have to ask... are you a ...?"

"I'm not a superhero..." Lexi groaned.

"Are you sure? Because I mean ... the costume ... the lab accident..."

"If I hear about this lab accident one more time..." Lexi sighed with exhaustion, "and this isn't a costume, I just like purple and gold..."

"...and Wonder Woman bracelets?" Josh asked

"Wonder Woman is an inspiration to women everywhere ... any more questions, Mr. Nosy?" Lexi sighed, backing off a bit

"Just one ..." Josh sighed, "My friend Trent told me a couple months ago that a teeny tiny woman begged him to give a pastry back that he stole from a cookie shop ... the same cookie shop that you work at"

Lexi would stand there, stunned.

"Sounds to me like your friend is doing some serious drugs" Lexi nodded

"Whatever you say ..." Josh rolled his eyes, "I'll have Rufus meet you down by the north parking lot in 10 minutes, okay?"

"Thank you so much" Lexi nodded, looking sincerely grateful before taking off, but not before running into another woman who was coming the other way. "Oh shoot, I am so sorry, Miss... oh ... shoot..."

The other woman was quick to hoist Lexi back up onto her feet along with herself, glaring angrily down at the already battered brunette.

"Yeah I bet you're sorry, Ms. Goodie Two Shoes" the taller woman snapped. It was none other than Gloria Graff and to say that she was pissed would be an understatement.

"Gloria, I get it ... we have beef... but I REALLY need to go ... this is an emergency" Lexi pleaded, trying to work her way around the imposing figure but Gloria had other thoughts. She continued to block Lexi by shifting left and right every time she tried to pass.

"Tough shit," the abrasive woman in the white pullover asserted, even shoving Lexi a little, "I know you squealed on me, ya little bitch ... you got me kicked off the cheer team, you got me probation at work ..."

"You shouldn't have tried to frame Chrissy..." Lexi muttered under her breath

"What was that?" Gloria protested, trying to shove Lexi again but finally the anger overcame the bullied brunette. She had had enough.

"Gloria, no!!" she said sternly, a single fingertip poking her around the shoulder area. She watched in shock as the taller Gloria quickly diminished before her, poofing into a pile of clothing all pooled up on the pavement, she could only make out little squeaks. Holy shit, Lexi thought to herself, I actually shrank someone...

"What the fuck you little whore?!" Gloria squeaked and whined, completely terrified to be covered in her former clothing as if it were a circus tent, she couldn't even make out anything save for the faint light piercing her pullover. "What did you do to me?!"

"Gloria I am SO sorry ... Gloria ... I don't even ..." Lexi would whimper, kneeling down over the clothes. As her hands hovered over them, more sparks of electricity seemed to shower the area, she pulled back and to her surprise, Gloria would snap back to her previous size, although her clothes weren't so lucky. She gasped in shock and covered herself, scooping up her clothes in a futile attempt to save face, screaming as she ran.

Lexi breathed heavily, terrified of her own capabilities and to make matters worse, Josh had seen the whole thing from not so far away.

"...this doesn't prove anything!" Lexi defiantly shouted before running off to meet Rufus and hopefully complete her toughest mission so far.


----------

Leah kept her head down, holding back tears and also anger and confusion as both Maximillian and Joseph led her up what felt like an eternity of steel staircases, each troubling step making a distinct clang on the floor until they reached their destination, a lab up on the top floor. It was like something out of a sci-fi movie with a strange device resembling a larger scale "hungry hungry hippos" glass dome, minus the plastic hippos. There would also be a giant glass tube big enough to house a gorilla ... or a human being.

"Wh-Where are we going?" Leah asked defiantly

"You ... stop the talking" Dr. Max sighed, shaking his head. "This is the testing cite of the new Delta Project"

"Dude, I have no idea what you're talking about" Leah snapped, "And where's my boyfriend?!"

"Hah! Your boyfriend?" Dr. Max laughed mockingly in her face, "did you hear that Joseph? She misses her boyfriend... oh that's cute"

"What are you talking about?!" Leah snapped, tears in her eyes as suddenly a large imposing man in a black coat held her back. "Let go of me!!"

Before the moment could fully reach its head, Justin himself stepped out into view.

"I'm ... I'm sorry, ..." Justin sighed, hanging his head in shame.

"You knew about this?" Leah shook her head in disbelief. The man restraining her almost didn't need to apply any force as Leah's own resolve was quickly vanishing. How could this be possible?

"Knew about it? This was the plan the whole time" Dr. Max scoffed. Joseph Wright appeared to stay neutral on the matter, not agreeing or disagreeing as he just paced around the room, eventually joining his son who both stood there with complicit expressions on their faces. "However, there is just ONE minor detail ... he was SUPPOSED to get the OTHER GIRL!!"

Justin frowned, "...I didn't want the other girl"

"Oh I'm sorry..." Dr. Max rolled his eyes, while another agent in black followed him closely, heading towards Justin's location. "Did I miss the part where this is a dating game?! You didn't WANT her? You wanted bachelorette #2? You wanted what's behind curtain #3? We don't play games, Mr. Wright... this is not a game!"

At this moment, the other security guard would grab Justin by the arm and force him to sit.

"It is ... unfortunate..." Dr. Max would sigh, rolling his eyes as he just watched the two struggle. "I wanted Alexis and I got ... what the hell's your name again?"

"Like I would tell you ..." Leah scoffed

"Her name's Leah..." Justin shouted, "and I really like her ... like a lot..."

"If you like me, you wouldn't have sold me out, you bastard!" Leah screamed, again becoming irrate but unable to act as the large man kept her pinned down to a chair of her own.

"It wasn't like that ...!!" Justin shook his head, tears of his own streaming down.

"Ugh please .. I cannot do it with the emotions ... get the machine ready Dr. Wright..." Dr. Max said

"Uh... Doctor?" Joseph Wright asked, utterly confused

"Am I not saying the words correctly?" Dr. Max asked with an angry scowl, "We saw what the first experiment did to the other subject Alexis Cole ... maybe we have more luck with THIS one...!!"

Leah shook her head nervously, not sure what these men were talking about or why they knew Lexi.

"Sir, you're not suggesting what I think you are..." Joseph muttered

"You rationalize this however you need to, Dr. Wright, all I know is SOMEONE'S going in that machine... perhaps your son, Justin would like to volunteer?" Dr. Max snapped

"I'll go in her place!!" Justin yelled, again restrained by one of Max's goons.

"Ugh, it was a rhetorical question... I hate romantic gestures ... just ... prepare the machine ... we proceed with this one here... this ... Leah ..." Dr. Max said callously.

-------------

The big, burly but ultimately well mannered Rufus would let Lexi out, just inside the entrance of the large and complex Enormo Enterprises. Maybe it was just the weight of the situation but the building looked positively overwhelming, even moreso than her last time inside.

"Thank you so much!" Lexi sighed

"No problem!" Rufus said, "Any friend of Josh is a friend of mine"

"I guess it does help to know people..." Lexi muttered as she ran towards the building but not before seeing a tall Doctor in a white coat loading things into his car. Sure seemed late at night but then again, who knows what kind of crazy hours they work at this insane asylum?

"You!" Lexi shouted out, running over to him. "...you look familiar..."

The Doctor looked at Lexi, seemingly stunned and not necessarily because of her outfit (although that sure didn't help)

"Alexis Cole" Dr. Trevor Hoffnung muttered

"The hell do you know my name?" Lexi asked, her heart racing. "Does this company have me bugged or something? First drones come after my friend Josh, I've got someone feeding me information through a so called secure cell phone line, Dr. what's his face, Maximum, kidnaps my best friend and ..."

"Wait, kidnaps?" Trevor gasped

"Oh, like you don't know ... what else do you guys know about me? My blood type? My favorite pizza? My allergies? Why should I believe anything you say?" Lexi yelled, beginning to become aggressive towards the doctor.

"Because..." Trevor sighed, speaking in as calm a tone as he could, "...everybody could use a little Hope"

"No..." Lexi gasped, shaking her head. Trevor would respond by nodding. "But you're..."

Trevor stopped her for a second, "You'd be surprised what some voice modification can do... and you can call me Dr. Hoffnung"

"This doesn't exactly help me trust you more" Lexi sighed, shaking her head.

"Maybe this will" Trevor said, handing her another packet of Enormo nanites and a keycard.

"What's this?"

"Well, I just realized you have no pockets in that thing but ... the keycard will get you in where you need to go" Trevor sighed, "if that madman is doing what I think he's doing, he has your friend up on the 8th floor..."

"So you've known he's up to this and you've done nothing?!" Lexi asked

"I've kept tabs on him ... I reached out to you privately because quite frankly, I knew what his intentions were and I wanted nothing to do with it ... I fear he got a hold of my private cell phone that I was using to communicate with you but how he got a hold of anyone you know ... I honestly can't tell you, I promise anything we talked about stayed between us"

"I ... I trust you" Lexi sighed, "and there aren't too many trustworthy people left out there"

Trevor sighed and shook his head, "If you want, I can go in there with you"

Lexi shook her head

"I made this mess, I'm going to clean it up" Lexi said determined as she clenched her fists. Trevor couldn't help but smile

"I'm sorry but what are those ... armbands? and the costume... this is what you used the nanites for?" he asked, "I'm not making fun ... I'm just ... intrigued ... and I should warn you... Dr. Max has ..."

"Yeah I already know about the mutant metal hounds or whatever" Lexi sighed

"...He calls them Maximites..." Trevor groaned

"What a narcisisst..." Lexi sighed, rolling her eyes.

With that, the disillusioned Trevor Hoffnung would get into his car, looking up at the building that employed him for well over 15 years and sigh, beginning to back out. Lexi would approach the car and he would open the window to listen to her.

"Wh-Where are you going?" she asked

"Anywhere but here..." Trevor sighed, putting his head down, "I really did have the best interest of science in mind. I can't in good conscience work for this mad man anymore ... I already put my resignation on his desk before this happened and now I'm more confident than ever that I made the right call"

"W-Will I see you again?" Lexi asked, a bit worried

"Possibly ... if you want to ... although quite frankly, you don't look like you could use my help, you're remarkably strong Ms. Alexis Cole" Trevor nodded

"Please. Call me Lexi" she smiled, shaking his hand.

"Lexi then" he nodded, "I wish you the best of luck"

"Thank you Doctor..." she nodded, "for giving me Hope"

He'd nod and smile before pulling away for the final time from Enormo Enterprises' grimy parking lot. Lexi on the other hand was about to enter the belly of the beast.

Dr. Max had been busy it seemed. Way TOO busy. Since his last encounter with the then unnamed ShrinkGirl, Dr. Maximillian E Mumford had constructed a whole new add-on to the lab, involving complex ductwork, piping and slamming metal doors. This all sounds very expensive and it was. It also seems like it would take up an incredibly hard to hide amount of space. Except it didn't. It was basically the size of a lab rat maze and it was specifically designed to ensnare one well meaning youngster by the name of Alexis Cole. It was only there as a "what if" plan though. For now Dr. Max already had the upper hand and a test subject, however not his ideal one.

"I'd have you sign the waiver..." Dr. Max said condescendingly as he leaned over the captive Leah, "but I don't think it would do any good anyhow"

Leah would groan and spit in his face, quite literally. The cranky Doctor would snarl and shake his head. "You're only making this harder on yourself Leah..."

"Fuck you!" Leah shouted

"Again with the language!!" Dr. Max scoffed

Elsewhere Lexi was patrolling the eerily dark hallways of Enormo Enterprises. It somehow got more ominous since the last time she was there. The place seemed completely empty but at least she knew where to go. The 8th floor. She'd dash up a staircase and then another, her own hurried running producing a decent amount of sound. Maybe too much as it impeded her hearing of the slithering that was closing in on her. 2 fearsome Maximites were still online and chasing the moving Lexi up the stairs by clinging to each step from its underside.

Dr. Max was hard at work in his lab, preparing the nefarious machine for testing, every once in a while glancing at one of the 12 monitors that showed the different sectors of the facility.

"Wait!" he said, stopping the initialization sequence. "There! It is her!"

He pointed to a screen where Lexi could be seen, albeit in blurry black and white, running across the stairwells.

"Lexi?" Leah gasped silently.

"Hmmm ... we'll continue the experiment momentarily..." the mad scientist gloated. "But for now ... initialize Protocol Mousetrap!"

"...Protocol Mousetrap?" a very confused Dr. Wright asked.

"What can I say?" Max shrugged, "I've been busy"

Just as Lexi reached the top of the 8th stairwell, as Trevor had instructed, the 2 horrid metallic creatures sprang out from under her feet, their faces contorted like gelatin to make the incredulous stretch it would take to reach her. Lexi just turned and grunted as she swung open the heavy metal door to get onto the next level, no longer having time to deal with these things. She had but one thing on her mind, saving her friend Leah.

Leah watched the screen intently, trying to make out what was happening while also processing the chaos going on all around her. She'd see that maniacal grin on Maximillian's face as Lexi took a few steps forward, only to throw a switch and watch her best friend disappear down a trap door hatch.

"Lexi!!" Leah cried out

Lexi was okay, although she landed in a dark dingy metallic room, or at least it was dark, until a row of lights activated in sequence, one after the other, after the other. She spotted a pair of garage doors ahead and ran to one of them slamming a nearby button to open it, but on the other side was nothing, just a solid wall. On the other side of the next was an opening but it was a small one, almost as if it was meant to park a fisher price car, except it went deeper into the depths.

"Let's get small..." Lexi muttered before squeezing herself and eventually shrinking herself to fit, all the while thinking she needed a better catchphrase.

Leah didn't quite see that part as the security cameras weren't visible to her but they were to Max who blocked the console leaning forward with the enthusiasm of a college student playing Call of Duty. He had finally concocted a trap to confine and trap the minimizing heroine. In order to advance, she'd have to keep making herself smaller to get through the subsequent doors.

She wouldn't be alone though as she heard the familiar screech of the Maximites ; liquid nanite robots with glowing red eyes and persistent claws for feet that made them hard to escape as they'd quickly gain ground. Lexi looked back in fear and anxiously scooted down the next corridor, having to squeeze her body even more to do so.

The strange thing is, because the space appeared relatively the same to her (the ceilings were almost always higher than her head) she didn't quite FEEL the shrinking as much but she knew she was using it in order to advance. Finally things began to open up a bit more but she still didn't know which way to go. The convoluted network of piping and tunnels was becoming more and more like a maze and thats exactly what the mad doctor was counting on, even though only he knew where it would all end up.

As Max watched his size shifting and vicious Maximites pursue the size changing Lexi he'd shout over the intercom,

"Don't let her get away!"

Our main heroine knew she was cornered, or at least that she would be. One hallway led to another, led back to the first, led to another. Sounds of clanging doors in the distance signaled her deepest fears being confirmed. She was being contained. She still had room to run but it was at HIS allowance. He called all the shots for the time being and that would be bad enough if not for the snarling and hissing of anthromorphic metalmuck as it crawled its way towards her from all sorts of angles.

"Oh shoot, I did not wear the right shoes for this" the vagabond damsel decried, her face worn with sweat, her purple sneakers a bit scuffed. She wanted to collapse. She wanted to cry. How did she let things get to this point? She looked to the left and the right and presented to her were a pair of passageways, almost like a sick carnival game. Which way would she pick? Would it even matter?

"Left..." she mutters, barely audible and makes her way through it. Another slap, like a metal gate ... or a mouse trap.

"I'm not giving up on you, Leah..." the brunette would mutter in determination, fists bared as she began her next step but not before a slimy recoiling tendril of liquid steel restrained her right arm in place. She yanked against it hard but it recoiled with her like a stubborn rubber band, "Owwwwww!! Hey!"

"Give up now ... ShriiiiinkGirl...." the overly confident scientist would announce through a loudspeaker. "Give up now and you may at least get to see her fate!" he cackled, appearing now on a small video screen with Leah positioned behind him. This only further fueled Lexi's anger and determination.

"Ooh you'd like that, wouldn't you, Mad Max?" the heroine quipped, quick to get up and leave nothing but a severed robot limb still clinging onto her.

I never should've let things get to this point, Lexi pondered, I should've just told her the truth sooner ... it might not have helped though ... would she even have believed me? Do I even believe this, even so much time later?

Now why does this scenario seem so familiar?

The tired Lexi let her hands momentarily rest on her knees as the 2 pursuing Maximites seemed to slither in from under the slammed gates, reforming at a size similar to hers. It appeared there was only one door left now and no matter where it led, Lexi was determined to get there.

Now since Leah was simply viewing footage of Lexi fighting the metallic monsters (and that alone was unbelievable) in what appeared to be a large room, she hadn't put it together that her best friend was actually no more than 2 inches tall at this moment. It just appeared to her as a scene playing out in an action movie but Lexi was the star. She'd watch, mouth agape, rooting her on just like her days in cheerleading while still having an understandable degree of confusion about what was going on.

Lexi would duck the lightning fast whip of the cold metal tongue as if it were a jumprope being snapped her way, before sliding a bit and standing up quick, striking hard with an uppercut. The other robot would advance quickly, it's large claw like feet stomping clumsily towards her, she'd backflip onto its head and poke its red eyes which would only momentarily impair its vision as the viscous like red pupils would slowly regenerate, given time.

"You're almost there, Fraulein!!" Max would mock from his place at the monitor board, all the while Leah being held back by a couple of his overdressed goons with Justin sitting across and Joseph watching on with concern. "Just one more door..."

Leah could only watch on in horror watching her best friend fight bravely but she was worried about what the mad scientist had up his sleeve next. It wouldn't take long to find out as the steely Lexi came barreling through the final door, into a large room with a glass dome raising up into the skies. Except it wasn't large at all. In fact, she was basically inside a Hungry Hungry Hippos game minus the plastic hippos. Looming overhead was the victorious Dr. Maximillian E Mumford, his face reflecting in the glass as he gloated over his tiny little foe trapped inside.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!" Dr. Max laughed triumphantly, "you like that?! You literally delivered yourself to me Fraulein Alexis and now you are MEIN!"

Leah had to sit up to see better, seeing her best friend, only 2 inches tall and trapped under the glass.

"LEXI?!" she screamed, more tears forming in her eyes

"Leah!" Lexi squeaked before feeling something hit her, a bit of an electric shock, subtle at first until it began to disable her entire body, sending her down onto the cold metal floor in agonizing pain. Behind it all was none other than the ruthless mad scientist, his hand leaning slowly on the switch for the electricity as it filled the chamber.

"Turns out I can study you alive or dead ... but we won't kill you just yet" Max laughed, "I only want to give you enough to see you suffer... you miserable little..."

"LEAVE HER ALONE!!" Leah would cry, finally throwing a sharp elbow to one of the men in suits.

Before she could advance more than two steps however, Dr. Max had a gun drawn in her face, a surprise he had kept tucked in his large lab coat pocket just in case he needed it.

"Not. One. More. Step." Max warned.

"Leah! No!!" Justin Wright screamed, breaking free as well and leaping for the Doctor's wrist as he gripped the gun tight, swinging it away from Leah and towards the glass containment chamber. A loud POP would pierce the surface, causing a spindling spiderweb pattern to form throughout the dome. It wouldn't shatter but it would render certain components of the machine inoperable, like the mechanism that had been shocking Lexi. She'd look up weakly seeing that though the electric shocks had stopped she was still trapped despite the cracks in the glass.

"Ugh!" Dr. Max grunted, throwing the foolhardy Justin Wright off of him, "Perhaps I should have sprung for the bullet proof glass but no matter!"

He'd casually swing his arm down towards Justin, not firing but merely aiming the pistol at his downed body.

"H-Hey..." Joseph said, very assertively, "don't point a gun at my son"

Dr. Max shook his head and pointed the gun at Joseph now, "You really want to take the chance that I only had one bullet in this barrel, Doctor?"

While this standoff played out, the tiny and still trapped ShrinkGirl looked around for any way of escape. The floor was pretty solid metal so her trick from before to shrink micro and go out through any kind of hole was pretty much moot. The Maximites were still factors but they seemed to be standing down for the moment, maybe having been deterred by the electrical field that had just been in the room. So far the only thing that had done anything was the bullet to the glass but too many blows would shatter the glass entirely, causing its own issues.

"Now Dr. Max ... let's not do anything crazy ..." Joseph stammered, the gun about 10 feet from his cranium as all involved parties stood at a close distance from one another.

"Oh I'd say we're beyond that!" Leah snapped, turning the gun to her now. She gulped deeply.

"Don't you dare hurt her!!" Lexi squeaked, trying to grow as much as she could, getting to maybe 4 inches before the glass would impede here from furthering her progress, she'd bang on the glass like a fish trapped in an aquarium seeing the tear filled eyes of her best friend.

"Oh what are YOU going to do about it, Thumbelina?" Max retorted, turning around and in doing so letting his guard down long enough for the determined Leah to tackle him from behind, slamming his head into the glass. Lexi would wince and shrink herself a bit to not get slammed as more glass would begin to splinter into the room.

"Oop sorry..." Leah would grunt shyly as 2 guards would pick her up, one holding her by each arm as she struggled uselessly trying to get closer to the glass to see her tiny best friend, "LEXI!! I promise you!! No matter what it takes...!!" Leah screamed between breathy sobs, "I will get you out of there!!"

Lexi too was fighting back tears but the emotions would have to wait as she could see a Maximite mounting its attack from the corner of her eye. The metallic dog was beginning to gain back its aggressiveness and its vision.

Meanwhile the stunned Dr. Max was stunned no longer and returned his gun to its original position, cocking and aiming it at Leah Henderson.

"No you don't!!" Lexi squeaked, willing to throw herself through the weakened glass wall to save her best friend but a strong force was holding her back in the form of two sturdy silver bands of metal that had latched onto her wrist gauntlets and were squeezing so tight the metal was beginning to crunch against the flesh on her wrists. "N-N-N-....NOOOOOOO!!"

Lexi's scream would resound throughout the room, as tiny as it was while she gave all her strength to slingshot the attacking Maximite through the glass completely, striking Max himself as if it were a bullet but with much slower speed. Still it was enough to send the doddering Doctor onto his face, and send his two thuggish guards over to aid him, allowing Leah to kneel down and carefully collect the tiny Lexi through the hole in the glass, scooping her spent little body into her hands. She'd wrinkle a brow at this, Lexi's form reflected in her shiny brown pupils.

"H-How?" Leah asked, her voice sounding as broken as the glass, "How did this happen to you?"

Lexi would look up at Leah weakly and wave shyly

"How do we make you big again?" Leah asked concerned.

Lexi weakly was trying to talk, but more importantly she was keeping an eye on the determined Max who was looking for his gun again. Instead of saying what she was going to say she shook her head and motioned for her giant best friend to move her face closer.

"Yes, Lexi? What is it?" Leah asked

"Throw me"

"What??"

"THROW ME!!" Lexi squeaked

"What? No, you'll get hurt..."

"Leah if you're really my best friend..." Lexi squeaked in an assertive tone, "You will throw me this instant!"

Leah muttered under her breath something about Lexi being stubborn before finally complying and gently lobbing her best friend up like a soft ball, not expecting what happened next which was the heroic young lady's expansion whilst she crashed into Max with a flying kick.

"Leah, let's go!" Lexi yelled, standing before Leah in her purple and gold costume.

Yes, it was scratched up and scuffed, the shoes weren't shiny purple boots like in the old picture but rather her beat up sneakers painted purple. The top had little rips in it from her battles and the gauntlets looked like they were custom made at a shop in the mall by their friend Taylor but damn it, as far as Leah was concerned, she was looking at the real ShrinkGirl in person.

Of course the time to be starstruck would have to be later, if they even survived the night. Lexi would take Leah's hand and lead them out the door of the lab.

Mad Max would violently get himself up onto his feet, even shoving his own guards out of the way as they offered to help him up. Instead, his focus was on the main console as he watched the two girls escaping through security camera footage.

"You're not getting away that easily" Max snapped, hitting a button that would send a series of metal gates down every so many feet in the corridor.

"Okay Leah, I'm going to need you to be on your game here, can you do that for me?" Lexi asked, determined as ever, even while her joints were killing her, she'd try to maintain eye contact with Leah while they dashed through the hallway, "Leah, look at me ... please..."

"Lexi ... this is ... unbelievable..." Leah shook her head even while she was witnessing it

"I know, but we don't have much time, please..." Lexi shook her head, "catch me"

"What?"

Without warning, Lexi would jump towards Leah but instead of landing on her, she'd shrink to a few inches tall and Leah would react swiftly and catch her.

"Okay, now what?" Leah yelped

"Slide me!" Lexi yelped

Leah looked down for just a moment, "Yknow, you're awfully bossy when you're small"

"LEAH!!"

"Okay okay, geez..." Leah sighed, trying to slide Lexi under the gate before it closed.

Lexi looked up and all around before she realized why she couldn't allow that to happen. She'd stop her slide short on purpose and just plink into the metal gate at her tiny size. Leah would catch up and Lexi would grow back.

"Wh-Why didn't you go under?" Leah asked

"I'm not leaving without you..." Lexi shook her head

"So cute ... and so weak...." the evil doctor would proclaim over a loud speaker, "and this is why I win!"

Lexi let out an exhale, "Yes Max, you win..."

"Lexi, what?" Leah stammered, but Lexi just turned back and smiled with a wink.

"You win ... you can have me" Lexi sighed, putting her head down.

"What?" Max exclaimed in disbelief.

"But..." Lexi said sternly, "you have to let Leah go ... drop your gates and let her walk free"

"Lexi..." Leah looked at her friend worriedly but Lexi seemed unfazed. She had a plan.

"Let her go ..." Lexi repeated, "and I'm all yours ..."

"Hmmm ... very well" Dr. Max chuckled, raising the metal gate again and all metal gates in the sequence. "Go ahead Leah but remember, I can track you any time I want ... you tell anybody what you saw here tonight, you get it and so does your whole family!"

Knowing her own dad worked there, Leah was attentive to that warning, even if Max wasn't keen to that fact yet. She simply nodded in compliance watching the gate to her freedom open. She walked very slowly though, resistant to leave her best friend hanging.

"You know Max ... for a genius ... you really are an idiot..." Lexi giggled, jumping into Leah's hand as she shrank rapidly.

"Go go go!!" Lexi squeaked as if flooring a getaway car. Leah ran as fast as she could, cutting through a side door and booking it down the stairs.

"OH for heavens sake ... stop them!!" Dr. Max shouted, dispatching as many of his black suit goons as he could throughout the building but it would soon be too late as the duo evaded detection, which to be fair was easy when one of them could fit in the others hand.

Max angrily slammed the console and looked over at Joseph who was simply flabbergasted, "Oh for crying out loud, like you haven't seen worse things working here... and where's your son? Where's Justin?"

"He took off and honestly I don't blame him..." the irrate Dr. Joseph Wright responded

"Ugh fine whatever..." Dr. Max sighed, before remembering one other thing, "wait ... you said you had a daughter too, right?"

"...uh we're not exactly on talking terms ... she um... turned to a life of crime" Dr. Wright lamented

"Oh how terrible, and wasn't she very young?" Dr. Max asked

"Yeah ... why?"

"Oh nothing ... I just know some of the kids these days they uh ... swing both ways?" Max queried

Joseph seemed none too pleased with the implication of that even as a suggestion.

Outside the Enormo Enterprises building, it was Joseph's son, Justin who would be chasing down the two girls.

Leah put Lexi down on the grass and let her re-enlarge, not expecting to see her now ex-boyfriend approaching.

"What the hell do you want?" Leah sneered

"Look, I didn't know ... I ..."

"You so knew!" Leah snapped

"I ... I was suppose to go for Lexi..." Justin sighed, "that crazy guy said he would fire my dad and have him arrested if I didn't go along with his stupid plan ... he wanted me to try and learn more about your friend Lexi but then we started talking and I really DID fall for you, Leah..."

"It seems I fell for you too, Justin" Leah grimaced, "but not in the way I wanted..."

"Leah look..." Justin stammered

"Please leave me alone ... you could've at least told me, you could've warned Lexi ... ANYTHING!! You did nothing!" Leah screamed, hanging her head. Lexi just stared on with anger at Justin.

"Leah please..." Justin implored one more time.

This time Lexi stepped forward to intervene.

"My best friend told you to leave her alone" Lexi said sternly, "I suggest you do it ... or I shrink you ... that's one of my powers now ... apparently, I'm honestly not sure?"

Lexi cradled Leah somberly as she led her off the premises of the awful facility. Now the next question became, how would they get home? Luckily, as always somebody came through and no it wasn't one of Josh's off the street friends. It was ... Dr. Hoffnung.

"Dr. H..." Lexi said, holding onto her still upset best friend, "I thought you..."

"I couldn't take off without knowing you were okay ..." Dr. Hoffnung nodded, "now let's get out of here..."

Back inside the lab, Max would simply throw himself back into his lab chair completely flummoxed at how this failed. As he went over the prototypes for his new and improved Maximites, he knew some tweaks would need to be made if he wanted to stand a chance against whatever the hell Lexi was supposed to be.

A bit frustrated, he'd retreat down the hallway to the former office of his colleague Dr. Hoffnung.

In retrospect he shouldn't have been surprised to find the office nearly empty. After all, he knew about the secret cell phone and how it was a line to Lexi. He knew Trevor had been plotting behind his back but he still wondered why. The only clue he'd get was the one thing still remaining in the office which was a flat piece of paper on the desk, containing a message.

"Max,

I started here at Enormo Enterprises 15 years ago determined to make a difference in the fields of
modern medicine, engineering, and defense technology. For a while, we did that and were making strides,
but then the work started to become classified. Long nights turned into unruly hours and untenable
conditions for wonderful colleagues and friends of mine who all moved on to better places in time.
I stuck around as long as I did because I was seeing great progress in our mission and dedication, but
you've changed Max ... and this whole operation is just something unethical that I can no longer be a
part of it. At some point, somebody has to stand up and do the right thing, so I will be tendering my
resignation, effective immediately.

Dr. Trevor Hoffnung"



------

The next night, a heartbroken Leah Henderson lay in her bed. She had answered a few messages from her friend Lexi but she didn't really expect company. She also didn't expect Lexi herself to come over because, well ... she had been battered pretty badly. It still boggled her mind how Lexi could keep such a secret from her. Then again, she wasn't sure she'd be able to keep it together any better given those impossible circumstances.


Lexi always was the stronger one, the depressed Leah would think to herself before hearing a knock on the door.

Leah stubbornly got herself out of bed and walked to the door, wearing only her purple Mini-U T-shirt and black sweat pants with the Mini U varsity font running veritcally down the leg. She cautiously opened the door, not sure what to expect at this point. Justin? One of those creepy robots? A telemarketer? No. It was a box of pizza ... from Minima's, the kind with the pleasant red and green trim and the familiar nostalgic smell of early 2000's pizza. But it was only the box?

"Only one person knows ..." Leah muttered, not realizing the ultra tiny Lexi had snuck in and now stood at full height behind her.

"Pizza delivery for Ms. Leah Smendersons..." Lexi smiled, wearing her ShrinkGirl costume now or at least a better version of it. She had a proper purple top with the cut off sleeve, a nice goldenrod skirt and a pair of sleek purple boots. Can't forget the wrist gauntlets naturally. She stood and twirled a bit for her friend who just hugged her. "Oof, maybe a bit more carefully, my ribs are still a bit sore"

"Oh ... sorry..." Leah sighed, her head leaning on Lexi's shoulder, "I just ... can't believe it"

"I know ... neither can I" Lexi nodded, smiling a bit, "I have someone I can tell now ... well ... 2 somebodies I suppose"

"2?" Leah asked, confused

"Josh more or less knows" Lexi shrugged

"Yeah but I found out first, right?" Leah asked, seeming pretty insistent on this.

"Well ... he DID watch me shrink someone..." Lexi blushed, giving a crazy kind of shrug

"Wait you actually SHRUNK someone else? Who?!" Leah asked, suddenly very intrigued

"Gloria Graff..."

"For real?! Oh my gosh that must've been crazy funny!! I would've loved to have seen that!" Leah laughed a bit

"Heh wasn't so funny at the time but ... yeah..." Lexi blushed, going back and grabbing the pizza. "Oh shoot, I forgot forks"

"Who needs forks?" Leah shrugged as they laid the pizza on the bed and began to share it.

They'd kind of eat in silence, half smiling, half crying, but enjoying one another's company nonetheless as the night wore on.

"So what's it like?" Leah asked, looking at Lexi in a sincere way, "...to be small?"

"It's ... a learning curve for sure..." Lexi nodded, "definitely takes some getting use to"

"I'd imagine ... I'd be freaking out..." Leah chuckled nervously, "No way I ever wanna be that small"

Lexi just gave her a "yeah right" sort of stare. She knew her best friend better than that.

"I'm sorry again..." Lexi sighed, head down, "about the whole Justin thing ... I know you cared for him"

Leah just nodded

"You were right though ..." Leah sighed, "I was moving way too fast"

"No, who could know?" Lexi scoffed, her mouth full of pizza as she mumbled, "I'm just glad it worked out ... I mean relatively well..."

"So ..." Leah paused after a moment with a goofy grin, "when are you gonna tell Chrissy you like her?"

"Chrissy already knows I like her ..." Lexi replied, not catching on

"That's not what I meant...." Leah teased

"Oh no! Oh no!!" Lexi giggled as Leah stood up from the bed,

"Maybe I'll go tell her right now" Leah joked, walking for the door

"Don't you dare, Leah, I will shrink you where you stand!"

"Ooh, ShrinkGirl's gonna shrink me, go for it bitch!" Leah giggled, as Lexi tried to tag her with her hand, thinking that would somehow work. It didn't, even as Leah evaded her attempts.

"Smallus Maximus!" Lexi joked, flailing her fingers in front of Leah as if casting a spell.

"Where'd you learn that, Harry Potter?" Leah smirked

"Just shut up and eat your pizza" Lexi giggled, realizing the only thing cheesier than that pizza was the moment she was having right now. And yet, she wouldn't trade it for anything. After all, it simply felt right.