Fenster Forest ... located on the outskirts of Minitropolis was one of the citys and regions prized and untouched areas. A sprawling landscape of lush trees and foliage, it was surprisingly never looking dreary or strained, like most vegetation trying to survive the unpredictable climates of the mid-west. No, the trees, flowers and even plush-like grass would retain their luster and quality the whole year around. In fact, if one didn't know any better, it was almost as if the field and forest were protected by some kind of magic ... but that's silly of course.

What wasn't silly was the ominous sound and movement that had been developing over the past few months and it was that very coming incursion that threatened the docile way of life in the forest forever. Large menacing bulldozers and machines would signal the dawn of a new era ... an industrialized era. Although a prospective construction project was only just beginning, a telling sign on a guardrail would tell everybody all they needed to know about the future tenant who planned to claim a piece of this cherished land as their own.

"FUTURE SITE OF ENORMO ENTERPRISES EASTERN DIVISION RESEARCH FACILITY"

------

Meanwhile, while one project was just getting started, another was reaching its conclusion, or at least part of it.

Joshua James would proudly show his friend Alexis Cole what he had been working on and Lexi would lean in with confused anticipation and a reaction that would be satisfactory to most and indicative of the pride she shared with her friend for this minor accomplishment of his.

"....what am I looking at?" Lexi asked, furrowing her brow with confusion.

What Lexi was looking at was indeed a website of Josh's own creation. While it was a competent design, it appeared akin to something one would see in the early 2000s when everybody was designing websites of their own. It had a flash banner going across the top that said "SHRINKGIRL : LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR SMALL"

"...liberty and justice for small?" Lexi asked inquisitively.

At that moment, Leah Henderson sprung into Josh's dorm room, the door having been left open a crack. She seemed very excited as she approached the two.

"Oh! Oh, did you show her yet?" Leah asked excitedly

"I'm showing her right now" Josh replied with a nod.

"This was your idea?" Lexi asked Leah with a skeptical stare

"We both kind of worked together on it" Josh answered

"And my next question is ... why?" Lexi groaned

"Oh cmon, every superhero needs their own website" Josh retorted

"Literally no superheroes need their own website ... what about my ... secret identity or whatever? Isn't that a thing?" the defensive Lexi asked

"Hon, no offense ... I love your costume, I do" Leah replied confidently, "heck I helped design it ... but ... you don't wear a mask"

"Yeah, if you really want to stay secret, you need to wear a mask" Josh nodded with agreement, just happening to have a tacky blue and red Lucha Libre mask laying around, "like this"

"There is no way in hell I'm wearing that" Lexi said as she crossed her arms and pouted.

"Alright, alright whatever, you party pooper, now look at the website, isn't it cool?" Leah remarked as Lexi skimmed it over.

"I mean, it's ... thorough, that's for sure ... what's that logo?" the curious Lexi asked, pointing to a sharp looking purple and gold "SG" logo. It had a nice noir style mixed with Gotham City vibes.

"Josh here used his photoshop skills and kind of translated some of the things you and I drew into some more modern graphics" Leah nodded

"So ... why are you both so enthusiastic about this all of a sudden?" Lexi asked

"Um... because you're a superhero and that's probably the coolest fucking thing ever" Josh scoffed

"Psh, please, you don't KNOW cool, I fought some evil scientist dude with her" Leah bragged

"It was more like an escape attempt..." Lexi sighed

"Oh cmon, I totally punched him in the face!" Leah smirked proudly

"I... don't think that actually happened" Lexi looked over, confused. It HAD been a chaotic night, so maybe.

"But yeah, this is just a website where people can check out stuff about you and ..." Josh began to explain before getting interrupted by the anxious Lexi

"Wait, you didn't put my real name on there, did you?" Lexi snapped

"Of course not ..." Josh shook his head, "Gotta preserve your secret identity"

"Wonderful..."

"Oh calm down Lexi, it's not like anyone's going to use this" Leah added

"What do you mean ... use it?" Lexi asked

"I added a spot here where people can email you for help" Josh replied

"Please tell me you didn't give them my actual email address" Lexi sighed

"Of course not, it goes straight to ShrinkGirlShrinks@ShrinkGirl.com" Josh explained, as if this was the most normal thing in the world.

"You bought a web domain?" Lexi asked

"I've got like 6 of them..." Josh nodded proudly, "I know people"

Leah looked over at Lexi and shrugged.

"Well, as enthralling as all this is ..." Lexi sighed, "I'm off to work now"

"You finally gonna ask Chrissy to the Valentine's Day dance?" Leah asked. When this was mentioned, Josh looked away a bit shyly.

"Huh? She's not even working today and for the last time, no" Lexi chuckled nervously, "I don't even like her ... that way ... she's cool but ..."

"Yeah yeah yeah, go get em, cookie wench!" Leah teased, watching her best friend head out the door.

"We need to work on your nicknames" Lexi remarked before vanishing from view.

"You okay, Josh?" Leah asked

"Huh? Yeah I'm good..." a distracted Josh James answered.

-----

Lexi strolled through the hilly and winding campus of Miniborough University on her way to work, donning her green and white apron on over her white button up shirt and black pants. She'd flash a quick smile to some classmates she recognized as she'd see the cookie shop come into view. Even during the winter the campus looked very nice with ample lighting leading the way down its many concrete corridors.

It was early February and so Valentine's season was in full swing, with twirling, curling heart decorations adorning many of the campus' rusty tinted metal lamposts which of course only reminded Lexi further of the impending Valentine's Day dance. Lexi felt like dances and things of the like were so much simpler as kids. Her and Leah or whoever would just go and have a goofy time, not caring about dancing with boys or any of that mushy stuff. By high school, it seemed like a bit more than that and while Lexi would still have a good time, usually dancing like a total dork and not caring who watched, she was never as into the "romantic" aspect of it. Besides, even if she asked Chrissy to go and Chrissy said yes, it didn't MEAN anything, she could just look at it as a couple of girlfriends going out for a good time. Yeah ... that's right, she'd tell herself despite nobody arguing against her.

As Lexi's internal discussion about overthinking things wrapped up, she would enter the bustling Krazy Kookie shop, wearing her apron and a smile, prepared to hopefully do a lot less thinking now. For whatever reason she was always good at managing stress in situations that really called for it. She could get lost in the thought of just helping customers, performing her job and being a support to those around her. It's what made her a good cheerleader. She never got lost in the lights of those moments, despite being a bit anxious other times. It was just one of many things the young woman didn't understand about herself but she accepted it and tried to make the best of it, as she did with most things.

"Well look who finally decided to join us..." Lexi joked, addressing the Krazy Kookie's usual barista, a spunky young lady by the name of Mara. The pretty red head stood at 5'9 with gorgeous emerald eyes and hips to die for. She had a bubbly personality that rivaled that of Lexi and was generally just a pleasant person to be around, although not the most reliable since Lexi had been filling in for her quite a bit. Still, the coffee she made was as perky as she was.

"Heya Lex" the delightful Mara responded, hard at work crafting the perfect latte

"You look a bit tired" Lexi noted, "up all night partying again?"

"Something like that..." Mara replied, biting her lip a bit "thanks for filling in for me by the way ... I know the cookies are more your specialty"

"Eh, who needs cookies? You're already sweet enough" Lexi winked

"Oh you..."

Lexi would be about to get to work when she heard the slight chime of the door's small golden bell ring, signaling a new customer had entered, although this "customer" was actually a fellow employee. It was Chrissy and she looked nice as always, dolled up in a white fleece, nice capris and white winter boots with a little fuzz on them. Lexi would just stare for a few moments before trying to focus on work again.

"Heya Lex" Chrissy said cheerfully, addressing her friend and coworker

"Chrissy, hi!" Lexi sputtered, not prepared to see her today. Normally this wouldn't be such a big deal but silly Leah put the idea in her head about the Valentine's Day dance so now she felt some unwarranted pressure even just saying hello to her southern blonde friend "What brings you in?"

"Just checking the schedule for next week" Chrissy nodded, going behind the counter to look while glancing over at Mara, "Oh heya Mara"

Mara would smile and nod, unable to resist seeing Lexi's cute reaction to Chrissy's surprise arrival.

"Oh... well .. .cool" Lexi said, at a loss for words as she was briefly distracted by a customer, diverting her attention back to the front counter, but still glancing over at the always fashionable Chrissy now and then.

"Th-Thank you sir, that'll be $8.73" Lexi smiled from behind the register

"I uh ... didn't even order yet" the bewildered customer responded

"Oh .. uh ... my bad, what'll you have?" Lexi nervously giggled.

Mara tried to resist the urge to roll her eyes but with her back turned, a slight eye roll could be seen.

As soon as Lexi was done helping people at the counter, she noticed Chrissy was on her way out. She felt a nervous gulp forming in her throat and decided to take her shot.

"H-Hey Mara... I just need to step out for a moment?" Lexi said shyly. Mara shrugged and nodded, giving her friend a thumbs up.

Lexi would slowly make her way out the door, after making sure enough time had passed. After all, she didn't want to make it seem like she was stalking ... er ... chasing down her awesome friend Chrissy.

"Ask her to the dance ... ask her to the dance? Ask her to the dance!"

My internal thoughts don't know what they want ... a disgruntled Lexi would say to herself, as she began to close the distance between herself and Chrissy, totally not caught up in her cascading blonde hair which somehow looked even more beautiful from behind, resembling a soft and pleasant waterfall as it hung down to her midsection.

"Okay Lex..." she thought to herself, practicing a possible approach, "lead off with a compliment ... see how she's doing ... oh I like her jeans, I could tell her she has nice jeans ... ugh, who starts a conversation by saying the other person has nice jeans?!"

At this Lexi would feel a bit dizzy, vision momentarily blurry. She watched as Chrissy, all 3 of her as things got even more trippy walked further ahead of her. She was literally about to open her mouth to speak when the gripping sensation of shrinking took its hold.

"W-Wait no, not here..." a panicked Lexi said to herself, rapidly shrinking ... her apron and outfit thankfully going down with her but she'd let out an inaudible whimper as she reduced to 3 inches tall, just behind her friend Chrissy who would briefly turn around, thinking she sensed something.

"Hmm??" the curious Chrissy murmured, turning around to see ... nothing. At least seemingly. She'd eventually just keep walking but couldn't shake the feeling that she had been followed, at least briefly.

Lexi would curse under her breath, stuck tiny for the moment and wondering why.

Could it be that her emotional state was somehow controlling her size. She'd just stomp her cute tiny feet and walk away, hoping for the shrinking to wear off.

"Great ... it wasn't hard enough to work up the courage to ask someone out ... now I've gotta deal with this..." Lexi grumbled, walking away. She hoped she'd grow back soon, otherwise it would take days to get back to work.


--------

Speaking of smaller sized peoples, back at Fenster Forest as things hit dusk and the skyline turned from turquoise to navy, the trees swayed briskly in the cool winter breeze. The flowers and wildlife of the woods seem to hum in harmony and at the depths of it all was a gathering of sparklers or what appeared to be fireflies.

However with a closer look, one could see, it WAS a sparkler.

"Ugh, I told you not to keep lighting those in the house!!" a male's voice would squeak out, as a disgruntled Mark would fly out of said house, except this dwelling wasn't like most others you'd see, outside of a Disney fantasy themed land. You see, the dwelling out of which Mark made his exit was about the height of a tall flower, thick as a strong piece of bamboo and fairly cylindrical in shape.

Who is Mark, you may ask?

Mark was a 21 year old fairy who was a bit shy and reserved, which was quite the stark contrast from many of his peers in the fairy colony... Wait, fairy colony? Fairies were real....??

Perhaps the legends were true, as many teenagers, kids and even adults would make mention of seeing "weird things" at night in Miniborough's Fenster Forest. Most just assumed it was the ramblings of crazy men and women, or maybe even those who were high, visualizing fairies, spritekins and pixies, but it would turn out the rumblings were true as the timid Mark made his way through the colony wondering why he just didn't feel the same as the others. It was fairly late at night but still kids would be running about on the dirt trails, playing with cherry blossoms and working on their flying.

Squirells, much revered in the fairy community would be off sharing acorns and other resources with some of the older locals and the village would glow a very subtle and peaceful yellow orange as nightfall continued to take its hold on the area.

It was all beautiful if you were into that sort of thing.

But for Mark, he had seen it every day of his fairy life, and it was almost similar to living in the heart of New York city, when once you've seen it, you become a bit desensitized to it. Mark was remarkably well connected to the real world for a fairy. He even had a tiny iPhone like device that let him connect to a Wi-Fi connection -- how they got WiFi out there would prove to tbe real magic and so as he went out, traveling further and further from the safe confines of the colony until he noticed he was floating just above the forests natural grass and pine cones, rather than the fairy-constructed town that he usually stayed within.

"This isn't so bad" he shrugged, scoffing off those fairies who had warned him in the past to never trek outside of the borders.

He shrugged as his Wi-Fi was starting to drop out, "This must be what the humans call a ... dead zone..." he scoffed, turning back towards the colony but not out of any longing for the fairy ways so much as ... well, better bandwidth. As he began to make his way back, he'd hear a long drawn out owl hooting with a slight echo to it.

He'd turn around to see the owl, a majestic white one with yellow eyes and sharp black eyes was staring him down from a mere few inches away. Now he had encountered owls before but never ones that seemed so aggressive in their approach.

"Ummmm... hi, can I help you?" the skeptical Mark asked, eyebrows raised in surprise.

The owl just stood there and flicked its ear, then something even more remarkable happened ...

The owl's eyes changed from yellow to green and then the owl itself began to grow and morph entirely, resembling the form of something else entirely, a completely different species, a ... young woman?

"Heh..." the woman would smirk, her green eyes slowly returning to a more natural hazel color although nothing else was natural about this woman who stood about 5'6 with very strong facial features, black leather boots to match her leather vest and black undershirt. "Look at the lil fairy..."

With that she'd fire a single green flame at the petrified young fairy before he'd bolt towards the colony.

"Oh don't run away now" the girl would smirk, "we were just getting started!"

She'd take a few steps, crushing some flowers along the way before being stopped by a man about her height, flickering orange fire appearing in his hand, "I'm afraid I can't let you do that, ma'am"

The woman would just raise an eyebrow and shrug, "not really worth the trouble anyhow..."

She'd soon take her leave but not before striking one more time, a powerful, lengthy green flame emitting from her purple painted fingernail and igniting a small portion of the tranquil fairy colony. She'd let out a horrid evil laugh before disappearing in a burst of green and purple fire. The annoyed guardian would just shake his head in disapproval.

"I'd give chase but ... I've got class in the morning..." the unsettled young man would whisper to himself as he turned away dramatically.

"Ugh I feel like such a dork..." the distraught Lexi sighed, her head buried in her hands, which were partially clothed by a long sleeve sweatshirt with slightly too long arms, she hugged said face to try to hide her apparent embarassment while she recalled the events from earlier with her best friend Leah while visiting her dorm room.

"Oh cmon, we all chicken out sometimes" Leah blushed, putting an arm around Lexi to comfort her

"Yeah but how many of us shrink when we do it?" Lexi sighed

"Okay I have to admit, that is kinda cute ... like one of those comic strips when the guy sees the cute girl and like shrinks out of nervousness ... except, that is of course just a silly comic and this is real life, and you're not a guy, so hey, you got that going for you" Leah smiles nervously, sincerely hoping her attempt to cheer up Lexi was a success. Lexi's deadpan look back in her direction would suggest otherwise.

"It's okay..." Lexi shook her head, trying to produce a smile which would eventually arrive on her face, "Maybe it's just a sign that I'm not meant to ask her out ... yknow? I mean she's a great friend and ..."

"Oh bullshit!" a skeptical Leah would scoff, "You like her... I think you should go for it, even if it's just to ask her to the dance, what do you have to lose?"

Lexi would blush and kind of nod in agreement, "Okay okay, you're right ..."

Lexi would then get up, getting her bags together which she had brought to Leah's in anticipation of her next run of classes. At this point in time, it was the young brunette's second semester at Miniborough University and she generally had the hang of things down, almost enjoying the hectic flow that came along with rushing off to work, stopping at Leah's, going to classes, stopping to hang with Josh and so on. She unfortunately would stay away from the cheer squad, as much as she liked many of the girls on the team. Her and cheer captain, Gloria Graff didn't exactly get along, although it wasn't too hard to figure out why that might be.

"Off to Philosophy class?" Leah asked, with a nod

"Yeah ... honestly, if we weren't so far into the semester, I would opt out ... it's not a bad class, and the professor seems pretty invested in it but ... I don't know" a befuddled Lexi shrugged, "I just don't get it ... I mean, when you really think about it .. what IS Philosophy"

Leah gave her a goofy grin in return and rolled her eyes, "Why'd you even take it then?"

"I don't know..." a disheveled Lexi replied, "I needed an extra course"

"You should've taken home ec with me" Leah beamed proudly

"Eh, you know me in the kitchen, I'm not exactly a master baker" Lexi said

"Hey, we do more than bake stuff, we also look at ... yeah okay, we pretty much just bake stuff" a sheepish Leah Henderson responded. "well... if you get out of your class early enough, I'm thinking of going down to the Crazy Jester down the road"

"You mean that new card shop?" Lexi asked, tilting her head, "You hate that kinda stuff, I thought?"

"Eh, I might try that Dangles and Dongles game or something" Leah shrugged

"You mean ... Dungeons and Dragons?" a bubbly Lexi giggled, beginning to regain her usual composure while she prepared to take her leave from the dorm room.

"Yeah that" Leah nodded

"Josh dragged you along?" Lexi interjected almost immediately

"Eh, it wouldn't be the worst thing to try something new and besides, maybe there'll be some cute boys there" Leah replied with a shrug

"Oh there will be boys there, I gaurantee that" Lexi nods, "Cute? Not so sure..."

"Why have you always been so against that nerdy stuff?" Leah scoffed

"I'm not AGAINST it" Lexi replied, "it's just not my thing, ... but hey, I could check it out, maybe I'll join your campaign thingy or whatever ... I can be your sidekick, since you're mine in real life"

"I am so not your sidekick" Leah shook her head defiantly, a tongue protruding from her playful lips

"We'll discuss it later" the hurried Lexi said, blowing her best friend Leah Lovely a little kiss as she zipped out the door. Leah just rolled her eyes and continued about her day for the time being.

------

In the heart of Minitropolis, a busy and hectic day would be underway at the Mini Troop ... er, Minitropolis Police Station, where officers were responding to the usual array of crimes, big and small, while Officer Sonia Sanders and others responded to calls about violent protestors.

"Seems the Enormo project in the Fenster region has a lot of people up in arms" one officer would comment

"Well I honestly can't say I blame them ..." Sonia sighed, "but still, Enormo getting their zoning permits to build on that land is something we have to honor ... for now. How they actually managed to pull it off is nothing short of magical..."

"Heh, you suggesting what I think you're suggesting?" Sonia's colleague asked

"What's that?"

"The rumors of there being 'fairies and sprites' in the forest ..."

"Oh cmon..." Sonia scoffed, "That's not what I meant at all ... besides, if there WERE Fairies living there, why would they help a corporation try to take over their land?"

----

"The technology!" Mark would gasp, attempting to show his sister something he had found in the woods not too long ago, some kind of weird artifact left behind by a human called an iPhone. "Look at it, it's simply brilliant!"

"Yawn..." a sassy but generally friendly fairy by the name of Spark responded. Spark would stand at a robust 5.2 inches (rather tall in fairy height) and always dressed pretty fashionably, sporting the latest in bladed grass dresswear, a luscious gradient of green and emerald colors adorning her body, to complement her sensible and stylish green and orange high heel shoes. Why green and orange? Well, the orange brought out a bit of the vibrant orange in her natural flowing locks which bobbed and swayed as she walked alongside her siblings.

Her overconcerned and neurotic brother Mark had brought her and fellow sibling Lark out to see this new "magic machine" that could somehow see "the internet" -- something that fairykind had heard of but never really delved much into.

Lark, the eldest of the three, inspected the fallen phone by floating around it. It appeared to them as a sunken submarine or some kind of odd spacecraft. Its screen had a crack in it but it still displayed the date and time on its home screen. She'd slide her heels along it gently to try to "slide" along the "slide here to open" tab but she kept slipping at the last moment, making it ineffective.

"Mark, why are we out here again?" Spark sighed, "you know we're not suppose to be out this far anyway..."

"Yeah, I'm with Spark" Lark shrugged, "last time you left the colony late at night, half the village almost caught fire"

"Almost? It totally did ... thankfully there were enough of us to cast a spell and put it out!" Spark sighed, recalling the horrid night as it had happened not too long ago.

"Look, are you going to help me carry this back home or not?" Mark sighed, still more enamored with the iPhone than anything else.

"Ugh, fine ... let's just minimize it and bring it back" Spark sighed non-chalantly. Anything to shut her brother up at this point.

----

"And today we continue our discussion on theories of happiness ... what does it really mean to be happy?" philosophy professor Dr. Brandler would go on, pacing about the small platform from which he delivered his lecture. Some students seemed genuinely interested in the topic while others seemed to be merely taking the class to fill some kind of elective slot. Consider Lexi to be in that latter category.

Still, as she did her best to pay attention and take notes, she couldn't help but admire the passion of a boy sitting a couple rows in front of her (of course with how scarcely filled the class was, the row directly in front of her was practically empty, giving her a good enough view of this young man).

He seemed enthusiastic, was generally friendly (if not a bit overly wordy when he asked questions) and had slicked back black hair and wore a green shirt. Not sure why the green shirt detail was needed but it seemed relevant at this time. In passing, she had known his name to be Chris, but they hadn't talked a super ton. Still, she was bored enough to spend a few moments staring in his direction rather than focus on the philosophy powerpoint presentation.

Sensing this, the ever perceptive Chris would turn a bit, but only long enough for their gazes to lock momentarily, which still felt like an eternity to flash him a friendly smile, which he would return and nod to.

After class, Lexi decided to approach this newcomer ... although he wasn't all too new. After all, this would be both of their second semesters at Miniborough University.

"H-Heya" Lexi would nod and smile cheerfully, following up on their brief non-verbal introduction earlier. "Name's Lexi"

"Oh howdy" Chris smiled, "S-Sorry if it seemed like I was staring at you or whatever before..."

"B-But you weren't..." Lexi chuckled nervously, "I technically was..."

"Well see, that's what I thought but I didn't wanna assume ... I mean, not like I'm much to stare at ..." Chris would giggle, although it was genuinely hard to tell if the comment was meant to be a joke or an actual slight on the young mans self being.

Lexi rolled her eyes, "You always so smooth?"

"More or less... I'm a bit of what you'd call a dipshit" Chris shrugged, a bit goofy. "So what's up, gamer?"

"Gamer? Huh. Hardly..." Lexi shrugged, "haven't played a video game since that Call of Duty thingy... but you know, not much ... how about you?"

"Call of Duty thingy... you mean the one with the calls and the duties? Heh... thinking about checking out that new card shop..." Chris nodded

"The Crazy Jester?" Lexi remarked, "what is that, the place to be?"

"I don't know" Chris shrugged, "I've heard a lot about it ... maybe there'll be some cute girls there"

Lexi would sigh, "that's what my friend said ... well kinda ... reverse that"

"Oh, she single?" Chris joked

"Hoo boy..."

"Don't worry, I'm just messing" Chris added, as they continued to walk, "I'm not sure I'm even going to go anyway, I don't really know anyone there and..."

"Nah, cmon" Lexi would tease, "We're definitely going"

"What? Why?" Chris asked, a slight tone of worry in his voice

"You need to meet some cute girls, or at least have some fun" Lexi giggled

"I don't understand, why do you care if I ..."

"Just cmon" Lexi smirked. She wasn't the biggest fan of Dangles and Dongles but dang it, she wasn't going to let this new friend just waste an opportunity to be social. Plus part of her wanted to see Leah in action, if she even knew how to play those geeky card game things.

"Hmm, maybe I DO come off as too dismissive towards the geeks...." Lexi thought to herself, before catching herself saying the term 'geek'. Didn't exactly scream acceptance. Whoops.

A short while later at the geek store ... er ... card store, the gang would be gathered around a set of card tables that were pushed together to make a bigger playing surface for Dungeons and Dragons. Scattered along the edges of the tables were card binders containing Magic the Gathering cards, Yugioh cards and some miscellaneous others.

Lexi was mildly interested but only to watch Leah.

"A bit surprised to see you here" Josh commented, checking his phone every so often, "I figured this wasn't your scene..."

"It's not but eh, I had some free time and ..." Lexi would begin to explain herself before her voice trailed off. The others would sort of go on without her, while Josh seemed curious at what could keep the usually talkative Lexi from going onto one of her usual rants.

Chris, meanwhile was just scribbling some stuff on a paper, "So like, can I be a wizard or something?"

Lexi looked over briefly and just kind of half laughed, but her attention was drawn elsewhere, as she peered out the window pane to see a store across the street. It looked like it had just opened, as she didn't remember it and she generally knew that area pretty well. On its storefront read "Aztec Parts and More Computer Repair ... We Sell Parts ... and More!"

That wasn't the part that drew her attention though. It was the car parked just out front. It looked ... very familiar...

Lexi would gingerly approach the computer store, peeking inside briefly to see what appeared to the kind of dingy computer store one would see in the 1990's. Like so many Radio Shacks, it had dark grey carpeted floors, steel shelving and black trim on the walls. She'd back away a bit to let another customer go in ahead of her, the customer carrying quite a bit of things so she gently nudged the door open for them, eliciting an appreciative nod.

She'd look inside and see a whole lot of old looking computers, although some newer ones, all on shelves, along with mice, keyboards, and various accessories. The store had a very "sterile" smell to it, which wasn't the worst thing, but she definitely feel like the new shops' demographic.

As she watched the customer ahead of her explain their computer problem to the gentleman behind the counter, she couldn't help but wonder if she had just caught a glimpse of a familiar face in the back room, which she glimpsed through a small window, behind which appeared to be where the computer repairs took place.

In a few moments, she'd be speaking to the gentleman behind the counter.

"Um ... h-hi..." Lexi stammered, "this is going to sound kind of weird but does a ... Doc ... er, Mister Hoffnung work here?"

"Um... no, but my boss' name is Trevor Hilfmann" the man behind the counter responded.

"Geez, how many names does this guy have?" Lexi mumbled under her breath

"Hmm?"

"N-Never mind ..." Lexi replied shyly.

By this time, the mysterious computer technician in the back had already noticed the inquisitive young lady and was taking a pause from his work to peer over again from the tech window.

"W-Would it be ... possible maybe ... for me to ... see him?" Lexi asked, folding her arms and trying to look as shy as possible to perhaps sway her chances

"I don't know, Miss ... he's been pretty busy lately ..."

"Um... it's okay" Trevor 'Hilfmann' said, stepping out from behind his reclusive area and waving Lexi in, "she's a ... friend of the family"

Lexi blushed and nodded, walking past the salesman and continuing on into the back room.

Once there she saw an array of computer monitors, desktops, laptops and really the kind of stuff you'd expect to see in a computer repair shop. Upon closer inspection though, she also saw some more ...unorthodox gizmos. A couple even looked similar to the robots she had faced at the winter carnival, although a bit smaller and thankfully deactivated.

"So you uh ... work here now?" Lexi asked awkwardly, not really sure where to begin.

Trevor Hoffnung (assuming that was his real name) had helped her greatly. He provided her intel on the nefarious Enormo Enterprises, a company in town that still remained shady and infamous for whatever it is they did. The most recent scandal tied to the company came in the form of a vicious and nearly deadly attack at the pier's annual winter carnival in which a large metallic monster unleashed its wrath. Thankfully Lexi (and by proxy, a vixen by the name of Roxie) had been there to stop the attack but it only raised further suspicions on the strange company that had been known to be working with Nanites before. All that was in the not so distant past though, and Lexi was more curious than ever to see what Dr. H had been up to since.

"So... Dr. H... what have you been up to since ... everything?" the inquisitive Lexi asked

"Heh, well while it is true I do have a doctorate, I go by Hilfmann now" Trevor answered

"Yeah I noticed that ... old family name or ...?"

"Protection" Trevor replied, now taking Lexi a bit deeper into the repair room of the Aztek Parts and More shop. "I'm not naive to the fact that Dr. Mumford has trackers out there somewhere... I've triple inspected my car and thankfully found nothing but that doesn't mean I'm out of range ..."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I've gotta stop ya ..." Lexi sputtered, "Dr. Mumford?"

"Max..." Trevor sighed

"Ohhhhh Mad Max... yeah..." Lexi nodded, "is it true that he's building a second plant that's going to cut into Fenster Forest?"

"Sadly yes ... I'm hoping it doesn't go through but somehow the company has acquired the zoning rights to the land ... it would be a shame to ravage those forests ... they've been part of this region for ... who knows how long?" Trevor answered

"Yeah ... I'm still not sure how they were able to get the permits ... well... Max isn't the OWNER of the company, right?" Lexi asked

"No, that would be Edward Enormo..." Trevor answered

"I'm sorry, guy's actually name is Enormo?"

"Eh, Enormiaggio..." Trevor replied, in his best worst Italian accent

"I guess I understand that..." Lexi shrugged, "what does he think about what Max is doing?"

"He uh ... doesn't exactly know..." Trevor sighed, "d-do you mind if we change the subject?"

"Um... y-yeah sure" Lexi replied, as she sat down on a flimsy and rickety black office chair, holding her arms a bit uncomfortably as a chill seemed to go through her. As soon as it passed, she let her hands fall to the side and her eyes were going every which way, "this ... isn't just a computer shop, is it?"

"It is not" Trevor answered, quite matter of factly, opening some drawers to reveal more packs of nanites, but if Lexi leaned up just a bit, she could see some of the drawers had some multi-tools, strangely shaped hexnuts and ... an injection needle?

"Sh-Should I be worried?" Lexi chuckled nervously. Despite the save back at the Enormo Enterprises lab, it wasn't completely clear how involved Trevor had been in Maximillian's handiwork. While not a sole contributor, he likely knew quite a bit, which could make him a helpful ally but also potentially somebody to watch out for. Thus is the life of a fledgling superheroine, after all.

"No" Trevor said, after a bit of a pause, "Truth be told, several of the research projects at Enormo were at least partly my doing, but I never intended them to be used like that ... I was able to confiscate a few of the components from Dr. Mumford's Maximite creatures, which is what you saw on that shelf over there. Don't worry though, they've been neutralized but I've been able to gain some fascinating insight on how they work..."

Lexi nodded as she listened to the Doctor talk. She wanted to keep listening when an incessant vibration from her cell phone kept diverting her attention.

"Do you ... need to get that?" Trevor asked.

"Hmmmm... probably nothing that imp==" Lexi began, as another incessant notification set her off, "Okay okay, I'm sorry, hold on..."

Trevor would just shake his head and sigh, turning to go through more technology on his work bench before his young employee asked him for help at the main desk. He would depart for the moment, while Lexi read her texts. The latest one was from Josh and simply said "Hey, call me... I have big news"

Since Trevor was out of the room for the time being, Lexi took this moment to pick up her phone and dial him, keeping her voice fairly low, "Yeah, what is it?"

"Okay first of all, where are you?" Josh asked, as the sounds of the others clamoring over Dungeons and Dragons could be heard in the background, "secondly, you have a hit on your website!"

"What? No, cmon..." Lexi scoffed

"It's true, come check it out, I've been checking the emails since I have them forwarded to my phone now" Josh replied

"So you ... have an email set up for me that I can't even check ... and the emails go to YOUR phone?" Lexi asked

"Yeah ... I mean it's nothing inappropriate ... well a few dudes did send pictures of their ..."

"TMI!" Lexi snapped, as Trevor entered the room again, "Look, I gotta go ... I'll look at your ... whatever later"

"Oh okay..." a disappointed sounding Josh answered as the phone call abruptly ended.

"Everything okay?" the concerned former Dr. would ask

"Huh? Oh yeah ... just ... friend of mine ... made me a website..." Lexi explained, while rolling her eyes a bit, "y'know, in case any trouble comes up ..."

"So like... you're a professional superhero now?" Trevor asked, with a half smirk on his face.

"Hey I didn't think it was that funny!" Lexi hmphed, crossing her arms.

"Oh I meant no offense" Trevor nodded, with a reassuring hum as he looked through some boxes labeled JUNK, while another was labeled THINGS. The level of organization on display was simply magnificent.

While watching the older fellow go through his things, Lexi looked down at the gray concrete floors with some confusion. Were things ALWAYS spinning so much. She put a hand to her right temple as she tried to stabilize herself in her seat. Huh. It was similar to the weird dizzy feeling she got around Chrissy, but thankfully this time she didn't shrink or even change in any way. She'd even check her fingertips to make sure there were no signs of sparking. There were none.

"No, I honestly think it's pretty admirable what you're doing Ms. Cole" Trevor stated, before realizing his mistake, "...ahem, Lexi ... I think it's pretty respectable and altruistic even..."

"Th-Thanks" Lexi replied, forcing a smile while gently caressing her own hand with her fingertips.

"Are you okay?" Trevor asked, "I've seen you grip your hand a couple times, are you feeling any discomfort? I only ask because the effects of the experiment you were exposed to still aren't known ... honestly, it's somewhat of a miracle that you're still alive?"

Lexi would nod uncomfortably and whimper, "Honestly? I'm not like ... in any extreme pain or anything but I do get these dizzy spells and my hand will sometimes feel like I dragged it on a carpet ... if that makes sense"

"It makes total sense" the knowledgeable doctor stated, "Your body's polarity was severely affected by the experiment, it's kind of what allows you to compress yourself and the matter around you ... your body has certain electric fields which ... bzzt and react and przzzzt, when you were exposed to the ... radi... in the..."

Lexi would blink her eyes multiple times as she'd hear the man's words coasting in and out as if he were on a defective radio line. What was happening to her? She simply nodded and tried to keep her appearances up while his words sounded more and more distorted before finally leveling out, the blurriness no longer being an issue as well.

"I know ..." Trevor sighed, "not the most relatable thing to be talking about, I hit you with a lot of sciency mumbo jumbo just then"

"Oh? No that's okay Dr. H" Lexi giggled with a thumbs up, "I understood some of those big words... I know what polarity is and uh ... experiment"

The 2 would giggle, although while Lexi remained optimistic, the more stoic in comparison Dr. Hoffnung would worry a bit.

-----

Deep in Fenster Forest, away from the parts that were being scanned over by construction equipment for possible plotting points on the new Enormo labs project, there would be a cottage, a rather humble one at that, and this is where our next scene would take place. For it was here, the 3 fairy siblings ... Spark, Lark & Mark were talking about something their brother Mark had just done, and they were discussing it, as fairies usually do, in a very calm and reasonable manner.

"You did what?!" Spark snapped, leaning in at her already jittery brother as he sat on the blue and white, meticulously kept bedspread of his humble slumbering chamber.

"I don't know ... I just ..." Mark sputtered, but before he could even serve up an answer, his other sister Lark had other ideas

"You can't just ... invite people here" Lark shook her head, "what the hell is Esmerelda going to think?"

"Forget about her..." Spark shrugged, looking annoyed in general, "this is just ... a bad idea overall... you don't invite humans to the colony ... why do you think we cast a cloaking spell over it so people can't see it?"

"Seriously... last person to even see this place was that Icabod guy and he lost his head, you want someone else to lose their head?" Lark retorted, "is that what you want??"

"Well to be fair, they did replace it with that pumpkin..." Spark shrugged with a guilty looking grin. Sure, she hadn't been the one to do it but she heard things.

Mark was definitely annoyed about the situation. Maybe even more so that Spark had spied on his newly acquired MinIPhone (as he was calling it, since it said iPhone on it when you booted it up) to see he had reached out to a girl on there.

"Oh, so now you're going to be quiet about this?" Lark scoffed

"Psh, just leave him alone, he only invited her because she's a pretty face" Spark smirked, leaning in to tease the socially awkward brother

"That's not even her real face!" Lark shook her head, snatching the phone casually away from Mark as he sat on the bed. He'd spring up from where he was try to regain it but his sister had him by just a couple centimeters, which was an insurmountable height difference for fairies. "It's a sketched drawing at best!"

"Still, if the site had said ShrinkBOY, he probably would've have gone for it" Spark shrugged

"Cmon .. it's not like that!" Mark groaned, finally getting the phone back when Lark tired of teasing him with it. "It's just ... I thought with that witch attacking us, we could use some ... protection?"

"Oh geez, again with the witch" Lark sighed, "we haven't seen witches since ... since..."

"Since before the Pumpkin guy!" Spark finished the sentence, somewhat accurately.

"Well ... I don't know, but this person I encountered set a part of our colony on fire, how do you explain that?" Mark asked. To his surprise there was a bit of an awkward silence to that. Nobody was quite sure how to respond. "Look don't worry about it... I'm sure she won't show up. She probably isn't even real ... it looked like a fan site anyway"

"Fan ... site?" Lark asked, "how do you already know so many terms about the internet?"

"I research things" Mark nodded confidently

"Yeah, remember, sis?" Spark nodded, "He hates everything about fairy culture so of course he'd rather learn about human culture"

"That's not true!" Mark said

"It's SO true..." Lark shook her head, hand on one hip, "but I guess you're right ... chances of a superhero coming here are about the same as a witch..."

As the 2 sisters finally left Mark with some peace he could hear one more quip arise out of his sassy sister, Spark, "and besides that ... what's with that slogan ... liberty and justice for SMALL? Come on..."

Two things were certainly for sure as Leah leaned the side of her face against her hand, elbow rested firmly on the lightly matted play table. The Crazy Jester was indeed a premier location for gamers of all kinds to gather. It was the kind of store you'd find in the corner of a mall ; not exactly extravagant but a certain attention to detail made it charming with its bright blues, greens and grays adorning the walls. Behind glass cases would exist rare special edition trading cards and under glass display cubes would dwell highly detailed figures of fantastical creatures such as dragons, paladins and more.

The other thing that was all but certain was Leah's interest in Dungeons and Dragons was dwindling as fast as her best friend could shrink herself.

"So ... I roll a 3..." Josh narrated, advancing his porcelain figure, a pretty well made red and silver model that looked like a medieval-ish character featuring a mix of superhero elements. It honestly wasn't all that surprising given Josh's fasincation with both subjects. "And ... shoot, I do not hit the dragon"

"I gotta be honest with ya..." Chris chimed in, simply watching as Josh and a few others were in the main group of DnD players, with Leah and himself as bystanders, "I just don't get it"

"Right?" Leah tsked,

"Oh I mean I GET it but ... I just don't get why anyone would wanna play it" Chris commented, perhaps a bit too loud as a few of the DnD gamers looked miffed as they peered over, "um... as you were, my bad..."

Leah stifled a giggle as Lexi came strolling back into the store.

"Oh, there you are!" Leah giggled, suddenly coming to life a bit more now, "Where did you go anyway?"

"Um... I took a very long bathroom break" Lexi lied, shrugging her shoulders as she sat down next to Chris, "so what did I miss?"

"Not much" Leah sighed, confused and bored

"Well Josh just stormed the dark citadel fortress with a level 7 orc-mage but got sent retreating by a level 8 dragon with equipped sapphire armor..." Chris explained, as Leah just stared at him, her eyes rolling towards the back of her head.

"...and I thought you weren't paying attention" Leah teased, eliciting a guilty look from the sheepish Chris.

Upon seeing Lexi re-enter another set of eyes was also re-engaged in things but in another direction. Those eyes belonged to Joshua James as he hastily wrapped up his D&D session in favor of talking to his friend, Lexi, subtlely pulling her to the side. She'd lean in with some interest, wanting to hear about this prospective hit on her website.

"So, you mean to tell me ..." Lexi whispered, lowering her voice as she leaned in, "...somebody actually took the website seriously?"

"Well of course they did..." Josh nodded, also whispering now, and neglecting to notice a third party joining their private pow-wow. "it's a very well made website too, I'll have you know"

"Why are we whispering?" Leah interjected, being the aforementioned third party to join the growing huddle, "are we sharing secrets? I wanna know..."

"Leah!" Lexi leapt out of character for a moment, almost wanting to playfully smack her best friend on the back of her cute head, "We're just ... talking"

"If you're just talking then why so secretive?" Leah remarked

"Honestly, I'm not really sure..." Josh shrugged as all 3 of them proceeded towards the exit.

It didn't completely elude the attention of Chris though, who noticed them all departing together, the most curious of all being Josh who seemed to be invested in the game not that long ago. He decided to look elsewhere for the moment but one thing was for sure, the meeting of Lexi and Leah, plus Josh, definitely left an impact on him.


---

Speaking of impacts, one determined and confident policewoman was hoping to do just that ... make a big impact on the frantic and sometimes dangerous community of Minitropolis. She was determined to make sure her career and life had meaning and persuaded strong and swift change in an unruly city. Unfortunately, that mission would have to wait. As of this time, she would be assigned to patrol duty around Fenster Forest, acting as part of the security detail in case things got out of hand while a mob of angry protestors continued to march around the construction machines that dotted the outside of the woods.

"Sonia Sanderson... guarding the forests since ... right now..." she'd mutter to herself, flipping through the frequencies on her cruisers' police radio just to monitor other situations. It seemed fairly calm at the moment and even the protests were peetering out. There were a lot of kids who liked to go the forest, and just take walks and hang out. She could even remember as a kid herself, her father taking her fishing down there by the lake that rested deep in the forests annals. It was a dark area but always seemed nicely illuminated by fireflies. She could distinctly remember being a bit scared to go deeper into the woods with her father because of the darkness but he'd always reassure her and sure enough, fireflies or ... some kind of unexplainable glint of light would always guide the way. Eventually she never felt scared there and actually was quite fond of the area. She'd let out a dispirited sigh as she pondered the eventuality of the woods being ravaged for more industrial expansion. Especially by Enormo Enterprises ... as if that company's footprint wasn't felt enough in the small city.

While peering around and taking note of anything unusual, one thing did stand out, but the young officer thought for sure she must be seeing things. Entering the woods from beyond the fenced off area appeared a young girl and she was walking at a brisk pace. She wasn't running but she definitely seemed to have an intent to her travels. This alone wouldn't be the weirdest thing, and heck, even though one wasn't supposed to breach the fencing, it was something she could look the other way on. What was throwing her the most is the woman was wearing predominately purple and white and even from the long distance, she could recognize her pretty distinctly as Alexis Cole, the young woman with whom she encountered before. The tackily dressed Alexis had already drawn some attention from the Mini Troop as a potential threat due to her being prominent at a few other crime scenes and well, anytime you dress in attention grabbing colors, you're bound to ... well, draw attention. Still, that COULDN'T be Lexi, right? What would she even be DOING at Fenster Forest, let alone dressed up as a cheerleading superhero?

The answer to that question and its eventual outcome would lie in the events from earlier that day, as an irate and slightly befuddled Lexi questioned her friend Josh on the legitimacy of her website call.

"Faires... really..." Lexi sighed, not amused.

"I don't know..." Leah shrugged, snatching the phone as if they were playing a game of hot potato, with Josh's phone changing hands many times in a short period, "I think it's pretty cool! Remember as kids how we always wanted to meet Tinkerbell?"

Leah paused an unusually long time after saying this, as if waiting for Lexi to show more excitement or connect the dots on what she had just said.

"You could meet Tinkerbell!" she exclaimed with glee

"Yeah ... or a squirell..." Lexi sighed, "there's no way this is real..."

Lexi again seized the phone and read over the fairly lengthy message. It was by far the longest message her website had received and was very well written. Most of the messages had just been silly things like "haha can you shrink my ex for me?" or "Here's a picture of my ..."

...Really? Geez, what is it with people on the internet?

The fact that the fledgling website had even received more than 10 hits was something Lexi wasn't expecting, let alone that there was a genuine "distress" call from ... a fairy? It couldn't be. Still, she'd scan over the message again in more detail while Josh and Leah talked behind her, all 3 of them in the privacy of the young heroine's hideout ... Josh's public dorm room.

"My name is Mark ..." the message read, "I saw your website and I was very interested because our colony could use a sort of guardian... I don't know if you do that kind of thing? Or do you just stop bank robbers and stuff? I admittedly don't know a lot about hero culture except for a couple of movies. I'm not exactly from around here... don't laugh but I'm a fairy. Yeah, I know ... the name itself doesn't exactly garner a lot of credibility or respect. My sisters are oblivious to the way humans think about us, but that's a tangent for another time. We (meaning the colony) could really use your help. The idea that you're able to shrink to our size means you could approach us without being threatening but also stop any larger sized intruders that may threaten our way of life. We're generally cloaked from being seen but somehow this witch attacked us the other night. My sisters don't believe me and heck, nobody believes me but she was really there. There's this guy that tries to protect us, he calls himself an elemental wizard ... no disrespect to him but I don't think he's really equipped to handle this... I ask you ShrinkGirl for your help. We're located in central Fenster Forest, down by the Miniborough Pond, if you get lost, just follow the trail of fireflies, I can have them guide you in. I'd really appreciate the help.

Sincerely, Mark"

"If this is a hoax, that's a lot of backstory..." Leah remarked, leaning over Lexi's shoulder to read it again, "I say you should at least check it out... if it's a hoax, you at least get to hike in the woods or whatever"

"We could always come with you" Josh added, "I've been dying to see the world famous ShrinkGirl in action"

"World famous..." Lexi groaned, "I've fought like 1 bad guy ... okay 2 ..."

"Didn't you have some weird sexual fantasy with her?" Leah added

"What? No..." Lexi blushed bright red, extremely flustered

"You sure? Because all you mentioned to me was that she was fast and had a nice..."

"Okay! Moving on..." Lexi snapped, a bit startled now, "I appreciate the help guys, but ... I think I should be okay just scoping it out for myself ... I'll swing by the forest after classes and just ... I don't know, see if this place is even real"

"And if it is?" Leah asked

"I'll give Tinkerbell your phone number" Lexi rolled her eyes

And so, that brings us to present time, with a fully dressed "ShrinkGirl" exploring the woods tenatively, thankfully not drawing too much attention (save for one keenly observant policewoman) thanks to the ongoing protests and construction. Of course Lexi hoped that the protests would push back the construction and maybe stop it altogether but she feared in the end, the corrupt corporation would continue taking its hold on what was left of Miniborough and Minitropolis' nice natural sights.

She didn't have quite the backstory of going to the forest that Sonia and her dad had but she could remember a few times goofing around in that area with Leah and her parents. And funny enough they did use to pretend that Tinkerbell or other small creatures lived there. At night especially it looked like the stuff of fairy tales, with lush vegetation and even odd looking red and purple mushrooms that weren't native to the area growing in. The wildlife was fairly prevalent but always tame, including rabbits, squirells and the occasional owl that would hover by. Lexi always felt strangely at peace there when she hiked the trails.

Even now, as she headed to her first fully sanctioned "hero job", she felt no nerves. Mainly because she thought this would be a mere walking excursion and nothing more. After all, what were the odds of there being an actual fairy colony in the woods? According to young Lexi and Leah, fairly high. But 20 year old Lexi knew better. Then again, not even a year ago she would've thought it impossible for her to shrink.

"I really need to be more consistent in my reasoning..." the skeptical Lexi muttered to herself.

The fair fairy colony of Fensteria would be fairly calm at that moment, until the sudden stomping of a human being startled that calm. An erratic Spark would almost immediately flutter up to her brother in angst, getting in his face while she flew at a tilted angle.

"You happy now?" Spark snapped, "You see what happened? This is that ... that ... that GIRL you invited here!"

"It's not like we didn't know this was coming..." Lark sighed despondently as she stood in the threshold of the young man's room, her arm draped non-chalantly on the side of the door, "you made this mess, you clean it up"

"Huh?" Mark shook his head, looking utterly stunned as his 2 sisters stood over him

"Yeah, you go out and meet your girlfriend or whatever ... maybe get her to go away" Lark sneered

"She's not my girlfriend!" Mark retorted, "and... s-sure ... I'll ... I'll go see her"

"Great ... then go" Spark smiled, already sensing the nerves in her brothers voice. Plus she just knew him too well.

True to form, Mark would step off his bed kind of shyly, his feet trembling with each step.

"Well?" Lark smirked

"I'm going ... I'm going ... geez..." Mark groaned, "you'll see ... she'll be nice"

"Or she'll squish you" Spark winked

"Funny funny..." Mark groaned, beginning to question his own decision to summon the superheroic ShrinkGirl there.

As the self conscious and nervous male fairy stepped outside and peered around ... and well, he didn't have to look too far, he began to worry. What do I say to this newcomer?

"Hello Ms. Girl ... I'm Mark ... welcome to our village ... no, that sounds STUPID..."

As he paced around and pondered ways to introduce himself to this newcomer, all whilst keeping the cloaking spell on the colony until he was read, Lexi remained equally stupified on how to approach this unusual situation, if it did indeed even exist.

The confused heroine stood dead silent in the woods, and things were quiet ... too quiet some may even say.

She'd look at her phone briefly, just to see if there was any way she could pinpoint her location via GPS but of course the signal was spotty given her location, surrounded by trees and all the weird glittering things. Wait, weird glittering things? Fireflies? This is when her "fairy senses" (a new power she just decided to give herself then and there) activated and she remembered the instructions from the message to follow the fireflies, who seemed remarkably good at building a makeshift runway, guiding Lexi through a lane of sparkly lights towards an eventual end point where she'd stand.

Down below an awfully shy and quite frankly horrified Mark stood down by her purple boots.

"Oh boy, what do I say ... what do I do?" Mark muttered, loud enough to hear but also figured nobody the size of Lexi would even bother to listen, "Umm... okay, hi ... I'm uh ... Mark? No that's stupid, she'd already know my name from the message ... I've gotta just ... I've gotta ..."

Lexi would peer down only briefly, her eyes glancing in the direction of the scared little fella. She spotted him pretty clearly despite his small size but then again, she was expecting to see a small fairy, although not one quite so cute. He definitely wasn't Tinkerbell but he had little wings similar to her, wore a brown tunic similar to Pit from Kid Icarus and just seemed all kinds of troubled, like a middle school boy trying to ask out his crush ... or like Lexi herself trying to form a full sentence around Chrissy when it came to the Valentine's Day dance.

"Um ... hi" Lexi said shyly, trying to break the silence. Mark stood there in silence.

She spotted me ... she actually spotted me ... what do I do? What do I do?

Before the answer to that could arrive, 2 other fairies floated up behind him, staying quiet until they got within closer range of Lexi and her 2 purple boots as they towered over the trio.

"Hey" Spark remarked casually, floating just beside her shy brother

Lark remained without speaking but she seemed strangely unfazed by Lexi's appearance. Despite their size difference she didn't seem concerned.

"H-Hey ... I thought you guys were going to just ..." Mark stammered

"What? Leave you to die?" Spark joked, "Nah, we just wanted to see if she was real and make sure you didn't ... yknow, get kidnapped or something"

Lexi could hear their little discussion, despite their small squeaky voice and she tried to stifle a giggle, not wanting to come off as disrespectful and instead attempted to disarm any tension by waving to the 3 fairies down below.

"H-Hi ... my name's uh ... ShrinkGirl" Lexi stammered, trying to actually preserve her secret identity this time, "and I'm ... here about the job?"

"Holy crap, you found us a superhero..." Lark said, still seemingly unimpressed even if she didn't want to admit she found the makeshift costume as impressive, if not more, than Lexi's amazing stature as she towered over them at her 5'4 native height.

Spark seemed a bit more skeptical. Despite the teasing of her brother and her at times flippant attitude, she didn't want any harm to befall him or the colony. They still didn't know this Lexi person, or ShrinkGirl, the alias she went by. She took a bit of a defensive stance, legs spread apart as if ready for battle, her hands sparking a bit.

"Look ... ShrinkGirl ... I'm sure you don't want trouble and neither do we ... so just ... show us that we can trust you" Spark challenged. Despite the clear size disadvantage, the determined Spark appeared unafraid in the face of such overwhelming odds and looked as though she would even try to fight Lexi if it came down to it.

"Um... okay ... h-hold on, then and please don't freak out" Lexi nodded, stuttering a bit. Admittedly, she would be afraid too if a "giant" newcomer showed up to her town, even if they acted friendly as she had. "...and maybe stand back a bit?"

"I don't trust this one..." Spark muttered under her breath, glancing over at Lark as if to ask for backup. Lark again, remained unmoving, although her face showed slight concern.

"I ... trust her" Lark said, after some contemplation. Mark remained speechless throughout.

"Why do you trust her?" Spark scoffed, completely oblivious to the fact that while they went back and forth, Lexi herself was shrinking before their very eyes. This was a fact that didn't go unnoticed by Mark as he tried to explain to his sisters what was happening but his demure voice and demeanor was easily drowned out by their strategizing, all the while Lexi shrinking smaller and smaller to match the height of the fairy group.

"Okay..." Lexi sighed, now walking up to Spark, seemingly the nervous one now as the size advantage was all but gone. At 5 inches tall, Lexi stood at about the female fairy's height, maybe even a tad shorter due to Spark's stylish heels that gave her a very slight height boost. "H-How's this?"

"Not now, ShrinkGirl, we're talking about..." Spark started but then snapped her head quickly back in astonishment, "You uh ... you ... shrank?"

"Yeah..." Lexi blushed, "It's ... kind of in the name?"

"You ... made yourself smaller..." Lark stated "...on purpose?"

"Well yeah" Lexi shrugged, "I'm not going to like ... loom over you like some kind of monster... I wanna talk and find out what's up ... I can't very well do that while you're afraid of me"

"Psh, I wasn't afraid" the overly confident Spark scoffed

"...I was" Mark sighed, raising his hand.

Lark rolled her eyes. "Of course you were"

"Well there's no need for anyone to be afraid" Lexi said, still appearing shy as she stood a good distance away from the 3 fairies as they looked her over. "I'm here to help ... or at least try to ... and still kind of getting over the fact that fairies are real ... I've got like a million questions ... but I'll try to keep my inner fan girl contained"

"Inner ... fan girl?" Lark asked

"I... I actually really loved fairies as a kid..." Lexi nodded, "I think you're all awesome ... like, if I'm dreaming right now, I hope I don't wake up because if I'm being honest ... this is pretty freakin awesome"

Spark softened her stance almost immediately, "Oh? W-Well thank you ... human girl... y-you're pretty okay yourself ... I've never seen a human willingly shrink themselves to ... be with us"

Lexi shrugged. After all, height was just a number.

"And I keep telling you Tinkerbell isn't real..." Spark sighs, leading the inquisitive young Alexis Cole into their house, a place that looked to be even more and truly out of a fairy tale, built inside a hollowed out tree stump, but adorned with many modern and even human appearing features. Still, as the group toured the dwelling of Spark, Lark & Mark, it didn't take Lexi too long to notice that sister Lark was wearing dark green and had long blonde hair to match.

"Of course, of course, you don't want me to know ..." Lexi would smile smugly, before pointing out her observations, "plus Lark ... if that is your real name ..."

"...No I'm not her..." Lark sighed, "everybody LOVED to compare me to her in grade school because I like the color green and I have blonde hair ... as if that's the ONLY fairy to have ever existed"

"and she didn't even really exist!" Spark sighed, "I swear, that danged Disney movie has been the bane of our existence..."

Mark gave Lexi a bit of a look of discomfort, non-verbally urging her to drop the topic.

"Heh ... sorry" Lexi shook her head, trying to regain some of that "superhero" composure she was shooting for. After all, she was to be the ... fairy savior! Fairy Guardian? Friend of the Fairies? Surely some of this might have looked good on a future resume.

"Can I just say?" the enthusiastic Spark commented. She seemed to be the most similar to Lexi of the 3 fairies, "I LOVE your boots ... the purple is just ... wow! Like it pops, but it's not tacky or anything"

"Th-Thanks" Lexi nodded, "I love purple, maybe I can recommend some to you ... do they have a mall in the uh ... fairy colony? My apologies, I don't know too much about all this, I'm still new to the idea of shrinking"

"How long you been doing that??" Lark asked

"Hmmm, not even a year now... started 6 months ago with this weird science experiment gone wrong..." Lexi explained, "the whole thing is honestly kind of a blessing and a curse ... I mean, it scares me sometimes ... I ... I ..."

Oh no, not here ... Lexi thought to herself, beginning to momentarily feeling dizzy, she'd grab for a chair she saw in the distance but fall just short of it, slumping herself up to try to grab onto the chair leg and get up. Spark and Lark would help her up while Mark just watched on in a bit of shock.

"Whoa whoa, ShrinkGirl..." Spark whimpered, helping her to a sitting position as Lexi's vision and orientation slowly returned, "You okay there, hon?"

"It could be the sudden introduction of fairy magic into her system from being around us..." Mark suggested

"Or maybe she needs some water..." Lark added, before turning to Mark, "Mark, get her some water"

Mark grumbled while he went off to do so.

Lexi on the other hand knew it may be more serious than that. She had tried to keep it to herself, but she was getting more and more of those dizzy spells lately. It could be a result of her shrinking powers or maybe something else. Perhaps she just needed more sleep or something. Either way she shook her head, briefly putting her hand on Spark's ruby colored bracelet and patting it to say thanks

"Th-Thanks hon... and you guys can call me ... L-Lexi..." the tired girl stuttered, "I'm not gonna hide anything from ya ... after all, you've been kind enough to take me into your homes and all..."

Spark gave her a kindhearted smile and Lark even nodded a bit, coming around on the newcomer human who could just happen to adapt her size to theirs. In short time, Mark returned with the water and offered it to Lexi in what appeared to be a leaf all wrapped up into the shape of a cup. It was surprisingly sturdy enough to hold the water without wilting or dripping under the weight of it.

"Thanks, Mark ... and thanks all of you" Lexi nodded, "You all rock..."

----------

At the Minitropolis Mall, it was Leah Henderson and Josh James having similar thoughts but about something else

"Oh wow, this really rocks ... you think Lexi will like it?" Josh asks, looking intently at something that Leah was carrying in her hands as they walked towards the metalworking shop that Lexi herself had visited not too long ago for her wrist gauntlets.


"Psh, she better ... this thing hasn't been cheap to make ..." Leah smirked, admiring her own handiwork as they carried it in to share with their friend Taylor behind the counter, "...I've had to call in a few favors but it's going to be worth it. I plan to give it to Lex as a Valentine's Day gift ..."

"Heh, nice..." Josh commented, "s-say ... maybe we could say it's from both of us?"

"I ... I guess" Leah shrugged, not really seeing the point, "I mean, it's kind of an inside thing between her and I..."

Again, Leah would see Josh notably frown, "Oh ... yeah ... true, I wasn't trying to intrude ... it's just ... I don't know, kinda cool and it WAS my idea for the grappling hook and the ..."

"Okay okay ... we can put your name on it" Leah smirked, giving in as she playfully elbowed her friend while Taylor took a closer look

"Wow, this is pretty badass Leah" Taylor giggle, "I assume you want me touch this up a bit?"

"If you wouldn't mind ... and we also will need some painting done, if you have time of course" Leah requested

"We could probably get you in for that ... what colors were you thinking?" Taylor asked, measuring some things out while glancing up and down at the design Leah proposed.

"I'm thinking ... purple and gold..."

"I'm thinking we need a katana!" Josh interjects, suddenly distracted by the garishly large sword on display

"The heck you going to do with a katana?" Leah sighed, "...actually ... you probably will find a use for it..."

----

Lexi stepped out of the dwelling of the 3 fairy siblings in awe, taken out towards what appeared to be miles of plush land and unique, one of a kind structures made entirely of dirt, sand, trees and more. Some of them were twisty and windy, while others were stark and stone-like. The fairy trio simply let Lexi take it all in for a few moments while they walked around and Lexi's face seemed to light up at the sights of the fairy residents going about their lives, not too unlike a human city. There were little kid fairies going around chasing after bugs as if they were puppies. There were older fairies, knitting sweaters, and there was one fairy coming right at her with a sword?

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Spark would yelp, trying to intercept but she would find herself nearly struck with a toothpick length blade of steel that scraped the dirt around her and Lexi in a semi-circular pattern, brushing up a bit of dust in the process.

"Um... hello?" Lexi chuckled nervously but this only seemed to further enrage the warrior fairy who would raise the sword back up, taking on a defensive battle position.

"Dani, Dani!!" Spark shook her head, repeating her urgency to the advancing fairy knight.

In fact, this was a good way to describe this newcomer, as she did indeed take the form of a knight, just in fairy form, her armor even modified to allow for her wings to stay usable as she hovered just a couple inches off the ground, resheathing the sword in a holster that ran parallel to her waist. Finally after a few more moments of pensive staring, the warrior with light blue eyes and blonde hair which was tied up in a pony tail would land, her feet barely touching the ground.

"This is ... Daniella, or Dani..." Lark explained, "she's our ... fairy knight"

"I am a grand warrior of the finest order" Dani would add, thrusting her sword back up so that it gleamed with light across its glorious blade for just a moment before once again returning it to the sheath.

"H-Hi, nice to meet you" Lexi waved, "I'm ShrinkGirl"

Dani would hesitantly reach a hand out to shake, the hand covered in titanium alloy as was most of her body. Lexi shook it and tried to serve up a disarming smile although it may not have gone over too too well.

"ShrinkGirl's a superhero from her realm" Spark said enthusiastically. It was amazing how fast the young fairy woman had done a 180 on her opinion of the human newcomer, speaking of her so glowingly.

"Oh, is she?" Dani asked, before tilting her head, "well I'm glad you support the fight for good but... no offense. You seem kind of small for a human woman"

Lexi would shrug and offer up the only explanation she could, "W-Well, I shrink ... and grow"

"Oh quite interesting then ... you're a mage?" Dani asked

"Also ... not exactly" Lexi chuckled, "I just do the shrinking thing really"

"Maybe ShrinkGirl could show us right now" Lark smirked

"You crazy? She'd crush the whole town!" Mark yelped in panic, before noticing her other 2 sisters and even Dani were chuckling. It was intended to be a joke, apparently, "Ah ... yeah ... right ... laugh at the overly concerned one"

"Don't worry hon, we're just messing with you" Spark giggled, ruffling his hair a tad dismissively as the gang continued to float along, their feet just barely off the ground while Lexi followed close behind, her feet just walking one in front of the other just as any normal human's would.

"That is so cool, how do you guys do that?" Lexi would ask in a geeky fashion, watching the fairies so effortlessly float off the ground.

"Hmm?" Dani asked, not even giving a second thought to it

"She means the floating, I think" Lark nodded, seeming a bit more observant.

"Not really sure to be honest..." Spark shrugged, proceeding to float in a wide circle around Lexi, maybe just to show off, "does it impress you, Ms. ShrinkGirl?"

"A little bit" Lexi nodded, "I'm also just a fairy nerd ... and this place is incredible... I can't believe this has always just ... BEEN in the forest, this whole time. How do you guys like not get in trouble from outsiders or anything?"

"Well ask Mark..." Lark sighed, seeming tired of her brothers continued fears and stories

"For the most part ..." Spark interuppted, wanting to stay on the positives rather than Mark's irrational fears, "We are cloaked by a powerful wave of fairy energy for lack of a better explanation... that's why people won't even see our colony and also can't directly or otherwise interact with it ... we dropped the shield so that YOU could see it and thankfully you've proven your trust"

"Well I'm glad to hear that" Lexi replied sincerely

"Unfortunately..." Spark sighed, "there ARE some who can see us despite our cloaking magic, but it's extremely rare ... supposedly Mark saw one of those people the other night..."

"He's a bit prone to panic..." Lark added

"Even so..." Dani nodded, floating closer to Mark and defending his point of view, "How would you 2 girls explain the fire?"

"Fire?" Lexi asked

"There was a fire that night, it looked like a purple comet flying through the sky and it ignited in the village square ... leaving behind an aura of dark magic we haven't encountered in eons, most likely" Dani elaborated, recalling the ordeal, "Thankfully we were able to put it out as soon as we did or it may have consumed the entire colony"

As Dani talked, Lexi observed a couple of things. One was that Dani was dead serious about everything she had said which meant Lexi would also take her seriously. She also noticed that the usually flabbergasted and confused Mark couldn't help but look at Dani as she spoke and grin in her direction now and then, usually looking away or resuming his monotonous pattern of pacing and floating. This made her grin as well.

"Dani, cmon, do you REALLY think it was anything that bad?" Lark asked, as the group approached the town square for themselves. At the core was a set of large sweeping arch ways, which encircled the already circular plaza where the fairies were gathering. As Lexi looked around, her eyes were positively bombarded with sights to see and pleasant smells of flowers and treats as it seemed this was more than just a gathering spot, at least for now.

"Is it usually ... THIS bright and festive?" Lexi asked, "not to change the subject"

"It's um... heh for the Valentine's Day party" Spark smiled, seeming to get lost in the majesty of it all herself as she gazed briefly at a beautiful sparkling fountain towards the center of the plaza which spewed the clearest water one could see, save for the purple and pink speckles that flowed through its hydrotic veins.

"Oh? L-Looks like a blast, honestly ..." Lexi blushed, "probably a ... no humans allowed policy, huh?"

"Well, honestly ... maybe" Spark smirked "but we could make an exception for the one and only ShrinkGirl, huh?"

For just a moment, Lexi noticed Spark glancing over at Dani, the seeming defender of fairkind for the go ahead. She'd also notice Dani nodding in approval.

"I deem this a worthy idea" Dani smirked, "You seem quite alright, Ms. ShrinkGirl"

Finally Lexi relented and shook her head

"Okay okay, you may call me Lexi ... it's my uh... human name" Lexi smiled

"Lexi huh? A pretty name indeed" Dani smiled, "Yes ... I think it would be quite fine if you came to the party"

"Y-You mean you'll be there too, Dani?" Mark asked, interjecting just for a moment before shying away again.

"I ... may be" Dani nodded, "I don't usually partake in such festive occasions but ... even we knights need to take some time, yknow?"

"We usually get quite the crowd" Spark added, getting more and more excited about it the more they talked, "Not just fairies either, sometimes elves from the neighboring colonies will show and everything"

"There are elves too?" Lexi smiled, "I'm learning a lot tonight..."

"But maybe not everything you need to learn..." Dani cautioned, pointing upwards at the spiral shaped spire that served as a central point for the massive fairy colony. "If you can look closely up there, there's still some purple smoke clearing from the sight of the fire... while it seems unlikely the flame will spark again, it's clear to me and most who have inspected it ... a witch was in our midsts...."

"Oh cmon..." Lark scoffed, "witches have been extinct for years..."

Lexi thought to herself but refrained from saying it "so elves and fairies are totally normal but witches are impossible?"

"I'm just saying what I've heard" Dani shrugged

"Then why not make it more public knowledge? What about Esmerelda?" Spark asked

"Oh, she knows, trust me. Pretty much everybody in the fairy counsel knows ... it's just ... bad publicity with the Valentine's Day festival coming up and they're hopeful it was just a one time incident or that our ... wizard friend can maybe find her and put out the threat"

"Okay so I have like ... a million more questions..." Lexi stammered, much to Mark's delight, Spark's indifference and Lark's seeming chagrin as she feared more Tinkerbell comparisons. "Who's Esmerelda? Is there some kind of rivalry with the witches and ... who's the wizard? I believe Mark mentioned him as well"

"He calls himself ... what was it?" Spark replied, snapping her fingers as if trying to jog her memory, "Christophicles? Chri..."

"No no you're wrong, it's like Carlstophicus..." Lark nods, seemingly sure of this

Mark thought about it and wasn't sure either one of them were right but he also didn't seem too fixated on the issue, instead continuing to glance over at Dani when he wasn't just staring at his own shoes, a detail that wasn't lost on the inquisitive Lexi.

"ANYWAY... to answer your other question ... Esmerelda is our town elder and sort of like our mayor in a way" Spark replied, before seemingly summoning the aforementioned town elder with simply some words about it.

"Who are you calling Elder?" the tall and well robed Esmerelda would comment, her appearance startling Lexi as she had seemingly poofed up in a cloud of green smoke to match her green robes. She also wore a shiny gold medal that had a sun-like pattern on it. She had long wavy dirty blonde hair and dark blue eyes. As insinuated she did show some signs of age but she hardly seemed too old to lead or even fight if need be. "I may be 430 years old but I have some good fight left in me, and don't make me put it to use... who is this one?"

She'd immediately be referring to Lexi, who she could sense quite quickly wasn't a normal resident of the happy colony. Her clothing, tone of voice and most importantly lack of wings would make that quite obvious.

"Oh, I'm Lexi" Lexi smiled a bit nervously, trying to shake Esmerelda's hand but Esmerelda didn't budge a bit. Lexi, getting the hint, simply retracted her offered hand, leading all there, including the usually stoic Dani to show a visible frown.

"You..." Esmerelda simply muttered, not entirely clear on who she was referring to, other than to maybe scold the group of fairies, "you know better than to bring a HUMAN to the colony ... no offense Lemis..."

"Lemis? No.. Lexi ... how did you get Lem..." Lexi retorted before shutting her mouth. Best not to piss off the mayor, after all.

"She's good, I swear" Lark nodded

"Oh well, if you say so..." Esmerelda tsked, her tone clearly sarcastic and dirisive, "You have the approval of one of our more reckless fairies.."

"Reckless?" Lark sighed

"You once almost wiped out Magesty Boulevard with a rockslide..."

"When I was 5..." Lark whimpered

"Fairies have a notoriously long memory" Spark whispered to Lexi

"I heard that!" Esmerelda snapped

"and really good hearing..." Mark added

Esmerelda seemed stunned but not necessarily angry. It appeared quite evidently that she had other things on her plate and this human issue, while it would normally be a bigger concern was no longer such. She simply shook her head and retreated back towards the atria's main building which sat just under the spire from which the dark fire attack had occurred.

"She seems ... nice?" Lexi shrugged, trying to stay positive

"To be fair, we kind of predicted that reaction" Lark sighed

"M-Maybe it's best if I don't come back for the party" Lexi suggested

"No no..." Spark shook her head, "It'll be a blast! Besides there'll be so many people there... Esmerelda will be here with her security detail, I highly doubt she'll even be looking for you or even remember you..."

"...although just in case, maybe don't wear the purple and white costume" Lark added

"Well the dress is semi-formal" Spark shrugged

"SEMI-Formal?" Mark added, "I've seen what you're wearing, it's like a Cinderella gown!"

"I'm sorry some of us like to dress to impress!" Spark giggled, leaning in and again patting her brother's head with a hint of dismissiveness.

"W-Well, I do appreciate the invite and I'm sorry if I couldn't be more help with your witch threat but ... I do have ... or will have a uh ... human valentine's day thing to go to" Lexi nodded.

"The offer still stands" Spark giggled

"I'll keep that in mind, and thank you all so much for being so welcoming" Lexi blushed, "I'd ask to take a selfie or something but that's probably ... not allowed, huh?"

"A ... what?" Lark asked

"A selfie" Mark answered, seemingly out of nowhere, "it's a human tradition where they take their cell phone out in a self facing manner and snap a photo, usually focusing on themselves and the people in the background or just as a way to show where they're currently at, for example, on a vacation or something"

The other female fairies all looked back with Mark with a raised brows and dropped jaws while Lexi giggled a bit.

"Somebody's been doing their research" Lexi smirked

"Well I've been looking it up on this ... if-own thing" Mark said, taking out the iPhone they found in the woods from earlier, except it had been miniaturized so that your everyday fairy could operate it.

"Oh! So that's how you found my website" Lexi nodded, making sense of it now, "and it's pronounced 'eye-fone'"

"Oh... good to know" Mark blushed, looking a bit embarassed that he had messed it up

"Anyways, it was nice meeting you Lady Lexi of Humanrealm" Dani nodded, taking a bow before turning away, "but I must continue to patrol these outskirts for trouble... especially if there is a witch in our midst... dark magic can be very potent, even to us fairies"

With that the noble female would take off, leaving Lexi a bit stunned, although not in a bad way.

"Heh, is she always so ... intense?" Lexi asked

"Ever since I can remember..." Lark answered

"W-Well..." Lexi blushed, realizing she hadn't done much, if any, superhero type stuff, "I could go investigate that purple smoke or whatever if you wanted... if somebody could maybe fly me up there?"

"I... wouldn't recommend that" Lark shook her head

"If that IS dark magic ... there's still a lot we don't know about it" Spark cautioned, "and for a human it could be especially potent ... we have certain counter measures to neutralize it ... although if you'd like to help, you could just be on the lookout for the witch herself, if she's out there, when you're out and about and yknow, human sized"

"You got it, my friends" Lexi would give them a thumbs up. "I should probably get going now but I would like to have a word with your brother for a sec"

"Mark?" Lark asked, almost seeming incredulous about it, "s-sure, I suppose"

"Cmon Lark, let's go work on our dresses for the party" Spark smirked, before winking at Lexi, "nice meeting you, size changing human"

"Right back at ya, Spark AND Lark!" Lexi smiled happily, before taking Mark aside

"Wh-What's up?" Mark asked

"Okay so firstly, I'm flattered you reached out to me through the website.. the website that I admittedly didn't ask for ..." Lexi scoffed, getting off topic before steering things back, "and secondly ... when are you going to ask Dani?"

"Ask Dani?" Mark responded, confused

"Ask Dani to the Valentine's Festival" Lexi smirked, "I saw how you were looking at her, you like her"

"I ... I what?" Mark gulped, turning bright red again, "What? No... I mean she's very ... she's good at what she does, yknow? I wish I could be like her ... confident, strong..."

"well if you want to be confident, you can start by going right up to her and asking her out" Lexi advised

"I... I don't know..." Mark whimpered, "even just talking to her, I get kind of woozy, almost as if I've been exposed to some kind of magic .. you probably wouldn't understand..."

"Heh, you'd be surprised..." Lexi sighed, "I have somebody who does that to me too..."

"Oh?"

"Y-Yeah but I can overcome that fear" Lexi said confidently, "and so should you ... so when I get back to where I'm from, I'll ask my person out and you ask Dani to the dance, okay?"

"I... I could try" Mark sighed

"Do it hon" Lexi smiled, her look instilling some semblance of hope in the wavering Mark, "Do it for me, okay? I'll ask my person and you ask yours... deal?"

"Okay..." Mark stumbled around it before finally acquiesing, "Deal."

"H-Heh ... maybe don't make deals you can't keep, Lexi... no offense" the sheepish Leah said while counseling her best friend who had visited her dorm room the following day after visiting the fairy colony. Of course, as was tradition, Lexi told Leah everything ... well especially now in the aftermath of her best friend finding out she was a superheroine. That still didn't stop the slightly disgruntled Lexi from giving her a snarky look

"I can do it ... I can ask her out ... I'm just gonna ask if she wants to go to the Valentine's Day Dance with me" Lexi reasserted, trying to appear firm and confident while her body language showed some apparent signs of wavering. Leah, detecting this, could only shake her head in wonderment.

"I just don't get it, Lex" Leah sighed, "You're the strongest person I know, for real"

Lexi would pause briefly to smile

"You can ask a cute girl on a date, I've seen you do it before!" Leah reminded

"I... I guess but most of those were just joking around or flirting or whatever..." Lexi recalled, "I don't even know if Chrissy ... yknow... goes that way..."

"Look ... I ... I get it..." Leah nodded, putting her hand on her best friends for a touch of comfort, "I mean... maybe I don't completely but I do get being nervous around somebody and the warm fuzzies..."

"The warm fuzzies?" Lexi chuckled, almost snorting as she did so.

"Oh cmon, now YOU'RE going to tease me? I'm trying to help you!" Leah shrugged

At that moment came a knock on the door

"Hello?" Leah asked

"It's Josh"

"Come in" Leah responded, summoning the aforementioned Josh James into the room who looked interested in talking for a number of reasons but his first question would of course be something most friends were accustomed to hearing from their friends upon being visited by them.

"So, how did it go?" Josh asked, "how was the fairy battle?"

"The ... fairy battle?" Lexi asked, a raised eyebrow of skepticism contrasting with her goofy grin as she even pictured the concept in her own mind.

"Yeah... sorry I missed it ... was ... doing stuff..." Josh stammered, getting a bit of a stern look from Leah. "But I wanted to know how it went, your first official call as a superhero... did you have to fight some kind of giant bug? Stop an evil fairy from taking over?"

"No and no...." Lexi shrugged, "but I did get confirmation that fairies are real"

"And from what Lex tells me, they dress FANTASTICALLY!" Leah giggled, one of her takeaways from Lexi's telling of the story.

"Oh my god, for real though, this girl Spark, super nice by the way, wore such a smoking outfit, like it was bright red, with gold trim on it, but it wasn't overdone? It's hard to explain it ... I almost wanna go to that Valentine's Festival thing just to see what outfit she's going to try next ... but they were ALL amazingly dressed"

"Valentine's Festival?" Josh asked, also seeming a bit on edge himself after hearing that

"Yeah, Lex said they do some kind of Valentine's thing in their colony... kind of like we do" Leah nodded, "I always said the fairy folk weren't too different from you and I ... just a bit smaller is all"

"Psh, you didn't think they existed either, don't lie" Lexi scoffed

"Yeah? And remember all those times we'd play 'house' as kids? Except instead of a family, we'd be a fairy family?" Leah asked

"Yeah when we were KIDS! We also pretended we were ROBOTS, I don't see that happening!" Lexi crossed her arms and hmphed, drawing a bit of a delightful giggle from Josh who loved watching the dynamic between the 2 girls who had known each other seemingly forever. It was the kind of heartwarming display very few could resist.

"Well it doesn't matter anyway, because as much fun as a fairy festival sounds ... heck it even sounds fun to say ... Lexi is going to the HUMAN Valentine's Day dance with Chrissy..." Leah would fake swoon

"I don't get why you're so interested in this..." Lexi rolled her eyes

"I can't wanna see my bestie succeed?" Leah shrugged, "at least one of us should succeed for Valentine's Day"

"There's more to Valentine's Day than dates" Lexi shrugged

"No, that's literally all it is... it's a holiday about dates ... it's a holidate" Leah nodded, proudly inventing the new term.

"Ugh, whatever fine ... I've gotta get to work anyway ... if I see her, I'll ask her, but no pressure, okay?" Lexi commented, making her way out the door and bidding goodbye to her two friends that were gathered there.

"I've ... gotta go" Josh mumbled, letting himself out as well.

What's eating him? Leah wondered.

While Lexi took a different path to exit the building and cut across campus towards work, Josh met up with Chris just outside the dorm building as they were planning to play some games together at Chris' dorm.

"So? Did you ask her?" Chris asked

Josh simply shook his head, looking a bit frustrated with himself as the two walked off together.

----

At the Krazy Kookie, a smug Mara looked down at her watch, counting down the seconds while glancing back at her coworker Melanie.

"You just wait..." Mara nodded, tapping her watch

"There's no way ..." Melanie said, leaning over Mara's shoulder to see the watch for herself as the time was nearing 2 PM.

At this point, the ever-attentive Mara was literally counting down the seconds, even at the expense of potential customers who stood on the other side of the counter a little bewildered.

"5...4...3..."

Suddenly, there arose the star of the show, or at least the star of this one -- Ms. Alexis Cole, running into work with just a few seconds to smile. Mara would let out a slight verbal exclamation before relinquishing a crumpled 5 dollar bill into Melanie's hand.

"Damn ... I just don't know how she does it" Mara sighed, shaking her head in disbelief, before finally turning and facing the previously bewildered customer.

"I'm telling you, Lexi has never been late" Melanie beamed proudly, accepting her prize as Lexi shuffled her way behind the counter, apron still not tied around her waist while she still maintained that smile for which she was known. "Thanks for coming through again, Lex"

"Heh, no problem" Lexi stuttered, typing her numbers into a computer to punch in, before turning to Mara, "H-Hey have you seen...?"

Just then the door to the kitchen swung open revealing...

"Chrissy!" Lexi yelped

"Yup, how's it going, Lex?" the calm blonde would ask her friend and coworker as she carried a fairly sizable tray of cupcakes, setting them on a counter to get them ready for wrapping and packing while other coworkers shuffled about to keep things moving in the limited workspace.

"Oh? Me? Me... yes, it's going well" Lexi nodded, quickly turning towards the counter just to double check there weren't any customers to wait on or talk to. There weren't any.

"You sure?" Chrissy chuckled, "You seem a bit nervous or ...upset, I don't know, you don't seem too... Lexi-like"

"She's upset that she cost me 5 bucks" Mara chimed in, not noticing that she may have been pouring a bit TOO much creme into her customers coffee while she had her back turned.

"Hey, I didn't want that much creme!" the disgruntled customer stated from beside the counter, already a bit miffed from having to wait while the ladies had their silly parlay bet.

"Well, consider it a free gift, from us to you ... Happy Valentine's Day!" Mara responded in a cheerful manner handing the young man his cup of over-sweetened and creamy coffee. As he walked away, said young man just muttered, "...I have no idea why I keep coming here..."

"Heh yeah..." Chrissy nodded, her memory having been jogged by the current incident, "Valentine's Day IS coming up, huh?"

"Yeah! Yeah" Lexi nodded, as if she herself just remembered although that was surely not the case, "And there's that uh ... Valentine's Day Dance thing!"

"Oh yeah" Chrissy shrugged, still paying attention but focusing on shuffling the cupcakes around and into their properly labeled boxes and wrapping, "I wasn't going to go ..."

Lexi began to open her mouth but was cut off by Mara

"I'm going out that night" Mara said proudly, "But I'm going to where the real action is"

"We all get it, Mara" Melanie smirked, "you're more 'intense' than we are"

"I never said that!" Mara giggled, shaking a can of pure whipped cream and spraying it into her mouth. Lexi had to admit, she wasn't hating the view, but she quickly tried to turn her attention back to Chrissy as the situation felt likely more chaotic than it actually was in that moment. It just seemed she couldn't get the words out of her mouth and even if she did, this was likely not the right time for it, not that it mattered as it seemed like there were multiple people chattering at once in that moment.

"I just REALLY like to party..." Mara giggled, mouthful of whipped cream, "and our school's parties just don't do it for me"

Surprisingly the other girls were able to understand most of what Mara was saying despite her muffled voice

"Yeah, we've noticed" Melanie nodded, "that's why you've missed... what, 6 days this month?"

"MMMmmmm" Mara shook her head, cream billowing from little creases between her lips, as she motioned with her hand for a number 5.

"Whatever" Melanie rolled her eyes, focusing on the customers at the front desk.

The smiling but still nervous Lexi would make her second attempt, turning towards Chrissy again when this time it was the aforementioned cupcake packing blonde that would speak,

"Yeah ... I wasn't going to go..." Chrissy started, as Lexi raised a finger high, as if to interject and make her move, but before she could get there, "... but then Trent asked me and he was REALLY insistent about it"

Lexi's finger couldn't move fast enough to the down position. Thankfully nobody else had really noticed this.

"So finally I just said yes" Chrissy laughed, "I'm sure it'll be whatever ... I mean, I like to dance, yknow?"

"Lexi, could you check in the kitchen to see if we have anymore funfetti?" Melanie asked, but Lexi seemed to be in a bit of a fog. "Lexi?"

"Huh? Oh yeah ... funfetti" Lexi nodded, that trademark smile never leaving her face even as she felt like she had to pick up her heart on her way into the kitchen. It's a good thing she wasn't really SUPER into Chrissy or anything...

----

Back at the fairy colony of Fensteralia, 3 very nervous looking fairies were being questioned in the dimly lit office of the town elder, Esmerelda as she seemed none too pleased with any of the guilty looking trio.

"So what else did you tell this human about the colony?" she asked, leaning forward

"Nothing. We told you" Spark sighed, seeming like a disgruntled teenager who had been sent to detention, "She's good, I'm telling you"

"I was pretty skeptical at first" Lark added, "but she seems like the real deal ... a human who can shrink and change sizes, she could've crushed us if she --"

"Exactly! She could've and just CHOSE not to ... this time" Esmeralda sneered, pounding her fist on her green and gold desk. "What happens if she gets angry? What if she brings more of her human friends?"

"We told her to keep it a secret..." Lark whimpered

"And you think she'll listen?" Esmerelda asked

"I honestly don't see what the big deal is..." Spark sighed, by far the bravest of the three there. Although counting Mark, that was easily not even a contest.

"Excuse me?" the irate Esmerelda asked, flexing her brow as she sat back in her chair, eager to hear whatever defense the brash young Spark was about to present.

"We're a colony of fairies... who have dwelled in this forest for eons. We've braved witches, monsters, magical beasts, rogue elves... you name it! We're afraid of one human girl who dresses like a superhero?" Spark asked, "we should be more concerned with that factory going up across the way"

"That place doesn't concern us" Esmerelda sighed, crossing her arms, "Had it been built closer to the colony, MAYBE but this isn't the first time the human world has built something close to our way of existence. We fairies are fine and happy to blend in, not causing trouble and ..."

"and not defending ourselves!" Spark snapped, drawing horrified looks from her siblings. "These people from Enormous or whatever the name is ... are encroaching on OUR land, I don't care how far it is, they're building on OUR forest and we're doing NOTHING about it... but then some human walks in and you get all upset about it"

"That's ... ENOUGH" Esmerelda sighed, just turning away in disgust, "This ... ShrinkGirl will be your responsibility ... if anything happens because of her, it will be your problem to correct"

"Okay" Spark sighed, seemingly unfazed by Esmerelda's threats as she leaned back in her chair, a slight show of disrespect.

"You are dismissed" Esmerelda would say, showing the three the way out. They'd all leave, 2 of them seeming really concerned as Spark took the middle path out, saying nothing more.

----

"It's a good thing I wasn't really SUPER into Chrissy or anything..." Lexi sighed, her head on her hands while she sat on Leah's bed in her dorm room. Leah rubbed her back shoulder a bit to console her

"Yeah but still ... I'm sorry to hear that ... but hey, you and I could go to the dance anyhow! Maybe we could even go as each others dates" Leah teased, giving Lexi a slight ribbing. Lexi would give her a smirk as another idea entered her mind.

"Hmmm ... yknow..." Lexi smirked, "Maybe we don't need to go to the Valentine's Day dance at all..."

"What do you mean? I thought you were looking forward to it" Leah replied

"Well, parties are fun ... but let's just say I know of another party ... a sort of exclusive club?" Lexi winked.

Leah thought for a second and then smirked as well, realizing now what her best friend meant.

Lexi frowned while the duo walked through the serene woods on that mild February night. The breeze was calm and welcoming as a cascading stream of cherry blossoms passed them by. Lexi had on a variation of her "ShrinkGirl" costume, made to look more like a dress with it cut off on the sleeve, shimmering purple with her purple boots. Leah was dressed in a tasteful shade of orange, in a dress that wrapped around her body with elegant ruffled patterns, wearing orange heels to match, her light purple purse tagging along for the ride as it draped over her shoulder, sealed fairly tight with a gold buckle.

"Leah ... I'm not sure this was the best idea..." Lexi sighed, a slight shiver coming about her, as maybe it may not have been the best idea to go out in the 50 degree or so weather in a tight dress.

"It was your idea!" Leah scoffed with a giggle, as the two friends made their way across the lush greenlands of Fenster Forest en route to perhaps the strangest party they'd ever been to. Perhaps? That's pretty much a given that it would be.

"I know ... I just ... I don't know..." Lexi sighed, now smiling but it was a bit of a pensive one, she looked down at her own hands as they fidgeted. "I got the impression the fairies were pretty secretive about this and bringing a plus one may ..."

"Huh, so now I'm just a plus one?" Leah scoffed in mock offense, "I'm your best friend!"

"Yes! Yes!" Lexi giggled, quickly realizing her mistake, "and might I say that dress is just FABULOUS! You are killing it, girl!"

"You're stalling, Lex" Leah raised a brow, always quick to notice, "Look... if you really didn't want me to come..."

"Leah, you know that's not true" Lexi shook her head, looking a bit worried that Leah would even think that, she'd quickly seize her best friends shoulders to keep her from turning away completely, "Actually um ... I'm lost."

Leah would suddenly dropped her raised eyebrow and give her a flat look "You're what?"

"I'm lost" Lexi shrugged, giving a dopey smile, "It's a big forest, Leah ... I mean do you remember every square inch of this place?"

"You are so full of it!" Leah giggled, "you know where it is..."

"Don't you remember our vacation to Wisconsin?" Lexi smirked, looking around as nerves were beginning to take over as well. She honestly didn't remember the exact location of the colony, only that it bordered the lake, but she had been looking for the trail of fireflies to show the way and they weren't appearing.

"We had to stop and ask for directions like 20 times..." Leah sighed, finally realizing her best friend wasn't pulling her leg and they were truly screwed when it came to navigation. "W-Well, never a bad night for a walk in the ... what was that?!?"

Leah almost jumped as something flew out from a bush, fading into the night sky.

"I think it was a bird, Leah, no worries" Lexi chuckled nervously, the sudden flighty creature also scaring her a bit but it did buy her some more time to explore another dirt path which she would take Leah towards.

It is too bad she didn't take more time to really examine that "bird" though. It was something a bit more than an average avarian. Rather it hung several hundred feet in the air, and what could maybe be mistaken for an eye at quick glance was more of a headlight. More on that later...

Back on the surface, dressed up best friends Lexi and Leah were on their way to the grand Valentine's Day Festival. It was truly the stuff of fairy tales. Now all that was missing was ... well ... the fairies.

Leah would shrug as the two continued their stroll through the forest, the trees and fauna eventually receding as they reached the lake.

"I don't care how this night turns out, yknow why?" Leah asked, "It's just you and I ... hanging out ... it's been a while, yknow?"

"Yeah, seems the last time it was just us was ... well... the night after the whole Enormo situation..." Lexi nodded

"Ugh, would rather not think about that night..." Leah sighed, "you were great ... but everything else? Not so much"

"I know" Lexi replied, tempted to offer a hug but she'd refrain, wanting to keep the mood up, "so in case we don't find this place ..."

Lexi would kneel for a moment as if she were a Disney princess and offer a hand to the giggling Leah, "May I have this dance, m'lady?"

"Oh, why certainly Lady Lexington" Leah giggled, playing along as she'd kneel down and set down her purse. She was about to seize Lexi's hand for what would be a very cringe worthy slow dance before remembering an important detail. "Actually ... hold that thought ..."

"Hmm?"

"Well it is Valentine's Day ..." Leah started, kneeling down for her purse,

"Oh no...." Lexi shook her head, her smile flexing with interest as she peered down at her friend with curiosity. Just what was she reaching for? "I thought we said no gifts anymore..."

"Well I know, we stopped giving each other gifts for Valentine's Day officially last year but had to do something for the girl who not only makes me laugh all the time but literally saved my life not that long ago"

Lexi gave Leah a flattered smile as she patiently waited, suddenly entranced by a swirling pattern of sparkles that seemed to entangle her ankles and flow up and down her body.

"Wait ... Leah ..." Lexi stuttered, the fairy sparkles surrounding the both of them, "How are you doing this?"

"I'm not" Leah giggled, also distracted from her efforts to get into her purse by the fact that her fingers, arms and body were being serpentined by the wayward glitter. "Wait..."

It was almost as if the lightbulb went off in both girls heads and they were completely taken out of their touching friendship moment by the spectacle that was about to befall them.

"Omigosh fairies!!" both girls screamed, taking the others hands and giving a little leap as if they were about to see their favorite boyband or something of the like, before quickly releasing the grip, Lexi tucking the hand behind her head while Leah paced a bit, trying to maintain some form of adult composure

"I mean yeah ... no big deal..." Lexi would giggle, trying to do the impossible and hide her gargantuan grin

"Yeah I mean ... psh, see them all the time..." Leah added, her voice muted but still audible as her eyes carefully perused each blade of grass by her feet for any sign of fairy life, "...in the movies..."

After a few moments more of the fairy sparkles would appear the fairy named Spark, wearing a stunning ball style gown that was also surprisingly modern, cut off at the legs to resemble more of a skirt. It was a vibrant red like most of what she wore and featured flashy sparkles along its front and trim.

"Oh my gosh!" Leah would gasp, Spark hovering just a few inches from her face, "Y-You're ... you're tiny"

Lexi would lean in very matter of factly.

"She's a fairy, hon ... I think she KNOWS she's tiny" Lexi said

"Oh gosh I'm so sorry" Leah gasped, "what's the appropriate word?"

"Tiny is fine" Spark would smirk and shrug. Why couldn't all humans be as cool as the ShrinkGirl and this other brunette newcomer. Maybe her colony wouldn't be so skeptical of them. "So ShrinkGirl..." Spark would flutter over towards Lexi who now donned the facial expression of a young girl caught with her hands in the cookie jar, "Who told you that you could bring a plus one?"

"To be fair, she IS my best friend" Lexi shrugged

"I'm kidding ... I'm actually surprised you only brought the one ..." Spark smirked, loving how shy the two girls were in her presence, "Of course Esmerelda won't be happy, but eh, what she doesn't know won't hurt her"

"Who's Esmerelda? Is that her mom?" Leah asked Lexi

"May as well be" Spark answered, hearing the question, "Anyways ... I'm glad you brought a friend and all but ..."

"Hmm?"

"Is she a uh ... size shifter... like you?" Spark asked

It was then a very obvious thing dawned on Leah.

"Oh. Oh my." Leah blushed, smirking a bit but also seeming a bit nervous by the question, "I'm ... I'm ..."

"She's not" Lexi answered for her, realizing what this would likely mean. She wasn't sure she was really prepared for this just yet. The only person she had actually shrunk other than herself was Gloria Graff and that was more or less an accident.

"Oh. Oh well..." Spark said, a bit softly but not really shyly as she took a few laps around Leah's body, flying around her in a circular formation, "I don't know if you noticed THIS, brunette girl, but you're kind of ... uh ... what's the appropriate word... ginormous?"

"Hey!" Leah snapped, again with mock offense, "I was sensitive about YOUR size... but yeah..."

Leah would then hang her head in shame, as if her size were something she willfully controlled in an effort to be bigger than all of fairykind.

"Okay okay, there's a perfectly rational plan to solve all this" Lexi nodded, attempting as she often did to break the ice, not noticing her fingers were currently attracting electrical particles in the air, static electricity seemingly jumping from one digit to the next.

"Well yeah..." Leah cut in, "you simply shrink me to fairy size"

Lexi turned bright red, surprised at the confidence over which Leah said this, although in retrospect it wasn't really all TOO surprising. Between the two, Leah was probably the one SLIGHTLY more fascinated with the idea of being tiny and if she was ever to shrink her best friend, it would probably be here where at least she'd be in the company of other small people in the form of fairies. But still ... was she ready for this? Was Lexi?

"...I was gonna say maybe you act as our giant DJ or something...?" Lexi blushed sheepishly, attempting to deflect.

Leah gave Lexi a very disgruntled look as she tapped her high heels shoes similar to Sonic the hedgehog when you let him idle too long in his iconic video games. The pressure only aided in increasing the pressure on poor Lexi who felt uneasy, her heartbeat raising although she luckily didn't feel woozy like the last time when the electrical fields seemed to increase in her tense body.

"Look, I don't even know how these shrinking powers work...." Lexi whimpered, her breathing becoming short and shallow. Her right hand tucked slightly behind her back to hide the fact that it was definitely different from the left. She was having some trouble moving it as if it had suffered a bit of a shock.

Spark's attention simply darted back and forth, not sure what kind of fight she may have unintentionally started between the 2 best friends. She stepped back a few steps, noticing Lexi seemed to be at a loss and Leah, who's name she didn't know, seemed to be the bossy one of the two. Now she knew how her siblings felt.

"Lexi, if you are really my best friend, you will shrink me to fairy size this instant!" the disgruntled Leah demanded,

"Okay, look I can try, but I can't gaurantee certain things..." Lexi stammered, cautiously reaching her hand out towards Leah, the sparks on her fingertips practically begging to make the leap over to her best friend who seemed remarkably calm about that, blowing it off as more 'fairy sparkles' in the air

"Lex, cmon..." Leah blushed, her tone changing from a bit impatient to calm, although still a bit frustrated, "I'm not gonna like hate you if it doesn't work, it's just ... well, a little embarassing being the only GINORMOUS one here"

Spark would nervously chuckle and continue receding back just a bit, not wanting to become further involved.

"I know Leah ... and ... I will .. I will TRY to shrink you, okay? Just stand still" Lexi sighed, a deep breath taken and her hand extended gently, she'd give her friend a gentle tap on the shoulder and as the sparks left her body, she could feel the sensation.

It was similar to what Lexi herself felt when she shrank but instead she was the witness to her formerly 5'6 tall friend disappearing into her orange dress and heels, now presumably standing somewhere in the giant sized heel shoe after she heard a squeaky scream.

Lexi would just let out an exascerbated sigh, "...I tried to warn her..."

Spark would look very confused up towards Lexi as she rose a bit over the pile of human clothes. Lexi gave her a sheepish look and shrug

"You mean...?" Spark asked, figuring it out pretty quickly

"It's not a perfect science, okay?" Lexi blushed, slowly shrinking herself so that she matched Spark (and Leah) in size. "I don't suppose you have something in the colony she could wear?"

Spark would nod, "Y-Yeah of course ..."

"Spark, wait!" Lexi would stop the crimson dressed fairy who would swiftly turn around

"Hmm?"

"Your dress is really pretty" Lexi grinned, giving her a thumbs up

"Heh, you too" Spark giggled, flying off in a hurry

This left Lexi to try to fish her frantic best friend out of her clothes, approaching slowly

"Lexi!" Leah squeaked, "Wh-where are you? Ohhhh, I knew I shouldn't have worn my high heels for this..."

"It's going to be okay" Lexi sighed, pushing through a pile of orange fabric to try to find Leah. Of course it was easy for her to say. She had shrunk close to 100 times at this point, between her free time and some of her missions. She wasn't quite nearly so calm her first time.

Leah was struggling under what felt like several pounds of crushed silk as she pushed her way out of the high heel shoe, her bare feet now standing on the cold grass as she let out a shiver, her naked body shaking as she could see a lump moving towards her.

"W-Wait!" Leah squeaked, trying to somehow hide herself

"Leah... not like it's nothing I haven't seen before" Lexi shrugged a bit

Leah gave her best friend a pouty look as she ducked back, hiding futilely behind a blade of grass

"Okay fine but how come YOUR clothes shrank with you?" Leah asked, not knowing how she could be so silly to assume her own would. Good thing she kept the receipt for the formal dress.

"It's ... a long story ... some kind of concentrated nanites ..." Lexi explained, "and sometimes I CAN shrink clothes too...it's confusing"

"And you had to choose NOW to forget how to do that?!" Leah squeaked, still appearing helpless behind the blade of grass, which honestly wasn't concealing much. Lexi gave her a sympathetic nod

"I understand it's scary... and I'm still working on it... I promise next time ... well if there is a next time..." Lexi sighed

"There better be a next time!" Leah snapped

"Huh?"

"W-Well yeah, I'm cold and .. uh ... naked" Leah sighed, "but ... this is ... kind of what we always wanted, remember?"

Lexi shrugged, and nodded giving her best friend an encouraging look while also trying really hard not to stare.

Before long, they'd both hear Spark's voice from outside the circus tent that was Leah's former dress.

"Hold on, I think the cavalry is here ... let's hope you're Spark's size" Lexi nodded, running out to meet her fairy friend.

Leah would stand there pensively, shivering a bit, but as soon as her nerves began to calm, it began to sink in that she was truly tiny. Even more so, she was about the size of Tinkerbell. As if that wasn't enough, another of her fantasies was about to come true, albeit unintentionally.

"So ... I think you may be interested to see this..." the equally tiny Lexi told her best friend as she slowly approached her, carrying something folded up in her arms. It didn't take long for Leah to notice the color of the garment.

"Is that...?" Leah gasped

"M-Maybe but please don't make mention of it..." Lexi chuckled nervously, "they seem to get a bit sensitive about it"

With that, Lexi would toss her unclothed friend a shiny green dress. That's right, the same color (or close to it) as Tink herself. Leah would enthusiastically change behind her blade of grass, emerging in the long green dress which didn't fit her too badly.

"Oh my God, Lex, look at me!!" Leah giggled, "we should totally take a selfie..."

"Eh ... maybe ixnay on the elfiesay" Lexi chuckled again nervously, "they seem a bit ... touchy about that"

"'They'?" a facetious Spark would emerge into the "changing room" having overheard the 2 tiny girls talking, "You know I can hear you, right? Fairies have an amazing sense of hearing"

"I always thought that was an old wives tale..." Leah nodded, acting as if she knew. It was nice for Lexi to see that her best friend was slowly calming down. She watched as Leah fluffed the green dress around her waist, marveling at it.

"And yeah ... maybe don't mention to Lark that the dress reminds you of ... you know who" Spark shrugged

"Lark?" Leah asked

"Her sister" Lexi explained, "it's a whole thing ... actually, that's the whole story"

Lexi would take a moment to stand back and admire her now also tiny best friend in the green dress. It wasn't an exact copy of the Tinkerbell dress but in Leah's mind, it was as close as she'd ever get, the size of a fairy and in a pretty green dress, which also had a couple of slits in the back that a human dress wouldn't have to allow for the wings.

In typical dorky Leah fashion, she'd even twirl around a bit, emulating Tinkerbell's classic stance and pose when displaying herself for guests. Lexi would smile but it would be sort of a half cringy smile, while she looked back at the seemingly impatient Spark, "...she uh ... doesn't get out often" Lexi said

"Alright, well, shall we go?" Spark asked, motioning out to the vast woods in front of them

"O-Oh yeah of course!" Leah nodded, still a bit shy but excited about the whole thing. Spark would fly out from under the large orange dress that Leah formerly fit into and raise it up like a tent for the duo to get out and see the woods again. "Ummmm... is it okay for me to leave my stuff here?"

"I don't see why not" Spark shrugged, "nobody comes out here, save for a wizard maybe"

"There are wizards too?" Leah gasped, "this place has EVERYTHING"

"It certainly is ... something..." Lexi chuckled, walking alongside the 2 girls. Well, Spark kind of just floated there.

Back at the party, a group of fairies were dancing underneath the flashing colorful lights, highlighted by the gorgeous central palace and its clear reflective water. There would be the equivalent of a fairy DJ overseeing the whole thing from a floating booth just above a makeshift dancefloor of cobblestones and tiled titanium. It was an odd mesh of old and modern styles but it was something the fairies enjoyed each year, along with other magical traditions.

All seemed to be having a great time, except Mark who hung around on the outskirts but unlike some of the other citizens in attendance, he wasn't mingling or talking with anyone, just remaining perched on a small chair fashioned out of stump and looking at the pretty Dani from across the clearing. She was still dressed in a way similar to her battle armor but she'd even made a few modifications to the bottom so it appeared more like a dress. He'd just look away and sigh, as he watched her talking with his sister Lark.

Lark, determined to break any stereotypes of being "Tinkerbell" was wearing an orange dress this time and had her hair down, not that it mattered too much as she had kind of short hair to begin with. The comparisons would likely never end.
Mark couldn't help noticing that whatever Dani and Lark were talking about seemed to have some concern behind it, as the two would eventually approach him. Mark became a bit hopeful that maybe Lark had convinced the pretty warrior fairy to offer him a dance. It would be a pity dance, but hey, a dance is a dance. Sadly, this would not be the case.

"Mark, have you seen Spark?" Lark asked, "she went out to look for that ... human girl a while ago and still hasn't come back..."

"I don't know, I thought I saw her stop by the house momentarily" Mark replied, recalling her brief stop there to get Leah some clothes, not that he knew what the clothes were for, "...but maybe not, I've been a little distracted, yknow and..."

"Okay, thanks..." Lark replied, not even acknowledging her poor brother beyond that while an equally anxious Dani followed close behind, her sword slowly appearing from her hip as she had started drawing it, just in case.

"I liked the human girl..." Dani said softly, looking over at Spark while they hovered across the paths departing from the plaza, "...but you can never trust humans"

"I don't know ..." Lark sighed, "Spark seemed pretty certain on this one ... maybe we're just worrying for nothing"

"There!" Dani yelped, harshly thrusting Lark behind a small tuft of grass to offer cover as if they were hiding behind bushes

"Ugh!! Dani!!" Lark groaned, the side of her dress incurring some mud from the incident, "what are you doing?!"

"Look" Dani whispered, pointing from between the grasses to reveal Spark walking with Lexi and a third girl they hadn't seen. "The human has brought a reinforcement..."

"Who's ... also small like us" Lark pointed out, "Y'know Dani, I appreciate what you do for us but don't you think you take this whole warrior thing a bit TOO seriously sometimes? ...Dani? DANI?"

Lark sighed, neglecting to notice that Dani was swift like the wind and had already evacuated the makeshift hiding spot to confront Spark and her human friends.

"Halt!" Dani shrieked, presenting her sword fully drawn so that the tip would reach out just inches from Spark's face causing her to lurch backwards and throw her hands back in defense so that Leah and Lexi weren't hurt.

"Dani!! H-Hi..." Spark smiled nervously, seemingly only scared for Lexi and Leah's sake

"Who goes there?" Dani asked dramatically, backing away and aiming the sword around a bit as if pointing a rifle, she'd crouch to appear more menacing. However, there was one person who seemingly wasn't scared to death of this and had a much more contrary reaction.

"Oh my gosh!" Leah squeaked, "are you some kind of like fairy knight?!"

Leah would unwisely pop out from behind Lexi and Spark and slink around Daniella, the noble fairy knight, checking out her gilded armor, her dress underneath and the shiny fairy sword which glistened with a touch of fairy magic. Dani wouldn't attack but would instead look very confused, just holding her stance, her eyes shifting over to Spark in pure confusion. Spark responded with a shrug.

"She uh ... doesn't get out often" Lexi sighed and repeated

"S-Sorry" Leah sighed, stepping back, "W-We're not bad guys or anything I promise"

"I'm starting to figure that out ..." Dani sighed, resheathing her sword, "sorry for the sneak attack, I just became worried when Spark didn't return to the party after a while"

"Oh that's because she was getting me clothes!" Leah replied, causing Lexi to facepalm a bit. Maybe not the best explanation, despite the truthfulness of it. Again, Dani shot a confused look towards her fairy brethren, Spark.

Lark would come out and tilt her head, "Isn't that my dress?" she'd ask

"I'm letting her borrow it" Spark explained, "...it's a long story"

"She shrank without her clothes, huh?" Lark asked, also matter of factly.

"Okay, guess it's not that long a story" Spark shrugged

"Damn, that music is pumpin'" Lexi giggled, being able to hear some of the music even from their fairly significant distance as they were now on the outskirts of the fairy colony.

"So I don't get it ... how come we've been to these woods so many times and nobody ever sees this place?" Leah asked, marveling at the entire civilization the fairies had built.

"Our realm is strictly guarded against all potential challengers or opponents from realms known and unknown through the power of the Fensteria Flumox, a power source contained deep under our terrestrial stronghold... it holds the wisdom, strength and magic of generations of fairykind, allowing it to act effectively as a shield, cloak and dagger for any who would dare challenge the might of this great plane of existence...." Dani proudly explained, fizzling the minds of pretty much everyone present, including the fellow fairy named Spark

"...there's like a big cloaking forcefield type thing over the colony" Spark nodded, which got both Lexi and Leah on board with the idea, rather than whatever nonsense Daniella had just rattled off.

As the four ladies filtered into the main atria of the Fensteria Plaza, home of the Valentine's Day festival, both Leah and Lexi were bombarded with the lovely sights and sounds, the rich colors, mainly pink and purple that flooded their eyes, as fairies young and old seemed to be having a grand time.

"This place is beautiful!" Leah exclaimed, her squeaky voice even shifting up an octave in her moment of bliss.

Spark smiled at the humans' reaction, also gazing around at the magesty on display, before her eyes undeniably would shift upwards and see a disapproving Esmerelda, her own eyes filled with disdain and contempt, from the balcony on which she stood atop, before receding into the grand hall of Fenestria.

Spark simply sighed and shook her head, being unable to stand the rules any longer. Recent events had shown her that humans could be trusted and were even a lot of fun. While she wasn't as well versed in human culture as her own seemingly obsessed brother Mark, she was definitely more interested in learning a thing or two having met Lexi and her friend Leah.

The bright lights and sweet music, as strange as it may have sounded drew Lexi and Leah in where they'd join a crowd that was gathered to check out the show, a live band currently playing in place of the DJ from earlier.

"We are ... the FAIRIES!!" the band announced before launching into an enthusiastic rock set.

"Not... the most creative name, huh?" Lexi asked

Spark simply shrugged.

After some time, Lexi found herself absorbed in the crowd, chatting with many of the fairies, dancing to some of the strange songs -- and they were only strange because they seemed to be in a foreign language that she later learned was called Fenstarian. She'd turn to notice Leah was no longer around but then saw she was talking with Spark and smiled. This was such an amazing night ... she could've just gone to her own college's Valentine's Day Dance but chances are it was mad boring...

===

"Man this is mad boring..." Josh sighed, just watching the dance play out while checking things on his phone, sitting off on some bleachers in the schools tacky decorated auditorium which was adorned with various paper hearts and twirly trim which hung from the ceiling. The spotlights were impressive, sure, but it was nothing compared to say, a certain fairy inhabited region.

His friend Trent would stop over to pay him a visit, overhearing some of his griping about the dance being boring.

"Well maybe if you spent some time just talking to people or something... rather than being on your phone" Trent suggested

"Eh, the person I wanted to ask didn't wanna go..." Josh said, scrolling through his phone while keeping it somewhat close to his person. After all, he didn't want his friend to know he was actually checking the website he had designed for Lexi. He still thought in his mind that she needed a mask if she really wanted to conceal her secret identity effectively.

"So...? Ask someone else..." Trent shrugged, "I asked like 4 girls before Chrissy finally said yes... don't tell her I said that by the way..."

Josh would chuckle but give his friend the thumbs up, "your secret's safe with me... now just get back to the dance, I'll be there in a moment"

Josh would sigh, his eyes fixated on the stunning purple and gold SG logo and what it resembled ... liberty and justice for small.

===

Spark leaned in, smiling a big wide grin as Leah told her what her idea had been for Lexi's Valentine's Day gift.

"That sounds soooo amazing!" Spark grinned, "I'm sure she'll love it! Have you given it to her already?"

"W-Well no ..." Leah shook her head, "was about to and then well ... I shrank"

"Hmmm, yeah I could see where that would be a problem" Spark nodded, her head leaning down as she thought about the logistics, then snapping her fingers, an idea striking her. "Hey! Hey ... it's still in your bag, right? Back in the woods?"

"Well yes, but ... why do you ask?" Leah asked

"Cmon" Spark smiled, taking Leah's hand and leading her away from the crowd, "say how do you feel about flying?"

"You mean like on a plane? I've never really..." Leah started before realizing that's not what the crimson beauty had intended, noticing her own feet beginning to lift off the ground, if only by a couple inches, "S-Spark are you sure about this?"

Spark would grin a cocky grin and look at her human friend with glee before responding, "Nope!"

She'd whisk Leah back towards where they had started, flying her carefully over the clearing of blades of grass while Lexi stayed behind, just mingling with various people. The Fairies, as it turned out were one of Fensteria's premier rock bands and they were finishing up a star studded set that included such hits as "Sparktarium Markstum" and "Colonium Marnimus" ...yeah Lexi had no idea what any of these words meant but the songs were catchy.

She'd find herself bopping along to the final song of the set, a real rockin' number that had her raising her hand in the air, practically fist bumping as she took a single leap backwards, yelling, "YEAHHHHH!! FENSTARIA FRAKTUM!!"

The jump backwards came with a cost though, as these things usually would. Lexi would find herself bumping into a bystander who also seemed to be invested in the music, a lady with pretty red hair wearing a cute toga style white dress. BUmping into her would be embarassing enough but she also caused the beautiful young woman to spill a gold goblet of some kind of yummy looking purple drink onto her chest.

"Oh no, Miss I am so sorry!!" Lexi whimpered, ready for the young lady to turn around angrily and probably slap her or do whatever fairies did to people who did such things to them. It was probably a tradition so horrible that nobody spoke its true name. From what little Fenstarian Lexi had picked up in the song, it was probably something like ... wait ...

Lexi's train of uninhibited thought was suddenly interuppted immediately once seeing the emerald green eyes of her spill victim.

"MARA?!"

===

This would be but surprise #1 in a night full of them to this point. For elsewhere in the woods, Leah and Spark were just landing from their harrowing journey through the woods. Geez, it hadn't felt like such a long walk from the purse to the plaza but it somehow seemed LONGER flying even though Spark could fly faster than she could work. Leah also wasn't too pleased with the state of her hair.

"W-Well anyway..." Leah sighed, shaking her hair out but to no avail ... the wind in this place did something fierce to human hair. She could probably straighten it out but all such tools in her purse would be too big for her to use now which led to her next question for Spark, "isn't my gift for Lexi going to be too big to give her right now?"

"Leave that to me..." Spark giggled, her fingers glowing a bit.

Not too long ago however, there would be someone else in the woods, a young boy who was dumbfounded as he had been out there looking for his cell phone but instead came across a... purse? Of course this young boy's path and that of Spark and Leah would now cross inevitably and upon doing so, Leah would just look up in stunned amazement. She recognized this boy.

"CHRIS?!"

So, who WAS Chris, for real?

The fairies of Fensteria referred to him as a bit of an urban legend ... an elemental wizard that "guarded" their colony. They even believed him to be Christophecles, the great wizard from an old fairy prophesy written long ago. It was once said that when the fairy race were in danger of extinction, a great wizard able to control fire, wind, ice and electricity would save them from great evil and foster peace once more. Would this make his appearance a bad thing? Did his existence, assuming this WAS the grand wizard signal a dark time to come?

For now, Chris was a well meaning, goofy and fledgling 20 year old boy who attended Miniborough University alongside the likes of Lexi, Leah, Josh, Trent and others. He got consistently good grades, played video games on the weekends and when he wasn't doing those things, well he could often be found in the confines of Fenster Forest practicing his magic.

From a young age, Chris noticed he could do certain things most kids his age weren't doing. For example, when receiving a static shock from shuffling on a carpet and touching a doorknob, a normal and mundanely human thing to do, he'd experience something much more significant. It was as if he could control the lightning, as tiny as it was and redirect it. He later discovered a similar talent for fire when trying to start one at a friends bonfire one night.

Knowing something was up, he'd vigorously research the topic and learn about the history and mythology of elemental magic. He dared not tell his parents nor his friends, lest they find him crazy but sure enough through months, almost years of practice he had come to produce some miraculous results, being able to morph water to his will and turn it into icicle style projectiles. He could also redirect fire, electricity and to a degree change weather patterns like wind and rain. Much like other skills and hobbies in his life though, it wasn't perfect. He still struggled from time to time and he cursed himself still for letting the mysterious "dark lady" get away that fateful night after she torched the poor fair colony.

How had young Chris discovered the fairy colony buried deep within the woods?

That event took place about a year ago, after a particularly bad day for Chris. It was just after his high school graduation and he found out his girlfriend Sarah was moving away, effectively ending things for the new couple who had been together only a few months. He took it especially hard and he knew when he became emotional, his magic could cause truly frightening reactions, such as sparks or dangerous embers being drawn to him. Rather than risk his friends or anyone else's safety he sought sanctuary in the woods that had always kept him company on those dark nights.

He'd venture deep into the woods, maybe deeper than he had before, past the familiar trees and paths and even past the sparkling lake where most would stop to fish during the summer. Instead he would keep going to a place with no path but he saw something quite peculiar that night. A field of fireflies. Lots of them. Turning back, he decided maybe he stumbled onto something he wasn't suppose to see.

He instead focused on the empty clearing just beyond that, determined to let off some steam ... literally. His hands sizzled and he steadied himself carefully as he gently lofted a stream of fire from his fingertips. As dangerous as it seemed to most, he found it strangely calming.

Who didn't find it so calming was the fairy colony of Fenstaria who could see the large billowing flame from a distance. It sparkled out as shortly as it had started, so most of them hoped it was just a one time thing. A curious Spark though, had wanted to investigate and she'd end up breaking her own rule that night, flying well outside the colony to get a better look at this fire wielding human.

From behind a collection of long growing stalks, she'd watch as the boy experimented with icicles, lightning, and fire, her eyes wide as she remembered the old stories and history class. Was he ... the grand wizard? No way ... he looked too young, and too reckless. Why would he be simply out in the open firing off magic spells?

Chris, while still emotional wasn't naive to what was going on. The fireflies were suspicious but upon closer inspection he could see the outline of a small city there. Perhaps it was his own possession of magic ability or something else entirely but the colony's cloaking ability didn't seem nearly as effective on his eyes. He paused for a moment from his magical practice to step closer to the small city.

This immediately panicked Spark who had nightmares of humans before and if he was heading that way, he likely saw the colony which means everyone she knew and loved could be in real danger. This instinct brought her out of her comfort zone greatly (and she normally isn't very nervous) and she found herself flying in front of the young wizard before he could take a step further.

So there she floated, clad in red and gold, her body shivering, save for her wings which remained steadfast to keep her afloat as if by instinct. The socially awkward young wizard gazed at her in pure shock to the point where she wasn't sure if she had somehow unintentionally stunned him or what?

"Are you....?" Chris finally spoke, his voice soft and slow

"...a wizard?" Spark finished, not sure why that popped right into her mind. "S-Sorry to interuppt, ... my parents always told me not to interuppt giants..."

"N-No... it's fine" Chris nodded, backing away a bit and being especially cautious with his feet now that he definitely saw a small city down there, "...is that ... your home?"

"If... I say yes..." Spark nodded, "...do you promise not to nuke it?"

"Why would I ever do such a thing?" Chris pouted, seemingly offended at the implication.

"W-Well I just uh ... I don't know ... like ... cuz ... humans ... big ... scary" Spark stammered. She normally had much more confidence than this, at least in the midst of her fairy sized peers but this young male wizard, as awkward as he was had her stymied nonetheless.

"I'm not gonna hurt you" Chris shook his head, "My name's Chris, little princess..."

Spark raised her eyebrow a bit at the title of little princess, not sure if it was an endearing term or something a bit more condescending. Still she'd answer the young wizard, "I'm ... uh ... Spark"

"N-Nice to meet you" Chris smiled sincerely, and out of habit offering a hand to shake before realizing that may be impractical when dealing with a being of her size. He chuckled a bit nervously and instead began wrapping his fingers around her waist.

Spark would instantly yelp and fly out from between the fingers, giving him no such chance.

"S-Sorry ...!!" she'd squeak in fear, "I just ... I don't know you and ... I .. I.. I gotta go!"

With that, the terrified young fairy would whiz away into the near distance, fading into the small fairy itself, sure enough that the wizard wouldn't hurt her or her family but softly crying into her pillow that night at what she had seen. The legends were real? There was an elemental wizard? And he had a normal human name like Chris?

Fast forward to present day and a similarly stunned Leah was standing there dumbfounded along with her new fairy friend Spark as they both stared up at the bewildered Chris, elemental wizard extraordinaire (and level 3 orc in Dungeons and Dragons). Spark took a step forward, almost an imposing one at that. A year had gone by since that fateful night and she had since met Lexi and calmed down a bit more concerning her stance on humans.

"Y-You mean you're real?" Spark squeaked, a strange question to be asking as she gestured towards him with a single upwardly pointed finger.

"Hey I could say the same about you" Chris shrugged, "S-Sorry if the little princess comment was a bit hurtful by the way, I didn't mean anything bad by it"

Spark blushed a bit, surprised he even remembered that. Then again, she had long since thought that night was a strange dream of hallucination.

"Wait ... if you're real ... and you clearly are ... then ... the witch?" Spark asked, to which Leah looked totally lost. "D-Did you see a witch one night? Shooting purple fire?"

"I ... I did..." Chris hung his head in shame to be reminded of the night, "I tried to stop her but..."

"Mark was right..." Spark stammered

"Huh?" Chris asked

"N-Never mind..." Spark shook her head, she'd let out an apologetic sigh, "sorry that I acted so flighty ... some pun intended ... I just ... had never met a human before"

"W-Well that's okay" Chris replied, looking down at her and tiny Leah, "Seems you're getting along with them fine now, but maybe they just needed to be closer to your size"

"Hey, this is a temporary thing" Leah squeaked, seeming a bit defensive

"Chill, chill, I'm sure it is..." Chris nodded, having to admit it was at least a little funny to see the girl he was formerly sitting next to the other day at the comic store now the size of a tiny fairy, and in a Tinkerbell style dress no less.

"Well hey, since he's here now..." Spark shrugged, "maybe he can get the present out of your purse..."

"No!" Leah yelped, seemingly panicked, "I mean ... no thank you ... you can probably fly in there and grab it, right Spark?"

"I could try ..." Spark nodded, "but it may be kinda heavy for me"

"I could get it out, what is it?" Chris offered

"Ummm... nothing important Chris, why don't you uh ... go see if the woods need protecting or ... something?" Leah asked

"That's really all you think I do all night is scour the woods, huh?" Chris asked

"If I say yes, will you go away?" Leah squeaked hopefully

"Oh now I know you're asking for it..." Chris chuckled, reaching down and plucking up the tiny Leah playfully to which she'd squeak and just pout in his palm.

"H-Hey... put her down!" Spark winced, watching the scene and having flashbacks to previous nightmares of her. Except in the nightmares, much worse things happened.

"Hey calm down, fam, we're just talking" Chris pouted, but his and Leah's attention were soon both stolen by the emergence of some colorful streaks through the sky, or at least part of it.

"Oh shoot, the fireworks show, we're missing it..." Spark sighed

"Fireworks?!" Leah squeaked, practically leaping up out of Chris' hand, resembling an excited Tinkerbell herself. "Let's go! Grab the gift and we'll get it to Lexi ... oop"

"Lexi?" Chris asked "the girl from school"

"You... you know Lexi is a common name..." Leah chuckled nervously, "n-now how's about letting me down gently, huh?"

"How's about you telling me more about exactly what's going on, shorty?" Chris would tease. Spark looked up a bit annoyed as she hovered over Leah's purse, observing the situation still from afar.

"Is he giving you problems, hon?" Spark asked, "I can maybe try to stun him while we get away"

"N-No ... he's my friend ... I think..." Leah would utter the last part very annoyed. "also if you're to pick up a tiny lady you at least ask first, everyone knows that!"

Chris would let out a slight chuckle, although to the tiny Leah it wasn't quite so slight, "I'm sorry I don't follow etiquette for handling tiny ladies ... now ... okay, I'll let you down, I just wish you wouldn't be so secretive about all this..."

Leah would give Chris a thankful nod as she was set back down on the grass, but Chris still had one more question to ask

"Does... this mean Lexi is tiny too? Are you both fairies or something?" Chris asked

"Yes, we're fairies..." Leah answered dismissively, rolling her eyes, "now let's get back to the festival, you got the gift, Spark?"

Spark shook her head, a bit annoyed by the whole thing but she'd fly into Leah's purse, careful not to disrupt much while in there, except for the target prize, a shimmering medallion which she would carefully wave her hands over, causing a glow to emerge from the opening in Leah's purse. After some time, the victorious crimson clad fairy would emerge with the medallion, now sized down for her to hold and show Leah before leading her back towards the festival.

Chris, still standing there in his normal sized stupor would simply watch, letting his arms fall to the side.

"Okay thanks... guess I'll just ... stand here and ... do nothing..." he sighed, before briefly catching a glimpse of something floating through the night sky. It wasn't the fireworks and it was much further away but closing in fast. It didn't appear ... natural...

That answers one question, but then who IS Mara?

Mara was the cute, spunky red head who worked alongside Lexi at the Krazy Kookie but she perhaps wasn't entirely truthful. See, she was born an elf. Elves had the remarkable power, besides being adorable, to alter their size (to a degree) as well as some limited magic, including teleportation. For Mara though, she could swear she was blessed with some kind of "luck" power that seemed to allow her to get out of tough situations with ease. How else could one explain her still holding down a job while missing almost half her shifts? Most would just retort that her claim was simply that, a statement based on no evidence other than a plethora of dumb luck.

Maybe it was that same luck that brought her and Lexi to meet once again, except this time, they were no longer co-workers at a small town college pastry shop but somehow fellow tiny ladies at a massive fairy festival that was blasting local fairy music with vibrant colors and sounds all around. It almost made it harder to notice the elves beautiful emerald eyes as she seemed equally in shock to be seeing the brunette from the coffee shop for the first time in Fensteria.

"M-Mara?" Lexi repeated, still a bit stunned to be seeing her coworker the size of a fairy and stunning as ever in her white toga-styled dress, "s-so this is where you go when you miss work?"

"Eh, I'm out and about, what can I say?" Mara giggled, "you should try this stuff they call Fensta ... it's like a whisky sour with a twist of flower pollen ... sounds nasty but it's actually pretty tasty"

"Heh ..." Lexi sighed, scratching the back of her head, not sure what to say at this point but then again, strange occurences like this seemed to be becoming more and more common.

"So ... I have a few questions" Mara would cut in candidly, looking over her friend and coworker with extreme curiosity, "How'd you find the colony? Are you an elf too? Where did you get the dress? It's killer ..."

"Um... w-well ... wait, elf?" Lexi stammered, "N-No ... I'm just ... well ... a Lexi ..."

Mara looked a bit confused, tilting her head

"You mean, you just ... kinda shrank?" Mara asked

"It's a uh ... thing I do ... it's a whole thing ... but wh-what about yourself? You said you're an ... elf?" Lexi asked, "do you make Keebler cookies or something?"

"That's extremely offensive" Mara sneered

"S-Sorry..." Lexi stammered

"I'm just kidding, that's pretty funny" Mara smirked, "it would be funnier if I didn't get that like a million times a week by the fairy folks ... although if you ever bring up Tinkerbell, they get really touchy about it"

"RIGHT?!" Lexi exclaimed, cracking a smile, "It's like ... geez, you'd think they'd be flattered"

Elsewhere, Leah and Spark were working on their own plan, laying the small medallion on a table where Spark would glance down, a goofy grin on her face as she really observed it, the vibrant colors, shape and all.

"H-How did you come up with this?" Spark asked, in a hushed whisper as if somebody was watching, "this is just ... awesome!"

"You think Lexi'll like it?" Leah asked, a bit worried

"I mean, I would ... heck, it doesn't even go with my style and I love it!" Spark replied confidently, "now then ... let me just ... help you out a bit and ..."

With that, Spark would raise her hands up as if about to perform surgery, her fingers gently wriggling about a foot or so above the precious glimmering medallion. Leah would smile sincerely, appreciating the hand from her new fairy friend, quite literally as Spark put her hands on it and endowed it with some powerful cascading sparkles and glitter that seemed to go directly INTO the shape. Not even a moment later the duo would hear a series of loud crackling BOOMS from outside.

"Wow, you are good" Leah nodded, attributing the sudden noise to Spark's magical fingers.

"Leah, that's the fireworks, dear" Spark smiled snarkily, gesturing out a nearby window where the pair could see the purple and pink explosions of light from a distance.

"Oh yeah, right! We gotta get this to Lex before the festival is over" Leah nodded

"We've got plenty of time, but yeah we should head over" Spark smiled, taking the medallion in her hands as they now headed for the door and the mud laden trails of the colony that would eventually lead back to the main square. "You wanna lift or ...?"

"I think I'll just walk" Leah chuckled nervously, "I'm still getting over the windburn from last time..."

"Suit yourself" Spark chuckled, floating alongside her new friend, feet just off the ground as her wings barely moved, only enough to keep her afloat.

"So you uh ... LIKE being a fairy?" Leah asked awkwardly

"You don't do well around tiny beings, do you?" Spark asked

"No, not in the least" Leah sighed.

Meanwhile, Lexi was still getting reacquainted with her friend and coworker who herself was tiny, as the 2 shared a drink at the makeshift Fensteria "magic potions" bar.

"Mmmm, what do they put in these?" Lexi giggled, taking a hearty sip from a crazily shaped straw that ran from her small flower based goblet to her mouth, "Am I going to be able to go to work tomorrow ... or walk straight?"

"Psh, you'll be fine" Mara giggled, taking an even longer sip, her eyes practically rolling to the back of her head as it appeared she almost finished the entire drink in one gulp, "you don't really get hammered off these, at best you get a bit of a fairy buzz..."

"And... what makes a FAIRY buzz different than a human one?" the curious Lexi asked

"Not sure ... it's almost like you think you can fly... but not really" Mara nodded, suddenly taking on a more intellectual tone while smacking her lips, really considering the chemical and scientific implications of her comments on fairy liquor.

"I... don't know if that sounds great" Lexi chuckled, still continuing with her drink while marveling at the fact that the barista from the Krazy Kookie was actually an elf, and a mighty cute one at that. Then again, she made a cute humanoid sized woman, so it was only to be expected that her cuteness would translate to smaller sizes. "Sounds a bit dangerous"

"Psh, you'll be fine..." Mara giggles, "besides, sounds like you've already been in some danger ... I can't imagine being born human and suddenly shrinking ... I mean, it's been a part of elf culture for ... well, ever. I had 3 little brothers growing up"

"Oh younger brothers?" Lexi asked

"Nope, just really tiny" Mara shrugged, "they preferred to stay that way ... I kinda go both ways"

There was a long awkward pause which Lexi broke by spitting out her drink in a snorting motion, thankfully keeping her head tilted away from Mara and her easily stained (and already stained) white toga styled dress

"You know what I mean..." Mara giggled, before leaning in and whispering in Lexi's ears, "but yes, I'm also bisexual"

Lexi's eyes went wide as the joke went from just that to more than a joke. It was now time once again for the purple clad brunette to become flustered but at least this time it wasn't in the face of a scantily clad villainess with no moral compass.

"Oh. Oh nice ... I mean, not nice... not BAD..." Lexi would stammer, constantly correcting herself, "how many of these have I had again?"

"Not even one ..." Mara giggled, "and relax ... like I said, you're adjusting super well to all this ... but if I may ask, if this isn't a magic power type thing, how ARE you able to shrink?"

"I ... I don't really know all the answers myself..." Lexi shrugged, setting her drink back on the bar to take a good long look at her fingertips which upon deep concentration would begin to spark in front of her red-haired cohort who looked on in amazement, "I just ... shrink... and it's actually gotten easier .. for the most part..."

Mara could tell the subject was tying Lexi up into all kinds of knots to talk about and this wasn't a way she'd ever seen the spunky woman behave at work so as the music swelled in the background and the fireworks continued to fly, she decided to stand up from her seat and take Lexi's hand.

"Cmon hon, let's dance" Mara smirked, glancing back with those persuasive green eyes

"Huh? Now? But uh ..." Lexi gulped

"What, you don't wanna?"

"No no, I totally do, I just ..." Lexi blushed, "... haven't paid for the drinks"

"Oh they'll put it on my tab, they know me here, now let's go!" Mara giggled, continuing to drag the starstruck Lexi deeper into the crowd of fairies as they danced. "This song is called Fraktum est Magnificus Spirico!"

"Wh-What does that mean?" Lexi asked, her hips beginning to sway but very halted as if she were a car that hadn't been started up in a while

"Hell if I know, but the beat is catchy as hell, now cmon!" Mara giggled, seizing the moment and grabbing Lexi's hands, moving them back and forth while she lightly thrusted, seemingly much more comfortable with her body and having a genuine sense of rhythm while Lexi attempted her best to keep up.

Lexi would just smirk and slowly get use to the bizarre sounding song, while loosening up and dancing into Mara's arms and eventually around her, some of the fairies turning back and smirking as they watched, not even paying mind to Lexi's lack of wings. After all, Mara lacked them as well so maybe to them Lexi was a kind of elf. Regardless, not much mattered in that moment to the carefree Alexis Cole as she continued the dance to the questionably titled song.

"Mara, you're freakin amazing!" Lexi giggled, falling into her arms again but a lot less clumsily this time around. "It's like when I'm with you, I can see fireworks!"

"That's probably the ones right behind us, luv" Mara giggled

As the dancing intensified, Spark and Leah would gently jostle their way through the thick crowd,

"You see her?" Spark asked Leah loudly, trying to combat the sounds of the music and shouting

"I ... I don't think so ... wait" Leah stuttered, seeing a small opening in the dance floor through which she could see what resembled Lexi (there werent too many attendees wearing purple) and a red haired girl who almost looked like Lexi's coworker Mara.

"Well? Should we give her the ...?" Spark asked, but Leah gently held her back with a hand to the waist

"Let her dance" Leah smiled, crossing her arms with a look of satisfaction, "she's having some fun and she really deserves it"

"Heh, well so do you" Spark grinned, just doing some dance moves around the awkward Leah, "oh cmon, just feel the beat!"

"I don't even know what they're saying!" Leah giggled

"Doesn't matter" Spark shrugged.

----

"Doesn't matter" Mark sighed, taking a deep breath while pacing the perimeter of the party. He could see Dani returning from whereever she was, her gaze focused elsewhere but she looked stunning as always in her knights armor turned formal ball gown. "Doesn't matter ... I can do this ... it's just talking to a girl ... DANI too... who I've known for a while so ... well, actually I don't know if that helps or hurts my chances.. oh just ask her..."

Mark would take several staggered steps towards his hopeful Valentines target, his anxiety beginning to get the best of him as the sounds of laughter, fireworks, music and more surrounded him. It was almost as if the ground was shaking under him. Actually ... that wasn't just him.

Dani would take a stunned look backwards as she felt the tremors as well, as did every fairy in the plaza. It wasn't enough of a shake to send anybody downwards but it was definitely distinct and felt as though it came from underground. Dani would look back at Mark and Mark would begin to open his mouth to say words, not even sure what those words would be, but that's as far as the opportunity went. Dani took off swiftly towards the fairy elders tower and Mark stood there looking flat footed and sad.

"Esmerelda!" Dani shouted, advancing quickly past the confused fairy crowd as the music continued but the dancing seemed to be dying down. Some could tell things were amiss while others were content to simply ignore it. Dani was all too headstrong to take the latter route so she'd be making a beeline for the tower just in case anything bigger were going on. Had the witch perhaps returned?

She'd get into the tower surprisingly easily with no guards greeting her or anything.

"Esmerelda?" she'd ask again, looking around but the tower seemed largely unoccupied. it all felt very eerie.

Even Lexi, who was just a moment ago lost in her dancing jubilee alongside Mara felt troubled by the shaking. Maybe it was her newfound hero senses tingling but something about it reminded her of the incident with Roxie at the carnival although much less intense. Still, something was wrong.

----------

"Something's wrong" a distraught Chris thought to himself, having begun a small trek back through the woods after deciding it was best not to intervene in the fairy festival, even IF at least 2 girls he knew from school were there. But that wasn't the "something" he was referring to. He felt a similar unease in his chest despite not feeling the same tremor but it felt as though something had changed in the air ... something magical almost.

He'd take a stroll back towards where the colony was, having a better time finding it since Leah's purse lay at the outskirts as sort of a landmark. To his surprise he'd SEE the city, but like ALL of it in stunning detail. In the past, he had been able to see it a bit because of nis naturally magical disposition but this time he was seeing it all as if the cloak were down entirely. It was then it clicked with him.

"The cloak is down entirely..." Chris thought to himself, a hand to his face in dismay, "if I can see it ... anyone can see it"

Chris would kneel down, trying not to get too close as he'd imagine the sight of a giant human wouldn't be very reassuring. But then again, the colony was about to have their own problems.

For, at that moment in the central plaza, while Dani looked futilely for Esmerelda and the fairies fireworks slowed down, a stirring noise arose from the otherwise quiet twilight sky. It sounded like a whirring of sorts and got louder and louder as the object drew closer.

The fairies, upon finally making it out better began to go into a panic as they beheld 3 large machines surrounded by sawbladed heading towards them. They'd quickly scattered like moths as the first made touchdown in the center of the square, its rotating fanblades producing a perimeter of wind that would thrust anyone not lucky enough to already be out of the way to do so forcibly.

Lexi held onto Mara tight in her arms while they were thrown to the ground, Lexi gazing at the menacing machine with disdain.

"...just once, can Max not crash the party?" Lexi pouted

As the three menancing bladed fierce metal monsters descended on the colony, everything ran amuk. The citizens took cover, Leah ducked behind Spark who looked both befuddled and upset at this sudden occurence. Daniella, the fairy warrior predictably drew out her sword to battle this new threat. And Mark? Well, he was off cowering somewhere as usual.

Lexi clung to Mara a bit and shook her head

"You son of a bitch ..." Lexi growled as the blades drew closer, protruding from the orb shaped body of the drone as it approached. "You can take me, but you'll never take ..."

Lexi then glanced over to notice her arms were vacant. Where Mara rested just previously was now an empty spot. "Huh?"

To her shock (although the list of things that shocked her seemed to shrink faster than she did by the day) she'd look up and see her toga-clad companion proudly standing atop the robot as if it were a tabletop at a night club, tapping her sandaled feet with glee on its smooth surface.

"Ah, ye didn't know Mara had tricks, eh, lassie?" Mara winked

"D-Did you just become a leprecaun?" Lexi asked, confused as she stifled a giggle, watching Mara fearlessly atop the floating drone

"Aye, tis just a thing, I think..." Mara responded, her Irish accent deteriorating by the moment although she seemed oddly safe where she was, as long as her feet, torso and rest of her small body stayed clear of the blades. Even at normal size, these things would be a pain to deal with since they were basically flying saucers with buzzsaws on their circumferences.

"So you can teleport, huh?" Lexi asked, still backing away as the other 2 drones were beginning to flank her and the others. "Anything else?"

"I make a mean appletini" Mara winked, her accent all but gone, but so was her balance as she yelped, falling on her butt due to the robots sudden movement. Lexi would let out a squeaky scream as she watched her friend plummet towards those murderous blades but she'd thankfully teleport back to ground level, looking strangely calm for a woman who just stared death in the eye.

"Miss me, luv?" Mara asked with a smile before looking more serious, "is this the uh ... science freak you mentioned?"

"Kind of ..." Lexi sighed, "he thinks he's such a big shot but he rarely comes to face me by himself ... seems he prefers to send clunky looking robots after me..."

To Lexi's surprise though, despite the blades the robots weren't going all out on the offensive. Instead, she'd see green lasers scoping out the area, as if to lay out some kind of virtual map. They'd hover around, sending shrieks of terror through the fluid crowd as it moved away from their path. Whether they were meant to intimidate or not, they had to go. Plus, scrapping Mad Max's toys was quickly becoming a hobby for the rambunctious young Alexis Cole.

However, she'd take a glance across the way to see Leah and Spark taking a sprint towards what they hoped would be safety in the form of Spark's tree stump shaped home where the drone robot was dipping dangerously close to chopping the small abode down. Spark would back away and lift a small forcefield of sparks from her fingertips as an effort to hold the drone off. The advancing robot would get ensnared in the grid of sparkles like a butterfly trapped in a net but it pushed hard, its thrusters threatening to break the spell.

"Will that hold?" Leah asked, worried

"I ... don't know" Spark shook her head.

Thankfully, a battle ready Dani leapt from a lower vantage point, her legs firmly planted to give her a decent enough lift so that she jumped high into the air, her own wings also aiding in propelling her to the heights required to come crashing down on the drone's metallic surface, serving up some steel of her own in the form of her long fairys dagger which pierced the drones surface. The disabled drone would begin to turn on its side as if it were a capsizing boat as Dani continued to drive the dagger in. Spark took this opportunity to gently cast the drone downward before any harm could befall her house.

"Leah!" Lexi shook her head, looking worried as she sprinted up and hugged her best friend, "I'm so glad you're both okay!"

"Yeah ... how'd these things track us? I thought the fairy colony was invisible basically..." Leah asked

"Maybe machines can see things people can't?" Lexi asked

"N-No, that shouldn't matter..." Spark answered, pensively putting a finger to her chin.

In the not so distant background, Dani could be seen having slaughtered the metal beast through the strength of her own sword, sparks emitting from its fallen husk while she kept hacking and slashing away.

"Um... Dani?" Spark chimed in, "I think it's dead ... or whatever the machine equivalent of death is"

"It will PAY for invading this safest of sanctuaries" Dani screamed, driving one more blow through the center of the robots remains as if to make some kind of point. Lexi looked on in concern, hoping the other 2 drones could be disposed of as easily, before they caused more real damage to the colony. Of course, it would be possibly to enlarge herself and her friends but then that would also put the colony in danger so as it was, they'd have to fight this menace at their current size.

At that moment, a large foot would gently lower itself just outside the outskirts of the grassy plain the group stood in. In reality, the foot was likely a few feet away but it seemed much closer than that due to scale. Lexi would look up and gasp, "Chris?" she'd squeak

"Oh yeah, forgot to mention that part..." Leah sighed

Mara would also nod, looking up and waving, "Heya Chris!"

"...what, does like every human know each other?" Spark commented very matter of fact

Lexi gave a sort of nervous shrug with a goofy grin. It was rather serendipitous even if it was detrimental to her secret identity. She'd look up at Chris with a raised brow, "h-how do you even see this place?"

"Sorry, had to see this for myself" Chris smiled smugly, leaning down a bit, "the colony, yes but also you ... Lexi... or is it Alexis?"

"Lexi is fine" Lexi shrugged, only hearing the latter from more formal acquaintances.

"So it's true ..." Chris nodded, "well whatever those things are... you need to like ... do whatever you did to Leah and smallify me"

"I'm sorry what?" Lexi raised an eyebrow in skepticism.

"Shrink me" Chris said, looking a bit nervous to say it, "because unless the fairies suddenly invented a shrink ray, I'm pretty sure you're the one made Leah fairy sized"

"Yeah, I may have ... mentioned your name?" Leah shrugged, looking equally as socially awkward as Chris and Lexi felt at that moment, hoping her best friend wouldn't be too angry about her spilling the beans. Then again, such social transgressions could likely be overlooked in the face of immediate danger.

"I don't know about this, Chris" Lexi squeaked, "I mean, I'm sure you mean well, but we're dealing with..."

Chris would simply raise his hand in response, pointing towards the sky while Lexi, Leah, Spark and Mara watched in awe while he conjured up a fireball that faded into the night sky. The crew would exchange glances and nod.

"I want him on my team" Mara would giggle

"Fine, you're hired..." Lexi sighed and squeaked, "I'm not even sure how this works though, I don't know if I can shrink people while I'm already small ... I didn't even know I could shrink people until..."

"Oh for fucks sake, just shrink him!" Leah blurted out, before covering her mouth and looking sincerely sorry, "um... please, Lexi dearest?"

Lexi would just smirk and take a slow step forward, touching Chris' shoe but nothing would happen.

"He isn't shrinking." Dani would say, sort of matter of factly, her stoic attitude sometimes coming off as facetious, "maybe you're not casting the magic right"

"It's not magic, I don't know how it happens!" Lexi snapped a bit

"Okay ... okay Lex, just calm down, hon" Leah pouted

"Ugh, this is stupid!" Lexi shook her head, walking away from Chris as she seemed suddenly resigned, "I can't shrink people, I can't just do all these amazing things you think I can, I'm not ... ShrinkGirl, I'm just ... A Girl..."

"Lex..." Leah would whisper softly, "close your eyes"

"Hmm?" Lexi would ask, her anger momentarily tamed as she looked back

"Just hold out your hand and close your eyes..." Leah smiled

"Last time I did that you..."

"Okay, nobody needs to know our whole history..." the suddenly panicked Leah stuttered, before putting her hand atop the shoulder of her best friend, "now please... just do it... and preferably fast because I don't know how long those drones will go before they come looking over here again"

"Okay..." Lexi sighed and nodded, trying not to seem dismissive towards her best friend. She just had a lot on her mind and she highly doubted whatever Leah was about to say or do would help her recenter herself as she ... suddenly felt a piece of medal in her hand. It was cold to the touch but extremely detailed. She let her fingers glide along its surface for several moments, with no idea what it was exactly she was feeling.

"Open your eyes Lex..." Leah said, the smile on her face growing as she imagined her best friends reaction to the sight.

Lexi opened her eyes and slowly opened her hand like a blossoming tulip. There inside lay the shiny medallion with edges of gold set on a shimmering purple backdrop. The edges would encroach around the inset purple, clearly spelling out the letters SG in the middle. There was no way that what Lexi was looking at was real and yet she could tangibly feel it in her hands and see it with her eyes. She'd stare again for a longer period of time while Chris took a cautious step back.

"If this is like a... private moment... I could ... come back?" Chris asked, bewildered completely as the last thing he knew he was about to be shrunk but was instead watching, and having a very hard time making out, the gift being bestowed to the tiny Alexis Cole who preferred to be called Lexi.

"This is ..." Lexi nodded, tears of joy welling in her eyes, Leah shared in her elation, "this is ... the ... the..."

"That thing's awesome!" Mara smirked, looking up the purple and gold medallion bearing the SG logo and clean crisp lettering

"I should also mention" Spark smiled, stepping forward, "I've endowed it with a good amount of fairy magic, so it will grow and shrink with you and is also immune to dark magic of any kind so ... yeah, just make sure to have it on you, yknow... just in case you run across any witches"

"I... I don't know what to say..." Lexi stammered. This was the missing piece her "costume" needed. She could now be ShrinkGirl, albeit maybe not right that instant as she was still in her purple dress and had nowhere to properly install what was meant to be the iconic belt buckle. Instead though she could feel her confidence returning as she nodded and walked up to Chris.

"You know what?" the reinvigorated Lexi said, "I CAN do this ... because I am SHRINKGIRL!"

The others would cheer a bit, except for Dani who still looked a bit confused, but supportive nonetheless.

Lexi would take a couple steps forward, cracking her knuckles, the goofy grin blazing across her face perhaps brighter than it had in some time. She touched Chris' shoe again but upon noticing it wasn't taking effect, she'd hoist herself up, rather presumptiously onto the top of the shoe and walk up towards his ankle, nodding as she looked up

"May I?" she squeaked, asking for permission. Chris would politely nod

With that, the heroic ShrinkGirl would focus hard on applying her shrinking ability on the young elemental wizard watching as her mental power allowed the result to manifest itself physically, bringing Chris down slowly, even more shockingly with his clothes intact, much to the dismay of a frustrated Leah who simply threw her hands up in frustration, taking a few paces away from the scene.

"Oh sure, HE gets to keep his clothes!" Leah scoffed in her squeaky little voice

"Hey I'm still learning this shit" Lexi smirked a bit, hopping back a good amount to allow Chris to finish his shrinking at around the same 5 inches the rest of the party stood at.

And so, there they were, Lexi, best friend Leah, college geek turned elemental wizard Chris, new fairy allies Spark and Dani, and coworker/elf Mara assembled just outside the stumplike house of Spark, who looked worriedly towards the plaza where the havoc was still ongoing, with 2 Enormo Enterprises drones scanning the area. Lexi still found it curious that the robots were, for the most part, not malignant. They were simply scouting the area but they were bound to cause some damage with those sharp rigid sawblades as they continued to spin.

"So uh..." Chris started to say, simply dumbfounded to now be standing eye level to Spark and the others, "This is uh ... a thing you do?" he'd direct the latter question to Lexi

"We can sort that all out later" Dani interuppted, pointing her sword towards the heavens and taking a bounding leap towards the plaza

"She's right, let's go!" Lexi would begin, while Leah tapped her shoulder, looking a bit worried, "Hm?"

"W-Well ... I'm just not sure I can really .. do anything, yknow? I don't have any cool shrinking powers or a sword or ... whatever the hell it was Chris just did" Leah shrugged

"If you feel like you're in danger, I completely understand you wanting to sit this out..." Lexi nodded in all seriousness but Leah was quick to stop her

"Oh no, I didn't mean that, I just meant ... tell me what I can do" Leah smirked, taking her friends hand

"Let's rock" Lexi giggled, charging into the battle alongside the others

"For Fensteria!!" Dani would shriek, leaping up to meet one of the drones with her sword but her jump wasn't going to achieve the desired height and her sword would be struck with the blunt and repetitive force of the saw blades, stumbling her back onto her knees, the sword looking a bit worse for wear. Chris would look on in concern as the same robot would come charging in to get a better look at Dani, and worse yet, potentially lascerate her.

"Hey!" Chris yelled out, not sure her name but just trying to get her attention. Dani's head snapped in his direction and she nodded, awaiting his next words, "Hold the sword up... I have an idea"

Dani would follow the instructions and Chris would focus deep, knowing he only had one chance to achieve his next goal, creating a ball of flames in his hand which he would hurl like a fastball towards the waiting Dani who'd reflect said fireball at just the right angle to repel the drone temporarily while Chris ran around it from the side, hoping to flank it while his hands were sparking and twitching with electrical energy.

Meanwhile, ShrinkGirl waved to one of the drones in a teasing manner, hoping to maybe draw it away from a gathering of scared citizens that it was scanning with its green laser beam which seemed to shift left, right, up and down. Lexi would look a tad offended that her distraction didn't quite work.

"Need a lift, luv?" Mara would wink, poofing beside the frustration Lexi

"Hey!" Lexi giggled "You really gotta warn a girl before you do that!"

The drone would finally spin around very slowly to focus on Lexi and Mara.

"Well?" Mara repeated, holding her hands out

"Heh, go for it" Lexi smirked, jumping up and shrinking herself into Mara's hand. Mara would take just a quick look at her cute tinier than tiny friend before hurling her carefully up towards the advancing foe, making sure she cleared the blades with ease. Lexi would land atop the drone, growing back in the process, and then some, making herself about 3 feet tall so that she could easily trounce the bot under her weight.

Lexi would soon shrink down to avoid causing even more of a panic, giving Mara a high five as there were only 2 robots remained in play, one of which was damaged already thanks to the barrage of attacks from the combined efforts of Dani and Chris.

"So you are also a size changing mage of some kind?" Dani asked, in between bouts

"Eh, something like that ... minus the size changing ... it's complicated" Chris replied as the 2 drones would simply converge on their location staying fairly still, just floating a decent distance overhead and both casting their green biometric lasers as if they were spotlights. "Wh-What's with the laser light show? Like if they're going to hurt us, go for it but this is just ... odd..."

"Perhaps some kind of fact finding effort on their part?" Dani wondered out loud, "a way to analyze us for weaknesses... well I shan't give them the time!"

With that, Dani charged into battle while Chris remained still a moment more, a most poignant observation on his mind as she charged off, "Huh. You don't hear too many people use the word 'shan't' anymore..." he'd utter

Chris would turn and notice the drones were doing a decent amount of damage to the festival decorations as well as parts of buildings, since most buildings were made of firm soil or tree bark. The saw blades were more or less perfect for demolishing such things, not to mention the fatal implications if they were to strike any human, fairy or elf in the vicinity. Chris would sigh, his hands sparking with electricity as he chased down Drone #2. Dani was trying, similar to how Lexi just had to draw its attention away but the Drone was floating too high for her to reach and again seemed unengaged in combat, only drawing further suspicion from the stoic female knight.

Chris decided to take matters into his own electrified hands yelling, "Look out Dani!"

With that, he casted a lightning spell which struck one drone hard, and he watched as it tumbled to the ground sparking before finally giving off a fireball of a spark in an over the top explosion. He'd quickly manipulate the moisture in the air to throw an ice spell on it, neutralizing the fire before it could intensify, then looking a bit smug.

"Now then, wasn't that "shocking"?" Chris smirked, but then noticed nobody was around to hear his heroic quip, "oh sure, everyone else got one..."

There seemed to be only one drone left at the moment and it was almost making its getaway but Leah and Spark had other ideas.

"You sure about this?" Spark asked as the drone was tearing through the promenade at an alarming pace, the 2 girls seeming to have a plan as the drone approached a long stretched out banner advertising the Fensteria Valentines Festival.

"Not really, but let's do it!" Leah quipped, jumping up and allowing Spark to grab her hand and fly her up a bit, dropping her gently at one end of the banner while Spark glided over towards the other.

The 2 ladies would pull the banner taught attempting to impede the slow moving drone but even at its speed it would manage to yank the duo who struggled to hold the banner and entangled drone still. Luckily, an attentive Mara was on the job.

"Huh? Oh right!" Mara eeped, just noticing the developing situation. She'd teleport herself on top of the drone and knock on it a few times, a clanging akin to that of someone tapping on a trash can emerging as her fingertips made contact with its cold steel exterior, "hey, bozo, anyone home in there?"

She's giggle before realizing her taunting may have gone on for too long, the drone now approaching a low tunnel that would threaten to lop off the red head's body if she didn't act quick, she'd stumble back, about to teleport but her balance had other ideas, sending her careening backwards, her foot kind of kicking the top of the drone to stay upright, before slipping just enough to grab hold of the robots rudder and steer it into the top of the tunnel. She'd let go in the nick of time, landing on her butt, taking a bit of a tumble but at least she wouldn't suffer the fate of the drone which scraped the top of the tunnel, now sparking as it remained ensnared in the taught banner. Spark and Leah both looked confused as all hell while trying to help Mara.

"H-How did you...?" Leah asked

"Eh, I'm what you call dumb lucky" Mara shrugged, seeming amazingly okay with the fact she had narrowly avoided death on a couple occasions just then.

Lexi meanwhile scampered over to await the hobbled Enormo drone on the other side of the tunnel as it wobbled through, its navigation systems shot, she'd simply scowl and crouch a bit, in an offensive attack position and waiting to pounce. Just as the wayward drone whirred overhead, she'd shrink for a moment to position herself below the assailant and then launch a strong uppercut whilst regaining some size.

The resulting attack would succeed in jarring the robots sensors loose and it would also wobble terminally into a tree trunk before sparking a bit, but not before ejecting something ... a small cube with what looked like a camera on it, a detail Lexi only noticed upon closer examination.

She'd look up angrily at the buzzing camera box, it about the size of a mousquito to her but before she could go much further, she'd hear the screams of a family of fairies as they fled their now blazing home, the result of the drone crash.

"Shit" she'd whisper to herself, lending aid to the fairies.

Chris and the others would be over shortly, Chris conjuring up some temporary rain to put out the fire while Lexi made sure nobody was seriously hurt. The three fairies who had been inside the house seemed grateful although one of them had a bent wing from having been pinned under a piece of tree bark that was dislodged as a result of the crash.

"I'm so sorry you guys..." Lexi whimpered, addressing the fairy family, an older woman and her two sons. "I tried to keep them away from civilians..."

"You didn't know ..." the mother fairy sighed, "I'm just glad my boys are okay"

The young ones in turn would nod gratefully, also smirking at Chris and thanking him for putting out the fire. Chris would offer a small smile in comfort, despite not feeling the most happy about how things worked out, despite the vistory.

Lexi let out a dejected sigh as Dani caught up to them next, her armor rattling in the distance to give her impending approaching away.

"Did we drive off the mechanical threat?" Dani asked

"We did" Lexi nodded, "right now, we need to focus on assessing damages and ..."

"There will be time for that later" Dani responded, swiftly interuppting the purple clad heroine, "We are all very grateful for what you have all done here tonight ... and though things looked dire, I was able to fire up the flummox again"

"Meaning...?" Lexi asked, a bit forgetful and confused when it came to some of the fairy terminology

"The colony should be well under magic cloak again..." Dani nodded, "I'm not sure what happened but somehow those things were able to track us because the cloak was deactivated"

"The flummox?" the mother fairy chimed in, having overheard the details, "no, that's impossible ... the Fenestria Flummox has protected our colony for generations, nothing could ever stop its energy or put out its light"

"I know ..." Dani responded, nodding solemnly, "I just ... I checked on the tower while you were fighting off the last of the drones ... I couldn't find Esmerelda anywhere and the Flumox had been taken out of its altar, which caused the cloak to fail..."

"That's ... bad, right?" Chris asked, about as familiar with the lore as Lexi at this point

"It's very bad" Dani sighed, "but things are settled for now ... I'll work on finding Esmerelda but ..."

Right on cue, there was a loud announcement emenating from the square. To Dani's relief, the voice was that of none other than Esmerelda, although her exact message was unclear from their distance. She was simply glad the leader fairy was okay.

"Attention all Fenestria..." Esmerelda boldly declared, "the threat is extinguished thanks to the valient efforts of our fairy force..."

"Gee, I feel kinda forgotten about..." Lexi grumbled, to which she got a playful elbow by Chris as the gang had walked up closer to hear the announcement.

"...I know many of you are frightened ... understandably so ... this is the second attack on our colony in a short time, but we knew we wouldn't be safe forever ... and we also know that we are strongest when we are together. Only be uniting tonight were we able to drive back the threat and in continuing to do so, we will be even stronger against future threats ..."

The crowd was hushed but full of nodding fairies and some who were even eager to applaud their leaders' strong message.

"...that said, it is still our annual Fenestria Valentine's Day Festival... we have worked hard, we have some great enertainment here and I think it would be best, for those who are still willing to do so ... that we carry on this wonderful tradition ... and we do not allow ourselves to be scared away by those who may do us harm..."

After a short pause, the crowd erupted into cheering. Many of them throwing their hands up in victory while others began resetting spotlights and getting things in place to resume the celebration. Small fireworks again exploded in the suddenly quiet night sky, yet something still didn't sit right with Lexi.

The threat had been averted but at what cost? And what was the meaning of that strange camera she saw??

"So... I take it not every night here is this exciting..." Chris remarked, as the rebuilding efforts continued.

"Not exactly..." Spark sighed, rubbing the back of her head while siblings Lark and Mark would enter the scene, seeming relieved to see their sister in one piece

"There you are!" Lark smiled a bit, "and ... you brought more humans... lovely"

"Hey, this huamn..." Spark sighed, "...THESE humans, they all helped us tonight whether you realize it or not ... this is Christophicles..."

Chris would let out an 'ahem'

"...Chris. This is the elemental wizard of legend who was prophecized to save the colony from great destruction and harm" Spark said, after her brief correction, stating the story with a certain noble showmanship.

"This is the great wizard?" Lark responded facetiously, tilting her head, "no offense, mister, but I always thought you'd be bigger in person"

"I am ... usually..." Chris shrugged, "not that I mind being this size ... I mean in my OWN world it would be ... very scary but at least here, everything is made for people your size ... shit, was that offensive? It sounded offensive now that I think about it but ..."

"Him and Mark will get along just fine..." Lark rolled her eyes, while simultaneously teasing the nervous Chris a bit.

"Hey, I'm Mark" Mark shrugged, adding to the conversation in what little way he knew how.

The group would stand there, still hashing things out while the DJ on stage slowly made their way back towards the microphone to announce that the music would start again shortly. This news brought great cheers from the crowd, and Spark too, that is, until she looked up briefly and could swear she caught a glimpse of an embattled Esmerelda from the highest window in the tower, staring down with disdain at Spark and the group of fairies, humans and one elf named Mara.

In the tower itself, Esmerelda retreated to a basement area just below her regular quarters. She'd head towards a dimly lit altar and place her hands on it, chanting a brief Fenstarian encantation before a small globe of light would manifest, showing the face of her correspondent, acting as a sort of mystical "zoom call"

On that other end was somebody who looked strangely not upset, nor pleased. This time it was Esmerelda who crossed her arms and bore an annoyed look.

"Okay ... so ... mistakes happen..." the gentleman on the other end would say, his voice a bit fuzzy since this wasn't exactly modern technology. Still, he was able to see the fairy communique via his own video screen on his end and could deduce her anger almost immediately.

"Mistakes?" Esmerelda snapped, "Your ... ROBOTS ... were to go nowhere near the colony! I have wounded civilians, damaged property and..."

"and I have the hurt feelings..." the man mockingly responded. "I am most sorry for whatever happened but you knew the cost of doing business with ... well, big business"

Esmerelda sighed in resignation, realizing the man had a point. Even if that man were none other than eccentric mad scientist extraordinaire, Dr. Maximillian E. Mumford

"I do wish you hadn't trashed my machines so careless though..." the forlorn Dr. Max added

"I didn't do anything" Esmerelda sighed, standing back a bit, although still showing a touch of resentment, "you can thank that ... that HUMAN and some of my fairies, also ... since when can humans shrink to fairy size? Is she an elf?"

"She is not the elf..." Max sighed, shaking his head, "She is a MENACE! Named Lexi ... something or other... last name doesn't matter but she is a menace all the same ... and if you have her in your care right now, I insist you lock her up and throw away the key so fast that ..."

"Hey hey hey ..." Esmerelda muttered, noticing the mad scientist's words went into a tailspin at the mere mention of Lexi what's her name, "...as much as that would bring me great joy, I can't exactly imprison the person that most of my colony see as the hero... at least ... not yet. Soon enough, Fensteria will realize that the humans are of great danger and should not be trusted ... um... no ffense"

"None taken" Max responded sincerely, "Still ... my apologies on the damage ... although you were the one who disabled the cloak..."

"I disabled the cloak so that you could get what you needed..." Esmerelda sighed, "which I thought was simple intel ... I didn't realize you were going to assault us!"

"You said it yourself..." Max smirked, "us humans can't be trusted... but do not worry, I will make good on my end of the bargain"

"and I can trust that?" Esmeralda queried, raising an eyebrow.

"I suppose you have a point..." Max shrugged indifferently. After all, he gad gotten what he wanted.

Back at the Central Plaza, the party resumed as most of the repairs had been made.

"Who knew fairy magic could be so efficient?" Chris asked, watching as fairies were able to repair things simply by floating them back into place and snap that which would be permanently damaged in most cases back to its prior state simply focusing some sparkles on it.

"Hey, thanks again for your help" Spark smiled, giving the same sized elemental wizard a hug which would in turn cause him to blush.

"Oh? Oh... no problem ... I'm just glad I was able to ... say, where's Lexi? I'd like to thank her for ... well, shrinking me which is an admittedly odd sentence to say out loud but if you knew my upbringing, you'd know that ..."

"Do all you humans talk in exclusively run on sentences?" Spark smirked as the music kicked up again. It was a slow song this time and many of the fairies let out an exhaled air of cheering. It would appear this slow start to things was needed after the harrowing encounter with Enormo's drones.

"Hey, I don't ALWAYS ..." Chris started

"Hey... ya wanna dance, Princess?" Spark winked, offering her hand while referencing their first meeting at the same time.

"Me? D-Dance? Oh I don't know I should probably get back to... yeah okay" Chris sighed, his own nerves relenting as Spark gently took his hand in hers. He'd slowly step out to the dance floor with her as they'd sway in a traditional romantic dance formation, although he was stumbling a bit while she floated a small amount off the ground

"Heh, are all humans so socially awkward?" Spark asked

"I'm not ... socially awkward... more like ... inept ... there's a difference" the flumoxed Chris responded while giving Spark a pleasant smile. If someone had told him when the night began that he'd be sharing a slow dance with a fairy ... a very beautiful one at that, he would've found them crazy.

In the center of the crowd were Lexi and Mara who also shared a slow dance, although it was a bit more casual as they swayed at a higher tempo, Mara seemingly fascinated with her brunette coworker

"Heh... some night, huh?" Lexi chuckled nervously, feeling similarly nervous around Mara as she had with Chrissy. Was this going to become a pattern now?

"Some night? Some YOU!" Mara exclaimed, leaning in closer and placing her head on Lexi's shoulder, "you were AMAZING out there! Why didn't you tell me you were some kind of badass shrinking superhero person?"

"W-Well kind of ... defeats the point of ... secret identity..." Lexi stammered, trying her hardest to commit to that principle despite its many flaws.

"Y-You ... don't wear a mask" Mara chuckled a bit at the comment. Lexi rolled her eyes, "Like you don't even have a costume that covers more of your body than most people our age ... like it's so ... obvious it's you, it's ..."

Lexi would interuppt her chattering dance mate the only way she could think of. It may have been forward but she lunged a bit and placed her lips on Mara's, remaining there for a good few seconds as the glistening light showered upon them. Mara's speech was reduced to simply mumbles and muffling before she finally gave in, simply moaning in delight, after which Lexi disengaged the kiss and smirked.

"That's ... a fee for you keeping my secret" Lexi smirked

"It'll cost you more than that" Mara winked coyly. Lexi, naturally turned bright red.

The plaza was slowly filling up with fairies who were enjoying the moment, simply chatting or slow dancing. Leah smiled a bit as she chatted with Lark but noticed out of the corner of her eye a young man who looked a bit upset, desite his best efforts to hide it.

That young man would be Mark, who simply shuffled up nervously towards the blonde haired fairy knight and tried to make words come out of his confused mouth. Before he could get far though, Dani was gone, seemingly too focused on whatever she was working on to even look his way. He was tempted to follow but just lagged behind instead, watching in helplessness and trying to make it seem as though his actions were intended as he just paced around for a moment. Leah frowned and broke off from Lark for a moment to go talk to him.

"Oh ... hi" Mark nodded, seeing her before she could get a word in, "you're uh ... Lexi's friend?"

Leah nodded and smiled, offering a hand, "I sure am... could be your friend too. You wanna dance?"

"Oh?" Mark gulped, not expecting this turn of events but he nodded a bit, making sure his eyes didn't stray and look in Dani's direction while he politely responded to Leah, "I would ... I would like to ... I'm not a very good dancer though"

"Neither am I" Leah shrugged, taking his hand and leading him onto the floor. Lark would smirk a bit as she watched the scene.

As Leah and Mark drifted onto the dance floor, gently jostling their way through the waves of other dancers, Leah would briefly make eye contact with Lexi as she danced with Mara. The best friends would exchange a brief joyful look before Lexi got an idea.

"Hey Mara... you mind if I ... take off a second? I will be right back" Lexi asked

"Sure luv ... just don't leave me hanging ... I know where you work" Mara teased

"You're a dork ..." Lexi smirked, "...but thanks for the dance"

"Thanks for the kiss" Mara winked, watching Lexi depart as she raised an eyebrow, "not a bad view from behind either"

"So, your siblings names are Spark and Lark..." Leah said, while holding Mark gently, the slow dance admittedly a bit stiff between the two who didn't know each other very well, plus Leah was right. She was not the best dancer and neither was Mark although that was more from a lack of practice, "...how did you get the name MARK? I mean, it's very nice but ... seems a bit..."

"Human?" Mark shrugged, "I've heard it all my life ... I have perhaps the most underwhelming fairy name of all time ... I'm not really sure why I have it ... it could be maybe my parents wanted me to aspire to be more ... human? I don't know"

"What's so great about being human anyway?" Leah shrugged, "I mean, I guess it's all I've ever known but all you've ever knwon is being a fairy, but I think you're all amazing... this is going to sound REALLY dorky but my best friend Lexi and I use to LOVE fairies ... in fact, this is something of a dream of mine..."

"R-Really?" Mark asked, seemingly stunned, "a bit flattering and ... honestly, I always felt the same about humans ... been fascinated with their culture and well, everything about them ... never thought I'd see one at this size, to be honest"

"Yeah well ... life is funny that way" Leah shrugged before pondering something, "yknow... did you ever think maybe your parents gave you that name so the names of their kids would all rhyme??"

For but a brief moment, it appeared as though Mark's entire life was defined. His mind blown. He'd give Leah a befuddled look and she'd laugh.

Lexi meanwhile would nervously stumble up the steel stairs towards the DJ booth, belonging to a rainbow dyed hair DJ named Twinklestar, or at least that was her DJ alias.

"Omigosh your hair is even cooler up close!" Lexi stuttered, eliciting an awkward grin from the fairy DJ

"Hey, you're that girl that saved us all, aren't ya?" Twinklestar giggled, as she tracked music for the contented fairy crowd, "did you have a request?"

Lexi nodded humbly

"I do ... although you probably don't have it ..." Lexi shrugged, "as you might imagine, I don't know a lot of fairy music ... it's really nice, don't get me wrong but ..."

"Hey." Twinklestar nodded, "You think I've been a DJ for 7 years without dabbling in some human top 40? now hit me"

Lexi would shrug and whisper her request in DJ Twinklestar's ear.

"Got it. Anyone you wanna send it out to?" the enthusiastic DJ would ask.

Within moments, the slow song would fade and the crowd would grow a bit silent

"Thanks for the dance, Mark" Leah smiled politely, giving the young man a kiss on the cheek before skipping away, having seen that Lexi was on stage with the DJ.

Mark would be too bewildered to speak, rubbing his cheek after the kiss.

"Alright Fenstaria!!" DJ Twinklestar announced, "Who's ready to party up in heeeeeere?!"

The entire fairy community, plus Mara, Leah and Chris would respond with thunderous applause and cheering.

"I'd like to introduce a very special guest to announce this next song...." Twinklestar added, handing the microphone over to Lexi while a beat dropped. It was a beat that most of Fenstaria was likely unfamiliar with, but at least one of the humans picked up on it quick. "...please welcome ShrinkGirl!"

"...really? She's still going with the alias?" Chris remarked, "she doesn't even wear a mask"

Spark just shrugged, despite agreeing with Chris.

The background beat would continue to loop as Lexi shyly took the microphone. Of course addressing a large crowd over a microphone wasn't completely foreign territory to Lexi as she had been a cheerleader for many years but this wasn't exactly a high school pep rally, plus she was about to get oddly personal.

"S-So Leah ..." Lexi smiled, her voice wavering as she pointed in Leah's direction in the crowd, "As you know, this is something we've wanted to do since we were kids and ... well ... you know you'll always be my best friend ... I really appreciate my Valentine's Day gift and well... this one's for you..."

Lexi would blush and walk off, handing the microphone back to Twinklestar and exiting to a round of thunderous applause as the song got started.

Leah would shove her way through the crowds to get to Lexi and give her a big hug in response.

"Thank you for everything you do, Leah" Lexi smiled, "I know we haven't been able to hang out super often lately but this has been such an awesome night and ... what are you doing?"

Lexi was of course referring to the fact that Leah had seized her best friends hand and was leading her towards the growing crowd of energized fairy dancers who were bopping along to the top 40 hit despite not knowing it. This song, while dated, had significant merit between Leah and Lexi going back to their childhood when it seemed like they'd always end up singing it to one another during one of their many cheesy sleepovers.

The duo would leap into the middle of a circle of fairies who encouraged their dancing, dorky as it may have been.

"Man you really can't dance..." Lexi would giggle, stepping back a bit, while Leah did what appeared to look like beat boxing mixed with dabbing.

"Oh shush... here comes the chorus..." Leah giggled, pointing to Lexi

Lexi knew what she had to do but was a bit embarrassed to be doing so in front of the crowd. Then again, the energy drew her in and before she knew it she found herself lunging away from Leah and acting like an overly invigorated popstar as she belted out the lyrics

" BECAUSE....When the sun shines, we'll shine together...!!"

"...Told you I'll be here forever!" Leah giggled, jumping in front of Lexi as this had been a dance routine the duo had long since practiced, although probably a good 12 years elapsed since their last such tango.

"Said I'll always be your friend..." Lexi smirked

The 2 girls would both join for the next part, finding themselves confounded by the lyrics

"Something something and we'll stick it out to the end!" they'd shout in unison, ending with a snorting giggle and missing some of the next words because of it.

Mara, Chris, Spark, Lark, and Mark would all join together to watch

"This is totally the most dorky thing I've ever seen" Chris scoffed

"Really?" Mara quipped, "you ever look in a mirror?"

The others would laugh while Spark ruffled his hair in teasing and he crossed his arms, the 5 of them resuming watching Lexi and Leah's impromptu performance.

"Now that it's raining more than ever..." Leah pointed towards Lexi while on one knee

"Know that we'll still have each other" Lexi smiled

"You can stand under my UMBRELLA...." they'd again join together

"You can stand under my ... Umbrella ... ella ... ella ... eh eh eh ... under my umbrella..."

The other fairies would slowly catch on to the pattern and join in the chanting and clapping.

"You know... I never did care for this song" Chris shrugged, as Mara elbowed him. "What? It's true"

-----

"That looks so badass!" Leah smirked, watching Lexi model the new "SG" belt buckle for her, as she wore it over a jean skirt, having fashioned a gold linked band to hold it to her waist as she'd strut about.

"It is very badass" Josh added, being involved in the private show as well, "and speaking of badass, who's ready to head back to the Jester's for more DnD?"

The 2 girls would look back as if crickets could be heard in the room with them.

"I don't know why I thought that would get more of a reaction..." Josh sighed and shrugged

"So, how was the Valentine's Day dance, anyway?" Leah asked

"It was ... okay" Josh shrugged

"Yeah?" Lexi asked, slowly unfastening the belt buckle and setting it in her purse, "meet any nice lady friends?"

Josh would shrug as he answered, "eh, I wanted to ask somebody but ... uh ... she wasn't available"

"Awwww, hey you'll get em next time" Leah smiled supportively as the gang headed out for D&D

Back at the colony , an apprehensive Spark sat uncomfortably in a chair while waiting for leader Esmerelda to enter the quarters. Not too long after the festival incident she had been summoned to the central tower. Within moments, Esmerelda would walk in and sit down, letting out a long exhale. Spark raised an eyebrow, already suspecting that bad news on the way.

"I warned you ..." Esmerelda sighed, shaking her head as she scowled at the young fairy woman

"Hmm?"

"I warned you that bringing humans into this colony could endanger us ... I told you that they couldn't be trusted" Esmerelda said

"Ummm...?" Spark stuttered, seeming more than a bit confused

"Those robots followed them here!" Esmerelda snapped, "your superhero friend or whatever is the cause of all this"

"Are you kidding me?!" Spark snapped

"Enough! I've had enough of your insolence and your immaturity" Esmerelda sighed, dismissively brushing off the fairy's protests, "This is your last warning ... stay away from the humans..."

"Psh, or else what?" Spark muttered under her breath, crossing her legs as she leaned back in her chair

"Excuse me?" Esmerelda challenged, leaning forward in her own seat.

"Nothing..." Spark sighed, just looking down and away as the matriarchal leader continued to scold her.

Something was definitely up here and Spark was determined to someday find out what it was

That would have to wait though, as a group of friends would finally sit down and play some much awaited DnD at the Crazy Jester. This time it would be Lexi's turn to be confused as she was somehow dragged into creating a character while sitting at a long table with Leah, Josh, Mara and Chris.

"Hey, why don't you just make a character based on your superhero persona?" Chris shrugged

"Shhhhh ... cmon" Lexi pouted, "...we can't just broadcast that to the world, yknow!"

Leah would roll her eyes and raise her hand as if to draw attention from the group

"Everybody at this table who knows Lexi is ShrinkGirl, raise your hand" Leah stated, and the group would all chuckle as they each raised their hand.

"Psh, whatevs..." Lexi sighed

Suddenly, a new player arrived at the table

"Oh heya Will" Josh smiled, pulling up an extra chair. "this is my friend Will I was telling you about, he makes super cool figurines of the characters"

"That I do!" Will said with a smile, taking out a small figure for his own figure, a character named Prince Mittens, "hope you don't mind me butting in"

"Not at all, dude, I invited you here after all" Josh chuckled, setting things up to play

Leah would lean in towards Lexi and talk low, "Hey maybe he can make you a ShrinkGirl figurine for your character..."

"Shut it, Leah..." Lexi sighed

"You know, you really should consider a mask..." Chris commented

Lexi would just lean back in her chair and roll her eyes. Everybody's a critic ...