Panting.

Awakening.

Pissing.

Laid naked, each of them rose in turn. The ground was soft beneath their bare feet. Tessay's eyes fluttered and jolted, forcefully battling against the all-too-powerful light warming his scalp - his pupils struggling to reach the correct size.

Liu felt on her stomach to make sure it was still there - and winced. Not only was it raw, but she had trouble managing finger movement. It was hard to tell from touch alone whether the lingering pangs and aches were from her stomach, or her hips - she'd lost track of where one ended and the other began.

*PINGG*

The piercing, dissonant chime was immediately followed by gutteral moans. "OW! Sh-sh...ghn..." Pedro's mouth opened, but the words to express the pain of bumping his nose against a wall didn't come out. He had his hands flat against the glassy barrier. It was cold and smooth like a thick aquarium tank. Light refracted through it to show more enclosures - five of them, on wooden tables, facing each other. There were no windows, and faint lines of grime in warped gaps between floor and wall tiles. "So... We're stuck."

Bello took tentative, mismatched first steps - then fell forward under her own weight. A small murmur and stirring beneath her dark skin made her dart back up.

Hadi.

Hadi - she was between Bello's legs. At a height where she would be handheld. She had to rub her eyes. Something was off. Maybe it was the sheer size of the surrounding room... Maybe the medicine having a lingering effect... Or maybe just seeing her affectionate, sweet little thing so far BENEATH her set off an uncanny valley effect. Bello scurried back, keeping her arms close. A slight pressure from her leg knocked that small thing over - that thing that looked like Hadi, in the nude, swimming on solid ground.

"Bel... Bello is so... Huge..." She looked up, croaking.

Anderson swallowed. "Come on... What's going on? It tastes... stale."

Liu could finally see them. Other bodies flopping loosely many feet away - or at least, it seemed like feet? From this perspective, it seemed as if Bello was gargantuan - while Anderson and Pedro were close enough in height. Only, Pedro was a little shorter before, and had an inch or two above him now... And Tessay, he was absolutely tiny. Was he? The uneven layout of the tables below, and the reflections on the glass, made it hard to tell what was a trick of perspectives.

But she could tell, her own "tank" had a mattress - was that there before? A mattress, a hay bundle, small tubes... A flat bowl with oddly fine sand in it...

And gigantic, black masses. Blinking masses, blinks that cut the air. Eyes, peering in. Scars between them.

"AGH!" She turned away, gasping. "How did you... Veronica?"

Veronica jumped back, rushing a blade out. Her unconscious breaths fogged the glass. The small shifting in her balance below made the walls rumble. "Ah! L-Liu? I was... Putting the essentials in. I didn't think..." A small blanket dangled off her bandaged finger - which she placed in the roofless enclosure, on the bed.

With senses slowly reawakening, the patients could make out bits of Veronica's hat, or shoulder, or back, passing by the window.

Bello lay, astounded - looking up and down at Hadi, and the much larger figure. "So... she's gotta be, astronomic..."
Hadi kept her neck up, eyes sparkling. "I can barely take her all in... Unlike you, I can see all of you."
"How dirty..."

Pedro mumbled. "Can feel her heat."

Anderson slammed the edge of his glass. "Hey! Here, let me see you!"

Tessay was still staring at his own hands. "Wow..."

Inside, the tiny girl panted. "So it really worked. Thank you. I can't believe how quiet you were... This is really efficient work."

Veronica averted her gaze, and  hobbled to the door - leaving many of the spaces less furnished. "Fraaaan! The weirdos are awake."

"I thought I too~oold you, don't call them thaa~at..."

Thump.

Thuump.

Thwuuuuump...

Like guards at a palace changing posts, as soon as Veronica's hasty boots left from the door, Fran's spindly legs entered. Tessay, who was closest to the immense door, could see a peek of nurses moving behind her - and hear a *scritch* as the doctor moved a stitched hand across her blonde hair. From a low angle, with details of every flutter and bob, she looked just as sluggish and unbalanced as the shrunken patients. A long nightgown fluttered around as she entered, bowing over each space in turn.

She raised a finger up, preparing an announcement. With everyone's attention, Fran yawned, and stretched.

"A successful procedure. I'm grateful the staff put in the extra hoooours... Though it took less than I thought." Sleepy, wet claps echoed in the room. "Congratulations. You've been reborn."

Hadi suddenly rushed against the glass, pounding on it. "What? You didn't - you didn't tell us you'd - COMPRESS our bodies like this!"
Bello's hand pulled her back. "Shh. It's okay... It's over now."

Fran rubbed her eyes, getting sleep out of them. "Yes, this should be a very happy time. But it's not quite done. Remember, you'll need time for testing and rehabilitation. So you can't quite go and show your new height to the world..." She pointed to a waist-high terminal, with several wires, dials, and vents. "It's hard for people your size to manage low temperatures, or impurities in the air. So this, ah, device will ensure life support until your bodies are adapted. You'll need to remain in these culturing tanks for one week, at the very least."

Tessay rubbed his arm. "I feel... weird. Did..." He looked down. "Did my left foot... get bigger?"

Something shifted in his peripheral vision. "We did our best to measure and reconstruct every minor detail. And your cellular makeup provided important help. But..." The next second, Fran's pale face occupied the side of his tank, with her hands cupped in apology. "... It's so finicky when working with tiny fee~eeatures. And couldn't just copy the same mold, when you each have very different traits. For example, I may have made your eyes too narrow or wide. Besides, you seemed so eager to get up and moving. If you're unhappy, I can always make some adjustments..."

"NO!" His blood froze, and he found himself panting. "N... No thanks, Doctor Madaraki..."

Fran's head swayed, her hair sweeping like a cape. "Though that reminds meeee~ This would be a good time for a brief reflex test." She rummaged through a cabinet, and lifted forceps up from it. "If I could please have a volunteer..."

Instantly, Anderson raised a hand. "Here! Gimme the best you got."

She shrugged, as if waiting for others to jump in. After four seconds, her left arm stretched out over his glass cage, and the forceps closed around Anderson's ribs. He winced slightly as it took him up - feet dangling. The details of the other faces looking to him grew abstract and distorted, the floor a disorienting drop below. In constrast, every detail of Fran's face became perfectly clear, as if a fog was lifted from it - the individual stitches across her forehead and smiling cheeks almost touchable.

"Oh yeah, I'm - I'm really doing it. I'm the first. One small step for me, one giant step for you! One giant step on mankind! Man, Fran, you're so beauti--"

Her right arm pulled out a surgical knife.

His right arm dropped off.

"Huh..." It made a wet noise on the ground. Fwip. Blood dripped across the knife - on Fran's gown - on his cold nipples. He found everything below the shoulder gone - a flat surface with bone peeking out.

"Hy...AAAAGH! JEE! ZUS! FUCK FUCK FUCKKKK..." His left arm held the wound, more and more of the life fluids gushing from the dismembered limb. "Why... whhhhy...!?"

Fran maintained her neutral smile. "Understandable. That's the reaction most people have to laceration. Which means the nervous system and nocinceotors are perfectly aligned! What a triumph... At this size, too!" The smile slowly, sickeningly grew to what could only be called a swoon.

"I'll..." Anderson whined. "I'm not... This isn't... I thought you would..."

Fran patted his remaining shoulder. "No limits for you, right? And you didn't want anesthesia earlier, either~"

With the shoulderblade pinched, she tugged. The entire left arm slipped from its socket - and from the torso, removed. Torn ligaments dangled out like streamers, and the flesh remaining had a zigzag pattern.

"AAAHG! MOTHER--" Anderson, armless, shook and swayed his head - unable to shut his eyes, but unable to look at either missing arm or Fran. Especially not when it wiggled like a gummy worm in her index and thumb.

"So the subject has a similar reaction when pulling. Hm, it's slightly more muscular... Do you masturbate with this one?"

"Give it back... GIVE ME MY ARM BACK!" His neck extended, trying to bite at it.

Fran tilted her head, scanning the wound - skeptical for a moment - before pressing the removed limb back in place against the viscera-coated stump. "Okaaay..." Supporting it with the forceps, and sighing as Anderson squirmed in agony, she pulled out a small, sharp needle. A few swipes, quicker than anyone could make out, and she'd reattached his left arm.

Anderson panted. "Burns... Itches... A-a...Ah...!" Everything felt limp, unresponsive. His sweating face turned to where his right arm should've been. To his shock, something was sprouting there. Like a timelapse video of a tree growing. A new arm rose up, bony and short at first - but within a few fuzzy, painful blinks, it now looked as if the arm hadn't been removed at all.

He clenched the new fist, and the tiny knuckles crackled in response.

Fran smiled, and felt along the edge of the regrown arm. "Surprised? Much of your new body is made of general cells, or stem cells. The same which fetuses have, before they settle into specific cells to make up muscles, blood, bone... In the case of a limb injury like this, they will swiftly grow a replacement." She beamed, holding an arm out to the wordless spectators. "That's my little gift~"

Anderson froze. "So you mean, the other..."

Pain shot through his left elbow - left armpit - his entire ribcage felt ready to shatter. He tried to grab the painful region, but his right arm was still raw and wet. He didn't know where to focus. Bloody chunks broke out from his left hand - corners, bones, entire fingers blasting out at high pressure. He swore, as a "replacement" arm grew out, bursting through the "original" limb Fran had sewn back on. The tips of fingers clawed unwillingly out of broken wrists, as useless blood vessels inflated like balloons and popped out to reveal fresh muscle. It kept pounding and acheing even as the process finished.

From below, Tessay peered at the bloody clumps descending in a waterfall past his container. "We were just reborn, but it's as if... He's dying again and again."

Watching the screaming man as if he were a wall of drying paint, the doctor next applied her touch to the left leg. "Let's ensure limbs grow back, not just from laceration or detatchment, but twists..."

Fran wrung his left leg out like a washcloth, red breaking out of twisting flesh wrinkles. By now, his face was drenched with cold sweat. "Can't you... argh... please, please just... numb our pain receptors..."

"Hm." She fidgeted with the twisted leg, which looked the size of a toothpick in her fingers. "There have been cases of that. People naturally resistant or immune to pain. They can have injuries without even noticing them. One such woman burned her hand on a stove, and only noticed because of the smell... now isn't that unfortunaa~aate?" Her finger hovered curiously over the remaining limb, which he struggled to keep away with frantic kicks. "Pain is a crucial message from body to brain. We can't ignore what our bodies say. Besides, isn't it much easier to appreciate pleasing moments, with this intense counter? Though it's strange. I thought for your group..."  The thumb finally pinned his foot in place. "Pleasure and pain might be the same."

Like a button on a remote, she pushed his right leg in.

"AAARRRGH!" It crumpled in, a single messy heap.

*Pssht.*

Involuntarily, his penis released cum. It barely made it halfway to Fran's face. The rod flopped between missing thighs.

She blinked. "It's a bit yellooo~oow."

Pedro screamed and crossed himself as she took a step back. The others could only stare dumbfounded while she put her "subject" back in. The full details of Anderson's body came into view - all limbs having grown back, and curled in, as he took a fetal position. Though he was a hefty man when he came in, he looked starved and gaunt from the experience. His eyes kept pointed to the flooring, taking quick breaths, eyes twitching at any noise. He didn't even crawl to his mattress.

"What's... What did we... get into...?" Hadi murmured.

"Okaaa~y!" Fran yawned again, using a duster to clean up some of the blood and dismembered parts on the floor. "Thank you, Anderson! You were the perfect control group. Thanks for being a placebo case."

Liu covered her mouth. "PLACEBO?"

Fran's nod stunned the diminished patients, seeming large and energetic enough that her head might flop right off. "In other words, Anderson was kept relatively free from external stimuli. His test may have looked a little dull, but it was necessary for my measuremee~eents."

She turned away from the open door, and waved to the shocked faces. "There's other work I need to get to, but I'll be sure to spice up the next test. Over the week, you'll each receive the treatments you requested. Please take some time to prepare..."

Shrieks rang out behind her, even after she shut the door.

Okita, having finished scratching himself, followed. "They sounded excited in there."

"Well, of course they would." Her arms crossed, while her head flopped to the side. "This is their fantasy~"