A frantic Alexis Cole would make her way into a bedroom but this room would be no ordinary bedroom as it was surrounded by what most people would call lumber but to the fairies of Fensteria it was simply "home" to them. Spark's residence (where she lived with her 2 siblings, Lark & Mark) was technically founded inside a tree stump like so many other Fensterian homes but it was still laid out similar to human residences, with its seperate chambers carved out of the wood and many similar acouturements that a normal human home would have like furniture, bed and the like.
What wasn't so common was Lexi's reason for being there, although Lexi's life could hardly be considered normal or common anymore. She was even standing in the bedroom wearing her full ShrinkGirl outfit which she had on from her photo shoot at the Snack Shack. None of that mattered so much though as she stood nervously in Spark's room after Lark had let her in, only having to answer the question once about why she had come in full "superhero" attire.
She was following up on Spark's message that their friend Chris had been attacked and she wanted to make sure he was okay but upon entering the room, she didn't see him ... only Spark who was standing over a dresser in her appropriately arbor themed room.
"Spark!" Lexi said, her voice a bit out of breath as she had parked her car just outside the colony after having shrunk it to a fitting fairy size, before running all the way towards Spark's house.
She didn't even have time to stop and try some of Ms. Astaria's fresh hot fairy cookies which she always loved.
"Lexi..." Spark said, her voice a bit soft and stunned despite being a bit startled by Lexi's sudden appearance, even as her boots and at times "clangy" medallion would give her presence away. "I'm glad you came but ... why the hero outfit?"
"I already asked her that..." Lark shrugged, hanging back in a main atria of a room that divided the 3 siblings seperate dwellings.
"I was at a job..." Lexi shrugged
"Oh, thwarting a new supervillain?" Spark asked curiously
"Uh ... trying a new burger" Lexi said with a dopey smirk on her face
"I... thought you were a superhero..." Lark said in her usual "flat" type of way upon hearing this information
"Can we focus?" Lexi said with a nervous scoff and chuckle, "Where's Chris? Is he okay?"
"He's uh.... he's okay..." Spark chuckled kind of nervously, still not budging from her spot in front of the dresser, simply swaying left and right a bit.
"Yeah? Well where is he?" Lexi asked, sincerely concerned as Spark seemed to be glued to the floor and refusing to move from the dresser area.
"He's uh ... he's here..." Spark said nervously, a bright grin poorly disguising a sense of anxiety, "he's uh ... in the room"
"Oh for fucks sake, just show her, Spark" Lark shrugged, "I'll admit it was kinda ... something at first'
Spark let out a great exhale.
"I wanna show you..." Spark said softly, as Lexi walked closer, "but he warned me that you may ... laugh"
"I may laugh?" Lexi asked, raising an eyebrow, "I mean I like to have a good laugh but I'd think he considers me a friend, I mean why else call me? I'm not going to laugh!"
"Okay ..." Spark sighed, before turning around again, and still not letting Lexi proceed all the way to the dresser. Lexi could only make out little whispers as Spark appeared to be talking to her dresser, a tiny figure scampering behind a handcrafted wooden clock of sorts. "Ugh ... I'm sorry Lex, one second"
Spark pouted as she stared at the face of the clock, Lexi eventually joining her by sidling next to the red-haired fairy.
"C'mon Chris..." Spark sighed in an understanding tone, her face looking forlorn as she just waited, finally holding a hand near one of the sides of the clock, "...come out please... she can't fix you if she doesn't see you...'
"Fix him?" Lexi asked, confused
"Please come out" Spark huffed, seeming less patient now, "...don't make me grab you..."
"No... no..." a tiny voice arose from behind the clock, "N-Not again Miss Spark... I'll be good, I promise"
"Miss Spark?" Lexi asked, raising an eyebrow
"Yeah ..." Spark said nervously, "He uh ... insists on calling me that since he ... well... you can see for yourself... come out hon... please.. we won't hurt ya"
Sure enough, like a frightened little kitten appeared Chris, no more than half the height of the clock he had ducked behind, making him approximately small enough to fit in the hand of the now towering fairy Spark as her and Lexi looked at him in awe. Well, Spark was in awe, Lexi stifled a giggle before turning away and proceeding to laugh a bit more uproariously, her efforts to shield the noise proving futile as she hung in the corner of Spark's room with girlish giggles lightly echoing off the walls at Chris' shrunken expense.
"Awwww shit! I told you she'd laugh!" Chris squeaked pitifully, "I'm going back to hide..."
"No..." Spark said, with almost an authoritative tone in her voice. It was about as foreign to her as it had been to the others but she carefully stopped him with her hand acting as a wall to make sure he stayed in sight for the time being, "You will stay here ... and you will let us help you, please..."
Spark frowned walking over to Lexi.
"You said you wouldn't laugh..." Spark said, looking utterly dissapointed as she stomped her foot in a bit of anger.
Lexi looked back, catching her breath and trying to adopt a more serious tone.
"I know... I know... I'm sorry..." Lexi said, her face still in a smiling expression, "I'm truly sorry ... what ... what the hell happened?"
There came a tiny squeaking from the dresser to address that question but it was hard to hear, even for the usually tiny Spark.
"S-Sorry hon..." Spark frowned, walking up closer with Lexi, "c-could you ... repeat that please?"
"I said ... I fucking shrank!" Chris squeaked, looking legitimately angry and upset as he glared up at the two "giant" women, "It's not that hard to figure out! Now please... are you going to help me or just laugh at me?!"
Lexi now frowned, leaning down so that her face was level with the super tiny Chris, "I'm sorry Chris..." she said dimly, "that wasn't cool of me ... I'm your friend and I'm here to help ... no matter what..."
For just a moment though, Lexi stood up, moving herself closer to Spark as if to share a piece of gossip, out of earshot of the tiny Chris.
"But c'mon..." Lexi whispered to Spark, who leaned in to hear her, "You haven't for a moment appreciated the irony and slight hilarity of you being ... well, the giantess?"
"Okay yeah I have..." Spark admitted, a brief smirk crossing her face to Chris' dismay, "it's kinda cute when you put it that way"
"It's TOTALLY cute!" Lexi said, her whisper rising a bit above that of a soft one now as Chris just peered at them both, helpless to stop their chatter but still not loving it.
"Okay okay ... we're good, we're good..." Lexi said, again catching her breath as Spark wiped the smile off her face to address her shrunken friend more seriously.
"So... you can fix him right?" Spark asked nervously, "I know you usually ... SHRINK people, but you can like ... undo it too, right?"
"I... I think so" Lexi replied, although she didn't have as much experience with regrowing people, they usually either regrew on their own, or she could accelerate the process by touching them lightly and transferring some kind of static energy into them to regain their size. She had only needed to do it on a few occasions and never on somebody that she herself hadn't shrunk.
"Okay ... okay that's good..." Spark said, taking Lexi's words as a sign of hope. Cute as it might have been, the young fairy was terrified that her friend Chris could be stuck that way and even the spells that she could find in their Fensterian book of magic didn't seem to have a clear answer for what had happened to him.
"So ... do I just ... like sign a waiver form or something?" Chris asked nervously, almost trying to break the tension as this had been uncharted territory for all of the people in the room.
"Sign a waiver?" Lexi asked, confused.
"Well ... I don't know..." Chris sighed, putting his arms down in defeat. "I'm just being a goofball... please help me, okay? I'll buy you lunch or something"
"You'll buy me lunch..." Lexi said, as if pondering it, "I don't know ... seems like getting your size back might be worth a little more than that ..."
"Oh Lexi stop teasing him and help him out..." Spark said, a bit short and impatiently before frowning, "...please?"
"I will, I promise" Lexi said with a smirk, "you can't not have ANY fun with this..."
"Maybe after you grow me back, we can all hang out and have a good chuckle..." Chris said, sounding unamused as Lexi's hand approached, "but for now ... please..."
Lexi nodded in understanding.
"I've gotcha Chris... don't worry" Lexi said, holding her hand still as she thought briefly about her fans from the restaurant, Mark and Stacy as well as the little girl Lucy who looked up to her. She felt a sudden weight of responsibility that she had already felt since donning the "ShrinkGirl" costume but this felt like an even more serious task since it was someone she knew pretty well from college.
"Okay just hold still..." Lexi said softly, holding the tiny Chris on the center of her palm as she focused for a while and then gently pressed a fingertip from her other hand against him. All 3 of the beings in the room, 4 including the interested sister Lark would lean in and watch but there was no change to Chris' unfortunate condition.
"It isn't working..." Chris said, at first sounding impatient but then transitioning to fear, "Why isn't it working?? Miss Spark why isn't it working?!"
"I DON'T KNOW WHY IT ISN'T WORKING!" Spark yelped a bit, unintentionally stunning the tiny Chris, "and why do you keep calling me MISS Spark?!"
"...I ... I actually don't know..." Chris squeaked with a shy gulp.
Lexi again focused as much of her energy on her tiny shrunken friend as she could but there was nothing. No feeling on her end of size transferring and no feeling for Chris of any change in his stature. It seemed utterly hopeless in that moment.
"I'm ... I'm sorry Spark..." Lexi gulped nervously, before reaching her hand out for Spark to seize the shrunken man, "I... I don't know what it is ... but I ... I can't seem to do ANYTHING ... I can't even shrink him MORE..."
"Why would you shrink me MORE?!" Chris yelped in shock before Spark gently lifted him from Lexi's hand.
"I was just trying to test!" Lexi said defensively, "my point is, I can't change your size up or down... and I don't know why"
Spark frowned as she looked down at Chris' fightened little form in her hands.
"Wh-What happened anyway?" Lexi asked, "h-how did he..."
"We were out ... in the forest..." Spark said shyly, recounting the details, "We saw some of those ... drone things"
"...Mad Max" Lexi sighed in dismay shaking her head.
"...we tried to follow them but somebody stopped us ... a witch with purple hair..." Spark explained
Lexi's heart sank almost instantly.
"You said ... a witch?" Lexi gulped
"Yeah..." Spark nodded sadly, "I wish I had listened to my brother when he said a witch attacked the colony ..."
"I heard that!" Mark piped in from another room
"Pipe down Mark!! Not the time!" Lark spouted off from the hallway.
"Sorry..." Mark grumbled, but after another long pause would ask, "hey,.is Lexi here?"
"Yeah she's here..." Lark said, sounding disinterested as the main focus had been on helping Chris, "why?"
"C-Could you tell her I said hi?" Mark said
"...Mark says hi" Lark said after a moment.
"I can ... I can hear him..." Lexi said indifferently, "y'know, these walls are remarkably thin for tree trunk walls..."
"Right?!" Lark said, as if some obvious truth was being spoken about, "I told Spark we should try to reinforce them with ..."
"CAN WE FOCUS HERE?!" a painfully squeaky Chris exclaimed, even getting the attention of the "giants" in the room who all hung their heads.
"Sorry..." Lexi sighed
"The good news ..." Spark said softly, trying not to startle Chris as she absentmindedly toyed with him in her hand by petting his hair as if a means to calm him down. She found it strangely soothing herself, "...I seemed completely unaffected by the witch's magic ... it wasn't like PLEASANT but she wasn't able to cast any powerful spell on me... if any of her fire hit me, I would just kind of feel a tinge of pain but no change"
"You said... fire?" Lexi asked, even more startled
"She attacks with fire yes... and Chris even tried to counteract it with some of his ice but ..." Spark said, before just shaking her head, "...nothing... and unfortunately ... as you can see, her magic DOES effect him"
"But why would she just ... fucking shrink me?!" Chris squeaked sounding extra whiny but it was more a product of his size than anything, "...and then leave?"
"So she just ... shrank Chris and ... left?" Lexi asked, trying to add up the details as if a cop coming to investigate a crime scene.
Spark nodded sadly.
"Well... I've got some good news, bad news of my own..." Lexi sighed, "the good news ... in a way ... is that I know who she is..."
"You do?" Spark asked
"Y-Yeah ... I actually met her yesterday ... at the mall ..." Lexi said, sounding disappointed in herself, "had I known, I obviously would've ... tried to stop her..."
"Well, you couldn't know..." Spark frowned, continuing to pet Chris even as he seemed a bit tired of it but also had no say on the matter, "...it's not like she's going to say ... I'm a witch"
Lexi gulped nervously but chose not to divulge the fact that the purple haired woman literally said exactly that at one point.
"Heh ... yeah..." Lexi frowned, "...but the point is, I know her ... and I can track her..."
"The bad news?" Spark asked
"I... have never fought a witch before... and I don't know if I'M unaffected by the magic..." Lexi said, before Spark interjected.
"Actually you are!" Spark said, almost sounding a bit hyped up again. Her emotions had been going through a teetering seesaw act in the past couple months. Her times with Chris had been amazing until this point and she was now just terrified that because of her, his life could be ruined. "Remember the SG belt? The one you're wearing?"
"Oh yeah ... it's like fairy magic... right?" Lexi nodded, and although the sentence sounded a bit absurd, she said it with very high reverance as she recalled that moment in the mall that Delia recoiled from the mere existence of the metal. "Y-Yeah actually... it's like her kryptonite or something"
"Isn't kryptonite like only for Superman?" Chris squeaked, peering up from below Spark's affectionate finger as it doted on him.
"Now now, the grown ups are talking..." Lexi teased with a slight wink before frowning again, "...sorry. It's just too easy sometimes"
"Look, please..." Spark said, sounding sincere as she set Chris back on the dresser, "find her ... and help me fix Chris... please... I'll be as much help as I need to be"
"I understand" Lexi said with a nod, "and I will... I'm actually ... seeing her tonight..."
"You're seeing the witch tonight?" Lark asked, again employing a facetious tone of voice, "...like a date?"
"No! Not a date ..." Lexi said, "Like a ... party..."
This thought also caused Lexi to gulp nervously. Lexi herself may be immune to Delia's magic (although even in her case she felt like there were times Delia was able to coax extra information out of her but it was hard to tell what was magic and what was Lexi herself just being kind of ditz when it came to pretty women) but her friends weren't. Had she really just unknowingly endangered Chrissy again??
"Ugh, I gotta go, I'm so sorry..." Lexi sighed
"I understand" Spark said, "please do your best out there, stay safe and keep the belt on you whatever you do"
Lexi gave a bit of a serious salute to the fairy ladies as she left the house, looking back at Lark on her way out.
"Please keep my friend safe" Lexi said sincerely.
Lark nodded but then added, "I'll do my best but that's Miss Spark's job now"
The 2 ladies shared one omre sly smile before Lexi departed out the door and back towards her shrunken car, with time quickly running against her.
Meanwhile back in Spark's room, a sad Spark simply sat at the bed, looking over at Chris who she had moved to the nightstand.
"That didn't go ... SO bad..." Spark said softly, trying to reassure the tiny one.
"It went about how I expected..." Chris shrugged, his hands in his pockets as he paced around Spark's nightstand like a sad little hobo, "...this is so humiliating..."
"W-Well hey!" Spark said with a sly grin, trying to change the mood, "You heard Lexi say 'Mad Max', right?"
Chris nodded, a bit unsure what his now giant female fairy friend was getting at
"Yeah...?"
"That means I won our bet" Spark said proudly before the details came rushing back to the bewildered tiny guy on the nightstand.
"Yeah...?" Chris continued, "But what do you want me to do? I can't give you a wing massage at THIS size!"
"Maybe you can..." Spark winked, "we just gotta be more creative..."
----
Lexi found herself hobbling back into her car in a state that she found all too familiar of late, total panic.
She plugged her phone into her car's audio system (one of the few things that Josh had managed not to short circuit while fooling around with the car's modifications) and phoned in a call to Leah, hoping to catch her friend before she had hit campus for the party. Unfortunately the call went to voicemail. She'd then try to call Mara. Same thing, no answer.
"Oh fuck fuck fuck..." Lexi sighed, not wanting to call Chrissy unless as a last resort.
She had finally started to make peace with the lovely blonde girl known as Chrissy -- somebody who had helped her from her very awkward first week at miniborough University, and now she may have to undo all that to save her from a witch that she stupidly invited to the party that was only going on as a last send off that the girls could have with their friend.
Lexi sped off towards the campus before a bothersome yellow iight pulsated on her dashboard.
"...you have got to be kidding me..." Lexi sighed, pulling off the main road.
At a gas station about a mile down called Mini Express a few cars were fueling up for the night. It was a fairly bustling night for the gas station/convenience store but one customer definitely stood out from the rest. A shiny purlpe and gold car pulled in in a bit of a hurry to make a quick pitstop and out climbed Alexis Cole clad out like she was on her way to a comic convention. She'd sigh and swipe her debit card in a hurry to try to put gas in the vehicle, before getting a beeping rejection noise from the pump.
"DEBIT SYSTEM DOWN -- PLEASE PAY INSIDE"
"oh for crying out loud..." Lexi groaned, beginning to walk into the gas station. As she did, she heard a wolf whistle from a crude man in a black Chevy pick up truck. Rather than ignore it OR answer it verbally she simply gave a dejected wave as she walked into the convenience store, with the expecting bell chime accompanying her, as if she needed any further announcement.
She waited in line politely but impatiently behind a few other customers, tapping her foot while looking down at her watch as the party seemed to be getting closer and closer by leaps and bounds.
"C'mon c'mon c'mon..." Lexi sighed in a panicked whisper before a shorter girl peeked over her back shoulder.
"I'm sorry, Miss, but do you mind if I cut ahead? I have a baby in the car" she said in a friendly voice
"Oh sure, of course!" Lexi replied cheerfully, as she would usually relinquish her spot in line fairly easily and without thought.
It wasn't until after she realized what she had done that she realized she was costing herself more precious minutes.
"Fuck."
Finally the anxious superheroine in the full purple and gold getup, SG medallion and all approached the front of the line and tried to conduct the transaction as regularly as possible.
"Um... 20 dollars on ... pump 7?" Lexi said, eyeing the pump numbers carefully. Of course it would've been easier to just say "the pump with the giant purple car at it"
"Oh, you're driving the .." the attendant said, a male in a black cap, "...is that a Chevy?"
"I have no idea what the car is if I'm being completely honest" Lexi said, at first sounding bothered but hiding it with a smile before paying for her gas.
She sighed and tiptoed outside, the embarassment seemingly perpetual as everyone was staring at her fueling up the outlandish looking car in her even more outlandish looking costume.
"So uh ... you ShrinkGirl?" a guy at a pump across from her asked.
Lexi was ready to come back with some snarky answer but decided against it, only needing to kill a few more seconds as her car gulped down the gas she was pumping into it. She simply shrugged and gave the guy an agreeing but begrudging nod.
Back at the Cole Residence, a frustrated father of the brunette protagnist seemed notably upset as he picked up his cell phone from the couch, although how it had gotten there was anyone's guess.
"Hon, wasn't Lexi coming home after her day at work?" Lexi's dad asked
"Actually, I think it was just a photo shoot ... or something..." Lexi's mom said, at this point deciding knowing less about the job may be better as she casually folded a couple of towels, doing her best to occupy her thoughts with more routine things than her daughter's superpowered life. "and then she was going to that party on campus'
"Ah okay..." Lexi's dad said, sounding a bit relieved but also still miffed.
"Why? What's up?" Lexi's mom asked after a time.
"Oh I was just wondering..." Lexi's dad sighed, taking a break from his worrisome ways to pet the family cat, Tiny as he strolled by, "I left her mail by her room but if she hasn't been home all day I guess that's why she never got it..."
"She got mail?" Lexi's mom asked, "from who?"
"Minibourough University..." Lexi's dad said, "and the therapist she's seeing ... Dr. Hillenbrandt... say ... do you think she ... TELLS the therapist about all this?"
"I'd imagine so..." Lexi's mom said, "that's what therapists are there for"
"But... do you think she told the therapist before ... us?" Lexi's dad said, seemingly a bit hurt that she hadn't told either of them until the facts came out and she had to.
"Y'know... I hadn't thought of that ..." Lexi's mom frowned, "I just hope everything's okay with her..."
"Well, she does seem to have calmed down a lot since she went missing..." Lexi's dad said, trying to calm himself down as well as he took solace in the fact that his daughter was finding emotional peace in her life after a stretch of truly terrifying circumstances.
Even if it meant he had to worry about her a bit more, he didn't mind one bit putting on the "strong facade" if it meant Lexi was calmer and more peaceful.
To that end, a very much not calm and peaceful Lexi was driving her way onto campus, the one good thing about visiting during the summer meant no need for a parking pass and there was more parking available. That might have been one of the only times that were the case as it seemed the parking lot was always packed when she absolutely needed to find parking. Then again, this had been her first time there with her own vehicle.
Normally this would have been a happy time, despite the fact that it signaled Chrissy's moving away. It would be a rare chance to hang out with her gal pals in a relaxed setting and have a good laugh, play some games ... instead she found herself nervously scrambling up the stairs towards Chrissy's dorm, sparing no time to change or call for the elevator. Instead she hurried up the seemingly endless staircase, each step sounding like a steel drum under her mighty purple metallic alloy booted feet as her purse bobbed up and down on her shoulder, unaware of any phone calls or texts she may have gotten in the meantime.
It was maybe 20 minutes until the party but it wasn't exactly a hard and fast deadline and Lexi could only hope she was in time to at least warn Leah and Mara of what was potentially to come as she approached Chrissy's door, putting on a quick smile to hide her nerves before knocking on the door.
"Heyyyyy Lexi!" Chrissy said, opening the door happily although her smile was also mixed with a touch of confusion upon seeing her 5'4 brunette friend decked out in full ShrinkGirl clothes, "uh ... huh. Nice look, I suppose"
Lexi could hear a couple other giggles from behind Chrissy and peered in to see Mara and Leah sitting at a small dining room table that was littered with junk food. She sighed with relief, figuring she had dodged a bullet. She kind of figured Delia wasn't the party type anyway. Beginning to relax a bit, the relief was short lived when she heard a familiar and haunting voice from across the hallway making its way down towards her.
"Heh if I knew this was a costume party, I would've worn something else" the confident Delia grinned, wearing a bit more of a saucy number now, a sleek black dress that cut off just below her thighs, leaving very little to the imagination otherwise as she strolled down to Lexi, stopping a decent distance from her as the SG medallion belt still proved a bit troublesome. She hoped what she had in her hands may assuage that though.
"I brought the booze ... hope you don't mind" Delia smirked, holding an outrageous number of Nips vodka, whiskey and other assorted shots along with a couple big bottles of wine and a couple of six packs. That she could fit all the items in her arms and between her fingertips was surpremely impressive and maybe only attainable through magic.
"No, no, not at all..." Chrissy said, letting the eager purple haired woman in despite Lexi about to open her mouth and warn her otherwise. "Who's your friend Lex?"
"You mind if I set these here?" Delia asked awkwardly, leaning over an unoccupied counter in the kitchen, "...they're kinda heavy"
"Oh! Oh yes, of course!" Chrissy said, her usual southern charm taking over as she walked in to help Delia, simply beckoning Lexi to come in as she did so. "I honestly have no idea how you even carried all that up the stairs..."
"Oh it's no big..." Delia shrugged, giving Lexi a playful wink as she got settled in, "... I work out... a lot"
Lexi simply wore an aggravated expression on her face as she watched Delia share a giggle with Chrissy as if she was suddenly this bubbly person.
"Son of a bitch..."
Giantess World
