by D.X. Machina

"The vagina is its own ecosystem, a land of unsung symbiois and tart vigor."
--Natalie Angier, Woman: An Intimate Geography
 

Mira Swenson
Minneapolis Downtown YMCA
Minneapolis, Minnesota

At first, I thought it was some kind of bump on my toe--but then I saw it move.

Disgusting, I thought, and I started to reach down to remove what I thought was
some kind of bug or worm or something.

And then I saw how it was moving.

It was a person. A tiny person.

How very, very odd.

I reached down with my right hand and scooped the tiny creature into the
fingernail on my right hand, and I slowly lifted it to my eye.

“Well,” I said, after looking at it for a good two minutes in stunned silence.
“Hello, Scott.”

* * *

Anonymous
Rosedale Shopping Center
Roseville, Minnesota

I awoke with a tremendous headache--most likely a concussion, I thought, as I
tried to reconstruct the events that had led me here. The car. Veronica Ceres. Shrinking.
That shoe--

--Where was I? It was dark, and I was swaying back and forth, slowly.

After a second of trying to reconstruct my mind, I turned on the lights. They
focused on the item directly in front of me, a huge, twenty-four-foot long cylinder with the
word “Tampax” emblazoned upon it.

I was in somebody’s purse.

I considered my options, and decided to stay put for the moment--no sense risking
death in the purse of a stranger--at least not yet.

* * *

Veronica Ceres
Westbound, Minnesota State Highway 36
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Well, I’d lost Anonymous--probably a tactical error, but I’d had fun doing it, and if
and when he managed to shake my little spell, he’d have a more healthy respect for the
League.

But there was still the matter of D.X. I had to find him--and while I had enjoyed
toying with Anonymous, I couldn’t help thinking that it would’ve been better to capture
him, and ask him what he knew of D.X. Machina’s whereabouts.

I was thinking all of this when my cell phone rang.

“Ceres,” I answered.

“This is Isis. I have a situation, and you’re the only person I can think of who can
help me.”

* * *

Teri Rowland
The Home of Teri Rowland
Uptown
Minneapolis, Minnesota

“You did the right thing, Isis. I told you you’d go far with the League.”

I sighed, wondering if I was doing the right thing. Jake had gone to sleep--it was
apparent that we were not going to get anywhere tonight. He seemed like he was telling
the truth when he said he wasn’t a strong member of the Cadre.

Then again, if he wasn’t, he had nothing to fear from the League. And Veronica
was most insistent that I not let Jake get away, for the good of women everywhere.

So I told her to come on over.

I was pretty sure I wasn’t doing the right thing.

* * *

V. Koschkei, Chairman of the Cadre
Anaheim, California

“Most disturbing news, gentlemen. We have not had contact from Anonymous in
thirty-six hours. I fear he may have been taken.”

“By the League,” concluded Spielberg.

“That is my fear. It is possible that the League is trying to get to D.X. Machina
before we do. Our sources tell us that Veronica Ceres is in Minneapolis. We know that
Anonymous was headed there.”

“But what can the League do with D.X. Machina? Surely you’re not suggesting
that he’d actually change sides?”

I drummed my fingers on the table. “No, no, I don’t think he would. But the fact
that the League is after him is disturbing.

“We need our best men on the case. I’ve dispatched some operatives to the Twin
Cities.”

“He will betray us,” said Szalinsky.

“I pray not,” said I.

* * *

Scott Chelgren
The Apartment of Mira Swenson
Summit Hill Neighborhood
Saint Paul, Minnesota

“Mira,” I said, plaintively, “for God’s sake, what do you think you’re doing?”

“WELL, SCOTT, IT’S BEEN, WHAT, NINE MONTHS? YOU LOOK LIKE
YOU’VE LOST SOME WEIGHT.”

It was delivered with the adorable/infuriating smirk that she’d worn all the time
we’d dated. “Ha, ha. I could reverse that statement.”

Now, the mock consternation. “OH, I DON’T KNOW AS THAT WOULD BE
SUCH A GOOD IDEA, BUB. AFTER ALL, I COULD GET MAD AND THEN,
WHAM! YOU’RE NOT ALL THAT BIG A DEAL ANYMORE.”

“You know, it’s funny, Mira.”

“WHAT?”

“Even given the extraordinary circumstances of our latest meeting, you and I have
pretty much just picked up right where we left off.”

“WHAT, WITH YOU FUCKING MY BEST FRIEND?”

Ouch. Well, I deserved that, I guess. I looked up at Mira with appreciation for
her beauty, at least. She was half-White, half-Vietnamese, with perfect, porcelain skin and
piercing black eyes and enough attitude for eight or nine women. In the strictest, most
traditional sense of the world, she was almost as stunning as Sarah. (Maybe--on the right
day--a little bit more)

She was beautiful, and I did still have some feelings for her.

But I’d made that decision long before I met Sarah. “No,” I continued, “with us
trading sardonic banter disguised as affection.”

“YOU USED TO SAY IT WAS AFFECTION DISGUISED AS SARDONIC
BANTER.”

“Whatever. Look, can we try to keep this civil?”

“SCOTT, I THINK YOU’RE MISSING A HUGE PART OF THE EQUATION
HERE. HOW TALL ARE YOU?”

“Half an inch.”

“RIIIIIGHT. AND THAT MAKES YOU....”

“Small?”

“UTTERLY HELPLESS. SO YOU WON’T MIND IF I DON’T TRIP OVER
MYSELF TO HELP YOU, LITTLE GUY. YOU HAVEN’T EXACTLY PROVEN
WORTHY OF MY AFFECTION, BUT FOR SOME UNKNOWN REASON, I STILL
HAVEN’T GOTTEN OVER YOU CHEATING ON ME--AND RIGHT AFTER YOUR
MOM’S FUNERAL, FOR GOD’S SAKE.”

I was beginning to remember just how happy I was to find myself without Mira’s
company.

“SO, SCOTT, HERE ARE THE GROUND RULES. I WILL BE KEEPING
YOU IN THIS HERE TUPPERWARE CONTAINER. I WILL FEED YOU--OR
NOT--AS I FEEL LIKE. MAYBE, IF YOU’RE REALLY NICE, I MIGHT--AND I
EMPHASIZE MIGHT--ASK YOU HOW I CAN HELP. BUT THAT’S AFTER A FEW
WEEKS OF SERVICE TO ME, MISTER.”

“What kind of service are you talking about?”

“WE’LL SEE,” she said, and a smile I’d never seen before crossed her marvelous
face.

It wasn’t a pretty smile.

* * *

D.X. Machina
The Home of Teri Rowland
Uptown
Minneapolis, Minnesota

This was just not my day. Not only had I been outed as D.X. Machina, but now
Teri thought I was some sort of phallocentric idiot who was threatened by the existence of
women’s basketball.

And all because of Ronnie Ceres. Damn her, she couldn’t leave well enough alone,
could she? She couldn’t share GTS with Teri and be done with it, she had to indoctrinate
her too.

So that’s it then. One of the two women I’ve loved in my life is dead, the other
now hates me. Swell.

I was sitting on the bed, contemplating sleep, when I heard a knock at the door.

“Come in,” I said.

As the door opened, I saw her face. I probably should have been surprised to see
her. Instead, I rose to defend myself. “Get the Hell out of here, Ceres. You’ve screwed
things up enough.”

“Now, D.X., is that any way to greet a lady? Or are you going by Jake now?”

I tried hard to check my anger at this contemptible woman. Veronica Ceres had
stood foursquare on the side of darkness and evil and pain in Madison. If she would have
helped Liz, instead of using her....

But she hadn’t, and I knew just what kind of monster stood before me. “You are
not worthy to call me either, ‘Ronny.’”

“Come on, Jacob, not still mad about Madison, are we? That was over half a
decade ago. And if you hadn’t interfered, The Coed would still be alive now, wouldn’t
she?”

That was that. “God Damn You!” I cried, and with all my power, I struck.

* * *

Veronica Ceres
The Home of Teri Rowland
Uptown
Minneapolis, Minnesota

I wasn’t prepared for the blow. I should have been, but I had so enjoyed taunting
D.X. that I had completely forgotten that he was as adept in the ways of GTS as any
woman alive.

So when I shrunk to two feet high despite my best attempt at a parry, I
immediately knew I’d miscalculated.

So I did what I could.

I struck back.

“Here you are, Dix--right back at you,” I said, melodramatically. (Coming up with
witty repartee is always the most difficult part.)

The shock sent him staggering backwards as he began to grow younger. He
wasn’t expecting the AR spell, and it showed. He was all the way down to six when he
righted himself, and began the aging process again.

“I’m going to have to go through puberty again, you bitch. And I hated puberty,”
said D.X. He slowly raised his right hand, and said, “Ronnie? I’ve been dreaming about
this for five years. Enjoy!”

* * *

Scott Chelgren

I waited for Mira to turn in for the night, and then quickly grew myself to a full six
inches. I was getting the heck out of here.

She hadn’t pushed the lid down tightly--sweet of her, really, not trying to suffocate
me. So I pushed the lid off, and pulled myself over the lip of the Tupperware container.

I was standing on her kitchen table. Considering my options, I decided that I
would be best served by trying to jump onto a chair and climb down from there.

Knowing what I knew about the physics of shrinking, I reduced my height back
down to three inches. I’d take less damage at this height, I hoped. With a sigh and a
prayer, I leapt.

As I fell, I heard a key in the door.

* * *

D.X. Machina

The woman was unaware of me, which was probably for the best, as I think had
she found me in her navel while her boyfriend was going down on her that she wouldn’t
have been happy.

As it was, I struggled to hold my ground as the woman bucked and writhed in the
midst of her orgasm.

Concentrating, I pulled myself out of that situation, back into Teri’s home. “Nice
one, Ronnie. I’ve got somewhere that we can go.”

And with that, I pulled us both into the Chi Omega sorority house in Des Moines,
Iowa, onto the bedspread of a coed named Missy.

“I guess I know where your mind is,” said Ceres, as she struggled to overcome the
situation.

“I’d mind Missy--she’s coming over to sit down,” I said, as the young woman
descended towards Ronnie.

* * *

Veronica Ceres

I tucked and rolled, just as the woman’s behind struck the bed. But I had not gone
out far enough, and I found myself sliding into the chasm that had been created by her
weight. I was about to fall in under her ass, when I finally was able to overcome D.X.’s
spell, and counter with one of my own.

“Touché,” said D.X., as we materialized in the armpit hair of a recumbent womyn
(with a y). “I don’t think she’s bathed in a good two days.”

Suddenly, the womyn began to awake, and she folded her arm downward. “This is
where I get off,” he said, with a flourish, and suddenly, I found myself alone.

* * *

Anonymous

As time wound its way slowly by, I found myself drifting off to sleep. After all,
there’s little to do when one is buckled into a matchbox-sized car in the purse
of...someone.

So it came as quite a shock when I felt the car I was in begin to lift. Apparently, I
was about to meet “someone.”

She turned the car about in her fingers, and I got a good look at my captress. She
was young, middle to late teens, blonde hair, blue eyes, nice figure. I was fortunate that
she did not see me--the tinting on my windows was nearly opaque from outside, and that
fortunately kept her from spying the tiny man inside the matchbox car she held.

After a moment, she set the car and me roughly on the countertop of what
appeared to be a kitchen, and walked out of the room. I heard her calling in a monstrously
loud voice, but I did not know to whom.

I found out to whom shortly, when a girl, perhaps five or six years old, wearing
pyjamas and blonde pigtails, came running into the room and snatched the car roughly off
the countertop. “COOL!” she said, nearly splitting my eardrums.

I could tell right away that this was becoming a bad situation.

* * *

Veronica Ceres

I was somewhere dark, damp, and smelly. Suddenly, light poured in and the
ground tilted. I was thrown forward, deep into the cave, when suddenly, a huge object
entered, moving towards me....

It was a foot. I dove forward, into the toe of what was obviously a shoe, and was
crushed into the front by the middle toe of the woman. With all of my strength, I pulled
myself up onto the top of the foot, feeling the toes shift and slide with my every move.

D.X. had outdone himself, but I was far from done myself. I reached out, grabbed
him, and yanked us both into another situation.

* * *

D.X. Machina

I had no time to get my bearings before a noxious wind pushed me back into a
hard cloth wall.

Well, I guess I’d pissed Ronnie off.

Suddenly, the pants fell, and I was unsurprised to see Ronnie herself reach down
and grab me.

“WELL WELL, D.X., ENJOYING YOURSELF?”

“Not so much, Ronnie, not so much.”

“OH, COME NOW. DON’T TELL ME YOU CAN’T OBJECTIFY LITTLE OL’
ME!”

I had to admit, she was attractive. Almost playful. Maybe she wasn’t so evil.

But then again....

I had been holding back thus far. No more.

I pulled us into the next reality.

* * *

Veronica Ceres

The world shimmered, and I was suddenly standing on a city street. A giantess--she
looked like The Coed--was trampling the city.

Her vast foot slammed down on what seemed to be a museum near me. The
people screamed as she leaned down, immense teeth grinning, dripping with the blood of
the people she’d eaten. She raised her blood-splattered foot again, to kick a building next
door.

“Illusions, D.X.? Come on, Teri could do this.”

“Not an illusion. A psychosis,” said the thirteen-year-old standing behind me. The
foot trampled a car, a city bus, and thirty-eight citizens half a block away. “You get to
watch L--The Coed--tear up this city--and you, for good measure. And meanwhile, in the
real world, you go insane. You can’t get out of it, either. Nope, here on Earth, you get
committed, while you watch her destroy things again...and again...and again.”

The foot swept back and forth, pummeling the buildings around me.

“A conundrum,” I said, quietly. “Very effective. I’ve got to hand it to you, D.X.,
your powers are greater than even mine.”

“Veronica,” he said, quietly, “You are responsible for the greatest tragedies of my
life. I should leave you here to live out your days. But I know that your comrades would
come for you. They might even find a way to liberate your mind after a few years.” He
sighed, as if gathering all his strength to say the next sentence.

Meanwhile, the big toe of the giantess was quickly drawing a line towards us,
tearing the street with reckless abandon.

“I don’t need to beat you, Ms. Ceres. I don’t even want to, anymore. I will let
you go, on one condition,” he said, as the giantess lifted her foot and began swinging it in
a long, lazy, lethal arc towards us.

I said, simply, “I’m listening.”

* * *

Anonymous

The little girl drifted off to sleep, and I made my move. Opening the door of the
car, I crept towards the door of her room.

I still couldn’t shake the spell Veronica had put on me. I feared I would have to
find D.X. in my present state, which vexed me rather. After all, at my height, the Twin
Cities were quite large.

I slipped under the door and out into the hallway, when I spied her. The young
woman who had grabbed my car and carried me here. She was immense--not surprising,
but she was immensely beautiful at this scale. I could see why some men would give in to
liking GTS, why D.X. found so many takers for his wares.

I decided to follow this young lady around. Perhaps, with luck, she would turn out
to be the kind of person I could do business with.

* * *

Veronica Ceres

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

I paused to consider D.X.’s conditions. Not that I had much of a choice--he had
me caught, and good. But given how much leverage he currently enjoyed, I was surprised
that he had asked for so little.

The giantess’ foot was rising to snuff us out.

“I tell Teri that you’re not pure evil, and I tell the League to leave you alone, and
that’s all I have to do?”

“Well...it’s all you have to do. There’s something I want you to do.”

“What’s that?”

He closed his eyes, and said, “Ronnie, I know you have good within you.
Renounce the League and their misandrous beliefs. Join with me, Ronnie, and help me
beat both the League and the Cadre.”

The foot was falling, but slowly.

I was surprised by his request. Stunned, really. He knew me, knew my loyalties.
Knew that I would fight for the superiority of women until the day I--

“I will...consider it, D.X.”

The foot stopped, six feet over our heads.

“That is all I can ask. You are free.”

And abruptly we came back into reality. Teri had burst into the room, and was
looking at us both, with deep anxiety.

“What the Hell is going on? Jake--why do you have hair?”

“A long story,” said D.X., “Veronica and I had some unfinished business. But
that’s all over, now.”

Teri seemed ready to ask something, but I interceded.

“I’m sorry, Teri,” I said. “I shouldn’t have told you D.X. was evil. He is not. In
fact...he may be the only member of the Cadre I have any respect for.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m leaving, Isis. You can...you can trust D.X. He’s not on our side, but he isn’t
against us.”

But I knew in my heart that he was with us, in the most important way.

In all the scenarios he’d taken me to, there had not been one giant. All had been
Giantesses.

At heart, D.X. was a part of the League.

* * *

Scott Chelgren

I hit the deck of the chair as the door opened. Mira never told me she had a
roommate, and I hadn’t even considered the possibility, but it was apparent that she did, as
a raven-haired woman came into the room and headed for the table.

It took me just a second to place her, and just a second more to drop down to half
an inch tall and pray that she didn’t recognize me.

It was Ginny.

Mira’s best friend.

Without so much as a how-do-you-do, she walked over to the chair I cowered on,
and began to sit down.

My mind was aready racing, so I wasn’t braced for the sudden movement. I found
myself flat on my back in the middle of the chair, watching Ginny Snider’s perfect ass
slowly descend on me.

This was the end.