“Hello everyone, having a good morning?” Betty asked. There were general sounds of ascent.

“No, we’re not going to the compound,” Betty said, as some of the people made motions to go towards the door. “What I’m going to show you is right here.”

The contestants looked at each other. What could have possibly been hidden in the house?

“I’m going to tell you something that will be very important.” Betty said. “What I am about to tell you will change the nature of the game from here on out. It will cause you to think differently about the time you will be spending inside this house.”

Now the contestants were really worried. They all had the feeling that they were walking into new territory here, something that wasn’t there in the first season of the game.

“Up until now, to change sizes you had to be inside the sizechanging booth up at the compound.” Betty said. “But now, we have a new machine installed here in the house. And that is not all: this machine will be able to shrink any one of you from any point in the house.”

There were gasps of shock and surprise as Betty made this announcement. Fear spread across the faces of the contestants and for good reason—now they didn’t know when the shrinking was going to come. It could come any time—when they were bathing, when they were eating, when they were watching a movie, when they were making love. It was now a different game.

“Do not fret, do not fret,” Betty said, after a moment of savoring the paniced reactions. “There will be some pattern to the size-changings. There will be one on the hour every hour until eight o’clock tonight.”

“Up or down?” Dale asked.

“Don’t rush it, all will be explained.” Said Betty. “There will be two shrinkings for every enlarging so the pattern will be downward. However, there are some exceptions. The Queen will be immune to size-changing for now.”

“Yes,” Said Hailey, pumping her fist.

“Also, nobody can grow to be more than half-sized.” Betty said. “But is now possible for someone to be shrunk to once-sixteenth size.”

A hush fell on the group. One-sixteenth was about four inches tall. Even as of now none but Marie had been smaller than one-quarter size, and they were having trouble imagining what the world would look like at that size.

“But…one-sixteenth size is elimination, isn’t it?” Dale asked, nervously.

“Not this time.” Betty said, waving her fingers. “It is now possible to be one-sixteenth size and remain in the house.”

Another chill rolled over the group. Being four inches tall and saftely stored in the compound was one thing, but being four inches tall and still in the game was another. You could hold a four-inch person in the palm of your hand.

“So, how is it decided who is shrunk or enlarged?” Asked Carla.

“The selections will generally be made randomly,” Betty said, “Although you will have some input. I have provided boxes marked ‘Shrink’, ‘Enlarge’, and ‘Ignore.’” Betty produced three very small boxes from behind her back and placed them on the floor before her.

“You will each be given three name cards, and none of the names will be yours.” Betty said. She reached into her pocket and produced very tiny name cards which she gave to Sherri to hand out to the rest of the group. “You will put one name in each box and your decisions shall form part of the matrix. Beyond that, the computer will make the choice.”

The contestants looked at the cards they were being given, franticly trying to figure out what to do. This was a lot of new and startelling information.

“The shrinking machine answers to both me and Sherri,” Betty said. “So if you need a…favor, if you want to be a different size for a short while, ask her.”

Everyone looked at Sherri, who smiled at the responsibility. Everyone knew this was definitely going to change the dynamic as far as Sherri was concerned.

“But be reminded that Sherri has no obligation to fill anyone’s requests.” Betty said. “Well then if you would just put your names in the corrisponding boxes, I’ll be off to feed them into the computer! Just remember, the names will stay in the matrix for the entire day!”

Andy had the cards for Jerry, Carla, and Marie. He instantly put Jerry in the shrink pile as there was no question about that. Now between Carla and Marie was a little tougher. If Carla was already half-sized she couldn’t be enlarged further, could she? Then again, if Carla was shrunk durring the day it would give her a bigger chance of being enlarged. He wanted to help Marie, but he still had overwhelming loyalty to Carla. He put Carla for enlarge and Marie for ignore.

Carla had the cards for Paul, Vera, and Andy. She obviously wanted Paul to remain as small as possible, so she put his name in the shrink bin. Now it was whether she wanted to risk enlarging her competitor Vera or her boy-toy Andy. She knew Vera was pretty competitive, so she decided to cast the enlarging vote for Andy and keep the ignore vote for Vera.

Dale had the cards for Jerry, Carla, and Vera. He wished he had other cards because he frankly didn’t care what happened to these people. Vera had been annoying him so he placed her in for shrinking. He also felt that Carla was more dominating that Jerry, so he placed the ignore vote for Carla and the enlarging vote for Jerry.

Hailey noticed she had the cards for Paul, Carla, and Marie. She smiled with the satisfaction of knowing that no matter what she or anyone else chose, no one would be growing bigger than her today. Since Paul was supporting her Hailey decided to cast the shrinking vote for Carla. But she still felt bad over how she had treated Marie the other day, so Hailey gave her the enlarging vote and Paul the ignore vote.

Jerry had the cards for Marie, Dale, and Vera. To his eyes Marie and Dale had already been marginalized, so he put in his shrinking vote for Vera. Between them Jerry clearly felt Marie needed the boost more, so he put her for enlarging and Dale for ignore.

Marie, the only person who the cards were big to, had the cards for Paul, Andy, and Carla. It was interesting how she got the cards for her two bedmates plus the man she had admired at the beginning of the game. She decided to go right down alliance lines, putting Paul for shrinking, Andy for ignore, and Carla for enlarging.

Paul got the cards for Andy, Dale, and Jerry. He had hoped to get the cards for Carla and Vera so he could shrink and enlarge them, respectively. But he was still able to cast a useful shrinking vote for Dale. As far as Andy and Jerry went, he knew Andy was no longer turly competing and that ment he was no longer a true threat. Paul gave his enlarging vote for Andy and his ignore vote for Jerry.

Vera got the cards for Dale, Jerry, and Paul. Hers was probably the easiest choice of all. She was tired of the big oaf Dale being larger than her, and she wanted to help her boyfriend Paul since she knew nearly everybody else would be voting against him.

All the cards had been cast and the contestants stepped away. Betty bent down and picked up the little boxes.

“Excellent.” Betty said. “Now I hope you enjoy your day—oh, one more thing.” Betty reached into her pocked and pulled out a small alarm clock which she put on the nearby countertop.

“This clock is set to ring ten minutes before the hour,” Betty said. “So you will be able to have some…warning.”

They looked at the clock, which showed a time of 11:20. Even though it was a ways to the next hour everyone was dreading what would happen as the hands reached noon.

“I’ll be back at eight o’clock,” Said Betty as she turned to leave the building. “Happy shrinking!”

As Betty made her way back to the compound the contestants stood in shock. They had no idea something like this could be done. This was almost like a one-two punch from the orriginal day when they found out shrinking technology actually existed.

“Is…this is for real, right?” Vera asked after a few moments of silence.

“I’m afraid it is,” Sherri said. “Would you like to see me demonstate on myself?”

The rest of the group instinctively moved back from Sherri. They all watched her intently to see what she was going to do. She seemed to be fiddling with the seam of her shirt when suddenly there was a flash and suddenly a full-sized Sherri was standing in the room with that. Everyone jumped and moved back from the giantess, but there was another flash and Sherri was one-quarter height again. There was a final flash and Sherri was back to half-sized.

“Wow,” Hailey said. “That’s some power.”

“Yeah, I know,” Sherri said.

“So we can make requests of you?” Hailey asked.

“Not yet,” Sherri said. “I want to wait until after noon. I don’t want to mess with the process before it begins.”

A slience fell over the group. “Well, I want to see what happens, so let’s all stay around here,” Said Hailey. Many of the others felt inclined to object, but as it was Hailey was still the queen and what she said was still the rule. The nine of them filed into the living room; Hailey climbing onto the chair with Jerry while everyone else sat on the couch.

“Well,” Hailey said, “As long as we’re here, who wants to take bets on who it will be?”

Betty marched back towards the compound, triumphant smile planted on her face. She loved the look of horror and shock on the contestant’s faces once she told them that their sizes would be in jeapordy even in the house. This and the policy change about elmination were enough to shatter the player’s illusion that this would be just like the last game, which up to this point it had been.

Betty didn’t head for her apartment, nor did she head for the offices, security rooms, or even any of the recreational areas. Instead, she headed straight for Sherri’s apartment. Sherri had something in there Betty needed to borrow…

Using Sherri’s key, Betty unlocked Sherri’s door and entered her room. Betty chuckled to herself. Sherri might be a sweet girl, but she couldn’t keep her things straight worth a damn. Clothes and cosmetics were scattered around the floor which Betty carelessly flicked out of the way with her sandaled feet.

“Where would it be, where would it be?” Betty whispered. She took a bag from atop the dresser and opened it. “Nah, not there.” Betty muttered as she put it down. She looked in a few more of Sherri’s bags. Nah, she wouldn’t put it in something so small. Betty thought.

Betty stopped for a moment. She thought she heard a sound. It was very faint but very close. She bent over slowly, listening carefully. The sound was coming from inside the dressar near the top.

“Ah-ha!” Betty exclaimed and jerked the top dresser drawer open. Inside she found what she was looking for. There was four-inch Tom, sitting on a miniature chair watching a miniature TV set Sherri was nice enough to shrink for him. Or rather, he had been sitting on the chair. Betty’s quick opening of the drawer sent him sprawling and rolling to the back of the drawer. Confused, he staggered to his feet to see what had just happened.

His look of confusion turned into a look of horror when he saw who it was.

“Surprise!” Betty said, beaming michevously.

“Oh my god,” Said Tom, cowering in the drawer.

“Bet you didn’t expect to see me again!” Betty said, reaching into the drawer to pick up Tom between two fingers. “Or at least hoped you wouldn’t.”

“More the latter,” Said Tom, still in a state of disbelief that he was once again in the clutches of the powerhungry woman who had had her way with him many times before the previous year.

“Come now,” Betty said. “Do you think I’d let Sherri invite you all the way here and then not borrow you at all?”

Tom was beginning to realise that it really was foolish of him to believe that he was going to come here, hang out with Sherri for a few days, then go home. It was even sillier to expect that he wouldn’t shrink, expecially seeing that he shrank within minutes of his arrival.

“I missed having you around,” Betty said, carrying Tom in the palm of her hand as she made her way over to the survalience room. “You were always my favorite.”

“It’s a real honor,” Said Tom dryly. “But don’t you think Sherri’s going to miss me?”

“Sherri will be busy with the contestants most of the day.” Betty said, climbing down a set of stairs, “And I suppose I’ll be giving you back by the end of the day anyway. I’m planning on catching some fresh meat tonight!”

Tom already felt sorry for the poor soul. “I bet you have one picked out.” Tom commented.

“You know me well!” Betty said, nodding in approval. “Yes, I do in fact.”

They arrived in the survailance room. Even to a normal-sized person it would be an impressive sight: there were walls filled with television screens and panels full of instruments and readings. To Tom, each television was like a movie screen and the instrument panels were the size of fields. Betty put Tom down on the instrument panel and set to work.

“Always the rigger, aren’t you?” Tom smirked.

“Actually, I didn’t need to this time,” Betty said. “These guys are so predictable, even more predictable than your group was. I know exactly who I’m getting tonight.”

“Who?” Asked Tom. Since last night Sherri had filled Tom in on each of the new contestants and ran him through a breif synopsis of the show so far.

“Let’s see if you can find out by context clues,” Betty said, smiling. “We’ll have plenty of time to watch this afternoon. That is, if you can see the screen from the places I’m going to stick you.”

Betty gave Tom a wicked look and as always it gave the desired effect. Tom shruddered and took an involuntary step back, almost stumbelling over a knob in the process.

Betty pulled out the three boxes the contestants had put their cards into and placed them on the table. She took the cards out of each one and sorted them, adjusting a few variables on a simple computer program as she did.

Betty finished entering the data and ran the program. A readout appeared on the screen showing the chances each person had of being shrunk or enlarged in any particular round. The chances ranged from a half-and-half chance of being shrunk when picked to a five-to-one odds of being shrunk.

“This should be interesting to see,” Betty said. “I was right, odds are two to one that someone will shrink in any given round.”

Tom could not see the screen well from his vantage point so he turned to look at Betty instead. Even sitting down she was a collosus, bigger than almost any statue and undeniably very attractive. She was wearing a low-cut tank top and Tom could not help but look at her breasts—warm, sensuous orbs far bigger than his entire body.

Tom hoped Betty didn’t catch him looking but she did. “Yeah, they’re nice, aren’t they?” Betty said, putting her hands under them as if to display them. Tom didn’t say anything.

“I think they want you to say hello,” Betty said, trying to milk out the situation and tease Tom. Tom still didn’t say anything so Betty spoke again, “Well, you take your clothes off yourself or I rip them off, what will it be?”

Tom decided it was not worth fighting and stripped entirely down there on the instrument panel, throwing his tiny clothes aside. The thought of being cradeled by those big warm breasts was arousing him, and his arousal was unmistakable to Betty.

“Ooh, it’s trying to make up for your little size all by itself,” Betty cooed. Before Tom had time to hide himself in any way Betty picked him up in her hand. She held him up to his face to have a close look at him. Then, holding him between two fingers, she lowered him down slowly along her chest and into her breasts, letting him enjoy the view on the way down. With her hand inside her shirt Betty tucked Tom under her right breast supported by her cup. Tom felt the warm soft pressure and closed his eyes at the bliss as Betty’s breast overwhelmed him.

“Yes, you’ll be glad you came back,” Said Betty, rubbing the little lump that was Tom from outside her shirt. Tom was already wiggling less and in fact had become almost completely still. Only a small pressure upon her breast told Betty that Tom was still there at all. Heh, men, thought Betty. She had an entire man hidden on her and the only sign of him was a slight pressure on a single breast. The thought aroused her greatly; she loved dominating like that.

“Hmmm, it’s time to pick our winner for noon.” Betty said, her voice sending soothing vibrations through her chest and into Tom’s body. She pressed a button and the program picked a person to change out of all the possible combinations.

The selection popped up on the screen. “Ooh, I like that one,” Betty smirked.

Meanwhile, the contestants continued to sit in the living room. A few half-hearted attempts at conversation were started but nothing seemed to hold. Everyone was too nervous about noon to say much of anything.

In fact, the only talkative person in the group was Hailey. Being immune to sizechanging for the time being she was having a positively great time watching the expressions of anxiety on their faces while she tried to sprout off on any topic under the sun.

“So besides Dale and I here, everybody else likes broccolli?” Said Hailey, after an exausting interrogation of each player’s food preferences.

“That’s…what it looks like,” Said an exasperated Carla. “Can we just turn on the TV or something?”

“What, you don’t like counting down the last few minutes?” Hailey said. “I guess since there’s nowhere to go but down at this point you don’t want to think about it.”

The glare Carla gave Hailey would have made a decent impact if they were both the same size, but since that Hailey was twice Carla’s height it was easy for Hailey to shrug it off.

If seemed as though the minutes until twelve were pealing away more and more slowly as all they did was sit and watch the clock. The players grew more and more nervous as the minute hand rounded ‘11’, then was just three, two, one minute away.

“Here we are, the final minute.” Hailey said. “Anyone want to place any final bets? no?”

But no one responded. They were all too interested in watching the second hand make it’s final lap around the clock. It was a lap the second hand routinely made 1440 times each day but this particular lap seemed the longest of all.

When the second hand passed the ‘10’ the alarm clock starting ringing behind them, causing everybody to jump. They had been waiting so intensely for noon itself that they had forgotted about the ten second warning which, right now, they hardly needed.

“Here we go,” Said Hailey. “Shall we do a countdown?”

It was noon. A great flash was seen in the room and instantly seven people paniced, wondering if it was them who had shrunk. Once they all got their senses back, one person’s fears would be confirmed.

Hailey looked wildly around, wanting to spot the newly shrunken person as fast as she could. She was still seeing dots from the flash, but she blinked them away and tried to concentrate on the scene in front of her.

It obviously wasn’t Jerry. He was still sitting on her lap quarter-sized as before. The trio of half-sized people sitting on the couch hadn’t changed. Well, of course Sherri didn’t change, she wasn’t a contestant! But Dale and Carla were still half-sized, so it had to be someone else.

Hailey looked closer. Paul and Vera were still sitting next to each other, each quarter-sized. It wasn’t them either. Then who…

Hailey noticed it. Sitting on Carla’s lap were two eighth-sized people. One was Marie like before, the other was…

“Andy, you shrunk!” Carla exclaimed. Andy didn’t believe it at first he blinked his eyes trying to clear away the dots. But it was unmistakeable. Carla’s leg, which he had been sitting on waiting for the moment to arrive, had just gotten much bigger. He couldn’t help but crack a wide smile. He was nine inches tall! Carla was four times taller than him!

There were sounds all around as the other contestants made relived sounds and comments upon finding that they had kept their sizes for at least another hour. Carla reached over and squeezed Andy to her side with her hands…her enormous hands. Andy could not believe his luck.

Andy looked to his right and saw that his once-teeny bedmate Marie was now the same size as him. She was beaming at him; she was clearly happy not to be the only person in the smallest size bracket. She reached over to him and they exchanged a warm hug.

“Aww,” Said several people as the two tiniest members hugged. Almost everyone was pleased at this course of events: Andy got what he wanted and no one else had to get shrunk. For Hailey, though, it was a bit of an anti-climax.

“That’s a bit of a letdown,” Hailey murmered. She had been hoping for some good drama. Seeing the only person to enjoy shrinking getting shrunk almost felt like cheating to her.

“Well, I think we’ve sat around here long enough.” Said Carla, taking Andy in one hand and Marie in the other and moving them off her lap in opposite directions so she could stand up. “I’m not going to sit around and wait nervously for another hour. I’m going to go back outside. Who wants to come?”

Andy and Marie instantly agreed. Sherri stood up a moment later, and Paul and Vera followed. Jerry hopped off of Hailey’s lap before she could stop him, and Dale rose as well.

“Why the heck not,” Said Hailey, and stood up to join in.

Almost right as they got outside Marie took Andy by the hand and took him running through grass so high that it almost felt like they were in the savannah. Several times they tripped when their feet got caught in tangled clumps of grass roots, but the landings were always soft. They just laughed and continued running.

Hailey sat down in a reclining chair and thought she would savor the sun. She loved how it was out almost every single day here in the desert. That kind of thing could never happen where she lived.

She was the only one who wanted to sit still, however. Carla and Dale resumed the game of catch they had going earier, and Sherri once again shrunk to quarter-size so that Paul, Vera, and Jerry could play on even teams.

Marie and Andy had run far away from the other group, clear to the other side of the house and under the shade of the most enormous tree Andy had ever seen in his life. He felt so free at this size. For him each time he shrunk felt like a layer of chains were being removed from him.

As they caught their breath under the big tree Andy also realised that this was really the first time he was alone with Marie. For the past few days he had been obediantly following Carla around. Now it seemed his giantess mistress was letting him out of her sight for a while. Andy would come back to her in due time, but he felt that spending a little time with Marie was good for variety.

“So how does it feel?” Marie asked Andy now that her breathing had returned to a normal pattern.

“It’s great,” Andy said. “Who would have ever known.”

“It’s pretty neat.” Marie said. “I was hoping to get a little bigger, but having you as company makes me feel a lot better about being small.”

“I am glad we’re the same size.” Andy said. There was a pause in their conversation. The topic of last night was about to come up. Having been different sizes at the time it all seemed so surreel, and the fact that it was Carla that brought them together made it even stranger. Still, the two of them had shared carnal knowledge and were sitting here next to each other now.

“I want to thank you,” Marie said. “I had a really good time last night.”

“Oh, it was nothing, I was just going along,” Andy tried to brush it off, but Marie was persistant.

“No really,” Marie said. “I was really nervous. I had never been with a girl, and you were twice my size. But you were gentle and really sensitive.”

Marie was looking right into Andy’s eyes. She had a kind and soft face and a real honest look about her.

“You’re welcome.” Andy said at last. Marie pulled a little closer again.

“So what is it between you and Carla?” Marie said. “Are you her slave or something?”

“Well,” Andy said. “I’ve always fantasized about shrinking, and having it really happen to me was like a dream come true. I started liking Carla for her assertiveness, I think, and it kind of grew from there.”

“Oh,” Marie said, looking a little dissapointed. “So she probably wouldn’t want you fooling around then.”

“I don’t think she would mind,” Andy said. “I mean, if she brought you into the equation last night, she must think you’re okay.”

“Yeah?” Marie brightened, a firey look coming into her eyes, “Because I really wanted to thank you like this.” Marie leaned forward and started kissing Andy in the mouth. Andy brought his hands up and put them on the back of Marie’s head in her hair. This urged Marie forward, and she crawled forward so Andy was leaning back. Pretty soon Andy was lying flat on the ground and Marie was on top of him, kissing him.

The two of them continued making out for several minutes under the tree, amoungst fallen leaves that were more than half the length of their bodies. As much as Andy knew he belonged to Carla, he felt he was falling for Marie as well. She was one hell of a kisser.

“Hey,” Andy said after a few minutes. “Let’s go under there,” He indicated a patch of bushes next to the house.

“Great idea,” Said Marie. They got up and ran the few feet to the bushes that were themselves the size of large houses. The interior of the bushes was well shaded but there was enough light penetrating that they could easily see each other.

“Remember how Sherri climbed these bushes in the first season?” Marie said after another round of kissing.

“Yeah,” Andy said. “She was half as tall as we are now. That’s hard to believe,”

“We’ll probably get there.” Marie said. “Heck, if we’re down to eight inches now, four inches is just one more step.”

“I wonder if it’s the final step?” Andy wondered.

“I hope so,” Marie shruddered a bit. “At two inches tall you’d be nearly invisible.”

“Yeah,” Andy said. “But I don’t think it’s going to happen. I wouldn’t worry about it.”

“I won’t.” Marie said. She grabbed his head and a second later they were ingulfed in more kissing.

The two of them continued making out for quite a long time. They felt safe and private in the bushes. A few times Marie mentioned her surprise that no one was coming to look for them, but Andy never really expected them too. They were too busy playing games or doing something to take their mind off the next shrinking instead of just enjoying the sizes they were at.

            Now Marie was lying on her side, her face on Andy’s chest. He was laying on his back, looking up at the branches above. Marie was clinging onto him warmly and lovingly and Andy started to wonder if he was too hasty in picking Carla first. Sure her attitude really turned him on as well as her willingness to be the giantess in a sexual relationship, but there was no arguing with the warmth and affection that Marie provided. This would have to be something he thought about later, though. Right now he just wanted to enjoy this moment with Marie.

            “Look,” Said Marie, pointing out something to Andy’s right. Andy turned his head and saw a lady bug, slightly larger than his fist, walking along a twig.

            “Wow,” Andy said. That was definitely something else you could say about shrinking: you saw things in a lot more detail. Andy could see so many parts of the ladybug that he wouldn’t have been able to see normally. It reminded him of his biology classes back at high school and college.

“This really is a magical place,” Andy said. He turned to Marie and kissed her to accent the moment.

They lied there in the leaves for a few moments before they heard a sound that jolted them out of their peaceful state. It was the alarm clock ringing in the kitchen. Andy and Marie sat straight up and looked at each other in alarm. Had it been an hour already?

The ringing stopped and there was a small flash. It wasn’t the intense flash that usually came with shrinking. That meant that it happened on the other side of the house. Andy and Marie could faintly here a few exclimations drifting over from the other side of the house and knew that something had happened.

“Do you want to go see who it was?” Andy asked.

“Yeah, we should.” Marie said. “Who knows, maybe someone else just joined the eight-inch club!”

Andy and Marie helped each other to their feet. They made their way out of the bushes and took off in a jog to see what had just occurred.