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Author's Chapter Notes:

Hey, to new and returning readers alike! If you haven't read the first two stories in the main Ace Attorney Size Adventures series, you might want to check those out before jumping into this one, but in any case, I hope you all enjoy this new entry in my developing series!

 

Please, if you're enjoying this story or the others, leave a review! It's a big help to me.

 

Athena’s running shoes thumped solidly against the polished floors of the Cosmos Space Centre, the sound accompanied by the rustling of the heavy cloth bag hanging from her left shoulder.

It was just past seven, the city starting to look dark outside the glass doors she could see down the hall.

This visit had gone pretty well, overall. Aura hadn’t been nearly as impatient toward her as on a lot of other occasions, and they’d even managed to exchange a few joking remarks as she was getting ready to leave.

 

For a few months now, past her twentieth birthday, Athena had been making visits to the space centre to see Aura Blackquill, the robotics engineer who had been a close colleague of her late mother’s, so many years ago. Following the criminal actions Aura had taken to ensure her younger brother, the prosecutor Simon Blackquill, would receive a fair retrial for the murder of Athena’s mother, Metis Cykes, Aura had been tried and sentenced to a year in prison, followed by a lengthy period of house arrest, living in the space centre in which she’d spent most of her adult life working. Frankly, Aura had been astoundingly lucky not to receive a life sentence, but her defence in her trial, provided by Athena herself alongside of her friend and co-worker Apollo, had managed to secure the older woman a far more lenient sentence than Athena suspected she ever could have hoped for otherwise.

These semi-regular visits had been started in the hope that she might be able to rebuild some kind of basic personal relationship with Aura, in the wake of the years of enmity the roboticist had felt toward her ever since her childhood.

Aura had loved Athena’s mother. Wrongfully thinking Athena herself responsible when Metis Cykes was murdered, Aura had stewed on her hatred for seven long years, but with the case finally solved as of about two years from the present day, Athena couldn’t help but feel it was worth trying to mend that particular bridge. Aura was... less than receptive at first. Athena could tell that the older woman didn’t hate her outright anymore, but Aura was clearly and quite understandably hesitant to simply welcome Athena as a regular part of her life. Aura wasn’t particularly fond of most people to begin with.

Still, Athena was satisfied with this particular visit. She had spent around half an hour talking with Aura in the roboticist’s private quarters here in the space centre, catching up on the work Aura had been doing in the last week. Aura might not have liked to show it in front of Athena, but she was clearly a far happier person these days, now that her brother was free of his wrongful prison sentence and once-impending execution, and the truth behind the murder of the woman she loved was finally clear.

Athena’s analytical psychology degree didn’t qualify her to act as a therapist, but she privately liked to think that she was at least partly taking on the role of one in her visits with Aura. That was something else Aura would’ve hated, of course.

 

The contents of Athena’s heavy shoulder bag thumped against her side as she walked the space centre’s long hall leading to the entrance area. Inside, along with a collection of her other scattered belongings, was the Skye Device, the size-changing invention that her friend Ema Skye had constructed after reverse-engineering the prototype device built by a recently-deceased scientist.

Just hours ago, Ema had left the Skye Device in Athena’s possession, letting her experiment with it until the following day, when the forensic scientist and homicide detective planned to return and pick it back up. All day since, Athena’s mind had been abuzz with ideas for how she might play around with the device. She was already standing noticeably taller than normal, and had been since the day prior, when Ema had first shown her the device. Maybe the boost in size would require her to sort out her wardrobe back in her apartment a bit at some point, but she was happy to keep the change permanently all the same.

 

Down the hallway, someone came into view.

“Oh...!”

Surprised, Athena waved, grinning. Apollo was walking toward her.

Now a couple of hours past the end of their work day together, Athena had been planning to meet up with Apollo (and their other co-worker, the magician Trucy Wright) and see a movie together. The show time was set for less than an hour away, so it was good to see Apollo arriving to meet her here.

“Hey!” she called out when Apollo waved back. She picked up the pace a bit, her running shoes still audible against the floor.

“Hey.” Apollo responded, smiling as well. “You sure took your time.”

Athena smirked. “Or maybe you’re just ahead of yourself? Aura was in a surprisingly good mood, so maybe we talked a little longer than normal.”

“That’s good to hear.” Apollo said, stopping in front of her. Athena bobbed on her feet a bit, still feeling positively gleeful at how her use of the Skye Device had now made her permanently taller than her loudmouthed friend. Her new height combined with her broad, well-built shoulders made Apollo look downright small by comparison. “I should call her sometime.”

Apollo certainly had an easier time chatting with Aura than she did. The roboticist had never held any kind of grudge against him, and actually seemed to have a bit of a soft spot for Apollo, from Athena’s observations. She guessed that it was something born from Aura’s memories of happier years in the past, when Apollo had been a teenager frequently visiting the space centre with his best friend of the time.

“So, you ready to get over to the theatre?” Apollo inquired. “Trucy ought to be there when we arrive.”

Athena nodded. “Yep! No more delays here!”

Apollo turned, just starting back down the last stretch of the hall when Athena suddenly noticed something.

In one of the pockets of the dusty-brown jacket she was wearing, she was carrying a small gadget she’d been idly toying with, back in Aura’s room.

“Oh, darn it...” she muttered, pulling the object out of her pocket. Apollo stopped again.

“What’s up?” he asked, looking over his shoulder. Athena held up the little object, sighing.

“OK, one more little delay. I accidentally took this from Aura’s room. I should give it back before we go.” she replied.

Apollo scoffed. “Stealing Aura’s stuff now? That’ll sure get her into a good mood.”

“Well, it wasn’t on purpose!” Athena huffed. Down at her chest, her chatty little AI companion, Widget, made a synthesized chirping sound of similar annoyance to her own. “... I don’t want to bug her again. You mind if we just quickly swing by her lab so I can leave this there?”

Apollo tapped his foot twice against the floor. “No problem.” he said. “C’mon.”

 


 

Fortunately, the robotics lab door wasn’t locked. The twin panel doors slid apart, and Athena headed straight in, adjusting her bag on her shoulder.

For a brief moment, her sensitive ears pricked at a sound from inside the bag. On her way to Aura’s large workbench, she glanced down at the bag.

(Hope I didn’t just bump Ema’s masterpiece...)

She was lucky enough to get to hold onto the Skye Device for at least an extra twelve hours longer than originally expected, and she privately hoped that she might be able to convince her detective friend to lend it to her again in the future, so it would be best for her to avoid causing it any possible harm.

 

Athena put the small noise she’d heard out of her mind, but unbeknownst to her, it had in fact come from the Skye Device, the display of which was now lighting up inside of her bag, out of sight. Bumped against another object inside of the bag, the device was now beginning to softly hum, stirred into activation.

 

Partway across the lab, Apollo had approached Aura’s computer desk. It had been some time since he’d last seen the robotics lab. It looked mostly the same as he remembered it, with the most obvious difference being that the lab’s owner had clearly cleaned up her desk quite a bit at some point. Every visit to the lab in Apollo’s memory had included a messy, cluttered computer desk covered with various loose components, notes, and haphazardly stacked boxes. Now, however, Aura’s workspace was much more orderly, with only a small handful of her belongings scattered about.

In particular, however, Apollo’s attention was focused on a framed photograph sitting to the immediate right of the blank computer monitor.

It was clearly a recent photo. Aura could be seen standing just behind her younger brother, the prosecutor Simon Blackquill, visibly catching him off-guard and using an arm to push down against his shoulder, causing him to buckle slightly just as the photo was taken, a smirk on her face.

Apollo smiled, his hand hovering near the photo’s frame. He decided against picking it up, just examining it from in front of the desk instead.

Aura had spent seven long years living with stress and grief he could barely even imagine, kept going only by her ever-growing desperation to save her brother from his wrongful murder conviction, and a misguided drive for revenge against Athena. Now, however, all of that was behind her, and the roboticist was clearly a far happier person for it. Aura had certainly made more than her fair share of terrible decisions, but she deserved the chance to move past it all and return to something resembling a normal life.

Caught up in his moment of reflection, Apollo considered showing the photo to Athena. She would like it, being Simon Blackquill’s closest friend. Just as this thought crossed his mind, however, he heard Athena’s voice from somewhere behind him.

“What the... is this thing doing something...?”

He turned, curious.

“What’s up?” he inquired, heading toward Athena. The redhead was standing next to Aura’s workbench. She had set down the gadget that this trip to the lab had been intended to drop off, leaving it right next to a quickly-scribbled note of apology, and was now holding something else, instead.

He suddenly froze, his eyes going wide. With his gaze fixed on the object in Athena’s left hand, he stammered a response to the awful feeling that had just set in over him, all other thoughts suddenly replaced by dread.

“Th-that’s not Ema’s invention, is it...!?”

 

Athena didn’t get the chance to respond; the Skye Device emitted a noisy buzz, visibly shuddering in her grip, and before Apollo knew it, he could feel a horrible sensation overtaking his entire body.

“A-ATHENA!!”

His vision became a blur, and he faintly heard his redheaded friend giving a panicked cry of her own, accompanied by a clattering sound from somewhere, before...

 

-WHAM-

 


 

...

He coughed, forcing himself off of the ground.

“N-no, no no no-...!!”

This couldn’t be happening. Not again...

He didn’t want to believe it for even a second, his mind screaming its protests, but as he got upright, legs shaking a bit, and the world around him swam back into view, he was forced to arrive at a conclusion that gave him an instantaneous chill, all across his body.

He had just shrunk, all over again.

“... A-Athena...!?”

Where was she? He whirled around, still not even sure of where he was, to begin with.

He spotted her. Athena was standing nearby, her back turned to him. At the sound of his voice, she spun around as well, her long, red ponytail swishing around her.

Her face was pale, her mouth hanging partway open. Without another word, Apollo rushed toward her, his hands taking a firm grip on her shoulders.

“A-Athena, what the hell did you just do...!?”

He couldn’t even think straight. What possible reason could Athena have had for casually carrying Ema’s size-changing invention around with her? Had she really just activated it by mistake? How the hell could she have been so irresponsible...!?

“ATHENA!”

She met his eye, her expression almost blank. She was clearly terrified, and left in complete shock at what had just happened.

“A-Apollo-...! I-... w-we just... a-are we...”

She was babbling. His heart hammering wildly in his chest, Apollo almost involuntarily gave his redheaded friend a firm shake by the shoulders, trying to force her to focus.

He heard her take in a sharp breath.

“You just made both of us shrink, didn’t you...!?” It was impossible for him to keep his voice level. Having their situation go so completely south in just a matter of seconds was too much. “ATHENA!!”

This wasn’t accomplishing anything. With a frustrated groan, Apollo released Athena’s shoulders and whirled around, trying to gauge exactly where they were, instead. He hadn’t been able to judge it just yet, having been so focused on Athena.

 

This wasn’t the floor. They were on a raised surface, somewhere off the ground. He couldn’t see any sign of the Skye Device. His eyes fell on several huge objects resting a short walk away from their position.

Screws.

He released a heavy breath, having arrived at a conclusion that didn’t exactly make him feel any better.

They were on top of Aura’s workbench; that much was identifiable by the loose objects scattered around. Screws, a few odd tools, a positively gigantic binder filled with documents of some kind – he hadn’t taken a good look at the workbench for himself, but that was clearly the answer. This was hardly a comfort, however, given how very large all of the objects placed up here with them now appeared. Just like the last time he’d been unwillingly subjected to a size-changing experience, Apollo could now say with confidence that he and Athena had been reduced to well below even a single inch in height. A few millimetres, at best.

He jumped at the feeling of an iron grip suddenly closing around his left arm, so tight that it almost hurt.

Athena’s hands were shaking like mad.

“A-Apollo, I didn’t... I didn’t mean to... i-it was just sitting in my bag...! I-it must have taken a bump at some point and activated by mistake...!”

At least she was speaking in fairly complete sentences now. Down at Athena’s chest, Apollo could see Widget’s face display glowing a dark blue, indicative of his wearer’s fractured state of panic.

“Athena, where is the device now...?” he asked clearly, trying not to lose his cool again.

“I don’t... I don’t know...!”

“W-well, we were standing right next to this workbench when it went off, and we ended up here...”

Athena moved, dragging him along for a moment before her powerful grip released his arm. She staggered toward the ledge that marked the end of the workbench’s expansive top. Apollo didn’t even want to think about how far down the drop would go.

He heard Athena stammer something in a language he couldn’t identify.

“I-it’s there...!” she squeaked, gesturing off the workbench’s edge.

Hesitantly, Apollo approached, stopping short of the alarming drop.

 

Indeed, when his gaze followed Athena’s extended pointer finger, he spotted the Skye Device lying on the robotics lab’s vast floor, at the bottom of what looked like drop of nearly a thousand feet. A chill ran across his entire body.

“That’s a... long way down, isn’t it...?”

Athena was mumbling in another language again. She turned to face him.

“I... wh-when Ema showed the device to Trucy and me, she shrunk both of us, but we weren’t this small...”

Apollo sighed, stepping back from the terrifying drop. He had to admit – Athena had every right to be even more panicked than he was. He had at least already experienced this once and survived. Any shrinking Athena might have tried had been in a controlled environment, with someone holding onto the device and ready to restore her at a moment’s notice.

He stood there with his eyes closed for a few seconds, trying to calm himself down.

“... OK.” he said. “We can’t just stand around here, right? We’ve got to do something.”

“O-of course, but... what, are we supposed to jump from here? Climb down?”

“Well... no, I don’t think we’ll be able to climb down.” Apollo looked up again, making steady eye contact with Athena. “You remember how this bench is built? It’s just bolted all the way along the wall. There’s nothing we can use to get down.”

“Right... crap, what are we gonna do, then...?” Athena asked next. She seemed to be getting a hold of herself again, as well. “There’s no way we can just jump and expect to live. I’m not trying it.”

Apollo closed his eyes again, thinking things over. This situation seemed so simple – the device was right there, in plain view, and at a normal scale, it was only a few feet from them. Unfortunately, the present immense difference in size rendered it completely beyond their reach, and even if they could get to it, there would be no way to operate it. It was probably the size of a jetliner compared to them now.

“... We need Aura.”

 

A second passed.

“Aura? But she’s... Apollo, she’s gotta be the size of a mountain compared to us!”

“I know.” Apollo said, gesturing in Athena’s direction.

“Oh... right. Sorry.” Athena said, realization dawning on her face. “I guess I was probably just as huge to you the last time, huh? That must’ve been terrifying...”

“A little, yeah. But look – Aura’s bound to come back in here at some point. If we can just get her to notice us, she can fix this whole thing.” Apollo explained next, unpleasant memories surfacing in his mind again.

“Right. You were super-tiny like this the last time, and I still found you, so... it’s a good plan.”

“Not really a ‘plan’, at this point. It’s more like a vague goal.”

Athena’s lip briefly twitched upward. “Well jeez, you’re just as much of an optimist as ever.” Her expression suddenly lit up. “Hey, wait – I’ve got an idea!”

Apollo watched. Athena spun back around on the spot, looking for something.

“There!” she said, pointing off at the space ahead. “That’s the... the thing I was dropping off! If we go and wait right next to it, Aura should totally notice us!”

“Oh...!” In truth, Apollo had completely forgotten about the little gadget Athena had mistakenly borrowed, the chaos of the last couple of minutes erasing it from his mind. “Right, OK. Let’s get over there right now.”

Without waiting, Athena took off at a run. Apollo followed behind her, trailing a fair distance back, as usual. Athena was much quicker than he was already, and even having been shrunken down to this puny size, her previous adjustment to her height was still intact, relative to his, meaning that her boosted height over him was helping her to outpace his running speed even more effectively than usual.

He arrived several seconds after Athena did. Like was always the case when they ran anywhere together, he had to stop, doubling over and panting. Athena, meanwhile, was still upright and moving about like she hadn’t been exerting herself at all.

“Wow, this thing looks big now...” she remarked. “I was holding it in one hand just a few minutes ago!”

Somehow, her sunny personality was already eclipsing the state of panic and concern that this situation had first caused her to sink into. Apollo sighed to himself.

(Gonna take more than this to knock that smile off your face, isn’t it, Athena?)

 


 

Nearly two hours passed. There had been nothing else for them to do but wait. Without any way of contacting Aura directly until she happened to visit the robotics lab, the shrunken lawyer pair had eventually started to feel concerned that they would be spending the entire night trapped here on the workbench. The anxiety this worry caused didn’t play nicely with the boredom they were experiencing at the same time. At last, however, they finally heard the sliding doors at the opposite end of the colossal space beyond their location opening.

“H-hey, there she is!”

Aura had entered the lab. She was dressed very casually, wearing the same heeled shoes and pink tights she favoured for work below her waist, but that half of her outfit was otherwise accompanied only by a thin, grey tank top with the space centre’s familiar GYAXA logo emblazoned on its front, rather than the heavy work coat and similarly heavy gloves she was usually seen in.

They watched, still sitting in the shadow of the object that had prompted their visit to the lab.

Aura didn’t approach them, instead heading for her desk, where Apollo had been examining her framed photo. They were briefly concerned that she might simply take a seat at her computer and stay there, but the roboticist only spent half a minute or so bent over in front of her desk, hands on the keyboard, before stepping away again.

Apollo noticed something odd. Aura wasn’t moving quite as gracefully as normal. Her steps were a bit uncertain-looking, like her balance was just the tiniest bit off.

He noticed her face next, and a new concern set in.

“Uh... Athena? I think Aura... might have had a drink or two since you left.”

“What?”

Athena got up, stepping forward for a better look. Aura gathered up a few loose papers from her desk, stuffing them into a file, and then turned in their general direction. She appeared to be heading for the workbench now.

Seeing her head-on, Apollo’s theory was looking much more likely to be accurate. It was very slight, but Aura was just a little bit red in the face, her gaze not quite as icy and clear as normal. Her movements were still looking mildly clumsy, as well. She had definitely been drinking. Was that a regular habit of hers?

 

It was impossible not to feel intimidated as Aura approached the workbench.

Athena made a stunned sound, staring upward in amazement. Aura really was gigantic like this, their position on the table leaving them roughly level with her stomach. Her upper body loomed high over their heads, like she was the size of an entire office tower. Even the slightest movement of her colossal body was incredible to watch.

Apollo’s throat suddenly felt rather dry; Aura’s tank top wasn’t exactly the most modest piece of clothing she’d ever worn, and he’d spent much of his life well aware that the roboticist’s chest was above average in size.

 

... Who was he kidding? Aura was stacked. He recalled with a mild feeling of shame more than a few occasions from his teen years when he and his best friend of the time had visited the space centre and encountered Aura, with his gaze being rather unavoidably drawn to the vicinity of her breasts. He was quite certain that Aura had noticed him staring plenty of times, too, no matter how quickly he might have tried to avert his eyes. She’d teased him plenty in their conversations in the past, making it all too clear that she had known of his bad habit.

The robotics engineer arrived at the workbench, looming over them at her unbelievable size like a particularly busty titan of myth, casting their immediate surroundings into shadow.

Apollo shook his head, trying to ignore the way Aura’s positively staggering breasts blocked out his view of her face completely from this angle, below them. Why was it so hard to focus on anything else, exactly...? Their lives were in danger...

Nearby, Athena had left a written note on the workbench. A huge hand appeared, picking it up.

Moments later, a low voice muttered something that sounded like the word “thief”. Aura even sounded bizarre like this, her familiar tones echoing in their diminished ears with a kind of power that made the pair feel uneasy in an instant.

 

Athena suddenly grabbed his shoulder, and Apollo turned.

“Here, grab on!”

He blinked, looking at Athena in confusion. She had moved right up to the side of the gadget they were waiting beside (he still had no idea what it was, come to think of it), and was gesturing to an open panel on its side.

“Apollo, there’s no way she sees us down here...! Just hop in here with me, and we’ll go with her!”

 

... This was a bad idea. Still, Apollo had to admit that Athena was right. Aura definitely hadn’t noticed them, and given their utterly puny size and her apparent state of mild inebriation, that seemed unlikely to change easily. He moved, waiting until Athena had gotten herself into position next to one of the gadget’s metallic panels, and then clambered up into it for himself. Athena helped him up, pushing him against a solid wall just inside of the object once he was secure.

Being in here wasn’t dangerous, was it...? He had no idea what it was, exactly, that they had just hidden inside.

 

Suddenly, and only seconds after they had secured themselves inside of the gadget, a gigantic shape closed in on them. Aura was picking them up. Huge fingers clasped over the gap they’d used to enter this hiding place, the smallest details of Aura’s skin plainly visible at such a small distance. Her fingers were as calloused as was to be expected of someone who worked with machine parts and tools all day, even with the heavy work gloves Aura typically wore.

Apollo’s stomach lurched as they left the workbench behind. Athena still had a firm grip on him, keeping an arm tucked beneath his and onto his chest to push him safely against the wall.

 


 

Rolling her eyes, Aura stepped away from the workbench.

She’d seen Athena playing with the little item she now held in a loose grip, back when they had been talking in her quarters. Had the redhead really been dumb enough to just idly pocket it and forget about it?

She supposed that had to be the case. Athena’s note on the workbench had indicated as much, marked at the bottom with a little smiley-face she’d scribbled next to the word ‘sorry’.

Something bumped against her shoe, the impact causing whatever it was to clatter forward on the floor. Aura’s grey eyes flicked downward in confusion. She was feeling a little bit of a buzz following a couple of drinks back in her room, but she didn’t need a perfectly clear mind to identify that the object she was seeing on the floor wasn’t something of hers.

She stooped to the floor, picking it up. It was a small device, clearly made to fit into one hand. But what the hell was it...? She turned it over a few times, squinting at it. It looked newly-made, but not quite professional. Anything she built would have been much more stylish. Had Athena managed to screw up twice and leave this here?

 

Aura blinked in surprise. It appeared that she had bumped a button of some kind on the device by mistake. It was doing something now, bits of text flashing by on a small display.

(Whatever.)

She wasn’t dealing with this right now. The weekend was about to begin, and she wanted a good Friday night to herself. She could call Athena and tell her to come and pick up her toy on another day.

Turning around for a moment, Aura dropped the unidentified device on her workbench, and headed for the lab doors. She had only needed to make a brief stop here in the lab, and was headed back to her quarters.

Totally oblivious to the fact that she was currently carrying two very small passengers, Aura exited the lab, already feeling nostalgic for the half-finished glass of red wine she’d left back in her room.

Chapter End Notes:

So, that's Chapter 1 of this latest adventure. Our two tiny lawyers will be getting plenty more up-close time with Aura to come as their efforts continue, so check back for the next chapter!

And again, please leave a review, should you feel so inclined. It's a big help for me!

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