Not A Toy 127

"Gotcha!" Maisie's words burst from her mouth as her hand snapped around Jenna's forearm.

The teacher had lost her balance - a mixture of the sudden vertigo of shrinking, and the dread sensation of her doll's attire and underwear slipping from her form. It was more than just her garments losing their grip on her, it was Jenna's psyche as well - sinking away just as she was, the chasm of fear, anger and despair opening up before her and she felt herself surrender to that chasm - tumbling into it.

Or so she thought. Just as her errant, panicking feet had sent her falling she felt her body yanked in place, and she watched as her garments drifted towards the distant floor. The teacher screamed, realizing now how precarious her position was.

Maisie had just been fast enough - almost misjudging her grasp as Jenna's size was quickly shifting. As the graduate collapsed to her knees, gripping the edge of the desk, she felt her body strain. For a moment, the young woman wasn't sure she'd be able to hold her dwindling friend for long!

And yet in a twisted act of mercy, the weight that threated to pull her over the edge became easier to bare - Jenna's weight dwindled, and Maisie dared to hope she'd be able to get them out of this immediate danger. Although she wouldn't have voiced it, she quietly prayed Jenna would continue to shrink.

On the other side of the room, the conflict was anything but quiet. The two women tussled with each other; Sophie determined to keep the device from Nathalie and reduce her colleague to a more manageable size, whilst Nathalie desperately tried to secure the shrink ray from her manic 'friend'.

"Give. That. To. Me!" Nathalie said through gritted teeth, throwing her weight against Sophie as one of her shoes launched off her feet and into the hall.

"It's mine!" Sophie snapped back, sounding more petulant than intended.

Sophie tried to raise the device at Nathalie, but the dark-haired woman slapped at Sophie's wrist, the violet light illuminating the room as it collided with a bin.

As the two grappled with each other, Nathalie was surprised at Sophie's strength - it had been her understanding that the relative strength of affected individuals was appropriately scaled to their dwindled size, but that was far from Nathalie's experience as Sophie was able to contest the dark-haired woman.

For her part, Sophie was quietly impressed with her own strength - convinced that desperation and adrenaline was allowing her to overpower the much taller Nathalie...

And yet... hadn't Sophie been eye level with Nathalie's chest earlier?

The question slowly dawned on each of them - as fear and excitement joined their swirling emotions.

Maisie flinched as the violet ray burst from that horrible device, but she couldn't focus on that right now. The youngest of the four was determined to get Jenna to relative safety - she resigned to pulling Jenna up over the ledge but even as she held the teacher by her forearm, she could feel her hand expanding around her shrinking friend. With wide eyes, she realized that the woman in her grip weighed very little, and she slowly raised the older of the pair like she was lifting a ragdoll.

Both of them met the other's gaze, and Maisie for the first time in many hours - felt big. For the now much smaller of the pair, the feeling was naught but a dreadful awe.

Maisie looked huge!

"Uh. Jenna..." Maisie stammered. "You uh... are you alright?" It was a pointless question, but all that she could think to ask.

And for Jenna's part, she had no words - for the first time in many hours.

As the teacher grappled with her new stature, Nathalie too came to a similar, shocking realization.

The ferocity of their struggle waned just slightly, as Nathalie realized that she was looking up at Sophie!

"You... you're...!!" Came Nathalie's voice, a concoction of anger and surprise.

Sophie finally understood as well. Nathalie must have been hit with a glancing blow from the beam!

"You're shrinking!" Sophie proclaimed.

Nathalie knew the redhead was right. She had missed her transformation in the chaos, but sparing but a moment for her other senses she felt the looseness of her dress; how the fabric was now grazing her knees, the outfit affording her bust no support. What was more, just as her panic reached its peak, she felt her underwear sag down her thighs, finding no purchase on her shrinking form.

In truth, both Nathalie and Sophie had no idea how small the dark-haired woman would become. Neither had experimented with glancing strikes of the beam - it could mean a full reduction, or simply a fraction.

Nathalie couldn't bank on this being the extent of her shrinking and fought off her panic with resolve. She might only have moments to take drastic action, and so that was what she intended to do.