"Nervous?"

Addison glanced up and scowled at Dr. Goof before bringing her attention back to the speech she was holding in her hand. It sickened her to lay eyes on the atrocious-looking scientist – even more so after his confession about him killing her Aunt Cassadee. She instead focused on studying and editing the speech she was about to give to the world.

"One or two sugar cubes?"

Addison turned her head and cocked one eyebrow as she watched a two-inch-tall Mayumi standing next to a cup of hot tea with a sugar cube in her arms.

"G-Goddess," Mayumi added reluctantly.

"There, that wasn't so hard now, was it?" Addison smiled down upon her new slave. "Make it three, please. I have a sweet tooth."

She watched with curiosity as Mayumi lifted the sugar cube over her head to make it splash into Addison's mug of tea before scurrying off to grab another cube. Addison's eyes drifted off toward the Caspivurian city sprawled out next to her on the table.

"I see my personal present to you appears still untouched. You do not like it?" Addison asked Mayumi. Mayumi simply shrugged and turned her head away. "Hey! Your Goddess is speaking to you!" Addison slammed her fist on the table. "Look at me!"

Addison's eyes fluttered with annoyanc as pandemonium broke out among the Caspivurians in the shrunken city next to her fist. After all these years, it surprised Addison still that such infinitesimal creatures were capable of making such a racket. It wasn't deafening, but it was loud enough to scramble her conversation with Mayumi.

"Be quiet, you!" Addison spat while stooping over the city. She pocked some inch-tall buildings with her pinky finger to clarify what would happen if the Caspivurians refused to heed her command of being silent. The panicked screams and sirens only became louder. Addison sighed and rolled her eyes. She pulled out the shrink gun from her holster and shot the whole city until it matched the size of a breadcrumb.

"There, scream what you wish now. I don't care," Addison placed the shrink ray back in her holster. "Now, where were we," she crossed her legs elegantly, leaned her elbows on the table, and rested her chin on her entangled hands while looking at Mayumi – who stood there still with a sugar cube in her hands, gawking up at her.

"Well? Why haven't you touched my present yet? Being a tiny servant gives you lots of idle time in between chores. I assumed you needed some entertainment."

"And you assumed a Caspivurian city would appeal to me because?" Mayumi said.

Addison cocked an eyebrow. "Do I sense a whiff of ungratefulness there?"

"If that's what you sense, then I would be deeply concerned about my sense of smell if I were you… Goddess."

Mayumi saw a flash of anger in Addison's eyes before the brat regained her calmness. Something Mayumi had to give her credits for. Mayumi gave a sigh of relief but also resented it in some way.

"You do realize that I have nothing to gain from your willingness to cooperate or not, don't you? I'm just being nice here." Addison said.

"I know you are," Mayumi said. "It's because you're afraid." She narrowed her eyes.

Addison chuckled. "Afraid?! Me? For what in heaven's name? I'm about to become an untouchable Goddess!"

"Loneliness, Addy."

It satisfied Mayumi to see that her words were striking a sensitive chord.

"You've always been a loner, Addy. And you've always acted indifferent about it – speaking all tough and spraying a loudmouth to everyone. But deep down, you're desperate for friendship. And knowing that you're about to become a Goddess who will spread chaos and fear throughout the world is scaring the crap out of you. I mean, who is going to dare to befriend a feared Goddess? And I'm not talking about lackeys who will vie for your attention because you will get plenty of those. I mean true friendship. The one you are despairing for. The one Lindsy and I had before you took her away."

"I have friends!" Addison snapped.

"Really? Who? What are their names?"

“Sarah, Christel and uhm, Gianni,”

"Do they know it too? That they are friends with you?"

Addison looked away, glancing at Dr. Goof, who stood tinkering with his invention.

"I thought so…" Mayumi turned around, presenting her back to Addison as she looked down at the breadcrumb-sized Caspivurian city in front of her. Mayumi could annihilate the whole town with nothing more than a single step, even at her dwindled size. "All this power, yet still so pathetic."

"Pathetic?!" Addison fumed.

Mayumi kept staring at the Caspivurian city in front of her. Below the table, Addison clutched her hand into a fist, sinking her nails in its skin.

Mayumi spun around, smiling at Addison. "I can be the one if you like? Your bestie, I mean. We could… do each other's hair, for example. Oooor we could talk about kissing boys. You know, that thing you have never done before–"

CRUNCH!!

Addison looked with disgust at the blood spattering around her fist. She killed shrunken people before, only not this 'big.' Mostly, the people Addison killed were like dust mites.

"Everything okay back there?"

Addison grabbed a tissue to whip her hand clean while looking over her shoulder to answer Dr. Goof. "Yes, yes. You're almost done with that thing yet? I'm more than ready to become a Goddess."

"Just wrapping up things here." Dr. Goof welded some plate on his invention before removing his helmet and whipping his forehead. "Come, please, take a look, my Goddess."

Addison was about to saunter off when her eyes fell on the breadcrumb-sized Caspivurian city on the table. Bending forward, deep, Addison took a moment to scrutinize it. Her face drew closer to it like some astronomical object. She tried to imagine what it was like to be one of those citizens. To be so inconsequentially tiny. The world around them must be like some incomprehensible existence to them – and a very threatening and unpredictable one also – with beings as big as dwarf planets who roamed about with the speed of light in seemingly illogical directions.

Even this room, this laboratory, which was fairly moderate in size to human standards, was almost like a small galaxy to them – providing an outstretching vastness of space for many upcoming generations to explore.

What else could these poor shrunken Caspivurians do than regard the normal people as Gods? Even the most trivial of movements could cause catastrophe on a planetary scale for them.

And one of these Gods – or Goddess, to be more precise, a fourteen-year-old blond girl – just happened to mingle again with their pitiful existence. Their screams and effort of finding safety were futile when a curved object – the size of a region – soared above them, casting them all in shadow as it came closer until it came to a seismic stop when it landed next to the city.

Addison's eyes contracted when she carefully sank the nail of her other index finger low in a vertical angle until it tapped the table on the opposite side of the city – blocking all hope of escape for the ones who were fleeing for the nail of her other finger. Functioning as a shovel, Addison's nail – the one laying flat on the table – slid forward and dug itself beneath the city's soil. She used her other upstanding nail to give the city a final nudge so that it could snuggle neatly in the gap between her nail and fingertip. Pleased with her own achievement – and bearing the false assumption that everything was intact still in the nano-city – Addison brought it up to her left eye for closer inspection. It had to be one surreal sight for the Caspivurians to witness Addison's eye on such a scale. One massive orbed knitwork of green, yellow and brown lines intertwined and folded together to one vocal black hole in its center hovered in front of them. There was nothing relevant to be seen for Addison, though. The city was just too small, everything just looking too vague.

Crouching down on her haunches, Addison carefully placed the city on the floor between her soaring knee-high boots before standing up to her full height. She wanted them to really feel their insignificance compared to her. Apart from the elegant-looking knee-high boots, Addison had chosen to wear her usual garment on the day she would become a Goddess – containing loose-fitting cut-off denim shorts and a simple tank top. Being a scrawny juvenile, Addison always felt the need to dress more stylishly, to spruce herself up so that she looked more mature, hoping that people would treat her with more respect. But it just wasn't who she was. Wearing tight-fitting pieces of clothing and needles under her heels that were higher than a church candle made her only seem like a failed wannabe. And on top of that, it compelled her into an out-of-comfort situation whereby it was easy for her to make a fool out of herself.

Fuck it all!

The moment she would become a Goddess was also when she would gain respect. For if her subjects refused to give her, they would feel her immediate wrath.

"You're coming?" Dr. Goof asked.

Addison glanced one more time at the crumb-sized city dotted on the floor between her boots before straddling off towards Dr. Goof.

"Alright! Let's get things square away!" Addison rubbed her hands together.