Three weeks, to the day. Exactly three weeks ago, homicide detective and forensic investigator Ema Skye had finally solved a minor mystery that had been hanging uncomfortably over her head for a few days running. Unfortunately, this had only come as the sole upside to what had otherwise been a very stressful and emotionally-taxing incident.

Following the resolution of a recent murder trial, Ema had taken it upon herself to study a strange device that had been involved in the case, attempting to deduce what the prototype machine had actually been designed to do. Struggling to parse the vague-to-incomprehensible information the device provided to its user, Ema had been growing quite frustrated until a certain friend of hers inadvertently uncovered the answer.

The device was, seemingly impossibly, capable of altering the size of any object it could register via scan. Ema’s potential excitement over this discovery, however, had been stymied by the manner in which her friend uncovered it.

Defence attorney Apollo Justice had been making a brief visit to Ema’s lab in the police precinct to pick up some documents from her, only to accidentally find himself becoming an unwitting test subject for the size-changing device when it activated without his knowledge while Ema was out of the room. The experience had no doubt been quite harrowing for poor Apollo, as he’d been reduced to somewhere around half a centimetre in height, and forced to navigate the hazardous environment that Ema’s lab became at his reduced size, with Ema unaware of what had happened to him. Apollo had apparently managed to catch a ride with his co-worker, Athena Cykes, when she arrived shortly afterward, and had been taken all the way back to the law office-turned talent agency in which he worked, struggling to draw Athena’s attention and get himself rescued all the while. He could have been killed quite a few times over, and Ema had been terrified beyond belief for her friend’s wellbeing when she eventually realized what had happened to him.

Most fortunately, Apollo had eventually succeeded in getting himself noticed by Athena, who dutifully brought him back to Ema’s lab so his original size could be safely restored.

In the three weeks since, Ema had continued to study the size-changing device, performing various tests and taking extensive notes, her mind for science consumed by curiosity. Her actual assigned task here in her lab had simply been to determine the device’s purpose so she could record it in her evidence report before sending the device off to a permanent home in the station’s storage. Too interested to simply do so at the first chance she got, Ema had stalled the completion of her report until today, for one very particular reason.

With some experimentation of her own, and a generous amount of time spent tinkering with the device directly, she’d managed to replicate most of its functions, building a compact model of her own. Of all her achievements in life, this had to be among those of which she was most proud.

Her new device was much smaller, bringing the original’s desktop printer-comparable size down to a simple handheld device much closer to the size of a camera. During construction, she had briefly entertained the idea of trying to match its design to the kind of classic “shrink ray” look she would expect from a budget sci-fi movie, but decided against it in the interest of keeping this personal project inconspicuous.

She had already tested it on various loose objects around her lab, and had been itching to try it out on a human subject, like the original device, but the first person she contacted, Apollo himself, had flatly refused to be involved. Ema supposed that she could understand, given Apollo’s terrifying experience with the original device, but she still would have appreciated his help. Keeping knowledge of this device’s existence to the smallest number of people she could would be for the best.

Of course, there was still the option of Athena, the one other person involved in Apollo’s shrinking incident, and it was for that reason that Ema was now seated in her lab, her cell phone in one hand, and a dial tone quietly buzzing into her ear.

“Hey! Ema?” Athena’s voice answered.

“Hey.” she said.

“Hi!” Athena responded brightly, her cheery attitude unmistakable even over the phone. “What’s up?”

Ema hesitated. “Uh… OK, you remember three weeks ago? When Apollo… y’know, shrunk…?”

Athena laughed. “Yep! No way could I forget that! Why?”

Smiling to herself, Ema replied, “Well, I’ve been working on a little project over here at the station. It took until yesterday, but get this – I managed to build another machine to do the same thing as the one that shrunk Apollo.”

Clearly shocked to hear this news, Athena sputtered something in a language Ema didn’t know. “Wh-whoa, for real…!?” she inquired. “You made one yourself? Does it work?”

“Yep. I’ve got it right here.” Ema said, examining the device in her hand. “Shrinks things and returns them to normal just like the old one. It can make things bigger than normal, too. I’ve been testing it all day since I got back into work.”

Athena didn’t respond right away. Ema heard her voice, but she sounded muffled, like she was briefly covering her phone with a hand.

“… That’s so cool!” she finally exclaimed. “Can I see it the next time we’re over there?”

“Actually,” Ema interjected, “That’s the exact reason I called. I was hoping you’d come over and help me with a couple more tests.”

She could practically hear Athena’s jaw drop. “Really…!? You bet! I’ll be right over!”

Ema smiled, glad for the positive response. If she could keep the number of people who knew about her device’s existence to a minimum for now, things would be much easier for her.

“… Wait.” Athena said after a pause. “I’m gonna need an excuse to leave. … Oh, perfect – it’s about lunch time, anyway! Can I come over right away, Ema?”

“If you want.” Ema answered. “I’ll just hang around here in the lab.”

“Perfetto!” Athena cheered, though she was clearly trying to keep her voice down. “I’ll be over ASAP!”

“Good. See you when you get in!” Ema responded.

“Bye!”

Tucking her phone away, Ema returned her attention to her device. Maybe spending three weeks of working hours building something like this wasn’t the most professional thing she’d ever done, but in this case, she felt she could easily justify it. Scientific curiosity was reason enough, in her opinion. Plus, it could be pretty fun to experiment some more, now that she’d actually finished building it.

There was still one minor wrinkle in her personal project, however – the scientist who designed and built the original size-changing device, a Dr. Levi Loft, had powered his device using what appeared to be custom-designed power cells, and Ema didn’t exactly have a heavy supply of them on hand. She had scavenged a couple from the original device itself for her own use, but she would be out within just a few more tests, as the cells only held a charge sufficient to activate the device a small handful of times. Hopefully Dr. Loft’s empty lab had some more. He certainly didn’t appear to need them anymore, given that he was the missing and presumed-dead victim in the murder case Apollo and Athena had been working a few weeks ago.

Athena arrived quite promptly, leading Ema to hope that she hadn’t simply broken a long list of traffic laws in her hurry.

“Ooh, is that the shrink ray?” Athena asked once she was inside the lab.

Ema smirked. “I decided not to give it the classic sci-fi movie look, but yeah. This is the Skye Device.”

Athena raised an eyebrow. “The ‘Skye Device’?” she inquired. “That’s... less creative than I would’ve guessed, not gonna lie.”

Ema shrugged, a little smirk on her face. “Well, it was either a more clever name, or a free chance to feed my ego. Guess which option won?”

Athena laughed, and Ema held the device up for her to examine it.

“Dr. Loft must’ve been a brilliant guy.” Ema remarked. “I wish I’d met him before he disappeared. Figuring out how his machine worked was seriously difficult.”

“Looks like you pulled it off, though!” Athena said. “So, is yours any easier to use?”

“Yep.” Ema said, nodding. “More efficient on power, too; makes me wonder if Dr. Loft had any other prototypes around in his lab.”

She had been setting the device up while Athena was coming over.

“So, mind if I test it out on you, first?” Ema asked.

Athena’s eyes lit up. “You’ve got my blessing! I wanna know what Apollo was seeing in here!”

Ema nodded. “I’m not sure he’d appreciate hearing that.” she said. “He must’ve been terrified, the poor guy.”

Athena’s grin drooped a bit. “Yeah… I felt so awful for him. Just being around us at all must have been seriously scary while he was so tiny. I couldn't even imagine.”

“I don’t doubt it.” Ema replied. “… OK, it’s ready. Just give me a second to get you registered in the database. Your clothes, too, since I doubt you want to go naked in here.”

Athena was practically shaking with excitement. Ema had instructed her not to talk about the original device or Apollo’s incident with it, and while she was fairly sure Athena had kept to her word, she doubted it had been easy.

“Alright.” she said. “Just stand right… there.”

Athena moved to the spot on the lab’s floor that Ema had indicated. Ema stood a few steps away, making sure she had her angle correct.

“OK, Skye Device test number eight commencing in three, two, one…”

The device shuddered in her tight grip for a moment, and let off a sharp buzzing noise. Ema couldn’t help but grin, watching as Athena began to rapidly dwindle in size, right before her eyes. A swelling feeling of pride surged up in her chest when Athena’s shrinking ceased, leaving the redhead defence attorney standing in the middle of the floor at around five inches tall.

Taking a step forward and crouching to the floor, Ema looked Athena over. The tiny redhead had a huge grin on her face, looking back up at her in amazement.

“Th-this is… I-I don’t even know what to say…!!” Athena gushed. “Ema, this is amazing…!!”

“Mind if I pick you up for a sec’?” Ema asked.

“Go ahead!” Athena said, raising her arms a bit.

Ema reached her free hand forward and gently took a grip around Athena’s diminished body, securing her fingers beneath her test subject’s muscled arms and pinching her off the floor.

Even having seen it once before, Ema was floored by the feeling of picking up a shrunken human being off the floor, holding Athena in just one hand. She weighed practically nothing.

“The original device’s effects were set to work pretty much instantaneously.” Ema explained, “I slowed the process down a bit for this run, so you’d comfortably shrink down on the ground, instead of changing size so fast that you’d end up falling right out of the air.”

Athena nodded. “… Is that what happened to Apollo the first time?”

Ema frowned, nodding back. “I’m pretty sure. I don’t even want to imagine how terrifying that whole experience must have been. He must’ve thought he was going to fall to his death when it happened.”

She felt Athena shiver slightly in her grip. Setting the diminished redhead back down, she stood up again.

“OK, getting you back to normal now.” she said. “I don’t want any accidents.”

“Got it!”

Ema tinkered with the device’s settings again, and this time, with the same shudder and noisy buzz, it restored Athena to her original height, a few inches shorter than Ema.

Athena looked about ready to explode with excitement.

“E-Ema, this is so cool!!” she exclaimed, her blue eyes lit up with infectious glee.

“Yep. Informative, too.” Ema agreed. “I’ll need to do some more testing soon. Shame Apollo didn’t want to help out. I even offered him money for it!”

Athena laughed. “Well, maybe he’ll come around some other time.” After a pause, her face lit up again. “Hey – can you make me bigger? You said it can do that, right?”

“Bigger? Well, yeah, but-…”

“Ha! Nobody would underestimate Athena Cykes, the fifty-foot lawyer! They’d have to build whole new courtrooms for me!”

Ema raised a hand. “OK, love the enthusiasm, Athena, but don’t get carried away. I’m not comfortable trying to turn you into a movie monster right now. We don’t need that kind of chaos anywhere in the city.”

Athena’s grin slipped a little. “… Yeah, yeah, I guess you’re right. Still… we’ve gotta try something like that sometime! Maybe somewhere more under-the-radar?”

“I’ll think about it, for sure.” Ema answered. “Just don’t step on anyone.”

Athena giggled. “… Hey, wait – I’d better get going again, but before I do, could you make me just a tiny bit bigger? Just a teeny little bit? I’d love to see Apollo’s face if I walked back into the office and I was suddenly taller than him!”

Ema smirked. “I’m almost out of power here, but sure. I guess a little boost won’t hurt!”

She adjusted the settings once more, while Athena pumped a fist in the air and took position on the floor again.

“OK. Three, two, one…”

The change was much harder to spot this time. Athena gained just a few inches in height, bringing her up to roughly Ema’s own height now. The redhead’s considerably broader shoulders looked quite impressive like this, having expanded to match her new scale.

Athena let out a cheerful laugh. “You’re the best! OK, I’ve really gotta go, Ema. I told everyone I was just going out to pick up lunch, and if I take much longer, they aren’t gonna buy that.”

“Alright. See you another time, then.” Ema said. She held the lab’s door open, and Athena stepped outside, her incredibly long ponytail swaying behind her as she exited.

When the door closed again, Ema examined the device once more. As she’d suspected, that last change ran its battery dry. She was just going to have to stop by Dr. Loft’s vacated lab and scrounge around a bit. She could probably just pass the visit off as a quick check to make sure no one had broken in, if her colleagues asked.

Balancing four warm takeout bowls of noodles while also opening an office door was something Athena felt she didn’t receive nearly enough credit for doing. Even with the bowls divided into twin stacks of two, it was seriously difficult.

Easing the door inward with her shoulder, taking great care not to let any of the bowls topple over, she re-entered the Wright Anything Agency, trying to brace for any suspicions about why her lunch trip had taken considerably longer than normal.

The first person she saw was her employer and mentor, Phoenix Wright.

“H-hey, Boss!” she said, grinning. “Got everything!”

Phoenix paused very slightly, seeming for a fraction of a second like he suspected something, but then just smiled. “Thanks, Athena. Trucy’s just upstairs a minute. I’ll go and tell her that lunch is here.”

Athena awkwardly gave a thumbs-up with her right hand, her arms still supporting the noodle bowls. Phoenix stepped past her to shut the door, then turned and crossed the office, heading for the door that led to the apartment on the top floor.

Moving forward, Athena set the bowls down on the glass table near the middle of the office.

“Took your time, hey, Athena?”

She looked up. Apollo was seated at his desk, one arm resting on the back of his chair as he turned to look over at her.

“Uh…”

“Some new client flag you down halfway over there?” Apollo joked. “That would’ve been a pretty slow lunch run for Mr. Wright, much less you.”

Athena just crossed her arms, ready to counter. “Are you always so impatient when you’re hungry, Apollo? Sorry to take the scenic route, then – I didn’t know you’d be suffering so much.”

Apollo just rolled his eyes, smiling. “Yeah, yeah, whatever.” he laughed, getting up from his chair. “As long as the noodles aren’t cold, I think I’ll manage.”

Athena grinned, teetering on her feet a bit. She wanted to see if Apollo would react to her increase in size. So far, however, he seemed too focused on his lunch. Sitting down opposite his position, Athena grabbed her own bowl, popping its plastic lid off and savouring the smell wafting up from it.

Still carefully watching her friend as they began to eat, Athena’s thoughts drifted around the memory of Apollo’s own shrinking incident, three weeks ago. If it hadn’t been such an obviously terrifying experience for him, she might have enjoyed the idea of shrinking him down again to play around with him a bit.

There was something else occupying her mind about the incident, as well. When she’d discovered Apollo, following his long effort to draw her attention after shrinking, he had been clinging to a lock of her red hair, dangling in front of her face while she sat at her desk, here in the office. There was the obvious question of how, exactly, Apollo had ended up on top of her head. This mystery was particularly worrying, given that the last thing she’d been doing before heading to her desk on that day had been taking a shower in the bathroom of the Wrights’ apartment, upstairs from the office.  She hadn’t pressed on the issue, but it still lingered in the back of her mind.

 Based on her experiences in this empty lab, Ema had come to one concrete, scientific conclusion. Dr. Levi Loft might have been a brilliant scientific mind, but he absolutely could not keep house.

The late inventor’s lab was a disaster, if Ema was honest. She could sometimes find her office at work a bit cluttered, but her own messes were nothing compared to what she was wading through here.

(We never did actually find his body. With this mess, he could still be in here somewhere…)

She’d been searching for quite a while, and finally, she came across what she was after.

“Oh, score…!”

She’d been expecting to find a scarce few of Dr. Loft’s unique power cells at best. Upon opening a heavy cabinet surrounded by multiple fire code violations’ worth of stacked papers, however, she found herself looking over what had to be at least several dozen of them, all sorted into an uncharacteristically orderly collection of holding units. Maybe the number was closer to a hundred?

A wide smile on her face, she retrieved a single cell from the cabinet and fixed it into her handheld device. That would settle things for a few more tests.

She was just gathering more of the cells into her bag when a thought occurred to her. Despite exhaustive efforts by her division, the police force’s investigation of Dr. Loft’s lab and home had been totally unable to uncover any useful evidence that might have helped to locate him, following his disappearance. Knowing what she did now, however, Ema found herself wondering if, perhaps, the size-changing device she’d spent so much time examining might have been the answer the investigation had been seeking.

“He… really might still be in here…”

She suddenly became extremely conscious of her heeled shoes on the lab’s floor, and of all the steps she’d taken since coming in here. Her heart rate began to accelerate a bit, her thoughts rolling backward to the crowded investigation she had headed up in this very same lab, weeks ago. It had been well over a month since Dr. Loft’s disappearance now, but…

(… Wait, no. That’s right.)

Dr. Loft’s size-altering device couldn’t scan a target of any kind unless there was a person standing at the controls to set it up, as she’d apparently accidentally done when Apollo had visited her back at the precinct. Without the extra operator on hand, the doctor couldn’t have accidentally caused himself to shrink.

Ema sighed, relieved to have reasoned her way out of the concern. She didn’t at all like the idea of Dr. Loft having inadvertently shrunk, nor of the situation such an incident would have left him in, likely stranded on the floor of his lab. It had been over a month since he vanished, after all.

Finishing up with gathering a generous number of the power cells into her bag, the detective turned on her heel and headed for the door. The lab was still locked down, though very few investigators were set to examine it at the moment. At least a few people had to have been inside within the last week, but the scene had clearly still been left fairly close to intact.

… Maybe it wasn’t particularly professional of her to effectively loot the place, but she needed to experiment. There would be plenty more to do once she returned to her own lab in the precinct, too.

(And I’ve got tomorrow off…)

She smiled, making a mental note to herself. Tomorrow, a Friday, she was going to pay a visit to her friends at the Wright Anything Agency.

 Close to noon the following day, Ema exited her car a short distance from the familiar law office turned talent agency. Hefting her shoulder bag upward more securely, she headed toward the front of the office.

She was still wearing her ever-present lab coat, but had traded in her work attire for a more comfortable tank top and a rather tight pair of jeans, as well as her favourite old set of laced boots from her university days.

The front door was unlocked, so Ema headed straight in. The entry level was as empty as she was used to seeing. She briefly peered around the stairs, but saw no one in the ground floor’s small storage area, which was padlocked shut, as usual. She headed up the stairs, her boots a bit heavy on the landing.

She knocked on the office’s door once she’d reached it, and could hear a few muted voices pausing in their conversation on the other side.

“Oh! Hi, Ema!”

Ema smiled at the cheery face of the magician standing at the door when it opened.

“Hey, Trucy.” she replied. Over Trucy’s shoulder, she could see a certain pair of lawyers in the office, as well.

“Hey, Ema!” Athena called out.

“Hey...!” Apollo sounded a bit less enthusiastic, compared to the other two.

“What’s going on?” Trucy inquired, bobbing on her feet a bit. “Need something?”

“Just here to see Athena.” Ema said, gesturing past Trucy. “It’s my day off, and I wanted to talk to her about something.”

“Oh, OK!”

Trucy stepped aside, letting Ema enter the Wright Anything Agency proper. She heard the door closing behind her as she strode through the cluttered office room.

“Your dad around?” she asked over her shoulder. Trucy nodded.

“Cleaning the toilet. Again. I’m kinda concerned, actually.”

Ema smirked, approaching Athena’s desk. She was about to speak up again when Apollo suddenly moved in front of her.

“Uh…” She looked at him curiously. Apollo seemed anxious.

“E-Ema, can you just help me with something, for a second…?”

She blinked. “… Sure? What’s up?”

“Thank you.” Apollo said, with the air of a relieved sigh. “Athena, stand up again.”

Athena did so, rising from her chair and circling around her desk.

Immediately, Apollo seemed to freeze up, his mouth slightly open. Ema heard a snicker from Athena.

“Something bugging you?” she asked, trying not to laugh as well.

Apollo’s eyes were rapidly shifting between the pair of them.

“B-but… she…”

He froze again.

“… Wait. E-Ema, did you…”

Ema was pretty confident that she knew what her stuttering friend was so worked up over. It seemed that the slight boost in size she’d given to Athena hadn’t gone unnoticed.

“Yeah, it was me.” she said plainly, waving a hand in a casual gesture. Apollo immediately slumped on the spot, looking frustrated.

“And what, you’ve just been messing with me…!?”

Athena finally cracked up laughing, dropping back into her chair.

“Messing with you is pretty fun, Apollo.” Ema said, smirking at his exasperated expression. She reached into her bag, pulling out the device she’d stowed away for the trip to the office. “See this? It’s what I’ve been working on for the last three weeks, or so. Fully-functional, handmade version of a certain missing doctor’s size-changing device.”

“Yeah, and in her infinite creativity, she named it ‘the Skye Device’.” Athena said, nudging Apollo with her elbow.

[Pretty cool, but pretty lame!]

Ema briefly shot the talkative little computer device dangling from Athena’s neck a dirty look.

“What’s that thing?” another voice suddenly interjected. Ema winced; she’d forgotten that Trucy was still in the room. The magician approached, looking curious. “… And hey, Ema? Polly’s been freaking out all morning about... how tall Athena is? I thought she was just wearing taller boots or something, but…”

Ema made a decision in her head. One more person knowing about the device was acceptable, she supposed, particularly if it was Trucy. She was trustworthy enough.

“Ema, you aren’t here to… to shrink me again, right…?” Apollo asked, sounding even more anxious now.

“Shrink you?” Trucy repeated, her eyebrows disappearing into her brown hair.

Ema laughed, shaking her head. She addressed Apollo first.

“Nah, you’ve been through more than enough already. How mean d’you think I am?”

She reached up with her free hand, flipping her pink-tinted glasses down over her eyes.

“I would never shrink you on purpose, without your consent. Of course, if you change your mind, and want to have some fun sometime, you’re welcome to drop by and help me experiment some more.” she said.

“What do you mean by ‘shrink’?” Trucy asked again, hands on her hips and a frown replacing her curious expression. “… Wait, it’s not something gross, is it?”

Ema laughed, noticing Apollo’s face reddening a little. She might not feel inclined to say so out loud, but he was really cute whenever he got flustered, and making Apollo feel flustered wasn’t exactly difficult to accomplish.

“No, it’s not anything like… y’know, that.”

She held up the device in front of Trucy, letting her examine it.

“This,” she said, “Is something I built based on an invention I’ve been studying from a case. The Skye Device. I can scan anything – or anyone – I want, and then use this to change their size to however big or small I want! … Within reason.”

The shocked expression that overtook Trucy’s face was surprisingly satisfying.

“Wh-whoa, really…? E-Ema, that’s amazing…!”

“Try ‘terrifying’…” Apollo muttered from behind Ema.

“Can I see?” Trucy asked within just a second or two. “Please?”

Ema moved the device to her side.

“On one condition. Adding you to the list, the only other people who know about the Skye Device are me, Apollo, and Athena.” she said. “I’ll give you a demonstration, as long as you promise me that you absolutely will not tell anyone else about it without getting the all-clear from me, first.”

“Oh, that’s all?” Trucy replied, sounding surprised. “I was expecting a harder condition than that. You’ve got my word, Ema! On Trucy Wright’s honour as a professional magician, I promise that this stays a complete secret!” She gave a cute little salute, her eyes practically glowing with eagerness. “So can I see it now?”

Ema nodded, jabbing a thumb backward over her shoulder.

“Can we head upstairs? I don’t want Mr. Wright suddenly popping out of the bathroom and interrupting the test.”

Trucy nodded back, then darted past Ema, heading for the stairs that led to the apartment on the building’s top floor.

The Wrights’ apartment was looking tidier than the last time Ema had seen it. Certainly better than her lab at the precinct, at any rate, not that she set a high bar.

Trucy looked unbelievably excited. Apollo had stayed behind downstairs, clearly not wanting to be anywhere near another size-changing device any time soon. Ema couldn’t exactly blame him.

“OK.” she said. “This room should have plenty of space. Who’s first?”

Athena’s face lit up as well.

“I’ve got to try being all tiny again!” she said. “È stato fantastico!”

“So you tested it on Athena already?” Trucy asked. “Then I’m going first!”

Ema raised a hand, smiling.

“Both of you, then!” she said. She directed them to the open space just in front of her, behind the apartment’s couch, pointing a finger. “OK, stand right there, you two.”

The girls moved into place immediately.

“Don’t be shy.” Ema added, gesturing. “Move a little closer.”

They were positioned adequately now. Looking over her device, Ema set Athena’s previous scan information up again, before also conducting a scan of Trucy’s body and clothing.

“OK, ready.” she said after a short delay. Raising the device, she aimed it in their direction, stepping back a bit. “… Skye Device test number… uh… whatever number, beginning now!”

She began counting down again. Trucy could barely sit still.

With its usual shudder and buzzing sound, the Skye Device activated, and Ema watched as Athena dropped right past her original height and dwindled further down at just the same speed as the last time. Trucy, of course, was shrinking to match, a wide grin of excitement on her face.

Once the effect had subsided, leaving the two girls somewhere around four inches tall, Ema stepped forward. Her boot’s toe section was just a little bit shorter than her two newly-shrunken test subjects, who were left standing just before it when she stopped.

Trucy had both hands resting on Athena’s shoulders, and she was practically jumping with uncontainable excitement, looking positively thrilled with the experience. Crouching to the floor, Ema could hear the magician’s high voice. Much like with Athena, Trucy’s reaction to shrinking made her excitement at the experience plain as day. It was actually a bit difficult to pick up her precise words, the way she was wildly rambling through what seemed to be every last thought in her head.

Smiling down at her two test subjects, Ema waited for them to calm down a bit before speaking up again.

“Hey!” she interjected once there was a pause. An idea had just occurred to her. “You two want to borrow this for a bit?” She indicated the device in her hand, waving it in place for a moment.

If it was possible, Trucy’s tiny face lit up even more.

“Absolutely!!” she exclaimed, looking back up at Ema from her spot just in front of her boot. “We can really have it…!?”

Ema nodded.

“On another couple of conditions. First, you’ve got to be more careful with it than anything else you’ve ever held in your entire life. Don’t treat it like a toy, and don’t break it. Second, please don’t mess with Apollo anymore. He could’ve died the last time he shrunk. Poor guy’s been through enough already.”

For the first time in the last few minutes, Trucy’s grin faded, replaced by a concerned frown.

“Wait. So what happened to Polly?”

Ema paused, unsure of whether she ought to explain.

“Um… just ask him about it, OK? He could tell you the story better than I could, and I’m not sure he’d want me to go sharing it around.” she responded instead.

“Uh, yeah… she’s right, Trucy.” Athena agreed. “From what Apollo told me, he had a really, really rough time of it.”

“Oh...” Trucy was looking deeply concerned by this point. She looked back up at Ema again. “Well, OK... Should we go back to normal now?”

“Ready!” Athena said. “I’m all fired up to try a few experiments myself!”

Ema nodded, backing up.

“OK, girls, just hold still again…”

Reversing the process was easy, even with two test subjects. Ema restored Trucy to her original height and Athena to her previously-increased size, and after taking a moment to check her device’s current remaining power, she dug two more of its power cells from her bag.

“OK,” she said, holding up the device in one hand and the cells in the other, “I’ll give you two a quick rundown of how the device works...”

The girls leaned in, eagerness plain on their faces.

With her explanation finished, Ema offered the Skye Device to Athena, who paused for a moment, both hands poised to grab it. Her wide, blue eyes flicked to and fro between it and Ema’s face for a second, and then she accepted her prize, a bright grin splitting across her face once more.

“Don’t forget these.” Ema said, dropping the power cells into Trucy’s waiting palms. “And one more time, just for my sanity: don’t go totally crazy with it, OK? No bullying Apollo, no shrinking anyone without their consent – actually, just don’t let anyone else know what it can do at all, if you can help it, OK?”

Athena and Trucy nodded.

“Got it.”

“Verstanden!”

With one last look between the pair of them, Ema was satisfied. She felt a bit sad to part ways with her greatest work, but she would be back for it soon enough.

“I’m gonna go out for a while,” she said, gesturing toward the door that led back downstairs, “Pick up some lunch, maybe shop a little – y’know, the works. You two should have at least a few hours to experiment.”

“Wunderbar! You can trust us, Ema!” Athena promised, flashing a bright smile. “You’ll get your device back in pristine condition!”

“Thanks so much, Ema! Have a good time, and we’ll see you later!”

Ema smirked. Trucy’s expression was fairly easy to read. She might have been a master performer, but recognizing when Trucy Wright had something devious in mind wasn’t difficult.

“Just don’t give me any reason to regret lending it to you, alright?”

“Never! Our experiments will be strictly above-the-board!” Athena promised.

[Total power trip, incoming!] chirped the synthesized voice of the A.I. computer dangling from her necklace, almost instantly after she’d finished speaking. Athena’s smile immediately cracked, and she clamped a hand over Widget’s casing.

“Can it, or I’m shrinking you, Widget. ... For science, of course.”

---

Mere seconds after Ema’s departure from the apartment, the girls were already exchanging ideas and excitedly planning out how they would put their new present to its best possible use.

Trucy looked over at the clock, near the apartment’s small kitchen table.

“Ooh. It’s time to go and get lunch...!” she said, dismayed. “I totally forgot that it’s my turn today!”

“Oh! Crap, that’s right!” Athena said. “Uh... should we wait until after lunch, then?”

“Athena, I can’t keep waiting!” Trucy replied. “This is way too exciting!”

“I know, right? But what should we do, then? If you’ve got to get out and grab lunch for everyone right away...”

Trucy’s face lit up once again.

“Well, why don’t we both go? You could shrink me again, and I’ll come with you!” she suggested. “I can sit in your pocket the whole time!”

Athena grinned. “Great idea! How small do you want to be?”

“Hmm...” Trucy folded her arms, tapping a fingertip against her chin as she thought it over. “A bit smaller than we were before would be best, I think. We don’t want anyone else spotting me, right?”

“Good point.” Athena agreed. She looked over the device, remembering Ema’s instructions as she examined its small screen. “... How does two or three inches sound?”

“Let’s do two.” Trucy answered. She took a step back. “I’m all set! Let ‘er rip!”

“Right!”

Athena readied the device, pointing it at her magician friend.

“Should we make this more official?” she wondered aloud. “Something like ‘commencing Skye Device test’?”

“Whatever you want.” Trucy said, shrugging. “Just shrink me already!”

“Here goes!”

One trigger-pull, and Athena was watching Trucy shrink right in front of her eyes. She hadn’t yet seen the effect on someone else without shrinking alongside of them, and she couldn’t help but break out in another enthusiastic grin at the sight of her magician friend dwindling all the way down to just a couple of inches on the floor. She lowered the device once the effect had stopped.

With a hiss, the drained power cell popped free of its housing on the device, clattering to the floor. Athena picked it up, pocketing it, and turned her attention back to Trucy. The girl was bigger than Apollo had been during his shrinking incident, but still unbelievably puny.

Once more, Trucy was staring up at a towering figure in front of her, Athena’s colossal boots settling a short distance away, at her sides. She craned her neck upward.

“Oh...”

Her face flushed a bit red as Athena inadvertently gave her a clear look straight up her ruffled yellow skirt. Averting her eyes, Trucy focused instead on the redhead’s face. Athena was crouching down toward her.

“How d’you feel, Trucy?”

Her voice was just as loud as Ema’s had been. Flashing a thumbs-up, Trucy called out, “Great! Ready to go whenever you are! Just be careful picking me up, OK?”

“Right...”

Athena hesitated slightly, her gloved right hand hovering near Trucy’s position. With noticeable caution, she slowly placed her index finger and thumb around Trucy’s sides and very lightly pinched.

Even with all of the excitement she was feeling, Trucy had to admit that it was a little bit frightening to be pinched off of the floor by a hand at least fifty times her size. She held mostly still, only adjusting her arms on top of Athena’s fingertips.

“That’s good!” she called out. Slowly, Athena rose back to her feet, carrying her along. Trucy shuddered a bit, feeling a mixture of excitement and mild panic at the distance the motion had suddenly placed between her and the apartment floor. She watched Athena’s movements, finding them both unnerving and impressive to witness. Sure, what she was doing was totally normal, but at this scale, it looked so much more difficult, and yet Athena was managing just as smoothly as ever. At the moment, her gigantic friend was idly tilting the Skye Device back and forth in her other hand.

“Uh... where am I gonna hide this...?” Athena wondered aloud. “I should’ve brought my bag up here...”

That was a bit of a problem. Trucy thought it over. If they were lucky, her dad would still be cleaning the toilet downstairs, but it wasn’t likely that he would take quite so long, even considering how thorough he liked to be about it.

“Just have to be quick, I guess...”

Trucy didn’t have any ideas, either. The little set of lockers where Athena kept her bag wasn’t too terribly far from the stairs, but no matter what the distance, keeping the device in her hand hidden would be a bit of a challenge.

“OK, hop in, Trucy!”

The hand carrying her moved, and Athena positioned Trucy in front of one of the pockets of her white blouse. Slipping carefully into the opening, Trucy felt slightly envious. Most of her clothing didn’t even have pockets. Their absence was something Athena had complained about in the past, and that she was very particular about when it came to buying clothes.

The pocket was quite spacious, thanks to Trucy’s new size. She slid down to its lowest point, making herself comfortable there.

“All set? I’ve got to get down to my locker in a hurry.”

She couldn’t really respond in any way that Athena would hear, so she just settled down in place as the towering redhead got moving.

It was easy to imagine how an experience like this could have been terrifying. Trucy didn’t know all the details, but from what she’d heard in the last few minutes, Apollo had been reduced to an even smaller size than her own current scale, and no one but him had even known about it. Sure, she was comfortably riding along in Athena’s pocket, taking in the impressive feeling of swaying along with her gigantic friend’s movements, but she didn’t like to imagine how this might have felt if Athena hadn’t known she was here. The way things were now, she felt safe, particularly with Athena.

Athena had arrived downstairs. Trucy listened, but for several seconds, the door leading back into the main office room stayed closed. That made sense. Athena was probably putting her hyper-sensitive hearing to use, listening in for herself, to determine whether or not Apollo was still alone in the room.

Finally, the door was eased open, and Trucy could spot a small portion of the office’s familiar interior through the flap of Athena’s pocket. Just as she was peering out, something appeared in her view, nudging the pocket shut. She wobbled on the spot, toppling onto her back as Athena suddenly began to move more quickly. She’d probably just covered up her pocket with a hand to keep her passenger safe, as well, then.

Athena hustled over to her locker, earning a curious glance from Apollo, but nothing else. Most fortunately, Mr. Wright didn’t seem to be out of the bathroom, yet. Apollo probably suspected something, but he wouldn’t make a scene.

Fiddling with her locker, Athena got it open and retrieved her shoulder bag in a hurry. Once she’d stowed the Skye Device safely away inside of it, she slipped it over her shoulder and let out a relieved sigh.

(Well, that was easy!)

The device was awfully large to keep in her bag, and it was probably going to be a bit uncomfortable against her side, but that was alright. As long as no one else spotted it, she was fine.

“Hey, Apollo?” she called out over her shoulder. “I’m gonna go and get lunch for everyone.”

Looking surprised, Apollo replied, “Didn’t you just go yesterday? It’s Trucy’s day today, right?”

“Uh, yeah, but...” She immediately regretted mentioning it. “Trucy’s working on something upstairs. I said I’d take care of it for her.”

Apollo didn’t look particularly convinced.

“You just twitched about seven separate times saying that.” he remarked, leaning back in his chair a bit. “What’re you two actually up to?”

“W-well, nothing bad!” Athena replied, frowning. “I’m just doing Trucy a favour.”

Apollo continued to watch her for a couple of seconds. He shrugged.

“OK. Not my business. Have fun, I guess?” he said. “If whatever you two were doing involves Ema’s crazy shrink ray, I don’t want to know about it.”

Athena twitched again. Apollo could be oblivious sometimes, but he was also entirely too damn perceptive at all the most inconvenient moments.

“Y-yeah, I’ll see you in a bit.” she said, making for the door. “Won’t take quite as long today, either!”

She needed to get out of the office before Mr. Wright finished up in the bathroom and started asking questions, too.

Outside, Athena got moving at a brisk pace, relieved to have made it with only minimal difficulties. She’d checked on Trucy just before leaving the building, finding her tiny friend to still be quite comfortable in her pocket.

As expected, her bag felt a bit awkward, thumping against her other side as she walked along. At least Mr. Eldoon’s noodle stand wasn’t far away.

All the way over, her mind was continuing to run wild with ideas for how she and Trucy might next experiment with the Skye Device, now that they had a few hours to hold onto it. Looking up at the buildings around her, Athena smirked, once more imagining the same thing she’d briefly thought of back in Ema’s office the previous day. With this device, she could enlarge herself way beyond the newly-increased size Ema had given her. In fact, they didn’t know of any actual limits the device had, so far. She imagined growing right past the heights of even the tallest buildings in the area, her voice echoing across this whole section of the city, and her boots slamming down with enough force to leave huge craters in the pavement, flattening any random obstacles unfortunate enough to get in her way.

(... Not that I’d actually do that, of course... it wouldn’t be safe at all, for one thing.)

Before long, she reached the familiar noodle stand. No one else was around at the moment, so once she’d placed her order, Athena headed over to a nearby bench, taking a seat. With a quick glance around to check that there wasn’t anyone approaching, she reached a hand into her pocket, positioning her fingers to let Trucy clamber up onto them. Trucy got the message, and Athena extracted her tiny friend from her pocket raising her up to her face for a chat.

“Hey! Comfy ride?” she inquired, keeping her voice down. She had two of her fingers extended, letting Trucy sit on the tips, her legs dangling downward.

“Way better than the bus!” Trucy said, a grin on her tiny face. “Mind carrying me around more often?”

Athena smiled. “As long as you’re this small, sure! Not that I couldn’t carry you anyway, but, y’know.”

For a brief moment, she thought she might have seen the faintest hint of a blush on Trucy’s little face.

“So, what d’you wanna try once we get back to the office?” she asked. “I’ll put you back to normal first, so you can eat with us, but any ideas after that?”

Trucy thought for a moment, swaying back and forth on the spot. Athena couldn’t help but smile at the sight. Her magician friend was a professional when it came to looking adorable.

“Well, like Ema said, we shouldn’t bully Apollo. I wouldn’t mind being taller like you, though! Daddy would totally get suspicious, but we can work something out, right?”

“Well, if anyone could convince him it’s normal, it’d be you, Truce.”

Trucy giggled. “Hope so!”

Athena turned on the bench, looking over toward the noodle stand. It probably wouldn’t be too much longer before their order was ready. She was about to say something else to Trucy, but had only just opened her mouth before...

“Oh! Hi, Athena!”

She felt her stomach flip over at the sudden and unexpected call, her mind processing several different things at once. Her thoughts crashed together like a train wreck, and unable to properly think about it, she tried to hastily hide Trucy from view without looking too conspicuous. Her pocket had been a bit far away, unfortunately, and with her tiny friend perched on her hand just in front of her, there had really only been once place close enough.

She turned back to face the owner of the familiar voice, her whole body going very stiff.

“Mhh...!”

Her voice came out as a helpless little squeak on the first attempt. She cleared her throat and tried again.

“H-hey, Maya!”

Of all the people who could’ve been visiting Eldoon’s Noodles at this exact time, it just happened to be Maya?

Indeed, Mr. Wright’s closest friend and former assistant was walking right toward her. She tried her best not to look shocked or suspicious. This proved quite the challenge, given what she’d just done to get Trucy out of sight. The tiny magician was tickling her already...

“How’s it going? Are you just grabbing lunch for everyone?” Maya inquired, coming to a stop in front of the bench.

Athena nodded. “Y-yep! It’s my day today.”

Maya didn’t seem to notice anything strange, at least.

“I was just coming over to see everyone, but I’m starving!” Maya went on. “I haven’t seen Mr. Eldoon in ages, either, so I took a quick detour.”

Trucy was very confused.

She was also very, very embarrassed. Right in the middle of her conversation with Athena, she’d faintly heard something that apparently caught her gigantic friend off-guard, because she’d suddenly been rushed into motion, all the noon-hour light around her disappearing at once as she was abruptly forced into a cramped and very soft crevice of some kind. Stuck there with her limbs awkwardly splayed around her, she’d needed a few seconds to process what had just happened.

Unless she was drastically mistaken, she’d just been stuffed down Athena’s shirt.

With one cheek pressed to a soft, warm wall, she could feel Athena’s breaths causing the entire space around her to shift gently against her whole body. She tried to wriggle a bit, but she couldn’t get particularly far. She was being held in place by what felt like twin mountains, Athena’s breasts squeezing gently in on her with enough force to keep her stuck in place, safely restrained.

And she was feeling embarrassed beyond belief.

Trucy loved being friends with Athena. Hanging out with her at the office every day was always a perfect way to keep life interesting and fun, Athena’s boundless energy and enthusiasm creating an electric mix with her own personality. But there was something else, too.

It was possible that Trucy also had a bit of a gigantic crush on her redheaded lawyer friend.

She couldn’t help it. Athena was just so fun, passionate, and smart, always coming into the office with a bright smile and enough energy to light the place up. The list of things Trucy admired about her went on for quite a while longer, but at the moment, she was finding it difficult to focus on pretty much anything but the fact that her entire body was currently being hugged on all sides by the redhead’s breasts.

She was certain that her face was flushed entirely red. Between her embarrassment and the naturally warm environment she’d been hidden away in, Trucy was burning up. Why had she been stuffed into here in the first place, exactly...?

Athena finally had an excuse to hop to her feet and exit the conversation with Maya when her noodle order was ready.

“Alright, I’ll see you at the office in a bit!” Maya said, smiling at her as she headed off to grab her order.

“Yep, I’ll see you then...!”

Athena hastily secured the four bowls of noodles from Mr. Eldoon, thanking him and making a quick departure.

She was doing all she could to force down a blush on her cheeks. There hadn’t been any time for her to find a better place to hide Trucy. Trying to stuff her back into her pocket would’ve been way too obvious, so her shirt had been about the only option.

Trucy’s wriggling was making her regret it. It tickled like crazy, and with her arms full at the moment, Athena couldn’t do anything about it.

(J-just get to the office right away!!)

She couldn’t exactly run, but a brisk walking pace was close.

The moment she got inside of the Wright Anything Agency’s entryway, Athena stopped, closing the door with her boot behind her and quickly setting the four bowls of noodles down on the floor.

Tugging her top away a bit, she fished Trucy back out from between her breasts, still feeling a distinct warmth all over her cheeks.

“I’m so, so sorry, Trucy...” she stammered, slumping against the wall in shame. “I-I just didn’t have any time to think...! Maya suddenly called out to me - there was no way I could get you back into my pocket without it looking weird, and... ugh...”

She buried her face in her other palm, her red hair drooping all around her fingers.

“U-um... i-it’s OK, Athena.”

She blinked. She had to still be blushing like crazy, but she glanced at the puny magician in her hand. Trucy was perched between a few of her fingertips, looking at her. She had a blush to match.

“Th-that was, um... w-well, it was still pretty comfy, at least.”

Athena had been expecting Trucy to be upset. It would’ve been totally understandable.

“... Really?” she inquired. “It must’ve been awfully warm. Your face is pretty red.”

“O-oh, um, yeah... I guess it is...!”

Athena sighed.

“Let’s just get you back to normal, OK?” she said. “I’ll bring you back upstairs, first.”

“S-sure.”

With Trucy securely tucked into her pocket once more, Athena returned to the office and dropped off the noodles. Briefly greeting Apollo and Mr. Wright, she jabbed a thumb toward the ceiling.

“Uh, Trucy’s still upstairs.” she lied. “I’m just gonna go and get her.”

“Sure.” Phoenix said, clearing away a few loose items from the table where the noodle bowls were now stacked. “Thanks, Athena.”

Apollo just gave her a mildly suspicious look as she headed for the door.

Back upstairs in the apartment, Athena retrieved Trucy again and set her down on the floor.

... Her chest still felt like it was being tickled a bit.

“OK, going up...!”

She activated the Skye Device again, and Trucy was rapidly returned to her normal size.

“Th-thanks...” the magician said, fiddling with her gloves a bit. “Wanna go and have lunch?”

Athena had just opened her mouth to respond when her cell phone suddenly went off. A muffled ringtone was issuing from inside her other pocket. When she dug it out, she saw Ema’s name flashing on the screen.

“Oh!”

She answered the call.

“Hey, Ema! What’s up?” she asked.

“Hey, Athena...” Ema grumbled. She certainly hadn’t sounded so irritated just a little while ago, when she’d been here in the Wrights’ apartment. “So, I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news, I guess, is that you two get to play around with the Skye Device for a while longer than I thought.”

“Oh...! Uh... great! Why, though?”

“Because work decided to be a pain in my ass and call me in to ‘confirm’ some stuff about my evidence report on Dr. Loft’s original prototype.” Ema answered. “That part’s the bad news, but I guess it really only applies to me.”

Athena frowned. “On your day off? Seriously?”

“I know, right? Stupid machine’s just going to be sitting there in the lockup all weekend anyway, so they could’ve just told me on Monday.” Ema responded, still sounding tremendously annoyed. A distinct sound of crunching followed as she no doubt bit into several Snackoos. Ema’s favourite chocolate-covered snack food was never far away when she was in a bad mood. “Anyway, I’m not gonna be near your office again today without taking an extra half-hour’s drive, so you might as well just hold onto the device until tomorrow. I can catch up with you then.”

“Well, OK.” Athena said, thinking ahead. “... I might just be at home tomorrow, but I’ll keep in touch and let you know.”

“Sure. Don’t do anything crazy or put anyone in danger, alright? Thanks.”

With that, Ema hung up. Athena couldn’t exactly blame her for not wanting to bother with a “goodbye”.

[Just like everyone in the movies!] Widget chirped.

“Um... what’s going on?” Trucy asked.

Athena stowed her phone away, explaining the reasons for Ema’s call in shortened form.

“Oh, cool!” Trucy exclaimed, her usual grin finally returning. She wasn’t blushing anymore, either. “We’d better make sure to put it to good use, then!”

Athena nodded, smiling as well. She pulled the device from her bag again, brandishing it at her side.

“Plenty more to do in a whole day, isn’t there?”

“You know it!” Trucy said, beaming.

Indeed, the imaginations of both girls were already running wild with new ideas. There would certainly be plenty more to do, with the Skye Device on hand for the time being.