Before they could finish exploring the part of the area they were assigned to, Sena and Mio returned back from the way they came. Mio was slumped over on Sena’s shoulders, with the girl using her incredible gall to carry her friend around until she could find a place for the two of them to take a breather. With Taion having the camping gear, Manana rushed ahead to find the others so she could start preparing a meal for them all to regain their strength. With no campground yet, the tired group had to keep pushing a little longer.
“Need…wa’ah…” Mio’s raspy voice muttered. She hated the heat, so knowing she had to come out here for the mission didn’t excite her, and this was the reason why. Sena, on the other hand, didn’t mind the heat at all, but the weight of having to drag her best friend around across the uneven sand was starting to get to her.
“Just a little longer, Mimi…Manana will get you something soon. Just hang in there.” Sena proclaimed in a cheerful manner, keeping up hope for both of their sake. They didn’t have to travel that far past the camp, however, as just up ahead was a flat boulder right next to a cactus. The cliffs behind the setting provide an ample amount of shade, perfect for Mio to cool her head for a moment. In just a few more steps, the two of them arrived, with Sena helping her friend down first before taking her seat right beside her.
“Mmm…thanks, Sena.” Mio drowsily stated, slowly gaining her energy back. She stretched her arms out and forward, almost as if she could take a nap right here. But sleeping on a rock would cause more problems later. While Mio was getting refreshed, Sena bent over, tugging on her friend’s boots.
“Here, let’s get these off, too. That should make things easier on you.” Sena said as she pulled off Mio’s right boot, setting it off to the side. She reached over for the other one as well, repeating the process so her best friend’s stocking-clad feet could air out. Once that was taken care of, Sena turned back towards herself, doing the same thing for her own shoes as well. Although Sena took great care not to get her friend’s footwear too dirty, she wasn’t that particular about her own getting messed up, causing her right shoe to end up turned over on its side. Once all that was taken care of, the two girls stretched their legs out, enjoying the most of this little breather that they can. “Don’t worry, Mimi. Everything will be alright!”
Down in Colony µ, things were starting to take a turn for the worse. The air, which was once pleasant from the sandy breeze, was immediately overtaken by a strong, musky scent in the blink of an eye. The sky grew even dark as well, as four black walls eclipsed their whole camp, that also seemed to have intensified the atmosphere around them even harder. The whole army of twenty-thousand men and women was quickly taken aback from how powerful this new foe was, but after raising their heads from that quick intoxication, they all steeled themselves, gripping their weapons even tighter, ready to take action.
Leeda crossed his arms, standing behind his troops as he stared up at the monolithic towers before him. It had been a while since the camp had faced such a threat. Normally, the strongest enemies his soldiers ever faced was a stray ant, and even that was an imposing titan compared to them. High above, the tops of these pillars wiggled back and forth, thus showing that there was some sentience to this new creature. But Leeda didn’t get to be the commander for nothing. When faced with a crisis, it was up to him to guide his troops to victory. And this was no exception.
“Colony µ, our new enemy may look threatening. But don’t let that strike fear into your hearts. Our foes can sense that, and we don’t want that. Our only weaknesses is our size. So let’s give this sucker a true showing of our heart and might!” Leeda roared into the crowd, quickly followed by shouts and chants of approval coming from the rest of the army. “Now roll out! Show no mercy!” The commander hollered, giving the signal for the rest of the colony to march forward. Some were on foot, while others were controlling Levnises for more firepower. Noah, smiled, also boosted by the speech given from the colony’s commander, but then his eyes widened as he realized something very important. Those dark pillars were no ordinary pillars. All of them had such intricate designs that almost looked like they were woven. Between the stitches, he also realized something else…a second layer hidden beneath. Two of them were pale, while the other two looked more tan. Noah gasped, putting the pieces together as he took a few steps forward in desperation.
“Wait, stop!” Noah cried out, but it was too late. The colony had no reason to listen to an outsider, and they were already too riled up in combat, doing their best to defend their home turf.
In only just a few short moments after taking a break, Mio had almost regained all her energy back. Her breathing vamped up to normal, and the ears on top of her head perked back up. She smiled and turned her head to face her friend, unconsciously lowering her left foot down on the ground beneath her.
“Thanks Sena, I don’t know what I’d do without you. And the rest of you all for that matter too.”
The army of Colony µ already arrived at the base of one of those towers, hitting it with everything they got. But all the blades and firepower they had weren’t even enough to put it a dent in one of the fibers of this incredible being. As they were fighting, Noah raced over to Leeda’s side, frantically placing his hand on the commander’s shoulder.
“Call them off. That’s our friends Mio and Sena they’re fighting!” Noah exasperated, trying his best to save everyone. But it was too late. Before Leeda could make the call, the wall before them all swiftly came down on top of them. Even though they all were small enough to fit between the fibers of the stocking, mixed that with the sweat the massive Mio built up over the course of the day and the obvious millions of tons of weight being applied, the entire army was wiped out in an instant from an unsuspecting girl’s foot. Leeda just stared, not knowing what to say. All of his allies were gone just like that, and after he gave that powerful battle cry too. This whole time, he felt that his colony was invincible if they can survive that long with that big of a handicap against them. But it was foolish to think that now, as that one display of action showed just how truly weak he was. Lanz was the one who stepped up next, placing his hand on the unoccupied shoulder of the downtrodden commander.
“I’m sorry, mate. If only we saw that sooner, we could have stopped this whole thing.” Lanz apologized, taking responsibility for this to mend the wound a bit. But Leeda stepped forward, freeing his body from the hands grasping at him. He turned his head to the ground and sniffled before turning around, facing the other two men in the face.
“So those are your allies, huh? I apologize for holding you up like this. I’ll show you the way back so you can rejoin your allies. I don’t want you lot to suffer the same fate I just had to witness.” Leeda spoke, his tone more somber than before. He had seen loss before on the battlefield, but nothing like this.Without saying anymore, he turned and walked towards a different part of the camp, with Noah and Lanz following right behind.
The colony was now a complete mess, not including the massacre that just happened. Tons of heavy machinery and and light posts were all turned over from the tremendous shockwave of Mio’s foot simply touching the ground. Repairs would take forever now, especially given the lack of manpower the colony now had. All that remained was Leeda, as well as the few troops who were stuck in the emergency bay too sick or injured to fight. What was once a flourishing population was struck down to less than twenty. The commander is charge of the diminished colony took the two small Ouroboros members into a tent filled with all sorts of high-powered technology and nifty gadgets that other colonies could only dream of operating. Leeda approached a computer in the back, only to be met by a disappointed sigh.
“Well…the bad news is that earthquake your friend gave us knocked out a bunch of bolts and components from our teleporter. So I’m afraid I can’t get you boys back for now.” Leeda’s voice grew deeper with each new word, his body constantly filling up with every new failure thrown his way.
“So you’re saying we’re stuck like this? How long is it gonna take to fix?” Lanz asked, preventing himself from raising his voice as a sign of sympathy for the commander. While the two of them talked back and forth about the intricacies of such a device, Noah was thinking to himself of a new plan. Soon enough, he did as he tapped into his Iris to try and contact Mio and Sena once more, but still nothing happened. Curiously, he turned his attention to Leeda, cutting off their conversation.
“You were able to get in contact with us, right? But no matter how much I try I can’t get to them even though they’re right beside us.” This questioning from Noah caused Leeda to raise an eyebrow, impressed by such a sharp eye. The commander moved over to the side of the room and dug into a toolbox, pulling out two little antenna-like devices that are shaped to fit around the ear.
“These are Iris Extenders. As you can guess, our engineer made these too. With these, the signal you can cast becomes a lot stronger.” Leeda explained, putting a device on each of the other two’s ears. “They also act as a sensor or some sorts. As long as you keep those on your bodies, those you’re in contact with can detect where you are.” With the explanation given, Noah and Lanz step outside, ready to try out this new tool of theirs. Both of them activated their Irises, trying once more to get in touch with their looming friends close by.
“Mio, Sena…can you hear me?” Noah asked, hoping to get an answer this time.
Sena and Mio just watched the world around them go by as they continued their extended break from their mission. It was taking everyone else a long time to find what they came here for, making the two of them start to wonder if it was true this whole thing was a prank. But no one had said anything yet. But just then, the two girls jumped as they both got a call from their leader.
“Yeah, we can. Is everything alright?” Mio asked, a bit concerned. If it was a prank like they were starting to believe, then maybe this was about Moebius after all. But her fear turned to confusion as Noah spoke more.
“This may sound like a weird question, but can you two see anything by your feet?”
“Uhh…” Sena spoke up, now puzzled as well by whatever was going on. But the two girls know that Noah wasn’t the type to make jokes, so they followed his instructions and looked down at the ground. Through the Iris, both of them spotted two, glowing red dots down in front of Mio’s toes. “Yeah, we see something…but what is it?”
“Don’t be alarmed. But it’s us.” Lanz responded. “We shrunk, and it’s a long story.”
“For now, can you lower your fingers? We can talk more later when we’re not stuck down here.” Noah finished up. The two girls looked at each other and nodded silently. If what they said was true, then they needed help more than ever. Bending over, the two girls lowered their arms down, palms turned over face up as close as they could to the two dots without actually overlaying their nails on top of one another. Through their eyes, the dots were about as small as a period. But Noah and Lanz were much, much smaller than that, meaning it looked like those dots down below were hardly making any progress towards their digits.
Finally after all the tribulations the two men had gone through, they let out a sigh of relief, glad that they were no longer invisible to their allies. They split off for the time being, with Noah approaching the pale finger and Lanz taking the tan one. But one more obstacle waited for them. Each of their nails were incredibly thick and tall compared to the microscopic men. It was like scaling an entire cliff side with how rough and jagged it looked. But that didn’t stop either of them as both of them grabbed hold of the minuscule uneven surfaces that couldn’t be detected at a normal size. The two titanic ladies stayed motionless, staring down at their fingertips as those two red dots.
“Um…are you two alright?” Sena asked, worried about their friends as the sheer size discrepancy was difficult to judge.
“Totally fine. Just…this is a much tougher morning workout than usual…” Lanz panted, only halfway up the edge of the nail by now. As Sena was more of a brute than her best friend, her hands were more course, making those minute imperfections more amplified for the tiny musclehead. Noah, however, struggled a bit more as he lacked the muscles of his best friend - but also the fact that Mio was more careful with her appearance, making her nails more prim, thus less ridges to grab onto.
It was a tough climb, but several minutes later and both of them had made it to the surface of the nailbed, now surrounded by huge boulders of dirt also larger than them. It was a new experience being this size, but still neither of them faltered now. This was a sign of hope.
“Okay, we’re ready to go now.” Noah signaled, allowing the two behemoths of slowly stand back up, steadily raising their hands along the way until their fingers were parallel with their bodies. The two mites held on tight at the sudden change of elevation, taking extra care to not get thrown off now. Off in the distance, the two girls could see Manana cooking. The others were also out somewhere in the desert too. Wanting to keep this a secret for now, both of them gathered their boots and fastened them back on with their free hands and headed west, trying to find a place to hide out, and figure out what to do next.