As the three menancing bladed fierce metal monsters descended on the colony, everything ran amuk. The citizens took cover, Leah ducked behind Spark who looked both befuddled and upset at this sudden occurence. Daniella, the fairy warrior predictably drew out her sword to battle this new threat. And Mark? Well, he was off cowering somewhere as usual.
Lexi clung to Mara a bit and shook her head
"You son of a bitch ..." Lexi growled as the blades drew closer, protruding from the orb shaped body of the drone as it approached. "You can take me, but you'll never take ..."
Lexi then glanced over to notice her arms were vacant. Where Mara rested just previously was now an empty spot. "Huh?"
To her shock (although the list of things that shocked her seemed to shrink faster than she did by the day) she'd look up and see her toga-clad companion proudly standing atop the robot as if it were a tabletop at a night club, tapping her sandaled feet with glee on its smooth surface.
"Ah, ye didn't know Mara had tricks, eh, lassie?" Mara winked
"D-Did you just become a leprecaun?" Lexi asked, confused as she stifled a giggle, watching Mara fearlessly atop the floating drone
"Aye, tis just a thing, I think..." Mara responded, her Irish accent deteriorating by the moment although she seemed oddly safe where she was, as long as her feet, torso and rest of her small body stayed clear of the blades. Even at normal size, these things would be a pain to deal with since they were basically flying saucers with buzzsaws on their circumferences.
"So you can teleport, huh?" Lexi asked, still backing away as the other 2 drones were beginning to flank her and the others. "Anything else?"
"I make a mean appletini" Mara winked, her accent all but gone, but so was her balance as she yelped, falling on her butt due to the robots sudden movement. Lexi would let out a squeaky scream as she watched her friend plummet towards those murderous blades but she'd thankfully teleport back to ground level, looking strangely calm for a woman who just stared death in the eye.
"Miss me, luv?" Mara asked with a smile before looking more serious, "is this the uh ... science freak you mentioned?"
"Kind of ..." Lexi sighed, "he thinks he's such a big shot but he rarely comes to face me by himself ... seems he prefers to send clunky looking robots after me..."
To Lexi's surprise though, despite the blades the robots weren't going all out on the offensive. Instead, she'd see green lasers scoping out the area, as if to lay out some kind of virtual map. They'd hover around, sending shrieks of terror through the fluid crowd as it moved away from their path. Whether they were meant to intimidate or not, they had to go. Plus, scrapping Mad Max's toys was quickly becoming a hobby for the rambunctious young Alexis Cole.
However, she'd take a glance across the way to see Leah and Spark taking a sprint towards what they hoped would be safety in the form of Spark's tree stump shaped home where the drone robot was dipping dangerously close to chopping the small abode down. Spark would back away and lift a small forcefield of sparks from her fingertips as an effort to hold the drone off. The advancing robot would get ensnared in the grid of sparkles like a butterfly trapped in a net but it pushed hard, its thrusters threatening to break the spell.
"Will that hold?" Leah asked, worried
"I ... don't know" Spark shook her head.
Thankfully, a battle ready Dani leapt from a lower vantage point, her legs firmly planted to give her a decent enough lift so that she jumped high into the air, her own wings also aiding in propelling her to the heights required to come crashing down on the drone's metallic surface, serving up some steel of her own in the form of her long fairys dagger which pierced the drones surface. The disabled drone would begin to turn on its side as if it were a capsizing boat as Dani continued to drive the dagger in. Spark took this opportunity to gently cast the drone downward before any harm could befall her house.
"Leah!" Lexi shook her head, looking worried as she sprinted up and hugged her best friend, "I'm so glad you're both okay!"
"Yeah ... how'd these things track us? I thought the fairy colony was invisible basically..." Leah asked
"Maybe machines can see things people can't?" Lexi asked
"N-No, that shouldn't matter..." Spark answered, pensively putting a finger to her chin.
In the not so distant background, Dani could be seen having slaughtered the metal beast through the strength of her own sword, sparks emitting from its fallen husk while she kept hacking and slashing away.
"Um... Dani?" Spark chimed in, "I think it's dead ... or whatever the machine equivalent of death is"
"It will PAY for invading this safest of sanctuaries" Dani screamed, driving one more blow through the center of the robots remains as if to make some kind of point. Lexi looked on in concern, hoping the other 2 drones could be disposed of as easily, before they caused more real damage to the colony. Of course, it would be possibly to enlarge herself and her friends but then that would also put the colony in danger so as it was, they'd have to fight this menace at their current size.
At that moment, a large foot would gently lower itself just outside the outskirts of the grassy plain the group stood in. In reality, the foot was likely a few feet away but it seemed much closer than that due to scale. Lexi would look up and gasp, "Chris?" she'd squeak
"Oh yeah, forgot to mention that part..." Leah sighed
Mara would also nod, looking up and waving, "Heya Chris!"
"...what, does like every human know each other?" Spark commented very matter of fact
Lexi gave a sort of nervous shrug with a goofy grin. It was rather serendipitous even if it was detrimental to her secret identity. She'd look up at Chris with a raised brow, "h-how do you even see this place?"
"Sorry, had to see this for myself" Chris smiled smugly, leaning down a bit, "the colony, yes but also you ... Lexi... or is it Alexis?"
"Lexi is fine" Lexi shrugged, only hearing the latter from more formal acquaintances.
"So it's true ..." Chris nodded, "well whatever those things are... you need to like ... do whatever you did to Leah and smallify me"
"I'm sorry what?" Lexi raised an eyebrow in skepticism.
"Shrink me" Chris said, looking a bit nervous to say it, "because unless the fairies suddenly invented a shrink ray, I'm pretty sure you're the one made Leah fairy sized"
"Yeah, I may have ... mentioned your name?" Leah shrugged, looking equally as socially awkward as Chris and Lexi felt at that moment, hoping her best friend wouldn't be too angry about her spilling the beans. Then again, such social transgressions could likely be overlooked in the face of immediate danger.
"I don't know about this, Chris" Lexi squeaked, "I mean, I'm sure you mean well, but we're dealing with..."
Chris would simply raise his hand in response, pointing towards the sky while Lexi, Leah, Spark and Mara watched in awe while he conjured up a fireball that faded into the night sky. The crew would exchange glances and nod.
"I want him on my team" Mara would giggle
"Fine, you're hired..." Lexi sighed and squeaked, "I'm not even sure how this works though, I don't know if I can shrink people while I'm already small ... I didn't even know I could shrink people until..."
"Oh for fucks sake, just shrink him!" Leah blurted out, before covering her mouth and looking sincerely sorry, "um... please, Lexi dearest?"
Lexi would just smirk and take a slow step forward, touching Chris' shoe but nothing would happen.
"He isn't shrinking." Dani would say, sort of matter of factly, her stoic attitude sometimes coming off as facetious, "maybe you're not casting the magic right"
"It's not magic, I don't know how it happens!" Lexi snapped a bit
"Okay ... okay Lex, just calm down, hon" Leah pouted
"Ugh, this is stupid!" Lexi shook her head, walking away from Chris as she seemed suddenly resigned, "I can't shrink people, I can't just do all these amazing things you think I can, I'm not ... ShrinkGirl, I'm just ... A Girl..."
"Lex..." Leah would whisper softly, "close your eyes"
"Hmm?" Lexi would ask, her anger momentarily tamed as she looked back
"Just hold out your hand and close your eyes..." Leah smiled
"Last time I did that you..."
"Okay, nobody needs to know our whole history..." the suddenly panicked Leah stuttered, before putting her hand atop the shoulder of her best friend, "now please... just do it... and preferably fast because I don't know how long those drones will go before they come looking over here again"
"Okay..." Lexi sighed and nodded, trying not to seem dismissive towards her best friend. She just had a lot on her mind and she highly doubted whatever Leah was about to say or do would help her recenter herself as she ... suddenly felt a piece of medal in her hand. It was cold to the touch but extremely detailed. She let her fingers glide along its surface for several moments, with no idea what it was exactly she was feeling.
"Open your eyes Lex..." Leah said, the smile on her face growing as she imagined her best friends reaction to the sight.
Lexi opened her eyes and slowly opened her hand like a blossoming tulip. There inside lay the shiny medallion with edges of gold set on a shimmering purple backdrop. The edges would encroach around the inset purple, clearly spelling out the letters SG in the middle. There was no way that what Lexi was looking at was real and yet she could tangibly feel it in her hands and see it with her eyes. She'd stare again for a longer period of time while Chris took a cautious step back.
"If this is like a... private moment... I could ... come back?" Chris asked, bewildered completely as the last thing he knew he was about to be shrunk but was instead watching, and having a very hard time making out, the gift being bestowed to the tiny Alexis Cole who preferred to be called Lexi.
"This is ..." Lexi nodded, tears of joy welling in her eyes, Leah shared in her elation, "this is ... the ... the..."
"That thing's awesome!" Mara smirked, looking up the purple and gold medallion bearing the SG logo and clean crisp lettering
"I should also mention" Spark smiled, stepping forward, "I've endowed it with a good amount of fairy magic, so it will grow and shrink with you and is also immune to dark magic of any kind so ... yeah, just make sure to have it on you, yknow... just in case you run across any witches"
"I... I don't know what to say..." Lexi stammered. This was the missing piece her "costume" needed. She could now be ShrinkGirl, albeit maybe not right that instant as she was still in her purple dress and had nowhere to properly install what was meant to be the iconic belt buckle. Instead though she could feel her confidence returning as she nodded and walked up to Chris.
"You know what?" the reinvigorated Lexi said, "I CAN do this ... because I am SHRINKGIRL!"
The others would cheer a bit, except for Dani who still looked a bit confused, but supportive nonetheless.
Lexi would take a couple steps forward, cracking her knuckles, the goofy grin blazing across her face perhaps brighter than it had in some time. She touched Chris' shoe again but upon noticing it wasn't taking effect, she'd hoist herself up, rather presumptiously onto the top of the shoe and walk up towards his ankle, nodding as she looked up
"May I?" she squeaked, asking for permission. Chris would politely nod
With that, the heroic ShrinkGirl would focus hard on applying her shrinking ability on the young elemental wizard watching as her mental power allowed the result to manifest itself physically, bringing Chris down slowly, even more shockingly with his clothes intact, much to the dismay of a frustrated Leah who simply threw her hands up in frustration, taking a few paces away from the scene.
"Oh sure, HE gets to keep his clothes!" Leah scoffed in her squeaky little voice
"Hey I'm still learning this shit" Lexi smirked a bit, hopping back a good amount to allow Chris to finish his shrinking at around the same 5 inches the rest of the party stood at.
And so, there they were, Lexi, best friend Leah, college geek turned elemental wizard Chris, new fairy allies Spark and Dani, and coworker/elf Mara assembled just outside the stumplike house of Spark, who looked worriedly towards the plaza where the havoc was still ongoing, with 2 Enormo Enterprises drones scanning the area. Lexi still found it curious that the robots were, for the most part, not malignant. They were simply scouting the area but they were bound to cause some damage with those sharp rigid sawblades as they continued to spin.
"So uh..." Chris started to say, simply dumbfounded to now be standing eye level to Spark and the others, "This is uh ... a thing you do?" he'd direct the latter question to Lexi
"We can sort that all out later" Dani interuppted, pointing her sword towards the heavens and taking a bounding leap towards the plaza
"She's right, let's go!" Lexi would begin, while Leah tapped her shoulder, looking a bit worried, "Hm?"
"W-Well ... I'm just not sure I can really .. do anything, yknow? I don't have any cool shrinking powers or a sword or ... whatever the hell it was Chris just did" Leah shrugged
"If you feel like you're in danger, I completely understand you wanting to sit this out..." Lexi nodded in all seriousness but Leah was quick to stop her
"Oh no, I didn't mean that, I just meant ... tell me what I can do" Leah smirked, taking her friends hand
"Let's rock" Lexi giggled, charging into the battle alongside the others
"For Fensteria!!" Dani would shriek, leaping up to meet one of the drones with her sword but her jump wasn't going to achieve the desired height and her sword would be struck with the blunt and repetitive force of the saw blades, stumbling her back onto her knees, the sword looking a bit worse for wear. Chris would look on in concern as the same robot would come charging in to get a better look at Dani, and worse yet, potentially lascerate her.
"Hey!" Chris yelled out, not sure her name but just trying to get her attention. Dani's head snapped in his direction and she nodded, awaiting his next words, "Hold the sword up... I have an idea"
Dani would follow the instructions and Chris would focus deep, knowing he only had one chance to achieve his next goal, creating a ball of flames in his hand which he would hurl like a fastball towards the waiting Dani who'd reflect said fireball at just the right angle to repel the drone temporarily while Chris ran around it from the side, hoping to flank it while his hands were sparking and twitching with electrical energy.
Meanwhile, ShrinkGirl waved to one of the drones in a teasing manner, hoping to maybe draw it away from a gathering of scared citizens that it was scanning with its green laser beam which seemed to shift left, right, up and down. Lexi would look a tad offended that her distraction didn't quite work.
"Need a lift, luv?" Mara would wink, poofing beside the frustration Lexi
"Hey!" Lexi giggled "You really gotta warn a girl before you do that!"
The drone would finally spin around very slowly to focus on Lexi and Mara.
"Well?" Mara repeated, holding her hands out
"Heh, go for it" Lexi smirked, jumping up and shrinking herself into Mara's hand. Mara would take just a quick look at her cute tinier than tiny friend before hurling her carefully up towards the advancing foe, making sure she cleared the blades with ease. Lexi would land atop the drone, growing back in the process, and then some, making herself about 3 feet tall so that she could easily trounce the bot under her weight.
Lexi would soon shrink down to avoid causing even more of a panic, giving Mara a high five as there were only 2 robots remained in play, one of which was damaged already thanks to the barrage of attacks from the combined efforts of Dani and Chris.
"So you are also a size changing mage of some kind?" Dani asked, in between bouts
"Eh, something like that ... minus the size changing ... it's complicated" Chris replied as the 2 drones would simply converge on their location staying fairly still, just floating a decent distance overhead and both casting their green biometric lasers as if they were spotlights. "Wh-What's with the laser light show? Like if they're going to hurt us, go for it but this is just ... odd..."
"Perhaps some kind of fact finding effort on their part?" Dani wondered out loud, "a way to analyze us for weaknesses... well I shan't give them the time!"
With that, Dani charged into battle while Chris remained still a moment more, a most poignant observation on his mind as she charged off, "Huh. You don't hear too many people use the word 'shan't' anymore..." he'd utter
Chris would turn and notice the drones were doing a decent amount of damage to the festival decorations as well as parts of buildings, since most buildings were made of firm soil or tree bark. The saw blades were more or less perfect for demolishing such things, not to mention the fatal implications if they were to strike any human, fairy or elf in the vicinity. Chris would sigh, his hands sparking with electricity as he chased down Drone #2. Dani was trying, similar to how Lexi just had to draw its attention away but the Drone was floating too high for her to reach and again seemed unengaged in combat, only drawing further suspicion from the stoic female knight.
Chris decided to take matters into his own electrified hands yelling, "Look out Dani!"
With that, he casted a lightning spell which struck one drone hard, and he watched as it tumbled to the ground sparking before finally giving off a fireball of a spark in an over the top explosion. He'd quickly manipulate the moisture in the air to throw an ice spell on it, neutralizing the fire before it could intensify, then looking a bit smug.
"Now then, wasn't that "shocking"?" Chris smirked, but then noticed nobody was around to hear his heroic quip, "oh sure, everyone else got one..."
There seemed to be only one drone left at the moment and it was almost making its getaway but Leah and Spark had other ideas.
"You sure about this?" Spark asked as the drone was tearing through the promenade at an alarming pace, the 2 girls seeming to have a plan as the drone approached a long stretched out banner advertising the Fensteria Valentines Festival.
"Not really, but let's do it!" Leah quipped, jumping up and allowing Spark to grab her hand and fly her up a bit, dropping her gently at one end of the banner while Spark glided over towards the other.
The 2 ladies would pull the banner taught attempting to impede the slow moving drone but even at its speed it would manage to yank the duo who struggled to hold the banner and entangled drone still. Luckily, an attentive Mara was on the job.
"Huh? Oh right!" Mara eeped, just noticing the developing situation. She'd teleport herself on top of the drone and knock on it a few times, a clanging akin to that of someone tapping on a trash can emerging as her fingertips made contact with its cold steel exterior, "hey, bozo, anyone home in there?"
She's giggle before realizing her taunting may have gone on for too long, the drone now approaching a low tunnel that would threaten to lop off the red head's body if she didn't act quick, she'd stumble back, about to teleport but her balance had other ideas, sending her careening backwards, her foot kind of kicking the top of the drone to stay upright, before slipping just enough to grab hold of the robots rudder and steer it into the top of the tunnel. She'd let go in the nick of time, landing on her butt, taking a bit of a tumble but at least she wouldn't suffer the fate of the drone which scraped the top of the tunnel, now sparking as it remained ensnared in the taught banner. Spark and Leah both looked confused as all hell while trying to help Mara.
"H-How did you...?" Leah asked
"Eh, I'm what you call dumb lucky" Mara shrugged, seeming amazingly okay with the fact she had narrowly avoided death on a couple occasions just then.
Lexi meanwhile scampered over to await the hobbled Enormo drone on the other side of the tunnel as it wobbled through, its navigation systems shot, she'd simply scowl and crouch a bit, in an offensive attack position and waiting to pounce. Just as the wayward drone whirred overhead, she'd shrink for a moment to position herself below the assailant and then launch a strong uppercut whilst regaining some size.
The resulting attack would succeed in jarring the robots sensors loose and it would also wobble terminally into a tree trunk before sparking a bit, but not before ejecting something ... a small cube with what looked like a camera on it, a detail Lexi only noticed upon closer examination.
She'd look up angrily at the buzzing camera box, it about the size of a mousquito to her but before she could go much further, she'd hear the screams of a family of fairies as they fled their now blazing home, the result of the drone crash.
"Shit" she'd whisper to herself, lending aid to the fairies.
Chris and the others would be over shortly, Chris conjuring up some temporary rain to put out the fire while Lexi made sure nobody was seriously hurt. The three fairies who had been inside the house seemed grateful although one of them had a bent wing from having been pinned under a piece of tree bark that was dislodged as a result of the crash.
"I'm so sorry you guys..." Lexi whimpered, addressing the fairy family, an older woman and her two sons. "I tried to keep them away from civilians..."
"You didn't know ..." the mother fairy sighed, "I'm just glad my boys are okay"
The young ones in turn would nod gratefully, also smirking at Chris and thanking him for putting out the fire. Chris would offer a small smile in comfort, despite not feeling the most happy about how things worked out, despite the vistory.
Lexi let out a dejected sigh as Dani caught up to them next, her armor rattling in the distance to give her impending approaching away.
"Did we drive off the mechanical threat?" Dani asked
"We did" Lexi nodded, "right now, we need to focus on assessing damages and ..."
"There will be time for that later" Dani responded, swiftly interuppting the purple clad heroine, "We are all very grateful for what you have all done here tonight ... and though things looked dire, I was able to fire up the flummox again"
"Meaning...?" Lexi asked, a bit forgetful and confused when it came to some of the fairy terminology
"The colony should be well under magic cloak again..." Dani nodded, "I'm not sure what happened but somehow those things were able to track us because the cloak was deactivated"
"The flummox?" the mother fairy chimed in, having overheard the details, "no, that's impossible ... the Fenestria Flummox has protected our colony for generations, nothing could ever stop its energy or put out its light"
"I know ..." Dani responded, nodding solemnly, "I just ... I checked on the tower while you were fighting off the last of the drones ... I couldn't find Esmerelda anywhere and the Flumox had been taken out of its altar, which caused the cloak to fail..."
"That's ... bad, right?" Chris asked, about as familiar with the lore as Lexi at this point
"It's very bad" Dani sighed, "but things are settled for now ... I'll work on finding Esmerelda but ..."
Right on cue, there was a loud announcement emenating from the square. To Dani's relief, the voice was that of none other than Esmerelda, although her exact message was unclear from their distance. She was simply glad the leader fairy was okay.
"Attention all Fenestria..." Esmerelda boldly declared, "the threat is extinguished thanks to the valient efforts of our fairy force..."
"Gee, I feel kinda forgotten about..." Lexi grumbled, to which she got a playful elbow by Chris as the gang had walked up closer to hear the announcement.
"...I know many of you are frightened ... understandably so ... this is the second attack on our colony in a short time, but we knew we wouldn't be safe forever ... and we also know that we are strongest when we are together. Only be uniting tonight were we able to drive back the threat and in continuing to do so, we will be even stronger against future threats ..."
The crowd was hushed but full of nodding fairies and some who were even eager to applaud their leaders' strong message.
"...that said, it is still our annual Fenestria Valentine's Day Festival... we have worked hard, we have some great enertainment here and I think it would be best, for those who are still willing to do so ... that we carry on this wonderful tradition ... and we do not allow ourselves to be scared away by those who may do us harm..."
After a short pause, the crowd erupted into cheering. Many of them throwing their hands up in victory while others began resetting spotlights and getting things in place to resume the celebration. Small fireworks again exploded in the suddenly quiet night sky, yet something still didn't sit right with Lexi.
The threat had been averted but at what cost? And what was the meaning of that strange camera she saw??
Giantess World
