“Heya big bro! Still working on that thing you got in the mail the other day, huh?”

You lifted your safety goggles and looked over at the door, seeing your eleven year old little sister at the office door, peeking in. She was wearing her old school’s soccer uniform, silvery shorts and a blue, short sleeve top with the number 13 on it, and a pair of old socks, dropping her shoes in the doorway as she started tying her long, black hair into a ponytail. Becky was the type of tomboy to always complain about her hair getting stuck to her face any time she got sweaty, to the point she asked mom to give her a haircut so she could have super short bangs. Unfortunately mom hated how little Becky acted like a girl, and Becky had always been super thin and looked rather boyish, and being a late bloomer she’d only started to enter puberty - so mom insisted she keep her long hair until she was older. 

You sighed and rubbed your own hair back in frustration. “Yeah… I know the website said a bit of assembly required, but I was expecting a lot less than this… I think I’m almost finished.” Progress was slow, as you didn’t want to work on it while your parents were home and have them asking any questions about it, but luckily they were on vacation this weekend, so you were hoping to finish it before they got back… At least you had a couple more days till they got back Monday. Your sister was too focused on her games and friends to show more than a passing interest in any project you worked on, so you didn’t have to hide it from her at least. Not like she’d know what it was anyway, when you had to dig on the internet to find it after your girlfriend explained it to you.

“What is it anyway?” she asked as she leaned against the doorway putting on one of her old converse sneakers and tugged at its ragged laces - the tattered shoes had long ago been demoted to her soccer practice shoes for non-competitive matches, as mom didn’t want her to ruin the nice, new pair of cleats she had for ‘serious games.’ You wish mom would throw them out already, they were so garish and ugly, and at least two years old...

“Oh, uh… it’s just a… surprise present for… someone, is all.” You feigned disinterest as you soldered another connection down before looking back over at her. You could see her eyes had lit up at the mention of a surprise. “Don’t get all excited, that’s all I’m telling you,” you said with a roll of your eyes. “And since it’s a surprise, no telling mom or dad, okay?” 

She pouted as she leaned up against the doorway, smacking the velcro strap at the top of her shoe, above the laces, closed. “Hmph… I bet it’s a surprise for Gwen, isn’t it? You spend, like, all your time with your dumb girlfriend, she’s all you care about anymore…”  Becky stuck her tongue out. “If you paid, like, even half as much attention to me, I’d be a lot happier! You haven’t played with me in forever! Not even a video game, y’know…” Becky made a huff as she tapped the back of her shoe against the doorway ensuring it was on tight. 

You made a slight frown. She wasn’t wrong, after all, but now that you were sixteen you didn’t have much in common with a preteen… Hell, you had a car, a girlfriend, and friends - now you and your sister barely had anything in common. You’d be a junior in a few months, so it was only going to get worse as time went on. But that also meant you should try to spend some time with her before it gets any worse.

“Yeah, I guess I have been pretty busy… Sorry, Becks. I promise we’ll do something fun this weekend, okay?” You should be able to spend some time with Becky and still get this thing working, while still having some time to see Gwen. If you were lucky, maybe even try out your ‘surprise’ with her…

Becky’s face lit up with a smile. “Really? Alright bro, I’m holding you to that…” Becky grabbed her second shoe, shoving her other dirty sock down into its ugly cover… “I’m going out back to meet up with Sarah and Jen, they texted me that they wanted to play like thirty minutes ago, but I texted back that, like, we should…” As Beck blabbered on, you zoned out, looking at those stupid shoes. How was she even able to wear them after two years? Even if mom got their shoes a bit big so they could be worn longer. Over those years the shoes had been worn more than any other pair Becky had, to the point their once hot-pink color had faded to a dingy, faded and dirty dark brown-pink, until Beck recolored them a year ago with some pink sharpies she’d taken from school. The result was a garish mashup of the streaks of fresher hot pink at various consistencies across her shoe, and the faded original color glaring through the gaps she’d left as she marked them. Even the fresh coat of color was being painted dirt-brown with each soccer match she went out on. You hoped that she’d get a new pair for her next birthday and finally get rid of them.

You shook your head as you realized Becky had finished velcroing her shoes and was staring at you. “Ugh, you’ve been zoning out a lot bro… Did you hear me? I said, maybe we could like, play a game after I finish playing? Jen usually wants to quit after she gets ‘tired’ anyway,” Becky repeated, rolling her eyes.

Checking your phone for the time, you figured that would probably be alright. “Okay, uhh… Yeah, sure, as long as Gwen doesn’t come by or something, that should probably work…”

Becky lifted a fist in the air as she excitedly ran toward the stairs to leave the house, a happy ‘Yesssss!’ trailing behind her as she went.

“Don’t forget - you have to play behind the yard, where I can see! And turn the AC back down to 70! And take your shower once you get back!” you yelled out the door, answered a few moments later with a slam of the back door. You sighed - you loved your sister, but watching her would be a pain in the butt, and she was far from the best listener. You unlocked your phone and reset the thermostat to 70, knowing she wasn’t going to, and considered enabling a parental lock to stop her from cranking it back up again. How were you going to meet up with Gwen while making sure Becky didn’t do something stupid? And if Gwen came over instead, it was a matter of time before Becky interrupted…

You shrugged as you saw your little sister meeting up with her friends behind the house - at least there was a spot they could entertain each other while you finished up this project. A few more connections and this thing should be working… If only a fully assembled shrinkbox was affordable with your pizza delivery job, you wouldn’t have to bother with this junk.

But Gwen, your hot - if dorky - girlfriend was obsessed with things, and it took you months to scrape the money together. You didn’t really see the appeal, until Gwen started describing the scenarios she fantasized about. They were… pretty hot. Besides, you hadn’t quite… done ‘it’ together yet, and you knew that she wouldn’t be able to resist going all the way the moment she saw you shrunken. She’d talked about what she would do with you… pretty extensively. And while originally the idea of being less than half a foot tall was a pretty terrifying prospect, when you thought about it in the context of being Gwen’s… ‘boytoy’ as she put it, it filled your chest with excitement instead. Something about the helplessness of being so small around her… It still seemed a bit scary, but exciting more than anything. She could be trusted, and it was all just fun with her. All of that was definitely unrelated to your recent increase in zoning out, no way you would get caught up thinking about how huge Gwen’s breasts would look to you at four inches tall… See, you had full control of your wandering mind.

You nodded to yourself, pausing your delusion as you looked up from your soldering to check on your sister and her friends kicking the soccer ball between each other as they ran around and chatted. It must be nice to be so easily amused - you’d grow bored of kicking that ball after a few minutes, but they’d be going for at least an hour. As you watched them, you definitely didn’t think of a giant soccer ball the size of your house rolling over and leaving you as a smear… Didn’t imagine the young girls laughing as they kept kicking the ball, not even noticing the obliterated tiny man left as a greasy red imprint…

Shuddering and turning back to your work, you made the last few solders and started to put the case of the box back together. You had no reason to be afraid after all, this shrinkbox had a number of safety measures it used, and you could even lock them with a PIN code - as long as you set it up right, you were literally unkillable while it had you shrunk. You’d read the guide front to back at least three times just to be sure that there was no reason to be scared whatsoever, even after Gwen had assured you of it several times. As you put the last of the plastic coverings on, inserted the battery and flipped the power switch, it was the first thing on your mind while it booted up.

The functions check confirmed all the setup had been done properly and your connections were secure, easing your worries of missing a step with a reassuring message before lighting up into a logo of a man shrinking down. You went through the registration and setup process, adding your PIN and then looking through the options. There were way more than even in the instructions manual - a nearly unending list of settings… and most of them were kinky. An orgasm suppression slider stood out as one of the first options - why would anyone even want that, you wondered? Then again, your friend Steve said his first time having sex he didn’t last thirty seconds… and his girlfriend was pissed. Maybe setting it to like 50% wasn’t such a bad idea for the first run with Gwen after all.

As for some of these others… ‘squishification?’ You had to press the info button to figure that one out. ‘Allows shrunken subjects to be squished and stretched to varying degrees. At maximum settings, allows subject to be stretched and formed into almost any shape…’ The description went on to more technical explanations, but that gave you a pretty good idea. And it sounded… uncomfortable. Better leave that off for now. You continued scanning through the options. ‘Enforced hardness?’ You had to press the more information button to figure that one out… It stimulates the subject’s libido and excitability so that they are constantly aroused… In male subjects, it will cause a nearly permanent state of erection. You chuckle to yourself - that shouldn’t be necessary for a night with Gwen. ‘Magnetize?’ Magnetizes to a selected point on any living object? It sounded a bit better that getting every loose screw stuck to you, but how could that be helpful anyway? 

…Then again, getting magnetized to Gwen’s breasts didn’t sound so bad…

Breaking free of your curiosity, you found the ‘survivability’ section and made sure that all these options were set on - thankfully, that was the default. Immunity from all kinds of fatality of the shrunken subject, from suffocating by lack of air, to crushing. You breathed a sigh of relief, then entered your PIN on each of these options just to be sure, locking them. Better to be safe than sorry, just in case you or Gwen pressed one by accident. Last thing you wanted was to end up crushed underneath the very first breast you got to actually touch.

You looked back out the window, confirming Becky was still playing with her friends. Setup had taken a while, but they were still talking between themselves. One of the girls was dramatically fanning herself… You think that one’s Jen? You usually ignored them whenever they came over, they were usually talking about videos they watched on different apps anyway, or what game was popular for the month with their age group.

Satisfied they would keep going for a while, you had the box run through its functions check one more time, and checked the survivability settings to ensure it saved properly and was still locked. Thank god. Time for a test run. You looked around your desk, reaching towards the mousepad before remembering - it only shrank living objects, something with how it interacted with living cells? It was pretty technical. You thought about your options for a few seconds… you didn’t have any pets, so what was the alternative? Catch something outside or buy a rat from the nearby pet store? They’d be closing soon, and you couldn’t drag Becky over there without a dozen questions… And you were still excited from imagining how Gwen would react to your surprise. If you tested it now, you might be able to get her to come over tonight after Becky went to bed…

Sighing, you hit the ‘add subject’ button at the top, placing your hand on the scanner. A soft green glow lit up the back of your hand, as a small electric zap shot out from the scanner’s contact plate, making you jump a bit. Even though you’d read the instructions, you were still worried as you waited in case it started shrinking you unexpectedly. Instead, a small progress bar popped up, and a tiny voice said something you could barely hear. Annoyed, you hit the volume up button, scrolling it to the top volume. Then you started to enter settings, starting to get a bit excited.

This was actually going to work just like the video on the website… it really wasn’t a scam. Gwen was going to be thrilled. After thinking about it, you entered your settings… Three inches tall, for two minutes. That was about as short as it could get, and it didn’t count the time it took to change size anyway. You’d be back to normal in less time than it took to listen to a song. Hitting the start button, the screen started spinning a processing wheel as it ran whatever calculations, and you stepped back a few feet, mostly just to calm yourself as your heart was starting to race. This was exciting, but also… nerve-wracking. Maybe you should wait for the morning and use a guinea pig…

A loud robotic voice chirped from the machine as the screen changed to a countdown, a large cancel button at the bottom.

*5*

This was worth it for Gwen, right?

*4*

Yeah, you should run a test first, shouldn’t you…

*3*

A loud sound from the backyard, you looked out the window…

*2*

The back gate had slammed shut. Where were those three?

*1*

You stepped forward to hit the cancel, as the processing wheel reappeared…

*0*

Your whole body started to tingle. You felt dizzy, your whole body felt numb, your sense of gravity distorted - and the room started to grow around you. Your clothes started to dangle from you, growing heavy. You wobbled, taking a couple steps backward as the heavy cloth surrounding you tugged you towards the floor, catching on the air and landing with a small fwump, the air caught underneath cushioning your fall despite the surprising height. You breathe a sigh of relief as your body stops tingling, and think to yourself reassuringly. It’s not like that fall could have hurt you anyway, remember?

*TWO MINUTES REMAINING.*

The booming mechanical voice sounded ominous as it echoed a bit in the office. As you ventured out onto the top of your shirt, which formed a sizable hill on the carpeted floor, you looked around the room. You could barely hear a sound from outside the door behind you, and you turned to the ticking clock on the wall, surprised by how its sound echoed around the room now. You hadn’t noticed it for the previous few hours you’d been sitting in here… or was that just because you were used to the sound it made at your size? Would you grow used to the sound it made now, or would its oddly loud ticking seem just as weird later? What about the other sounds-

*MINUTE and a half remaining.*

-the annoyingly loud box’s voice most of all - though it was slowly growing more tolerable - but even the creaking within the room’s walls… Vibrating pipes, maybe? Or air conditioning ducts? And from behind the door, there was a rhythmic thumping… Had you left a speaker on? You noticed a couple small tools and bolts wedged into the office’s carpet… And the carpet seemed to just stretch on, and on, like a huge prairie. Your abandoned chair and desk, with the box sitting on top, stretched up into the sky like office buildings in New York City… It really threw your sense of scale off. Looking back down, even the carpet was barely recognizable as each strand looked separated enough to catch your leg, or at the least sink down up to your waist. Lucky you didn’t have to venture through it, because you imagine it’d be like walking through a swamp. And that thumping kept growing louder.

*Minute remaining.*

That thing was so loud! And wasn’t there something important you were thinking about before the strange feeling of shrinking and admiring the new scale around you caused you to lose track of it? Oh, right… Becky’s game was finished…

*Creak…*

…And as soon as she got bored with her friends, her next stop would be…