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.