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The Subject

By: Darkmoor



"The process," Dr. Willover spoke into her lapel mike as she made minor adjustments on the computer, "while not perfected is, I believe, in the final stages of development." The doctor adjusted her glasses, peered at the display. The wire frame image of the cat reflected in her emerald eyes. Satisfied by what she saw, she continued speaking, causing the idle recorder to spring to life at the sound of her voice. 

"In only seven months," she said, her slender fingers tapping away cryptic commands to the computer, "my assistant and I have moved beyond the CGI testing stage into a fully successful recreation of the host material." She paused, reading the numbers that scrolled over the monitor. "The base material for said recreation is working beyond our hypothesized expectations, with no thermal or molecular degeneration so far. 

The material itself, while mostly synthetic, does contain a great amount of animal and plant proteins, which can be derived from waste products, the remainder being used to generate the power to run the second phase. This, therefore, makes the process environmentally clean. Dr. Willover leaned back, her long legs stretching out beneath the desk. She yawned as her taut muscles relaxed, begging for sleep. Yet, she continued. "Phase One of the process involves the magnetic resonance and particle displacement of the host material. This is done by generating a 1.21-gigawatt electromagnetic pulse and focusing it into the host material, causing an instantaneous atomic breakdown of the material into energy. This energy, is then 'read' by the computer program and converted into information, this is Phase Two. This information can be stored or, in most cases, instantaneously transmitted via laser into the recombination phase, or Phase Three, which involves the synthetic base materials described earlier, which my assistant has nicknamed, the 'Soup." "As stated before, the entire process from phase one to finish has far exceeded the hypothesized expectations. We are, however at somewhat of a loss to discover the reason for the finished product's...." She paused, looking over at the row of small cages lining the wall beyond the computer desk. Faint sounds of movement came from within the shadowed boxes. "Lack of scale."

"Coffee's here!" Tanya Vale sang as she entered. She bumped the glass double door of the lab open with her behind and backpedaled into the room, gracefully trying not to spill the two cups of coffee occupying her hands. 

"It's about time." Dr. Willover groused as she stood and stretched. She glared down at her assistant. Tanya winced as if struck, handed the larger of the two foam cups to the doctor, who immediately tore the top off and examined the contents. "TWO sugars?" she demanded, to which Tanya nodded. Cassandra took a sip of the coffee, and finding nothing wrong with it worth mentioning, set it down atop the computer desk. "Get me the file on last Tuesday's experiment." She snapped.

Tanya brightened at the chance to do something, and said, "The spider monkey? Sure!" She was halfway to the file rack when the knife like voice skewered her. 

"It is not a spider monkey, it is an experiment." With her back to the doctor, Tanya rolled her eyes and mouthed the words that she spoke. "How many times do I have to tell you that the sooner you stop thinking in the finite terms of the world, you will open your mind up to the infinite possibilities of science." 

Tanya sighed as she fingered her way through the rack of CD ROM files until she found the one she wanted. After it was placed in the drive of the machine, a wire frame primate replaced the computer displayed wire frame cat, and the numbers displaying the subject's height weight and other pertinent data changed accordingly. Dr. Willover tapped out a few commands and the program began to read the file, displaying the results of the experiment in real time graphics and coded information windows. Tanya kept her eyes fixed to the screen, but found them more often than not refocusing on the scarlet spill of hair that swept over Cassandra's neck to well past her shoulder. She shook unbidden and slightly embarrassing images from her mind, and wished that she could as easily dispel the feeling from her loins, which seemed to ache in the proximity of her desire.

Steeling herself against the tide of emotion washing over her, Tanya busied her mind with the task of analyzing the information on the screen. At each step in the process displayed on the screen, Tanya's mind replayed the actual event. First, the sample DNA, in this case, a small amount of blood drawn from a spider monkey, was placed on the mirrored surface of the EMP table. The electromagnet began to charge, emitting a low hum, rising in pitch until it was beyond the range of human hearing. A mirrored cylinder slid down over the sample in a smooth hydraulic motion. Tanya readied herself at the other end of the room, behind the lead glass window of the blast shield, watching as Dr. Willover measured out the precise amount of 'the Soup' into a shallow trough at the other end of the table. This too, was covered by a mirrored lid, and Dr. Willover stepped behind the blast shield.

"Ready one, Tanya."

Tanya flipped a switch, and there was a dull, gut-thumping thud as the electromagnetic pulse hammered down into the blood sample beneath the cylinder. The computer screen before them filled with a jumble of numbers and code, which tapered as it made sense of what it was being told. When it was done, a single line of computer code filled the screen. "Ready."

"Ready two, Tanya." Dr. Willover said, flatly, and Tanya pressed a button. A laser beam ignited between the two mirrored covers.

"Done."

The computer stated simply "TRANSMITTING..." Neither woman breathed, nor moved. Their eyes fixed to the words on the screen, until, at last, the words changed to "TRANSMISSION COMPLETE." 

Dr. Willover stepped out from behind the screen, unlocked the clasps that held the second cylinder down and with a slight humming, the cylinder rose. The 'subject' lay in the bottom of the trough, a perfect duplicate of the original spider monkey. Except for one thing.... "Fifteen percent!" Cassandra cried out and slammed her fist into the table next to the computer. The coffee (with TWO sugars) spilled over onto the floor. Tanya jumped out of the memory. "Why are they all coming out at fifteen percent?" Cassandra slumped in the chair, exhausted.

"Doctor," Tanya offered, "why don't you go to the board with what you have already? You have more than enough data and hard evidence to..."

"The board!?" Cassandra leaped from the chair, knocking it away. "Do you know how hard it was for me to get them to allow me to perform my experiments at this university!? The board looks at me and sees a pair of tits in a lab coat, pretending to be a scientist! If I went to them now, it would be like admitting defeat! Tanya, if there's one thing that you'll learn from your tenure as my student assistant, is that the scientific community is strictly a boys club. And the prettier you are, the harder you have to work to be taken seriously." Cassandra studied Tanya for a moment, and Tanya fought the urge to instinctively flee. "But then," Cassandra said flatly, "I guess you don't have to worry about that, do you?" Cassandra yawned and stretched. "I suppose tomorrow is another day, Tanya." She crossed the room to the door, stripping off her lab coat as she did so.

Tanya tried not to watch the doctor's body unfold from the white linen cocoon, but was enraptured at the beauty of it. She was only able to take her eyes from the woman when Cassandra slipped into her overcoat. 

The doctor turned toward Tanya, not looking at her, and rattled off, "Re-file the data from tonight, and get a fresh sample from the freezer for tomorrow's test. Oh, and I need the daily reading from number twelve, also." She turned, opened the door, and then turned back. "Oh, and Tanya?"

"Yes doctor?" Tanya half expected a note of gratitude for the lateness of the hour, or at least the long hours she'd been putting in.

"Clean up that mess." She pointed at the spilled coffee on the floor. With that, she was gone. 

Tanya stood for a moment in the silence that filled the room, then breathed a sigh. She returned the CD-ROM to its place in the rack, cleaned up the coffee and shut down the computer. All the while, she fumed silently, mostly at herself. Pulling a stool over to the table of cages, she sat down in front of the one marked with a sign reading '#12." She opened the cage and smiled as the Great Dane trotted out.

He was a beautiful dog, indeed. Tanya had wished that her small apartment could hold such a magnificent beast when she'd taken the original blood sample from the host. She supposed that wouldn't be a problem now. She put her hand down and the animal climbed into her palm.

The Dane's clone, as with all the other test subjects, was only 15% the size of the original. It was the last hurdle to cross before Dr. Willover would consider the process a complete success. Regardless of what adjustments were made, the final product was a Lilliputian version of the original host.

"But he's a beautiful boy anyway, isn't he?" Tanya spoke to the three-inch high dog sitting in her palm. "Oh, yes he is!" She weighed, measured and tested the Dane, checking all against his last chart, and when she was satisfied, she sat down. She spoke, not necessarily to the miniature canine, but if he was listening, all the better.

"Why do I have to feel this way about her?" She said. "It's not like she's the most pleasant person in the whole world. Hell, if I didn't need her research to complete my thesis, I wouldn't speak to her at all! So, what is it, then? Why does she... turn me on so badly?" Tanya thought for a moment, visualizing the curve of Cassandra's hips, the swell of her full bosom, the tautness of her belly. That cascading mane of fire that she called hair. The sultry voice and those EYES! "Oh yeah..." she said at last. The tiny dog in her hand only wagged its tail. She replaced him back in his cage and said goodnight, then stood and crossed the room to where the freezer was. 

The freezer's polished steel door distorted her image. She stopped and stared. "Yeah. Like you'd ever be able to seduce someone like Dr. Willover." She said to herself. "Look at you! Mousy blah brown hair, no body to speak of. Well, you're not fat, but you ain't exactly model material, either, sunshine." She sighed. "No, they haven't made the woman that would have you."

Tanya opened the freezer and ran her fingers over the frozen vials of blood. She selected a horse, an Arabian this time, and placed it in a tray where it would defrost for the following day's experiment. She was just closing the door when another vial caught her eye. It had a blue cap instead of yellow like the rest. She pulled it out, and studied it. Its identification label read "C. Willover—BASELINE CAL."

It was Dr. Willover's own blood, used to recalibrate the computers. Tanya shrugged and put it back...almost. Her own words echoed in her head. 'They haven't made the woman that would have you." She looked down at the vial and the name on it for a long moment. "In that case...perhaps I should just make...my own." She said, smiling.

Part One 

Tanya whistled happily as she unlocked the door and let herself in to her apartment. She set the small box under her arm down on the floor of the foyer while she untangled herself from her book bag, stripped off her coat and hung it. She then retrieved both box and bag and took them into the main room. She set the bag on the floor, put the box on the coffee table and threw herself onto the couch opposite it. 

Her hands trembled as she removed the lid of the box, placing its contents before her and smiling broadly. Her own personal test of Dr. Willover's cloning process had gone off without a hitch, and now the end result of that test lay within the glass-domed tray before her. 

"The specimen is still in a state of catatonia," Tanya smiled at her near-perfect rendition of Dr. Willover's cold dictation, "which is normal at this stage. Arousal normally takes place within two hours after the process is completed." Tanya laughed giddily at her choice of words. Looking down into the tray, through the glass lid that acted as a magnifying lens, she realized that her own arousal was proceeding far in advance of her subject's. She traced the outline of the figure in the bottom of the tray with her eyes, admiring her creation. 

It was little over 10 inches long, lying prone in deep sleep a spill of flame red hair emanated from its tiny head, each strand as fine as spider silk. Its easy breathing was causing the grape-sized breasts to rise and fall in a rhythmic, hypnotic fashion. Each tiny breast was tipped with the faintest tinge of pink, and as Tanya refocused her eyes, she could just see the miniscule nipples, each no bigger than the head of a pin. Below the breasts, the slightest shadows marked the ribcage and taut muscles of the abdomen. Lower still (and Tanya felt her breath catch in her chest as her eyes passed over it) was a quarter inch wide patch of copper-colored down, poised like a sentry over the tiny coral opening below. 

Tanya fell back onto the couch, then sprang back, unable to keep her eyes from the figurine. "My God, she's perfect." She breathed. From the tiny mane of scarlet to the pinprick of freckles that scattered across the downward slope of her breasts. From her flat belly, slim yet curvaceous hips and long legs, right down to ten tiny, little toes, each no bigger than a pencil point. The figure under the glass was a perfect duplicate of Dr. Cassandra Willover, only 85 percent smaller.

As she removed the 'lid' from the container, the very trough that had held the "soup" from which the small creature had been formed, Tanya's mind began to swim with questions. Why had she attempted this? More importantly, what would she do with her now?  

As if in answer, the tiny, comatose figure stirred slightly, and the reality that Tanya had a living, breathing duplicate of Dr. Cassandra Willover lying naked before her filled the student with a feeling of desire that was both familiar and alien. Familiar in the sense that she'd been lusting after the good Doctor from the moment she'd laid eyes upon her; alien in the idea that the naked woman's sheer smallness seemed to amplify that lust to new limits. 

Finally, gently, and with great hesitation, Tanya scooped the miniature female into her hands. The sensation of the bare flesh against her fingers was indescribable. The tiny body was like holding heavy silk in its smoothness, and it radiated a soft heat into Tanya's hands which seemed to affect itself into her own body.

Tanya sighed as her own nipples wrinkled, stiffening with a sudden sensitivity even to the light touch of her bra against them. From there, she felt the fire ignite over her cheeks and down her abdomen to the soft flesh at her center, which even now was thrumming with a moist pulse. Her legs tingled, her toes curled and uncurled of their own accord. She was heady with newly uncovered lusts. Her thumb tenderly stroked the delicate strands of hair spilling out over her fingers, then explored the flesh and underlying bone of the shoulder, thrilled with its tiny precision. 

Hesitantly, Tanya let her thumb touch down lightly on the small round bulb of flesh that made one of the tiny breasts. She bit her lower lip to keep from moaning aloud at the electric fire that seemed to fill her with each new exploration of the tiny woman. She stroked gently at the miniature tit, feeling the fire within her blaze hotter even as the microscopic nipple rose like a pinprick against the pad of her thumb. 

Tanya was now slowly rocking back and forth, stimulating the soft flesh of her center, helping the heat that was building there rise to a conflagration. Her other thumb drifted almost of its own accord, up between the tiny knees, then forward, parting the doll-like thighs easily until, at last, the pad of her thumb was pressed firmly against the rosy slit there. Tanya let out a barely audible squeal at the feeling of warmth and wetness there as the opening accepted, even requested her touch.

Tanya's thumb gently throbbed against the tiny woman's opening vagina in rhythm with her own rocking motion, and Tanya smiled to herself to feel the teeny clit press against her touch. Her head began to cloud as her pulse pounded louder in her ears, her passion building to the inevitable. She sighed in blissful oblivion, barely feeling her doll-size lover stir in her sleep, her body welcoming the touch of Tanya's giant hand on her naked flesh.

One tiny hand rose up to the thumb pressing against the flesh of her minute tit, the other gripping the thumb gently stroking her open slit. The petite woman's little thighs opened wider still; Tanya pressed down harder with her thumb, feeling now the damp warmth spreading over her thumb even as her own spread out into the fabric of her Levi's. The Lilliputian's hips began to thrust forward and her back arched. Tanya was pushed over the edge of climax as she heard the faintest whisper of a moan escape the lips of her tiny creation as she met with orgasm in the palm of her hand. 

Tanya's own breathing was labored, as the last tide of climax washed out of her body, leaving her spent. Never had masturbation felt so satisfying. She peered down at the tiny woman sprawled across her hands and knew that it wasn't just Dr. Willover that had made the experience so overwhelming; it was the size of her, or rather the lack thereof. The smallness of the woman was tantalizing, and exciting. 

"Freud would have a field day with me." She thought. 

It was just then that she felt her tiny charge stir to consciousness. The tiny body stretched taut like a cat waking from a long nap in the sun, relaxed and then those miniscule emerald eyes opened slowly to gaze dreamily into Tanya's smiling face above her. 

Then, she began to scream...

Part Two

Tanya very nearly dropped the screaming woman in her hands. The tiny female's voice was a piercing squeal like needles in her ears. As quickly as she could be gentle, Tanya placed the miniature person back on the coffee table. Immediately, the small figure scrambled back away from the monster above her, stopping when she backed into the wall of the chamber that had held her until recently. She continued to scream as if her voice would frighten away the gigantic woman looking down at her with soft pleading blue eyes. 

Tanya was nearly in a panic. In her lust to complete the 'project' she hadn't anticipated the reaction of her subject to suddenly being born into a world that was so far out of scale. Fearing that the little woman might hurt herself in an attempt to escape what she must perceive as an obvious threat, Tanya spoke softly to her. "Please... I'm not going to hurt you." She whispered, gaining enough presence of mind to realize that her voice would be like a jet engine to the tiny ears of her captive. "I am not going to hurt you, Dr. Willover, please stop screaming."

At the sound of the name, the small woman stopped screaming. Her head cocked to one side, her eyes narrowed, as if she were processing the information. "...Tanya?" she said, an inflection of disbelief in her high voice.

Tanya was stunned. She had the memories of Dr. Willover? She knew from experience that the test clones had exhibited some base memories, but being animals, Tanya had written it off as instinct. The copy of Dr. Willover on the table before her, however, had reacted and replied to her name. 

"Yes Dr. Willover," Tanya whispered, "it's me, Tanya Vale."

The tiny red head shook her head, as if clearing it, then stood, taking a few tentative paces forward. "Tanya!" She shouted, "What's happened to me? Why is everything so big?"


The Subject is Suzy



Suzy stood outside the large industrial building and hesitated. She looked again at the letter in her hand then pushed the door bell button beside the large steel door. Almost immediately the light over the door came on, then more than a minute passed. The door finally opened and a young woman with blonde hair, wearing a tank top tee shirt and a pair of jeans appeared. She looked at Suzy and offered her hand. Suzy took it and the young woman led her inside. The steel door slammed shut behind them.

Inside the building the lights were very dim. A few naked bulbs lit what was obviously a large workshop. In what little light there was Suzy could make out a number of large machines along one side of the room. As her eyes adjusted to the dark she could see that a workbench ran much of the length of the side of the room. The other side was even more unfamiliar, the tools there had an ancient, unfamiliar look. She could see flames flickering in what appeared to be an old time forge and before it stood an anvil, surrounded by blacksmith's tools. At the end of the room, lit by several flaming torches, stood a large wooden frame, a cube almost twelve feet high. The woman led her through the workshop to the cube.

"I'm CJ", she said, introducing herself. "I am the Artist's assistant tonight. I will be helping him". She sat down in a corner and lowered her head, saying nothing else.

Suzy looked around. There were numerous chests and boxes stacked around the frame, and the walls were covered with shelves holding objects of all descriptions. It looked like a fantastic bric-a-brac shop where you could probably find anything you wanted. She looked at the woman sitting in the corner. She was quite small, wasn't even wearing shoes. Didn't seem to be very outgoing. Suzy had come prepared for a special evening as the letter she had received had instructed her, and had worn a special dress, a black cocktail dress with spaghetti straps. The fabric clung to her and showed off her ample breasts well. Her long red hair had been curled and finished nicely, she wore thigh high stockings but no underwear for thathad been specified in the letter. The sight of the frame and the knowledge of what it was for, sent a shiver of excitement up her spine.

The man known as the Artist entered the room. He wore black trousers and a black shirt and as he approached the frame CJ rose to her feet. He looked at Suzy.

"Good Evening" Suzy said, her voice a little nervous.

"It is good" said the Artist "And we will try to make it better. I see you have met CJ. Now Suzy do you know why you are here?"

"The letter said I was to be the subject of some trials"

"That's correct" said the man "I manufacture several types of bondage equipment, some of them of custom design. Tonight we will be testing some of them. I hope you can prepared to experience them"

Suzy looked down obediently. "Yessir I did"

"Fine. First you must be fitted for a collar. CJ will you please measure Suzy's neck and see if we have a collar that will fit her"

CJ stepped up to Suzy and took out a tape measure and wrapped it around Suzy's neck. Then she walked over to a shelf where there were several silvery objects. She returned with a metal collar, made of hammered steel. It formed a complete circle with a hinge at one side and a latch at the other. Around its circumference were four loops equidistant from each other. The collar was an inch and a half wide and fitted around Suzy's neck snugly. She held her chin up as CJ put the collar on and snapped the latch. There was a large mirror on the wall and she could see herself wearing the collar, the silver grey iron contrasting with her skin. She had worn leather collars before but this, this was heavy, cold steel, pressing around her neck. She felt her heart beat a little faster.

The Artist spoke: "Now Suzy if you will come into the center of the frame please. You see we have a seat for you" The odd contraption looked like a bicycle seat on a pedestal.

"Please sit down on it. You may use this bar to keep you balance". He swung a long bar out from the frame and Suzy put her hands on it as she sat down on the small seat, her feet barely touching the floor.

The Artist continued: "Now we will show you what the loops on the sides of the collar are for. CJ if you will"

CJ moved quickly and attached light chains to each of the four loops, which she then attached to hooks at the corners of the frame. The length of each chain was such that, when adjusted, held Suzy exactly in the centre of the frame by her collar, she could move neither right, left, forwards or backwards. And she was still carefully balanced on the infernal seat which was now pushing up into her crotch in a terrible way.

The Artist watched CJ as she attached the light chains and smiled, knowing that she herself had frequently been bound by them.

"Now Suzy I am going to apply some manacles to you, my own design. Unlike most manacles that have a simple latch these have a screw mechanism, so that when we put them on your wrists we can clamp them very snugly, you see here? " Suzy nodded 

"The hooks here allow me to attach a chain of any length, so they can be used as simple handcuffs, or that can be attached to the overhead winches you see above us. The final feature is the most diabolical. Do you see these three little knobs here?". He pointed to three silver knobs on the manacles.

"They each control a needle that drives into the flesh. As you turn them the needle punctures the skin and causes the subject to bleed. By turning the knob only slightly you get just a small amount of bleeding. When the bleeding stops you simply twist it further to start it again. This way you can keep a subject bleeding for several hours, without them passing out from loss of blood. "

Suzy sucked in her breath a little at hearing this and seeing the manacles. The Artist and CJ placed them on her wrists and screwed them down firmly. He then took two chains hanging from overhead and attached them to the manacles that held her wrists. Pulling another chain he started to winch up the chains holding her wrists, slowly, inexorably. He operated the winch until her arms we over above her head, although still quite loose, not yet stretched out. Suzy sat on the seat balancing, her hands chained above her head. The Artist swung the bar back out of the way.

"We have similar cuffs for your ankles."

CJ passed him two more metallic objects which he secured to Suzy's ankles. "this time however instead of chains we will use a solid spreader bar which will keep your ankles apart. CJ passed him a bar which he attached to one cuff, then pushing Suzy's legs apart attached to the other. CJ helped Suzy keep her balance as he did this. 

With her legs held apart the Artist begin to operate the winch once more and the chains holding Suzy's arms tightened, pulling her off the small seat She groaned as her shoulders took all the weight of her body and finally the chains stopped rattling and she hung suspended by her wrists, slowly spinning in front of the Artist and CJ

"Damn" said the Artist

"What is it" said CJ and Suzy together, both worried that the man was upset.

"Look at her We didn't take her clothes off"

He was right Suzy was still wearing her nice dress. Her breasts were pushed out against the material. She had likely creased the back of it sitting on the silly seat. But it was still all right. That was good. It had been an expensive dress for Suzy had wanted to look good tonight. And she was sure she did look good, even if she was now hung in chains.

The Artist moved to a box marked with a red cross, obviously a medical supply chest and opened it. He removed a pair of crash scissors, the kind paramedics use when cutting clothes off accident victims. Blunt ended they can be used rapidly, with little danger to the subject. Suzy thought of protesting, but though better of it as he approached with the scissors. She noticed that CJ had resumed sitting in the corner, however she did not have her head down turned as before, rather she was watching intently as the Artist began to cut Suzy's dress away. 

He began at the hem and worked up, cutting a slit up the front across her navel and between her breasts. He could have simply cut through the neckline and the dress would have fallen away. but he stopped. He began to cut again at the hem, a few inches from the first slit. Suzy felt the blunt steel against her skin. It moved up across her belly and this time touched her nipple as proceeded to cut upwards. He stopped again just short of the neckline and started another strip, working around her body, reducing the dress to a series of ribbons. Then, cutting horizontally he cut the ribbons away and Suzy felt herself being exposed to the air as her moved around her, her expensive new dress, lying in rags on the floor. Finally he cut the shoulder straps away and she hung there naked.

Suzy moaned. Her arms were on fire from hanging there. Her feet held apart by the spreader bar. Now naked she felt helpless as the man approached her. He ran his hands over her body roughly squeezing her breasts and pinching her nipples. Then he slid his hands under her crotch and smiled when he discovered the wetness there.

"Our subject is aroused. Excellent. Let's begin the punishment CJ"

CJ brought forth a long thin box and opened it, making sure that Suzy could see its contents. In it, nestled in red velvet were a selection of birch canes. The Artist ran his fingers along Suzy's white skin, then touched the canes in the box. Using his ring finger to measure he selected one and lifted it out of the box. CJ closed the box and took it away. Suzy trembled as she realized what he was going to do. He swung the cane through the air with an evil hiss.

"Nooooooo" Suzy screamed "please don't whip me"

The man called the Artist smiled. CJ sat in the corner, watching, licking her lips in anticipation.

He tapped the cane against her ass lightly. Suzy whimpered. Then he raised it and brought it full force down on her, the cane cutting into her. Suzy screamed. A bloody red welt appeared on her buttocks. A second time the cane hissed through the air, another red hot contact on her ass another scream. Suzy screamed again.

"Do you want me to gag her?" CJ asked "Her screams are awfully loud"

"No," said the man sadistically. "I like hearing her scream. No one can hear her"

The caning continued. He would pause, waiting, watching her, listening to her as she begged him to stop. The he would strike another blow. . Every stoke left a red welt across Suzy's ass, the lines criss crossing her white skin. He knew that too many blows would render her unconscious and so dealt them out slowly, knowing that the anticipation only increased her pain. And his pleasure. Finally, her buttocks bloody from the wicked caning, he stopped.

"Are your arms getting tired Suzy?" he asked with a wicked smile. Suzy nodded as best she could, her arms burning with pain. "OK then we should get some of the weight off them. CJ get the other seat out"

CJ rose and moved another pedestal out. It was similar to the first except that this one had a stainless steel dildo protruding from the seat. She slid it underneath Suzy's spread legs. Once positioned the man began to operate the winch chains lowering Suzy onto the dildo, CJ crouched by it and guided it into Suzy's vagina. Suzy gasped as the cold steel entered her, splitting her apart and pushing into her. Slowly, inch by inch she was lowered onto the dildo until most of her weight rested on the seat. The dildo filled her vagina and she squirmed, feeling it within her. Now not only was she restrained by the chains but she was impaled on this steel thing which prevented her from moving her hips and was causing her pussy to get even wetter as she felt it inside her.

Suzy gasped. It felt so good to have the weight off her arms. But the feeling of the dildo in her vagina sent new thrills through her body. Her breathing was rapid. Her arms were still chained above her head., her legs still held apart. She could she that the bleeder needles were still doing their infernal work with trickles of fresh blood on her wrists and ankles. Then she saw CJ and the Artist opening yet another box.

Suzy had seen nipple clamps before, even played with them. But the Artist had created special ones. Instead of a simple spring clip these had a screw device that tightened onto the nipple. She hung there helplessly as CJ, in obvious delight, sucked on her left breast, making the nipple hard. The Artist then attached the clamp, twisting the screw gently, but painfully onto the erect bud.. CJ started to suck on her right breast when the Artist stopped her. Instead he ordered Suzy to open her mouth and stick out her tongue. Remembering the caning Suzy did so without hesitation and immediately felt the pain of a nipple clamp being applied to her tongue. With the clamp on her tongue she could no longer close her mouth and her saliva ran down her chin, making her drool like dog.

In another compartment of the box were small shiny discs. CJ laughingly called them nipple weights and they fitted on the hooks on the clamps. They weighed two ounces each. The Artist put three of the weights on the clamp attached to Suzy's nipple and one on the clamp on her tongue. She groaned as they were applied.

The Artist and CJ stood and looked at Suzy. Impaled on the dildo in her vagina, mercifully with most of her weight on the pedestal seat. Her neck held by the steel collar, four chains holding it in place. Her arms were held over her head each wrist in a separate cuff, her arms bleeding from the effect of the needles in the cuffs. Her ankles were held by similar cuffs and were also bleeding, held wide apart by the spreader bar. As she had been lowered onto the pedestal the bar had been placed to the rear and her body was now pitched forward. Her left breast was pulled down by the weights attached to it and her tongue was held out of her mouth by an infernal clamp. Lastly her ass was crisscrossed by a series of red welts the evidence of a caning that had been given to her by the Artist.

The Artist began to unbutton his shirt and then removed it. CJ went down on her knees and removed his boots. She unbuckled his belt and lowered his pants and he stepped out of them, standing there naked. Without a word the small woman took his penis in her mouth and began to fellate him, stroking him with her hand. He did not look at her, rather he looked at Suzy, hanging in the frame. Suzy could not help but see the scene in front of her. In only a couple of minutes he was fully erect, his large penis standing at attention. CJ stood up and stepped away.

Suzy found herself staring at the naked man. Out of the corner of her eye she saw CJ getting something else off the shelves. She started as she felt the young woman's fingers on her ass. CJ spread Suzy's cheeks and began to apply lubricant to her anus. The Artist moved around behind her, watching. The young woman used only a single finger to apply the gel to Suzy's asshole, to ensure that she didn't open her up too much, leaving that job to the master's cock. Once she had Suzy sufficiently greased she applied lube to the Artist's hard cock smearing it the length of it.

Suzy began to breath hard again knowing what was to come. Chained in placed, impaled on the dildo she was now to be sodomized. She sensed, rather that saw the man approach her. She felt his cockhead touch her anus. She had seen his penis and knew it was large. Worse CJ had done nothing to stretch her anus when she had applied the lubricant. Suzy tried desperately to relax knowing what was to come. He wasn't gentle. He pushed his cock into her hard, her body held rigidly by the steel dildo. Suzy gasped in pain as her anus was violated and his cock thrust into her. He drove into her hard, the full length of his cock ramming into her ass. Suzy closed her eyes at this fresh humiliation. The Artist rammed his cock into her hard, pumping fast, his cock slick with lubricant. He grunted as he pushed with steady even strokes. In only a few minutes he was ready to come and he did so in her ass, holding his cock steady, letting it throb and twitch, pumping his hot semen into Suzy's ass. Suzy could feel him coming, his penis throbbing against her tight sphincter. He held his cock there for a moment, then nodded toCJ. CJ came up to where his penis was plugged tightly into her anus, carrying a small metal bowl. The man withdrew his penis and CJ held Suzy's cheeks apart with one hand, holding the bowl underneath her with the other. In a moment drops of white semen began to flow from Suzy's anus into the bowl. The Artist watched this as he wiped himself with a towel.

Eventually CJ had collected a tablespoonful of liquid in the bowl. As the Artist watched she removed the clamp from Suzy's tongue. CJ then lifted the bowl to her own mouth and swallowed the semen into it. Looking at the Artist, then at Suzy she then kissed Suzy on the mouth, passing the semen taken from Suzy's ass into her own mouth. Suzy choked a little as she swallowed the second-hand butt scum down.

CJ licked her lips and smiled. Suzy wondered what more could be done to her. The Artist smiled. He stepped up to her. " you did fine Suzy"

He snapped the catch on the neck collar. With a sweep of his hand he activated the emergency releases on all the chains, which dropped to the floor with a rattle. Taking Suzy in his strong arms he lifted her off the seat and carried her to a nearby couch. He quickly removed the cuffs from her wrists and ankles. CJ brought warm wash cloths and he washed Suzy's body and tended her wounds. When he was done he dried her with big fluffy towels and covered her in a warm blanket.

He kissed her gently. "There is food and drink for you now Suzy. If you wish you can sleep. You have been a very good subject. I hope we can do this again soon." He sat on the couch and held Suzy, while CJ knelt at their feet.



The Subject Pt. 02



The Subject 2: Further Research

Chapter One

Prologue 

The young scientist, her eyes intently staring into the miasma of numbers flashing across the screen before her, sighed dejectedly. Why wasn't the damnable thing working? She thought, and ran her hands through her dark brown hair.

"Rita," she said, not looking up from the computer read-out, "run series seven again, please?"

Rita, the pretty strawberry blonde assistant, jumped up from behind her terminal and entered the correct codes into the bank of computers that lined one wall. She hummed along to the music coming from the CD player atop her terminal table. The White Album was playing, John Lennon singing about the joys of a firearm of high temperature.

The scientist smiled as she watched Rita dance to the beat of the music, punching keys in time with the rhythm. She adored Rita's zest for life, and her ability to have fun, regardless of the hours of boring research she put herself through.

It was important research, the scientist reminded herself. If they could ever get it working, that is. Series seven was a specific voltage and amperage of electrical current, which would pass between two contacts within a large open cylindrical space in the center of the room. As it did so, the electrical current would be translated by the machinery and computers into a single stream of electrons, traveling at twice the speed of light. This stream would then be transmitted to a satellite relay dish on the roof of the building, beamed into space, and reflected back to a receiver dish on the other side of the room, where a second cylinder, much smaller, would convert it back into electrical current.

The possibility of 'broadcasting' energy without a conduit was the driving force of the research. The scientist hoped for the day when solar collection satellites would beam all of earth's energy to collection centers. With the possibility of ending man's reliance on natural resources for power, and no pollution as an after product, the experiment was well worth the effort.

The machinery hummed quietly, there was a brief rise in the pitch of the hum as the current was transformed, and then, silence as it was received and calibrated. The measurements came up on the screen before the scientist. "Overall loss of 40 percent." It said.

She sighed. It was always the same. No matter what amperage or voltage, the final measurement of power was always the same. Not enough to power a flashlight. "Damn." She muttered, and stood up. She stretched to her full height, arms above her head, her back muscles complaining about the amount of time she had spent in the chair.

No worries, though, she knew that she had a nightly back-rub from her lover to look forward to. She wondered to herself what her love was doing right now. Once a rather brilliant scientist in her own right, she now spent her days outside the confines of the laboratory, intent on the study of life in its natural habitat. She was probably at the community college, the scientist reasoned. She took course after course, in no particular order, intent on learning whatever she could by whatever whim struck her at the time. Tonight, it was classes in hypnotherapy, but for what reason, she couldn't say. It didn't matter, the young brunette decided, as long as she was happy, it made sense to her.

The scientist turned around to tell Rita to begin the shut down sequence, and was puzzled by the sudden silence of the lab. Rita had turned off the CD player in mid-wail from Mr. Lennon.

"Rita?" She said. "Is something wrong?"

Rita looked up, her blue eyes glinting. A smile crossed her face, and the scientist shivered at its familiarity. "No, DOCTOR..." The word doctor was filled with sarcastic venom. "There's nothing wrong." In fact..." Rita raised her arm and extended it outward. She was holding something, "in just a moment, everything is going to be just PERFECT."

The young brunette gasped at what Rita was holding. It looked like an oversized remote control, with several buttons and a small display screen somewhat like that of a cellular phone. Her hand went up before her when the device emitted a high-pitched whine that she recognized as its capacitor charging up to fire. It would take approximately three seconds for it to reach full power, and then it would be primed for its intended purpose.

The scientist had a full working knowledge of the device because SHE had invented it.

It was just a whim, never intended for any real use. She had created it just to see if it could be done and once she had successfully tested it, she hid it away in the lab. Why Rita had it she didn't know. Further, she was totally at a loss as to why Rita was pointing it at HER. She wanted to speak, she wanted an explanation for the strange behavior her assistant was exhibiting, but she didn't get the chance to ask.

Rita smirked as her thumb pressed the activation button and the young woman closed her eyes tightly against the sensation of her body coming apart from the inside out. Her skin became hot, tight and felt as if it were immersed in a tub full of fire ants. She couldn't seem to breathe, her head spun, and she felt as if she were going to faint, but caught herself.

Then, just as quickly as it had come, the feeling was gone, and as she slowly opened her eyes, the only after affect she could see was exactly what she expected. Her shirt hung well below her knees, her pants were in a puddle at her feet, which were dwarfed by her sizable sneakers and the neck of her shirt hung below her breasts, which were bare due to the fact that her bra was now hanging at her belly. By quick calculation, she estimated herself to be roughly 30 inches tall.

"Damn!" Rita scowled, "Didn't have it set correctly... "Oh well." She busied herself, pressing buttons to adjust the device as it recharged itself again. "There!" She said, and leveled it once again at the shrunken brunette, who absently hugged the oversized shirt close to her chest. Her tiny hands swallowed up by its sleeves. "Say hello to the microverse for me, okay?" She smiled.

"Why?" Was all the small scientist could manage to say. 

Rita was about to tell her, gloat a bit but then only smiled, "Ohhh no... I could tell you," She said, "But I think it'll be much nicer knowing that you're completely clueless while you're shrinking down past the atoms in your jeans," she laughed. "You know, Doc... I would say, 'See you, later' but I won't, will I? No one will..." she added with the cold finality of a death sentence, "EVER," as her thumb moved to the activation button.

The door of the lab suddenly burst open, and a startled Rita spun around. She looked into the eyes of the young shrunken woman's lover, and froze. Just as suddenly as a cat frightened by a passing car, she bolted past the red-haired woman in the doorway and vanished.

The puzzled redhead shook her head slightly, "What the hell's up with HER?" She muttered, and then took notice of the midget standing trembling in a pile of discarded clothes. "Oh my... god," she whispered and moved quickly to the small woman's side.

The miniature woman, a total wreck, fell against her, shaking with fear and relief. The larger of the two stroked her small head, reassuringly. "What happened?" She asked.

"Oh, Cassie..." Dr. Tanya Vale sobbed into the woman's shirt, "I've... I've been shrunk!"

Chapter Two 

"Well..." Cassie laid the calipers down on the table next to Tanya, "...as near as I can tell by the data I've collected so far..." They were as long as her thigh, "...and this is by no means an educated hypothesis, mind you..." Cassie continued, picking up a small silver ruler and gently guided Tanya to lay her arm along its length. She jotted down the measurement, replaced the ruler on the table and stated, "...I think you've been shrunk."

Tanya looked up at the larger woman irritably, then rose to her feet slowly. At this vantage, she could look straight into Cassie's bright green eyes without craning her neck. "GEE Really?! Do you think?!" She planted her fists on her small naked hips to show just how Cassie's attempt at humor was a bomb.

Cassie smiled, "Ohhh... I'm sorry, honey... Really." She said, reaching for Tanya, but then deciding at the last second that it would probably be a bad idea to pat the small woman on the head, regardless of how innocent a touch it would be. "I'm just trying to make light of a serious problem, I know how you feel. I just want you to relax."

"RELAX?!? How the fuck can I relax, Cassie?!" Tanya threw her small hands into the air. "Look at me! This morning I was calmly working away on the energy transmitter, PLAANning on taking you out for dinner if I made any headway, minding my OWN business and... and the next thing I know, my assistant is threatening me with my own shrink ray, and then shoots me with the damn thing! Look at me! I'm... how big did you say I was?"

Cassie sighed and looked over the notes she had taken. "Twenty eight and three sixteenths inches." She stated. 

Tanya's shoulders slumped in despair, "Oh, maaaan...."

Cassie began to rattle off the rest of the data that she'd been able to collect from her examination of her miniaturized lover, including the fact that she now only weighed 9.2 pounds. This sparked another funny from Cassie on the potential this had for a weight-loss program. The punchline was cut short by the scowl Tanya was giving her.

Cassie quickly changed the subject back to the data at hand, "Ohhkaaay... Other than an ugly disposition, I see no neurological impairment. The only thing that I haven't gotten yet is... your temperature." Cassie tried to suppress a smile as she reached into a drawer and produced a thermometer.

A silly kind of 'Oh Shit' look crossed Tanya's face and she felt herself backing away, helpless to control the unwelcome fear of the seemingly huge instrument, "Umm... right..." her attempt to laugh to suppress the fear came out as a nervous giggle, "I, uh... yeah..." Her arms drew behind her back and her hand clasped together as if they were trying to protect something. She did little bows and continued to move away. 

Cassie smiled as sweetly as she could, "Tanya? Don't worry," She said, "I've never been one to hold a grudge."

She was referring to Tanya's initial examination of herself, mere hours after she had been created. The cloning process that was used to create Cassie, an exact replica of Cassandra Willover, Tanya's former professor at Woodridge, hadn't been perfected at the time, and the test clones, Cassie included, were all created at 1/5th scale of the original.

Cassie had endured endless weeks of suffering at Tanya's hands in a desperate attempt for Tanya to come to terms with her feelings for the cold-hearted Dr. Willover. And the torture had begun with Tanya's 'examination' of Cassie's tiny new body, specifically, the ruse of taking her temperature. It was taken rectally, of course, with a thermometer as big around as Cassie's tiny wrist at the time and it was always 'bend over' time when Tanya came home after a LOVELY day with the good doctor.

But that was then, and this was now, and the months that passed between brought a bond between the two women that the past could never stain.

Tanya looked relieved. She laughed, relaxing after realizing she had been so silly. "I'm sorry, Cassie," She sighed, "I should know better by now that you would never do that."

Cassie looked down and shrugged, her lips pouted a little, "Not unless you asked me to that is." She looked up slowly and her eyes glinted mischievously.

Tanya laughed hard at her lover's joke. She was beginning to loosening up a bit, "It's just that... being so small makes me feel like I'm so... so..."

"Helpless?" Cassie finished. "Unable to control your world? Alienated by the familiar?" She nodded slowly and smiled, "You get used to it... trust me."

Tanya's eyes spoke volumes of terror to Cassie, and the redhead quickly amended, "I--I mean you WOULD get used to it... if we couldn't... find a way to get you back to normal... Which we will! I promise!"

She wanted to pick up her small friend, hold her close to her breast and comfort her, but she was afraid that her touch, no matter how sincere and loving, would amplify Tanya's feeling of helplessness. She remembered how Tanya's fingers had felt on her flesh when she had been trapped in a body the size of a doll, and, while she grew to adore the feeling of her lover's touch, she admitted that, at first, it was beyond disconcerting to be touched by a giant.

Instead, she spoke encouragingly to her small partner, "Tanya," she said reassuringly, "you created ME with a technology that you almost single-handedly developed, remember? And when my body was destroying itself, it was YOU that went to the head of your department, despite the fact that you could have been expelled from school or worse. It was YOU that realized that Harry Wolper's nanotech discovery could reverse the process that was killing me. Because of YOU, I can live my life as a normal-sized woman if I want to. Tanya, it was YOU that made me want to discover the limitations of this body, and not to be afraid to experiment with my size changing abilities. It was YOUR mind that designed and developed the shrink ray, and it's YOU that's going to figure out the energy transmission process. With all that, getting you back to normal size is going to be a piece of cake... okay?"

Tanya sighed and sat down again. Cassie held out the thermometer, and motioned for Tanya to lift her arm. The large bulb of the thermometer rested in Tanya's armpit a moment, then Cassie jotted down the reading.

"101.4..." she said, "That's normal for someone...in your condition." Cassie chose her words carefully, unwilling to upset Tanya again. She had already used everything she learned in her hypnosis classes to calm Tanya, and it did seem to work. At least she wasn't crying anymore. "Your body is generating much more heat, now that your molecules are closer together. Your pulse and respiration are up as well, but that's normal too." She smiled at her friend, "Is there anything else I need to make a note of?" She asked.

"My skin... it's tingling, sorta." Tanya said. "And things look...brighter, somehow."

Cassie nodded and replied, "Mmmn hmmn...your nerve endings are more sensitive now that they have been miniaturized and your retinas are picking up light frequencies that were invisible to you before, because the cells of the membrane are packed together more tightly. It's the same with the nerves in your skin. The more dense they become the more sensitive they are."

Tanya smiled, knowingly, "So THAT'S why you like to shrink when I'm making love with you." She feigned a pout, "And all along I thought it was because you knew it turns me on when you get small."

Cassie smiled as if caught with her hand in the candy jar, "Weeelll..." She said, "I do get small for you, honey." She sighed, "But, oh, if you could only feel what it's like to have every nerve in your body set on fire with the slightest touch of your finger ..." She trailed off, smiling. "Ah... anyway..." Cassie shook herself from her daydream. She had seriously considered propositioning Tanya. She could see now what Tanya was so turned on by. The sight of the miniature woman made Cassie's heart pound. "Do you have any idea why Rita would do this to you? Hell... maybe the thought of you tiny turns her on too?"

Tanya shook her head, "No... it wasn't anything like that," She said, "The way she was talking to me wasn't lustful... it was murderous. I think she actually wanted to kill me."

"But that just doesn't make sense. Rita?" Cassie called Tanya's assistant by her nickname for her "Lovely Rita, meter maid?" The nickname, while being derived from Rita's favorite album, always made her blush when Cassie sang it out, "Its just... SO not Rita to do that... or even consider it, for that matter."

"Well..." Tanya threw up her hands and let them fall back into her bare lap, "... she considered it, and damn near did it. She would have shrunk me to microbe size if you hadn't come in when you did."

"And that's another odd thing," Cassie folded her arms as she turned to stared at the door, "Why did she run off when I came in?" She turned to Tanya, "Why didn't she just SHRINK me, as well?"

Both women were silent as they pondered the mystery. Neither moved, neither seemed to be able to get their minds around the motive that could make Rita do such a thing. She had always acted as respectfully and friendly as possible to Tanya and Cassie. They both considered her a friend, Tanya even more so, since the two worked side-by-side daily.

"It doesn't make sense," Cassie said, "but I guess our first priority is to build another shrink ray and get you back to normal, right?" Cassie frowned, "Oh... That didn't sound right, but anyway...do you still have your original designs?"

Tanya was quiet for a minute, and then said. "They won't do us much good, I'm afraid."

"Why not? If you built the first one, you can certainly build another."

"Because," Tanya continued, "I built a SHRINK ray, just like you said. I never intended it to be used on living things." There was a long pause. "I don't know how to reverse it."

Cassie seemed to go pale for a moment, regained her composure, and said, "Well... do you mind if I call in some help, then?" She smiled, knowing that Tanya would know whom she was talking about.

"Of course you can tell Boris." Tanya said. Boris was the young assistant of Dr. Wolper who helped Tanya solve Cassie's terminal problem. It was his programming of the nanotechs in Cassie's body that allowed her to control her size. If anyone could be trusted, it was Boris. "Just as long as you promise that you won't fuck him this time." Tanya leered playfully, remembering Cassie's drunken tryst with the young man. She couldn't blame her, though. Tanya hadn't given her a reason NOT to, after all. This and the fact that he was so... yummy! She smiled to herself. Cassie had a look on her face of mixed surprise and disappointment. Tanya laughed, "Unless of course, I'm invited to join you." 

Cassie smiled at her shrunken girlfriend, "When we get you back to normal, sweetie, I think that it would be the LEAST we can do for dear sweet Boris."

Tanya thought a moment. "Maybe we could say... BEFORE you get me back to normal." She had a faraway look in her eyes, picturing the scale of Boris to her shrunken form. "I'd like to experience this 'heightened-sensation' theory myself..." Then she added quickly, blushing at her own daydream, "...for research purposes, of course." 

Cassie laughed as she moved toward the door, her coat slung over her shoulder. "Of course. Anything in the name of science, eh?" She turned back. From the distance, it was almost difficult to tell that Tanya was so small. "Will you be okay here, while I run home to call him?" She asked.

Tanya waved Cassie away, "Sure. I'll run some simulations while you're gone," She frowned, "Did you change the security code for the door?"

Cassie nodded, "No one can get in now except you and I," She turned, put her hand on the knob. "Oh!" She said, and trotted back to the table. She scooped up the notes she had written and tucked them under her arm, "Boris might need some information." She said, and looked down at her little lover.

Despite her previous judgment, Cassie leaned down and kissed Tanya's forehead. The kiss was well received; Tanya did not give notice that Cassie's touch made her uncomfortable. In fact, Tanya returned the kiss. Her small lips brushing Cassie's full ones.

"Hurry back, please." Tanya said, sounding as brave as her quivering voice would let her. Cassie hurried from the lab, the notes still tucked under her arm. She knew that Boris wouldn't necessarily ask for any more information beyond 'Tanya needs your help,' but she didn't want Tanya studying the statistics written on the papers. It wouldn't take much for her to realize that Cassie had lied to her. Not specifically, but in her general attitude. She wasn't so sure that everything was going to be okay, and the notes under her arm affirmed this fear.




The Subject Pt. 02



According to Cassie's examination, Tanya was still shrinking.

Chapter Three 

Rain splattered the window looking out into the empty lot, creating a smeary picture of what lay beyond the glass. Tanya, with her head to the pane, sat quietly on the windowsill, which was just wide enough to support her at her new size.

The rivers of rain on the glass created complex patterns of refracted light for her to focus her eyes upon, for which she was grateful, the darkness of the stormy sky outside in contrast to the bright fluorescence of the laboratory turned the window into a mirror to her. She couldn't stand to look at herself.

Not like this, anyway.

The reflection, had she decided to focus on it, would have shown her a pretty young woman, early of her thirties, with waving golden brown hair and deep brown eyes. It would show her that the woman was dressed in a t-shirt, and nothing else, but that the shirt was sufficient to cover her body, as her body was less than half its normal size.

This was what Tanya couldn't bear to look at. She knew that she would look small, even to herself, dressed in Rita's t-shirt. She knew that Rita had stored spare clothes in the lab in the case of an accident with chemicals or an all-night experiment. Luckily for Tanya, Rita stored them in the second to bottom drawer of the filing cabinet. If she had put them any higher, Tanya was certain she wouldn't have been able to pull the huge drawer open.

The shirt fit well, like a dress, hanging below her knees. She cinched the waist with a piece of string to make it more comfortable, and then had tried to go back to work on the energy transmission experiment. Working, however, was no good. She had to stand in the chair to reach her keyboard, and her hands were to small to effectively type at the speed she was accustomed to.

Everything she did reminded her of her size problem, and the guilt of that made her give up. Pushing the desk chair to the wall to use for a boost up, she climbed to the window. She sat down and looked out into the rain, and this is where she sat still, concentrating on the patterns of color in the glass, ignoring the guilt and fear that she was feeling.

Tanya sighed, sadly. She hoped that Cassie would be back soon, but at the same time, she didn't look forward to seeing her. Tanya was wracked with remorse at Cassie's all-to-easy return to the world of science and research. Of course, Cassie was only trying to help Tanya, but Tanya couldn't help but feel badly that Cassie had to come back to the lab environment as anything other than her friend and lover.

Cassie had sworn off science, silently, of course, but a vow was made just the same. Tanya could see it in her actions. She never gave her opinions when Tanya told her of her experiments, never came to the laboratory except in a social capacity, never asked what Tanya was working on, and when she did appear at the lab, it was only for brief moments, to leave lunch for Tanya and Rita, or to give Tanya a kiss and a 'love ya' as she was on her way to her next class, luncheon, meeting or whatever.  

Cassie was busy constantly. Either she was taking classes, joining social clubs, taking lunch with friends... anything but doing scientific study. Tanya knew that Cassie avoided the topic of science for one reason only. She needed to be her own person. The knowledge of being a clone of another person still bothered her quite a bit. The fact that the person happened to be Dr. Cassandra Willover, most commonly referred to as 'The Crimson Tide' a moniker that was not so much used in reference to her scarlet hair, as much as it was to the idea that she acted as if she were having her period ALL THE TIME.

It was no surprise that Cassie would want to distance herself from the woman she was supposed to be an exact replica of. All that crossed her path had loathed Willover. She was selfish, self-serving, cold and indifferent, as well as rude, self-important, self-righteous and in the end a cold-blooded killer.

Tanya, of course, in the true form of one with no self-esteem whatsoever, had fallen deeply in love with the woman. Or so she thought. It was only after cloning Willover and being allowed to vent her frustrations on the tiny copy that she realized that it was not love she felt for Willover, but a need to make the woman feel SOMETHING other than her own selfish desires.

It didn't take long for Tanya to discover something sad about Willover's lack of warmth and friendship, and that pity expressed itself in her feelings not for the doctor herself, but for the miniature copy that Tanya had created. When it looked as if the tiny clone were going to die, Tanya did everything in her power to save her, and care for her. Feelings of gratitude from the tiny woman, something that she had never experienced from Willover, made Tanya realize that she hadn't created a replica of the doctor, but a much-improved version.

Still and all, Cassie needed to establish her own identity, even then, when Tanya had professed her love for her. The real breaking point for Cassie was when it was discovered that Willover was planning on using the cloning process to create miniature clones of people to be sold to some Japanese company as toys for the elite.

Cassie even tried to kill Willover. She needed to distance herself from the evil of the woman that badly. She failed, of course. In fact, she later told Tanya that she couldn't go through with it, regardless of how much hate she felt at the time. In any event, Cassie was captured by Willover, rescued at last by Tanya, and Willover herself, shrank out of existence, a victim of her own devices. Tanya heaved a sigh. "Make one helluva story if I ever wrote my memoirs," she thought. A moment later she laughed as she shook her head and said to herself, "Naaa... who would ever believe THIS."

The tiny robots within Cassie's body that stopped the normal molecular breakdown in the early clone experiments also allowed her to grow herself to a normal size. It was this that allowed the secret of Dr. Willover's death to remain that way. Cassie took over Willover's life, despite her need for individuality.

There was, of course, a plus side to being known as Dr. Cassandra Willover for Cassie. That being her rather large bank accounts. Willover had made some very smart investments in tech companies in the late 1970's. By the time the bottom fell out of the Technology market, she had socked away enough money for Cassie and Tanya to take a yearlong vacation in Europe. It was Cassie's decision to put the rest into an anonymous trust to be used for a scholarship fund at Westview. She felt that it was ironic enough to do so, since Willover always believed that no one should be at Westview unless they could pay for it.

Tanya then sold off enough of the technology developed for the cloning process to keep them comfortable. The Electromagnetic pulse generator alone, not only bought the empty warehouse that was now her research lab, but got her enough notice from the government to assure her of an unlimited amount of research grants.

Cassie settled into the routine of being herself, while Tanya settled into the routine of being a research scientist. Both of them had spent the last two years being each other's lover. All was well and perfect.

Until now, that is.

Tanya sighed as she fought back a sob. She knew what was in store for her, despite Cassie's brave face and encouraging words. She knew full well that she was still shrinking. She could feel her body getting smaller with every passing moment. She was sure that, while for now the change was probably imperceptible, soon, it would be very noticeable indeed. She had already postulated that the smaller she became, the exponentially faster the miniaturization would be.

Currently she was a little over two feet tall. If she recalled her notes on the ray correctly, the charge that caused her to shrink to this size was of such a percentage that her rate of decline would be one inch the first day. The second day, an inch and a quarter, the third day, and inch and a half, two inches the fourth...the percentage of her rate of decline would remain a constant for each passing day. However, as her size reduced, that constant would increase in scale to her new size until there was nothing more of her to subtract from.

She wondered idly if it would ever stop... would she continue to shrink beyond the infinite, like the guy in that old sci-fi movie? Would she even be alive after she shrank beyond the size of oxygen molecules, or would the increasing radiation from simple interior lighting destroy her long before that happened? She suppressed a sob, taking a deep breath, and was steeled by the sound of the lab door opening, announcing Cassie's return.

"Did you get a hold of him?" She asked, turning her head toward her lover. But, her lover didn't answer, because she was not there. In her place was the last person that Tanya would have wished to see, "Rita..." she whispered, and panic took her body.

She looked around wildly for an escape route. The window... too high to jump to the ground outside, even if she could get it open. She would most surely break an ankle leaping to the floor, which would make a run for the door impossible. And even if she did reach the door, she was far too short to reach the security lock. Her heart pounded and her brain screamed at her to do something.

Then she realized that Rita wasn't moving. She was still standing just inside the door, statue-like, her gaze cemented to Tanya, still perched on the windowsill. Rita's lips were moving, but there was no sound from her.

Tanya frowned. Panic was replaced slowly by curiosity. Rita looked as if she had just witnessed an execution, or walked away from a car accident. The look of malice that had shown in her eyes-only hours before was gone. Her lips trembled, and she finally managed to croak out, "Duh... Dr. Vale...what happened to you?"

So shocking was the question, so absurd, that Tanya felt all fear boil out from the heat of anger in her blood. She stood up on the sill, shaking with fury. "How DARE you!!! You shrank me, you BITCH!!! How DARE you come back here!!" Tanya convulsed with pure wrath at the audacity of her attacker.

Only Rita wasn't attacking. She simply stood there, trembling, silent. Suddenly, she burst into tears, and sank to the floor in a heap, sobbing, "Oh my god... oh my god..." She chanted over and over like a mantra.

Tanya wasn't done, regardless of Rita's obvious remorse at her crime. "Did you think that I would BE into it, or something?!! Did you think that I would like to BE like this?!!" She was searching for some sort of explanation, some answer to Rita's sudden and unexpected attack, but she was answered only with the girl's sobbing. "Why did you DO this to me, Rita?! WHY?!!!" 

Rita winced as if she was about to be hit and then looked up, her eyes were swollen with tears, and her normally rose tinted cheeks were pale with sadness, guilt and fear. "I'm... sorry... I couldn't help it, Tanya..." She sobbed, "I-I-I couldn't... help it..."

Tanya wanted to murder the larger girl. She wanted an answer and she was getting nothing but riddles, and that made her even angrier. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN, YOU COULDN'T HELP IT?! Did someone put a FUCKING gun to your head and MAKE you shrink me?!" Tanya slid down off the sill, and strode toward the girl, boldly, despite the fact that the woman was at least twelve feet tall to her.

Rita, still crying, started to back away, sliding backwards across the floor in retreat from the tiny woman, "NO!! NOOOO!! PLEASE!! I COULDN'T STOP MYSELF!!!" She shrieked, and there was something in her voice that made Tanya realize that it wasn't her small self that Rita feared, but her presence near her... something that Rita feared because of Tanya's proximity.

Tanya stopped. The anger inside was fading at the sight of her one-time friend, collapsed under the strain of some inner demon. "Rita..." Tanya's voice softened, "What do you mean?" She prodded, gently, believing that Rita might be having some type of breakdown, "Please... Help me understand."

"I... I was..." Rita began, her voice catching when she looked at the miniature woman. She looked away, unable to bring herself to meet Tanya's gaze. "I was just sitting there..." She said, "I was thinking about what I would do when I got home today...*sniff*" She paused, seemingly afraid of a memory, "And... and then, we were running series seven, and you were reading the results, and-and-and..." She began to sob again.

"Shhh... Its okay... Calm down, Rita? What happened to you after that?" Tanya's patience returned, along with a hope that she wasn't being gullible.

"*Sniff* I... I felt something... HAPPEN to me..." Rita took deep breaths, trying not to scream, obviously. "There... *sniff* there was a... voice in my head. I-It was... SO loud... so cold..." She shuddered, "And then... *sniff* it was as if... I was watching a movie of myself doing these... THINGS..." She bit her lip, chewed at it in fear of the remembering. "I... I saw myself... removing the shrink ray from the cabinet *sniff*... I-I WATCHED myself setting it, bu-bu-but it was like... I couldn't control my body... like I wasn't ME anymore..." She glared at Tanya in confusion and then began to cry again, her head dropped down and she curled into a fetal position.

Tanya saw in her eyes that shock was taking over, "Rita!!" She shrieked, and Rita's eyes brightened, "If you weren't in control... who was?" She hoped to bring out the obvious split that Rita had in her personality, she only hoped that the other Rita wouldn't return with it. "Who was it that you think was controlling you?" She didn't know what to do except stall her until Cassie returned. She silently prayed her lover a speedy return. "Come on...Talk to me, Rita, please?"

Rita whispered... "The voice..." She said, reverently, like a child would speak in a cemetery at midnight, "It... It hates you..." She looked at Tanya at last, sat up abruptly, fixing her gaze with the little woman's. Sitting up, she was the same height as the small doctor. "It... It wants to... kill you, Tanya." Rita face was full of confusion then panic began to boil up behind her blue eyes. "It made me shrink you because it wants you to die."

Tanya backed away slowly, fear returning. Rita's enormous size and the threat that her story was holding made her want to flee. Rita suddenly reached out, her large hands gripping Tanya's little shoulders, fingers panicking. Tanya's heart stopped, she was trapped but Rita's face told her that she didn't want to hurt her. To the contrary, the grip of her huge hands was more to hold Tanya in place so that she would absorb the urgency of Rita's words.

"The VOICE, Tanya!" Rita whispered anxiously, "I-I know the voice!" She breathed rapidly, her head suddenly snapping back and forth, as if she feared being watched, and breathed.

"Tanya... it was CASSIE!" With great sincerity she repeated, "CASSIE made me shrink you!"

Chapter Four 

"It's just not possible." Tanya repeated for what felt like the hundredth time. "It's just NOT."

She denied Rita's accusation that Cassie had somehow forced her to shrink Tanya to her current miniature size. "It isn't possible." She shook her head, her brown hair waving, as if to ward off the doubts that were circling her mind with leathery wings.

Rita, much calmer now that she seemed to have uncovered the mystery of her own actions against Tanya, spoke assuredly, "Shrinking a human being isn't possible, either," She said, "Cloning a human being isn't possible, for that matter." Rita concluded her point with, "Being able to manipulate one's own size is the most impossible thing of all."

Tanya looked up at Rita, surprised. She was aware the Rita knew that Cassie was a clone of Dr. Cassandra Willover, however, Cassie's ability to control her mass was a secret shared only between Cassie, Boris and herself.

Seeing the look of shock on Tanya's face, Rita explained, hesitantly, "I walked in on you two by accident." She nodded toward the glassed-in office at the far end of the lab, which doubled as Tanya's dormitory. She would occasionally nap there during particularly difficult experiments. It was the one place that Cassie could be comfortable, since it was more of an efficiency apartment than an office in a research facility.

Rita continued, her cheeks returning to their normally rose-tinted state with the embarrassment of her story. "You and Cassie were...umm..." Her face fell downward, hiding a full-fledged blush. She coughed nervously, "Anyway, I didn't know that you needed privacy, and I walked in and saw Cassie... shrinking." She frowned apologetically, and continued, "At first I thought that you had used the shrink ray on her, but then, you said something to her," Again, blushing, "And I realized that she was controlling it."

Tanya knew full well what Rita was describing. The sessions were frequent in the little office before Cassie had taken to enrolling in the local university. Cassie and Tanya would retire to their sanctuary most afternoons, eat whatever Cassie had prepared for lunch, and then make love. What Rita had witnessed, most probably, was Tanya's favorite position.

Tanya would sit on the edge of the soft couch, her bare thighs open, with Cassie standing between her knees, both naked as virgins. Tanya would then reach up and cup Cassie's ample breasts in her hands, gently lifting them slightly, enjoying the weight of them in her palms. With a smile, and a sparkle in her beautiful green eyes, Cassie would then begin to shrink, slowly... smiling... until she was eye level with the center of Tanya's arousal.

Tanya found that she was as much aroused by the sight and sensation of her lover dwindling between her legs, as she was the oral acrobatics that Cassie would perform when she had shrunk to the proper height. She would continue to hold Cassie's breasts in her hands, dropping them as she shrunk, feeling the weight of them decreasing in her hands as they dwindled from succulent melons to sweet plums.

What Rita had heard was a murmur of encouragement, 'loverspeak' from Tanya to her dwindling partner, probably something along the lines of, "Oh, yes, honey, shrink for me..." or something equally romantic and arousing at the time which sounded insipid in any other context.

Rita was embarrassed to admit to her unintentional voyeurism, and quickly changed the subject back to the matter at hand, "So, for a person who isn't a person, technically, who can change her size at will..." Rita hesitated, "...isn't it possible that there could be... OTHER things she could do as well?"

Tanya closed her eyes for two reasons. The first, to block out the incessant vision of the largeness of the world to her minute frame. The second, to block out the even more ceaseless voices of doubt filling her head. She took a deep breath, composed her thoughts carefully, and explained her case for Cassie to Rita.

"It isn't possible, Rita," Tanya began, and pressed on, even at the sight of Rita rolling her eyes in frustration. "No really... It's not possible, because Cassie and I are more than lovers, we're... partners and friends." She knew that it would be difficult for Rita to understand how a relationship like theirs could exist. To her, and to a majority of people, a same-sex relationship was based upon sexual attraction, or a defective gene, or a need for rebellion...Tanya knew better.

She was no less in love with Cassie than any man could be for a woman, or a woman could be for a man. The fact that they were both women didn't make them any less partners than any other couple of opposite sexes. Their love was based on the internal things that made them connect. Like all good relationships, sexual attraction was based on that, not the other way around.




The Subject Pt. 02



"I love Cassie with all my heart, and she loves me," Tanya stated, simply, forcefully, "There is nothing that we wouldn't do for one another," She paused, "She knows that I would die for her, and I know that she would die for me, and we would both rather die than to hurt one another." Rita seemed to understand, or at least gave the impression in the softening of her gaze that she could connect with the feeling that Tanya was describing, "Cassie would never hurt me, Rita. I know you're thinking that somehow she was controlling you..."

Tanya frowned, and in the pause, Rita interjected. "Hypnotism." She said, bluntly.

"WHAT?" Tanya heard, but her mind refused to conceive the notion.

"Cassie has been taking these hypnotism classes, right?" Rita seemed hell-bent on convicting Cassie of the crime, mostly to acquit herself of any wrongdoing, "Who's to say she didn't hypnotize me?"

Tanya laughed, highly and free, the idea was so absurd...and frightening, "Okay... say she did," Tanya crossed her arms in front of her small bosom, challenging Rita to convince her. "Why?

Why on Earth would she want to shrink me?"

Rita was silent for a moment, Tanya thought she was formulating her answer, but realized quickly that she was searching for the gentlest way to bring it across, "Umm... Didn't you say that Cassie is an exact duplicate of your psycho ex-professor?" She offered, quietly, chewing her lip. Tanya agreed that she was, and hesitantly, Rita replied, "Did you ever think that maybe Cassie is being taken over by the personality that she has in her memories?"

There was a long and chilly silence. Tanya was alternately angry with Rita for accusing her lover, and with herself for allowing the idea to have merit in her head. She could not stop the picture of Cassie holding the thermometer earlier, smiling... "I don't hold a grudge." She had said. But wasn't the smile a little more mischievous? A little colder, now? Tanya shook her head violently. "No, Rita..." She spat. "I refuse to believe that Cassie caused this."

Rita sank. She needed so badly to understand, to be understood, that her friend's rejection made tears well up in her bright blue eyes, "I'm sorry..." She whispered, "I DON'T want to believe it, anymore than you do...but...I don't know what else to think, Tanya..."

Tanya stepped toward Rita, suddenly sorry for her words. She stopped short, though, uncomfortable with the size of her assistant, "Rita, it's... it's okay." Tanya said. "I believe you when you tell me that something happened to you that caused you to do this." Rita looked up, light returning to her eyes. "I know that you would never want to hurt me, and I know that you're confused, but I promise you that we'll get to the bottom of this." She smiled up at her taller than normal friend.

"Thank you, Tanya!" Rita suddenly flung her arms around Tanya, encircling her in a hug. Tanya stifled a scream, allowed the show of affection, despite her terror at the grip of a gigantic woman on her body. "OH!" Rita sat back, suddenly, "I... I'm sorry..." She blushed, embarrassed by her actions.

"It's okay." Tanya lied; readjusting the loose gown she'd fitted herself with. It seemed a bit longer down her legs, and she bit her lip now to keep from panicking, "Right now, I think it would be a good idea for you to just go home and get some rest, 'kay?"

Rita stood up, slowly. Tanya backed up, her heart beating harder as Rita stretched to her full height. Not a petite girl, Rita was easily five feet nine. Tanya's perception, had shrunk with the rest of her body, and now saw Rita standing at over fourteen feet tall. Her towering frame was decidedly frightening, and Tanya backed away, feeling like a child trying to face down a nightmare. She tried to hide her trepidation with thoughts that had escaped her until now. "Rita? Where is the shrink ray?" She said, and ignored the trembling in her own voice, hoping that Rita would do the same.

Rita frowned, looking guilty, "I... I don't remember where I put it," she said, "After I..." she stopped, chewed her lip, "...did THIS to you... I don't remember anything. I kinda 'woke up' halfway home, not knowing how I got there, or what I had done after I..." Tanya saw her struggling with the admission 'I shrunk you' and let her off the hook by asking the other question that came into her head suddenly.

"How did you get back in here?" She remembered that Cassie had changed the security code for the door locks before leaving... or had she, after all? She ignored the last part, or tried to. Rita shrugged, half smiling, "I designed the security program, remember?" She looked again with a little bit of guilt in her eyes, "I put in a backdoor code, Dr. Vale." She hurriedly explained, "I meant to tell you, honestly. I just wanted us to have a way to override the system in case of an emergency."  

Tanya smiled half-heartedly. Rita was so worried about doing the right thing. She was always afraid to take a chance on her own, for fear of doing something that would upset Tanya, even at the expense of allowing her own burgeoning genius to be stifled. She reminded Tanya of herself, not too many years ago.

"It's okay, Rita," She said. "It was a very good idea. We'll keep it that way." Tanya readjusted the t-shirt dress she was wearing, realized what was covering her, "Oh, and thanks for loaning me the shirt," She said, "I needed something to cover up with since..." all her own clothes were too large for her tiny body. This part went unsaid, and was therefore spoken louder than the rest

. 

Rita started to say something, a look of pity in her eyes as she stared down at the miniaturized woman, but Tanya stopped her, "Please... Rita, just go." She said, and hoped that she didn't sound too cold. "I'll call you when this is all straightened out and we'll find out why it happened. I promise."

She turned her back on the woman then, and breathed a sigh of relief when she heard the door of the lab open and close, signaling her exit. Tanya returned to her place at the window. The rain had stopped, and the light outside was gray, dark and dead. 

But not as dark or as dead as her heart.

What if it were true? She'd always had a sense of pride, albeit a small sense, that it was her actions and feelings for Cassie that had changed her from the vindictive, cold-hearted bitch that she'd copied into the woman that she now loved. But, there were thirty years of memories and feelings in Cassie's head that said otherwise. All of Willover's thoughts and dreams were Cassie's. Did she really believe that the few years that they had spent as lovers could undo the decades of damage that Willover had done to herself? Could she have been so pompous to think that her love would conquer all?

She was stewing these things in the black cauldron inside her head when the familiar swoosh of the door told her that Cassie had returned, at last.

"Tanya?" Cassie called. Tanya realized that she would be hard to spot at her size, let alone sitting in the unlikely position of her perch upon the windowsill. Still, she waited until Cassie repeated her name before answering.

"I'm here." She muttered, her gazed still fix on the window.

Cassie rushed to her side without looking like she was trying to rush. "Boris said that he'd be here in a few days," she said, "He's going to fly out as soon as he can find someone to cover his classes at the University."

"That's good." Tanya murmured. In a few days, she knew, she would probably be much smaller than she was now. "Thanks for calling him." And secretly, unbidden, she wondered if she had called him at all.

Cassie figured she was bummed out, but there was something else... a coldness of sorts, "Are you okay?" she asked, and Tanya would have laughed at the stupidity of the question, had she had any humor left inside.

She simply shrugged, and tried to ignore the voices in her head arguing with her common sense and emotional attachment for Cassie. "Did he give you any suggestions on how we might reverse this?"

"No..." Cassie whispered sadly, "But he said he'll start looking into it right now. He has all the research notes that you and he took from your studies of me. I'm sure that he'll think..."

Tanya cut her off, "Rita was here while you were gone..." Tanya didn't look at Cassie, she couldn't, it seemed. She didn't want to see the look on her face for fear that it would be one of guilt.

Cassie's voice, however, was full of concern for Tanya, not guilt over some secret that Tanya was imagining. "Are you alright? Did she do anything?"

"No. She just... talked." Tanya shrugged, her t-shirt dress slipping from her small shoulder. This drove her over the edge. Fear makes the human mind a playground for self-deception. Tanya's heart was still in love with Cassie, but her mind was full of doubts. The battle was a losing one for her emotions. She crammed herself tighter into the corner of the window, "You haven't been practicing your hypnotism techniques on her, have you?" Tanya asked, regretting every word, but saying them just the same.

There was a long pause. Tanya finally looked up at her crimson-maned lover. A look of shock shone in her beautiful green eyes, "Why..." She stammered, "Why would you ask that?"

Tanya's fearful mind was fueled by Cassie's non-answer, "HAVE YOU?" She insisted.

Cassie frowned, "No, Tanya, I haven't." She seemed angry, feeling the accusation in Tanya's voice. "Why do you ask?"

Her gaze went back to the window, "It's nothing." Tanya lied. But at the end of the lie, riding on a wave of fear and hatred of her situation, came the words that she felt tearing at her heart like a spill of broken glass. "...She said you made her shrink me."

Cassie said nothing. Tanya wished desperately for Cassie to either deny the claim or admit it. It was the lack of knowing that was driving her crazy. Suddenly Cassie burst into laughter, "Oh, my god! Honey...!" She giggled, "Why on Earth would I do a thing like that?"

Tanya glared up at her, struggling, trying to swallow the words that her terrorized world was putting in her throat, but she couldn't, "Because you want revenge..." She trailed off, letting silence wash into the space between their hearts, widening now with each new accusation. "Because you..." she tried to fill the void, but couldn't.

Cassie took up the challenge, pouring anger into the rift. "I see... Its' HER, isn't it?" She said, coldly.

"Her? Her who?" Tanya turned to sit facing Cassie, her own anger building without cause, save fear.

Cassie's voice was hard as steel scraping granite, "Willover." She said, and the word sounded like a curse, profane in her mouth. Tanya said nothing, simply looked into Cassie's green eyes. The gauntlet was thrown down, there was nothing left to do save the duel. She hated every second of it, but her mind wouldn't allow her to stop it if she could.

Cassie's eyes filled with a combination of hurt, rage, and sadness, "Do you REALLY think that...?" She stood up from where she was kneeling, Tanya stood as well, trying to make herself bigger, refusing to be dwarfed by Cassie, despite the difference in their sizes. "Jesus, Tanya! I am NOT CASSANDRA WILLOVER!" Cassie screeched, and tears filled her eyes.

Tanya died. Her heart broke into a thousand pieces and began to pour out her eyes. She desperately wanted to take back the words, to heal the hole that she had made in her loved one's soul, but it was futile. She tried to speak, and had no voice. She could only watch as Cassie buried her face in her hands, her shoulders trembling with her sobs.

"Cassie..." she whispered, wanting to stop this. "I... I don't..." Then she stopped. Cassie, still sobbing into her palms, began to fall away from her, her clothes sagging, shifting as gravity pulled them from her shrinking frame, "Oh no... Cassie, don't do that." Tanya begged you don't have to prove anything to me, really." But Cassie continued to shrink, her head slowly disappearing below the edge of the windowsill. "Cassie, please don't..." Tanya pleaded, watching her lover disappear into her clothes. She didn't understand what Cassie was trying to prove by shrinking.

When Cassie looked up from her height to Tanya, the look of surprise in her eyes told Tanya that she wasn't trying to prove anything. She seemed shocked by her sudden loss of size. "What..." She was able to say, and then the room was full of ice-cold giggles. Tanya's head snapped up. Behind Cassie, shrink ray in hand, was Rita, the cold hard smile that she had worn earlier on her face.

"Oh no..." Tanya groaned, and was answered with soulless laughter as she felt the shrink ray twisting her body, her t-shirt gown falling away as she was shrunk for the second time that day.

Chapter Five 

Darkness surrounded Cassie as if she were submerged in night.

She wasn't certain where she was, but from the odor of urine, and the smell and feel of chunks of cedar beneath her, she guessed it was a small animal cage of some sort. It was her cage, now, the animal that had once occupied it; probably a hamster or guinea pig was absent. Cassie sincerely hoped it would stay that way.

She experimented with standing and found that she could but was unable to move very far, the collar around her neck was tied to the wall behind her. She reached up as far as she could, but felt only empty air. The ceiling was higher than a foot, she guessed. She had hypothesized that she was about 10 inches tall. Her ability to change her size had also given her a sixth sense that helped her judge her own size rather accurately. She was now as large as she had been at her 'birth' the day that she awoke from the gestation matrix from which she had been cloned.

Rita had shrunk her. It had come as such a surprise that Cassie had hardly been able to react before she felt herself captured, tangled and covered in her own oversized underwear. Rita had tossed her into what was probably her purse, and after a jostling ride that seemed to last an eternity, she was roughly fitted with the collar around her neck and dumped here, in the dark.

She heard Rita's footsteps fade off into the darkness, and knew that they were alone, Tanya and she. Tanya was near, she knew. She could hear the woman breathing some feet away, and could just barely make out the heat signature of her body. At this size, Cassie could catch glimpses of light normally in the invisible ranges of the spectrum. Her tiny eyes and retinas, compacted so, were more sensitive than they would be at her normal size. She had called out to Tanya, but no answer came. She was probably unconscious.

If Rita had not adjusted the shrink ray after she miniaturized her with it, Cassie guessed that Tanya had probably been shrunk the same percentage as herself. Unfortunately, Tanya had a smaller percentage of her original size to begin with. Cassie figured that Tanya, though still seemingly 28 inches to her, had actually been reduced to only four inches. At her size, the rough handling that Rita had submitted them to would be like being strapped to a rocket chair. The increased gravity and speed knocked Tanya unconscious.

She hoped.

She had been sitting there, in the darkness of their prison, watching and listening for any sign of awakening from her lover, and postulating an escape. She considered concentrating herself to grow back to normal. She knew that she possessed the ability, despite her preference to do the opposite. She had only tried it once, and it ended so disastrously, with a broken bed and a hole in the ceiling, that she hadn't done it again.

The only thing that kept her from trying to enlarge herself was the theory that, since the nanites in her blood, reacting to her brain waves like voluntary muscle responses, regulated the magnetic bond of her molecules, she was able to shrink herself to incredibly small sizes (a quarter inch is as far as she had ever gone). She was also able to signal the nanites to DECREASE the bond, in which case, she would grow larger.

She had been grown from 10 to 70 inches by the nanites when they were first introduced into her body, so she should be able to use them to grown back to 70 inches now. However, the nanites affected her on a molecular level. Tanya's shrink ray affected her on an atomic level. It wasn't the molecules of her body that had been compacted together this time; it was the atoms themselves that were being affected. To her molecules, her current size was normal. If she tried to use the nanites to grow herself to seven times her current size, she feared that she would cause the molecules to lose their cohesion, and end up vaporizing herself in the process.

She sighed, knowing that there was only one way of escape, and that was to shrink her out of the collar and be small enough to slip out between the bars. But she wouldn't. Tanya didn't have that option, and Cassie would never leave her behind, alone with Rita...

Why Rita had done this to them was still a mystery. She never seemed the type to be hiding some secret psychosis, and why had she tried to convince Tanya that she was under Cassie's control? Cassie pondered this, and her heartbeat slowed, as it grew heavier. Tanya had believed her story. The years that Cassie had spent trying to be Cassie to her were futile, it seemed. She tried to make Tanya forget that, despite that she was a mirror image of the woman, Cassie was not, and never would be anything like Cassandra Willover.

But it hadn't worked, had it? The ghost of that vindictive and frozen-souled bitch still hung to her like the fetid smell of a crypt. Tanya had loved her, to be sure, had let herself forget all about Dr. Willover, and had found love in Cassie. But it took only one bad day, albeit the most horrible day, and the ranting of a madwoman to convince her otherwise. She was saddened only that she obviously wasn't doing a good enough job separating herself from the woman she had been cloned from. She began to realize that Tanya was probably always going to look at her with eyes that saw only Willover and her hatred of her. She hadn't purged herself of the woman's memories, and past thoughts, no matter how many classes she took in meditation and hypnotism and the like. She tried, though. Lord knew how she had tried...

She knew then, that it would be the hardest thing that she would ever have to do, but she would say goodbye to her lover. She couldn't stand the thought of being seen with eyes that saw what she once was, and not what she was attempting to become. She couldn't bear to know that Tanya relived the feelings of worthlessness that Willover had crammed down her throat everytime Cassie spoke.

She would go, then. She would start a new life somewhere where she would never have to be reminded of Cassandra Willover. And in her going, neither would Tanya need be reminded of how she had been betrayed by what Cassie obviously was. A copy of the woman that had hurt Tanya so much that she was driven to the point of madness. That madness had resulted in Cassie's creation, to be sure, but it was madness, just the same. Tanya wouldn't have attempted such a feat had it not been for her unquenchable desire for vengeance against Willover.

But first, they had to escape the prison that Rita had trapped them in, and then, figure out how to reverse the affects of Tanya's shrink ray. The latter seemed much easier at this point, and far more important, to be sure.

Tanya was already shrinking when Rita had returned to the lab for a second time. The initial affects of the ray had not completely faded after the initial reaction. Tanya, and now Cassie as well, would continue to grow steadily smaller. But whether or not Tanya would shrink faster, having had a second exposure was a question that Cassie needed answered, and soon.

Did the effect of the ray now layer itself upon the original effect? Would Tanya now shrink at an increased rate? Or, as Cassie hoped, did the second exposure cancel out the first, causing Tanya's molecules to return to a baseline of their original condition, to shrink from there? Not that either possibility was appealing, but at least the latter gave them some added time to find a cure for their condition.