"Because she shrunk too." Hibiki said, and pointed across the room to the freshly shrunken figure of Ariana, now reduced to the same minuscule size as Kris and Kotone, and looking none too pleased about it.
"Oh no!" Kotone exclaimed. Even though they were enemies, Kotone couldn't help but feel bad for the Rocket executive.
"Serves her right." Kris huffed.
Hibiki stepped over his shrunken friends to go get Ariana, and hopefully some answers about how the girls all shrank. But Ariana's small size hadn't diminished her will, and she ran screaming when she saw the giant Hibiki coming towards her. However, Ariana's tiny stature made even her full sprint nothing that Hibiki couldn't cover in just a few casual steps, and the normal-sized boy caught up to her in no time.
"Stop, please. I'm not going to hurt you." Hibiki assured her. To show his sincerity, he made no attempt to reach out for the frightened little lady. But that didn't stop her from running anyway.
"Stay away!" Ariana squeaked from the floor, panting as she ran.
Hibiki crossed his arms and sighed. He knew Ariana was a proud woman, but he thought that even she would know when to quit. Reluctantly, and as gently as he could, Hibiki bent down and grabbed the shrunken redhead, literally sweeping her off of her feet. He held her in front of his face, similarly to how he might've held a small Pokemon.
"Let me go, you creep!" Ariana shouted at him as she tried in vain to free herself from the comparative giant's fingers.
Hibiki stared at the shrunken woman in amazement. He'd seen Kris and Kotone all tiny already, but only now, holding a shrunken person like this, did he realize how small and vulnerable they were at their sizes. He wasn't even trying to hold Ariana too tightly at all, but she still was unable to even slightly budge a single of his fingers. He was astonished by the difference in power as well as size, but in the back of his head, he thought it made the girls look cute at their doll-sizes.
Down on the floor, Kris and Kotone watched Hibiki handle Ariana's shrunken body. They could little else in their current states. Kotone was happy that Ariana at least seemed to be all right, aside from being shrunk. But Kris watched the scene with a different view, watching carefully as Hibiki easily and effortlessly manhandled the shrunken woman. She knew Hibiki well and was sure he'd be a kind giant to her, but it still frightened her as she thought of how helpless she'd become. She hoped he'd let Ariana down soon.
"Stop staring at me like that!" Ariana spat. "Heh heh, when I'm back to normal again, I'll have the boss shrink you down and then we'll see how you like it!"
"That's not going to happen." Hibiki shook his head. He became a little flushed as he realized he'd been staring for too long. Not wanting to take advantage of the poor shrunken woman, Hibiki set her down next to Kris and Kotone.
"Thank goodness you're okay!" Kotone said cheerfully, running up to the redhead to give her a hug. Ariana was caught off guard by the aggressive kindness, and nearly knocked to the floor by Kotone's hug.
"H-Hey! Let go of me!" Ariana protested, shoving the younger girl away. Kotone's smile didn't fade though, she was genuinely glad that her enemy was safe, despite the fact that they were about to do battle just minutes ago.
Before Ariana could recovered completely, she was then actually tackled to the floor by Kris, who held her down and looked angry enough to slap the poor redhead.
"Kris!" Kotone gasped, not expecting her friend to be so forceful.
"Kris, don't!" Hibiki yelled, but was hesitant to intervene. After handling the small Ariana before, he wasn't sure that he should even do anything. He just hoped that Kris didn't hurt Ariana.
"How did you do this to us!? Tell us!" Kris demanded, her fist raised, ready to strike Ariana. The latter laughed.
"Now that's more the reception I expected! Hee hee!" Ariana said with a devious smile. Kris got even angrier and was about to smack Ariana, but relented and instead put her hands down and shook the villain.
"Tell us how you shrank us! Or else!" Kris demanded again.
"Or else... what? You'll beat me?" Ariana scoffed. "You've already beaten me!" She broke into a maniacal laughter. "Look at how small we are!"
"Kris, please..." Kotone pleaded with Kris, she wanted to stop all the fighting, knowing now was not the time for it.
Kris was upset by Ariana's lack of cooparation, but understood that Ariana was really in the same position as herself and Kotone. Shrunken down to a pitifully helpless size, and even worse, abandoned by her boss. Kris wondered if Archer had actually shrunk his redheaded co-hort on purpose or by accident. She wasn't sure which was worse.
Kris got off of Ariana. She screamed out in frustration and paced around to cool down. Ariana on the other hand laid there on the floor, still chuckling to herself. Hibiki stayed still, afraid to intervene with the shrunken girls. Kotone didn't like it, and walked over to the mad woman. She stood over Ariana and folded her arms.
"Hey! You should at least tell us what happened!" Kotone shouted.
"What's the point?" Ariana settled down from her laughing fit and stared up at Kotone's angry pout. "Archer is long gone. Bastard left me behind, I wonder if he even noticed that he shrank me down with you two fools..."
"The point?" Kotone began. "The point is that we need to find a way to get back to normal!"
"Not possible." Ariana replied shortly. She stood up, now standing slightly taller than Kotone even though they both shrank it seemed to be in proportion. "That device was meant to shrink our enemies, not grow them."
"What do you mean? What device?" Kris asked, coming back to the others.
"It's a prototype weapon. We planned to use this radio tower's waves and turn them into a weapon that was capable of shrinking anyone who dared to stand in our way. We weren't supposed to use it yet, but you can see how that turned out." Ariana motioned Hibiki, who looked giant to the tiny girls.
"So it can only shrink things?" Hibiki asked.
"Yeah, didn't you hear me the first time? Or is my voice too small to carry?" Ariana asked.
"No, I heard you." Hibiki replied. He sat down on the floor to get closer to the shrunken women anyways. "But there must be a way to reverse this."
"Have you been listening? I told you it's impossible!" Ariana shouted. "We're all going to be stuck like this for the rest of our lives!" She turned to Kris and Kotone, and pointed at them. "So you two better get used to it!"
"Forever...?" Kris asked, her voice quiet as the realization set in. If that was true then all of dreams and hopes were now crushed, no more Pokemon battles, no more Pokedex filling, no more anything but living like a doll. Kris was near tears when Kotone suddenly spoke up.
"No way! I refuse to believe that!" Kotone shouted. "Besides, it isn't so bad, right, Kris?"
"You're right. There has to be something we can do." Kris said. She wanted to believe it, and she certainly didn't want to agree that being shrunken down "wasn't so bad" as Kotone had put it.
"Whatever. You can't deny facts, look at me, I've already accepted it!" Ariana pouted.
"No, Kotone's right. Even you or you're engineers don't think it's possible, there must be a way." Hibiki said.
"Yeah! You tell her, Hibiki!" Kotone yelled.
"I think we all just need to take a break and relax, and get our minds back. Let's rest up for now, and we'll think of what to do later." Hibiki said.
"That sounds good to me." Kris said.
"Yeah, and I bet you wouldn't even need to rent more than one room! You know, because we're all so tiny!" Kotone offered cheerfully.
"What!? Are you saying we should all share a room with Hibiki!?" Kris's face turned red at the thought.
"I'm not sharing a room with anyone. Let me go, I'll do better on my own, I bet." Ariana said.
"Seriously!?" Kotone asked, shocked by the redhead's attitude.
"Hmph. Maybe that's not such a bad idea." Kris said.
"C'mon, Kris, don't be like that. She's got it just as bad as the rest of us. And Ariana, please let us help you, it's way too dangerous for you to be on your own at your size." Hibiki said.
Ariana thought about it for all of 5 seconds before deciding...
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