"Anon, we need someone just like you to really start taking this company forward." your boss said, putting his arm around as he walked you down the hall.
"Th-thank you, sir. That really does mean a lot that you'd say that."
"Of course, this company is already pretty much as forward it could go right now, I mean, have you seen how much money we make? Spoiler: it's a lot!" he continued, apparently having not heard your humble response.
"Ha ha, um, well, I'm sure I have what it takes to make even more of that money, sir."
"That's not what we need, Anon. Hyperion is just a giant money printer these days! We don't need men who can boost income; we just need men who can prove they want to be here more than anyone else. Can you do that?" he continued to drape his arm over your shoulder, leading you into his office.
"Of course."
"Good! Because I'm sending you away." he sat at his desk and motioned for you to take a seat.
"Away, sir? Where?" you ask, sitting down as instructed.
"Pandora." he waved his hands in a jazzy manner as to spruce up the name of the dive he was sending you to. "Shit hole of a planet, but, we got some guys down there running some experiments on a substance the locals have taken to calling 'slag.'"
"And you want me to go down there and oversee their work? Make sure everything is running effiently and everyone is working hard?"
"Never assume, Anon. Never assume. They need a new guy to replace a failed test from last week and I told them to get the hell outta my office. But then I remembered you and figured 'hey, if the kid wants work.'"
"I, um-- look, with all due respect, sir, I was kind of hoping for a job that was more on the management side of things..."
"Anon. You've got to prove you want to be a manager before you can start becoming a manager. Understand?"
You didn't.
"I understand."
"Good. Now get the hell outta my office."
-------------------------------------------------------------
Thinking back on that conversation, you wish you'd just told him you were happy with your current job. Maybe then you wouldn't currently be sat in a giant test tube, with a bunch of giant people walking around you.
As it so happened, the slag experiment you were the subject for involved testing the size changing capabilities of slag. The scientists had heard of beasts growing in size after exposure to slag and they were curious as to what would happen if a human were to be injected with the same type of slag. Severe shrinkage was the result.
You'd been kept at your current size, two and a half inches, for about 3 days now. There was talk of maybe making you smaller but they concluded that they'd gathered all the information they could from your shrinking. Maybe you'll be getting that promotion sooner that you'd expected.
One of the scientists was making his way over to you when an engineer came rushing in covered in blood. Everyone stopped what they were doing immediately, shifting their attention to the blood soaked man catching his breath.
"It's--" the engineer was cut off by a large purple orb that lifted him a few feet off the ground and set him ablaze.
"SIREN!!" one man shouted as everyone made their retreat.
"Hey, wait! Don't leave me!!" you screamed after them, banging on the glass of your prison.
Gunshots echoed from the hallway, growing louder by the second. Bullets flew through the doorway, incapacitating the fleeing scientists. You curled into a ball, preying a stray bullet wouldn't find you and tear you to absolute shreds. You'd been warned about the abundance of firearms on Pandora but you never assumed you'd come anywhere near any kind of combat. If you'd known you'd be under the threat of sirens and bullets the size of you, you'd have told your manager to fuck off since day one. Is this really how your life is going to end?
After what seemed like an eternity of gunfire and screams and murder, everything went quiet. You summoned the courage to stand up and see the damage that had been done. You wished you hadn't once you saw all the bodies lying around. Almost everyone in the facility had been killed. You felt bad for the poor men who clocked in this morning with no intention of being gunned down in the middle of their shift.
As you looked stunned at the aftermath of the chaos that had ensued, you noticed a blue haired woman walk through the door that was recently spitting out bullets. She wandered around, putting bullets in the heads of some scientists who hadn't quite succumbed to their injuries yet.
"Why waste the bullets?" a voice coming from the door said. As you looked over, a younger woman walked in, possibly in her late teens. You noticed she had a robot arm but not much else grabbed your attention about her.
"What separates us from the rest of the scum on Pandora, Gaige?" The blue haired girl asked, continuing to finish the barely living survivors. The girl, now confirmed to be Gaige, thought for a second.
"We... have bigger guns?"
"We're proffesionals. We don't just unload our weapons into a crowd and leave. We make sure every kill is clean. No unnecessary suffering."
"But they're Hyperion. I say let them bleed."
You gulped as Gaige revealed her hatred for the company you represent.
"Remind me why you came with me." the siren said, visibly annoyed at Gaige's running commentary.
"I'unno. Bored. Everybody was off doing stuff and then you went off to go do stuff and I figured 'Hey! Stuff!' so I came along."
"Uh-huh."
"Plus, look at all this stuff!" Gaige added as she tinkered with a generator. "Say what you want about Hyperion, love 'em or hate 'em, but, they have some cool tech! Wonder if any of it can be salvaged... Maya! Help me with this!" Gaige struggled to rip out some sort of battery.
"No. Waste of time. Tannis said she wanted whatever they were working on here and that's it." Maya instructed. That didn't sound good. You weren't the only thing they were working on here but you were probably the most interesting. This did not bode well for you.
"Fiiine." Gaige sighed, retiring her efforts. She started sifting through paper and checking desks for the fabled experiment. You looked around desperately for a way to escape your glass prison but saw nothing. All you could do was sit and wait as the two giant women grew closer to your position with each terrifying step. What would they do to you? Who is this 'Tannis' person and what do they want you for?
You considered how you would play it when they eventually found you. Would you be cool and collected? "Hi, I'm the experiment. What is it you need?" Or maybe suave and charismatic? "Ladies, search no more for your answer finds you in one neatly wrapped, handsome package. Anon's the name, pleasing ladies is the game."
As you fantasised the many ways in which you could introduce yourself, a giant face came into your view, scaring you witless.
"Oh my god! Help!!" ...or you could play it scared and pathetic.
"Is this it?" the giant face of Gaige called over to the other titan. Maya came over and you found yourself looking up at two gigantic, albeit pretty, faces.
"I... think so??"
"It asked for help."
Maya tapped the glass, shaking your entire world. "Hey, you. Tiny person. Are you the slag experiment?"
You considered saying no but chances are that would lead to these two either leaving you here to rot or simply killing you. You opted for the long term decision.
"Yes. They were experimenting on me to see the size changing capabili--" your tube was lifted with immense speed and carried away with you inside.
"I heard yes." Maya said as she attached you to her belt.
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