"It's the Tiny Reduction Serum!" Zara proudly announced. "A most wonderful chemical that has the simplest effect imaginable. Thanks to our tireless work experimenting on affected for the past few decades, we've managed to create a serum that should, I hope, even further reduce the size of you tinies! A veritable shrinking chemical!" She laughed. "Isn't that amazing?"
Your blood ran cold.
A chemical that reduced the height of affected even more? That sounded like the absolute opposite of amazing, it sounded like a living nightmare! Trying to survive the world at one inch was already a sometimes impossible task. Having to do it at an even smaller height? The very idea of that broke your brain, and it reminded you of some long-ago stories you'd read online about something called Partial Digestion Reduction, a rare side-effect of a different CTC hell product, Appetiny. Had the CTC now effectively weaponized that side-effect into an on-demand chemical weapon?
"That doesn't sound amazing at all!" You protested loudly, earning only a condescending giggle from Zara.
"But think of the benefits, little one!" Zara added. "Though it's a bit ironic given your size, you tinies really do take up a lot of space from us normal people. By reducing the size of all affected across the globe, we can totally mitigate that disparity by making you all even less of an inconvenience, while not eliminating the incredible benefits your malleable bodies provide as service! Can't you imagine how much space would be saved, as well as money saved, by shrinking all tinies even more and then eliminating the current infrastructure of affected-sized products and policies? It would be a game changer!"
You balked. "That's not a game changer at all, that's a nightmare! Us affected already struggle day in and day out, and you'd make things even worse for us?"
Zara tutted. "Little one, you only struggle because you continue to wrongfully believe that you are meant to live as a normal human. By being shrunk even more, it should become that much more obvious that you and all tinies aren't humans. You're little adorable creatures meant to embrace happy lives of servitude!"
"You're insane!"
Zara blushed. "Aw, thanks! All of my childhood scientific role models were declared insane in their time, and only found appreciation years or decades later! Maybe I'm ahead of the curve!" Zara chuckled again, then lunged at you with the syringe.
Eyes widening, you jerked to the side...but it was too late. With a shriek, your body was pierced with the syringe, and Zara injected the red liquid of the Tiny Reduction Serum into your body. As she withdrew the syringe, she swiped downwards with the needle, ripping your clothes to shreds and leaving you buck naked.
Instantly, you felt the effects kick in, and all you could do was writhe in pain and scream.
Little by little, you felt your body shriveling up as you began to shrink. Your limbs shortened, your height decreased, and the scale of the world around you began to multiply exponentially. You screamed and screamed, your head throbbing with the mind-blowing realization of the horrible fate befalling you, and your complete inability to do anything about it. You flailed your naked body around the desk, crying and begging for someone to save you, but your pathetic actions earned only a condescending chuckle from the titanic, twisted scientist standing above you.
Standing far, far above you.
When the sensation finally stopped, you turned to stare up at Zara, and you felt a sickening feeling of terror tremble through your miniscule body. You almost fell backwards just trying to stare up at her, she was that towering above you. Or rather, you were just that small. The desk beneath you had turned from a football field into a sprawling countryside, the discarded syringe had grown from a doll-sized needle to a building-sized instrument of destruction, and the office around you almost vanished into the faint distance from how far away everything looked.
And, above all, there was Zara. Any unaffected looked huge to a tiny, but at your newly reduced size, Zara was a goddess among goddesses, stretching into the stratosphere so incomprehensibly massive that it broke your brain just to stare up at her. And then she smiled, her pearly-white teeth flashing, and you flinched back in fear. Unaffected could be scary at any time, but this mega-sized Zara was the most frightening thing you'd ever witnessed in your entire life. It was like all your worst nightmares rolled into one single moment, and you couldn't help but shed tears of despairing horror.
Zara, however, was all smiles. "Ah, it worked! Fantastic, very well done, little guy!" She giggled. "Thanks for being such a cooperative test subject!"
You clapped your hands against your ears, Zara's booming voice almost knocking you to the floor. The volume of her voice was astoundingly loud, even though she was just talking at regular volume. You were just that inconsequentially small to her now that her merely speaking was enough to deafen you. It was another sobering slap to the face, and you fell to your knees in stunned terror.
Zara then knelt down in front of her desk, pulled out a ruler, and slapped it down onto the desk beside you. Her eyes grew wide with delight. "Ah, perfect! The exact height that I calculated! 1/8th of an inch, a fraction of your old size! My serum works!" She laughed, and a faint droplet of spittle so unnoticeable she probably had no idea she'd produced it flew from her lips and splattered into your face, soaking your head in saliva. A droplet so tiny she hadn't noticed it, and it still knocked you over and soaked you.
1/8th...of an inch...
Feebly, you called up to her once you wiped her saliva away. "Miss Reed...p-please grow me back."
Zara's brow creased. "Are you talking, little one? You'll have to speak up now that you're at your new size."
Clearing your throat, you shouted up to her. "Please! Turn me back right now! Your serum works, so grow me back now!"
Zara giggled. "Ah, your voice is so cute and tiny! So high-pitched, I can barely hear you. It's like you're whispering, but I bet you're shouting loud, aren't you?" Zara hastily jotted down some notes. "This is so exciting!"
"Miss Reed! Help me, right now!" You said again, even more fiercely. Your terror was turning to anger.
Zara sent you an infuriatingly vapid smile. "Little one...what do you mean by 'grow you back'? Don't you think that, if a growth serum existed, tinies all around the world would've heard about it?" Zara laughed, her smile turning condescending. "There is no growth serum. This is your new size now, little one, so I think you should get used to all the fun it can bring!"
Your heart skipped a beat. "Wh-What...?"
"It's permanent!" Zara said simply. "And all the better to collect data with, I'd say. In fact, with your contribution, the CTC should soon be ready to get this shrinking chemical out to all of our branch offices, what few remain. In no time, all of the tinies in the world can join you at your new height, little guy." Zara smiled, blissfully unaware of the horror in her words. "So, hey, you won't be lonely, little guy!"
You collapsed to the ground, stunned and emotionless.
This couldn't be real. You were having a terrible nightmare, a twisted dream. Your forty-four years of life hadn't led you to being swept up by a cruelly misguided scientist, injected with chemicals, and permanently reduced to the tiniest fraction of your original size. This couldn't be real. You couldn't now and forever be 1/8th of an inch, the world's smallest tiny, doomed to live as an unnoticed speck even once the CTC finished with you and returned you to Jenna. It just...couldn't...be real.
But it is, isn't it? You internally realized.
And that wasn't even to mention the Perma 0-B-D-N-C coursing through your body, compelling you to keep the evil secrets of the CTC from your friends and loved ones.
Heedless to your internal strife, Zara tapped her chin. "Actually, I wonder if I could make you even smaller. But, before that, it's time for us to collect some data! Oh, and I have so many ideas!" Smiling, Zara reached down towards you, her hand coming to engulf you.
1) Zara wants to keep you in-house for now, intending on holding you at her lab for much more testing and experimentation.
2) Zara wants to test you in the field, so she transports you to The Oasis and sets your micro-sized form loose into the waterpark.
3) Zara wants to test you in the field, so she whisks you away to your own house and flicks you inside through the window.
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