Five months had passed since she had been transported to another world. Her time there had been a strange one, meeting with new friends, avoiding getting run over by trucks. It had been a long, wild journey.
Or at least, it probably should have been. She had been unable to move for the entirety of that time, stuffed in a bottle with the world around her perpetually upside-down. Everything was tight, way tighter than it should have been. One would have thought that over the passage of time, she would have started getting used to her new accommodations. That it would have felt less tight, maybe she would have even become comfortable in there, finding solace in the near microscopic wiggles she could make with her fingers and toes. Every blink was an occasion, the most exercise she would get in a day! Sometimes she would count how many it took before she fell asleep.
She had gotten very used to seeing others go in and out, their bottles would be plucked off the shelf by mechanical claws and taken back to the outside world. She often wondered how nice that must have felt, to be out once more, to see the sun clear and bright and not through a tinted window that always managed to blind her for half an hour every day before sundown. If nothing else, it helped her keep track of time.
That said, it wasn’t all bad. There had been a few faces she had gotten used to seeing, some of them who had been there for as long or even longer than her. Not many, of course. Most girls were put in and taken out within a couple of hours, days at the most. But there had been an odd girl two rows over that she could see on the rare occasions when the movement of the claws turned her enough to see down the line.
Her neighbor had arrived about three months after she had, and with green skin and purple hair, she stood out. Of course, that was the most that she could make out, but on occasion the two of them would be able to lock eyes. They would try mumbling words at each other, though neither one of them could open their mouths enough to get out full sentences. Still, she found their moments of brief ‘conversation’ to have been somewhat of a highlight of her stay.
Jamie had started to accept that this would be her life from that point on, watching others come in and out of the storage unit, making light conversation and sometimes getting a decent view of someone else’s squishy predicament. It wasn’t so bad, so long as she could make her few mumbles a day, and get to watch the claws going about their business, she could have peace there.
Then the claw came for her friend, and before she even had finished screaming into the glass that they better put her back down, her own prison rose into the air. She hadn’t heard the claw grab her, but after almost half a year she was lifted off of her shelf and taken through the facility. She ended up following behind her green-skinned friend, getting the best look at the girl she had ever had.
Her skin seemed marked with a series of stitches, some of which vanished up into a crease between her legs
that-Jamie’s cheeks went red as she realized the first real look she’d gotten of her friend was of her butt. She tried not to focus on it, but her vision had been so limited that she couldn’t help it. She stared at the girl’s thighs, her pants tight, and the white jacket she wore seemed to have been folded up over her back, almost as though whoever had put her in had been trying to get her to show off.
She groaned as the claws dropped them back on the conveyor belt, which came to life as soon as they were steady. Brought ever closer to the black leather drapes that separated them from freedom, she couldn’t help but get excited. Her bottle shook with her vibrations, and she stopped only when she realized she was about to send herself off the edge of the belt. It felt as though an eternity had passed, and yet she went through the exit like all the rest.
Sunlight blinded her, brighter than anything she had ever seen. Her eyes were forced to squint, and she held back an instinctive whine as she awaited whatever or whoever would be there to free her. Then again, the one who had brought her there wasn’t the most
trustworthy-“Ohhh! Two for one! I remember dropping Franny off, but who’s the-” The long white-haired catgirl that stood over the two of them said. She knelt over to get a better look, staring Jamie down, “I really don’t remember this one. Huh, maybe they gave me the wrong one?”
“Whaddyumeenyufowgot!?” Jamie growled, her bottle bouncing on the belt up and down, before falling onto her side, her bottle rolling over so she was face down.
“I’m kidding! How could I ever forget you, uh-” Catherine blinked, and looked at the receipt the Friend Storage machine had printed, “Jamie? We’ve been friends for so long! So many good times, right?”
“Jushgemmeout.”
At least the catgirl had been nice enough to pop the cork on both bottles. She had to turn them over and give them both a good shake, as well as a few good smacks to even get them started on moving, “Oh wow! I really left you guys for a while this time! Sorry, slipped my mind again~! You know how it goes, right? You’re not gonna be mad, right?” She giggled, smacking the bottle’s bottom.
Jamie couldn’t even start to try and answer, ever shake and slap was like being in the middle of the world's longest car accident! It wasn’t painful, but every inch of her body was wobbling and shaking and squeezing up the top of the bottleneck
The jellylike body of Jamie slid out of the bottle, landing feet first she tried to hold herself up, only to end up melting out on the pavement, her body more goo than girl. She could hear as Catherine moved on to the next bottle, slapping out her friend ‘Franny’, who slid out with far more ease- Only to collide face first with the concrete below.
“Ow!” The girl groaned, her body flopping over as she rubbed her backside, “Thanks for getting me out, but be a little more gentle next time!”
“Sorry Fran! I swear I’ll make it up to you~! I don’t know how, but I will!” She giggled. “Mnnng,” Jamie moaned, her bloblike form spreading every further as her vision started to distort, “A little help, please?” At least it wasn’t so dang tight anymore, she’d spend way too long unable to raise her arms or spread her legs. Her body seemed to agree with the sentiment, though it had taken the want to spread maybe a bit too literally.
Jamie watched as the girl who had been her neighbor stepped over in front of her, or maybe it was on top of her, she couldn’t tell. Her hair was tied up into a tightly braided ponytail, and the white jacket she had seen moments before hung down to better cover her. It was long and a bit thick, more of a labcoat than any kind of fashion statement. The girl pushed her thin rimmed glasses up, and revealed the long row of stitches around her neck, along with a pair of bolts jutting out from either side. Her entire body was covered in those stitches, like some kind of old movie monster that had no real name.
“Allow me,” She said, and pulled out a small black box from within her coat, and from within that she pulled out an eyedropper with a light blue liquid inside. She held it out over Jamie, “Open up~” And squeezed the bulb, letting a single droplet fall.
Jamie caught it on her lip, dribbling down her throat after a moment, “What is-” Her eyes bugged out, her skin turned bright red. It was spicy! She leapt into the air, her arms and legs stretching out before she let loose with a wild screech from the pain! Fire erupted from her throat, shooting up toward the clouds, before she fell back to the earth feet first. The fiery red left her skin and eyes went back into their sockets.
The weirdest part was that she was getting used to this weirdness. Either that, or she was starting to outright welcome it.
She brushed at her tongue with her fingers, it was still a bit swollen, but seemed to shrink back into her mouth after a few moments to rest, “Ow ow ow ow ow!”
“How do you think I’m-” Jamie started, but once the pain was gone, she realized she could move again. Her body reacted to her brain’s commands, and she started to giggle, “That was incredible, thanks!”
Fran pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose with her middle finger, wearing a large smile as she stood tall, “You’re very welcome! After so long, I figured you may need something a little more straightforward. The formula isn't quite right, but it did the trick, and it’ll wake you up like nothing else!” She said.
“Yeah, thanks… Uhm, how did you know my name?” Jamie blinked.
“We did spend the past few months together, it would be rude if I didn’t, wouldn’t it?” Fran replied.
“Right, I guess so.” Jamie hadn’t understood a single muffled word she had said over the past two months. Was she supposed to have been able to translate the moans and squeaks everyone around her had made? Either way, she jumped and started to giggle, “I can move! Oh my gosh it feels amazing, who ever knew wiggling your fingers could feel so nice!”
“Right?” Fran smiled, and stretched her arms over her head, “I’ll need to be careful and make sure I’m all sewn up right, being folded up is horrible for my stitches.” As weird as that may have been, Jamie let it slide.
“I can’t believe how long it’s been since I’ve seen you two!” Catherine said, bouncing her way in between them, “Fran! Did you have a nice time in storage? And oh! Jamie, I remember you now! You’re from that other world or something, right? We should figure out why you’re here!”
Jamie blinked, and started to open her mouth to tell Catherine off…
“Actually Cat, before that I think it might be nice if we take a stop by my lab. After all, don’t you remember why I asked you to put me into storage?” Fran took the lead.
“Oh right!” The catgirl said, “You had a potion or something or other that needed a month to stew, right?”
“I was waiting on a few formulas to be ready, and how long has it been since you put me in?”
Catherine’s tail lowered and curled inward, as she poked her index fingers together, “Two months, I think?”
“And how long ago did you put this poor girl into a bottle? According to what she told me, you were supposed to come and get her after a day or so!” Fran said, as Catherine continued to
hunch herself over, “Honestly, I know you can be forgetful but to put your friends in such a situation for so long!”
“A-Actually I’m pretty sure I’m a guy but-” Jamie tried to say.
“I-I showwy…” Catherine replied, her tone apologetic as it rose a few octaves, “I didn’t mean to be so mean!”
“I-It’s really okay! Please don’t cry or-” Jamie said.
“Jamie, would you like to see my lab? I have experiments that are far overdue to be run, and I think it might be of interest to you.”
“W-Well, it’s not like-”
“I can also offer you a bedroom until you get on your feet here. I don’t quite understand your circumstance yet, and I think it would be worth everyone’s time if I study you a bit, don’t you think?” Fran said.
Jamie’s eyes widened, “Thank you!”
Catherine, knowing nothing good would come from hanging around, said, “Well, I guess that worked out, I’ll just be on my-”
“Cat, why don’t you come? I need someone to help with my experiments, and you’re the only one who hasn’t been squashed recently enough to skew the data.”
“Oh I don’t think I can make it, I’m supposed to be-”
Fran’s eyes turned bright yellow, staring down upon the shrinking catgirl, “Oh, but I insist.”
“Okay.” Catherine squeaked.
----Fran led them on a walk through the city, something that Jamie hadn’t the chance to enjoy. Trapped inside of a bottle for most of her time, she had never noticed how nice the
weather was in her new world. It was warm, but never too much so. The sky was clear, with only a few distinct clouds dotting it. More important than any of that, was the sheer chaos that went on around them.
The first had been after a few blocks, there had been a massive poster plastered over the side of a towering building. Several stories in height, it was impossible to even make out all
of the details of it from where they stood on the ground. At least, that had been what Jamie had thought before it wiggled, revealing itself to be a poor girl’s face stretched to almost go from corner to corner! Eye catching as she was, she didn’t make for a very good advertisement.
Minutes later, and they stopped at a crosswalk, letting a few others go before them. A tall girl with bull horns charged out front, with her smaller dog-eared friend behind. Though the sign said it was safe to pass, Fran held Jamie and Catherine back. Which turned out to be a rather good idea, as neither of them noticed the two-story tall steamroller making its way down the street until it was two late. The other girls were smashed into the pavement with a rubbery splat, their bodies stretched further as multiple smaller cars followed behind. Once it was actually safe to walk, the three of them went forward. Catherine didn’t seem to notice as she stepped on the horned girl’s dizzy face, though Fran did her best to step over them. Jamie went around.
The thing was, those sights became so common as to be almost normal. They passed by another girl who had been inflated and tied to the top of a balloon cart, drifting lazily in the wind as the proprietor tried to offer them a chance to get or be a free balloon. One street over, a pair of friends had peeled themselves off the sidewalk, covered in shoe prints as they managed to balance on two-dimensional feet. They were giggling at how the other looked.
They stopped outside of a building that was small compared to the skyscrapers
surrounding it. Yet despite that it didn’t feel very cramped. With a large yard around the building itself, it was rather open, almost like a park. At least, it would have been if it were not for the large orb of steel that was Fran’s lab plopped right in the middle of it. Sitting with what appeared to be a long lightning rod at its center, stretching so high as to be even taller than the other buildings. Fran walked them down the concrete path and up the steps where the large steel door split at the center to open automatically.
“Welcome to my lab. Please get comfortable, but don’t touch anything if you like all of your body in one piece.” Fran said pleasantly, “Actually, why don’t you follow me for now.”
“Well I’m glad we got you home safe, but I think I really need to get going.” Catherine stayed by the door, though it slammed shut behind her, almost taking her tail with it and got a startled meow out of the catgirl.
“Catherine, come here.” She said.
“T-that’s-” She yelped again as a pair of claws came down from the ceiling and picked her up off the ground, and dragged her onto a table on the other end of the room, “Hey, put me down!”
“Excellent! I’m glad you’re so willing to test out a few of my new toys- I mean my new formulas. After two whole months in a bottle, I was getting worried I would never get to try them out. Of course, I was going to use myself as a test subject at the time, but now I think this will
work even better.” Fran flashed a devilish smile, and looked at Jamie, “I think you can be my assistant today, if you so wish.”
“Well,” On the one hand, the stitched together scientist was a little scary. On the other hand, five months in a bottle was worth punishing, “What do I need to do?”
“Well now, just do whatever comes to mind! I’m experimenting on you too, in a sense!” Jamie gulped, “That doesn’t make me feel all that much better.”
“Oh nonsense.” Fran said, and looked at a watch with an electronic screen on her wrist. She pressed a few commands into it, which caused a panel to open in the wall, revealing another mechanical arm that held a vial of pink liquid, “Alright Catherine, I’m going to need you to open up.”
“W-W-Wait a minute! Come on Fran, we’re friends! You don’t need to go crazy here, right? It was just a misunderstanding! I just forgot, you know me, emptyheaded Catherine! Eheheh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to- GULP!” In all of her panic, she had managed to leave a rather nice opening for the arm to shove the entire vial into her mouth, stretching her cheeks wide for a few moments, before the glass was disintegrated by her saliva, letting the formula slide down her throat, “Ack! Ptoo! Gross! Don’t put these things in my mouth, who knows where they’ve been!”
“Gross? That glass was made of sugar, it should have tasted pretty good.” Fran said, standing over Catherine as the two claws let go of her.
As soon as they did, she was off the table, and dashing for the door.
“Haha! You shouldn’t have let me go!” She shouted back, rushing for the door. However, she started to notice that as she ran, it almost appeared that the door was getting further away. More than that, the door was growing larger! She stopped at what should have been able halfway through the room, and looked around. The walls grew long, the various machinery towered high, and as she turned around she found herself having to crane her neck to see the faces of her companions.
From Jamie’s perspective, Catherine had shrunken from an average height girl to less than one foot in seconds. She had tried to keep making her escape, yet every little step was shorter than the last.
Catherine stopped to look back at them, and puffed her cheeks out into a pout, “Okay, I’m small. Now fix this!”
“M-Me?” Jamie gulped, but stepped forward, “Well, I mean I think I have an idea.” After so long being the one trapped, it was time to put the shoe on the other foot. She watched as Catherine’s eyes went wide, and she turned to try and run away. But she was no tiny critter, her legs were never meant to carry her all that fast. She could run, but with her tiny size Jamie could keep up by walking.
“Oh, this ought to be good.”
“Get back! We’re friends, right? Come on, no fair, don’t chase meeee!”
Jamie bit her lip, but went for it. She jumped and lifted her legs , arms wrapped around them. Coming down as a cannonball, her butt hit first! Yet, she didn’t feel the hard tile below. Instead, something soft cushioned her fall. Spread over both of her cheeks, she hit the ground with a satisfying squelch. She let go of her legs and stretched them out. She rubbed her backside into the floor, her revenge simple but complete.
“Geeeh awwf!” Catherine’s pitiful cry from below was muffled by Jamie’s ass.
“Okay!” Jamie snickered, and stood up. Catherine’s face stretched, stuck to both Jamie’s butt and the floor.
“Ow ow ow ow, legg-” SNAP! Her face flew backward, freed of Jamie’s backside. Her body had vanished under her face, save for a few fingers on either side sticking out. Her head had been spread out wide, even despite being shrunken, she had thinned and stretched out enough for her face to take on the shape of each of Jamie’s cheeks. She was left on the floor, a silly whimpering butt-cushion.
“How’s that?” Jamie asked, glaring down at the cat-mat. Catherine moaned.
Fran chuckled, “Not bad! A little rough on the execution, but I think we’ll be able to work on that in time.” She said, and added, “I can happily call you my new Assistant.”
“Thanks!” Jamie wasn’t sure what any of that meant, but at the moment she was too busy enjoying that mold of her butt made out of her friend’s face to care.
