[Eelskin]

Chapter 4

Liz stood facing her teammates in the small room. It was the next day, and she had meditated, regained her missing centimetres in the lab, and rested.
There were three of them, and she knew that there was one other team of three, as well. I hate these exhibition games, Liz thought to herself. Why do they make us compete in teams? And without our swords? Standing to her left was Panther, at a slightly shorter 162 cm, and to her right was Crimson Sting, at 169, who had actually been knocked out of the tournament in the first round, but had been able to rejoin through the re-admission round. Not that it mattered for the moment; the exhibition game wouldn?t make any difference in the tournament. Team games were never consequential, since losing due to your partner?s mistakes was considered extremely unfair. This was especially true since contestants have no say in the choice of their partner.
They appeared to be in a small, dimly lit room with dark blue walls and lights pointing up at the ceiling. There were no doors at the moment, as the match hadn?t yet started. Panther looked up in the corner of the room, and spotted a small reflective, opaque hemisphere hanging from the ceiling. She waved and blew a kiss to the hidden camera and the three of them could hear the crowd outside cheering in response, muffled by the walls between them.
Liz knew the rules of this type of match. There was no way to be eliminated. This wasn?t a fight, it really was a game of capture-the-flag. Rather than use swords, they were each equipped with a pistol that fired a laser which would cause the target to shrink. And if anyone got too small, or if her pistol ran out of energy, all she had to do was make her way back to the base, and step back into her starting circle. Upon doing that, the contestant would grow back to her starting size- but slowly. The first team to bring their opponents? flag back to their own starting circle would be declared the winning team.

?Contestants, take your starting circles!? The announcer?s voice boomed over the loudspeakers. The three of them gazed at the floor until they saw three brightly coloured circles begin to glow. Liz held her pistol in her right hand and looked at it with disdain. So clumsy?
And as each of the three stars stepped on their circles, the lights shut off abruptly. Liz could hear the matter re-configurers, the same machines which controlled the size of the fighters, working to create their playing field, which was more likely to be a maze than a field. The lights stayed off for almost half a minute, and after the agonizing waiting period, the start tone sounded throughout the arena and echoed off the walls and down the tunnels of the maze. At the same time, the lights switched back on and everyone could see again. There were now two open doorways, both leading in the same direction, reaching all the way up to the 250-cm ceiling. There were several holes near the floor as well, but reaching no more than 20 cm off the ground.
The two brightly coloured circles of the contestants glowed on the floor just as brightly as before, and now, in the centre of the room, was a large white flag on a metal pole. Liz walked over to it and picked it up; it wasn?t a hologram. It was a real, physical flag, and it had weight- she estimated the metal pole weighed at least 5 kg. It would be extremely difficult to carry if they got too small.
?So who?ll stay?? She asked her teammates. They looked at each other. ?Come on now, quickly. Two of us should go and find the way to their base, and one of us should stay and defend our flag.?
Crimson Sting spoke up. ?I?ll stay.?
?Right.? She nodded to Panther, who stepped out of one of the two doors, and Liz ran out of the other. Immediately she was confronted by two forking tunnels. She chose the right-hand tunnel and ran on.
It was difficult to navigate the tunnels, and Liz was surprised by how far she had travelled without finding another contestant, or without running into the barrier. The platform isn?t this big? we must not be at our full sizes even now. She was broken out of her concentration by the lights briefly flashing gold, and then purple twice, and the audience cheering in response to the altercation that had just taken place. She paused and watched for more flashes, but none came. Purple is Panther? just so long as Crimson Sting isn?t engaging anyone, I can keep going. She continued on, passing through several rooms and reaching several dead ends.

She eventually walked into a large room, the size of a small gymnasium, with a ceiling of at least six metres. She could see a doorway on the opposite end, and above her, on the broad sides of the room were too doors, elevated by three metres, and a suspension bridge connecting them. Along the floor were huge crates placed seemingly at random, though Liz knew that the arena had been designed meticulously to allow opportunity for cover and hiding spots. Walking slowly towards her, across the bridge, was a woman she recognised as Hell?s Fury, trying to move silently but perfectly visible. Liz smiled, and ducked behind one of the crates, gripping her pistol in both hands. She counted out six seconds in her head, and looked out again, and sure enough, Hell?s Fury had walked far enough that Liz was now just out of her field of vision.
Liz rested her arms against the top of the crate and let off several quick shots. The gun was not silent, and the sound of an energy discharge resonated through the room. The first shot was too high, going over Hell?s Fury?s shoulder, but the second and fourth both found their mark. The lights turned the room blue, and Liz could hear her fans supporting her loudly as she ducked below the crate again. Hell?s Fury ducked down and loosed several wild shots, not knowing where her opponent was firing from, but looked at the blue glow on the wall in front of her and traced heir path backwards, looking over her right shoulder. She let off a shot, and Liz flinched as she heard her opponent?s beam strike the top of the crate where she was hiding. She cursed herself as she realised that, even crouching, there wasn?t enough cover to shield her completely. She sprinted from her hiding spot and fired several shots toward the bridge as she ran towards a spot with better cover. She was surprised to see the lights flash blue again, and as she passed under the bridge, started running in a zig-zag pattern to make it harder for her enemy. Hell?s Fury leaned against the rail of the bridge, and hesitated for a moment as she realised that it now reached the top of her breasts, instead of her stomach, as it had a moment ago. She held her gun under the rail and released a rapid volley of shots at Liz? back, missing with several attempts but striking her just as many times.
Liz cursed under her breath as she saw the lights glow orange brightly once, twice- three times! She watched the crate ahead of her seem to grow bigger and stretch farther away, and she put forth another burst of speed to try and reach it. She heard another few shots strike the ground around her feet, and almost tripped as she felt herself dwindle yet again and the lights glowed to confirm Hell?s Fury?s fourth hit. She finally reached the cover and dove behind it, as several more orange lasers chased her. Liz cursed. Quickly comparing herself to the crate, she estimated that she?d lost over a quarter of her height in that single encounter! She caught her breath, listening for sounds of her foe behind her, but heard nothing. After half a minute or so, she glanced out from behind the cover to find her, but saw no one. Hell?s Fury had continued on her way across the bridge and was long gone.

As Liz continued to make her way through the maze, she tried to concentrate on memorising the layout of the hallways and keeping herself oriented, but it wasn?t easy. Most of the hallways all looked the same, and her concentration was broken several times by the lights flashing, announcing that her teammates were engaging her opponents elsewhere. Two orange and five red? we?re still coming out ahead.
She eventually came to a stretch of corridor where the floor was emitting a slow, white pulsing glow. There were several tiles on the ground that were the same dull grey as the walls, and Liz knew that they were the only safe points where she could step. At my reduced size, though, this?ll be tricky. I?ll actually have to leap from one to the other. She heard a faint whirring sound and saw embedded in the walls, at the level of her stomach, were three motion-sensing lasers moving aimlessly back and forth. Crap. Can I get around this area through another path? She turned around and tried to work her way back, but quickly realised she was already disoriented and would have to go through on he current route.
Liz turned back and paused at the entrance to the room, gauging the distance from each step to the next. She took a deep breath and charged forward, hopping onto the first platform. Immediately, the guns in the walls began to focus their sights on her. She heard a click and ducked down against the step as quickly as she could, and the lasers passed over her, striking the walls on either side of her. Good job? but I need to keep moving. She nimbly leapt to the next step, spinning as one of the lasers fired and barely getting her arm out of the way in time. On to the third tile, and the fourth, and fifth, dancing with each step forward? I don?t know how long I can keep this up, she thought as she bent over backwards to avoid a laser passing directly in front of her face.
When she was three-quarters of the way through the room, with three platforms in front of her, she leapt forward, timing her jump to avoid the automated shots, but just as her foot was about to leave the platform, she suddenly heard a laser firing out of sync with the others, surprising her. The lights flashed gold and she felt herself shrink slightly smaller, in mid-air, and the next platform seemed to get farther away.
?No!? she yelled, as she came down to the ground, landing just short of the platform, her foot touching down on the glowing white portion of the floor. She felt with horror as the room got bigger, but knew she had to keep moving to minimise the damage. She stepped onto the next platform, and ran as fast as she could, leaping from step to step. No longer able to afford being careful, she cursed silently as the lights pulsed white and gold again, as she was struck once by the automated guns and once by her opponent, behind her. She dwindled again in mid-air as she was leaping toward the stretch of safe ground just past the trap, but her perspective changed again and she touched the ball of her foot down on the glowing floor. The lights flashed white one final time, and Liz touched solid ground and sprinted toward the end of the room so she could turn the corner. Three golden blasts followed her, but none struck home. She could also see several white lasers following her, and realised with dismay that the only reason she wasn?t getting hit was because the lasers were now aimed too high to hit her, passing slightly over her head.

She rounded the corner and leaned against the wall, catching her breath. Outside, she could hear the fans cheering madly. This is not going well for me. She turned her head to her left and saw a small opening leading to a tunnel. She had seen several small openings as she wandered through the hallways, but she had been too big to enter any of them. Now, though, the top of the tunnel came just up to her forehead. She crouched and looked down the length of the passage, and saw that it led up. Well, why not? She ducked slightly and followed, wondering where it might take her. After a while, though, the passage seemed to get smaller, and Liz came to a spot she couldn?t squeeze through. She sighed, turned around, turned back to face the small opening? and pointed her pistol at her foot and shot herself. The passageway glowed blue and, and she watched the opening grow before her eyes. Now easily small enough to fit, she moved forward cautiously on her hands and knees, and came to an opening. Her eyes widened when she looked out and saw that she had found her opponents? flag!
There was one woman guarding it, and she was busy watching the full-sized doorways, not the 30-cm opening that was two metres off the ground, at the side of the room. The woman turned, and Liz recognised the fighter Blade. She watched as Blade seemed to move in slow motion, glancing at both doorways, checking her pistol, and pacing across the room. Suddenly, her eyes widened at something she saw through the doorway, and she brought her pistol up to fire. Liz gasped as she saw purple lasers miss their target and enter the room. That?s Panther! Perfect timing! I can take the flag while Blade is distracted! She nimbly leapt down from the opening, and with her reduced weight (she couldn?t have weighed more than a couple of kilograms at this point), she landed silently and gracefully. Running up to the flag, she ignored the lights flashing purple, purple, grey, purple, grey, and grabbed the pole, which she quickly realised was almost as tall as she was. She lifted it up?
?and found that she couldn?t. No! She tried again, crouching down and lifting with her knees, and felt it moving, but she quickly realised it was too heavy, and it fell out of her grasp, landing against the ground with a resounding clang noise. Blade re-entered the room, quite a bit shorter, and a lot faster than before, and saw Liz grasping her goal. They drew weapons and fired at each other, both diving for cover. Liz was faster, but Blade was a better mark, and they both struck each other twice before they had cover behind strategically placed crates. Liz caught her breath, but heard a footstep behind her, and saw Hell?s Fury quickly approaching her from behind, twice as tall as Liz was. Liz brought up her weapon to aim it at her head, and fired. She got off two shots, one of which hit her target, but when she pulled her trigger a third time, she heard nothing but a click. Her stomach lurched.
Panicked, she made the worst mistake she possibly could, and froze. Hell?s Fury, keeping a cooler head, dived forward and grabbed Liz? arm in her enormous hand, lifting her up off the ground. Liz yelled and squirmed, trying to escape, but her captor held her fast. Liz? feet were dangling off the ground, as her arm was held up in the air. Hell?s Fury walked into the room and met with Blade, who grinned from ear-to-ear when she saw what her teammate was holding.

?What do we do with her now??
?Well, she can?t take the flag if she?s stuck here. Her pistol?s out of energy, too. I say we just hang on to her- literally. We only need one hand to fire a weapon.?
?Well, who?s going to carry her??
Blade checked the energy readings on her pistol. ?Wait, let me grow first. We?ll decide in a moment.? She stepped onto her circle and Liz watched as the air around her began to glow, and she began to rise higher and higher. She had already been taller than Hell?s Fury, but as she grew, she looked down and smiled at her teammate and her opponent, and Liz felt very small indeed. She continued to enlarge until she was once more at her starting height, and as the glow faded, she stepped forward. Hell?s Fury now only reached her thighs, and she had to crane her neck up to speak with her.
?Here, hold her for a second.?
Moving slowly, Blade reached forward to grab Liz? arm. She seemed to be moving underwater, and her gigantic fingers, which seemed 30 cm long each, wrapped slowly around her. She slowly lifted her higher, bringing her up to her face until Liz was hanging on to Blade?s arm out of fear.
?I think she?s too big to just carry around.?
Hell?s Fury grinned and took a step back, holding out her own pistol. ?Hold still.?
Liz? eyes widened as far as they would go. ?No!? She shouted, but for nothing, as Blade held her out to the side, at arm?s length. Hell?s Fury seemed to take an eternity aiming, and then shot her in the chest as she hung there. And shot her again, and a third, and a fourth time.
Liz tried her best to hang on to the enormous, and rapidly growing, hand clutching her, and as her arm became thinner and thinner, she felt Blade?s grip loosening. She slipped out, bit by bit, until she was too small to hold. ?Noooo!? She yelled as she began to fall toward the ground, but she was only falling for a moment before she landed on something soft. She looked down, and realised with a sickening feeling that she was sitting in the palm of her opponent?s hand. She looked around in shock, and had a sudden feeling of vertigo as Blade lifted her higher, until she was directly in front of her face. She gripped her captor?s fingers tightly and stared ahead, as Blade grinned an enormous grin, which was almost twice as long as Liz was.
?She?s smaller than I?ve ever seen anyone!? Blade?s voice was huge and deafning, and it seemed to take many times longer for her to utter the short phrase in her deep, low voice. Liz looked down in panic and estimated that the drop to the ground must have been about 60 m. She knew that she weight almost nothing, but did not want to take the chance.
Hell?s Fury had stepped into her circle and was also growing back to her starting size. When she stepped out, she wasn?t quite as tall as Blade, but the difference didn?t matter to Liz. She poked an enormous finger at Liz? chest, knocking her back down onto Blade?s palm. She laughed, and slowly, so very slowly, raised her pistol up to her face until Liz was directly in front of the barrel. Liz looked to the left and the right, but there was nowhere to go. What happens if I get too small?? Liz closed her eyes and cringed, and heard the sound of the energy discharge of a pistol.

There was a sudden movement, and she opened her eyes out of surprise and gripped onto Blade?s finger for support. Neither of her opponents were looking at her now, and a second energy discharge followed the first, purple in colour, through the doorway, to strike Hell?s Fury in the back. Both of her opponents brought up their weapons to fire through the doorway, and Liz saw Panther ducking for cover just outside the room, firing in. Only for a moment, though, as she suddenly had to keep from vomiting as Blade dropped her left hand, with Liz in it, down to her waist level. Liz, moving at many times the speed of her opponents, leapt numbly from Blade?s fingers and grabbed onto the loose fabric of her clothing. Blade, not noticing, continued to fire at Panther while Liz climbed her way down Blade?s leg, dropping the final few centimetres to land in a roll, and began to run as fast as she could.
She spied a small hole in the wall at the back of the room, and made her way for it with full speed. She was there before her opponents had even noticed that she was missing, and as she ran through, she saw that on the other wise stood her own flag and Crimson String standing watch! She turned back, and realised that the two starting rooms were directly next to each other, but separated by a wall and facing opposite directions!
Liz watched her teammate slowly reach up her hand and scratch her nose, oblivious to the battle that was taking place only a few metres away from her. I can end this right now, she thought. She turned and ran back through the hole to find that her opponents were still occupied with firing at Panther. She took a deep breath and sprinted through her opponents? legs, keeping close to the walls, and moving much almost too quickly for them to notice her.
When she reached Panther, she was out of breath. She called up, but Panther, crouched behind a crate, was firing at two opponents and didn?t hear her. Liz tried kicking her knee, which was resting on the ground, but she didn?t feel that either. Liz sighed and grabbed hold of Panther?s spandex, getting a solid grip, and lifter herself up, climbing up her partner?s thigh. She reached her belt, and stopped for a moment to rest. Panther slowly ducked out of the way to avoid getting shot at, and as she did, noticed the tiny woman climbing hand over hand up her body. Her mouth formed an O of surprise.
?Azure? Oh my God! We need to get you back to base right away!?
?No! We can finish it right now! You can do it! I know a shortcut!?
?Are you crazy? I?m not at my full height!? She flinched as an orange laser barely missed the top of her head. ?I?ll never be able to carry it all the way out!?
?You don?t have to! Listen!?

After explaining the plan, Liz took a deep breath and prepared to sprint again.
?Are you ready for this?? Panther asked, slowly.
In response, Liz ran directly down the middle of the path. Both of her opponents saw her at the same time, and she saw Blade look into her empty left hand for confirmation that she had lost her captive. She ran between them, and they both scrambled to try and catch her, turning their attention away from Panther. Panther took the opportunity to leave her cover and came charging in, facing her opponents? backs. Liz ran out the opposite doorway, far too fast for either of them to successfully catch, and when they turned their attention back to their other attacker, Panther had already closed the distance between them. They lifted their weapons in alarm, but she ran by them and grabbed the flag out of its resting place. She didn?t run out of the door, though; instead, she turned back to face her two enemies at the back of the room. They both let off a volley of shots, striking her several times.
Panther began to shrink very rapidly. She knew that if she didn?t do this immediately, it wouldn?t happen at all. She held the flag from the tip of the pole, aimed it at the tiny hole in the wall, no bigger than 10 cm tall, and slid it through with as much strength as she could muster. She watched it disappear through the hole as she watched her opponents grow to monstrous size, gaping in horror at what she had done. By the time they had turned their attention back to her, she and Liz had both run through the hole after the flag, back to their home base.

Crimson Sting was waiting at her base, watching the lights flash a myriad of colours. What the hell is going on? Do they need my help? No? I shouldn?t leave the flag. She suddenly heard a scraping sound behind her, and as she turned, she saw? the opponent?s flag slide into the room through what she had assumed was a mouse hole. She stared at it in confusion, and she saw two tiny figures follow, each one no more than 5 cm tall. Her eyes widened as she recognised the colours of her teammates, and leaned down to speak to them.
?What happened? Are you okay??
?Grab the flag!"
"Finish the game!? They both yelled at her. She looked over to see the flagpole lying down, reached to pick it up, and placed it in her starting circle.
The lights turned a deep red colour, and then began alternating between red, blue and purple. The announcer?s voice boomed over the loudspeakers, announcing the end of the game, and a roar of approval came from the crowd outside. Liz sighed. Can we resume the tournament now? She wondered.