Ticket to Wonderland

Persephone was of as much a mind to see the Doc's work without delay as Winona was - but taking what was offered meant having a chance to gather some important information about this character. She had yet to pin down for sure whether he was an eccentric genius, a killer who was only baiting them, or just a complete nutcase. Perhaps finding out what he considered a proper drink for guests would provide a clue.
"I wouldn't mind a drink, please," she answered. Hopefully someone else wanted one too so she wouldn't find herself looking like the only idiot minding her stomach instead of the adult business at hand.

Looking at Winona and blushing instantly the Doc said: "Uhhm... okay - then we go to the Labors... Jessica, would You mind to..."
Jessica herself rised a Finger and went to a big old Globe with strange Paintings on it - and opened it. A wide Variety of Bottles and Decanters showed up - and some Crystal Glasses, too. So Jessica smiled at the serious-looking human Woman: "Look here, Miss Persephone! Please Yourself!"
Dylan however showed Xin the small Sewing Thimble from before and smiled: "If You want some, just say so!"
Then she saw a strange Thing near the Desk with all it´s Documents, Plans and Formulas on it. About a Meter in Length it looked like a thick Strand of Liquorice - with a little Glass Ball on one End - and a reactangular mirror-like Object on the other, roughly the Size of a Palm. This had to be the... Endo-Whatever. Interesting... Dylan decided to take it with her.
If Taihaku would look around this Room - and others, she also would realize, that there were Reasons to think here really were Tinies around. In Fact perhaps she and the Others all were being carefully observed right this Instant. Then she perhaps would discover a weird Aquarium built into the Front of a Closet. In this Aquarium she would see some odd-looking cone-shaped Snails and tiny, colourful Octopuses - and even small Jellyfish, looking like Cubes made of Glass. This House seemed to be strange, indeed.
Meanwhile the Doc was going into the Cellar to show Winona the Reason they have gathered here. A similar Hall like the Entrance Hall above them with it´s Walls painted in a clinical seeming, cold white Colour was showing several Doors - and one of them was made of Metal and painted blue. Some of all the Cables seen at the Ceiling in the Hall before continued in the Room behind this Door - and seemed to connect several weird-looking Apparatuses. One of them was a huge, black painted... Metal Thing that looked as if the lower Half of it was embedded into the Foundations of this House. And as the Doc (who now really had a white Lab Coat and black Gloves) flipped a big Switch, a deep turbine-like Sound started.
"This is our Main Power Supply - powered by the Sewer Channel below this House." the Doc explained, going through another Door: "And here the Tensor Generator is - now on Standby."
Only saying it would be a Device looking like a Door Frame didn´t look really fitting. The Frame itself had roughly this Size, okay, but it was built of Iron - and looked really massive. At the Outside several Copper Coils were to be seen - and where they sat on the Frame, there were tiny Holes with little Crystals embedded into them. All this was hard wired with some Transformators and an old fashioned looking Control Panel. The Doc leaned against this Thing, saying to Winona: "Of Course - now as I know, this System works, I can build it more compact. It would be no big Deal to build it like some Sort of big... Rifle or something like that. If You want no Reverse Switch, I can build it even smaller."
Then there was something in the left Corner like a full fledged Dentist´s Chair - and another Control Panel with a flat Screen, obviously for steering a very long and thin, odd-looking... Robot Arm of a Sort. Actually there was even a complete surgical Table with some weird Tubes, Wires, big Cylinders and mechanical Abnormalities in the other Corner. Looking at it, the whole light green tiled Room with the Metal Shelf next to the Door, filled with Bottles and other Stuff seemed to be a neat medical Research Laboratory. Doc Strange continued: "So now - as far as I know most `Shrinking Potions´ wear off after roughly 24 Hours. To demonstrate the Effect of the Tensor Generator - someone here interested to see the World from... another Point of View for some Time?"

Taihaku didn't pay so much mind to the odd things she saw like the aquarium in the closet as much as she did the small holes and pathways in and out of the room. Taihaku had not been present in the bar, or at least not with the group yet, when he spoke of accomodating tinies in his house, so she wasn't entirely certain that these small things hadn't been made by tiny spies in order to more effectively spy on Strange's work. They could already have been compromised.

She noticed Strange leaving with Racheal to show her an object she and he had apparently spoken about before Taihaku had gotten involved. Though she was more interested in the tiny breaches of security, she nevertheless followed suit, jogging lightly to catch up with Strange and stay close.

Once they'd e tered the much more secure-looking room behind the steel door, Taihaku began looking around for more entrances that could be made use of by tinies. Their presence concerned her greatly.

Xin frowned slightly as Jessica and Dylan began talking about the legendary giants outside of Negav the neera sorceress kept hearing about. Considering she’d never been outside the city yet, she hadn’t actually seen one of those monsters… but she found them easy to imagine. They sounded very similar to nekos - or even humans - that ate tinies. Just, well, they ate humans and nekos, and anything else they could see and catch, it sounded like. The tiny shuddered. Usually the enemy of one’s enemy was your friend, but for once her fear of the huge and unknown outdid her curiosity. She did not want to see, much less meet, one of these fabled colossi.

Luckily, they entered the house soon enough, and Xin found herself staring at the odd decorations. There was some funny poster on it, with some random letters and numbers - the neera recognized them as some sort of equation (again, from overhearing the richer residents and mages of Negav) - and a crazy-looking human, too. That caught her attention for the longest time, before the doctor got her attention again. He asked the group whether they wanted drinks, or to see his work. Remembering his size-changing machine, Xin tried to express her wishes to see it… but was drowned out by ‘Mousetrap’s similar question. The neera frowned at the large neko, but they wanted the same thing, for now.

And then she was offered that thimble again, after Jessica moved enough to make Xin cling to her neck. The tiny blinked at it, then glanced at Dylan, who held the thimble. “Uh, I’m okay for now!” She said, pushing the thimble away. Not like the human would even notice the force she exerted on it.

However, when Xin looked back at the doc to see where he would lead them to see his machine… he was gone! The neera squeaked, and suddenly teleported off of Jessica’s shoulder. Appearing an inch above the floor, the tiny sorceress hit the ground rolling, darting across the floor. “Wait for meee!” She called, just as Taihaku missed her by a foot or so, the huge neko jogging after the doctor. Xin frowned at that, noticing the other neko was missing, too. She tensed as she continued running, ready to vanish, clone herself, or simply teleport away from any possible ambush. Just in case.

Jessica looked around and seemed not very happy. So Dylan asked her: "What´s up?"
"Xin vanished!" Jessica answered with a very concerned Expression - and Dylan looked at her with a skew Face: "Yeah, I saw it, too - a pretty neat Trick! Looks like she really doesn´t want something to drink..."
"No, I think she is curious about the Tensor Generator! Please, could You look after her? I will accompany Miss Persephone..." Jessica asked Dylan and she frowned: "What´s up with You now? I mean, okay - Xin is small..."
Jessica´s Brows sank down: "I don´t trust these Nekos!"
"Oh! Okay - I got it!" Dylan said, turned around and went into the Hall, while Jessica said: "The Cellar Entrance is under the Stairs!"

"To demonstrate the Effect of the Tensor Generator - someone here interested to see the World from... another Point of View for some Time?"

Winona looked about, expecting someone to volunteer to try out the machine and became frustrated when noone offered. Picking someone at random and smoothly coaxing them into giving it a go crossed her mind, perhaps nudging Taihaku and telling her that this would be a great chance at demonstrating her courage and strength, especially since being shrunk could be considered a handicap suitable for a great warrior.

Nah, the ploy would be too obvious. Woulden't want to risk getting on Taihaku's bad side.

Then perhaps...Winona herself should try it? Being shrunken down did sound like a significant risk and there's still a possibility that this could be dodgy...she had only just met the doctor tonight afterall, and for all she knew, this machine could be anything. But then again she really really really wanted to see what it did!

Nothing ventured nothing gained, She who dares wins, and all that jazz.
Worst case scenario, she woulden't have to get up for work in the morning.

"Oh go on then." Winona smiled, approaching the doctor. "I'll give it a go."

"So... You really - no, You don´t. You are not the Type of Woman trusting someone You just saw. But..." Doc Strange rose his Finger: "I will prove You wrong. So please have a Look, so You can see, what I am doing..."
If Winona would come to the Control Rack she would look at something even a total Nut could handle. Doc Strange had built his Apparatus fool-proof, it seemed. There was a Reverse Handle - obviously constructed to negotiate an Effect given some Time before - and a radial designed, selfdeclaring Chart of Effect with a turning Knob which had a little pointed End - so You could see the Intensity. Doc Strange explained: "Now - we have the Compressing Function on. We could decompress someone, too. But the framelike Construction allows only to decompress the Aura of Effect for a Being in human Size. On this Scale You can chose Your wished... `Smallness-Factor´, if You may say so. And if I turn this Dial down... In Short: This Tensor Generator allows us to shrink an average Human down to a Tiny - or to decompress a Tiny up to human Size. Infinitely variable, of Course."  
Then he pointed to this weird `Door Frame´ with all the Wires and Coils: "So if You would please stand in there - we could start now... Oh yes - how small do You want to be?"

"Let's go for full Tinie size!" Winona said. "Three inches."

Winona steped into the doorframe.

"Might be interesting to see things from their perspective."

"I bet." Dylan said, as she arrived in this Room. She had to say - Neeras know how to vanish, as Doc Strange flipped the Main Switch, saying: "Full Tiny Size - sounds contradictory..." - and an unnerving High-Voltage-Hum filled the Room. All Winona would see, was a Flash, getting brighter - and then she felt Dizziness, unusual heavy Breathing, because the Air was thicker now and slowly vanishing dancing Lights before her Eyes. Sun Glasses... The Doc weared Sun Glasses... And then there was this intense Smell of Ozone - and cooking Liver... After that - the flat and grey Ground in Front of her showed vast Nothingness... and then two huge Iron Pillars - and Shoes.

Gigantic Shoes...

Despite he whispered, Doc Strange´s Voice sounded, as it was coming from everywhere, as he said: "In this Size You can get a Cold quite easily - because You can cool down pretty fast... Please stand away from Fire Places and too many Candles because of Carbon Monoxide - and be aware: You now are as small as a Neera - but not as fast. Because You aren´t meant to - and You aren´t used to."

From this very, verrry unusual Point of View the Room seemed to be dramatically stretched and deformed - and all the People around Winona seemed to be made like Pyramids on Shoes... The Ceiling Light gleamed down like a sick Sun and the faint Smell of Beta-Isodona coming from the Floor guaranteed her: Yes, this Room was very, very clean...

Of course, it was around then that Xin caught up, pausing to catch her breath. She'd learned where the cellar was from Jessica's (rather loud) shouting, and so finding the shrinking machine - or whatever the Doc had called it - wasn't terribly hard. She was rather puzzled, though. 'Rachel' was missing... and Strange was standing by the machine, apparently talking to his shoes. The neera sorceress cocked her head slightly, before making her way toward the machine - giving Taihaku a wide berth. The mercenary was a neko, after all.

Either way, it didn't take long for Xin to slow to a halt beside Strange's shoe... and stare at the shrunken 'Mouse-trap' before her. The neera cautiously approached her, finding it rather amazing that this predator had been reduced to within an inch of her size. Xin slowly circled Winona, looking her over with wide eyes. "Whoa... you're normal-sized!" She finally said, stopping in front of her.

"Good to see this." Doc Strange said, kneeling down. He observed these two: "REAL People, Individuals with their own REAL Feelings, Dreams, loved Ones and Hopes - and Fears. It does not matter, how big they are - they are... just real. And so every Death is real. A Case, where Relativity doesn´t work at all."

Taihaku did her best not to show it on her face, but she was impressed. Until now, she had been under the impression that only magic had the capability to alter the sizes of living beings. Now she stood in a room with a scientist who had been able to invent a machine to do the work instead, and do the work it had. She stared down at 'Racheal', her arms folded and her face neutral. Somehow, seeing her so small was unnerving. Like she could be next. That was probably her survival instinct speaking to her, she thought. After all, that's how it would be had this happened in the wilderness.

Winona got up from her knees, the giddyness having made her temporary lose her footing. The Doctor said something about easily getting colds, standing near candles and not being able to run so fast. Winona was mostly too busy looking around her though to pay full attention.

"Oh wow! Is that how big I look to a tinie?" Winona gasped, taking in the height of everyone around her. "That's massive! looks exactly the size of the gaint predators from this size!"

Winona coulden't help but break into a grin.

"I must have looked magnificent and awe-inspiring." She sighed. "Like some kind of goddess."

The neera she sighted from before appeared before her, now the same height as her.

"Whoa... you're normal-sized!" The creature said after circling around her.

"Strange that you would consider yourself "normal-sized" even when reality appears to be contradicting that notion." Winona said, approching the neera, able to get a good look at the creature for the first time. "Normality is often thought to be defined by something that conforms to the standard and right now it's kind of hard to deny that everything in our environment is by nature significantly larger than your size."

Winona reached out slowly poked the Neera in the left cheek with her index finger, making completely sure that this wasn't an illusion.

"You critters are quite cute when close up arn't you?" Winona said, reaching for the Neera's right mouselike ear and giving it a tight pinch.

"Size - and the subjective Impressions of Size however are pretty relative." Doc Strange commented this Situation.
Dylan whispered to Doc Strange: "Does she know, that..."
"...Neeras and Tinies are very strong and robust for their Size? I don´t think so." Doc Strange replied. It would not be surprising, if Xin would use this Opportunity for some Payback-Time. If she would have a Reason to so so. Most Tinies have. Some even have... Lists.
On the other Hand the Scientist thought, this would not be Xin´s Style.

As Xin examined the her-sized neko, Doc Strange went on about feely-stuff. The neera didn’t really heed it, though; she doubted the neko before her, or Taihaku, would. And that was kind of all that mattered: she was prey, they were predators, and they more-or-less dictated how she acted. Indirectly, of course, but the influence was still there. At any rate, ‘Rachel’ was busy wondering about how big she must have looked, even calling herself a ‘goddess’ before finally noticing Xin. In response to the neera sorceress’ comment, ‘Mouse-trap’ pointed out everything else was clearly giant. Xin just shrugged.

“Just because I’m living in a city full of giants, doesn’t mean I’ve gotta call them normal.” She pointed out, her mouse-y tail swaying a bit behind her. “I mean, I’ve gotten a glimpse of the outside - everything looks even giant-er than you guys. So if you’re normal-sized to yourselves, then I’m definitely normal-sized to myself. Right?” Xin went on.

She got poked on the cheek in response.

“...Well, I guess I am cute…” The neera admitted, somewhat sheepishly, after Rachel’s comment. And then the shrunken neko pinched Xin’s ear.

Okay, that was something no one did.

Rachel would suddenly find herself on the ground, Xin having moved faster and with greater strength than the neko had, now. Her vision was more or less filled by the neera sorceress’ face, which was now decorated with a slight frown. Her tail stood on end. “No touchie the ears, okay?” She said, before offering the neko a hand up. And just like that, she was her cheerful, curious self again.

Taihaku took immediate notice of Xin's maneuver. It was quite impressive, given how little time she had taken to react. Taihaku though she might make a good sparring partner, were she closer to her own height. Wait...perhaps...

"Allow me to propose an idea," Taihaku said suddenly. "Should...er...the neera, the name of whom escapes me, be grown to our size, would she retain her proportionate strength and agility?"

Doc Strange thought about it - recapitulated some Diagrams he once calculated - and had finally a Conclusion: "Yes, she would - of Course not the full Capacity, due to the enormous Inertia. Xin would lose one Fifth of her Capabilities - perhaps one Sixth, if she is well trained. Her Body Mass would increase drastically, but if You ever have had a closer Look at one of them - a typical Neera may look harmless, but in Fact is a wonderful Reflex Machine. If it wouldn´t be this Way - they would have perished a long Time ago."
Then he looked around: "But here in this House already is a human-sized Powerhouse and Reflex Machine of at least the same Caliber - where is Jessica?"

"I do not know, but I feel as though, given the importance of that which needs to be protected, it would perhaps be prudent to have one more set of capable hands on call," Taihaku said. "Also..."

Taihaku looked town at the two tiny people on the floor. "Rachel, frankly, does not make for a suitable sparring partner, and I would enjoy testing the neera's natural abilities against my own."

"I see..." Doc Strange looked to Xin. Then he said: "Well - this would be her own Choice - I must confess, that I already have offered her this Chance."
Dylan kneeled down and whispered to Xin: "Oh, yes - c´mon! It´s Fun! This would be great!"
"Literally." the Scientist agreed.

Xin glanced up at the two giants, still shying away from the neko a bit. Well, that was until she heard what Taihaku and Strange were discussing. The Doctor was explaining how she'd keep most of her strength and reflexes if she grew (yeees!), but... the neko wanted to spar her? The neera sorceress just kind of looked the titanic being up and down. Xin never really had to fight before, at all. Any other tinies she had run into either avoided her, or were fairly friendly. Given that they all had a constant, common enemy, there was little time to fight each other...

Her thought process was broken by Dylan coming in and crouching down beside her, urging the neera to do it. Doc and Taihaku seemed to want to do it, too, and Xin finally just looked sheepish.

"Well... just for a bit, I guess." She piped up. "I suppose I want to see what it feels like being huge, anyway!" Xin added, more cheerfully.

"Well then..." the Doc signed with white Chalk an X on the ground: "Please place Yourself here, Xin..."
Then he saw to Racheal and mentioned the Reverse-Switch - an old-fashioned Lever he pointed on: "Now I will switch the Reverse Energy Lever to +, the Scale remains set - from 3" to human Size - and we will start the Procedure... NOW."

To fill up a living Creature with enough bioelectrical Energy for ca. 7 nuclear Fissions is a Reaction of intense Light and Sound. So a loud FLASH! deafened all the People in this Cellar Lab, they all now had little dancing Lights before their Eyes - and the Air smelled oddly `cold´ and sterile, with a Scent of Ozone.

The first Thing Xin realized however, was a heavy Dizziness - and the Feeling there would not be enough Air. Because... Air is thinner, when You are getting bigger. So in Fact yes - Xin would lose some Speed and Strength - but the Factor would be replaced by the gained Speed and Strength due to the less intense aerodynamic Drag.
And the second Thing Xin realized was the Fact... that she now was a bit bigger than Doc Strange. And that Dylan was totally enthralled: "YESS! Now we can have a REAL Party!"
"And as I said: The Kirlian Field safes even the Clothing, because it is bigger than the Body itself." Doc Strange added, mentioning Xin´s intact Garderobe.

Xin being taller than Strange made her much taller than the 5'2" Taihaku. The neko looked up at Xin, her eyes momentarily wide with awe, though she reassumed her neutral expression quickly. Her face also belied her excitement - surely someone so large with the proportionate strength and agility of a neera would make for an incredible sparring partner, she thought!

Needless to say, the transformation was... well... somewhat traumatic to Xin. All of a sudden she was dizzier than that one time she'd been caught in a novice mage's tornado spell, and struggling to breath. She stumbled out of the device, her mouse-tail flailing a bit as she swallowed in huge gulps of air, narrowly missing Rachel with her vaguely paw-like feet. Finally, the giant neera shook her head slightly to clear it, looking around.

"W-wha...? Whooooaaa..." She stared at the former giants around her as the Doc and Dylan began to say a whole bunch of stuff that the sorceress barely caught. Something about... parties and clothes? Xin glanced down at her sleeveless dress, tugging on it to make sure it wasn't just one of her own illusions. And then she noticed Rachel.

The shrunken neko soon found the grown neera crouching down by her. "Is... was that how big I was to you guys?" She asked, glancing back at the other three in the room. She didn't seem to notice how she was the tallest of all of them, at the moment.

Meanwhile Doc Strange observed the Settings of the Instruments - and Dylan, as big as Xin now, looked at her former tiny Friend with Excitement: "Man, this is so cool! Just You wait til Jessica sees You!"
The tall and slender Bartender´s Daughter walked atound Xin and watched her from all Sides and Angles: "As I thought - now we wait til You reach Maximum Cuteness - done! This was really quick!"

Not long after pinching the Neera's ear Winona quickly found herself tossed to the ground,

“No touchie the ears, okay?”  The neera frowned as she offered a hand up.

"In the future I will try to keep that in mind." Winona said softly, smiling slyly as she allowed the Neera to help her up.

The Neera's quick reaction to Winona's little test has proven what she had suspected for some time, that Tinies were indeed strong for their Size. Winona felt a spark of a arousal at the notion, even if it was simply because despite their strength, she will always be bigger than they are at her proper size.

after seeing this demonstration Taihaku proposed to size the Neera up to their relative height, The Doc complied and used the machine to grow the Neera, Winona had to dive out the way to avoid being crushed by the creature's now seemingly massive foot.

"Is... was that how big I was to you guys?" The Neera asked at her new height, kneeling down and looking down towards Winona.

"Sure was." Winona said.

Winona stopped, realising she was the only small person left on the ground. A sensation she didn't like at all! She will not have that!!!

"Ugh...if it's no problem I would like to regain my original height please?" Winona then said. "Or failing that, at least put me on someone's shoulder so I can see everyone at near eye level?"