Chapter Thirty Nine: Homunculus to Brobdingnagian.

"how did you get so--?!"

-originally from a character in the story-draft, you might know who could have said it who once you read this chapter.

999 sat atop the coffee table in patrick's home, devouring some of a huge, pale white cheesecake with a happy grin on his muzzle. next to the table was patrick himself, in his giant canine form, smiling down at the little wolf.
"careful, you'll get a stomachache."
999 growled in response "shhut uhp! ihm hhungry!" he spoke through his full mouth, his words muffled, then he swallowed "ahh! besides, asking me to stop enjoying this, is like asking you to stop being condescending!"

patrick rolled his eyes "yeah, well, you're a demigod or whatever..."
"so you're intimidated? you're intimidated by something a tenth of your size?!" he laughed loudly.

patrick suddenly became flustered "I- I NEVER SAID THAT!!"

999 smirked miscevously "ooh, you're scared of a powerless little wolf? ooh, maybe you think i'mma attack you? maybe i bite? maybe i slash? maybe i strike? maybe i sting? maybe i do other things...? heh heh heh..." he spoke mockingly and eeriely, making the giant's expression crease in diapprovement.

patrick glared "SH-SHUT UP!"

"no, you shut up!" he laughed "you're the one who's afraid of something so small!"

"little Acrophobe!"

"that i may be, but you're a microphobe!"

"I am not!"

"you are so! you are definitely--"

suddenly, a white blur rocketed through, crashing into 999 and knocking him down.
he looked up to find a pair of blue eyes amidst white fur, and a smile upon the muzzle of his attacker.
"hello" his attacker said tauntingly
"yes, hello collin..."
collin had burst through and tackled him, and now had his shoulders pinned as he knelt atop the brown wolf.

patrick laughed "wow, good timing!"

"i know, right?"

999 rolled his eyes "get off."

collin slipped off of the brown wolf, who sighed and sat up "jeez, you and your tackling... why, seriously?"
the white wolf chuckled "you did't notice me approach, so why not do it?"

999 smirked "you forget a lot, don't you?"

"eh?" collin asked with a quizzical expression.

in a flash, the brown wolf had flipped and now pinned collin just as he had done to him before.

"oof!"

"you forget, collin, that i'm a bioweapon, Designed for victory!" he said triumphantly, only to have collin shove him off "don't get full of yourself, 999!"

999 laughed as he sat up "blah blah blabbity blah blah blah!"

patrick's index finger tapped upon 999's head and chuckled "shut up, you little moron."

999 shot him a funny look "you talk as if you're a full-time giant..."

patrick sighed, and shrunk down into his feline form upon the table.
"i'm not, though."

999 cocked his head "i always wondered... how come your clothes shrink and grow with you?"

patrick pointed at a little emblem on the collar of his shirt "recognise?"

"ah, yes... so it's Aeon's doing--?"
999 stopped abruptly, glancing around for a moment "where is the old dog, anyway?"

patrick pointed at the front door "gone out for some time with mother."

999 slid himself to the edge of the table, and looked down, trembling as he did so...

collin looked concerned "hey... what're you...?"
he stopped short as the brown wolf began to slide forward, inching himself over the edge.
the white wolf and black cat sprang up, and grabbed the other wolf's shoulders, yanking him back
"ARE YOU INSANE?!" patrick yelled in anger "YOU'LL BREAK SOMETHING IF YOU FALL FROM THIS HEIGHT! OR WORSE!"
999 took a deep breath, and exhaled "i... i've been learning something..." he said meekly "something in this body... learning to control it..."

collin slapped him hard behind the head "SO YOU'RE JUST GOING TO RISK YOUR LIFE FOR IT?!"
999 winced at the pain, grimacing. "i won't be... if it works..."

they both glared at him

his body was shaking in fear, and his mind's early-warning-system was going off like mad, but he pulled out of their grip, and lunged forward...

time seemed to slow...

although his fear was pounding at his mind like a piston, he recalled the words of Yimek, the giant shiba who'd been training him...

"vinno curdet arizet, mmorpit pih jokib belzed... 'accept your fear, rule the greater evolution'..."

he felt a stinging, nearly a stabbing, in his chest, followed by a sensation of pins and needles over every inch of his body...
he concentrated on the words... clenching his eyes shut and tucking himself into a ball...

the sensation intensified, growing more unbearable as it continued...
he dimly noticed a crunch-like feeling in the center of his sternum...

and then his head collided with firm leather
"AGH!"
he tried to push up with his arms, but his back hit something hard "OW!"

"WHAT--?!"
"--THE FUCK?!"

he heard the voices of collin and patrick, but they sounded a lot quieter now...

"s-see?" 999 groaned "i told you... it'd work..."

the next words he heard from them were an untranslatable mass of indistinct, panicked chatter.
he moved away from the hard object, and looked straight forward...

and saw a coffee table with two frightened little creatures on it...
a little white wolf and a little black cat...

he smiled at them "wh-what do you think?"

they started screaming at him, jumping back in fear as he leant forward.
he stopped, and slowly set his muzzle down on the edge of the table, his nose was at least 30 centimeters away from where they stood, he was trying to be reassuring and appear less threatening.
he whispered "it's okay... you know me, remember? i'm still the same person i was just a few minutes ago..."
they inched back, still afraid.
"please... please just... please stay where you are... you don't have to come closer if you don't want to... but please don't run away..." he said cautiously, trying to put them at ease.
they froze in place, staring at him with terror in their eyes...
"please, relax... i'm not going to hurt you... if you come closer, i won't move... i won't do anything..."
slowly, and hesitantly, they began inching forward, paws clasped to their chests and hunching over, ears flat, tails tucked and wrapping arond a leg respectively.
the little white wolf whimpered "y-you won't?"
"no... not if it scares you... keep it together... you're safe, ... you're safe... i promise..."
slowly, they reached his muzzle, standing before the big black nose as it dwarfed them.
999 didn't move, he stayed as still as he could. just like he'd promised.
under the table, he snapped his fingers, the limited power he could put out created a beanbag chair at their paws.
slowly, he dragged his head back off the table, never once taking his eyes off them.
"you can... sit down... if you'd like..."

they cautiously sat down, still shaking.
"should i... explain?"
the little black cat backed away from him "p- please..."

he closed his eyes and perked hs ears "i've been trying to get the gliloutation to evolve... and it's worked ... as you can see... i developed a strain that alters size..."

"can you... still change back?" one of them asked

he reopened his eyes
"i can... would you... like me to?"

they nodded

he fidgeted "i... i will... once you two calm down a bit..." he tried smiling "how am i any different to any other giant you've already met?"

the white wolf was hugging himself tightly

"collin...?"

"y- yeah?"

"don't worry... what would i do to make the two of you so scared?"

"our argument..."
"my tackle..."

he hesitated "what about them...?"

"you might..." patrick trembled "... get us back for it..."

he smiled kindly "that was just play, i know that... you think i'd... bring harm... to you two?"
they both cowered as he slowly moved a paw over to them, rubbing their backs with two fingers, one finger each, they gasped at his soft touch.
"i'd never dream of it."

he heard them exhale, and the trembling lessened.
"good... relax... see? i can be gentle..."

eventually, they slumped back against his fingerpads, and he smiled at them
"see? i'm still the same 999... you're safe."
he went to move his paw away, but he discovered that collin had latched onto his index finger with his arms.
"don't go..."

"collin... you wanted me to reshrink, didn't you?"

"yes, but..."

"then, let me... it should put you fully at ease..."

"but... i feel safe like this..."

"that's nice, but you'll be able to cope easier if i'm normal sized."

slowly, the wolf's arms unhooked from 999's finger.
"thank you..."

999 concentrated, and yet again the stinging returned to his chest, and the other sensations followed, until he was once again sitting upon the coffee table at their height.

"better?"

patrick still looked freaked out "how did you...?"

he pulled down his shirt collar, revealing a small, black, marble-like sphere strapped to his chest with a small, thin leather harness.
"it's called a G-sizer... and it activates the strain... but it suppresses the Gliloutation..."

collin examined it "d'hell's it do, exactly? use real words this time."

999 rolled his eyes "hrmmmgh... basically, it turns on a thingie in the body that lets me alter-- change my size when i acti-- use it right."

patrick scowled at the use of the overly dumbed down words, but asked what was on his mind "just between Giant and Normal size?"

the brown wolf smirked, knowing something they didn't.
"well, yes..." his smile broadened "... as well as some other ones..."

their eyes widened

"lemme show you one..."

once again, the device on his chest vibrated, and a little needle stung him, next, the static charge it produced gave him the pins-and-needles all over his body yet again, and intensified...
then, the needle gave him a heavy jab, making a crunching feeling in his ribcage, although he knew there was no actual damage.

suddenly there was an overwhelming sense of Vertigo, and in seconds, he sat at the huge white toes on collin's left footpaw.

when he spoke, his voice sounded miniscule "how's this?"

"THE HELL?! YOU'RE SO TINY!?"

999 winced as collin's bone-shaking, booming voice blasted out, and the tiny wolf covered his ears.
"volume! volume!!" he cried out in pain "lower your frigging volume or you'll blow out my eardrums!!!"

they recoiled visibly, and then patrick whispered in an almost painfully loud, yet admittedly hushed voice.
"sorry... you okay...?"

999 groaned and rubbed his ears, and failed to remove the now omnipresent ringing in them.
"ngghhh... no, i'm not... i almost can't hear myself talking right now..."
that, unfortunately, wasn't an exaggeration. add to that, his naturally heightened perceptive senses, and it was downright awful; like someone was blowing a piercing whistle through a megaphone right into his inner ear.

999 tapped at the black orb, and, went back through all the sensations that lead him to resize, minus the vertigo, which only occurred when shrinking down to the miniscule size.

collin's ears splayed, and his tail tucked itself beneath him. " s-sorry... i wasn't thinking..."

a little red electricity danced in 999's ears, and after it vanished, he sighed contentedly "that's better... loads better... now i can hear again..."

collin glared, hostility returning to his body language.
"YOU CAN HEAL?! WHAT THE F, 999?!"

999 laughed "well, it's a gliloutation power, it doesn't work during size alteration, remember?"

patrick beamed "ooh! if one of them is smaller than a Normal sized person, then the other must be--!"

"it's Brobdingnagian... 'Extraordinarily large'... ten times larger than a Giant... also known as Megalithic size" 999 interjected.

collin stared "m-megalith? outside of the full form?"

999 smirked "hell yeah... it's different though, standing at full height, instead of on all-fours..."

"you've already tried it?! where!?"

"in the grey room, of course. there's endless space there, remember?"

collin and patrick nodded "right, right..."

999 sat cross-legged on the table, a strange black gelatin sat in 999's paws, as he tried to shape it...

"nearly... almost got it..."

two little apostrophe shaped blobs emerged from the mass of gel, and detailed features formed on them.
they resembled wireless earbud-headphones.

"YES! they're done!" 999 gleefully cried, forming two more sets from the gel before slipping it into a jar at his feet, a jar which, then procceeded to shimmer and vanish.

he handed the buds to collin and patrick, then inserted his own pair into his ears.
"okay, now for the test..." he winced "b-but go easy with the volume... okay?"

the white wolf and black cat smiled reassuringly
"don't worry," collin chuckled "we aren't gonna go bustin' your ears this time."

999 trusted patrick, but his trust in collin wasn't cemented, not since he'd nearly blown out his ears an hour earlier... but he hoped the white wolf would keep his word... he wasn't sure the G-regen would be able to repair his ears if they were completely broken by a careless gigantic voice... if the buds failed, that is.

he once again activated the shrinking proccess, following through the sensations until being struck with the vertigo that accompanied the size reduction, nearly vomiting this time due to his full stomach.

"urp... that's unsettling... ugh..." the now tiny brown wolf admitted, his voice barely audiable.

collin looked nervous, and his eyes seemed to say 'should i start now?'
999 fought back his rising nausea, and gestured to the huge white wolf "g- go ahead"

"your voice is... hard to hear..." he whispered, and winced, expecting to see the tiny wolf in similar pain to earlier...
but this time, only an overjoyed yip escaped the wolf's muzzle, followed by his expression turning absolutely elated in response.

collin's concern rose "i'm sorry, did- did that hurt you?"

999 leapt to his feet, and jumped around, pumping his fists in the air and cheering as loudly as his tiny voice could manage.
"no way! i heard it perfectly normally! the automatic-audio-fluxuation-status-equalisers are working!"

patrick smirked "A.A.F.S.E.? you're calling them Aafse's?" he pronounced it 'ay-aff-see'
999 rolled his eyes, and repeated the acronym, pronouncing it 'aff-say'
"it's a good name!" the tiny wolf retorted in offense.

collin smiled kindly "yeah, no. but, you are the one who made 'em... it's your right to name 'em"

999 nodded vigorously "yes, thank you collin!"

collin chuckled, and allowed the smaller wolf to climb aboard his palm "this is so cool... i've been held like this before... never imagined i'd ever be on the holding end, though!"

"don't hold me too high..." 999 shuffled nervously "... i don't like..."

"i know, you're afraid of heights... so i won't, on one condition." collin said slyly

999 cowered nervously at the words, unsure what the white wolf meant "wh-which is?"

"you better make me one o'those G-sizer things!" he laughed "i wanna be that tiny, too!"

patrick tapped each wolf on the head respectively "crazy wolves... although, i wouldn't mind being able to be either size in either form..." he smiled at the brown wolf "so, you can count me in to that deal, too!"

999 chuckled, then sprang to his feet "consider it done!"
(gives me something fun to do... before i have to fight my makers...)

---

-meanwhile, the blackroom, Heritos' rebound power 'crypt'-

the blue feline lay still, not dead but not alive, staring at his headless body as it floated only metres away from him, from his head.

ever since harbinger had come and decapitated him, he'd only thought about his lifetime, only the things he'd done in it... the things he'd destroyed... the people he'd killed...

after he'd gone insane thinking about it, he'd become sane again, seemingly acknowledging his punishment.

and now, here he was, left to float endlessly amidst a sea of ever deepening darkness...
for all eternity, and long after time came to an end.

"oh, how boring... i wonder if he even appointed Zelorn after all...?"

Zelorn was his partner at one time, the blue sapphire mass destruction, and the pink sapphire deathstealer.

never before had a pink mink been so frightening... able to draw out the death of one, and transfer it to another, it was a formidable power indeed...

"everything he did for him, he'd 'a better appointed 'im..."

"appoint me? no, he never got around to it."

heritos span his head around, searching for the source of the voice.

until he found none other than the pink mink standing beside his body.
behind him, were 16 other creatures of varying species and appearance.

"Zelorn...!"

"heritos. looks like you over reacted at something"

"don't you dare... don't make that frigging Joke!"

"because it seems you... lost your head over it!"

"pompous pink prick."

Zelorn growled "some thanks i get, comin' here to save you."

heritos grumbled "hngh... fine... Thank-You ... happy?"

"very."

held by the throat, was someone heritos knew and hated, the only female from the shattered light, but her lower body was missing.

"no! No! NO!!" Belle screamed, but as heritos' head flew back to his body and reattatched, her scream stopped.

"transaction with Death... complete..."

---

Draco Shay stood just outside a broken, desolate city.
Harbinger and Jack slept nearby, determined to reach the gateway leading to earth, their father's homeworld...
but Draco wasn't so sure that was what he wanted anymore.
yes, he wanted revenge on the fox and his friends for defeating him, but ruling over everything just didn't seem as fun as it once did.

it was insane, he was truly evil...
so why did he feel like he wasn't?
had he lost more than his gravity power? had he also lost himself?

the snoring of the giant bear who lay behind him snapped him back to reality, and he sighed.
his scar spanning the top corner of his head had begun aching again, a sign that they were getting close to the brink, a precipice between Xlen and Earth...
where he had gained this scar, and lost all else...
including his mother...

(Next Chapter: The Story Of A Younger Draco Shay, Of His Rise To Justice, And Deviation From His Path)