The Day’s Work (Peter)
My name is Jill Tiny
chapter 16
by
copier
· original author:
bask25456
Jill walks quickly and quietly through the hallways of her former high school. It was part of the Tiny “Complex”, situated in the heart of Tinytown. Tinytown, as opposed to Tinyville, was not an actual Tiny-scaled town; it was just where most of the Tinies lived with their families, for greater security. The giant, fenced walkways that extended all through Tinytown all led to this quite expansive complex. “Expansive” for a Tiny, in reality the facilities needed to deal with all the Tiny children in the city took up what was only a small park.
Jill had actually surprised Peter when she called this area Tinytown: the existence of Tinies was kept very, very low key, if not actually a secret, so while Chloe and her family had known, obviously, where to find Tinies for rescue, there weren’t any signs around with “WELCOME TO TINYTOWN” on them. Looking around at the buildings, with their comfortably sized doorways, Jill suddenly has reason to appreciate her time with Chloe. If she'd spent the last six months with Peter, she would have gotten completely used to living in a normal-scaled room, and been quite thrown by her return to Tiny scale. Not that anyone would mistake even the school complex for a true Tiny-scaled town. Even Tinyville, situated inside a teenage girl's room, was more authentic, with small house-rooms, diners for lunch and dinner, and its mall, which was mostly a hang-out spot. The buildings here were clearly designed by normals for Tinies: they were quite squat and box-like, even more so then Chloe's creations. Also, normal humans did have to enter every so often, so there are giant rails looming over everything beside enormous main walkways clearly designed with giants in everything. The massive walls looming on all sides around the complex easily rendered the school buildings as toys, especially with the large double-triple-quadruple-quintuple locked metal-bound door set in the middle.
Feeling a bit guilty for having good thoughts about Chloe and not staying with Peter, Jill grabbed her communicator:
"Hedwig, this is Hedwig, come in Gryffindor tower." She ducks into a small alcove in the hall.
"Gryffindor tower here." Peter's voice came in, somewhat distorted with static. "Go ahead Hedwig."
"Time check please."
"11:57, 4 minutes to operation start. Are you in position?" Jill checks around the corridor, spotting her objective at once: a small janitor's closet.
"Hedwig to Gryffindor tower, roger that." A pause, then:
"Gryffindor tower to Hedwig." It's David this time, "Doesn't your time-device work?" He sounds anxious, as well he might. He'd designed the thing himself, after all. She checks it: Sure enough, it reads 11:57:32, apparently it was accurate to the nano-second.
"Roger that Gryffindor tower, it works fine."
"So why-?" Jill hears the unmistakable sound of flesh impacting flesh and winces. The next voice that came on was Peter's again:
"What's your status, Hedwig?" He asked, an undercurrent of concern audible over the status. Jill took a deep breath, shaking a little. It wasn't a really dangerous mission, but still, there was some risk, mainly that she might get taken away from Peter. Jill couldn't bear that.. She gave the blunt truth:
"I'm holding up." Just hearing her master's voice helps.
"That's good. Don't worry- we're right outside, waiting to come in. I'll be with you the moment-" Suddenly another, angry, female voice breaks in:
"This is Chloe. Cut the chatter. Tiny, do your job and obey your commands. Don't initiate radio contact. Nerds, just keep it down."
"Roger that Miss Bellatrix. Cutting the chatter now." Jill gives a grin at this clear on-the-spot improvisation of a name, and then she stuffs her hand in her mouth to stifle her "ooh" and giggles when, right before contact was broken, someone in the background, Jill thinks it's David, mutters "Bitch." Jill leans against the wall, still smiling as she waits for the last few minutes to tick by. It's nice communicating this way, because Peter and his friends seemed to forget, for the most part, that she was their Tiny pet. (Jill adds the their somewhat unconsciously, as a result of her quick-budding affection for the bunch. She was Peter and his family's pet in much the same way, at least in her own mind). She looked at the communicator again. After receiving their assignment, which had been fairly obvious from the beginning considering that Peter was the family's tech guy, they had headed out in one of three white vans.
"Gryffindor tower" contained an unbelievable amount of electronic stuff. Unlike in the store, however, it was all set up, packed in efficiently, utilizing every last bit of space possible. Jill had noticed with very mixed feelings, however, that despite this tech demand on the van's capacity, there was still some amount of space devoted to Tiny rescue and storage, with nets, traps, gas, cages and clear plastic boxes. She may have been a happy, obedient pet, but Chloe's Tiny pets had lived in Tinyville, not cages, so they weren't trained to love them. The opposite, in fact, considering the rarely-used but still frightening Punishment Cage
The clutter had meant that the nerds and Peter had to cram in quite uncomfortably around a very small table. Jill had been quite uncomfortable as well. Not because of lack of space, but rather because the peculiarly low table and the cramped quarters meant that she was surrounded on all sides by the crotches of six young boys, whose pants were all pulled very tight as a result of their awkward positioning. Thankfully, they had not noticed the unintentional affect of their positioning, nor the embarrassment it created in Jill. Instead they had eagerly discussed the upcoming operation, including Jill in their conversation, when it wasn't "over her head" (because of techno babble). The nerds had each presented her with some piece of equipment, clearly made by them, all perfectly-scaled to her tiny size. It wasn't ugly, cobbled together junk either: her communicator (made by Dan), for instance, looked exactly like a radio-cell phone. She had been delighted, especially when he handed her a pair of ear buds and the knowledge that it would hold music. The regular market simply did not make modern electronics for Tinies, and she had always been envious of the normal girl's (and boys), casually using their MP3's and cell phones without a care. Now she was the only Tiny in the entire world with them.
She had given each Boy (or rather their hand) a tight hug when they gave her their offering, especially since they told her it was hers to keep. There had been a bit of an awkward moment when Michael gave her a full black-suit secret agent outfit, complete with night vision goggles and utility belt. The outfit obviously wouldn't do for an infiltration requiring Jill to look normal. She, and surprisingly the rest of the group as well, had been gentle, however. She had apologized profusely, giving him a hug no less sincere than the ones for the rest of the nerds, and promised to retain the belt and even the night-vision goggles. Furthermore, she had quickly tried on the outfit (over her normal clothes, however).
It was well designed for a 10 like herself, breathable and comfortable, with appropriately fine cloth. To her surprise, it hadn't been ridiculously tight and revealing, despite being made by a 13-year old guy (although it wasn't super loose and modest either). They had all whistled, clapped and cheered as she showed off her cheerleading skills with a few summersaults and a slide along the table (she regretted the last, she had nearly slid right into Dan's pants at a very unfortunate spot), complimenting her profusely on her appearance, and Michael somewhat less profusely, but quite sincerely, on his efforts. Smiling as she gave the greater part of the outfit to Peter for safekeeping, she had asked: "So, anything else you guys want to give me before I head out?" Peter was grabbing her in preparation for her "insertion" when suddenly Matt had spoken up: "Code names. We need code names, for Jill and for us." They had looked at one another, stumped, then Jill, glowing with cheerfulness at their warm, mostly respectful, treatment of her, had confided in them her love of Harry Potter. At that, there was nothing but for Jill to be Hedwig, and the van be the tower where she always returned to her master in. Peter had given Jill a meaningful squeeze at the last. They had drawn the line, however, at having Peter becoming "Harry".
And that was that. The Van slowed slowly down on the pavement nearest possible to the school without running into the wall, quite near the "big door", and Peter had set her down on the pavement. The van had gone a little ways off to avoid suspicion, but it remained within sight, with the nerds all watching her protectively while she was exposed on the sidewalk. It would've been the cruelest irony in the world for her to be snatched at that point. It wasn't too much of a danger, as the Garrity family and, and now their teenager employees, were the only ones with any sort systematic approach to Tiny rescuing, mainly because they were the only ones with any real awareness, but still, anyone could take advantage of an unforeseen opportunity. They had all breathed a sigh of relief as her tiny form finally disappeared from view (it seemed like hours of exposure, although in reality Jill was relatively large for a Tiny and an athlete to boot, so it was only 23 seconds). They all settled down to wait, staring at the radio, urging it to produce Jill's voice, and their watches, urging them to tick faster.
Jill watched the countdown: 12:00:57, 58, 59, 12:01:00.
"Go go go!" screamed quite a few voices unnecessarily from Jill's communicator. The others, particularly the nerds, had their own work to do, but hers was the only "action" necessary at the appointed time. She goes. Walking quickly towards the janitor's closet, she retrieves Peter's piece of equipment from her belt. It wasn't for her to keep, it was the "package" as it were: a modified micro (still big to Jill) USB drive with strange hooks and wires jutting out of the large hole in the end. It needed to be hooked up to the objective in the closet. Her nervousness and the screaming from her communicator were completely unfounded: no alarms went off when the ticker reached 12:01, no armed guards showed up (There isn't even anything to arm Tiny guards with anyway). Not even a student, teacher or Janitor was on hand as Jill, completely unknown, prepared the way for their rescue. Inside the janitor's closet, there's the usual Janitor's stuff, but in the back, Jill sees the telltale bulge in the wall, probably completely ignored by the few Tiny cleaners who stored their supplies here. No one in the school knew anything about it, and most didn't even know it existed, but as Jill wipes away several year's dust she see's the telltale TINY SECURITY HUB ACCESS printed largely on the cover of the metal box.
"Hedwig here. At objective. Commencing hook-up." All business now, she ignored the reply from the communicator (encouragement from Gryffindor, an impatient exhortation from Bellatrix to hurry up). In the end, the doom of the Tinies is started without a single hitch, Jill opening the box the box with a grunt, dislodging some rust from the hinges, and turning on her tiny white LED flashlight. The slots for her wires are widely spaced and quite large, proportions never seen in Normal sized electronics, but again, it was designed for Tinies by normal sized people. Jill hooks up the wires, a task so clear and easy even for a techno-newb like her that she has time to check it twice before 12:02 strikes, and presses the big, red button. Jill straightens up after a moment, smiling at her own foolishness. Her own racing heart and the Nerds' secret-agent attitude had made her kind of expect an explosion, or something. When nothing of the kind occurs, she assumes it works, and radios in: "Hedwig to Bellatrix's Hideout, Gryffindor Tower and Dumbledore's Study, objective achieved. Please confirm." She had improvised the Van names, adding to the nerds' appropriate label and making up the last. She's somewhat surprised, therefore, to hear Richard's voice as well as Peter's quickly responding over the radio (she had never expected a response from Chloe), confirming.
"Nice work, Hedwig." It was done, surprisingly easy to complete. At 12:01:00, police officers or office staff for the mayor's office had carried official documents into every location where normal-sized security for the old system was located. The simple documents simply stated the new law, the new registration, ownership and free-claim regulations regarding Tinies. Of course, by itself a piece of paper meant nothing: the normal sized security officers had not been stripped of any authority whatsoever, they were still fully licensed guards, hand-picked and well-paid to resist bribes, screened to remove any microphiles and quite unwilling to simply hand over Tinies to anyone but their parents or guardians (an unwillingness which often included their own superiors). The order most certainly did not demand their cooperation or assistance in rounding up the Tinies for the pet store's benefit, and the officers and officials were not required to make them give it. If the pet store was to remain an above-the-board, fully legal private institution, they couldn't have mayoral assistance of that kind. But, thanks in part to Jill, quite a bit to Richard and most of all to the Nerds, it wasn't necessary. The IT guys at the mayors office were the contact that Richard, and Alexandra, had leaned on to get the new law passed without warning or fanfare, and they were quite happy to point out the weaknesses of the Tiny security: namely, that there was none.
The normal sized builders and planners had, when the first designs were on the table, planned on including some Tiny security inside the complex and its associated walkways. However, they were normals, and even the best and most fair minded of them (a rare creature indeed) had the basic belief that Tinies weren't really equipped to resist Giant's. The security was therefore manned by normals, and the security hub and camera system inside the walkways and schools went unused. The concern was outside of the walkways and normal sized snatchers, and they were quite justifiably confident in the wall and the bars above it (which, incidentally, were electrified) to protect the Tinies when traveling, and their own skills and cameras when monitoring the exits for the homes of the Tinies. Even Chloe, with her strange ability to circumvent these protections fairly easily, had only netted four rescues from inside the walkways, out of hundreds of opportunities presented to her. Also, since the Tinies were remarkably well behaved and balanced towards one another (with one notable exception), there was no real reason for security inside the complex or walkways either. There were few problems, and the teachers had never been unable to deal with problems (if they chose to).
Despite normal sized Security's decision, however, the defunct hub remained, shoved in the back of a janitor's closet. No one remembered it, and even if they did they wouldn't have bothered to remove it: it would've required a normal sized tech, and maintenance by them was kept to an absolute minimum, for the same reason Security stayed outside the walkways and complex: it would've seriously disturbed the Tinies to have them there. Whatever the strange size comparisons within the wall, it was their space. So, Jill had been given the opportunity to seal the net completely: the nerds had been slowly but surely worming their way into the Security network, being patient, thorough and careful, confident in the knowledge that she would be able to deliver this final blow from within the heart of the network. Her package had contained the last series of viruses and command-overrides. Now that the virus was in the system, it belonged entirely to the Nerds, giving them control over everything inside the walkway, including the cameras that no one used and the loudspeakers by which the Tinies received the odd command from Security. The network extended beyond the walkway, into the buildings that housed the Tinies and their normal sized families, so at 12:02:14, before the guards had even time to finish reading the documents they were handed, every single exterior and interior door and window within those buildings was locked and barred, elegantly cutting off all interference from that quarter. With vans blocking the main streets through Tinytown, there would be no normal sized interference.
Jill's radio suddenly crackled: "Hedwig, this is Gryffindor. One last thing before you go: pull the alarm." Jill confirmed, smiling. The boys are being nice to her, making her feel useful. Their conversation may have been "over her head", but she still had understood quite clearly when Matt was listing their control over the complex that it included the fire alarm. But it worked: it did make her feel more useful, and valued. As she walks over to the nearest alarm, Jill is suddenly struck by a thought: If Richard was listening and making sense of our radio chatter, she thought, than surely he made out Michael's comment. Oh I hope Master Peter doesn't get punished she shivers, feeling a sudden concern. Chloe was one thing, but the way pets were supposed to interact with siblings of their Master/Mistress and the way they were supposed to interact with parents were quite different. Preoccupied with this thought, she pays less attention than an agent on a mission should, so she nearly jumps out of her skin when a deep male voice says:
"Jill?" It's an older male, an 8, which Jill vaguely recalls as being a teacher here. "What are you doing here? I thought you were sent off to a normal sized high school to learn to interact? Are you visiting?" He's looking at her with kindly interest. Jill gapes like a fish and looks very guilty. She just wasn't equipped to deal with this right now. Much of it was due to her long time dealing with Mistress Chloe or Master Peter and fellow pets, but to be fair some of it was due to the fact that she was on a "secret mission". Panicking, Jill does the one thing she can think of: she finishes the mission. She reaches out and before this 8's startled eyes, pulls the alarm. A wave of paint suddenly sprays her clothes, marking her as the alarm starts peeling. Jill turns to run, but the 8 is quicker. Two strong hands grab her arms. Jill cries out, struggling to get free:
"What are you doing girl?!" The man snaps. Jill tries to her use her superior size to get away, but it doesn't work. As with normal size people, it mostly is with Tinies: 32 year old guys are significantly stronger than 14 year old girls. Jill is bigger, but he's an 8, not a 4 or even a 6. He's shorter, but not so short that their age and gender difference doesn’t overwhelm Jill. Who knows what might've happened at that point if things had gone differently, but just as the 8 is starting to turn her around, all the lights go out. Jill feels a moment's surprise, but instinctively kick's the 8 in the shins. He howls and drops. Jill stumbles blindly around for a moment, than remembers Michael's gift: I'm going to give that guy a full-on kiss when I get back, bless him, and maybe do a session in that suit for him she thinks as she pulls the pair of night-vision goggles on. It only takes her a moment to figure out: it is designed with deliberately simple controls.
Through the grainy green eyepiece she can see the 8 stumbling around in the dark, looking for her or for a wall. She nimbly avoids him as she goes past quietly, heading for the nearest exit. All around her, she can hear the siren of the fire alarm, and above that she could hear the delighted shrieks of the Tinies inside the classrooms. Those shrieks would be of a different kind altogether soon, she thinks, as she bursts through the door and to relative freedom.
--------------------------------
Some time later, Jill stirs as the massive squeaking sound of the normal gate opening. She stands up, stretching: she was more tired from her mission than the very-fit young athlete wanted to admit. Peter had told her that it was the adrenaline over the radio when she dutifully reported in, before praising her briefly and telling her to hide and rest. It had been easy enough to hide: the loudspeakers had been booming instructions to the Tinies, telling the vast majority of certain sections to head for the main walkways, which were both quite a ways from the wall. She had simply stayed there and watched the great streams of humanity pass: there really were quite a few Tinies to be rescued. Now it's quite empty, kind of echoing, although she knows it's in her mind. Still, she's glad that Peter's finally here. She backs away from the slowly opening door and watches giant figures appear in the entrance:
"Jill?" Peter calls, looking around for his beloved pet, taking in the complex with only a slight bulging of the eyes to indicate that he's impressed.
"Down here!" His heart leaps as he hears her sweet, high-pitched voice. There, a waving blond figure with an odd black belt and normal clothes, splattered pink. He disguises the shaking in his knees by kneeling and receiving Jill, who takes a running leap into his palm. As he stands up once more, beaming down at her beautiful, delightfully energetic form, she immediately seizes and hugs with a death grip the first protrusion she can find: in this case, his thumb. Her grip is enormously strong for someone his surprise: with a bit of a shock, he realizes that his thumb is starting to fall asleep from blood loss. He smiles: he doesn't mind one bit. He starts stroking her wonderfully soft hair, delighting in straightening it out after being subjected to so much exertion. He holds her close to his chest for a moment, but soon voices break in from behind him:
"IS she okay?" "C'mon man, let us see." "Jill? Shout if you're there!" "Pete" At the last, Jill releases her hold on his thumb, although she's still leaning against it:
"Pete?" she asks, amazed. He gives an embarrassed shrug. An evil, playful but still evil, smile slowly breaks over her face, and he swallows. He quickly distracts her by turning around and holding her out for inspection by the anxious boys behind him. Exclamations of relief and welcome die on their lips as they take in her paint splattered form:
"Oh Jill," Says Chris woefully, "You're clothes!"
"It's, it's, it's..." Chris stutters
"Pink!" David finishes. All five give a shudder. Jill cocks her head:
"What's wrong with pink?" She asks. They just shudder again. Jill rolls her eyes: "Oh well." She refuses to lose her cheerful, triumphant attitude: "They're just clothes. I'm sure Master Pete," she draws out the vowels, "will get me some more." They all nudge one another, both at her use of 'master' and even more for 'Pete'. Suddenly, Matt breaks in:
"Why would he do that?" He asks, sounding honestly puzzled. The other five nerds all draw in a breath, he blinks and looks around, then looks at Jill again: "I mean, I certainly wouldn't if you were my pet." Everyone's eyes are fixed apprehensively on the tiny figure standing there on Peter's palm. She stands stock still for a moment, and they all fear an eruption, or even worse some sort of break-down, but defying their expectations, neither occurs. Instead, a small smile slowly quirks it way onto Jill's lips:
"No Matt," She shoots back finally, "I suppose you wouldn't.". A stunned silence, than
"Oh, burrrn" from Chris. They all spontaneously start laughing at the stupidly blinking Matt. Eventually, he joins in too. When they calm down once more, David turns to Matt:
"She got you there, man." The group choruses agreement, but Matt takes it good-naturedly, rubbing the back of his head with a hand:
"Hey, it was the truth." Suddenly, Chris pipes up:
"You know, I have to admit, I wouldn't either." He gives Jill a shy, embarrassed look. The rest of the boys chorus agreement:
"Me two." "Me three." "Me four." "Me five." The last is a loud statement from behind her. Jill's heart skips a beat, but her mind doesn't: she spins and delivers a well-aimed kick into the base of Peter’s thumb. He blinks at her:
"Ow." He says finally. She groans:
"Ugh. Perverts! Perverts, the lot of you! Tormenting a helpless Tiny girl like me, right after a big mission!" They just laugh: her words fool no one, not with that broad smile fixed on her face. Matt slowly brings his palm up and starts sucking on the spot where she kicked him, but his eyes still dance. Jill leans in close and whispers something to him. The boys slowly stop laughing as he nods, a trifle reluctantly, and her smile takes on a different tone.:
"So, I guess it was you guys who killed the lights?" She asked. They nodded:
"That was me. We were watching on the cameras. You should have been more careful, that guy almost got you!" Exclaims Chris. She brushes his comment aside:
"OH, I'm sure you would've rescued me. I mean, six big guys like you? You could've easily squashed that 8. Still, I am grateful." She signals Peter. He grabs Chris's arm firmly and puts his arm next to it. Jill lightly steps onto the palm, than nimbly ascends his arm to the shoulder, the wide eyed stares of the entire group following her every move. Chris stands stalk still for fear of dislodging her. She walks over to his cheek:
"This is for the quick thinking with the lights." She pronounces clearly, than gives him a chaste kiss on his cheek. She is totally oblivious to the acne spread all over his face, quite impressive considering that it is so much bigger for her. She steps back, considering Chris critically. His face starts to go cherry red, and he slowly brings up his right arm to touch the spot where she kissed him. His mouth is formed in a silent "O", and his eyes are full of wonder. She smiled and signaled Peter. Coming to Michael, she says:
"Those night vision goggles worked perfect, and were just what I needed." She kisses him on the opposite cheek, than proceeds over to Matt. She pauses, leaving him hanging for a moment:
"I'm not sure if you deserve it, with that comment of yours." He holds his breath, than she relents: "Oh well, I guess you do." As Peter draws her back from that kiss, straight on the tip of his nose (his eyes are crossed), she wags a finger at him warningly: "Don't think this means I'm not going to get back at you for it, though." She leaves him shaking his head slowly, and turns to Dan and David. She scratches her head: "I can't think of anything for you two." They start to look crestfallen, and she laughs: "Oh, come here you big lummoxes." Two quick pecks on the forehead, and she turns to Peter. She doesn't say anything, just crooks his finger. She heads straight for the center of his face, and he takes a deep breath, eyes wide- but then she suddenly goes straight for his strong chin. The kiss lasts a bit longer than with the others, though, the tiniest bit less chaste. She gives him a teasing smile as the other nerds laugh, calling out "Better luck next time, Pete." "Shouldn't have agreed with us, man." Jill looks at Michael as the catcalls die down:
"Another thing Michael- you deserve a bit more. I think you deserve a 'special session' with me. So you'll get one, in a few days, when things are a little less crazy." Jill's words were met with dead silence: one could've heard a pin drop (well, Jill could anyways, but whatever). All five of the other nerds were looking at her, utterly astonished, mouths hanging open, Michael's the widest of all. "You'll catch flies like that." The boys slowly started to close their mouths. Michael finally sputtered:
"A 'special session?" He asks, voice trembling. She nods, smiling mysteriously:
"You'll see." She promises. She looks around, first at the other nerds, still poleaxed, and then at Peter, who has a peculiar expression on his face. Jill, growing more accustomed to him and his ways, rolls her eyes and gives him an exasperated look. She turns to Michael again:
"I think you'd better invite the rest of the boys as well." She, advises Michael, then jerks a thumb over her shoulder, "especially my big green-eyed master here." Jill signals Peter, and he turns and moves off a bit. Jill smiles as she hears the sounds of boisterous ribbing and boyish chaos erupt behind her, as all of the boys descend on Michael to wrangle an invite. She lets her smile fade a bit as she considers her problem with Peter. She's determined to nip it in the bud. She looks up and stares at him, hard, until he starts fidgeting. At last, he says quietly:
"'Special Session', huh." He looks at her moodily. "What, by chance, might that entail?" Jill shakes her head, and quickly forestalls the coming explosion:
"Nothing to make you jealous, I swear. Well, nothing unless you're the kind of master who gets angry at anyone even looking wrong at his pet. I didn't think so, considering how well I've been working with you and the rest of the nerds, but maybe I misjudged." She shrugs artfully, "Of course, I am your pet. If you tell me not to do it, I won't." It went tactfully unsaid, but hanging silently in the air between them was that Peter would be telling his friends of the cancellation, with fairly predictable results. She lets him ruminate on it for a moment, than raises her eyebrows. He sighs, relenting: "Fine." She doesn't leap up and squeal in delight, but she does reach over and pat his wrist, on the same spot where she'd kissed him earlier. He looks at her mournfully:
"I'm not going to regret this, am I?" He's curiously vulnerable. Jill shakes her head:
"Come on, do you really think I'm the kind of Tiny who would do that to you?” Peter shakes his head without having to think about it, stops, and than gives her a grateful look. He turns and calls over to the others: "Back to work guys!" His voice is firm but, thankfully, not unfriendly. David and Matt look up from pinning down and noggying Michael mercilessly, than slowly let go and stand up. Chris and Dan give Michael a hand up: he doesn't look too much the worse for the wear. They dust themselves off. Matt gives Jill a last wave and smile, than walks back into the van. Peter tells Jill that the group had drawn straws, everyone except Michael, for who had to keep an eye on the security monitors and feed information to Chloe. Matt had drawn the short straw. The other four are picking up radios, nets, cages, traps and other Tiny-rescue equipment. They handle it somewhat awkwardly, and as each one approaches they look guiltily at Jill and try to hide it behind their backs. Jill feels a bit less disturbed: she feels that if she can trust anyone with that sort of thing, it's these five (six) bashful, soft-hearted boys, whatever their quirks or clumsiness. If they weren't perfect saints about expressing certain urges, albeit in a sideways and tactful way, and couldn't always keep their eyes from straying, she could forgive them that. She certainly wasn't a saint herself. Peter draws himself up, and goes over their instructions once more:
"Now remember, Dumbledore's study will be showing up soon, and so will Marcy, if all's going according to plan. Chloe, and Tom once he's done his particular job, will be out grabbing the Tinies in the walkways and tunnels. If you get the urge to go out there and chase after them yourself, don't. Our net is impenetrable, thanks to little Hedwig here." They all give a spontaneous cheer, and Jill blushes, looking down. "So, it's only a matter of time. Furthermore, Chloe and her girls, as well as Tom, and Marcy for all I know, all have Tinies to help them lure out runners. You don't. Our job here is simple: strip this place bare. Take everything."
"Even the buildings?" Asks David. Peter hesitates,
"Well.." Jill raises her hand, deciding to be polite at this serious discussion. He nods at her, bemused:
"David, you can take the buildings. They were made by guys your size, you know." She pauses to make a face, "They don't let us Tinies do anything! Anyway, absolutely everything in the complex was made by people your size, pipes, wiring, everything. The walls are even held down by pins and nails. I couldn't move them, but I'm sure you guys can find a way." Peter beams at Jill:'
"Thank you, Jill. That will make Marcy's job much easier." Jill nods. He turns to the group: "You heard the Tiny. Grab some screwdrivers and take this place apart." He points at their belts, where each has both a PDA and a sack hanging: "The PDAs are cameras to. Take pictures of everything before you touch it, as well as while you're taking it apart, if it needs taking apart, and especially before you start removing things. We might want to put this stuff back together! When it comes to stuff, bag everything that isn't a building that isn't nailed down, than unscrew anything that is. Try not to break anything. Finally, Tinies." He takes a deep breath, and Jill interjects:
"Right, Tinies. Watch your step guys, us tiny folk are about! Myself included, I'll be guiding Peter. Reading a map of this place and seeing it from your height are two very different things." Peter fills in smoothly:
"Right, watch your step. Also, while I said you shouldn't go outside of the complex, when it comes to Tinies here, bag'em immediately. We don't want them getting away and causing disruption outside. Be gentle, be careful, but don't let them get away: there are no interior doors to block the walkways. In fact, two of you start at one walkway, the other two at the other, and work your way in. Don't let anyone get past you, and don't go near the special areas until Mom, Dad, Me and Marcy are finished. You might also be tempted to start playing with any girls you find when you net them, again, and I can't stress this enough, DON"T!" He looks each of them in the eye fiercely until they all mumble agreement. "For obvious reasons, we want them asleep as fast as possible. It's up to you what you do with them after that, however, as long as they stay asleep and uncrushed." They all nod, a gleam entering each eye. Jill speaks up quietly:
"I'm sure I can trust you guys to be respectful. It's not nice to be mean." They all look a bit shamefaced and instantly rush to give her promises of good behavior. Jill smiles:
"Good. Also, don't be too disappointed. From what I remember, you guys get first pick of the Tinies we rescue today, at the same time as the rest of Master Peter's family." They start grinning, at her and at each other. Satisfied that her work is done, she waves a hand at them "Now scat!" They scat. With Jill's blessing, and her timely, tantalizing reminder, there's quite a spring to their steps as they go. Jill watches them go, then sees with a bit of a start that Matt is walking closer. His expression is somber, and he's holding a weird object in his left hand: It looks like a big wooden box, but there's something about it... Jill frowns. Matt gives Peter the object, than puts a hand on his shoulder, eyes searching for something. Jill looks on in frustration, wondering what he knows that she doesn't. Peter meets Matt's eyes and nods silently. Matt steps back, and Peter turns to go, setting Jill down. She hears footsteps behind her. Turning, she's confronted by Matt's jean-covered crotch. She looks up: Matt is squatting down in front of her, but his expression is sober, not lascivious:
"I've been Matt's friend the longest of any of the guys. Take care of him. He's not going to like what he's going to do, and what he's going to have you do to help him, next." With a quick, mysterious nod of acknowledgement for Jill, he stands and heads back to the van. Jill watches him go, wondering, than turns to Peter, who had stopped, and is staring at the thing in his hands. She runs to catch up and they head off together, slowly, at least for Peter. He's careful of Jill, making her stay far ahead of him and his menacing feet, but Jill can tell that, for the first time since the tomato juice this morning, Peter is not concentrating on her, and he's not in any way happy. They walk in silence towards their next job.
Jill had actually surprised Peter when she called this area Tinytown: the existence of Tinies was kept very, very low key, if not actually a secret, so while Chloe and her family had known, obviously, where to find Tinies for rescue, there weren’t any signs around with “WELCOME TO TINYTOWN” on them. Looking around at the buildings, with their comfortably sized doorways, Jill suddenly has reason to appreciate her time with Chloe. If she'd spent the last six months with Peter, she would have gotten completely used to living in a normal-scaled room, and been quite thrown by her return to Tiny scale. Not that anyone would mistake even the school complex for a true Tiny-scaled town. Even Tinyville, situated inside a teenage girl's room, was more authentic, with small house-rooms, diners for lunch and dinner, and its mall, which was mostly a hang-out spot. The buildings here were clearly designed by normals for Tinies: they were quite squat and box-like, even more so then Chloe's creations. Also, normal humans did have to enter every so often, so there are giant rails looming over everything beside enormous main walkways clearly designed with giants in everything. The massive walls looming on all sides around the complex easily rendered the school buildings as toys, especially with the large double-triple-quadruple-quintuple locked metal-bound door set in the middle.
Feeling a bit guilty for having good thoughts about Chloe and not staying with Peter, Jill grabbed her communicator:
"Hedwig, this is Hedwig, come in Gryffindor tower." She ducks into a small alcove in the hall.
"Gryffindor tower here." Peter's voice came in, somewhat distorted with static. "Go ahead Hedwig."
"Time check please."
"11:57, 4 minutes to operation start. Are you in position?" Jill checks around the corridor, spotting her objective at once: a small janitor's closet.
"Hedwig to Gryffindor tower, roger that." A pause, then:
"Gryffindor tower to Hedwig." It's David this time, "Doesn't your time-device work?" He sounds anxious, as well he might. He'd designed the thing himself, after all. She checks it: Sure enough, it reads 11:57:32, apparently it was accurate to the nano-second.
"Roger that Gryffindor tower, it works fine."
"So why-?" Jill hears the unmistakable sound of flesh impacting flesh and winces. The next voice that came on was Peter's again:
"What's your status, Hedwig?" He asked, an undercurrent of concern audible over the status. Jill took a deep breath, shaking a little. It wasn't a really dangerous mission, but still, there was some risk, mainly that she might get taken away from Peter. Jill couldn't bear that.. She gave the blunt truth:
"I'm holding up." Just hearing her master's voice helps.
"That's good. Don't worry- we're right outside, waiting to come in. I'll be with you the moment-" Suddenly another, angry, female voice breaks in:
"This is Chloe. Cut the chatter. Tiny, do your job and obey your commands. Don't initiate radio contact. Nerds, just keep it down."
"Roger that Miss Bellatrix. Cutting the chatter now." Jill gives a grin at this clear on-the-spot improvisation of a name, and then she stuffs her hand in her mouth to stifle her "ooh" and giggles when, right before contact was broken, someone in the background, Jill thinks it's David, mutters "Bitch." Jill leans against the wall, still smiling as she waits for the last few minutes to tick by. It's nice communicating this way, because Peter and his friends seemed to forget, for the most part, that she was their Tiny pet. (Jill adds the their somewhat unconsciously, as a result of her quick-budding affection for the bunch. She was Peter and his family's pet in much the same way, at least in her own mind). She looked at the communicator again. After receiving their assignment, which had been fairly obvious from the beginning considering that Peter was the family's tech guy, they had headed out in one of three white vans.
"Gryffindor tower" contained an unbelievable amount of electronic stuff. Unlike in the store, however, it was all set up, packed in efficiently, utilizing every last bit of space possible. Jill had noticed with very mixed feelings, however, that despite this tech demand on the van's capacity, there was still some amount of space devoted to Tiny rescue and storage, with nets, traps, gas, cages and clear plastic boxes. She may have been a happy, obedient pet, but Chloe's Tiny pets had lived in Tinyville, not cages, so they weren't trained to love them. The opposite, in fact, considering the rarely-used but still frightening Punishment Cage
The clutter had meant that the nerds and Peter had to cram in quite uncomfortably around a very small table. Jill had been quite uncomfortable as well. Not because of lack of space, but rather because the peculiarly low table and the cramped quarters meant that she was surrounded on all sides by the crotches of six young boys, whose pants were all pulled very tight as a result of their awkward positioning. Thankfully, they had not noticed the unintentional affect of their positioning, nor the embarrassment it created in Jill. Instead they had eagerly discussed the upcoming operation, including Jill in their conversation, when it wasn't "over her head" (because of techno babble). The nerds had each presented her with some piece of equipment, clearly made by them, all perfectly-scaled to her tiny size. It wasn't ugly, cobbled together junk either: her communicator (made by Dan), for instance, looked exactly like a radio-cell phone. She had been delighted, especially when he handed her a pair of ear buds and the knowledge that it would hold music. The regular market simply did not make modern electronics for Tinies, and she had always been envious of the normal girl's (and boys), casually using their MP3's and cell phones without a care. Now she was the only Tiny in the entire world with them.
She had given each Boy (or rather their hand) a tight hug when they gave her their offering, especially since they told her it was hers to keep. There had been a bit of an awkward moment when Michael gave her a full black-suit secret agent outfit, complete with night vision goggles and utility belt. The outfit obviously wouldn't do for an infiltration requiring Jill to look normal. She, and surprisingly the rest of the group as well, had been gentle, however. She had apologized profusely, giving him a hug no less sincere than the ones for the rest of the nerds, and promised to retain the belt and even the night-vision goggles. Furthermore, she had quickly tried on the outfit (over her normal clothes, however).
It was well designed for a 10 like herself, breathable and comfortable, with appropriately fine cloth. To her surprise, it hadn't been ridiculously tight and revealing, despite being made by a 13-year old guy (although it wasn't super loose and modest either). They had all whistled, clapped and cheered as she showed off her cheerleading skills with a few summersaults and a slide along the table (she regretted the last, she had nearly slid right into Dan's pants at a very unfortunate spot), complimenting her profusely on her appearance, and Michael somewhat less profusely, but quite sincerely, on his efforts. Smiling as she gave the greater part of the outfit to Peter for safekeeping, she had asked: "So, anything else you guys want to give me before I head out?" Peter was grabbing her in preparation for her "insertion" when suddenly Matt had spoken up: "Code names. We need code names, for Jill and for us." They had looked at one another, stumped, then Jill, glowing with cheerfulness at their warm, mostly respectful, treatment of her, had confided in them her love of Harry Potter. At that, there was nothing but for Jill to be Hedwig, and the van be the tower where she always returned to her master in. Peter had given Jill a meaningful squeeze at the last. They had drawn the line, however, at having Peter becoming "Harry".
And that was that. The Van slowed slowly down on the pavement nearest possible to the school without running into the wall, quite near the "big door", and Peter had set her down on the pavement. The van had gone a little ways off to avoid suspicion, but it remained within sight, with the nerds all watching her protectively while she was exposed on the sidewalk. It would've been the cruelest irony in the world for her to be snatched at that point. It wasn't too much of a danger, as the Garrity family and, and now their teenager employees, were the only ones with any sort systematic approach to Tiny rescuing, mainly because they were the only ones with any real awareness, but still, anyone could take advantage of an unforeseen opportunity. They had all breathed a sigh of relief as her tiny form finally disappeared from view (it seemed like hours of exposure, although in reality Jill was relatively large for a Tiny and an athlete to boot, so it was only 23 seconds). They all settled down to wait, staring at the radio, urging it to produce Jill's voice, and their watches, urging them to tick faster.
Jill watched the countdown: 12:00:57, 58, 59, 12:01:00.
"Go go go!" screamed quite a few voices unnecessarily from Jill's communicator. The others, particularly the nerds, had their own work to do, but hers was the only "action" necessary at the appointed time. She goes. Walking quickly towards the janitor's closet, she retrieves Peter's piece of equipment from her belt. It wasn't for her to keep, it was the "package" as it were: a modified micro (still big to Jill) USB drive with strange hooks and wires jutting out of the large hole in the end. It needed to be hooked up to the objective in the closet. Her nervousness and the screaming from her communicator were completely unfounded: no alarms went off when the ticker reached 12:01, no armed guards showed up (There isn't even anything to arm Tiny guards with anyway). Not even a student, teacher or Janitor was on hand as Jill, completely unknown, prepared the way for their rescue. Inside the janitor's closet, there's the usual Janitor's stuff, but in the back, Jill sees the telltale bulge in the wall, probably completely ignored by the few Tiny cleaners who stored their supplies here. No one in the school knew anything about it, and most didn't even know it existed, but as Jill wipes away several year's dust she see's the telltale TINY SECURITY HUB ACCESS printed largely on the cover of the metal box.
"Hedwig here. At objective. Commencing hook-up." All business now, she ignored the reply from the communicator (encouragement from Gryffindor, an impatient exhortation from Bellatrix to hurry up). In the end, the doom of the Tinies is started without a single hitch, Jill opening the box the box with a grunt, dislodging some rust from the hinges, and turning on her tiny white LED flashlight. The slots for her wires are widely spaced and quite large, proportions never seen in Normal sized electronics, but again, it was designed for Tinies by normal sized people. Jill hooks up the wires, a task so clear and easy even for a techno-newb like her that she has time to check it twice before 12:02 strikes, and presses the big, red button. Jill straightens up after a moment, smiling at her own foolishness. Her own racing heart and the Nerds' secret-agent attitude had made her kind of expect an explosion, or something. When nothing of the kind occurs, she assumes it works, and radios in: "Hedwig to Bellatrix's Hideout, Gryffindor Tower and Dumbledore's Study, objective achieved. Please confirm." She had improvised the Van names, adding to the nerds' appropriate label and making up the last. She's somewhat surprised, therefore, to hear Richard's voice as well as Peter's quickly responding over the radio (she had never expected a response from Chloe), confirming.
"Nice work, Hedwig." It was done, surprisingly easy to complete. At 12:01:00, police officers or office staff for the mayor's office had carried official documents into every location where normal-sized security for the old system was located. The simple documents simply stated the new law, the new registration, ownership and free-claim regulations regarding Tinies. Of course, by itself a piece of paper meant nothing: the normal sized security officers had not been stripped of any authority whatsoever, they were still fully licensed guards, hand-picked and well-paid to resist bribes, screened to remove any microphiles and quite unwilling to simply hand over Tinies to anyone but their parents or guardians (an unwillingness which often included their own superiors). The order most certainly did not demand their cooperation or assistance in rounding up the Tinies for the pet store's benefit, and the officers and officials were not required to make them give it. If the pet store was to remain an above-the-board, fully legal private institution, they couldn't have mayoral assistance of that kind. But, thanks in part to Jill, quite a bit to Richard and most of all to the Nerds, it wasn't necessary. The IT guys at the mayors office were the contact that Richard, and Alexandra, had leaned on to get the new law passed without warning or fanfare, and they were quite happy to point out the weaknesses of the Tiny security: namely, that there was none.
The normal sized builders and planners had, when the first designs were on the table, planned on including some Tiny security inside the complex and its associated walkways. However, they were normals, and even the best and most fair minded of them (a rare creature indeed) had the basic belief that Tinies weren't really equipped to resist Giant's. The security was therefore manned by normals, and the security hub and camera system inside the walkways and schools went unused. The concern was outside of the walkways and normal sized snatchers, and they were quite justifiably confident in the wall and the bars above it (which, incidentally, were electrified) to protect the Tinies when traveling, and their own skills and cameras when monitoring the exits for the homes of the Tinies. Even Chloe, with her strange ability to circumvent these protections fairly easily, had only netted four rescues from inside the walkways, out of hundreds of opportunities presented to her. Also, since the Tinies were remarkably well behaved and balanced towards one another (with one notable exception), there was no real reason for security inside the complex or walkways either. There were few problems, and the teachers had never been unable to deal with problems (if they chose to).
Despite normal sized Security's decision, however, the defunct hub remained, shoved in the back of a janitor's closet. No one remembered it, and even if they did they wouldn't have bothered to remove it: it would've required a normal sized tech, and maintenance by them was kept to an absolute minimum, for the same reason Security stayed outside the walkways and complex: it would've seriously disturbed the Tinies to have them there. Whatever the strange size comparisons within the wall, it was their space. So, Jill had been given the opportunity to seal the net completely: the nerds had been slowly but surely worming their way into the Security network, being patient, thorough and careful, confident in the knowledge that she would be able to deliver this final blow from within the heart of the network. Her package had contained the last series of viruses and command-overrides. Now that the virus was in the system, it belonged entirely to the Nerds, giving them control over everything inside the walkway, including the cameras that no one used and the loudspeakers by which the Tinies received the odd command from Security. The network extended beyond the walkway, into the buildings that housed the Tinies and their normal sized families, so at 12:02:14, before the guards had even time to finish reading the documents they were handed, every single exterior and interior door and window within those buildings was locked and barred, elegantly cutting off all interference from that quarter. With vans blocking the main streets through Tinytown, there would be no normal sized interference.
Jill's radio suddenly crackled: "Hedwig, this is Gryffindor. One last thing before you go: pull the alarm." Jill confirmed, smiling. The boys are being nice to her, making her feel useful. Their conversation may have been "over her head", but she still had understood quite clearly when Matt was listing their control over the complex that it included the fire alarm. But it worked: it did make her feel more useful, and valued. As she walks over to the nearest alarm, Jill is suddenly struck by a thought: If Richard was listening and making sense of our radio chatter, she thought, than surely he made out Michael's comment. Oh I hope Master Peter doesn't get punished she shivers, feeling a sudden concern. Chloe was one thing, but the way pets were supposed to interact with siblings of their Master/Mistress and the way they were supposed to interact with parents were quite different. Preoccupied with this thought, she pays less attention than an agent on a mission should, so she nearly jumps out of her skin when a deep male voice says:
"Jill?" It's an older male, an 8, which Jill vaguely recalls as being a teacher here. "What are you doing here? I thought you were sent off to a normal sized high school to learn to interact? Are you visiting?" He's looking at her with kindly interest. Jill gapes like a fish and looks very guilty. She just wasn't equipped to deal with this right now. Much of it was due to her long time dealing with Mistress Chloe or Master Peter and fellow pets, but to be fair some of it was due to the fact that she was on a "secret mission". Panicking, Jill does the one thing she can think of: she finishes the mission. She reaches out and before this 8's startled eyes, pulls the alarm. A wave of paint suddenly sprays her clothes, marking her as the alarm starts peeling. Jill turns to run, but the 8 is quicker. Two strong hands grab her arms. Jill cries out, struggling to get free:
"What are you doing girl?!" The man snaps. Jill tries to her use her superior size to get away, but it doesn't work. As with normal size people, it mostly is with Tinies: 32 year old guys are significantly stronger than 14 year old girls. Jill is bigger, but he's an 8, not a 4 or even a 6. He's shorter, but not so short that their age and gender difference doesn’t overwhelm Jill. Who knows what might've happened at that point if things had gone differently, but just as the 8 is starting to turn her around, all the lights go out. Jill feels a moment's surprise, but instinctively kick's the 8 in the shins. He howls and drops. Jill stumbles blindly around for a moment, than remembers Michael's gift: I'm going to give that guy a full-on kiss when I get back, bless him, and maybe do a session in that suit for him she thinks as she pulls the pair of night-vision goggles on. It only takes her a moment to figure out: it is designed with deliberately simple controls.
Through the grainy green eyepiece she can see the 8 stumbling around in the dark, looking for her or for a wall. She nimbly avoids him as she goes past quietly, heading for the nearest exit. All around her, she can hear the siren of the fire alarm, and above that she could hear the delighted shrieks of the Tinies inside the classrooms. Those shrieks would be of a different kind altogether soon, she thinks, as she bursts through the door and to relative freedom.
--------------------------------
Some time later, Jill stirs as the massive squeaking sound of the normal gate opening. She stands up, stretching: she was more tired from her mission than the very-fit young athlete wanted to admit. Peter had told her that it was the adrenaline over the radio when she dutifully reported in, before praising her briefly and telling her to hide and rest. It had been easy enough to hide: the loudspeakers had been booming instructions to the Tinies, telling the vast majority of certain sections to head for the main walkways, which were both quite a ways from the wall. She had simply stayed there and watched the great streams of humanity pass: there really were quite a few Tinies to be rescued. Now it's quite empty, kind of echoing, although she knows it's in her mind. Still, she's glad that Peter's finally here. She backs away from the slowly opening door and watches giant figures appear in the entrance:
"Jill?" Peter calls, looking around for his beloved pet, taking in the complex with only a slight bulging of the eyes to indicate that he's impressed.
"Down here!" His heart leaps as he hears her sweet, high-pitched voice. There, a waving blond figure with an odd black belt and normal clothes, splattered pink. He disguises the shaking in his knees by kneeling and receiving Jill, who takes a running leap into his palm. As he stands up once more, beaming down at her beautiful, delightfully energetic form, she immediately seizes and hugs with a death grip the first protrusion she can find: in this case, his thumb. Her grip is enormously strong for someone his surprise: with a bit of a shock, he realizes that his thumb is starting to fall asleep from blood loss. He smiles: he doesn't mind one bit. He starts stroking her wonderfully soft hair, delighting in straightening it out after being subjected to so much exertion. He holds her close to his chest for a moment, but soon voices break in from behind him:
"IS she okay?" "C'mon man, let us see." "Jill? Shout if you're there!" "Pete" At the last, Jill releases her hold on his thumb, although she's still leaning against it:
"Pete?" she asks, amazed. He gives an embarrassed shrug. An evil, playful but still evil, smile slowly breaks over her face, and he swallows. He quickly distracts her by turning around and holding her out for inspection by the anxious boys behind him. Exclamations of relief and welcome die on their lips as they take in her paint splattered form:
"Oh Jill," Says Chris woefully, "You're clothes!"
"It's, it's, it's..." Chris stutters
"Pink!" David finishes. All five give a shudder. Jill cocks her head:
"What's wrong with pink?" She asks. They just shudder again. Jill rolls her eyes: "Oh well." She refuses to lose her cheerful, triumphant attitude: "They're just clothes. I'm sure Master Pete," she draws out the vowels, "will get me some more." They all nudge one another, both at her use of 'master' and even more for 'Pete'. Suddenly, Matt breaks in:
"Why would he do that?" He asks, sounding honestly puzzled. The other five nerds all draw in a breath, he blinks and looks around, then looks at Jill again: "I mean, I certainly wouldn't if you were my pet." Everyone's eyes are fixed apprehensively on the tiny figure standing there on Peter's palm. She stands stock still for a moment, and they all fear an eruption, or even worse some sort of break-down, but defying their expectations, neither occurs. Instead, a small smile slowly quirks it way onto Jill's lips:
"No Matt," She shoots back finally, "I suppose you wouldn't.". A stunned silence, than
"Oh, burrrn" from Chris. They all spontaneously start laughing at the stupidly blinking Matt. Eventually, he joins in too. When they calm down once more, David turns to Matt:
"She got you there, man." The group choruses agreement, but Matt takes it good-naturedly, rubbing the back of his head with a hand:
"Hey, it was the truth." Suddenly, Chris pipes up:
"You know, I have to admit, I wouldn't either." He gives Jill a shy, embarrassed look. The rest of the boys chorus agreement:
"Me two." "Me three." "Me four." "Me five." The last is a loud statement from behind her. Jill's heart skips a beat, but her mind doesn't: she spins and delivers a well-aimed kick into the base of Peter’s thumb. He blinks at her:
"Ow." He says finally. She groans:
"Ugh. Perverts! Perverts, the lot of you! Tormenting a helpless Tiny girl like me, right after a big mission!" They just laugh: her words fool no one, not with that broad smile fixed on her face. Matt slowly brings his palm up and starts sucking on the spot where she kicked him, but his eyes still dance. Jill leans in close and whispers something to him. The boys slowly stop laughing as he nods, a trifle reluctantly, and her smile takes on a different tone.:
"So, I guess it was you guys who killed the lights?" She asked. They nodded:
"That was me. We were watching on the cameras. You should have been more careful, that guy almost got you!" Exclaims Chris. She brushes his comment aside:
"OH, I'm sure you would've rescued me. I mean, six big guys like you? You could've easily squashed that 8. Still, I am grateful." She signals Peter. He grabs Chris's arm firmly and puts his arm next to it. Jill lightly steps onto the palm, than nimbly ascends his arm to the shoulder, the wide eyed stares of the entire group following her every move. Chris stands stalk still for fear of dislodging her. She walks over to his cheek:
"This is for the quick thinking with the lights." She pronounces clearly, than gives him a chaste kiss on his cheek. She is totally oblivious to the acne spread all over his face, quite impressive considering that it is so much bigger for her. She steps back, considering Chris critically. His face starts to go cherry red, and he slowly brings up his right arm to touch the spot where she kissed him. His mouth is formed in a silent "O", and his eyes are full of wonder. She smiled and signaled Peter. Coming to Michael, she says:
"Those night vision goggles worked perfect, and were just what I needed." She kisses him on the opposite cheek, than proceeds over to Matt. She pauses, leaving him hanging for a moment:
"I'm not sure if you deserve it, with that comment of yours." He holds his breath, than she relents: "Oh well, I guess you do." As Peter draws her back from that kiss, straight on the tip of his nose (his eyes are crossed), she wags a finger at him warningly: "Don't think this means I'm not going to get back at you for it, though." She leaves him shaking his head slowly, and turns to Dan and David. She scratches her head: "I can't think of anything for you two." They start to look crestfallen, and she laughs: "Oh, come here you big lummoxes." Two quick pecks on the forehead, and she turns to Peter. She doesn't say anything, just crooks his finger. She heads straight for the center of his face, and he takes a deep breath, eyes wide- but then she suddenly goes straight for his strong chin. The kiss lasts a bit longer than with the others, though, the tiniest bit less chaste. She gives him a teasing smile as the other nerds laugh, calling out "Better luck next time, Pete." "Shouldn't have agreed with us, man." Jill looks at Michael as the catcalls die down:
"Another thing Michael- you deserve a bit more. I think you deserve a 'special session' with me. So you'll get one, in a few days, when things are a little less crazy." Jill's words were met with dead silence: one could've heard a pin drop (well, Jill could anyways, but whatever). All five of the other nerds were looking at her, utterly astonished, mouths hanging open, Michael's the widest of all. "You'll catch flies like that." The boys slowly started to close their mouths. Michael finally sputtered:
"A 'special session?" He asks, voice trembling. She nods, smiling mysteriously:
"You'll see." She promises. She looks around, first at the other nerds, still poleaxed, and then at Peter, who has a peculiar expression on his face. Jill, growing more accustomed to him and his ways, rolls her eyes and gives him an exasperated look. She turns to Michael again:
"I think you'd better invite the rest of the boys as well." She, advises Michael, then jerks a thumb over her shoulder, "especially my big green-eyed master here." Jill signals Peter, and he turns and moves off a bit. Jill smiles as she hears the sounds of boisterous ribbing and boyish chaos erupt behind her, as all of the boys descend on Michael to wrangle an invite. She lets her smile fade a bit as she considers her problem with Peter. She's determined to nip it in the bud. She looks up and stares at him, hard, until he starts fidgeting. At last, he says quietly:
"'Special Session', huh." He looks at her moodily. "What, by chance, might that entail?" Jill shakes her head, and quickly forestalls the coming explosion:
"Nothing to make you jealous, I swear. Well, nothing unless you're the kind of master who gets angry at anyone even looking wrong at his pet. I didn't think so, considering how well I've been working with you and the rest of the nerds, but maybe I misjudged." She shrugs artfully, "Of course, I am your pet. If you tell me not to do it, I won't." It went tactfully unsaid, but hanging silently in the air between them was that Peter would be telling his friends of the cancellation, with fairly predictable results. She lets him ruminate on it for a moment, than raises her eyebrows. He sighs, relenting: "Fine." She doesn't leap up and squeal in delight, but she does reach over and pat his wrist, on the same spot where she'd kissed him earlier. He looks at her mournfully:
"I'm not going to regret this, am I?" He's curiously vulnerable. Jill shakes her head:
"Come on, do you really think I'm the kind of Tiny who would do that to you?” Peter shakes his head without having to think about it, stops, and than gives her a grateful look. He turns and calls over to the others: "Back to work guys!" His voice is firm but, thankfully, not unfriendly. David and Matt look up from pinning down and noggying Michael mercilessly, than slowly let go and stand up. Chris and Dan give Michael a hand up: he doesn't look too much the worse for the wear. They dust themselves off. Matt gives Jill a last wave and smile, than walks back into the van. Peter tells Jill that the group had drawn straws, everyone except Michael, for who had to keep an eye on the security monitors and feed information to Chloe. Matt had drawn the short straw. The other four are picking up radios, nets, cages, traps and other Tiny-rescue equipment. They handle it somewhat awkwardly, and as each one approaches they look guiltily at Jill and try to hide it behind their backs. Jill feels a bit less disturbed: she feels that if she can trust anyone with that sort of thing, it's these five (six) bashful, soft-hearted boys, whatever their quirks or clumsiness. If they weren't perfect saints about expressing certain urges, albeit in a sideways and tactful way, and couldn't always keep their eyes from straying, she could forgive them that. She certainly wasn't a saint herself. Peter draws himself up, and goes over their instructions once more:
"Now remember, Dumbledore's study will be showing up soon, and so will Marcy, if all's going according to plan. Chloe, and Tom once he's done his particular job, will be out grabbing the Tinies in the walkways and tunnels. If you get the urge to go out there and chase after them yourself, don't. Our net is impenetrable, thanks to little Hedwig here." They all give a spontaneous cheer, and Jill blushes, looking down. "So, it's only a matter of time. Furthermore, Chloe and her girls, as well as Tom, and Marcy for all I know, all have Tinies to help them lure out runners. You don't. Our job here is simple: strip this place bare. Take everything."
"Even the buildings?" Asks David. Peter hesitates,
"Well.." Jill raises her hand, deciding to be polite at this serious discussion. He nods at her, bemused:
"David, you can take the buildings. They were made by guys your size, you know." She pauses to make a face, "They don't let us Tinies do anything! Anyway, absolutely everything in the complex was made by people your size, pipes, wiring, everything. The walls are even held down by pins and nails. I couldn't move them, but I'm sure you guys can find a way." Peter beams at Jill:'
"Thank you, Jill. That will make Marcy's job much easier." Jill nods. He turns to the group: "You heard the Tiny. Grab some screwdrivers and take this place apart." He points at their belts, where each has both a PDA and a sack hanging: "The PDAs are cameras to. Take pictures of everything before you touch it, as well as while you're taking it apart, if it needs taking apart, and especially before you start removing things. We might want to put this stuff back together! When it comes to stuff, bag everything that isn't a building that isn't nailed down, than unscrew anything that is. Try not to break anything. Finally, Tinies." He takes a deep breath, and Jill interjects:
"Right, Tinies. Watch your step guys, us tiny folk are about! Myself included, I'll be guiding Peter. Reading a map of this place and seeing it from your height are two very different things." Peter fills in smoothly:
"Right, watch your step. Also, while I said you shouldn't go outside of the complex, when it comes to Tinies here, bag'em immediately. We don't want them getting away and causing disruption outside. Be gentle, be careful, but don't let them get away: there are no interior doors to block the walkways. In fact, two of you start at one walkway, the other two at the other, and work your way in. Don't let anyone get past you, and don't go near the special areas until Mom, Dad, Me and Marcy are finished. You might also be tempted to start playing with any girls you find when you net them, again, and I can't stress this enough, DON"T!" He looks each of them in the eye fiercely until they all mumble agreement. "For obvious reasons, we want them asleep as fast as possible. It's up to you what you do with them after that, however, as long as they stay asleep and uncrushed." They all nod, a gleam entering each eye. Jill speaks up quietly:
"I'm sure I can trust you guys to be respectful. It's not nice to be mean." They all look a bit shamefaced and instantly rush to give her promises of good behavior. Jill smiles:
"Good. Also, don't be too disappointed. From what I remember, you guys get first pick of the Tinies we rescue today, at the same time as the rest of Master Peter's family." They start grinning, at her and at each other. Satisfied that her work is done, she waves a hand at them "Now scat!" They scat. With Jill's blessing, and her timely, tantalizing reminder, there's quite a spring to their steps as they go. Jill watches them go, then sees with a bit of a start that Matt is walking closer. His expression is somber, and he's holding a weird object in his left hand: It looks like a big wooden box, but there's something about it... Jill frowns. Matt gives Peter the object, than puts a hand on his shoulder, eyes searching for something. Jill looks on in frustration, wondering what he knows that she doesn't. Peter meets Matt's eyes and nods silently. Matt steps back, and Peter turns to go, setting Jill down. She hears footsteps behind her. Turning, she's confronted by Matt's jean-covered crotch. She looks up: Matt is squatting down in front of her, but his expression is sober, not lascivious:
"I've been Matt's friend the longest of any of the guys. Take care of him. He's not going to like what he's going to do, and what he's going to have you do to help him, next." With a quick, mysterious nod of acknowledgement for Jill, he stands and heads back to the van. Jill watches him go, wondering, than turns to Peter, who had stopped, and is staring at the thing in his hands. She runs to catch up and they head off together, slowly, at least for Peter. He's careful of Jill, making her stay far ahead of him and his menacing feet, but Jill can tell that, for the first time since the tomato juice this morning, Peter is not concentrating on her, and he's not in any way happy. They walk in silence towards their next job.
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August 15
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