“Uh, yes, Libby, it’s us. As for how we got here, I’m not entirely sure. We opened a portal to where I thought you were located, which so far has been working reasonably well. This is the first time I’ve ended up inside of anyone, though. I guess the first important question here is which of them is the wrong size?” Andy spat out the words in rapid-fire as his brain tried to catch up to just why they were inside of Libby.
“Size is relative, especially when we are talking about abstract locations like this. It’s entirely possible we are both the correct size. Libby how long has it been from your perspective from the last time we were all together?” Bill asked.
“I don’t know. Everything always reads as an unknown, despite my scanners finding no internal faults. I might be able to measure my internal logic gates and count the times they have processed since I last saw you, but that would take considerable time.” Libby answered.
“Yeah, let’s not do that now. First, we need to figure out how to get you to a size where we can take you back through the portal with us. What does it look like out there?” Andy knew they were already running on a limited timetable and didn’t want to risk anything unneeded.
“There is nothing out here. As far as I can tell, the space I occupy is totally devoid of anything besides myself,” they answered.
“That creates a whole new problem. How do we bring Libby back through the portal if we can’t survive outside of Libby?” Bill frowned as he asked the question.
“I believe that, between Andy and my abilities, I can keep us safe for a few minutes. If we take a small area in here and create a large pressure bubble around it, and if I work to lessen the forces out there, we should have a pocket of atmosphere for a brief time. So that is a potential solution, at least,” Ralth said.
“Yeah, that could work, but now we need to figure out how to bring Libby down to our size. Libby, any guesses?” Andy asked. He liked Ralth’s idea. In theory, with how much mana he felt pulsating through him, he could probably hold the bubble longer than Ralth realized, but that was something to try later.
“You will need to make your way to my reactor. There should be a way to control my mass there. The issue will be that once you start shrinking me, you will need to make a run for an escape port. Here, let me pull a map up on one of the monitors. It should make things easier.” The monitor nearest to Bill, sprung to life with a floor plan for the librarian's internal cavities.
Andy looked over the map. He found the reactor room two levels below where they were currently at. The nearest escape port he could locate looked to be a minute's run from there.
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“Hey Libby, how quickly will you start shrinking?” He needed a good timetable to verify if that exit was viable at all.
“I believe I will be down to the proper size in about three minutes of setting the reactor size controls. You are likely asking due to the nearest escape port to where that is. You will most likely need to propel yourselves forward with your magic. Assuming you are still roughly as fast as you last were, I do not believe you can currently make that run in time otherwise.” Libby answered.
“Do or die time, again. Anyone remember our lives before the ever-looming threat of death?” Andy’s joke didn’t land as well as he hoped. Bill and Ralth just weren’t the best target audience for Gallow’s humor, as their responses were both silent nods. “Yeah, okay, Twonger would have laughed, but let’s get down there and shrink Libby back down.”
“Andy, I don’t think Twonger’s laughter is a ringing endorsement for your sense of humor,” Bill said as they exited the room.
They found the reactor room quickly and started their hunt for the size controls. “I believe I’ve found them. Ralth you and Andy go stand in the door so we don’t have to wait for it to slide open. I’ll trigger Libby’s size change.” Bill was typing away as he spoke.
“Get your little furry butt to as soon as you press enter, Bill,” Andy ordered his friend.
Bill pressed a final key, dropped to all fours, and dashed towards the door with the other two. It was obvious to everyone he had found the correct command as the rooms around them were starting to shrink rapidly.
“RUN!” Bill yelled as he flew past them as fast as his legs would carry him.
Andy enshrouded them in one of his signature black balls. He reduced the gravity within just enough to spring them forward while letting them all keep control of themselves. He moved the ball along with them as they went. Andy felt one of his flows transfer over to Bill and saw the small capybara launch himself hard against the wall in the distance they were heading for.
Bill slammed his hand down onto the red button that was near the wall panel as soon as the other two reached him. This caused the panel to explode outwards and suck the three of them out of Libby.
“Andy, drop increase the pressure in your field now. Try to hold as much of this atmosphere with us as you can.” Andy saw mana threads explode from Ralth as he said this. The man looked to be trying to hold his field together. He joined in doing his part and felt it becoming easier to breathe.
“Good job guys. Now we just wait.” Bill congratulated them as they looked on at a quickly shrinking giant librarian they knew as Libby. Soon, Libby was reduced to a near-normal size and floating in front of the portal, ready to return with them.
“Now, the fun part. Bill take one of my flows and start trying to push us forward off of Ralth’s energy wall. Not too fast. We can’t overshoot this.” Andy instructed, and Bill listened. Their Atmospheric ball was now heading directly for Libby and the portal.
It worked. They grabbed Libby as their bubble passed by her, and soon, they were all back through the portal into the safety of the cavern.