This story originally appeared on Coiled Fist on August 21, 2020.
M/m, Shrinking, Noncon
I was working late when there was a pound on the lab door. It was Jack Tobin, the school’s star quarterback. Like always, he was sweaty and dressed for a workout: backwards cap, black gym shorts and a red t-shirt with the sleeves cut out of it.
“You never messaged me,” he said. “I need more.”
He strode past me into the lab and another guy followed behind him. That surprised me. Jack had always come alone before. The new guy had ginger hair and a clean-shaven face and wore a yellow tank top with gray sweatpants. Another football player, I guessed. He was big. Not as big as Jack, but few guys on campus were these days.
I turned to Jack. “It’s kinda late,” I said.
“We just got out of practice,” Jack said. He held his left arm out and slapped a slab of bicep. “Hit me with another dose. And Tyler wants in too.” Jack gestured at the other guy.
Tyler nodded. “‘Sup.”
I sighed. “Get on the scale first,” I said.
Jack rolled his eyes but he went to the mechanical scale in the corner and stood on it. I adjusted the weights until they balanced.
“Two twenty-eight,” I said.
I slid the height stadiometer up and leveled it with the top of his head. At five seven, I had to reach as far as my arms could stretch to get it. When he stepped off I read the number.
“Six foot eight.”
I recorded his new stats in my notebook. Jack had gained five more pounds and another inch since he left here last week. That plus the seven pounds and nearly two inches he had gained in the lab last week put him at twelve pounds and three inches total for this dose.
The size increases were accelerating, and that worried me.
“I don’t think another dose is a good idea,” I said. “You shouldn’t be growing this much. It’s not stable. I need to understand what’s going on.”
“What’s going on is I’m bigger and better than ever,” said Jack. “We’re winning every game. There’s talk of NFL scouts now. I could have a real shot. You’re not going to stand in the way of that are you?”
I rubbed my temples.
Jack had first shown up at the lab at the start of the fall semester. He’d been waving around an article on his phone about our work in human growth and conditioning. Said he wanted to volunteer for research. I told him we weren’t doing any human trials but he wouldn’t listen, just kept telling me he needed something to improve his game.
I should never have given him anything. But he had these nice arms and this big chest and bits of nipple and chest hair kept poking out the sides of his shirt and I was mesmerised. I guess I’m a sucker for a pretty pair of tits and caveman sensibilities.
So I picked out a dud formula, one we’d already tried and given up on. It should have had no effect. I figured he could come back a few times, I’d get to check out the brawn while I took his measurements and he’d feel like he got what he wanted. A little eye candy seemed like a fair trade for a placebo.
But I gave Jack his ‘placebo’ and right in front of my eyes he grew. Half an inch taller and five fresh new pounds of muscle heavier in just a few minutes. I was stunned. Jack was ecstatic. He practically floated out of the lab, which was impressive at his size.
I’d asked him back a week later when no one else was around to check up on his changes. His measurements showed that he’d continued to grow a little after the initial spurt. I found no evidence of any ill effects. He reported nothing unusual, just ‘kicking a fuckload of ass.’ His words.
It would have been the best thing that ever happened to me, a sure path to finishing my PhD and a scoring a big pile of funding, if I hadn’t broken some big rules to discover it. Instead I had to go in each day and toil through my normal research knowing I’d already found something incredible and I couldn’t tell anyone.
And then Jack messaged me wanting more. He said he just wanted to put on a few more pounds. So, I figured I’d keep injecting him and I’d get to study the effects of the compound while I figured out a way to duplicate the work so it was legitimate.
But now he was nearly forty pounds heavier and just over a foot taller. People were going to start noticing. If word got back to the faculty that I was injecting students with experimental chemicals, I’d be done.
“Look fellas,” I said, “think about the risks here. There’s so much we don’t know about this compound. Are there side effects we’re missing? What are the long term impacts of using it? What is the actual mechanism of growth? I’m sorry, we have to stop.”
“Come on, bro,” Jack said, putting his hands on my shoulders. “Be cool about this. Look at me.” He was bouncing his pecs at me as he spoke. “It’s been weeks and I’m totally fine. Better than fine. The best I’ve ever been. I just need you to help me and my buddy Tyler out so we can get noticed by the pros. Soon we’ll be playing for the NFL, and you’ll tell everyone what you discovered and you’ll probably win the Nobel prize in, I dunno, sick gains or whatever. Everyone wins.”
So pretty, and yet so dumb.
I shook my head. “Sorry Jack, we have to stop.”
Jack stood back and crossed his arms. “Well,” he said, his tone suddenly cold, “maybe Tyler can convince you.”
I looked at Tyler, who’d been silent this whole time. He was advancing toward me with an unpleasant smile and I didn’t like the type of convincing he had in mind. He may have been the smaller of the two but he looked like he could still do plenty of damage.
His fist shot out suddenly and I flinched.
It took me a second to realize that Tyler was pointing his phone at me. On it was an article, one I was very familiar with, entitled ‘Ethics and Principles in Experimentation with Human Subjects.’
“You practiced human experimentation without an Independent Review Board approval or the written consent of the subject,” said Tyler. “They could shut down your program, pull your grant funding and you could be prosecuted for your actions.”
I blinked. It would figure Jack is friends with the only jock on campus with more than three brain cells.
“Uh…” I felt the weight of their stares. “Alright then. Two doses coming up.”
Jack and Tyler shared a grin. Smug bastards.
I grabbed a bottle of the compound and a pair of syringes and brought them back on a tray.
“Jack, I’ll do your shot first, then Tyler’s,” I said.
The big quarterback was still grinning as he held out a beefy arm.
I drew a milliliter of liquid into the syringe. Then I swabbed a spot on the side of his upper arm and gave him the shot.
He took a few steps back and held his arms out. “Get ready for the show,” he said to Tyler.
“How long does it take to work?” asked Tyler.
“It’s already started,” I said.
The big guy was swelling up in front of us. His shirt began growing tight on his torso while his shorts slid up his expanding thighs. He was rubbing his hands over his arms and chest as he swelled and rose slowly upwards.
“Ah fuck this feels so good,” Jack said as he grew. “Seriously Tyler, wait ’til you feel this buddy, it’s fucking amazing.”
“Unreal,” said Tyler. He was rubbing his own arm as he watched Jack grow.
I began to wonder if Jack’s clothes were going to hold out, and I was disappointed when the growth tapered before anything tore. Even so his shorts barely covered his thighs at all and the shirt which had hung loosely on him now stretched taut over his torso, which was fully exposed on either side of the fabric.
“Whoo!” said Jack. “Never get tired of that!” He started to flex his bigger arms but then he stopped and frowned.
“What is it?” I asked.
He shook his head and lifted his arms again but then he dropped them. “I feel kinda… off,” he said.
I stepped closer and that’s when I heard it. A quiet hissing sound had begun to emanate from him. He looked at me, puzzled.
I started to examine him for signs of abnormalities.
“Hold still,” I said.
“I am.”
But I sensed movement. I stepped back so I could see him full figure.
There was definitely movement. Descending movement. I could see the gap growing between the top of his blond head and the line where the ceiling met the wall behind him. He was slowly starting to lose his newly gained height. He glanced around the room, brow furrowed.
“Uh,” said Tyler. “Is he… getting smaller?”
Jack stared at Tyler. He opened and closed his mouth several times as if to say something. The shrinking seemed to be picking up speed. He’d already lost any height he’d gained that night and was still diminishing with no sign of slowing.
“This is… an unexpected result…” I mumbled.
“Why is this happening?” Jack said. He was staring wide-eyed all around the room. No doubt it appeared to grow around him.
Tyler stepped closer to Jack and poked him in the arm. “He’s still got bigger muscles though.”
It was true. As he lost height, Jack’s proportions appeared unchanged from the expansion he’d gone through a few moments ago.
He was now a couple inches shorter than Tyler. His shorts dropped to the floor. His shirt was hanging down to his mid thigh.
“Fascinating.” I said.
“No, no, no…” Jack was shaking his head.
The hissing sound was getting louder and I saw that the shrinking was still accelerating. Jack must have realized it too because he turned to me with fear in his eyes and spoke in almost a shout.
“Do something! Make it stop! Don’t just stand there staring at me! Come on dude, you got to make it staaaaaaaaaaaahhh….”
And suddenly he wasn’t there.
Tyler and I looked at each other. Then we looked at the floor where Jack had stood.
Two blue sneakers, a pair of black shorts, a red t-shirt and a baseball cap lay in a pile. The cap was moving slightly and making a muffled, high pitched noise.
“Jack?” said Tyler. He crouched down next to the pile and carefully lifted up Jack’s baseball cap and set it aside. Beneath, the t-shirt draped a struggling lump. Tyler hesitated for a second and then lifted the shirt up off it.
A tiny, puffed up, naked Jack Tobin stood in the midst of his shorts and underwear. He froze when the shirt came off and stared up at Tyler. Then he started yelling. It was so soft and high pitched it was hard to even understand, but I made out some key phrases like “beat his ass until he fixes this.”
I backed away, bumping the desk behind me.
Tyler didn’t seem to be heeding Jack’s orders though. When he heard Jack’s stern squeaking, Tyler laughed so loud that little Jack staggered back and covered his ears.
“Holy shit dude!” said Tyler. “Look at you! You’re a tiny little action figure man!”
He reached toward Jack. Jack started to scramble over the pile of his clothes but he was too slow and Tyler snatched him up into the air. He stood with his little captive and began to poke Jack all over.
“Wow man, your muscles are like, bigger than life,” said Tyler. “Just you’re not. This is so freaky dude.” He pinched Jack’s arms while the tiny guy wriggled in his hand. “Guess I’m glad you went first.”
That last statement reminded me that I still had a problem. But I got into science because I believe in its power to solve problems, and in that moment, the solution came to me, simple, beautiful and crystal clear.
Slowly, I reached behind me and grasped the unused syringe.
Tyler was busy telling his little buddy Jack that he wouldn’t even be much use to the team as a bench warmer now and offering to shove Jack into his jockstrap the next time they played in case he still wanted to be part of the game.
Really, his loyalty was touching.
While he was distracted, I began to draw more of the compound. This time I filled the syringe. I wasn’t sure how much it would take, but I hoped twenty milliliters would be enough.
I crept closer. Tried to seem innocent. Or at least, no more guilty than I was when the pair had first burst in. Nothing to see here, just want to get a peek at your recently shrunk friend there. Everything normal.
It occurred to me that I needed to inject the compound into a muscle to make sure it acted quickly. And since I was doing this by surprise, I needed a big target. The obvious solution was Tyler’s beefy ass pushing out the back of his sweats. But I was facing his side and I really wanted to be behind him.
I had an idea. I pulled out my phone, found my last message to Jack and hit call. Then I slid my phone back into my pocket quickly.
Sure enough, the pile of Jack’s clothes started buzzing.
“Oh hey, that’s your phone,” said Tyler. “Maybe it’s Heather. Dude she should see you like this! Guess she won’t complain you hog the bed anymore.”
Tyler bent over the pile of clothes and started feeling for Jack’s phone and I made my move.
In a few strides I crossed the distance between us. As I came up behind Tyler, I saw Jack’s tiny face peering over his shoulder. His eyes went wide and he squeaked “Look out!”
I pushed the syringe into Tyler’s left flank, through his sweats. He stood bolt upright, pelvis thrusting forward. I lunged to press the plunger. As my hand made contact with it he swiveled toward me, swinging one hand out wildly. I stumbled back as I scrambled away from him.
“What the fuck!” shouted Tyler. He reached behind him and pulled out the syringe. He looked at it briefly and then flung it away from him. “You are so fucking dead,” he growled.
He plopped Jack down on the desk and advanced toward me, hands balled into fists. I darted around the other side of the desk, away from him. I could hear him knocking into chairs as he came after me.
Then he paused. “Whoa. Oh fuck,” he said. I looked over my shoulder. I saw that Tyler was growing just as Jack had. I looked around for the syringe. I wanted to know how much of the compound he got.
I began searching the floor while Tyler was experiencing his changes. I could hear him laughing. As I rounded another desk I felt something under my foot. I lifted my shoe, and there was the syringe.
It was nearly empty. He’d gotten almost the full twenty milliliters. I had no idea if that was enough, but I was about to find out.
Turning back to Tyler I saw that he had expanded considerably. The sweats he wore were now skin tight on him. His shirt was plastered to him and didn’t even cover his navel.
We made eye contact.
His lip curled up in a snarl and he lumbered toward me. I backed into a desk. Tyler was on me right away, slamming his palms down on the desk to either side of me. He towered over me, rippling with swollen muscle. He grabbed the front of my shirt in one meaty fist and lifted me off the ground.
“Nice work dumbass!” he said. “Now I’m a full-on beast!” He flexed his upper body and one strap of his tank top snapped.
He grinned at me as he curled his free hand into a fist. I silently prepared myself for pain.
And I heard a faint hissing sound.
I barked out a laugh as soon as I heard it.
He frowned. “What?” he said.
Then his eyes went wide. “Shit! Fuck no!”
He was already shrinking. I could feel the desk behind me rising against my legs as Tyler held me against it. He dropped me and stepped back, staring at the room around him as he slowly diminished. He looked back at me, all his confidence gone. Then he turned and bolted for the door.
I ran after him, dodging chairs to get there.
He grasped at the doorknob as he arrived but the shrinking must have made him clumsy because he didn’t slow down quick enough, banged his head on the door and fell backwards. I caught up with him while he was shaking it off and I threw myself between him and the door. He tried yank it open, banging it repeatedly against my back. It hurt a lot but I held my ground as much as I could and he was losing height quickly.
As his eye level started to even up to mine, he let go of the doorknob and grabbed my shirt. He still had much more mass than me, bloated as he was with muscle. The hissing was getting louder.
“You gotta undo it,” he said as the top of his head slipped below my eyeline. “Give me an antidote or something.” He was below my chin, looking up at me. “There’s gotta be a way.” His sweats slid to the ground. “Come on man, I don’t want to be smaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh…”
As the shrinking accelerated, I watched his head rapidly descend toward the floor, clothes billowing as he receded into them, until they lay in a pile at my feet.
Another pile, another squeaking lump.
Science.
I stepped back and watched the Tyler lump thrash beneath his shirt. From across the room I could faintly hear Jack squeaking from his desk.
I reached down and pulled back the shirt to reveal a tiny, swollen Tyler. He stumbled backwards, fell on his ass, staring up at me in fear. He seemed even smaller than Jack was.
Gingerly I reached down, grasped under his arms and lifted him up. I watched him squirm in my hand, kicking his meaty legs. A supremely stupid action. If he were to escape my hand from that height, there was no way it would end well for him. But this wasn’t a pair that really seemed to think through the consequences of their actions.
I carried Tyler back to the desk where Jack was and I set him down there. Jack immediately ran to Tyler and leapt on him. They began to wrestle but Tyler was easily outmatched in size and Jack quickly had him pinned.
Then they started yelling at each other. I couldn’t totally understand their argument but the gist seemed to be that Jack was not super happy with how Tyler had spent his time teasing Jack after he’d shrunk instead of forcing me to fix it. Tyler on the other hand was fairly certain the shrinking was Jack’s fault for ever getting involved in this in the first place.
You know, standard college drama.
When Jack actually started throttling Tyler, I carefully pried him off and held him up to look at him. Apart from the shrinking, the compound had really enhanced his physique. At normal size he’d probably be too bulky to even be a quarterback anymore. He fought my grasp with surprising strength for such a little guy, his chest flexing and straining as he pushed against my relatively giant fingers. I could have watched that all night, but there was more work to do.
I brought out a small scale and a ruler. My two subjects were very uncooperative but I was able to plop each one on the scale long enough to get a reading. Then I dangled them one at a time over the desk to get a height measurement with the ruler. I found that Jack was now just under ten inches tall and weighed eight and one-eighth ounces. Tyler, the runt of my litter, now stood around six and a quarter inches tall and weighed just one and two-thirds ounces.
I wanted to get calipers and take measurements all over their bodies. I also began to think about a study of comparative strength, having them lift various objects to see what their capacities were. There was so much to learn about what had happened to them.
And what the compound was capable of. As I thought through everything I realized that merely making a breakthrough on our department’s current work was much too limited. I wanted to know the compound’s full potential. Is there a way to get the physical enhancement effects and avoid the shrinking? Could I isolate just the shrinking effect? What about solely increasing either height or muscle mass? Targeting specific body parts? I could devote my entire career to studying this. And that was exactly what I wanted.
I bound my little lab rats with some rubber bands so they wouldn’t hurt each other and then I began to collect everything I would need. I gathered all the remaining containers of the compound into a box, plus all the notes I had on its development. I was able to stuff Jack’s and Tyler’s clothes in my bag. I took a spare mouse cage from the supply closet and I tossed in Jack’s shirt for a softer surface, then I deposited my shrunken friends inside it. They both protested and struggled against the bands on the arms and legs. Jack demanded to be taken to the football coach right away, while Tyler kept throwing phrases like ‘tortious conduct’ and ‘personal liability’ at me. Was he pre-law? You’re welcome, world.
It was dark out in the empty parking lot as I carried everything out to my car. I put my bag on the passenger’s seat and placed the box and the ‘jock cage’ on the floor between the drivers seat and the back seat. Tyler and Jack were still berating me and giving me orders. I shook the cage, just a bit, and that shut them up.
“Well boys, time to head home,” I said. “This is just the beginning of some incredible research and development and I want to thank you both for volunteering to be part of it.” I leaned a little closer as the tiny pair gazed up at me. “And I want you both to know, you don’t have to thank me for the extra muscles you’re getting out of this deal. I’m just happy I could make a small contribution.”
And with that I closed the rear door of the car, hopped into the driver’s seat, and the three of us sped away from the University and off into the night.
