Ash yawned and opened his eyes. The room was almost completely pitch black. 'So it’s still night outside' he thought....... 'Oh, wait a second, that's right.' He rolled on his side and looked in the opposite direction. A thin stream of light was leaking into the ‘room’ from above. Ash threw aside Misty’s sock and stretched. He didn’t stop till he heard his back crack. Sleeping on hard wooden surfaces was taking its toll on him. He longed for the days when he had a mattress to sleep on. Misty was too worried about him getting hurt to let him sleep on her bed with her. She tended to toss and turn a lot in her sleep. She didn’t want to wake up to find Ash no more than a red smear in her bed sheets. Also falling out of the bed could be just fatal. Ash could break every bone and lie there dying well Misty still remained fast asleep. She wasn’t willing to risk it even if Ash was. Instead she usually kept him in a drawer with some of her clean laundry to keep him comfy. It helped but it was no replacement for an actual bed. Still, it was better than her shoe. Misty would usually keep him in there when they camped out in the wild. It was all right at first until one night a spearow somehow caught wind of Ash’s scent and poked its head into Misty’s red sneaker to investigate. The only thing that had saved them was the spearow’s excited ‘kaw!’ when it discovered there was food within the shoe. Its loud outburst had woken Misty and she chased it off. Since then Misty had become fearful of leaving Ash exposed. She made it a habit of stuffing a pair of sucks into the entrance of the show to keep out curious and hungry nocturnal pokemon. Of course this ended up sealing Ash in. It also cut off his flow of fresh air and he’d always wake up the next day reeking of Misty’s feet. Sighing, he made his way towards the thin strand of light. Jumping up, he caught the edge of the drawer and lifted himself upwards. He knew Misty would be angry he’d decided to get out of the drawer without her help but he didn’t care. She worried to much. From the edge of the drawer he was just barely able to leap up and grab the edge of the desk top. Straining himself he was able to pull himself upward. Breathing heavily, he looked over to his sleeping friend.

Misty was still out like a light even though the sunlight was spilling in through the window. To Ash she appeared huge. At least 100 feet tall, but in truth she wasn’t that big. She was the same size she’d always been. It was Ash who had changed. Only a year earlier a strange mist had appeared in Kanto. You see, scientists in a lab near the relatively unknown town of Smallsville had been developing a shrinking spray for years. After the development of the pokeball, a device that could be use to capture pokemon and shrink them for convenience sake, many thought it might be beneficial to develop something that could shrink pokemon ‘outside’ of a pokeball. This way they’d be easier to capture and less of a threat to unexperienced trainers. Injuries due to trying to capture large and dangerous pokemon such as Onyx and Gyarados had been on the rise for quite a while. Unfortunately something had causing the lab to burn down and the spray to be released into the air. Overnight Smallsville became a ghost town…… or so everyone had thought. In actuality the entire populace had been reduced to an inch in height thanks to the vapors that had been released into the air. All routes Smallsville and the ruined lab were shut down and given detours while all nearby towns were evacuated. Officials had hoped to quarantine the problem, unfortunately for some reason it spread. Now, not just in Kanto but on other continents too, it wouldn’t be strange for you to be talking to someone only to have them shrink down right before your eyes.

People could shrink with almost no warning at all and it became impossible to care for all the victims. With time people stopped really viewing the victims as ‘people’ and shrinky murder and neglect became commonplace. Every day several hundred people would find themselves victims of the unpredictable and unexplainable shrinking effect. Men seemed to shrink most often. This was most likely due to the fact that male pokemon are considered far more aggressive and the spray was designed to be more effective on them. The random shrinkings had become so common that, since there was no cure in sight, it was determined that when a person shrunk they not only lost their citizenship but there status as ‘human beings’. Pretty soon they were being sold as pets and alternatives to pokemon. Unfortunately people didn’t tend to be quite as durable so many bought them by the dozen. It was also soon determined that humans actually taste quite good and have a lot of nutritional value. The shrinkings had caused a lot of disruption to society and food supplies ran low in many cities and towns all over the globe. It didn’t take long for shrinkies to become a staple in the average person’s diet. At first they were considered a delicacy but now you could buy them everywhere. Only a very select few refused to eat shrinkies. Misty wasn’t one of them.
Ash smiled at his giant friend. Somehow during the night she’d managed to wind up doing a complete 180 in bed.

“Hey Misty, rise and shine!” Misty mumbled something then turned away from him.

Sighing, Ash backed up some. He had decided to take a risk. Running as fast as he could he made it to the edge of the desk than leaped into the air. Thankfully he landed on Misty’s pillow right next to one of her feet. He broke into a jog and soon found himself by the back of her head. He reached out and gave her mini ponytail a playful slap as he ran by it. This only caused Misty to continue to mumble incoherently. Ash stood in front of her massive face still amazed and intimidated at his friend’s size even though he’d been shrunk more than 2 months ago. To his delight he saw she was drooling slightly in her sleep. He couldn’t wait to tell her, she’d be completely mortified.

He loved to tease her and she loved to tease him. There was nothing malicious about it. The duo had always picked on each other but never crossing a line were they might seriously hurt the others feelings. Ash and Misty were best friends, his shrinking hadn’t changed that. If anything, since then they’d probably grown closer! Some girls, after seeing their friend shrink, would just pluck them off the ground and eat them or drop them into their panties for a few minutes of pleasure. It didn’t matter how long they’d known them. Their friend or sibling was now nothing more than pussy fodder or a quick snack. That wasn’t the case with Ash and Misty though. Even though she was a big fan of eating and using shrinkies Ash was the exception. She didn’t treat him any differently than when he was normal sized. Or at least, she didn’t for the most part. She was now much more careful with him and wouldn’t dream of hitting him with all her might or whipping out her mallet. Ash was, of course, much less fixated on pokemon and Misty was much more concerned with his well being. It led to them growing closer. They were now unofficially boyfriend and girlfriend despite there size difference. Ash’s pokemon had been sent back to Oak’s lab and the duo now traveled alone. Brock had also suffered from shrinking too but was no longer a member of the group. Unfortunately he’d been eaten by an officer Jenny during when of the groups trips through Cerulean. He probably shouldn’t have tried hitting on someone 20 times his size.

“Misty, wake up!” Ash grabbed her lip and pulled.

A tired and disgruntled Misty’s eyes snapped open. Though she looked grumpy her face soon turned into a smile when she realized it was Ash waking her. Then it turned to horror and worry as she realized what he had to have done to get to her.

“Ash are you crazy?!” She looked back at the open drawer and judged it’s distance from the bed….. and the it’s distance from the floor, she turned back to Ash, “You could have been killed!!!”

“Ahhh, but I wasn’t.” Ash smiled, “Why so upset Misty, were you worried about me?” He asked in a teasing voice.

Misty reached down and gently wrapped her fingers around him. Her cheeks had changed to the color of her hair but, much to Ash’s surprise, she didn’t deny it, “Of course I’m worried! What if you had fallen?.............. Please don’t do anything like this again.”

Ash lowered his head, now slightly ashamed he had worried his best friend so much, “S- sorry Mist. I know it was stupid to get out without your help. I won’t do it again, promise.”

Misty gave a sigh of relief, “Thanks Ash. I just don’t want to see you hurt.” She brought Ash closer to her lips.
For a moment she toyed with the idea of kissing him but, fearful of how he might react or what he might think of her, slowly lowered him back to the bed.

“Well, I’m going to get dressed. There’s a small diner in the hotel lobby. We can eat there…… No peeking Ash Ketchum or I’ll make sure you wind up on the menu!” Misty threatened as she started taking off her nightshirt.

“Yeah right, why would I want to watch a tomboy like you anyway? Now nurse Joy, there’s a hottie for ya!” Ash joked.

Misty blushed, “S- she’s not pretty.”

“I was only joking Mist.” Ash said seriously.

“….. Yeah, I know.” Misty sighed, did Ash feel the same way about her as she did about him?

Sometimes it was hard to tell.

Soon enough Misty was in her traditional short short jeans, and yellow shirt with suspenders, “Okay, let’s go.”

They had traveled to Viridian and soon would be making the trip through Viridian Forest to Pallet Town. Ash’s mom, Delia, had gotten word of the incident but still hadn’t seen her son since then. She’d been extremely worried for his safety, maybe even more so than Misty, and had wanted to come out to get him but Misty had promised to see him home safely. Ash had the sneaking suspicion once he got home his mother would try to keep him there, but he wanted to keep on traveling. True he couldn’t fight with pokemon anymore but he still wanted to see the world, as did Misty. Misty, now no longer following Ash on his quest or having to stay behind in Cerulean as a gym leader, had decided to start hunting for legendary water pokemon. What she really wanted was a dragonite but they were becoming increasingly rare. Ash wanted to be with her even if he couldn’t help her. His mom would pronanly understand. Though there stated goal was to capture rare water pokemon, it would be more of a sight seeing trip than anything else. If he told his mom that though she’d probably forbid him from leaving. She wouldn’t let him risk his life just to see the world, but if she thought he still clung on to his pokemon trainer dream…….. He knew he was in good hands with his tomboy companion. Delia knew Misty well enough too, it shouldn’t be too hard to convince her. Misty wouldn’t do anything to hurt him even if he was a shrinky…….. That got him thinking, did his mom eat shrinkies too? And since dad had died so long ago on those lonely night did she……. Ugh, Ash didn’t want to think about that.

Misty got a booth seat. She placed Ash on the table. Misty had slept in so they were just starting to serve lunch.

“Awww, I was looking forward to eggs and toast.” Misty griped.

Their waitress, a blonde haired girl with a name tag reading Courtney, set bread sticks out on their table. Her eyes met Ash’s and she shot him daggers. It made him shiver. Not only did some people look at shrinkies as subhuman, some flat out hated them. Ash didn’t know why, he could kind of understand why you might abuse or eat them. Why you wouldn’t view them as equals, but he had no idea why someone would simply hate them for no good reason. Misty didn’t notice. She took a breadstick and tore off a tiny piece for Ash.

“So, what’re you hungry for?”

“Whatever you’re having.” Ash was feeling like he’d be up for whatever.

“Ummmm, I doubt you’d like what I’m going to get.” That could only mean one thing, shrinkies.
Ash hoped she ordered them cooked, he didn’t like to hear them begging. Most shrinkies though were alive and very aware of what was going on around them when they were served. There were a few exeptions like charcoal grilled shrinkies and baked apple and shrinky pie, but for the most part they were served alive and unharmed.

“Okay, I’ll have the mac and cheese then.”

“Good choice!” Misty shot him grin and gave him a thumbs up, “Maybe I’ll have some of yours.”

“You’d better, I’m kind of a light eater.” That was putting it mildly, Ash would be lucky if he could stomach a 50th of the stuff.

When it came to drinks Misty poured a few drops onto the edge of her bread plate for Ash to sip up. She was planning to buy him shrinky silverware, designed for shrinky pets whose owners planned to have them live for a week or more, but had kept putting it off. After they’d ordered Misty got up to go to the bathroom. Courtney came by, and seeing Ash alone, let an evil smirk mar her otherwise pretty face.

“Oh, would you look at that? It seems one of the entrees escaped!”

“W- what? You know I’m a customer lady!”

“Well I’ll just have to get it back to the kitchen.” She replied, ignoring Ash’s shouting.

‘It’ Ash thought. Not ‘he’ but ‘it’. He hated when people threw the fact he was no longer a ‘human being’ into his face. It really hurt him, now though he was more scared than hurt, what was this woman planning? Taking Ash to the kitchen the waitress quickly stripped him of his clothes. Food wasn’t supposed to wear clothes, if any of the chefs saw Ash in a shirt and jeans they might become suspicious or confused. She opened up a see thru bin clearly labeled young males and dropped him inside. Ash collided with a pile of naked and frightened boys roughly his age. He was scared to death too. Unless Misty discovered he was missing soon and was able to figure out what had happened he was going to wind up as some girl or guys lunch. Everyone started screaming as a few minutes later a girl in a white chef’s uniform, puffy hat and all, reached in and extracted five of them.

“Wait, please, I’m not supposed to be here! This is all a mistake.” Ash shouted.

“Yeah, me neither!” One of the other four boys cried, soon everyone was screaming the same thing.

The young chef simply ignored them. Humming to herself she started to knead them like dough. Ash felt her delicate nimble fingers probing and prodding. She rubbed and massages his muscles in a very uncomfortable manner. She seemed to be ‘tenderizing’ him and weakening him so he wouldn’t be as physically competent. Ash knew that, for shrinky live dishes, some chefs will weaken or injure the shrinkies so they wont be able to flee from their plates or have enough strength to injure a customers throat going down. A lot of times shrinkies could make it off on to the table or the floor and that didn’t please customers. No one likes dirty food. The five, after being rubbed all over, were set on a plain white dish. The only other things on the dish were two small containers. One was filled with dipping sauce, maybe barbeque, the other mustard. It seemed like they were going to be served like chicken nuggets. They wouldn’t be cooked or placed in bun but picked up, dunked, and swallowed down. Ash prayed that he had ended up on Misty’s plate though he could have sworn she’d ordered something else. She was his only hope. His muscles were so sore he could hardly move. He did something very uncharacteristic of him, he started to cry. The five were taken back out to the dining area.

“Finally, I’m starved! What, only five?!”
That voice sounded familiar. Looking up he saw a girl a year or two younger than him, she had purplish blueish hair. She wore short shorts like Misty except these were striped black and white. She had a plain white shirt on and a open yellow shirt with black stripes over top. She had a ball cap on her head. It was Ash’s friend Casey!

“If you wanted more you should have ordered a bigger portion.” The waitress told the young girl impatiently.

“Well I just assumed there’d be more. I mean, look how shrimpy they are! Would that fill you up?”

“I could bring you a second order if you want.” The waitress suggested.

“Don’t bother this place is a rip off.”

Muttering to herself the waitress set the plate down and left. Casey drummed her fingers on her belly, she glared down at her entrée as if it was their fault they weren’t a large enough portion. She reached forward for her first human nugget when her eyes grew wide and she gasped. She had spotted her good friend Ash, except now he was extremely small, bruised all over, and his face was drenched with tears. Ash looked up feeling a mixture of relief and fear that Casey had recognized him. They’d been good friends but he was now a shrinky. Would she still think of him as her close friend like Misty did, or would she now see him only as a ‘subhuman’ meal?