Hunter's hand squeezed you rather hard, cutting off your calls mid breath. You watched peevishly as Alex didn't even think of you! He was too busy flexing his biceps, running his hand down the cobblestones of his abs and bouncing his thick pecs. Sure, it was probably amazing to have a body like that and you knew that if it was you in his position you'd probably do the same thing...But that didn't mean you were going to be happy about it or forgive him for it either! It didn't help that you were starting to feel more and more bug like in comparison to these gargantuan youngsters. Alex was enough of a pain when he was half your size and whiny now that he was over fifty times your size and built like a bodybuilder he was sure to be an even bigger pain! Of course, all of that was secondary to your main problem, this Hunter guy.

Hunter...the name rang zero bells. You couldn't remember a single time when Alex ever talked about him or saw him hanging around in his little group of friends. Was he a new kid or something? Did he even actually exist? Or was he just a product of this crazy situation? There was no way of knowing! It was almost as frustrating as trying to figure out how these two were growing or why the houses in your neighborhood not only all looked the same, but were of varying sizes and spread out as far as the eye could see. You groaned and closed your eyes. The more you thought about the less sense it made.

"Yeah, I'd be groaning too!" Hunter suddenly said, squeezing you again. "When I'm done with you and Alex you're going to wish you never met me!"

"I wish that already you snot nosed little punk." You muttered to yourself, too quietly for him to hear. You were pissed off at him, not suicidal!

"Okay...this is a good hiding spot!" Hunter said, hiding behind a house that was big enough for him to crouch behind and still be hidden. "Now I can focus on you!"

His fingers uncurled and you were suddenly sitting on his massive palm. You gulped as you gazed up at his face, a rather evil grin filling your vision. Being in Alex's hand when he was only about ten or so feet tall had been scary. Being in Hunter's hand at his size, with his intentions, made the experience downright terrifying! You were so fixated on his face you didn't even notice as he gripped the gun in between his fingers, holding it up out of your reach. "You used this little thing to make Alex grow didn't you?"

"Huh? Hey! That was mine!" You shouted somewhat childishly. You were too internally petrified by what Hunter could do with such a weapon to care.

Hunter merely chuckled and said, "Yeah? Too bad! It's mine now!"

As he said this, the gun suddenly expanded rapidly, reaching a size that Hunter could comfortably use. His eyes widened in shock as he saw this before his evil smile returned. "Oh yeah! Now that's service!"

He carelessly dropped you to the ground next to another house that fit your shrunken statue perfectly before he pointed the gun at himself and pulled the trigger, his body becoming bathed in the energy from the gun. You had barely managed to keep the trigger pressed for a few seconds and Alex still got huge. Hunter held the trigger for a good minute or so before he was done, a wicked gleam in his eye. "There!" He said triumphantly. "When I'm done growing, no one will be able to stop me!"

He ran off, the ground quaking under his enormous feet, obviously heading back to challenge Alex. You barely had time to process these events before a voice suddenly called out to you. "Hey! You! Come in here! Quickly!"

You looked around but couldn't see anyone in sight. You could, however, tell that it was coming from inside the house. You sighed, closed your eyes and whispered, "Well, what have I got to lose?" before opening the door and stepping inside. It was very surreal. Once again you were in an exact copy of your house. It was tempting to think that this whole thing had merely been a dream and you were now back in reality, everything completely normal again. You half expected Alex to come running downstairs with a big smile on his face to ask you to play a game with him. Unfortunately you knew this wasn't true and the only way Alex was going to be running down in here would be through the roof! You begin to hunt around the house, looking for whoever called out to you.

"In here! The TV screen!"

You follow the sound of the voice into the living room where the television is located. Instead of a blank screen, however, there's a peculiar pattern of colors, swirling and eddying like a kaleidoscope. It almost made you dizzy to look at it and yet you felt a compulsion to keep staring.

"Good. Now that I have your attention I can help you. There's a lot going on here you don't know about. Forces are at work here that you can't understand. I'm sorry that you've been pulled into this but now, if you want things to go back to how they were, you're going to need to be smart and willing to work hard. Can you do that?"

"What are you talking about? What is this place? Who are you? None of this makes any sense!" You shout, ignoring the voice's question. "I need some answers dammit!"

The colors all suddenly turned various shades of red and started to spike as though in agitation. "Please! I don't have time to explain! I just need to know that you're determined to fight! If not, then nothing will change and you will just have to deal with your new reality."

"Hell yeah I'm going to fight! I'll fight whoever I have to, to get out of this crap!" You shouted back, your face only a few inches from the screen.

"Excellent! Then I can help you! This experience of yours will not end in time. You need to accomplish a task in every reality. There is only two things that will stay in common: You, Alex, and Hunter will be a part of it and only those two can grow when subjected to the proper stimuli while you can only shrink when subjected to the same stimuli. It's already too late for you to accomplish the task you were assigned in this reality. You are going to have to reset reality. I can give you the means to do that but it will only work this once in this reality. I'm running out of time. Here!"

Something was pushed out of the screen, smacking you in the face. With a yelp you fell back onto your butt, rubbing your sore nose. On the ground in front of you was a small, thin metal tube with a big red button on top of it.

"Press the button and your reality will reset! I'm afraid your memories and the memories of your brother and Hunter will also be reset...to an extent."

"What does that mean?" You asked, picking the button up.

"There are...certain things you will remember and certain things that you will forget. Exactly what those things are is completely random. You might very well forget everything I tell you. You might forget that Alex was ever smaller than you if he should start out in the next reality already above his base size. You might forget that Hunter is really your younger adopted brother. Anything is possible. Your entire world could be turned upside down."

Yeesh. You didn't like the sound of that at all! Resetting reality might actually make things worse! "What's my other option?"

"...Other option? I'm not sure I understand."

"Isn't it obvious?! What else can I do besides resetting reality?!"

"I've already told you it's too late! Completing the assigned task in this reality would be far too difficult for you the way things are now. Your best bet is to start over and try again."

"Well, what's my task in this reality?"

"I can't say. I'm physically prevented from divulging that information."

"Ugh...fine! I get it! Maybe I will reset reality or whatever and maybe I won't. I haven't decided yet."

"You are running out of time I'm afraid. If you don't press it soon, you may not have the chance to ever press it."

The colors changed again, this time to a panicked pattern of yellow. "I must go! Good luck!"

The screen blinked off, like the power had been cut, leaving you alone in silence. You gripped the button in your hand and weighed your choices. The voice had said that it would be hard to complete the task in this reality (Oh God, even when things were explained to you they didn't make any damn sense!) but not impossible. For all you knew about this place, that might allow you to keep your memories! Hell, it might immediately free you! Who knows?

The other, somewhat safer, option was to reset everything and start over, hoping that no significant memory loss would occur. Was it worth the risk?