Going For The Big Prize
Story by CalexTheNeko on SoFurry
Going For the Big Prize
By ClaexTheNeko
“Welcome back to Scale Down! The only game show where the smaller you are the bigger your prize! Before our break our latest contestant Dan had just conquered the Doll House of Doom and chosen to press on to the next round and take on our mascot Mr. Big himself!”
As the host blared excitedly the camera cut to a young man in his twenties with black hair and pale skin. He was mostly naked, in large part due to the fact he was only about six inches tall right now. His only ‘garment’ was a piece of a tissue that had been torn off and wrapped into a makeshift loincloth around his waist, and it was starting to look a little loose on him. Right now the tiny man was on the floor of a massive (from his point of view) brightly lit stage that was empty except for a folding table and a cardboard box atop it. The table might as well have been a mountain, but it didn’t deter him. He carried over his shoulder a paperclip with a long strand of floss attached. He quickly tossed the paperclip up, hooking it over a piece of the table and began to climb straight up. He was making good time as he scaled up, but he was getting smaller. A few times he stopped to adjust his tissue loincloth, ripping off the ends of it before they could trip up his legs and tightening it around his waist. Eventually heh reached the top of the table itself, but was down to an inch tall. The paperclip was twice his own height now. Hoisting it above his head he gave it one final toss, landing it atop the cardboard box and began to climb. It was a shorter climb, but he was still shrinking as he looked into the box. Down in that seemingly now bottomless pit of cardboard was colossal chipmunk that might as well have been a city devouring dragon from this angle. It slept, curled up in a ball, but kept twitching its ears indicating it was in a light sleep. Dan took a moment to study the giant rodent… But the moment cost him more size as his tissue slipped right off his body falling down.
“Looks like Dan has given up on even makeshift clothes at this point… Pretty much the fate of all our contestants. It’s why we have to edit episodes so thoroughly before they go live!” The host chattered happily from off screen. “If you ever want to see full details you’ll have to join our studio audience! Now! For this challenge… Dan has met our mascot Mr. Big! He’ll have to manage to stay on Mr. Big’s back for a full ten seconds while he continues to shrink to pass the round and win the prize! Let’s see how he approach the rodent!”
Dan continued to stand atop the edge of the shoebox unmoving despite the fact he was getting smaller. Each second he waited only made the chipmunk more intimidating and yet he didn’t act. After a few seconds, when he was down to less than a quarter of an inch he began to tear at the remains of his tissue at his feet. He tour one piece of fabric and held it between his hands but then continued to wait and continued to shrink.
“Has he been petrified by fear? Perhaps he was waiting for his moment but let himself get too small?” The host was unsure of what the holdup is. “But he hasn’t signaled he’s given up yet and-“
The host was cut off as suddenly Dan leaped from the edge of the shoebox. He was maybe only a tenth of an inch tall, barely even visible to the naked eye. The show had to use special cameras to pick him up like this. He held the torn tissue remains above his head creating a parachute that let him glide gently down into the box, but it was a parachute that was becoming difficult for his ever tinier hands to maintain a grip on. A tenth of an inch left him at barely more than two millimeters tall… And then one millimeter. He lost his grip, entering a free fall as heh fell downward towards the city sized rodent and landed somewhere along its fur.
Mr. Big’s eyes suddenly shot open. The chipmunk looked around in confusion as if it had felt or heard something. It slowly lifted its head and sniffed at the air. It paused for a moment… And then it laid back down and went to sleep.
“Unbelievable! It seems Dan let himself get so small that Mr. Big didn’t even notice him land!”
Cameras zoomed in on the chipmunk’s backside, eventually a very small speck became visible. The cameras zoomed in further, revealing this speck to be Dan, now climbing a single strand of fur as if it were a tree. Even fleas would have dwarfed him at this moment. He reached the top of it and wrapped legs and one arm around it. He waited, and shrunk further. Then after ten seconds passed he held up his free arm and gave a thumbs up.
“Amazing!” The host seemed to be in shock. “Dan has effortlessly conquered Mr. Big and given the signal he still wishes to advance to the next round! We haven’t had someone willing to all the way in three seasons! It’s time… For our ultimate challenge! Time for Protozoa Wrestling!”
The hair Dan clang to grew thicker and thicker, he fell from it as it was too large to wrap his limbs around and just barely managed to grab a ridge that had not been visible previously. He struggled to hang onto the hair but as he grew tinier and scrambled trying to get his bare feet up he failed and fell downward. But he didn’t land atop Mr. Big’s back… At least not in any way he could comprehend. Instead the world took on a more aquatic look and alien creatures came into view. Dan sunk downward as if sinking into water as these strange jellyfish like creatures became visible to him… First no bigger than his fists… But growing quickly until even these began to dwarf him.
As he got smaller he flailed his arms about, finding he was able to move around almost as if swimming. He looked around trying to identify the target of the next challenge… And he found it.
Looking down, he saw what almost looked like a giant wall made from jello. But this wall was moving, and it was some kind of gooey pulsing core near its center. That was the target.
Dan swam downward to it, trying to get to the protist while he was still bigger than it… But in this world he simply couldn’t move very fast. By the time he reached it he was the same size. He tried grabbing it, but the thing was fluid, writhing out of his grasp and starting to swim away. The lost time meant Dan was smaller. He swam after it with a look of determination doing his best to keep up. He started to gain on it... But just as he could reach it with his hands it started to increase the distance. Dan was now half i’s size and couldn’t keep up. Desperately, he slammed his hands as hard as he could into the protists.
They got stuck… And suddenly Dan was dragged with the protists through the microscopic sea. This… Could work to his advantage. He was stuck to the creature, so as he shrunk his entire body grew closer. Eventually he was able to force his feet down into the mess of the creature. From there he could take slow deliberate steps, shoving his feet down into the creature as he walked straight up its side and onto its back. Once there, he firmly planted his feet dead center on top of it and now he just had to wait for it to tire itself out.
Eventually… The creature became still… Dan was little more than a speck to it now, if it could feel at all it wouldn’t have noticed him. But every movement it made was like the entire earth shaking to him… It was obvious when it stopped moving. It was obvious when he had won. And so as the shrinking finally stopped, he forced himself to stand upright despite the water-like consistency of this world. Then he did his best to take a bow.
And all of it was caught on the show’s specialized cameras as the host sat speechless at the fact someone had cleared the final challenge.
The End