"Listen," she says, after you make it back to her apartment. "There's one catch, and you may not like it. I can free you from this mind control, but I can't let you get in a position where you'll be caught by yourself. An unaccompanied male will be put back into the dating pool if he's caught." The "dating pool"? That's what they're calling the camps of men they have now, just waiting to be picked by some woman to own them? It's kind of clever, but also hideous.
"OK," you say, trying to go with it. "I'll just stay by you at all times. That should work, right?"
"It's not that simple," she replies, with the hint of a smile on her face. "Our movement can't afford to lose any of the men we recover, and we need to stay hidden. You'll need to be six inches tall."
You blanch. "Really?"
"Really," she says. "I wish there were some other way."
You're not sure you believe her, but she did save your life. And it's not like you have a ton of other options. "All right, if it's our only choice. But where on earth are we going to find a device that can shrink me?"
She laughs, a big toothy grin. She's pretty cute too. "You really have been out of it," she says. "Every woman has one of these now." She pulls out a perfect model of the transformation gun.
You're stunned again. "Really?"
"Yes, really. It only works on the man you own though."
"Oh, that's reassuring," you say.
Ten seconds later you're six inches tall. It's intimidating and vaguely humiliating, but Ariella seems to want to be gentle as she picks you up. "Actually, I have a meeting of our chapter of the resistance movement now," she says. "We pretend it's a church group."
Ariella puts you in her purse, which you don't enjoy, but you don't see an alternative, at least one that you're ready to suggest to her. At six inches, you fit in easily, but you're big enough to fend off her makeup kit and wallet and everything else she has in there.
The trip to the meeting is uneventful, and you have a few hours to consider the next chapter in your life. Things are going to be very different from here, that's for sure.
Soon enough, Ariella arrives at the meeting. A flood of light enters the purse as she unzips it, and you see her giant face looking down on you. A giant hand comes in and wraps around you, and she pulls you out.
You take a look around.