Emma sensed danger.
"Fine, yes! I'll pay your price!
Emma scribbled her name on the contract, then looked at the other
sheets.
Emma was soaked with sweat, and her clothing felt oppressively tight.
She flexed an arm, and her sleeve tore. She'd need to fix that later.
Emma went to the sink to wash up, and froze when she saw her reflection. A quick check showed that it wasn't a false image, or yet another Emma. She'd grown taller, and wider around the hips, and there were small lines on her face. She had become an adult.
"What's going on here?"
The frowning Salesman handed her the sheets of paper, one by one.
"Junior high diploma. Senior high school diploma. University diploma.
Medical school diploma. License to practice medicine.
Congratulations, Doctor."
"Doctor...I don't understand."
The Salesman's voice was gentle. "The price of knowledge is the time spent learning it. You have a doctor's skills now, at the cost of your youth."
Emma staggered. She could never explain this, back home. She could never *go* home. Not like this.
"Wow. I'm sorry to hear that, Emma. I owe you a bunch." Scott got a funny look on his face. "By the way, while I'm not complaining, you're not wearing much clothes."
Emma shrugged. "My clothes don't fit anymore, obviously."
He woke up earlier to the sound of some movement. he opened his eyes and looked absently at the girl at his side. He thought he saw something different about her face and gasped. Her features definitely looked like those of an older girl, and she seemed to fill out before his eyes. Her hair thickened and grew longer, her eyes grew larger until he saw the full extent of her beauty. Her legs lengthened, and her chest expanded under her stretching shirt, the fabric pulling smooth in the front. Then a tearing sound came from underneath. He rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things and pinched himself. It hurt. That meant that the child was indeed growing by the second. The Age Virus is doing this to her. Then the girl began to move and make noise. The sleeve ripped off her swelling arm, exposing smooth honey golden skin.
Then the shirt ripped down the middle of her chest, revealing more skin. She didn't move. The ruined fabric slid off her nude body.
Her long, dark wavy hair rippled down all the way to waist-length. She looked around, looking confused. The girl's gaze shot up, and she held out her hand to him, and he grasped it.
She looked hopefully at the deserted alleys as she passed. Surely, a torn outfit would attract attention here. Jackie sighed. Transforming, she grew taller and older until she looked around twenty years old. Her hair was loose from its usual style, but that was because her transformation magic was the lazy sort.
When little Ali finally awoke, she was surrounded by darkness, and it didn’t take her long to realize this was because she was inside a bag. As she tried to fight her way out of the bag, her body began to ache all over. The more Ali struggled, the more the pain intensified. She felt as if her entire body began to swell. Her mind must have somehow shut down her pain receptors because after a while, the pain went away. Ali felt herself becoming heavier. She heard a sound and realized that she was ripping the bag.
After extricating herself from the bag, Ali immediately realized that something had happened to her. Her short, thin arms and legs were much longer and thicker, and her ever-present asthma no longer troubled her. And her clothes... They were mostly rags now. It was just about then Ali realized how much she had grown. She managed to find a mirror and was amazed to see that she now stood over five feet seven. This was quite a shock for a little girl who had been 4’9” and not even 80 lbs.
Ali found a coat and pulled it over her nude body. Ali found a payphone, called the police and then sat down on a curb and began to cry.
She had always wanted to be older and taller, but not like this. A million different fears ran through her head from how she would be able to find clothes to wear to how her parents would react to their little girl not being so little anymore.
They take out a diminutive girl of 6 years age by hosing her down with water. "You deserve it, FREAK!" The 6 year old soon starts growing to abnormal heights. In fact... she grows to 12 feet. This could be bad. The Liaisons begin to put all their firepower (water guns, flamethrowers, electric nets and actual automatic guns) onto the 6 year old 12 foot high girl.
In fact, all life is drained of his body as soon as he sees the innocent 6 year old become 12 feet tall.
This is unbelievable! Children do not grow to 12 feet! It's not right! He looks around wildly, but is too afraid to try crawling out over the seawall
As soon as the cadres take the innocent-looking 12 foot tall 6 year old girl (who has now become 6 feet instead of 12) down a couple notches, the KWABS van pulls up onto the Seawall.
The MTF cadres that arrived on the scene after Liaison Petrico's arrival have now left, leaving Petrico's cadre to take care of the now 6 year old - she's finally at her average height, crying up a storm. Finally Petrico puts small-sized cuffs on her and his bloodhounds put her in an electrical net.
"Mom?? Have you gotten shorter?" Tania giggled, "I believe the fault rests in you, Baby. You're the one scaling heights! Last time I was here, you were almost as tall as that boy in shades...."
By this time, Rose was flipping through her middle school years. She was growing taller and slimmer in each picture. The fire in her eyes increased with each frame. Her skin seemed as pale as ever."
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