Bottled Rocket

Just as Rocketgirl got her footing, Ms Kyoto pressed a button and the floor fell out from beneath the heroine. The tinted, naked heroine tumbled down twenty, thirty feet before making impact with a slick, slanted surface. She scrambled to her feet and tried running up the ramp but it was too slick; her feet churned beneath her and she occasionally slipped, having to pick herself up and start trying to run up again.

She looked around and noticed the shiny ramp curved around her. It was broad and wide thirty feet above her where it met the floor of the room she'd just been in -- where Ms Kyoto's figure now stood in the distance beaming down at her and waving. She looked down and saw the curved ramp narrow to a small central hole no more than six inches in diameter, some ten feet below her still.

"It's a funnel," she observed.

"Yes, and the only way out is down," Ms Kyoto said.

"Not a chance," Rocketgirl replied. "That hole looks smaller than my hand. I'll find a way back up to the top. And when I do, we're going to end this fight once and for all." She scrambled up again, fell again, slipped a bit further down into the funnel.

"I admire your spirit, Rocketgirl," Ms Kyoto said coolly. "But you'll never get to the top of the funnel. Its walls are coated with my special Kyotoglaze, which is far too slippery to allow any friction -- even for a gifted runner like you."

Rocketgirl slipped in the Kyotoglaze again and slid down further into the funnel. The hole at the bottom seemed just a bit closer, just a bit bigger. And Ms Kyoto seemed smaller, the distance between them growing. Rocketgirl shook her head to stave off a feeling of dizziness. Was the funnel getting bigger somehow?

"Notice anything strange, Rocketgirl?" Ms Kyoto taunted from above. "Is your perspective on the world changing? Is that funnel looking a bit bigger than it did a moment ago?"

Panicking as she continued to slip and struggle, Rocketgirl was beginning to feel overwhelmed. Had the Kyotoglaze gotten thicker? It seemed to be everywhere. Why was the funnel so enormous? The far wall seemed farther away, the hole at the bottom closer and larger. She knew the funnel was only about forty feet tall, so why did Ms Kyoto look to be a hundred yards away?

"Something's wrong," she muttered. "You're doing something to the room. You're drugging me with your Kyotoglaze!"

"No, no, my dear," Ms Kyoto responded with a slow shake of her head. "The only thing changing here is you. You're shrinking. The Kyotoglaze contains a preservative and the funnel is a concentrated black hole. They balance each other out. So as the funnel pulls you in and compresses you, the Kyotoglaze keeps you to scale -- and keeps you alive. In a few moments, you'll be small enough to slip right through that hole at the bottom. Then the process will stop, and you'll be right where I want you -- just how I want you."

The now rapidly shrinking Rocketgirl shook her head in disbelief. "No, it's impossible. This can't be happening to me!" But as she looked around the enormous funnel and slid closer to the gaping void beneath her, she knew Ms Kyoto was speaking the truth. She looked up at the distant, looming figure of her captor.

Ms Kyoto winked and blew her a kiss. "Looks like you're almost there. I'll see you on the other side." She waved and walked away, vanishing from Rocketgirl's sight.

The heroine reached up to where Ms Kyoto had been and watched her arm shrink a bit more. "No! No! Come back! Don't do this to me! No!"

She screamed and cried as she collapsed into a kneeling position, sliding backwards on her knees. Finally she tumbled through the hole at the base of the funnel and was plunged into darkness.

"Ooof!" she grunted as she landed hard on a thick glass floor. She scrambled to her feet and ran face first into a curved wall of glass. She turned and ran the other way, again faceplanting into a wall of glass. She put her hand up to the wall and walked a perfect circular path around the room. There were no doors. She ran her hand up the wall and noticed it curve inward slightly. She looked up and saw the distant light from the room she'd been in cascade down into her glass prison.

Above her the curved wall was quite narrow. She'd fallen through a tall glass tube into this round glass room. So it was a giant glass bottle. "Or just a regular sized glass bottle -- and I'm small enough to fit inside it now." Her voice echoed and she winced, putting her hands up to cover her ears.

Suddenly a great hand veered into view and grasped the neck of the bottle. Rocketgirl's glass prison was on the move, knocking her off balance and onto the glass floor. Ms Kyoto's beautiful face smiled through the glass. Rocketgirl wasn't even as tall as Ms Kyoto's nose.

"My very own bottled Rocketgirl," Ms Kyoto said. "What shall I do with you now?"