Allie yawned and slowly opened her eyes. Her room was dimly lit, and she had a headache. She stretched, closed her eyes and turned on her side. Something was odd. She checked her body with closed eyes and tried to figure out what it was that irritated her. Then it hit her. She had her arms back. But that couldn’t be, right? Sanya had set the Atomizer to 24 hours, just like Allie had asked her to… Well, apparently she hadn’t, and now Allie was back to her full self. Maybe that was for the best. This way shed have some time to prepare for her date with Toby and could enjoy it properly. After all, this would be one of only a handful of days since she had moved here that she would have a complete body.

She yawned again and forced herself to open her eyes. She stared at the ceiling for a minute before finally sitting up. ‘Okay, let’s get ready’, she thought to herself. She swung her legs over the edge of the bed, stood up and walked over to the window to open the blinds. Or rather…she tried walking over to the window. After one step she found herself lying on the floor.

‘Curious’, she thought to herself. Then it hit her. “MY LEG!!!”, she shouted. Her right leg was missing at the hip. She was on the verge of panicking for a few moments until she remembered that the Atomizer very likely had something to do with her new predicament. If that was the case, she would likely be fine. The thought calmed her a little. She took a deep breath, then got up on her one leg and slowly hopped over to the window. She was a bit wobbly and almost fell twice, but managed to get her hand on the wall in time to catch herself. When she arrived by the window her single leg was tired and ached a little. She had only missed a leg twice so far, and in both instances she had had her entire upper leg, which allowed her to walk on her knees or a knee and a stump whenever she got tired. Not that that had happened a lot, in both instances it was only for an evening, and she had sat on a chair or the couch for most of the time. Neither the knee or stump-walk, nor the sitting were an option for her right now, though.

She opened the blinds and light flooded her room. She took two hops over to her desk and plopped down in her chair to catch her breath for a short moment. She looked down at her hip, where her right leg used to be. How did that happen? The others must know something.

She put her hand on her hip stump and pressed her fingers into the flesh. Nothing. There was no bone left. Her entire leg bones had been removed and the flesh seemed to have been remodelled to compensate for the empty hip socket and keep the shape of her buttocks. She felt around the skin on her stump. The sensations were odd. Slowly stroking her hand across the stump, she noticed how there was a point where it felt like her hand jumped from the front of her leg to the back, even though she only moved her hand a little. She explored that sensation and tried to pinpoint the point where the change in sensation occurred. As she did so, she noticed a thin, uneven line, which seemed to coincide with the curious sensation. She used her single foot to pull her chair across the floor to her mirror. Once she had arrived at the mirror, Allie stood up and hopped closer. She leaned to the side and raised her hip to inspect her stump. There was a thin scar, as if her leg had been amputated surgically. It seemed like someone had amputated her leg, and quite frankly had done a very good job to create a very clean-looking stump with a tidy scar.

What the hell happened last night? She was pretty sure she hadn’t been that drunk. She had spent a nice evening with Toby, then, once they had come home, John had helped her remove her mesh lenses, she had taken a shower and gone to bed. That seemed pretty conclusive to her. So what the hell was going on? She’d have to ask the others.

She looked up and inspected her nude image in the mirror. While this was scary, she did look good, though. Her lack of a right leg left her cleanly shaven pussy accessible from the right side and were it not for the scar, it would almost seem natural. She looked good, she decided, and smiled. Then she noticed the remaining bits of white body paint and makeup. Right, she remembered. She had struggled to properly shower without arms last night. Before she did anything else, she should take a shower and properly clean herself, she decided. She turned around and hopped towards the door, where she kept her bathrobe on a hook. She slipped into it and pulled the belt tight before opening her door.

The corridor was dark. There was music quietly coming from the living room and a faint snoring sound from Sanya’s room. Allie decided she’d get ready first before she spoke with anyone, if possible. She slowly hopped towards the bathroom and tried to land as softly as possible during her hops.

Once she was in the bathroom, she locked the door before she quickly undressed. She quickly took a pee before hopping in the shower.

After she had gotten herself properly cleaned in the shower, which wasn’t easy as her new one-leggedness made it hard for her to keep the balance on her single foot on the slippery shower floor, she hopped out of the shower and almost slipped. She barely caught herself by grabbing the sink and used it to regain her balance. She paused for a moment as a wave of emotions welled up inside of her. She was familiar with the struggle of adapting after using the Atomizer to remove a limb, but usually, she had been prepared for it before the limb had disappeared. However, this wasn’t planned. She didn’t expect it and had no idea what setting the Atomizer had been in. Heck, she still wasn’t properly convinced that the Atomizer had been used on her. The scar on her hip looked just like what you’d expect after a surgery. But no, there simply was no way a surgery would’ve healed overnight. She clung to that thought and drew strength from it as she dried herself and her hair before she returned to her room.

Back in her room, Allie picked out an outfit. She chose a cotton blouse. She considered picking hotpants in order to not have to deal with an empty pant leg, but it simply was too chilly for that outside. Instead, she opted for sweatpants. She thought about leaving her empty pant leg dangling in a half-hearted attempt to conceal her predicament at least for the inattentive observer, but after two hops she almost fell again when she hopped onto her empty pant leg, so she sat back down to fold it up and tuck the end into her waistband.

Once again, Allie briefly paused to collect herself before she forced herself to get up and make her way to the living room.

“Good morning sunsh- what the hell?” John sat on the couch and stared at her with wide eyes. “What the hell happened to you?”

“I have no idea”, Allie said. Her voice was trembling ever so slightly has she fought to keep her emotions, which welled up again after John’s reaction, in check. She took a deep breath and looked at him.

“I woke up like this. It’s missing at the hip with a scar and I have no idea why.”

“Holy shit, I would be freaking out! I mean… holy shit!!”

“Yeah, I am already past that. It almost looks like it was surgical, but it can’t have been. It must’ve been the Atomizer, right?”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure. I have no clue how else it would be healed up already.”

“That’s what I figured. So if it’s the Atomizer, I will be fine. I just want to know what the settings were and who it was, so I can punish them.”

“I like your spirit”, John commented. “The Atomizer was here on the table when we left yesterday, but…it’s gone.”

“Hang on, let me think.” Allie paused. “Ooooh, I’m gonna kill her.”

“What?” John asked.

“I think I know where it is and who used it last night”, Allie said after some consideration. “A few weeks ago, Sanya and I talked about how the Atomizer is an ideal way to prank someone. Let’s go and check on Sanya.” Allie quickly hopped down the hallway and began thumping Sanya’s door. It took a while until the snoring stopped and a pained voice asked “what?”

Sanya’s door opened and a disheleved looking Sanya stood in the door way, squinting.

“What’s going on? Where’s your.. oh!” Sanya was suddenly hit by a realisation.

“Oh?” Allie asked. “What do you mean by ‘oh’?”

“I…I’m not sure how to tell you this”, Sanya said. A pained expression crossed her face. She was obviously hungover.

“Tell me what?”

“I’m guessing you’re here because of that”, Sanya said and motioned to Allie’s missing leg.

“Ya think, Sherlock?”

There was a pause.

“Did you do this?”

“Do you believe me if I say no?”

“Of course not.”

“Alright then. Yeah, that was me. I think. I’m not entirely sure what happened last night.” Sanya looked at her hands and paused. She inspected her right hand. It was missing a finger. The ring finger, be the looks of it. Her hand had been reshaped, just like she had done with John’s hands the night before. It looked like she had always had four fingers on her right hand. She turned around and saw the Atomizer on her nightstand.

“I think I know what happened, but I would like to confirm it. Hang on.” She picked up her phone and began texting. “This might take a while. I’ll get ready and meet you in the living room.”

Half an hour later, Allie entered the living room. John had organised some crutches for her, so she didn’t have to hop everywhere anymore. She sat down at the table, across from Sanya. Sanya looked pale.

“So what happened?” Allie asked.

“Well…I…”, Sanya was fidgeting.

“Get it out. It already happened, I want to know what happened, so I can deal with it.”

“Well, okay. I had a lot to drink last night, and Laura thought it best to bring me home. On our way, I told her about our conversation regarding pranks the other day. Laura thought it was funny, but said he didn’t think I could do any precision work while being that drunk.”

“So Laura put you up to it?” Allie asked.

“No, she just dropped me off, but the thought festered. By the time I got home, my limbs had reverted back to normal. I wanted to see if I could do it, so I picked up the Atomizer and did my finger. You’ll admit, it’s solid work..”

“Sanya, focus!” Allie interjected.

“Okay, sorry! Anyway, then I decided that since I could obviously do it, I’d prank you. I quietly entered your room, and there you were, sleeping naked.”

“I couldn’t get dressed without arms…”, Allie explained.

“I figured, but anyway, it made things a lot easier for me. I put the setting to three weeks and went to work. I totally got lost in it, but if I remember correctly, the result was pretty damn good.”

“Three WEEKS?” Allie exclaimed. “WHAT THE HELL, SANYA?? You couldn’t pick three days or something like that?”

“I really am sorry, Allie!”

“I have a date today. What the hell am I supposed to tell him?”

“Wasn’t he missing all his lower limbs?”

“Yeah, at a costume party. He’ll think I’m a weirdo.”

“But you are constantly missing something?”

“That’s beside the point. I just wanted a normal date, for crying out loud. We need to fix this.”

“How?”

“I don’t know, but there has got to be a way. Let me think. And get the Atomizer.”

“Okay, if you say so…”, Sanya went to pick up the Atomizer.

“We can’t use the pen on timed reductions, but what if we erase the reducted site with a shorter timed reduction?”

“I don’t know…”, Sanya said.

“Well, congratulations, you are now my guinea pig in trying to fix this. Hold out your left hand.”

Sanya hesitated, but seeing the rage in Allie’s eyes, she decided to do as she was told.

“Set the Atomizer to 10 minutes and hand it to me.”

Sanya switched on the Atomizer and froze.

“What?”

“Allie, it was set to three years.”

“What?”

“The last time it was used, it was to reduce your leg, and the last setting was not three weeks, but three years.”

“No.”

“Yes, it was.”

“Tell me you’re joking”, Allie wailed as tears rolled down her cheeks. “You’re telling me I’m stuck like this for three fucking years?”

Sanya just nodded.

“How am I going to explain this to anyone? To Toby, to my family…what am I supposed to do?”

“Allie, I’m so so sorry.”

“You’d better be”, Allie hissed.

Sanya swallowed and looked into Allie’s eyes.

“I’m your guinea pig. We’re going to find a way to fix it.”

“You better hope so. If not, I’ll use this on you.”

Sanya swallowed again and nodded.

“Is the Atomizer now set to 10 minutes?”

“Yes.”

“Good, give it to me.”

Sanya handed Allie the Atomizer. Allie took it and began to erase Sanya’s left hand. Once she was done, she set the Atomizer to five minutes and continued to reduce Sanya’s arm up to the elbow. Once she was done, she flicked it off.

“Now we wait. In theory, this must work, right? We erased the pre-programmed cells and now have a stump that is programmed down to a lower time limit. This must work, right?”

After five minutes, Sanya’s arm began to grow back quickly. Allie held her breath. Shortly before the wrist, the arm stopped, right where Allie had stopped with the first reduction.

“No!!” Allie exclaimed. Tears began to well up again. Everyone just sat there, silently. After ten minutes, Sanya’s hand grew back.

“Again”, Allie said. The result was the same.

“Again!”

“Again!”

“Again!”

“Allie…”, John said.

“No! I can’t be stuck like this for three fucking years.”

“We can contact customer service, but I don’t know if…” John couldn’t finish his sentence. Allie had hopped to her room, slammed the door and began dialling the customer service number.

Ten minutes later, she came back, looking dejected. “No chance”, she said. “They said there’s nothing they can do. I have to wait it out. FUCK!!”

“Allie, I really am so sorry about this”, Sanya said. “I never meant for this to happen. Laura was right, I wasn’t in any condition to do this. I am so so sorry.” Tears ran down her cheeks as well, and somehow, that seemed to calm Allie.

“I’m livid, you know? And I will get you back for this, and I won’t hold back.”

“I understand. In fact, I won’t resist. You can do to me what you want, I’ll take it. I robbed you of three years of autonomy. If there’s anything I can do, like get you a prothesis, I will do that.”

“You’re in luck. The Atomizer-people are already sending one. They are also looking into including a fail-safe in a future update. It won’t benefit me though, which is why they are sending a prosthesis. I just need to use the Atomizer to take a scan of my stump. If you can even call it that…”

“I see…”

“But I will get you with the Atomizer. How long until that finger of yours comes back?”

“Three hours, I think.”

“Good, I don’t want to wait too long.”

Sanya swallowed again, but just nodded.

“Now leave me alone everyone. I need to process this, and then I have a date.” Allie picked up her crutches, made her way to her room and slammed the door shut.

“Really?” Toby raised an eyebrow and nodded to Allie’s missing leg.

“Wasn’t my choice”, Allie mumbled and once again fought back tears.

“Oh no, I didn’t mean it like that.” Toby’s demeanour changed in an instant. “Come on in and tell me about it. That is, if you like.”

Allie nodded and followed Toby inside.

“A quick tour: You know the basic layout, the bathroom is down there, the kitchen is over here. That’s the living room and this is where I am sleeping.” Toby pointed towards one door. “Follow me.”

Three minutes later, Toby and Allie had sat down on a small couch in the corner of Toby’s room, and Allie had filled Toby in on every detail of what had happened.

“Oh God, Allie, I am so sorry!”

“It’s…it’s just…I don’t know how I should get through the next three years like…like this!”

“I understand. But think about this: you have been missing limbs before. You know you can adapt to it, even though it’s harder and this wasn’t planned. You know you can and will get through this.”

“I guess you’re right…”

“Also, this makes for one hell of a story!”

“True…”

There was a slight pause.

“You’re really mad at Sanya, aren’t you?”

“Well, yeah, wouldn’t you be? She turned my life upside down overnight.”

“I understand that. I’d be livid as well.”

“So…what’s your plan?”

“I don’t know. I have a few ideas. We figured out that if you make a timed reduction and then reduce the same limb further, the timer gets paused until the cut-off point of each reduction is restored. So you can essentially stack reductions. I think I want to work with that.”

“Hm, okay. How hard do you want to hit her?”

“I haven’t decided yet, why?”

“She made a mistake, and she knows it. She deserves some kind of retribution, but you have to ask yourself whether you are being fair if you hit her too hard.”

“Counterpoint: she single-handedly crippled me for three years. It was a drunken, thoughtless decision. She deserves an equally random, in my case emotion-fuelled punishment.”

“I can’t argue with that.” Toby paused for a moment. “How do you want to do it?”

“I don’t know, exactly, only that I want to do it overnight. No idea how deep of a sleeper she is, though.”

“Okay. I think I have an idea.” Toby smirked. “Are you still up for a drink at the pub?”

“Sure, that’s why I’m here. That and your Star Trek model.” Allie winked.

“Great! There’s this pharmacy three doors down from the pub. If we hurry, we can get there before it closes for the night. There are these sleeping pills. Two brands, and of you mix them, just one pill of each, it knocks you out for a good twelve hours. My mum once accidentally gave them to me instead of melatonin after a trans-continental flight and we discovered how well they work. Does Sanya know you’ll get back at her?”

“Yeah, she even agreed to let me.”

“Good, I wouldn’t want to do anything unethical. Give here those, have her take them. You’ll be free to do whatever you like with plenty of time to spare before she wakes up.”

“That would be perfect! Thank you, Toby, for not freaking out about this.” Allie looked him in the eyes before she slowly moved in for a kiss. Toby grinned.

“Okay, let’s go. We can do the Star Trek model next time, if you are up for a next time.”

“You bet I am”, Allie said, smiling. Toby grinned.

“Sanya!” Allie shouted as she opened the door and crutched into the hallway. “Come here for a second!” Sanya came out of her bedroom looking nervous.

“How was your date?”

“Very nice, thank you! Toby is awesome, I really like him.”

“I’m glad to hear it.”

“Sanya, I have decided what I want to do with you.”

“O..okay?”

Allie motioned for Sanya to go to the living room and sit down at the table. There, she produced the sleeping pills.

“I want to use the Atomizer on you. I want to reduce parts of you for years, and I want to do it while you are unconscious, just like I was when you did it.” Allie paused to give Sanya time to process this and to see her reaction. “However, this is a big thing to ask. I’m livid, but what I want to do is completely out of proportion. I won’t tell you what I will do, but I want to give you a chance to object. If you say no, I won’t do it. I think you should say yes, but I also know you didn’t want the consequences for me, so I give you a choice.”

Sanya looked at her, stone faced. She swallowed and then began to speak: “I…I really am sorry, Allie. I didn’t mean to screw you over like that. I understand how big of a shock this is for you. I feel like I need to do this.”

Allie nodded. “Good”, she said. “Here’s what I propose: I have these sleeping pills. If you take one of each it’ll knock you out. I’d rather you didn’t see it coming, so here’s what I propose we do: You take two of these melatonin pills every night before you go to bed. You take them in the dark. One night, and I won’t tell you when, I don’t give you melatonin pills, but these sleeping pills. Could be tonight, could be next month. Who knows.”

Sanya looked panicked. “Is there…is that necessary? That just seems cruel. You didn’t live with the expectation of losing your leg. Having me live with the anticipation for possibly such a long period seems…harsh.”

Allie considered that for a moment. “Maybe you’re right. Okay, new proposal: Within the next week then.”

“I guess that’s okay”, Sanya agreed.

“Okay then. And no looking, though even if you do, I doubt it’ll help you. These pills all look virtually identical.”

“No looking”, Sanya agreed.

Allie nodded. “Okay then I’ll give you tonight’s pills when you’re ready for bed.” She got up and crutched to her bedroom.

Once she had closed the door behind her, she made her way across the room and fell onto her bed. Her single leg was burning. She absolutely wasn’t used to having just one leg. If she was to get through the next three years, she needed a way to occasionally take some weight off her leg. If she could find a wheelchair online, a cheap one, things would get considerably easier. She opened eBay and began looking. After a while, she found what she was looking for, contacted the seller and agreed to have someone pick it up. She’d ask Sanya in the morning.

She got changed into her pyjamas took two of the melatonin pills and headed to the beathroom. On her way, she stopped by the kitchen, put the pills in a small bowl and handed the bowl to Sanya.

Two nights later, Allie decided it was time for her revenge. Instead of the melatonin pills, she took two sleeping pills, one of each kind. She sat down in the wheelchair, which Sanya had kindly picked up for her, and gave Sanya the bowl before entering the bathroom.

When she came out of the bathroom, she could already hear deep regular breathing and the occasional snore from Sanya’s bedroom. She assembled Dan and John in the living room and warned them that Sanya would need their help for some time from now on. The two had of course heard of Allie’s plans and while they thought it to be a heavy punishment, they thought it wasn’t unreasonable.

Once they had gone to bed, Allie picked up the Atomizer, entered Sanya’s room and went to work.

She began with Sanya’s legs. She set the timer for two months and erased both of Sanya’s legs until a few inches below the knee. Then she set the timer to four months and reduced Sanya’s right leg past her knee to about mid-thigh. She then reset the timer again to 7 months and erased Sanya’s left leg to the same level as her right. She then returned her attention to the right leg. Setting the timer to five months, she removed almost everything up to the hip, leaving just a very short stump with just enough to wriggle. Then she set the timer to one month and reduced Sanya’s left stump to the hip, leaving absolutely no stump at all. Finally, she returned her attention to Sanya’s right leg, set the timer to three months, and shaped the right hip to match the left one.

Allie paused and reconsidered her work. Sanya’s full legs would return in twelve months, but she would go through various stages of asymmetry, giving her just enough time to adapt before having to change again over the course of that year. Allie grunted happily, before she returned her attention to Sanya.

She picked up the Atomizer again, and went to work.

She picked up Sanya’s right hand, set the timer to six months and removed Sanya’s middle finger, leaving a small nub. The hand actually looked rather cute, Allie thought.

She decided to complete the right arm first. She set the timer to 18 months, and began erasing Sanya’s thumb, the nub of the middle finger and the pinkie. She then switched settings and shaped the hand and narrowed the palm until it looked like Sanya had been born with a small, thumbless, two-fingered hand. She now only had her pointer and her ring finger left on a claw-like narrow hand.

Once Allie was satisfied with Sanya’s hand, she switched back to the regular erasing setting, set the timer to twelve months and erased Sanya’s right hand to the wrist. Afterwards, she set the timer to six months and continued up the arm until a few inches below the elbow.

She paused for a second and considered this next step. She switched setting again, set the timer to two years and began to perform a krukenberg procedure, similar to what Sanya had done for Dan for the Halloween party. She took her time to really shape the surgically constructed fingers of ell and poke, and carefully rearranged the muscles and tendons to allow Sanya to use the stump as a makeshift claw hand.

She took another break afterwards. Was she being too hard on Sanya? Maybe, but she didn’t care. Besides, Sanya loved this stuff, though maybe not that intensely? Didn’t matter, Allie was in too deep by now anyway.

She switched settings again, set the timer to three years and removed everything up to mid-biceps. She then set the timer to six months and removed everything up to the shoulder.

She paused. Three limbs done, one to go. Sanya’s right arm would start coming back after six months. After three and a half years, she’d be below the elbow and have makeshift fingers on her right side, at least for two years. All in all, it would take her right arm and hand nine years to come back completely.

She picked up the Atomizer for a final time. She set the timer to nine months and began reducing Sanya’s left middle finger and pinkie out of existence. She switched the beam and narrowed Sanya’s hand to make it look natural. She then set the timer to 15 months and removed Sanya’s thumb as well. Once again, she shaped the hand to make it look natural. She then set the timer to nine years and began reducing Sanya’s lower arm while keeping her hand intact. She stopped only when Sanya’s wrist with the small, two-fingered hand was attached to Sanya’s upper arm, just where the elbow would normally be, at a slight angle. She then returned the setting to two years and removed everything up to mid-biceps, leaving a few inches of blunt stump. She changed the timer a final time to two and a half years, before she finally removed everyz´thing up to Sanya’s shoulder.

It would take Sanya’s left arm fifteen and a half years to come back.

Allie let out a satisfied sigh. Sanya would hate her for this, but chances were she also would find some excitement in it. At least that was what Allie hoped. In any case, Sanya would be back on her feet in 12 months. She’d be fine, Allie figured.

She packed up the Atomizer, brought it back to the living room and made her way to her bedroom. She was excited about what Sanya would say in the morning. Soon, Allie had fallen into a deep, content sleep.