Violet had been excited as she entered her new protocol into the B-T control console, turning the monitor to keep any of the others from peeking. The others were all eager to see what she had planned, but that was at least five minutes ago. The lab had sort of fallen into a lull.

Red sat on a stool, making some notes. Yellow and Orange sat on an empty lab table, their new shared 7-foot-tall body allowing their feet to reach the floor from the tabletop. Blue sat at the other end of the table, her legs dangling, her head still detached and cradled in her lap as she idly played with her hair. Black stood to one side, her forward pair of legs crossed, with Green lounging on the back of her lower torso. Green's upper hands were folded behind her head, with her middle hands folded across her midsection and her lower hands tracing circles on Black's front thighs.

The whole team had been trying so many things with their new quantum entanglement technology, but Red and Violet hadn't done anything more involved than trading heads back and forth with Blue. Red seemed content to compile notes about everyone else's projects, so everyone was looking forward to seeing what Violet had decided to try.

A minute later, the Banach-Tarski device gave off three beeps, and the door of the booth opened. Violet was still sitting on the floor of the booth cross-legged, like she had been when the door closed, but now her head was almost touching the top.

"Ta-da," said Violet. "What do you think?"

"That's ... quite something, Violet," said Orange. "You just magnified yourself?"

"In effect, I suppose," said Violet, unfolding her legs. Stretched out, her legs reached out at least ten feet from the booth. "I got the idea after I saw you and Yellow merged together. Once I saw that the B-T could combine masses together, I realized how easy this would be to do."

"What protocol did you use?" said Blue.

"It's just an alternating sequence of duplication and merging," said Violet. "I programmed the B-T to duplicate me and then combine the duplicates together, over and over again. Each iteration results in a doubling of the original mass, which translates to a height increase by a factor of the cube root of two."

"So three times through the cycle would double your height," said Red, making notes. "Nice."

"How many times did you have it run?" said Black.

"Five," said Violet. "I think I should be about seventeen feet tall right now. I couldn't get much bigger than that without building a bigger B-T device, and probably a bigger lab too."

"Wait, you're not putting that on the docket, are you?" said Blue.

Violet scooted out of the booth and knelt in front of the table where everyone was sitting. "Oh, no, I don't think so. This is plenty for now. It's at least enough for me to do this."

She reached out and took Blue's head in her hand, cradling it in her palm like a clementine and lifting it up close to the ceiling looking down.

"What are you doing?" said Blue.

"Playing keepaway," said Violet. "Why? What are you doing, shorty?"

"Oh, no you didn't," said Blue. She hopped down from the table and stood under her head, jumping as high as she could, but she couldn't reach Violet's hand no matter how much she flailed.

"Go on, jump!" said Green, relaxing on Black's back. "You want your head back or not?"

"You want us to give you a boost?" said Yellow.

"Hey, no fair helping," said Violet. She reached out and pressed gently against Yellow and Orange's chest to keep them out of it.

"Yeah, I don't need any help," said Blue from the ceiling. "I got this. I'm a scientist."

"So are the rest of us!" said Orange.

"Shut up!" said Blue, grinning as her headless body walked over to Violet and reached for a handhold.

"Whoa, what are you trying - hey now, buy me a drink first!" said Violet as Blue started to pull herself up.

"She's going to climb you like a tree, Violet," said Red.

Green turned around and whispered something into Black's ear. Black nodded and stepped over to the front of the table next to where Orange and Yellow were sitting. While Green stood on Black's back and held onto Black's shoulders with her bottom pair of arms, Black lifted one forward leg after the other onto the edge of the table and reared herself up, boosting Green up toward Violet's hand. Green couldn't quite reach, but Black pushed off the edge of the table and flung Green upward. She just barely managed to grab hold of Violet's wrist, but she couldn't quite pull Blue's head out of Violet's grip.

The extra weight threw Violet off balance, and she tumbled backward, landing flat on the floor with Blue and Green still clinging to her. Black, Yellow, Orange, and Red saw their chance, and they closed in.

And that was basically the last of the science for a while, as everyone in the lab decided that they wanted to keep the spirit of Christmas going rather than go back to work after the party. The atmosphere became much more casual. Nobody spent too much effort looking for more applications of their technology, either the Banach-Tarski device or the quantum entanglement nano-virus. They were all too busy unwinding and enjoying each other's company, among other things.

The one real step forward in the week following Christmas was a New Year's resolution, a shared goal for everyone in the lab. It started as Red's idea, but all the rest of them quickly jumped on board. As much fun as

they were all having, they were getting a little tired of being cooped up in the lab. They decided to get out of the building for a while and have a fun night out on the town, on New Year's Eve of all nights.

Apart from giving them all some fresh air, there was a more important reason. They had just about reached the limits of what their innovations could accomplish. It was time to reveal what they had done and share it with the world. Their inventions could change people's lives, and people needed to see what they had done and what they could do. Finding a way to provide their technology to the world would be a process, but it started with a grand stepping-out, a presentation to the public eye. What better moment for it than the start of the new year?

Before they could step out, though, the first thing they all needed was new clothes. Green and Blue said that they liked the coveralls just fine, but Red pointed out that the identical color-coded bodysuits made them look like cult members, and everyone grudgingly agreed. They spent the last few days of the year working on new outfits, splitting into groups and keeping their work secret. At midday on New Year's Eve, they all met up in the main lab room to show off their handiwork.

Yellow and Orange had made themselves a flowing gown and a pair of thigh-high strappy sandals like some kind of Amazon goddess, complete with the extra height that went with it. Red was wearing a clingy evening dress, good enough for either clubbing or formal wear, whichever event she happened to find. Violet was wearing fairly ordinary-looking jogging gear, with a halter top, tight pants, and sneakers, but nobody was going to call it ordinary since she was still more than fifteen feet tall.

In contrast to Yellow, Orange, Red, and Violet, who were wearing fairly nice but ordinary clothes, Blue, Green, and Black were dressed as though it was Halloween instead of New Year's. Black and Green had made themselves a matching set of what looked like post-apocalyptic biker gear. Black was wearing two pairs of black pleather pants and a fitted leather jacket covered in hard plastic pads, with a set of saddlebags draped over her lower torso and heavy knee-high boots. Green had similar pants and boots, but instead of a jacket, she wore three pairs of spiky arm gloves and a top that was mostly straps, with six plastic cups on the front for just enough coverage. She also had two short swords sheathed at her hips, two more that crossed the small of her back, and a large one between her shoulder blades. The two of them looked ready to carve their way across the wasteland in a Mad Max movie.

Blue had gone the other way. She had made herself a suit of form-fitting armor that belonged in a sci-fi action movie, made of rigid sections that glided over each other when she walked. Her hands were covered in a fabric weave with hard plates on the back, so she wasn't trying to grip anything through hard plastic, but everything else was solid and fitted to her curves exactly. It was weird how something could cover the entire body and still leave so little to the imagination.

When Blue entered the room, Red walked in and knocked on one of her butt cheeks. "Dang, Blue. Don't tell me this thing flies, too."

Blue laughed. "No, not quite, but I do have something I want to get ready before we head out. Does anyone have my slicer handy?"

"Oh, I got your slicer right here," said Green. She reached for the large sword on her back with her upper arms and with one of the others with each of her middle and lower arms, quickly bristling with blades. Blue and Red jumped back, but Black just stood there and smiled.

"Aren't you worried about getting into trouble for carrying so many weapons around?" said Violet, sitting on the floor again but still towering over the group.

"Oh, don't worry," said Green. "Most of them are just props. They don't have an edge. The big one is real, though. If we're going public, I figured we'd want to show people everything we've done." She sheathed the four smaller blades, but she kept the large sword out and ready. "So what did you need sliced, Blue?"

Blue put her hands on her belly and hunched up her shoulders, parting a narrow seam that ran around her waist. "I'll need you to slice through here first. I whipped something up that should come in handy."

Black put her hands under Blue's arms and lifted while Green pushed the blade through Blue's middle. Once Blue was back in two pieces, her legs walked toward the B-T device.

"Black, bring me over to the console, will you?" said Blue. "This shouldn't take long." Black twisted around to set Blue's upper half on her back and carried her over to the control console for the B-T. Blue took a folded piece of fabric out of her pocket and unfolded it into a large thin oval, which she laid on top of her severed waist and pressed into place. When it was done, her legs walked into the booth, and she started the duplication process. After less than a minute, the machine beeped, and two pairs of legs walked out of the machine. Blue lifted herself off of Black's back and down onto one of her lower halves.

"Really?" said Yellow. "All you wanted was a pair of legs to follow you around? I thought you'd want to be in pieces for this little party."

"I'm getting there, I'm getting there," said Blue. "This is what I wanted to show you. Okay, Green, one more time." Blue undid the rigid collar of her armor and indicated a line nearly level with her shoulders, and Green brought the sword up for another cut. Blue handed her head to Green while she took another piece of fabric from a pocket and pressed it into place over the smooth stump of the neck. As Blue walked back toward the B-T, she replaced the collar of her suit, leaving an empty hole on top of the neck of the armor.

"Okay, Black," said Blue from Green's arms. "One more time, please."

Black started another duplication sequence, and after a minute, two armor-clad bodies walked out of the machine. One of them took Blue's head back from Green and put it where it belonged, and the other gently stroked Blue's extra pair of legs.

"All right," said Blue, "now check this out. I came up with a material that bonds to quantum-entangled particles without collapsing the bridge between them. The two pieces will stay together, but with the quantum connection still in place, they can still be separated with localized pressure. Watch."

Blue's legs stood next to her, and her extra body stood behind her. Blue put her hands on her hips and pushed, and her waist came free. Headless Blue lifted Blue's torso away from one pair of legs and onto the other, and just like that, Blue had changed clothes.

"See?" said Blue. "Super easy! And the other one works the same way." Almost in the middle of her sentence, Headless Blue reached out to Blue's head, peeling it away from her shoulders and fitting her neck into the collar of her armor. "This way, I don't have to keep the slicer on me all night long, and I can keep my hands free instead of having to carry my own head around or ask someone else to do it."

"You have two bodies and three pairs of legs," said Orange. "You could just have Headless Blue or Leggy Blue do the lifting."

"What's the fun of having more of me around if I can't all join in the fun?" said Blue. "Besides, using my neck for its intended purpose is just more convenient sometimes." She put her arms around Headless Blue's shoulders and Leggy Blue's waist, and Headless Blue held hands with her. "Now shall we get this party started?"

"Yeah, I've had enough sitting around," said Violet, pushing the button to open the vehicle door into the lab. The door beeped as it rattled open. "Let's get out of here."

Violet stood up and stepped out into the night, and the rest of them followed.

They started out all in one group, but they soon split off to cover more ground and attend as many New Year's Eve parties as possible. Red, Yellow, Orange, and Violet mostly stayed together, since they were the only sanely dressed ones of the bunch. Blue, Black, and Green stuck it out for a while, but Blue and her extras eventually split off to find her own fun, since she was a posse all by herself.

It wasn't yet dawn when they all found their way back to the lab, but it was close. Red had given out a lot of business cards to people who wanted to find out more, Blue had told a lot of people roughly where they could be found, and Black had given a lot of pony rides. When they got back to the lab, they found something unusual waiting for them.

"Hey, someone left us a note," said Green, unsteadily pointing to an envelope pinned to a door. It said "Happy New Year from Derek and Diana" on the back.

"Yeah, that's weird," said Black. "Especially since I don't remember this door being here when we left."

They all looked around the lab. Sure enough, this room now had one more door leading out of it than it had a few hours ago.

"What's going on?" said Blue. "Did someone come in and remodel while we were away? How did they get in?"

Red opened the envelope. Inside was a piece of paper. She unfolded it and started to read.

"Congratulations on all your successes," said Red as she read the note. "What you all have accomplished will change the world. And after your night of much-deserved revelry, you have raised a local groundswell of interest. We would like to meet and discuss the future of your work. Come inside when you're ready."

Black reached for the doorknob and turned. It wasn't locked. The door swung out into the lab, revealing a lavishly decorated hall, with a thick rug and a big chandelier.

Two people stood in the middle of the floor, a man in a tuxedo and a woman in a ballgown. They were arm in arm, smiling.

"Welcome to the mansion," said the man.

"Are you ready to begin our discussion?" said the woman.

Black looked back at the others. Some of them looked excited. Some just shrugged.

"Let's do it," said Violet. She gave a thumbs-up.

One by one, the women filed through the door, with Violet squeezing through last. When she was through, she closed the door.

"So glad you all decided to come," said Diana.

"Happy New Year," said Derek.