The mouse grumbled, swimming, or really climbing around, in a pool of immense, colorful balls multiple times wider than he was tall. He'd known not to trust candy left out in the open within the lab, but he couldn't help himself. Who could have guessed the mad cat who usually makes growth contraptions and mixtures made a batch of shrinking candy?

Bruxton bit his lip, it was even harder to resist getting a bite of one of those now humongous gummy balls, so sweet, and with a texture that was just right… Though at this point a bite would make it impossible to get Noma's attention when they'd be back.

As the light shined down into the jar, hope sparked up, finally, after hours being stuck in the sickly sweet, hypnotizing scent, the mouse was going to be able to get free. He swam clumsily to the glass wall, banging on it towards the slightly deformed view of a looming figure approaching…

And a deep voice boomed into the mouse's ears, “And so here Roy, we have my latest integration of serum into a consumable product, I did a few tests this morning, colors should do what they usually represent in my serums."

Looking more carefully, Bruxton found that the raccynx was not alone, a shorter, though still towering figure loomed right behind next to Noma, the chameleon was scrawny and not too impressive normally, but at this diminutive side, he might as well have been a god to the mouse.

“Wait, shoot, no I'm here damnit look down!" Bruxton shouted, but to no avail, with the two chatting and not paying attention, a light squeaking was nothing next to the hum of computer equipment and ventilation in the room.

Roy approached the jar, though, perhaps he'd noticed the movement? The mouse smiled and waived but the chameleon was looking to the side towards Noma, continuing the discussion. “Yeah, like I ever remember the colors, just tell me which are the growth and shrinking so I avoid the ones with effects I don't want…"

“Fiiiine, blue or red, that's all I'll say, I made sure the growth is light though, don't need another… Incident in the lab." Noma seemed rather disappointed that Roy didn't jump straight in, risking chaos, but at least the mouse had an idea now, Roy would definitely look at which color to get, and if he saw the mouse on the blue one, he'd know to avoid it, and get the mouse out!

But of course, that was giving too much credit to a serial oblivious nerd, who just reached in and grabbed the first bluish piece at a glance, not even paying attention to the tiny bug holding for his life on the gummy ball.

“Frig, I should ha-" The mouse froze, the chameleon was swift to toss the thing into his jaws with little thought, barely chewing the candy, as a silver lining, before swallowing down. The mouse was easily flushed down with everything, left in darkness as he splashed into the stomach and its acrid pool.

“…ve tried to chomp on a red one instead…" Hindsight was a bit late to the party. But soon followed by the realization of what was about to happen. An outside yelp resonated as the stomach walls tightened around the mouse, the chameleon falling victim to the same fate…

Bruxton groaned, feeling like a mouse in a cat's belly, which, as he started as mouse sized, left him in a very usual size ration to his unaware predator. The mouse squirmed about, trying to at least get comfy to wait for Noma to sort things out eventually.

Feeling the shifts and «sudden» mass in his belly though, the confused mouse sized scaled looked up from the floor, at the grinning titan, the usual fluster from such a situation being entirely offset as the chameleon squeaked. “Uh… Noma, is it normal I feel like I ate a micro?"

The raccoon hybrid dropped the grin, confused too, and got down on all four to poke at the belly. “That's not… No, the candy mass gets entirely absorbed to shrink with you so it wouldn't… Wait your belly moved."

The mouse took the opportunity of the silence to shout as loud as he could. “I'm in here you fluffs!".

Silence reigned, Noma heard naught but a light gurgle, Roy smiled sheepishly and finally broke the awkwardness. “I think I heard Brux… I guess he got to try the candy early uh?"

Noma shook their head, standing back up and unceremoniously sliding their foot out their sneaker, stepping over the chameleon, and with toes holding the lizard's skull, brought their paw back into the warmth of their footwear.

“I'll just deal with this later… Just remind me to get you two free and sorted out before you eventually digest. In your own interest if you don't want to be melted like candy by me."

Noma stepped off and turned the lights off, leaving the lab, making sure the door was closed and locked, this time.