THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING ADVENTURE

Prince swallows a microchip, and everyone has to go inside him and get it, but somewhere along the way the plan goes awry.

 

I. PRINCE

So Cloud had my friends and me listen to some lecture about the medical advancement of some microchip, but knowing how we typically responded to long lectures, you could probably guess our reactions…

“And I know we’ve asked ourselves that question--” I faintly heard her say. “Hey!”

I jolted in my chair. I noticed beside me that Fleana, Katrina, and Marion were wiping their eyelids.

Cloud pointed her ruler at some device she brought in. “I got a shrink ray.”

“Shrink ray!” The four of us jumped to our feet.

Marion eyed the device. “You spent the whole hour talking about"whatever"just to tell us you have a shrink ray?”

Cloud crossed her arms. She looked a little disappointed. “Well, I was hoping you would be interested in what I have to say. Especially you Prince.”

My excuse was. “Uh, I’m still ADD.”

“Shrink this. And that.” Fleana chanted as she pointed at various objects in the apartment for Katrina and Marion to shrink. But when they shrunk the TV, she pointed at the speck again and said. “No. Unshrink this. Make it a big screen.”

Katrina turned the speck into a ten foot box.

“Fleana Mammatus! You turn my furniture back the way it was right now, young lady!”

“Okay, momma!” Fleana took the shrink ray and re-sized everything.

“So Cloud,” Katrina began. “Why do you have a shrink ray?”

“Finally, someone asks.” Cloud sighed and strolled over to a tarp covering something. “For this.”

She pulled off the tarp. And my eyes grew.

“Is that the microchip?”

Cloud patted the large object. “Actually, it’s a macrochip. This baby here was a project I helped with when I was still a doctor. Our goal was to design this chip with all medical knowledge known to both man and Biotic-Abiotics, and place it into this little nanobot, which we could then inject into a patient. The bot could identify pathogens, repair tissues, unclog arteries, treat most cancers, assist the immune system"that sort of thing. The problem is that when we finished constructing this chip, it was way too big. We needed to build a shrink ray to fit it into this thing.”

“Nice solution.” I chuckled. I actually did like the solution, but Cloud still gave me the eye.

“Anyway, they built it after I resigned, but since I contributed they had given me the honor to do the shrinking.”

“Then why’d you call us here?” Marion reasoned.

“I thought you might like to watch.”

“Good point.” Katrina waved. “Proceed.”

Cloud took the device and aimed it at the chip. The chip shrank until it was barely noticeable without a magnifying glass. I held it between my index finger and thumb.

“Remarkable, isn’t it?” Cloud marveled. “Children we are standing before a miracle of science.”

“Yeah, and I only just built a--” My throat contracted as something small and sharp touched it. “Uh-oh.”

“Please tell me that you did not eat the--”

“Yeah, I did. Come on, Cloud I can’t lie to you.” I chuckled some more. “If you think about it, if that was the chip; where’s the dip? I wouldn’t be lookin’ at it, would I?”

“Oh, no you didn’t!” Fleana whooped with Marion and Katrina. “Oh, God. You are in for it.”

I found out what she meant as Cloud demonstrated her freakish strength by grabbing me by the legs and shaking me until she just let me plop to the floor. Something told me she had more up her sleeves.

II. FLEANA

Mom was so upset at Prince. I could tell because she was ranting in the kitchen.

“Three years, eleven months of my life…now in that boy’s blasted stomach. Good thing stomach linings can heal. I think.” She cursed. I didn’t like the sound of that.

Prince rightfully seemed nervous. I knew mom wouldn’t hurt him, but mom was still scary to look at. In many ways, she reminded me of grandma. She wouldn’t hurt you if she says she wouldn’t, but you couldn’t really tell because of the lack of expression.

“Here drink this.” Mom shoved a glass of water in Spiky’s face.

“Naw. I’m not thirsty.” Prince told her.

“I said drink it.”

“Well, then, what is it?”

“It’s water.” I heard her say something under her breath that sounded a lot like a dash of Ipecac, but I guess Prince didn’t hear her.

He took the glass and said. “Okay.”

“Yeah, because you see that chip? It’s coming out of you. One way or the other.”

Prince wiped his mouth. “Well, I hope the other way isn’t very violent because this here isn’t doing anything.”

“Wha--”

“But do get me another one of these.”

Mom snatched the glass. “Fine.”

“Oh, I get it.” Marion appeared in the hallway with Katrina as Susan dragged them out of my room. “He mouths off and he gets nice, cold beverages.”

“And we open ours, in a helpful way,” Katrina joined. “And we get punished. By the way Mammatus you need to organize your wardrobe again.”

My eyes grew. “You went through my closet?”

“Well, she did.” Marion pointed.

“I got a little curious, sue me.” Katrina smirked.

“Pretty sure she can.” Susan raised an eyebrow. “Let’s call Aurora up.”

“Okay, here’s another one. Oh, and I may have peed in this one.” Mom tried to give Prince the drink, but Marion quickly snatched it.

“Hold on. We need the nutrition.” He scarfed down a third of the glass before giving it to Kat. After she downed a third, she gave it to me to finish.

“Hmm…It kinda got a weird taste in it.” Marion then violently puked on the floor.

Katrina followed his lead and vomited on the couch. My stomach burst with fire and brimstone, and just before I could heave-ho, my sister slid a bucket under me. Marion was reduced to crawling on the carpet as he tried and failed to stop vomiting.

“Oh my God my insides are on fire!” He puked again.

Katrina pried her face off the couch and reached out a hand. “Get the phone quick. Call the ambulance.” She puked. “Or at least get my hair.”

“I don’t wanna--” I ralphed again. “Oh God. I think I’m done.”

“Yeah, I need to lie down.”

“Way ahead of you.” Marion groaned with his face to the floor.”

“Well, now I know that works.” Mom turned to Prince. “Which begs the question, why aren’t you affected? Was it the urine?”

Before Prince could say anything, the door closed. “Come on, Cloud that’s gross.”

Aurora strolled over to his son and patted him on the shoulder. “This boy here is tolerate to that vomit drug. Drunk a whole bottle when he was little. Had to take ‘im to the hospital.”

“That’s,” Mom’s mouth twitched. “Horrific, but I still need that chip and if it’s not coming out that way, then it’ll have to come out the other way.”

“What do you mean by that?” Prince obtusely asked.

“Don’t make me say it.”

“Wha"Oh, you mean that.”

“Don’t talk about it. Just do it.”

“Well, I can’t right now. I went before I even got here. It’s gonna be a solid twelve to thirteen hours before I’m ready to go again.”

“That’s a lot of information that I didn’t need to know.” I heaved again. “Another one in the can.”

“Yeah…” Prince redirected his eyes to mom. “Listen Cloud if you want your chip so darn bad, why don’t you shrink yourself down and come get it? It’s like the most cliché plot ever.”

“Cute, but that’ll never work. Especially since you got it from TV.” Mom dismissed.

“Okay, Aurora I want you to shrink me down,” Mom handed him the shrink ray. “And honey I need you to inject me into your friend’s vein.”

“Okay, how is this different from what I said?” Prince crossed his arms.

“Because I said inject.”

Marion and Katrina held their stomachs and groaned as they entered my mom’s room.

“What’s going on here?” Kat asked.

“Some sort of party.” Marion interjected.

“We’re re-enacting the Spectacular Voyage.” I answered.

“That has got to be the most cliché plot ever.” Kat remarked.

“Yeah, but we’re doing it.”

Marion took the shrink ray. “So we’re shrinking someone, huh?” He pointed it at Prince. “Hey Spikes, think fast.”

Prince shrunk an inch. “Hey, boy!”

He went down another inch.

“No, Marion we’re not shrinking Prince.” Mom lectured.

He shrunk a few more inches. “Make him stop!”

“Now stop shrinking him or we can’t get in there!” Aurora took the device and returned Prince to his normal height before aiming it at my mom. “You ready?”

“About time.” Mom quipped.

Aurora shrunk her until she was barely noticeable.

“Okay, dear, now put me in the--” Mom squeaked.

“Hee hee. Mom you sound funny.” I giggled.

“Yes, I see that honey. Now--”

“Hold on.” Prince took the device and pointed it at his dad. “I wanna hear what he sounds like.”

“Boy, don’t you--” Aurora started a little too late as he shrunk to just about the same size as my mother. “Okay, now turn me back to my--”

Laughter erupted from Marion’s throat. “L-look how funny he sounds.”

“Come on, now. I don’t have time for--”

“Hold on,” Katrina took the shrink ray, a smile decorating her face. “Let’s have some fun first.”

“No, Kat.” Mom told her. “Fleana. Prince. Marion.”

“Get back here!” Aurora shouted.

But we close the door on them.

“You know they’re gonna throttle us later, right?” I pointed out.

“Yeah, but after today,” Katrina cuddled the device. “It’s gonna be totally worth it.”

“Yeah, but what if your mom, my dad, or any of our siblings try to stop us?” Marion reasoned.

“Oh, yeah, crap.” Katrina smiled and hefted the shrink ray. “Let’s fix that.”

Author's Note

Please check out the collection on Amazon.com by Xavier McDougle.