THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING ADVENTURE PART II

The crew makes poor choices with the shrink ray

III. KATRINA

I put our families in an art box I created years ago. It didn’t win any medals, but mom decided to keep it around anyway. Mom had just loved it when I told her I made it just for her, but love was the farthest thing she felt in her eyes. More like fire, brimstone, and lightning. Lots and lots of lightning.

“Katrina Angela Tropical!” She said in her tinny voice. “You turn me back to my regular height this instant young lady!”

“No. You’re gonna yell at me and then punish me.” I told her.

She took a deep breath and relaxed her face. “I’m not going to get mad at you. I just want to reach the top shelf again. Please turn me back.”

“N-nice try. I-I know what you’re trying to do. You’re just saying that to get me to turn you back so you could get me.”

“I’m not gonna get you, and you’ll have to turn me back eventually. You can’t raise yourself.”

“Well, now it’s time for the Battle of the Lake!” Marion echoed like he was announcing a fight.

“Darn it, boy!” His dad chided.

“The rules are simple. You are to break into two groups of four, and then fight for my amusement.”

“We are not--” Cloud got jabbed in the back by Matthew with an old pencil. My worry suddenly turn into laughter. “What are you doing?”

“Either join my team or lay down.” Matthew said desperately. “Either way it’s you or me.”

Mom blasted the pencil into dust. “Behave yourself.”

“Alright, alright,” Matthew held up his hands. “You know I-I just got caught up in the moment.”

“Uh-oh. There’s an imbalance of power.” Fleana aimed the shrink ray at our parents. “I can’t have that. It’s not entertaining enough.”

Our parents protested as they shrunk even further.

Matthew found a pen and began bearing down on Aurora with it.

“Matthew knock it off!” Susan squeaked.

“Look we gotta do whatever it takes to get out of here.” He continued pressing on Aurora. “Sorry, guys.”

“You’re just giving them what they want.” Caroline reasoned.

“If we work together, we can defeat them.” Aurora groaned.

“For real?” Matthew questioned.

“Yeah.”

“Oh, no. There’s a storm front coming in.” Prince began pouring water in the box while Fleana blew into the spout, creating a nice little rain shower.

“Oh, come on.” Nathan tried to inch away from the water. “Storm, shoot this idiot.”

“I tried being nice and I tried being patient,” Mom warmed up. “But you just made your last mistake. Take this!”

Mom fired a ball of lightning, which only managed to poke a hole in the cup.

“Wow, mom.” I marveled. “Your powers are totally nerfed.”

“Yes, how unfortunate.” A familiar voice sent a shiver down my spine.

IV. MARION

I was totally caught off guard when Ring man showed up. Especially when he had a gun aimed at us.

“Finally, I have you right where I want you,” He chanted. “I bet you thought you had burned me alive, did you? You know after that event, all I thought about was killing you. All my data about the Cerebral Enhancer was destroyed in that fire, so I can’t finalize any shipments. Do you understand how much of my stock will be lost in the corporation if I don’t fill my quota on the number of patients I have to treat? Why I’ve lost most of my shares. I’m ruined! But still I couldn’t touch you. Not while they were around.” He jabbed that pistol at our folks. “So I waited patiently until at least one of them had slackened their hold. Now they’re incapacitated, and I could finally--”

“Whatever.” I shrunk the guy with the shrink ray.

“What…just happened?”

“Oh, look a rat,” Katrina took off her shoe. “Time to squash it.”

Ring man barely dodged the incoming shoe and plopped to the floor. He was then met by the four of us stomping on him until he couldn’t move.

“What!” We cried triumphantly.

“You…suck…” His arm twitched.

“Okay, you had your fun,” Cloud squeaked. “Now, Prince come over here so we can get that chip out of you.”

“Oh, that?” Prince raised an eyebrow. “I sneezed that out about an hour ago.”

“What?!”

“Yeah, it’s on a rag on the table in the living room.”

“Wha�"I’ve wasted my time!”

“Guess so.” Fleana smiled.

“Aargh!” I heard Susan crack her knuckles. “Then turn us back.”

“Promise you won’t hurt us?”

“No.”

“Then I won’t.”

Unfortunately, we didn’t have a choice in the matter. Our families instantly re-sized and the crash in the living room could only be the chip returning to its normal size.

“It’s a good thing you sneezed out that chip.” Susan remarked.

Prince tenderly massaged his head.

“Interesting,” Cloud crossed her legs. “It seems that the shrink ray effects are only temporary. I got to get back to my colleagues about this.”

“Aww!” Fleana moaned. “I was hoping we’d keep the big screen TV.”

“Oh, you don’t have to worry about that,” Aurora’s tone was semi serious. “What with all the work you’re going to do around the apartment for a while, you won’t have time to watch it.”

Katrina sighed. “How long?”

“Two weeks.” Her mother said.

“That’s it?!” Matthew complained.

“Yeah, this hardly seems like a misdemeanor.” Aurora explained.

“Kind of feel like we got off easy.” I stated.

“We could make it tougher.” Dad said.

“Two weeks is good.”

Author's Note

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