Dwindling-Iva - Conflict Resolution

[fancomicsjohn]

Dwindling-Iva - Conflict Resolution 29 pages


"That wasn't the plan, Joe!" Elle hissed.

"You never said you'd be taking it to your place!" The man spat back.

"Where else would we keep it?"

"At mine! I was on the team that built this thing!"

Elle shook her head. "Oh please. You were practically getting them coffees, don't try and act like you're the brains behind this!"

"I did more on this project than you!"

"If it weren't for me, we wouldn't even have the codes to get into the building after hours!"

Their voices were hushed but echoed in the empty office all the same. There wasn't a soul in sight. No one to bear witness to the would-be thieves.

Elle tried to force the device from Joe's grip, the man responded in kind.

"Let go! I'm the one who has to find a buyer for this thing."

"You let go! I'm the only one here who knows how to work it!"

The pair scowled at each other, the force of their protests growing, their hands clenched harder on the silver device in their hands. Their minds were focused on their frustration, and not on their would-be prize.

So unfocused; it was unclear who had triggered it.

There was a click.

The panels on the device rotated.

A faint green light washed over the pair as chemicals were released from the confines of the machine.

"Oh shit." They said in unison - finally agreeing on something.

Elle looked at Joe. "It's not going to..." She left the thought fearfully unfinished.

"I... uh..." Came the stammered response.

Yet it was already happening. Joe and Elle were shrinking!

"Oh fuck. Look at you." Said the man, his voice rising in panic.

"Look at you!" Elle shot back.

The world stretched out and rose up around them as the pair were already dwindling past half their size.

Elle went to speak, but her words turned to a shriek as the flashlight grew cumbersome and heavy in her hand.

"Turn it off!" She yelled at her pint-sized partner in crime.

"I.. I can't... it's too heavy! Shit!" The pair shrunk further, Joe was forced to use two hands and lean it against his body to hold the small device upright.

Smaller and smaller and smaller they went...

Elle roared through clenched teeth as the flashlight fell to the floor and rolled away from them, her strength and size unable to wield the basic tool.

Joe felt the device beginning to weigh heavily against him, if he held it for much longer, he could be seriously injured beneath it. With a heft, he pushed it off of his body. It toppled onto the carpet of the empty office with a thud.

Elle and Joe seemed to have finished shrinking. The world was utterly confounding, utterly enormous, utterly terrifying.

The woman gasped, the man yelled; as the pair took in their newly shrunken stature and vastly shifted perspectives. The once-familiar scene of the crime now a huge, unfamiliar landscape to the tiny thieves.

What a disaster.

Soon the panic and fear shifted into frustration. Anger. Blame.

Elle wheeled on her feet, now looking down at the formerly tall Joe. Her anger swelled by her relatively tall stature.

Joe, for his part, stared up at the seemingly giant woman. Suddenly feeling less imposing in the face of her anger.

"You idiot! This is all your fault! Look at us!"

Joe through his hands up defensively. "My fault?! You were, uh, we were both trying to get a hold of the thing!"

"You should have just listened to me! Going to try and give me orders now, little guy?"

Joe grimaced at the insult. "I guess my holding onto it meant I got a bigger dose..." He said, mostly to himself. "Listen, just stay calm... I'm sure..."

Elle cut him off. "'Stay calm?!' You did not seriously just say that - we're smaller than Barbie and Ken, Joe!"

The man was about to respond, his fear amplified by their new size difference. "I...I'm sure if we..."

"Shut up." She snapped. "What was that?"

Joe's focus was more on the furious, bigger woman before him, but eventually he heard it too.

"Someone's here!" Elle said through tight lips. Her voice quieter now, as though there was any risk of their tiny voices being heard.

"What do we do...?" Joe asked, his own panic far outsizing his stature.

"Hide!" Elle was already moving.

"W-wait!" Joe said. "We need help! Shouldn't we try..."

The woman was already away. "I'm not letting anyone find me like this! Remember what we were here to do!?"

Joe started to follow, looking back at the enormous device that had rendered them their new size. The prospect of facing this giant alone was not appealing. He saw the light flicker on in reception, and a silhouette moving into the office. The anxiety was too much, and he followed after Elle, rushing towards a nearby desk chair.

The would-be thieves cowered beneath the legs of the chair, the sound of footsteps approaching amplified by their reduced sizes. They didn't have eyes on who was here, but both retreated deeper into the gloom to hide as whoever it was moved around the space, completely unaware of the two shrunken people nearby.

Joe's decision to hide felt like the sane one as the size of the stranger was made clearer, they were positively puny compared to the fully sized stranger. He hid himself lower, not wanting to be found. Elle's curiosity was overpowering though, and she was less concealed.

"Wait, isn't that..." She whispered. "Thats one of the new girls on the marketing team..."

Joe dared to raise his head. "Laura?"

"She must have forgotten something..."

"Just get it and go... don't come over here... don't come over here..." The man whispered, trying to send his thoughts to Laura's mind.

Laura's rifling through her desk ceased, as the shining flashlight caught her eye. The pair cowered, both nearly shrieking as the young woman stomped into view, coming to stand before the seemingly discarded items. She was absolutely titanic by comparison.

"Thats weird..." Came an idle voice from far, far above the trembling pair.

"She wouldn't even know what that is..." Came Elle's voice.

Then, the new addition to the company bent down and lifted the flashlight and mysterious device into her hands.

"Oh shit." The pair said in unison once more.

Elle screamed. "No!"

Joe yelled. "Leave it!"

Yet even in the silence, their voices were too diminutive to be heard by the giantess. Without another thought, or any regard for the panicking pair, she turned and began to leave - the discarded items in tow.

"Get back here!" Elle yelled, trying to get the woman's attention.

Joe through his hands to his face, shocked at how badly this had turned for them.

The thieves watched as their prize simply walked from the office.

Joe and Elle were tiny, helpless and trapped in the dark. Their gaze turning to each other.

"If you had just...!"

"Well if you hadn't...!"

The tiny pair's raucous argument barely more than squeaks in the silent office.

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