This choice: The shrink ray activated, but thankfully dropped down with Jack • Go Back...Chapter #3Space seeker by: Tisch   The morning had been moving along pretty smoothly for Jack, but with his luck, things could only go so well for so long. After having compiled a collection of his recent sales to file for his boss, Jack got up from his desk to take them to her office. As he pulled his chair back and stood up, his side hit the front of his desk and an odd thumping noise came from inside his jacket. Jack was confused since none of his actual body hit the desk, indicating that there was something inside his coat that he hadn't realized was there. He paused before continuing onto Brenna's office and reached inito his coat, pulling out a familiar looking device. "Oh my God, you've got to be kidding me," Jack grumbled. There sitting in his hand was the ever infamous shrink ray. While Jack had gotten better at keeping it under wraps in the past few years, incidents still occurred now and again. With it now present at work, the threat of an incident loomed over his head. Jack quickly stuffed the device back into his coat and quickly delivered the reports to Brenna before returning to his desk and devising a plan to prevent himself from shrinking at work.
"I can't just leave it in or near my desk though," Jack reasoned as he sat back down in his chair. "Someone's bound to get curious if they even catch a glance of it. Granted, it's not like a fancy shmancy looking device, but it's definitely a bit more intriguing than a smart phone." The real estate agent couldn't seem to find a good failsafe plan for his shrink ray. Whatever idea came to mind was soon dismissed as there would be some sort of loophole that Jack would come up with which made things complicated. With seemingly no good alternative, Jack chose to keep it in his pocket and hope for the best. And of course, going on a hope wasn't going to keep Jack safe for long.
Another hour later and things started to go south for the real estate agent. After completing some scheduling for future potential sales, Jack got up to go visit the copier and print out some extra copies of the schedules he just created. As he walked over, the receptionist got up from her desk and headed Jack's way as well. She was clearly distracted, though, as she kept her phone out in her hand. Though it wasn't a big bump, Lily accidentally walked right into the side of Jack and bumped the device in his pocket. "Oh, sorry. Wasn't watching where I was going," the young receptionist casually apologized. Jack just shrugged it off, making his copies then heading back to his desk. However, just before he went to sit down, a familiar buzzing sensation came from his pocket. That's when Jack realized that Lily must have accidentally set off his shrink ray and the damned thing was delayed. He quickly pulled it out of his pocket and tried to override the activation with a process he had discovered on the shrink ray's website. Unfortunately, he wasn't fast enough. In the blink of an eye, Jack was warped down and soon was no taller than a peanut.
"God dammit!" the now tiny real estate agent yelled. He let out a frustrated sigh and looked back at his shrink ray. He wanted to figure out which setting Lily had accidentally set off. When he read the cooldown on the device to only be five minutes, Jack breathed a sigh of relief. Recent updates to the shrink rays provided by the company allowed for regeneration of energy. The more energy used, the greater the cooldown would be. For example, to generate greater durability when shrinking an object, the shrink ray would need to use more energy and thus would require a longer cooldown. So, in this case, Jack would be able to grow back only after five minutes, though he wasn't given the normal durability he had when he was tiny. He was now more vulnerable to significant injury and possibly even death. But with the cooldown only at five minutes, Jack thought he was fine. That was until he thought about growing back. "I can't grow back with people around, they'll get snoopy and pester me about what happened when I get back to normal," the tiny guy thought. "I need to find an open area and grow back there." With a few minutes still left on cooldown, Jack started cautiously moving away from his desk and out to the open, hoping to find a quiet area he could grow back without any disturbances.
Does anything happen along the way or does Jack make it to a safe spot and grow back normally? | Members who added to this interactive story also contributed to these: |
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