Chapter 11 - After the ordeal

When you wake up, one by one, you hardly recognise your surroundings.

For a start, the room is small. And there isn't a single piece of furniture, box or crate still standing. Everything is upturned and broken as if after a hurricane.
Wait a minute-- the room... is small?!

You sit up checking your hands, your bodies, comparing them to the objects around you... yes, you are back to your normal size!

You look at the welder's glasses on the ground - lens cracked, and now small enough to fit around your head if you wore them.

You look at the strange gun - but in its place, a smoking lump of melted metal lies on the ground, surrounded by scorch marks on the floorboards of the basement.

"Holy crap!", Al shouts. "We did it!"

She jumps up only to regret it immediately when pain shoots through her whole body. "Oh darn!", she groans. "I still shouldn't have touched that dumb gun!" She looks around at her friends. "Are you all okay?"

The dead body is still there, and not smelling any better than it did before.

Unfortunately, your bruises and pains are still there too, now accompanied by a piercing headache. Alana's hand still shows severe burns and hurts like crazy. She'll need medical attention.

But, hey - you managed to survive at this size, against incredible odds, and live to tell the story.

Logan looks around the room, visibly wincing from a headaches. With one closed, to try and quell the throbbing, Logan looks at his friends. Are you guys okay?

"Ouch... I feel like my body exploded, then was put back together again..."

still covered in white paint, she moans "shit ... was that a regular summer afternoon, for you guys?..." she looks groggily at each of you.

"I mean, I've never been this small," Al says. "But yeah, we get up to some pretty crazy stuff during the summer!" She grins wide at Alice. Then she looks around. "Too bad we lost sight of bug-friend. He was kind of cute."

Cody stands up slowly, moving like an old man. He glances at the body.

"He looks just as dead at this size..." he says, prodding the man's leg with his foot. "...and he stinks just as bad... Let's get out of here."

"But what if Chet is still outside?", Al asks. "How long have we been in here?"

Cody steps past the dead body and reaches the door. He marvels at how easy it is to open, when you're the right size.

The basement stairs, previously a titanic aztec pyramid dwarfing everything, are now just... stairs.

Logan slowly leads the way out of the room and up the stairs. Almost on instinct he looks around for Needler. A bit dismayed at losing his sword, Logan continues up and onto the first floor.

"It's been... probably hours. But, yes, he might be still out there..." she says standing up and propping herself against one of the walls.

"Hm, he probably wouldn't have waited for hours. But we should check if there's a back door to this house," Al says. She thinks for a moment, then she suddenly freezes in place. "Oh heck!", she curses. "I lost my skateboard in here while I was small! It must still be tiny!" She frowns. "My parents are never going to buy me another one..."

"...and we left our bikes by that broken fence, when we left the road..." she remembers.

Cody grins, patting the skateboard strapped on his back. "Still got my ride. We're inseparable."

As they move towards the staircase, a green flash catches Alana's eye from the corner of the stairwell.

She steps nearer, and sees her miniaturized skateboard upside down in a corner. Every now and then, a little zap of green energy sparkles on its board, or on its wheels. It is perfect in every detail, and Al can recognize every dent and scratch on it.

Al leans over and picks her board up carefully. "Well, I can't ride this," she frowns. "But it'll make a fun memento for today." She grins. "Today was fun, right? Maybe a bit painful towards the end but... You do remember that ginormous glass of jam, right?"