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Happy birthday to my friend AnimalKingdom https://twitter.com/AnimalKWolf
Here's a story where he's in superhero setting along with his mentor KingDead
guest starring: GreyMantle https://twitter.com/jgreymantle
Thumbnail art by KitsuneKit
Enjoy this story I wrote by dowloading the file or read it down below
The night was falling on the city as the sun was giving its last orange rays before continuing his course behind the hills. He finished his job for the day, which isn’t the case of AnimalKingdom. The Buizel pokemon was in the middle of his job as one of the many local superheroes.
He was busy battling with a red skinned bull in a pink tube filled with liquids, trying to dodge rays and white blobs coming at him. No, he wasn’t on an alien planet, he was still a rookie and hadn't made his first interplanetary rescue yet. He was indeed in the city but inside somebody. Yes, he was right in the body of a gray furred wolf named KingDead, his friend and mentor as a superhero.
Normally AK is only his sidekick but he had to take action due to the circumstances.
Bart, the red skinned bull shrunk himself to microscopic size and infiltrated the wolf body. His objective was to take control of his brain.
A classic supervillain plan to either manipulate a superhero to commit forfeit on his behalf or to infiltrate their secret base/HQ. It would have been effective if the orange Buizel didn’t notice a sudden change in his friend personality
Lazing around and wolfing down burgers and other fast food. That wasn’t really suspect as everybody can take a break. But when he actually wanted to chug down alcohol and smoke a big fat cigar.
It was time to intervene. It could have been a simple doppelganger, an evil double or clone. But in either way, AK had to check this out by using his shrinking power and get inside his mentor to clear that.
It wasn't the Buizel's first fantastic voyage. When you have the power to shrink to microscopic sizes you can expect to get into other people’s bodies. All you have to do when you get innerspace is to avoid some dangerous places, most of them being located at the chest.
Stomach and intestine, where you would have a gruesome end without good protection.
Bladder and anus, not deadly but you don’t want to be here.
Anyway, AnimalKingdom being a water pokemon, it was easy for him to swim in the bloodstream to check on people's health. If he didn’t become a superhero he would have surely been a doctor.
It wasn’t really different in this case but instead of fighting a virus replicating itself to infect organs. He’ll have to fight a shrunken villain in his minisub short circuiting a brain to have control.
Both of them being a plague of course.
The battle was raging, Bart the red bull was trying to get rid of the buizel superhero so he could resume his mind control. Firing torpedoes and shooting lasers at him. AK was swimming as fast as he could, dodging everything threatening to end his life. He was also hoping those weren’t causing serious damages. All of those explosions and shooting were not damaging him but the pink and soft walls, which were actually Kingdead’s veins. This battle could cause a haemorrhagic or worse, damage a vital organ or a part of it. Thankfully he had a strategy. KD on his part remained motionless as he felt like little painful pricks moving in his body. The situation was critical for him and he couldn't do anything to help his sidekick besides not moving to prevent any hindrance.
AK attracted the bull in his submarine where the vein was separating into smaller ones. So he had space around to maneuver the torpedoes. Bart shot another one and they were all equipped with homing systems as it followed the Buizel. AK didn’t wasted his time and effort, he guided the explosive engine back in his sender. The bull saw it and made a strafe to the left. Which was what the superhero wanted as the torpedo exploded beside the mini submarine and pushed it right into a white blood cell.
Bart tried to hit the gas to get out but the gelatinous white blob was already devouring the propeller and rendered it unusable.
The hull was also being slowly attacked by the digestive fluids secreted by the phagocyte, eating the submarine assimilated to a bad microbe, which wasn’t far for the truth.
Seeing the blood leaking into his only way of transportation and white acidic good oozing into the systems. The red bull didn’t had any choice and bailed out in a diving suit. Contrary to the water pokemon he couldn’t breath underwater or in liquid.
Animal Kingdom exhaled in relief, thinking Bart would surrender now deprived of his vehicles and deadly weapons. But it wasn’t accounting for the fact the bad guy hasn't used his favorite weapon. His shrink ray gun. The pokemon was going to pay for ruining his plan and mini submarine, ready to make him more micro than he'd ever been before.
Now AK had to dodge green rays that could shrink him. That was less dangerous than other lasers and torpedoes. When the rays hit the wall it was making the whole body of the gray wolf shrink but he could easily cancel with his sizeshifting powers, keeping a constant normal size.
But for the buizel who only had the power to shrink but not to grow, he hasn't mastered this part yet. This was a big problem, no pun intended.
He could end up subatomic or even smaller and at those sizes it’s extremely difficult to be found and grown back to normal.
Never before AK thanked fate so much to have made him a water pokemon at birth. He was able to dodge those rays but also apply another brilliant strategy. He led the raging bull trying to shrink him into a specific part of the wolf body. The lungs.
The bull was in limited time, the content of his oxygen bottle rapidly depleted with the efforts he made to swim and try to shoot at the Buizel.
Bart watch beeped, his tank was almost empty with only 5 minutes left before he would suffocate. Desperate, he looked left and right to see if there’s any air around. He noticed oxygen bubbles coming from a wall at a regular pace, so he rushed to it. Forgetting the superhero he was trying to shrink. Which was a mistake.
The moment he passed his body through the capilar to fill his bottle with air. The buizel pushed him so he could be entirely inside the lung. The bull felt himself taken up and down by the wind as KD breathed normally. Trying to grab another capilar to get back into the bloodstream.
AK grabbed his communicator at his wrist as he quickly typed a message to KD.
sneeze
KD wondered how he could do that when he noticed a feather lying around. If it worked in cartoons, there’s no reason it couldn’t work in reality. He grabbed it and started to tickle his snout.
Bart was gripping the capillary AK was behind, ready to get back and give a good shrinking dose to the one bothering him. When he fell a wind was pushing him to the bottom of the lung. Little pushes of wind and the sound of KingDead saying “Aaaa…aaa…aaaa…”
“Oh no…” The red bull simply said. Perfectly knowing what’s happening.
“AAAAAAAAAACCHHHHHHOOOOOOO!” Just like that KD sneezed the villain out his body.
“CURSE YOU ITTY BITTY AND KINGDEAD!!!” Bart screamed but for nothing. He was too microscopic to be heard by anyone and nobody saw the red tinkling when he was too far away in the sky. Itty Bitty was the super hero name of the micro Buizel but he rarely used it outside of his official business.
AK, who tumbled all around the veins when the wolf body jerked due to the sneeze, typed “gesundheit” before sending another message to get back to normal.
KD grew to giant size and his sidekick inside grew with him as he made his way to a relatively clean exit aka the lacrimal gland.
Once he was out, KD had a hard time not winking him back into his body. The shrunken Buizel then quickly jumped off the wolf’s snout before he shrunk back to his normal.
King dead then cupped his hand to catch his tiny sidekick and cushion his fall. Besides having grown along with the wolf, he was still small as a thumb. As many times before, KD used his size shifting powers to grow and make the orange furred Buizel gain size with him. Dosing it carefully to not mess with his proportion before AK jumped out when he finally found his normal size again.
This was the only way for him to get back to normal besides using a size changing device and consumable.
“I really need to unlock the growing capacity of my sizeshifting power” He said after he gently landed on the ground.
“It doesn’t bother me to regrow you back. Don't lose hope my tiny sidekick, you'll soon learn how to become gigantic like me. Just keep training like I do.” KD Said while he flexed his arm to show his muscle. KingDead was the embodiment of the big and muscled superhero. Even without his size shifting powers he would be considered as a superhuman with his strength alone, or in his case a superwolf.
Besides him AK looked like a tiny and frail orange furred pokemon only reaching his stomach.
“You didn’t had to grow to get rid of that guy who intruded inside my body. Which supervillain was it by the way?”
Animal Kingdom and KD crossed his road and were shrunken by him many times. “It was Bart the red bull.”
So the wolf wasn't really surprised this plot came from him. “We’ve been fighting a lot of times with him recently. Though it’s the first time he shrinks himself…Voluntarily.”
“It was pretty clever. He could have seen our hideouts, know all our passwords and future raids through your eyes. But he was also making you eat, drink and smoke. He was planning to ruin your health to get you out of the picture.” AK pretty much summed the evil bull plan.
“Don’t tell me about it. I’m going to need a serious detox cure with saunas, fruit and plant drinks to recover from this. I still have the horrible aftertaste of whiskey and cigar in my mouth.” The wolf stick his tongue in disgust and also to try to get rid of the aftertaste.
“Lucky for us he didn’t know about your healthy lifestyle or he just rushed too much.” AK said. “But if it can reassure you, I haven’t seen any tar or damages when I was in your lungs.” Both superhero wrist communicators beeped. Thankfully it wasn’t an emergency but the end of shift notification.
In the superhero business, if you weren’t on a case or emergency situation, this means it was enough for today.
The Buizel stirred. “Good. We’re done for today and for the weekend. I wasn’t feeling like fighting another villain after that.”
KD chuckled. “Can’t blame you even if I don’t encourage that kind of attitude, it’s bad for the training. But you had your dose of adventure for today.” He made some stirring and exercise to relax his muscles, mimicked by his sidekick. To prevent muscle pain and stiffness.
Once they were finished, AnimalKingdom asked. “Shall we go home now?
“Not yet. We need to go somewhere before.“ Apparently the wolf had other plans. He grew to the size of a 5 story building before he bent down and offered his paw to his sidekick. “Hop in!”
One thing who’s convenient with being KingDead sidekick. You don’t need any car or way of transportation. Many superheroes use overpowered cars and jets to get to their destination. KD was using his leg and you just to climb on his paw as he could just grow big enough to stride over the city or the countries if he wanted.
For now he decided to be 50 feet tall. An impressive size, pretty smaller than most kaijus but still noticeable. He was in the city after all and when you’re big and don’t want to stomp and damage everything around, it is better to not aim too high for the height.
KingDead made the headlines and got lectured many times due to the accidental and collateral damages he “apparently” caused. He claimed to never do those but you could hear him grumbling sometimes. That it wasn’t his fault he had to fight titanic villains and how the cities weren’t conceived for big peoples, giants, macros, titans… Especially when they’re brawling…
Despite all of that, this was surely better than Izzy’s power to only shrink. KD could also shrink and reduce others in size. The opposite he did to AK but the Buizel was able to shrink smaller. To the point he had the potential to get into microverses but never did it, the one way trip risk was just too high.
The superhero duo arrived at the destination the wolf had in mind and Izzy recognized it immediately. The big mouse holding a pizza statue was giving it out. He took him to a Chuck E Cheese pizzeria and games.
“We’re going to eat there.” KingDead happily announced before he lowered his paw to allow his sidekick to get down. The pair took profit to take a photo of the big wolf besides the statue where he acted like he wanted to eat the fake pizza before he shrunk to his normal size. Which was bigger than normal people.
The restaurant was family and kid oriented but it didn’t matter to Ittybitty. He liked it and often came here to eat, though it’s the first time he was coming with his superhero suit on.
It was a good feeling to get around, eat or visit a place while being in your official work suit. You could get discounts, freebies and even some additional money if you had a publicity contract with the business. Which was probably the case here as KD was the titular hero but the bui would get 30% since they’re together.
On the other hand, it could be a hassle. People constantly staring at you, even taking a selfie at the worst moment and without asking first. Or the annoying one who wants you to use your powers like you were on his orders.
Once they were seated by a guy wearing the famous Chuck E mascot suit, the gray mouse wearing a purple shirt with a big yellow C. KingDead told him to wait despite not having ordered anything yet. It was strange but Izzy was enjoying having a box as KD was seating at the other side, those were giving a little privacy. But mostly, the buizel was eyeing the arcades. The pizzas were good but what he enjoyed were the videogames cabinet. This particular restaurant had a pretty large one with a varied selection. From the good old Astro City to the most modern with VR headset.
Finally after a few minutes, another Chuck E Cheese staff member in a mouse costume brought a big covered tray and put it on the table.
KD was grinning from ear to ear as Animal Kingdom was wondering what was happening. Until the staff member told him. “Please, quickly open the tray.”
AK was spacing out, trying to understand what was happening before the staff got him back into reality. “huh?” He looked at the mouse costume wearing guy who insisted. He uncovered the tray.
They were 3 pizzas on it but a little round platform was sticking above it. With a gift on it and 3 gray mice wearing Chuck E Cheese shirts, starting to happily sing in choir. “Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy Birthday Animal Kingdom! Happy birthday to yoooooooouuuuuuu!” The mice then took the gift and lifted it as they were offering it to the Buizel who gently took it.
“Thank you!” He thanked them and even clapped for their song before the staff member took the platform away with them. “And thank you so much for that KD, you remembered it. With those superhero gigs I totally forgot today was my birthday.”
The gray wolf chuckled. “Did you really think I was going to forget the birthday of my favorite sidekick?” He then ruffled the orange hair at the top of his protégé’s head with his paw.
“That’s easy, I’m your only sidekick.” answered the Buizel with a chuckle as he gently pushed back the paw and arranged his hair back.
KD had a fatherly smile on his face. “That doesn’t change anything as you are my favorite one. You’re more than a sidekick for me, you’re like the little bro I never had and I’ll hope I’ll make you as big and powerful as me.”
The Buizel pokemon laughed before he opened the gift offered by the restaurant. There was an evening free refill at the soda fountain card. A 25% discount coupon for the 3 next meal at this restaurant. But the most for AK an unlimited pass to freely play all the arcade games in the restaurant during the whole evening.
This was the cherry on the top and he didn’t know there was such a coupon for this.
After the 2 super heroes ate the pizzas on the tray and drank well. Animal Kingdom not forgetting to thank KD many times for this.
It was time for some game. The dinner was wolfed down even by the Buizel but they both knew the main thing were video games for his special day.
The game corner was separated into 2 sections. One with pure entertainment arcades. Like SERGAL rally, Cai-man, Dragon’s Fair and good old SERGAL cosmo city cabinets.
The other and bigger section was the ticket winning games. Ticket towers, Quick drop Stomp it up, Punch it, coin pushers and other things to test your address, reflex and skills to obtain the precious tickets. And those tickets could be exchanged for a lot of good prizes at the counter located in the back of the game corner.
AK inserted the card into the tokens distributor and obtained the coin allowing to play any of the games. At first they played with the game for fun, KingDead having trouble getting in and out of racing game car pods due to his naturally large framed body.
As for AK he was having the time of his life, setting new high scores and playing. Until they decided to switch to the ticket winning cabinets.
This is where things are getting tricky. Those games were hard and required true gaming skills along with precision and excellent timing. To make the machine spew the precious orange tickets to be exchanged for prizes, you had to win the games. And whatever restaurant, arcade parlor or funfair you’re in. Those things couldn’t be obtained without a hard fight or a lot of luck.
The Orange Buizel was on his edge as he wanted to obtain a nice prize this time and could play without having to worry about money.
But no matter how hard you try, you can’t help but wonder if those machines weren’t a little rigged, but just a little.
After 2 hours, he managed to obtain 650 tickets. A good amount that a lot of people wouldn’t be able to get in so little time.
KingDead had a little more difficulties. “I’m not really good at those games. I only got like 50 tickets. Here, every ticket I won is for you.” He gave them to his sidekick.
“Thank you KD. Don’t worry, those games are really hard. I never saw anyone winning a jackpot or big prizes. Not even on luck based games.” He took the ticket and searched for the next game he could try until he spotted the perfect one for his big wolf benefactor. “This one should be easy for you.” He led him to a big Punch It! machine.
Push a button to make the punching ball fall in position, hit it as hard as you can, see your score on the number screen.
“I think so too. You first my little sidekick. I would like to see your score.” The wolf chuckled as inserted a token and pushed the button. Animal Kingdom readied. With some advice from his mentor. “Good stable position, don’t forget to place your left hand in front for the hikite before you hit with the right and go!”
AK struck the punching ball with his full strength. Then the score started to go high for measures. 100, 200…300…329… Which isn’t reaching the half of the scoreboard. Much to KD surprise.
“Don’t worry, before training with you, I wasn’t reaching 300.” The Bui tried to reassure him, the wolf was his trainer after all.
KingDead snorted at the machine, he had a weird face before he stepped in front of the machine. “Step aside, watch how a fully trained pro does it.” AK pressed the button as KD got in his punch ready stance. The moment the ball stopped, the big muscled wolf used the maximum power his right arm muscle allowed. The Buizel felt the wind moving, pushed by the knuckles. BAAAAMMMM!!! A punching thump was heard in the whole building as people looked at where it was coming from.
The punching ball went up, slightly damaged as you now see the inside and cracking being heard. The score board lit up 700, 800, 999 before it disconnected with electric sparkles and little bolts going out. No need to be a technician to notice the obvious. He broke that machine. “oopsie…” He released. The machine had a little more sparkles before it spewed tickets in mass. Like it was emptying itself of it as it formed a nice little pile of it. “Well… Happy birthday!” The superhero said to his sidekick as he showed what he obtained, before trouble came.
“What the hell are you doing??? You broke it!!!” Exclaimed a red panda with a Chuck E cheese uniform with a tag reading ‘manager’
“I’ll settle this, keep enjoying your evening, I’ll be back in a few minutes.” KD said as he apologized to the manager and talked to him to smooth it out. Both of them went to the restaurant office to discuss this.
A cleaning employee put an “out of order” on the punching ball machine before he said. “Don’t forget your tickets, sir.” As he started to clean the little parts of the game that were forced out by the overpowered punch. Still a little stunned by the situation, AK took the little pile of orange papers and went away.
He didn’t know if it was a good thing to take them or if he had to give it back. He went to the prize counter and put it on.
“Excuse me, the machine had a malfunction and spewed all the tickets.” He addressed the yellow fox wearing a blue shirt holding the prize exchange counter.
“You won all that? That’s a great amount you got here kid.” The fox said with an amused tone.
“No no no, my friend broke the machine and all of those came out. I think it wasn’t supposed to.” The Buizel sidekick explained.
“So, that’s what all of this noise was about.” The man laughed, plucking a chocolate cigar in his mouth. “If the machine gave it to you that means you won it, broken or not. That’s the rules. So how many do you have?” He took the pile before he inserted it into a machine who rapidly took and counted them.
“I have those ones too.” He also gave him the one he earned earlier.
A couple of minutes later, the counter indicated. “10 500 tickets. That’s a really great amount you got here kiddo. Wanna exchange them for a prize now?” The fox proposed.
“I want to think about it and see what prizes you have now.* AK answered.
The man with the cigar took a pen and wrote on a little sheet the number of ticket owned by the orange Buizel and gave it to him before he showed him the counter and racks beside it. “The counters have the lowest, the highest are on your left. Take your time to make your choice.*
Animal Kingdom discovered their selection. It started with little things you could obtain for 5 or 10 points. Stink bombs, balloons, plastic jewelled rings, fake mustaches and vomit. The kind of stuff for kids.
Then as you go up in values, you find the toys, the fake katanas, the plushies, the kid watches. As you go above the 5 thousands, you start to have the good quality action figures and the collector items. You see, having thousands of tickets is pretty rare, unless you’re a regular spending good amounts of money on ticket winning games. So this is the section where prizes weren’t given out easily and of course since they don’t constantly renew or buy new stock. So saying that some items have been here for a long time was an understatement.
Some action figures here were produced decades before Animal Kingdom birth. There were also a few obscured ones from shows and superheroes he never heard about and most rare. An actual action figure of KD in all his glory with his big muscles and his red cape as an accessory. He never knew that he actually tried to do some merchandising. That made him laugh a little and he noted to ask his mentor about that after his discussion with the manager.
The orange Buizel kept looking through, going above the number of tickets he got as he was curious about the most valuable prize here.
7 000 000 tickets. That was the highest here. Something that could clearly not be achieved in a lifetime, even if you play every day for decades, you couldn’t obtain a quarter of it. You could expect an actual fighter jet for such a huge amount. But here it was a simple golden oil lamp. The tag boasted about this being a genuine magic lamp containing a genie. AK doubted this until he noticed this lamp was oddly familiar to him, he was sure he already saw it and even got it in his hands in a not so distant past…
But he brushed it off, looking for other things for less tickets. For 6 million there was a superhero serum giving one random superpower. For 5, a time machine. For 4, dragon eggs or a set or materias. The list goes on as the Buizel superhero wonders if he should talk about those unique prizes to the hero HQ. Cause if some of those were real, it could cause massive catastrophe or even rewrite the entire reality they’re living in.
Finally, he got back on stuff he could obtain and something caught his eyes. Between a book seemingly made of skin and a green mask made of wood. It was a big box with a 50’s style picture and ray gun, titled. “Ultimate Shrink ray. Nothing will take place anymore and it’s all educational fun for all the families.” The picture was a family going with its old woody wagon in the middle of giant blades of grass with giant insects and people nearby who seemed overjoyed by that shrunken family.
“You want it?” A voice erupted behind AnimalKingdom which made him jump a little. It was the fox with the blue shirt.
“I don’t know but it sure looks good.” He answered.
“Looks good?” He asked seemingly a little offended. “Kid, it's an Atomictoy shrink ray. Produced and commercialized in 1955 and coming with a 300 years life guarantee. It was the Rolls Royce of the shrink ray back then. The ones they’re making today don't even hold up to that beauty in terms of quality and value.”
Quite skeptical, AK asked. “Does that thing really work? I mean, it’s just not a horribly overpriced vintage toy you can find in antique stores?”
The Fox laughed. “Not at all, I can assure you this thing perfectly. You youngsters don’t know much but tools like this were built to last centuries.” He unlocked the showcase and took the box. “Here, let me give you a demonstration.” Then he came back to his counter and opened the box with utmost care. Taking the red colored toy with a design straight out of a 50’s drive-in B movie. A red plastic body that almost looks like a hairdryer with the cannon being a yellow tube with red circles and ending with a metallic sphere and a little crosshair at the top.
The ray guns every alien and spacemen had when movies were still shot in black & white.
“The good thing is that you don’t need a battery for this thing. It has a totally harmless and totally sealed nuclear cell with a 500 year lifetime.” The yellow furred fox explained before he took a bin full of paper on the counter. “It comes with 2 mods. The burst mode. He aimed at the bin and pressed the trigger. The ray gun shot a blue burst which hit the bin and made it lose a quarter of its original size. “Or the continuous mode.” He changed the setting and pressed the trigger again. A green ray came out of the sphere, slowly shrinking the trash until the employee released the trigger and stopped the ray from going out. “No limit to the shrinking, the more exposed something is, the smaller they’ll become. A must.”
Animal Kingdom who silently listened and observed was now convinced, especially after seeing it work. “You would make a formidable salesman.” He wanted to have this size ray now. Lot of superheroes actually had collector tools and gadgets, some powerless heroes even launched their career with one of those. Like that bat who had his super tool belt who just had everything. Of course the best stuff was rare to find or just put in auction but if you had some luck and knew where to search.
The fox blushed a little. “Oh! Thank you!” he chuckled a little before he added. “I have a passion for those old toys. And I think it would be the perfect pair with your superhero costume. So you wanna exchange 10 000 tickets for this?”
Excitedly AK answered. “Of course!” The yellow furred vulpine took the right amount of orange papers and the Buizel took the box containing his newly acquired shrink ray.
He came back to his table, noticing KD wasn’t back yet. Probably still busy with talking to the manager about the earlier incident. After a soda refill and several minutes later, the wolf was still not in sight and he was bored.
So the orange furred pokemon decided to take his new “toy” to watch it and maybe try it. He read the warnings on the side of the box but they were pretty generic.
Do not try to open the shrink ray. Do not use the shrink ray if it’s damaged/underwater/drenched. Do not put it in young kids hands without surveillance. Use the shrink ray responsibly and in accordance with your local law. In case of troubles, Atomictoy rejects all responsibility in case of misuse or tampering with the shrinking circuitry.
Atomictoy customer service line: 555-BABOOM
Now the ray gun was in AK’s hand, he started to think about the good sides of having it. He finally had something to defend himself without causing harm. His power couldn’t shrink anyone else but himself. This will change with this, plus now that he has a size ray device, he wouldn’t have to bother his wolf mentor for growing himself back. At least until he got the full hold of his power.
He started to fiddle with it and wanted to absolutely test it but on what…
He could absolutely not shoot at someone else as he was a superhero sidekick not a supervillain armed with a shrink ray like he often meets.
He couldn’t fire at the restaurant furniture and properties to not create more trouble and probably risk being banned.
The remainder of his lukewarm cheese pizza, that wouldn’t be good as he wanted to enjoy the last 2 parts and not make them crumbs.
This was leaving only one target…Himself.
Somehow, even if he’s the only one having a shrink ray around here, he’s going to be the target of it. This was getting old and tiring…
Thankfully they were some things around to enjoy while shrunk.
AnimalKingdom pointed the shrink ray at his chest, setting it on continuous mode and then he pressed the trigger. The red ray gun shot a green ray at the pokemon’s body. Slowly, AK started to shrink.
For him it felt like an elevator ride down as the ray was shrinking him slower than his power does.
Everything was growing around him and also getting larger as he was reducing his height. A few seconds of exposition and he was the size of a child as the table was reaching his head. He stepped on the couch, keeping zapping himself with the ray gun. Descending below the size of a toddler, the Buizel made a quick jump on the table who was becoming larger and larger for him.
Now the size of a toy, the wood surface was large enough to be a court and larger than a field in a few seconds. With things like plates becoming large platforms like concert stages and bottles and glass becoming house sized.
AK finally settled himself for a 3 inches tall size, the slow rate of this shrink ray was making it very easy to precisely be the size you wanted.
He then went on his plate where 2 parts of pizza he left earlier were waiting. It would be little… For someone normal sized.
One of the very few advantages of being tiny, you don't need big amounts of food especially when the food piece is bigger than your whole body. So for the shrunken Buizel here, the 2 pieces pizza looked like a room sized carpet of melted cheese goodness on a tasty crust.
KingDead didn’t really want him to use his power for that, because he was his mentor supervising his training and his diet too. But he thought since it was his birthday, he could make an exception.
He first thought about plunging into it but remembered what happened last time he plunged into melted cheese. He got stuck, his body too small and not strong enough to not be glued... He stayed a few hours like a fly stuck on paper before someone peeled him off.
This time I would just take parts of it and calmly eat to make time pass.
Nobody around seemed to notice the teeny tiny superhero nibbling pizza on his table.
Even when a ball was thrown by a kid from the ball pit that hit the large soda cup on the table, not a single person minded. Spilled drinks were something common in restaurants, especially the ones who have a lot of families with kids as customers.
But for AK who saw a massive ball crash in the house sized cup who fell right in his direction. Spilling a torrent of sweet bubbly liquid in his direction and washed him off the table. After he got out of the puddle who resulted from this, all wet and sticky, AK decided to regain normal size. He took his shrink ray, switched to the other mode and zapped himself. A quick bolt of blue went into his body and made him lose a quarter of an inch. Suddenly descending, Animal Kingdom didn’t have time to react before the red plastic ray sent another and another one. Being all covered in sticky liquid the finger and the trigger were stuck in firing position.
Quickly, the orange furred pokemon managed to pull his finger which released the mechanism from its activation spot.
Problem is, it actually shot several blue shrinking bolts on its owner who looked around him to assess his current size.
A quarter of an inch, ant sized to give a good comparison, the straw of the carpet was reaching his waist. This made AnimalKingdom really nervous and worried as he was now in the size where most people won’t notice him.
When you get shrunk down below the 1 inch in size, you’re getting really hard to see and often get confused as a bug. Your voice becomes too small to be heard and everything totally harmless at normal size is now dangerous.
AK didn’t like to be at that size when nobody else, especially KingDead was not aware about it.
This could take a very long time to find him and anything could happen. One of the most common dangers is being trampled by a passing foot or paw. Like the one incoming right now!
It looked like a staff member saw the mess created by the ball and decided to clean up the table since nobody was occupying it at the moment. The brown bunny approached to do his job, ready to empty the table and clean it.
AnimalKingdom saw the incoming brown furred paws, creating mini earthquakes each time they thumped on the ground.
He tried to yell “stop!” but it was useless and he used his energy in getting out of the way. Running as fast as he could on his tiny leg.
But he didn’t make it as felt a sudden pressure on his back pinning him on the ground for several minutes. Thankfully he was tiny enough so the paw pressure wasn’t localized enough to flatten or even crush his bones.
The light and the fresh air came again but the Buizel pokemon superhero was taken away by the paw. He was still sticky enough from being drenched in soda earlier to be glued to the brown fur. So he moved along with the employees, going up and down, crashing on the ground and being pressured each time the bun took a step with his left paw. He was just doing his job, collecting empty plates, cutlery and then washing the table before taking everything to the cleaning. Not having a single idea of what he is making to the shrunken super hero sticking on his feet.
AK was getting buried along with the dust, deeper and deeper in the brown furs at each step. Wondering if anyone is going to find him before he literally gets absorbed by a paw. He clearly felt his back and arms touching the rabbit’s skin but the owners also did. He pulled out some tissues from a nearby dispenser and whipped his paw a couple times to get rid of that little pebble itching him.
The said little pebble only saw a soft wall of white advancing on him and pushed him out of the brown fur forest and sent him flying. He spent a second in the air before he encountered another white surface but harder this time, the wall as he stuck on it like a dead fly.
He pulled his head, shaking it a little to regain his senses. He was facing the white wall with his legs, arms and stomach sticking on it. Everything was so noisy and clean around him that he guessed his location, the restaurant’s kitchen, the smell being the final and giving out clues.
He pulled some effort to unstick his arms, as he pulled his right one, the shrink ray still in his hand, with his communicator and he left one to press the button of the wristwatch-like device.
Pressing the talk button. “KD! KD! Can you hear me? I’m shrunk to ant size and in the kitchen. I need help, I’m stuck on a wall. KD?” He waited a few seconds but his call wasn’t reaching his destination. He was either too small or the wolf didn’t put on his communicator. All he had to do was to wait until he noticed his absence and start to look for him. This spot seems pretty safe after all.
But suddenly, the Buizel felt his body was falling backward. By pulling some of his members he wasn’t sticky enough to stay on the wall. He tried to pull his abs to get back on the wall but it was already too late. As a last hope he tried to clench his feet’s claws.
His body rotated and stuck his back on the wall, now being upside down. He made “Pfew!” in relief, thinking he was safe. Before he fell his feet were losing its stickiness on the wall and fell, pulling the rest of the body. He rotated again and got his front stuck on the wall for a couple of seconds before it unglued again. Making rotate once again.
The shrunken super hero was going down on the wall like a wall crawler toy, hoping he would reach the ground or be near it when he would lose all of his sugary stickiness.
Which he does but at a good height from where the fall was going to hurt and surely cause some damages.
But his fall seemed to be caught by something soft, purple and seemingly moving. He looked up, so did the one he had landed on. AK saw a gray furred head looking up at the wall he was sticking on. He also noticed the two round ears the same color as the rest of the fur. This was still a giant but way smaller than others.
Then it clicked, he actually landed on one of the mice working at this chuck E cheese. How lucky since they were smaller and had those big ears they would surely hear him. That’s what he thought but the kitchen was so loud that his tiny scream was totally covered. He even wondered if that mouse wasn’t wearing some ear plugs to protect them from that ruckus.
He then saw a paw patting the back, the rodent checking what could have landed on his shirt and if it was still there. But the shrunken Buizle was out of reach and when the paw and also the claws found nothing, it retreated. And the mouse went back to its usual activities.
The shrunken super hero made a note in his head. Never get shrunk and stuck on the body of someone who’s working. They never take time to check anything in detail…
Several minutes passed. The mouse was busy with his job, those small guys didn’t have the time to laze around. They were in charge of some minutious maintenance and cleaning. Repeated their song and shows for birthdays and special events.
And of course, what this guy unknowingly carrying a teeny tiny pokemon was in charge of… Cheese… Pretty logic, entrusts the handling of this delicious matter to a mouse.
This one unloaded crates of it on a belt before he carefully went back and forth between the ovens. Checking the melting and ensuring the good quality of the product.
AK tried to scream again but everywhere his carrier went was extremely loud. He even felt his brain knocking his skull with the headache. Before he saw another mouse at a window, having a calm smoke break before the shrunken super hero caught his eyes and was looking at him. He knocked on the window then he moved in the field of vision of his colleague and waved. Indicating the come at door which he does.
The mouse opened the door leading to an outside area with benches. “What is it?” He was worried by his colleague's sudden need to see him as he took out his ear plugs.
“You got something glued on your back Eddy. A sort of orange and green ant.” He answered.
“Ah?” He tried to reach it with his claw. “I thought I felt something falling on me earlier. Can you help me get it off?”
“Sure.” The mouse plucked his cigarette on his lips before he approached his colleague and carefully peeled AnimalKingdom off his back. “Eww… it’s all sticky.”
The mouse turned. “Thanks Jerry.” Before he looked at the shrunken super hero. “What the… is that?” He asked, not really sure of what he was seeing and taking in his hand.
“Looks like a Buizel but really tiny.” Jerry interjected.
AK who decided to break the silence even if with his size he was a little intimidated by the two mice. “I’m a superhero, I’m Ittybitty, KingDead sidekick! I shrunk myself and I have to get back to my mentor so he can get me back to normal size.” He explained.
“Oh yeah! I remember you.” Exclaimed Eddy. “I sang you happy birthday earlier today. How did you shrink to such a tiny size?”
“Look, I’ll explain to you later. Can you please get me back to my table? I really need to get back to normal size and only my friend can do this.” AK insisted.
Jerry finished his cig when he said. “You should help him and go, I’ll replace you here. If word spreads that we aren’t helping paying customers in our restaurant, we will end up like that abandoned one in the city’s outskirts. You know, with those creepy animatronics.”
The mouse nodded. “Okay. I won’t be long.” He then looked at Buizel in his hand. “Come on, I’ll take you to your friend.” He immediately went on his way and reached a tiny elevator taking him up. “I can’t get across the kitchen on the floor, there’s too many people moving around here. We’ll take the platforms above. It’s a detour but it’s the rules and safe with that.”
Quickly, the mouse and the “passenger” he was carrying were on the platform and got around the kitchen. You could just see everything from here, how the dough was made, then the ingredients put on the tomatoes and the cheese. Before being cooked in the oven and put on a tray for serving or a box for take away.
There’s a sort of magic to seeing such a large cuisine with so many cooks going around and preparing the food. AK seemed to be mesmerized that he was actually leaning a little to see what was going on down there.
Everything would have been okay but sadly the mouse carrying him bumped into a toolbox forgotten by a careless technician.
Eddy fell and his hand cushioned the shrunken Buizel from hitting the ground too hard. But sadly, it didn’t prevent him from being ejected and rolled away until there was no floor anymore.
“Oh no!” That’s what AnimalKingdom thought before gravity claimed it’s due. He screamed as he was free falling in the kitchen. Nobody noticed the orange gnat descending what it would be like a meter. Nothing to normal sized people. But it was incredible heights for someone ant sized.
The only thing left to do was to pray that something soft was waiting on the ground to cushion this fall. Even if shrunken people weigh less and their density is supposed to increase, depending on the technology used, falls like that could do a lot of damage and even cause death.
What saved the teeny tiny super hero this time was a soft and little slimy but hot yellow surface. Cushioning with love as the matter engulfed his body and left him trapped on whatever he landed on. The strong appetizing smell made AK fear the worst before he licked the yellow stuff. It was cheese, melted like the one you could find on a… Pizza. He landed on the food a customer of the restaurant ordered.
He struggled, moving his arms and legs to get free. But the melted lactose based garnishing was merciless. It felt heavy and really sticking on his body as he couldn’t even lift his face and see where he was going. He clearly felt the pizza and the tray it was put on being lifted and then going up and down.
This could be the end of the trip for him. The food was set down on a table and he clearly heard a “Enjoy your meal sir.”
He was going into someone's stomach and shares the same fate as the rest of this cheese, an acid end featuring the gastric juices. That’s what was awaiting him he couldn’t at least get his still holding the shrink ray, free.
Between the digestion and being shrunk to the atomic level to prevent that. He definitely made his choice and will take a stay within the neutrons. If he was going to be able to shrink himself.
The part he was on got lifted up and soon shadow overcame him as he entered a hot moist cavern. Then the roof went up and down repeatedly as he was tossed from every side. He forgot the teeth and the guy eating him had many long and slicing ones. Even small like he was they could impale him or reduce him to pulp.
Luckily, in the whole mess that food becomes when it gets chewed in your mouth, he didn’t meet them. He landed face on a pink spongious surface with so many tiny round protuberances, taste buds. This was the second of calm before the scariest thing happening to many unlucky tiny beings in a giant mouth. The tongue slowly lifts up, making everything slowly descend into the gullet.
Everything suddenly stopped and the tongue started to move left and right. AK was again tossed everywhere until the big pink snake-like surface seemed to have “found him” It then lifted and pressed him against the palate. The pink texture rubbing against his body until he was expelled from the mouth.
AnimalKindgom was now laying on a soft surface, covered in spit and cheese but mostly… Defeated. Being tiny isn’t easy, he knew that too well.
“I knew I felt a blueberry taste in my pizza. You’re lucky I noticed it before I gulped you down.” A loud but familiar voice announced. It was KingDead.
“KD!” Buizel said out of breath as he relaxed knowing he was literally in good hands.
“Can’t hear you, you’re too small. Let me just put you on the table and shrink.” A few seconds later, he was twice the size of AK as he helped him get away from the cheese blob. “I wonder how you can end up in this situation so many times. What happened?”
AnimalKingdom explained the whole story, the shrink ray he obtained, how he got reduced to such size and had to travel to get back to him, everything. “And here we are.”
The buffy superhero wolf listened with attention. “Ok. Shrink ray trouble, how classic. Well I grow you back and we’ll head home. I think you would like some rest after that.”
“Yeah, I think its only fate giving me a gift with this second adventure in the same episode.” He sarcastically said. “But I would like some rest but mostly a shower.” He tried to get some cheese away from his superhero clothes.
KD held his pokemon sidekick and started to grow but quickly noticed that his protégé wasn’t growing with him. “What the? It’s not working?”
“Come on, you gotta be kidding me!” AK screamed in anger as his mentor tried multiple times but to no avail. The Buizel sidekick was stuck at this size. “What do we do now? Should I try to use this shrink ray?”
“Absolutely not! It’s too risky and surely why you’re stuck like this. You told me the guy at the counter knew those shrink ray like he made them, let’s pay him a visit.” KingDead grew to his normal and picked up his sidekick. You could feel in his voice and walking pace that he was annoyed and angry at the same time. “Excuse me, sir.” He asked as he reached the exchange counter.
“Yes?” Said the yellow fox as he turned to him. “Oh, the wolf who smashed the punching machine. What can I do for you mister?”
“KD. My sidekick has obtained a shrink ray from you and now look at how he is now.” The muscled superhero wolf showed his hand. The fox wondered what he wanted to show him before he noticed a sort of orange ant. He took his jeweler's loupe from one of his pockets and looked at it.
AnimalKingdom saw this magnified giant scary eye suddenly peeking at him.
“Oh! The superhero suit kid. Yes, he exchanged his point for an Atomictoy shrink ray. Worked really well.” He announced.
“Wait a sec!” KD interjected. “Did you just say an Atomictoy???” He seemed to be really worried.
“Of course. It has been on the shelf for so long. I wondered if it would be gone before my retirement.”
“Is that bad?” Asked AK through his communicator. He was close enough now, almost being beside it on the wolf paw.
“The AtomicToy brand was banned because it’s extremely hard to reverse the effect if you don’t have one of their products. Lots of supervillains in the 50’s bought their shrink rays when they knew about it.” KingDead explained with a hint, stunned about the news.
“Okay then how do I put it on unshrink?” The Buizel asked through his communicator.
The wolf relayed. “My friend wants to know how you reverse the shrink ray to grow back to normal.”
The fox simply announced. “You can’t.”
“WHAAAAAAAT?!?!?!?” They both screamed in unison but KD was the only one who was heard by the whole building.
“Duh! It’s a shrink ray, it makes things shrink. To make things grow, you need a growth ray. Simple as that.” The yellow furred vulpine answered.
“Ok then. Can we use an Atomictoy growth ray?” KingDead asked.
The fox rubbed the back of his head, seemingly embarrassed. “I don’t have one here… It’s available at another location but I can ask them to send it here.” He then hesitated for a second before he dropped his explanation. “Company policy forbids any borrowing of prizes, you need tickets.”
“How much?” Asked AnimalKingdom, fearing the worst as his mentor asked the same.
“Atomictoy growth rays are rarer than shrink rays… Since it’s more complicated to make something grow than to shrink it…” The wolf banged his free fist on the counter to obtain an answer from the man. “300 000 tickets…” The vulpine then tried to hide behind his counter, fearing the storm. “Maybe… We can arrange a solution… But I need authorizations and stuff, so it will take several weeks, but I’ll arrange this in days…” He tried to smooth the corners, clearly fearing the muscled wolf who seemed to be boiling in anger. Not knowing that even if he was in rage, KingDead would never explode as he quickly contained his anger and breathed.
AnimalKingdom seemed totally stunned and his mind was breaking apart. “Happy birthday AK…”
THE END?
Here's a story where he's in superhero setting along with his mentor KingDead
guest starring: GreyMantle https://twitter.com/jgreymantle
Thumbnail art by KitsuneKit
Enjoy this story I wrote by dowloading the file or read it down below
The night was falling on the city as the sun was giving its last orange rays before continuing his course behind the hills. He finished his job for the day, which isn’t the case of AnimalKingdom. The Buizel pokemon was in the middle of his job as one of the many local superheroes.
He was busy battling with a red skinned bull in a pink tube filled with liquids, trying to dodge rays and white blobs coming at him. No, he wasn’t on an alien planet, he was still a rookie and hadn't made his first interplanetary rescue yet. He was indeed in the city but inside somebody. Yes, he was right in the body of a gray furred wolf named KingDead, his friend and mentor as a superhero.
Normally AK is only his sidekick but he had to take action due to the circumstances.
Bart, the red skinned bull shrunk himself to microscopic size and infiltrated the wolf body. His objective was to take control of his brain.
A classic supervillain plan to either manipulate a superhero to commit forfeit on his behalf or to infiltrate their secret base/HQ. It would have been effective if the orange Buizel didn’t notice a sudden change in his friend personality
Lazing around and wolfing down burgers and other fast food. That wasn’t really suspect as everybody can take a break. But when he actually wanted to chug down alcohol and smoke a big fat cigar.
It was time to intervene. It could have been a simple doppelganger, an evil double or clone. But in either way, AK had to check this out by using his shrinking power and get inside his mentor to clear that.
It wasn't the Buizel's first fantastic voyage. When you have the power to shrink to microscopic sizes you can expect to get into other people’s bodies. All you have to do when you get innerspace is to avoid some dangerous places, most of them being located at the chest.
Stomach and intestine, where you would have a gruesome end without good protection.
Bladder and anus, not deadly but you don’t want to be here.
Anyway, AnimalKingdom being a water pokemon, it was easy for him to swim in the bloodstream to check on people's health. If he didn’t become a superhero he would have surely been a doctor.
It wasn’t really different in this case but instead of fighting a virus replicating itself to infect organs. He’ll have to fight a shrunken villain in his minisub short circuiting a brain to have control.
Both of them being a plague of course.
The battle was raging, Bart the red bull was trying to get rid of the buizel superhero so he could resume his mind control. Firing torpedoes and shooting lasers at him. AK was swimming as fast as he could, dodging everything threatening to end his life. He was also hoping those weren’t causing serious damages. All of those explosions and shooting were not damaging him but the pink and soft walls, which were actually Kingdead’s veins. This battle could cause a haemorrhagic or worse, damage a vital organ or a part of it. Thankfully he had a strategy. KD on his part remained motionless as he felt like little painful pricks moving in his body. The situation was critical for him and he couldn't do anything to help his sidekick besides not moving to prevent any hindrance.
AK attracted the bull in his submarine where the vein was separating into smaller ones. So he had space around to maneuver the torpedoes. Bart shot another one and they were all equipped with homing systems as it followed the Buizel. AK didn’t wasted his time and effort, he guided the explosive engine back in his sender. The bull saw it and made a strafe to the left. Which was what the superhero wanted as the torpedo exploded beside the mini submarine and pushed it right into a white blood cell.
Bart tried to hit the gas to get out but the gelatinous white blob was already devouring the propeller and rendered it unusable.
The hull was also being slowly attacked by the digestive fluids secreted by the phagocyte, eating the submarine assimilated to a bad microbe, which wasn’t far for the truth.
Seeing the blood leaking into his only way of transportation and white acidic good oozing into the systems. The red bull didn’t had any choice and bailed out in a diving suit. Contrary to the water pokemon he couldn’t breath underwater or in liquid.
Animal Kingdom exhaled in relief, thinking Bart would surrender now deprived of his vehicles and deadly weapons. But it wasn’t accounting for the fact the bad guy hasn't used his favorite weapon. His shrink ray gun. The pokemon was going to pay for ruining his plan and mini submarine, ready to make him more micro than he'd ever been before.
Now AK had to dodge green rays that could shrink him. That was less dangerous than other lasers and torpedoes. When the rays hit the wall it was making the whole body of the gray wolf shrink but he could easily cancel with his sizeshifting powers, keeping a constant normal size.
But for the buizel who only had the power to shrink but not to grow, he hasn't mastered this part yet. This was a big problem, no pun intended.
He could end up subatomic or even smaller and at those sizes it’s extremely difficult to be found and grown back to normal.
Never before AK thanked fate so much to have made him a water pokemon at birth. He was able to dodge those rays but also apply another brilliant strategy. He led the raging bull trying to shrink him into a specific part of the wolf body. The lungs.
The bull was in limited time, the content of his oxygen bottle rapidly depleted with the efforts he made to swim and try to shoot at the Buizel.
Bart watch beeped, his tank was almost empty with only 5 minutes left before he would suffocate. Desperate, he looked left and right to see if there’s any air around. He noticed oxygen bubbles coming from a wall at a regular pace, so he rushed to it. Forgetting the superhero he was trying to shrink. Which was a mistake.
The moment he passed his body through the capilar to fill his bottle with air. The buizel pushed him so he could be entirely inside the lung. The bull felt himself taken up and down by the wind as KD breathed normally. Trying to grab another capilar to get back into the bloodstream.
AK grabbed his communicator at his wrist as he quickly typed a message to KD.
sneeze
KD wondered how he could do that when he noticed a feather lying around. If it worked in cartoons, there’s no reason it couldn’t work in reality. He grabbed it and started to tickle his snout.
Bart was gripping the capillary AK was behind, ready to get back and give a good shrinking dose to the one bothering him. When he fell a wind was pushing him to the bottom of the lung. Little pushes of wind and the sound of KingDead saying “Aaaa…aaa…aaaa…”
“Oh no…” The red bull simply said. Perfectly knowing what’s happening.
“AAAAAAAAAACCHHHHHHOOOOOOO!” Just like that KD sneezed the villain out his body.
“CURSE YOU ITTY BITTY AND KINGDEAD!!!” Bart screamed but for nothing. He was too microscopic to be heard by anyone and nobody saw the red tinkling when he was too far away in the sky. Itty Bitty was the super hero name of the micro Buizel but he rarely used it outside of his official business.
AK, who tumbled all around the veins when the wolf body jerked due to the sneeze, typed “gesundheit” before sending another message to get back to normal.
KD grew to giant size and his sidekick inside grew with him as he made his way to a relatively clean exit aka the lacrimal gland.
Once he was out, KD had a hard time not winking him back into his body. The shrunken Buizel then quickly jumped off the wolf’s snout before he shrunk back to his normal.
King dead then cupped his hand to catch his tiny sidekick and cushion his fall. Besides having grown along with the wolf, he was still small as a thumb. As many times before, KD used his size shifting powers to grow and make the orange furred Buizel gain size with him. Dosing it carefully to not mess with his proportion before AK jumped out when he finally found his normal size again.
This was the only way for him to get back to normal besides using a size changing device and consumable.
“I really need to unlock the growing capacity of my sizeshifting power” He said after he gently landed on the ground.
“It doesn’t bother me to regrow you back. Don't lose hope my tiny sidekick, you'll soon learn how to become gigantic like me. Just keep training like I do.” KD Said while he flexed his arm to show his muscle. KingDead was the embodiment of the big and muscled superhero. Even without his size shifting powers he would be considered as a superhuman with his strength alone, or in his case a superwolf.
Besides him AK looked like a tiny and frail orange furred pokemon only reaching his stomach.
“You didn’t had to grow to get rid of that guy who intruded inside my body. Which supervillain was it by the way?”
Animal Kingdom and KD crossed his road and were shrunken by him many times. “It was Bart the red bull.”
So the wolf wasn't really surprised this plot came from him. “We’ve been fighting a lot of times with him recently. Though it’s the first time he shrinks himself…Voluntarily.”
“It was pretty clever. He could have seen our hideouts, know all our passwords and future raids through your eyes. But he was also making you eat, drink and smoke. He was planning to ruin your health to get you out of the picture.” AK pretty much summed the evil bull plan.
“Don’t tell me about it. I’m going to need a serious detox cure with saunas, fruit and plant drinks to recover from this. I still have the horrible aftertaste of whiskey and cigar in my mouth.” The wolf stick his tongue in disgust and also to try to get rid of the aftertaste.
“Lucky for us he didn’t know about your healthy lifestyle or he just rushed too much.” AK said. “But if it can reassure you, I haven’t seen any tar or damages when I was in your lungs.” Both superhero wrist communicators beeped. Thankfully it wasn’t an emergency but the end of shift notification.
In the superhero business, if you weren’t on a case or emergency situation, this means it was enough for today.
The Buizel stirred. “Good. We’re done for today and for the weekend. I wasn’t feeling like fighting another villain after that.”
KD chuckled. “Can’t blame you even if I don’t encourage that kind of attitude, it’s bad for the training. But you had your dose of adventure for today.” He made some stirring and exercise to relax his muscles, mimicked by his sidekick. To prevent muscle pain and stiffness.
Once they were finished, AnimalKingdom asked. “Shall we go home now?
“Not yet. We need to go somewhere before.“ Apparently the wolf had other plans. He grew to the size of a 5 story building before he bent down and offered his paw to his sidekick. “Hop in!”
One thing who’s convenient with being KingDead sidekick. You don’t need any car or way of transportation. Many superheroes use overpowered cars and jets to get to their destination. KD was using his leg and you just to climb on his paw as he could just grow big enough to stride over the city or the countries if he wanted.
For now he decided to be 50 feet tall. An impressive size, pretty smaller than most kaijus but still noticeable. He was in the city after all and when you’re big and don’t want to stomp and damage everything around, it is better to not aim too high for the height.
KingDead made the headlines and got lectured many times due to the accidental and collateral damages he “apparently” caused. He claimed to never do those but you could hear him grumbling sometimes. That it wasn’t his fault he had to fight titanic villains and how the cities weren’t conceived for big peoples, giants, macros, titans… Especially when they’re brawling…
Despite all of that, this was surely better than Izzy’s power to only shrink. KD could also shrink and reduce others in size. The opposite he did to AK but the Buizel was able to shrink smaller. To the point he had the potential to get into microverses but never did it, the one way trip risk was just too high.
The superhero duo arrived at the destination the wolf had in mind and Izzy recognized it immediately. The big mouse holding a pizza statue was giving it out. He took him to a Chuck E Cheese pizzeria and games.
“We’re going to eat there.” KingDead happily announced before he lowered his paw to allow his sidekick to get down. The pair took profit to take a photo of the big wolf besides the statue where he acted like he wanted to eat the fake pizza before he shrunk to his normal size. Which was bigger than normal people.
The restaurant was family and kid oriented but it didn’t matter to Ittybitty. He liked it and often came here to eat, though it’s the first time he was coming with his superhero suit on.
It was a good feeling to get around, eat or visit a place while being in your official work suit. You could get discounts, freebies and even some additional money if you had a publicity contract with the business. Which was probably the case here as KD was the titular hero but the bui would get 30% since they’re together.
On the other hand, it could be a hassle. People constantly staring at you, even taking a selfie at the worst moment and without asking first. Or the annoying one who wants you to use your powers like you were on his orders.
Once they were seated by a guy wearing the famous Chuck E mascot suit, the gray mouse wearing a purple shirt with a big yellow C. KingDead told him to wait despite not having ordered anything yet. It was strange but Izzy was enjoying having a box as KD was seating at the other side, those were giving a little privacy. But mostly, the buizel was eyeing the arcades. The pizzas were good but what he enjoyed were the videogames cabinet. This particular restaurant had a pretty large one with a varied selection. From the good old Astro City to the most modern with VR headset.
Finally after a few minutes, another Chuck E Cheese staff member in a mouse costume brought a big covered tray and put it on the table.
KD was grinning from ear to ear as Animal Kingdom was wondering what was happening. Until the staff member told him. “Please, quickly open the tray.”
AK was spacing out, trying to understand what was happening before the staff got him back into reality. “huh?” He looked at the mouse costume wearing guy who insisted. He uncovered the tray.
They were 3 pizzas on it but a little round platform was sticking above it. With a gift on it and 3 gray mice wearing Chuck E Cheese shirts, starting to happily sing in choir. “Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy Birthday Animal Kingdom! Happy birthday to yoooooooouuuuuuu!” The mice then took the gift and lifted it as they were offering it to the Buizel who gently took it.
“Thank you!” He thanked them and even clapped for their song before the staff member took the platform away with them. “And thank you so much for that KD, you remembered it. With those superhero gigs I totally forgot today was my birthday.”
The gray wolf chuckled. “Did you really think I was going to forget the birthday of my favorite sidekick?” He then ruffled the orange hair at the top of his protégé’s head with his paw.
“That’s easy, I’m your only sidekick.” answered the Buizel with a chuckle as he gently pushed back the paw and arranged his hair back.
KD had a fatherly smile on his face. “That doesn’t change anything as you are my favorite one. You’re more than a sidekick for me, you’re like the little bro I never had and I’ll hope I’ll make you as big and powerful as me.”
The Buizel pokemon laughed before he opened the gift offered by the restaurant. There was an evening free refill at the soda fountain card. A 25% discount coupon for the 3 next meal at this restaurant. But the most for AK an unlimited pass to freely play all the arcade games in the restaurant during the whole evening.
This was the cherry on the top and he didn’t know there was such a coupon for this.
After the 2 super heroes ate the pizzas on the tray and drank well. Animal Kingdom not forgetting to thank KD many times for this.
It was time for some game. The dinner was wolfed down even by the Buizel but they both knew the main thing were video games for his special day.
The game corner was separated into 2 sections. One with pure entertainment arcades. Like SERGAL rally, Cai-man, Dragon’s Fair and good old SERGAL cosmo city cabinets.
The other and bigger section was the ticket winning games. Ticket towers, Quick drop Stomp it up, Punch it, coin pushers and other things to test your address, reflex and skills to obtain the precious tickets. And those tickets could be exchanged for a lot of good prizes at the counter located in the back of the game corner.
AK inserted the card into the tokens distributor and obtained the coin allowing to play any of the games. At first they played with the game for fun, KingDead having trouble getting in and out of racing game car pods due to his naturally large framed body.
As for AK he was having the time of his life, setting new high scores and playing. Until they decided to switch to the ticket winning cabinets.
This is where things are getting tricky. Those games were hard and required true gaming skills along with precision and excellent timing. To make the machine spew the precious orange tickets to be exchanged for prizes, you had to win the games. And whatever restaurant, arcade parlor or funfair you’re in. Those things couldn’t be obtained without a hard fight or a lot of luck.
The Orange Buizel was on his edge as he wanted to obtain a nice prize this time and could play without having to worry about money.
But no matter how hard you try, you can’t help but wonder if those machines weren’t a little rigged, but just a little.
After 2 hours, he managed to obtain 650 tickets. A good amount that a lot of people wouldn’t be able to get in so little time.
KingDead had a little more difficulties. “I’m not really good at those games. I only got like 50 tickets. Here, every ticket I won is for you.” He gave them to his sidekick.
“Thank you KD. Don’t worry, those games are really hard. I never saw anyone winning a jackpot or big prizes. Not even on luck based games.” He took the ticket and searched for the next game he could try until he spotted the perfect one for his big wolf benefactor. “This one should be easy for you.” He led him to a big Punch It! machine.
Push a button to make the punching ball fall in position, hit it as hard as you can, see your score on the number screen.
“I think so too. You first my little sidekick. I would like to see your score.” The wolf chuckled as inserted a token and pushed the button. Animal Kingdom readied. With some advice from his mentor. “Good stable position, don’t forget to place your left hand in front for the hikite before you hit with the right and go!”
AK struck the punching ball with his full strength. Then the score started to go high for measures. 100, 200…300…329… Which isn’t reaching the half of the scoreboard. Much to KD surprise.
“Don’t worry, before training with you, I wasn’t reaching 300.” The Bui tried to reassure him, the wolf was his trainer after all.
KingDead snorted at the machine, he had a weird face before he stepped in front of the machine. “Step aside, watch how a fully trained pro does it.” AK pressed the button as KD got in his punch ready stance. The moment the ball stopped, the big muscled wolf used the maximum power his right arm muscle allowed. The Buizel felt the wind moving, pushed by the knuckles. BAAAAMMMM!!! A punching thump was heard in the whole building as people looked at where it was coming from.
The punching ball went up, slightly damaged as you now see the inside and cracking being heard. The score board lit up 700, 800, 999 before it disconnected with electric sparkles and little bolts going out. No need to be a technician to notice the obvious. He broke that machine. “oopsie…” He released. The machine had a little more sparkles before it spewed tickets in mass. Like it was emptying itself of it as it formed a nice little pile of it. “Well… Happy birthday!” The superhero said to his sidekick as he showed what he obtained, before trouble came.
“What the hell are you doing??? You broke it!!!” Exclaimed a red panda with a Chuck E cheese uniform with a tag reading ‘manager’
“I’ll settle this, keep enjoying your evening, I’ll be back in a few minutes.” KD said as he apologized to the manager and talked to him to smooth it out. Both of them went to the restaurant office to discuss this.
A cleaning employee put an “out of order” on the punching ball machine before he said. “Don’t forget your tickets, sir.” As he started to clean the little parts of the game that were forced out by the overpowered punch. Still a little stunned by the situation, AK took the little pile of orange papers and went away.
He didn’t know if it was a good thing to take them or if he had to give it back. He went to the prize counter and put it on.
“Excuse me, the machine had a malfunction and spewed all the tickets.” He addressed the yellow fox wearing a blue shirt holding the prize exchange counter.
“You won all that? That’s a great amount you got here kid.” The fox said with an amused tone.
“No no no, my friend broke the machine and all of those came out. I think it wasn’t supposed to.” The Buizel sidekick explained.
“So, that’s what all of this noise was about.” The man laughed, plucking a chocolate cigar in his mouth. “If the machine gave it to you that means you won it, broken or not. That’s the rules. So how many do you have?” He took the pile before he inserted it into a machine who rapidly took and counted them.
“I have those ones too.” He also gave him the one he earned earlier.
A couple of minutes later, the counter indicated. “10 500 tickets. That’s a really great amount you got here kiddo. Wanna exchange them for a prize now?” The fox proposed.
“I want to think about it and see what prizes you have now.* AK answered.
The man with the cigar took a pen and wrote on a little sheet the number of ticket owned by the orange Buizel and gave it to him before he showed him the counter and racks beside it. “The counters have the lowest, the highest are on your left. Take your time to make your choice.*
Animal Kingdom discovered their selection. It started with little things you could obtain for 5 or 10 points. Stink bombs, balloons, plastic jewelled rings, fake mustaches and vomit. The kind of stuff for kids.
Then as you go up in values, you find the toys, the fake katanas, the plushies, the kid watches. As you go above the 5 thousands, you start to have the good quality action figures and the collector items. You see, having thousands of tickets is pretty rare, unless you’re a regular spending good amounts of money on ticket winning games. So this is the section where prizes weren’t given out easily and of course since they don’t constantly renew or buy new stock. So saying that some items have been here for a long time was an understatement.
Some action figures here were produced decades before Animal Kingdom birth. There were also a few obscured ones from shows and superheroes he never heard about and most rare. An actual action figure of KD in all his glory with his big muscles and his red cape as an accessory. He never knew that he actually tried to do some merchandising. That made him laugh a little and he noted to ask his mentor about that after his discussion with the manager.
The orange Buizel kept looking through, going above the number of tickets he got as he was curious about the most valuable prize here.
7 000 000 tickets. That was the highest here. Something that could clearly not be achieved in a lifetime, even if you play every day for decades, you couldn’t obtain a quarter of it. You could expect an actual fighter jet for such a huge amount. But here it was a simple golden oil lamp. The tag boasted about this being a genuine magic lamp containing a genie. AK doubted this until he noticed this lamp was oddly familiar to him, he was sure he already saw it and even got it in his hands in a not so distant past…
But he brushed it off, looking for other things for less tickets. For 6 million there was a superhero serum giving one random superpower. For 5, a time machine. For 4, dragon eggs or a set or materias. The list goes on as the Buizel superhero wonders if he should talk about those unique prizes to the hero HQ. Cause if some of those were real, it could cause massive catastrophe or even rewrite the entire reality they’re living in.
Finally, he got back on stuff he could obtain and something caught his eyes. Between a book seemingly made of skin and a green mask made of wood. It was a big box with a 50’s style picture and ray gun, titled. “Ultimate Shrink ray. Nothing will take place anymore and it’s all educational fun for all the families.” The picture was a family going with its old woody wagon in the middle of giant blades of grass with giant insects and people nearby who seemed overjoyed by that shrunken family.
“You want it?” A voice erupted behind AnimalKingdom which made him jump a little. It was the fox with the blue shirt.
“I don’t know but it sure looks good.” He answered.
“Looks good?” He asked seemingly a little offended. “Kid, it's an Atomictoy shrink ray. Produced and commercialized in 1955 and coming with a 300 years life guarantee. It was the Rolls Royce of the shrink ray back then. The ones they’re making today don't even hold up to that beauty in terms of quality and value.”
Quite skeptical, AK asked. “Does that thing really work? I mean, it’s just not a horribly overpriced vintage toy you can find in antique stores?”
The Fox laughed. “Not at all, I can assure you this thing perfectly. You youngsters don’t know much but tools like this were built to last centuries.” He unlocked the showcase and took the box. “Here, let me give you a demonstration.” Then he came back to his counter and opened the box with utmost care. Taking the red colored toy with a design straight out of a 50’s drive-in B movie. A red plastic body that almost looks like a hairdryer with the cannon being a yellow tube with red circles and ending with a metallic sphere and a little crosshair at the top.
The ray guns every alien and spacemen had when movies were still shot in black & white.
“The good thing is that you don’t need a battery for this thing. It has a totally harmless and totally sealed nuclear cell with a 500 year lifetime.” The yellow furred fox explained before he took a bin full of paper on the counter. “It comes with 2 mods. The burst mode. He aimed at the bin and pressed the trigger. The ray gun shot a blue burst which hit the bin and made it lose a quarter of its original size. “Or the continuous mode.” He changed the setting and pressed the trigger again. A green ray came out of the sphere, slowly shrinking the trash until the employee released the trigger and stopped the ray from going out. “No limit to the shrinking, the more exposed something is, the smaller they’ll become. A must.”
Animal Kingdom who silently listened and observed was now convinced, especially after seeing it work. “You would make a formidable salesman.” He wanted to have this size ray now. Lot of superheroes actually had collector tools and gadgets, some powerless heroes even launched their career with one of those. Like that bat who had his super tool belt who just had everything. Of course the best stuff was rare to find or just put in auction but if you had some luck and knew where to search.
The fox blushed a little. “Oh! Thank you!” he chuckled a little before he added. “I have a passion for those old toys. And I think it would be the perfect pair with your superhero costume. So you wanna exchange 10 000 tickets for this?”
Excitedly AK answered. “Of course!” The yellow furred vulpine took the right amount of orange papers and the Buizel took the box containing his newly acquired shrink ray.
He came back to his table, noticing KD wasn’t back yet. Probably still busy with talking to the manager about the earlier incident. After a soda refill and several minutes later, the wolf was still not in sight and he was bored.
So the orange furred pokemon decided to take his new “toy” to watch it and maybe try it. He read the warnings on the side of the box but they were pretty generic.
Do not try to open the shrink ray. Do not use the shrink ray if it’s damaged/underwater/drenched. Do not put it in young kids hands without surveillance. Use the shrink ray responsibly and in accordance with your local law. In case of troubles, Atomictoy rejects all responsibility in case of misuse or tampering with the shrinking circuitry.
Atomictoy customer service line: 555-BABOOM
Now the ray gun was in AK’s hand, he started to think about the good sides of having it. He finally had something to defend himself without causing harm. His power couldn’t shrink anyone else but himself. This will change with this, plus now that he has a size ray device, he wouldn’t have to bother his wolf mentor for growing himself back. At least until he got the full hold of his power.
He started to fiddle with it and wanted to absolutely test it but on what…
He could absolutely not shoot at someone else as he was a superhero sidekick not a supervillain armed with a shrink ray like he often meets.
He couldn’t fire at the restaurant furniture and properties to not create more trouble and probably risk being banned.
The remainder of his lukewarm cheese pizza, that wouldn’t be good as he wanted to enjoy the last 2 parts and not make them crumbs.
This was leaving only one target…Himself.
Somehow, even if he’s the only one having a shrink ray around here, he’s going to be the target of it. This was getting old and tiring…
Thankfully they were some things around to enjoy while shrunk.
AnimalKingdom pointed the shrink ray at his chest, setting it on continuous mode and then he pressed the trigger. The red ray gun shot a green ray at the pokemon’s body. Slowly, AK started to shrink.
For him it felt like an elevator ride down as the ray was shrinking him slower than his power does.
Everything was growing around him and also getting larger as he was reducing his height. A few seconds of exposition and he was the size of a child as the table was reaching his head. He stepped on the couch, keeping zapping himself with the ray gun. Descending below the size of a toddler, the Buizel made a quick jump on the table who was becoming larger and larger for him.
Now the size of a toy, the wood surface was large enough to be a court and larger than a field in a few seconds. With things like plates becoming large platforms like concert stages and bottles and glass becoming house sized.
AK finally settled himself for a 3 inches tall size, the slow rate of this shrink ray was making it very easy to precisely be the size you wanted.
He then went on his plate where 2 parts of pizza he left earlier were waiting. It would be little… For someone normal sized.
One of the very few advantages of being tiny, you don't need big amounts of food especially when the food piece is bigger than your whole body. So for the shrunken Buizel here, the 2 pieces pizza looked like a room sized carpet of melted cheese goodness on a tasty crust.
KingDead didn’t really want him to use his power for that, because he was his mentor supervising his training and his diet too. But he thought since it was his birthday, he could make an exception.
He first thought about plunging into it but remembered what happened last time he plunged into melted cheese. He got stuck, his body too small and not strong enough to not be glued... He stayed a few hours like a fly stuck on paper before someone peeled him off.
This time I would just take parts of it and calmly eat to make time pass.
Nobody around seemed to notice the teeny tiny superhero nibbling pizza on his table.
Even when a ball was thrown by a kid from the ball pit that hit the large soda cup on the table, not a single person minded. Spilled drinks were something common in restaurants, especially the ones who have a lot of families with kids as customers.
But for AK who saw a massive ball crash in the house sized cup who fell right in his direction. Spilling a torrent of sweet bubbly liquid in his direction and washed him off the table. After he got out of the puddle who resulted from this, all wet and sticky, AK decided to regain normal size. He took his shrink ray, switched to the other mode and zapped himself. A quick bolt of blue went into his body and made him lose a quarter of an inch. Suddenly descending, Animal Kingdom didn’t have time to react before the red plastic ray sent another and another one. Being all covered in sticky liquid the finger and the trigger were stuck in firing position.
Quickly, the orange furred pokemon managed to pull his finger which released the mechanism from its activation spot.
Problem is, it actually shot several blue shrinking bolts on its owner who looked around him to assess his current size.
A quarter of an inch, ant sized to give a good comparison, the straw of the carpet was reaching his waist. This made AnimalKingdom really nervous and worried as he was now in the size where most people won’t notice him.
When you get shrunk down below the 1 inch in size, you’re getting really hard to see and often get confused as a bug. Your voice becomes too small to be heard and everything totally harmless at normal size is now dangerous.
AK didn’t like to be at that size when nobody else, especially KingDead was not aware about it.
This could take a very long time to find him and anything could happen. One of the most common dangers is being trampled by a passing foot or paw. Like the one incoming right now!
It looked like a staff member saw the mess created by the ball and decided to clean up the table since nobody was occupying it at the moment. The brown bunny approached to do his job, ready to empty the table and clean it.
AnimalKingdom saw the incoming brown furred paws, creating mini earthquakes each time they thumped on the ground.
He tried to yell “stop!” but it was useless and he used his energy in getting out of the way. Running as fast as he could on his tiny leg.
But he didn’t make it as felt a sudden pressure on his back pinning him on the ground for several minutes. Thankfully he was tiny enough so the paw pressure wasn’t localized enough to flatten or even crush his bones.
The light and the fresh air came again but the Buizel pokemon superhero was taken away by the paw. He was still sticky enough from being drenched in soda earlier to be glued to the brown fur. So he moved along with the employees, going up and down, crashing on the ground and being pressured each time the bun took a step with his left paw. He was just doing his job, collecting empty plates, cutlery and then washing the table before taking everything to the cleaning. Not having a single idea of what he is making to the shrunken super hero sticking on his feet.
AK was getting buried along with the dust, deeper and deeper in the brown furs at each step. Wondering if anyone is going to find him before he literally gets absorbed by a paw. He clearly felt his back and arms touching the rabbit’s skin but the owners also did. He pulled out some tissues from a nearby dispenser and whipped his paw a couple times to get rid of that little pebble itching him.
The said little pebble only saw a soft wall of white advancing on him and pushed him out of the brown fur forest and sent him flying. He spent a second in the air before he encountered another white surface but harder this time, the wall as he stuck on it like a dead fly.
He pulled his head, shaking it a little to regain his senses. He was facing the white wall with his legs, arms and stomach sticking on it. Everything was so noisy and clean around him that he guessed his location, the restaurant’s kitchen, the smell being the final and giving out clues.
He pulled some effort to unstick his arms, as he pulled his right one, the shrink ray still in his hand, with his communicator and he left one to press the button of the wristwatch-like device.
Pressing the talk button. “KD! KD! Can you hear me? I’m shrunk to ant size and in the kitchen. I need help, I’m stuck on a wall. KD?” He waited a few seconds but his call wasn’t reaching his destination. He was either too small or the wolf didn’t put on his communicator. All he had to do was to wait until he noticed his absence and start to look for him. This spot seems pretty safe after all.
But suddenly, the Buizel felt his body was falling backward. By pulling some of his members he wasn’t sticky enough to stay on the wall. He tried to pull his abs to get back on the wall but it was already too late. As a last hope he tried to clench his feet’s claws.
His body rotated and stuck his back on the wall, now being upside down. He made “Pfew!” in relief, thinking he was safe. Before he fell his feet were losing its stickiness on the wall and fell, pulling the rest of the body. He rotated again and got his front stuck on the wall for a couple of seconds before it unglued again. Making rotate once again.
The shrunken super hero was going down on the wall like a wall crawler toy, hoping he would reach the ground or be near it when he would lose all of his sugary stickiness.
Which he does but at a good height from where the fall was going to hurt and surely cause some damages.
But his fall seemed to be caught by something soft, purple and seemingly moving. He looked up, so did the one he had landed on. AK saw a gray furred head looking up at the wall he was sticking on. He also noticed the two round ears the same color as the rest of the fur. This was still a giant but way smaller than others.
Then it clicked, he actually landed on one of the mice working at this chuck E cheese. How lucky since they were smaller and had those big ears they would surely hear him. That’s what he thought but the kitchen was so loud that his tiny scream was totally covered. He even wondered if that mouse wasn’t wearing some ear plugs to protect them from that ruckus.
He then saw a paw patting the back, the rodent checking what could have landed on his shirt and if it was still there. But the shrunken Buizle was out of reach and when the paw and also the claws found nothing, it retreated. And the mouse went back to its usual activities.
The shrunken super hero made a note in his head. Never get shrunk and stuck on the body of someone who’s working. They never take time to check anything in detail…
Several minutes passed. The mouse was busy with his job, those small guys didn’t have the time to laze around. They were in charge of some minutious maintenance and cleaning. Repeated their song and shows for birthdays and special events.
And of course, what this guy unknowingly carrying a teeny tiny pokemon was in charge of… Cheese… Pretty logic, entrusts the handling of this delicious matter to a mouse.
This one unloaded crates of it on a belt before he carefully went back and forth between the ovens. Checking the melting and ensuring the good quality of the product.
AK tried to scream again but everywhere his carrier went was extremely loud. He even felt his brain knocking his skull with the headache. Before he saw another mouse at a window, having a calm smoke break before the shrunken super hero caught his eyes and was looking at him. He knocked on the window then he moved in the field of vision of his colleague and waved. Indicating the come at door which he does.
The mouse opened the door leading to an outside area with benches. “What is it?” He was worried by his colleague's sudden need to see him as he took out his ear plugs.
“You got something glued on your back Eddy. A sort of orange and green ant.” He answered.
“Ah?” He tried to reach it with his claw. “I thought I felt something falling on me earlier. Can you help me get it off?”
“Sure.” The mouse plucked his cigarette on his lips before he approached his colleague and carefully peeled AnimalKingdom off his back. “Eww… it’s all sticky.”
The mouse turned. “Thanks Jerry.” Before he looked at the shrunken super hero. “What the… is that?” He asked, not really sure of what he was seeing and taking in his hand.
“Looks like a Buizel but really tiny.” Jerry interjected.
AK who decided to break the silence even if with his size he was a little intimidated by the two mice. “I’m a superhero, I’m Ittybitty, KingDead sidekick! I shrunk myself and I have to get back to my mentor so he can get me back to normal size.” He explained.
“Oh yeah! I remember you.” Exclaimed Eddy. “I sang you happy birthday earlier today. How did you shrink to such a tiny size?”
“Look, I’ll explain to you later. Can you please get me back to my table? I really need to get back to normal size and only my friend can do this.” AK insisted.
Jerry finished his cig when he said. “You should help him and go, I’ll replace you here. If word spreads that we aren’t helping paying customers in our restaurant, we will end up like that abandoned one in the city’s outskirts. You know, with those creepy animatronics.”
The mouse nodded. “Okay. I won’t be long.” He then looked at Buizel in his hand. “Come on, I’ll take you to your friend.” He immediately went on his way and reached a tiny elevator taking him up. “I can’t get across the kitchen on the floor, there’s too many people moving around here. We’ll take the platforms above. It’s a detour but it’s the rules and safe with that.”
Quickly, the mouse and the “passenger” he was carrying were on the platform and got around the kitchen. You could just see everything from here, how the dough was made, then the ingredients put on the tomatoes and the cheese. Before being cooked in the oven and put on a tray for serving or a box for take away.
There’s a sort of magic to seeing such a large cuisine with so many cooks going around and preparing the food. AK seemed to be mesmerized that he was actually leaning a little to see what was going on down there.
Everything would have been okay but sadly the mouse carrying him bumped into a toolbox forgotten by a careless technician.
Eddy fell and his hand cushioned the shrunken Buizel from hitting the ground too hard. But sadly, it didn’t prevent him from being ejected and rolled away until there was no floor anymore.
“Oh no!” That’s what AnimalKingdom thought before gravity claimed it’s due. He screamed as he was free falling in the kitchen. Nobody noticed the orange gnat descending what it would be like a meter. Nothing to normal sized people. But it was incredible heights for someone ant sized.
The only thing left to do was to pray that something soft was waiting on the ground to cushion this fall. Even if shrunken people weigh less and their density is supposed to increase, depending on the technology used, falls like that could do a lot of damage and even cause death.
What saved the teeny tiny super hero this time was a soft and little slimy but hot yellow surface. Cushioning with love as the matter engulfed his body and left him trapped on whatever he landed on. The strong appetizing smell made AK fear the worst before he licked the yellow stuff. It was cheese, melted like the one you could find on a… Pizza. He landed on the food a customer of the restaurant ordered.
He struggled, moving his arms and legs to get free. But the melted lactose based garnishing was merciless. It felt heavy and really sticking on his body as he couldn’t even lift his face and see where he was going. He clearly felt the pizza and the tray it was put on being lifted and then going up and down.
This could be the end of the trip for him. The food was set down on a table and he clearly heard a “Enjoy your meal sir.”
He was going into someone's stomach and shares the same fate as the rest of this cheese, an acid end featuring the gastric juices. That’s what was awaiting him he couldn’t at least get his still holding the shrink ray, free.
Between the digestion and being shrunk to the atomic level to prevent that. He definitely made his choice and will take a stay within the neutrons. If he was going to be able to shrink himself.
The part he was on got lifted up and soon shadow overcame him as he entered a hot moist cavern. Then the roof went up and down repeatedly as he was tossed from every side. He forgot the teeth and the guy eating him had many long and slicing ones. Even small like he was they could impale him or reduce him to pulp.
Luckily, in the whole mess that food becomes when it gets chewed in your mouth, he didn’t meet them. He landed face on a pink spongious surface with so many tiny round protuberances, taste buds. This was the second of calm before the scariest thing happening to many unlucky tiny beings in a giant mouth. The tongue slowly lifts up, making everything slowly descend into the gullet.
Everything suddenly stopped and the tongue started to move left and right. AK was again tossed everywhere until the big pink snake-like surface seemed to have “found him” It then lifted and pressed him against the palate. The pink texture rubbing against his body until he was expelled from the mouth.
AnimalKindgom was now laying on a soft surface, covered in spit and cheese but mostly… Defeated. Being tiny isn’t easy, he knew that too well.
“I knew I felt a blueberry taste in my pizza. You’re lucky I noticed it before I gulped you down.” A loud but familiar voice announced. It was KingDead.
“KD!” Buizel said out of breath as he relaxed knowing he was literally in good hands.
“Can’t hear you, you’re too small. Let me just put you on the table and shrink.” A few seconds later, he was twice the size of AK as he helped him get away from the cheese blob. “I wonder how you can end up in this situation so many times. What happened?”
AnimalKingdom explained the whole story, the shrink ray he obtained, how he got reduced to such size and had to travel to get back to him, everything. “And here we are.”
The buffy superhero wolf listened with attention. “Ok. Shrink ray trouble, how classic. Well I grow you back and we’ll head home. I think you would like some rest after that.”
“Yeah, I think its only fate giving me a gift with this second adventure in the same episode.” He sarcastically said. “But I would like some rest but mostly a shower.” He tried to get some cheese away from his superhero clothes.
KD held his pokemon sidekick and started to grow but quickly noticed that his protégé wasn’t growing with him. “What the? It’s not working?”
“Come on, you gotta be kidding me!” AK screamed in anger as his mentor tried multiple times but to no avail. The Buizel sidekick was stuck at this size. “What do we do now? Should I try to use this shrink ray?”
“Absolutely not! It’s too risky and surely why you’re stuck like this. You told me the guy at the counter knew those shrink ray like he made them, let’s pay him a visit.” KingDead grew to his normal and picked up his sidekick. You could feel in his voice and walking pace that he was annoyed and angry at the same time. “Excuse me, sir.” He asked as he reached the exchange counter.
“Yes?” Said the yellow fox as he turned to him. “Oh, the wolf who smashed the punching machine. What can I do for you mister?”
“KD. My sidekick has obtained a shrink ray from you and now look at how he is now.” The muscled superhero wolf showed his hand. The fox wondered what he wanted to show him before he noticed a sort of orange ant. He took his jeweler's loupe from one of his pockets and looked at it.
AnimalKingdom saw this magnified giant scary eye suddenly peeking at him.
“Oh! The superhero suit kid. Yes, he exchanged his point for an Atomictoy shrink ray. Worked really well.” He announced.
“Wait a sec!” KD interjected. “Did you just say an Atomictoy???” He seemed to be really worried.
“Of course. It has been on the shelf for so long. I wondered if it would be gone before my retirement.”
“Is that bad?” Asked AK through his communicator. He was close enough now, almost being beside it on the wolf paw.
“The AtomicToy brand was banned because it’s extremely hard to reverse the effect if you don’t have one of their products. Lots of supervillains in the 50’s bought their shrink rays when they knew about it.” KingDead explained with a hint, stunned about the news.
“Okay then how do I put it on unshrink?” The Buizel asked through his communicator.
The wolf relayed. “My friend wants to know how you reverse the shrink ray to grow back to normal.”
The fox simply announced. “You can’t.”
“WHAAAAAAAT?!?!?!?” They both screamed in unison but KD was the only one who was heard by the whole building.
“Duh! It’s a shrink ray, it makes things shrink. To make things grow, you need a growth ray. Simple as that.” The yellow furred vulpine answered.
“Ok then. Can we use an Atomictoy growth ray?” KingDead asked.
The fox rubbed the back of his head, seemingly embarrassed. “I don’t have one here… It’s available at another location but I can ask them to send it here.” He then hesitated for a second before he dropped his explanation. “Company policy forbids any borrowing of prizes, you need tickets.”
“How much?” Asked AnimalKingdom, fearing the worst as his mentor asked the same.
“Atomictoy growth rays are rarer than shrink rays… Since it’s more complicated to make something grow than to shrink it…” The wolf banged his free fist on the counter to obtain an answer from the man. “300 000 tickets…” The vulpine then tried to hide behind his counter, fearing the storm. “Maybe… We can arrange a solution… But I need authorizations and stuff, so it will take several weeks, but I’ll arrange this in days…” He tried to smooth the corners, clearly fearing the muscled wolf who seemed to be boiling in anger. Not knowing that even if he was in rage, KingDead would never explode as he quickly contained his anger and breathed.
AnimalKingdom seemed totally stunned and his mind was breaking apart. “Happy birthday AK…”
THE END?
Category Story / All
Species Pokemon
Gender Male
Size 120 x 90px
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