Honey, I Shrunk the Egos

Silver Lining

The Silver Shepherd had been plotting sites of recent bike thefts on a map plastered to the wall when the shrinking had begun. He had started to notice something felt off, but didn't really realize what was happening until his suit had bagged around him and he was too short to reach the top of the map that he could have, just seconds before. "Ibis!" He had called, and the sidekick had come from typing up notes of their last heroic adventure.

"Silver Shepherd what's-" The boy had stopped, just staring as he had adjust his blue towel cape. "Are you shrinking?"

"It would seem so, Ibis." The Shepherd had nodded. "I must have been struck by a shrink ray of some sort." He had placed his hands on his hips. "It's... the only explanation."

Ibis had nodded. "What... what do we do?"

"Well first we..." Shepherd had stood for a moment with his mouth open then had slowly closed it, sighing. "I think we wait for a bit. I have to stop shrinking eventually!" He had grinned. He had eventually began to get worried as the shrinking continued, but by the time he had realized it could be a problem, the pace had increased dramatically and the room was shooting up around him. As he had shrunk smaller and smaller, he had began to panic, running around the shed and tripping over his costume. Ibis had chased after him, trying to hold the costume up for him so he wouldn't trip. Eventually the Silver Shepherd had shrunk out of sight and Ibis lost his footing. He stumbled forward, tripping over the costume, and crushed something beneath his foot, hearing a loud cracking sound as his eyes had widened.

"Shepherd? Shepherd!" The sidekick had dropped to his knees beside the costume and dug through until he found the tiny man, laying on his side. He had gently scooped him up in his mask and laid him on the desk, then waited for him to wake up... but he never had.

As they arrived at the house, Amy climbed out, tucking the sobbing Mark close against herself, and Tyler followed with his box of confused and sad, tiny people. Kathryn slowly got out and followed after them, as they all walked around the house and into the back yard, approaching the moderately sized shed. Amy knocked softly and the teary eyed sidekick opened it for them. "Come on in." He nodded.

"Did you... call anyone?" Tyler asked softly.

The boy's eyes widened. "I should have! I should have called 911!"

"No." Mark sighed as Amy held her hand out so he could walk onto the desk. "They wouldn't have believed you, and if they had, they couldn't have helped him. He has no proof of identity, no insurance and he's five inches tall. You didn't do anything wrong." He slowly walked over, looking down at the tiny form, mostly covered in the seemingly giant mask and frowned. "It's weird seeing him out of costume. You know... I didn't even know his secret identity name."

Ibis walked over, sniffling. "It was-"

"No!" Google Blue shouted from the box. "He did not want Mark to know."

"What? Why not?" Mark muttered.

Google sighed. "If we try to explain the Silver Shepherd, we will be here all day."

Tyler sighed, setting the box down on the desk and helped the egos out, watching as they all wandered over to stand around the body, seeming to pay respects. Mark shook his head, wiping tears from his face. "I... I can't believe there's a death on my shoulders."

"I stepped on him!" Ibis shrieked, before falling into sobs. Frowning, Mark glanced up at Amy, waving his arm.

Amy frowned, hugging the boy. "Hey, it's alright. It was an accident. Anything could have happened... they're all so tiny and fragile right now. We've almost gotten Mark killed a few times..."