The diminutive conundrum

Chapter 1: the wrong vehicle

The day started like any normal day. Yes, I know, basic story intro, but deal with it. It was a partially cloudy Wednesday. John was walking home from a normal shift at the hardware store when he noticed a red Audi A8 outside of a hotel.

 "Man, that's a nice one, I could take it but... nah, I'll risk it." John thought to himself as he approached the vehicle.

 As he walked by it, he slid his hands along the side of the vehicle. As his hand slid along the door the vehicle began to shrink. As it reached the size of a hot wheels car it stopped shrinking. John reached down and picked up the vehicle and stuck it into his pocket. As he started walking away, he looked around and saw nobody in the area. A short jog later and he was in front of his house. As he unlocked the door he looked around and noted a dark figure at the end of the street looking at him. Suddenly as a bus passed, the man disappeared.

 "Disappearing behind a bus? Why can't they be more creative?" John thought to himself as he unlocked his door and went inside.

 As John entered the house he went immediately to the basement where he set his newly obtained vehicle in front of a car dealership in the diorama. As he set the car down it suddenly grew slightly larger to match the nearby vehicles. At that moment the doorbell rang.

"I'll deal with you later." John thought to himself as he went upstairs. 

John opened the door to find Chad Park, his neighbor 3 doors down. Chad also had supernatural abilities. His abilities allowed him to reuse and store others' abilities to a lesser extent, but storing powers came at a cost: peculiar quirks relating to the stored abilities. He went by the alias of Control CP.

"Hey, saw that you got home; thought I would pop in." Chad said in an upbeat tone.

John replied with a crisp: "What do you want?"

"Can't I just say hi to my friend?" Chad said, keeping the same tone.

"We're not friends," replied John in an annoyed tone.

"Well, you let me into your house, we build layouts and dioramas together and hang out." Chad said with a smug look on his face proving his point.

"We are not friends, we are.........um......partners in crime; you're an accomplice" John said with a scoff.

"About that... any new scores?" Asked Chad with an excited look.

"I did find a new Audi." John said with a straight face.

"Could I help with the process?" Chad inquired.

"NO, last time you 'helped' you borrowed one of my Corsas and you still haven't returned it!" John exclaimed.

"Oh yeah about that... I lost the Corsa." said Chad begrudgingly.

"And how did you manage to lose a car?" Sighed John.

"Well, I kinda shrunk it down so I could put it in my pocket, and I believe I lost it in my couch." Said Chad with a grimace.

"Come inside; we'll talk," said Chad.

-

Later that night after Chad had left, John went to bed. At about 11:35 he awoke to a creaking in the neighboring room. John got up and opened the door to see the dark man he saw earlier that day on the street corner. The man was wearing a black suit coat and a fedora.

"I am known as the Black Guardian, but you can call me Carver." said Carver.

"Well, what do you want and how did you get into my house?" John asked in an irritated voice.

"Shadowportation and you happened to have stolen one of my friends' cars." Stated Carver.

"I don't know what you're talking about,'' John denied.

"Oh, don't fake innocence, we know it's you that did it. Plus, we have evidence." Said Carver in a plain voice, empty of emotion.

"Alright, I understand the situation; what do you want?" John said with a tinge of nervousness in his voice.

"We want you to help us with a situation... oh, and we want the car back." Said Carver.

"You and who may I ask?" John asked skeptically.

"The league of random heroes," stated Craver plainly.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," said John.