The Shrink Program

Chapter 170

Well.

If Robin and her super memory could have come in handy for one thing...

Navigating the long and treacherous
Halls of the Death Lab would have been it.

"How can you be lost." Vain glared down at Alex impatiently. "You used to live down here."

Too bad we didn't think of that before we sacrificed her to the creepy Bird monster...

"Shut it Snowflake. I'm not lost." Alex shot Vain a dirty look over his shoulder. "I'm thinking."

Right. Cause that is so much better.

Since he was supposed to actually know his way around here, Alex had been assigned the task of leading the way.... but had been slowing down progressively the further along we went.

I noticed this, as I had been sulking the entire way, and it had taken a lot of will power not to complain at the ever lessening pace.

Apparently, Vain had been feeling the same way and had finally lost his patience when Alex came to a dead stop in front of a staircase.

The small boy was still staring up into the darkness... as if trying to talk himself into moving forward.

"Then... Um...Why are we stopping?" Nigel put delicately, bending forward to try and peek at the boy's expression.

"Because there are worse things down here than Jack...and I'm seriously having second thoughts..." Alex muttered more to himself than to any of us, before pushing himself into motion.

I glared at Alex's back as Vain and Nigel followed, not impressed.

Set an ominous mood, why dont'cha? That's what's really missing from this awesome experience...

"Are you sure this is the right way...?" I asked, honestly not wanting to travel up another set of stairs for the rest of my life if I didn't have to.

He shot me an irritated look at the scepticism.

"Even if I didn't know my way around... I know this is the right direction because Alex signal is getting stronger."

I was pulling a face before he could even finish.

Once upon a time, working a mobile phone was the most complicated thing I had to contend with.

I miss those days.

"You can feel Alan's... signal?" I grimaced, not really liking the idea... At all. "...like Wi-Fi or something?"

"... More like I can feel my own Nanotech reacting to his." Alex turned away with a grimace. "We're almost entering the range where the Link signal is no longer trumped by the radio waves."

Right. Cassandras broadcast of doom. How could I forget?

"Does that mean you'll turn back to normal?" I asked tentatively. Peri had said something about the Link system trying to maintain the same image across two bodies...

Alex tsked softly at the notion.

"Hardly. Our Nanotech will work again once I get out of range, but if we rely on the Link system to turn me back, it could take months." He rubbed a tired hand against his face. "Which mean I'm going to be stuck baby faced until we get access to an actual system."

...meaning he's stuck like this...unless he begs the Shrink Program to change him back...

"Oh." I nodded straight-faced. "That's too bad."