Ending

Waking up bound to a chair, Chuck panicked before he realized he wasn't being eaten by a cat.

Trying to calm himself, he looked around to realize that Sarah, Casey, and Morgan were also bound in chairs. They were each barefoot and wearing an orange jumpsuit.

The room, like the chairs, was plain and dull gray so it didn't keep his attention for long. He only took note of it containing two doors and a camera in the corner.

Calling to each of the others, Chuck was glad when they began to stir.

Slowly, they each regained consciousness into the groggy panic attack he'd had.

Yelling some more, Chuck got their attention and they each looked to him.

"What happened to you? Did you get the taxi treatment too?" Chuck asked.

Discussing their experiences, they had each been taken the same way, likely by the same taxi and driver. Then working to coordinate their stories, they figured out a semblance of what happened.

Chuck had been taken first for his stay in the dollhouse and losing the battle with a cat.

Sarah had been taken second before ending up on a conference room table. She'd tried answering her cell phone to talk to Chuck but had been knocked off. She passed out before making an impact on the floor. Her environment had been a conference room, similar to the one they'd visited at the FBI.

Casey and Morgan each talked about mazes built of toys with dangers hidden within.

Morgan had run down an exploding volcano with some kind of mixture following him down. It might have been harmless, but he hadn't risked it. When he dropped into a Lego house he walked through and found himself on a street. Picking a direction, he'd reached a corner and while he checked around it, a fire truck came up behind him to nearly run him over. Forced to dive around the corner, another wall swung in behind him forcing him to continue. Morgan continued to explain balancing beams over containers of bugs, a magnifying glass starting a fire, and other dangers until he'd been pit against a large Black Widow Spider. With nothing but a little toy plastic sword, he'd tried to defend himself but ultimately was about to be bit when he blacked out.

Pushed into sharing, Casey reluctantly told them that he'd also been in a maze, but his experience had different dangers. He was pit against a rat and each time the rat beat him to a level he faced a danger while the rat was pinned until he got through. Since the rat knew the course, it never lost! He'd been forced to fight toy robots, dodge hammers on a balancing beam above open gears, and ultimately he'd been beset upon by masses of bugs with nothing but two stupid toy swords to defend himself. Needless to say, he'd been overwhelmed before regaining consciousness there with them.

None of them had answers for how they got to be so small as they'd each reached the same conclusion.

Then the door to the room opened and a different man entered. This one was balding on top, had glasses, was shorter, and seemed to enjoy nicer clothes based on his silk ascot. "I suppose you're wondering why you're here this evening." He moved to walk across the room shrinking as he went until he stood before them on the same level. Meaning, he was standing to their sitting, but they were the same size. Either he'd shrunk, or they'd grown, but it was likely an optical illusion.

Taking a position in front of them, the man introduced himself. "My name is agent Winters. Id' already gotten the go-ahead to put you through this, but you laughing at agent Larkin made it a surprise party." Forestalling their explosive comments, he held up his hands. "General Beckman initiated the building of this facility after Bryce's recent experience. Since he died again, it was decided to potentially train agents for similar situations just in case there are any more mad scientists with these ideas out there."

They fell quiet and listened as he continued to talk about their experiences. The facility was a dull gray construction with overgrown models that were mechanically controlled. While they'd been unconscious, contacts had been put in their eyes to control what they saw and the perspective it was shown in.

"Why these obstacles and challenges though, do they really need to be this terrifying?" Chuck asked remembering the second he saw the cat coming, the perspective as it landed into him, with a shiver.

"Bryce survived, ultimately anyway, but now I think you better understand what he went through. Except he really was small, and it was days before he was rescued." Winters said as he began to untie them.

"You mean, Bryce went through this?" Chuck squeaked. No wonder the files were so blacked out! No one would believe this if they just saw some files.

"He was killed by the phone much like Mrs. Bartowski would have been if this was real. Otherwise, he went through the same scenarios as Casey and Grimes. As for you, your experience was a mixture of his captivity, being watched over at the Burkes on their dining room table, and some creativity. Bryce did encounter a cat, but there was no centerpiece at the Burkes while the house was securely sealed to avoid escape during his captivity. I wanted you to escape so I left the door open." Winters elaborated before giving them their final instructions. "Go through the door here and down the hall to the locker rooms. There you can change back to your street clothes to leave. The exit is on the other side from there." Then he left through the door he'd entered by which locked behind him.

Casey led the way out the door followed by Morgan while Chuck and Sarah brought up the rear. It was a dull gray hall like the room had been but halfway along there was a large gray spider coming out of the wall.

As they approached, Casey and Morgan tried to be casual about it, but Chuck saw them both give it a wide berth. When they were just past it a giant gray rat came out of the other wall with clasping claws and gaping teeth. Morgan squealed and, although Casey wouldn't admit it, Casey squeaked before growling to cover it up.

Approaching the same area, Chuck and Sarah cautiously moved down the middle.

Something dropped into his hair so Chuck screeched while shaking to get it out. Sarah reacted rather similarly, but she tried to be more subtle about it. When they were clear, they found two spiders dangling above the hallway. They were the same dull gray so they knew they were a part of the challenge.

"I knew something was weird about that spider that attacked Bryce. Now we know something of why and why Bryce reacted so vehemently." Chuck commented while he observed the mechanical spiders resetting for their next victims.

"That was totally freaky! But it was awesome!" Morgan had been thoroughly scared, but as the adrenaline wore off he could appreciate the skill that went into creating it. "I wonder if agent Winters would make a video game off of it. I don't like the virtual reality so well, but it's an interesting concept and now I want to beat the spider." Although he shivered at the idea of facing it again, his gamer attitude was surfacing as they walked the rest of the way down the hallway.

"Bryce really died from that. We were never in any real danger." Chuck noted again, he wanted it to sink in for Morgan. His joke really had been cruel considering this.

Sighing, Morgan seemed to finally get it. "Alright, so Bryce isn't a big baby." Then he reluctantly tagged on, "I'll apologize better."

Casey grunted. He didn't say anything about apologizing, but at least he probably wouldn't laugh anymore. Bryce had survived where he had died.

Splitting up at the locker room doors, they went to retrieve their clothes and changed. Then with the jumpsuits in the lockers, they left out the back doors.

Meeting on the street, they took a moment to adjust to the dark and city lights. It had been hours since they'd been abducted.

At the growls of their stomachs, they decided to find food and then return to their place for the night.

The next morning they went to the Bureau. When they arrived, everyone was gathered around laughing. By the looks of it, Neal had presented Burke with a painting.

"I haven't seen you paint since senior year." Chuck broke into the conversation to make their presence known.

Turning towards him with matching smiles, Burke and Neal welcomed the team into the group while most of their team frowned.

Getting the chance to see them, Chuck looked at the paintings.

One was small. It had bloodshot lines through brown eyes, nostrils, ears, and dirt in fingernails. Basically, it was a tiny painting composed of embarrassing close-ups.

At his glance, Neal threw an amused smirk at Burke. So, Neal had painted what he saw of Burke while he was small.

Based on Burke's smile, he humored the small painting while being proud of the large one.

The second painting was large, maybe poster-sized, and it depicted agent Burke in a hero stance with his hands on his hips. It was the perspective of someone who looked up to him.

Smiling, Chuck handed Neal the painting. "I'm glad you found someone you trust to protect your back."

"I trust you, but at the time… I was in place to protect you, not the other way around." Neal frowned at him.

"That changed some time ago and although you had your reasons, you haven't contacted me in years, and not without reason since before everything senior year. Now I can help when you need it, and I expect you to contact me." Turning to Burke, "If he doesn't, I expect you to contact me for him. After everything, I want to be able to help when I can."

"You know I call agent Winters when needed and between him and Peter, things are usually taken care of as far as agency needs are concerned." Neal tried to deflect.

"Speaking of agent Winters, did you call him yesterday?" Chuck frowned. Did Neal ask for them to be punished? He didn't think so, but he felt he should ask.

"No, why?" Burke and Neal exchanged glances, but both seemed puzzled by the inquiry.

"He abducted us and put us through a simulation of what you went through. By the way, sorry, man." Morgan filled in what had happened before adding his apology.

Casey grunted in agreement but didn't vocalize.

Translating, Chuck covered the communication gap. "That's grunt number seventy-five, and means he's sorry too."

Neal's eyes were wide as he looked at them; he hadn't expected any of that. "We're good. He built a simulation?"

Smirking, Chuck told the team what his people had gone through. "He was authorized to put us through it but chose to make it a surprise party after the prank yesterday. I'm just glad it wasn't real and I now understand what happened to you."

"Maybe I'll have to give him a call? I'd like to see what he came up with. It would help with understanding what you went through." Burke looked intrigued.

"Are you sure? You saw what it put me through," Neal warned.

"It wasn't pleasant, but we're never in any real danger," Chuck added and then shrugged at Neal's frown.

"Yeah, I'm sure Neal," Burk threw an arm across Neal's shoulder.

"Hey, we'd like to try too," the two agents from before approached and were introduced as Jones and Berrigan. They were also friends of Neal's and wanted to walk in Neal's shoes.

"I can call him," Neal took the opportunity. He'd probably mix a speech in with the request in that conversation.

While the FBI started filling up to the conference room, some paused to get their names added to the list while others gave a clear berth not wanting to experience the terror of being small.

Sitting around the conference room table and starting the meeting, they discussed what to do.

It was decided that Chuck and his team would instruct their client that the FBI were criminals looking to rob him. If he contacted the team they'd be able to investigate easier if the crime was done by one of his employees. If he refused to contact law enforcement and went to them himself, then they could catch him directly.

With the plan in mind, Chuck and his team left for their client meeting.

After giving their client the story, he refused their offer of contacting local law enforcement. Then he ended their agreement and sent them on their way. He had his own 'connections' in law enforcement who would handle this.

Chuck sent their recordings of the conversation to Burke and loaded up their gear for the trip home. The FBI would handle this guy, but he'd keep tabs on the operation just in case!

It wasn't a week before Carmichael Industries got an envelope of results. They were the analysis of their deaths. Mostly, they just summarized what went wrong and how Neal had managed to survive the same situations.

Then there was an additional taunt. The FBI had done a better job of surviving than they had.

Chuck smiled. He suspected that Neal had told them things and tried to prepare them. Or, maybe they had just heard him talk as he went through it. Either way, they had more information and awareness going in so they had an advantage.

Besides, he wasn't competing with the FBI. They were agents while his team was former agents, but they all took down the bad guys.

He was just happy to know Neal was so well protected and supported.

Still, it wasn't a bad idea to learn some more self-defense and weapons, like swords, just in case!

Thank you, everyone, for reading, reviewing, and choosing to favorite my stories and me :D

Alrighty, this is the last chapter for this story, and next week I'll be taking an author initiative to post the Pinspired collection as the oldest story in the lineup :D

As for the moving front, I have an application in for a new job and my family is working on appointments to see potential places next weekend so moving may be rapidly approaching. (I will be amongst those not going so posting will be normal).