Thank you all who read my last chapter (though in my opinion it is probably going to be one of the dullest). I just want to comment also that Ai, Harley/Heiji, those other inspector dudes and dudettes you all seem to love, and anyone else who is in the later episodes that you love such as Kid, they are not going to be in here. I only have what is shown in the states and I don't know what their personalities are like, so I will not do anything to damage their personalities by leaving them out. O.K. now on with the good stuff.
What the Tide Brings In - Chapter 2By strawbeby
About an hour after calling Dr. Agasa to let him know that he was going to use the antidote, Conan was watching TV. Rachel came out of her room and sat gently down next to him.
"How are you feeling?" Conan asked.
"I'm doing okay. I'm just a little down in the dumps right now. Wait a second... Why did you think that there is something the matter with me?" Rachel asked. He always knows...that's just something that's really weird to me. Even if I know that I look the same, he still knows when I miss Jimmy the most. It's like he can read my mind.
"Well," Conan replied. "You've been in your room for a while. You were probably taking a nap and you usually only take naps when you are not feeling well."
Rachel chuckled inside at herself for thinking something so silly, reading minds. He just has an unusual way of looking at things, by observation and then deducing. It reminds me a bit of Jimmy... "Yeah, I'm feeling better. Thanks for asking. So, what was that surprise that Dr. Agasa had for you?" she asked, remembering Conan's earlier trip to the Doc's.
"He's taking me camping, tomorrow, Rach! For a whole week, I think, too! He's not really sure when we'll get back either, it'll be so far in the woods. But it'll be fun out of the wilderness, making a fire, and setting up a tent! Lots of adventures, too!" Conan had already thought of the explanation earlier, but just the same he tried to flair up his usual enthusiasm by thinking of what he was really going to do.
"Well, it sounds like you're going to have a really great time Conan," Rachel said. "And that also means that the house will be empty all week. The people that Dad had solved the case for this afternoon had called while you were gone and invited him to spend a week at their spa. Yeah, it turns out that they are millionaires. Isn't that really neat? We were even already going to ask Dr. Agasa to look after you this week."
"A spa? Aw, that sounds like no fun," Conan said. "Sitting around in a bath all day? No way! Give me dirt, hiking and the Doc said if I was really good then one night he's gonna tell a whole bunch of ghost stories. In fact..." Conan pretended to glance at his watch to check the time. "I need to go over to Dr. Agasa's right not to ask him what I need to bring. Maybe we'll even sleep in sleeping bags!" Conan hopped off the couch and headed towards the door.
"Okay," Rachel said. "Just be back soon. It's almost bed time!" She had to yell that last part because he hadn't stopped to listen to her and had slammed the door shut.
Conan ran as fast as he could to the Doc's house so he wouldn't lose any time at all in becoming Jimmy. Then as he ran up the stairs he suddenly realized what Rachel had said. Darn it! I can't use the antidote tonight! Rach's expecting Conan back home soon and even if he calls she'll wonder why he didn't come back to say goodbye or even pack. I better go in anyway, though, because when I had called, Doc had said that he wanted me to come over tonight. So he stepped up to the front door of Dr. Agasa's house and gave 3 firm knocks.
Dr. Agasa opened the door, looked down, smiled, then said, "Hello, Jimmy Are you ready to return to your body for a week?"
Conan, with an annoyed look on his face, went, "No. I just realized Rachel trapped me in by expecting me, Conan, to come home for bed tonight. Just when I can give her Jimmy, she calls Conan back."
Dr. Agasa's face fell slightly but with a bright face he said, "Don't worry Jimmy. We can always do it bright and early tomorrow morning. In the meantime, why don't I show you it?" He ushered Conan inside, with the air of someone showing off his or her new baby, then began to walk down a hallway, obviously wanting Conan to follow.
Conan did follow, and when he caught up with Dr. Agasa he said, "Dr. Agasa, what's so interesting about the antidote? Isn't it just some pills or syrup that I can take?"
"Oh, no!" Dr. Agasa replied like Conan was calling something beautiful, ordinary. "Technically it's not even an antidote. It's an ager. You'll see." Conan's head swam with the ideas of what an ager could possibly be when Dr. Agasa opened a door to one of his many laboratories. And in the middle of it was a giant laser/gun-looking thing. It was pointing inside of this glass box that looked big enough to fit a person maybe two. Inside of the box there was a little metal stool, and to get inside and out it looked like a whole wall of it was made into a door. The door was shut, and you could barely notice it period, the thing looked so secure.
"This," the Doc proudly said. "Is the Edogawa maximizer 2000. Fitting name isn't it? What happens is you will step inside of the glass room made especially for this and the door will close, securing any and all open places. Then I will fire up the machine and within a minute the maximizer will shoot it's lazer beam through the projector," he pointed to the end that the lazer was pointing to and Conan noticed that it did look like someone had cut that edge off. "And the beams will shoot throughout the glass room and bounce off the walls, like reflecting. Then, after shooting you about 5000 times it will shoot back through the projector and evaporate." Dr. Agasa, finished explaining the genius ways of his latest invention, looked very proud of himself for creating something this scientific and marvelous.
Conan on the other hand looked scared out of his mind. "Uh, Doc? It shoots me 5000 times? Um, wouldn't I be dead then?"
"Oh, no, Jimmy!" Dr. Agasa quickly replied. "The shooting will just cause a light tingling sensation as the lazer speeds up your blood cells and ages them 10 years. Then within the hour you would have an immediate change from child to teenager. This should be painless and it should have no warning signs. You will feel your limbs growing very quickly, though."
Conan was very pleased with the fact that it would be painless. When he had been transformed the first time into a child, it was a very painful experience. He hated to think of going through the pain of thinking that you are dying again.
"But there is a downside, Jimmy," Dr. Agasa continued. "Well not really a downside. Just two very important things that you need to know. The first is that the door has to be tightly sealed. If not then anything and everything in the room will age 10 years along with you. And I would love to keep my things in there like new, Jimmy. The other thing is about when you shrink back. Yes, even though there is the slimmest of slim chance you might stay in your own body, most likely you will shrink back. The least amount of time is a week. The most amount of time that there is excluding never shrinking back is about 2 ½ weeks. The thing you really have to remember though Jimmy, is that you have to stay out of sight during that time. Because at any moment you could shrink back without warning, because your shrinking will be just like your growing. If you don't keep out of sight then you could be just walking down the street then bing-bang-boom! You're Conan again. And who knows has seed you change from Jimmy to Conan. So I would recommend staying here until that happens."
Conan nodded, meaning that he understood what the Doc was saying. Still in a bit of a daze, because of all of this important information that he had to know, he checked his watch then said, "Well it's about time for me to be heading home, Dr. Agasa. Is there anything else that I need to know?"
Doc thought a second the replied, "Not really, Jimmy. Except that the controls for the machine are in the room right next to here so it'll be just you in here during the process."
"Gotcha. Bright and early tomorrow morning, then?" Conan asked.
"Bright and early tomorrow morning, Jimmy," Dr. Agasa replied.
The two said their good nights, then Conan let himself out. He then returned home to find a waiting Rachel and a still drunk, dozing Richard. Maybe I should tell her that I'm coming tomorrow through one of Jimmy's phone calls, he thought later when he had been thinking what will be in store for the two of them the next day when he was getting ready for bed. He paused to ponder it a moment longer then decided nah! Let it be a surprise for her later! Conan then crawled into his pile of blankets, and quickly fell asleep. His dreams that night were filled with dreams of Rachel, the beach, having his own body back, and Rachel's little pale blue bikini (he's only human, you know).
The next morning, Rachel shook Conan awake. "Conan? Wake up, it's getting late. Dr. Agasa has called you about 3 times already, but you've been sleeping. Now I've got to be leaving for my vacation pretty soon here."
Conan rolled over, rubbed his eyes then mumbled, "What time is it?"
"It's a quarter past 10," Rachel replied.
This really got Conan's full attention as he quickly sat up and screeched, "What?!" He leapt over to his alarm clock and saw that the alarm read 12:00 AM. But he had sworn that he had set it the night before and it looked like it was in a different spot than it had been the night before.
Rachel explained, "It had went off at 6:15 this morning and Dad came in here, took it off its stand, then threw it to the floor, and it had became unplugged. I then came in here to wake you in a gentler manner but you wouldn't listen and started singing your own off key version of the Pink Panther song."
"I overslept! Rachel why didn't you try and wake me again?! Now I'll be late!" Conan complained.
Rachel tilted her head to one side the sighed, "Conan, I did try again. The next time you were dead to the world and kept mumbling for the waitress to come back so that you could order some zebra cakes for you and me. Sounds like an interesting dream."
Conan's eyes shifted away from Rachel then said "Uh, yeah it was. But why didn't you try and wake me again after that?"
Rachel's face narrowed and she said, "You kept throwing your shoes at me. Besides that I knew that you were going to have a long day ahead of you and you need your sleep."
"Thanks, Rach," he mumbled sarcastically. "Now, if you don't mind I've gotta hurry up and get ready to leave."
"Okay," she replied, and with that she left. Quickly he changed into his suit and bow tie (For the last time for a week!) and grabbed his "sleeping bag" (actually it was a bag of wadded up pieces of paper and fabric). Then he ran into the living room.
"Bye Richard! Bye Rachel!" He tried to make it out of the front door but Rachel stopped him just in time by yelling out, "Conan Edogawa, do not run out that door before I get a chance to tell you goodbye!" Conan slowly turned around to see Rachel staring right at him (feels more like through...Conan thought). Her face changed into a smile though as she ran and hugged him goodbye.
"Oh, You're going to be out in the wilderness for a whole week, maybe even more," Rachel said, sounding more like a mother hen than a seventeen year old girl. "You must call me if you stay more. Dr. Agasa told me that he'd have his cell phone with him so I can check up with you (he'll also have a voice immolator already set to my voice Conan thought). So will it be just you two?"
Conan nodded.
"Won't you be really bored having only an old man for company?" Rachel asked.
"Nah. We'll be fishing and hiking and all of that fun outdoors stuff!" Conan replied, as enthusiastic as ever.
But, Rachel thought. Those things won't last that long. I wish he would have someone his age going along with him. But instead of voicing her opinion she simply said, "Okay, Conan. Well, have fun, but be careful."
Conan graciously took this as Rachel allowing him to leave, so he called out "Bye Rachel, I'll see you in a week!" Actually I'll see you in just a couple of hours. But you're not to know that. Conan thought. He ran over to his house to set out the clothes that he was going to wear, then ran through the back alley to Dr. Agasa's to wait while Doc made the finishing touches on his invention.
Meanwhile, back at the Moore residence, Rachel was just double-checking that she had everything she could possibly need, when the doorbell rang. She ran to answer it, and instead of being greeted by an early bird Serena, she was greeted by the 3 young faces of Conan's friends, Amy, Mitch, and George.
Rachel smiled then said, "Good morning kids. What do you guys need?"
"Can Conan come out and play?" Mitch asked.
"Yeah, we were wanting to play go hide and seek with him!" Amy said.
"That's because he's the worst hider and the best seeker." George added.
"Too bad kids. You just missed him," Rachel said. "He just left to go on a week long camping trip with Dr. Agasa." She paused to think for a moment. Conan will probably get really bored if he's the only kid there. Maybe he'd like having his three best friends along with him. "But I bet, if you hurry over there right now, Dr. Agasa might let you come along with them. It sounded like they are going to be having a lot of fun."
"That sounds terrific, Ms. Moore!" Mitch said.
"Yeah, we could get to go camping in a real tent, with a real campfire, and fishing for real fish!" George said.
"Well, then what are we waiting for, guys? Let's go and see if we can go, too!" Amy said.
The three kids bounded off, back down the stairs and down the street toward Dr. Agasa's house. Rachel smiled, pleased with the comforting thought of Conan having some company of his own age for the trip. My good deed for the day is done. Now if only the world would turn perfect and bring Jimmy back to me...
At Dr. Agasa's house, Conan and the Doc were just ready to fire up the maximizer. "Are you sure you want this, Jimmy?" Dr. Agasa asked.
Conan nodded. Making Rachel cry breaks my heart. Even if I'll have only a week then I'll have to return as Conan, at least she'll get a proper explanation this time. Maybe she'll even learn to forgive me for having to leave. Maybe she'll realize what I'm really doing for her and don't give up hope for me...But I don't want her missing out on life just because I have to. But she was so sad. Seeing Jimmy will give her hope. Make her stronger. Be happier. At least for a little while...
Dr. Agasa left the room and Conan climbed into the glass box to sit on the cold, metal stool. At least he didn't have to hear that awful racket that the maximizer was making out there. The box not only sealed him and the lazer beam in, but it sealed the noise out. It also sealed out any extra oxygen, but the process would only take a minute or two, the Doc had informed him earlier, and he wouldn't run out of oxygen until about the fifth minute. Now all I have to do is wait. Maybe I'll think of what I'm going to say to her when she first sees me...
At Dr. Agasa's front door Amy came up, the first to arrive of the 3. Amy, having no intention of slowing down for "those slowpokes" and really wanting to go camping with Conan, started to knock on the door. But the first rap showed her that the door had not been shut properly the last time that it was used, so it opened wide. Mitch and George ran up the steps then and all three of them noticed the loud noises coming from another room down the hall in Dr. Agasa's house.
Amy turned around and asked the boys, "Do you think we should go in?"
"Yeah," George said. "Or else we might miss out on the great adventure of camping!"
Amy led the pack in, slowly creeping towards the room that they thought that the noise was coming from. She slowly opened the door that the great sounds were coming from, and the three kids saw before them a glass box with their best pal Conan inside of it. His eyes were closed and he looked like he was mumbling to himself.
"Guys!" Amy shouted. "There's Conan! And he looks he's in lots of trouble! We need to save him!" So the three bounded forward, thinking that they were saving their friend from a bad guy of sorts. George, being the strongest and the most gullible of the three to become a hero, leapt ahead of Amy and Mitch and swung the door clean open. He then smartly shouted, "Hey, Conan!"
Conan's attention shot up, abruptly shaken from his blissful thoughts about his spring break week as Jimmy. His gaze caught his three friends, and with a horrified look on his face started to motion for them to leave, and leave quickly. But he was interrupted by the Edogawa Maximizer 2000 taking action and shooting its lazer beam throughout the room that they were all in.
Strawbeby- I'm so sorry to leave you on a cliffhanger. But I couldn't help myself. Don't worry. I already have the next chapter written and I'll have it typed up and on the site within the week (I write the plot out in my notebook, let my best friend, Sakinu, review it, then add all of details on here. Don't worry. I cliffhang her, too. But with that I accidentally stop in the middle of a sentence. Don't ask how I stop in the middle of a sentence. I just do.