Tiny Lucy
By ComicsFan7314
Chapter 1: Shrinking Feeling
"Eureka!" Lisa, the resident child prodigy of 1216 Franklin Avenue cried from the bedroom she shared with her sister Lily. "After 10 long weeks researching and prototyping, the Shrinkinator-3000 (patent pending) ray is finally finished!"
"This baby is surely one of, if not my best invention yet! Just think of the possible applications! Huge landfills full of trash will be a thing of the past, we will be able to store all the world's waste in an area the size of a matchbox! Doctors could shrink cancer-fighting robots directly into the body of patients! No longer will the militaries of the world have to worry about the painstaking task of troop and equipment logistics, a tank can be shrunk down to able to fit in the palm of one's hand!" she gushed proudly about her invention before being interrupted by her growling belly.
"But first, this bright mind needs some brain fuel! Can't change the world on an empty stomach after all!" the genius kindergartner mused as she headed downstairs for a snack.
While Lisa was busy in the kitchen, her baby sister Lily arose from her midday nap, yawning cutely as she did. The first thing she noticed immediately was the shiny new contraption sitting on her sister's desk, being a curious baby in a world that seem to be brimming with novelty, she had to touch and play with it, especially the various colorful buttons and switches!
Carefully climbing out of her crib, Lily toddled over to the funny looking machine and flipped one of its many switches. "HEAT-SEEKING MODE ACTIVATED." the device stated in a deep, digitized monotone, earning a playful clap from Lily. "Wheee! Shiny!" she squealed happily upon hearing this.
Downstairs, Lisa froze in place as she heard the robotic voice booming from her room. How did her invention switch on? Unless…oh no! Dropping everything she was doing, Lisa barreled up the stair as quickly as her stubby legs would allow her to. However, by the time she reached the upper floor, she was already too late. Lily, intrigued by a particular red button, decided to press it, which resulted in a ray of green energy shooting out from the device. The entire hallway lit up in a florescent surge followed by a deafeningly loud boom that shook the whole house! And then dead silence…for about five seconds. Almost immediately after the shockwave wore off, the hallway was abuzz with activity. One by one the other siblings of the Loud household exited their bedroom, talking amongst themselves and sporting looks of concern on their faces. Thankfully, their parents were out of the house at the moment, so they did not hear the blast.
"What the heck is going on in here?!" Lori, the oldest sibling shouted, silencing the others, "I was busy practicing my putter shot, and if I find out who caused that bang…" she said sinisterly, narrowing her eyes at her relatives. There was silence once again in the hallway before Lisa decided to speak up.
"It was Lily, I left to go get something to eat, and she must have crawled out of her crib and activated my creation!" the shaggy-haired brainiac explained.
"Lisa, you should know better than to leave your experiments near Lily without supervision! It's not safe!" Lincoln scolded his younger sister.
"Well, as long as no one got hurt." Lori said, her tone softening towards her relatives. "Nobody did get hurt right?"
"I believe so, Lily is a bit shaken up after the shockwave, but other than that I think we are fine." Lisa said, taking an upset Lily into her arms.
Erring on the side of caution, Lori decided to do a head count of all of her siblings to make sure they were alright.
"Lisa, Lily, Me, Leni, Luna, Luan, Lincoln, Lana, Lynn, Lola…" the teen girl counted, "And finally Lu-, Where Lucy?"
"Sigh, I'm right here." A high pitched yet flat voice called from the ground below."
The Loud siblings were frozen in terror as they looked down and saw what became of Lucy. She was…tiny! She looked the same as she normally did, but she was the size of a mouse!
"Lucy! What happen to you?!" Lincoln cried, unable to believe his eyes.
"I don't know. All I remember was walking down the hall to head down to the living room to watch Vampires of Melancholia when I got hit by some weird green ray. Next thing I knew, I was like this."
"We can change her back, right? That is doable right Lisa?" Lori asked, starting to grow frantic.
"Of course." Lisa snorted. "I'm not some bumbling imbecile who would design an invention and not have a way to reverse its effects!"
Reentering her room, Lisa flipped a switch labeled "shrink" to the position "grow" and after making sure to only target Lucy, she pressed down on the button to active the ray. However, the only thing that happened, was that the machine sputtered before emitting a black, foul-smelling cloud of smoke.
"Curses!" the eggheaded kindergartner exclaimed "It seems that both the heating element and the power supply were fried during the first activation!"
"But you can fix it, right Lisa?" asked Lori.
"Sure, I can fix it. But it will take time to get all the parts and install them, not to mention, test the device to make sure it is working properly, my best estimate to get this all done and turn Lucy back to normal would be five days, maybe a week." Lisa stated, adjusting her glasses.
"A week! I can't stay this way for a whole week!" Lucy shouted, still emotionless as ever.
"I'm sorry, Luce." Lincoln said sadly, holding up his "little" sister in his hand. "But Lisa is an expert, and we have no other means of turning you back, the only thing we can do for now is wait."
"But how am I supposed to get around in the meantime?" Lucy asked.
"I got an idea!" cried Lana before opening up the attic hatch and ascending the ladder. After rummaging around for a while, she returned to her siblings with what she was looking for. "It's one of Geo's old hamster balls, you can use it to get around without getting lost!"
"That is a great idea, Lana! You are so clever!" Lincoln said, praising his young sister, earning an earnest smile from the tomboy. "What do you say Luce, are you willing to give tiny life a shot?"
"Sigh, I suppose I don't have a choice." The minuscule goth grumbled in response.
"Guys how are we going to explain this to Mom and Dad?" remarked Lori, concern obviously in her voice.
"Yes, how are we going to tell them about this little problem?" Luan quipped, chuckling to herself. Lori did not find her sister's comment, especially at a time like this, to be very amusing.
"Shut up Luan!" Lori shouted at her comedic sister. "Your stupid jokes aren't helping!"
"What? I'm just trying to lighten the mood during this tense situation!" Luan retorted angerly.
The spat between Lori and Luan eventually devolved into an all-out verbal war, with their other siblings caught in the middle.
"All right, that is enough!" Lincoln exclaimed, silencing the two teens. "Have you two forgotten the matter at hand, which is that Lucy is the size of a mouse, and we have no way to tell Mom and Dad?!"
"You're right Lincoln." Lori replied solemnly. "This fighting is getting us nowhere. I'm sorry Luan."
"I'm sorry too Lori." Luan apologized. The two sister shook hands, only for a buzzing noise to come from Luan's palm, causing the jokester to giggle fervently.
"Well Lincoln, do you have any ideas on how we can break this news to Mom and Dad?" Lucy asked from inside of the hamster ball. But before the young boy could answer his sister's question, the sound of keys rattling could be heard coming from the front door.
"Kids, We're home!"
Author's Note: Hello Everyone! I hope you enjoyed the story. Shout out to DrifloonEmpire as the idea of the story came to me while we were chatting, and also for proofreading it. Check out their story A Light that Shines the Brightest s/14013380/1/A-Light-that-Shines-the-Brightest I am not sure how long this fic will be and it will likely be a collection of tales with the main story connecting them but I am not sure yet.
I also started a fan Discord so check it out if you are interested! You can contact me on Discord at comicsfan7314#5824 As always, comments, suggestions and creative criticism is always welcome!