Conflict Resolution Part 1 of 2

"That wasn't the plan, Joe!" Elle hissed.

"You never said you'd be taking it to your place!" The man spat back.

"Where else would we keep it?" 

"At mine! I was on the team that built this thing!"

Elle shook her head. "Oh please. You were practically getting them coffees, don't try and act like you're the brains behind this!"

"I did more on this project than you!"

"If it weren't for me, we wouldn't even have the codes to get into the building after hours!"

Their voices were hushed but echoed in the empty office all the same. There wasn't a soul in sight. No one to bear witness to the would-be thieves.

Elle tried to force the device from Joe's grip, the man responded in kind.

"Let go! I'm the one who has to find a buyer for this thing."

"You let go! I'm the only one here who knows how to work it!"

The pair scowled at each other, the force of their protests growing, their hands clenched harder on the silver device in their hands. Their minds were focused on their frustration, and not on their would-be prize.

So unfocused; it was unclear who had triggered it.

There was a click.

The panels on the device rotated.

A faint green light washed over the pair as chemicals were released from the confines of the machine.

"Oh shit." They said in unison - finally agreeing on something.

Elle looked at Joe. "It's not going to..." She left the thought fearfully unfinished.

"I... uh..." Came the stammered response.

Yet it was already happening. Joe and Elle were shrinking!

"Oh fuck. Look at you." Said the man, his voice rising in panic.

"Look at you!" Elle shot back.

The world stretched out and rose up around them as the pair were already dwindling past half their size.

Elle went to speak, but her words turned to a shriek as the flashlight grew cumbersome and heavy in her hand.

"Turn it off!" She yelled at her pint-sized partner in crime.

"I.. I can't... it's too heavy! Shit!" The pair shrunk further, Joe was forced to use two hands and lean it against his body to hold the small device upright.

Smaller and smaller and smaller they went...

Elle roared through clenched teeth as the flashlight fell to the floor and rolled away from them, her strength and size unable to wield the basic tool.

Joe felt the device beginning to weigh heavily against him, if he held it for much longer, he could be seriously injured beneath it. With a heft, he pushed it off of his body. It toppled onto the carpet of the empty office with a thud.

Elle and Joe seemed to have finished shrinking. The world was utterly confounding, utterly enormous, utterly terrifying.

The woman gasped, the man yelled; as the pair took in their newly shrunken stature and vastly shifted perspectives. The once-familiar scene of the crime now a huge, unfamiliar landscape to the tiny thieves.