Miniature Miniatures

-Chapter Eleven-

After finishing his coffee and throwing away the cup in the lobby ("Get that outta here, Gigantor! 'S makin' Octy sick!") Larry set off to find the painting.

At some point during the earlier hunt for Octavius, they found out Doctor O'Shaughnessy's painting was in storage. Larry decided to pay it a visit.

"Hello, Doctor,"

The painting turned, the acrylic realism of a man from long ago shifted as Doctor O'Shaughnessy turned to face the night guard. A hissing laughter filled the room.

"Ah. You finally realized what has been done then, hmm?"

"First of all. "What has been done" is such a passive way of saying it. Just be like normal villains and take the blame. Second, no, I haven't realized "what has been done" because I don't know what's going on, so-"

"So you came to get it out of me... how exciting. I'll tell you everything,"

"Wait, what? Why?"

"Because it's my life work! I've been stuck in this miserable painting for so long, I perfected it on this mouse, but haven't been able to experiment on humans," he scoffed and started pulling out books, "I'm lucky I got out. The fact that I somehow managed to complete it before I got sucked back into this prison is astonishing,"

The man sat at his desk with a blank book, ink, and quill. There was a malicious look in his eye, and when he spoke, his tone was almost mocking.

"Now, tell me. Is he nauseous? Tired? Dizzy? Has he begun to change?"

"Why? What did you do?"

"Oh, I'm sure you've figured it out. It's been four weeks, right? These things always go faster with the smaller animals... he should be almost halfway through," he tapped the quill impatiently, "Weeks instead of months? Sound about right?"

A cold sweat trickled down Larry's back, realization striking his face.

"Ah, yes. There you go. Now," Doctor O'Shaughnessy closed his book and put away his quill. A twisted smile crept across his face,

"Tell him and the cowboy I said 'Congratulations,'"

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Jedidiah was starting to get worried.

     He was never known for being someone to worry. He was an explorer, a cowboy, a sheriff. Fearless is in those job descriptions.

     But something about seeing someone he loved as much as Octavius sleeping (Sleeping. They weren't supposed to need to do that. He had said he was tired.) fitfully in pain and clothes that didn't fit.

     He stroked Octavius's hair (as the Roman's head was in his lap).

     'If we were full size,' Jedidiah grumbled in his head, "I could help fix some of this stuff,"

     When Octavius woke up, Jed spoke to him in a gentle tone.

     "I wonder why all this started up all the sudden,"

     Octavius stayed quiet for a moment.

     "It... didn't start all of the sudden,"

      "Whaddya mean by that?"

     "Things such as this have happened for weeks... nausea, tiredness, dizziness..." he squeezed his eyes shut as if it was embarrassing to remember, "I have lost consciousness on four separate occasions,"

      "Octy!" He yelped, shocked, "Four times?! You didn't tell anyone?!"

     "In life, this happened often," he continued calmly, "It was common for me to overwork myself into any of these conditions. It didn't occur to me that it was wrong,"

     Before they continued, Larry walked over to them.

     "Octavius, Polly is going to do one more scan. She thinks she knows what's going on, but we need to make sure,"

     "...Can I go with 'im?"

     Larry smiled, but it was dampened by a weird stress that seemed to be on his shoulders, "Of course."

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     Thank goodness Larry had a pair of sweatpants made for the general, or else the scan would have been very awkward.

     As it was, Octavius was laying on the doctor's cot, his shirt  pulled up, waiting for the doctor. Jed's eyes bulged a bit when he first saw. Was it bigger than yesterday? Did that mean Octy was dying faster?

     The doctor pushed a machine against Octavius's stomach, eyes widening at her screen. She nodded at Larry, who cleared his throat.

     "Uh... boys? There's... something I should explain to you,"