Honey, I Shrunk the Egos

The Solution to an Ego Problem

Mark Fischbach glanced down the dark alley before them, sighing softly. Sean McLoughlin hovered behind him, looking past him into the darkness. "Mark... we've both played a lot of horror games."

"Uh huh." Mark uttered, trying to make out what might be in the alley.

"Dark alley, middle of the night..." Sean sighed. "This doesn't lead anywhere good."

Mark glanced back at him, chewing on his lip. "We're so close. You flew here for this. You flew THEM here for this. You said yourself that getting Anti through the airport was a pain the ass. We have to at least talk to this guy."

"I don't know." Sean turned, walking a circle as he scratched the back of his neck. "I mean, it sounds cool, and he used a lot of big words but do we even really know what he's going to do?"

"He's going to help us get rid of them, that's what he's going to do." Mark groaned.

"What did he mean by they'll be absorbed? I don't know if I want to... absorb Anti, or Schneep." Sean stopped moving around and turned back to Mark. "Do you really want to take on Dark and Wilford?"

"He said it was safe." Mark shrugged.

Sean rose an eyebrow. "Yes. The super sketchy-" Sean rose his hands, making air quotes as he dramatically said, "scientist", and then let his arms drop again. "... said it was safe. Yeah, he had SOME credentials, and his record came back clean, but that doesn't mean he's not a crazy fan who's going to lock us in his basement."

"Are you forgetting why we paid attention to him in the first place?" Mark crossed his arms. "He knew about them. He knew about them all. He knew they were real." He shook his head. "Tyler, Ethan and Kathryn have all promised up and down they didn't tell anyone, and I trust them." He shrugged. "I didn't even need to ask Amy, but I did. She hasn't told a soul. You know that they haven't been blabbing about themselves to people, they don't want to be picked up by the government and studied in a lab somewhere. What about on your end? Do you think it was Signe or Robin? Because if you do, we can go home right now."

"They didn't tell anyone either." Sean muttered.

"Okay. So how did he know?" Mark bit his lip.

Sean shrugged. "I don't know!" He turned, placing his hands on his head as he began pacing again. "This just doesn't feel right!"

"I know, I know. Hey!" Mark walked over, placing a hand on Sean's shoulder, to stop his pacing. "Relax, alright? We'll just go and hear him out. There's a reason we didn't bring them out here yet, and the girls know where we are, right? Amy is going to call the cops if we're not back there by sun rise."

"That's hours away!" Sean sighed. "I could be an Irish rug by then!"

Mark blinked, then burst into laughter. "Why would he make you into a rug?"

"I don't know!" Sean muttered, then shook his head, also starting to laugh. "I'm freaked out, okay?"

"Obviously." Mark snorted. "Hey, like you said, we've played lots of horror games. We can handle this creepy alley, right?"

"Do you actually believe that?" Sean tilted his head.

"Nope." Mark grinned and turned back towards the alley. "But I'm really good at making stupid choices."

Sean shook his head, chuckling. "You fucking dirtbag."

"Let's go!" Mark smiled, pulling out his cell phone to turn on the light and slowly made his way into the alley. Sean sighed, and did the same following close behind Mark. Every rat that skittered around a dumpster, or piece of trash blown around by a breeze, had both men jumping and spinning around, flailing their lights back and forth and all around. Some how they made it through the alley unscathed and into the otherwise fenced in area. Sean reluctantly followed Mark to the door of the building, which appeared to have been abandoned for some time, and watched him knock. When footsteps could be heard inside, Mark seemed to lose confidence and quickly backed away from the door, bumping his shoulder against Sean's.