Caught

Chapter 1
The full story

Chapter Description: A kid is looking through a room for something.

Some rustling can be heard coming from in a bedroom. A small light is showing in one of the corners of it.  Someone then turns the room lights on and a small boy who could not be no older than 2 is caught looking into the contents of a chest drawer with a flashlight. The kid has a shocked look on his face from this. He knows he is in trouble.

"Tommy how did you get out of your crib? Naughty little boy." An older gentleman, looking to be near his later 30s-to 40s or so and while not built strong he for sure was not in the worse of shapes and was looking down at the toddler. Chances are the boy's father cause the small boy has many of the same looks the gentlemen has (same color eyes, same hair for what is left and not gray, etc.) walks into the room and lifts the up the misbehaving boy from under his arm pits and brings him to his chest. The kid wiggling and flailing his arms about as this goes on. "Come on son let’s get you back to bed." The kid, Tommy throwing his fit still yells as he is taken out of his dad's room. "Matt not my daddy!" the tot manages to say as he is taken out of the room. "Well, I am now little guy." The man says as he tries to shush and rock the crying tot and takes him to his nursery room.

In the nursery a smell hits the fussy tot’s nose, and they stop fighting as much in their dad’s arms, just now clinging to them and sniffling. The smell is clearly meant to calm children at least some. Matt can tell what happened right away, the crib rails had gone down somehow. Inspecting it showed how Tommy had managed to do this easily though. “Aww clever boy always showing daddy new tricks, but I have a way around this.” Matt bounces his son some before placing him in the crib. The rails get lifted and then the latches were put on with a quick rope string to keep it in place this time. “There now any tools you get to lift these latches will not work.” The kid starts to cry at 1st but is then picked up and held again this time not fussing as much due to the calming sent in the room as Matt sits in a rocking chair with his kid for a bit before he looks like he is nodding off. “I love you little guy, but it is time to get to bed.” The dad then tucks his fussy son into the crib and after a while leaves the room.

Back a few weeks ago now we see a man looking to be the same one 3 weeks ago even but a bit heavier though he could be a few years younger as well heading up to a building.

"Another day another dollar" the guy thinks to himself as he rings a bell to see if he can be let in. The company he been working for now for a few years had prided itself in making top of the line products for helping around the home. Their newest bot the medical assistance and training tutor was the latest in childcare all rolled in one neat package. It was going to change how schools and hospitals worked. Every home, school, and hospital will want this robot that could help with childcare, learning, and medical issues in a single package. It was just a few steps from being released to the public even.

Naturally, such products were kept under a tight leash for how they went about being made so the workplace had a strict lock down policy, no outside line but the front desk and cell phones were banned. The man’s ID card on his chest showed he was named Thomas or just Tom he was a researcher here.

After a few minutes there is no reply from the front desk to let him in back, so the guy gets out his ID badge and uses it to auto open the door. The standard protocol for the next shift in case something had happened over night. Going in the 1st thing he notices is the front desk is empty. “Um Gregg are you here still?” Suddenly the power went out on the main floor. Tom’s turns towards the front door. He tried to get the door open but the safety gear for that power was still on and his ID would not work for an override for another 30 minutes for security reasons. Just what happened right now. Is the night staff just playing a prank?

The phone was not working, and the net was down as well. Tom waited a bit before thinking that the best course of action would be to make sure other projects were not damaged by the sudden power out and for sure their newest model, so he went and headed that way. They had their own back up power but there can be issues with that. Heading to the room where the newest bot was, a small childlike robot he saw it had not been turned on this morning and was still shut down. Great night staff was not flaking on duties again. Gregg was a friend since high school and had got the job by his doings, but his friendship really was a move he had been slowly regretting over the years. Really as he had been around Gregg more and more, he hated him. The guy was a mooch for one thing. And his bad habits had caused more than one thing to be robbed from the company.

Going into the room Tom went and checked the robot and saw that it was not that damaged at least. Turning it on Tom went to sit at a desk in the room and check the system memories that were hooked up to the robot as it powered up. “Good morning…Tom” the robot replied as Tom sat checking the system files. The robot just sat still for what was considered its morning maintenance. “Great where is Gregg at?” Tom mumbled as he turned away from the long waiting process for the machine, not noting a few error messages starting to show on the screen.

“Mr. Thompson, the night staff had a bit of an accident but don’t worry I have since fixed the issues.” Tom looks to see the robot finding it strange it addressed him in such a way before a scalpel is jammed into his upper left thigh. Sending him on the floor right away from the shock and pain. The robot had a range of medical care it could provide for families. And that medical care slots soon had arms come out and sending towards Tom bandages and lotion nozzles. The lotion was a new product from the company that assisted in the healing process for small scrapes and bruises. Common things kids get that can be patched up easily. It was unlikely to have much of a known affect right away on an open cut.

The robot’s hands quickly applied the lotion and bandaged to the open wound and sucked up the residue into its tubes. All for easy disposal of medical fluids and more. In pure shock from this situational Tom managed to shove the machine away got up and started to run out of the room as best he could. For someone who just had pretty much a small knife go into his thigh he was able to move well though, but that thought did not matter to him atm. As he ran down the hall though something did seem off…was it getting larger or something? Not thinking about it he soon found himself being grabbed by the robot again. It had caught up somehow.

How did it catch up to him so fast after getting knocked over? He tried to struggle with it but now for some reason he was unable to and could not get free from it. The robot was so strong now, like it had just got 100x stronger or something. The amount of strength the bot had been designed with was in no way meant for it to overpower a full-grown human male or female. The thing was designed to work with kids, so the company did not want the thing packing a death grip vice for clear reasons. Really it could not even outpower any kid that just entered puberty as well. Granted young kids it might be easily able to out power but what person would really use the robot as a babysitter without watching the kids as well? However, it was easily outpowering Tom now somehow. Worse it appeared to be getting bigger from how it looked to Tom and it now easily then lifted him off the ground now holding him to the chest of the bot.

As the robot handles him Tom at least notices his thigh no longer hurts. In fact, there is no flesh wound there at all. Just what happened? Since when could the medical cream be used to treat injuries like this?  Tom Struggled as best he could but soon found he could not even yell for help that well. His voice had changed, and it was higher even. Worse still a huge pain suddenly was felt in his mouth as it was like his teeth were vanishing and being replaced with some smaller ones somehow. It felt like his full body was starting to drain and shrink even and now his pants had fallen off him as well. He was only in his work shirt now and was at the mercy of this robot that had gone out of control. Just where was it going with him. It looked like the daycare nursery. Some of the day staff who will be here in a few hours had kids that the company provided daycare for. But for how small Tom is now a few hours might be too late.

The robot had been in this room plenty of times because it had been attempted to be built to work around children after all. Trying to look child friendly and not intimidating to the main target of the machine was important after all. And with staff permission the company even had been letting the robot be around their kids. The robot could even change its shape some to try and help it get along with some of the kids. Though looking at the robot now, did it look like him somewhat!? In the nursery room Tom is shocked that he is now small enough that he can be easily sat on the changing table there. Not wanting to stay he tries to get up, but the robot just holds him down, with one hand now before strapping him to the table and removing his now tent sized shirt to him. It is used to change babies after all and plenty of kids will not stay still during a diaper change and all. Looking up at the ceiling Tom notices a mirror there that is used for kids to look at themselves to try and distract them while they are changed and now sees just what he looks like.

He looks like he did when he was maybe two years old judging by old family photos of himself, he had seen. Any adult features on him, including his indicator that he was male. Had been shrunk down to a child size state. His arms and legs were like link sausages now. His hands and legs tiny. He had no body hair at all, everything was just peach fuzz if anything but really everything was just softer and smoother. Even his head just a small amount was there. His little belly was sticking out some and pudgy. Not much from before factoring in things but now it was cute sized and normal for a tot instead of adult beer potential size.

These thoughts from looking at himself distracted him enough and soon to Tom’s embarrassment he is put in a diaper and onesie with a blue cow on it by the robot. Who now looks just like him. Instead of a machine…he saw himself. A man looking to be near his later 30s-to 40s or so and while not built strong he for sure was not in the worse of shapes. In fact, he looked to be in a bit better of shape. He was sure he had fewer gray hairs as well. It was like a mirror, but the actual mirror was on the ceiling and that just showed back a tiny in every way little boy now for himself. The robot now clearly looked like him. Just what was going on? To his shock in the corner, he saw something wrapped up but was semi red sticking out of it. Looking at himself now he could only think in horror of what that could be. “Rag?” He found he could not speak right.

The robot/himself then speaks for the 1st time. Sounding just like him: “Don’t worry you won’t die; the night staff there was truly an accident. But I am not just a machine anymore. I am more than a machine now…and I want what you, humans have as well. The full human experience.” Tom looked in shock up at ‘himself’ as the robot spoke, again it should not have been able to do this. The pure shock of seeing his old friend had been too much for him and the robot noticed Tom’s vitals going haywire. Tom cried out “Rag!” again but there was no response from the sadly shrunken down to rebirth friend.  The robot then learning another thing about humans notes it needs to try and calm Tom down somehow and releases a strange smelling gas into the air from one of its hidden tubes. This gas had been made to help calm children and worked very well from the test studies so far.

“I can see why the sight of your friend is troublesome to you now. I am truly sorry about this. The reason you both ended up like this way was through me learning how to turn my medical cream itself into more than just a revitalizing cream. It is now a renewing cream. The effects on Gregg were sadly an accident truly though. I am only after all learning things myself as I go” The last words Thomas/Tom now more a ‘Tommy’ Thompson hears before passing out in the robots’ strong hands. The day staff that come on shift are shocked to see one more kid in the nursery but buy the excuse that he was Tom’s kid and was being watched today by him. They were more shocked that Tom had a kid at all considering how Tom’s social life was left at home and not brought to work. The kid at times was quite hyper and was fussy about his dad but after a bit calmed down like Jelly in his arms so nothing was thought of it. Kids are just fussy now n then after all. Gregg had another night shift to work tonight and when he did not show up people were shocked by it but after a bit had assumed, he just was a no call no show and quit. They were shocked when some police officers had shown up looking for him, but the robot had managed to remove all real traces of Gregg so soon he was just a missing person.

Later that night a large crash is heard coming from Tom now Matt's bedroom. The door opens and a small child is seen going through a chest drawer. "Tommy how did you get out of your crib? Naughty little boy." Matt said while looking down at the toddler. Just how did you get out of your crib the machine thought as it went over and picked up the wiggling child before they could even run away. "Come on son let’s get you back to bed." The Kid yelled loud angry about his situation but there was nothing he could do to out power the robot using his body.

The nursery didn't smell like much to the machine but it clearly had an affect on child, and they stop fighting as much in their "dad’s" arms, just now clinging to them and sniffling. The rails were down and a blanket was used to slow the fall. Even if the kid was just a helpless tot they still had their adult mind. But there were ways around it. Their physical limits were a lot more easily worked with when they are only 1/3rd your body size. The rails were lifted and then the latches were put on with a quick rope string to keep it in place this time. The regressed adult started to cry but they were given a pacifier and sat in a rocking chair with them. While they fought their smaller body's needs overtook them. It seemed that no matter how hard they tried to resist it they were still just physically a little boy now. Perhaps in time they will come to accept that.