Chapter 9: Acquired

Mr. Gonzalez didn’t really keep track of how long the journey took. He was far too busy dealing with the disturbing drowning sensation from that strange fluid in his lungs. That same fluid was all around him, keeping him in place along with all his executives as well as every other employee that survived that “acquisition” of his company from Lilyork City.

He couldn’t exactly see inside his building, which he ‘floated’ by, stuck in the liquid that flowed around him without letting him move his body. His limbs could, and certainly did, flail about, but he couldn’t turn himself around, let alone sink or swim from his current position.

Still, he could twist his head just enough to catch a corner of it: his precious skyscraper. The structure built to tower over all others in Lilyork city was stuck in this container with him.

Was it an hour? Less? More? He didn’t quite recall due to his mind preoccupied with suffering and a heaping helping of self-pity. There was nothing to see with the pocket of that Brobdingnagian blocking most light, so he and the others only had their sense of hearing to go off of.

The transparent glass-like material of the vial-portion of the containment device wasn’t sound-proof, so he and the Lilliputians floating around him or stuck in the courtyard buildings managed to hear a good few things. Booming steps mostly for a time, but then there was a great reverberating, sliding noise as he assumed Lachelle entered some sort of Brobdingnagian building. They figured, correctly, that it was a door making the noise.

From there there was all sorts of clamor. The mundane sounds of activity in some corporate headquarters sounded like the workings of titans. High-heels stepped around with every click of the heels a thunderous boom to the stuck Lilliputians. Words were exchanged, but they were too loud and muffled to be made out.

Then, there was the sound of some gigantic elevator moving upwards. The doors roared open and more steps occurred, hellos exchanged, till Lachelle reached some destination. She reached into her pocket and pulled the device out.

Bright light hit Mr. Gonzalez’s eyes. He and the other Lilliputians were too disoriented to process things fully, but they were being passed off to another Brobdingnagian. Lachelle’s fingers slipped from the transparent surface of the vial-part of their prison, her finger prints unpressed from against the transparent surface. Then, she moved off.

From there, they were carried off yet again by another Brobdingnagian woman. They saw only the bottoms of her manicured fingers before being placed onto another machine of some kind. The device’s bottom opened slightly: just enough for it to lock into this new and presumably horrifying contraption.

The new Brobdingnagian woman leaned down and they could see her face: well, part of it. Lilliputian miles from them loomed her visage, clad in a lab mask. She had ginormous glasses over her blue eyes, and her hair was covered by some sterile wrap of some kind. Though they could only see those gigantic building-dwarfing eyes, that was all they needed to see to know she was smiling at them.

She reached out and hit a button. The fluid around them started changing to a purple shade from the bottom up, and Mr. Gonzalez, along with the others, drifted to sleep. Their flailing from the pseudo-drowning was finally over over.

--==--==--==--

Mr. Gonzalez awoke with a gasp; his body half-expected his lungs to be still filled with that oxygenated fluid. Instead, he inhaled the familiar, refreshing feeling of actual air. There was no fluid around him and, looking down, he noticed the courtyard not far off below his feet. Though it was damaged by the device’s containment procedure, it seemed to have been entirely restored.

In front of him were other fancy looking buildings, but that didn’t concern or impress him now. The fluid was gone and he could breath normally again!

The CEO noticed his back was against a surface of some kind. He thought it an upright bed for a moment, but overall he didn’t think too much of it before he tried to hop off.

And failed.

With the ground just precious inches below him, the CEO tried again to wiggle down to the ground, but he could not. He turned to his sides and noticed his wrists and legs were bolted to some sort of black slab. It wasn’t made of stone like an actual slab; in fact, it has a slight and comfy cushion against his back. Still, he was trapped yet again.

He panicked once more, arms and legs moving in vain. His head swiveled left and right. That was when he noticed two things. Firstly, there was a camera in front of him, on the ground of the courtyard, safe inside some durable glass. Secondly, there was an IV bag on one side of the ‘slab’ he was stuck to, with a cord running from it to his shoulder. Said shoulder also had a bit of a cast on it, above his suit which was still on. He remembered now that was where Himari had broken it.

“They touched me. While I was asleep they touched me. Some Gulliverian, or maybe even Lilliputians working for Oshie... Where am I? Where is everyone? Help me!”, he shouted.

“Mr. Gonzalez sir!” came a voice. It was an older, male voice. That bald, old vulture of an executive came over.

“Mr. Smith. Good, you’re here. What is going on?”

“We’re not entirely sure, sir.”

“Well, what happened to me? Why am I stuck up here and you can walk around the courtyard with the others.”

“I don’t know. We only woke up recently, but before you. Once that fluid turned purple we fell asleep. They must’ve taken the courtyard and moved it somewhere.”

“Somewhere? Somewhere?!? Where are we?”

“No one knows for sure yet, but you can see in front of you at least. You noticed the building right?”

“Of course I did! Are we back in some city?”

Mr. Smith shook his head.

“I don't think so, at least not a traditional one. Mr. Gonzalez, that’s the Lillicoliseum Inc. HQ building. They were brought out by Brobdingnagian investors two years ago, then closed down business. Do you remember? The building was supposedly dismantled overnight, according to the news, but there it is. We can’t get to it though, there’s a transparent barrier in the way. Same material as that vial from earlier, it looks like.”

Mr. Smith spoke somberly. Implications started swarming in Mr. Gonzalez’s head, but he didn’t want to think about them. He looked at the building ahead and, now, was able to clearly see there was indeed a barrier between it and the Lilliadventures courtyard.

“I don’t understand, I don’t get it.”

“Sir, look up.”

The slick-haired executive looked up best he could. His upper-body was restrained by the object he was affixed to, but he was still able to crane his neck up right enough to see a near-perfectly transparent barrier of some material above. Past that, he could see a distant ‘sky’ of very exquisitely designed wood.

“What, no no. We were taken somewhere weren’t we, some sort of Brobdingnagian room?”

“It would appear so, sir. We’re also separated from the other buildings around us. Seems wherever we are stuck, we are also isolated from the other buildings here.”

Mr. Gonzalez paused a moment. A sensation of horror traveled through his body in waves, but then he snapped out of it.

“Whatever, we can figure it out later, just get me down from here.”

“Sir, I-”

“Get me down!”, he barked.

“I can’t. We can’t. We already tried. If we touch the display you’re in, we get an electric shock. The only reason it’s not shocking you is perhaps those metal binds on your body neutralizing it for yourself. It seems to be some other device of Oshie Corporation.”

“What? Wait wait, display? What do you mean?”

“It’s hard to see, sir, but you look almost like, well...”

“Out with it Mr. Smith! Don’t jerk me around here.”

“You look like... a specimen. Like a collectible or something. One of those action figures people prop up. Maybe that’s what the camera is for, to look at you.”

Mr. Gonzalez shouted loud as his lungs could manage.

“But why me?!? What have I done to deserve this?”

“I think it’s cause you were the old company owner. Perhaps the Brobdingnagians want to look at you, now and then.”

“Old owner? I still own Lilliadventures Inc! I don’t care what these Brobdingnagian business types say.”

Mr. Smith hung his head down. Mr. Gonzalez shouted some more.

“Look at me when I’m talking to you! Figure out a way to get me down from here at once. I don’t care if it shocks you. Get some tools or something.”

“There are no more tools. The courtyards buildings were picked clean of them, while we were asleep. They probably don’t want us using them to try and escape.”

“I still own this company! I just need to contact my lawyers, they could figure this out.”

“I’m sorry Mr. Gonzalez, but I think the company truly is owned by Oshie Corporation.”.

He hesitated, then continued.

“...In a rather literal way. You can’t see it because you can’t move but, behind you, well...”

“Well, what? Well what?!?”, said Mr. Gonzalez.

“There’s a golden plaque, with details on our company.”

“You mean...”

There was shouting in the distance and Mr. Smith turned towards it.

“I’m sorry Mr. Gonzalez, but I have to go. The lower level employees banded together and are calling a meeting. Some food and water was left for us by Oshie Corporation it looked like, and it’s gonna be divided up. I shouldn’t miss it.”

He started walking away, and Mr. Gonzalez shouted.

“Wait, no, come back here! Get back here at once! You work for me! You all do, this entire courtyard is mine!”

Mr. smith kept walking, trying to make it as least awkward as possible. He kept moving fast as his old bones could take him.

Mr. Gonzalez was left behind him and, behind his former boss, loomed a gigantic golden plaque just before the HQ building. It stretched for thousands of Lilliputian feet. Black lettering was etched onto the surface. It said “Lilliadventures Inc.”, then beneath it “Acquired” with the date they were taken. Beneath those words, were two more labels with numbers. One stated the total revenue of Lilliadventures Inc.’s lifetime, including projections for the month. The other label listed the employee count for the courtyard area.

“Get back here! Now!”, Mr. Gonzalez shouted. He continued to flail about till some loud booming steps shocked him and every other Lilliputian out of whatever else they were doing.