Chapter Text
April 17 12:25 PM
It had been a fairly normal day, at least normal in terms of it being the beginning of their off season.
All the guys gathered early that morning to clean out their stalls so the locker room would have a fresh start for the season to come. Clean out day, however, also meant conducting a few final interviews, followed by filming some nonsensical content to sustain their social media presence during the off season. But once that was all done, they would be free to do whatever the hell they wanted.
Things had been going as well as they could have as the morning began to wind down. At last the media crew had packed up and left, leaving the guys to say their goodbyes in peace, and it felt bittersweet. Slowly, more and more of them trickled out of the room after firm hugs and calls to meet up later. No tears were shed, at least none that Tyler saw, but the weight of the unknown was palpable. There are, unfortunately — as it happens every season — guys who don’t know if they’ll be back in this locker room next season, and it always leaves the air feeling a bit heavy. They had had such an incredible season that he just can’t imagine any of these guys gone, and perhaps that’s why he lingers, to try and keep the inevitable at bay.
Tyler slung a bag over his shoulder as he was just gathering the last of his things — he’d been packed for hours, but he kept meandering around the room long after so many of the other guys had already left — when the screams started.
Harrowing, ear-splitting screams ring out from all around him, causing terror to leap into his chest as his bag drops to the ground and he twists around on his heals, frantically searching for the source. All the guys who had been left in the locker room have fallen to their knees as screams pour from their lungs, and they look up at him with large sets of eyes. Tears streak their faces as small hands press hard against the sides of their heads, before they collapse and begin to writhe on the floor.
“What the fu-” he begins to utter, quickly overtaken by another wave of screams.
His teammates, his friends, writhe and scream in agony as their limbs shrink and their clothes engulf their bodies. He thinks about pulling out his phone to call for help, but numbly his hands don’t move, and he doesn’t even know where he could start. How could he possibly explain that he’s watching his friends seemingly shrink in front of his eyes without sounding absolutely delusional?
And before he had the chance to try and do anything, the screams stop. Swamped inside their own clothes, they pant on the floor and stare dazed at the ceiling. Cautiously, he takes a step toward the one closest to him and bends down.
“Toff?” A little voice whispers from beneath the clothing, he moves the neck of the shirt down to find Zack blinking up at him in confusion. From around the room, bodies squirm as a little arms and legs pop out of clothes, all of them mumbling in confusion as they move.
“Yeah buddy?” He asks, focusing back down on the small toddler that has taken over the body of his friend.
“Wa happened?” he words slur slightly as his forehead crinkles and he rubs his head. Tyler opens his mouth, but his own words fall short as he frowns and shakes his head. Even if he knew, he doesn’t have the words to explain it.
“Toff?” Another voice, just as soft as Zack’s calls out for him. He searches for it, before finding the tiny head of their star player popped up off the floor, blinking at him as his head tilts and his eyebrows furrow. “Why we wittle?” he asks, slight whine tinging his voice, but that is nothing new.
“I don’t know,” he admits with a small sigh.
More heads and eyes pop up from off the floor, all of them blinking at him, waiting.
“Are you in any pain?” He asks, which feels a bit foolish, because they were only screaming a few moments ago. But all of them shake their heads and crawl onto their knees, before a few —Asky, Muk, and Cherny — are toddling over in his direction. The three boys are draped in their shirts and nearly tripping over their feet.
“My head hurts,” a third voice whines, and he turns to find Luca standing beside him with his hand pressed to his head.
“Okay, I’ll try and get you something,” he sighs, patting the toddler on the back gently. “Does anyone else’s head hurt?” He asks, receiving head shakes in response as a few stand in front of him and a few settle down on the floor in front of him.
“What’s gonna happen to us?” Luca asks, plopping down at his side and staring up at him with his big, round brown eyes.
“I don’t know,” is once again the only thing he can offer, watching their little bodies deflate as Will groans loudly and flops onto his back. Followed swiftly by Mack, causing his eyes to roll as he shakes his own head. “I’m gonna call Cat, then maybe we can get some answers,” he tells them, pushing himself back up and stepping over their small bodies to head to the other side of the room to call her.
He knows the words tumbling over his lips sound like the ramblings of a man who has lost his mind, so he makes sure to send a picture as proof. Cat falls silent with disbelief, and he begins counting all the toddlers, before noticing something odd.
They’re all baby sharks.
He doesn’t know why or how, but every single one of the baby sharks on their team has been shrunken down to the size of a toddler. He can’t speak for anyone who’s left, but as for himself, he thinks whatever happened might have only effected the youngest on the team.
Little baby Asky toddles over, face soft and dewy from his tears, his beard missing as he babbles up at him something in Russian. Tyler’s eyebrows furrow as the toddler keeps babbling something.
“What?” he asks, kneeling down with aching knees that pop with his stiff movements.
Asky responds by only mumbling more Russian, before pointing at the large clock hanging on the wall behind his head. One look over his shoulder, and he hopes to understand. It’s getting late, some of them have wives and girlfriends that’ll worry, and now he has unexplainable toddlers sitting in front of him.
Somehow, all he knows is that they’re screwed.