Jim had looked over the instructions, quickly reading what he found was important right now. He could set the changes really specific if he need to, and there was also a part about the awareness of others. That was something he had to try.
So he blew air into the balloon before holding it tight. „Control everyone's awareness of changes made by this balloon but mine.“ Jim said like the instruction said, then released all air out oft he balloon. „Release“ followed.
The instructions only warned the user that said awareness would return to normal if somebody other than him took the balloon. So he had to be either careful nobody touched the balloon, or repeat the instruction from time to time, just to be sure. The awareness would be zero right now, and below that it couldn´t drop. So if he repeated it while it was still in effect nothing would change.
Wanting to test the balloon now he looked around. That's when he noticed three of his school bullies moving his way. Not sure if they had seen him or were just heading this way, Jim quickly decided to test the balloon on them.
So he again blew air into the balloon before he said: „Control this three boys size.“ Then he let the air out slowly.
Before his eyes the three started to shrink smaller and smaller, their clothes shrinking with them. When they were only about two inches big, Jim said: „Release“ and smiled at the three tiny boys, which didn´t stop moving his direction. Also nobody took notice of them, seeing nothing out of ordinary.
It took them two more minutes to finally reach Jim in their small size, and Jim had it hard to suppress a laugh when their leader, Tony said: „Ah, our punching bag is here.“ His voice was so high right now. But as Tony punched him on his left leg, not reaching any higher, he couldn´t stop himself from laughing, as he didn´t even notice the punch. It was to weak.
Angered by Jim laughing at them, Tony and his buddies all started to beat his legs, but it didn´t stop Jim from laughing. When all three were breathing heavy from the ordeal, Jim finally stopped laughing. Looking down at them, he said mocking them: „What, that's all you got?“ But beside looking angry up at him they didn´t do a thing, still breathing hard.
Jim then hit them with only a finger in the stomach, each of them falling back on their ass. While they were down, Jim took the balloon again, blowing some air in before he said: „Control this three boys movement speed.“ Then he let the air out completely. As he watched them, with each second air escaped the balloon they got slower, and when the air was out they stood there frozen in place, just standing again. Jim watched them for three full minutes, without so much as blinking by any of them. „Release“ Jim said, grinning at the trio. He watched them for some more minutes, still completely frozen in place, before he decided to keep them. So, pulling out his empty lunchbox, he grabbed them one after another and dropped them in the box, putting it away. „Let´s see if they move later, maybe over the night.“ Jim thought as he got up and home.
In his room he pulled the trio out oft he lunchbox, placing them on his desk on a sheet of paper, then took a pencil and circled their feet on it. Then he left the room again to get something to eat. Later he played a video game before heading to bed, as he decided he would wait until tomorrow for further tests with the balloon, which he put under his pillow, just to be save.
In the morning he looked at the trio, which still hadn´t moved anything on their body. „Its like they are really frozen in movement, just like a statue or something like that.“ he said grinning. He would keep them, at least for now.
To the three it was normal to be this size and this slow, thanks to being not aware of any changes made with the balloon. The whole time since Jim had put them on his desk they had only breathed once, still wind down from beating Jim up. And by their speed, it would take months to finally be able to breath normally. Even thinking was this slow for them, they would realize their change in location only after a day or two. Lucky that they also didn´t need to eat or drink that much, so they wouldn´t die in their state for years.