Jake's comment about being really old when Ryan was able to grow up again hadn't left Ryan, and while Jake, Phil, and Mike were all laughing about Mike's farts, Ryan was taking matters into his own hands. If HE was going to take a long time to be big again, then so was everyone else! It wasn't fair he was sent back to second grade while his buddies got somewhere around fifth to eighth grades. Ryan didn't even stop to think about how weird it was thinking of the other boys as his "former buddies" as the age regression was making all his memories mushy. He still remembered that they all used to be older and bigger, he was just forgetting how much older and bigger, as well as the specifics of his relationships with the other boys. After all if he was around the other boys, that meant they were all buddies, right? That's how it worked on all those TV shows he streamed. Boys who hung out together were all buddies.
It was Jake who noticed Ryan was about to throttle the sliders and engage the machine, yelling "Duck!" as the refracted light aimed straight for the three boys. Jake's timely drop to the floor and roll out of the way managed to save him from the light beam, but Phil and Mike were definitely caught by the beam which shined on them for a good moment and then shut off.
"No! No, no no!" yelled the shrinking Phil as his shirt and jacket now gave him more modesty and swallowed up his shrinking frame even more. Large feet and hands, the signs that puberty and a growth spurt were a few months away disappeared as they shrank to be more proportional to his thinning and shrinking body. His drooping glasses would have fallen off had it not been for a timely finger that saved them from the fall, only for temple tips to fail to catch his shrinking head and fall off his ears, causing his glasses to fall back on his face before the bridge slipped down his shrinking nose like a waterslide and fell to the ground with a clatter. Soon a small boy who didn't look much older than Ryan was where Phil had been.
Mike, the fat boy continued to shrink and kept some of the weight as he did, seeming to have been a fat boy who'd never lost his baby fat through childhood, that is until he'd matched Phil in height and he suddenly went from noticeably fat to simply a little chubby. Apparently having been a little less fat as a younger second grader than he had in later elementary school. His own adult shirt covered his body past his knees at this point.
Jake turned back to see now all his former teachers and coaches returned to approximately second graders with toothy gaps in their mouth, and years away from puberty.
"I'm less fat!" exclaimed Mike.
"We're in the same boat as Ryan now..." groaned Phil.
"That's right... we're back to being in the same boat," said Ryan as though he were proud of his achievement.
"And I guess that makes me your babysitter," mumbled Jake underneath his breath as he got up and decided the best thing might be to get the currently empowered seven-year old Ryan Kelb off the machine that was causing these issues. Thankfully, Ryan ran away from the machine and back to Phil and Mike, who were starting to look confused.
"Is that why we're here?" asked Mike.
"No... we're here cause... cause... I made something... I know I made something, but I can't remember what..." said Phil, looking scared as he looked around the empty gym, except for the machine.
"You had an art project you were proud of, Phil, that you did in day camp, but I think we took a wrong turn somewhere, suggested Jake, which at first seemed to only confuse Phil more until he seemed to nod, tentatively.
"Come on, let's get you three gremlins back to the day camp," said Jake, taking as much authority as his eighth grade body could muster.