Chapter 3: Saturday, June 14th, 2008
The next day, Shelly came over to Megan's house. She wanted Megan to use the shrink-ray on someone.
"You should use it on my brother's boss Vito," Shelly said, "he's a jerk!"
"I'd have no way of getting over there," Megan said. "We need to find a way for someone to come to us!"
"You could prank call a pizza to be delivered a couple of blocks away," said Shelly, "and hide the next house over. Then you could shrink the driver!"
“That actually does sound like a good plan,” said Megan.
"You'd better shrink his car, too!" Shelly advised, "That way, there's no evidence!"
Megan pulled out her cell-phone but Shelly stopped her. "Cell-phone calls can be traced! We have to use a payphone!"
Since it was Saturday, Mrs. Weiss didn't have to work, so Megan had her mom drop her and Shelly off in town. After Mrs. Weiss left, Megan found a payphone and ordered a pizza to be delivered to a nearby house.
"Don't order too much pizza," Shelly advised, "Or it will look like a prank call."
"Yes, I'd like an extra-large pizza with chicken and mushrooms," Megan said into the phone. When she was done ordering, she told her friend, “It'll be here in thirty-five minutes!"
The girls hid between two houses that were one house away from the address Megan had given over the phone. Shelly and Megan periodically checked the time as they waited. Megan pulled out the shrink ray device from her pink and blue backpack when the time drew near.
"Here he comes!" said Shelly, pointing at a car with a pizza sign attached to the roof. When the car pulled over and the man got out with the pizza, the girls approached him.
"Extra-large chicken and mushroom?" Megan asked.
"You got it!" the young man replied, handing the pizza to Megan. Megan motioned to Shelly, and she took the pizza.
"How much do I owe you?" Megan asked, as she pointed the shrink ray at the pizza delivery driver. Megan flipped the lever, reducing him to about the same height as Captain Vargas. Megan then pointed the shrink-ray at the car, reducing it to the same proportionate size as the driver, then flipped the lever to the 'OFF' position,.
Back in the woods not far from Megan's house, on board the Warhawk, all the alarms went haywire.
"Scrapper!" Slackjaw yelled out, "Someone used the miniaturization weapon! They fired it twice!"
Scrapper stood behind Slackjaw, and said, "Use the satellite to focus on whoever is using it!"
An image of Bullet Bay, California appeared on the screen, and the camera closed in until Megan and her friend could be clearly seen.
"She's just a girl!" Scrapper said. "Keep her under surveillance until you see where she lives. I want her address!"
Megan's mom picked Megan and her friend up after Megan had called her on her cell-phone. After pulling up in the driveway, the girls and Mrs. Weiss got out and went inside. Scrapper, Slackjaw, and Gator observed this from the Warhawk.
"Slackjaw," Scrapper said, "hack into the Internet and get me everything on the name 'Weiss' at this address in Bullet Bay, California!"
Meanwhile, Megan and Shelly piled into Megan's bedroom and closed the door. Megan pulled the shrink ray device out of her backpack and set it on her shelf, and pulled out the miniaturized pizza car out of a separate compartment, and set it on her desk. The pizza guy was inside the car, afraid to come out. Megan tapped on the door, and he opened it and stepped out.
"What should I do with him?" Megan asked.
"I think you should swallow him!" said Shelly. “Or you could shrink him to micro-size and look at him through your new microscope!"
"Can people survive at that size?" Megan asked.
"Ask the shrunken space guy," Shelly said.
Megan dumped out the box containing the five captives from the future. Megan addressed Captain Vargas. "If I shrink someone down to microscopic size, will he survive?"
"The miniaturization weapon you have was designed as a humane alternative to the destructive weapons of the past. It genetically modifies its targets so they can survive at any size! Shrunken people are effectively immortal, they don't need food or water."
"Cool!" Megan said. "I want to create a shrunken city that fits on a microscope slide! I think I'll call it Microtopia!"
Meanwhile, back at the Warhawk, Slackjaw found some useful information. "Scrapper, her name is Megan Weiss, and she's enrolled in summer school at the local junior high school. She's supposed to start this Monday!"
"Excellent!" said Scrapper. "I can pose as one of her teachers, and ask her about the device!" Scrapper turned his head and addressed the computer. "Computer! Provide me with identification and credentials so I can pass myself off as a teacher, as well as a working cell phone according to this time period!"
A replication console normally used for food and beverages produced the paperwork Scrapper requested.
"Computer," Scrapper said, "show me the names, photos, and addresses of the teachers of Megan Weiss."
On the main computer monitor, three images appeared, two women and one man.
"I think I'll take over this guy's position," Scrapper said, pointing at the man. "Computer, print out his name and address." Scrapper turned his head toward Slackjaw and Gator. "I'm going over there right now. Slackjaw, get me that mind control device from the storage area! I want you two to come with me!"
It took nearly twenty minutes to reach the town, and a man in town informed them it would be another twenty minutes before the RTA bus arrived.
"That teacher lives close by," Scrapper told Slackjaw and Gator, "but we're going south first to score some transportation, to a city called Santa Maria. Before we left, I had the computer replicate one of these," Scrapper showed them a credit card. "I created a fake account, and by the time the feds figure it out, we'll be long gone with the shrink-ray prototype. I have a device that can siphon fractions of a penny from tens of millions of accounts, so nobody will know they've been robbed until it's too late!"
Scrapper's plan worked, and soon the three of them were sitting on brand-new Harley-Davidsons.
"Kind of reminds me of Martian rocket bikes!" Scrapper said. They revved up their engines, and headed north.
Scrapper and his two brothers were on their motorcycles, and stopped at a red light.
“I say we take over the world in this primitive time, we’ve got the technology to do it!” said Slackjaw.
“Bad idea,” Scrapper replied. “I’m the one who was in the military, and I studied temporal mechanics. The military scientists in our own era think it might be possible to alter history.”
“I’m with Slackjaw on this, I say we take our chances!” said Gator.
“I told you to forget it!” said Scrapper. “If we prevented ourselves from being born, it could create a time paradox even the scientists in our century couldn’t unravel! It would be nice to rule over a simpler time like this, so I can understand why you would want to stay here and take over. But why rule a world, when we can get that prototype and return to our own time and rule the known galaxy?”
In a neighborhood in suburban Arroyo Grande, three motorcyclists pulled up and parked on the front yard of an older man, a teacher named Mr. Sorenson. When Scrapper rang the doorbell, Mr. Sorenson's Lhasa Apso started yapping, and the elderly teacher answered the door.
On the porch stood three men who looked like they wouldn't look out of place in a biker bar. From their collars to their boots they appeared to be wearing black leather (it was actually a synthetic material a thousand times stronger), and the man who appeared to be their leader asked, "Are you Richard Sorenson?"
"Yes," the teacher replied, and Scrapper lifted a silver-colored metallic device to his face.
"Say cheese!" Scrapper said, and within three seconds, the transaction was complete, and Slackjaw and Gator carried the man to a recliner in his living room. When Slackjaw and Gator had returned, Scrapper held up the small mind control device.
"All of his knowledge, and every memory he ever had has been suppressed. He won't be able to access his memories for many years!"
The three space pirates headed back toward their motorcycles. "What now?" Slackjaw asked.
"We go get a motel, I'm going to need an address if I'm going to get hired as one of Megan's teachers!"
To Be Continued!
Giantess World
