The gunman aimed the machine gun at Sally, as she tried to think of an excuse for Mike's disappearance.

"Am I talkin' to a brick wall? I said where's your partner?"

"There was nobody else here!" Sally said defiantly.

"We handcuffed you two by two!" the man said. "Where's that friend of yours who tried to pick a beef with Vito?"

"How the hell should I know? I just look out for myself!"

The gunman flagged down the leader. "Biff! We've got a problem over here! One of the hostages escaped, and this little chick knows something about it!"

Biff, the leader, walked over to Sally. "Rusty, I ordered all of you not to use my real name in front of the hostages!"

Biff took Rusty's machine gun, pointed it at him, and fired. Rusty dropped to the floor. Biff pointed the weapon at Sally.

"As you can see, I had no problem shooting him, and you can safely assume that I'd have no problem shooting you! Now tell me how your friend escaped!"

Sally answered: "He used a neutrino dissimilator device attached to his belt to shrink down to an inch tall! Right now, he's in the ventilator shaft, trying to find that underground vault!"

Biff pulled out a walkie-talkie and said into it: "We've got a bogie in the ventilator shaft!"

Biff put the walkie-talkie away and pulled out a set of keys. "Un-cuff yourself and come with me!"

Meanwhile, Mike was at the edge of a verticle ventilation shaft. He found a hole he could hook a carabiner to, and used the coil of cable built into the back of his costume to lower himself down. Lighting built into his costume illuminated the metal chasm.

When he got to the bottom, he found the screen that circulated air to the underground vault the leader had spoke of.

Just then, Mike heard a crackle of static and then he heard Sally's voice on his wrist-radio.

"Mike! They've got me!"

"Sally!" Mike responded, but her voice was replaced by the voice of the gangleader.

"I've got your little girlfriend! Now I want you to find the access elevator that leads to the vault!"

"I'll do whatever you ask!" Mike said into his wrist-radio. "What's in the vault that's so valuable?"

"You let me worry about that!" Biff answered.

When Mike cut through the ventilation screen, the lights built into his costume illuminated the interior of the vault.

On two sides of a pathway were stacks of gold bars stacked from floor to ceiling. Mike jumped from his perch to the nearest gold bar. The door to an elevator was built into the wall nearest him. Since Mike was an inch tall, he was able to maneuver to the elevator control panel. Mike pushed the button, and the door opened. There were lights built into the ceiling of the elevator, so he shut off the lights in his suit.

Now Mike had the problem of reaching the interior control panel now that he was inside the elevator. He accomplished this by finding a bolt on the ground, and threw it toward the UP button. On the third attempt, Mike hit his target. When the doors started to slide shut, Mike raced out into the vault.

Mike keyed his wrist-radio: "Okay! I did my part! I sent up the elevator!"

Back on ground level, Biff heard Mike's transmission. His men had used a blowtorch to cut through the metal gate that had concealed the ground floor elevator door, but they had been unable to get it to work.

When the door opened, Biff smiled as three of his gunmen got in, and patted Sally on the shoulder. He spoke into his walkie-talkie: "Great job, Micromage! You've kept your end of the bargain!"

Biff took a closer look at Sally, to admire his handiwork. She was bound in two pairs of handcuffs, one on her left wrist, and one on her right. The other loop of each pair of handcuffs was connected to a huge timebomb that Sally was sitting on.

Meanwhile, Mike was climbing the cable back up the verticle ventilation shaft. Once he reached the top, he coiled the cable back up in case he needed it again, then he raced back to where he had first entered.

Climbing out, Mike saw that Sally was no longer cuffed to the clothes rack where he had left her. After looking around, Mike spotted her handcuffed to the timebomb.

The criminals were carrying loads of gold bars out to their van. At one inch tall, Mike was able to follow them without being spotted.

Mike raced out the door and under the van. He uncoiled his cable, and flung it over the front suspension. He connected the carabiner to the cable, and climbed up.

Once he was on top of the suspension, it was easy for Mike to climb up into the engine and disconnect the wire that connected the coil to the distributor.

"These idiots aren't going anywhere!" Mike said to himself.

There were a total of three vans, so Mike ran under each of the other two vans, and pulled the coil wires from them, too. Mike found a sewer grate, and tossed the three wires in. After the vans were loaded up with gold bars, the bandits piled in, shut the doors, and tried to drive away. Of course, the ignitions didn't work, and about that time, about a dozen police cars pulled up. The reason it took so long for them to get there was because the crooks had clipped the phone lines to the mall, and a bystander had to call them on a cell-phone.

As the police apprehended the crooks, Mike ran back into the mall to check on Sally. She was still handcuffed to the timebomb.

"We only have 20 minutes left, Mike! Go get the cops!" Sally shouted to Mike.

When Mike ventured back outside, the police were afraid to enter the building, convinced there might be more gunmen inside.

"Hey, flatfoot!" Mike shouted to the nearest cop. "We've got a girl hand-cuffed to a timebomb inside! You've got to get the keys from the gangleader!"

After adjusting to being addressed by an inch-tall man, the officer went inside and saw that it was just as Mike had said. The police brought bolt cutters, and freed Sally. With Mike in her hand, Sally was interviewed by the throngs of reporters that had gathered outside the mall. The bomb squad was brought in, and the timebomb was de-activated.

When Mike's hour was up, he returned to normal size. Television cameras were aimed at him as he did this, so his shrinking ability was now public knowledge.

When the interviews were at last over, Mike and Sally walked back to the Micromobile. A man in a business suit was leaning against Mike's car.

"Can I help you?" Mike asked.

"Are you Mike Roman and Sally Stoner?" the man asked.

"Yes!" Mike and Sally said simultaneously.

"Are you two going to be in southern California tomorrow night?"

"Yes," Mike answered, "in fact, we're on our way there right now!"

The man handed Mike a business card. "I represent a well-known Hollywood producer, and I've been asked to invite the two of you to a party in Bel-Air tomorrow evening."

Mike looked at the address on the back of the card, thanked the man, and put the card in the glove compartment.

Soon they were on the highway. Mike drove from southern Arizona to El Centro, California, where Mike and Sally ate at a fancy restaurant. Then they were back on the highway again, driving through San Diego and North to Bel-Air. It was night time when they arrived at their hotel.

After the long drive, Mike was tired, so he crashed out and slept for about twelve hours. When he finally woke up to eat breakfast, it was after 11:00 a.m. in the morning and Sally had several books laid out on her bed, and she had a soldering iron and some electronics equipment out. She was tinkering with Mike's neutrino dissimilator wristband.

"What're you doing?" Mike asked.

"While you were asleep, I started reading the electronics books Gwen bought for me. I also bought some tools for working on electronics equipment! I'm re-wiring your belt so only I can control it with a remote control, see?"

Sally held out the remote control to Mike. He took it and looked it over.

"I'll keep the remote control on my belt," Sally continued, "and only I know the password, so don't even think about trying to use it yourself!"

"Why are you doing this?" Mike asked. "The shrinking belt was working just fine the way it was!"

"I know!" Sally answered, "but I wanted to be able to control how and when you return to normal size. You can shrink whenever you want, but in order to return to normal size, you'll need me to punch in the access code in my remote control device! Wanna try it out?"

Mike went into the bathroom and got out of his pajamas and changed into his Micromage costume. He shrunk down to an inch tall, and waited. The miniaturization process was instantaneous. Mike was on the carpet, looking up at Sally.

"We still have to wait an hour before you can re-enlarge!" Sally informed Mike. She picked him up and put him on his bed.

"Now for some rules. Whenever you're shrunk, I'm in charge!"

"I thought we already talked about this," Mike informed Sally.

"We talked about it," Sally replied, "but you never agreed to it. I want your cooperation!"

"Okay," Mike answered, "since you went through so much work re-wiring the shrinking belt device, I guess I can agree to your terms!"

"Fantastic!" Sally said triumphantly. "Now I'm going to swallow you again!"

As Sally reached down with her hand to grab Mike, he said, "Sally? What're you talking about? You already swallowed me once! Why do you want to do it again? I never agreed to this!"

"Oh, but you did!" Sally replied. "You agreed that I'm in charge. And since I want to swallow you, my word is law!"

"What will it accomplish if you swallow me again?" asked Mike.

"This time, I want you to keep in contact with me via radio, and tell me what it's like in there!" Sally's hand wrapped around Mike's body, and she lifted him up toward her face.

"Sally, please reconsider!" Mike pleaded. "It's disgusting in the depths of your belly!"

"Okay," Sally replied, setting him back down on his bed. "I'll ask you a series of questions. If you get one of them right, I won't swallow you! Do you agree?"

"Yes!" Mike answered, "I agree!"

"Calculate the last digit of the number pi!" Sally asked.

"Sally, that's crazy!" Mike argued. "Pi is an irrational number! It's infinite! There is no last digit!"

"That's your question, and you agreed to my terms!" Sally said defiantly.

"But that's not fair!" Mike argued. "You can't ask me questions that have no answer!"

"I can ask you any question I want! You agreed to it!" Sally said. "Here's question number two: how fast is the speed of light in kilometers per second?"

"I know that one!" Mike shouted, "If I get this one right, you can't swallow me! The speed of light is 186,282 miles per second!"

"I said in kilometers per second, Mike! Not miles per second! Anyone can answer that question in miles per second!"

"Wait a minute!" Mike said, there's a formula for converting miles into kilometers! I should remember that formula from college!"

"You have ten seconds!" Sally said.

"Ten seconds?" Mike asked, "You didn't say anything about a time limit, Sally!"

"You agreed to my terms, and those are my terms!" Sally replied. When ten seconds had elapsed, according to Sally's wristwatch, she picked Mike up and said: "It's tummy time!" and popped him into her mouth. Sally swallowed. When Mike was in her gut, she sat on her bed with her back against the backboard and keyed her wristband communicator.

"Micromage, this is Awesome-Girl. do you copy?" she asked.

"Yes!" Mike answered.

"What's it like in there?" Sally asked.

"It's wet and warm," Mike replied, "and very humid! I don't think it's safe for me to be in here for very long, Sally, I think your stomach acid is in the form of a vapor in here! It could fry my lungs!"

"Does the stomach acid hurt your skin?" Sally asked into her communicator.

"No, it hasn't eaten through my suit yet! I've got the lights of my suit on, so I can see in here. Did you eat macaroni and cheese recently?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact I did, just last night!" Sally giggled. "I'm drinking some syrup of ipecac right now!"

Sally uncapped the brown glass bottle, tilted it back, and slammed it down. Within a few minutes, she puked into the bathroom sink. She had been careful to stop the drain, so Mike wouldn't go down the pipe. She picked him up and rinsed him off.

"Did you have fun?" Sally asked.

"Not hardly!" Mike answered.

After Mike had been shrunk for an hour, Sally demonstrated the changes she had made to the circuitry of his re-enlarger device.

"Try to grow back to normal!" Sally commanded.

Mike keyed in the proper sequence on the control console of his belt, but it didn't work. It had always worked before. Sally held the remote control in her hand.

"This will keep you from returning to normal size when I want you to stay shrunk!" Sally let out a giggle. She punched in the access code, then pushed the button that activated the neutrino transfer device, and Mike instantly returned to normal size. Sally returned the remote control device to her waistband.

"Today's my day to work out," Mike said, "if you want to come with me, let's go!"

The duo got into the Micromobile, and Mike drove them to a gym not far from their hotel. Mike worked his triceps and chest, and Sally worked out, too. She was trying to enlarge the size of her arms by doing triceps excercises, and she also did squats to build up her thighs. After a couple of hours of working out, they hit the showers, then went to an exclusive restaurant in Bel-Air where the waiters knew Mike, because he always ate there when he was in the Los Angeles area.

As Sally finished her dessert (Mike didn't have dessert, just two orders of chicken breast and brown rice, and two glasses of milk), Sally pondered the invitation they had received at the mall in Arizona where the bandits had held up the place.

"Are you going to that party?" Sally asked.

"The one that producer invited us to?" Mike asked.

"Yeah!" Sally replied.

"It's still kind of early in the afternoon... he didn't really give us a time, so I guess it's okay if we show up a little early!"

Mike left a hundred dollar bill as a tip, and the two of them got back into the Micromobile and headed toward the party.

When they arrived at the address, it was a mansion. Valets took the Micromobile, and Mike and Sally approached the door. A man standing at the door looked at the guest list, and Mike and Sally were on the list. He ushered the two of them inside.

When they got inside, there were no celebrities, just producers in business suits and their families. There was a bar where a bartender was serving drinks, but Mike didn't want to take any chances. If Sally threw a scene because she didn't want him to drink, then it would look like Sally wore the pants in their relationship.

"Why are there no stars hanging out here?' Sally asked. "I was hoping to bump into Dakota Ryan."

"Maybe it's just a party of producers and directors," said Mike.

Sally approached some of the kids, while Mike hung out by himself.

"Hi!" Sally said to one of the girls.

"Hey!" the girl replied, "you must be Sally, from the Micromage & Awesome-Girl videogame!"

"Yeah, that's me!" Sally replied.

"My little brother loves that game!" the girl added. "I've never played the game myself, but I've heard about it!"

"Is your dad a producer?" Sally asked.

"Yep! All the kids at this party are the children of producers or directors! See that girl over there? Her father is a billionaire!"

More producers started to arrive.

"Hi there!" Mike said to a producer. "I'm Mike Roman, also known as Micromage!"

The producer shook his hand. "I've heard about your videogame. Didn't you design it yourself?"

"Yeah, but I used software that did most of the work. Still, it took a couple of years to design!"

Just then, a man with a beard and glasses walked in with a strange looking device. He had earmuffs on, the kind a sound engineer would use in a recording studio.

"I am Amnesio, Master of Mind Control!"

Just then, one of the security guards walked up to him and said, "I'm sorry, but you don't have an invitation, and you're not on the guest list, so I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to lea-"

At that instant, Amnesio pulled a weapon from a holster on his hip and pointed it at the burly young security guard.

"Amnesio answers to no one!"

The device was apparently mesmerizing the man, because as Amnesio pointed it at his face, he just stood there, as if he had forgotten why he had approached Amnesio in the first place.

Mike turned to Sally. "If this guy's for real, I'd better shrink before he uses his mind control technology on me! At shrunken size, maybe it will have no effect on me because my brainwaves are different when I'm shrunk!"

Mike keyed in the sequence on the control console of his wristband, and instantly shrank to one inch tall. Amnesio saw this, and turned on his device. Soon, everyone in the room was under the influence of his mind control device!

Amnesio walked over to Sally and said, "Amnesio commands you to swallow Micromage! Do it! At once!"

Sally picked Mike up, and directed him toward her mouth...

"Sally, don't do this!" Mike pleaded. "You're under the control of Amnesio's mind control device!"

Sally brought the one-inch tall Mike closer to her open lips...

To Be Continued!