Five years ago, the Dimensionauts arrived with fantastic technology that they shared with the people of Earth. Among the hundreds of devices they shared were propulsion systems that could allow astronauts to reach Mars in a matter of hours, as well as force field generators that made war obsolete. Virtually every illness was cured. The most intriguing weapon they shared was the neutrino dissimilator, capable of reducing the size, weight, volume, and mass of people and objects.

Once the Dimensionauts left our world on their never-ending quest to forge alliances with humanity in every far-flung alternate reality, legislators in the United States amended the constitution, forcing all criminals to be miniaturized down to half an inch tall. By modifying their DNA, this made it cheaper to house and feed them. They lived underground, in tunnels that were interconnected where they either went to college and learned a trade, or labored as computer programmers for the nation's many corporations. This is the story of one of those shrunken convicts...

A boy and girl in their early teens walked to the edge of a concrete sidewalk near an office building. The boy was a short-haired blonde wearing a t-shirt, shorts, and sneakers, while the girl was a brunette wearing a short skirt and a short sleeved blouse, as well as sneakers. The boy was carrying a leather satchel.

"This is where I saw the tube," the girl said. "The shrunken convicts use it as a walkway to get from their domiciles to their workplace."

'If you're right about this, we should be able to collect one of them without getting caught!" said the boy.

The girl knelt down and began clearing some dirt away, until the plastic tube was revealed. "I covered it back up after I found it, so no one else can find it."

"They call us thunder titans," said the boy.

"Are you serious?" the girl asked.

"Yes," the boy replied, "to them, normal-sized people like us are a race of gods."

A wicked smile crept across the girl's face. "I'd like that! If I catch one, I want him to call me a thunder titan!" The girl looked at the tunnel and said, "Look, I see some of the tiny people! They must be half an inch tall!"

The boy pulled out an electric knife from the leather satchel. "Hold onto the tunnel while I cut through it! This knife is made from Hectanium alloy, it's a hundred times stronger than steel!"

Hector Coronado was a middle-aged half-Mexican, half-White convict. He ran down the tunnel along with several other miniaturized convicts. The wall of metal came down and cut him off; he just wasn't as fast as the others, despite being in astonishing physical condition for a man his age.

The girl grabbed onto the tunnel as instructed, as the boy cut through a section of the tunnel to the left of the girl's hand. It only took a couple of seconds to cut through, and the wall of metal came down and cut Hector off; he just wasn't fast enough. Then the boy started cutting to the right of where the girl's hand was. When the tunnel section was completely severed, the girl lifted it into the air.

"There's only one of them in this section we cut out, the others got away!" said the girl.

Hector was trapped within the plastic tunnel, the girl's left hand on one side, and her right hand holding the tunnel aloft on the other end.

"Did you bring a jar to put him in?" the boy asked.

"No," said the girl, "I'll just pop him into my mouth until I get home. He won't be going anywhere!"

The girl lifted the tunnel to eye level, and licked her lips. "You're my property now! How does it feel to be conquered by a thunder titan?"

Before Hector could respond, the girl lifted the plastic tube above her head, and tilted one side so it was higher than the other end, forcing Hector to succumb to the force of gravity. The girl opened her mouth, and Hector fell downwards and landed onto her tongue. The girl closed her mouth, and the boy put the electric knife back into the satchel, and the two teens took off.

As the two juvenile juggernauts rounded a corner, the girl slipped and inadvertently swallowed her tiny captive. "Oops! I accidentally swallowed him!"

The boy set down the satchel and rummaged through it, looking for something. "I have a bottle of Yak, that'll help you puke him up!"

The girl lifted her blouse to reveal her belly. "I wonder how he feels right now?" she asked, with a mischievous smile on her face.

The boy pulled out a small jar. "Here, drink this, quick!"

The girl took a swig, and a moment later she began vomiting. Moments earlier, the half-inch tall Hector was struggling in the depths of his teen captor's belly, the stench of hydrochloric acid and whatever the girl had eaten for lunch burning his nostrils as he tried to hold his breath while he swam around in her chyme. Suddenly, he was forced upwards in an eruption of vomit, and he plummeted onto the ground in front of the titanic teens.

"I see him!" said the girl, and she grabbed Hector and clenched him gently in her fist. "Don't worry, little man!" the girl said to Hector, "I'll probably swallow you at least a thousand times, but I'll puke you up each time, so you don't have anything to worry about!"

The deific duo ran home, and the girl had Hector firmly in her grip the entire way. For Hector, there would be no escape!

To Be Continued!