Addison checked herself in the mirror after splashing some cold water upon her eyes in one of Kaiser and Wiggins's many restrooms. She checked her hair for the umpteenth time, made sure that her white blouse (which she 'borrowed' from her mom and was slightly too big) sat fashionable, and polished her shiny black leather boots (also 'borrowed' from her mom) by rubbing their pointy ends against the back of her in stocking cladded legs.

"Quite gussied up, are we?"

Before Addison checked over her shoulder, she already knew whose voice it was. That blasted vixen, Mayumi. The oriental-looking girl straddled over to a mirror right next to Addison without giving her a glance. After washing her hands, Mayumi pasted a new layer of lipstick on her lips. She smacked them together while admiring her own countenance in the mirror. Two black pencils emerged out of Mayumi's cosmetic bag. She held them pinched between her fingers and looked at them indecisively before shifting her gaze at Addison.

"What do you think, Addy? I desperately want to impress humpback. Should I aim for soft and smudged and go for the gel eyeliner, or is it wiser to stay classic and go for the pencil instead?"

Mayumi chuckled when she saw Addison gaping back at her like a clueless monkey.

"You don't know the difference between those two, do you?" Mayumi said. "An eyeliner, you know what it's for, right?" she intonated like she was speaking to a halfwit and held the pencil up for Addison to see.

"To, uhm… to put lines around the eyes?"

"Yes! Yes, very good there, Addy! That's exactly what this thing is for! Clever girl you. It's the same with this," Mayumi's hand held up her lipstick tube. "It's a stick, and it's used to place stuff on the lips. ON the lips, Addy." Mayumi placed her index finger on a spot just below the corner of her own lips while simultaneously eyeing into the direction of Addison's mouth.

Addison quickly took a gander at the mirror – checking her own lips.

"Looks like you've slid a bit too far off there." An amused Mayumi said.

With haste, Addison used her finger to clean the tiny smear of nude shade lipstick from the corner of her mouth.

"Don't mention it, Addy." Mayumi winked with a self-complacent grin while walking toward the exit. "See you around, girl. Perhaps sooner than desired."

"Stuck up, shrew!" Addison clenched her fists – sinking her nails into her skin – after Mayumi had left the restroom. A small hatch opened up and in came riding two handheld-sized lorries and a crane. The shrunk-down janitorial staff was about to give the row of toilets a clean-up according to their daily schedule. Addison looked down while the vehicles trudged ahead in front of her boots. One little guy opened the window and waved happily at her.

That does it!

Addison's anger flared. She rose her left boot and brought it down hard on one of the lorries – crunching it to several pieces. The other lorry and the crane attempted to get away from the gigantic juvenile.

"Stay here you!" Addison's voice whipped. Her leg swung with full force as the tip of her boot collided with the crane. The small and fragile vehicle was launched like a canon and crashed against the tiled wall before clattering down on the floor – completely totaled, with both occupants dead.

"Stop!" Addison sparked as her finger pointed toward the second lorry that was about to enter safety by riding back to the small hatch where it came from. To Addison's surprise, the lorry stopped.

Good. Everyone should listen to me. Addison smiled.

"Now, come here," Addison waited impatiently with her hands on her hips. The lorry did not make any attempt to come closer. On the contrary, it slowly made way for the hatch again.

"Don't you dare!" Addison warned. She screeched and plunged down on all fours in a desperate attempt to grab the lorry, but she was already too late. She sank her arm in the hatch and groped about in vain, cursing while doing so. The truck was gone.

Addison pulled at her own hair, stomped and screeched and cursed everything and everyone around her. She was more than ready now to become Goddess of the world. In a few moments, all of mankind would have to submit to her and HER alone. And if they didn't? Well…

Addison fantasized with a sardonic grin on her face. She would crush them all! She would turn whole cities into heaps of wasted rubble. She would shrink down every defiant country that would try to resist her rule to the size of a coin and bring doom upon them all with just the nail of her pinky finger while laughing down upon them like a vengeful lamashtu. They will all learn and know that Addison will be the one dictating the rules from here on out!

She rubbed her hands together in glee. Addison couldn't wait. But first, she needed Dr. Goof's help. For without his invention, Addison would be nothing more than yet another insignificant individual with grand plans that will never become a reality.

Addison did not have such fears right now, however. Her mind was occupied with something else at the moment.

She fumbled in her back pocket to grab a piece of paper. Unfolding it, Addison read the lines once more written on it, mumbling its words in an attempt to memorize them. It was her speech to the world. Dr. Goof had urged her to write one. After every being, every city, and settlement on the planet is shrunk down to microscopic proportions, Addison will make a sole global appearance through broadcast to proclaim the ground rules of the new world order. A world where SHE herself will be the autocrat of – the sole ruler and its unquestionable authority.

Still though, despite that Addison stood on the verge of becoming an untouchable juvenile Goddess, she still felt a very human fear of speaking in public. This is not some kind of poetry contest whereby she had to recite words from a piece of paper in front of her classmates. No, Addison was about to address the entire world, and with no aid but this piece of paper in her hand. What if she would stammer? Or choke even? Or people would start making fun of her?

"Well, there's only one obvious thing to do in a case like that," were Dr. Goof's words when Addison expressed her doubts to him. "Make a goddamn example!"

Dr. Goof had warned Addison that the world would be anything but compliant the moment she would state her rule. They are going to be giggly about it, skeptical, angry – and not at her even. No, angry at the one invading their homes for daring to broadcast something so ludicrous where some 14-year-old brat proclaims herself the new Goddess of the world.

"Give the laughers space to laugh. Let them." Dr. Goof had told her. "The only thing you have to do is remember who laughs the hardest so you can punish them the hardest. It's the easiest way to silence the rest and subsequently secure your reign."

And Addison knew this to be true. The moment she would step out into the open after Dr. Goof's invention had changed the landscape, she would still be the scrawny runt like before, only in a world of microbes. Whole nations will tremble on their foundations when Addison would saunter over to claim their loyalty to her. Armies will have to surrender to her. There would be no other choice – unless you've craved for death and wanted to be trembled by Addison's boot.

Charged with a fresh wave of confidence after daydreaming about this pleasant prospect, Addison stuffed her speech in her back pocket and straddled her way over to Dr. Goof's laboratory.

Opening the doors, Addison's eyes bulged wide open when she saw Mayumi sitting there on Dr. Goof's desk, cross-legged in a sensual way while laughing in a flirtatious manner about something that the latter just said. Both their heads turned around by the sound of Addison's entrance.

"What is she doing here!" Addison spat, pointing at Mayumi while looking at Dr. Goof with a deep glare of indignation. The beautiful oriental girl merely looked back at her, unconcerned and with an intolerable grin on her face.

"I'm sorry, Addison. I have not been entirely truthful with you, I'm afraid." Dr. Goof's guilt-ridden eyes were hardly able to look at Addison's.

"What do you mean?" Addison asked.

"What he means is that he despises you and adores me, Addy," Mayumi said while standing up from the desk with her hands on her hips. "Your aunt didn't die in an accident. He killed her." Mayumi pointed at Dr. Goof, who sat there with his eyes pointed at the floor.

Mayumi laughed with delight when Addison gasped deep while hearing this revelation. "She needed to be removed so I could step in as the new Goddess of the world."

"Goddess?..." Addison said.

Mayumi laughed even louder now. "Did you really think that Dr. Goof would choose you over me? I mean, look at me." Mayumi used her hands to showcase the curves of her own magnificent body and divine face. "I and only I will ascend as the ruler of humanity. And I will be a strict one, trust me. And you, Addy, will get a first-class view of it all before ending up as a speck on my nipple where you will live the rest of your days."

Dzzzzzzzzzzz

Addison looked shocked and held her hands up when Mayumi pointed a shrink ray at her. It was charging up. "Y-you can't! My chip!" she stammered.

"Is useless," Mayumi said before squeezing the trigger. Addison's world tumbled before her eyes as a familiar sensation seeped into her body – dwindling it down.