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Commissioned by an anonymous user.

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Ryan Choi, the all-new Atom, waited alone in the darkness beyond the perimeter of the villainous group Onslaught, clad in a suit that made use of technologies invented by his long-time mentor Ray Palmer, the prior holder of the title of Atom, in whose absence Ryan had taken up his mantle, and become a part of the Team of fellow young heroes who operated under the guidance of the Justice League.

On this, his first mission, however, the rest of his team would not be there to help him. After they had received intel that Onslaught had managed to capture an unknown metahuman, he had come here all alone to prove himself to his teammates, who didn't think that his shrinking powers could be of any real use.

He was filled with a steely resolve to prove that he could really contribute something to the Team, but that didn't mean that he wasn't afraid. Of course he was; this was his first time going out on a mission, and he was doing it all alone. Butterflies fluttered in his stomach like never before, and his heart was already beating frightfully.

He waited there alone for what felt like hours until, finally, he saw a bunch of Onslaught members leave the base in some armored vehicle; he didn't think there could be more than one or two members left in the base now, letting him breathe a sigh of relief as he knew his mission would be a piece of cake now.

“Okay, Ryan,” he said to himself once the vehicle was out of sight. “Now's your chance. Go out there and show the world what you're made of.”

Once he had shrunken down with his suit to the size of a mouse he used his suit's powers to fly across to the base itself, shrinking further down as he approached it so he wouldn't be noticed or accidentally set off any alarm. Eventually he made it to the main door, which was sealed so tightly it that would be impossible for him to get through even at the size of a gnat as he currently was. Thankfully, his suit could shrink him way smaller, so he shrank to the size of a speck of dust and flew through a tiny little gap under the door, soon finding himself in a vast corridor inside the base.

Once he was on the other side, Ryan tried to bring himself back to a more reasonable size, only to find that the suit wasn't responding. “Dammit! Not again! Not at this of all moments!” he said. He'd known the suit still likely had some bugs to work out, but he hadn't though that he'd have to deal with one of them during his mission. How on Earth was he supposed to rescue the trapped meta at this size.

“”Okay, Ryan, don't lose your head. You'll figure it out easy enough, or it will sort itself out just like last time. For now, just stick to the plan.” But of course, going through with the plan would be a hell of a lot harder now that he was no bigger than a grain of sand.

Seeing as the suit's flight function still worked, even if he could only fly a few inches per second, he set out to explore the base a bit, flying around just a little bit above the ground, trying to find one of the Onslaught members who would still be in there. When he did eventually find one, however, it was she that came upon him.

He heard a series of footsteps behind him and turned to see Devastation, one of the groups female members, with the power of superhuman strength. The woman was staggeringly enormous, standing relative miles tall from Ryan's perspective, her abnormal height and thick muscles only serving to make her even bigger. It seemed as if the hallway itself shook as she passed, in fear that one punch from her might leave it in ruins.

Ryan's first thought upon seeing her was to hide, but of course he knew there was no point in that, seeing as he was too small to see, except perhaps as a speck of dust like any other. Besides, he knew that in order to get to the captured metahuman, he had to hitch a ride with her. According to their intel on the base, the deeper parts of it, including the holding chambers, were protected by a scanner which would be able to detect him no matter what size he happened to find himself at... unless, that is, he hid himself inside of something, or someone, else when he passed through it. It would be a nasty bit of business, but this was the best plan he'd come up with for infiltrating the base.

As Devastation approached at speeds almost too great to comprehend, he flew higher into the air so he could reach her face by the time she reached him. However, he moved way too slow for that, and only managed to make it as far up as her exposed, muscular midriff, which rammed right into him, a vast wall of muscles padded with skin. Finding himself between a pair of her impressive abs, he was held securely in place by the simple act of her walking, a huge wall of air rushing at him with every step she took, ensuring he wouldn't fall off, but also that he couldn't get himself off from her body.

He took to crawling up her instead, making what little progress he could, but there was no way he would be able to reach her face within even a day going like this. Eventually, however, Devastation came to a stop, allowing him to keep flying further up along her body, towards her ear. Though he meant to hide inside her mouth, there was a bit of business he had to take care of inside her ear first, so he flew up to it, landing right on the entrance to the inner ear. He reached into a small pocket on his suit to pull something out, but before he could do that, Devastation suddenly moved her head, sending him flying further into the ear, until he smacked right against her eardrum.

After falling back to the floor of her inner ear, Ryan looked up and saw the entrance to her ear blocked off by a huge, surging object. It was Devastation's fingertip, tall as a skyscraper, come to dig around for earwax. Even though there was no way it could reach deep enough to get to Ryan, the hero couldn't help but feel dread at its being so close to discovering him. Although, even if he had been picked up by her digging, he would probably have been too small to see among all the earwax and just flicked away with it.

Once the finger retreated, he gave a sigh of relief and set out for the ear's entrance again, doing his best to avoid the piles of earwax and the many hairs, as thick as he was tall, which lined the inner ear. At last he made it back to the entrance, where he took out a small device and set it down on Devastation's skin, facing out to the rest of the world. He reached for his wrist and pressed a button on a small device he had wrapped around it, which made a screen appear with a view of the world from the camera he'd just set down. This would allow him to know when Devastation had made it through the scanner, letting him know when it was safe for him to come out again.

With that done, now it was time for the truly disgusting part. He waited for his giant host to stay still for a moment, then set out flying for her mouth. On his way there, however, he was caught by a powerful air current that dragged him right into her nose! The air blew him right against one of her nose hairs, where his lower body fell upon a bit of snot. That snot kept him in place, even as the air current around him changed directions, blowing out of Devastation's nose.

He tried to pull himself out, but despite his proportionally increased strength, the mucus accomplished its purpose perfectly, keeping him trapped where he was. He had to think of another way to get out.

Looking around, he saw that while she was exhaling, another one of her nose hairs came just within reach of his arms. If he could grab onto it, maybe he could manage to pull himself out. The next time it came close, he grabbed ahold of it and pulled as hard as he could, but he still couldn't manage to free himself from the mucus holding him in place. However, unbeknownst to him, his action was having another effect upon Devastation. Pulling on her nose hair was enough to cause a slight tickling sensation in her nose. She rubbed her nose to deal with it, making him let go of her nose hair, and making him sink a bit deeper into her mucus.

However, this gave him an idea. If he couldn't pull himself out like this, maybe he could get her to sneeze him out. The next time another nose hair was within reach, he grabbed it and began quickly moving it from side to side, actively trying to tickle the massive woman's nose. He grabbed on and kept going even as she rubbed her nose again, and eventually, his actions were rewarded by exactly the thing he was waiting for. He heard Devastation taking in air as though preparing for a sneeze, and let go of the other hair to make it easier for him to be sent flying. Then came an incredibly powerful sneeze, one which sent him flying out of her nose in a split second, spinning through the air at tremendous speeds.

When he recovered from his dizziness, his tiny body was floating through the air, kept aloft on it along with various specks of dust and some droplets of spit from her mouth. Looking up, he saw Devastation, rubbing her nose some more and looking like she was about to get a move on. Wasting no time, Ryan flew over to her shoulder, managing just in time to grab on to one of the fibers of her shirt before she started walking again. Before long she went into what looked like the break room, with some seats and a fridge and everything. She stopped before the fridge and opened it, pulling out a bottle of soda. She opened it up and chugged it all in one go, then wiped her mouth and burped before throwing the bottle at the trash can. In the meantime Ryan had seized his chance to fly towards her mouth, getting inside just as she opened it to burp.

He quickly landed on her tongue and settled down to await the moment when she passed through the scanners. He thought the only thing he would have to deal with now would be boredom and the disgust of being in this huge mouth, but he was proven wrong as Devastation opened her mouth to bite down on a sandwich she had pulled from the fridge. Her mouth was flooded with the food, which she promptly started chewing on, turning it into a gross, disgusting mush into which Ryan immediately got mixed up. Thankfully his suit ensured that none of the stuff would touch his skin, and thanks to his visor and the lights installed on it, he could still see much of his surroundings despite the darkness.

When Devastation swallowed her first bite of the sandwich, Ryan avoided getting swallowed along with it only because he was stuck with a bit of food in the pit of her molars. Come her second bite, his world was once again flooded with bread, mayo, lettuce, ham, and more. As Devastation's jaws worked up and down, the impact of her upper teeth against her lower went on all around him, everything moving at frightening speeds and with amazing force.

When Devastation swallowed the second bite, Ryan wasn't so lucky as he had been the first time around. This time he went down with the bolus, being stuck to it by a layer of the woman's saliva. Her tongue pushed it and him back along the throat and down the esophagus, where he saw and felt the walls of the esophagus as they contracted in peristalsis, carrying him and the food down towards the stomach. He tried to hang on to the walls, but they were too slimy and slippery to do so amid the rush of chewed-up food all around him.

Eventually the peristalsis brought him and the food both into the stomach itself, where it plopped down into a mostly liquid mass of the just-ingested soda, gastric juices, and the remnants of the previous bite of the sandwich. Carefully, Ryan pulled himself out from the mass of chewed-up bread and ham and other stuff and swam across the liquid mass onto the walls of the stomach, where he waited and considered how to approach this situation.

Despite the intensity of the acids around him, he knew that his suit was capable of withstanding them for at least a day, so he wasn't too worried about that. What really worried him was the thought of getting stuck in Devastation's stomach, being unable to help the captured metahuman, totally failing his mission and letting everyone down—letting himself down most of all, and even his mentor, if he was still around. He couldn't let that happen. He had to find a way out of hereThe first thing he tried was testing out his suit to see if the resizing function was fixed now. Giving the growth button a little tap, he felt the familiar sensation of growth and grew excited as he soon doubled in size before it fizzled out again. He pressed the button over and over again, each time growing for just a fraction of a second before the growth came to a halt. Eventually, even that meager growth stopped working and he wouldn't get any bigger no matter how many times he pressed the button.

He judged his height and figured he had to be around one centimeter tall, which may not sound like much but it was a heck of a lot bigger than his previous size, if a bit short of the full inch he had wanted to reach. Still, this was probably enough for him to get out.

His plan was to give Devastation an upset stomach to get her to vomit him back up, but before he could do that, he had to wait for her to get past the scanner, otherwise this would have all been for nothing. He clung to the wall of her stomach as food continued coming in through the lower esophageal sphincter every several seconds, until finally it came to a stop. After that, it was only a matter of sitting still and avoiding falling into the food again so he wouldn't be sent down to the small intestine.

He pulled out his wrist device again and looked through the camera, which let him see and hear the outside world even from in here. He sat there waiting for a long time, but Devastation didn't seem to be doing much of anything right then. Sadly, he couldn't see what exactly she was doing, but from the sound of it, she was watching some sort of reality TV show, which took him off balance for a bit. It was just so unexpected, so… mundane. He supposed even villains had to take some time off to relax, though.

He kept an eye out through his camera, but all he heard was the reality show and all he saw was a featureless white wall. It was almost painfully boring, if he was being honest. After the show was over, Devastation went into a training room and apparently spent some time with a punching bag. It must have been a really strong one to be able to withstand her punches. Ass he was hitting it, the food was moving around her stomach, lapping at his feet, and on one occasion it went as far up as his head and caused him to fall down into the mass of partially-digested food, where he was churned around along with it for a bit.

The movement in her stomach soon settled down a bit, but as Ryan was trying to climb onto her stomach walls, the whole world turned sideways all of a sudden and the food sloughed down onto him. He dug his way out and perched elsewhere on the stomach walls, then turned on the camera and realized, from the shadow he could make out on the floor, that Devastation was bench pressing some weights. She was at this for a long time, until finally she set the weights aside and stood up, after which she dried herself up with a towel and left the training room.

Then Ryan had to deal with the rather embarrassing prospect of being inside Devastation's stomach, spying on her while she went to the bathroom. He waited for a bit in case she was only going to wash her face or something, but once she went into the bathroom stall he turned the camera off for a bit, figuring it was best to give her some privacy. Besides, he doubted anything interesting would be happening out there in the meantime. Certainly nothing he wanted to be privy to.

After a while he felt her stand up and turned the camera back on just in time to note with disgust that she had left the bathroom without so much as washing her hands—the very same hands she punched heroes with. The thought of that left him grossed out, but his mind was taken off of it by something he heard from the camera.

“You there, Tuppence?” Devastation said, talking through what he guessed was an earpiece since he couldn't hear the response. “Having fun with our new captive? Good. I'll be there shortly to help you out with the interrogation.” Then she went out of the bathroom.

Ryan had hoped that Devastation was the only member still in the base, and was disappointed to hear that Tuppence Terror of the Terror Twins—a rather nasty woman with super strength—was also in the base. It would be hard enough to have to deal with one freakishly strong woman; dealing with two of them at once might be more than he could handle. He had to have faith in himself, though; he would find a way to do it, someone. Anyway, before he started worrying about that, he first had to make it past the scanner“Okay, Ryan, this is it,” he told himself. Time to see if being inside Devastation's stomach was enough to prevent the scanners from finding him. He kept the camera on so he could see when she passed through the scanners. He was feeling very nervous in there, an uncomfortable sensation in the pit of his stomach.

With each step his ride took, the thud reverberated through her body, and even through her stomach, so that he kept being shaken around, hearing thump after thump which was echoed by the pounding of his own heart. It felt like an eternity had passed by the time she finally went through a sealed door and into the room where she was to be scanned. Ryan held his breath, only letting it out once the electronic voice coming from a speaker in the room announced that she was clear to go inside. Another door opened and she went in, going downstairs into a deeper part of the facility.

Now that he was inside, Ryan could get her to vomit him out whenever it proved most expedient. Still, he had no idea just how big this place was, or where to find the captured meta, so it would be best for him to stay inside a bit longer. Devastation was going to the holding cell anyway, so why not let her lead him all the way there? So he did just that, waiting a few minutes, trying to memorize the route she took so that he would be able to take it back out when it was time to blow the joint.

Through the camera he could see all sorts doors lining the hallways, no doubt leading to what could prove some very interesting rooms where he could gather intel on what this group was up to. If he'd had any time to spare he would taken it to go setting up more hidden cameras, but rescuing the prisoner was the top priority.

Eventually, Devastation arrived at a small dark cell, illuminated only by a green glow whose source she was apparently looking at. Because of the camera's position, Ryan couldn't make out what it was, but based on what she'd said this must have been the holding cell where they were keeping the prisoner.

More important than what he saw, though, was what he heard: a series of screams as of a girl or a woman being tortured, accompanied by the voice of Tuppence Terror mocking and interrogating the captive. Whatever was going on outside sounded awful, but even so the captive didn't say a word. Whoever she was, she must have been quite a strong person to bear all that pain without giving them the answers they wanted. Either that, or she was too weak to speak anymore.

Ryan badly wanted to go out and help her now, but he held himself in check, telling himself that he needed to see more of this holding cell before trying to escape from Devastation's guts. If he went out only to find that he had no way of getting into the cell, it would all be for nothing.

“Don't think you can keep holding out on us forever, girl,” he heard Tuppence said. “We'll make you talk, one way or another.”

“You won't get anything out of me! Just give up and let me go or I swear I'll find a way to bust out of here and give you both the beating you deserve.” the captive said. Hearing her speaking, Ryan thought she sounded pretty young—probably in her mid-teens.

“Only one getting any beatings here is you, girl. And me and Devastation will definitely get something out of you, even if it's just your blood.”

After that, Ryan heard footsteps and the sound of a door opening, then Devastation turned her head, letting him get a direct look at the holding cell and its captive. She was a young, blonde girl, just about the same age as he'd pictured her, bound up in chains and handcuffs. Apparently that was all that was holding her in place, which seemed strange. You'd think a captive metahuman would require more security than just a pair of simple handcuffs.

However, Ryan then noted the source of the green glow he'd seen earlier: a green rock which rested on a stand a few feet away from the girl. As he looked out on the scene, she appeared to be trying to get away from it.

Glowing green rock... could it be that was a piece of kryptonite? But that would mean that this prisoner wasn't just any meta; she was a Kryptonian, at least in part. But what was a Kryptonian doing in Onslaught's holding cells? Who was she and how had they gotten ahold of her?

He supposed none of that mattered now, though. The only thing that mattered was getting her out of here. If anything, her being Kryptonian simplified the matter quite a bit, as he would only have to get the kryptonite away from her for her to be able to bust out on her own. The only problem, then, would be dealing with Tuppence and Devastation.

While he had been looking through the camera at the cell and the prisoner, he had also been overhearing the two's conversation.

“You got anything out of her yet?” Devastation asked.

“Nothing. Girl's a tough nut to crack. I figure it's gonna take the two of us to get her to talk. You up for it now?”

“Sure, why not. Let's have ourselves a little fun with her.”

The next thing Ryan knew, Devastation was on the move again, heading for the holding cell along with Tuppence. The two of them were going to start beating the girl up together now. If she kept quiet on whatever it was they wanted her to tell them—and it didn't look like she had any intention of opening up—they would probably beat her to within an inch of her death. He had stood by until now, but he couldn't let something like that happen. He had to interfere now.

Getting back into the mass of partly-digested food, Ryan started moving in circles around it, rocking it to and fro, back and forth along Devastation's stomach, until he heard her groaning outside.

“What's going on?” Tuppence asked.

“My stomach's not feeling so good,” he heard Devastation reply.

“Well don't spill it out on the floor! You know who'll have to clean it up, don't you? There's a trash can over in the corner; use that instead.”

Ryan kept moving around her stomach as she walked a few steps, then he felt her crouching down and lean over. Then there was a movement of her stomach walls, a contraction that pushed him and some of the food up towards the esophagus. The pressure pushed him up and up, until he was vomited up along with some of the other contents of her stomach, right into the plastic bag, where he was totally covered in the stuff. He didn't stand up yet, however, as that would risk him being discovered by Devastation.

“Better?” He heard Tuppence ask.

“I'm going to the bathroom a bit to wash my mouth. I'll be back in five,” Devastation replied.

“Take your time. Our prisoner isn't going anywhere.”

Ryan heard Devastation leave, after which there was just the sound of Tuppence grumbling about having the smell of vomit stinking up the room. She soon left too, though, probably into the holding cell to continue interrogating the girl by herself until Devastation got back.

This was just the opportunity Ryan had been waiting for. With only one villainess to deal with, he would have an easy time of freeing the girl. Without wasting another second, he got out of the vomit and jumped out of the trash can, groaning in disgust as he wiped himself clean of all the gunk. Once he was cleaned up, he flew away into the holding cell, where Tuppence was already starting to beat up on the girl. He flew behind her, straight for the chunk of kryptonite on the stand, and started pushing it away. It had very nearly toppled off the stand when the light scratching noises is made as he pushed it along alerted Tuppence to the fact that something was going on.

“What is that? Some kind of bug?” she asked as she walked over to the stand, looking down on him. She made a grab for him but he jumped out of the way and kept pushing the kryptonite so that it fell off the stand. Unfortunately, it didn't roll away as he had been hoping it would, so that the girl was still under its effects.

“Not a bug; a man!” Tuppence said as she raised her fist over him and brought it down with meteoric force, enough to shatter the stand to splinters when it came down where he had been standing.

Floating in the air, Ryan looked down at her handiwork and gulped. He doubted he could survive a punch like that, heightened resistance or not. As she made a grab for him, he flew out of her grasp, heading for the opposite end of the room. He turned around just in time to see a piece of wood—part of the stand's remains—flying through the air, headed right at him. He flew down and the piece of wood bounced off the wall, falling to the floor where it clattered around.

Meanwhile, the captive Kryptonian's chains were jangling like mad. She was trying to break free, apparently, but whatever strength she had recovered from him pushing the kryptonite away by one foot was apparently not enough for that.

“Come here, you little man!” Tuppence yelled at him. “I'm going to crush you like a bug!” Wielding one of the stand's legs, she tried to swat him out of the air with it, the wooden stick going SWISH and SWOOSH around him as she tried to hit him with it. Ryan flew this way and that, looping and zigzagging, trying to make his trajectory unpredictable while still moving to dodge all of her attacks. He dodged all of them until the stand's leg clipped him on the shoulder, sending a jolt of pain through him and sending his body careening off course until he righted himself.

There was no way he could keep dodging her forever. He had to deal with her fast so he could finish pushing the kryptonite away, and the only way he could do that was by shrinking her down to his size.

As she was about to take another swing at him, he quickly reversed course and went right for Tuppence, touching her in the shoulder and using his suit's tech to make her shrink down. The shrinking process happened faster than she could react, and soon she was standing a few times his current height, at which point she turned around and socked him right in the chest, sending him flying back several inches.

“Look out!” The Kryptonian yelled at him as he picked himself back up, and he looked up to see Tuppence coming at him for another blow.

He quickly jumped out of the way, taking flight and heading for the fallen kryptonite, which now lay surrounded by pieces of the broken stand. He tried pushing it way, but it was apparently stuck on one of those pieces. His strength at this size wasn't sufficient for it, so he tried to grow himself back again. He did manage it, but only just enough to match Tuppence's height. Would that be enough for this? If only he could grow himself back further, he could just kick it out of the way and then the girl could help him out in this fight. She was probably strong enough to handle Tuppence on her own without that damn rock sapping her powers.

He was about to give it another go when he heard the Kryptonian yell out a warning to him. Turning to his right, he saw Tuppence apparently flying right at him. Quickly he stepped out of the way and she went past him, landing on the floor a couple feet away. Then he turned to him and jumped in his direction, again coming at him at incredible speeds.

Despite her reduced size, she still retained much of her super strength, enough to allow her to jump across the room at him like this, trying to punch him. She may be small now, but she was definitely not out of the fight yet.

To make matters worse, at that precise moment Devastation happened to come back, stepping into the room to see the miniature chaos that was developing inside it, with him trying to avoid Tuppence's attacks, her trying to lunge at him, as well as the broken stand, the kryptonite on the ground, and the captive girl trying to break loose from her chains. “What the hell is going on here?” she asked in her husky voice, trying to get a handle on the situation. “Tuppence? Is that you? Why are you so small?” she asked, though her teammate was too busy to answer her. Seeing the other tiny person, however, Devastation was able to piece things together. Though his costume wasn't an exact replica of Ray Palmer's, it was still close enough that she was able to put two and two together and figure out that he had to be another hero with shrinking powers.

Devastation picked up the broken leg that Tuppence had thrown at him before and started chasing after him. With her entrance into the fray, the “fight” became a chaotic mess. Ryan not only had to dodge Tuppence now, he also had to keep out of the range of Devastation—not that the bigger woman was only ever an aid to her smaller teammate, as she often came close to stepping on Tuppence without even noticing it. Her large body also often blocked Tuppence's leaps at him. In addition, Tuppence often served to distract Devastation when her little body when whizzing by, making it harder for the giantess to distinguish between him and her, even taking a few swings at Tuppence on a couple occasions.

This gave Ryan an idea: if the two of them were so easily getting in each other's way, maybe he could somehow arrange it so that one of them defeated the other. How could he accomplish that, though?

While he was thinking it through and dodging the two women's attacks, he absentmindedly bumped into a wall, and turning around saw both of them coming right for him. He flew out of their way just in time, hearing two loud impacts behind him, accompanied by a CRACK! As he was flying away, he glanced back and noticed two things. The first was that the stick Devastation had been wielding was now broken in half, rendering it almost useless for hitting him, and the second was that Tuppence's punch had left quite a dent in the wall. It was that observation which gave him the hint he needed to figure out he could use Tuppence to get Devastation out of the fight.

He flew away from the two and dodged Tuppence's attack as she went flying right past him. Then he immediately turned back around and flew straight for Devastation's head, dodging an attempt by her to catch him before getting to her forehead. He stayed floating around that area, dodging her attempts to swipe him out of the air, until he saw Tuppence preparing to take another lunge at him. He landed on Devastation's forehead, and when he saw Tuppence flying at him again, he dodged out of the way at the last second, letting her deliver a huge blow right to Devastation's head. Despite her size, she still retained enough of her superhuman strength to knock the bigger woman out in one blow, her immense body tumbling back and crashing to the ground with an impact like the fall of a huge skyscraper.

With her out of the picture, now Ryan could focus on Tuppence. She was a tough opponent still, but one he could fight on much more even terms. As long as he didn't let her land any blows on him, he thought he could get through this just fine.

As he was looking down at Devastation's body, however, taking some pride in the success of his plan, Tuppence jumped on him and started grappling with him, putting him in a choke hold. With her throwing him off-balance, the two of them went careening through the air in a tailspin, being headed right for Devastation's head before landing on her cheek, the impact letting him slip out from her grip.

Quickly recovering from the fall, Ryan climbed up onto Devastation's chin, looking around for the tiny villainess and finding her on the ground, looking disoriented from the fall but getting to her feet without much issue. He had to think of some way to beat her, but he himself was too weak for that. Both she and Devastation were way out of his league in terms of strength. He had been able to incapacitate Devastation only thanks to Tuppence; now that she was knocked out, it was a shame he couldn't use Devastation to deal with Tuppence, too. Or... couldn't he? Looking at Devastation's mouth, from which her smelly breath brushed against his face, Ryan got an idea.

“You sneaky little rat!” Tuppence said as she got to her feet and jumped up onto Devastation's forehead. “Are you going to keep running away like a cockroach? Or are we finally going to settle this one-on-one?”“I'm done with running. If you want to fight then come at me,” Ryan said.

Roaring, Tuppence ran at him, fist raised in preparation for a punch. Ryan ducked under it and delivered a quick low to her belly, which didn't seem to have much of an effect on her, before trying to circle around be hind her, having a hard time of it thanks to the very uneven terrain of Devastation's face. Before he could grab her from behind like he wanted to, however, she turned around and threw a flurry of punches as she advanced towards him, forcing him to retreat out of her range. They went past Devastation's huge lips and soon reached her nose. Ryan jumped over her nose's bridge to dodge a punch, then ducked behind it to take cover as Tuppence launched another attack. He then quickly scrambled back towards Tuppence's lips, stepping over the small opening between them.

“Are you going to try hitting me again, or are you going to spend the whole fight dodging?” Tuppence asked as she ran awkwardly towards him.

“Neither,” Ryan said as he ducked and launched a kick to sweep her legs out from under her, tripping her up and making her fall onto Devastation's chin. He quickly jumped on her and started grappling with her from behind. While she tried to get out of his grip, he quickly caused the two of them to roll back together, until they were between Devastation's lips, resting on her closed teeth.

“Come on, open up!” he thought urgently at the woman on whom they were fighting. Then, as if in answer to his pleading, she opened her jaws wide in a yaw, letting him and Tuppence both fall into her mouth, rolling down her tongue before it caught them and pressed them against the roof of her mouth. This part of the plan accomplished, Ryan let go of his opponent and started clawing back up to get out of Devastation's mouth. He had managed to get a hand out past her teeth when he felt something gripping his ankle, pulling him back down.

“Just where do you think you're going, pipsqueak? We're not done here yet,” Tuppence said as she forced him back into Devastation's mouth with her. Soon he was back inside with her, and now she was the one grappling him. As the two of them fought, squirming around inside the huge mouth, Devastation's lips closed back up above them, leaving them in complete darkness. Ryan couldn't even reach up to activate his suit's lights because Tuppence was holding him so tightly.

That's when Devastation's tongue started moving against them. First it pressed the two of them up against the roof of her mouth. Somewhere behind him, he heard Tuppence's muffled voice trying to yell something he couldn't make out. Probably Devastation's tongue was pressing against her face, not allowing her to breathe. He wasn't having that problem because his suit's visor protected his face and allowed him to breathe even in this tight spot; that was a huge advantage he had over Tuppence.

After a few seconds, he felt her let go of him and the pressure of the giant tongue against his body diminished, after which he could hear her breathing again. Reaching up to turn the lights on his visor on, he looked up and saw that Tuppence was using her strength to try and hold back the giant tongue. Of course, since Devastation herself also had superhuman strength, it was a very difficult task for her.

With the two of them keeping each other busy, Ryan thought that now was his chance to escape. He started flying out, but Tuppence let go of Devastation's tongue to grab him. She wouldn't let him escape, pulling at his leg until he was back inside with her again. That was when Devastation's tongue started moving again, this time pushing the both of them back along her mouth and towards her throat. The two of them were pushed back until they were inside her esophagus, the contraction of its muscles sending them sliding further down, until they passed into her stomach.

Once they were inside, Tuppence let go of him and stood up, groaning in disgust at the half-digested food around her and the awful smell all around. “Blech! This is awful! The smell is terrible. Oh, I think some got in my mouth!” she said, spitting out repeatedly. Ryan took the opportunity to start crawling out towards the esophagus, meaning to get out through it, but once more Tuppence grabbed ahold of him and prevented him from leaving. “Oh no, you little pest. I'm the only one who's leaving this place while you stay here to rot,” she said, socking him right in the face, cracking his visor just enough for a bit of the smell to seep in through it. It was so awful it almost made him gag, but Ryan soon recovered and dodged Tuppence's next blow, knocking her down and making her fall into the disgusting mush at her feet, her face smacking right into it with a sickening splash. That was when the walls of Devastation's stomach started moving, forcing the food towards the small intestine and making Ryan call on his ass. The movement soon stopped, but he knew it would resume shortly.

When he got back to his feet, Tuppence had also recovered and was headed for him, slowly trudging through the mushy mass. Fortunately for Ryan, the darkness of the stomach and the brightness of his helmet's lights were making it hard for her to distinguish anything that wasn't his face, so he had a fairly easy time of dodging her blows. As she came after him, he kept walking back from her, gradually leading her towards the stomach's opening into the small intestine. Then, once the next round of peristalsis started up, making her lose her balance, he pushed her to the ground and pushed her towards the pylorus, from where she quickly passed into the duodenum, yelling at him as the movement carried her along.

Ryan could still hear some muffled screams from her as he made his way back towards the esophagus, but these soon disappeared. Tuppence would have a long and unpleasant ride in store for her, but by the effects of the shrinking technology she would be protected through all of it. She would come back one some day, one way or another.

Reaching the lower esophageal sphincter, Ryan shrank himself a bit smaller to ease his passing and flew through the long, slippery tube, finally making it up to Devastation's mouth again before leaving it through the opening.

“You're back!” the young Kryptonian said as she saw him crawl out through Devastation's lips. “Is the other woman gone?”

“She is. Don't you worry about her, we won't be seeing her again for a long time,” Ryan said. “My name's Ryan Choi. Would you mind telling me your own?”

“It's Kara Zor-El,” she replied.

“Well, Kara, give me a second to catch my breath and I'll help you break out of there in a jiffy.” Once he'd recovered, Ryan tried growing back a bit but this time the function didn't work at all. For the moment, he would be stuck at one inch tall. “Okay, let's see about getting this kryptonite away from you,” he said as he flew over to the fallen rock. He first focused on pushing the surrounding pieces of the broken wooden stand out of the way. Then, with that accomplished, he set out to push the kryptonite away from Kara, a much easier task without all the debris blocking him or two angry and strong-as-hell women chasing after him.

As he was pushing it away, he heard Kara groaning behind him, trying to break the chains that bound her. Then, once the kryptonite was almost against the wall and Ryan was starting to think he'd have to get it out of the room entirely for her to be able to break herself out, he heard a loud, metallic snapping followed by a clattering sound as her chains fell to the ground. He flew up from the kryptonite over to her, and landed on her open palms as she held them out for him to land on. “Oh, Ryan, thank you!” she said. “I'd kiss you if you didn't smell so disgusting right now!”“Think you can break us out of here with your strength, Kara?” Ryan said, trying to keep his mind on the mission so he wouldn't get all flustered from the thought of her kissing him.

“Once I get a bit further away from that rock I can. While we're at it, lets get you cleaned up, too. I imagine you like being covered in vomit about as much as I like the smell of it,” she said, taking him out through the door and carrying him to a bathroom which she found surprisingly quick. Must have been her super vision allowed her to see it. “Alright, here we go,” she said, holding him under a faucet to let him clean himself up. She even provided him with some hand soap while he was washing himself. Once he was finished, she held him up to her face, giving him a sniff. “There, much better. Now I can give you your well-deserved kiss.”Ryan blushed as he saw her immense lips floating over to him, wrapping around his face and completely enveloping it in a kiss and causing the visor to get all fogged up. “Thanks for all your help!” she said once she pulled away from him.

“I-it was nothing,” he muttered. “I just did what anybody would have done.”

“Well, you're not just anybody to me. You're a real hero,” she said. “So, are you going to stay this small, or do you just like being small?”

“Err, I'm afraid my suit's a bit buggy still. To be honest, this was my first mission with it and it's malfunctioning. I can't grow back at all right now.”

“Seriously? You managed to break into this secret base, defeat two supervillains, and rescue me without your suit working properly? That's incredible! I can't imagine what you would have done if it had been working fine!” she said.

“Well, when you put it that way...” Honestly, Ryan hadn't thought much of his performance on this mission. That his suit hadn't been working well had been a huge embarrassment to him, and a pain in the ass with how it wouldn't always allow him to be the size he needed to be at the time, but looking back on it now that he had succeeded, seeing how much he had managed to accomplish with a faulty suit, he was filled with pride. For the first time ever, he felt like he was really living up to the legacy of his predecessor, the original Atom.

“Now come on, let's blow this joint,” Kara said, gripping him in her fist before rising into the air, flying through the hideout's concrete floors until she had made it outside, then flying away with Ryan in hand, leaving her prison behind.

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