Chapter 6: Monday evening, June 16th, 2008

"We need to get my old doll house out of our garage and bring it to my room and clean it up," said Holly. "It used to belong to my older sister, then it got passed down to me. We can keep the shrunken people inside of it."

The two teens went into the garage, ignoring the miniaturized Captain Vargas and his shrunken crew as they repaired their miniaturized space freighter. Holly and Megan carried the doll house into Holly's bedroom and set it on her dresser, which was longer horizontally than it was vertically. Holly got cleaning supplies and rags from under the sink in the kitchen so they could clean it up. Within ten minutes, it was clean, and Holly put the cleaning supplies away.

"Before we do this, do you think we should have some kind of an agent that induces vomiting?" Megan asked. "I don't know about you, but if I swallow someone, I want to be able to puke them back up."

"Why not just gag yourself?" Holly asked. "My older sister has an eating disorder, and that's what she used to do when I was younger. My mom got her into counseling."

"I think we should have both options on the table," said Megan.

"Do you have money?" Holly asked.

Megan pulled out the one-hundred dollar bill she had gotten as a birthday present.

"Okay, let me look it up on the Internet." said Holly, as she booted up her laptop. Within a couple of minutes, she had it on the screen. "It's called syrup of Ipecac! Let me call the drug store and see if they carry it. If they do, my brother can drive us over there."

Megan looked through her yearbook, and searched for a particular signature. When she found it, she showed Holly.

"Do you know this girl?" Megan asked.

"Leila Landa?" Holly asked. "Yeah, she's that Latina all the guys are crazy for. She's in the same grade we are."

"She has actually done what we're setting out to do," said Megan. "She has called sex offenders and had them come over to her house on false pretenses, and her brothers beat those guys up. Maybe she can help us!"

"That's a good idea!" said Holly. "Do you have her phone number?"

"Yeah, it's in my yearbook where she signed it. She referred to herself as the 'Peruvian Princess.' Don't make the mistake of calling her Mexican, she goes by Latina or Peruvian. She's the toughest girl in our grade, so you don't want to make her mad."

"I'll remember," said Holly. "Call her up!"

Soon, the two girls were in the car with Chris as he drove them to the drug store. Megan went in and bought two jars of Ipecac syrup, then got back in the car.

"Where else am I taking you two?" Chris asked. "I go to work in half an hour, so it has to be quick."

"You're taking us to pick up Leila," said Holly. "She's helping us capture criminals we’re gonna meet online."

"Megan, I hope you're quick with the trigger," said Chris, "some of those people are very dangerous."

"It was your idea," said Holly to Chris.

"Don't worry," Megan replied, "I'm very fast on the trigger! I'll have those predators shrunk before they get within ten feet of me."

They pulled up at Leila's house, and Leila was waiting out in the front. She was dressed in a tight short black miniskirt, black nylons, ankle high black leather boots, and a black midriff bearing tank top. If she had been five years older she could've passed for a young woman on her way to a night club. She got in the back with Megan, while Holly sat in the front with her brother.

"I know exactly how to track down criminals and invite them to come over, but what were you planning to do after they arrive?" Leila asked.

Megan pulled out her shrink ray device. "I'm going to shrink them!"

Leila had a skeptical look on her face. "Toys won't work against criminals," said Leila.

"When we get to my house, she can show you how it works," said Holly. "The shrink ray is real!"

Leila rolled her eyes. "It took three of my brothers to contain one of the guys I invited over to my house, that shrink ray better work!"

Megan took the shrunken car and pizza driver out of her backpack and showed them to Leila.

"See?" Megan asked. "I shrunk a pizza delivery driver on Saturday."

Leila took the shrunken vehicle and the shrunken pizza delivery driver into the palms of her hands. She could see that the man was moving, and not a toy.

"Wow, you weren't lying!" said Leila.

"I feel guilty about shrinking innocent people, so I want to target criminals from now on. Since you have experience in that area, I thought you might like to help us!"

"What do you want us to do with the criminals after you shrink them and we capture them?" Leila asked.

"I think we should have a swallowing contest!" said Holly.

"That's a good idea!" said Leila. "We could see who can swallow the most captives the fastest!"

"Just don't invite them over to our house when you shrink them," said Chris, "choose a neutral location."

"I can have them meet us at the railroad tracks by our house," said Holly. "Megan can shrink them there!"

Meanwhile, back at the motel, Scrapper was getting ready to exit the motel room.

"Where are you going?" Slackjaw asked, before Scrapper could reach the door.

"I have to go get some books for the class I'm teaching."

"I want to talk about something," said Slackjaw. "I think we should just go get the shrink ray from the girl and head back to our own time. This whole plan of yours is too complicated."

"We are hiding out in a pre-First Contact civilization," said Scrapper. "If we reveal too much about ourselves, space command might send a garrison back to engage us. We need to stay out of the attention of the government of this primitive time."

"We can do all that and still get the shrink ray and leave today!" said Slackjaw.

"What if space command sends people back looking for Captain Vargas and his crew?" Scrapper asked. "That miniaturization weapon will be a game changer in a war, and terrorists will pay top dollar for it. We can't afford to screw this up!"

"Scrapper is right," said Gator. "It's better to do this the right way than to have space command from our century breathing down our necks!"

"You guys can come with me to the bookstore, I need a bunch of copies of a book about Edgar Allan Poe," said Scrapper. "The teacher whose memory I suppressed had a curriculum, and I have to follow it."

The three space pirates got on their motorcycles and sped off toward the book store.

Meanwhile, after the three girls had been dropped off by Chris at Holly's house, Holly, Megan and Leila were in Holly's bedroom. Leila looked them over and said, "The two of you are dressed all wrong for this. You need to dress more slutty! Do you have any sexy clothing you could put on?"

"My older sister had some slutty clothes my mom took away from her when she was 15 or 16," said Holly. "I could check her room and see if they're still there. They should fit us."

"Will your sister get mad?" Leila asked.

"She moved away to an apartment in L.A. to attend college," Holly replied. "Her old bedroom is unlocked. She told me before she moved away that I could borrow her clothing any time."

Twenty minutes later, all three girls were dressed like they were going out to a night club. Holly was in a chatroom on her laptop in her bedroom. Megan and Leila were looking over her shoulders at the computer screen. She had found some predators on the Megan's Law website and invited three of them to a chatroom. One of them wanted proof that Holly was who she said she was, so she took a photograph of her, Megan, and Leila on her digital camera and uploaded the image to her laptop. Soon, the photo was in the chatroom.

Holly agreed to stay behind while Megan and Leila went to meet the predators at the railroad tracks. Megan and Leila didn't need to wait long for the predators. They showed up one at a time, in quick succession, and Megan zapped them before they got within ten feet of her, just as she had promised Chris earlier.

Within twenty minutes, Megan and Leila were back at Holly's with the three shrunken captives. Megan dumped them onto the first level of the doll house.

"They're all on the same scale as the others," said Megan. "Nine-sixteenths of an inch tall!"

"There are more people in the chatroom," said Holly.

"Have them meet us at the tracks!" said Megan.

Just as before, Megan and Leila went and met with the criminals. Megan shrunk them, and brought them back to Holly's.

There were now six shrunken captives, all standing around in the doll house.

"What are you going to do with us?" one of the criminals asked the towering teens.

Leila crouched and stuck her face in close, so the captives could see her. "We're going to have a swallowing contest!"

Leila turned around and the three girls stood facing each other, with their backs to the doll house.

"Should we get more?" Megan asked. "or is six captives enough for the contest?"

"I think six is enough," Leila replied. "But we're going to have to vomit them up and rinse them off. Does anyone here have a stopwatch so we can measure who swallows the six of them the fastest?"

"I've got one," said Megan, as she held the stopwatch aloft. "I got it for my birthday the other day. I also have syrup of Ipecac to help us vomit them back up."

When the girls turned around, all six captives were nowhere to be seen.

"They got away!" Holly shouted.

"They must be somewhere in this room," said Leila.

"Help me seal off the house!" said Holly. "One of you stay here, my brother is at work, and we have to seal off all the exits!"

Megan stayed in the bedroom as Holly and Leila tried to seal off the house so no tiny people could escape.

To Be Continued!