Chapter 21: Victoria Strikes Back!

Monday morning, after school was out for the first year students at the library, Alexa went to the office of the headmistress to speak with Morgan Lefevre. Morgan ushered her in, and had her sit at the desk in a chair.

"What can I do for you?" Morgan asked.

"I've been thinking about something," said Alexa. "My shrunken captive, his name is Terry. He doesn't have a counterpart in the new reality because I removed him before the new reality was created, right?"

"That's correct," said Morgan. "There is only one of him. What are you getting at?"

"I want to take him to the new reality and un-shrink him."

"What for?" Morgan asked.

"He can tell the people of the new reality about the Futurians, so they can be better prepared to help you build an army. When I acquire him by shrinking him a second time, he can tell us what the word on the street is, about how those people feel about us."

"I like your thinking," said Morgan. "I'll meet you with your shrunken captive at the flagship in ten minutes. Don't un-shrink him until we get to the new reality."

Back in her dorm several minutes later, Alexa explained to Terry that she was letting him go in the new reality. She took him in his portable container and her neutrino dissimilator pistol and met Morgan at the flagship. Alexa strapped herself in, and they took off vertically into the sky. They landed at the park near where Alexa lived.

As Alexa unstrapped herself, she said to Morgan, "You'd better give me a few hours this time, I have to take the bus back to the mini golf park."

"You have your communicator if you need to contact me," said Morgan. Once Alexa disembarked, the gullwing door closed vertically downwards, and the flagship took off into the sky. Alexa made her way to the bus stop. She knew how to get to the mini golf park, she had taken the bus there before when she was a student at the local elementary school.

An hour later, she was there. She got off the bus and walked over to the spot where she had first shrunk Terry. She took him out of his portable container, and set him on the ground. She stepped back, and set her neutrino dissimilator on assimilate, and pulled the trigger. In less than a second, Terry was normal size. Alexa quickly pushed the button on her pistol that would reduce someone to 1/72 of their normal size, in case Terry tried to take the pistol from her.

"I don't know how to thank you!" said Terry.

"When I see you again, just give me a report of how people are reacting to Morgan Lefevre. I need to know if they are on her side, or against her."

"You've got it!" said Terry, and he ran off. 

Alexa pulled out her communicator with a sinister smile on her face. "Too bad Terry doesn't know he's been fitted with a subcutaneous transponder, so I can track his every move!"

Alexa went to the bus stop and waited for the bus. After getting on the bus, she was back in her old neighborhood and decided to go talk to Roxie. She went to her home and knocked on the door. Roxie answered.

"Did Santiago fill you in on what happened?" Alexa asked.

"He didn't have to," said Roxie. "Every TV channel is playing Morgan's message. The weird thing is, I don't feel like a duplicate."

"Santiago said that, too," said Alexa. "I guess that's the weird part about all this, you were all duplicated right down to every last atom and chromosome!"

"Are you going to rule over us like Morgan is?" Roxie asked.

"I don't know, that's up to Morgan." said Alexa. "I wouldn't mind helping her rule this world. Maybe I could give you and Tricia special jobs, as my helpers."

"Could you?" Roxie asked.

"I'll try," said Alexa. "Well, I've gotta go. Take it easy!"

Once Alexa was back at the park, she summoned Morgan with her communicator. Within seconds, the flagship arrived, and the gullwing doors opened vertically and Alexa entered.

"That pathetic toy thinks I set him free!" said Alexa with a sinister smile. "It's only a matter of time before he's back in my hands again!"

Alexa strapped herslf into her seat, and the flagship took off into the sky.

"I've got a proposition for you," Alexa asked, "Can you give jobs to the counterparts of two of my best friends in the new reality? They want to help us rule the world. Maybe they can be my generals or something."

"I don't see why not," said Morgan. "We need a power structure in place to rule over those people."

Soon, the flagship was back on campus, and Alexa and Morgan disembarked. Alexa returned to her dorm, so she could monitor the whereabouts of Terry. As she tracked him with her communicator, she had to use the bathroom. She went in to her private bathroom. When she was done and washing her hands, she saw Victoria in the mirror.

"Victoria!" said Alexa. "Everything went according to plan, but what are you planning to do next? Morgan is building an army of people from the new reality."

"I'm assembling an army of my own," said Victoria. "I have an android which is better than the model Morgan is using, it's just a matter of time to duplicate it so there are enough of them to stop her."

"What do you need me to do?" Alexa asked.

"I need you to knock Morgan out," said Victoria. "She trusts you, if you can use a mind control device I'll give you to render her unconscious, I can do the rest."

"I just re-enlarged my shrunken captive so he could do reconnaissance in the new reality, if you plan on doing this today, I hope I can get my little man back."

"If everything goes according to plan, I'll be sure your shrunken captive is returned to you, Alexa." Victoria's hand reached through the mirror, holding a small device. "Just take this to her office and push the button. You will be knocked out, also. That is part of my plan."

"What if she takes me somewhere on her flagship?" Alexa asked. "Should I set it off there?"

"No, the device must be set off in my office. If she is onboard her flagship, I won't be able to access her. As soon as Morgan is unconscious, that device will signal me, and I will arrive with my armada. Now go, hurry!"

Alexa took the device in her hand and headed to the office of the headmistress. She entered, and Morgan ushered her inside, as usual. "Take this ring and put it on," said Morgan. "It will allow you to contact my future counterpart, in case I am thwarted. If you try to take the ring off, it will send a signal to me, so keep it on."

"What makes you think that's going to happen?" Alexa asked, as she took the ring and put it on.

"Something very strange occurred," said Morgan. "There was a device planted on a structure on my timeline generator, and some of my equipment was destroyed. The problem is, I don't seem to recall ever building another device. Did you have anything to do with that?"

"What makes you think I was involved?" Alexa asked.

"Are you working with Victoria Valerius?" Morgan asked.

Alexa clicked the button on the mind control device, and she fell face first onto the desk in front of her, along with Morgan. Both of them were unconscious. 

Within seconds, an armada appeared from the sky; thousands of star cruisers descended and landed on the campus. Hundreds remained in the sky. The flagship of this armada landed not far from the office where Morgan and Alexa were sleeping. The gullwing door opened, and Victoria stepped out, followed by a dozen androids. One of the androids carried Morgan back to Victoria's flagship, while Victoria took Alexa's communicator from her. When she had it, another android carried Alexa back to the bed in her dorm room.

While Victoria walked back to her flagship with the androids, some of her star cruisers shot energy beams at Morgan's scout ships and her flagship, reducing them to a fraction of their former size. Androids collected the smaller ships and brought them onboard Victoria's flagship.

"I need her mind scanned immediately, for any passwords we might need to access her equipment," said Victoria. "I hope she's not an imposter! If this isn't the real Morgan Lefevre, we've got a lot more to deal with!" 

The androids complied, and before long, Victoria had the information she needed. The miniaturized flagship that once belonged to Morgan was small enough to fit on a table. Victoria miniaturized an android to go onboard armed with Morgan's passwords, so he could link her computer systems with the computers onboard Victoria's vessel.

Victoria piloted her flagship back to the new reality Morgan had created, followed by a thousand of her star cruisers. When they encountered the orbiting scout ships belonging to Morgan Lefevre, Victoria used her passwords to have them lower their force fields so they could be miniaturized and teleported aboard. When all of the scout ships were shrunk and on board, Victoria landed her flagship in a parking lot. She used Alexa's communicator to locate Terry, and followed him on foot.

At some point, Alexa began to wake up. Victoria was seated beside her, in Alexa's desk chair.

"That was the best sleep I've ever had," said Alexa. "I feel so rested!"

"Morgan has been overthrown," said Victoria. "And we couldn't have done it without you!"

Alexa sat upright. "What about my little man?"

"I went and retrieved him from the reality Morgan generated," said Victoria. "He's in your terrarium!"

Alexa got up and walked over to her shelf, and sure enough, Terry was an inch tall again, safely within his little habitat.

"There's something important I need to tell you," said Victoria.

"What?" Alexa asked.

"All of the students have had their memories modified. They have no memory of Morgan taking over the campus. You are the only one who remembers."

"Why did you do that?" Alexa asked.

"We can't have the students lose respect for the faculty of this academy. Since you did so much to help overthrow her, you're getting special treatment. Just don't reveal any of what happened to the other students."

"Thank you for sparing my memory," said Alexa. "But why was everything on me? Isn't that a heavy burden for a 12 year old student?"

"I apologize for that, but Morgan caught us unaware this time," Victoria replied. "But we will be prepared of she tries this strategy a second time. And we learned something from you, Alexa."

"What?" Alexa asked.

"You are a person who started out kind of evil, but you made the right decision in the end. This taught me that it is better to trust someone who is bad but makes the right decision in the end, than to be betrayed by someone we think is a good person."

"But I'm not a good person," said Alexa. "If you didn't have a chance to stop Morgan, I would've been more than happy to stay on her side."

"Nobody is perfect," said Victoria. "Power can be a very desirable thing. I don't blame you for wanting to rule a world. Morgan will be detained for a very long time, until we can recondition her mind."

"But she can use time travel to come back, after you eventually release her!" said Alexa.

"That is the unfortunate truth," said Victoria. "The Futurians don't believe in capital punishment."

Victoria got up to leave, then set Alexa's communicator on her desk, before leaving the room.

Alexa waited then went to the Verso common room. Stratus and Gamma were seated, looking over their homework on their electronic tablets. Hellion was nearby. Alexa approached them.

"Hi!" said Alexa, trying to see if what Victoria had said was true, that their memories had been tampered with.

"Well if it isn't Morgan's little minion!" said Hellion.

"What makes you think that?" Alexa asked.

"Everyone thinks that," said Hellion.

Stratus got up and stepped closer to Alexa, whispering. "Do you know what Morgan's plan is?"

"No," said Alexa, "she probably doesn't even have a plan."

"If she does, would you let me on on it?" Stratus asked.

"Even if she had a plan, I don't think she could defeat the faculty of this school," said Alexa.

"How can you be so sure?" Stratus asked.

"I guess you can call it a hunch," Alexa replied. Alexa was eager to tell her friends everything that happened, but Victoria had sworn her to secrecy. There was no way of knowing if her mind would be tampered with, if she revealed anything to the other students, so she wasn't willing to take that chance. Alexa looked at the signal ring that Morgan had given her before she had been defeated, astonished that Victoria hadn't found it and removed it.