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Scott and Sarah looked at each other, before turning back to Natalie with blank looks on their faces. So, the mini-goddess explained that part of a GTS-goddess' immortality was their invulnerability to being shrunken.

"And, yet," she continued: "...look what happened near the Rock Lake, Wisconsin, of Mega-world!"

Samantha adjusted her scrying spell so that the Kensingtons could witness a replay of the Battle of Tyranina. Sure enough: some of the good GTS-goddesses battling on behalf of Mega-world's native humans did begin to shrink when swarmed over by the sizevamp mercenaries of the evil GTS-goddesses (or "EGG's" for short).*

"When I saw this," declared Samantha: "...I could hardly believe my eyes! That's why I had to steal Barney away from you. I _had_ to revert him to Buffy the Sizevamp Eater. So, he could, at least, keep the war at a stalemate while Natalie and her fellow mini-goddess Tina did some scouting around. Trying to find out how the sizevamps got this ability."

Meanwhile, within the shrunken factory complex at Canberra's Black Mountain Tower, the spring-heel jack had finished taking in all the information it could get from the factory's mainframe database. At which point, Ray Venn opened his eyes, and removed the jack from the P.D.A. he had confiscated.

The psychometric images he had received were staggering in what they had revealed. But, this was neither the time nor the place to ponder them in greater detail. He heard footsteps running up the stairs paralleling the freight elevator (which was stalled due to the wooden door still being up). He then heard the passenger elevator, at the opposite end of the storage loft, chime its arrival.

Feeling there was no other choice, he abandoned all pretense of stealth. He shot back up to three inches tall and, with a slight amount of effort, lifted the forklift over his head with both hands. He then threw it at the white-helmeted security guards that emerged from the passenger elevator.

"Incoming!" yelled one of them, seconds before he drew his club-shaped disruptor and fired it upward. The resulting red beam enveloped--and halted--the forklift in mid-air. Following which, the latter exploded into little pieces!

By that point, however, Ray had resumed his half-inch size. He then crouched to the right of the staircase's top step. As a result, when the first of the guards using the stairs reached the top, he was tripped by a semi-circular/counter-clockwise sweep of Ray's right leg!

That first guard had not even landed flat on his face, before Ray sprang upward. Kicking the second guard's jaw with that same right foot! The latter's head snapped backward, as the rest of his body collided with the third guard in line. Creating a domino effect.

The first guard, still stunned from his fall, was trying to push himself upward on his hands, so he could clear his head with a shake. Unfortunately, for him, Ray had already reached his side. Whereupon, he delivered a right-handed shuto chop to the back of the guard's neck...using his S&W Model 39 for added weight.

He then transferred the gun to his left hand, so he could fire it at the guards from the smaller elevator. When he saw that they had scattered to hide behind some other crates, Ray picked up the unconscious guard's disruptor and ran for the roof-access stairway. Upon reaching the roof, he momentarily put down the disruptor so he could slam the metal door shut. He then picked up the disruptor...and fired it in a U-shaped pattern around the hut-like structure covering the top of the access stair.

It consequently fell inward and down, temporarily blocking his pursuers with a wall of debris. He then raced to the edge of the roof...and jumped off!

He was back to six feet tall by the time he landed on the inner office carpet, to Deborah Miller-Law's left.

"Ray!!!" she exclaimed, in a shrill voice: "What the frig is going on?"

"No time to explain, right now. Where's the receptionist?"

Deborah showed him that she still had the plump bleached blonde still in her pocket. And, the former was stunned when Ray seized her, re-enlarged her, and chased her off by threatening to do to her what he was about to do to the window!

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZAP!

Seeing the inner office window disintegrate in a haze of red energy dissuaded the receptionist from making any objections. She followed her "instructions," implicitly!

"Ray! Are you out of your mind? Why...?"

"Like I said: no time to explain."

His gun reholstered, Ray transferred the disruptor to his left hand. Then, seizing Deborah's left hand with his right, he dragged her out the window with him.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

She instinctively enlarged herself to a hundred feet tall as she fell. As did Ray. And, as they landed, there was a slight earth tremor that rattled other buildings' windows all the way to Canberra's Embassy Row!

Once more, Deborah tried to demand an answer from Ray, as to what was happening. And, once more, he refused to answer. Merely dragging her along with him as they ran towards the west.

So, she tried a different tack.

"W-W-Where...are we...g-going...in such a...h-h-hurry?"

"We're late," he replied: "We're late...for a very important...date."

tbc
Chapter End Notes:
* See THE I.D.E.E.A. MEN, volume 1 (chapter 7).
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