* * * * *
WASHINGTON, D.C.
08/14/2009
NOON/EDT
(EARTH-DXM)
The seat at the head of the table was occupied by the President of the Unites States. Directly opposite him sat "Agent Foster" of the Department of Homeland Security. To the latter's left sat his partner "Agent Grant," followed by Mr. and Mrs. Kensington of the Growth Triumphant Society, and Samantha the Super-witch (as she insisted on proclaiming herself).
Directly across the table from those four were Raymond Venn, Dana Schorr-Geraghty, Deborah Miller-Law, and Lorelai Allen (still wearing her stagnatanium ankle bracelet).
It was Dana who had come to Ray and Deb's rescue in Alice Springs (where it was now 10:00 P.M. of August 15). Following which, the establishment was raided by the Australian Special Air Service, who promptly arrested all the Sleepy Lizard Clan garhus that had taken over the satellite monitoring control room in their "Liz Anderson" forms.
And, while the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was helping to rebuild all the devastation caused by the tulpas of Thunder Child and Tanaka Mai, the POTUS had called for a top-secret debriefing session in the White House Situation Room at 9:00 A.M.
Agents "Foster and Grant" had already wirelessly uploaded all the data on the spring-heel jack they had loaned to Ray. So, they would no doubt do most of the explaining. Which they did. Although, it took three hours!
"That's all this was about, then?" asked the astounded POTUS: "Personal revenge?"
"Only partly, Mr. President," said Agent 678: "It was certainly the Co-Ed's initial motive. Amass enough power to make her second attempt at revenge, against the Society, more successful than her first. Yet, as we all know, power can be more addictive--and more easily abused--than any man-made drug. After six months of war, the Co-Ed had expended all the energy she'd assimilated from Gromanian Valentina. So, she decided to obtain more by expanding the war."
"Expand it how?" asked the POTUS.
"By persuading your Norm counterpart to have a black ops commando team blow up the Gromanian embassy on Sizeloa's Alpha Continent!"
"But, why?" exclaimed Deborah: "All that did was bring us into the war on the Gromanian side. How could the Co-Ed benefit from that?"
"Your people ultimately micro-sected the Norms' homeworld. That effort required nearly every sizechanger in your armed forces. The Co-Ed fed off their combined energies. And, when she had filled her tank (so to speak), her first use of it was to teleport herself and her host body to yet another parallel-Earth. Specifically; the Agoura, California of this Earth."
Lorelai Allen looked up in wide-eyed shock.
"B-But...that's my hometown! Are you trying to tell me that...?"
Agent 679 nodded: "You're really the Liz Anderson of Normal World. And, the Co-Ed knew there was a cumulative limit to how much sizechanging power your all-too human metabolism could absorb. Even with the genetic enhancements she'd psychokinetically made to your body, during her possession of it! So, she transmigrated into the body of a mega-giantess. One with the same attitudes as herself. And, that's why she chose Cleopatra VII, on a parallel-Earth where she and Marc Antony had _won_ the Battle of Actium!"
"Unfortunately, for you," continued his older partner: "...she still had need of you. So, before leaving you altogether, she telepathically altered all your memories. She then fabricated elaborate physical documentation that would seem to verify the false ones! But, more important than all that, was the implantation of a post-hypnotic command that she could telepathically activate any time she chose. One that would allow her to manipulate you without your conscious knowledge."
Lorelai looked down at the conference table top in misguided guilt and shame. Prompting Deborah to put a sympathetic arm around her shoulders.
"Is that why I became a DEMON BUSTERS fan?" asked Lorelai: "And, then, wished to become a super-witch?"
Agent 678 nodded: "She needed someplace where her recruits could secretly meet in large groups. And, the _authorized_ branches of the Wishbone Restaurant chain didn't fit the bill."
"When you say 'recruits,' you mean, those lizard people. Right?" observed Scott.
"Partially! The Co-Ed (as 'Nekhebuto') initially exploited the garhus from Earth-00090231. Those evolved from Turkish geckos that had been mutated by their consumption of red mason bees, similarly mutated by the unearthly energies of the Ephesian Artemis statue! But, as I already stated earlier, she needed more recruits in order to have more partakers of the Wishbone Specials offered at Lorelai's inn. More eating/more wishes/more recruits and/or raw materials. With the additional recruits including expatriate male Morphers and sizevamp mercenaries. All of them, nominal allies of the Sizeloan Doomsday Society."
"Which is where Jerktor Bigla came in," announced Ray: "As the leader of one of its more powerful chapters, he was useful, to the Co-Ed, as a figurehead. A potential scapegoat most of the subordinate co-conspirators would consider the one-and-only mastermind behind everything!"
"So, where's the Co-Ed now? asked the POTUS.
"She vacated Cleo's body," replied Samantha: "Cleo, herself, doesn't remember much of what happened while the Co-Ed was in control of her. So, I helped her return to Egyptian Earth (which is the _only_ dominion she cares about)."
"As for the garhus?" continued Agent 679: "Samantha's friends, Natalie and Tina, escorted them back to their underground home on planet Auwth. Where Baroness Drysni will help them explain the truth to Kadroojina."
"And, these 'Sizecraft' games?" asked the POTUS.
"They're being rounded up, even as we speak," replied Sarah: "By a task force made up of both our people, and an FBI contingent, under the personal supervision of Ms. MarySue Smith."
"What about the real General Michaelsen?" Scott now asked: "How's he doing?"
"He's been transferred to the medical facilities at Fort Sam Houston," said the POTUS: "Physically? He's increasingly fine. But, mentally and emotionally? That remains to be seen."
And, with that pronouncement, the POTUS adjourned the meeting.
To Be Concluded.