Chapter Ten: Tony and Phillip Fight Back!

Tony and Phillip went over their list, with the lamp close by. "So we've narrowed it down to two possibilities," said Tony, "we either make it so their vehicle doesn't work so they can't get back to Dakadania, or we shut down all the dimensional nexus points that bridge Dakadania with this version of Earth."

"I like the idea of shutting down all the nexus points," said Phillip.

"But if we do that, it might only be temporary, they might be able to establish other nexus points," said Tony. "I think we should damage their vehicle."

"We've each got one wish each," said Phillip, "if I use my wish, I'm shutting down all the nexus points. You can use your wish for whatever you want!"

"But if we shut down all the nexus points, we wouldn't be able to get back to Earth if they ever caught us and took us back to Dakadania!" said Tony. "We have to think this through!"

"If we disable the vehicle of that Dakadanian girl you saw earlier today, you realize that will be only temporary, don't you?" said Phillip. "They'll just come back in another vehicle!"

"But it will buy us enough time until we can figure out a more permanent solution!" said Tony, picking up the lamp. "It'll force her to jump through the dimensional nexus point below suicide ridge!"

"Are you going to do it right now?" Phillip asked.

"If I don't do it now, they might come for us and shrink us before we wake up tomorrow morning!" said Tony, rubbing the lamp. "I wish for the vehicle that Dakadanian girl came to Earth in to be permanently disabled, so she can't travel back to Dakadania!"

Meanwhile, back at the motel room where Lacey and Caitlin were staying, the girls had just finished washing their captives in the cleaning solution that Caitlin had used earlier. When the final captive was washed and rinsed, a red light started beeping on the equipment on the table.

"Uh-oh, something's wrong!" said Lacey, setting her captive down and walking over to use their equipment. "Our main computer says our vehicle has been crippled!"

"Can we fix it?" Caitlin asked.

"Not that I know of. We're going to have to cross through the nearest dimensional nexus point at suicide ridge!" said Lacey. "We have to get there before the buses stop running."

"Do we have to jump off the cliff?" Caitlin asked.

"Yes, but we'll be pulled through a dimensional space warp to Dakadania, where we'll land in a force field that will break our fall. Come on, help me pack up this stuff, we need to take everything with us!"

The girls checked out of the motel, and made their way to the bus stop. Once on the bus, Caitlin was upset.

"That stupid lamp!" said Caitlin. "Me and Audrey should've never left that lamp behind, and they would've never escaped!"

"Hind sight is twenty twenty!" said Lacey. "When we get back to Earth, we need to use mind control to read Tony and Phillip's minds so we know exactly how many wishes they've used! Each person only gets three wishes, right?"

"Yes!" said Caitlin. "So we're definitely coming back to get them?"

"Yes!" said Lacey. "No captive has ever escaped from Dakadania, and we need to make sure to set an example!"

"What if they do this to us again?" Caitlin asked.

"They won't be able to, because we're taking that lamp away from them as soon as get back to Earth!"

"We should've just stormed their hiding spot and shrunk them!" said Caitlin. "These plans dreamed up by the computer were stupid and a waste of time!"

"Now, Caitlin," said Lacey, "the computer knew one of those plans would work,"

"But it didn't!" said Caitlin. "Look where we are! On a bus back to the nearest dimensional nexus point!"

Lacey looked around to make sure no other passengers overheard Caitlin.

"Be careful," said Lacey, "you might be overheard! And just because this phase of our plan didn't work doesn't mean we won't be able to defeat and capture them when we return! So try to keep a positive attitude about all of this!"

"Yeah, I guess you're right!" said Caitlin.

Meanwhile, back at Bobby's, Tony and Phillip explained the situation to Bobby just after he returned home from work.

"I think it was a smart move disabling their vehicle," said Bobby. "But what do you plan on doing in the long term? She's bound to come back for you. And I agree with Tony that closing off the dimensional nexus points is a bad idea, in case we end up back on Dakadania and we need a way to return!"

"If we ever end up back on Dakadania, I don't think we'll ever be able to escape a second time!" said Tony. "When I created the Dakadania graphic novel back on the version of Earth where Phillip and I came from, I established that no one had ever escaped from that world. If someone ever did, the director of the Dakadanian council, otherwise known as the Collector, won't rest until all of us are re-captured and returned to the hands of our mistresses!"

"Well, if our re-capture is inevitable," said Bobby, "then we should celebrate our temporary freedom with some beer! There's no beer back on Dakadania!"

"I agree!" said Phillip.

"I need someone to help me carry it!" said Bobby, and Phillip volunteered. The two men got into Bobby's pickup truck and took off toward the liquor store.

There were several teenage girls in Catholic schoolgirl uniforms outside the liquor store, eating candy and drinking sodas.

"Are those Dakadanians?" Phillip shouted, as they pulled up.

"No, their uniforms are different," said Bobby. "There's a Catholic high school not far from here, and you see some of the girls from that school around here from time to time. Had you going for a second, didn't they?"

"I thought we were goners for sure!" said Phillip.

Meanwhile, Lacey and Caitlin had arrived at their destination on the coast. They got off the bus, and walked to the edge of the cliff.

"Well, here we are!" said Lacey. "Suicide ridge! All we have to do is jump off and we're back in Dakadania."

"How are the humans of this world unaware of the dimensional nexus located here?" Caitlin asked.

"No human who has ever fallen into the portal has ever returned to tell people about it!" said Lacey, as she tossed her equipment over the edge. The girls watched the equipment disappear into a dimensional portal and disappear. "Drop the equipment you're carrying, Caitlin!"

Caitlin dropped what she was carrying over the cliff, and it also disappeared into the dimensional nexus.

"Hold my hand, and we'll jump together!" said Lacey, and Caitlin complied. Both of the them jumped at the same time, and disappeared through the portal. The world around them seemed to disappear as they fell through the portal, and a night time Dakadanian landscape formed around them. Lacey and Caitlin were automatically restored to normal size when they emerged in Dakadania. A force field broke their fall.

"Hey, we're normal size again!" said Caitlin.

"Kids from Dakadania always return to normal size if they were shrunk on Earth!" said Lacey. "It's so we don't get confused for humans."

Lacey broke free from the force field. "The force field is strong enough to break our fall, but weak enough for a Dakadanian to break free from it's pull. Only humans stay trapped!"

Caitlin broke free, and looked at the force field emitters forming an octagon surrounding the area at the bottom of the cliff. There was a video phone booth nearby, and Lacey used it to call the Collector. In moments, the face of the middle aged woman who took care of the children of Dakadania appeared on the monitor.

"Why have you returned to Earth?" The Collector asked. "Our equipment indicates that Tony and Phillip are still on Earth! Their transponders are still transmitting to our receivers!"

"They have a lamp that grants wishes," said Lacey. "And they used it to cripple our vehicle. We returned through the nearest dimensional nexus point to receive further instructions from you, ma'am!"

"You must return immediately!" said the Collector. "We'll have another vehicle ready for you within the hour. As soon you get back to Earth, use a shrink ray-gun to reduce the disabled vehicle and take it with you when you return to Dakadania. We can't have the humans discovering our technology! Then you are to continue with your plans to drive Tony and Phillip back to Dakadania!"

"As you have spoken, so shall it be!" said Lacey, bowing her head. The monitor went blank.

"We know for sure that we'll succeed, don't we?" Caitlin asked. "We will acquire them eventually, it's just a matter of time, isn't it?"

"I was told through temporal reconnaissance that we would succeed in driving them back to Dakadania by employing a plan that you chose, out of the plans that we had. The Collector is very sketchy about revealing too many details about the future."

"It just seems like their is an easier way to get them," said Caitlin. "We could use mind control to make them catatonic, then just march in and steal the lamp, shrink them, and take them back to Dakadania!"

Lacey tilted her head back and laughed. "We're Dakadanians! And before that, we were Titans from Thanatar! We have a legacy to live up to! These captives who escaped from us have created a historic event, the likes of which have never been seen! All eyes on Dakadania will be on us when we capture them! How would it look if we took the easy route?"

"I think I see where you're coming from!" said Caitlin. "The more difficult the chase, the better the victory will be!"

"Exactly!" said Lacey. "A hundred years from now, Dakadanians will be talking about what we did over the next twenty-four hours! We can't let them down!"

Before long, the next vehicle arrived, and Lacey and Caitlin boarded. Lacey drove it toward the nexus point they had driven through originally. In less than an hour, they reached the nexus point and passed through the portal, and the vehicle, with them inside, was reduced to the scale of normal human beings.

"Now we have to get back to the motel we were at before, so we can reduce the vehicle down to size." said Lacey.

Before long, they arrived at the motel, and Lacey got out and shrunk the RV they had traveled in before. She got back on board their new vehicle, and Lacey tossed the shrunken RV to Caitlin.

"Now we need to find another motel!" said Lacey.

They drove around for a while, until Lacey found a motel closer to where Tony worked. Lacey parked the RV.

"This motel is at a much better location," said Lacey, "because it's closer to where Tony works as a comic book artist, and it also ties in with more of those criminals who are destined to disappear within the next twenty-four hours or so."

"Cool!" said Caitlin, pulling out her three captives. "I almost forgot about the captives we've captured already!"

Lacey paid for their motel room, and came back to usher Caitlin to their room.

"Here's your copy of the room key," said Lacey.

When they entered the room, Lacey put some of the equipment she was carrying onto the sole table and turned all of it on. Caitlin set her three captives down on the table, and began commanding them.

"Your mistress commands you!" said Caitlin. "Whoever is the slowest to follow my orders will get swallowed! Now then, march to the edge of the table, in this direction!" Caitlin pointed at the opposite edge of the table from where the captives were standing, and two of them started marching. An Asian captive refused to march.

"Slave!" said Caitlin. "Why aren't you obeying me?"

"I don't take orders from little girls!" said the Asian captive.

"Well, I'm not a 'little' girl, I'm easily thirty-six times your size! And you shall do as I command!" Caitlin slammed her right fist down on the table for emphasis. "Now march!"

"Just swallow him, Caitlin!" said Lacey. "You shouldn't suffer a rebel to live!"

Caitlin complied with what Lacey told her to do, and picked up the captive in her fist. His head was peeking over her fist.

"Prepare to go on a one-way journey to the belly of a triumphant titaness!" said Caitlin, tossing her head back and throwing the captive into her mouth. The two-inch tall man tumbled over Caitlin's tongue, toward the back of her mouth. Caitlin reflexively swallowed, sending the tiny man squishing down her esophagus, and he dropped down into her stomach cavity with a splash. He screamed in defeat, knowing this would be his end; there was no one who could help him, no one knew of his plight except the sadistic teenage goddess who had conquered him, and her cute friend.