He could not believe that this was actually happening. He had expected it for the longest, but to think that it was happening now...

This man had been one of the ten Homeless people that this giant woman had pulled out to kill. And kill she did. Right before his eyes, he saw her tread on many of the others as if they were some kind of bug invading her home.

He tried his best to run away from her, as he heard the final screams of one of his companions being snuffed out underneath her foot. He counted each gruesome death in his head as they happened.

He was now the only one left.

The woman had blocked off any access to under her bed. There was nowhere for him to hide.

He heard her footsteps approaching from behind him. The vibrations became more violent as she drew close, so much so that he almost lost his footing. Soon, he was surrounded by a dark, oval-shaped shadow. He looked above him, and saw her sole hanging over him. At this point, he tried to run faster to avoid being squashed like a mere bug.

"You're the last one..." She gave a rather depressed sighed. "This was no challenge at all."

Just as he was about to escape the dark shadow, his world came to a quick and violent end.

"Right!"

"HOAH!!"

"Left!"

"HOAH!!"

Reeve stood in front of the nearly 30 Homeless men and women. Each one of them had been organized in 5 columns, as Reeve led them in a martial arts exercise session, one similar to several that he had partaken in himself when he was younger.

The last of the Homeless that Melissa said she would weed out had indeed been killed. Now, it was just his group and the Refugees. He now knew that the ultimate battle was nigh.

"Alright!" He yelled. "That's enough punches for now! Let's do some kicks! Ready?!"

"Yeah!!" Many of the Homeless shouted out.

"Wait a minute!!" One man blurted.

Reeve was taken aback by this interruption. "What the?! Who said that?!"

In a matter of second, Marcus stepped forward from the back of the group, and soon arriving in front of it.

"Oh, it's you," Reeve said. "What do you want?"

"I have a question," Marcus said.

"...Shoot."

"If we win-"

"When we win." Reeve interrupted.

"Fine. When we win, what are you going to do with Sheryl?"

As soon as Marcus finished his question, many of the Homeless in the group started to voice their disdain and contempt for Sheryl, as well as Marcus.

"Hey, HEY!!" Reeve called out towards the group. "Shut up!"

The Homeless quieted down.

"Marcus here brings up an excellent question." Reeve focused back on Marcus. "It depends on what happens. I doubt that they accepted her as one of their own. They may send her out as a scapegoat."

"What if they do?" Marcus asked. "You're not going to seriously attack her, are you?"

"I won't. I don't know about them, though." He looked towards the group. "They were pretty mad when they saw her go over there with the Refugees. I can't be responsible of what they'll do."

Marcus got a bit of a worried look on his face. "You're the leader! Can't you tell them to not attack her?!"

"Even if I did, they wouldn't listen. They really hate her now." Reeve smirked.

"You..." Marcus gritted his teeth, and balled his fists.

"Alright, that's enough of that," Reeve said. "Let's continue with out routine. I want us to be in the best of shape for the war!"

Marcus grunted, and then walked to his left, taking himself away from the group.

"Where are you going?" Reeve answered.

No answer. Reeve watched as the man soon disappeared in the darkness. He stared at the spot for a few seconds, before turning back to the rather large group in front of him.

"Alright!" He yelled out. "As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted, let's do some kicks! Ready?!"

"Yeah!!" Many of the Homeless shouted out.

"Okay, then! Let's go!! Right foot!" He then kicked his right foot in front of him.

"HWAH!!"

The group mimicked his kick the best they could, though some, particularly the more older ones, lost their balance and fell on the floor.

Reeve glanced at each one of the fallen Homeless and sighed. "We're going to have to work on that."

~~~

Shawn, Dawson, and Matt stood facing the glass wall facing the Homeless cage, the only one left that had any life in it. They were mesmerized by what they heard and saw, mostly heard due to the faint light.

"Listen to them," Dawson said. "They're actually having an organized training session."

"I don't think all the training in the world can help them," Matt confidently said. "The fact is we're still younger, stronger, and livelier!"

"Yeah, but look," Shawn said. "They're actually training for this war."

"So are we!!" Matt exclaimed. "Bruce had some of us fight against each other! Fighting someone else is better training than fighting air!"

Shawn crossed his arms. "Perhaps..."

Dawson sighed. "You know, they say that there's a first time for everything. There could be a very itty-bitty, tiny chance that they may pull an upset and beat us."

Matt sharply turned towards Dawson. "What?! No way!! That's impossible!!"

"You what else we thought was impossible?" Shawn said. "Shrinking technology; now look at us."

Dawson nodded. "Yep. A first time for everything. I just wish I had a Shrink Ray of my own."

"For what?" Matt asked. "Shrinking Melissa?"

Dawson shook his head. "No... Myself."

Matt blinked in confusion. "Uhh... In case you haven't noticed-"

"I mean if none of this never happened," Dawson interrupted. "And I still had both of my arms, of course. I would shrink myself and go out on a college campus, looking for some cute girls to scare." A perverted look appeared on his face. "They may even mistake me for a bug."

Shawn slapped his forehead. "Okay, by now, I think you just say stuff like that to get a rise out of us."

"Yeah," Matt agreed. "I'm sure that being killed over a fetish would be no fun at all."

Dawson's perversion disappeared from his face. "Yeah, I guess you're right. ...Ever since I was 10, I would always fantasize about being shrunken down to an inch or two, and then stepped on by a girl that I had a crush on. I guess it was the ultimate form of femdom in my mind..."

Shawn and Matt briefly looked at each other.

"Up until several months ago, I thought nothing about such a death. In fact, of all of what I thought were the impossible ways to die, it was at the top of my list. But now, now that I've had time to think about this stuff, that I've seen people get killed in what I considered the hottest kind of death ever, I realized something."

"Which is..." Shawn said expectantly.

Dawson's perverted smiled returned. "I still want to die by being crushed under a girl's foot."

Matt threw up his hands in disgust. "You'll never change!"

Dawson laughed. "Of course not! It's an important part of who I am! I'm not throwing it away that easily!" He then pounded his fist on his chest. "I'm a GTS Man until the day I die! ...And beyond."

Matt sighed. "Well, whatever. If I had a Shrink Ray, I'd use it on Melissa. Let's see how she likes it when she's being stomped on like a bug."

"Dude," Dawson said in a somewhat serious tone. "Giant man on tiny woman is disgusting."

"I don't care! She deserves it and more for taking me away from Milly for so long!"

The three were silent for a few seconds.

"Seriously," Matt said in a much calmer tone. "I hope she and the kid are doing alright."

"What's the kid's name?" Shawn asked.

Matt shook his head. "I don't know. She was 7 months pregnant when I... came here. We hadn't decided on a name yet."

"Ahh..."

"I want all of this to end. I want to go out there, find and apologize to Milly, and see my baby for the first time."

Dawson stared at Matt, before placing his hand on his shoulder. "THAT'S the kind of attitude you'll need to get you through this fight. Screw that 'We're superior stuff', it's that motivation that should drive you to win."

"Yeah..." Matt said.

"What about you?" Shawn asked towards Dawson. "What drives you to live? Besides the GTS stuff."

Dawson thought for a moment. "I don't really have a big reason. I just want to live to see tomorrow."

"Hm... It's better than having no reason at all," Shawn said. "As for me..."

Dawson and Matt stared expectantly at Shawn.

"I just want to see how my parents react when I return. ...If I were to ever get out of here."

"I'm sure we'll get out of here." Dawson looked up towards the dim lightbulb hanging from the ceiling above. "Someday..."

~~~

It was a sunny Tuesday afternoon, as Thomas was sitting at the edge of the desk facing Sayuko's bed. She had just arrived home from school, and was sitting on her bed while undoing the straps on her sandals.

"It wasn't as hard this time," Sayuko said, referring to an exam she had just taken that day. "I think I did pretty well. I hope I did pretty well."

"I know you did," Thomas said. "After all, you have me here to help you study for any tests Mr. Evans throws at you."

Sayuko briefly looked up at Thomas and smiled before she returned to her sandals. "Anyway, I should try to call Mr. Cruz again, right?"

"Of course," Thomas said.

Ever since obtaining Edgar's phone number on Sunday, Sayuko had tried calling him several times. However, each time was met with slight disappointment, as she seemed to always get his voicemail. Nevertheless, she would leave a message each time, and try again later.

"I hope he picks up this time," Sayuko said as she pulled her feet from her sandals and shoved them under her bed. "I wonder why he hasn't."

"Well, he is a researcher and inventor," Thomas replied. "Maybe he's too busy with whatever he's working on."

"I guess..." Sayuko looked behind her, and grabbed her cell phone from the bed. She flipped it open, and punched in the numbers that she had since memorized in the days since Sunday. Afterwards, she brought the phone to her ear.

Thomas watched as she waited for several seconds, which soon turned into nearly half a minute, before she looked towards him and shook her head, a slight hint of disappointment on her face.

"Voicemail again?" Thomas asked.

Sayuko nodded. After a few seconds, she spoke into the phone. "Hello. Mr. Cruz? It's me, Sayuko, again. I need to talk with you about something very important. Call me back please? Arigato." She flipped the phone closed and placed it on her nightstand.

"We'll get him," Thomas said. "He's gotta answer his phone soon."

"Yes, but maybe I should have mentioned what Melissa is doing? Maybe that's why he's not calling me back."

"Maybe. I'll mention her next time I call, and if I get his voicemail again."

She pulled her legs up on her bed, and she turned her body towards the front of the room. She then grabbed for something else that was to the side of her. Thomas soon saw her pull out a small container of clear nail polish.

"Nail polish?" Thomas said.

"Yes," she answered. "I wanted my nails to look nice to anyone who's looking." She turned towards Thomas. "Do you want to help me?"

Thomas blushed. "What? No... I mean... I don't think I could be of any help at my size."

Sayuko chuckled. "It's okay. I was kidding." She looked towards her feet. "I'm afraid that I might accidently crush you if you got too close to my feet."

Thomas laughed. "Yeah. I wouldn't like that. I know someone who probably would, though?"

"Really? Who?"

"One of my friends back at Melissa's house. He has a huge foot fetish. He would probably die from joy if you actually let him too close to your feet."

Sayuko giggled. "I've never known anyone like that. He sounds weird."

"Yeah, he is a bit weird. But he's not a bad person. He was one of the few allies I had."

Sayuko blinked. "What do you mean?"

"Well, it seems that my views on things put me at odds with most of the others. They prefered Bruce's way of thinking."

"The guy who didn't rescue my brother?"

"Yeah. There were only four who actually, well, liked me. There was the guy I just talked about. His name is Dawson. Then there's Shawn. He was the one who rescued me from Melissa's closet. Next was Carlos. ...I don't know too much about him, but he seemed like a nice person. Finally, there was Gloria."

Sayuko's eyes widened. "Gloria?"

"It was thanks to her that you found me. We also both found about Melissa's parents and about Bruce's imcompetence." Thomas sighed. "She had to be the distraction for Melissa so you could find me without her finding out. I wonder how she's doing... I wonder how all of them are doing."

Sayuko looked towards her knees for a second, before turning back to him. "Was Gloria your girlfriend?"

"No... Just a friend." Thomas dare not mention the fact that the two had relations the night before Sayuko found him in Melissa's house.

"Oh..."

"Why do you ask?"

"...Just curious." She then twisted the top off of the bottle of nail polish and pulled it off, revealing the small, slender brushed coated with the colorless gooey liquid from inside.

"I see..."

Thomas watched as Sayuko bent her knees, and began to apply the polish on the big toe nail of her right foot.

He began to wonder how the others were doing, the four that he had just mentioned to Sayuko... if they were even still alive. He hoped that they were, but there was no denying the constant danger they were in at the hands of Melissa.

Then, he started to solely think about Gloria. He did not think of her as a possible girlfriend. Not anymore. By now, he seemed to have a bigger bond with Sayuko than he had with Gloria. Also, it was not as if Gloria did not want him to pursue Sayuko if it ever came to it. But the possibility of Gloria being pregnant was ever present. If he and Sayuko were to liberate her, as well as the others, his life would still not be back to the way it was before this all started. Gloria would then become a permanent figure in his life. While he was not ready to become a father yet, he would not turn his back on it. He did not want to end up like so many guests on the daytime talk show Maury.

"From one situation to another..." Thomas muttered to himself.

~~~

"Hey, everyone!!" Bruce called out. "Come over here! I wanna talk to you!"

In a matter of seconds, all of the Refugees in the glass cage had made their way to where he stood at the center of the cage. Lisa and Beatrix had brought the Homeless woman over as well. He had not bothered to learn her name.

"Listen up!" Bruce called out. "There's one thing I forgot to tell you all. Melissa said that, before the actual fight, she would kill all of the Homeless outside of that cage right there. ...Well, it's been done. It's now just us and them!"

"So," Matt said, "you're saying that this battle could happen at any moment now?"

Bruce nodded. "Yep! So, be prepared for that moment! I have a good feeling that it could happen real soon!"

The excitement of the Refugees were reignited, and observing this, Bruce was overcome with satisfaction. He loved that they were anxiously awaiting the moment when they would wipe out the Homeless once and for all. He glanced at the crowd, skimming through the faces of his followers. Despite the noise that told otherwise, he did see a few that seemed a bit apprehensive over the very near battle.

Suddenly, a sudden burst of laugh overtook the fervor of the Refugees. They briefly looked around in confusion, before they looked towards the source of the outburst: the Homeless woman.

"You kids are so funny!" The woman said between laughs.

Matt took a single step towards her direction. "What?! You don't think we can win?!"

"Maybe you're not such an 'ex-Homeless' after all," Lisa said with contempt.

Many of the Refugees voiced their agreement with Lisa's statement.

"No, that's not it," the woman said. "I just love that you all are so pumped up for this fight. I'm looking forward to it myself." She stepped forward, walking towards Bruce. "Personally, I would love the chance of strangling the life out of the guy who usurped my title as 'Homeless leader'."

Bruce blinked as she stopped right in front of him. "You mean that Reeve guy?"

"Yeah. But since you're the leader, I guess it would be more formal for you two to go at it, eh?"

Bruce looked away from her. "I suppose."

"And it's not just him. I have a bone to pick with damn well near all of them! So, as far as you all are concerned, I'm a Refugee!"

This remark was met with a mix of sneering laugher and voiced contempt by the majority of the people in the group.

Bruce was also baffled by this. "You?! A Refugee?!" He laughed. "Get real. You can't become one of us. Ever."

The woman simply smiled. "Not even if I do this?"

She walked into the middle of the surrounding group, lightly shoving Bruce aside. He was particularly annoyed by this, but ultimately let it slide.

She then took a deep breath and shouted, "I, Sheryl Silverman, hereby denounce any affiliations that I have ever had with the Homeless!"

Bruce's mouth dropped, as he could not believe what he just heard. Sure, she called herself an 'ex-Homeless', but for her to go as far as to formally denounce ever been one? He glance around him, and saw that the other Refugees were as shocked as he was.

Sheryl then turned in the direction of the last remaining Homeless cage. "You hear that, you sons-of-bitches?! I'm done with all of you!!"

She then sighed, turned back towards Bruce, and smiled. "There. What now?"

Bruce, dumbfounded, stared at her for a few seconds. "I'll... think about it."

Sheryl nodded. "Good. Now, if you'll excuse me..." She then walked towards the group, and then through it, eventually disappearing from sight.

Bruce folded his arms and chuckled, as Matt walked towards him.

"You're seriously not considering this?" he asked.

"...As long as she thinks she's one of us," Bruce said, "she'll make a great pawn." He then smirked.

~~~

The Homeless had just heard Sheryl's voice from the direction of the Refugee's cage, denouncing her affiliations with them. While some of the Homeless were enraged by this, Reeve was oddly unsurprised.

"Did you hear that?!" a male said in contempt.

"We really did make the right call gettin' rid of her!" said another.

"Sellout!"

"Her parents should be ashamed that they raised a weak girl!"

"They would be ashamed that she ended up on the streets period."

"Whatever! The point is she's a failure!"

"I want to kill her myself!"

"Me too!"

"No! I do!"

Reeve smiled weakly. "Alright, you lot! Let's get back to our training!!"

A mass groaning filled the air.

"Oh, come on!" Reeve exclaimed. "If we want to beat them, it's necessary!"

"But we've been exercising for probably hours now!" said a woman in the front row, who was sitting on the glass floor.

"We've been doing it for so long, I would be surprised that it was days!" said a man further back.

"I'm thirsty!" said another man, which was met with agreement by several others.

Reeve sighed. "Fine. Take a break. But don't go too far! I'm going to start this up again in a few!"

He watched as the group began to dissipate in different directions. He then sighed and turned around, walked to the wall behind him, rested his back against it and slid down to the floor.

"Heh..." He shook his head. "I'm kinda beat myself. ...But when we beat those Refugee bastards, it'll all be worth it. Oh yes, it will..." In a matter of seconds, he had dozed off.

~~~

Thomas watched as Sayuko twisted the cap back onto the bottle of nail polish, before placing it next to her cell phone on her nightstand. She looked at her feet as she wiggled her toes. "What do you think, Thoma-kun?"

Thomas squinted his eyes and looked closely at them. "I think they look nice, Sayu-chan."

Sayuko quickly turned towards Thomas. "What did you call me?"

Thomas flinched. "I didn't say anything wrong, did I?"

She shook her head. "No... I just didn't properly catch that."

"Oh... I call you 'Sayu-chan'." He got a bit of a worried tone on his face. "You don't have a problem with that, do you?"

She smiled. "No... I think it's kind of cute. Like my nickname for you."

Thomas blushed. "That's the idea."

Sayuko then looked towards the ceiling. She seemed to have a bit of a nostalgic expression on her face. "Actually, it reminds me of when I was growing up in Japan. My parents and Taro would call me that. As did the few friends that I had."

"Oh..." Thomas sighed. "Well, I guess I should forget about the '-chan' suffix and just call you 'Sayu.' But Melissa calls you that, so..."

She turned back to Thomas. "Don't worry about Melissa. She's not important."

"Okay..."

"So... What will your nickname be? From you, I'll accept either one."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Okay..." Thomas pondered over both options in his head. He liked both of them, so he could not come to a fast conclusion. However, after several seconds, his mind was made up. "Got it!"

"What is it?" Sayuko looked expectantly at him.

Thomas stood up, and looked at her face with a smile on his. "Your nickname will be..."