The Dangers of Daring Officer Dolly

 Chapter 25. Mazes and Monsters

by Skytower

Simone Stronghollow stood and listened with her mind, her heart and her ears.

In her mind she could hear The Group; the four amazing people whose science bordered on sorcery. They were telling her that Merry, her sole source of help, would be at least two hours in coming. They were telling her that Lizzie, a young woman who just that day Simone had named a Knight of Dollopolis, was being made to run a maze by a sociopathic behavioral psychiatrist. A maze that held traps in it that might kill her.

Her heart was telling Simone that Lizzie should get Merry's help first.

Her ears were listening to Brent Obrien, the man in the cage with her and Jessie. The man who in less than five minutes would be forced to make love to Simone or Jessie or both. The bars on the cage they were all in weren't made of iron. They were made of aluminum, but since everyone in the cage was roughly twelve inches tall they might just have well have been. That they were all naked didn't help at all.

"Jessie." Simone said quietly. Jessie took a few steps over to her and Simone put her arm around the young woman and drew her aside. Brent Obrien stood next to his pregnant wife. They took the hint and left Simone and Jessie alone.

"Right dear, here is the situation." Simone said. "Merry can't get here for at least two hours, we aren't in Boston anymore, were near Lake Winnipesaukee, in New Hampshire. Actually we're on an island in the middle of the lake. Lizzie is in Maine, believe it or not on another island in the middle of another lake."

"Is she ok Milady?" Jessie asked.

"So far." Simone said. Jessie and Lizzie were twins and about as close as any two sisters could ever get. "She's with a shrunken Ms. Dream and Professor Margaret is making them run a maze, a maze that includes a homicidal pixie. I can send Merry to her, or I can tell her to come to us first."

"Tell her get to Lizzie first Milady."

"Oh my Dear!" Simone whispered. She pulled Jessie into a very tight hug. "Lizzie is saying that we should be rescued first." Simone said after she let Jessie go.

"Milady all we have to, all I have to do," Jessie said stressing the personal identifier, "is let that guy lay me. Me and Lizzie have done it with guys since we were fifteen. We've done it for food, we've done it for a place to stay when Dad was drunk… We did it once to get into a movie! Look at him milady; he's a wreck. It'll take me an hour just to get him hard. Rescue Lizzie first milady."

She had a point. Brent was in good shape, with a well toned body topped with deep brown hair, but he was also shaking with impotent rage and fear. Simone knew that a lot of sex was mental. Still not all of it was. Brent was a man, as long as he was physically fit he could become aroused.

"You're forgetting something Jessie." Simone said. She glanced at Daisy and Jessie followed her glance. Daisy Obrien was pregnant. She and her husband had been shrunk by Professor Forsythe and forced to make love. The pregnancy was killing the woman. Her skin was gray and she was barely strong enough to stand.

"You remember why the Giant's told you and Lizzie you can't grow back to full size?"

"Our bodies were to damaged by all the drugs and junk we took." Jessie said.

"Right. Daisy is a healthy woman and she can't handle a pregnancy at this size. It would kill you."

"But the Giants could cure me milady." Jessie insisted.

"There's no guarantee of that." Simone said. "There's also no way to know whether or not Lizzie will be seriously hurt in the maze either."

Jessie looked at Brent, Daisy and then back to Simone.

"What do we do milady?"

Simone closed her eyes for a moment. Then she opened them again.

"Send Merry to rescue Lizzie and Ms. Dream." Simone said. "Jessie and I will take our chances."

{Brave.}

{We expected no less.}

{Lizzie is protesting.}

"I am the Duchess of Dollopolis." Simone said. "She is my Knight. Tell her that is my decision."

{Appropriately regal.}

Jessie looked up at her and Simone knew that Jessie had heard the Group in her mind. The mental communication was like a song playing in your mind, your thoughts and yet not your thoughts.

"Ok then." Jessie said turning toward Brent and Daisy.

"Not you dear." Simone said. "Me first."

"No!" Jessie hissed and then added a second later "Milady."

"Jessie…"

"Milady I'm your second Knight!" Jessie said and a hard set expression grew on her face. "A Knight protects royalty, that's what they did in all the movies, let me at this guy, I can keep him going for hours and his cock won't get near my pussy!"

"You are not more sexually sophisticated than I am." Simone said.

"Milady please!" Jessie said. "I've been horny for a while anyway… that's why I've been after Snowbelle. You said I was your Knight, your Second Knight… you weren't just talking were you? It wasn't just to get me over getting sent on a mission was it?"

Essentially that had been Simone's first reason. Lizzie and Jessie were so scared about leaving the duchy that Simone had decided while they were in Thunderbird 2 to name them Knights of Dollopolis. It had been a whim that seemed right at the time and one Simone had planned on expanding on later.

And now 'Later' had abruptly come. But if she didn't allow Jessie's nascent feelings of loyalty and sacrifice to play themselves out Simone realized that those feelings might be crushed. But if she let Jessie play the role that Jessie thought she had to play then Jessie could end up pregnant. And perhaps dead.

For the first time Simone realized that a crown could weigh far more than the metal and jewels that composed its parts. And she also realized how dangerous it was for the person wearing that crown to make decisions based on whims. All of this went through her mind in only a few seconds. She looked into Jessie's hazel eyes and saw the same spark she saw in Merry's blue ones. In Merry it had always been there.

"Jessie Brihallow." Simone said with as much ceremony in her voice as she could force into it, as if she could will the strength of her voice into the young woman in front of her. "Second Knight of Dollopolis; you will take him first." Simone kissed her forehead.

"I'll squeeze him like a sponge milady." Jessie said smiling fiercely. "I'll make him drier than a desert!"

"Don't kill him." Simone said with forced humor. "Just make love to him."

Lizzie wanted to shout but the drug that had been forced down her throat kept her quiet. She stood at the entrance to the maze and punched her fist against the doorway. The action drew a surprised look from Ms. Dream.

I can handle a dumb maze, Lizzie thought. But if Jessie gets pregnant she could die!

{We can understand your frustration.}

{But this is a direct order from Duchess Simone.}

{You are her third knight.}

{She expects you to do her proud.}

Right, Lizzie thought. I'll do what Merry'd do; I'll find a way to escape!

Lizzie felt a tap on her shoulder and looked up to see Ms. Dream looking at her. Ms. Dream's hands moved in strange gestures.

{She is trying sign language out.}

{You do not know that.}

{It is best if you convey that to her somehow.}

{We do not know what Professor Margaret will come up with if you two are able to communicate right away.}

Lizzie shrugged her shoulders. Part of making her and Ms. Dream run through the maze was Professor Margaret's desire that they come up with a common language.

Ms. Dream threw up her arms in frustration and then looked through the doorway. Lizzie looked over her shoulder and suddenly felt a sharp sting on her butte. The impact of the spank pushed Lizzie and Ms. Dream through the open doorway and Professor Margaret slammed a barred door behind them. Lizzie was slow to get off of her and Ms. Dream shoved her aside and leapt to her feet.

"Don't dally in the doorway." Professor Margaret said. "You only have a few hours after all."

The fierce look on Ms. Dream's face puzzled Lizzie. The one thing she had learned from dealing with The Giant's was that if you were mad-and especially if you were mad at them-you didn't show it. And that was with good giants, (Well, at least her giants were better than this giant).

Ms. Dream looked at her and Lizzie looked back. Ms. Dream was a little taller than she was, and a lot bustier. Now that she could see the woman up close Lizzie saw a slim woman with breasts that were too large for her body. She had the same tight-skin-on-muscle look that Merry had, but Ms. Dream had none of Merry's volume. There were scars on her legs and stomach, not big but there and irregularly shaped. Her face was round and sort of flat. Ms. Dreams eyes were a dull hazel and her ears were a little too big for her head. Her hair was white and cut short. Between her large breasts was a tatoo. The words 'Lady Goth' were written in black with a red heart surrounding them. Lizzie could see that Ms. Dream's bright red nipples had been pierced. She had no pubic hair, but where it would have been was a tattoo of a combination padlock. She was hardly the exotic beauty that Lizzie had seen pictures of.

{So this is Ms. Dream without her powers.}

{No wonder no one ever recognizes her.}

{Her normal appearance is a good disguise.}

{It is a good thing she can not use her powers when shrunk.}

Ms. Dream looked quizzically at Lizzie and then blushed and folded her arms. Lizzie shrugged, not caring about her own nudity. Lizzie's body was as slim as Ms. Dream's was and there were no scars on her. Her muscles didn't show up against her skin either, but Lizzie knew how strong she was. Months of working in Dollopolis had given Lizzie a set of lean muscles. Her face was thin and her dark hair was cut as short as Ms. Dreams. Lizzie had the same bright red nipples on her breasts but Lizzie had a good patch of black hair between her legs.

Shrugging her shoulders Ms. Dream let her arms drop and then turned left and motioned Lizzie to follow her.

Lizzie looked around. The maze was made up of plywood painted with a pale blue over a white base. She could see the streaks and a few hairs left by the brush. Lizzie tapped on the wall in front of her. It was hollow. The walls weren't thick. The white floor under her feet felt smooth and cool. Lizzie stamped once and didn't feel any give. The maze wasn't built into the table it was just built on top of it. She looked right; the direction Ms. Dream had headed off in. In that direction the corridor they were in stretched about ten feet. Lizzie could see five doorways. She turned around and looked in the other direction. In that direction there were three doorways and the corridor only ran about eight feet. Every few feet on the walls were small camera lenses.

{We saw enough of the maze when she held you above it.}

{We could direct you but this would puzzle Professor Margaret.}

{We will let you know if you are heading into obvious danger.}

{Other than that trust your own instincts, as a Knight of Dollopolis should.}

{We believe you are ready for this}

Lizzie blinked in surprise. It was one thing for Simone to tell her to behave as a knight; it was another thing for the Giants to tell her to behave that way. Since they had captured her and her sister the Giant's had made it clear that Lizzie and Jessie were bugs, or at best lab rats. 'Inconsequential gnats' was how it had been put.

But that had been at least a year ago. Suddenly Lizzie felt her world shift. The shift was so sudden and violent that she almost fell down. It wasn't anything physical, it was the sudden realization that she might not be just a lab rat anymore. That after all this time things might have changed. That she might have earned her way to something better.

In a rare instant of insight that nearly knocked her out Lizzie realized that all of the past few months in Dollopolis, all of the work Simone had made her and her sister do hadn't been aimless work. It had been lessons. It was like some of those old Ku-fu movies that she and Jessie liked, where the young kid realized that the old monk had been telling him to do things for a reason.

Me and Jess can be Knights! Lizzie thought. Just like Merry! We don't have to just build stuff! We're not going to be lowest on the totem pole anymore!

The thoughts that filled Lizzie's head were enough to make her take flight. She felt at that moment as if there was nothing she couldn't do. She would get out of the maze, and she'd do it in a way that was so impressive that Simone would reward her! A world opened up for Lizzie. A world where she and her sister were respected, a world where they weren't the daughters of a drunk or little dolls for the Giants' to order around or play with.

Lizzie was lost in her fantasies when Ms. Dream tapped her on the shoulder. Shaken out of her imaginings Lizzie looked up. Ms. Dream had an impatient look on her face. She pointed at Lizzie, then herself and then down toward the longer side of the corridor.

The hell with you, Lizzie thought. She pointed in the other direction.

Ms. Dream looked at her in surprise.

Lizzie pointed toward the shorter end again.

Knights of Dollopolis don't follow we lead, Lizzie thought. She stamped her foot and pointed again.

Ms. Dream lifted her arms in puzzlement. She pointed one way and then another and then looked at Lizzie. The question was obvious.

Because I said so, Lizzie wanted to shout. The phrase had filled her life for as long as Lizzie could remember. For the first time she tasted the power behind it. It was a cold ice cream on a hot day to Lizzie. She turned and walked in the direction chosen.

Ms. Dream grabbed her shoulder and threw up her hands in a gesture that demanded answers.

Lizzie folded her arms across her chest and stared defiantly at the other shrunken woman.

Mary Ellen Macquire had been a superheroine for nearly ten years. She had never really thought she could become one. For one thing she had never had any powers or the force of will to develop her body and mind to the point where she could become a non-powered heroine. There was never an overwhelming need for her to do anything but enjoy herself. Mary had spent most of her young life pursing a good party. She had been an art student with a semi-regular job drawing underground comics when her roommate, needing money for drugs, knocked Mary out as she slept and sold her to Mr. Sleep. Mr. Sleep was a supervillain, a fiend who believed that a person who was asleep could, with the right modifications, have access to great power. With Mary he succeeded in giving her that power and enslaving her. Only Lucy Rothschild-Goddess of Justice's-wisdom had saved Mary from being Mr. Sleep's life long slave. It was Lucy who had brought Mary into the superhero community. She had taken Mary under her wing, helped her through her first few years. Mary admitted quite freely that without Goddess of Justice there would be no Ms. Dream. The woman became both a mother and a sister to her.

In all the time she had known Lucy Mary had never seen her disheartened. She could be sad, hurt and sometimes even miserable but the moods never lasted long. Inevitably Lucy would pick herself up, accept whatever was going wrong in her life and try to fix it. But that had been before her capture by Count Intellect. From that encounter Lucy had picked up another young person to look after. She had also been raped and impregnated by a werewolf. Lucy didn't talk much about what had happened. She was uncharacteristically vague on the details of her escape and the death of Duchess Sidonia. Mary was sure the Lucy was holding something back. What she was holding back stunned everyone.

It was during the height of the Nephilim affair. Force Group J had been shattered by betrayal from within and without. Half of the force was trapped in another dimension. Teen Force had been captured and Lucy had been separated from the body of Goddess of Justice. The group was at their lowest point in years when Lucy came up with a plan. A plan that involved her doing something that Mary had never known her to do. For the plan to have a chance of working Lucy had to break her word. She told them all about an un-named woman. Mystery Woman. This woman could shrink herself down to doll size and smaller. It was Mystery Woman who had made it possible for Lucy to escape from Count Intellect. In return Mystery Woman had demanded that Lucy never tell anyone of her existence. For Lucy's desperate plan to work they needed to find Mystery Woman.

The trouble was Mystery Woman did not want to be found. Mary had searched the worlds sleeping population, drifting from dream to dream. Everytime Mary felt as if she were getting close to Mystery Woman a nightmare had sprung up to block her. In desperation Lucy had given the plant sorceress Green Dream a strand of Mystery Woman's hair salvaged from Count Intellect's castle. It had worked. But the woman that Green Dream had dragged through a plant in a complex and dangerous teleportation spell was not a happy one. She was infuriated that Lucy had broken her word and contemptuous of Force Group J itself. Never the less Mystery Woman had agreed to help. But the conditions of her help were that no one was to read her mind, no one was to ask who she was and where she came from and no one was ever to search for her again. It was agreed and the battle with the Nephilim was joined.

Mary felt a stab of guilt as she remembered. The plans of Force Group J failed miserably. If it had not been for Mystery Woman's sacrifice and desperate tactics most of them would have died. After the battle Mystery Woman lay unconscious. Lucy had ordered Mary to read the woman's mind, find out only a name and where she came from. Mary had been willing enough to do it. After the betrayals they had just been through it seemed the right thing to do. She had barely begun when Mystery Woman had woken up. The brief flash Mary had gotten from the woman's mind had been filled with rage and fury at the betrayal. And beyond that had been a bitterness and disappointment that struck at Mary's heart. Mystery Woman had broken Mary's arm and threatened to tear out her eye. Mary knew that Lucy had realized what they had nearly done, it was why she struck down Captain Pharaoh and allowed Mystery Woman to leave. She left in a craft flown by a woman who called herself the Duchess of Dollopolis. She had called Mystery Woman the First Knight of Dollopolis.

When Captain Pharaoh woke up the arguments started. They got worse after the truth about the Earth Intelligence Agency came out, and Captain Pharaoh's own double life as part of the E.I.A.

Part of the sins of the Earth Intelligence Agency had been using Lucy's confidential reports-reports Lucy had made sure that only those in the highest security levels and purest motives could see-against the very superheroes Lucy allied herself with. A number of those heroes had been captured and some tortured; used by the E.I.A. Ms. Dream had helped Lucy raid the camp where they were being held. The conditions under which the heroes and heroines were held were brutal, merciless. All of them knew that it had been Goddess of Justice who had unknowingly betrayed their weaknesses. After their liberation a few had forgiven her. Many had not.

Lucy had always enjoyed a certain status among the superhero community. She was an international hero, known to help newcomers. But the words that had been thrown in her face after Camp 04 had been liberated had been full of detestation. She had stood it all unflinching, accepting it as her due for being tricked. But Mary could tell that Lucy was suffering as much from the consequences of her actions as the ones who had been tortured.

But that wasn't the end of it. Captain Pharaoh, the only superhero with more of a reputation than Goddess of Justice had demanded that Lucy toe the line. He had called a full meeting of Force Group J and Teen Force and demanded an answer.

Who was Mystery Woman?

It was a simple question but no one could answer it. No one, not even Ms. Dream who had briefly touched the woman's mind. They knew only that Mystery Woman was the First Knight of a place called Dollopolis. That she traveled in model ships that looked like children's toys. And that she was very, very gifted at combat.

But Lucy hadn't even tried to answer his questions. Instead she demanded answers to her own questions.

Why had Captain Pharoah helped the E.I.A. capture the heroes in Camp 04? By what right did he break the terms of the United Nations Charter that allowed Force Group J to even exist?

The meeting had started off with everyone shouting at each other and ended with Lucy vowing that if the members of Force Group J couldn't themselves live up to the ideals that originally formed the group, then she was no longer a part of Force Group J. She had stood up and announced that any that wished to join her in a new group were free to do so. Ms. Dream had been the first to stand up.

And Lucy had done it. Nine months pregnant by way of a vicious rape by a werewolf, heartsick because of the breakup of her marriage, tortured by the knowledge of her un-witting betrayal to other heroes; Lucy had still managed to pull it together. She had called in favors, politicked in a way that astounded everyone who knew her and tapped deeply into her own family fortune. Even now Mary wasn't sure how Lucy had done it. The President of the United States had been dead set against it at first, but somehow Earth Force had been formed. Senators and congressmen broke rank with their own parties to back the formation.

And even while she was doing all of this, and helping her daughter cope with all of the pain in their lives, Lucy still wanted to find Mystery Woman. The guilt of what had happened and nearly happened to the First Knight of Dollopolis ate at Lucy. In private she told Mary that the sacrifices that Mystery Woman had made, and why she had to make them, shamed the concept of what Goddess of Justice was. She was haunted by her actions both before and after the Nephilim affair.

"I dragged that woman out of her life and into my troubles." Lucy told Mary late one night. "She might have lost her life, her soul, she did loose an arm. What right did I have to do that to her? What price did she pay to save our world? I have to talk to her Mary, I have to beg her forgiveness!"

Mary understood. It was the same honor that had forced Lucy to stand and take the abuse after the liberation of Camp 04. It was also a shame that Mary felt though not as intensely.

But they couldn't find Mystery Woman. Or Dollopolis. Ms. Dream could not find her in the dreams of the people of the planet, the Young Ancient could not find Dollopolis mentioned in any tomb from any age. Worse above all was the refusal of the Goddess Athena-the source of Lucy's power as Goddess of Justice-to help. Lucy had prayed for nearly a day at the alter and been rebuffed by an angry image of Athena and a lightning bolt. The trauma of that had triggered a premature delivery of Lucy's children. Twin girl werewolves were born after a daylong ordeal. Lucy had been too exhausted after that to do much of anything.

But Prudence Rothschild was as stubborn as her mother. Vowing to find Mystery Woman and relieve her mother's guilt Prudence had taken up the search for Mystery Woman.

The search continued and continued to fail. It moved from Mystery Woman and Dollopolis to shrunken women in general. To a shrunken underworld run by International Crime Enterprises that bought and sold shrinking potions and shrunken people. That search led Mary and Prudence to the ICE auction of shrunken women. It led to Ms. Dream's capture and shrinking at the hands of Professor Margaret.

And finally it led to Mary standing in a maze facing a puzzle of her own. The young woman in front of her had been docile all through Professor Margaret's examination. She had not protested when radioactive liquid had been forced into her ass and a voice-deadening drug had been forced down her throat. But she now took on a defiant air when Mary wanted to go one way in the maze and the young woman wanted to go another way.

Mary raised her arms in a question again. Why did the young woman want to go toward the shorter end of the maze?

The young woman looked at her, jerked her thumb over her shoulder and then turned and walked that way.

Mary grabbed her shoulder and spun her around. There were supposed to be traps in the maze, how come the girl suddenly thought she knew where to go?

The girl swung around and shoved Mary. Then she tackled Mary around her stomach and they both fell to the floor. The girl managed to get on top of her. Sitting up she pointed to herself and then held up three fingers. Then she stood up and held out her hand.

I don't think so, Mary thought. With a deft move she swept the girl's legs out from under her. The girl rolled away and then got up and charged. Mary moved to meet the charge. The girl grabbed her stomach and they both fell to the floor. She wasn't a trained fighter, Mary could tell that. But what she lacked in skill she made up for with enthusiasm and street smarts. With Mary down the girl drove her head into Mary's stomach and then grabbed wildly for Mary's arms. Mary ignored her arms and grabbed for the girl's throat. She managed to get a quick grip there but the girl punched her in the face a few times. Deciding that being gentle wasn't working Mary drove her knee up into the girl's stomach. The girl grunted and fell back a bit and Mary rolled on top of her. Tangling their legs together Mary struck out with her hands, finding the sensitive spots on the girl's neck. The girl grunted in surprise and pain and fell limp. After a few moments of twitching her body lay still and her eyes closed.

Mary stood up and stumbled back a few steps. Sitting on the floor with her back against the wall Mary waited. After a few minutes the girl's eyes fluttered open and she sat up. Mary desperately wished her powers were still with her. The look in the girl's eyes was one of pain, confusion and more. She started to cry but then wiped the tears off of her face angrily. Retreating to the other wall the girl sat down and stared coldly at Mary. Mary held up her hands in a gesture of peace and then pointed one way and then another. Then she looked at the girl.

For a few minutes the girl didn't do anything. Then she crawled on her hands and knees over to Mary. She sat down and crossed her legs. Then she reached up and plucked a hair from her head. Mary watched puzzled as the girl kept pulling strands of hair from her head. After a number of them were in her hand the girl put them onto the floor. Then she reached between her legs and yanked out a pubic hair. Mary watched as the girl formed letters with the strands of hair, using the pubic hair as a period.

"SHORTER BETTER."

Mary read the words and then reached down and arranged the hairs to form her question.

"WHY."

The girl looked at her and then sighed. She pulled out another pubic hair and spelled out:"WHY NOT?" using the two pubic hairs to form a crude question mark.

That seemed reasonable. At least as reasonable as things were going to get unless they pulled out more hairs. Mary nodded. The girl started to get up but Mary held her back. She took the hairs and spell out another word.

"WHO?"

Mary pointed at the girl.

The girl looked indecisive for a few moments and then she reached down and arranged the hairs to form another word. She had to pull out a few more hairs to finish and even then stopped before the last word was done.

"3 Knight Dol."

Mary's heart skipped a beat for a moment. She reached down and started to spell out the word "Dollopolis" but quickly ran out of hairs. Ignoring the pain Mary pulled out strands of hair from her head.

"DOLLOPOLIS?"

The girl nodded and for the first time in weeks Mary felt a surge of hope. She pulled a few more hairs out of her head and put them in front of the word Dollopolis.

"MW?"

Mary looked up and tried to will her questions into the girl's mind. Nothing happened. The slight buzz in the back of her head that normally filled all of Mary's waking moments was dead. But after a moment the girl seemed to understand. Reaching down she arranged the hairs again.

"LATER."

Mary sat back. If she was right that meant that this girl was from Dollopolis, and Mystery Woman, the first knight of that place, was coming after her later. If that was the case then it was possible everything she had gone through so far would be worth it.

The girl gathered the hairs into her hand and stood up. She offered Mary her other hand and Mary took it. Together they set off toward the shorter end of the corridor.

The cage was big enough for all of them and more. It struck Simone that this was the first time she had ever been in a cage. She had been in jail once after a wild party. But this was different. A jail was jail after all. A place made for humans to hold other humans. A cage was different. This cage was different. This cage was meant for an animal. It was made for the superior to hold the inferior. There was no attempt to disguise that. The smells of other animals that had been held in the cage forced their way through the cedar shavings. Smells of fear, despair and pain. In the cage were a few wooden blocks half buried in the cedar and a round exercise wheel. Simone looked at the wheel and pictured herself running on it. And there were more cages in sight. In her minds eye Simone saw those cages filled with shrunken women. Un-educated, un-clothed. At best pets, at worst test animals for cosmetics and drugs. The image filled her with rage but as there was no way for her to get out of the cage there was nothing she could do about it.

"Not you!" Brent shouted. Jessie had gone over to him and explained. "Hell I'm not even sure it's legal, what are you sixteen? Fifteen?"

That was something that Simone hadn't even thought off. She was used to thinking of Jessie and Lizzie as adults, forgetting that they were still teenagers. Suddenly Simone realized that she didn't know how old they were, that she had never bothered to ask. Cursing herself Simone walked over to where Jessie was standing in front of Brent and his wife Daisy. Daisy was looking worse. She lay back on the exercise wheel and despite her brave face Simone could tell that the situation was tearing her apart. The fact that they were all naked didn't help. Simone couldn't imagine how she would feel if a nubile young woman was offering her body to someone she loved.

"Brent she is older than she looks." Simone said. She put her hand on Jessie's shoulder.

"I don't want to do either of you." Brent said. "But she's just a kid!"

"She is my second knight." Simone said. It amazed her how calm her voice was. "It is her choice and her duty."

"Look it's just stalling." Jessie said. "You ain't going in the front door, you ain't going in the back door, maybe you'll get up to the second floor, but you won't make it in too far. I'll make it look good."

Before any of them could say anything else the door to the laboratory opened. Professor Artimous Forsythe walked in. He was dressed in a formal dinner jacket and carried a silver tray. On the tray were gold dishes covered with silver and a bottle of wine. Simone hadn't been ready for the sight of the man when she was still small. The force of her helplessness struck her nearly as a physical blow. Even if she were to get out of the cage and grow to full size, the sheer bulk of him would be hard to fight. He set the tray down on the table and sat down. His face was large and round, with deep set brown eyes and heavy jowls. His black hair was thinning slightly but the goatee he wore was thick and black. When he opened his mouth Simone saw flawless white teeth.

"Good evening." Professor Forsythe said. He sat down and stuffed a handkerchief into his collar. "I trust Brent has informed you as to your situation."

"He has." Simone said.

"Good." Professor Forsythe took a slim laser pointer out of his pocket and set it onto the table. "Before he begins I require some answers from the two of you. Your names will do for a start."

"I'm Simone and this is Jessie." Simone said.

"And how were you shrunk?"

{Simone, Merry suggest that you say you were working for the Thief, he shrunk you to help you with his work.}

"We work with the Thief." Simone said. "At this size we're good at getting around alarm systems."

"Novel concept." Professor Forsythe said. "Then the girl's twin also worked for him? And if I were to call Professor Margaret and she were to ask the same question she would get the same answer?"

"Yes you would." Simone said. "Are you telling me that her sister is alive?"

"Yes." Professor Forsythe opened a bottle of wine, Simone could tell that it was expensive wine from the label, and poured some into a glass. "There were four of you, an even split seemed fair considering we were both armed and the police were in the neighborhood."

"Who was the other one?" Jessie asked.

"The superheroine Ms. Dream." Professor Forsythe laughed. "I expect my colleague has chosen her own doom. This new supergroup Earth Force has been tearing Boston apart to find Ms. Dream and Terrific Titania."

"I've never heard of her." Simone said.

"Some new heroine." Professor Forsythe said dismissively. "Tarts in costumes I call them."

"What happened to the Thief?" Simone asked.

"Dead or captured." The professor said shrugging. "I don't really know. If you prove infertile I shall sell you back to him."

He uncovered one of the dishes and the aroma of Beef Wellington filled the room. Amazingly Simone found that she was hungry. She ignored the hunger.

"Now, you know what I wish done. If you have any objections do not bother with them. Brent has told you what I shall do if you do not obey. I have proven it with two girls already."

"And you are just going to sit there and watch." Simone said. If a voice could have killed with coldness hers would have done so at that instant.

"Yes." Professor Forsythe said. He picked up a knife and fork. "Begin."

"Can't we have a mat or something in here?" Jessie pleaded.

"Such things are for people, not lab animals."

Jessie sighed and took hold of Brent's hand. She tugged him away from his wife. Daisy was crying and Simone moved over to her and took her hand.

"I hope you're not expecting this to go fast." Jessie called.

"Take as long as you like." Professor Forsythe said. "So long as he achieves penetration before the night is done. Mutual climaxes are preferable."

Daisy started crying and by the set of Brent's shoulders Simone could tell he was holding back from doing the same. Simone sat down next to Daisy and hugged her.

"I swear to you" Simone whispered "he will pay for this."

As Jessie started to kiss her husband Daisy buried her face into Simone's shoulder.

The storm drain was old and crumbling in some spots. That suited Merry perfectly. She was able to find hand and foot holds in the crumbling mortar between the decaying bricks. She needed more secure handholds because of the dead weight of Lady Goth. The villainess hung from Merry's body by a set of sneaker laces. It would have been harder if not for the special suit and helmet Merry wore. The suit was actually an artificial skin that protected her fingers and toes from the rough stone. It also protected her breasts as she had to hug the stone at times to pull herself up. Normally if she were rock climbing Merry would have worn a tight jog-bra, but the suit she wore held her breasts firm and upright, exactly the wrong position for climbing. The helmet kept Merry from smelling the sewer she was in.

"How are they doing?" Merry asked. It seemed like hours since The Group had spoken to her but Merry knew it had barely been five minutes. She was barely half way up the side of the wall. It would take her at least another hour to reach the storm grate.

{Better than we expected.}

{We guessed that Jessie would have no trouble with the sex.}

{But she is not enjoying it as much as we thought she would. In truth we do not think she is enjoying it at all.}

{Considering how unfulfilled she has been in the past few months we expected her to tear into the man.}

{But not only is he having trouble becoming aroused, Jessie is stumbling through things that we would have thought her very proficient at.}

"Rape is rape." Merry said bitterly. "You take what's beautiful and turn it into torture. Old saying they used to have in vice, even a whore can be raped."

{What a brutal world this is.}

{For now.}

{We must prepare some special punishments for the two professors.}

"What about Lizzie?"

{Lizzie is proving to be courageous and steadfast.}

{They both are really.}

{A large difference from the last time we sent them on a mission.}

"I'm not surprised." Merry grunted. It had started to rain again and dirty water dripped onto her.

{We are.}

{Why aren't you?}

"Because they're knights now." Merry said.

{Elaborate.}

{Dollopolis is a false state created by us.}

{A mere holding and training center.}

{The rest is a creation of yours and Simone's imagination.}

"It started out as a holding place." Merry said. "But that stopped when you changed it to a monarchy. You started Lizzie and Jessie calling Simone 'my lady' and gave her a castle. For those two it’s the first time in their lives that they've been in that situation."

{What situation?}

"Being a part of something." Merry paused for a minute to rest. "Why do you think kids join street gangs? If you got a lousy family life you need something better, you search for it, even if you don't know your searching for it. So Jessie and Lizzie go from being street kids to lab rats, to workers in Dollopolis to knights. They probably never expected to be anything at all in life."

Merry started to climb again.

"You gave them a few months work in the desert to get them in shape, get them used to hard work, then you put the fear of god into them, but as long as they obeyed the rules they didn't have to worry about the next meal or getting raped or beat up. You don't know what that's like. Then you put Simone into their lives, and she's about as motherly as you can get."

{She named them knights, and in truth named you a knight without any idea what a knight was."

{Her motives with you were to confuse Force Group J.}

{Her motives with Lizzie and Jessie were to calm their nerves for this mission.}

{In both cases the awards were arbitrary and meaningless.}

"Not to Lizzie or Jessie." Merry said. "They love her, she's the mother they never had and Dollopolis is the home they never had. Now they are Knights of Dolloplis, with a capitol K. It's the same thing with anybody who joins a club. You're not standing alone anymore, your part of something bigger. You fight a marine and he'll tell you that you aren't just fighting him as a man, you're fighting him as a Marine. You tap into that collective ego and it can give you a boost."

{Interesting concept.}

{It explains much.}

{We should build on this.}

{The feudal model is serving us well.}

Merry pulled herself onto a ledge created by a jutting brick and looked down. Lady Goth, wrapped tightly by the laces, dangled limply bellow her. The villainess was still unconscious. Merry breathed deeply for a few minutes.

{Your insight into the primitive mind is helpful.}

{But the picture is not complete.}

"What do you mean?"

{You are unaffected by your title.}

{You were an accomplished operative without it.}

{Why do they need this collective ego and you do not?}

Merry took a deep breath and started to climb. It was a few minutes before she could talk.

"Because I've had it and it hurt." Merry said. She went on quickly, knowing that only the full truth would satisfy them. "When I first became a cop, that first day I wore the uniform I felt it. I loved it. I wasn't just Merry McCormick anymore, I was Police Officer McCormick. I was THE LAW!" Merry forced back the tears that threatened to come, her helmet made wiping them from her eyes impossible. "Even when I knew there were crooked cops around me I still felt it. Then one of them trapped me, raped me, framed me. No one helped, no one cared. That hurt. That hurt a lot."

{So you retreated into yourself and we found you.}

{And you have been loyal to us since we took you.}

{Out of fear or love?}

{Perhaps both?}

"First fear then love." Merry said. "You've put me through hell, but I've met Simone because of you. I've met someone I can… I can love. I've seen what you can do, what you have done just in the state. The world needs you."

{So we have replaced the police force?}

"No." Merry said. "Maybe, I guess. I don't think about it that much. You need me, I'm there."

{A fascinating, if incomplete structure is beginning to emerge.}

{We must think on this.}

{In the meantime keep climbing.}

{We shall keep giving you updates.}

Merry grunted and kept climbing. She tried to shove the conversation to the back of her mind but failed. Was she really so insecure that she needed the Group or Simone to give her life meaning? The question echoed in Merry's mind with no answer coming back to her.

The floor opened up beneath them and only Lizzie's instinctive reaction of grabbing the edge saved her and Ms. Dream from falling into a pit. Lizzie would have screamed if she could have. It felt like her arms had been pulled from their sockets. Her left arm was holding onto the edge of the trap door and Ms. Dream was holding onto her right arm. All she managed was a gasp and a squeak. Bellow her Ms. Dream slipped a bit but then seized Lizzie's wrist with both hands.

This was where the months of work in Dollopolis came in handy. Lizzie and Jessie had used hand tools for all of the woodwork and because of that she had a good grip. But it was a grip that was slowly failing as Ms. Dream's weight pulled them down. Lizzie tried to lift herself up with one arm and failed.

Merry would be able to do it, Lizzie thought bitterly.

She willed her arm to move but it wouldn't. After a few tries she stopped willing it to move and willed it not to slip. A chime sounded bellow her and Lizzie looked down to see a light come on. Dozens of upright needles gleamed in the light. Ms. Dream saw them too and Lizzie was grateful to see fear in the heroine's eyes. If a superheroine could be scared then so could Lizzie.

But that shared feeling didn't solve the problem. Lizzie couldn't lift herself up by one arm and Ms. Dream couldn't let go of her other arm because there was nothing else to hold onto.

Or was there?

Lizzie kicked out, nearly hitting Ms. Dream in the head. The heroine looked at her in surprise and anger, tightening her grip on Lizzie's hand. Lizzie shook her head and this time moved her leg more slowly. She tapped Ms. Dream on the nose with her toes and then shook her leg.

Ms. Dream's eyes widened and then she nodded. She let go of Lizzie's hand and grabbed her leg instead.

They both nearly fell as Lizzie's left hand failed but her right hand shot up and grabbed the edge of the trap door just in time. Ms. Dream had gripped Lizzie's leg just above the knee and her fingers dug painfully into Lizzie's leg.

Lizzie tried to ignore the pain and brought her left hand up again. With both hands on the edge of the doorway she managed to pull herself up to her elbows and used her breasts to brace her body while she got her arms into a position to lift her up higher. Then Lizzie pulled herself up and rested on her stomach. She intended only to rest there for a moment but Ms. Dream took her pause as a signal. Grabbing Lizzie's right ass cheek with one hand Ms. Dream squeezed enough to get a grip and then pulled herself up. Her other hand reached around Lizzie's stomach and Ms. Dream managed to get a good enough grip with both of them to pull herself up and along Lizzie's body until she was laying fully on top of Lizzie's back. Then Ms. Dream rolled off of her and pulled Lizzie up the rest of the way. They both collapsed breathing heavily.

I miss being able to talk, Lizzie thought as Ms. Dream smiled at her.

{Very nicely done.}

{Merry sends her approval.}

Lizzie felt a feeling of pride fill her. It was as unfamiliar as it was welcome.

{We advise you to go across the trap door.}

{Traps are often a mazes way of hiding that which is most valuable.}

Go across the trap door?

Lizzie looked at the opening the trap door revealed. It was about four feet wide. The needles at the bottom of the pit completely filled it.

Ms. Dream tapped her on the shoulder and pointed back the way they had come.

I really miss being able to talk, Lizzie thought as she sat up.

Lizzie waved her arms to the other side of the pit and mimicked jumping and landing.

Ms. Dream looked at her as if she was crazy. She shook he head 'no'.

Lizzie looked at the pit again and nodded. Maybe Merry would have jumped but Lizzie wasn't that crazy. She hesitated. Would the Giant's make it an order?

Lizzie started to follow Ms. Dream and after a moment relaxed. If it had been an order she would have known it.

With Ms. Dream leading the way they moved back the way they came until they were in the first corridor again. Ms. Dream gestured down it and Lizzie nodded.

The first corridor they came to looked safe enough. Lizzie took hold of Ms. Deam's hand and they moved slowly down the corridor. Lizzie wasn't going to be fooled again. She looked at the walls and the floor as they walked. Who ever had built the maze had been small. Lizzie had seen things built on a small scale by large people. A model train or a dollhouse could fool a normal sized person, but a shrunken woman could spot the differences easily.

Lizzie stopped and pulled Ms. Dream back.

Ms. Dream looked at her and raised her hands palm upward.

Lizzie held up one hand palm up and then got down on her hands and knees and motioned Ms. Dream to join her. When she did Lizzie pointed to the floor.

Ms. Dream looked at the floor but after a moment looked at Lizzie and shrugged her shoulders.

Lizzie looked at the floor. It was there, a slight difference in the way the light was reflecting off of it. But how to make Ms. Dream see it?

Lizzie sighed and then reached up and plucked another strand of hair out of her head. Then she let one end dangle from her fingers and slowly dragged it across the floor. At first the hair moved smoothly. Then it stuck and wouldn't move. Lizzie pulled at it and the hair came up dragging a sticky residue with it.

{A glue trap.}

{This woman did not build this maze on her own.}

{The construction is too good.}

{Very well done 3^rd Knight.}

Ms. Dream smiled at her and Lizzie could barely keep her self from jumping up and down. They both stood up and walked back down the corridor. She'd pluck herself bald to feel like this on a regular basis.

Jessie may not have been as sexually sophisticated as Simone, but Simone realized that Jessie was imaginative. Very imaginative.

For nearly two hours now Jessie had been over ever part of Brent's body. She had sucked his fingers, his toes, his ears, she had licked his chest and her tongue had probed around his cock without actually taking it inside of her mouth. Brent had done his part by forcing himself not to react too much. There was no way he could have avoided an erection, not so long as he had a pulse anyway. Sometimes he started to come but Jessie would always pull back or Brent would stop himself somehow. They both moaned away at a pretty good volume level.

It wasn't fooling Professor Forsythe. But Simone could tell from the way he puffed away at his pipe that it was amusing him. Simone had learned from her time in Europe that men who smoked pipes tended to use them as props. The way they bit down on them, waved them around or pointed them at you to make a point was as much a part of their vocabulary as were the actual words they used when speaking. Professor Forsythe's pipe was rising up and down as he watched the faux lovemaking. In his other hand he held a glass of wine and sipped from it every so often.

Despite the moaning Simone knew that Jessie and Brent were not enjoying themselves. Jessie was actually crying, though she was trying hard to hide it.

Somehow I've got to make this up to her, Simone thought. Not only her, but I've got to help Brent and his wife.

Simone was cradling a tense and occasionally sobbing Daisy in her lap. The woman was being as brave as she could be in the situation, but her control wasn't infinite. So far Simone had been able to keep her a little distracted by asking Daisy about decorating her house. That had worked but gradually the questions had stopped getting answers and Simone had just held the other woman.

"Tell me about Dollopolis?" Daisy pleaded suddenly as Jessie eased Brent onto his stomach and began to rub her pussy against his butte.

"Dollopolis?" Simone echoed. "Well… you see dear… it's rather a secret place…"

"Please!" Daisy pleaded. "Anything!"

{Indulge your fantasies.}

{Merry has made it to Thunderbird 2.}

{She may have to sneak out of Boston but we have sent her a flight plan.}

{You need only a few more hours.}

"Please…" Daisy choked out the plea again.

"Well…" Simone began. "To start with you have my castle. From my windows you can look over the whole duchy."

"Duchy?"

"Well… It's not really big enough to be a country."

"So its not a big place?" Daisy asked.

Simone laughed.

"Dear you can't ask me if a city of shrunken women is a big place."

Daisy laughed after a moment and she seemed to relax a little. She turned her head to look toward the back of the cage. Simone was glad she had done it. Jessie had pulled Brent's legs apart and was driving her own legs between them so that their crotches met.

"So everyone in Dollopolis is a shrunken woman?" Daisy asked.

"So far." Simone said. "It's a new kingdom after all."

"Really?"

{Be careful here.}

{Merry suggest a kingdom that survived a great catastrophe.}

Trust her to think of that, Simone thought knowing Merry's fondness for monster movies.

"Well not exactly new." Simone said. "Dollopolis is the last remnant of a much larger place. A world that was destroyed by monsters."

"I'm sorry." Daisy said.

"Only a few of us survived along with the Duchy proper." Simone said. "Saved by the 4 Great Powers. More of us were scattered into this world. As we search for them we pick up girls like Jessie and invite them to live with us."

"Is that how you got caught?"

"Sadly yes."

"Why only women?" Daisy asked.

"Ah… good question." Simone said.

{Over population.}

{Merry suggest that in a world that is so over populated isolating the women by shrinking them is a good method of birth control.}

{The women of the world were taken, shrunk and only when a man had proven himself worthy was he shrunk and allowed to court any of the women in Dollopolis.}

{We must think of a name for this world.}

"Our world had gotten a bit crowded." Simone said. It was hard to keep the conversations in her head straight. "So much so that the race was in danger of dying off. It was decided by the 4 Great Powers…

{You can't blame us for everything.}

…That the best way to insure that the race didn't die out was to isolate the women from the men. The women were shrunk down and put into Dollopolis and if the men were proven worthy they could come and be shrunk down and… Well you can guess the rest."

"Did any of the men survive?"

"Not that we've found." Simone said. A part of her was amazed and disappointed that she could tell so many lies to a sick woman. But Simone had been as close to death as Daisy seemed to be. A few lies back then, to herself or from others to her had helped Simone through a few nights. It was a rationalization and Simone knew it. But the truth wouldn't have worked.

"I'm sorry."

"We'll survive." Simone said, ignoring her own discomfort at the lies. "When we knew the monsters would destroy our old world we called on the 4 Great Powers. They scattered our race over dozens of worlds. When Dollopolis ended up on your world we found that men were compatible."

"She's making sure of that." Daisy said. Simone didn't know if the woman was trying to keep the bitterness away from her voice or not. If she was than Daisy was failing.

"She can have his body." Simone said. "It's obvious you have his heart."

"I'm sorry." Daisy said.

"Don't be." Simone said. Daisy started to turn her head back toward her husband and Jessie but Simone stopped her. Gently but firmly she pushed Daisy's head so that she faced the back of the cage.

"How long have you been here?" Daisy asked.

"A while." Simone said. "It took us quite a while to match your calendar to our own and we still have trouble keeping it straight."

Brent's moan turned into a sharp shout of denial and Daisy turned to stone in Simone's lap.

"Oh god!" She sobbed.

Simone hugged her and tried to think of more lies to tell.

The corridor looked safe. But it was also larger than all the other corridors, almost twice as large. Hand in hand Lizzie and Ms. Dream walked down the corridor. Up ahead Lizzie could see flashes of light, but she was concentrating more on the walls next to her. She didn't look up, the ceiling was a sheet of Plexiglas that only reflected her own image.

{Lizzie stop and look up.}

Lizzie froze and looked up. She saw the small holes in the glass and her heart stopped. Some instinct warned her and she pulled back. Ms. Dream had made it a step ahead of her and only Lizzie jerking on her arm saved the heroine. A thin round metal rod, a sewing needle Lizzie realized, crashed down from the ceiling and nearly impaled Ms. Dream. They stumbled back and before they could make another move the entire corridor became alive with needles. From the ceiling and the walls they thrust in and out. Only a slight swishing sound marked their passage.

Ms. Dream took a deep breath and sent Lizzie a look of thanks.

Lizzie nodded her head and then looked back. More needles had erupted behind them. A few steps in any direction would risk imperilment.

{Dead end trap?}

{No.}

{Lizzie, look ahead of you.}

{We will find a pattern.}

Lizzie looked down the corridor and kept still. The needles movement was almost hypnotic. Ms. Dream tapped her on the shoulder a few times but Lizzie ignored her.

{There is a way through.}

{Some of the needles do not reach all the way down.}

{If you crawl we should be able to guide you.}

{Just keep yourself as flat against the floor as you can.}

Lizzie looked at the needles and swallowed. But then she pushed her fear into her stomach. Looking at Ms. Dream Lizzie pointed to her self and then down the corridor. She snaked her arms to pantomimed moving down it.

Ms. Dream looked at her as if she were crazy.

Lizzie shrugged and did it again.

{Lay on your back and we will direct you.}

Lizzie lay down, shrugged her shoulders and waited.

{A little bit to your left and then move forward until we tell you to stop.}

Lizzie took a deep breath and moved a little to the left. She used her hands and feet and kept herself as much against the floor as she could. Once she was oriented correctly Lizzie started to move. All around her the needles moved up and down with a speed that terrified her. It was as if she were moving through a giant sewing machine. But though they came close to her flesh, close enough for her to feel the wind they generated, they didn't pierce it. She could smell the oil on the metal. After she was a little ways in Ms. Dream lay down on her back and started to follow.

After a minute Prudence heard a gasp of air that would have been a scream. She looked up straining her eyes so that she could keep her head down. Ms. Dream had followed her, but her breasts were a larger size. The needle that thrust downward didn't break her skin, it was just a little too short, but it kept poking her.

{Well she is almost a cup size larger than you.}

{Consider yourself lucky, we're not sure Merry could make it through at all.}

{Keep moving.}

{We will try to compensate for her.}

Squirming her entire body to keep going Lizzie moved across the floor.

Brent gave one last nearly in-audible gasp and fell back. Jessie did the same. They both lay on their backs breathing heavily.

"So after all this time you have failed." Professor Forsythe said. He put down the wine glass and glared at them. "I allowed you to play your little game because it was amusing. But I do not intend to let this pass."

He reached into the cage and picked Jessie up.

"Wait!" Simone shouted. Standing up she eased Daisy down and rushed over to grab at him. It was useless. She grabbed his hand even as he lifted Jessie up and there was no way she could stop him. With a shake he brushed her off.

"I will blind her in one eye." He announced coldly. "Then we will see how she does."

"Don't do it and I'll make sure Brent comes in both of us in a half hour!" Simone shouted.

"Absurd." Professor Forsythe sniffed. "The man is flaccid and wasted."

"Give me a chance." Simone demanded.

The Professor shrugged and dropped Jessie. Then his hand withdrew from the cage.

"You have thirty minutes." He said looking at his watch.

"Milady…" Jessie started but Simone interrupted her.

"There are times when the nobility has to act Jessie." Simone said.

"Forget it." Brent said. He looked like he had run a marathon.

"I will not have my second knight blinded." Simone said sternly. "Jessie, get above him and rest his head and shoulders on your legs so that his head is resting on your sex."

Jessie was puzzled but she did as she was told. Brent helped but lifting himself up a little bit.

"Jessie lean over, Brent start sucking on her breast. Don't do anything but that, don't think about what your doing, in fact don't think about anything. Just keep sucking."

They complied and Simone waited a few moments until Brent was occupied. Then she bent down and started to lightly blow against the base of Brent's cock.

Just like starting a fire, Simone recalled from her boarding school days. Blow on it, tease it and once you have a spark feed it.

After a few minutes Brent's cock started to stiffen and Simone started to massage his balls with her fingers. With Jessie leaning over him and Brent's face in her chest Simone knew he couldn't see. And as long as he couldn't see Simone hoped his body could react.

The trouble was Daisy could see everything and Simone's heart broke as she saw the other woman choke back a cry.

Simone forced the guilt from her mind as her tongue reached out and started to like the shaft of Brent's cock.

By the time they reached the end of the corridor Ms. Dream's breasts and some parts of her legs were black and blue. At the end of it Lizzie had to grab her arms and drag the heroine out of the needle range. She dragged Ms. Dream over to the wall and sat her up against it.

Ms. Dream made an ugly face as she looked down at her body. Lizzie reached over and touched Ms. Dream's breast because it looked like some blood had been drawn. With an angry slap Ms. Dream shoved her back so hard the Lizzie fell down.

Lizzie got back up quickly and held both her hands up in a question.

Ms. Dream shrugged and looked angrily away.

{Do not be too hard on her.}

{In our research we have discovered that she is slightly homophobic.}

{She might have thought you were coming on to her.}

Lizzie looked at the needles that were still thrusting and withdrawing behind them. After that? She'd have to be a sex fiend to be hot after that.

{Give her some time.}

Mary tried to ignore the pain coming from her body but failed. None of the needles had drawn blood, some of them hadn't even been sharp enough, but all of them that hit her breasts hurt. Especially her breasts.

Great, she thought miserably. I'm going to have my period when I'm shrunk.

Mary had often had trouble with her period. Her breasts became sensitive to the point where she had to wear specially made soft fabrics or they would itch. Cramps could be a problem as well. But it was torment near damnation levels to have her period while a supervillain held her captive. It was bad enough with the male supervillains, they either enjoyed making it worse or mocked it. The female supervillains could be particularly vicious. Vicious in ways no man could ever imagine. Or worse they could become especially attentive. Mary was not gay, not in the least, but that hadn't stopped a line of villainous women-and not a few men-from trying to make her so. Lady Goth was the worse offender in that and her efforts, from love potions to hypnosis had driven deep resentments into Mary's mind. So much so that many called her homophobic. They were wrong, Mary didn't care at all if other women were gay, but she also couldn't stand having another woman touch her. She knew that Captain Pharaoh and some other heroes had the same problem. Male heroes were raped and suffered from the same sexual tortures as female heroes, it just wasn't as well known.

And picture of it don't go out on the internet, Mary thought bitterly.

It took a minute for Mary to get herself under control and then the guilt took over. 3K, as Mary thought of her, was sitting with her back against the wall. She was deliberately looking away from the heroine.

Mary sighed and got up. She walked over to 3K and the young woman stood up. Mary tried to shrug an apology, it turned into a half-shrug and then she gave up.

3K nodded as if there was nothing wrong and then pointed down the corridor.

Mary nodded but when they started to walk down the corridor 3K wouldn't take her hand.

I can't talk, I can't read her mind, and I can't let her read my mind… I can't even growl, Mary thought swallowing her frustration. I've been tied head to toe and been freer than this.

A mirror is a merciless device. It shows reality starkly. Mary was reminded of that again when she and 3K entered the room at the end of the corridor. It was maze of mirrors. In each one she could see her body. Mary had once had a fairly straightforward girl-next-door body. Slim, athletic and (to her mind at least) wholesome. But nearly a decade as a heroine had changed that. Her breasts were a cup size larger than they originally were, thanks to Mr. Sour. There were a few scars on her body that would never fade, the padlock above her pussy was courtesy of the Evil Dungeoneer… and there was Lady Goth's love tattoo. Mary didn't like to look at her naked body anymore. Her nude body reminded her of all of the torture, the rape and the pain that made up the life of a superheroine. She dressed and undressed in semi-darkness, took showers not baths and it had been years since she had played with herself or had a lover. And there were no full-length mirrors where Mary lived.

But there were plenty of them here. Hateful mirrors gleefully showing Mary her abused body. If she could have risked the injury she would have smashed them all. But she couldn't so Mary endured the multiple images of her black and blue body.

3K gestured her forward and Mary followed her. So far the girl's instincts had been solid. As they moved deeper into the maze Mary took her hand again. It was too easy for them to get separated. 3K looked at her sharply and then shrugged.

I wonder if everyone from Dollopolis holds a grudge, Mary wondered remembering Mystery Woman.

Halfway through the maze the floor opened up beneath them and 3K and Mary both fell into a chamber filled with lilac-scented water.

The water was ice cold and deep. Mary struggled to the surface and so did 3K. Gasping for breath they both looked around expecting an attack.

But nothing else happened.

Mary and 3K looked at each other in mutual confusion. Then 3K shrugged and swam over to the edge of the pool. Mary followed her. 3K pulled herself out of the water and offered Mary a hand up. Mary accepted it and they both sat down.

3K sniffed her arm and looked at Mary. They both smelled like lilacs. Even if she could speak Mary didn't have an answer for the young woman.

A growl from behind them made both Mary and 3K spin around. Standing at the end of the corridor was Penny. She stood no taller than Mary but in her hands were knives. Her eyes were pink and they seemed to gleam with hatred. The woman's face was thin and drawn to a point at her nose, her eyebrows were thin and angled toward her pointed ears. Her body was tense with energy. She wore a black halter-top and a short black skirt.

"I know the smell!" Penny whispered, almost to herself. "Lilacs! Hated lilacs! You cut off my wings! I want them back!"

She ran toward them and before Mary could act 3K grabbed her and pulled them both into the water. Penny stopped short of the edge and screamed at them. It was a wordless scream that bordered on insanity.

Mary and 3K swam to the other edge and pulled themselves out of the water again. Penny screamed at them again and took off in another direction.

How well does she know the maze, Mary wondered?

She and 3K stood up and looked around.

3K grabbed Mary's hand and pulled her down a corridor. They turned a corner and saw Penny. She ran at them but then vanished.

Mary realized what had happened. Penny was chasing their reflection just as they were running from hers.

For the next few minutes or hours they did just that. It was impossible to tell how fast time was going by. It was simply run, duck, run again and hope you were going in the right direction.

Mary turned a corner and realized she had gone in the wrong direction. She realized that as Penny tackled her and a knife was plunged into her thigh. Mary gasped in pain, unable to scream.

3K tackled Penny from behind and pulled the insane pixie off of Mary. They fell back wrestling and Mary was able to reach down and pulled the knife out of her leg. Blood flowed freely and Mary could feel her body going into shock. She fought it off and tried to get to 3K but a numbness started to flow upward from her leg. The knife had been coated in either poison or a drug. Her legs failed her and Mary could do nothing as 3K was overcome and Penny started to strangle her.

Mary struggled with a desperate strength but failed. As her arms grew cold with numbness and a cold sweat broke out all over Mary's body, she saw 3K's arms fall away from the struggle with the insane pixie.

Then there was a blur of movement and a tall powerful figured jumped over Mary and grabbed Penny. Mary had trouble focusing on the figure at first. It seemed as if one of the mirrors had come to life and gained a human form. Then the mirror effect faded and Mary was looking at a dull gray skin suit.

Mystery Woman! It had to be, even with both arms. Mary recognized her from Lucy's description of when they had first met in Count Intellect's castle. The person she had searched for was not more than a foot away from her and Mary couldn't speak to ask her anything.

This was beyond frustration.

Mary watched as Mystery Woman knocked Penny out and then knelt down. 3K still couldn't talk but as soon as she got her breath back she grabbed Mystery Woman in a tight hug. Mystery Woman let her do that for a while and then they broke up and 3K saw Mary. Breaking away from Mystery Woman 3K ran over to. By then Mary couldn't move at all. She could only follow them with her eyes.

"Easy does it." Mystery Woman said walking over to them. For a moment she was silent. Then she picked up the knife and held it in front of her helmet. Mary saw herself a hundred times in the reflections provided by the multifaceted helmet. She was pale and if her eyes hadn't moved Mary could have been judged dead.

"It's ok." Mystery Woman said. "The knife was coated with a paralyzing drug. Probably wanted Penny think she was dead, that way Margaret could use her for other experiments later.

3K pointed at Mary's leg and Mystery Woman nodded.

"Yea, we'll have to see to that." Mystery Woman picked Mary up in her arms. "Come on, we'll use the medical kit in the ship."

Mystery Woman carried Mary through the maze, finding her way with ease until they came to a rope ladder. Mary looked up and saw that a round hole had been cut into the Plexiglass.

"You go up first and I'll hand her to you."

3K climbed the rope and after she was up at the top Mystery Woman grabbed Mary by her ankles and passed her up. 3K grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her out of the hole. She pulled Mary away from it and let her rest on her side.

Mary had never been so frustrated. Not in all the times she had been held prisoner. There was a volume of things she had to say to Mystery Woman and it was impossible to say any of them.

The top of the maze spread over a table that was at least fifty feet wide. Mary blinked as she saw the green ship resting a few feet away. The barrel shaped/snubbed nose craft had wings that pointed the wrong way and on the side was the numeral 2. A Thunderbird model based on the TV show. What the hell was a kids model doing being used by shrunken women? Who were they!?

"You get the medical kit." Mystery Woman said to 3K. 3K ran off and Mary was rolled over onto her back. "Hope the arm's feeling better."

Oh there was a lot Mary wanted to say about that. It wasn't just anyone who could break her arm.

"Good thing you didn't read her mind." Mystery Woman said. "You probably wanted too but after the last time the Duchess ordered out brains changed so that if anyone tried to read out minds we'd die."

3K ran back over to them with the kit and Mystery Woman started to work on Mary's leg.

Was she serious? Mary wondered. Could they be that paranoid?

After Mary's leg was bandaged Mystery Woman reached into the kit and handed a small atomizer to 3K.

"A few sprays should get your voice back."

3K sprayed the liquid into her mouth and made a face at the taste. Then she handed the spray back to Mystery Woman.

"Oh man!" She swore after a moment. "That's like skunk!"

"Good medicine always tastes bad." Mystery Woman said.

"Where is that old bitch!" 3K demanded looking around.

"She's on the floor over there." Mystery Woman said pointing to the edge of the maze. "The Duchess said no killing so she's alive, but she's out for good long time."

"The Duchess and…"

"We'll be rescuing them next." Mystery Woman said interrupting her. She stood up. "First we make sure things are set here. You keep an eye on Ms. Dream, I'm pretty sure that drug will keep her still for a while but I don't want to take any chances. I'm going back for Penny and Abigail."

"Shouldn't we help her?" 3K asked pointing to Mary.

"Yea, I tried that once, you know what happened."

"Oh ya."

Mystery Woman trotted over to the whole and climbed down.

"Sorry." 3K said sitting down next to Mary. "But she's got a point. We all heard about what you did."

Just when Mary thought she had reached a plateau of frustration a new mountain of it appeared in front of her.

"Third Knight." Mystery Woman called sticking her head out of the whole.

3K's head shot up at the name and Mary saw her entire body tense.

"Get some rope and a couple of blankets from Thunderbird 2."

Mary could do nothing but watch as Penny was carried up and laid beside her. Mystery Woman bound and gagged the still unconscious pixie.

"Is she really a fairy?" 3K asked.

"Maybe." Mystery Woman said. "She's not one of us, that's for sure. I knocked Abigail out, if I cut a bigger whole can you pull her up?"

"Yea."

"Good, while you're doing that I'll hook up Thunderbird 2 to Margaret's computer. "We'll look over the records later."

The craft even sounded like the ship from the TV show as it took to the air and a laser shot out from the nose. It cut a circular whole in the Plexiglas and then moved out of Mary's line of sight. A few minutes later 3K dragged an unconscious Abigail Addam's beside Mary and let her drop.

Mary could feel a tingling in her toes. The drug was at last wearing off. But what then?

Thunderbird 2 landed and Mystery Woman climbed out of the ship. Under one arm was a cell phone and under the other were two small plain bottles.

"Let's drag her over here." Mystery Woman said taking hold of Abigail's arm.

3K helped her and they dragged Abigail off. Then Mystery Woman poured the contents of one of the glasses into her mouth.

"Ok." Mystery Woman said walking back to Mary. "I just gave Abigail her antidote. She'll be back to normal when she wakes up. You can tell her that I know where her cousin and her husband are. They are in trouble, but I'm going to rescue them and if I'm right this time the Duchess won't order me not to kill the man who has them. Her orders are the only thing that kept me from slicing Margaret's head off!"

Mystery Woman paused for a moment to take a breath and calm herself down.

"But this is your world and the Duchess said we had to try and give your laws a chance. On Margaret's computer is enough to fry her good."

"Are we going to leave her shrunk?" 3K asked.

"You bet." Mystery Woman said getting up. "Full sized she's too dangerous and I don't trust her."

"But she helped me."

"Mutual survival." Mystery Woman said dismissively. She put the glass down beside Mary. "This is the growth potion. Lady Goth said it's almost instantaneous. And the cell phone over there will let her get in touch with Earth Force."

Mary's jaw was aching from the effort she was using to try and get it to move. Tears were stinging her eyes. The woman was getting so much wrong!

"You can tell Abigail that we'll give her a call in two days." Mystery Woman said. "She can get her cell phone back from the Boston PD, we'll call her on it. I'm telling you right now Ms. Dream don't try to trace the call."

"Her toes are twitching."

"The drug is wearing off."

"What about Penny?"

"She isn't a fairy." Mystery Woman said. "But we can't help her right now. Earth Force will have to. All the information is in the files. Come on."

Mystery Woman turned and headed toward the ship. 3K bent down.

"Even if it was only mutual like she said… Thanks. Oh, and I was just checking for blood back when I grabbed your boob, I wasn't coming on to you."

3K stood up and trotted over to the ship. Mary watched as it took off and floated out of the room. She was able to turn her head and watch as it left through an open door.

Fifteen minutes later the drug wore off and Ms. Dream let loose with a stream of profanity that almost melted the Plexiglas.

When she had first gained the power to grow and shrink Simone hadn't realized how limited it was. To grow or shrink she had to hold her arms above her head and say 'By royal command…'. Simone had never realized how rare it would be for her to be in danger and be able to hold her arms above her head. Or that even if she was in a place where she could raise her arms, she still would not be able to grow. She had never anticipated the powerlessness that could happen.

How many mistakes am I allowed to make, Simone wondered, before I get someone killed or worse? Dragging Jessie and Lizzie on this mission, calling them knights… And is this is as bad as it can get?

Simone didn't want to look at anything. The room was still well lit. It had to be since Professor Forsythe had left a computer web cam pointed at the cage. Simone knew she should have been looking for a way to escape. But she couldn't. Simone had made love to men and women. She had made love while tied up and in some cases she had made love to men and women tied up and blindfolded so it was impossible to know whom she was with. She was sexually so sophisticated that nothing should have been able to shock or hurt her.

But when Brent came inside of her, as he thrust away involuntarily giving himself to her and then to Jessie, Simone knew it was rape. It was not only rape for her, but it was rape for Jessie and Brent and worst of all it was rape for Daisy.

After it was over Jessie had crawled into Simone's arms and after a few minutes and a few sobs had fallen asleep. Brent had staggered over to Daisy. Professor Forsythe had set up the web cam and left without a word. Simone wasn't sure how long ago that was.

And Merry's been through this more than once, Simone thought. Dear Goddess, no wonder she hated Lizzie and Jessie so.

Simone felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up. Daisy stood over her. Simone blushed and looked away.

"Don't be that way." Daisy said quietly.

"I'm trying not to be." Simone said. "Goddess how can you even look at me?"

"You did it for her." Daisy said. "After everything that's happened to Brent and I… Well let's just say I know what 'having no choice' really means now."

The door opened and Professor Forsythe came into the room. He was dressed in a pair of gray slacks with a white shirt, tie and lab coat.

"Well you have been quiet all night." He said opening the cage. His hand closed around Simone, pinning her arms to her side. "Now let us see if Brent's sperm has had any success."

Simone was lifted out of the cage and carried over to another table. He pressed her down against a small table and wrapped a strip of scotch tape around the upper half of her body. Simone struggled but only out of instinct. The smell of the tape was overpowering. It was plastic mixed with motor oil. Once she was taped down Professor Forsythe took hold of her legs and forced them apart. It was as he was strapping her legs onto the table that Simone realized she was on a miniature gynecological exam table. A table not built by a full sized person. Simone had seen enough of both to know the difference.

"How did you build something so small?" Simone asked in astonishment.

"We who traffic in shrunken women know where to get accessories." Professor Forsythe said. "There is a pleasant Asian woman who has a shop in Cambridge. For the right price she can build any furniture in any size you wish."

"She makes them?"

"Not at all, she has small slaves as I do. She just uses them for different purposes."

Simone's legs were immobilized now and she could do nothing but watch as he placed a large magnifying glass between her legs.

"Try not to move." Professor Forsythe said picking up a large needle. "I might need to go deep and I do not want to damage you."

"NO!" Simone croaked out the protest.

"This would be unnecessary if Madame Troy's girls could create complex machinery." Professor Forsythe said, more to himself than Simone.

Simone screamed as the metal touched the folds of her vagina. It was a scream that was answered as a blue/white beam of energy punched through the wall and hit Professor Forsythe in the chest. He toppled over backward with a cry of pain. Craning her neck to look at where the beam had come from Simone saw Thunderbird 2 moving slowly through a hole in the wall.

"You could have told me." Simone said breathlessly.

{You might have given her away.}

{And we might not have learned about Madame Troy.}

{A problem for another time.}

{For now we have very little time to get you out of there.}

"Simone!" Merry shouted bounding out of the ship as it landed. She ran over to Simone and grabbed the tape that held Simone down.

"Merry stop!" Simone shouted as Merry started to pull at the tape. Merry froze and even through the helmet Simone could see her confusion.

"Slowly dear." Simone said. "Otherwise you'll take my skin off."

"Oh! Yea. Sorry."

As Merry slowly pulled the tape away from her skin Simone watched as Thunderbird 2 flew over to the other table. It landed and she heard cries of relief and delight as Jessie and Lizzie were re-united.

"Ah." Simone hissed as Merry pulled the tape away from her breasts.

"Yeah, never get stuck in a glue trap." Merry said. "It's a lot worse." She reached over and held Simone's nipple as she dragged the tape away from it.

"I know what happened." Merry said. "I should have been here sooner."

"It was my choice to come on this mission." Simone said. Her arms were free and she started to sit up.

"Not yet." Merry said stopping her.

{The helmet has a scanner that can be useful in this situation.}

{We must know if you and Jessie are pregnant.}

"I doubt it." Simone said.

"Let's know for sure." Merry said. She moved around the table and stood between Simone's legs.

"Well it's not like you don't know the territory." Simone said. She couldn't keep the fear out of her voice.

"Just relax." Merry said.

Merry eased her fingers into Simone's vagina and pried the lips apart. Simone steeled herself and didn't move. Merry's suited fingers were cold, not at all like the other times she had probed Simone's sex. Simone had never felt less erotic than she did now. After a few minutes Merry pulled her fingers out and started to un-strap Simone's legs.

"You're safe." Merry said.

Simone felt a wave of relief wash over her and she sat up.

"You are not to say 'I told you so.'" Simone said as Merry helped her off of the table.

"Never to royalty." Merry said. "You've been spinning some good tales."

"I haven't liked it." Simone said. "But I could hardly tell her the truth and I could hardly not talk to her at all."

They watched as Thunderbird 2 landed on the table.

"Well now that you've started we can't stop." Merry said. "The Group has filled everyone in on what you started, you'll have to write up some sort of history sooner or later."

"Later." Simone said. "For now we have to get Daisy to Dollopolis."

"Good luck explaining the cats." Merry said.

"We'll deal with it." Simone said. "We'll keep them in the castle and put them asleep if they ever have to deal with The Group."

"Can you help her?" Merry asked and Simone knew that she wasn't asking her.

{We believe so.}

{Not easily.}

{But we have a number of theories that will be confirmed with an examination.}

{For now you must all maintain the fantasy that Simone has concocted.}

"Jessie come here and lay down." Simone said.

"Wha…?" Jessie looked at her puzzled.

"The helmet has a scanner Jessie." Merry said. "We have to know if you're pregnant."

"Oh."

"You did it with him?" Lizzie demanded.

"It was that or loose an eye." Simone said.

"No one's had a fun time lately." Merry said.

She eased Jessie's legs into the stirrups and examined her.

"Clear." Merry said after a few minutes.

Jessie climbed out of the table and she and Lizzie hugged tightly.

"What'll we do with him milady?" Jessie asked when they separated. She was looking at the unconscious form of Professor Forsythe.

"Kill him." Merry said coldly.

{What ever you do it quickly.}

{Earth Force is on its way.}

"You're the First Knight?" Brent asked as he helped Daisy over to them.

"Yep." Merry said.

"Can that ship blow his head off?" Brent demanded looking at Professor Forsythe.

"I can burn it off of his neck!" Merry said harshly.

Brent stood and stared at the professor, his hands clenching and un-clenching into fists.

"Will you?" Daisy asked.

"The ship and I do nothing without milady's command." Merry said. "But if she gives the order his head isn't what I want to blow off his body."

"I want to." Simone said. "It's my choice, my right." She looked at Daisy. "But it is more your choice than mine. Your right and your husbands right."

"Tear him apart." Brent said coldly.

"No." Daisy said. She stumbled back breathing heavily and Jessie and Lizzie caught her and held her up.

"Don't… Don't give us that power!" Daisy whispered harshly after a few minutes. She placed a hand on her swollen belly. "If my kid lives I don't want the parents of my baby to be a murderer."

"Would it really be murder?" Simone demanded coldly. "Do you really think he qualifies as human? After what he's done?"

"He's a monster but I'm not." Daisy said. "Neither is Brent. You do what you want to him. You choose, not us."

"We could blind him." Jessie said.

"Cut off an arm or a leg." Lizzie said.

"Or both." They said together.

"No way." Merry said. "You kill an enemy or you let him live, you maim'em and your asking for trouble later on."

{You are running out of time.}

"He lives." Simone said. "We are stuck in this world after all, we have to give their laws a chance."

"We should get moving then." Merry said.

"Yes." Simone agreed. She put her arm under Daisy's shoulder and helped her walk back toward Thunderbird 2. "Let's get home and concentrate on life rather than death.

…To be continued.

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