The Dangers of Daring Officer Dolly

Chapter 7. "Contests of Survival"

by Skytower

After two solid months of 12-hour days Lizzie Brihallow didn’t really want to talk. She wanted to sleep. But in the seat in front of her Mike Strekini kept up a constant stream of what would happen to Merry McCormick if he ever got the chance. Lizzie let him rant. From experience she knew that nothing would shut him up until he ran down. As long as he kept the stream of chatter free of profanities they were relatively safe. Beside Lizzie her sister Jessie had slumped over onto her shoulder and was asleep. Lizzie wasn’t surprised, her sister had always slept during car trips and with imagination the air-conditioned cabin of the Thunderbird 2 model was a little like a car. You had to push your imagination hard to do it but it could be done. The cabin was about the size of the inside of a camper. There was a pilot’s chair, a copilot’s chair and four passenger chairs. Mike sat in the pilot’s chair. He wasn’t flying the craft. In fact if he even touched the controls he got an electric shock. Lizzie shifted in her seat again. There hadn’t been time to wash up and she felt gritty. The overalls they wore were made of rough material and all the work had broken them in. But they weren’t clean and Lizzie shifted as the dirty yellow fabric scratched her. Not for the first time did Lizzie regret the lack of underwear. Her breasts weren’t large but her nipples were sensitive and anything between her and the stiff fabric would have been good. Lizzie moved a little more so that her sister would be more comfortable. They were fraternal twins and Lizzie was the elder by 15 minutes. Or perhaps Jessie was. No one really knew and no one really cared. Not their mother or father. The last thing that Lizzie had seen of her mother was the woman loading some stuff into a pickup truck. Lizzie still remembered the left taillight being busted as the truck drove away in the middle of the night. In the morning her father had looked at the two girls and chosen Lizzie as the eldest, meaning in his eyes the one that cooked and cleaned. He had backed up his choice with his fists.

Lizzie leaned against the window and looked out at the desert. Her mind drifted back to a few months-or was it years-before. She and Jessie had hooked up with Mike because he was strong enough, mean enough and quick enough to protect them from her father. Mike’s own father shared many attitudes of their father. Sex for safety had seemed like a good bargain. Certainly none of the official channels Lizzie had ever tried did them any good. Her father had one gift and that was charm. Charm for the social workers, the cops and the lawyers. Even charm for his bookie. Charm enough for everyone to ignore the bruises. Mike was good looking, he usually had enough money for drugs and neither girl minded a threesome. And Mike was immune to her father’s charms and just mean enough to scare him without scaring Lizzie.

Mike had started to run down but Lizzie had already tuned him out. Her mind drifted back to that night. They had been escaping from one of her fathers drunken binges with a camp out in the park. A little naked woman, not more than two feet high, had run into their camp. The biggest lady cop Lizzie had ever seen followed her a few hours later. By that point in her life any empathy in Lizzie’s soul for the pain of another person-besides her sister-had been burned away. Helping Mike and her sister rape the cop had been fun. The lady cop knocking her out hadn’t been fun. Neither had waking up.

Lizzie did not shudder at the memory. But she wanted too. Lizzie had woken up from drinking binges, drug induced black outs and often a combination of the two, she had woken up in parks, in jail, in strange places almost without number. But she had never woken up naked on a cold metal surface. Beside her was Jessie and on the other side of her Mike. And sitting around the tabletop they had woken up on was four giants. Three women and one man.

"Feeling ok?" One of the girls asked? She was thin-but not as thin as Lizzie-with long blond hair.

At first none of the three of them had believed it. When they finally accepted it Mike had talked about aliens, UFO’s and promised some harsh punishments if he wasn’t restored to full size. The girl who had spoken knocked him down with one finger. She had to do it more than twenty times before Mike finally stayed down. While that had gone on Lizzie and Jessie had sat and hugged each other. The room was some sort of laboratory and the chemical scent in the air scared them. It smelled like a hospital and they hated hospitals.

"Here." Said the man. He had placed a small mirror on the table next to them. The mirror held a grid that had been marked off in inches and centimeters. Lizzie and Jessie had stood up and looked at themselves. They were 12 inches tall according to the lines on the mirror. There was no change other than that. They were both slim-skinny Lizzie admitted ruefully-young women with long black hair. The scarlet and gold highlights were gone from their hair. So were the nose rings, earrings and navel rings that Jessie and Lizzie loved to wear. Lizzie realized that even the holes for the rings were gone, healed somehow. The stomach tattoos that proclaimed them to be the ‘Goth Sisters of the Apocalypse’ were gone. Their breasts still held the bright red nipples that offset their small size. Mike was the same as well. His piercings and his tattoos were gone. His thin body looked a little silly completely nude without any of the macho tattoos.

"You’ve been shrunk." The man said taking the mirror away.

"And soon you’ll be judged." The woman said.

"By who?" Lizzie asked.

"By whom." The woman corrected. "By the one person you don’t want to be judged by."

With that the three of them had been picked up, Lizzie would always remember the shock of that giant hand closing around her nude body, and put into a cage. Then they had been shown to Merry McCormick. Merry had been given the choice of shrinking all of them to sub microscopic size for the rest of their lives, or not. Lizzie had never been as scared of anyone in her life when she saw Merry. Merry herself had been shrunk to 12 inches in size, but that did not hide the abuse, including a stab wound, that Mike, Lizzie and Jessie had put her through. But to her surprise Merry had not shrunk them. That left them in the hands of The Group.

The shudder of the craft they were in docking, or landing, woke Lizzie out of her memories. She looked out and saw the inside of a jet plane, one modified into a make shift hanger bay. Across from her window she saw the Star Trek shuttlecraft land.

"Star Trek." Lizzie whispered. "Fit’s em. Just toys. Like us."

She let her mind drift again. After Merry had spared them Lizzie, her sister and Mike were brought into a dark room and set down on the edge of a table. The air in this room was fresh and smelled of pine. Once again the four giants sat down, but this time in front of them. They were all in a small island of light.

"For the record, and to start you off right," said the woman who had first spoken to them," My name is Delilah Pennytorch." She gestured to her twin. "This is my sister Deborah." Deborah smiled at them and it was smile that shook Lizzie’s soul. Delilah nodded to the dark haired girl next to Deborah. A round face with a smile that also chilled Lizzie gazed at them. "This is Molly Dolemont." Delilah gestured at a thin man with dark hair. "And this is Tremont Coach. To put this bluntly: We own you."

"You will do what we say, when we say it or you will be punished." Deborah said.

"Like hell we will!" Mike shouted. "Put us back to normal you freaks!"

"No." Molly said.

"And now that you have a refusal what do you plan to do?" Tremont asked.

Mike had started to say something but stopped and Lizzie realized that there was nothing to say.

Delilah had leaned over the table and her face was larger than Lizzie had ever thought anything living could be. Clear, cold blue eyes looked at the three shrunken teens. Not only at them, but also through them. Lizzie could see herself and her sister in those eyes. She could count the number of pours on Delilah’s face, the hairs that made up her eyebrows, she could see the light tinge of makeup that brought out the natural beauty of Delilah’s smooth skin. It was impossible to get this close to a human face and keep your focus on it, but Lizzie did. As Delilah talked her sweet breath warmed Lizzie’s body.

"You are beginning to see the true nature of your situation. That’s good."

"What are you going to do with us?" Lizzie asked.

"You are going to work for us." Delilah said. "Merry, you see, was our first operative, and she has proven remarkable in many ways." Her voice turned cold. "Raping her was not nice."

"She kept getting in my face!" Mike protested.

"She stopped you from committing rape once." Deborah said. "And then she stopped you from torturing a helpless woman."

"Hey she…" Mike started to protest again but Delilah’s hand shot out and grabbed him. There was a look of contempt on her face and if that had not silenced him then the grip she had on his body, one that was forcing the air from his lungs, did.

"You are an idiot." Delilah said. "You are an idiot with a penis. In your former life that was tolerated because of your good looks. That life is over."

Delilah dropped him and Mike lay on the table gasping for breath. Lizzie and Jessie ran over to him.

"You can’t keep us like this forever!" Jessie protested.

"Yes we can. Your father will think you ran off with Mike, and his father will not be released from jail for another five years." Deborah said.

"Society will not miss you." Tremont said calmly. "There are hundreds like you out there, thousands. Inconsequential gnats."

The brutality of the statement made Lizzie’s blood boil. But she didn’t say anything and a hand across Jessie’s mouth stopped her from saying anything either. Many times the two of them had been caught by the cops, and a few of the older cops had given them roughly the same speech. Mouthing off to that type never did any good.

"The three of you nearly cost us our Officer Dolly." Deborah said. "That you are still alive is a testament to her naïve sense of mercy."

"And our designs on the rest of humanity." Tremont said.

"You see." Delilah said sitting up. "Most of humanity is like the three of you. Small intellects, smaller ambitions… basically filler. Filler that for some reason feels it deserves what those of us who have intellect have."

"Not riches." Deborah said. "Anyone can have money. But free choice. The feeling that you can do what you want with your lives."

"That, for you at least, ended when you raped Merry McCormick." Tremont said. "In a way it was fortunate. We have been thinking of getting people like you for a while now. You don’t completely fit the requirements, but you’ll do."

"What do you want from us?" Lizzie asked.

"We will give you very simple tasks to perform." Delilah said. "And you will do them."

"What kinda task?" Jessie asked.

"You’ll find out as we tell you." Deborah said. She pulled out a remote control and pressed a button. A light directly over head came on and Mike, Lizzie and Jessie looked around. The mouths hung open in shock. They were on one end of a enormous table. An oval platform on the table was surrounded by a water filled tank that was a foot wide and extended to the floor. On the platform were dollhouses. The houses seemed to form a small town. The architectural styles ranged from a colonial mansion to an English Tudor and the front of the houses faced inward. Some of the houses were small, only two rooms, others held at least fifteen rooms. In the center of the oval was a track field with stands and exercise equipment, a small lake with a high island in its center and in the distance what looked like a small Drive-In movie. If you looked from the center of the oval outward you saw houses. If you looked at the houses from the other side you realized that they were dollhouses. Lizzie realized that a person walking around the table would be able to see and reach into each room of each house. There were also small pine trees on the island and all over the table. They formed a very thick wood in some places. The houses were models but somehow Lizzie realized that the trees were real, just shrunk. The three of them were on a small platform that extended out from the edge of the table.

"This is Dollopolis." Delilah said. "Your new home."

"Now of course we were thinking of calling this Liliput." Deborah said. "But we rejected that as too cliché."

"And of course what you are seeing is not finished." Tremont said. "We did the shapes and the large forms, walls, buildings and such. But inside most of those places are very crude and rough. So for the start you’ll be doing finishing work. Eventually you’ll have company, we’ve designed the town to hold up to forty shrunken people."

"Why… why a…" Lizzie tried to ask but couldn’t get the words out.

"I’m sorry but your time of asking us questions is over." Delilah said.

Reaching over she picked up Mike while Deborah picked up Jessie and Molly picked up Lizzie. They were each lifted over the moat and dropped onto the ground on the other side. A gray rubber road led from the edge of the moat into the town.

"For now we’ll begin with very simple rules." Deborah said. "First, no sex. We have not the slightest intent of allowing you to breed."

"Why the hell not!" Jessie shouted.

"Because we said so." Molly said. "We don’t know what the process we have used to shrink you would do to a developing fetus. Also we do not see any real genetic potential in any offspring you would have." She picked Jessie up and swatted her on the behind. "Remember, no questions unless you ask us first."

"Jessie!" Lizzie had shouted but Molly had held her sister far out of her reach and continued to spank her. Lizzie had wanted to do something else but the look on Delilah’s face stopped her. After a few minutes her sobbing sister was dropped onto the ground next to her. Lizzie enveloped her in a hug and rocked her until the sobs subsided.

"Now that was a minor taste of discipline." Deborah said. "If you ask us anything at all you had best keep a respectful tone in your voice."

"The moat is stocked with all manor of carnivorous fish." Delilah said. "As well as other creatures. Try to swim it and we’ll let you be eaten."

"For the rest of the day you can wander around and explore." Deborah said. "The sun lamp above you is tracked to the true day outside, it will move across the ceiling to give you a time reference. Since you are the first ones here you can choose you own houses. Remember though, those houses will be yours, you have to keep them spotless." She dropped small yellow packets in front of each of them. "That’s a blanket, enough food for a supper and a breakfast. The plumbing in the houses works. Tomorrow we’ll start training you for your new life."

It was a dismissal. But none of the three moved. They stood and watched as Deborah, Delilah, Molly and Tremont left. Then they turned and looked at the town.

"The hell with this." Mike said, kicking his pack. "They can’t make us do nothing."

"Wanna bet?" Jessie asked as she rubbed her red butt.

"I don’t think there is a lot they can’t make us do." Lizzie agreed. She picked up the pack and looked in it. There were four small cakes and a bottle of water. "Not great on the food variety."

"Maybe there’s more in one of the houses." Jessie said.

Lizzie looked at the town. Suddenly a thought struck her.

"Wait a minute they said we can have any place we wanted?"

"Anyplace?" Jessie asked.

"If you want a doll house." Mike sneered. "Aren’t you two too old for doll houses?"

"Playing with ‘em maybe." Lizzie said. "Be’in em…" She trailed off and looked down at herself. "Guess not."

"Look at that big white one." Jessie said pointing to a large mansion. "Looks like Gone with the Wind."

"You two can stay here and play dolly." Mike said turning toward the water. "I’m outta here."

He took one step toward the water and a snake-like creature with a fin streamed out of the water and dived back in.

"Better a doll than a meal!" Jessie said pulling him back.

"Get offa me." Mike said shaking her off.

"You do what you want." Lizzie said. "We’re not going to stand out her naked waiting for those giants to come back."

Lizzie and Jessie started up the road toward the town. After a few steps Mike joined them.

"You both look good walking away." He said smiling.

"We ain’t got no secrets that’s for sure." Jessie said.

The sound of the hatch opening woke Lizzie up from the sleep she hadn’t realized she was enjoying.

{Everyone out.}

The voice in her head wasn’t Lizzie’s thought. It was Them. The Giants. Somehow they cold switch a speaker on and off in her mind. The words were cold, toneless, but after all this time Lizzie could spot emotion. The emotion she spotted this time was anger. That anger was confirmed as they walked out of the model of ThunderBird 2 and saw Delilah waiting for them. Without a word she scooped them into her arms and held them tightly. Then she marched out of the hanger.

Delilah dumped them all onto a round table in the body of the jet. Around them sat Molly, Deborah, Tremont and Delilah joined them. Hard cold stares focused in on the three shrunken slaves from four directions.

"We know what you did." Tremont said.

"At least we know that one of you did it." Molly said.

"The question now is what do we do and who do we do it too?" Delilah said. She focused on Mike. "You are the rebel in the group." Mike stayed silent. They all did, that was something they had learned the hard way. "You are the one who hates Merry the most. Like all such gnats you blame her for what is your own fault. The question is did you have help?"

Lizzie raised her hand and Deborah nodded at her.

"Mistress, something happened to her?" Lizzie asked. The idea seemed impossible. Though Merry had been only half of her size when Lizzie had talked to her outside of the mine there had been no doubt in Lizzie’s mind about whom was in charge. Merry had seemed set, confident. Almost a force of nature. The idea that anything could happen to her didn’t seem right.

"Someone rigged a trap in the tunnel." Delilah said. "One of you not only nearly cost us Officer Dolly, you also became an obstacle in a plan your tiny minds could never comprehend."

If there had been a place to run too Lizzie would have bolted right then and there. Beside her Jessie tried to shrink even smaller than she was. Mike looked nervously from one giant to the other, but stayed rigidly still.

The silence stretched on for minutes. The four of them sat and gazed at the shrunken people and Lizzie felt her mouth go dry. Finally Delilah spoke.

"Merry survived. Even though she was buried alive she clawed her way out of the dirt and is continuing her mission. That is why you are still here, and not being digested in the stomach of a rattlesnake."

"But the fact that you would do something like this indicates that our training has not been as successful as we would have liked." Deborah said.

"Our punishments have been too lenient." Molly said.

"That ends now." Tremont said.

"But we didn’t do it!" Lizzie shouted.

"One of you did." Delilah said. She reached over and picked up Jessie. "And perhaps did not act alone."

"It wasn’t me!" Jessie screamed. Hysterically she beat at Delilah’s hand.

"I did it!" Lizzie screamed.

"No I did!" Jessie screeched the words as Tremont’s hand started to move toward her sister.

"What did you do?" Delilah asked. "Tell me specifically."

"I…" Lizzie stuttered, trying to find something to say.

"Tell me specifically, either of you, the nature of the trap." Delilah said. She took hold of one of Jessie’s legs and started to twist it. "Tell me the truth.

"We didn’t do anything!" Lizzie screamed.

"We didn’t!" Jessie echoed.

"No you didn’t." Delilah said. She opened her hand and let Jessie fall onto the tabletop. Lizzie rushed over and cradled her sister.

"Mike did." Deborah said. "He worked low to the ground and in the dark, hollowing out a support. Most likely he hoped it would be seen as simply an accident. We were curious to see if he would confess and save you. We were right in that he wouldn’t."

"You did it?" Lizzie demanded looking at him.

"Yea I did it." Mike said. His eyes were dead as he looked at them. "That bitch put me here. I got the right to see her dead." He straightened and faced the giants. "You think I don’t know what you’re doing? You’re training us, making us into good little slaves. We do something right you smile, we do something wrong you smack us. That’s they way you train dogs and this dog won’t train. You can train the bitches but not me! I’m a man!"

Delilah started laughing and Deborah quickly joined her. Then Molly and Tremont joined in. Mike’s face turned red and then purple in rage.

"Mike you have absolutely no idea of what it is to be a man." Tremont said. "You know the image perhaps, but not the substance. You have nothing but some strength, good looks and slight understanding of how you think the world works. There is no difference between you and the first humanoid who dropped down from the trees to look around."

"Do you really think we will kill you?" Deborah asked. "That your little speech will so drive us mad with anger that we’ll end you life and release you from this situation?"

They all laughed again.

"You say you aren’t afraid?" Delilah smiled. "That may be true, you don’t seem to have the mind or the memory to hold more than one emotion at a time. But if the memory of the bees does not scare you, if you think that is the worst we will do to you, you are wrong."

"For now you are mad and scared." Molly said.

"A very common reaction of the guilty." Tremont added.

"But you will be scared." Deborah said.

"You will be scared." Delilah promised. "Very, very scared."

"Because of your burying Merry alive she was delayed by a few hours in her mission. Because of that she stumbled into a fight between Goddess of Justice and a were-wolf." Deborah’s voice showed a barely controlled rage. "The were-wolf used a sonic blaster that may have killed her. At the moment we don’t know where she is or if she is alive what condition she is in. If we find that she is dead Mike then you will not die. Not for a very, very long time."

Deborah turned her head to look at Jessie and Lizzie. Then she picked them up.

"We’ll decide what to do with those two later." Delilah said.

"Agreed." Deborah said.

There are a lot of people who know what it is like to wake up and not know where they are. There aren’t a lot of people who wake up and not know who they are. Merry McCormick woke up and had absolutely no knowledge of who she was and where she was, or how she had gotten there. She opened her eyes as if for the first time in her life, but knew somehow that she had once had a life.

Merry looked around. She was on a large wooden desk in a room built of old stones and hung with tapestries. It was a room in a castle, or a castle-like building. The high ceiling was vaulted and the room lit with candles. In the shadows that the flames cast Merry sensed that things were moving. Strange and dangerous things.

"You are awake." Said a voice to her left and Merry turned to see a giant sitting at the desk. For the first time Merry realized that she was not normal sized. Or at least that the owner of the voice was far larger than she was. He towered above her, a well-built man wearing a stiff white shirt, a tight vest and tie and dark pants. His hair was white and cut short. His face showed him to be aged, but still youthful. He was dignified. It was as if his face had seen the entire world and found it, if not satisfactory, at least not overwhelming. His eyes were dark brown and sat under bushy white eyebrows. His chin was cleft and was part of a strong jaw. His nose was flat, slightly crooked as if it had been broken many times.

"Who…" Merry faltered. The she realized that she was seeing the man through a glass of some sort. She reached up and found that her hand was gray. No, Merry realized that she was in a form-fitting suit.

"I am known as Count Intellect." Said the man. "Who are you?"

"I… I don’t know." Merry answered. "I can’t remember."

He leaned over to her and his eyes locked onto Merry’s. Merry staggered back a step. She could feel his thoughts in her head, forcing their way through her mind. Even if she had known how to fight the mental probe Merry doubted she could have resisted.

"I can not read your mind." He said and for the first time Merry noticed that he was speaking with a harsh accent. His words ran a little too closely together and the emphasis was on the last part of each word. "But I can read enough to know that you speak the truth. You may or may not be my enemy."

"I really don’t know." Merry said.

"Are you scared of me?"

"Yes." Merry admitted.

"That is but common sense. Besides my friends fear me as much as my enemies."

From a desk draw he took out a small palm pilot. It was a stunning sight in comparison with the antiquated atmosphere of the room.

"The medical readings confirm that there is a significant amount of brain damage. That any of your gray matter is left intact amazes me. You were close enough to that sonic blaster to shatter your bones. But I can see that your body has healed from that and your brain is healing as well. Perhaps your suit is the source of your durability."

"I’m wearing a suit?" Merry half questioned his statement. She pressed her hand against the transparent helmet she was wearing. "This is a suit, I guess. But I… I feel the rest of me."

"It is a very sophisticated suit." Count Intellect admitted. "And I will take much pleasure in studying it and you."

"Studying me?" Merry asked.

"This can not be your natural height." The Count said. He stood up and picked Merry up. She fit easily into the palm of his hand.

Merry screamed and grabbed onto his thumb. Count Intellect carried her over to a tapestry and moved it aside. There was an open doorway beyond it and he carried the shrunken woman down a long flight of circular stairs. At the bottom was another open doorway and he walked through it and into a vast round room that had been converted into a laboratory. The count carried Merry over to one of the tables and set her onto it.

"Do you think there is any way you can remove the suit yourself?"

"I don’t even know how I got it on." Merry said.

He nodded and then reached to another table and picked up a round metal plate. He placed it beside Merry.

"Please lay down."

"What are you going to do?" Merry asked.

"Remove the suit." Count Intellect said calmly. He reached over and picked up a scalpel.

Merry ran instantly, picking a direction at random. She got five paces before being enveloped and captured by his hand.

"I am sure this will not hurt." Count Intellect said.

Merry screamed and struggled in vain. Holding one of her hands he dabbed a small liquid onto the back of it and then pressed it down against the metal. While Merry continued to struggle he held her hand there for a minute. When he released it Merry found that her hand was stuck to the metal. Panic kept her struggling while he glued her other hand and the back of her legs to the metal. Merry was stretched out and immobile.

"Please no!" Merry shouted pulling and twisting as much as she could.

"Be still or I might cut you." Count Intellect ordered.

The scalpel moved closer and Merry tensed, becoming perfectly still. The look in the Count’s eyes told her that he had very much enjoyed her fear and that he would probably enjoy drawing her blood.

Merry’s eyes watched as the scalpel was pressed against her neck and drawn down between her legs. There was no pain, but she could feel the cold metal as it moved through the material. The Count’s hand was machine steady as he moved the scalpel along her legs and arms.

"Your suit is comprised of more than one layer." He said. He picked up a pair of forceps in each hand and eased them into the slit he had made at her neck. This time Merry felt the cold metal on her actual skin. The next moment she screamed as the material of the suit was pulled away from her body. The pain was like pulling off a Band-Aid, but this Band-Aid was covering her entire body. If the Count minded her screams he did not show it. He worked patiently and methodically pulling the suit away from her skin. When enough of the suit had been opened The Count reached in and grabbed Merry around her waist. Then he pulled her out very slowly.

Merry’s screams turned to gasps as she was pulled out of the suit. Her skin stuck to it until the last moment then it snapped at her like a rubber band. After she was free of the suit The Count looked her over, turning her over in his hands. Then he set her down. Merry lay naked on a cold metal tray and shook with fear and pain.

"Very sophisticated." Count Intellect said examining the remains of the suit. "Who ever you are my dear you either are, or work for, very intelligent people."

"I wish they were here now." Merry whispered.

"I’m sure you do." The Count said pleasantly. He picked Merry up and took her over to another table. There he placed her onto a small piece of pegboard.

"No!" Merry pleaded when she saw him pick up some string. "Please no!"

"It will be easier to examine you if you do not move." Count Intellect said.

Merry sighed and offered no resistance as he picked her up and put her against the board. Then he looped the string through the holes, binding her arms and legs to the board in an X position. Once done he placed her onto the table and picked up a pair of magnifying glasses.

"As with any woman," He said picking up a tool that looked like a dentist pick, "I believe a gynecological exam is the best way to start."

Merry drew in a breath to scream but before she could let it out a tremendous blast filled the room. Merry’s head whipped around and saw that a huge chunk of the wall had been destroyed and a 7-foot tall blonde woman stood where it had been. With one hand she held the limp form of a were-wolf.

"Count Intellect!" She shouted tossing the were-wolf aside. "Your reign of darkness ends now!"

"Darkness is eternal Goddess of Justice. Or shall I call you by your true name now Lucy Rothschild? It is an easy name to remember. A bit less flamboyant than Goddess of Justice, but then Goddess of Justice isn’t listed in the phone book is it?" The woman hesitated and Count Intellect smiled. "Lucy Rothschild who lives with her husband and teenage daughter at 1275 Jeopardy Lane? Your husband is Steven Rothschild, better known as Senator Rothschild, and your daughter, I believe she is just entering college."

"Who is that?" Goddess of Justice said pointing to Merry.

"This little mystery woman? She is the reason you are free." Count Intellect said. "I was so intrigued by her that I left your imprisonment to Sebastion." He picked up the pegboard Merry was tied too and tossed her like a Frisbee at Goddess of Justice. "Here, say hello."

Merry screamed as the world turned into a ride on a tilt-o-whirl. Her head spun as Goddess of Justice caught the board, but whirled again as Count Intellect attacked them.

Merry was tossed aside as the Count grappled with Goddess of Justice. Fangs appeared in his mouth and his eyes glowed red. Goddess of Justice’s eyes glowed too and twin beams of pure gold light sliced through the air, only to hit nothing but the wall as the Count turned into mist.

"Face me vampire!" she shouted clapping her hands together and generating a wind. The mist was scattered for a few moments but congealed back into human form quickly.

"Gladly wench!" Count Intellect shouted as he hurled a table at her.

Merry couldn’t help the feeling that she had seen the battle-or a battle much like it-before. But she really wasn’t sure whom she should want to win. Goddess of Justice was the good guy, but Count Intellect reminded her of someone else, someone Merry was sure she was loyal too.

The battle raged on and Merry was more than once nearly crushed by debris. But it was soon obvious that Count Intellect was out powered. Though it took some time Goddess of Justice at last took him by the throat and slammed him against the wall. She held him there despite his struggles.

"Monster, to threaten my family? Perhaps I will carry you into the sun…"

That was as far as she got before Sebastion jumped her from behind. A cloth was pressed over Goddess of Justice’s face and Count Intellect seized both of her arms to prevent her from tearing it away. Merry again had the feeling she had seen it all before as the large woman staggered, was slowly brought to her knees and then fell to the floor. As she fell the large blond woman shimmered and changed into a short brown haired woman.

"You are a worthy opponent Goddess." The Count said straightening his clothing as he gazed at the unconscious woman. But in all of our battles never have you learned to hold your breath. It is a fatal weakness."

"She is helpless master." Sebastion said bending over the woman.

"She should never have awakened fool!" Count Intellect said, kicking the were-wolf. "Not until we were ready! Hold that cloth over her face, make sure she will not awaken until sunset or I will tear that wolf hide from you and cast you out into the dawn!"

Whimpering the were-wolf pressed the cloth against the woman’s face again. She moaned and stirred in her sleep, then lay still. Keeping the cloth over her face he picked her up and carried her through the smashed wall.

"Mystery Woman." Count Intellect called. He spotted Merry and walked over to where Merry’s board had fallen. "Lucy did not recognize you. It seems you are a new player to the game."

"The game?" Merry asked.

"The game between superheroes and supervillains, between the dark and the light." He picked her up and tossed her into the air. Merry gritted her teeth as the room spun into a hundred views and then snapped back to one as he caught her. "But which side are you on eh?"

"I don’t know!" Merry wailed.

"Ah calm yourself." He said and ran his finger over her breasts. "It may be that you shall never remember, but perhaps you can serve me."

"Serve you?" Merry asked. The idea struck a cord of memory within her. "How? What use could I be to you?"

"I shall think of something." Count Intellect said. He smiled and ran his finger over her body. "Something. But for now let us continue the examination."

Lizzie and Jessie huddled against each other. They were back in Thunderbird 2. Placed there by Deborah. They didn’t know where Mike was. Neither of them had said a word as Deborah carried them back to ThunderBird 2.

"Stupid." Jessie whispered. "Ever since this started."

"Yea. From the start. But this time we don’t pay with him." Lizzie said.

Jessie pressed harder against her and Lizzie cradled her. They both knew it was a hopeful statement rather than a true one.

"We’ve learned." Jessie said. "They know we learned."

"They taught us." Lizzie said.

After a while Jessie fell asleep and Lizzie once more let her mind drift back to those first few weeks.

At the end of the first day Jessie and Lizzie had stood on the balcony of their Ante-bellum mansion and watched as Mike walked toward the log cabin he had chosen. It was by the lake and seemed to appeal to him. All day they had wandered in and out of houses and up and down paths. Dollopolis reminded Lizzie of a movie set she and her sister had once visited. It looked real if you didn’t look too hard, but if you looked closely you could see stuff. Paint that was too thick or boards that weren’t quite in place. The town had an empty feel to it, an unnatural feel. There was no wind, no birds, and no insects. You could see the track that the sun lamp used as it moved across the sky. The walls of the room were painted in a neutral blue, but not a true-sky blue.

"If you don’t look too hard it’s not a bad place." Lizzie said.

"What choice we got?" Jessie asked.

"What choice did we ever get?" Lizzie retorted. "Come on, let’s get some sleep."

Their first full day in Dollopolis started at dawn. Or at least when the sun lamp came on. Even though the mansion held ten rooms only one of them had a bed in it. Still they had been awed by the size and by the fact that it was all theirs. For two girls who lived in one small room in a trailer this was too good to pass up. The doll mattress wasn’t very comfortable but it was better than the floor. Jessie’s screaming had woken her sister and Lizzie realized the cause instantly. Tremont was standing outside the house gazing at them. They had thrown off their blankets as they slept and his cold, yet lustful gaze was terrifying. Both girls were used to guys staring at them, but not like this. They quickly scrambled to get the blankets into a covering position.

"Wake up." He said simply and then walked away.

They had a quick breakfast and used the bathroom. The toilet at least was shielded from the giant’s view. They were looking at the town from the balcony when Deborah appeared and picked them up. Without a word she carried them over to a small red schoolhouse. Mike was already there.

"The first thing you are going to learn is how to make your own clothes." Deborah said. "The black board will display the basics and this afternoon I’ll show you where the storage house for the sewing supplies is."

"I ain’t going to sew!" Mike said.

"Me either!" Jessie added.

With a quick move Deborah grabbed Jessie and started to spank her. Jessie screamed and struggled but it didn’t do her any good. Deborah’s hand had closed around Jessie’s upper body, pinning her arms to her side. All she could do was kick her legs furiously. It was about five minutes before Deborah stopped. She put a sobbing Jessie back into her seat. Jessie yelped and jumped up.

"Watch the blackboard and learn." Deborah ordered.

The blackboard turned out to be a monitor screen that had the shape of an old fashioned black board. A pleasant, smiling woman wearing black dress and white apron appeared on the screen. The image was in black and white and the woman’s hairstyle and glasses, as well as the picture of President Eisenhower showed when the film had been made. She was somewhere in her thirties with dark brown hair and a round face.

"Good morning students." She said. "This morning we are going to learn the basics of sewing."

Lizzie glanced over at Deborah. The giant’s face was set in a stern mask and she flexed her fingers. Lizzie looked back to the screen.

For the rest of that day they all learned to sew. After her first objection Jessie had stayed silent, and so had Mike. It took them a week to sew clothing that was wearable. At first they followed the patterns on the blackboard and for the girls that was a demure blouse and ankle length skirts, while for Mike it was a shirt, tie and pants. In the second week they started to learn how to make shoes. Soon Lizzie and Jessie got creative. They sewed halters and short skirts. The range of materials was limited, yellow tough cloth or yellow soft cloth and red thread. Mike was never good at the sewing and both girls found they had to help him or end up laughing when he tried the clothes on. He did better than them in shoe making. The best shoes they could come up with were small boots. The material was a black synthetic that was tough and hard to work with.

The hardest thing to adjust too in those first few weeks was the shock of discipline. Anything any of the giants considered rebellion was dealt with by spanking. Lizzie and Jessie were used to abuse, but not rules. They had lived lives of little regimen, dropping out of school at 15. As long as they kept their house clean and there was food on the table their father had left them alone. Mike was still in school, but had little supervision after school ended for the day. But life in Dollopolis was very regimented. They would wake up, eat, spend time in the school, then practice what they learned. Not only did they learn sewing and shoemaking but also carpentry, plastering and furniture making. The Giant’s were harsh taskmasters. A few mistakes would be tolerated, but only a few. If what they made wasn’t of sufficient quality to satisfy them the shrunken teens were spanked and made to do it again and again until they got it right or collapsed from fatigue.

There was no free time except for a brief time before bed and at meals. And the meals while they were nutritious were bland. There was no beer, no wine, no sweets and no drugs. There was also no music or television. They only time they weren’t working was when they were exercising. That was also the only time they had any fun, at least at first. Until they had clothes to wear Jessie and Lizzie had run naked, and so had Mike. Watching them run naked had given him erections, but a the girls thought that a naked man running with an erection was the funniest thing they had ever seen. Mike took their giggling in a good enough way, pointing out that their breasts bouncing up and down looked silly as well. But Lizzie saw the angry look on his face when he thought they weren’t looking. She also saw the look of hate on his face when he looked at the giants and thought they weren’t looking.

The girls quickly realized that moving into the mansion had been a mistake. At first dazzled by the space they hadn’t realized how much cleaning all those rooms would need. After a week they moved from that house to a smaller, creepy looking ‘Adams Family’ house overlooking the lake. It was only a house away from Mike’s log cabin and they felt safer with him close by.

Lizzie and Jessie were still sleeping together in the same bed. They were scared to sleep alone. Tremont could usually be counted on to be outside the house at dawn. He never did anything but watch, but that was scary enough. They didn’t like him watching but there was no way to stop him from watching. Both of them realized the futility of talking to him, or any of the giants. They had wanted to make nightgowns but the material was too harsh to sleep in. On the second night after they had moved in Lizzie was awakened up by a hand on her breast.

"What?" Lizzie woke up instantly.

"What?" Jessie said waking up when she heard her sister’s voice.

"It’s been a while." Mike said massaging her breasts."

"They said no." Lizzie said, but there was no real objection in her voice.

"They ain’t here." Jessie said. She reached between Mike’s legs and started to massage his penis.

"That first week watching you walk around bare-assed all the time." Mike said slipping in between them. "You think that’s easy for me?"

"We’ve seen it be not easy for you." Lizzie said. Her body had taken over and at that point she hadn’t cared about anything else.

"Now you got clothes your even hotter." Mike fondled Jessie’s breasts. "I don’t care what they said, a guys got needs."

"So does a gal." Jessie said.

Lizzie didn’t say anything. She knew it was a weak argument and an old line, but a part of her still thought of Mike as a protector. The deal, unsaid but always understood, was still in place.

Besides, Lizzie thought, he ain’t that bad.

They were two minutes into it when a spotlight froze them in place.

"What part of ‘no sex’ didn’t you understand?" Delilah asked.

"Ah damn!" Mike swore. "Will you just go away!"

Delilah’s hand reached in and grabbed him, pulling him off Jessie. A moment later the lights came on and Deborah reached in and grabbed Lizzie and her sister.

"Perhaps they are too dumb to train." Deborah said. She held up Lizzie and looked at her, a curious yet detached expression on her face. Then she held up Jessie and looked at her the same way. "We could discard them."

"It’s only been a short time." Delilah said. "This was too be expected."

"You’re right. It’s time we upped the punishment level a bit."

"Agreed."

Mike, Lizzie and Jessie were dumped onto the athletic field. Deborah stood watching them while Delilah bent under the table to get something. Mike made a dash for the woods but Deborah grabbed him by one leg and dangled him in the air.

"Not that you two are raving beauties." Deborah said. "But is this truly the best you could find?"

Jessie charged up with the start of an insult ready to leave her mouth but Lizzie tackled her to the ground, knocking the breath out of her sister.

"Stay cold!" Lizzie hissed.

Delilah stood up and put three small platforms onto the field. They were stocks. A thick board rose up from the edge and ran to a flat circular board. The circular board was hinged so that half of it would rise up. There were three circles, two for the wrist and one for the neck. In the center of the platform was another thick board that ran up to a pad. Jessie and Lizzie watched as Delilah forced Mike into the stocks. Straps held his legs as far apart as they could go.

"NO!" Jessie shouted when Deborah reached for her. Breaking away from her sister Jessie ran blindly. She didn’t get more than five steps before Deborah grabbed her.

"Seriously," Deborah asked. "How far did you expect to get?"

"Leave her alone!" Lizzie screamed. All logic and common sense fled and she charged at the hand that held her sister. Delilah plucked her off of the field like she was a kitten.

Lizzie fought as she was carried over to the stocks. She pushed and kicked but Delilah forced her neck in the center hole and held it there with one finger. Lizzie wildly waved her arms but Delilah caught one and forced it into place, and held it there with another finger. Her other arm had no chance. Once she was in place Delilah closed the board. There was padding around the holes and a collar of some sort around her neck so that she would not choke. The board was too wide for Lizzie to look at any part of her body. Lizzie grunted and fought as her legs were spread apart and her ankles strapped to the platform. Then she gave up and sagged. Lizzie had been forced into a leaning position, her stomach resting on the pad, her arms held in front of her and her legs were spread apart. Completely vulnerable, completely helpless. It was the perfect spanking position.

Once they were all strapped in Deborah and Delilah placed the stocks so that they were all facing each other in a circle.

"I’m here." Molly’s voice rang out. "They’ve been naughty?"

"Yep." Delilah said. "You want to take the guy?"

"Right."

Lizzie closed her eyes and braced herself for the spanking. Then she opened them in shock. It was a shock she saw mirrored on Jessie and Mike’s faces. Delilah’s fingers were caressing her sister’s body. Molly was doing the same thing to Mike and Deborah was running her fingers up and down Lizzie’s legs.

"What are you doing?" Lizzie shouted the question as Deborah’s fingertip pressed against the opening to her womb.

"What intellect." Delilah said.

"Stunning." Deborah’s sarcasm matched her sisters.

"At least yours can form words." Molly said. "Mine is only moaning."

Lizzie squirmed as Deborah’s fingers traveled over her body. She had nowhere to escape too as the straps held her tightly. Deborah’s fingers pinched Lizzie’s breasts and stroked her vagina. Lizzie’s body, recently aroused by Mike responded and soon her breathing came in gasps. What was turning her on even more was that she Mike and Jessie were getting the same treatment. Mike had always wanted to try bondage, but Lizzie had always rejected it. She had liked the tie-up videos they watched now and then and admitted they turned her on. Jessie agreed with her. But she didn’t trust him that much and there was always the chance that someone else, say her father or one of Mike’s friends, could walk in on them. But now she was feeling as turned on as she ever was, and part of it was the freakishness of the situation.

Deborah pinched both sides of Lizzie’s ass, then stroked it and again pressed her little finger against Lizzie’s swollen pussy. She pressed hard and Lizzie cried out. Her vision went a bit out of focus but Lizzie was still able to keep an eye on her sister and Mike. They were both moaning and thrashing against their bindings and having no more luck escaping than she was.

Suddenly Deborah’s finger was pulled back and Lizzie felt something else pushing into her. She looked up and saw that Delilah was pushing what looked like a Cue-tip into her sister’s vagina. Molly had put some sort of bottle over Mike’s penis and was moving it back and forth.

Then Lizzie didn’t see anything else because Deborah had pushed her probe into Lizzie’s pussy. She moved it in and out, slowly at first and then faster. Completely lost to any feeling that wasn’t physical Lizzie cried out and tried to move, to mach the probe’s rhythm. But she was held too tightly for that. Then the probe hit her clitoris and Lizzie cried out in a combination of bliss and frustration. For a time that Lizzie could not measure her breath came in short puffs and her body trembled. Then the orgasm came and went, the most incredible sexual experience Lizzie had ever had. Lizzie realized as she sank into the stocks, that Mike had never been very good after all. At least not compared to this. Then she lay limply in the stocks. Mike only lasted a little while longer than she did before he too sagged in exhaustion. Then they both watched, for nearly an hour Lizzie guessed, as Delilah brought Jessie to a height of sexual excitement that Lizzie had ever dreamed of. Delilah pinched parts of Jessie’s body, ran her fingers over her legs, forced the probe in, then out, then in again, but never enough to induce the orgasm.

Molly and Deborah did not interfere. They just stood and watched. By the end of it Jessie was screaming for a release, any kind of a release. Tears ran down Lizzie’s face, but she didn’t have enough strength left even to call out to her sister. When Delilah finally let her come Jessie let out a scream that was a screech and collapsed.

"Show off." Deborah gently chided her sister.

"I wanted to make sure." Delilah said.

Lizzie felt her head lifted up and something rubber wrapped around the bottom of it. Mike and Jessie were gagged with the same type of thick rubber band.

"Let’s set up for the next stage." Delilah said.

Even as tired as she was Lizzie’s heart started beating in fear at Delilah’s words.

It was a little while later that they were taken, still in the stocks, to another room. This was a laboratory. The stocks were placed facing each other around the edge of a circle.

"It’s all set." Tremont said handing three bottles to Molly.

She smiled and started to juggle them.

As curious a thing as it was to see a giant juggling something Lizzie was still alert enough to pick up another sound. It was a buzzing sound and her eyes went wide as Delilah put a large plastic cube filled with bees in the center of the stocks. Lizzie had seen pictures of bees in books. Magnified but seemingly harmless. This was different. She could see the extra large eyes, the tongue that moved in and out of a triangular mouth. The fur and hair on their bodies was more textured than photographs could have shown. Lizzie guessed that the fur from dead bees could have made a good sized pillow and jacket for her. There was no way to tell exactly how many were in the cube, but Lizzie’s guess was fifty to a hundred bees. They crawled around and on top of each other. On the top of the cube was a square box that looked like a door.

"These are honey bees." Delilah said. "Drones that we’ve bread to combat the Africanized bees that have been moving into this country from Mexico. I doubt you know very much about bees so I will explain. Each hive produces drones whose job it is too mate with the queen."

Jessie and Mike screamed through their gags but Delilah ignored them.

"Now these guys are not ordinary drones. We’ve made them larger and… well more lustful than ordinary drones so that they can compete with the Africans." Delilah reached down and rested her hand on the box on top of the cube. "This is the exit. She pressed a button and the lights on a red LED bargraph started to oscillate back and forth. "Some time in the next hour this will open and they will be free."

Lizzie started to jerk involuntarily at her bonds. She knew it was useless but instinct made her try anyway.

Molly tossed one of the bottles to Deborah and one to Delilah. Then for a few minutes they tossed them back and forth to one another, juggling them. When they stopped all three of them opened the bottles and poured their contents onto the three helpless captives. It was a heavily scented perfume that reminded Lizzie of fresh flowers.

"There were three different formulas in these bottles." Deborah said. "One was a repellent, one was an aphrodisiac and one imitated the scent of food."

Molly took another, larger cube and placed it over the one with the bees. This cube had three doorways on it. Each doorway was facing one of the shrunken captives. The doorways were open but above each of them was a little door. The doors were connected to a wire that ran to a box on the top of the cube. Molly reached over and pressed a button. This cube had a green LED bar display and it started to oscillate like the red one had.

"Now here is what is going to happen." Delilah said. "The doors are set on random timers, and even we don’t know when they will go off. Nor do we know which scent each of you was doused with. If the door in the inner box opens and the outer doors are still open the bees will be free. One of you they will eat, one of you they will ignore and one of you they will mate with."

"Or try to." Deborah said.

"On the other hand." Delilah continued. "If they outer doors close first then we’ll consider this punishment ended."

"We were actually counting on your basic common sense to keep you in line." Deborah said. "But as has been said: ‘Against stupidity the very gods themselves contend in vain.’"

"Was that Schiller?" Tremont asked.

"Yes." Deborah said.

"Appropriate." Tremont said.

Molly put an old-fashioned kitchen egg timer onto the table.

"This is how much time you have." She said.

Then Deborah and Delilah took an even bigger Plexiglas tube and placed it over them.

"We’ll be back after it is over." Delilah said.

Lizzie didn’t see them go. She was focused on the egg timer. It read 52. Then she looked at the red and green displays. They moved back and forth with a maddening pace. Lizzie had felt sorry for herself before. She had felt wretched, unloved and angry. But she had never imagined that those times would be washed away. The intensity of the fear the engulfed her was a physical power that twisted her mind and body into knots. Sweat ran down her body, her limbs trembled and her stomach ached. The ticking from the egg timer and the buzzing of the bees formed a symphony that the darkest demon laboring in the darkest stygian domain would have envied. The sounds echoed in the closed space and pressed against her from all sides. Though eyes that were blurred with tears Lizzie watched as Jessie alternately screamed through her gag and sagged in her bonds. She didn’t spare a glance for Mike, and anger at him only served to fuel her frustration. If Jessie died Lizzie vowed that Mike would die soon after. She would live through the mating if that was what it would take. It was his fault they were there.

Lizzie tried to make the time go faster. She tried not looking at the timer, she tried humming music to herself, and she tried every other trick she had ever used to get through a long wait. But none worked. Fear defeated them all. In the end her eyes moved in a slow circle. From the egg timer to the green and then to the red displays. Her body ached from the poster it had been forced into.

Lizzie was looking at the egg timer when a small electronic chime sounded. For a heart-wrenching minute Lizzie was sure it the door to the bees. But then she saw the three doors on the outer cube snap shut. A minute later the inner doors opened and the bees swarmed out. For the next fifteen minutes Lizzie stared at the bees, hypnotized by the buzzing and the knowledge of what might have been. Then she saw the giants come back into the room.

"Well weren’t you all lucky." Delilah said once the Plexiglas was lifted off of the table. She and Deborah gathered the stocks and carried them back to Dollopolis. They were put back onto the athletic field and Deborah released Lizzie while Delilah released Mike. As soon as she was free Lizzie ran over to Jessie, ignoring the pain from her aching muscles and joints. Delilah released her sister and Lizzie and her sister hugged fiercely. Mike lay on the ground and didn’t move until Deborah picked him up and carried him over to the girls.

"I trust that even with your limited intellect this lesson has struck home." Delilah said.

"We didn’t think it would be necessary." Deborah said. "But I guess we are just not used to dealing with low level minds."

"But now that we have an idea of what you are, it’s time to explain some things and lay out some ground rules." Delilah said. She took a remote control out of her pocket and entered a sequence into it.

{These are not your thoughts.}

Lizzie, Jessie and Mike all screamed and covered their ears. Lizzie looked at Delilah and realized what had happened. Somehow a message typed into the remote control had appeared in her mind.

"This is part and parcel of the process we used to shrink you." Delilah said. "And the process also allows us to hear what you hear and see what you see."

"We didn’t want to tell you this." Deborah said. "Since Officer Dolly seems to be having some long term problems with it, but now that you know we think you’ll be less likely to try anything again."

"And now for the ground rules." Delilah said. "Obedience is of course part of it. You haven’t been doing so bad on that point so far. But we are also going to have some rules of respect. First, if you want to ask us a question or talk to us at all raise your hand first. Then wait until we tell you it is ok. Second, when you talk to us you will use the words: ‘Master’ or ‘Mistress’, depending upon whom you talk too. Also no more profanity. You can think it, but if you say it you will be punished."

Deborah reached over and picked up the stocks.

"These will be washed and then set in the middle of the field. They will be the main form of punishments for future transgressions. We won’t stick you into the bee chamber every time, that is for extreme punishments."

"But we will keep them handy." Delilah said. "Not just bees, but some ants that we are working on to deal with the fire ant problem. In fact we are working on five different insect races at this moment. All of them will be either lusty or hungry."

"Now," Deborah said. "Do you understand everything we have just said?"

Lizzie tried to get her voice to work but all that came out was a raw croak. Beside her Jessie managed a high pitched squeak and Mike’s voice was barely audible.

"Do you understand?" Delilah shouted.

"Yes mistresses!" Lizzie and Jessie shouted, with Mike echoing their words moments later.

"That’s better." Delilah said.

"Even used the plural form." Deborah added.

"Now all of you go to bed." Delilah ordered. "From here on out if you need sexual gratification masturbate, or the girls can play with each other."

"Or ask one of us." Deborah said. "We’re open minded about that sort of thing."

The three shrunken people stood and looked at the giants, still in shock from their ordeal. Lizzie wanted to move but couldn’t seem to get her legs moving.

"Shoo." Deborah said making a swishing motion with her hand.

That broke the spell and Lizzie had taken Jessie’s hand and guided them back to their house. They stumbled up the stairs and into the shower and feverishly washed every inch of their bodies. The water was hot and the giants had given them soap a few days before. Never had the girls spent so much time washing each other, almost wrestling in their desperation to get the potion off of their skins. They stopped only when exhaustion set in and stumbled, still wet into their bed. Once they were in the bed again Jessie curled up against her sister.

"Lizzie?"

"Yea."

"We ain’t getting out of this are we?"

It was a question she had asked before. When they were in jail. When a biker gang had dragged them to a warehouse for sale to a white slavery ring. In all those times Lizzie had said something different than she did now.

"Nope."

"We gotta follow the rules."

"Yep."

"I’m scared."

"So am I."

They both fell into a troubled sleep and awoke many times that night sweating and twitching from nightmares.

The next day Mike tried to pretend that nothing was different and it was their fault anyway. Stung and enraged by his attitude they moved from the Adam’s house to a Victorian on the other side of the lake. It was a week before they talked to him again.

It was few months after that when the giants told them all they had a special project to do. Taken out of the town they had been loaded into Thunderbird 2, a craft none of them recognized, and taken to the desert. After the safety of Dollopolis the desert had been hell. For the first time it was truly brought home to them all how small and vulnerable they were. Until the giants set up a protective barrier, how they did it Lizzie had no idea, snakes and desert birds were a constant danger. Any sort of buzzing sound sent them all into a panic. Lizzie had been glad when the tunnel was done and all to ready to back to Dollopolis. But now she wondered if the giants would let them go back or if they would share Mike’s punishments. All guilty or all innocent had been the rule in Dollopolis and more than once Jessie and Lizzie had found themselves in the stocks for a day or more because of Mike.

Lizzie hugged her sister and hoped that for once the giants wouldn’t follow that rule.

You can not have a castle without a dungeon. Merry wasn’t sure where she had heard that but she felt it to be true. Count Intellect’s castle had a dungeon. It lay deep underground, so deep that it had taken five minutes of walking down a spiral staircase to reach it. The further down the staircase the Count had carried her the fouler the air had become and the more the stones seemed to close in on them. At the bottom of the staircase was a large chamber with vaulted ceilings. There were alcoves with bars on them around the edges of the chamber. In the center of the chamber was a burning fire pit. There were also cages that hung from the ceiling. Torches lighted the place and moss glistened evilly on the stone walls. Merry was free of the board, but her body was still sore from an exhaustive examination that had left no part of her untouched. Count Intellect had put her into his vest pocket and he paused at the entrance. Merry took it all in. The cells, the cages and one large rack that were set near the fire pit. Pokers were in the fire pit. On the rack was Lucy. She had been stripped naked and her body was covered with red symbols. Naked Lucy bore little resemblance to Goddess of Justice. She was a short woman with slight breasts and wide hips. Her face was round with wide eyes and a pug nose. Her long brown hair partially covered her face.

"The moon is almost risen my lord." Sebastion said.

"All is in readiness." Said a woman who came into the light.

Woman was a kind term. She was a walking corpse, with decaying skin hanging off of bone and only a few locks of white hair on a balding scalp. Her face had no nose and her eyes were two small fires. Only her mouth was fully alive and could have belonged to any beautiful woman. She wore a sequined evening gown that had seen better days.

"Excellent Cadaverous." Count Intellect said. He plucked Merry out of his pocket. "I wish our little Mystery Woman to watch. Find a place for her, but do not harm her in anyway."

"Yes my lord." The Ghoul said.

Merry nearly threw up as the woman took her. Close up the smell of decay was overpowering and she could see small bugs crawling on the woman’s body. Cadaverous looked around and then saw a heavily barred cage hanging from the ceiling. She turned a wheel set into the wall and the cage lowered. Grabbing a loose brick from the wall Cadaverous placed it into the cage and them placed Merry onto it. Then she turned the wheel and Merry was lifted into the air. When she was fifteen feet high Cadaverous stopped it. The brick rested on the bars and Merry felt her heart lurch as she realized how high up she was. The bars were set far apart, far enough apart so that if Merry left the brick she would fall through them. The heat from the fire pit was trapped this high up and Merry began to sweat heavily.

"View now Mystery Woman how I treat my enemies." Count Intellect said.

At a nod from him Sebastion broke a capsule under Lucy’s nose. The smell from it jerked her awake and her eyes cleared quickly.

"I’ll not be tortured by you fiends!" Lucy shouted. Her body began to shimmer and a blue aura surrounded it. The aura solidified into the woman that was Goddess of Justice. But just before it did so Count Intellect snatched a poker from the fire pit, but Merry realized it wasn’t a poker. It was a branding iron and he thrust it between the captive woman’s breasts.

Goddess of Justice screamed and tore loose from the rack. She grabbed hold of the branding iron and pulled it away from her chest. Count Intellect let if fall and then savagely backhanded her across the face. The blow sent her reeling back against the rack. She sagged to the floor but struggled to get back up. Count Intellect let her rise and then took a step toward her. Goddess of Justice swung a solid right to his face. It connected, but he barely seemed too feel the blow.

"My strength!" Goddess cried out as he caught her arm and stopped the next blow.

"It can not reach you." Count Intellect said. He twisted her arms and forced them behind her back, then held them there with one hand. With the other he reached in front of her and tore the front of her tunic away. Her breasts fell free and Merry winced as she saw the mystical symbol burned into the woman’s flesh.

"Do you think someone who has lived for centuries would not find someway of defeating you?" Count Intellect twisted her arms higher behind her back and Goddess of Justice screamed. "This ancient spell allowed you to start your transformation, but not to finish it. Now all the power from the Mystic White Gem will stay with the Mystic White Gem! The evil seal on your heart will not allow the strength of the goddess to pass!"

He grabbed her head and forced it back, baring her neck to him.

"Now shall darkness feast upon the light!"

His fangs appeared and he plunged them into her neck.

Merry fully expected to see the vampire drain the heroine, but after a moment a look of pain clouded Count Intellect’s face and he thrust Goddess of Justice away from him. She slammed into a pillar and sank to the floor. Even as she did so Merry saw the wounds on her neck heal.

"Poison!" He cried spitting out the blood.

"Justice!" Goddess of Justice cried out. She started to rise her large breasts falling out of what was left of her top. "Even were I still in the form of Lucy you could not take my blood and live! I have been blessed by Athena goddess of Justice!"

"And I by Mephisto!" Count Intellect cried. In one leap he was on her and his hand closed around her throat. Goddess of Justice fought against him but her blows had no effect.

"Cadaverous! Sebastion! The rack!"

The two servants came out of the shadows with a larger torture wrack and set it down by the fire pit. With Goddess of Justice fighting him all the way Count Intellect dragged her over to it. One by one he forced her limbs into the clamps and she was helpless to stop him. When the last clamp was fixed to her ankles he stepped back and laughed. It was a laugh that chilled Merry and even Sebastion and Cadaverous shrank from it.

"I have chained the Goddess!" Count Intellect shouted. He reached over and tore away the last of her tunic. Beneath it the woman had worn nothing and the sweat on her oversized body made it shine like oil. Every muscle was drawn taunt against her bonds and she had no fat at all on her body.

Goddess of Justice pulled against the clamps and her body tensed with the effort.

"You have chained me vampire but you will never break me!"

Again the vampire laughed.

"Anything can be broken over time."

"And the strongest blade is forged in the hottest flame!"

"There is another who thought like that. Two others to be precise." He picked a torch out of the wall and walked over to an alcove that had been hidden in shadows.

"Come out." He ordered and his voice had enough force in it to move stone. After a few moments a woman emerged from the shadows. She was tall, stacked with large breasts and wide hips. Her raven black hair ran down to her knees, but it was dull and lifeless. Her face was strong and handsome, with a solid jaw and wide nose. But her eyes told the story. They were deep and gray, but there was no life to them. They were the eyes of a person who was awake, but not fully conscious. She wore a blue mask that covered the top part of her face, but that was all she wore.

"Alpha?" Goddess of Justice asked.

"Yes, Alpha." Count Intellect said. "One half of Alpha and Beta, the Power Sisters, whose great beauty, blinding speed and insightful whit often captivated the very villains they fought." He brought her closer to the light and Merry saw the scars on her body. Whips and chains had been used with abandon and very little of her was left unmarked. "They too were powered by magic, two rings of the ancient Maga. They had only to bring those rings together to be empowered. Not changed in body as you are, so they wore masks. The masks protected them until I, on a nighttime lark, chanced to rest across from their apartment and saw them take off those masks. Capturing them was not difficult since they slept in separate rooms. But I found I could not remove the rings from their fingers. Thus with the chance of escape I knew I could never break them." He lifted up Alpha’s right hand arm and Goddess of Justice and Merry both gasped in horror. The hand was gone, replaced by a brass cap.

"Of course I did not throw the hands away." Count Intellect said. He gestured and Cadaverous carried a wooden box into the light. She opened it and revealed two human hands. They were healthy normal hands, each with a silver ring on the middle finger.

"When did you do this?" Goddess of Justice demanded.

"Months ago." Count Intellect replied. "Not being members of Force Group J I suspect you did not notice. Superheroes are often vanishing for long periods. I put the girls in racks as I have put you in a rack. Then I took their hands. The hands for some reason do not die. I am investigating the cause. Without the hope of regaining their freedom breaking Alpha became a matter of time and sport. With Beta I must confess I indulged my appetite. Her blood was a deep wine to me. When she was gone Alpha gave into despair and was easily crushed. How else do you think I found out about the Deep Pit?"

"Alpha listen to me!" Goddess of Justice pleaded. "Remember who you are!"

"She knows who she is." Count Intellect said. There was a smile on his face. "Who are you?" He asked Alpha.

"I am your slave." Alpha said in a calm dead voice.

"Pleasure me." Count Intellect ordered.

Without hesitation the tall woman knelt down and started to undo Count Intellect pants.

"What did you do with Beta?" Goddess of Justice demanded.

"Stop." Count Intellect ordered. He stepped away from Alpha and gestured her to rise. Count Intellect handed her the torch. "Reveal your sister to Goddess of Justice."

Silently Alpha took the torch and walked back to the shadowed alcove she had come from. As she walked the light of the torch revealed the corpse of a woman that looked exactly like Alpha. She too had a cap instead of a hand. The corpse was old and decayed.

Count Intellect laughed at the look of horror on Goddess of Justice’s face. Alpha stood beside her dead sister and her face showed no reaction.

"It was a month after Beta had died that I finally broke Alpha’s will." Count Intellect said. "After that it was a simple matter of asking questions. Allow me to demonstrate. Alpha," He spoke to her, "tell me who is Goddess of Justice."

"Goddess of Justice is Lucy Rothschild." Alpha said.

"What is her greatest fear?"

"That she will fail."

"You see?" Count Intellect said.

"I see that you are a monster without compassion or mercy." Goddess of Justice said.

"Well that is apparent yes." Count Intellect said. He started to walk away from the alcove and then turned back. A cloud passed over his face and he took the torch from Alpha and held it over Beta’s prone body.

"Cadaverous come here." Count Intellect ordered. Slowly the ghoul walked over to him. "What happened to Beta’s foot?"

"Rat’s my lord." The ghoul said in a voice that trembled.

"Rat’s that leave human teeth marks?" He turned and started toward her. Cadaverous backed up with a look of terror on her face. "Did I not order you not to eat any prisoner here without my permission?"

"She is dead my lord!"

"Dead or alive she is mine!" With a single blow he sent the ghoul crashing into the wall. "I have brought others back from the dead, I planned to do the same to her once I was ready. You might have ruined that!"

"Mercy master!" Cadaverous cringed against the wall.

"Goddess of Justice has observed that I have no mercy." Count Intellect barked the words with his face contorted into a mask of unholy rage. With a snarl he thrust the torch into the ghoul’s stomach. Foul smoke quickly filled the dungeon as flames consumed the unholy creature. Merry coughed and retched, her eyes burning from the stuff. It was a combination of a skunk and formaldehyde. Sebastion and Goddess of Justice did the same. Count Intellect and Alpha did not. It took quite a while for Cadaverous to die and the corpse to stop burning. The smoke cleared slowly as it was absorbed into the dark stones.

"There are times my temper gets the best of me." Count Intellect said calmly as he turned back to Goddess of Justice. "Cadaverous was a good servant. But she disobeyed me." He looked up at Merry. "You have now seen Mystery Woman how I deal with those who oppose me. Now watch as I reward loyalty. Sebastion made a mistake earlier, but it was out of stupidity. He did not disobey me." He turned to the were-wolf. "Do not kill her, but enjoy yourself."

"Thank you master." The were-wolf said bowing. His voice was a barely controlled growl. With a move that was typically human he slipped out of his multi-pocketed vest and then out of his briefs. Merry stared silently not daring to make a sound. The wolf part of the man did not extend to his penis. That was large and thick, only covered with black fur at the base instead of hair. Sebastion howled as he leapt onto the rack that held Goddess of Justice. There was no foreplay, no warning. He leaped and his erect penis was thrust into her in the same motion. She screamed and he howled.

"Think well on this Mystery Woman." Count Intellect said. Merry could not take her eyes off of the rape. "Defy me and you will be broken, disobey me and you will die, serve me and you will be rewarded."

He stood back and laughed as Goddess of Justice screamed in frustration and Sebastion howled in pleasure. His hands clawed her breasts and his tongue whipped again and again against her face. It tried to slip into her mouth and she snapped at it, but missed and he howled with glee at the sport.

Merry felt her soul shrivel. She could not bear the thought of Sebastion inside of her, neither could she bear the thought of walking around a mindless broken toy. Vague images flashed into her mind. Images of men and women taking her as Sebastion was taking Goddess of Justice. But as they came to her Merry found her body becoming aroused by those images and she knew, knew for a fact that she had done all of those things on someone’s orders. And that some part of her had enjoyed doing them. Some part of her had enjoyed it because that was what she had been ordered to do. Or not. Confusion reigned in Merry’s mind but her body ignored her mind and lust filled it.

Sebastion pulled off of Goddess of Justice some time later, spent and panting. Goddess of Justice blazed defiance with her eyes but her body was raw from the encounter. Count Intellect took a whip from the wall walked over to her.

Merry could not take her eyes off of the scene as the whip sang out again and again. The Count was a master at what he was doing. The whip struck a pattern on the captives breasts and between her legs, but it also snapped at the soles of her feet and the tip of her nose.

But beyond what Merry’s body was feeling was the absolute terror that filled her soul whenever she looked at the vampire. It was a terror that she was somehow familiar with. A terror of a power that she could never hope to match or defy. He paused, saw her gaze and smiled. Then the whip sang out again.

…To be continued.

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