Chapter 17 - Escape from Torture Mansion Island
Niesa could hardly believe her eyes when she came upon them. At first she couldn't tell what they were doing. But as she got closer to the swarm … and yes that was the correct word to describe it, swarm, she figured it out. It literally was a swarm of shrunken doll-sized women, aided by Faye and Lucy, tickling the Doll Collector down to size. The Doll Collector was almost doll-sized herself by the time Niesa, Beth, Lisa, Gwen and Jasmine arrived after emerging through the ventilation shaft that led to the storage room. She had been stripped of all of her clothing and was a giggling mess as dozens of tiny hands tickled her naked body clad only in her sheer striped pantyhose.
“You brought her down?!” Gwen said in disbelief.
“Yes. Sally Grundle's doll collecting days are over,” Lucy said looking on with satisfaction. She then noticed that Beth had joined them, “Oh Beth … and Lisa! I was wondering what happened to you two. I'm glad to see you made it. Where have you been?”
“We rescued Dr. Jasmine and now have a way of freeing ourselves from the polyphylon!” Lisa answered.
“Oh really? Then I think it's high time we left this place. Sally here ordered her minions to bring Dr. Cole down here. As soon as they realize she's escaped it's only a matter of time before they come back here. And since we have everything we need now I don't see any reason to stay. Anyone know of a secret way out of here?”
“I do!” Gwen said.
“Wait! Where's my sister?” Jasmine said looking at each face in the crowd for Penelope.
Faye looked at her sympathetically, “She's not doing too well. She took a nasty fall. She can't move her legs and can barely move her arms. I think she might be paralyzed.”
“Oh no! Where is she!”
“I moved her under the table away from the doll collector. It was getting too crowded over there.”
“You moved her?! You idiot! You probably made it worse!” Jasmine said as she ran to her sister.
Penelope looked utterly broken. Blood covered the floor around her head. She was dying. Jasmine held her hand gently and brushed back her hair. Penelope looked up at her. “You should listen to Lucy,” she said weakly, “get out now, they'll be here soon. Leave me behind, there's no saving me.”
“No, there is,” Jasmine said determinedly as she grasped her shrinker. She then turned to Sally Grundle, formerly the feared Doll Collector. Now just a giggling shrunken mess. She had already shrunken to her minimum size of five inches. The hundreds of tiny tickling hands had been quite efficient. Jasmine walked towards her and aimed the shrinker at her.
“What are you doing?” Beth asked, “Don't grow her back!”
“I'm not,” Jasmine said as she made some calibrations.
Suddenly Sally stopped laughing. “No! What did you do!?” she said in a panic.
“You've been freed, Sally,” Jasmine said. “Girls strip her of her pretty striped tights. She probably won't be as ticklish without them, but you can keep tickling her if you want. Still, I'm going to need those hose.”
“No! Don't take my stockings! Those are mine!” Sally said fighting to keep her polyphylon tights on as the girls ripped them away from her. It wasn't long before she was stripped naked by the swarm. The vengeful girls clawed and scratched at her as she screamed. They were about to tear her apart.
Lucy watched in horror having flashback to her childhood. The way the bullies would all gang up on Sally Grundle and beat her up. But this was even worse. They were going to kill her! She couldn't stand by and let it happen this time, even after all Sally had done to them. "Wait!" she shouted charging into the center of swarm, her size imposing enough to scatter them away from Sally. "We need her alive! They're coming and we need a hostage!"
Beth helped to calm the scattered swarm, "Lucy's right. They'll be down here any minute now. Come on, Jasmine come get her pantyhose, what were your plans with them we don't have much time."
"This!" Jasmine said zapping Sally's striped polyphylon pantyhose with the ray, it seemed to glow for a moment then disappear. Jasmine then zapped her sister, Penelope and the pantyhose seemed to magically reappear on Penelope, "It's just been recoded to augment my sister's DNA, it's an extension of her now ... and it should do the trick ... come on Penelope stand up!"
Penelope moaned as she wiggled her toes in a fresh pair of polyphylon pantyhose. It did indeed feel good. All her senses were heightened. She sat up, then she stood. She was cured!
"Yay!" Gwen clapped.
"Yay indeed now let's get out of here!" Lucy said worriedly as she picked up Sally.
"Where are we going anyway? How do we get out of here?" Christie asked nervously.
"There's a secret passage that leads outside if we go through a ventilation shaft to the next room. But we're in the middle of an island. I'm not sure how we're going to get to the mainland, much less back to the USA.
"Shrink Faye and I down," Lucy said, "Lead us outside and we'll get you off the island."
"No! I'm not going back there!" Sarah protested realizing what Lucy meant.
"Trust me, Sarah, I'll get you back home," Lucy said looking straight into her eyes.
The girls had to move quickly, they could already hear the sound of several footsteps approaching from above. It seemed several more of the doll collector's minions would soon be upon them. Gwen started leading many of them through the ventilation shaft in the wall as Lucy made sure to gag and wrap Sally up in cloth and twist ties she found from one of the open packages.
The footsteps could now be heard in the back of the room and they could hear Angelica giving orders to the minions ... although Niesa couldn't make out exact words. "Hurry Lucy!" she cried .
"We're taking her with us," Lucy insisted as she finished restraining Sally, "she needs to pay for her crimes." Beth agreed and enlisted the help of Niesa to drag her out as Jasmine shrunk Faye and Lucy down to size. But by that time, Angelica and her minions had arrived.
Most of the girls had made it through the ventilation shaft when a large box was suddenly thrust in front of the opening, knocking Beth, Niesa and Sally back just as they were about to enter the vent.
"Going somewhere?" A woman's voice said from behind one of the shelves. The clicking of the high heels gave Angelica away before her face was revealed. In her hand she held a shrinker and was pointing towards the remaining girls.
"Come one step closer and she's dead!" Jasmine said dragging the restrained doll collector into view and holding her shrinker like a gun to her head.
"An empty threat. Seeing as you've stripped her of her pantyhose. But my threats are not empty. I don't need to come closer to kill you. All I have to do is push this button and you're all dead. Sedgewick has programmed the failsafe to kill anyone wearing polyphylon that I'm pointing this at."
"You're bluffing," Jasmine said, "Sedgewick couldn't figure out how to do that."
"Are you willing to take that chance, Jasmine? Sedgewick may be an idiot, but you of all people know that he has a knack for figuring out how to kill things."
"Are you? Chances are that universal kill switch will kill you if it kills us. You're still wearing polyphylon hose."
"You think I'm that stupid? These are just normal sophisticate brand hose I'm wearing right now," It was true she wearing black pantyhose as opposed to her normal tan pantyhose, "I made sure to change out of my polyphylon hose after I learned you had a shrinker."
"Oh well in that case ..." Jasmine said turning the shrinker on Angelica. Suddenly Angelica was blasted out of her high heeled shoes into the air. Her head hit the ceiling with such force that she was instantly knocked unconscious. She fell to the floor out cold.
"How did you do that?" Faye asked.
"Sophisticate brand hosiery was actually the prototype for polyphylon. The Doll Collector invented the stuff after all. Our very first experiments were with sophisticate nylon. It can't do the same things as polyphylon, but there are still a few tricks up its sleeve."
"Well don't celebrate yet, there are more of them coming!" Niesa said pointing at Evie and Mindy who were charging after them.
"Don't let them get Angelica's shrinker!" Lucy shouted. She and Faye were still recovering from the dizzying and overly pleasurable effects of a fast shrinking, but the adrenaline of the escape managed to energize them. They ran to help Beth and Niesa push the box out of the way.
Jasmine took aim at Evie with her shrinker and locked on "Hmm, looks like she's still wearing polyphylon. Angelica wasn't kind enough to prepare her minions for the universal kill switch," Jasmine thought to herself as she adjusted the knobs.
"Hurry Jasmine!" Niesa shouted as the four of them continued to try and push the box. It wasn't budging.
"This will only take a second," Jasmine said calmly as athletic Evie was mere steps away from Angelica's discarded shrinker, "there!" she finally said turning the large knob on the shrink ray violently to the left. Evie disappeared instantly, and for a moment only her clothes hung in mid-air before falling on her empty sneakers.
Mindy, who was running only a few steps behind Evie, couldn't react fast enough and soon found herself tripping over Evie's empty clothes. She felt her own loose fitting sneakers fly off as she did an involuntary summersault and landed in an all too familiar position, looking up at her pink stockinged feet.
“Did you kill her?!” Beth asked shocked.
“No, I just shrunk her. I'm not as cruel as Angelica or Sedgewick. I think I saw her fall into her boot before the other one tripped over it. But let's get out of her before she recovers from her fall!”
"It's no use, the box is too heavy, we can't move it," Niesa finally admitted.
"Is there another way out?" Faye asked.
Beth looked up at the ventilation shaft in the ceiling. The one she fell out of when she first arrived in this horrible room. "There!" she said pointing up at it, "But I have no clue how we're going to get to it." Indeed there was no shelf positioned underneath it. No way to climb up to it.
"Do you think your grappling hook can support all of us, Jasmine?" Niesa asked. The last thing she wanted to do was scavenge for more toy grappling hooks.
"No, I have a better idea," Jasmine said walking up to Mindy who happened to have landed just below the ventilation shaft. Mindy was still stunned, but was on her knees now slowly trying to get back to her feet. But Jasmine quickly thwarted that effort by tickling those very same pink stocking feet.
"HAHAHAHAHA! GET AWAAHAHAY YOU LITTLE MAHAHAHONSTER!" she laughed stumbling back to the floor.
"I'll stop when you tell me where the rest of your little minion army is."
"HAHAHAHAHAHAA! WHY SHOULD I-HEHEHEHEEE TELL!" Mindy said defiantly.
"Because if you don't you'll suffer the same fate as your boss," Jasmine threatened as Lucy, Faye, Beth and Niesa dragged Sally into view.
"WHAHAHAHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?"
I'm asking the questions, now tell me where the rest of your crew is?"
"OKAHHAHAY OHKAHAHAY! AHAHAANGELICA ORDERED THEHEHEM TO CHEHEHEHECK OOUT THE DOHAHAHOLL HOUSE STORAHAHAGE CLOSET IN THE NEHEHEHEXT ROOHOHOOM!"
"Oh shit! That's where Gwen is leading everyone!" Niesa said.
"That means we better hurry and climb up on top Ms. Ticklish here," Jasmine said as she climbed on top of Mindy's butt.
"HEY GET OFF!" Mindy protested, but Jasmine just jolted her with the shrink ray knocking her out.
"Is she dead?" Beth asked as she climbed on top of her.
"No, just unconscious. Good thing for her too, if she were awake this would be rather painful. Now hold on to her," Jasmine answered as the rest of them climbed on top of Mindy's back, pulling the restrained Doll Collector up on top as well. Jasmine wasted no time and aimed the shrink ray at her again, this time turning the large knob slowly to the left. The girls watched stunned as Mindy slowly started to grow in size.
"Oh my god, woaah!" Niesa shouted as she nearly lost her balance and fell off. But she managed to grab hold of Mindy's shirt which was starting to stretch more tightly across her body. She looked at Beth who had nearly dropped Sally. She was still helplessly tied up in her cloth bindings, but they managed to pull her to the center of Mindy's back where there was a more level surface on which to keep her balanced.
"Unnn, what's happening to me ..." Mindy said starting to stir, "ugggh that hurts!"
"Easy girl," Jasmine said turning the knob more quickly. Mindy's clothes started to tear as she grew even larger. The button on her jeans popped. Her t-shirt ripped at the collar.
"AAACKKK!! STOP IT! PLEASE!" Mindy begged as her clothes tore to tatters. The five girls clung to the remaining shreds of shirt that still remained but were finding it more and more difficult to stay on top of her as she grew ever larger. Soon she grew so large that she couldn't fit in between the shelf and the wall. The shelf soon fell over as she continued to take up more space in the room. But Niesa also noticed that, as she grew, they were beginning to reach the ceiling and the ventilation shaft above.
"Jasmine, you're a genius," she said now holding onto the bare skin on Mindy's back. It seemed all of her clothes had torn off at this point. Mindy herself couldn't bear the pain and by this point had fainted from the rapid growth.
"She's going to have a bad headache when she wakes up," Jasmine said almost sympathetically. It wasn't long before they were within reach of the ventilation shaft. Mindy had grown so large that she had knocked over most of the shelves and was now taking up most of the room, and was even lying on top of Angelica and Evie.
"You must have grown her more than three times her original size," Lucy said stunned, "I had no clue your technology was capable of that."
"Neither did I, until now," Jasmine said as she pulled herself up into the ceiling, "now let's get the hell out of here before the angry giant wakes up."
Amanda screamed after hearing the crash of a nearby dollhouse. "Shhhh!" Tamara scolded.
"What're we going to do? We can't stay here!" Amanda whispered ... a little too loudly than was comfortable. The dollhouse storage room, once a safe haven for freed shrunken girls was no longer. The escapees had barely made it a quarter way through the storage room when the lights had suddenly switched on and the Doll Collector's minions began sucking the tiny helpless women up in their vicious vacuums. Gwen and the girls at the front of the line were caught off guard and sucked cruelly into the vacuum bags, shoes first. The lucky ones following in the rear managed to scatter and took refuge in nearby dollhouses before they could get caught. Amanda, Tamara, Luvia and Joyce managed to find one of their own. But the Doll Collector's minions were busy overturning all of the dollhouses and searching for any hidden stragglers.
"It's the same pair of twins that came after us before," Luvia said peaking out of the window, "and that British bitch."
The floor shook as a giant booted foot crushed a nearby dollhouse. "Sounds like they have their shoes back," Joyce shuddered.
"There's a 'hole lot of 'em ... I swear their like bugs 'iding under a rock," the one with the cockney accent said as Sarah, Lisa, Christy, Penelope and Chun Li scattered from the shattered remains of the dollhouse "Get the vacuum!"
"Coming Astrid," one of the Dobson twins said as she sucked up another shrunken girl.
"I think it's time we debooted our giant british friend," Tamara said arming her hookshot.
"No! You should use it on the light switch. If they can't see us we can get out of here," Luvia argued.
"Screw the lights, I'm taking them their boots!" Tamara said running out the door. As soon as she stepped outside she came face to face with a booted foot careening towards her. "Oh shit!" she cried out just before being kicked back into the dollhouse. But she wasn't inside for long. The kick had managed shatter the dollhouse and scoop her right up and out of it. Before she knew it she was sprawled out on the toe of the boot as it continued its ascent.
"Ha, this one's stuck to my shoe!" Astrid laughed as she stared at her boot. This gave Tamara enough time to recover from her daze. She saw the zipper of the boot well within reach of her hookshot, which was thankfully still in her hand. She took aim and fired! "What the 'ell?!" was all Astrid could say as she watched Tamara pull the zipper on the side of her boot down. The boot opened up and Tamara was pulled within arms reach of Astrid's stocking clad instep. "Don't you dare!" Astrid demanded as she watched Tamara's hand move towards her vulnerable sole. But it was too late. As soon as Tamara's tiny fingers made contact with the soft wrinkles clad in the very smooth polyphylon Astrid broke out in uncontrollable laughter. She soon lost her balance and fell over. Luvia, Joyce and Amanda rushed out to help Tamara as they pulled the boot the rest of the way off.
"Thank god for this hookshot," Tamara said as the four of them tickled Astrid's exposed stocking foot. Astrid fell over onto one of the dollhouses. Sarah, Amanda and Lisa, who had been running towards the dollhouse for cover, moved out of the way just in time.
"Damn, that was close!' Sarah said trying to catch her breath.
"Grab hold of something!" Amanda screamed as she grabbed Sarah's arm. She was being lifted off the ground by one of the Dobson twin's vacuums.
"Oh shit!" Sarah shouted as she grabbed ahold of Astrid's skirt. The two of them hung on for dear life as the vacuum was edged closer. Amanda's mary janes flew off her feet and were sucked into the vacuum. It was getting more and more difficult for Sarah to hold on, she was about to let go when she suddenly felt herself descend. It seemed the blond giant had changed targets.
"Thank god, I thought we were goners," Sarah huffed, still trying to catch her breath.
"I lost my shoes, I guess it was bound to happen eventually," Amanda said disappointedly looking down at her stocking feet.
Sarah just rolled her eyes, but then grew alarmed when she realized Lisa was no longer with them. "Where's Lisa?"
"She got sucked up into the vacuum," Penelope said gravely after she and Chun Li emerged from the ruins of the dollhouse. "She wasn't able to grab onto anything quickly enough."
Oh no!" we have to break her out.
"Don't be foolish, get under cover before she comes back for you," Chun Li ordered motioning them towards an unbroken part of the dollhouse.
It seemed that the vacuum had turned on Joyce, Christy and Luvia, who were still busy tickling Astrid's foot when the Dobson girl spotted them. Christy was caught off guard and was sucked up into the vacuum immediately but Luvia and Joyce managed to run behind Astrid's other booted foot. The Dobson girl, frustrated that she couldn't suck them up from the other side, attempted to move in closer to get a better angle.
"Oh, no you don't!" Tamara said emerging from behind Astrid with her hookshot anchored to Astrid's dress. She aimed and fired at the heel of her ugg boot just as the Dobson girl was lifting her foot. The boot was loose enough to just slip right off as soon as the hook was retracted. The Dobson girl looked down confused at the sudden loss of her shoe. "Yes!" Tamara said satisfied as she watched the boot slip free of her ticklish looking stocking foot, but then saw that the errant boot was flying right towards her! "Oh shit!" Tamara said dropping behind Astrid again. Astrid was just starting to recover from the tickling and sat up just in time to be whacked in the face by the flying boot! She fell back to the floor stunned.
"Two debooted, three more to go!" Tamara said to Joyce and Luvia proudly, re-arming her hookshot, "but you better tickle her quickly or she'll suck us all up before we have a chance to finish them off!" Luvia and Joyce nodded affirmatively before running out from behind Astrid towards the Dobson girl's descending stocking foot. Just like they had with the Doll Collector before, it was a matter of getting under her recently debooted foot before she had a chance to realize they were there to tickle her sole. The Dobson girl DID notice them just before putting her foot down. But it was too late. The sole of her stocking clad foot was now within reach of their tiny cruel fingers and she lost control.
"I-hehehehe-I've been debooted ahhaahahah! They're tihehhehehickling mehehee! Get them sis!" The Dobson girl ordered to her twin between laughter. Like Astrid she had fell over laughing, crushing another dollhouse and scattering Amanda, Sarah and Penelope. Chun Li found herself crushed underneath the ruins.
"I hope Tamara has a plan to stop the other twin," Joyce said concerned as she continued to tickle the soft giant twitching foot. One by one she watched in horror as her friends were sucked up by the blond twin's vicious vacuum. First Sarah, then Amanda, then Penelope, and now ...
"Too late!" Luvia shouted as she tried to pull Joyce away from the oncoming vacuum. Luvia tried to grab onto something ... anything as she felt herself being pulled backwards. The closest things she could reach for was the Dobson girl's stocking clad foot, but her polyphylon was too slick have any traction. She felt her shoes fly off into the vacuum and watched as Joyce's flew off as well. Eventually, her grip gave way and she and Joyce found themselves flying helplessly into the vacuum.
"Noooo!" Tamara shouted as she watched her friends get sucked into the vacuum. She was the only one left now. Suddenly the giant blond turned the vacuum on her. Tamara was ready to give up and let her self be sucked into the void. She closed her eyes and waited for it to happen ... but it didn't ... the vacuum stopped. When she opened her eyes the giant was no longer there. All that could be seen was her empty clothes falling suddenly on an empty pair of ugg boots. She had been shrunken!
"Tamara, where is everyone else?" Niesa asked from behind.
"What? Niesa? Where'd you come from?" Tamara asked confused.
"Look out there's two more coming!" Beth shouted pointing at the brunette Garin twins.
"Don't worry I got this," Jasmine said calmly as she locked on to her next target with her shrinker. One by one she instantly shrunk them down to doll size. Astrid and the first Dobson twin were recovering from their tickle attack and about to make a grab for their vacuums when they too were shrunken down to size. And with that all five giant minions were taken out of commission and shrunken down.
"You're amazing, Jasmine," Niesa said clapping, "you took 'em out so quick."
"It's an amazing bit of technology once you know how to use it," she said.
"Good, now we can free the others from the vacuums. Hopefully we can get out of here before more arrive," Beth said.
Kevin's step-father, Patrick, looked like he had aged ten years as the three of them waited at the airport. Not a word had been said in a long while. Kevin was furious at Patrick for letting them steal away his mother from the hospital, and Patrick was furious at Kevin for letting Beth go off and get captured by some twisted doll collector. But after having taken a call from some colleagues at the pentagon, it seemed Patrick had learned some new information that troubled him deeply.
"Vanessa, why don't you go get something to eat, I need to talk to Kevin in private," Patrick finally said. Vanessa, eager to get away from the tension, complied. Patrick turned to Kevin with a much softer expression. "Beth was telling me the truth all those years and I never believed her," he confided as tears welled up in his eyes.
"What are you talking about?" Kevin asked. He knew exactly what he was talking about though.
"About Beth's mother and sister. My first wife and oldest daughter. I always told you they died years ago in a tragic accident. But ... that's not true. They disappeared under mysterious circumstances. I ... I couldn't live with the thought of it. I gave up on them. I ... failed them. Beth never did though."
"Dad, Beth told me the truth about that a long time ago. She also said you had people searching for them for years. She doesn't blame you for moving on," Kevin said trying to comfort his father. He had never seen him like this.
"You don't understand ... I wanted to move on from the beginning. I needed to. Yvonne and I were separated at the time she disappeared. I ... I wanted so badly to find my daughter ... but Yvonne? I never told anyone about this ... but I was glad she was gone. She had a wicked streak in her. She could be kind and loving most of the time ... on the surface ... but ... I shouldn't be talking about her like this."
"Why are you telling me this now?"
"I just got a call from one of my colleagues at the pentagon. They've been studying the fabric that your mother was wearing. It turns out the disappearances of people from hospitals has been happening nation-wide. But it's only been happening to women who've been wearing this polyphylon hosiery of yours. They managed to track down and study the stuff and they've learned that it emits a unique radio-wave signal ... the same signal is being broadcast very strongly from an unidentified object that is currently orbiting the planet. They believe that it might be a space ship of some sort, but it's definitely not of United States origin. The strange thing is, they only recently spotted this object, as if it just appeared out of nowhere, but they have observed it one time before ... the night my first wife and daughter disappeared ..."
"What? What does that mean?!" Kevin asked.
"It could mean nothing ... when we get to DC hopefully we'll learn more ... but my gut tells me that my oldest daughter is alive and on that ship ... I don't know why."
"How much longer till we get outside?" Amanda asked impatiently as Gwen led them through the underground tunnels. All things considered they were making progress very quickly now that the doll collector's minions were subdued. Tamara had made rather short work of the vacuum bags with her hookshot. Though covered in dust the freed girls were no worse for wear. Most of them were even able to find their lost shoes. While the girls were being freed and were sorting themselves out, Lucy recommended that they tie up and bring the shrunken minions with them. Beth worried that they would slow them down, but Lucy was able to convince her that they were better off not having to worry about them recovering and catching up with them at full sized later on. So they tied up their five new captives and carried them, along with the tied up doll collector, through the tunnels in the walls until they were underneath the mansion grounds.
"We'll be emerging shortly," Gwen said trying to maintain an air of confidence. She was not used to the leadership role ... especially leading a group this large. There had to be at least two hundred of them. Still, she wondered how many got left behind. "At least the doll collector won't be there to torment them," she thought to herself.
A faint light could be seen up ahead. It was getting dark, but even the night sky was brighter than the darkness below. When the girls emerged from the tiny cave they found themselves standing on a narrow ledge overlooking the ocean. It was so small there wasn't enough room for all of them to stand there even in their shrunken state.
"Great! How are we supposed to get out of here now? Dive to our deaths?" Amanda asked as she looked down at the waves crashing violently against the jagged rocks below.
"Well the polyphylon will save you," Sarah said resisting the urge to push her off.
"No need, I've already called for a ride," Lucy said stepping out from the cave. Just as she spoke, a huge (to them) flying shuttle appeared before their eyes. Sarah and Lisa recognized it immediately as the same ship that had imprisoned them only yesterday. It seemed like a lifetime ago.
"No way I'm going back in there!" Sarah said as the shuttle pulled up along side them and a ramp lowered to allow them inside.
"Well, you can stay here on torture mansion island if you like, but I'm leaving," Faye said as she eagerly boarded the ship.
"I knew it!" a shrill male voice shouted from above. It was a familiar voice. The girls looked up and saw Dr. Sedgewick standing on the grounds above them. It seemed he had climbed over the walls around the mansion's property and was standing just above the ledge the girls were standing on. Beth wondered how long he had been up there. "I knew it was of alien origin! My theory was correct all along!"
"Sedgewick, if you value your life you'll leave now and tell no one about this," Jasmine threatened.
"What's that little squeaky voice? Is it threatening me? Hahahaha. I don't think you're in a position to do that Dr. Cole," Sedgewick laughed looking down at them and aiming his shrinker. "All I have to do is grow you back to your normal size and that tiny ledge you're standing on will crumble and you'll all fall onto those jagged rocks. It'd be an interesting experiment actaully, to see how long someone wearing polyphylon could survive in the ocean."
"I could do the same to you. You and I both know you secretly wear polyphylon, you cross dressing perv," Jasmine threatened continuing to take aim. As the two were bantering Lucy was busy ushering as many girls as she could into the shuttle. Sedgewick just watched with amusement.
"I suppose I could just grow you all back to size after you've entered the shuttle. It'd be fun to watch you all suffucate and crush each other inside that tiny thing until it bursts."
"That's it ... I'm killing him ..." Jasmine said to herself as she attempted to lock on to Sedgewick's polyphylon signal and arm the failsafe code. But nothing happened ... Sedgewick wasn't wearing polyphylon. She couldn't lock on.
"Hahaha, what you can't lock on? Too bad. See I told you I don't wear women's clothing. I bet you really wanted to kill me too with the failsafe frequency. Have you figured it out yet? Maybe I should just kill you that way. Shame really … I've really enjoyed our time together, but I guess all good things come to an end," he said pointing the shrinker at her.
"Dammit, get inside!" Jasmine said pulling a still defiant Sarah into the shuttle.
"Is that the last of them?" The pilot asked from a com-link.
"Yes! we're all in," Lucy said, "Close the ramp and let's get out of here!"
"No! You have to take him out first. He can kill us all with that thing. I'm afraid he might already be locked onto me."
"We have no weapons on this ship!" the pilot exclaimed ... with a voice that was starting to sound vaguely familiar to Beth.
"Then knock the bastard off the damn cliff!" Penelope ordered.
"Roger that," the Pilot affirmed.
Sedgewick stood on the edge of the cliff, taking aim at the shuttle as it started to move. He turned the dial slowly and Jasmine started to feel herself grow.
"AAaaaak! He's got me!" Jasmine said as her body painfully expanded.
"Don't worry this shuttle was built to handle 20 human sized people," Lucy reassured.
"But not 200 ..." Amanda said nervously.
"Hmm, I wonder what happens if I turn the dial beyond your normal size?" Sedgewick said to himself. "Ooh, is that a scream I hear? Hehehe, this is more fun than just killing you."
"Shit she's growing a lot bigger than human sized," Penelope said as she watched her sister scream in agony. Her body continued to expand and take up more and more space in the lab section of the shuttle.
"Pilot, you better do something quick!" Beth shouted.
"I got him," the familiar voice said the ship flew up right next to Segewick, and turned to the side just enough to nudge him right off the cliff with its wing. Even from inside the shuttle his screams could be heard as his body scraped along the side of the cliff before crashing violently against the jagged rocks.
"I think you got him ..." Sarah said dryly.
"Jasmine are you okay?" Penelope said rushing up to her giant body that was now taking up far too much space in the cramped shuttle. Jasmine was still conscious, but in a lot of pain. But she smiled.
"I bet he wished he was wearing polyphylon now," she tried to laugh while still gasping for air.
"I need to see the pilot," Beth said out loud but to no one in particular. She stormed to the front of the ship and pounded on the door, it was a small door, built for her own size. It slid open ... very futuristically. Everything outside the lab section was built for her current size, which was strange because the lab in which they entered was built with human sized people in mind. There were doors along the sides of the corridor leading to who knows where, but it was obvious to her that the cockpit was at the end of hallway at the opposite end of the door from which she entered. She pounded again. "Let me in! I demand to see the pilot of this ship."
"Who is this? Why do you want to see me?" the pilot answered.
"It's Beth Turam!"
The door opened and Beth saw the large window facing the front of the and two chairs, the pilot and co-pilot seat facing away from her. The pilot turned to the co-pilot, "take over a bit," she said before stepping out from behind the seat. Beth saw the pilot's face for the first time and what she saw shocked her, even though deep down she had suspected it as soon as she heard the pilot's voice.
"Cindy, is that really you?" Beth asked, tears welling up in her eyes. She hadn't seen her sister in over seven years.
"Yes, it's me Beth," Cindy said smiling sadly, also fighting back tears.
"Wh-wh happened to you? Why are you here? Wh-why didn't you come back?" Beth asked with a mixture of joy, sadness, anger and confusion.
"I wanted to come back. I really did. But ... it's a long story. But I'm back now. And ... you're with me."
"And we can can finally take you home, Beth," the co-pilot said. Beth's eyes widened when she heard the voice and saw the face emerge from behind the chair. It was her mother, Yvonne.
Niesa could hardly believe her eyes when she came upon them. At first she couldn't tell what they were doing. But as she got closer to the swarm … and yes that was the correct word to describe it, swarm, she figured it out. It literally was a swarm of shrunken doll-sized women, aided by Faye and Lucy, tickling the Doll Collector down to size. The Doll Collector was almost doll-sized herself by the time Niesa, Beth, Lisa, Gwen and Jasmine arrived after emerging through the ventilation shaft that led to the storage room. She had been stripped of all of her clothing and was a giggling mess as dozens of tiny hands tickled her naked body clad only in her sheer striped pantyhose.
“You brought her down?!” Gwen said in disbelief.
“Yes. Sally Grundle's doll collecting days are over,” Lucy said looking on with satisfaction. She then noticed that Beth had joined them, “Oh Beth … and Lisa! I was wondering what happened to you two. I'm glad to see you made it. Where have you been?”
“We rescued Dr. Jasmine and now have a way of freeing ourselves from the polyphylon!” Lisa answered.
“Oh really? Then I think it's high time we left this place. Sally here ordered her minions to bring Dr. Cole down here. As soon as they realize she's escaped it's only a matter of time before they come back here. And since we have everything we need now I don't see any reason to stay. Anyone know of a secret way out of here?”
“I do!” Gwen said.
“Wait! Where's my sister?” Jasmine said looking at each face in the crowd for Penelope.
Faye looked at her sympathetically, “She's not doing too well. She took a nasty fall. She can't move her legs and can barely move her arms. I think she might be paralyzed.”
“Oh no! Where is she!”
“I moved her under the table away from the doll collector. It was getting too crowded over there.”
“You moved her?! You idiot! You probably made it worse!” Jasmine said as she ran to her sister.
Penelope looked utterly broken. Blood covered the floor around her head. She was dying. Jasmine held her hand gently and brushed back her hair. Penelope looked up at her. “You should listen to Lucy,” she said weakly, “get out now, they'll be here soon. Leave me behind, there's no saving me.”
“No, there is,” Jasmine said determinedly as she grasped her shrinker. She then turned to Sally Grundle, formerly the feared Doll Collector. Now just a giggling shrunken mess. She had already shrunken to her minimum size of five inches. The hundreds of tiny tickling hands had been quite efficient. Jasmine walked towards her and aimed the shrinker at her.
“What are you doing?” Beth asked, “Don't grow her back!”
“I'm not,” Jasmine said as she made some calibrations.
Suddenly Sally stopped laughing. “No! What did you do!?” she said in a panic.
“You've been freed, Sally,” Jasmine said. “Girls strip her of her pretty striped tights. She probably won't be as ticklish without them, but you can keep tickling her if you want. Still, I'm going to need those hose.”
“No! Don't take my stockings! Those are mine!” Sally said fighting to keep her polyphylon tights on as the girls ripped them away from her. It wasn't long before she was stripped naked by the swarm. The vengeful girls clawed and scratched at her as she screamed. They were about to tear her apart.
Lucy watched in horror having flashback to her childhood. The way the bullies would all gang up on Sally Grundle and beat her up. But this was even worse. They were going to kill her! She couldn't stand by and let it happen this time, even after all Sally had done to them. "Wait!" she shouted charging into the center of swarm, her size imposing enough to scatter them away from Sally. "We need her alive! They're coming and we need a hostage!"
Beth helped to calm the scattered swarm, "Lucy's right. They'll be down here any minute now. Come on, Jasmine come get her pantyhose, what were your plans with them we don't have much time."
"This!" Jasmine said zapping Sally's striped polyphylon pantyhose with the ray, it seemed to glow for a moment then disappear. Jasmine then zapped her sister, Penelope and the pantyhose seemed to magically reappear on Penelope, "It's just been recoded to augment my sister's DNA, it's an extension of her now ... and it should do the trick ... come on Penelope stand up!"
Penelope moaned as she wiggled her toes in a fresh pair of polyphylon pantyhose. It did indeed feel good. All her senses were heightened. She sat up, then she stood. She was cured!
"Yay!" Gwen clapped.
"Yay indeed now let's get out of here!" Lucy said worriedly as she picked up Sally.
"Where are we going anyway? How do we get out of here?" Christie asked nervously.
"There's a secret passage that leads outside if we go through a ventilation shaft to the next room. But we're in the middle of an island. I'm not sure how we're going to get to the mainland, much less back to the USA.
"Shrink Faye and I down," Lucy said, "Lead us outside and we'll get you off the island."
"No! I'm not going back there!" Sarah protested realizing what Lucy meant.
"Trust me, Sarah, I'll get you back home," Lucy said looking straight into her eyes.
The girls had to move quickly, they could already hear the sound of several footsteps approaching from above. It seemed several more of the doll collector's minions would soon be upon them. Gwen started leading many of them through the ventilation shaft in the wall as Lucy made sure to gag and wrap Sally up in cloth and twist ties she found from one of the open packages.
The footsteps could now be heard in the back of the room and they could hear Angelica giving orders to the minions ... although Niesa couldn't make out exact words. "Hurry Lucy!" she cried .
"We're taking her with us," Lucy insisted as she finished restraining Sally, "she needs to pay for her crimes." Beth agreed and enlisted the help of Niesa to drag her out as Jasmine shrunk Faye and Lucy down to size. But by that time, Angelica and her minions had arrived.
Most of the girls had made it through the ventilation shaft when a large box was suddenly thrust in front of the opening, knocking Beth, Niesa and Sally back just as they were about to enter the vent.
"Going somewhere?" A woman's voice said from behind one of the shelves. The clicking of the high heels gave Angelica away before her face was revealed. In her hand she held a shrinker and was pointing towards the remaining girls.
"Come one step closer and she's dead!" Jasmine said dragging the restrained doll collector into view and holding her shrinker like a gun to her head.
"An empty threat. Seeing as you've stripped her of her pantyhose. But my threats are not empty. I don't need to come closer to kill you. All I have to do is push this button and you're all dead. Sedgewick has programmed the failsafe to kill anyone wearing polyphylon that I'm pointing this at."
"You're bluffing," Jasmine said, "Sedgewick couldn't figure out how to do that."
"Are you willing to take that chance, Jasmine? Sedgewick may be an idiot, but you of all people know that he has a knack for figuring out how to kill things."
"Are you? Chances are that universal kill switch will kill you if it kills us. You're still wearing polyphylon hose."
"You think I'm that stupid? These are just normal sophisticate brand hose I'm wearing right now," It was true she wearing black pantyhose as opposed to her normal tan pantyhose, "I made sure to change out of my polyphylon hose after I learned you had a shrinker."
"Oh well in that case ..." Jasmine said turning the shrinker on Angelica. Suddenly Angelica was blasted out of her high heeled shoes into the air. Her head hit the ceiling with such force that she was instantly knocked unconscious. She fell to the floor out cold.
"How did you do that?" Faye asked.
"Sophisticate brand hosiery was actually the prototype for polyphylon. The Doll Collector invented the stuff after all. Our very first experiments were with sophisticate nylon. It can't do the same things as polyphylon, but there are still a few tricks up its sleeve."
"Well don't celebrate yet, there are more of them coming!" Niesa said pointing at Evie and Mindy who were charging after them.
"Don't let them get Angelica's shrinker!" Lucy shouted. She and Faye were still recovering from the dizzying and overly pleasurable effects of a fast shrinking, but the adrenaline of the escape managed to energize them. They ran to help Beth and Niesa push the box out of the way.
Jasmine took aim at Evie with her shrinker and locked on "Hmm, looks like she's still wearing polyphylon. Angelica wasn't kind enough to prepare her minions for the universal kill switch," Jasmine thought to herself as she adjusted the knobs.
"Hurry Jasmine!" Niesa shouted as the four of them continued to try and push the box. It wasn't budging.
"This will only take a second," Jasmine said calmly as athletic Evie was mere steps away from Angelica's discarded shrinker, "there!" she finally said turning the large knob on the shrink ray violently to the left. Evie disappeared instantly, and for a moment only her clothes hung in mid-air before falling on her empty sneakers.
Mindy, who was running only a few steps behind Evie, couldn't react fast enough and soon found herself tripping over Evie's empty clothes. She felt her own loose fitting sneakers fly off as she did an involuntary summersault and landed in an all too familiar position, looking up at her pink stockinged feet.
“Did you kill her?!” Beth asked shocked.
“No, I just shrunk her. I'm not as cruel as Angelica or Sedgewick. I think I saw her fall into her boot before the other one tripped over it. But let's get out of her before she recovers from her fall!”
"It's no use, the box is too heavy, we can't move it," Niesa finally admitted.
"Is there another way out?" Faye asked.
Beth looked up at the ventilation shaft in the ceiling. The one she fell out of when she first arrived in this horrible room. "There!" she said pointing up at it, "But I have no clue how we're going to get to it." Indeed there was no shelf positioned underneath it. No way to climb up to it.
"Do you think your grappling hook can support all of us, Jasmine?" Niesa asked. The last thing she wanted to do was scavenge for more toy grappling hooks.
"No, I have a better idea," Jasmine said walking up to Mindy who happened to have landed just below the ventilation shaft. Mindy was still stunned, but was on her knees now slowly trying to get back to her feet. But Jasmine quickly thwarted that effort by tickling those very same pink stocking feet.
"HAHAHAHAHA! GET AWAAHAHAY YOU LITTLE MAHAHAHONSTER!" she laughed stumbling back to the floor.
"I'll stop when you tell me where the rest of your little minion army is."
"HAHAHAHAHAHAA! WHY SHOULD I-HEHEHEHEEE TELL!" Mindy said defiantly.
"Because if you don't you'll suffer the same fate as your boss," Jasmine threatened as Lucy, Faye, Beth and Niesa dragged Sally into view.
"WHAHAHAHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?"
I'm asking the questions, now tell me where the rest of your crew is?"
"OKAHHAHAY OHKAHAHAY! AHAHAANGELICA ORDERED THEHEHEM TO CHEHEHEHECK OOUT THE DOHAHAHOLL HOUSE STORAHAHAGE CLOSET IN THE NEHEHEHEXT ROOHOHOOM!"
"Oh shit! That's where Gwen is leading everyone!" Niesa said.
"That means we better hurry and climb up on top Ms. Ticklish here," Jasmine said as she climbed on top of Mindy's butt.
"HEY GET OFF!" Mindy protested, but Jasmine just jolted her with the shrink ray knocking her out.
"Is she dead?" Beth asked as she climbed on top of her.
"No, just unconscious. Good thing for her too, if she were awake this would be rather painful. Now hold on to her," Jasmine answered as the rest of them climbed on top of Mindy's back, pulling the restrained Doll Collector up on top as well. Jasmine wasted no time and aimed the shrink ray at her again, this time turning the large knob slowly to the left. The girls watched stunned as Mindy slowly started to grow in size.
"Oh my god, woaah!" Niesa shouted as she nearly lost her balance and fell off. But she managed to grab hold of Mindy's shirt which was starting to stretch more tightly across her body. She looked at Beth who had nearly dropped Sally. She was still helplessly tied up in her cloth bindings, but they managed to pull her to the center of Mindy's back where there was a more level surface on which to keep her balanced.
"Unnn, what's happening to me ..." Mindy said starting to stir, "ugggh that hurts!"
"Easy girl," Jasmine said turning the knob more quickly. Mindy's clothes started to tear as she grew even larger. The button on her jeans popped. Her t-shirt ripped at the collar.
"AAACKKK!! STOP IT! PLEASE!" Mindy begged as her clothes tore to tatters. The five girls clung to the remaining shreds of shirt that still remained but were finding it more and more difficult to stay on top of her as she grew ever larger. Soon she grew so large that she couldn't fit in between the shelf and the wall. The shelf soon fell over as she continued to take up more space in the room. But Niesa also noticed that, as she grew, they were beginning to reach the ceiling and the ventilation shaft above.
"Jasmine, you're a genius," she said now holding onto the bare skin on Mindy's back. It seemed all of her clothes had torn off at this point. Mindy herself couldn't bear the pain and by this point had fainted from the rapid growth.
"She's going to have a bad headache when she wakes up," Jasmine said almost sympathetically. It wasn't long before they were within reach of the ventilation shaft. Mindy had grown so large that she had knocked over most of the shelves and was now taking up most of the room, and was even lying on top of Angelica and Evie.
"You must have grown her more than three times her original size," Lucy said stunned, "I had no clue your technology was capable of that."
"Neither did I, until now," Jasmine said as she pulled herself up into the ceiling, "now let's get the hell out of here before the angry giant wakes up."
Amanda screamed after hearing the crash of a nearby dollhouse. "Shhhh!" Tamara scolded.
"What're we going to do? We can't stay here!" Amanda whispered ... a little too loudly than was comfortable. The dollhouse storage room, once a safe haven for freed shrunken girls was no longer. The escapees had barely made it a quarter way through the storage room when the lights had suddenly switched on and the Doll Collector's minions began sucking the tiny helpless women up in their vicious vacuums. Gwen and the girls at the front of the line were caught off guard and sucked cruelly into the vacuum bags, shoes first. The lucky ones following in the rear managed to scatter and took refuge in nearby dollhouses before they could get caught. Amanda, Tamara, Luvia and Joyce managed to find one of their own. But the Doll Collector's minions were busy overturning all of the dollhouses and searching for any hidden stragglers.
"It's the same pair of twins that came after us before," Luvia said peaking out of the window, "and that British bitch."
The floor shook as a giant booted foot crushed a nearby dollhouse. "Sounds like they have their shoes back," Joyce shuddered.
"There's a 'hole lot of 'em ... I swear their like bugs 'iding under a rock," the one with the cockney accent said as Sarah, Lisa, Christy, Penelope and Chun Li scattered from the shattered remains of the dollhouse "Get the vacuum!"
"Coming Astrid," one of the Dobson twins said as she sucked up another shrunken girl.
"I think it's time we debooted our giant british friend," Tamara said arming her hookshot.
"No! You should use it on the light switch. If they can't see us we can get out of here," Luvia argued.
"Screw the lights, I'm taking them their boots!" Tamara said running out the door. As soon as she stepped outside she came face to face with a booted foot careening towards her. "Oh shit!" she cried out just before being kicked back into the dollhouse. But she wasn't inside for long. The kick had managed shatter the dollhouse and scoop her right up and out of it. Before she knew it she was sprawled out on the toe of the boot as it continued its ascent.
"Ha, this one's stuck to my shoe!" Astrid laughed as she stared at her boot. This gave Tamara enough time to recover from her daze. She saw the zipper of the boot well within reach of her hookshot, which was thankfully still in her hand. She took aim and fired! "What the 'ell?!" was all Astrid could say as she watched Tamara pull the zipper on the side of her boot down. The boot opened up and Tamara was pulled within arms reach of Astrid's stocking clad instep. "Don't you dare!" Astrid demanded as she watched Tamara's hand move towards her vulnerable sole. But it was too late. As soon as Tamara's tiny fingers made contact with the soft wrinkles clad in the very smooth polyphylon Astrid broke out in uncontrollable laughter. She soon lost her balance and fell over. Luvia, Joyce and Amanda rushed out to help Tamara as they pulled the boot the rest of the way off.
"Thank god for this hookshot," Tamara said as the four of them tickled Astrid's exposed stocking foot. Astrid fell over onto one of the dollhouses. Sarah, Amanda and Lisa, who had been running towards the dollhouse for cover, moved out of the way just in time.
"Damn, that was close!' Sarah said trying to catch her breath.
"Grab hold of something!" Amanda screamed as she grabbed Sarah's arm. She was being lifted off the ground by one of the Dobson twin's vacuums.
"Oh shit!" Sarah shouted as she grabbed ahold of Astrid's skirt. The two of them hung on for dear life as the vacuum was edged closer. Amanda's mary janes flew off her feet and were sucked into the vacuum. It was getting more and more difficult for Sarah to hold on, she was about to let go when she suddenly felt herself descend. It seemed the blond giant had changed targets.
"Thank god, I thought we were goners," Sarah huffed, still trying to catch her breath.
"I lost my shoes, I guess it was bound to happen eventually," Amanda said disappointedly looking down at her stocking feet.
Sarah just rolled her eyes, but then grew alarmed when she realized Lisa was no longer with them. "Where's Lisa?"
"She got sucked up into the vacuum," Penelope said gravely after she and Chun Li emerged from the ruins of the dollhouse. "She wasn't able to grab onto anything quickly enough."
Oh no!" we have to break her out.
"Don't be foolish, get under cover before she comes back for you," Chun Li ordered motioning them towards an unbroken part of the dollhouse.
It seemed that the vacuum had turned on Joyce, Christy and Luvia, who were still busy tickling Astrid's foot when the Dobson girl spotted them. Christy was caught off guard and was sucked up into the vacuum immediately but Luvia and Joyce managed to run behind Astrid's other booted foot. The Dobson girl, frustrated that she couldn't suck them up from the other side, attempted to move in closer to get a better angle.
"Oh, no you don't!" Tamara said emerging from behind Astrid with her hookshot anchored to Astrid's dress. She aimed and fired at the heel of her ugg boot just as the Dobson girl was lifting her foot. The boot was loose enough to just slip right off as soon as the hook was retracted. The Dobson girl looked down confused at the sudden loss of her shoe. "Yes!" Tamara said satisfied as she watched the boot slip free of her ticklish looking stocking foot, but then saw that the errant boot was flying right towards her! "Oh shit!" Tamara said dropping behind Astrid again. Astrid was just starting to recover from the tickling and sat up just in time to be whacked in the face by the flying boot! She fell back to the floor stunned.
"Two debooted, three more to go!" Tamara said to Joyce and Luvia proudly, re-arming her hookshot, "but you better tickle her quickly or she'll suck us all up before we have a chance to finish them off!" Luvia and Joyce nodded affirmatively before running out from behind Astrid towards the Dobson girl's descending stocking foot. Just like they had with the Doll Collector before, it was a matter of getting under her recently debooted foot before she had a chance to realize they were there to tickle her sole. The Dobson girl DID notice them just before putting her foot down. But it was too late. The sole of her stocking clad foot was now within reach of their tiny cruel fingers and she lost control.
"I-hehehehe-I've been debooted ahhaahahah! They're tihehhehehickling mehehee! Get them sis!" The Dobson girl ordered to her twin between laughter. Like Astrid she had fell over laughing, crushing another dollhouse and scattering Amanda, Sarah and Penelope. Chun Li found herself crushed underneath the ruins.
"I hope Tamara has a plan to stop the other twin," Joyce said concerned as she continued to tickle the soft giant twitching foot. One by one she watched in horror as her friends were sucked up by the blond twin's vicious vacuum. First Sarah, then Amanda, then Penelope, and now ...
"Too late!" Luvia shouted as she tried to pull Joyce away from the oncoming vacuum. Luvia tried to grab onto something ... anything as she felt herself being pulled backwards. The closest things she could reach for was the Dobson girl's stocking clad foot, but her polyphylon was too slick have any traction. She felt her shoes fly off into the vacuum and watched as Joyce's flew off as well. Eventually, her grip gave way and she and Joyce found themselves flying helplessly into the vacuum.
"Noooo!" Tamara shouted as she watched her friends get sucked into the vacuum. She was the only one left now. Suddenly the giant blond turned the vacuum on her. Tamara was ready to give up and let her self be sucked into the void. She closed her eyes and waited for it to happen ... but it didn't ... the vacuum stopped. When she opened her eyes the giant was no longer there. All that could be seen was her empty clothes falling suddenly on an empty pair of ugg boots. She had been shrunken!
"Tamara, where is everyone else?" Niesa asked from behind.
"What? Niesa? Where'd you come from?" Tamara asked confused.
"Look out there's two more coming!" Beth shouted pointing at the brunette Garin twins.
"Don't worry I got this," Jasmine said calmly as she locked on to her next target with her shrinker. One by one she instantly shrunk them down to doll size. Astrid and the first Dobson twin were recovering from their tickle attack and about to make a grab for their vacuums when they too were shrunken down to size. And with that all five giant minions were taken out of commission and shrunken down.
"You're amazing, Jasmine," Niesa said clapping, "you took 'em out so quick."
"It's an amazing bit of technology once you know how to use it," she said.
"Good, now we can free the others from the vacuums. Hopefully we can get out of here before more arrive," Beth said.
Kevin's step-father, Patrick, looked like he had aged ten years as the three of them waited at the airport. Not a word had been said in a long while. Kevin was furious at Patrick for letting them steal away his mother from the hospital, and Patrick was furious at Kevin for letting Beth go off and get captured by some twisted doll collector. But after having taken a call from some colleagues at the pentagon, it seemed Patrick had learned some new information that troubled him deeply.
"Vanessa, why don't you go get something to eat, I need to talk to Kevin in private," Patrick finally said. Vanessa, eager to get away from the tension, complied. Patrick turned to Kevin with a much softer expression. "Beth was telling me the truth all those years and I never believed her," he confided as tears welled up in his eyes.
"What are you talking about?" Kevin asked. He knew exactly what he was talking about though.
"About Beth's mother and sister. My first wife and oldest daughter. I always told you they died years ago in a tragic accident. But ... that's not true. They disappeared under mysterious circumstances. I ... I couldn't live with the thought of it. I gave up on them. I ... failed them. Beth never did though."
"Dad, Beth told me the truth about that a long time ago. She also said you had people searching for them for years. She doesn't blame you for moving on," Kevin said trying to comfort his father. He had never seen him like this.
"You don't understand ... I wanted to move on from the beginning. I needed to. Yvonne and I were separated at the time she disappeared. I ... I wanted so badly to find my daughter ... but Yvonne? I never told anyone about this ... but I was glad she was gone. She had a wicked streak in her. She could be kind and loving most of the time ... on the surface ... but ... I shouldn't be talking about her like this."
"Why are you telling me this now?"
"I just got a call from one of my colleagues at the pentagon. They've been studying the fabric that your mother was wearing. It turns out the disappearances of people from hospitals has been happening nation-wide. But it's only been happening to women who've been wearing this polyphylon hosiery of yours. They managed to track down and study the stuff and they've learned that it emits a unique radio-wave signal ... the same signal is being broadcast very strongly from an unidentified object that is currently orbiting the planet. They believe that it might be a space ship of some sort, but it's definitely not of United States origin. The strange thing is, they only recently spotted this object, as if it just appeared out of nowhere, but they have observed it one time before ... the night my first wife and daughter disappeared ..."
"What? What does that mean?!" Kevin asked.
"It could mean nothing ... when we get to DC hopefully we'll learn more ... but my gut tells me that my oldest daughter is alive and on that ship ... I don't know why."
"How much longer till we get outside?" Amanda asked impatiently as Gwen led them through the underground tunnels. All things considered they were making progress very quickly now that the doll collector's minions were subdued. Tamara had made rather short work of the vacuum bags with her hookshot. Though covered in dust the freed girls were no worse for wear. Most of them were even able to find their lost shoes. While the girls were being freed and were sorting themselves out, Lucy recommended that they tie up and bring the shrunken minions with them. Beth worried that they would slow them down, but Lucy was able to convince her that they were better off not having to worry about them recovering and catching up with them at full sized later on. So they tied up their five new captives and carried them, along with the tied up doll collector, through the tunnels in the walls until they were underneath the mansion grounds.
"We'll be emerging shortly," Gwen said trying to maintain an air of confidence. She was not used to the leadership role ... especially leading a group this large. There had to be at least two hundred of them. Still, she wondered how many got left behind. "At least the doll collector won't be there to torment them," she thought to herself.
A faint light could be seen up ahead. It was getting dark, but even the night sky was brighter than the darkness below. When the girls emerged from the tiny cave they found themselves standing on a narrow ledge overlooking the ocean. It was so small there wasn't enough room for all of them to stand there even in their shrunken state.
"Great! How are we supposed to get out of here now? Dive to our deaths?" Amanda asked as she looked down at the waves crashing violently against the jagged rocks below.
"Well the polyphylon will save you," Sarah said resisting the urge to push her off.
"No need, I've already called for a ride," Lucy said stepping out from the cave. Just as she spoke, a huge (to them) flying shuttle appeared before their eyes. Sarah and Lisa recognized it immediately as the same ship that had imprisoned them only yesterday. It seemed like a lifetime ago.
"No way I'm going back in there!" Sarah said as the shuttle pulled up along side them and a ramp lowered to allow them inside.
"Well, you can stay here on torture mansion island if you like, but I'm leaving," Faye said as she eagerly boarded the ship.
"I knew it!" a shrill male voice shouted from above. It was a familiar voice. The girls looked up and saw Dr. Sedgewick standing on the grounds above them. It seemed he had climbed over the walls around the mansion's property and was standing just above the ledge the girls were standing on. Beth wondered how long he had been up there. "I knew it was of alien origin! My theory was correct all along!"
"Sedgewick, if you value your life you'll leave now and tell no one about this," Jasmine threatened.
"What's that little squeaky voice? Is it threatening me? Hahahaha. I don't think you're in a position to do that Dr. Cole," Sedgewick laughed looking down at them and aiming his shrinker. "All I have to do is grow you back to your normal size and that tiny ledge you're standing on will crumble and you'll all fall onto those jagged rocks. It'd be an interesting experiment actaully, to see how long someone wearing polyphylon could survive in the ocean."
"I could do the same to you. You and I both know you secretly wear polyphylon, you cross dressing perv," Jasmine threatened continuing to take aim. As the two were bantering Lucy was busy ushering as many girls as she could into the shuttle. Sedgewick just watched with amusement.
"I suppose I could just grow you all back to size after you've entered the shuttle. It'd be fun to watch you all suffucate and crush each other inside that tiny thing until it bursts."
"That's it ... I'm killing him ..." Jasmine said to herself as she attempted to lock on to Sedgewick's polyphylon signal and arm the failsafe code. But nothing happened ... Sedgewick wasn't wearing polyphylon. She couldn't lock on.
"Hahaha, what you can't lock on? Too bad. See I told you I don't wear women's clothing. I bet you really wanted to kill me too with the failsafe frequency. Have you figured it out yet? Maybe I should just kill you that way. Shame really … I've really enjoyed our time together, but I guess all good things come to an end," he said pointing the shrinker at her.
"Dammit, get inside!" Jasmine said pulling a still defiant Sarah into the shuttle.
"Is that the last of them?" The pilot asked from a com-link.
"Yes! we're all in," Lucy said, "Close the ramp and let's get out of here!"
"No! You have to take him out first. He can kill us all with that thing. I'm afraid he might already be locked onto me."
"We have no weapons on this ship!" the pilot exclaimed ... with a voice that was starting to sound vaguely familiar to Beth.
"Then knock the bastard off the damn cliff!" Penelope ordered.
"Roger that," the Pilot affirmed.
Sedgewick stood on the edge of the cliff, taking aim at the shuttle as it started to move. He turned the dial slowly and Jasmine started to feel herself grow.
"AAaaaak! He's got me!" Jasmine said as her body painfully expanded.
"Don't worry this shuttle was built to handle 20 human sized people," Lucy reassured.
"But not 200 ..." Amanda said nervously.
"Hmm, I wonder what happens if I turn the dial beyond your normal size?" Sedgewick said to himself. "Ooh, is that a scream I hear? Hehehe, this is more fun than just killing you."
"Shit she's growing a lot bigger than human sized," Penelope said as she watched her sister scream in agony. Her body continued to expand and take up more and more space in the lab section of the shuttle.
"Pilot, you better do something quick!" Beth shouted.
"I got him," the familiar voice said the ship flew up right next to Segewick, and turned to the side just enough to nudge him right off the cliff with its wing. Even from inside the shuttle his screams could be heard as his body scraped along the side of the cliff before crashing violently against the jagged rocks.
"I think you got him ..." Sarah said dryly.
"Jasmine are you okay?" Penelope said rushing up to her giant body that was now taking up far too much space in the cramped shuttle. Jasmine was still conscious, but in a lot of pain. But she smiled.
"I bet he wished he was wearing polyphylon now," she tried to laugh while still gasping for air.
"I need to see the pilot," Beth said out loud but to no one in particular. She stormed to the front of the ship and pounded on the door, it was a small door, built for her own size. It slid open ... very futuristically. Everything outside the lab section was built for her current size, which was strange because the lab in which they entered was built with human sized people in mind. There were doors along the sides of the corridor leading to who knows where, but it was obvious to her that the cockpit was at the end of hallway at the opposite end of the door from which she entered. She pounded again. "Let me in! I demand to see the pilot of this ship."
"Who is this? Why do you want to see me?" the pilot answered.
"It's Beth Turam!"
The door opened and Beth saw the large window facing the front of the and two chairs, the pilot and co-pilot seat facing away from her. The pilot turned to the co-pilot, "take over a bit," she said before stepping out from behind the seat. Beth saw the pilot's face for the first time and what she saw shocked her, even though deep down she had suspected it as soon as she heard the pilot's voice.
"Cindy, is that really you?" Beth asked, tears welling up in her eyes. She hadn't seen her sister in over seven years.
"Yes, it's me Beth," Cindy said smiling sadly, also fighting back tears.
"Wh-wh happened to you? Why are you here? Wh-why didn't you come back?" Beth asked with a mixture of joy, sadness, anger and confusion.
"I wanted to come back. I really did. But ... it's a long story. But I'm back now. And ... you're with me."
"And we can can finally take you home, Beth," the co-pilot said. Beth's eyes widened when she heard the voice and saw the face emerge from behind the chair. It was her mother, Yvonne.
