The Mouse Man’s Revenge

Part 1

The young psychiatrist pushed her glasses up her nose and turned to the next page in her notepad. “Tell me about her again, Milton,” she said to the somewhat agitated man on the couch. “Tell me about Wonder Woman.”

Her patient, Dr. Milton Raton, shifted nervously in his seat. He was an unusual subject, though no more so than the other prisoners of Haven Correctional Village. Like the others, he was a so-called “mad scientist,” a genius who’d used his unique gifts in pursuit of a life of crime. Dr. Raton had been an expert on chemical compounds until his experiments resulted in personal disfigurement and granted him telepathic control of rodents. Following this, he had jumped on the mad science bandwagon by strapping on a gaudy costume, calling himself the Mouse Man, and doing battle with superheroes. In Milton’s case, his most frequent foe was the Amazon Princess known as Wonder Woman.

“She humiliated me!” Milton declared. “Belittled me! Thwarted my every scheme and aspiration! I had not a moment’s peace from that costumed harpy!”

The psychiatrist made a note on her pad. “And how did that make you feel, Milton?”

“How do you think it made me feel?” the patient raged.

There was one other attribute that made Milton’s case particularly notable. A detail that his psychiatrist found secretly amusing, though she would never admit it to her colleagues.

Milton Raton had a height of approximately two inches.

“It made me feel…small.”

After his initial chemical mutation, Milton had been reduced to about six inches tall. As the years passed and his condition worsened, he had gradually been shrinking further. In recent weeks he had seemingly leveled out at the size and mass of an actual mouse. He swore that he could reverse this deterioration if he could just be granted access to a chemical lab. Given the history of his crimes, this was a request that Haven’s warden repeatedly denied.

“Is it not conceivable,” the psychiatrist said, “that your inferiority complex was causing you to project your anger onto an external target? That your crimes were simply a cry for attention to a world that was slipping farther away from you with every lost inch?”

“She bloody picked me up by my costume’s tail and dangled me like a fish!” Milton shrieked.

The psychiatrist sighed. This was getting them nowhere. “I think we’re done for today. I’ll escort you back to your cage. Er, cell. I mean cell.”

The towering brown-haired woman bent down and offered Milton her hand palm upward. Still fuming, the tiny man climbed aboard and sat down in a huff. He did not like these doctors who routinely analyzed him and asked him inane questions about his “feelings.” Psychotherapy was the last bastion of the inept and sentimental. Milton Raton was a student of the true sciences! Chemical reactions, laboratory experimentation, the tried and true application of the scientific method—this was his domain. The med school intellectual infant who now carried him could never truly understand his genius.

Still, she did offer one advantage. Like everyone at Haven, she underestimated him.

“No, I don’t think I’ll be returning to my cell today, ‘doctor’,” Milton chuckled. As the woman stood back up, he darted across her hand and up the length of her arm. Before she realized what was happening, he had leapt from her shoulder and disappeared down her blouse.

“Milton! What are you doing?!”

Bored by her prattling psychoanalyses over the past month, Milton had devoted time instead to studying her figure. At first this was purely recreational (he was only human after all) but soon idle fantasies had turned into strategy. He knew every inch of this woman and was certain he could navigate those curves at his present height. This had the added advantage of taking her completely by surprise and reducing her to the mental state of a schoolgirl who’d had a small animal dropped down her dress.

The psychiatrist flailed about as she felt the maddeningly ticklish sensation of Milton’s descent. He slid along the curve of her breasts, narrowly avoiding the gap of her cleavage, and jumped over the edge of her brassiere. Milton plummeted past her abdomen, tickling the skin with a light touch. To break his fall, he caught hold of a silky pair of underthings and slid onto the smooth surface of her thigh. From there, he rappelled down her nylon-covered leg, out the bottom of her skirt, and made a short jump to the floor.

“Security!” she shouted but her tiny patient was already scurrying away. In moments, the pint-sized criminal had crawled under the door of the office and was gone.

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Since that daring escape, it had been child’s play for Milton to hide himself in the nooks and crevices of Haven. The staff was of course combing the facility for him but with more dangerous inmates like Dr. Sivana, the Ultra-Humanite, and Professor Radium to worry about, the disappearance of the Mouse Man was of limited concern. His present height had rendered him completely harmless (or so they thought) and surely hunger or fear would drive him back into the open eventually.

Milton Raton had no such plans. As soon as he spotted a soon to be off-duty security guard, he stowed away in his jacket and hitched a ride to freedom. Ditching his unknowing host as quickly as possible, Milton focused on his new goal—revenge on Wonder Woman! Soon the Amazon would again face the wrath of the magnificent Mouse Man!

It took him several days to cobble together a makeshift mouse-suit out of discarded gray felt, some thread, and a length of pink string (no self-respecting super-villain would be without his uniform when planning his ultimate revenge). He also constructed a tiny laser cannon from scrap metal, spare parts, and a shard of a broken mirror (mad geniuses are nothing if not resourceful). It took another day to scurry unnoticed aboard a passenger train and arrive in Washington, DC, Wonder Woman’s current base of operations. By then, he was practically giddy with anticipation.

At last his patience paid off. He was about to pull a jewelry heist with some trained rats when he heard a nearby scuffle. A group of crooks was trying to mug a defenseless young woman. And sure enough, the Amazing Amazon descended from the heavens and made short work of them. She was restraining them with her golden lasso when the Mouse Man made his move.

“We meet again, Wonder Woman! For the last time!” the diminutive villain cackled. He casually approached her red and white striped boot and hoisted the laser cannon.

The Mouse Man peered up at his foe through the gun-sights. At his newly reduced height she seemed more colossal than ever. Shapely bare legs ascended like pillars to a pair of star-spangled trunks and hips seemingly as wide as a house. A red tunic topped by an enormous golden bustier followed. A mountainous bosom obscured his view but he could see her raven black locks flowing in the wind high above. She stood easily a head taller than his psychiatrist and had a far sturdier Amazonian build. Diana, Princess of Themyscira, was an imposing goddess indeed.

Failing to even notice the tiny criminal at her feet, Wonder Woman took a step forward and approached the frightened victim of the mugging. As a giant red boot loomed over him, Milton realized that he may have miscalculated slightly.

“Holy crap!” he squeaked, scurrying backward frantically. The huge boot slammed into the pavement mere inches from him, knocking him over with the resulting tremor. The Mouse Man continued to scramble away but the gigantic woman’s strides were simply too wide. Her foot crashed to earth once more, narrowly missing him and pinning his tail to the spot. As he tried to pull it free, the boot swung forward with terrifying swiftness and the toe section collided with his body. This inadvertent kick sent the Mouse Man flying.

“Are you all right, my sister?” Wonder Woman asked the young girl.

“Y-yes,” she stammered. “Thank you, Wonder Woman!”

“These men will be unconscious for a while,” said the heroine. “Call the police and everything will be all right.” Retrieving her lasso, she bent a metal pipe around their bodies to prevent their escape and took off once more into the sky.

Milton stared hazily at the trash can he had smacked into. A partially eaten blueberry muffin fell over the edge and landed on his head. Clearly, this battle would require a new strategy.

“Well played, my Amazonian nemesis,” Milton muttered. “Round One to you. But the Mouse Man has not yet begun to fight!”

To be continued...

Part 2

The second phase of the Mouse Man’s master plan would require the use of his much vaunted psychic powers. Well, much vaunted in his own mind. His fellow devotees of mad science had ridiculed his ability to command mice and rats. But vermin multiplied by the thousands in every city in the world and he was their lord and master. When the time was right, his armies would sweep over the land with righteous vengeance! All would be his!

Once he got the word out, that is. His powers had a rather limited range and he was hard-pressed to control more than a handful of rodents at a time. Also, a word of mouth campaign was a bit of a challenge when his henchmen had few higher brain functions besides “I want cheese” and “Ooh, look! Garbage!”

But that was of little consequence. The matter at hand was revenge on Wonder Woman and for that he would only need a few well placed minions. Through the grapevine of the city’s mice, he was soon able to determine where Wonder Woman could be found. The following day, she was scheduled to visit the city orphanage to read a story to the children. There, where she least expected it, the Mouse Man would strike.

He infiltrated the building with ease and waited for the opportune moment. As soon as the heroine arrived, the children rushed to greet her at the door.

“Wonder Woman! It’s Wonder Woman!”

“I love you, Wonder Woman!”

“Do you really have an invisible jet? That’s so freakin’ cool!”

“What’s Superman like? Are you two, like, gonna get married?”

“Pfft. Of course not, stupid. She’s in love with Batman!”

“Mr. Matthews, the janitor, says she probably likes girls. What’s he talking about, Wonder Woman?”

While his foe was distracted, Milton leaped from his hiding place in the shadows and positioned himself at the center of the room, taking aim once more with his laser.

“I have you now, Amazon!” he declared. “You cannot hide behind those pitiful waifs. Come forward. Your hour of doom is upon you. So swears the Mouse Man!”

Over the clamor of the children’s excited babbling, Wonder Woman once again could not hear her tiny enemy’s threats. Holding an aged book, she led the orphans towards a circular rug in the middle of the room.

“Yes, hello! Calm down, children, calm down. And please, call me Diana,” she said. “I’m here to read you the story of Perseus and Medusa. You know, I fought Medusa once myself and let me tell you, she’s quite a nasty piece of work. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Everyone sit down and we can begin.”

The children ran to the rug in droves, sending Milton scurrying about in a panic, dodging sneakers at every turn. The sky turned into a hail of high tops and descending bodies. In terror, the Mouse Man rushed towards any empty area of the rug he could find. When he thought he was safe at last, a dark shadow blotted out the florescent lighting. He glanced upward in time to see the curves of a massive star-spangled posterior rapidly lowering onto him with a crash. Wonder Woman had sat on him.

Huge Amazonian buttocks compressed Milton Raton into the carpet, nearly squeezing the life out of him. Wonder Woman scooted backwards slightly, getting comfortable, and unknowingly ground the Mouse Man into the rug. She felt a strange lump underneath her but paid it no heed. The kids were already eager to hear the story.

Unable to move, Milton was forced to listen to the entire tale, including Wonder Woman’s personal anecdotes about her experiences with Athena, Hermes, and other mythological personages. He was in searing pain and was finding it difficult to breathe beneath such a meaty wall of flesh. At last, Perseus slew Medusa (“Though not permanently,” Princess Diana added. “My old enemy Circe brought her back a few years ago. Hera, was that a mess!”). When the story was finished, Wonder Woman finally stood up, removing her crushing weight from Milton’s body.

For a moment, he stuck to her left cheek and rose into the air as she straightened up and stretched. He hurtled back and forth with every flex of muscle as the woman walked about the room. Finally he was flung off however and fell the length of her legs back down to the floor. The Mouse Man groaned. He was bruised and sore and possibly had a few bone fractures. Too weak to stand, he could only watch as Wonder Woman bid farewell to the children and exited the room.

Milton laid there in pain for a moment, gathering the stillness around him, until one of the kids noticed his presence.

“Miss Jenkins!” the curly-haired blonde girl called. “One of the gerbils got out again!” The headmistress of the orphanage hurried over to the spot and saw Milton’s prone form.

“Poor thing, it looks stunned,” she cooed, reaching down and scooping him up in her hand. She held him close to her giant face and inspected him.

“What an ugly little animal,” she remarked to herself. “Next year we’re getting bunnies.”

Miss Jenkins walked over to a plastic cage on a nearby table and deposited Milton within it. Shaking himself out of his daze, the Mouse Man turned to the trio of gerbils that he now shared a cell with.

“You’re no mice but you’re close enough,” he muttered. “Obey me, sub-creatures! Open the latch of this cage and free your master!”

The gerbils stared at him blankly. “Hi!” one of them thought at him via mental link. “Do you has food pellets?”

The Mouse Man sighed and balled up his fist, shaking it at the heavens. “Round Two to you, Amazon. Round Two.”

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Eventually, Milton jerry-rigged the gerbil cage and escaped into the city. He was limping painfully but filled with a fire of determination. Twice now, his rival had defeated him. He swore that she would not be so lucky again.

The following day, his spy network informed him that Wonder Woman’s next public appearance would be at a fund-raising dinner to benefit a prominent gay and lesbian rights organization. Milton sneered at the Amazon’s bleeding heart, leftist philosophies. As he laughed at the flamboyant excesses of the gay community, he adjusted his gray felt leggings, rounded ear headpiece, and stringy pink tail (the Mouse Man possessed many qualities but a sense of irony did not seem to be among them).

This time, he vowed, he would strike from a position of strength. He was too vulnerable at the floor level so his next attack would be focused higher. Stealing and altering a taser to his specifications, he constructed what was essentially a high-powered cattle prod. Even Wonder Woman could not resist several hundred volts of electricity surging into her neck!

The night of the dinner, he stole into the banquet hall and sequestered himself in the folds of a banner strung across the wall. Soon, various activists, donors, and politicians began to file into the room, taking their seats. Wonder Woman soon joined them and was greeted with thunderous applause. The Mouse Man scowled down from his perch. How these fools adored her, worshipped her even! He would bring that superhuman hussy down to size!

Moments later, Princess Diana was escorted to the podium to give the opening speech. Milton smiled as she stood directly under him.

“Thank you all for coming. I’m honored to be invited to speak at this event,” she said. “My sisters and I have dedicated ourselves to what we call the Gospel of Gaea. It stresses the equality of all people, regardless of gender, race, creed, or—”

As the Amazon prattled on, the Mouse Man jumped from his hiding place, hurtling down onto her shoulder. He hoisted his electric weapon towards the side of her neck but found it difficult to balance the heavy device on such a slippery surface. Losing his footing on her bare skin, he slipped and stumbled, the cattle prod flying out of his hands and landing on the floor behind her with a clatter. Milton himself slipped onto his rump and slid straight down the princess’ front, vanishing into her rather ample cleavage.

This had all happened in seconds and Wonder Woman was startled when she felt something small fall onto her chest. “What in Hera’s name?” She peered at her top to determine what had occurred.

At that moment, the doors of the hall burst open, revealing a tall, auburn-haired woman covered in a layer of tan fur and black spots. She wore a slinky tight-fitting black jumpsuit, cut far too low in the front. A long tail swished back and forth behind her. It was Dr. Barbara Minerva, the villainous Cheetah, flanked on either side by her henchmen and a pair of actual cheetahs who eyed the crowd hungrily.

“Evening, ladies and gentlemen,” the Cheetah purred. “I see a lot of wealthy investors here but I can think of a worthier cause to invest in. Namely me. So why don’t you just hand over your donations and valuables so I won’t have to give my pets here some new chew toys.”

“Cheetah!” Wonder Woman declared, momentarily forgetting the object that had struck her. “How dare you?”

“Why, look who it is!” The Cheetah bared her sharp feline teeth in a grin. She held out her hands to each side and extended a set of retractable claws. “Oh, this is going to be fun.”

In seconds, the two women had flung themselves at each other and were locked in combat. Superhuman blows were struck, sending reverberations through the hall, and a flurry of fists and claws slashed about. Diana tried to deflect the Cheetah’s attacks with her silver bracelets but the villainess managed to open a few gashes in her skin. Tables were overturned as the crowd fled the scene in terror, running for the doors, only to be blocked by the Cheetah’s lackeys and her feral pets.

Wonder Woman swung the Cheetah by her tail, but the villain quickly recovered and pounced upon her with savage fury. In response, Diana rolled backward, launching her enemy through the air with a powerful kick. Cheetah slammed into the wall, shattering brick and masonry. With incredible strength, she grabbed a chunk of the decimated wall and hurled it at Diana like a giant discus. This struck her with devastating force, sending her crashing into the opposite wall, demolishing this as well.

Meanwhile, deep between Wonder Woman’s breasts, Milton was violently tossed and ricocheted off the heaving walls of flesh. As Diana ran, jumped, and flew across the room, her every movement sent a tremor through the Mouse Man’s world. The colossal bosom squeezed tightly about him, only to suddenly shift direction and fling him back and forth like a pinball down the narrow tunnel. Every bounce, every jiggle, every hurried intake of breath battered and compressed him mercilessly until he feared he would be sick or pass out.

When at last it was over, the Cheetah, her goons, and her pets all lay unconscious at Wonder Woman’s feet. The hall had been completely destroyed. Diana brushed a few chunks of debris off her shoulders and hair and scooped detritus out of her bustier. The Amazons were not ashamed of their bodies as the women of the outside world were often taught to be. But still, such an exposing uniform had its downside. Pulling the chunks of brick and other rubbish out of her top, she tossed this aside and went apologetically to find the owner of the hall. Perhaps the Themysciran Embassy could pay for the damage.

As his quivering prison at last came to a stop, Milton felt giant feminine fingers scoop him out and cast him away. He landed with the pile of debris and once again lay pained and immobilized.

“R-Round Three, my nemesis,” he coughed. “You are a crafty minx indeed. I…I’ll just lie here for a while, shall I? But when I recover, prepare to taste my wra—Ow!” He clutched his injured sides in pain and promptly blacked out.

To be continued...

Part 3

Despite a few setbacks, the Mouse Man refused to admit defeat. Milton Raton was many things but never a quitter. He continued to exert his influence on the city’s mice and rats and used them as his personal spies. In time, this yielded an unexpectedly fortuitous result.

“Ah, Sentry 117.” Milton smiled as one of his information gatherers returned to his secret lair (said lair was actually just an abandoned cardboard box in an alley. It smelled vaguely of hobo and whiskey. But desperate times called for desperate measures). The little brown mouse scurried over to him and sat on his haunches in front of Milton.

“Hi!” Sentry 117 said to Milton telepathically. He squeaked cheerfully, twitching his whiskers.

“Have you located the woman I described to you?” the Mouse Man asked.

“Oh yeah. She’s super-nice,” answered Sentry 117. “And she’s got lots of cheese in her cupboards.”

Milton was astounded. “What? You’ve been to her headquarters?! I want a full report!”

“Well, there’s some Swiss and some Feta and some Gouda and some—”

“Not the cheeses, you imbecile!” Milton raged. “Her headquarters, where is it?!”

“Oh, I can take ya there if ya want,” said the sentry. “Just follow me.”

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True to his word, Sentry 117 led the Mouse Man to Wonder Woman’s home, a fashionable downtown apartment. Cackling with glee, Milton slipped under the door and stealthily searched the place. After locating a discarded ID badge, he discovered something few super-villains ever attained—Wonder Woman’s civilian identity! She was none other than Diana Prince, Agent of the Department of Metahuman Affairs!

In point of fact, this shouldn’t have been such a surprise. One persona was not all that far from the other. Princess Diana – Diana Prince. Tall, statuesque brunette who fights evil – Tall, statuesque brunette who fights evil…wearing glasses. It seemed that his eternal foe did not possess a great deal of imagination.

As Ms. Prince herself walked across the room preparing for work, Milton and the little mouse henchman hid themselves behind the couch.

“Well done, Sentry 117,” he whispered. “You shall be rewarded. But first I shall strike at my opponent where she feels herself safe. You cannot hide from the Mouse Man any longer, Wonder Woman! The day shall be mine!”

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The Mouse Man had secretly followed Agent Prince throughout her daily routine. He knew an overt attack would not be advisable with her fellow government agents surrounding her. And at last, he had admitted to himself that physical confrontation with the heroine was likely out of the question. No matter. His new plot would rely on cunning and guile.

Mid-morning, Diana had taken a break from the office to stop in at SunDollers Coffee. She had taken leave of her co-workers and the Mouse Man knew that this was the perfect opportunity. He listened with interest as she ordered an iced mocha. While the barista prepared it, Milton snuck behind the cashier station and up onto the counter. Before the underpaid college student could finish making the drink, several of Milton’s mousy minions knocked a collectable SunDollers coffee mug off a shelf. The crash that followed distracted everyone in the store momentarily and Milton seized his moment.

“This over-priced confection shall be your last, Amazon,” he thought to himself as he climbed the side of the plastic cup and perched on the rim. Milton drew a small vial from a pocket of his uniform and began to pour the contents into the mocha drink. Death by poison was not the most dramatic of demises for his enemy but it would suffice. The Mouse Man would claim responsibility once she was no more.

Milton pictured himself standing triumphantly on the chest of her lifeless corpse, like a mountain climber who’s finally reached the peak of impenetrable Everest. He smiled. Lost in his daydreaming, he did not notice that the barista had returned. As the girl lifted the cup, Milton lost his footing and plummeted into the frothy beverage. The barista absently covered the top with whipped cream, hiding his presence.

The mocha was handed to Diana who sipped it leisurely. Milton hid within the whipped cream and foam, keeping well away from the large pair of pink lips on the edge of the cup. He shivered as the cold started to get to him and tried to figure out a way to make his escape without being discovered.

Before he could make his decision, a voice crackled to life on Diana’s walkie-talkie. It was Tom Tresser, codename “Nemesis,” her partner at the Department of Metahuman Affairs.

“Diana! Come quick!” he bellowed. “It’s Giganta! She’s tearing up downtown!”

With alarm, Diana stood up from her table. “I’m on my way, Tom!” She paused and rubbed a bruise on her arm. She was still sore from her battle with Cheetah and would need an energy boost to take on a foe as powerful as Giganta. With this in mind, she quickly lifted the mocha to her mouth, tilted her head back, and chugged it. Diana felt a strange largish object slide into her throat with the coffee but assumed it to be an ice cube. With much bigger concerns to worry about, she swallowed.

A wave of coffee, chocolate, and foam washed the Mouse Man into the woman’s jaws, over her tongue, and straight down her gullet. Frightened and mortified, he realized he had been swallowed whole in but a single gulp. He tumbled down into her belly with a splash, joining the rest of the mocha and the cereal she had had for breakfast that morning.

Milton coughed and sputtered but addressed the enemy that was now all around him. “So, devouring your opponent alive, eh, Amazon? A rather ruthless stratagem! It reveals you for the barbarian you truly are! Nonetheless, the last laugh is mine! Even now my poison is working its way through you. We shall perish together, Wonder Woman!”

In truth, the minute amount of poison that had been in the Mouse Man’s quarter-inch beaker was not enough to have much effect on Diana’s Amazonian stamina. This, combined with the tiny man now sloshing about in her stomach, was doing little more than giving her a case of indigestion.

Meanwhile, outside the heroine’s innards, the situation was grave. The giantess Giganta, clad in her traditional leopard print two-piece, had grown to over a hundred feet tall and was stomping cars and menacing pedestrians outside the Capitol Building. The gargantuan redhead brought a huge bare foot down upon a parked minivan and laughed maniacally. She curled her toes over the metal, relishing the way it twisted and bent between them. A mob of people scurried at her feet and she took an imposing step forward, ready to torment and crush them like the bugs they were.

Slipping into an alley, Diana spun about and switched into her costume at super-speed. As she did so, Milton was slammed into the side of her stomach by the centrifugal force. He felt her body lurch as she took off into the sky. Wonder Woman flew downtown with the speed of Hermes and hovered just before Giganta’s nose, halting the giant woman’s advance.

“Hello, Doris,” she said to the giantess, folding her arms across her chest disapprovingly. “Don’t you ever get tired of this?”

“Which part?” Giganta asked with a smirk. “The tiny screaming people or kicking your miniature ass?”

“I remember past encounters ending a bit differently,” Wonder Woman remarked calmly. “What is it that you want?”

“Let my pal the Cheetah out of police custody or…or I crack open the Capitol and feast on a creamy filling of Senators!”

“Cannibalism, Giganta?” Wonder Woman was aghast. “That’s a little extreme even for you.” Had Milton been able to hear this conversation more clearly from inside her, he would have found this sentence highly ironic.

“Enough talking!” Giganta screamed. “Bring it, Travel-Size!” She balled up a humongous fist and took a swing at her floating adversary.

Wonder Woman skillfully dodged this blow, swooping from side to side as Giganta swung again and again. The mountainous redhead slapped her hands together, attempting to squash the Amazon Princess between them like a pesky fly. But once again, Wonder Woman avoided her. Changing tactics, Giganta focused her attention instead on the tiny, innocent tourists fleeing from the scene.

Lifting a shapely yet devastating foot, Giganta made ready to stomp a few terrified citizens into paste. Wonder Woman let out a gasp and dove for the ground, scooping a man and woman into her arms and out of Giganta’s path. The huge bare foot slammed into the earth behind them, bending and cracking the asphalt. As Diana set them down out of harm’s way, the giantess seized on this moment of distraction and delivered a powerful kick to her small foe. The giant foot punted the heroine with a resounding thud and sent her hurtling away.

Milton tumbled this way and that as Diana’s stomach lurched and her body was flung through the air. He felt the vibrations of her shuddering impact with a brick wall. The mocha and half-digested cereal churned around him and he fought to keep his head above the viscous sludge. The nausea this caused to his hostess was merely added to the pain wracking the rest of her.

Shrugging this off, Diana burst into the air once more, fists pointed forward. She slammed into Giganta’s face like a battering ram, causing the giantess to stagger backward slightly. The heroine pounded her again and again, swooping up and down from every angle and leaving welts on the giant woman’s skin. Just as she was diving forward for another attack, Giganta shook her torso side to side, jiggling a pair of voluminous breasts larger than any wrecking ball. These collided with Wonder Woman with incredible force, knocking her out of the sky.

While her opponent laid recovering on the pavement, Giganta stooped down and gathered up a frightened young man in her fingers. She lifted him high into the air until he was level with her ruby red lips. The feminine giant smiled a sinister grin.

“You know, Wonder Woman’s right,” she said, warming the frightened man with her breath. “I don’t usually do this. But now that the subject’s been breached…” A huge whale of a tongue slid slowly across her lips. “I kind of want to know what one of you little shrimps tastes like.”

The villainess lifted the man higher, tilted her head, and opened her mouth wide to receive him. Gripped between her thumb and forefinger, the man could only writhe about impotently in mid-air as he saw the dark, salivating chasm opening below. He let out a blood-curdling scream as her fingers released him and he was dropped into a huge waiting maw.

Wonder Woman shook herself back to coherent thought and peered up in horror. She was just in time to see the man disappear and the red-haired titaness close her lips behind him.

“Giganta, no!” In a flash, Diana had shot up to the giant woman’s face. With the strength of Gaea, she pried open Giganta’s jaws, bracing the upper teeth with her hands and the lower ones with her firmly planted stance. Peering within, she saw the man sliding haphazardly on a massive saliva-coated tongue. Seeing his savior, he tried to stand but a ripple of the tongue caused him to stumble backward into Giganta’s throat.

Diana immediately released the woman’s jaw and leapt forward, sliding down the length of the tongue on her stomach. Milton felt the impact of this but was unaware of what was going on. Unknown to any of them, the three costumed figures had formed a human Troika doll, with each successively smaller being inside the other.

When she reached the back of Giganta’s mouth, Diana dove after the tumbling victim. She tossed her Lasso of Truth down the gaping throat and snared the man around his middle. He dangled there, halfway down her gullet, the golden glow of the Lasso illuminating the tunnel-like esophagus around him. The terrified man could see huge muscles ripple under slick walls of pink flesh and he shivered at the sight. Below, there was only darkness.

For a moment, the giantess considered simply swallowing them both but feared the damage a super-strong Amazon warrior could do to her from within. Not only that, Giganta had never actually crossed the line from rampaging super-villain to man-eating monster (well, there was that one incident with the Atom. Though she had intended to retrieve him even before she got sick and threw up. Long story). What little humanity remained in Dr. Doris Zeul was hesitant to take this leap. She contemplated for a moment. Should she go for it? One little gulp and it would all be over.

As Wonder Woman pulled the man up to relative safety, the tongue shifted under them once again, guiding them both towards a row of large grinding teeth. Even if she didn’t eat them, Giganta could simply chew them both to tiny bits and spit their remains onto the White House lawn. Diana would have none of this however and stomped down hard on Giganta’s tongue. As the giantess cried out in alarm, the Amazon grabbed the man and flew to freedom.

“Doris, how could you?” she scolded, setting the man on a nearby rooftop.

“All right, so maybe eating people would bring down more heat than even I’m used to,” Giganta admitted reluctantly. “But then again, he did taste pretty delicious. You’re not bad yourself, Princess. What is that, vanilla body wash?” She licked her lips once more.

“You disgust me,” said Wonder Woman. Without another word, she flew straight at Giganta’s forehead, pounding it with more force than before. At last, the giantess fell unconscious and collapsed backward onto the street. The earth trembled, windows shattered, and car alarms blared to life. Then all was still. In moments, Department of Metahuman Affairs agents were swarming over the fallen colossus, affixing her with a neural inhibitor chip to cancel out her size-changing power. Slowly but surely, Doris Zeul shrank back to her natural dimensions and was taken into custody.

The morning’s events had left Diana quite exhausted and sick to her stomach. She wondered if she’d eaten something that hadn’t agreed with her (this was both physically and philosophically true. Wonder Woman and the Mouse Man had never agreed on anything, save perhaps a somewhat extreme sense of fashion). As the DMA did cleanup, Diana slipped unnoticed into a public restroom. Her nausea overcame her and she found herself retching in the stall. Once she expelled the contents of her stomach, she was greeted with a stunning surprise.

“Great Hera! Mouse Man?”

To be continued...

Part 4

Wonder Woman peered down at the tiny half-conscious figure floating in the toilet bowl amid the remnants of her breakfast that she had just expunged.

“Mouse Man? Is that you? Merciful Athena, were you…inside me?”

Milton blinked slightly and shook himself back to full attention. His costume was now little more than a few gray tatters hanging off his body and his skin had been burned a deep purple by the heroine’s stomach acids. He was wracked with pain, more severe than any he had felt thus far on this caper, and he was certain he could see bone through patches of skin that had been partially eaten through.

“So…” he croaked up at the startled female face looming above. “…you’ve decided to spare me after all, eh, Amazon? Commendable, though it will ultimately avail you nothing. I tire of your toying with me. Let us finish this here and now!”

“Toying with you?” Wonder Woman was more puzzled than before. “I haven’t been—Wait a minute. How long have you been following me?”

“Ha!” the Mouse Man laughed. “Feign ignorance all you want! I will still destroy you, Diana. Or should I say…Ms. Prince?!”

“How do you know who—Never mind that now,” Diana said. “We need to get you medical attention.”

Grabbing a paper towel, the woman reached into the bowl and scooped the Mouse Man up in her hand. She held him gingerly but still winced when she heard the shrunken super-villain moan with pain.

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Half an hour later, the Mouse Man found himself in a miniaturized sick bed somewhere in the Justice League’s satellite headquarters. A tiny man no bigger than him stood beside the bed, dressed in a red and blue costume with a cowl over his face. The strange little man had injected something into him with an equally tiny syringe.

“He’s stable,” the Atom said as the Mouse Man began to drift into a peaceful sleep. “I gave him a sedative and something to minimize the pain. But I’m not a medical doctor, Diana. This man is going to need more than I can give him.”

“I know that, Dr. Choi,” Wonder Woman answered. Her (subjectively) gigantic form towered above the table where Ryan Choi (the current Atom) and his miniature patient resided. “But I wasn’t sure who else to turn to. Treating him is understandably difficult due to his size. We can’t put him in just any hospital, especially not with what he knows.”

“I guess that’s where I come in,” said another voice behind them. The two heroes turned to see this new arrival. Standing in the doorway of the infirmary was a tall, stunning brunette woman clad in a magician’s tailcoat and top hat. Fishnet stockings clung to long shapely legs that, from the Atom’s perspective, seemed to extend for miles.

“Zatanna.” Wonder Woman smiled as her friend entered the room. She walked over to the lady magician and clasped hands with her. “Thank you for coming.”

“Nice to see you, Diana,” Zatanna said. She did not return her teammate’s smile. “But I’m not too keen on this favor you’ve asked for.”

“I realize that but I see no other solution,” the Amazon Princess insisted. “This man knows my secret identity.”

“Then maybe you should have picked one that doesn’t sound so much like your other name,” Zatanna shot back.

“Batman set that up,” Wonder Woman protested. “He arranged all the paperwork and got me the job with the Department.”

“Only because he knows you’re all about the truth and couldn’t give someone a false name. Only a slightly altered one,” said Zatanna. “If you could just learn to tell a damn fib, Diana—”

“Ladies, ladies!” the Atom called up to the bickering giantesses, waving his hands over his head. The two towering women stood before the table and turned their attention to the miniature hero, who had grown to about five inches to be more visible. “Let’s calm down a minute! Now…what exactly is this favor you’re talking about?”

“A mindwipe, Atom,” Zatanna said gravely. “Erasing memories.”

The Atom was dumbfounded. “You…you can do that? Wait, of course you can. There was that whole messy business with Dr. Light. And the Injustice Gang. And—”

“And…others,” Zatanna finished, hesitant to say more. “Things spiraled out of control. It’s too much power for any person to have. Not to mention a human rights violation. That’s not what the Justice League is supposed to be about. I swore I’d never do it again.”

“But what else can we do?” Wonder Woman asked. “We can’t send the Mouse Man back to prison with this knowledge.”

“No offense, Diana,” the Atom said, walking over to her hand on the table and leaning casually against the silver bracelet on her wrist. “But why not? You said this guy had been following you for days and you didn’t even notice. You kicked, squashed, stepped on, sat on, and swallowed the poor bastard alive if his ramblings are to be believed. Far be it from me to underestimate a little guy but it doesn’t sound like he’s much of a threat.”

“And what if he shares what he knows with others?” said Wonder Woman. “Someone bigger and stronger, coming to hurt me and those I love. Please, Zee. You have to do this.”

“No!” the lady mage declared. “Out of the question!”

Diana dropped to one knee and bowed her head. “By the grace of Olympus and the spirit of the Earth, I, Diana of Themyscira, pledge myself to your service, Zatanna Zatara. I offer you a boon of your choosing to be collected when you are in great need, if you will but grant me this request.”

For a long, agonizing moment, Zatanna paused and stared at the prostrate Amazon. She then let out a heavy sigh. “You always were a smooth talker, Diana. Fine. One more time. But you owe me.”

Zatanna approached the Mouse Man’s miniscule bed and leaned forward, casting him in her shadow. As the sorceress prepared to work, the Atom quickly hopped onto Wonder Woman’s hand and clambered up to her shoulder.

“I, uh, think I’d better stand back,” he murmured. Wonder Woman smiled at her little passenger and took a cautious step backwards as well.

“First of all,” Zatanna said, “let’s see what we can do about these wounds.” She placed a hand over the Mouse Man’s body, covering it completely with her slender fingers.

“Esuom S’nam seirujni laeh!” she intoned. There was a bright flash and Zatanna gently lifted her hand away. In the blink of an eye, Milton’s color returned to normal and the flesh re-knit over his bones. The acid burns all over his torso healed in mere seconds. Though his costume was still little more than rags, his body was restored. A moment later, the Mouse Man’s eyes sprang open and he looked about in confusion.

“Where am I? Who dares accost the maleficent Mouse Man?”

“Take it easy, Mighty Mouse,” Zatanna told him. “I’m just trying to help.”

“Aha, Wonder Woman can’t defeat me alone so she calls for backup. Is that the game, Amazon?” the Mouse Man said, throwing off the covers and leaping from the bed. “It’s to be two against one?”

“Hey, what am I, chopped liver?” the Atom called from Diana’s shoulder.

“You will not conquer me, Justice League!” The Mouse Man began scurrying across the tabletop.

“Whoa, where do you think you’re going?” Zatanna’s massive hand descended towards him but he leaped out of the path of her fingers. As Milton tried to escape, she reached for another target.

“No! Not the tail!”

The Mouse Man dangled upside down in the air, the tail of his uniform grasped firmly between Zatanna’s fingers. He fought and struggled but only succeeded in swinging back and forth ineffectually. The tail added authenticity to his look but it was certainly an inconvenience at times like these.

The magician lifted him up to her large blue eyes. “Listen, Mickey,” she said with a frown. “We’re 22,300 miles above the Earth in geosynchronous orbit. I don’t think you’re going to get very far.”

“You can’t hold me here! I am the Mouse Man! I will annihilate you all!”

“Let’s just get this over with,” Zatanna whispered. She held her other hand in front of the tiny villain’s dangling form and furrowed her brow in concentration. “Esuom Nam…uoy lliw tegrof…Anaid…Ecnirp!”

Milton went limp in her grasp and his eyes glazed over. Again, he shook himself out of his daze. “W-what’s going on? How did I get…I’m…so confused…”

“There,” Zatanna announced curtly. She grabbed Wonder Woman’s arm and roughly deposited the Mouse Man in her palm. “It’s done. I hope you’re happy. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a show to get to in Atlantic City.”

“Thank you, Zatanna,” Wonder Woman said. “I am sorry it had to come to this.”

“So am I,” the magician agreed. “But it’s hard to say no to you. You bring out the best in people. And sometimes the worst…” Both women glanced down at the minute figure in Diana’s hand, still scratching his head in bewilderment.

“I can’t help feeling sorry for this poor man,” Wonder Woman said. “Perhaps…perhaps your magic might be able to help his condition?”

Zatanna shook her head. “A chemical formula made him this size. Mixing science and magic is a risky prospect. Besides, I don’t want to fry his brain any more than we already have.” She took several steps away from her teammate and made an elaborate bow. “Catch you on the flipside, kids. And don’t think I won’t be collecting on that boon, Diana. Annataz…raepasid!”

With a small explosion and a puff of smoke, she was gone.

Still delirious, Milton glanced up at the woman who now cradled him in her hand. “Wonder Woman? How did....I can’t seem to…” His expression suddenly shifted to a scowl as something within him changed. “I’m not sure how I got here but I’ll destroy you, you Amazonian harridan!”

Milton jumped to his feet and reached for her, ready to fling himself at the giant woman’s face in fury. Wonder Woman simply closed her hand around him, squeezing him in her fist.

“That’s enough of that, thank you,” she commanded. “Come on, Mouse Man, it’s time to take you home.”

From his perch on her shoulder, the Atom watched the villain struggling and squirming in her grip. “He really doesn’t remember?”

“Let’s hope not,” the Amazon responded. “Atom…do you think I did the right thing?”

“Hard to say, Princess,” said the tiny hero. “But if it’s any consolation…I probably would have done the same.” This did little to relieve the troubled look in the heroine’s eyes as she took her miniature captive towards the teleport bay.

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Milton Raton sat stewing in the oversized psychiatrist’s couch. His two-inch frame was nearly lost in its vast leather folds. The man to whom he now spoke was not his original psychiatrist of course (she no longer found Milton’s condition to be cute or amusing and had asked to be reassigned to Prof. T. O. Morrow instead). Nonetheless, his inane theories and psycho-babble were just as annoying as hers had been.

Milton had been returned to the custody of Haven Correctional Village earlier that week. A day later, he’d learned that an anonymous donor had sent the prison money to fund the search for a cure to his miniaturization. They had even recommended a scientist on the payroll of the Department of Metahuman Affairs. After examining the patient, the scientist was hopeful that Milton’s condition might one day be reversed.

Milton cared little about this. He wasn’t certain how his latest scheme had been thwarted or why the conclusion of it was still a fog in his mind. All he knew was that Wonder Woman had taken something from him. Something vitally important. And he was going to get it back.

“So, Milton, how are you feeling today?” the new psychiatrist inquired.

“Invigorated, doctor,” Milton answered. “My recent experiences have left me refreshed and motivated. I am looking forward to what the future brings.”

“That’s good,” the psychiatrist said, making a note on his pad of paper. “There may be hope for you yet, Dr. Raton.”

The future, Milton thought. Oh, how he relished it. This bourgeois prison and its insipid jailers would not hold him for long. Soon, he would break free. And the Mouse Man would have his revenge!


The End