Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Mentallo and the Fixer, like Kasumi, were flying low to the ground. In
Mentallo's case, it was mostly due to inexperience with his mode of
transportation, as well as wanting to maintain a low profile while scanning
the area for the results of his handiwork. The telepath's choice of
transportation was a one person anti-gravity platform which had been one of
the Fixer's first contributions to Hydra. It consisted of a fifteen
centimeter thick disc with a one meter radius made of metal and plastic.
Yellow lights circling the disc flashed in varying degrees of intensity as
the device was propelled through the air. A light magnetic force emanated
from the base of the platform, helping the pilot remain fixed on the device
by utilizing the metal soles that lined his boots.

"I've definitely gotten the hang of this," Mentallo boasted as he tried to
execute a mid-air jump and ended up nearly crashing into a light pole.

"Right." The Fixer sighed. His choice of transportation was his own personal
'Techno-Battle Pack', which looked like an oversized silver metal backpack
strapped to him by a metal harness that reached under the arm pits and
across his chest. Two tubes pointing outward from the rear of the device
shot out small jets of red flame, propelling him through the air. Though it
was louder than the anti-gravity propulsion system in Mentallo's flying
disc, the jets were more compact, which the Fixer preferred since that meant
more room for his weapons. A variety of multi-functional weapons were laced
through the entirety of the battle pack, each one capable of dealing with
any aggressive situation in a wide variety of ways.

In the eventuality the pack proved insufficient, he had a wide leather
weapon's belt that held a variety of cylindrical objects that resembled
grenades. Also attached to the belt was a specially designed gun that was
linked up to the targeting computer in his helmet, as well as having its own
independent tracking system. And those were merely his second line of
defense. He had the firepower of several army platoons draped on his person.
He could take on a tank division single-handed and probably end up
victorious. Having such power at his command made his heart race.

"Looks like everyone's under the influence. My influence." Mentallo
snickered at his own little joke. "You are recording all of this, aren't
you?"

The Fixer pointed to the set of goggles and headset attached to his helmet.
"Inside this multi-optics headgear is a super speed digital camera that is
recording everything that I see. Linked up as it is with my Techno Pack, it
has a sensor suite that would make the JSDF's best surveillance planes turn
green with envy."

"Whatever, just don't look my way with it. I don't want anyone to see me in
this." The oversized mental intensifier looked even more stupid on
Mentallo's head than it had just sitting on the rack. It didn't matter how
successful the test was if he was made a laughing stock of the organization
in the process.

On the bright side, the test was going successfully. From their
observations, everyone inside the district of Nerima was now fully under
Mentallo's domination. Even those entering from outside the initial target
zone quickly fell under his influence as well. One more pass through the
area, and they would have enough information to conclude their mission and
write up their report.

Mentallo took note of his partner stopping a moment to do a close up on one
of the people on the street that was staring off into space. Distracted, he
continued hovering, turning the corner of a street, only to come
face-to-tiny face with an unexpected factor in their experiment.

"Oh my." Kasumi nearly collided with the flying man.

Staring at the tiny girl with wings that hovered directly in front of him,
Mentallo blinked once under his visor, then sighed. "I knew I never should
have listened to Honaga, but noooo. He just had to go on and on about how
drugs would make me forget all about Madoka. Just try the brown acid once,
he says, and now look at what I get: flashbacks a year later."

"What are you mumbling about?" The Fixer asked as he turned away from the
person he had been observing.

"Oh, I'm just hallucinating about a cute fairy flying in front of me."

The Fixer let out an irritated moan. "Are you still obsessing about
homosexuals? Didn't the Imperial Hydra warn you... Holy!" He activated his
telescopic lenses on the tiny girl flying in front of Mentallo. "It is a
fairy!"

That shocked Mentallo out of his stupor. "Wait, you mean can see it too?
It's not a hallucination?"

"I'm definitely getting readings on the object flying in front of you. It's
real."

Embarrassed by the attention she was suddenly receiving, Kasumi blushed. It
took her a moment to compose herself and remember the purpose of her flight.
"Ah, excuse me, but would either of you happen to know who's responsible for
making everyone just stand around? It's not you two, is it? It's really rude
to do this to people, you know."

"The fairy talks, too." Mentallo continued staring at her in abject
fascination.

"Capture it for study," the Fixer ordered.

"Right." Mentallo brought his platform forward to grab Kasumi.

A wave of panic momentarily overwhelmed the girl and she froze in mid-air.
>From her perspective, it was a giant's hand that sought to engulf her within
its grasp. Rather than fleeing from the Hydra agent's awkward lunge, which
she had ample time to do, she held out her tiny hands to ward off his own.

"Keep back!" Kasumi cried. As panic gripped her mind and her heart raced
like a triphammer, a tingling sensation built up in her forearms.
Instinctively, she pointed at Mentallo. There was a strange feeling surged
from her forearms and all the way down to her hand and fingers.

A crimson blast of energy leaped from her hands, catching Mentallo with a
glancing blow to his shoulder. Despite the fact the shot barely struck the
telepath, there was still enough force to send him spinning off his disc and
to the ground five feet below, were he landed on his back. He tried rising
to his feet, but fell back down, stunned by the combination of energy and
the fall.

The Fixer looked past his fallen partner to the people standing in the
street. The slack-jawed expressions were starting to disappear, slowly being
replaced by blinking and the closing of mouths.

"Snap out of it and reestablish mental contact with the populace!" the Fixer
shouted as he drew a gun from his belt. A narrow cable connected it with his
multi-optics helmet. With his weapon currently in battle mode, a head's up
display appeared in his goggles, a targeting sight dominating his vision. He
lined the sights upon the flying girl, barely able to manage a general lock
onto her because of her small form. He fired four times, sending a quartet
of 'tracker shells,' of his own design, after her. Once locked onto a
target, the tiny computers in the slender projectiles would follow until
they hit an object, presumably what they were aimed at. They were like tiny
heat seeking missiles, and could even perform intricate maneuvers if they
had enough time to react and reacquire their target.

Due to the sophistication of the tracker shells, they moved far slower than
normal bullets. Kasumi saw the projectiles coming right for her, so she flew
as fast as her tiny wings could manage. Despite the insect-like appearance
of the wings, Kasumi found that when pressed, she could fly far faster than
any insect, though her pursuers were faster.

Her flight took her past a fire hydrant, and she ducked behind it. Her
stratagem, as basic as it was, worked. The computers in the projectiles had
problems following a target as small as Kasumi. The first two were unable to
reacquire her and slammed into the hydrant. The metal shattered under the
force of the miniature missiles, cracking the casing and causing a blast of
water to spray straight up in the air. The pressure from the water caught
another of the shells, sending it off course and into a tree, its fuel
expended.

The fourth tracker shell evaded the deluge of water and reacquired its
target heading right for her. The sight of the huge object, which appeared
to be the size of a small rocket to her altered perspective, filled her
vision as it whipped towards her at deadly speed. Calling on every ounce of
strength she had, she twisted her body away from the speeding missile. The
projectile rushed past her, the heated surface of the metal side gently
caressing her flank and nearly catching on her tiny garb and ripping it from
her body.

The tracker shell continued onward, striking an empty store and shattering
the wide picture window in front. The blast it unleashed destroyed the
displays within. Kasumi cringed when she was the remains of a mannequin that
was hit dead on by the shell.

It was only after the last shell had narrowly missed her, the heat from the
exhaust still lingering in the air, that Kasumi came to grips with exactly
what had happened. Those two men had to be responsible for what had happened
to Nerima. Even worse, they had attacked her with no provocation. It was the
first time since fifth grade anyone had tried to harm her, and even then it
was just to shake her down for her lunch money. But these people had tried
to capture her, and when she defended herself, tried to kill her. Now Kasumi
found herself overwhelmed with an emotion she had not felt since her mother
died, at least with this sort of intensity.

She was very, very, angry.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

Satisfied his genius had taken care of their opposition, the Fixer rushed to
Mentallo's side. Pulling out a small stick from his harness, he gripped it
in both hands and snapped it in half. He waved the broken object under
Mentallo's nose, causing his companion to give a start.

Mentallo's eyes blinked behind his visor as he reoriented himself to the
world around him. "Whoa! She might look like a fairy, but she stings like a
wasp."

Seeing his partner was fully revived, the Fixer said, "Get these people back
under your control before they break free and figure out who wiped their
brains out for the last half hour."

It took only a moment for Mentallo to reestablish control over the populace
and returned them to their previous mindless state. Finished, he turned to
his partner, still trying to get the nauseating fumes from out of his nose.
"What was that? A super-reviver gas you designed? An un-unconsciousnator
device?"

The Fixer shook his head. "Just regular smelling salts. Sometimes it's the
simplest tools that are the most appropriate for the job."

Mentallo pointed over his partner's shoulder. "Then what are you going to
shoot her down with next? A slingshot?"

The Fixer looked in disbelief at the tiny girl who had somehow evaded his
tracker shells and was giving him a decidedly evil eye.

"I am very upset with your behavior," Kasumi softly intoned, hands on her
hips.

"Can you take her out?" the Fixer asked.

Mentallo sent out a telepathic command and Kasumi felt the scratching
increase in her skull. She wavered for a moment, but then forced herself to
concentrate. Using a song she had learned in school as the base her focus
would anchor upon, she expanded her consciousness outward from there,
forcing the presence trying to affect her mind, out.

The defeat confounded Mentallo. "No. I can feel her mind, but it's hard to
make out. It's like it's too tiny to get a hold on."

"Then we do it the old-fashioned way." The Fixer's hand was a blur as he
pulled one of the spheres from his belt and hurled it in Kasumi's direction.

Seeing the ball would miss her by a couple of meters, which seemed like a
couple of houses away to Kasumi, she pointed her hands once again towards
the pair and tried to  make the strange energy burst come forth again. It
took a moment, but the tingling sensation began to make its way through her
forearms and towards her hands.

Suddenly, the ball stopped in mid-air instead of sailing past. The
unexpected change in its trajectory caught Kasumi's attention, and she
paused to give it a closer look. It was jet black with a smooth glassy
surface, the only flaw in its texture were two strips of wires embedded
under the sphere's glazed exterior. They circled completely around the
object, one towards the top and the other towards the bottom, each was the
same distance away from the nearest end, giving perfect symmetry to the odd
design.

The sphere began to spin on its axis, increasing its speed until it was
nothing more than a blur.

As it spun, Kasumi felt something tugging at her, as though the object was
drawing her closer. She tried to fly away, but no matter how hard she beat
her wings, she felt herself pulled ever closer to towards the sphere.

"It's a portable gravity well," the Fixer informed her. "Its area of effect
is limited, but it's particularly useful for making bullets, grenades, and
even small rockets veer off course. And as you can tell, it's also useful
for taking care of pesky insects."

Kasumi saw he was telling the truth. Other objects, such as small clumps of
dirt, stray bits from the fire hydrant, and even insects no larger than her
began to succumb to the pull and shot past her and toward the sphere. They
ended up mashed into the surface of the metal object. She beat her wings
twice as hard, but it was to no avail as the speed with which she was being
drawn to the sphere doubled. Unable to fight the force, she found herself
pulled end over end towards the miniature gravity well.

As the distance closed to less than a meter, Kasumi knew soon she would be
drawn in and end up flattened across the spinning object's surface. During
one of her flips, she caught sight of an open spot through the debris,
revealing surface of the sphere. She fired a bolt of energy towards it
before being tossed head over heels again. Luck was with her as the bolt hit
the sphere dead on. Even as compacted and dense as the object was, it
cracked open under the onslaught of Kasumi's 'sting'.

With the sudden cessation of gravity, Kasumi found herself flying straight
to the ground, the direction she had been pointed in while still trying to
escape the globe's pull. She was barely able to reorient herself in time,
pulling out of her dive before crashing headfirst into the earth like a
diminutive lawn dart.

The Fixer scowled at the failure of another device. "This one's sure to get
her," he swore to himself. "Jericho Tube." In response to the verbal
command, his Techno Pack brought a microphone out from the front of his
harness and rose it to his lips. Simultaneously, a rod shot upward from the
back of the pack. Rounded metal unfolded from each side of the rod. The
metal sheets blossomed like a flower until they met above the rod, locking
into place and forming into an elliptical disc.

Kasumi was preparing to fly right at the duo when the Fixer gave a shout.
His voice was amplified over a hundred times by the antenna, the waves of
sound striking Kasumi with physical force. She was swatted down from the air
and towards the ground, where she skidded across the street several meters
before coming to a stop.

As hard and as far as Kasumi skidded across the ground, she still managed to
regain her footing relatively quickly. She was surprised by her resilience.
If she had been sent across that much asphalt at normal size, especially
wearing so little clothing, she would have been in a great deal of pain and
probably been unable to move. But aside from a bit of soreness, she felt
fine. She suffered only a few minor scrapes to her legs and arms, rather
than the deep gashes and whole patches of skin that probably should have
been missing.

Just as she stood fully upon her bare feet, the Fixer grabbed her securely
in his grip, pinning her arms to her side. He directed a haughty smirk to
his catch. "Looks like I got you.. No chance of stinging me with those nasty
little arms of you pinned, is there, my little Wasp?"

Despite knowing struggle was futile, Kasumi tried to squirm. If she managed
to work an arm free, she could shoot the man with one of those 'stings' as
he had dubbed them. To her surprise she was easily able to force the man's
hand open, despite the tremendous difference in size. Released, she flew
high and out of his ability to snare her a second time.

"How did you do that?" the Fixer gasped out, clutching his hand in pain. She
had torn herself out of his grip as though she were as strong as a normal
person rather than one less than a centimeter in height.

Seeing the results of her handiwork, it occurred to Kasumi that perhaps she
somehow maintained her 'normal' strength despite her diminutive stature. It
would explain how she could force her way so easily out of the man's grasp
and tear off the strips of her dress. However, there were more important
issue to resolve before testing her theory. "Take that!" she cried out as
she blasted the rod and circle components of the Jericho Tube from the
Fixer's Techno Pack, destroying the weapon beyond repair.

The Fixer held his hand over his face to ward off a second blast, but it
never came. He saw just through his fingers his opponent go flying off
through the air quite involuntarily, as though she had been slapped by a
giant invisible hand. He stared at where she had been in surprise, then
turned to his partner.

Mentallo gave off a low moan and held his head as best as he could with the
mental amplifier perched on his skull. "I hate having to use my telekinesis
like that, especially in a widespread arc."

"You saved my butt." The Fixer activated the radar unit in his pack and
tried homing in on the 'Wasp's' current location. Common sense dictated that
with their mission completed, both he and his partner should return
immediately to their headquarters. Pride overruled that. There was no way he
was going to let the flying pest get away with defacing his property and
destroying his brilliant and dangerous weapons.

"That's what partners are for. God, my head is killing me." Mentallo's hand
went into one of the pockets of his outfit and pulled out a bottle of
aspirin. He tried pressing down and twisting the top off, first to the left,
and then to the right. Failing to remove it, he tried reversing his actions,
all to no avail.

The Fixer held out his hand for the bottle. "Let me. I'm good at getting
those childproof caps off. It comes from having skilled hands in designing
all of these complex weapon systems."

Mentallo handed him the bottle. The Fixer tried pushing and twisting to get
the cap off, but he fared no better than his partner had.

"I thought you said you had soft hands," Mentallo winced from another spear
of pain to his brain.

"I do." Again the Fixer tried again and he still failed, even after he hit
the top of the bottle against his harness a few times. "Fine, I was
reluctant to do this, but I see I have no choice." He whipped out a device
that vaguely resembled a flashlight.

"What's that?"

"Automatic Childproof Cap Remover."

"You actually designed a complex device for something as simple as that?"

"Don't laugh. If I had come up with this before signing a contract with
Hydra, I could have made millions that way instead of resorting to join a
terrorist organization."

"It looks expensive."

"Each unit's retail price is somewhere around three hundred American
dollars."

"What?! You think people would pay that much for something that has only one
purpose, and a simple one at that?"

"Oh, I think so, if they want what's inside the bottle, " The Fixer waved
the container temptingly at Mentallo. The tablets made a hollow noise as
they rolled around in the half empty container.

Each rattle seemed to make Mentallo's heart (and head) long for them more.
"Good point. Get that thing open. I'll pay you later."

"Right." The Fixer pointed the end of the Automatic Childproof Cap Remover
at the top of the bottle. A light shone from the end and highlighted the
container in an eerie red glow. The cap spun around in several circles. The
Fixer gave a satisfied smile, and turned off the light.

"Voila!" he announced as he twisted the top.

The cap spun uselessly in a circle as it remained attached to the bottle.

"Why you little!" The Fixer shouted at the bottle as he proceeded to beat it
against the ground, his anger against his flying foe temporarily forgotten
as a much more insidious opponent was presented before him.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kasumi flew on, dazed by the powerful telekinetic blow. The invisible blast
had caught her completely off-guard, and she had suffered fully from its
effects. It was obvious she could not fight both men alone and save her
neighbors from becoming a bunch of mindless drooling zombies. There was no
telling what sort of havoc those two strangely dressed men -who were almost
certainly 'super-villains' like she has seen on the news lately- had wrecked
on the city. She might be the only person left in the entire country  who
still possessed her identity, and the ability to resist. But she wasn't
strong enough to do so and win. Maybe it was her size. If she could use the
machine to make herself big again, while keeping her wings and energy
blasts, perhaps she would be strong enough to defeat those two menaces, or
at least drive them off and free all of the people.

And then a horrifying thought occurred to Kasumi. What if the effects were
irreversible, or if they became permanent after a period of time? She had to
take a chance and act fast. The first order of business was to get big and
try to take the bad guys on at full size; it was her duty to her neighbors,
family, and friends.

She headed back toward Tofu's clinic. During her return flight, she kept a
wary eye behind her, but there seemed to be no sign of pursuit. That was a
break, and she needed every one she could get. She would have time to come
up with a plan after she made herself larger. She was still in the process
of actually coming up with a battle strategy, a task she had no familiarity
with, when her eyes alighted on someone in her flight path. Delighted at the
unexpected encounter, she veered down towards the man.

"Dr. Tofu! Dr. Tofu!" Kasumi cried out as she flew up to his face and looked
past his glasses and into distant eyes. Now that she thought about it, aside
from the slight bit of drool from his open mouth, and the fact he tended to
make a lot more noise, the look wasn't all that different from the one he
sported most of the time.

She cried out his name again, trying to snap him out of the trance. She was
about to give up hope when his jaws began to twitch. Again she cried out,
and this time he closed his mouth. His lips began to move. He spoke so
softly his voice nearly blended in with the breeze as he managed one word,
"Kasumi."

"Yes, Doctor, it's me," she said, delighted she had gotten through to him.
"I need your help. I need to get big again. To grow up to my normal size."

The distant look was still in his eyes, but now there was the shadow of an
emotion on his face. "Grow?"

"Yes, grow. I need to grow big and keep my wings so I can blast those awful
men who are doing this to everyone. Can you help me do that?"

"Grow." There was a hint of finality in the word this time.

Sensing this was the best she could manage, Kasumi said, "Yes. Come with me
back to your office so I can grow." She flew on ahead of Tofu, urging him
onward.

"Kasumi," he intoned and began to follow, his glasses fogging up ever so
slightly with each step he took.

The distance to the clinic was not far, though it took five times longer
than normal to get there due to the doctor's plodding pace. Several times he
almost stopped, but all it took was Kasumi flying up and pleading with him
to prod him onward once again. Eventually, the duo ended up in the lab
behind the clinic, next to the equipment that had turned Kasumi's world
upside down.

"Can you make me grow again?" Kasumi asked, constantly repeating the word
Tofu seemed fixated on.

"Grow," he said, moving over to a dial marked, 'Mass Increase,' at one end,
and 'Mass Decrease,' at the other. It was currently on the latter, so he
spun it to the left, almost to the maximum of the increase side.

Kasumi flew up to it, reading the English words. "Oh, if I had been paying
attention, I would have seen that and figured it out for myself." She looked
over some of the other controls Tofu was fooling with. All of them were
labeled, at least the important ones. If she had calmed down in the
beginning, it would have been simplicity itself to revert to her true size.

With the moment of truth upon her, Kasumi found herself reluctant to return
to her normal height. Being able to fly, even if she was tiny, had been the
most fun she experienced in ages. The best time she had period. Flying, and
being small enough to do so in anonymity, gave her a way to escape all of
the frustrations and tedium that came from taking care of her family and
acting as the responsible member of her household. True, she had wings
sprouting out of her back, but they were more neat than scary. And she still
had her normal strength, if not more than usual, at that height. And then
there were those mysterious blasts with which she could defend herself.
Changes, and in her opinion, all for the better.

Even the fighting, as much as she usually avoided confrontation, had been
exhilarating. Kasumi operated under no illusions as to what she was: weak.
Nabiki, Ranma, her father, even most people on the street could easily
overpower her. Someone had stolen her purse last month when she had gone out
shopping. All she could manage was a shout for help. Luckily, the police
were within earshot and caught the perpetrator before he had made it more
than a block. But if she had these fantastic powers back then, she could
have taken care of the matter and caught the thief for the police instead of
the other way around.

That line of thinking was silly, Kasumi told herself. She could not remain
small forever. She had her family to take care of. There was also the
everyday functioning and interacting with the rest of humanity. She could
hardly expect to do so when she was the size of a bug. There was no real
choice in the matter. She would miss this one brush with having abilities
far beyond those of normal people, but it had to be sacrificed for the good
of everyone.

"Grow."

The word snapped Kasumi out of her reverie. While she had been lost in
thought, Tofu had been busy. The machine was humming now, and the
projections, which had baptized her in their purple light, were now
gathering once again. Only this time it was Tofu, rather than Kasumi, who
was in the middle of them.

"Dr. Tofu, no!" Kasumi shouted.

It was too late as the purple rays struck the doctor, bathing him completely
in their eerie light. Instantly, his mass began to increase as he grew in
size. Kasumi's eyes turned as wide as saucers as she witnessed firsthand the
power of Pym Particles. Tofu's normal five eleven frame became tripled. His
clothing tore, shredded into dozens of pieces as his head brushed against
the ceiling. He continued to grow, increasing to twenty-four feet. The roof
gave out then as his head, then shoulders and chest burst through the top
and destroying it. He gave no sign of feeling the effects of driving through
the plaster and brick of his addition. And still he grew, expanding to the
size of forty feet before at last his growth stopped. Dr. Tofu stood alone
in the rubble, the slack-jawed expression at last disappearing as his senses
slowly returned.

As the building collapsed, the machines sparked and whined as shattered
pieces of roof smashed the equipment beyond repair. Kasumi was forced to fly
with every ounce of speed she could summon to avoid falling pieces of brick
and mortar. It was a difficult flight, but she managed it, exiting the
building and suffering no injuries. The fight with Mentallo and the Fixer
had been long enough ago that she had recovered her energy. She was in
perfect health, despite the beating she had taken. Again she wondered if her
recuperative powers had been increased as well when she was smaller.

But that was only given a brief thought. Once clear of the falling debris,
her concern was only for Dr. Tofu. She blamed herself for his predicament.
It had been obvious he was not thinking clearly, yet she had dragged him all
the way to his office and forced him to help her. Yet when they got there,
all she thought about was second guessing herself rather than keeping an eye
on him. Now the equipment was smashed into hundreds of tiny pieces and
buried under rubble. It was obviously irreparable. Worse, poor Dr. Tofu was
now going to be stuck as a giant, even as she was trapped at insect size. It
was all her fault.

Her heart weighing heavily upon her, she flew around the remains of the
building and towards Tofu. She looked up at his face, which was now starting
to regain some of its previous animation. Hoping his upward explosion
through the top of the roof had not harmed him, she examined his body for
any injuries

"Oh... my." Kasumi quickly covered her eyes, a shudder spreading down her
spine. Tofu had gotten larger in every sense of the word, and with his
clothes torn to shreds among the debris, she could assess that there was
nothing physically wrong with him and all the body parts that men should
have were present. It wasn't the first time she has seen that particular
part. Back in high school a friend had talked her into being naughty once
and they had peeked in the boys' showers after baseball practice. But it had
been nothing like this. But what was before her eyes now was inhuman, and
from her smaller perspective, downright disturbing.

Bracing herself, Kasumi closed her eyes and flew as high as she could. Once
convinced she was well past the area causing embarrassment, she dared to
open them, making sure she was looking up at the time. Full awareness had
returned to Tofu and he was looking around, obviously confused. Kasumi felt
it was her responsibility to explain exactly what had happened.

Kasumi's assessment of Tofu's state of mind was correct. He looked around at
the small world before him. His ability to react to the situation was better
than Kasumi's initially was, he knew damn well this was the result of the
Pym Particles, but the question was how had it happened? The last thing he
remembered was making the final adjustments to the machine, and then Kasumi
had come in...well that explained everything. Obviously he had lost it and
accidentally activated the machine, but what of Kasumi?

Tofu looked down at the ruins of the building at his feet. "Kasumi!" he
bellowed out with lungs far larger than their original size.

"No need to shout, Doctor," the disembodied voice of Kasumi called out.

Tofu spun his head back and forth. That was odd. By all rights, if he was
hearing Kasumi's voice, it should have been near the ground, not near him.
"Where are  you?"

"I'm right here."

The voice sounded as though it was right in front of him, but still no one
was present. It made no sense, and he was about to say so, when the reality
of the situation hit him full force. The answer was obvious; he could hear
Kasumi's disembodied voice next to his ear because Kasumi didn't have a body
anymore. The building had crushed her and it was

"Oh, Kasumi!" he wailed, burying his face in his hands.

"Yes, Doctor?"

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I can't believe how foolish I was. I should have
been more careful with you around. It must have hurt you so badly."

"Not really. The change was quite painless. Actually, I feel pretty good.
Much more lively than I have in a very long time."

"Lively?" The word stabbed his soul, and he began bawling at the top of his
lungs.

Kasumi marked that the deluge would have done her father proud. Trying to
regain his attention, Kasumi shouted at the top of her lungs, "Stop crying,
Dr. Tofu! Really, I don't mind being this way!"

"You're so forgiving," he lamented. Truly she was the most wonderful woman
in the world. If only he had possessed the courage to have told her in life
instead of losing his mind around her and acting the part of the fool.

"Well, I admit that I enjoy having the ability to fly. The wings aren't bad
at all. They're sort of neat."

She was an angel now. They had already given her wings. He always knew such
a sweet girl would end up there someday. "But you shouldn't have passed on
so soon," he began crying again.

"Passed on? I shouldn't have passed on what so soon?" Kasumi asked.

Tofu interrupted his crying briefly. "You know, going on the final journey
that all of us go on."

"To where, Hawaii? I already went there when I was in high school. It was
our senior trip."

"No, I mean, you know, going to the afterlife."

"Why would I want to go there? Is there some side effect of being small
that's going to kill me?"

"Being... small?" Tofu barely got out.

"Yes, Doctor. I'm small and can fly now. Your machine shrunk me. Don't you
remember that before you grew, or is your new height affecting your memory?"

"The machine shrunk you, and you're not dead?" he blurted out with more hope
in his voice than had ever been there before.

"That's right, Doctor. Hold absolutely still and I think you can see me."
She flew directly in front of his right eye, which looked as though it was
the size of a small car. "Can you see me?"

"No, I suspect I'm too big," Tofu admitted while being overjoyed at the
reports of Kasumi's death being greatly exaggerated.

"I'll show you something I think you can see." Kasumi flew several meters
away and released one of her stings.

Tofu was clearly able to see the energy blast. "How did you do that? And how
can you fly? You said you had wings?"

"You mean you don't know? But it was your machine that did this to me."

"Ah," Tofu was reluctant to tell the truth, but couldn't find the ability to
lie to Kasumi, especially since he was the one responsible for her
condition. "Actually the equipment is from an American friend of mine. He
died and left it to me. It's still experimental. If you have wings and the
ability to generate and discharge some form of bio-energy, the odds are
Henry's theories about possible mutations are true, even though he thought
there was an insignificant chance of it. We'll have to examine you
thoroughly and make sure there aren't any harmful side effects." He prayed
there were none. Henry's notes had believed there was a less than a tenth of
a percent chance of a human's body mutating when irradiated with the
particles, but mutations were random, and what appeared beneficial at first
might not be so over the long term.

Unaware of Tofu's fears, Kasumi found herself delighted at finally having
the facts behind her current condition revealed. Her joy at knowing the
truth was quickly dismissed as more pressing matters were at hand. "That
will have to wait. First we have to take care of those awful super-villains
that made everyone in the neighborhood into mindless zombies."

Tofu scratched his head in confusion. Kasumi made a mental note to inform
him he should start shaving his arm pits. It looked like jungle growth
forming there, with vines and everything.

"What super-villains?" he asked.

"The ones who made you a mindless zombie before the machine made you big and
broke you out of your trance. I'll tell you all about it, but first you need
to find a bed sheet to cover yourself up with."

"What do you mean?"

Kasumi looked to the sky while pointing downward.

"Oops." For a moment, he was going to cover himself up, but then a wave of
pride shot through him. He was not what women would call a 'man among men,'
in certain departments, which had always bothered his ego, especially when
it came to courting women, but now he was beyond a doubt the 'manliest' man
of them all, even if it was simply because all of his overall dimensions had
increased.

He was still trying to resist the urge to preen when two figures came flying
into view.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

"I can't believe you had to use that explosive gel to pop the top off,"
Mentallo said.

"I can't believe I had to use two doses before it worked." The Fixer
continued watching the miniature readout on his radar system. Supposedly the
flying girl had been in this area before ducking in a building and out of
sight. Now that he had finally managed to get aspirin for his partner, they
had time to capture the diminutive pest before calling it a night and
heading back to base.

However, the sight that greeted the Hydra agents as they came into view
stunned both men speechless. They paused in mid-flight, staring in awe at
what was before them.

Mentallo finally managed to say said, "I don't know about you, but I
suddenly feel very inadequate."

"Put a circus tent on or something, you giant freak!" the Fixer shouted.

Thoroughly embarrassed, Tofu bent down and grabbed a tarp that had been
placed over his neighbor's pool. It was a simple matter to tie it around his
waist, preventing anyone from making out any further intimate details.

"Why isn't that giant man standing around drooling?" the Fixer asked his
partner.

Mentallo reached out with his mind. "It's kind of hard to get a grasp on
him, like the girl. It must be a size thing. Although now that I'm probing
closer, he isn't as fuzzy around the edges as she is. Let's see if I can put
him under my domination."

Mentallo quadrupled his efforts. Instantly, Tofu felt pressure like a five
pound weight applied directly to his brain. Waves of fog seemed to cloud
over his vision, similar to the effect of seeing Kasumi, but with a black
stain tainting it. Realizing he was losing his ability to think, and that it
would leave Kasumi vulnerable to the duo's hands, Tofu found the will to
concentrate and try to force the presence out of his mind. The contest of
wills was fierce, with Mentallo's experience giving him the edge. For a
brief moment he had total domination, but the hold on Tofu's mind slipped,
as much due to the difficulties of contacting the physically altered mind of
Tofu as the doctor's will.

And then the contest was over. Mentallo withdrew his presence. "No go. His
mind is too hard to grasp."

The Fixer adjusted his Techno pack. "Then we do it the hard way again. The
giant man is mine. You take care of the girl."

While the duo formulated their battle plan, Kasumi acted. Seeing Tofu sway
under the telepathic assault, she flew closer to him. "Are you all right?"

Tofu blinked his eyes clear. The background psychic 'static' from Mentallo's
widespread domination wave was still echoing in his skull, but the direct
assault had failed. "I will be now. Look out!"

Kasumi darted away as the Fixer and Mentallo rose towards them. Kasumi flew
away from Tofu, hoping to draw both opponents away from him. However, only
Mentallo followed.

Mentallo increased his disc's speed and drew closer. "You're pretty nimble,
Fly Girl, but you can't escape me."

"I think I prefer being called Wasp. Fly Girl has all sorts of connotation I
don't want associated with me."

"How about Splat Girl instead?" Mentallo only used a small amount of
telekinesis, which would not hurt anywhere near as much as the widespread
force he had hit her with earlier, and hurled a flowerpot from a nearby
windowsill. Kasumi dodged the unconventional missile with ease. The telepath
hurled a second and third pot at the same time, both of which she evaded.
Tired of having things thrown at her, she retaliated by firing one of her
stings at Mentallo, but he dodged it using the flying disc.

"Nice moves. Now try this." Instead of only hurling one or two objects at
the same time at her, Mentallo braced himself for some serious pain as he
created a storm of items by using the debris from the addition Tofu had
destroyed during his unexpected growth. Again Kasumi found herself dodging
and blasting flying objects in an effort to keep from getting splattered.

During the start of the fight between telepath and human insect, the Fixer
found himself opening combat by flying up towards his opponent in order to
stand on at least semi-even ground with him. Once he had drawn closer to the
forty foot Goliath, the genius began to have second thoughts. The man was
even larger than the statue in front of 'Big Boy's.'

Refusing to be intimidated, the Fixer opened up by firing four stun discuses
with depleted uranium cores from his Techno Pack, and hit Tofu fully in the
chest. Together they had the combined force to knock over an elephant, but
Tofu withstood what would have been bonebreaking force to a normal person.
The impacts did cause him pain, and struck with enough power to cause
bruises to form immediately upon abused flesh, but after teetering for only
a moment, he quickly righted himself. In retaliation, he brought his hand up
and snatched his surprised opponent out of mid-air in unknowing parity to
what the Fixer had done to Kasumi less than half an hour earlier.

The Fixer's surprise was brief. Rather than trying to muscle out of the
grip, an impossible task for him, he doubled the intensity of the jets on
his pack. The reaction was instantaneous as Tofu growled in pain and
released his hold, drawing back his burned hand.

A smile broadened on the Fixer's features. His plan for his second attack
was abruptly halted when, instead of remaining in the air, he heard his jets
cough in protest and he jerked in the sky. Then the cough ceased, and he
plummeted several feet. The decent stopped just as quickly as the jets
re-ignited.

A quick system analysis showed the jets were malfunctioning, undoubtedly
because the Fixer had fired them in the enclosed space of his opponent's
grip and caused them to misfire. He quickly landed before his engines cut
out a second time. Despite the setback, the Hydra agent was a picture of
composure. Negation of his ability to fly was hardly a concern. He had other
weapons which would more than level the field of combat in every sense of
the word.

Tofu had finished assessing the burns to his hand, which, to his expert
eyes, appeared to be superficial, when a small ball shot forth from a
concealed launcher hidden in the shoulder of the Fixer's pack. The shot was
on the mark, an easy task considering the size of the target, and struck the
giant man in the face. The instant the ball made contact with Tofu's flesh,
it expanded to unleash a series of densely compacted tungsten bands that
proceeded to wrap themselves around his head. The bands wrapped tight, like
giant pythons, and blinding as well as blocking up his nose and mouth.

"I call those rubber bombs," the Fixer bragged. All that was left now was
for his opponent to suffocate, then he could assist his partner. Sparing a
glance in Mentallo's direction, he saw the fight between telepath and flying
girl was currently locked in a stalemate. The girl was continuing to evade
or blast all of the objects thrown at her while being too distracted to
blast her opponent. It was only a matter of time until she made a wrong turn
or the pain became too great for Mentallo to bear. Something had to give.

The Fixer returned his attention to Tofu. Much to the genius's astonishment,
the giant was able to dig his fingers under the bands and pull them outward,
despite their tremendous tensile strength. There was a snapping sound as one
of the bands gave. The sound was soon joined by an identical one, and then a
third and fourth. With so many bands destroyed, the rest went limp, unable
to maintain the hold on their target.

"This isn't good." The Fixer backed away in caution.

Only several meters away, Kasumi finally had fortune smile her way as there
was a temporary ebb in the storm of objects. Seeing her foe sway in obvious
pain, she released two quick blasts in his direction, silently noting that
both her forearms were starting to feel strained and a burning sensation was
creeping through them. It was the same tired sensation she felt when she
went swimming for too long. In the back of her mind, she wondered if she was
reaching the limit of the number of blasts she could unleash. She hoped she
did not find out the hard way.

The two blasts she loosed were on target, however Mentallo recovered enough
to dodge shakily with his flying disc. Rather than hitting him, one of the
blasts struck the mental amplifying helmet, damaging the casing and causing
sparks to fly. The second blast struck his flying disc dead center, punching
a hole clean through its propulsion unit. Bereft of the power of flight,
Mentallo fell. Fortunately for him, he had been staying close to the ground,
and only fell a single meter and landing on his bottom once again.

Sensing an opportunity to finish the fight, Kasumi flew in low. She was just
about to unleash another blast at close range, one Mentallo would have no
chance of dodging, when she heard the familiar voice of the Fixer to her
right.

"Let's see how you like my version of bug spray, Wasp!" Vents from the pack
sent out a billowing gray cloud directly at Kasumi, completely engulfing
her. "Gotcha!"

"KASUMI!" Tofu's voice boomed louder than a dozen megaphones as he witnessed
the young woman's fate. Before the Fixer could hope to react, Tofu closed
the distance between them in two steps and caught him with a powerful kick.

The Fixer's fate was somewhat better than a football's in a similar
position. The Hydra agent turned just enough to catch the majority of the
blow on his backpack. Regardless, enough force was transmitted through the
pack and into the body wearing it to send him flying. The Fixer went
skidding across a lawn and through a wooden fence before the impromptu
flight was arrested by a large oak, which caused his pack to sustain a
second hard blow within a handful of seconds. Sparks shot out of his Techno
Pack, and the readout in his goggles showed that nearly twenty percent of
his systems were down.

"And there's more on the way," the Fixer moaned as Tofu approached him,
obviously intent on punting him even further away, most likely somewhere
around China. With no time to consider which weapon might come close to
enabling him to survive the blow, Hiroshi Karigiri did the first thing that
came to mind and prayed.

Just as Tofu drew his foot back, he let out a scream of pain and clutched
his head, digging his fingers deep into his scalp. Wide-eyed at the turn of
events, the Fixer could scarcely believe his luck as the foot returned to
the ground and Tofu swayed on his feet, obviously stunned senseless.

"I got him!" shouted Mentallo as he pumped his fist towards his partner. "I
had to turn off my mental domination of the neighborhood, and it took all of
my remaining psychic energy, but I got in a brain blast that could knock
even tall guy there off his feet. I'd say that's one kill apiece, partner."

Nodding in agreement, the Fixer was returning Mentallo's thumb's up sign
when he saw a shadow begin to grow around his partner. He turned just as
Mentallo did, and realized at the same instant what the ominous shadow
foretold.

The Fixer couldn't stand to watch as he averted his eyes one moment before
Tofu, now unconscious, fell to the ground. Much to the Hydra agents'
consternation, the direction their large opponent chose to fall was where
Mentallo stood. Unfortunately for Kyosuke, without his flying disc, he
lacked the speed to get out of the way.

A loud thump told the tale. Grimacing, the Fixer forced himself to look at
the scene. Much to his relief, his partner and not been crushed as flat as a
pancake. Instead, a last second lunge had allowed him to move both far and
fast enough so that it was Tofu's hand that had struck him, rather than the
entire body. Still, judging by the telepath's motionless form, the force
from even a glancing hand was sufficient to knock him out.

"This has been one lousy night," the Fixer lamented, wondering if he had
enough time to jury-rig something to help carry his partner's body back to
base.

"And it's about to get *cough* worse for you, you... you... you bad person,
you."

The Fixer spun around and aimed his tracker gun in the direction of where
the girl's voice had come from: directly behind him. However, there was no
one there. A quick sensor sweep showed no targets in the area.

"I'm *cough* right behind you."

Again the Fixer spun, and still no one was there. It took him a moment to
figure out the only place that his opponent could have been to avoid his
wide range sensor sweep: right on the Techno Pack itself.

He needed to stall for a moment as he brought the proper weapon system
online. Its power had been cut from the damage delivered by either the kick
or the collision with the tree. The system was powering up at one tenth its
normal speed. "How did you escape the toxic cloud?"

The voice sounded muffled as she said, "I held my breath. You shouldn't
*cough* let people know what you're going to do by *cough* saying it out
loud before you do it."

"Point taken. Exterior Fry Daddy." Instantly the metal surface of his pack
gave off a jolt of electricity. Its original purpose was to electrocute
anyone stupid enough to grapple with him, but it could serve as a makeshift
bug zapper if the situation called for it.

"Now to collect my troublesome insect." The Fixer brought out a clear tube
from his belt. He hoped she wasn't dead; odds were she would reveal more
information as to what sort of creature she was through questioning rather
than an autopsy. However, when he scanned the ground with his goggles, he
could not detect her form.

"Now where did she go?" he mumbled more to himself than expecting someone to
answer.

But answer someone did. More muffled than before, Kasumi said, "I'm right
behind you."

The Fixer spun back and forth, nearly tripping over his own feet as he
twisted in a circle. She still wasn't on the ground, which meant she was
still on the pack. "How did you survive being electrocuted? The entire
exterior surface of my pack was rigged."

"I'm not on the surface," the muffled voice replied. "I'm inside it."

"Oh crap, the exhaust tubes-" was all the Fixer got out before a burst of
energy, delivered from inside the far more vulnerable confines of his pack,
ripped out of the back and up to the sky, shredding metal with an unholy
screech.

With the damage done to the pack, terminally melting down its core, a
feedback erupted through the Fixer's helmet. It was his turn to be
electrocuted by his own pack, and though the charge was less than a quarter
of that had been intended for Kasumi, it was still sufficient to send the
Fixer into unconsciousness for hours.

Kasumi flew out of the ruins of the Fixer's much vaunted Techno Pack. She
carefully examined his face. Convinced from his steady breathing and lack of
movement that he was unconscious and would not be threatening her again,
Kasumi flew to the primary object of her concern. "Dr. Tofu!" she called
out, praying he would respond.

Somewhere in the darkness of Tofu's mind, the voice tickled at the edge of
his consciousness. He recognized that voice, and felt a familiar love haze
cloud his thoughts. "Kasumi," he softly murmured and sat up.

"Thank goodness you're all right, Doctor," she said in relief.

Hearing her voice, but not actually seeing her, the doctor was once again
able to maintain coherence in her presence. It took another moment for him
to remember what had just happened. "Where are they? I know they tried
hurting you Kasumi. I'll make them pay!"

Kasumi felt her heart give a flutter at the doctor's show of protectiveness.
Or maybe it was just her wings fluttering. It was difficult to say. "I took
care of the man with the backpack with all those unpleasant weapons."

"Then where's the other, oh." Tofu squeezed slightly and discovered what his
hand was resting on. "Uh, I didn't accidentally crush him, did I?"

Kasumi flew low and looked Mentallo over. "No. I don't see any bones
sticking out, and he's breathing just fine. Nice deep breaths."

A tired sigh escaped Tofu's lips. "For a moment there, I was afraid I let my
temper get the better of me. I don't even remember attacking him."

"That's because you didn't. You landed on him when you fell unconscious."

"Oh." Tofu felt his manly pride at defeating an opponent suddenly
emasculated.

With the matter seemingly taken care of, Kasumi let out a deep breath that
released all of her pent up exhaustion. Tonight had easily been the most
exciting, and second most terrifying, experience in her nineteen years of
life. Although oddly enough, now that her life was no longer in jeopardy,
Kasumi not only felt a profound sense of relief, but one of exhilaration.
For the first time in that she could remember, she had dealt with an
extremely difficult and physically dangerous situation on her own. Well,
Doctor Tofu had helped her, but it had been her own skills that had enabled
her to survive the first round of the fight and defeat the bad guy with the
pack in the second. She had seized control of the situation, had risked her
life, and come out on top. She found the taste of success intoxicating. She
had never done anything like that before. Perhaps it was nothing more than
an adrenaline high, but even so, she found she wanted to experience the rush
and satisfaction of being able to not only influence, but also control her
life, again.

And now that she thought about it, she was going to have to. "Oh dear,
Doctor. I feel I have to apologize."

"Apologize for what?"

"For not paying closer attention to you and accidentally allowing you to
wreck that size changing machine. Now we're going to be stuck like this. I
hope you can still continue your practice. Perhaps you can become a
veterinarian and work on elephants and giraffes. You have to admit, you'll
be better at it than anyone else, as long as you make big instruments that
you can handle."

"Hmm. I wonder about that," Tofu said. The theory behind Pym Particles was
that after being irradiated only once, one could control their growth by
will power alone. Now the theory was about to be tested. Giving a silent
prayer to every god there was, Tofu willed himself to become his original
size.

A moment later, he found himself tangled in a tarp. He struggled through it,
eventually working his way to the surface. More aware of his undressed state
than Kasumi had been, Tofu kept the tarp pinned under his armpits. "Just try
thinking about regaining your original height, and it should work."

Her heart racing with trepidation, Kasumi landed on the ground, closed her
eyes, and did as she was bade. When she opened them again, the world had
returned to its original dimensions. She was about to give a cheer of joy
when she felt something was missing. Peering over her shoulder at her back,
she saw that her wings had disappeared. Feeling a momentary surge of
unexpected panic, a surge worse than the one where she thought she was
trapped at her small height, Kasumi willed herself to shrink again. It
worked as she returned to her 'wasp' form, and was delighted to discover the
wings had returned as well. Once again she willed herself to her original
height. "Oh, Dr. Tofu. It's wonderful. My wings only appear when I'm small,
and I can make myself tiny and big as much as I want..."

Kasumi trailed off as she saw that Tofu was lying on his back, face up to
the sky. Blood was trickling from his nostrils in two tiny rivulets. For a
moment, she feared it was a delayed reaction from an injury that had gone
unnoticed, but then she heard him mumble, "So beautiful. Like a pale,
newborn angel."

Kasumi looked down at herself and suspected what had happened to the doctor.
Her whole body turned a bright shade of red. She quickly shrunk back down so
no one could see her naked. In the distance, she could hear the sound of
sirens, and realized she was going to have to move fast before the
authorities arrived. True, it was her civic duty to report what had
happened, but she felt some unspoken need for secrecy concerning her role in
the affair. It wouldn't do to have everyone worry about her and the changes
she had undergone. Her father would undoubtedly break down and cry if he
thought one of his daughters' lives had been in jeopardy, especially someone
as helpless as Kasumi.

Although that was not true anymore, was it? On the contrary, she could do
more than take care of herself. Why, she could probably challenge Nabiki,
who was a top-grade martial artist, and win. She had been instrumental in
taking on two very dangerous super-villains and managed to win, with an
assist from Dr. Tofu, who, like her, could also change his size. They had
much in common now, more than ever before, even more than what he and Akane
shared as doctor and assistant.

Kasumi hoped she could persuade Tofu to refrain from telling anyone about
her newfound abilities. Now that the full force of events had settled in,
and she could change size at will, she knew without a doubt she was going to
use these fantastic abilities again, and would need to keep it secret. It
was definitely the sort of thing her father and sisters, would never
understand. They were ordinary people with ordinary lives, just like
Kasumi's had been not more than two hours ago. But in the span of that time,
everything had changed. Now Kasumi Tendou was far more than she had been,
and she found she liked it very, very much.

Perhaps Dr. Tofu would want to use his abilities too, rather than hide them.
To help others, of course. She was hardly going to use her powers for
something as self-centered as fame or fortune. Just the thrill of having the
abilities and using them was enough reward for her. Perhaps she could even
become one of those super-heroes who seemed to be cropping up all over the
country. Just the other week they had discovered two more costumed heroes.
What where their names again? Oh yes, Captain Japan and his sidekick, Bucky.
Already everyone was trying to guess their secret identities and when they
would appear again. Kasumi wanted to be like them, fighting awful people
with fantastic powers, just like she had tonight. It might be dangerous, and
she could possibly be hurt, but someone had to do it. It might not have been
the same sort of responsibility cooking meals for her family was, but it was
an obligation nonetheless, one to society. With great powers came great
responsibility. At least that was how she felt about the matter.

There was also a self-centered reason mixed in with all of the selfless
ones. She enjoyed the unmistakable thrill of winning a fight. It was a bit
egotistical of her to want to engage in violent acts simply for the
stimulation of triumphing over an adversary, but as long as they were bad
people intent on harming others, such confrontations would be justified.

Yes, that just felt right. She was going to do something exciting and
important with her life and become a super hero. The name the two villains
had given her, that of a 'Wasp' sounded most appropriate. She was only
slightly bigger than one, had insect wings, and certainly possessed a sting.
Yes, she liked the way it sounded. The Wasp it was.

With her more flamboyant identity decided, all that was left was to figure
out what sort of costume she should wear, and what size to make it. The
size-changing would make things a bit on the difficult side. She was no
exhibitionist, like that Bucky person, flashing her breasts on nationwide
television and such. The clothing was going to be tricky, all right, but she
had time. All the time in the world, or at least until the next super
villain tried to take over the minds of the population of Nerima.

And then an errant thought occurred to her which ruined her mood.

"Oh no! The meat!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Letting out a tired sigh that held the weight of many decades, the Imperial
Hydra turned off the portable spy unit she had set up to keep tabs on how
Mentallo and the Fixer's operation went. Neither was aware of the cameras
she had secreted in the mental amplifier anymore than they were of the fact
that the Imperial Hydra was a woman, and an old one at that. But then, it
was unlikely a terrorist organization would respond favorably to the idea of
being run by a female. True, she could end all of their lives with the
special detonator wires hidden in all of their uniforms (a definite
advantage in ensuring the loyalty of one's minions, especially when one
provided all of their clothing for them), but that would be a complete waste
of time. Recruiting was a large expenditure, and the finances of Hydra
weren't as mighty as they had been in the past thanks to the current
recession. Running a terrorist organization wasn't as easy as the public
realized. It took hard work and perspiration to get anything done, as well
as a touch of ruthlessness. Well, more like a stranglehold of it, but that
was the price one paid in order to call the shots.

The most ironic thing about the whole matter was it never had been her idea
to run things in the first place. She would have been perfectly content to
be a married woman and raise her brood of children, not even wanting a job.
She was old-fashioned that way. But then came the day when the youngest of
her children had finally started college and she stumbled upon her husband's
real source of income. A door-to-door mattress salesman her foot, he had
actually been the leader of one of the world's most reviled terrorist
organizations. She knew she should have suspected things were odd when he
kept bringing in nearly sixty million yen a year; no mattress salesman in
the world made that, even as smooth a talker as her husband could be when
the situation demanded it.

When she discovered the truth, she didn't have the heart to turn him in. His
groveling and pleading hadn't hurt either. After all, he had been a
responsible husband and parent. He had stayed faithful to her. He had
provided well for her and the family. He even made certain to attend all the
children's recitals and was always home for the holidays. How many salarymen
could claim that? And it wasn't as though he had founded the organization,
he just ran it. It was his father who had inherited the role from some crazy
old Nazi called Von Smucker or something. He might have been related to the
jelly baron. She wasn't certain.

In a way, she had been proud of her husband for thinking big, and running
one's own terrorist organization was certainly lucrative, even if the risks
were high. But at least he had long term goals and had gone about trying to
make them a reality, even if it was global domination. Few men had the
courage to chase their dreams. So once she discovered the truth, she decided
to help run things. She had to, really. It was a matter of family honor, she
was a dutiful wife, her husband had not been in good health, and he always
had difficulty in adjusting to the times. So she had helped, actually she
had all but taken over, in modernizing Hydra for the current day and age. It
got to the point where she was running both long term and day-to-day
operations far more efficiently than her husband ever had. It seemed she had
a knack for operating illegal enterprises. Hydra grew to ten times its
original size and the successes the organization had were astronomical.
Already their long range plan to slowly turn everyone into a state of
submissiveness by placing trace chemicals in their coffee was showing
results. The people that claimed those Starbuck's franchises were spreading
like a cancer didn't know the half of it.

But then her husband died, and she was left running the whole show. She had
her technicians create a communications device that would project a
holographic image, in her case it was that of her masked husband. It even
imitated his voice. It was perfect in every way. Her subordinates had no
idea they were taking their orders from a seventy-three year old woman who
could be mistaken for a mummy if one didn't look too carefully. She was
spry, but for most at her age simply breathing was considered being spry.

And that was part of her problem. She was getting too old to run things.
Though she was still in perfect health, the fact was she was at the age
where her heart could give out at any moment. That meant the time had come
to pass the reigns of command on to someone else. Since running Hydra had
been a family business, it would be best to give it to the next generation
of her offspring. There were some difficulties. All but one of her children
had married. While it was true her oldest was to the point of frustration
with his marriage that he would probably welcome the opportunity to become a
terrorist, his first act would probably be to kill his own family, and she
was rather fond of the grandchildren. So that meant offering the position to
her youngest first. It was not as though he was doing anything important,
like getting married and providing her with grandchildren to dote upon. It
was time the useless layabout did something important with his life, like
try to take over a large portion of the world.

But then the problem came up. One of the reasons she had wanted the device
tested in Nerima was that she was going to be in the area anyway. As soon as
they uncovered the amplifier she had ordered her technicians to develop
telepathic scramblers making her immune to the effects of the mental
amplifier, so that wasn't the problem. And she would be around firsthand in
case anything went wrong or the two super nincompoops exceeded their orders
and she was forced to liquidate them. However, she was delighted with the
initial stages of the operation and the performance of her operatives. Those
two had the potential to get ahead in the organization, if S.H.I.E.L.D. or
some other annoying international defense agency didn't kill them first.

The operation had been going fine right up to the point they had encountered
that 'Wasp' girl. Then things had gone straight downhill from there. It was
nice that the boys had shown initiative and tried to capture the strange
girl for study, but once they encountered a giant man, they should have
canceled the operation and ran for it. Still, they had tried their best and
came relatively close to success despite being thrown a curve that no one
could have anticipated. She would let them live, despite their failure and
subsequent capture. She would have the most vicious operatives at her
disposal, the lawyers, get them off on some technicality. Probably from lack
of witnesses, since everyone was in a waking state of unconsciousness the
entire time.

But Mentallo and the Fixer were far from the most important thing on her
mind. No, that honor belonged to another. The old woman closed the secret
panel on her portable shrine and hefted it once more upon her back. What was
of far more concern than even the loss of the prototype and the loss of two
operatives was the identity of the giant man, and the questions surrounding
him, one first and foremost on the Imperial Hydra's mind.

How on Earth did her son, Tofu Ono, get involved in the super-hero business?
And more importantly, what was she going to do about it?

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Special thanks to Gary Ee and William Morse for their detailed analysis of
this.

[Writer's notes] Finally done. Now you see that this series isn't dead
(yet), it just went into hibernation for a while. It does that from time to
time. But now at last the final primary members of our merry band of
super-heroes have been introduced. Next chapter things are planned to really
kick off as the gang gets all together for the first time, and there might
even be some new/familiar faces showing up for the first time again as well.

BTW I: Kysouke Kasuga, and company are from KOR. Hiroshi and the people he
mentioned are from 'My Dear Marie'.

Odd facts: The names from Kyosuke's list of choices are real
psionic-oriented super villains (except 'Brain Guy) Ironically, Mentello at
one point in his career did briefly go by the name of Thinktank, largely in
part because he attached himself to one in order to have better weapons and
defenses. It didn't work.

BTW: The sad things is, Daredevil's early foes did tend to be
'unforgettables' like Leap Frog, Stilt Man, and the infamous original
'Hooters' of crime the Owl and his flunkies. And don't ask me about the
'Masked Matador' with his ability to use a red cape to make charging people
miss him. ^_^

Special thanks once again to William Morse and Gary Ee for looking this
over.

D.B. Sommer




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