Conquistadora

Chapter 15

The morning after the party, a lot of people were still asleep in Sharky's living room because they had crashed the night at his house. Soledad had taken Nick to her bedroom, and neither Flora nor Rica said anything about it. Things were still up in the air about whether or not Nick was going to stay with Soledad for a while instead of remaining under Rica's care. Both Flora and Rica were sleeping on the couches in the living room.

When Nick woke up, Soledad was still sleeping in her bed. The covers were off of her, and her shirt was opened so that he could see most of her stomach. Nick wondered how many ant-sized shrunken people Soledad had consumed the night before. He could imagine the terror they had experienced swimming around within her belly before they lost consciousness and drowned in her digestive juices. He shuddered to think about it, because he had ended up inside her belly very briefly, and he knew how final and absolute death by digestion could be. You could only try to hold your breath for so long before you finally succumbed in there, and how long could a miniaturized person tread water while swimming around in the half-eaten food and digestive juices of an eighteen-year-old woman? It was only the fact that Soledad cared so much about Nick that he was vomited up as soon as possible; for the ant-sized victims, there was no remorse. They had been sent to their doom in the depths of Soledad's belly, never to be seen or heard from again.

Nick was standing on top of a vertical dresser that was on the other side of a desk that stood between the dresser and Soledad's bed. Nick wondered if he should climb down and explore; He had only been with Rica for a short period of time while he was one centimeter tall, and hadn't had much opportunity to explore her body. Nick wondered if Soledad would wake up angry if she discovered him exploring her abdomen.

The window of Soledad's bedroom had curtains that were within reaching distance for Nick. If he grabbed on, he could use the threads of the curtains like rungs of a ladder to climb across horizontally and down vertically to reach Soledad's bed. He gave it a try, and within a few minutes, he had made it halfway to the bed. His arms were growing tired, so he stopped every now and then to rest.

Once he was over the bed, Nick jumped off and landed on the bedspread. He was so small and light that Soledad wasn't awakened by his movement. He climbed up what seemed to him to be a hill, but was actually Soledad's hip. Nick made the ascension and found himself on her waist, looking down at her stomach. He could see her stomach moving in and out as she breathed. To Nick, she seemed like a colossus. Again, Nick thought of those helpless ant-sized people she had swallowed the night before and a sensation like electricity went through his loins, an erotic sensation that he felt when he realized only a fine line separated him from Soledad's tiny victims. He wondered if there was anything that could turn this teenage titaness against him, and realized that what he was about to do could potentially anger her.

He walked up her side and crawled under her shirt. From that vantage point, he could see her bra. He didn't want to do anything that would piss Soledad off, so when he crawled under her shirt to make his way to her collar bone, he made sure he didn't look anywhere he shouldn't. As he walked toward her collar bone and left shoulder, Soledad stirred; it was as if she could feel him moving across her body in her sleep. She turned over, and sent Nick flying downward onto the bed. Soledad had been laying on her right side, but now she was turning over to lay on her left side, and in doing so, her left arm came down on Nick and he was trapped.

The weight of her arm was significant, but the softness of her bed protected him from harm. He was unable to extricate himself. Nick wasn't sure how long he was trapped there, but at least fifteen minutes went by until Soledad got up to use the bathroom. When she did, he was free, but she still didn't see him. While she was gone, Nick made his way to the edge of the bed, to avoid getting smashed by her body weight when she returned.

When Soledad came back, Nick jumped up and down and yelled to get her attention. She saw Nick right away.

"Hey, Nick! How did you get on my bed?"

"I climbed over from the curtain!" said Nick.

Soledad leaned over and set the palms of her hands down in front of Nick, and Nick stepped onto her hands. Soledad lifted him up to shoulder level.

"Are you ready for some breakfast? I can make you some eggs and chorizo!"

"Do you have beef chorizo?" Nick asked. "I try to stay away from pork."

"I think we have some," said Soledad, "my brother likes beef chorizo because he thinks it tastes better than the pork kind."

Soledad carried Nick into the kitchen and set him on a counter top and started cooking. The sounds and smells of breakfast being cooked woke up Flora, Rica and Summer's Moon. They made their way into the kitchen.

"You really put up a fight last night, Flora!" said Soledad as she cooked the beef chorizo in the pan. "You did almost as good of a job as I would've!"

"What do you mean almost as good?" Flora asked.

"I'm a green belt in karate!" said Soledad. "I stopped going to karate classes when my parents died, but I still remember most of what I was taught."

"She could even take you on," Summer's Moon said to Flora.

"I doubt that," said Rica. "Flora is a street fighter, and she's never lost a fight!"

"You guys," said Soledad, "don't argue about it. Hopefully, we'll never have to find out which one of us would win in a fight!"

"That's true," said Rica.

"Can one of you flip some tortillas while I cook the eggs and chorizo? When my mom was alive she always said when you cook, you cook for everyone, not just for yourself. All of you are welcome to eat breakfast here."

"Thanks, Soledad!" said Flora.

"Yeah thanks," said Rica.

Before long, they were all sitting down to breakfast at the dining room table. Soledad had gotten a Corona bottle cap that she had found from the party the night before, and had set it up as a table for Nick. He could comfortably eat his breakfast while standing there.

"I was thinking," said Summer's Moon between bites of food, "we should go to Griffith park and see what the demonstrators are up to!"

"Isn't that dangerous?" Flora asked.

"How could it be dangerous?" Summer's Moon asked. "Nobody there would try to hurt any of us, you're being paranoid!"

"That's not what I'm talking about," said Flora.

"She's talking about the Conquistadora," said Rica. "What if she takes action against the protesters? She might try to shrink everyone there or something!"

"Me and Soledad have been to several demonstrations," said Summer's Moon, "and nothing has happened yet!"

"I'll drive us there," said Soledad, "it'll be fun!"

"Okay, I'll go," said Flora.

"Me too!" said Rica.

Before long, Nick was inside the locket that Flora had given to Rica, but now Soledad was wearing it. Soledad was driving, with Summer's Moon in the passenger seat, while Flora and Rica were in the back seat. As Soledad drove closer to Griffith Park, a light came on.

"There's a red light blinking!" said Soledad. "I wonder what that means?"

Just before they got to Griffith Park, the car stalled.

"When was the last time you changed the oil in your car?" Flora asked.

"You mean you have to actually change the oil?" Soledad asked. "I thought all you had to do was check the oil!"

"How long have you had this car?" Flora asked.

"About a year and a half," Soledad answered.

"And you've never changed the oil in all of that time?" Flora shouted.

"Hey, give her a break!" said Summer's Moon. "She said she didn't know!"

"I guess we could walk the rest of the way to Griffith park," said Soledad. "We're almost there anyway!"

"Yeah, let's go!" said Flora.

As the girls got out and made their way the third of a mile to Grifith Park, the Conquistadora's starcruiser circled in the sky above. The starcruiser hovered over the center of the park, above the heads of the protesters. A holographic image of the Conquistadora's head appeared in the air, larger than life-size.

"Protesters! I have suffered you long enough! I have been very busy up until now, but today I will use all of you as an example for the rest of the world! Everyone will think twice about defying me from this day forward!"

The holographic image disappeared, and invisible neutrino dissimilators did their work, and within seconds, the crowd of protesters had been reduced to ant-size. Flora, Rica, Soledad and Summer's Moon overheard the announcement and ran toward the park as they saw the starcruiser leave the area.

When the girls ran up to the park, they saw that all of the protesters had been reduced to ant-size.

"It's a good thing my car broke down!" said Soledad. "Flora, you were right! The Conquistadora really did take her revenge on the protesters!"

Soledad walked forward until she was in the midst of the ant-sized people.

"I feel like stepping on them!" said Soledad.

"That would be fun!" said Rica.

"Wait a minute," said Flora, "wouldn't that make you a traitor to your race? Up until now you've been eating people who weren't Mexican, but these are your own people! Don't you discern a difference?"

"Swallowing shrunken people was never a matter of race to me," said Soledad. "I would've swallowed them regardless of what race they belonged to. Black, white, Asian, Mexican, as long as they're shrunk, it all means the same thing to me!"

"Me too!" said Rica. "I just like conquering shrunken people!"

Flora and Summer's Moon stood and watched as Soledad and Rica started stomping on the shrunken people. Sometimes, Soledad would stop stomping and bend over to pick up some shrinkies and toss them back in her mouth and swallow them.

"Soledad," said Summer's Moon, "I've got a bandanna if you need something to put the captives in!"

Soledad ran over to Summer's Moon and grabbed the bandanna. She tied two ends of the bandanna together, then tied the two opposite ends together to make a makeshift bag. Then she began collecting captives with one hand while she carried the bandanna in the other. Within twenty minutes, the bandanna was full of over a hundred captives, and the rest of the shrunken people had been stomped to death by Rica Luna.

"Watch this!" said Soledad, as she partially stuffed the bandanna into her mouth. The section of the bandanna that contained captives was completely inside of her mouth, while the ends hung out of her mouth.

"Soledad, you're so bad!" said Summer's Moon.

Later that night, at 11:47 pm the Conquistadora met with Narcisa Navarro as usual. She parked her starcruiser outside of Narcisa's house as she normally did, but invited Narcisa inside this time. There was a recording of the events at Griffith Park earlier that day on a viewscreen.

"As you know, several of my Amazon troopers have been removed from duty for betraying me, and I haven't had time to find replacements yet. I think it would be a good idea for me to hire Flora Flores as an Amazon trooper! What do you think of that?"

"Why Flora?" Narcisa asked. "She tried to blackmail me."

"Exactly!" said Maria. "With the two of you at odds with each other, I think she would act as a counterbalance, to keep you in check!"

Maria used a console on a wall panel to call Flora's cell phone.

"Hello?" said Flora's voice.

"This is Maria Consuela Diaz de Montejo, also known as the Conquistadora! I have chosen you as an Amazon Trooper to replace one of my troopers who betrayed me and was removed. Do you accept your position?"

"Only on one condition," said Flora.

"What condition is that?" Maria asked.

"I want you to hire my friend Rica Luna, too!" said Flora.

"Consider it done!" said Maria. "I'll contact her and find out if she wants to join, too!"

"She's with me right now," said Flora. "I'll put her on!"

"Hello? This is Rica Luna!" said Rica. "I'll agree to join!

"Both you and Flora Flores are now Amazon troopers!" said Maria, and she hung up and returned to Soledad's side.

"There were three Amazon troopers who were fired," said Maria. "After hiring Rica and Flora, that leaves one opening. I think we should pick another girl from your neighborhood, I'll let you choose!" said Maria.

"I think you should hire Soledad Suarez!" said Narcisa. "If you want someone who is evil and domineering, Soledad is just like me if not more so!"

"Consider it done!" said Maria.

"I can call her right now!" said Narcisa, and she got her cell phone and called Soledad. Narcisa put her on speaker phone.

"Hello?" said Soledad over the phone.

"This is Maria Consuela Diaz de Montejo, also known as the Conquistadora! You have been chose to replace one of my Amazon troopers. Do you accept my offer?"

"Definitely!" said Soledad.

Within twenty minutes the other three girls were assembled, and given uniforms identical to the one Narcisa wore. They stood in Maria's starcruiser, proud of being given this special opportunity. Their uniforms were hot pink ultra-short miniskirts with pink mid-calf boots, a bare midriff and a vest. They also wore the utility belts just like the one Narcisa wore.

"The four of you," said Maria, "will form a tetrarchy! Narcisa Navaro, Soledad Suarez, Flora Flores and Rica Luna, you will be the administrative segment of my Amazon troopers! When I leave to go back where I came from, the four of you will basically rule this world together!"

To Be Continued!