"Your majesty!" they cried. "We have some urgent news!"
The queen sighed and said, "This better be important! I am in the middle of a trial!"
"Horrible news!" they gasped. "Jack Feeler escaped, just hours before his scheduled execution!"
"What?!" shrieked Queen Dakota. "Put the whole of Antopia on lockdown and tell authorities to search every nook and cranny of the entire colony. I do not want that disgusting man escaping justice!"
"Actually, your majesty that won't be necessary" piped Dr Thorax enthusiastically. "I actually invented biological chip trackers recently that are embedded in all death row inmates, while they are sedated within the first 7 days they are on death row, to ensure they don't escape justice! Not only do they pinpoint the exact location of the death row inmate, but they also film their surroundings within a 200-metre radius. The best part about this is that they have no idea they are being tracked!"
Queen Dakota was ecstatic to hear this news. "Oh, thank you Dr Thorax!" she cried. "I knew I made the right decision by making you the Minister for Education and Scientific Research! I am so sorry I yelled at you earlier for shrinking the wrong human! Your inventions have really helped Antopia in the last several months!"
"Thank you, your majesty!" he said proudly, smiling and beaming happily. He then proceeded to pull a portable device out of a sack on the ground next to his chair and began fiddling with a bunch of buttons.
"Okay let's see here what the status of the device is," he said looking at the device. "What?" he gasped. "Your majesty it says here he's dead!"
"Really?" said the queen curiously. "I wonder who killed him?"
Dr Thorax then started playing the footage of the last 5 minutes taken of Jack Feeler's life. When he saw the footage of what had happened to him, he started laughing then gasping in awe.
"What is it?" asked the queen. "Play the footage on the big plasma screen right now!"
"No problem" smirked Dr Thorax, plugging his device into a cable extension plug point that was protruding outside the control panel. "Everyone needs to see this"
The audience gasped in shock and horror as the face of a giant tween girl filled the screen of the plasma tv. However, it wasn't the face of the demon child, it was the face of a brown Sri Lankan girl they had never ever seen before. The girl they were looking at was Divya Bandaranayake and she was exhibiting a completely different set of behaviours that they thought hadn't been possible in humans before.
They saw the adorable 11-year-old girl deposit giant Oreo crumbs in front of Jack Feeler saying, "Eat up little guy!"
No one however was more shocked than Queen Dakota herself. She could not believe a human was capable of feelings like compassion and love towards her species before.
"Who is this sweet girl?" she asked. "I never ever, in 50 years of my life, see a human being behave like that with ants before!"
"Princess Penelope stepped forward and stated "Mum I think that human said her name is Divya. I have more footage of how gentle she was being with some of the other ants today!"
"Oh wow!" exclaimed the queen. "Sweetheart, you have got to show me the footage after I am done with this human!"
The audience also had some questions.
"Are their other humans like this?" asked one woman.
"She can be our guardian angel!" cried out another man. "She can protect us from the little monster!"
Princess Penelope smirked and thought to herself 'I really like the sound of that'.
"Okay people" interrupted General Sting. "Let's not forget she represents only 0.01% of the human population. The rest of the humans either hate us or don't give a shit about us!"
This greatly annoyed Princess Penelope, who believed humans could be made good by guidance and gentle persuasion. "Shut the fuck up, General Sting!" she snarled.
The footage continued with Jack Feeler shouting obscenities at Divya.
"What a fucking scumbag!" snarled the queen. "Out of all the ants she could have cared for and looked after, it just had to be him that she came across! He certainly doesn't deserve her kindness!"
Suddenly the footage took a dark turn. Jack Feeler cried and screamed like a baby, begging for mercy as a giant white barefoot with white toenail polish crashed on top of him. The audience heard the sickening sound of his body crunching under the immense weight of the 11-year-old tween girl. The audience knew exactly whose foot it was, since they had gotten accustomed to it slaughtering their friends and family.
"Wow" gasped the queen in awe. "Karma is beautiful, isn't it!"
"Hell yeah it is!" shouted a woman in the audience.
Even though everyone hated him, they grimaced as they saw him first suffocating, then his organs including his lungs, stomach and intestines becoming grossly and violently squeezed out of his body through his mouth like a tube of toothpaste. Finally, they saw his exoskeleton shredding and ripping into several pieces.
The audience then heard the cruel sound of the voice of the demon child stating "Yuck…. That was a crunchy one…". They also heard the voice of the other girl in the footage, Divya, screaming at her before punching her right in the face. The footage then cut out to black.
"Holy shit" gasped Queen Dakota. "The Divya girl is willing to fight for my people! Maybe she really can become Antopia's guardian angel."
The Queen then looked at Max with disdain. "You know your bitch of a sister could learn a lot from that other adorable angel girl. You as well, young man!"
Max just looked at her, baffled. "I'm sorry can you give me some context here? Why are you saying that guy deserved what he got?"
Queen Dakota sighed and said "Max that man was a convicted sex offender and paedophile with no remorse for his actions at all. He was an inhumane depraved monster. Well maybe not as much as your genocidal sister but pretty close"
The Minister for media, entertainment, and communications, who was a 30-year-old man with a cinnamon pipe in his mouth and a bowler's hat on his head with his antennae peeking out on the sides of his hat stated "In fact, I think we need to show Max how truly evil this man was. Do you mind if we rerun our news broadcast saved on the database from 3 months ago, your majesty?". He then readjusted his robe with a symbol of a camera filming studio set on the front of his robe.
"Sure, no problem!" replied Queen Dakota.
The plasma screen then showed footage of what appeared to be a suburban street in the Antopia Metropolis, with little half-spherical dome houses lining the street and a narrow street to allow what looked like quad bikes to pass through, and a footpath on both sides. There was no natural sky, just a ceiling of brown hardened rock and dirt with artificial lighting. Despite being underground, Max couldn't help but notice that the street he was looking at on the screen looked so much like the street he lived on.
'They are so much like us!' he gasped.
The footage then cut to a news ant lady sitting at her desk, with a map of what appeared to be Antopia's entire layout of chambers as the backdrop.
"We all want our children to be safe and make friends" she began reading off a large stack of papers on her desk. "But no parent would want their child exposed to the influence of this man" she continued before taking a deep breath. "Convicted child rapist Jack Feeler. How he feels about what he has done and his behaviour towards our interviewer in the next report will absolutely disgust you!"
The footage then cut to Jack Feeler and the interviewer standing on the footpath outside a dome house. Jack Feeler was getting really aggressive and cocky, getting right up in the interviewer's face.
"Yeah, terrible things happened!" he jeered. "You didn't have any sex when you were young? Did you? Did you? Did You? No, you did not! You never pulled your dick out of your semi-circle opening when you were 16,17!" he continued on in his insane rant.
"Excuse me, stand back from me sir" sternly warned the interviewer.
The footage then cut back to the news lady, with her saying "He was once a prestigious teacher and tutor. He's a 53-year-old man. And now he's a convicted child abuser and proud paedophile who has no remorse for his actions. In fact, he is boasting about his actions! This is despite his trial by the queen starting tomorrow, with his crimes already worthy of the death penalty".
"Do you feel sorry for the poor young girls' Jack?" questioned the interviewer as the footage transitioned back to their conversation. "They were your students you know!"
"Nope," he jeered to the disgusted interviewer.
The conversation continued on-screen, becoming more erratic and unhinged.
"For the rest of their lives Jack, they will be thinking about that evil monster who stole their innocence!" snarled the interviewer to a defiant Jack as he turned his back towards him and started walking away from him.
"What about the last time you had sex with anybody?!" jeered Jack, turning around, walking back towards him, and getting very up, close, and personal in his face, pointing at him. "That was an evil occasion, wasn't it? There was no consent there, was there?"
"What are you saying Jack?" asked the interviewer, completely baffled by where this was going.
"I am saying that you too sir, are a rapist!" jeered Jack.
As Max watched the news footage on the plasma screen, he couldn't help but become more and more disgusted with it every second.
"You are enjoying this, aren't you sir?" sneered Jack later on in the interview. "Imposing your noble morality on me and feeling so much better than me?"
"Do you think those young teenage girls enjoyed it when you abused them?" asked the interviewer.
"Yes, they did!" he exclaimed, almost with a sense of sick pride.
The footage then switched back to the news lady, with her stating "He's clearly a very disturbed man".
The footage then abruptly cut to black, with Queen Dakota grimacing in disgust and stating, "You know what, I think we have seen enough!", with her gesturing to the minister for media, entertainment, and communications to cut the footage.
Max was shocked at the depravity and cruelty of the man he had just witnessed.
'Fucking hell' he thought to himself. 'I seriously wonder how Chris Hansen from To Catch a Predator would handle this guy…'
"You know Max," said the Queen. "I think that was the first time your sister has actually done something good for this colony for once! It's so good that she killed him! Saves the time and organisation for an execution!"
Princess Penelope snickered and exclaimed "I love the fact that he fantasised about and committed acts which involved dominating and controlling young teenage girls. And that in the end, he ended up crying and sobbing, being overpowered by the one thing he lusts after, teenage girls! Serves him right to feel the feelings of his victims! How scared they must have been, knowing there was nothing they could do to stop him! And he died at the hands, or should I say feet of an 11-year-old tween girl whom he was absolutely terrified of and there was nothing he could do to stop her! Oh, I love karma!"
"Yes sweetheart," said Queen Dakota. "It would be great but let's not forget the fact that his sister has literally killed hundreds of completely innocent people"
"Oh yeah" replied Princess Penelope dejectedly.
"Now!" stated Queen Dakota, glaring at max again. "The Minister for Media, Entertainment and communications says he's found some more evidence to convict you! Now let's talk about your mother's so-called family-friendly advertising blog!"
"Oh, come on!" groaned Max.
"With this new evidence brought forward into the light, let's finish and conclude this trial!" stated Queen Dakota.
Before Rebecca Firewall had gotten the higher profile accountant job 6 months ago, she was working for an advertising agency for a few years that had several businesses specifically trying to cater to parents with lots of children and big families. The advertising agency was called Happy Family, Happy Life and worked with several big businesses such as Coles and Dettol to specifically target these families using tactics such as relatability to hectic family life and portray these products as essential to practically function in everyday family life. As they said in advertising, you don't sell the steak, you sell the sizzle and what essentially these companies were trying to do when working with this advertising agency is to sell the concept of an everyday family lifestyle while incorporating their products. They were partially behind the reason for Coles' Sports for Schools and subliminal advertising of their products in family-friendly movies.
Since Rebecca was a mother of two, the advertising agency saw her as a perfect fit to promote their products. Rebecca had a deep understanding of family life, so representatives from the companies had decided they would pay her to promote their products. What Rebecca had done was essentially start a parenting blog called 'My 2 Little Angels' where she would promote different products by using them in everyday life, while praising them. Many of the blog posts had included Max and Lucy.
When she left the advertising agency job for the accounting job, Max had begged her to take it down since it was embarrassing because his classmates always managed to find the blog whenever they googled his name. However, Rebecca wasn't willing to destroy 4 years of hard work building up a website.
Never in a million years could he have imagined the ants having access to that website.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" snarled Max. "You have access to the fucking internet as well?"
"You really love to ask so many questions about us, don't you boy?" sneered General Sting. "Well let me assure you there is so much more that you don't know about us!"
"Okay" stated the Minister for Media, Entertainment and Communications. "Let's look at this first post called 'My Daughter's First Pedicure'. Is the Plasma Tv connected to the internet?"
"Yes" replied General Sting.
The plasma screen then proceeded to portray a set of enormous bare feet with pink nail polish on the toenails, topped off with a little intricate design of a daisy on each toe, with white petals and a yellowish centre. The bare feet filled the entire frame of the photo, which were standing on the backyard concrete pergola. It appeared that the person taking this photo had taken a zoomed-in shot of just her bare feet, omitting the other person's body, face, and general surroundings. As Max focussed his eyesight on the photo in front of him, he realised that he was looking at his sister's feet.
"Go ahead, boy…" General Sting sinisterly snarled. "Read the caption underneath"
Max sighed and read the caption underneath the photo.
My little girl got her first pedicure today for her 9th birthday! Lucy absolutely loves her pink nails with the white daisies! She had such an amazing time getting her toes done at the Golden Duck salon. It really was some incredible mother-daughter bonding time. As soon as she got home, however, she immediately went outside in the garden to squish bugs with her new pedicure!! God, I remember what it was like to be a carefree kid 😂
"Oh, come on!!" groaned Max. "I had nothing to do with that post!"
"You are going to continue to lie to us, huh boy!" snarled General Sting. "Do you want me to bring up your Instagram profile?"
'Get absolutely fucked' Max thought to himself. 'There is no way these ants know about my social media profiles, do they?'
The Minister for media, entertainment and communication scrolled down Rebecca's post to the comments section, which was powered by Instagram plug-in software.
"That's your username right there, isn't it?" inquired General Sting. "You are Max the Fire King?"
"Yes" confessed Max. "That's my Instagram handle"
"Let's look at what you said, shall we?" said General Sting.
Max's comment read: 'Mum this is so cheesy and cringe, please delete this 🙄
"See!" exclaimed Max. "I never supported that post!"
Max turned his head around and noticed that several of the soldier ants around him had already started shivering and crying in fear. Apparently, this post had triggered some PTSD. It had been a terrifying day for them when the demon child had first painted her toes. They had gotten so used to anticipating her unpainted toes squashing them for so long, they initially first thought that these new fleshy structures were new exotic plants after seeing the paintings of the white daisies on her toes. It wasn't until the nail polish started wiggling and hovering very close to their faces that they realised it was human toes and that from their perspective the Demon Child had camouflaged her toes with some kind of war paint. But by now though it was too late, however, and Lucy ended up squishing more ants in a single day than ever before. Lucy had an amazing time showing her pretty little toes to the little ants before crushing them. From that day on she started wearing toenail polish regularly since she found it helped squish higher numbers of ants. This was because the ants also had the problem of the sunlight reflecting off the nail polish into their eyes, causing temporary blindness and leaving them like sitting ducks.
"He's right" stated Queen Dakota. "We are going to need more incriminating evidence than that…"
"Not to worry" boasted The Minister for media, entertainment, and communication. "I have another post that fully incriminates this little fucker!"
"Okay let's bring that up then!" replied the queen
"This second blog post is called Dettol Wipes are a must-have for Every Family" stated The Minister for media, entertainment, and communication.
The next photo that was shown on the screen sent terrified screams throughout the entire crowd.
The photo showed a 10-year-old Lucy sitting on the bottom step of the backyard concrete pergola, in light blue denim shorts and wearing a light grey short-sleeved t-shirt with the words GIRL POWER written in bold red lettering, across the front of the t-shirt. She was smiling at the camera happily, with her red ginger hair flowing freely over her shoulders, with the glass sliding door and expanse of the concrete pergola and veranda poles partially visible in the background. It was what she was doing however that was really disturbing to the ants. Lucy's right foot was plastered firmly to the ground with the toes painted a light lime green colour. Her left foot was pointing upwards onto her knee, showing the underside of her sole which was dotted with little black dots that the ants now understood to be the corpses of their fallen comrades, family, and friends. In her right hand, she was clutching a Dettol wipe which she was using to start wiping the ants and their gooey stains off the bottom of her foot.
"Oh my gosh" stammered Princess Penelope with tears in her eyes. "It's like she almost wiped out a whole generation in a single fucking day…."
"Go ahead, boy…" General Sting sinisterly snarled. "Read the caption underneath"
Trembling and nervously Max read the caption underneath the photo.
Anyone with children just knows how messy and dirty they can be. Especially when you have a 15-year-old son that rolls around in the mud all day when playing footy and comes inside the house and steps all over the floor with his filthy bare feet leaving mucky bare footprints everywhere. Ewww
Lol, I bet you know what my little girl Lucy is doing in that photo. Yep. She's cleaning the little bugs and ants she squished off her feet with a Dettol wipe. They are so effective at cleaning up any quick spills that my two clumsy children have or wiping away greasy stains off the table after dinner.
And their size makes them so convenient. I can carry a whole packet in my handbag while travelling. I also keep some in the glove compartment of my car. You can also fit a few wipes in your pocket of whatever clothing you are wearing. That's why my daughter also kept some in her pocket while she was at her best friend Divya's birthday party because she's quite a messy eater. That and also one of her favourite side hobbies which is squishing the ants in our backyard. She's getting to be quite the little pest control exterminator! That's why she is using one of the leftover ones in the photo above to wipe her feet after squishing some bugs.
"Good grief" stated the queen with disgust. "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, huh?"
"Yeah, your majesty and the comments left by the other humans are really something else!" stated General Sting with disgust. "Some of these are really quite borderline psychopathic!"
"Okay let's see some of them," asked Queen Dakota.
Diana: I love Dettol wipes! And EW at the squished bugs! Lol
Emily: Eww with the squished ants between the toes
Jenny: Kids are gross, and it's expected of them to be gross, just like squishing bugs lol. It's quite a yucky childish hobby. That's why Dettol wipes are the best!
Christine: That is so funny, cute, and adorable about your daughter squashing bugs! We go through tons of Dettol wipes at our house too!
Monique: Squishing bugs is sooooooooooooooooooooo much fun…I used to do it when I was a kid!
"Who are these fucking demented monsters?!" gasped Princess Penelope. "They are literally laughing at mass murder!"
Max sighed and said "They are just a bunch of stupid suburban mums"
Princess Penelope looked at him with absolute horror in her eyes. "If that is how the mothers of your society behave towards other people's children dying, I am completely lost for words!" she cried.
"Hold on a minute" frowned General Sting. "One of these comments is not like the others."
Clicking on the hidden and archived comments section he spotted a different comment that had caught his eye. "Check this out everyone!" he exclaimed.
The comment was from Divya's father.
Dinesh Bandaranayake: This is appalling behaviour, Rebecca! Teaching your daughter, it's okay to kill sentient life for fun! Did you know that devaluing violence towards innocent animals often leads to real-world violence against humans?! I encourage you to reflect on your approach and teach your daughter to respect the personal space of insects because they have the will to live just like any other living creature on the planet. That is what I have taught my beautiful sweet little angel Divya. She would literally would not ever even think of harming a fly.
"One in a million…." grunted General Sting, realising Dinesh's comment was literally the only comment that had stood up for their species out of 50 others. Looking at Ava he said to her "Looks like you were right about these kinds of humans. They really do only represent 0.01% of the population."
Focussing his attention on Max, he glared at him and stated, "Now let's look at what Max the Fire King said, shall we?"
Scrolling through the comment section he exclaimed "Ah Ha! There you are!"
Max the Fire King: This is actually kind of funny mum. Lucy using Dettol wipes for her childish hobby. But don't you think she is getting a bit too old for this now?
"Throwing the corpses of my people away like they are used play toys and pieces of fucking garbage is funny huh?" snarled the queen. "I think I just found my incriminating evidence ladies and gentlemen"
"Oh Fuck…" muttered Max under his breath. "Listen I can explain!" he exclaimed. "You see what I meant was-"
"Enough!" shrieked the queen. "I think my time is done here!"
"Wow" exclaimed General Sting. "I just got access to his Instagram account. Turns out not only did he trivialise the suffering of our people, but he also actually shared and distributed these blog posts with smiling and laughing emojis!"
Queen Dakota glared at him with absolute disgust and simply stated "You are so bad!"
This greatly angered Max who yelled "For your information, I only shared those posts because my pestering and annoying mum was asking me repeatedly to do so in order to boost her advertising profile! She promised me a pack of Arnott's Shapes if I did!"
"Actually Max," said the Queen coldly "That doesn't really help your case. The fact that you are willing to distribute and glorify the genocide of my people for a packet of fucking biscuits just shows that you are just as much of a psychopath as the rest of your family"
Looking to the government ministers she proclaimed "I hereby declare the human guilty of being an honorary associate for mass genocide! All those in favour?"
To Max's absolute horror, all the government ministers raised their arms in approval.
"Okay then!" she stated. "This trial has almost concluded. It is decided then. Now how will we punish you?" she frowned, looking at him with curiosity.
"NO! NO! NO!" cried Max in horror, thrashing frantically on his chain shackles, trying to run but he was well and truly firmly locked to the podium post.
"BUT I'M INNOCENT!! INNOCENT!! PLEASE!! PLEASE!!" he shrieked with tears in his eyes, terrified that his fate was going to be 1000 times worse than the two criminals before him.
"Shut the fuck up you little shit!" barked Queen Dakota. "One more word out of you and I swear to fucking Gaia I will ask one of the guards to pull your fucking pants down and spank you in front of fucking everyone!"
This quickly shut Max up, who just knelt on the ground in his locked position, looking at the ground with tears in his eyes.
"Now where were we….," said the queen, turning back to the government ministers.
Princess Penelope approached Max and put her hand on his shoulder. "My mum's bark is worse than her bite" she smiled. "Don't be scared"
Max looked up at her with angry tears in his eyes. "Fuck you!" he growled, sniffling a few tears. "You are just as bad as them!"
Meanwhile, an in-depth discussion was taking place between all 7 government ministers and Queen Dakota herself about the best way to punish Max.
"I still say we hold him for ransom!" suggested the Minister of Breeding Chambers and the Nursery. "We can tell the Little Monster we will let her brother go if she stops waging war on us!"
"That would never work!" groaned General Sting. "As soon as we grow him back, they could both turn on us and he could go back on his word and completely obliterate us within a day! Humans can never be trusted!"
Glaring at Max with intense hatred he snarled "I say, let's just sentence him to death by the Mortein Chamber! It will fill me with great pleasure to watch him scream like a little bitch as he chemically burns to death by Mortein!"
Queen Dakota sighed and turned to General Sting; "General, we have been over this earlier. He is simply too young to be sentenced to death!"
"Oh, come on!!" groaned General Sting. "Can't we make an exemption in this case? I mean, think of the gravity of the situation!"
"Well since he hasn't actually directly mass murdered us, we can't" replied Queen Dakota. "However, we could make that exemption for his cruel devil sister when we shrink her later on…"
"NOO!!" shrieked Max, horrified when he heard a discussion of the possible execution of his dear sweet little sister. "DON'T YOU FUCKING TOUCH HER!!"
Queen Dakota chuckled when she heard Max screaming at her. "He certainly is a feisty one, isn't he? Doesn't like being told what to do, huh?"
Looking back at General Sting she explained "We can't even send him to Hell's gate Prison because he is still a minor. You must be at least 20 years old to be sent to Hell's gate prison!"
"Booo!!" moaned General Sting. "I really wanted to make him suffer!"
"I suppose we could send him to our smaller juvenile facility called Naughty Pupas for 12 to 19-year-old teenagers …" suggested Queen Dakota. "There isn't really much of another option, is there? Now how long should we sentence him for…."
This cheered General Sting up a little bit who stared at Max with glee in his eyes and sneered "I can't wait for our boys in there to start beating the shit out of you!"
"No wait mum!" called out Princess Penelope. "I think I have an even better idea!"
Queen Dakota, clearly annoyed by her daughter interrupting her, turned to her grumpily and said "What possible better idea could you have, sweetheart? This better be good!"
"Well," proposed Princess Penelope with a sympathetic look in her eye. "I think the problem here as it has been for so long is that ants and humans don't understand one another at all. There is no understanding of each other's lifestyles and both sides despise each other because there is zero communication!"
"Go on, I'm listening sweetheart," said the queen sternly.
"That's why I am suggesting we can change the nature of this human and create a brighter future, an alliance between humans and ants!" exclaimed Princess Penelope proudly.
"Oh, get absolutely fucked!" interrupted General sting loudly. "That's never going to work! Didn't your mum teach you Aesop's fable about the brass pot and the clay pot!"
"Do you mind!" shouted Princess Penelope angrily. "I haven't finished!"
"What was it you used to teach me, mum? That you can never fully understand how hard someone else's life is unless you walk a mile in their shoes!" boasted Princess Penelope to her mother.
"Please proceed" replied the queen.
"That is why I think it would be better for this human boy to serve inside Antopia. To learn the ins and outs of our society, culture, and every aspect of our lives. When he begins to understand how much we are alike, maybe he can spread this vital information back to his species, including his sister and they can stop treating us like we are nothing!" stated Princess Penelope.
"So, what you are saying is that you want the human boy to perform community service across all areas of Antopia?" asked Queen Dakota.
"Yes, mum" replied Princess Penelope.
"Hmmm," said Queen Dakota. "But it is hard to fill a cup which is already full…."
Princess Penelope sighed sadly and said to Max "I'm sorry, I tried…"
"But..." she said. "I am very curious to see how this will play out...."
Princess Penelope suddenly became optimistic. Finally, someone was starting to listen to her ideas….
"Very well then" stated Queen Dakota, getting up and speaking into the megaphone and announcing to the audience of 1000 ants curiously watching: "This human boy will learn our ways. He will become an ant…."
"But for how long…." she hummed into the megaphone. "We don't even have a growth potion to grow him back yet…."
"WHAT?!" shrieked Max. "YOU MEAN I AM STUCK AT THIS SIZE FOREVER?!!"
"Well yes…" replied the Queen cheekily. "And no. You see I will instruct Dr Thorax to start working on a growth formula only if..." she paused for dramatic effect. "Only if you behave yourself, young man..."
"You can't be serious!" snarled Max angrily. "You are gambling my entire life on a game of fucking chance!! You're going to put the stake of my life in the hands of ...HIM!!" he growled bobbing his head at Dr Thorax. "How do you even know he can ever make the growth formula?"
"Well given the fact that he shrunk you to our size, I'm pretty sure he can create the opposite!" laughed Queen Dakota. "Stop being such a pessimist!"
Dr Thorax then piped up and defended his reputation by stating "I have invented more than 10000 inventions and all of them have been successes so far. Even my shrinking dart worked perfectly, the only issue was that it shrunk the wrong person. That and also, I have been a little unprepared. But don't worry I will whip up a growth formula when your punishment is over"
"Very well then" announced Queen Dakota into the megaphone. "It is decided then. I hereby sentence this human boy to live and work in Antopia for an undetermined amount of time"
She then proceeded to look Max right into his eyes and stated "My daughter will teach you our ways. Learn well…. Max Firewall. Then we will see if your insanity can be cured."
This infuriated General sting who protested: "Your majesty you can't be serious! Giving the brother of our sworn enemy a free tour of all our well-kept best secrets! He will betray us all!!"
Silence!" she barked. "It is final!"
She looked at her daughter. "This is the first time I have decided to test out one of your ideas. I hope you know what you are doing sweetheart…..."
"Don't worry" beamed Princess Penelope. "I will make you proud mum!"
Queen Dakota smiled and replied "That's my girl. Now unshackle him, sweetheart"
Readjusting herself she announced into the megaphone "Okay everyone! That concludes our 41st weekly high court chambers trials for the week!"
As soon as Max was unshackled by Princess Penelope he tried to run forward and confront the queen, but Princess Penelope stopped him.
"Hey!" he yelled. "That's it! How long am I going to be like this? I want to go home!"
Queen Dakota and the 7 other government ministers turned their backs on him, ignoring his cries.
"You can't fucking do this to me!" he yelled. "This is inhuman!"
This time Queen Dakota did turn back to face him with a snarky reply. "Yes, it would be inhuman. But you are forgetting one thing…." before pausing for dramatic effect before cheekily grinning and saying, "We are not humans!"
"This is fucking bullshit!!" he yelled.
Suddenly Max realised some of the phrases he was using, and this exact same scenario sounded and seemed very familiar to him.
'Wait a minute' he thought to himself. 'A trial by ants. Being kidnapped by an ant colony. Being sentenced to live among them. Shouting catchy phrases. I swear I have definitely seen this exact same scenario in a kid's animated film before. One starring Nicolas Cage and Julia Roberts. Damn but I forgot what that film is called though....'