The New Romford Free Press

Tag: Micro-Way

  • City Council Nixes ‘Micro-Way’ After Mutant Bacteria Attack

    City Council Nixes ‘Micro-Way’ After Mutant Bacteria Attack

     

    By Packie Williams

    When Daisuke Honda, a.k.a. Micro-Man, set out to demonstrate how his “Micro-Way” would work to the city council, he never envisioned it would go quite like it did today.

    microwaywebHonda had been working for years on perfecting the Micro-Ray technology for common use and for everyday applications.  His “Micro-Way,” essentially a miniature subway system, was going to be his first commercial endeavor, and with the streets of New Romford still largely in disarray, he figured now would be the perfect time to implement his dream.

    Unfortunately, he didn’t do enough to protect his prototype, and the city council, from mutant bacteria.

    This morning, Honda invited the city council to his office at ATOM Labs, where he showed off his prototype.  It was a “Micro-Way” from his office to a park bench just outside of ATOM Labs.  The shrinking process went off without a hitch, and the council members reportedly didn’t feel any ill effects from it.  Once tiny, Honda showed off what a Micro-Station would look like with fake plastic store fronts and two Micro-Trains.  At normal size, this all fit into the area of a shoe box, but at micro-size, it was the size of a normal subway station.

    Then, they boarded the Micro-Train and fastened their seat belts.  The trip to the “station” out by the park bench also went off without a hitch, lasting one a couple minutes to make the 200-foot journey.  Honda remarked that the speed of the train can vary depending on express and local trains, and it’d still be easy to install dozens of train lines alongside a single street, and that’s when the mutant bacteria broke into the Micro-Station.

    How it got in is still unclear, but Honda grabbed his laser gun and fought them off.  One bacteria swallowed up a council member (who wished to remain anonymous), and Honda had to cut him out with his laser sword.  But the bacteria horde began to overwhelm them and blocked their escape either back to Honda’s office or to the reverse Micro-Ray gate.  They would’ve been killed if it weren’t for the last minute heroics of Krok, who had been hiding in the grass above the station all day.

    Together, Krok and Honda were able to defeat the mutant bacteria horde, but the attack ended any hope of the “Micro-Way” becoming a reality anytime soon.  Honda could not be reached for comment, and the city council only remarked that they “would be going in a different direction, probably one where people won’t get swallowed by mutant bacteria.”

    Krok grunted and flew away on a dragonfly.

  • Micro-Man Preps ‘Micro-Way’ for Proposal

    Micro-Man Preps ‘Micro-Way’ for Proposal

    microwayweb

    By Julia Crumpleman

    ATOM Labs scientist, Daisuke Honda, a.k.a. the superhero Micro-Man, has been prepping a new transportation proposal for city hall ever since the Dino-Day Disaster.  Calling it the “Micro-Way,” it’s essentially a miniature subway, and he says it’ll solve the city’s traffic problems.

    “There’s only so much space for public transportation,” said Honda.  “Subways, buses, monorails, pneumatic tubes, they all suffer from one problem:  they take up space,” said Honda.  “You have to tear up whole streets to lay down new subway lines or tear down buildings for monorails, and that not only costs billions of dollars but also years of construction time.  But imagine if the subways were the size of an electrical wire.  Now imagine a whole network of subways that small.  You could lay down hundreds of subway lines all across the city at a fraction of the cost and space as standard subway lines.”

    Honda’s proposal* would be to build “Micro-Stations” all across New Romford.  People would enter the “Micro-Stations,” pay for their ticket, be shrunk down by a Micro-Ray, and then ride the “Micro-Way” like they would a subway train.  Once they reach their destination, they get reverted back to their original size as they exit.  The “Micro-Way” trains would run much the same way as normal trains do, but at a significantly faster pace than their larger version to make up ground.

    “That’s not all,” he added.  “The major terminals could also have ‘Micro-Businesses.’  You can have convenience stores, restaurants, clothing stores and so on down there, but at a smaller scale.  One city block may have a dozen businesses, but if they were ‘Micro-Businesses,’ you could have hundreds of taxable businesses per block.”  Honda emphasized this point several times as he will at city hall.

    But there already are detractors with some reasonable concerns in the “micro-community.”  “They’ll never go for it,” said Paul Gershwin, the original Micro-Man.  “It’s a good idea, really, but no one will want to subject thousands of people to the Micro-Rays needed to make it work.  Even if people weren’t wary of being shrunk down, which not everyone can handle by the way, there’s still the possibility, however small, that something goes wrong.  Maybe the body shrinks but not the head, and then you crush your body.  Unfortunately, these things happen.”

    “Personally, I know not how he plans to beat back the rats and armies of ants,” said Krok, the size-changing alien warrior.  “Somehow, someway, they will break into this ‘Micro-Way’ and wreak untold havoc on innocent lives who do not know the first thing about fighting giant rodents and insects.”

    “And do not get me started on mutant bacteria.”

    Honda acknowledged the concerns of his friends but was adamant that he could handle these challenges.  “The Micro-Ray has progressed since Paul’s time.  Of course, there’s no way to eliminate all errors, but the machine is now built to detect any slight error and to shut down immediately.  We’ll take every precaution to stop that from happening.  And the rail lines will be coated in five layers of titanium.  There will be no way for rats or insects to enter.  Even so, we’ll have guards stationed in each terminal and train just in case.”

    “And, well, mutant bacteria is mutant bacteria.”

    Honda will give his proposal next week.

     

    *Professor Honda is not affiliated with the Honda Motor Co.