Subversion-Chapter 8 (Patreon)

Two Hours Later

Frank opened the door to the restaurant to see Marshal Lyons standing outside in civilian clothes with his left arm in a sling, looking freshly bathed and furious. “Marshal? How may I—“

“You are closed tonight. I will inspect any contraband you have on hand.”

Ascension Day

Vicki made a guttural, frustrated sound as Heather, Colin, and Robert regarded the interior of the armored limousine in wonder. “Would you all stop it! It’s not that big a deal.” She was wearing a red, asymmetric dress that had a long slit up her left thigh. She nudged Robert with her bare shoulder. “At least close your mouth, Robbie. You look like an idiot.”

“You can hardly blame me, Vic. I’ve never even been in a car before. Have you two?”

Colin and Heather shook their heads in tandem.

Robert continued, “I mean, look at this!” He pointed at the armrest on the door. “Is this actual leather? Overlord on a Cracker, is that—ow!” He rubbed his bicep in surprise at the force of Vicki’s backhanded slap.

Vicki wore a deadly serious expression. “Do not. Speak ill. Of the Overlord. Not tonight. Not even a little bit. Understand?”

Robert had never seen her be anything other than flippant, playful, and/or seductive. He swallowed, and nodded.

After a few seconds of tense silence, Heather slid her hand under Colin’s arm and took his hand. She leaned against him hard enough so that her weight, including the weight of her left breast, pushed him against the driver’s side door. She crossed her legs under the floor-length, powder blue dress that hugged her ass and bust in a way that conveyed both her modesty and their enormity. “Well! I, for one, am excited to attend this formal, possibly lethal party.”

“You shut up.” Vicki pursed her lips. “It’s going to be great. Promise. Just…don’t be stupid.”

Colin leaned back into Heather and worked not to get an erection at the feel of her playfully weighing down on him. His cock nonetheless started to swell as she crossed her long shin over his thigh and scooted her wide hip against his. “I’m a dead man, then.”

Vicki kept the same expression as she looked at Colin. “Clearly, the stories about you are true.” She caught the movement at his groin and her eyes went wide. She cleared her throat, looked away, and fanned herself with her clutch. “A-all of them.”

Colin looked up at Heather in confusion. “What stories?”

“That you are endowed with a legendarily enormous…smart mouth.”

Robert snorted. “And dick.” He looked around at everyone’s shocked expressions. “What? I’m not wrong!”

Vicki backhanded Robert again, drawing a sharp bark of pain. “Well. Looks like I’m getting an early start.” She pulled up on what appeared to be an armrest. It opened with a metallic pop to reveal two finely-crafted glass bottles. One contained a brown liquid; the other, something that looked like water, but clung to the sides of the bottle differently than water should. Vicki pulled out a heavy, ornate glass decorated similarly to the bottles and poured herself some of the clear liquid. She took a long sip, sighed happily, and extended it to Robert. “Try it!”

Robert regarded the hidden compartment. Now that it was open, he could see that it had a locking mechanism. He could also see that the lock’s metal hook ended not in said hook, but a jagged line. Its companion piece of metal was still in the latch. Vicki had snapped a quarter-inch-thick bar of metal with, quite literally, her bare hands. Robert accepted the proffered glass. He absently rubbed his bicep again. “Uh…sure.”

Ninety Minutes Later

Debbie hugged Vicki tight, then held her ten-inches-taller daughter out at arm’s length. “Victoria! You started drinking already?”

“Like you didn’t?”

“Hmph.” She let go of Vicki’s arms and clapped her hands together, surprising loudly. “Now! Who are your friends?”

“Mom, this is Robbie. He’s been paired with me. The State’s going to approve us.”

Robert did his best to focus on Vicki’s mother. There was so much to take in. The limo had dropped them off in front of the Overseer’s Mansion, a multi-story building with a facade made of what looked like rough, red tiles of concrete. It had more windows than Robert had ever seen on a single building. From what he could see under the deepening blanket of snow, the slanted roof was made of oxidized copper. It was, unlike any State building he’d ever seen, somehow warm. Welcoming. There were no visible fortifications, no narrow, vertical concrete slits doing double duty as window and embrasure. There were, however, two fifteen-foot-tall women in black body armor flanking the outer door and a line of State officials (and the women with them, nearly all of whom wore silver bracelets) lined up to say hello to Debbie on the way in. Robert noticed Vicki’s expression and realized he was holding up the line.

Debbie saved him. “You like the mansion? It’s pre-Gynoclasm construction, you know.”

Robert nodded. “It’s beautiful.”

Debbie elbowed Vicki. “You’ve got a good eye for beauty, young man. I’ll look forward to gettting to know you once you’re Vicki’s.” Debbie smirked at Robert’s alarmed look. “Apologies. I should say, once she’s yours. Now, Vicki, introduce me to the other two thirds of your one guest.”

“Stop it, Mom. This is Colin Travis—“

Debbie extended a handshake. “Oh! Of the Travises?”

Colin tensed. His family name was unremarkable. It had also not been his great-great-grandmother’s surname. But Debbie meant only one thing, and if the Overseer’s wife knew, Overseer Melzer knew. Deflecting or lying would get him nowhere, or killed. He chose to roll with it as best he could and accepted the handshake. “We aren’t proud of it, but yes.”

“Nonsense. What isn’t there to be proud of? Without your family, there’d be no State.” Debbie smiled and cocked an eyebrow. “Right?”

Colin did his best to look nonplussed. “Right. That’s a good way to think about it. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome! Now, who is…” Debbie trailed off as Heather stepped up to her to extend a handshake.

“I’m Heather. Vicki’s friend, or so I’m told.” Heather was 6’7” in the heels Vicki had insisted on buying for her. The imposing, rounded, lacy blue bodice of her dress, framed by Heather’s dark winter coat, hovered right in front of Debbie’s face.

“Oh. My!” Debbie looked at Heather’s gold bracelet incredulously. “You are…quite well-built, Heather.”

“Thank you, Ms. Melzer. Although the dress your daughter picked out for me is doing a lot of the work. Thank you for hosting all of us.”

Debbie took stock of Heather’s body as discretely as she could while formulating a host of requests to make of her husband after the party, if he wasn’t too drunk to perform. “You’re, um, welcome.” She realized the dignitaries were waiting behind these four college students, and turned her attention to her daughter to shoo her along. Debbie saw that Vicki was staring at Colin with an expression that was half resolve, half anger. She smiled broadly and falsely up at Heather, then to Colin and Robert. “Now! You three head on in. I need a moment with my daughter.” Debbie, who was one of the few people in the world capable of manhandling Vicki, grabbed her daughter by the forearm and pulled her aside. To the dignitaries, it looked like the Overseer’s wife doing her womanly duty of parenting a girl child who was well-known to be unruly.

Vicki hissed at her mother, “Mom! What are you doing?”

“You didn’t know?”

“Know what?”

“That Heather’s boy is—“

“Related to the Scourge? No! Why would I know that? How do you know that?”

“Your father’s the Overseer, dear. It’s his business to know. And you’re not to do anything about it, do you understand?”

“What are you talking about? What would I—”

“I saw the look on your face just now. You’re not to hurt him in any way. Clear?”

Vicki realized her mother had misread her expression. “Ugh, fine. But what good is the strength to crush a man’s windpipe if you never get to use it?”

“Victoria! Be careful. You never know who’s listening.”

“No one’s listening here except Daddy, Mom.” Vicki watched the microexpression that accompanied her mother deciding not to say a thing, and realized something had shaken her recently. “Mom. What happened? Are you okay? Is Daddy—“

“Victoria. Not here. Everything’s perfect tonight. But…be careful, okay?”

Vicki nodded.

“And slow down on the alcohol for the rest of the night.”

Vicki shook her head.

Two Hours Later

“I disagree.” Colin shook his head at the District CREF Operations Coordinator, with whom he was speaking at what was apparently called a ‘bar,’ despite being more of a counter. “The inclusion of video surveillance would help select out unworthy candidates. I mean, shouldn’t we all find the vast and perfect insight of the State arousing?”

“Uh—“

“I certainly do. And it would have helped me.” He gestured at Heather, who was standing with Vicki across the room, talking to a group of State officials, none of whom was more than shoulder-high to Heather. “Look at the breeding stock we’re working with.”

The CREF Coordinator held Colin’s gaze, even as he questioned whether the young man was being sincere or sarcastic. Because he couldn’t be sure, he decided to act as if Colin was being sincere. Doing otherwise could get him demoted (or, as always, killed). “I…see your point. But we’re primarily talking about college students here. Do you think your peers would have the insight to…” The Coordinator’s focus shifted to something behind Colin. He went white.

Colin turned to see what had caused the man’s reaction. He found himself eye-to-eye with Regional Overseer Melzer himself. He felt the color drain from his own face, too.

“No need for that, Mr. Travis!” Overseer Melzer clapped his hand on Colin’s shoulder. “Anyone capable of contending with my Vicki can more than handle me.”

“It’s more my friend Robert that contends with her, Overseer.”

“There’s a difference between contending and acquiescing, Mr. Travis. I’m sure you agree.”

“And which is it that you do with her, Overseer?”

Overseer Melzer inhaled sharply through his nose. After an instant of shock at Colin’s almost reflexive audacity, the Overseer smiled at him. “Acquiesce. As if you couldn't tell already. And it’s Fred.”

“Uh…”

“I mean it! I’m not just setting a trap for you to be disrespectful so I can justify having you killed. I’m high enough on the pecking order that I could do that without any justification at all.” He patted Colin hard on the back. “What are you drinking?”

“Uh, red wine?”

“Hmm. If I may, that’s just a sulfites headache in the making. And you’ll need to be careful around your woman—in vino vertias, as they say.”

“What does that mean?”

“It’s Latin—a language of an empire that fell over a thousand years before your ancestor’s rampage. Translates roughly to ‘in wine there is truth.’”

Colin’s mind boggled at the idea of thousands of years of history before his great-great-grandmother’s campaign of destruction across the Earth—or, as the State apparently called it, the Gynoclasm. “I’ll be careful, then?”

“Good. Wouldn’t want you saying to Ms. Phillips that she has an ass that could crush continents, would we?” The Overseer looked over at Heather. She was doing her best to be demure and unobtrusive while Vicki made eyes at a mid-level official of no real talent who was apparently trying to marry up into true influence. The Overseer made a mental note to speak with his daughter later about toying with men...as if it would work. All of the other men in the group were looking at, well, Heather’s attributes. “Even if it’s only a slight exaggeration.”

“N-no, sir.”

“Fred.” He gave Colin another jovial thump on the back and gestured to the bartender. “Lydia! A scotch each for me and Colin, please.”

Colin watched the bartender, a 5’11” brunette, turn and start reading bottle labels as if she had no idea what scotch was. He, too, had no idea. “What’s scotch?” As the Overseer continued to look at him expectantly, he added, “Uh…Fred.”

“You’ll see. Say, Colin, have you ever heard of an artist named Picasso?”

One Hour Later

Robert did his best to push Vicki away as she pinned him up against the wall of what was, apparently, her childhood bedroom and leaned in to kiss him. It was like trying to push away a steamroller. “Vic, wait. Wait, please.”

“Ugh, what? We’re on a clock, Robbie. We have to be downstairs when everyone leaves.”

Robert winced at the smell of alcohol on her breath and the frustration in her tone. If he was right about his circumstances, he was in mortal danger. “Your modifications. You’re—“

“—superhumanly strong, fast, and durable. I also go deaf if you try to modify me without saying the code phrase. Which is Washington, according to the file in Daddy’s desk. Not sure what that means. And for some reason the phrase ‘Saint Louis’ makes me completely normal again. All at once.”

“How do you know that?”

“Daddy had to use it once when my sisters and I were fighting. Emily punched through a load-bearing column. Bitch.” Vicki pushed Robert back against the wall and resumed trying to kiss him.

“Stop! You’re hurting me!”

“Oh.” Vicki immediately let him go and backed up a step. “I’m sorry, Robbie, I’m drunk. Here. Say ‘St. Louis.’”

"Uh..." Robert froze at how casually she was asking him to commit a capital offense.

"Come on! I want to make out while we can."

Robert shook his head. “No.”

“What do you mean, ‘no’? That way I can’t hurt you. And I definitely can’t dry hump you safely if I’m nearly breaking you just by kissing you.”

“But—“

“I’ll have Daddy put me back afterwards.”

Robert spotted the flaw in that immediately. If he un-modified Vicki and then she asked her father to fix it, Overlord Melzer would know he’d engaged in modification—which, of course, was the capital offense of concern. “No.”

“Ugh! You’re so frustrating! Why not?”

From his two reasons for refusing, Robert chose the one that seemed better for their relationship. “Because you wouldn’t be you.”

Vicki stood up straight, which, with her heels, put her eyes an inch above his. “What did you just say?”

“That you wouldn’t be you. The you I’ve gotten to know, I mean.”

Vicki regarded him with genuine confusion. “But you had no idea how I was modified until just now.” She blinked as her brain worked to think through her buzz. “Wait. You think my personality would be different without my modifications?”

Robert thought for a second, then nodded. “Part of what I love about you is that you’re so carefree. I don’t think you could be that if you were…normal, I guess.”

“What you love about…” Vicki furrowed her brow. “Hang on. Wait. You like me for my personality?”

“Yes?”

Vicki gave her slender, toned body an incredulous once-over before looking back up at Robert. She nodded with resolve. “Okay.” Vicki inhaled deeply and let it all out with a huff. Then she rubbed her hands together, shook out her arms, and rocked side to side on her feet as if psyching herself up for something. “Okay. Wow, this going to suck.”

“What are you—“

“Tell me I’m sober.”

“I don’t—“

“Say it. ‘Washington. Vicki, you are sober.’”

Robert figured this would either not work or would be undetectable as a modification. “Washington. Vicki, you are sober.” Robert stepped forward to Vicki up as she winced, clutched her head, and went weak in the knees. “Vic! Are you okay?”

“Ugh, fine, I’m fine. Over-fuckinglord, that sucks.” Her words had no trace of slurring and her cadence was normal.

“What happened?”

“You just forced my body to metabolize all the alcohol all at once. Don’t worry, I’m alright. Except for the headache.” She smiled at Robert as she felt Robert’s arms tighten around her and drew herself upright. She gave him a peck on the cheek. “You stay here, sweetie. I’ll be right back. I’d only intended for us to make out, but now I’m taking your virginity. Also, I just turned all that liquor to urine. So I need to pee.”

“Wait, so we can—?” he watched her half-rush, half-waddle for the bathroom attached to her childhood bedroom. She moved so quickly that she appeared to him as a blur. “—what’s virginity?”

Downstairs, Heather was marveling up at the fragment of Guernica while the Overseer finished explaining its provenance. Colin, however, was looking at an object in a bulletproof glass case. It was a rectangular prism with metal on the back and sides, black glass on the front, and what looked like camera lenses embedded the upper right corner. He said, with awe, “An Internet access node.”

“Very good, Colin! Your family clearly educated you well.” Overseer Melzer gauged Heather's expression as he said, “To be expected, I suppose, given its storied past.” He nodded slightly to himself. Debbie was right: Heather knew Colin’s history but Robert and Vicki did not. That, together with the absence of any mention of the topic in the surveillance transcripts of Colin and Heather’s conversations, meant Colin and Heather were adept at finding chances for private conversation. Melzer’s respect for Marshal Lyons ticked up slightly.

Colin winced. “It’s not something we’re proud of, Overs…Fred.”

Heather cocked her head in a perfect simulation of mild confusion. “What storied history?”

“It’s…” Colin shook his head. “I can’t say, per the State’s will.”

Heather nodded and murmured in response. “The State’s will is our will.”

The Overseer laughed. “Oh, come on, you two. You don’t need to put on that stupid little act with me. Plus, unless the Overlord himself is around, the State’s will is no one’s but mine.” He gestured at the finely-made, mahogany and red leather chairs in front of his desk. He continued speaking as he walked to sit down. “Heather, Colin’s ancestor is the woman whom sufficiently high-level State officials are allowed to call ‘the Scourge.’ A woman who, while modified into what a particular niche of pre-Event erotic fiction called a ‘giga-giantess,’ brought the old world to ruin.”

Heather did her best to feign surprise. She looked at Colin in simulated horror. “By the Overlord.”

Overseer Melzer chuckled low and shook his head. “Really, kids. Who do you think you’re fooling?” He pointed at Heather. “You clearly know—“ Overseer Melzer pointed to Colin. “—which means you’ve clearly told her. My question is, where was it that you did? By the waterfall? The dead zone on the trestle bridge? That secret room in your favorite restaurant?”

Colin and Heather went stiff with fear in their finely-made, mahogany and red leather chairs.

“You can stop that, too. You’re in no danger. Or, at least, not now, here, with me.”

“Frank had no idea that—“

Overseer Melzer held up a palm. “My God, you really are an impressive young man, Colin. Look at you! Offering a confession to protect a family friend? No wonder the secret police consider the two of you dangerous. You are dangerous. Moral, brave, smart, and worst of all, creative.” Melzer turned his head to gaze up at Heather. “And you! Just now, in an instant, you deduced that you had to pretend not to know Colin’s descended from the Scourge. I’d bet you’re at least his intellectual equal. And you’re still wearing that gold bracelet despite having been enlarged on at least two occasions, which means you two know modifications can be undone. Put that all together and what we have here is not only two smart people working together, but two smart people who have the knowledge to end the world a second time. The only real open question is whether you have the desire.” Overseer Melzer put his elbows on the blotter covering his desk and folded his arms. “You are exactly the kind of couple that the State aims to weed out. Or, barring that, stamp out. Sometimes literally." He alternated his gaze at their terrified expressions. "Do you have anything to say for yourselves?”

Colin and Heather sat in silence. They were too scared to even look at each other.

“Well, luckily for you, my Vicki and I both like you.” He arched an eyebrow at Heather. “And it appears my wife is ever so slightly enamored of you.”

Colin risked speaking. His voice quavered. “What are you going to do?”

“Nothing, Colin! Nothing, so long as you two continue to do nothing more disruptive or transgressive than temporary modifications to make intimacy more entertaining.” He deliberately trained his eyes on Colin’s crotch. “Or, perhaps in your case, possible.”

Colin blushed a deep red; Heather shifted in her seat.

“You see, while the State has a vested interest in eliminating couples like you, it must always have a select few people like you. Individuals capable of filling its upper echelons. Of bettering the State.” The Overseer’s jovial expression dropped. “Which, to be clear, is hardened against another Gynoclasm and fully capable of putting down giantesses of any size and strength in an instant. There is not a single thing that you could attempt that we have not already gamed out. The State is, and will remain, perpetual.” His smile and upbeat demeanor returned. “Which is good news for you! You two are no mere breeding stock. Why, with the right training and attitude, you could be sitting in this chair one day.” Overseer Melzer patted the arm of his high-backed chair, then gave Heather a mock-pitying look. “Well, not you. Not that you should want to. You’d constantly hit your knees on the underside of the desk.”

Heather’s nostrils flared. “Sounds awful.”

Overlord Melzer chuckled at her admirable contemptuousness. “The bottom line is, there’s no beating the State. No tricking it, no outsmarting it. But there are benefits to directing and strengthening it, for those, like you, who are competent enough to do so. So why not have a peek at those benefits?” He pressed the button on the underside of his desk, opening the hidden door to the evacuation route. “That space is 40’ high. It's also 200’ long before the first bend. It’s yours for the next hour.”

Colin swallowed. “I don’t understand. What would we even—“

“Colin. Don’t patronize me. I’ve seen your macrophilia index, young man. You figured out what it was testing for. You didn’t just manipulate the result with your false answers. You manipulated it in the way only someone with our…interests…can.” Overseer Melzer winked at Heather. “If you’re not already aware, but I suspect you are, your man likes giant women. Truly giant. Enjoy pleasing him.” Meltzer rose and headed for the door to his office. “Do, however, take off the dress before you grow. It suits you. And Vicki spent a lot of my money on it.”

Colin and Heather watched him leave. They heard the door to the office lock from the outside. The two then looked at each other in a mixture of confusion and fear. In their lifetimes of frightening confrontations with those in power, this had been, by far, the most terrifying.

Heather spoke first. “I…we can talk. I don’t see or hear anyone else here. There are no hidden cameras or microphones.”

Colin lost his fight to hold back his tears. “Heather, what do we do? He—the State—knows everything!”

“I’m scared too, Colin. She reached out and took his hand, then slid down out of her chair to kneel in front of him. She wiped a tear off his cheek with her thumb. “But he doesn’t know everything. I don’t think he realized I’m currently modified. Or, at least, not how.”

“How do you know that?”

“He said and did things that could have made me fear for your life. Which would have made me start doubling in size.”

After a second’s thought, Colin relaxed, slightly. “That’s a good point.” He took a few more seconds to breathe, and think. “And, I guess, he didn’t say exactly how big we’ve already made you.”

“Or anything about your limited modifiability.”

Colin felt a wave of relief. That was true. “Yeah. Okay.” He scoffed. “So we’re only mostly fucked.”

Heather laughed. “Exactly.”

“What are we supposed to do now? He locked us in here.” Colin looked at the secret door, and the balcony overlooking the 40’-high corridor beyond it. “Sort of?”

“Crazy as it sounds, I think that’s up to us. We could sit here for an hour. Or we could, um, have the ‘little taste’ he mentioned.”

“You’re kidding, right? Why would we ever—“

“Colin. The State just deliberately lifted its thumb off of us. Gave us permission to do something otherwise forbidden. Something that you’d like. That I’d like for you. Do you want to pass that up? Out of principle?”

Colin regarded her, then the secret passage. “I…I’m not sure.”

“Well, I am. For a litany of fucked-up reasons, the Overseer just handed us an hour of relative freedom. I want to use it. And I want to be 200’ tall—for you—while I do.”

Colin’s heart pounded at the prospect of Heather being that huge. “But he’ll know—“

“He already does. Isn’t that his point, Colin? If the State condones an abuse, it’s not an abuse.” She slid down out of her chair and knelt in front of him. “I…there’s so much to think about. But I don’t want to analyze right now, okay? We may never be able to go back to Frank’s.”

“Even if we can, we may not want to, to protect him.”

“Exactly. So we may never have this chance ever again. Let me be this for you. Please.”

Colin looked her in the eyes for two full seconds, then nodded.

“Thank you, lover.” Heather bent forward and kissed him. “Now, let’s make me 200’ tall.”

Colin glanced at the secret passsge. “I, uh…I have a slightly different idea. If you’re game.”

Five Minutes Later

Heather propped herself up to smile at Colin. The reinforced concrete floor of the 40’ high passageway felt cold against her feet, buttocks, elbows, forearms and palms; her nipples hardened into finger-thick nubs in response. She looked up at Colin with heavily-lidded eyes and moaned quietly as his penis began to swell to its full, merely normally enormous length of 9.8”. “Ready?”

Colin glanced back nervously at the balcony overlooking the passage to ensure. The door was still shut. “I think so?”

“There’s no one here but us.” Heather sat forward and reached out her hands to take his, then laid back to pull him down on top of her. She smiled at the way he weighed down against her breasts, and at how, with him chest-to-chest, he still had to strain up to kiss her. She cupped his buttock with one hand and wrapped her legs around his, pressing his now-throbbing erection into her pubic mound and stomach. “Say it, then.”

Colin swallowed. He started to tremble with nerves and excitement. “You…okay.” He closed his eyes and focused. “Misogynistic autocracy. Every second my penis is inside your vagina, you grow 20% bigger, to a maximum height of 200’.”

Heather kissed him deeply, then grabbed his shaft and shoulder and urged him down to enter her. As his glans pressed to her labia, she inhaled deeply, then said, “And every second your entire penis is inside my vagina, it grows 20% bigger, until I reach a height of 200’.” With that, and before he could protest, Heather thrust his member up into her.