Three years before the Great Reduction and the Elevation of the Cheerleader

In her first week at Dupuy College, 18-year-old freshman Stephanie Searfass met the first great love of her life, Jason. He was coming off his redshirt freshman year and getting ready to start at quarterback for the football team. In Jason, she found strength and someone who was very centered. Jason was very kind to Stephanie -- at first.

She also met the first great bete noire of her life, Women's Studies professor Rachel Sanderson. Stephanie would have been just another freshman in Sanderson's "Introduction to Feminist Studies" lower level course, but for the wardrobe decision she made before coming to class.


Stephanie Searfass was very proud of making the cheerleading squad at Dupuy College. She had been a cheerleader in high school but knew she'd have some competition, even at the two-thousand student institution tucked in a Pennsylvania valley. Just before the Feminist Studies class, Stephanie had been over in the gym, getting her picture taken in her cheerleader outfit. She decided to wear it to class. She sat about halfway up the rows in the lecture hall, just one of a hundred students. But Professor Sanderson, a 30-year-old raven haired lesbian with a pageboy haircut, zeroed in on her.

"People, did you notice something?" The students looked around. "You, in the Dupuy er, uniform, would you stand up please?" After realizing she was the target, Stephanie complied.

"This is college, so you don't need somebody telling you how to dress. I'm comfortable with the range of casual to utterly slovenly that you find in a typical college classroom. But there is one item of clothing with which I am not comfortable..." she started to walk in a very exaggerated manner up the aisle... "and that is the symbol of patriarchy, the celebration of creepy male ogling and the objectification of women... the CHEERLEADER COSTUME!" She reached Stephanie and stared her straight in the eyes, never letting her gaze go. "What is your name?"

"S-s-Stephanie Searfass", she replied with a tremble in her voice.

"Stephanie, since you chose to make a sartorial statement in favor of patriarchy, perhaps you would be kind enough to define it for the class."

"I - I- I don't know", Stephanie replied.

"Ah, you see, this is what I was talking about. The values are so embedded in our society that those they oppress can't even explain them."

Stephanie Searfass looked at her instructor and blinked without much comprehension. "Are you saying that I am oppressed?"

"I am saying you are part of a system that upholds female powerlessness."

Stephanie returned her professor's gaze with her own watery blue eyes. "I don't think I'm powerless... I volunteer in the community... I think there's a lot of power and a lot of potential power in this uniform and what it represents."

"It represents the power and privilege of the male gaze. I counter that power with a gaze of my own. Stephanie, don't ever let me see you in this class with that outfit again." She then motioned Stephanie to sit down, walked back to the podium and continued with her material.

Thinking back on it later, Stephanie thought there was almost a sexual tension in that first encounter.
---


Eight months before the great reduction

The relationship between 20-year-old Stephanie and Jason continued to grow. But there were signs of trouble. Jason had done quite well, taking over the starting quarterback position. The team had won its conference championship two years in a row and entered the Division IV playoffs. That was making Jason a hot item, not just for fans, alumni and the occasional NFL scout, but for the campus women as well.

At the same time, Jason was making greater demands to control Stephanie's time. He wanted her to give up most or all of her extensive schedule of volunteering. Basically, he wanted Stephanie to be the accessory hanging off his arm wheneve he went out in public -- except when he didn't want her around. He even went off on the plush toys that filled Stephanie's side of her dorm room. "Quit the little girl stuff and throw them out. I'm
your toy and I'm not plush", Jason said.

"
"The plush toys are my little community. Sometimes I like to imagine what their lives are like and try to make them better. I like to match up the little girl toys and the little boy toys..."

Jason seized Stephanie by the shoulders, silencing her immediately.

"I don't give a damn about your toys or your volunteer work. If that's your idea of a relationship, it's not a relationship to me. It's up to you."

"Fine. I'll give up my plush toys when you give up your toys -- those other girls I see you with", Stephanie answered.

"Steph, those aren't -- ". Jason pounded his fist into Stephanie's dresser drawer top. "Sometimes I go out with the guys and we go to a club in the city and, I'm just trying to bond with the guys."

"Very well", Stephanie answered. "Bond with them or bond with me."

"You don't get it! I'm a quarterback! Those are the guys who keep the other team from pounding me into the dirt!" Jason picked up a porcelain doll and hurled it against the wall, smashing it to pieces. Then he stormed out. 

Three days later, the breakup arrived by text message. To say Stephanie was devastated, would be a massive understatement. Dormmates saw the usually sweet-tempered and almost oblivious Stephanie turn into a whirlwind of red cheeks and tears, throwing herself on the bed and crying for what seemed like hours. One of those who tried to comfort her was her newest roommate, a freshman named Sandy.

---

Four months before the great reduction

May had arrived and semester was ending, but Stephanie Searfass didn't have a new boyfriend. She had tried to meet people through volunteering and at classes, but no guy seemed to offer chemistry. Jason was a hot catch and Stephanie found others just not measuring up. Maybe her standards were too high. Maybe she had 'peaked' as an attractive young woman already, and it was all downhill from here. That thought chilled Stephanie to the bone. 

Summer break was coming and dozens of Dupuy students had volunteered to be camp counselors at a camp up the hill from the town of Dupuy. Stephanie was among them. Maybe she could find a guy there, she thought.

Before she left for camp, she decided to seek out an unlikely source for advice. Her old nemesis, the Women's Studies course instructor, 32-year-old Professor Sanderson. Of course, she didn't wear the cheerleader's outfit when she went to see her. But her T-shirt and jeans did little to hide her distinctive figure.

Sanderson drew in a breath when she saw who was walking across the quadrangle. One part of her shuddered when she saw the representation of patriarchy and everything else she
despised, moving in her direction. One part felt a tingle from seeing Stephanie approach. Sanderson had a hard time admitting the sexual tension she felt from Stephanie. Needless to say, her professionalism and university rules forced her to keep that under wraps.

The door swung open and sunlight streamed in. Stephanie closed the door and stood there, staring at Sanderson for a moment.

"What brings you to my office, Stephanie?"

"Professor Sanderson, I need your help. I know you can't stand me, so I figured you'd give me an honest answer. I'm a Dupuy cheerleader. I broke up with my boyfriend and I can't get another one. What's the matter with me?"

Sanderson's heart began to pound and her pulse began ringing in her ears. She kept thinking of that old movie, "But I'm A Cheerleader!" She fought temptation to tell Stephanie that maybe, just maybe, she was playing on the wrong team.

"You've been playing the sweet little love kitten. The game is getting a lot more competitive. It's time to stop being the prey. Become the predator. Get your queen cat game on, my dear Stephanie. You need yourself a game changer."

Stephanie thought she had found her answer at the counselors' dance one Saturday night in June. She noticed that several of the women were wearing their little black dresses -- and not all of them had anything on underneath. Having just turned 21, Steph was knocking back the booze. She went to the ladies' room and quickly stuffed her underwear into her purse. Then she decided she had to let that fact be known.

She walked up to an interesting guy with auburn hair named Dave. She started to converse with him, then suddenly exclaimed "My contact popped out! Could you help me find it?"

Stephanie then dropped to her knees. Her intent was to get Dave down to knee-level and let him see that she was pantyless. Unfortunately, she didn't realize that her skirt had blown up backwards, exposing her bottom and her womanhood to full view.

When she got back to her room, various photos of pantyless celebrities had been stuck to her door, cut out to spell the words HO HO HO. Stephanie's ears burned as she tore them down.

The day of the great reduction

When the green gas that triggered the great reduction arrived at Dupuy College, Professor Rachel Sanderson was fiddling with the bookshelf in her office. Her body seemed to tingle all over. As she sank into her clothing, she leaned on the bookshelf for support, causing it to topple. Fortunately, it caught on a desk before squashing the shrinking professor like a bug. But Sanderson was still in a heap of trouble. Actually, a heap of books, that
had fallen on her. One of which had fallen open on her now-nude body.

Hours passed before another human being walked through the door. A seemingly huge voice echoed through the room. "Professor Sanderson?" Sanderson was still groggy and didn't answer. "Professor Sanderson?", the voice called again.

Sanderson's mind swam. She wondered if she had died. Then the book that restrained her flew upward into space. Two warm hands picked her nude form up and she rose at a dizzying pace into the air.

Sanderson looked around. Her office had expanded to gigantic proportions. The desk at which she worked now seemed like the roof of a building. Then she turned to look at what was holding her up. The huge field of green in a Dupuy cheerleader's uniform, and inside of it, the watery blue eyes and round, beaming face of Stephanie Searfass. Stephanie the cheerleader. The very thing she had condemned, was now saving her.

One part of Sanderson thought she had gone to hell. The other thought she was in heaven.

"Professor, is that you?", Stephanie whispered. "Rachel, are you all right? Is anything broken?"

Rachel. The sound of her own name brought the professor face to face with the new reality. No longer was she in a professorial position over a student. In fact, Rachel knew she was no longer equal to Stephanie. Naked as a jaybird, five and change inches tall, Rachel felt subservient. The part of her that believed this was heaven took over,
and she got on her knees and threw out her arms to bow in worship.

"Rachel, what are you doing?", Stephanie laughed.

The professor wanted to blurt out, "Worshipping you, my mighty cheerleader." But she bit her tongue, even as her face flushed from arousal. "I - I - I'm all right physically. Nothing appears to be broken or bent. I guess I'm just a little disoriented... a little scared", Rachel said.

Stephanie cupped Rachel in one hand and began rubbing her back with the tip of her index finger. "Don't you worry, Rachel, I'll protect you. I'm not going to let any nasty cat get you." Then she gently kissed Rachel's back. Rachel almost lost it at that point. "We're gathering all the survivors at the women's dorm to get checked out by the doctors."

"Survivors?" The magnitude of what had happened began to hit Rachel. "What happened?"

"It looks like everybody in Dupuy got shrunk, except me."

"Everybody in Dupuy or everybody in the world?"

"I think just Dupuy. But we can't call anybody. Phones don't work, radios don't work, the internet doesn't work, nothing works. We can still get TV news, and they're saying some gas got released and everybody in Dupuy died. They don't know about us."

Rachel felt her own body to make sure she was still living. "I think I'm still flesh and blood! In fact, my flesh is feeling a little chilly. Is there something I could wear?"

"Right here!" Stephanie smiled and pulled a piece of fabric out of her purse. "I broke in the fabric store..." she blushed... "and got these four-by-four squares. Add a rubberband and you have a robe."

Rachel wrapped herself in the fabric.

"Now we need to give you a ride back to the dorm." Stephanie opened her purse and Rachel jumped in.

It was a short ride of course, short as a walk across the campus would have been at her old size. Rachel clung to her piece of fabric as she tumbled out of Stephanie's purse.
"Here's the line to get checked out by the doctors", Stephanie whispered. "I'm going back to look for more people." Then she bounded away. Rachel was in awe as the giant in a cheerleader's costume covered what seemed like hundreds of yards in a few steps.

Rachel looked around at the humdrum hall of the women's dorm, now apparently as large as a train station. She found herself in a line of students, faculty and townies, all dressed in those same bits of fabric. From the chatter, it seemed every one of them had a story of being rescued by Stephanie.

"The cat was about to get me, and then the Cheerleader shooed the cat away."

"I lost control of my car, and it caught fire. The Cheerleader broke out the window and pulled me out just before it blew up."

"We shrank on the street and we were almost meat for a pack of dogs! Then the Cheerleader reached up and pulled us into the sky!"

Rachel was struck by how, over and over again, people described Stephanie's intervention as almost godlike. She picked up on something else, too. Over and over, people referred to her as "The Cheerleader." Of course, most of them didn't know Stephanie's name. But it wasn't just "some girl" who rescued them. That cheerleader's uniform seemed to give her an authority, a power in the midst of chaos.

Rachel began to reconsider her view of the cheerleader concept. Yes, it could be a symbol of patriarchy. But there had been goddess civilizations in the past, with female sexuality at their center. Those civilizations were, to Rachel's mind, better than the male-based war cultures that superseded them. Had the strange incident in Dupuy created an opportunity to re-create a goddess-based culture? Especially since the outside world thought everyone in Dupuy was dead?

Jason had torn a loincloth from the T-shirt that engulfed him when he shrank. It had been hours since whatever happened, happened. His dormmates had left early in the morning, leaving him all alone when the green gas hit. He was tying a paper clip to a piece of string, trying to hurl it up to the doorknob that loomed over his head. He hoped to turn the doorknob to get out of his dorm room. He wasn't sure what to expect on the other side, but with no food, he knew he couldn't stay in his room for long.

Jason had failed on six attempts and was about to try again when the doorknob moved. He backed away from the door instinctively. He wanted to run and hide but didn't. Jason soon wished he had.

The knob turned, the door opened, and there stood Stephanie. This was the only room she hadn't checked in her search of the men's dorm. When she saw his tiny form, her face showed anger, then contempt, as if she were looking at a particularly loathsome bug. Then her expression changed to a smile. But not a friendly smile. Before Jason could react, she grabbed him with thumb and index finger, then squeezed him with her fist.

"Jason! What a strange way to meet. You know what happened, don't you? Everybody got small but me. I'm the only big person left in Dupuy. That makes me the boss. It also means, you'd better not make me mad."

"What are you going to do with me?", Jason shouted.

"Not stomp you to death, if that's what you're afraid of. That would be too easy. I'm not taking you to where the other survivors are, either. I have a special place for you -- my room."

She then tossed him into her purse and leaped down the steps of the now-abandoned men's dorm.
---

Stephanie placed Jason in a cage, with food, water and a bucket to recycle same. That cage was strategically placed so that her plush toys all looked down on him in silent reproach. Then she headed back down to help at the makeshift hospital on the first floor of the women's dorm.

A curtain surrounded the operating areas. A doctor, dressed in a doctor action figure costume complete with white coat and forehead mirror, came out to talk to Stephanie.

"How are we doing?", Stephanie asked.

"Not so well, Cheerleader. We're running out of a lot of things -- including antiseptic to treat wounds."

Stephanie thought for a moment. "Isn't urine antiseptic?"

"It's at least aseptic. I know in the Marines they taught us to use it in an emergency, to clean out a wound. But we've got several wounded people. I don't know how we'd get enough..."

"Can you get me a sterile container that's about the size of a coffee cup?"

"That's a pretty big order for us at this size."

"All right, then." She walked over to a sink, ran scalding hot water over a coffee cup, then placed it on the floor. Stephanie's first aid training taught her not to let anything get in the way of helping people in an emergency -- not even modesty. As the doctor watched, she squatted over the cup, grunted, then let go a stream that filled the cup. When she finished, she placed it on a toy wagon from the doll store. "Here you are", she said to the doctor.

Some two dozen people later found out that a big reason they were still alive, after getting impaled on their own tools, cut by a piece of glass, clawed by a cat or bitten by a dog, was because their wounds had been cleaned with the Cheerleader's pee.

Some paramedics on the Dupuy Fire Department saw Stephanie's " contributions" to health care, which probably inspired the next set of events.

Three Days After the Great Reduction

Stephanie had been so busy dealing with the immediate crisis, she had not had time to set up all the doll houses she had looted from stores.  Several dozen people had set up makeshift housing, using paper curtains as dividers. Unfortunately, someone had also been using a cigarette lighter to stay warm.

Stephanie had been walking around that particular room with a couple of members of the fire department when she smelled smoke. She had taken to wearing her cheerleader's uniform virtually anytime she stepped out of her room. Actually, she rotated several different uniforms, as she now had the pick of uniforms worn by the other girls, who were now far too small to wear them.

"Fire!" someone shouted, and a panic erupted. Stephanie strode over to the fire site. About a dozen people were trapped inside an open grid trash can converted to housing, with just a single small opening to the outside. Getting the fire crew in there would be hard, and it would basically be a bucket brigade, since they hadn't had a chance to build fire equipment for their new sizes.

There was exactly one person big enough to run to the nearest fire extinguisher, grab it, and use it -- Stephanie Searfass. But it was halfway across the dorm building, and she knew these people could be toast by the time she retrieved it. Once again, necessity defeated modesty.

It is hard to separate the swirl of emotions felt by a dozen doomed souls, as they looked up to the sky to see an enormous young woman remove her thong, fill their overhead vision with her most intimate regions, and save them by putting out the fire with her own yellow rain.

The fire department was so impressed, it made Stephanie an honorary firefighter. Since the fire crews didn't need normal-sized fire uniforms anymore, they gave Stephanie a uniform. On her name tag -- not Stephanie -- CHEERLEADER. It was a connection that would become strong in many ways in the coming months and years.

---

Five Days After the Great Reduction

Rachel strode the wide halls of the women's dorm, wearing a scratchy shirt and a pair of bib overalls. It was the least girly costume she could find that fit her, from the loot gathered by Stephanie's burglary of a store that sold doll outfits. Thousands of reduction refugees filled the hall, wandering without purpose, chased out of their homes and their lives, not knowing what the future would bring. Rachel, however, walked with a sense of purpose. She was looking for the staff that ran the greenhouse next to the women's dorm.

At last she recognized a familiar face. It was Dr. Alicia Horrell, head of the greenhouse project. Horrell shared Rachel's feminist outlook, although she didn't exclude men from her sexual capacities.

Alicia shrugged her shoulders, then placed her hand over her head and moved it down, to simulate shrinking. "Rachel, what are we going to do? The outside world has given us up for dead."

"Alicia, I think this gives a certain impetus to your sustainability project. It may be the one thing that keeps Dupuy alive."

"Well, of course, the goal is to grow enough food to sustain the Dupuy College community. But a whole town of thousands of people?"

"We're a lot smaller, " Rachel replied. "We eat less. The math should work."

Alicia looked down at herself, then at Rachel. "How do we keep it going... at THIS size?"

"We have hundreds, if not thousands, of suddenly underemployed people. Some of them can work this greenhouse. We can create a sustainable community here, cut off from the world."

"People won't settle for that. They'll want to find a way to tell the outside world we're still here."

"That's impossible", Rachel answered. "If we tried, we'd be eaten by cats or dogs. Or even worse, if the government finds out we're alive. They'll try to cover it up by killing all of us."

"I don't believe that--"

"Or -- OR -- keeping us all in a laboratory where they can perform experiments on us. They'd never let us out. Then we could sue the manufacturers of whatever it was that shrank us. Politicians don't like it when you mess with their benefactors."

"What about the Cheerleader? Surely she'd eventually set out on foot and try to reach an unaffected area."

"Yes, the Cheerleader COULD do that. But here's where I want you to expand your vision, Alicia. We could create something here in Dupuy, something that transcends sustainability itself."

"What would that be, Rach?"

"You and I have both talked about upending patriarchy, as it has existed for thousands of years. Here we have a situation where the most powerful person is a woman. A young, extremely attractive woman." Rachel had to draw in a deep breath at the end of that last sentence. "If we could persuade her to, instead of going out to look for help, become the
ruler of this place, I think she could create the kind of goddess society for which we have waited so long."

"You really think that could happen?"

"Think about it. The whole patriarchical military-industrial complex has abandoned us. Decided we don't exist. No one has come to help us. The people are lost, disillusioned. Now, think of this. Every one of us has a story about how they shrank and the world got scary, and then THE CHEERLEADER rescued them. We don't even call her by her name. She's just the Cheerleader, as though she were some natural force."

"A real manifestation of a goddess."

"Precisely. We've lost everything we had. Something beyond our ability to understand has happened to us. The forces of the natural and supernatural world seem to have forgotten us, except for that one great, beautiful figure in green and gold that towers above us. She's saved every one of our lives, some multiple times -- and often did it in a way that emphasizes her feminine power. Think of all those people in the hospital and the burning trash can, who looked up and saw rescue in a giant womanhood. She's the one person -- the one entity -- Dupuy can still believe in. She is not only our rescuer, she's our government, she's our moral compass. If she wants to be."

Just then they heard a huge rumbling noise outside. A robot, probably no more than four feet tall but gigantic to the tiny women, rumbled by the greenhouse, then rumbled away.

"I don't think they saw us", Rachel whispered.

"Our future society is safe", Alicia answered. "So, how do we know Stephanie wants to be a goddess?"

"We go to her and convince her to become one."

====

Two Weeks After the Great Reduction

Workers had begun to adapt the Dupuy women's dorm to the small size of most of its inhabitants, and their need to communicate with their giant protector. There was now a buzzer that the shrunken Dupuyans could press, with some effort, to let Stephanie know they were at her door. When the buzzer sounded this time, Stephanie opened her door carefully. At her feet she found Rachel and Alicia. Just a week ago she would have called one Professor and the other Doctor, but Stephanie had come to understand that she now occupied a superior place in their psychological cosmos. They both understood their new place in that cosmos, as they addressed Stephanie by what had become her de facto title.

"Cheerleader, we would like to speak with you, about the situation here in Dupuy."

"Yes. I know it's hard for everybody. I'm doing all I can."

"We know you are, Cheerleader. We don't in any way question your devotion to Dupuy. We would like to propose a way for you to use your immense power more effectively."

"Let's talk inside", Stephanie replied. She scooped up Rachel and Alicia, and unconsciously began caressing their backs with her finger, as she carried them to her bed.

She put Rachel and Alicia down on the bed and sat down at the other end.

"Let me start with a question, if the Cheerleader permits."

Stephanie smiled. "You don't have to talk about me in the third person. I've just been put into a position where I can help."

Rachel continued. "If I may be permitted to say, Cheerleader, you are far too humble. Everyone, and I mean everyone, in Dupuy owes their lives to you. Looking up and seeing you helping us and protecting us is the only thing keeping a lot of people going right now."

Stephanie laughed. "That's something else that surprises me... why... why does everybody call me 'the Cheerleader'?"

Rachel could have said, because not everyone in Dupuy knows your name, but she didn't. "It's because they don't feel right calling you by your first name. You are so much more powerful than us, and you have used that power to do so much good. We don't feel right addressing you as an equal. When we became small, you became elevated over us. We look up to you... literally."

"Awwwww...." Stephanie groaned. "Well, I feel like you're all my little plush toys, and I love you very much." Then she sighed. "I just don't know what more I can do. I can't make you big again."

"We're not asking you to do more, Cheerleader. We're asking you to do something different. Before I explain, I'd like to ask you a question. Since you are the only big person in Dupuy, are you thinking about leaving us?"

Stephanie didn't know how to answer the question. "No... I wouldn't leave you... I mean, I think someone's going to have to try to get help once things are stabilized... but no, I wouldn't leave you."

"Cheerleader, I know that you love us. What do you think would happen, if you made it to the outside world and got people here to help us?"

"Well, they would come and rescue you, and get you help, and see if they could make you big again."

Rachel shook her head. "That green gas that made everybody but you get small... was part of a government project. It was secret. Now it's all over the news, but everybody thinks we got dissolved. If we suddenly reappear, that means billions of dollars in lawsuits against the companies that made this stuff."

"But they should be sued! This is a terrible thing that's happened..."

"Cheerleader... this area is sealed off. That gas is still in the air and would probably shrink any would-be outside observers. So if they do get us out, nobody will know about it. They will be able to take us, in secret, conduct experiments on us... even kill us. Remember, everyone thinks we're dead. Cheerleader, please, for our sake, don't go for help."

"But how will we survive?"

Alicia piped up for the first time. "The greenhouse next to the dorm. We can grow enough food to support Dupuy."

"Alicia's right", Rachel continued. "We can create a sustainable society here. Shrunk to five and six inches in height, our food needs and carbon footprints are much smaller. But we need a leader. Someone to whom the people can look up. YOU need to be that leader, Stephanie."

Stephanie paused, drew in her breath, and spoke. "I don't know if I can do that. I feel like this huge burden has fallen on me. I feel very lonely."

A light bulb went off in Rachel's head. "Stephanie, have you found a new boyfriend yet?"

"No. I mean, I hadn't before all this happened and now it's the farthest thing from my mind. Anybody who could be a boyfriend is out there, in the outside world. I can't imagine anyone in Dupuy wanting to get involved with me. It would be like dating a monster, or an elephant."

Now Rachel's eyes brightened. She knew she had a bargaining chip to close the deal.

"Cheerleader... Stephanie... I know it's hard to see from up there, but I see the way the men of Dupuy react when you pass by... when you talk to them... when you pick them up and hold them... they think you are the hottest woman who has ever existed... a thousand times hotter than you already were."

Stephanie blushed. "Wow... you really think?"

"I don't think. I KNOW. I also know that if you want to put your little dry spell to an end, they would gladly help. Remember what I told you last summer. Become the conqueror. Get your queen cat game on."

The gears in Stephanie's mind began to mesh. "I remember on the day everybody got small, going in the firehouse and picking up all those buff guys, all shrunk down to six inches tall. I remember thinking, "I could take this man. I could take all of them if I wanted to."

"And they'd like it", Rachel answered. "Why do you think they gave you a fire chief's hat?"

"I'm not sure they'd like it", Stephanie giggled. "I'd be the one in charge, and they'd have to pay a lot of attention to... certain places... and I don't think one guy would be enough to fill my needs."

By now, Rachel was fighting a certain reaction in those same places on her own body.
"You're the Cheerleader... who says you have to stop at one?"

The Cheerleader, paused, and her eyes got big, and she reared back her head for a huge laugh that rang in Rachel's tiny ears.

"You know, I remember something else from that day. When I was in the toy store, getting doll clothes and dollhouses for everybody. I started to swipe my credit card, then I realized it didn't matter. I AM the law in Dupuy, until somebody says otherwise."

"Nobody's going to say otherwise", Rachel responded. "You are the law. You are authority. You are our hope. You are our desire. Just take power... take us... under your power. The first thing you need to do... is show Dupuy that YOU are our DIVA!"

Four Weeks After the Great Reduction

Dupuy was gathering a semblance of normalcy, as dollhouses began to go up around the women's dorm, to house thousands of displaced people. Dupuy's city engineering team was planning the beginnings of a water and sewage system. Doctors were planning strategies for the kinds of outbreaks one sees after a disaster, such as cholera. Meantime, the young adults of Dupuy, including the students of Dupuy College, tried to get back to the business of dating and mating, with the first dance after the great reduction.

The dance was well underway when the dancers heard footsteps and an incredibly loud clacking. Stephanie Searfass, twelve times as tall as anyone else on the dance floor,
with high heels that reached the waistlines of everyone else present, stormed in.

Everyone else stopped dancing. In an involuntary reaction motivated by safety as much as anything else, they moved toward the corners of the room.

Stephanie wore one of her cheerleader's outfits -- but this one had been altered, with the gold-trimmed hem stopping just short of where her buttocks met her thighs. She wasn't wearing panties, and this time she didn't try to hide the fact. She stood in the center of the room and began to pivot her hips, giving all present an unobstructed view of the goods.

Almost all of the men present watched hypnotically, as their girlfriends looked on with disgust.

At the end of her dance, Stephanie filled the room with her voice. "Are there some friends here who'd like to come UP to my place?" As she began to stroll out of the room, men began to follow her. Some were held back by their girlfriends, but dozens more followed that amazing rear end. As she reached the threshold of the room, Stephanie turned back to the remaining tiny ladies and said, "Who's the 'ho' now?"

---

"Where are you taking me?", Jason shouted to Stephanie, as he rattled the bars of his cage. For four weeks he had been a prisoner here. The reason he didn't stink was because Stephanie -- over his protest -- took him out each day for a rather rough scrubbing in the sink.

"Not very far, little Jason. There's something I want you to see."

One by one, Stephanie lifted a group of tiny men to her bed. Then she teasingly unzipped and unbuttoned, piece by piece, until she sat naked. Then she motioned the men forward. Some took to her breasts, while others worked her face, her thighs and her belly. The luckiest got to dive in between her thighs. One found her love button, and Stephanie's screams bounced off the walls. Then she flipped over and gave each man a special treat,
letting them work themselves to blue-balled relief inside her backdoor.

After she had lifted each man back down and sent them back downstairs, she walked over to Jason's cage.

"I just wanted to make sure you got the message. I don't need you... for ANYTHING."

She then snapped her index finger and flicked Jason's groin, causing him to sprawl on the floor of his cage.

---

The next morning, the doorbell rang and Stephanie opened her door to find an army of five-inch-tall young women at her door.

The leader of the women, a fellow Dupuy College cheerleader named Michelle Finker, shook her fist and shouted up. "Stop stealing our men, Stephanie!"

"You don't get it. I'm the Cheerleader."

"Yeah, I'm a cheerleader too, at least I was until I shrank and got too small to wear a uniform. You're STILL a 'ho', Stephanie."

The Cheerleader got down on her knees and leaned her huge face into Michelle's. "I could
crush you like a bug right now." Then she smiled and pulled back. "But I won't. At least not right now." Michelle and the others stepped back in fear.

"I need to explain something to you. I'm now a LOT bigger than anyone else in Dupuy. That means it takes a lot more to fill me up. Put yourselves in my position. Men are like M&M's to me now. Very sweet but very small. I can't be with just one."

Michelle spoke up. "If you don't stop messing with our men, we'll..."

"YOU'LL WHAT?????" Stephanie shouted her sarcastic question at Michelle, forcing her to the floor.

"We'll chase you out of Dupuy!" Michelle screamed back in a tinny voice.

"And leave you ho's to fend for yourselves, with the cats and dogs and rats and everything else wanting to get in here and EAT your little asses? Not to mention the GOVERNMENT... if they knew you were alive, some scientists would be poking you with a needle all day long. I saved every one of your lives, and I'm the only thing KEEPING you alive right now! And I think I deserve the right to get MY needs met!"

Stephanie continued. "You need to listen to me. I have an offer that I think would work out very well for me and for all of you."

"What we're going to have in Dupuy is like open marriage. I will FORBID your men to cheat on you... with any other woman... EXCEPT me. I won't keep your men tied up every night, just enough to get my needs met. I can take turns with them. I am VERY attractive to them, as you can SEE. Just by being with me, you can look better in your man's eyes. Sexier. Hotter. They call that 'the Cheerleader effect'."

"That's the deal, girls. If you don't take it, I'll leave Dupuy to fend for itself."

Reluctantly, the girls agreed.

"And one more thing", Stephanie continued. "As Cheerleader and Diva of Dupuy, I hereby decree that any unmarried woman between 18 and 30, who's not on her period, has to go
around commando in public! That's pantyless, girls! And NO jeans or slacks to cover up, unless they're Daisy Dukes! T-shirts and short skirts only! I mean, starting NOW!"

The women, terrified of Stephanie's power, began to remove their clothing below the waistline. Soon they were standing in just their shirts. Then the panties fell. "Now walk down the halls of Dupuy like that and don't cover up again until you're on the rag!" Stephanie shouted.

As they crawled down over the now-gigantic stairs, Stephanie lifted her skirt and flashed them. "Ladies, we're ALL Ho's Now!"

Off in a corner, 33-year-old Rachel happily slipped off her overalls and stripped down to her T-shirt, wishing that Stephanie would do something with that part of her now so exposed.

---

The parade of pantyless women passed by Michelle's father, Stanley Finker. Finker had been a shoe store owner and Dupuy city councilman before the Great Reduction. He was always worrying about whether Dupuy underclassmen's sexually-tinged hijinks were affecting the moral fiber of the community.

Finker stormed up to his daughter, now wearing just a doll's sneakers, socks, and a T-shirt that stopped just before her pubes did. "Michelle, what is the meaning of this?"

"It's Stephanie Searfass. She's gone Godzilla on us. She's making us walk around half-naked."

Finker remembered how, right after everybody shrank, Stephanie was picking up everybody and petting and cooing at them, as though they were her hamsters. He didn't like it, told her so, and got a gigantic dirty look. This latest incident strengthened his opinion of her as being a bit twisted. "This is outrageous," he said to his daughter. "Thank goodness the urchins are in school. Something has to be done."

Rachel had figured Michelle would run to her daddy sooner or later. She was expecting a show of defiance to the Cheerleader. She had already moved to out-manuever Miss Finker.
As Michelle and the other de-pantsed girls complained to councilman Finker, Rachel led a group of women in a straight line through the crowd, all wearing clothing that stopped at or near the crotch. Some of them were over the age limit of 30, but still looked pretty good bottomless.

"What's the matter, girls? Think your modesty is more important than keeping Dupuy together?" Before they could answer, Rachel and her collection of MILFs and cougars strolled away. Then the crowd quieted and parted, as the Cheerleader entered the vicinity. Her voice boomed across the room.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the era of false modesty is over in Dupuy! From now on, women
who don't have a man in their lives and need one, will dress the part! We won't hide any longer from our desires, or from the power in our bodies, in our figures, in our vaginas."

The Cheerleader then lifted her green Dupuy skirt and flashed the crowd, then skipped out.

"The City Council has to deal with this", Finker muttered.

Two Months After the Great Reduction

Doctor Yonker sat in Stephanie's hand, her soft caresses of his back almost taking him to a state of hypnosis, as he tried to describe the potential health crisis in Dupuy. Rachel had urged Stephanie to give him some time out of her busy schedule, saying that he had a proposal that could again give Dupuyans an even stronger attachment to their Cheerleader.

"The engineers don't expect to have the sewage system up and running before spring. We appreciate your 'pooper scooper' activities -- emptying our septic tanks and such -- but
there's still danger of some kind of epidemic if we don't get people vaccinated.

"OK. How do we make that happen, Doctor?"

"Well, Cheerleader, there's the problem. Our needles fit full-sized people. A lot of these vaccines can't be given orally. But we think there's a way around that."

"What is that, doctor?"

Doctor Yonker drew in his breath. "We would give you the vaccine, Cheerleader, and you would pass it to the people of Dupuy... through your breast milk."

Stephanie blushed. "Doctor, I would be honored. I just don't know if I could produce enough for ten thousand people."

"Remember, people are a lot smaller than they used to be, and they'll just need one thimbleful of your milk to get full protection."

Over the next month, Stephanie spent several minutes each day being milked like a cow by the Dupuy Fire Department. They played a recording of crying sounds to get her in the production mood. Sandy, Stephanie's old roommate at Dupuy College, stood with a friend
as they got their vaccines in tiny paper cups. "I am just so in awe of the Cheerleader now. She's saved Dupuy people at least three times -- through her rescues, through her pee and through her milk. I would do anything the Cheerleader asked me to, I really would."

Stephanie felt the firefighters treated her like total gentlemen, and as a result, she agreed to be the Guest of Honor at the Firefighters' Ball. She got a little tipsy during the festivities, and in any event, it didn't take much for her to get flirtatious with her tiny subjects. One fireman whispered something to Stephanie about a hazing ritual for the rookies, that involved getting sprayed with a hose. They hadn't adapted equipment to
their new size, yet, so they had no way to do it. Stephanie walked over, stood above the rookies, and repeated her Gulliver act. THAT became the standard way rookies were hazed, even after Dupuy got tiny water trucks.


Six Months After the Great Reduction

Needless to say, after the Cheerleader's decree, there were a lot of young women taking care of their lower extremities, trimming their bushes and such. Some would have gotten tattoos -- but of course no tattooist -- and there had only been two in Dupuy before the Great Reduction -- yet had a needle small enough for their five-inch tall bodies. Others were looking to escape the Cheerleader's decree by getting married. This played to Stephanie's underlying nature -- the sweet, plush-toy hugging girl that wanted no one to be lonely. She was becoming matchmaker-in-chief... helping couples get together, sometimes with a romantic night in her own bedroom... sometimes on her bed... sometimes with the couple sharing intimacies on her own tummy, breasts or ass. The girls bragged that they never lost a man after the "cheerleader effect" kicked in.

This gave Rachel another idea to cement Stephanie's position as the Diva of Dupuy.

"As cheerleader and diva-in-chief, I think you have the authority to perform weddings."

"OK..." Stephanie answered with a laugh,  "but don't the churches do fine with that?"

"Some do, but the others have been running around since the great reduction, saying it's a sign of the Apocalypse." Rachel paused for effect. "The preachers call YOU the whore of Babylon!"

Stephanie's face flushed red. "What do they mean, the Whore of Babble On? I don't talk THAT much."

Rachel slapped her tiny forehead. "If it pleases the Cheerleader... they are upset with your presence as a diva, a goddess-like figure. It upsets their view of the universe. They're another force that could upset the society we're trying to build here. One of peace, harmony, sustainability, shared prosperity and love of our Cheerleader! So we need to build a counterforce. One way is to for YOU to be the justice of the peace, so to speak."

"What do you think a wedding would be like?"

"Well, there'd be a hall with chairs, and the bride and groom would walk down the hall, and you'd be at the end of the hall... at the altar. In fact, you'd BE the altar. You'd be wearing your cheerleader costume, and your knees would form an arch above them, and they'd be staring your vagina in the face.

"Rachel... Even I'M not going commando to a WEDDING!"

"No, no", Rachel blushed. "You'll be wearing your shiniest gold Dupuy panties. And they'll take a vow to each other...and a vow to YOU. You'll be the silent partner in every marriage."

"That's right! When the husband needs some time away from the wife, he'll come to me!"

"Yes!" Rachel concurred. "And they might want to take a honeymoon with Stephanie... or IN Stephanie... and maybe a second honeymoon if the passion cools down!"

"Honeymoon IN me? What would that be?" Stephanie thought for a moment. Then she blushed
and let out a laugh so hard, she almost peed herself.


Seven Months After the Great Reduction

"We've already scheduled seven Cheerleader weddings for May and June", Rachel confided to her giantess.

"I think I've got just about everybody in this cohort married off..." Stephanie mused...
"except about 50 hard core geeks who couldn't get laid to save their lives. What do I do with them?"

"Unmarried, unattached men can support patriarchy, Cheerleader... or not. I suggest you bring them to your side", Rachel answered. "Tell me, after all the orgies you've had in the last seven months or so, do you feel satiated yet? Filled up?"

"Amazingly, no", Stephanie laughed.

"Well, here's how you get those geeks on your side, Cheerleader. We're going to conduct a 'sex education' lesson for them. We're going to show them what to do and how to do it. If some of them manage to get a girlfriend, fine. If not... they can always get more 'lessons.' And they'll be so grateful to their 'teacher' that they'll fight for her, and stop any attempt to overthrow her."

Stephanie nodded her head.

"Rachel, out in the 'normal' world, most guys don't get how to please a woman because the... um... physicality isn't, like, all in their face, the way it is with a girl and a penis. I think having a 'model' at "IMAX" size... like myself", she laughed, "would 'help' them 'get it.' But they also need a teacher who's their own size, who can help them interpret the lessons."

Rachel squirmed for a moment. She thought about suggesting herself for the privilege of
pointing out Stephanie's intimate places at close range. But then she realized she didn't want to be in a room with 30 or more horny male geeks to make that happen.

"We need a sort of 'high priestess' of the Cheerleader Diva. Someone who's really cute and sweet and will make this seem normal", Rachel mused.

Stephanie's eyes lit up. "How about my friend Sandy!" Since getting fished out of her clothing by the Cheerleader, Sandy had remained unattached and proudly compliant to Stephanie's no-panties rule. Stephanie had been trying to get her interested in a cute firefighter, Stan Schuldrecher, for months, but no sparks seemed to fly. "Since she seems in no hurry to get hooked up, she can be my 'priestess' for a while!"

Ten Months After the Great Reduction

"Y'know, something's missing in old Dupuy", Stephanie sighed, as Rachel -- now her trusted advisor -- sat on her shoulder.

"A lot's missing, Cheerleader, since we all got small, save for you."

"No, I mean -- something that used to bring Dupuy together, town and gown. Football! I miss football. Of course, I would, being a cheerleader."

"I don't know why you'd miss football. Not much in it for the girls."

"Yes, and sometimes a girl can lose her heart to football... and those who play it." A frown crossed Stephanie's face as she thought of Jason, her onetime boyfriend and current captive. "But I've been thinking of some changes that... might make it.... more interesting to the women."

Rachel's head popped up. "How's that?"

"Well, Rach, y'know, with the girls' sports, like gymnastics, you don't get scored on actually doing something. You get scored on whether a judge likes your performance. Six points is not six points. It's what a judge thinks. Men's sports aren't like that. I think football players should be judged on how well they please a judge, just like the girls."

"I see", Rachel purred. "And who would be the judge?"

"I would. I AM the Cheerleader."

Rachel beamed at how well Stephanie had accepted her place in command. "And what would the Cheerleader judge?"

Stephanie blushed. "Well, there's one thing football players do that cheerleaders can DEFINITELY judge..."

Rachel's face also turned red. "Fans in the stands, watching them please you."

Stephanie smiled. "Our bread and circuses! We can put the stands around my bed."

Rachel answered. "Let's capitalize it. Your bed is The Bed. All others are just beds."

"It's settled then, Rach. You find the old coach and round up as many players as you can." Stephanie's voice grew deeper and darker. "I already know where there's a quarterback."

---

"You're paroled, Jason."

Driven to the edge of madness and back, the former Dupuy College quarterback refused to walk out of the cage, in response to Stephanie's offer. "How do I know it's not a trap?"

"Believe me, Jason. We're bringing back football and you're the quarterback. Only the rules are... different. It's still a team of 11 players... but just ONE cheerleader, and she has her OWN definition of scoring. You guys are going to work my body until I come... and you'll score when I say you have."

"Stephanie, it's over between us. I'm never getting inside that pussy again, especially now that it's as big as I am."

"Right now it's just half as big as you are", Stephanie cooed. "But you talking about it
might make it, um, open up a little wider. And what's 'between us' doesn't matter. As far as I'm concerned, every man in Dupuy belongs to me, and I can put them wherever in my body I want."

There was a full season of "football" in Dupuy. The first two games were scoreless, but the team of tiny men brought their skill levels up to a point where they could actually
put some points on Stephanie's board, and even hit the minimum 21 points necessary for a win on five occasions. Meantime, Jason had met and was dating a young woman -- Michelle Finker, who had been humiliated by the Cheerleader the previous fall.

When Stephanie heard that Jason and Michelle were engaged, she was actually happy for them. Happy, that is, until she asked them to be married in one of her ceremonies.

"I'm sorry, Stephanie, but we're having a church wedding", Michelle replied.

Stephanie found herself miffed that there were still people in Dupuy who did not address her as Cheerleader. She shook it off and moved on. "I'm sure the Great Hall of Dupuy can handle everybody in town, which is all that would be going."

"That's not the issue. Jason and I don't believe in idolatry. Your ceremony puts you at the center of a marriage. We believe God should be at the center of our marriage. Jason has to work in your vagina every week. He doesn't want to be married to it."

"You know that every woman in Dupuy shares her men with me. That's the deal we worked out."

"YOU worked it out, by brute force. We have to live in it, but twisting the idea of marriage to include it... we're not going there, Stephanie, no matter what you do."

Stephanie bit her tongue as tiny Michelle and Jason walked out of her chambers.

Some in Dupuy thought all this explained what happened in the next game. Jason was deep in Stephanie's vagina, part of a complicated manuever involving players on the inside and outside. The center was supposed to squeeze the clitoris, triggering a play that would lead to a mind-boggling orgasm for Stephanie. But something went wrong. Stephanie's vaginal muscles squeezed Jason so tightly that he couldn't get out. He broke several ribs, before ultimately suffocating in the struggle to escape.

Jason was buried with full honors, his coffin rolled down the hallway of the women's dorm, now surrounded by dollhouses and other structures, resembling almost a real shopping mall.

Stanley Finker held his weeping daughter Michelle, her face covered in a black veil.
They felt a dark presence above them, and looked up to see the Cheerleader. She had suspended the no-panties rule for the day of the funeral, and wore a long black dress.

"I want you to know that I'm sorry", Stephanie whispered.

"GET OUT! GET AWAY!" Michelle screamed.

Stan Finker yelled up at the Cheerleader. "She doesn't want you here. I'd ask you if you had any sense of decency, Stephanie Searfass, but that question was answered a long time ago."

The Cheerleader turned her head and walked away.

Through the Dupuy City Council, Finker and his daughter would lead a rebellion against the Cheerleader. Finker would end up as a political prisoner, his younger children taken away from him. But not before he saw the Cheerleader toss his oldest daughter off the ledge of her third floor dorm room... now the Cheerleader's Palace. Her legs broken, Michelle Finker struggled for a few minutes before a feral cat ended her misery.

Ten Years After the Great Reduction

"I can't believe it's been ten years since the Great Reduction. Stephanie, you still look 21 or 22. I'm 43 and I feel it."

"It's amazing, Rachel. The doctors say I'm aging very slowly. Something like two years a century. Maybe it's the same factor that makes me immune to the shrinking gas."

"If it's true, you could live two thousand years. You could build a society that lasted longer than Rome."

"Assuming nobody comes to Dupuy to make trouble."

"Stephanie. I have to confess something. All these years I've had a crush on you."

"You don't think I knew?"

Rachel blushed. "I couldn't bring myself to say it. I knew that your difficulties with the Old Order would be a thousand times harder if you had had to deal with a gay situation."

"So why are you bringing this up now, Rachel?"

"Well, um, your capacity is so vast, I have to admit I wondered if you would ever consider..."

"Letting you play in my pussy?" Rachel was so embarrassed, she put her hands to her face.

Stephanie sighed. "I do have vast capacity, and at my size, a Dupuy man and a Dupuy woman aren't so different. But I am still straight. I gave my word to every couple in Dupuy that I'm married to them, and I can't go back on that."

Rachel's heart sank.

"Having said that", Stephanie sighed, "there's nothing that prevents me from drawing a bath and bringing my first assistant in the tub to... assist me. And it will be a long, slow bath."

Rachel squealed for joy, then hurriedly stripped down in anticipation of the scrubbing of a lifetime.