--Revelation 6:16-17

"When we call people dogmatic, what we really object to is their holding dogmas that are different than our own."

--Issawi's Law of Dogmatism

"Whenever women have insisted on absolute equality with men, they have invariably wound up with the dirty end of the stick. What they are and what they can do makes them superior to men, and their proper tactic is to demand special privileges, all the traffic will bear. They should never settle merely for equality. For women, 'equality' is a disaster."

--Lazarus Long

Sarah Kensington
League Headquarters
New York, New York

I was dazed.

I knew D.X. had told us to act like we were with the League.

I knew he said that if the League asked one of us to kill one of the men, we must do it, and not flinch.

I knew he said we should trust him, that we had to do this to inculcate ourselves into the League.

But I hadn't counted on Teri--my God! How could she be so cold?--killing Scott.

And eating him.

I vomited, presently, and came up sobbing.

Scott! How could they kill him? It wasn't right, it wasn't fair....

"It's hard, I know," said the woman in the room. "The first time you see it, it's harsh. Especially if you've grown attached to the little guy."

I turned to her. "How the fuck do you know?" I asked, sullenly.

"Look, I've seen it. I've known guys they've done it to. It sucks, but soon you'll realize that it's for the best. If we don't swat the guys down, they'll swat us down. Don't you know that?"

I thought back to my Junior year. My best friend had been raped that year, and another friend had been beat up by her "boyfriend" so badly that she had to call the cops. "They're not all like that. D.X. said...."

"D.X. is a misguided fool, Sarah. He talks romantically about balance, I know. We all want balance. But we know that balance is a disaster for women. Women must be the rulers. The world will be safer then."

"But--but we are just as capable of violence as they are! I mean, Teri--"

The woman smiled. "Teri did what she had to do. We're in a war, Sarah. And war is a cruel, horrible thing. The men have been fighting these for a long time; we have to fight them on their terms. But when the war is over, we'll have a new day, of peace, and serenity, and happiness.

"Look at the world, Sarah. Look at how bad a job men have done with it. Famine, war, violence everywhere. And everywhere--everywhere--women are pushed to the back of the bus. We can hold a job--just don't try for CEO. We can run for political office--just don't run for President. We can play sports--just don't expect a million-dollar signing bonus.

"Sarah, we were cruel to Scott, I'll agree. But when we are done with this war, we'll be able to control the men--and we won't have to worry about them stepping out of line. Don't you want to be in control? Don't you enjoy being in control?"

Mia stood closer, and put her hand on my shoulder. "Sarah...don't you want to live in a world where you have your pick of men to care for and love like you loved Scott? It's not too late, Sarah. You can join us. You can trust us."

I looked into her eyes, and I started to feel that maybe I could. Maybe it was for the best that Scott was gone; he had been nothing but trouble. We could make the world a better place....

In a voice that was not completely my own, I said, "I trust you."

Mia smiled wider, and said, "Tell me, Sarah. What is your group's plan?"

* * *

Anonymous

"LITTLE MAN...THAT WAS AWESOME!"

I was pinned between the left hand of the teen and her breast. In what voice I could muster, I said, "I'm glad you enjoyed it, Mistress Spears."

"YOU CAN CALL ME BRITNEY," she said, huskily. "I THINK I'LL TAKE YOU ON THE ROAD WITH ME. WHEN I START SINGING, THAT IS."

She blathered on about being a Mouseketeer, or something like that, while I tried hard to focus--which is not the easiest thing to do when pinned to a teenage girl's chest. The conversation was facile, as conversations among teens tend to be; I had no desire to get involved further with her. I was, in fact, awaiting a signal. D.X. would be orchestrating our moves shortly. I hoped that we could manage without an Adept.

* * *

Scott Chelgren

"So, what's the plan? When are we going to strike back? And when can I get out of your stomach?" I asked the questions through thought, while leaning against the slippery wall of Teri's stomach. I wished D.X. had taught me more about the morpheus spell. I knew that ultimately, I could change my shape radically, merge with people, even transform into an inanimate object. But for the moment, I was barely able to change from simple organic form to simple organic form. I hoped I'd get a chance to work on this.

"Well," said Teri, "we're to wait for a signal from D.X. Veronica Ceres will come to the room and summon us. Then, hopefully, we'll solve what needs solving and get out of here. As for leaving my stomach--uh...."

"There are only two exits," I said, mirthfully. "I'll leave via either."

I heard a laugh echo from all around me. "I think probably it's quicker to have you leave the way you came in--and more pleasant, to boot. I'll just stick my finger down my throat, and...."

Teri got no further. A huge explosion came from outside, and she stopped talking quickly.

"Claris!" I shouted, quickly viewing the world through Teri's eyes.

President Jackson was there, along with Mia Hamm, and Sarah. "So," said the President, "you thought you could fool us? You thought we wouldn't see through the ruse? Our young friend Sarah has told us of your plan. So sad you would betray womanhood like that. Mia? Annihilate them."

Raise your right hand, Teri, I thought, formulating a plan.

Teri's hand did as I asked. Now tell them you're an Adept, and they'd better back off.

"You'd better back off. I'm an Adept," said Teri.

Mia smiled, and said, simply, "No you're not." With that, she struck.

Parry Block Reduce 500:1

Mia staggered back, unable to stop the shrinking. As she raced towards one inch tall, Teri turned to the President, and said, "Your turn."

* * *

D.X. Machina

"Damn it! Our cover is blown!"

Ronnie Ceres was ashen as she said this. Her computer access was frozen, and her door would not open at her command. "They must have broken Sarah!"

This wasn't good. Our plan had been predicated on stealth--get in, get rid of the tiny people that the League was counting on to repopulate the world, and get out. But with our cover blown--

"We're going to have to fight our way out," I said, growing to full size. "And hope that we can regroup on the outside. I just hope--"

At that moment, the door opened, and Anonymous strode through the door, carrying a six inch tall girl. "Sorry for the delay D.X., but we need to get out of here--I was almost killed by this one," he said, tossing the girl towards the bed. He glanced over at Ronnie. "What the hell is going on?"

"No time to explain. She's with us. As are the girls."

Anon was speechless, then said, "But Scott--"

"--is alive, and if we want him to stay that way, we need to hurry. Ronnie?"

"They're this way. I never thought my tenure with the League would end like this," she said, ruefully.

We moved.

* * *

Teri Rowland

The battle was pitched, though I was only miming my part. Leah Jackson was doing her best to shrink me, and Scott was doing better at shrinking her. When D.X. and Anonymous arrived on the scene, I thought sure we'd won.

By this time, Leah was down to two feet tall, and we were frantically looking for escape routes. "Come on, Sarah!" I said. "We've got to...."

I looked into her eyes, and for a second, I saw something unreal. I could sense that she was not herself, that she herself was buried under a veneer of anger and hatred and sorrow and fear. "You...killed...Scott," she seethed. "Now...you're...going...to...die."

"Sarah, Scott--"

She struck.

* * *

Sarah Kensington

I was not myself; that much is clear.

Why it was I directed my anger at Teri, and not the League, is beyond me. Yes, she had killed Scott. But at the behest of people I thought of as allies, who would kill any and all men if need be.

I wasn't thinking that, though. I saw in her the enemy, and I struck out with something I didn't know I had.

GTS.

She began to shrink instantly, only to pop back up to size. She wasn't showing any exertion, but I could feel her strength ebbing as I pushed my power--power I never knew I had--at her.

I heard D.X. in the back of my consciousness shouting, "We've got to retreat! She's an Adept! Fall back!"

They pulled Teri away, and the five of them--D.X., Anonymous, Kelly, Teri, and one of the members of the League--ran for it.

I broke off my attack, and turned to my friends, Mia and Leah. I restored them, and I knew that soon, I would fulfil my destiny.

* * *

Scott Chelgren
The Roosevelt Hotel
Mid-town Manhattan

The sound of vomiting is far worse when you're being vomited up. I felt like retching myself as I felt the stomach around me convulse, and the level of liquid and sludge inside rise. Suddenly, I was forced upward through the tight passage of her esophagus, and spilled out hard into the sink.

I looked at the enormous face of Teri, as she coughed and sputtered. She was grim.

Slowly, I regained my height, and looked around the room at the grim faces of my comrades.

"Bad day?" I ventured, pulling on a robe. I needed to shower.

"A very bad day," said D.X. "It turns out that we just handed the League an Adept, whose strength equals yours."

"Sarah?" I said, incredulously.

"Yes," said D.X. "They've done a good job of brainwashing her--and I fear they're about to make their move."

"Maybe if you hadn't had me fake killing Scott--"

"Yes, Teri. Maybe. But if this had worked, we could've eliminated the League's greatest threat to us without so much as a stray spell cast. Now, however...things have gotten much worse."

"Well, we have to try to do something," I said. "Maybe if I could reach Sarah, talk to her...."

"Perhaps," said D.X., quietly. "Or perhaps her mind is not quite her own. Remember the lesson of the dorm room in Madison? She was a wonderful girl...and in the end, she had to die, lest she destroy us all."

The room was very quiet. I said, in a voice pinched and choked off, "I can't kill Sarah, D.X."

He looked at me with a weary look, and said, "I never thought I could kill her either, Scott, but things change. You're going to have to train well. The final battle is at hand."

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. "D.X., we know you're in there. Just open the door quietly, and nobody will get hurt."

"The Chairman?" said Anonymous.

"The plot thickens," agreed D.X.

* * *

Sarah Kensington

The room was full of tiny people.

Dozens of terraria, filled with peoples of differing scales, with something called hyperportals connecting them.

The future of our race, Mia called them.

Somewhere inside me, I was revulsed. This was not what I wanted. This would destroy my father, Kyle, D.X., Anonymous...and it would destroy my mother and sister and friends, too.

But the part of me that was calling the shots was fascinated.

"This is not our first choice, mind you," said Mia. "This is Plan B. Plan A...that has come into focus since your arrival."

"You will be our standard bearer," added Leah, "for all womanhood."

I looked into one of the smaller scale terrariums, and asked, "Would it be possible for me to select one of these men? To get to know him? To better prepare for the future?" I didn't know why I asked this. It seemed important.

"Of course," said Leah. "Open the terrarium. Let us select a consort for you."

* * *

John, Son of Maria
The Village of Tasgeni
The Land of Their Followers

The sky parted, and the men and women started to flee.

This was not the first time They had opened the sky to select one of us. Sometimes They brought back the people they took. Sometimes They didn't. We knew from those who returned that Their world was a vast and frightening one, with enormous rooms befitting a goddess.

I had no desire to visit that world.

We fled towards the town square, but a booming voice from above stopped us.

"HAVE YOU LEARNED NO MANNERS, OUR TINY FOLLOWERS? WHEN YOUR GOD DEMANDS AN AUDIENCE, YOU DO NOT FLEE HER."

We stopped in our tracks. Belinda looked skyward, and cried to me, "We are out in the open, my groomsquire. You must hide, I have grown fond of you...."

But a new goddess was reaching for us at that moment. Her fingernails were short and painted red, the color of blood. I screamed, but the great fingers scooped me up and lifted me skyward.

"Belinda!" I cried out. "I will return to you!"

Then, my wifekeeper, growing smaller by the second, called, "I...love you, John! Come back to me!"

It was the first time she had ever talked of love, and I feared it would be the last, as the sky closed beneath me.

The goddess fixed her immense brown eyes on me. She looked young, and she was certainly comely. "TELL ME, TINY ONE," she said. "WHAT IS YOUR NAME?"

"J--John," I stammered.

"JOHN," she smiled. "THAT'S A GOOD NAME. YOU ARE MINE. YOU WILL WAIT HERE." With that, she placed her hand into an enormous chamber below her waist--it seemed to be a pocket, though the walls were stiff, and made of a coarse blue material I had never before beheld.

I sat in the swaying, dark chamber and shivered. I was in the world of the goddesses now.

I was sore afraid.

* * *

V. Koschkei
The Roosevelt Hotel
New York, New York

"What I don't understand, D.X., is why you feel the need to protect the League at all. We should go in, and destroy them, and then the problem is solved!" Szalinsky was nose to nose with Machina, almost daring him to strike out.

"Wayne, what you will never understand is that they have a point. And moreover, what you will never understand is that there are men who agree with that point, who want women in that position. And they shouldn't be denied happiness just because you've got a hard-on for all things male."

"Oh yeah? Well f--"

"Gentlemen, please. We have bigger fish to fry. D.X., Anonymous, Ms. Ceres...if what you've told me is true, then we have to destroy the League, and while we're at it, we have to make sure it doesn't rise again. We're already on a war footing, it should be easy to destroy them."

"I didn't do this to be a traitor," said Veronica Ceres. "You're no more right than they are, you know."

I looked at the former Vice President of the League, and paused. I thought of the crimes commited against women, of the men who had been denied access to GTS. Of the lenghts we had gone to to keep women subservient, the lenghts we had gone to to beat the League.

Would we have gone as far as the League apparently had?

Of course not.

Because for 5,000 years, we'd been so totally in control that we didn't need to do a goddamn thing. I looked at the former Vice President of the League, and said, calmly, "I know."

There was, I think, a gasp from the room. "What the Hell are you saying, Mister Chairman?" said Kopec.

"What I'm saying, Kopec, is that in trying to keep women from enslaving men, we have done much to keep women enslaved. To our great detriment. The League needs to be destroyed--but perhaps the raison d'etre of the League does not. Veronica--I would ask you to join the Cadre. D.X.--I want you back. We can right our wrongs, and we can usher in a new era of cooperation, of friendship--of balance. We can form a new organization dedicated to ensuring stability in the male/female relationship. But first, we must stop the League from destroying the world. Are you with me?"

D.X. was smiling, ever-so-slightly. "If those are your aims, Mister Chairman--I am with you."

Ceres was dubious, but said, "If you back off from this promise, I will fight you...but the greatest danger lies with the League. I'm in."

Only Szalinsky seemed unswayed. "D.X. and Ceres? You trust them?"

I turned to him, and said simply, "Wayne...other than bitch, have you ever done anything constructive for the Cadre?"

I didn't wait for an answer. "It's time to rally the troops," I said.