Woke (Chapter 7) (Patreon)

The giantess did her best to enunciate in a clear tone, but since she was so unaccustomed to talking with smaller beings, Kayla was only 50% sure that any of her message was even reaching the people below. The wind could’ve distorted the whole thing, her words could’ve been garbled like radio static in their tiny ears, or perhaps no one cared about a total stranger regardless of her size, just like what happened to the Betas, and they all ignored her. At least everyone else in EquiSize was down at the same level of the general public, Kayla reminded herself. They would help pick up her slack. And she’d just keep on giving it her all.

“We… have to let them know, that ignorance and especially cruelty will no longer be tolerated. To all who have mistreated Betas and not seen the error of their ways, let alone worked to fix the past, just know that you are on the wrong side of history!” Kayla proclaimed with so much passion and sympathy for the Betas that a growl curled in her throat, emitting as a beastly roar that cloaked the campus. “We are EquiSize, and we will not allow wrongdoers to hide in the shadows any longer! Betas, it is time to raise your voice, and take your rightful place as equals! Let them know! Let… them… know!”

Every person who could even see a piece of the sky from where they stood, students, faculty, and citizens beyond, held their gazes locked to the sun-like focal point of Kayla’s giant pretty countenance above in all its scary conviction, subconsciously deciding that they had no choice but to look right at her, or otherwise be counted as an enemy. Her enemy. Among the many Alpha listeners who’d ever rolled their eyes at a three-inch pedestrian, talked shit behind tiny backs, tossed out a miniature person’s resume application, or even just snickered at a Beta outmatched by the humongous world, stomachs began to churn. Throats caught. Though for many a genuine sense of guilt did indeed curdle in their guts, the vast majority experienced far more discomfort from being called out by a being of such unfathomable strength and potential to carry out retribution, no matter how beautiful or demure she was from the right point of view.

They could just imagine her stooping over the school, puckering her lips and blasting cold winds of justice through the pathways and trails that swept her uncaring fellow students around like a cyclone. If this was a normal speaking voice, the thought of what Kayla could do while actually shouting made them pre-emptively cover their ears, thinking of windows shattering and teeth coming dislodged like they were standing by rock concert speakers. Some Alphas imagined yet darker. With a single thumbs-down signifying her displeasure, she could pulverize dozens of sinners with just a smear of that dainty spiral-laced fingerpad along the populated quad.

And this was to say nothing of the “other” subpopulation of Alphas, relatively fewer in quantity but nonetheless present, who’d some time or other gone beyond hateful words and judgment. Peppered through Kayla’s lowly mass audience were people who’d tripped Betas with a finger, tossed them in puddles or garbage cans for laughs, gotten drunk and nudged them around on the ground like stray pebbles, kidnapped them to add to a doll-sized collection, even a malicious few who’d squeezed, stomped, or chewed a Beta to a splatter for crimes either imagined or so miniscule they wouldn’t have warranted more than a disappointed sigh if the victim wasn’t three inches tall. These people also felt the same stomach revolutions and larynx closures of their implicitly-biased peers, but this was just the start. Soon, dotted over the campus, closeted-Beta-terrorist Alphas were quaking in their boots, hyperventilating toward panic attacks, and coming to the brink of either vomiting or whizzing their pants.

These Alphas had to do even less imagining than their less vile peers, because many of them already had perfect points of experiential reference to know what a much larger body could do to a smaller helpless one. Those in particular who’d ever captured, thrown, stepped on, double-fisted, sat upon, or swallowed a Beta alive had the rawest mental data of that same act being repaid to themselves. And the most frightening part of all was that the gulf in size between Kayla and the Alphas made the difference among Alphas and Betas look like a hair’s breadth. In synchronized horror, they all came to the same conclusion. She could literally do anything to them. The girl was longer than the width of the campus itself, after all. Kayla could lie down on the lawn, roll over, and demolish most of the prestigious architectural sprawl plus half the student population in one swift turn of her lithe frame. Or, if she was intending to drag out the consequences of their unjust acts, she could shuffle outside the pre-determined Omega walking stones, and with a tap of her toes or a brush of her heel, bring down any standing structure in a puff of rubble that would register as less than a tickle to the colossal freshman. This didn’t even take into account the earthquake effect that would transpire if she slammed her foot down from above, probably liquefying the gravel in one strike and causing the cracked earth to swallow many unfortunates. A flick of the fingers soft enough to play paper football for an Alpha would, by the hand of an Omega, send any building she struck toppling into the far distance like an earthbound meteor. If she chose to take a seat in the wrong place, a crater would be formed under her rump in place of several university wings, with hundreds of flattened Alphas sandwiched between. Bowing low enough, any one of those pearly white Omega teeth would be sufficient to crunch through earth and stone with the force of a land-mover fleet, and in a fraction of the time, gobbling up terrain and humanity alike into a lake of saliva floating below a tongue large enough to leave the entire campus sopping. The possibilities were as endless as they were petrifying.

“Do… do you think they… got all that?” James mumbled to Erin as he perched in her hand again, looking up the dizzying length of Kayla, who’d seemingly arrived rather breathlessly at the conclusion of her mini-speech.

Almost as though in answer, Alpha passerby who’d previously averted their gaze now awkwardly approached the information table, silently accepting fliers from the volunteers. Most of these strangers made a visible show too of reading the pages immediately, casting glances up at Kayla like the giantess would curb-stomp them if they didn’t absorb the depressing statistics right here and now.

“Yeah. Yeah, I think they got all that,” the Alpha agreed with a chuckle. Her eyes lit up at their new recruit, she and all of the EquiSize students suffused with pride. “She definitely… has a way with words, doesn’t she?”

“Y-Yeah. Yeah she does,” James said with a firm nod. He muscled through the last remnants of instinctual nerves at existing so near to something so alive and yet planetary in scale. Kayla had earned her place here, at the “side” of EquiSize, even if most of her was above them. “I think this might make a… big difference at the protest tomorrow.”

“Oh, I think they’ll all listen now,” Erin said. “Everyone will.”

Though the intimidation-based side-effect of Kayla’s looming presence itself, rather than her pure words, was not lost on the EquiSize chapter leader, she too felt the impact that James had earlier. Each body around them and probably for a few miles past had come to a stop. Those who had a reason to fear due to their past now felt that fear coming home to roost, and possibly for the first time, even if Erin and James both understood within a day of meeting her that Kayla wouldn’t be capable of harming a fly, no matter if a fly wasn’t so infinitesimal that she’d never see it without a microscope. Sometimes necessary change required making people uncomfortable. It was about damn time, Erin thought, and even James, feeble and fearful though Beta-life had trained him to be, felt some real satisfaction in knowing their message was getting across, whatever it took to do so.

“Did I do okay?” Kayla whispered to Erin. She crouched down over the group once the campus population anxiously got into motion again, though many still required time to recover on benches and hidden under their bed sheets. “I… went off-script a little bit. I hope that was fine.”

“You did great!” James affirmed to her through his earpiece.

“R-Really?” Kayla almost squealed. She allowed herself a relieved smile.

“Yes! Amazing,” Erin concurred. “You’re a natural. You’re not afraid to point out the ugly parts of the societal narrative and challenge the perps, but you still keep the message about Betas themselves and letting them be heard. At this rate, there’s no stopping us. So, newbie, are you in for tomorrow’s board meeting protest?”

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” the giantess replied with the most confidence she’d yet summoned. “Just tell me the time and the place.”