Archie's Mom - Part 4 by Archie Fan - betty_cooper72@yahoo.ca The Women of Riverdale become Amazons Mary's Muscles had proven a huge success. In less than a week the demand for the gym had grown so huge that Mary's investors Penelope and Hermione decided to open their own gyms. Penelope opened her own gym in the neighbouring affluent suburb of Pembrooke on the west side of Riverdale while Hermione opened a gym on the north end of town. Together the three gyms served about three quarters of the female population in Riverdale. Three months after Mary's Muscles had opened it became evident that there was a major social change taking place within Riverdale. Any authority or power that men had was beginning to erode. In fact women began creating what they called a gynocracy, a society in which women were in charge while men had no power. However very little of this was done openly and it was typically done in a subtle fashion or in the home where husbands were often reduced to slaves for their now much bigger and stronger wives and daughters. At the school the social dynamic was even more dramatic. The Amazons had become by far the largest social clique for girls. It didn't matter what clique that a girl had belonged to previously, if they had been a cheerleader, a nerd or any other outsider group; they were all united by their newfound strength and physiques. The number of girls who were not Amazons grew smaller with each passing day. The one girl who seemed steadfast to not join them was Veronica. Hermione had tried to get her daughter to join her new gym when she opened it, but Veronica had refused. She had heard Archie's stories of how he was mistreated by his mother and the other women at Mary's Muscles and Veronica did not want to support that. However there had also developed two social groups amongst the boys. First up was a group called the resistance, this was the larger of the two and was made up of boys who disliked the fact that their masculinity was being diminished by the now bigger and stronger girls. And the second group was called the faithful; this group was smaller and the boys in it basically worshiped the girls. Some did it in the hopes that they would be spared from the bullying and teasing that frequently occurred, while a few others genuinely believed that these girls were some sort of Goddesses. Before all of this began Archie had preferred his days off of school. Now he looked forward to going to school as it was the one place he could get a little respite. It may have been a somewhat pessimistic view of things, but Archie couldn't help but think that things in Riverdale were not going well, at least not for males like him. ******************************************************** It was a Monday and it had been a trying weekend for Archie, his mother had him work for twenty hours at the gym and where he'd been subjected to the verbal abuse of every woman who worked out there. One time Betty, who had been training another girl Brigitte Reilly, had gotten Archie to stop what he was doing and attempt to lift the weight that Brigitte was working with. Archie wanted to refuse but when he had refused something like this in the past, word almost immediately went to his mother and that just made things worse for him at home. Archie had struggled but was unable to lift the 400 lbs. that Brigitte was using. Betty and Brigitte laughed and then Brigitte almost effortlessly lifted the bar up with both arms. She then set it down and lifted it with just one arm, grinning at Archie. As he had watched her, Archie couldn't help but think that Brigitte had changed even more than most other girls; before Brigitte had been somewhat overweight and relatively introverted, and she'd been made fun of a fair bit. Now however she was a hulking 6'3" and 285 lbs. of massive female muscle and she seemed to take immense pleasure in belittling males like Archie, although her favourite target to bully was Veronica, as Veronica had teased her quite a bit before. Archie had left for school early as he usually did. Along the way he met up with his friend Jughead and when they got to school they both met up with Veronica. There weren't a lot of the Amazons at school this early; a lot of them went to the gym to get a quick workout before school. "Did either of you see Reggie on your way here?" Veronica asked. Archie and Jughead both shook their heads no. "Why?" Archie retorted. "Well I got an incomplete text from him," Veronica replied holding out her phone. "It says 'oh no twins', I don't know what that means." Both Archie and Jughead tried to figure out what it meant but had no idea off the top of their heads. Just then they heard a commotion coming from just around the side of the school where there were a group of picnic tables set up. They hurried over to investigate and soon they got their answer. Reggie was sitting at one of the tables and was engaged in an arm wrestling match. However unlike in a normal match he was using both arms. However he was completely incapable of making the arm of the girl he was arm wrestling even move. "Are you even trying?" she asked. Archie wasn't sure who she was; he did know that she was either of Eliza or Theresa Lopez. They were identical twins and the younger sisters of Ginger Lopez a girl in the same grade as Archie and the others. "Just end it already Eliza," her twin sister said, letting Archie know which was which. With no effort whatsoever Eliza slammed both of Reggie's hands down onto the table. She then stood up flexing her huge bicep. Despite the fact that they were only in ninth grade, both sisters were a towering 6'2" 250 lbs. and were stronger and meaner than they looked. However that was nothing compared to their older sister Ginger. "How about next time you try beating two boys at one," a voice suggested. Archie, Jughead, Veronica and the rest of the crowd gathered to see that Ginger Lopez had arrived. 6'7" and 320 lbs. of massive yet feminine looking muscle, Ginger was one of the largest female students in the school and she worked as a Trainer at Veronica's mother's gym. "Ginger!" both twin exclaimed excited to see their big sister. Ginger looked over the crowd of student that had gathered. "Come with me you two, we have something to discuss." Ginger said. Ginger turned and walked away her younger twin sisters following behind. "That was strange," Jughead commented. "Yeah," Veronica agreed. "I think that something is going on," Archie said. "You guys wait here, I want to find out what this is about." Before either of them could stop Archie he went after the three sisters. Veronica and Jughead shook their heads and then went to help Reggie who was nursing his sore hands. ******************************************************** Archie followed the sisters into the school and watched as they entered an empty classroom. Ginger closed the door, but Archie crouched down and walked up to it and pressed his ear against the door so he could hear. "I just learned that the culling could begin tonight," Ginger said to her sisters. "Tonight?" one of the twins asked. "Oh boy I hope so," the other one commented. "I said it could, it might not be till tomorrow it could be in a week we don't know for certain," Ginger replied. "I just need to make sure that you two know what to do once it begins." "Don't worry Ginger we know," the first twin said. "Yeah it's not exactly something we'd forget," the second twin added. "Okay, okay," Ginger said. "I was just told to make sure that you knew; we're all good here." Archie realized they were about to leave the room and he quickly ran away turning down a corner so that he wouldn't be spotted. They had clearly gone out of their way to speak in private so that they wouldn't be overheard. As Archie made his way back to his friends he tried to figure out just what he had overheard. He didn't know what they meant by "The Culling". He heard of culling a herd of cows or some other farm animal before. That usually meant killing a bunch of them off usually to prevent the spread of disease. But in that case it was something that was often a co-ordinated effort with a set start. Whatever they were talking about they didn't even know when it would begin. But even if he didn't know what exactly it meant he was quite certain it wasn't good, there was the potential that a bunch of people would be killed. He felt he had to warn his friends. When he got back Jughead and Veronica had finished seeing to Reggie. Fortunately his ego was more bruised than his knuckles. "So what did you find out?" Jughead asked. "I'm not entirely sure but they were talking about an event called The Culling and it could begin as early as tonight," Archie replied. "The Culling?" Veronica inquired quizzically. "I don't know what it entails," Archie answered. "It can't be good, when talking about livestock it means killing them off," Reggie commented. "That's my thoughts exactly," Archie agreed. "We all need to be wary. Something bad is about to go down." "Shouldn't we tell the police?" Veronica asked. "What are the police going to do? They can't act on some vague conversation that Archie heard," Jughead said. "Besides even if they believed us, we have no details as to what it entails." "Well we have to warn somebody," Veronica said. "We do that we might find ourselves the ones being culled," Reggie stated grimly. It was a morbid statement, but it was one that they couldn't disagree with. "Look at least we will have some sort of warning," Archie said. "Since they all seem excited and anxious perhaps we'll be able to get some more details before the end of the day." "But we've got to be careful, we don't want to tip them off that we have any idea about this culling," Jughead added. "We'll meet back here at lunch and again at the end of the day and share anything new that we've learned," Archie said. Just then a large group of the Amazons arrived at school led by Betty. In just a short while Betty had grown to 6'8" 345 lbs. which made her the biggest and strongest girl at the school. She was wearing a pink cut-off t-shirt which was straining to contain her massive frame which unsurprisingly looked to have gotten bigger from when Archie had seen her the day before. On one side of her was Brigitte and on the other was Midge Klump. At 6'5" 270 lbs. Midge was just a little bit above the average size of a twelfth grade Amazon. The short black haired muscle teen was wearing only a sea green sports bra and matching bike shorts. Technically none of the girls were following the dress code, but Principal Weatherbee was unable to enforce it because the girls were constantly outgrowing their clothes and he was too frightened of what they might do to him if he tried. All the girls were talking about their workout that morning as they walked past Archie and his group. "I think when I go back this afternoon I'll finally pass the one ton mark," Betty was saying as she flexed her huge arms. "Wow, only Mary has ever done one ton," Brigitte commented. "I've heard she's close to two." "Well that's because she was the first," Betty said. Archie wasn't entirely sure what they were talking about but he to a guess that it was a bench press. He knew that his mother could and had bench pressed the family car which weighed over a ton. As Archie and his friends watched Betty and her entourage head into the school the bell rang indicating class was about to start. With resigned determination the four friends headed into the school. ******************************************************** It was second period and for Archie that meant English class. Even though it was the only language he spoke it had never been his favourite class. And once the English teacher Miss Grundy had begun going to his mother's gym he'd liked the class even less. Archie didn't know how old Miss Grundy was but he knew it was mid-50's or older and before she had definitely looked her age. Now though his English teacher had gone from a rail thin 5'7" 100 lbs. to a monstrous 6'7" 300 lbs. Yet she still had the same snowy white hair and he facial features hadn't changed much, perhaps her cheeks looked a little fuller but that's about it. Archie couldn't help but think that he face looked almost out of place on top of her huge neck with traps that were wider than her head. "Alright class sit down," Miss Grundy said. The students all took their seats. The boys and the few remaining normal girls sat in the front at the desks while the Amazons all sat at tables on heavy duty steel chairs. For the most part they were all now too big for the old desks. "Okay class today we are starting a new assignment," Miss Grundy announced once they were all seated. "We're starting the creative writing portion of the class which is usually the most popular section." There were murmurs throughout the classroom as students told each other what they wanted to write about. "Your assignment is quite simple," Grundy said. "I want a short story that's between seven to ten pages by the end of the week. It can be about whatever you want, but do keep the material relatively clean. I don't want to see any Fifty Shades type stories. If I do you'll be given an automatic F." Archie could hear a few disappointed grumbles from behind him but he himself didn't care. "Take the class to work on your story outline," Grundy said. "Develop your characters, your setting, outline your plot. If you have something like this to work off it will make the actual writing go a lot easier." Archie pulled out his notebook and opened it up. However try as he might he couldn't come up with an idea on what to write about. His mind was too focused on "The Culling" and finding out what it was. Behind him he could hear the Amazons discussing their stories. For the most part they were retelling of classic hero tales only now feature females, usually themselves. Betty for example was talking about doing a story in which a girl takes on and defeats Superman. Archie finally got an idea on what he wanted to write. He was going to write a story about returning the town to normal. He didn't need to write down an outline he already knew how he wanted it to play out, and he already knew the characters. He also didn't want to let Miss Grundy know as she might have tried to dissuade him from writing about it. Instead Archie sat there pretending to struggle with creating an outline as he eavesdropped on the Amazons behind him for the rest of class. When second period was over Archie met with Veronica, Reggie and Jughead outside at the picnic tables for lunch. None of them had managed to learn any more about "The Culling". The next two periods went by and when they met once again they still knew no more than what they had that morning. "All of you be on guard," Archie said as they went to head home. "We don't know what it is and when it will happen." With that the four friends parted for home. Archie walked with Reggie and Jughead for part of the way until they had to split up to go to their own homes. Archie arrived at his and stopped in front of the door. His mother was still at the gym but she would be home in an hour or two. As Archie walked into his house he couldn't help but think that his house may be the most dangerous place to be when this "Culling" begins. To Be Continued