The Pulse

[Biceps108]

The soft hum of computers filled the dimly lit high school lab, their glowing screens the only illumination as evening sun faded beyond the narrow, dust-streaked windows. It was obvious that the room saw little use in the past year. The cleaners went through it superficially only judging by the dust. It was late in the afternoon already. The final bell had rung over an hour ago, and only the school clubs and some staff remained.

But room B-12 was still very much alive with the quiet tap of keys and low, murmured conversation.

"Okay." Said Noah, hunched over a dual-screen setup as a string of green code flickered to life. "That's the last of the calibration algorithm. I've tied the heat dissipation to the second feedback loop, so no more overheating after the third pulse. Hopefully."

Across from him, perched cross-legged on the cracked vinyl stool, Kara smirked over the rim of her soda can. His best friend had a serious addiction to the carbonized drink as far as he was concerned. He preferred a cool glass of water instead, like the one next to him – but safely away from the computer.

"You're starting to sound like a real mad scientist, you know that? One more step and we'll be screaming 'It's alive!' over a bolt of lightning."

Noah shot her a sideways glance and rolled his eyes. "Har-har. Very funny. I'm just trying not to melt the power grid. Again."

Kara chuckled, pushing up her glasses with the back of her knuckle. She was always a contrast to Noah; bubbly where he was quiet, expressive where he was cerebral. And yet, they spoke the same language when it came to numbers, wires, and speculative tech. Suffice to say that they were the nerd squad of their year.

But that was how it has always been. Noah couldn't remember a time he wasn't best friends with Kara. They'd met each other in kindergarten, lived relatively close to each other, and had been the best of buds ever since. And here they were; both eighteen and still glued to each other's hip. It helped that their interests were similar, too. Both liked geeky stuff for starters. That often came as a shock to others when they saw how pretty Kara was.

She leaned toward his screen, scanning the lines as they settled into place. Kara took a sip of her drink before clearing her throat.

"So," She said, brushing a loose strand of blonde hair behind her ear. "This should be the full sync, right? Pulse modulator, regen signal, cell targeting array – all speaking to each other now?"

"Mostly, yeah." Noah answered, rubbing his eyes. "I still want to run a diagnostic test tonight. No output, just simulated energy cycling. I plan to make sure the radiation pattern holds under load."

"Still scared of it going all Gamma Ray Hulk Out on us?" She teased, nudging his shoe with hers.

"Honestly? A little. The biofield emitter's reading stable, but it's untested hardware. You know the idea's never been to mutate people."

Kara leaned back, staring thoughtfully at the ceiling. "Right. Just regenerate damaged or missing tissue. Heal wounds. Boost muscle repair. Basically a wonder treatment for numerous diseases and injuries. At least, in theory."

"In theory." Noah agreed. "The radiation's only active for milliseconds. The pulses are short enough that they shouldn't even register on any measuring devices. The radiation in itself isn't harmful in nature either. Meaning it'll be harmless. If it works, this could be huge."

"Huge enough to get us expelled if someone finds out we're running illegal radiation tests under probably every health department's nose."

Noah smirked. "Good thing no one ever uses this lab anymore. Even better that my mom and sis never come up to the attic either. Too afraid of finding a mouse or big spider. It's the perfect workshop to tinker on the device."

"Speaking of which, you should really find a name for it. Something catchy. How about... the healthinator? No, the improvinator!"

"Are you seriously just putting -inator after every word you can find?"

Kara shrugged her slim shoulders, brushing them against her shoulder-length hair.

"It works for Doofenschmirtz. And he fits the mad scientist narrative!"

Noah rolled his eyes for what felt like the umpteenth time. They worked for several more minutes in relative silence. There was a quiet hum coming from the machines, accompanied only by the clicking of their mouses. But not long after Kara closed out her console window.

"I'll log out the secondary routines. My work is done anyway. But if all goes well, I vote we celebrate with pizza and that stupid co-op zombie game tomorrow night." She said, already putting away her laptop.

"You bringing your own controller this time?" Noah asked as he began copying the diagnostic routines to a flash drive.

"Nope!" Kara responded smugly. She slung her bag over one shoulder. "You're just gonna have to suck it up and let me use yours."

"But you keep picking it up with greasy hands from all those chips you stuff your face with!"

"Sounds like a big load of not my problem. Now hurry up. Otherwise we'll get scolded by Miss Crawford again. I hate dealing with that stern old crone."

That... was a fair remark.

No one liked the older math teacher. Crawford was a sucker for rules, and punished students harshly for breaking them. Even the smallest infraction earned her ire. It wouldn't be the first time she berated them for staying at school so late after classes were done, too. Technically they were a school club, albeit with only two members as no one else wished to join – which suited them just fine. That way they could keep the device a secret. Nevertheless, although clubs were allowed to stay longer for extracurricular activities, Crawford was rather critical of theirs.

Noah sighed. "Fine. Just give me a moment."

He quickly began packing his own bag. Noah turned off the computers, making sure no one would be able to copy their work or so much as discover it. He put away his own laptop and stood up. Kara was waiting for him by the door, and they swiftly left the computer lab.

The hallway lights flickered overhead, half of them already dimmed for closing time. Their footsteps echoed across the empty hallways as they made their way past rows of lockers and out through the side exit near the gymnasium. The air outside was brisk but warm enough as the small, isolated town went through mid-spring.

Noah tugged at his hoodie. "Guess I should switch to just shirts soon. I always hate having to change due to the heat. Hoodies are comfortable."

"Preaching to the choir, mate." Kara  said as she stretched her arms overhead, groaning softly.

They stepped onto the main path that cut across the rear of the school grounds, the sky still blue but with the telltale signs of a sunset coming soon. From there, the soccer field came into full view, surrounded by tall wire fencing and haloed under bright floodlights. The clamor of shouting, boots pounding on turf, and the shrill peep of a referee's whistle cut through the otherwise tranquil air.

"Ugh." Kara muttered as she glanced toward the field. "Guess practice is still going."

A dozen girls in matching maroon jerseys moved like a well-oiled machine, darting across the grass whilst yelling commands or warnings to each other. The football team was having its practice, it seemed. Football remained an important sport to the school and town. If Noah recalled correctly, they'd only recently played a match with one of the neighbouring towns. Those didn't happen as much as people would like, considering their area was a tad remote, so the few matches that did take place were always about local pride.

Noah easily spotted the team's star player sprinting ahead with the ball darting between her feet. Kelly Allen, the school's star athlete and unofficial queen of the girls' varsity team. Her long ponytail whipped behind her as she rocketed down the field, weaving effortlessly between defenders, every step taken with precision and bursting with strength.

Toned, noticeably calves flexed with every step taken. The redhead certainly earned her reputation, if not by her mere fitness alone. She was easily one of the most muscular teens in the whole school. The shorts that she wore for practice didn't leave much to the imagination, either. The amount of defined sinew in her legs was impressive.

Noah slowed his pace, watching silently as Kelly approached the goal. One fake-out. A sharp pivot. Then – bam! – she launched the ball like a missile from the edge of the box. It cut clean through the air and slammed into the netting, just past the goalie's outstretched fingers.

The girls cheered and the coach clapped from the sideline. It was a perfect goal, deserving every bit of praise that they threw at Kelly. She jogged back, flushed with exertion and pride, raising a hand for high-fives from her teammates.

But what really stood out was the cocky, almost arrogant smile on her face. The way her green eyes glowed smugly.

"She's good." Noah admitted, adjusting the strap of his backpack.

"She's insufferable, is what you mean." Kara countered, crossing her arms. She scowled in the taller girl's direction. "Remember when she knocked over Sam Kim in the cafeteria and said it was 'his fault for being in the way?' Or the time she made that first-year cry for wearing mismatched socks?"

"She's also built like a human battering ram. You going to tell all of that to her face?"

Kara snorted, pushing her glasses up. "Hell no. I'm going to hide behind you while you do it."

"No thanks. I like my ribs intact." Noah laughed under his breath.

They kept walking, skirting the edge of the field until the sounds of practice faded behind them. The main street lay ahead, where other pedestrians walked leisurely in the late afternoon. A few cars passed by. A dog barked somewhere in the distance. The two teens drowned out all distractions as they talked about whatever topic came to mind.

But soon they reached the corner where the sidewalk split, and where they had to split up as well. Kara's house was down the east road, while Noah's was a block north.

She gave him a nudge with her elbow. "Alright, doc. Go do your science thing. Don't blow up your house while you're at it."

"I'll try to limit any explosions to the theoretical kind." Noah replied cheekily.

Kara gave a mock salute, her soda can now long emptied and clinking slightly in her bag. He almost sighed in exasperation. Had she still not gotten rid of the damn thing? His bestie could be so lazy sometimes.

"Tomorrow. Pizza. Zombies. You better not bail!"

"Wouldn't dream of it."

She turned and walked off, her blonde hair glinting in the sun. Noah watched her go for a second before tugging his hoodie tighter and heading off in the opposite direction.

As Noah walked north down the street, the subtle warmth of the spring air continued to brush comfortably against his skin. Although the occasional gust still teased at the hem of his hoodie. He'd describe it as that weird transition period between winter and summer; one moment it was too hot, then it was suddenly cold again or raining badly.

The houses on his block came into view; modest, two-story homes with trimmed hedges and picket fences. None of them were carbon copies of one another, though. Noah had seen pictures of homes in the city or other countries where each home was the same. Easy to build for big companies apparently. He preferred the way their small town had constructed its housing. The different designs and colors made the street feel homey.

But not everything was perfect.

"Honestly, Barbara, it's like these people have no respect for property lines." Came the unmistakable screech of Mrs. Pauwels; the block's self-appointed House Owners Association enforcer, town gossip, and high-ranking general of the Petty Complaint Brigade.

Noah didn't even need to look across the street. Her voice carried like a warhorn. He did so nevertheless, and spotted the older lady talking – or rather, complaining – to another of their neighbors.

Mrs. Pauwels was what you'd call a Karen. Both in appearance and personality. The awful, annoying woman had one of those typical Karen haircuts that was popular among the older women, and she always dyed it a chestnut brown to conceal the grey underneath. She wasn't ugly per se, nor did she use makeup to the point of being a clown, but she just had that look to her. The horrible demeanor didn't help.

"I mean, I planted these wonderful petunias in my front yard bed, and do you know what that Garcias' kid did? He kicked a soccer ball into them!" She ranted to the equally unfortunate neighbor; a middle-aged housewife who stood stiffly at the edge of her porch, nodding with the kind of expression one wore when you absolutely wanted to be anywhere else.

Noah quickened his pace, head down. He didn't want to be subjected to the same fate, not when he lived right next to the witch and she thus knew him.

"Oh, and don't get me started on the Miller boy. I swear, if I hear that lawn mower rev up after six in the evening again, I will contact the townhall. These people think we live in the jungle!"

He turned up the walkway to his own home before she could spot him. Otherwise she'd complain about something as arbitrary as the sound of his computer fan if it meant she could add to her mental list of neighborhood crimes.

The house welcomed him with a soft creak as he opened the door. The scent of garlic and roasted tomatoes wafted out to meet him, and instantly the world outside slipped into the background.

"Hey, I'm home!" he called out, slipping off his shoes and toeing them neatly to the side.

"In here!" Came his mom's voice from the kitchen.

He moved through the hallway and rounded the corner to find both his sister and mother there. Elizabeth, or mom as he always called her, was busy stirring a pot of sauce. She was a great mom if not sometimes blunt and prone to enforcing her opinion. But no one was perfect. She was a kind parent.

"Smells amazing." Noah said.

"Spaghetti and meatballs. Thought I'd do something easy since it's just us tonight." She replied, flashing him a tired but warm smile.

At the table sat his little sister, Ellie, her legs tucked up under her on the chair as she leaned over a thick workbook. Pencil in hand, brows furrowed in deep concentration. She wore a faded T-shirt with some retro cartoon print on it and a pair of navy-blue athletic shorts, ones that showed off her sculpted thighs and calves, a byproduct of three years in gymnastics and a natural competitiveness that had yet to dull.

"Hey." Mumbled the sixteen-year-old, not looking up as she erased something furiously.

Noah leaned over her shoulder, grinning. "Fractions giving you a hard time again?"

"I'm dividing polynomials, not fractions, nerd." Ellie muttered. She poked her tongue slightly from the corner of her mouth as she scribbled a new equation.

"You two better behave." Their mom warned, pointing her spoon at both of them without even turning from the stove. "Dinner is in twenty. Noah, set the table if you're not doing anything."

"Got it." He replied.

Pulling the drawer with the silverware open, Noah grabbed a stack of plates and got to work. Dinner was served promptly, as it often was when their mom cooked. She wasn't one for elaborate plating or extravagant garnishing. In fact, she disliked how much time it took to cook. But her meals were always rich in flavor. So it wasn't as if she couldn't cook.

The three of them gathered around the circular dining table in the kitchen nook, sunlight from the windows still pouring in but beginning to mellow into a golden hue. Noah took his usual spot to the left of his sister while their mom sat across, already digging in.

"So," Elizabeth began, raising her glass of water. "Ellie told me earlier that they're adding another hour to gymnastics conditioning. Something about an upcoming inter-school meet?"

Ellie beamed as she twirled spaghetti onto her fork. "Yup. Coach says we've got a real shot this year, so we're upping our endurance training. Yesterday we did sprints for fifteen minutes straight, then core, then beam routines. I barely even broke a sweat."

Noah raised an eyebrow. "Fifteen minutes and you barely broke a sweat?"

Ellie grinned proudly and flexed her arm slightly – more a teasing, cocky gesture than anything serious, though the curve of muscle underneath her shirt sleeve was impossible to miss. His little sister was far more toned than he was. Not all that surprising, since he never really got into sports and was stuck behind a computer screen more often than not.

"What can I say? I've got stamina for days now. Coach even said I've got the best leg rebound power on the team."

"Do I even want to know what 'leg rebound power' is?"

"It's how much vertical force you generate on landing and springback. Honestly, Noah, you need to get with the times. Us girls can be strong too, you know!"

He snorted, swirling a meatball in his sauce. She'd always been like this, he thought privately. Since they'd been little. Always ready to brag about a new move, a new grade, or some compliment she got from a teacher. Not that he resented her for it. Well, not much. That was just Ellie's way. Outspoken. Confident. The kind of person who filled a room without trying.

Noah, on the other hand, was used to staying back. He preferred the background; the quiet click of a keyboard; the scribble of notes in a lab book. Where Ellie was into physical activity, he was busy studying and developing scientific inventions.

It resulted in a bit of stereotypical bully/geek dynamic. Ellie was competitive by nature, and had never beaten him in the smarts department. So she took a jab at him whenever she could. Practically always about his fitness and how she outclassed him. Noah tended to ignore her, however, focusing on his own achievements.

"So, how's your thing going, anyway?" Ellie asked mid-chew, jerking her chin at him. "You still working on that Frankenstein doohickey upstairs?"

"It's not Frankenstein, it's a theoretical model of hybrid energy transfer mechanics." Noah deadpanned.

"Translation: yes. Neeerd."

Elizabeth chuckled. "Just don't electrocute yourself. I'm too tired to do CPR tonight."

Dinner wrapped up with the usual clatter of forks and the soft thuds of dishes being stacked in the sink. Ellie excused herself to take a shower, and their mom wandered into the living room, already pulling out her tablet and putting on her reading glasses. She was likely going to fall asleep reading one of her crime dramas again.

Noah made his way up the creaking stairs to the attic. The space that had once been filled with dusty Christmas decorations and half-forgotten photo albums was now his lab/ mancave. The room was dim but comfortably so, lit by a desk lamp and the gentle glow of LEDs lining his equipment setup.

A workbench stretched across one side, cluttered with circuit boards, wires, notebooks scrawled with half-tested ideas, and a repurposed laptop that served as his diagnostic hub. At the center stood the machine.

The thing practically screamed science fiction prop, with all the cables and lights. Noah's device was as big as a desk, and had a smaller box attached to it; the power station that was hooked up to the energy grid. The design itself wasn't entirely his choice, though. He'd been forced to work with what materials he could salvage. Noah had visited shops, scrapyards, the school's storage room, and had even paid for the rest with his pocket money.

He dropped into his worn swivel chair and cracked his knuckles before powering up the system. A soft hum filled the attic, followed by a chorus of blinking lights and the scrolling lines of code that began to populate his screen.

"Diagnostics mode: active." He murmured to himself, eyes flicking over the display. "Baseline energy levels... check. Coil alignment... check. Interface response lag is down by 0.2 seconds. Nice."

Noah leaned back in his chair, the old metal frame groaning beneath him as he folded his arms and stared at the machine in front of him. He'd spent months on this. He'd pored countless hours over diagrams and sketched dozens of modifications, soldering wires under the glow of a flickering desk lamp well into the night while the rest of the house slept. Every component, from the scavenged capacitors to the reprogrammed motherboard, had been chosen with care.

To anyone else, it probably looked like junk cobbled together by a bored teenager. But to him, it was a possibility. It was potential. Hell, this was his life's work and would be his ticket to fame. Not that he didn't design it to help people, but Noah wouldn't lie and say that he hadn't thought of the money that it'd make him. Money that he could then invest into further inventions, and to support both his family and pay Kara back for her help.

He tapped the side of his monitor and brought up the theoretical projection models. Lines of data formed digital graphs that pulsed and shifted across the screen. His design was an energy modulation chamber that could hypothetically tap into a user's bioelectrical feedback and amplify it through a stabilized waveform. In other words, release a pulse of energy to empower the human body.

Originally, it had been something far more modest: a school science fair idea for clean, renewable kinetic energy. But Noah had gone far beyond that now.

If it worked– No, when it worked, it would revolutionize physical conditioning. Enhance the body's ability to recover. Accelerate metabolic output. Maybe even sync with hormone release or regulate internal feedback systems to improve performance. Athletes, soldiers, rescue workers... anyone who relied on the body as a tool could benefit.

And maybe it could make him stand out. Like Ellie or Kelly. Well, not due to physical fitness, but as someone who'd accomplished something. It was one of his other less altruistic motivations.

He brought up the test sequence script and reviewed the parameters once more. Noah paid attention to low-voltage pulses and gradual frequency modulation in particular. He wasn't stupid; he knew testing on himself or others was a long way off, and he still hadn't perfected the energy sink system.

"Alright..." He muttered, dragging the command prompt window over to the center of the screen. "Simulation protocol, test cycle C-11."

A soft chime responded as the machine whirred to life. The attached power unit glowed faintly as it adjusted its flow, a steady rhythm of green lights blinking in tandem with the output.

Noah watched for a few minutes, checking stability metrics and verifying that no values were spiking beyond safe thresholds. Everything was in the green. Just as it had been during the previous cycle. But now the test would run uninterrupted through the night, measuring long-term drift, energy efficiency, and whether the auxiliary array would hold up without error.

Satisfied, he stood up and stretched. His joints popped in quiet protest. He'd probably been hunched over too long again. Noah's mom often scolded him for his bad posture. Grabbing his hoodie off the back of the chair, he gave the machine one last glance.

"Don't fry yourself while I'm asleep." Said the brilliant teen under his breath, then flicked off the desk lamp and headed back down the attic stairs.

The house and town quieted down. Night fell over the small community. Noah, Ellie, and Elizabeth all went to sleep without issue. No nightmares nor loud noises to disturb their slumber. Just peace.

Upstairs, however, nestled in the dark attic like a slumbering animal, the machine began to shift.

The lights on its surface pulsed brighter, flickering with a rhythm that would have alarmed Noah – if he were present. Warnings appeared on the nearby screens, pointing out corrupted code that was making the device behave erratically. It only got worse as the machine started gathering energy and building up radiation.

A low thrumming grew from its core. It was subtle at first, then deeper, vibrating through the floorboards and humming in the walls. Yet not loudly enough to disturb any of the house's occupants.

And then, in the dead of night, with no eyes to witness it, the machine released a pulse.

It was soundless. Invisible but powerful. A ripple unseen by human eyes and invisible on any measuring instrument passed through the air. It went far and wide, reaching across the entire town. The pulse vanished as quickly as it left. But the damage was already done.

Then the lights dimmed again, steady and calm. The machine continued its test as the townspeople slept peacefully.

[Biceps108]

Reach Your Target Audience

Advertising is hard. We make it simple and effective.

Advertise With Us →

[erocha75]

This is absolutely awesome. Please continue!

[taoschild]

Not a lot of muscle growth yet, but a wonderful slow build. I hope you don't take the lack of positive comments here as a sign this story isn't appreciated. I look forward to more.

[HumanPersonBeing]

Same. This is a classic setup to an fmg story, like the kind I'd read on ***** (RIP). I want to see where this goes. Please continue.

[ArkhamAsylum]

I agree with everyone else. There was no muscle growth yet, but this set-up chapter was very interesting. I love fmg stories where an entire population (in this case the town) is affected by the growth. I also loike the introduction of (some of?) the women who will be transformed by the pulse. The women in the town,seem to all have pretty outspoken and strong personalities, unlike our friend Noah. And there seems to already be some tension between certain  inhabitants. So them transforming into suprstrong (I assume) musclebound amazons will lead to some very interesting situations, I think. I also wonder what for specific effects the pulse will have on the female inhabitants. Does the growth happen instantly, or does it take place over a prolonged period of time? Aside from enhanching strength and causing muscle growth, does it also lead to heigth growth and the expansion of the women's more feminine attributes? Will the affected women become superhuman, or will their transformation remain more realistic? Does the pulse affect everyone in the same way? Or will there be differences depending on the woman who undergoes the transformation? Will the more athletic and muscular women remain bigger and stronger than the rest after the transformation or not? Will the more mature women become younger and rejuivinate back to their prime as part of the improvement proceses? Will there be a difference in size and strength between younger and older women? So many questions. I can't wait to see where this story takes us next. Excellent work.

[Biceps108]

- Author's Note: (Thanks for the compliments. This story is, in fact, an attempt at mimicking the kind of stories you'd read on Thevalkyrie and old school Saradas, but is also largely inspired by The Change written by Mr.Purple357. Updates will be very sporadic, but do enjoy whatever I manage to get out here.)


Noah awoke abruptly and suddenly, hearing incomprehensive chatter coming from downstairs. He was a light sleeper by nature, but the sounds down below shook him out of his slumber. He didn't bother going to sleep again. The sun was already shining through his window, so he might as well get up.

Yawning, Noah sat up, rubbed the sleep from his eyes, and swung his legs off the side of the bed. His room was what you'd call a mess of old notebooks and wires. But that's where his messiness stopped. Noah always cleaned his own room, and his clothes were neatly stacked in the drawers while the dirty ones were in a laundry basket. There was a logic to the little chaos.

Noah stripped out of his night clothes, and pulled on a fresh shirt and pants before shuffling drowsily toward the door. The floorboards creaked beneath his bare feet as he descended the stairs, hand gripping the banister out of sleepy habit. He chose the kitchen as his first stop. Noah always felt so thirsty when waking up, and he moved on autopilot, the disruptive noise from earlier now at the back of his mind.

Morning sun poured through the windows, glinting off the countertop as he entered the room. Noah turned the corner and quickly came to an abrupt halt.

There, standing at the kitchen island, was a tall, broad-shouldered woman. Her brown hair was tied into a haphazard bun, and she wore a light purple flannel pyjama that clung to a physique worthy of a bodybuilder. Her arms were thick with corded muscle; they began with big delts bulging beneath the fabric, and transitioned to biceps that visibly stretched the seams of the button-up shirt. The woman's backside looked sculpted, tapering to a narrow waist before flaring out again into thighs that could probably crush a watermelon.

Noah blinked. Once. Twice.

Then his eyes slowly lifted to her face.

"Mom?!" He said, incredulous. Or rather, he half-yelled as the sheer shock of this sight assaulted his still drowsy mind.

She turned at the sound of his voice, holding a steaming mug of coffee in one hand. And damn, did she hold that handle tightly. Her much thicker and more vascular forearm looked incredibly jacked. Almost as if she used a hand grip strengthener in her sleep every night.

"Noah?" Elizabeth responded unsurely. She didn't seem to be very focused, eyes wide and mouth slightly parted. She was holding the cup of coffee closely to her chest as if needing something to hold on to. "You're... awake."

He certainly was now, yes. Noah almost thought he'd wandered into some kind of nightmare, or that he'd bumped his head against the bed railing and was hallucinating, but swiftly realized that this wasn't the case.

The teen took a step forward, utterly bewildered. "What the hell? What happened to you?!"

"I... I don't know." His mom answered, gesturing to herself with one arm, the motion causing her bicep to swell beneath the skin. "I just woke up like this. I went to bed like normal, but then this morning I stood up and – and I thought I was dreaming! Look at me!"

He did. He'd argue that it was impossible to not look at her, even. And she wasn't exaggerating.

Her clothes looked painfully tight. Elizabeth's thighs were pressing against her pajama pants, and her shirt hung on for dear life. She looked every bit like a gym-obsessed woman; the kind you'd find on magazine covers or insta****, flexing their hard muscles with tons of confidence. Every inch of his mother's body was covered in solid brawn.

Safe for her... more feminine attributes. Noah felt awkward thinking of it, yet he couldn't help but notice that her breasts had swollen larger as well. Not too much luckily. Only enough to match her enlarged pectorals. Her ass was larger too as a result of her bulbous glutes.

"Right. And are you okay? You're not in pain?"

"What? No. I feel... fine." Answered the now muscular nurse, raising her hand to her shoulder and giving it a tentative squeeze. There was plenty to touch. "Better than fine, actually. No soreness. No pain. More energetic than usual maybe. But I don't understand what happened."

That made two of them. Noah tried to wrack his brain for an explanation. Not an easy task, all things considered. It was so weird to see a buff version of his usually slender mother. Even more so when she'd been her normal self just yesterday at the dinner table.

Noah's head spun with conflicting thoughts. He was as lost as his mother, though.

"Mom! Mom, you need to see this!"

The rapid pounding of feet echoed upstairs and then moved towards the staircase. Noah turned toward the sound. Within seconds, a blur of tanned skin and short dark hair shot around the corner. Ellie skidded into view, breathing hard, eyes wild and alarmed.

Noah barely had time to process her sudden appearance before his eyes locked onto her. He froze again, jaw going slack.

Ellie was wearing what had clearly been her favorite pair of pajama shorts and a loose tank top. Only now they looked like they had lost a battle with a sewing machine. Her thighs, thick and sculpted like carved marble, strained the seams of the fabric. The waistband was pushed to the brink of collapse by the sheer bulk of her quadriceps.

Similarly, her top was now stretched taut over the deep ridges of her abdominals and flaring lats. Ellie was lucky that the top had short sleeves because her arms were packed with tons of sinew. Her gymnast biceps were nowhere to be found. In their place stood big, round mounds of pure muscle with a prominent vein running across each.

Ellie's chest rose and fell with each breath. Especially after running down the stairs. Noah could practically hear the pajama top creaking. Her pecs were far bigger, and her developing chest now actually sported some breasts where she used to be rather flat – again, not something he should have been noticing but alas.

"What... What the actual–?" He shook his head. Once again he began to doubt whether or not this was reality.

"How do you think I feel?!" Ellie exclaimed. She waved her arms around, motioning frantically toward her own body, then toward their mother. "Is this, like, a new kind of sleep disease or something?! I went to bed normal! Normal! And then I wake up and my clothes are too tight, I accidentally rip my underwear, and–" She paused, flexing her sinewy arm in disbelief. "And I look like a freaking CrossFit champ on steroids!"

Noah blinked at her, still processing the sight of a buff Ellie now standing beside his also very much buff mom. He also wisely ignored the part about underwear. Something told the young man that he'd get an earful if he focused on that tidbit of information.

"Oh my god... It wasn't just mom." Muttered Noah.

Ellie looked between him and their mother, finally realizing the older woman was in the room as well. Elizabeth didn't seem to be doing much better.

"You mean this happened to both of us? At the same time? This can't be natural, right? Please tell me you've got some crazy theory. M-Maybe a mutation–  or an alien gamma ray explanation cooking in that nerd brain of yours."

"I–I don't know!" Noah's voice cracked as he gestured helplessly. "You think I understand what's happening?!"

Elizabeth stepped in between them, almost knocking Noah over with her embiggened deltoids. He gulped as he noticed the striations of the muscle under her pajama. And her neck looked thicker than before, too.

"Let's calm down for a moment. We're getting too worked up. Yes, this isn't normal. But panicking won't help us."

She was right. Intellectually, Noah realized that his mom was right. They were getting caught up by the shock and not thinking straight. He took a deep breath, calming his nerves slightly.

Noah exhaled slowly, rubbing his temples as he tried to shift gears. There had to be some explanation. Something more than just "this happened overnight." He had too many questions, and the only way forward was to start digging for clues. Still standing in the kitchen with two clearly transformed women, he squared his shoulders and looked between them.

"Okay." He muttered, voice steadier now. "Something happened during the night, obviously. So I need both of you to think back. Try and remember anything that felt strange. Any weird dreams? Tingling sensations? A surge of heat maybe? Even nausea?"

Elizabeth glanced at Ellie, who looked equally clueless. The two of them shook their heads. He ignored the way his mom's neck tensed with dense muscle fibers.

"No. I mean, I slept fine." She said, furrowing her brow. "If anything, I slept better than usual. I didn't wake up once, which is rare for me. No weird dreams either. Just... peaceful sleep."

Ellie crossed her arms under her chest, though now it seemed more like she was propping them up. The extra pec meat and womanly fat had done wonders for his little sister.

"Yeah, same. I passed out watching videos, I think. Then I woke up and everything felt off. My bed creaked more than usual, and when I sat up, my abs looked like they were airbrushed on." She poked one now, still bewildered. "And my quads were bigger. Like, a lot bigger. I nearly fell getting out of bed because my whole balance is different."

Noah snorted, idly wishing he had that on camera. "Okay... So you both went to bed normal and woke up like this with no warning signs. That rules out some kind of allergic reaction or slow metabolic change."

"I didn't even feel anything." Elizabeth added. "No tingling. No burning. I just... stood up, walked to the mirror, and there I was. Looking like one of those fitness influencers who does five hours of strength training a day."

"You're telling me. I've got veins in places I didn't know could have veins. My shoulders have peaks. And my calves!" Ellie raised one foot slightly and flexed, her calf ballooning into sharp relief. She wasn't kidding; each calf was almost as big as Noah's clenched fist. "They were nice before but now it looks as if I run track every day!"

"Those are quite big indeed... Oh, dear. I'll have to buy new socks for us. Maybe some bigger clothes, too."

"You said you feel fine. So, no soreness? No fatigue? No shortness of breath?" Noah pressed on.

His mom tapped her chin, pondering. "Nothing like that. Honestly, I feel... good. Really good. Energetic, even. Normally I need two cups of coffee before I can function. But I'm already on my feet, and I don't feel the usual heaviness or grogginess."

Ellie nodded, pacing restlessly near the kitchen table. Her movements were jittery, like someone who had too much caffeine. Or someone who was storing too much power with no outlet. The veins across her arms and legs stood out. Almost as if she had a pump? But that couldn't be.

"I'm, like, buzzing. I thought it was adrenaline at first, but it's not fading. I feel like I could go do an hour of gymnastics right now just to burn off the edge."

"That much?" Noah asked, frowning slightly.

"Yeah. Like I'm full of fuel and need to let off steam somehow."

"So this isn't just physical changes – it's also internal. Increased energy, maybe elevated metabolism or adrenaline production. Some kind of body-wide optimization. Damn, I should have brought my notebook."

But this was good to know. Noah's mind became filled with possibilities. The changes to his mom and sister's bodies had affected them in more ways than initially expected. Actual tests would grant him more concrete and extensive information to work with, but these observations already narrowed down potential causes.

At least, as far as natural anomalies went. All of this possessed the telltale traits of a science fiction fantasy rather than–

Noah opened his mouth, but no words came out. His thoughts, however, began to race. Muscle. Transformation. Overnight. Amplification.

He glanced up toward the attic, where his device was supposed to be finishing its diagnostics. And in that moment, his blood ran cold.

"I... I'm going to freshen up. I need to think." Lied the shaken teen, excusing himself.

His family was too wrapped up in their transformation to notice his blatant lie. They were busy inspecting each other's physique, displaying a sense of marvel as they appraised each other. Noah, mimicking their absentmindedness, completely missed whatever the two women started talking about.

Noah climbed the stairs two at a time. His heart pounded in his chest. Not from exertion, but from the creeping suspicion that the bizarre and impossible transformations downstairs weren't spontaneous at all. Noah had a suspicion that only seemed more plausible the more he thought about it.

Opening the hatch to the attic, Noah stumbled as he entered the stuffy room and made a beeline for his invention. He jumped onto the swivel chair and turned the machine on, hands flying across the attached keyboard. He logged in and pulled up the diagnostics console, sifting through lines of code and recorded outputs.

"Come on, come on. Hurry up already." He muttered impatiently.

The logs were filled with previous tests and simulations. But those weren't the ones he was interested in. The young genius pulled up the latest records, scanning them keenly and carefully. His worst fears were sadly confirmed.

03:15 – UNEXPECTED ENERGY DISCHARGE DETECTED

"Crap." Noah moaned.

He highlighted the event. His fingers worked in silence, scrolling through timestamped logs. At precisely fifteen minutes past three in the night, a faulty line of code had caused the machine to exit the simulation, and switch over to active production instead. No preamble, no warning. What followed next was predictable.

Noah's machine had built up a surge of radiation and then released it in one big pulse. Large enough to apparently reach all the way downstairs to his mother and sister's bedrooms. He sighed in frustration, massaging his temples.

Clearly the pulse had supercharged their cells and rewired their hormone balance. Primarily by releasing tons of growth hormones specifically. He'd included that feature into his wonder device as a means to combat muscular atrophy among others. However, the machine was – as far as he knew – incomplete. He'd never gotten the code and radiation levels right. He did now, technically, but not intentionally. Which meant it would take days of evaluating code and parameters to discover the right configurations.

It also meant that he couldn't reverse the process yet.

Noah took a deep breath, remembering his mom's words. Panicking wouldn't help. He couldn't undo the past. What he could do was study the machine and the anomaly to find a potential cure for his family. If anything, he should be glad it wasn't any worse than this.

Except for a heart attack, because that's what he nearly experienced when his cellphone suddenly rang. Noah nearly jumped out of his skin as his phone started vibrating violently against the metal table. He yanked it up and winced. There were three missed calls from Kara.

He cursed under his breath and quickly accepted the call.

"Kara! Sorry, I didn't mean to ignore–"

"Finally!" Kara snapped, her voice laced with tension. "I've been trying to call you three times. What the hell, Noah?"

"I know, I know. I'm sorry. I've got a... situation at home."

There was a pause. Then her voice came back dry and sardonic.

"Let me guess. Does this situation happen to involve muscles sprouting out of nowhere?"

Noah froze.

"...What?"

"You heard me." Kara's tone flattened. "Don't play dumb, Noah. Did your mom and sister wake up looking like they just won national powerlifting trophies overnight?"

He stared blankly at the glowing monitor in front of him, mind reeling. "How do you– how the hell do you know that?"

"Because it happened to me too. And my mom. And my little sister, for God's sake." Kara explained. He winced at the news, remembering that Kara's sister was only ten years old. "I woke up this morning and couldn't fit into half my clothes. My mom and sister aren't faring much better."

"That bad?"

"Well, it was more the shock than anything. You should have seen Dad and Darren's faces. I'd have taken pictures if I wasn't too busy trying not to rip my shirt with these biceps. At least mom's not throwing a fit anymore... I guess Sophie took to it better than any of us. She thought she'd turned into a superhero."

Noah groaned slowly, cupping his face. "So it wasn't just us..."

"No. And it gets worse." She said grimly, immediately dispelling the little comfort he had earlier. "Far from it. Dad went outside to check on the neighbors, Noah. Every woman on our block has changed. You remember Mrs. Chung? Sam's mom and the owner of that little convenience store close by? She has these huge thighs now, and it's practically all muscle. Every girl of every age in our street is super buff."

Noah's mouth was dry. He reached for the edge of the desk to steady himself, the weight of it all beginning to settle on his shoulders. Guilt washed over him.

"Kara." He said, voice quiet. "I think I know what caused it."

There was another pause on the line.

"...What do you mean?"

"It was the machine. Last night, it malfunctioned and released a pulse of energy. I thought it only affected my house, but the wave must have been bigger than I thought."

"Which caused all of this muscle growth drama." Said Kara, catching on. She sounded exasperated. "And we're responsible for it. Shit. Okay, do you know how far the pulse went? Or why it only affected us girls."

Noah hummed. "I'd have to check the logs again to be certain. But honestly? I fear the pulse might have traveled across the entire town by the sound of it. And to answer your other question; no, I don't. Maybe the radiation affects genders differently, or it's a result of faulty programming. I'll try to find out what went wrong so we can fix this."

"Okay, that's as good of a plan as it'll get. I'll come over when I can. Dad's pretty freaked out, and he wants us to visit the hospital first. But once everything's calmed down I'll visit so that we can evaluate the data together."

"Alright. Take care, Kara."

The rest of the day passed by uneventfully. But more in the sense of Noah being too busy gathering as much information as he could.

When he went downstairs, he found his family watching the TV as the local news anchors summarized what had happened overnight. Obviously they had no concrete answers about the cause of the transformation – which was good because Noah didn't want to reveal his invention – but they'd done their best to gather footage about what was happening in the town.

Their effort was admirable, considering how small the studio was. Noah's town was small in the sense that you could hardly call it a city, but it was larger than most and surprisingly self-sufficient. The surrounding geography, consisting of dense forests and hills, made it rather difficult to connect the town to the outside world. The nearest village was at least a half hour drive, and reaching a city would take even longer than that. The easiest method would be the train yet their sole station didn't see much traffic, with only two train tracks to boot.

Such isolation warranted self-sufficiency. Practically every store in town was a local business, as larger companies lacked the incentive to invest here, and it did accommodate certain utilities and services that other towns lacked. Such as a small hospital, a news/radio station, etc.

Noah saw videos of women of all ages and occupations, from the young to the elderly, and winced as his and Kara's fears were made reality. Every female occupant had grown impressively muscular. There were some clear differences, though. Especially between age categories. The adults had grown the most, with pubescents and younger kids being noticeably smaller, yet still way more muscular than they should be naturally. In a way, that made their growth all the more impressive, as those short frames were now packed with female brawn.

But he noticed that age wasn't a definitive factor. There were clear size differences between women, even of the same age category, while some teenage girls were as big if not slightly bigger than their mothers. An interview with a trainer from the local gym hinted at physical activity having an impact on the growth, as this woman was definitely among the larger ones.

Her biceps were massive, and flexed with every animated gesture that she made in front of the camera. She spoke of how she used to be of average size and now weighed no less than 95 kilograms. A staggering increase of 40 kilograms in just one night. That was unheard of.

The news anchors, a man and now considerably more muscular woman, kept giving their audience updates but emphasized that the authorities were still uncertain about what had caused the townwide change. Luckily there were no riots as some pessimists and apocalypse movie fans might have predicted. The townspeople were simply too astonished, and those who did regain their bearings quickly went to the hospital for a check-up.

Speaking of which, Noah's mom got a call not too long after. She was being called upon as a nurse to help handle the overwhelming influx of patients. The town's small hospital just couldn't deal with it all at once. She told them goodbye, made sure there was food ready, and left immediately for work. Elizabeth couldn't tell them when she'd be back, though.

That was fine with him. He used the time to study the phenomenon of his own making.

Noah kept watching the news reports and took to social media. Another advantage of a small, isolated community like their own was that everyone stuck to the same online groups. Facebook for the most part. It had gotten popular among the adults, and even the older generations had gotten used to it over time. Noah dove into groups of neighborhoods, sports clubs, and local businesses.

The information that he retrieved was fairly uniform. Mainly women and men talking about the former's enhancements. The emotions they experienced also fit the overall narrative; people were still shocked and some tried to get their act together, either accepting that it happened or stuck in the denial stage.

A few posts leaned into very opposite directions. He read how an angry husband complained about his wife turning into a musclebound freak. Then a woman commented somewhere else that she'd no longer accept any shit from anyone else anymore. Such diverse reactions were more sparse, but showed that there were people who either outright rejected or embraced the transformations. Noah's mind idly conjured the idea of running a study on the social effects of his mishap.

But that didn't matter for now. Regardless, the information that flooded the television and online forums helped Noah concretise the extent of his invention's malfunction, and just how widespread this phenomenon reached.

Noah's gaze turned to the backyard window, through which he could see his amplified sister doing calisthenics. She went through them with such speed and energy, cranking out sit-ups, push-ups, and other 'ups' at a rate that would leave him wheezing. Suffice to say that Ellie's physical capabilities were going to be extraordinary from now on – as would any of the town's women.

"I've got a bad feeling about this..." 

[ArkhamAsylum]

And so it begins... A great second chapter. I wonder if these initial changes are the women's 'final form' so to speak, or if they'll go through more growth, either because the pulse has lingering effects (or might be repeated), or because their supercharged bodies react in a more extreme way if they strain their muscles and work out. I, like Noah, also wonder what effects the women's transformation will have on the community as a whole. Hopefully most women won't abuse their power and will use their new muscles and strenght for good.

[Jaguar]

Excellent story so far !