#EXCERPTS/PRELUDES/PREVIEWS: [MagnusMagneto]~collected

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(This scene is a huge chunk of a content that is quite frankly comparable to a complete chapter by many writers.  As a result, I strongly urge you to check it out.  Even if you do not read the full version of the story, you should still enjoy this a lot, as it works as a stand-alone in its own way!

This is a preview of my upcoming Patreon Story: Lyris's Excursion (Anya's Oddysey 2)!  It's approximately the first 25-40% of the story.  To get the rest of the tale, make sure you're pledged before February 27th, You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login )

Lyris's Excursion (Anya's Oddysey 2)
By MagnusMagneto
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login
_________________________

The Story Thus Far:

Anya was genius explorer, with a net worth in the hundreds of millions, and one of the most athletic women in the world.  Despite all of this, she faced a seemingly unconquerable enemy: her own mortality.  With middle-age approaching, Anya grew desperate to find some way to halt and preferably reverse the aging process. 

On a whim, and under the encouragement of her personal butler/assistant, Chuck, Anya returned to an ancient tomb that had befuddled her decades prior.  Armed with years of learning and experience, the now older Anya found a way to finally enter the tomb: by sacrificing some of her own blood.  Within, she found a mysterious vial of liquid and a map, both of which she brought home with her.

Eager to discover what this bizarre substance was, Anya did the unthinkable and drank half of the liquid.  There were no immediate effects, but over the next few weeks, Anya's life changed forever.  She began to not only literally age in reverse, but also gained pound after pound of muscle each day, growing taller as well.

Fate wouldn't let Anya slowly ascend to goddesshood in peace however.  A young, lithe woman, somewhat similar to Anya in her 20s, had been spying the manor for quite some time, preparing to break in and steal whatever artifacts she could.  One evening, this woman, named Lyris, finally enacted her plan.  She eventually stumbled upon the other half of the water and the map Anya had plundered.  Anya, who was now a tremendous creature in stature and ferocity, confronted the intruder, resulting in an intense escape that Lyris barely survived. 

Back in her apartment, disappointed that she only managed to snag the seemingly least valuable items in the mansion, Lyris decided to celebrate the heist the only way she could: by drinking the liquid.  Over the next few weeks, Lyris had a transformation of her own.  While she did not age in reverse, as she was already in the prime of her life, Lyris found herself growing stronger with each passing day, eventually developing biceps comparable to softballs.

The young woman made the connection that this mysterious liquid was what had turned Anya into such a powerful amazon.  Intrigued, she carefully inspected the map that had accompanied the magical serum, and discovered that it outlined multiple locations around the world.  Emptying her savings in a desperate attempt to obtain more power for her inevitable rematch with Anya, Lyris made the trek to one of the destinations: the Himalayas.

After traversing the mountain on foot for hours, Lyris eventually stumbled into a cavern, injuring herself in the process.  In the darkness, she found a mysterious stone door.  Next to this otherwise featureless entry was the stone outline of a hand.  With nothing to lose, Lyris brought her bloodied digits up to the imprint; suddenly, the rumbling of stones filled the air, and the door slowly opened...


1.)  Immediately After Chapter 1 (Anya's Oddysey)

Lyris stepped into the darkness of the mysterious entryway before her.  Upon crossing the threshold, she found that the light from outside did not penetrate the sheet of black obscuring her vision.  Confused, she retrieved a flashlight from her pocket, only to find that even its artificial beams were rendered useless; the darkness remained entirely intact.

From behind her, the rumbling of the stone door could be heard again, as it made its descent back down.  She considered escaping, but in her hesitation, the rock fell faster than anticipated, landing with a crash. 

There was no light whatsoever.  Lyris had never seen anything like it before.  There had always been some form of illumination, be it ever so faint, either from natural or artificial means.  Most concerning, her flashlight was actually ON, it simply produced nothing.  Lyris reached into her pocket, grabbing her cell-phone.  This too, produced no light at all, and Lyris could not see its screen, rendering the device nearly useless.

Fear began to set in.  What would she do?  With no other option, she trudged forward with careful, measured steps, making sure to not accidentally trip on something in the process; such a misstep could prove fatal in this situation. 

Eventually she stumbled upon something at her feet.  She reached forward, and her hands instinctively moved towards an effectively invisible object.  Eventually her grasp met what felt like... an amulet.  Suddenly, a purple light projected from the mysterious item, faintly illuminating the room.  The true shape of the amulet made itself known to Lyris:  A tremendously large violet gemstone lay in its center, connected to a chain of presumably pure gold.

In fact, it was the largest gemstone Lyris had ever seen.  Her knees quivered slightly, and chills ran down her spine.  Having spent years of her life breaking into museums to steal objects like this, her eyes grew wide with childlike glee at the sight of such a magnificent find.  "I can only imagine what that baby is worth..." she mused out loud.

Before acting on the treasure, Lyris looked around her now-visible surroundings and noted that the room was small, very small.  It appeared to be some kind of shrine, though her education on the topic wasn't nearly as vast as Anya's, so she could only wager a guess at best.

Above the amulet's resting place, on the wall directly in front of Anya, she could see a series of letters.  Any normal person would've been unable to discern their shape, but her transformed body allowed her to see them clearly.  At first they looked like gibberish: various letters from entirely different alphabets, and even some hieroglyphs.  This seemed strange to Lyris, but once again, unlike Anya, she lacked the education to truly understand the significance of such a mishmash.

Lyris continued to stare at the symbols, racking her brain to see if she could find any discernable meaning to them.  After ten seconds of intense thought, something happened: in Lyris's vision, the letters seemed to... move.  They continued to shift and whirl until eventually they spelled out a message in plain English:  "She with the Blood of a Goddess, take The Amulet if thou seeketh power.  Beware, for The Amulet is one that helps seal The Darkness, remove it only if you are prepared."

The blonde beauty scratched her head.  She had no idea what the message meant about darkness.  She guessed that this 'The Darkness' must have referred to how dark the room was.

"Well...  I DO seek power.  As much as possible, since I have to be able to defend myself from that madwoman Anya... plus power IS fun... really fun...  That darkness was a bit scary, but I think that having more power would be a good offset; as long as I can figure out how to get out here.  I came this far, so may as well, plus just look at the size of that gem...!" she monologued to herself before grabbing the amulet.

As she grasped the artifact, its light dimmed, and the eerie, impenetrable darkness of the room returned.  Fortunately, Lyris always had extremely good coordination from her thieving days, which was enhanced even further from the 'Goddess's Blood' she drank a few weeks prior.  She clasped the amulet around her neck.  To her surprise, despite the tremendously hefty gemstone in its center, it seemed weightless.

Suddenly, a strange sensation overtook Lyris; she felt... energetic and good.  Even more energetic and even more good than she usually felt.  She heard a whisper in her head: a mysterious utterance from an unknown dialect.  Despite not knowing what the words meant, Lyris could sense their intent.  They were urging her to...  She concentrated on generating light. 

At that moment, the violet light from the amulet returned; this time, it was brighter than before, better illuminating the room; and it was... emitting directly from her chest!  Lyris glanced down and was tremendously shocked to find that the gemstone was IN her chest!  She let out an audible gasp, and stumbled backwards before collecting herself and reaching up to feel it.  There was no denying it – the amulet had somehow... fused with her.

What did this mean?  What was that voice?  Realizing that she had willed the light to turn on, Lyris focused on making the light brighter, and the gemstone did as she willed: illuminating the room even more greatly.


2.)

To Lyris's surprise, the mysterious words on the wall had entirely vanished.

Thoroughly freaked out with the events that had transpired, Lyris wanted to get out of this weird shrine thing, and figure out what exactly having a gemstone fused into her chest really meant.  She turned around and headed towards the exit.  The stone door was still down.  Lyris pushed against it to no avail.  That was when the noise started again: the familiar stone rumbling.

This time however, the door wasn't moving.  Worried, Lyris quickly looked around the room and found... the walls themselves were trembling!  A few moments passed, and slowly, but surely, the walls began to move, caving inward towards the center. 

Lyris's eyes grew wide.  She had seen enough action movies (the very ones that had inspired her to become a thief in the first place) to know what was coming next: The walls were undoubtedly going to cave in, crushing her in the process.

Unsure of what else she could possibly do, Lyris continued to push against the stone door with no avail.  The walls continued to slowly and ominously close in.  Desperate and frustrated, she ran over to the right-hand wall and began shoving against it in a plea to try and preserve her life.  Lyris dug her feet into the ground, her thick, powerful legs expanding with vitality as the muscles found themselves taxed; her upper body similarly swelled up to new proportions.

"If only I was stronger!"  She yelled out, grunting and groaning with effort she put everything she had into trying to stop the slow, deliberate march of the wall. 

The more Lyris pushed, the more the incredible sense of energy that had flooded her upon donning the amulet welled within her.  Was it possible?  Was she getting... stronger?  "YES!  MORE!"  She yelled, "MORE ENERGY!  MORE STRENGTH!  MORE POWER!"

Despite her efforts, Lyris was still being slowly pushed back by the slowly moving obstacle that threatened to take her life.  Her focus sharpened, and Lyris pulled internally for more inner strength.  The sensation continue to well to greater and greater heights, and a moment later, Lyris heard a strange fleshy ripping sound; it was her. 

Lyris's muscles were growing, slowly and surely; same as the slow assault of the oncoming stone walls.  She was too preoccupied to see the changes, but Lyris could sense that she was getting stronger.  "Have to keep pushing..." she grunted, pulling from within even more.

During all of this, the gemstone fused into Lyris's chest continued to glow brighter and brighter; had her eyes not been shut from the complete and utter focus she required, Lyris would have likely shielded her sight from the very light she was producing.

The sound of muscle fibers ripping and instantly rebuilding themselves grew louder.  Lyris could feel her already meaty biceps and deltoids pushing against the rest of her body.  The sound of fabric slowly tearing joined the other sounds, creating a bizarre symphony of flesh, cloth, and stone, all grinding; in a sense, the entire shrine had transformed into a machine that would test Lyris – either transforming her into a living goddess, or unceremoniously ending her life. 

Lyris's growth continued.  The hems of her shorts split open as her trunk-like legs, brimming with unbridled power, required room to breathe.  The back of her vest similarly began to part, as her growing back demanded more and more fabric to cover it, fabric that simply did not exist.  Her arms were comparable to Anya's, and their thick veins pulsated the same violet color of the gemstone in her chest. 

The wall she was pressing against seemed to slow down, though it was still gaining ground.  Lyris glanced over her shoulder, and found that the other wall was drawing nearer still.  She continued to desperately push against the first, culminating in yet another growth spurt, and the wall slowing down ever so slightly.

Lyris's efforts mattered not, for the second wall still threatened to end her life in a mere few moments, as it had finally reached arm's length of the girl.  Unsure of what else to do, she placed one hand on the wall she was pushing against, and the other against the second wall.

Her muscles continued to quake, shake, and grow ever larger with each passing moment.  Strength was flooding into her, but it seemed to not be enough.

With both walls simultaneously pushing against her, Lyris spread her legs out, which were fortunately still supremely flexible despite their musculature, and pressed with all four limbs, two on each wall.  Her life on the line, Violet screamed as she begged – no, demanded- that her body continue to grow and adapt to the task at hand.  It did exactly that, and her strength skyrocketed. 
Despite these efforts, Lyris was still slowly being crushed, and she had to allow herself to cave in slightly to avoid having her bones crushed to dust. 

Her muscles were becoming so immense that the clothing covering Lyris continued to shred and fall off, bit by bit, moment by moment.  A few seconds later, her back had become so broad, so wide, so ripped, that her vest turned to shreds, gracefully falling to the floor.  Her bra followed suit, revealing her tremendous body:  An upside down V of muscle so exaggerated that it looked impossible, lats absurdly wide juxtaposed to a model's waist; biceps larger than her head next to a face more beautiful than any living model.  Between her physique and the gemstone fused in to her chest, Lyris truly looked more like a comic book character than a real human being.

The walls' progress slowed down.  The grinding sound of stone became less pronounced.  Lyris let out another scream, and her shorts fell to shreds to give way to her obscene lower body; her undergarments quickly followed suit.  All of the other possessions Lyris brought with her fell likewise.

Fully naked, and brimming with more muscle than any human being could ever hope to possess, Lyris finally started pushing the stones back.  Slowly, the stone yielded to her unstoppable force.  After pushing them back as far as her limbs would go, a large clicking noise rang out.  The walls had stopped entirely.

With a sigh of relief, Lyris fell to the ground and gathered herself.

She didn't have long to rest however, as another stone rumbling could be heard; this time the ceiling was shaking!  The small amount of stone above her was quickly descending.  Lyris would later posit that by defeating the first trap, as indicated with the clicking sound, she had activated a second one. 

Lyris considered attempting escape, but the ceiling gave her no time.  She put her arms up, and soon stone met hands.  Lyris had hoped that her triumph over the walls would translate to instant success against the falling ceiling, but her hopes proved false.  Slowly, the ceiling began to push her down, forcing Lyris to slowly descend onto her knees.

The blonde continued to scream, summoning even further strength from within.  Her muscles slowly grew once more, as ever greater reserves of strength made themselves known to her.  The descent of the ceiling was slowing slightly, but Lyris was still losing.

The battle raged on, as Lyris quite literally grew stronger and stronger just to preserve her own life.  If she failed here, if she did not ascend to godhood, then her existence would be finished.

This reminder helped her grow even faster, and a few seconds later, after falling to her knees, Lyris finally mustered the strength to fully halt the ceiling's descent.  Summoning up even more power, she slowly began to push the stone upward, gradually rising to her feet in the process.

Lyris's back and quadriceps in particular exploded with sheer power, and a minute later, she was holding the ceiling in place.  Unfortunately, there was no clicking sound to indicate that the trap had been defeated.  Instead, Lyris had to gather enough strength to maintain the ceiling in place while moving forward.  She alternated the placement of her hands while taking deliberate steps forward.

After a painstaking process, Lyris finally made it to the front door of the shrine.  The door was still closed, but she refused to allow this obstacle to stand in her way.  Lyris brought her foot back, gathered her strength, and with one mighty blow, kicked the stone door wide open with her bare feet. 

The entryway finally open, Lyris released the ceiling from her grasp while diving forward through the exit in one swift motion.  Behind her, the tremendous stone that threatened her life fell to the ground, sealing off the shrine forever.

3.)

Lyris stood up.  The cavern was still pitch black, but with a small amount of focus, Lyris found that she could will the gemstone in her chest to produce its familiar violet light.  With her surrondings illuminated, she could finally take inventory of her body.

The young woman let out an audible gasp at what she saw.  Beneath her gaze was the most unfathomably muscular body she could imagine.  Every inch of her tall form was etched with bulging, marble muscle – all covered in velvet skin.  Lyris glanced over at her arm and flexed it, the resulting bicep was so intimidating that it actually intimidated her!  It was as large as her head, peaked, and ripped with endless striations of definition.  The thick veins running across it occasionally pulsated with the same purple as the gemstone; something that would have frightened Lyris had she not been saved by that very power.

With a body like this, what could possibly stop her?  She was by far the strongest human being alive, even stronger than Anya now, unless the older woman had somehow vastly increased her own strength since they last met.  Lyris felt an ache of desire for a reunion with Anya.  She would dominate that magnificent specimen, and have some real fun.  There was no man on Earth that could provide what Anya's body would.

Lyris gazed up at opening from where she had fallen from.  The light shining down was at least twelve solid feet above her, and there seemed to be no possible grips for her to grab onto and scale up. 

A crazy thought crossed Lyris's mind.  "Let's see what these legs can do." She crouched down, gathered her strength, and leaped vertically with everything she had.  The amazon soared into the air, the sheer image of the act would be comical to beholdas she ascended the full dozen feet.  Lyris then grabbed onto the ledge, and effortlessly lifted herself upward, her back muscles exploding in harmony from the effort.

Lyris dusted herself off.  "It cost me everything I had, but it seems my little excursion was successful.  Now to return to civilization."  She gazed into the horizon; surprisingly, Lyris found that she could perfectly recall precisely where she came from.

The young woman realized that her belongings, in particular her wallet, phone, and credit cards, were lost forever within the shrine.  She would have to procure a way back to the city, thousands of miles away, on the other side of the planet.

Her next destination was a small village she had scouted on her way to the shrine.  The people would gawk at her tremendous, naked form, especially with that massive gemstone in her chest; but what could they really do?  She was a goddess already, and there seemed to be no limit to how powerful she could become.  Lyris would be merciful to the villagers, but they'd still need to serve her during her visit.



(See what happens next by subscribing to my Patreon before February 27th!  You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login  The full version of this story will be released on approximately March 7th – if you successfully processed a pledge, it will be sent to you directly!)

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(This is a preview of my upcoming Patreon story: The Trouble With Magic Chapter 2.  It's a huge chunk of content comparable to a full chapter by most authors.  As a result, I strongly encourage you to check it out, even if you do not intend to read the full story. 

If you are interested, please consider pledging to my Patreon before February 28th to receive the full story: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login - it's only thanks to your support that I can dedicate so much time to writing!)

Preview:
The Trouble With Magic - Chapter 2
By MagnusMagneto ( You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login )
____________________________

The Story So Far:
(Because chapter one came out 1.5 years ago, this recap will be extra long.  I will try to make the story itself a bit longer to compensate!  The recap, like many of my recaps, should be detailed enough that even someone who has never read chapter 1 can jump right in with a bit of reading comprehension  =)   

I would also like to address a couple of small things:
- Yes, my writing style is quite a bit different (imo) from what it was back then.  Hopefully you prefer what it is today.
- As a result, the way I handle characterizations and dialogue is different too.  I can't help but feel like they were a bit 'shallow' back then.
- Adding onto the last two point, Chapter 2 will feel quite different than the first one.  Hopefully the change isn't too jarring.
- I also realize that this will have quite a few parallels to Proteus Effect in a few respects (wimpy main character, buff step-mother/step-sister, buff teacher, buff cheerleader).  I wrote this a verrry long time ago, and I actually did not create the outline or characters at all for Proteus.  The characters in this story are still quite different, and once more magic is introduced, the stories will have much less in common.)

Milo was an average high school sophomore in almost every respect, aside from his below-average stature.  Born to small parents, it seemed that his fate was sealed, and another growth spurt to propel him past 5'6" was unlikely.  His father, Howie, a single dad, somehow landed an Amazonian beauty of a wife, a 5'11" beauty with long, toned legs named Diana.  They got married, prompting Diana's 13 year old daughter, Athena, to become Milo's new step-sister.

Despite her young age, Athena was already fairly tall, standing at 5'5", and strong too.  During one of their first encounters, Milo witnessed the teen perform 40 push-ups in a row.  Eager to impress her and display his masculinity, Milo proclaimed he could easily perform 60; this was a lie, as later that night, in the privacy of his own room, he realized he could barely do 10.  Despite this, Milo exercised every day, performing more and more push-ups with each passing week. 

Months later, Milo performed the 60 push-ups he promised he could in front of Athena, only for her to best him by cranking out 100 with ease, implying that she could actually do far more than that.  Milo was crushed.  Desperate to overtake his younger step-sister, he asked for weights to be installed in the house.  His wish was granted, but this ended up backfiring:  While he did build himself up a little, Athena also used the weights, and outstripped his strength by a further margin.

His frustrations mounting, Milo proceeded to delve into more and more outlandish ways to possibly increase his strength.  Eventually, he discovered magic.  Specifically, he realized he was one of the few individuals in the world with a latent 'spark' to cast spells.  Milo attempted to create an amulet that would empower him, but found that it had no effect on him.

The next day, a beautiful freshmen girl standing at 5'9" named Claire conned Milo out of the amulet.  During a scuffle at lunch, a female senior athlete, who stood 6' tall, named Alex gained possession of the amulet.  Alex soon discovered that the amulet made her stronger; specifically, working out seemed to grant her instant results.

The following day, Alex, who now possessed the body of a top-tier Olympic athlete, was accosted by school security.  In particular, a teacher from the school, Mrs. Ashmore, 5'4" tall, had created a scheme to steal the amulet.  Specifically, she had watched the school's security cameras, and came to understand that the amulet was originally Milo's, and that it made the wearer more powerful.  Ashmore coerced Alex into handing over the magical item, bluffing her with potential jail time for thievery and assault over the kerfuffle in the cafeteria.

With the amulet in her possession, Mrs. Ashmore proceeded to use the school's gym until she reached a tremendous size, donning 23" biceps to be precise.  It was after seeing her teacher with these muscles, and wearing that amulet, that Claire realized how badly she had messed up.

Claire tracked Milo down, and got him to spill the beans: that he had created the amulet with magic.  She then convinced him to enchant another amulet, and even persuaded him to cast the spell three times on it, thus making it far more effective than the original.  With this new super-amulet, Claire goaded her teacher into wrestling with her; during this match, Claire grew to outrageous musculature, and the match caused one of the school's walls to literally break.

Having bested Ashmore, Claire seized the first amulet and donned both at the same time.  She began to gain strength without the need to even exert herself.

Feeling conned out of both his talents and his love, Milo finally stood up to Claire.  He cast a dispel on the amulets, which actually worked, and Claire stopped gaining strength.  Instead of killing him for his act of insubordination, Claire found herself unusually attracted to Milo, for he was likely the only man alive that would challenge her.  Placing Milo on her shoulders, she bounded off towards the local movie theater, where the newly formed couple would go on their first date.


1.)

Things had never quite been the same since "The Incident", which was the school's unoriginal way of referring to the day Claire wrestled with Mrs. Ashmore and became a muscle-bound goddess in the process.

First there was the media frenzy: reporters and journalists from all around wanted the inside scoop on what happened.  Fortunately for Milo, Claire and Ashmore remained fairly silent, as did Alex.  With the three of them tight-lipped, the fact that a pair of magic amulets had granted these women their incredible strength remained a secret.

The school proposed to fire Mrs. Ashmore, and expel Claire, but a few strategically placed displays of strength (for example: Ashmore digging her fingers into the metal desk of the superintendent, permanently warping the steel with her grip), managed to dissuade any action from taking place.

Despite this, Mrs. Ashmore departed from the school a mere week after The Incident.  There were two primary reasons: 
1.)  She was now the second most muscular woman alive, and far stronger than any man; this granted her a great deal of potential celebrity status.
2.) A more secret reason, it absolutely killed her to see Claire's smirking face each day in her class, as Claire was a good deal stronger.

After leaving, Mrs. Ashmore left for Hollywood, where she was immediately paraded around on all manner of television shows, and contracts were signed for her to star in movies.

-

Alex, one of the other girls who was significantly affected by the amulet, benefitted quite a bit.  She was already the school's star volleyball player, but now she absolutely dominated the court.  After a few tournaments, she had been approached and successfully scouted to join the most prestigious university team in the nation – the men's team at that.  Turns out that women were never excluded from playing in that league, and Alex would go on to become a dominant figure even there.  Fortunately for her, no drug test in the world could ever prove she wasn't entirely natural.

Better yet, Alex found she could continue to develop her muscles at a faster rate than she could before. 

-

Finally, there was Claire.  Claire had arguably physically benefitted the most from the amulet.  She was so huge, so powerful, and so muscular, that it was actually difficult for Claire to go through the motions of day to day life.  Her arms, a bit over 30 inches in circumference, were still packed on a 5'9" frame; the rest of her muscles were similarly tremendous.  This meant that all of her clothing had to be custom tailored to fit her body.

While she had difficulty scratching her back, Claire found plenty of assistance from her new boyfriend: Milo.  The size difference between them was comical to say the least. 

The initial weeks after The Incident was one of the best times of Milo's life.  It was during this period that Milo discovered that he actually loved female muscles, along with very many firsts in his life that will go unmentioned.  More pertinent to the story: Milo spent many afternoons and evenings groping Claire's muscles; squeezing her biceps, kneading her back, futilely punching her abs, riding on her shoulders.  There seemed to be no end to Claire's strength.

-

Three weeks into their relationship, Claire visited Milo's house.  It just so happened that Athena was there.  She had just finished a particularly grueling workout, and as a result looked even more pumped than usual in her tank-top.  A pair of biceps thicker than Milo's sat beneath deltoids and a back that emasculated her older step-brother.  Athena had generally felt like 'hot stuff' around Milo, as her body continued to grow and grow while his remained mostly the same.

That day however, her perspective shifted.  Athena had heard rumors of the hyper-muscular Claire, and had seen Mrs. Ashmore on television, but to witness Claire in the flesh – that was something entirely different. 

"And who is this?" Claire asked with her usual condescending air.

"Oh, yeah.  That's uh... That's my step-sister Athena."  Milo explained.

"Quite the name.  How old is she?"  Claire replied.

"She's-" Milo started, but was cut off.

"I can speak for myself.  I'm thirteen.  Thanks." Athena curtly replied.

Claire bent down slightly and looked Athena directly in the eye.  "I see that you and your step-brother share the same unique quality: You're two of the only people I've ever met after ascending that show no fear towards me."

"Why would I be scared of you?" Athena challenged.

"Uhhh, maybe because I can literally throw cars like they're baseballs?"  Claire laughed.

"That's fine.  I'm going to become stronger than you someday, so I'm not too stressed out about it."  Athena was entirely nonplussed in her delivery.

"W-what?!" Milo sputtered, "What on Earth are you talking about step-sis?"

"I don't see what's so confusing about what I said."  Athena put her arms on her hips, "I'm going to become far stronger than your girlfriend here.  Might take some time, but I'm going to do it.  Simple as that."

Claire burst out into laughter, doubling over slightly, "You MUST be joking dear.  That's simply impossible!"

"It has to be possible.  You got that strong after all."  Athena retorted.  "So I'll get that strong too, and go even further."

"Yes, but... my power... it's not meant for mere mortals."  Despite possessing dozens, if not hundreds, times more strength than Athena, Claire felt... unnerved. 

Athena's resolve strengthened.  "Mere mortals?"  She let out a laugh, "That's bullshit.  Whatever you did, I'll figure it out.  Hell, I'll find an even better way.  I'm going to make you look like a weakling."

"You're going to make THIS look weak!?"  Claire flexed both of her arms with such ferocity that her shirt, which barely fit in the first place, ripped a few threads.

"Well, I dunno.  I don't think I actually want muscles THAT big.  Like, you can't even scratch your back.  Seems impractical.  Don't get me wrong, I'm going to get huge, jacked, and yolked; but I'll find a way to keep it more functional."

Claire cocked a brow, "Go on..."

Athena continued, "Yeah, that's right.  I'm not sure if I'll be as huge as you, but I'm going to be much, much stronger.  Faster too.  And tougher.  Maybe even smarter.  You'll be kissing my feet, so will everyone else."

Claire shook her head.  "You insolent little runt.  I could end your little life with a single slap.  Why shouldn't I?"

Athena shrugged, "My idiot step-brother is still alive AND you're dating him.  That alone tells me you won't do jack."

Claire bit her tongue and collected herself.  "Well, you've certainly got guts.  I'll grant you that.  Now, Milo, how about we go do something.  Elsewhere."

Milo nodded and the couple took off.

-

While this verbal showdown may have seen innocuous enough, it was, in truth, a large turning point for all three of the teenagers involved. 

For Athena, this marked the point in time where she became somewhat obsessed with gaining as much strength and power as possible.  She began pushing herself even harder in the home gym, and also would stay after school to use the weight room there. 

Claire also started to train herself, for the first time since The Incident.  She would often visit scrapyards, and hauled tremendous amounts of weight.  To the blonde's surprise, her body continued to gain muscle and strength, though at a much more 'natural' rate than what was possible with the amulet.

And Milo...  Milo had to deal with even more female muscle in his life, along with various intrusive thoughts.  Athena's workouts and overall drive became so intense that he could oftentimes hear her grunting and panting from the home-gym.  Claire's already immense body became even more so. 

One thing that concerned Milo was his mind would often drift to Athena.  It was hard not to whenever they were both home together, but he still sometimes imagined her when he was with Claire.  In particular, he'd think about Athena's rant about how she was going to surpass Claire.  It was an audacious, absurd, and impossible claim; after all, Claire only had her body thanks to literal magic.  Still, Milo's active imagination would wander and envision Athena the way she claimed she would become:  Extremely muscular and strong, though still physically smaller than Claire, but with far more strength. 

Milo considered a battle between this empowered Athena and his girlfriend, with his step-sister overpowering and dominating Claire.  He thought of one scene in particular, where Claire would wind back her 30+ inch arm, and drive her fist directly into Athena's rippling midsection, only for the blow to accomplish nothing at all.  After this, Athena would casually loose a half-hearted blow of her own, sending Claire sprawling back hundreds of feet.

It was a terrifying and... intriguing prospect.

2.)

Throughout November and most of December, things continued fairly smoothly for Milo and Claire, though another conversation of interest did take place.

In November, Milo came across Athena drinking whole milk out of a glass, the jug sitting next to her.  The young teen kept chugging an entire glass and refilling it before draining it.

"What... are you doing?"  Milo asked.

"Drinking milk.  Duh."  Athena shot back before taking another swig.

"Well, yeah, but... why so much?"

"I'm a growing girl.  Just a matter of time until my big growth spurt.  Plus, gotta feed these babies."  Athena flexed her arms forcing a pair of lemon-sized biceps to erupt.  "Get over here and give them a feel." She ordered.

Milo shuffled towards her.  "You HAVE seen my girlfriend, haven't you?"

"Yeah, yeah.  Feel 'em."

Milo sighed and complied, bringing his hand up and squeezing the limb.  To his surprise, it was incredibly hard, far harder than his own.  In fact, the only muscles he had felt like those were –

His train of thought was interrupted, "I know what you're thinking." Athena cut in, "The only muscles as hard as those are Claire's.  Maybe Mrs. Ashmore's as well, but you aren't sure since you never felt those.  Isn't it amazing Milo?  I'm so young, but I'm already so buff with muscle of this quality."

Milo retracted his hand and took a step back.

Athena continued, "I know there's something special about me Milo.  Thirteen year old girls don't have arms like these.  Thirteen year old girls don't build muscle as fast as I do.  So chew on that for a while.  Think about what's going to happen once my growth spurts kick in.  I'm going to end up taller and hotter than my mother, with the buffest natural body ever.  It's going to be a fun, fun ride."  She grinned mischievously.

Milo turned around and quickly left the room.

-

During Christmas break, Milo and Claire exchanged gifts that each were somewhat unwhelmed with.  Their relationship had been fizzling out.  Despite being with a girl who was far out of his league in many more ways than one, Milo still couldn't help but feel like Claire didn't truly fulfill him.  Sure, she was fun, thrilling, and insanely powerful (an attribute he found himself more and more attracted to), but that was about it.  They had no real similar interests, and could barely hold a conversation together.

Claire on the other hand, the spark of lust from Milo's act of defiance had mostly faded.  Milo was very complacent and subservient now.  Anytime she demanded something, he obeyed.  All except for one thing:  She asked for him to grant her more power with his magic, but Milo refused.  He lied, explaining that anything he did would have no effect, or could potentially be dangerous, because Claire had "developed a resistance to magic from her exposure to it" in his words.  Milo was, of course, entirely bluffing, as he had no idea what would really happen if he cast more spells on Claire.

The truth was, Milo simply didn't want to give Claire more power.  She had plenty, and he worried that she would someday abuse what she already had.

On January 1st, Claire had decided that enough was enough.  She bid Milo farewell, and for the first time, genuinely thanked him for the gift of her incredible strength.  The blonde had recently turned 15, and was having a teenage crisis of identity.  Why did she bother sitting around in class when she could literally lift a truck into the air?  She was (probably) bulletproof, possessed endless endurance, and knew that she could increase her tremendous gifts even further.

Sometime before winter break, Claire did a bit of research, and discovered that Mrs. Ashmore was making money.  A lot of money.  Money that Claire should've be earning.  One of her teachers claimed that a high school diploma alone could earn her some $200,000 extra over her life; that same class touted that going on and earning a bachelor's could be worth $800,000 over her working career.

"The hell is the point of this when I could star in a single movie and make multiple times that?" she literally asked out loud after hearing those figures, her teacher daring not to respond out of fear for the seemingly endless power her body contained.

During their farewell, Claire explained to Milo that she really did care for him, although she wasn't sure if it was truly love.  After all, what was love really?  She figured she was too young to truly understand it.  She gave him one last night of fun, and in the morning packed her belongings and literally ran to Hollywood.

3.)

Things began to change in Milo's life, and not in a way he particularly enjoyed.  First, he felt fairly lonely without Claire, and resorted to his prior ways of hanging out on his computer all day.  He had all but abandoned trying to physically train himself, as it seemed pointless.  None of the girls at his school could compete with Claire, who had in a sense spoiled him during their relationship, and he couldn't help but mentally associate physical exercise with his step-sister.

Milo's step-sister was the other big (and growing) thorn in his side.  Before Claire left, during Christmas, Athena received a tremendous upgrade to the weight-room as her holiday present, along with myriad tubs of protein and body-building supplements (this, incidentally, ended up costing far more than Milo's present, although he didn't seem to care since he presumed his new video game console was costlier).  Christmas day conferred another gift to Athena as well:  it was revealed that she had grown an inch and a half, and was now a hair taller than Milo.

Howie, not really thinking about his son's feelings, had himself, Milo, and Athena all line up together.  Athena sat between the two perfectly in terms of height, but had both of the men outstripped in sheer muscularity.  Her arms and legs were larger, and her back was wider.  The only area that Athena was smaller was in her waist, which was noticeably trimmer than the guys'.  Diana and her husband merely laughed at how whimsical it was that the 13 year old girl was not only bigger than Milo, but her step-father as well.

-

A routine settled in over the next month.  Milo mostly hung out in his room, while Athena pushed herself beyond her limits each day.  With ample supplements, protein, and an improved home-gym, she had nearly limitless opportunity to grow.

And grow she did.  In February, on her 14th birthday, it was revealed that Athena had grown another inch since the last comparison on Christmas.  She was now a bit taller than Howie, and noticeably higher than Milo.  Her muscles had all similarly expanded, and upon wearing a sleeveless athletic outfit given to her for her birthday, the extent of her development became clear to the family. 

Athena's arms were easily 14 inches in circumference, and the rest of her body was similarly proportioned.  Her muscular development surpassed that of what any reasonable 14 year old should look like, and her strength was similarly abnormally high.  She also had begun maturing into a woman at a surprisingly fast rate, and had developed a noticeably wide pair of hips and impressive bust.

"You know dear, I was initially worried about letting you lift weights, but it seems that letting you do so was one of the best parenting decisions I ever made."  Diana said with a warm grin as she squeezed her daughter's tensed arms.

Howie piped in: "I've gotta agree.  Athie here is easily the healthiest fourteen year old girl I've seen.  She's like one of those Olympic gymnasts, but without the, like, stunted stature and delayed puberty."

Milo shot his father a puzzled look.  Diana shook her head and giggled, "Classic Howie."  A few moments of silence passed, and Diana spoke again, "Say, what do you boys think about me getting in on the weight lifting action?  I think the muscle looks pretty good on Athena.  Think I could pull it off too?  I know that squat booties are all the rage these days, and those women from Milo's school going to Hollywood is really popularizing the strong female look."

"Oooh, are you serious, or just pulling my leg?" Howie cut in.

Diana let out one of her breathy feminine laughs that sent chills down the spines of all men in its vicinity.  "I think it'd be fun.  I'll give it a try, and worst comes to worst, I just stop.  Still, can you imagine it boys?  My long luscious legs getting nice big quads, and my butt growing bigger?  My toned arms developing sexy pythons of power?  I'd probably have to start wearing more revealing clothing around the house once my back got all nice and ripped up."

Howie and Milo were practically drooling.

Diana giggled again, "I think that settles it.  It might be a little strange with the women of the household being taller and more muscular, but I think that things will work out for the best.  Don't you agree?"

Howie gave an enthusiastic reply while Milo cowered backwards, and Athena gave a knowing smirk.

That conversation marked another seemingly mundane event that would change Milo's life forever.


(What will happen next?!  How will Diana's body react to weight training?  Why is Athena developing so quickly?  Will Milo resort to trying to use magic to change things?

All this and more in the full version of The Trouble With Magic Chapter 2!

Make sure you're pledged before the 28th of February to receive the full thing!  You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login )

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Preview:
Mother Knows Best Rebirth - Chapter 6
by MagnusMagneto
(You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login)
Special thanks to Ritualist and Detritus

(This is a preview of my upcoming Patreon story, Mother Knows Best Rebirth Chapter 6!  If you want to receive the full story and support me with writing so much, make sure you're pledged before the evening of February 29th!  You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login


This is approximately 30-40% of the full story - tons of content to enjoy even if you aren't interested/able to support me!))


(As with all of my series, I'll include a recap here.  Don't be intimidated by the length of the series – with some simple reading comprehension, this preview, and maybe glancing at the past previews, anyone can easily jump right in! =)   )

The Story so Far:

Tara, aged 35, and her son Cory, aged 17, were spending the summer at an unoccupied vacation home owned by Terry, Tara's brother.  Cory initially stayed inside his room all day, only playing video games.  Upset with the direction of things, and with her life in general, Tara decided to use the time away from home to get into shape.  She quickly found that her body reacted splendidly to any amount of training.  Inspired, she tried to encourage Cory to join her in getting fit.

Cory refused, and went so far as to insult his mother and challenge her to a physical competition after five weeks.  The idea being, that even if Tara had five weeks to train, she still wouldn't be stronger, faster, or fitter than Cory.

Five weeks came, and Tara pushed herself to the limit.  She ended up growing far faster than she imagined, gaining dozens of pounds of muscle, and even inches of height.  When the competition came, she effortlessly dominated, and quickly began changing her son's life for the better.

After some initial rough patches, Cory began to take his mother's lessons to heart, and their relationship grew stronger than ever.  During all of this, Tara continued to gain muscle, strength, intelligence, skills and even height at a supernatural rate.

Two months into their vacation together, Terry and his family came to visit.  This included: Terry's model-like wife, Estella; his eldest son, the plump Barry; his adopted daughter, the 18 year old Kiko; and his youngest son, the 10 year old Harry. 

Tara, who was now standing over 6 feet tall at nearly 400 pounds of pure muscle, thoroughly frightened her brother with her presence alone.  The rest of the family reacted in different ways, with Estella and Harry thoroughly enjoying her muscles; Barry strongly disapproving; and Kiko outwardly displaying mostly apathy.

In the previous chapter, it was revealed that Estella had developed a rather toned and impressive body, while Kiko had gained quite a bit of muscle mass herself.  Kiko in particular had trained with various martial arts masters, quickly gaining everything there was to learn from them with unprecedented speed.  The young woman lamented her muscular form, feeling that it was unfeminine, and cursing the fact that her body seemed to constantly gain muscle.



(In the full version, there will be a lengthy conversation between Tara and Terry at the beginning.  I felt that it would be in the best interest of the preview to skip to the females and muscles.  There will be plenty more femmuscle after this in the full version as well!)




2.) The Next Morning

Kiko awoke at the crack of dawn, like she always did.  It seemed like it was impossible for her body to sleep in.  This didn't really bother Kiko, though it did further remove her from her peers who were always complaining that they could never get all the rest they required.  Kiko never really understood this, for as long as she could remember, she was always full of energy, always ready to go; even if her quiet, outward apathy spoke otherwise.

The young woman dropped onto her feet from the bed, and trudged over to the bathroom.  She had slept nude like she normally did.  As her eyes met the reflection of the bathroom's full-length mirror, Kiko shuddered.  There was no denying it, it had happened again: her muscles looked slightly bigger.

Truthfully, most would scratch their head at why Kiko was ashamed of her body.  She was strong, supple, and powerful, with next to zero body-fat aside from her pert breasts.  Kiko had the kind of body that most women spent hours each week training and dieting to try and maintain.  She could have entered a fitness competition and wiped the floor with her weight and age class; yet, unlike most extremely fit girls, Kiko constantly hid her form underneath baggy clothing.

Kiko sheepishly flexed her right bicep, the naturally tanned flesh jumped to life, and a formidable muscle erupted on demand.  She squinted her eyes to better scrutinize the muscle.  "Yup... it's bigger..." she pumped it a few times, causing it to bulge out slightly further, "And badder." Kiko sighed, referring to the myriad details of definition, split peaks, and choice veins constantly feeding nutrition to the limb.

She retreated into the room, rummaged through her travel-bag, and retrieved a measuring tape.  Carefully, Kiko brought the tape around her arm, flexed, and measured the result:  "Fuck.  It's over fourteen now." She sighed even more loudly before tossing the tape across the room and collapsing onto her bed.

Kiko had been meticulously sedentary the entire summer.  Things seemed to be going well, she had only gained a couple of pounds of muscle at most over the course of the past two months.  This one tiny spurt of activity however had put a kink in everything.  Kiko cursed herself for being careless. 

After grumbling for a few minutes, Kiko finally got off of the bed.  Upon doing so, her midsection flexed, and she noticed that her bottom two abdominals were fully visible in the process.  Kiko glanced down, carefully tensing them, and let out a sigh of aggravation at the discovery that she now had a legitimate six-pack whenever she flexed.

Kiko proceeded to put on her clothing for the day: bra, panties, sweat pants, a t-shirt, and a sweat-shirt.  She shuffled out into the living room, where she found Tara holding a highly advanced yoga pose in seemingly deep meditation.

To behold Tara in the morning light was awe-inspiring.  She was simultaneously brimming with untold power and deep serenity.  Tara's breathes were deep and deliberate, absorbing the very life-force and invisible chi of the air around her; Kiko could recognize her meditation techniques from her time training under various martial arts masters.  Truth was, Kiko could theoretically meditate just as deeply, she simply never saw the point in doing so.

Kiko stared at Tara's heaving pecs, along with the natural ebb and flow of her traps and shoulders.  She began to wonder how Tara became this powerful.  The smaller girl had always feared building muscle, as she viewed as masculine and ugly, but here, witnessing Tara with more muscle than she thought was possible for a female, she felt anything but disgust.  Wonder, awe, respect, admiration, and perhaps a deep subconscious lust: these were the things that Kiko truly felt.  Of course, as a fairly angst-ridden teenager, she would never truly admit it.

"Morning Kiko." Tara greeted without opening her eyes at all.

"Good morning Aunt Tara.  How did you know that it was me?  I didn't see you open your eyes." Kiko replied.

Tara shook her head.  "There was no need to open my eyes.  I could tell from the sound of your footsteps.  Don't take this the wrong way, but you have nice, strong legs that give you a distinctive and powerful sound of your own."

Kiko blushed; Tara sensed even that.  The young woman responded, "Dumb things keep growing.  I think they got bigger since yesterday."

Her eyes still shut, Tara cocked a brow, "You may be right.  Your steps are slightly louder.  What would have caused a growth spurt like that?"

Kiko shrugged; once again, Tara sensed it. "It seems that any amount of activity makes me get stronger.  Yesterday... I had a tiny wrestling match with Cory, swam a bit, and played tug of war.  Definitely enough to make these goddamn muscles grow."

This statement intrigued Tara.  She had undergone supernatural growth of her own, but it was only thanks to extreme effort and ample nutrition.  Tara theorized that she had some kind of genetic mutation, and wondered if perhaps Kiko did too.

"Your muscles grow with that little stimulation?" Tara inquired.

Kiko sighed once more, "Yup.  It's pretty obnoxious.  Even if I don't do anything they seem to get bigger.  Like all summer, I just sat around in my room, and I still packed on some pounds – muscle pounds."

Tara couldn't help but find the similarities and differences between Cory and Kiko to be amusing.

"You know Kiko, to the vast majority of people that would be considered a huge blessing.  Some individuals go to dangerous lengths to improve themselves, resorting to drugs that can shorten their lifespans."

"Did you..."

"No." Tara's voice was simultaneously firm and warm.

"Right, sorry.  It's just..."

"It's cool.  I get it.  I'll be honest with you Kiko, I don't fully understand my own transformation.  That said, I know from my own experience that what you have is truly a gift."

"Uhh.  Right."

"What are you so afraid of anyway?"  Truthfully, Tara already knew the answer – she just wanted to see what Kiko would say.

Kiko sighed yet again.  "It's... kind of embarrassing..."

"Let me guess.  You're afraid that guys won't like your muscles?"

Another sigh.  "Yes.  How did you know?"

Tara laughed, finally opening up her eyes.  "I was your age once.  Wanna know the truth?  After I started working out, I got more admirers than ever."

"I guess I can see that..."

"Well, your mother is pretty ripped, isn't she?" Tara offered, still maintaining the difficult position with no apparent expenditure of effort.  "She's pretty hot, right?"

"She isn't my mother." Kiko curtly replied.

"Kiko." Tara started, "If she raised you, she's your mother.  Sorry if you don't want to hear it, but that's the truth."

Kiko sighed once more, "Whatever.  Anyways, yeah, I guess she's pretty hot."

"Right, and she's clearly fairly ripped.  So what're you scared of?"

Kiko shrugged, "I dunno, I mean, sure, she's toned... but she's not like... buff.  You know?"

Tara nodded before shifting to another difficult position, "Sure.  Well, how about me then?"

"What about you?"

"Oh, you know.  What do you think about my appearance?  Good?  Bad?  Sexy? Gross?  You can be honest.  I may be immensely strong, but I don't bite." Tara giggled.

"You..."  Kiko took a breath, "You're pretty smoking hot.  Yeah.  Kind of surprising honestly.  You're bigger than those roid girls, but like... still really... sexy."

Tara couldn't help but laugh a bit – it was fun to indulge every now and then, "That's because I didn't take roids silly.  If you worked out with me, you wouldn't either.  Instead, you'd be brimming with self-confidence.   You should want to develop and foster your gift.  Reach your full potential.  I'll help if you'd like, I'm pretty good at this stuff."  Tara smiled warmly.

Kiko absentmindedly rubbed her right arm with her left one. "I'll... I'll think about it."  She conceded before leaving the room.

Tara smirked, satisfied; she knew that Kiko would come around soon enough.


3.) Meanwhile...

Estella, wearing little more than an extremely tight, short-sleeved t-shirt, and panties, made her way into the kitchen.  Cory was already cooking breakfast.  The supermodel sauntered over, and without warning, wrapped her arms around Cory from behind.

"Morning favorite nephew!" she cheerfully exclaimed, giving Cory a loving squeeze.

Cory's face turned beet-red.  The combination of Estella's incredible scent; her perfectly toned flesh pressing against him; her warmth; and, of course, her breasts, was fairly overwhelming.

"Haha, you've grown a bit since we last met, but I'm still taller than you by a couple of inches!" Estella teased.

"It seems like I'm probably going to be this height, unless I have one of those rare adult growth spurts.  Basing off of my mother, well, before all this, and what I've heard about my dad, I think I'm five foot eleven for life."  Cory replied.  He wasn't really upset about it all things considered.  "Wait a minute, I thought you were only six feet tall?"

"Shhh... that's my secret.  My real height's a mystery.  It's a bit above six though!  Don't want the men in my life to get too insecure, ya know?"  Estella giggled.

Cory could feel her entire body shaking slightly whenever she did that.  "Y-yeah..."

She got up on her tip toes, her calves jutting out, and playfully placed her chin on top of Cory's head.  "Wouldn't that be fun though?  An adult growth spurt like you were talking about?  I'd loooove to gain some more inches!"

"Yeah, I guess.  I mean, I'm already techinically a little above average for a guy, so it's no biggie."

"I was talking about for ME silly!" Estella squealed, "You're fine as you are."

"But... you were just talking about how you keep your true height a secret?  Why would you want to be taller?"

"Oh HUSH you!" Estella laughed, "You don't really understand women, huh?  Anyways, wouldn't it be super-hot if my legs were even loooonger?"  Suddenly her breath lowered, "Did you know, that according to most of the statistics I've seen, I'm already in the top one percent of height for a female?  Wouldn't it be sooo cool if your auntie was in an even higher bracket?"

Cory quivered a bit, Estella had been hugging him the entire time, and it was frankly a bit overwhelming.

"Y-yeah." He said, tactically escaping from her embrace.   Cory then moved over to the food he was preparing, which had finished, and offered to fix Estella a plate, which she gladly accepted.

A moment later, she was seated and eating.  "I have to say Cory, this breakfast is just deeelightful!" Estella cheerfully exclaimed, joyously shoving a forkful of eggs into her mouth.  The muscles in her arm, shoulder, and backed all danced together to perform the action.  They weren't as impressive as Tara's or even Kiko's, but Cory had to admit that Estella was in amazing shape.

"Th-thanks Aunt Estella."  Cory couldn't help but act somewhat nervous around such a beautiful woman.

"Aww, come on Cory, you don't have to put a title like aunt in front of my name every time.  Loosen up, just call me Estella, or even Stella.  'Kay?"

"R-right, aunt, I mean, uh, Stella."  Cory managed to get out.

Estella giggled.  Truth was, she craved and loved attention, especially from men.  Watching Cory sputter around and fawn over her was a fantastic way to start the day.  Cory may have been her nephew, but he was practically an adult, and they shared no common blood.

"Boy, I have to say that you and your mother sure have transformed quite a bit since I last saw ya!"  She said, continuing the conversation.

"Yeah.  Well, I don't think I have really."  Cory replied.

"Sure you have!  You're becoming more and more of a man.  A handsome one at that!  There's something else different about you too.  Your personality I guess.  You're a lot nicer, happier, and a great cook!  Once you get back at school, if the girls find out about that, you'll be beating them off with a stick!"  She giggled again.

Cory blushed.  He hadn't expected a compliment on his appearance from someone like her.

"Well, thanks.  Anyways, yeah, mom sure has changed... a lot."

"How do you feel about it?  Her transformation?  You can be honest, I won't squeal!" She giggled again.

Cory shrugged, "At first I was against it quite a bit and hated it, but, I've come around.  It's only right that I support her like she's supported me over the years.  It'd be pretty selfish for me to not want her to achieve her full potential, even if that potential is somewhat terrifying to really think about." He laughed a bit.

"Awww, I'm so glad to hear you've adopted a positive mindset like that!  If only I could get my boys to follow suit... Well, Harry's already got a good head on his shoulders, but the other two..." Estella sighed.

"Speaking of which, where are they?"

"The boys always sleep in.  Thank goodness too.  I wouldn't be able to do my morning routine and clear my mind if they were up and about.  Harry, bless his little heart, just can't stop hanging off of me.  Barry is always moaning about something, and Terry... Well, let's just say your uncle can be a bit difficult!" Estella characteristically giggled.

They continued to eat their breakfast, making little more than normal small-talk.


4.)

After finishing her breakfast, Estella made her way down to the house's basement gym while Cory cleaned up.  She found Tara hard at work, pumping her outrageous muscles to new heights.

"Oooooh, looks like I found you hard at work in the iron temple!" Estella greeted with a giggle.

Tara finished her current exercise, uttering feminine grunts with each repetition.  After completing the set she replied, "Yeah.  What's up Estella?"

Estella took a few delicate strides towards Tara before answering: "Oh, nothing much.  Thought I'd pop in and say hi while we had a chance to be together one on one."

There was something strange about Estella's vocal inflection and body language.  Tara considered it for a few moments, and eventually concluded that... Estella was going to initiate flirtation with her?  Intrigued, and somewhat unsure of her own analysis, Tara decided to probe the other woman and see where things went.

"You say that, but are you sure you didn't want to get a better look?" Tara teased, wiping down the bench she had just used.

"Ooo, whatever are you talking about Tara?  A better look at what exactly?"  Estella drew closer.

"Maybe... these?" Tara performed a double bicep flex, her unfathomable muscles rising to life.  They were huge, ripped, striated, and perfectly proportioned.  There were few human beings on the planet with larger arms than Tara, but none of them were as well-conditioned.

Estella reached over and grabbed onto Tara's right bicep, squeezing and kneading it futilely, her long slender fingers contrasting with the tremendous ball of power.  "Mmm... maybe."  There was a palpably growing sexual tension coming from Estella.  Tara had never really humored the idea of acting physically with a woman like her.  The truth was, in the past, Tara was bitter and envious of Estella, always jealous of her height and natural beauty.  Today however, it was Estella who was looking up to her, and Tara's mind began to amuse entirely new fantasies.

The blonde supermodel went so far as to draw in close and kiss Tara's luscious limb.  "You're such a sexy stud!  Hotter than any guy I've met, and trust me babe, I've met the hottest guys in the world." Estella complimented, giggling again.

Nearly any man (and many women) in the world would have effectively melted at this point, but Tara wouldn't fall for Estella's wile. 

"Trust me Estella, I know better than anyone else what a blend of beauty and power I represent." Tara generally tried to be humble, but in this situation she knew that it was most advantageous to be boastful.

"Mmm... of course you do..." Estella brought her hands down to Tara's thick, pulsing abs, rubbing furiously against them.  "Plus, you're clearly extremely knowledgeable about the female body in more ways than one..."

"Oh yeah?  In what kind of ways are you thinking of?" Tara asked, playing dumb.

Estella decided it was time to reverse things a bit on her end, to keep Tara somewhat on her toes, "Well, I'm sure you'd be a hell of a personal trainer.  I wouldn't mind ditching the 'toned' look and following you down the path to, what is it the boys say, 'the road to gains', or something like that?" she laughed.

"You sure about that?  The only training I know how to do is the path to pure muscle power."  Tara internally winced a bit, that last part was somewhat awkward.  Despite all of her acquired knowledge about dealing with people, she still hadn't had that much practice – especially not in a somewhat sexually charged situation like this.

Fortunately, Estella loved cheesiness, and played along, "Ooo babe, you know I LOVE power.  Why do you think I married Terry?  I have a real good eye for knowing who's going places.  That said... I think it's high time I took some of that into my own hands.  Built up my own dynasty, and I think that starts with beefing up my bod, you know?"

"What about Terry?  He'll surely hate that." 

"Fuck Terry." Estella let out a sigh of aggravation. 

"You sure you want to do that?"  Tara giggled.

Estella rolled her eyes, "You know what I mean Tara.  I'm sure anyone with half a brain can figure out that our marriage is pretty much just for show at this point.  Can't rock the boat too much with all of the kids still in school."

"And so much money at stake.  It'd be quite messy considering your collective net worth.  I can only imagine the court-case if you two ever did split up."

Estella cleared her throat, "I...  Yes.  That is also true." 

Before their conversation (and potential flirtation) could go any further, Cory suddenly came into the room.  Tara sensed this, and was able to immediately halt and redirect the flow of conversation.  "Hey Cory, here for your workout of the day?" Tara asked warmly.

"Yeah, I am.  H-hey Aunt Estella..."  The young man was clearly taken off-guard by the presence of the supermodel.

Tara decided to preempt the usual bumbling introduction by getting to the point: "Your aunt is going to be joining us in the gym.  She claims she wants to build big muscles like me.  We'll see if she has the discipline and drive to stay on that course though."

Estella giggled, "What do you think Cory?  Would nice big biceps, thick quads, and bulging abs suit me?"

Cory stared, somewhat dumbfounded.

Estella continued, "Well?"

"Oh, sorry." Cory shook himself to. "Yeah, I mean, I'm sure you'd look great with big muscles."  He admitted.

"Alright then, let's pump some iron!  Tara, will you show me the ropes?"

Tara shrugged, "I don't think I really have a choice either way, now do I?" she laughed warmly.



((What will happen next?  Will Estella follow Tara down the 'path of iron'?  How will Tara handle Terry and Barry?  What about Kiko?  All this and more in the full version of Mother Knows Best Rebirth Chapter 6!

If you want to receive the full story and support me with writing so much, make sure you're pledged before the evening of February 29th!  You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ))

[magnusmagneto]

Preview:
PowerCore - Chapter 3
By MagnusMagneto

(This is a preview of my upcoming Patreon story: PowerCore Chapter 3!   This is a huge chunk with a ton of FMG in it, so even if you can't/don't want to support me in writing so much, I hope you still enjoy it!

This is only the first 30-40% of the story.  To receive the full thing, make sure you're pledged at the $4+ level to my Patreon: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login before the evening of March 29th!)

[I use some font effects in this story that can't really be translated here, particularly to denote when a character using telepathy.  If you find yourself getting confused, check out the PDF version of the story here:  http://*****/d9wk384 ]

Chapter 3

The Story So Far: 
Kristi was a typical 16 year old high school girl, who never seemed to be rewarded for the work she put into things.  One day, after a harrowing experience in the school's gym with Christine, a popular young woman who excelled at everything she put minimal effort into, Kristi was inducted into the mysterious PowerCore: a metaphysical entity that grants tremendous superhuman abilities to individuals called 'Core Conduits'.  These Conduits, capable of channeling more and more energy from the PowerCore into themselves, comprise a council of empowered beings simply called The Core.

While many members of The Core are morally good individuals who are well-regarded by the public for helping humanity, some are selfish, and care little about unpowered people in general.  One such selfish individual is Balthezar, one of the eldest members of The Core, a tremendously powerful Conduit who cares only about witnessing the acquisition of power.  Fortunately, Kristi was shown the ropes by the fiery powerhouse Edana (superhero name: Firebird), and her on-and-off lover, Carlos.  Edana is a rising star who seems to be constantly growing in power, while Carlos is a reluctant former hero who has been weakened significantly due to his apathy.

This leads to a final crucial piece of the story: those who thirst for power, push their abilities to the limit, and demand more strength, will be randomly granted it by the PowerCore.  Kristi, after a pep-talk from Carlos telling her just how much potential she had, discovered the extent of how much power she could force into herself as she outstripped Edana in terms of both physical strength and metaphysical capability of creating elements.  Newly emboldened by her success, Kristi seeks the mentorship of Darcia, an elite member of The Core who specializes in empowering one's mind and soul. 


1.) Edana's Story

Edana was distraught.  While she had supported and encouraged Kristi to become as powerful as possible, it stung that the extremely recent inductee had managed to outstrip her so thoroughly. 


"Spill it." She ordered, brawny hands on her hips.  Edana stood at roughly six and a half feet of height, and possessed arms that were so thick they were in the mid-20s of circumference.  Her hair, like her hero namesake, was blazing red in color, and her skin radiated her inner energy.

"Spill... what?"  Carlos replied.  "Honestly, why even start the conversation that way?  You know that it's just forcing me to ask you about what you're talking about."

Edana rolled her eyes, "Alright, let's get to it.  What did you tell Kristi?"

Carlos raised a brow, "What do you mean by that?"

Edana's gaze narrowed, "You know perfectly well what I mean by that.  You told her... something.  What was it?"

"Edana, I've told Kristi many things.  What specifically are you referring to?"

Edana was growing visibly agitated, "Stop playing games Carlos!  What did you TELL that girl?!"

Despite Edana's raised voice, Carlos still genuinely had no idea what she was referring to.  "I... really have no idea what you're going on about."

While Edana was generally a good person, when she became angry, she oftentimes had difficulty thinking straight.  This was one of those times, and instead of humoring the idea that perhaps Carlos really didn't know what specific exchange of dialogue she was referring to, Edana presumed that Carlos was simply trying to mock her and be difficult.

Edana decided to take things into her own hands.  While she wasn't thoroughly trained in the ways of Mind and Spirit, she had enough of an introduction to understand the basics.  Carlos was so weak at this point that his abilities weren't far removed from those of a regular human beings, and with enough application of mental force...  She grabbed onto him, wrapping her brawny limbs around him to ensure he couldn't escape while she performed what was to come.

"What... what are you doing!?"  Carlos tried to escape, but Edana possessed tens, if not hundreds times as much strength as he did.

"Since you won't tell me... I'm just going to find the information I want!"  She declared.

"Are you... you can't!  Literally, I know that you aren't able to do that!"

"Maybe not, but I will be soon!"  Edana shouted, focusing on forcing the PowerCore to strengthen her mind.  "Mmm..." she purred, "I don't know why, but I'm able to tap into the PowerCore far more easily than I ever could before.  The raw power of my mind is increasing by the moment..."

In fact, I don't know why I'm bothering to speak anymore.  Edana telepathically projected.  Now then, let's figure out how to prod around your brain.  I'm sure that if I make my mind strong enough, I can just mentally beat you into submission to learn what I want!

Edana brought her forehead down and placed it onto Carlos's; she recalled the basic Mind lesson explaining that closing the physical distance between two entities makes it easier for them to mentally influence one another.

E-Edana!  This is ridiculous, why are you mmfbl-dklfjlj Carlos started to respond, but he found himself muffled somehow; he couldn't even mentally speak.

Quiet you!  Ahaha, that's awesome, my mind is so much more powerful than yours that I can just silence you!  Actually, go ahead and keep resisting, the more you squirm and struggle, the stronger my mind gets!  Edana's foul mood was quickly turning around as she relished in the easy acquisition of new power.

Carlos was filled with a sensation he had only experienced a few times before, and those were when other members of The Core had entered his mind.  He could sense the very being of Edana within him, as if her presence itself had entered his body.  She was thoroughly overwhelming him, and all Carlos could think about was Edana, and how she was rifling through his mind; it was simultaneously arousing and terrifying.

Sca-roused are we?  Edana's voice filled his thoughts with another one of his playful giggles.  I have to admit, I do love that about you Carlos.  The stronger I become, the more powerful I am, the both I simultaneously turn you on and terrify you.  Now then, it seems that I've gained access to your surface level thoughts and emotions... 

Carlos grabbed onto her huge, bulging arms, futilely digging his own super-strength powered fingers into them, failing to even remotely dent her biceps.

That's right, feel my arms.  Those big, powerful, beefy arms.  Those arms that you're going to help me make even bigger once I get to the bottom of this!  Now, open up dammit, let me in on your memories!  Edana's voice rang out inside Carlos's mind.

Carlos refused, and he tried to construct mental barriers against the onslaught of Edana's mental presence. 

So that's how it is?  No problem, I'll just...  Edana then mentally grunted, which surprised Carlos, Mmmm, yeah!  That's it...  Good boy Carlos, try to resist even more!  Do it!

Unsure of what else he could do, Carlos complied, trying his hardest to mentally ward off Edana.  The metaphysical presence he had imagined of her within his mind seemed to be growing brighter and larger by the moment.

"You're... you're..." Carlos said out loud in the physical realm.  It was difficult to focus on both warding Edana off and speaking out loud.  He felt it was the only option he had to communicate however, as Edana seemed content to keep him mentally squelched. 

I'm what? 

"You're... g-getting bigger! And harder!"

Edana mentally snickered as she recalled once saying something similar to Carlos once – under extremely different circumstances.  Well, yeah, the more you resist, the stronger my mind gets, so the bigger the projection of my willpower appears.

"No, I mean... your muscles!"

Edana released her grasp and floated backward, away from Carlos.  "You're right C... I feel great right now!  Let's take advantage of this and..."  she took as deep a breath as possible, her powerful lungs pulling so much air into their fold that even from ten feet away Carlos could feel the air passing by him.  A moment later, Edana let out a ferocious feminine roar, and her entire body proceeded to grow right in front of Carlos's eyes.  At least two inches of sheer muscle erupted on her already humongous arms, and the rest of her body grew in proportion.  Edana's general stature similarly increased, as she gained an inch of height on her already impressive frame.

Now then-" where were we?  Edana's voice filled Carlos's mind again. 

What?!  What now!?

It wasn't just my body that got a boost from that power up.  My mind's running sharper than ever!  Let's try probing you from a distance; that's more difficult you know; which will then proceed to give me even more resistance for even more power gain!

Hey!

Mmm, there we are again, it's nice and challenging; challenging enough to, mmmm,  YES!  More power flowing into me!

Carlos tried to mount a mental defense against Edana, but it was a task proving more and more difficult by the moment.  He started to physically float backward away from her in an attempt to increase the distance, thus making it more challenging for her to mentally connect with him.

Edana's focus shifted, and suddenly Carlos felt himself restrained in place.  "Wh-what is going on!?"  he shouted out loud.

Applying a tiny bit of Spirit in tandem with this tremendous Mind power I'm acquiring.  Essentially, I'm using telekinesis to keep you still.  Now, stop struggling; or, actually, feel free to, the more I work out my noggin, the stronger it gets! 

"This... isn't right!"  Carlos yelled out.

Oh HUSH!  This time Edana applied just enough pressure physically through telekinesis to silence Carlos.

Carlos resorted to using his mental voice, hoping that Edana didn't squelch that again, this isn't okay Edana!  I don't know what you want, really!

Look buddy, I'm not going to hurt you.  I just need to find out EXACTLY what you told Kristi that made her so fuckin' strong.  Once I learn that, I'll get out of your mind.  Don't worry, I don't want to download your wank-fantasies or whatever you think I'm going to do.

THAT'S what you're referring to?  Why didn't you just say so!? 

Carlos suddenly felt a strange burning sensation in his mind.  He realized that it was Edana.  She was so angry, so infuriated, that he could feel her emotions emanating from her presence within his mind.  Worse, it was growing stronger. 

Alright, alright.  Look.  If I just... mentally guide you to what you're looking for, do you promise to just back off?  This is really... I really don't like this.  Real talk.

Edana mentally sighed.  Well, I AM having a lot of fun... but, yes.  Guide me to the memories I'm looking for, and I promise I'll leave.

Carlos didn't have much of a choice, he simply had to hope that Edana upheld her end of the bargain.  He wasn't quite sure how to actually show Edana the memories she requested...  he just focused on bringing them to the surface level, and tried to calm himself down and open himself up to her as much as possible...

There we go!  Edana's voice rang.  Hmmm... I see...  Carlos!  You need to stop thinking these things about Kristi!  Well, I guess she IS pretty hot with that body... but, after I figure this out, I'll blow her away!  Hmmm...  Uhhh...

"Wait... that's... IT!?"  Edana yelled out loud.

"What do you mean!?"

"That's all you said?  That's she's special and has incredible potential!?  Sure, I'm a little pissed that you told her that she has more potential than me, but, damn Carlos, I could've told her she has potential like that too." 

"R-right...  So...  What was the point of all this again?"  Carlos scratched his head, relieved that Edana seemed to finally be calming down somewhat. 

"The point was for me to find out what you told Kristi that allowed her to power up so much!"  Edana placed her hands on her hips, fire casually coalescing around her form.

"Why didn't you just say so!?  I would've told you!"  Carlos shouted.

Edana rolled her eyes, "Yeah right." She sighed.  "Anyways, what do you think?"

"What do I think about what!?"

"About ME!  And my ability to gain power!"

"Uhhh..."

"What's MY potential, huh?" 

Carlos gulped.  What was he going to say?  Truthfully, he felt like Kristi had more potential than she did, but at the same time, Edana was constantly gaining strength.  Over the course of today alone she had more than doubled her power, probably tripled or quadrupled it when taking her Mind and Spirit improvements into account.

"WELL!?" Edana pressed.

Carlos finally relented, "You clearly have some pretty immense potential, yeah."

"JUST immense?  Now that you've witnessed what my mind can become firsthand, what do you think about, hmmm... maybe admitting that I have even more potential than Kristi!?"

"Umm... well... I dunno..." Carlos stammered.

Edana floated over towards him and gently placed a hand on his throbbing, aroused member.  "I know you're excited about all of this.  I've been inside your mind.  The thought of women becoming more and more powerful thrills you beyond all belief.  I suppose I can forgive you for thinking that Kristi had more potential, but... perhaps you should consider a rebuttal.  I'm older, more experienced, I know my way around power.  So..."  Edana pressed her ample bosom into Carlos's face, "Wouldn't you agree that, provided I have the necessary motivation and mindset, I should be able to obtain far more power than Kristi?"

"W-well... Kristi is really, really strong considering how new she is..."

"Of course Kristi is.  She's something quite special, and I'm sure that in the future she'll be a very formidable hero.  But right now Carlos... don't you think that I probably have a lot more potential?"

"S-sure..."

"That's right..." Edana concentrated on the metaphysical flow of the PowerCore, concentrated on taking as much energy as she could into her fold.  "Mmmm..." she groaned with ecstasy, "There it is Carlos...  the PowerCore flowing into me!"  She started growing once more.

"Tell me Carlos..."  Edana started,  "Just HOW much potential do I have?"

"A... a lot?"

"No, no, HOW MUCH?  Like, in relation to say, Kristi?"

"W-way more..."

"How much more!?"

Carlos didn't really believe what he was saying, but wanted to keep Edana placated, "Uhh...  ten times?  A hundred times?  Infinite?  She needs to... get older... so yeah."

"Good enough!" 

All Carlos could do was watch and see just how much power his ex-girlfriend could obtain in one session now that she believed she could take as much as she wanted.


2.)  Meanwhile, at PowerCore Citadel

Kristi had arrived at The Citadel in record speed.  Her flight capabilities were so great she had to be mindful of precisely when she allowed her body to produce each sonic boom during its acceleration for fear of breaking anything.

She wanted to find Darcia to resume her Mind training, but utilizing the technique to find an individual's presence yielded no results.

"You'll find Darcia can be quite difficult to track down when she wants to be alone."  A deep, old, male voice came from behind Kristi.  "Unless you obtain a power far greater than her own of course..."

She turned around and was shocked to find that Balthezar was there the whole time.

"Whoa, hey, hi, when did you-"  She started,

"I teleported." He explained.

Kristi blinked a few times.  She hadn't been face to face with Balthezar since he teleported her to save that bus from falling off of a cliff on her first day.  When she first met him, despite her tall stature, Balthezar stood higher than him; and despite his age, his musculature was similar to that of a lightweight male bodybuilder.  Today however, Kristi entirely eclipsed him in both height and muscle mass; she stood half a head taller, and her upper half was easily 40% wider than his. 

"You've grown quite a bit since I saw you last.  Well done."  Balthezar stated calmly.  There wasn't a single trace of fear in his face despite the fact that such a recent inductee had seemingly completely outstripped him physically in a mere few days.

Kristi giggled a bit, "You like?"  she asked flexing a mammoth bicep; so much sheer feminine strength incarnated into physical form erupted that there was an audible rippling sound. 

"Not bad."

"Oh wait... check this out!"  Kristi spread her arms out, concentrated on absorbing more power, incurring another small growth spurt, gaining even more muscle in the process.  "Yeah!"

"A good start to be sure Kristi, but you must remain level-headed, at least for quite some time."

"What do you mean?  I'm already way stronger than Firebird, and she's like... the biggest Core Conduit I've seen!"

"Allow me to demonstrate my point.  Punch me in the stomach."  Balthezar ordered.

"Are... you sure?"  The teen asked, still incredulous about the request.

"Does that seem like something I'd lie about?" Balthazar replied, unamused with Kristi's hesitation.

"Well, alright..."  Kristi wound her arm back, gathered her strength, and unleashed a moderate-strength sucker punch right at Balthazar's abdomen.  A loud thud rang out, and Kristi retracted her hand "Ouch!" she yelled out, smattering her fingers.

The old man snickered, "Weren't you afraid of hurting me?"

Kristi's eyes were wide, "H-how?"

"Corporal condensing.  In layman's terms, I pack more power into my muscles.  Possessing a form as large as yours has its pros and cons; I find that for my needs maintaining this leaner physique is better.  Though, to give you an idea of what you could accomplish with some training..."  Suddenly every muscle on Balthezar's frame began quake, tremble, and grow right before Kristi's eyes.    A few moments later he was as large as her; a moment later, even larger; then suddenly he started to shrink down until he reached his original size.  "Understand?"

Kristi nodded.

Balthazar continued "I encourage you to consider the following three guidelines:  One, obtain as much power as you possibly can, as quickly as you can, before anyone--such as myself-- can stop you; two, learn everything you can from the mentors in your life before they realize you can surpass them.  If you were to show Darcia that you're stronger than her, she will no longer accommodate your growth; three, learn to be humble in your application of power, unless you are positive that the time to strike has come, at which point accomplish your goal with absolute dominance.

Or... don't follow those principles.  It's entirely your decision."

"Alright.  Thanks.  Hey, would you-" Kristi cut herself off as Balthezar had teleported away, vanishing right before her eyes.

At that moment, Kristi knew that once again she couldn't rest on her laurels.  It seemed that no matter how tremendous she became, there was always a 'bigger fish in the sea'.  Unlike earlier today however, Kristi had come to terms with this, and had learned how to turn it into motivation to improve further. 



(Will Kristi ever become the 'biggest fish' in the PowerCore Sea?  Just how powerful can Edana become?  Why are the girls gaining so much power so quickly?  What IS the PowerCore anyways?  Whatever happened to that Christine girl?

Some of these will be answered in the full version of the story!  Additionally, fans of feats of strength are in for a treat as Kristi reacts firsthand to try and protect as many citizens as she can in the midst of a full-scale city disaster!  Can she muster enough power to save everyone?

Find out in the full version of PowerCore Chapter 3!  Make sure you're pledged before the evening of March 29th!  You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login )

[magnusmagneto]

Preview:
In-Shape - Chapter 2
By MagnusMagneto

[Warning, some implied sexual content between consenting adults.  Full release may have some graphic content.  You have been forewarned!]

(This is a preview of my upcoming Patreon story: In-Shape Chapter 2!  Despite being only 30-40% of the full story, there's still a ton of great female muscle content here, so if you can't/don't want to support my writing endeavors, I hope you still enjoy it regardless!

To receive the full story, you must be pledged at the $4+ level to my Patreon before early afternoon on April 27th!  You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login )

The story so far:

Brody had just celebrated his 50th birthday.  Throughout his life, he had been blessed with a tall, strong body that required little to no maintenance.  In his middle-age however, it had started to fall apart, and Brody was no longer comfortable with looking at himself in the mirror.  Eager to turn this around, he started a workout plan.  After some modest initial results, his wife, Donna, aged 51, confronted him about her own body.  With some coercion, Brody finally admitted to Donna that he would like to see her improve herself as well.  Donna, a now-retired brilliant geneticist, cryptically warned her husband that her body was special.

When pushed for more information, Donna explained that when she was younger, she created an extremely powerful body for herself; if she had wanted to, she could have gone on to become a professional bodybuilder.  After some prodding, Brody admitted that he would actually like to see Donna with powerful muscles like that, although he still doubted his wife's warning.

Donna began training herself, and soon found tremendous results, just as she predicted.  Pound after pound of pure muscle appeared on her frame.  She became more naturally dominant in appearance, and her already powerful personality grew more assertive.  Despite these changes, Brody and Donna still deeply loved one another.  After ample prodding and teasing, it became more and more apparent that Brody truly enjoyed the concept of Donna becoming extremely powerful and dominant.

During her ascent, Donna began introducing more outlandish concepts in regards to her physique.  She posited a theory that her muscles compounded on themselves whenever they grew - meaning that instead of plateauing like most people, she would become even stronger at a faster rate over time.  She also explored other avenues of improving herself, such as deep meditation to strengthen the connection between her body and mind.

Chapter 1 ended with Donna having finally gotten 'back in shape', a form that was far more muscular than Brody.  It finished with Brody admitting that he would like to see Donna become stronger, smarter, more dominant, and if possible, even taller; and Donna eager to fulfill his wishes.


1.)  One Week After Chapter 1


Life with Donna had become intense for Brody.  Intense in a good way.  Donna's continued ascent meant that she became more and more energetic, and in turn, her sexual appetite continued to grow.  This meant that Brody had to step up his own game, pushing himself to both fulfill Donna's lust, and keep up with her in general.  A year ago, he never would have imagined that he'd be having sex two, three, four, sometimes even more times per day.  He thought back to his youth, and even during his skirt-chasing days of college, where as a handsome six foot tall man he easily won ladies over, he rarely had this many sessions in a single day.  Plus, he had to admit that despite their age, the quality of the intercourse was unlike anything he ever imagined was possible.

Brody's developing physique helped him keep pace with his wife during their love-making, and generally allowed for even more advanced techniques.  As Donna had predicted, his belly-fat had all but disappeared, and his body was generally well-toned and somewhat muscular.  Despite his progress, he still paled in comparison to Donna.  While his four-pack was admirable for a 50 year old man, better than college-aged men in fact, it still appeared weak next to the rippling, throbbing eight-pack Donna displayed; his naturally large arms were all but chiseled, yet they were smaller and less defined than his wife's; and their legs were barely comparable at all: Donna's were so much larger, thick, tighter, and more straited, that Brody's otherwise strong stems looked like chicken sticks when stacked up to Donna's.

Donna kept coming up with new and innovative ways to push their affectionately named 'cardio sessions' to the next level.  One of her recently invented maneuvers was to literally hold Brody in her arms, keeping him upright in the air as they went at it.  It looked fairly ridiculous as Brody was still an inch taller than Donna, and weighed a fair deal.  Despite the awkward logistics of the position, it was one of Brody's favorites.  It was difficult for him to fathom the sheer level of dominance that his wife held in it, yet during every moment, he felt entirely safe and in love with her.  Better yet, with each passing day, Brody could physically feel Donna growing stronger, and more able to control the ebb and flow of their love-making session.  He could also feel that this actually turned Donna herself on even more, as she clearly got off on wielding such tremendous power.

It was an upward cycle that continued to feed on itself, just as Donna had predicted.  Both Donna and Brody continued to become respectively more aroused from the developing situation, which pushed them even further to continue with the current trajectory.

-

One afternoon, after a particularly intense session, Brody lay in bed with Donna.  It was a rare moment of stillness and peace.  Donna was so full of energy, focus, and drive, that it was difficult to get her to stop for any extended period of time.  Brody realized that she actually took up more space than him on the bed, her upper half wider than his, and her bottom much larger overall; only her waist, hands, feet, and other features were smaller — otherwise, Donna was the larger between them.

Brody brought his hand over to the wide, thick, straited slabs of muscle beneath her ample bosom, and started tracing his finger between the ridges.  "It's strange Donna, but I've come to really like these muscles here." He explained, continuing to explore them.

"Huh.  You really like my pecs?"  Donna asked.  It was a somewhat rhetorical question; the truth was, she had already seen the way Brody reacted as he occasionally explored the thick, powerful muscles with his hands.

"Hmmm... Would it be weird if I do?"

Donna shook her head.  "Of course not.  Granted, I can't recall the last time, if ever, I heard a guy say 'damn bro, she's got some nice pecs' non-ironically... but hey, since when have you seen a woman up close and personal like me?"

Brody continued to trace his fingers along the groves of his wife's pectoral muscles.  It amazed him how deep, striated, and warm they were; yet still covered by remarkably soft skin.

Brody placed his head on Donna's chest and listened to her heart rate.  It was a slow, loud, deliberate thump that occurred with perfectly timed regularity.  He could feel the force of her heart alone bump against his cheek.

"Funny how your heart beats slower than mine."  Brody observed out loud.

"Of course.  Stronger heart, pumps more blood with each repetition, less beats required to circulate."  Donna explained.

"Yeah.  I know."  Brody continued listening to the deep thumping.  There was something calming about its rhythm and power.

"I can hear that your own heartrate is speeding up, guess someone even enjoys THAT aspect of my improvement, huh?" Donna asked with a warm laugh.

"Guess I can't hide anything from you, huh?  Well, I won't deny it.  I like what I like."  Brody admitted.

"Well, it will be even harder to hide anything if my mind continues improving at the rate it has been the past couple of weeks."  Donna added.

"What?"

"You heard me."

"How is that even possible though?" Brody wondered out loud.

"Honestly, I'm not so sure.  I suppose I am a fairly biased judge of this, so perhaps my assessment is off... but I swear, when I read scientific journals and works of literature, it's even easier than it was a few years ago.  It's like I can focus with extreme acuity, and my mind soaks up the information even faster.  When I reflect on things I recently read, I can recall it much more clearly, and create deeper inferences."  Donna explained matter-of-factly.

Brody merely stared, and wondered how true his wife's words were.  While he might rebel on a surface level, deep down, he hoped she was right.

2.)  Later that day, in the home gym.

Brody was watching his wife work out.  He had just finished his own session, but tired much more quickly than her.  Fortunately for Brody, Donna didn't seem to mind his comparative weakness, and made no attempt to belittle or demean him.  Instead, she seemed happy that he pushed himself to his limit, and offered some advice to perfect his technique that he took to heart.

Donna was performing bicep curls.  Brody sat nearby, watching as the muscle being worked swelled up from the effort.

"Your veins are so thick."  Brody observed, tracing his finger along the wide, blue object in question, snaking its way down Donna's bicep.  He glanced over at his own exposed arm for comparison.  "I've got some veins of my own, but damn honey, yours are just way bigger and badder."

"You enjoy them?" Donna asked with a smirk.

"I never really thought that my wife's bicep veins would be something I found alluring, but... hell, frig it - yeah, I do."  He admitted, continuing to play with it.

As Donna brought the dumbbell to the apex of its movement, her bicep swelled even further.  Brody watched with baited breath as his wife repeated this motion, and the prodigious limb grew to an even greater maximum size.

"Your muscles get so much bigger when you work out." He observed somewhat blankly.

"Well duh, so do yours."  Donna retorted with a snicker.

"I know that.  I mean, yours blow up way more than mine."

"You do have a point.  My pump is much stronger than yours, which helps illustrate the fundamental differences in our bodies.  Not to disparage yours, but rather to emphasize how outlandish mine is."

"I don't remember you getting this pumped up in the past.  It seems to be happening more as you build more muscle."  Brody noted.

"That's right babe, and the bigger the pump, the more power I gain."  Donna stated.

"You gain more power?"  Unintentionally, Brody was egging his wife on to go into one of her scientific spiels that he secretly enjoyed oh so much.

"Yup.  The size of the pump is proportionate to how much strength you gain.  Well, that's some bro-science at least.  Kind of fun to think about though."  Donna giggled.

"Can... can you elaborate?"

"I'd love to." Donna purred eager to showcase her intellect, "It's been said that the 'pump' creates space for new blood vessels and capillaries, pathways for new nutrients, to form and develop.  Of course, that is but a simpleton's explanation of the process, but it's a damn fun one to visualize.  Let's work through it, so we can maximize your fun, shall we?"  Donna asked rhetorically.

"Alright."

Donna continued, "Grab onto my blood-engorged bicep B."

Brody did as she ordered.

"For the sake of fun, let's pretend this is all scientifically true, so no questioning anything I've said before, or anything you may have read ok?"

Brody nodded.

Donna resumed, "You feel how my arm is even larger, warmer than usual?  How there's that pulsating sensation?"  she purred.

Brody gulped and nodded.

"Let's call that added size, heat, and energy the 'pump'."  Donna started, "Now, this pump, like I just said, lays the foundation for more growth.  Just envision it.  Imagine all manner of tiny little biological networks forming, taking shape within this added mass.  That's right, it's occurring right now as we speak."

Brody remained silent, enraptured with what was occuring.

"And remember my little compounding rule Brody.  For this thought experiment, it applies here too.  Can you tell me what that infers?"

"Compounding... you mean when said that you think your muscles grow faster the bigger they get?  As in, they compound onto themselves?"

"That's right babe.  Can your imagination think of what that would mean for my pump?"

"No... not really..."

"I'll spell it out for you then.  Let's say that every pump I get helps build that network that makes my muscles so big, hard, and all-around superior, right?"

Brody nodded.

Donna continued, "So, following my compounding rule, the bigger my muscles are, the bigger the pump is.  Do you know what that means?"

Brody may not have been as intellectually gifted as Donna, but he was far from a simpleton, "It would mean that the bigger your muscles are, the more they grow from each pump, right?  A process that would feed on itself, kind of like a compounding investment with a fixed rate - that is to say, with each compounding period, there is more growth than the last."

"That's right dear." Donna grinned. 

"Wouldn't that mean that you just keep building muscle faster and faster?!"

"Mmmhmm.  Isn't that what you really want?"

Brody shuffled around a bit.  "Yes." He admitted.

"Perfect."  Donna said before grabbing onto him and bringing him in for a makeout session.

3.)  That evening, after dinner.

"So, I really didn't want to go down this path, but it seems like it's going to be inevitable."  Donna pre-empted the coming conversation.

Brody had only heard his wife talk this way a few times before, and it always resulted in him doing something he didn't really want to; though ultimately, after enough time had passed, admitting that Donna's plan was for the best.  Donna's plans were always for the best.

After knowing she captured her husband's attention, Donna continued, "My transformation is running along quite smoothly, but if I'm going to become everything you want me to, it's going to require more."

"More what?"

"More everything, resources and time mostly."

"What kind of resources exactly?"  Brody had a vague idea, but as with every step involving his wife's ascent, he secretly loved hearing her rants.

"Well, food is the most obvious one.  I'm going to need lots and lots of food to continue powering up this body.  Like I said, time is another one.  I'm spending too much time on activities that aren't directly related to me becoming stronger."

Brody gulped, "So... what exactly would I do?"

"I'm sure you already have an idea.  For starters, I need you to cook my meals.  I'm wasting far too much time on that.  Same goes for cleaning up the house, and whatever other frivolous maintenance things I end up doing - I'm sure you'll figure them out soon enough." Donna explained.

Brody let out a groan, "Really?  Why should I do those things anyways?"

"Why should I do them then?" Donna retorted.  "Besides, isn't this what you want?  To watch your wife turn into the most powerful, intelligence, sex-bomb of a goddess possible?"

Brody averted his gaze, "That's true, I do want that.  But seriously, why does it revolve around me cooking meals?"

"Think about the sheer amount of sustenence I need to develop my body Brody.  Thousands of the highest calories of the highest quality possible.  That means meal after meal has to be prepared.  This could all be done at the start of the week, or day by day; either way, multiple hours have to be spent on it."

"Okay, and?"

"And, that means every hour I spend doing that is another hour I'm not pumping up these guns!"  Donna flexed her biceps which rippled to their full size right in front of Brody's face.  "Plus, didn't you say earlier you wanted me to get smarter?  To increase my dominance in every possible way?  If I'm cooking, cleaning, or whatever, then I can't read.  I can't do any of the other things to improve myself either."

Brody sighed again.

"Don't you want me to become as amazing as I can be, and as quickly as possible?"  Donna added.

"I do."

"Alright, sounds like it's settled then."

Brody didn't respond, but Donna could infer from his body language that he had accepted his new fate.

"Oh come on, don't act all gloom and doom."  Donna brought her thick arms and draped them around Brody's shoulders.  "Just think about how your wife is going to turn into an absolute GODDESS!" she squealed before locking lips with her husband. 

Brody returned the passion, bringing his hands up to Donna's biceps, groping them.

"I think it's time for another cardio session." Donna stated huskily before literally lifting Brody off of the ground and carrying him to their bed, where they proceeded to do exactly that.

While he still wasn't quite thrilled about having to start cooking and cleaning around the house, Brody had to admit that if it meant an even more powerful Donna, and even more 'cardio sessions', it would be a trade-off he was willing to make!




(Just how powerful will Donna become now that she has more time to focus on training?  What other improvements will the couple come up with for Donna to pursue?  What other ways will Brody explore his wife's developing body, and how else will the couple mutually enjoy one another?

All this and more in the full version of In-Shape Chapter 2!  To receive this story, make sure you're pledged before early afternoon of April 29th! You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login )

[magnusmagneto]

Preview:
The Proteus Effect - Chapter 4
By MagnusMagneto
Original plot by and special thanks to Corssan1


(This is a preview of my upcoming story, The Proteus Effect Chapter 4!  This is a nice chunk of content that comprises the first 30-40% of the full chapter!  Fans of female muscle should definitely give it a read and enjoy.  If you'd like to support me writing so much and receive the full story, make sure you're pledged before the early afternoon of April 30th!   You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login  )


The Story So Far:

Eric, an 18 year old high-school senior with a secret penchant for muscular women, was invited to the closed alpha of his favorite life-simulation video game: Live-Sim.  During its one day testing period, he recreated all of the pertinent women of his life:  his 18 year step-sister, Selina; his step-mother and Selina's biological mother, Camille; his teacher, Julia; his 20 year old cheer-leading classmate he had a crush on, Chalsey; and his step-mother's very attractive older friend, Maya.

Inside the virtual world, Eric endowed each of the girls' avatars with a 'body builder' perk that gave the characters greater muscle-building potential, and a faster rate of improvement.  Additionally, Eric gave each of the women another powerful perk related to their personalities, along with a life-goal to further shape their personalities.  Once the game started up, Eric forced the female characters to become supremely muscular, and to all romance Eric's virtual self.  He assured himself that this was harmless fun, and none of the women were related to him by blood.

Over the next few weeks, changes started to occur in the women around him.  Eric couldn't help but notice that they were growing stronger, and much more muscular.  They were also, mostly, becoming far nicer to him.  Chalsey in particular found herself growing supremely strong and even intelligent, eventually causing her to break up with her boyfriend.  Julia became more and more dominant in the classroom, instilling a aura of benevolent superiority as her body continued to grow larger with each passing day.

By the end of Chapter 2, all five of the girls had developed extremely impressive muscular bodies.  Camille, with bulging 17 inch biceps, announced that she was going to enter a bodybuilding competition at the end of January; it was also revealed that Selina had been training her own body, with stupendous results to show for it, and would be similarly joining the same bodybuilding competition.  Chapter 3 covered this bodybuilding show, which resulted in Camille, her arms now close to 20 inches in circumference, winning the competition.  Selina put up impressive results, as did an entrant nobody expected: Julia.  The chapter ended with Selina even more determined to make herself as powerful as she possibly could.


1.)  One week after the end of Chapter 3.

As Eric came home from class, he noticed that parked outside his house was a brand new Ferrari, which looked quite out of place in the relatively modest suburban neighborhood.  It was a vehicle he had never seen before, and he wondered who it belonged to.  It was true that he had inadvertently turned both his step-mother and step-sister into ultra strong borderline superhuman specimens of unbridled vitality and femininity, but he didn't recall making either of them rich.

As Eric opened the door, he heard a familiar voice coming from the living room.  His stomach churned, and he felt a little queasy as he made his way inside.  Maybe he could bolt upstairs and hide away?  He could just play video games all day and hope that the guest would leave without caring to check in on him. 

Eric placed his foot onto the bottom step of the stairs, when he was suddenly overcome by a familiar sensation.  He abruptly felt emboldened, and an inner voice screamed at him that if there was attractive female muscle to ogle, then it was his duty to go and gawk at it.

Swallowing hard, he turned again and made his way into the living room.  He would finally have to come face to face with: Maya! 

He heard her voice more clearly, "Oh come on Camille, just let me help out a bit.  You don't want to be paying off your mortgage forever, do you?  Let me throw you a bone so you can maybe retire someday, wouldn't that be nice?  Say, how much IS your mortgage now anyways?"

Camille replied in a voice that was too low for Eric to hear.  He stopped right before the entryway, looming so he could eavesdrop on the conversation.

"Oh really?  That's it?" Maya let out a chuckle, "I made that much over the three!  It was a verrrry good three weeks, though, between you and me, I think I'm going to start making way more.  Waaaay more.  Mmmmph, I get kind of excited just thinking about all that sweet cash rolling in!" she laughed again.  "Seriously though Camille.  I don't want to be a bitch or anything.  Just let me pay off your mortgage.  No strings attached.  It'll be my way of thanking you for putting up with me all of these years."

"Maya..." Camille finally responded.  "You know I can't."

"Come onnnn, just roll with it babe!"

"Maya.  No."

"Really?" Maya sounded genuinely surprised.

"I have dignity Maya.  I'm frankly kind of offended that you even offered in the first place."

Eric was worried that this would heat up.  He recalled the social media picture of Maya he saw, which indicated she packed on a ton of muscle, but there was no way she was a match for Camille.  Eric needed to diffuse the situation before...  As he entered the room, he let out a gasp.

Maya was huge!  She was sitting nearby Camille, and appeared to be just as muscular as his step-mother, if not even more so!  She was wearing a dress unlike anything Eric had ever seen before; he figured that it must have been custom-made.  It was cut extremely short, revealing her long, stupendously thick legs, which were completely brimming with rippling muscle.  The garment also had windows cut out to showcase her rigid, washboard abdomen and huge cleavage; it was abundantly clear that Maya's ample bosom had not diminished in size whatsoever.

"Awww, hey there!  If it isn't my favorite best friend's step-son!" Maya called out.

The voice inside Eric that urged him to encounter Maya in the first place led him to offer a snappy retort, "What?  You have other best friends with step-sons?  Give me a list so I can make sure I remain the favorite!"  He grinned.

"My, my!  You've grown a bit since I last saw you."  Maya said, "Come on over here!"

Eric drew closer, and he was forced to drink in the splendor of the woman in front of him.  Maya was beautiful beyond compare.  She was entirely flawless from head to toe.  Well, Camille also was virtually flawless, but Maya had something else going for her; a kind of radiance that managed to eclipse even Camille, and even Chalsey for that matter.  Her brilliant blonde hair shined brighter than Chalsey's, and was styled much more elaborately.  Upon further examination, it became clear that Maya's muscles were actually larger than Camille's, though she had a thin veneer of feminine fluff around her form, as opposed to Camille's hyper-ripped look.

"Well, I supposed I should say that you grew in personality."  Maya added with a wink. 

Not so long ago Eric's knees would have buckled and he would have been rendered unable to respond to Maya.  Today however, the fire inside him was able to at least mount a response, "It looks like you did all the growing for me."  A bit cheesy, but self-aware, and perhaps even a bit... flirtatious.

Maya let out a wild giggle.  "For better or for worse, it looks like Camille here also stole some of your growth.  I hope you aren't too upset that instead of you having your last growth spurt, we packed on all of this MUSCLE!"

Eric remained in the zone and he escalated Camille's strange little game, "Well, I would be miffed, but let's be honest, those muscles look way better on you ladies than they ever would on me.  I think it was a worthy sacrifice."

Maya's wild giggling continued, and Camille found herself blushing a bit at Eric's straight-forwardness.

"Since when is Eric so much fun!  Love it!  So Eric, if you put it that way, I guess I'll have to keep hoarding all your growth so I can get even bigger and stronger!"  Maya winked before flexing her mammoth right bicep.  "I guess that Camille can still have a little bit too."

"I look forward to seeing your progress."  Eric replied.

"Mmm, that's right little Eric, drink in the splendor of Mega Maya!" the older woman cheesily declared before flexing both of her arms right in front of his face.  "I can tell from the expression on your face that you just LOVE my huge, powerful arms!"  She continued, "Don't be shy little guy.  ALL of the boys love them.  Everywhere I go, droves of men follow, practically worshipping me - though I can hardly blame them.  Poor guys shower me with gifts, presents, and favors - it's often pretty expensive stuff too.  I've received jewelry that probably cost the suitor an entire month's wages!  Well, for me it's chump change, but I take the gifts anyways.  Money is power, and if guys are going to surrender more to me, then count me in!" 

"Hey now, you're not the only super muscled lady around here!"  Camille cut in, flexing her own arms.  She seemed fairly miffed, perhaps a bit tired of Maya showing off and gloating so much.

"What'dya say Eric?  Who's more impressive?  Me or your step-mom?" Maya asked before pumping up her arms a few times.  They were so tremendously large that Eric wagered they were similar in size to a football, yet they radiated so much energy and heat that he could feel it brushing against his face from over a foot away.

<i>What is it with these women and constantly asking me to compare them!? </i>  Eric thought to himself.  "Well, I will have to admit that Maya's arms are bigger.  If I were to guess, they're probably one to two inches larger in fact."  He explained.

"Sure, but why don't you go ahead and give each of our arms a feel?" Camille insisted.

Eric gulped.  He was no longer 'in the zone', instead he was back to being his regular nerdy self, and that side of Eric could barely withstand the presence of one muscle goddess, let alone two.  With wavering hands, he reached up and grabbed onto both Camille and Maya's biceps. 

"Feels like I'm having deja vu here, but... Maya's is bigger, and Camille's is harder."  Eric explained.

"I'm not sure what you're talking about with the deja vu thing, but, I guarantee that last time THIS didn't happen!"  Maya yelled before deftly sliding her upper body out of her dress.

Eric's jaw literally dropped at the sight in front of him.  Maya's perfect breasts defied gravity moreso than a fake pair, yet had an undeniably natural appearance.  Beneath were a thick pair of pecs that demanded respect from anyone who lay eyes upon them.  Maya metaphysically feasted on Eric's reaction; she lived to drink in the awed expressions of those who gazed upon her.  Her sky-high confidence increased even higher, and consequently, her aura of undecidability strengthened as well.

"So, who has the more impressive body now, huh?" Maya asked with a grin.

"Maya, I don't think that is appropriate."  Camille cut in.

"What's wrong Camilley?  Eric's a grown man now!  An adult in the eyes of the law.  Besides, what's wrong with some tits?  We're not born with clothes on.  Why is it somehow immoral to be in our natural state?"

Camille let out a sigh.  "Maya, I don't want to argue that sort of thing with you right now.  Just put your top back on please."

Maya shrugged.  "Sorry Eric, looks like mommy's being a bit of a prude." She winked before doing as Camille asked.

Eric cleared his throat - a tiny bit of 'game' kicked in to save the moment, "Ladies, let's be real.  Muscles are nice and all, but what a boy like me wants is strength.  I think this little contest would be better solved that way."

Camille and Maya met gazes, and the challenge was on.

-

With their hands locked at the kitchen table, both Maya and Camille's biceps ballooned up to ridiculous proportions.  Face to face, Maya looked even more intimidating, as her 5'8" stature compared to Camille's 5'5" was more readily apparent.  Despite this, thick veins erupted from Camille's supremely straited arm, which gave her a more serious look overall.

<i>Part of being the best step-mother I can be is to protect Eric and play as great of a role-model as possible.  I have to win this match in order to assert my dominance here, and show Eric that a humble, healthy lifestyle is the best way to live! </i>  Camille thought to herself as her face turned a shade brighter red from exertion.

<i>I want to seduce everything and everyone!  The world belongs to me; it's within my right to win over little Eric's heart and add it to my ever growing collection of metaphorical trophies!  There's nothing wrong with that, he's 18, and it's not like I'm going to do anything physical with him.  Plus, every young man should have a healthy crush.  I need to make sure that crush is on me, and not his step-mother, that would just be weird! </i> Maya reasoned to herself as her face also turned even more red.

Both women simultaneously grabbed onto the the edge of the table to gain leverage, when suddenly CRACK - the wooden furniture shattered into myriad pieces!  The combatants both let out a cry and released their grip, trying to understand what had just happened.

"Alright, alright.  Let's call this a tie before anything, or anyone, else breaks."  Eric said in a raised voice.

"I'll pay for it."  Maya offered.

"No you won't!"  Camille shouted.

"OK.  Ladies!"  Eric shouted.  "Let's relax!"

The two women looked over at him; each of them easily possessed more than double, perhaps even triple his strength; yet for that moment they still listened.

Maya collected herself, "Alright, well, I suppose we'll have to have a rematch sometime Camille."

Camille nodded, "I'll look forward to it."

Maya turned her attention to Eric.  "I guess that means I'll be continuing to borrow your growth so I can get really huge and show your step-mom who's the boss babe!"  she declared with a grin.

Before Eric could respond, she reached over to him, grabbed him by the collar, and brought his face up to hers before planting a quick kiss on his lips and letting him go.  Eric nearly passed out from excitement.  "That's my parting gift.  There'll be more if I can beat your old lady!" she winked.

Camille sighed and shook her head.  Eric excused himself, letting the friends say their goodbyes in peace before Maya bid farewell.


2.)

All of the girls recreated in LiveSim were becoming more open and even audacious with displays of their growing abilities.

Camille had come to all but forsake modesty, opting to wear relatively skimpy workout clothing that constantly showcased her bulging muscles, and granted ease of movement.  The meeting with Maya triggered something within her, unleashing a superhuman level of drive to push and improve herself as much as possible each day.  No longer shy of her own strength, Eric often found Camille casually performing bodyweight exercises in the living room, intentionally carrying huge objects around the house, and even frequently bringing gym equipment upstairs so she could train at her convenience.  Camille became more open with her progress, often declaring what new developments whenever the family was together.

Another intriguing change Eric noticed was that Camille seemed far more attentive to him than usual.  She started going out of her way to spend time with him, asking about his day, and paying keen attention to everything he said. 

-

Roughly one week after Maya's visit - afternoon.

Eric heard a knock at his door.  He was busy playing a video game - he was doing extremely well.  So well in fact that it was almost boring for him, yet he felt compelled to continue playing.  Still, it was rare for someone to knock;  he was pretty sure it was Camille, and he wasn't interesting in getting on her bad side.

"Come in." Eric answered, closing out the program.

The door opened, and Camille loomed in the entryway.  She was wearing a tight tank-top that barely covered the top row of her thick eight-pack, and a pair of gym-shorts that left almost nothing to the imagination.

"Have you finished all of your homework?" Camille asked, "It's important that you close out this last semester of high school with top marks."

"Uhh, yeah."  Eric lied.

Camille narrowed her gaze, "Now, now young man, don't think you can fool me."  She said in a no-nonsense tone as she placed her hands on her hips, passively causing her tremendous lats to flare out.

Eric gulped.  Despite having lived with two super-muscle women, and having had contact with three others, Eric still had difficulty truly facing any of them one on one.  It was one thing to think about and fantasize about a woman as powerful as Camille, but to be in her presence, especially when she wanted to exert her will, was difficult to stand up to.

The young man let out a sigh.  "Look, I'll get it done.  What's this all about anyways?  I'm 18 years old!"

"You might be an adult in the eyes of the law, but it's still my responsibility to make sure that you develop into the best person you can, and making sure you get good grades is part of that." She explained warmly.

"Right..." Eric replied.

"Alright mister, I'll tell you what: I'm going to go lift weights and get my muscles all nice and pumped up.  If you finish your homework before then, and prove it to me, then I'll let you feel my biceps."

"Wh-what!?"

Camille giggled, "I thought you like that stuff?  Feeling girls' muscles?  It's not a bad thing, it's just a bodypart, an arm at that.  I actually think it's pretty cute that you'd be just as excited to squeeze a well-developed arm as you would be a breast."  She giggled again, "Well, now I'm making this whole deal sound dirty.  Still, an arm is just an arm, so no harm done."

"I..."

"Okay buster, remember the deal.  Hope you're ready when I'm done!" Camille said before taking off to lift weights yet again.

-

Eric had considered blowing the homework off to make a statement, but ultimately, he was too overcome by a desire to feel Camille's freshly pumped biceps.  It had been a full week since he last felt them - well, felt any female muscles for that matter.  Plus, Camille wasn't even pumped up last time, so he had to take advantage of this!  Eric poured all of his concentration into cranking out the assignment, and managed to finish with record speed.  This was fortunate, because moments after completion, Camille had returned.  Her staggering physique was pumped up and pink in appearance, Eric could tell that she had truly pushed herself as far as possible.

"I hit new personal bests on virtually everything.  I think it's safe to say I'm PUMPED!"  Camille exclaimed.

She strolled over and loomed over the seated Eric, her body radiating heat and energy.  "So, did you do the homework?" she asked.

Eric nodded before bringing up the work he had just completed and presenting it to her.  Camille looked it over, "Very good!  I'm so glad that you accepted the deal!" she exclaimed.

"Ah, yes.  The deal.  I had forgotten about that."  Eric lied, afraid of being too forthcoming about his desire to feel Camille's muscles.

"Eric! What did I tell you about lying?" Camille scolded.

Eric let out a sigh.  "Oh, alright.  Yeah, I remember the deal."

"Good boy.  Well, come on now, stand up."

Eric did as she said.  Despite standing an inch taller than his step mother, he felt far smaller than her.  Camille's upper half was easily twice as wide as his, and she exuded power with no effort at all. 

"Okay," Camille started, "Here we go!" she slowly flexed her right arm, causing the muscle to rise to its peak at a deliberate pace.  The ball of power was so large that it almost looked like a second head.  "Well, don't just gawk at it!"

Eric blinked a couple of times before bringing a hand up and grabbing onto it.  He had felt it a week ago, yet now it was even more impressive.  Eric estimated that she had gained roughly half an inch of circumference of raw size, and had another half-inch compared to last week due to the impressive pump.  He brought his other hand up and found that even with both of his handspans, he could not encompass the entirety of the muscle.  Eric began squeezing the bicep, finding that it was entirely unyielding to his grip - in fact, the harder he clasped, the more his own hands started to cramp. 

"You want some tricep action?" Camille offered.

Wordlessly, Eric indicated that he was interested.

"Only because you've been such a good boy." Camille teased before bringing her arm down and extending it, intentionally tensing her tricep.  An enormous knot of muscle in the rough shape of a horseshoe erupted as a result.  Without provocation, Eric began exploring the individual nooks and crannies with his fingers, intentionally placing them inside the valleys and ridges to see just how deep they went.

"Sooooo, what's your analysis?"  Camille asked.

"Analysis?" Eric echoed.

"Yeah.  On the bicep.  How's it doing compared to the last time you've felt it?" She asked with a soft giggle.

Eric blushed a bit.  "Well, it's hard to be really sure, but I think it's harder... a bit bigger too.  And... warmer."

"Warmer?" Camille asked, raising a brow, "Now that's an interesting one!  Cool!"  She grinned.

Eric remained silent.

Camille spoke again, "So, whady'a think?  Am I still making good progress?  Should I keep going?  Isn't it cool to have a step-mom who keeps getting stronger and stronger?"

Eric was enthralled to find that Camille seemed genuinely... happy.  Extremely happy.  He could tell that showing off to him made Camille's day.  He realized that he was one of the big motivating forces for her to keep pushing herself to the next level.  It was tempting to tell Camille that she should slow things down; not because he truly wanted her to, but rather because Eric was growing afraid of just how strong she was.  Still, deep down he did find Camille's growth thrilling, and he was genuinely touched by how delighted she was.  He couldn't take that away from her.

"Yeah, it's pretty awesome and inspiring."  He replied with a smile.  "You are definitely making great progress, and I hope you develop to your full potential."

Camille's face lit up, and Eric could have sworn that he saw small tears forming in the corners of her eyes.  "I'm SO happy to hear that!" she exclaimed.  "You're the best son I ever could have asked for Eric!  I'm truly blessed that you came into my life."  She got up on her tip toes, kissed Eric on the forehead, and ruffled his hair.  "Oh look at me, I'm a bubbling mess now.  I'll get out of your space.  Thanks for humoring me."  And with that Camille left.

Eric sat in his chair and reflected on what had just happened.  It was true that whatever he did with LiveSim seemed to truly help Camille in a big way...  but he just wasn't sure about the others.  Sure, they were undeniably happy to be building such ridiculously powerful bodies, but was it really a good thing?  Was someone with Maya's carefree attitude or Selina's competitive edge coupled with boundless—and growing—strength a something the world needed?

-

Camille and Maya weren't the only girl who continued to exhibit changes in both appearance and personality.  Selina still opted to wear baggy clothing whenever possible, for what purpose entirely Eric wasn't positive, but she was less hesitant about displaying her incredible abilities.  For instance, she stopped taking the bus to and from school, instead using it as an opportunity to get in some morning cardio; 10 miles each way.  Camille's openness about her training seemed to push Selina even further, if such a thing were even possible.  As a result, Eric found himself barely interacting with his step-sister at all, as she was too focused on pushing her body to its absolute limits every moment that she could.  Eric hypothesized that part of what prevented Selina from totally eclipsing her mother was school.  Since Selina had to stay in a seat for roughly seven hours a day, Camille had that much more of an advantage.  Despite this, Selina tortured her body so much during the time that she could train that neither girl seemed to ever truly get the upper hand on the other.

-

Eric didn't see Chalsey much in the coming days.  Their study group kept getting pushed back due to various circumstances.  Despite this, Eric heard through the grapevine that Chalsey was now consistently scoring the highest in her class on every assignment.  Like Selina, Chalsey also constantly wore baggy clothing, likely to hide her growing physique.

-

The final growing girl was Julia, who Eric saw on a near daily basis.  After running into her at the bodybuilding competition, there was a sudden shift in his teacher's dress and behavior.  Julia now wore full suits, often colored black.  They were tailored to appear even larger and more intimidating than the usual cut for a woman; coupled with her already broad physique, the schoolteacher looked like a brick house.  It was impossible for Eric to discern just how muscular she was, but he had a feeling that like all of the other girls, she was still developing nicely.

Strangely enough, Julia's transformation had an extremely positive impact on her teaching.  She was always a competent instructor, but now she held such utter control over the classroom, and wielded a presence that could be not be ignored,  which made her lessons even more effective.  Julia had such a combination of warmth and intensity that nobody dared talk, play on their phones, or cause disruptions.  In fact, few students even spaced out, as Julia was too overwhelming.  Slowly, the entire classroom's grade point average was increasing.  There were rumors that Julia aspired for more, and might become the principal after this semester.


3.)


Eric couldn't believe the timing.  Just as he was starting to grow extremely worried that the women he had accidentally enhanced were becoming far too strong for their own, and society's good, a possibility to reverse things presented itself to him:  the full version of LiveSim had finally launched!





(What happens next now that the full version of LiveSim is out?!  Will the girls keep growing, or will Eric find a way to dial things back?  Or perhaps Eric will find that there's nothing he can do at all?!  All this and much more in the full version of The Proteus Effect Chapter 4!

In order to receive the full story, make sure you're pledged before the early afternoon of April 30th!   You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login  )

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Preview:
Mother Knows Best Rebirth - Chapter 7
by MagnusMagneto


(This is a preview of my upcoming Patreon release: Mother Knows Best Rebirth Chapter 7!  It's the first ~30-40% of the story.  Due to the extensive recap taking up so much of the wordcount, the full release will be a bit longer than the average.

To receive the full story, pledge to my Patreon: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login before the evening of May 29th!)

The Story So Far:


Tara was a 35 year old single mother, run ragged from the daily grind of providing for herself and her 17 year old son, Cory.  As a gift, Tara's wealthy brother, Terry, offered to allow them to stay at his uninhabited vacation home, tucked away in a scenic mountain overlook.  To Cory's dismay, Tara accepted.

Instead of exploring the beautiful scenery and using the lavish amenities of the mansion, Cory holed himself away in his room, playing console video games until the small hours of the night.  Resolving to use her time more constructively, Tara started going for runs and exercising her out-of-shape body.  To her surprise, and delight, fat began to melt away from her frame, and firm muscles started to sprout up.

In particular, Tara's legs transformed from waifish, 'skinny-fat' stems into hard, firm, powerful pillars.  Emboldened by her success, and concerned about her son, Tara begged Cory to join her in getting fit.  Cory refused her offers, and went out of his way to insult her. 

Hurt and insulted by her son's words, Tara warned him that if he continued to maintain his sedentary lifestyle while she kept improving her fitness, it would be a matter of time until she was stronger than him.  Cory rebuked this, claiming that even if she trained rigorously for five weeks while he did absolutely nothing, he would still be physically superior to her.  This was quickly amended into a formal contest consisting of three physical competitions, the overall winner of which would be allowed to set all of the rules in the house.

This seemingly innocuous contest would alter the course of Tara and Cory's lives forever.  Tara poured herself into her training, spending every waking moment she could torturing her body.  While her prior results were impressive, what was to follow was beyond what should have been possible.  Tara's body packed on pound after pound of muscle; and her strength and endurance similarly increased tremendously.

During this five week period, Tara became one of the fittest and strongest women alive.  On top of this, perhaps even more miraculously, Tara started to grow taller as well.  Meanwhile, due to his sedentary lifestyle, Cory actually atrophied somewhat.  As a result, Tara won the contest in a landslide victory that shook Cory to his core.

Not content with simply besting her son in a series of physical contests, Tara began enforcing reasonable discipline guidelines.  In turn, Cory's lifestyle was forced to change for the better, and he learned a variety of life skills.

Tara continued to improve her body, and also began training her mind.  To her delight, her capacity to learn was on par with her ability to build muscle.  As a result, Tara's intellect quickly skyrocketed to near genius levels as she absorbed every bit of information she came into contact with.  Tara even managed to create supplements that would better interact with her unique biochemistry, further increasing her ability to improve.  During all of this, Tara's body continued to gain height, and before long, she looked Cory in the eyes days before outgrowing him.

While initially hesitant, Cory slowly came around to appreciating and respecting his mother.  Chapter 4 culminated with a pair of robbers breaking into the mansion, and Tara fending them off; Cory even more grateful for his mother's progress.  From that point onward, Cory began focusing on improving himself, and aiding his mother in her own efforts.  By the end of Chapter 4, Tara was nearing 400 pounds of pure muscle, and stood well over six feet in height.

Towards the end of June, Tara's brother and his family visited.  The full ensemble included Terry's wife: Estella – a super model standing over six feet in height; their adopted daughter of Korean descent, 18 year old Kiko, with a surprisingly muscular body that kept gaining strength (much to her dismay); their biological son, Barry, a chubby teen who takes after his father's worldview; and Harry, an innocent 10 year old who loves Tara's strength and wishes that his mother and adopted sister would also train themelves.

The visit featured a great deal of discussion and controversy around Tara's drastic transformation.  Terry, while initially supporting Tara's decision, was taken aback by the sheer extent of his sister's improvement; and found himself increasingly uncomfortable with how superior she was at all things.  Even more disconcerting for Terry was his wife's reaction to Tara: the supermodel seemed to be entirely enamored with the hulking amazon.

The family had some fun at the pool, and Tara indulged young Harry's wishes to see just how strong she was by engaging the entire family—minus Cory—in a tug of war competition.  Even the combined might of her extended family failed to topple Tara over; in fact, she gained even more strength during the contest.

Chapter six focused on the remnants of the family's visit.  Kiko, who had been ashamed of her body's natural inclination to improve itself, found herself drawing inspiration from Tara.  Estella grew more enamored with Tara, and initiated a romance with her, justifying it by explaining that she and Terry had been unfaithful to one another for years.  The supermodel also vowed to build up her own body as well, during a confession where she teased Cory to no end.

During this chapter, Tara squared off with her brother in a game of Go.  The first round of which she lost, but her mind grew even more powerful from exposure to the game and Terry's strategies.  Tara went on to take the second round by a thin margin, and the third by a wide one.  Devastated that he had been eclipsed physically and mentally by his sister, Terry took Barry and Harry, leaving in a huff.  Kiko and Estella stayed behind, both resolving to train under Tara and develop their bodies.


1.)  The evening of Chapter 7

Cory looked at the date on his phone:  June 28th.  It had been a roller coaster of a summer vacation.  It was difficult to fathom just had much had changed in a mere two months, and even more insane to realize that there were another two to go.  Technically, Summer had only started a week ago.  That meant he and Tara had been in this house for roughly 60 days.  In 60 days his mother somehow managed to transform herself from a waifish, 'skinny-fat', 5'4" 35 year old into a towering, hyper-muscular, ultra-strong, amazon who stood at six and a half feet of height.  It was a feat that should have been all but impossible.

Not only had Tara transformed physically, but she was smart now.  That isn't to say she was unintelligent before, but now she was like a genius.  Cory could sense that at almost every moment he was around her, Tara was learning from him in some small way.  It seemed inevitable that every experience, every moment, every challenge, every tiny thing would serve to make Tara even greater.  He wondered to what end this could possibly reach.  How amazing could Tara become?  He knew that there was no specific endgoal, that his mother would push herself as far as she could possibly go, just for the sole sake of pushing herself; but what would this accumulation of power lead to?

The end of June marked the approximate halfway mark of Cory's summer vacation.  That meant, barring some kind of huge crisis, he would be spending two more months at the vacation house.  This also meant, by association, that Tara would have two more months here, totally disconnected from society to continue improving herself.  Common sense would dictate that Tara's progress should slow down; that the second half of the summer would yield less fruit to Tara's efforts than the first - but Cory knew that his mother's transformation defied all common sense.

When Cory thought about his mother, all he could envision was a godlike being.  It difficult to not attribute even more greatness to her.  For instance, if he thought about how his mother would solve a difficult task, his mind would sometimes imagine her with superpowers: flying around, throwing lightning out of her hands, bullets bouncing off of her body.  When Cory thought about superheroes in the comics he'd read as a kid, and the movies he watched, it was difficult to not start thinking about his mother.  He envisioned her sitting across from popular hero UltraGuy, the two of them with their hands locked, engaged in an armwrestling match, a familiar smirk on his mother's face while she slowly pushed his arm down, demonstrating her physical superiority.  To Cory, his mother had become a living flesh and blood deity who was larger than life itself.

Of course, Cory knew that despite seeming superhuman, Tara wasn't destined for powers quite like those.  Ultimately, his mother was still a real life person who followed the laws of physics.  She was capable of growing at a rate far greater than what should be possible for a human, but Cory had read stories of how blue whales could gain 30 pounds of mass in a single day.  That wasn't to liken his mother to a whale, but to rationalize that with the right genetic mutations, and enough nutrition, Tara's ascent was something that seemed plausible. 

While Cory didn't really understand it at the time, his daydreams involving his mother actually represented his changing attitude towards her.  A mere 60 days ago, prolonged thought about Tara would have been coupled with dark whispers of how weak and ineffective she was.  In truth, Cory subconsciously resented Tara for this; he wanted a father figure, and expected Tara to fulfill both parental roles.  Instead, he outgrew her fairly soon after reaching puberty, and Tara was so worn down from trying to pay the bills that she lacked the energy he sought.

Not anymore however.  Tara was the most virile being Cory had ever witnessed.  She now possessed a seemingly endless supply of stamina, and Cory knew fully well that anything capable of challenging her would ultimately make her stronger.  On top of this, Tara had gained profoundly deep wisdom.  No matter what the situation was, during the past month, Tara always had an expert solution to it; even reining him in with firm, but fair hands-off discipline. 

Despite the drastic transformation she had undergone, underneath the tremendous amount of muscle, and towering intellect, Tara was still the same core person - just with a much clearer perspective, and the energy to turn her desires into reality. 

And now there were two more girls added into the mix:  Estella and Kiko.  Both were extremely attractive to Cory for different reasons.  Estella was the towering supermodel goddess that virtually any man interested in women would move heaven and earth to impress.  Kiko... was fairly difficult personality-wise, but had a strong, rippling body that Cory knew was packed full of strength and energy.  Not too long ago, Cory wouldn't have found Kiko's body particularly attractive, but Tara's transformation had changed his perspective.  He no longer yearned for a docile, weak woman to serve his wishes; instead he wanted a strong, energetic being that pursued her own self-improvement and happiness.

While there were still two months to go, Cory knew that returning to high school was an inevitability.  He would be a senior, and by then he'd be eighteen years old.  In fact, his birthday was only a few weeks away.  Could he really just return to being a typical high school student?  It was funny, on a list of life-changing events, Cory never imagined that "Tara getting ridiculously jacked" would be one of them; yet here he was, his worldview entirely changed by such an otherwise mundane event. 

Regardless of the thoughts flurrying in his head, Cory still needed to rest.  He knew that sleep would become even more important as the addition of two new girls, both of which were going to push themselves, would mean he needed every ounce of energy possible. 


2.)  The Next day

[In the full story, there will be a chapter in which Kiko and Tara perform martial arts moves, during which Tara learns a ton.  There will also be a spicy morning run that Tara and Estella go on.  For this preview, I'm going to fast-forward to Cory and Kiko]


3.) 

"Surprised to see you in weather appropriate clothing."  Cory greeted Kiko in a somewhat joking manner.

Kiko was wearing a tank-top and gym shorts.  Her dark body, rippling with young, feminine muscle was on full display.  Large biceps bulged with no effort at all on her behalf, a thick line between her pecs could be seen in place of traditional cleavage, and her trunk-like legs practically swallowed the comparatively small bottom garment. 

"Yeah, well... since I'm going to start embracing my body, no point in hiding it."  Kiko explained.


[In the full version - some dialog about how Kiko was just training with Tara, and how Kiko is kind of spooked out by how quickly Tara learned extremely advanced martial arts moves.]



"Hey, uh... do you know how to, like, lift weights?" Kiko asked, clearly embarrassed to raise the question.

"What do you mean?  Doesn't everyone know how to pick things up and put them back down?"  Cory responded.

"Well, duh, but what I mean is proper form and all that.  Like how to do a dead lift correctly, that sort of thing." 

"Oh, yeah.  Tara taught me not so long ago.  I've gotten pretty decent at that stuff."  Cory explained, fairly proud of himself and glad that he started joining his mother in the weight room.

"Ok.  Well, I'm sure you know where I'm going with this.  Think you can teach me?" 

Cory nodded and grinned, "Of course, I'd love to."

"Surprised that you seem so enthusiastic..."

"Don't you remember what I promised Harry?"  Cory asked.

Kiko shot him a confused expression, "Errr..."

"It was just last night." 

"Uhh..."

Well, at least Kiko isn't a super-genius too like my mother.  Cory thought to himself, "I promised I would help make you and our moms stronger."

"Oh, right.  You meant that?"

"Of course."  Cory smiled warmly.  "Want to go work out right now?  It'd be a good time since our mothers are out doing lord knows what."

Kiko smiled sheepishly,  "Alright."


3.)  A few minutes later - in the home gym


Kiko was a fast learner - even faster than Cory was when Tara showed him the ropes.  She possessed an strong innate sense of her own physicality, which allowed her to easily grasp which parts of her body were being utilized in each lift, which in turn meant she could adjust her movements to ensure she was optimally activating those muscles. 

In a twist that didn't really surprise Cory much at all, Kiko was stronger than him in almost every lift they had gone over thus far.  Wanting to replicate his mother's expert advice, Cory started off with the large compound lifts: the dead lift and squat, both of which Kiko out lifted him by a fair margin.  On the bench press they were capable of putting up an equal amount of weight, and Cory was reminded that for various biological reasons, women have notably weaker chests than men. 

Watching Kiko's body in action was surprisingly hypnotic for Cory.  He never anticipated how differently she would act compared to Tara.  While his mother was like a wild beast, pushing herself to her limit, Kiko was mathematical in her efforts.  In Cory's opinion, Tara seemed like she was fighting against the basic human nature to remain fairly sedentary, that she was enacting supreme discipline and willpower to force her body to be challenged and grow.  Kiko on the other hand acted as if she were born to lift weights, that she was finally relenting to her base nature, and her efforts to prevent growth were unnatural.

Kiko's physical size, standing at a slightly above average 5'6", was also in stark contrast to Tara.  There was something more girlish and feminine to Kiko's expressions, as opposed to Tara's dominant, 'alpha' characteristics.  Kiko was more intense as well, which Cory didn't think was possible.  This intensity was quiet and more reserved however, focused inward.  Despite standing a nearly a full head taller than Kiko, Cory's upper half was only roughly as wide as hers - in fact, she appeared to be broader after becoming pumped up from the exercises.

They moved on to overhead shoulder dumbbell presses.  To better illustrate proper form for the exercises, Cory brought his hands onto her arms to guide them.  As his fingers touched her skin, he was shocked at just how soft it was.  Tara's had become like velvet from her transformation, but Kiko's was softer yet. 

"Please don't touch." The young woman snapped.

"Right, sorry, not trying to - just need to show you the right motion."

Kiko sighed, he knew he was telling the truth.  In actuality, she didn't really care or not if she touched her arms like that - she just wanted to get Cory to trip up; his 'nice guy' act had gone on long enough.  Maybe she could catch him if she tried a different angle... "Well, I guess you can touch, but are you sure you want to grab onto gross, bulging muscles?"

"Uhh... What?  I thought we already went over this?"  Cory was confused.

Kiko remained silent, trying to consider a new approach.  She was determined to catch Cory in the act - still convinced that Cory was pulling an elaborate ruse on her.

-

Twenty minutes passed, and Kiko went through a series of other exercises.  Cory was mindful to not place hands on her too often, but got the feeling that Kiko actually wanted him to, she just refused to admit it out loud.  Eventually, he decided to spur some conversation and pay her a compliment.

"Damn Kiko, you get really... pumped!"  Cory exclaimed, unable to avert his gaze from the young woman's muscles.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, you know, when you exercise your muscles, they get temporarily bigger.  Your pump is better than mine.  See?"  Cory flexed his arm, "Mine got a little pumped up, but yours grew more proportionately.  I guess the difference between our bodies is even bigger than it was a couple hours ago."

Kiko was staring in disbelief - not at Cory's body, that was quite believable, but at him for the words he was saying.  "You make that sound like it's a compliment or something."

"Of course it is.  I don't want to creep or anything, but you look great." 

Kiko continued staring, trying to gauge what Cory's game was.

"Don't you think muscles on chicks are ugly?"

"I already told you before at the pool - I don't.  I think a fit body is a good look for either gender.  The fitter the better."  Cory explained.  "I don't really know how many times I have to say this until you believe me."

"You aren't bothered that I can lift more than you?"  Kiko asked, scrutinizing his reaction.

Cory smirked and shook his head.  "Not at all.  I'm surprised you've transformed so much in the past few years, but I wouldn't say I'm bothered.  I'm excited to see how strong you can become, even if it's not in my genetic destiny to also hit that level."

Kiko's eyes narrowed, "Alright Cory, that's enough.  What's the deal?  Why are you so..."  She paused for a moment to consider her next word, "Chill? With me being strong that is?  Chill about my muscles.  Chill about everything!?"

Cory tilted his head a bit, "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Cory.  Did you really forget?  The last time we met, you laughed at me for being flat chested - among other things."  Kiko was glaring daggers at him.  "Now you're helping me build up my body, which is already stronger than yours.  Why the 180?"

Embarrassment washed over Cory as he recollected the incident Kiko referred to.  He was having difficulty believing that he had actually said that - it seemed so crass and even cruel with hindsight.  "Kiko..."

She continued staring at him, discerning every minute movement his face gave. 

"Look.  I'm really sorry, ok?  I was a different person back then.  A lot has changed.  My views have evolved."  Cory explained.

"I dunno... I don't think people fundamentally change that much."

Cory decided that she had a point.  Still, he was certainly different now.  He let out a sigh.  "Alright, I won't beat around the bush.  It's my mom.  What you don't know is  her entire transformation has occurred in the past two months, not the past few years.  I know, it's crazy, impossible even.  Still, it's happened.  Being around her has had a pretty big impact on me I guess.  I didn't realize women could be so badass, and, well, I like it.  I like the idea of a girl who takes care of herself and acts like a true equal."

"Am I sensing a bit of an Oedipus complex here?" Kiko inquired.

"No!"  Cory quickly shot back, "Well, I don't think so.  I'll admit that I think my mother looks good, really good.  But no, I don't think about her that way."

"Not like how you think about my mother?"

Cory blushed, "Hey..."

"We already went over this.  It's cool.  She's literally a friggan super model, and you're not really related."  Kiko replied.  <i>I wonder if he feels that way about me.  It would explain how he's been acting.  Do I feel that way about Cory though?  I guess I don't if I have to ask that question.  Then again, he isn't bad looking, just... I dunno.  Missing some kind of edge.  Well, I won't hold it against him.  Let's see where things go."</i> she thought to herself.

"Anyways, do you know what I'm saying?"

"Kind of.  Anyways, let's get back to working out.  I'm still not fully convinced about you, but we'll see."  She affectionately patted him on the chest a couple of times before wiggling over to the next set of workout equipment.  "Come teach me what to do."

-

As Kiko continued to work, grunting, sweating, pushing herself as far as she could – Cory was reminded of his mother.  That same drive, inner strength, and virility that Tara exhibited in her workouts was present in Kiko.  As her muscles swelled up to new heights, Cory could envision the same process in them that Tara's underwent with each exercise.  He could easily see that they were greedily relishing in being challenged, ready to use the resistance to catalyze further growth.  This was something that didn't happen in his own body, nor in anyone else other than these two women - not to nearly the same extent at least.

"What are you staring at?"  Kiko asked, breaking Cory's train of thought.

"Just thinking about some stuff, sorry." 

Kiko shrugged.  "Care to share what's on your mind?"

"You remind me of my mother I guess."  Cory explained.

Kiko raised a brow, "What's that supposed to mean?  Is it because we both have muscles?"

"Kind of, but not really.  There's something inside of both of you.  A drive – a hunger I guess.  You want to get stronger, don't you?" 

Kiko averted her gaze, "I mean, obviously, I am lifting weights.  Are you stupid or something?"

Cory shook his head, "Beyond that.  You probably take some kind of personal offense to my mother being stronger than you.  You want to dethrone her.  Not saying this is a bad thing, it's more of a self-improvement contest sort of thing."

"Uhhh... let's skip the fruedian bull crap, 'kay?" Truthfully, Kiko disliked how close Cory was to the truth.

"Sure, sure."  Quickly thinking of a way to change the subject and segue to something more pleasant, "Say, how about I whip you up one of my mother's famous protein shakes, and maybe cook us some lunch?  I'm not a master chef, but it'll hopefully be edible at least."  He offered with a smile.

It was an offer Kiko couldn't refuse.




(Catch up with Tara and Estella, and see what happens next in the full version of Mother Knows Best Rebirth Chapter 7!  Lots of growth, flexing, and showing to come!  To receive the full story, pledge to my Patreon: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login before the evening of May 29th! )

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[I will be adding more to this preview later tonight!  I hope you still enjoy what's here though!]

Preview:
Equality: Dawn - Chapter 2
By MagnusMagneto

(This is a preview of my upcoming Patreon story - Equality: Dawn Chapter 2!  To receive the full story, make sure you're pledged before the evening of May 31st You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login )


Previously on Equality: Dawn Chapter 2

Hey!  My name is Dawn!  Well, I introduced myself last chapter, but to recap:  I was just your normal bubbly girl in her late 20s.  Maybe a little overweight, and, I hate to admit it, but maybe not the brightest bulb...  But still pretty normal, I think.

One day everything changed.  I won a lottery of sorts to be genetically enhanced by the same people who turned that girl Genesis into the fastest person alive.  [More on that here:  ]  They cut me an even better deal than Genesis got:  they were going to give me the same muscle building potential as the strongest man alive!

In fact, they told me that it was going to be even MORE potential.  Something about offsetting me being short.  Seemed kind of rude, but, I'm not one to turn down even more free awesomeness!  There were a bunch of other upgrades too, like making me naturally prettier, bigger boobs, wider hips, better skin, sharper senses, the works!  Unfortunately, they didn't have much to spruce up my brain, but hey, being the ultimate in all of those other categories seemed like a pretty sweet deal to me!

Best of all, it would require like no effort at all on my part!  Of course, I took full advantage of this, and just sat on my butt; a butt that packed on pounds of powerful muscle without me even trying! 

My husband, Phil, a tall lanky guy, was pretty jealous, but I knew that he was gonna love my new body.  And believe me, he did!  Poor guy even started a rigorous weight lifting routine, and I was still gaining more muscle each week than he was.  It was just a matter of time until my guns were bigger, harder, and stronger than his.  That time came, and believe me, it was thoroughly enjoyable for me!

I discovered the bizarre world of the "female muscle fetish".  Dudes getting off to girls biceps.  Jacked girls were flexing and roleplaying on camera while making bank.  They didn't even have to show their tits or anything!  Of course, considering that I was developing into quite the she-hulk, AND was going to keep growing week by week, I started up my own online following.

Just like my muscles, my online presence kept growing and growing!  Eventually I was making a ton of cash and just quit my boring old day job.  As time went by, I was making more money than Phil.  You could say I was wearing 'the pants' of the marriage in more ways than one!

By the end of Chapter 1, I was starting to get seriously jacked, packing on nearly 200 pounds of sheer muscle on my adorable little 5'2" frame!  I was already soooo much stronger than Phil, all without having ever lifted a dumbbell.  That was all about to change though.  Some absolute madman online donated $10,000 to me under the stipulation that I use it to build a home gym and start weight training.  Can't say no to that! 

And that's where Chapter 2 starts – with me ready to finally lift weights and truly see what this body can become!


1.)

Some strapping young lads (and some older, sturdy guys) delivered all of the weights we ordered.  It was a pretty penny for the full setup, but none of it really came out of my pocket.  I could just join a gym, but something about having the weights at home seemed way funner.  Plus, knowing how lazy I am, there's a good chance I would slack off and skip going some days.  With the weights in the basement however, I can just hop down there and get in a workout any time I want!

Plus, as much as I love getting attention from my followers online, I have to admit that the idea of being ogled in person by everyone there wasn't too appealing.  I know that sounds a bit conceited of me, but you gotta remember, my face was literally genetically engineered to be on par with the most beautiful women in the world, and I'm rocking this unbelievable (like...  literally... unobtainable for everyone else) body.  A body that hasn't even been exposed to weight lifting yet.

Speaking of attention, the delivery guys couldn't seem to get over me.  They kept staring and making small talk about how I'd certainly be making good use of the gym equipment; others asked what I needed it for (I think they were implying that I was already super-jacked so I didn't need to work out). 

I piped up that I wanted to help bring in the weights.  They asked if I was sure, but I flexed up my 17 inch guns (I was sleeveless - can't remember the last time I actually wore sleeves), and they shrugged, saying as long it was my idea.  I went over to one of the boxes, which was full of various sized weight plates for one of the barbells.  A label on it warned that 200 pounds were present, and it recommended a 'team lift'.  Brushing the warning aside, I squatted down and grabbed onto the box.

As soon as I picked the box up, I immediately felt something that I knew was lacking from my life the past few months: an incredible rush.  I sensed the blood rush to my muscles, engorging them, pumping them up, getting ready for action!  The movers were all surprised to see cute little 5'2" me lift up a box as heavy as I am with pretty much no effort on my part!  Don't know why they kept doubting me.  Though, I guess they didn't know that not only was I ridiculously yolked, but I also had extra genetically enhanced muscles that worked even better than theirs!

What was amazing to me was how even bringing that single box of weights to the basement caused me to get a good amount of 'pump'.  I was familiar with the idea of the pump - lots of the girls online I was competing with would put up pictures of their 'post workout pump', and Phil even became somewhat larger after his own workouts.  But damn, all I did was move one little box down to the basement, and I was looking even more beastly than usual!

I helped bring down a couple more objects, each of which were supposed to be carried by two people, but I never bothered asking for a partner.  The guys were so impressed by me (and probably just wanted to spend more time around me!) that they even offered to set up the gym, despite that not being part of the original contract.  Being the lazy gal I am, I accepted.  I explained to two of the guys who looked like they lifted weights that I had never been to a gym before, and would like a little explanation of what everything did.  They thought I was joking (which I can understand, considering how I looked), but still played along, humoring me as they gave a brief rundown of what exercises each piece of equipment was used for.

Eventually the gym was fully setup, and I had a good idea of what everything was used for.  I could tell most of the guys wanted to stick around, maybe watch me workout or something (they were probably hoping they'd get lucky, and even though some were good looking, that wasn't gonna happen!), but ultimately they had more jobs to do and had to take off.


1.5)

I stared at the plethora of weights in front of me.  Between the equipment and the moving fees, the ten grand that guy donated had been almost entirely used up.  Seemed worth it though.  My setup was legitimately better than some gyms I've seen.  I had huge beastly looking barbells with enough weight plates to make an Olympic lifter blush, dumbbells that weight up to 300 pounds (those were custom made), tons of benches of different inclinations, the works! 

Encouraged by the rush I got from helping bring the equipment downstairs, I decided to start my first workout immediately!

And holy shit.  I had no idea that lifting weights was so awesome!  It was an unbelievable sensation, watching my powerful arms swell up to epic proportions, feeling the blood rush to them as they got all pumped up.  This may sound weird, but it felt like eating after being hungry for hours.  I guess all of this time, my body was starving for exercise! 

I very vividly remember using the bench press.  I had read about how girls are supposed to have weaker chests (I totally forgot that I had a genetically enhanced super-chest) so I started off with pretty light weight: 100 pounds.  Well, that was way too easy!  So I cranked up to 120.  No dice.  140.  Still light.  It was so light that I just slapped on another 40 and went up to 180.  Still too light!  Another 40.  I could start to feel it, kind of...  260, started to get there...  300, felt a bit of a burn. 

Feeling cautious, I only added 20 pounds, for a total of 320.  This amount was tough!   Then, something REALLY weird happened.  As I pushed the weight up, I felt like my body was... transforming?  Maybe that's not the right word, but all of the muscles involved with bench pressing became a bit... stiffer, more rigid, and even stronger!  From that point on, even 320 pounds on the bench press wasn't enough to really challenge me - it was kind of light to be honest! 

I looked down at my heaving chest.  Even without a mirror, just looking down, I could see the thick, pulsing muscles heaving from my breathing and heartbeat.  It was like they were alive!  I brought my hand up and dug my fingers into the crevices of definition.  Having been inside of this mega body for a while, I shouldn't have been surprised, but I still was: my pecs were so hard!

It felt like the muscles used in the bench press were in some kind of 'tank mode'.  They were bigger, badder, but maybe a little less mobile, as it was hard to stretch out.  My mind flashed back to when the science guys were talking about my muscle fibers switching to accommodate the task at hand.  Maybe this is what they meant?

I added another 40 pounds to the bench, got underneath and pushed it up again.  It was tough for a moment, then it happened - tank mode!  Well, tankier mode I guess.  Once again, the weight became a bit too easy for me to feel like it was really challenging me.  Frustrated, I slapped on ANOTHER 40 pounds, bringing it up to 400!

Now 400 pounds... twice my bodyweight, THAT was a challenge!  But once again, my trusty tank-mode kicked in.  I think it was safe to say that this was 'tankiest' mode.  My pecs became so engorged, with my hefty breasts sitting on top, that I couldn't see past them at all!  It was just this wall of Dawn-muscle.  I couldn't complain with results though, I was able to bench press 400 pounds like this.  After completing a full set of repetitions, I sat up and looked at myself in the nearest mirror, and audibly gasped.   My chest was so big!

I couldn't wait to see what the rest of my body would look like in 'tank mode', but I had to finish torturing my chest.  I added another 20 pounds to the bench press, bringing it to a total of 420, and slid underneath.  With a large heave, I managed to push the weight up and brought it down.  Even my mega-muscles weren't ready for this though, and I found that I was totally outmatched here, and the bar sat on my chest.  Fortunately, I was so buff that it didn't really hurt.  With a loud grunt and a ton of effort, I managed to bring it up.  Feeling frisky, I completed one more full repetition before finally calling it quits.

The rush of adrenaline, blood, and pure primal energy was so awesome!  I felt kind of dumb for not working out earlier.  Oh well!

Next I wanted to see what my legs would look like all 'tanked up'.  I used the squat rack in the same way I did the bench press.  I was more aggressive in putting the weight up, so I pretty quickly found my maximum lift, which was 600 pounds!  In tank-mode, my legs were even more trunk like.  They were so thick and rigid that even walking was difficult with them like that.  I ended up having to waddle a bit in order to move properly, but fortunately, after letting my legs relax, they went back to being fully functional.

I proceeded to work out my back, arms, calves and abs in order, challenging them so much that they each 'tanked' out as well.  It was the hardest to get my abs to do this, but with enough effort, I managed.  On a whim, I went through all of the exercises again specifically just to get my entire body 'tanked'.  I had to end with legs, since it would be tough to walk after activating those.

With my entire body pumped up, like a cannonball of pure unbridled strength, I flexed a few times in the mirror, admiring the network of muscles, veins, and tendons that made up my amazing body.  It was at that moment that it really hit me.  I wanted more.  Way more.  I wanted to see just how far this body could go.  And if I ever did hit that limit.. Then I wanted to somehow go past it!  Surely there'd be a way to get those egg-heads to give me more potential, or somehow get it myself!


(Just how amazing can Dawn become?  Find out in the full version of Equality: Dawn Chapter 2!  Make sure you're pledged before the evening of May 31st to receive this story!  (www.patreon.com/magnusmagneto )

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Rest of the preview:



2.)

After a long day of pushing my body to its limit, Phil and I were relaxing in bed.  It was fun to look at the sheer difference in our bodies.  I was still slightly pumped up from exercising, and I was already so much more muscular than him (40 pounds heavier!)  Of course, since Phil is so much taller, he still took up a lot of the bed, but I'd started to occupy more and more space myself.  On a whim, I put my calf on top of his; it was like twice as wide, and way thicker! 

"Just look at how my calf spills over yours babe.  It's soooo much bigger!"  I giggled with glee before tensing it, "Can you feel my mega muscle hardening on top of yours?" I asked.

Phil admitted that he could. 

"Mmhmm.  Damn right you can.  Feel how it goes from steel to diamond just like that!  Just look at that ultra-calf babe!"  I said with a grin, flexing it, which actually pushed his own calf down a bit.  I kept untensing and retensing it, loving how I could move Phil's leg on demand just from the force of my muscle bunching up.

Phil remained silent.

That's when I came up with an ingenious idea for a game.  "I've got an idea... try to push my leg off." I challenged with a grin.

"Dawn..."

I pressed his calf down a bit, and giggled as I managed to sink his leg even further into the bed.  It felt awesome to be so much stronger than Phil.  "Come onnnn, just try!" 

He let out a sigh before finally pushing up a bit.  It was pointless, with just a tiny bit of effort I could easily keep him down.  Phil started getting into it, trying harder, but he didn't accomplish much.  I giggled a bunch and challenged him to keep trying.  "Come on babe, you've gotta at least put my leg up an inch or two!"

He let out an audible grunt, which made me giggle even harder. 

I decided to tantalize him a bit, "I thought I could feel you there, but I dunno...  You sure you were trying?"

That egged him on, and Phil tried even harder.  It didn't matter though - there was simply no contest.  "I could do this alllll day." I taunted.  "In fact, I bet..."  I then positioned myself so one of my legs was covering both of his.  "Now try!"

Phil sighed.  He tried, but, even with both of his legs, it was pointless. 

Finally, Phil gave up.  "Well, you did always have stronger legs than me."

"Well, let's not discredit these awesome arms I've built!"  I started before placing my arm across Phil's chest, pinning his entire upper torso.

Without a word, Phil started pushing up.  I could actually feel this, and had to struggle a bit.

"I have to try!?"  I pouted, "No fair!  I wonder if I can..." I started while focusing entirely on activating 'tank mode'.  With enough effort, it worked! 

"Um.... Babe... What's going on..."  Phil murmured.

"Check out my arm!"  I commanded before putting all of my concentration into hulking it out.  Right before his very eyes, my bicep bulged further as blood rushed into it.  The deep peak in the center and the surrounding valleys became more prominent, and the veins running along got huge!  Looking closely, I could literally see the thick blue arteries pumping right before my eyes. 

"Wh-what!?"

"New ability unlocked!  Dawn Hulk!"

Phil tried pushing, but found that he was entirely outmatched.  He gave up, prompting me to giggle again.  "You can make your muscles grow on command?" Phil asked, flabbergasted.

I shook my head, "Not quite, unfortunately.  It seems that my muscles can actually alter themselves for different tasks.  So, when I need to lift something really heavy, they can become bulkier and less mobile.  For instance..."  I brought my arm towards my back, and found that it got stuck in place, "I can't even scratch my back like this!  However..."  I focused on letting go and allowing my arm to return to its normal state; it slowly did so.  "Now I can!"  I demonstrated by taking care of an annoying itch.

"How... how much stronger do you get when you 'hulk' or 'tank' out or whatever you call it."  He asked.

"Mmm, you thinking naughty thoughts already?" I winked, paying mind to his stirring member.  "I'm not exactly sure yet.  I did like, progressively add an extra hundred pounds onto my bench by getting tankier and tankier."  I explained.

"A hundred extra!?  How much can you bench?!"  Phil's eyes were wide and he looked terrified and aroused at the same time - adorable!

"How much do you think I can bench?"

"I dunno... two hundred?  So you hulk up to three?"

I giggled.  "Poor, poor Phil.  Always underestimating me in the worst ways!  My max on the bench press, when hulked out, is 420 pounds."  I explained calmly and proudly.

"But... But..." Phil started, stammering—the poor thing—"My max is 210.  And I've been pushing my body to its limit for months on end.  Carefully performing optimal workouts, eating perfectly, doing everything I can to get ahead..."

"And yet I just ate pizza and lazed around, now I'm twice as strong as you!"  I cheerfully concluded with another giggle.

He let out another defeated sigh.

You might think that I was being really mean to Phil, but in truth, I could see that he was practically getting off of this.  I'm sure he was also frustrated too, but at the very least he was thoroughly enjoying my ascension.  I decided to add to his pleasurable torment, "And let's nor forget that I JUST started working out.  If I was gaining one to two pounds of sheer muscle a week while sedentary... Well, we'll see how much of a difference lifting weights makes.  Spoilers: if those science guys were right, and they've been right about everything so far, then it's going to matter a lot!"

"But..."

"No more buts mister.  Except for your cute one.  And my epic one."  I commanded.   "Just roll with it babe.  Trust me.  The Diesal Dawn gain train has just left the station, and there's no brakes on it!"

(Just how amazing can Dawn become?  Find out in the full version of Equality: Dawn Chapter 2!  Make sure you're pledged before the evening of May 31st to receive this story!  (www.patreon.com/magnusmagneto )

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Preview:
The Proteus Effect - Chapter 5
By MagnusMagneto
Original outline by Corssan1

[This is chapter 5, but you can quickly get caught up by checking out this 'story so far' recap!  http://*****/da7l33u ]

(This is a preview for my upcoming Patreon release: The Proteus Effect Chapter 5.  It's a beefy 3,300 word piece of the full story, which will run at 8,000+ words [average is like 9,000 - sometimes 10k+!].  If you'd like to receive the full story, pledge to my Patreon: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login before the evening of June 28th.  Support on Patreon and Gumroad [ You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ] are the only way I can write as much as I do.  Please strongly consider supporting if you want to see this much content regularly coming out.

Even if you can't support, I hope you do enjoy this preview, as it has a great deal of female muscle descriptions and feats of strength! )


1.) Shortly After Chapter 4

As part of the family effort to afford more time to Camille in preparation of her photo shoot, Selina was begrudgingly washing dishes - a task that Camille typically took care of. 

Eric decided to help Selina with her task, and was standing side by side her in the kitchen.  Despite standing the same height as Eric, Selina was vastly larger.  Her mammoth arms, measuring in the low 20's of inches in their circumference, absolutely dwarfed Eric's which measured around 11 or 12 inches.  The rest of her muscles were proportionately gargantuan when compared to her step-brother's:  huge trunk-legs—

Her body exuded heat without any need for exertion.  Just by standing next to her, Eric could sense the sheer amount of potential energy dormant within those overwhelming limbs. 

And yet... despite her immense size and presence, Eric couldn't help but think about how Selina ultimately seemed comparatively small next to her mother.  Camille had pulled ahead in terms of muscular development in a way that hadn't imagined was possible.  All five of the girls recreated in Live-Sim were superhuman monoliths of feminine power; but for the first few months they all remained relatively competitive with one another in terms of size and strength.  Something shifted however.  Eric hadn't been able to gauge where Chalsey, Julia, and Maya fell on the spectrum, but Camille had definitely surpassed her daughter by a fair margin.

"Ugh! It's just not fair!" Selina exclaimed, "I'm here, washing these stupid dishes, while mom gets to pump her muscles up even more!"  Her lips snarled and she was becoming more visibly agitated by the moment.

"Haven't you already worked out multiple times today?" Eric asked.

"Yeah..."

"It's not like you're really missing out.  Would another workout today actually help you?  I'm pretty sure you've done what you can, just have to eat well and wait."  Eric thought his appeal to logic would sooth his step-sister, but...

Selina's grip on the plate tightened, "I don't know Eric.  I just don't friggan know anymore!  Mom keeps growing faster than me!" The plate shattered in her hand - sending ceramic pieces flying all over the sink "Dammit!" she exclaimed.

"Selina!" Eric exclaimed, "Are you alright?"  Without a second thought, he grabbed onto Selina's hand to inspect it for any shards.  Numerous chunks of glass were deeply lodged within her palm.  "Oh shit, I'll go get a first-aid kit!" 

Selina remained silent.  She hadn't uttered a word, nor let out a cry of pain.  Eric left the kitchen and made his way to the bathroom where he retrieved some bandages and antibiotics.  When he returned, he found that Selina had already picked out of the glass, and was barely bleeding at all.  "Kind of surprised at how little that hurt."  She commented with a chuckle.

Eric drew close and examined the hand - "Remarkable... you barely look hurt at all, but if I had glass lodged that deeply in my hand, I'd probably need to go to the emergency room..."

Selina shrugged.  "I'm a goddess.  You're a mere mortal.  Now tend to my wounds!"

Eric chuckled a bit.  Selina's joke was at his expense, but he was glad to see that she still a sense of humor despite her anger.  "If you're a goddess, then what does that make Camille?" he joked while placing a bandage on the cut.

Selina audibly growled.  Eric remained steadfast and continued his task. 

"Just you wait Eric."  Selina started, "I'm going become so strong, so powerful, so unstoppable, that even my mom looks weak!"

"Sure, yeah.  Pretty sure you've said that like five times now." Eric finished the task at hand, "Alright, you should be good to go.  Want me to handle the rest of the dishes for you?"

"Hmmph!  I can handle such a trivial task, Eric!"

"Jeeze, fine."

Despite her apparent bluster, Eric could tell that Selina was grateful for caring about her injury and his offer to handle the dishes.

-

A few minutes passed by, and the duo nearly finished with handling all of the dishes.

Suddenly a loud rumbling came from behind them.  Eric instantly knew what it was.  "How are my two favorite kids in the world doing?"  Camille's voice boomed cheerfully.

Eric cheerfully turned to greet his step-mother, while Selina hunched further over the sink, clearly not wanting to deal with the larger woman.

Camille had emerged fresh off of a recent workout, and her body was appropriately pumped up as a result.  Camille had come to pack so much mass on her 5'5" frame that Eric was amazed that she was able to function so well.  He figured that as part of whatever force allowed her to become so strong, her body was adapting to holding so much muscle – becoming more flexible as a whole.

The older woman's body was so massive that clothing had become an issue.  She wore an old t-shirt stretched across her upper-half, ripped and tied to strategically act as a makeshift bra.  Despite her efforts to cover up, the bulging array of muscles that comprised her chest - a pair of thick, wide, straited pectorals - each individual half containing three times as much muscle as Eric's entire chest - propped her sizable breasts up so much that their bottom half peaked through underneath the jury-rigged garment, and her nipples were easily visible.

With each measured breath that Camille took, her entire upper half contracted significantly, that massive chest of hers looked like it had become its own living entity from the life pulsing through it. 

"Wow, you look like you really went all out!"  Eric chirped.  "Want me to whip you up a protein shake for your re-feed window?"  A lifetime of curiosity regarding woman and muscles, coupled with direct exposure to specimens like Camille, had led Eric to gain a fair bit of bodybuilding knowledge - even if he would never use it himself.

Camille blinked a couple of times, "Why Eric, I had no idea you knew about that stuff.  But yeah, that would be awesome, thanks!"

Without another word, Eric moved over to the cabinet and started his task.  Selina glared at him, seething with anger.  She was still flabbergasted at how her mother had pulled so far ahead in her training the past few weeks, and hated the way that Eric happily tended to her.  <i>I should be the one with those muscles, and Eric should be serving me instead!</i> she thought to herself.

Eric finished making the shake and delivered it to Camille.  As she reached for the glass, he was confronted by the juxtaposition of her hand - which was smaller than his - and her forearms, which were proportionately staggering, easily thrice the size of his own.  Eric considered stories he read during his research of how people would eventually destroy their tendons and wrists from lifting too heavily; yet Camille seemed entirely unaffected by this.  Similar to his theory about flexibility, he decided that the Live-Sim Five must have enhanced bones, tendons, cardiovascular systems, and so on to accommodate all of their strength.  That would explain why Selina was so unaffected by the cold when she sunbathed before the bodybuilding competition, and how the glass did so little damage to her.

Camille brought the beverage to her lips and drank deeply,  "Mmmm, did you load in extra protein again Eric?" Camille asked in between gulps.

Eric nodded, "You caught me."

Camille continued to drink.

Eric spoke again, "You're a growing girl, so I know you need all of the nutrition you can get."

Camille had finally finished the drink and let out a refreshed 'ahh' before replying: "Oh stop it you.  I'm a 36 year old woman!  And I'm not really in the age bracket for 'growing'."

"Nonsense.  You don't look a day over 20."  Eric's 'game' kicked in.

The older woman couldn't help but giggle and blush a bit in response.  There was some truth to Eric's statement.  Camille looked markedly better than she did before her transformation.  She hadn't actually become younger, but her body was in incredible shape, and her diet had added enough nutrients to make her skin and hair appear more vibrant.  It wouldn't be that unreasonable for someone to mistake her as being a decade younger than she was – especially compared to her peers.

Eric continued, "Plus, you've like tripled your weight in the past few months.  That's definitely some grade-A growth if I've ever seen any!"  His last remark was fairly goofy, but it still worked.  Camille grinned.

"Well, I think most women would scold you for saying such a thing, but in my case... well, I'm glad you noticed!" 

"Right, so we have to make sure you get as much nutrition as you can so you can grow up big and strong, right?"

Camille giggled again, "Oh Eric, you're such a joker."

"What, you don't want to keep getting bigger?"

"Of course I do, you know that."

In truth, all of this talk was getting Eric a bit too excited, so he decided to pivot the conversation,  "By the way - Selina had a bit of an accident, but we have it under control."

Camille suddenly looked extremely worried, "Accident!?  What happened?"

"Nothing mom." Selina finally spoke up, having finished her sulking session.  "I just broke a plate is all."

"Some glass got into her hand," Eric explained, "But there was remarkably little damage done, and she's all bandaged up."

Camille closed the distance to her daughter.  "Come on dear, let me look at it."  Camille drew closer to her daughter, but Selina adamantly kept her hand away.

"No!"  The younger girl snapped, "It's fine.  Really."

"Young lady.  I'm your mother, and if you cut yourself on glass in my household, then I need to make sure you're ok.  Now stop being difficult!"  Camille's desire to become a "#1 mom" was kicking into overdrive – perhaps a bit too much.

"No!"  Selina snarled.

Now Camille was angry.  It was no longer about the injury, but the principle of it.  "Selina."  She snatched the younger girl's hand into her own, "Knock it off young lady."

Selina struggled, trying to escape from her mother's grasp.  Camille tightened her grip and kept her in place.  Both of their arms bulged to massive proportions from the effort being exerted.  Selina, despite so easily shattering that plate earlier, despite her ability to bench press hundreds upon hundreds of pounds, despite dwarfing most men with her musculature, was entirely stopped by her mother's superior strength. 

Camille investigated the hand, "Alright, it does seem everything is alright.  Try to be more careful with the dishes, ok?"

The younger woman snatched her hand away after sensing Camille had loosened her grip.  "It's just not fair!  You keep growing bigger!"  Selina whined, pouting as she stared at her mother's bulging arms.

"Sweetie, it's not a competition.  We're supposed to be supporting each other." Camille swallowed another bite, more nutrition entering her body – more protein that would be converted into muscle – more carbohydrates to keep her going through her excruciating workouts – more vitamins and minerals to keep her looking and feeling great.

"I'm supposed to be the bigger one!  Or at least we should be like the same!" Selina groaned.

"Selina."  Camille's voice grew serious, which was fairly terrifying coming from her hyper muscular body, "To be very blunt, you sound like a spoiled brat right now.  I thought I raised you better than that.  It's not nice to hold others in contempt for doing well for themselves.  You're much stronger than most other people.  You're also still young, and probably aren't fully finished growing.  In due time you'll have muscles like mine."

Selina sighed, "Yeah, sure, whatever."

Both Eric and Camille were glad that the older woman had pulled ahead in terms of strength.  Selina wasn't by any means a bad or evil person, but her selfishness, jealousy, and insane drive to be the best could have a bad outcome coupled with so much strength.  For the time being Camille could keep her daughter in check if needed.  In fact, Camille's superiority seemed to act as a deterrent against Selina doing anything out of line – the younger girl knew her mother was stronger, so she didn't dare act badly.

Selina sulked off to her room, and Eric volunteered to finish the dishes.


2.)

The last few days before the photo shoot went by without much event.  Camille desperately tried to gain as much size and strength as possible before the big day.  Eric ended up doing even more chores around the house to facilitate his step-mother's dreams, and to keep Selina from growing to ornery.  It was a losing battle, because the added time meant Camille could grow even larger, and Selina's sour attitude had actually spoiled her own training, causing her to slow down further.

-

The day of the photo shoot finally came.  Eric was to go with Camille and watch her have photos and videos taken of her incredible body.

Camille was stunning.  She bought a black dress and had it tailored to fit her abnormal body shape, and managed to slip into a pair of fortified high-heels - which brought her height above Eric's by a few inches.  The combination of the small amount of added stature, massive physique, and beautifully styled clothing nearly gave Eric a nosebleed when he first saw her. 

In the car, which now bent to the left due to the weight Camille exerted, she told him a story of how the tailor couldn't believe her body was real.  She noted how she hadn't gotten out of the house much, and wasn't quite ready for the reactions her appearance brought.  Generally she felt they were positive however, and served to add to her confidence.

They reached the location of the photo shoot.  There was simply a single man with camera equipment - a large guy who was a little over 6 feet tall and fairly overweight.  He introduced himself as Mick, and had difficulty keeping his eyes off of Camille.  Secretly, Eric had indulged in the website the man ran, dembiceps.com.  He knew that Mick had interviewed hundreds of models over the years, and for him to be so blown away by Camille was yet another sign at how special she was.

Eager to get things going, Mick started off by recording a video interview.

"So we're here with Camille.  Tell us about yourself." He started the segment.

Camille drew a bit of a blank.  She realized how boring the truth would be.  Still, there was no point in lying, "Hi, I'm Camille Thompson-Anderson, I'm a mother of one."

"We won't put him on the camera unless he wants to be, but I'm guessing that's your son over there?"

"Oh, no.  Yes!  Err...  Well, Eric is my step-son, whom I love very much indeed.  I also have a daughter - a biological one.  Guess by mother of one I meant I had one child, but I take care of two.  Though they're kind of adults now?  It's all a bit weird I guess"  she nervously laughed.  It was cute to Eric that this hypermuscular woman was camera shy.

"I see, I see.  So a bit of a mixed family arrangement?"

"Yup!"

"That's good.  So... What do you do Camille?"

"Oh, well, you know... I maintain the house.  Keep everything going.  That sort of thing."

"So you're a housekeeper.  That's good.  You must exercise a lot to keep that body of yours.  Speaking of which, would you like to show off a bit?"

"Yes!  I lift weights a few times a day actually."  Camille turned a quarter to the side, brought her arm halfway up, and flexed - replicating a bodybuilder pose she had seen a few times.

"Wow, that is just amazing.  You work out a few times a day you said?" Mick replied.

"Oh yeah.  I push my whole body to its limits.  Usually in the morning, afternoon, and evening.  The sessions usually take an hour or two, so it's a lot of time, but I think the results are worth it!"  Camille turned her back to the camera and spread her lats out, the sprawling web of muscle presenting itself for a future audience to behold.

"That's... a very unconventional approach, but I do have to admit that the results don't lie."

Camille giggled a bit before turning back around.

Mick continued, "Good, good.  So, did you have an athletic background growing up?"

Camille shook her head, "Nope!"

"So... what got you into weight lifting, when did you start training?  You must have been at it for at least ten years, right?"

Camille laughed, "Are you trying to mess with me?  Very flattering, but no.  I started working out..." she turned to Eric, "When was it honey?  Oh, right, about four or five months ago."  Camille extended her right leg, allowing her colossal quadricep to bunch up, rippling to life.

The camera shook a bit as Mick tried to recover from what he heard, "Surly you must be joking..."

"Nope!"  Camille cheerfully exclaimed as she turned to reveal her calf, which was similar to a bowling-ball in size, with a huge diamond-like carve to its shape.

Mick still didn't believe her exertion, but didn't want to press the issue too far.  "Alright, so, you started working out fairly recently.  What's it like?  Are you as strong as you look?"

"Oh yeah, I'm super strong!  I do have to admit that all of this muscle really helps around the house.  Why, just the other day I was doing some vacuuming and on a lark lifted up the couch to finally get all of that stubborn dust underneath!"  Camille giggled, flexing her arms a few times for emphasis, the unreal balls of muscle dancing in response. 

"Speaking of those arms, how about we measure them on camera?  I bet the viewers can't believe they're real.  No offense intended."

Camille giggled, "alright, sounds like fun!"

Mick retrieved a measuring tape and brought it over to Camille.  They struggled to get the tape around her massive arm, but with a combined effort managed.  It read just a little below 30 inches, but Mick still declared "Looks like 30 to me!".

After putting the tape away, Mick resumed asking questions, "So... what do you think is your strongest feature?"

"Ah, my strongest feature?  Well, probably a little cliche, but probably the bad boys you just measured!"

"I don't think it's cliche in your case considering those are the largest biceps I've ever seen on a woman."  Mick explained.

"Really?" Camille replied, genuinely surprised, "I don't buy it.  I think you're just trying to flatter me!"

"N-No, really.  I don't think there's ever been a woman with 30 inch arms that were all muscle before.  Not until now at least."

"Well, I'll have to keep my friend and daughter away from you then so I can stay in the spotlight." Camille laughed.  "Say...  Only 30 inches?" She started again, "Sounds kind of small when you say it out loud.  Maybe we can do something about that...  You got anything actually heavy around here Mick?" 

The host scratched his head, "Unfortunately not.  I brought a few small things for you to test your strength with, but no weights or anything."

"Well, mind if I use you?"

"Excuse me?"

"I'll use you as a weight, how's that?"

"Err... sure, alright."

Mick placed the camera on a tripod.  Camille walked over, placed her comparatively small hand on his bottom, and with one motion hoisted him into the air.  "See!  Not too tough at all!"  She announced before pressing her arm down and back up, still holding onto the host; her bulbous shoulder grew larger, becoming engorged with blood from the effort.  Her back and triceps also flared out, erupting with newfound vitality.

Camille swapped Mick's weight to her other hand, and continued using him as a massive dumbbell.  "Say, how much do you weigh anyways?" 

"I'm well over 200 pounds..."

"Yeah, that's a bit too light to really challenge me."  Camille explained,  "Oh well, I guess some pump is better than no pump." 

As Eric watched his step-mother lift this man and use her as a living weight, he felt something strange: envy.  He was actually envious that step-mother was giving attention to this strange man and that he got to experience her strength first hand like that.  Eric lived with Camille, and had daily brushes with her might, but nothing like this.  It concerned him that he felt this way, but he couldn't deny it.

After using Mick as a shoulder press weight for a dozen repetitions on each arm, Camille finally put him back down on his feet.

"We have a few other tools to test your strength, if you're interested."  He explained.

"You know it!  Let's do this!" Camille cheerfully responded.




(See the rest of the interview and much more in the full chapter of Proteus Effect 5!  Catch an extremely spicy scene with Chalsey, and yet another with Julia!  Tons of female muscle, descriptions, and feats of strength to come!  Support me writing so much and get awesome content at:  You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login  These pledges are truly the only way I can write as much as I do!  Be pledged before the evening of June 28th to receive the full story)

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Preview:
PowerCore - Chapter 4
By MagnusMagneto

[New to the series?  No problem!  Check out the extensive recap here:  http://*****/da7reme )

(This is a preview of my upcoming Patreon release: PowerCore Chapter 4!  It's a very spicy vertical slice of the full story, featuring a ton of growth!  I highly encourage everyone to check it out, regardless of whether they will be supporting the full release.  If you like what you see, and you want to help me write as much as I do, please pledge to my Patreon:  You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login before the evening of June 29th. )

[The full version of the story will have an intro chapter involving Kristi's parents, and Kristi performing various tasks around the house with her super powers making them all extremely easy.  This preview kicks in a bit later, and focuses on a lengthy exchange between Kristi and her brother, Josh.]

[Any resemblance to real life products, characters, stories, and so on is satirical in nature or a coincidence.]

[A caveat I'll be adding to my stories with teenage characters:  Kristi is 16, and has been thrust into an outrageously supernatural situation.  Her brother is only a few years older, and has to react to it.  Remember that teenagers can be a bit dramatic!]


2.)  In the House's Basement - Josh's Designated Game Room

Josh was sprawled over a large oak table.  It was adorned with myriad plastic figures, buildings, and miniature terrain - all recreating an elaborate battleground.  To the untrained eye, it may have seemed like simple children's' toys, but these figures cumulatively cost hundreds of dollars, and their average owner was in their late 20's.  At 19, Josh was a bit younger, but he was still thoroughly an adult man.  Similar to Kristi before her ascension, Josh was tall and lanky, standing at 6'2" at around 150 pounds.  He was bespectacled, wore a goatee, a loose fitting jeans and t-shirt, and had a bit of a hunch to his posture.

Flanking him on the other side of the room was Kristi's staggering figure.  All 6'6" of her, with more than 300 pounds of muscle (power flowing through her body added even more weight, so Kristi was unsure of exactly how heavy she was) utterly dwarfed her once larger brother.

"'Sup Josh?"  Kristi greeted casually.

Josh seemed nervous.  "Not too much..."

He had been conspicuously quiet upon Kristi's arrival, and seemed to be avoiding her, retreating to his comfortable cave of hand-painted battalions, book shelves of fantasy novels, and a television with video game consoles.  She understood why Josh enjoyed the game in front of him so much - a tabletop battling title called HammerWar 50 Million; he was stuck living at home while he attended community college, and it was one of the few things he could comfortably go out and do with friends.  He also generally loved games and was quite good at this one.

Kristi always had a passing interesting in HammerWar, the figurines captured her imagination, and the rules systems intrigued her.  She had tried playing with Josh a few times before, but it never really worked out.  There was simply too much going on for Kristi to learn.  With enough effort she could have figured it out, but she was too busy trying to improve her grades and athletic prowess to dedicate enough time.

"I don't know how long my vacation will last, or what the future holds.  I dunno if you read the reports, but I was pretty close to a nuclear reactor that was melting down - literally shielding it with my energy powers.  If my strength gave out, or my teammate hadn't been so good at absorbing energy... I'm not sure what would have happened to me."  She shuddered.

Josh remained silent.

Kristi continued, "Point is, I just thought we should have some quality brother and sister time.  I don't think I'm going to die or anything, but, even though I'm young I'm not going to stop putting myself in harm's way if it helps save people.  So who knows?"

"Alright."  Josh was surprised by how mature Kristi seemed.  She always had a fairly mature personality, but it had been developed further since then.  He figured that being exposed to unfathomable power and saving thousands of lives granted her some perspective.  "What do you have in mind?"  He was still feeling a wide mixture of emotions, bu t he'd try to stay on her good side.

"Let's play some HammerWar 50 Mil."  Kristi offered with a grin, referring to the figures on the table. "I'll use your guest army - or we could even draft an army if you're up for it?"

The game required each player to have an 'army' to face off with.  The armies had a 'point limit', and each individual figure was assigned a number of points that it would take from this total - generally, stronger units used more points.  Part of the strategy to the game was creating an optimal army for the number of alloted points.  Drafting an army would have each player take turns picking units until they reached their point cap.

"Kristi... You know we've discussed how complicated this game is.  Remember the last time you wanted to play?"  Josh was still apprehensive.  This bothered Kristi, but she understood that it must have been difficult to be around someone was mind-bogglingly powerful as her - especially when that someone was your dorky little sister.

Despite this, she found the quip to be fairly insulting."What, are you saying I'm too stupid to play?  You DO know that the PowerCore makes my mind work faster too, right?"

"Yeah, sure.  I'm not saying you're too dumb, just that there's a ton of rules.  That's why you gave up last time, you'd have to spend hours studying just how to play."

Kristi shrugged.  "I think I can handle that now.  Where's the main rulebook?" 

Josh picked up a hefty tome sitting next to him - it contained hundreds of pages.  Kristi floated over to him, which caused his eyes to widen a bit.  The closer she drew, the more of her muscular visage filled his view.  He still felt cognitive dissonance with the fact that this was supposed to be Kristi.  The same Kristi who was even skinnier than him.  The same Kristi who his family had to specially tailor clothing so it could flatteringly fit her flat, formless shape. 

But this figure...  huge, towering, bulging with massive muscle, was literally the largest human being he had ever witnessed in person.  In fact, he was certain that Kristi was the largest female Core Member - edging out even Firebird. He was actually even drawing a blank of what male Core members were bigger.  She definitely surpassed that loser Carlos in his prime. Then again... Firebird did seem larger than usual in the footage from the recent city disaster.  Josh was tempted to ask Kristi a flurry of questions about The Core, but was also too shy to do so.

Regardless, Kristi was definitely larger than Firebird was a few days ago.  Accentuating this point, Kristi's clothes barely fit at all.  The over-sized flannel shirt stretched and tied around her ample bosom did little to cover Kristi's form, instead it served a reminder of how broad, expansive, and overwhelming her upper torso was.  Her jean shorts were entirely ineffective, the full length of her long, bulging quadriceps—cords of muscular definition criss-crossing along the top of them—  were entirely visible.  Needless to say, the full expanse of her washboard torso was on display as well: a network of intimidating muscles arranged in a fashion reminiscent of a chiseled stone statue, which had the overall shape of a hyper-exaggerated V; thick jutting veins ran across every visible surface, serving as a reminder to the superhuman definition Kristi's muscles possessed. 

In summary, Kristi failed to cover up with her choice of clothing.

And why should she?  What need for modesty did a goddess possess?  Kristi could do anything, and only a select few individuals on plant Earth could hope to challenge her.

Josh wanted to reach out and touch the mass of muscle in front of him.  He wanted to see just how hard and full of energy her arms were.  To see if her skin was still soft, or if it had become rougher, or perhaps somehow softened further.  He imagined flying through the air on her back, or perhaps in her arms, soaring in the clouds and witnessing exotic landscapes firsthand.  Josh secretly wanted to see Kristi go all out, to train until she was exhausted, destroying a mountain range in the process; or facing off against a villain with similar powers, overcoming them by growing even more mighty.

Kristi was a living mythological figure, and Josh had submerged himself in a world of comics, books, and video games his entire life.  He had literally dreamed of being around a woman like this.

But that was all too weird.  This was his <i>sister</i>.  He grew up with her.  He vaguely remembered the day she was born.  He was there for her terrible twos.  To see Kristi like this, and to have these curiosities bothered Josh to no end.  If only it were any girl <i>other</i> than Kristi (well, not perhaps his mother - that would be even more awkward).  Then again, he likely wouldn't have the courage to approach a different girl at all anyways.  It was a conundrum that was eating Josh up to no end.

Finally, Kristi snapped him out of his stupor,  "Hey, bro, you done staring at me?"  She giggled,  "I mean, I get it.  It's pretty crazy to think this is me, so I won't hold it against you, but yeah, you're a bit obvious right now."

"Oh.  Sorry.  It's just you're so..."  Josh was at a loss for words.

"Big?  Strong?  Powerful?  Awesome?!"  Kristi finished for him, giggling again.  Kristi and her brother had generally got along on good terms all of their lives, but weren't above teasing one another.

"Yeah.  Honestly.  It's a lot to take in, you know?"

Kristi nodded.  "Believe me, I know better than anyone.  Hey, want to see me get even bigger?"  she asked with a hint of mischief in her voice.

"B-bigger?"

"Oh yeah."

"I certainly can't stop you, can I?  Do what you want."

"Well, I just performed this trick for mom and dad earlier, but, you deserve a show too."  Kristi placed her hands on her hips and concentrated on absorbing more of the PowerCore's might into her massive body.  Right on cue, she felt a surge of power flooding into her, and every muscle on her frame began to tremble. 

Josh felt chills run down his spine - was his sister really going to become even more powerful right before his very eyes?  That easily?  With that little effort involved?

His question was promptly answered.  Kristi let out a soft groan and all of her muscles began to swell to larger heights.  "Oof, this is a bigger spurt than last time.." She murmured before floating onto her back, stretching her out limbs and softly moaning again.  "This is... way more power than last time..." she explained as her entire body began to glow slightly from the sheer amount of energy flooding into her.

Kristi's limbs, outstretched, lengthened further as her body gained stature to help accommodate the ongoing transformation.  Her pencil-thick veins, running across her muscles, began to pulsate, glowing with pure supernatural power as her muscles continued to feed from them, growing ever larger.

On a surface level, Kristi wasn't entirely positive what was causing such a massive influx of power.  Subconsciously however, she wanted to impressive her big brother - something that had been a recurring goal for Kristi all of her life; and the PowerCore was more than willing to assist.

Kristi's growth soon took its toll on her clothing.  Her top, already threadbare from previous abuse, ripped, filling the air with the sound of splitting fibers; her jean-shorts soon followed.  After another surge of muscular development, the garments fell off of her floating body, landing on the ground.  All that remained on her otherwise naked form was an extra-stretchy black thong—which covered almost no-percent of her massive, globes of gluteorial power—and a pair of thin  stretches of black fabric covering her nipples, a backup in case Kristi outgrew her clothing.  In truth, Kristi's immense pectorals eliminated the need for traditional bra support.

One last groan, louder than the others, preceded a final growth spurt, which was concentrated entirely in her muscles.  Her biceps, nearing the size of a human head, developed an immense split within their peak, deep enough that someone could physically lodge their fingers within and grab onto half of the muscle.  Her shoulders—now larger than bowling balls—had similar ridges adorning them, also deep enough for one to place their pointer finger within and find it flanked by walls of deltoidal power.  Kristi's hips and breasts had similarly grown.  This change conferred no benefit in terms of physical power, but the subconscious force directing the transformation likely desired for Kristi to remain physically appealing, or perhaps become even more so.  Her proportions became more exaggerated, better matching an overdeveloped comic book character rather than a human being.  Fitting, given Core Conduits were essentially living super heroes.

At last Kristi's growth ceased.  She gently levitated back onto her feet.  Because of her newly developed height, her head drew dangerously close to the game room's modest seven-foot ceiling.  The silhouette projected from the light shining on her body threatened to eclipse half of the wall behind her. 

What truly shook Josh to his core was how Kristi took up so much space, both literally and metaphysically.  The sheer energy she posses ed—outwardly projected through an aura of overwhelming confidence, backed by unfathomable strength—was nearly suffocating for Josh to behold.  Worse yet - Kristi's mere existence threatened to take more, to become more, to continue growing.  Nothing could stop her, and if something threatened to, Kristi would merely overcome it.  Both of the teens knew this to be true.

"That... that was... how did you?" Josh sputtered.

"I just wanted more.  So I took it."  Kristi explained bluntly.  "Are you ok with my lack of clothing?  I can try to grab something to put on if you want; my privates are still technically covered though."

"It's fine.  We've accidentally seen each other naked before." What Josh failed to add, and what both were thinking, was that the new Kristi in front of him had almost nothing physically in common with the Kristi he was referring to.  Only their general facial structure remained the same, and even that had transformed considerably.  Kristi was, undeniably, far more beautiful now than back then.  "I guess my question is," Josh continued, "Why would you stop?  Why not just keep taking more and more power?"  he asked.

Kristi shrugged, the mere action causing a complicated network of ultra-developed muscles to shift and dance, causing an audible sound similar to leather stirrups stretching.  "It's complicated.  If I keep pulling from the PowerCore, it becomes harder, like shooting too much water out of a water hose.  I find that it's best to take a bit here and there, though sometimes in a pinch I'll pull with everything I've got.  I think I've got the right idea, 'cause it hasn't let me down yet!"  She explained with a warm smile.

Brother and sister stared at each other, vaguely perplexed by what had just happened.  Kristi had experienced a few growth spurts, but that was one of the most intense she had to date - yet there was no danger, no stressor, nor any other catalyst she could think of to justify it.

Kristi took a step forward, the entire floor shook from the combination of her weight and the immense power behind her stride.  "Woops!"  She exclaimed before cursing, "Dammit!" under her breath - the meek teenager beneath the muscular veneer of her body peeking out.  "Believe it or not, I actually have to spend a ton of effort to not... destroy everything.  I was actually already holding back big time, but I STILL underestimated that growth spurt."

Josh blinked a couple of times.  "Well come on now, you can't just say something like that and not elaborate on it further."

Kristi chuckled, "Alright, fair point."  She started, "I'm sure you already have an idea of what I'm getting at though.  Consider that I could lift a skyscraper overhead single-handed... a few days ago.  And now I'm stronger than that.  A lot stronger.  Honestly, I don't know how strong I am currently, but it's probably least twice what I was then.  Sooooooo, if one hand can lift like, what, 500,000 tons overhead?  And my legs are even more powerful?  Well, I'm sure you can quickly imagine that a single unrestrained stomp could probably destroy the house.  Let's not test that theory though."

She collected herself and took another step, this time producing very little pressure at all on the ground.  "Whew, glad I got that sorted out."  She explained before closing the distance to Josh. 

Kristi positively towered over her older brother, standing a full head taller than him; her upper and lower halves were roughly three times broader than his, and her waist was only 50% wider.  "So, you wanna feel?"  She offered before leaning down presenting an arm, and tensing it, the massive mound of muscle erupting as a result.

"N-no thanks."  Josh lied.  In truth he really wanted to feel it.  But he knew that for the time being, he needed to keep his mind on other things.  "What were we doing again?"  Josh asked, still bewildered.

"I was going to learn the rules to HammerWar." Kristi explained, standing back up, a little hurt that her brother seemed disinterested in squeezing her bicep.

"Right."

He finally handed the book to his sister, goosebumps returning to his skin as he noticed how much larger Kristi's hand was than his own as the tome exchanged grips.  It made sense.  She had a much larger body, and keeping her hands from nearly one foot of height prior likely would have made things difficult.  But this was his <i>little sister</i>, yet she was now larger, stronger, and more powerful than him on a scale that his mind couldn't truly comprehend.

Surely there was some chink in her armor, some small thing he could still beat her in?  For the time being, HammerWar seemed to be his best option.




(How will the game play out?  What other powers and abilities will Kristi unlock during her vacation?  How will her relationship with her brother Josh develop?  All this and more in the full version of PowerCore Chapter 4!  If you want to support and receive this release, please pledge to my Patreon: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login before the evening of June 29th )

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Preview:
The Proteus Effect - Chapter 6
By MagnusMagneto
Special Thanks and Original Outline by Corssan

[New to the series or missed an installment?  No problem!  Get caught up with The Story So Far here:  http://*****/da7l33u ]

(This is a preview of my upcoming Patreon story: The Proteus Effect Chapter 6.  It is a 3000+ word chunk of content with a good deal of muscle descriptions.  This is only approximately 30% of the full story, which will have many feats of strength, spicy dialogue, and even more femmuscle goodness!

To receive the full story, and support me writing as much as I do, please pledge to my patreon at the at the $4+ tier before the evening of October 29th!  You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

Even if you cannot support me, I hope you still enjoy this piece of femmuscle content!)

1.)

The time had come for Eric's weekend with Maya.  He had no idea what to expect, but at the very least he could run reconnaissance on how much she had transformed since their last encounter.

It was strange: Eric was... nervous?  He combed his hair again, double-checking that he had it just right.  Eric never put effort like this into his appearance, so why was he trying now?  He sprayed some cologne given to him on a birthday - it had been unused since. 

And should he give her a gift?  Was this a date?  Why would he be going on a date with Maya of all people?  She was almost twice his age...  Though they were both technically adults...  Well, Eric certainly didn't want to show up to his first date without a present.  Then again, were you even supposed to actually give a gift on a first date, or was that just a Hollywood cliche?

Eric's mind was aflutter with these thoughts as he constantly second-guessed himself.  His phone started vibrating - it was Maya, telling him that she was here.

With no more time to lose, Eric rummaged through the pantry and retrieved a few high-quality chocolates wrapped in tin foil.  Surely this would be a fine gift?

Afraid of making Maya wait any longer, he scurried outside.

Unsurprisingly, Maya had brought an extremely high-end sports car.  Its windows were tinted so darkly that Eric couldn't peer into them.  As he approached the passenger side of the vehicle, his stomach churned as he tried to envision what Maya would look like.  Could she possibly be on Camille's level?  Or maybe she shrunk since their last visit?  Anything seemed possible. 

At last he opened the door.  Maya was, in a word: big.  She was wearing a bizarre outfit that revealed most of her skin.  The massive collection of muscle on her frame consumed a startling amount of space in the vehicle; massive, gourd-sized deltoids flanked the opposite ends of her seat - her thick back sprawled close to the half-way point between the driver and passenger chairs; titanic tree-trunk thighs covered the entirety of her seat, and Eric couldn't see the car's pedals due to their sheer girth. 

Upon further examination, Eric realized that the driver side of the vehicle was tilted downward, likely due to Maya's weight.

"Well lover boy, you getting in or not?" Maya asked with her trademark laugh.

Wordlessly, Eric entered the car and shut the door.

He continued to examine the immense woman next to him, and eventually came the conclusion that she was even bigger than Camille.  How such a thing was possible baffled Eric.  He had previously theorized that his close connection to Camille was empowering her more than the other girls, but Maya's sheer size trumped this belief. 

And... Eric wasn't sure how, but Maya's breasts had certainly grown even larger.  They were massive: easily the largest he had ever seen on woman in person - at least one with otherwise low body fat.  All of the women Eric recreated in Live-Sim had incredibly impressive hourglasses, but Maya left them all behind in that category.

Maya's outfit was bewildering for Eric to behold.  Her supremely muscular body was covered in what his mind could only label as a 'female genie costume'. 

"So, are you going to greet me or just stare?" Maya asked with a giggle.

"I.. Sorry.  Hey Maya."

"Hey Maya?  That's it?  Come on Eric, you've got to do better than that if you're going to woo a lady!" The older woman admonished in a playful tone.

"Uhm, oh yeah, I brought you this."  Eric retrieved the wrapped chocolates and presented them to her.  He could feel that they had melted slightly in his pocket, and his embarrassment worsened.

Maya gave a look of legitimate surprise, and couldn't stop herself from bursting out into laughter. 

This in turn made Eric blush even more deeply, and a sweat broke out on his forehead.

"Sorry."  Maya finally collected herself.  "I just...  Whew."  She wiped a tear born of humor from her eye, "Look.  Sweetie.  I appreciate it, but...  Well, for starters, a gift on the first date is trying a bit hard.  Also this isn't really a date.  And... on top of all that, this isn't really... um, the kind of thing you want to present.  You know?"

"R-right."

"It's fine though.  Cheer up.  Unwrap those suckers and feed 'em to me!" Maya demanded.

Not wanting to disappoint Maya even more, Eric hastily unwrapped the first chocolate, his fingers trembling slightly in the process.  Why was he so nervous?  He was supposed to be practicing his 'game', and becoming smoother with the ladies!  Wasn't that what his Live-Sim counterpart was like anyways?

It didn't matter.  Maya was downright overwhelming, especially in the close proximity of her car.  Eric realized that it was really warm in the vehicle, and it wasn't just his nervousness; Maya was doubtlessly radiating heat - a great amount of it.  And she smelled... really good.  Eric had read conflicting reports on how effective human pheromones truly were, but one way or another, Maya's scent was causing Eric's head to spin with pleasure.

At last he managed to unwrap the chocolate.  Maya opened her mouth in a startlingly sensual fashion, eagerly awaiting the treat.  Her teeth shined so brightly that they were almost painful to stare at.  Maya's lips were fuller than any pair he had seen before, and brilliantly ruby red.  Eric gulped before finally bringing the chocolate up to her mouth, gently placing it in the awaiting opening.  She wrapped her lips around the chocolate in such a gentle and dominating fashion that Eric couldn't help but immediately be drawn to lewd thoughts.  With slow, deliberate motions she chewed the gift, letting out a thrilling groan of pleasure.

"Dee-lish!" she announced with a small amount of chewed up chocolate still in her mouth, before finally swallowing the rest.

"G-glad you like it..." Eric sheepishly replied.

"What do you think Eric?  Can I eat another?  Or will I risk spoiling my... girlish figure?" she asked with a thrilling giggle - the mere sound of which sent chills down Eric's spine.

"I... I... I think you'll be fine..." Eric nervously replied as he started to unwrap another.

"Oh heavens Eric.  Calm down.  I'm just your mother's friend, remember?" Maya said with a wink.

Game time Eric, come on, step it up! He thought to himself.  "Oh, I'm sure it would just go to your muscles anyways."

Maya smirked, "You're still no James Bond, but hey, decent recovery that time."  She cleared her throat, "I dunno Eric, is that what you want?  For my big, bulging muscles to become even more overwhelmingly powerful?"

"I think it would be a real shame if they didn't."  Eric managed to say in a smooth tone without muddling any words - all the while unwrapping another chocolate.

"Mmm, then you better feed me that!" Maya purred.

Eric complied, and as he drew closer, was once again taken aback by the sheer level of beauty Maya possesed.  Despite seeing young women in their prime almost every day at school, and living with both Selina and Camille - who were both very good looking, Maya was a on new level entirely.

After she finished sensually consuming the second candy, Eric spoke up:  "Uhm.  Sorry if this is rude to ask...  But are you wearing makeup and lipstick?"  he asked.

"Why Eric!  How uncouth of you!  Asking a lady such a thing."  Maya acted in an exaggerated fashion, puffing her massive chest out and turning away from Eric, leaving her overwhelming back on full display.

"Oh, um..." Eric was back to bumbling mode.

Maya playfully left him in suspense for a few moments before finally replying: "However, you get a pass this time - solely because I am indeed not wearing makeup nor lipstick.  Unless you're implying that I need to?" she raised a brow.

"No, no!  Not at all!  It's just..."

"Just what?"  Maya closed the distance between them slightly, her sheer presence overwhelming Eric slightly.

"You just look really good is all."

"Mmm.  That's what I like to hear.  Now how about you slip me that last chocolate?"  Maya giggled.

Eric did as she said, this time without any anxiety or hesitation.  As the treat met her lips, Maya enveloped them around his finger, and playfully gave him a small nibble.  The unexpected sensation of Maya's warm mouth and tongue thrilled Eric beyond compare. 

"Careful, I bite."  Maya winked before wrapping her tongue around the chocolate and eating it.

After swallowing the final treat, Maya cleared her throat and said: "Tell me Eric.  What in particular do you enjoy about my beauty?" it was a flamboyant and almost narcissistic question - which was perfectly fitting of Maya.

"Ah... Err... Well, for one thing, your skin... It's like, glowing." Eric barely managed to explain.

"Mmm.  You noticed.  I'm glad."  Maya replied with a smirk.

"Even Camille and Selina aren't like that..." He added.

"Good." She winked. 

"But why?  All three of you are, you know, getting all super buff...  And they look a bit prettier as well - but you...  Uh, well you know."

"I do know.  As for why I've had these changes and the others haven't."  Maya shrugged, a huge collection of sharp traps rose behind her neck, "Not sure.  Best theory is all the super foods and supplements I usually take are having a greater effect."

"Hmmm..."  Eric thought out loud.  It was a reasonable enough explanation, but it didn't quite sit with him well.

"Anyways, are you ready to get this show on the road?" Maya asked, revving the engine of the car, causing a tremendous roar that caught Eric off guard and startled him.

"Yeah, let's do it."


2.)

Maya drove fast, pushing the capabilities of the high-end car.  On the surface, her maneuvers seemed reckless as she swerved to and fro, changing lanes without hesitation.  Eric quickly realized that her moves were quite calculated, which he would later reflect on as an apt metaphor for Maya's life as a whole. 

"So where are we going anyways?" Eric asked.

"You know...  I'm not sure.  I just wanted to get out of your step-mother's sight before I step out of the car."  Maya explained, aggressively shifting between lanes to pass the cars around them.

"I see."  Eric immediately understood this meant that she and Camille hadn't made up since the incident during their last visit.  He realized that it was probably for the best that Camille hadn't caught a glimpse of the massive blonde, as it doubtlessly would have infuriated her to see that Maya had somehow surpassed her.

"Ah, right, I'm not sure how it slipped my mind..."  Maya started,  "But there is a reason for my dress today, beyond just looking fabulous of course."  Maya started, "I decided that for our little visit, I would grant you three wishes."

"Three wishes?"

"Yup!  I'm a genie after all!" Maya giggled fiendishly.  For all of her strength, wealth, and power, Maya was still as childish and playful as ever.

"What... kind of wishes?"

"Whatever your heart desires!  Well... they have to be possible.  I can't actually cast any magic.  Yet." Maya clarified.

"Oh... alright..." Eric stared blankly.  He was having difficulty parsing the outlandish scenario.

"That's it?  An ultra amazonian babe is here literally granting you three wishes and you can only muster up 'oh, alright'?" Maya asked with false outrage before laughing, "Just how difficult is it to wow you?"

"Sorry, I just.  Okay.  This is a lot to take in, you know?"

"It's fine.  Now then, how about that first wish?"

Eric's eyes widened a bit,  "I really don't know Maya, I honestly haven't thought-"

"Sure you have!"  Maya interrupted,  "Everyone has wishes.  What do you want?"

"I mean, I have some crazy ones that would require magic, like getting super powers and whatnot..."

In truth, Eric already had a large dose of wish fulfillment already: five of the closest women in his life becoming hyper muscular women, and each of which displayed some level of interest in him as a person.

"Well, you MUST have some that can be accomplished with money, or with...  POWER!"  She flexed her free arm for emphasis.

Despite the distraction of the conversation and her motions, Maya still managed to continue driving safely at a very high speed.

"Really Maya, I don't-"

"Come on Eric!  Make a wish already!"

"I don't know what to wish for..."

"Have some fun!  You have THREE wishes after all.  Make the first one about you!  Be selfish!  I won't judge!"

"Are you sure?"

"I'm always sure."  The confidence in Maya's voice won Eric over.

Eric took a moment to think.  "Shouldn't I be selfless with it?"

"Oh for frig's sake.  Make it selfish, for my own sake, okay?"  Maya chided.

"Alright..."  Eric pondered for a few more seconds before it hit him,  "Well... hmm.  I got my driver's license last year, but can't really afford a car.  Can't get to any jobs without a car...  And parents are too strapped for me to borrow from them.  Can't really use the family's car either."  Eric explained in a quasi stream of consciousness manner.

"So... just say that you wish for a car, silly!"

"Are... you sure?"

Maya laughed.  "That's on the low end of the wishes I planned for.  Go for it!"

Eric shrugged.  "Well, if you say so.  Uhm.  I wish for a car?"  He asked, intoning it as a question.

"Wish..." Maya intentionally paused, audibly grunted, and tensed her pecs - causing her entire chest to swell up, and her breasts to rise several inches higher; and as she tightened her muscles she declared, "Granted!" the last syllable matching with her breasts' highest elevation.

"Wuh... what?"

"Oh, I was trying to do a thing where I'm a muscle genie - I grant a wish by flexing."  She explained, then immediately burst into laughter, "I realize how stupid that was."

"No, it's not stupid.  I'm just kind of confused by all of this."

"Yeah.  Unfortunately I can't actually summon a car, instead we have to head to the closest dealership.  Let's go!"  Maya shifted the car into an even higher gear and sped off.


3.)

After a brief and uneventful car ride spent mostly in silence, Maya and Eric arrived at the car dealership.  As they exited the vehicle, and Maya stood at her full height, Eric was able to truly take in the extent of her development.

Maya had always been a couple of inches taller than Eric, and Maya was, of course, wearing very large pumps—no doubt custom made to accommodate her growing mass—which Eric estimated to have added at least 4 inches to her stature.  In addition to this, the sheer mass of musculature on her frame bulged outward so much that she appeared to be another inch or so taller.  As a result of all this, she physically towered over Eric.

"You like?" Maya asked, soaking in Eric's bewildered stare.

Eric nodded, still too overwhelmed to properly speak.

"Had a feeling you would." Maya continued with a chuckle, "In fact, I was so certain, I've trained extra hard the past few days to make sure I was as large and in-charge as possible!"

Maya's hips had inexplicably grown wider as well; she now would have been heralded as a goddess of fertility by ancient civilizations.  Naked, Maya's hourglass ratio would have been more exaggerated than that of any other woman Eric ever laid eyes on; but her outfit intentionally flared outward on her hips, giving the illusion of an even wider bottom half

She took a few long strides towards Eric; even with legs thicker than tree trunks, Maya was still surprisingly swift and graceful.  Before long, Eric's entire vision was almost completely filled with Maya's bulging form; and he found himself entirely incapable of focusing on anything other than her.

Maya took in a deep breath, her vast chest expanding even further outward.  Eric realized that Maya's lungs and circulatory system must have all similarly improved in order to accommodate her immense musculature. 

She placed her hands behind her head - at least as best as her massive biceps would allow her to; a vast network of tendons underneath her arms rippled to sight, and her flaring lats gave the appearance of deep fleshy pockets that exuded dominance.  Deliberately, Maya began to bounce her pecs, one at a time, causing her prodigious boobs to rise and fall as a result.  She began to perform tricks with them, keeping one ascended for a few seconds before lifting the other; allowing them to freely dance at a slow pace - then increasing it to a fever pitch - before abruptly halting altogether, causing her bosom to undergo one final jump.

Maya bent over and performed a most-muscular pose - the thick, deep array of ridges in her pectorals bulged forward; Maya's pectorals reminded Eric of a coat of platemail armor from a video game.

"It's not just my boobs that can dance."  Maya said before leaning back up and transitioning into a belly-dance movement.

As Maya swiveled her hips, the vast expanse of muscular bricks in her midsection exploded to life - bulging and rippling to and fro.  It was here that Eric noticed that even her ribs appeared more pronounced than before her transformation - in fact, they appeared to be thicker than in the picture from the beach she sent last year.  Eric inferred that her bones must have been growing and hardening as well to support her added muscle mass; this concept thrilled Eric for reasons he didn't fully understand.

"But, I'll give you what you're really waiting for."  Maya stood up straight, and a moment later brought her right arm up, preparing to properly flex it.

The mass of muscle attached to Maya's arm should not have been possible.  As she tensed it, a ridiculous ball of powerful flesh woke to life, detaching itself from its lower half and ascending to greatness; the overall circumference of the arm increased by at least 5 inches as the muscle jumped up to life.  It was doubtlessly larger than Maya's head, and was somehow thicker than Eric's waist.

"Thirty five inches.  At least that's what they were this morning.  Maybe you can coax them to grow a little more, hmm?"

Eric merely stared, his jaw agape.

Maya literally poked her right bicep using the index finger on the same hand.  "I'm like a cartoon character or something!" she giggled.  "Come on Eric, give it a feel!"  Maya bent down and placed the arm right in front of Eric's grasp.

He obeyed, and found that both of his hands together could not cover even half of the muscle's total circumference.  The skin covering the tremendous muscle was even softer than that of Camille or Selina's, and it was certainly no less dense than his step-mother's.  In fact, while the exact hardness of the limb felt similar, Maya's bicep seemed to exude more heat and potential energy – something Eric naively chalked up to the blonde's fiery personality.

After lingering for a few moments, Eric finally withdrew his hand.

Maya started talking again, "I hope I can get a little taller or something though.  It's almost impossible to scratch my back, among other logistical difficulties."  She explained with a sigh.

The thought of Maya adding more height to her stature was something Eric knew he shouldn't dwelt on - it was difficult enough to not become overly aroused around Maya.

Unsurprisingly, almost every pair of eyes in the vicinity was fixated on Maya, yet she paid them no mind at all.  They could stare all they liked; none of them could ever hope to realistically harm or compete with the living goddess.

In truth, Maya's mere presence seemed to choke the metaphysical flow of energy around her.  She was so large, vibrant, commanding, and full of life that everything else seemed pale and weak in comparison.  Eric's nerdy mind likened her to a protagonist in an RPG video game: everyone else seemed to serve as little more than a backdrop to accommodate her whims and admire her.

Remember, you apparently caused her growth, and according to what happened in Live-Sim, she's supposed to be into you.  If anything, you're the protagonist here, not her.  Don't forget that.  Eric thought to himself.

"Now then.  Let's pick out your car.  I'm going to pay for it today - with cash."  Maya said with a grin.

(What will Eric's other two wishes be?  What shenanigans will Eric and Maya get into?  All this and more in the full version of The Proteus Effect Chapter 6!  Make sure you're pledged before the evening of October 29th to support the release and receive the full chapter!

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login  )

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Excerpt:
The Proteus Effect - Chapter 7
By MagnusMagneto

[This is a 'vertical slice' of content from the chapter, and is also a work in progress.  It may change, or it might not.  I personally think that regardless of whether one intends to support the full release or not, the encounter with Chalsey is good fun for all lovers of female muscle.  As such, I hope you enjoy, and if you'd like to see much more, please pledge to my Patreon before the evening of December 31st!  You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

Context:  Eric is meeting up with Chalsey shortly after spending a day with Maya.  He's also just visited Julia, who has been promoted to principal of the high school and is very muscular in her own right.


Location:  Running track behind the high school.]



Eric seemed to be alone.  He half-expected to see the track or other sports team running laps, and half-expected to see Chalsey herself cranking them out.  Both expectations weren't met.  Eric hoped that he wasn't too late and Chalsey went home already; or she never showed up.  He sat down at a bench and stared up at the sky.  Spring hadn't fully come around, and it was still fairly cold outside. 

The encounter with Julia had his blood pumping, and his loins longing for some kind of release.  But that would have to wait.  Eric was kind of relieved that Julia seemed weaker than both his mother and Maya, though he wasn't able to truly test the extent of her strength.  She was definitely smaller than the other two at any rate.  All Eric had to do was check in with Chalsey, then he would know the current progress of the Live-Sim five.  The anticipation was killing him-

"Long time no see." A lively and feminine voice called from behind.

Eric turned around and was so shocked by the sight in front of him he fell out off of the bench.  He got up and dusted himself off, and tried to take in... Chalsey!

The blonde was, unsurprisingly, huge.  She was dressed in a gray sweatshirt and sweatpants.  They would have been doubtlessly baggy on himself; and yet, Chalsey's prodigious muscles pushed against the fabric so hard that he could see each individual line and curve to their shape. 

After getting over the initial shock, Eric realized that Chalsey wasn't actually as big as Maya, Camille, or even Julia.  In fact, he wasn't certain if she was bigger than Selina.  But she was still far larger than any other woman, and certainly more muscular than any man he'd seen in person. 

Eric noticed that he could see a perfect outline of Chalsey's thick, block-like eight-pack protruding against its constraint; a gap of skin was revealed beneath, showcasing an immensely deep Venus-belt, and a network of pulsing veins unlike anything he had ever seen before.  In fact, the thick garment failed to hide even her obliques, serratus, and ribs, the shapes of which were fully visible - something Eric hadn't thought possible.

"It's cool, you can stare for a while."  Chalsey giggled, and the network of muscles in her midsection danced in a way that sent shivers down Eric's spine.  "Seriously, take some time and soak it all in."

Eric wordlessly obliged.  While not as large as any of the other girls', Chalsey's thighs also totally engulfed the thick sweat pants on them.  Through their opaque covering he could see the wide chords of definition on her quadriceps; and he wasn't sure if his eyes deceived him, but he swore that even the outline of her veins.  He stared longer, and his stomach churned as there seemed to be a visible pulsing emanating from the pencil-thick arteries - seeming to confirm his suspicions. 

He finally turned his attention back upward.  Eric's eyes hooked onto her chest.  Chalsey always had a great rack, but her breasts had still been upgraded considerably over the past few months.  Just like her ironclad muscles, the individual details and outlines of Chalsey's breasts were fully visible, and it was abundantly clear that she had opted to not wear a bra today.  Facilitating this choice were her pecs - which could also been seen underneath the sweatshirt.  Not even that bulky garment could hide the wide plunging valley between each half, nor the spiderweb of striated definition bursting forth.

A quick glance at her shoulders and biceps revealed what Eric expected: four staggering spheres of power: two biceps, two deltoids - each with their own splits, peaks, and valleys of definition, stubbornly poking through the sweatshirt. 

And finally her face.  This was the real kicker.  Chalsey had always been the most beautiful girl at school—it's what led Eric to recreate her in Live-Sim.  But the Chalsey of Fall's past utterly paled in comparison to the goddess in front of him.  Her entire facial structure had changed ever so slightly, in all the right ways to effortlessly signal untold beauty.  Even in the cold months, her skin was tanned and lively; and her emerald green eyes utterly pierced straight through Eric's soul.  His heart beat a mile a minute as it gazed upon her lips - perfectly plump and ruby-red (and Eric would later floored to learn that she wasn't even wearing lipstick).  It had been difficult dealing with Maya's beauty - yet somehow, Chalsey seemed to have surpass her in that category.

Around Chalsey's shoulders was an illustrious mane of blonde hair that physically shimmered, even in the overcast lighting.  This too had grown considerably in the past few months, and instead of cutting it, she allowed it to flourish.  It was a choice that Eric found favorable.

"So... I like the attention and admiration, I really do - but are you just going to stare at me all day?"  Chalsey said, placing a hand on her hip - even through the sweatshirt every muscle in her frame visibly rippled from that minor action.

"Oh! H-hey Chalsey!"  Eric sputtered.  All semblance of 'game' was out the window.

"You like my looks that much, huh?"  She asked rhetorically, closing the distance between them.

Chalsey had always been a few inches taller than Eric; but just like the other Live-Sim girls, her improved posture and sheer musculature seemed to visibly add another inch or two to her effective stature.

"I... Oh jeeze."  Eric blushed, "I'm sorry for making this weird Chalsey... but yeah."

"Mmm... An honest reaction."  She came within an arm's distance of Eric - her sheer presence utterly overwhelming him.  Despite being smaller than the other girls, Chalsey somehow exuded far more energy and metaphysical dominance.  She lifted her hand - her bicep swelling as a result - and brought it underneath Eric's chin.  "I like it.  Such raw admiration for me.  Don't be embarrassed dear, I flourish from your worship."  She purred.

There was something different about Chalsey's voice.  It was richer and deeper, yes - that was to be expected as all of the Live-Sim girls underwent that change; but her manner of speaking and cadence were significantly changed.  Chalsey was no longer a 'basic' cheer leading girl who was held back two grades - her speech patterns were more suited for someone worldly and thoroughly educated.

"Well, come on then - isn't this what you want to feel?"  Chalsey brought her arm close to Eric and tensed it - a magnificent meaty peak rose before him.

Eric estimated that the muscle must have been at least 25 inches in circumference.  With shaking hands, he placed his fingers around it and squeezed - his eyes widened; Eric had felt rock-hard, perhaps even steel-hard, muscles before, but Chalsey's gun on was another level.  As he pushed his fingers in, he felt as if her bicep was somehow actively pushing back.  This was impossible, but sheer level of density and potential energy made merely gripping the straited peak a challenging task in itself.  And while the muscles seemed to be the smallest of the Live-Sim five, but there was no doubt in his mind that in terms of density, Chalsey had them all beat - by a rather large margin too.

"I've been specifically training for strength and neuromuscular efficiency."  She explained,  "That involves a wide variety of training techniques, some of which are more scientifically sound than others.  Either way, my body seems to adapt to things so quickly that even the more outlandish methods yield some kind of benefit for me.  I do aim to steadily increase the size of my muscles as well, but sheer strength is my top priority.  After all, what's the point of overly cumbersome muscles if they don't grant you immense power, hm?"

"Immense... power?"

Chalsey smirked, "Maybe that's a bit presumptuous of me, perhaps you would like a demonstration?"

Eric merely nodded.

"Good."  Chalsey said before dropping to the ground.  "Get on my back."  She ordered.

"Umm..."

"Come on Eric, don't you want to grab onto my huge, beefy, rippling lats, hmm?"

Without another word, Eric complied.  Due to the sheer girth of Chalsey's back, and her slight height advantage, Eric quickly found that it was quite easy to lay on top of her.  He started to wrap his hands around her, but found it difficult to get past her shoulders; eventually leading him to just place his hands around her biceps instead.

Suddenly, Chalsey began doing push ups, with Eric still on her back.  Eric could feel each and every muscle beneath him shift and ripple; the plates and ridges of muscle physically moved him - the muscles around Chalsey's shoulder blades in particular kept pushing Eric around.  Despite the human-sized weight on her back, Chalsey was entirely undaunted in her task: effortlessly performing push up after push up as if Eric didn't exist.  Truthfully, Eric was surprisingly unimpressed by the display - he was more enthralled with the density of her muscles.

Chalsey could sense that her feat wasn't properly captivating Eric.  She increased the difficulty by placing a hand behind her back - and Eric's as well.   The muscles in the right half of her back bulged considerably more, and Eric's attention shifted more to the act itself than the muscles involved. 

"How's your grip?" Chalsey asked.

"Huh?"

"Hang on tight.  Really tight."  Chalsey said.

Eric increased his grip a bit. 

"No seriously, wrap your arms around me and squeeze as tightly as you can."  She commanded.

Eric complied.  For a few years he had dreamed of embracing Chalsey like this, but never imagined she would have such an incredibly powerful body in the process.  He was still unable to fully clasp his arms around her indomitable width, but managed to get a strong grip.

"Alright... here we go!"  Chalsey retracted the hand behind her back, then placed all of hers—and Eric's—weight onto her hands as she deftly transitioned to a hand-stand; leaving Eric to literally cling onto her in mid-air!

Eric let out a small yelp of surprise.

"Nothing to it."  Chalsey said before performing hand-stand push ups, all while Eric still held onto her.

The motion, Chasley's warmth, her scent, and the power of her muscles...  Eric's head was spinning, and his arousal was reaching a boiling point.  Chalsey could feel that, but she spared him any embarrassment - and in truth, she was glad he felt that way.

"Too easy."  Chalsey said before removing a hand, proceeding to carry the entirety of both their weight,upside down, on a single arm.  And of course, single-armed-upside-down-hand-stands followed.  She let out a few grunts of effort, but was still not fully challenged. 

In fact, it was Eric who was challenged the most, and he found his grip waning.  Before long he let go and tumbled onto his back - utterly spent.  Chalsey however was still full of vitality, energy, and strength: she continued performing one-armed upside-down hand-stands while Eric tried to catch his break.

With a single push, Chalsey vaulted her entire body into the air and back onto her feet.  "Like I said, immense power."  She said with a knowing smirk.




[Find out what happens next by pledging to my Patreon before this evening!  This is only ~20% of the full story, which will contain far more flexing and feminine muscle!  You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login  more details: http://*****/dathwoe ]

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Preview:
Equality Dawn: Finale
By MagnusMagneto


(This is the first ~3,100 words of my upcoming Patreon release: Equality Dawn Finale.  It's a fun piece of muscle-girl content, so I hope you enjoy it!  If you'd like to receive the full story and help support me writing so much, then please pledge to my Patreon before the evening of January 31st!  You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login )


1.)

'Sup!  Dawn here!  Been a little while since the last time we talked.  Or wrote?  Whatever, last time since the last chapter of my little journal here!

Guess I'll recap for those who missed those or forgot.  I was a simple retail worker who didn't have much going on in life - though I was happily married to a cute beanpole named Phil.  One day I won a lottery to receive genetic modification.  Which... well... made me awesome!  Like... unbelievably awesome!  So awesome that I became ultra beautiful - not requiring any makeup at all; super healthy - able to eat anything I want in any quantity, and never getting sick; and even more awesome: my body kept building muscle automatically over time! 

Phil even took up weight lifting and tried to build up his body to compete - but even without any exercise whatsoever, my body built muscle faster than him!  You can read about all of that here if you'd like:  You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

Then I decided I wanted to see my body's full potential, so I joined in on the weight-lifting action!  As you can probably guess, my ultra-body reacted super fast; I was gaining muscle with each and every passing day!  I also discovered that I could flex really hard and make my muscles larger on the spot—kind of a 'tank mode'—though I lost mobility while tanked out.  During this period I discovered the world of people who love girls with gains.  I quickly developed social media following, and began streaming cam shows where I simply flexed my muscles a bunch.  Who would've thought that guys would literally donate money to see that!? 

I even started selling video clips of me showing off, and would setup elaborate fantasies - like me undergoing what's called "female muscle growth".  They started selling like hotcakes!  All of this plus the donations, sponsorships, and other things all added up really fast, and I was making waaay more money than Phil - even though he had a decent full-time office job.  You can read all about this stuff here: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

-

Well... it's been a few months since then, and things have been awesome.  Like I mentioned, I was starting to really rake in the cash with my online "business".  Well, we put that money to good use and got a new house!  A growing girl like me needs room to well, grow, so we got a beautiful mansion!  How did we do it?  Well, Phil has officially quit his job.  He now 100% runs the business side of stuff.  That means he handles the deals, marketing, websites, all that boring blah.  His business expertise with my beauty and muscles have made for a very lucrative team up! 

Anyways, fast forwarding a bit...

I was outside by my private pool.  I would have asked Phil to lather up my amazing muscles with sunscreen, (note to self: make 'sunscreen muscle growth' video with Phil!) but my genetic engineering actually fully protected me from the harmful effects of the UV rays.  On the flip side it's really hard for me to get a tan unless I want to.  Kind of hard to explain, but by focusing really hard I can kind of turn these things on or off.

Anywho, I was lounging by the pool side stark naked.  After all, who needs a swimsuit when you've got a body like me?  Plus this was our private property anyways, with no nosy neighbors around.  Meanwhile, Phil was diligently doing laps.  After quitting his office job, Phil had a lot more time to work out; he got some minor gains, though he still had no chance of ever catching up to me!  In fact, I gained waaay more mass in that time frame.

How much more mass?  Well...  For starters, I eventually got bored of sitting around and did a cannonball into the pool - right into the deep end, submerging under the 30-foot mark.  While I couldn't see it, I knew from past video recordings that the resulting splash was so huge that literal gallons of water were knocked out.  Once underwater, I opened my eyes, and could see perfectly clear - even without any goggles; yet another perk of my genetic engineering.

Without any difficulty from the surrounding liquid, I brought my arms back and with a single breast stroke torpedoed towards the surface; my immense pecs and back powering me like nobody's business.  With just that single stroke and a few kicks of my immense thighs, I returned to the surface and gulped in some air; though I didn't really need it - I can hold my breath for soooo long! 

Funnily enough, I wasn't really able to swim very well in the past.  That's another thing that my super-bod was able to learn really fast and get good at.  Poor Phil thought he finally had something physical he could beat me at, but I surpassed him within the first afternoon that I started!

After emerging, I set my sights towards Phil and swam towards him.  As my ridiculous arms tread through the water, it caused a huge ripple through the water that disrupted the flow of the whole pool, and even knocked out some more water.  (Pretty shortly after getting the pool installed we sprang for a high-tech system that consistently regulated the water levels.)

Within a matter of moments, I closed the distance to Phil, blocking his way.

"Dawn... I'm trying to do laps!" he said.

He tried to swim around me, but I was too fast and intercepted him.  Feeling playful, I brought my giant arms together and summoned a huge wave of water, directly splashing Phil; the force of the water actually sent him staggering backward!  Poor guy. 

"Dawn!" He groaned, flailing around a bit.

I quickly closed the distance and approached him.  At this point my upper body was literally more than twice as wide as his, and my weight was also more than double.  "Check this out babe." I said before flexing my arm right next to his waist, the massive bowling ball of pure power erupting on command "It's almost as wide as your entire waist!" I giggled.

Phil gulped.

"And..." I focused and started to 'tank-out', the muscle immediately grew larger mass, and the thick blue veins around it also swelled up - probably helping out with the task.  I let out a grunt, pushing everything I had into getting maximum tankage.  "Boom!" I giggled, "Now it's just as wide as your whole waist!  Say, what is your waistline anyways?"

"I wear 30s..." Phil explained.

"Mmmm... so tanked out my arms are around 30 inches." I said with a wide grin before releasing my focus, allowing the muscle to fall back to around 26 inches in circumference.

That was another cool thing: the stronger I became, the bigger the jump in size my tank-outs were; also the more strength they provided too.  I guess it's like a percentage increase - so having a higher base percent makes for a bigger bonus!

I began swimming circles around Phil at a rapid pace.  Despite having sooo much bulk on my 5'2" frame, I could move with grace and speed - so much so that a small whirlpool started to form around him.  I kept increasing the pace, and eventually Phil protested that he was becoming dizzy. 

Still feeling playful, I reached over and grabbed onto his bottom.  With Phil's cute butt in the palm of my right hand, I hoisted him into the air without any effort at all.  Then I tossed him into the air and caught him with my left hand.  "You're like a sexy volley-ball babe!" I teased before shifting him back to my right.

"H-hey!  Cut it out Dawn!" he protested.

I giggled like crazy and performed a few more 'repetitions' with my makeshift weight, watching with a smile as his legs awkwardly kicked around in mid-air. 

"You suuuure about that?" I asked.

"Yes!"

"Ooookay!" And with that I let Phil fall into the water with a splash.

He flailed around some more before finally getting his bearings straight. 

"Breath holding contest?" I asked with a grin.

"Dawn..."

"Puh-lease baby?" I asked with a big pout and puppy-eyes.  (Funny story: I actually became even more beautiful over the past few months.  Some of my fans thought I got plastic surgery or something because my facial structure actually changed slightly!)

He let out a sigh.  There was no way he could resist me!  Poor guy. 

We had a countdown, then each took a massive gulp of air before submerging.  Once underwater, I could once again see him perfectly well, though he had his eyes closed.  Phil lasted for about 30 seconds or so before giving up.  But I just sat down there, completely unphased!

Did you know that the world record for breath holding is 22 minutes and 22 seconds?  Pretty impressive for sure - though that guy was considered like a freak of nature or something.

Anyways I kept sitting down there and eventually after a few minutes Phil came back down, likely to check up on me.  I waved around - making enough motion to indicate to him that I was A-okay.  He went back up.

Then even more time passed...

Phil came back down again and tried tugging against me to get me to go back up, which was, of course, entirely futile.  He eventually gave up and went back to the surface. 

I continued sitting down there for a few minutes, totally at peace.  Eventually I got bored though so I came back up.  I wonder just how long I can hold my breath?  Maybe someday I'd get bored enough to find out!

2.)

After swimming, it was time for what had become my favorite part of the day: weight training!

But first I ate a massive meal.  While eating before exercise wasn't such a great idea for most people, I discovered that my body somehow benefited from it, and generally was more effective.  My meal consisted of three whole pounds of grass-fed beef, completely soaked in butter.  I also ate a few donuts and cookie, along with a couple slices of cheesecake for good measure.  My super-body loooved sucking up all of that protein, carbs, and fat.  The best part was that it could only help me - my body never withheld needless nutrients, so I could never get fat or even bloated!

With my belly full, I chugged down a large pre-workout drink.  It was loaded with caffeine, creatine, amino acids, and all sorts of other things that I couldn't even pronounce!  Just like with the food, I could handle way more than the average person, and there was no risk of me overloading on anything (while it never became relevant, I'm actually immune to most poisons and virtually all diseases, neat!), so I went ham and chugged a bunch.  Within a matter of moments I could feel it kicking in; while I didn't actually need more energy, the pre-workout definitely helped me reach a new level!

It was funny to think that something I had put off for so long in my life became something I enjoyed so thoroughly.  I believe my super-body gets way more endorphins flooded into it from exercise, making that even more enjoyable.  Plus, when you gain progress from practically every workout, it makes lifting a lot more fun!

Our home gym was intense.  Thousands of dollars had gone into it already, and many more would be invested in the future.  Even though we had only been at this mansion for a few months, I had already outgrown our weights multiple times.  Of course, with the sheer amount of money our online business was generating, that wasn't a problem at all.

In fact, we essentially had two home gyms in one; the first was all of the benches, racks, and dumbbells that Phil used - which were all at modest amounts of weight; then all of the equipment I used - which was all specially modified at this point to properly challenge me.  We also had a huge suite of workout machines, though I had essentially outgrown them all at this point - very few could offer me any real challenge anymore, unless I did hundreds of repetitions with them.

Phil was already hard at work with dead lifts.  His tight back, bottom, and hammies were bulging out a bit as he let out a little grunt with each ascent.  I strolled over and gave his firm cheeks a squeeze - they were pretty hard, but still gave in to just a small amount of my power.  "How much you liftin' there sexy thing?" I asked.

"You can do the math Dawn..." he replied, slightly agitated that I was interrupting his flow.

"I could, but I don't wanna."

He sighed, "280." He said.

"Oooh, my baby's getting so strong!" I giggled before squeezing his butt again.

I then made my way over to my specially modified barbell to handle heavy weight.  "What's five times 280?" I asked, too lazy to pull out a calculator or try and do it in my head.

"1400..." Phil replied.  "Dawn, are you..."

I let out a loud giggle before adding some more plates to the barbell.  The plates were super thick as well, and I knew from past experience that Phil had trouble lifting even just one of them - let alone multiple combined.  "Oookay, 1400 it is!" I said after adding the last plate. 

Next I moved up to the bar, bent down, grabbed on, and hoisted it up - letting out a loud grunt in the process.  "Ha!  Look at that babe!" I said as I triumphantly held the weight in mid-air, "Five times what you can lift!" I giggled.

"Yeah, yeah.  Good work I guess." He muttered just loud enough for me to hear.

I let the weight fall onto padding specially designed to absorb that much force.  I bent over again, grabbed the bar, and hoisted it up once more.  It felt soooo good to lift so much!  Honestly, it made me kind of aroused from both the sheer amount of endorphins flooding into me, and the concept of how strong I was.  I felt totally unstoppable and on top of the world!

Phil stubbornly finished his set of dead lifts before coming over in time to watch me hoist the bar for a third repetition.  "Dawn... you do know that you're like... the strongest person in the world, right?" he said, still trying to catch his breath.

"I am?" I asked, genuinely curious as I let the 1400 pound barbell fall to the padding again.

Phil nodded, "Unless there's another secret genetically modified superhuman, I'd certainly say you are..."

"Neat!  I'm not even in tank-mode though..."

"I know." Phil replied, "Even without it though, you're way above the world record for pretty much every lift."

"Hmmm..." I said out loud before reaching down and lifting it again.

"And you know babe..." Phil started again, this time his tone considerably less whiny, "As amazing as DiesalDawn is doing as a brand, I think it would significantly better if it was well-known that you're officially the strongest person on the planet."

"Ooooh..." My eyes lit up, "That's a good point.  This is why you're a business genius Phil!"

"Just common sense..."

"Oh hush."  I said before performing another dead lift, this time encouraged even further to do my best.

After finishing my dead lifts, I walked over to my specially-designed bench press.  I loaded up plate after plate; Phil totally gave up on focusing on his workout since he was too distracted by me.  His eyes grew wider with each additional weight.  Eventually I brought the total up to 1,800 pounds.

"Are you serious?" He asked.

"Time for some hulk training!" I said before sliding under the bar.  What I referred to as 'hulk training' was when I would intentionally load a weight bar with significantly more than I could usually lift, then activated my 'tank mode', and power through it.  I found that it helped with strength and mass building the most. 

I placed my hands on the bar, which were looking seriously small next to its girth and especially the surrounding plates.  Then I started to push up - I wasn't strong enough to lift it... yet!  Next came a sharp focus on forcing my body to harden and grow, and right on cue it obeyed; a sound like muscle fibers tearing filled the air, and instantly my muscles filled up to ridiculous proportions: biceps reached a little over 30 inches; and my pecs became so huge that they started to enter my peripheral vision! 

With all this new power, I could finally push the weight off of the rack, and slowly brought it down.  Phil later told me about how my pecs actually spread out wider from that challenge, desperately trying to gain more room to pump up and do their thing.  Then I started to push up - only to find that the weight was too heavy!

But I actually knew that this was too much weight, even for my tank mode.  This was where the real progress was made.  Some time back during an accident I discovered that my body can enter a kind of 'hyperdrive' when there's an obstacle too great for it to currently overcome.  Adrenaline coursed through me - so much that I was getting really turned on (a big side effect, or advantage? Of this 'hyperdrive'), and I could sense my muscles pumping up even further. 

That sound of muscle fibers ripping happened again.  My theory is when I'm all amped up with adrenaline like this, my body starts using all available nutrients to build itself up superfast and meet the challenge at hand.  It was a good thing I ate so much ahead of time, because this weight was a real doozy!  I could feel myself getting a little light headed, and I started practically screaming as I mustered every last ounce of strength I could; which was actually increasing by the second!

Then after about 30 seconds of this, I finally hoisted the weight into the air and put it on the rack.  It was tempting to jump right back into it with another rep, but I knew it was best to rest for a while.  As I panted, my massive chest heaved up and down - so much so that it was starting to block the lower half of my vision! 

Phil merely stared utterly awestruck, and I could see he had a lot of growing arousal in his tight workout shorts! 

Fortunately for him, my sex drive was amped up so high that I could barely see straight, so I summoned him with a 'come hither' motion that I had used many times in the home gym.

[too spicy for DA]


-

Phil did some research and discovered that in two months a worldwide strongman competition would be held.  He entered me, and that meant I had two months to become as big, bad, and powerful as possible!

And so we had our next project in mind: letting the world know that I was the strongest person alive!


(This is only the first 25-35% of the story! If you'd like to receive the full story and help support me writing so much, then please pledge to my Patreon before the evening of January 31st!  You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login )

[magnusmagneto]

Preview:
Legend of the Crystals - Chapter 4
By MagnusMagneto

(This is a preview of my upcoming patreon story, Legend of the Crystals Chapter 4.  It's a solid chunk of FMG content, but it's only the first ~30-35% of the full story!  To get the full thing, please pledge to my Patreon before the evening of January 31st You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login )

[New to the series? No problem at all!  Check out the comprehensive Story So Far:  http://*****/dabjp5m ]


1.) Shortly After Chapter 3

Vala awoke to her arms wrapped around Eloy.  She blinked a few times, finding this strange.  Did Eloy do this somehow?  No, wait, that didn't make any sense - her arms were around him.  Well, it wasn't that bad.  She did find Eloy attractive after all - secretly crushed on him back in Serenity even.  And while she had now physically outstripped him, Vala still felt that he had a certain boyish charm to him.  She considered leaping out of bed and getting a jump-start on the day, but she enjoyed the warmth of his body, and wanted to linger for a few more moments.

Unfortunately, Vala didn't have long.  After 15 minutes or so, the sun fully rose.  Alina woke, and roosters acted as a natural alarm clock.  Vala say the blonde catching her in the act of snuggling Eloy, and she quickly let go of him.  Alina merely smirked and shook her head a bit before heading to the washroom to splash water on her face.  This gave Vala a good opportunity to slip out of bed, which in turn stirred Eloy to wakefulness. 

Vala examined herself in the dirty looking-glass the room provided, and was surprised to find that she looked... clean.  It was as if there were no debris from the night prior.  Another perk of being a Chosen One?  She sat down in a cross-legged position, thinking back to her lesson with Alina the day prior.  Vala summoned her aura, which burned just as brightly as the day prior, but had grown in size - close to the light Alina summoned during the lesson. 

As Vala breathed deeply, her chest heaved, and she could better sense the flow of energy within her.  What Vala didn't know was mages, monks, and clerics alike trained for years to get to that point of connectedness with their inner energy.  Even Alina took quite a long time to understand her magic to that degree; yet Vala was already this proficient a mere few days after coming into contact with the Choosing Crystal. 

Eloy rubbed his eyes and almost tumbled out of bed with fear for the brilliant blue light in front of him.  He calmed himself down and peered over to find it emanating from Vala; but silently freaked out again at how much larger in size the aura was from yesterday!  How could Vala have progressed this quickly?!

Her eyes still closed, Vala could suddenly sense something.  She could sense... Eloy?  That was strange.  She focused on that, and could metaphysically detect his soul behind her. 

Meanwhile, still on the bed, Eloy got into a crossed-leg position and tried his best to summon his own aura.  A small, dim, and flickering green aura appeared around him.

Vala sensed this too.  Even with her eyes shut, she could focus on and 'see' Eloy's aura.  She couldn't help but giggle at how... pathetic it was next to hers.  But in a sense it was quite endearing, and Vala didn't hold it against him.  All of this caused Vala to lose her train of thought, and her attention waned.  Catching herself, she directed her focus back to maintaining her aura and sensing everything around her.

Alina returned from the washroom, and Vala could sense her lifeforce entering the room.  The blonde beauty stood awkwardly at the doorway, staring with wonder at Vala's brilliant aura - and some mixture of pity and disgust at Eloy's pathetic one.

Eloy heard Alina enter, and self-consciously deactivated his aura.  Meanwhile, Alina took a seat near Vala and began summoning up her own energy.  It was undeniable: Vala's aura was just as large as Alina's, and shone far brighter - indicating that The Chosen One had already surpassed her mentor in raw magical energy.  Their eyes closed, both of the girls could sense one another metaphysically.  Perhaps with a bit more effort they could even commune on a higher plane... yet despite their mutual efforts, they were incapable of doing so - for the time being at least.

-

Eventually Vala stopped channeling her magic and stood up, stretching her muscular body out.  "Mmm... think I grew a bit overnight." She said with a giggle.

Vala walked over to Eloy, who was still seated, grabbed onto him, and hoisted him into the air.  "Wow!  I didn't realize you're so light!" she said with a giggle before placing him on his feet.

Eloy was still taller, but there was no doubt anymore than Vala's upper half was wider than his; and even their height discrepancy was diminishing at a pace that unnerved him.

-

The group finished getting ready, packed their scant belongings, ate a pathetic 'breakfast' provided by the inn, and headed off into town.


2.)

The group first visited the local church with hopes of gaining new direction on their quest.  A middle-aged priest greeted them, and asked if they needed to hire him for healing services.  Eloy was a bit shocked that he charged for his blessings, and the priest was conversely bemused by Eloy's naivety.  Before long however, Vala couldn't help but blurt out their reason for dropping by.

"Have you heard of Prophecy of The One Chosen To Defeat The Monsters And Restore Order To The World?" Vala asked.

"Yes... I've heard of the prophecy." The priest replied.

"Excellent!  We're the Chosen Ones!  Me and my friend Eloy here." Vala explained.  "Alina here is awesome too though!"

The priest raised a brow, "And what proof have you?"

"Well, we come from Serenity village.  We visited a crystal in a cave to the north of our home.  The crystal awoke, and spoke to us, telling us we were chosen - then it exploded and powered us up!" Vala was animated, waving her hands around as she recalled the story.

The priest's expression became even more incredulous.  "I see..."  A moment of awkward silence hung in the air before he spoke again, "Well, many err... small dwellings... have their own strange customs and beliefs." He concluded.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Eloy interjected.

"It means precisely that." The priest replied.

"You don't believe us?" Alina spoke up.

The priest shook his head, "Sorry, no.  In fact, I don't know of anyone who takes that prophecy seriously.  There are dozens of prophecies.  It seems ridiculous to believe that someone could encounter a series of crystals and then somehow restore balance between mankind and monsters as a result."

"But..." Vala was almost ready to tear up, "But we need direction.  We need to find the crystals!"

The priest shrugged, "There are countless crystals in the world of Gaia.  How could I possibly point you towards four specific ones that would allegedly restore order?"

Eloy spoke up: "Certainly there's some direction you can give us.  Anything at all.  Perhaps a larger temple in another city?"

The priest stroked his chin a couple of times, "I will humor you.  In the city of Verdite, there is a sword bound to the earth itself.  It is said that only a truly worthy being can free the sword and claim it for his or her self.  If you go to Verdite, you can prove your worth by claiming the sword."

Vala's eyes lit up.  While Eloy and Alina both had reservations of immediately following this chase, to her, there was no other option.  "How do we get to Verdite!?" She squealed.

"Ah.  Well, Verdite is about a fortnight's travel to the north-east of here." He explained nonchalantly. 

Vala's heart sank again.  "We barely had enough supplies to make it here.  No way we could live off of what we've got for 14 days..."

The priest merely shrugged.

"You're a man of the cloth," Eloy started, "Surely you can spare basic supplies for us to embark on our quest.  We're trying our best to help out all of mankind."

"Yeah I've heard that one before." The priest withheld a snicker, "Though I will concede you seem more genuine than most.  Still, even if I wanted to, I cannot comfortably part with that many goods.  You'll have to find your own passage."

Vala considered begging, but Eloy and Alina could both tell the priest wasn't going to budge.  They gently grabbed hold of Vala's arms and led her back outside.

- - -

The group approached the largest building they could find in Cantlin - a plantation that was presumably the largest producer of food; perhaps even the only farm in the entire settlement aside from some small personal gardens and fields. 

They entered a shop attached to the building, and were greeted by an older woman with sharp, stern features.  She introduced herself as the owner of the plantation, and asked if they were looking to purchase supplies.  Eloy explained that they would love to, but they needed work to do so.

"Generally we only hire caravan guards."  The woman explained, "You go out with a caravan and protect it.  In return you get food, lodging, and some money."

"Alright, it's not glamorous, but we can do that."  Alina agreed.

The woman shook her head.  "No you can't.  We only have a few slots for caravan guards and we only take those we know will be successful."

"It can't be that hard.  There are caravans all over the place." Eloy replied, "Er... No offense of course." He quickly added.

"There can be no room for error." the woman replied.  "Failure means death."

"Death!?" Vala squealed.

"Have you never met bandits before? Or monsters?  These beings won't hesitate to arbitrarily kill everyone in a caravan." The woman explained.

"Oh...  Well, you should hire us anyways!" Vala grinned.

"And pray tell, why should I hire you three?" The woman replied.

"Because we're the Chosen Ones!  Well me and this guy are at least." Vala explained. 

The shopkeep yawned.  "Sure you are, and I'm a long-lost Imperial princess."

"You are!?" Vala chirped.

"No.  That's the point.  Considering how dense you are, I'm even less likely to consider hiring you.  There are plenty of capable, proven adventurers who I know damn well aren't going to become goblin-food unless some freak disaster occurs." The woman replied.

"Yeah but...  We're buff!" Vala flexed her arms - the large, prodigious biceps bulged up.

The woman raised a brow, "Not even as large as a seasoned cattle rancher..."

"We can cast magic." Alina summoned moderately large fireball in the palm of her hand.

The woman retorted by casting her own, which was significantly larger and brighter than Alina's, "Your point?  I spend most of my time tending to books, yet I wouldn't trust myself guarding a caravan."

"Ma'am..." Eloy started, mustering up every ounce of charisma and persuasive ability he had, "We came here from a small village.  We're almost out of supplies and completely out of gold.  You may think my friend is lying, but we truly were cast on a mission regarding the prophecy.  Whether that prophecy is real or not remains to be seen.  But we truly need anything we can to prove our worth.  I'm pleading with you."

The woman let out a long sigh.  "You're fortunate I have such a soft heart.  It's been ruinous for my business at times.  But..."

The trio waited with baited breath for what would come next.  They anticipated a wondrous quest, or to perhaps be allowed to tag along with a caravan regardless.

The woman concluded: "But I will allow you to work in the fields.  You'll chop wood, take care of the cattle, and tend to crops.  All I can compensate you with is food and lodging.  If your output is exemplary, I may include a salary."

"Farm work!?" Vala exclaimed in disbelief.  She imagined fighting hordes of monsters and saving the day!  Not doing what she did back in Serenity!

The woman shrugged, "Take it or leave it.  Most would say I'm doing you a favor.  It's hard to get consistent work around here, but you'll live to see tomorrow."

The group shot nervous glances at each other.  It looked like they didn't have much of a choice.  "We'll do it." Eloy agreed, acting as the defacto leader.

3.) Shortly After

The group was steadily working at chopping down wood.  All three of them had taken off their armor: which meant Eloy was wearing generic clothes, while the girls dressed in undergarments.  In truth, both Vala and Alina would have preferred to be nude - or to at least take their tops off.

"It's not all bad." Eloy said as his axe met the tree-trunk he was working on.  "Hopefully we do get a salary, and if we show her how reliable we are, maybe she'll let us onto a caravan."

Alina's axe-swings dug deeper into the wood, and she made progress far faster than Eloy.  In fact, by the time he had chipped away a third of his first tree's trunk, Alina knocked over hers.  Vala made progress similar to Alina, and she also fell her first tree far before Eloy. 

"This is stupid." Alina said with a grunt as she began divvying her tree into smaller logs. 

Vala looked down at her arms, "Oooh!  Guess what guys, I'm statting up again!" She giggled as all of the muscles in her body quaked slightly before growing larger and further defined.  Vala indulgently stared at her new growth for a few moments.  "I kind of agree with Eloy actually." Vala added, "It's funny," she started wiping some sweat from her brow, her biceps bulging further in the process, "I used to hate physical labor and was always so lazy, but now I'm loving it!"

"Well I'm sure it's a lot more enjoyable when you instantly gain muscle from it." Eloy murmured.

"Sure is!" Vala replied with a grin, seeming to not notice Eloy's jealousy.  She imitated Alina in divvying her fallen tree into smaller logs.

At last Eloy managed to knock his tree down.

-

With their trees adequately logged, the group began the arduous task of carrying all of the lumber to its destination.  Of course, Alina and Vala, with their greater strength compared to Eloy, could carry significantly more each trip; which meant that the girls could take far fewer treks than Eloy to carry all of their timber. 

"We're really doing this all day?" Alina asked with a huff during one of the trips that coincided with the others.

"Unless you have a better solution, for the time being, yes." Eloy replied, also short of breath.

"Why don't we just take the supplies we need?" Alina suggested.

"Take?  As in steal?!" Eloy quipped.

"Depends on your definition of steal...  But from my point of view, the ingrates we've encountered are threatening all of humanity by not just helping us.  After all, isn't a fortnight of food worth bringing balance to the world?" She retorted.

"Well what are you proposing?"

"That we simply take it by force." She explained.

"Alina!" Vala shouted, joining the conversation, "I can't believe you would even think of such a thing!"

Alina sighed.  While she had been coming around to liking Vala, she was growing a bit tired of her self-righteousness.  "It was just a thought.  Sorry I brought it up."

-

Even with three trees worth of lumber collected, the group knew they had only just begun their day of labor.  They each chopped down a second tree...  Then a third. 

After which they took a break.  Vala cheerfully announced that she experienced another 'stat-up', and yet another half-inch was added to her prodigious arms.  She was starting to look seriously beefy, and threatened to overtake Alina at any moment.

While Eloy and Alina had a small meal to recover, Vala sat down and focused on exchanging her mana for stamina.  The transfer was a bit easier than the last time she tried the technique, and she was able to finish it significantly faster.  Fully rejuvenated, her skin shined as if she had just had a full-night's sleep.

They stared with disbelief as Vala dutifully strode over and began chopping another tree.  Her axe swings were stronger than ever, and her target fell in record time.  Vala had also become more adept at turning the wood into logs, and found that she could carry a few more pieces - shaving a trip back and forth.

-

"You know..." Alina started, "This may not be a complete waste.  Vala is gaining more strength, plus this could be a good opportunity to try out a new magic spell."

"New magic?" Vala's eyes lit up.

Alina nodded, "There's a technique called the wind cutter.  Basically, you summon a gale force, but condense it to a small disk, then fire it off, usually cutting something in the process."

"Wind cutter?" Eloy parroted, "What in blazes kind of name is that?"

Alina shrugged.  "I didn't come up with it."

"Oh hush Eloy, I wanna shoot wind blades out of my hands!" Vala squealed.

"Right.  Carry on." Eloy took another swig of water.

-

Alina's hands were held a few inches away from each other.  She was focusing intently, and conjured a spinning green disk between them.

"Is that... wind?" Vala asked.

Alina nodded, "It's kind of weird how it's green.  But yeah." She fired it off into the sky; it created a satisfying whizzing noise before eventually dissipating a ways into the air.

"Hmmm..."  Vala began trying to replicate the move.  She held her hands out in the same manner that Alina did and focused on summoning energy.  Suddenly a massive gust of wind came out, blowing hers, Alina's, and even Eloy's hair back.  "Woops!"

Alina shook her head, "Good attempt, but you have to concentrate the wind into a disk."

"Ah... I think I get it now." Vala said before replicating the maneuver precisely as Alina had done it.

"By the gods... It took me ages to figure that out..." Alina said.

"You're a good teacher!" Vala grinned before firing her wind cutter at a nearby tree.  The blade of 'air' actually chipped away at the trunk, almost identically to a strong blow from an axe.  Her eyes wide with wonder, Vala focused, and fired off another wind-cutter, further whittling away at the wood.

"I read that's how they cut wood in the Imperial Capital and the other major cities." Alina said.

"Whoa..." Vala replied.

"Makes sense," Eloy chimed in, "A squadron of mages could likely cut down a forest far faster than lumberjacks this way."

"Well maybe we can cut down these trees faster as well!" Vala summoned up another wind cutter, and fired it off with greater force than the first one, removing more of the tree.  "This is fun!" she exclaimed.

The Chosen One continued in this fashion, conjuring disk after disk, until the tree finally collapsed with a satisfying crash. 

"I feel something..." Vala murmured, "Mmm, yeah, magic power is increasing!"  She conjured the wind cutter again, and this time added more magical force into it, increasing the size of the blade, before firing it into another tree - this time chunking significantly more than the previous attacks.

"Your affinity for magic is quite impressive..." Alina said, feeling some envy towards her companion.

"I wonder if..."  Vala extended both of her hands, and thought hard on generating two separate disks - one above each palm.  It worked, and she flung off two separate wind cutters, which brought the tree dangerously close to falling over.

Alina's eyes grew wide.  She had never considered doing such a thing with magic, and was uncertain if she'd even be able to.

Vala panted a bit, "I think I'm out of mana."

For better or for worse, Vala's magic training was put on hold.

-

The trio diligently performed the rest of their tasks for the day.  It was hard work, and all three of them received various stat-ups from it; though the lion's share went to the girls.  In particular their stamina rose further, which meant they'd be able to work harder in the future - and last longer in combat.

The plantation owner was surprised at how well they performed and gave them the bonus salary she spoke of. 

"That's it?" Eloy asked, staring at the paltry number of coins - each of them received only a single gold coin and some silver.

"I'm giving you room and board ya know." She replied.  "I've noticed that the girls here eat like horses, so count your blessings."

He let out a sigh.  At least they wouldn't starve tonight.  And it wasn't a complete waste - Vala had become stronger even from a day of simple farm work.  Alina did too.  Though he seemed roughly the same, which was as infuriating as always.

But even still, they needed to progress on their journey.  They needed to get to Verdite.  They needed a consistent stream of money and supplies; or at least a large enough windfall to last them a long while. 




(What will happen next?  Will our heroes finally get a quest to prove their worth?  Will they get to Verdite?  What awaits them there?  What about that mystical sword the priest spoke of?  And how much more power will the girls obtain?!  Find out in the full version of Legend of the Crystals Chapter 4!

To receive the rest of the story, please pledge to my Patreon before the evening of January 31st You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login )