Murphy's Rule (complete)

Only four or five people had managed to escape before Amanda made it to the door. Unaware they doomed themseles in the attempt, several large guys and one of the bigger girls tried to barge Amanda from their path, but she only smiled at them as they bounced off her strong body. A few even took hold of her and tried to grapple her out of the way, only to discover their strength abandoning them. She even let them give it their best shot before sucking them dry, thoroughly amused by their feeble efforts. They were for the most part larger than her. Noticing two fire escapes that people were making use of, Amanda dragged a very heavy machine across the exit she's been gaurding, and quickly sealed off the other escape routes.
Amanda stood before the survivors, her muscles now clearly defined, and obviously strong.
"Well?" she demanded, putting her hands arrogantly on her hips. "Are you just gonna stand there while I suck the life out of all of you?"
She heard a heavy step behind her and turned to see something she hadn't expected. One of the smaller men in the gym had snuck up behind her with a bench-press machine over his head. He brought it down on her head just as she turned. It hurt considerably, and left her half buried in the floor.
"Not another one!" she groaned, shoving the machine off her and getting to her feet.
"Make a move and I'll kill you!" the small man warned, sounding quite serious.
"What did you just try to do?" Amanda asked, gesturing at the machine. She moved toward him, and he grabbed hold of a loaded weight bar and swung it directly at her face. Amanded managed to block it with her forearm. She grabbed it and tried to pull it out of his hands.
"You might be strong, princess...but you've got nothing on me!"
The power of her own grip betrayed her as the man turned and launched her at the wall. She burst through the concrete into a shower room, and squealed to an awkward halt on the non slip tiles. It hurt like hell, but she got up. Where the hell were all these weirdos coming from? How many of them were there? She stood and dusted herself off. If she had been wounded she had healed, and she didn't feel all that weaker for it. Dodging the loaded barbell as it speared past her, Angela growled and ran him. He didn't know to dodge, that all she wanted to do was get in contact with his skin. So he steeled himself and caught hold of her she came toward him.
Angela drank greedily, surprised by the intoxicating level of evergy he gave her. Blaster had given her biggest rush so far, but this was on a whole new level.
Grappling with her, the man felt a little woozey. Realising something was wrong, he tore himself free and flung her away. It was quite easy, but not quite as easy as it should have been. But though the apparently arounsed woman was now on the other side of the room, she continued to writhe and moan. The man blinked a few times and tried to shake off the odd feeing without success.
"What have you done to me?"
"Mmmm...you have no idea how good this feels!" she told him, accelerating the process as much as could. The misty connection between them thickened until it looked solid. Amanda was simply astonished at how long it seemed to take. It seemed that he had an ocean were everyone else in the gym had a duck pond. "Wow! You're really strong! Well...that is to say, you were."
Getting it together enough to stand up, Angela stretched her gently inflating frame.
"You're a fiend!" he declared. He grabbed another barbell and swung it at her head. Fully aware that she was at least ten times stronger than before she had tapped into this strong man she let him hit her. She allowed him to spend his last moments on Earth trying to kill her without bothering to stop him. The first two hits stung a little, but she could hide the pain and it didn't knock her head about too much. After that the barbell just bounced off, as his strength waned and hers grew ever greater. As he began to whither she took him by the throat in one hand hand and lifted him up. Her touch accelerated the process and he could clearly see her muscles strengthening and hardening right in front of his eyes. She smiled at him.
"That's right, little fella. I just stole all your strength." She watched the life fade from his eyes, and dropped him negligently to the floor.

Angela stared for a moment at her reflection. She was not the same woman who had gotten out of bed this morning. Her body was not simply revitalised...it was powerful. Immensely powerful. She could feel it...she could actually feel how her last victim had drastically altered her muscles. He had been strong despite his diminutive size. Rather than shrink due to the now enhanced efficiency of her body, her muscles retained their size and shape...and were that much stronger for it.
A few people were now attempting to move the machine she had used to block the entrance. Angela strode up behind them and picked the biggest up by the back of the neck. He was, for the time being, a huge man. She waved him about, testing his weight, and found it far too easy. It was though he were made of hollow polystyrene. As she shrank him, discarding him afterward, Angela realised that compared to other people who had special powers, normal people could no longer give her the tremendous rush she was looking for.
But she took the rest anyway. Enjoying her new strength she tore her way through the gym in a flash, knocking aside any equipment unfortunate enough to be in her path aside as if weren't there. Once she had tapped everyone who was left, Angela drew upon them all at once. It felt good...really good...but not great.
Only once her hunt was complete, and Angela stood half an inch taller with much thicker muscles all over her body, did she notice the force gathering outside.
"Damn it!" she cursed. "How did they get here so damn fast?"
Then she considered how long she had been here, and realised they'd had plenty of time to set up their little blockade outside the gym. Especially considering that the girl who had caused her so much trouble stood among them. Flexing her new improved physique, Angela started to think how easily she could break out through the back. Even if there wasn't a door, bricks would not stop her now. But even as the thought of how easy it would be to destroy brickwork and effect an escape, it occured to Angela that she didn't need to run. With ease that excited her she hoised a large machine, weight and all. It was like holding a balloon. Bring her hands closer together she listened with pride as the steel groaned. Despite it's protests, the metal bars offered very little physical challenge to her now clearly supercharged muscles. Dropping the equipment with a huge crash, she walked toward the front of the building. Putting her hands on her hips, Angela strode straight through three glass walls and the counter. Angela Murphy no longer needed doors. Deliberately avoiding the glass panes of the gym's shopfront windows, she used her breasts as battering rams to casually tear through the heavy masonry. At least a hundred guns were instantly trained on her.
Angela realised that despite the meddlesome girl, all the firepower, and their vastly superior numbers, the coming fight was going to be a total white wash. She was at least ten times stronger than all of them combined, and if bullets couldn't really hurt her before, they would be completely useless against her now.
"Kneel before me!" she commanded. "Kneel before me and I will spare your lives."
Part of her really did want them to fall at her feet. But a larger part of her wanted them to resist.

For several heartbeats after she offered the gathered force their lives, Angela thought she may have been a little hasty. No one spoke. No one moved. For a fleeting moment she thought they were going to take up her offer. But then someone took a shot, hitting her in the chest. If not for the gunshot sounding off, she might not have noticed. The bullet thudded into her flesh, but failed to so much as bruise her before it fell to the pavement. If someone were to ask her, she would have had trouble expressing how much of a thrill it gave when she realised she could now take direct hits from bullets without having to spend her valuable energy reserves to heal. This fact was demonstrated beyond any doubt as the street become filled with the deafening sounds of gunfire. Angela looked down and watched the bullets slowly strip away her new outfit, leaving her now youthful and vibrant skin unblemished. Angela Murphy started to laugh.
"Is that all you've got? she asked, though no one could really hear her. "Let me show you what I've got."
She reached out with both hands and released dazzling blasts of green energy that surprised and terrified her attackers. In moments the area was reduced to a charred ruin, and all the guns were silenced. Angela was actually a little disappointed with how easy it was.
As she smiled upon her deadly work a National Guardsman popped up from behind a vehicle and resumed shooting. Angela walked toward the vehicle he hid behind, and placed her hand on the cold metal. With a quick push she sent the car sliding violently across the street, taking the doomed guardsman with it. It hit the gutter on the opposite of the road, flipped and hit the building beyond about three metres in the air.
Angela glowed with pride as she kicked an empty army truck and watched it fly away,breaking apart from the incredible force she so easily brought to bear. She was ready for the meddlesome brat now.
"Okay bitch! Stop hiding! Come to me and I'll make it quick! If I have to come looking for you, you'll regret it!"

Angela did regret killing all those men. Not because she was remorseful, but because she could have better used their lives o make herself stronger. But then, if she had come across three superpowered humans in the short time since her own abilities had developed, then surely there must be many more, and if that were true then she didn't really need to suck the life out of the whole population. She could get all the power she needed from the freaks.
Seeing no sign of the girl now, Angela considered her next move. She went back into the gym and picked out new clothes. As she admired herself in the mirror her plan formed. She was so much stronger already than she anticipated, and she had often pondered what she would do if she ever had power to enforce her will on others. A smile formed on her lips as she realised she could have whatever she wanted now, and she wanted control. And now nobody could stop her from seizing it.
Angela started to walk toward City Hall. After a few blocks she began to come across people, and their reactions to her large imposing frame pleased her. As strong as her body looked, she knew it was much stronger. She flagged down a passing taxi and got in.
"City Hall," she commanded imperiously.
"Sure, lady. Hey...did you hear? There's been some sort of terrorist attack just a few blocks from here."
"Really?"
As they drove the cabby offered his theories. "What's the world coming to? These poeple must be real physcos. I mean...what does it get killing so many people?" The cab pulled up at the front of City Hall. "That'll be thirteen-ninety," he informed her. He held out his open hand, and Angela took it and he almost instantly slumped into his seat. She hardly felt the benefit, but it was the most effective way to deal with him.
Angela got out of the cab and strode toward the main doors. Security guards appeared from everywhere, her descirption having been put out to law enforcers all over the city.
"Hold it right there! You're under arrest!"
"I don't have time for this."
Angela reached behind her and grabbed the taxi in a metal crunching hold. Her new strength still giving her that new-car thrill, she tossed the vehicle at the biggest group and watched them scatter as she strode slowly toward the building. An alarm sounded from inside, and Angela grinned. It wouldn't be long now before City Hall was surrounded with far more than the had pulled together at the gym. And none of it was going to do them any good...she was too powerful now to be stopped by conventional weapons, and she knew it. She would soon enforce her rule over the entire city, and there was nothing standing in her way that she could crush or feed upon.

Angela got things started by blasting the man who dared to speak so rudely to her. They opened fire, but before they could do too much damage to her clothes she shot small blasts of energy at their guns, disarming all of them without hurting them too much. They scattered as she walked into the building.
The security doors had sealed, but rather than offering an obstacle they only offered Angela another chance to revel in her superhuman strength. The glass outer door shattered, bulletproof yet hardly immune to the pressure she easily brought to bear. The polished steel-link security shuttered were ripped apart by chest as she strode straight through into the lobby. People were running about everywhere. Those foolish enough to come within reach were consumed by the merciless intruder, but there was only one person here she really wanted to get her hands on.
Turning into the hall where banks of elevators ran along either wall she chose one of the turbo lifts, specifically the one that would take her to the mayor's office. It was locked down. She needed a passcard.
Angela would have to take the stairs. The security door, designed to be opened easily from the inside in case of fire but not so much from outside, shattered as she delivered a poorly thrown punch. Such a lengthy journey up so many stairs would have daunted her before...but not now. She started running up the inside of the building, taking three or four steps with each effortlessly powerful stride. A few guards popped out to shoot, and she ploughed through them without slowing, her powerful muscles hardly registering either the efforts of flinging them aside or the impacts of their wasted ammunition.
Reaching her desired floor, Angela placed a hand on the door and shoved it forcefully off its hinges. Stepping into a barrage of machine gun fire, Angela laughed and allowed them to strip the cloth from her hard body. Clothes were going to be an issue, she mused, enjoying their expressions as they realised the truth of the scene before them. This woman was completely immune to their gunfire. They were powerless to stop her.
Angela gloated, unconcerned by her nakedness. "Kneel before me, and I will spare your lives!"
Some did, but most kept tring to kill her. With a shrug she rushed forward and lifted two of them from the ground so easily that one dropped his weapon in shock.
"Have it your way," she told them, slamming them together with terrifying force before dropping them and reaching for more.

Belinda Hollins regarded the intruder with professional cool.
"What is it you want?"
"Maybe I just want to kill you," Angela suggested.
"Get on with it then."
Angela laughed, and dropped the body of Belinda's secretary. She stepped forward and leaned over the mayor, running her hands up and down the shorter woman's arms.
"Lucky for you I have other plans."
Half an hour later the local press were gathered, and Angela walked out onto the steps of City Hall with the mayor in tow. Keeping it together surprisingly well, Belinda began to address the gathering.
"We live in truly...remarkable times." She turned to Angela with a raised eyebrow, as if it say 'You realy want me to read this crap?' Angela smiled and nodded, gesturing for her to continue.
"Yes. Remarkable times. The world is changing: the dawn of a new era is upon us...an era of peace. An era where crime and war do not exist. And it's my honour to be the one to introduce you to the person who will be resposible for bringing it all about. I give you..."
"HOLD IT THERE!"
Angela glared out into the crowd, trying to spot the source of this rude interruption. A woman stepped forward, and Angela Murphy groaned.
"You're rampage is over, bitch!" the new arrival decalred. It was hard for Angela to take her seriously, dressed as she ws in what was clearly a very quickly thrown together ensemble.
"I was saving the demonstration of my power for after my speech. But thanks for volunteering."
Angela walked calmly toward the woman as everyone else scattered.
"I don't think anyone's going to hold it against me when I kill your ass," the stranger declared. Before Angela took her fifth step the new arrival splayed her arms, reaching out toward newsvans parked about a hundred feet away on either side of her. The vans crumpled a little as she closed her fists and raised her arms a little. Both vehicles rose smoothly into the air. Then the woman slammed her fists together in front of her, and the vans flew in toward Angela. The impact shook the ground, and left Angela trapped inside a mangled mass of steel and plastic. The mass groaned and protested...a hand appeared from within. The woman reached out with both hands and grunted as the mass of metal shifted and shook, and shrank.
Angela let out a roar of rage as the wrecked vans crunched hard into her flesh. It was very uncomfortable, but not painful. She could feel the steel trying to crush her, and her muscles resisted easily enough. It was as though someone were giving her a firm hug. Frustrated at having her official introduction to the world she planned to conquer spoiled, she pulled her arms and legs in tight only to shoot them out again and stretch her tremendously powerful body to it's limit. The woman cried out, and protected herself with some sort of force field as the metal coccoon became an oversized hand grenade.
"Is that all you've got?" Angela demanded, walking forward toward her attacker.
"No."
Angela stopped walking and froze.
"Why don't you tell me how you got these power?"
"I don't know. I fell down, and when I got up I was a god."
"A god?"
"Yes," Angela informed her, her tone monotous. Inside, she struggled against the compulsion to stand like a statue and answer these questions so honestly.
"How can I stop you?"
"You can't. I'm too strong now. If you kill me I'll regenerate."
"How can I convince you stop killing?"
"You can't. I'm determined to get stronger, and shall not rest until I have conquered the world and placed everyone under my rule."
"Then I have no choice."
Angela cried out and dropped to her knees as blood started to flow from her nose. She could feel the woman's mental touch become a crushing hold as her brain started to fry...but as the hold tightened so too did the feint connection between the two women. Angela sensed it through the pain...and seized upon it. It was not as fast as direct contact, but she could feel the essence of her attacker start to fill her, and the devine sensation brought a smile to her face.
"Thank you...mmmm."
The woman dropped to her knees as Angela stood a little straighter. This change was far more obvious to her than the first two. Eveything was different. The whole world suddenly opened up to her and she could feel everything...and everyone. Experimenting, Angela waved a hand over the distant line of reporters and police. There were confused screams as they all dropped as one to the ground, their life force visiblly streaming from them and into Angela.
"YES!" she cried. She had drained them from a distance of nearly a hundred feet. She didn't even need to touch people anymore. Angela was starting to see that her potential was now limitless. Abandoning her desire to use the old power structure, Angela decided she could now enforce her will directly. The crowd that was running away down the other direction stopped as her eyes fell upon them. They stood still for a moment, and then turned as one and started walking steadily toward her. When get within a few feet they knelt and bowed their heads. Angela stood watching them in fascination as they formed a circle around her, and started to pray.

Angela closed her eyes and listened to the prayers as she spread her influence over the city. She sensed those who were different...and all those with powers similar to the woman she just defeated tried to resist, but Angela grinned and used their power to enhance her own and strengthen her hold over those in her range while increasing that range. At this rate she was certain she would soon have total control over the whole city in minutes. Angela swooned as she 'taxed' her population a tiny percentage of their vitality, and felt her strength quadruple. Her muscles shifted and grew in size and density, stretching her latest outfit to its very limit.
Then she found her. The meddlesome brat. She considered taking her life there and then, but the desire to end the girl's life was outweighed by her yearning for revenge. The girl had nearly ended her rule before it even began, afer all, and she had to be made ot pay for that. And pay slowly.
Passing her influence around the suburbs of Cape Hope Angela sensed millions of people dropping to their knees in supplication, chanting nice things about their new ruler. Fully aware how great this was going to feel, Angela tapped into the unique abilities of all those she sensed as different, and took from them what no others could give her.
It was an even more magnificent rush than she had anticipated. Watching her reflection in the mirror, Angela thrilled to sight of her magnificent body growing taller and thicker, healthier and stronger. New abilities popped into her body alongside the rush of pure life force by the dozen, the life force of hundreds of thousands of people filling the air and churning around her as the raw energy infused itself into her. She could see herself become more beaufiful and realised that at least several thousand of those she had tapped had the power of enhanced sexual appeal. Combined now in her body, the result was beyond stunning, beyond awe inspiring, and far beyond terrifying. When she was done Angela was eight feet tall and positively glowing with health and vitality. No one prayed now...they were too busy spasming in unwanted euphoria, completely crushed by just the vision of what Angela had become. Her influence spread further as her feet left the grounds and she gently hovered in the air. Her eyes glowed green as she crushed the wills of millions more every second, taxing each and every one of her new slaves 5 percent of their lifeforce. The process left her pawing at her own magnificent body as she became stronger and sexier with each passing moment.
The steeet began to fill with poeple as her slaves approached from everywhere, gathering to kneel before her and shower her with praise as she grew stronger and stronger, her will now a irrefutable force that spread itself relentlessly across the entire penisula.

A quick apology to those who are waiting for me to finish this. There's very little left to do now, with the end just around the corner. Thanks to Castor for assistance and his patience.

Angela stood in the street, her arms held out wide as her power swelled beyond anything she might have imagined before this moment. The rush she got taking Blaster's power was miniscule compared to the way she felt right now. For a moment she felt she would burst, but at least ten of the supers she had absorbed had been invulnerable...she was somehow certain of that...and now she was as tough as they, only multiplied tenfold. She grabbed at her perfect breasts, astonished by how firm they now were. Even her own superstrong hands could not apply pressure enough to hurt her. She maliciously dug her fingers into her flesh only to produce intense pleasure.
Angela suddenly needed something she had not had for forty-nine years. She needed a man, and she needed one now.
Even as she searched the entire penisula for the perfect man to please her, Angela allowed her prodigious level of power to lift her feet off the road and float up into the sky above the forced adorations of the crowd. It wasn't that she applied effort to floating, it more like she stopped trying to stay grounded.
Selecting a man, one who looked like a pretty-boy but had a heart dark as her own. Like every single person in Cape Hope who's mind she had enthralled, he had been laying with his body pointing toward his goddess's location and mumbling prayers. Suddenly he was grasped by an invisible yet undeniable force and lifted into the air. When he cleared the local buildings he accelerated to an incredible speed and shot toward the city. He cried out in agony when he came to rapid halt in the air. Before him the impossible vision that had taken over his mind was made reality. She was...everything. She was beauty; she was fear. His mind reeled as he felt that crushing hold release him. The truth that she was beautiful beyond any reasonable reality remained.
"Wha...who...are you?"
Angela grinned. "Tell me. Say my name."
"What?"
"Who am I?"
"You're god."
"Well...not exactly. But that'll do for now."
Angela snapped her fingers and her clothes vanished, painting brief white flame over her skin.
"It's not...not possible. How can you be so...so...."
"I know." She patted his cheekm sending shivers down his spine. "I'm too much. And believe me, it feels as good as it looks, honey. Andd for the next, well...however long this takes...all this is just for you, baby."
He had control over his arms and legs, but he was still held aloft and unable to make the move he so desperately wanted to make. He couldn't throw her down and have her. But she could see what he wanted to do, and Angela reversed the situation by making him float down under her as she opened her legs, marvelling at how absolutely wonderful it felt to stretch her renewed muscles and ligaments. Penetration was devine...but that was far they got before she ruined him.
"So weak!" she observed. That would never do. "I'll give you a loan," Angela offered, "But don't get used to it!"
Suddenly the man gasped as his muscles thickened and his stamina went through the roof. He felt himself heal, and then he discovered the immediate price of his loan. She took complete control of their love making, using him as little more than a sex doll. While he could feel his empowered muscles thrusting away with reckless abandon until they burned like hell, he could not slow himself, let alone stop for a break. After a half hour of this he was no longer enjoying himself.
"Please! I need...more!"
"What's that, honey? More? It would be MY pleasure." Though she could see his thoughts and knew exactly what he meant, Angela cruelly increased the effort he was putting in, her own much more powerful body relaxing into a harder and faster pace to match. It just felt so good...too good. She didn't want to stop. And she wasn't go to do anything she didn't want to anymore. Sadly, even her abilities had limits. She could have easily made the man more powerful, but would only have done so to delay what happened next. He cried out one last time, and collapsed. She felt him going, and took back not only what power she had lent but also the relatively tiny amount of energy that had been his.
Feeling quite satisified, Angela let the used up man drop thirty feet to the road while she ran her hands through her hair. THe tangles fell out, and her hair popped into a rather stylish, if very outdated do that she'd once liked. Appearing to dust herself off, Angela used another new ability to make herself a new dress.
"Time to get down to business," Angela mused, deciding to visit the unruly child. It would be fun to toy with her a little before crushing her mind...and taking all that new strength. Angela grinned at the thought. Once that girl was out of the way, she would have nothing else to do but further increase the size of her domain. Even as she sought Star out, Angela was thinking about which country to suck the life out of first...

Angela was actually a little disapointed to see that her quarry had, in the time since she had last seen her, gotten herself shitfaced. It sort of took the fun out of it. It was as though the girl had already admitted defeat, and therefore crushing her would more like taking candy from a baby.
"Look at you. That's the problem with kids these days. You'll find no answers in the bottom of a bottle, girl. But then...there are no answers for you, no solutions now that can save you from me."
Angela looked around, and her adoring worshippers started to get up and approach them. Their attention was focused on Star, and they did not look happy.
"Why should I even bother fighting you?" Angela wondered, stepping back and encircling Star with her minions.
As one the crowd moved forward, letting out a war cry as they lunged at Star and began attacking her, surging into her at Angela's silent command.
Angela suddenly felt a little woozey. Out of the corner of her eye she thought she caught sight of a strangely dressed woman...but she didn't sense anyone's presence and when she turned to look no-one was there. The dizziness came back, and the world around her jolted as though reality were a badly edited film. Angela's wooziness became outright nausea as she struggled to understand what was happening.

Angela took the bag of groceries into the kitchen and stood there for a time in silence. Her cats brought her out of it, rubbing against her leg to remind her that the bag contained their food. One thing they knew was where their food was.
"Alright! Just wait a damn a minute!"
One of the cats mewed softly, almost as if to say: "C'mon...don't be a bitch."
Angela flicked on the light. The feeling of deja-vu that came over her was frightening. Something happened...she was sure something was wrong. She should be somewhere else...but she had nowhere else to be. She looked up at the light. At least the mould hadn't come back. Wait...there was something about that...something wrong.
Shaking it off, always the skeptic, Angela fed her cats and went into the living room to sit down. She lifted and opened her aged copy of Orlando by Virginia Woolf to where she had left off, and resumed reading.

As Castor has said, this little tale has come full circle. The main idea behind this story, as sort of implied in the title, is what happens when someone goes too far, when what can go wrong does go wrong. Thanks to the clever (and I can say that without being self-impressed, because it wasn't my idea) mechanic of having a character from the distant future monitoring events to prevent the end of the world and protect her timeline from deviations, it is possible to write just about any story with a character of any power level in the SWMU with no actual risk of long term damage. Whenever things go off track, it is quite easy to rectify. In this case the Warden has gone back in time and removed the mould from Angela's kitchen. Simple, yet effective. Also demonstrated in the story is how the alien fuel dumped around Cape Hope can enter the environment and give those exposed to one or two of these elements superpowers. In this case the mould was affected by a chemical in the mould remover, and breathed in by Angela through the rag. There's no set way in which these alien fuels can find their way to your character, and no set way in which your character might be altered by such exposure. This allows for great freedom in what you can write about in the SWMU.