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Comet Transforms Girls

23 Jun 2011 12:03 - 23 Jun 2011 12:05 #23721 by Newshound
Comet Transforms Girls was created by Newshound
I've been thinking about what could happen if the Earth passed through the wake of a comet and was dusted with comet dust.

At first, everything seemed normal but, within a few months there were reports from around the world of teenage girls becoming abnormally strong. Strong enough to lift cars. As more girls became immensely strong, naturally there were going to be a few bad apples.

It began with reports of girls committing minor crimes such as bank robberies. Their confidence grew as they realized they were unstoppable. There was a shocking report of a gang of seven teenage girls taking over an entire military base. News photos showed overturned M1A1 tanks.

In another report out of Australia, a teenage girl single-handedly attacked a police station sending numerous officers to the hospital and throwing dozens more into their own jail.
Last edit: 23 Jun 2011 12:05 by Newshound.

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23 Jun 2011 23:51 #23723 by eavatar
Replied by eavatar on topic Re: Comet Transforms Girls
Sounds interesting, but why restrain yourself on superstrenght?

Going ahead is the only one way to go to the future.

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24 Jun 2011 07:26 #23727 by argonaut
Replied by argonaut on topic Re: Comet Transforms Girls
Damn, Newshound, you've been reading my mind -- or hacking my computer.

A while ago I started playing with an idea for a story: What if something were to cause girls in their late teens to undergo a second growth spurt, becoming bigger and stronger than their male peers? (As younger girls moved into that age bracket, they'd be affected too.) And I decided that the cause of this world-wide transformation would be a comet! (That was a nod to the H. G. Wells novel In the Days of the Comet, in which hatred and bigotry vanish as the result of the Earth's passage through a comet's tail.)

I didn't get very far with the story, mainly because I had a scenario but no plot. Or maybe the problem was that the basic idea lends itself to too many story possibilities. Anyway, here are the few pages I did write. If anyone wants to continue this, or write vignettes based on my scenario, feel free.


The Year of the Comet

Chapter 1

Brad Mullen carried his bowl of Cheerios into the living room and sat down on the sofa. His girl-friend Nicole had been so excited yesterday when she told him she was going to be on television, even if it was just a segment on a local news program.

"Promise me you'll watch it," she said. So of course he promised.

He picked up the remote and pressed the "power" button. The television screen sprang to life. Munching his Cheerios, he sat through a commercial, then the weather report, and then ...

A head-shot of Nicole appeared on the screen. Brad recognized it as her picture from last year's yearbook. Her blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail, her large blue eyes were gazing straight at the camera, and a wide smile was dimpling her cheeks.

"Nicole Pettigrew is a junior at Middleton High School," a woman's voice was saying. "She plays field hockey ... sings in the school chorus ... and enjoys hanging out with her friends. She describes herself as a typical teenager. But the teenage years are a time of change ... and Nicole joins me this morning to talk about the amazing transformation that's changing her life -- and the lives of millions of other teenage girls. "

An attractive brunette, microphone in hand, was standing next to Nicole on the set of the news program. Nicole was wearing a spandex exercise outfit whose snug fit and bright colors reminded Brad of a super-hero costume. Turning to Nicole, the reporter craned her head back.

"So tell me, Nicole," she said, "how tall are you?"

Nicole leaned down to speak into the microphone. "Six feet six inches."

"And three months ago you were -- ?"

"About five feet six inches."

A clip of Middleton High School appeared on the screen. Boys and girls were hurrying toward the front entrance, en route to their first-period classes.

"Nicole is hardly unique," the reporter was saying in a voice-over. "Nearly all girls between the ages of sixteen and eighteen have been undergoing what scientists have described as a 'second growth spurt' -- a spurt that's adding roughly twelve inches to their height and causing them to tower over their male peers."

Now Brad was looking down the main hallway of the school building. A boy and a girl were walking toward the camera. Brad recognized them both. The boy was Cal Bennet, the football team's starting quarterback, but at 6' 2" he barely came up to the girl's chin. Lindsay Green had been tall for a girl, even before the big change, but now ...

The reporter was continuing her voice-over. "And it's not just happening in Middleton. The National Science Agency confirms that this phenomenon is real -- and world-wide. But girls aren't just getting bigger -- they're getting stronger, too. Their muscle tisuue is becoming denser, more elastic -- endowing them with a strength that some describe as superhuman."

Back on the set, the camera panned toward a Nautilus machine loaded with an impressive stack of weights. Lying down on the bench, Nicole reached up and grasped the handles.

"All right, Nicole," the reporter said. "Tell me how much weight you want."

"The whole stack, please."

Stooping, the reporter inserted a rod into the bottom weight. Then she stood up and continued: "This stack weighs more than three hundred pou -- yikes!"

Startled, she jumped back as the weights shot upward and struck the machine's frame with a loud clang.

Nicole grinned sheepishly. "Sorry," she said. She lowered the weights gently, then raised them again, this time with one arm. "These feel pretty light." She sat up.

"One last question,": the reporter said. "It appears that males are on the brink of losing their time-honored status as the stronger sex. Do you have anything to say to guys who may be feeling a little threatened by that?"

Nicole giggled. "Yes, I do." She flashed a dazzling smile and flexed her right arm. The camera zoomed in as a baseball-sized bicep began stretching the spandex sleeve of her exercise outfit. "Get over it!"

"For WMID News, this is Jenna Lawrence -- "

Sighing, Brad turned off the television. "Get over it," he thought. Easy for her to say. He looked at his watch. He'd better hurry if he didn't want to be late for --

"Oof!"

He tumbled off the end of the sofa and onto the floor. "Jeez, Becky," he muttered, picking himself up and rubbing his bruised backside. "How about a little warning next time?"

"Sorry, bro." His sister Becky was holding up the other end of the sofa with one arm while she peered underneath it. "I think I dropped -- oh, here it is." She bent over to pick up an earring, then lowered the sofa.

Their mother had come into the room. "Really, dear," she said disapprovingly. "Do you think that outfit is appropriate for school?"

"What -- this?" Becky's pink polo shirt was straining against her chest and shoulders and exposing several inches of bare midriff; her gray pleated skirt came barely halfway down her thighs. "These clothes were fine a month ago. Can I help it if I'm a growing girl? If Mr. Prescott doesn't like what I'm wearing, he can send me home. But he'll have to send half the other girls, too."

She had a point. The upperclass girls had been outgrowing their clothes faster than they could replace them. Mrs. Mullen sighed resignedly. "All right. But this weekend, we're going shopping."

An automobile horn tooted on the street outside.

"There's my ride," said Becky. "Bye, Mom. Later, bro." She picked up her bookbag and hurried out the door.

* * * * * * * *
The following user(s) said Thank You: inactive, Berkhart, Ravens_ghost

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26 Jun 2011 02:11 #23738 by Berkhart
Replied by Berkhart on topic Re: Comet Transforms Girls
That's a great piece of writing there! Really well done, and even though more would be great, it totally works on its own. I love world changing scenarios like this one...very hot :)
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26 Jun 2011 06:39 #23741 by argonaut
Replied by argonaut on topic Re: Comet Transforms Girls
Thanks, Berkhart!

Like I said, the problem was that I came up with a premise rather than a story -- so the project ran out of steam pretty quickly. I think the idea lends itself to short vignettes rather than a consecutive story-line anyway, so anyone who'd like to write some is welcome.

Being a math geek, I looked up height percentiles for boys and girls and inverted their ratio. For example, the tenth percentile for girls is 5'1"; for boys, it's 5'6". After their "second spurt," girls in this percentile are 71"-72" tall. So 90% of girls in the affected age bracket are at least 6 feet tall.

Without throwing too many numbers around, the "second spurt" adds 10 to 13 inches to a girl's height. Girls at the 50th percentile are 6'3" (boys are 5'10"); at the 90th percentile, girls are 6'7" (boys are 6'1"). About 1% og girls reach 7 feet.

I didn't quantify girls' strength increase, but I figured they might be around 100 times as strong as they were before -- strong enough to lift the front of a car, say, but not a tank. As for other powers, I imagined that girls would be fast healers, disease-resistant, and able to withstand pretty expreme temperatures, but not invulnerable (though they'd be able to take a really strong punch). No flying, heat-vision, etc.

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26 Jun 2011 08:19 #23742 by Gliblord
Replied by Gliblord on topic Re: Comet Transforms Girls
Lol, that's pretty much the idea I had for my supergirl world, except they'd be around x1,000 and be able to level up

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26 Jun 2011 08:50 #23743 by Caylane
Replied by Caylane on topic Re: Comet Transforms Girls
Heh, as much as a good idea this is, and the small story above this was well done. I can't say I love it since it has no flying and such :(

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