Written by Woodclaw :: [Thursday, 05 July 2012 23:33] Last updated by :: [Sunday, 02 February 2014 11:13]
A regular girl discovers the secret of the world's mightiest superheroine
Thanks to Yosh for creating Serena in the first place and allowing me to use his characters.
To Njae for the editing.
To everyone else for reading.
[Note: this continuation is set several hours after the end of Part 6. I'm sorry for that, but I couldn't manage to write that part at a decent level]
It was few minutes after midnight, Serena was laying on her bed. Her eyes were red and full of tears, her throat ached because of how much she had cried. She buried her head in the cushion trying to muffle her cry. She was feeling mean, unworthy but, above all, she felt stupid. Immensely stupid. She felt that everything in the last day and half – since her fortuitous discovery of Hyperwoman's powers – was anything but a disaster. Sure she managed to crack the secret behind the world only superheroine, but she had probably lost her best friend in the process.
With a monumental effort Serena stood up and stumbled into the bathroom. She opened the cold water tap and splashed her face. She gave a half-glance to the mirror, but quickly turned away. She was a mess, after running away from Mia's apartment hours ago she had come back home, locked herself in and immediately depowered. She had even tried to puke to get the potion out of her system as fast as possible. She couldn't even look at her normal self right now without feeling a monster for what she had done.
Mia was her best friend since forever. There was a complicity between them, a trust that was beyond words and shared experiences. Simply put, Serena was always there when Mia needed an encouragement, Mia was always ready when Serena needed a shoulder to cry on. But not tonight. Tonight Serena was crying alone and she really couldn't blame Mia for not being present. She was the one to blame.
Sitting on the side of her bed she tried to figure out when things went sour. She remembered her excitement going to Mia as her old, plain, regular self, just to blossom into her new super-powered alter-ego right in front of Mia's eyes. “Her expression was so fucking unreal!” she reminded herself savoring the memory. It had a bittersweet aftertaste, which made her shake like a leaf. How could something feel so good and so wrong at the same time was beyond her.
Then she told Mia the whole story. Well, almost, at the time she felt it was the right thing not to tell her about Hyperwoman's secret identity and all the lost vial stuff. Now it felt wrong: “Mia would never do something like this. She would never lie to me!” Serena thought.
Yet, that wasn't the real screw up. No, lying was just a simple slip compared to what happened next. It was when Serena had started to use her empathic powers. At first it was simply a way to cut the angles, to prevent Mia from freaking out to hard, but after they touched it became so easy and intuitive that Serena had trouble not to do it. Then Mia touched her arm … she reached out … she tuned on Mia's excitement …
and …
and …
Serena burst into tears again. She couldn't even bring herself to think of it. She felt dirty inside for what she had done. How could she possibly think about being a superheroine after what she did. She couldn't even think about it, not to mention speak it out loud. For the first time she was questioning her choice of drinking the potion in the first place. She had been so sure, so incredibly arrogant to believe that it was her destiny to become a superhuman, now she felt the exact opposite.
Wiping the tears from her face Serena decided she had to do something to straight things out. With trembling hands she reached for her cell. She was shocking so wildly that it took her three attempts to speed dial Mia's number.
At the other end of the communication, Mia was sitting in a corner of her couch, curled into a fetal ball and wearing only the XXL sweatshirt she used as pajamas. With her eyes closed she was caressing herself while reviewing the events of the last hours and trying to organize her own thoughts. She completely failed to notice the insistent ring of her cell.
The image of Serena's new and improved self towered above each and every of Mia's thoughts. She couldn't help it. She couldn't avoid thinking about the fantastic body of her best friend. Those wide hips, tiny waist, perfect bubble butt were embedded into her brain. Not to mention those otherworldly breasts, they were so large, so round, so powerful. Mia was literally dying with lust.
Most of all Mia remembered Serena's face. The sultry look of her eyes, her little upturned nose and those full red lips. In Mia's overcharged fantasy, each movement of those lips was a dance, a flirty invitation from her friend-turned-goddess. For years she had loved Serena as a sister, not she wanted her so badly.
She wanted to be with her.
She wanted to BE her.
None of these thoughts struck her as wrong. Mia was definitely heterosexual, yet she couldn't help but lust after Serena. They were best friends, yet she wanted to completely change the nature of that relationship. She felt that being in love and awe with an incarnated goddess was perfectly natural.
Simply thinking about the events of the past day made her wet. The scene of the incredible transformation was something she would never forget, having the privilege of witnessing such spectacle had left her speechless. Then she remembered “the Moment”, the precise moment when she realized her feelings. Serena had allowed her to feel her bicep, Mia remembered the silky smoothness of her skin, the subtle heat, the anticipation. She had a vague recollection of something – maybe someone – gently pushing her, soothing her uneasiness, filling her mind with confidence and thrust, allowing her to explore some unexpected feelings. She couldn't really point out what – or who – was and she was starting to consider it just some strange subconscious thingy.
When Serena's bicep exploded, so did Mia's desire. The felling of steel wrapped in silk and the sensation in her mind were simply too much for her. Her inhibitions shattered a second later, she jumped and kissed Serena on her lips with reckless abandon. Serena's mouth was sweet like raspberries and spicy like curry, Mia longed that taste and savored it for a long moments before Serena pushed her away. The look on Serena's face was of shock and puzzlement, but Mia really didn't care. She lunged for that fantastic body, only to land on the ground, Serena had disappeared in thin air.
Mia couldn't really blame Serena for pushing her back and running away. Right now Serena was nothing short of a goddess, while Mia was light years away from her current standards. Serena could have any man, any woman on the globe, thinking that she would be satisfied with just her old friend was stupid. Mia sighed loudly: “Well, at least I'm still her best friend. Nothing will ever change that.”
Serena waited for a long minute before hanging. The failed phone call had given her some time to calm down. “I have to take my head away from this story.” she decided.
Looking at her desk, two and half days of homeworks were piled up next to her computer, along with some extras meant for the next week. “Perfect, just what I need: some boring old stuff to remind me my place in the world.”
For a hour Serena tried to focus all her attention on her assignment, to no avail. Her attention span was at its lowest, she couldn't keep her mind on the job even for a minute. It wasn't just the ginormous guilt complex she was hauling, it was also the frustration of doing things with just her normal mind. After tasting the marvels of being super, experiencing the dull reality of her old, average self was like a purgatory. Her eyes kept turning to the kitchen door and he mind kept thinking about the jar of potion hidden behind the cookies box.
After half a hour of torture Serena gave up. She pushed her seat back and took off her glasses, her eyes were burning and she had written only half a page of her assignment. “God, this is taking forever. If only I had my p …” she thought, “No! I won't use them again!”
Looking at the kitchen door again, Serena stood up and marched in with a resolute expression. She opened the counter and grabbed the jar. The potion was identical to the day before, looking like vaguely cloudy water, but otherwise unremarkable. Serena uncorked the top and was about to pour it down the sink, but she stopped. She had caught an image of her face in the chromed tap, the distortion made her look even chubbier than usual.
She had the distinct impression of having the proverbial angel and devil whispering in her ears. She wanted to get rid of the potion, but she loathed her old self so much. She loved having powers, but what she did to Mia made her afraid of using them. As all these different impulses brawled in her mind, Serena's hand started shaking violently. She grabbed her wrist with her left hand, trying to steady herself but to no avail. She looked around feeling like a lost puppy in the middle of a motorway, when she heard a like a whisper behind her: “Well, what are you going to do?”
Serena's eyes darted left and right, she could have sworn that the voice was real, not just another figment of her imagination. Something out of her window caught her attention, she caught a glimpse of a face, framed with blonde hair, hanging out of it. She ran to the window and toss her head out: nothing.
Going back to the kitchen table Serena reconsidered the situation. She lived on the second floor and there was no trees or pipes for easy climbing. If there was really someone out of her window, that could be only someone who could fly: Hyperwoman. She gulped down hard, the fear for a confrontation with the famous blond heroine was something she really didn't want to think about: likely they had exactly the same powers, but Hyperwoman had more than a decade of experience over Serena.
Serena began to hyperventilate as her thoughts raced: 'Oh my God, she knows!'
'Duh! Of course she knows. She's Hyperwoman and she lives just two stories above you!'
'I have to get rid of this stuff, now! And return that fucking vial!'
'What if she get pissed? I'll be death in a second without powers! I have to keep the stuff.'
'I don't know how to control those powers. What if I screw up again? I don't want to hurt anybody else.'
“ARRGGHH.” she screamed out in frustration and slammed the jar on the table. “Ok, girl, get a grip on yourself. And think!”
Serena grabbed a marker and started to summarize the last couple of days on the whiteboard clipped to the fridge:
I know who HW is
I know what gave her powers
I gave myself powers too
We live in the same building
Does she know I saw her? Likely: HELL YEAH!!
She knows her powers well. I don't
I did something to Mia already screw up BIG TIME!!!
Looking at things with a little more calm Serena started to realize two thing. First, Hyperwoman might be the key to fixing Mia, she knows how to handle those powers, perhaps she could help her fixing that disaster. Second, dumping the potion down her sink was stupid. It was magical super-juice, not toothpaste. “Yeah, I might even cause the Ninja Turtles to become real that way.” she joked.
There was one decisive factor in this story, one way or the other she had to meet with Hyperwoman face to face and straight things out, the sooner, the better. This decision gave her a new sense of calm and she took a moment to ponder about the jar. “I can't get rid of it right now. I don't know how to do it and … well if Hyperw … Jennifer, better call her Jennifer. Anyway, if she get pissed, I might need it.”
Serena leaned on the chair and tossed her head back, through the crack of the door she saw the pile of books and notes she was working on. She felt a little selfish impulse. With her enhanced brain she could finish that stuff in seconds and then look out for Hyperwoman. “Maybe, it will be better to use some now. Just a little bit.”
She went to the bathroom and returned with an eye-dropper. “Just a little bit.” she repeated, carefully measuring four drops on a teaspoon.
She gulped down the potion and waited for a couple of seconds. There was no electrical buzz, no sensation of energy surging, nothing. “What the? Maybe the dosage is too sm … WOAH!!”
Without warning Serena felt like a fireball running up her spine and exploding in her brain. There was a split second of pure pain that made her vision completely white, and then the orgasmic sensation of power surged across her whole body. The reaction was extremely fast and incredibly more intense than before. If her first transformation could be compared to a butterfly stretching out of the pod, this one was like a bomb blowing a building apart.
Serena's muscles cramped, locking her in a painful “T” position. The chemical reaction burned through her system. It was so incredibly intense that pain and pleasure mixed in Serena's mind. It almost felt like having liquid fire coursing through her veins. The intensity was so high that her skin started glowing like a stroboscopic flash. Her hair billowed with power like a living flame. Million of lights exploded from her eyes, projecting twin beams of light across the ceiling. It looked like her entire body was turned into pure energy.
In a symphony of pops and cracks her bones shifted and adjusted their position all at once. Small explosion rocked her muscles in a thigh sequence starting from her abdomen and going outward. Her muscle ballooned out like a weird muscle chart and, before her mind could adjust, and two final blasts went off in her chest ripping the front of her t-shirt in half. Serena literally exploded through her clothes.
As her vision turned back to normal, or rather super, Serena looked down and giggled. Her track pants now hanged from her slimmed waist, resting at a weird angle across her generous hips, while the explosive growth of her gigantic breasts had ripped her t-shirt apart, what was left looked like some kind of red colored spider web. Still, what amazed her most was how strong the power flowing through her was. She felt like she was at least 2-3 times stronger than before, but she also felt that it would last a lot less – about 90 minutes, compared to the 6 hours of the last dose.
“How is this possible?” she pondered “Maybe it's a matter of dosage. A small dose makes me stronger, but last less? Or is it because I already drunk it once before?”
Whatever the explanation Serena decided to stick with her original plan and zipped to her desk. On her way she finished ripping her mangled t-shirt and donned her blue bikini – not that she needed it – but now she had a better understanding of what her otherworldly appearance could do and she didn't feel confident enough to run around in her birthday suit anymore. She did so fast that, from an outside perspective, it seemed like she magically disappeared from the kitchen and reappeared in her bedroom with a different attire.
Taking the seat, Serena's right hand danced across the keyboard inputting the password while her eyes darted across her notes and the books prioritizing the work. As she started writing, she didn't even bothered to look at the screen, with her left she flipped through pages upon pages of notes and occasionally books when her perfect recall failed to come up with any significant information, meantime her right hand wrote, deleted and rewrote everything in a coherent script.
Even using only one hand the computer started to lag behind Serena's typing after a while. While these delays were only half a second, from her super-fast perspective they were horribly long and boring. Looking for a way to fill the gaps, Serena laid out a notebook and a couple of pencils and started to write down some of her algebra exercises as well. Each time the pencil tip broke she didn't bother to get her sharpener, her indestructible fingernail were sharper than any man-made blade and worked perfectly.
As she alternated her right hand between typing and writing, Serena also decided to finish her reading assignments too. Her eyes glittered, as the increased neural activity inflamed her brain, each synapses was stimulated to the maximum, the electrical charge running across her nerves was tens of times higher than normal. Then a little side-effects started to manifest.
At first, breasts started buzzing with power as more and more energy was poured into her nerves. “Mmmhh. So goood!” Serena moaned as her nipples reacted to the neural stimulation, they became extremely engorged and teased the fabric of the bikini – something that never failed to arouse her for some weird reason. The muscles in her arms exploded into view, dancing as she moved her hands across the desk. At the same time she felt a pulsing sensation growing in her privates, in time with her heartbeat. It was similar to what she had experienced during her first transformation, but with her currently overcharged super-senses it felt hundreds of times more intense.
In spite of this new sexual rapture Serena's was able to keep multitasking, the loss of concentration was so minimal for her that she couldn't help but be amazed: “Ohhh … I love this.” she whispered as she raised her speed another notch. By now she was a crazy sight, her lovely arms were nothing but blurs of speed surrounding her magnificent body, her face was contorted in a porn-star grin of pleasure – emphasized by the occasional moans and grunt – but her eyes were perfectly still, showing a laser-like level of focus and concentration. She even failed to notice that she had clenched her “flight muscles” and was now hovering a couple of inches above her chair.
As more and more of her assignments got finished and piled behind her, Serena's hands started to touch and rub the most sensible parts of her anatomy. She attacked her privates with increasing ferocity and in moments she was able to explode. Biting her lips, Serena tried to restrain herself and huffed: “Oh, not again. Hold on, Serena, just a moment longe … Oh God!!!”
Again her orgasm's intensity was world-shattering. She flung her head back and her chair rolled across the room, smashing into the bed. Serena saw multicolored flashes across her field of vision blossoming like flowers as her fingers dug into her bottoms trying to prolong the pleasure.
As she simply laid in mid-air waiting for the afterglow to subside, Serena caught a glimpse of the clock on the wall. She had drunk the potion only 5 minutes ago.
Laying on her back in midair Serena floated across the room at a lazy, slow pace. Supercharging her brain had been some sort of cathartic experience, now she felt fantastic, calmer and more in control than ever before. The guilt was still present, but now she realized that her only hope to straight things out was to keep these powers and get them under control. And the best way to get them under control was to get help from Jennifer Benson.
Dropping on her bed Serena looked straight up and activated her x-ray vision, instantly she saw the night sky above her. Blinking her eyes, Serena brought her sight back to normal and retried, these “new and supercharged powers” were actually something of a problem. She retried slowly and was able to obtain the right amount of focus: two stories above and one apartment north.
Jennifer was home and in her superhuman form nonetheless. She wasn't in costume but there was no way to mistake Jennifer Benson for her alter-ego. She was wearing a pair of beaten blue jeans and a white sleeveless t-shirt, both articles were stretched across her incredible curves, hugging them closer than paint.
Serena felt a bit weird to peek into another person life this way, even if it wasn't the first time she did so. She also felt a little envious, each of Jennifer's moves looked so perfect, so absolutely cool. It was like she knew that she was the one in charge, and had no need to prove it.
Jennifer was simply strolling across her apartment. She reached her fridge and pulled out a massive jug of orange juice. She unscrewed it and swag down a hefty amount and, even without hearing it, the mimic was eloquent enough, she let out a little belch.
Serena was dumbfounded for a second, she didn't know if she had to laugh or be grossed out. She had just witnessed the world most powerful, most desired, most incredible woman on the planet belching. While it made perfect sense from a certain angle – even superheroes need some down time – the entire picture was just too surreal, especially for someone like Serena, who idolized Hyperwoman since her childhood. Even so, Serena was completely unprepared for what came next.
Jennifer turned around and put the jug down on the table. She paused for a moment, then she stared at the floor and her eye shined a little. At least, it looked like she was staring at the floor from the outside. Jennifer's and Serena's eyes met across two stories and several layers of bricks and concrete. Jennifer beamed a smile brighter than the sun and started gesturing, pointing at her mouth and ears.
Serena was puzzled, it took her a moment to realize that Jennifer was looking at her, by then the blond girl was scribbling something on a piece of paper. She showed it to Serena, there were only two words: “Super-hearing”
Serena blushed, she felt really dumb for forgetting about her other super-senses. In a moment she tuned in on Jennifer's apartment.
“ …o you hear me now?” Jennifer was asking.
Serena looked around, a little uncertain. “Yes. Err … Hi.”
“Hi. Listen, as much as I like to do this I think it will grow old pretty fast. Care to join me for a chat and some chili?”
Now Serena was really feeling like the protagonist of some Twilight Zone episode. She had expected and feared a broad range of reactions: rage, condescension, disappointment. But never in a million years would she have expected to be invited to eat chili?! “Okay, I guess.”
“Super. Just, do me favor and change into something less conspicuous. Okay?”
A couple of minutes later, Serena was standing in from of Jennifer's door. She had shifted back into her normal form and was wearing one of her bulky sweaters, an ankle length wooly skirt and her old, faithful, beat-up sneakers. Underneath she was still wearing her bikini and the red V-neck shirt she had picked in Los Angeles, just in case she had to transform in an emergency. She clinched her left hand tight around the original vial that started the whole story and knocked the door.
“Come in. It's open.” Jennifer shouted from inside.
Serena slowly crawled in – she gulped down hard every step – until she reached the kitchen. Jennifer was busy heating up some chili, but she had powered down too. The comparison between their alter-egos made Serena incredibly uncomfortable. In their powered forms they were both so incredibly superior to any other woman on the planet that choosing the proverbial fairest of them would boil down to matter of personal preferences, but now Jennifer was still the tall, thin, cute all-American blonde, while Serena was just the plain, awkward, chubby Asian girl. All she wanted to do was to put the vial on the table and run away.
Before she could react, Jennifer turned to face her.
Serena's heartbeat tripled as adrenaline filled her system. She wanted to run, but she couldn't, she was like a deer frozen in front of a car.
Jennifer smiled – Serena noticed, for the first time, that her upper left canine was broken – and extended her hand: “Hi. Nice to finally meet you face-to-face.”
Serena remained frozen for two more seconds, before her brain realized that Jennifer wasn't trying to do anything to her, just greeting her. Tentatively she grabbed Jennifer's extended hand and murmured: “My pleasure, Ms Benson.”
Jennifer stared at Serena with a puzzled look for a moment, then started laughing. “Please, it's Jennifer. Ms Benson might be good for the IRS. Now, have a seat, you probably have thousands of questions.”
Serena was still processing the whole situation, she had lots of questions indeed, but right now she could only think of dumb ones. “How do you know my name?” she asked, giving herself a mental kick for asking it.
Jennifer blushed and went back to the chili. “Well … I think that we have to be honest tonight. Fact is that I've watched you for quite some time.”
“What? How? Why?” Serena jumped. The idea of having Hyperwoman stalking her was frightening.
“Serena, listen. You and I have more in common than you might think. Seriously, when I first noticed you I was stunned, it was like looking into a mirror.”
“Really?” Serena couldn't help but sarcasm poured in her voice.
Jennifer seemed hurt. “I know that look.” she continued with a sad expression, “You're thinking something like 'Bullshit, we are nothing alike'. And you're right, but only because of what I'm now. Fifteen years ago I was … Oh Crap! It's burning!”
A last minute rescue saved the chili, Jennifer poured it in two plates and offered one to Serena. “If you don't mind, there's something I need to do before eating.”
“I would have never thought you as religious type.” Serena observed.
“What? No, it's not that.” Jennifer removed her glasses, closed her eyes and her lips slightly parted. Her whole body trembled for a moment as the fantastic transformation began. At first Jennifer's hair became longer and shinier, and then her scrawny arms and torso started to get definition. A layer of strong, tight muscles appeared all over her body. Her shoulder became wider, pushing against her shirt, the same with her thighs and butt, which filled her jeans almost to the breaking point. Jennifer stretched her arms, giving an extra push to her upper body muscle and triggering the final stage. She moaned under her breath as her breasts started growing under her white t-shirt. In a blink her bust size had increase by three cups at least. With a final grunt Jennifer relaxed her body bringing the transformation to a stop. She opened her eyes – now sparkling with the fire of superhuman energy coursing through her – and stared at Serena.
Serena was mesmerized, not just by the transformation, but rather by the control Jennifer displayed. This wasn't some kind of superhuman explosion like her last time, nor the slow process of her first time, nor the step-by-step she did to impress Mia. It was like Jennifer had combined the best of those three ways into one. The process took only a few seconds to shift, but Jennifer had done it so naturally, it was like she had eased through the whole process. “Why? How?” Serena stammered.
Jennifer smiled again – and Serena realized that the broken tooth was now fixed. “Why? Well, I love spicy food, and you wouldn't believe how good food taste when you're super. Also, can you keep a secret? I suffer from heartburn from time to time. Being super is the safest way for me to eat it.”
“About the how. It's just a matter of practice, if you wish I can show you how to do it.” noticing Serena's puzzled expression, she continued, “You have to understand: as powerful as this stuff is, you are in charge. Using it or not is your choice.”
Talking about powers reminded Serena of the vial; she realized that her left hand was still painfully clutched around it. Mustering all her courage and nerve Serena handed the vial: “Th … this is yours. You dropped it in the gym the other day.” she mentally slapped herself for adding that second sentence.
Jennifer picked the vial and her eyes widened with surprise. “It's full.” she whispered, “You didn't use it, but I saw you …”
“I just used some for a fluid analysis. Nothing big. It's not that I understand how it works. I just replicated it.” Serena explained, surprised by this unexpected praise.
“Nothing big? Are you crazy?” Jennifer continued with growing excitement, “Serena out of a thousand people I don't believe that many would have ever thought about having this stuff analyzed. The majority would have simply drunk it, some dumped it, some stored it away. You don't think you're special? Serena simply doing this makes you a one-of-a-kind.”
Serena blushed, but deep down she was feeling much better. Rarely in her life had she received so many compliments – receiving them from her long time idol was an incredible plus. “Wow … Thanks, but really I don't think I deserve all this credit.”
“No? Well, tell me what you did after drinking this stuff.”
Serena felt her guilty conscience clawing her guts, the memory of her screw-up with Mia resurfaced, but she put a brave facade and stared Jennifer right into the eyes. “You first. You said some stuff about looking into a mirror. I want to hear it first.”
Jennifer looked very embarrassed for a second – something that really didn't suit the image of the invincible superheroine – and looked down into the bowl of chili. She took a mouthful of chili and chomped it down slowly, like as she was deeply in thought. “Fine, I guess. As I was telling you, the first time I saw you, you scared me. It was like looking into a mirror and seeing me from years ago.”
Serena nodded quietly, but she couldn't see how the two of them could have anything in common.
“Do you remember when I first appeared in costume?”
“Yes, I was ten at the time. It was so cool.”
“Well at the time I was 16 and, until a few months before, my life sucked. Badly. I was a horribly thin beanpole. It didn't matter how much I ate or exercised, I couldn't gain an ounce. All of my friends were getting … well the little sisters of these.” Jennifer continues pointing to her gravity-defying breasts, “And I was stuck looking like a 2-by-4. The worst part: I allowed this to control my whole life.”
Serena nodded, the story sounded really familiar, but she had been fatty and underdeveloped for years, somehow she still thought that she got the short straw. “I wish I had your problems.” she grumbled.
Jennifer gave her an angry frown and her image became blurry. Serena's hair and skirt flapped violently in the wind caused by Jennifer super-speed. Jennifer handled a photo to Serena, which looked like it has just appeared in her hand. “Here, take a look.”
Serena's eyes became as wide as two saucers. There were three people in the picture, one was unmistakably Jennifer, but the difference was startling. The Jennifer from the picture looked thinner than thin. Her frame was so scrawny that it was hard to tell if she was male or female without looking at her face. Serena noticed that she was also slouching a bit and looked sad. She was a different person compared to the energetic and athletic girl Serena had seen walking down the halls.
Serena's eye shifted from the photo to Jennifer and back. She was able to mutter a “how”.
“Well, the potion probably helped a bit, but it wasn't the main factor. Over the years I have understood one very important thing. You can be most beautiful person in the world, but if don't feel good with yourself this won't help you at all.”
Serena mumbled, still thinking in the back of her mind that it was pretty easy to say things like that, with a body like Jennifer's.
Jennifer continued going back to her story. “I had few friends and they tried to help me, but I was too stubborn and too concerned with my own misery to listen. So one day I got the potion …”
“How exactly?” Serena asked, still pretty dumbfounded.
“I'll tell you about that another time. It's a really messed up story. Anyway, I got the potion and it was like … the luckiest day of my life. All of a sudden the little, scrawny me could transform into the hottest, coolest girl on the planet with superpowers on top of that.” Jennifer stopped for moment and smiled at those memories: “I had so much fun. The world was like a big toy box and I enjoyed every minute of it. At least for a while.”
As Jennifer paused for a moment Serena asked: “What happened? Was it before Brisbane?”
Jennifer gave her a sad look: “No, it was Brisbane. I was going to a job interview when the whole thing happened. Lucky for me, I had drunk some of the potion before. I was planning to fly to Santa Monica and relax, but instead I saved those people and it felt fantastic.”
“You didn't plan that from the start? I always thought that you loved being a superheroine. I mean you look so natural, like you were born for it.”
“I hope you're kidding. Being a superheroine is … well sometimes it is downright terrible. It's like being a policeman and a movie star rolled into one. Not only people expect you to help them with every little problem, they don't give you any privacy. During my first year as Hypergirl, I was used to keep cutouts of all the articles about me in the tabloids, I filled 2 albums in less than a year. Super-speed comes really handy sometimes. I never planned to go public or become Hypergirl at that point. It just happened.”
“So there were just two Jennifers for how long? 4-5 months?”
“Pretty much. When I powered up, I looked more … mature, I guess. When I went public I had been super for about a year or so.” Jennifer explained, “I thought I just had to be careful and avoid places where my friends were. Usually I flew to some other city and had some major fun. But after someone got an almost clear picture of me I had to figure out another way. The costume gave me the freedom to use my powers in public, but it's also a trap.”
Serena gulped down a little too hard. She was feeling more and more concerned about the idea that she had to go public one day.
“Anyway,” Jennifer continued, “Fast forward about a decade. One evening I just got back here from busting a couple of drug dealers and I caught a piece of a conversation between you and that friend of yours – Mia. It wasn't unintentional, but a sometimes having super-senses makes you into something of a voyeur. It was like a kick to the head, like rewatching a piece of my own life. The details might be different, but the story is the same: for years I allowed my looks to dictate everything about my life.”
Jennifer paused for a moment, uncertain on how to continue. “You might say that this made me think about this stuff and what really means.”
“You mean superpowers?”
Jennifer shook her head, “No, powers and beauty are … consequences. This stuff is about something else. For me, it's all about second chances.”
“You lost me here.”
“Serena, this stuff turned my life upside-down. By the moment I drunk it everything changed, but it wasn't thanks to the powers. It was something else. Knowing what I could do gave me a new … perspective, a confidence like never before. I stopped being bothered by what other thought and I started to bother about what I wanted. So, when someone treated me like shit, I could always fantasize about throwing him into orbit knowing it was totally possible. This is the real power of this stuff. All the rest is just an extra.”
Jennifer stopped to catch her breath, she had never voiced these thought and she had grown more and more excited as she spoke. “After I overheard that conversation, I asked a few questions about you.” her tone became almost maternal, “Serena, you're a good person, but you have the same problem I had. You allowed your body issues to dictate your life. I thought you deserved the same chance I had.”
There was one of those moments of deafening silence, like the whole world was keeping its breath. Jennifer could pick up Serena's heartbeat even without super-hearing.
Then Serena stood up. She slowly circled the table. She never look up, she kept her eyes fixed on the floor in front of her.
Jennifer stood up too and she gave Serena a worried look. With her super-senses she could usually stay one step ahead of other people in a conversation but now she couldn't read Serena mood at all.
Serena stopped half a step from Jennifer. She raised her head and, for the first time, she looked Jennifer straight in those glowing blue eyes.
Jennifer was taken by surprise. Serena's gaze returned a sense of happiness she had rarely seen.
Tears filled Serena's eyes as she embraced Jennifer and whispered: “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you …”
After a few moment of embracing Jennifer started to feel very awkward. She really liked Serena, but not like this. “Serena, can you please, let me go?”
Serena didn't listen to her immediately. The contact with Jennifer's superbody felt really good – she was actually prolonging the embrace a little more – but it was causing a strange reaction. She felt this impulse to change, to transform just to sample that incredible body with her equally amazing one.
Releasing her arms, Serena looked around, like if she feared to be heard and leaned over to Jennifer. “Can you do it now?” she had come to gain help to control her abilities after all.
“Do what?”
“Show me how to do that slow change you did before.”
“Of course.” Jennifer nodded sitting, “Give me your hand and close your eyes.”
Serena extended her right with mechanical slowness. As soon as her skin touched Jennifer's she felt a weird buzz and some goosebumps. It was like there was an energy passing between them. Then Serena felt something touching the deepest part of her being, caressing her mind, smoothing her fears. Her mind retracted in horror. This was all too similar to what she had done to Mia before, downplaying her fears … making her calm … screw up her mind badly.
Jennifer blinked in surprise “What's wrong?”
“No, nothing.” Serena lied without much conviction.
“Do you remember who are you talking to?” Jennifer added in cold tone, “I can tell something is wrong without even tapping into my super-senses. What happened?”
Serena babbled for a moment, trying to find a nice, simple way to explain what she did to Mia. Her attention was caught by Jennifer tumbling her fingers on the cheap top if the IKEA table. It was all too easy for her imagining those fingers digging right through the wood in a fit of anger.
It was incredible how Jennifer could shift from sisterly and nice to distant and imposing, with just the right tone of voice. It made Serena think that perhaps it was true and Jennifer's look was more than simply a few extra pounds of flesh in the right spots. Fearing that Jennifer might have guessed something more from their brief contact Serena exploded: “I SCREWED BIG TIME! FINE! I RAPED MY BEST FRIEND WITH MY BRAIN!!!”
There was a pause in the conversation as Jennifer blinked a few times and Serena started crying.
“You did what? It doesn't make any sense.” Jennifer asked puzzled.
“Yesterday I went to M … Mia's place. I just wanted to show off a little.” Serena started sighing and sniffing. It took her several minutes to tell the tale, punctuating it with loud sighs and bursts of tears. “ … so she asked me to feel my biceps. You know … to do that strange growth-on-demand thing and … I was in her head … I thought I was just helping her not to freak out … when … when I must have pushed too hard or … or maybe I hit the wrong place … but she jumped me and kissed me … I realized that she was … was … in love with me.”
Serena blew her nose: “I forced my best friend to love me! What is it? A telepathic rape!?”
Jennifer rose from her chair and grabbed Serena's hand, she was very gentle and careful, but her grip was firm and incredibly strong. From the perspective of the frightened girl she looked miles tall. “Serena, look at me. I don't think that this is possible. You can't change a person that way with your powers. You can only work with existing emotions. And even so I think that you still have time to fix it.”
“What do you know?” Serena sobbed, “You never screw up.”
Jennifer gritted her teeth and looked straight into Serena's eyes. “Transform.” her voice had a strange commanding tone in it that snapped Serena out of her tears.
“What?”
“You said I never screw up, there's something I want to show you, but I need you to transform to do it.”
“I … I don't know if I can.”
“Listen. I know these powers better than you. They're controlled by your emotions. I don't want to do it, but I'm positive that I can pull those emotional triggers to activate this stuff.” Jennifer voice came out involuntarily threatening, which she quickly regretted.
Serena gulped down her fear and tried to find the signature energy buzz of her power. It was there, subtly coursing through her bloodstream, but she was so nervous that she couldn't concentrate on it.
Jennifer eased her grip a little. She knew enough about her powers to know that without calming down or a major shock Serena couldn’t transform at all. Opening her mind she used her empathic abilities on a very subtle level. The skin contact made it a little difficult, but she managed to keep her influence low. Her mental touch was nothing but a slight breeze, her 'voice' a barely audible whisper in the back of the head. Slowly she helped Serena to control her fear and to focus.
Serena felt her respiration slowing down and becoming more regular. She was still trembling, but fear was no longer the predominant emotion in her mind. She centered on the buzzing sensation and started the transformation in a new way. The other times there was a clear separation between her two selves, there was the old chubby Serena before and the new super-Serena after. This time the separation was blurred. She couldn't really point out when she stopped being one and became the other. Perhaps this was the secret of Jennifer's ability.
From the outside it was hard to tell the first changes in Serena's body due to her bulky clothes. Even so, some details were noticeable, a slight reduction in her cheeks, the fabric around her belly becoming a little more floppy.
The first big clue was her posture, a subtle snap made her spine straighter, as a reaction she squared her shoulders and took a deep breath.
Jennifer felt Serena muscles hardening under her touch and she eased the pressure another bit.
The skin was next, this time there was no crazy light-show – even if she seemed to glisten for a brief moment – but it became smoother, shinier returning a healthier appearance. At the same time her hair followed suit, acquiring that strange internal glow of power. They slowly lengthened while her facial feature changed.
Like the rest of the transformation even this part was different, no longer there were the snapping and popping of each body part resculpting itself. Serena's features flowed seamlessly. The transition was so smooth and subtle that it was hard to tell. There was definite before and after, but in the middle the reshaping flowed so natural that it felt simply natural.
Jennifer herself was again surprised by Serena's instinctive understanding of these powers. She slowly retracted her presence from the other girls mind and let her complete the process. She couldn't help but think: “You're really something, Serena.”
Even if only a few seconds have passed Serena knew that the transformation was almost over. There was only one final detail to take care of, but she didn't want to rush it. Instead of flexing hard like she did before, she tried to stretch her muscle, as if she had just woken up in the morning. There was a subtle pop from her joints and the now familiar feeling of her chest skin stretching a bit over her expanding breasts. The process was slowed but it had a steadier pace than usual, instead of growing in time with her heartbeat, Serena's breast simply kept pushing constantly.
As they approached their final size Serena relaxed and took a moment to think. First of all she noticed that her power level had shifted again. It was now closer to what she considered standard, the buzz felt more steady and regular, giving her the impression that she had at least 3-4 hours of 'fuel' left. Nevertheless, she felt refreshed and more confident now and with these sensations, came a new perspective about Jennifer's tale. While the overall story made sense, Serena knew there was something fishy, something didn't sound right. Jennifer claimed she gave her the potion because they were alike and she wanted to give Serena the same chance she had. One thing didn't work at all: there were many people with problems about their look, why among all of them Jennifer picked Serena? Which brought forth two more next questions: how much did Jennifer know about her? And: what her ulterior motives might be?
Serena opened her eyes and stared straight into Jennifer's. There was a strange jolt that caught both supergirls off-guard. They recognized the same inner fire of superpowers burning in each other eyes, but there was more. Serena couldn't put her fingers on it, but she felt something like a 'connection', for lack of a better word. Then Jennifer released Serena's wrist and the moment was over.
Jennifer looked at her own hand. “So easy? Could it be so easy?”
“Could it be? What could it be, if you please?” Serena retorted. With the added confidence of her powers she was growing annoyed faster than before.
For once it was Jennifer that looked slightly intimidated, she wasn't used to deal with people on her own power level. While she knew that her skills were superior to Serena's, this was a rational thought, and her instincts told her to be cautious with someone that could match her strength a ton for a ton. “You know how our mental powers grow stronger the closer you're to the target.”
Serena nodded.
“I wasn't sure until a moment ago, but I always thought that a contact between two minds with these powers should be able to convey even more information. Perhaps even allow us to watch each other’s memories.”
Serena pondered the idea for a moment. “I don't know, it sounds pretty dangerous.”
Jennifer put on her superhero voice, trying to sound braver: “I'm pretty sure that our powers will shield us from the worst.”
Serena felt doubtful for a moment, but she put on a brave face too. “Fine, but only on one condition.”
“What?”
“We have to be completely open. If it works, we won't hide anything from each other.” Serena smiled to hide her fear, if she really wanted Jennifer's help lying wasn't an option, “You said you asked about me, but I want you to really know me. Fine?”
Jennifer was equally scared by taking such a leap of faith, but she really wanted to help Serena: “I won't accept any other way.”
Serena and Jennifer grasped each other hands, the 'connection' rose again, linking their minds on a very basic level. It wasn't exactly empathy, or telepathy, it was more like they were two parts of the same body. Each one knew something about the other, but there was no clear communication without a deliberate choice.
'Ready?' Jennifer asked through the connection.
'I guess.' Serena answered without realizing that they were speaking mind-to-mind.
From both ends the two girls poured energy into the connection, stretching it, widening it, making it more stable and intimate. Doing so opened new levels of awareness of each other. They no longer acted as two separate being, but as a single entity. They concerted their efforts to make the communication easier and easier. Next they started to experience brief flashes of each other sensory inputs.
Jennifer felt that she was holding Serena's hands, but also her own hands at the same time.
Serena caught a glimpse of her own face through Jennifer's eyes and couldn't help but think how great she looks.
Before any of the girls could react, the connection opened completely, projecting their respecting consciousness into each other minds.
Their eyelids fluttered hundreds of times per second at astonishing speed – leaving only white half-moons visible of their eyes – as their super-brains processed the entire lifetime of each other.
Serena is now tall, thin and frail.
Mean kids calls her beanpole.
One punches her.
She runs away.
A woman embraces her.
Her mother.
But her mother isn't blonde.
Jennifer is playing ball in the living room.
She is playing with her best friend, Mia.
Her father watches the news.
There is an accident.
A girl comes out from the wreckage.
Hypergirl.
But she is Hypergirl.
The sensory input increased even further, the amount of information grew higher by the minute. Both girls threw their heads back, and their spine arches exaggerating their superhuman profiles.
Serena walks across the hallway.
She wears a coat over her spandex costume.
A piece of news from the radio.
She looks for a place to change.
Jennifer exercises on the treadmill.
She hates how her body looks in the mirror.
A sound from the door.
Ashamed she hides in the bathroom.
The gym should be deserted at this time of the day.
Serena quickly looks around: it's empty.
She uncorks the vial and drinks it.
Jennifer watches from the door's crack.
It's Serena.
What is she doing here?
The potion runs through Serena's veins.
Her body charges and shifted with power.
Jennifer is in awe of the incredible transformation.
She covers her mouth not to scream.
Serena smells someone hidden nearby.
She recognizes the smell: it's Jennifer Benson.
It's impossible!
Serena Agbayani is Hyperwoman!
A knowing smile forms on Serena's lips.
She purposely forgets the half-full vial on the floor.
Jennifer comes out of hiding.
She sees the vial.
Serena flies across the city.
She has kept an eye on Jennifer for a while.
She can't believe her luck.
Both supergirls opened their mouths with perfect synchronicity. A choir of two super-high pitched screams rattled the apartment. The windows clattered. Paper flew all over the place. The bowls of chili exploded, splattering the content all over the walls.
Serena is sitting at a bar.
It's Friday night.
She's with her friends.
Jennifer rings the bell of Mia's apartment.
She feels the anticipation for her little prank.
Mia is her best friend since forever.
Serena chats with her friends.
They chat about boys and work.
It all feels inconsequential.
Jennifer starts to activate the potion in her body.
Mia keeps chatting about her date.
The power feels so good.
The girls' skin started to glow from the energy coursing through them. They are as bright as two disco balls and keeps getting brighter an brighter. After a few seconds they are so bright that they looks like two stars, impossible to gaze at with naked eyes.
Serena doesn't follow the discussion anymore.
All her life is like this.
Having amazing stories and no one to share with.
Jennifer has Mia's undivided attention.
Never in her life was it like this.
To finally being the one in the spotlight.
Serena can't help but feel bad.
She knows her friends well enough to know that they wouldn't understand.
She really wants to talk about this …
Jennifer can't help but feeling guilty.
She has known Mia for her whole life.
Now she had pushed her relationship beyond the border …
The connection snapped, both girls jerked violently as they conscience shot back into their minds. The glow died by the second. Their hands unclasped and let off a little steam. They didn't talk, for a long moment, overwhelmed by the experience. In the silence that followed some of the chili felt from the ceiling and splashed on the table.
Serena was struggling to put all the information into perspective. She hadn't simply watched Jennifer's life, she had lived it. All the events, the ideas, the feelings, all the good and all the bad were now part of her perfect photographic memory. Whilst she could tell the difference between her own memories and Jennifer's, there were so many details to process, so many elements that felt foreign and familiar at the same time. Right now the memories were garbled in a confusing mess.
Was she 22 or 30?
Was she Hyperwoman or just a regular girl?
Did her boyfriend dump her 6 months ago or did she never have one?
Did she find the potion lying around? Or she discovered it? Or she brewed it herself by accident?
Was she Serena or Jennifer? Or none of the above?
With an effort of will Serena shut off the stream of images, sounds and smells, trying to review them from the outside. This helped her a bit. The details of Jennifer's memories were still fuzzy and confused, they overlapped and mingled in strange ways, but Jennifer's feelings were as clear as day. Serena felt that something fundamental had changed inside her. There were no more lies, no duplicity, no unspoken ulterior motive. She had seen Jennifer's naked soul, and Jennifer had seen hers.
Jennifer had similar issues. She thought she knew what to expect from Serena's mind. She thought she was prepared. She thought that nothing could take the mighty Hyperwoman by surprise. She was wrong. The sheer emotional baggage was enormous and she dreaded what Serena might have gotten from her.
On her end of the line, Serena was amazed by how simple things were turning out to be. She had always pictured Hyperwoman's life to be a complex mess. A story of duplicity, but instead it was all so crystalline in its simplicity. She knew why Jennifer had chosen her to receive the potion: because Jennifer was a hopelessly impulsive girl. She never planned anything, but she went with the flow, trusting her instincts. Like when she saved those people in Brisbane, she was the right person at the right place. Still, she loved doing it and couldn't tell a soul about it.
This was the other key to understanding Jennifer, despite her fame, her friends, her achievements she felt incredibly lonely. It was like she passed every evening of her life in that state of mind that makes people curl into a corner of the couch watching some bad movie trying to forget a love delusion. All that Jennifer really wanted when she dropped the vial was for Serena to be the friend she could speak to about being Hyperwoman.
Jennifer was staring at the table. The emotional mess from Serena was really heavy and she was partially to blame for it. She should have kept an eye on her all the time, instead she run off, following every new contingency – as usual the lack of long term focus was her main weakness. During the last couple of days she had pushed Serena's life on a roller-coaster of events and the girl had pulled out better than anybody would expect. Still, this last stunt had really stretched the limits of their minds. Jennifer raised her head, with a thousand possible excuses playing pinball in her head, and she found herself facing Serena's outstretched hand.
Serena beamed a dazzling white smile: “So, friends?”
Jennifer grasped the hand. There was the connection again, and her happiness flowed through it to Serena.
Serena blinked a few times. She had never felt so good in years. The feelings from Jennifer were great and she wished she could feel this good more often.
Looking around Serena was pretty astonished by the unforeseen consequences of their little experiment – which she was starting to refer to as the “Kryptonian mind-meld”. Chili was splattered all across the walls, several objects were broken. In short it looked like a bomb went off in the middle of the apartment. She scratched her head, uncertain about what to do: “I'm sorry.”
Jennifer looked at her and laughed: “Yeah, it's a real shame wasting some good chili like this.”
“Actually I was talking about the …” before Serena could finish her sentence Jennifer had turned into a blur of movement. She reached for the mop and started to wash away the damage. From an outsider point she looked like a mini-tornado zipping across the room – sort of like the Warner Brothers' Tasmanian Devil. Serena joined her by picking up the trash bin and collecting the shards of glass and pottery. As usual the combination of her super-senses and super-brain allowed her to locate each piece – 122 by her own count – with pin-point precision. In a handful of seconds the apartment was spotless and the two supergirls simultaneously plopped down on the couch.
Jennifer looked at Serena, who was still scanning the walls with her super-sight to locate any missing shard. “Hey, if you feel guilty, you might just offer me dinner. I know a place in Chihuahua that makes the fiercest chili I've ever tasted.”
Serena blinked, returning her vision to normal. “Chihuahua? But it's beyond …”
“Beyond border.” Jennifer interrupted, “Last time I checked the border patrol didn't use fighter jets and, even if they did, who is going to stop us?”
Serena laughed for a moment. Realizing how much saying stuff like this out loud meant for Jennifer and for her too. Being super the last day had been a blast, but sharing with someone else felt way better.
Thinking about last hours brought up the topic of Mia. Serena frowned: “If you don't mind I want to make another stop before going to Mexico.”
Jennifer tilted her head sideways: “You're thinking about Mia, right?”
Serena nodded grimly.
“To be honest, my head is pretty garbled right now, but I don't think you did what you believe you did.”
Serena tried her best to pull out a Mr. Spock eyebrow.
“I told you before. Our powers don't work that way, you can enhance or restrain emotions, but you can't put new ones into someone's head. Mia already loved you … well, loved you like a sister … maybe you pushed her a little too hard, but there was already a potential for this to happen.”
“One major problem: Mia is hetero. She had date just yesterday.”
“Really? From your memories I guessed she's bi.”
“Okay, I really don't want to know what parts you pieced together.” Serena said in a rush “Anyway, I still want to see if I can fix the damage.”
“Fine. I still think that there isn't anything to fix.” Seeing that Serena was about to reply, Jennifer continued, “But I'll help you. I'll tell you what let's go now.”
Serena felt uncertain for a moment, but she understood that the longer the delay the greater the problem will become. She jumped from the couch like a spring loaded toy and approached the door. “Are you coming or not?” she asked when Jennifer failed to follow her.
“Actually I was thinking about an alternate way to travel.” Jennifer remarked pointing at the window.
Serena blushed and opened the window, she had to fight a bit with her wooly skirt to be able to step out.
“Go ahead.” Jennifer said behind her, “I'll catch up in a moment.”
As Serena shot up into the sky, Jennifer squirted her eyes and activated her x-ray vision and checked the neighborhood. As far as Jennifer could tell the coast was clear, she jumped on the window frame and pondered for a moment about changing into costume. She had been used to fly around in her spandex for so long that I felt wrong to do so in her civvies. “No,” she decided after a moment, “This is definitely not a job for Hyperwoman.” With that in mind she slipped outside, closed the window and leaped into the sky.
About two hundred meters above Serena was fighting against the wind and her wooly skirt. She knew that her current attire wasn't exactly made for high speed flight, but as long as she was in motion the problem was just the drag. As soon as she stopped the wind flapped her skirt around like a flag, even reversing it so that the hem was slapping her face. While she was about to get it under control, Serena heard a swooshing noise and Jennifer's voice screaming very close to the ultrasonic frequencies: “Coming through! Step aside!”
Jennifer zoomed very close to Serena causing the skirt to flap even more violently. Serena stumbled again and, when she was able to get the skirt under control Jennifer was just a small dot of color in the distance. Serena zoomed after her at an amazing speed – although her attire and being in a populated area forced her to remain subsonic. Putting her abilities at a real test was exciting and Jennifer seemed to feel the same.
Serena closed in to Jennifer and did a double barrel roll, giving the other girl a gigantic raspberry as she passed. Jennifer responded by accelerating and doing a loop around Serena. Serena was determined to keep up she accelerated to match Jennifer's speed but flying higher. As soon as she was over the other girl Serena shut down her flight powers, allowing gravity to reclaim her, just to reactivate them when she was mere centimeters from smashing into Jennifer.
They kept doing this all the way to Mia's place. After a while it wasn't even a competition anymore, more of a weird aerial ballet, where both were trying to figure out which song they were dancing on.
Even with such distraction Mia's was only a few blocks away, so after a few minutes of playing they decided to stop and go back to business. Spying from their vantage point they saw Mia – dressed with just her stained denim overall and sport bra – ferociously painting a new canvas but, due to the angle, they couldn't tell the subject. Outside of the house there was a minivan packed with other students, which made the front door unpractical.
“Back window?” Jennifer asked.
“Definitely.” agreed Serena diving for Mia's backyard.
Inside her apartment Mia was painting or, more accurately, she was assaulting the canvas. Sometimes she had moments like this; when she had to unleash whatever demon was devouring her, splatter it on a canvas and paint all over it. It was a form of auto-exorcism and, usually, in these times she painted her best works. Still, this particular demon was different, she had worked on the paint for about a hour now, but the focus still eluded her. Instead she had the image of Serena – both in her normal and super forms – floating back and forth across her mind. Throwing away the brush Mia grumbled: “I can't work like this.” Looking for some extra help she rummaged through her stuff unearthing her old CD player from under the couch. She took a pirate CD and slapped it in. As the first notes of War Pigs flew through the air Mia went back to the canvas, determined to continue her personal exorcism.
Meantime Serena and Jennifer had reached the large window over Mia's backyard. Lucky for them the house behind Mia's was empty so the risk of being spotted was minimal. Sticking to the shadows the two supergirls floated closer and closer to the glass. When they were right next to it Serena stopped Jennifer: “Maybe it's better if I go in first. I don't want Mia to freak out more than necessary.”
“What do y …” Jennifer seemed puzzled for a moment, but her mind cleared in a moment. “Right. Go first I will stay put.”
Serena peeked through the glass, she immediately spotted Mia ferociously painting her new masterpiece. Serena was surprised as she recognized the subject. There was no mistaking, Mia was painting a woman's figure with strangely exaggerated proportions, which could only be Serena or Jennifer. This revelation took Serena off-guard. She floated back a couple of meters from the window unsure about going in right now.
Sensing the uncertainty of her new friend, Jennifer decided to take the lead and knocked against Mia's window.
Serena was about to shout something at Jennifer, when Mia turned and spotted her out of the window. Both Serena and Mia were very uncomfortable. Serena was feeling her guts twisting with guilt. Mia was quite embarrassed by her painting.
Swallowing her uneasiness Mia opened the window. “Hi Ce-Ce.”
“Hi, Mi-Mi.” neither girl felt confident enough to look the other in the eyes. “Can I come in?”
As Mia nodded, Serena floated inside. She was getting better at handling her skirt and somehow the puffing effect gave her landing a more graceful appearance. “I brought friend, if you don't mind.”
“Yeah, no problem.” Mia answered absentmindedly. A split second later she realized that something was really wrong, how could Serena bring someone else? Unless this other person was able to fly.
Before Mia had any chance to voice her questions, Jennifer flew in and landed right in front of her. Mia backpedaled one step, completely surprised by the sudden appearance of the blonde goddess, but she was even more astonished by what happened next.
Answering to a strange impulse Jennifer hugged Mia like they known each other for years. It took a moment for Jennifer to realize that there was something very wrong with the whole picture. She released Mia – who actually seemed to enjoy the situation – and blushed: “Err … Hi.”
Mia looked at Jennifer for a moment and then her brain put all the information together. Blonde, Flying. Body of a living goddess. “OMG! OMG! You're … You're … You're her, aren't you!” Mia shouted without even catching her breath.
Jennifer scratched the back of her head. “I guess there's no point in denying it.”
Mia's eyes darted between her two superpowered guests. She was feeling light-headed like she was living in a dream. First her best friend got actual superpowers, now the woman she had idolized for a long part of her life was in her apartment. It was probably a little too much. Mia took a couple of wobbly steps before fainting.
“I think she's coming back.” was the first thing Mia heard. She slowly opened her eyes and saw these two beautiful women leaning over her. For a moment she didn't recognize them and thought to be dead and that they were some kind of angels. Then her thoughts started to flow back and she realized who they were.
“She's probably going to need something strong.” Serena said, while she was cuddling Mia's body. “There's a bottle of Jimmy Bean …”
“ … third cupboard on the left, behind a box of crackers.” Jennifer finished.
Serena blinked a couple of times. “How do you know?”
Jennifer looked around a couple of times. She had never been in this apartment – even without her perfect recall she was sure of it – yet she knew every corner of it by heart. She knew where to find almost everything, like had been there dozens of times. “Lucky guess?” Jennifer joked, but inside she was starting to be worried about the whole mind-meld thing. She still knew the difference between her memories and Serena's on a rational level, but her instincts and reactions were starting to be a blend of both. She wondered if Serena was feeling the same.
Meantime Serena diverted all her attention back to Mia. Seeing that her friend had almost went back to her senses she smiled: “Hello sleepy-head. How do you feel?”
“Good, as long as you keep me like this.” Mia answered only half-awake.
For Serena it was like having a jumbo jet crashing on her head. While she considered herself responsible for Mia's present state of confusion, she also felt quite flattered by this last comeback.
Meanwhile, Jennifer poured a rather generous dose of bourbon, as she was going back she noticed something falling out of Serena's pocket. It was the same half-full vial that she had left in the gym a couple of days earlier. She picked it up and pondered her next move.
Serena was helping Mia to sit. “Are you okay?” she asked.
“I think.” Mia answered groggily, “I mean, I feel fine, but this is all so … so …”
“Strange?”
“Fricking cool!” Mia exploded, “What was it like? Did you look for her? Or she was waiting for you? Or …”
Jennifer was about to interrupt with a 'I'm right here' remark, but she bit her tongue to stop. She wanted to see how Serena would handle the situation.
Serena blinked in front of such a barrage of questions. “Actually, what I meant was if you feel fine with your mind?”
Mia stopped her tirade and gave Serena a puzzling look. “Meaning what? You think I'm what? Crazy? Sorry to say but I'm not the one who got superpowers.”
“Remember yesterday, when I dropped here and we talked.”
Mia nodded.
“Did you feel any different after that?”
Mia pondered for a moment “Well, a little maybe.”
Serena trembled and started to gave herself some mental kicks.
“I felt free, I guess.” Mia added after moment, she wasn't used to speak about her sentiments, she was better at putting them on a canvas.
“Free? What do you mean by that?” Jennifer asked, while toying with the vial behind her back.
“It was like I had this … burden, which I carried for all my life without knowing. And yesterday when we kissed, it simply disappeared. It was like puff, gone in smoke.”
Serena hesitated, but the guilt inside her was actually stronger. “Mia, I have to tell you something.”
“Well, shoot.”
“These … these feelings you have. I'm kind of responsible for them …”
Mia smiled wickedly. “You bet, you are.”
“What?! No, I mean …” Serena stammered, “Oh crap. I did something to your mind, okay! I don't know how but I did. And I want to make up for it.”
Mia was stunned for a moment. “Ce-Ce, what you just said, it doesn't make any sense.”
Serena's heart was racing faster by the second and, despite her powers, she was sweating profusely. Or it least it felt so. “Mia, please, stay with me. I have mental powers. Yesterday I was using them on you. I'm sorry.”
Jennifer decided this was her cue. She had monitored Mia very closely and, as far as she could tell, there was nothing really wrong. Her inhibitions were a little low, but nothing dangerous. Apparently Serena had simply removed some kind of psychological burden Mia was caring, but she couldn't accept it. It was so typical of Serena, never to settle for the simple things. Acting on her instincts again, Jennifer uncorked the vial and used the remaining potion to spike Mia's drink. “Here you go, Mi-Mi.”
“Ehr … Thanks. How did you call me that?”
Jennifer bit her tongue, again she was acting like she was Serena. “Sorry, I must have heard Serena calling you so before.”
Mia swallowed the drink in one single gulp.
“Are you ready to fix her?” Serena asked Jennifer, her worries poured in her voice.
“No.” Jennifer answered, bidding her time to allow the potion to work.
“Jennifer, I can't do this. Not after what I did before. Why won't you?”
“I've heard your reasons, but I haven't heard from Mia. Does she want to be 'cured'?”
“I don't think she's in any condition to answer.” Serena answered defensively.
“Why not? Because you fear what she might answer?” Serena gulped and Jennifer knew she hit a nerve.
“Guys,” Mia interrupted, “I'm right here. And I don't understand a word.”
Jennifer got the head start in explaining. “Do you know what 'empathic' means?”
“Something about emotions, right? Like manipulating them.”
“Exactly. Aside from the strength and the looks, we have empathic powers too. We can read emotions and manipulate them … to a point.”
“Which point?”
“We can't 'create' new emotions. If it does make any sense. Just enhance or repress those already existing.”
“Yesterday,” Serena interjected, “I was kinda doing this to you. You know, so that you won't freak out.”
Mia's face became completely red with both rage and embarrassment. “You … were … actually … in … my … head …?”
Serena looked around for some kind of speedy exit. “Yeah …”
Mia was starting to feel horrible, and it wasn't just the idea of having Serena peeking inside her head. Something in her guts felt very wrong. She stood up and tried to reach the bathroom, but she doubled in pain after just a few steps.
“Mia, what is going on?” Serena reached for her friend.
“Don't … know. Maybe … something I … ate …”
Serena helped her friend to the bathroom. “If you need something I'm right here.”
Mia nodded while she tried to sit on the bowl.
From the outside Serena heard the weirdest noises and she was getting worried but, out of respect for Mia's privacy, she decided not to check with her x-ray vision.
[For the first ten seconds Mia groaned like she was about to die.]
There was a half a second pause and Serena almost burst through the door
[There was a series of stretching and clicking noises, like every joint in Mia's body were shifting from a very awkward position. Mia let out a little gasp as she was able to breath normally again.]
Serena relaxed and waited, something in the whole scenario felt very familiar.
[“What is it going on?” Mia asked to herself.]
“What's what?” Serena asked to herself, while an intuition started to form in her mind.
[Mia let out a little moan, like she was feeling incredibly good. Under that Serena picked some silky brushing noise.]
Serena turned toward Jennifer, who was standing next to the couch with her arms crossed and a knowing smile. It was the smile that confirmed Serena's intuition: “Jennifer – please – tell me you didn't just do that.”
“Did what?” Jennifer asked feigning ignorance.
[“Holy …” Mia whispered over a symphony of cracking noises, as her joints bent and twist into a new position.]
“You did not just juice Mia.” Serena retorted with the coldest tone she could muster and taking a step toward Jennifer. She felt betrayed. Even if she had planned to give Mia some of the potion, Serena wanted her friend to know what she was getting into. Doing something like this, so underhanded and so carefree was so … so … so unbearably Jennifer. Serena's right hand clenched in a fist, for a split second she felt the burning desire of punching Jennifer into the next century.
“Actually, I believe I did.” Jennifer answered, trying to keep it cool. Her instincts were screaming to fight or flight, but she tried to ignore them. “And I did it for you.”
[There was more cracking, followed by a few quieter pops. Mia squeaked excited.]
Serena stopped, her fingers unclenched and her expression shifted a bit toward the uncertainty.
Jennifer tried to press the advantage. “Serena, you were getting condescending.”
[Mia was moaning louder and louder, then her heartbeat accelerated with booming sound, followed by a massive snap and a sound like a vacuum bag wrapping around a chunk of meat.]
“I was not!” Serena retorted, paying only half attention to the conversation, the noises from the bathroom were freaking her out.
“Not right now.” Jennifer conceded, “But I know the signs. These powers gave us so many perks that is difficult to see. After all we're smarter than any other thing on this planet, right?”
[Mia exhaled a deeply, as if she had just been through a run, but she didn't sound out of breath. Even if her heartbeat was still as powerful as a moment before.]
“Right.”
“Wrong! We're more intelligent, not smarter.”
Serena was about to retort, but she stopped.
[“Wowowowowow!!!” Mia was repeating over and over, until she gasped with pleasure. A long muffled moaning followed, as if she was pleasuring herself, but trying to keep quiet.]
“All the night you have obsessed over 'curing' Mia, but I can assure you there's nothing wrong with her.” Jennifer was getting heated up from the conversation, but she was also keeping a X-ray eye toward the bathroom and she liked what she saw. “You were ignoring the fact that your little mindtrick probably helped Mia freeing herself from a constriction she didn't know about, to accept a part of herself she had denied for years.”
“Yes, because spiking her drink with some super-juice is soooo respectful of her desires.” Serena retorted.
The remark wounded Jennifer. “Fine, maybe I wasn't thinking straight.” she admitted, “But neither were you. If I allowed my guts to dictate my actions, you were letting your guilt dictating yours.”
[There was a sound of cotton and denim stretching, while Mia squeaked with delight as the final enhancements of her transformation became obvious.]
“And what do you think this will change.” Serena hissed pointing at the door.
“Everything.” Jennifer said plainly, “Now Mia has the same powers as we do. You have to deal with her on equal terms. If she doesn't want your 'cure' now she has the means to decide for herself.”
Serena was looking for answer, but Jennifer had stalled her long enough. Just a split second after the end of Jennifer's tirade the bathroom door exploded, revealing the new, improved Mia. “OMG! Girls, check me out!”
There was plenty to check. While her denim overall hid most of Mia's lower body, the way it hung from her new hips clearly hinted that she now sported the same impossible hourglass figure – and likely the same out of this world legs – than the other two supergirls.
Going up her cotton bra and the bib-and-brace struggled to keep her new, perfectly round, amazingly sensitive super-breasts in check. Serena couldn't help but being a little surprised by how big and full they looked, even more than her own. A moment later she understood why. While she wasn't bigger or taller, Mia looked slightly more muscular than Serena or Jennifer, nothing out of this world but, while the other two looked like fashion models, she looked more like an Olympic swimmer or a lightweight pugilist. The thin layer of pectoral muscles gave her a breasts a slightly fuller appearance.
Her bare arms showed fully well her degree of muscularity. They looked like she could easily toss a keg across the room – thanks in part to the fact that Mia was doing a double biceps pose, amazed by her new self – yet her arms were rounded and graceful in the right spots, clearly showing that they were a woman's arms.
Her face was the most amazing part. Even after getting into shape, Mia had retained her puffy cheeks. Now they were gone but, thanks to the way her chin and cheekbones had changed her face retained a pleasant roundness. Her lips hadn't puffed out like Serena's, but they got darker, standing out against her gold tan. Her nose was the same upturned shape as before, but got a little smaller to harmonize with her slimmer profile. The tips of her eyes were now upturned, giving a bit of a feline look, and the color went from a dark brown to a deep midnight black.
Finally her hair, like the others' got longer, running all the way to Mia's butt. It was like a cascade of silky and perfectly arrow straight, shiny, jet black spreading across her back.
“Well,” Jennifer said with an appreciative glance, “I think that you look positively super.”
Serena said nothing. Mia looked astonishing and she really wanted to say something good, but there was this strange sensation in her guts. She felt that she was about to say something stupid, and she didn't want to be stupid in front of Mia.
Before Serena could snap out of her impasse, Mia rushed across the room and embraced Serena, lifting her with absolute ease.
“Hey! Mia, what's the rush?” Serena gasped as Mia squeezed her with enough strength to crush a freight train.
“Err … Sorry Ce-Ce, I just wanted to thank you.”
“For what?”
“For doing that mind trick to me.”
Serena's face was the portrait of stupor. “What! You … You really mean it!?”
Mia, stopped for a moment and put Serena back to the ground. “Yes, you really freed me.”
Serena was about to inquiry a little further, but her perfect recall kicked in. During her first transformation she had this weird moment when she revised all her memories with her new supercharged brain. It was likely that Mia had experienced the same. “So, is everything fine?”
“Fine?” Mia laughed, “I'm way over fine! This is beyond fantastic!”
Serena was starting to feel a little lighthearted, she was glad that everything was turning out fine and she felt the tension easing, but she was also experiencing Mia's excitement through the involuntary mind link created by their proximity. Trying to think straight again Serena freed herself from Mia's embrace. “Mi-Mi, I have one big question that you might not like.”
“Ok, shoot.”
Serena took a deep breath, which made the curtains flap. “Do you love me?”
Mia's face shifted from surprise, to puzzlement, to mischievous understanding in a matter of seconds. “Of course I do silly.”
Serena gulped.
“You're my best friend since forever. We're like sisters. Of course I love you. But I don't want to have sex with you.” Mia added with a mischievous smile.
Serena breathed more freely. “And what about that kiss?”
Mia put on an exaggerated frown “Well, I'm sorry, I just realized I swing both ways and I have the sexiest woman on Earth next to me. What was I supposed to do? You're my best friend, but I'm not exactly frigid.”
“No, I know you're not.” Serena smiled. A moment later she noticed that something was missing from the picture. “Hey, where's Jennifer?”
They looked around, but Jennifer was missing. The still open window gave Serena an idea. She turned south and activated her x-ray and telescopic sight. Jennifer was about twelve miles away, flying steadily toward Mexico. Serena grabbed Mia by the wrist, “Come on, we have to catch her.”
“How?”
“Do you trust me on this one?”
“Sure.” Mia answered a bit puzzled; she was still coping with the idea of having superpowers.
Serena grabbed Mia by the waist and smiled wickedly. “Let's fly.” She poured all the energy into her arms – that immediately responded by hardening and gaining definition – and threw Mia high out of the window.
Mia screamed like she was on a roller-coaster and Serena took-off behind her in an intercepting course. When they met again Mia was desperately trying to staying the air by flapping her arms. Serena laughed as she grabbed Mia's hand to help her become steadier.
It was the dawn of a new day for Serena and she knew that everything was going to be super.