Chapter 12

It was a cold night in the middle of the Texan desert. So-Hyun did not mind, despite being dressed less than appropriately for almost sub-zero temperatures. Claire was shivering and holding to her friend strongly.

“Look, we can still give up and go back home. I don’t know how you convinced to go this far.” So-Hyun said, her face frowned and worried.

“You came here because you’re even madder at Luthor than I am! C’mon, let’s get that bitch something to cry about.” Ignoring the cold, she released So-Hyun and ran towards the super-secret lab that was home to Lex Luthor’s metahuman researches. The building was protected with a tall wire fence, electrified and filled with cameras.

“Power Girl, a little help here?”

So-Hyun sighed, but knew there was no stopping Claire now. She was stubborn, to say the least. She grabbed her and floated upwards, going across the fence easily. Only a huge metal door separated them from the lab.

So-Hyun tried to spy inside with her x-ray vision, but for some reason she could not see anything from the lab.

“Luthor must have added a lead layer to the lab’s walls. She’s good. But she can’t do nothing to stop you, girl.”

So-Hyun rested her hands on the metal door, and breathed slowly. She pressed her fingers against it, to grab a hold on it. Her finger dug into the dense, thick metal like it was made of butter. Putting more strength in her arms, she opened them slowly, and could clearly hear the creak of the metal trying to maintain its structure, and failing. With little effort, she managed to open a gap on the door so big that them both could easily enter the laboratory.

“Wow…” Claire was always amazed by the super-strength feats of her friend. She entered, sliding her fingers through almost a meter of thick steel that was the door her friend so easily opened.

The place was dark and cold. Machines that could never be turned off hummed at the background, and several LED lights blinked randomly all across the room. So-Hyun walked towards the enormous particle accelerator, and turned some buttons and switches on. The equipment quickly came to life, and then coughed and buzzed for several seconds before shutting down again.

“Looks like we have a lot of work to do.”

“Don’t worry, I can handle that.” So-Hyun vanished in a white and red blur, and all the dirty and exploded parts of the accelerator began to rearrange themselves. She connected loose cables and substituted fried parts faster than Claire’s eyes could follow. At one point, she had to lift an entire section of the accelerator to fix the lower circuitry, and did in half a minute an operation that would take a whole week without superhuman help. In just a few moments, the accelerator was as good as new.

“Well, now you made me jealous.” Said Claire, completely amazed.

“You don’t have to be. Soon, you’ll be as awesome as I am.”

“You really think so?”

“Of course I do! Why would the result be different anyways? This is a scientific experiment. We just have to do everything right.”

She turned on the accelerator, which this time emitted noises far more healthy and pleasurable to the two of them. The whole room began to shake under the power of the machine. Soon, their eyes were filled with a bizarre light. It happened again. Inside the accelerator laid a connection with the very source of the universe. And yet…

“Wait a minute, Claire. Something is wrong.”

“Wrong? What do you mean?” Clair was mesmerized by what was happening, and could not take her eyes off the strange structure of light and darkness inside the machine.

“There’s something … Different this time. This … Thing, it was not as bright when I did it. And it was not green.”

Claire was not even listening at this point. She just pressed the button to open the observation panel, and strode slowly inside the machine. “But it’s so … beautiful …”

“Claire, NO!”

It was too late. Claire touched the source with her hand. Instead of the usual orgasmic pleasure that everyone that connected to the source felt, Claire felt a sting in her fingers. Slowly, an unbearable pain took over her hands, and then her arms, and made her cry and scream in agony. So-Hyun tried to separate her friend from the source, but even her superhuman strength could not perform that task.

“Foolish humans!” an otherworldly voice echoed through the room. “You toy with powers beyond your comprehension! You think this is science? You think you can just sap from my source of power as you see fit? I shall punish your arrogance!”

Claire’s body twisted in such pain no one has ever felt before in human history. Her mind went numb and her thoughts went silent, and she wished she was dead so this pain could be over. Her body began changing.

“I will mark you as an example! Everyone in this planet that sees you, and what you did to yourself, shall know the forces of the universe are not to be trifled with.”

Claire’s muscles began to grow. First her arms and legs, her biceps ripping through her shirt. She grew in height and size, and her blue eyes turned bright green. Her tight jeans and t-shirt were in shreds as her massive muscles now demanded to be free. Her breasts grew proportionally, popping her bra open in instants. With a last deafening scream of pain, her pale skin turned bright green. The source vanished, stopping the pain and making Claire fall to her knees. She breathed heavily and cried silently.

“Kimmie …” she managed to say after a long silence. “What happened to me?”

“I … Claire … Oh man …”

She raised her hands and looked at them. “I just wanted to beautiful and powerful like you … Kimmie.”

“Claire, please, calm down.”

“WHAT HAPPENED TO ME?” she yelled, and in an uncharacteristic spasm of rage, swung her huge arm in So-Hyun’s direction. Half of the observation panel flew across the room when her hand hit it.

“Wow. Claire, you have to calm down. We can fix this. Just-“

Claire was not listening anymore. In pure rage, she lunged at So-Hyun with unbelievable strength.

Chapter 13

Alexis Luthor woke up to the sound of the alarm in her lab. With a perverse smile on her face, she put on her power suit, and woke up her little experiment.

Chapter 14

Claire landed another violent punch on So-Hyun’s belly. Despite her superhuman durability and resistance, Claire’s punch hurt So-Hyun unlike anything had ever hurt her in her life, not even Thor’s hammer. She flew across the room, making a huge hole in every wall she smashed, until she landed a few miles outside the lab, in the middle of the desert. She tried to recuperate, but Claire was already on her. With her two overgrown hands, she squeezed Power Girl’s neck.

“Cl-Claire … Hgnnnnn. Stop … This …”

Claire was not listening. She would have killed So-Hyun, had not a laser bullet hit her in the head. It did not hurt her, but it distracted her. She turned around and forgot about So-Hyun for a moment, loosening her grip.

“You … YOU SUED KIMMIE!” she yelled.

“Wait, what? You were just trying to ki-“her surprise was interrupted when Claire hurled an enormous chunk of earth in her direction. Her reflexes activated the hydraulic muscles from her power armor, putting her away from danger just in time with a side roll.

“Call in the Rogue. NOW!” said Luthor putting her fingers on her ear.

An helicopter approached, but Claire didn’t care. She jumped at Luthor almost in a flash of speed. Luthor tried to counter her strength, foolishly trusting too much on her power armor. She held both of Claire’s hands with hers, and tried to push her away. However, she soon began to hear the creaks and snaps of the inner mechanics of her armor giving up on Claire’s superhuman strength. One person jumped out of the helicopter, and it began to shoot Claire with a built-in machine gun. As soon as the bullets entered Claire skin, it began to heal almost immediately. When the bullets finished penetrating her skin, the wound they had just made was already healed, and the pure force of her healing muscles reduced the bullets to dust. It nevertheless managed to divert Claire’s attention again.

“I tire of your little toys …” she whispered, and jumped towards the flying helicopter. Easily reaching it, she grabbed the machine’s tail and, with a mid-air spin, flung it towards Luthor. So-Hyun knew not even her armor could withstand an explosion like that, so she used her super-speed to rush in front of her and grabbed the helicopter before it hit the ground.

“Are you all right?” asked So-Hyun to the helicopter’s pilot. The poor man was wide eyed with a mix of pure terror of the green behemoth that was flinging helicopters like they were baseballs and marvel for having just been saved by the most beautiful Asian woman he had ever seen in his life. He passed out in emotion.

“I hope you are” she sighed, putting the chopper down gently. She flew towards Claire, who was standing several meters from her, spewing rage and spit from her mouth. Before Claire could have any reaction, So-Hyun slapped her right cheek with all the strength she had, knocking one of Claire’s teeth out of her mouth.

“AND YOU STOP THIS CHILDISH TANTRUM THIS INSTANT, CLAIRE!” she shouted at a completely astonished Claire. “EITHER YOU CALM DOWN RIGHT NOW, OR I WILL NEVER EVER TALK TO YOU AGAIN, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?”

“Kimmie …” she began to cry. So-Hyun hugged her, and Claire finally calmed down. Just as things began to get better for them, they felt a cold touch on their shoulders, and both of them passed out, dropping to the ground.

Luthor disposed of her broken suit, and walked slowly towards the two knocked out metahumans, rubbing her hands in pleasure.

“Good job, Rogue.” She said to the pale, skinny girl standing behind the two. “Now, what shall I do with those two …”