Superstarter, Part 2

by HikerAngel

Thanks to ElF for the editing assistance. My other thanks are worked into the story this time. :)

Hannah and Serena each stood on a platform inside the massive stadium, erected for this worldwide contest by the Fairness Team. A massive screen rose behind them, alternating closeups of the girls with a screen showing the votes for each girl tallying in real time.

As the votes began to pile in, Serena felt a warmth build from her chest outward. Her muscles all seemed to contract at once. Her mind seemed to reach out, to become aware of everything around her. It was an odd and thrilling juxtaposition of pain and pleasure that coursed through both mind and body. She knew instinctively, however, that she was becoming more powerful. The feeling intensified again and again. Doubling, tripling, quadrupling in strength. She began to feel the desires of the countless people voting, what they wanted her to become.  As raging rivers of raw power streamed into her eager body, she felt as if she were about to burst! Then, as quickly as it had built, the intensity faded, the pressure released.

As the overwhelming sensations grew tolerable, Serena became aware of herself again. She realized that her eyes were squeezed shut and that tears leaked from her long eyelashes. Serena hadn’t been prepared for that kind of effect! She gradually opened her eyes to slits. The sunlight seemed brighter, the colors more vivid. When she concentrated, she could almost zoom in her sight on anything she wanted. Looking down at her own skin, she suddenly saw her own muscle tissue, then blood cells, then bone. Whoa!

She zoomed her vision back out to normal, when she felt something else in her eyes. It felt like a spark. It was warm! She tried to pin down the sensation. As she did, she glanced down at the podium in front of her, razing it in half with a blast of searing laser vision.

Oops! She hadn’t really meant to do that. She gave a confident smile, however, instinctively covering for her mistake with swagger, and the crowd began to cheer at this display of her new power. If there was one thing Serena was good at, it was disguising her true feelings. She could play the part of the confident seductress to perfection, and she leaned on the ability often in the line of work she had been in before.

With her eyes fully open now, Serena basked in the glow of the sun, warmer and brighter than ever before. It was as if she had pressed up on a remote control and turned the brightness and contrast from a one to a ten. And changed the setting on the speakers of the world from TV speaker to the latest Dolby surround sound!

As she waved at the crowd, she noticed that she could hear more sounds than ever before. If she focused on it, she quickly discovered actually pick out individual sounds within the crowd.   Like the sound of the man sneezing just now in row 34, seat D!  It wasn’t so much that sounds were amplified to be louder as it was that there were just far sounds available to her ears. They came from further away, she noticed, than they ever had before. Because there were so many more, however, she had to focus to really pay attention to something. This would take some getting used to!

The heightened senses sent a thrill through the raven-haired beauty. Serena felt a sudden upwelling of gratitude to her supporters. She had been confident that most of the men would support her--how could they not with a body like hers? Men couldn’t resist her. One smoldering look, and she rarely needed to wait until ‘hello’ to have them.

Serena looked behind her at as her closeup filled the stadium Jumbotron. . She noticed that her body looked even more breathtaking than before! Her voluptuous breasts were standing even more proudly on her chest, the weight of gravity no longer seeming to have any effect on her breasts whatsoever. Her abs, visible under her trademark crop, looked chiseled in steel, the etched edges of each muscle popping into relief with every movement. Her legs looked somehow longer, giving her extra inches of height—and what legs they were!  Smooth, sleek, and sexy, they were unbelievably toned. And unbelievably strong!

Galaxy Girl could have given her a run for her money in the looks department before… but not now. Serena laughed as she realized that she was probably the sexiest woman on the planet. This breathtaking new body was a weapon she couldn’t wait to deploy. After all, who could give a vixen like her a run for her money?

Serena heard a massive cheer rise from the crowd. She glanced to the other platform and saw Hannah floating a good meter above her platform, the girl’s amazingly thick, platinum waves of hair, shimmering as it fluttered in the summer breeze.

Serena turned her eyes from Hannah back to the large screen with a smirk. She was glad that the little sweetheart had won the other place in The Two. The pretty, innocent girl was going to be easy to manipulate as things progressed. She might even become an asset against the Fairness Team. As the screen changed to show her statistics from the voting in Round 1, Serena reconsidered. She might not need Hannah’s help with numbers like these after just a single round after all:

SERENA

Strength: 268

Invulnerability: 268

Speed: 74

Flight: 51

Laser Eyes: 51

X-Ray Eyes: 51

Superbreath: 51

Telepathy: 162

Telekinesis: 162

The screen changed to Hannah’s numbers from Round 1:

HANNAH

Strength: 143

Invulnerability: 143

Speed: 36

Flight: 36

Laser Eyes: 25

X-Ray Eyes: 25

Superbreath: 25

Telepathy: 54

Telekinesis: 54

Serena’s smirk turned into a bright and confident smile. She had been slightly concerned that the likeable young blonde would have more appeal than she did, especially with women. Looking at those results, she needn’t have been concerned. Still, Hannah’s power, while only roughly half of Serena’s was substantial. She was not to be taken lightly.

The large screen switched to a closeup of Hannah, and Serena had her answer. Serena had thought Hannah beautiful before, but she had reached another level entirely. Platinum blond hair shimmered as she floated above the stage like a golden goddess. The radiant elegance of her face, crowned by luminescent blue eyes, made her look ethereal, angelic. Her body seemed fuller, more shapely, more awe-inspiring than cute. She appeared more woman, now, than girl. And those lips! Serena ran a tongue along her own as she wondered what it would feel like to press them against Hannah’s luscious, ruby-red…

Ultraman interrupted Serena’s thoughts as he bellowed into the microphone before the assembled stadium crowd.

“Thank you, everyone, for your participation! Round one was a resounding success!!!”

A huge cheer went up from the crowd.

“You have focused your votes on these two beautiful young ladies and turned your desires into reality, empowering them enough to be the newest members of the Fairness Team already!”

Another cheer erupted. Several catcalls could be heard among the cheers. Hannah blushed, and Serena sent a smoldering stare into the crowd.

“Now, now folks. None of that. These women are now superwomen… you may not want to risk a catcall when retaliation by laser eye is a real possibility!!!”

Another cheer punctuated with laughter!

“Now before we continue, I wanted to recognize the people who really made all this happen…”

Ultraman turned and extended a hand to the people seated behind him, motioning for them to stand.

“ChaozCloud, who discovered how the alien devices should work;

Lfan, who conceptualized the way the voting would funnel into them;

Fats, who built the voting system to enable all of this to happen; and

Woodclaw, who works hard every week to keep you updated on superheroes and villains alike!”

This time, the roar of the crowd was deafening, rattling the very foundation of the stadium.

Hannah and Serena floated over to the platform where the honored four were standing and went down the row, giving each of them a lung-emptying hug. They clearly needed to become accustomed to their new strength. Serena copped a feel with one of the four—she couldn’t resist… and he didn’t seem to mind. He {i}was{/i} kinda cute.

“Now a round of applause for The Two!”

The applause was as deafening as before.

Serena and Hannah were relieved to be done with the ceremony as it concluded. Backstage, Ultraman and Galaxy Girl congratulated them.

When Galaxy Girl shook Serena’s hand, Serena pressed down with all her now-considerable strength. Galaxy Girl’s eyes widened as if surprised at the pressure the sexy girl was exerting, but she turned the tables, gripping so hard that the dark beauty’s hand began to turn purple.

Serena took in the information stoically. She hadn’t expected to be stronger than Galaxy Girl yet, but, given the superheroine’s widened eyes and the fear that was telepathically radiating from her, Serena had clearly progressed further than Galaxy Girl had anticipated in just one round.

Ultraman didn’t seem to notice the little surreptitious test of strength between the two women, as he began to describe how the two girls would train. Hannah would pair up with Ultraman, and Serena would work with Galaxy Girl.

***

Ultraman was not easily impressed, but Hannah had impressed him—was still impressing him. Most new recruits to the Fairness Team were lucky to last two hours in an Ultraman-driven training session. Hannah’s workout had begun five hours ago… and she was still going. This buxom young super girl had a drive and determination to succeed that rivaled his own. 

She was wearing the special gravity-magnification vest that the Fairness Team used to train their recruits. It allowed them to do bodyweight exercises much as a normal human would--if set strongly enough to essentially counteract their immense strength.

As Hannah started another set of thirty burpees, sweat dripping from her brow. Ultraman couldn’t help but marvel at her stamina. This girl had superhuman willpower to go along with her now-superhuman body. He usually used the first lesson of grueling physical training to test a new recruit’s limits and show them the discipline and drive it would take to succeed when they felt like giving up. This time, he might be the one on the learning end of that lesson!

As she finished her last burpee, she bounced up, grimacing with the pain firing through her toned muscles. Hannah knew that she needed to push herself. While overjoyed at her new abilities, she couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed that the voters had given Serena far stronger abilities than they had given her. She was slightly hurt than they didn’t like her as much as the ebony-haired vixen. It didn’t matter, though, she had plenty of supporters and she was determined not to let them down. She would give everything she had and more to keep up. If her power was lacking, then her will would make up for it. That, she could always control.

Hannah walked to Ultraman trying to catch her breath, accidentally unleashing a blast of superbreath that blew Ultraman’s hair back.

“Oops! Sorry about that!” Hannah said sheepishly between gasps for air. She was still adjusting to these new powers!

“No worries,” said Ultraman, brushing his hair into place.

“What’s next, coach?” Hannah asked, clearly hurting, her arms and legs quivering, but game to continue.

Ultraman shook his head. This girl was amazing!

***

Serena didn’t know if the young blonde knew it, but Hannah was broadcasting her thoughts and feelings to Serena nonstop. Serena remember her stats. Her mental abilities far exceeded those of the other girl and had been voted into her second-strongest set of powers. She had been pleasantly surprised by that, thinking that her voters would be more interested in her body than her mind. Then again, she smirked, her body was already pretty spectacular.

She sensed another wave of thoughts and feelings from Hannah. Now that she could sense the girl’s mind, Serena was even more impressed. The girl was pushing herself hard. And her thoughts! They were not of herself, they were of the people who supported her. Hannah’s thoughts were nothing like hers, the girl genuinely had a desire to help people, to make the most of the gifts she’d been given. Serena could only detect one selfish thought running through her mind over and over.

“Why did so many people choose Serena over her?”

Serena could sense the extreme frustration and jealousy in the girl’s thoughts. Hannah seemed to be trying to bury the thought, but it was still there, lying beneath the surface in Hannah’s subconscious.  But thanks to Serena’s new mental powers, she was able to pick out the young girl’s buried thoughts almost as easily as someone would pluck daisies from a garden..  

While Serena had never before had the benefit of telepathy, she had great instincts for judging people, and she had never run across one as genuine and motivated as Hannah. Especially her motivation to show the voters that she deserved an improved showing in the second round. She filed the information away, vowing not to underestimate the wholesome girl.

Galaxy Girl had taken a different tack with her training of Serena. She felt that Serena needed to be taken down a peg, so she began with combat training--something Galaxy Girl excelled at!

Serena was strong, not that far from Galaxy Girl’s own superhuman levels, but she was terribly slow in comparison to the famous superheroine. Galaxy Girl deftly dodged another of Serena’s strikes and tagged her with a kick as she shifted to the side.

Serena grunted in pain as Galaxy Girl struck her yet again. She knew how to fight, probably far better than her opponent. She had needed those skills in her previous career. However, Galaxy Girl was just so fast!  Serena couldn’t seem to touch her!

Serena thought of her telepathic link with Hannah, and it gave her another idea for the task at hand, as Galaxy Girl taunted her. Serena really didn’t like the popular superheroine. She seemed bent on humiliating her—bitch!

Serena focused her mind on holding Galaxy Girl still, remembering the telekinesis power her supporters had given her. She leapt forward with her mind doing its best to hold her. It was enough to slow her movement, and Serena drove home a combination of punches with enough power that they knocked Galaxy Girl backward, sending her gorgeous ass to the mat. She hit the seriouslytoughium floor with a grunt.

Serena gave the Fairness Team leader a wink, then dropped back into a fighting stance. As Serena watched Galaxy Girl’s look of surprise given way to a scowl, she had no doubt that Galaxy Girl would come back even harder, but she was ready, now ready to use the full extent of her power portfolio. Bring it on, she thought.

Galaxy Girl rose from the floor and adjusted her tiara, which had been knocked off-kilter by Serena’s blow. Her eyes never left Serena’s, issuing a silent warning to the ebony-haired girl.

...And after the next hour of being pummeled by Galaxy Girl, Serena was almost sorry that she had knocked her down. Almost. Apparently, her mental powers had caught Galaxy Girl by surprise more than anything. They continued to slow her down… but not enough to make up for Serena’s vast deficiency in speed.

***

At the end of the week, both girls were wiped out from the grueling variety of training exercises. They greeted each other with pained smiles, their super-muscles super-sore. Serena reached out to Hannah with her telepathy, and Hannah was surprised, not really having tested this power during the week. Her stunned expression relaxed, however, as she began to compare notes with Serena. She laughed out loud at Serena’s, um, let’s just say “less than complimentary” assessment of Galaxy Girl’s training.

The girls had been told that their trainers would switch for the following week, and their physical training would intensify as their physical powers grew. Serena was looking forward to spending the week with Ultraman with plenty of opportunity to steal glances at his bulging, muscular body. Galaxy Girl had a nice body too, but she was such a bitch! Good riddance!

The first week of training had been good for them, however. Serena knew that she was looking even sexier and more toned the intensive training, but Hannah, with her massive work ethic and desire, was looking absolutely incredible! Her coltish legs were lean, sinuous, and shapely. As her shirt fluttered in the stadium breeze, Serena saw glimpses of shredded cobbles of sexy abs on the girl that rivaled--maybe surpassed--the carved stomach that she herself was so proud of. Hannah’s shoulders was rounded and firm but still VERY feminine. Hannah’s body had been gorgeous before--breathtaking after her empowerment. Now, however, it was becoming truly awe-inspiring. At the start of this contest, Serena had been confident that she was the more attractive of the two. Now, however, she wasn’t so sure.

Thoughts of Hannah’s improving form, sent Serena’s thoughts to the costumes that the voters would choose for them in Round 3. She hoped that she got one that showed off her abs. Hell, she wouldn’t mind checking out Hannah in a sexy little costume either. She smirked at the thought.

Serena seemed to have more control over which thoughts she could send Hannah’s way. Hannah could only pick up on the thoughts that Serena sent her, while Hannah’s subconscious worries about what the voters’ opinions of her, her focus on training, and other little eddies and flows of thought seemed available to Serena. Serena did have nearly three times Hannah’s mental powers. She supposed that was the difference.

Serena caught a stray thought of admiration from Hannah as the blonde gazed at the prodigious muscles dancing in Ultraman’s arms, adjusting his microphone. She fired back a thought to Hannah, imagining herself pinching Ultraman’s yummy lycra-clad butt. Hannah couldn’t stifle her giggle.

Ultraman glanced over as he heard Hannah laugh, and she gave him a shrug. As he looked away, she continued her mental conversation with Serena. She had nearly forgotten… Ultraman and Galaxy Girl didn’t have mental powers. Nor did anyone else on the Fairness Team. This was something unique to The Two.

Hannah and Serena took their places at their platforms in the stadium as they readied for the second round of their power up. Through their telepathic link, they continued to converse.

“I’m hoping for some more speed this time! Galaxy Girl was really taking it to me with that speed advantage of hers,” thought Serena, unconsciously rubbing the bruise on her hip from one of Galaxy Girl’s kicks.

“I really need more strength,” thought Hannah. “That boulder carry that Ultraman kept making me do was brutal. The only way I got through it was using my telekinesis to help!”

“Really? That boulder carry wasn’t so bad…” replied Serena.

“Yeah, ‘cause you’re, like, WAY stronger than I am,” Hannah thought back, pouting. That fact was clearly bothering her.

“Well, there is that,” Serena thought with satisfaction. “I can’t wait for these sexy muscles of mine to become even stronger,” She flexed the small but steel-hard muscle in her feminine arm. “More strength is never a bad thing. Speaking of sexy muscles, yours are looking pretty damn good! You’ve been driving yourself pretty hard, but your body is becoming even more amazing than it was before!”

Hannah didn’t really dress to show off, but she certainly could. Hannah’s looks had seemed to improve more than had her own from the crystal’s enhancement! It was as if the girl’s genes were predisposed for superness; she was a golden goddess in the making. What would happen if her votes equaled, or (gasp) exceeded Serena’s?

“Thanks!” thought Hannah with a bit of satisfaction at the other girl’s compliment. “The best training time is when I get to fly, though. Flying is soooo much fun! I could totally go for more votes there too!” thought Hannah.

“Yes, I need to try it some more. Most of the flying I’ve been doing has been backward… from one of Galaxy Girl’s kicks!”

Serena’s thoughts disappeared momentarily from Hannah’s mind as she seemed to consider something.

“I’m kinda curious what Ultraman’s statistics look like,” thought Serena. “I wonder what it would take to pass him…”

“Hmmm… I could probably get him to tell me,” thought Hannah. “He keeps saying he’s impressed with me… I’m curious where Galaxy Girl stands too! After this vote, I’m going to try to find out…”

“Shhh…” thought Serena, “It’s starting!”

Both girls looked at Ultraman, who began to address the crowd once more.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, we’ve reached round 2 of the power voting! Please go to superwomenmania.com and cast your next vote.”