The Girl of Steel (Superheroine Transformation/Erotica)

Hi everyone!  

My name is Joyce and I'm new to the forum -- I thought I'd share a commission that I've been writing for a client.  The story is already a few chapters long, and I plan on it being fifteen chapters or so, and possibly longer.  The story is about a 19-year-old girl named Lucy who, by a freak accident of nature, acquires superpowers.  I've enjoyed writing this commission, and would love to write more.  

If any of you like this story and would be interested in me writing you a commission, you can get in touch with me at joycejulep@gmail.com.  I run twitter and Patreon pages dedicated to giantess erotica, so if you're interested in that, you can find them here: twitter.com/JoyceJulep and here: www.patreon.com/joycejulep.  

Here are the first two chapters of "The Girl of Steel."  Hope ya'll like it!  

CHAPTER 1Lucy Malloy was beginning to think that dropping out of college had been a mistake. The 19-year-old wrapped herself up in her scarf as she stepped out onto the dark and dirty urban street. She had just finished her shift as a waitress at Joe’s Diner, and as usual she was leaving feeling gross and taken advantage of. She had accepted the job months before, thinking it would be easy money while she went to raves and decided what to do with her life, but she quickly learned that the job was more than she bargained for. Joe was a skeezy middle-aged man who made all his female employees dress up in skimpy outfits, the better to cater to the usual crowd of sleazy men who came through, most of them drunk, and all of them unapologetic in their attempts to get handsy with the female waitstaff.

“I should just quit this fucking job,” she muttered to herself as she set off down the street towards her apartment close to the docks. She kicked an empty beer bottle that was lying in her path, sending it flying into a nearby brick wall. It shattered on impact. It was her own fault, she thought, that she was in this mess to begin with. She couldn’t realistically quit this job since she had come to depend on it to pay her rent. And there was no way that she was going to move back in with her parents. They would judge every aspect of her life…going to rave parties, smoking cigarettes, getting drunk all the time, buying trendy clothes she couldn’t afford…and she didn’t want to hear it from them. Deep down, she knew they loved her, but she was not yet at a stage in life where she could appreciate this — she wanted to party, to consume, to get fucked up, to throw herself against the wall for fun.

She trudged on down the dimly-lit alleyways towards her apartment. She hoped that Trixie was home so she could vent about her shitty night at work — Trixie was Lucy’s only real friend, and they had been close ever since they were children. Trixie was an art student at the local university, and together they shared a run-down old apartment near the docks. It was a lousy apartment in a lousy part of town, but it was cheap, and both young women were too caught up in their party-hard lifestyle to really care. A cold wind whipped through the narrow passageways of the alley, and Lucy had to pull her scarf more tightly around her as the frosty current bit and nipped at her face and neck. It was way too cold for this time of year, she thought…she glanced up at the sky. A dark cloud passed away, and the full moon was suddenly shining down its cold light, creating stark and sudden shadows behind dripping pipes and garbage cans, and bathing the alley in weird shades of silver.

Lucy frowned up at the sky as she kept walking. Something felt odd about this weather. And this moonlight. She had the sudden and uncomfortable feeling that she was being followed by someone…or something. She turned around to look behind her…nothing. She kept walking, her heart fluttering a little uneasily in her chest. She brushed her long blond hair to the side as she quickened her steps and reached into her pocket, fingering her small canister of mace. It made her feel a little safer. But the wind picked up a little more as several dark wisps of cloud passed over the moon rapidly, shrouding the alley in darkness, only to give way to that soft moonlight again. Something was definitely weird, Lucy decided. The hairs on her arms began to stand up at attention, anticipating something. The moonlight seemed to smile crookedly from behind every shape and object in the alley…it did not make her feel nice. It was like the soft light and the shadows were all leering at her, following her, waiting for her to let down her guard.

Feeling stupid, she actually took out her mace and held it as she walked even faster. Her heart kept increasing its pace with each hurried step she took, and she began to feel like she was walking through syrup…the air felt thicker, more substantial…she jumped slightly as a crushed cardboard box that had been lying on the ground suddenly seemed to pick itself up and rear in the wind — she had thought it was some kind of animal.

‘Jesus Lucy,’ she thought to herself, ‘get it together!’ All the frustration of the night suddenly coalesced in her mind with the increasing uneasiness she felt about her walk home… she saw the long tail of a rat dart into a drain pipe as she approached…everything abruptly felt sinister…and it all hit home what a shit life she was living. In that moment, she felt uncontrollable rage: at her job, at herself, at everything.

Five thousand feet above, in the heart of a giant cumulonimbus cloud, the conditions in that instant were perfect for something extraordinary to occur, something that had not happened in the Milky Way Galaxy for hundreds of thousands of years. As a irregular phenomenon of quantum mechanics, (and for reasons science can not yet explain), a microscopic tear developed in the fabric of the space-time continuum. In less than a nanosecond it had closed up and was gone again. But that was all it took — the flash of an opening in the heart of the storm cloud had ignited a chain reaction. An undiscovered element, a few hundred atoms of bright metal, appeared in an instant, reacting violently with the high electrical charge of the storm cloud. The free electron wave combined with the strange quantum metal, vaporizing it instantly as it exploded downward in a bright flash of lightning. To the millions of city dwellers observing, the lightning looked a bit brighter, and a bit thicker, than usual…but no one knew the truth of what had actually just happened.

The bolt of lightning tore down and struck Lucy directly on the top of her head. She went down in a crumpled heap. The cardboard box that had just scared her burst into flames…the rat that had ignited her rage (and every other varmint within twenty feet of the strike) died instantly in the drainpipe. And everything in the alley shook with the mighty boom that followed. Lucy lay flat on her back for an entire minute, unconscious. As she lay there, totally prone, a soft cold rain began to drizzle down. It was this little cold spit of precipitation that helped her come to a minute later.

“What…the fuck…?” she said out loud, breathless from the impact, not quite understanding what had just occurred. She looked around the alley…the soft rain was gradually putting out the burning remains of the cardboard box, and all around her floated little grey wisps of ash. Everything seemed to be smoking: the trash cans, the piles of junk…even her. She looked down at her own body with alarm as she saw that her clothes were fuming slightly with some kind of strange and metallic-smelling vapor. She stood up quickly and tried to brush herself off. She took stock of herself — there was no blood — she seemed to be standing fine — come to think of it, she actually felt pretty good…energetic, even.

“Holy shit,” she said, smiling in spite of herself, “I just got stuck by lightning!” Not quite sure why she felt so giddy, she laughed out loud into the apparently abandoned alley. She couldn’t wait to tell Trixie about this.

“You dropped something, sweetheart,” said a voice behind her. She whipped around and saw a tall man in a suit standing there, about ten feet away. He was carrying a suitcase in one hand and in his other hand he held…her canister of mace. Lucy immediately stepped back a couple paces defensively. She didn’t like how this man was smiling, and how he had just seemed to appear out of nowhere.

“Oh…yeah, thanks,” she managed to say. The man didn’t move; he simply held the canister out and smiled. Lucy felt a cold streak pass through her stomach.

“Well,” said the man, grinning, “don’t you wanna come and get it?”

“I’m…fine, actually,” said Lucy, stepping back another couple paces. This man’s behavior, and his smile, were concerning. She kept backing away from the man. “I’ll just…I’ll just be heading on my way, ok?”

“Oh but honey,” said a scraggly voice to her left, “you really shouldn’t be walking around here without some…protection.” Lucy looked toward the sound of the voice and saw another man, in an oil-stained white t-shirt and blue jeans, emerging from another adjacent alley. One of the construction workers from the docks — Lucy was all too familiar with these seedy men.

“I’m — I don’t need protection — I’m fine,” she said, backing away in turn from this additional man. The cold reality of the situation hit her: this was one of those brutal nightmares, one of those worst-case scenarios that she had feared in the back of her mind every day she lived in this city. And yet…she didn’t really feel afraid right now. She almost felt…it was strange to realize — exhilarated. But she didn’t have a lot of time to analyze her emotions, because a third man had appeared behind the second, wearing the same kind of dirty outfit, sporting an oily smirk on his grizzled face.

“Don’t you creeps have something better to do than fuck with little girls?” she said, surprising herself with how loud and clear her voice sounded.

“Not really,” chuckled the man in the suit, now walking closer. “Had a hard day at work — wife’s at home with the kids.” He turned to the other two men. “Just no way to let steam off anymore these days, right?”

They both laughed knowingly. “Can’t even whistle at broads these days,” growled the first scraggly man, “without them turning their cute little noses up at you.”

“Sign of the times,” said his friend, nodding in agreement as they both closed in closer, the three of them cornering Lucy against the damp brick of the alleyway wall. “Gals get equal rights then poof! They forget how to have fun.”

“Oh I know how to enjoy myself,” said Lucy, her back to the wall. She was amazed at how calm she felt. “And the first step is to avoid ugly men with tiny dicks.”

“You’re perky,” said the man in the suit, almost in a whisper, as his nostrils dilated and he started breathing heavily. “But you’re mistaken.” He reached down and felt his crotch, which was beginning to visibly bulge. “You’ll see pretty soon that I’m packing some heat.”

“Well she’s right about me,” wheezed one of the oily men. “I gotta itty bitty little one.” His lazy tongue issued from his mouth and licked his cracked lips. “So I gotta find other ways of making little girls scream.”

Lucy actually laughed out loud — the three men were now only five feet away from her. She wasn’t even thinking about the future, about what was about to happen. She just wanted to see these men make their move. She wanted to see what they had. Her heart was pounding in her chest as her breathing came in shallow excited gasps.

“Well why don’t you fucks go for it then?” she spat venomously.

The three men looked at each other, shrugging their shoulders. “Spray her,” grunted the third grizzled man to the man in the suit. “Then we’ll muzzle her and we can take turns.”

The man in the suit smiled, nodding in agreement. He raised the canister of mace and sprayed a long shot of it directly at Lucy. There was no way that she would have been able to dodge the direct shot, and it hit her straight in the face. She closed her eyes and mouth at its impact, feeling a curious absence of feeling and emotion as it hit her. And then…nothing changed. It was just as if she had been sprayed with a water gun. She opened her eyes. They weren’t burning. Nothing was burning. She wasn’t affected at all.

The man in the suit frowned and looked down at the canister, as if to double check that it was actually mace. He held it up and sprayed her again. No effect. Lucy started laughing again.

“Well fuck it, then,” growled one of the dock men, and he stepped forward to subdue her.

“Get the fuck away from me,” hissed Lucy, and she felt a brilliantly red streak of rage flash through her as she saw this disgusting man reaching out for her. She darted forward, far quicker than either she or the other man expected, and put her open palm into his chest, shoving him backward. The man flew back a full ten feet, banging backwards into a trash can and crumpling down to his knees. Lucy was shocked at her strength, but she didn’t have time to marvel, because the other dock man going going for her.

“Little bitch,” he slobbered angrily. He had picked up a broken pipe from the ground and was swinging it down hard, directly at her. Lucy reached up and caught the pipe with her bare hand, arresting its motion instantly. She looked into the man’s dark beady little eyes as they widened in surprise and fear. A second wave of rage tore through her and she squeezed hard on the pipe. A crushing sound echoed throughout the alley as the metal pipe bent and gave way in her hand.

“The fuck?” the man muttered, and he let the pipe go. Lucy took hold of it and swung it once at his head, connecting just under his jaw. He fell like a ninepin, knocked out cold. She couldn’t believe what was happening — she felt so strong, so fast, so entirely sure of herself. But it was all happening so fast that she hardly had any time to think. She swung around to face the man in the suit, who had pulled out a long knife.

“Ooo, little girl likes to play, huh?” he breathed, his chest rising and falling in anticipation. “She must be my type then.” He circled her cautiously, licking his thin lips hungrily. But he was unable to stifle a cough from the effects of the mace he had sprayed. He was puzzled but he spoke again to mask his insecurity. “Hopefully her pussy isn’t as defective as her mace.”

“Your type is probably underground, in a wooden box somewhere,” she jeered at the man. “I’d check the Oakland Cemetery — I think they buried someone today.”

“Not as fresh as this one right here,” said the man, and he lunged in, slashing for her arm that held the pipe. Lucy dodged the knife stroke and swung the pipe upward, connecting solidly with his outstretched forearm. A sickening crack echoed off the alley walls. The man cried out and dropped his knife, staggering backward as he clutched his obviously broken arm. Lucy strode after him confidently, brandishing the pipe.

“Yeah that’s right!” she shouted, bearing down on his retreating form and raising the pipe once more. “That should teach you to mess with women, you pathetic piece of shit!” She brought the pipe down on the man’s head, dropping him to the alley floor. Just like the other man, he had been knocked utterly unconscious.

“It’s better than you deserve,” Lucy spat down at the man’s lifeless form. “I should fucking kill you all!” A rustling noise briefly arrested her attention, and she saw the back end of the man she had pushed running away into another alley.

“Yeah — run away!” she called after him, throwing the pipe in his direction. It hit a brick wall, splitting into many pieces as it broke a whole chunk off the brick. She stood there in the alley, breathing hard as she looked down at the bodies of the two men, still alive, but unconscious. For an instant she felt a thrilled and rapturous urge to kill both men. But almost as soon as she felt that delicious rage coursing through her, it petered out, and she realized that she was covered in a cold sweat. The sky was still spitting little spurts of cold drizzle, and the wind picked up again, blowing through the alley, as if to disperse the violent heat of the encounter.

Lucy looked down at her hands, checking her palms, feeling totally confused. What had just happened? How had she just done what she did? She looked at the unconscious bodies of the two men…they weren’t small by any means. And she wasn’t big…she was only around 5’6…125 pounds…she wasn’t even that athletic. And yet…and yet she had just totally fucked them up. She looked around the alley. No one else had witnessed the whole episode — and even though it felt longer she knew that it couldn’t have lasted more than a minute or so. She looked again at the unconscious men and grew afraid. She wasn’t quite sure why…it was more the unreality of the situation than anything else. Without wasting anymore time she wrapped her scarf around her neck again and hurried the rest of the way home to her apartment on the docks.


CHAPTER TWO

Trixie was in her cozy pajamas, embedded in the sofa, a warm afghan wrapped around her body as she watched Netflix, when Lucy came busting in through the door.

“Lucy!” said Trixie in surprise as she saw her disheveled friend. Normally when Lucy came home she was tired, irritable, sluggish, and depressed. Tonight, however, couldn’t have been any different. She was wide-eyed and breathing hard, almost manic. Her hands were dirty, her scarf was dangling unceremoniously from her neck, and there were streaks of burn marks on her skimpy restaurant skirt. An odd metallic smell seemed to be emanating from her body. Trixie sat up a little on the sofa, her brow creased in alarm.

“What happened?” she blurted out.

“Beat up…some men…in the alley,” said Lucy through heavy respiration, as if she had not quite caught her breath yet. She shut the door with such force that the very foundations of the apartment building shook. “Got struck…by lightning…knocked out…they had my mace…have no idea how I…I…I don’t know.” She seemed almost incoherent. Trixie jumped up off the sofa and went over to comfort her friend, who was very clearly in some kind of distress. But Trixie had to draw back a moment, because when she touched Lucy, she found that her skin was almost unbearably hot.

“Lucy…Lucy calm down,” she said, trying not to panic herself when she realized how hot her friend’s skin was. It was so odd, though…she wasn’t flushed or anything that would be expected to accompany a fever.

“Just…just take your clothes off, ok?” said Trixie, busying herself with undoing Lucy’s scarf and unzipping her jacket. “And…and I’ll run a nice cold shower for you, ok? You’re burning up.”

Lucy took deep breaths as she allowed Trixie to help her get undressed, relieved that she was back home, and happy beyond measure that Trixie was there. She hadn’t quite realized how out of sorts she was until she had nearly broken the door down as she entered — seeing Trixie on the sofa, and the rest of their apartment looking like it normally did, hit home just how abnormal she was feeling.

Trixie turned on the shower and helped guide a trembling Lucy into the bathroom. Both friends had seen each other naked so many times that they didn’t even really register nudity anymore. Lucy stepped under the cold shower and immediately everything hissed as the cold water made contact with her hot skin. A spontaneous cloud of hot steam billowed up, and Trixie uttered a little cry of alarm as she was forced back a few paces to avoid the heat.

“Ahhhhh,” came Lucy’s voice from somewhere in the middle of the steam cloud, “that’s sooooo much better — this was a great idea, Trix.”

“So…so that feels good?” asked Trixie cautiously.

“Soooo good,” replied Lucy, still barely visible in the steam. Trixie sat down on the toilet and just watched as Lucy stood under the shower, her head thrown back in relief, her eyes closed as the cold water ran through her long blond hair. After a few minutes, Lucy’s skin seemed to have cooled off — there was no longer any steam when the cold water hit her skin. A few minutes more and Lucy seemed satisfied; she switched off the water, taking care not to twist the faucet handles too hard. Her hands felt like they were brimming with some kind of invisible strength, and when she had almost ripped the front door off its hinges, she had made a mental note to treat everything she touched carefully.

“All…all better?” ventured Trixie nervously as she looked up at Lucy from her sitting position.

“Yeah…yeah!” said Lucy, still wide-eyed as she stared straight ahead, and then at her friend, as if she could not quite believe her eyes.

“Why don’t…why don’t you, uh…throw on some clothes or something so you don’t…uh, catch cold,” said Trixie, feeling like she had to keep finding ways to help.

“I’m…I’m actually fine like this,” said Lucy, shaking some of the water off her body as she walked out of the bathroom and into the living room. Trixie followed cautiously, eyeing her friend carefully. She took her seat back on the sofa as Lucy paced nude to and fro in front of the TV, which had gone to a screensaver of random nature pictures.

“So…so tell me what happened,” said Trixie. A few breathless minutes later, Lucy had filled her friend in on all that had transpired. Both women, however, were just as puzzled as they had been when Lucy had burst in.

“What I don’t get is how you’re ok right now,” said Trixie. “I mean…if you are ok.”

“I am! I’m totally fine!” said Lucy, still pacing back and forth, appreciating the novelty of the situation with upturned palms.

“Still, though, I think we should take you to a hospital,” said Trixie. “Just to be sure…you were struck by a fucking bolt of lightning, Lucy.”

“Nah fuck that,” said Lucy quickly, waving off Trixie quickly with her hand. “Pay a thousand bucks for some nurses to tell me what I already know? Yeah, no thanks.”

“But…I’m worried about you, Lucy!” exclaimed Trixie, sitting forward on the sofa and clasping her hands together earnestly. “You got hit by lightning and then some men attacked you and your skin was scorching hot and you’re here acting all weird and — ”

“What do you mean I’m acting weird?” asked Lucy.

“Well, you…uh — I don’t know!” said Trixie, throwing up her hands. “You’re just…acting different! Pacing around…you look kinda crazy, Lucy.”

“Oh…I’m sorry Trix,” said Lucy, stopping in her tracks. She looked at her friend and immediately felt a little sorry for her — Trixie actually looked a little scared. In order to placate her, and reassure her that she was ok, Lucy sat down cross-legged on the floor.

“I’m fine, Trix, really,” she said, making an extra effort to sound relaxed and natural. “I just…I’m just…I don’t know…” She trailed off for a moment, and then looked straight at her friend. “Something…happened to me.”

“Well yeah, Lucy,” said Trixie, feeling a little more at ease and allowing herself to smile, “you got struck by lightning. I think that counts as “something” happening to you.”

The two women shared a laugh. “No, I mean, I know that,” laughed Lucy, “but…but I mean, like…something else.”

“What?” asked Trixie, leaning forward on the sofa. “What are you talking about?”

“I mean,” said Lucy, trying to keep her voice under control. “I think that whatever hit me…changed me.”

“You mean that’s why you think you were able to beat those men up?” asked Trixie. “Because you were struck by lightning?”

“Yeah,” replied Lucy, shaking her head. “I know it sounds crazy, Trix, but…I bent metal, Trix.”

“Yeah…” said Trixie thoughtfully.

“Like it was paper,” continued Lucy, her nostrils dilating. “And that mace…it was like water. It didn’t even affect me.”

“Maybe it was out of date or something,” offered Trixie.

“No way,” said Lucy. “I bought it last month, you know, after that other creep followed me home. Besides, this other guy was coughing from it, even though he was the one who sprayed it.”

“Hmmm,” said Trixie, putting her chin in her hands.

“Plus the way I just pushed that other guy back,” said Lucy with animation. “You should have seen him, Trix — he like actually flew back — just because I pushed him!”

“So…do you…do you think that somehow you…uh…got some kind of, like, power or something from being hit by that lightning?”

“It feels that way, yeah,” said Lucy, flexing her hands in front of her face.

“Uhhh…” was all that Trixie could manage. Something weird was definitely going on, but to think that her friend had somehow been infused with extra strength and agility because she had been struck by lightning…well, it all seemed a little farfetched.

“I know, I know!” said Lucy, standing up again. “I know it sounds crazy, but you have no idea, Trix — I just…I feel totally different right now!”

“I believe you, really, I do!” said Trixie, holding up her hands defensively. “It’s just all kind of insane, though, you know?”

“Yeah,” muttered Lucy, suddenly looking around the apartment. She had to find a way to show Trixie that she was not making all this up. Her eyes fell on a wooden bat they kept in the corner for protection. She strode over to it and snatched it up.

“Wh-what are you doing?” asked Trixie in a worried voice.

“Look, Trix,” said Lucy, showing her the bat, “I’m gonna show you what I’m talking about.” As soon as she had picked up the bat she had known that this demonstration was going to go exactly as she planned. The solid wood of the bat felt brittle in her fingers, almost like it was a matchstick. Without any more ceremony, she held the bat up in front of her and snapped it in two. It broke cleanly, as if it were nothing more than a twig. Trixie gasped, putting her hands up over her mouth in shock.

“See?!” said Lucy excitedly, letting the broken pieces drop to the floor. “See what I’m talking about?”

“Y-yeah,” said Trixie in awe through her hands. A few moments of silence passed between the two girls. Suddenly, Trixie took her hands away from her face. “Hey!” she said, smiling up at Lucy in mock irritation, “that was our bat!”

“We don’t need it anymore,” said Lucy, smiling in turn as she flexed her muscles. “We’ve got me now.” Trixie looked hard at Lucy’s flexing body. She looked pretty much the same…or did she? Now that she was actually looking closely, she could see that her friend’s body looked a little more muscular, a little more solid, than before. But there was no truly dramatic change. It was so odd…so strange…and yet, there were the two pieces of bat on the floor.

“Well!” said Trixie, “I guess…uh…I guess there’s nothing else to say — you…you sure you’re feeling ok, Lucy?”

“I haven’t felt this good ever since…uh…since — you know, since ever. I’ve never actually felt so good in my life!” said Lucy. “I just feel so…alive and…and strong!”

“Well, you’re definitely strong,” laughed Trixie, indicating to the broken bat. “I just…I can’t believe it, Lucy! This is so…so incredible!”

“I know!” said Lucy. “I don’t have to worry about those gross dudes at work anymore.”

“As long as, like…I mean, as long as it’s permanent,” said Trixie. “We don’t really know yet, do we?”

“Oh come on Trix,” said Lucy, flexing and unflexing her arms. “Don’t spoil the fun — I’m gonna just enjoy it while I can!”

“Fair enough,” laughed Trixie. “Just…try not to break anything in here, ok?”

For the next couple hours, the two friends chatted excitedly about what had just happened, throwing out various theories for how Lucy had come to acquire her newfound abilities. They each opened up their laptops and busied themselves reading wikipedia articles about electromagnetism and conductivity and what lightning actually was and on and on. Of course, they would never know the true cause exactly. But it was fun to play detective. In addition, Lucy also explored and exercised her new powers. With one hand, she crushed a big wad of aluminum foil into a single, solid metallic bead no bigger than a marble. She held her hand over an open flame on the stove — the two girls watched in astonishment as her hand was completely unaffected by the flame. She stuck her foot in a bucket of ice water, drawing it out five minutes later after feeling absolutely no change. Her skin wasn’t even red. A tiny fly had been buzzing around the apartment all evening — Lucy reached out and plucked it out of the air effortlessly, let it go, caught it again, let it go again, and then caught it once more.

“Oh my god,” said Trixie, looking wide-eyed at her friend. “This is incredible, Lucy!”

“I know, right?!” said Lucy, going over to the window, throwing it open with one hand and letting the fly go out into the moist night air. It was all too incredible. Eventually, both girls forced themselves to go to sleep, but Lucy just stayed awake the rest of the night, her body brimming with potent and vigorous energy as she stared out the window from her bed at the urban lights that glowed yellow, orange, and red in the nighttime sky.

Awesome!

Really enjoyed it! Hope to see more from new talented writers like you! <3

The theme is an old one, and a tired one, written a thousand times, but the quality of writing, of scene creation and overall "vibe" is extraordinarily good. In fact, it was the scene creation, the visuals of Moon and darkness and the gritty city and hackles rising that finally hooked me. Good visuals in print are always a hit with me.

Yet I gave the story a pass after the first paragraph at first. The "down and out" girl walking home late at night in a seedy part of a city... tired. It was only when I saw others responding enthusiastically that I gave it another try. Glad I did as my enthusiasm grew with each additional paragraph.. It might be a worn, old topic, but your writing was so fresh and exciting that you breathed new life into the theme. And I like you pseudoscience which gets away from "magical" concepts into something that feels more like science. I hope you continue that as she explores her abilities. 

I now find myself very enthusiastic and wanting more after Chapter 2. Hopefully you can explore new ground in coming chapters, but to be honest, the quality of writing is so high that even a rehash of familiar memes and themes will feel fresh with your writing. 

Looking forward to your continuing Lucy's story.  I think you've got a winner here. 

Shadar

Wow!  Thanks so much for the encouraging comments, everyone!  It really makes me happy that ya'll are enjoying the story! <3 <3 

Here are the next couple chapters!  Note: there are some erotic elements toward the end of chapter 4, just fyi.  Hope you enjoy the continuation  


CHAPTER THREE

Sometime around midmorning the next day, Lucy snapped awake. She had managed to doze off as the sun rose a few hours before, but her sleep had been fitful and had not lasted long. Her dreams had been wild — Lucy was not generally accustomed to dreaming at all, since she was in the habit of falling asleep drunk or stoned most of the time. The drugs dulled any dreams that she had when she was unconscious. But the last few hours of irregular sleep had been a different story. Almost as soon as she had dozed off to the gentle pink columns of early morning light, her mind had gone into hyperdrive. She had dreamt of roaring fires consuming entire forests, of cars flashing by at incredible speeds, and of loud, unrestrained raves that she was seeming to conduct with tireless energy. She had dreamt that she was screaming out in animal joy from the top of the city’s tallest skyscraper as she clung to its highest point, the sharp needle point that looked over the rest of the city, as her naked body shined in the bright sunlight. She had dreamt that she had let go, and that she was falling, falling down fast towards the busy street. It had occurred to her in the dream that this was like all those “falling dreams” she had heard about, but almost as soon as the ground had rushed up to her, threatening to obliterate her existence, she had tensed herself and zoomed out parallel to the ground. She had flown across the asphalt with dizzying speed, zigzagging through the dense traffic effortlessly, like she had done this a thousand times. In her dream she had burst out laughing, an uncontrolled maniacal laugh, the same kind that she had only experienced before when she was riding roller coasters. But this time, she wasn’t laughing out of abandon — this time she was laughing out of power…out of freedom. She had total control. And she was untouchable, unstoppable.

She jerked awake. The sun was already halfway up in the sky, and the familiar sounds and smells, of traffic, of saltwater, of exhaust and urban filth, rummaged themselves into her brain. Her apartment was still. Trixie had gone off to class. Without even quite realizing what she was doing, Lucy hopped out of her bed. She surprised herself with how nimble and agile she was, and how, unlike every other morning she woke up to, she didn’t feel tired or hungover. Instead she felt refreshed, energized, and ravenously hungry. She immediately went into the kitchen and poured herself a bowl of cereal and scarfed it down. She poured herself another, and then another. Her appetite was incredible — she didn’t seem to get satisfied, and so she made herself an omelette with some bacon. Within minutes that was gone too. All the food had taken the edge off her appetite, but she could easily have eaten more.

She didn’t want to spend all morning eating, however. The events of the previous night were flooding her mind, and more than anything she just wanted to go out into the world and experience it. She felt an incredible rush of confidence and self-assurance as she thought back to everything that had happened. Was she indestructible? Did she have superpowers now? Lucy really didn’t know about all that, but what she did know was that the unbelievable energy and strength she had felt the previous night had not dissipated. In fact, if anything, it felt more pronounced, more ingrained. Without wasting any more time, she threw on some light clothes, strapped on her platform boots, and left her apartment. She usually reserved wearing these boots to raves, when she was trying to look especially tall and sexy, but she already felt that way today. Why not spruce herself up even more?

She walked out into the street, taking deep breaths of the cool morning air. For once she actually enjoyed the smell of the streets. Usually she felt like holding her nose whenever she walked out of her apartment, such was the horrible fishy smell of the docks, and the awful way it mixed with the car fumes from the nearby streets. But this morning Lucy was smelling a whole lot more. She could smell the fresh leaves on the trees as they quivered on their stems high up in the trees; she could smell the fresh dirt from a construction project that was going on a few blocks away; she could even smell the pleasant perfume of a group of women a hundred yards away as they walked down the sidewalk.

Lucy caught herself — was this for real?? Was she actually able to smell all that?? It was unmistakable; even though all of these things were far away, she could easily catch their scent and identify them. And the sounds! They were amplified too! Not only could see and smell the leaves high up in the trees, she could hear them too…each individual one…quivering softly, like little whispers in her ear. She could even hear the slight rustle of insects high up the tree. She could hear the gentle pull of inchworms as they lugged themselves over the leaves, and the pitter-patter rustle of cicadas as they nestled inside their arboreal abodes. She could even hear the mellow squelching of earthworms underneath the ground! It was all too incredible — she was in sensory overload, and she had to reach down and steady herself against her apartment stoop for a moment. She was experiencing all of these things at once, and for a few moments it was all utterly overwhelming.

After a minute of discombobulation, however, Lucy realized that she was in total control. She had this! It didn’t matter that she was hearing, seeing, and smelling all these new things simultaneously. She could absolutely keep up with it all — it just took a little getting used to. After a couple minutes she was able to straighten herself up and walk down the street, and she was not able to help skipping and hopping a little in her leather platforms. She was just too giddy! For all intents and purposes, her entire experience of the world, of life itself, had been totally enhanced and transformed. She felt like she could do anything. Far ahead, about fifty yards away, she spotted a gorgeous little purple butterfly that was alighting from flower to flower in one of the city parks. Lucy felt seized by a vicious joy and broke into a sprint. In a matter of seconds she had reached the butterfly, and she held out her finger. Seeming to sense her body heat, it fluttered up to her and landed on her finger, beating its pretty purple wings slowly at her, as if in homage.

Lucy laughed out loud. It was all too beautiful, too unreal. She had just sprinted half a football field in a matter of seconds.

“How…how did you do that??” came a voice suddenly from her left. Lucy started, and the butterfly flew off her finger. Annoyed, she turned around to see a middle-aged lady with grocery bags hanging from her hands.

“How did I do what?” she asked aggressively, with an undeniably snotty attitude staining her voice.

“You…you just ran…from over there…to there…s-so…so fast,” stammered the lady.

“Yeah, so?” asked Lucy, facing the woman fully and putting her hands on her hips. In her platforms, she stood just under 6 feet tall, and this woman couldn’t have been taller than 5’3 or so. The woman shrank back a little, clearly intimidated.

“I just…I…” stuttered the woman, and then put her head down and kept walking, evidently feeling like it was best not to antagonize this girl. Lucy watched her go with a slight curl in her lip. A few moments later she caught herself.

‘Wow, guess I was a bitch there,’ she thought. ‘Why do I feel so…aggressive?’ But she inwardly shrugged it off. What did she care, anyway? The woman was putting her nose into her business; she had startled Lucy, and broken up that nice little moment she was having with the butterfly. Without giving the exchange any more thought, Lucy set off again down the sidewalk, drinking in the phantasmagoria of sensory information that her brain was processing at breakneck speed. For the next hour or so she just kept on walking down the sidewalk, going nowhere in particular, exploring the world. It was like she was experiencing everything for the first time — that was how rich everything seemed. She didn’t just hear the traffic — she heard people cursing each other in their cars, the sounds of flesh rubbing against leather as their hands gripped their steering wheels. She didn’t just smell the saltwater of the harbor — she smelled the weathered plastic of the buoys far out in the water, and the gamey spritz of the seagulls as they ruffled their feathers on the surface of the currents. And everything that she saw looked new to her — she wasn’t just looking at cars anymore — she was looking at pieces of metal that were individually shaped and pieced together, with all their tiny imperfections. She felt additional surges of energy as she kept on walking, her head held high. She felt invincible.

As she walked by one of the piers, she passed a group of dock workers, and they all turned to look at her as she passed, staring shamelessly at her exposed legs and her shapely ass. Before, Lucy would have put her head down and walked by a little faster, hoping that none of the men would say anything too gross or, heaven forbid, start to follow her. It had happened a number of times before. But this morning was different. Instead of putting her head down and walking faster, she looked straight back at the men and walked a little slower.

“Oooo nice legs babygirl,” remarked one of the men. A few of the other ones whistled. Lucy stopped walking completely. These men were disgusting…all of them. Without losing her enjoyment of her current situation, she felt an additional emotion, rage, start to fire within her.

“Think you’d ever have a chance with me?” she mocked.

“I know it!” laughed the man as he looked around at his mirthful friends. “I like it when a bitch talks back.”

“What about when a bitch beats your ass?” she said as calmly as she could, taking a few steps toward the crowd of men.

“Even better!” howled the man, delighting in the fact that this young girl was engaging him. “A girl who likes it rough!”

“That’s not what I said,” said Lucy venomously, walking right up to the man and sticking her finger in his chest. “I said how would you like this bitch here to kick your ass?”

The man dropped his smile suddenly. He was surprised at Lucy’s brazen display, but her finger in his chest didn’t feel good, and he wasn’t about to look weak in front of his friends. He produced an open palm and swung it at her face, but Lucy was already miles ahead of him. She caught his hand in hers and squeezed. He yelped out as his bones and joints crackled out into the morning air. She had easily broken multiple bones in his hand, but she wasn’t about to let go just yet.

“Auuughhh! The bitch broke my hand!” cried the man in pained shock.

“Little cunt!” said one of his friends, and he stepped in and tried to punch Lucy in the back of the head. Still clutching the man’s broken hand, Lucy whipped around and blocked the punch with her free hand, and a quick responding palm to the man’s face sent him flying backward a full twenty feet, and when his feet hit the ground he stumbled back even farther, falling backwards off the pier into the water.

Three more men cursed and descended on Lucy, all of them trying to land punches on her head or in between her ribs, but she was too quick and powerful for them. With her free hand she effortlessly parried their punches and sent them all flying and stumbling backwards into the water. After the sixth man had been dispatched, there were only a few men left, and they hung back uneasily. Clearly, they wanted no piece of this freakish girl.

“Yeah?” she spat at them as she felt the power course through her veins, “yeah, you pathetic little pieces of shit aren’t so tough now, huh? Too scared of a little girl — ha!” She turned back to the original man, who was helplessly doubled over in pain as she continued to hold him by his crushed hand.

“Anything you’d like to say to me?” she asked him loudly.

“I’m…I’m s-sorry,” panted the man. “I…I didn’t know.”

“You didn’t know?!” she asked as she felt the anger rising in her again. “You didn’t know I could actually kick your ass? Oh no no, that’s not good enough. Other girls can’t do what I just did — does that mean they’re fair game to you?” She tightened her grip on the man’s hand.

“No!” he cried, starting to panic. “Noo! No!! I was wrong! I…I was wrong. I won’t do it ever again!”

“You won’t do what ever again?” she asked coolly.

“I…I won’t…I won’t disrespect…women,” he gasped.

“Ever again?” she asked, squeezing him one last time.

“Ever again!” he shouted desperately.

“Thank you,” she said, and she released him, smiling down at his crumpled frame. “I hope you realize that you brought all that on yourself.” The man was kneeling down in front of her, clutching his hand, in too much pain to speak. “But this is a fine morning for new beginnings, isn’t it fellas?” she asked brightly, looking up at the rest of the men. None of them answered her.

“Isn’t it?” she asked threateningly as she stepped towards them.

“Y-yes ma’m,” said one quickly.

“Of course it is,” replied another.

“Yep, yep it sure is,” said a third, nodding his head vigorously. Lucy looked at them for a moment and then drew herself up to her full height, smiling down on them haughtily. She realized that, in these platforms, she was taller than most of them. Not to mention stronger and quicker. She drank up their fear for a few moments longer and then turned back to the man who was still kneeling on the ground holding his hand. She noticed that he was wearing a leather jacket underneath his work vest. She wondered for a split second what on earth he was doing wearing such a jacket to work.

‘He probably thinks it makes him look like the shit,’ she thought to herself. ‘He probably goes out after work and thinks he looks like some cool biker dude or something.’ It was a nice jacket…that much was true.

“Hey!” she said suddenly.

“Wh-what do you want now?” croaked the man.

“That’s a nice jacket you’ve got on there,” said Lucy, facing him completely. She realized that she was fine turning her back on the other men. If they tried anything funny she had complete confidence that she’d be able to hear them creeping up on her. “I want it.”

“Wh-what?!” stammered the man.

“Your leather jacket,” said Lucy. “I want it. Give it to me.”

The man made a motion to protest, but any resistance was completely quelled with one fiery look from Lucy. Wincing in pain, the man took off his work vest and then struggled out of his jacket, using his good hand to accomplish the difficult task. He held it out to Lucy.

“Hand it to me,” she said curtly. He walked a couple steps over to her and handed over the jacket, backing up a few paces immediately after she took it. She gave him a smile, satisfied at how afraid of her he was. She slid herself into the jacket. It actually fit her surprisingly well. The man was about normal-sized. Lucy was a bit surprised at how nicely it fit her.

“Wow, not a bad look, huh?” she laughed at the other men, spinning around as she flaunted the jacket. They had to inwardly admit, with her short black dress and black platform boots, the black leather jacket really completed her appearance. She looked like a badass.

“Well it’s turning out to be a profitable morning,” she chirped happily. “Take care, boys!” And she set off down the sidewalk in her new jacket, waving goodbye as she went.


CHAPTER FOUR

An hour or two later Trixie was getting out of class, and as she left the building with a crowd of other students she looked out into the quad. Lucy was sitting there in her leather jacket on one of the big boulders on the lawn, tossing rocks up in the air and catching them again. At first glance there wasn’t anything abnormal about what Lucy was doing, but Trixie had seen what her friend was capable of, and she looked closer. Lucy wasn’t just tossing the rocks up a few feet above her — she was actually throwing them way up in the air, like forty or fifty feet up, and catching them easily. It was an incredible display of power and precision, and one that was apparently going unnoticed by the throngs of students as they walked around the quad.

But Trixie noticed. She walked right up to Lucy and sat down next to her on the boulder.

“Oh hey there Trix,” said Lucy casually, tossing a small rock fifty feet in the air. “Had a nice time in class?” Without even moving her eyes from Trixie’s face, she caught the rock again.

“Lucy!” whispered Trixie anxiously, “Aren’t you…worried that someone’ll see?”

“See what?” asked Lucy, tossing the rock up on the air and catching it effortlessly again without looking.

“Oh come on, you know what I’m talking about!” said Trixie. She peered carefully at her friend. “So…you’ve…you’ve still got the, uh…the same powers as last night?”

“It’s incredible, Trix!” said Lucy, looking at her friend with wide eyes. “I literally have superpowers now! I can see things from like hundreds of feet away…I…I, uh…I mean, like, you see the Walker Tower over there?” She pointed up to the familiar skyscraper that rose up in front of them a few hundred yards away.

“Yeah…” said Trixie.

“Well, did you know that there’s a hawk’s nest on the fence of the 53rd floor that has four little baby hawks in it?” said Lucy excitedly, “And that their mother is currently feeding them a mouse it just caught?”

“What?!” said Trixie.

“Yeah!” said Lucy. “It’s true, Trix! I can see it! I can even hear them!”

“Th-that’s…that’s crazy!” said Trixie. She looked into her friend’s eyes. Lucy looked flushed and brimming with vibrant energy, but she did not look crazy. Trixie could see that she was telling the truth — besides, it was all too preposterous just to make up. And it wouldn’t be like Lucy, to just make up stories…and she had seen her do things the previous night…things that she had never believed possible before. She was ready to believe a lot of things right now.

“How…I mean…so you’re hearing and seeing all these things?” asked Trixie.

“And smelling!” said Lucy enthusiastically. “I can smell everything, Trix!”

“And smelling,” added Trixie. “How…uh…how can you keep track of it all, Lucy? I mean, isn’t…isn’t it overwhelming?”

“It was at first,” said Lucy, fingering the rock before tossing it high in the air again, “but after a few minutes I just…uh…got used to it or something. I feel like my brain is going a thousand miles an hour, processing everything, but…I mean, at the same time, I’m calm. Like…like it’s all easy. I don’t even need to make an effort.” As if to prove her point, she closed her eyes and caught the rock again behind her back. Trixie’s eyes widened in wonder. Lucy opened her eyes and met her friend’s — they both smiled at each other, hardly believing what was happening.

“Whatever was in that lightning last night,” said Trixie, smiling broadly with wide eyes as she shook her head. Then she stopped and peered at Lucy carefully again. “And…and you’re sure you’re ok and everything? I mean…you haven’t had any headaches or…or felt like your heart was acting funny or anything?”

“No!” said Lucy. “I’ve never felt better in my entire life!”

“It’s just amazing!” murmured Trixie. A few moments of silence passed as the two friends let the reality of what was happening sink in.

“I see you’ve bought yourself a new jacket,” said Trixie presently. “In honor of the occasion?”

“You could say that, yes,” said Lucy, grinning mischievously. “But I didn’t buy it.”

“Oh Lucy, don’t tell me you stole it!” said Trixie.

“What? No way!” said Lucy, pushing Trixie in fun. She noticed that, even as her limbs buzzed with incredible strength potential, she knew exactly how hard to push Trixie playfully without overdoing it. “I took it from a man.”

“So you did steal it!” said Trixie.

“Didn’t steal it,” said Lucy, bobbing her head from side to side, “more like I accepted it as recompense for being a piece of shit.”

“Ohhhh!” said Trixie, smiling as she nodded her head. “So he barked up the wrong tree, huh?”

“He sure did,” laughed Lucy. “Him and his little pals.”

“Did you…did you beat them up?” ventured Trixie breathlessly.

“Sure did,” said Lucy proudly.

“They’re not…I mean…they’re all, uh…still alive, aren’t they?” asked Trixie uncertainly.

“What?! Yes Trix! I’m not a monster!” she laughed. “But they won’t be bothering me or any other woman anytime soon, I can tell you that.”

“Wow,” said Trixie, “this is amazing Lucy. You’re like a female superhero or something…beating up gross guys…think of what you could do!”

“Oh I’m thinking about it,” said Lucy. “But to be honest, right now I’m thinking about food. I’m fucking starving. You wanna go eat somewhere?”

“Uhh, sure,” said Trixie. She had planned to go back to the apartment to study, but all of this was far more intriguing and exciting than studying for art history.

A little while later the two girls were sitting in the booth of a diner down the street, eagerly talking about Lucy’s new powers in hushed voices. Their waiter kept giving them odd glances — clearly he was picking up on some bits of the conversation here and there, and by the looks he was giving them he thought they were both crazy.

“Our waiter wants in on the conversation, I think,” said Trixie after he had filled Lucy’s water glass for a tenth time. She had already gone through three cheeseburgers and there were two more on the way.

“Well, let him join in, if he’s got the guts,” chuckled Lucy, shooting him an aggressive glance. Their eyes met and he put his head down immediately and pretended to check his pockets. Lucy turned back to Trixie, her eyes sparkling. “But I don’t think he’s got the guts, Trix. Not this guy.”

“He’s pretty cute,” giggled Trixie, looking over to him. “I’d say he’s about our age, what do you think?”

“Younger,” said Lucy, wetting her lips a little as she looked at him. “Can you smell his deodorant? No one over the age of 18 wears that…he’s still in high school.”

“No I can’t smell his deodorant Ms. Superpowers,” chided Trixie. “Besides, isn’t there other stuff you could be doing right now, other than picking out deodorant smells? I mean, with all you can do?”

“What!?” asked Lucy playfully. “I’m not a machine Trix! I’ve gotta eat!”

“Yeah, I can see that,” laughed Trixie as the waiter brought another two burgers to the table.

“Perfect timing,” said Lucy as she immediately took a huge bite of one of the new burgers. The waiter blinked at her blankly, and moved to leave.

“Excuse me,” said Trixie politely to the waiter, “I hope this doesn’t make you too uncomfortable, but my friend and I were just wondering — how old are you?”

“I’m…I’m 18,” said the waiter, clearly unnerved by the attention he was receiving from these two attractive young women.

“Told you,” said Lucy thickly through her mouthful of burger.

“My friend here thinks she knows everything,” laughed Trixie to the waiter. She motioned for him to bend in a little closer. “She’s a special girl, you know.”

“I, uh…yeah…I can…I can see,” said the waiter uncomfortably.

“What? Never seen a girl who liked to eat?” asked Lucy, swallowing and biting off more of the burger.

“Uhh…uh, n-no, I, uh…I mean…” stuttered the waiter.

“Aww don’t be scared of her,” said Trixie playfully, brushing the waiter’s hand with her finger. “She’s just excited…she learned she had some…special abilities last night…and she’s not quite over it, right Lucy?”

“Mmmhmm,” said Lucy with her mouth full.

“O…kay,” said the waiter uncertainly. He was certainly intrigued by these two hot girls, but they were acting a little weird. Once again he turned to leave. But Lucy caught his hand.

“Wait!” she said, swallowing more of the burger. “Don’t you wanna see what I can do?”

“What you can…do?” asked the waiter, puzzled.

Without saying another word, Lucy produced an index finger and stuck it in her water glass. Immediately, the water started to freeze. The waiter’s eyes got big, and Lucy laughed. She took her finger out of the water and the freezing stopped, right in time, before the glass shattered. Then she stuck her finger back in and the ice thawed back to normal water. She kept it in, and moments later the water started boiling. Lucy calmly kept her finger in the boiling water as she turned and casually looked at the waiter, giving him a sultry look as he met her eyes.

“Oh wowwww!” said Trixie excitedly, clapping her hands. “I didn’t know you could do that too!”

“Yep!” said Lucy, her finger still submerged in the glass of boiling water. “I can make it hot or cold…whatever I think about, it just happens!”

The waiter was speechless. He just stood there stupidly, gawking at the unnatural display of power before him. After a few more moments Lucy took her finger out of her water glass, and the steaming bubbles immediately ceased. She reached out for her glass and took a sip, and pushed it over to Trixie.

“Go ahead Trix,” she said, “have a drink. It’s back to normal now.” Trixie did, and shook her head in wonder as she felt the sip of cool water go down her throat.

“Wh-what…h-how…how did you do that?” asked the waiter, dumbfounded.

“That’s what we’ve been trying to figure out,” said Lucy. “I got struck by lightning last night, and everything since has been superpower this and superpower that.” She looked over at Trixie, and they locked eyes. Silently, Trixie asked, with an arch of her eyebrows, whether Lucy should be telling all of this to their waiter. With an answering arch of her own eyebrows, Lucy replied that he was cute, and that maybe they could bring him back to their apartment. This was all new territory…the two girls had been friends for their whole life, and as kids they had experimented sexually on each other. But that had been years ago…as adults, they had never done anything together. And yet, everything seemed different now. Lucy was just bursting with so much dynamic energy, so much power, that Trixie had to admit that it was turning her on. And by the way Lucy was looking at Trixie, and at their waiter, it was turning her on too.

An hour later, all three of them, Lucy, Trixie, and the waiter, were back at their apartment, in the midst of an especially steamy threesome. Lucy had shamelessly instigated the entire exchange, and Trixie was only too happy to oblige. She had always thought Lucy was hot, but this new, dynamic, powerful Lucy was turning her on in a new way. For his part, the waiter, whose name was James, was trying his best to keep up. He didn’t have a lot of sexual experience, and it was all he could do not to cum the minute both Lucy and Trixie got naked and tore off his clothes. Lucy had pushed him down and instructed Trixie to go down on him, which she did, taking his impressive, erect length almost all the way down her throat. Clearly, she had done this kind of thing before.

As she deepthroated him, Lucy had taken his hand and shoved it up her snatch as she talked dirty to him. He had winced as he felt the heat of her dripping pussy totally engulf his hand. This girl was totally wild — it was like she was a furnace inside. He had tried to take his hand away, but she had held it inside her, until he was reduced to begging her to let him go because she was too hot inside and was burning his hand. She had let him go, but then immediately jumped up on top of him and started riding his face. Her hot juices soaked his head and ran down his chin…he could actually feel the steam from her cum. It was a threesome alright, but it was all so outlandish, so different, so driven by Lucy’s insatiable power and horniness, that it felt like an entirely new kind of sexual encounter. Both James and Trixie came multiple times, all at Lucy’s urging as she rode his cock, then aggressively shoved her fingers into Trixie’s snatch, then throated his cock, then fluttered her fingers at blinding speed over Trixie’s clit. She overwhelmed them both, and they came again and again, unable to resist her power. A few hours later, both James and Trixie were asleep, utterly exhausted. But Lucy was still awake, masturbating herself furiously, searching for a release that never quite came.

Hoping to see more from you! Love it so far!

CHAPTER FIVE

After a couple hours of fitful sleep, Lucy rolled out of bed. She was frustrated — aside from being unable to achieve sexual release, she was annoyed by her inability to get any meaningful rest. Her mind and spirit felt exhausted and drained, totally sapped of any kind of meaningful psychic energy. This metaphysical prostration, however, clashed surreally with her continued physical vigor. Normally when she had insomnia, Lucy felt the complete opposite way — her body was tired, but her mind was going a thousand miles an hour. It was strange and weirdly unsettling to experience this opposite phenomenon. Her mind felt like it was encircled by hot, stifling fog that prevented her from alighting on any one idea for longer than a second or two, before it lost its holding and floated indefinitely away. Her brain felt like it badly needed a rest.

But her body was a different story. She had finally decided to get out of bed because she realized that she was becoming too hot next to Trixie and James, who were continuing to snooze away. As she rolled out of bed, she actually saw the steam rise up from where she had been lying. She wasn’t feeling particularly anxious, but her heart was banging away in her chest like a persistent drum roll. She could actually feel the blood rushing through her body, not just in the major arteries in her neck, her groin, and on the insides of her thighs, but everywhere else, even down to the tiny capillaries in the tips of her fingers. Her hyperawareness of her body extended that far. And when she breathed, she wasn’t just inhaling in and out like a normal person — she could actually feel the alveoli in her lungs expanding and contracting with each breath. It was a strange sensation — they felt like tiny little sponges within her chest, slowly burgeoning then shrinking, over and over. She suddenly realized that she could feel all kinds of different sensations that she had not been able to feel before, sensations that occurred in her involuntary muscles that governed her organs. She could feel the smooth muscle that lined her stomach and her liver — for fun, as she stood there in the darkness of her room, she contracted these muscles, and felt the organs move about in her abdomen.

“Woowww,’ she thought, ‘this is realllyyyy weird.’ She contracted the smooth muscle in her intestines, and felt it respond, squirming around some under the skin of her belly. Just to see if she could, she focused on her heart muscle, and willed for it to stop. Suddenly, it did! She had no heartbeat! But whereas a normal person would have immediately collapsed, Lucy felt relatively normal, if only perhaps a bit lightheaded. She looked down in wonder at her hands and saw them getting white. She figured she ought to go ahead and start her heart again, so she refocused her mind on the cardiac muscle and just like that, away it went again, beating away like nothing had happened! So apparently her superpowers were growing…or was it instead, ever since she was struck by that lightning, that her powers had always been the same, and she was only gradually becoming aware of them, one by one? Lucy couldn’t really be sure — but it didn’t really matter. What mattered was that she had the powers, and didn’t seem to be losing them…if anything, she seemed to be gaining them!

This was all so odd, so strange, so utterly fascinating to Lucy, and she couldn’t just stay there in her apartment, especially with Trixie and James just sleeping away like they were. They made her feel like a freak — she badly wished that she could just pass out and sleep normally like they were doing, and watching them sleep while she was in her present state of physical mania was almost unbearable. She had to get out of the house. She threw on some jeans and a t-shirt and went out, closing the door as softly as she could behind her. She didn’t even think to bring her mace, or anything else that might protect her. She knew she didn’t need it.

The nighttime sky bled red — it was an overcast night, and the red lights from the innumerable skyscrapers in the city reflected back through the low clouds, giving the sky the appearance of a bloodstained tarp that hung indistinctly over everything. Even though the clouds were low in the sky, the air was still fresh and cool, and Lucy breathed it in with relief as she walked down the street toward the docks. She had thought that a nice walk in the cool air might calm her skin down a little bit, but she was discouraged to find that even as she walked, her skin still felt overheated. She reached the docks quickly, not realizing that she had been walking faster than most people run. She looked down into the dark water, and out across it to the huge buildings of the city on the other side, which rose up before her in silent solemnity, like brilliant red and golden gods climbing up through the stratus layer of clouds. It really was beautiful…all of it. A few days ago she had hated this city, and just about everyone in it. But now, as she stood on the edge of the docks and regarded its silent midnight splendor, she felt a stab of love for it all. But almost as soon as she felt this warmth of feeling toward the impersonal lights across the bay, she started to worry again.

What did all of this mean? She had been struck by lightning — and apparently she now had super-strength, super-speed, invulnerability to corporal attack, seemingly limitless coordination, the ability to freeze and heat things at will, and total control over every muscle in her body, even those muscles which had previously been involuntary. She looked down at the water again, which was darkly lapping against the dock. She wondered…what if…? And she suddenly stepped out onto the water. She sank immediately, falling all the way in. She came up sputtering and spewing, spitting water as she laughed out loud at herself, scrambling back onto the dock. She couldn’t help but laugh — to think that she could walk on water! It was absurd to even contemplate, and yet…

‘Oh give yourself a break, Lucy,’ she laughed to herself. ‘You didn’t know that that wasn’t one of your powers. It doesn’t hurt to try!’ And it didn’t at all — the water felt good on her hot skin, and as she stood there on the dock, it started steaming up off her skin.

Without thinking any more about it, Lucy took her wet clothes off, so that she was now standing there naked, her body illuminated golden by the reflection of the city lights on the water. She had no fear whatsoever anymore of the threat of any human or human institution. So what if a cop saw her? What was he going to do…arrest her? She’d like to see him try! She quickly dove into the water, this time not with any kind of mind to try and walk on it, and she felt the cool oncoming rush of the space that seemed to open up in the water due to her body making contact. It was yet another surreal sensation. Before being struck by the strange lightning, back when she was just a normal person, Lucy had just jumped into water and had the experience of “going under” and then “coming back up” again. Now, though, as she dove in, it was like she was seeing everything in slow motion. She actually saw the space that her hands and arms made in the water as she dove into it, and she was aware of this space opening up to accommodate the rest of her body as she descended into the water.

Lucy twirled and twisted her naked body, marveling at her ability to maneuver underwater seemingly without any resistance. She could wave her arms, kick her feet, and otherwise move her limbs as if she were moving them through air — she did not experience the normal resistance of the heavier water on her motions. Only after a few seconds of swimming and moving about in this fast and effortless way did Lucy realize that she was breathing…underwater. She had a moment of panic — was she actually drowning!? Or had she sprouted gills or something?! She felt the sides of her neck and ran her hands up and down her smooth body. It all seemed unchanged. The only thing that was different was that she could actually inhale the water around her like air, seemingly without any negative effects. Was she swallowing the water? Or was it filling her lungs? Lucy didn’t really know — all she knew was that she was able to move about — and breathe — underwater exactly the same as she could in the air above. It was incredible! She gurgled a laugh, the bubbles rising from her upturned lips, and then she suddenly took off, kicking and swimming vigorously with her legs and arms through the dark depths.

But it wasn’t even that dark! She could see clearly through the normal cloudiness and gloom of the bay. She could see all the way down to the bottom, which was about ten feet below her when she jumped in, but which now sloped downward before her rapidly-swimming figure. She could see the slope of the underwater ground as the bay got deeper and deeper, until it extended down past even Lucy’s vision, out into the sea. She was immediately aware of a host of marine life — she could see innumerable fish swimming along, the smaller ones in large schools that darted this way and that with seeming randomness, and the larger ones drifting slowly along, alone and contemplative. Lucy swam up to a particularly large bass that was a couple feet long and stared straight at it, amazed that this was actually happening. The bass swam past her slowly and looked at her sidelong with its eye.

“Betcha haven’t seen this before, huh?” she asked out loud to the fish. She laughed at herself. “Haha, oh my god, look at me — I’m talking to a fish!” Suddenly, the big fish darted away, and Lucy saw a whole host of other creatures likewise scatter into the gloom. She turned around in the water and saw why. A big shark had emerged from the inky shadow of the deeper water out towards the sea, and was drifting silently her way. Lucy froze for a moment, the fear seizing in her chest, but then she started laughing. What was the shark going to do to her? Even as she laughed, it picked up its pace and swam straight for her, approaching faster than Lucy could have believed possible. It caught her off guard and opened its mouth — but Lucy catapulted herself out of the way at the last moment, evading its teeth as she flipped over a few times in the water, laughing. The shark seemed confused, and circled back around slowly. Lucy studied its movements carefully.

‘I could probably let it bite me,’ she thought to herself. ‘I’d probably be fine.’ But she didn’t quite have the confidence yet to allow that to happen. The shark tried another go at her, but once again Lucy spun herself out of the way, laughing and giggling uncontrollably as she did so. She couldn’t help but feel overtaken by giddiness — look what she was doing! It was beyond crazy! The shark swam past her again, and once more slowed down, confused. This time, though, it didn’t circle back around. It swam on, back into the gloom, to look for less baffling prey. Susie performed a few more flips and twists through the water, delighting how it felt against her skin, and then suddenly swam straight up towards the surface, rapidly reaching a high speed, until she shot up through the surface, doing a series of flips in the open air, before diving straight back down below the depths.

‘Good lord I’m like a mermaid!’ she thought, hoping that some other people had seen her jumping up out of the water. She looked back down into the gloom, towards the sea.

‘I could swim all the way out there,’ she thought with a thrill. ‘I could actually walk on the bottom of the ocean!’ Her mind buzzed with the possibilities, but right now, she wanted to go mess with some people. She wanted to amaze them, to scare them, to freak them out. She set off toward the more lighted parts of the water, where she knew there would be ships of people out and about, even though it was the middle of the night.


CHAPTER SIX

For the next several hours, Lucy had fun messing with the various fishing vessels and pleasure boats that were out on the bay that night. At first, she had been more cautious and had approached the boats carefully, knocking against their hulls with her hands or feet and then swimming a little away, enjoying the puzzlement and confusion of the people as they came to the side of their vessels and looked into the water. Gradually, though, Lucy grew more bold, and eventually, after an hour or two of playing, she had gotten to the point where she was actually leaping out of the water, after swimming up to the surface at a breakneck pace. She exploded out of the water so fast, and flipped and twisted so rapidly in the air, that the fishermen and the drunk rich people who she teased alike had no idea what they were seeing. They knew enough to be frightened, and to strain after her submerged form after she crashed back into the water, trying to get at least some clue as to what it could have possibly been.

One time, she even got enough momentum to fly completely over one of the boats, a pleasure yacht, that had been floating languidly on the bay, supporting a number of well-off and pleasantly drunk people. She had performed a flying leap out of the water, twisting and spinning impossibly fast through the air, hearing their frightened and awestruck exclamations as she catapulted over the ship and down into the water on the opposite side. Lucy was laughing to herself underwater as she swam back under the boat and resurfaced just barely on the other side in the dark water, where they wouldn’t see her. She wanted to eavesdrop on their breathless conversation about her.

“…a mermaid!” someone was saying.

“Don’t be ridiculous Mike!” said a woman’s voice.

“Well?” asked another woman, “what on earth was that, then?”

“It definitely wasn’t a fish!” cried another voice excitedly. “It had hair, like a human — I saw it!”

“You saw jack shit!” laughed another voice “It was moving too fast!”

“No way! I saw it! It had boobs too! A woman’s body!”

“He’s seeing things!” laughed another voice. “You’re just seeing what you want to see!”

“No way — I saw it — I swear!”

“Well I have no clue what that was,” chimed in another voice. “Some kind of…sea monster or something.”

“Sea monster!? Give me a break!!”

“Well it wasn’t a fish! And it sure as hell wasn’t a human! No person could do that!”

“Unless it was a clone engineered by the CIA!”

“Oh give it a rest, will you?”

“A mermaid!” came the first man’s voice again. “I’m telling you!”

“Did anyone get a picture of it?”

“No chance! It was too fast…”

“What in the world…??”

And their conversation kept on going and going — Lucy submerged back into the water. This was almost too much fun. She kept teasing and taunting different boats with her theatrics, making sure each time to swim and leap out of the water with enough speed that she was moving too fast for anyone to recognize what she was. Several times, though, she noticed that people had their phones ready. The sudden bright white flashes told her that they had managed to capture pictures of her, but she wasn’t worried. She was going too fast for clear pictures — her face and body were sure to be blurry. And, if she was really being honest with herself, she didn’t much care what people saw or didn’t see. She was just getting a major kick out of toying with people, shocking them, scaring them, and filling them with awe and wonder. She couldn’t help but smile to herself underwater — she felt almost cozy there…she was totally safe, and no one would ever be able to find her. She was completely free to do whatever she wanted — the world was her oyster.

After hours and hours of vigorous swimming and jumping, Lucy had finally begun to tire her body out. After she surfaced to eavesdrop on the latest conversation of astonished and confused boaters, she noticed that the horizon was beginning to pinken. She also noticed that her legs were actually feeling a little tired as she quietly tread water. She breathed a sigh of relief — finally, her body was slowing down a little. She had been so active that even her supercharged physical powers were dwindling a bit — she needed to rest. She swam back to the docks, tired but excited from her aquatic nighttime revelries. She found that there were a few dock workers standing around where she had dropped her wet clothes. She hung back for a moment in the water, her old instincts taking over for an instant, but almost as quickly as they bubbled up inside her they were gone, entirely evaporated. What did she care if they saw her? She swam back underwater and built up enough momentum to come shooting out of the water one final time, somersaulting and twisting elegantly through the air, before she landed directly on her feet on the dock, in front of the shocked workers.

They all looked at her, totally bewildered, and perhaps even a bit afraid, such was the unnatural power with which she had flown through the air and landed upright. Lucy looked straight back at them, with her hands on her hips, daring them to say something. She felt drunk with power — she loved how she was just standing there, completely naked, and flaunting herself fearlessly. She loved how these men were looking at her, almost like they didn’t think she was even human. She suddenly realized that several of the men were bandaged up, and then it hit her — these were some of the same men she had beaten up the day before! She started laughing out loud as she scanned the men for the one she had been particularly hard on, the one whose hand she had broken. He was nowhere to be found.

“Ha! Nice to see you guys again!” she said mirthfully, taking a single step towards them. They all shrank back in fear; it was clear that they recognized her from the day before, and wanted no part in any more trouble.

“Aww what happened?” she mocked, pouting her lips. “Did someone beat you guys up? You look pretty rough.” None of them replied. They all looked absolutely terrified. Lucy laughed again and bent down to pick up her pile of still-wet clothes, not even bothering to put them on.

“Well, see ya’ll around!” she chuckled, waving goodbye as she set off past them, her clothes in her arm, walking completely naked down the street. A number of people were already out and about on the roads driving to work, or on the sidewalks jogging or walking their dogs. They watched open-mouthed as Lucy walked past them. A few of them even tried to tell her to stop or that she should put some clothes on, but she just ignored them, walking by them without a care in the world. Eventually, a police car pulled up alongside her and a cop got out.

“Woah there, miss!” he said. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“Home,” she replied flatly as she continued walking. “I’m tired — it’s time to sleep.”

“Wait, stop. Stop!” called the cop. “You can’t walk around like that!”

“Like what?” she asked suddenly, spinning around and facing him.

“You know…naked,” said the cop, feeling an uncomfortable sensation in his gut as he looked at this young woman. She didn’t seem drunk or out of her mind. She just seemed…well, tired and ornery. It was very strange. And her body…the cop tried to ignore it, but it was impossible. She looked like she was in peak physical condition. She had solidly-developed muscles that did not detract from her feminine physique. She looked almost like those comic-book female characters…her hips, ass, and breasts were all large and well-developed, and her waist was small compared to her hips, which were exaggerated as she stood with her right hip cocked to one side, obviously irritated to be held up like this. She didn’t answer — she was just looking at him, as if she was trying to decide what to do with him.

“I’m…I’m sorry, ma’m, but I have to take you in. You can’t be out like this.”

“Take me in?” asked Lucy. “You mean arrest me?”

“Yes ma’m — I’m afraid so.”

“Ha! Fat chance officer — I’d like to see you try,” laughed Lucy.

“Now miss,” he said, slowly approaching her, “please don’t make this harder than it needs to be, ok?”

Lucy nodded her head as the cop approached her, cocking her eyebrow as she remained exactly where she stood, giving no ground. “Exactly, officer,” she said. “You should listen to your own advice. Leave me alone, or else you’re gonna get hurt.”

“Threatening an officer is also against the law,” said the cop, drawing his taser. ‘God, what is this girl on?’ he thought. It would have been easier if she had been behaving erratically or drunkenly. But this young woman looked…bored. And annoyed. And totally unafraid of him. He had never encountered anyone like her before.

“Come on ma’m,” he said, holding his taster in one hand as he beckoned her towards him with the other, “come on over here please. Don’t make this difficult, ok?”

Lucy looked around and saw that a few people had stopped and were watching the whole situation unfold. A couple of them had gotten out their phones and were about to start recording. Lucy didn’t really want to be all over the news and the internet, but she didn’t care terribly about it one way or the other. More than anything, she was just getting increasingly frustrated at this cop, who didn’t seem to understand what he was dealing with. She realized that she could have easily just turned and outrun him, but even though she was tired and just wanted to get home, she couldn’t help herself showing off her power to yet another clueless man who was trying to exert himself over her. She stepped towards him boldly, her breasts bouncing a little in the early morning sun, as the remnant water on her naked skin caught the sunlight and sparkled.

“Go on,” she said, thrusting out her chest. “Shoot me with your taser, officer.”

“I don’t want to,” said the cop, who had backed up a couple paces, “but I will if you keep walking towards me like that. I want you to turn around and put your hands behind your back.”

“Not gonna happen,” said Lucy, shaking her head slowly as she kept walking toward the cop. “Go on — shoot me. Watch what happens.”

“I’m giving you one last warning!” said the cop, hardening himself as he pointed the taser at her. “Stop and turn around!”

But Lucy didn’t stop or turn around, and a moment later the cop let loose the taser. The electrified barb shot out of the gun and through the air, piercing into Lucy’s skin just below her left breast. The telltale rapid electrical clicking filled the air, and several of the onlookers gasped. The cop looked at Lucy…and his heart, already beating fast, started beating even faster still. The taser didn’t seem to be having any effect at all — the girl was still just standing there! She put her hands on her hips, looking bored and put-out. She rolled her eyes, sighed, and looked down at the electrified barb in her skin.

Just like she had expected, Lucy hardly felt anything at all. If anything, the volts from the taser made her feel a little more energized and awake for a few moments, but even that faded, and she went back to feeling tired again. She looked at the cop, sighed, shook her head, and took the barb out of her skin, tossing it aside.

“Now will you leave me alone, please?” she asked, and turned to walk away.

“N-no!” came the cop’s voice, afraid but resolute. “I…I don’t know what you’re on, but I can’t let you walk the streets like that!”

Lucy turned around again and saw that the officer had drawn his gun. She saw more people gathering, and remembered that they would be recording all this. She didn’t have time for it all, and, frankly, it was just irritating. Why wouldn’t the cop just let her go home and go to bed? In any case, she wasn’t going to mess with this nonsense anymore. Quick as lightning, she shot over toward the cop and snatched the gun out of his hand. He gave a shocked yell as he fell backward, holding his hand up to his face in a gesture of begging. Lucy looked coldly down at him as she heard the onlookers gasp again and scatter. Clearly, they were all afraid she was just going to start shooting. She looked back down at the cop, who was on the ground and looking up at her, pleading.

“P-please…please miss…d-don’t…don’t shoot me!”

Lucy laughed callously, pointing the gun directly at the cop’s head. “Ha! Pathetic. One minute you’re pointing the gun at me and the next, you’re on the ground begging for mercy like a little bitch. You’re the one who started all this, officer! I told you to leave me alone!” She kept the gun pointed at him for a few more seconds, enjoying how he cowered before her. But then she heard sirens in the distance, and snapped back to reality. She walked up closer to him, still pointing the gun directly into his face.

“You miserable little man,” she hissed. “If I wanted to hurt you I wouldn’t need stupid little toys like this.” And she suddenly squeezed the gun in her hand and it shattered into hundreds of pieces. The cop hid his face from the debris and then looked back up at her, totally amazed. Lucy smirked down at him. “You like that?” she teased. “You like strong women, huh? Well maybe I’ll see you around sometime, officer. Don’t get too comfortable.” She dusted her hands off, turned, and shot off down the sidewalk, running with blinding speed. To people watching, it looked like she was running over a hundred miles an hour, but to Lucy, it all felt normal. In less than a minute, she had arrived at the front stoop of her apartment building. She looked around. No one seemed to have seen her. She smiled and went inside, unaware that, across the street, an older lady had been looking out her kitchen window. She had seen what looked like a dazzling blur materialize into a naked woman. She had rubbed her eyes and looked again. And now the naked woman had just walked into the apartments across the street.