Experiment By Jgrimm jgrimm@prodigy.net Moral of today's story: Test subjects should always be volunteers... The three always referred to themselves by numbers whenever there was a chance they could be overheard. One was a tall, cold man, all ambition and authoritarian, Two was a shorter, heavy man who's money paid for the lab, Three was a reasonably attractive woman whose knowledge of 'who', 'what', and 'where' made it possible to put the project together. They walked into the observation room and took their seats. Through the three inch thick window they could see most of the lab, with its myriad devices. At the focus of it all was a heavy metal table, mounted on gimbals and equipped with straps and clamps. The table was tilted up and two technicians were strapping the subject to the table. "Are you sure she won't be missed?" Two asked nervously. "We've been over this before, Two." One said coldly. "She's a street person, a runaway whose parents don't care where she is. No one is going to miss her." "And after the test?" Two asked. "What do we do with her then?" "Don't' worry." Three told him. "She'll be well taken care of. After all, if this succeeds, she'll be a most valuable young lady." One and Two glanced at each other quickly then looked back into the lab. The techs had stripped the girl, and tilted the table down to its horizontal position. Three glanced and saw Two staring intently at the nude girl. He was breathing heavily and beginning to sweat. Three edged her chair a little further away from him. In the lab, the head researcher, Dr. Reynolds, made sure that the girl was well secured, then began placing electrodes in various positions. While this went on, most of the techs went to their stations and began checking their equipment. A few left the room, and just before the heavy vault-type door closed, security guard came into the room. He was wearing body-armor, and carried an M-16 rifle. "What's that guard doing here?" Three asked. "Just a precaution." One assured her. "Their about to start." Two told them. They all turned to watch. "Prepare for a 10% test!" Dr. Reynolds announced as he took his place at the main console. "Power?" "Online, up to a megawatt if needed." A tech replied. "Backup power?" "Online." "Telemetry?" "All sensors up and ready, subject is in the green." "Hardware?" "Level 1 diagnosis complete, everything checks out ready." "Camera's?" "Rolling, taping at 3 to 1." "Very well," Dr. Reynolds said. "Initiate start-up sequence." A quite hum filled the room. Various red lights turned yellow, then green. "Start-up successful, we are green to go." Announced a tech. "Power up the emitter for a 10% test." Dr. Reynolds ordered. >From a parabolic dish over the table, a green and yellow glow descended on the girl. Her body tensed as if every muscle had cramped up at the same time. The observers heard a scream of pain from the table. "Medical!" Dr. Reynolds snapped. "She's well below threshold limits," The tech replied. "No problems here." "Power levels at 10% and holding." Another tech called out. "Subject body mass has increased by 0.1% and growing." "Excellent!" Dr. Reynolds smiled. "Hold her at this level for five minutes, then power down." One and Two were busy congratulating each other, while Three was looking worriedly at the girl on the table. She had ceased screaming, but was moaning almost constantly. "Congratulations, Doctor!" One said after flipping a switch so that the people in the lab could hear him. "I wasn't sure you could actually pull it off." "Yes, well, as you can see, I was right to insist that the process would work better on humans then it did the test animals." Dr. Reynolds gloated. After a few more minutes of uninterrupted success, Dr. Reynolds began to end the experiment. "Begin reducing power." He ordered. "I want a smooth transition here people!" "Powering down." The tech acknowledge. "Power at 9% and dropping." "Medical?" "Subject has increased in muscle and bone mass by 3% over norms." "Very good! Continue monitoring" "Power at 11%!" The tech called out as he frantically worked his controls. "And rising fast!" "What!" Dr. Reynolds whirled around to his own console. "Shut it down!" "I can't, the controls aren't responding!" The tech yelled. "Power is at 28% and rising!" "Emergency override!" "Failed! The backup generator has kicked on, power is at 78%!" "You!" The scientist pointed at a tech. "Pull the circuit breaker!" The tech ran for the box on the wall. The moment his hand closed on the switch, he screamed and his body arched as 50,000 volts ripped through him. As the power levels rose, the glow around the girl intensified, shielding her completely from sight. The three in the observation room could hear her screams until One shut off the speaker. In the lab, everyone was scrambling at their controls, trying to stop the runaway experiment. Power levels had increased to over 150%, and some of the equipment as beginning to melt. More then one tech was thrown across the room when his console exploded. With a burst of sparks, the emitter exploded, falling off it's mount to land on the table, and the girl. The lights went out, as did all power to the equipment. After a second, the emergency lights came on bathing the room with low level light. Everyone was picking themselves up, and checking on their unconscious comrades when extremely loud snaps and thuds came from the covered table. As everybody turned to look, the heavy emitter flew away from the table to land twenty feet away. In the dim light, all anyone could see was a hunched form. A nearby tech stepped closer for a better look. A thick arm grabbed him and threw him across the room. He was still rising when he hit the wall, and everybody could hear the nasty crunch as most of his bones broke on impact. His body slid down the wall into a heap. Everyone gaped as the girl stood up. Before the experiment she'd been 5'3" and a thin 97 pounds. Now she was at least 6'6", and incredibly muscular. The guard cursed and raised his M-16. Even in the dim light, the girl somehow saw him. She reached over and grabbed the table she had been strapped to. With one convulsive heave she wrenched the table off its mounting and held it in front of her as a shield. She was just in time. The guard open up at her on full auto, and a hail of bullets hammered into the table. The bullets didn't even leave dents in the two inch thick slab of stainless steel as they ricocheted around the room. Techs yelled and ducked, some not quickly enough, and blood splattered on the equipment. The girl started to move towards the guard even as he began firing. The fusillade of bullets against her shield didn't seem to slow her any. She was over halfway across the room when the clip ran out. The guard hurried to change clips, but the girl dropped the table and sprinted the remaining distance. Just as the guard was bringing the rifle up, she reached him. Her left hand closed on the rifle, shattering the plastic stock and crimping the barrel closed. The guard stared at his ruined weapon for a second, then up into her eyes. She smiled at him, and then her right fist drove into him. Twelve layers of Kevlar ripped asunder as did the underlying shirt and t-shirt. The ruined rifle fell to the floor as the guard grabbed her arm. Everyone saw the girl raise her arm, lifting the guard into the air, impaled on her fist. He fought for a second, then spasmed powerfully and went limp. She tossed his body contemptuously aside and turn around. Her right hand was clenched into a fist and her arm was stained red halfway to the elbow. Her eyes fixed on Dr. Reynolds, she began to stalk across the room. Foolish techs who sprang to stop her were knocked flying. Equipment consoles between her and the doctor were sent flying by powerful kicks. A strong man with a sledgehammer would have done less then half the damage her fist did, and her feet were like wrecking balls. Dr. Reynolds cowered back from the vengeful apparition approaching him, until he was reduced to a cowering wreck in the corner. The girl stalked up to him and stared down at him. She slowly held out her bloody right fist and opened her hand. She tilted her hand and some thing fell to the floor. There was just enough light for the scientist to make out what it was, four inches of spinal-cord, ripped out of the guards body. The girl reached down and grabbed the doctor's lapels and pulled him to his feet. Holding him up with one hand, she dusted him off. When the scientist was able to stand on his own, she let him go. "Two things." The girl said as she spoke for the first time. Her voice was deep. but feminine. "One: You're a brilliant man to have come up with this process, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart fro the power you've given me." As she talked, the girl flexed, showing off her massive muscularity. "And the other?" Dr. Reynolds quavered. "For a complete lack of moral responsibility or social consciousness, I sentence you to death." The doctor stared at her for a second, all color draining from his face. Then the girl brought both hands together as hard as she could, with Dr. Reynolds head between them. Dr. Reynolds head imploded like a melon run over by a truck. Bone, blood, and brains splattered all over the wall and the front of the girl. In the observation room, Two was panicked, Three had backed into a corner, and One was trying to get the communications working. "Forget that, just open the door!" Two gibbered. "The door's electric, you dolt!" One sneered. "It wont open without power. I can't get to anyone on my cell phone, try yours." "She's coming this way!" Two cried, as he fumbled at his phone. "It's not working, my battery's dead!" "Calm down!" One ordered. " The wall's eighteen inches of steel reinforced concrete, and the window's 3 inches of bullet proof glass, she can't get to us. Try your phone, Three." "I didn't bring one." Three told him. "I didn't want anyone to be able to trace me here." "Then we'll just have to wait to be rescued. We aren't in any danger, and she can't get out of that room, I don't care how strong she is." The girl had reached the other side of the window. One just looked at her, but two gibbered in terror and pressed himself back as far as he could. Three looked away and closed her eyes. The girl put her hands flat to the window and her shoulders hunched as she pressed against it. The window creaked and actually flexed minutely as she pushed. After a minute, she gave up and moved off to the side, out of view. "See, what did I tell you." One told Two. "We are perfectly safe in here." Just then there was a humongous CRACK, and a massive fist and arm exploded through the wall. The fist opened, then closed again on One's tie. The arm and hand were withdrawn from the hole as fast as they had come in, pulling One along with it. There was a wet crunch as his head met the concrete, then a load snap as his neck was broken. The girl let go, and One slumped to the floor in a pile. Two screamed and fell backwards over the chairs as the girl reappeared at the window. This time she pressed against the window with just her fingertips. Her shoulders hunched and her arms bulged hugely as she pushed. As Two cowered in fear, Three watched in awe as the girls fingers began to sink into the glass. She could hear the glass splintering as the girls fingers sunk deeper and deeper. Within moments, the girls fingers had breached the glass. Three watched as the girl curled her fingers and began to pull. Metal shrieked as the window's heavy metal frame began to distort. Thick bolts that secured the frame to the concrete burst under the enormous pressure the girl brought to bear. With a final wrenching heave, she tore the window out of the wall and hurled it away. Stepping through the opening, the girl towered over Two and Three. She reached down with her left hand and took hold of Two's jacket. She picked him up and held him suspended off the floor. "Like me the way I am now?" She asked. "You couldn't keep your hands off of me when they hand me strapped down for examinations." Her bloody right hand reached down and she began to fondle him through his pants. "Always with your fingers where they didn't belong, always popping a woody, but never able to do anything with it. Let me show you what you can do with it!" There was a wet ripping sound, and Two shrieked like a steam whistle as the girl ripped off his genitals. She dropped him to the ground. As she turned away, she drove her foot into his chest. With the force of a hydraulic ram, her foot shattered his ribs, pulped his heart and lungs, shattered his spine, and left a two inch deep depression in the concrete floor. One step brought the massive girl over to stand in front of Three. Three pulled herself away from the wall and faced the huge teen. The girl stared at her strangely for a moment. "You didn't know about the pervert playing with me." She stated. "And you didn't know that One told the guard to kill me as soon as the experiment was over." "But... how... did you know... how could you know..." Three stammered. "Before the experiment, all I could feel were emotions." The girl explained. "And while One there didn't have any worth talking about, Mr. Pervert there felt like I was walking through a sewer. That's why my parents through me out, because I could always tell when they were lying to me or each other. "But now, I can read minds, too. I sort of doubt that was in the original plans for me, eh? So now I know everything, Debbie Janet Simpson." Three gasped at the use of her name. "What now." She asked. "I can tell you felt sorry for me in there." The girl said. "And that as the project progressed, you felt more and more troubled by it. But you didn't do anything to stop it, either. So I don't think I'll kill you, because I want someone left to try and explain this all to the authorities. But you do need to be punished." Before Three could move. The girls foot smashed into her knees, shattering both of them. Three screamed and fell to the floor. "When you talk about this, tell them Paula says to watch out, I might be back." Was all Three heard before she fainted. The End Comments welcome, good or bad. This is my first story I was willing to let other people read, so tell me what you think. jgrimm@prodigy.net