Coping with Power Chapter 8 By demented20 Moira's strength grows to terrible heights. Ian gets in trouble, and Lisa plans the rescue. Please check out the other chapters Http://www.thevalkyrie.com/stories/1misc15/lisa1.txt http://www.thevalkyrie.com/stories/1misc15/lisa2.txt Http://www.thevalkyrie.com/stories/1misc15/lisa3.txt Http://www.thevalkyrie.com/stories/1misc16/lisa4.txt Http://www.thevalkyrie.com/stories/1misc16/lisa5.txt Http://www.thevalkyrie.com/stories/1misc17/lisa6.txt http://www.thevalkyrie.com/stories/1misc17/lisa7.txt Lisa had a good idea where her friend Ian was being held and who was holding him. It fit perfectly with what she had learned from her first and only visit to one of the commune shows. Lisa had several options. None of them were perfect, but she spent a day trying to work out what was the safest for Ian. She could call the police and let them raid the place, but they could hide Ian in a dark hole covered by some 5 ton machine. The police wouldn't know that they could move something that big without a crane. Ian could be down there while they investigated and they would never find him. Another option was to go in herself and get Ian out. That was risky. Lisa was more than confident in her own abilities, but could she go up against a whole group of souped up humans. Head on, probably not she concluded. She didn't know the limits of her strength, but while risking the life of her best friend was not the time to find out. Lisa fell asleep still pondering what to do. Moira took her now daily dose of the new chemical she and Ian were making up. Ian didn't like to watch and made sure he was doing something else when she drank the thick orange liquid. This day was no different. She hurried down the stairs and to the workout area. There was an unusual bounce in her step. Edgar, James, and two other men watched the bounce in her step too as she went down the stairs. Usually Moira's work laboratory was off limits. She was a little too confident in that fact. Edgar's group walked up to the door and opened it as soon as they knew Moira was out of earshot. "Who are you?", Ian asked as he saw three men and one woman walk into the room. "I should ask you the same question", the largest of the men asked. Ian hesitated for a moment. Moira had kept him secluded in one part of the warehouse. The part that he was free to roam in was more than twice the size of his apartment so he wasn't getting cabin fever too quickly, but he hadn't been close to any of the other commune people since he'd been there. He could look at these four and tell that they meant him no good. He decided to play it as cool as he could manage. "My name's Ian, and you are?" Ian extended his hand. The biggest of the men looked down at Ian's hand as if it was holding a dead rat. "What are you here for?" "I'm just here for a little while. Is there something I can do for you gentlemen and lady?" "What are you giving her? Whatever it is start making some for us.", the biggest one ordered. Ian sighed. "I don't know what you're talking about. Miss Kelly and I are colleagues and we've been working on some theories, but I don't make anything for her." "I think you need some convincing." Edgar motioned for his goons. Two started walking towards him. "Don't come any closer, I don't want to hurt anyone!", Ian yelled as he backed away. That incited laugher. "Who are you going to hurt? The only thing you could do is make me break a nail!", the woman in the group yelled back. They still came close. Ian reached his hand around to his back pocket. After the night before he thought it better to be ready for anything. Eventhough he was fairly sure that Moira wouldn't do anything to hurt him on purpose, he wasn't sure what the affects of those chemicals were. Now these four thought that they were going to hurt him. He didn't think so. "I'm warning you!" "Warning us? Take him!" Edgar ordered. The man and woman both lunged for Ian at the same time. Ian pulled his hand out of his back pocket in one smooth motion. His right hand made an arc as it came towards the man's left arm. It was the closer one. They couldn't see his hand just a glint of something in it. The scalpel met the man's flesh between the elbow and wrist. It bit into the flesh and nearly made it down to the bone before Ian shifted his weight and on an upstroke slashed neatly at the woman. He missed his first target just below her shoulder, but struck just below the elbow making a clean cut that hit an artery. He was a doctor and knew what he was aiming at. He was also pretty good with a knife. He'd carried a knife growing up and while he was in college. These people made him do it. The man was back on him now, but Ian spun and sliced again catching him in the stomach. This cut wasn't deep, but it was long. Ian spun again and went to the other side of the lab. "I told you!", Ian yelled as his hands trembled. "Call them off. I'm not messing around. I don't want to hurt anybody." Edgar growled and picked up one of the metal stools that were in various places around the lab. Ian ducked as the stool flew over head. The metal stool broke into pieces against the old brick walls of the warehouse. Edgar yelled, but didn't come at Ian. James did though, and now the other two were after him again. Ian held the scalpel out in front of him. He tried to keep his balance even. He waited for them to get closer. Then struck to his left. His slice was so fast that the man didn't have time to flinch. Ian sliced the palm of his right hand until the blade struck the knuckle of his thumb. The man fell back. Ian jumped over the table and ran directly at Edgar. Edgar had in his younger days been a very good college defensive end. He knew that Ian was going to slash and used his old football skills to sidestep his swipe and catch the much smaller man by the shoulders. Ian brought his hand up to slice, but Edgar was ready and caught his hand. One quick squeeze from his powerful hand made Ian drop his weapon. "I've seen enough of that", he said as he held the struggling doctor in place. He spun Ian around so that they could look each other in the eye. Ian wasted no time. He brought his head down towards Edgar's with all the force he could muster. Ian's forehead struck Egdar in the mouth loosening three teeth and putting a gash on his chin. Ian had a gash on his own head, but it worked. Edgar's grip slacked just enough for him to slip free and make it out the door. Edgar's goons turned over tables and chairs trying to get at Ian. Ian was running down the hall as fast as his feet could carry him. He didn't know where he was going, but anywhere was better than where he had been. He knew he had two options. He could find a door to the outside and be gone. That was chancy. The warehouse was huge and he didn't even know where the outside wall was. His best bet was to find Moira. He hadn't run and hid behind a woman's skirts in a long time, but that was his plan now. He didn't make it. Edgar picked up a loose brick and threw it at Ian. It hit him in the back of the leg. He fell and in moments Edgar and his people were on him. They roughed him up quite a bit before getting a hold of their emotions. They didn't want to kill him. He could make the same stuff that Moira was taking. They wanted some too. Besides, they could use this guy as leverage against her when she came. They knew she would. Moira had a good workout. She only tried to push her strength once and came up with power to spare. She figured somethings out while she was down there. It seemed that she didn't have to take a jolt of the juice before attempting something hard. Now the strength just seemed to be there. She hurried up the stairs to tell Ian. She was sure that they would have several hours of discussion on that and then they would of course start talking about other things. Moira came to the landing and noticed at once that the door to her lab was open. She didn't think too much of it. It got hot in there sometimes. She hurried to the door and stopped. Tables were turned over. All her equipment was spilled and on the floor. Moira's mouth hung open as she slowly stepped into the room. She could smell the nauseating smell of all those chemicals mixing together on the floor, but it was something else on the floor that made her stop again. Moira stepped around a large puddle of blood on the floor near where Ian would sit while he was working. Moira felt her face flush and the rush of misery that came over her was more than she could stand. She leaned against the counter and sank to her knees next to the blood. It was pretty fresh. Moira had been on the path to total strength for 12 years, but now she felt so weak that she couldn't hold her head up. Ian had not been the only man in her life in the last 12 years, but he was different. He wasn't one of the people from the commune. He was normal and yet not normal at the same time. Moira wasn't sure of what emotions she was having, but they were there. After several moments Moira pulled herself up off the floor and staggered towards the door. She felt faint and her head swam. She made it half way down the hall outside her laboratory and saw the pieces of a brick and knew somehow that the brick was related to Ian's disappearance. Moira bent down to get a closer look and almost fell over. She wasn't sure what was going on. Her heart was racing. She was commanding herself to settle down, but there was no chance. Her heart seemed to race all on its own. She wondered if she were having a heart attack. Moira felt her left leg give out. She tried to catch herself, but she fell to the ground. The situation with Ian relegated to the back of her mind, Moira's excellent mind attempted to understand what was going on inside her body. Her mind had little time to work before Moira heard footfalls near her. She turned her head slowly and saw two of Ed's flunkies walking towards her. Both laughed and pointed. They talked for a minute or two then bent down and lifted the nearly 350 pound Moira up and carried her down to Edgar who was busy trying to see what Ian knew. "So you were just visiting?" "Yeah, that's it.", Ian answered calmly "Bullshit and you know it!", Edgar raised his voice. "Yeah, maybe I do know it, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.", Ian looked up at him with an amused grin. Edgar, usually not one to anger, spun and with controlled anger back-handed Ian across the jaw. The shock and pain knocked Ian off the chair. Two guys put him back on the chair. Ian moaned. "You like that smart ass. I've been trying to take it easy on you, but you cut two of my friends pretty deep. I stopped them from beating you to death. You should at least give me a little information." Ian shook his head to try to clear it up. "I don't remember asking you or your people to open the fucking door and walk in on me. I don't owe you a damn thing. You can either continue to beat the shit out of me or let me go. I was here with Moira and not you. I might be a dumb dog, but I'm a loyal one." Edgar was about to say something when the door opened. "Hey, Ed come here. Its important." Without a word, Edgar turned and left the room. He smiled when he saw who they had brought. He had something special in mind for her. "Take her to the deck." The deck used to be a fabrication area in the old warehouse. It was raised up off the ground level about ten feet. There was a lot of equipment in that area, but most people avoided using it. The deck as it was a called doubled as the punishment area for the commune. People who broke the simple rules in place were punished at the deck. One of the punishments was for a person to have their feet and ankles placed in concrete. They were supposed to stay there for a certain time before they were released. Edgar had come up with this particular mechanism. He had actually come up with most of the different tortures. Moira's head was starting to clear, but just enough for her to perceive what was around her. Moira opened her eyes and saw Edgar bending down and looking at her. "Hello", he said in a mocking tone. Moira just stared. She was in no condition to do much talking right now. Moira tried to move her arm to scratch her head, but her arms couldn't move. She looked down. Her arms were bound with 2 inch thick steel rebar that was clasped in the back. The clasps were actually rate for more strength than the rebar. Moira sighed then looked down to saw that she was immersed in concrete all the way to her waist. Once she saw, she could feel the construction grade concrete curing and pressing against her lower body. It was already nearly dry. She must have been in there for a while. "You brought an outsider into the group. That is a big no no.", Edgar stood up straight. "We were trying to decide what to do with you, but we're not sure yet. We know that you were trying to get stronger behind our collective backs. That too is a big no no. We are in this together. I thought you of all people knew that, Moira." "Don't lecture me!", Moira yelled. "You had no right. You don't know what I was going to do." "Oh, but I do. You wanted to keep that guy a secret. Well we found him." "You leave him alone!" Moira's voice was stronger now. Her head felt almost normal, but her body still felt a little out of whack. Moira knew her body well after so many years of studying herself. She felt warm like something warm was flowing through her veins. "Moira, Moira, Moira. You are going to have to learn. Let's leave her here for a while and let her think about what she's done." Edgar turned and started down the steps. "Oh, and I guess we'll get the information from her friend. There are other women here. Maybe they'll want to get a little outside sex too." If stares could kill, then Edgar would have been a dead s.o.b., but they could not and he started down the stairs again. Moira's anger grew again and the warmth inside her turned into an inferno and then she knew. "Ed! Wait! You might not want to miss this!", she yelled. Edgar and his group stopped and turned around in time to see Moira take a deep breath and then screw her eyes shut. They all collectively laughed, but they did stay and watch. Moira squeezed her eyes as tightly as they could would go and she avoided biting down on her teeth for fear of breaking them off. She knew what she was going to do and there was no doubt in her mind that she could do it. Moira started for flex every muscle in her legs. Edgar and his crew watched as she looked as if she were trying to lift the heaviest object in the world and would not stop until she did. They looked and saw that her upper body did not look to be straining at all. Whatever she was doing didn't involve that part of her body, but they knew that something was up when beads of sweat formed on her forehead. Soon they turned into droplets that rolled down her face onto her neck and mixed with the sweat forming on her shoulders and pecs. They stared for what was going on two minutes and Moira had not changed she was still concentrating as hard as she had been when she started if not harder. Moira could feel that it was working. Power flowed into her from some place that her mind or body had never been. It came into her like a some sort of faucet had been opened and all the power of the world was flowing into her. It was a feeling so overwhelming that it made her have no other feelings. She reveled in the power and lust. Now she lusted for more power. Edgar watched as a smile appeared on her face. She was looking down now, but he could see the corners of her mouth upturned. He wondered if she'd gone crazy. She'd never been that stable to start out with. The other people standing near him all had similar thoughts. They were prepared to leave, but only stayed because he stayed. Edgar was impressed with her stamina, but was tiring of the show. He had seen her try to do things her body could not do before. He turned to leave then he felt the ground vibrate, just a little. He turned back, thinking it had been something else, but it happened again. Now they could feel a steady vibration coming from the Moira's direction. Sweat poured down her body soaking the coarse concrete and her bra. Her head shook from the obvious strain of whatever she was doing. She would have told them, but she was beyond speaking. She wouldn't have heard them if they had yelled at her. Her mind was in another place now. Moira could feel the concrete pressing in against her expanding muscles, but she was stronger than the strongest concrete. She knew that now. With every passing moment, she felt her power grow. More and more power surged to her legs and her quads and calves and hams grew bigger and bigger expanding against the resisting cement. Edgar and his people stared opened mouthed now as the vibrations continued. They knew what was going on now. The only question was whether she would succeed or not. It would not take long for them to get their answer. Moira poured more of her new power into her legs. Her power and fury grew to the point where her leg muscles could no longer take the power as fast as she wanted to give it and it needed a release. Moira began to pant like an angry beast. Quickly her pants turned into howls as more and more power surged through her. Then there was a louder sound. The concrete began to crack. Cracks ran outward from Moira in all directions as her whole body shook. She growled and howled for another whole minute while the concrete crumbled around her. The ground shook with her power. Edgar now realized that it was too late to leave. He had to see this through. Then finally it stopped. Moira's head slumped downward. Sweat and saliva mixed as her head hung towards the ruined concrete below her waist. Slowly her smile came back and her eyes opened. The light hurt after having had her eyes shut for so long. Then she raised her head. She looked the same as she always did, except for that grin. It chilled Edgar too his core. He realized it even his flunkies did not. "What the hell?", one of them asked. "You wanna know what I did to the concrete?", Moira asked almost sweetly. The four men in front of her did nothing, but stare. "I'll take that as a yes." She closed her eyes again and this time she flexed her upper body. She took a deep breath and her pecs began to swell as if air were being pumped into them, but instead it was fire hot iron hard muscle. Her shoulders were already melon sized caps of muscle, sinew, and veins, but now they grew larger and thicker, to ridiculous proportions. Her hard abs defined themselves into cubes of muscle nearly an inch deep as she continued her flex. After only half a minute the muscle had filled all the space left between her body and the one inch rebar that bound her. After another thirty seconds the muscles in her arms and her pecs were spilling over the rebar. The metal was resisting, but the muscle was too hard. The groaning of the metal testified to that. Steel that was used to support the largest of structures was succumbing to Moira's muscles. Finally the steel was stretched enough for her to be able to slip it over her head, but she decided that that wouldn't be enough fun. She took another deep breath, expanding her glorious chest even more. Her sports bra could barely stay on now and it was fraying at ends. With a burst of strength none of them had ever seen, she flexed her mighty body to the point that the steel tore and fell away from her body to the ground. Moira reached down and slowly pulled herself from the ruined concrete to stand level with the floor, making a cloud of cement dust in the process. She slapped the dust off her legs and butt before looking up. The four men standing near the steps did not know what to do as Moira started walking towards them. Her face still looked like Moira, but her body looked half again as large as it had been when they put her in the hole. Biceps that had once been 27 inches flexed now looked like 35 inches unflexed, and her legs. She was now barefoot as the shoes she had worn before could not take the strain being put on them by her body. Her thighs had always been hugely muscled, but now her quads had more muscle than most power-lifter's entire bodies. The heads of the quad muscles stood out almost a foot above her knee and where they joined her hips looked to be a mass of cables connected to an extremely powerful machine. But Moira was more powerful than a mere machine now. She got to within several feet of the group then stopped and smiled an evil maniacal smile then brought her arms up. She thrust her left leg forward and slowly brought her arms down into a crab. Her swelling muscles seemed to fight against one another for space in her ever expanding torso. The men watched as her pecs at first pushed against one another then separated and began to push out away from her body making the deepest cleavage on the planet. When her hands came together the men guessed that she was finished, but she snarled and the muscles kept growing without her moving at all. Muscles seemed to want to fill any space. Her pecs continued to grow out from her body with hard writhing muscles. The men watching her were sweating now, from fear. They watched as she finished her display and began towards them. In that instant three of the four knew what to do. They turned and ran. Only Edgar stayed. He stared in horror as Moira approached, but his pride would not let him run from her. Instead he took a step towards her. He balled up his massive fist preparing for a fight, but instead she raised her hands palms out. Edgar instantly knew what she wanted. He put his hands up. They laced their fingers carefully and then the struggle was on. Edgar was taller and had leverage instantly and he started pushing with his own massive muscles. All the while, Moira seemed to be working on bettering in her grip. Then with one move, Moira pushed Edgar's hands back. She turned his wrist without even straining. In just ten seconds, Edgar's legs were bent as he tried to keep his arms straight. Moira's perfect blue eyes burned down at him as she increased her power enough to push down the huge man inch by agonizing inch. The muscles on her shoulders had split into three independent heads of muscle who had further divided into individual bunches of muscle that flexed little by little pushing Edgar towards the floor. Edgar looked down at his own body and saw that it was trying. His legs were flexed bigger than they ever had before and where doing all they could to keep him from falling to the floor. Moira's stare looked like enough to melt iron, but it was her muscles that did the work. She enjoyed the look of fear in Ed's eyes as he looked up at her. She enjoyed the hopelessness he felt against her power and the strength in her muscles. She looked down at her own body. She felt lust again. Lust for more power. Lust for more of her own muscles. To her now, there was nothing greater in the world. Her back had always been strong since the days before she started lifting weights. Her lats flared with muscle from the power she was exerting on Ed. Now she concentrated on them and without moving her arms, her lats began to grow thicker and wider. They looked like thick vein covered wings growing out from her. Fingers of thick muscle connected the swelling lats to her body. Edgar looked up in disbelief. There could be nobody this strong. He had always been the strongest if not the biggest, but he was being shamed. He searched within himself and found that there was more. He bided his time and gathered his strength for a counterattack against this muscle beast who threatened to crush him. He closed his eyes and readied himself. Then at the right moment his legs, arms, and back burst will all the power in his body. Enough power to throw a loaded armored car to the roof of a five story building, or enough power to tear off the side of a building. Enough power to launch his own body through the floor of a parking garage. He released all that power into Moira's arms and shoulders. She barely moved. Her lats thickened and hardened and her delts separated with inch deep striations. All of Edgar power was absorbed by just her upper body. She had known it was coming, but didn't prepare for it. She knew that his muscles were nothing to hers. She increased the power now. He knew the truth and she was tired of toying with him. She started to press the beaten man down faster now. Ed screamed as his knee slammed to the concrete. He still pressed up with all he had, but his arms were starting to bend. His triceps were as large and hard as ever, but they could not take the pressure. His hands had been pressed all the way to his shoulders. Moira was now leaning over him with her arms pressing him to the ground. He looked at her left forearm. The thick cable muscles moving and contracting were defeating him. He turned his head over and in desperation bit down hard on her forearm. Moira was surprised by this and even more surprised by what happened. His teeth pierced her skin and blood came out, but when his teeth hit the muscle they stopped. Her muscles were so hard that he couldn't even bite into them. She laughed the laugh of a woman mad with power as she saw that he couldn't even bite her muscles. She frowned and started flexing her forearms increasing her already powerful grip. Blood dripped from Edgar's crushing fingers. Her forearm muscles got even harder and bigger. Instead of Edgar's teeth pressing into the muscles barely making an impression, the muscles started forcing his mouth open. Edgar finally removed his mouth rather than risk breaking his jaw on her arm. She pressed him to the floor now. Exhausted, Edgar could barely move. With one more squeeze from her hands, the pain sent him over the edge and he passed out. Moira did not even gloat. He was no longer worthy of her. She gripped him by his neck and dragged him over to another one of his inventions. A notch seven feet long, three or so feet deep, and three and a half feet wide had been carved into the concrete of the deck. Moira put Edgar in the notch face up. Stacked to the rear of the notch were steel construction spanners. These were the flat steel plates that covered holes in the road. These particular plates were the heaviest made. They were used by mining companies to span holes and allow their heavy trucks to pass. These spanners were eight feet long and four feet wide and four inches thick. Usually cranes would move the one ton plates into place. Here at the commune several people were used to position the plates, but Moira moved them herself. She took the top one off the stack and carefully put it over the notch. The end of the spanner was just below Edgar's throat. She went back to the stack and took another one. Each spanner had a bar on the bottom and a broad curved section on the top in order to lock spanners together. Moira did this as she stacked he second one. She bent down and bent the curved steel further so that she could still get the bar into the hook, but it would be almost impossible to get the hook out. Moira repeated this fifteen more times until all seventeen spanners they had were stacked over top of Edgar. If not for the size of the notch, the spanners would have crushed him. Instead, now they trapped him. Moira then went and took the anchor chains that were normally used for another punishment and put them over the stack. She tied the ends to each other making one continuous chain. She then crushed the ends together so that none of the others could pull them free. Moira wasn't afraid of Edgar getting himself out, but instead she wanted him to stay down there until she changed her mind. She didn't want anyone else getting him loose. One look at the five and a half foot stack of steel weighing more than 34,000 pounds and the anchor chains and knew that only she could get him out. Moira ran her hands over her body and felt the power that seemed to be pulsating from them. She licked her own sweat off her fingers and was aroused. She needed sex, but she knew that no man could handle her now. No ten men could handle her now, so she handled herself. She ripped the remnants of her shorts off her body and in full view of the brave people who peeked around corners and from behind walls, ravaged herself as no one else could. Moira brought herself to climax several times before resting. She looked down at her body and at first thought to go get more clothes, but the sight of her beautiful muscles made her reject that thought. She would put clothes on later, but for now she wanted to be able to see every muscle movement. Her quest for Ian forgotten, Moira went straight for the workout area. There were things there that weighed enough for her to see just how far she had come. Moira's smile was always evil now. It was always dangerous now. And now she smiled thinking of what her muscles could and would do to the helpless steel on the other side of the building. to be continued...