Bride Of The Atom -  Part Two 
By The Captain
The Story Continues


<><><> Chapter Three - Terror Of The Atom! <><><>

JUNE 14, 2005 - 3:45 PM

The last few days had been a blur, and Brad still didn't understand why he was
helping an ex-Chinese gymnast move out of a condo in Henderson, Nevada. Lee
and Karla had tried to explain to him that Su-Ling was connected to whatever
secret operation that was being conducted out of the Luxor. The knowledge that
there were non-human installations seemed to be driving Lee insane, he was
spending a lot of time away from his converted missile-base. And for some
reason Lee needed the help of Karla, Lana and Nancy, which left only Patricia,
the over-sexed female gremlin to keep Brad company. And since it would hard
for Patricia to move around in public, Brad was stuck helping Su-Ling by
himself.

They were alone in a mostly empty two bedroom condo, it was a quiet that
afternoon, warm with just a hint a traffic noise. Su-Ling wore a sleeveless
pale-green sun dress, complete with matching green and white knee-high socks.
Brad had her help move a few heavy boxes, and though Su-Ling was nearly half
his size she seemed to be lifting more than her share. After an hour he wanted
to take a break, but she seemed untired and ready to continue. So Brad sat
down and pointed to a stack of heavy boxes. As she started to move them he
smiled, for he knew that the one on the bottom contained several heavy metal
weights from an old bar-bell set.

Brad sat and watched as Su-Ling picked up each box in the stack, taking them
to the back porch. When she came to the box with the weight-set she seemed to
pause for a moment, but then continued. For a few seconds there was a flicker
of muscle play along her arms and legs, but this was her only reaction. When
she came back Brad had her sit down and carried the remaining three boxes to
the back porch. On his last trip he found the box that contained the metal
plates and tried to pick it up. Though Brad strained till he saw red he was
unable to lift it. Was Su-Ling that much stronger than he was?

This needed to be investigated. Brad went back to the front room and asked
Su-Ling if she would arm wrestle him. She smiled and went over to the big
table in the dining room. They gripped hands and without warning he pulled as
hard as he could. Su-Ling laughed as Brad nearly slammed her arm down, but she
stopped it a few inches above the table and smoothly pulled their arms back to
center. He reached out with his left hand and began to pull using both arms,
but her only reaction was to giggle and stick out her tongue. Brad then stood
up and put all of his weight into moving her arm. Though he managed to move
her arm a few inches, she seemed to grow a little stronger and pull him back.

How could this be happening? Not only was Brad much bigger than Su-Ling, but
she looked like she had the body of a twelve-years- old girl. He looked down
at her now visible biceps, which was good looking for a woman her size, but
should not have been as strong as he was feeling. One look at her bright smile
and he would have thought that he was giving Su-Ling a fantastic birthday
present. With little visible effort she pushed hers arms down to the table.
She stared directly into his eyes as she slowly stood up, forcing him back and
towards the wall. A thin layer of muscle, which he had never noticed before,
jumped into view as Su-Ling shoved him against the wall and began to rub
against him with a clearly sexual purpose. Was there something in the Nevada
air, Brad wondered.

The more he resisted her the more intense and insistent she became. As she
wrapped her slim arms around Brad he began to resist her with more of his
strength. He grabbed her upper arms and pushed down as hard as he could,
trying to lever himself free. Her muscles grew slightly larger and much harder
as she easily resisted his efforts to free himself. Slowly she forced Brad
closer to her, bringing his head down to hers, and her waiting lips. For a few
moments she held him there, he could feel the strength of both her hidden
passion and her unexpected muscles. Something must have pushed her over the
edge, for the next thing Brad knew was that he was in the other bed room, on
the bed, and Su-Ling was taking off her clothes.

"I like it when you try to stop me," she whispered.

He tried to push her away, his hands finding only rock hard muscle. For
several minutes Brad struggled against Su-Ling's body, now swollen with a thin
layer of rock hard muscles. The pressure from her passionate embrace increased
until he could barely breath. She seemed to know that he was now totally
helpless. Brad managed to force her face away from his and was horrified to
discover that her eyes had become totally white. What was going on here?
"Su-Ling! What's happening to you!" he strained to ask. He spotted a large
pipe, the remains of an ill-fated plumbing project he guessed, within reach on
top of the headboard. Using the remains of his fading strength Brad grabbed
the pipe and slammed it into Su-Ling's head. For a moment there was no
reaction, and then she folded onto the floor as if she had been unplugged.

Brad examined Su-Ling, but she seemed uninjured by his attack, only asleep. He
picked up her small form and dumped it on the bed. Looking around he found a
roll of heavy fiber-tape, "This stuff might give Nancy a hard time if I used
enough of it." He figured he might only have a few minutes until Su-Ling woke
up, so he quickly wrapped the tape around her wrists and ankles. When he was
finished he had added several loops around her knees and thighs. "I wish
someone would tell be what is going on!"

Brad could see that she was already straining to free herself, small muscles
exploded on her arms and legs twisted and flexed. Brad reached over to fell
the hardness of her straining muscles, they did not feel like the near-fantasy
muscles of Nancy or Patricia the gremlin. No, these felt real, just a lot
harder that what he was used to. After a moment he could hear her grunts and
growls. Her eyes were wide open, showing nothing by white. Faster she moved,
harder she pulled, louder she grunted, "Nothing . . . can . . . stop . . . me!
. . . Must . . . have . . . sex!". Suddenly Brad could hear things beginning
to rip and tear. Slowly Su-Ling stood up as the last of the heavy tape gave
way to her strong muscles.

In that instant of time the very last thing that Brad expected was to be
attacked. With a deadly grace, two female robots jumped through the open
windows on either side of the bed. They scanned the room, determined that
Su-Ling was the greatest threat, turned and attacked her. Brad spun around and
ran towards the front of the condo, and the weapon Lee had given him. As he
sprinted to the front room he snagged his anti-robot pistol and dived back
towards the bedroom. Brad stopped at the doorway and waited for a clear shot.

For several long moment the ninety-pound Su-Ling held back the two
two-hundred-pound robots, her small muscles bulging into view. Slowly they
pushed her back, until they had forced her flat on the floor. Su-Ling still
strained to break free, but she was clearly out- muscled by the robots.
Suddenly, she looked up and saw Brad watching her from the doorway. Her tiny
body started to tremble as she strained harder than before, Su-Ling's muscles
seemed to grow larger and harder. The silent battle began to shift as she
slowly forced her way off of the floor. The two female robots continued to
fight her, but Su-Ling was now clearly stronger than both of them combined.

With a high-pitched grunt that Brad could hear from the doorway Su-Ling tossed
the two robots away from her. As they landed several feet away from her she
raised her arms up and did a double biceps flex. Brad quickly fired two shots,
nailing each female robot in the head. The hand-made sabot-rounds chewed
through the heavy armor and scrapped the internal mechanism. Su-Ling relaxed
her muscles, looked up at Brad, and smiled, her eyes slowly returning to
normal. "Wow Brad! You sure know how to show a girl a good time! I haven't
felt my heart pumping this hard in a long time!" Su-Ling noticed the two
robots sprawled on the floor, "Brad, what does this mean?"

Brad put the gun in his pocket where it would be easy to pull out, "This means
that we load my van with what we got now and drive. If Lee is correct, these
things didn't have far to go. Another team may be here in a few minutes, so
playtime is over . . . for now."

JUNE 14, 2005 - 6:05 PM

Brad could hear Su-Ling and Patricia laughing and squealing in the other silo.
They sounded just like two school-girls talking about "boys" or some other
standard topic. He knew that they were actually having fun beating up several
ultra-muscular video-game women. In front of him were Lee's notes on their
newest recruit, most were too cryptic to understand, except for a yellowed
news story. Brad read the newspaper clipping:

BEIJING (AP) - A genetic mutation made a 5-year-old from West Hunan province
extra strong, but the Chinese doctor who has been studying the girl since just
after her birth says she's just a regular kid. The girl doesn't stand out
among her peers on the playground, but when she puts her mind to it, she can
perform amazing feats of strength, said Dr. Wang Minchun. "She's a normal
girl, you don't see it, you wouldn't recognize her" out of a crowd, Minchun
said. "She can just lift heavy things." Minchun started studying the
super-strong girl after she was brought to Bejing's Jinan University Hospital
shortly after birth because she was twitching. That turned out to be nothing,
but Minchun, a pediatric neurologist, found that even though the girl was well
within normal birth weight, she was particularly muscular. Minchun began
conducting tests and found over the course of eight years that the girl had a
genetic mutation that boosts muscle growth. It is the first human case where a
mutant DNA segment was found to block production of a protein called myostatin
that limits muscle growth, though researchers discovered in 1997 that they
could create mega-mice by "turning off" the gene that directs cells to produce
the protein. Dr. Minchun, who worked with researchers from the United States,
wrote about the case in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, where he
said the discovery could possibly help in the fight against muscle diseases,
like muscular dystrophy. The girl, whose name Dr. Minchun has promised not to
divulge, has muscles twice the size of other children her age and half their
body fat. She was born to a muscular mother, a former sprinter. Her brother
and three other relatives were also very strong, one a construction worker
with a talent for hefting curbstones. Dr. Minchun said scientists have no way
to tell how common the girl's ability is, or if a legion of super-strong tykes
will be discovered now that researchers have learned what to look for. "How
should we know?" Dr. Minchun said. "We have the first case so far."

The clipping was several years old, "This must explain Su-Ling, at least
there's no connection to atomic power," Brad muttered.

A metal orb appeared in front of Brad, "IT IS I, ZARDOZ. I HAVE THE REPORT YOU
REQUESTED."

Brad looked up, "So that is the name you picked? I could have been worse I
guess."

"WIDE-BAND PROBE OF LUXOR CONSTRUCTION HAS DETECTED AN AUTOMATED MANUFACTURING
SYSTEM HIDDEN UNDER THE PRIMARY BASEMENT. WHILE A HIGH-ENERGY ATTACK FROM
ORBIT MAY BE THE OPTIMAL CHOICE, A SMALL COMBAT TEAM MAY BE ABLE TO ENTER THE
FACTORY AND OVERRIDE THE CONTROL SYSTEM"

"Just like Command & Conquer, get an Engineer inside and their War Factory is
ours. I guess we need to do this ASAP, right?"

"CORRECT. THE ENEMY HAS BEEN SENDING OUT AN INCREASING NUMBER OF PATROLS. I
HAVE BEEN ABLE TO DESTROY A NUMBER OF THEM AT RANDOM LOCATIONS, BUT IT IS ONLY
A MATER OF TIME BEFORE I WILL NO LONGER BE ABLE TO HIDE OUR BASE. I WILL
CONSTRUCT AN OVERRIDE MODULE, BUT YOU MUST PLACE IT WITHIN NINE FEET OF THE
BASE CONTROLLER."

"Great. What do you think of our friend Su-Ling? What's with her eyes turning
white and her memory loss?"

"THE NEW RECRUIT APPEARS TO BE THE END PRODUCT OF GENETIC MANIPULATION. THIS
APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN GOING ON FOR SEVERAL THOUSAND YEARS. THE MARKERS INDICATE
A POSSIBLE THIRD FORCE."

"Let's see, there are you guys, the ORBS, whoever is making the female robots,
and now there's a third batch of aliens working out of China doing
bioengineering. That last kinda fits what I know. From what I've heard, from
my hobby you understand, many of the strongest women in the world come from
China. Su-Ling would make a great combat monster, except for one small
problem. I don't think she can power-up at will. Not that I wouldn't mind
doing a little foreplay with her, but that could get a little dangerous in the
middle of a fight. That is, unless you can whip up some kind of stimulator or
something for her."

"SUCH A DEVICE IS POSSIBLE. I WILL CONTRUCT ONE."

"Sounds good. If it's possible, make it something she can wear, like jewelry,
so that she can have it with her all the time. Let the others know about the
mission, we'll leave after it get dark. In the mean time, how about some
entertainment?"

"ALL MISSION RELATED EQUIPMENT WILL BE PREPARED. RETURN TO YOUR QUARTERS FOR
SIMULATION."

JUNE 14, 2005 - 6:20 PM

The was a soft knock on the door and then Darla Crane walked into Brad's room,
the light from the hallway made her long red hair look like fire streaming
down. As she stood there smiling Brad punched her in her stomach as hard as he
could. His fist felt like he had hit hard rubber over steel. Darla smiled and
pulled her shoulders back, her large firm breasts strained against the thin
white tee-shirt she was wearing. "Perhaps you'd like something a little softer
to hit," she murmured in a smooth sexy voice. She pushed past Brad like he was
not even there. He closed the door behind her and waved towards the bed. Darla
smiled and sat down on the bed, clearly displaying her trademarks, long legs
and large breasts.

Everything was perfect, ZARDOZ had implanted the memories of thousands of
hours of gym workouts where Darla had sweated to maintain her sexy figure. As
far as she now acted, Brad was but one of many men who had tested her strength
and toughness. He sat down on the bed next to her as she pulled off her
tee-shirt and tossed it on the floor. Darla lay back and he rolled on top her.
Brad began to fondle her firm, full breasts and kiss her as she reached over
to the pillow and put one wrist on top of the other. Brad found a roll of
black duct tape in her purse and started to tie her wrists and ankles
together.

"Do my knees and thighs, I feel like showing off", she whispered.

Brad smiled and applied several layers of tape to her slim legs. He returned
his attention to her firm breasts, Darla's entire body trembled with her
growing lust. Her legs became rock-hard as her muscles strained to break her
bonds. Brad was almost tossed off of the bed as Darla snapped her legs apart.
"Sorry lover, but nothing can stop my red steel when I get pumped. Next time
we'll use chains, though they won't hold me more than ten minutes." she
whispered, "Now show me what you've got and I'll try to give you something
hard to hold onto."

Brad stripped off his pants, pushed her short pleated skirt aside and thrust
himself into her. Every trick and secret any woman had every known, Darla
knew, plus she had super-human strength and endurance. She clamped down on him
with a grip that was just short of painful. Brad gripped Darla's slim arms and
squeezed as hard as he could. A lesser woman would have been screaming in
pain, but Darla only flexed her steel-cable biceps harder as she tried to
stimulate him. As they came closer to mutual climax her strength and muscles
grew, her biceps turned from mighty ropes of strength into hard softballs of
power.

"Wow, they was different.", whispered Brad, "I think I'm going to need a
shower." Darla looked at him and smiled, snapped the tape around her wrists as
if it were tissue-paper.

Soon they were both in the shower, covered in soap. No matter where Brad ran
his hands along her slim, strong body, she flexed her muscles. It became a
game, where he tried to catch her muscles relaxed. The more Darla flexed, the
larger her muscles seemed to be. "Were her arms now bigger than mine?",
wondered Brad, "They certainly showed much more muscle than her pictures."

"You've got really strong muscles Darla," said Brad.

Darla pressed her firm breasts against him, "They normally don't show this
much. I'm glad you can see them." She smiled and went into a pose called the
"crab". As Brad watched her muscles explode into view he couldn't hold back
any longer. Reaching out he pulled her towards him and kissed her full on the
lips. Darla responded eagerly and moved towards him, her hard, muscular body
pushing him helpless against the wall. For several minutes a red haze of
passion, or pressure washed over him.

Darla took a step back, breaking their connection, and stood there watching
him recover. As she began to wash herself her muscles slowly shrank back to
normal. When she was done with her shower she looked as she normally did.
Turning off the water, Darla smiled at Brad, and garbed one of his large blue
towels.

"Now that was fun. Call me anytime for a rematch." And with that she dried
herself off, got dressed, and walked out of Brad's room. He noticed a CD on
the bed. "Hey ZARDOZ, I don't remember this part of the simulation."

"I HAVE TAKEN THE LIBERTY TO MODIFY SEVERAL OF MISS CRANE'S MORE POPULAR
PHOTOS."

Brad smiled, "They'll like these on the web."

JUNE 14, 2005 - 10:30 PM

Brad looked at the pass ZARDOZ had created, "I wonder what the heck the Long
Way Club is, sound more like a travel agent that a secret sex club." He
glanced at the elevator controls, "Basement three? Great, that controller is
two levels below that. I hope those maps were right." Brad was alone in the
gold-and-blue elevator as it continued downward. After moment the doors opened
up to reveal a normal looking reception desk with a pretty blonde on duty. As
Brad walked up he noticed that she was over six feet tall and had perfect skin
and teeth.

"Ah, hello, I've got this pass. I was told to come here. Is this the way to .
. . " Brad started to ask. The blonde looked at the pass he held before him,
smiled even more and pointed to a plain door to his right. "It is always a
pleasure to meet a new member! Enjoy your visit!" she said in a voice as
smooth as silk.

Brad smiled back, put the pass back in his pocket, and marched to the door. He
found that it opened into a plain stairwell leading down. "I guess they ran
out of money for decorations, at least this is heading in the right direction.
Better turn on the transmitter so Su- Ling and Patricia can track me." The
plan was for the two females to navigate the maze of utility halls and shafts
using his homing beacon while he played for time inside the secret sex club
ZARDOZ had discovered.

The door at the bottom of the stairwell revealed a large room lined with many
doors. Around the room was a mixture of furniture that looked like it had been
stolen from several Los Vegas hotels. The concrete floor was covered by a
number of rugs that Brad assumed had also been liberated. But what stopped
Brad in his tracks were the large pictures that decorated the walls. Paintings
and photographs shared wall space, each showing a massively muscular woman in
dramatic poses. Brad whispered "You've come a long way. baby."

Brad noticed that there were large lights above nearly every door. Only the
door to the stairwell and a door on the other side of the room lacked the
signal lights. "I wonder where that door leads to?" He started to walk across
the room when curiosity brought him to one of the other doors. Close up, he
could see that each door had pictures and descriptions of women, each door
with a different woman. "Kate the Co-Ed? What kind of sex club is this?" Brad
opened the door and looked in. The room inside looked like a generic
university dorm-room, complete with piles of books and what Brad assumed were
unfinished term-papers. Some hidden sound system generated ambient sound to
match the room, complete with the murmured talking of passing students. It
even smelled like a dorm- room. Everything worked to create the illusion that
Brad was standing in a typical dorm-room somewhere in middle-America.

"Oh, it's that kind of sex club," Brad whispered to himself as he watched the
curvy co-ed in the fluffy pink turtle-neck sweater pump out arm curls with a
dumb-bell that look like it weighed over a hundred pounds. She turned to look
at Brad, smiled and said in a thick southern accent, "I'll be right with you
sugar, let me finish getting ready." He noticed that her breasts and her
biceps were almost exactly the same size. "I'll be right back . . . I've got
to drop a letter off at the . . . dean's office. Yeah, that's right!" Brad
said as he backed out of the room and closed the heavy door.

Brad walked over to a large black-leather couch, punched the signal button on
his transmitter, and dropped it behind the couch. "I don't know if she was a
robot or what, but if there's a woman like that behind all twenty of these
doors I'm in well over my head! Time to check door number two!" He crossed the
large room to the door he hoped led to another stairwell. "Who designed this
place? It's laid out like a map from DOOM. I hope these stairs take me to the
right place!"

At the bottom of the second stairwell Brad discovered that the exit door was
welded shut. The sound of footsteps made him look up. To his horror he saw six
slim oriental school-girls walking down the stairs towards him. "This does not
look good! I could use a little back-up here!" Brad screamed as he pulled out
his modified pistol that was loaded with Lee's hand-made sabot rounds. He
managed to down the first two female robots, but then the remaining ones
started to move at an impossible speed. Panicked, Brad pulled out and tossed
his one fragmentation grenade. The explosion caught three of the four
remaining robots, but the one in the lead easily jumped over the grenade. With
a lightning quick move she slapped the pistol out of his hand, grabbed him by
the throat and lifted him into the air. Brad's world exploded into a red haze
of pain as the robot school-girl began to crush his neck. In a moment all went
dark.

JUNE 15, 2005 - 1:25 AM

Brad felt cold, and every movement brought shock waves of bright white pain.
He opened his eyes, but everything was a blur to him. Suddenly a small female
shape come into view. Brad tried to move away, but felt small strong hands
restraining him. Long black hair cascaded over him as the oriental woman
leaned close to him, "It's OK Brad, it's me Su-Ling! Patricia saved you from
the robot, but you were already unconscious. We don't know what to do. You
were hurt and she went crazy. Now she's upstairs in the big room fighting
robots. Brad, I've never seen anyone as strong as her, but there's hundreds of
robots coming into the room. Once she took care of the ones in those small
rooms they started coming down the stairs. I tried to help, but I can't stay
strong all the time, I have to rest. Brad, please tell me, what do we do?"

He reached up to feel his neck, someone had wrapped surgical tape, giving him
support. Su-Ling smiled, "One of the rooms looked like a mad-scientists lab,
complete with a Bride of Frankenstein who had biceps bigger than you head.
There was a ton of medical supplies, props I guess, and after Patricia
demolished the robot she tossed a big pile of it to me. I really don't know
what to do!" Brad smiled and whispered, "You did good Su-Ling. Now, see if you
can get that door open, OK?"

Su-Ling looked at the door, reached up to squeeze a medallion, and transformed
into her super-strong mode. With one smooth motion she jumped up from the
concrete floor and kicked the metal door with her right foot. The impact
caused dust to shower down and made the ceiling light flicker. After three
more kicks the door had deformed enough for Su-Ling to grasp one edge and
pull. Watching the display of muscles ripple along Su-Ling's slim form revived
Brad, forcing him to focus on the now. He looked around, found his pistol, and
made sure that it was undamaged and ready to fire.

The door was ripped free from it's frame and tossed toward the stairs. Inside
the now-revealed control center Brad saw a collection of strange machines and
mounds of organic-looking cables. "Great, which one of these uber-tech gizmos
is the control module?" Brad mutters as he forced himself to stand up. He felt
Su-Ling sag at his side, "Sorry Brad, that's all I've got right now. Give me
twenty minutes and I can go super again for you." Brad stroked her now-slim
arms and whispered, "It's time for me to earn my pay."

As he started to walk into the him he noticed a large figure rise from the
floor. Brad stared in awe as the female robot stood up and slowly turned
towards him. "You've got to be kidding me! She's got to be eight feet tall!
That's not a woman, that's a walking fork-lift!" Brad looked down at his
pistol, "Can't wait twenty minutes, I hope Lee knew what he was doing!" He
reached down and moved a selector switch to a mode Lee had warned him to use
only in a dire emergency. Bracing himself against the distorted door-frame,
Brad placed the laser dot on the female robot's chest and pulled the trigger.
The resulting explosion knocked him back and onto the floor.

From inside the room came load crashing noises as the giant robot toppled
backward. Su-Ling helped Brad back to his feet. He tossed the now ruined
pistol aside and walked into the room. He looked down at the now-motionless
robot, a line of small holes led from her chest to her forehead. "So, that's
what full-auto on a gun that size feels like. I think I broke my wrist.
However, I can see why they hid this model from the public. Somehow I don't
think that an eight-foot-tall Dolly Parton would go unnoticed even in Los
Vegas."

Su-Ling pointed at a tall crystal pillar, "This looks different from all of
the other junk in here, almost like it was built by someone else."

Brad smiled, "And I bet that someone else traveled a while before getting
here." He reached into a back pocket and pulled out a slim red metal plate and
placed it onto the side of the pillar. For a moment there was a series of tiny
red and green flashes, almost as if a small war was being waged inside of the
pillar. After a moment Brad noticed the silence. "Hey, sounds like the
fighting stopped!" The sound of footsteps made Brad and Su-Ling turn around,
in the door-war a weary looking female gremlin staggered in. "Lover do work
good! Tired I am, but not too tired hero to thank!" Patricia walked over to
Brad, leaped up and kissed him.

"Ouch! Hey Patricia, careful of the neck! That's going to take time to heal!"
Brad yelled. The female gremlin looked up at him and cooed, "Ready I am to
nurse you! You see! I take care of you!"

Suddenly a large metal ball appeared, floating in the air above the giant
robot. "THIS MISSION HAS BEEN A SUCCESS. WE NOW CONTROL ALL ENEMY RESOURCES
CONTAINED WITHIN THIS CITY. THOSE UNITS THAT WERE SEARCHING FOR OUR BASE WILL
NOW BE REORGANIZED TO PROTECT OUR BASE. WHAT ARE YOUR ORDERS?"

Brad sat down, "First thing, we've got to hide all signs of a battle. That
club has to be rebuilt exactly as it was, but use your simulations instead of
robots for the women. And we've got to beef up the security around this
center, we don't want them to retake it."

"EXCELLENT TACTICS, YOU MUST HAVE RECEIVED ADVANCED MILITARY TRAINING."

"Ha! Actually, I learned that from Command & Conquer. Su-Ling said something
about one of the rooms made up to be a lab, how about turning it into a fully
equipped emergency room. I know I could use some medical aid. How soon could
that be finished?"

"I WILL GIVE THAT A PRIORITY. IT SHOULD BE COMPLETED BY THE TIME YOU ARRIVE.
WILL A FEMALE DOCTOR AND NURSE BE ACCEPTABLE STAFF?"

Brad gasped as he stood up, "Oh yeah, anything will be fine, but it's OK if
you keep to the theme I guess."

JUNE 15, 2005 - 2:05 AM

Brad laid back on the hospital bed, the room around him looked like any modern
hospital. The ambient sound effects included conversations from the hallway
and road noise from the window. He was surprised at the size of the room, it
contained four beds and even had a hospital style bathroom. Around the walls
were several well-stocked cabinets. There was even a magic closet which seemed
to contain an endless amount of medical equipment. A portable x-ray machine
had shown no permanent damage to his neck, but he would require months of
physical therapy. A job that Patricia had instantly volunteered to help him
with.

Both the female doctor and nurse were totally professional and showed a high
degree of medical expertise. They also showed the high degree of muscular
development one would expect from Olympic-class athletes. The doctor
recommended that Brad rest in the "hospital" for at least three days, this
would give his neck time to heal and also give the nurse time to train
Patricia to properly help Brad with his therapy. He slept.

JUNE 18, 2005 - 9:30 AM

The door to Brad's hospital room opened, an amused Lee walked in and smiled
when he saw Brad, "Well, here's the conquering hero! Looks like you had more
luck than we did. We tried to break into six different facilities and got
stopped every time. Though, once I review the files in this system we might be
ready for a rematch. I'm here to take you home, but I'll understand if you
want to stay a while longer!"

"It's a nice place to visit, but I want to go someplace where I can wear
pants." Brad slid off of the hospital bed, grabbed his cloths and walked into
the bathroom to change. "Lee, has there been any reaction to them losing this
base? I keep expecting a massive counter- attack." Brad walked out of the
bathroom, tossed his hospital gown on the bed and joined Lee at the door. Lee
shock his head, "That's the weird thing Brad, we haven't seen a thing. ZARDOZ
is still searching for some central command base, but I'm thinking it's
located off-planet, maybe on the moon."

Brad stepped into the large room, gone were the hap-hazard decorations and
piles of damaged robots. Instead the entire room had been reborn as an
oriental temple with a red and gold theme. Everything matched, the furniture,
the rugs, even the ceiling. Paintings remained on the wall, but they now
showed traditional drawings of oriental women at work and play. However, as
Brad looked closer he noticed that both the work and play involved lifting
extremely heavy objects or wrestling with men. He noticed a large number of
full-sized gold statues of athletic women in near-erotic poses.

"Those are a nice touch," Brad said as he pointed to one of the statues. "But
why so many? There must be fifty of these statues."

Su-Ling walked up, "There are sixty in this room and forty in the room above.
There are another hundred stashed in the stairwell that leads to the control
center and in the control center itself. All of them are modified so that even
if we lose the control center they will remain loyal to us."

"Wait, these aren't statues, they're robots? Hey! That's the giant Dolly
Parton robot! But what is she holding in her arms?" Brad took a closer look at
the six-foot figure, "Burt Reynolds? Now there's an obscure reference. So
these are the defenses we set up?"

Lee looked up at the eight-foot-tall Dolly Parton, "They are one of the layers
Brad, the sim-girls in the rooms are another piece, and they're armed with
weapons. Really big guns that are way too heavy for you or me to pick up.
ZARDOZ helped with that. He seems to be really getting into this. He also
installed a bunch of laser turrets. See there, they look like smoke alarms and
stuff. He's also been putting in weapon pods all along the outside of the
Luxor. He says that he could convert the entire hotel into a spaceship if we
wanted."

"That would annoy the guests a little," Brad remarked as he walked over to one
of the doors. He noticed that the industrial style signal lights had been
replaced by dragons with red and green eyes, "I'll be a couple minutes, just
keeping a promise." With that he opened the door, walked in, and closed it
behind him.

The dorm-room was exactly as he remembered it, and on the bed Kate-the-coed
continued to pump out arm curls. She smiled as he sat down next to her and
started to fondle her bicep. Under the soft pink sweater he could feel her
muscles swell and bulge. This was no robot, and ZARDOZ was getting better at
his simulations. Brad noticed that the dumb-bell she was using was labeled as
"only" eighty pounds, though he was sure he could see a two-hundred-pound one
peeking out from underneath a pile of very female underwear. A door Brad
hadn't noticed opened up, and a towel-clad co-ed walked in. From the steam and
the smell he was sure she had just walked out from a shower. She didn't look
as massive as Kate, but she was slightly taller and had a lean muscular look,
complete with long visible veins running down her arms and legs. She walked up
to Brad, licked her lips and said, "Hi! I'm Jackie, Kate's room mate. You must
be Brad!", she moved closer to him. He could feel the heat of her body as her
athletic form filled his view, "Just so you know," she purred, "We share
everything!"

JUNE 20, 2005 - 3:15 PM

"ATTENTION, ATTENTION! I HAVE DISCOVERED A CRASH SITE CONTAINED WITHIN THE
NATION-STATE CHINA. ENERGY SIGNATURE MATCHES SUSPENDED ANIMATION CHAMBER. IT
IS POSSIBLE THAT ONE OR MORE CREW MEMBERS HAVE SURVIVED. ADVISE ACTION TEAM
DEPLOYMENT."

Brad and Lee looked at each other, Brad smiled, "You know what this means,
don't you Lee? Road trip!"

<><><> Chapter Four - Tomb Of The Atom! <><><>

JULY 17, 2005 - 4:45 PM

The travel arrangements needed to bring the team to China turned out to be
more complex than Brad even wanted to know. His current mission was simple,
drive to an office near Long Beach and pick up some paper work. The first
problem was the fact that the office was empty and the second was that he was
now fighting yet another female who was a lot stronger that she should be.
Brad had seen some of the warning signs, the loose clothing, the heavy
weights, the stack of Power & Muscle magazines sitting in the women's room.
But when he had first saw her she looked more like a lost child than the
murderous mental patient she was acting like now.

When Brad had first walked into the office he thought the building was totally
empty, but then he heard then sound of weights being moved. Following the
sounds he found what looked like a small girl working out in a tiny exercise
room connected to the women's rest room. When he stood in the doorway she
looked up and said, "Hi! I'm Wendy! Everyone else is gone, but if you play a
while with me I'll get you what you came for!"

"OK Wendy, what kind of game do you want to play?" She walked over to a
weight-bench, pointed to it and said, "You look like you're if pretty good
shape. Let's see how many times you can lift this bar." Brad lay down on the
bench and started to do reps with the two-hundred-pound weight. He could feel
his muscles starting to burn as he pushed the bar up for what he knew was the
last time. As the bar came to rest on the supports he could hear Wendy
comment, "That's it? All you can do is ten reps? OK, it's my turn now!"

As Brad got up he stared at Wendy, she was cute, with her curly blond hair and
bright blue eyes, but he was a little scared at the hunger he saw in her face
and the way she licked her lips. That loose-fitting office-uniform she wore
hid the rest of her body, but he thought she might have a mildly athletic
build to her which made her look like a young gymnast. Even though she was
talked like she was around his age, her size and energetic actions made him
think that she was half her age, or less.

"How much should I take off," Brad asked her. Wendy smiled, "Why don't you put
on those 25 plates, two on each side. I'll start with that!" Trembling with
surprise he worked to obey her. What kind of trick was this? Did Wendy really
mean that she was going to lift over three hundred pounds? With a small grunt
Wendy proved that this was exactly what she meant. He could only stare as her
tiny body pumped the bar up and down.

"OK mister, I'm pumped up a little, go ahead and push down on my chest, don't
be afraid to use your full strength. I'm sure I can handle anything you can
do." Wendy was taunting him! He sat down on her stomach and pressed down on
her small breasts with all his strength. Under his hands he could feel her
hard muscles explode and flex as she continued to press the heavy barbell up
and down. "Hold on lover," Wendy muttered, "This top is getting a little too
tight." Wendy put the bar on the support, sat up and pulled off her
sweat-shirt. He was surprised to see that she was wearing nothing else. "Do
you like what you see?" Wendy flexed her biceps for Brad, they grew into
tennis-ball sized mounds of rock. "They're only thirteen inches now, but
they're all rock!"

The more she worked out the larger her muscles seemed to grow. Brad was sure
that Wendy wasn't a robot, so that meant she was part of a different faction.
Wendy dropped the bar onto the supports and grabbed his communicator. "What's
this toy? Sorry! I didn't mean to break it! But now you can't call for help as
I rape you!" Brad jumped up and sprinted towards the door as broken shards of
plastic and metal fell from Wendy's right hand. He had almost gotten the door
shut when he felt Wendy slam into the door. With no way to contact ZARDOZ or
the rest of his friends, he was trapped trying to force the door shut.

Brad could hear Wendy's heavy breathing on the other side of the door. The
pressure continued to slowly increase as she tried to push her way into the
break room. Even though he was twice her size and weighed nearly three times
what she did, Wendy seemed to have much more brute strength than he did. His
shoes gave him better traction than her bare feet, but still the gap
increased. He felt a sudden change as Wendy sent her right arm through the
gap. She held her arm up and flexed her bicep, taunting him with the hardness
and strength of her tiny muscles. Even though she was now using only one arm,
the pressure continued to increase. She moved her right arm so that the edge
of the door was lined up with her bulging bicep. Brad felt the pressure drop
off and soon he found that he was pushing the door into her arm. For a moment
she did nothing, and then she began to flex and relax her bicep. With his full
strength pushing against the door he felt himself pushed back an inch by the
force of her small by inhumanely hard bicep expanding as she flexed.

"Wendy, why are you doing this," asked Brad, "You don't have to go to this
extreme just to have sex!"

"Oh but I do! Every man who looks at me sees a cute little girl and not the
woman I really am. I'm not a little girl, I'll be thirty-six this year! It's
not my fault that I was born with a genetic disorder that makes me a lot
shorter than other people. But guess what, that same genetic malfunction also
makes my muscles nearly four times as dense as so-called normal people. We're
alone, you're kinda cute and I've already proven I'm stronger than you are."

Brad's thoughts raced. What she was saying could be true, he had read about
some genetic problems that made women very short. What he was confused about
was her claim that her muscles had a higher density, but that would clearly
explain how she was pushing him back just by flexing her muscles. Then he got
an idea. "Say Wendy, how about this, I could tell you were a real woman just
by looking in your eyes, no twelve-year-old could have that much lust in her.
I'm one of those guys who are really into strong women. Think you could lift
that bar just by flexing you biceps? I'd love to have sex with any woman who
could do that, and I don't think I'm going to find a woman with harder biceps
than you."

After a moment Wendy stopped pushing. "Well now, if that's the way you really
think then I'm your woman!" Brad slowly opened the door and was surprised to
see that not even a faint redness marked where he had been pushing the door
into her arm. She turned and walked back to the weight bench. "I've never seen
them do this in any magazine, I love the way you think. What's your name,
by-the- way?"

"Brad, my names Brad," he said as he reached out to feel the bicep she flexed
for him. Yes, she was much harder than a normal human, almost as hard a Nancy
or Patricia. He watched as she wrestled the bar into place. With his help she
lifted one end of the barbell and stuck her arm onto the support. Soon she was
pumping the bar up and down. Even though she was only moving the bar an inch
or so, Brad knew that he couldn't have moved a tenth of that weight. She was
bench pressing more weight that he could just by flexing her small rock-hard
biceps.

It took Wendy over five minutes to perform one-hundred bicep flex-lifts. Brad
used nearly two hours to convince her that he really thought she was a woman
and not the little-girl she just happened to look like. At the end both were
greatly satisfied and she handed over all of the documents along with her
phone number.

JULY 29, 2005 - 11:45 PM

The constant noise from the lumbering military transport washed over Brad like
an ocean of angry insects. Even the cheap ear-plugs the crewman had passed out
did little to help. Brad could tell that his friend Lee was enjoying himself
playing with all of the cool gadgets that ZARDOZ had constructed. Brad would
have been fine with just a portable DVD player, but that would have been out
of place. Lee and ZARDOZ have worked together to build a bullet-proof cover
story. Brad just wished that this mythical "Bureau 13" could have used more
comfortable transportation.

Sadly the group was still under the watchful eye of the air crew, so Patrica
had to remain hidden in a "special equipment" crate. Since conversation was
not possible all that he could do was review what little information ZARDOZ
had uncovered. It seems that a Chinese construction crew had come within a few
feet of discovering a buried spaceship. And while the workers had not spotted
the ship, the ship had spotted them. The resulting active probe was clearly
detectable on the other side of the planet. This had been what ZARDOZ had
detected. Because it would be years before ZARDOZ could extend his network of
nodes as far as China, a team had to be sent. Brad smiled and tapped the small
case that contained the alien ORB. At least they would have some local
support.

AUGUST 1, 2005 - 11:23 AM

Nancy reached down and lifted the heavy stone aside. Under the slab they could
see where a small tunnel had been forced through the bedrock to the surface.
Lee shined his light on the side of the tunnel, "Looks like something was used
to burn away the stone. My guess is that there were a couple of survivors from
the original crash who made it out and never looked back. Are you picking up
anything ZARDOZ?"

"THERE ARE SHIELDS IN PLACE THAT BLOCK MOST OF MY SCANS. HOWEVER, I AM
DETECTING THE SIGNATURES OF STASIS FIELD GENERATORS. POSSIBLE PASSENGERS IN
EMERGENCY RECOVERY PODS. EXTREME CAUTION IS SUGGESTED, THERE ARE POSSIBLE
INTERNAL SECURITY SYSTEMS."

Brad didn't like the sound of that, "Can you get into their computer network,
find out who the passengers might be and why the ship crashed here? Oh, yeah,
check to see if there's a way to get in safely."

"THE SHIP IS THE STAR VENTURE, EVIDENTLY IT WAS SMALL PASSENGER SHIP WHICH
SPECIALIZED IN WEALTHY AND IMPORTANT CLIENTS. THE PASSENGER LIST INCLUDES
SEVERAL MERCHANTS, A FAMILY ON EXTENDED VACATION AND A PRINCESS ... WAIT ONE
MOMENT ... WAIT ONE MOMENT. ATTEMPTING TO ACCESS A DAMAGED MEMORY SECTOR.
THERE SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN AN ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT ON THE PRINCESS. HER
BODYGUARDS WERE KILLED AND THE SHIP WAS DAMAGED. MOST OF THE CREW WERE ALSO
KILLED."

"Was the princess killed?" asked Nancy, "And what was trying to kill her?"

"ONE STASIS POD APPEARS TO CONTAIN THE PRINCESS. VIDEO IMAGE AVAILABLE OFF
ATTACKER," A picture of a dangerous looking humanoid covered in far too many
spikes to be friendly appeared in front of the team "THIS IS A TARSAI. IT'S
HIDE APPEARS TO BE RESISTANT TO NORMAL ENERGY WEAPONS. UNKNOWN IF IT WAS
DESTROYED IN THE CRASH."

Brad sighed, "Glad we brought the big guns." Behind him Patricia, the muscular
female gremlin flexed one bicep and winked at Nancy. Brad started down into
the tunnel with ZARDOZ providing light. Both he and Lee were armed with UZIs
filled with mini-AP rounds while the two women, being many times stronger than
the men, each carried a modified mini-gun.

AUGUST 1, 2005 - 5:10 PM

The blue-glowing orb that contained the original alien node moved away the
airlock control. "ACCESS GRANTED, YOU MAY ENTER NOW. LIFE SUPPORT HAS BEEN
RAISED TO MINIMAL LEVELS"

Since everyone else could shoot over her, Patrica led the way into the ship.
Brad looked around and saw nothing familiar. "I don't think these guys are
part of the crowd we fought in Vegas. That writing is different from what's on
the red slab. They've got some kind of ocean theme here complete with
sea-shells."

Lee gazed at the decoration Brad was pointing to, "I think you're right. The
other stuff we found before had a harsher, more military look to it. We know
that someone had been tampering with the gene pool in this area. Perhaps some
of the folks who escaped from the crash did that."

The team walked out of the long corridor and into a large circular room.
Around lay the scattered remains of over a dozen aliens. The floating orb
stopped, "I MUST WAIT HERE, MY PRESENCE HAS BEEN DETECTED BY INTERNAL
SECURITY. IF I CONTINUE ALL WILL BE ATTACKED."

"OK, we'll just have to split up. Can you determine where the stasis pods
are?" Asked Lee.

"SURVIVAL CHAMBER IS THREE LEVELS BELOW THIS ONE. OUR PRESENCE HAS ACTIVATED
THE REVIVAL CYCLES OF SEVERAL OF THE PODS. TIME HAS BECOME A CRITICAL FACTOR."

"We've got to rescue the princess, we're her only hope," whispered Brad to
Nancy. She stared at Brad not understanding while Lee barely controlled his
laughter. A few moments after the team had departed ZARDOZ changed his lights
to red and said "NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF THE DARK SIDE!"

AUGUST 1, 2005 - 8:50 PM

"OK, we're on the right level, I think." said Lee, "Everyone look around a see
if you can find something that looks like a survival chamber."

Brad ran down a short hallway and found himself in a large circular chamber.
Along the walls were a large number of transparent tubes, many filled with a
swirling green gas. In front of him stood a tall figure, clearly female,
covered with a pale-green robe. Though her face was hidden by the robe, Brad
was certain who this had to be. With inhuman grace she raised one hand and
pointed to something behind him. Spinning around Brad spotted the Tarsai as it
pressed some controls on the wall. Brad could see that the entrance to the
chamber was closing, and that the Tarsai was armed with a long blood-coated
pike.

"Fuck this!" Shouted Brad as he emptied a clip of mini-APs into the
seven-foot-tall alien killing machine. The Tarsai was thrown back into the
wall and fell to the floor. For a moment Brad smiled in relief, but then the
monster rose up and turned to him. Brad grabbed for a grenade, but then he
remembered that his ammo belt was on the other side of a six-foot-thick door.
He tossed his now useless UZI at the Tarsai and ducked to one side as it moved
to attack.

The Tarsai lunged forward, attempting to impale Brad onto it's six-foot pike.
Brad threw himself down and rolled towards the Princess. For a moment his
vision blurred, but he did see her hand reach out holding a sword for him to
use. "It is a Protector's Sword, while it's true power can only be unleashed
by a Protector, you may find it of some use." said a small gray voice inside
his mind. Brad grabbed the sword and used it to block the pike as the Tarsai
continued to attack.

The same gray voice whispered instructions into his ear. Now he knew it wasn't
coming from the Princess. Brad looked around and saw no other possible source,
"Great, now's the perfect time to grow crazy! If you want the words said, I'll
do it!" While frantically trying to stay alive, Brad recited the words to an
oath that had not been heard for over five thousand years.

The Princess gasped, her shocked expression hidden by her thick cloth hood,
"The Protector's Oath! How could he have known? But the sword will only
respond if his hart is true!"

Brad felt himself tiring, and knew it that his death was only a few moments
away. The Tarsai seemed to be unstoppable as it continued to attack. Suddenly,
he felt a terrible burning, as if his body had been transported into a
600-degree oven. His vision blurred again, but he knew he could not quit. And
then it was over. The massive Tarsai lay dead on the floor, the pike somehow
broken in two.

Brad fell to his knees as a wave of weakness washed over him. "What the hell
was that?," he mumbled to himself, "Did the sword take over and finish the
fight for me? Looks like I didn't get away clean though." He could feel a warm
dampness on his side that signaled at least one major wound. Brad knew that he
had to get medical help soon or he was dead. Unfortunately, all of the teams
medical supplies were trapped on the other side of the door. Brad heard a soft
noise and looked up.

The Princess slowly walked to Brad and kneeled down so that she was closer to
his height. She gracefully reached up and pulled back the hood which had
hidden her features. "Princess, you are beautiful," Brad muttered. The
Princess reminded him of some gentile sea- creature, with her flawless
fawn-gray skin, large space-black eyes and long silky-black hair. The tiny
gray voice was trying to tell him that he was in great danger, but Brad could
feel that his heart had already become trapped by her gaze.

She looked at the dying human and the scent of his blood filled her mind with
a red haze. "Odd, this creature is triggering the Blood Lust within me. Does
this mean his race is somehow compatible? He was able to activate the
Protector's Blade, it recognized - something. However, if he doesn't know the
words to the Bonding he is doomed, for I will soon lose my mind and consume
him!" she thought to herself.

Brad watched the Princess closely and was troubled by her slow transformation
into something more dangerous looking. Her hands reached out and pulled him to
her, he felt her quick strength and was surprised despite his recent
adventures. "Beautiful princess has sexy muscles," he managed to whisper as he
felt the pressure increase.

Behind the Princess a short gray man appeared, his eyes were wide with alarm
and he held a weapon which looked like an industrial cattle-prod. "I must
knock her out or she will take your life!" Brad shook his head weakly, "She
already has my heart and my soul. Please - don't hurt her. There has to be
another way!" The gray man sighed and said "If this is what you wish, so be
it! Now, repeat what I say!" Some of the alien words were difficult, unlike
the sword the Princess couldn't understand English.

The light of intelligence returned to her eyes, the red haze faded from her
mind. "He lives! But how? Wait - I can feel the Bonds! The man who rescued me,
who nearly died defending me, who woke a Protector's Blade, has completed the
Bonding! And I, Neera, 27th princess of the Na'Morel Dynasty, have mated."
Looking down at herself, the Princess noticed that the transformation from
civilized lady to primitive hunter had not reversed itself. The multi-layered
muscles that gave her race their incredible strength, speed and toughness had
not become dormant as they should have now that she was no longer controlled
by the Blood Lust. "He must be attracted to my strength! That is - somehow -
very pleasurable. I have become a Warrior Princess, the first in thousands of
generations. Mother would not be amused."

AUGUST 1, 2005 - 11:30 PM

Brad woke up and tried to sit up, but his body had other ideas. His moans
brought the Princess to his side. Though her cool eyes revealed nothing Brad
somehow knew that she was pleased to see him awake. She took his hand and
brought it to her chest, "Neera!" Brad noticed that while her face had
returned to normal, her body still had the visible muscles of a world-class
gymnast. He reached up with his other hand, touched his chest and said "Brad".
Looking around the chamber he noticed that the gray man was once again
invisible.

"Look Neera, my friends are waiting for us on the other side of that door. Can
you help me walk?"

The Princess looked in the direction Brad was pointing and understood the need
to leave. More graceful than a ballerina picking up a single flower, she bent
down and picked Brad up. He noticed that the sword had returned to her belt.
Behind them the invisible little gray man shook his head and longed for a cold
beer. Within a few moments Brad and Neera arrived at the sealed entrance. The
Princess was shocked by the readings on the door control. One or more very
powerful creatures were trying to break through. Each attack produced the same
energy as a small explosion. Her mate must have powerful friends. She sat Brad
down by the far wall and began to reprogram the controls.

AUGUST 2, 2005 - 11:10 PM

Nancy sat on the floor, slowly regaining her strength. It felt like they had
been at this for days instead of hours. Even Patrica, the muscular female
gremlin, was starting to slow down. Nancy turned to look at Lee, but she could
tell that the alien technology had defeated him. With a deep rumble, the
massive slab door behind rose and vanished into the ceiling. A tall woman
dressed in robes walked out with Brad in her arms. He waved weakly to his
friends and said "I killed the dragon and rescued the princess, can we go home
now?"

The female gremlin walked up to the Princess, noticed how carefully she was
holding Brad, and smiled, "Friend to Brad you are, Patrica friend to you, now
I am!" The Princess seemed to be listening to something and then smiled,
"Translator implant slow now. Please forgive. I princess Neera, 27th-in-line
for the crown of Na'Morel Empire."

Lee looked at his watch, "Sorry Princess, but that might have been true once -
perhaps five thousand years ago - but not now. We should be going, while I'm
not really worried that the People's Army will suddenly show up, there are
several other players in this game who can detect the energy spikes we've been
sending out." He tried to smile but was a little shaken when he realized that
the Princess had more than just a little shark in her makeup.

As Brad and friends, both new and old, began the slow climb up out of the
buried spaceship, the small gray man leaned back and lit a cigar. As the smoke
crawled around his grim features he thought to himself, "This is an odd little
planet, so civilized in many ways, barbaric in others. Better go find my bags,
I don't want to be around here when the other passengers start to revive.
Besides, that guy owes me one. Maybe he can hook me up with that green babe
with the wonderful big ears!"

AUGUST 9, 2005 - 9:45 AM

Brad laid back in his bed, his wounds were healing fast enough now that he was
back in the secret "emergency room" under the Luxor hotel. The set, part of an
exclusive club dedicated to lovers of female muscle, had grown since the last
time he had been there. Instead of one room filled with medical props, there
seemed to be an entire floor of a generic hospital. One thing hadn't changed,
the nurses, the doctors and even the other patients were all dramatically
built women with amazing muscular development. Brad smiled when he remembered
his quick tour and the heavy weights he had seen in the nurse's lounge.

He heard Princess Neera turn the page of the magazine she was reading, her
translator implants had started to kick in a few days ago and she was becoming
a relentless reader. While there were computers available, she seemed to
prefer holding paper. She put down the dog-eared copy of the Limbaugh Letter
and looked into his eyes, "You are looking better, my mate. Perhaps soon we
will leave this place."

"Hello ZARDOZ, is the beach occupied right now," Brad asked.

"THAT SIMULATION IS CURRENTLY VACANT. DO YOU HAVE A PREFERENCE?"

Brad looked at Neera, smiled and said, "I'd like tropical afternoon plus a
sea-food lunch. I'm still too banged up to swim, but lay out something for
Neera."

"IT WILL BE COMPLETED BEFORE YOU ARRIVE."

The Princess helped Brad walk from the emergency room, across the large red
and gold lobby and into a door labeled "Seaside". On the other side of the
door was a small locker room complete with showers and a stack of thick white
towels. Narrow windows near the top of the walls let in light and the distinct
smell of salt water. Random piles of sand and a handful of small seashells
covered to smooth concrete floor. Neera's eyes grew wide as she took in the
surroundings. "These are for us?" she asked, pointing to a large wicker basket
and a matching cooler. Brad just smiled.

Since ZARDOZ had put out a pair of dark blue swim-trunks, Brad changed, though
not without a few groans of pain as his body protested. Returning to the
common area he found himself stunned by the sight of Neera standing in a
metallic-green fish-scale one- piece swim-suit. "The little mermaid has
nothing on you my princess." Neera picked up the basket and cooler, leaving
the lighter beach blanket for Brad.

The beach was perfect, the water was clear and the sun was bright. To the
right of the small building that held the dressing room was a small cabana and
to the left was a small covered exercise area which would not have been out of
place on Muscle Beach. In front of them were several fire rings and what
looked like a mile or more of clean white sand.

"This ZARDOZ of yours does work that would please an Empress, my mate. At
least it is able to perform the role it was made to do. If it is true that the
Empire has fallen then I am without purpose."

Brad dropped down onto the blanket and reached into the wicker basket. "While
your skin needs little protection, I'm afraid I need a little help. Could you
reach my back, my princess?" Neera took the lotion from him, stared for a
moment at the child and dog on the label, and started to rub a thin coat onto
Brad's back. "Princess, don't think of this as losing your purpose, but as
gaining your freedom. You are your own person now, you can decide what you
want to do. So, what do you want to do?"

Neera leaned back and laughed, a clear musical tone which reminded Brad of
whales singing. "What do I want to do? I want to swim in that ocean, even if
it is only an artful simulation." And with that she jumped up, ran to the
water and dove in with a grace that would shame any human swimmer. Twenty
minutes later she had returned to his side. The hours passed by, the lunch was
consumed, and they talked of nothing and everything. At the end of the day
Brad realized that she truly had be trained to be the Empress. Neera had found
that while her bond-mate was not her match in many ways, he was a good man who
had learned to make her laugh.

AUG 14, 2005 - 11:00 AM

Lee's secret base, which had started out life as a missile base back in the
1960's, looked pretty much the same as it had when Brad first saw it. His room
did seem much smaller now that he was sharing it with the alien princess. At
least her aquarium was housed in the common area. At first Lana was
uncomfortable being around Neera, but the alien's charm and grace quickly
broke through all barriers. Brad was alone in his room when he discovered that
he had an uninvited visitor.

"Say, what does a guy have to do to get a beer around here?" said the little
gray man.

Brad fell back onto his bed, "Don't you ever knock? You almost scared me to
death! By the way, thanks alot for the advice back in China. I figure both me
and the princess would be mush. Hey, I bet you were one of the merchants who
were traveling on that ship. The whole invisibility thing must come in handy."

"You know, you're pretty quick figuring out things. I like that in a client.
My name's Yxlax Vordmeter, attorney-at-law. Though I'm pretty sure my license
expired before your Roman Empire did. I used to do contracts and stuff. The
Empire was very civilized, which meant that there are a lot of very long, very
complicated contracts. One of my professors said that you can judge the level
of civilization by how long the average contract is. From what I can see, you
humans are stepping up big time."

Brad silently ordered two beers from ZARDOZ. He was keeping his ability to
mentally contact the alien computer a secret, but he figured that Yxlax
wouldn't tell. He handed one of the beers to the ex-lawyer and asked, "So, you
called me a client but I'm thinking that you want something from me. What can
I do for you?"

The gray alien made a show of opening his beer and taking the first sip. "Hey,
this is good! You must be having your computer bring in the good stuff from
Germany. OK, this is a little difficult - you see - well, there's this lady
I'd like to be introduced to. The thing is, guys in my profession don't do
well with women who are not professional, if you get my drift. And - I've
always had this thing about - ears."

Brad closed his eyes, "Big ears?"

Yxlax nodded, "It's hard to explain. Kind of a kink that goes back to my child
hood. See there was this -"

"OK, I understand having desires that are not mainstream," Brad slowly shook
his head, "ZARDOZ, could you ask Patricia to join us." He looked at the little
gray man, "Don't go invisible! I'll deal with the rest of the team, OK?"

Just then the door crashed open and Patricia, the female gremlin bounced in,
"Come I have! Your needs I -" Patricia stopped at the sight of the little gray
man. "Who?"

Brad stood up, "Patricia, I'd like to introduce Yxlax, an expert in alien law.
Yxlax, this is Patrica, the strongest gremlin I know. Patricia, Yxlax was a
passenger on the ship went found in China. He is a legal expert from the old
empire. And he helped me win that battle, at the risk of his own life. Don't
you think he deserves a hero's reward?"

She walked up to Yxlax, "Taller than he I am. Words of power do you know?
Patrica like power. She hear other talk of words that bind. Patricia strong,
but her words have no power. She thinks hero's reward is due."

Brad slowly walked towards the door, "Try not to break anything kids!"

AUG 14, 2005 - 3:30 PM

"Hey Brad, there was a pakage addressed to you from someone in California.
ZARDOZ scanned it and says it's safe." said Lee as he tossed a brown envelope
towards where Brad had been napping.

"This is interesting," Brad muttered to himself, "It's a DVD from that strange
girl I met in Long Beach. Nothing else to do while my room is occupied," he
ripped the plastic off of the case and inserted the disk into the player. For
a moment nothing happened, and then the video began.

Tammy, so said the caption below her, stood in the middle of a generic
bedroom, the light from the open window creating a golden glow within her long
straight blonde hair. She wore plain jeans and a short sleeve tee-shirt. White
socks and red tennis shoes completed her outfit. "Have you ever tried weight
lifting?", asked an off-screen voice. "No", she said softly.

She was led into the another room filled with exercise equipment and told to
lay down on a weight bench that sat near the far wall. Her shoes made a
scratching sound as she walked across the matting. "How much do you weigh?"
she was asked. "One ten," she answered.

A man walked into view and put a bar on the support stands and added two ten
pound plates. "Ok, try this. Tell me if it's too heavy for you." She carefully
gripped the bar and pushed up. The barbell rose as if it were weightless. Brad
thought he had seen a brief flicker of muscle on her slim arms, but he wasn't
sure. After Tammy put the bar down the man removed the ten pound plates and
replaced them with twenty-five pound plates. Once more she lifted the bar as
if it were weightless. On her arms was the smallest ripple of muscle. The man
added two more twenty-five pound plates. This brought the barbell up to one
hundred and twenty pounds. As she easily lifted the bar, the muscles on her
arms and chest were plainly visible. Again the man added two more twenty-five
pound plates. Tammy carefully gripped the bar and smoothly lifted it up. The
man ran his hand along her tensed muscles, "They feel like wood, warm and
hard," he said.

Once more the man added fifty pounds to the bar, bringing it to over two
hundred pounds. Her muscles buldged large and solid as she smoothly pushed it
up. He brought out a tape measure and the camera zoomed in. Her arms to be a
little over thirteen inches in size. He brought over four more twenty-five
pound plates and began to add them. Tammy looked up at him and said, "May I
please take off my shirt, it's getting very tight when I push." He nodded yes.
She sat up and quickly slipped off her shirt. Underneath she wore no bra, Brad
saw that her breasts were firm and larger than he expected. As she lay down he
noticed no visible signs of muscle on her.

The bar-bell now weighed over three hundred pounds. Tammy wrapped her hands
around the bar and began to push. The muscles and tendons on her chest and
arms exploded into view as the bar slowly rose. The man quickly measured her
upper arm with the tape measure. "How big is my arm?" she asked. "Fourteen and
a half," he answered. "I can left more weight if you want me to," she said
softly. He took off the twenty-five pound plates and replaced them with fifty
pound plates. The bar was now over six hundred pounds. That was over four
hundred pounds more than he could bench press, Brad thought.

"I bet you can't lift this," the man said to her. Tammy smiled for the first
time and said, "I don't know, no one ever took the time to see how strong I
am." She began to push. Her chest and arms grew large, larger, bigger, harder.
Slowly the bar, over six hundred pounds, began to go up. The camera zoomed in
as the tape measure came out. Her arm to be just over sixteen inches around.
"Push down on the bar," she whispered. He dropped the tape and put his hands
onto the bar. Tammy brought the bar down until her upper arms were level with
her now massivly muscular chest. He began to push down harder and harder, Brad
could seen the man's face turning red. Finally, he climbed onto the bar and
hung on. On the screen a caption flashed the message that the man weighed over
two hundred pounds. Brad watched with awe as she lifted the bar, now with over
eight hundred pounds of weight. Tammy's chest was so massive that he guessed
that it was many inches larger than his own fourty inch chest. He could seel
no sign of strain from her.

She brought the bar down until it touched her chest. "Stand on the bar," Tammy
ordered the man. He quickly got off of the bar and stood up. Using the wall
for balance, he stood in the middle of the bar. Once more she lifted her eight
hundred pound load. The man reached the ceiling and he began to push. He
looked like he was straining with all his might, but one her arms were just
getting larger and more muscular. She brought the bar down and he climbed off.
Tammy put the bar back onto the supports and stood up. "Was I strong enough?"
she asked.

"Yes," said then man. She bent down, picked up the measuring tape, and handed
it to him. "How big are my arms now?" Tammy asked as she raised her slim right
arm. He wraped the tape around her arm. "Twelve inches - he began to say, when
suddenly she flexed her bicep. The quickness of the expansion popped the tape
out of his hands. Putting the tape back on her arm he found it to be eightteen
inches and still slowly growing. "Will you try for twenty?" the man asked. A
few moments later her arm had grown to twenty inches around. She looked at her
arm for a long time. "I want to remember this size so that I can bring it back
when I need to." whispered Tammy.

The video went black for a moment and then returned. Both Tammy and the man
had returned to the bedroom. He reached back into a closet and brought out an
old long-sleeve sweat-shirt. "Take off your shirt and put this on." Tammy
sliped out of her shirt and put it on his bed. Brad could see no sign of
muscular development on her. The man gave her the sweat-shirt and she put it
on.

"I want you to get big, slowly." he commanded. "But, that would damage your
shirt," she wispered. "That's OK. Just do it slowly." he answered. Tammy held
up her arms and went into a double-biceps pose. She slowly tensed her muscles.
The man ran his hands along her arms and back, "They feel like steel-hard
ballons." Soon the shirt was tight as her upper body grew larger and more
muscular. Tammy's arms and chest were as big as the man's. She tensed even
harder. Suddenly one seam split along the length of her right arm, her
buldging muscles exploding into view. This was followed by her left arm, and
then chest and shoulders. Putting his arms around her, the man found that he
could barely touch his hands behind her back. Her neck was a solid column of
muscle, and her back was covered with massive muscles. Her deltoids expanded
into large smooth mounds of musle nearly the size of volley balls. Tammy's
arms had become huge, with had bulging softball-sized biceps.

The video went black again and when it returned Brad saw that they were still
in the same bedroom. "Are you done?" Tammy whispered. The camera focused on
Tammy, who now bound tightly on the floor with hundreds of feet of heavy nylon
cord covering her slim arms and legs. The only visible skin was her face and
hands, everything else was covered with at least three layers of cord. It must
had take him over an hour to tie up Tammy, Brad thought.

The man commanded, "Remember, do this very slowly, we want to capture
everything." For several long moments Brad could see no movement. Then,
slowly, he saw Tammy's thighs beginning to grow. He could hear soft creaking
sounds as the already taunt cords were streched to the breaking point. Tammy
smiled shyly and then began to pull her legs apart. Inch by inch he watched
her feet smoothly move away from each other. At last the nylon cords had
reached their maximum length. Tammy closed her eyes, and with a soft "Uhhh..."
she pulled her legs free from the cords. Brad watched in awe as Tammy's
massively muscular legs snapped the thick nylon cords as if they were rotton
threads. Pushing herself up, she stood in front of the man and smiled. While
her upper body was still bound tight, her powerful lower body was flexing and
free.

She took one deep breath, leaned her head back, and began to spread her arms.
Tammy's upper body exploded with massive muscles! Almost at once the cords
began to snap and part. Slowly she raised her arms up into a double biceps
pose, the heavy cords dropping off like thick cobwebs. For a moment she stood
there, her muscles beyound belief. Then Brad noted two things. The first was
that all of her clothing had been ripped off of her, she was clearly much
older than her cloths first hinted. The second thing he noted was the lust he
saw in her eyes.

The screen faded to black and then a new view emerged. The wooden sides of the
barn creaked as the afternoon sun beamed down. A very large, muscular man lay
on top of tiny woman, his weight crushing her frail looking body. "Ok Cindy.
On the other side of the door, that big thick wooden one, is a bucket filled
with gas. A timer is set to light the gasoline in about five minutes. Anything
in the bucket will be totally burned up, but we will be safe out here."

Cindy only grunted, her breath was strained and painful. The man was very
heavy, and she was a very thin, very frail woman. Brad didn't understand what
was happening or why. The man continued, "The door is locked with a heavy
lock. Too bad the key is back at my house. Oh, and remember that I had you
bring your favorite doll? Well, it's in the bucket."

For a few seconds Cindy was still, then she began straining to get up. It felt
to him as if her body was begining to inflate. Only, instead of air, someone
was pumping in rock! Cindy twested under the man, straining to get free, her
body becoming more muscular by the second. The man's arms trembled at the
effort, but she was slowly forcing her way up. Cindy stood up, her once
bone-thin legs now massively muscular. The man's entire weight was on her, but
she now supported him effortlessly.

Cindy ran to the door and began to pull hard on the lock. The man was tossed
off of her and onto the ground by the sheer pressure of her back exploding
into a mountain of muscle. He jumped up and grabed her arm, both hands round
her massive, and still growing, bicep. With an almost-sexual moan Cindy ripped
the lock off of the door and began to force the thick wooden door open.

The two-inch thick metal bolts began to deform. The camera zoomed for a moment
on her muscular back and arms. With a violent "snap" they came off, sending
Cindy to land on her back. As the heavy doors slowly swung open she could see
the concrete block they had been connected to. "Sorry to fool you Cindy. But
there never was any gasoline. I wouldn't do anything like that to your doll.
Look, there it is in that cloth bag."

She got up and went over to the bag, inside was her favorite doll. Cindy
looked up and said, "You scared me! But that was fun! I feel - happy!" The man
came over to her and dusted her off. Already Cindy had begun to return to
normal, though her arms were still much larger than his own.

The screen went blank once again as the video ended with a company logo. "Is
that what you wish, my mate?" Brad jumped as Neera spoke to him, he hadn't
heard her come up behind him. "I must warn you that I am at my full strength
only when I am aroused, and on this planet you are the only one who can arouse
me to that level." He looked up into her dark eyes and found himself consumed
once again.

AUG 15, 2005 - 5:20 AM

Brad awoke on the floor of the common room with Neera wrapped around him. She
had a slightly lower body temperature and enjoyed having maximum contact with
him. Two sets of eyes and two matching smiles greeted him. "Did you know that
the city near here has drive-in wedding chapels which are open all night? My
estimation of your civilization goes up every day! We're going to something
called a honeymoon, though no space travel is required. We should be back in a
week or two, but ZARDOZ can contact us if there's an emergency." Yxlax
whispered. And with that the little gray man and the muscular green gremlin
vanished into thin air.

SEP 6, 2005 - 9:00 AM

Lee stood up and pointed at a chart ZARDOZ was projecting in the air above the
big table. "We believe that some of the alien artifacts in orbit and on the
Moon were put there by the Na'Morel Empire. Others come from at least three
other sources. My best guess is that everyone came looking when the crashed
ship that was carrying the princess. They must have figured that if she had
survived the crash then she had to be in a stasis pod, and that in some point
in time she would be revived. The great physical strength of female Na'Morel
was legendary, so each side developed plans to cope with that. One side built
robots, another modified human DNA, and an other developed the serum which
turned normal women into amazons. By now all of the aliens who started these
programs have died off or moved far away. ZARDOZ isn't much help because his
ship actually crashed a hundred or so years before the passenger ship crashed
in China. ZARDOZ thinks that the Princess could actually control these
remaining Empire installations, but we don't have the command codes so they
will ignore all signals we send to them. I think there's a backup system which
would recognize her if she could get close to any of these artifacts, but we
don't have a working spaceship."

Brad raised his hand, "What about the crashed ship in China? Couldn't we
repair it with ZARDOZ's help?"

"We don't have that kind or resources," said Karla, the massive red-headed
libraian, "What we need is the industrial capacity of a first- world country.
I'm sorry, but all you've shown me is a converted missile base and a secret
amazon theme-park. Granted you have the use of your alien computer, but he was
built as an entertainment unit and doesn't have the information we need."

"OK, how about the computer systems on that transport?" asked Brad, "They are
a little more up to date and were built to handle a wider range of problems.
Hey ... wait a minute! That thing was a passenger ship, right? Don't tell me
that they didn't have life boats? Those stasis pods would be great once the
ship landed, but what if the ship was disabled?"

The little gray man looked up and gave Brad a thumbs-up, "My client is
correct, and I just happen to have these. Hope it helps!" Yxlax tossed a
brightly colored pamplet onto the table.

"I can't read this, sorry," said Lee as he unfolded the phamplet, "Wait! This
reminds me of one of those things they have on an airline that shows the
emergency exits and that your seat partner is a floatation device."

Princess Neera reached over and pointed towards three small objects contained
within the drawing of the ship, "Perhaps these are what you desire. They have
very limited range if I remember correctly."

Lee sighed, "They could have been the answer, too bad they are pointed down!"

"Hang on Lee!" said Brad, "This looks similar, but it's bigger and on the top
of the ship! If that's the airlock we came in, then this lifeboat or whatever
is even closer to the surface. ZARDOZ, what has your remote monitor been
reporting, has anyone else come to look at the ship?"

"PLEASE OBSERVE, I RECEIVED THIS VIDEO A FEW MOMENTS AGO." Lee's chart
vanished and a view of the area near the crash site appeared. For a few
moments all was peaceful and then a small group of aliens crawled out of the
ground and sprinted away. "I BELIEVE THESE ARE SOME OF THE OTHER PASSENGERS
WHO WERE REVIVED BY THE AUTOMATIC SYSTEMS" Suddenly a robotic tentacle
appeared coming out of hole. It was soon followed by several others and then
the beginning of a large body was seen being forced through the hole. The
image vanished. "MONITOR DESTROYED BY HIGH-ENERGY WEAPON. OBJECT IS CLEARLY
HOSTILE."

"Holy shit! You bet that's hostile!" screamed Yxlax, his features grayer than
normal, "That's a Mark-30 Hunter-Killer! There's nothing on your planet that
can stop one of these!"

"So, that's plan B," whispered Brad, "And I bet that thing is programmed to
hunt and kill the Princess"

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