Fantastic! By Merz Super heroes cope with the price of powers These were the Marvelous Years. For a decade ordinary human beings at random had experienced miraculous transformations that gave them super powers. Others applied their own genius to artificially enhance their abilities to undreamed of levels. Some of these transformed individuals stepped forward to fight crime and defend their world against environmental challenges and futuristic menaces from outer space. A few others were blinded into thinking they could profit illegally by their gifts, or sought to seize political power. These rebels were quickly taught the folly of their ways by humanity's champions. Why rob a bank when super strength could earn more money in honest entertainment? Why use genius for evil purposes when Tonia Stark of Stark Enterprises would gladly hire innovators to carry her technological miracles even further? The women who had inherited these great gifts usually needed to be disciplined only once to convince them to channel their ambitions in more constructive ways. Somehow the males who had been transformed were slow learners, so ten years into the age of superheroes there weren't many of them left. The first team to be so transformed, the Fantastic Four, stood foremost among those who had accepted the responsibility of power. The Invisible Boy, Sam Storm, could cause himself or other objects to vanish, and could project invisible force fields. Beverly Grimm gained incredible strength at the expense of having her body morphed into rock hard skin and muscle. The Human Torch, young Joanie Storm, could ignite herself into a being of living fire, capable of flying and generating thousands of degrees of heat. And their leader, Reid Richards, Ms Fantastic, found her body able to stretch and flow as if it were liquid, or to become as solid as an ordinary human. With her wisdom and scientific genius, Reid Richards was the obvious person to sit down over tea with newly super powered individuals to explain the rules and opportunities of living peacefully, and the consequences of failing to use their powers responsibly. * * * "There she goes again. Reid, I realize with Bev's strength there isn't a man on the planet who could stand up to her, even if he could get past her appearance, but the pounding and the screams are driving me crazy." "Now Joanie, give her a break. I'll see if that air hammer I converted into a vibrator can be muffled, and I'll talk with her about trying to keep her voice down. But of us all she lost the most in the cosmic ray bombardment. I'll never stop trying to find a way to change her appearance back." "I know, I know. If only her libido hadn't been strengthened along with the rest of her I might be able to stand it. If we didn't have that going on at all the wrong moments we could have our own reality TV show and be hauling in a hundred grand a week each like Charlene Xavier is doing over at her school for mutants. But I have to get out of here before I have my own meltdown. I'll see you later. Flame on!" The attractive blond suddenly dissolved into living flame and launched herself through the open glass door, across the terrace, and into space from the fifty- fifth floor penthouse. The mechanical hammering that had shaken the walls of the living area subsided and the moans faded away. Reid Richards, tall, slender, still attractive in her middle years, brushed back her auburn hair and settled into an easy chair to read a scientific journal dealing with radiation-induced genetic changes. She looked up a few minutes later when she heard a door down the hallway open and heavy footsteps approach. "Hey Stretch, how's it going?" Reid detected the forced cheerfulness in the gravelly voice as her best friend came into the living room. "Is the squirt around?" "No, she had an errand and took off. Oh, Bev, you aren't thinking of trying the topless look again are you?" Reid put the journal aside and studied the massive form in front of her: six feet tall, five hundred pounds, five feet wide at the shoulders, twice as far around the chest as around the waist. In all its proportions this was a physique that advertised its ability to easily overpower an elephant while retaining the basic proportions of a statuesque woman. Bev Grimm stood wearing only a blue-black thong as if to emphasize the transformation her body had undergone during the team's disastrous space flight, and to emphasize that her present form concealed what had once been an extremely attractive woman.. "What's the difference? These tits don't need any support. Hell, I can punch them through a brick wall. It's not like they're going to be turning anyone on or that I have any modesty to protect. God, I miss my nipples." She cupped the generous orange globes in her powerful hands and hefted them. "I figure I might as well show the world what I am. A Thing, just like that snot Joanie said the first time she saw me after the crash." Bev sank heavily into her specially constructed chair, built to hold her weight and to stand up to her abrasive, stone-like skin. "I went out earlier and helped the highway department punch through that new tunnel under the river. We hit some granite down there so it made a good workout." She settled back and examined her massive four fingered fists. "The hard hats got a kick out of my new costume. One of them tried pinching my butt with a pair of pliers. I almost felt him do it." "Good, I'm glad you can find constructive things to do with your power. Got anything going on tonight?" "Yeah, I'm judging the Next Big Thing contest at the Garden. I figure that's my real contribution to society. Looking like I do, I'm inspiration for the norms to see how big they can get by weightlifting and whatever. Before I came along the women's categories were especially hurting for a role model. Now thanks to me they all have one that nobody can hope to match, but at least they're packing on the muscle trying. The Yancy Street Dolls are all huge with attitude to match, pretending eighteen or twenty inch biceps can match this." She flexed her enormous biceps, piling up a muscular orange mound that rose six inches above her massive upper arm. Her friend marveled at the display as she always did. "You have become the role model for a lot of women. Hell, being around you has made pumping iron a religion with me, too. I can bench press a hundred pounds more than before our transformation. I'm buff enough now to kick the butts of the common crooks who were running around the year we took off. We earn a good share of our money selling your t-shirts and videos. Times have changed since you were turning heads in your tight skirts and heels. Those muscle women practically worship you, and a lot of men worship the incredible muscles you inspired on the women." From her seat Bev pointed a toe to flex her calf into a giant orange diamond. "I gotta admit it, those power-norms inspire me right back. If did transform back tomorrow I don't think I'd leave the gym until I could be a contender with them in my own contest. Strength is pretty addicting. I just wish I could really show it off up close and personal." Reid sat forward, her face pulled into a concerned frown. "Okay, now I get it. The new costume is supposed to attract a body builder who thinks he might have a chance of surviving screwing you. You know better than that by now. Even if you could keep from pulverizing him, his dick would get scraped raw just trying to get it in and that would be the end of that." She stretched her arm across the room and rested it on her friend's knee. "How long has it been?" Bev took several deep breaths as she fought against the sob that was trying to escape. "We both know down to the second when we took off. I haven't had a man since." Reid crossed the room and knelt in front of her friend. "I was afraid of that, but I had hoped you might have found a super- powered man somewhere to connect with, or even one of Victoria's Doombots. I'm meeting Magneta for a drink this evening. I'll ask if she knows any new male mutants who might be available. I'll never understand why women getting powers outnumber the men so much. It must be over five to one, and the powers the men do get seem so pitiful. The Scarlet Wizard, weather controllers, telekinetics, even our own dear Invisible Boy. I can't believe I almost married him before we all learned about his criminal tendencies. You'd think more of them would get a strength enhancement. But I guess it's better this way. There aren't many we've found with the maturity to handle that sort of physical power. Magneta says half her time is spent riding herd on the testosterone-poisoned part of the mutant population." Reid stood, her hand still on Bev's knee. "Xavier says she has one, Rogue, who seems pretty much invulnerable. But his touch not only knocks the other person out, it steals their power temporarily. That's no help if you'd end up unconscious and back to normal beneath a male version of your orange-skinned self. Even if you got your body back for a while you wouldn't be awake to appreciate it. But I'm willing try again myself. I've been working on some new durable fabrics for our uniforms. It might give me enough protection to get the job done. Watch." As Bev stared, open mouthed, Ms Fantastic's body justified her name. Reid drew her fluid flesh into a more compact form, shorter and broader. Her prominent breasts melted into her chest. From a shapely five foot-eight she compressed to five feet tall, then began redistributing the mass. Her thighs bulged impressively, her shoulders broadened and knots formed in her upper and lower arms. In a matter of moments she resembled a short, powerfully muscled male body builder. Then she began the most fantastic transformation of all. The bud of her clitoris pushed outward, bulging the snug uniform tights. Reid pushed her hips toward Bev and smiled seductively. "You ready, big girl?" The bulge increased as Ms Fantastic directed more of her mass into her genitals and stretched them outside her abdomen. "Shall I change my face, or is this all right." Bev exploded from her chair and seized Reid tightly against her. The body Fantastic had to yield to the crushing pressure, but Reid concentrated on providing some resistance so she didn't completely flow out of Bev's grip but was fluid enough not to bruise or break as a normal human would. "The face is fine, handsome. I wasn't going to fuck the face." "The reason I hate the idea of you showing so much of your body in that uniform, is that I know it is still a beautiful body that got stronger and harder, with the same beautiful woman inside it." Reid pressed the orange colossus back into her chair and focused on making her own arms appear to swell with muscle as she snatched off the minimal thong uniform and pulled off her own top. Reid attempted to play the part of a small but aggressive seducer and even succeeded in penetrating Bev's forbidding but willing loins. After a few moments of thrusting and groping, however, they stopped as if by an unspoken agreement. "I'm sorry, Reid. It just isn't working. When I forget myself and hold you with even a fraction of my power, your body turns liquid so you won't get crushed. I've been with men who had trouble staying hard, but then it was never the entire man." Reid Richards pushed herself up and off her friend, her body flowing back into its normal shape. As she dressed again she smiled at Bev's comment despite her disappointment that the experiment had failed. "I imagine on the weakest day of your life you would have intimidated most men because of how much heart you have inside." As she helped Bev back into her tiny costume she stretched to kiss her friend's rough orange cheek. "I won't stop searching for a way to change you back, but I still doubt there are many men who deserve you." Bev headed for the workout room in FF headquarters to get in some exercise before leaving for the contest at Madison Square Garden. She knew how ironic that was. While pushing her strength took her mind off the mounting sexual desire that constantly smoldered inside her, soon after heavy exertion she always felt hornier than before. When she had emerged from working with the tunneling crew beneath the Hudson River earlier that day, she had plunged into the chilly waters in the hope that the cold water would drown the desire aroused when one of the workers had appeared before her wearing a sweat-dampened t-shirt that clung tightly to his muscular physique. She still had had to rush back to HQ where she spent half an hour masturbating with her converted air hammer to relieve the irresistible urge to grab a man and have her way with him, whatever the damage that might do to any mortal. Now she set the mega-gym to ten tons and began pressing the bar above her head in smooth, measured repetitions. At fifteen she stopped and rose to reset the dial, adding another five tons to the machine's resistance for her second set. She carefully made no outward reaction to a blurred movement she caught from the corner of her eye. Before again taking her place beneath the foot-thick steel bar, Bev casually picked up a towel as if to wipe away non-existent sweat. Suddenly she whirled and threw the towel at a ruddy, glowing patch that seemed to hover near the door to the exercise room. With a fraction of her strength behind it, the wadded fabric flew with the force and velocity of a football thrown by an NFL quarterback. "Oooof!" came a cry, followed by the crash of a body slamming violently against the wall. In an instant Bev pounced on the blurry form, seizing it and slamming it firmly against the wall. "You little creep, when are you going to learn? You're already a registered sex offender, after Spiderwoman caught you trying to watch her change out of her uniform. I would have thought the beating she gave you would have been enough. And you know she and Reid planted that bioluminescence material in you so you glow whenever you're sexually aroused. That's the only thing that kept you out of jail. You can't use your invisibility to stalk any other women who don't have the advantage of a Spidersense to warn them. Or the speed and strength to beat the crap out of you before you could put up a forcefield to save your useless hide." The handsome blond Sam Storm blinked into visibility, pinned fast to the wall by one of Bev's hands. "Ow! Take it easy! I didn't mean any harm. It's just that nobody will even talk to me any more. I'm sick of being an outcast around here." His hands gripped Bev's forearm, then explored further along its powerful length. Sam closed his eyes and shuddered involuntarily. "It isn't what any of you think. I'm not a pervert. It's not about just any women, Bev, its about you - just you. I can't help myself when you're around." The startled heroine known as The Thing released the man and pulled away suddenly. "If you give me that line of bull, I'll crush you like a bug and do the world a favor. The last thing I need is some pretty-boy making fun of me." She clenched a pile- driver fist, causing her arm to swell further. "I'd never do that." Sam landed at Bev's feet and reached out to feel her massive leg. "I feel closer to you than to anyone on the team, including my own little sister. You and I made a good team last year in New Orleans. If we hadn't got those levees plugged and reinforced, whole neighborhoods might have been flooded, hundreds of people could have lost their homes." He hugged the leg tighter and looked up at her. "In fact, it was seeing you heading toward the breech in the levy with a semi trailer on your back that sort of pushed me over the edge. You even looked kind of graceful wading up against the current. I couldn't forget it, I couldn't sleep, I just couldn't stop imagining how strong you must be to be able to do that." "Well, you were taking a big chance yourself standing on top of the levee while using your forcefield to reinforce it. I had to move fast to close the gaps before they spread too wide for you to control or the river pressure got too great for you. We were a good team. I should have told you before." Bev gave Sam a hand up. They stood close together, one of Sam's hands on her forearm. "When we got back I saw Spiderwoman tossing around a couple of crooks, and she reminded me of how strong you are. I went invisible and followed her on my jet cycle, just watching how she moved, how she showed such graceful strength getting across town to where she had stashed her street clothes. That's when she caught me. I couldn't stop myself from getting closer to see if her muscles look anything like as powerful as yours. I didn't know she was suddenly going to start pulling off her costume. Besides, her arms don't look much bigger than mine so it was no big deal." "Are you kidding? Spiderwoman is still a Mask. She can change clothes and fit in with the weak norms on the streets. She needs to dress up to be recognized, so of course she was going to get out of the costume. I've given up trying to find a way to dress so I won't be recognized. I'm the most hideous monster on the planet. Even before Reid and Dr. Strange came up with that PMS formula that keeps Brenda Banner from turning into the Hulk she looked more human than me. Look at me." Bev threw back her mountainous shoulders and thrust out her chest. She tensed her incredible muscles in sequence, putting on a show that left Sam staring open-mouthed. "Now you're the one who must be kidding." Sam felt the rock hard shoulders as they experienced tectonic shifts of muscle. "I wouldn't have to wait for women to undress to get a peek at their bodies. I could just make their clothes transparent, and they probably wouldn't even notice right away. But I've never done that. They don't interest me anymore, and I never even got this show before." "The only reaction any guy is going to have looking at me is to get sick or get scared." "Why do you think I tried sneaking in where you'd be exercising? You know my trunks don't always fit like this. I guess if you're just in that thong uniform I shouldn't be embarrassed. Watch." Sam Storm's blue and black uniform suddenly blinked invisible, leaving him standing as if bare naked in front of the orange powerhouse. "Geez, kid, that schlong can't have anything to do with me," Bev gasped as she stared at the engorged member pressed by the now- transparent clothes against Sam's lower abdomen, stretching from his crotch to his navel. "It has everything to do with you." He threw himself against Bev, wrapping his arms as far around her as he could reach. "I just love seeing you use your strength. I've imagined what it would feel like to hold myself against this rock-hard body and have these fabulous arms around me. Since Spiderwoman caught me and then she and Reid injected that gene splice into me, I never go invisible when you're around because I'd glow so much people would confuse me with my sister, the Torch. I knew I took a big chance just now, hoping I could stay get of sight before you spotted me." "Well, I guess I'm bad luck for us both. You want to fuck me as much as I want a man, and you wouldn't live past foreplay." Bev tried shrugging Sam off, but he clung tenaciously. "That's where you're wrong. Reid and I worked out a scheme in case Galactus ever comes back. I'll put a force field like a freight train in her crack and give her a fuck like the galaxy hasn't seen since the Big Bang. That should leave her vulnerable for a while afterwards so we can transport her to another dimension. If you can stand the idea of me being that close to you, after all that mess with Spiderwoman and the sex-crime accusation, I'm here for you. With my force field I can protect myself when you hold me and cover my dick with its own impenetrable condom. And make the sheath as big as you like." As she shredded it, Bev saw Sam's costume return to visibility. Her rough hands were tender as she lifted him effortlessly over her head and gave his freed cock a close examination. "Before you do anything fancy with force fields, did you know my mouth and tongue were as soft as ever?"