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| Story: A New Life - Chapter 16a Saturday, 29-Apr-2000 23:21:46
This chapter introduces a troubling aspect to Sarah's life - one that will have a profound (if that's not an overused term) effect on her life as a heroine. This is actually the first half of this chapter; the next will be posted within a day or two, and will expand upon the events that take place here. Thanks for reading, and I hope everyone enjoys! The mall is a very busy place on Saturdays. The many stores and wide avenues running by them are filled with people. Many were shopping, and many more were merely window-shopping. It’s very difficult to pick out individual among the vast throng. But two visitors to the mall were having little difficulty keeping two very specific people in sight. Their dark-colored business clothing looked somewhat out-of-place, as the great majority of shoppers were much more casual-minded. Even at that, they managed to blend in, not drawing undo attention to themselves, save for the occasional sidelong glance. They watched Sarah and Dana Carter as they took a seat. The observers took their own bench not twenty feet away from their quarry. When Sarah left her sister’s side and began walking across one of the mall’s busy thoroughfares, one of the examining women stood up and discreetly followed her. Her companion began making her own way towards Dana, who remained on the white bench. Dana lost sight of Sarah, the crowd swallowing her adopted sister in its undulating mass. She sensed movement on her right side, and she turned her head to see a woman sitting down beside her. Dana took quick stock of her: she was dressed professionally, her suit jacket and skirt very sharp and well pressed. She also was very attractive looking, her brown eyes gazing into Dana’s own. Dana smiled, but the smile she received in return was conservative, to say the least. “Dana Carter?”, she asked, though she sounded like she already knew the answer. “Yes, I’m her.”, Dana responded. “Do I know you?” The woman shook her head. “No, we have never met. I would like to ask you a few questions, if I may. I work for The Denver Mercury – a newspaper that your sister, Sarah Carter, is in friendly competition with, I believe. Are you familiar with a woman who possesses superhuman powers?” Dana’s eyes narrowed slightly as she looked up at the ceiling in thought. “Oh, do you mean that green woman who helped break up that attempted bank robbery a while ago?” She saw the other woman nod. “Yes, I have heard a little about her, but only from the papers. You see, I’m not from around here. I live in Portland, Oregon. I’m here for a couple of days to visit with my sister and catch up on things. I’ve never seen this woman in person, if that’s what you’re asking, though I’ve heard about her from Sarah and Andrew Peters, who also works for your newspaper. They might be able to help you out more than I can. If you’re not in too big of a hurry, Sarah will be right back. She just went to buy us some fruit juice. I’m sure she’ll be happy to talk to you about this. As long as she’s not giving away any of her own paper’s secrets.” The woman smiled. “Yes, I do not want to cause her to reveal anything that she is uncomfortable with. Thank you for your kindness.” She nodded to Dana and then looked out at the crowd. Dana mentally shrugged. ‘Hmm. A little strange, but she sounds smart enough. I’m not sure what Sarah would think if she caught me talking to the competition, though.’ She chuckled to herself and looked into the crowd, awaiting her sister’s return. Meanwhile, the other woman was following Sarah, keeping some distance between herself and the journalist. She had just started to pick up a little speed to catch up to Sarah when she witnessed the theft of the other woman’s purse. She heard Sarah calling out to the thief as she began to chase him as best she could. Frowning a bit, the woman altered her course to follow them, irritated at this interruption to their plan. She watched the thief pushing through a set of doors between two stores; seeing Sarah going through them, as well, she knew she had to go after her……. “Uh-uh, lady. That ain’t gonna cut it. You violated Red Dragons’ territory, and you must pay a price. And it’s going to be more than money.” His announcement was greeted by “Yeah, you tell her, Jack” and “That’s what we’re talkin’ about!” from the surrounding young men. Sarah shivered with fear. She wasn’t sure just what price the leader was hinting at, and she knew for a fact that she didn’t want to find out. But as she tried to back up, the two guys who had been flanking their leader sprung into action. Grabbing her, they thrust Sarah towards the head gang member. He in turn struck her on the cheek, leaving a swelling red welt. The journalist let out a slight cry of pain, quickly covering up the wound with her hand. Smiling with confidence, the gang leader known as Jack seized her free arm. But she wasn’t out of commission yet. Before Jack could react, Sarah backhanded him with her other hand, striking him square in the mouth. He yelped with surprise and pain, feeling his split upper lip. He suddenly lunged at the journalist, knocking her back against the nearby wall. She let out a “whuff” as all the air was forced from her lungs. She doubled over in pain, grasping at her stomach. Jack spit on the tiled floor, a bit of blood mixed into his saliva. “I didn’t say you could leave! In fact, you’ve pissed me off enough that the price just doubled. Watch the doors, guys. I’m gonna teach this little wench a lesson.” He grabbed Sarah’s shoulders and roughly shoved the journalist towards an unlocked janitor’s closet. He was pleased to see that she was offering no further resistance. ‘This’ll be a piece of cake.’, he thought smugly to himself. Once inside the surprisingly large room, he gave a lewd smile to his fellow members and closed the door. No sooner had they seen the door close then the double doors leading to the mall proper opened up again. The gang members all turned around to see another woman, dressed in a business suit, come through. “Excuse me, have you seen someone come through here?”, she asked them. The one with the red bandana smiled, winking at his friends. “Yeah, lady, someone did come through here.” “Can you show me where she went please?” He nodded. “Sure. Come here, and I’ll take you to her.” He waited until she was close enough to him before wrapping his arms around her waist. He was a big guy – almost 6’3”, well muscled, and built like a football player. He easily picked her straight up and began walking down the hallway, his friends all shouting approval. “She’s right down here, lady.”, he laughed as he walked further away from the doors – and from the closed and locked janitor’s closet…… - Inside that closet, Jack reached up and flipped the light switch, killing the harsh yellow light from the bare bulb hanging above. He could still see dimly as some light from the hallway was let in through a series of slats in the door. He looked down at his prey, who was curling up into a fetal position on the floor, still holding her stomach, tears running down her face. He smiled cruelly. “Yeah, baby. You picked the wrong day to screw with Jack. My girlfriend just split out on me yesterday, and I’m still very upset about it. So guess what? I’m gonna take it all out on you….” Sarah Carter could feel pain lancing through her stomach and back from the rough treatment that the gang leader had given her. Laced inside of that pain was a growing warmth, which was outpacing the pain of her body. “P - - Please…. Don’t – do this…. Please - - - don’t – kill me…..” Jack laughed. “Ha! Kill you? I’m not gonna kill you – at least, not yet. I want to have some fun with you first. You look like one of those uptight little girls who don’t get out enough to party. But you also pack an attitude, don’t you? That attitude is now gonna get you in serious trouble. See, this part of the mall belongs to us, lady. We say what goes on here. Most of the time we let everything go, but you couldn’t, could you? You just had to chase Mick through those doors for your precious belongings, didn’t you? Well, that little mistake is going to cost you big time.” He reached down to Sarah’s shirt, placing his hand on top of her deeply breathing chest. “Still, you are pretty good-looking, which means you’ll have the honor of experiencing Jack before I waste you. I’m sure Mr. Harris wouldn’t mind too much.” Sarah could feel the change coming upon her as her assailant spoke. His last words rung a bell in her mind. Michael Harris! She should have known that man was lying! This whole thing was getting out-of-hand. She felt anger coursing through her brain, setting it on fire. He had lied to her, and now he had hired someone to kill her! She let out a groan as she felt the anger fusing in with her transformation, her body just starting to turn green. Jack was unaware of this, however, as the light was insufficient for his eyes to pick up this detail, her face hidden by shadows . He continued to talk as he slowly began ran his finger down between her heaving breasts. “Yeah, it was all pretty good, wasn’t it? It was his idea. Mr. Harris wanted it to look like a gang-related theft and murder, and who better to use than an actual gang? But he didn’t say what a body you had, so I’m going to have a little fun before work.” He began to unbutton her blouse, his probing fingers reaching into the opened cloth in the middle of her top. Instead of finding her soft, smooth skin and the fabric of a brassiere, Jack’s fingers encountered a slick-feeling material. He slowly moved his hand further down her waist; wherever his fingers explored, he felt the same, strange-feeling fabric. And something else was weird, too. The fabric seemed to be getting tighter around her upper body. “What the crap?”, he whispered. Sarah felt the gang leader feeling her chest and breasts, and it fueled her anger. She looked up into his face to see a confused look appear there. Her tennis shoes and white socks constricted around her feet as her Gammonian form asserted itself. The suede gave out first, the laces snapping, white-and-gray-colored suede leather splitting open, revealing the white cotton of her skin-tight socks. Her toes were the first to break free from both, their swelling green forms quickly pushing through both her shoes and socks. “Uhhhh…”, Sarah grunted softly, feeling the stonewashed denim of her jeans starting to crawl up her thickening emerald calves, the tops of her socks ripping apart around her ankles. Her hands, splayed out on the floor of the janitor’s closet, were growing larger, her thickening fingers curling and uncurling atop the tiles. She felt the coldness of those tiles against the back of her upper arms as the shoulders of her blouse started splitting open. More coldness ran up and down her thickening green arms, the rest of the sleeves, displaying her flexing biceps and forearms Then the denim around her legs began tearing open as her calves swelled up with a curviness and musculature that they could not hold in. Jack was becoming more and more worried. ‘What the hell is happening with this chick?!’, he asked himself. He had both his hands inside of her blouse, which was definitely tautening around her chest. His left hand rested on Sarah’s stomach; his fingers could detect a group of gradual ripples forming, as if the muscles in that area were reshaping themselves, becoming larger and more defined. His right hand was on her left breast, and it told a similar, if more sensuous story. Instead of muscle growing, he felt her breast inflating, becoming more and more firm. The nipple under his palm was hard underneath the slick fabric, which was stretching out with Sarah. He then heard the sounds of thick fabric being ripped apart, and he glanced down her body. There, caught in a few small shafts of light from the door’s slats, Jack saw the denim around her right leg opening up in rough tears, baring the tight, smooth skin beneath. But it was the color of the skin that shocked him. Her skin - - it was green! He couldn’t believe what he was seeing, and found that he was so stunned that he couldn’t move. Then the very tight blouse also began surrendering to her growing body. The buttons Jack hadn’t undone rapidly burst from her chest; he saw his hands resting upon her expanding form as the blouse fell away from her chest. Another shaft of light flowed over the middle of her waist. Jack’s eyes were drawn to the action of the large button on Sarah’s jeans exploding from its place, her widening, curved, stronger hips forcing the jeans’ zipper downwards, revealing even more of the slick material. He removed his hand from her large, firm covered breast and flipped the light back on. He was horrified to see what was becoming of his victim. She was much larger than she had been when he had forced her into the closet. Her clothing was also in tatters and still ripping as she grew. He looked over at her legs and saw the last bit of fabric and leather falling from her thick and sexy green feet. The tears in her jeans continued up her swelling thighs, curves of muscle sprouting inside her legs as they grew. Her eyes were closed, partially obscured by much longer and thicker hair, which was now a very deep green instead of the dark-blonde it had previously been. He looked at his hand, which still rested upon her breast. The large, rounded mound seemed to have stopped growing. He looked again at her changed face, watching her thick, dark-green lips open up slightly to allow her equally dark-green tongue to slide over them. Before he could react, he felt her strong green hands clasp around his wrists, forcing them off her chest. He cried out in pain as he felt bones in his hands snapping under her grip. Sarah opened her rich green eyes and glared at her would-be rapist and murderer. His face was scrunched in agony at how much pressure she was exerting on his wrists. Without letting go, she shifted her long green legs, using them to help push her up so that she was sitting up. “So, you thought you were going to have some ‘fun’ with me, did you?”, she growled in her husky Gammonian voice. “You wanted to rape me, and then kill me, all on the orders of Michael Harris, didn’t you? Answer me, you monster!” She received several quick nods from Jack, still in pain. She couldn’t believe how angry she felt. Something inside of her mind told Sarah that what she was planning on doing was wrong, and that she should just turn this jerk into the police. But he had wanted to violate her, as if she were a piece of meat, and then discard her as if she didn’t matter. That caused her fury to well up high inside the journalist/super heroine. Well, she wouldn’t let this fiend do to anyone else what he had wanted to do to her. To be continued Terry |
| Story: A New Life - Chapter 16a (Terry) (29-Apr-2000 23:21:46) |
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