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| Story: A New Life - Chapter 26 Friday, 26-May-2000 23:01:43
Whew, kind of a long one tonight. Things are beginning to reach a climax, and very soon Sarah is going to take actions that will affect everything in her life. That is, if she survived the ending of the past chapter..... Enjoy! :) ‘How can this be happening?’ That one thought echoed endlessly within Sarah Carter’s drug-encumbered brain. She had thought that, if whomever wanted her dead tried again, she would be able to stop them in time by transforming. After all, it had saved her every previous time, hadn’t it? But this attempt was different in two ways. First, the assassins had the knowledge of her extraordinary life – knowledge that should have been privy to only three people. Of course, there was always the possibility that, during one of her acts of “heroism” (as the media likened them to), someone could have observed her, or – more likely – had made enough of a connection to link herself and the green-skinned superwoman. The second, infinitely more terrifying way this attempt differed from the others was this: it was very likely to succeed…… Whatever drug they had used to reduce her to this state, it didn’t seem to be doing any further damage to her body’s chemistry. Sarah had assumed that the syringe they had injected her with had contained some sort of poison, and that’s why she was feeling the way she was. But once she had slumped into a less than dignified pile onto the elevator car’s floor, the drug’s effects hadn’t worsened. So it hadn’t been some kind of poison, after all; more like a sedative, and a very strong one, at that. Sarah could barely focus her half-lidded blue-gray eyes on the forms of the two men sharing the car with her. ‘So – it’s true… They do know of – my other body.. That’s the - - only reason they would have – used such a strong drug - - on me….to keep me from - - concentrating long enough – to change….’ She found that she was helpless – completely helpless. There seemed to be nothing she could do to save herself. So what where they waiting for? Why were they not finishing her off? The man nearest was still kneeling beside her, looking into her glazed eyes. He took his eyes off Sarah for a moment to look back at his partner. “I thought that he said she would be tougher to take down than this.” “That’s why we went through all the trouble to obtain these rare chemicals.”, his partner replied, a slight hint of reproach in his voice. “Now that she’s under the sedative’s influence, we can proceed with the hit.” He removed a small pouch from an inside pocket in his suit’s jacket. He opened the pouch; inside was a small array of loaded syringes, each containing a different substance. They had definitely come prepared, as they weren’t sure how strong their target’s immune system would resist. It seemed as if it were no different than any normal human’s, which had made their job a lot easier. Their surprise had been complete, and the first chemical had done the job. Now their target would offer up no resistance while he injected the second – and deadly – chemical into her bloodstream. Sarah could barely see what he was doing, but whatever it was, it wouldn’t be good for her. She couldn’t let her life end like this. After all she had gone through – discovering that she was, in fact, from another world, possessing powers far beyond any other on Earth. After losing one family and gaining another. After finally finding the man that she loved and tell him so - - - to now be struck down in an elevator by two men, who wouldn’t even tell her who they worked for. She could guess, though. Oh, yes, she could guess. ‘Michael Harris.’ Somehow, somewhere, he had discovered her abilities, and had sent another hit team after her who had been briefed on those abilities. Whether or not they actually believed them was immaterial; they had apparently followed their master’s instructions, and here she was, caught unawares and almost at the end of her life. She couldn’t stand for that! Michael Harris must pay for this! Somehow, she would get through this and make him pay! Sarah then felt another bite of cold steel against her arm, and she rolled her head slightly to watch the man that had been standing apart from her injecting the last bit of liquid from the syringe he held in his gloved hand. He then withdrew, placing the empty syringe back into the small pouch. Where the needle had pierced her skin, Sarah could feel a fire burning. It was quickly spreading through her arm, up to her shoulder, and into her chest. She grimaced with the pain as it flowed across her chest. She could feel it going into her other arm and down both her legs. Whatever it was, it was very fast acting. ‘No!’, she thought, her rage at allowing Harris to get away with this cold-blooded murder helping to keep her from blacking out. She couldn’t let him win! The fire burned; she imagined the chemical eating away at her organs, muscles, ligaments, tissue, skin….. It felt like it was everywhere within her. But she wasn’t giving up. She would get through this! She would survive! ‘HARRIS WILL PAY!!’ With a loud grunt, Sarah Carter experienced another sensation of warmth well up within her. It immediately came into contact with the fire from the poison - - and began to overpower the latter. The pain was slowly dulling into the familiar one – the kind that accompanied her transformation. She felt a slight grin come upon her face; it looked like her would-be killers had made a mistake, after all. They should have rendered her unconscious, instead of wanting her awake to gloat over her. ‘They’ll pay – for that mistake, all right….’, she thought. However, her change was not happening nearly as quickly as it usually did. The sedative seemed to be strong enough to hinder, though not stop it. Added to the fact that her Gammonian cells were also fighting against the poison running throughout her body, the change was barely beginning. Sarah could feel the barest hints of her body starting to grow. She just hoped that it would happen fast enough that the men wouldn’t realize their mistake and act to correct it. She still felt very groggy, and she was again glad that the reversion to her true self didn’t always require conscious thought on her part. That part of her brain was handling the entire process without Sarah having to think about it. Usually she found that to be a big problem - - but she would definitely make it an exception in this case. That is, if it would hurry up. Her shoes, socks, and underwear were just now starting to feel tight, but her T-shirt and sweatpants still had plenty of give left in them, which meant that she still had a long way to go before she would be strong enough to show these two the error of their ways – and to show Michael Harris that he should have left well enough alone. The two men were feeling pretty confident now. They had both been a little worried that this hit wouldn’t go down as planned. But the person who had hired them had indeed given them the correct information, and they had little difficulty overcoming this woman. The man kneeling beside Sarah reached out a gloved hand and brushed some of her dark-blonde hair from her face. He wanted to look into her eyes and see the knowledge within them that she was dying. Instead, what he saw chilled his confidence to nothing and froze him in place. Her eyes were no longer their pretty blue-gray color – they had altered into a medium shade of green! The glazed look was still there, so he knew the sedative was still working. But he didn’t know for how long, as he knew nothing about her biochemistry. Hell, he hadn’t actually even believed the man’s voice over the phone when he told them what Sarah was capable of. He had just chalked it down as a sort of strange motivator to get them to do the job quickly. But it now appeared that he hadn’t been making anything up; something was happening to their target. As he watched her face and upper body, the assassin noted that her body was indeed starting to get larger, very slowly filling out her T-shirt, her build gradually, so very gradually increasing. He snapped his gloved fingers to gain his partner’s attention. “Quick, bring out another one! She’s not responding to the chemical. In fact - - just look for yourself!” The other man came closer. “What are you talking about?”, he asked. Then he looked more closely, and came to the same exact realization as his cohort had. He also knelt down beside the journalist, watching as the transformation very slowly worked its ways on Sarah’s form. Muscled groups were, bit by bit, expanding into larger, stronger versions of themselves. Her arms and legs were slowly extending farther, becoming thicker with curved muscle and sinew simultaneously. Her hair had lost all of its blonde coloration; it was now a very dark-brown, and getting deeper every few seconds. Then they watched in awe – and some fear – as Sarah’s skin started to change tones, going from a lightly tanned tint towards a green one. Lightly to begin with; but as they continued to watch, the pale green gradually became deeper and more rich, turning the journalist into a growing green woman. That’s when it really dawned on them just who they were trying to kill. With wide eyes, they looked to each other. “It really is her….”, one said to the other. Neither one had really given their employer’s words about their target much credence. Even they had read the papers about the superwoman that had popped up in Denver, but the whole idea of their target having the power to turn into her had made both of them roll their eyes. Now, however, they had done a complete reversal in the face of the evidence of what their eyes were telling them. Sarah Carter was indeed the superwoman! And if they didn’t do something fairly quickly, neither man would like to give odds on the chances of their continued survival. “Quick, get those chemicals back out!”, the leader shouted to his partner. His voice held a strained note; one look at Sarah would explain it to an outsider observer – as if one would need any more explanation. She had grown slightly larger as they had sat there, mulling over their unexpected discovery. Her clothing was now taking on a strained appearance, her gradually deepening-emerald figure slowly approaching the garments’ tolerances. Her white cross-trainers were bulging out in places - - especially the tops and fronts. Before the leader’s eyes, the shoes’ laces started to snap, the power of her expanding feet forcing the thin white shoelaces to break to give them more room. Her socks were creeping further down her lower calves as her sweatpants traveled the opposite direction, baring her thickening ankles. “Where is that damned syringe?!”, he yelled. He heard a terse acknowledgement from his partner, and then saw the asked-for instrument appear in his peripheral vision. He snatched it from the other’s hand and quickly examined it’s contents. His cohort had completely filled the syringe with the deadly poison – more than enough to deal with this problem once and for all. He grabbed a hold of Sarah’s limp arm with his free hand, noting how it continued to grow and reform in his grip, and roughly pressed the needle against her skin. SNAP! As soon as the assassin had begun to apply pressure to pierce the journalist’s green skin, the thin, brittle needle had broken. He cursed, removing the ruined needle, shouting for another. His partner produced one, and the leader attached it to the syringe and attempted another injection. But it followed the way of the first. His eyes widened with true, unbridled fear as he now realized the gravity of their situation. Their target was now apparently invulnerable to their attacks. Their employer had wanted it to look like an accident….but there was no possible way that they could make it appear that way now. Sarah’s running clothes were now beginning to come apart under the gradual but relentless growth of her body, the Gammonian inside of her asserting itself more and more over her human form. The arms of her T-shirt, very tight around her long, muscled arms, were splitting open, revealing everything from her swelling, curving biceps to her thick, widening shoulders. Her shoes were in even more dire straits now: lengthening green toes had forced their way through the fronts, and growing green strips of skin shown through the rest of the shoes, its materials ripping apart as her feet expanded and grew. Her white sweatpants, shrinking but whole until now, had no more stretch left in them. Their cuffs, a third of the way up Sarah’s teardrop-shaped green calves, suddenly tore, causing splits to slowly travel through the fairly thick cloth, exposing greater amounts of the journalist’s strong, sexy legs. But now the assassin’s eyes were focused – almost mechanically - upon her surging chest. Every wrinkle and crease in her T-shirt had disappeared, her growing breasts, broadening shoulders, and lengthening abdomen entirely filling the shirt with smooth, tight emerald skin. In fact, the hired killer witnessed the straining T-shirt gradually climbing up her torso, flaunting Sarah’s stomach; slight ripples of muscle tone had formed in the green skin, but as it became taller and larger, it easily kept its feminine appearance while simultaneously gaining its muscular look. But it was the two firm, swelling mounds that had his eyes mesmerized. A split violently opened between them, and slowly, almost teasingly, the cotton ripped further apart, while at the same time tearing vertically. Both actions uncovered more and more of Sarah’s emerald-hued breasts. He caught a glimpse of the remains of her bra; it had been split in half, and both sections were sliding down their respective sides of her growing chest. Two very dark-green and hard nipples were exposed as her struggling T-shirt sustained its shredding under the severe pressure from the journalist’s surging form. Her sweatpants could hardly be called that any longer. Over half of their white fabric had surrendered to the still lengthening and thickening green legs they had once tried to surround. The rest was on the verge of following; all of Sarah’s teardrop shaped calves and an ever-increasing amount of her long, curved, and defined thighs had been bared to the elevator car - - and to the two men who had been hired to eliminate her. But all thoughts of carrying out their mission had died when the woman’s transformation had manifested itself. The only things they could now think of were escape and arousal. But the first far overshadowed the second; neither man really knew that the sight of the growing green woman lying on the floor of the elevator aroused them. Their conscious thoughts were all on what to do and how to escape. But, as badly as they wanted to, neither one could prod their bodies into action. The change had them under a spell – almost like hypnosis. And that would spell their downfall. Sarah Carter could sense that the transformation had almost reached its conclusion. She couldn’t feel any of the burning she had associated with the poison these two had injected her with. Her body’s morph from human to Gammonian had apparently neutralized its effects. Unfortunately for her, whatever sedative they had hit her with was strong enough to keep her almost incapacitated, even as her body continued to grow and change. More and more of her strong and curved green body bared itself, and Sarah did feel glimmers of embarrassment at her partial nudity. But it also helped to fuel the anger that burned within her. Anger at these two for trying to kill her - - - and anger at Michael Harris, for hiring them in the first place. With one last grunt from her thick, dark-green lips, the change ceased. She opened up her beautiful green eyes and looked up at the two would-be assassins, fury smoldering within them. With a strong effort, Sarah’s arm reached out, and she felt her hand clamping around the nearest one’s leg. She jerked it back hard; he let out a surprised yelp as his right leg was taken out from under him. His head smacked the elevator’s floor – hard. She watched his eyes roll up into his head, and the he was out. Forcing her fingers to relax, she let go of his leg and placed her wide green palm onto the floor. Grunting with effort and exertion, she pushed her strong body off the floor until she was squatting on her haunches, feeling the remains of her clothing settling around parts of her chest, hips, and upper thighs. Sarah looked up through some disheveled and curled dark-green strands of her long, thick hair at the second killer. To say he appeared nervous and afraid would be an understatement. He was absolutely terrified! He had been in this business of shadow killing for years. He had infiltrated heavily-guarded embassies, hotels, even residences to carry out his assignments. When his partner had informed him of this “cushy” mission – to eliminate a journalist with “super powers” – he had thought that they would have little difficulty. He had still prepared as well as he did for any mission – he wasn’t stupid, he knew that occasionally jobs didn’t go as planned, and he didn’t want to be caught off-guard. But when this amazing and petrifying event had transpired, he discovered that he hadn’t been at all prepared. When he watched as their target had taken his partner down within a second, his fear grew almost exponentially. Now she was in the process of standing up; he watched her thick but sexy leg muscles tense up beneath her rich green skin as she slowly stood up to her now-impressive height – a good six inches taller than his own formidable height. Now she looked down at him, anger clearly evident in her expression. But it wasn’t all directed at him personally. ‘Why do I feel so HEAVY??’, Sarah asked herself. She knew that she did weight much more in this form, and usually she didn’t notice it very much, as her superhuman muscles easily handled their increased mass. Now, however, the sedative was acting against her, and she discovered she felt sluggish – each limb felt like they weighed tons. But she wasn’t going to allow that to stop her from teaching this killer a lesson. She promised herself that she wouldn’t kill him, as she still held horrible memories from that time in the mall. But Sarah knew that he wouldn’t like anything else she planned on doing to him. She picked up her right bare foot and took a step. Then she did the same with her left foot. Slowly, the green-skinned journalist approached her prey, concentrating on not collapsing back to the floor. Then she was within arm's reach. She wasn’t too sure how long she’d be able to keep control over her body, so Sarah decided on nothing fancy. She just shoved the assassin backwards with both hands, using only a small portion of her incredible strength. It was still enough to send him roughly into the car’s wall, his body cracking the faux wood and leaving quite an indentation in the underlying metal. He slid to the floor, unconscious. Sarah wanted to do more to them both, but she knew that she didn’t have much time left. Already she could feel the sedative working at her consciousness, threatening to cause her to black out. She stumbled towards the closed doors. ‘I could just use the control panel – but one of them locked the controls out, and I’d have to search them both for the key. I don’t think I’ve got that much time…..’ Sarah’s long, thick (but still graceful) green fingers pushed between the doors, her forearm muscles forcing them apart enough so as to allow her hands to slide between them. Then she put her incredibly strong biceps into action, quickly opening the doors all the way apart. Looking up, Sarah spotted the bottom edge of the floor above. Reaching up, she grabbed a hold of the edge. Using every bit of concentration she had left, the journalist/superwoman pulled her formidable, gorgeous body towards the next floor. Although the act itself wasn’t difficult, the sedative coursing through her made the task much more complicated. Sarah pulled her legs and feet beneath her as she rested on the small ledge. Her eyes were heavy; all she really felt like doing now was to close them and fall asleep right there. But she couldn’t let herself do that; she needed to get up to the nineteenth floor and find Andrew. He could help her. Shaking her head in an only partially successful attempt to clear the cobwebs forming within, she stood up and repeated the process of physically forcing the doors apart. Lacking the total control she usually maintained, Sarah’s emerald arms and hands warped and crushed the doors as she opened them. Stumbling into the building proper, feeling the slick tiles beneath her large green bare feet, Sarah angled towards the staircase, unaware (and uncaring) of the startled stares and gasps of shock from the people milling about the area, wondering where the elevator was. She burst through the heavy door and began to ascend the stairs, finding it increasingly difficult to remain awake and focused. After what seemed like an eternity, Sarah Carter reached the door to the nineteenth floor. She opened it and walked into the main offices of The Denver Post. Her head swimming, she made her way as best she could towards Andrew’s desk. She was somewhat aware of coworkers staring at her; out of the corner of her eye, Sarah saw Lana Wayne come out of her large corner office and watch her shuffle by. Then she caught sight of the person she had come to see. Putting as best a smile as she could, Sarah said, “Hi - - Andy….” Then she felt her last reserves of strength peter out, and she could feel her legs going out from under her. Just as she thought she was going to collapse into an unsightly green heap onto the plush carpeted floor, Andrew rushed over and helped support her. He draped her muscled left green arm over his shoulders and took as much weight off her as he could. His face strained with the effort, but they didn’t have far to walk. They both stumbled to his large cubicle, and he helped her to sit on the floor. She leaned her head and upper body back against the cubicle’s wall, feeling completely and utterly drained. Andrew, for his part, stroked her green cheek. He wanted to ask her what had happened, but he knew now was not the time. Not while she was in this condition - - and definitely not while all of these people were around. Fortunately, Ms. Wayne inadvertently came to the rescue. “Don’t you all have things to do?”, she reproached the employees standing about Andrew’s cubicle. They dispersed, and the editor-in-chief gazed down at the green superwoman and Andrew. “What’s she doing here, Andy?”, she asked in quiet but interested tones. He shrugged. “I’m not sure, Ms. Wayne. I haven’t talked to her for several days.” Not quite a lie; he hadn’t talked to her in a business fashion. “May I have a little privacy – and some women’s clothing please?” She raised an eyebrow in obvious amusement. “Do you really think any woman here has anything in her size?” But then she nodded. “Let me see what I can find.” She departed, and Andrew looked back at Sarah. She appeared to be asleep; her awesomely shaped, all-but-nude chest rose and fell in deep breaths. A few minutes passed, and then Lana returned, a small pile of clothing and a pair of shoes in her hands. “See what you can do with these.”, she said, and then left again. He silently thanked her for her discretion, and he turned his attention back to his friend - - to the woman he loved. Then something began to happen. Sarah’s green body began to decrease in size and shape. It was exactly the same as it had been when she had first revealed herself to him at the courthouse park. Her physique altered, her limbs shrank and thinned, her torso thinning and compacting – the entire process making her look like a normal woman again. It was soon over, and he draped the borrowed suit jacket over her beige chest, covering her bared breasts and stomach. Her eyes suddenly fluttered open, and their blue-gray orbs looked up at him. A smile pulled at her lips, and Sarah reached out for him. Smiling back, Andrew loving cupped her small hand within both of his. “What happened?”, he asked quietly. She explained the events of the past thirty minutes, and he shook his head. “I can’t believe that he’s still out to get you. What have you done to him? What do you know that could possibly threaten him enough to kill you?” She just shook her head. He stood up, handing her the clothing Lana had given him. “Well, I’ll just leave you alone for a few minutes so you can get dressed. Then we’ll talk about this whole mess, okay?” He smiled at her, and she smiled back. Then he left to make sure no one came near his cubicle. Ten minutes later he returned. “Are you finished? I really thing we ought to – “ His voice trailed off when he reached his cubicle, the words dying in his throat. Sarah Carter was gone……. To be continued Terry |
| Story: A New Life - Chapter 26 (Terry) (26-May-2000 23:01:43) |
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