Going Super
By Happiest_in_shadows@yahoo.com
The story of a woman and her ever-growing abilities.

Chapter 2

****************************************************************************

Jack looked around at the vast sea of trees that now surrounded him.  The 
two of them had arrived at Kate’s grandparents home, and Jack couldn’t argue 
with her that it was a good spot to test her abilities and do his research.  
Climbing out of the vehicle, he also saw why Kate had chosen to drive a 
humvee instead of a car.  The mountain path leading up to the house was 
quite rocky.  "My grandparents didn’t really care for large groups of people 
and sought to get away.  So during their final years they moved way out here 
and had this home built so they could be alone with one another."  Jack 
nodded at Kate’s explanation.

Following Kate up to the main door, he watched her fumble with some keys for 
a moment before she opened it up and stepped inside.  She turned around 
rather quickly and punched a code into a panel to turn off the security 
system.  "Come on, I'll show you around."  Taking Jack by the hand, Kate 
began to drag him through each room of the rather large house.  As he looked 
around he noticed that all the furniture, though nice, had a woodsy feel to 
it, right down to the hardwood flooring.

"It's nice Kate, but what about a work area and a gym?"  Kate grinned as she 
began to walk faster.  She came to the door leading down to the basement.  
Guiding Jack down the steps, she flipped on the lights.  Jack grinned as he 
got the answer to his question.  The basement had an assortment of workout 
stations, though none of the machines were very modern.  They had belonged 
to Kate’s grandfather, who hadn’t made much use of them in his older years.  
There was also a good deal of extra room, including a rather nice desk.

"My grandfather loved to tinker with things, so I figured this would make a 
great work area for you.  Still, now that we are here just how are we going 
to go about doing this?"

"Well, we don’t quite know what is causing the changes to happen right now, 
or exactly how they are going to go. So about the best thing we can do is 
stick to a normal routine.  I will probably take a bit of blood from you 
about once or twice every week, and we can just watch how your body 
changes."

"Well then, I guess we had best get situated for a stay."  Once again Jack 
followed Kate, this time back up the stairs.  They unpacked the items they 
had brought with them from the vehicle, mostly consisting of Jack’s 
equipment and clothing.

"We'll head into town later on today and get some supplies."  Nodding in 
agreement, Jack proceeded to help Kate unload the vehicle.  They each chose 
a room and settled in.

Jack sighed as he looked up at the ceiling.  It had been two weeks since 
they moved into Kate’s grandparents' house and he had found nothing anywhere 
near concrete, though a few of his theories were starting to make sense at 
least.  Each time he checked Kate’s cellular structure, he found it had 
altered itself a little bit more.  This was of course affecting Kate’s body 
as a whole; he noticed Kate’s muscle tissue had begun to alter itself 
somewhat, as well as the tissue in her joints.  He couldn’t help but 
theorize that this was to allow for her strength to increase while 
maintaining her agility and speed, or perhaps to enhance that as well.

This really wasn’t the problem, though.  The problem was whether these 
changes would start altering her appearance, and even more importantly, her 
way of thinking.  Unable to sleep with these thoughts going through his 
head, Jack sat up in bed and began to make his way downstairs.  As he did 
so, he was surprised to hear the TV on.  Wandering a bit further, he saw 
Kate laid out on one of the couches in a solid white t-shirt.  Taking in the 
sight for a moment, he admired Kate’s athletic form stretched out over the 
couch, the shirt failing to entirely conceal her panties, while her hair 
fell over her shoulders.  He found he couldn’t take his eyes from her lovely 
form.

Kate heard Jack behind her and slowly turned her head in his direction.  
Seeing him standing at the top of the steps, she smiled.  "Hey there, what 
are you doing up at this hour?"  As she looked up at Jack, she noted how the 
last six weeks of exercise had paid off.  His belly had visibly decreased, a 
fact that she could tell from how much further his shirts came down and how 
he had trouble keeping some of his shorts up.  His arms didn’t really have 
anything along the lines of biceps just yet, but when Kate felt them there 
wasn’t nearly as much flab to grab.  Overall, she was quite pleased with the 
way things were going and finding herself increasingly attracted to him.  It 
wasn't only the physical changes, but also because they were growing closer 
as friends, nearing the next step.

She grinned, noticing Jack’s eyes were focusing on her crotch area, and 
shifted her legs a bit to give him a better view of her rear.  "Well then, 
why don’t you come down here and join me?"  Jack only nodded as he walked 
down the steps.  Kate reached out, picked up the remote and flicked off the 
TV before turning to face Jack.  The room grew darker as the television was 
shut off.

"Hey, I bet I know the reason you couldn’t get to sleep."  Jack gave Kate a 
odd look as he watched her move her legs, making room for him on the couch.  
As he took his seat, he was surprised when Kate sat up and took hold of his 
shirt collar.  A moment later her lips pressed against his while she pulled 
him against her body.  He was almost too surprised to respond at first as 
Kate’s lips engulfed his own, but only for a moment as he found himself 
returning the kiss.  After a few moments, Kate finally let Jack up for air, 
chuckling a bit as he took in a rather deep breath.  "This is the night we 
usually spend cuddling and I let you feel these babies."

Kate then proceeded to flex her right arm while guiding Jack’s hand to her 
biceps with her free hand.  He grinned as he began to massage the muscle, 
feeling the odd contrast of Kate’s soft skim with the solid muscle he felt 
under it.  The overall firmness and power he felt in her arm was truly an 
exciting experience, a fact that didn’t go unnoticed by Kate.  As she pulled 
Jack down upon herself, he noticed a marked difference from how he had been 
laying with her before.  Instead of laying on his back he now found himself 
facing Kate, a wide grin on her face.

Once again kissing Jack, Kate felt his hands beginning to explore her body, 
starting with her upper arms.  Feeling her smooth skin and the powerful 
muscles underneath, Jack’s hands slowly made it down to Kate’s hands.  Her 
fingers interlocked with his.  She then proceeded to guide his hands down to 
her abs, moving his fingers along them.  Jack was impressed as he felt each 
of Kate’s abdominal muscles individually while continuing to kiss her.  
Working his hands up her stomach, he started to grasp her breast when he 
felt her hand take hold of his.  Kate waved her finger in a scolding manner, 
a grin on her face.

Jack also grinned as he realized what was going on.  Kate was allowing him 
to explore more of her body, but she wasn’t ready to let him explore 
everything just yet.  This became even more evident as his hand started to 
brush the inside of her thighs, only to be removed by hers.  Not wanting to 
push his luck, Jack soon learned the areas of Kate’s body that he was now 
permitted to touch and explore.  Her arms and outer legs having been the 
start, Kate now permitted him to explore her stomach area and, most 
importantly for the moment, her lips, which softly engulfed his own several 
times.

Jack soon found that Kate also applied these restrictions to herself, except 
that she also got to explore his chest.  Her fingers moved about, feeling 
his weaker muscles.  Kate seemed to be testing him, much as he had been 
testing her muscle tone only a few moments ago.  An amusing thought came to 
Jack as he wondered if, perhaps, one of the reasons Kate put him through 
such exercise routines was because she wanted him to have enough stamina to 
satisfy her, or perhaps to be strong enough to make sure she didn’t break 
him in half.  It was a rather amusing thought.  With her strength increasing 
the way it was, that might actually be a possibility.

These thoughts were sent rushing out of Jack’s head as he suddenly felt 
Kate’s tongue press against his cheek give him a lick.  "So does that mean I 
have climbed a bit further on the ladder?"  Kate chuckled as she nodded her 
head, and the two continued their fondling of one another.  This was as far 
as many men had ever made it with Kate as far as getting her into bed.  
Unlike Jack, several of them had insisted on going where they weren’t 
welcome and kept trying to explore the restricted regions of Kate’s body, 
unable to handle her teasing.  It had ended badly for the males in a few 
cases, as in order to make them stop Kate had finally resorted to delivering 
a solid punch to their jaw, at times knocking out a few teeth.

Needless to say, this was often the end of the relationship.  A few of the 
males had actually thought they were in control, only to learn that despite 
their greater bulk Kate could deliver a very mean blow if she felt the need 
to.  Jack, on the other hand, did as she wanted him to and only explored the 
areas that he was welcome to.  A moment later it was Kate’s turn to be 
startled as Jack sat up and gave her arm a slight pull.  Kate allowed him to 
pull her arm straight.  He bent down and proceeded to place a kiss on every 
part of her arm, saving her biceps for last.  He then followed the same 
action with her left arm, showing his admiration not only for her beauty but 
her strength as well.  This finally concluded with Jack laying a kiss on 
each one of her abs.  He held off when he got to her legs, unsure if Kate 
would mind.

Finally Kate pulled Jack back into her arms, where he remained for the rest 
of the night, the two of them falling asleep in each other's grasp.

****************************************************************************

The sunlight shone down on Kate, the fresh air filling her lungs and the 
sounds of the woods greeting her ears.  Kate truly enjoyed her new 
surroundings as she jogged along the mountain path.  It was one of the few 
exercises that she didn’t require Jack to do.  There wasn’t any logical 
reason for him not to join her, but Kate had simply learned that Jack 
preferred the comforts of the indoors to the outdoors.  This wasn’t true for 
Kate, who had enjoyed her visits with her grandparents partly because they 
meant she would get to explore the woods surrounding their home.  Now, after 
four weeks of being there, Kate was starting to get a real feel for the path 
and going a bit deeper into the woods.

Kate’s strength and stamina improved every day.  She also found that she 
could run further than before, though she wasn’t sure how much further.  
Kate didn’t keep track of how long she ran, and thanks to the lack of 
landmarks to judge distance against Kate simply would jog until she felt she 
had gone far enough and then turn around.  Lately it had been at a river.  
Figuring that it was at least two miles from the old house, she would turn 
herself around there so that she had jogged at least four miles by the time 
she got back home.

Kate’s eyebrows perked up a bit as she neared the house and saw Jack 
standing in the window with a watch in his hand.  Wondering just what he was 
doing, she began to slow her pace.  But she didn’t get to ask Jack what he 
was doing.  He beat her to the punch, stepping outside.  "Hey Kate, I was 
wondering...have you just been cutting your jogs short recently or are you 
going to the same spot?"  Giving Jack a somewhat strange look as she reached 
the porch, she couldn’t help but wonder why he would ask such a question.

"The same spot.  Why, is something up?"  Turning his head back to his watch, 
Jack gave a slight nod.  Kate walked around him and took a look at the 
watch, blinking as she saw at the number.

"Ten minutes?  Ah crap, I haven’t been running far at all."  A snort came 
from Kate.  She had at least thought she had a good feel for distance.  
Jack, on the other hand, was developing a different theory.

"Kate, you said you have been running to the spot each time, but did you 
know you are making it back here faster and faster each time?"  Kate gave 
Jack a look before giving her leg muscles a few good pats.  It did figure 
her increased strength would allow her to make better time.  As she thought 
of this, she couldn’t help but wonder.

"Just how fast am I running?"  Jack gave a slight shrug.

"I can’t say, but we could go down to the basement and try to check it out." 
  Nodding her head, Kate fell into a trot behind Jack.  It wasn’t really 
surprising to either one of them, considering all the other changes that 
Kate’s body was going through.  She was now benching 380 lbs and could curl 
75 lbs in one arm, details that rung very true every time Kate delivered a 
blow to the punching bag downstairs.  Listening to it, Jack was amazed at 
how much force Kate’s punches were beginning to impact it with.  Having 
thought she packed a powerful punch previously, he imagined he would be 
missing more then a few teeth if Kate were to hit him now.

Kate didn’t have to be asked to hop onto the treadmill.  Grinning for a 
moment, she wondered if it would be able to give her a decent workout.  It 
was true that the machine couldn’t get up enough speed to force her into a 
full run, but she would at least see.  Kate didn’t bother with any of the 
lower settings, still feeling good from her little jog.  She simply turned 
the machine to its max and fell into a run.  Jack took a seat nearby and 
watched as Kate’s legs worked, occasionally checking the clock to see how 
much time had gone by.  33 minutes later he looked at Kate, who still looked 
fine.  "Anything?"

"It feels like a brisk walk, but not quite a jog."  Kate couldn’t help but 
grin.  She was really enjoying the changes that her body was going through.  
The feeling of her physical abilities increasing every day was simply 
wonderful, and each week she seemed to break another goal that she would 
have previously thought out of reach.

"Well then, I guess I will be putting a speed detector on order."  Making 
his way over to his computer, Jack brought up amazon.com and did a quick 
search.  He began to order one when he felt Kate’s hand set down upon his 
own.  Moving the mouse along with Jack’s hand, Kate clicked a significantly 
more expensive, but more effective machine, and proceeded to click the order 
button.  She ignored his protests, covering his mouth as she typed in her 
own account name and password.  After changing the delivery address so that 
she could pick it up at the post office, she completed the order.

"Well, we don’t know how much my speed is going to increase, so we might as 
well be ready."

"Rich girl."  Having been called this several times by Jack, Kate was now 
used to it and had given up smacking him.  With her behavior and where they 
currently were, Kate was finding  it rather hard to deny that her family was 
a bit better off than she would normally say.

Jack gave Kate a knowing look as a realization hit him.  "You set your order 
for free shipping when you could have easily gotten next-day delivery.  
Young lady, are you trying to develop your powers more before it arrives so 
you can show off?"  Kate only chuckled.  That was exactly what she was 
planning on doing.  Jack didn’t blame her; really, there wasn’t anything 
that they could do about her current situation except try to figure out if 
the alterations would start becoming more obvious physically.  So far Kate 
had kept her human appearance, which was a good sign, but the truth was they 
had no way of knowing yet how it would go when it began to push into a more 
powerful range.

Jack had noticed a pattern forming as far as her cells went, but it was far 
too soon for him to make any good guesses and he didn’t want to tell Kate 
anything until he knew for sure.  So far he had noted that Kate’s cells had 
reworked themselves to be more energy efficient.  This was affecting her 
entire muscular structure, but nothing too drastic yet.  It was, however, 
enough that he imagined it could affect her outward appearance if the cells 
continued altering themselves in that path.  But it seemed her body was at 
least trying to maintain a human appearance.

As Kate straightened up, an odd thought came to her mind.  While Jack was 
focused on the computer, she slowly bent down and placed her hands under his 
chair.  Getting a good grip on the sturdy frame, with a slight groan of 
effort she lifted the 190 lbs of Jack and the 50 lbs of sturdy chair clean 
off the ground and held them.  Jack gave out a startled cry and quickly took 
hold of his seat, not knowing what was going on until he looked back and saw 
Kate.  "Kate, you're lifting me and the chair!" came Jack’s surprised voice. 
  She just grinned and put a little more effort into her lift, managing to 
get the chair a little higher before bringing it back down to a more 
manageable level.

"Blast, I can’t get you over my head while you're in the seat."  Jack gave 
Kate an annoyed look as he didn’t particularly like the idea of her trying 
to hold him above her head and dropping him.  The fall wouldn’t kill him or 
anything but he was sure it would hurt.  Upon seeing the look on Jack’s 
face, Kate blushed a little, realizing that she had just said too much.  
Jack sighed as Kate set him and the chair down, but gave a start when he 
felt her hands quickly slip under him and lift him entirely from the seat, 
this time holding him above her head.  Kate laughed softly at his reaction.

Walking around the room for a few moments, Kate finally deposited Jack on 
the benchpress seat.  "Now, since I am already warmed up from my jog how 
about we do some exercising?  You've made quite a lot of progress you know, 
who knows...perhaps before too long you will be as strong as I used to be."  
Jack gave Kate a bit of an offended look, but it was quickly replaced as he 
laughed.  Feeling somewhat brave since Kate was teasing him so much, he shot 
a hand out and gave Kate’s rear a few quick strikes.  Kate looked startled 
at first, and for a moment Jack actually got worried that she would 
retaliate.  However, it became apparent that wasn’t going to happen as he 
noticed that the bright red forming on Kate’s face wasn’t from anger.

Instead a soft smile formed on Kate’s lips while the light blush lit up her 
entire face, and Jack could hardly keep himself from drooling.  As the sweet 
expression on Kate’s face combined with the power and sensuality of her 
body, Jack felt the drive to improve his body for this divine creature and 
make himself more attractive to her shoot up threefold.  Leaning forward, 
Kate gave Jack’s cheek a lick before she turned and began to walk towards 
the leg curl, swaying her hips as she walked.  Jack looked at the barbell.  
Standing up, he removed the weights Kate had been using earlier and replaced 
them with some lighter ones, though for some reason he found himself adding 
twenty pounds extra.

****************************************************************************

The sound of the alarm going off got Jack’s attention almost immediately.  
As he sat up in bed he could hear the door swing open, followed by the beeps 
of someone entering the code.  Rushing to see what was going on, he wasn’t 
surprised to find that Kate had already made it downstairs.  Half expecting 
to see a stranger laid out, he instead found Kate with her arms wrapped 
around a huge man in a business suit.  It took him a moment, but Jack 
finally realized that whoever Kate was hugging must have been someone she 
knew.  "Daddy, what brings you here?"  Jack was surprised when he heard Kate 
say this, realizing that this mountain of a man was her father.

At first Kate’s father just hugged his little girl before looking around.  
"And this is your friend?"  Kate pulled away from her dad and looked up at 
Jack, who was standing at the top of the stairs.

"Yup.  Hey Jack, come on down and meet my dad."  Walking down the stairs, 
Jack found his hand siezed by Kate’s father and given a good shake.  "Jack, 
this is my father Nathan, and Dad this is Jack.  He's been helping with my 
medical issues."

"Well then I'm glad to see you.  Thanks for helping to take care of my 
little girl.  Sweety, I'm sorry it took me so long to come and visit you, 
but I've been busy."  Kate nodding understandingly.  However, her smile 
faded as she noticed her father's mood change.

"Honey, I would like to say I came up here just to check on you out of pure 
concern. but that isn’t completely the truth.  I was wondering just what was 
wrong with you, and from what I can tell I don’t see anything.  Now Kate, 
you know I would have given you the money you needed for a vacation, even a 
long one, if you had just asked.  You didn’t need to l.."  Kate’s hand 
covered up her fathers mouth before he could finish the sentence.

"Sorry Daddy, but I thought you were about to say that I fibbed about having 
a medical condition.  What did you think, I was just up here raping Jack all 
the time?"

"I wish."

Jack suddenly got a rather sharp look from Kate’s father, as well as one 
from Kate.  In Kate’s case, though, it was something of a laughing glare.  
"Well honey, you haven’t been ordering any medical supplies to my knowledge, 
so could you perhaps show me what is wrong with you, and how this fellow is 
helping?"  A grin formed on Kate’s lips as she gave Jack a knowing look.  
Realizing what was about to happen, Jack had to suppress a chuckle.  It had 
been 12 weeks now since Kate had started developing her abilities without 
her parents knowing.  He imagined her dad was in for quite a treat.

"Dad, I said a medical condition, not a problem.  How about you come down to 
the basement and I'll show you?"  Nathan gave a slight start as his daughter 
gave him a tug on the arm and began to pull him through the hall and down 
the basement steps.  Nathan knew that his little girl was strong, but he was 
still surprised.  He could have sworn she wasn’t that strong the last time 
he had seen her.  As he looked around for a moment he noticed the addition 
of Jack’s computer equipment, as well as the fact that the weights had 
clearly been used.

Jack followed close behind and stood just a few feet away from Nathan.  Kate 
released his hand and proceeded over to the benchpress.  Grinning, she 
removed the bolt and slipped off the weights Jack had been using.  Then, 
walking over to the wall, she picked up a 100 lb weight in each hand and 
slipped them onto the bar.  At first Nathan was a bit surprised, wondering 
if his little girl was really going to bench 280 as he knew the bar alone 
weighed 80 lbs.  What Kate did next really surprised him.  She picked up two 
more 100 lb weights and slipped them onto the bar.  "Now honey, don’t hurt 
yourself."

Kate said nothing.  Returning to the weights for a pair of 40 lb discs, she 
brought the total weight to 560 pounds and put the bolts back into place.  
"Alright Dad, I want you to try and lift this bar so you know this is for 
real."  Looking at his little girl, Nathan just shrugged and made his way 
over to the benchpress.  Laying down and placing his hands under the bar, he 
pressed up on it with a loud grunt of effort.  A moment later he let out a 
sigh and dropped his arms to his sides before sitting up.

"Yup, they're real, but honey I don’t think you..."  Kate more or less 
shoved her father off the seat, once again surprising him.

"Now Daddy, let me assure you that what you are about to see is all me."  
Nathan started to move towards his daughter as she laid down under the bar, 
not sure what she was about to do.  Then, without too much effort, Kate 
lifted the bar from its stand, slowly lowered it to her chest, and then 
lifted it up.  Nathan’s jaw nearly hit the ground.  Had it been possible, 
his eyes would have grown wider still as he watched his little girl do this 
not once, but for three sets each consisting of twelve reps.  Having no 
intention of stopping there, Kate proceeded over to the weights.  Taking 100 
pounds in each arm, she began to alternately curl them one after the other.  
Kate put herself through an entire exercise routine, one that almost left 
her dad in shock by the time it was over.

Walking over to her dad, Kate winked Jack.  He grinned, was glad to see that 
Nathan appreciated what had been going on.  "Well Daddy, I suppose you would 
like a explanation."

"That would be nice of you."  Nathan slowly nodded his head at his 
daughter's question.  Grinning, Kate proceeded to pick her 300-pound father 
up with both arms and carry him upstairs.  Jack followed close behind, 
snickering as he wondered how long it would take Nathan to return to his 
normal self.

Kate couldn’t help but laugh as she set her father down upon the sofa and 
took a seat opposite him.  Jack sat a little ways away from Kate, wondering 
if he should say anything to explain the situation.  "Alright, first would 
you mind telling me how this happened?  I mean, has he got some new exercise 
drug or something?" Nathan asked, indicating Jack, who could only grin.

"Well, it isn’t that simple.  I'd better start from the beginning.  As you 
recall, three months ago you and just about everyone else thought I was a 
goner, as did I.  I was laying there, ready to die, and then Jack came in 
one day and told me that he had a drug that might save my life by altering 
my remaining healthy cells.  But he also warned me that it might kill me.  
Naturally, seeing no other option I took the drug."

"And that is when you signed yourself out?"

"A few days later, actually.  But I was still weak, so I had Jack here come 
and take care of me.  Then a short while later, we found out that the drug 
was affecting me in ways that weren't expected.  So we came out here to test 
and just see what would happen, but...We are still not sure just how it will 
affect me in the long run.  My body is still changing."

"So you two came up here to test and watch how things were going, and I 
assume to develop your abilities a little bit?"  Kate nodded as she smiled a 
bit sheepishly, a smile that didn’t go unnoticed by Nathan.

"Ah, and from that grin I take it my little girl likes her new strength."  
Kate only nodded which got a chuckle from Nathan.  He finally seemed to be 
his old self again.  "You two don’t know how long this is going to last or 
how strong Kate is going to get, do you?"  Jack and Kate both shook their 
heads, and were surprised when Nathan let out a long sigh.

"You young people these days never seem to think things through.  Kate, you 
know if you want to continue increasing your strength you are going to have 
to make some changes."  Kate blinked, wondering what was going on as her 
father pulled out a cell phone and dialed a number.  She and Jack listened 
in as he placed a rather odd order consisting of some metal strips and 
various reinforcing materials before hanging up.

"Umm, Daddy what was all that for?"

"Well sweety, you have one of the most unique situations I have ever heard 
of.  Really, how long do you think that equipment down there is going to 
last you?  Those bars weren’t meant to take that much weight as it is.  So I 
just put in an order for some reinforcing materials.  You any good with a 
welding torch?"  Jack gave a slight start as Nathan indicated him.

"Nope, sorry.  Just electronics and genetics."

"Well get ready to learn.  You're going to be helping me modify that stuff 
down there once my order arrives.  Oh, I had better call Mary and get her up 
here."  Jack looked to Kate with a questioning look in his eyes.

"Oh, don’t worry.  My dad is pretty good with the torch from his younger 
days."

"Okay, but who is Mary?"

"Mary is my mother, silly.  I guess she will want to know about this as 
well."  Jack nodded as Nathan finished up the phone call.  Looking at the 
two of them for a moment, Nathan clapped his hands together.

"Alright, here's what I'm going to do.  I'll help modify that workout 
equipment you have downstairs to last you a while longer.  I called your 
mother up here so that you could tell her and show her yourself.  Quite 
frankly, I think if I tried to tell her what was going on I would lose 
control of my company and be in a nice white room for a while.  Now, you 
said you weren’t all that handy with a welder, but can you design things 
young man?"  Jack only nodded his head, feeling a bit of resentment at being 
called young.  Considering his habit of calling Kate 'young lady,' not being 
the oldest now kind of annoyed him.

"Alright then.  I'm going to put you in charge of this little project and 
trust you to design and order the equipment Kate is going to need.  If you 
don’t know much about hydraulics, I recommend you start learning."  Kate 
couldn’t help but give her father a strange look at his referring to it as a 
project.

"Oops, sorry sweety, I didn’t mean to sound like that.  But I am going to 
devote some of the company's funds to you and this gentleman here.  I think 
it would be better then having you always go through outside sources for 
what you need.  So I expect the machine parts to be ordered from the 
company."  A wide grin formed on Kate’s face as she realized what her dad 
was doing, and Nathan soon found himself swept off the ground as his girl 
gave him a hug.

"Thanks Daddy.  I'm glad we have your backing in this."  Nathan didn’t know 
what to do as his daughter held him in the air, except to lightly pat her 
head and chuckle at how excitable she could be.

"You're welcome sweetheart.  But, umm, could you put me down?  I have a few 
more things I need to take care of."  Kate giggled a bit before setting 
Nathan back down and returning to her seat.  "I figure I'll stay about a 
week and get everything set up, then I'm going to have to head off.  Your 
mother should be here tomorrow and, well, Kate would you mind not showing 
her what you can do all at once?  You nearly gave me a heart attack; maybe 
you can build up to it?"  Kate gave a wide grin at her father's request and 
touched the side of her cheek as if thinking.

"We will see, Daddy, but you know I really like what this body of mine can 
do."  With that Kate proceeded to flex her biceps, showing off a bit for her 
father and Jack.

"I'm sure you do, sweety.  We just need to make sure that you remain you."  
Kate gave a nod in agreement with her father, who was by now looking around 
the house and checking in various rooms.  "Which rooms are you two using?  I 
came up here figuring I would stick around about three days before heading 
back to work.  That way I can make sure you two are going to be alright."  
As Jack watched, Kate took her father by the arm and led him towards one of 
the rooms they weren’t using.  Now he could see why Kate exercised so often. 
  Some of her behavioral patterns were obviously learned from her parents.  
Considering what he had seen of Kate’s and Kate herself, Jack found himself 
more than a little curious about what Kate’s mother would be like.

**************************************************************************

Jack looked around for a moment as he and Nathan worked in the basement 
taking notes on the exercise equipment.  Nathan was making a rather detailed 
list of ideas as well as noting the equipment that he didn’t think his 
little girl would be able to use for very long.  Kate, for her part, was 
upstairs making dinner.  Finally Jack had a chance to ask something he had 
been dying to know.  "I was wondering Nathan, could you possibly tell me 
what you do for a living?"  Nathan looked up from his notepad and gave Jack 
a look.

"You mean Kate hasn’t told you yet?"  Jack could only shake his head.  It 
was rather embarrassing be living with Kate, yet know so little about her 
family.

"My little girl, she is an odd one.  Well, I'm the owner and president of 
InCon Ltd."  Jack thought about the name for a moment; he could swear he'd 
heard it before but it didn’t stick out right away.  "I wouldn’t exactly be 
surprised if you didn’t know much about us.  We're not that big, after all, 
and competing with those high tech monsters is getting harder and harder."

"Hey, I recall now, you produce military equipment.  As well as some hunting 
gear, right?"  Nathan nodded before returning to his notes, leaving Jack to 
think about this for a moment.  He knew InCon Ltd was one of the few 
companies that were still managing to hold on to any part of the market with 
the larger companies pushing their way in.  The fact that they supplied 
hunting equipment on the side was a significant part of the reason why.

"That's why I couldn’t come to see my little girl as often as I would've 
liked to, even when she was in the hospital.  Especially right now, since 
we're working on getting a government contract that would really help us."

"What would that be?"

"Designing a new style of military boot that would last longer and be more 
comfortable for the soldiers."  Jack didn’t know what to say to this.  
Having worked for LexCorp over the last few years, such a simple item seemed 
almost laughable to him.  Still, considering the number of boots they would 
produce, he imagined it would be a rather big deal for such a company.  "Now 
wipe that grin off your face.  While Kate was showing me around, she 
mentioned you worked for LexCorp.  I imagine from that, and the look on your 
face, it might seem silly, but it isn’t like we can compete on the more 
glamorous things like tanks."

Jack, who hadn’t realized that he had been giving Nathan any type of look, 
felt a little embarrassed.  It wasn’t like he was a higher-up in LexCorp at 
any time, and even though Nathan only owned a minor company he'd still had 
more success in his lifetime than Jack had.  Also, from Nathan’s demeanor 
and the way he behaved towards work, Jack doubted Nathan had inherited the 
company.  It seemed more likely that he had built it from the ground up 
himself.  Jack didn’t get to ask that question, as a voice reached down to 
them.  "Alright you two, come on upstairs.  Dinner's ready."

Jack didn’t a chance to ask Nate any more questions, as Kate insisted on 
helping them for the rest of the night.  Nathan and Jack wondered if she was 
actually doing it to show off more than help; she seemed to delight in 
picking up objects for them that they would have normally placed on their 
side due to their weight.  As Jack lay in bed that night, a funny notion 
came to his mind.  He took a moment to set his alarm clock for before Kate 
would go off on her morning run.  So far Nathan had seen how much strength 
his little girl had gained.  Jack now planned on showing him how much faster 
she could move.

The alarm clock did manage to wake Jack out of bed early the next morning, 
though it took him a moment to remember just why he had set it.  As soon as 
he did, he found himself quickly getting out of bed and heading downstairs 
to fetch the radar gun.  As he did this, he noticed something strange.  
Sniffing the air, he made his way into the kitchen where he saw a very 
tired-looking Nathan and a considerable amount of food prepared.  Looking up 
at Jack for a moment, Nathan gave him a strange look as he noticed the radar 
gun, but he had a more important question.  "Does my daughter always get up 
this early?  And for that matter, I wonder why did she wake up her aging 
father before you?"

"I guess she's just used to me sleeping in late and eating cold eggs, but I 
didn’t know she was getting up this early.  Blast it, I was hoping I would 
get to show you something else that we've noticed, but it seems you might 
have found something out before me.  I wonder how the changes in her are 
affecting her sleeping habits."

"Ah well, whatever you wanted me to see I'm sure you can show me later.  For 
now why don’t you go ahead and eat what Kate made for you before it gets 
cold."  Jack nodded and sat down opposite of Nathan.

"Kate likes her secrets, doesn’t she?  I mean, she wouldn’t even tell me 
what you did for a living.  Heck, I didn’t even know she could just come 
here to vacation whenever she wanted to until she brought me out here."  
Nathan grinned as he finished chewing a bit of eggs.

"My little girl likes her privacy.  She quit telling people about her 
parents when she felt they were after her for her money.  Of course there 
were still those who went after her because of her body, but it at least 
decreased the number of people whose teeth she had to knock out.  So tell 
me, just how far have you gotten with my little girl?  Is she letting you 
sleep in bed with her yet?"  Jack gave Nathan a odd look as he considered 
what he had just been asked.  Nathan seem relaxed, but he still worried just 
what would happen if he proved to be more protective than Jack gave him 
credit for.

"No, she hasn’t let me get that far yet."

"Still restricting you to cuddling on the couch then I suppose?"  Jack 
couldn’t help but look surprised at Nathan’s response.  "I know my little 
girl pretty well.  And don’t feel bad; to my knowledge no one has made it 
into the bed with her.  Everyone so far has proven a little too grabby.  I 
used to worry about my little girl and her flirting but, well, she has 
proven she can handle herself.  You've only started exercising recently 
haven’t you?"

"Yeah, it was Kate’s idea.  She really didn’t give me much choice in the 
matter at first."

"Well then I will say you are one lucky young man as that means Kate really 
likes you.  Of course it is only fair that if she keeps herself fit then you 
should do the same, wouldn’t you say?"  Jack nodded in agreement; it was a 
perfectly reasonable thing to do.  The two of them continued their 
conversation for some time until the sound of a vehicle arriving got their 
attention.  Heading to the front door, Jack recalled that Kate’s mother 
would be arriving.  The individual who stepped out of the vehicle was a 
older woman looking to be about the same age as Nathan, though her green 
eyes still shone with life.  As Jack looked over her body he noted she was 
smaller than Kate overall, her frame shorter and her muscles less obvious, 
though they were clearly well-toned.

"Alright now, where is my little girl?"  Jack couldn’t help but grin as the 
smartly dressed woman approached.

"Out for a run I'm afraid, but why don’t you step in?"  Jack quickly perked 
up as he recalled what he had wanted to show Nathan earlier.  He couldn’t 
guarantee that he would be able to show them now, not knowing how fast Kate 
would be running when she got home.  Still, he couldn’t help but feel this 
was his chance.

"Actually, would you two mind waiting out here?  I'm sure Kate will be back 
soon and I wanted to show you something."  Jack quickly dashed inside, while 
Nathan gave his wife a bit of a odd look and shrugged before sitting down.  
Mary was about to just go on inside anyway, but when her husband sat down 
she decided to follow suit.  A moment later Jack stepped outside holding the 
radar gun and took a spot were they could both see the numbers.  "Now just 
wait for Kate to get back.  I'm sure this will surprise you."  Mary blinked 
a moment before deciding to speak up.  She had been told it was important 
that she come.

"Now, see here.  I hope this isn’t some practical joke."  Nathan put his arm 
around his wife to get her attention.

"Trust me dear, this is not a joke.  But I'm not sure what Jack here wants 
to show us.  Oh, and Jack, this is my wife Mary."  Mary nodded as she 
settled back and decided to play along.  She didn’t have to wait long.  
Kate, having left an hour ago, was actually finishing her jog.  Having found 
that she couldn’t depend on landmarks anymore, she no longer watched out for 
them but rather went by a sense of feeling.  Mary and Nathan gave a slight 
start as they saw Kate zip by.  The numbers on the radar gun read 36 miles 
per hour.  Nathan, having seen Kate’s show of strength the previous day 
wasn’t as shocked as Mary.  She responded the only way she could.

"What the devil?"  Quickly turning around, the woman took a moment to see 
what had just done that and was surprised to find her daughter standing 
there.  Kate heard her mother’s voice and turned around with a sheepish 
grin.  She hadn't meant to make such a entrance, but she wasn't expecting 
everyone to be outside waiting for her.  When she saw the radar gun in 
Jack’s hand, she knew whose fault it was, but she didn’t mind.

"Hi Mom, glad to see you made it."  Mary’s first reaction was to ask them 
how they had just pulled off such a trick.  When Kate shook her head, Mary 
turned to her husband.

"Explain now."

Jack grinned, wondering no longer at where Kate’s authoritative  side came 
from.  But he could hardly blame the woman.

Helping Mary up from her seat, Nathan began to lead her into the house.

"I'm going to take Mary down into the basement and let her look over the 
equipment.  Kate, come down in a few minutes and show her what you showed 
me.  Oh and Jack, I'm going to have to talk to you about the concept of 
easing someone into a new situation.  What happened to the plan to slowly 
show Mary what Kate can do so she wouldn’t go into shock?"

"I am hardly that fragile, now get to talking."  Mary shut the door as she 
gave her husband a stern look that quickly dissolved into a grin.  Her 
husband took her down to the basement and instructed her to look everything 
over to make sure there were no tricks involved.  As she did this, Nathan 
began to tell her what Jack and Kate had told him, as well as what he had 
seen the previous day.  Despite having seen Kate run by only a few moments 
ago, Mary was still having a bit of trouble believing what she was hearing, 
until she heard some heavy foot steps on the stairs.  A moment later Kate 
appeared, strolling easily down the steps while carrying Jack over her head. 
  Setting him down at the bottom of the steps, she looked towards her mom.

"Well, ready for me to show you some real lifting?"  Mary nodded as she 
watched her daughter take her spot at the barbell and, as she had done for 
her father the previous day, lift it from its resting position and proceed 
to bench the bar for 3 sets of 12 reps before finally setting it down.  Mary 
couldn’t help but be amazed as she followed her daughter through the 
process.  Each time Kate would finish an exercise, she would feel the weight 
herself, testing for wires and trying to figure out what was going on.  
Slowly she found herself believing her husband more and more and coming to 
understand why he had felt the need to bring her up here.  Had he simply 
told her this over the phone, she might have required him to see a doctor 
once he got home, or even given him a drug test.

Finally Mary stood up and walked over to her daughter, wrapping her arms 
around her in a hug and smiling at her little girl.  "Now honey, didn’t I 
always tell you drugs would lead to trouble?"  Kate couldn’t help but laugh 
at her mother as she hugged her in return, grinning as she lifted her mother 
from the ground and then set her back down.

"Well, your father filled me in on most of the details.  But how about you 
tell me about this young man?"  Jack started to follow Mary and Kate up the 
stairs when he felt Nathan’s hand rest on his shoulder, stopping him from 
going up the steps.

"We have some work to do down here, and besides, I'm sure Mary wants to talk 
to her little girl in private."  Jack could only grin; he wanted to hear 
what Kate had to say about him, but he really couldn’t argue.  Looking 
towards the exercise equipment he wondered what Nathan had in mind, until he 
saw him head over to his computer.  "Does this machine of yours have any 
programs for designing?"

"Nope, can’t say that it does."  Nathan nodded as he brought up his company 
website and put in an order for a few programs.  Jack wasn’t sure what to do 
when he also printed out a few papers that looked to Jack like a contract.

"Alright now, as the head of Project Little Lady, I'm going to need you to 
sign these papers.  Inside you'll find your budget as well as your salary 
offer."  Jack couldn’t help but give Nathan an odd look.  "Now don’t look 
surprised; I said I was going to make this an official project, and who 
better to head it up?"

"Thanks, but I don’t really need a salary.  I mean, I would help Kate even 
if I wasn’t paid."

"Oh yes you do.  I get that you care for my little girl, especially since 
you apparently knew her for a while before this.  Blast, I wish she would 
tell me more about herself once in a while, but anyway.  Even if you do love 
her, it often helps one's work ethic to know there's money in it for them as 
well.  And this way you won’t have to ask Kate when you need to order 
something.  This budget is adjustable of course, just give me a call and 
explain the problem if it isn’t enough.  Now, as part of the job, you are to 
ensure that my little girl's needs are met.  I expect you to spend at least 
a few hours a day either doing research or finding ways to help her 
progress."

Jack nodded, finally taking the papers from Nathan.  Looking through them 
and recalling what Nathan had mentioned about hydraulics earlier, Jack began 
to get a idea of just what he was going to have to do.  It was quite 
surprising how quickly Nathan had drawn up the contract; Jack imagined he 
was used to working on the go.  At last signing them, he handed the sheets 
back to Nathan who let out a bit of a sigh.  "The reinforcing materials I 
ordered should be arriving tomorrow, so we can get to work then.  I figure 
we can rig up these old things to last her for a few more months if we're 
lucky.  It'll be up to you to make sure she has what she needs after that.

"Alright, now to wait for those women to get done...hey."  Jack gave Nathan 
an odd look as the man went into Jack’s files and quickly located a few of 
the computer games he had, including some of the oldies like donkey kong.

"Those two are going to be at it for a few hours.  Trust me, we're going to 
be down here for a while."  Jack just grinned as he considered what he 
should do.  After a moment he headed over to the weights.  Removing what 
Kate had used earlier to impress both her mother and father, Jack began 
putting himself through his exercise routine.  He would regret his choice 
the next day, when he found himself helping Nathan to adjust Kate’s exercise 
equipment with the materials he had ordered.  He didn't get to spend much 
time with Mary, though he did at least get a feel for her personality, 
especially when she began helping with the adjustments.  By the time they 
were done Jack was glad he had already developed some muscle tone.  The 
bench press bar alone now weighed 130 lbs, more than he could have lifted 
before Kate started making him work out.

Nathan only remained the three days that it took to adjust the equipment.  
He and Mary left together, surprising Jack by leaving a spare vehicle behind 
and saying that they might need it.

*****************************************************************************

Jack sat at his computer typing away at the program Nathan had left with 
him.  It had been five weeks since their visit and Kate had come along quite 
nicely.  The program was proving more and more useful as he began to realize 
that Kate would indeed be moving beyond her current exercise equipment's 
capabilities before too long.  The sound of footsteps told him that Kate had 
made it back from her morning jog and was heading down the steps.  Kate’s 
jogs had by now become a regular event as the rate of her body’s recovery 
also increased.

"Hey Jack, how are those designs coming along?"  Looking up from his 
workstation, Jack couldn’t help but be amazed as he watched Kate come down 
the steps.  He could swear that she was becoming more beautiful every day, 
though he hadn’t mentioned it to her.  He was developing a theory that as 
her body grew healthier it was also removing blemishes.

"They're coming along Well enough.  The budget your dad set up was pretty 
darn generous, after all.  I can use it to get you some really nice 
equipment, though it might take a while to get everything made.  So far I 
got you a bench and leg press that should last you a while."  Kate nodded as 
she made her way over to Jack and leaned over his shoulder, looking at the 
various layouts on the screen.

"You know Jack, when a woman takes the time to prepare a man breakfast she 
expects him to eat it."  Jack grinned a bit, realizing he had been so 
occupied with working that he had forgotten to eat.

"Sorry, I forgot.  Tell you what, I'll head up right after I finish with 
this and eat it then, is that alright?"  Jack started to go back to typing.

"Nope, it isn’t.  You are coming upstairs and eating your breakfast right 
now.  After all, it's harder to think when your stomach is empty."  Grinning 
like a jackal, Jack decided to be stubborn.  He scooted his desk further in 
and wrapped his legs around one of the metal bars.

"Now Kate, I really need to finish this.  We don’t know how long that 
exercise equipment is going to last you."  The grin Jack saw on Kate’s face 
told him he didn’t have a choice in the matter.

"Oh don’t worry about that Jack, actually I've been thinking of that myself. 
  I've found a few substitutes should the need arise while we're waiting for 
your designs to arrive."  Jack was about to ask what that meant when he felt 
Kate’s hand snake around to take hold of the front of his pants.  A moment 
later he was being lifted from his seat.  His first instinct was to try to 
keep hold with his legs, but the desk was too heavy for him to lift with him 
and he didn’t want to risk his stuff falling off.  So he didn’t fight too 
much as his legs were pulled away from the desk and he was slowly elevated 
above Kate’s head.

Kate couldn’t help but grin as she held Jack aloft with one arm.  The 
muscles in her right arm displayed themselves to great effect as she 
supported his weight above her head with just one hand.  Jack felt more than 
a little strange as Kate lowered him a bit so that she was looking only 
slightly up at him, though his feet didn’t touch the ground.  "You are 
coming upstairs and eating your breakfast.  Then you are going to take some 
time off and let me show off for you and talk with me a bit."  Jack could 
only nod; he had indeed been spending a good deal of his time working since 
Nathan had officially started giving him a paycheck.  He hated to admit it, 
but Nathan had been right about money being a good motivator.

Turning around, Kate proceeded up the steps, all the while holding Jack two 
feet above the ground and facing her.  As she carried him, Jack found 
himself reaching out and placing his hands on the arm that supported him so 
easily.  Feeling the muscles as best he could, he hoped Kate would let him 
explore more of her body.  The fact that he was getting a hard on suddenly 
occurred to him, but he didn’t exactly know what to do about it.  If he 
covered it up Kate would notice for sure, considering the position she was 
holding him in.  If she hadn’t noticed already.  If she had, she wasn’t 
saying anything, so he wouldn’t bother mentioning it either.

"Here you go."  Kate proceeded to pick up a seat for Jack which she placed 
him in while still holding it aloft.  As she did this though, Jack noticed a 
little strain as she lowered him to the ground.

"So I'm not quite as light as you make me out to be am I, Superwoman?"

Kate grinned and blew in Jack’s ear a bit.  "Now don’t you go calling me 
that.  I am Kate and that's what my name is going to stay as.  But yeah, I 
was testing myself earlier and found that I can support around 180 lbs with 
just one arm.  Pretty nice if I do say so myself, but it means I can only 
pack you and maybe a little extra weight.  Still..." Kate proceeded to flex 
her arm right near Jack’s head, allowing him to watch the muscle swell.  "I 
am getting stronger every day.  Before long you will feel as light as a 
feather to me."

"Now won’t that be fun.  So, since you're giving me a vacation today what do 
you want to do?"

"Actually I was thinking we could go swimming.  While I was out running I 
came upon this really nice lake that looked just perfect.  Far enough out of 
the way that I doubt we will see anyone else.  I didn’t even see any four 
wheeler trails leading up to it."  Looking at Kate for a moment, Jack was 
about to agree that it  would be a good idea until he stopped to consider 
that it had been while Kate was out for a jog."

"That sounds good and all, but just how far did you run before you found 
it?"  Jack began to dine on the oatmeal as he waited for Kate’s response.

"Oh, don’t you worry about that; I'm going to carry you.  I best start 
getting some things together.  I'll need to drop a few things off before I 
come and get you." Jack continued to eat as he watched Kate zip around the 
rooms preparing a rather large cooler.  As he watched, he considered how 
fast she could move.  He had imagined that as her overall speed increased, 
so too would the rate at which she did everyday actions.  With her 
increasing strength, it surprised Jack that he felt no extra pressure when 
she held him, unless she wanted to put on extra pressure.  It could be that 
she simply wasn’t strong enough yet; after all, she was strong but she 
wasn’t tossing around cars yet.  Still, he would have to watch out for 
shattered dishes to see if Kate’s strength was getting too much for her to 
control.

"Be back in a bit."  Kate gave Jack a kiss as she picked up the full cooler 
of supplies and slipped out the front door.  Watching her take off, Jack 
looked towards a large clock hanging on the wall to check the time.  Kate 
zipped along, easily supporting the cooler's weight.  Although she wasn’t 
running at the same speed that she had on her jog, she was still making good 
time.  The cooler didn’t seem to weigh anything at all; the only thing about 
it that really bothered her was the awkward shape and size of the cooler 
which made it a bit hard to maneuver like she wanted to.  She would have to 
be a little bit more careful when carrying Jack of course, as he wouldn’t 
exactly make it easy to maneuver either.  Arriving at the spot, Kate took 
another glance around before setting down the cooler and dashing back 
towards the house.

Upon finishing off his breakfast, Jack made a quick trip to the restroom and 
switched into some swimming trunks before taking his seat near the living 
room door and watching the clock.  Roughly ten minutes after she left, Kate 
came zipping back into the house.  " Ready to go?"  Kate gave a slight start 
when she found Jack sitting near the door.

"Yes I am, but you know, I was timing you and I think I can walk the 
distance if you don’t mind taking a while longer.  It should only take about 
30 minutes."  Kate thought about this for a little while; it would be good 
exercise for Jack, and he would see the woods better.

"Sure thing, but let's spray you down with some bug repellent."  Jack nodded 
as he watched Kate dash off to one of the rooms near the back of the house.  
Returning with a can of bug repellent, she proceeded to spray Jack down.

"Aren’t you going to use any?  You won’t be moving as fast, after all."  
Kate nodded and sprayed herself as well.  Lately she hadn’t been using the 
spray as she had been moving through the forest quite a bit more quickly 
than the average human.  The two of them headed out the door, a wide grin on 
Kate's face as she wondered how Jack would feel about the forest.

Jack was fairly sure he hated walking through the forest.  After having gone 
roughly a mile into the woods, stumbling several times over tree roots and 
wet leaves, Kate had taken to walking beside him to catch him when he 
stumbled.  She didn’t mind doing this, figuring Jack would eventually get 
the hang of it, but as someone used to spending their days indoors Jack had 
finally given up and asked Kate to carry him.  Kate didn’t exactly mind this 
either; she really couldn’t blame Jack for not being use to the outdoors.  
"Sorry about this Kate, I just don’t have any experience walking around in 
the woods."

"I’ll say you don’t.  But it's no big deal, I had planned on carrying you 
from the start.  This place really isn’t the best walking area, either.  
There aren't any trails to follow."

"Actually, that has me wondering.  Just how much of this mountain does your 
family own anyway?"

"All of it.  That's why you don’t see any other houses built on it."  Jack 
blinked for a moment.  He had expected it to be only a few acres, 
considering that Kate freely talked as if there might be people wandering 
the area and leaving paths.

"Then why would there be trails here?  After all, I imagine you keep people 
away from your property."

"Well, that's an easy question to answer.  We aren’t here often enough to 
really make a fuss and the area isn’t exactly fenced in.  Even if it was, 
people end up wandering around others' property all the time, especially 
during dear season."

"Bunch of hillbillies."

"No, not really.  The thing you have to worry about is the city boys that 
come down thinking they know how to hunt.  That's when you start running 
into problems and risk getting shot."  Jack grinned a bit.  Kate had clearly 
looked at him when she said the words 'city boys.'  For a moment he wanted 
to retort, but considering how Kate took to the woods he couldn’t help but 
imagine she was right.

"Fine then, country girl, are we about to the lake now?"  Kate chuckled and 
gave Jack a slight nod.  The sound of the river flowing got Jack’s attention 
a while later.  As they neared the river Jack found himself looking around 
at the unspoiled scenery.  It was nice, but not enough to get him out in 
such a place if Kate hadn’t taken him.  He was even more sure of that upon 
hearing a  slight growl coming from one side of them.  Kate, hearing the 
sound as well, had an 'oh shit' look upon her face as she turned her head.  
Where she had set the cooler there was now a brown bear rummaging through 
the contents.

"Kate, I think we should leave."  Jack clutched more tightly to Kate as he 
looked at the animal.  Although he realized Kate had improved a great deal 
over the past few weeks, he didn’t think she was ready for such a opponent.  
Kate was apt to agree.  However, as she looked at the animal and the bear 
looked at her, she found herself unable to simply run.  Having grown more 
and more confident in her physical abilities over the past four and a half 
months, Kate didn’t feel the same desire to run that she imagined she would 
have before.  Rather, she felt a strong desire to test herself and show off.

Jack thus gave Kate a look of concern as she lowered him to the ground and 
pushed him behind her.  "Don’t worry Jack, I'll take care of this.  I think 
this animal needs to learn to fear humans."  Jack couldn’t help but feel 
nervous as he looked at the smile on Kate’s face and watched her tighten up 
her fist.  The bear, for its part, had been sniffing the air all the while, 
looking at the two of them.  Having recently been relocated from the town a 
few miles away, the bear had no fear of humans thanks to its numerous trips 
into the town.  To it, Jack and Kate seemed to be perfect food items.  
Moving away from the cooler, the creature let out a growl while Kate stood 
her ground.  Jack stood a few yards behind her, unsure of whether to run or 
watch.

The bear looked at Kate for a moment before simply choosing to charge.  It 
was hungry, and felt she would be easy prey.  Kate felt a bit of fear but 
swallowed it as the creature ran towards her.  She wasn’t going to run now.  
As it approached, Kate couldn’t help but feel the creature was moving more 
slowly than what it should.  Her reflexes had sped up to allow her to use 
her increased speed.  Everything about her now seemed to be moving faster.  
Drawing near, the bear suddenly felt Kate’s fist slam into the side of its 
head.  The power of her blow and the creature's speed coupled together 
caused the 730-pound animal to actually lift slightly off the ground before 
it was sent rolling on its side.

Jack couldn’t believe what he had just seen, while Kate couldn’t believe 
what she had just done.  She had put a brown bear down on its side with one 
punch.  True, her arm was now stinging from the force of the impact, her 
punch having not only sent the bear to the ground but also redirected its 
momentum.  Kate quickly turned her attention back in the bear's direction as 
the animal recovered, shaking its head as if trying to shake away the pain 
it was feeling.  Kate quickly resumed her combative stance as she waited to 
see what the big animal was going to do.  The bear, for its part, had to do 
a double take of the situation as it realized what had just happened.  
Having had its first assumption that Kate would be easy prey shattered, the 
animal followed its instincts.

Jack jaw nearly hit the ground as he watched the bear take one more look at 
Kate before roaring and taking off in a dead run in the opposite direction.  
The large animal's steps were unsteady as it ran.  Jack’s gaze turned to 
Kate, who was still looking at her hands as she realized what had just 
happened.  Slowly she turned her attention towards Jack, a huge grin upon 
her face.  "Well, our food got ruined but we can still have some fun 
swimming now.  I don’t think he'll be coming back."

Jack didn’t really know what to say at having just seen Kate send a bear 
running with one good solid punch.  Realizing Jack was a bit stunned, Kate 
walked over to him.  She was still a little surprised herself.  Helping Jack 
lift his arms above his head, Kate proceeded to remove his shirt for him, 
then lift him off the ground.  While holding Jack in the air Kate removed 
his shoes and socks before walking over to the water.  She tossed Jack 
lightly in.  He was soon out of his shocked state, and came up sputtering.  
Looking at Kate for a moment, he couldn’t help but grin.  Kate only giggled 
at Jack’s response, then proceeded to lift her arms above her head.  
Stopping herself, she lowered them back down and took hold of the very base 
of her t-shirt.

Jack watched as Kate slowly began to tear her t-shirt in two, slowly 
revealing her abs.  She took a moment for Jack to take in the sight before 
she ripped the fabric further.  As Jack watched more of Kate’s body being 
exposed, he couldn’t help but notice how perfectly formed her abs seemed to 
be.  But his attention was taken away from this wonder rather quickly as 
Kate tore her shirt just to the point that the underside of her breasts 
could be seen.  Unsure if Kate was wearing a bra or not, Jack was a bit 
disappointed, though not overly so as he found Kate was wearing a string 
bikini.  Finally removing her shirt, Kate then began the same process with 
her shorts.

The t-shirt had been a nice touch, but the tougher material of the shorts 
was absolutely wonderful to watch.  Kate easily tore it away, revealing the 
bikini bottom underneath.  She turned her back to Jack, allowing him to get 
a good view of her rear.  As Jack looked at Kate’s rear he noted that it was 
one tail that he truly wanted to kiss.  He had gotten away with giving Kate 
a slight slap on the rear before, but other than that he hadn’t really 
gotten to explore that part of her body.  After what he had seen with the 
bear though, he was quite sure that until Kate gave the go ahead for him to 
further explore her body he would just bide his time.  Now unclothed, Kate 
made her way into the water.  Walking out to where Jack was, she wrapped her 
arms around him and pulled him against her chest.

Kate’s lips pressed firmly to Jack's and he felt himself go weak in her 
arms.  The fact that she had just managed to drive off a bear with her own 
hands, the little strip tease she had just put on, the feeling of her 
powerful arms around him and the kiss was nearly too much for him.  Kate 
grinned as she felt Jack’s body, noting the improved muscle tone.  He had 
come along quite well in the past few months.  His abs had actually become 
somewhat defined, though not to the point Kate’s were even before her body 
began to undergo its changes.  If she were to describee him, she would 
probably say he was lightly muscular or compact for now.  "You've improved a 
lot since you moved in with me.  Now aren’t you glad I made you start 
working out?"  Jack took a moment to register what Kate had just said; a 
smile of pride appeared on his face at her praise.

"Not as much as you though."  Kate giggled and pressed her lips to Jack’s 
once again.

"True, but I did have some help in getting these."  As Kate said this she 
stepped away from Jack and flexed her arms, her biceps standing out.  
Grinning, Jack stepped forward and proceeded to flex his arm, noting the 
size difference between his and Kate’s muscle.

"Dang, I guess it's like a hill trying to compare itself to a mountain."

"I wouldn’t say it was quite that bad.  Besides, you don’t really need to 
bulk up.  After all, you have me now."  Relaxing his arms, Jack took hold of 
Kate’s flexed right arm and began to feel the muscle.

"Oh, does that mean I can go back to being a couch potato?"

"Nope, but instead of going for increased weight how about you just start 
doing more sets.  After all, you're eventually going to have to start 
concerning yourself more with stamina than strength."  Jack couldn’t help 
but grin at what Kate’s words implied.  Wrapping his arms around her, Jack 
took the lead this time as he kissed Kate.  It was a odd position for Jack; 
he was used to having Kate’s arms around him rather than the other way 
around.  As he let up from the kiss, he noticed a slight blush on Kate’s 
face.  A revelation came to Jack as he held Kate in his arms.  For all her 
increasing might, Kate was still a woman and enjoyed having the arms of a 
man around her.

Jack, for his part, didn’t know exactly what to make of the situation except 
that it seemed to be Kate’s way of letting him know she trusted him.  At the 
moment he felt in control of the situation, despite the fact that should 
Kate want to she could easily remove his arms.  "Swimming is supposed to be 
good exercise, you know."  A grunt of effort came from Jack as he reached 
down and quickly lifted Kate's 180 lbs from the water, delighted that even 
wtih her increasing strength she still seemed to weigh the same.  A bit of a 
shocked yelp came from Kate as Jack quickly released her, allowing her to 
fall into the water.  As he did this though, Kate’s hand shot up and took 
hold of his shoulder, bringing him down with her.

A moment later a giggling Kate came up from the water holding Jack in her 
hands.  As Jack looked up into Kate’s face, he noticed that the blush hadn’t 
quite left her cheeks.  The mixture of power, beauty and femininity was 
almost overwhelming. Kate lifted Jack up, slightly pressing her lips to his 
cheek while his hands began to once again explore her arms and abs.  Kate 
didn’t bother to put Jack down; they explored one another, Jack still 
keeping to the known safe zones, so to speak.  He found the situation even 
more thrilling than the couch, as now he wasn’t simply laying on Kate but 
actually being supported by her arms.  The fact that they showed no strain 
at all was perhaps the most impressive fact.

*****************************************************************************

"Now Jack, I thought we talked about this the last time I was there.  I 
expect you to plan out everything and make sure my little girl has what she 
needed."  Jack sat quietly on the phone as Nathan continued his quiet yet 
effective reprimand.  Jack would have liked to argue that Kate had had her 
powers for 19 weeks now and that he hadn’t yet messed up on anything, but 
really that would have been a lie.  The exercise equipment would have worn 
out long ago if Nathan hadn’t insisted they make the modifications to it, 
and the programs he had Jack sent had proven invaluable.  "Ah well, enough 
about the past.  Let's see what we can do about this problem."

"Sir, would you mind letting me take care of this?  I realize it was my 
failure to anticipate this need, but I think I have a solution.  If you'll 
give me a little while longer I'll send off an order for what Kate needs."

"Alright then, but keep in mind you're living with a very strong young lady 
who probably won’t be too happy if she has to wait much longer.  Who knows, 
she might decide to hurry you up with a spanking."  Nathan gave a slight 
laugh which both relaxed and worried Jack; he wondered if, in Kate’s playful 
manner, she might very well carry through with such an action.  He was sure 
Kate wouldn’t seriously injure him, of course, but as he recalled from the 
bear Kate did have something of a mean streak in her, even if it wasn’t seen 
very often.

"What, you really think she would do that?"  A click came over the line as 
Nathan hung up without giving Jack an answer.  Grinning, Jack turned his 
attention back towards the computer screen and began working on the design 
once again.  The material would have to be tougher than usual in order to 
withstand the extreme heat and forceful impacts it would be taking.  It was 
fortunate that weight wasn’t a major issue, as Jack imagined his designs 
could weigh quite a bit by now.  Kate wouldn’t complain about that too much. 
  Still, Kate would soon have other things that would also need to be 
replaced.

Kate sighed as she ran along, her feet rapidly impacting the ground as she 
continued her morning jog.  The fact that it was her feet hitting the ground 
and not her shoes was Jack’s recent oversight.  The speed at which Kate had 
begun to run and the force of each step she took while running had eaten 
away her original jogging shoes.  She now found herself running barefoot 
across the terrain.  It didn’t hurt her of course, as her skin had 
strengthened along with the rest of her, but she really hated the feeling of 
dirt and leaves against her exposed feet.

That was why she currently found herself zipping along one of the back roads 
that few traveled.  Grass grew up between the pavement and in some areas the 
pavement had disintegrated into massive potholes; it had been some time 
since the state had given the road any attention.  Still, Kate enjoyed the 
peace and quiet, until the sound of a motor running got her attention.  As 
she round a corner she could see them, two four-wheelers out in front of 
her.  A curious looked appeared on Kate’s face; she wondered if she had been 
gaining on them this entire time or if they had just pulled out from the 
woods.  As she drew closer, she was glad the drivers were too busy to look 
back.  Both of them had to be careful due to the speeds they were traveling 
at on the curvy old road.  Kate knew she shouldn’t do it, but as she looked 
at the two vehicles she couldn't help herself.

Michael grumbled a bit as Howard held the lead on him.  The jerk had got 
lucky when Michael had hit a pothole and slowed down; otherwise he would 
still be in front.  The two of them had been speeding along at far faster 
speeds than were safe, racing for some time now without considering what 
might happen if a car happened to be on the old road.  "Hey there, don’t you 
know you're not supposed to have these things on the road?"  A voice got 
Michael’s attention.  As he looked over his shoulder to see where it had 
come from, he gasped in surprise to find a woman had pulled up next to him.

Kate looked down, checking just how fast Michael was going at the moment.  
She noted it was a bit over 40 miles per hour.  A grin broke out on her face 
as she realized she must be holding an even higher speed at the moment.  
Michael, for his part, started to respond when he noticed something.  The 
woman who had just pulled up next to him and was now about to pass him 
wasn’t riding anything, but running.  "Holy shit," escaped his lips as he 
suddenly jerked away, not stopping to think where he was or how fast he was 
going.

Kate, catching sight of this, quickly reached out and took hold of the 
handlebar.  Turning him back to a straightforward direction, she steered 
Michael away from the bluff he would have sent himself over.  Kate felt like 
she was helping a little child steers its bike as with her other hand she 
forced Michel’s finger away from the accelerator, allowing the ATV to come 
to a gradual stop.  "Now young man, not only was that reckless driving but 
you should know that these things aren’t allowed on the road, even if it is 
a back road."  Michael could only nod his head as he looked up at this 
amazing female, wondering just where she had come from.  He didn’t recognize 
her from any of the Justice League people they showed on television, and he 
didn’t think she was a villain of some sort.  He wondered if she was one of 
the masked heroine’s, but didn’t think so.  He couldn’t think of any of them 
that had Kate’s powerful build.

"Well then, you need to get off."  Kate, realizing the fellow was lost in 
his own little world, grinned as she reached down, took hold of the 
handlebars and got a good grip just under the seat.  The weight was a bit 
more than she'd expected but she was able to handle it.  She lifted it from 
the road, carried it over to the roadside and set it down.  Michael was even 
more amazed; he hadn’t expected someone with such superhuman abilities to 
come out of nowhere.  Howard, realizing that he had lost his friend, had 
turned around a short while ago and came back.  What he saw upon his return 
was quite shocking to him.  A loan female lifting his friend and the 
four-wheeler from the road.

"Oh, you came back for your friend.  Well then, I can give you the same 
lecture."  Howard was a bit shocked when Kate addressed him, and even more 
shocked when she rapidly accelerated over to him and proceeded to do the 
same thing she had done with Michael.  Lifting the four-wheeler from the 
road, she carried it an even further distance, placing him beside Michael.  
"Now I'm going to assume that you boys didn’t know that these vehicles 
aren’t allowed on the road.  I'm not going to do anything this time, but if 
I catch you at it again you might be walking home."  Neither Howard nor 
Michael said anything as Kate continued with her lecture for some time 
before speeding off.  They didn’t really know what to say after Kate’s 
display of strength.  They would later realize there had been some effort in 
her face, but still, it wasn’t every day they met such a powerful or 
attractive young woman.

Kate couldn’t help but grin as she ran along, having given the two boys 
quite a shocking experience.  She knew she was suppose to be laying low at 
the current time, but she couldn’t help herself.  She would have to get Jack 
to see just how fast she could run.  Even though she might not be the 
fastest thing on the road, the fact that she could keep up with and pass a 
motorized vehicle was truly a thrill for her.

Jack sat at the computer screen, the tattered remains of Kate’s original 
jogging shoes beside him.  As he didn’t know Kate’s shoe size, he was glad 
he'd been able to find them to put in the order.  Hearing the familiar beep 
of the alarm followed by the sound of the security code being entered, Jack 
quickly grabbed the remains of Kate’s shoes and tossed them back in the 
trash.  He wasn't entirely sure if Kate would want him knowing just how big 
her feet was; it was odd, but he knew of some women who could be picky about 
such things.  Looking back to the computer screen, he considered getting 
back to work but brushed it off.  He instead went upstairs where he found 
Kate drying her feet, having washed the dirt from them outside.

"Hey Jack, how goes the shoe hunt?  I'm really getting tired of having to 
hose my feet down every time I get back."

"Pretty good.  I think I have something that will hold up for a little 
while.  It might be kind of heavy but I think those leg muscles of yours can 
take it.  I also went ahead and ordered some clothes meant for motorcycle 
racing."  Kate looked up at Jack for a moment, a questioning look in her 
eyes.

"Motorcycle racing?  Think I'm going to get to running fast enough to burn 
off a normal set of clothing?"  The material for such outfits, Kate knew, 
was meant to endure a rider falling off his bike so that he wouldn’t end up 
being skinned alive as he slid across the ground.

"It may very well happen.  To be honest with you, it's getting harder to 
tell just how powerful you're going to get.  The only thing I can say for 
sure about your cells is that ever since the third month they've been 
looking less and less like a human's.  Things are starting to appear which I 
don't really understand."  Dropping the towel, Kate walked over to Jack, 
placed her hand just under his rear and lifted him into the air.  She held 
him well above her head, a smile on her face.

"Well, at least from experience, I can say they are advantageous."  Jack 
nodded his head in agreement as Kate easily held him aloft.  While just two 
weeks ago her arm had showed some strain while supporting him, now there was 
none.  "Well I'm finished with my jog, and since you're up here it must mean 
you're done with your work.  Let's go eat something to cool down."  Jack 
wasn’t exactly hot, but he didn’t argue as Kate carried him into the kitchen 
and opened the fridge.  Bending down, she allowed Jack to retrieve a large 
container of ice cream before shutting the door.

Kate grabbed two spoons before packing Jack into the living room and sitting 
down.  Jack found himself seated in her lap.  He'd expected to be set down 
next to Kate, but didn’t exactly mind where he was so he didn’t complain.

Jack ate more slowly than Kate, who seemed to be mostly focusing on the food 
as they relaxed with one another.  It wasn’t overly surprising, considering 
how much energy she had just expended.  Jack stopped eating as he considered 
just how much energy Kate’s body would be requiring to keep up with the rate 
of change it was going through and the amount of energy she was using now.  
As he dwelt on this, a few other questions came to mind, but he didn’t 
exactly know how to ask them.  He opted to try some of the more socially 
acceptable questions and leave the others for a later date.

"Kate, have you been eating more than usual recently?"  Kate looked at Jack 
and took a few moments to finish swallowing a mouthful of ice cream.

"No more than what I usually do when I put myself through a intensive 
workout session.  Why do you ask?  It isn’t like I'm getting pudgy."

"It isn’t that, I was just thinking.  With all the changes your body has 
been going through, you should be eating a good deal more than you use to.  
I think I have an idea as to just what a few of those additions to your 
cells do.  I imagine they increase the efficiency of your digestive system." 
  Kate only nodded, thinking of what was happening inside her.  It was up to 
Jack to keep up with her internal alterations; she just focused on the 
external.  It was less stressful as far as she was concerned.

"Think if I ate more, my body would make more use of the material and get me 
stronger even faster?"  Jack looked at Kate.  The look in her eyes told him 
that she was hopeful it would be the case.

"I don’t think so, to be honest.  I've been monitoring your rate of progress 
and as far as I can tell, your body has set its own pace and I'm not sure 
you can do anything to change it."  A humph came from Kate; she didn’t seem 
to like this opinion.  "But if you want to stuff yourself you're welcome to 
try.  With the way your body is working now, even if you did put on some 
weight I imagine you could drop it even more quickly then you put it on."  
Jack got a strange look on his face as he felt Kate’s hand take hold of his 
spoon and remove it from his hand.

"Well in that case, I shall start by being the one to finish this off since 
you seem done."  Jack blinked for a moment before grinning at Kate.   He got 
up, prompting Kate to reach for him to prevent him leaving, but he sat back 
down without her forcing him to.  A moment later he leaned back and let his 
head rest on her legs.

"Alright then, but that doesn’t mean I'm just going back to work.  I happen 
to like it here."  Jack’s grin grew a bit as Kate giggled, and he watched 
her breasts bounce pleasantly.  He was grateful that, with all the changes 
going on inside Kate’s body, they still seemed normal enough.

"Oh drat, I almost forgot.  Jack, I want you to measure just how fast I can 
run now.  We haven’t done that in a while and I am wondering how quickly I 
can get moving."  A sigh came from Jack.  After just making the claim that 
he wasn’t going to be leaving, it looked like his claim turned out to be 
false.  Kate grinned upon seeing the look on Jack’s face at having to remove 
his head from her shapely legs.  Standing up, Jack made his way out of the 
living room and back down to the basement to retrieve the speed detector.  A 
few moments later he once again joined Kate upstairs, expecting to see her 
still eating.  Much to his surprised, the ice cream container was already in 
the trash.

"I can eat rather quickly if I want to."  Jack looked at Kate, not sure if 
it was her speed that allowed her to finish it or if there simply hadn’t 
been much of left.  Following Kate outside, Jack took up a position on the 
porch while he watched Kate trot out into the yard.  After taking a moment 
to brace herself, Kate took off in a sprint.  The force with which her leg 
pushed into the ground dug her toes in deeply as she took off.  Jack could 
hear the ground being thrown back a moment later.  Kate zipped by, having 
gone from a standing position to 50.5 miles per hour in less then two 
seconds.  The sound of grinding got Jack’s attention as Kate brought herself 
to a dead stop, her legs tearing up the grass as she did so.

"I swear, if this was my lawn I would be very irritated with some young 
person running around it at 50mph, coming to a dead stop and leaving a huge 
tear in it."  Kate couldn’t help but grin, partly at the joke but also at 
hearing the speed she was able to reach.

"Heck yeah!  Before long I'll be able to go on the interstate."  Jack rolled 
his eyes, but he couldn’t help laughing at the thought as he considered the 
current speed limit of 70mph.  The thought that Kate would probably be able 
to run along the interstate and travel at the speed limit or greater was 
actually arousing, a fact that didn’t go unnoticed by Kate.  This wasn’t 
exactly a one way street though, as Kate found herself getting more and more 
turned on by what her body allowed her to do.

"Well, when that time comes just be sure you don’t get any speeding tickets. 
  Now how about we get your pretty legs washed off so that I can go back to 
using them as a pillow?"  Kate grinned and nodded her head as she walked 
over to the porch.  Jack took hold of the water hose and began to wash her 
off, having to fight the impulse to raise the stream of water and start a 
wet t-shirt contest.  Kate actually found herself having trouble walking 
back inside; she felt the urge to simply run around at top speed for a while 
and show off even more.  But when Jack’s arm rested on her shoulders and 
guided her inside, she felt this desire fading as she lightly leaned against 
him.

The feeling that he was supporting Kate only lasted a moment as Jack felt 
her arm come under him and once again lift him from the ground.  Kate had 
been doing this frequently since she had gained the strength to lift him 
with one arm.  Jack actually found the fact that Kate seemed to enjoy 
packing him around amusing; still, there was a desire to retort.  "You know 
I can walk, you don’t have to pack me everywhere I go when you're around."

"Ah, but I like to.  And besides, you're so light and cuddly.  Hey, I think 
that is what I'm going to start calling you from now on.  You’re my Cuddly." 
  Jack blinked, not exactly sure that he liked the nickname Kate had just 
chosen for him.  Any thoughts of arguing over it left his mind though, as 
Kate switched his carrying position to a cradle hold and held him against 
her chest.  "You don’t mind that do you Cuddly?"  Jack could only grin at 
Kate’s teasing.

"Na, it's fine, but I reserve the right to give you a nickname whenever I 
can think of one."

"Alright, that sounds fair."  Jack opened the door for Kate and she stepped 
sideways to move inside.  Returning to the couch, Kate cradled Jack for a 
moment more before placing him down so that his head was once again resting 
on her legs.  Turning his head towards Kate’s stomach, Jack lifted her 
t-shirt and took a moment to look at her well-defined abs.  Leaning forward, 
he once again placed a single kiss on each one of her ab muscles.

"You really like these muscles of mine don’t you?"  Jack slowly nodded his 
head, enjoying the chance to rub his cheek against Kate’s leg.  "I am pretty 
proud of them myself.  It was a real pain finding a exercise routine that 
let me build my strength and agility.  I didn’t want to bulk up like my 
father did, but I wanted to be stronger than my mother."  Kate flexed an 
arm, admiring the bicep.  "I can’t say that my present strength is the 
result of pure hard work anymore, but at least I can say my body’s build is 
all my doing.  Jack, am I a hypocrite?"

The question caught Jack off guard as he relaxed against Kate’s thigh, 
looking up at her now instead of at her stomach.  "Now just what would make 
you a hypocrite?"

"The way I've been treating my powers recently.  I never mentioned this, but 
I used to be jealous of those superheros.  Still am, I guess, a little.  But 
I think I'm catching up.  They were so strong and some of them never seemed 
to have to work for it.  I mean, I never heard of Superman lifting weights.  
I, on the other hand, used to work out regularly trying to maintain a good 
balance of speed and power, but knew I would never reach that point."

"How does that make you a hypocrite?"

Kate’s finger came to rest on Jack’s lip.  "Hush, I'm getting to that point. 
  I would get angry at them when I saw them at fundraisers or public 
appearances just showing off their powers.  I would say to myself, 'Blasted 
showoffs, what did they do to deserve that power.  If I had that kind of 
ability I could deal with crime just as well or better and not have to 
flaunt it.'  And yet here I am flaunting it around you every chance I get, 
and really, dying to show off on a grander scale.  The very behavior that 
made me so jealous and resent them I'm now not only doing, but I'm turning 
out to be even more of a showoff."  Jack thought about this for a moment, 
wondering at best way to respond to Kate’s dilemma.  Finally an answer came 
to him.

"Kate, is it wrong to show off a gift that someone gave you for Christmas?  
I mean, people show off rings and necklaces from friends all the time."

"Yeah, but how does that apply to me?"

"You seem to have forgotten that I gave you the drug originally, and even 
though I didn’t expect it to have quite these results it was still a gift 
from me to you.  A gift to my closest friend in the world."  Kate smiled 
warmly as Jack shifted and put his arms around her while pressing his head 
against her stomach.  "It wasn’t exactly an accident that gave you your 
abilities but an actual conscious effort on my part to save your life."  
Jack felt his arms removed from Kate as she lifted him up to give him a 
kiss, planting one on each of Jack’s cheeks, then his lips.

"But what about earning my power?"

"You were willing to take the risk.  And besides, you don’t always earn a 
gift.  Anyway, since it is a gift that I gave you, I feel you have every 
right to use it and insist that you do so especially to show off for me."  
Kate couldn’t help but find this amusing; she adjusted Jack a bit so that 
she could stroke her fingers against his cheek.

"Are you sure you won’t get jealous too?"  Jack only shook his head as he 
smiled up at this amazing creature.  Of course, the thought that he could 
try the serum on himself had occurred to him.  However, unlike Kate he 
wasn’t in a life and death situation, and not being sure if it would work, 
he didn't find it hard to choose not to.  "Well then, I will try to show off 
for you every chance I get."  Turning his head, Jack gave Kate a kiss on the 
fingers as her hand continued to brush against his cheek.  As he relaxed in 
her arms he noticed that despite her increase in strength, her touch seemed 
to have the same pressure as before.  It was a good thing as far as Jack was 
concerned.  He wondered how much it would hurt if every one of Kate’s 
actions carried the same proportional force she had used before her strength 
began to develop.

"Still, if you like seeing me show off you should have seen those two 
boys...whoops."  Jack gave Kate a scolding look while she realized she had 
just let what she had done slip in her enjoyment of the moment.  "Oh don’t 
worry, it was only two boys.  I doubt that's enough to get any real 
attention.  I mean, they don't even know who I am."  Jack considered 
reprimanding Kate for a moment, but then just shook his head.  He doubted 
that they really had anything to worry about, though he wondered what she 
had done.

"So you're showing off for other men now?"  Kate got a odd look on her face 
followed by a quite amused one.

"Well I'll have to show myself to the world eventually.  But don’t worry, 
the showing off I do even then will be in hopes that you see it."  Kate 
started to give Jack a kiss but changed her mind; her tongue flicked out and 
licked his cheek lightly.  Jack couldn’t keep the blush from forming on his 
face, or conceal his erection.  Leaning back, Kate lightly rocked Jack as 
she told him of what she had done while out running and how the boys had 
reacted.

*****************************************************************************

Jack looked on eagerly.  It had now been 7 weeks since Kate truly started 
showing off for him, and what he was seeing now was one of the best shows of 
all.  Kate walked around the barbell, packing a two hundred pound weight in 
each arm.  She slid them on, went back over to the stack of weights and 
retrieved two more two hundred pound weights, slipping them onto the bar as 
well.  One more trip for another hundred fifty pounds, and one side of the 
barbell was loaded.  That made for 950 lbs on just one side of the barbell.  
Jack took a moment to whisper a silent thanks that they had reinforced the 
bar when Nathan was there.  The show didn’t end there though; Kate repeated 
the act, easily carrying the weights across the room and slipping them onto 
the right side of the barbell before locking them in place.

"One second."  Kate looked up at Jack as she laid down under the bar.  Jack 
stood up, proceeded over to the wall and grasped a rather heavy chain.  
Willing it over to Kate’s workout area, he hooked the pulley up just in case 
Kate needed someone to spot her.  A giggle came from Kate as she considered 
the fact that with the level of strength her body had reached, Jack now 
needed a mechanical aid if he was going to have any chance of spotting her.  
"Alright, you're ready to go now."

Jack watched with anticipation as Kate pressed up on the 2,030 lbs that now 
rested above her.  The barbell slowly rose from its supports as she put on a 
show for Jack.  She slowly lowered it to her chest.  A moment later the bar 
rose into the air as Kate did her first rep.  Jack began to count as the bar 
was lowered again, and once again lifted.  A tent appeared in Jack’s 
trousers almost the instant he first saw Kate lift the bar.  Though her arms 
were showing signs of strain, they were lifting far more than what a normal 
human could hope to.  What made it even more delightful for him was the fact 
that it was Kate, his friend for quite a few years and the woman he was now 
in a relationship with, accomplishing this incredible feat.

Kate could feel Jack’s admiring gaze upon her more than she could see it as 
she focused on lifting the weight.  It seemed to push her even harder to get 
the most of her workout to show off for the man she was growing more 
affectionate towards with each passing day.  "Kate, may I feel your arms?"  
Jack's voice cut into Kate’s thoughts.

"Sure, just watch out for the barbell."  Jack nodded and made his way over 
to Kate.  Taking a spot behind her, he reached forward and began to run his 
fingers over her pumped arms.  He drank in the sensation of the 
blood-engorged muscles.  Kate’s skin was normally soft and quite pleasant to 
the touch; now with her muscles completely pumped there was nothing soft 
about it.  Her arms felt like granite.  His fingers were unable to make a 
single indent in them.  Between her own drive and Jack’s admiration, Kate 
managed to push herself further than she had expected.  Her improved stamina 
allowed her to benchpress the bar for a total of 5 sets, each consisting of 
12 reps.  Once it was all over, Jack watched with amazement as Kate sat up 
and flexed both of her arms.

Grinning from ear to ear, Kate didn’t say a word as she walked over to a 
group of shorter bars and picked one up.  As she had surpassed what normal 
dumbbells could handle, Jack had made some modifications to these in the 
last few weeks.  Picking up a second bar, Kate returned to the bench press 
and slipped off the weight locks.  She then took a pair of two hundred pound 
weights and slipped them on either side of one of the bars, following suit 
with the other one.  Then, as slowly as she had with the benchpress, Kate 
lifted the dumbbells in her hands and began to curl them.

The fact that Kate was now curling over 2 times his weight in each of her 
arms was not lost on Jack, but he found his thoughts constantly returning to 
the benchpress.  Kate continued her exercise routine and Jack’s eyes 
remained locked on her as he considered how far she had come.  She had 
always been a rather strong lady, but since they had come out here she had 
gone from a strong lady to as strong as the strongest human in the world, 
and now to superhuman levels with no sign of slowing down.  It made Jack 
wonder if there were any limits to what her strength could achieve.  
Standing up, Kate made use of the pulley system to do a sort of lat pull 
down.  She then turned in Jack’s direction.  Seeing the look of admiration 
that had been on his face the whole time, she didn’t giggle; instead she 
found herself blushing.

"Thanks for the audience.  I think I'm going to go get cleaned up now 
though, I'm all sweaty."  Kate proceeded to wrap her arms underneath her 
chest and push up on her breasts, making her bust seem somewhat larger.  Her 
sweat-soaked exercise clothes hugged her form tightly, showing off the 
curves of her body very well.

"Mind if I join you?"

"Tut tut, not yet Mister.  You need to do your exercises now anyway."  Jack 
sighed and grinned; he hadn't expected her to say yes.  Jack no longer 
worked out at the same time that Kate did.  He enjoyed watching her too 
much; each day she seemed to go further than the last.  Taking a moment 
before beginning his own exercises, Jack walked over to the computer screen 
and brought up a file on Kate’s benchpress limit for the past 26 weeks.  
Starting with her initial max of 180 lbs, the list read: 200 lbs, 215 lbs, 
240 lbs, 260 lbs, 290 lbs, 320 lbs, 350 lbs, 385 lbs, 425 lbs.  Jack stopped 
there.  He had memorized the numbers long ago; it was just fun to see them 
on the screen once in a while.

Making his way over to the barbell, he was glad Kate had been nice enough to 
remove some of the weights for her curl bars.  Still, there was far more 
weight then Jack could lift still on the bar.  Choosing to do more reps 
instead of lifting more weight, he stripped the 130 pound bar.  He had taken 
Kate up on her offer of a few weeks past and decided to focus on keeping his 
body toned and building up stamina.  Bulking up really wasn’t something he 
desired to do, especially to the point of Kate’s father.  A slight chuckle 
came from Jack as he imagined what Nathan must look like walking around a 
laboratory.  Jack couldn’t help but wonder if Nathan had once been a lanky 
fellow, considering how tall he was, and if Kate’s mother had gotten Nathan 
to start working out as Kate had started himself.

As Kate made her way into the bathroom she stripped away her clothing, 
taking a moment to look at herself in the mirror.  She grinned and flexed 
her muscles.  It was hard to place it, but she looked different from what 
she had before.  Her skin seemed to have a healthier glow to it, and small 
blemishes seemed to be fading away.  Of course she figured her skin should 
have a healthier look to it considering the alterations her body was going 
through.  But as much as she liked the view of her muscles fully pumped, she 
didn’t care for being covered in sweat.  Climbing into the shower and 
adjusting the temperature, Kate soon found herself having a problem.  She 
had always preferred rather hot showers, and now it seemed she couldn’t get 
the temperature to the point she liked it.

She hadn’t mentioned this to Jack before, instead simply turning down the 
amount of cold water.  Now as she stood in the shower she found herself 
twisting down the cold until she found the knob wasn’t suppose to twist 
anymore.  With nothing but hot, the water still didn’t seem quite as warm as 
she would have liked.  This would have normally led her to think the hot 
water heater was turned off, but as she looked towards the rapidly fogging 
up bathroom mirrors she knew this wasn’t the case.  Kate didn’t need Jack to 
tell her what was going on; her body was getting stronger and toughening up 
which meant it was taking more then usual to hurt her.  Where the water 
would previously have been painfully hot, her body no longer sensed it.

An odd notion came to Kate.  She quickly shut the hot water off and turned 
the cold water on full blast.  Kate braced herself for the feeling of the 
cold water running down her entire body, but was surprised by the feeling of 
the water as it hit her skin.  It only took a moment for the warm water in 
the pipes to be washed away and nothing but the ice cold water to hit her 
skin.  Kate had prepared herself for a unpleasant sting, but as the water 
ran over her form it was only slightly displeasing to her.  Nothing but pure 
cold water would have originally sent Kate scrambling out of the shower, 
covering herself with a towel and standing over the air vents to get warm as 
quickly as possible.

Turning the cold water off, Kate once again set the hot to full blast.  Jack 
would want to know about this she realized, but she figured it could wait.  
After all, even if such information would be desirable she doubted it had 
any immediate applications.  As far as she knew Jack might already have been 
expecting the change.  A bit of a grin formed on Kate’s face as she wondered 
how much of the hot water she had been using lately and if Jack had simply 
been nice enough not to ask her about it, or if his studying her cells had 
already hinted at such changes going on inside her body.

Kate finished her shower some time earlier than usual, thanks in large part 
to not being satisfied with the water temperature.  Drying herself off, 
Kate’s thoughts turned to getting a better hot water heater, one that would 
allow her to get the water hot enough that she could enjoy it.  She would 
need to talk this over with Jack of course; he would want to know of such 
plans so that he didn’t accidently turn himself into a stew just by taking a 
bath and not knowing how hot the water was going to be.

Drying off proved easier than normal.  As Kate stepped out of her bathroom 
and into the master bedroom the overheated water seemed to steam off her.  
Kate slipped into a pair of baggy shorts and a tank-top before heading into 
the living room.  Sitting down, she turned on the news, deciding to claim 
the TV before Jack could finish with his exercise.  Jack could hear the TV 
as he made his way up the stairs some 20 minutes later.  Breathing rather 
heavily and eager to get into the shower himself, he noticed Kate seemed 
caught up in something.  "What's so interesting, pretty lady?"  Jack made 
his way over to the couch, leaning over it so that he could see the 
television.

Kate held up a hand to silence him.  A moment later the news report began 
talking about a bear attack.  Jack shrugged it off.  Bear attacks did happen 
occasionally after all; he didn’t see what had Kate so interested, at least 
until it mentioned the location.  Jack realized what was going on, and moved 
to the other side of the couch to see a look of worry in Kate's face.  "Come 
on Kate, it couldn’t have been the same bear you slapped silly at the lake." 
  Kate’s eyes showed concern as well as a good deal of anger, though Jack 
didn’t feel the anger was focused at him.

"How do we know that?  That bear was willing to attack people.  It could 
have gotten a hold of someone else.  I should have dealt with it right there 
and then."  As Kate stood up and began to head towards the door, Jack didn’t 
exactly know what to do.  Stepping in front of her, he knew he couldn’t 
physically stop her but he needed to make sure of just what she was 
planning.

"Kate, what are you doing?  You're not thinking of going out to find it, are 
you?"  Hearing the concern in Jack’s voice, Kate placed one hand under each 
of his arms before easily lifting him from the ground.  Walking back over to 
the couch, she set him down facing the TV.

"Jack, just watch and see who got attacked.  I'm going to see if I can find 
it.  I know the odds aren’t exactly the best in the world, but they are 
already searching for it.  In fact, I want you to give me a call and report 
anything you hear."  Jack was a bit surprised as Kate handed him a wireless 
phone and tucked her own cell phone into her back pocket.

"Kate, it's dangerous.  Someone might see you."

"Beats that animal getting ahold of another little kid.  Don’t worry Jack, I 
was able to run it off before; I think I can deal with it now."  No more 
argument came from Jack.  As he watched Kate slip on her shoes he knew there 
wasn’t going to be any talking her out of this.  The shoes were of course 
her new running shoes, so it was obvious she planned on moving fast while on 
the search.  Jack comforted himself by considering how powerful Kate had 
proven herself to be only a short while ago.  He wondered whether she would 
find her prey.  There was a lot of mountain to search and he doubted Kate 
would simply attack every brown bear she happened upon hoping that it was 
the correct animal.

As Kate stepped outside she stretched her legs a bit before going into a 
light jog.  Her speed having improved over the last few weeks, she was now 
able to hold fifty miles per hour without much effort.  Jack heard the dirt 
flying as Kate took off.  Watching the news feed, he wondered what Kate was 
thinking.  The reporter explained how the child had managed to survive the 
attack.  A bow hunter had heard the child’s scream.  He hadn’t managed to 
kill the bear but he did send several arrows into the animal.  As the hunter 
showed his bow and the type of arrows he had used, Jack knew exactly how 
Kate planned on finding the animal.  She just had to find the bear that 
happened to be walking around with three arrows lodged in it.

As Kate ran, her legs easily ate up the terrain.  Her morning runs had sent 
her deeper and deeper through the forest every day.  She had developed all 
the balancing skills she needed to move easily through the wooded area.  Her 
only problem was where to look.  She knew only to head towards the area of 
the attack.  She would have to be careful to avoid the people that were 
already combing the woods.  A bunch of locals armed with high powered rifles 
could be somewhat dangerous, after all.  But weighing heavier on her mind 
than the risk of being seen or locating the creature, was the sense of 
responsibility that she felt.

The thought that this was the same bear that she had Jack had encountered 
while out swimming just wouldn’t leave her mind.  Why hadn't she killed the 
animal when she had the chance?  The question kept haunting her as she ran 
along.  It was true that she hadn't been as powerful then as she currently 
was and the fight would have been significantly more dangerous for her, not 
to mention Jack, should the bear had gotten the advantage of her.  At the 
time she had been happy just to drive it off and not think about it anymore. 
  But she couldn’t use this to justify not killing the bear to herself.  She 
still felt she would have won the fight, and then this would never have 
happened.  The only thing Kate could resolve was that if the child died, she 
was at least in part responsible and she needed to help make sure it didn’t 
hurt anyone else.

A flash of anger ran through Kate, not solely at the bear but also at 
herself.  That was the anger Jack had seen in Kate’s eyes before she had 
left; anger with herself for not thinking of what could happen and taking 
steps to prevent it.  These thoughts continued to torment Kate until she 
heard the sound of footsteps.  Slowing her pace, Kate turned in the 
direction of the noise and saw a few men walking around with rifles.  Kate 
quickly realized she was near the search party.  As the men slowed down, 
Kate wondered what they were doing, then nearly hit herself.  One of the men 
was checking the area; she realized he was searching for any sign of the 
bear.  It had been wounded, after all, so it was bleeding.

Kate could have kicked herself for having run off without thinking.  Had she 
brought some form of firearm, she could have at least asked them for some 
directions.  Now if she came up and asked what they had found, they would 
probably ask her where her weapon was.  They hadn't noticed her as of yet, 
focusing on the task at hand.  Kate still stood a good deal off, her 
heightened senses allowing her to keep her distance.  As the men took a 
moment to converse, Kate listened in.  They at first talked about the child 
before switching back to the hunt.  Kate quickly took off the moment they 
finished talking, now with a better idea of just what direction the animal 
might have gone.

As Kate moved about, she was able to make up for her lack of skill with 
simple speed.  She outdistanced the police officers and volunteers who were 
now searching the woods.  By occasionally ducking back in towards the main 
search area Kate found that she could check whether she needed to move 
further out or not.  Of course, with all this moving back and forth, people 
did see her.  A few of them even shouted warnings to her about a dangerous 
animal roaming the area.  She was sure she left a few of them quite stunned 
when she took off without bothering to say a word to them.  As Kate widened 
her search faster than the hunters, she had the thought that she could leave 
it up to them to find the animal.  But then she wouldn’t know if it was the 
same bear she had driven off earlier.

Jack sat watching the hours tick away.  On the TV they were covering the 
hunt for the bear in a little side window now.  It had been a few hours 
since Kate had left to join the search and he hadn’t heard a thing from her. 
  Even though he knew she was already fairly powerful, he found that he 
couldn’t stop worrying about her safety.  Standing up, Jack finally made his 
way into the bathroom and began to shower.  Sitting around and staring at 
the TV wouldn’t be helpful to anyone.  Thus he missed the anchor mention 
that some searchers were reporting a woman running around in the woods, and 
Kate was saved a lecture on being careful.

Finishing with a quick shower, Jack dressed comfortably, figuring that he 
wouldn’t be going to bed for a while.  Instead he went to the kitchen and 
began to make a pot of coffee as well as cook dinner for two.  Kate hadn’t 
eaten since her workout, at least to Jack’s knowledge, and he imagined all 
the running around and physical exercise would make her hungry.  If it 
didn’t, he could always write it off as comfort food.

As night grew closer, Kate could tell that some of the people were leaving 
to try again later.  It didn’t surprise her; she had no idea of just how far 
she was out.  As she moved through the woods a glimpse of something metallic 
caught her eye in the last flickering of sunlight.  Looking in the 
direction, she walked towards the slight glint and saw what she had been 
looking for.

The arrows appeared rather costly and new, and managed to reflect some 
light.  The bear that had them imbedded in its rump turned its head to look 
in Kate’s direction.  As Kate looked back at it she imagined it was the same 
bear as at the lake, but she couldn't be sure.  It was clear the animal was 
going to attack her, though.  It had just been injured after losing a meal.  
"Are you the same one?"  The animal let out a roar as Kate spoke and charged 
her.  Instead of striking the animal, Kate found herself sidestepping it and 
avoiding the attack.  Still trying to see if it was the same bear or not, 
she just couldn’t tell.  Kate couldn’t help but feel a pang of hurt as she 
realized she would never be sure if it was the same animal or not; if she 
could have prevented the child from being attacked.

At least she wouldn’t have to think about that with this bear, though.  As 
it came at her again, an arm capable of lifting 430 lbs struck out with 
inhuman speed.  Her fist connected with the bear's head.  A moment later 
Kate found herself covered in red.  The impact of her fist had shattered the 
animal’s skull.  Kate was taken aback by this; she had expected herself to 
be hitting harder than before but not enough to kill the animal with one 
punch.  She looked at the animal, which was now missing a head.  She had 
hoped that she would feel better if she found the animal and dealt with it 
herself.  All she could do now was wonder if it was the correct animal or 
not.  A part of her truly desired to think that it wasn’t the same animal as 
before and that she couldn’t have prevented the child being attacked.

The feeling of guilt within wouldn’t let go.  As she looked at her 
bloodstained hand, she wondered if the blood of a child was on it as well.  
She tried to console herself that she couldn’t change the past but at least 
she could resolve that she wouldn’t let such a thing get away from her 
again.  She would at least have time to think about it on her way home; as 
she looked around she realized she had no idea where she was at the moment.  
Having focused so much on the search for the animal, she hadn’t been paying 
attention to how close she was to any main roads.  With a shrug, she took 
off in the direction she at least thought she had come.  Even if she was 
lost, she would just need to find a road and then she could find her way 
back home.

Jack sat looking at the clock.  As three in the morning rolled around he 
heard the front door opening.  A rather emotionally drained Kate stepped 
through the door and look at him.  He moved to give her a hug, but Kate 
stopped him.  "I need to wash my hands."  Jack looked down at her right 
hand; most of the blood had been taken off by the wind but Kate still felt a 
need to clean it.  As she headed into the bathroom Jack could tell she was 
feeling responsible for something more than killing an animal.  Having spent 
so much time with Kate, he had a good idea of just what that was.

"I went ahead and made dinner, though I think by now it's more like 
breakfast.  Why don’t you join me after you wash up?"

"Sure, be out in a second."  Kate came out of the bathroom a few moments 
later and joined Jack at the table.  Looking at the steak and other dishes 
Jack had prepared, Kate guessed he had spent most of the time she was gone 
cooking.

"You know Kate, that bear and the one you fought at the lake were probably 
totally different animals.  There are plenty of bears in these woods."

"Not plenty that attack people."  Jack swallowed; his attempt to console 
Kate hadn’t worked in the least.  It was true that the odds of two bears 
reaching the point that they would attack humans and living in the same area 
were low.  He didn’t really know what to say.

"Besides, I hope it was the same animal to be honest.  I know that means I'm 
at least partly responsible for that child being attacked, but it also means 
that there isn’t another one still roaming around."  Jack nodded his head, 
though he didn’t like Kate taking any of the responsibility on herself.  Had 
she continued fighting the animal at the lake she could have ended up 
getting killed, considering the difference in her abilities at that point 
and now.  This wouldn’t help Kate’s feelings of guilt though, and he knew 
it.  As he ate, he resolved he wouldn’t tell Kate about what had happened at 
midnight.  The child had died in the hospital, despite the medics' best 
efforts to save the kid's life.  He would have to be careful to beat Kate to 
the TV for the next few days, but in her depressed state he doubted that 
would be too much trouble.

The run back had been good for Kate, allowing her to burn off some energy.  
It had taken her roughly an hour to find a road; she had managed to get 
herself quite lost after all.  But her speed had made up for that.  She had 
managed to get all the tears out of her system and now all she felt was 
emotionally drained.  Jack seemed to notice this and didn’t make any attempt 
at conversation or ask her about what had happened.  He simply assumed that 
she had done what she had set out to do.  The fact that Kate was tired was 
apparent in Jack actually finishing his meal before her.  But instead of 
simply leaving, he stayed and watched as she ate at a steady pace until her 
plate was clean of everything.

As Kate put her fork down, Jack took their plates and put them in the 
dishwasher.  Returning to Kate, he placed his arms around her from behind.  
Kate’s hand came up to rest on his.  He gently pulled her from her seat, her 
body seeming to follow him mechanically.  Leading her to the couch, he 
removed her shoes for her before taking a spot next to her and leaning back. 
  He pulled her down with him, grateful that Kate’s body weight hadn’t 
increased along with her strength.  He imagined he would be finding it 
rather hard to breathe at the moment if it had.  It was a odd change of 
position as for the past several weeks he had been used to resting on top of 
Kate.  Now he felt her 180 lbs resting on top of him, and once again was 
grateful for his exercise routine.

Kate’s body was heavy but warm, and felt nice.  As Jack let her rest on him 
he couldn’t help but smell the scent of her hair.  It was a pleasant moment, 
and he struggled to keep his mind off sexual matters.  Kate was in need of 
comfort for the moment and he didn’t want his lust to ruin that.  Running 
his hands through her hair, he felt her chest settled down upon his.  Her 
hands took hold of him.  All the coffee Jack had consumed before Kate’s 
arrival paid off as he managed to keep awake longer than Kate.  Feeling her 
drift off to sleep, he thought to get up so that he could give her a real 
pillow.  But with Kate’s 180 lbs on top of him and her arms now wrapped 
around him, he found there was no way to get up without taking her off the 
couch.

"Alright lovely lady, if that's what you want, I'll be your Cuddly."  Jack 
had started to use 'Teddy Bear' but feeling it didn’t fit the moment, he 
went with Kate’s nickname for him.  Kate’s body had sensed him trying to 
leave and she had instinctively tightened her grip so that Jack couldn’t 
slip away from her.  As he couldn't leave, and found the position 
comfortable if restricting, he nodded off shortly after Kate did.

Kate’s eyes drifted open as she felt the sunlight streaming in through the 
windows.  She looked around for a moment.  It was one of the few times as of 
late that she had not been up before sunrise.  As she looked around she felt 
better than she had the previous day, having had the time to recoup.  The 
rest had helped a lot as well.  Now looking down at Jack, she smiled and 
debated waking him up.  Placing her lips against his she gave him a light 
kiss instead, and stood up.  Her first notion was to go for a jog but she 
quickly decided against that, realizing that people would still be hunting 
for the bear.  She wondered how they would react when they found it with its 
head smashed in.

Kate made her way into the kitchen and took her time washing her hands.  
Thinking on the previous night she couldn't help but feel that at the very 
least she had learned a lesson about dealing with dangerous creatures.  She 
was no longer in an emotionally dead state; she didn’t seem to feel any of 
the anger or sadness she had earlier.  There was only a sort of resignation 
that the event had changed her.  Turning off the sink and laying out a few 
pots and pans, Kate giggled as she opened the dishwasher and realized Jack 
hadn’t turned it on the previous night.  The volume of pots and pans that 
filled it made Kate wonder if Jack had actually tried more dishes than he 
had served.  Checking in the refrigerator, Kate was quite sure of this.  The 
meal had been a rather nice one after all, and she doubted Jack had any real 
experience cooking such things.

Kate didn’t feel much like eating meat, but put on a rather large pot of 
oatmeal.  She emptied out the coffee and put on a fresh pot, figuring Jack 
would need some help waking up.  They had both been up rather late into the 
morning.  Kate’s body simply allowed her to wake up more quickly than Jack; 
it took her less time to recover her energy despite the amount she had 
expended running around the previous day.

Jack awoke roughly 25 minutes after Kate, though it wasn’t because of the 
food cooking or the sun.  Rather it was thanks to the multiple cups of 
coffee he had consumed while waiting for Kate.  This didn’t surprise her, as 
she had just emptied the pot and seen how little was in it.  Jack didn’t 
have time to notice the food, but was instantly glad to find Kate had woken 
up before him and her weight was no longer settled on top of him.  He could 
hear Kate’s giggle as he jetted off towards the restroom and slammed the 
door shut.  Jack didn’t mind being laughed at by Kate, especially when he 
considered how drained she had seemed the previous night.  He was glad to 
see that she at least seemed to be feeling better.  "Don’t forget to wash 
your hands."  Jack grinned as he turned on the sink, hearing Kate’s voice 
calling out to him.

Kate was still smiling when Jack came out of the bathroom.  As he came out 
he took a moment to look at her and tried to see if her smile was masking 
other emotions.  It was a fairly useless attempt; as one who had spent a 
good deal of his time in labs looking through a lens or a computer screen, 
Jack was not the best at reading people, so he did the next best thing.  "So 
are you feeling better?  You looked pretty tired last night."

"I'm feeling better.  Still a little sad about what happened, but well, it's 
already done.  I guess the only thing I can do now is learn from the 
experience and hope it never happens again."

Jack nodded in agreement as he wondered just what Kate had learned.  The 
only thing he could come up with for the moment was, make sure you kill a 
dangerous animal when you have the chance.  Not the most environmentally 
sound way of thinking, but Jack wasn’t an environmentalist.  As he made his 
way over to Kate he could smell three things cooking in total; oatmeal, 
chocolate and biscuits.  Walking around behind her, he looked into the two 
pots Kate had set out and found a plentiful amount of each.

"Indulging our sweet tooth today?"  Kate gave a somewhat guilty smile as it 
really was more than she normally prepared.  Looking at the oatmeal, she 
wondered if she would be able to finish it all.

"I can indulge my sweet tooth once in a while."  Jack nodded his head in 
agreement as he set out two plates and two glasses.  Filling his with some 
orange juice, he took a seat at the table and considered what would be the 
best thing to talk about.  As far as he was concerned, the less Kate thought 
about the bear attack the better.

"You're breaking a lot of limits recently.  Too bad you can’t compete in 
professional sports anymore."

"Oh, and just who says I can’t?"  Jack looked up from his glass.  Starting 
to reply, he considered the question.  It was true Kate was no longer human, 
but he didn’t know of any laws that disqualified her from competing in 
sports.  It wouldn’t be fair, that was true enough, as he doubted there were 
any other super beings working in the pro athlete circuit.

"I guess no one."  Kate grinned as she lifted the pot from the burner and 
began to empty it onto their plates, followed by the chocolate.  Jack rose 
to retrieve his plate but stopped in his tracks as he watched what happened 
next.  Kate, opening the oven to check the biscuits, reached up for a 
mitten, then stopped herself. She was thinking about her discovery in the 
shower.  She simply reached in with her exposed hand and took the hot tray.  
Pulling it out, she could feel the temperature change as her fingers touched 
the pan, but it wasn’t enough to hurt her.  She drew it out.  Jack just 
looked on, knowing the oven must have been around 400 degrees fahrenheit.  
Seeing the look of shock on Jack’s face, Kate grinned, recalling her promise 
to show off around him as much as she could.  Instead of using a fork to 
remove the biscuits, she simply proceeded to lift them from the pan with her 
fingers, placing several on each plate.  She held her hand up, showing Jack 
that she had not been burned in the least.

Walking over to her, Jack looked closely at her hand.  Placing his hand on 
the back of hers, he moved it to his cheek.  Her fingers were warmed by the 
pan but it wasn’t a unpleasant amount of heat.  It seemed that her hand 
resisted heating up rather well.  Kate ran her hand lightly along Jack’s 
cheek before picking up the plates and sitting down at the table.  Jack, in 
a somewhat shocked state, followed shortly behind and took the spot opposite 
her as usual.  "Now since when have you been able to do that?"

"I would say for a little while now; I figured I could do it after my last 
shower.  I actually turned it to pure hot water and it didn’t burn at all.  
It felt nice, but not as hot as I wanted it."  Jack gave Kate the look of a 
man who had been taking cold showers for the last week and hadn't been sure 
of why.  He had figured it was Kate, but decided not to bring it up with 
her.  Now that he knew she was using pure hot water he resolved he would 
have to wait at least an hour after Kate in order to give the heater time to 
fill up again.  Kate giggled lightly at the look on Jack’s face and began to 
tear her biscuits in two, covering them in a heavy layer of oatmeal and 
chocolate.  Jack followed suit, though he ate more slowly as the food was 
still hot.  Even without realizing it Kate was actually putting on a show 
for Jack.  He had to take his time to cool every little bite while she just 
put a solid spoonfull in her mouth with no reaction at all.

"No way am I going to keep up with you now."  Kate grinned as she noticed 
Jack having to take time cooling his food before he could eat it.  It was 
amusing how she found her body’s alterations coming in handy more and more.  
The thought of just how much her skin had toughened up made her wonder if, 
had she had been shot the previous day, it would have been fatal.  Thinking 
back to the weapons she had seen the men packing, she resolved that if it 
hadn’t been, it would have at least done some serious damage to her.  Still, 
she could wonder about a small handgun at least.  The thought that she could 
test the theory and see if she could indeed withstand such a shot did cross 
Kate’s mind; however she quickly pushed it away.  That wasn’t exactly 
something you tested on a whim.  She would have to bring up some safer test 
to Jack later.

"I can’t finish this."  Kate looked over towards Jack, seeing that he had 
eaten roughly a third of his food while she was nearly finished with hers.  
She had given him and herself a good deal more food than normal.  It was odd 
though.  She and Jack had been sharing meals for a few months and thus he 
had adapted to eating the portions she normally fixed herself.  As she 
considered the amount of oatmeal she'd consumed, she was surprised to find 
that she wasn’t feeling rather overstuffed herself.

"Strange, I don’t feel that full.  I don’t feel hungry, but I don’t feel 
bloated either.  Want me to finish that for you?"  Jack only nodded.  He 
noticed a more curious tone to Kate’s voice as she took the plate and began 
to work on finishing her own and his.  Up until now Kate had been doing just 
fine only eating her normal amounts of food; thus Jack hadn’t stopped to 
consider that her stomach might have altered itself.  With all the changes 
going on inside her body, he supposed her stomach could have adapted to 
handle more, just in case.  Then again, there was the matter of her 
increased strength and the fact that it seemed to radiate throughout her 
entire being.  Considering the fact that Kate could benchpress slightly over 
a ton, Jack wondered how much pressure her jaws now exerted as she ate.

"Kate, I'm going to go order some more testing supplies while you finish 
eating."  Kate only nodded, having just taken a mouthful of chocolate and 
biscuits.  She watched for a moment as Jack headed down the stairs before 
focusing back on her food.  Jack made his way to the computer screen and 
began to search through various items, wondering if he could find something 
to test just how much force Kate was now exerting when she bit down.  It was 
somewhat silly, but he found himself curious.  There was also the matter of 
her teeth, of course; he wondered if her bones were strengthening with her 
body.  The thought of what could happen if her bones failed to adapt with 
her muscles was one that he didn’t like at all.  Most likely they were, but 
he still wanted to conduct a test.

******************************************************************************

Kate sighed as she felt the alcohol soaked cotton swab against her skin.  32 
weeks into getting her power and she still wasn’t use to this.  Jack had 
been taking small amounts of Kate’s blood roughly weekly in order to try and 
keep up with the changes going on inside her body.  This was one of the few 
things Kate found tiring; she grew weary of the little needle pricks.  Had 
it been a daily event she might have been able to adapt to it, but she 
didn’t want to give Jack any ideas.  She wasn’t donating blood, after all.  
Jack opened a desk drawer, looking through the medical equipment.  He 
prepared the needle and container.

Looking at Kate, he could tell she didn’t like this, but it was a necessary 
part of the research.  Placing his fingers on her arm, he began to try to 
locate the vein.  At first this had been difficult and actually required 
some luck thanks to his lack of experience working with such things.  After 
so many tries with Kate though, he was getting fairly good at it.  Locating 
his target, Jack removed the cap from the needle and placed it against 
Kate’s arm.  A moment later he bore down, harder than what one would for a 
normal person.  Thanks to Kate’s skin strengthening he had found himself 
having to push down harder and harder in order to get through her skin.  
Today he was having to use even more force than he liked, and still Kate’s 
skin proved unyielding to the needle.

Kate wondered what was taking so long, and if Jack was just picking on her, 
knowing how much she detested getting her blood taken.  "Hmm, it seems your 
skin doesn’t want a needle going through it any more than the rest of you 
does."  Kate grinned at Jack’s comment, though she didn’t look towards the 
needle.  She found the sight of it going into her skin somewhat sickening.  
Kate could handle seeing the blood of others, but she still had trouble 
seeing her own blood going out of her veins.  A moment later she heard a 
slight clink and a gasp from Jack.  Looking down, she noticed the needle now 
broken in two.

"Oh cool!  Did it break against my skin?"  Jack picked up the needle, 
looking at it for a moment.  He knew Kate’s skin had been growing more 
resistant but he hadn’t expected to start breaking needles so soon.

"Yeah.  Hmm, I guess we need to try another needle."  Jack once again turned 
from Kate, who puffed out her cheeks in objection to his comment but didn’t 
say anything.  Retrieving another needle, Jack placed the device against 
Kate’s skin.  Looking up, he waited for her to turn her head away.

"Go ahead.  I want to see if it breaks again."  Jack grinned.  He was 
wondering that himself.  It could have just been a weak needle.  It would be 
a mistake to assume that the needles couldn’t get through Kate’s skin just 
because one had failed.  As he pressed the second needle into Kate’s skin he 
didn’t hold back as much this time, and it broke far earlier than the first. 
  Sighing for a moment, Jack tried three more needles before he finally felt 
satisfied with the results.  Kate, for her part, seemed perk up even more 
with the breaking of each needle.

"We're going to have to get some better needles if I am going to keep 
checking your blood."

"Think you can find some that are strong enough?"  Jack only nodded his head 
as he turned to the computer screen and put in an order for medical 
supplies.  The speed with which Jack put in the order surprised Kate.  She 
looked over Jack’s shoulder to see what type of needles he was ordering.  
The moment he pushed the order button Jack could almost feel Kate’s shock.

"You just ordered needles normally used for tranquilizing animals."

"I looked into it earlier, to be honest.  I just didn’t think we would be 
needing them so soon.  I thought it would take at least a few more weeks 
before your skin would start putting up enough resistance to break a 
needle."

Kate let out a long sigh as she considered arguing with Jack, but gave in.  
They did need to continue testing her blood.  Still, she wished he hadn’t 
ordered rhino needles as well.  All she could do was hope they were for 
later usage.  "Ah well, I guess it was coming anyway.  Actually, I've been 
meaning to ask you.  Do you think we could conduct some tests to see about 
how strong my skin actually is?  I want to find out if I could take a bullet 
or not."  It was Jack’s turn to be surprised as Kate made her request.  His 
first thought was a flat no, but he pushed this away as he realized Kate 
probably didn’t want him to actually shoot her with a gun.  Rather, they 
could make use of various tools to find out her skin’s strength.

"I guess some general pressure tests are in order, but what do you have in 
mind?"

"Well, how about we start with something light, such as maybe putting my 
hand in a clamp, and see if you can actually hurt me."  Jack nodded, 
realizing they would once again be making use of some of the old tools.  He 
followed Kate over to the work bench.  Kate walked over to the clamp and 
gave the knob a good spin, opening it.  She slipped her hand into the device 
before tightening it just a bit.  She had no intention of tightening it 
herself as she was quite sure that would hurt a great deal.  Despite her 
increased strength, she didn’t feel quite ready to compare her skin to the 
three inches of steel that would soon be bearing down upon it.

"Let me know if it starts hurting you."

"Oh, don’t worry about that.  That's why I'm having you turn the handle.  I 
doubt you can even hurt me with me just leaving my hand here."  Kate’s words 
came out in a rather teasing tone that spoke of her confidence in her 
abilities.  Jack, for his part, didn’t mind being teased in such ways at 
all.  He began to turn the handle.  Kate felt the clamp come down upon her 
hand and the pressure begin to increase.  Strangely, throughout the entire 
process she could feel the pressure increasing but it never seemed to hurt 
her.  Jack started by only using one hand to turn the crank; however, as it 
began to tighten he found himself using both, constantly watching to see how 
Kate was doing.  He was somewhat surprised to find her gaze locked on the 
device and not focusing on him at all.

Feeling rather sure that he wasn’t hurting her, he now began to put his back 
into it.  As he did this though, he found it wouldn’t go any further.  
Thinking for a moment, he repositioned himself so that he could lean into 
the crank and put not only his muscle into the task but also his weight.  
Pressing as hard as he could, he watched as Kate moved her fingers.  She 
seemed to be in no pain at all.

Kate was surprised by how things were going.  Upon looking up, she was even 
more shocked to find Jack was putting all his effort into it, and still she 
didn’t feel a thing.  "Let me try."  Taking hold of the crank in her own 
hand, she began to turn it.  A moment later the metal groaned lightly as 
over 760 lbs of force was exerted on the crank.  The metal began to give.

A huge grin had formed not only on Kate’s face but Jack’s as well as he 
watched the machine give away.  Thinking for moment, he wasn’t really sure 
if he should be surprised or not.  Kate had recently reached the point that 
she could benchpress nearly two tons.  He imagined the force that must be 
applied by the weight on her hands while they held up the massive load.  "I 
think we're going to have to come up with a more effective way of testing 
me."  Jack could only nod in agreement.  With their current equipment he 
doubted they would be able to get an accurate reading of just how much Kate 
could endure before she was actually injured.

"Think we could try a knife?"  The thought just rolled out as Jack 
considered how the needle had broken against Kate’s skin.  But the way 
Kate’s head snapped in his direction told him right away that wasn’t going 
to happen.

"You clearly haven’t worked with knives very much, or weapons in general.  
It would be more likely that you would injure me with a knife than if you 
shot me with a small caliber hand gun.  I think we should start with 
something more basic and work our way up, since seeing how much raw pressure 
I can withstand isn’t going to work.  Kate proceeded to roll up her shirt, 
exposing her ab muscles to Jack.  "Hit me as hard as you can.

"Kate, you just put your hand in a vice and applied enough pressure to tear 
said vice up.  I think I would be more likely to hurt my hand than you 
should I punch you."

"True, but this will give you a feel for how aggressive you can be with me.  
Come on, just give me a good solid punch."  Looking at Kate for a moment, 
Jack doubted it would do any good as he looked at her tightly packed ab 
muscles.  Still, he pulled back his fist and laid into her as hard as he 
could.  Kate gave Jack a rather amused look.  "Come on Jack, you know you 
can’t hurt me so don’t hold back."  Jack couldn’t help but give Kate a 
strange look, feeling that he had put all he could into the punch.

"Come on Jack, you're not being aggressive at all.  Tell you what, just keep 
hitting my stomach and I will let you know when I think you're ready."  Kate 
just smiled at Jack, who let out a long sigh as he began to hit her in the 
stomach repeatedly.  Thanks to his lack of experience with such things a few 
of the punches were a little off target, but Kate didn’t say anything.  It 
wasn’t like he was hurting her, and she needed to get him to be more 
aggressive while testing her.  After all, she wanted to find out what she 
could take and that wouldn’t happen if he was scared to hit her as hard as 
he could.  Jack, for his part, just couldn’t shake the feeling that he 
shouldn’t be doing this.  Even though the logical side of his mind knew that 
his punches couldn’t hurt Kate he still felt like a complete ass for hitting 
a female.  Even Kate’s urging for him to be more aggressive couldn’t get him 
to put more effort into it.  Only by repeatedly striking her did he find his 
body relaxing and the punches coming harder.

Kate sighed, feeling as if a declawed kitten was walking across her stomach. 
  It was kind of nice to consider how completely helpless Jack was compared 
to her.  It made her want to reach out and cuddle him, but she restrained 
herself.  Even though, if she got Jack to be aggressive as possible with her 
he wouldn’t be able to hurt her, she still needed to try.  Kate’s thoughts 
turned to other things as she thought of the best way to test herself.  At 
present, each one of her arms could lift 760 lbs.  Taking a moment to 
consider how much speed she could get into a single punch, Kate began to get 
an idea of just what her body could withstand, assuming she could treat it 
as if she were a boxer.  A moment later Kate looked up as Jack quit hitting 
her stomach.  She realized she had lost track of time.  Jack’s hands were 
now a bright red.  Having finally gotten over his lack of aggression, he had 
a look of admiration on his face, though it was tempered by the fact that 
his knuckles were truly hurting him now.  "May I go ice these down, miss?"

"Oops, sorry about that.  My thoughts trailed off; I guess your little taps 
relaxed me."  Kate grinned as she let her shirt down and took Jack by the 
wrist, doubting he would like his hand being grabbed.  Leading him upstairs, 
Kate set out a bowl of ice water and allowed Jack to sink his hands into it. 
  "I didn’t mean for you to hurt yourself, but I guess you got over your 
tentativeness."  Jack nodded.  At first he had been subconsciously 
restraining himself while hitting her, but as he had landed more blows and 
been encouraged by Kate, even the subconscious part of his mind quit 
worrying about hurting her and he was able to put his full strength into it. 
  The problem was that even though Kate’s skin was soft and pleasant to the 
touch, the muscles underneath were by no means pleasant to hit.  To make 
matters worse, the harder he hit them the stronger they seemed to become 
until he felt like he was hitting a piece of plate armor wrapped in a thin 
layer of silk.

Kate stepped behind Jack and began to lightly rub his shoulders as she 
considered just what the next test should be.  They hadn’t gauged the speed 
of her punches, but they had tested to see how fast she could run, thus Kate 
knew she could run at 95mph.  Taking this into account, Kate made a slight 
guess at just how fast her fist moved while punching and then factored in 
the fact that she could deliver 760 lbs of force just by pushing on 
something with her hand.  The thought that she might be able to compare her 
punches to being hit by a street bike going at full speed, or perhaps a 
small car, was pushed away as she recalled another important detail.  Her 
fist didn’t cover nearly the same area as these vehicles which meant that 
the force of her punches would be significantly more concentrated and 
powerful.

"Jack, I think we might just need to shoot me with a small handgun and then 
move up from there to see what I can withstand."  The worried look Jack gave 
Kate got a large grin from her.  He obviously wasn’t keen on the idea.

"Can’t we just step things up slowly?  I mean, there isn’t a point in taking 
unnecessary chances.  Besides, what makes you so sure that you could take a 
bullet?"

"Oh, let me see.  I killed a large, dangerous animal with one punch.  Each 
of my arms can deliver 760 lbs of pressure in an area as compact as my fist, 
and that's if I'm just pushing against something.  If you consider how fast 
I can deliver a punch it gets to be significantly more.  Now assuming that I 
could take a few punches in the same power range, I think I could take a few 
bullets."

"Braggart.  Still, I think we should stick to stepping things up slowly.  I 
would hate to have to explain to your dad how you got a bullet wound."

"Alright.  I'll see if I can find something to use as a baseball bat."  The 
fact that Kate appeared to have just announced she was going to allow 
herself to be hit with a baseball bat was both strange and exciting for 
Jack.  He watched her bounce off happily.  He was beginning to get a better 
and better idea of just how much Kate was enjoying being superhuman.  She 
was also doing as he had requested earlier and showing off as often as she 
possibly could, though in a method he wasn’t sure he approved of.  Kate was 
rummaging through the house trying to find a item that would be suitable for 
the task.  She had already found a crowbar in the basement, but she doubted 
Jack would want to start with it.

Jack pulled his soothed knuckles from the water as he watched Kate return, 
noting a crowbar, the handle of a pick axe and a sledgehammer.  "So are you 
ready to get back to testing?"

"I think you want to show off more than really be tested, but yeah I'm 
ready."  Getting up and following after Kate, he couldn’t help but worry 
about the sledgehammer, until he took a moment to consider what Kate had 
told him.  Just pushing on something she could generate 760 lbs of force 
with one hand.  He knew good and well that the hammer didn’t weigh nearly 
that much.  There was also the amount of speed that she could get into a 
single blow.  Considering these things, Jack’s concern slowly began to turn 
to excitement as he realized that even with these tools, it wasn’t likely 
that he would be able to cause Kate the least bit of pain.  It was odd, but 
he'd always imagined being around such a person would make him nervous.  
Instead he found himself only more excited as he began to really comprehend 
just how far Kate had come since they had begun testing, and how far she 
could possibly go.

Kate took a moment to retrieve a large towel as well as a pillow before 
leading Jack outside.  Putting the items down, she then proceeded to lay out 
the towel and pillow before handing Jack the axe handle. "This will have to 
do as a bat, and remember, be aggressive."  Nodding his head, Jack took hold 
of the handle.  He knew this wasn’t the most scientific way of testing a 
theory, but it was one of the more interesting.  A moment later Kate felt a 
slight impact in her stomach, though nowhere near hurting her.  This was 
followed by several rapid impacts, each one somewhat harder then the other.  
As she stood there, Kate mused at how light the impacts seemed to be.  "Hit 
me in the face."  The impacts stopped coming the moment these words left 
Kate’s mouth.

"Are you sure?"  Jack was cut off as he felt Kate’s hand get a grip on his 
own.  Looking at her hand, then at the wide grin on Kate’s face, Jack knew 
he wasn’t going to hurt her.  He drew back and swung as hard as he could.  
The sound of the bat impacting Kate’s face was audible and the pain was 
quite shocking.  As the handle struck Kate’s face, the fact that it didn’t 
move in the least meant that at least some of the force came back into his 
hands.  The pain shooting through them almost made him drop the handle.  
Kate, for her part, hadn’t felt any pain, though as she looked at Jack she 
did feel a little bit of guilt.  "Um, Kate, do you think we could stop for a 
while before I accidently get injured?"

"Oh, could you just do one more?  You don’t know how neat this is, to have 
someone hit me with everything they have and have it not even hurt.  Here, 
let's just do one more thing and then we can move on to the other stuff."  
Jack sighed, wondering what was next.  He got his answer when Kate handed 
him the sledgehammer and proceeded to lay down on the blanket and pillow.  
Placing her hands behind her head, she smiled up at Jack.  "Start with my 
stomach and then try the rest of my body."  Jack looked at the hammer, then 
at Kate, recalling what he had figured before.  He still wasn’t sure if he 
wanted to do this.  So far he could say Kate’s muscles were as hard as 
stone, but just what stone he wasn’t sure.

Still, from the look on Kate’s face he figured that she would at least want 
to continue until something stung a bit.  Lifting the hammer, he finally 
proceeded to give her a light tap on her stomach.  Kate only grinned.  There 
was no rush of air or any sign that she was even tensing up her muscles to 
brace for the impact.  She remained completely relaxed.  Putting a little 
more force into the swing, Jack once again struck her in the abs and once 
again there was no sign of damage.  Slowly Jack began to increase the force 
and the frequency of the impacts, though he couldn’t get full force into it 
thanks to the fact that his fingers were hurting him.  He planned on icing 
them down for the next hour or so.  Kate’s laughter finally caused Jack to 
stop; he looked down at the giggling amazon.  Kate couldn't help herself.  
The situation seemed so ridiculous; here she was laying down, having the man 
she was coming to care for actually beating her with a hammer.

The most amusing part, though, was the fact that it had absolutely no effect 
upon her.  Impacts that would normally break bones and destroy her 
completely were barely noticeable just 32 weeks after her body had began its 
alteration.  "Well, I think we can officially say that I am superhuman."  
Jack could only grin as he set the hammer down and rested on the handle.

"I would have to agree with you there.  So is it alright if this human goes 
and soaks his sore hands for a while?"  Kate nodded happily, though she 
didn’t get up quite yet.  She continued to chuckle and even gave her own 
stomach a few good pats.  Jack could only grin at Kate’s childlike behavior. 
  Since this was really the first time it was sinking in just how powerful 
she was getting, she had a reason to be excited.  Kate sat up a moment 
later, starting to follow Jack inside, but her attention was drawn to the 
crowbar that they hadn't had a chance to use.  Picking up the piece of 
metal, Kate looked at it for only a second before she began to twist the 
metal bar in her hands.  The metal’s sturdy build held up for just a moment 
before it began to give in to Kate’s strength.

Walking back towards the house, Kate only had to focus moderately on the bar 
as she took a moment to open the door.  Jack, having already made his way 
inside and returned to the bowl of ice water, was surprised when he heard 
the sound of the metal bending.  He didn’t realize what it was until he 
looked up at Kate.  Jack knew he shouldn't be surprised, but he couldn’t 
help himself as he watched Kate twist and bend the bar.  He soon realized 
that she had a specific shape in mind.  Kate focused intently on her task, 
not because it required effort but because she wanted to do something more 
complex then just bend it into a pretzel.  She was actually trying to twist 
the bar into the shape of an oversized paper clip.  Jack was distracted from 
his sore hands as he watched Kate work the bar.

Kate couldn’t help herself; she found herself having to fight the desire to 
really test her strength and see what she could break.  This would have been 
akin to vandalizing though, so she forced herself to refrain from the 
desire, choosing instead to simply focus on tormenting the piece of metal in 
her hands.  After all, this wasn’t exactly her home.  It belonged to her 
parents, and Kate wasn’t about to allow herself to become a destructive 
person just because she was getting a little taste of power.  If she felt 
the urge to just break things now, she could hardly imagine how strong it 
would become once she began to come into real power.  The thought took her 
back a bit.  At one time in her life she would have given up a great deal 
for the power she held right now, but now that she had it she was already 
craving more.  And to make things even more exciting, she was quite sure 
that she would be getting more as her body continued to change.

As Kate mused on this she let the bar slip from her hands, deciding that she 
would play with it later.  She made her way over to Jack, noticing that his 
breathing was already excited from the display he had just seen.  She bent 
down, placing her hand under his chin, and moved his head slightly to face 
her.  Her lips pressed firmly against his.  Kate had to fight the desire to 
simply take Jack into her arms and carry him to her bedroom.  She wasn’t 
ready for that yet, though, so she kept control of herself, at least partly. 
  Jack did find Kate’s tongue wasting no time snaking its way into his mouth 
to wrestle with his.  Much as with the rest of her body, her tongue easily 
overpowered his own.  This only served to make him more excited.  He nearly 
passed out the moment Kate let up, partly from the lack of air but mostly 
out of pure excitement.

"I'm going to get a few firearms."  Jack didn’t say anything right away as 
it took him a moment to recover from his stunned state.  He was, however, 
able to catch Kate before she left for the master bedroom.

"What firearms?  I haven’t seen a gun in this house since we arrived."

"That's because you aren't supposed to, silly.  Guns are one of the main 
things people want to steal, and besides, can’t risk a kid finding them."  
Kate continued to speak by raising her voice so that Jack could hear her as 
she went into the bedroom.  She played around with one of the dressers for a 
moment until she heard a click.  "One of the purposes of this place was for 
hunting.  My grandfather enjoyed deer season especially."  This was evident 
in the supply of shotguns and rifles Kate soon found herself looking at 
after entering the safe’s combination.  Checking the ammo drawer, Kate 
sighed.  It hadn’t been restocked since her grandparents’ deaths.

Kate was able to find a decent selection of handguns.  She laid out a .22 
caliber, a .38 caliber and a .45 caliber.  Digging around for a few moments, 
Kate found ammo for each weapon and took her time loading them.  Figuring 
Jack would want to soak his hands for a while longer, she headed back into 
the dining area with the handguns.  Laying them out in front of Jack, she 
grinned at the nervous look on his face.  "We'll start with the 22 and see 
if that is able to hurt me.  If that doesn’t bother me we'll move up to the 
38, and finally the 45.  Depending on how I do with the 45 I might bring out 
a few hunting rifles and see what effect they have."

"Well, give me a few more moments.  But I warn you, if you want me to aim 
for a precise spot I'm not a very good aim.  I pretty much have zero 
experience handling a firearm."  Kate thought about this.  She had been 
planning on having Jack aim for her shoulder before trying a more vital 
area; now it didn’t seem like she was going to be able to do that.  An 
aiming device would have been handy at the moment, but she knew her 
grandfather never stored any of those.  She shrugged; it wasn’t like she was 
overly concerned.  She doubted the weapon could deal a lethal hit to her.  
Really, her only concern at the moment was that one of them might be able to 
damage her enough to require a trip to the hospital.

"Don’t worry about it, I think I can take it."  Jack sighed and nodded his 
head.  At least he wouldn’t be hurting his hands this time around.  Though 
he imagined what the consequences would be if he had to tell Nathan, "Oh, I 
put your daughter in the hospital by shooting her."  Not exactly what he 
would want to tell someone who could beat the daylights out of him.  But it 
was better than letting Kate do it herself.  He imagined she would try it on 
her own even if it meant shooting herself nearly point blank.  Kate, for her 
part, was playing around with the 45, rolling the gun around on the table.  
She had a very excited look on her face as she imagined what it would mean 
if it couldn’t even harm her.  The most powerful handgun out of the three, 
it was pretty much the worst firearm she would have to worry about while on 
patrol, at least as far as handguns went.

Jack, on the other hand, was quite nervous as he looked at the weapons set 
out before him.  At least Kate hadn’t asked him to shoot her with a rifle.  
Still, the fact that he was about to shoot the woman that he was beginning 
to love more and more with a handgun wasn’t comforting.  With what he had 
done to her earlier he had been able to start out with light taps, but with 
these there would be no starting out easy and building up.  What made him 
even more reluctant was the thought of what it would mean if one of the 
tests failed.  Kate was getting more powerful every day, so if he could just 
convince her to wait for a while longer it would be safer.  But as he 
watched Kate play with the various handguns, he doubted that would work.

Kate didn’t say anything as Jack continued to let his hands soak.  Only when 
the ice was but a few small particles floating around did she stand up.  
"Come on now, enough stalling.  Time to get to testing."  Kate picked up the 
22.  Pocketing it, she carried the 38 and 45 in her hands.  Jack sighed and 
followed her, shutting the front door behind him.  Placing the 38 and 45 on 
a lawn chair, Kate retrieved the 22 from her pocket and handed it to Jack.  
Trotting out into the yard, she chose a spot away from the front porch at 
about the range she imagined she might find herself up against in the city.

"Alright, test away."  Kate folded her arms behind her head, adopting a very 
relaxed pose  She didn’t bother to remove any clothes, thinking it would be 
more fun to see the bullet hole in them once it was over.  Jack took in a 
deep breath of air as he tried to steady the firearm.  Taking aim, he 
targeted Kate's right shoulder.  Even without Kate asking him to, he wanted 
to aim for a spot away from any vital organs.  But with his lack of skill he 
worried that the shot might end up hitting her in the head.  As Kate mouthed 
the word 'shoot,' he finally pulled the trigger.

An odd thing happened as the bullet fired towards Kate.  To her, it seemed 
to be moving slower than normal; much slower in fact, considering that she 
could actually see it.

Kate’s eyesight and reaction time had improved to allow her to handle 
running at her top speed of 95mph, and this also allowed her to actually 
notice the bullet leaving the gun and coming towards her.  It was true that 
it was still coming at her faster than one of her own punches, but the extra 
distance gave her time to react as she realized the bullet was going to miss 
her.  The sound of a rush of air and an impact was the first thing that hit 
Jack’s ear.  As he looked at Kate he noticed that her right hand had come 
out from behind her head and seemed to have caught something in mid-air.  
Kate was in shock as she realized what she had done.  Looking at her hand, 
she slowly began to open her palm.  There, resting in her hand, was the now 
misshapen projectile.  Slowly a grin spread over her face as she looked at 
Jack.

"Your aim is off.  And you need to work on your delivery, it was a little 
slow."  Jack was shocked.  Not only had Kate withstood the bullet, she had 
actually caught it when she realized that it was going to miss her entirely. 
  "Well Jack?  A test must be conducted more than once to make sure it is 
accurate.  What say you unload that clip into me, and this time try to aim 
better."  Kate’s words were said in a joking tone but Jack still took things 
slowly.

Kate could hardly define how she felt as Jack began to fire the shots in a 
more rapid succession, no longer aiming high.  Most the shots hit her in the 
stomach and chest area.  As they did, Kate was truly thrilled to feel no 
pain.  Instead she would feel a slight thud on her skin, and a moment later 
the bullet would roll down the inside of her clothing.  At last there was 
the audible click of the handgun announcing that all the ammunition had been 
used up.  She looked at her right hand again, which still held the bullet 
she had caught.  Slowly she let it slide from her hand to join the others on 
the ground.

"I think if I was a criminal I would be quite concerned right now."  Kate 
only grinned as she watched Jack head over to retrieve the 38 after setting 
the 22 down.  Walking back to Kate, he took a moment to steady his hand.  
Despite his lack of knowledge, he was fairly certain this one would offer 
more of a kick then the 22 had.  Kate considered tensing up her muscles but 
chose to remain in a relaxed stance.  While it wasn’t a good idea to laugh 
at any gun, some were more lethal than others and Kate knew there was a 
rather big gap between a 22 and a 38.  The sound and recoil of the gun, when 
Jack finally did squeeze off a shot, was indeed worse than the 22.  For a 
moment it made him wonder if it had been a good idea.

Kate reached down towards her abs where the bullet had impacted with her 
skin.  She had felt it more than the 22.  A moment later she pulled the 
disfigured bullet from her waistband where it had slid down inside of her 
shirt.  Jack let out a long sigh, expecting to see that the bullet had 
managed to get through Kate’s skin.  Kate pulled up her shirt, letting Jack 
see her abs.  She placed her finger where the bullet had hit.  No bruise, no 
red spot; the only way Jack would have even known where it hit had Kate not 
pointed would be to examine the hole in her shirt.  Feeling sure that Kate 
was safe from the weapon's fire, Jack pulled off the shots, more slowly this 
time.  He aimed mostly for her midsection.  Kate only continued to grin as 
she felt a few of the shots hit her breasts as well as her stomach.  Looking 
towards the porch, she eyed the 45, a feeling of excitement rushing through 
her.

At last Jack expended the last of the rounds in the 38 and retrieved the 45. 
  Kate steadied herself, now quite confident she could handle the small arms 
fire.  Taking aim, Jack was some what more relaxed with this gun then the 
others after Kate had done so well with them.  A moment later he squeezed 
the trigger, one of the guns seven rounds slamming into Kate.  "Ouch."  Jack 
looked up, not having expected to hear Kate say that.  She took a moment to 
dig around in her shirt.  A moment later she pulled out the bullet, but as 
she moved her shirt around a bit Jack noticed that there was a slight indent 
in the skin.  Kate looked at Jack for a moment.  "That about felt like a bee 
sting."  Kate’s grin was supremely confident as she rubbed the area where 
the bullet had hit.

"Do you want me to go ahead and unload or is that enough?"  Jack was 
somewhat disappointed at having found a handgun that could indeed hurt Kate, 
however little.  He was glad they had started with the handguns, though, 
instead of jumping straight to the rifles as he thought Kate had wanted to.  
Otherwise she might have actually sustained an injury, though from what he 
had just seen, he wasn’t sure how serious of one.

"I want to go on.  It didn’t hurt that bad and to be honest I'm sort of 
getting a kick out of this."  Jack grinned as Kate stated the plainly 
obvious.  Taking his time, he was careful to keep the weapon hitting the 
strong parts of her body this time around.  Each time the bullet would 
strike her Kate would feel a slight sting of pain, then it would fade away.  
She didn’t really have to worry about a single 45, she decided, but she 
would have to concern herself with a barrage of weapons fire or something 
more powerful.  At least, she had to worry about them for now.  The thought 
that next week she would be a decent amount more powerful than she was at 
the moment, and the next week even more powerful, was almost intoxicating.

The fact that as her body changed and got stronger, the rate at which she 
gained strength also increased, was truly a wonderful thought.  At that 
moment she found herself wishing that it would never stop.  Jack finally 
squeezed off the last of the bullets.  He was surprised when Kate stood 
there a moment longer as if in thought.  Finally she smiled at Jack.  
"Thanks for this gift, Jack.  I must say it is assuredly the fifth best gift 
I have ever received."  Jack blinked for a moment.

"Thanks, but what are the other four?"  Kate grinned as she began to walk 
towards Jack.  She spoke slowly.

"The first would be my life, which actually you did help to restore to me.  
The second gift would be my father and the third my mother, though I can’t 
say in which order I would list them."  Kate stood next to Jack and placed 
her lips against his cheek.  "And the fourth is that I have such a wonderful 
friend, whom I hope to get to know better and better as we spend time with 
each other."  Jack couldn’t help but smile as Kate removed the 45 from his 
hand, then retrieved the other guns.  "I'm going to go put these in the wall 
safe."  Jack only nodded as he watched Kate head inside, waiting a moment 
before he went in himself.  Instead of following Kate, he went to the couch 
and took his usual spot.  Kate’s statement had really helped to assure Jack 
that he was getting closer to her, and in some ways petted his ego.

As he considered the testing that they had just done, he mused over the 
needles that he had ordered.  He was grateful he had ordered some of the 
stronger ones, as from what he had just seen he doubted anything weaker 
would be able to get through Kate’s skin.  He hadn’t been thinking of it 
while doing the testing, but if Kate had indeed made it into the range of 
rifles, in particular the more powerful ones, he doubted he would be able to 
find a needle that would break her skin.  Closing his eyes, he resolved he 
would need to write a report and send it to Nathan to see if he could get 
some specially made needles just for Kate.  It was a kind of amusing thought 
as he considered the specs he would probably need to write.  "Can penetrate 
through two inches of steel."  With the way Kate’s strength was increasing 
he felt it would be needed eventually.

Kate didn’t come out just after putting the guns away.  Rather, she stopped 
to look at herself in the mirror.  Looking at the bullet holes in her 
clothing, she counted 26 in total.  The two smaller guns had ten rounds a 
piece while the 45 had seven.  There were only 26 thanks to the one that 
Kate had caught in her hand.  Removing the shirt, she placed a finger over 
each of the spots where a bullet from the 45 had hit.  There was a slight 
red mark at each site, but they were all quickly fading and she doubted they 
would be there in five minutes.  Quite pleased with herself, Kate proceeded 
to neatly fold the now bullet-riddled shirt, figuring she would show it off 
later or maybe even frame it as one of the milestones in her strength 
development.  Slipping into an intact t-shirt, she checked herself in the 
mirror one more time before heading back into the living room.

As Kate walked up behind Jack a broad smile appeared on her face.  He seemed 
lost in thought.  At first planning to simply join him, Kate recalled her 
promise to show off for him as often as she could.  So instead she simply 
snuck up behind him and bent down, taking hold of one of the chairs main 
supports.  She lifted the entire sofa with Jack on it, easily supporting the 
weight with a single arm.  Jack didn’t cry out this time; he was getting use 
to Kate suddenly lifting him from the ground.  Peeking over the side of the 
couch, he looked down at the amazon who was grinning up at him.  "So Cuddly, 
what do you think of today’s test?"  Jack grinned as he reached down in an 
attempt to pat Kate on the head.  Finding that his arm couldn’t reach her, 
he contented himself by patting her hand.

"Well we didn’t really get much work done today, but until I get some new 
needles that can get through that skin of yours it'll be a while.  I must 
admit though, I am really impressed.  You have most assuredly broken the 
mark between human and superhuman."  Kate continued to grin but let out a 
somewhat lamentative sigh.

"Yeah, but I haven’t made it into the range I really want to be.  I mean I'm 
not complaining, hehe.  well I guess I am, but I'm not in the power range 
where I feel I could really call myself superpowered."  Jack rolled his 
eyes, not exactly feeling sympathy for Kate.  As far as he was concerned she 
was well within the superpowered range.  If not a match for some of the big 
names like Superman or Wonder Woman, she was still a powerhouse in his eyes, 
and she was getting stronger.  "Oh lord, I think I've come to consider my 
present strength range normal.  Hell, I'm currently more powerful than I 
would have ever imagined I would be and here I am complaining that it isn’t 
enough."

"Yup, you are a greedy little thing, that's for sure, you power hungry 
animal you.  Then again, power is something that people have sought after 
almost since humans first existed I imagine, and you are getting your power 
through peaceful means."  Kate smiled and slowly lowered the couch to the 
ground.  Climbing over the back of it, she lightly pounced on Jack, making 
sure to catch most the weight with her legs so she didn’t actually knock the 
wind out of him.

"You know Cuddly, I've been thinking.  Have you been working on that serum 
for yourself recently?  I mean, you were able to get it to work for me and I 
bet you've gotten some new information from the effect it had on me."  Jack 
smiled and shook his head.

"Too dangerous as far as I am concerned.  To be honest with you, I think it 
would be best if you never mentioned it to anyone.  Really, we need to get 
around to telling your parents that the next time we see them."  A 
questioning look appeared on Kate’s face.  She knew the drug was dangerous 
but she didn’t see any harm in Jack researching it further.

"Why don’t you want to continue research it though?  After all, it seems 
like it isn’t going to have any negative side effects on me.  It's been a 
few months now."  Jack nodded in agreement, though he still worried it might 
take a direction Kate wouldn’t like.  So far the changes had been purely 
advantageous without any visible side effects.  Jack just had to keep in 
mind that every cell in Kate’s body had been altered.  While she looked 
human on the outside, her internal workings were not exactly that of a 
human's anymore.

"I just don’t think it would be safe to have a treatment that could 
potentially give someone super powers.  I'm sure enough people would try it 
despite the danger, and I don't know if all of them would have the best 
intent in mind.  I mean, considering how effective it has been I'm glad we 
never finished it at work.  I wonder just who would be getting the 
treatment."  Jack didn’t bother mentioning to Kate that he didn’t really 
trust himself with such knowledge either, as he tried to imagine what 
effects slowly gaining more and more strength would have on him.  The 
thought that Kate could be corrupted by her power hardly ever crossed his 
mind though.  He had decided to put his trust in her to remain the same 
person she was, no matter how much power she gained.  It wouldn’t do him any 
good to worry; after all, he certainly didn’t have it in him to try to kill 
Kate if she did become corrupted, and it would probably be too late for that 
anyway.

"Well alright then, if you think it's that dangerous."  Kate slipped one of 
her arms under Jack and easily lifted him from the couch.  Positioning 
herself under him, she set him down on top of her so that they were facing 
once again.  Smiling, she pulled his face down to hers and began kissing 
him.  Jack leaned into the kiss, their hands beginning to explore each 
other's bodies.

******************************************************************************

Kate snapped her head in the direction of the benchpress as the scream of 
bending metal got her attention.  Looking at the weight set, she realized 
what was happening too late as the supports gave way and the barbell, now 
stacked with well over two tons of metal, came slamming down into the bench. 
  The bench didn’t hold up for a moment and was nearly snapped in two.  The 
look on Kate’s face said it all as she walked over to the wreckage.  Well, 
fuck.  Bending down, she flicked the metal.  It had been bending a bit 
recently, but she hadn’t expected it to just give way like that.  It made 
her glad Jack wasn’t in the house to hear what had happened.  He had taken 
one of the humvees into town to pick up some supplies.

This now left Kate with a problem.  Jack had sent off for her custom made 
weight set several weeks ago; he had finished designing them earlier and 
ordered them from her father’s company, but he hadn’t put it on a rush order 
as he felt the weights would last Kate a while longer.  Now Kate found 
herself in quite the dilemma as she realized that even if Jack called today 
they would probably take a while longer to be ready.  She could, of course, 
continue exercising by jogging and using the other free weights, but in 
truth she really enjoyed her benchpress as a means of showing off and 
testing her strength.  Looking around the basement, she tried to locate 
something that could fill this role, but nothing came to mind.  She 
contemplated the fallen barbell.  Bending down and taking hold of its 
center, she decided that was a bad idea the moment she lifted it.

The metal screamed as Kate lifted it from the ground, and began to bend in 
the center.  Placing the barbell back down, Kate let out a long sigh and 
once again began looking around.  Walking upstairs, she checked around the 
house for something.  However, upon realizing that even her grandfather’s 
safes would not have enough weight to give her a good workout, she let out a 
rejected sigh.  Walking on outside, she took a seat on the steps and began 
to look around the yard.  The thought that she could use a large rock 
suddenly hit her, then passed the moment she spotted something else.  
Quickly dashing back inside, Kate located a rather large, worn towel, then 
proceeded out to the second humvee that her father had left.

Throwing the towel down, she managed to get it fairly well distributed 
underneath the hummer.  She proceeded to sort of crawl underneath the 
vehicle, a wide grin upon her face as she began to search for a area where 
she could place her hands.  She was once again grateful Jack had gone into 
town, imagining how silly she would feel if this didn’t work out.

Jack felt odd driving back to the house.  It had been quite some time since 
he had driven anywhere; Kate drove most the time.  What made things worse 
was the vehicle, the humvee being a far cry from his car.  He chose to take 
things slower than normal.  It meant a few speedy people had to drive around 
him, but he didn’t mind.  The fact that, should they choose to hit him their 
vehicle would be the worse for it, seemed to give him a slight confidence 
boost.  As he pulled off on the side road that led to Kate’s grandparents' 
home he relaxed a bit.  The rocky road eventually gave way to the smoother 
surface, letting him know that he was nearing the house.  What he saw when 
he got there made him stop the vehicle a good deal short of the porch.

The second humvee was slowly being lifted from the ground, and then lowered 
again.  Kate, having found a few areas strong enough for her to place her 
hands without damaging the vehicle, was now putting herself through her 
sets.  It was an amusing moment for her.  She didn’t stop her exercise 
routine as she heard Jack pull up, wondering if he was enjoying the show.

Jack found the scene so strange that he didn’t realize just what was going 
on until he noticed the edge of a towel sticking out from under the vehicle. 
  Pulling the rest of the way up to the porch, Jack hopped out and proceeded 
over to the humvee.  He bent down and looked at Kate, who grinned back at 
him.  "Now just what do you think you are doing down there?"

"Oh, the barbell can’t hold enough weight for me anymore so I had to 
improvise.  Hey Jack, would you mind going on inside and calling my dad?  
Let him know that he needs to hurry up with those custom weights for me.  
I'll help you carry in the groceries after that."  Jack could only nod as he 
straightened up and made his way inside, shaking his head at what he'd just 
seen.  At least now he knew that if he ever managed to get a vehicle stuck 
in a ditch, it wouldn't be a problem so long as Kate was with him.

Nathan was looking over the company's profits when the phone rang.  Picking 
it up, he knew who to expect since Jack and Kate were among the few that had 
his personal number.  "Hi Nathan, I was just calling to let you know that, 
well, I need to ask if you could speed up the production of Kate’s new gym 
equipment."  Nathan was caught a bit off guard.  Considering that he had 
helped with the modifications to Kate’s equipment, as one supremely 
confident in his work he hadn’t expected Kate to go through the equipment 
before the year was up.

"Sure, but could you tell me what happened?  I guess Kate is progressing 
faster than I thought?"

"Progressing faster and faster; it seems that as she gets stronger her rate 
of increase improves as well.  She is sort ofbench pressing the humvee right 
now, and to be honest I don’t think it will be enough weight to keep her 
happy next week."  Nathan blinked at hearing that his little girl was 
currently benchpressing a fairly well armored military vehicle.  He had left 
the project in Jack and Kate’s hands so he didn’t know just how strong she 
was becoming up until that point.

"Well, I think I can get the weight set ready and shipped to you by the end 
of the month but I doubt it'll be any sooner.  I guess until then you can 
just start putting stuff in the trunk and seats.  Unless...you haven’t 
already started loading the thing down yet, have you?"  Jack smiled, hearing 
the curiosity in Nathan’s voice.

"Naa, she hasn’t gotten that far yet but I'm sure we'll be there by the next 
week."

"Okay then, I'll work on speeding things up here then.  We're having to 
adjust some of your design specs."  Nathan’s last comment was spoken with 
humor but honesty as well.  Some of the design plans Jack had sent in, 
though sound, had been a little flawed.  That didn’t surprise him, as Jack 
had admitted beforehand that he had little experience with such mechanical 
designs.  In truth, Nathan felt that he should have had someone experienced 
in building mining equipment designing the hydraulic gear that Kate would be 
requiring.

"Alright then, I'll let Kate know."  After saying goodbye, Jack looked out 
the window to watch the humvee being lifted.  The fact that it was Kate 
doing this and not a machine was the most impressive fact of all.  Again he 
shook his head.  Walking outside, he looked under the vehicle, waiting a 
moment as he watched the muscles in Kate’s arms swell and relax as she 
raised and lowered the vehicle.  It wasn’t a complete bench press; thanks to 
the tires Kate couldn’t lower the vehicle entirely to her chest.  It was the 
best they could do for the moment though.

"Alright young lady, quit playing with your toy.  Come out here and help me 
carry in the groceries."  Kate grinned as she turned her head in Jack’s 
direction and set the vehicle down.  She wriggled out from under it, stood 
up and dusted herself off.

"Well, it isn’t as good of a workout as I'm used to, but it'll do.  See?"  
Kate proceeded to flex her arm in front of Jack.  Looking at the muscle for 
a moment, Jack reached up and placed his hands on it.  Squeezing her biceps, 
Jack couldn’t help but grin.  It was true that Kate’s muscles hadn’t 
actually increased in size; they had simply redesigned themselves to be even 
stronger than normal.  Still, the fact that he currently had his hands on a 
muscle that could lift a humvee, and that it belonged to such a attractive 
woman, was truly a wonderful thought.

Slipping her arm from Jack’s grip, Kate proceeded over to the humvee, 
letting out a sigh as she opened the trunk.  "I wish I could get all these 
on a nice even platform.  Then I could carry them all at once."  Jack 
grinned, realizing that indeed the only thing that kept Kate from carrying 
everything in at once was that her arms didn’t have enough space.  Jack 
stood back as he watched Kate load herself down with the heavier items.  
Following suit, Jack was able to carry as many items, though this was 
because none of them were nearly as heavy as the ones Kate carried in.  Once 
inside Kate proceeded to put the groceries away, leaving Jack to carry 
everything else in.

"I think your dad was surprised when I told him his little girl was 
benchpressing a humvee.  He didn’t say much, but he sounded shocked; that 
was for sure."  Kate grinned as she recalled how she used to watch her 
father work out and debate whether she wanted to be that strong.  She could 
have pushed herself to match her father in strength, but there were 
trade-offs.  Nathan was still a good deal taller than his girl, despite her 
being six foot, which meant he had more mass to spread the muscle over.  
Kate had to stop developing her muscle size sooner than he and turn to 
simply toning them, otherwise she would have suffered a decrease in agility. 
  The drug Jack had given her had solved all of that, allowing her to 
increase her strength seemingly as much as she wanted without losing any 
agility.  Actually, as her muscles changed and adapted she found herself 
getting faster and faster.

Kate looked over at Jack who was busying himself putting away the lighter 
items.  She recalled the conversation about her new abilities being a gift 
from him and him expecting her to use it.  It was amusing to think that 
thanks to his gift, her father's max benchpress seemed like nothing to her.  
She could easily benchpress 500 lbs.  She could even support that much 
weight easily with one arm by now.  He had truly given her a wonderful gift, 
though at first it had come at great personal risk.  She had been on her 
deathbed until Jack had come along with the little drug and saved her.  At 
that time she had had nothing to lose and so much to gain, even more than 
she realized.  The thought that the cancer had been a blessing in disguise 
got a smile from her.  She never would have tried the drug or even known of 
it if she hadn’t been dying.

Halting what she was doing, Kate walked over to Jack and wrapped her arms 
around him from behind.  "You know, I'm glad things are working out so well. 
  After all, if they didn’t I wouldn’t know
what to do.  If you had given me a costly ring as a gift I could have 
returned it to you if things hadn’t worked out.  A necklace or anything else 
of simple value I could have returned, but what you gave me is worth so much 
more."

Jack placed his hand on Kate’s.  "Even if things hadn’t worked out this 
well, I still wouldn’t take back your strength if I could.  After all, a 
gift once given belongs to the other."  Kate brought her lips closer to 
Jack’s cheek.  Standing on her toes a bit, she brushed her soft lips against 
his outer ear.

"Who said anything about the strength?  It is nice, but you've given me 
something better."  Jack’s heart jumped a beat as he guessed at what that 
something was, but he was scared to ask.  His curiosity was only made worse 
when Kate released him with no further explanation.  He had been living with 
Kate for a while now and was quite sure he was past the point of just being 
a friend.  He was, after all, allowed to explore some of her body and they 
did regularly sleep together, but he hadn’t gotten nearly as far as having 
sex yet.  It was frustrating in a lot of ways, but as he recalled what 
Nathan had told him about Kate, he knew he didn’t want to risk losing her.  
Jack bit his lip as he resolved that he at least needed to ask to find out 
just where he stood with this remarkable creature.  After all, Kate was 
growing more powerful every day and he feared that she would forget him 
because of it.

"Kate, I've been wanting to ask you something.  Could you tell me just where 
you and I stand?  I mean, I've been living with you for a while now and I 
was wondering if I was more than a friend."  Kate grinned, having expected 
Jack to ask such a question.  It actually impressed her that he had waited 
so many months before bringing the subject up.

"We are more than friends, Jack.  At least I consider you more than just a 
friend.  I just think we need to live together for a decent while to make 
sure everything is going to work out before we go too far."  Jack gave a 
understanding nod.

"Alright, but haven’t we been together for a while now?"  Jack felt Kate’s 
hand touch under his chin and she gave him a slight kiss.

"Yes we have, but we've been away from everyone with only each other to deal 
with, and I haven’t been working.  We need to get back to the city and back 
into the flow of things before we can really say we work well together."

"Yeah, that makes sense.  It's just that with you getting more powerful 
every day, and as far as I'm concerned, more lovely, I feel like I might 
lose you when there are other men to compete with."  Jack knew Kate felt 
grateful towards him for giving her the drug, but he didn’t want that to be 
the reason she was staying with him.

"Don’t worry, Cuddly.  It isn’t like anyone is going to come and just sweep 
me off my feet.  And if anything, my increased strength just makes you more 
adorable to me."  A moment later Jack felt Kate’s hands take hold of his 
waist and lift him off the ground.  "After all, I happen to like men that 
are weaker than me in case you've forgotten."  Kate smiled at Jack.  She 
understood that he wanted to move a bit further; she wanted to as well, but 
she felt a need to be patient and take her time with such things.  It was a 
lesson her mother had spent several years drilling into her head, especially 
the concept of when to share her body with another.

"Alright.  This is one of those things that I'm just going to have to be 
patient about.  That shouldn’t be too hard, since I've spent a good deal of 
my life looking through a lens.  Ah crap, I forgot to tell your parents that 
they need to come down here so we can have a conversation with them.  I 
don’t think I want to mention the drug on the phone."  Kate grinned at Jack 
and ruffled his hair.

"My father doesn’t have much of a social life, as you might recall.  After 
all, he didn’t even visit me often in the hospital.  Besides, neither of my 
parents are chatterboxes and I'm sure they know when something needs to be 
kept quiet."  Jack considered Nathan’s line of business and nodded his head 
in agreement.

"I suppose you're right.  Well since we got all the groceries in, how about 
we finish putting them away and do some testing."  Kate blinked and set Jack 
back down.  Looking at the bags, she guessed that the needles they had 
ordered had arrived, and now that he had something that could get through 
her skin he was ready to try again.  She let out a sigh and began helping 
him.

"You know, at the rate my strength is increasing, one of these days you 
won’t be able to even prick me."

"I know, and to be honest I can’t wait for the day I can see you with that 
much power."  Kate blushed as she recalled how much of a turn on her power 
was, not only for herself but for Jack as well.  It actually made her wonder 
just why Jack seemed to enjoy taking her blood once in a while.  At first it 
had been a mechanical experience for him, something that needed to be done, 
but she had noticed a grin a few times.  The realization hit a moment later, 
making her grin and blush a bit.  Jack had been forced to put more and more 
effort into getting the needle through her skin.  It wasn’t that he enjoyed 
pricking her; it was the fact that he could tell how much more powerful she 
was getting.  The desire to show off and flaunt her strength seemed to 
reassert itself as Kate thought of this.

"Hey Jack, just when is that other exercise equipment supposed to arrive and 
how much weight will it be able to produce?"

"Your dad said it should be here by the end of this month.  But don’t worry, 
he pointed out a pretty good way of adding more weight to your temporary 
exercise equipment.  We can just start stacking the weights in the trunk of 
the humvee and maybe in the back seat if things get desperate enough."  Kate 
nodded in agreement; it would be the simplest and probably the most 
effective idea.

"Alright, but how much weight are they supposed to be able to generate?"  
Jack thought about this, recalling the design specs.

"Well, the benchpress should be able to generate around 25 tons of force, at 
least with the dimensions I gave it.  Your father mentioned that there were 
some design flaws though, and he was going to have some things redone."  
Kate grinned as Jack seemed worried that it wouldn’t be able put out the 
intended amount of pressure.

"Oh, well then I expect it to be able to put out 35 tons.  My father isn’t 
one to allow things to be downgraded; he'll probably try to fix whatever was 
wrong and improve it."  Jack just nodded, not knowing exactly what to say.  
Nathan did seem like he knew what he was doing when it came to mechanics.  
Jack and Kate finished putting away the last of the items.  Then Jack picked 
up a rather sturdy looking package.  Kate looked over his shoulder to see 
just what was in it.  Much to Kate's surprise, the package was full of 
needles.  She had expected it to contain a bit more equipment.  As she 
looked at the rather sturdy and threatening looking needles, she noticed the 
ends had been fitted so that they would work with the regular medical 
equipment Jack had downstairs.

"Well, let's get to work.  We need to get as much information as we can 
before we lose the ability to break your skin."  A long sigh came from Kate 
as she followed Jack downstairs.  It was true she enjoyed showing off for 
him, but getting pricked had gotten old and she had enjoyed the few weeks of 
not having to worry about needles.  Jack made it downstairs a good deal 
before Kate did and was shocked to see the destroyed benchpress.  Letting 
out a low whistle, he looked up at Kate slowly making her way down the 
steps.

"Now just how am I supposed to stay fit?"

"Oh I'm sure we can fix it up.  I was just wanting to finish my workout 
earlier.  We can do some repairs later on; maybe I can put these muscles of 
mine to some constructive use.  That is, provided you don’t take too much 
blood and leave me feeling light-headed."

"Well, I guess we are going to have to take a fair amount.  I really want to 
see how your cells have come along since the last time I was able to check 
them.  The last batch of cells I took from you died off about 3 weeks ago."  
A curious looked appeared on Kate’s face.

"You mean you've been keeping them alive?"  Jack grinned, finding a chance 
to brag about something.

"Actually, no I haven’t intentionally been keeping them alive longer than a 
few days, but I have noticed that as your body strengthens, the length of 
time your cells can survive once taken from you has increased.  Without me 
trying to preserve them your cells can now last for several weeks.  At least 
they could four weeks ago.  I bet they last even longer now.  Who knows, 
they might even last a month."

"I bet you can get some good data from that."

"Err, well yeah, but actually none of it is relevant after a week.  You're 
simply changing too quickly.  The best thing I can do is try to figure out 
patterns and see which way it's going.  I haven’t had time to study any one 
sample and figure out exactly how it is working.  I figure others can figure 
that later on by looking through my data."  Kate held her tongue, though she 
considered commenting on how she hoped the data he recorded was better then 
the notes he used for his own purposes.

"Alright now, let me see your arm."  Kate sighed as she held out her arm and 
Jack began to feel along it.  He didn’t bother placing any form of band on 
her arm to help get the veins to show, her muscles having grown too strong 
for such things to affect them.  A moment later he dabbed a section of her 
arm with some alcohol before preparing the needle.  "You may want to look 
away if you don’t want to see your blood."  Kate grinned and didn’t look 
away, a part of her still hoping that the needle wouldn’t break her skin.  
It had been four weeks since the little firing test, and she couldn’t help 
but hope they needle wouldn’t make it through.  A moment later she felt a 
sharp prick and turned her head away as the needle began to push its way 
into her body.

Jack found himself having to apply a decent amount of force to get the 
needle in.  He wondered if he could compare it to getting through the hide 
of a rhino or if Kate’s skin was even stronger.  As her skin resisted, he 
doubted that he would get to use all the needles he had ordered.  He felt 
certain Kate wouldn’t have to worry about them being able to make their way 
through her skin for long.  It meant he would have to call Nathan later on 
as well and explain the need for some new needles.  He had told Nathan that 
he felt they would need some specially made ones but he hadn’t made it an 
official order.  As the blood began to flow into the vial he considered the 
odds of them being able to make a needle that could continue to make its way 
through Kate's skin.  Removing the full vial, he placed another on the 
needle and once again began to fill it.

"I wonder where my skin would rank strength wise.  Do you think it is plate 
armor strength?"  Jack looked up to find Kate’s head turned in a different 
direction, making it quite clear that she didn’t want to see her own blood 
leaving her veins.

"Actually, I would say that your skin is a good deal stronger then simple 
plate armor, at least the kind a knight would have worn.  Not that you 
should get in the way of a crossbow bolt, at least not yet.  I think maybe 
triple layer plate armor, if it ever existed, would be a good way to define 
the strength of your skin."  Kate grinned rather pridefully, even as she 
eagerly wished for the day that they could say her skin was as strong as 
tank armor, and then perhaps battleship armor.  The thought took Kate’s mind 
away from the needle that was currently inside her body, at least until she 
felt it being removed from her.  Kate visibly shivered as she felt the 
needle being taken; she didn’t like the feeling one bit.

Putting the vials away, Jack quickly bandaged Kate’s arm before looking at 
her.  A surprised look appeared on Kate’s face as she realized Jack wasn’t 
going to jump right into his research as he normally did.  "Aren’t you going 
to get to studying?"

"I suppose I could, but when I think about it, I know that blood there can 
survive for at least a week.  So I guess I don’t have to jump right back 
into it if there's something you want to do."

"Oh no you don’t.  You took it from me, so get to studying.  Tell you what 
though, while you do that I'll go start dinner."  Jack nodded in agreement 
as he picked up the vials and headed over to the microscope.  Drawing out a 
few slides, he began to set the equipment up while Kate headed upstairs.  
Once in the kitchen Kate began to look around for what she wanted to cook.  
At the same time she considered what needed to be done before the day was 
up.  She would need to help Jack repair the weight set so that he could 
exercise; that could be done after dinner.  Expecting that Jack would 
probably spend a while in the lab, Kate considered making a roast for the 
two of them.  It wouldn’t require much effort on her part and it would kill 
some time.

As she looked through the refrigerator a few steaks caught her eye.  She 
started to reach for them, but shook her head.  Something like that was too 
good to waste.  She imagined how she could show off for Jack when it came 
time to cook them.  Her body having strengthened a great deal, she wondered 
if Jack would enjoy watching her grill a few steaks without needing anything 
to flip them other than her own hands.  The fact that she could now handle 
flames that were at least suitable for cooking was a real kick for Kate, 
though she didn’t think she was ready to stick her hand into a welding torch 
yet.

Ruling out the steaks, Kate proceeded to get out the roast and prepare the 
ingredients.  As she did so she found herself intentionally doing things 
that would have normally harmed her.  Running the blade of a knife along her 
skin as she peeled a few potatoes; not using oven mittens when she put the 
roast in.  It was getting to the point that Kate was having trouble 
recalling how, not even a year ago, she had to be so careful when doing so 
many things.  Now if she accidently shot herself in the foot or grabbed a 
hot iron she didn’t have to worry about any consequences, and with every day 
she grew stronger she knew she had fewer and fewer things to concern herself 
with.

The thought was almost an intoxicating one, especially when Kate looked out 
the window at the two humvees in the yard.  Recalling the last trip she had 
made into town, she grinned at how she had buckled up, having done so for 
years especially after becoming a police officer.  She didn’t have to worry 
about buckling up anymore.  With her body's strength, and its ability to run 
at over 100 miles per hour, even being thrown through a windshield wouldn’t 
harm her in the least.  But she resolved that she would still use a safety 
belt, considering that she would be riding with Jack and wanted to make sure 
he buckled up.  Requiring him to wear a safety belt while she didn’t hardly 
seemed fair to her.

Kate finished preparing dinner well before Jack was out of the lab, leaving 
her with the dilemma of what to do with her time.  Kate checked herself with 
a slight slap on the forehead.  She knew exactly what she needed to do.  She 
removed her shirt and headed for her bathroom.  Having just finished working 
out a short while ago, outside no less, she felt a need to get herself 
cleaned up.  Tossing her shirt in the laundry baske, Kate slipped out of the 
rest of her clothing.  A long sigh came from her as she looked at the 
bathtub and lamented the fact that they had yet to set up a system which 
would allow her to take a truly hot bath.

Jack looked perplexedly at the computer screen as he began to notice 
something.  Up until that point, Kate’s blood cells had kept a mostly a 
human make up, but with each individual component more advanced.  Now after 
a few weeks of not being able to see just how Kate’s cells were doing, he 
found himself looking at a component that he couldn’t recognize.  It 
reminded him of the nucleus in many ways except that it seemed to glow a 
slight blue, making the entire cell seem to light up.  Thinking for a 
moment, he stood up and made his way over to the light switch.  After 
turning off all the lights in the basement area he thought Kate’s blood 
seemed to be glowing, though he couldn’t be sure.  Turning the lights back 
on, he took a moment to scribble down.  "Blood sample seems to be emitting 
some form of energy thanks to new structure forming in cells.  Effect of 
this energy or purpose of the structure is unknown."

Other scientists would be able to see this, of course, as Jack had by now 
started recording his findings.  Returning his attention to the computer 
screen, he began to zoom in on various parts of Kate’s cells, realizing that 
he couldn’t focus all his attention on just one part no matter how strange 
it seemed.  As Jack continued to watch what was going on he noticed that 
while most components seemed to behave normally, at least compared to what 
their old functions were, the nucleus and mitochondria where not.  As Kate’s 
cells had developed a higher level of sophistication than normal, her 
nucleus seemed to have evolved in its ability to handle information.  As 
Jack considered the fact that Kate’s cells seemed to be evolving and 
changing, he felt quit dim for not realizing it earlier.  It needed to 
process more information in order to survive as it altered itself.

The mitochondria was now behaving more like its own organism, though it 
still seemed a member of the community.  It appeared to move about as if 
searching for something.  Thinking for a moment, Jack had an idea.  He made 
his way over to the old storage area and took out some old blood cells of 
Kate's.  They had died a week ago, but he could still conduct a test.  Using 
a needle he took a bit of the old blood and placed it with the living, more 
evolved samples.  The more advanced blood cells quickly siezed upon the dead 
ones and, much to Jack’s surprise, began to tear them apart.  Each cell now 
seemed capable of dealing with such an intruder and responded very quickly, 
cannibalizing their former forms.

It quickly became apparent why the cells had to be so actively mindful of 
changes.  If they didn’t, the more evolved cells would waste no time in 
cannibalizing them.  Jack threw away the needle and retrieved a clean one.  
Pricking himself on the finger, he proceeded to introduce some of his own 
blood into Kate’s sample.  The reaction was not what he'd expected.  Kate’s 
cells seemed to examine his for a moment.  He imagined they were comparing 
to see if they were of the same type, the next generation of cells, or an 
intruder.  Jack grinned and shook his head a moment later as he watched the 
sample of his blood being consumed.  The mitochondria seemed to be the main 
instigator of the cannibalization and destruction of interlopers.

Once again turning to some paper, he wrote down a few more notes.  "Cells do 
not respond well to weaker cells or interlopers.  Do not under any 
circumstance get Kate’s blood on you."

The thought of how Kate’s cells had reacted to his own was somewhat 
disturbing, yet interesting.  He considered what might happen if it did come 
into contact with him.  In this test his cells had been the interloper as 
Kate’s had been in greater abundance.  If the situation were reversed, would 
it stop them or would they tear him apart?  Thinking for a moment, Jack made 
his way upstairs into Kate’s room and stood next to her bathroom door.

"Kate, do you know of a place where I could get some animal blood?"  Kate 
thought Jack's question a little odd, but answered.

"Yeah, just go into town and stop by the taxidermy.  People are always 
shooting something around here; they should have some fresh blood.  But 
Cuddly, just why would you want it?"

"I have a test I want to conduct and I'll need a decent amount of blood.  I 
don’t want to bleed myself as much as I might need."

"Err, alright.  Well how about instead of taking off you give me a moment to 
finish my shower and I'll go with you."

"Sure thing."  Jack stepped away from the door and made his way into the 
living room.  Sitting down on the couch, he considered just how much blood 
he wanted to use for this experiment.  He would probably want to start with 
just a dish and then move up to a larger amount.  A moment later he shook 
his head, feeling silly.  It would be better just to use small amounts of 
animal blood and introduce fewer and fewer of Kate’s cells into it in order 
to see how they did.  A short while later Kate came out of her room wearing 
a rather large t-shirt and shorts.  Her hair had been brushed but she hadn’t 
gone to too much trouble fixing it.  A short while later the two of them 
were at the taxidermy office, Jack feeling somewhat silly at what he was 
about to request.

Kate looked around the office, checking out the various trophies that lined 
the walls.  Whether the owner had killed them himself or was showing off his 
work she wasn’t sure, maybe even both.  Kate had mixed feelings as she 
looked around the room and considered the trophies.  On one hand she 
respected a hunter's right to hunt, agreeing that the animal population 
needed to be controlled.  She admired their willingness to stand the 
freezing cold during deer season.  On the other hand she wasn’t sure if she 
cared for the concept of having an animal mounted, and hoped that the meat 
had been cooked.  She didn’t like to see things killed without reason, and 
the concept of killing something just to kill it seemed idiotic to her.  As 
she was glancing around, something got her attention.  Out of the corner of 
her eye she noticed two people staring at her.

Turning her head, she saw the two boys that she had caught on the back road 
a few months earlier.  She grinned.  They were lucky she hadn’t caught them 
later; she could really scare them now thanks to her increased strength and 
speed.  "Well, hello there boys.  You haven’t had your four-wheelers on any 
back roads recently have you?"  Michael and Howard looked at her in 
disbelief.  They hadn’t told anyone about what had happened, deciding that 
they weren't likely to be believed.  They had actually begun to doubt the 
incident themselves.

Howard was the first to find his voice as Kate approached them, a friendly 
smile on her face.  "Nope, we've been sticking to the back woods lately.  No 
running the back roads for us.  I guess we should have asked this earlier 
but, umm, who are you?"  Kate grinned and considered whether to answer.  
Shrugging her shoulders, she imagined it couldn’t do any harm.

"My name is Kate, and may I know yours?  I think I had too much fun 
outrunning you and picking up your toys last time to ask."  The boys grinned 
as Kate openly admitted to teasing them.  Despite everything they recalled, 
she seemed friendly enough now.  They might have felt differently had they 
realized how much more capable she had become since that day.

"Lockjaw over there is Michael, and I'm Howard.  Pleased to meet you."  
Howard started to ask Kate another question when Jack returned carrying a 
plastic bag.

"Hey Cuddly, got what we came here for?"  Jack nodded, noticing the two 
young men she was talking to.  He shrugged it off.  It was Kate’s business 
who she decided to converse with, though he did wonder what they had been 
talking about.

"Sure did.  Ready to get back?"  Kate nodded as she walked over to Jack and 
took him by the arm.

"Yup, let's go."  Jack felt a little odd as he headed through the door, and 
wondered just what was going on.  Kate, of course, was intentionally drawing 
attention to Jack, wanting to make the two boys jealous of him.  Jack didn’t 
realize this, but enjoyed the attention and wished he wasn’t carrying a bag 
of deer blood at the moment.  He had gotten lucky; someone had dropped off a 
deer only recently.  The shop owner had thought him a little strange but had 
no reason not give him the animal blood.  It meant less for him to dispose 
of.  Jack had insisted on giving him a twenty for the blood.

Michael, having been quiet the whole time, was the first one to speak.  He 
walked over to Howard.  "Think she's some kind of vampire?"

******************************************************************************

Kate sighed as her eyes drifted slowly open.  Looking around the dark room 
she grinned, recalling a time when she would be looking at daylight.  Having 
gone to bed at midnight, Kate checked her alarm clock to find that it was 
still five in the morning, and yet she felt totally rested.  Such things had 
become normal now as her body became more capable.  She found her rate of 
recovery increasing as well.  Now she only required five hours sleep instead 
of the eight it had once taken her to fully recover herself.  Climbing out 
of bed, she rubbed her hands across her eyes before she began to straighten 
her covers, another item that she no longer used.  It took so much heat or 
cold to affect her that she imagined she could safely sleep outside even 
during winter.

Stretching her muscles, Kate ran her hand through her hair.  A surprised 
look appeared on her face.  She held her hand in front of her.  Even in the 
dark she could make out the strands of her own bright red hair in her 
fingers.  Kate’s mouth opened wide as she realized just how much hair had 
come off in her hand.  Flipping on the lights, she looked towards the bed 
and nearly fell over when she found the pillow blanketed by strands of her 
hair.  Truly shocked, Kate didn’t see how she could suddenly be losing her 
hair after it had seemed so much thicker the last few weeks.

Quickly dashing into the bathroom, she flipped on a light and proceeded to 
check herself in the mirror.  Despite the amount of hair she seemed to have 
lost, her bright red mane was still as thick and vibrant as ever.  A 
relieved yet perplexed looked appeared on her face as she held up the 
strands to gauge just how much hair she had lost overnight.  The worry gone 
that she would find a huge bald spot on the back of her head, Kate began to 
curiously run her fingers through her hair again.  As she did this she began 
to notice a change in it.  Some of her hairs seemed thin compared to the 
others.  This was the hair that came out in her hand as she brushed her 
fingers over it.  The other hair strands seemed thicker and healthier than 
normal, encouraging her to run her fingers along their length.

Kate found herself wondering if the changes to her hair was due to her 
body’s alterations.  Deciding to conduct a test, she removed a few of the 
thinner hair strands just by touching them and held them in her hands.  As 
she easily snapped them in two it was obvious that they hadn’t strengthened 
like the rest of her body, but then again hair really wasn’t a muscle.  
Then, taking a moment to feel of one of the new hair strands, she noted it 
felt a good deal silkier, softer and smoother.  This got a grin from Kate as 
she wondered if her body was adapting so that she wouldn’t end up bald the 
first time something yanked her hair.  She curiously took hold of one of the 
hair strands and gave it a slight tug, readying herself for the slight pinch 
she would feel.  Finding that the thicker strand didn’t want to come out, 
Kate chuckled and gave it another, harder tug.  The moment the hair was 
removed Kate’s eyes nearly doubled in size as she felt a shard of pain shoot 
throughout her entire being.

Jack was normally a heavy sleeper, requiring a fairly loud alarm to wake him 
from his slumber.  That wouldn’t be a problem today.  His ears where pierced 
by Kate’s scream.  Kate, who normally had a fairly high pain tolerance, 
hadn’t been prepared to feel as if she had just torn off a layer of her 
skin.  Catching herself a moment too late, she took in a few sharp breaths 
and tried to relax herself.  She heard the sound of Jack scrambling towards 
her room.  "Kate, is something wrong?" he called out the moment he entered 
her bedroom.  He then ducked into the bathroom to see her standing there 
holding a single strand of hair in her hand.  "What happened?"

"I pulled one of hairs out."  Kate said this in the most serious tone she 
possibly could, giving Jack a look of utter shock.  The notion seemed silly 
compared to how loud she had been screaming only moments ago.  Slowly a grin 
broke on Jack’s face as he figured Kate was playing a joke on him, trying to 
see how fast he would rush to her aid.  The fact that he had done so was 
actually amusing, considering the difference in their abilities and the 
chances he would have against something that Kate was having trouble with.  
In his sleep-deprived and adrenaline-infused state, he found himself 
chuckling openly at the thought.  Kate, for her part, was blushing a bright 
crimson as she felt extremely silly.  "I'm serious Jack, it really hurt."

Jack continued to grin as he noted the strand that seemed to be the culprit. 
  "I guess we should punish it then."  Jack removed the strand of hair from 
Kate’s hand, still laughing lightly.  Taking it between his hands, he gave 
it a yank.  Nothing happened.  The look on his face got a grin from Kate as 
he began to struggle with the strand of hair.  A moment later he held it up 
to his eyes, getting a closer look at it.  He quickly noted that the strand 
of hair seemed thicker than average, though it still looked nice.  Slowly 
running it through his fingers, it didn’t take him long to guess at what was 
going on.  Kate’s body had been strengthening itself, after all; he couldn’t 
help but assume that it had adapted so that her hair would be proportionally 
strong to the rest of her.  "I guess we need to take a look at this."

"Glad you believe me now."  Jack nodded in agreement, thankful for the 
adrenaline that was currently running through his veins.  It had done a good 
job of waking him up, though he knew he would be feeling drained in three 
hours or so.  Deciding not to waste time, he headed out of the room and made 
his way to the basement.  Kate followed closely behind.  She looked around 
at the basement; it had begun to look less and less like a makeshift lab 
area and more like a professional testing center with the arrival of her new 
exercise equipment as well as the additional medical equipment Jack had 
requested.  The latter had already helped to deal with her strengthening 
skin, and had expanded greatly when Jack had learned how dangerous even her 
blood might be.

He had later told her that he was worried it could act like a virus, and 
pointed out the risk of such an event.  Kate recalled his test with the 
animal blood.  He had studied that one sample over the last seven weeks as 
well as additional samples, and learned several things about how Kate’s body 
worked.  He had found that her cells could attack any interloper, but they 
would not respond like a virus.  That is, if Kate’s cells were in the 
greatest number they destroyed and consumed any other organic material, 
while if they were in the lesser they seemed to kill themselves.  
Furthermore, even if they could survive outside her body they would not 
reproduce once removed from her.  It relaxed Kate a good deal no longer 
having to fear what would happen if her cells did form into a virus as Jack 
had mentioned.

The final limitation her cells seemed to put on themselves once removed from 
her was that they ceased to evolve.  Jack couldn’t help but think that this 
meant they required a stimulant to adapt, and that most likely came from 
Kate’s brain and desires.  While Jack was quite sure that Kate wouldn’t 
continue getting stronger if she quit exercising, he wasn’t sure what would 
happen if she didn’t want the strength in the first place.  That wasn’t a 
issue though, as Kate had no intention of stopping her exercise routine.

Now it seemed that her body had thrown her another curve ball.  She watched 
Jack set up the equipment and place the hair strand under a microscope.  
Jack felt a little odd as he began to study the hair, though he was curious 
why it had hurt Kate so much when she had pulled it out.  He figured it was 
because she hadn’t been ready for whatever pain it has caused her, thus she 
had reacted more strongly than if she'd been prepared for it.  Wandering 
back over to the computer screen, he brought up the image of Kate’s hair and 
began to look it over.  It didn’t take him long to figure out what had 
happened.  He leaned back in his seat.  "Hey Kate, have you ever torn off 
some living skin?"

"Well yeah, tends to happen when you're removing some dead skin from a bad 
sun burn and go a little too far."  Jack nodded as he pointed towards the 
screen.  It was strange, but despite the discovery Jack didn’t feel as 
shocked as he normally would have.  Working with Kate for nearly a year now 
had taught him to expect strange alterations within her body.  It was 
something that he was getting used to.

"The reason it hurt you so much when you tore out your hair strand, and the 
reason why I couldn’t break it in two, is because your hair is alive now."  
Kate blinked and walked over to the screen.  The cellular structure of 
Kate’s hair wasn’t overly complex but it was assuredly more so than normal.  
Jack decided to help illustrate this point by plucking one of his own hair 
strands and sliding it under the microscope with Kate’s.  He began to move 
it back and forth.  "You see, while my hair strand is dead and doesn’t hurt 
when I cut it, yours is alive.  I suppose this is your body’s way of 
strengthening it.  Still, kind of odd.  You'd think your body would take the 
simpler way and just make you bald."

Jack felt a bit of pain as Kate gave him a slight slap on the head, not 
enough to really hurt but he knew she didn’t like the comment.  He grinned 
at the thought of a bald Kate.  He didn’t find it too unpleasant, but he 
preferred her with her hair and was grateful her body was taking this route 
instead of the simpler one for once.  "Yeah, I guess that wouldn’t be too 
attractive.  Hmm, who knows, maybe your body is instinctively keeping its 
sex appeal."

"You really think that is the reason?  That my body is naturally following 
the concept of sex appeal while altering?"  Jack looked over his shoulder at 
Kate before turning his chair around completely.

"Sure, may be."  Kate suddenly moved forward, pressing her C-cup chest into 
his face.  Her breasts were firm but still quite pleasant to the touch, a 
fact that Jack had noticed several times when she happened to hug him but 
had yet to confirm directly with his hands.

"Then do you think these might get bigger?"  Kate giggled at the look on 
Jack’s face.  He actually had to push her back a bit to talk.  Kate let 
Jack’s hands push her back as she felt them pressing on her arms.

"I'm not so sure about that one.  After all, your body is also looking out 
for its own survival, and I'm not sure if you would be as effective of a 
fighter with a pair of DD’s out in front."  Kate sighed and pressed her 
hands up under her breasts, making them seem somewhat bigger.  She pouted as 
she felt herself up a bit, mostly for Jack’s enjoyment as his face remained 
very close to her chest.

"Oh poo.  Well, I guess you can have it all."  Jack smiled, and was suddenly 
lifted from his chair into Kate’s arms.

"Well now Cuddly, I think it's time for you to get back to bed.  I didn’t 
mean to wake you up, after all, and I don’t want you feeling drained later 
on today."  Jack grinned as Kate proceeded to carry him upstairs and back 
into his room, flipping off the lights as she went.  He didn’t expected what 
happened next.  Kate laid down in the bed and simply placed his body on top 
of her own, her arms wrapping around him.  He looked at her for a moment, 
knowing that she wouldn’t be tired for quite some time.  Kate grinned at 
Jack and rubbed the side of her cheek against the top of his head as she 
held him.

"You fall asleep quicker when I'm with you."  Jack grinned, realizing it was 
the truth.  Already he felt himself relaxing in Kate’s arms.  Considering 
the fact that it was still nighttime, it wasn’t overly surprising how 
quickly he felt himself drifiting off.  He noted how safe he felt with Kate 
around.  He didn’t like to think of himself as the type to hide behind 
another, but Kate’s warmth and the thought that she would protect him were 
both very relaxing.  A short while later Jack’s breathing slowed and his 
body became more relaxed as he drifted off to sleep.  Kate grinned, and 
reaching for his clock, set the alarm to go off two hours later.  Even if 
she had woken him up, she couldn't let him sleep in too late and have his 
sleeping habits messed up.

Kate easily lifted Jack’s sleeping form from the bed, stood up, and placed 
him back in it.  It was easy to move him without waking him, he simply felt 
so light.  Slipping out of the room, Kate sighed and ran her fingers through 
her hair.  "Well, I guess it beats having you torn out the first time I get 
into a major fight."

Slipping out of Jack’s room and back to her own, Kate proceeded to rummage 
through the drawers.  A few moments later she located the outfits that Jack 
had bought earlier.  Pulling out the gear that was originally meant for 
motorcycle racing, she looked it over for a moment.  She recalled why she 
had started using it recently.  The tough material was better able to handle 
the little nicks she took while running around; her softer outfits could 
simply get shredded by the branches.  Removing her t-shirt, she slipped 
herself into the outfit as she checked out the window to make sure that it 
was still dark out.  She had been going for her runs before sunrise to avoid 
prying eyes, her sleeping habits having changed so much over the past few 
weeks that she could easily run for a hour and still make it back two hours 
before Jack would be getting up.

Today she wouldn’t be making it back quite so soon, but there would still be 
time for a jog.  After zipping herself up, Kate proceeded into the living 
room and slipped on a pair of solid black running shoes.  She felt a need to 
have a word with Jack about style and point out she preferred white over 
black.  It was partly her fault though, Jack didn’t know what she would like 
and was probably going for functionality at the time.  Stepping outside, 
Kate filled her lungs with the clean mountain air and wondered how it would 
feel once she got back to the city.  A grin formed on her face as she 
wondered if her body had strengthened itself enough that she wouldn’t 
notice.  She was sure Jack would notice though; he seemed to have adapted to 
the mountain air.

Taking a few moments to stretch, Kate finally took off in a jog.  The sound 
of her feet striking against the ground and kicking up some dirt was quite 
audible.  Kate easily reached her jogging speed of 120mph.  While she could 
reach 160mph she had found that she could only hold such speeds for a 
limited amount of time, thus a slightly slower pace was better for a good 
workout.  As Kate sprinted down the hillside she couldn’t help but find it 
amusing how easily her eyes followed her own actions, especially considering 
how fast she was moving.  She saw things more quickly and yet she could make 
them out as clearly as ever while her legs quickly ate up the ground.  This 
had actually made Jack nervous when she mentioned it to him before, though 
it was necessary if she wanted to use her speed.  It meant that her brain 
was being altered as well to better process the information.

Kate had worried about this herself for a while but had to resolve there was 
little she could do about it.  Her thinking processes had remained the same, 
at least as far as she could tell.  Reaching the back roads, Kate grinned as 
she enjoyed her greater speed.  She didn’t have to worry about someone 
coming up from behind her, leaving what was in front of her as her only 
concern.  She did occasionally come up on someone, but they were easy enough 
to avoid.  If she couldn’t find a way around them she could always just turn 
around and go back the other way.  The times that someone was behind and in 
front of her, she could simply jump back into the woods and navigate along 
those paths.

As she moved along she found her mind returning to thoughts of her hair and 
what other changes her body might be going through.  Jack had mentioned that 
her body might be holding onto its sex appeal.  A part of her hoped it had 
reached that point of realization.  However, as she moved along she began to 
worry about the idea of her body thinking on its own.  Then again, Jack did 
mention that her cells ceased to function and change once removed from her.  
She only wished she knew if that was due to being removed from their native 
environment or if it was the link with her brain that mattered.

The sound of tires screeching against the pavement took Kate’s mind from 
these thoughts as she looked ahead.  At first she thought she had accidently 
run up on a driver and scared them, but as she looked ahead she knew that 
wasn’t the case.  An older model Ford was up ahead swerving dangerously from 
lane to lane.  As Kate got a little closer she could make out the back of 
the driver's and passenger's heads.  The two passengers seemed to be young 
teenagers, and judging from the way they were driving she resolved they were 
either drunk, getting there, or driving like idiots intentionally.  None of 
which were okay as far as Kate was concerned.  At first she considered 
pulling them over but quickly recalled she wasn’t a cop anymore.  As she 
considered her options a grin began to form on her face.  She quickly hopped 
into the trees and began to pass the vehicle.

A few moments later she jumped out from the woods and came to a dead stop.  
Taking a moment to brace herself so she wouldn’t simply be knocked away, she 
listened for the vehicle.  As the truck came around the corner Kate moved 
her legs a bit to get a firm grip on the ground.  She had chosen a curve 
with a good blind spot, and the driver noticed her too late to do anything 
about it.  The vehicle slammed into Kate.  Her feet dug into the ground; 
while the impact didn’t hurt her she still weighed only 180 lbs.  Kate felt 
her shoes being ground into the pavement as she was pushed back a bit, 
though the vehicle was still stopped rather quickly.  She felt the metal 
fold around her body after ripping through her clothing, then her feet 
finally left the ground.

Kate felt strangely odd as she was sent through the air.  Her body slammed 
into a tree but didn’t hurt in the least.  As she came to a stop she slowly 
stood up and lightly dusted herself off before checking out the vehicle.  
The damage was significant, but she didn’t think she had totaled it, thanks 
to its sturdy build.  This actually disappointed her a bit, but she wasn't 
about to use her hands to damage the vehicle further.  At the moment she had 
been hit she had been a pedestrian, giving her the right of way.  A grin 
formed on her lips as she made her way over to the vehicle and saw the pair 
moving inside.  She was quite sure they were both fairly sauced.  Kate 
snorted in contempt.  Even without having spent a good deal of time as a 
cop, drunk driving was one thing she completely abhorred.

"Oh, the insurance company is going to love you two I bet.  That is, if you 
have any."  The two men looked over at the woman who was now standing beside 
the vehicle.  They seemed to be in a daze, thanks to the impact and the 
alcohol in their systems.  Kate reached through the open window and shut off 
the engine for them.  The passenger had a nice bump on his head but Kate 
doubted the damage was permanent.  Though she was unsure if she really 
cared; after all, they had hit her.  This instantly got a giggle from Kate.  
She looked around and resolved that she needed to move the vehicle out of 
the road.

Taking hold of the vehicle, Kate lifted it from the ground and proceeded to 
move towards the roadside.  Setting the vehicle down and tossing the keys in 
the back seat, she figured they could find them when they were sober enough 
to see straight.  Deciding not to stick around too long, Kate took back off 
towards the house.  This was one of those things she wasn’t going to mention 
to Jack.  As Kate ran along she resolved she would have to find a better way 
to brace herself for impacts in the future.  While that had been fun, she 
hadn’t managed to remain as inexorably immobile as she had wanted to.  As 
Kate made it home she wondered what the two men would end up telling their 
insurance company.  She imagined if they were smart they would simply say 
they had hit a deer or some other animal.

She wasn’t really sure if they would even recall what they had hit, 
considering they state they had been in.  Kate quickly trotted back inside, 
a wide grin upon her lips as she made her way to her room.  Looking in the 
mirror, she took note of the damage the crash had done to her clothing and 
shoes.  As she removed her shoes she resolved they were still in good shape 
and could be used for a while longer.  Her jogging outfit, on the other 
hand, was a complete wreck.  She removed it.  Tossing the clothing in the 
trash, she was glad she had more then one outfit; she wouldn’t need to 
mention it to anyone for quite some time.  Even if Jack did notice, she 
could simply explain that she had slipped while jogging along the highway.

Donning normal clothing, she found herself debating a return trip to the 
city.  It had been nearly a year since they'd left and she had gone from 
athletic to superhuman in that time.  Also she found herself feeling a 
stronger and stronger desire to put her powers to use as they grew.  What 
she had done only a few minutes ago was proof enough of that.  The impulse 
to demonstrate her abilities was getting stronger and she was having trouble 
keeping them within the confines of the house.  Flexing her arm, she sighed, 
stood up and began to make her way to the basement.  She felt a need to burn 
off some energy with the new equipment.  As Kate made her way downstairs she 
looked at the machinery and felt a surge of pride and flexed again.  "Girl, 
you are becoming a power addict."  The jest from her own lips betrayed how 
much she enjoyed flaunting her power.

She felt a little guilt as she realized that her decision to have the truck 
slam into her wasn’t purely moral.  It had also been due to a heavy dose of 
ego and her desire to flaunt her own abilities.  Thoughts of what she might 
start doing as she grew more powerful both excited and troubled her.  She 
didn’t like the idea of being owned by the power, after all.  Closing her 
eyes, Kate made a resolution to herself.  "Twelve more weeks.  One year of 
development, that's all."  Kate then proceeded to type a few numbers into a 
keypad on the new barbell.  At least that's what Kate considered it; it was 
really a hydraulic press.  Setting the machine to exert 5 tons of pressure, 
she made herself comfortable and pressed up on the bar. The computer, 
registering the act, instantly began to apply the pressure.  Kate slowly 
lowered the bar and then easily pushed it back up.  Looking at the computer 
screen for a moment, she moved the bar into a secure position before adding 
another 2/5 of a ton to the total weight.

End Chapter: 2