Second Puberty (Part 14)

[Jaypat]

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-FOURTEEN-

The truck lurched quite a bit as it rolled along. And since I was chained spread eagle inside it, I swayed with every bump the vehicle hit. I started to feel queasy but mercifully, my stomach appeared to be empty. But nausea wasn’t my only problem; I was starting to get scared. The longer I had to hang in the dark and think, the more convinced I became that I was going to be killed.

The truck lurched to a stop. My heart leapt to my throat. But then we started moving again. I could tell from the movement we were backing up and turning. In a moment we had stopped again. I heard the driver’s side door open and shut, and then the footsteps of the old guy as he approached the rear of the truck. I felt panic rising as he opened the large doors and the sunlight streamed in. For a second everything was a white blur. When my eyes adjusted I could see we were at a motel. The rear of the truck was facing a row of numbered doors and curtained windows. I wondered what was going on.

The old guy was just standing there, regarding me with cold eyes. After a moment, he sat down on the rear of the truck and lit up a cigarette.

“Just tell me one thing, kid,” he said, not even looking at me. “Why did you do it?”

“Do what? I haven’t done anything.”

“Why did you let him activate you?”

“Activate me? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Like hell you don’t. You couldn’t look like that unless he activated you. Don’t try to tell me he did it in secret.”

“You’re not making any sense. Who did what in secret?”

“Bra—oh wait a minute, what’s he calling himself now… Oh yeah, Grant.” He kind of half chuckled. “Professor Grant, what a ludicrous name.”

Suddenly I realized he was right. Grants were something professors—real professors—were after all the time. It was an obviously fake name. Why hadn’t I seen it? But there were larger issues now. “You’re saying Professor Grant activated me? What does that mean?”

He turned and looked at me closely, examining my face carefully, kind of the way a biologist looks through a microscope.

“You really don’t know, do you?”

I shook my head.

“He must have given you something, a shot, maybe, or a pill, or some kind of liquid. You might have even absorbed it through your skin. That was always a favorite trick of his.”

The light dawned, and I’m sure it showed in my face because the old guy smiled. It was not a pretty sight. “Through the skin? What did you think it was, moisturizer?”

“No, he told me he was inducing my second puberty.”

“You shouldn’t have let him, kid.”

“Why? What difference does it make? It would have happened eventually anyway.”

“Is that what he told you?”

Of course that’s what he told me. What kind of question was that, unless…“You mean he lied?”

The old guy laughed heartily; it was not a nice sound. “God, was I ever that young?” he said to himself. “Yes, kid, he lied.”

“You mean if he had never… activated me… I wouldn’t have grown at all?”

“No, you wouldn’t have grown.”

“Ever?”

“Ever. You could have led a nice quiet, normal life, never knowing there was anything different about you. But now…”

“What about now? Why is now so different, just because I got a little bigger?”

He looked at me with that microscope look again. “He really didn’t tell you anything, did he?”

I shook my head. I would have shrugged, but the chains made it impossible.

“Kid, you are now the biggest danger to the human race since the invention of the atomic bomb.”

Was he serious? Unless… “What? You mean… I’m going to explode?”

“No, for fuck’s sake, you’re not going to explode.” Thank God. Then what…? Unless… “Professor Grant lied again. I am going to get Godzilla-big.”

“No, that’s not it either… Wait a minute.”

I could hear a car coming. The old guy climbed in the truck with me and pulled the doors nearly closed. He only left a crack so he could peek through it. I heard a car door open and then close, foot steps, a key in a door. Then the old guy threw open the door and leapt out. I heard a brief struggle and then the old guy came back into view, forcing Professor Grant in front of him by twisting his arm behind his back. The Professor took one look at me and all the fight ran out of him.

“You got him,” he said.

“That’s right, Milton, its over.”

“What are you going to do?”

“What do you think?”

The Professor sighed. “Get it over with then.”

The old guy sighed. “Not yet. They wanted me to call in as soon as I had the both of you.” He forced the Professor into the truck with me. “But before I do, I think you should tell him why this is happening.”

“He knows why this is happening.”

“Not your goddamn fairy story, the truth.”

“The truth is you’re too ignorant and backwards to see the future when it’s staring you in the face,” he shouted, gesturing at me.

“He’s not my future, nor that of any other human being.”

“He is a human being!” The professor shouted so loud he almost turned blue.

“That always was your argument, but you’ll never convince me.”

I guess I should have been insulted, the way they were talking about me as though I wasn’t even there. But to tell you the truth, I was riveted. I couldn’t move. Ok, I was chained. But if I wasn’t chained, I still wouldn’t have been able to move.

“Go on, tell him. Tell him what he really is.”

“He knows what he is.”

“How about his reproductive system? Did you tell him all about that?”

“You mean the amped up pheromones and libido?” I asked, now so interested I temporarily forgot my life was in imminent danger of ending.

The professor gestured at me as if to say, “See?”

“That’s just the beginning. Does he know the rest?”

The professor looked uncomfortable.

“I didn’t think so,” said the old guy. “Tell him.”

“Tell me what?”

The professor looked like he would have done anything to be anywhere else, but I could tell he knew he was trapped. When he finally spoke, he was looking at the ground.

“It’s your sperm. I sort of amped that up, too.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“All spermicides endemic to the female reproductive system will be totally ineffective against it.”

“And that’s not all, is it?” prompted the old guy.

“No,” said the professor. “Your sperm is a kind of—how can I put this—hunter/killer. It will seek out the egg, no matter where it is in the female reproductive cycle, and fertilize it.”

I was in shock. “But that means…”

“That’s right, kid,” said the old man, “every time you sleep with a girl, she gets pregnant. Every time.”

Oh my God, Veronica. It was all I could do, to keep a calm face. Inside I was freaking. Veronica was going to have my kid! I was going to be a father and Veronica was going to be a mother and we were both still in high school and what the hell were we going to do?

But I knew I couldn’t let on. I knew Veronica’s life probably depended on it as did my unborn kid. Oh my fucking God, I was going to have a kid!”

The old guy obviously suspected something because he gave me that microscope look again and asked, “You haven’t slept with any girls in the past four days, have you?”

Time to go for the Oscar. “I wish.” I held my breath as I looked him in the eye, trying my hardest to look truthful, whatever that looked like. I thought I was going to explode. Waiting for his verdict was the most stressful sixty seconds of my life. It felt like an hour. Finally he gave a noncommittal grunt and turned back to the professor.

“Tell him the rest.”

The rest? There was more?

But the Professor just stared at the ground and refused to say anything.

“Fine, I’ll tell him,” said the old guy. “If you ever had started a family, the little woman would have been very unhappy if she had any hopes Junior would look like her dad. Because any kid you might have had, would’ve looked exactly like you.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Your genetic information would have been dominant in any offspring,” said the professor, finally speaking up.

“You mean they would have been like clones?” I asked.

“No, no,” said the professor, “that would cause some very unhealthy genetic degradation down the line. Not to mention they would all be boys. They would still have a fifty/fifty gene split between you and your mate and the usual boy/girl ratio. Your genes would just have been dominant.”

“And any offspring his kids might have had?” asked the old guy.

“The genetically enhanced genes would always have been passed on and have been dominant,” said the professor.

“You mean they’d all have had to be activated.”

“No, only the first generation, you, has that failsafe.”

“Are you getting this yet, kid?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “It sounds like my decedents are going to look just like me. So what?”

“Think about it, kid. Soon there’s going to be a whole sub-race of guys who are seven feet tall, weigh five hundred pounds and are as smart as Einstein.”

I wanted to point out that I wasn’t seven feet tall—at least not yet—but I decided that was a detail that could probably go unmentioned. As smart as Einstein? If I hadn’t been in mortal peril, I might have blushed. “It doesn’t sound like a problem to me.”

“Well, it would have been a problem, one hell of a problem. We would have eventually had one hell of a war on our hands; the new race verses the old race, and in that conflict, the old race, my race, would eventually be destroyed or enslaved.”

“Pure speculation,” sputtered the professor. “That’s pure speculation. The so-called new race would have, over time, over a lot of time, simply replaced the so-called old race as it slowly died out.”

“Died out?” I cried. “What you mean completely?”

“He means completely,” said the old guy. “The end of the human race, and it all starts with you.”

Holy crap! He was right. I was a danger to the human race, far worse than the atomic bomb. What could I do? What should I do?

“Time for me to make that phone call,” said the old guy and he closed the door. “Don’t go anywhere,” I heard him say as he locked the door and left.

It was pitch dark again. I wanted to speak but I was so mad and confused and frightened all at once, I didn’t know what to say.

“How you doing, kid?” I heard the professor ask.

‘How am I doing? I’m chained spread eagle inside a fucking truck, about to die, and I just found out I’m the antichrist! How do you think I’m doing?”

“I’d say we’ve both had better days.”

“None of this would have happened if you had just left me alone.”

“Is that what you would have wanted?” I felt him grab my leg. “You like being big, don’t you?” Ok, he had me there.

“Well… yeah.”

“Of course you do; who wouldn’t? So, tell me, if you had it to do all over again, if you could magically take yourself back to last Monday, knowing what you know now, would you have let me activate you, or would you have stayed the short, skinny kid on the fast track for Princeton?”

“I don’t want to die. And I don’t want to destroy the human race either.”

“Yeah, well, just for the moment, forget about the whole death thing.”

“The whole death thing is kind of important.”

“Yeah, I know, but just say, you know, no one was going to die.”

I thought for a moment. “If no one was going to die, I’d take the second puberty, no contest.”

“So, what I did for you wasn’t so bad, since you’d have chosen it anyway.”

“If no one was going to die.”

“We always seem to come back to that, don’t we?”

“Well, as I said, it’s kind of important.”

“You can’t stop death, kid.”

“I don’t want to cause it either. Why did you do it? Why do you want to destroy the human race?”

“Kid, I don’t want to destroy the human race; I want to improve it. You are human. You’re every bit as human and I am, as he is, as anybody is. It’s not a question of my race or your race, it’s all the same race.”

I really had to give him that one, because try as I might, I couldn’t quite accept the idea that I wasn’t human.

“You’re just the next evolutionary step, that’s all.”

“This isn’t evolution. Evolution is natural.”

“What’s unnatural about this? We’ve reached a point where we are smart enough to control our own genetic make up. Isn’t the next logical step to use that knowledge to improve ourselves?”

He had a point.

“You’ve seen the inequities of life, how some people are born larger, and some people are born smarter, and some with horrible disabling genetic diseases?”

I nodded.

“It doesn’t have to be like that. We could have a world where everyone is strong and healthy and intelligent. The only thing stopping us is people like that,” he said pointing back toward the truck door the old guy had disappeared through.

The professor’s plan sounded pretty good, but I couldn’t quite forget the Armageddon scenario the old guy had painted. “But he’s got a point,” I said, unable to believe I was about to argue the merits of my own execution. “The strong tend to pick on the weak. That war he described could happen pretty easily.”

“That’s the debate, kid. It’s been pretty much the same for the last twenty years. We were divided. Half of us thought you were the answer to world peace, the other half thought you represented the end.”

“Who won?”

“No one. That’s the problem. It’s still going on. If I hadn’t activated you, I’d have lost by default.”

“I don’t understand.”

“If you weren’t activated by the time you turned 18, you never could be. You’d have spent the rest of your life as that puny little smart guy.”

Hey, I liked the puny little smart guy… but I had to admit, I liked the massive smart guy a lot better.

“So you activated me, even though you weren’t supposed to.”

“Damn right, I did. High time we gave evolution a little jump start.”

“You’re not worried about a war?”

“The more I get to know you, the less I worry about a war.”

“You don’t really know me at all. If you knew what I was dong an hour ago, you probably wouldn’t say that.”

I was startled as the door flew open again, and the truck was flooded with blinding daylight. The old guy was back and he looked pissed.

“I don’t know how you did it, but you won’t get away with it,” he said.

“What, you think I’ve been sitting on my ass for the past fifteen years?” sneered the Professor. “I’ve made a few new friends.”

“I’ve already got the holes dug; they never would have found you.”

“Sorry, you wasted your time.”

“Sorry? Yeah you’re going to be sorry alright.” And he slammed the door shut again. In a moment we heard the engine start up and the truck began to move.

“What’s going on?” asked the Professor. “He was supposed to release us.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course, I’m sure. It was all arranged.”

“And you didn’t tell me?”

“If I told you, Vic might have found out, and if Vic had found out, he might have finished us before he made the phone call.”

“Apparently, he’s going to finish us anyway.”

“Not if you can help it.”

“What?”

“Do you want to live?”

I opened my mouth to say, “of course,” but paused before I formed the words. Fifteen minutes ago, the answer would have been easy, but now… well, now it wasn’t. What would my survival mean for the world? A whole new breed of human? Was that a good thing? Or would it just divide us further, cause more strife, more suffering. And then I realized the choice had already been taken out of my hands. Veronica was pregnant. The new genetic line would survive weather I died today or not. And if I died, I would have no further part in shaping the future. Vic’s war could happen, but it mustn’t be allowed to happen. If I lived, I might be able to help prevent it; in fact, I would do my best to make sure it never did. “Yes, I want to live,” I said.

“Good,” said the Professor and then I felt the touch of one of his medicated pads.

“Vic never did have much imagination or he would have worked out what these were.”

“What did you just do?” I could feel my temperature rising even as I asked the question.

“I gave you a little boost. Now be a good boy, and break yourself out of there.”

And then I felt it, like an adrenalin rush only a thousand times more powerful. I felt it in my arms, in my legs, in every muscle of my body. It was like pure strength; I was saturated with it, and it was overwhelming me, but it was so awesome, so intoxicating, I willingly gave myself over to it. The animal part of me began to well up. My mind was still there, but it was subdued by the intense feeling of incredible physical power I was experiencing. It was like my muscles had completely taken over, like that was all there was to me now, just heaving, bulging, pulsing, stony orbs of pure power; power was all that mattered, all I needed, all I wanted. I felt it all through me and it was glorious. I was huge, unstoppable, a fucking force of nature, and I fucking loved it. I made a noise. It was low and guttural.

“Stop grunting and get busy breaking those chains.”

I looked down and dimly saw the professor standing there, but he wasn’t really registering as the professor, just some annoying pest bugging me, like an insect. I reached out to knock him away, but my arms were caught. I remembered the chains and I got mad. I pulled and pulled on them but they wouldn’t give. I began to strain against them, giving it everything I had and then a little more. I felt the blood rushing to my muscles as I demanded all they had to give. They bulged up and up until they reached their limit. I could feel my face turning red, the veins standing out on my neck. It was starting to hurt, but I was using my power, and I fucking loved it. It was what I was born to do, what I lived for.

But even though I strained and strained, I wasn’t making any progress against the chains.

Then my body started to react to the demands I was putting on it in an unexpected manor: it began to grow. My massive rock hard muscles, already pumped to the limit, were starting to expand. And as I realized it, I was flooded with a savage animalistic joy. More strength, more power, I pulled harder and harder, harnessing my increasing force as soon as it was available to me. And as I bulged more and more, I felt the chains finally begin to give. At first only a little, but as I continued to heave and pull and grow, they stretched more and more, until I finally heard the metallic clang of a link snapping, then another.

My arms were free. I lost no time in starting in on the leg irons, pulling, heaving, snap.
In a moment I was free. I was still trailing chains but no longer pinioned by them. Then I saw the pest.

“Attaboy,” it said, “I knew you could do it, now come back to me, come on, son.” It reached out to me and brushed me and then my head started to clear. It was the professor and I was in a truck on the way to my own execution.

“What the hell did you do to me?”

“I gave you a little adrenalin boost, and at the same time, shut down your higher brain functions.”

“What the fuck did you do that for?”

“So you could break out of those chains.”

“The growth alone could have done that.”

“You didn’t grow. I couldn’t risk it. You’ve already grown too much in too short a time.”

“But I did grow.”

“No, you didn’t. That was your subconscious playing tricks on you.”

“Then how did I break the chains?”

“You could always have broken those chains, for God’s sake. I mean, look at you.”

“No. I tried. They were too strong.”

“That was your mind talking. It hasn’t caught up with what your body can do yet. It was convinced the chains were too strong, and so your body behaved accordingly. Once your mind was shut off, your body was free to do its thing and you broke the chains.”

“I don’t buy it. I must have grown. Those four cheeseburgers must have finally kicked in.”

The professor sighed. “Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. You broke the chains. That’s what counts. Now we have to get out of here.”

“Let me see what I can do.” I flexed my arms. I really couldn’t see them too well, but I could sure as hell feel them, two titanium hard boulders rising up on my arms. They were spectacular. I figured it was about time my body started educating my mind as to what it could do. I walked to the rear of the truck and checked out the doors; they were steel, obviously locked from the other side. Let’s see what I can do. I slammed the left door with my fist. It buckled. Solid steel and it buckled like aluminum can. I was so fucking strong now. One more punch and it shot out of its frame and went bouncing down the highway behind us. Fuck Yeah!

There was plenty of light now. I looked down on those fucking pile drivers I liked to call arms, and smiled. They were so fucking massive and powerful, I couldn’t fucking believe it. I started to get hard, but this was definitely not the time. We were on the highway, going about sixty mph. I thought about jumping. I might survive, but the professor, no way. There was only one solution: the truck had to stop.

I was still dragging chains. No matter what I planned to do, I knew I would probably have to lose those first. They still looked too big to break, but I’d already done it once. I had to be able to do it again. I sat down on the floor and began to pull. I strained and I strained.

“You want another dose?” asked the professor.

“No. Never do that to me again.”

“You didn’t like it?”

“No. I think I liked it too much.” It was a bizarre, overwhelming feeling of pure animal power. But I was not an animal. And now, more than ever, I could not allow myself to go there. “Don’t alter my state of mind again, without asking first. It creeps me out.”

“Suit yourself.”

I went back to the chain. It took all my concentration and will power. Veins were sticking out. Every single muscle I had was bulging to its limit. Fuck, I wish I had a mirror. No, there would be time for that later, if I survived this. I pulled and pulled and just when I thought my veins would explode from the effort, I felt the link begin to stretch; millimeter by millimeter it began to distort. Fuck, I was doing it! I was bending this monster chain! I got hard. I couldn’t help myself. And suddenly the link snapped and I fell backwards from the sudden release. I sat up and looked at the mangled chain. Fuck yeah! Time to do it again. I repeated the process with the chains on my other wrist and ankles, but I left the manacles in place. There was something about having rings of steel wrapped around my gigantic wrists and ankles; I liked the way they looked. It was hot.

You’d think after all that exertion I’d be tired, but hell no. I was just getting warmed up. To stop the truck I would need to get into the cab. There was no access way that led from the cargo area to the cab, so I figured the best thing to do would be to smash right through the front wall. But could I do it? I decided to test it. I went to the side of the truck and let fly with my fist. It went right through, just like it had been cardboard. Next stop: the cab.
I marched to the front of the truck and got ready to pound a hole through to the cab.

“He’s bound to be armed,” said the professor.

“Then you’d better get down,” I said. The professor got down on his stomach and assumed a duck and cover positions like you see in those old ‘50’s movies. I tired to guess where Vic’s head might be and aimed my blow to strike there. With luck I would knock him out right away and there wouldn’t be any gunfire.

Bam! My hand shot right through the wall. Bang! There was a muffled explosion as another section of the wall was blasted away. AH! I felt a searing agony in my shoulder. I threw myself into the corner. Damn! He was faster than I thought. He must have shot back through the wall. And he hit me. I was bleeding. My shoulder was mass of blood. Nothing I had ever experienced had hurt this much. I tried to see back into the cab but I couldn’t from the corner. I wondered where he was and what he was doing. He was probably trying to figure out where I was—and he was probably a hell of a lot better at that game then I was—which means—

I ducked just as the wall where my head used to be exploded into a million shards. I quickly jumped up and looked back through the hole. His gun—it actually looked more like a pocket sized missile launcher—was aimed right at me. But at that instant, he was facing the road, trying to drive with one hand. I grabbed the gun and tried to rip it out of his hand. But with my injured shoulder, it didn’t prove as easy as I thought. He fired again, but I was able to deflect the projectile—I couldn’t really call it a bullet—away from me. Kablam! It blew a hole in the ceiling. Daylight streamed in. What ever happened I couldn’t let go of the gun but damn, it burned my hand as I tightened my hold on the barrel.

Bang! He let off another shot. It went wild but I thought the fucking gun was going to burn right through my fucking hand. I had to get that gun away from him. I smashed through the wall with my other fist and grabbed his head. My hand was so massive, it wrapped all the way around to his face. I felt him bite me, but that wasn’t anything compared to the other pains I was experiencing. The truck began to swerve. No wonder. I was pretty sure I was covering his eyes. He clutched at my hand with his steering wheel hand and the truck swerved some more.

“I crash this truck and we’re all going to die,” he said.

“And if you don’t crash this truck, only me and the professor will die,” I said. “You’ll have to do better than that.”

“Sorry, kid, no deals.”

“Then I’ll take my chances with the crash.”

“Fine. Have it your way.” And I felt the truck swerve violently. I let go of his head and grabbed the wheel. I tried to straighten the truck out by feel but it really wasn’t working. Only one thing to do; I tensed my neck and rammed my head into the truck wall. As I hoped it smashed its way right through into the cab. I couldn’t believe I had actually smashed through a wall with my head. I looked up and suddenly I could see. The only problem was I didn’t like what I could see. A great big semi was barreling right towards us. I heard his horn bellow as I tried to swerve the truck out of his way. He swerved at the same time and it looked like we were going to collide for sure. Suddenly he started to jackknife. His ass end was swinging across the highway blocking it completely. There was no way to avoid him now. The best I could do was try to side swipe him. At least it would be better than hitting him head on.

I pulled on the wheel. Vic tried to force the wheel back, but he was no match for me. I held us on our course until about two seconds before impact. Then I let go, pulled myself back into the cargo area, grabbed the professor and kind of wrapped myself around him. I felt the jolt of impact almost immediately and I was knocked up to the ceiling and then back to the floor. A huge gash was opening up in the side of the truck. Suddenly the professor and I were tumbling out of the rear of the truck and on to the road. I bounced a couple of times. I could feel my skin being scraped off as we slid along the asphalt and finally came to a stop at the side of the road.

I looked back over at the truck. It looked half crushed and half melded into the side of the semi. I unwrapped myself from the professor. There was a lot of blood, but I realized it was all mine. The professor seemed a little bruised and a little shaken, but otherwise unharmed.

I heard a great groaning, creaking noise. I turned back and saw the semi on the verge of toppling over. It was about to crush the truck. Vic was still in the truck. My first thought was serves him right. But then I realized I had to save him. If I sat there and watched him die when I might be able to save him, he would become the first casualty in the war; the war which I would have started by letting him die.

I got up and started toward the truck. I wanted to run but I was in a lot more pain than I had realized at first. My shoulder was a ball of agony and I wasn’t sure there was any skin left on my back. I was starting to feel a little weak; I guessed it was all the blood I’d lost. But I had to hurry. The semi was about to go.

I staggered toward the truck as fast as I could. When I got there, I didn’t waste anytime. I grabbed the door handle with my good arm and pulled. It was jammed. I yanked as hard as I could and the door ripped right off the truck. Damn, I still couldn’t believe I was doing these things. But the cab was empty. There was no sign of Vic. Somehow he had gotten out. I looked up just in time to see the semi coming down on me. Instinctively I reached up with my arms to catch it and try to keep it from crushing me. Fuck! It was heavy. I was straining as hard as I could. I was slowing its progress but it was still relentlessly pushing me down. I was starting to get dizzy and light headed. But I realized if I let this thing come down on me it would probably kill me. I didn’t want to die. In fact, I would do anything to keep it from happening. I’m not sure what happened next. Maybe there was some of that stuff the professor gave me still in my system. Maybe it was the self preservation instinct. Maybe it was even those four cheeseburgers I had for lunch, but I felt that rush of pure power again. Only this time my mind didn’t shut down. My muscles, straining to their limit, seemed to meet the challenge by getting stronger. It was like the more I pushed, the stronger I got. And I liked getting stronger. I began to push, not caring about anything but the feel of my huge arms straining against the unimaginable weight of the semi, drawing power from the crushing force. My legs as they struggled to keep me upright, nearly bucking under the pressure, all the time, gaining more ground, growing more powerful. All other pain vanished. My world now consisted only of my straining, massive muscles and the gargantuan semi bearing down on them. Soon the semi’s downward journey had stopped. I was actually holding it up. Holy Fuck! I was holding up a semi! With that moment of joy, my concentration slipped and the gigantic truck stated coming down again. Quickly I drew my mind back to my muscles and their struggle and soon, not only was I holding it in place, but I was starting to push it back up. Slowly inch by inch, foot by foot, I managed to push the semi back onto its wheels. Fuck! I did it.

I looked up at the truck and grinned. Damn, I was strong. Suddenly the semi shifted. It looked like it might fall again. I got the hell out of there. It was kind of a rush lifting that thing once, but I was in no hurry to do it again.

As I made my way back toward the professor, I noticed a lot of cars had stopped and pulled to the side. The professor was on a cell phone. He must have borrowed it.

The pain of my injuries was coming back now, and something more, a kind of profound fatigue. I guess lifting that semi had put more of a strain on me than I realized. As I got to the professor, I sat down on the ground. Things were starting to spin. The professor looked down at me and I could see the concern in his face.

“Don’t worry, kid,” he said, “It’s over now. Everything’s going to be ok. You’re in good hands.”

That was a relief to know. Suddenly, I was lying down. I didn’t remember lying down, but now I was looking up at the sky and the clouds. My mind started to drift, and in a moment everything had faded to black.

***

My eye fluttered open and I looked around. I had no idea where I was. It was a bedroom, a very nice bedroom; large with richly shaped, wooden furniture, woven carpets on hard wood floors, fresh cut flowers in a window that over looked a rolling lawn, now brown with the autumn. There was obviously a lot of money in this place. I sat up and for the first time noticed the electrodes taped to my chest. I was hooked up to a heart monitor. I was not wearing a shirt. I lifted up the covers. I was not wearing anything else either.

Fine with me. I stretched and flexed, forcing my massive biceps to pop up and say good morning. Oddly enough there was no stiffness or pain. Shouldn’t there have been?

I let my eyes run down the rolling landscape of my chest and abdomen. I caught sight of the mole I had always had on the upper right side of my stomach. If it hadn’t been for that, I might have thought I was looking at someone else’s body. I was just one mass of ripped, enormous muscles, which I watched undulate under my skin at my slightest movement, and if I flexed they bulged up like they wanted to burst right out of my skin. I started to get hard and watched my manhood swell up to a new and unprecedented size. I guess it went well with the rest of me. Suddenly I heard a loud blipping noise coming from the heart monitor. My heart rate and gone up. I guess that went hand in hand with the hard-on.

The door burst open and in came a nurse. I yanked the covers back over myself, but there was no way to hide my state of mind. I was looking at the granddaddy of all pop up tents. I quickly rolled on to my side, but there was no way she didn’t notice.

“Don’t worry about it, sweetie,” she said, “it happens to all guys two or three times a night, while they sleep. Besides, I’m a nurse. There isn’t anything you’ve got I haven’t already had a good, long look at.” The way she said it, I could tell she had enjoyed her good, long look.

I started to take a good look at the nurse. She was cute. No, she was beyond cute. Early twenties, short, bobbed blond hair, rich brown eyes, pouty lips and her uniform was tightly cut to show off her curves, and man did she have some curves. I soon realized my hard-on wasn’t going away anytime soon.

“Where am I?” I asked.

“So you can talk,” she smiled. Wow, she had a great smile. “I better get the professor.” She unattached the electrodes from my chest. As she touched my naked chest I felt a thrill run up and down my spine and I could see my pecs twitch involuntarily under my skin. I could tell she was enjoying that, too.

“I’ll be right back,” she said, and disappeared through the door.

In a moment the door opened again and the professor came in.

“Good morning, kid; how are you feeling?”

“Great!” I said. “But I shouldn’t be, should I?”

“We induced a small growth spurt to help the healing process along. Worked better than I thought. You’re almost as good as new.”

“A growth spurt? How much?”

“Very minor, no more than ten pounds, no change in height.”

“Where am I?”

“This is a facility owned by my employers.”

“And they would be…?”

“A consortium of biotech firms. They think they’re going to make a killing off of you, or rather the process that created you. They plan to market it. You know, have your own super kid. But with all the laws that need to be passed and the clearances that have to be gotten, it’ll be decades before they can do it. Still, it’ll buy us the time we need to get the evolution ball rolling.”

Hmm, the evolution thing again. I still wasn’t sure how I felt about that. “I want to go home.”

The professor stirred in his chair. “Ah, probably not a good idea. Vic is still out there. He’s been listed as a rogue agent and they’re looking for him, but for the time being, it’s best if you stay here and keep a low profile.”

“What about school?”

“We’ve already arranged a private tutor. You can finish high school here.” That might actually be a good thing. I was freaking people out before my last mega growth spurt, I can only imagine how they’d react to me now.

“What about Princeton?”

“It’s still October. You’re not expected at Princeton until a year from next August. I’m sure they’ll have caught up with Vic by then.”

“What about my family and friends?” To say nothing about Veronica. I hadn’t told the professor about her and I wasn’t about to. I still didn’t really trust him.

“Well, it’s probably better for them if you stayed away, at least while Vic is still at large. Don’t even let them know where you are.”

“Do they have any idea what happened, that I’m alright?”

“I contacted them and told them you were alright. I’m not sure they believed it though.”

“Can I talk to them?”

“I’m sure we can arrange something.”

The door opened and the nurse came back in. “I’m sorry, professor, but its time for his sponge bath.” Sponge bath? I felt myself growing hard again.

“Just give us another few minutes, dear,” he answered. She smile and closed the door again. “She’s something isn’t she?”

I nodded.

“And if you like her, wait till you see the night nurse.” Then it hit me.

“I’m perfectly ok,” I said. “I don’t need a sponge bath. You want me to have sex with the nurses!”

The professor looked a little embarrassed. “Only if you want to.”

“Of course I want to,” I said, “Isn’t that how you designed me? Except, my desire doesn’t stop with women. I bet you didn’t plan that.”

“Ah… no. We didn’t fully understand what we were doing and when we cranked up your libido, I guess we made it all encompassing. Apparently the same thing happened with your pheromones.”

“How many other unexpected surprises have there been?"

“A few,” he said. “But this isn’t really the time and place to go into that.” He stood up. “Well, I’ve got to get going. Plenty to do. Should I send the nurse in?”

“If I have sex with her, she’ll get pregnant.”

“That’s true and she knows it. She also knows that if she does get pregnant, we’ll take good care of her and her baby. Both of them will be very important to us, and to what we hope to achieve. They’ll have nothing but the best for the rest of their lives. Not a bad deal all the way around.” It did sound pretty good. I guessed I’d better decide about the whole evolution thing. It was going to happen. Veronica’s pregnancy pretty much guaranteed it. And I guessed it’d be pretty selfish not to pass on a mind and body like mine.

“Will I be able to see the kid?”

The professor smiled. “As much as you want.”

“Then I’d say I need a bath.”

The professor left and the nurse came back. She wheeled in a large tub of steaming water and a sponge. I could feel myself rising to the occasion. It looked like the professor’s brave new world was on its way.

Well, one thing was certain: when absolutely everyone was built like me, high school wouldn’t be hell anymore.



Two months later…



I sat on the bus looking out the window at the passing buildings. It felt good to get out of that place, if only for a few hours. It’s not that it was unpleasant there. I had everything I could want. There was even an Xbox and a Wii. Not that I had much time for them. The tutors there were working me like a dog. They seemed determined to get me through my Junior year of high school by New Years. I asked the professor about it and he would only say he might have a job for me after New Years, one that I was uniquely suited for. I couldn’t get anymore out of him than that, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t figure out what it might be.

The bus pulled to a stop and I checked my Google map. Yup, this was it. My destination was only a block away. I got up and exited by the side door. I tried to slouch a little to hide my true height. Vic was still out there, and venturing out into the public view meant risking discovery. At six foot eight, I was pretty conspicuous, especially with my build. But they had tailored a coat for me that looked bulky, but it really wasn’t—all the bulk was me. Good thing it was winter. Of course this plan had one flaw and as I stepped off the bus it hit me with the first blast of cold air. The coat wasn’t very warm.

I quickly made my way down the street. Too bad the bus didn’t stop closer. I had to take the bus because the professor made it perfectly clear, that if I was going to do this, I had to make myself as untraceable as possible. That meant no license plates or vehicle make or model that could be traced back to me, or to the institute. It was a pain but I could see the necessity of it.

The building seemed innocuous standing on the corner, the neon sight identifying it as an internet caf?. I paid the cashier and sat down at my terminal. I was really only supposed to stay at these places for thirty minutes, but somehow I never stayed less than an hour.

I logged on. The professor’s employers had rigged a dummy Yahoo account for me and I immediately went to check my e-mail. Just as I hopped there was one from Joe. I was supposed to pick one family member to contact and Joe seemed like the best choice. We always used his school email address and he was supposed to delete any messages he got from me as soon as he had read them. I clicked the message open and read it hungrily. I was always eager for news from home and I only got these updates every couple of weeks.

Geoff, it seemed, had a new tutor. I’m not sure why he needed one. The football season had been canceled after the incident in The Clearing. I felt kind of responsible but Geoff apparently had no regrets. He told Joe that if he had to do it over again, he’d do exactly the same thing.

His new tutor was a kid named Chris Palmer. I think he was in my English class—kind of geeky. He said he was some kind of a writer, but I never saw anything he’d written. Joe was saying the two of them were spending A LOT of time together. Now, I got it. Oh well, I hope he’s happy.

Gil had apparently just gotten out of the hospital again. There was a pool to try and guess how long he had before he went back in again. The first time Gil, had gone into the hospital was after the incident in The Clearing. Apparently, I had broken his nose, and a couple of his ribs, and bruised his kidneys. If you ask me he got off easy. He was in bed for three weeks before they let him out. During that time, he was completely inactive and had no access to Charles’ magic juice. Needless to say he shrank quite a bit. The first thing he did when he got out was look up Charles. He wanted to make a particularly large purchase. Charles, of course, refused to sell to him. Gil got angry and threatened to turn Charles over to the police.

Now while Gil had been inactive for the past three weeks, Charles had been working out like a man possessed. And thanks to that magic juice of his, he had gotten quite large, more than a match for the reduced Gil. Needless to say, Gil went back into the hospital that evening.

When they let him out a week later, he was greeted by one of his former buddies, who pretty much blamed him for the collapse of the football team. Fortunately, Gil’s old hospital bed was still free, because he needed it again that night.
Since then, every week or two Gil would get released from the hospital, run into someone who had a score to settle with him, and then wind up right back there by nightfall. Gil’s list of enemies was quite long and we figured it would be two and a half years before Gil would be able to spend a night in his own bed. I didn’t feel sorry for him at all.

The real heart rending part of Joe’s letter was about Veronica. Apparently, every so often she would break down crying for no apparent reason. The reason was clear to me. By now she must know she’s pregnant. I wanted to go to her or at least write to her, but that was probably the worst thing I could do. If anyone even suspected I was the father, it could mean a lot of trouble for her. I suppose I could have told the professor about her; she’d have been brought to the institute and looked after. But to tell you the truth, I still didn’t completely trust the professor or his employers—at least not yet.

I sighed and looked at the screen. It's funny while I was going there, I really hated Milton Gower High School. But now that I was away, I actually missed it. Apparently I had become quite a legend there. Joe was saying with what happened to me and Gil's muscle bloated body and Charles' growth, and of course what happened with Colin (but that's not my story to tell), good old MGHS was getting a funny reputation. Go figure.

Well, my time was running out. It was dangerous to stay here too long. I quickly jotted a note for Joe, wishing him and my family a merry Christmas, and then I logged off and headed back out into the cold. The bus would be by again in about five minutes. Then it would be a twenty minute ride to where a car was waiting for me, waiting to take me back to the institute and my strange new life.

THE END

[TheMM]

And so the plot thickens, twists, turns, loops, mellows, and any other adjectives you can think of happens too.

[Anubis9653]

This story has got to continue. What happens to all his friends, family and Veronica and his kid or maybe twins? That would be hot. Two twin uber-muscled hotties running around. Sweet.

[chocomus]

Yeah, twins! That would be cool. This story is so good i've got no more praise for it. I like Gil's destiny. But only 2 years seems very few.
Poor Veronica. I hope everything goes well.

I have a question running in my head. If he's dominant, that means only boys will be born? because that would be really the end of humanity. I don't really remember my genetic clases from biology so i don't know much of the stuff.

Wait a fucking minute! What do you mean with "The end"? You can't stop now. Noooooooo!
Ok... but you have to promise to make a secuel. Pretty-please ^_^

[rextorres]

Wow! I pasted all 14 chapters in a Word document: 192 pages long, and 85,363 words. That's a novel! I can definately relate to what it takes to write a story of this length! My Tristan story was 109,000 long, not to mention that my Superboy Jamie stories are over 360,000 words if I put them together in one file.

I have to agree with TheMM: Veronica has a baby boy, who ends up becoming a muscle kid from birth! Gosh, you could end up writing a SERIES of stories based on the life of this boy! You could have a LOT of fun with that; I know I would!

Congratulations on completing the "Second Puberty" story, Jaypat, and kudos on a job well done. This has definately become one of my top three favorite stories of 2007 which have been posted on this forum this year.

Thank you!

[Jaypat]

Originally Posted by chocomus

I have a question running in my head. If he's dominant, that means only boys will be born? because that would be really the end of humanity. I don't really remember my genetic clases from biology so i don't know much of the stuff.

Wait a fucking minute! What do you mean with "The end"? You can't stop now. Noooooooo!
Ok... but you have to promise to make a secuel. Pretty-please ^_^

Sorry, the whole boy/girl thing wasn't very clear. I went back in and fixed it.

I might write a couple of short stories around the supporting characters and maybe--down the line--even tackle a sequel. But for right now, I need a break!

[njscalz]

This story was extremely entertaining. The possibilities for mutliple story line sequels are there. Think about it. Our main character is only now starting to understand what he can do, and I bet there are a lot more adventures waiting there especially with Vic still out there. Also there are storylines on Charles and the other little guy who is on the "super juice". Definitely hope you consider expanding on this great story.

[achilles]

I have to applaud; probably the best story series I've read since I joined this group earlier this year. Awesome from start to finish, and well-written. Sincere kudos to the author :-)

[monkey09]

You really need to do a side sorry about Colin, interesting character to expand on

[tagsnola]

... For a job well done. Very believable and likeable character. Especially when he went back to rescue Vic, his would-be murderer. What makes this story such an engaging fantasy is that, even with the strength of a demi-god, he never forgot what it had been like being weak and vulnerable. If he were to pass along his values as well as his genes to his offspring, which was what in the end finally decided him to fight for his life, humanity would indeed be better off for his having been genetically altered.
TagsNOLA

[IndigoSensor]

You are problly the most talented writer here. I am being completly truthful.

This was extremely well written. The dialouge is natrual. The plot flows perfactly, no gaps are left. The descriptons allow your mind to image them flawlessly. Everything goes unbelivbly well. There are even deeper meanings behing the story that I picked up. You are a complete natural.

That being said, as many people stated, this should be continoued. The way the story ended is very well, but its open ended. I feel that this is being written almost as a book searies. I would see this as the first book. Therefore, you should deffiantly start a second "book" to follow this one. Of course not right away. Its good to let several months pass between books to allow them to digest.

I'm not good with words so its diffucalt to convey. Nevertheless, I greatly enjoyed this story in more ways then one. You have amazing talent.

[Ogrebear]

Now that was not the ending I expected but....yeah.....that worked.

I really sdo want to know more- does Jo start working out with or without Charles' potion? How many kids does our Hero spawn? Who does Veronica claim is the father- our Hero? Charles? Geoff?

Love to see a sequel... but in your own time.... give us something as great as Second Puberty - no rush or hassle though I rather wait than get something weak.

Great, great story. Thank you.

[Braun1]

Loved this series. Excellent work. Thanks Jaypat

Would love to see more of these characters.

[arpeejay]

What everyone else said!

There are a few stories that set the gold standard for muscle growth fiction. This is one of them.

I'm looking forward to your next story, Jaypat, whatever it might be.

xoxo

Richard

[sexiscriptor]

Originally Posted by Jaypat

?Professor Grant lied again. I am going to get Godzilla-big.?

Now that's a plotline I def wouldn't have minded ;p muahahahaha

meanwhile, let me jump on the "follow-up short-stories/sequels" bandwagon and say I'd *really* love to see what kinda crazy adventures Geoff and this Chris Palmer tutor of his might get themselves into. You said Geoff likes being the "man" right? Something tells me Mr. Palmer wouldn't mind that one bit You know, especially now that football season's canceled, i'm sure geoff's gonna have a lot of extra pent up, physical energy--not to mention time--to expend
muahahahaha
(hey...it's like late autumn...they could totally go out for wrestling together )


anyway, terrific story man; i was really impressed by the single mindedness of the plot. By which I mean--so often these really great, epic ones end up getting derailed or revamped midway any number of times, but with this one you really told us the whole story, nothing but the story, so help you god, haha. You know--like a REAL novel or something, yeh?
heh, anyway, terrific job, and i loved every minute of it--and not just for the rise you got out of me everytime, might i add!

anywya, you go and you enjoy that break of yours, and hopefully you'll find much inspiration for further writings ;p
~Palmer

[tremorwolf]

Thats a good place to stop it, and one hell of a way to maybe lead into some of the others having there onwn little side story!... Like did little colen ever get his chance? I thought i read that Joe and Geoff were spending some "time" together? and how big did the other geekie freind who was making the hormones get? and Veronica! OMG the way this is. its as if she is going in all alone on this!

Mark is getting to fuck nurse betty after nerse betty while ses trying to be a single mom and finish schooL! D:

You cant let it end with her life being distroyed like that!!!!

that would be so fucked up.

[Jaypat]

Thank you, guys for all of your support over the past three and a half months. I don’t think I could have gotten through it without you. But even if I did, it would be a very different story. Your comments really helped shape it and make it what it is.

I’d like to say a big thank you to my proof reader, who did much more than simply check my spelling.

I have an idea for a sequel, but it is still just a seed. I need to give it a little while to germinate. I also have a few ideas for other stories. I need to let them all float around in that void between my ears until one of them pops out ready to write. But that probably won’t be until February at the earliest.

In the mean time, I’ll take some time and enjoy the efforts of the other authors on this site. See you on the boards!

P.S. Don’t worry about Veronica. She has a very supportive family and she’ll be just fine. More than that I can’t say, because it might come up in the sequel.

[skumbum]

Originally Posted by Jaypat

[COLOR=#000000]His new tutor was a kid named Chris Palmer. I think he was in my English class?kind of geeky. He said he was some kind of a writer, but I never saw anything he?d written.[/COLOR]

Bahahahaha. Awesome chapter. Awesome story. All the scenes were creative, exciting, well-described; it felt like watching a movie. And it seemed like you put in a little something for everyone. Looking forward to anything you post in the future.

[nj.]

Have fun with that, Chris

I enjoyed your story from start to finish, Jaypat. Thanks a lot for keeping me awake in such an entertaining fashion for so many times.
I might just save it to my computer. It's definitely a keeper!

[aiden831]

That was not the ending I was expecting. But then again, the whole story wasn't what I was expecting when I first read the title.

Although a wonderfuly writen (and very erotic) story that this was, I wasn't so thrilled about the ending. It was very well written, there's no doubt about it. But the fact that so many people were left out in the end, and cliffhangers are rampent through the final paragraphs.

But again, I love story. so what I'm feeling right now is a mixture of joy and melacholy.

Kudos, to you. And keep the stories coming.

[PS: Are you going to write about what happened to all the others? I'm very interested in what happened to Charles and his brother Joe]

[Jaypat]

I am not going to forget Charles or Joe or Veronica. In fact, there is so much interest in Colin, I will probably write his story eventually, and in it, I will not forget the other supporting characters.

[tagsnola]

You're the best! )
- TagsNOLA

Originally Posted by Jaypat

I am not going to forget Charles or Joe or Veronica. In fact, there is so much interest in Colin, I will probably write his story eventually, and in it, I will not forget the other supporting characters.

[228642]

Dude you need to make another few chapters. There is too much that is leaving people wondering...

[fillups44]

WOW
Everything is so fully fleshed out and well thought through. I thought this was a great ending. Your story is full of teasing ambiguities that don't quite get resolved. You do take care of the main conflicts in an interesting way but other plot threads are left loose. This makes the story linger in the mind and the possibilities are interesting to think about.

For instance, early in the story you have characters discussing the plight of women in our society and then you end with women lining up to become breeders and a girl who is pregnant with a super child. These kind of internal contradictions make the story fuller and more interesting to think about.

This is not just a simple minded action idea. I also like the reason behind the main character's growth.

It is very professional of you to have used a proof reader. I would probably save people a lot of strife it I used one as well!!

All in all fantastic. You deserve all the wonderful kudos and I look forward to whatever you might do in the future (if you ever publish drop the website a line!!).

[Otaru_grower]

I just read this and everything got wonderfully wrapped up. Thank you for writing it.

[muscl4life]

I know, i know thread necromacing can be really borring, but seriously, I have strong reasons to do this.

First of all, I have to admit I had never read not one single chapter of this AMAZING saga until a few days ago, i guess I was just too busy when it first started, then I got lazy to catch up the new installments - in the end I've just let this wonderful story pass by me - but fortunately I've made to read down to very last line and I have to say I LOVED IT!

I won't bother you by repeating all the marvelous comments that have been posted in this and all the previous parts, but I feel I must say something to Jaypat that really comes from the bottom of my heart.

Jaypat,

The gift of storytelling can be pretty tricky, we feel something in our head, haunting us, torturing us, challenging us every single time, so when we finally gather the courage to face the blank screen to put into words all the imagery, all the scenes, all the smells, all the sounds we feel so vividly inside of us, yes, we've just written a story - and boy it is a long work, all the grammar to check, the construction of the phrases, the search for new angles, new approaches but most of the times we are just trying to write something that will please our own fantasy, the same things that were haunting our heads, that made our cocks so hard, that sounded so right inside our own ears.

And sometimes, when the story is ready, when we have done absolutely everything we felt that could had been done, it just feels weird. The scenes are awkward, the characters sound phony, the drama is just weak, there is no tension, everything is dull and plain, how come someone ever write something so horrible?

This, my friend, is something that lies within every single writer, I'm pretty sure even The Bard felt this way, it is only natural, but I am also sure that nothing I can say will be able to dissuade a writer of the idea that his own work stinks. And I am really happy for this.

This feeling, this constant dissatisfaction with our own work, this idea that we could have done better, that we are not as creative as people say we are, that deep down they are just patronizing pathetic efforts just to avoid hurt our feelings, this is the keystone for true progress, it makes work harder, try again and go for new risks, new approaches.

Yes, this is a very important feeling, and you are entitled to feel that way, because in the end it is only helpful, but I just want you to know that your work, from this story or all the others you have kindly given to us, each one stroke something in the mind of a person that you will probably never meet, someone who although geographically so far from you, might be immediatelly close of your own feelings and fantasies - and this can be your greatest scare, but also you strongest motivation.

Having this gift of storytelling, being able to put in words the same scenes we all like to read, it is indeed a hard task, and we are always trying to make the best to please - ourselves - before anyone else - if the stuff we write don't actually seem good to ourselves, not all the positive feedback will make this feeling of failure. I support you, buddy, because I've felt this way several times, and I truly hope that you will eventually realize that it is not a downfall, it is actually the moment we need to have a new start.

I can only sincerely express my total support on your opinion, and I hope sooner than later you will be back on track, because you a stroyteller, and you deserve all the compliments that had alreaddy been made. Whatever new path you decide to take, I am sure to support you, and even if the feedback rate fluctuates from one installment to another, just make sure that your work is being appreciated - you've touched more people than you can ever imagine, after all you've made your characters and your fantasies gain their own lives in the minds of many ones, including this brazilian dude who is sincerely very kind of your work.

Cheers.

[redroger11]

Damn Muscl4life. For speaking and writing Portuguese all your life you have a way with the English language that is stellar. Jaypat, this guy knows what he's talking about. And hell. He did the right thing by pulling up the last chapter in your previous work. I read the whole chapter again (and with as much enjoyment of it as the first time) and now I can see a little of what may be driving you.
Storyteller. For that is what you are. Storyteller you talked of how the Professor had a job for "The Kid" just after the New Year, and that Colin's story was giving MGHS a funny reputation. It sounds like you want another voice to tell the continuing story in your head. I'm betting that you had the events and the people involved with them roughed out to a certain degree. And the process of walking your characters mentally and physically through the steps they need to take to get them where you want them is the gritty frustrating part. Stuff like this is unavoidable. I put off writing a funeral scene for months cause I was woorking some of the emotions I had from my Dads death and funeral. The real stickler was the hole the dead uncle represented in my characters lives that I was trying to get across.
Are the things that are pulling at you centered around the timeline involved with Colin and the fact that you have to have a story that links in with "The Kid" by January?
It's clear from rereading the last chapter of "Second Puberty" that you made "the Kid" into a man that would protect his family and children, no m,atter what. And you've given him some pretty good morals in this world so close to our own. And you even let us get a wiff of something a lot bigger than an isolated institute that "assists" smaller young adults become huge. Sounds like a cleaver method of recruiting an army of giants who would be very loyal to the man or men or even woman that was resoponsible for giving them their new size and strength. (And the Professor already gave away the fact that there is two camps in the Gene Enhance community that have been active and debating these issues for over fifty years.)
Woof. Talk about a lot on your plate. But don't let it get to you storyteller. You had quite a few issues you dealt with handily in "Second Puberty" and with a (now) signature kind of humor that never detracted from the drama and excitement the story had in it.
I can't speak for the other readers, but the humor was a kind of spice that made everything else so much better. I was always smiling before I ever started reading the next chapter when I saw it was posted.
Jaypat. Storyteller. You Beast!
(Man there is another goofy grin on my face from just thinking those two words.)

We humbly but impatiently wait on the next words you wish to weave inside our punkin heads.KW.

Hugs;
redroger11

[Jaypat]

Originally Posted by muscl4life

First of all, I have to admit I had never read not one single chapter of this AMAZING saga until a few days ago, i guess I was just too busy when it first started, then I got lazy to catch up the new installments - in the end I've just let this wonderful story pass by me - but fortunately I've made to read down to very last line and I have to say I LOVED IT!

Oh my God! It took you a year to read Second Puberty! There must be something horribly wrong with it. I'd better pull it. ...kidding. I'm kidding. I'm a kidder.

Seriously, I'm very proud of this one. And I'm very humbled to have inspired such insightful words on writing from muscl4life. It is especially poignant, because he was the first internet MG author I ever read. And its largely due to him that I write these stories at all.

[redkage]

Originally Posted by Jaypat

Oh my God! It took you a year to read Second Puberty! There must be something horribly wrong with it. I'd better pull it. ...kidding. I'm kidding. I'm a kidder.

Not funny. Not funny at ALL!
...
.....
.......
.........okay, maybe a little funny

I'd say you should be proud of this series. You took first person POV to a new dimension here, and you executed the plot, characters and concepts pretty damn well. I can really tell your passion for writing when I read this series, because writing without passion is just grunt work.

Oh, and there's something I'd like to talk to you about, as well as all other authors out there.

You should not let the number of views dictate your writing.

If you love to write, then write for yourself first before others. Sure, comments are helpful and motivating. Yes, a lot of page views is great. However, they should not rule you. Even if you only get like, 20 page views and no comments, you should still stick to what you believe in and write your heart out. Also, don't pay attention to how well other threads are doing; it'll just form a sense of insecurity within you.

Well...even though I said all that, I feel the same way sometimes. But that doesn't mean either of us should give in when things look bleak. If you think Cafe Blues needs a makeover, feel free to work on it as long as you think you need to. Do what YOU think is best, not what other people tell you, and don't let them get to you either.

Well, what I'm trying to say is to keep on writing, and never lose heart.

-Red