PowerCore Chapter 4 – Preview
By MagnusMagneto
2.) In the House’s Basement – Josh’s Designated Game Room
Josh was sprawled over a large oak table. It was adorned with myriad plastic figures, buildings, and miniature terrain – all recreating an elaborate battleground. To the untrained eye, it may have seemed like simple children’s toys, but these figures cumulatively cost hundreds of dollars, and their average owner was in their late 20’s. At 19, Josh was a bit younger, but he was still thoroughly an adult man. Similar to Kristi before her ascension, Josh was tall and lanky, standing at 6’2” at around 150 pounds. He was bespectacled, wore a goatee, a loose fitting jeans and t-shirt, and had a bit of a hunch to his posture.
Flanking him on the other side of the room was Kristi’s staggering figure. All 6’6” of her, with more than 300 pounds of muscle (power flowing through her body added even more weight, so Kristi was unsure of exactly how heavy she was) utterly dwarfed her once larger brother.
“’Sup Josh?” Kristi greeted casually.
Josh seemed nervous. “Not too much…”
He had been conspicuously quiet upon Kristi’s arrival, and seemed to be avoiding her, retreating to his comfortable cave of hand-painted battalions, book shelves of fantasy novels, and a television with video game consoles. She understood why Josh enjoyed the game in front of him so much – a tabletop battling title called HammerWar 50 Million; he was stuck living at home while he attended community college, and it was one of the few things he could comfortably go out and do with friends. He also generally loved games and was quite good at this one.
Kristi always had a passing interesting in HammerWar, the figurines captured her imagination, and the rules systems intrigued her. She had tried playing with Josh a few times before, but it never really worked out. There was simply too much going on for Kristi to learn. With enough effort she could have figured it out, but she was too busy trying to improve her grades and athletic prowess to dedicate enough time.
“I don’t know how long my vacation will last, or what the future holds. I dunno if you read the reports, but I was pretty close to a nuclear reactor that was melting down – literally shielding it with my energy powers. If my strength gave out, or my teammate hadn’t been so good at absorbing energy… I’m not sure what would have happened to me.” She shuddered.
Josh remained silent.
Kristi continued, “Point is, I just thought we should have some quality brother and sister time. I don’t think I’m going to die or anything, but, even though I’m young I’m not going to stop putting myself in harm’s way if it helps save people. So who knows?”
“Alright.” Josh was surprised by how mature Kristi seemed. She always had a fairly mature personality, but it had been developed further since then. He figured that being exposed to unfathomable power and saving thousands of lives granted her some perspective. “What do you have in mind?” He was still feeling a wide mixture of emotions, bu t he’d try to stay on her good side.
“Let’s play some HammerWar 50 Mil.” Kristi offered with a grin, referring to the figures on the table. “I’ll use your guest army – or we could even draft an army if you’re up for it?”
The game required each player to have an ‘army’ to face off with. The armies had a ‘point limit’, and each individual figure was assigned a number of points that it would take from this total – generally, stronger units used more points. Part of the strategy to the game was creating an optimal army for the number of alloted points. Drafting an army would have each player take turns picking units until they reached their point cap.
“Kristi… You know we’ve discussed how complicated this game is. Remember the last time you wanted to play?” Josh was still apprehensive. This bothered Kristi, but she understood that it must have been difficult to be around someone was mind-bogglingly powerful as her – especially when that someone was your dorky little sister.
Despite this, she found the quip to be fairly insulting.“What, are you saying I’m too stupid to play? You DO know that the PowerCore makes my mind work faster too, right?”
“Yeah, sure. I’m not saying you’re too dumb, just that there’s a ton of rules. That’s why you gave up last time, you’d have to spend hours studying just how to play.”
Kristi shrugged. “I think I can handle that now. Where’s the main rulebook?”
Josh picked up a hefty tome sitting next to him – it contained hundreds of pages. Kristi floated over to him, which caused his eyes to widen a bit. The closer she drew, the more of her muscular visage filled his view. He still felt cognitive dissonance with the fact that this was supposed to be Kristi. The same Kristi who was even skinnier than him. The same Kristi who his family had to specially tailor clothing so it could flatteringly fit her flat, formless shape.
But this figure… huge, towering, bulging with massive muscle, was literally the largest human being he had ever witnessed in person. In fact, he was certain that Kristi was the largest female Core Member – edging out even Firebird. He was actually even drawing a blank of what male Core members were bigger. She definitely surpassed that loser Carlos in his prime. Then again… Firebird did seem larger than usual in the footage from the recent city disaster. Josh was tempted to ask Kristi a flurry of questions about The Core, but was also too shy to do so.
Regardless, Kristi was definitely larger than Firebird was a few days ago. Accentuating this point, Kristi’s clothes barely fit at all. The over-sized flannel shirt stretched and tied around her ample bosom did little to cover Kristi’s form, instead it served a reminder of how broad, expansive, and overwhelming her upper torso was. Her jean shorts were entirely ineffective, the full length of her long, bulging quadriceps—cords of muscular definition criss-crossing along the top of them— were entirely visible. Needless to say, the full expanse of her washboard torso was on display as well: a network of intimidating muscles arranged in a fashion reminiscent of a chiseled stone statue, which had the overall shape of a hyper-exaggerated V; thick jutting veins ran across every visible surface, serving as a reminder to the superhuman definition Kristi’s muscles possessed.
In summary, Kristi failed to cover up with her choice of clothing.
And why should she? What need for modesty did a goddess possess? Kristi could do anything, and only a select few individuals on plant Earth could hope to challenge her.
Josh wanted to reach out and touch the mass of muscle in front of him. He wanted to see just how hard and full of energy her arms were. To see if her skin was still soft, or if it had become rougher, or perhaps somehow softened further. He imagined flying through the air on her back, or perhaps in her arms, soaring in the clouds and witnessing exotic landscapes firsthand. Josh secretly wanted to see Kristi go all out, to train until she was exhausted, destroying a mountain range in the process; or facing off against a villain with similar powers, overcoming them by growing even more mighty.
Kristi was a living mythological figure, and Josh had submerged himself in a world of comics, books, and video games his entire life. He had literally dreamed of being around a woman like this.
But that was all too weird. This was his sister. He grew up with her. He vaguely remembered the day she was born. He was there for her terrible twos. To see Kristi like this, and to have these curiosities bothered Josh to no end. If only it were any girl other than Kristi (well, not perhaps his mother – that would be even more awkward). Then again, he likely wouldn’t have the courage to approach a different girl at all anyways. It was a conundrum that was eating Josh up to no end.
Finally, Kristi snapped him out of his stupor, “Hey, bro, you done staring at me?” She giggled, “I mean, I get it. It’s pretty crazy to think this is me, so I won’t hold it against you, but yeah, you’re a bit obvious right now.”
“Oh. Sorry. It’s just you’re so…” Josh was at a loss for words.
“Big? Strong? Powerful? Awesome?!” Kristi finished for him, giggling again. Kristi and her brother had generally got along on good terms all of their lives, but weren’t above teasing one another.
“Yeah. Honestly. It’s a lot to take in, you know?”
Kristi nodded. “Believe me, I know better than anyone. Hey, want to see me get even bigger?” she asked with a hint of mischief in her voice.
“B-bigger?”
“Oh yeah.”
“I certainly can’t stop you, can I? Do what you want.”
“Well, I just performed this trick for mom and dad earlier, but, you deserve a show too.” Kristi placed her hands on her hips and concentrated on absorbing more of the PowerCore’s might into her massive body. Right on cue, she felt a surge of power flooding into her, and every muscle on her frame began to tremble.
Josh felt chills run down his spine – was his sister really going to become even more powerful right before his very eyes? That easily? With that little effort involved?
His question was promptly answered. Kristi let out a soft groan and all of her muscles began to swell to larger heights. “Oof, this is a bigger spurt than last time..” She murmured before floating onto her back, stretching her out limbs and softly moaning again. “This is… way more power than last time…” she explained as her entire body began to glow slightly from the sheer amount of energy flooding into her.
Kristi’s limbs, outstretched, lengthened further as her body gained stature to help accommodate the ongoing transformation. Her pencil-thick veins, running across her muscles, began to pulsate, glowing with pure supernatural power as her muscles continued to feed from them, growing ever larger.
On a surface level, Kristi wasn’t entirely positive what was causing such a massive influx of power. Subconsciously however, she wanted to impressive her big brother – something that had been a recurring goal for Kristi all of her life; and the PowerCore was more than willing to assist.
Kristi’s growth soon took its toll on her clothing. Her top, already threadbare from previous abuse, ripped, filling the air with the sound of splitting fibers; her jean-shorts soon followed. After another surge of muscular development, the garments fell off of her floating body, landing on the ground. All that remained on her otherwise naked form was an extra-stretchy black thong—which covered almost no-percent of her massive, globes of gluteorial power—and a pair of thin stretches of black fabric covering her nipples, a backup in case Kristi outgrew her clothing. In truth, Kristi’s immense pectorals eliminated the need for traditional bra support.
One last groan, louder than the others, preceded a final growth spurt, which was concentrated entirely in her muscles. Her biceps, nearing the size of a human head, developed an immense split within their peak, deep enough that someone could physically lodge their fingers within and grab onto half of the muscle. Her shoulders—now larger than bowling balls—had similar ridges adorning them, also deep enough for one to place their pointer finger within and find it flanked by walls of deltoidal power. Kristi’s hips and breasts had similarly grown. This change conferred no benefit in terms of physical power, but the subconscious force directing the transformation likely desired for Kristi to remain physically appealing, or perhaps become even more so. Her proportions became more exaggerated, better matching an overdeveloped comic book character rather than a human being. Fitting, given Core Conduits were essentially living super heroes.
At last Kristi’s growth ceased. She gently levitated back onto her feet. Because of her newly developed height, her head drew dangerously close to the game room’s modest seven-foot ceiling. The silhouette projected from the light shining on her body threatened to eclipse half of the wall behind her.
What truly shook Josh to his core was how Kristi took up so much space, both literally and metaphysically. The sheer energy she posses ed—outwardly projected through an aura of overwhelming confidence, backed by unfathomable strength—was nearly suffocating for Josh to behold. Worse yet – Kristi’s mere existence threatened to take more, to become more, to continue growing. Nothing could stop her, and if something threatened to, Kristi would merely overcome it. Both of the teens knew this to be true.
“That… that was… how did you?” Josh sputtered.
“I just wanted more. So I took it.” Kristi explained bluntly. “Are you ok with my lack of clothing? I can try to grab something to put on if you want; my privates are still technically covered though.”
“It’s fine. We’ve accidentally seen each other naked before.” What Josh failed to add, and what both were thinking, was that the new Kristi in front of him had almost nothing physically in common with the Kristi he was referring to. Only their general facial structure remained the same, and even that had transformed considerably. Kristi was, undeniably, far more beautiful now than back then. “I guess my question is,” Josh continued, “Why would you stop? Why not just keep taking more and more power?” he asked.
Kristi shrugged, the mere action causing a complicated network of ultra-developed muscles to shift and dance, causing an audible sound similar to leather stirrups stretching. “It’s complicated. If I keep pulling from the PowerCore, it becomes harder, like shooting too much water out of a water hose. I find that it’s best to take a bit here and there, though sometimes in a pinch I’ll pull with everything I’ve got. I think I’ve got the right idea, ‘cause it hasn’t let me down yet!” She explained with a warm smile.
Brother and sister stared at each other, vaguely perplexed by what had just happened. Kristi had experienced a few growth spurts, but that was one of the most intense she had to date – yet there was no danger, no stressor, nor any other catalyst she could think of to justify it.
Kristi took a step forward, the entire floor shook from the combination of her weight and the immense power behind her stride. “Woops!” She exclaimed before cursing, “Dammit!” under her breath – the meek teenager beneath the muscular veneer of her body peeking out. “Believe it or not, I actually have to spend a ton of effort to not… destroy everything. I was actually already holding back big time, but I STILL underestimated that growth spurt.”
Josh blinked a couple of times. “Well come on now, you can’t just say something like that and not elaborate on it further.”
Kristi chuckled, “Alright, fair point.” She started, “I’m sure you already have an idea of what I’m getting at though. Consider that I could lift a skyscraper overhead single-handed… a few days ago. And now I’m stronger than that. A lot stronger. Honestly, I don’t know how strong I am currently, but it’s probably least twice what I was then. Sooooooo, if one hand can lift like, what, 500,000 tons overhead? And my legs are even more powerful? Well, I’m sure you can quickly imagine that a single unrestrained stomp could probably destroy the house. Let’s not test that theory though.”
She collected herself and took another step, this time producing very little pressure at all on the ground. “Whew, glad I got that sorted out.” She explained before closing the distance to Josh.
Kristi positively towered over her older brother, standing a full head taller than him; her upper and lower halves were roughly three times broader than his, and her waist was only 50% wider. “So, you wanna feel?” She offered before leaning down presenting an arm, and tensing it, the massive mound of muscle erupting as a result.
“N-no thanks.” Josh lied. In truth he really wanted to feel it. But he knew that for the time being, he needed to keep his mind on other things. “What were we doing again?” Josh asked, still bewildered.
“I was going to learn the rules to HammerWar.” Kristi explained, standing back up, a little hurt that her brother seemed disinterested in squeezing her bicep.
“Right.”
He finally handed the book to his sister, goosebumps returning to his skin as he noticed how much larger Kristi’s hand was than his own as the tome exchanged grips. It made sense. She had a much larger body, and keeping her hands from nearly one foot of height prior likely would have made things difficult. But this was his little sister, yet she was now larger, stronger, and more powerful than him on a scale that his mind couldn’t truly comprehend.
Surely there was some chink in her armor, some small thing he could still beat her in? For the time being, HammerWar seemed to be his best option.
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PowerCore Chapter 4