Super Jaded (12/23) (Patreon)

Chapter 12: Super

“Fern!” You’re awake!” I shouted on instinct, joy and surprise beaming from my hoarse voice. But Fern didn’t respond, instead, she started screaming.

I floated backwards into the air as I observed her body twitching violently every which way. Her desperate breaths were constantly interrupted by moans of pain as she fell off the bed. It was as if she was being tossed around by the invisible hand of god.

I peered over to where she had fallen. Fern was on her elbows and knees, her body hunched over and twitching like a feral animal.

And then she started to grow.

When the serum took its effect on me, I recalled waking up feeling energized. It would take me a little while afterwards to realize I had shot up from a 4’10 height to about 5’3, with it eventually growing even further to nearly six feet. My body had also become far more beautiful with subtle, toned muscle hidden under my smooth flesh. But as a 14 year old who had been bedridden for a sizable time, such changes were hard to notice.

So it was quite the eye-opener to see those changes physically happen to someone else, much less someone under three times the dosage.

With every pained grunt, parts of her body grew here and there. More defined muscle from her arms and legs, a firmer torso that stretched her already tight clothing and thicker thighs that clenched in tension, stimulating my visual appetite.

Riiiiiiip.

Yep, that was to be expected. A few more grunts with accompanying growth surges and Fern was now as naked as I was. Her clothes had torn off of her like a burgeoning butterfly from a mere caterpillar.

To say her body was gorgeous was understated. She was already on par with my enhanced beauty before the serum. But now, she was statuesque. Greek gods would be jealous of her improved form that blossomed before me.

Said gods would probably cower in fear should they try to act upon such jealousy. If I could lift the contents of an entire mountain with only a little strain, my mind could only begin to wonder what my superpowered girlfriend would be capable of at her full potential.

Had I, in my hastiness, made a grave mistake? Last time me and Fern talked, she was definitely upset with me. I certainly didn’t want to be on the bad side of the only other superhuman in the world, much less my girlfriend.

My train of thought became derailed as Fern’s body began to slowly rise into the air. Her superpowers were developing and it was quite the shock to see, even if I was the only other person in the world who had been normalized by them.

With precision, I floated under Fern’s rising form, my eyes greeting her foggy, distant ones.

Then, with both our bodies suspended in midair, I embraced her. I wrapped my arms and legs around her larger body and nuzzled my head into her neck, closing my eyes with a comforting moan. It was a different experience with her being a full head taller than me now, yet the security I had such a serene nostalgia for returned in full force.

I felt the newfound warmth coursing through Fern’s veins. It would have probably felt scalding to anyone who wasn’t me. We were simply perfect at that very moment. Despite how weird things had gotten in the world, everything just felt right again once I was caressed within Fern’s large arms.

“N-Neens? Is that… is that you? What happened?”

My eyes opened and I was greeted by a groggy, confused Fern. Had she forgotten? I decided to hedge my bets with a couple of half-truths.

“Well, when I was out talking to the mayor, y-you were assaulted! It got really bad and it didn’t seem like you were gonna make it! I took matters into my own hands and recreated the serum and gave it to you!”

So I may have left out a few hundred deaths on my behalf. She didn’t need to know about those. They’d only muddle the narrative and I wanted Fern’s waking moments after a traumatic event.

“Y-you gave me the serum?”

“Yeah!” I exclaimed with glee. “Now no one can hurt my Fern ever again! Look, you’re even flying with me!”

“I-I’m flying!?” Fern said in surprise, her conscious thought finally retaking control. “Ack! I-I don’t know how to fly!”

With that, her body stopped rising and began to fall. My smaller form was then thrust upon the wood floor for only a moment before the two of us shattered through the planks and landed in the basement. My smaller body was now sandwiched between Fern’s larger body and the stone ground. A rock and a hard place, if you will.

For the first time in my life since I had gotten powers, I had found something I struggled to lift off of me.

“Oh my God, Nina! I’m so sorry!” Fern got up off of me in a flash, her nervous composure juxtaposing her new hulking body of feminine muscle.

But all I could do was laugh. A joyful, tear-filled laugh of relief. At the end of the day, Fern was still the nervous human I had first fallen in love with four years ago. Even as I lay upon a cold, rough ground in a dank basement, I had never felt happier in my life than I did at this very moment.

Fern picked up on flying a lot faster than I had. Maybe it was because I had all the little techniques down by now and could pass them along. While it took me a few weeks to realize I could even accomplish such a feat, all I had to do was tell Fern that it was similar to a dead man’s float on water and she figured it out instantly. Exiting the basement back through the hole we had created proved to be the perfect first test for her, after that, she was flying everywhere.

Fern put the kettle on and started brewing some tea out of whatever she could find in the desolate cabinets of the abandoned house. It was such a surreal experience, watching my girlfriend with a bodybuilder’s form casually floating in midair for a situation as mundane as boiling water. But I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. She was perfect in every single way now. She giggled adorably, noticing I was almost drooling at the mere sight of her.

Fortunately for me, almost dying via blunt-force trauma to the back of the head caused a lot of her most recent memories to become clouded and unfocused. The last thing she remembered was the two of us talking with me flying off, but she couldn’t place any emotions on the situation nor the purpose of the chat.

We sat down at the creaky wooden table as Fern poured us the tea. She remarked how she didn’t even need an oven mitt anymore and we both had a good laugh. It was as if the status quo had been reset for me. Even though we were both in an abandoned house and both 4th-base naked, the vibe felt no different than from when we first moved in together.

But it wasn’t long before she began to ask questions I couldn’t easily provide the answers for without stretching the truth more and more.

“Nina, why are we naked?”

“Well, you ripped out of your clothes growing that Schwarzenegger body, uh, and my clothes burned up rushing to get the ingredients for the serum.”

“Alright, fair enough. But why didn’t you just give me the serum at our apartment so we could get a fresh change? Why go all the way out to the middle of nowhere?”

“Well, you see, the government wasn’t too keen on me, uh, discovering the secret serum recipe without sharing it with them. You know how they are.”

“Ugh, tell me about it. They probably want to use it to make an army of super-soldiers to fight in more pointless wars.”

Phew, so far, so good. But Fern wasn’t done with her game of 20 questions.

“Does this mean we have to lay low for a while? I mean, we’re both unstoppable super-goddesses. Heh, especially me.” She took a moment to flex her new bicep muscles, I couldn’t help but bite my lip at the display. “We hold all the poker chips here, if you know what I’m saying, all they can do is frustratingly accept us.”

I used the excuse of being infatuated by her body to pause as I came up with a better excuse.

“Y’know what? I say, fuck ‘em. Let’s go to Europe, like we’ve always wanted.”

“Seriously? Right-right now?” Fern added with intriguing surprise.

“Yeah! We won’t even need any money for plane tickets anymore! We can just fly across the Atlantic together! Wouldn’t that be awesome!?”

A contemplative smile and blush combo washed over Fern’s face. I knew it was something she had always wanted to do, but never got around to due to my responsibilities as an “American superhero.”

“You’re right. That would be pretty awesome. Hell yeah! Let’s do it!” To emphasize her point, Fern slammed the table with her fists, as she often did. But she must’ve forgotten her own strength, as the table was reduced to wood chips before us.

“Oops, teehee.”

I laughed once more.

“Well, let’s just go back to the apartment so I can make a suitcase of important stuff, then we can head out.”

“No!” I shouted. If she caught a glimpse of the rampage I had delivered upon the city, there would be no way she’d ever forgive me. She looked at me intently with nervous eyes. After all, my emotions just did a hard 180.

“Er, we can’t. The government’s probably expecting that.”

“Nina, is there something you’re not telling me? Who cares if that’s what they expect, I’m not leaving behind that.”

I knew immediately what she was referring to, but I couldn’t let her go back, no matter what.

I had to make up something on the spot.

“Look, Fern, I didn’t want to alarm you at first, but the Government has gotten a lot more dangerous since you’ve been out.”

“What do you mean?”

“They’ve… invented a device. One that can steal the serum right out of our bodies. I was just barely able to dodge it while gathering the ingredients for your serum a-and you’re more of a novice when it comes to this superhero stuff! Look I… I just made sure you’d never get harmed ever again, I can’t risk losing you!”

I meant that last part, but not in the way she probably thought. Fern was forever fixed, but I was forever broken. I knew lying to her could only last for so long, but just to feel her body against mine one more time was all I wanted out of the world. If she went back into town, I would never feel that again.

Fern looked despondent, but she clearly believed my lies.

“I just… I want to do this for you, Nina. You’ve already done so much for me and now I can finally start repaying those favors.”

“You already repay those favors by being my girlfriend, Fern. That’s all I’ll ever ask of you.”

She smiled, tears pooling in her perfect eyes. Despite all the lies I told today, I had meant that last statement with complete honesty.

“Okay then. I won’t go back for it.” Fern then flew forward at a great speed, cupping my cheeks as she often did. “Now let’s get the fuck out this country.”