The Leap
By Ratlaf


Everyone thought it was just another round of the flu.  That is until everyone noticed that only women were getting sick.  Men also caught the virus but they didn’t exhibit any sympoms.  The symptoms for women were mild, a light fever, chills, general weakness.  Nothing serious at all and within a week and a half everyone had recovered.

Epidemiologists tried frantically to study the virus and possibly prevent it from spreading any farther.  Of course, with a flu-like virus, it circled the globe in a matter of weeks.  When scientists finally got a handle on the virus it had already infected virtually every woman on the planet.

As it turned out this particular virus was a human endogenous retro virus. It re-writes the genome of whatever species it hosts with.  It doesn`t kill it`s host, it merely rewrites it`s hosts genes to create space for itself.  Basically these endogenous retro viruses have been blamed for several evolutionary leaps throughout history.

Women were about to take a leap.

*

“I’m off to Crossfit!“ Susan bubbled happily as she bounded out the door.  Damn!  Why did she have to be our housemate, and crazy hot, and with a nice rack, and beautiful, and a belly dancer, and hardcore from the Army, and did I mention hot with her dark brown hair, pale skin, red lips, crazy expressive eyes, very lovely breasts. Mmmmm dadgum!

She’d started Crossfit about a month ago because her body type, unfortunately, adds weight quite easilly and she’d been slacking off this winter.  Her progress has been nothing short of spectacular.  Before she was incredibly beautiful, now she was athletic and totally smokin’ hot on top of being incredibly beautiful.  Aarrrgh!!

This was about a week after she’d recovered from that crazy retro viral whatever that was.  She’d been out of it for a few days, just lounging on the couch trying to keep up with her Chem labs.  Even when she’s healthy that’s a monumental feat.  Ill she barely made any progress.

In any case, I tried to get her out of my head while the rest of us began setting up for the party we were having tonight for her’s and Andy’s birthdays.  

“Hey guys! Check this out.“ She gushed when she rushed back in.  “I have muscles!“ and with that she flexed her arms.  She did indeed have some muscle on her arm, but I think that was mostly a result of her losing the excess weight.  Now it was just her normal self showing through.  “I’m also almost up to my body weight on the bench press too.  I’ll be happy once I get there, then I’ll just focus on the Fit part of their trainings...“

“That’s awesome Susan!“ I told her.  I think she caught me staring at the muscle on her arm a bit longer than would be usual for a guy.

*

Once the virus had run ist course across the entire human species, and once the associated panic died down a little, one effect of the virus became apparent.  Women’s metabolsms had changed.  They all ran a bit hotter than the average 98.6.  The average body temp for women was now 100.3 and as a result, any woman who was obese, or even slightly overweight, found that all that excess just seemed to melt out of them in the form of heat.  Their bodies would stay at a body fat percentage that was healthy for women.  In a three week period, women’s obeisety was a thing of the past.  Heart disease plunged, so did adult onset diabetes and a variety of other weight related illnesses.  Not to mention the fact that now, every single woman on the planet had a smokin’ hot body no matter who they were or what they ate.

*

The party started and everyone came in their Redneck best.  Or worst, yowza, some of the stuff people were wearing!  Would’ve made a real Redneck cringe, but that was the point, have some fun with a crazy theme, and not go too overboard on the booze.

Our future housemate Dan and his girlfriend Melanie were coming.  Dan showed up early because Melanie was picking up a friend of hers from the airport, then they were going to join us too.  It was a fine evening already.

When Melanie arrived I went over to say hello to her and to meet her friend.  Laura was very cool.  Spoke with a crazy mix of accents, had the mindset of a mountain girl, and was cute and expressive and fun!  We had a great time getting to know each other, and other than Tim coming along to “meet“ her too, it was great.

Throughout the evening there was an interesting dynamic forming between Tim, Laura and myself.  I was amused at him trying to overact for her, while Laura and I shared looks and conversations, and generally checked each other out.  As that week went on we saw each other a few times and had a great time.  In the end Laura went back home, but we kept in touch.

About a week after the party Susan told us that she’d hit her strength goal and was now just going to enjoy the fitness parts of the Crossfit workouts.  Problem is there’s a healthy balance between fitness and strength designed into those workouts.  You can’t have one without the other.

We very quickly noticed, as that week went on, that she became quite reclusive.  When we did see her she was somewhat unseasonably dressed too.  It’s been an incredibly warm winter...  She was still keeping to her normal schedule of school, work, and Crossfit, but we didn’t see much of her at all.

A week later we began to worry because now she was definitely avoiding us, to the point of almost beng comic.  One morning she opened her door to find Andy and I standing silenty in the kitchen, sipping coffee.  Her eyes totally bugged out and she slammed the door, not coming out ’till we were gone.

It also seemed like she was suddenly gaining weight again too.  At least as far as I could tell through her baggy clothing.  There was something different now though.  Before when she’d gained it had been in specific places, now she just seemed to be expanding everywhere.  Yet she still seemed soft and curvaceous.  It tickled my brain in a certain way that made me curious and intuiged to find out what was really happening.

*

Bodybuilders around the world had a basic idea of what was going on.  They could tell that the women of the sport had been altered by the virus in a very specific way.  It seemed that any woman who was able to lift more than her own bodyweight with her upper body, would suddenly be able to build muscle at least ten times faster than men were able to, assuming they ate enough to fuel that much muscle growth.

Of the hundreds of women bodybuilders worldwide, all of them were totally thrilled by their development and all of them were trying to add as much muscle mass as they could.  In the week when this first became evident, most women only added about 50% to their size and strength.  None of them were eating enough yet to grow to their new potential.  By the second week, most women had nearly doubled their strength and thrilled by their gains were now eating much more to fuel their growing muscles!

A month after the end of the epidemic, any female bodybuilder who so desired, had grown as muscular as any male bodybuilder was capable of, and they were still growing.  Not many people follow bodybuilding, but within that community there was a huge uproar.  The general public would still take a few more weeks to catch on to what was really going on.

*

In the meantime, Laura and I had begun a relationship.  Unfortunately it was long distance. Fortunately there was Facebook, and Skype, and various other technological contraptions that enabled us to keep in close contact.

Not close enough contact though...  We were sharing stories and sending pictures back and forth and talking but of course it wasn’t enough.  We were already making plans to see each other again, but with our work schedules it didn’t seem to be possible `till the Easter weekend.  We had two days of vacation to work with...

It was two excrutiating weeks away.  During those two weeks Susan continued her isolation, and also continued to seem to grow.  Andy and I decided to surprise her one night by tackling her.  We knew approximately when she’d get home so we waited in ambush in the dark living room.  One way or another we were going to figure out why she’d been acting so reclusive lately, and force her to face it if necessary.

We heard her come in, the floor creaking ominously.  Then we leapt and tried to tackle her onto the couch.  I say tried.  We tried, and failed.  She didn’t move at all!  She also felt all hard, and bumpy.  We couldn’t comprehend it at first, then she asked us:

“You guys done?“  Without waiting for an answer, and with a huge smile she lifted her arms, and us with them!!  I could feel those hard bumps under her clothes shift and expand and grow as she flexed and exploded and did the impossible.  She was holding both of us off the ground, one on each arm!!

She didn’t stop there, she kept raising her arms up until she had us both overhead and we were looking down at her.  Her gorgeous face was filled with excitment.  Her incredible eyes were filled with wonder.  Her clothes were struggling to contain the bulk of her.  Actually they’d already ripped in a few places!  Her breasts were heaving, but not with exertion, with excitement, she looked like she could hold us like this forever...

Having made her initial point, she casually tossed us onto the couch and said “I guess since you now know, i might as well show you too.“  With that she proceeded to begin flexing her muscles one by one in turn.  Everytime she’d display a muscle, her bicep, her tricep, her delts, her traps, that part of her shirt would rip as her muscle burst through the thin fabric.

“I’ve outgrown these clothes anyway,“ she commented offhand as she flexed her lats, expanding as if she had a pair of wings growing behind her.  Her expanding back muscles ripped the shirt off the front of her, leaving her in just her sports bra.

She was built!!  Susan had muscles bursting all over her body.  Every part of her was now huge and wonderfully rounded by muscles that we figured only a guy could build, and that only after years of hard work.  It had only been a month!

I could feel the revulsion rolling off of Andy in waves, so could she apparently because she turned to me, put her hands behind her head, making her biceps pop alarmingly and causing a ripple of muscle to form on her tummy.  “I’m guessing you like what you see?“ she asked me as she also flexed her legs.  Her jeans shredded leaving tatters and what amounted to micro shorts.

She was not just built.  She was a powerhouse!!  She was sexy beyond my wildest imaginings and I began to tremble.

“Yep, this un likes it!“ and she grabbed my belt and again with one hand lifted me up off the couch and over her head.  “Here’s hoping your Laura likes what the virus did to us too...  Then she’ll be able to do this for you.  Don’t worry Andy,“ she said addressing him, “only the women who want to, will grow like me.  The rest of the women, who want to stay weak, will just go on as they always have.  Well, except for being totally beautiful and much better athletes than men ever were...“  You could tell what she thought of women who didn’t want the power that she now has.  Who wouldn’t want this in their woman?

“Are you going to tell Laura what you really want, or should we surprise her when she gets here?“

“I think surprise would be best.  Then I can guage her reaction better.“

“Surprise it is!  Of course I’m going to be even bigger in a week...“

“How is that possible?“ I stammered.

“We don’t quite know yet, but this was definitely the work of that retro whatsit...“

“Virus“ Andy added in dully.

“Oh relax Andy,“ she said setting me down again, “just because I want to be as muscular as I can doesn’t mean that your woman will too.  We don’t grow until we’re strong enough to lift our own bodyweight.  That seems to be the trigger, and it takes quite a bit of work to get to that point.  After that point it’s ludicrously easy, as you can see.  But she has to decide to get there and earn it!“

“Yeah, I guess i get it.  It’s just scary to think that every woman has this buried inside them now.“ Andy responded.

I apparently though it was awesome because i’d inched closer to Susan and totally wanted to feel the mass of her, the strength of her.  She caught me and when she glanced at me i took a step back.

“Go ahead, I’m not going to hide anymore and i might as well enjoy it as much as you’re going to.“ And with that she flexed one of her arms in a bicep pose, and flared out her lat with the other arm.  I let my hands roam almost all over her incredible body.  I kept it decent because, even though she’s now, potentially, the second most glorious woman in the world to me, she is still my housemate and I’m not going to make things that weird between us.  She’d stop me anyway.

I still had a hard time concealing the raging hard-on i had, and with a smile she caressed my face as i stared vacantly down to her height, trying to comprehend the size of her, “Don’t worry, something tells me your Laura will want this too, especially after she sees how you react to me when I’m even bigger next week...“  She then gave me a crushing hug and it was a long time before I fell asleep.  Suddenly a vision of Laura, with muscles like Susan’s, entered my imagination and it was at that point that I exploded.  I didn’t just explode in my pants, it felt like I was demolecularizing with pleasure at the thought of Laura with muscles.  I fell asleep with a smile on my face!

*

It began slowly.  There was a report on the local news of a dozen stations across the country.  “Female Bodybuilders exposed to the HEReV-e virus see massive gains in the gym.  Are they now stronger and more muscular than Men?  More at 11.“

Then there was a blurb on the National news.  “HEReV-e Virus has altered women in more ways than originally thought“

Then the paparazzi caught Jessica Biel as she was leaving a gym.  She was preparing for yet another Blade movie and had been working out.  She had also passed that point of strength where women’s bodies are suddenly capable of growing massively muscular in an extremely short time.  Jessica already looked like a professional women’s bodybuilder and was definitely rivalling most men in strength and size.

The uproar was instantaneous.  It escalated farther when in tennis, Venus, Serena, Maria, and a half dozen others showed up to the court bulging with more muscle than most had ever imagined women would ever be able to possess.  The women Basketball players were the next to explode with muscles and seeing as basically all of them were six feet tall and up, they made headlines because of their suddenly very intimidating stature.  Volleyball players exploded shortly thereafter, and then all the other women’s sports where strength and size create an advantage.

After that, the snowball turned into an avalanche when the women of bodybuilding were discovered by the general public and it was revealed that these women were clearly much larger, stronger and more muscular than their male counterparts.  They were so massive that even the most muscular of men seemed puny and undeveloped compared to the woman he was flexing next to.  It also helped immensely that women no longer needed massive amounts of hormones to acheive this.  This resulted in fewer women suffering from the masculinization effects previously dominant in the sport.  A definite plus.  A woman now takes to bodybuilding like a fish takes to water.

No matter what their reaction to how the virus had changed them, normal everyday women remained unaltered.  Unaltered except that now their bodies maintained perfectly healthy proportions and made them much more fit than men ever were.  Suddenly it was men trying to keep up with women in every sport.  Only those women, who now knew what would happen to them if they so chose, would leap to the next evolutionary stage.

*

It was at this point when I received a message from an ex-girlfriend of mine from High School!  That was totally unexpected.  I hadn’t heard from Andrea at all in close to 15 years and here she suddenly finds me.  No complaints because she’s a total sweetheart, smokin’ hot, and still is actually.  Her message was gushing with her usual pep! I also got the feeling that she was calling for a completely different reason than why she said she was calling.  

I’d originally asked her out because this one day, at lunch, the conversation had wandered around to the topic of girls with muscles.  Andrea had piped up at that point and said that girls could indeed have muscles.  She hadn’t touched a weight ever and she did.

So of course we hastled her into showing us and when she flexed her arm, up popped a huge round ball of muscle.  Way more that any of us would’ve expected for a tiny hottie like her.  It especially gave me shivers because here was one of the hottest girls in school, proudly displaying her muscle for us, and i found it to be sexy.  So i asked her out.

We dated for a bit but she quickly realized that i totally enjoyed her strength and muscles, but all she wanted was to be a normal weak little girl.  We didn’t last long because I wanted her to lift weights to grow bigger, and she found it to be repulsive.  It’s too bad because we had fun together.

Now however, she was reconnecting with me and the timing was somewhat suspicious.  Especially now that the world knew what women were now capable of.  Still, i met her for lunch, how could i not?

We met at the local diner and after we’d eaten and had our -’catching up with each other’ conversation she began to ask me the real questions she’d wanted to ask me that caused her to get in touch with me again.

“So what do you think of what that virus did to us?“

“I think it’s awesome, of course, but I’m sure you already figured that.“

“Yeah, I sort of did.  That’s why i wanted to talk to you, because you’re the only guy i know not grossed out by it all.  I’m still grossed out by it, but when I see so many women choosing to take the leap and explode with muscle, well it gets me thinking.“

“About?“

“About what... about... oh alright! About what our life would’ve been like had i not been grossed out by my muscles way back when.“

“So are you still grossed out?“

“Yes! No.  I don’t know... Yeah I still find it repulsive, but soo many of them are doing it and they either find it beautiful or aren’t grossed out by it.  I guess I never realized there were so many women out there who wanted to be strong and muscular like me, and now that they can be, they’re exploding left and right!  Urrgh, it’s soo weird!“

“Well, do you know what you want for yourself?“

“I just want to be li’l ole me!!  But I’ve never really been little.  Look at this!“ she complained as she flexed her arm.  She was wearing a tight long sleeved shirt and when she flexed, her arm expanded with muscle until her arm was easilly 15 inches around!!  “and I’ve never even touched a weight!  This is just how my arm normally is!!  Eeewwww! I can barely stand looking at it!“

I was trembling and she noticed...

“Whats the matter with you?  Are you grossed out too? Oh i knew it!  I should never have shown you!  Now you’re never going to talk to me again...“

“Andrea!  I’m trembling because you’re already so incredibly muscular!  Because i find it totally hot!  Because you’re even more beautiful than i’d ever imagined!“

“You’re just saying that!“

“No, I’m not.  I truly am attracted to you, and partly because of your natural strength!  Mostly because you’re an all around kick ass woman!“

“You really do like that?  Wow!  So weird!!  I can’t seem to get over it.  Aaack, OK, let’s not talk about it anymore.  OK?“

“Sure, but I will say this.  If you do decide to take the leap, it won’t take much work on your part, and I have a feeling that you’ll make all those other women look puny.“

“Really!!?  Awesome!  Eeeew, I’d be gigantic and ugly and so hideous...“

“I’d be thinking the exact oposite.  You’d be the most beautiful, gorgeous mesmerizing creature in all of creation.“

“Wowwwww, you’d really think that?  And tell me that too? Hmmm...“ she finished with a vacant expression on her face as she wrestled with the potential inside her.

We were now late back to work from our lunch breaks, but as we said goodbye, I invited her over to our house tomorrow night when we’d be grilling again.  She gave me a very strong hug and said she’d be there.  We exchanged numbers and I gave her my address, and she skipped off to work.

Yowza!  I barely made it through the afternoon because the sight of her very muscular arm inflating her sleeve kept creeping into my brain.  I tried very hard not to think about how a woman with that much natural talent and genetics for bodybuilding, would totally obliterate everyone else if she exploded with muscle.  She truly would make any other woman on the planet look puny in comparison.  Even if they were hardcore bodybuilders, Andrea’s genetics would allow her to add that much more to her physique and no one would be able to keep up with her!

Somehow I made it home, and finally, in the privacy of my room, I let my imagination go wild.  Somehow, in the visions, Andrea was now almost eight feet tall and bulging with more muscle than any human anywhere had ever dreamed of possessing.  Yet she was still proportionate and possessing a well balanced physique.  Still, her arm alone seemed to be as big as my entire body, and that was unflexed!  This vision came to me and i instantly de-molecularied with pleasure again.  

I felt a twinge of guilt knowing that Laura might not be capable of as much as Andrea was, and may not even want it.  Of course it wasn’t guranteed that Andrea would choose to explode either, so i didn’t have to worry about that choice just yet.

The next night she came over just like she said she would, and we had a great time together.  Her daughter was at a friend’s sleepover so she had the whole night to herself.

That was the night she met Susan.  Susan was gleefully adding muscle on top of muscle to the point where every time I’d see her, an uncontrollable tremor of desire would wreck my body.  Whenever she’d stand on her tip toes to reach food from the top shelf her calves would baloon and sometimes rip her jeans.  Whenever she’d pick up her bag her arms would explode and fill her sleeve to near transprancy.  Whenever she’d casually shrug, her shoulders, traps and neck would make her seem like she was built like a tank!  All these casual movements that highlighted her immense muscularity would totally overpower me, and I didn’t even have the honor of being her man, of being able to feel how her muscularity worked, functioned as she moved, experienced the undeniable strength and power of her new physique!

When Andrea met Susan, she was speechless.  Susan was wearing shorts and a camisole and as a result, almost all of her glorious muscles were on display.  A total 180 from before when she was in hiding.  After a second Andrea realised she was gaping and closed her jaw.  She also tried to control the bugging out of her eyes.  Unsuccessfully I may add.  She instantly began pelting Susan with questions and they were quickly immersed in their own conversation.  A conversation that consisted of a doubtful Andrea asking questions and a very encouraging Susan providing the answers Andrea didn’t want to hear.

“You should see how strong Andrea is already, and she’s never lifted in her life.“ I dropped into their conversation.  Andrea shot me a look that said I was going to pay for that later.  I smiled back, telling her to bring it on!

Of course Susan insisted and was totally wowed by the size and defenition already present in Andrea’s musculature.

“Oh! My! God! You are a natural!  You’ll be sooo good at this that you’ll totally love it!  Wow, I don’t think even I’d be able to keep up with you...“

“Wait, wait wait!  I’m not going to do that to myself!  I like the way I am, even though it is different, and sexy in its own way, and to be so strong and not have to worry about getting attacked anymore.  Maybe even doing incredible feats of strength like the Hulk or something....  Eewww, no!  Gross!“

“So you find me disgusting?“ Susan asked a little hurt.

“No! Not at all,“ and she totally sounded sincere. “It’s just that for me, to think that I would be able to do this, grosses me out.  I think you’re beautiful and it suits you well.“

“It’d suit you even better than it does me.  This is what you were born to do.  Don’t deny it any longer...!“ Susan tried to convince her.  I could tell that having someone else affirm what I’d already told her, added to her confusion about it all.

“Hmmm, I’ll think abou it,“ Andrea finished.  The evening continued and every once in a while I’d catch Andrea startled by some inconsquential movement on Susan’s part that would highlight another of her muscles.  Then I’d see the conflict warring with the desire, but it seemed that the looks of revulsion had all but vanished.  Maybe she would embrace her destiny after all.