The soda fizzed and burned a little as Dana swallowed, washing the tablet of ecstasy down. Her eyes and nipples were back in their proper places. Both she and Terry were sitting on the edge of her bed. "So how long will this take to hit us?" Dana asked. She’d never taken ecstasy before.

"It’ll take about 20 minutes." Terry replied.

"I can hardly wait. My whole body is tingling," Dana said.

Terry nodded. "Yeah. I have a bit of a body buzz going on too."

"So, twenty minutes," Dana said. She ran a hand under his shirt and up his back. "However shall we pass the time?" she asked and leaned into him, picking at the hem of his shirt with her other hand.

"I can think of a few things we could do."  Terry offered. "Most of them do require the removal of your pants though."

Dana straightened up and brought her hands to her sides. "Now that’s unfair. I’ve been topless almost since you got here." She pushed herself off the bed and turned to face Terry. "I ruined a bra for you. You’d better get your shirt off mister. These pants," she pointed to her tight sweatpants, "stay on until yours come off. Now show me some skin."

"Oh, demanding little minx," Terry noted. "You enjoyed destroying that bra just as much as I enjoyed watching it. Don't try to lie. The size of your tits shows me just how much you enjoyed it. I've never seen you this big before."

Dana actually blushed. That didn’t happen very often, but it also wasn’t often she got caught enjoying herself and called on it. It was true; she had enjoyed bursting out of her bra. "That’s beside the point," she said, putting her hands on her hips. She used her stern voice. "You get naked before me or these toys," Dana stroked her still massively swollen breasts, "get put away."

"Put away in what?" Terry asked. "There’s no way those puppies would fit in any shirts you own."

"I’ll put them under a blanket," Dana said, "or take them off and put them in Emily’s room."

Terry sighed. "Fine, I shall divest myself of clothing to pleaseth milady."

Dana snickered at his butchered use of Elizabethan English. "Thine lady doth command thee to be naked hitherto such time as she doth deem this evening be done. Until then good sir," Dana turned quickly, "I shall await thee in the adjoining chamber."  As Dana walked out of the room she pushed her sweatpants down her bottom a little, almost having to tug at them, revealing a purple whale tail.

Terry stared after Dana. He was up the instant she left the room. He would have been up sooner, but had been distracted by Dana displaying her thong, and the fact that her breasts were visible from behind. It may have been that or the lighting, but Terry swore her waist was thinner too. Either way, her extreme curvaceousness was beyond titillating.

He leapt to his feet and quickly followed, tearing at the button at the neck of his shirt. Ignoring the rest of the buttons, Terry pulled the shirt up, putting his hint of abs on display. His shirt had just cleared his head when passed though the doorway into the living room. He threw the shirt beside the couch and started fiddling with his belt.

Dana smiled as Terry’s shirt flew by her. He was really excited. She’d never seen him undress this quickly before. Maybe it was the ecstasy or maybe it was her ability. Either way, she liked being able to command this type of action out of a man. She reached the couch and turned around as Terry unbuttoned his jeans and practically tore the zipper in his haste to get it undone.

Terry paused to let his pants fall. He stepped out of them with one foot and kicked them toward where his shirt lay with the other. Clad only in his boxer-briefs he finished his journey to his waiting girlfriend. "Is this more to your liking?" he asked as he arrived and assumed a casual pose worthy of an underwear advertisement, leaning on the couch beside Dana.

Dana pursed her lips, looking him up and down. She noted the outline of his member, awkwardly turned to the side by his tight undergarments. "Yeah. It’ll do," she said. "It can’t be comfortable though." Dana patted Terry’s crotch. "Look how compressed things are. Maybe you should just take it all off," she suggested.

"Oh, it’ll come off," Terry said, "later. Right now you owe me your pants."

"Tit for tat I see." Dana said. "Very well, if I must I must." She tucked her thumbs into the waistband of her pants. The elastic pulled tight as she did so, pressing in on Dana’s fleshy posterior

"Ah, no," Terry interrupted her, lightly grasping her wrists. "Allow me." He pulled her hands out of her pants then pulled down on them. There were twin pops as Dana’s arms both came off with her shoulders.

"Oh!" Dana exclaimed. She looked down at her shoulders then back to Terry. She ginned. "You want to play? Usually you just want to go."

"I want to have some fun," Terry replied. Dana pursed her lips as he hung her limp arms over the back of the couch. "Now,’ he said, running his hands over Dana’s empty shoulders and trailing them down her back, "about your pants."

Terry slowly pushed her pants down over her ass. It was a tight fit. "That’s a good start," Dana encouraged him. Terry quietened her with a kiss and gripped her curves tightly. He pulled, lifting Dana up and setting her thong-flossed cheeks on the back of the couch.

Dana unconsciously moved to wrap her arm around Terry’s shoulders. It was a natural reaction. Instead, her loose arms unbent, over balanced and tumbled down onto the seat of the couch. The reminder that she wasn’t all in one peace lit a fire within Dana. She leaned into Terry, rubbing his chest with hers and grounding her hips against his.

Terry pushed her away. "Ah, now it’s my turn to make you wait," he said.

"But..." Dana said, pouting.

"My play time now, remember? Pants off first dear." Terry insisted.

"Well, hurry up," Dana demanded. "If my arms were on they’d be off by now. Too bad somebody seems to have removed them. I can’t exactly push them down."

Terry grinned as her. "Oh are we getting a bit anxious?" He slipped his fingers into the waistband of her pants again without looking down. "She likes to tease but not to be teased?"

"Damn straight," Dana agreed. "You know I fuck hard and I fuck fast."

Terry pulled Dana’s pants down to her knees. "But being forced to wait can bring things to such a peak." Dana’s purple thong was developing a wet spot. Terry felt it when he slid a hand up the inside of Dana’s thigh. It brought a smile to his lips. "Doesn’t it?" he asked in a satisfied tone.

"Goddammit, yes." Dana said. "But the waiting is killing me." Terry finished removing her pants and stepped close to her once again. Dana responded by wrapping her legs around his waist and pulling his hips against hers. The body buzz was increasing, or maybe the ecstasy was starting to hit. "Take me, right now," she ordered.

"In good time," Terry said calmly.

"Fuck! Why torture me?" Dana pleaded. "I want you. Isn’t that enough?"

Terry kissed her. "Because every once in a while it’s fun to torture you," he explained. He put his hands on Dana huge hips, holding her in place and took a step back. Dana tried to keep him close; she tightened her legs around him to no avail. Her breath caught as she heard the pops and felt thin tingle run across her hips. She thrilled even as she tried to clutch at him. Her arms flailed uselessly on the couch. Her legs tried to tighten, but they just fell to the floor without her hips to support them. Dana, the torso and head, could do nothing except teeter backwards, held upright only by Terry’s hands that were somehow slipping.

Time seemed to slow down for Dana. The now surprisingly top-heavy girl slipped out of Terry’s grasp. She looked down her body at Terry and surprised to find her breasts blocking her view much more than she expected.  ‘Odd,’ she thought as she fell backwards, ‘they’re never been that big before. Not that I really mind.’

Dana was surprisingly calm as she passed the horizontal plane. Not a cry escaped her lips. Terry on the other hand made a frantic grab that fell short of the mark. Dana’s chest had continued to swell as they had played and teased each other. The speed of growth had increased significantly in just the past couple of minutes. She was significantly larger than she had ever been. Her previously perky D cups which had grown to H cups where now monstrous K cups. Dana had always had a thing for big breasts and even longed for hers to be larger from time to time, now in particular being one of those times. She found the hourglass shape very aesthetically pleasing, the more extreme the better. She owned a few corsets and was known the wear them out to clubs without a shirt to cover up. To find herself with at least a top half rarely seen outside of graphic comics and cartoons, it definitely was a welcome surprise.

Dana’s hips had gotten larger as well; not as much her breasts had, but enough to make her pants very tight. On top of that, though, her waist had shrunken dramatically. What had been a 26-inch waist before was now a mere 20 inches. The growth in her breasts had literally overshadowed that change. As Dana tilted back and her breasts rolled up towards her head, her tiny waist was revealed to Terry who had to pause in amazement after his failed attempt to catch his tumbling girlfriend.

Dana tumbled back onto the cushions of the couch, her head striking the cushion first. Her titanic tits dangled up her body, covering her face nearly up to her eyebrows; that was until she felt a tingle run across her neck. Her neck separated from her body which continued its journey downward. Dana’s head rolled back, giving her a faceful of her own breasts before her body’s momentum carried them away. Her hips fell onto the coffee table, nearly sending the quiches flying, and her chest stayed propped on the couch, at least until Dana felt tingling going across her waist.

From back to front, just above her hips, Dana’s body separated like a book. Her back folded while her tummy pulled away from her pubic triangle. Gravity pulled her down relentlessly, not that Dana resisted much.  Her buttocks pressed up against her shoulder blades as her waist finally separated and both parts fell to the carpeted floor. The bottom half upside down landed upside-down leaving Dana's bald sex pointing up. Dana top half was delayed in its decent. Her breasts, still mostly above her shoulders from when her body had flipped over, hadn't cleared the couch cushions. Their drag on the upholstery kept Dana's chest aloft, at least until their connections, like her waist, succumbed to the force of gravity. Only then did Dana's top half fall and land on top of her skyward-facing snatch, sliding off to rest on its left side. One of Dana's breasts rolled into the slight depression in the couch cushion formed by her head. The other one slipped off the couch, landed on her groin and rolled to the opposite side that her chest had.

Terry's mouth soundlessly worked, making him look like a gasping fish. He’d just watched his girlfriend literally fall to pieces. He made a quick survey, counting nine pieces: two legs, one on either side of him behind the couch; two arms on the end of the couch; one head, facing up on the middle cushion; two breasts, one beside her head on the middle cushion, one on the floor between the couch and coffee table; one pelvis with the good parts pointing up, beside the breast on the floor; and one chest, on the opposite side of her pelvis form her breast. This was crazy. Terry froze, unsure what to do now.

Dana drew a deep shaky breath. This was exactly the type of thing Dana wanted. Her body was falling to pieces outside her control. She needed someone, something, to take control and tear her apart. She had tried, but when she did it to herself (as she had done many times shortly after discovering this ability) it just wasn't the same. Having it done to her, that was an entirely different ballgame. Her loin was ablaze, inflamed with desire. She moaned, "Ohhh…"

"Holy fuck," Terry said when he regained capacity for speech. "Are you alright Dana? Shit, I didn’t mean to drop you. Your hips they just, I dunno. I couldn’t keep grip on them."

"Oh, I'm doing just fine," Dana said. "Being in pieces..." She trailed off and drew a deep breath, "it definitely works for me."

"Falling apart like this turns you on?" Terry asked.

"You have no idea what it’s like," Dana replied, "but I need you to finish the job Terry"

Terry came around the edge of the couch. "But you like being in control. I can’t really imagine being much more helpless than this." He nudged Dana’s boob with his foot.

"I can’t explain it," Dana said as Terry sat beside her head and breast. He looked her parts over. "Maybe I have a bit of sub in me after all," Dana suggested.

After a few moments Dana asked, "Are you going to do anything or just look at me?"

"I'm just thinking about what I can do," Terry said. He leaned over and picked up Dana’s thong-clad hips. "Well," Terry said as he caressed Dana’s rounded rump. "I guess you being in pieces will at least make taking this thing off this easier."

Getting his finger under a leg band wasn’t as easy as Terry had hoped. He'd thought they'd looked tight, but actually getting even one lone finger under them was ridiculous. "Painted on" didn’t describe how tight her panties were. Flesh was bulging around the thin strips of fabric; there was no give at all. Terry could only get a finger in because Dana's ass was so plush.

Terry slid the leg band down over Dana’s hip. There was no way she could have gotten them on as easily as she said. Her underwear seemed just as inadequate as her bra had been. Terry had to squeeze her ass cheek hard to get it through the too-small hole. He was a bit surprised that Dana didn't protest, but her vocalizations said it was what she craved. "Damn, babe," Terry remarked, "how did you even get this on?"

"It was easy, I just pulled it up." Dana said. "Hurry up and get it off. I want you inside me like this."

Terry squeezed the last of Dana’s one hips out of the thong. The scent of Dana’s sex assaulted his nose. His already-throbbing member strained against his own underwear. He could tease Dana no longer. Terry didn't even bother getting the other side of Dana's thong off.  He pushed the bottom aside, slipped his cock out the slit in the front of his boxer briefs and slid Dana’s sex over top of his own; burying it to the hilt in one shot. Neither one of them lasted long.

Emily quickly packed up her books and writing implements. Just because she was a good student didn't mean she enjoyed spending more time than necessary at the library. There was supposed to be a large group going to The Rake. Emily didn't get her drink on often, but when she did, she preferred to do it in the company of many friends and in a loud atmosphere.

Red shirt was still there. He looked like he was getting ready to head out too. Emily hurried past, stealing another quick admiring glance. Their eyes locked briefly. Emily was again taken aback by his eyes, this time behind the glasses. There was a hint of grey to them that Emily found very intriguing. She quickly looked away and hustled out of the library, red rising in her cheeks.

Shouldering what felt like a decent-sized tree or two, Emily began her trek to The Rake. She didn't notice the door opening and a lanky figure in a red shirt carrying a messenger-style laptop bag emerging shortly after she exited the building. He looked around quickly, spied Emily farther away than he would have expected, and set off in pursuit.

Terry picked up Dana’s head off the couch beside him and gave her a kiss. "I love you," he said. His softening member was still within Dana’s separated hips on his lap. "I know we never said it before tonight, but I feel like I’ve loved you for a while."

Dana smiled at him. "I feel the same way about you. The way you make me feel… It’s magic." She paused.

Terry smiled back. "I’m glad that I have that effect on you. It’s nice to know that I can rock your world the way you always seem to rock mine."

"I’m glad that you didn’t freak out on me when I took off my tits earlier," Dana admitted. "I wasn’t sure if you’d run screaming or not."

Terry laughed. "Run screaming, your tits in hand." Dana laughed too. "Seriously," Terry continued, "you are the most fun person I know. The fact that you come apart just makes you incredibly fascinating. Thank you. Thank you for sharing it with me. It can’t have been easy."

Dana blushed. "It wasn’t. I’m glad I did though. I feel so much closer to you now."

"I feel closer to you too," Terry admitted, "and incredibly more turned on."

Dana smirked. "I can tell. You're getting hard again."

"I can't help it." Terry pleaded. "See what you do to me? Just talking about it gets me going again." He pushed the other side of Dana’s tong off. It went much easier.

"The facts that I'm still in nine pieces, and that your cock is still inside me have nothing to do with it I'm sure," Dana said dryly.

Terry laughed. "You got me there. Still, you're incredible, and you make my penis hard."

Dana laughed too. "I wouldn't have it any other way," she said. "I feel so connected with you right now; you know?"

"Yeah, I know," Terry said. "The E must be kicking in. Do you feel that sense of love and connectedness with everything?"

It was like a light turned on for Dana. Suddenly anything she thought about just made sense. "Whoa. You're right. I feel like everything is connected, and I'm connected to everything," she paused, "except myself in the physical sense anyway I suppose. I can see it now. I love everything, and it all loves me back."

"That right there is the E hitting you," Terry sagely said. "Where's your drink? You're going to need it soon. The pasties from the pot and dehydration from the E make for a powerful thirst."

"It's in my bedroom, same as yours," Dana said, the sense of wonder still present in her voice.

"Right. I'll go get them," Terry offered.

"Sure. It would be kinda hard for me to right now," Dana replied.

Terry stuck his tongue out at her. He rocked back, then up to his feet. Dana's hips were still impaled on his cock which was able to support them unaided once again. "Be right back dear."

Dana laughed. "Um… Are you taking that with you?" she asked.

Terry lifted his arms up behind his head and leaned back a bit, pushing out his and her hips. "Yeah. I kinda like it where it is right now." Terry straightened back up. His hands came down to cup Dana's ass. "My penis definitely likes it. Is that a problem?"

Dana attempted to shake her head. "No. No problem at all. It kinda fits there, doesn't it?"

"My thoughts exactly," Terry said. He started around the couch. "Great minds think alike."

While Terry was in the other room, Dana found her mind turning to her strange abilities. Where did their powers come from? Why did she and Rebecca have different powers than Jason? Were her and Rebecca's abilities truly the same? That was an interesting one. Dana had noticed that the way she separated was different from how Rebecca had described it.

Rebecca had described it as a release, like an elastic snapping. The more relaxed she was the easier it happened; with Dana though it wasn't quite the same. She had been plenty relaxed and had not fallen to pieces the way Rebecca had that one night. In the time since, despite repeated sessions of getting too high to move, she had never fallen apart. Maybe their abilities were subtly different.

Rebecca seemed to have minimal control over her detachment and stretching. Dana on the other hand seemed to have to let herself come apart. It was a conscious act.

Dana's body was buzzing. She moved one of her arms, feeling around blindly until her hand went off the edge of the cushion. "Alright Dana," she thought. "You can do this." She closed her eyes and focused on her hand. The buzzing feeling lessened in her body but intensified in her hand. "Alright hand," Dana thought, mentally segregating it from her arm, "let go."

A weight fell off the end of Dana's arm. She thought she felt a breeze on the fine hairs on the back of her hand. She certainly felt her hand impacting on her breast an instant later. "Yes!" Dana jubilantly thought as her fingers scrabbled for purchase as her hand slid off her yielding flesh to land palm-up on the carpet.

Dana was ecstatic. This was something she could absolutely control. To know that she could detach at will, without outside forces acting upon her… It made her tingle. Dana pondered how could she make use of this? She couldn't come up with anything practical. Then her mind turned to what she had felt when she and Terry had been wrestling for the joint. That's when she felt something poke her cervix and she was interrupted by Terry's voice.

Terry paused and looked around Dana's room. It truly reflected the type of person she was. On her walls hung a few posters of movies and bands; she had a cork board full of ticket stubs to shows, doodles, and a small section for receipts. Her desk was cluttered, save a small area reserved for work; the rest of it seemed a dumping ground.

He spied the two glasses of pop on the bedside table. Terry made his way over to the bed, holding Dana's hips tight against his own, and sat on the edge. Terry gave her hips a few slow pumps as he looked around again. The disorder made him smile. It reminded him of himself.

His apartment was sparsely furnished. He had a couch and a single bed in a bachelor bad. His wall had a couple of tattered posters, and he had a few collectibles. He was still rocking a tube TV on the same beside table-turned-entertainment unit he'd had since senior year. Back then, just living on your own was pretty badass. He'd dealt, kept enough to survive, and smoked away the rest of his money. Now he'd reached a time in his life where he wanted more. Dana deserved more.

Terry sighed. He couldn't believe his luck. He'd done nothing in his life to deserve someone as special as Dana. He'd pissed away most of it, and now had virtually nothing more than a cramped apartment and loyal clientele who'd most likely turn him in to avoid getting busted. Terry had no illusions about his life. He promised himself that he would do right by her. Maybe the E was messing with him, or maybe it was her pussy on his prick, but it felt genuine.

As Terry went to pick up the two glasses of pop he noticed something that he hadn't noticed when they were in there before. Behind the two glasses was pink disc the size of a silver dollar with a depression in the middle that looked like a closed hole. He blinked. It looked familiar. Realization struck him and his cock immediately became hard as steel again. It made sense, given what he'd learned about Dana today, and that she was okay with not using protection. Dana was in ten pieces, not nine. Terry was looking at Dana's cervix, which she had removed and left on her bedside table. "Hey babe," he called as he poked it with his finger. "Is this what I think it is?"

"Yes it is," Dana called back. There was a pause. Terry poked her cervix again, making Dana warn, "You'd better not be touching that with your cock. I'm not ready for kids yet."

"Neither am I," Terry reassured her. "The thought of a little me running around is horrific."

"Good," Dana replied. "Hurry with those drinks. I wanna try something and I need your help."

"Be right there," Terry said, but he had a dilemma. Both hands had drinks in them, leaving him without a way to ensure Dana's hips didn't fall off his cock. He considered his options then called out, "Brace yourself babe. This might be cold."

"What do you mean?" Dana asked. "What's going to –"She gasped as two chilled discs were put in place nothing had ever been put before. "Cold!" Dana breathed. The separation at her waist was surprisingly sensitive.  As Terry's hands found their way back to her ass she realized exactly what he was doing.

"Are you using my hips like a tray to hold the glasses?" Dana asked incredulously?

"Yes I am," Terry replied. "I didn't want to drop anything."

"Fuck that’s cold. My splits are sensitive," Dana said.

"I’m sorry babe," Terry said apologetically. "I didn’t think they would be that cold."

"Just hurry back. I need your help getting reassembled," Dana said. "I can't get myself back together. Everything just feels so much more like it is, you know? It's a little overwhelming. Everything has exploded tactilie-ly. It's like a curtain between me and the world has been drawn aside. Is this what E is always like? If so, we should all be on it all the time. Holy crap, I have so much energy. I feel the need to do something. Can we do something? We could go dancing at a club. The feel a fat bass line would be amazing. Terry? We need to turn on the stereo. Terry? What's taking you so long? You've been gone for, like, an hour."

Terry carefully made his way back to the couch in the living room. "Alright, I'm back," he said as he put the drinks down one at a time. His other hand kept Dana's hips joined to his own. The trip to the bedroom and back had only been a few minutes, five tops, but had felt like an eternity. It didn't help that his boxer briefs felt tight and were starting to itch. Time dilation can be a hell of a thing.

After the drinks were put down, Terry decoupled himself from Dana's hips, eliciting a gasp from her. The sudden lack of warmth around his cock was a bit of a shock, and he'd have preferred to keep it nestled within the petals of Dana's flower, but their separation was unfortunately required for him to strip. Terry had to get out of his underwear, they were driving him crazy.

He put down Dana's hips next to the drinks on the table and practically ripped his sole remaining piece of clothing off, almost falling over as it tangled in his feet. Dana laughed at his struggle to maintain balance. As soon as he was safe, his boxer briefs were kicked across the room. "That's better," he said. Then, unthinking and naked, he fell back onto the couch on the only free cushion beside Dana's head.

Terry's impact on the couch seat bounced Dana's head and boob. "Whoa! Terry!" Dana cried as her head left the safety of a solid if soft surface and took flight. She knew her breast was going off the couch and could only hope that her head didn't do the same as the room tilted.

Terry was slow to react when Dana cried out. Her breast fell to the carpeted floor, rolling up against Terry's foot. Her head bounced once on the seat cushion on her ear and was launched on a trajectory that would have landed it on the hard coffee table. Fortunately, Terry was able to catch her head before that happened.

"Shit, I'm sorry babe," Terry said. "I didn't know that was going to happen." He brought her head back to the couch. "Good thing I caught you. That table is pretty solid."

Dana was a bit scrambled from her bounce. She groaned.

"Maybe I should get you back together." Terry suggested. Dana would have nodded if she could.

"So do you think your powers might have been acting subconsciously this evening?" Terry pondered after assembling Dana and letting her recover from the bouncing head incident. "I mean, your breasts were the largest I had ever seen by a large margin, your waist was tiny tiny, and you saw the difficulty I had getting your underwear off."

"Maybe," Dana said. "That would make sense. Isn't ecstasy supposed to make you want to screw everybody? Maybe I was unconsciously trying to feminize myself for you."

Terry scoffed. "That's not quite how E works," he said. "It increases feelings of closeness towards others, gives a general sense of things being right in the world, and eases introspection. If you're already close to a person, or someone uses the right moves, I can see how intimacy that wouldn't happen sober might come to pass."

"We've swapped bodily fluids before, and you were going to get fucked tonight regardless of the ecstasy," Dana's said. "Maybe my body was trying to make itself more attractive to you.

"My whole body was tingling," she continued. "I had just assumed that it was a combination of the pot and the ecstasy. Now that I think about it, it was very similar to the tingling I felt earlier when I swear my arm got longer."

Terry arched an eyebrow. "When did this happen? I didn't notice it."

"It was when we were wrestling for the joint," Dana said. "I felt a tingle down the length of my arm and all of a sudden I could reach your hand. I just had to want it enough."

"So maybe you subconsciously were stretching your hips wider and your boobs bigger?" Terry suggested, ending it as a question.

"It's entirely possible," Dana agreed. "The extra mass had to come from somewhere. It must have come from my waist somehow.

Terry nodded. "That makes sense."

"And now that we both have had our release, you're not as pent up, so I guess my body is returning to a more natural state," Dana finished.

"That's pretty amazing," said Terry.

"It really is, isn't it?" Dana agreed. "I'm amazing! You're amazing! Everything is amazing! Let's dance to celebrate." Instead of reaching for the remote, Dana extended her arm towards the stereo by the television and concentrated. Her hand moved closer as her arm started to stretch.

"Whoa." Terry said, staring at her. Dana's arm grew to a foot longer than normal. As it lengthened however, it also lost diameter. And four feet long (two more than normal), Dana's arm was an inch and a half thinner. Her hand, still reaching, was two feet from the stereo controls still.

Dana brought her other hand up to support her extending arm. At two feet farther out than normal, the weight of her hand alone was surprising. As her limb extended, it didn't grow any stronger. The farther out her hand got, the less leverage she had. For Dana it felt like she was carrying a reasonably heavy textbook at arm’s length. She concentrated harder, pushing her hand out farther. Her teeth started to grind.

At three feet longer than normal Dana's arm started to bend, and not at the elbow. Her bones acquired a curve and her hand started to droop towards the floor. Dana adjusted her arms angle up and continued pushing.

When her hand actually reached the controls for the stereo Dana's arm was a little over seven feet long, but was scarcely wider than two pencils lying side by side. Dana was trembling trying to support the weight of just her hand at that distance. It was a relief to have something to rest it on. Dana released the breath she had been unconsciously holding and unclenched her jaw.

Terry was awed. "That is amazing." Dana was panting a bit. It hadn't been as easy to extend her arm as she had expected. She said as much as hung her hand from the top of the stereo by her fingers, resting her arm. "That kinda makes sense," Terry said. "You’re not getting stronger muscles. The further out you push your hand, the heavier your hand will feel. That's physics."

"I thought you failed physics." Dana retorted.

"But not because I didn't understand it," Terry pointed out, "that was because I didn’t apply myself to it. I understood everything the teacher said in that class. I just never cared to do the work or the tests, or even show up half the time."

Dana pouted. "You suck. I was so lost in that class."

"And I respect you more for trying hard and passing," Terry complimented her.

Dana blushed. "Thanks," she said. "Anyway, I know that dancing is the things to do on E." She pushed the power button with her thumb. "Let us dance." Dana released the stereo and reeled her hand back. She had wanted to do it quickly, so she willed it to happen as quickly as she could. Her arm shortened fast, too far. In slightly longer than the second it took the stereo to start playing, Dana's arm ended it up half the length of her other arm and significantly thicker.

Terry laughed as the bass started thumping. "It looks like you have a large chubby baby arm."

Dana laughed too. "It does, doesn't it?" She manipulated her arm. It felt weird, kind of like she was wearing a balloon suit. The extra flesh made bending her elbow significantly more difficult. There was no way she'd be able to dance with her arm like that.

A little more slowly, Dana pushed her arm out again. This time though, instead of just thinking she wanted it longer, she made a point of think she wanted it normal. Her arm extended as expected; and as she had hoped, it stopped when her arms were the same length. It seemed like her body had a default state. That was good to know. It gave Dana confidence, knowing that if she really fucked her body up she'd be able to resume her normal state.

Dana took a long drink from her still-chilled pop. She looked at Terry, her head tilted down slightly, with a smile on her lips. "Hey lover," she said, "give me a kiss and let's dance."

Terry happily obliged.

Emily joined her friends in the booth at the back of the pub. She slid her book bag under the table, keeping it between her feet, and ordered a pint of the microbrew honeybrown. Mentally, she was exhausted, three hours and four full handwritten pages later, she was done. Emily enjoyed writing things down by hand. She felt it made remembering things easier and lent a bit of personality in a world increasingly sterilized by typed sheets and computer interfaces. She wasn't a technophobe by any stretch of the imagination. She just liked the process and preferred the results of using script.

Most of Emily's friends were well on their way to inebriation. Emily's tolerance was far from their level. She nursed her beer, laughing as much at her friends as with them. Her feeling of frustration from earlier had not disappeared; they had in fact lessened, but had been brought to the fore again when she arrived at the pub to find that none of her single friends were there. As the evening progressed and more drinks were imbibed and her mated friends became more withdrawn into each other, Emily's frustration boiled over. Fueled by the beer (and with loosened inhibition from the same source), she slapped her hand down on the table top.

"I need a night of unfettered passion," she declared. Her friends looked at her, amused. "Dammit, I want someone to take me and rail me until I can't walk right the next day." Her friends laughed at the normally demure Emily's venting. "I know the mechanics and physiology of it better than anyone here. Christ, it seems like half my textbooks are dedicated to the reproductive arts."

"I'm sure it can't be that bad, Emily," her friend George said.

"Easy for you to say with a bombshell like Heather on your arm," Emily said with a tinge of bitterness. Heather blushed a bit at the complement. That blush deepened as Emily continued. "You two probably fuck like rabbits. George, I wouldn't be surprised if you had a finger or two in her cooch right now. Where has your left hand been for the past fifteen minutes? Christ, I'm munch carpet for her."

The table was suddenly silent. Emily, usually the most reserved one of the group, got very red in the absence of noise with her last statement hanging. "I'm sorry," she blurted out. "I didn't mean..." She trailed off.

Raucous laughter burst forth from everyone present. "Oh my god, do you ever need to get laid Emily," Denise said. "Wanna tend my tulips? I'm sure Daren won't mind if he can watch. Would you hon?" Daren shook his head emphatically. More laughter ensued.

Emily apologized. "I'm sorry guys; it’s just that Dana's at home with Terry right now." A round of ‘ahs’ occurred. Dana was well known around campus, as was Terry, for more altogether nefarious reasons.

"Oh Emily," Heather said comfortingly, "I can see why you're pent up. Dana is..." She blew air through pursed lips. Everyone at the table nodded.

"I'd munch her carpet." Denise remarked. There was more laughter.

"I don't think there's any carpet to munch," Emily laughed.

When the laughter died down George asked. "Emily, see that guy over there?" He indicated a direction with a nod. "The guy in the red button shirt and khakis? I’m gonna do you a favour."

Emily turned her head slightly. She saw the guy George mentioned. It was the guy from the library. Emily's heart started to quicken. Was this meant to be? She played it cool with her friends. "Yeah," she said casually, "I've seen him around a bit the past few days. What about him?"

"He's checking you out in the mirror behind the bar." Daren said. "Every few minutes he's looked at you either in the mirror or directly."

"No he can't be," Emily denied. "He's never looking when I glance over there. I'd have caught him. Besides, there is plenty of better eye candy around here."

"That's how we know," George said. He leaned closer to Emily. "I'm breaking the man code right now. I hope you appreciate it. He has good reflexes and a good eye for reflective surfaces." George pointed to the mirror, the windows, and the glass covered bulletin board. "Whenever you look, he looks away an instant before. He's not doing that for Heather or Denise. He's fixated on you."

Emily blushed. She started twisting her hair around a finger. He was interested! "What should I do?" she asked. "I don't want to frighten him off. This hasn't happened to me before."

Daren signed the waitress, indicating that he wanted a couple of pints. "When the beer gets here," he said, "you're going to pick them up, walk straight to his table, sit down, put a beer in front of him and tell him your name. After that, it's his move." Heather and Denise agreed.

"Alright, I’ll do it," Emily said.

When the beer arrived, Emily picked up the two glasses. She was pretty nervous. "Wish me luck," she said as the slipped out of the booth. She didn’t hear if her friends did or not.

The pub was reasonably busy which wasn’t really much of a surprise at it was 10 in the evening on a Friday night, right next to campus. She had to weave her way through the crowd, holding the drinks high so they didn’t get knocked and spilt. Red shirt watched her coming.

Emily put the beer down on the table as she arrived. One in front of the empty seat, the other in front of the mostly full beer the guy had in his hands. That wasn’t part of the plan, Emily pushed ahead though. She took a seat. "Hi. I’m Emily," she said.

Karl didn’t say anything immediately. He looked at Emily, down at the beer she had brought him, and back up to her. He raised his own beer to his lips and drank it all, maintaining eye contact. This wasn’t how things were supposed to go down. He was just supposed to keep an eye on her. She apparently thought he was interested in her. True enough, she was cute and seemed pretty intelligent. He could see them having fun together, but that’s not why he had been watching her. He needed to stall while he thought of something to say.

This wasn't Karl's first choice of employment. He wasn’t good at subterfuge. He'd just needed to get out of the genetics lab back home. It had turned rather toxic for him and the team he was on ever since someone had used a therapy they had been working on and it turned out less than spectacular. The subject hadn't died, but rumor was that she was far from normal.

Karl had taken this position just a month prior. There had been an intensive instruction period for easier normalization into American culture. He was supposed to blend in and observe someone, occasionally to alter things without their knowledge and observe the outcome; live experimentation the y called it. He hadn't been specifically told to not interfere with his target, but had assumed that it was forbidden.

The best course of action, he decided, was to go with it. He wasn't going to spoil this assignment because of an errant contact. He would be polite but now show interest.

Emily shifted nervously. Karl placed the empty glass on the table before he spoke. "I am Karl." He extended a hand across the table. "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Karl? That’s a name I don’t hear very often; and you have a faint accent. Are you German?" Emily asked.

Karl was a bit taken aback. Had he been made? He'd been instructed to blend in. "No, Austrian," he said quickly. "How did you know? I have tried hard to lose my accent. Most people can’t tell."

"I have a good ear," Emily explained. "My parents were both polyglots, something I somehow didn’t inherit a knack for. I got exposed to a lot of languages when I was younger and I have a rudimentary understanding of seven or eight different tongues."

"That’s impressive," Karl said. He really was impressed, and it would be rude to not continue the conversation. Karl drew on real life to fill out a background for his persona. "I only know three languages myself:  Czech, German, and English. But I can speak them all fluently."

"Now that is impressive," Emily said. She took a swig of her beer. "German and English I understand. Why Czech?"

Karl smiled. "One of my best friends from my childhood was Czech. It was the only language his mother spoke. I picked it up at his place and it stuck." He decided to play the role Emily assumed he was. He knew she'd been aware of him at the library. He'd seen a furtive glance or two directed at him. "I've seen you around the library a few times. What are you studying?"

Emily made a face. "Biology. I just finished a few hours of homework tonight. I'm trying to stay out of the apartment for a bit while my roommate had her boyfriend over. Things can get a bit... noisy."

Karl scoffed and nodded knowingly. "I know what that's like. Maybe I can help in that regard. You say you study biology?"

"Yeah." Emily sat back. "I'm hoping to get into genetics, but I haven't reached the point of specialization yet."

Karl's interest was piqued. "Genetics? I happen to have a passing interest in it."

"Really? It's not a hugely common interest. It's rare to find a weekend geneticist," Emily noted.

Karl was cautious. He might be revealing too much here, but he had been given no instructions to deal with the scenario he was in. Instead of making up something off the wall he decided to go with what he knew. "It may be slightly more than passing," he said a bit uneasily.

Emily laced her fingers together over her pint and rested her chin on them. "Tell me more."

Rebecca straightened up and put her hand on her lower back. Bagging groceries took a toll no matter how correctly you did it. She forced a smile for the customer and said "Have a nice day." She just wanted this day to end. Rebecca had found herself with little patience for work or school recently. She just wanted to spend time at home paying with her body. Rare was the evening that she spent entirely in one piece or with her regular dimensions.

The next lady in line was her last customer. The store was closing. It felt about time too. The lady smiled at Rebecca. "Tough day?" she asked.

The lady was actually quite pretty. Rebecca genuinely grinned. This was the part that made the job tolerable, interacting with customers, the nice ones anyway. "Yeah. My shift is up though. You’re the last customer." She started running things through the till.

"I’m glad for you," The lady said. "I’ve had long days. It’s always nice to be at the end of a shift."

"What do you do?" Rebecca asked, making conversation as she scanned the items and bagged them.

"I do a lot of things," she replied, "pretty much anything my boss asks me to."

Rebecca nodded. "I know a few people with jobs like that. That one of the things I like about this job.  My duties are defined, and my work stays at work. Home time is my own time."

The woman smiled. "Must be nice. I saw you rubbing your back. I can’t imagine bagging groceries on a surface so low is easy for you. I know a bit of what that’s like." The lady pressed her shirt against her belly with one hand, showing the size of her not inconsiderate bosom.

Rebecca smiled again. This actually happened surprisingly often. Men usually stared, smaller ladies often scoffed, and larger ladies typically empathized. "With the proper support it’s not too bad," she remarked. "Besides, the boyfriend certainly likes them."

The lady winked. "I’ll bet he does."

Rebecca chuckled. "That’ll be $35.72 please." The lady paid and picked up her groceries, wincing as she did so. "Are you alright?" Rebecca asked.

"I’m fine. I broke my arm a while back," the lady explained dismissively. "Every once in a while it gives a twinge."

"Let me just cash out and I’ll help you out to the bus stop," Rebecca suggested. "I have nowhere in particular to go this evening."

"Thank you so much," the lady said. "My husband will be by soon to pick me up, but help out of the store would be nice."

Rebecca counted her cash quickly, bundled the bills and separated her float for the next day. She wrote down the tally and locked away her cash tray. Then she took one of the lady’s bags and walked out of the store with her. "My husband should be along any minute now," the lady said as they exited the store. She lifted her arm, pointing up the street at an approaching car. "It looks like that’s him right there." Her free hand slipped into her purse.

"Hi babe," said a man’s voice, startling the two women. It was a voice both of them recognised. Rebecca associated love and tenderness with that timbre, Krista associated with fear and pain.

"Jason, what are you doing here?" Rebecca asked and turned to him.

Jason grinned and kissed her. "I just wanted to surprise my girlfriend after what I’m sure was a hard day at work. Want to get dinner?"

Rebecca smiled. "Yes. I was just helping this lady here with her groceries." Rebecca tuned back to the woman. "This is the boyfriend who enjoys the assets."

Krista was a bit pale at the sight of Jason. She remembered the convenience store well; she just hoped that Jason didn’t. The accelerated healing process in the center had left her with little lasting physical evidence of their last encounter, but the pain was still very fresh in her mind. Krista left the stun gun she had been reaching for in her purse. They weren’t equipped to take him and Rebecca.

Jason cocked his head. "Have we met before?"

"I don’t think so." She took her hand out of her purse. It trembled a bit as she extended it. "Pleased to meet you, your girlfriend is very nice."

Jason took her hand. "Nice to meet you too. And yeah, she’s pretty fantastic." He took the plastic bag from Rebecca and offered to take hers as well. Krista let him. It would have been awkward otherwise. Fortunately that’s right when the getaway car pulled up.

Krista opened the rear door. "On the seat will be fine. Thank you so much," she said. Jason put the bag in. Krista swiftly closed the door and proceeded to stiffly climb into the front seat. "You two have a lovely evening." The doors to the car closed.

"Just fucking drive," Krista said through clenched teeth when the driver gave her a questioning look. He'd been expecting a snatch and grab, not a grocery shopping trip. Krista's tone brooked no argument. He shook his head and pulled away from the curb.

It wasn’t until Krista saw Rebecca and Jason in the rear view and they turned a corner that Krista released the breath she had been holding.

Rebecca rested her head on Jason’s shoulder as they walked. I’m glad you’re here," she said. "Today was rough."

"What happened?" Jason asked distractedly. That lady seemed so familiar.

"I was late again," Rebecca admitted. "My manager gave me a warning."

"Late? You left forty five minutes before your shift started. How were you late?" Jason asked. Rebecca shrugged in response. "Babe, you can’t keep doing that. You’re going to get fired," Jason said. Again Rebecca shrugged. Jason frowned.

"What’s with the frown?" Rebecca asked.

Jason was going to say something about Rebecca’s worsening attitude about, well, everything except her powers and sex, but decided that this wasn’t the time or place. "That woman," he said, "I swear I’ve met her somewhere before. It was something important too. Did you catch her name?"

"No," Rebecca said. "Where do you want to go to eat?"