Jill Rhodes Part 4 Chapter 1 by Rhinehartd on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

Clad in thick jackets, Jill and Mom made their way through the enormous city-like campus of UCLA; the warm Los Angeles climate had finally subsided and given way to winter. In between icy breaths, Jill couldn't stop taking in the sights of the imposing university; a far cry, certainly, from Portsdown High, which looked puny by comparison.

Despite it being winter break, a sizable number of students still milled about the expansive grassy courtyards of the university, which were flanked by monolithic buildings and trees that seemed to gigantic to be real.

Mom wiped the condensation from her glasses and tightened her grip on a thick folder of documents tucked under her arm. She marched across the university with machine-like determination. “Come on sweetie, we're already late. You can look around all you like when they accept you here,” she said.

Jill didn't reply and quickened her pace. Tensions between the two had somewhat cooled, alongside the weather, and although the delaying of her appointment with this “specialist” by an agonizing two weeks, the pressure of final exams was enough to keep her distracted for the time being.

Looking down at her smartphone, Mom inspected the campus directory to make sure they were at the right place. Sure enough, the gaping maw of the university's school of medicine was indeed their destination. They proceeded inside to a rush of warm air and the school's reception area. Mom immediately unzipped her jacket and took it off, and without turning to face her daughter, said sternly: “KEEP your jacket on.”

“Jesus,” Jill muttered, rolling her eyes.

“I heard that,” Mom retorted as she dialed a number on her phone,“Yes, hello? Is that Edward? Yes, this is she, we're...yes, we are...we're at the reception area...alright, thank you. See you.”

“Alright he's coming,” Mom said as she pocketed her phone. Sighing, she looked around the building's post modern architecture before turning to Jill, “You did send in your application, right?”

“Mm hm,” Jill said as she texted Rhonda.

“Look, I know it's been a rough...can you put that away, sweetie, please? I'm talking to you,” Mom said as she leaned in towards her daughter. Jill complied unenthusiastically. “I know it's been...rough these past couple of months, but even if you wanted to become a, I don't know, a bodybuilder or whatever, it's just not normal how you're going about it, and your dad and I want to find out why. You understand that, right sweetie?”

“Yeah, Mom,” Jill said, looking at the floor. Mom nodded slightly in approval.

“Hi there, you must be Mrs Rhodes!” a voice called out from behind them. Both Jill and Mom spun around to see a smiling middle aged bearded man approaching them.

“Oh hey there!” Mom said, her stern demeanor suddenly shifting, “Edward?” she said, shaking his hand.

“That's right! Nice to meet you after all this time! And this must be Jill?” the man said, offering his hand.

“Yeah,” Jill said, struggling to put on her best smile.

“Whoa, quite a handshake eh?” the man said as the two exchanged greetings.

“Oh! Yeah, sorry!”

“It's alright, I'm Edward Graham, but you can call me Edward. Or Graham. Or 'Hey you', whichever's easier to pronounce,” he said as Mom laughed for seemingly the first time in months. Graham gestured for the two to follow him. “Shall we?”

The trio made their way through the glassy hallways of the building, passing the occasional lab coat-clad student and office worker along the way, their feet click-clacking against the marble floor.

“So you're a senior, Jill?”

“Yeah.”

“Groovy, so you're probably applying for college and all that, right?”

“Mm hm,” Mom said, “In fact, she applied here to UCLA!”

“Did you, now?!” Graham said, his eyes lighting up, “It's a good school. Kind of a pain to find free parking if you're not tenured like the rest of us, though”

“Are you not a professor here?” Mom inquired.

“Oh, no, I don't teach. I'm actually here as part of the school of health's exploratory research committee. Basically we're just testing and probing things to determine if a project should get full funding and staffing from the university.”

“Oh I see.”

“How do you like UCLA, Jill?”

“Oh yeah, it's really big,” Jill said, laughing, “It would be kinda cool to go to college here.”

“It would be! It's one of the best universities in the world, although if you're from USC you might disagree,” Graham said.

“See, sweetie? Wasn't I right to make you apply here?” Mom said, uncharacteristically friendly.

“We're over here,” Graham said as he led them into his office. It was a small space, only slightly larger than the Rhodes house's kitchen. Contrary to Jill's expectations, it wasn't filled with test tubes, microscopes and beakers, but instead had loads and loads of books stacked in every available corner. Several human anatomy charts were taped to the walls. Choi sat in then corner of the room, clad in a lab coat.

Wait a minute, what?

“Ah, Choi! I'd like you to say hello to our two guests. This is Mrs. Rhodes, and this is her daughter, Jill!” Graham said.

Jill's eyes widened in surprise, “Omigod, hi!” she said, waving at him with one hand and covering her mouth with the other.

“Hey Jill,” Choi said solemnly as he shook both her and Mom's hands.

“You know each other?” Mom asked Jill and Graham asked Choi simultaneously. They paused, looked at each other, and laughed out loud.

“Yeah, like we-” Jill started

“I also go to Portsdown,” Choi interrupted.

“Huh! Well how about that!” Graham said, turning to Mom, “Choi's doing his winter internship here, assisting me on my research.”

“Ohhh,” Mom said, “Well how nice that your classmate's here!”

“Yeah,” Jill said, her enthusiasm dropping sharply when she realized how awkward things were going to get.

“Hokay, best we get started,” Graham said, pulling two chairs over and gesturing the two women to sit down, “So, Mrs. Rhodes, just to bring us up to speed, your husband contacted me about your daughter's...um, condition, to see if I could take a look and figure out what's going on.”

Mom nodded vigorously.

“So I think before I say anything else, I'd need to, and I don't mean to sound creepy,” Graham said, laughing, “but I'd need to, um, you know-” he continued, gesturing for Jill to take off her jacket so he could see her physique.

“Oh! Right. Jill?” Mom said unhesitatingly.

Jill complied wordlessly. Zipping down her jacket and grunting lightly as she removed it. Beneath that she wore a large turtleneck sweater, which she proceeded to take off. Both Graham and Choi looked on without so much as blinking.

Now clad in her camisole, Jill's puffy turtleneck gave way to a bulky, chiseled body, rippling with muscles as she set her sweater on a nearby counter. Mom closed her eyes and shook her head, touching her forehead as she did so.

“Hm.” Graham said, stroking his chin and nodding slightly, “Jill you're a very big girl!” he said, laughing loudly and turning to Choi, who realized that he should be laughing back and did so to the best of his ability. “And when did you start bulking up like this?”

“Oh um, about last October,” Jill said, inadvertently flexing her biceps as she adjusted her ponytail.

“Last October, wow,” Graham said as he scribbled on his notepad, “And I take it that before you were just a, uh, more normal sized?”

“Very normal,” Mom said as she pulled out several documents from her folder, “These are copies of all of her medical records and information, as well her measurements from last summer when she was doing part time modeling.”

“Groovy! Very prepared, I like that,” Graham said as he gave a cursory glance at the documents. He gestured for Choi to place the papers in a shelf behind him, which he did.

“Alright so, Jill,” Graham said, his demeanor suddenly becoming more frank, “I've studied human physiology and biomedicine for over twenty years, and it's actually impossible for a young, healthy girl of your age to develop large, um, bulky musculature without serious androgenizing side effects like a deeper voice, uh...altered facial features and things like that. None of which you have, thankfully.”

“So...so what are you saying, it's not steroids?” Mom said.

“No, we don't think so. We think it might be something else. But in order to know what exactly we're dealing with here, we're going to need to run some tests with your daughter. X-rays, blood tests, that sort of thing. It's going to take a couple of hours, so it would be best if we could have you wait somewhere while we have at it.”

“Sure,” Mom said as everyone collectively stood up, “I'll just wait at the Starbucks on Westwood and you can call me when you're ready.”

“Groovy! Do you know your way out?”

“I do,” Mom said as she opened the door, “Jill, you do everything Dr. Graham tells you to do, got it?”

“'kay Mom,” Jill said. Mom smiled slightly and patted Jill's muscular shoulder before exiting. It was a surreal moment; the first time in a long time that she'd shown anything besides outright contempt.

“Alright Jill, if you'll just follow me we're going to step into the next room to do some measurements,” Graham said, gesturing towards an open doorway that led to another slightly more spacious room, “Choi, if you could grab those records Mrs. Rhodes, ah...”

“Got it.”

The three were now in a room that resembled a doctor's office, with an examination table and assorted medical paraphernalia.

“So Jill, I apologize in advance, but we'll need you to uhm, get down to your undies so we can make accurate measurements that will help us in some of the tests we're going to be doing. Normally I'd have a female assistant handle this, but since this is part of the exploratory-”

“No it's okay, I understand,” Jill chirped as she unbuttoned her jeans. She didn't know why she felt comfortable undressing in front of these two men, let alone Choi for God's sake, a schoolmate she barely knew, but a large part of her wanted to show off her body to anyone who asked. It felt liberating to not have to cover up all the time.

Now clad in only her bra and panties, Jill's bulging physique was laid bare for Dr. Graham and Choi to see. Graham's professional demeanor was unflinching, but Choi could barely contain his awe. It was a pure stroke of luck that he just happened to land an internship with the very man who was studying Jill. He felt rather stupid that he didn't realize that when Dr. Graham said they would be studying “a teenager afflicted with abnormal levels of muscle hypertrophy,” he was referring to Jill.

“Hand me those records, if you would,” Graham said to Choi, who complied. Graham then flipped through the various papers, inspecting Jill's vital statistics from last summer:

Height: 5'4

Weight: 109 lbs

Chest: 34

Waist: 25

“Alrighty,” Graham said, setting the papers aside and grabbing a tape measure and handing Choi his notepad, “Just write down the measurements as I call them. Jill, we're going to weigh you, measure your height and various body parts, is that alright?”

“Sure!”

“Alright if you could just step here...”

Height: 5'7

Weight: 171 lbs

Chest: 43

Waist: 25

Hips: 36

Arms: 17

Quads: 26

“Groovy!” Graham said as Jill put her clothes back on, “I think you might be one of the most muscular women on the planet. Top five, most definitely; very, VERY few women, let alone 18 year old girls, have 17 inch biceps.”

“Thanks,” Jill said, smiling as she slipped her camisole back on.

Graham gestured for Jill to have a seat, “We're just gonna take a blood sample now,” he said, pulling out a syringe and a set of needles from a drawer. Jill tried not to squirm as she laid her arm on the table.

“Clench your fist for me, if you would,” Graham said. Jill did so, and the numerous veins in her beefy arm popped out. The kindly doctor had no trouble finding her brachial artery, “That is one huge vein. Alright now this'll hurt just a bit...”

Jill winced and looked away as she felt the needle prick her skin, “Do you find yourself being bullied a lot at school because of your body?” Graham asked as he gently drew the syringe's plunger back, filling it with the young girl's blood.

“Mmm, not really, I mean like, I cover up a lot to not draw attention and stuff, y'know?” Jill said. Choi wanted to roll his eyes. Of course no one would bully Jill, are you kidding me? She's one of the most popular girls in school; anyone who so much as looked at her sideways would probably have their heads caved in by both Linton and Adrian.

“Sure, sure. Yeah, a lot of women who do bodybuilding get all sorts of names thrown at them, so I understand. What about your friends? What do they think?”

“Well I think they're surprised, but they're still quite supportive,” Jill said. She didn't like the questions.

“That's good! That's how you know they're really your friends.” Graham said as he pulled the syringe out. Detaching and disposing the needle, he placed the syringe in a plastic bag and handed it to Choi, “Bring this over to the lab and tell them to expedite.”

“Yes sir.”

“Thank you, Choi.” Graham said as Choi exited the room. Graham turned back to Jill, “Kid's a real trooper, 'Yes sir!' Haha! Do you know him well at school?”

“Oh, I mean we're just acquaintances. You know. We say hi to each other and stuff.”

“Gotcha. Alrighty, if you'll just follow me, we'll just do an X-ray and a brain scan.”

“Brain scan??” Jill said, her head recoiling back.

“Oh don't worry, its nowhere as macabre as you might think. You just lie down on this machine and it scans your brain without so much as touching your head.”

“Ohh okay, sorry!” Jill said, laughing in relief and putting her hand on her chest.

“It's alright. Come on, then.”

-----

“There we go! That wasn't so bad, right?” Graham said as Jill got out from the MRI machine.

“Yeah! That was actually kinda cool.” Jill said, “Like something out of, I dunno, The Matrix or something.”

“Fortunately we're in total control of all the machines here,” Graham replied, “Alright so your X-ray went well, your brain scan looks good, your blood's being tested as we speak, so now there's just one last thing to do. You might like this one.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. We're going to head over to the gym and have you work out for a bit!”

Jill felt like she had just been injected with a shot of adrenaline. Her brain felt like it was going to explode.

“Are you...are you serious?” Jill said, giggling nervously, “Like, I think my mom would totally flip if-”

“Sure, sure. But in order for any of these tests to mean anything, we need to observe how your body responds in real time to physical exertion. It's an absolutely necessary step to determine what's going on with you and how to best, um, move forward.”

Jill was rendered speechless for a moment and stared at the floor.

“You okay, Jill?”

“Umm...well see, Mister Graham...Doctor Graham...I kind of...I like the way I am now. I mean I totally get that you're doing your job and my mom wants to get...make me the way I used to be or whatever, but I, you know...I'm sorry”

“It's okay, it's okay. You're a very brave girl, Jill. A lot of women, especially girls your age, allow societal pressure to affect their appearances and self esteem. But I'm happy that you're happy with your body. It's just that the speed with which you've, uh, changed, has been extraordinary, and we just want to find out if this is something that could be harmful to you down the road. You follow me?”

“Yeah...thanks.”

“Groovy! Alright then,” Graham said, picking up two bags of equipment and handing one of them to Choi. He then grabbed a much smaller bag and handed it to Jill. She opened the bag and pulled out a sports bra and leggings. “Let's head to the gym. We got you a large sports bra, so hopefully that'll fit.”

As they neared the doors to the UCLA Recreation Center, Graham pulled out a keycard and swiped it on a reader on the adjacent wall. With a mechanical click, the double doors opened and Jill went weak at the knees. This place was just absolutely insane—every exercise machine ever conceived was in this place, the weight machines all went up to 300, 400 pounds, and the free weights section had 200 pound dumbbells! She had no idea they even made dumbbells that heavy. The building itself was truly magnificent, with an extraordinarily high ceiling with Bruins banners hanging everywhere and gigantic murals of the university's football team on the walls. This place had everything, and it made Genesis Gym look like a kindergarten by comparison.

Being in the middle of winter break, the gym was sparsely populated, save for a few girls on the treadmills and a guy or two over at the weights. Graham and Choi set down their bags and pulled out a laptop, a clump of wires and a fairly heavy looking box. “Okay Jill, so why don't you go change while we set everything up. The ladies' room is over there.”

“Okay,” Jill said, her heart pounding the kick drum of a death metal drummer.

Moments later, Jill emerged from the changing room clad in her workout attire. It turned out to be a decent fit, with the pink sports bra clinging firmly to her torso and the leggings wrapped tightly enough to show off her muscular quadriceps. Right away she began to attract stares from the few people at the gym, who, unlike her peers at Portsdown, looked upon her with surprise and perhaps a touch of envy.

“Impressive, this place, huh?” Graham said. He and Choi had just finished assembling their apparatus, which consisted of a laptop, which was connected to a shoebox-sized machine, which was connected to a large cable that branched off into about a dozen smaller ones with electrodes at the end of each one, “This is where their football team works out, and they're one of the best in the country so you can imagine...”

“Yeah it's like, 'Omigod 200 pound dumbbells!' You know?” Jill said, laughing.

“Indeed. I doubt those get used much. Anyway, what's going to happen is we attach these electrodes to various parts of your upper body, and you just exercise to your heart's content. The electrodes give stronger readings the harder you exert yourself, so try and lift as heavy as you can.”

“Okay!” Jill said perkily.

“Maybe those 200 pound dumbbells will see some use, eh? Hehe!”

“Omigod!” Jill laughed as Choi stuck the electrodes on her pecs, biceps, back, and abs. Being up close to this girl's insane body, close enough that he could smell her, was just unbelievable,“I don't know if I'm that strong!”

“Well just try your best, alright? Okay, we got all the electrodes on, so it's your show now.”

“Okey doke,” Jill said as she made a beeline for the free weights section, Graham and Choi in tow with their equipment.

Obviously, Jill made her way to the very end of the weight rack and gazed at the 200 pound dumbbells, which had a fine layer of dust over them and showed significantly less amounts of wear than the other weights. She ran her fingers up and down one of them, feeling the impenetrable iron, regarding the thing like it was a long lost lover. With a firm resolve she gripped one of the dumbbells and lifted it off the rack.

“Nngghh! Omigod holy shit!” Jill grunted as her arm vibrated furiously. She quickly reseated the impossible weight and let out a heavy breath.

“Whoa-ho! Spoke too soon!” Graham said, laughing. Choi sat nearby staring at the laptop, making the occasional turn of the dial on the electrode machine.

“I think...phew...I should come back to this later,” Jill cooed as she made her way down the rack and grabbed a pair of 60 pounders. She began to do supersets of curls, presses, lateral raises and rows, “Much better!”

Graham stared with fascination as the blonde girl before him exercised like she had been waiting her entire life for this moment. Many gym goers do one set, fuck around for several minutes, and do the next one. Jill quite literally spent the next 20 minutes alone doing superset after superset, stopping only to switch to a pair of heavier weights. It was the 60 pounders at first, but then it became 65 pounders, 70 pounders, and finally, 85 pounders. Graham and Choi couldn't believe their eyes; the rate at which her muscular strength was building was astronomical.

Jill, such an impossibly beautiful young girl, smiled in satisfaction, with beads of sweat dripping from her bangs onto the floor, as she watched her biceps bulge with such power and extremity that they looked like flesh-colored bowling balls sticking out of her arms. With each labored repetition she watched a thick brachial vein become more bold under her skin, snaking its way further down her arm. By the end of her epic set, which must have contained close to a thousand reps, Jill's arms were almost numb from exhaustion, and were visibly bigger and more cut than before. Without skipping a beat, she toweled herself off, turned to the astonished researchers and pointed to the weight machines against the wall. “Hhh...hh...bench press and shoulder press now."

“Groovy!”

Jill made her way towards the imposing, stainless steel weight machines, with Choi and Graham trailing her with their equipment their arms, making sure to not accidentally cause the electrodes to be yanked from her body.

She then spent the next 20 minutes pumping her entire torso, doing shoulder presses, rows, pullups. hanging leg raises, and bench pressing 300 pound reps like it was nothing. After the 100th rep, Jill could actually feel her sports bra getting slightly tighter. Her pectoral muscles were bulging so hard that when she raised her head to glance at Graham and Choi, her chin rubbed against them. By all standards, Jill had exercised herself well beyond the point of total exhaustion, but it was only her will keeping her going. A will that had only grown exponentially stronger after seemingly an eternity of being locked out of her gym and deprived of a satisfactory pump, instead having to turn to second rate alternatives.

After that, she spent another 20 minutes working her legs, and another 20 on the treadmill. She would have gone longer, but Graham reminded her that Mom was still waiting patiently. Jill, thoroughly energized by the pump of her life, agreed and changed out of her workout attire back to her normal clothes, after a fairly lengthy shower of course. As she stepped out of the changing room to follow Graham and Choi back to the school of medicine, it was fairly evident, even to an untrained eye, that Jill was slightly bigger, and Graham was ready to jump out of his skin from the excitement.

“That was quite a workout, huh?!” Graham said, “Your stamina is just off the wall!”

“Ahaha thanks! Omigod I actually think I could have gone much longer!” Jill replied, “I LOVE this gym.”

Even the normally unimpressed Choi was stunned to silence.

After storing the equipment and having downloaded the data from the laptop onto his computer, Graham and Choi brought Jill back to the same medical room, where they had Jill undress once again to take post-workout measurements.

Height: 5'8.5

Weight: 185 lbs

Chest: 45

Waist: 25

Hips 37

Arms 19

Quads: 28

Calves 18

“Alright, groovy! I also texted your Mom to make her way back here, so she should be arriving any moment now,” Graham said, unusually calm, considering he just watched this young girl actually gain 14 pounds of muscle mass and even height within the span of less than two hours. Choi, meanwhile, just had his world rocked by what appeared to be a scientific impossibility. Thousands of thoughts ran through his head so quickly that he had to lean on the wall. Jill, in the meantime, got herself dressed once again, struggling desperately putting on her turtleneck before her mom returned.

She had only just sat down at Graham's desk when the door opened and Mom walked in. “Just in time!” said Graham as everyone took a seat.

“So, how'd it go?” Mom said, eagerness in her eyes.

“Well, we ran some tests, did an X-ray and brain scan on your daughter, and had her exercise for a bit-”

Mom almost threw up in her mouth, “Wait a minute, you had her what-?”

“It's okay, it was absolutely necessary for our tests to know what we're dealing with. I assure you, Mrs Rhodes, that this was only towards that interest.”

It took everything for Mom to compose herself, “Okay, and-?”

Graham pulled out his notepad, “Well they're rather interesting! After a 90 minute workout, your daughter put on 14 pounds of muscle mass and actually grew an inch and a half in height!”

“She grew TALLER?!” Mom shouted, her glasses nearly falling from her face, “How...you..wha...how's that even POSSIBLE?!” She turned to Jill, “WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!”

“Mrs Rhodes, Mrs Rhodes, look, I know this is a lot to take in, but its very important we all keep it together and focus on helping Jill, and not screaming at her,” Graham said, raising his hand. Mom took a few seconds to regain her composure once more. She was not pleased that Graham spoke to her like that, but at the same time she knew he was right.

“Well, aside from the fact that your daughter has extraordinary stamina and determination, we took readings of the levels of stimulation in your daughter's muscles while she exercised. The readings we got were just so off the charts that they caused our computer to crash at least three times. Your daughter's body was responding to physical exertion in ways that, to put it very lightly, are unheard of in, well, all of science!”

“So what are you saying?” Mom said, removing her glasses.

“I'm saying that based off these tests, I think I know exactly what's going on with your daughter.”

Jill averted her gaze and stared at the desk, a bad feeling growing inside of her.

“Jill, it's important, it's very important that you answer this honestly, alright? Can you look at me?” Graham said in as friendly a manner as he could. Jill complied and nodded, brushing one of her bangs off to the side. The researcher then pulled out a photograph of something very familiar: the vial of V-Fit formula. “Did you inject yourself with this?”

A silence hung over the room for several agonizing seconds.

“Answer him, Jill,” Mom seethed.

Jill began to blush visibly and nodded.

Mom was now a confusing mess of outrage and confusion, “You. Lying. Little. Bitch!” she said, startling both Graham and Choi, “Lying to me this whole time! So it is steroids....!!!”

“It's not a steroid,” Graham interjected, putting the picture down, “We think your daughter has injected herself with a sort of super serum, if you will.”

“Super serum?!?!”

“Yes, it's..it's difficult to fully describe in non-scientific terms, but its a, quite frankly a remarkable combination of hormones and other elements that induce muscle growth in a manner that's quite distinct from anabolic steroids, which is why Jill lacks any of the masculine features that typically follow steroid use. To put it simply, women generally can't develop large muscles because they lack the testosterone that is normally required for that. This formula induces muscle growth differently without male hormones, testosterone, or anything of that nature., partially by inducing myostatin deficiency.”

“Myo-?”

“Myostatin. It's a protein that keeps our muscles in check by inhibiting growth. By inducing a deficiency in this protein, Jill is able to put on size in ways that most humans, let alone women, cannot.”

“Oh Jesus...”

“That's just one of the ways that we know it works. Another way it works is by enhancing, or altering, depending on your perspective, one's genetic and hormonal makeup to accommodate such rapid muscle growth. So, as I explained earlier, Jill actually got taller from that workout, right Jill?”

“Yeah,” Jill said, worried that Mom would explode at her at the slightest provocation. Graham pulled out an X ray scan of Jill, showing her abnormally large skeleton.

“Right, so that's your skeletal structure rapidly growing alongside your muscles to keep up. Normally one's ability to build muscle, steroids or not, is inhibited by skeletal structure and genetics, but what this formula's done is to remove those two equations entirely. Jill's increased muscular hypertrophy allows her to build muscle very rapidly, and her skeletal structure and genes are able to adapt and alter themselves in order to keep up! It's really quite remarkable.”

“Quite remarkable!” Mom said, slamming her fist on Graham's desk. She then winced and rubbed her hand in pain. “How do we get it out of her? How do we cure her?”

“Well, ah, it isn't really a matter of getting it out of her. The um, changes have already been made to your daughter's physiology...”

“My God...” Mom said, slumping back in her chair in defeat.

“As I was saying, a third level, and this is the real kicker, works in a manner more similar to how opioids work, by stimulating an addiction to exercise. An addiction to getting bigger. If Jill did minimal to no exercise, then she would probably be fine and her muscles wouldn't operate much differently from a normal human being's. They need stimulation to grow, and this formula induces an insatiable, almost ravenous desire to fulfill that need.”

He then pulled out an image from Jill's brain scan, “This is an MRI of Jill's brain. The patterns in this image are very similar to that of someone who is, say, high on cocaine or methamphetamine. They're not quite the same, but they're similar. This, combined with the other two factors with the myostatin and genetic modification, form a...a trifecta, or a holy trinity that makes it incredibly easy for your daughter to develop such large muscles.”

Mom had grown much quieter now. “So what are you saying? That my daughter is doomed to continue becoming...like this? Unless I lock her up, cage her like an animal?”

“Well, no, not quite,” Graham said, “You see, we know quite a bit about this formula because we've been studying its first test subject. A girl from China who had it forced upon her by her government. She experienced identical symptoms to your daughter, but after we brought her over here to the States we've spent the last couple years working with her on her condition.”

“And...?”

“Well, with a highly specialized therapy and medicinal program, we've made some headway in reducing her size quite significantly.”

“Okay, medicinal, so there is a cure, right?!”

“These are very experimental drugs we've been developing over the last year, specifically designing them around this Chinese girl's genetic makeup in order to reduce the size of her muscles as much as possible. We've had some success, but unfortunately I can't guarantee they would have the same effect on Jill. They could even be dangerous for her; we have no way of knowing, and our funding is extremely limited as it is.”

“There's got to be something we can do! You can't sit there and expect me to just let my daughter be like this!”

“I understand Mrs Rhodes, believe me, I do. I have children of my own,” Graham replied calmly, “Here's what I think would be the best course of action. We can try and develop a similar set of the experimental treatments for Jill, but in order to do that, we would need more funding. A lot more. So I'm going to bring this case before the university and try and persuade them, but in order to build a better case, I need a favor from you.”

“Anything. Name it.”

“I need the formula that Jill injected herself with. We already have one sample of it from the photograph I showed you, but having more of them builds stronger evidence that this...uh...pharmaceutical company, V-Fit, is trying to mass produce these things. Recklessly, if I might add.”

“S-so they created this thing? V-Fit?” a confused Mom asked.

“Not quite. The base formula is derived from samples taken by the Chinese government from a genetically gifted girl going by the name of Dawn Connor. They then reverse engineered these samples into a sort of primitive version of the formula, which was then in turn acquired by V-Fit through unknown means and reverse engineered again into a much, much more potent version that your daughter injected herself with. “

“I...What...”

“I know it's a lot to take in Mrs Rhodes, so it's best we don't go too much further into it today. We can schedule more sessions with you and your daughter in the coming weeks, but for now I just need the formula.”

Mom took a moment to collect herself. “Okay. Okay. You hear that Jill?”

“Yeah Mom...”

“I have one more question, Dr. Graham.”

“Certainly!”

“You said that my daughter's...what do you call it...genetic makeup can adapt to her growth. So what does that mean in the long run? Is there a limit to this nightmare? Will she keep growing?”

“You mean assuming she continues to exercise?”

“Yes.”

“We don't know. That's why this can be potentially dangerous for her. The human body can only take so much. It would be best if for the time being that Jill avoid all forms of exercise. It's going to be hard on her for the reasons I just stated, but we have to try.”

“Yes. Yes! We have to try! You hear that Jill? You, we've got to try! You understand me? We've got...to...” Mom sputtered as she see-sawed on the brink of tears. Instinctively, Graham rose from his seat and comforted Mom.

“It's okay Mrs Rhodes, you're a strong woman and we're going to see this through, I promise. Come on, I'll walk you out,” he said, picking up Mom's handbag, putting his hand on her shoulder and gently ushering her out of his office, “Come on Jill, I think you've both had enough for today. Choi, if you could just file all those documents for me?”

“I'm sorry Dr. Graham. I just want to thank you for your help...we really, really need it...” Mom trailed off as the two walked further down the corridor.

Jill let out a sigh and picked up her things as Graham and Mom walked ahead of her. Just as she was about to exit Graham's office,

“Hey.” Choi called Jill from behind. The muscle-bound teen spun around to face her comparatively puny schoolmate. “Get me that formula and I'll give you a keycard to that gym we were just at.”