A cold reception awaited me my first day at Fempire. The staff was thin, many members were still in the middle of transferring from other projects. Melinda, the former chief researcher was not part of the new team leaving the assistant Matilda as the only familiar face, aside from Priscilla. Her and I had not spoken for weeks and when I arrived she was distant and withdrawn, saying only what was necessary to get me started working. 

I had spent every moment since that night trying to figure out what to say to her. How to tell her I was sorry. It was stupid, she had almost killed me and I was the one that had to apologize. Only that had been an accident and what I’d done was… It still hurt to think about. How could I want to subjugate myself to someone? But no matter how much I tried to deny it - there it was: a need to be hers. First, though, I had to get her to stop hating me. 

Half a hundred times I started dialing her number only to put down the phone, unable to make the call. What could I say? That I had been angry about a near-death experience? It was believable but a lie. It felt wrong to replace one set of lies with another, and I could think of nothing else to say short of how I really felt. And I couldn’t bring myself to tell her that, I could still barely think it without cringing. 

Eventually Britta and Molly noticed I was shuttering myself away and forced me to tell them what was going on. I told them the truth, part of it anyway; that Priscilla and I had been a bad fight and I didn’t feel much like talking or hanging out. Britta said something to the effect of “Moping never solved anything” and I told her I just needed some time, which seemed to work because they hadn’t bothered me since. Unfortunately my seclusion provided little in the way of answers. 

I convinced myself that apologizing over the phone wasn’t good enough, it was something I needed to do in person. I would do it today. Only Priscilla wasn’t making it easy. Every time I tried to get some time alone with her some person or other would walk into her office asking questions or requesting resources. I had to make awkward circuits around the office to keep checking her office and started to grow nervous that someone might notice that I’d gone to get a cup of coffee half a dozen times in under an hour. At least the coffee made subsequent trips to the bathroom genuinely necessary. 

At the sink I scrubbed my hands furiously, as though something clean must be forgiven. When I stepped back into the office I nearly bumped into Priscilla heading into the ladies room. “Erm, sorry.” I said. Her size was startling up close, the top of my head was level with her chest and it was difficult not to ogle the broad orbs pressed heavily into her blouse. She started past me without a word - even a glance - in my direction when I recovered enough to say, “Priscilla.” She hesitated and for a second I thought she was going to ignore me when she turned to face me with an unreadable look. “We need to talk,” I said.

“What can I help you with?” Priscilla’s voice was flat, businesslike.

“That’s not…” I started, tripping over my words. “I mean there are some things I need to say to you.” I glanced back at the office, acutely aware of the sudden hush as ears strained to listen to our exchange. “Privately.” 

Without batting an eyelash Priscilla replied, “I assumed you said everything you wanted to say the other night.” I flinched at her words. Somehow her unaffected tone made it worse. I opened my mouth to speak but the sound caught in my throat when her eyes narrowed ever so slightly, drilling into me. I froze, trapped by her unflinching gaze until her focus flicked away. “You may wait in my office,” she said absently, and disappeared into the restroom.

I heaved a sigh of relief, wiped the nervous sweat from my brow, and plodded to her office with my heart beating so fast it felt I’d run a marathon. Too much coffee, I thought as I sank into a one of the chairs arrayed in front of Priscilla’s wide desk. Her office was, like the rest of the building, mostly unadorned with personal items. No one had fully unpacked yet, and judging by the row of closed boxes lining her walls Priscilla hadn’t even started. I fidgeted nervously trying to figure out what I was going to say and hadn’t gotten past ‘I’m sorry’ before Priscilla walked in. 

Shutting the door she crossed the room to sit behind her desk and I could feel the floor tremble slightly from her weight. Her chair creaked as she settled her weight into it. She was far from fat, but at more than seven feet tall her voluptuousness meant a considerable amount of weight. Almost clinically I began calculating what the chief component of her increased weight would be, bones typically only accounted for roughly 15% of body weight, her musculature was a bit greater than average though I suspected that was more due to spectacular genetics than any special effort on her part. Her BMI was probably not much higher than 20% even accounting for her large mammary glands. Priscilla cleared her throat and I realized I had been staring at her chest.

I looked away making a strangled sound and spoke before I could think “It wasn’t what it looked like, I was trying to determine your weight.”

“I see,” Priscilla said doubtfully.

“Honestly, Priscilla I-” I stopped myself. If shame could be concentrated my body was a distillery, but I had things to tell her that were more important than covering for a simple misunderstanding. Swallowing hard I said, “The other night I said some things that I didn’t mean. I was scared-”

“Scared of me,” Priscilla interrupted.

“Yes- no-” I grit my teeth, “Dammit Priscilla it's more complicated than that.” This was not beginning at all how I’d planned or at least how I would have planned had I been capable of planning.

Priscilla leaned forward and her soft voice was menacing, “Do not forget that while we are here I am your employer and you are my employee.”

I shivered “O-okay.” When satisfied that I had been adequately cowed she leaned back, generating another groan from her chair. The buttons on her blouse squeaked as the fabric pulled tight around her bust. After a moment of awkward silence I continued, “I won’t try to justify the things I said to you. They were cruel and wrong and if I could take them back I would. I never wanted to hurt you.”

Her laugh was short and mirthless. “You didn’t hurt me,” she said dismissively. “Was that all you had to say?”

My heart sank. “Priscilla, please… Don’t do this. if you won’t accept my apology at least believe that I didn’t mean... any of those things I said.”

“If all you want is for me to accept your apology then consider it accepted. Will that be all Mr. Anderson?” Priscilla said curtly. Every word drove ice into my chest.

“No, that’s not what I want Priscilla I want y-” 

A knock came from the door before I could finish and Priscilla waved them in. The door opened a crack and Matilda leaned in, “Mam, the test subjects have arrived,” she said.

“Thank you Matilda, have them begin the tests without us. Mr. Anderson and I will only be a moment.” Matilda nodded and left. 

When the door closed behind her I turned to Priscilla and said “I want to be with you.”

Priscilla gave me an appraising look and said, “You’re with me right now.”

“You know that’s not what I mean,” I persisted stubbornly.

Priscilla tapped thoughtfully on her desk, staring at the ceiling as though considering a difficult problem. “Maybe,” she began, “you could prove yourself to be a dutiful employee.” She met my eyes and said, “If you do a good job here at the office I suppose, as a fair employer, I would have to consider you for other… roles.” 

My heart soared, a second chance! “I won’t disappoint you.” I said eagerly. 

My words seemed to trigger something because the faintest flicker of uncertainty flashed on Priscilla’s face. Whatever it was she recovered quickly and said, “Good, then you can unpack these boxes,” she indicated the row along her office wall, “After the tests have been completed.” Unpacking boxes seemed a bit of a waste of my abilities, but I hardly cared. I walked out of her office feeling like a tremendous weight had been lifted from my shoulders and nearly skipped over to the lab. 

When I arrived the girls were being run through the gamut of tests. Physicals, blood tests, and others far more targeted and specific were all carried out in the same large room by a team of qualified scientists. Dozens of sensor pads were attached to each girl that monitored everything from heart rate to hormone levels. It didn’t appear that anyone needed my help so I settled into a workstation and brought up their physical details. Incredibly, all of the girls had grown at least an inch! That was nearly twice as much as I had anticipated for two weeks of exposure to the serum. There were, however, two outliers. Molly had not grown at all and the Brazillian girl Jennifer Flores had grown a shocking three inches. 

Watching Jennifer swagger around it was clear she was enjoying the extra height. Her abundant hips swayed hypnotically as she ran through a stretch routine while waiting in line for one of the other girls to finish being examined. The girl had a butt that could put Britta’s to shame. Like two basketballs stuffed into skintight blue lycra her ass bounced and flexed as she bent into her stretches. I completely lost track of what I was doing while watching her. Then Britta appeared and I was floored. 

She was amazingly huge. A plain grey shirt hugged her curves like a second skin and her jeans appeared to be so tightly packed that the slightest wrong move would split them apart. The computer showed she had grown an inch and a half which put her around six feet eight inches, but it wasn’t her height that stunned me. it was how powerfully built Britta’s body was. Priscilla may have grown to over seven feet tall but she had a relatively normal, albeit voluptuous, build. Britta was thick and the extra weight was made all the more noticeable by her increased size. There was no doubt it my mind as to who would push who around if she and Priscilla were to face off. Every part of Britta was large, especially her feminine attributes. Britta’s cup size had measured GG on a six foot frame, but they were at least a couple cup sizes larger now that she was 6’8” and her hips were broad enough to brush against doorways. I had to reassess the idea that anything about Jennifer could put Britta to shame. Standing side by side it was clear that while Jennifer’s shapely behind was spectacular in comparison to the rest of her body she still had some serious growing to do before she could compare with Britta. I closed my eyes and counted backwards from ten to quell my suddenly uncomfortable arousal.

After calming down I pressed a button to activate the intercom between the observation room and the lab and said, “Molly Ringwald, please report to the observation room when you’ve completed your physical.” The formula’s unexpected effectiveness was something I could deal with. Molly’s complete lack of growth was another matter entirely, and I suspected I knew the reason for her ‘curious’ results. When Molly walked in sheepishly dragging her feet, my suspicions were all but confirmed.

“You didn’t take the serum.” It wasn’t a question.

Molly’s mouth opened, froze, then snapped shut again. She seemed torn between lying and shouting at me. She settled somewhere in between, crossing her arms over her flat chest she glared and said, “What difference does it make? This is all just a cover anyway. You said so yourself.”

The last thing I needed was someone overhearing Molly say something like that. “It makes a difference because if you don’t take the serum they will find out and you’ll be removed from the program.” I said gratingly. 

“Good, I never wanted to be in this program to begin with,” Molly snapped.

“How did you even avoid getting dosed? They administer it in the lab.” I replied, purposefully ignoring her.

“I told them I have a phobia of needles and they gave me some gelcaps.” Molly’s defiant stare dared me to challenge her.

I frowned. No one told me the serum had been added to gel caps. What else hadn’t they told me? “No one watched you take them?” I said quickly, trying to cover my sudden uncertainty.

Molly shrugged, “Yeah they watched me take them, but it isn’t hard to fake swallowing a pill.” That meant any of the girls could smuggle out a pill. What would happen if GTS hit the streets? What would someone pay for a pill that brings them closer to perfection? The thought made me shudder. 

“Your blood tests are going to show that you don’t have any formula in your system, did you think about that?” I said more harshly than I intended. Before Molly could reply the door opened and we both turned as Britta walked in. 

“I sure hope my little lovers aren’t fighting.” Britta said, her tone making it clear she could see that we were. Her arms crossed under her prodigious bust, a far more arousing sight that when Molly did it, and she looked at us sternly. Molly and I started to speak angrily at the same time our voices rising until Britta nearly shouted, “Enough!” Taking a calming breath that swelled her bust over her arms she said continued in a gentler tone, “Can you two please get along? Dylan, you can’t blame her for not wanting to change her entire genetic make-up. You know she got roped into this.” I started to mutter an irritable reply but Britta talked right over me, “You can either help her cover it up or you can have her removed from the study.”

It was difficult not to accuse Britta of taking Molly’s side but one look at her convinced me arguing wasn’t going to help anyone. Least of all my case which left me to ponder Britta’s options. The problem with removing Molly from the study was someone else need to replace her and that would only increase the chances of the drug getting out. There were already too many people in the project just to cover for Priscilla that more was the last thing I wanted. “Fine,” I said, “But covering for her isn’t going to be easy. Once everyone sees she isn’t growing it’s going to draw attention.” Britta raised her eyebrow at me in a way that said she expected me to figure it out. I sighed, “Maybe if I introduce some of the stabilizing agents I’m trying on Priscilla I could resequence the proteins...” I trailed off realizing I was starting to ramble. Britta and Molly were both staring at me expectantly, “Never mind, I’ll figure something out. Britta you should go back to the lab.” I said and immediately felt awkward for giving orders to a girl whose boobs were very nearly over my head.

Luckily, Britta took it with good humor, “Okay, but we need to ask you something.”

“What is it?” I said, a bit hesitantly

“Winter break is coming up and Molly and I decided we want to do something fun. We thought you might want to join us.”

My first thoughts were for the million things I wanted to test with GTS but spending the holiday with Britta and Molly could be interesting. I shot a glance at Molly who had the grace to stop glaring at me and look a bit embarrassed besides. “Sure, okay. What did you have in mind?”

Britta launched into describing the plan excitedly, “There is a big sponsored event for the school called Super Survivor being hosted on an island. Teams of three compete in a bunch of trials and competitions. Plus we have to find food, shelter, and all that other survival stuff. The best part is the winners get two years of tuition free. Sign-ups only run through the end of next week and they expect it to fill up well before that so we need a decision from you asap.”

Being cooped up in a tent with Britta for two weeks didn’t sound bad at all even if I did think all that fake survivor junk was silly. I looked again at Molly, unsure if she really wanted me along. She seemed to understand and nodded. That settled it, “Okay then, sign me up.”

“Great!” Britta beamed. “We’ll help you get over her in no time.” Was that what this was about? Britta turned and walked out, her heavy steps thudding powerfully through the floor, before I thought to ask. Getting over Priscilla was not exactly what I had in mind, but it was probably better I didn’t tell Britta that either way. 

“You should get back too Molly… I’m sorry I snapped at you.” I said sincerely.

“It’s okay. I know you’re under a lot of pressure. Just don’t forget who your friends are, okay?”

I told her I wouldn’t and turned back to the observation room. How much bigger would these girls be by winter break if they kept growing like they were? Just a few months ago I would have worried about them, maybe some part of me still did, but it was all I could not to shiver in anticipation.