End: Etta Candy Is Two Hundred Pounds...of Ass Kicking!

It was a short, pudgy figure. Golden curls spilled out of the hood as she approached the altar where the demon and the naked reporter lay. Even bound as she was, Lois Lane could feel the heavy tread, see the pudgy bulk beneath the robe. The demon grinned in triumph.

"You! State your name, so that you may sign it over to Blaze, queen of hell!" the demon declared.

The figure had drawn up right beside the altar. Lois looked down the length of her nude body, as well as she could...the tiny hills of her breasts, the flat plane of her stomach,

"My name is Etta Candy—bitch!"

The robes were thrown off. The figure beneath was short, pudgy, blonde, very definitely female—and reminded Lois Lane of the female weight lifters she had known. The ones that were about six feet around at the gut and could bench press a small car.

And she was wearing knuckledusters marked with little crosses.

For the rest of her life, Lois Lane would remember the look on Blaze's face as all two hundred pounds of Etta Candy slammed just below the demon's heart. It was like a tiger if a mouse had bitten off the tip of its tongue. The whole world gone suddenly, terribly wrong.

Etta's next blow slammed into Blaze's teeth. A splatter of blood sprayed across the reporter's stomach. The assembled crowd made a noise Lois had only heard at hockey games when the gloves came off and the teeth started to fly.

"The power of Christ compels you!" Etta Candy screamed as her blessed knuckleduster slammed the devil's head back. "The power of Christ compels you!"

Lois Lane would have enjoyed seeing the demon getting curb-stomped, except that she had more pressing issues. The cultists holding her wrists and ankles were distracted. Lois grabbed the wrists of the one who held her arms and pulled; the woman instinctively pulled back, and Lois used that leverage to kick free of the one that held her feet.

"!ruomalg porD" A familiar voice cried out...and the naked reporter, now free and on the altar, turned to see Zatanna and Wonder Woman pull their cowls and cloaks off and rush forward, even as the fat, rich women fled. For a moment, Lois Lane felt a surge of hope.

Then Etta Candy went flying past the altar. Lois Lane turned to see a very angry demon with a black eye and bloody, mashed lips.

"Very well, Lois Lane. You may have defeated me this time. But I will give you a gift..." The demon spat.

Black lightning flared between the horns. The reporter felt suddenly, terribly exposed.

Then the lightning flashed.

Time seemed to slow down. Lois Lane saw the black bolt of energy crackle through the air. Saw it fork. Watched as one fork of the bolt struck her. Felt every muscle in her body clench at once. Lost sight of Blaze as she keeled over, off the altar. Saw the ceiling. Felt gravity take hold.

Then time regained its normal flow. Lois Lane collapsed into Wonder Woman's arms. The reporter blinked, her whole body twitched. Wonder Woman's lips moved, but the sounds didn't resolve themselves for a moment.

Then they did.

"Lois! Are you okay!?" The Amazon said, voice full of worry.

"I...think so?" Lois said. She looked down at where the black bolt had struck. There was no scorch mark. Nothing hurt. Her naked body looked normal.

Etta Candy hurried past her. "Zee! You okay darlin'?"

The reporter twisted her head and looked at Zatanna. The witch, dressed in her characteristic topcoat and tails, was on her ass. She looked at Lois...and suddenly, Lois realized where the other fork of Blaze's last burst had gone.

"!esruc evomeR" Zatanna said.

For a second, an inverted pentagram became visible, just above the reporter's navel. Then it faded.

"Damn," the witch said, and Lois lowered her shirt.

They were back in Lois Lane's kitchen. Blaze had left the building, and according to Zatanna, this entire plane of existence. Back to Hell to lick her wounds. Wonder Woman and Zatanna had done clean-up with the cultists as Lois and Etta found the women that Blaze had kidnapped. The ones who had gone missing.

The only left was the parting curse the demon had laid on Lois Lane and Zatanna.

"Basically, it's...what she wanted to do with you before," the magician said. "We're linked. Any excess calories that I would eat go to you. I could do an all-you-eat buffet every day for a month and you'd gain all the weight."

The reporter gulped.

"Not that I'm going to do that!" Zatanna said. "I mean, you see how I dress. I'm always watching my weight. Diet, exercise..."

"Is there any way to remove it?" Lois asked. It wasn't that she didn't trust Zee, but...she could easily see herself inching upwards in weight if the trim, fit woman started taking her magical zero weight gain for granted.

"It's old magic. Very old. I need to find the exact spell to weave a counterspell," Zatanna said.

"If all else fails, there are gods that owe me favors," Wonder Woman assured her.

"And being chubby isn't all bad!" Etta Candy chimed in. "I'm a healthy weight! The rest of you just have unrealistic body types. Learn to love yourselves a little, girls."

"Look on the bright side, Lois," Zatanna said with a sad smile. "At least you weren't paired with Etta, or Diana. Those Amazon feasts would go straight to your thighs!"

Lois Lane laughed...but it was a brittle thing. It was one thing for her to control her weight with diet and exercise, but now she was dependent on someone else. Not in control of her own body. It was a bit like being pregnant, she thought.

The reporter had a flicker of premonition, then. For a moment, she saw all the possible futures stretched out before her. All the infinite possibilities. Zatanna, with a broken leg, unable to exercise, while Lois Lane pushed herself on a treadmill for the both of them. Zatanna, her stomach slowly rounded, pigging out at a buffet as Lois Lane's button's popped. Herself, seated on the edge of the bed, feeding a naked Zatanna a rich devil's food cake, the two of them both watching as Lois grew a second chin. The sorceress tied to a chair by some perverted villain, a feeding hose pumping a nutrient-rich sludge down her throat, and across the world Lois Lane's clothes suddenly got tighter.

Lois Lane shivered. Somehow, she felt her night out would have repercussions on her waistline...and a part of her was curious what it would feel like, to be...bigger.