Epilogue: on Hermaphrodite, Inc.

No moon shone as the choppers came in low, over the water. It was 0300, during the shift change. The masked mercenaries piled out, silenced guns puffing as tranquilizer darts sprouted on the necks of the few security. Half of them moved swiftly toward the command center; the other half proceeded directly toward the target.

At 0313, Blaze woke up from sleep...her eyes grew wide, glowed from within...and then she dematerialized. Lois Lane's arm reached out toward the space where her wife had been.

"Babe?" the immensely pregnant woman said. She raised herself onto her elbows and scowled at the empty space next to her. "Angie?"

Gun shots rang out; the first and last that the Hermaphrodite, Inc. security team managed to fire during the entire incursion. Lois Lane's mouth set into a firm line as she heaved her bulk to the edge of the bed.

She had resisted the walker...but as the weeks went by, and the pounds packed on, Lois knew she needed to whatever it took to remain mobile. Fingers as plump as sausages grasped the handles, and thighs thicker than her torso slid against one another as Lois Lane's fertile body shifted forward barefoot. Supernatural senses brought empathic echoes to Lois' brain. Her people were in pain, in trouble.

The massive stomach pressed against the bar of the walker as the former reporter slowly made her way to the door of the cabin. Lois hadn't bothered to dress, but didn't care who saw her massive, leaking tits or globular buttocks. She was a fertility idol given flesh, and she was pissed.

The first team opened the door. Lois Lane saw eyes widen, weapons raised. The reporter's dark brow furrowed, her violet eyes flashed...and a dozen hardened men fell to the floor as their bodies shifted swiftly and painfully, breasts blossoming, cocks inverting into ripe, fertile cunts, hips swelling, scars fading, muscle mass diminishing...

Lois pushed herself forward, panting softly.

She met six more of the intruders on the way to the command center. The ones behind her blabbered into their headphones as they came to terms with harsh new reality. The others thought stealth and distance were advantages they could exploit...except Lois could sense them, like little beacons of life amid the lifeless bulk of the platform. While the CEO preferred to use her powers by touch, and her full range hadn't been established, it took little more than a thought to reach out and twist XY chromosomes into XX...and when she finally waddled onto the bridge, huffing and puffing, all four hundred pounds of Lois Lane was face to face with the last of them...

The last six were different though. The bulges in their body armor were wrong. One was taller, splashes of red paint on her shoulders and mask. They had tied up whatever staff and security personnel they could catch, and held their weapons against their heads. More than three quarters of the Hermaphrodite Inc. employees were women, and more than half of those were in some stage of pregnancy. Lois felt a slow burn of anger inside of her at the mistreatment of her people...and their babies.

"That's right," the leader said as she held up a gun. "You may have been able to affect my men...but we're already women."

"Unless you ladies want to know what it feels like to have triplets," Lois said. "I advise you to drop your weapons and surrender."

The mercenaries didn't move.

"An empty threat," the leader said. "Reports say she can only affect what she touches...and that while conscious."

Lois focused her gaze on the leader. Her eyes flickered as she read deeply into her aura.

"You've had a hysterectomy," Lois said.

"That's right," the leader said. "Now, are you going to come quietly, or am I going to have to see how many tranq darts it takes to put your fat ass out?"

"Emphasis on 'had,'" Lois said calmly. With a sigh Lois relaxed.

It took effort to control her fertility magic. To release just enough to help a patient and not overdo it. To keep from casually upping the chances of conception of everyone around her, as she had done when her powers had just manifested. Now, she always had to keep her power restrained, like a muscle constantly bunched...and it felt so good, sometimes, to just relax and let it flow out of her...

There was a brief, high-pitched scream as the leader fell to her knees. Regrowing an entire uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries was painful, and quite the shock to the system. The sudden shift in bloodflow could knock someone ****. Lois had seen it happen a few times while they had explored the limits of her powers. The pregnant woman stood idly by as her power flowed over the woman, as black goo that used to be scar tissue made a nasty, sticky mess in her pants, and multiple eggs prepped themselves for immediate insemination. With an effort of will, Lois drew the power back inside herself.

The reporter's violet eyes rested levelly on the remaining five.

"I can fill you all with sextuplets and bring you to term in five minutes," the reporter said carefully. "And I can make it so you spontaneously give birth every forty weeks for the rest of your lives. Drop your weapons and surrender."

They hesitated. Lois took a deep breath...focused her power...

The leader stirred on the floor with an audible groan. On her side, she clutched at her midsection...and then ripped at her clothes. Before the eyes of everyone there, the mercenary captain's abdomen swelled forward grotesquely...

Weapons hit the floor. The security personnel quickly grabbed them and began to handcuff the mercs.

"How many did you put in her?" one of the mercenaries asked.

Lois snorted. "None. Pseudopregnancy. Do you really think I'd knowingly impregnate someone who pointed a gun at me? Who hurt my people? What kind of mother do you think she would make?"

The reporter shook her head. "But she'll feel like she's pregnant...and unless you want to feel the same...you'll tell me who hired you, and where my wife is."

The answers, the greatly gravid reporter knew, were not going to make her happy.