Between a mother bear and her cub...

Once she was back inside, Susan began her workout all over again. Choosing to go to one of the treadmills after having been exercising with weights for the last 3 hours. Heading over to the row of treadmills at the far wall where others were using them to get cardio workouts, Susan set the machine to a quick jog and began to run on the spot. After a few minutes, Susan increased the speed until she was now in a full-on sprint, holding her speed the entire time without feeling tired or out of breath. She was starting to get bored until another patron at the gym took up the treat mill in front of her and began running. From behind he did not look special, mid thirties, slightly overweight and most likely only joined to work off the spare tire he had showing in his sweatshirt. But the moment he began to run… Something clicked in Susan.

Breathing hard and her pink tinted eyes going wide with excitement, she began to pick up her pace, running harder on the treadmill to pick up speed. The thrill of the chase coursed through her veins, making her heart boom in her chest as she quickly thumbed over the controls to increase the speed of the treadmill, running harder and harder to catch up with her imaginary prey. Her lip curling into a smile, Susan’s pace increased, so much so she kept going back to the controls to go faster and faster. By now almost everyone on her end of the gym could hear her footfalls pound into the rubber lining of the treadmill, her body in full sprint and maintaining her speed. By now the only sounds she could hear was the booming beat of her heart in her ear drums and her feet hitting the treads, she was locked in the zone now, invested in the chase, the hunt for her prey just out of reach as she ran faster and adjusted the treadmill accordingly.

By now like all the other times she had been working out, she had garnered a crowd, at least a dozen or more gathered around and were watching this tall pale woman running with all her might. She was not even using the stirrups to keep herself steady or in place, she was not even looking at them, or the controls. By now the only thing that was important to her was the chase, her prey was so close, so close she could just pounce and tackle the man and sink her teeth into him. It was not until he stopped to catch his breath and pull a water bottle out of his gear to get a drink. The moment he did, and stepped out of her tunnel vision, Susan blinked and looked around, bewildered before stopping the treadmill she was on and looking down at the readings to find she had been running 60 MPH for over an hour! Realizing she had an audience again, she frowned and stepped off the device, passing through them while scratching her hair loose, not even realizing she was almost 3 inches taller than most of them. “The hell are you all staring at?” Seeing them avoid looking her in the eye, Susan huffed and made her way to the change room.

By now it was getting close to her kid’s time to get out of school, and she needed to pick them up. Getting changed, she winced after putting on her underwear and top, finding her bra snug on her chest and back and biting into her shoulders even at the loosest strap. Her sweatpants looked practically painted over her long, toned legs and she had trouble buttoning up her blue tinted blouse, the sleeves felt too tight and she could not button up the top three buttons like she could this morning. “The hell is wrong with this thing? I thought I was going to the gym to LOSE weight, not gain it!” Eyeing the full body scale nearby, curiosity had gotten the better of her and she decided to find out just how much she weighed. The moment her feet touched the pressure sensitive step, the arm of the scale zipped from zero to almost the other end of the scale, wiggling to a three-digit number that made the pale white woman gasp in shock. “TWO HUNDRED AND EIGHTY POUNDS?!!!!!!!!!” She gasped in horror, instantly going invisible save for her clothes at the sight of the reading off the scale.

Stepping off the device and listening as the springs snapped the arrow back to zero, the invisible woman hugged herself tightly, checking her body over for rolls of fat or anything bulging off her to excuse her suddenly more than doubling her body weight. In actuality, she wasn’t fat at all, if anything she was quite the opposite. If not for the fact her skin seemed icy pale, her hair a platinum tint and her eyes a near bloody pink, she looked like an amazon goddess! Tall, imposing, and statuesque, not a shred of fat could be seen on her lean and toned figure save for maybe her feminine curves, which had become more accentuated after growing taller and stronger. Long toned legs, ending at wide hips with a heart shaped rear, tapered to a narrow waist with sold abdominal muscles up to a heaving chest with proud full globes for breasts the size of ripe grapefruits. Her shoulders were as broad as her hips with toned arms that threatened to burst the seams of her sleeves. For the better part of the day just about every man in the gymnasium had been leering at her body during her workouts… Had she been paying attention.

With a hot blush to her invisible cheeks, Susan gathered her things and quickly made her way outside to get to the Fantasticar. Becoming visible again once she felt safe in the interior of the flying car.

*

During the flight to head to her children’s school, Susan wasn’t even looking down to the restaurants or food stops on the way there, the first time in a couple of days since this gnawing hunger gripped her, after finding out she had practically doubled in weight, the thought of eating anything else seemed like a toxic idea. If only her stomach could agree with her…

Landing in one of the adjacent parking spots out front of the school while the bell rang for everyone to exit, Susan opened the passenger doors and waited to spot her two children coming out the main doors. Franklin noticed his mother’s car and ran for the open door where he moved over and sat at the far seat but looked up to see his mother’s complexion. “Mom? Are you okay?” She did not hear him, instead, she was listening in on everything else. She could hear every childish gossip and chatter happening in front of her from the children leaving the school. But her full attention was on her daughter, and the trio of girls who stopped her at the door, surrounding her. Clutching her bag in front of her, Valaria looked down as the tallest of the three girls talked down to her. Susan could not hear anything yesterday, but today? What she heard made her lip pull back in a sneer.

“So shrimp, I TOLD you to do my homework last night, so where IS it?”

“I didn’t do it… I had a lot of…”

“Do I look like I’m in the mood for excuses, we had a deal! You do my homework and I don’t dunk your head in the toilets. I’ve got better things to do than waste time on paperwork, now are you gonna do it? Or do you need another toilet wash for that scruffy hair of… AAAAAACK!” The girl never had a chance to finish her sentence when she felt a hand grab the back of her school uniform and hoist her off her feet, turning her slightly to look into the face of Susan Storm, glaring back at the girl with blood red eyes. A low growl from the pale woman’s lips made everyone go silent.

"ReAlLy? A ScHoOl WeRe No KiD HaS An IQ LoWeR ThAn 180 AnD YoU'Re STILL FoRcInG HeR To Do YoUr HoMeWoRk?!"

“Wha… Who do you think you are, put me…”

“SHUT UP!!!” Her voice carried over and made the rest of the students stop in place, watching the scene unfold as the local bully hung from the hem of her uniform, her two co-conspirators shaking and silent at the sight of the albino amazon in front of them holding up their leader like a stray cat by its collar. “YoU LiKe To MaKe DEALS? So Do I… HeRe’S A NeW DeAl, iF I GeT ThE ImPrEsSiOn YoU’Ve BeEn PiCkInG On My DaUgHtEr, EVEN So MuCh As A HAIR OuT Of PlAcE, YoU’Ll SeE MUCH MoRe Of Me…”

Squirming in the woman’s grip, the little girl could not even make eye contact with the intense look Susan was giving her. "Y-you can't do this to me! M-mmy Father works for the..."

Everyone within earshot clutched at the sides of their heads to guard their ears when Susan let loose a guttural roar that terrified the little girl in her clutches, her ebony hair blowing behind her from the intensity of it all, and the trickle on the ground shown that she had peed herself in fright. Looking back up with tears in her eyes, the girl looked up at sneering fanged teeth and blood red eyes boring down at her. “DEAL?”

“YES! I’ll be good! I’LL BE GOOD!”

Dropping her like a sack of potatoes on the ground, Susan quickly spun around and pulled her daughter up to be cradled in her arms as she made her way back to the car, kissing her on the forehead. Looking over her mother’s shoulder, Valaria smiled at the sight of the trio of girls slowly staggering back to their feet, waddling after having soiled themselves in her mother’s wrath.

“Love you mom!”

“Love you TOO pumpkin, now let’s get back home, I’m STARVING!”