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Myostatin Treatment


magicworker

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Part 21

 

Paul easily recognized Robert's body in the video. Who else could that be? But Robert was smart enough to have his cameraman disguise both his face and voice. That the police were now looking for him as a public menace, with only the video to go by, just helped spread the beastly freak's message across the city and across the country. The title of Robert's video was specifically addressed to the city, but the Cool Fruit powder was flying off the shelves across the country. 

 

Shortly after Rense alerted Paul to the video and he watched it for the first time, Berty called. "Ok, so now we know what that bastard was up to. I don't know anything about Cool Fruit, but he was awfully interested in what the city did with its water. I'm guessing that if people drink anything with city water, they're gonna start growing muscle in the next week. I'm gonna love living here. I'm at the restaurant and can't reach Robert, but I'll look for him tonight."

 

The doctor also called Paul, for confirmation that Robert had grown into that monster in the video. The doctor was able to get a sample of purple Cool Fruit, but found it really was just sugar and food coloring. Paul shared his guess that it was the water that held the active ingredient.

 

"But what did he do to the water?" the doctor asked. "Did he get more of your blood?"

 

"He used his own blood, probably," Paul responded.

 

"Well, that's not going to do much," explained the doctor. "Assuming he even has any nano-switches left in his system to put into the water supply, if people don't inject tap water into themselves, it probably won't reach their muscles, and even if that happened, they'd need some radiation to activate the one or maybe two nano-switches that came their way, and assuming it somehow stayed in their system long enough, it would take years to have any noticeable effect."

 

"But he's already had people drink a drop of his blood and they grew," Paul countered.

 

"When? Why didn't you tell me? How big are these other people?"

 

Then, Paul realized as he answered the doctor's last question, "I haven't seen these other people with my own eyes."

 

The doctor sighed, "Robert does not seem to be a highly moral person, so the most likely possiblity is that he lied to you. This treatment has had more unforseen ramifications and complications than I would have believed, but I have to say that it's impossible that Robert's blood in the public water could really affect anyone. If that's what Robert hopes, I hope he handles disappointment well."

 

It wasn't just Robert's hope, but Paul's as well. In the face of the doctor's pronouncement, Paul shared his growing worry, "Robert was hoping that with other huge guys around, he wouldn't be a circus freak or dissected for research and able to lead a normal life. I was hoping the same thing for me and Sasha."

 

"Paul, what's happening to you and Robert is not normal. A life with huge muscles is not a normal one. Again, I'm sorry for what I've done - who's Sasha?"

 

---

 

Minutes after Sasha watched the video with Paul, he got a call from an unlisted number. Normally, he'd ignore such calls, but his life felt increasingly not normal, and there was a lot of shit going down.

 

"Hello Mr. Fierro, this is Mr. Edusa from Rynth Labs. We've noticed a video online about Cool Fruit coming from your city. Did your agency have any role in this?"

 

"Um. No, sir, not at all."

 

"I'll try a more direct question. What do you know about it?"

 

"Why do you think I know anything about it?"

 

"Your face, of course."

 

---

 

A few hours earlier that day, Marc was about to leave the gym when he noticed the front desk girl watching a video on the computer. A video with a monstrously big guy.

 

"What's he saying?" Marc asked her.

 

"Oh, sorry, this came in a work email, I swear. I think it went out to every gym in the city."

 

After watching it once, he ran to get Don and Rense. Before it finished playing a second time, Rense was on the phone to Paul to alert him. 

 

Rense didn't want to admit that he recognized the huge freak, but he did admit that whatever was in the Cool Fruit was probably the same stuff that they had gotten. Marc went out to stock up on as much Cool Fruit powder as he could. A couple of stores near the gym still had some, and Rense and Don took turns helping him quickly amass a dozen large boxes with hundreds of the packets each.

 

"Guys," Rense announced with a frown when Don and Marc returned again, "it's probably not the powder. Paul talked with the doctor scientist who analyzed it. They think it's the water, city tap water."

 

"What?!" Don exclaimed, but Marc simply opened the box he was carrying and started making room for the packets and jars on the shelves behind the front counter.

 

"Make a sign," Marc ordered. "Ten, no, twenty dollars a packet."

 

---

 

A few of Robert's associates knew how to get in touch with him, and some were mad that he was freely sharing the formula that they had spent a lot of money to get just weeks ago. Some just wanted to confirm that he was the one behind it all, or some wanted more details on how it worked, or wondered if the powder stuff actually did work or was some big scheme. As consolation for the more angry or curious of his supporters, he shared that the formula wasn't in the powder, but in the tap water.

 

The next morning, the news reported several people selling Cool Fruit packets online or on the street for ridiculous prices. Those prices fell a bit as the company delivered inventory to the few stores that didn't announce loudly that they weren't carrying the product anymore. For the stores that did replenish their stock, they charged enough to easily cover extra security for a day.

 

Marc made a good deal of profit that morning and took Rense and Don out to lunch. Since they ate until they were stuffed, they were compensated well. And Marc was glad he didn't replenish his own supply, because there was a growing rumor that you didn't need the powder at all, causing prices to plummet further.

 

---

 

Paul and Sasha and the doctor were in the lab when the mayor announced that the public water supply was perfectly safe and the Sewer and Water Commisioner included some reassuring technical language.

 

"Are you kidding me?" Sasha exclaimed.

 

"What?" asked Paul. "Of course they'd say that, even if they knew something was there."

 

"They'd have to know what they were looking for, and use equipment they don't have," added the doctor, frustrated that even having the proper equipment had done little to unlock the mysteries around this treatment that had started so simply.

 

"No," explained Sasha, "I mean, obviously the commisioner guy is taking the stuff."

 

"He's big, but he's fat. Look at that belly," Paul countered.

 

"It's fake," Sasha retorted.

 

The doctor became interested, "How can you tell?"

 

"His face, of course. Also, the way his suit fits, it's hiding something it shouldn't, like in the joints. But the face is obvious."

 

Paul held his hand up to block the commisioner's torso. "Holy shit, you're right."

 

The doctor got back to analyzing a sample of Robert's blood. At least, Berty said that's what it was. "I don't detect any nanoswitches but the myostatin readings are strange. Maybe there is some other mechanism involved, and I have a few guesses. I'll have to do a protein analysis."

 

"Doc," Paul interjected, "just let me know when I get to say 'I told you so.'"

 

With time to kill and nowhere else to go, Paul and Sasha went over into the gym area of the lab and started to workout.

 

"Don't you want to go heavier?" Sasha asked after they warmed up.

 

"I'll still grow a little from a pump, and I gotta give you a chance to catch up to me."

 

"Not much chance of that, and if Robert's plan worked, you don't have to worry about getting too big."

 

"I guess I'm still waiting for confirmation on that. It'll take a while for regular people to actually get up to our size."

 

It was hard for Sasha to imagine neighbors and co-workers all potentially putting on pounds of muscle every week. This city was about to get a new reputation, and Sasha was going to help make it happen.

 

"How about 'Rep it up'?" Sasha asked between exercises.

 

Paul groaned. "Great idea, dear. You do realize that stuff is gonna sell itself, right?"

 

"No, we're gonna sell it."

 

"We? I didn't get a call from the mysterious Mr. Edusa."

 

"But he knows about you, I'm sure. If he was able to get my intern badge photo as evidence that I grew more than my fair share of muscle in the past year, he can probably find one of the pictures that people took of us on the street."

 

"So I'm gonna be in an ad?"

 

"Probably lots of them. They wanted Robert, of course, but I assured them he could be difficult to work with. Would that be okay?"

 

---

 

With many stores pledging to never carry Cool Fruit again, a possible FDA investigation and a break-in at one of their factories, Robert's investment in them was worthless, even after the record-breaking day in sales.

 

He was lying low in a shipping container just outside the city with enough water, food and spare batteries to last him a few days. So far the motion detector camera only caught Berty heading into the kitchen and leaving with one of the vials he had filled with his blood before his plan made bags the preferable choice. He wasn't sure why she only took one, but if she was the only "visitor" in the next couple days, then it would be safe to sneak back there and wait for the muscle revolution to occur.

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Here's what I have so far of the next part. Hopefully posting this will give me some momentum to reach an ending I'm happy with. Feel free to offer suggestions and/or encouragement.

 

Part 22

 

In the next two days, most people thought "The Great Cool Fruit Disaster" was just a poorly implemented hoax. The media moved on quickly to the next story, but there were still people who claimed they were selling tap water or Cool Fruit or both from that day. That afternoon, Marc had filled every container he had with tap water, but he was waiting for the proven results to hit the public before he could sell it to people across the world who weren't lucky enough to live in this city. Mercury Fitness, like every gym in town, became busy with people who thought they'd give the bodybuilding miracle a chance to happen to them, or they didn't want to be left behind when it happened to their friends. 
Of course, no results instantly happened and the police even abandoned their short-lived manhunt for the possibly fictional mega-bodybuilder who was briefly portrayed as a bioterrorist. Rense and Don noticed that a bunch of officers had just joined the gym, complaining about how crowded the small weight room at the station had become. 
 
The doctor had recruited Paul into acting as a lab assistant for a few days while the buzz blew over. He learned some of the simpler tasks and watched over a couple experiments while the doctor had a chance to catch some sleep. Paul also spent some time in the lab gym and kept in touch with Sasha and the outside world to watch for any developments.
 
On the third day, the doctor reported his progress, "The final analysis has yet to be completed, but Robert's myostatin reacted with yours to form a nasty hybrid. It reproduces like a prion disease, so all a person needs is one molecule of it and it starts changing any myostatin it reaches into itself and it can quickly cascade throughout someone's body. I don't think we'll have to wait a week for some people to notice an effect. The full effect is hard to predict, and it can vary greatly among the population. The original treatment and your blood affected people with different genetics differently, but there was a pattern that if they had a similar build to you, they reacted better. To this... disease, it's a matter of how the immune system reacts to the hybrid myostatin protein. The longer the disease lingers, the more growth they'll experience. It's definitely aggressive enough that most people will have noticeable musculoskeletal growth from their myostatin system becoming dysfunctional, but if the infection clears, their growth will stop."
 
"Ok," Paul reflected, "so people need to get sick to grow big?"
 
"Some people could become symptomatic," the doctor replied. "As they fight the disease, they might have a fever and flu-like symptoms. But some people, maybe most people, won't even realize they have the disease, except for the obvious side effects."
 
"You mean huge muscles?"
 
"And a large appetite, and maybe noticeable skeletal and genital growth as you've experienced and reported."
 
Paul's phone rang and it was Berty.
 
He answered asking, "Are you okay?"
 
"Of course I am, but you're so sweet to ask. I just spoke with a friend who works at the other A-y-c-e across town, and I thought you'd want to know that we've both been very busy yesterday and today."
 
"The other All-you-can-eat? Why... oh. The doctor here was just saying that increased appetite would be a side effect."
 
"The people that were really packing it away said it was probably because they just started working out."
 
"Thanks for the update. Any word from Robert?"
 
"No, so I've been giving my number out to those hungry folks in case I need a replacement."
 
----
 
The next weekend, as rumors spread of good muscle gains for almost everyone who did a workout in the previous few days, the media picked the story back up. Over a hundred people posted before and after pictures of last week to now that looked like they had trained hard and eaten well for a year in between.
 
Rense and Don posted before pictures that were a couple of weeks old, and their explosions from skinny or lean runts to heavyweight bodybuilders was big national news. Sasha had coached them on plugging a new supplement from Rynth Labs at every interview. The doctor recorded an ad endorsing the product, explaining that nutrient intake was important for anyone diagnosed with "MF", myostatin failure.
 
...
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