User blog:MrTyeDye/Fanfiction: A Load of Bulk (Chapter 4)

[Part 1]

[Part 2]

[Part 3]

Lana woke up at around 10:00 the next morning in a surly mood. Not only was she still steamed about what happened last night, but her headache hadn't gone away; in fact, it had gotten a little bit worse. With a low grumble, she slumped off of the bed and lumbered out of the room. As she walked out the door, a momentary glance over her shoulder revealed that Lola was nowhere to be seen.

I bet she ran off to bunk with someone else, thought Lana. What a baby.

She trudged through the hall with a chip resting on her beefy shoulder, ready to pulverize anyone in her way. She hadn't forgotten the vow she made last night - "if everyone's gonna treat me like a bully, I'll start acting like one" - and she intended to keep it.

Her first victim would be Luan, who was just coming up the stairs munching on a couple of toaster waffles. As soon as she reached the top step, Lana knocked the wind out of her with a sock to the gut, causing her to drop the waffles on the floor and fall to her knees, wincing in pain. As soon as the waffles fell, Lana scooped them up and chomped them down.

"H-hey!" cried Luan, in between groans and gasps. "T-those were mine!"

"Then why'd you give 'em to me?" sneered Lana, wiping crumbs off of her lips. "And by the way, I'm still hungry. Make me two more."

"But-"

Lana grabbed Luan by the blouse and pulled her up close to her face, until she could feel Lana's hot, steaming breath on her face. "Make me two more," she said, "or I'll snap you like a twig."

If there was any doubt in Luan's mind that Lana was capable of such a feat, it was squelched by what Lana did next. She brought her arm up to Luan's face and flexed it down as hard as she could, making it erupt into a massive boulder. By now it was nearing 20 inches around.

"Y-yes, Lana," Luan squeaked. Lana released her blouse and let her collapse onto the floor in a heap, after which she started crawling back down the hall on her hands and knees. Lana smirked as she watched Luan crawl away.

Then, she caught sight of Lucy making her way down the hall towards the bathroom, with her legs clenched together. Lana, knowing full well what that body language signified, decided to make Lucy her next target. In a remarkable display of agility given her size, Lana dashed down the hall and cut in front of Lucy just before she made it to the bathroom door.

"Ooh! Sorry, Lucy. There's a bathroom toll now. You gotta pay me before I let you through."

Lucy groaned. "Very funny, Lana. Now let me in."

Lana just stared Lucy down, folding her beefy arms. "I'm not joking, Lucy. Pay up."

Lucy didn't have any cash on her, and she didn't want to make the trip back to her room, so - against her better judgment - she tried to squeeze past her not-so-little sister. "Lana, come on. I really have to- ack!"

In one swift motion, Lana grabbed Lucy by the wrists and started twisting her arms behind her back.

"O-ow!" cried Lucy. "Lana, s-stop! That really hurts!"

Lana just ramped up the pressure, forcing Lucy down onto her knees. In her position, there was nothing she could do but grunt and squirm about in Lana's grip.

"Promise you'll pay the toll and I'll let you go," Lana said plainly, the stableness of her voice indicating just how easy it was for her to hold Lucy down.

"Lana, p-please! I really have to... to..."

Lucy's cries for mercy started to taper off. In their absence, Lana's ears picked up a soft hissing sound coming from below. Intrigued, she lightened her grip a little and peered down. As the hissing sound increased in volume, Lana noticed a few narrow rivulets of citrine liquid trickling down Lucy's legs and onto the floor, forming a small puddle beneath her. She also noticed a few tears running down Lucy's cheeks. As soon as she put two and two together, she reared back her head and cackled.

"Ha ha ha! Looks like the baby needs a diaper!"

In her fit of laughter, Lana released Lucy's hands, and her broken older sister collapsed onto all fours, sniffling and sobbing.

"Go back to daycare, Puddles," Lana said, giving Lucy a smack on the butt that made her yelp in pain. Just then, Luan came bounding up the stairs with another two toaster waffles in her hands. As she was midway through the hall, she couldn't help but notice Lucy crawling back to her room, leaving a trail of liquid behind her.

"Lucy, are you all right?" she asked, getting down on one knee to help her little sister. "What happened?"

Before Lucy could answer, Lana marched in, grabbed the waffles out of Luan's hand and wolfed them down in a few bites. "Lucy-Wucy had a little accident," sneered Lana, in between bites. "She couldn't make it to the potty like a big girl."

Lucy's sobbing grew louder as she let herself collapse face-first onto the carpet. Luan, wincing in empathy, picked her up off the floor and started walking her back to her room.

"Shhh. It's okay, Lucy. Let's just get you cleaned up."

A moment later, Lori came up the stairs, only to be greeted with the sight of a sobbing Lucy being escorted back to her room, and Lana standing a few feet behind with her arms crossed. It didn't take long for her to figure out what had happened - not exactly what had happened, mind you, but she at least knew that Lucy was hurt and Lana was somehow to blame.

"You," she snapped, marching up to Lana. "I don't know what's gotten into you lately, but I'm getting pretty sick of this new attitude of yours."

She jabbed a finger towards Lucy and Lynn's room. "Go apologize to Lucy. Now. And afterwards, I want you to clean up this mess."

Lana gave Lori a defiant scowl and puffed out her mammoth-sized chest. "You can't tell me what to do!" she yelled. "And why should I say sorry, anyway?! The last time I tried to say that, you all just yelled over me!"

"You dislocated Lincoln's shoulder!" cried Lori. "We had to rush him to the ER at 8:00 at night!"

As if to hammer her point home, Lincoln emerged from his room with his arm in a sling. As soon as he caught sight of Lana, he shrunk back into his room, shutting the door behind him. Between Lucy's sobbing and Lincoln's cowering, Lana started to feel a pang of guilt growing in the back of her mind. On top of that, her headache was starting to flare up again - though that could have just been a product of the aforementioned guilt.

"H-he's just being a drama queen," she said, cringing from the ache.

"No, he's really not," Lori said sharply. "Now go to Lucy's room and tell her you're sorry. I'm not going to ask you again."

"Good!" cried Lana. "'C-cause I don't have to listen to you."

"Oh, yes you do!" said Lori, trying to maintain her stern, authoritative tone. "In case you've forgotten, I'm still your big sister."

Lana snorted, putting on a rebellious face and doing her best to mask her pain. "Not anymore, you're not!"

She punctuated her declaration with a mind-blowing crab flex. Several sharp rips could be heard throughout the hallway, as her grotesquely oversized muscles burst through her shirt. Lori took a shaky step back, clamping a hand over her mouth to muffle her gasp.

"Lana, I... I'm still your... you have to..." babbled Lori, in a desperate bid to reassert her authority over her mini-hulk of a sister. Lana just laughed, shoved her to the side and started walking down the stairs.

"Yeah, whatever. Get lost, toothpick."

With that, she started walking down to the basement, which had since become her favorite room in the house. Once she got there, she saw Lynn lying by the weight set, in the middle of a set of situps.

"Oh, hey, Lynn!" she sang, rubbing her hands together. "Fancy seeing you down here!"

Lynn locked eyes with Lana mid- situp and froze in her tracks, turning pale. That mischievous smirk Lana was wearing could only be interpreted as a sign of pain coming her way. "Oh, h-hey, Lana. I was just leaving."

"No, stay!" said Lana, as she crept closer and closer. "I'm antsy and I need to blow off some steam. Let's wrestle."

Lynn gulped, trying to scoot away from the six-year-old powerhouse. "Um, maybe later, Lana. I just have to-"

"No! I want to wrestle now!"

Before Lynn could flee, Lana pounced on her, flipped her over onto her stomach and wrapped her arm around her neck, putting her in a vice-like headlock. Lynn squirmed and flailed about, swinging her fists against Lana's forearm to no effect.

"Ha! Was that a punch, or did a mosquito just fly in here?"

Lynn growled, gripped Lana's forearm with both hands, and started pulling with all her might. Again, Lana couldn't help but laugh at how she didn't even have to try to resist her. She still remembered looking up to Lynn, admiring her strength and hoping to one day be as good an athlete as her. Now, the "big" sister she used to idolize was as weak as a kitten compared to her, and Lana just thought of the perfect way to illustrate that reversal.

"Hey, Lynn? Remember this?"

Suddenly, she let go of Lynn's neck. Lynn sucked in a huge gulp of air, relieved at the sensation of being able to breathe freely again. But any relief she felt from that was short-lived, as she felt Lana mount her back, wrap both hands around her mouth and pull her head back.

"The Camel Clutch!" Lana cried with glee. "You taught me this move, Lynn! Remember?"

A sickening creak could be heard as Lana started to ramp up the pressure. With her body pinned under Lana's immense weight and Lana's hands muffling her cries of pain, Lynn couldn't have felt any more helpless. It wasn't long before the strain became too much for Lynn to bear, and tears started to seep out from her eyes - both from the pain Lana was inflicting, and the humiliation of being outmuscled by her little sister. She hammered her hand against the floor, tapping out.

"Giving up already?! Ha! Wimp!"

Lana let Lynn go, stood up and launched herself into a series of poses, pumping up her pecs and biceps. Mid-pose, she noticed Lynn whimpering and trying to crawl away, which only inspired her to gloat some more.

"Take a look at me, Lynn. I'm the big sister now. I'm a big, strong bull and you're a squeaky little mouse. I'm a- OW!"

Lana was cut off mid-sentence when she was struck with another jab of pain in her temples. This episode was even more severe than the last, and on top of that, the pain seemed to be radiating to her neck, shoulders and chest. The next thing she knew, she was doubled over, gritting her teeth and massaging the affected areas.

"Lana, are you okay?" asked Lynn, who had just managed to start picking herself up off the floor. "Maybe you should start taking it easy."

"I'm fine!" snapped Lana, as she stumbled towards the stairs. "I...I just need to rest for a bit. I'll see you later."

Lynn looked on with worry-ridden eyes as Lana lumbered out of the basement. In spite of everything she just endured at the hands of Lana, her familial instincts were just as strong as ever.

The same was true of the rest of her family - particularly her parents, who stopped her midway through the living room as she tried to pass through.

"Lana? Your father and I would like to talk to you, please," said Rita, her voice lined with just a hint of sternness. Both she and Lynn Sr. were seated on the couch with their hands folded in their laps.

Lana, in the throes of her aching, couldn't muster up the wherewithal to argue, so she hobbled over to the easy and plopped herself down. "Fine," she grumbled. "What's the problem?"

"Lana," said Lynn Sr., maintaining a steady, measured tone, "your mother and I are concerned about you. In the past few days we've noticed a few... changes."

He stumbled a bit over the last word. As much as he tried to keep his composure, it wasn't easy for him to talk about his six-year-old daughter putting on more muscle than a Mr. Olympia as if it were a normal turn of events.

"And one of those changes," he said, as his face began to harden, "is your behavior. The way you acted last night was completely unacceptable."

"I tried to say I was sorry!" cried Lana.

"Don't talk back," Rita said curtly. "We also heard that you've been picking on your sisters since you got up this morning."

"Who told you?!" cried Lana, clenching her fists and causing her muscles to throb.

"That doesn't matter," said Rita. "The point is that this has to end. And we're putting a stop to it right now. As soon as we're done talking, you're going to go straight upstairs and apologize for everything you did today."

Lana crossed her arms and slouched into her seat, pouting. "Fine."

"Also," said Lynn Sr., "we're going to make arrangements for you to see the doctor later this-"

"No!" barked Lana, as she sprung up from her seat. "You can't make me! I hate the doctor!"

But the parents stayed firm, refusing to yield to their freakishly strong daughter.

"Lana, you're seeing the doctor and that's final," said Rita, who was starting to raise her voice. "We need to find out if-"

"No! I refuse!" cried Lana, stamping her foot and causing minor tremors throughout the room. "If you try to make me go, I'll... I'll beat you up!"

Both Rita and Lynn Sr. let out an appalled gasp. "Lana Loud! Don't you dare threaten your mother!"

"You can't tell me what to do!" yelled Lana as she stomped towards her parents, who were trying their best to remain authoritative in the face of danger. "I can... I can do whatever I... whatever I..."

Just before she got within arm's length of them, Lana's rant began to taper off, and her once-fiery eyes started to glaze over. The pain she felt in the basement was starting to surge again, radiating even further than it did before. Other, separate pain sensations started to sprout up throughout her body as well, including a churning in her stomach and a sharp ache spreading across her arms and back.

"I... um... oh, geez," she muttered, teetering about and clutching the affected areas.

All of the anger Rita and Lynn Sr. felt in that moment - or, at least- most of it - gave way to worry once they saw Lana start to waver.

"Lana, what's the matter?" asked Rita.

"I...I dunno. It hurts. It all hurts."

She turned around and used her remaining stamina to hobble towards the stairs. "I-I'll go apologize now. Then I'll take a nap."

Lana would only keep the latter part of that promise, as she lacked the energy or willpower to track down everyone she had wronged that morning. Just as she reached the door of her room, however, she heard high-pitched sobbing coming from inside Lori and Leni's room. Edging closer to the source of the noise, she recognized the sobbing as Lola's.

"I don't even know who she is anymore!" Lola wailed. "It's like I'm living with a stranger! A big, mean, muscle-headed stranger!"

Lori and Leni tried to shush her, to no avail. Before Lana could move away from the door, Lola belted out one last heart-wrenching line:

"I just want my twin sister back!"

Lana, now feeling swelling pangs of guilt on top of her existing physical pain, clamped her hands over her ears and ran back towards her bedroom. She stumbled inside, slammed the door behind her, stumbled over towards her bed and collapsed onto it. Her body was wracked with soreness and a hundred thoughts were going through her head, but she thought - or at least hoped - that some extra rest would be enough to dull the pain and clear her mind.

She was wrong.

By the time she woke up several hours later, what had started as mild discomfort had swelled into searing agony. Her headache had grown so severe that it felt like someone was twisting a knife through her cranium, and every muscle in her body was throbbing. Her heart was pounding with the ferocity of an angry ram, and every time she took a breath she felt as though she were inhaling a ton of bricks. She rolled out of bed, hit the floor with a thud, and started writhing and flailing around in torment. She screamed, throwing herself against the floor in a vain attempt to beat the pain out of her body.

Her yowls of anguish soon got the attention of the rest of her family, starting with Lori, who happened to be walking past her door at the time. Her face drained itself of color and she clasped her hands over her gaping mouth at the sight before her. Lana was rolling around on the ground partly naked, having torn up her shirt in the throes of her pain. Her monstrous muscles were bulging and pulsating, crossed with discolored, pencil-thick veins, looking like they would explode at any moment. What made the scene all the more morbid was the occasional glimpse of those blonde pigtails, reminding Lori that this bellowing beast before her was her sweet little sister.

"Lana, what's wrong?!" cried Lori, who was soon joined by some of the other siblings. "What hurts?!"

"Everything!" shrieked Lana, who was starting to tear up. "My head! My stomach! My arms! My back! My... my..."

Lana tried to get another word out, when she felt the sensation of hot bile rising in her throat. The next thing she knew, her mouth was forced open as a steaming geyser of sickly green vomit burst forth from her esophagus. All the food she greedily pigged out on the day before was spewed onto the floor. As soon as she was done, a pregnant silence ensued, as the rest of the family watched her with bated breath; they had hoped that whatever was ailing Lana was purged from her system.

That notion was proven false, however, by the next thing that came forth from Lana's throat: a hoarse, anguished groan of, "OOOOOOWWWWWWWWW!"

Tears were pouring down her cheeks as she resumed thrashing about on the floor, begging for someone or something to end her misery. As the Louds chattered among themselves in an attempt to figure out what to do, a hysterical Lola pushed herself to the front of the crowd, ran up to Lana and threw her arms around her.

"DON'T LEAVE ME!" she bawled, crying into Lana's huge, pulsating chest. "I'm sorry I stared at you! I'm sorry I said all those things behind your back! You're the best twin in the whole wo-o-orld!"

With a heavy heart, Leni crouched down and pried Lola off, in the interest of giving Lana some space. She then carried her into another room to console her, while everyone else continued to try to come up with a solution.

"Lana, sweetie?" said Rita, trying to keep her composure and hold her tears back. "I'm gonna need you to stay with us. We're going to take care of you, but first we have to figure out what's wrong."

She knelt down close to the agonized young girl. "Now, is there anything unusual that happened to you in the past few days?"

No answer.

"Lana, please," said Lynn Sr. "We want to help you, but we need you to cooperate. If there's anything you remember, tell us."

Again, no answer. Lana clammed up, in the vain hope that she would somehow be able to come out of her predicament without confessing what she did.

"I think we should just call the doctor," said Luna. "If she-"

"LISA'S LAB!" screamed Lana, causing everyone in the room to jerk their attention back towards her. As soon as Luna brought up the "D" word, Lana knew she was trapped. She could either tell them the truth now, or have the doctor pry it out of her later. Predictably, she chose the former.

"Come again?" asked Lori.

"Lisa's lab!" Lana screamed again. "I found something in Lisa's room and I wanted to get strong so I took a sip of it! I'm sorry! I'll never do it again! Make it stop! MAKE IT STOP!"

Her family's faces turned pale after her confession. Lana's habit of eating out of the garbage was already concerning to them, but the idea of her sampling something from the unregulated madhouse that was Lisa's room was several magnitudes worse.

"Lana, what were you thinking?!" cried Lori, who was promptly shushed by everyone else.

"We'll lecture her later," Lynn Sr. whispered in Lori's ear. "Right now, all she needs is our help."

He then turned towards Lana, who at this point was causing the room to shake by alternately pounding her fists against the hardwood floor. "Lana, listen to me. Right now, we're going to call Lisa, and she's going to tell us what we can do to help you. Okay?"

Lana was able to stop her writhing long enough to look up and give Lynn Sr. a nod.

"Good," he said as he dialed Lisa's cell. "Just hang in there, Lana. You're gonna be okay."

As Lana watched her father walk out of the room and draw his phone, her movements began to grow slower and less violent. A feeling of lightheadedness was overtaking her, as both her vision and her hearing started to blur. Lana tried to clear her head and reorient herself, but to no avail; the images around her deteriorated into unrecognizable blobs, the entire room seemed to be spinning like a carousel, and she began to lose track of how much time had passed. The last thing she felt before falling onto her back and passing out was a glass tube being pressed against her lips and a bubbly, flavorless liquid running down her throat.

At the time of the phone call, Lisa was enjoying a casual lunch with one of her colleagues, chattering about the ramifications of Stephen Hawking's black hole theory. He was enjoying a croque-monsieur with a kale salad, and she a plate of dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets with a side of french fries. All of a sudden, their outing was interrupted by the high-pitched buzz of Lisa's phone, causing her to groan in annoyance.

"I sincerely apologize," she said as she excused herself from the table to answer the phone. "Hello?...Yes, father, how may I help you?...What's this about Lana?...I see. And you think you know what caused it?...She what?!"

Lisa cringed in embarrassment, as her outburst provoked several people around the restaurant to turn towards her. "That formula was still in the prototype stage!" she whispered harshly, scurrying towards the bathroom. "It wasn't ready to be tested on humans! I..."

She held the phone away from her ear for a moment and took a few deep breaths before resuming the conversation. "I-it's fine. Fortunately, I created a failsafe. Go to my room...Do you see a test tube rack on my desk?...Yes, that one. On the far right, you'll see a vial labeled 'reversal agent'. Take it out, and give some of it to Lana...Well, that depends on her initial dosage. How much did she say she took?...What do you mean, 'a sip'?!...A sip could be anything from 800 microliters to 13 milliliters!...Okay, here's what we're going to do. On the far left, you'll find the strength-boosting formula. Take a look at it and tell me how much is left...Ah, okay. Then give her 2 milliliters of the reversal agent. And call me tomorrow morning to let me know how she's doing...Yes, I love you too. Goodbye."

Lisa hung up the phone and let out a massive sigh, collapsing back-first against the bathroom wall. "What on earth have I wrought?"

August 2

8:30 p.m.

''Regrettably, I had to apply the reversal agent and end the experiment prematurely today. Not only did the rat's behavior never improve, but this morning it started to go through fits of pain. These fits increased in both frequency and severity with each passing hour; by the afternoon, it could do little but writhe and squeak. I could not, in good conscience, let the experiment continue.''

''I haven't given up entirely, however. My next task will be discerning why the formula affected the subject's nervous system in such a profound way, which will hopefully explain both the behavioral changes and the episodes of pain.''

''But that will have to wait for a later time. I'm just about to embark on a trip to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - street name "MIT" - as I've been invited there to give a lecture. Hopefully, the house stays intact in my absence.''

- Lisa M. Loud