Roommate, The (by Xyggurat)

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By Xyggurat

Dear Readers,

No, it's not *quite* over. There's one more chapter before I move along to a few fresher stories.

Sorry for the lack of on-screen male muscle growth in this chapter. The recent debate made me more aware of what some forum readers want--apparently, everything is supposed to be packed with people growing laughably large--but I started this story as a tale about male muscle growth, transfer of dominance and strength, and just a little bit of dark fantasy. I feel the need to finish it off as such. Therefore, this and the final chapter are conclusions to a story, not a theme piece.

I'll beg your forebearance and forgiveness.

-X-

My heart swelled with gratitude and hope.

Christian stood above Phil like an avenging angel, taut musculature pressed against the white undershirt he wore. He had obviously been in a hurry to follow Phil. One of his running shoes was undone; the other, hastily tied. He was also wearing basketball shorts, which given his endowment was probably not the best of ideas. Perhaps I was imagining it, but he looked taller than he had the last time I had seen him. Maybe it was just his pose.

He still held the fire extinguisher that had knocked Phil unconscious aloft, and shafts of setting sunlight from the windows in the hall framed his physique. He was the very image of a classical hero standing over a felled beast, even as he lowered the extinguisher to his side—effortlessly, I might add—and stepped over Phil toward me. As he lifted me to my feet, my heart threatened to pound right out of my chest. There should have been trumpets.

I swallowed. I thought then that if he kissed me, I would lose consciousness. The touch of the man I had inadvertently created was enough of a straw to break this camel's back, especially after all that I had been through today. He was definitely taller than the 5'10 he had been just a night ago. Not so much that most people would have noticed, but it was hard for me not to do so. He was so close, and the little details were different to my eyes. Unless I had shrunk again, but that had never happened spontaneously. No, I decided, Christian was definitely bigger. The way his shirt rode up against his triceps even when they were not flexed, how it looked about to split from the press of his squared chest and mounding traps... I wondered exactly how much residual effect my tampering with him had caused.

Would he continue to grow? Would the others? I knew then that I had to make it through this, and claim victory against Phil. Christian I could trust with the powers of an enhanced body; the others had demonstrated what they would do given dominance over others. I swayed with a sudden sickness at the thought that Phil's symbiote might have reproduced. A great burden lay upon my shoulders, and I was not the man I used to be.

Christian was staring into my eyes. He did not kiss me. Instead, he just smiled. His teeth were white in his lightly-bronzed face. And those dimples...

"I couldn't let him do anything to you," Christian said. The words sounded so simple, but they spoke volumes. He opened his mouth to say something else, but I cut him off.

"Thank you," I rasped, staring into those grey eyes.

Christian looked away for a moment before forcing his gaze back to meet mine. "You can't be in love with me because you're not sure if your feelings are real. I get that. It's so far past the line of fucked up for me to push someone who has been through what you have. I kind of felt like a date rapist after you left." His smile softened into something more sincere. "If you do ever figure out what you want, and it's me, I'll be there. But right now... I'm in sore need of a best friend and—"

"Yes. Definitely, yes."

I was unprepared for the mass of primed muscle that surrounded me as he wrapped me in one of his steely arms. The embrace was a balm to the wounds the last few weeks had left on me, a resolution to so many conflicting feelings I had over Christian. At that moment, I felt like nothing could hurt me. A deep breath from Christian expanded his abdomen, forcing his cobbled abs against me. They were so hard against my slenderness, and speaking of hard, I was sure he could feel me stiffening against the cut mass of his right quad.

"Friends... occasional benefits?" I asked, jokingly.

Christian laughed. "Maybe. You'll have to fight off the other beneficiaries, now that I'm hot."

"I think I'd lose."

"Not if I make the rules."

I stood there for a few moments before realizing that he was joking. Mostly. Finally, I smiled.

Comprehension dawned on me, breaking the relaxed silence. I pushed away from Christian, and he relaxed his arms to let me out of his embrace. Otherwise, I could have been pushing all night and he would have remained as unyielding as stone. He had said yesterday that he could bench 250 pounds with ease. He had to be stronger now. What had I done?

"So," I asked, rather than dwell on future issues, "you're going to have to fill me in. Not that I'm not grateful, but why are you here?"

"I heard Phil running after someone. He's got a good head for—well, he doesn't have a good head for anything much right now after that beating, but he really had a grip on his obscenities. Nothing spectacularly innovative, mind, but he's got some f-bombs that could do a lot of damage."

The look on my face seemed to tell Christian I was not amused.

He continued. "I still don't know everything about what's going on, but I had to help out. I hurried as fast as I could, ran after Phil, and when he started advancing... there wasn't anything heavier than the fire extinguisher here." Christian set the extinguisher down in a corner, glancing over at Phil.

"You could have gotten hurt," I told him.

He gave me a patronizing glance. It stung a bit, but he softened it with his words. "Until we get you back to normal, I have a feeling that I can take a bit more of a beating, Dane."

"Point conceded," I admitted. "Shit. Come over here and help me with Liam. His symbiote ought to be healing most of the damage, but I don't know how much it can repair on its own. He looks like he needs a doctor."

We rushed over to the remnants of Professor McTague's desk. He was lying, pale and still, amidst the shattered remnants of his computer. The shards of the monitor's screen caught the sunlight streaming in through the door and shone like an aura around the fallen. There was a lot of blood, and he did not appear to be breathing. Maneuvering myself around the fall of glass and splintered wood, I crouched by Liam.

Christian crouched opposite me and placed two fingers on Liam's neck.

"His pulse is... wonky," Christian assured me. "Maybe that's just the symbiote."

Liam took a sharp breath. As if he had heard, he groaned, "I'm all right. Lot worse than I look."

I winced. "I think you have that the wrong way around."

Grunting, Liam forced himself to nod. "Right. I look a lot worse than I feel. Sorry about that. Head wound, and all. A bit dizzy."

The gash seemed to have diminished in size, but I wondered how much blood the symbiote could regenerate in such a short period of time. Liam tried to force himself upright, but just fell back into his desk.

"You're going to hurt yourself if you move too much," Christian said. "Just lie there, and we'll try to get you moved."

"Can't..." Liam moaned. "...any second, Phil's symbiote is going to recover—"

"Fuck." In unison, Christian and I hissed.

Deadpanning, Christian muttered, "Jinx."

I reached across the fallen man and desk to slug my friend—my best friend?—in the arm. Might I add, it felt like I was punching pure concrete sheathed in a layer of velvet. Wincing, I turned back to Liam.

"What am I supposed to do with Phil?" I asked. "He's got a bump on the head, but it looks like he's going to be fine. How am I supposed to get rid of the symbiote?"

"Dane," Liam whispered. "It's going to take awhile for the drug to take effect. It has to permeate your system before you can do anything. The symbiote will adapt, so you won't be able to keep him down for long. I don't think that you have time just yet." Fighting back pain, he breathed, "You're going to have to get out of here before—"

He was interrupted by a groaning sound coming from across the room.

Christian shuddered. "Did anyone else hear that?"

A second groan answered. The three of us turned as one to look back toward the door. Sure enough, Phil was moving. His were not the measured movements of a man trying to regain consciousness. Rather, they were the exploratory twitches and twists of something unfamiliar to a human body. Like rabbits caught in the oncoming headlights of a vehicle, we watched with sick fascination as the symbiote began pulling Phil together.

One wound on his scalp had already closed, and the one from Christian's heroism was already fading away. Still, with blood down his face, and moving like something not of this world, he looked terrifying. Phil may not have been quite conscious yet, but the symbiote was determined to have me.

It pushed Phil's body to its feet in a jerky motion. Muscles swelled against the fabric of Phil's shirt, split by his mass and too many sudden movements. It was torn around his biceps and at the shoulders, tanned skin and striated muscle shining from underneath the rent fabric. Caught in icy fear, I did not have my usual response to the perfection of his form, to the outline of his chest and abdominals struggling against his shirt. To that ominous bulge in his trousers. I was paralyzed.

The symbiote lurched toward me in Phil's body. Its face was a mask of rage, sputtering incomprehensible syllables that nonetheless held tantalizing hints of sense for me. I stared into his eyes, bulging with the force of the creature's rage. At first, I thought mindless fury lurked in their pale depths. As the symbiote neared me, I knew that all for a facade. Phil's symbiote was a creature of fiendish intellect.

I was unprepared for the attack, but Christian was ready. He launched to his feet and hurled himself at my assailant. I expected him to do something stupid, but at the last moment he diverted his energy into a kick.

Apparently, all it took to wake Phil up was a swift kick to the balls.

He fell to his knees, groaning in complete agony. The sounds that he made, gutteral and basso, were still human. I turned toward Liam. His eyes were slightly unfocused. I had not noticed that he had a concussion. A spill of dark hair across his brow could not seem to decide whether it was curly black or straight red-brown. His symbiote must have been injured, too, if that was possible.

Nonetheless, he had the will to speak. "Run, Dane. You need to buy time until the injection takes effect! LEAVE ME HERE."

With the booming force of his command, I was off at a dash. My conscious mind barely even registered where I was going. It was cursing the fact that I had not had the chance to ask Liam exactly how I was supposed to win out against Phil's symbiote. I tore past Christian, grabbing at his arm along the way. We dodged around Phil's outstretched hands.

Christian followed, trying to match my speed with his longer legs. We must have been a sight, but fortunately no one was around. If they had been, they would have heard a battle of titans thundering inside Liam's office. I heard Liam shout something incomprehensible from within the office just as we reached the stairs.

Was it my imagination, or did I hear steps thundering up above already? We reached the bottom, and I came to a decision. I stopped at the lobby doors, panting.

A howl of rage emanated from within the stairwell, chilling in its intensity and volume. It seemed to resonate at the same frequency as the core of my being, causing me to shudder. And then, somehow, I mastered myself. There was no more time for fear.

"Christian!" I shouted. "Head out and around the building! I have a plan."

Christian hesitated a moment, but, faithful and loyal as he was, nodded. He was off in a hurry, barely looking winded for the run. Even in this time of trouble, I had to admire the way his muscles shaped his shirt into a 'V' about his back. I hated being horny sometimes.

I waited a few moments, until he was gone around the building. Before following him out of the door, I kicked off my remaining shoe. The other one was lost somewhere on the steps leading up to the campus, and I figured I might as well go barefoot.

There was no plan in my mind, not yet, but I needed Christian out of the way. I hated lying to him, but he could too easily get hurt, or used by Phil. Besides, I had already exhausted my supply of deus ex machina for the day.

Something sprang to mind. I set off at a fiendish pace toward the college gym. My mind was racing as I justified the snap decision I had just made. The gym was perfect. The manager was a forgetful man, and rarely locked up even when it was closed over the weekends. Moreover, there were lots of heavy, blunt objects there. No one would be there, which was perfect. I needed to ensure no one else would get caught in this final standoff.

This, the end of things, would be between me and my roommate. •


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