Afterwards, I get edgy and ask the women to leave as I lie in bed alone, and eventually drift off to sleep. The dreams are always of a small town in a desolate place. The grey and tan buildings all small and uniform. I know this place - but I don't think I have ever seen it before. It is bleak and depressing. The people in the dream are not much better. The all speak Russian, but somehow I know in my dream what they are saying. There is some sort of concern about my well-being - about my treatments. Concerned about what I must do. I wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. Am I having these nightmares because of what the Russian muscle dudes did to me? Is it because when I had my chance to face them and take them on, I ran away instead?

I decide to skip work again and get to the gym early. I change into my workout clothes. I have developed an affinity for tank tops, I still enjoy seeing my new muscles flex under the heavy weights I now work out with. I start out with a light warm up, two 45's on each side of the barbell for some chest presses. I lift the bar easily, and feel the squeeze at the top as my massive pecs come together. After a couple of sets - I am ready to add some weight and begin my workout. I have become used to the women watching me as I work out, and even staring when they think I'm not looking. Most of the hook-ups have started that way. Today I notice a rather tall, dark haired woman with piercing blue eyes who is watching me. She is doing seated cable pulls, and when she pulls the cable towards her sides, her well developed chest gets my attention.

I knock out another set with the extra weight and rack the bar. As I do, the woman is now standing next to the bench I am on. I look up and our eyes meet. "Don't I know you?" I ask - and not because it is a line - but she does seem familiar to me. It is something about those blue eyes. "No" she replies with a European accent "but I would like you to". We introduce ourselves. I tell her my name is Matt, and she tells me her name is Ingrid. She tells me how attracted she is to my body, and I comment on her great shape and beautiful eyes. Ingrid tells me that she has to go now, but would I like to pick her up from work tonight? I tell her I would, and she writes an address on the back of one of the trainers cards at the gym. "Be there at 8pm, I'll be waiting for you." I watch as she turns and walks down the line of exercise bikes and to the stairs that lead out of the gym. I finish my workout with renewed intensity, all the while thinking about tonight with ingrid and her incredible blue eyes.

It is 7:45, and I am driving across town to the address where I am picking up my date for the night. My CD player is cranking some Prodigy as I pull up to a darkened warehouse at the address Ingrid listed. There must be some mistake. I almost leave, convinced that I have been had - when I notice a light in a second floor window of the structure. I approach the door and notice a bell. I press the bell a couple of times. Ingrid's voice comes out of an intercom and the door buzzes as she tells me to come on in with that sexy European accent. I enter the dimly lit lobby. It smells like a cross between a doctors office and an auto shop. Ingrid? I call "up here" she replies as I follow the voice into a larger part of the warehouse. I start to get an uneasy feeling, and start thinking I should turn back, but it is too late. Suddenly, someone grabs my arms and as I start to resist.. I get a blow to the head...and I am out...

I awake and my headache has returned. There is a spotlight shining on me - glaring in my eyes. I realize that my wrists are tied to a bar above my head, I am still in my dress shirt and pants. I look down at my shoes and see that there are no restraints on my legs.. I pull hard at the ropes, trying to break free - but it is no use, even with my strength. Then I hear Ingrid's voice from behind the spotlight. "Stop squirming Ivan, it will all be clear to you soon". "Ivan? My names Matt, I told you at the gym. Get me down from here". "Okay Matt, I'll play along with you" Ingrid said as she stepped in front of the light and approached me in silhouette.

She steps closer and I again see here piercing blue eyes. "You know that you know me. Don't you?" she asked. With that she reached her hand behind my head, brought our lips together and we started to kiss. With her other hand she started to caress my chest, sliding down to my abs and to the developing bulge in my pants. She stopped and asked me something in Russian. Somehow, in my mind I knew she was asking me my name. "Matt" I replied. With that she sighed, stepped back and said "lights". Suddenly the overhead lights came on and revealed the warehouse looking more like a combination gym and laboratory. I gulped when I saw two figures approaching Ingrid, it was Sergi and Yuri. They were just as big as I remembered. Muscles pumped as they came to attention like shirtless soldiers next to Ingrid. "Prep him" she said. They came right for me - making eye contact and looking very serious. Sergi ripped open my shirt revealing my huge chest as I started to try to kick him with my free legs, but Yuri held me back. Sergi started to rip the sleeves until my custom tailored shirt was nothing more than rags that were tossed aside. Meanwhile, Yuri removed my belt, and ripped off my pants, pulling off my shoes and socks along with them.

I continued to struggle, my arms still bound above my head, trying to pull free and kick Sergi and Yuri away. They retaliated by punching me in the face and in the stomach, like I was a human punching bag. A couple of punches to the ribcage and final blow to the jaw and I stopped struggling in time to see Ingrid approach with a tray with a hypodermic needle on it. The contents glowed a phosphorescent green, like those glow sticks they sell at carnivals. "Alright Ivan, this will hurt" she said as she jabbed the needle into my neck. Hurt was an understatement, then the sensation of fire in my veins as she started to empty the contents of the hypo into me. It spread quickly to my entire body, like having firecrackers explode in my bloodstream. I could see the veins in my arms popping even more. I started to sweat as my heart raced. I feel like I am burning up. This went on for what felt like minutes, then the pain started to fade, and so did my will to struggle. I felt groggy, almost drunk.

"Ivan", Ingrid said, "don't you remember Mother Russia?. You were part of an elite force in a secret facility outside of Angarsk. As a child you were genetically altered, just as your fellow soldiers Sergi and Yuri". "No, I'm from DC, I grew up there" I said wearily. "Your genetic re-sequencing did not go as planned. Because of this, you became a candidate for a very special project. Several of your new genetic traits were turned off, and you became the individual you knew as Matt. Your genetically enhanced muscles were turned off, shrinking you down to a normal sized man. It is amazing you were able to build any kind of muscle with them turned off." I just stared at Ingrid and her blue eyes as she spoke. "You were programmed to take an interest in military intelligence, and with the enhancements we gave you, you should have been in a high position by now". "But, I don't work in the military or the government" I protested. "We know, something has gone wrong with your programming. The quickest way for us to return you to your modified state was through electric shock and high doses of adrenaline. We had started the other night and your body has started to revert to your prior genetic modifications".

"Our country is not as wealthy as it was when you were young. Otherwise, we would have just destroyed you when you escaped for fear that you would fall into the wrong hands. What we must determine tonight is if you can be salvaged. I am sorry Ivan" She said, looking directly into my eyes with those piercing blue eyes "this will hurt, but there is no other way". I wish she wouldn't keep saying things were going to hurt.

With that, Sergi and Yuri picked up a couple of rods, like before and started to talk in Russian as they adjusted the controls on the end. In my mind I knew they were asking about the setting to put them on. Am I really starting to understand Russian? Am I some sort of Russian genetic experiment gone wrong? Sergi trusts his rod into my chest and a jolt of electricity rocks my body. Every muscle flexes, as I lift off the ground from my arms bending and flexing - kind of like an involuntary pull-up. Yuri ducks under my left arm and goes behind me. Sergi hits me again, the shock is so great that I can feel my bones as my muscles twitch and pull on my frame. From behind Yuri hits me in my back, my chest arches up and my legs shake. I can taste the metal fillings in my mouth. This much electricity can't be good - but what do I know - I have been duped my whole life. Sergi looks to Ingrid, who says something in Russian - in my mind I know it means maximum. Sergi adjusts the end of his stick, and with a thick Russian accent says "sucks to be you" . My body is covered in sweat, I can feel my heart pounding - waiting for the next jolt. The only sound in the warehouse is the loud humming coming from the two rods, with an occasional crackle of electricity. He thrusts and makes contact with my abs and just as I twitch and tense, Yuri hits me in the back. Both rods just holding there, unleashing their full fury. My body shakes violently...and I pass out.

"Ivan" "Ivan" I hear Ingrid's voice calling my name. Am I dreaming? I start to wake and open my eyes. The light is so bright. I try to move, but can't. I am lying on some kind of table, my arms and legs outstretched and fastened securely at the corners. "Ivan, this may be your last chance. This could be our last chance. Do you not remember anything of us in Russia? she asked. "I told you before, you do look familiar, but I still believe my name is Matt" "My orders were to dispose of you if your memory did not return with your body" she put he hand on my cheek "try to remember our last night together before you left Russia" with that she leaned over and kissed me, a long passionate kiss as her hands moved along my torso, down to my fully tented shorts where she gave me a squeeze. "Do you remember"? "No, I wish I did" I replied. "Ivan, I will probably lose my assignment in this project, and maybe more, but I have decided to let you return home" Ingrid said with some sadness. "Thank you" I said. "All I want now is to go home." Finally, my nightmare might be over. "We can't send you like this, we will have to attempt to revert you back - and switch off the modifications" She said "I am afraid Ivan, that this too is going to hurt"

With that, Ingrid picked up another hypodermic needle, this one with a phosphorescent blue glow. She jabbed it into my neck and delivered its contents. It felt warm at first, then warmer, then burning hot. My skin felt as if It was boiling off of my body. Sergi checked the restraints. Yuri arrived with a rolling table with a lot of shiny implements and equipment. From my horizontal vantage point, I couldn't get a good look at them. Yuri picked up a fairly large looking needle with a long wire attached to the end. He checked the wire, and then jabbed the needle into my chest just above my left nipple. The stabbing pain let me know that this was no acupuncture needle. I glanced down at my pec with the needle sticking out, and a small trickle of blood running down. Again, Yuri sticks me with another needle in my right chest. Another - then another, He seem to be carefully placing them every 6-8 inches - carefully yet painfully. While Yuri continues, I didn't notice Sergi getting into the action. Sergi grabs my right arm and pierces my bicep - the needle entering on one side of the muscle, and just barely exiting the other. The pain is excruciating. Every time I even twitch in pain, the movement causes the other needles to tear into my tender flesh. Another into and through my triceps, and another.... methodically stabbing both arms, legs along with my torso.

They finish and it seems like I can feel each and every needle piercing my skin into my muscles. They start turning knobs on the apparatus on the roll around cart that the wires are attached to. A low hum begins, then audibly gets pitched higher and higher. It feels like vibrations are coming from the needles. Faster and faster the waves emanating from these probes. I feel like a bag of popcorn in a microwave just before it starts to pop. Sergi is loosening the restraints - but I still can't move my arms. I'm shrinking. My needle filled arms looking softer - less cut. I can see over my chest easier now too. My body burns like it is full of lactic acid as my muscle fibers are slowly destroyed. The sound is higher now, sweat pours from every pore, and an oily liquid seeps from every entry point of the needles. Sergi and Yuri tower over me - no longer am I their equal in size and mass. The last of my eight pack - six pack - four pack fades into soft, undefined skin. My muscles are literally dissolving themselves - I think I am smaller than I was before the Russians ever made me grow. Ingrid had said she was surprised I was able to get any definition - now it is all gone.

I am too weak to move, even as Sergi and Yuri remove the needles and undo the restraints on my arms and legs. Ingrid looks at me - she is tearing. "Take care of him - take him home" she said as she turned away quickly an left the room. Sergi lifts my limp body up over his shoulders as Yuri opens a large canvas duffle bag. He lowers me into the bag and pulls the drawstring an hoists it onto his shoulder. I feel him moving under me. and occasionally bumping my weak body into doorways and other obstructions I can't see. He dumps the bag into some sort of truck and we drive for a little while. The vehicle stops - one of them picks up the bag with me still in it and walks up a ramp. A few more bumps on obstacles and I am tossed onto a hard floor. A metal door slams shut as I hear a ships horn at close range. I crawl out of the bag, still weak... I am on a ship... and I think it is moving... they are taking me home. •