In Control - Part One
by Alpesco
A Young Brionn soon Shows Who's in Charge.


It was the worst storm in twenty years. It had rained for ten days solid
without any let-up, and most of the country south of town had flooded. The
last bridge across the river to the north was not expected to last more than
another four hours, so I was checking out the scattered houses on the east
side of the river for stragglers.

I was driving up the winding road beneath the hills when I came to a
two-storey house standing on its own. I slowed the car to check that everyone
had obeyed the order to evacuate. I was surprised to see a young girl in jeans
and a tank top running from an outhouse.

I halted the truck and got out. "Don't you know you have to evacuate because
of the flooding?" I shouted. "Is there anyone else here?" The girl looked to
be no older than twelve or thirteen.

"I can't go," The girl said. She was slender and long-limbed, with dark blonde
hair. She was tall for her age at around five feet four.

"I'm from the Mayor's Department," I said. "You have to leave. Is there anyone
else here?"

"No." The girl stared at me. "My cousin went up to the woods this morning."

"And is this cousin responsible for you?"

"No. John's only fourteen. He lives here with his father, who's out of town.
I'm called Brionn."

"Well, you've got to come with me," I said. "It's for your own safety. Your
cousin will have to be picked up by the ranger patrols."

The girl shook her head. "No. I have to wait until John gets back! And I can't
leave the horse.."

"I haven't got time to argue." I said, taking her arm. "You'll just have to
come with me now. We'll sort the rest out later...Oooow!"

I cried out in pain as the girl twisted her arm powerfully out of my grip. I
was surprised at how strong her arm was as she pulled away backward. My thumb
hurt badly where she'd broken its grip to tear her wrist free.

"Nobody's going to take me anywhere!" she scowled.

I tried to grab her again, but she darted backward.

"All right," I said. "I have a radio in the truck, I'll just make a call to
the police. They'll bring you in."

I turned and began to walk back to the truck. But suddenly two sleek-muscled
arms circled me from behind, pinning my arms to my sides, and pulling me to a
halt. The grip about my waist was so strong that until I looked down, I
couldn't believe it was the twelve year year old who was holding me. My arms
were clamped so tightly that I couldn't even move them.

"You're not calling anyone!" The girl's voice came from behind me. "I'm
staying here."

"Let go of me!" I shouted, trying to tear my arms free. But the girl's long,
muscular arms were astonishingly strong. I was 39 and five foot eight but I
simply couldn't move my arms an inch in this twelve-year-old's steely grip. I
tried to take a step forward, but the girl had braced her long, coltish legs
against me, and I couldn't move.

"You can't stay here!" I shouted, trying to turn round to face the kid who
held me. But her grip was so strong! It was unbelievable. I couldn't even
twist round in her tight hold. And what was more, her grip seemed to be
growing fiercer as she fought to counter my struggles. I could see her long
arms gaining in thickness as the willowy muscles rippled, swelled and
hardened, steadily increasing the pressure on my midriff. The girl's hands
clamped at her wrists, strengthening her grip still further. Then, without
warning, her arms gave a really powerful squeeze.

"Aaauuuuuughhh!" I cried in surprise, as the sudden intense pressure round my
waist drove all the air out of my lungs. The kid's forearms dug deep into my
stomach as she exerted all her strength to increase the constriction she was
applying. And again her hands clasped round her forearms, locking in the
tighter grip, so that it did not ease off. It felt as if an iron bar had been
placed across my stomach, with a two hundred pound man standing on top. I
fought for breath, stunned by just how strong this girl's arms were. It was
really beginning to hurt now. My internal organs felt as if they were being
crushed into one solid mass. My arms were trapped at my sides. I couldn't
break free. I was appalled at my unexpected helplessness.

"Stop this!" I gasped. "Let go of me!"

"Can't do that," the girl's voice came - and incredibly, her powerful arms
constricted again. "Ooouuuuughh!" I grunted once more, the pain beneath my
ribcage intensifying as the girl's hands clamped their grip solid again, half
way up her forearms. I was fighting now to draw breath. This was unbelievable.
She was steadily ratcheting up the intensity of her grip, her hands holding
the grip firm whilst her arm muscles rested, readying themselves to pour on
another surge of power.

"I guess I'm going to have to get you somewhere less open," my captor said.

"I'm not going anywh..." I began, then stopped as, with a stretch of her long
body, Brionn hoisted me a full five inches off the ground, so that my feet
hung just above the shale path. I was shocked. I weighed 130 pounds, and this
twelve-year-old was holding me suspended from her linked arms like a tailor's
dummy. Worse still, the pain was twice as bad now that my whole bodyweight was
suspended from her thin arms about my midriff.

Turning sharply, and still carrying me helplessly clasped in front of her, she
strode past the house, toward a mid-sized, ramshackle barn.

Furious at my helplessness, I again tried to tear myself free, but the girl
didn't ease her painful grip by an iota. It was locked in so firmly it could
have been an iron band about my waist. She seemed almost to be demonstrating
her strength as she toted me into the gloom of the barn and halted, still
holding me suspended just off the floor in her remarkably powerful arms. I
didn't know what to do. My legs flailed uselessly. I was finding it more and
more difficult to breathe. How long could she hold me like this?

"Put me down!" I yelled at last, but my voice sounded weak and desperate. "You
can't do this!"

"Who are you?" The girl demanded. Her voice didn't reveal the smallest sign of
strain. "I want your name, and where you come from.."

"Put me do...OOOoooowwwww!"

Incredibly, her steely arms constricted once again, tightening unbearably. I
cried out in pain. I simply couldn't believe that it was a 12-13 year-old who
was holding me, and not a strong adult. My stomach seemed to be trying to
force its way up into my chest. My lower ribs were taking my entire
bodyweight, and being crushed painfully against thin steely forearms.

"Got a strong grip, haven't I?" The girl said. "My cousin John is fifteen, and
I can make him squeal for mercy just squeezing him like this. Do you want to
see how much you can take?"

I was beginning to believe she'd made her cousin squeal for mercy. The pain
was so bad now that I could feel my head spinning. This kid was unbelievably
strong.

"Your name," Brionn's voice was as unrelenting as her grip. "And who sent you
here?"

"Janet Fremont" I gasped. "I'm checking that everyone's obeyed the evacuation
order. Now please let me go. I can't breathe!"

"If I let you go, will you promise to do what I tell you?" the girl demanded.

"I can't promise that," I gasped.

"Okay." Brionn said flatly. She gave a soft grunt - and impossibly, her gangly
arms constricted once again, her hands clamping almost at her elbows as they
locked-in her new, still harsher grip.

I cried out so loud that any neighbors would have heard me clearly. Maybe even
come to investigate. But there were no neighbors, and I was helpless to free
myself from this girl's steely grip. Each breath I took was blazing pain now,
and pain coursed through my lower body. I tried to speak, but could get no
words out. I felt sick. My head began to spin as I gasped for air, but could
not get enough; then I felt nothing.

I came-to lying on the barn floor, my head propped against a sack of feed. I
saw Brionn's face looking down at me. She stepped back a pace, shaking out
those long lithely-muscled arms of hers.

"How..?" I began.

Brionn gave a brief grin, raising her arms and flexing them. Two solid ovals
of muscle drew themselves together from her upper arms, swelling and hardening
until they were the size of small melons. "I'm real strong." she said. "I can
make full-grown men squeal in my grip if I try hard. I do gymnastics and work
out, but my specialty is martial arts."

"I.... I.." I was still a little woozy, and couldn't draw my thoughts
together.

"I was starting to worry," the girl said, lowering her arms again. "You've
been out nearly twenty minutes, more than twice as long as anyone else I've
squeezed out, but I did keep up the pressure for a couple of minutes after you
went limp - just to make sure you weren't faking it. Once I was sure you were
really out, I laid you down there."

I struggled to rise.

"I wouldn't try to get up just yet," the girl said. "You'll probably fall
right back down. That's what John did."

"Look," I said, remembering why I was here, "You can't stay here. The river's
flooding. I just want to take you back to HQ in my car, and they'll send
people to pick up your cousin. That's if he hasn't been picked up already."

"I've already told you," the girl said. "I'm not going anywhere, and nor are
you for a while."

"But look!" I said, pointing out the open barn door.

Brionn looked out to see a few inches of river water already edging onto the
road outside.

"The water won't come in here." the girl said firmly.

"It'll rise another ten feet in the next hour." I said, climbing uncertainly
back to my feet. "Come back with me."

Again she shook her head. "If it rises I'll go up to our cabin with the horse.
I'll be okay there, and that's where John will know to come."

"Don't be silly. There's food and warm beds at the rescue center. But we've
got to go now!" I considered trying to grab hold of her again, but thought
better of it. My arm still hurt from my last attempt, and my midriff still
hurt. I could feel heavy bruises forming all round my ribs. This kid was too
strong for me to try to drag out against her will.

"Well I'm NOT staying here," I said, making for the door. "I've got to get out
before the road gets flooded."

She shook her head, her long arms suddenly spreading wide to block my escape.
"You'll call the police."

"You're being really stupid!" I said, angry once more. "Get out of my way!"

I tried to push my way past, but her outstretched hands caught hold of each of
my wrists. Too angry to give in to her again, I kept on pushing.

But I just wasn't prepared for the raw strength in this young girl's arms.
Being four inches taller than her, and a good forty pounds heavier, I
naturally assumed that my arms would beat hers, one on one. But to my horror,
the moment she clamped her hands about my wrists, I found that I couldn't move
my arms at all! I pressed my arms forward; hard, harder, with all my strength
- and still her long thin arms resisted, holding mine outstretched in front of
her.

I saw the smirk on the kid's face as I stained to move her two lithely-muscled
arms. I leaned all my weight into the struggle - and still it made no
difference at all. I couldn't believe how strong her long arms were, the
chunky muscles at her shoulders dense and surprisingly large as they held her
arms in place.

I was angry and humiliated. I was bigger than her. I was older and heavier. I
was the adult. Why was I not winning this trial of strength? How was this
twelve-year-old stronger than me? Still I tried to press forward, harder and
harder. But my arms were already tiring, filling with lactic acid. They began
to shake and tremble. Now too there was a steadily increasing pain from my
wrists, where the girls fingers were steadily tightening their grip.

I was astonished. I could feel my wristbones grinding together under the
astonishing pressure her hands were applying. The muscles on her forearms
swelled and hardened as she began to concentrate on pouring more and more
power into her grip. My wrists were really hurting now, her fingers like iron.

Not only was I losing the battle to overpower her, my renewed struggle was
simply causing her to increase the power she was pouring into her hands. Her
eyes narrowed as she applied another surge of power, and for the first time,
the intensity of her grip caused me to cry out in pain. I hated the half-smile
of satisfaction that flashed across her face as she noted the effect that her
vicelike grip was having. Quite deliberately, she tightened her grip again. I
desperately tried not to cry out this time, but still could not suppress a
muffled yelp of pain.

I couldn't believe it. The pain in my wrists was tremendous, and now the
girl's grip was cutting off all blood and feeling from my trapped hands. "Let
go!" I said, again trying to force my whole body forward.

With my superior weight, I was sure I would overcome her. But the strength in
that slim body of hers was incredible. The driving power of her long legs was
enormous. I managed to resist her for only a moment before crashing back
into the far wall. I hit with a crump, I hurt the back of my head. The girl
had such raw strength.

"Will you listen to me now!" The kid said, angry in turn, as her powerful
fingers continued to pour on the pressure. The pain as she squeezed and
squeezed was almost unbearable, It felt like two red hot manacles clamped
round my wrists. I was nearly crying now in pain and frustration. And now she
purposefully began to force my weakened arms down and behind my back.

Then, abruptly bending her knees, she pulled my body over her left shoulder
and straightened, lifting my whole body off the ground across her bony
shoulder, her arms still pinning mine behind my back, her hands still
painfully crushing my wrists. Seemingly effortlessly the five foot four girl
carried my weight across the room, setting me down on a crate next to the
horse's stall.

"Okay." She at last released my wrists, and the feeling began to return to my
hands. I rubbed my wrists. "How did you get a grip like that?

In answer, the girl reached one arm up to where two metal rails, an inch each
in thickness, linked a pair of roof beams. The rails ran in parallel, only a
couple of inches apart, and seemed once to have been part of some grain hoist.
Clamping her hand around the twin rails, she simply flexed her arm, drawing
her whole body cleanly up to the level of the beam in a smooth one-arm chin.
Despite myself, I was impressed. Her arms were astonishingly strong if just
one of them was capable of raising her whole bodyweight like that.

Slowly she lowered herself, then pulled herself smoothly back up again with
that same long arm. The large bicep swelled and defined itself as it drew her
remorselessly upward, and then repeated the action. In all she did eight more
one-arm chins before lowering herself for the last time. She did not release
her grip, however, but just hung there from that one arm, her right hand
continuing to grip the twin rails. I saw the muscles of her forearm defining
themselves again, then I glanced higher to see the two, inch-thick rails
slowly bending closer and closer together in her iron grip.

I was amazed at her strength as she chinned herself slowly upward again, the
rails creaking audibly now as her grip crushed them ever closer together. Her
eyes drew level with the iron rails, then rose above them as her hand
continued to squeeze. She did four more slow chins, then released her grip to
drop back to the floor. I looked up, unsurprised to see the two iron rails
bent inches out of shape to meet where her hand had forced them together.

I eased myself off the crate and said, "Anyhow, I can't stay here any longer.
I've got to report back to headquarters.."

The girl gave me a funny look. "You're not going back." She said. "You'll only
cause us trouble. From now on you'll do as I say!"

"Who do you think you are?" I yelled. "You're just a kid! And I'm a County
Administrator! Now unless you want to get into serious trouble, you won't do
anything else to interfere with my work."

"You're an interfering nobody!" The girl turned to me and poked a finger in my
face. "You try to take one step out of here.. I've already put you out once,
and I'll put you out again!"

Furious, I lost it. I made a fist, and swung at her face.

That was my mistake, She swayed smoothly to the left, avoiding my blow; and
then brought her own right hand round like a flail. Her long arm unwound in a
split second, to lash her open hand in a thunderous slap across the right side
of my face.

The crack of the blow echoed across the barn, combining with my scream of
astonishment and pain. This kid could hit so hard! The pain was raw and
intense, so severe it was frightening. The whole side of my face blazed raw
where Brionn's hand had lashed into it.

Instinctively I raised my right hand to strike back. But faster than I could
move it, Brionn's left dashed it aside. Then her right tore into me again, in
another resounding slap. This time the flat of her hand impacted with what
seemed twice the force of the first slap - and the pain seemed three times as
great. I howled in agony. It was as if my face had caught fire, or been bathed
in acid. I could almost feel the skin on my cheek puff, swell and begin to
peel away.

"Do you want any more?" Brionn was really angry now. Her right hand already
poised to deliver another blistering strike.

"No. Please!" I begged, in a state of shock from the intense pain of the first
two slaps. Never in all my life had I experienced a blow that caused so much
pain. Already thick bruises were rising from my eye socket right down to my
jawbone. I backed away from the girl, terrified of being hit like that again.

Brionn took a step forward, her face unrelenting. "Then you'll do exactly what
I say!"

I looked at her, thin as a rake and barely over five feet three tall. I
couldn't credit the pain she had inflicted on me - the pain she could still
inflict on me.

"You may be older than me, and a lot bigger, but you have to learn that here I
give the orders." she said. "Now I have some things I need to get on with, and
I don't need to worry about what you're doing, so..."

She held her left hand up eighteen inches or so to the right of my face, and
clicked her fingers to draw my attention. As I looked toward her left hand,
out of the corner of my eye I saw her right arm drive up and round, powering
its clenched fist towards me. I had no time to react. There was an explosion
in the base of my jaw, an intense flash of white light. I staggered backward,
not fully realising what had happened. I crashed into a wooden post and
staggered forward again. My knees were suddenly weak, I felt my whole body
swaying, my head spinning...

Through a haze I saw the kid looking at me, seeming from half a mile away. She
looked irritated, probably, I realised later, because I was still conscious. I
saw her densely-muscled right arm draw back, and knew she was going to hit me
again. I also knew that there was nothing at all I could do about it. That
first big blow had so disorientated me that I could barely stand, let alone
defend myself.

In fact the second blow came almost as a relief. There was a flash of light as
it drove in, the feeling of my body falling backward, and then nothing...

There was a dull pain in the left side of my face. I rolled over, trying to
touch it, wincing with pain as my fingers brushed the layer of bruises. How
did I come to be on the ground? My head throbbed. Slowly I opened my eyes. I
was still in the barn, back propped up against the meal sack.

"I'm glad you've come round," the girl looked down at me from beside a horse
which she was saddling up. "I thought I was going to have to call out the
medics."

"Whu..?" I tried to speak, still finding it difficult.

"I knocked you out." Brionn formed her right hand into a fist. Her long
fingers made it surprisingly large and bony. "If I hit it right, I can do that
with one punch. One didn't quite do it with you today. I must have mistimed it
a little. So I hit you even harder the second time."

"You knocked me out?"

She flexed her bare arm once more, admiring the swelling muscles that played
there. "Every day I practice punching really big. Right now I can hit harder
than a lot of guys. There's not one boy in school can hit as hard as I can. I
can put down a grown man with one good punch if I catch him right."

"And how long have I been...."

"Out?" The girl said. "You've been down there nearly an hour. I think you were
out on your feet with the first punch, so the second really put you under.
Like I said, I thought you might be headed for the hospital. But it's given me
time to move your car out of sight." She nodded to where my car now stood
parked behind the house. "And to pack some things."

"The water..." I began.

"It's rising fast, like you said. I don't think you'd be able to drive out of
here anyway now."

"So what are we going to do?"

Brionn finished fastening two packs across the back of the horse. "We go on up
to the cabin as I said."

Stumbling to my feet, I found I was still woozy from the girl's punch, and had
to support myself against a wall until I got my balance back. I noticed a
small mirror propped up on one of the wall beams. I glanced into it and got a
shock. My face was a mess. It was almost unrecognisable for the continuous
mass of red welts and bruises that covered three fourths of its left hand
side. My lip was swollen and my face stiff. My jaw hurt badly where she had
punched me out.

"I'm sorry you made me do all that to you," Brionn said. "But I warned you not
to interfere. Now you have to come up to the cabin with me."

"And if I don't want to go?" I murmured.

"You don't have any choice," the girl said, leading the horse out of its
stall. "Now get on."

"I can't ride."

"You don't need to. Just sit. I'll control the horse."

"No!" I drew back. "I can't."

Brionn's face grew hard. "I warned you to do exactly what I tell you." She
raised her right hand, palm open.

Despite myself I shook with fear. I just could not take another one of those
punishing slaps. "Please. No! " I cried. "I'm telling the truth. I'm
frightened of horses!" Tears came to my eyes as I realised how powerless I was
to stop this girl from hurting me again if she chose to.

"All right," her face softened, her arm looking less threatening. "Don't be
afraid. The horse won't hurt you. He's fully under my control. Stay where you
are, and don't move."

She drew the horse up beside a low wood platform, then came back to me. "I'm
going to put you on, then get on in front of you."

"Put me on? How?"

Without a word the girl bent and scooped me up in her long arms. I was
astonished. She was carrying my 140 pounds easily. Even after all I'd
experienced, I hadn't credited her with being that strong. But she simply held
my body cradled like a baby in her sleekly muscular arms. I had once been
picked up like this by my older brother, but his hold on me had been so shaky
that I had felt all the time that he was about to drop me. But the girl's arms
held me so securely that I could almost relax in their grip like a little
child, with no fear at all of being dropped.

For a minute she just stood there, clearly amused by the surprise on my face
that she was carrying me in her long arms.

"My Uncle weighs 180 pounds and I can cradle him just as easy!" she said. To
emphasise this, she gave a shrug of her shoulders and jerked my body up to
just below shoulder height in her arms. The swiftness of the movement threw my
body six inches into the air before I fell back, to be caught in her arms
again. Stepping up onto the wooden platform with me in her arms, she set me
astride the horse before climbing on in front of me and taking the reins.

"Put your arms round my waist," she ordered as she urged the horse onward into
the woods.

It was an hour's climb through heavy pinewoods in continual rain before we
reached our goal - a timber cabin with a small barn set on the edge of a large
grassy clearing. Brionn dismounted next to the barn, and I was still surprised
at her ability to reach up and lift my 140 pound body right up off the horse's
back in her arms, before setting me on my feet once more.

.....continued in Part Two.