The Superior Machine by Marknew and Steve the Z "What was it you wanted to show me, Dear?" Nancy said as she came down the stairs into the basement and entered her husband's ‘laboratory'. "My new invention!" David said proudly, waving his hand at a gleaming metal cabinet that stood against the wall. Nancy stared at the machine. "It's nice," she said. "I like all the glass, the colored lights and the wobbly things on it." "Those are dials and voltage and current indicators." David said condescendingly. "Oh," Nancy said with a puzzled frown and downcast eyes. "I see." "It's all right, Dear. You don't have to understand all those devices, only that this is the greatest invention man has ever made!" "It is?" Nancy said, clearly confused. David put his arm around his wife's narrow shoulders, and waved even more extravagantly at the machine with his free hand. "This will overturn the scientific principles of evolution as we know them. More importantly, it will give me the opportunity to revolutionize everything in our daily lives!" he told her. "Really? But what does it do?" Nancy asked. "I call it ‘The Superior Machine'!" David said, ignoring her question for a second. "Oh, so it's better than other machines, you mean?" David laughed. "No, no, no, my dear little Nancy. What this device does is take two separate individuals, measures all their physical and mental parameters, and then transforms one of them into a being who is at least twice as superior as the other one in every relevant respect." "Uhm," Nancy said, thinking hard. "Is that good?" "Good?" David said. "Why, it's fantastic! We'll be able to produce superior children, make geniuses even smarter, make athletes even stronger, and healthy people even healthier! Then we'll reap the benefits of all the discoveries these ‘new men' will make! We'll create, thanks to me, a paradise on earth!" "But what'll happen to the other one?" Nancy said. "Won't it make the, um, inferior one feel bad? You know, to be inferior can be sometimes, um, difficult. And then, to become even more --" He waved his hand, dismissing her objection. "A mere detail I'm sure they can live with! After all, the inferior one will be able to enjoy the benefits produced by the superior ones, just as you enjoy having a better TV set each time we buy a new one. After all you don't have the slightest idea how they work, and certainly not how to make a better one! Yet you enjoy the programs you watch." She nodded uncertainly. "I do but ... I guess you're right." "Of course I'm right!" He let go of Nancy and walked over to the machine and patted it affectionately. "Oh yes, this will definitely...." On David's third friendly pat, the machine suddenly went from standby to life, its dials and lights glowing and jittering. ‘POWER ON' a mechanical voice said. "Oops." David said. "Must have accidentally started the power up. I'll just turn it off here. He flipped a switch on the front of the cabinet. Nothing happened. ‘BOOT UP COMPLETE. INITIATING PROGRAM ONE' the voice said. "That's strange." David said, flipping the switch back and forth. "It doesn't seem to be turning off." ‘SELECTING PRIMARY SUBJECT' "Say now! Shouldn't be doing that!" he said, a bit feverishly, desperately pressing buttons to power down the machine. "Is everything all right, David?" a wide eyed Nancy asked anxiously, wringing her small hands together and moving closer to his protective bulk. A bright yellow beam shot from a glass lens on the machine in Nancy's direction and bathed her in a yellow aura for several seconds. Startled, Nancy emitted a small scream. "Oh! What's that, David? It tickles!" A list of words and numbers flashed across the monitor screen set in the cabinet. Nancy watched in fascination as the machine recorded its evaluation of her characteristics. ‘HEIGHT: 5 FEET 2 INCHES; WEIGHT: 110 POUNDS; IQ: 101; STRENGTH CAPACITY: FEMALE ADULT BELOW AVERAGE; SEX APPEAL: FEMALE ADULT (YOUNG) WELL ABOVE AVERAGE; REPRODUCTIVE SUPPORT CAPACITY: FEMALE ADULT ABOVE AVERAGE; She recognized a few other phrases, but most of the data went by far too quickly for her to assimilate. ‘SELECTING SECONDARY SUBJECT' the metallic voice intoned. The light blinked out, then returned, this time to bathe David in its glow. ‘HEIGHT: 5 FEET 11 INCHES; WEIGHT: 178 POUNDS; IQ: 173; STRENGTH CAPACITY: MALE ADULT ABOVE AVERAGE; SEX APPEAL: ABOVE AVERAGE; REPRODUCTIVE SUPPORT CAPACITY: MALE ADULT AVERAGE; etc. Clearly upset, David jumped. "This can't be happening!" he said, still trying in vain to shut his invention off. "Why won't it stop!?" "I don't know. Is it dangerous, David?" a worried Nancy asked. "Maybe we should go upstairs." "Yes, we should," David said. "But we'd better move quickly. I think it's going to..." He was interrupted by the machine's programmed voice. ‘PRIMARY SUBJECT INFERIOR TO SECONDARY SUBJECT. COMMENCING PRIMARY SUBJECT AUGMENTATION' This time a different lens emitted a light blue beam that bathed Nancy in its glow for about three seconds. "David! What's going on? I feel so strange!" Nancy cried, clearly frightened. "It's ... all right, honey pie." David said, as the machine finally cycled down. "It won't hurt you. It's only ..." he looked at the numbers flashing on the readout: ht6'8" iq256 bic25 th27 41-22-38 etc. He gasped. "What is it? What's wrong David?" "I – I, you – you...." David spluttered, pointing at his wife with a shaking finger. "What is it, Dave?" Nancy said, getting scared. "Why are you looking at me like that?" Dave stared at the buttons of Nancy's blouse, which were straining mightily to hold together across her chest, which had thrust forward without any movement or effort on her part. "What the heck...?" Nancy said, as a button popped off and David ducked. "Oh my!" she said, looking down at her now voluptuous bustline. "What's happening to me!?" Another button gave up the fight, and her lapels parted across a deep cleavage. Nancy involuntarily moaned as the tightening cloth sliding across her nipples sent a thrill of pleasure through her. She swivelled her hips and then her shoulders. "Mmmmm. I feel so sexy!" "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh!" David said, rushing over to Nancy, his hands going forward to touch her breasts, and then quickly pulled away as if afraid to. He looked helplessly at the machine, turned to Nancy, back to the machine and then again to Nancy. "It's all happening ... to you! I never thought this could happen! I can't stop it!! I can't reverse it! I don't know what to do! I don't know what to do!" "What?" Nancy gasped as the bottom of her blouse pulled free of her jeans. "What can't be reversed?" "The Superior Machine's program! It's working – on you!" "On me!? So that's what's doing this to me??" She put her hands on her hips and glared up at her husband, who was unnerved both by the turn of events and by the striking, sexy beauty Nancy was becoming. "It's transforming you! Into ... into, er, um, a person superior to ME!" David exclaimed. "No! Me? Superior to you? You're joking, right?" Nancy said, one hand rising to partially cover her still expanding bust. "Really? How can that be?" They were both silent for a moment, the realization of what was happening beginning to sink in. "Umm, in every way?" Nancy asked, one hand on her hip, looking up at her uncharacteristically tentative husband. "Y-yes!" "At least twice as superior, I did hear you say," she said, her voice sounding unusually sharp. David paused. "At least ..." he said in a small voice. She looked down at her feet to confirm why she felt a sudden coolness there. Sure enough, her pant legs had risen above the tops of her shoes a few inches, to bare the lower part of her legs above her ankles. "That certainly explains why I'm getting taller, then." she said, looking back up into David's eyes, but not as far as she used to, since now she was only half a head shorter than he. "So it stands to reason that when the program runs its course it will be you who looks up to me!" "Gulp!" David gulped. "This is certainly a very different perspective on things – very interesting," Nancy said, as she passed David's height and now looked down on him slightly. Already he had to crane his head up to look at her even more than she ever had to look him in the eye. She arched her perfect brow and regarded David with a smug expression, her shoulders visibly widening. "And I'm not simply referring to my superior height." "What – what do you mean?" David said, nervously appraising Nancy's arms, which were rapidly bulking up. "Oh ... nothing." she said, noticing where David was looking. Smiling, she raised her right arm, and clenched her fist. Her smile widened as her sleeve immediately tightened around the bulge her bicep had already attained, and the fabric began to split across the thickest part of her expanding muscle. "Evidently, my superiority involves my being stronger than you as well," she said. "You -- oh god no!" David blurted. "You can't be!" "Oh yes, quite a bit, I believe. Now, now David! Don't be jealous. Don't let these big muscles bother you so much. I will, inevitably, become at least twice as strong as you are." Nancy said, lifting her hands up to push her hair back from her forehead, her solidly rounded biceps bursting both sleeves simultaneously. "You must have known that this was happening. It was completely predictable. Unless you have a 'mental block' against it." "Of course n-n-not ... holy – cow!" David said in shock, taking a step backward but unable to take his eyes off her still expanding biceps, his eyes shifting from one to the other in repeated amazement. "They ARE very rapidly becoming extremely large, aren't they?" she mused, repeatedly flexing them. "And I would deduce that their other qualities, meaning their density, their endurance and their power, as well as their size, are also becoming far superior to yours, the collective effect making my strength a much larger multiple of yours than any one factor would produce in isolation." "Are you sure about that?" David said uncertainly. "Quite sure. But I think you'll quickly learn to like them," Nancy said mischievously, twisting her body to reveal more of her newly spectacular curves, the feminine ones this time, "and perhaps even love them, especially because it's plain to see that my sexual appeal has also significantly increased." David's eyes nearly jumped off his head as he tried to follow the complex spherical designs that the combination of Nancy's enhanced feminine attributes, her increased strength, and athletic flexibility now made possible. "Not merely through the evidently appealing numerical ratios of my figure, but also my knowledge of movement, the timbre and tone of my voice, and even my natural pheromones. I can tell you are having the entire predictable male reaction, and that does please me. You are still my dear husband; I do still find you pleasing and cute, although our relationship will be different. You won't have to explain anything to me anymore, David. In fact, I'll explain things to you instead and I'll give YOU instructions, just as I am now, since I'm now far smarter than you!" "Wh-what!" "It's typical and completely predictable that you haven't already noticed. I'm more than twice as intelligent as you are, even before your brains have been addled by your hormones. I'll show you," she continued, breezing by her startled husband as she walked over to the machine. She tapped a long fingernail against the side of the cabinet nearest to the on/off switch David had been trying to shut the machine down with. "It's obvious to me," she began, "that you wired the start circuit with your usual haste and left a faulty connection. Rapping the side of the console initiated the boot up sequence and started your brilliant, but poorly executed program running, and it continued to operate wholly independently of the poorly connected master control switch. Had you simply knocked again on the console in the same place you most likely would have terminated the program, and none of this would have happened." "Poorly executed!" David gasped in outrage, letting go the apparently correct diagnosis of his poor wiring. "My program's not flawed!" "Oh yes, but it is." Nancy said, turning her back on her husband and expertly opening a cover plate. He couldn't help but notice how the cuffs of her tight jeans now rested above her calves, which had developed fetchingly heart shaped muscles. "Perhaps due to your conception of our relationship, you conceived of individual qualities as a series of hierarchies, and of the subjects of the machine as pairs of inferior and superior individuals, rather than of qualitatively independent individuals. Of course, there was never any need for comparisons in the first place," Nancy said as her long fingers deftly undid and then redid connections inside the panel. "That flaw, however, introduced an inherent uncertainty over the selection of primary and secondary subjects, which led directly to my own enhancement, no doubt contrary to your obviously unfounded expectation that you, as inventor, would necessarily be designated as the Primary Subject. The program I'm now designing will compare a pre-selected subject to ITSELF and then enhance her (or, theoretically, him) according to precise instructions. Nothing will be left to chance." "Wait! What are you doing?" David said, approaching her as she snapped the panel shut. "I don't want you fiddling with my machine, Nancy!" Ignoring him, she typed away at the keyboard mounted on the panel under the viewscreen, so rapidly that David couldn't follow the flashing diagrams that appeared and disappeared like magic on the monitor. "Stop!" he said, reaching out to grab her arm. So quickly that he didn't even see her arm move, Nancy ensnared David's wrist in her right hand as she continued typing with her left, fingers flying faster than he could see. Her grip was crushing, and it was all he could do to stop himself from crying out for mercy. "You forget, I'm at least twice as quick as you too, hubby dear." she said, turning and looking down at him from her nine inch height advantage. "As well as being taller, smarter and stronger." "Ow..." David cried. "Much, much stronger, as I said. Sorry." Nancy said, releasing his wrist, which he promptly snatched back and began to rub. "I didn't intend to hurt you. Now don't look so glum, David! I may be far superior to you, but you should take pride that I'm the proof of the success of the operation your device, even if not in accordance with the intention of its programmer. You might think of me as your creation. You should be proud of me, not jealous!" "Who says I'm jealous?" David grumbled. "I can read you like a book with glass covers!" Nancy said, laughing at him. "You have no secrets from my enhanced senses and perceptions!" A few more taps of her fingers and Nancy hit ENTER. "There! Finished!" she said. "What have you done to it?" David asked, his curiosity overcoming his trepidation for the moment. Nancy faced David and put her hands on his shoulders, so much narrower than hers. "David," she said, looking at him earnestly. "I've decided I agree with you." "Huh? About what?" "About your initial concept of transforming certain individuals into superior beings, whose accomplishments will then benefit mankind as a whole. Except now I've taken your idea one very large step further." "M-meaning?" he asked. "Meaning I will now make MYSELF superior to my present state! Far superior. So, while I am currently your creation, in a short time I will be my own." "What! You mean, you're going to compare yourself to yourself and then...." his voice trailed off. "Exactly!" she said. "If you find my existing augmentation impressive, just wait until you see what I become next!" "No," he whispered. "You can't. It's too much! It would be .. unnatural" "Exactly as I intend!" she said confidently, bending down to kiss him and then catching him as he nearly swooned. "However, even in my present, partially augmented state, I foresee that my current attire will become uncomfortable after my augmentation, so I will change first. Just to amuse myself with a little challenge to you, I will now leave you alone with the machine. You may either try to undo my changes or apply them to yourself before I return. You won't have much time so hurry, darling. Hee hee! I'll be right back, Dave!" She left the basement, the strength in her long legs propelling her up the stairs at great speed. David stared after her a moment, then shook his head violently to clear his thoughts and began feverishly working to reprogram the computer to take back control. But he found his way quickly blocked by an ingenious firewall he could not penetrate. "Damn her!" he muttered. "How can she be so much smarter than me?!" He was still trying to get through it when he heard her coming back down the steps. Like a guilty schoolboy, he stopped typing and turned, standing in front of the monitor to hide his efforts. A pair of long, tanned, and muscular beyond fitness legs came into view as Nancy made her way down the stairs. She had taken her jeans and cut off all the legs, most of the sides and almost the entire back to make a pair of tight, low hung Daisy Dukes that were incredibly sexy. She turned around, giving him a great look at her round, pert, beautifully shaped ass. She was also wearing one of his muscle tank tops, which fit her a bit more snugly then it had ever fit him. "I can see you like them," she said, noticing the reaction beneath his slacks. "Now you're completely distracted, as I knew you'd be. When you're in this state your mental powers decline by 25%, you know. Unnecessary from my perspective but flattering nevertheless." The stunned David moved aside as Nancy came up to the panel. "Ahh, I can see my cute, little hubby hasn't moved past ‘first base'. You've been trying to undo your big, strong, brilliant wife's programming." she said. "Naughty, naughty. But it's irrelevant, I knew you'd never break my simple passwords. You didn't even get past the first one, and there were 18 more of increasing complexity and elegance! Even they will seem like child's play to me in a minute. I'll be capable of mental feats far beyond your comprehension. Now stand back, little man. Nancy's got some real work to do." "Now, Nancy," David began in a stern voice. "Hey!" As if he were a mere toddler, she had picked him up under his armpits, carried him across the basement and dumped him down next to the wall. "I said keep back, and now I mean it! DO you understand?" Not only her size, but also her force of will, which doubtless was also now superior to his own, intimidated him. Looking up into her fierce blue eyes and her huge muscles, which she flexed up even more once she saw his eyes on them, David nodded numbly, his tongue thick in his mouth. "Good." Nancy marched back to his machine, flicked it on. ‘INITIATING NEW PROGRAM' the mechanical voice said. ‘SUBJECT DNA LOCATED AND RECOGNIZED' There was no warm up or pause. The blue beam, deeper and more intense than before, immediately flashed across Nancy's body, starting at her head and proceeding down to her feet before it snapped off. ‘742 RELEVANT PARAMETERS MEASURED. CALCULATING PROGRAMMED MODIFICATIONS' it said. A few seconds later, the same beam shot out, this time starting at her feet and moving upward before disappearing. ‘AUGMENTATION PROCESS COMPLETE' The machine cycled off. "All right, you don't have to stay by the wall any longer." Nancy told David. "But let me be clear. As I am your superior, when I make decisions, you must follow them. Immediately. You are never EVER to disobey me again!" The authority in her voice was overwhelming. David felt his will and resistance drain away. He slowly approached her. She grew taller as he neared and her muscles added inches as well, making her presence even more commanding. He felt as though he were just 4 feet tall. "Are you....?" he began. "Am I what?" Nancy asked, staring down at him imperiously, a blue vertical vein having risen under the skin in the middle of her lofty forehead. "...all right?" he finished lamely, his voice little more then a whisper, looking up at her in awe. Nancy eyed him disdainfully. The thick waves of her shoulder length honey blonde hair radiated golden light. "Oh David, you hopeless, inferior man." she said. "You can never even comprehend just how superior I am. My mental capacity has grown a thousand times. I am capable of feats that will appear godlike to lesser beings like yourself. Why, I have more strength in this pinkie finger than you have in your entire body." To illustrate, she closed her pinkie around the metal rim of his laboratory chair and twisted it apart. David started shaking in fear. "Ahhh, yes. Recognition of your complete inferiority, abject fear and submission. These are the proper responses of one such as you to one such as me." Even as his eyes watched her finger in amazement, it perceptibly grew even larger. It wasn't only her finger, though. His eyes moved slowly across her body past her hip-hugging shorts, her tiny waist, her abs like plates of steel under her bronze skin, her magnificent out-thrust chest and the straining confines of his now too tight shirt on her, and her erect, thumb-tip size nipples pushing the ribbed design of the shirt apart; and then up further still, to her laser beam steel blue eyes now more than a foot above his own. "I am six feet, eleven and one half inches tall." she said, as if reading his unvoiced question within his mind. "How did you know....?" he started. "Your posture, your eyes, your body language shouts what you are thinking," she said. "With the superior intellect such as I now possess, your mind has the comparable intelligence of a babbling infant. Your thoughts, feelings, desires and plans are wholly and instantly transparent to me." She closed her eyes slowly and shifted her body slightly, the movement setting an incomprehensible explosion of desire in David. "You like that, baby? You are a cute baby, of course," she added with a trace of playfulness. "Even we advanced beings need toys for amusement and pleasure. Speaking of which..." Nancy was looking at a particular area of his pants. A blue ray shone from her eyes directly at that area, and David immediately felt a not entirely comfortable tightness in his crotch. "As you can see, I've internalized the capabilities of the machine. I'm sure you won't mind, David, but I will insist that my toys be superior as well in all RELEVANT respects! And now we shall see whether you will need any further adjustments to be fully suitable for our future relationship."