The Destroyers
by fillups44
Aaron Barrett had always been obsessed with strength and large muscles. He had been abandoned as a baby but adopted into a typical middle class type of suburb and was a normal enough sized kid. He looked like a normally wiry kid with straight light brown hair, dark brown eyes and a smattering of freckles across his pale skin. However, inside he was seething with wishes and fantasies about being strong, stronger than anyone else around, strong enough to take on anyone anywhere. Strong enough to dominate the world with pure strength if he wished.
Aaron did excellently in athletics, wrestled as a light heavyweight and won a national championship in college. People were talking about the Olympics but Aaron wasn’t interested. He bent his studies in college towards genetics and biotechnology.
After graduating at the top of his class and doing some startlingly innovative graduate work, Aaron made a fortune with creating a product called Muscle Blast he designed as a workout recovery drink. The drink, when taken at the right time, would naturally raise the testosterone level to triple in male athletes. The product found a worldwide following as a natural alternative to steroids. Now independently wealthy but wanting to take his strength studies in a radical direction, Aaron signed on as part of the strength studies team for the Marines.
While the Marines were interested in greater strength and agility, they also were against too much muscle mass. Since Muscle Blast was a mass builder, it was banned from the Marine Corps. During this time Aaron trained as a Marine himself and developed his 5’10” frame with 180 pounds of wiry Marine muscle. To his own pride he found he was as strong and as able as the best of the elite fighters in the program. He admired much of the efficiency of the Marine program and what skilled, disciplined and powerful fighters the men were when they left the program.
He was frustrated with the lack of support for muscle mass though. Still he was able to do small experiments with strength augmentation through radical exercise, diet and chemical regimens. He started to collect a flowchart of data showing how different men react to various combinations of elements. He started to create an ideal regimen for creating a muscle beast warrior. He also started assessing what kind of man could actually attain this ideal.
He eventually developed a battery of tests that evaluated thousands of different factors in a man’s physical and mental make up that showed his ultimate potential for developing size, strength, speed and fighting ability. There was actually no upper end to the scale but the best of the elite Marines in the program scored 110 points.
One day a new Marine entered the program. Ben was his name. Aaron felt himself immediately drawn to the muscular recruit with sandy brown hair, golden tan and an open, bright smile. As Aaron and one of the lab assistants moved into the observation booth to begin the young man’s test, the assistant whispered, “We probably shouldn’t bother with this. He’s not long for the program.”
Aaron was startled, “Why not? He looks like he’s in great shape. He should do well.”
The assistant shifted his eyes around, “You didn’t hear this from me, but he’s, you know, a pervert. A don’t ask don’t tell kind of guy—but someone’s telling---about seeing him giving head when he was on leave to a man. It’s only a matter of time before the right someone finds out.”
Aaron was enraged. He had been so consumed by his own studies in his early life that his own unapologetic gayness was confined to jacking off and fantasizing. He had joined the program and worked within it without even thinking that his own presence, his own contribution was threatened by the fact he was attracted to men. He looked at the big friendly Marine waiting for his signal to begin the tests. “Its just talk and we do our job until something comes of it,” he snapped dismissively to the disapproving assistant.
They ran the full battery of tests on the Marine and then the results came.
1,197.
Aaron muttered, “That can’t be right. That’s more than ten times the potential of every other man in this program.”
After the day’s drills, Aaron met Ben in the mess. Once again Ben beamed his friendly smile at Aaron. His voice had the slightest drawl and Aaron was suddenly aware of the man’s big friendly hazel eyes. Aaron smiled more hesitantly in return, “May I sit with you to eat?”
“I’m not plannin’ on sittin’ with anyone, sir,” the Marine said guilessly.
“I wanted to discuss your test results with you.”
“Did I pass?” asked Ben with a trace of worry.
“On what the military wants---yes---fine---commendable even. However, in the separate strength potential evaluation your result was exceptional.” Aaron looked directly at Ben trying to discern what the young man was feeling.
Ben stared directly back, “What does that mean for me?”
“It means you have the potential to be much, much stronger and a better fighter than any other man on this base---but only with the proper training.”
Ben’s eyes took on a spark, “I could whoop all these boys?”
“To hell and back,” said Aaron darkly, “but most of your potential will be unrealized with your current training. In fact, in the Marines you can’t get the kind of training you need to show how strong you really could get.”
“Well, my family is kind of dependin’ on me gettin’ through this, so I can get a better job gettin’ out. But maybe in a few years I can look you up, Doc.” Ben looked mildly disappointed.
“Good luck on that to you. If anything changes, let me know,” Aaron said brusquely, his mind whirling away at a plan.
Aaron himself then started to take the tests. The military computers were programmed to calculate the subjects’ responses and determine their potential. He carefully applied the various probes and receptors and took the various stress tests. His lean, muscular body was covered with sweat. He felt he was doing well but ultimately could not tell how his body was responding in the ways important to his dream. After the tests were through he began the final calculations, impatient to see his own results and how it compared with the best of the men.
The results came up in a stream of data across the computer screen. Aaron tasted the salty taste of his sweat as he scanned through the row of numbers suddenly meaningless to him as he looked for the final result.
257,569
He stared at the number, not comprehending. He rechecked the data. All his numbers were off any previous test he had administered on the hundreds of Marines in the program. He checked the calibrations everything seemed correctly done. If this was true, his own potential was godlike compared to that of the men in the unit.
The next week he had his assistants who had conducted the tests with him previously, run him through the battery of tests. At the end he was alone looking at the number
287,432
An increase in potential larger than the full numbers of any of his men. He ran more tests and found that his own body seemed to be increasing its potential every day. Something unheard of in the other tests where the men remained the same. The same exact reading no matter how much training they had. It was a reading for potential which should have an upper limit. His apparently did not.