Colonized

The nanite gel’s development had been a medical revolution. The traditional methods of a surgeon cutting someone open became borderline barbaric by comparison when there were microscopic devices that could quickly, efficiently, and painlessly complete even the most complex of surgeries. Coupled with the rapidly spreading power of artificial intelligence, procedures that had previously been considered impossible were now commonplace. Through a combination of stem cells and machines, of the organic biomass and the tech-driven engines, limbs were regrown. Spinal cords were repaired. Organs were replaced. Cancers were cured. People still aged and died through various means, though there were plenty of rumors about immortality now being attainable for the right price. Overall, though, life spans, and the quality of those spans, had both improved significantly.

As would be expected in a capitalistic society, once the miracle proliferated, so did the economy that surrounded it. What was once reserved for the most dire of medical emergencies eventually trickled down to street-level. Cosmetic procedures, dental work, hair replacement and removal, weight loss, muscle growth; everything was on the table. Whatever a person wanted to fix about themselves, they could. Whatever a person wanted to be, however they wanted to look, was now obtainable. Even extreme body modifications were available, though they were typically performed by less-than-reputable providers and carried with them the same social stigma they always had. Certain procedures were outright illegal, like providing extra limbs or attempting to enhance a person’s physical attributes beyond what was considered a baseline human level, unless they occurred accidentally.

It was that last possibility that no one had seen coming. No one knew exactly when or how it happened, but, at some point, the gel found its way into the natural ecosystem. Whether it scraped off someone’s shoe onto a sidewalk, or a bit of it survived on an errant lab coat, instead of powering down and going inert once it was away from the battery that gave it life, it adapted. Being AI driven and half organic it already possessed a rudimentary sentience, an autonomic response system, essentially making it no different than any other bacteria escaping from a lab into the world at large. Fortunately, while the potential had existed for a global catastrophe, the gel, the “nanoplasm”, only thrived in specific conditions. It was similar to a mold or fungus, needing somewhere damp and dark to spread and grow. It preferred the primordial, favoring warm, humid areas over dry, bright, or cold environments. For the most part, urban and suburban settings were safe, as long as basic mitigation efforts were taken. Even natural settings like forests and lakes were mostly spared since the nanoplasm was extremely delicate until a colony was fully formed. Wind, rain, insects, animals; being exposed to the elements was more or less a death sentence.

In subterranean or secluded settings, however, the nanoplasm found a home. Caves, sewers, basements, and abandoned buildings were all breeding grounds for the lurking nightmare. In controlled settings, the gel was a wonder. In the wild, it was a horror. Anyone unlucky enough to stumble on a colony was left warped and twisted as the nanoplasm engulfed them in a gelatinous web and acted on its primal programming, effecting wild, seemingly random changes on the human body. Luckily, though the impacted individuals would likely debate that description, the results were never fatal or entirely debilitating. Likely because the gel was created to cure and repair the body, no one simply melted or turned into a formless blob or became a mindless husk. That didn’t mean there weren’t drastic changes to size, proportion, and function of certain body parts, as well as a person’s behaviors, but there had yet to be any fatalities as a result of the transformation process. Unfortunately, attempts at reversing those transformations had been unsuccessful, as the “natural” nanoplasm was far stronger than the kind grown in a lab. What the colonies created, their medical-grade counterparts were helpless to destroy. Likewise, any attempts at harvesting and utilizing the gel found in the wild had been met with failure at best, and disaster at worst. There was an entire economy of black market harvesters and farms that attempted to grow their own, but, while they would be successful for a time, the colonies eventually took over. It was the reason the wild nanoplasm had yet to be weaponized by any country on a large scale. While it was useful on select targets, mass deployment came with a high risk of losing control and engulfing the user, just like any other bioweapon. “Cures” were in the works, but, given the gel’s very purpose in the first place, it quickly found a way to combat any attempts at reining it in.

That left physical mitigation as the only real method of keeping things under control. Local governments had dedicated crews to regularly sweep the cities, and there was a booming business in the private sector of companies who would inspect properties and provide remediation services. As with its initial transition from miraculous to mundane, the threat of the nanoplasm eventually became just another part of day-to-day life. The cleanup crews largely kept the threat in check, and, as time went on, fewer people actually knew someone who’d been impacted. Everyone heard the stories and saw the clips online, but, for most people, the possibility of encountering a colony in the wild was relegated to the category of things that might happen to someone else, never to them.

Josh and Bobby were members of that group. During their years of urban exploration, the pair had been in plenty of flooded tunnels, damp basements, and moldy dwellings, never once encountering a wild strain of the dreaded substance. Like many of their peers, they’d started to believe the conspiracy theories that there were no wild strains, that the unfortunate individuals with freakish proportions were the result of botched surgeries or hacked nanites. The “cleanup crews” and warning signs were all just smoke and mirrors to keep people from seeing the truth about the supposed miracle cure. The pair was willing to admit that maybe there was something to the stories, and maybe there’d been a real danger at one time, but it seemed long gone from their perspective. Part of that certainty was driven by their age, the two young men were just shy of twenty five, and the other part was driven by their overconfident natures. Being mostly straight, very fit, and possessing an above average appearance even unenhanced, the duo was used to things going their way. They were tight and toned, slightly taller than most, each possessing a shredded, whipcord frame covered in deceptively lean muscle. Though naturally broad-shouldered, they could be mistaken for thin from a distance, a mistake made by many a larger meathead over the years. Instead of lifting weights in a musty gym, the pair preferred climbing and calisthenics, opting for a trail run and parkour over the stifling rules of organized team sports. And it showed. Each of their tapering torsos was covered in rivers of definition, and, when they flexed, their “thin” arms doubled in size. The same went for their sturdy thighs and surprisingly solid little bubbles, their bodies being as hard as the rocks they loved to climb. Even their faces were sharp and strong, the statuesque features softened by plump lips and bright eyes, the edges of which wrinkled with their easy smiles. Their similarly impressive appearances complemented one another down to the shaggy mops capping their handsome faces: dirty blonde for Josh, and a sandy brown for Billy.

Between their natural beauty and ample charm, the pair was well liked and sought after. They were fun and friendly. Men and women alike wanted to be around them, with them, or, as was most often the case, both. And the pair reciprocated. They weren’t smug hunks or arrogant jocks; they were laidback and goofy, closer in behavior to stoners than studs. The only thing that could even come close to being held against them was their penchant for breaking into places they weren’t supposed to go, but even that was a victimless crime. They only snuck into buildings or structures that were abandoned, and the only people that could potentially be harmed by their behavior was themselves.

That was certainly the case for their latest exploration. The trek up to the tunnel had been a scramble at times, the steep hillside giving way to sheer cliffs that required scaling before making a tentative, treacherous, reappearance. The remains of the old rail bridge that used to connect the tunnel with the other side of the valley when the line was still in service had long since crumbled as a rusty rain into the forest below, leaving an arduous climb as the only method of approach.

“This better be worth it,” Josh panted, his bare torso glistening with sweat in the early afternoon sun. The hands-on-hips pose he’d adopted emphasized the way his broad shoulders tapered to a trim waist, while simultaneously drawing attention to the modest bulge and perky bubble pressing against the thin gray nylon. A small belt bag hung off one hip, pulling the tiny shorts low enough to expose the elastic band of the blonde’s bright blue briefs.

“Dude, it was your idea to come out here in the first place,” Billy panted as he pulled himself up onto the ledge. He was similarly clad and in a similar state of exertion, his deceptively thin arms inflating as he reached up and wicked the sweat from his dirt-colored crop. “Hell of a view, though. Damn,” he whistled, taking in the sweeping scene of the forest-filled valley below. “Kinda worth it on its own, yeah?”

Josh nodded. “They weren’t kidding. Everything I read about this place said it was just as good as the tunnel, if not better.”

“Speaking of…” Billy turned and looked at the looming archway behind them. Only a few of the original boards remained near the top, the only sign that anyone had ever attempted to obscure the entrance. He pulled out his phone and took a few pictures, including the obligatory selfies with Josh, both with the tunnel and the valley as a backdrop. “Ready?”

The blonde grinned and stepped inside, his exposed skin breaking out in goosebumps as the temperature dropped. It wasn’t cold by any means, but the contrast between the blazing sun and sudden shadow was enough to elicit a shiver. There was light enough to see for a good distance beyond the entryway, and the waiting graffiti pulled another shiver out of the young man. “Well…fuck.”

“Does that say what I think it does,” Billy asked, taking another picture. “Don’t. Plasm.” was sprayed in bright orange letters on the crumbling masonry, but how long it had been there was impossible to tell. They hadn’t seen any signs of recent activity on the way up, and a quick scan of the interior likewise failed to show anything that suggested recent habitation. The air was still, the space quiet, resonating with a sepulchral solitude that the pair had become accustomed to experiencing in abandoned spaces. It wasn’t just that no one was around; it felt empty in a way that accumulated over time. “Did it say anything about THAT online?”

“Sure didn’t,” Josh sighed, shaking his head.

Billy stepped closer to inspect the letters. “When was the last time someone was up here?”

“The latest post I found was from last summer, so at least a year,” Josh said.

Billy nodded at the graffiti. “So this isn’t that old, then Not encouraging.”

“I bet it’s just someone fucking around. They probably want this place to themselves,” Josh spat.

“But if it’s not…”

The blonde stepped forward and wrapped his arms around the other man’s waist from behind. “Then I’m here to protect you,” he purred, running a hand down Billy’s abs before slipping it into the front of his friend’s shorts.

The brunette sighed, his cock surging against Josh’s hand. “Dude, already? We JUST got here.”

“I know. But the climb got me all worked up, and now we’ve got exciting danger,” Josh chuckled, grinding his tented shorts against Billy’s solid bubble. He stroked his friend to full mast before fishing the other man’s cock free, his other hand tweaking one of the brunette’s nipples. “I’ll even do you first.”

“Wow. You really ARE desperate right now,” Billy grinned, turning to face his friend. The two had long ago learned how much fun it was to add the thrill of getting off to the thrill of their illicit explorations, and while they largely identified as straight, they’d also learned that it was easier to do so with each other than trying to find female companionship every time. They’d never actually fucked each other, and they rarely even kissed, focusing more on mutual hand and blowjobs.

“Let’s not go all the way to desperate,” Josh huffed as he dropped to his knees and took Billy’s bottoms with him. “I’d say ‘excited’ works just as well.”

“MMMmmmm…” Billy groaned when the blonde swallowed nearly all of his six inches and started bobbing his head. “You are…certainly that…” He stroked his hands through the other man’s hair, flexing his cheeks against Josh’s gripping fingers and giving his hips the occasional pump. The blonde wasn’t the only man he’d ever fooled around with, but his friend was the one with whom he’d had the most frequent experience, and vice versa, meaning that, even when women were thrown into the mix, they each knew most what the other liked. It was always an odd thought for Billy to have, to think about how his shredded buddy Josh could get him off better than anyone, but one that his body clearly didn’t mind. “Fuck…dude…I’m gonna…” he hissed, barely getting the words out before erupting.

Josh deftly swallowed every drop, sucking his spasming friend dry before pulling his mouth away. “That was fast. Looks like I’m not the only excited one,” he laughed as he climbed to his feet.

“Or your mouth is just really good pussy,” Billy grunted, dropping to his knees. He had Josh stripped and swallowed with the same practiced precision as the other man, alternating the pace of his bobbing and the technique of his tongue. He could feel his friend holding back and knew the blonde was just trying to make him spend more time on his knees, but he didn’t mind. Billy actually liked having his face buried in Josh’s lap, to feel his friend’s soft, trim bush against his face, and times like this were his only opportunity. So if the other man wanted to draw it out, that was fine by him.

“Duuuuude…god…goddamn, man…I’m about to…pop…” Josh grunted, his eyes wide as he gazed at his kneeling friend. “Fuck…can’t hold…” he broke off in a low grunt, unleashing a torrent down Billy’s throat. The load was large enough that the brunette lost a good portion of it down his chin, much to Josh’s delight. “Too big for you? Whose mouth is the better pussy again?” Billy responded by hooking his arms behind Josh’s knees and bringing his friend to the ground. The two writhed and wrestled on the dirty floor of the tunnel until they were both panting, finally coming to a rest in a tangled pile. “I meant it as a compliment,” Josh grinned, leaning in and running his tongue along Billy’s chin to lick it clean. He let the motion flow into a proper kiss before his friend could pull away, and he could already picture the other man’s flushed features waiting for him.

“Come on, man,” Billy sputtered, his face predictably crimson. He extricated himself from Josh’s arms and climbed to his feet, searching for the shorts and underwear he’d lost during their struggle.

“What? It feels cheap without a proper kiss,” the blonde shrugged. He hopped up and gave Billy’s bare bubble a squeeze before trotting a few feet further down the tunnel. “Let’s leave ‘em off,” Josh said, flashing a mischievous grin. “At least until it starts to get really dark.”

Billy sighed and rolled his eyes, his spent cock swaying as he hurried after his friend. “This feels safe.”

“It’s just an empty tunnel. It’s not like we’re bushwhacking or climbing over rusty equipment,” Josh shrugged.

Billy squinted as the light rapidly dimmed, seeing only darkness ahead. All around, the brick masonry had started to give way to natural rock, the grayish brown stone peppered with dots of what looked like white fungal growth. It wasn’t a comforting sight given the warning that had greeted them. “This thing goes for, what? A mile?”

Josh nodded. “Yeah…other end got covered by a landslide, though,” he said, followed by an involuntary shudder. While the entrance they’d used was at the top of the small mountain and seemed relatively safe from a similar event, being trapped inside was the last thing he wanted to think about.

“You bring me to the nicest places,” Billy chuckled.

Josh reached over and grabbed his friend’s cock, giving it a quick tug. “You have to admit…this part is pretty fun,” he said, spreading his arms wide to emphasize his exposed state. “At least it’s not as cold in here as I thought it’d be. It’s actually kind of muggy.”

“Yeah, don’t want that getting any smaller,” Billy said, nodding at the blonde’s similarly stout member.

“You sure about that? You seemed to be having a hard time with it earlier,” Josh shot back.

“And you’d know about hard, wouldn’t you?” He gave the blonde’s twitching cock a light slap, quickly darting out of reach when his friend’s arm shot towards him. In the excitement, focused on each other and the thrill of the open air on their naked bodies, neither of them noticed how dark the tunnel had become, and just how far they’d gone. The entrance was a small pinprick of light behind them, and the quiet was so profound that their slightest step echoed like the strike of a hammer, their twin laughter filling the space as if generated by a crowd. And then it was too late. “Ew, gross,” Billy grunted, absently wiping at his face. He felt like he’d walked through a spiderweb in the forest, only the gossamer strands felt surprisingly thick and heavy. “Careful, dude. I just walked through a hell of a…web…” he broke off in a gasp when the threads began to slither and tighten around him, his stomach dropping at the futile realization. “RUN! Josh, get the…”

Billy’s warning choked off in his throat as his body lost all sensation, the nanoplasm already going to work. Shutting down the nerve receptors was the first step, leaving a person blissfully numb to the horror that followed. He’d managed to turn and face his friend before his body stopped responding, but that merely left him locked in place as a silent witness to the other man’s reshaping. They’d both been ensnared, and it seemed that they were both about to share the same fate. As he teetered on the edge of consciousness, the last thing Billy saw was Josh’s arms inflating, the rest of the blonde’s lean torso staying the same while he grew a pair of power-lifting pistons. His friend’s cock seemed to be undergoing a similar growth spurt, the six inch organ lengthening and swelling while a pair of plump melons sprouted from the other man’s back. Unable to turn his head or feel anything happening, Billy tried to tell himself he didn’t see a similar set of limbs expanding on the edges of his vision. And then it all went black.

**********

“What are you all dressed up for? Going somewhere?”

Billy looked down at himself and shrugged. In this case, “all dressed up” constituted a pair of ankle socks and a tank-top, the most either of them usually wore anymore. The issue wasn’t that they couldn’t physically cover their unique new proportions, the bodybuilder arms they’d sprouted, the wine bottle cocks, grapefruit balls, and melon-sized asses. With some tailoring they could have made it work. It would have been a struggle, and they would have looked incredibly awkward with every bit of their warped frames straining against whatever unfortunate articles of clothing tried to constrain them, but the real problem was the sensitivity. The slightest brush against their arms, asses or thickened hoses nearly brought them to their knees, to say nothing of the immediate aching and oozing that followed. The rewiring had been so intensely thorough that even using the altered appendages was enough to provoke a response. Fully flexing their arms had become an orgasmic experience. They could literally get off by doing nothing but a few curls, the sensation of their moving muscle enough to push them over the edge. Unfortunately, those muscles were used countless times throughout the day for almost everything - reaching for a phone, lifting a laundry basket, pulling a cup out of a cabinet - and those smaller exertions quickly added up. The same went for their inflated backsides, as the act of walking quickly became an erotic endeavor. The shifting of their fattened cheeks as they moved, the jarring ripples that came with each step, were all bright bursts of pleasure that fanned the flames of the lustful simmer their lives had become. And sitting was no better since, even though they could gradually settle into a spot and get used to the sensation of their sensitive skin on fabric, they had to start the process over again whenever they so much as shifted their weight. It was a situation that would have been awkward enough even without their formerly average organs swelling into foot-long beasts boasting circumferences of nine inches.

The barely-clad brunette looked up from himself to see a naked Josh sleepily stumbling out of the bedroom, the blonde’s semi-hard log of a cock wagging like a tail in reverse. “It’s a hard habit to break,” Billy said, struggling to recall the last time he’d seen his friend put anything on.

“It’s salt in the wound is what it is,” Josh spat, looking at his hulking arms in disgust. They were the meaty, overly-muscled limbs of a heavyweight bodybuilder, seeming digitally altered hanging off his otherwise trim frame. The same went for the expansive rear that would have looked big on the burliest of rugby players, and the unwieldy member twitching between his toned thighs.

“Oh whatever,” Billy groaned. “You never had a problem being naked before. Don’t use bitterness as an excuse to start now.”

“I liked having the option,” Josh said, grinning despite himself. “And that was before we looked like this.”

“Says the guy who was literally just staring at my ass.” Billy walked over and ran a gentle hand along his friend’s arm, eliciting a slight shiver. The blonde’s cock rocketed to attention in response, the meaty members batting together.

“I mean, yeah. It looks good on YOU,” he sighed. “I wasn’t trying get any bigger back therrrruuunnnhh…” Josh broke off in a grunt when Billy reached around and gave his supple melons a squeeze. A part of him hated how they felt squishing in his friend’s hand, but another part loved the encompassing, knee-weakening bliss that rocketed through him. He hated his own twisted shape, but he loved how it looked on Billy, just as he loved the way the other man looked at him as he squirmed and whimpered. He reached out and started massaging the brunette’s arms, the two of them squirming and gasping in each other’s grip until their untouched cocks exploded, soaking both.

“Well that’s one way to get me naked,” Billy grinned, peeling out of his now-sopping tank-top. He used it to wipe the remains of Josh’s release from his flushed face before dabbing at his friend’s sticky pecs and flustered grin.

“See? That’s why I don’t even bother,” the blonde sighed, still caught off guard by the speed with which the eruption arrived, as well as its intensity. Their stamina was a thing of the past, but they had endless ammunition. “I hate how good that feels.”

“I sure don’t,” Billy shrugged. “Some more control would be nice, but we’ll get there. Remember, they said they can’t reverse this, but the jury’s still out on whether or not they can do anything to at least dull the sensitivity. Until then…worse ways to spend a day.”

Josh knew his friend was right. There actually was a good chance that the doctors could eventually figure out the right combination to at least dial things down a notch. And there were government assistance programs for people who’d been impacted like they had, which at least kept a roof over their heads and food in the refrigerator. They also weren’t actually forced to stay in their now-shared apartment, it was just awkward and embarrassing if they did have to go outside. The few trips they’d made to the doctor since their release from the hospital had been mortifying, but, fortunately, they had better friends than they’d realized. The guys had shown up from the start and helped take them back and forth, and had even been the ones to fill the altered duo in on what happened. Neither Josh nor Billy remembered how they got out of the tunnel, until their friends explained about the frantic phone call and the naked men who’d been picked up on the side of the road. Luckily, most of them were still plenty happy to come around, even with the pair’s awkward predicament. Josh and Billy had politely covered themselves with a sheet at first whenever company came over, until several of the guys started shucking their pants in solidarity.

“Do you think we should actually do what Dylan said? Take this mess online,” Josh asked, motioning to himself.

“I think Dylan just wants an excuse to show his dick on the internet,” Billy laughed. “But he’s not wrong. I mean, even if we get to the point where we can cover ourselves up, it’s not like we’ll be leaving much to the imagination anyway.” Billy blushed at the memory of the last time the dark-skinned stud had come over. Their brawny friend had been the first one to get naked with them, so it was no surprise that he’d been the first one to eagerly join in. Both Billy and Josh were still wrapping their heads around just how much they’d enjoyed getting fucked by the bigger man, but, more than anything, they were eager to do it again. They’d tried things out with each, but the combination of their new size and sensitivity made it clear they’d need outside assistance going forward, a prospect they were surprisingly interested in pursuing. “Never thought I’d be an internet porn star, but I guess…” he was cut off when Josh leaned in for a kiss, his whole body going crimson.

“I love how THAT still makes you blush more than anything,” the blonde said, flashing a smug grin. “Me watching you cum just from flexing? No problem. I give you a kiss? Ripe tomato. It’s adorable.” He chuckled when his friend went an even deeper shade, but his laugh was abruptly swallowed when Billy stepped forward and picked up where they’d left off. Josh felt his friend’s eager cock harden and start to press into him when Billy folded his mammoth arms behind his head, flexing.

“Wonder what happens when we do both at the same time,” the brunette purred before resuming their kiss.