"Hi, Arnold!"

Arnold turned around quickly to the sound of the faint, yet familiar, greeting. Arnold smiled reassuring at the tiny, waifish girl walking toward him, who returned his smile in kind, albeit with a tiny piece of spinich attached to her front braces.

Tricia Wilkens had been one of Arnold's friends since the 2nd grade. Inseparable in elementary school, the two friends had developed a love of math and science together. As they had grown older and entered high school, Arnold kept Tricia close as a friend and confidante while Tricia's feelings -- supposedly unbeknownst to Arnold -- had developed into a full-on high school crush. However, Tricia did her best to repress her feelings trying not to embarrass herself or ruin their friendship.

"Oh hi, Tricia!" Arnold said kindly, discreetly motioning his index finger to his own teeth to let Tricia know she had something in hers.

"Oh, no!" the 17 year old mousy girl said as her face began to turn red in embarrassment as he tilted her head downward, swirling her tongue and then her pinkie nail inside her mouth to free the hanging green appendage from her braces. Regaining her composure, she looked at Arnold and smiled sheepishly.

"Better?" Tricia asked as Arnold nodded silently in response. "One of the hazards of being a vegetarian and having braces, you know?"

"I could NEVER eat just vegetables!" Arnold said, his face curling up with a mock look of disdain.

"It's not so bad, silly!" Tricia responded, lightly slapping Arnold on the shoulder. "It keeps my weight down...hmm, maybe too far down..." Tricia looked at her waspish waist and almost gaunt arms as her peach colored t-shirt practically hung over her frame. "But, geez...all the spinich I eat, you'd think I'd be a little bigger. I mean, it worked for Popeye right? Why not me?"

Tricia giggled simultaneously as Arnold gulped at the sound of her words. He closed his eyes and tried to cover his ears, but the damage had been done already. .

'....it worked for Popeye, why not me...... it worked for Popeye, why not me'

The seed had been planted. A superpowered seed. And Arnold's new powers were the water hose

"No!!!" shouted Arnold as he covered his ears so hard that they turned red from the pressure.

"Arnold...what's wrong?" asked a concerned Tricia as he placed her tiny hand on his back. "Are you ok? Should I get a doc... Whoa!!"

Tricia herself stood up straight, almost on cue, as a feeling of warmth spread throughout her body. Arnold quickly stood up himself as he knew what was happening, he just couldn't stop it from happening!"

'....it worked for Popeye, why not me...... it worked for Popeye, why not me'

The words rang out inside Arnold's mindas he flooded his waifish friend with the strength of hundreds and reshaped her body to his subconscious fantasies.

"Wh-what's...hap-p-p-ening to me?" Tricia asked in a smewhat panicked state as an unfamiliar feeling swept across her body like a superhuman wildfire. Strength. Freakish strength. Cartoon-like strength poured into Tricia's figure as her body warped into yet another one of Arnold's superheroine fantasies.

Her peach colored t-shirt pulled tighter to her frame as her deltoids and arms morphed before her eyes. Unlike the cartoon, there were no tanks, missiles, or rockets burgoning from her arms, just supersexy, superpowered muscle.

Arnold watched in amazement as Tricia's chest -- an 'A' at best -- suddenly seemed to inflate, pushing out her shirt and distorting the face and body on the "Hello, Kitty!" ensignia in front. Tricia looked down speechlessly as her bosum rose magically and proudly on her chest.

SNAP!

Tricia blinked in surprise and confusion momentarily before she realized her bra strap had snapped. Yet, somehow, her new gifts did not sag. Quite hardly. They seemed to defy all laws of gravity, thanks to Arnold's subconscious.

In unison with her arms, shoulds, and chest, other changes were miraculously taking place, some which Tricia could not even see. Legs lengthened and toned to perfection. Her mousy brown hair grew longer and began taking on a shimmering auburn-brown glow. Her skin -- previously ravaged by years of adolescent ache -- magically repaired itself to become a cocoon of unblemished flesh!

PLINK!!

In the final stages of her transformation, Tricia's braces suddenly popped off. Surprised, she wiped her tongue over her teeth before smiling at Arnold to show a perfectly straight and gleaming set of teeth.

Excited, yet still unsure of what exactly had happened, Tricia looked at her body all over, intently looking at her arms, playfully flexing as a sexy bulge sprang forth from her arms.

"Oh my gosh! I have muscles! I...I....have EVERYHING!! "And I feel strong....." squealed Tricia in delighted as a somewhat nervous Arnold looked on.

Tricia looked at Arnold and flashed a menacing grin "I mean REALLY, REALLY strong!!"

GULP!