Batter Up [PTRN][RWD]

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#4 of Patreon Stories

The first of many Patreon reward stories! These are monthly stories that patrons of the highest tier receive as a reward for pledging that amount.

September reward story for FA: DanMingle !

A fox aspiring to become a professional baseball player gets an experimental boost from a friend that helps him realize his true potential.ORIGINAL POST


Nathan sighed as he recalled his training results from the previous night.

Out of nowhere, the green-furred fox had discovered a passion for baseball over the last little while and had decided that he wanted to take it seriously, but was having troubles due to never having genuinely tried it before. He actually came a long way in the short amount of time that he'd been practicing, but it never felt like enough. The more that he prepared himself, the more that he realized how stuck he was.

He'd tried everything that he could think of in order to improve as quickly as he possibly could, but was coming up short with tryouts happening relatively soon. He wanted this to happen, he genuinely did! He just didn't think he had what it took to do this all on his own.

He practiced pitching, he practiced catching, he practiced batting like no one else had before. He trained at home, at batting cages, anywhere that he could possibly find some place to do his drills. No matter what he did, he always felt like he came up just short to be considered for anything more than amateur. His batting was too inconsistent, his pitches didn't seem fast enough, and his catching left a bit to be desired. It seemed like practice wasn't paying off like everyone else had said that it would.

It left Nathan bummed and wondering what else he could do. He was running out of options to try and help himself, which made him speculate as to whether or not he could do it alone. Maybe some outside help was needed instead.

Well, it was a promising thought at first. He found one of the best trainers in the area to see if it was possible to be helped along with his endeavour. All seemed well at first, but he could tell that his instructor was thinking that he didn't have what it took to make the big leagues. Not that he could blame the instructor, he also had his doubts with how little he was progressing past his plateau. Living his dream looked to be all but hopeless.

That's when he stumbled into a lucky break. He happened to have a friend, Chris, who'd been working on some kind of serum that could induce muscular hypertrophy in males as a thesis project for his university program. The wolf had been figuring out how best to test his research - as the school was hesitant to let him experiment on himself on school property - which is when Nathan stepped in and offered to help out. The other canine felt a bit taken aback, but wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Now, Nathan knew that this wasn't exactly the best way that he could increase his potential as his skills were still too irregular to be reliable, but it gave him a great idea - while he didn't always hit his mark when it came to pitching and batting, he landed enough that a bit of a strength boost could _theoretically_be the difference between loss and a win. Anything was worth a shot at this point.

He met with the lupine to go over the proper procedures required for the formula, that being important because taking something experimental could end in disaster if he wasn't careful. He didn't want a burgeoning baseball career to be over before it even started!

It was time to see if this supplemental formula worked. The vial that he'd gotten from the wolf was small, but he was told that it was more than enough given the compounds present in the solution. Truth be told, he felt a bit nervous trying out something unproven, but it was also exciting at the same time as he realized that he got to potentially be a part of scientific history should everything go according to plan. Time to put the serum to the test!

Nathan took a small dosage of the liquid as instructed, no bigger than a sip as he'd been told that there could be possible serious side effects if too much of the fluid was imbibed at once. He trusted the lupine with the directions as he knew that the other canine understood this area of biochemistry better than he ever could, and recognized that genuine consequences could occur should something go terribly wrong with the testing. He wasn't about to risk his life over a serum that he knew little about.

A cool breeze blew in as he took to the batting cages, refreshing him as the sun beat down harshly overhead; if there was one thing that he wasn't a fan of, it was the fact that this sport was played during the hottest months of the year.

Now, he had no idea what he was supposed to expect when it came to seeing the results of the serum in action, but he'd been assured that something obvious was meant to happen to him. He trusted that the other canine knew what he was talking about despite the vague guarantee.

His eyes narrowed at the pitching machine opposite him as he took his place at home plate, squaring up the machine as he positioned himself into the correct stance. Focus dead set on the apparatus, he held the bat behind him until he heard a pitch get thrown his way, swinging as hard as he could muster...

...Only to miss by a longshot. While it bothered him, he knew that he wasn't going to nail every ball tossed at him, especially right at the beginning when he hadn't even warmed up yet. Lining the bat up with the trajectory of where he predicted the ball would travel, his bat returned back to its resting position behind his head, ready for him to swing...

...And miss yet again. Ugh, he hated when he got days like this. A grunt escaped his throat as he resumed his position, his mind trained solely on the device in front of him. That was when a piece of advice from the coach that he'd hired popped into his head - don't overthink the swing and let your body do the work. Before the next ball had a chance to come out, he cleared his mind of any and every thought racing through it, concentrating with a clear head as he patiently waited for the pitch to emerge.

The machine fired a baseball directly at Nathan, yet his arms swung in just the right direction that he managed to knock the ball deep into the netting at the far end of the cage. He'd done it! After two identical misses in a row, he _finally_managed to land a hit, likely knocking it out of the park had he been practicing on a proper baseball diamond. Now that's what he was talking about!

He had little time to celebrate, though, as the next pitch was about to head his way. In an instant he swiveled himself back into position before the machine heaved the ball at him. His eyes remained focused on the projectile the entire way that it traveled at him. In a fraction of a second, he swung as hard as he could, the sound of the bat colliding with the ball sounding out with a deafening crack as it was sent back into the netting with its brethren. Another home run!

Nathan felt a rush of adrenaline course through his veins after slamming two hits in a row, thrilled to bits that his consistency had actually improved over the last few weeks that he'd been training himself. It got him feeling good, _real_good! He was ready to keep going.

It occurred to him that he also felt hot at the same time, though he chalked it up to the intense summer sun baking him alive as he foolishly dared to exist outdoors. Whatever, he'd keep going - it's what the other athletes would do in this situation anyway, right?

Squaring himself up at the plate, he kept his eye on the machine as it whirred to life, lobbing a ball in his direction. As much focus as he could muster was kept on the ball's trajectory, yet his next swing ended in a miss. Damn, that was so close. What did he do wrong that time?

While Nathan couldn't be sure, it seemed to him that his batting felt a little off just then. It struck him as odd considering that he thought that he hadn't been there for all that long, yet he undeniably felt something. Maybe he was more tired to start with than he initially thought, but he decided to give it one more pitch before he'd take a break.

The pitching apparatus notified the fox of its intent, firing a fastball down the middle. His breathing steady, he swung his bat exactly where he anticipated the ball to travel and struck it head on, sending it careening against the netting behind the machine. Alright, he's still got it, even when tired!

Truthfully, he wasn't sure if it was tiredness that he felt as he perceived his energy levels to still remain quite high. Regardless, he thought it best if he took a quick rest just to assess himself.

Shutting the pitching machine down, he took a spot on the bench nearby and relaxed, replaying the events leading up to that moment in his head. He could take solace in the fact that his batting average had improved dramatically over the course of his training; he'd never had been able to hit a .500 when he first started.

Still, Nathan acknowledged that, even if he wasn't tired, his muscles still felt a bit heated, getting him to think that maybe continuing to practice in the scorching heat wasn't the smartest idea that he'd had. A sigh shot passed his lips as he sat back against the bench, massaging his sore-

He gasped. While he didn't think that his fingers would deceive him, his head automatically whipped to his shoulder to verify that, yes, his musculature had indeed grown bigger as explained. He was floored; he expected it to be a slight nudge towards a more-defined physique that would've taken him months to achieve, not something this immediate!

His mind shot back to the moment that he ingested the serum. The memory was as clear as day - he'd only taken a small sip, and yet he looked like he'd been training on a professional team for years! A quick lift of his top revealed that the rest of his body also benefited from the formula, much to his delight. The experiment was an unadulterated success! But why?

The only thing that clicked in his head was the fact that he was active immediately after taking the serum. It felt like the only thing that made sense given the situation that he'd found himself in, so perhaps it'd be in his best interest to see how far he could take this.

With full resolution, he jumped to his feet and flicked the machine on again, taking his place at the far end of the cage. Determination pumped through his veins as he eagerly waited for the device to do its thing. He stood there in position, springing into action when he heard the ball get flung his way, only to slam the ball in the complete opposite direction once it came close to him. Damn, that was the hardest that he'd hit a ball so far, surprising even himself!

The rest of his training was more or less the same, with him sizing up the machine before it barraged him with another pitch. Over time, however, he could feel his body naturally shifting, his muscle fibres tearing and repairing themselves in fractions of a second, pumping up his physique in such a short amount of time that the local iron pit couldn't even compare. He'd gone well beyond the musculature that he'd started with, past what the average athlete possessed, even past the more juiced among them. As funny as it looked, he was well on his way to joining professional bodybuilders with the sheer quantity of bulk that he'd piled on seemingly out of thin air!

Well, for now, that is. Nathan hadn't paid much attention to anything going on with his body, but to an outsider it would appear that someone had shifted reality right in front of their very eyes with how much the green-furred fox had blimped up. It almost didn't even look real how swollen his frame had become, making him look like he was trying to compete as a heavyweight bodybuilder, not as a baseball player!

A bead of sweat trickled down the side of his face, prompting him to stop and take another breather. His shirt clung tightly to his stuffed chest like his pants had rode high onto his legs in order to contain the dozens of pounds of beef that he'd gained in no time flat, but he hadn't noticed any of that just yet. All he was focused on was shutting down the pitching apparatus and resting his weary arms.

And that was when his grotesquely overwhelming immensity had finally become apparent to him. His eyes nearly bugged out of his skull when he saw the way that his sumptuous arm bulged with inconceivable bulk, his bicep bigger than his head and making steel cables look weak in comparison. It sent a flurry of emotions rampaging through his body, but the primary sensation taking him for a ride was relief. Not only was the test a complete and utter success, which he'd be happy to report back on, but also that his batting had actually improved since he'd started earlier in the day!

At the same time that his body surged, so too did his package. That... was unexpected, but not unwelcome! It did feel a bit odd that the outline of his crotch had become so plainly visible, however. He, uh, might wanna make sure that he's more covered up for when he practices again.

To think that there was so much of him now that even conventional clothes had trouble trying to accommodate his staggering form. Well, this was his regular sized uniform, so maybe a larger one wouldn't have any problems with that whatsoever. Oh, the thought of requiring a new outfit to play sent him over the moon!

Nathan couldn't believe that all this bulk was actually him, and yet every single muscle group that he caressed indicated as such. He was overjoyed that he'd gotten better, of course, but also thrilled that he could get to know this size a little better in private. It all felt so good to the touch, his oversensitive heft causing him to moan in pleasure as he fondled himself. Well, he shouldn't get too carried away in public, he wouldn't want to draw attention to himself.

But wait, a thought just occurred to him. He had actually improved during the short amount of time that he was out that day. Maybe - just maybe - he had a chance to make a name for himself and get signed to a team! It was worth a shot.

Look out world, here comes Nathan!