It was the biggest gathering of heroines in the world. Almost every female costumed adventurer was there, along with several villains and civilians. The civilians huddled together nervously, while the villainesses and heroines glared at each other from opposite sides of the room. As the villainesses were badly outnumbered, though, all they did was glare.
Eventually, a group of scientists stepped onto the podium, some of the greatest minds of the heroic community. Reed Richards, Tony Stark, Hank Pym, Henry McCoy, Curt Conners, Batman, T'Challa, Michael Holt, Spider-Man, Bruce Banner, Ted Kord, Atoms both one and two, Dr. Nemesis, Charles Xavier, Tim Drake... and to everyone's shock, Dr. Doom was there. And he wasn't trying to lord over everyone.
"Thank you all for coming," Reed said, sighing wearily. "I know this is strange to have just the women gathered here, but it concerns all of you." He gestured, bringing up a hologram showing several women, all of them getting critically skinny. "You are all aware, of course, of the recent obsession going around women across the globe, making them exercise or diet to ill-health to try and live up to an ideal."
"We have been wondering about that," Wonder Woman said. "Even my fellow amazons are affected by this, save for myself, my mother, and Artemis."
"We've determined why," Tony Stark said, making a few quick gestures and bringing up two images that everyone was familiar with. And loathed.
Dr. Psycho and the Purple Man.
"Jesus fuck, those two creeps..." Titania muttered.
"Didn't Castle get to both of them, recently?" Jessica Jones asked, leaving out the part where she had tipped the Punisher off.
"Yes. But unfortunately," Holt, in his guise as Mr. Terrific, said, taking over the discussion, "they left a parting gift over every woman in the world. A compulsion that telepathy and magic seem unable to remove. 'To be truly desirable,' says the compulsion, 'you must change your body to match the body types of these women.'" He gestured. "Every woman in this room, with three notable exceptions, has the body type they've locked onto."
"...Wait, what?" Songbird said, a confused tamult raising up.
"SILENCE," Doom thundered, startling everyone into silence. THe other scientists glared at Doom briefly, who ignored them.
Xavier rolled forward in his hoverchair. "Analysis of everyone's genetic structure has determined something astonishing... For the superhumans and costumed adventurers, your fit, well-trained bodies are actually a power. Men have something similar. In addition, our 'active lifestyle' keeps us all in shape. As for the civilians, well, most of you are connected to heroes in some way. Yes?"
Reluctantly, the civilian women there nodded.
"Somehow, this 'perfect body' power has leaked over into you. Most of you find dieting to keep in shape easy, yes?" Reed asked. "Again, influence of the heroes around you. Only by actively attempting to stay fat will you keep your weight."
A young purple-haired girl standing next to a deinonychus raised her hand. Reed pointed to her. "Ms. Gertrude Yorkes, of the Runaways. Correct?" he asked.
Gertrude nodded. "Yeah, um... I'm guessing you mean I'm one of the ones without the fit body type, right?"
Batman nodded. "You, Amanda Waller, and Big Bertha," he said. "But even then, you're getting close to the body type that will make women lock onto you."
Gertrude frowned. "I don't see how..." she said, looking down at her pudgy gut.
"I do," Amanda Waller said, the harsh woman glaring over at the Runaways. "It's because you're running around with the rest of your little rogue group. It's good cardio. You've probably lost weight since joining your team, correct?"
"Maybe a little," Gertrude admitted, the other female Runaways glaring right back at Amanda, who was unintimidated.
Amanda nodded. "Same with me. Since I've started being more active with Task Force X, I've lost weight as well."
Big Bertha lumbered her blubbery form forward a little. "And I'm guessing my powers, which involve me getting fat, keep me from being locked onto. At least so long as I STAY fat," she said.
"Correct," Reed said. "Which brings us to our rather awkward solution..."
The heroines all looked interested. "You have a solution?" Black Canary asked. "Some of the girls I've seen out there are starving badly..."
"Yes," Reed said. "We... need you all to start gaining weight. Every last one of you."
The women all stared.
"Like... a lot," Reed said.
There was some nervous laughter, but the scientists (save for Doom) all just shuffled awkwardly.
"...You're fucking kidding," Cheetah said.
"You would have Amora become as voluminous as Volstagg!?!" shouted the blonde Asgardian sorceress.
"We are prepared to cover food, health, and clothing expenses for everyone here," Tony said. "I know it's weird, but it's the only way we've discovered so far to break the hold Purple Man and Psycho Man have over the world. The bigger you are, the more healthy the women will make themselves. But you need to be pretty big, putting on a lot of fat. Aaaand unfortunately, those of you on vegetarian or Vegan diets will have to abandon those..."
"Some of us are married!" Jessica Jones shouted. "And DON'T have husbands with a fat fetish!"
Reed held up the Mind Gem. The sight of the powerful artifact silenced the room. "We've already asked your significant others, and they all volunteered to have all related sexual fetishes added to their personalities. You need not worry about feeling unattractive while you are gaining." He looked specifically at his wife when he said this, Sue feeling comforted by it.
"In addition, Doom has created a potion that will make it so that you have no food allergies of any kind... or allergies of any kind at all, really," Reed said. Doom just chuckled, the other scientists visibly fuming, revealing unintentionally that none of them even thought of it.
"Wait, you could have created that all along?" Susan Richards asked. "Why didn't you!?"
"No one asked Doom to," Doom said, his smirk obvious even through his mask.
EVERYONE glared at Doom. Doom's expression showed no fear. Eventually, they all turned back to the situation at hand.
"We won't make you take part in this," Spider-Man said. "It has to be completely voluntary. But we're not kidding when we say we can take perfect care of all of you here during this. For those of you with a history of villainy or criminal records, you will be watched CLOSELY during this and prevented from doing evil, but we'll still provide food and comforts."
There was a pause. Eventually, though, Titania stepped forward. "Fuck it. I'm not going to have women starving themselves to death because of me on my conscience. You say Carl will still find me attractive if I get a Big Bertha-sized butt?"
Xavier smiled. "Yes, he will," he said.
"Then I'm in," she said.
Amora looked at the Enchantress, the two mages talking silently between one another. Eventually, they both nodded. "Why not? T'will be a fine thing to have mortals pamper us. A fat body is the right of nobility after all," Amora said.
"Indeed," Enchantress said. "We'll be good girls until we don't have to be anymore."
Mary-Jane, one of the civilians there, stepped forward. "If it will help keep women from starving themselves..." she said softly. "I guess I can take part in this." She chuckled weakly. "I should probably start looking into plus-size modelling gigs now."
Wonder Woman thought a moment, and nodded. "To save my amazon sisters from starvation... sacrificing my waistline is a small price to pay."
One by one, every woman there agreed to take part in this rather unusual experiment. The scientists all looked relieved. "We have a banquet ready to start everyone off. If you don't wish to stay, then we'll have food delivered to your home," T'Challa said.