A Real Workout

Raine tapped her membership card against the gym doors, letting them open just a smidgen in secret identity mode. She wasn't thrilled with having to hit up the same gym used by the local superhero team, but she had to get her workouts in -somehow!-.

She was just mortified by the prospect of running into somebody. The Urban Justiciars worked really hard protecting the city and she was just... Raine. Sure her parents had been superheroes, but she'd never really managed to do it herself. Something about the prospect of heading out the door with the intent of putting the lives of others into her hands... well... It was a little much.

So she tried not to let people know. She moved to a new city, away from her family, got a distinctly non-physical job, and drove her car to work where she had to parallel park it, even though it would be SO much easier to just pick it up and put it in the stupid space or just jump a couple blocks.

But she still had to work out! If she didn't, then she might...

...

Okay maybe she didn't -have to- have to. But she wanted to.

Even if it meant showing up at 2am when the Night Patrol was at work and nobody else was awake, wearing a hoodie and a pair of gym shorts that made her look like a bit of a grey blob from a distance.

If there was one good thing that could be said about a gym like this, it was that it was very good at shielding prying eyes. Privacy, of course, was the number one concern for those who were trying to live double-lives with no small amount of amazing abilities at their disposal. Even better was the fact that the amount of people who would even come to a place like this was so small that it was practically guaranteed to be empty at such a late hour---and indeed had been every time that Raine had showed up to this particular place. It was an introvert's dream...especially if said introvert had no small amount of incredible strength to her name, too. Settling in, unpacking gym bags, limbering up...all of the usual was easily done in complete silence, a marker of another night of keeping her secret well-contained.

...That was, until somewhere behind her, down the hallway leading to the rooms containing some of the heaviest weights in the small sports complex, the sounds of effort could be heard.

Light whines, moans of effort, heavy breathing, and, of course, the tantalizing clang of heavy weights and machinery. Since when was there someone else around at this hour? On account of the need for privacy, the scanner didn't log the details of who was passing in and out of the place, but if whomever the voice belonged to was working on with the same equipment that Raine herself had intended on using, then there was going to be a problem. Sure, she could just get up and leave...but she had already come all the way there for the sake of satisfying her...cravings, for lack of a better word. Would it really be possible for her mind to leave her alone at that point?

Though, then again, the obstacle of someone else's presence may well be a difficult one to surmount; no matter how much physical strength that the shy rabbit may have had, mental strength remained a very different animal.

The first step was always denial. Maybe he wouldn't see her. Raine stepped out onto the gym floor, looking around carefully, hiding behind what machines she could find, and sure enough, sharing the gym with -one- other person wouldn't be too hard to stay hidden. She just had to grab some high-density free weights and set up at a bench on the opposite side of the skin punisher. A big, bulky machine for supers with durability powers that was both loud and opaque enough to be the perfect disguise.

She barely hazarded enough of a glance at the other patron - just enough to confirm a few traits. Chocolatey brown. Tall. Ripped. Kinda hot. Working out as hard as he could.

His body was on fire, coated with sweat as he huffed and puffed, shoving upwards as whimpering moans escaped past his grit teeth. His form flared outwards, bulging in all directions as if it were attempting to grow faster than the laws of mortal physicality could allow, quivering cords leaping and shoving against rich fur as his muscles attempted to displace more and more of the surrounding air and claim more and more space for itself.

Even with the building's force dampeners on, a dull rumble echoed throughout the building and vibrated the floor as the massive shoulder press machine he had been working on thudded back into neutral, the tanuki huffing and puffing with the entirety of his rippling chest as he stared down at his own body, gritting his teeth as he attempted to suppress yet another moan. Another "muscle" seemed very close to peeking through his shorts as he watched sweatdrops drip and flicker down his form before finally pushing himself to his feet...before he froze.

There was someone else here. His entire body tensed, bulging to the point where his once-loose shirt seemed see-through instead, putting even more muscle on display the second that the rabbit looked his way, something which might be somewhat unavoidable the second that she turned back to the full-length mirror lining the room to begin working with her free-weights. There he was, right behind her, staring wide-eyed directly at her as if she were some sort of predator about to pounce and end his life…

Raine looked away. She wasn't being looked at! She hadn't been ogling him either. Everything was fine.

Besides, she wasn't the type who could just get this far into a workout and then NOT lift things.

Raine stopped looking, quickly grabbing a few 1-ton plates and piling them onto the bar at her station until she had enough for a warmup, focusing entirely on doing some one handed rows. She wanted to start with her back, and making sure she got a good warm up with her back and core was the easiest way to avoid hurting herself. So she lifted. Six tons went up, six tons went down. Six tons went up, six tons went down.

She kept her eyes closed, quietly pumping out many warm up reps and letting the feeling of her body DOING something, rather than just standing tense to avoid breaking anything, flow through her.

After doing twenty, she let out a sigh and opened her eyes... right into a mirror.

Oh god there was a mirror. And she could see the tanuki. And he could see her!

Her brain would have short circuited then and there if it wasn't for one thing.

She'd only done one side.

Raine turned around the bench, lifting with her other arm as she tried to avoid looking at her company without risking bad form.

Orion was less good at looking away, the more that he looked at the woman across the room, the more enraptured he was. She was...just so strong; all that weight, and it was just a warm-up! It was the first time that he had seen anyone other than himself do something like that, all while her muscles bulged and swelled, very nearly seeming to overflow off of her arms as massive amounts of muscle flared out to the sides of her contracting arms as they pressed together. His mind screamed at him to avoid notice.

...There was just one problem---he had to go over there in order to use the free-weights to continue his superset.

Slowly, he made his way towards her, arcing around the long way as if somehow he could dally long enough for her to move elsewhere… which was a bit of a pipe dream. By the time he drew nearer to the free-weights, she was right there, continuing to work, right next to the weights that he had to use. He stood a short distance away, fidgeting and shaking and milling his hands together as his nervousness bubbled over. Should he say something? Should he ask her politely to step a little further to the side so that he could grab some of the weights from the rack? Should he stay...right where he already was?

Yes, that last option seemed about right.

Of course, that meant that Raine herself had to work out while a nervous, muscle-throbbing stranger continued to stare right at her, gaze momentarily flicking off to the side as his embarrassment got the better of him again, and again, and again..

He had to say something. He had to force himself to speak, to say something that would at least explain why he was standing there and staring at her. He wasn't weird! He was just shy! He had to let her know that before she started to think that he was weird!

"Ah...a-ah...I'm...h-h...hhhh...hello...I'm...weights...can I...?"

‘Don't laugh.’

‘Don't laugh.’

That was Raine's first thought. She knew it'd be -devastating- if she laughed. -She- would be devastated if somebody else was in her position and laughed.

But it was really funny.

The ‘nuki was shy too! She'd recognize that look on his face anywhere. Now that she'd done at least enough working out to have neurons clicking. That cute little face, that massive shredded body, the awkward posture that made it look like his snout was trying to disappear into his pecs.

Yep, that was familiar.

Raine did her best buck toothed, disarming smile and passed the tanuki a five ton plate as a peace offering.

Orioni fumbled the passing of the plate, his arms shooting outward a little too late as the plate bounced off of his steel-slab pectorals. He reached outwards shortly afterwards, unable to decide whether he wanted to catch the plate or duck his feet out of the way before the massive, heavy plate fell on them. With another heavy thump, the plate fell to the ground, prompting the tanuki to simply stare at it for several moments before reaching down to pick it up with a muffled 

"Sorry about that."

He looked back up, staring at her for a few moments. Up close, she was even more majestic; sure, he had seen the way that such massive muscles hugged the body on his own frame, but staring at such things through a mirror meant that one was only privy to so many angles. Here, on someone else, it was an entirely different yet at the same time comfortingly-familiar view; seeing so much power represented on the frame of another caused his heart to beat fast, the butterflies that had already began to flutter in his stomach now stirring up a sensation that could easily be mistaken for a hurricane.

"You're...r-really strong..." he said, looking away as he turned his head downwards. It was an obvious statement, yet seemingly the gravity with which the tanuki had spoken it somehow denoted his words as a compliment. He flicked his gaze back up to her as he attempted to assess how she might have taken his words, seemingly uncertain as to whether he should speak again. "I-I mean...usually these weights just...k-kinda sit around; only a few people use them, s-so..."

"Oh, um, thank you," Raine squeaked out. "You too! I saw you... working really hard on the machines. That's admirable. Being so strong and still pushing yourself. These were just kind of a warmup. I don't... well I haven't gone all out." Raine blushed deeply. That came out all wrong! She was trying to say that he was doing a better job but now she just looked like she was humblebragging.

"I will though! No I mean you're... I'm..."

"You look nice."

She got out an untainted compliment eventually. Turning back to her own workout and doing some quick hammer curls to avoid the awkward silence with the power of multi-ton clanks.

Orion's ears twitched, and his eyes widened. Had it come off as a brag? Certainly. But that only caught the tanuki's attention...in more ways than one, if the continued tenting of his shorts was anything to go on. He hadn't noticed it at first, though as soon as he did, he woke from his reverie with a start and quickly moved the plate downward in order to aptly cover his waist. Even so, his excitement could still be seen through the hole in the middle of the weight...if one were looking for it.

"Really...? How much can you...lift at once?" he asked, with a little bit of eagerness to his voice. In spite of his shyness, it was clear that there was no small amount of interest on his part in regards to the full extent of the woman's strength. Then again, why wouldn't there be? He was massive. He was ripped. The two were practically two peas in a pod. A glance over to the machine he was just using revealed about fourteen tons; seven per arm. Whether or not that was a warm-up for him or something that was supposed to be a challenge was hard to discern, considering Raine had entered in the middle of his set.

"Like... deadlift? Squat?" Raine asked for clarification... before realizing she should probably give -some- kind of answer without just poking the poor tanuki! "U-um, I try not to go above 50 tons most of the time anyway. Because of my powers I've been going slow and steady so as not to make a... as much of a mess."

"I guess there was that time with the apartment building falling down when I really -had to- try..."

The tanuki froze for a moment, almost as if his brain had encountered an error and had been forced to restart. Once again, he simply...stared. Then, all at once, his enthusiasm came roaring back, and perhaps a little bit too much, at that.

"W-what? Fifty tons?! That's...t-that's so much! It's m-m-more than anyone else here!! C-Can you show me? How did you do it?! I...w-well, I'm...I don't know if...I-I'm that strong yet...b-but I'd really like to be! S-so, I-I mean, maybe if, if you're comfortable with it, you could...s-share a few...ah...could you...share some advice? If it's okay… and you want to..."

"A-AH!" Raine almost panicked, she didn't know how to -teach- somebody! She was getting by entirely on unearned genetic superpowers. And working out since she was twelve. But mostly the genetics. She couldn't -teach- somebody else how to have a mom with the ability to rapidly adapt to anything.

Well okay, 'how to live with a mom like that' was something she absolutely -could- teach people, but she couldn't make it -applicable-.

"Um... I'll... try. I can teach you what I do know, but it might not do much if our powers have different sources. Do you... mind if I ask how -you- got so strong?"

"I-I just work out a lot!" the tanuki said, nodding quickly. It sounded ridiculous, though sincerity was written all over his voice at that point. Perhaps he, much like her, was simply a genetic freak show. It would certainly explain just how impossibly hard his body appeared. Though, then again, there were no similar-looking tanukis out there on the superhero circuit. Surely his parents would be easy enough to recognize if they were anyone of note; even if one wasn't all that plugged into the superhero world, it was difficult not to have at least heard of or seen some of the most important people in modern history...if not history as a whole.

The tanuki paused for a moment, his fur rippling a few times as a few waves of nervousness moved up and down his body. "I-it...just feels really good...a lot of the time..." he said, looking away and then back at Raine, "just...f-feeling everything burn, a-and pump...a-and feeling so strong...it's..." He shifted his waist, shoving the plate more firmly against the rod he had been attempting to hide for quite some time now. And yet, in spite of his nervousness, perhaps Raine could in fact relate...

Raine paused at that. No history of powers to draw from? Theoretically no powers at all? Hmm... he obviously had some. Well, she could think of two explanations. Either he was one of Big Daddy's undocumented kids... or he had just spontaneously manifested one of the more common powers in the form of a broken limiter.

Unfortunately, both of those options meant she probably could help him. The times when she got stronger were the times when she -exceeded- her limits. In theory that's what all bodybuilding was, but with limits. 'No pain, no gain' didn't actually mean hurting yourself. Rest was essential.

Her version... kind of ignored those limits. But he did ask, and he might need her kind of workout.

So... she'd just have to demonstrate them herself and let him decide for himself. "I -might- have some advice, then... but before I pass it on I'll warn you that you could hurt yourself if you don't have the right... stuff... for it."

Damnit that came out sounding challenging again.

He blinked, not quite understanding what that meant. He nodded anyway; regardless of what he may or may not be capable of...he at least had to try, right? He could practically feel his body screaming out for him to do so...

After a brief pause, before looking back to Raine herself. "...Hey, I have a question, actually," he said, knitting his hands together as if he were suddenly nervous to say whatever it was he was about to say. There was an odd sort of boyishness to it, as if there were a schoolmate attempting to ask her out on some sort of date. "Have you ever, um...b-been to the Heavy Room? In the back?"

It was likely she immediately knew what he was talking about. Down the hall, behind a lock requiring not one, but two of the gym's standard-issue keycards; supposedly, this was for the sake of ensuring that whomever went in had a spotter (at least in theory), though such a safety precaution did mean that neither of the usually-solo gym-goers were generally in a position to use such a facility. Perhaps now was the perfect time...

Likely, but untrue. "...What's a heavy room?" Raine asked. She had been planning to just make do, but one quick explanation later and she learned just how bad she was at actually learning the features of the gym she used.

The door to the 'Heavy Room' was pure intimidation, it alone would take a superhuman to open, even once unlocked. "Oh my... well... sure... we can use that."

"Let me grab my gym bag and we can try it, there are a -couple- supplies we might need." The bun-girl dashed off for just a moment, coming back with a bulging bag before taking a deep breath, and putting out her key card

He was a little slower to grab his own, taking a few moments once he had retrieved it to breathe and calm himself down. Was he still nervous? Why? Things were going fine, as far as he could tell---the rabbit hadn't decided to bite his head off...

In, and out, and in again---then, clearing his throat, he made his way back towards the other gym goer, giving her a nervous, shaky nod before beginning down the hallway. The large door, seeming more like a giant, solid, heavy garage door than anything that should be found in a gym, loomed above the pair with the two keycard slots---along with a safety override keypad---present on both sides. He positioned his card near the slot, before looking over with that same shaky, uncertain stare towards Raine. And attempted to offer something at least resembling a smile, however.

"U-um...ready when you...are..."

Raine took a deep breath and stepped inside. She wasn't looking forward to the next step. Not because the enormous hydraulic crusher before her looked intimidating... no, it was just because she'd have to strip down. She was less shy about her looks than about most things - she knew she looked good, mostly - but that didn't make it -comfortable-.

"Okay... before you start a super... um... let's just call it a Raine-style workout, you can't have the muscle group you intend to work out actually be covered. You -will- shred your clothes. Also you will want a Gamma-class or above nutritional shake -directly- next to your workout station..." Raine fished out a large thermos she set down next to the press... and started removing her hoodie, pulling the poofy gray blob off over her head... and giving her partner an eyeful.

Her ears flopped to the side as she pulled it off, revealing a modest chest under a sports bra... and a very very immodest everything else. Her biceps constantly twitched and rumbled, her triceps seemed to be fighting her elbows to escape her arms, her pecs more than made up for her chest with massive rock hard slabs, and her abs... they just kept going, eight perfect bricks further cut into diamond-sharp definition by the veins running down them.

"That... won't be a problem for you if it's your upper body day, today, but I didn't want to strip without an explanation."

It was immediately obvious that he hadn't heard a single thing that Raine had said. He stared straight ahead at her, fur bristling and eyes wide as he took in...her. And to think that he had been amazed when he had first seen her working out on the main floor; now, with her baggy clothes removed, the tanuki's mind raced to the moon and back (and then likely to the moon all over again). His own muscles bulged and swelled against the once-loose shirt that was already struggling to cling to him, as if attempting to either answer her show with one of his own, or otherwise accentuate just how muscle crazy the tanuki truly was in the face of someone who had somehow managed to cultivate the sort of figure that he would have only ever expected to see in a dream. Or in the mirror.

Raine blushed. Yep, there it was. That was why she usually dressed as unflatteringly as she could. The effect she had on guys. She was so used to it that she wasn't entirely sure she hadn't inherited some kind of pheromone power from her dad.

Well, she didn't mind, and she wouldn't blame him. If he was careful being hard could even help his workout, the extra focused testosterone really maximizing the set. They'd just have to... not look too close to each other.

Wait, he needed to watch her to learn what she was actually doing. Oh dear, she hoped he didn't go off on her, that would be just terrible for somebody about to try something strenuous.

"Um, if you're ready, I'll try to demonstrate now."

It took a few more moments for him to finally push his way through the intrusive thoughts he was having about her. Though, as soon as he did, he swiftly moved to swing his gym bag in front of him as he made his way over towards the bench of one of the nearby machines (this one seemingly some sort of demented hero curl machine with huge hydraulic cylinders on both ends, the linkages between the handles and whatever demented machine lay inside the massive, silo-like drums being chains rather than the simple cords and cables found outside) to take a seat. Then, thinking better of it, he stood up again, still holding his gym bag over his waist. "S-sorry, um...should I spot you, or should I just...?"

"That... might be unwise." Raine took a deep breath. "Okay, so the key here is to start with something that's your one rep maximum... and then..." Raine sidled under what looked like a plate for crushing -cars- and held her arms up high, set in a stance for shoulder curls. Her ears drooped worriedly as she grabbed the dial for the machine with her tail and started turning it up, a deafening -creeeeeaaak- sounding out as the full force of the building started to push down.

It met her hands and she started to shake, monster arms twitching on all sides as her shoulders pressed and swelled, lowering slowly under the crushing weight... before the palm-heel met steel and started pushing it back, raising ten, twenty, fifty tons back up as every vein across her shoulders bulged.

"And then... at your limit... VERY SLOWLY, super slowly so you can escape... just keep going up." Raine's tail flicked, turning the machine up as it started to PRESS against her sinking arms and shaking shoulders

A heavy shiver rippled up and down the tanuki's spine, eyes widening even further as his breathing began to shake. The sound of hissing, clunking, hard-working machinery made it clear just how much force the rabbit was exerting upwards; as she fought against the massive press to the point where it began to move, the vibration of working machinery only became all the more intense, a pleasant buzzing sensation beginning to soak through the rubber and foam of his footwear as he watched the woman continue to work. Even for someone as strong as he was, it was a completely mind-shattering sight, a depiction of strength and power far beyond anything that he had ever seen someone else do. Whether or not he was able to reach such a lofty state himself had yet to be seen---which only made the rabbit's display all the more innately dazzling. It took every last ounce of the tanuki's will and good nature to avoid pressing his paws to her fur, pulling and gripping and groping her muscles as they worked...

Even then, his subconscious mind forced him to take several slow steps forward, dropping his gym bag as he drew nearer and nearer. Even then, as if yanking back a beast by its collar or chain, he kept himself from touching her outright (it would have been beyond-impolite, he reasoned), clenching his jaw and balling his fists together to keep himself from saying or doing anything that he might forget. All the while, his eyes remained wide open, soaking in every last drop of the vision of sheer power in front of him. As hard as he tried to keep his mouth shut, in the end, a faint amount of praise couldn't help but pry his maw open and escape...

"Gnnh-! W-wow...t-that's...You're amazing..."

Raine's muscles twitched and groaned under the herculean load trying to -crush- her, but she'd done this before, she knew all she had to do was keep pushing, keep pushing past the failure and come out of it better. Bigger. MONSTROUS. She could feel her muscles -shredding- as every pound the industrial facility could manage crushed into her arms and core, unraveling fibers that immediately struggled to reassemble themselves, a sense of dull euphoria pickling her brain as her body flooded with endorphins.

Then, bit by bit, she started to push back. She saw the tanuki reach for her, mercifully stopping short of actually touching her. If she dropped the weight, it'd be a bad time. She probably wouldn't die, but when she regenerated her proportions would be -all wrong-. But seeing such a mass monster coo over her made something -tingle- in her deep down.

She couldn't help but want this. Wanting to see everybody in awe of her muscles as she felt them grow, no matter how shy she was, this was too perfect not to want.

"Turn it up." Raine paused her panting long enough to get out. "Turn it up even higher."

It took several moments for the tanuki to properly register her words within the confines of his mind; their meaning practically had to break down the front door and wade through the waist-high thoughts entirely fixated upon the rabbit's body, a level of mental struggle that manifested itself in the form of sluggish movements on the part of the desert tanuki towards the nearby controls.

"...H-how much," he initially stammered out, though a more primal portion of his mind refused to let him wait for a proper answer. Instead, he was overly-swift to begin increasing the amount of weight, his mind already desperately imagining what it would look like to see Raine lifting even more. The amount of strength on display already should have been impossible, and yet...

In no time at all, the amount of weight slamming down upon the woman increased past fifty percent of its prior value, a noticeable change as the tanuki stared down at the controls and perhaps realized that he may have turned it up too much, at least as far as he was concerned. Blinking rapidly as he came to his senses (at least a little bit), he turned to glance over his shoulder, stammering slightly as he found himself uncertain as to whether he should correct his apparent mistake immediately. "U-uh, is this too much-?"

Raine saw red. She felt crushed. Her muscles were crying, screaming under the weight. But she could not, would not let go. Something deeper and more primal than working out took over, something more extreme than strength. A need to simply ENDURE as the machines groaned and her body began to snap and crackle.

But she held.

And she GREW.

And when she pushed back, what she felt was nothing short of ecstasy. Her entire body flooded with every emergency hormone in her system, muscles swollen and weary and pushing against all the right places. Inch by inch she pushed BACK... until she forced the machine back into its original position, MULTIPLYING her previous one rep max and shutting down the monster.

She surprised even herself, not just with her strength. With that one final PUSH of her core...

She came, orgasming right there in the machine, a super-strength clench firing a jet of feminine honey through her shorts and right onto the face of her audience.

"Ah, Ahhhhhhhhhhh~" Her body twitched in orgasm, letting out a moan that was far too tired to be a scream, but far too pleased to be a sigh.

The tanuki's heart clenched. Even if it ultimately would have become too much for her, he wouldn't have been able to move, every part of his mind screaming out with pure desire in the face of the view before him. Her struggle, her shaking, pulsing muscles, vibrating down to the level of individual fibers as she strained herself to her utmost, conquering the sudden onslaught of weight with a primal need for more muscle and power that her audience may well have never thought possible, a deep-seated hunger for more that he had always considered to be some sort of unique affliction until that very moment. Even before her juices hit him, he had grown hard beyond belief, a whine of almost painful arousal echoing out from him the second that he saw her muscles pulsing and struggling, shoving further and further upwards as her body refused to yield. The second that her overly-sweet scent hit him, he gasped heavily, his cock throbbing beyond full-mast as he couldn't help but return fire, his own muscles twitching and flaring outwards as he was forced to brace himself against the machine lest he fall, a jet of his own cream splattering the ground near (and perhaps on) her feet and legs as he momentarily struggled to stay standing and in sound mind.

For a few moments, all he could do was stand there and breathe, even as Raine continued to hoist the mighty piston-weight above her head. Slowly, he glanced upwards, his cock still pulsing in response to the incredible feat as his hazy stare locked itself on her body, drinking it in as his fingers twitched with the overwhelming desire to feel her body, to bask in the immense strength that she so readily displayed...

...Slowly, strength began to return to his legs, his quads flaring as they splintered into separate teardrop-shaped muscles, laced with definition in a mimicry of the sweep of the silhouette of his legs. Still braced against the machine, he stared at her dully, a level of desire in his eyes that bordered on the dangerous. Seemingly, the tanuki himself was more than aware of its presence, no small amount of embarrassment written across his face itself in spite of the fire in his gaze. He forced himself to look down at the floor, breathing heavily as if he had been the one to go through the monumental ordeal.

"That...t-that was..."

"E-excessive." Raine concluded. She slid herself off the machine, looking at the... absolute mess they'd made of the area in front of it, and ran her hands around her body to make sure she was still intact.

She expected to feel tender, or sore, or... something after going that far beyond. But instead she just felt bigger. Massive, steel-crushing biceps rising to her hands as she crossed her chest, pecs pushing out farther in front of her when she reached for her forearms. Every part of her she checked caused another part of her to flex, abs bulging out of her stomach, thighs more than doubling the width of her hips.

But she was intact. She was intact... and she still felt amazing.

And she had a fan. A cute little tanuki who had seen her at her craziest, and - judging by the still throbbing 'excitement' had been more than approving.

A BIG tanuki that might be able to keep up with her.

A -sexy- tanuki she might be able to take some of that excitement out on.

Just not yet. She'd agreed to train him, after all.

"You ready to take a turn?" she asked.