Coping with power chap.2
by demented20
Lisa Sanchez discovers her powers, but wishes she hadn't


Dr. Ian Brooster was a M.D. who instead of private practice, was a researcher.
He specialized in human physiology. Lisa called him before lunch asking to
meet with him at his office after work. He agreed because he wanted to know
how she had liked the gym. He said he would wait for her.

Lisa finally finished her work at 4:30 and sped to the south side of the city
where the research lab was located. Lisa hurried to the elevator and up to the
third floor. The door was unlocked and Ian was waiting for her.

"Lisa, you finally made it.", he greeted her with a smile.

Lisa tried to smile back, but her worry and fear had returned. Ian noticed
something was wrong right away. Maybe she had hurt herself or something, he
thought. He motioned for her to sit down. "What's wrong?", he asked. "Are you
ok? You didn't hurt anything did you?"

"No, nothing like that", Lisa spoke for the first time. She signed. "I don't
even know why I came. You won't believe what I was going to tell you anyway."
She started to stand up. Ian grabbed her by the hand.

"You can tell me whatever. You know that. Talk to me." He was really concerned
now. This wasn't an injury. It was something else.

Lisa actually had to blink back tears before she started speaking. They were
partly tears of frustration and embarrassment, but mostly they were from fear.
She started talking then. She told him all about her night at the gym. She
spoke looking down at the polished concrete floor, only occasionally glancing
up to see the expression on her friend's face. For his part, Dr. Brooster just
listened. If this story had come from anyone else's mouth, he would have had
security throw them out on the street, but he knew Lisa well. There was no way
she was making any of this up, so he listened.

Lisa finished by telling him about the china press. She looked up again then,
just for a moment. Ian sat still for several seconds before saying a word. He
didn't know what to say really.

"So, how do you feel now?"

"I feel fine, I guess. I don't feel any different than I did yesterday at this
time."

"Did you feel different when you were lifting all that weight last night?",
Ian asked.

"Sort of, but not really. Like I said, I had to really try hard to lift all
that weight, but once I got used to it, I could lift it. It was still heavy,
but I could lift it."

"How long did it take for your muscles to go back to normal?"

"Maybe twenty minutes, maybe less."

"What about the strength. How long were you able to lift heavy things easily?"

"It was never easy. Like, you can lift a fifty pounds easily. Then you go try
to lift a hundred pounds. You can still lift it, but every time you do, you
still know its a hundred pounds. Same with me. 750 pounds was never light for
me, neither was 250. Its just that I could lift them. I tried to lift them and
I could."

Now it was Ian's turn to sign. "You mind going through a few tests?"

"No, I thought you might want to do that." Lisa had finally completely
composed herself. She was still scared, but at least Ian was understanding. He
probably did not believe her, but he didn't laugh at her either. She wasn't
worried about the disbelief. He would believe soon enough.

Ian took more than an hour taking her blood pressure, heart rate, weight, body
fat percentage and all manner of other tests. He even drew blood. By the time
he was done, Lisa wondered if this was a good idea after all and whether she
had kept it to herself. Ian came back in the room after a few minutes.

"Well, Lisa, I can tell you one thing. According to these tests, you are a
healthy, normal, and ravishingly beautiful 28 year old woman." He looked up
from his clip board grinning from ear to ear.

"So nothing on those charts say that I can or should be able to lift 750
pounds."

"There are very few people on this planet who can lift 750 pounds. That guy
you saw lifting it, is in the top 1 percentile of humans in strength. There's
not a woman I've ever heard about who could lift anything near that much."

"I'll give you a demonstration. I need to know something, Ian. Those tests say
I'm not some sort of freak of nature, but I know something's wrong."

"Fine, but I don't want you getting hurt. We have a good bit of exercise
equipment in the basement. I do research on that top 1 percentile of people.
If you can do what you say you can, there's plenty of weight down stairs. Tons
and tons of it."

The basement of the research facility was broken up into four large rooms. Ian
lead her down a hall to a plain door. He punched some numbers into the keypad
then took out a key to open the door. The lights came on at once and Lisa saw
exercise equipment that put most huge gyms to shame. And all the free weights
stacked around the room. She walked around looking at all the stuff. Most of
the equipment was oversized and built of higher gauge steel than even the
heavy duty commercial stuff.

"Most of the stuff in here was specially made for our experiments. You won't
find it anywhere else."

"Yeah" Lisa was amazed as she wandered around. There were stacks of plates
everywhere. Most were of the regular variety, 10's, 25's, 35's, 45's, and
100's, but there were some 500 pound plates laying about and some 1000 pound
plates.

"So where do you want to start, Miss wonder woman?", Ian had a clip board and
a lap top computer in his arms.

"You know more about this stuff than I do. Just point out a spot. I need to
get some diodes on you anyway. There's a place to get dressed over there", he
pointed to a door on the far wall, "just put your gym gear on and I'll be
ready when you get back"

Lisa wore a one piece leotard again with some shorts to cover. She wasn't
trying to seduce Ian, but she wanted him to see what happened to her body when
she exerted herself. She came out of the dressing area.

"I'm not quite ready yet. You need to warm up anyway. Give me about ten
minutes on that bike over there. I'll come get you."

Ian put the diodes on her skin while she was still on the bike, and after here
ten minute ride he was ready.

"Ok, first thing is real simple. Test of grip." He pointed to a machine with a
device on top that looked like the handle of a caulking gun except the trigger
didn't really move. It just measured forces. "All you have to do is squeeze.
I'll prompt you how hard to squeeze."

"Ok, I've always had a pretty good grip."

"Ian nodded, yeah, you have pretty big hands for a woman too" "Ok, give me a
squeeze without having to strain."

Lisa took the handle and squeezed. "87 pounds. Ok go for it." Lisa nodded and
started squeezing really hard now. She closed here eyes as she always did when
she was really digging down. The numbers went up rapidly at first to 157 and
180 past 210. Ian was frowning now. Most men couldn't register that high, and
Lisa was still going. It was then that her forearm started transforming like
it had the night before. Lisa squeezed and squeezed. The cords in her forearms
stood out and crept closer and closer together as she continued to squeeze
tighter and tighter. Ian was transfixed. He couldn't take his eyes off her arm
and hand. Her forearm looked like a tangle of steel cables. The skin was
almost transparent her muscles were so defined. Ian could see the veins pump
in harmony with her heart. After a couple of seconds he tore his eyes away to
look at the digital read out. She had just passed 675. That much pressure
could and would burst a drink can. Lisa was breathing heavily as she passed
750. Ian thought she was just about done when without opening her eyes, she
took another deep breath, set her jaw and continued her pressure. Ian wasn't
sure what the machine had been designed for, but it was getting a test now. He
couldn't tell, but the steel handles Lisa was squeezing had already started to
fail. Microscopic cracks were forming in the hardened chrome plated steel as
Lisa's fingers squeezed the handle together.

Finally Lisa was getting near the end, Ian thought again. Her progress had
slowed in the last couple of seconds. She had been going up 30 and 40 pounds
at a time, but now her progress was barely 10 pounds a second. 902 then 908.
Her arm was shaking and her fingers had long since gone purple. He was about
to tell her to stop when he heard her start grunting. It was soft, just above
a whisper. The numbers started jumping again. 947...989...1035. Lisa was
almost yelling now as the numbers went up. Finally the steel couldn't take it
anymore. The cracks ran together and with a loud bang, the steel handle broke
in her hand. Ian jumped at the almost gunshot like sound. Lisa for her part
sank down onto the seat of a nearby machine. She was drenched in sweat and
breathing heavily. Her hand ached and it took almost a minute for her fingers
to want to open so she could put the broken piece of the handle down.

Ian looked up at the now flashing readout. The handle had broken just as the
Lisa had reached 1179 pounds. He shook his head. Then looked over at Lisa who
was still trying catch her breath. "My God"

"I told you so.", Lisa said through breaths.

"You broke the damn machine. I've never seen anything like it. One thousand
one hundred seventy-nine pounds of pressure. What did that feel like?"

"It hurt, first thing. My hand still hurts." She flexed her fingers back and
forth a few times. They were loosening up.

"That is amazing 1179 pounds."

"I wasn't finished you know. I could have squeezed harder."

"What?!?"

"Its weird. Every time I thought that was all I could do, I kept thinking in
the back of my mind, no just a little harder a little harder. My hand just
wouldn't stop. Every time I tried to squeeze harder I did." Lisa looked down
at her hand and forearm. The definition was already starting to fade in her
arm. In a few more minutes only the dull ache would remind her of what she had
just done. That and the broken piece of slightly misshapen steel laying on the
table.

"So what's next?" she asked.

"Something you can't break.", Ian answered with a grin. He lead her through
the equipment to a spot on the opposite side of the room. He did some work
with shoulders next. They went over to the barbell rack. "Let's see about some
of the more delicate muscle groups. I need you to grab one of these weights
and do shoulder raises."

Lisa stepped up to the rack and looked over the weights. Some of the barbells
were quite worn, but once the weight got up to about 150 pounds, the ware
stopped. Lisa walked to the end of the rack and tested the two 250 pound
weights. She pulled them off the rack with great difficulty. Once she was set
with a good stance as Ian instructed, she started. It took almost a full
minute of trying, but finally she did perfect raises with 250 pounds.

Ian thought that was particularly impressive. They stayed working from machine
to machine for almost three hours. The worked mostly upper body. "Ok, almost
done. How do you feel?"

"Tired, but ok."

"Alright, one more machine over here in the corner." The machine looked like a
more robust smith machine. Instead of a bar between the rails, there was a
harness. A closer look at the rails showed that they were actually pistons.
The whole machine was bolted to the floor, but the pistons actually ran
beneath the cement.

"What is this?"

"Measures leg strength. It is probably the most accurate machine we have. It
can give me percentages on individual muscle groups on both legs. I think
you'll like it. We modified it from a hydraulic lift for cars and trucks and
whatnot. Its not as powerful as a vehicle lift, but it should give you a
workout." Lisa smiled. Ian helped her into the harness. "Ok, this is how it
goes. The pistons here give you resistance as you press. Each rep you get more
resistance based on how easily you handled the resistance before. Got it?"

"I hope so"

Ian stepped behind the controls and Lisa began. The first few reps were quite
easy. Lisa squatted and raised up smoothly. She was not having to try to hard.
The machine's engine hummed as it pumped hydraulic fluid in and out of the
pistons. Lisa was actually tired of going up and down then the real resistance
started. The engine hummed deepened and Lisa started having to work for each
rep. Up and down she went. Her legs were shaking from fatigue instead of
strain, but they kept working. She had no idea how much she was lifting, but
it seemed less than she had lifted the night before. Lisa looked down at her
legs and watched as the muscles started to define themselves. Up and down she
went. Lisa tried to remember to breath. She stared at her quads as the muscles
worked. Just then the engine noise changed again and Lisa noticed.

She set her jaw and resolved to do as many reps as she could before dropping.
The resistance seemed to double each rep. Lisa almost wanted to stop, but no,
she had more reps in her. She breathed in gasps now. She stood up and tried to
rest for a couple seconds between reps. The machine had other ideas. The
longer she stood, the more pressure the engine added. The big diesel revved
higher pumping more fluid into the pistons. For the first time in a long time
Lisa was actually getting angry. She was a pretty even tempered person, but
between the frustration of not being able to rest and the fatigue of her
workout she got angry. Her eyes narrowed and her pretty face scowled at the
distant wall. Down and up she went, quickly. No sooner had she gone to
parallel when she would burst up. She could feel the resistance against her
shoulders and back, but she didn't care. This machine was not going to beat
her. The big diesel for its part took Lisa's increased activity in stride. The
RPM's went up to compensate for the increased activity, but nothing more.

Ian watched the gauge and tried to stay calm. This particular machine did not
give a rep by rep readout of weight so he could only guess by RPM's how much
weight she was doing. Some of the strongest men had gone slightly past this
level, but only a couple. Those numbers had been registered under much
different circumstances. Most of those men had only done three or four reps at
the most. The screen said Lisa was on rep number 47. It wasn't fair to make
the increments so small, but he was doing an experiment on her muscle groups
and not pure strength.

Lisa rested again. She was still mad. She figured the longer she stood upright
the harder her next rep would be. She counted to 5 then started again. This
time more determined than before. After a few more reps, the engine noise
changed again. It was Lisa versus the machine designed to lift cars and
trucks.

It was becoming harder now as more and more hydraulic fluid pushed the pistons
against Lisa's shoulders. The big diesel ran the pump and the computer
compensated for the increased strain. Lisa grunted now with each rep. Her legs
were beyond fatigued, but she could not stop. The harder the pistons pushed
against her, the more angry she became. Dead lifting the 750 pounds had been
easy compared to this. She was well beyond 750 pounds. Her bones started
reacting to the weight and her tendons and ligaments protested to the strain,
but she kept going. The muscle now had to grow. Her thighs were an atlas of
veins and arteries feeding the ever growing muscles. Her quads flexed with
inhuman detail every time she did a rep. The muscle fibers bunched up and grew
with each rep. The veins visible on the skin were now nearly a half-inch
diameter. Blood rushed through giving her skin an almost purplish pallor.

Her muscles were expanding now. Until now only the definition in her legs had
changed, but she needed more and more power. Her legs burned as what usually
took years of training happened in seconds. Where before her legs were perhaps
19 or 20 inches they were now nearly 25 and growing.

The diesel was starting to strain now. The RPM's were high into the red level,
but it pumped more and more fluid until the entire tank of fluid was being
pressed into the pistons. Lisa howled now. The noise echoed across the room.
Her head whipped from side to side as she pressed harder and harder. The
diesel redlined now and could offer no more resistance. The o-ring seals on
the pistons started to fail and small drops of hydraulic fluid ran down the
sides of the shiny exposed metal.

Lisa pressed three more times then sank to the floor and started removing the
straps that held her into the harness. She ran her hands up and down her legs.
They were hot to the touch. Almost too hot to touch. Sweat poured off her
dripping onto the floor making a puddle on the concrete. She thought she would
be breathing more heavily, but she was almost in shock from exhaustion.

Ian had to command himself to calm down. He was breathing heavily and for some
reason had an enormous erection. The erection went away shortly as he composed
himself.

"Finally! Did you top out?", he called from behind the machine. He could still
not bring himself to come around the machine and look at his friend. Heaven
forbid his erection come back.

"No", Lisa answered weakly. "I didn't want to break another one of your
machines." She smiled.

"You serious?"

"Would you rather me have broken it?", she shot back with a trace of
annoyance.

"No, of course not." He came around now. She looked tired, but not injured.
Ian could not look away from her legs. They looked like they had been
transplanted from a top bodybuilder except more defined. Ian could see the
veins pulsate in rhythm with her heart. It was the most amazing thing he'd
ever seen. "You ready to get up yet?" He kneeled next to her.

"No, I think I went a little overboard. I'd like to sit here for a moment if
its all the same to you."

"Its not", he said as gently as he could manage and be firm at the same time.
"I don't want to think what'll happen if those bad boys cramp. Come on wonder
woman time to get up." He took her arm and pulled her to her feet. Her arm was
around his shoulder as he lead her around the room meandering towards the
showers. He handed her a gallon of spring water and ordered her to drink.
After five minutes she was able to walk on her own. Her muscles were still
huge, but not as defined now.

"You ready to take a shower. I have some data to get off the machines and get
ready for an analysis."

Lisa made her way to the dressing room while Ian went back to get the figures
off the computer and to see if there was any permanent damage to the engine or
pistons. He had the machine do a self diagnostic while he got the results. The
data uploaded to his laptop. He looked at some of it, but one number stuck
out. 2123 pounds. That was the amount of pressure against her when she
completed her last rep. This was amazing.

Thirty minutes later, Lisa emerged looking refreshed. "You look better", Ian
commented as she came over towards him.

"Feel better"

"For a minute I thought I might have to take you to the hospital."

"I'm fine now" She assured him. "Matter of fact look", she showed him her
legs. "Back to normal."

"Amazing. Where does it go?"

"You're supposed to tell me."

"Its going to take me a little while to get started. I ought to know a little
something by tomorrow. I'll call you."

"Ok, and Ian please keep this between you and me. I don't want..."

"I understand. I would like to get some other experts in on this, but you're
my friend. Between you and me."

"Ok" She turned and headed towards the door. Ian stared as she turned tossing
her gym bag over her shoulder. He loved the way her hair bounced when she
walked.

Lisa hurried to her car and was actually calm when she drove across town to
her apartment. Telling Ian had settled her nerves somewhat. She was still
curious as to what the problem was. Lisa wasn't a speed demon when it came to
driving, but she loved the feel of her powerful Mercedes accelerating on the
interstate. She pulled into her building's garage still wondering what Ian
would tell her.

Lisa went to work the day after her workout and did not once think about her
strength. She interviewed two prospective employees and had a conference call
with an important client. Ian didn't call until she had come back home. She
had time to unbutton her blouse when the phone rang.

"Hello"

"Hey, Lisa, I think I have figured out a few things. You wanna talk about it?"

"Sure"

"Great, how about dinner."

"What?"

"You know dinner, the meal after lunch. There's nothing earth shattering in
this. I think dinner's a great idea."

Lisa smiled and shook her head. Ian was always doing things like this.
"Where?"

"Cicino's. A nice little Italian restaurant just north of the interstate."

"I think I know where it is." Lisa was still shaking her head. She couldn't
believe she was agreeing to this.

"7:30"

"Fine"

"See you then."

Cicino's was set on a residental street in a building that was much larger on
the inside than it looked from the outside. Ian was already seated and waiting
for her. He waved her over when he saw her come in the door. Their booth was
near the window. Lisa was too nervous to look around the resturant and get the
feel, but after she settled down, she noticed that the resturant was quite
romantic. A waiter arrived quickly and took their order for hors d'ouvres and
wine. Part of Lisa wanted to get on with what Ian had to say, but part of her
didn't want to hear.

"Well, Lisa, like I said yesterday, you are perfectly healthy. As far as your
amazing strength potential, it seems that your muscle fibers have the capacity
to fire very rapidly. That explains some of it, but the rest of it is quite
interesting. Your body will actually grow new muscle to compensate for the
stresses being forced against it. That makes your strength go up
exponentially." Ian took a sip of the white wine he had ordered. It was quite
good. He wasn't a wine lover, but he knew what he liked. He looked up at Lisa.
She was definitely paying attention and she seemed to understand.

"Anyway, like I was saying, your body will grow new muscle fibers. You didn't
grow any more muscle than a very experienced bodybuilder. The difference is
that those new fibers also fire extra fast. So the more you strain and push,
the more muscle you grow, the stronger you get."

"Until I get tired", Lisa added.

"Yes, until you get tired."

"Now when I relax the muscle goes away, where does it go?"

"Well some of it doesn't go anywhere. There seems to be two levels of things
going on here. On one level is your normal body activity and on the other is
the extra level in the back ground. Its almost like a reserve. Your body tries
to use the muscle fibers you already have first then it makes them fire faster
and faster until they can't go any faster then it builds new strands. After
those strands are no longer needed they seem to recombine. Your regular,
normal muscle levels increase like you were working out normally. So it seems
to me that your nomal muscles would respong to regular weights like anyone
else. This is so cool isn't it?"

"What?"

"This super strength thing. Its the sort of thing you read about as kid or
whatever, but you don't actually meet anyone like that."

"Before you get too excited, what causes this?"

"That is unclear. It seems to be genetic, but its hard to pin down. And
there's no need to go asking around. Most likely this gene is very very
recessive. It might be 10 or more generations to find someone who got both
recessive genes. Besides even if they did get both, what are the chances that
they woud have known that they possessed this strength?"

"So, I am a really really big freak."

"You aren't a freak. This is a wonderful gift. You can..."

"Can it, Ian. Wonderful? What's so wonderful about it? You know day before
yesterday I read more stories and comics about super strong women that I
almost cried myself to sleep. Problem is that I don't want to show off, I
don't want to destroy my car, I love my car. I don't want to destroy anyone
else's stuff and I don't want to humiliate men or other women. Oh yeah, and
I'm not going to be some sort of vigilante."

Ian laughed.

"What's so funny?" Lisa was still quite upset about the whole thing.

"Well, you shouldn't have any problem opening new jars of mayonnaise and
stuff."

The dinner came before Lisa had a chance to respond, and although the subject
of her strength came up from time to time, the conversation changed, as
conversations alway do to other things. Lisa left the restaurant feeling
somewhat informed, but not satisfied. She cried herself to sleep that night.
She wasn't sure what was wrong and why she couldn't get a grip of herself, but
she had wanted more. She had always been in control of herself and so sure of
herself, but for some reason this new ability had turned her self image upside
down. She had to talk to someone and quickly.

Lisa went to work for two days and while working, she figured out what she had
to do. After leaving work, Lisa hurried down the street to a place she hoped
she would find some answers. Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Church was
not a large church, but it was, like most Catholic churches, very well
constructed.

Father Brennin was past middle aged and had been pastor of the church for
nearly 20 years. Lisa went to church every now and then. She was a busy person
she always told herself. The father was in the confessionary when Lisa walked
in.

"Bless me father for I have sinned", she said automatically.

"Go ahead my child"

"Well, father, I actually need some council."

"Ok", he said in a voice hardly above a whisper.

"Father, recently, I have become aware of an ability that I have, or a gift if
I can to call it that. The knowledge of this gift has really made my emotions
go haywire. I don't know if this is a gift from God or a curse."

"My child, like all things, it can either be a blessing or a curse.", Father
Brennin had no idea what this gift was, but he had already decided not to ask.
Is she had wanted him to know, she would have told him already. "The
difference between a blessing and a curse is you. You have free will to use
this gift for its own good, or for selfish reasons."

"It is the sort of thing, Father, that might be misunderstood by some people."

"Do you have a choice to have this gift or not?"

"No, it seems that I was born with it."

"Then you are meant to have it, but as to the reason it was given to you, I
can not answer that. Pray. By the sound of your voice you are already
considering these things very seriously. I doubt though that you have prayed
about it. Pray and meditate, my child."

"Yes, Father, I will." Lisa got up off her knees and left. She hurried to her
car and headed home. She had gone to a priest and the best advice he could
give was pray. She was almost angry at that, but what else had she expected
him to say. The bigger problem was that it was the best advice she had
received thus far, so she did pray. She turned off all the radios, computers,
televisions, and anything else that made noise and she prayed. For a little
more than an hour she prayed. She didn't have a revelation or a vision, but
somehow, for the first time in more than a week, Lisa was totally at peace
with her situation. She even knew what she would do in the up coming days and
weeks. She actually felt like herself. When she thought about her strength she
no longer got that sick feeling in the pit of her stomach.

She was hungry now. She pulled out a can of tuna, some relish, and some salad
dressing. The tuna went in the bowl first then the salad dressing. The relish,
a new jar, didn't want to open. Lisa wiped her damp palms on a towel then
wiped down the jar. She was annoyed because she really wanted some tuna salad.
She griped the jar and lid firmly this time and tried to turn it. When it
didn't move right away, Lisa squeezed tighter and turned again. The lid came
off, and Lisa almost cracked the jar in the process. She laughed then. She
laughed so hard she almost dropped the relish. The people in the apartment
next door were probably wondering what she was watching that was so funny, but
Lisa finally stopped. Ian was right. Her super strength did have some
benefits. Lisa went to sleep that night with a game plan for the next day.

coments welcome ppng21@comcast.net