New Limits

I'm having a really hard time writing the whole 'Lisa goes to England to meet Victoria' thing, but this was one of the big things I was going to address in it....

“What's this?” I noticed the new addition to the gym's equipment, kind of like a big punching bag but it had a bunch of stuff all over and around it.
“Ah, I don't recall the name but it reads your punching power.”
“Oh, interesting. What's the score to beat? Do you know the record?”
“Best boxer tested did something over 800 pounds, so far here we have 136.”
“Clearly Lisa hasn't taken a swing. Hey, Lisa you want to try this thing?”
“Not now,” she seemed distracted.
“Oh come on, it'll just take a second.”
“Fine,” she strode on over, didn't bother to slow down and punched the bag as she walked by and cast me a bit of a nasty look, “happy?”
1420 pounds of force and she wasn't trying, just a little annoyed. Mental note, be a bit more careful about pressing her...
The hour got late and the gym hit a lull period, only a few people in there. I found Lisa sitting in front of a barbell that looked insanely over the top even for her.
“Lisa, that's, uh...” I started counting.
“6,080 pounds of weight,” she cut me off, “Just over three tons.”
“You can't be serious about that. Even you'll be crushed.”
“I'm not so sure, here, let me show you something,” she walked over to the punching measure and started in on it.
2,900 pound. 3,500 pounds. 4,700 pounds. She's just swinging, it's not even those deadly looking puches.
“So, ah, what happens if you hit that thing like you hit Victoria? What's that number?”
“I'm getting a feel for it, I haven't measured this before, of course I have a guess but I'm gathering more evidence,” she punched it again and it came out 5,300.
She nodded to herself and said, “are you sure you want to know? It could scare you.”
“I'm pretty confident you can tear anyone apart if so inclined already, except maybe Victoria, so I'm not sure what a number changes.”
Lisa shrugged and turned away, started to walk off like she was leaving. Then all of a sudden she lunged back at the punching machine in a blur and the damn bag flew off, snapping cords and freaking bouncing more than a dozen feet. The readout just screeched and gave an error.
“Holy shit!”
“That should be 7 and a half tons of force, or around 15,000 pounds. Give or take about a hundred.”
“That's nuts, that's...like...”
“It's about 18.3 times the world record. I've known I was capable of punching nearly 20 times as hard as a boxer, it's why they can't hurt me when I let them connect. Of course pro boxers punch about ten times harder than normal people,” she let the statement hang.
“But you only lift about 2 and a half...”
“Times the record? Yes, but strength isn't all about how well you do one thing. Anyway, that's part of why I have that weight set up. I think I'm capable of it. It has to do with something Victoria told me while I was in England.”
She was walking back to the massive weight which looked like it might break the bench at any second, “What is that?”
“Well, it seems we both have a tendency to choose how to perceive time. Speed it up to listen to other people talk, slow it down to, oh for example, actually catch one of those supersonic kicks of hers, or more mundanely type 500 words a minute or read a book in under an hour.”
“What's that have to do with how strong you are?”
“Crises mode. Adrenaline really, in times of dire crises people experience a slow down in their perception so they can make the most of the time they have to try to stay alive. Adrenaline also makes you stronger to help with the crises. Victoria brought that up, then closed her eyes for about half a second and when we got back to fighting she...overpowered me pretty easily. I really thought I had the strength advantage.”
“Yeah, I've heard about that, the getting super strong thing, but why aren't we just that strong all the time?”
“Running at full power actually means you run the risk of damaging yourself, the rest of a person's body, the ligaments and tendons and sometimes even bones aren't as strong as the muscles, so they need to be inhibited except in times of dire need.”
“So you're just going to...try to... will yourself stronger?”
She had her eyes closed and was positioned under the weight, “have you ever known me to try?”
Then she bench pressed the damned three ton weight. Just snatched it off the bar, let it come down and shoved it back up and set it back.
I was speechless, I think I might have made some noises, but no coherent words.
“Yes, I am incredible aren't I?” she giggled at her own praise.
Then the support bars snapped and the weight crashed to the floor, into the floor, snapping the bench in two. There was a cloud of dust and I couldn't see anything.
“Lisa? LISA!”
“What? No need to yell, sheesh, I have great ears I'd like to keep them that way,” her voice came from some distance to my side, apparently she'd managed to get well out of the way somehow, “it's like you don't even remember what I just told you. From my perspective I had all the time in the world to get out of the way. Still...I'm going to have to pay for that...”
“So...what? You can just decide how strong you're going to be now?”
“Hardly, I still have the same limits, I've just been subconsciously making them a lot more strict than they needed to be. Well, look at it this way maybe, however rude I can be, I am actually concerned for everyone's safety. If I was really out of control...well, put it this way, it only takes about 1.8 tons to crush a human body to paste."