Her Superhero Lover

They left the third floor of the lab and Grady flew them down to the first (technically second, since the accountants were on the ground floor of the building), where he had his training gym. “All right, well, I guess the first thing to ask you Renee is just how much workout experience do you have? I mean, we went bike riding and even before your body changed I thought you looked great in yoga pants, but we never did get around to using the gym at the Imperial Beach place.”

Renee shook her head. “After high school, not much. I mean, I tried to keep in shape for the modeling work, but most of that was diet, which I wasn’t too good at. By the way, thank you for that nice side effect, I’ve noticed I’m eating like mad and still not gaining weight.”

“With the growth you’ve been going through, I’m not surprised. You should have seen me at thirteen when puberty kicked in,” Grady replied. “My parents were feeding me a dozen eggs, a gallon of milk, and four potatoes just for breakfast. It leveled out naturally though. I can still eat more than most people, but it’s like any athlete. When I’m out on patrol or using my abilities, my appetite increases.”

“Well, you’re not a skilled lifter,” he continued, leading her over to the custom made bench press. It was made of I-beams, like those used in skyscraper construction, and weighed itself over eight hundred pounds. The bar Grady used was two and a quarter inch thick solid steel, although he had a special rig he used when he wanted to ‘push hard,’ as he said. The plates were specially made to fit the larger bar, even. He chose the basic bar and set it on the uprights. “Since you aren’t skilled, there’s going to be a lot left back because you don’t know how to lift. I’ll give you a quick demonstration to keep yourself safe, but we’re not worried about technique, just a rough idea of what you can do.”

After showing her how to press safely, he had her get under the bar and take a grip. Her fingers could wrap around it, but it was still large in her hands. “I feel like I’m going to drop this damn thing.”

“Hold on,” Grady said. He went over to the side of the room, where he got two safety catches made out of I-beams that resembled sawhorses. “These will catch the bar before it can injure you. Just try not to clang the bar too much, the bookkeepers downstairs will get annoyed. Go slow like I told you, and let’s feel the groove.”

She was amazed when the bar came up so lightly in her hands. Taking a deep breath like Grady showed her, she lowered the bar until it just touched her chest, then pressed upwards. Repeating the exercise fifteen times, she racked the bar back and grinned. “Okay, that was easy. How much does that weigh anyway?”

“Hundred and twenty five pounds,” Grady replied. Renee looked at the bar then at her hands, and gave him a questioning look. “Really. I measured the weight and the collars exactly to make sure it was exact. I may be an engineer, but when I train I like to keep the math simple. So it was easy?”

“Oh yeah,” Renee replied, grinning. “Let’s see what I can do.”

Grady made sure to load the plates himself to check, and let Renee stretch and rest between lifts. By the time she finished, she had over a thousand pounds on the bar, and still touched her chest twice with it. However, she bobbled the bar a bit on the way up on the last press, and Grady cut her off before she could add more. “Impressive. I’m almost tempted to set you up on the squat, but I think it would be better to see just how fast you can run instead. We’ll set up the other lifts later.”

Grady’s treadmill was also custom made, designed on almost frictionless bearings and unpowered. To get it going, the runner had to lean into a shoulder harness that looked like something a football player would use and push. A set of brakes normally used by semi trailers provided resistance if he wanted it. “Okay, I set the computer to simulate running up a slight incline, on pavement, like you were running on a sidewalk. Start off at a light jog, and then when I say go, take it up until you’re at what you feel is about eighty percent of your max effort.”

Renee nodded and settled herself against the pads. It felt a little weird at first to lean and push into the pad, but she didn’t really mind. After all, without a real number to go off of, she was just trying something new. She started with a light jog, just letting her feet get used to the feel of the steel belt under her feet, when Grady told her to go. Starting to push harder, she kept going until she was at what she thought was eighty percent, then backed it down. When the belt stopped, she noticed it felt a bit warm under her feet. “Well?”

“Well, if you did that on the I-10, you’d get pulled over,” Grady replied. “You topped out at a hundred and eighty eight miles an hour. I’ve run faster, but not much. Normally at that point I just decide to fly instead, it’s less wear and tear on my shoes.”

“Speaking of which…..” Renee said, pulling off her Reeboks. The soles were warm to the touch, and the rubber looked worn out and partially melted. “I do hope you have some super material you’ve invented that’s better than plain old rubber for my shoes, because I’m not going out to buy new shoes every time I want to go for a jog.”

“I use a variation on steel belted radials for my Horseman suit,” Grady replied. “Sadly, my inventions have not exactly produced a wear resistant material for running shoes yet. However, if you notice something else, you won’t be worried.”

“What’s that?”

“You just ran close to eight miles, and you’re not even winded. Regardless of the amount of time it took, you think you could have run eight miles when we met without being winded?”

Renee laughed and rubbed her feet. “I couldn’t have run eight miles at all when we met. You want any more tests.”

Grady shook his head. “No, but I was thinking it’s a lovely day for a lunch picnic by the beach. Would you like to join me?”

At the base of the cliff which Grady’s lab was built on, there was a lovely small private cove. Surrounded on both sides by almost sheer rock face, the only two ways to get to the beach were to either take a narrow, rickety set of stairs, or to fly. Renee held the basket in her arms while Grady floated them down to settle on the sand below. They were about halfway through a tube of Ritz crackers and cheese when Grady’s phone rang with a tone Renee had never heard before. Grady dropped his half eaten cracker and snatched the phone. “Dammit!”

“What is it?” she asked, thinking it was some sort of office emergency. Grady glanced at the screen, his face tightening. “What?”