Afternoons and Weighted Spoons

"For I have known them all already, known them all;
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;"

T.S. Eliot


Ever have one of those days when you just have to get out of the house, go anywhere and do the things that make the world go away for a bit? Sometimes you don't even know what's eating you and that very thought is the thing that drives you to find a bit of solace. For some people it's the gym, or going for a run, or a hike, or a long drive in the country. Some people like to just go sit in the park or feed the birds. For some it's a decadent bowl of ice cream. Every person seems to have something they like to do when the stress of the moment gets too much.

This was one of those days for the heroine known as Soviet Superwoman. Her stress reliever was smacking a villain or two around, only today the city was quiet and her mind raged on. She flew over the city a couple of times--nothing. She stopped by a few banks, then a few bars in the seedier part of town. She even stopped by an AFPD station to see if they needed help with anything, anything at all--nothing.

Sighing, she took to the skies again circling to the north at a speed just shy of the sound barrier. A recent law banning metahumans from exceeding the speed of sound inside city limits had just failed by the narrowest of margins. A few lawmakers figured out that the only ones who would obey the law were the ones most likely to be the one apprehending those who broke it and the bill failed in the house at the last minute. Still, it prompted the mayor to issue a public request to all metas that supersonic flight be reserved for emergency situations only, especially at night. Despite her stress, and the joys supersonic flight brought her, there was a part of her that just wouldn't allow for the indulgence, even today.

She took what solace she could in the wind whipping through her hair even if it was the warm, wet, east coast air of North America and not the cool, crisp air of her mother Russia. At last, she found herself over the craggy shores, inlets, and coves north of Angel Falls--an area that wistfully reminded her of the coastline on the Barents Sea. She took a few moments to close her eyes and think of home, the wistful dreaming of a different empire. It would last a moment only because when she opened her eyes she saw the vibrant colors of the small outdoor gym known as Titan's Cove coming into view. A small crowd had gathered around the outskirts of the strange gym. Inside a powerfully built woman in a lot of dark metallic red seemed to be struggling with a very heavy weight on the bench press. Large thick metallic-green plates pushed down against the woman as thickly muscular arms and pectoral muscle strained in the evening air.

The black-haired titaness barely hesitated, and half a second later the sky rumbled with a small supersonic shockwave as she streaked towards the gym. Heads turned at the boom, many pointed, some shouted, and a few backed away, but the grey-clad heroine scarcely noticed. Her eyes were fixed on the woman in red and the stacks of large metallic-green weights piled on either end of the metallic-blue bar resting inches from the woman's chest. She noticed the sweat pouring from the struggling woman, the bar slowly lowering. The woman's eyes were closed, her teeth clenched, and her powerful arms were beginning to shake.

Landing, she reached out just as the weight touched the chest of the struggling heroine, "Hold on. I will help you."

"No! mam," the struggling voice came through clear despite the struggle and sweat. A moment later red waves of force appeared beneath both stacks of green weights and the whole mass began slowly moving up.

Olga watched on excitedly as Aegis managed to fully extend the colossal weights upwards with a powerful grunt before racking them with a relieved exhalation. The crowd roared with cheers and applause as she finished her set and sat up, smirking wearily. The Soviet super-soldier was clapping as well, her black gloved hands popping like mini-thunderclaps. Reaching over she grabbed a towel from nearby and handed it to her friend.

"That was very impressive! I think this is the first time that I have seen you here, is it not?" she said in her thick Russian accent.

A single muscular arm slowly reached for the towel as sweat rolled from the red-head's body. As she gently patted at the sweat, she nodded with her eyes closed. New beads of sweat formed seemingly as fast as the old were removed causing her to squint as she looked up at the new arrival. "It's good to see you, mam. I like to think doc equipped me with my own spotter because he knew I would never know when to call it quits." After a brief pause, "He was right."

Reaching down, the heavily sweating woman grabbed a water bottle sitting by the bench and half-drained it. "I've been gone quite a while. How long has this place been here?"

Just then, a line of cars begin pulling into the parking lot on the hill. Some were old. Some were new. Some were small. Some were large. Some were expensive, and some were old beaters, yet they were all arriving as if late for a party.

"Since at least last year." Olga responded. "I stumbled upon it quite on accident, but the weights are like nothing I have ever seen or lifted so I have been coming back here more and more for my workouts. It has become quite popular."

The Soviet Superwoman waved to the people that clamored out of their vehicles.

"How have you been my friend? It has been a little while has it not?"

"Yes, mam, it has been quite a while since I was in The Falls. After the assault on Sulustaar, my resulting injuries, my dad's death, and finally getting my doctorates degree, I had to take some time off, personal time, to organize my thoughts. It's strange not having the station to go home to..." Her head dipped down and away as her eyes closed. Amid the sweat it was impossible to tell if any tears dared flow.

A drop of sweat beaded up on the tip of her nose and then fell to splash down on the mat below. "I was worried about Angel Falls, but I knew there were so many good heroes to protect her, yourself included, that I ... well, I just needed some time away."

The red-heads muscular arm raises once more and finishes the water bottle off before toweling off her face and arms. Her head raised looking at the arriving crowd. "Your fans, I presume, mam. This place is odd like that."
The black-haired Russian nodded, "Da, it is."

Aegis' eyes finally clearing, she looked her friend up and down. "Mam, if I may, you don't appear to have come here for a workout and something tells me, Mr. Titan will be less than pleased at your attire. He barely tolerates my own."

She motions down at her metallic red sports top with the customary lettering, "If you can read this, you are too close!" and her black metallic shorts. "Strange place indeed, mam, but a useful place to begin acclimatization."

Olga raised an eyebrow. "Mr. Titan? I am afraid I have not yet to meet anyone who owns this place. I assumed it was set up by a private citizen, but never have had the privilege of speaking with them...and you do not need to call me 'Mam', just Olga is good." she smiled warmly with the last sentence at her old friend. "Just as it is good to have you back here, da?"

The sweating red-head nodded slightly as a soft smile crept across her lips, "Yeah, I guess old habits die hard." Her eyes narrowed as they captured the black-haired woman's gaze, "It is good to be back."

The group of onlookers continued to grow as the two amazons spoke, flocking around taking pictures with their cell-phones and giving off wolf-whistles.

"When I work out here I do not wear very much as it inhibits so perhaps that is why I have so many fans here, male between the ages of 20 and 35 by the look of it." she continued, looking out over the gathering crowd. "There is a changing room nearby where I keep a spare swimsuit. I could join you if you would like and you can tell me about the owner, Mr. Titan."

"I would like that, yes. I'll just get prepped for my next set while you change, but I do not understand how you can wear such skimpy attire. Titan tried to get me to do so as well. I was having none of it and told him it was my workout attire or nothing." Her thick shoulders shrug, "My fans don't seem to mind."

"Good! Then I will rejoin you in a few minutes." Olga replied as she headed towards one of the changing booth and let herself inside.

Aegis looked at the gathering crowd. Titan hadn't shown up and she pondered for a moment how many people had actually seen or spoken with the man. Olga certainly hadn't and she had been coming here for sometime now, evident by the incredible muscle-mass she had been packing on. One of the effects of the serum she was given by the Soviet army was that the harder she worked out and the stronger her foes were, the more her strength would continue to increase.

As Olga stepped out of the change-room a few moments later, Aegis couldn't help but watch her cross back over to the training mats. The Soviet Superwoman was wearing a bikini that barely concealed any of her amazonian proportions. Wide shoulders supported massive arms, striations and vascularity evident throughout the members. Her immense back tapered to a thin waist which then expanded in an incredibly sexy manner to powerful glutes. Deeply etched cobblestone abdominals covered her midsection. Her legs were marvels on their own, titanic striated thighs connected to huge calves. She was slightly bigger than Aegis remembered and that was only a few months ago. The crowd roared it's approval.

It took the muscular Soviet a moment only to locate her American friend. She had moved from the bench press over to a large area surrounded by dumbbells. She had two of the larger metallic green weights. One was resting on each knee as she sat on one of the small blue-metallic benches covered in dark gray padding.

"You look great, Olga, but again, how can you stand to wear that out here in public? I mean, well, it just seems so ... exposed." The red-heads nose wrinkles making an unexpectedly cute face on one so muscular, her build almost an equal to the Russian powerhouses own physique.

"I never feel that way. Perhaps most of my modesty died in the war. I enjoy my figure and I enjoy showing it off to the fans who come here."

"Well, I can tell you've been hitting the weights hard. You really do look great."

Olga smiled and blushed ever so slightly. "My Beloved is equally impressed with the results. I think she would have me here every day to work out if she could."

"I bet she would. There's nothing wrong with working out almost every day. Well, you should take a day or two off each week and have a down week once a month or so... How is Maia these days? I trust everything is good?"

"I was just about to warmup for some dumbbell chest flies. Would you like to join me, work on your chest some? My research has shown that this particular routine generates 7.3% better results for me than my previous routine."

The Soviet woman nodded. "This sounds good, my pectoral muscles could use more refining. Perhaps while we lift you can tell me more about the owner of this place."


"Yes, I was just about to say your chest needed more 'refining.'" The red-head's smile broadened as she threw her long, straight, hair back over her shoulder, causing her bicep to jump impressively. Her large emerald eyes suddenly darted down and away as her cheeks reddened further and she half-hid her face behind one muscular and striated shoulder, "You haven't said anything, but what do you think of my new hairstyle?"

The powerfully-built Russian woman sat down on the weight bench and looked over Aegis' new tresses before smiling. "I think that it is very flattering and suits you, Tovarisch. So what are we lifting today? Arainium dumbbells--about twelve tons."

Aegis nodded slowly, "Yes Mrs. Olga, twelve point five tons to be precise."


Olga took hold of the grips and carefully lowered her back to the padded Athenium bench. Her massive arms flared and her chest tensed as she lowered each of the superhuman weights on either side of her chest careful to keep her arms slightly bent to better control the weight. A huge smile of success spread across her face as she pushed both weights back together so that they made a faint clang above her ample bosom. Taking a deep breath, she slowly lowered the dumbbells to each side and repeated the process slowly forcing the weights upward for a second repetition. Her arms produced incredible biceps that bulged excitingly with their inherent power. Two hemispheres, unimaginably thick as well as round, rippled with untold strength as they rose to globes of chiseled flesh. Right underneath where her arms connected to her torso were her arching back muscles flared out extensively to each side. Pumped lats spread to plentiful proportions, blossoming with aesthetically hardened richness.

After fifteen slow, measured, precise reps, the muscular Russian set the weights down smiling. "Good warmup, da."

The red head slid the weights over to the other bench, "Definitely. What would you like to do next? Step it up with sixteen, eighteen, and twenty, or three sets of twenty?"

"Three sets of twenty, and you can start telling me about this man who owns all of this. I would like to thank him at the very least for his hospitality and generosity."

For the next hour and a half, the two titanesses worked out pushing their pectorals through a punishing regimen only a metahuman could possibly enjoy, pushed their bodies until their straining chests threatened to shred the tight clothing trying vainly to contain their powerful, deep-etched, pectorals. Between sets they talked about Titan, the strange enigmatic owner. Aegis told Olga of her meeting late at night with the towering and strangely dressed man, and Olga talked about how perfectly timed the arrival of fans seemed to be with the arrival of the metahumans they were looking for.

After racking the last weight, Aegis shrugs, "I tell you, Mrs. Olga, I really don't know too much about him. He is a towering figure. Has a rugged build. Looks like he comes from the old world. Has an air of charm and fairly dashing-good looks. He strongly urged me to wear a bikini when visiting the gym, and, that about sums up what I know about him.

Suddenly, one of the signs attached to the fence began to flash briefly before reading, "Dearest shield, you can brag about me anytime you choose."

Pausing, the muscular Shield of Athena tilted her head sideways as if the meaning might change if read from this unusual angle, then looking over to the Russian, she shot her thumb in the direction of the sign. "What do you make of that?"

Olga cocked her head in the direction of the sign, looking at it with a puzzled expression. She stood up and grabbed a towel, wiping off her sweaty face and arms as she examined the sign carefully.

"I would say that perhaps this man has more to him than just old-world good looks, da?"

"I would say that we are being watched. Perhaps Mr. Titan keeps an eye on his property, but the question then becomes how does a twenty foot tall being keep an eye on an open air gym without cameras and not be seen?"

The Soviet Superwoman looked around her at the crowd of attentive fans as she spoke. "Perhaps it is something as simple as having hidden employees who are watching us and recording us."

Aegis' head cocked to the left as her nose and scrunched up with her left cheek. "No, mam ... Olga, I do not think so. It took approximately 1.4 seconds from my comment until the message appeared. It would take about one eleventh of a second for the sound of my voice to reach the nearest person outside the fence. It would take their brain about one tenth of a second to process what was said. It would then take them a minimum of a tenth of a second to push the button to make a call and at least a half second to dial the number. Allow for another point four-five second for the person on the other end to answer and two and a half seconds to deliver the message. From there it would take another tenth of a second to process the information and, with technology, another three seconds to type a response. All told, that comes to about 6.84 seconds to have a person in the crowd relay a message and a response to be displayed. Even with a best-case scenario that is well outside the bounds of statistical probability. I feel confident that a hypothesis test would reject that hypothesis."

Her nose then scrunches to the other side as she catches the look on Olga's face and the red-heads eyes go wide, "I'm sorry, mam. It's a knee-jerk nerd response. At least that's what Doc called it. I've been trying to work on it, but ... never mind."

The big Russian shrugged and smiled sheepishly. "Is alright, I just feel pretty idiot at the moment. Still I think you are right. Perhaps he has extrasensory perceptions or perhaps he is mystically inclined then? All that we seem to know is that he is apparently wealthy enough to afford all this, or at least keep it maintained, that he likes to watch without making his presence known and that he seems to enjoy the larger, more powerfully built female form."

"Ahhh, well much of that seems logical. I do somewhat question your assertion that Mr. Titan favors the large, powerfully built women. Have you seen proof of this? Or are you making a logical assumption based on him constructing a gym?"

"I am saying that because you commented that he encourages us to wear skimpy-small clothings and then he supplies us with weights that no-one but the strongest of us can lift, also in effect working to make us even stronger."

The red-head pauses and for a moment her chin rests upon her left fist and her feet cross as her body rises slightly under a red field of force. "Yes, I find your idea has much merit, but I wonder if the exposing of the physical bodies also serves another purpose, perhaps one we cannot see with the current stock of evidence. Lets not also forget about the favorable timing of fans to the arrival of their heroes."

She pauses a moment to wave at a tall, young, athletically built, black haired young woman. "Hello, Tracy! It's good to see you again."

The young woman squeals then jumps up off the ground, both of her shins and feet curling up at a ninety degree angle from her thighs. Landing, she waves her right arm wildly from one side to the other, "Aegis remembered my name!" Then turning back to a few people behind her, she repeats, "Aegis remembered my name!"

A middle aged man dressed in khakis and a polo shirt nods smiling wryly, "I see that. Good for you, young lady."

Turning back to Olga Aegis smiles, "I have to give her high marks for enthusiasm. That reminds me, I have also seen two large and rowdy men teleported into the bay to get a good dunking. There was no visible source of the teleportation so I must assume, correctly or not, that Mr. Titan is somehow responsible."

Again, the sign suddenly flashes, "Please ladies, there is no need to refer to Mr. Titan. Simply Titan will do, thank you."

Olga wrinkled her nose. "It would appear that this Titan has a vast array of abilities at his disposal da?"

"Yes, he seems a gifted individual at the least, but seeing as he appears to be monitoring the Cove, perhaps this discussion might be better finished elsewhere? I am famished. A good workout will do that to me. Perhaps we should say hello to our fans and then adjourn to somewhere where fewer prying ears are pressed in our direction?"

The Soviet Superwoman nodded her approval as she watched an athletically built man near the gate gesticulate at her. He was wearing a shirt with her likeness on it and was flexing his arm and pointing at her excitedly. Olga smiled and flexed both her arms, biceps the size of softballs jutting upwards. The man began to take a series of images with his cell-phone, thanking her over and over again.

"I think that is a good idea, my friend."

Nodding, the muscular red-head reached down for her gym bag. "I'm going to grab a quick shower and reprogram the nanites then go meet the fans. Do you have a timetable?"

"Nyet, not for a few hours. I would join you if that is alright?"

A smile spreads over the young woman's face. "I would very much enjoy that." Then with a wink, "Dinner with Angel Falls most famous hero. Maybe I can get you to sign an autograph for me."

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This was written by myself and , but that amazing image was all created by who is a master!

Soviet Superwoman is my property and creation.

Aegis and Titan are both the property and creations of

This takes place in a small cove just north of