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It was not often that Wonder Woman seemed petty. Normally, the average, often pathetic criticism of her that was given out from the Man’s World’s media made her laugh, before she wrapped her lasso around a robot-gorilla that was threatening to blow up the Washington Monument. But sometimes, a little comment would send her into overdrive to prove someone wrong. The last time was when Hal said he could out wrestle anyone in the room. He should have known better; wrestling was invented by the Greeks and perfected by the Amazons. Diana had him tapping out within a minute.
Diana was not petty, but she was competitive. Any good fighter was. If someone said she could not do something, she would go out of her way to raise that challenge. So when Big Barda, an ally of Wonder Woman’s and current gym mate, said that she was the strongest woman in the Justice League, and that “Nobody from Earth could top her,” Diana simply smiled and adjusted her seated cable row slightly. 300 pounds; that sounded good. She curled her legs, making sure Barda could see. She put her legs on the footrests, pulled back her shoulders, and with only slight difficulty, pulled up the 300 pounds all the way to the top of the machine, before slowly lowering it. Diana looked back at Barda, who had a raised eyebrow; she was doing leg curls, at a measly 250. “Is that the power,” Diana said, “of the New Gods?” Barda’s fascinated look turned to one of amusement; she got off her machine and went straight to the weight room.
Diana knew a challenge when she saw one, and she almost never backed down from friendly competition. She got off her machine and headed over there as well, excitement building. Barda was waiting there, a smirk on her face. Diana smiled as well; time for things to get interesting. There were two barbells there, each with only one weight on each. Diana didn’t use weights that often, and even then they were usually one handed ones for basic bicep curls. But weightlifting competitions were rather popular on the island, if a bit more primitive from the one on the satellite. Here, a technology (she had forgotten the name for it; it's name wasn’t as important as its function) was used so, rather than need different weights of different sizes, each barbell’s weight could be adjusted with a computer to change the density of the weight at the end. Orion had brought the material from Apakolypse, and Bruce had worked out the kinks in the tech.
Barda went first, with the barbell at their lowest setting, 50 pounds. She bent over, grabbed it, and looked over to Diana. “Loser gets monitor duty,” she said, before she lifted it over her head in a matter of seconds. Barda dropped the weight with a thud. “You have a deal,” Diana said with a smile. 50 pounds was easy, and Barda knew it. She was toying with her. The Princess of Themyscira bent over, but rather than grab it with both hands like Barda, used her off hand to take it up, slightly higher than Barda. Barda laughed, and adjusted the setting to 100 pounds. She at first looked to grab it with one hand for a second, before putting her left hand on as well and lifting, once again with very little effort.
“What’s the matter,” Diana said, after Barda let the barbell drop, “don’t think you can match a person from Earth?” She reached down and also considered lifting with one hand again, but dashed the idea from her mind. She pulled the bell up slightly faster than Barda, before slamming it down with a heavy thud that echoed in the gym. “Hypocrite,” she heard Barda mutter, before she watched the goddess set it to 200 pounds. That got a little eye rise out of Diana; jumping up that fast? The 200 went up easy, though at the speed Barda lifted she wobbled a bit, unbalanced. Diana, of course, moved to match it, making sure to lift slowly and carefully, while still showing that she was in control.
The two warriors began to sweat just a bit when they reached 500; at this point, even someone like Superman had to take a bit of time between lifts. Barda got it over her head no problem, but Diana struggled at first. Not because of the weight(Though it was getting a bit difficult) was but the texture of the barbell dug into her hands when not wearing gloves, something Diana didn’t do often. Barda noticed this and smirked. “Tell me this isn’t what the greatest of the Amazons has to offer!” She laughed, before setting her barbell at 600. She too had difficulty, but she didn’t let it show too much; Barda simply breathed in before lifting.
After nearly 30 minutes of lifting, the barbell was at 2500. Barda and Diana were now regularly lifting more than a ton. Barda, glistening in sweat and her arms shaking, made an unconfident smile and tried to lift the barbell.
She couldn't. No matter how hard it looked like (and it looked incredibly difficult), she couldn’t pick it up. “So,” Diana said panting, “a goddess finds her limit.”
Barda looked back, a scowl on her face. “I’d like to see you try,” she said. Wonder Woman reached down, grabbed at the barbell with her hands that looked like they could break out in blisters at any moment. She gripped it painfully, but before she could start to lift, an alert rang out.
“CALLING MEMBERS CURRENTLY ON DUTY. WE HAVE REPORTS OF THE ROBOT KNOWN AS ‘NEUTRO’ IN DOWNTOWN CHICAGO. PLEASE REPORT TO THE BRIEFING ROOM.”
Diana looked at Barda, a mixture of relief and disappointment in their eyes. “Guess we’ll finish this after we destroy that robot,” Barda said wistfully. Diana nodded; her arms hurt like Tartarus and she could barely think, but she had a job to do. “Race you to the briefing room,” she whispered, before taking off as fast as her sore legs could take her.