The Body

Biology isn't really my strong spot. I'm more of a Quantum Physics kind of guy. But there is something about biology, about our bodies, that has always intrigued me.

Our limits.

Did you know that the body is actually capable of incredible feats of strength and speed, even without athletic training? I'm talking superhuman stuff. Strength that could lift cars. Speed that could match a rabbit. It's possible.

What I'm talking about is a biological phenomenon that I call Real Life Limit-Breaks. See, the body is capable of putting out a tremendous amount of force and pressure, so much so that it could be considered superhuman. Any body can do this, is capable of accomplishing this, but there's a problem. This power is dangerous to our health and safety, damaging our bodies the more force we put out. So, to counter this, our minds have developed a subconscious limiter. We believe we're only capable of a certain level of strength, and therefore automatically hit a ceiling when exerting ourselves.

But there is a way to push past that limit. A lot of you may have even heard stories about it. A mother lifting the end of a car to save her daughter. A father making an impossible jump to catch his son. A brother catching something he should never have been able to support to protect his younger sibling.

When we decide something, or someone, is more important to us than our immediate health and safety, that subconscious limiter can't hold us back anymore, and our body will begin tapping into that immense potential for power to accomplish our task.

Don't get me wrong. This doesn't actually make us superhuman. These limits exist for a very good reason. Tapping into that power, even only briefly, will seriously wreck your shit like nothing ever will.

... Some people have died from doing so.

I actually hear doctors loudly berating people like this for their suicidal idiocy, that they should never have done what they did, and should be taking more care of themselves. I hate people who say that. Why? Because they're wrong. They're not stupid. They're not idiots. They're not suicidal. Someone who dies because they pushed past their limits to save someone else?

That's a Hero.

Why am I telling you this? Well, besides this being something I simply love to talk about... I thought a little teaser was in order to sate my fans.

This is going to be important to the Hero Souls series.

Comments

[badninja]

Bravo. Simply put bravo. Cap always had a good respect for the average person when they stepped up to the plate and did something like this.

[Comickook]

Excellent bit of info here. And thanks very much for the teaser.

[SvenFoxx]

4596048
Yeah. It's not easy. Even when you successfully do it, you're in excriciating pain the entire time. Your muscles tear straight off the bone, tear apart, the bone fractures, cracks, and even break due to the strain your muscles are putting on them.

But the thing is, when you no longer care, pain is nothing more than a reminder that you're still alive, and therefore can push further.

The human race scares me sometimes, and not on a moral level.

[alfonso_rd_33]

4596231
indeed it is scary... and yes, that limit is all too real and scary... I’m thankful to never been required to use such degree of human potential...

[Timuri]

While human potential can be quite frightening in its own right, it's actually something all living creatures can tap into to 'limit break', as you put it. It is far less documented for animals, but it exists. The best story I know of is from China, about a Siberian tiger that got caught in a poachers trap with a wire around her throat.

In January 2002, a man was attacked by a Siberian tiger on a remote mountain road near Jilin Province, China, near the borders of Russia and North Korea. He suffered compound fractures but managed to survive. When he sought medical attention, his story raised suspicions as Siberian tigers seldom attack humans. An investigation of the attack scene revealed that raw venison carried by the man was left untouched by the tiger. Officials suspected the man to be a poacher who provoked the attack.  The following morning, tiger sightings were reported by locals along the same road, and a local TV station did an on-site coverage. The group found tiger tracks and blood spoor in the snow at the attack scene and followed them for approximately 2,500 meters, hoping to catch a glimpse of the animal. Soon, the tiger was seen ambling slowly ahead of them. As the team tried to get closer for a better camera view, the tiger suddenly turned and charged, causing the four to flee in panic. About an hour after that encounter, the tiger attacked and killed a 26-year-old woman on the same road.  Authorities retrieved the body with the help of a bulldozer. By then, the tiger was found lying 20 meters away, weak and barely alive. It was successfully tranquilized and taken for examination, which revealed that the tiger was anemic and gravely injured by a poacher’s snare around its neck, with the steel wire cutting deeply down to the vertebrae, severing both trachea and esophagus. Despite extensive surgery by a team of veterinarians, the tiger died of wound infection. Subsequent investigation of the first attack revealed that the first victim was a poacher who set multiple snares that caught both the tiger and a deer. The man was later charged for poaching and harming endangered species. He served two years in prison. After being released from prison, he worked in clearing the forest of old snares.

In other words, that tiger spent multiple days unable to eat, drink, or even breathe all trying to hunt down the poacher that had killed it. That is very definitely going beyond what should be physical limits.