Joy sighed as she let a pen roll out of her hands. She had arrived at the recruitment center only around the afternoon, and already the sun had set. Her sprint to and from had barely burnt any energy, and passing Simon’s test only bolstered her excitement. She stood up from her desk, walking into her living room.

She hurried over to her weight bench and loaded up a barbell with the heaviest plates she had, around four hundred pounds. Not even bothering to lie down, she easily lifted the weights with one arm, curling it. To her dismay, she felt nothing, and placed it back on the rack. Looking around, she noticed the bent plate lying on the floor. She smirked.

Maybe I can improvise something.

She hurried back to her office, booting up her computer.

The night air was cool, a nice change of setting for Joy, as she jogged towards a scrapyard not too far off. Despite the time, the streets of Romitum still retained their liveliness. Significantly less people were walking, but several cars still drove fast down the well lit streets, many shops and apartment complexes still lit up to onlookers. The lighting of the shops eventually died out as she entered the outskirts of one of the many industrial districts. Compared to the inner city, it was much more quiet. Trucks were pulling out of lots and heading from where she came, and very few lights were left on. Only the faint sound of heavy machinery could be heard in the distance as she continued her jog.

Eventually, she skidded to a halt, arriving right outside of a chainlink fence. A local Romitum scrapyard. All of it would be melted down and re-processed, so she had a good feeling nobody would mind if some of it went missing. Pulling out a flashlight, she easily climbed over the fence, lighting it up and navigating through the maze of metal. Girders, steel bars, broken down cars, old appliances, and so much more surrounded her as she grinned at the sight. Keeping her blessing in mind, the entire place made her feel like a kid in a candy shop. Finding a small shack near the back of the yard, she hurried over. Trying to open the door, it was lock, so she simply tore the door off, tossing it into one of the piles of scrap. Walking in with flashlight in hand, she found and opened a small breaker box, flicking on several switches. Light flooded the inside of the shack, and she turned outside, smiling as her new playground was well lit. Stepping outside, she did a few stretches, scanning around for her first target. Finishing, she found an old rusted pickup truck, near a pile of scrap. She walked over, and gave it a kick. She accidentally put a large dent in it, feeling it move significantly as she did. She grinned, squatting down and grabbing the front of the truck. She shook a bit as she slowly rose up, taking the truck upward as she began to stand up. With a hefty grunt, she stood up straight, lifting the end of the truck along with her. She smiled at the effort, and slowly moved under the truck, crouching down. Once she was under the center of the truck, she pushed up with all her might, and slowly stood up. With less effort than she expected, she eventually held the entire vehicle overhead! She looked up at her efforts, smiling wildly. With it still in hand, she decided to do a few more squats while she still had the truck in hand. Despite struggling a bit, she still felt as if an entire truck wasn’t enough, and carefully returned the truck to the ground.

Now with a bit of a pump, and the truck providing only an adequate workout, she glanced around for something to work out her arms with instead. She wandered around the scrapyard, finding that nothing really provided much of a challenge to her strength. Dismembered cars, she could easily yank them from their scrappy graves without much effort. Refrigerators and old heavy wooden furniture barely provided any challenge. Finding a heavy wooden dresser, she decided to have a bit of fun at the very least. Hoisting it up, she wrapped her arms around it as much as she could, and began hugging tightly into it. The wood barely gave any resistance and immediately began splintering. The dresser exploded into two pieces, wooden chunks flying everywhere and the two halves tumbling to the ground. She giggled at her handywork, happy that she didn’t have a single splinter or scratch to show as well. Smashing the dresser changed her perspective on her visit.

I’m here to burn off energy, not just work out!

She remembered a feat she heard about online, and decided with her blessing, she’d take it to a new level. Finding another junk car, she grabbed the wheel rim, ripping it out. She sat down in the dirt, placing the wheel rim between her thighs. She squeezed them, grunting as she slowly felt the rim give away to her muscular thighs. It deformed as she slowly clamped her thighs closed, her continuing to crush it until she could no more. Gasping for breath after the effort, she picked up the rim. It was deformed into a goofy looking squashed oval. She laughed at the sight.

“Maybe I should start a new trend online or something.”

She hurried back to the old pickup truck, a wild grin on her face as a new idea bubbled in her mind. She jumped at the truck, smashing her fists into the front of it. The hood completely caved in from the blow, the rest of the truck rocking forward. Ripping away the hood, she grabbed onto the engine tightly, feeling her grip slowly bending away the metal. With a few good tugs, she managed to rip the engine right out, stumbling back with the machine in her hands. She tossed it up and down as if it were a ball in her hands, and then hugged it. Every muscle in her arms went into overtime as she clamped down tighter and tighter onto it. Soon she felt her arms sink into it, and felt the entire engine deform as she squeezed tighter and tighter. Metal shrieked as she strained harder and harder, trying to crumple the engine as if it were an oversized soda can. She closed her eyes and clenched her teeth, straining her arms as much as possible, until she felt her arms close to her chest. She released the engine as it dropped to the ground, finding it bent awkwardly inwards with a large, arm-sized dent in the center. Sweating a bit, she smiled at her handiwork. Turning to the frame of the truck, another idea entered her mind. She grabbed the front of it again, towing it over to a large pile of scrap. Without the engine, it was surprisingly easier for her to flip it over, the top of it leaning against the scrap pile. With it propped up facing her, she took a deep breath, clenched her fists, and threw a punch at the center of the framework. It dented inward horribly, and she took a step back. She envisioned the flipped truck as an downed demon, just waiting to be finished off. She continued her barrage of several more punches, eventually punching a hole straight through it. She began tearing at the hole, making it larger and ripping out every part she could find. The shrieking of metal filled the air as she continued her assault of punches, kicks, and tearing parts out. After horribly abusing the machine, making it look like it had gone through multiple minefields, a new idea infiltrated her mind. She jumped on the truck, grabbing onto the front bumper. Feeling her fingers dig in, she pulled hard at it, feeling the already abused machine deform even more. The front of the car bent inwards more and more shrieking horidly. With a sudden snap, the front of the car ripped free, Joy tumbling backwards with it. She lost her grip, and the destroyed half tumbled away, crashing into another pile of scrap. Covered in dirt and dust, she got back to her feet, staring at her accomplishment wide-mouthed. She jumped happily, flexing her arms in victory.

“See that demons? That’s gonna be you! You just wait till I get my hands on you all!”

To further prove her point to her invisible demonic audience, she grabbed a nearby metal pole. She grunted and slowly bent the thing around, eventually bending it into the shape of a pretzel. She giggled at the work, and then tossed the thing aside.

“Maybe the Crusaders can let me play with their broken military equipment… I wonder if I can smash a tank with my bare hands!”

She froze when she heard the jingling of chains.

Shit, I did make a lot of noise, didn’t I?

She sprinted over to the shack, quickly flicking every breaker, and almost literally leaping over the back fence. She sprinted away, looking back as she saw a few flashlights light up, shining around the yard. She grinned.

I wonder what they’ll think happened.