Q&A: Healing powers

Hello, my little nerdlings!

To make up for the fact that I talked chick stuff all last week, today I will answer some recent questions regarding healing powers in my "universe".

Q: How do healing powers work?

A: The scientists who specialize in superhuman physiology have studied superhumans with healing powers, and their theory is basically this: Healing powers in superhumans is basically the same as it is in regular humans, just a lot faster and more efficient. Some superhumans heal at a rate only a little above the normal human rate, while others will heal even broken bones in a matter of hours. So for the physiological explanations of how healing works, I refer you to your old biology textbooks. :-)

Healing powers seem to be a necessary part of having powers. Not everyone with healing powers have it in the same degree, of course, but the demands that having a power has on the body seems to require an enhanced healing ability in order to repair the stress and strain that the body undergoes when the superhuman utilizes their power. Also, the healing power seems to be tailored to the superhuman's specific power.

For example, those with super strength (including myself) all have a much greater and faster healing power than those who don't. When you think about it, it would be necessary due to all the stresses and strains that we put our bones, joints, muscles, etc, under when we lift great weights. Otherwise, we would break bones or sprain or herniate muscles every time we lifted something heavy; especially something way beyond normal human strength. The very fast healing ability is also what makes super strength types very hard to take down. Even if you pummel them constantly, their healing ability helps them shake it off.

The drawback to having super strength and a very fast healing ability is that they are very energy consumptive. That is, the bigger and stronger they are, the more fuel it takes to power all that strength and healing powers. So those with the highest levels of strength will need to do their damage in a short amount of time before their bodies crash from the energy drain. Unfortunately, they can DO a lot of damage in a short amount of time! The strategy for me when taking them down is to force them to use up their energy before they can do a lot of damage.

As for someone like me, while I have a great deal of super strength, it is nowhere near the powerhouse level that I've seen in others. In fact, with the exception of perhaps one, there are no real powerhouse level women in my "universe". Superhuman women seem to have the same limits of biology that regular human women have in that we don't get large and bulky muscles like the men do, so we don't get freakishly and enormously strong like the strongest superhuman men do. Still, it's a good idea to not annoy women with super strength, because we can still hurt you in so many ways! LOL

However, the benefit that super strength women seem to have over the super strength men is that our healing powers - while not faster than the men's - is much more energy efficient. That is, we don't "power down" quickly like the men do. While we may not do as much damage in short bursts like the men do, we can continue doing damage a lot longer, way past when the men would have tired out. This is kind of how it is in real life, isn't it? ;-)

Ultimately, the "edge" in strength that super strength men have will prove to not be an edge if they can't do right away whatever damage that they set out to do. In a battle between a super man and a super woman, the woman has to stay out of striking range long enough for the man to power down, and she can hurry the process along by forcing him to use his strength. Since a lot of these powerhouse dudes have an enormous ego, it's pretty easy to find the buttons that will rile them into doing something stupid, like lifting the heaviest thing they can find so that they can hurl it at the woman.

Once the dude has the weight completely over his head and before he can throw it, the woman can do something distracting - like throwing a good sized chunk of concrete at his balls to seriously distract him from throwing the weight. Some of the more focused dudes can at least drop the weight to one side before they grab their crotch, but most times what happens is that they grab their crotch instinctively, and the weight falls on them, thus forcing them to use their strength (and thus use up energy) to get the weight off of them.

Then if the dude is still conscious, the woman can do something like grab him by the ankles and repeatedly slam him into the ground until his healing powers are so taxed that it shuts down and they pass out. In case you're wondering - yes, I've done this before. :-) You ask how fair is it to take a shot at a dude's balls while he is vulnerable? I respond by asking, "How fair is it for the super strength dude to take on a woman when he knows she is way outmatched in the strength department?"

Understand guys, that as strong as super strength women are, we can be **killed** by a super strength man if he manages to get his hands on us. That's how much stronger they are than us. The key for the ladies is to "fight smarter, not stronger." So healing powers in the super strength men seems to be geared towards helping them lift those great weights, while healing powers in super strength women seems to be geared for endurance.