~The Course~

"Again," Jake told her, holding up his right hand to her.

"Hya!" Bella took her stance and punched his hand as hard as she could, though she didn't make him move at all.

"You're moving your arm too far back, an enemy can easily dodge that because they see it coming." He explained, moving her elbow to the same distance as her shoulder. "You have a better chance at making a hit like this, now try again." He raised his hand again.

She punched his hand, only this time she could actually feel the force from the hit. "Woah."

"You felt that, didn't you? That lets you know you did it right, now keep going." He told her, Bella kept punching his hand until she was tired and stopped. "You're getting better, tomorrow we'll work on kicks."

"Alright." She nodded, looking at her red knuckles and smiled to herself. She was thankful the guys were there to save her, but she needed to start sticking up for herself if she was ever going to get better.

Dinner consisted of spaghetti, which was fairly good, Chance comically slurped up a noodle making Bella giggle. "So how has the training been going, Bella?"

"Good actually, a bit more intense than what my mom taught me but I like it." She smiled, eating. "Jake's a good teacher."

Jake looked at her, smiling. "In that case, we'll have a run on the obstacle course tomorrow."

"You guys have an obstacle course?" Bella blinked, she hasn't yet seen one anywhere on the lot when she first got there.

They nodded. "You'll be surprised when you see it, if you can beat Jake at it we'll think of a prize for you." Chance explained. "But I warn you, he's pretty fast."

"I was in track in high school, so I think I can at least keep up with him." Bella said, eating.

"We'll see tomorrow morning." Chance said, yawning. "I'm ready to hit the hay, see you two tomorrow." He threw his paper plate away, putting his fork in the sink and walked away.

"Goodnight." Jake and Bella said in unison, they both ate quietly.

Bella finished her food and wiped her mouth with a napkin, throwing her plate away as well. She felt happy to be learning how to defend herself better, but also a bit guilty because he was taking time from his own work to help her. "Is it really okay for me to be taking you away from your job like this?"

"I don't mind, we don't get that many customers to begin with. So it's a nice change of pace." Jake said, throwing away his plate and put his fork in the sink as well. "Tell you what, I'll let you know when we're not gonna train. Okay?" He smiled at her.

"Okay." She smiled back. "I better get some rest too, if you're as fast as Chance says you are then I'm gonna need it. Goodnight, Jake."

"Goodnight." Jake went to sleep as well, the next day both were at the starting line of the obstacle course doing some stretches. Bella wore a dark purple tank top with gray army shorts and comfortable running shoes while Jake was in his usual workout attire, he looked over at her. "Are you sure you're up for this? It might be too difficult for a newbie like you."

"I think I can handle it." She stood up, stretching her arms.

"Alright you two, let's have a fun race. Here's what you have to do Bella, first you need to run over a set of hurdles. The next part is jumping over a few uneven platforms, after that you'll be climbing across some monkey bars, once on the ground you have to jump through some tires and climb up the side of a scrap hill in order to jump onto a rope and swing across the lake. The last obstacle is pole vaulting over another scrap pile and then it's a straight shot for the finish line." Chance explained as they went to the starting line. "Are you two ready?"

"Ready." Jake smirked, getting in the starting position.

Bella got in the starting position as well, a little nervous. "Ready."

"On your mark, get set." Chance said, Bella took a breath and got her game face on. "Go!" They both shot off like a bullet, going over the hurdles with ease. Next up came the uneven platforms they were a little tricky for Bella, but Jake was able to easily jump them and do some flips in the process.

'Show off.' Bella thought to herself, catching up with him but then saw the tall monkey bars and skidded to a stop. 'Oh no...' She didn't realize how really high they were, taking a step back.

"Come on Bella, you gotta keep going." Chance called out to her, just then Jake ran right by her and climbed up the ladder to start climbing across.

"I...I can't." She took another step back, hugging herself.

"What are you waiting for, Jake's already halfway done with the bars." Chance called out.

"I can't do it, alright?!" She yelled at him, looking away.

Jake made it to the end of the monkey bars, jumping down but stopped turning around to see Bella practically frozen in fear. "Bella?" He ran over. "What happened, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, just pulled something is all. Let's keep going." She walked over and grabbed the rung to the ladder, looking up and quickly let go backing off.

Chance looked at the monkey bars, then at her. "Bella, are you afraid of heights?"

"What? That's stupid, why would you think that?" She laughed nervously, then sighed. "You caught me."

Jake looked at her. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"Because I didn't want to disappoint you." She said, looking at them. "You guys are amazing, you face down any monsters and villains the likes no kat has ever seen and always come out of it."

"That doesn't mean we don't get scared, too." Chance walked over. "We've had a lot of close calls in the past."

"But it doesn't stop us and it shouldn't stop you," Jake said, starting to climb the ladder. "We're getting through this obstacle course, together."

"What?!" Bella said, seeing him climb. "But I-."

Chance picked her up over his head, putting her on the ladder. "You can't hesitate, now get moving."

She slowly made it to the top, seeing Jake dangling on the bars and looking at her. "Okay, I'm up, now what."

"Easy, we just cross," Jake said. "I'm going to go backward while you go forwards, at no time are you allowed to look down."

"Easy for you to say." She carefully grabbed on and started moving the same time as him, she was getting really nervous and stopped.

"Come on Bella you got this, just keep looking at me okay?" Jake said, she looked at him and slowly started moving. "There we go, you said you ran track right? What else did you do in high school?" He asked, trying to get her mind off of how high they were as they moved.

"Well, at one high school I attended, I joined an archery club before it shut down. I wasn't the best at it but it was fun to try out, at another high school was when I tried out for track and started to like it. Since then, I've been to every track meet and we've even come home with a gold or silver during regionals." Bella said, continuing to move.

They were halfway through the monkey bars, Jake kept moving back. "Alright I have another question, what did you want to be when you grew up?"

"That's easy, I was going to take over mom's karate lessons when she retired." She said sadly, slowly coming to a stop. "But now I don't know what to do, I lost my family my home...sometimes I wonder if it's even worth sticking around after everything the world has thrown at me."

Jake climbed over to her, putting his right hand on her cheek. "Then you know what you have to do?" She shook her head, looking at him. "Keep your chin up and throw everything back, the world dealt all three of us a bad hand. But me and Chance changed our hands, and so can you."

"You're right." She nodded, wiping her misty eyes. "Let's keep going."

Jake smiled. "That's the spirit." They got to the end and he jumped down, looking up at her. "Now let go." She took a breath and gulped, letting go and he caught her putting her down. "Alright Bella, let's finish this."

"Right!" She darted off with him, jumping through the tires and was able to get past him and climbed up the pile.

"That's it, don't stop no matter what," Jake told her, right on her tail. She got to the top and jumped for the rope being able to swing across and landed doing a roll and kept going.

"Come on Bella, you got this!" Chance cheered, following them from a distance.

She grabbed the pole, digging it into the ground and let go vaulting over another pile. Landing on all fours she ran as fast as she could, Jake had caught up to her and they were neck and neck. It was very close, but Jake won in the end. Bella leaned on her knees, taking a few deep breaths. "Aw man, you were like a blurr."

"So were you, you must be one of the fastest she-kats I've ever known." Jake panted a bit, walking over to her. "Great job Bella, you have successfully completed the obstacle course."

She smiled happily, standing up. "Thanks. And thank you, for what you said back there. I do want to change my hand."

"Then what are we waiting for." Jake smiled, they all went into the hangar and she started working on her kicks with Jake. "Okay, you turn your hips like this. Lift your knee and then extend your leg, got it?" He showed her how to do a kick, kicking the air.

"I think so." Bella tried to follow his example but she almost lost her balance lifting her knee, Jake chuckled.

"Here, let me help." He moved her hips into position, lifting her leg to get balanced and extended it. "Like that."

"Ohhh, I think I got it now." She kicked the air, smiling when she got it right.

Chance smiled, watching. "At this rate Jake, she might become better than you."

"You think so?" Bella smiled but wondered something. "Who always wins when you two spar?"

"Why tell you when we can show you." Chance walked over and Bella quickly backed away.

Jake smirked, looking at him. "Are you ready to lose again?"

"I dunno, you tell me." Chance said and they began to spar with Bella cheering for them both, it was a rocky start to the day but Bella really felt her hand changing for the better.

I'm glad everyone is liking this series so far, it's a lot of fun to write. Now then, back to marathoning SWAT Kats. If I had to pick a favorite villain, I couldn't. they're all good in their own ways.

This has been DoodleKatAnime~