Chapter Fifteen
Same Old, Same Old

Heero made Trowa drive them to the warehouse, which was just outside of the city. It was large enough to house an array of training courses. There was a gym, a shooting range and not to mention a full obstacle course that was located on the bottom level. The warehouse used to be an old Mobile Suit hangar that was converted once the Agency started to grow. Preventers needed a location to test and train recruits. The gym was open to any agent that wanted to go to it. But most preferred to use the one that was on-site at HQ. It was centrally located was why most used it. Including himself and Heero.

Once they arrived, Heero got out of the SUV. Heero had sat in the back with Serena.

"Trowa, stay here with her. Do not get out until I come back."

Trowa glanced in the rearview mirror at Serena. She glared at Heero before turning her head away from him, crossing her arms in front of her chest. Heero huffed as he slammed the door shut. Trowa watched Heero till he disappeared into the building. Turning around in the driver's seat, Trowa looked back at Serena. Her face was a blank mask as she looked back at him.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah," was all she said.

Trowa sighed, turning himself back around to watch for Heero. Trowa knew that Heero needed to check the building and find the few agents that were there and have them leave. He also knew that Heero would likely deactivate the security cameras as well. They couldn't risk anyone seeing Serena.

It wasn't long before the handful of agents that were there were leaving, heading to their respective vehicles. Trowa heard Serena move in the back seat, glancing back up into the rearview mirror, he saw as she moved down into her seat more, pulling the hood of her sweatshirt over her head.

"They can't see you, the windows are tinted," he said. Serena's eyes snapped up to meet him in the mirror.

"Heero would probably make me lay on the floor just to be extra safe," she rolled her eyes as she sat up, removing her hood. Trowa tried not to laugh, but he let a smile tug at his lips.

It wasn't long before he noticed Heero coming through the front entrance and headlights likely from Sally's car pulling alongside their vehicle. Heero walked towards the SUV, he threw open the rear passenger door of the SUV.

"Are you ready?" Heero asked her.

"Yeah," Serena said as she slid out of the seat. As soon as her feet touched the ground, he threw the hood of her sweatshirt back over her head. "Is that even necessary? We're the only ones here."

"We're not taking any chances," Heero glared at her before shutting the door. Serena shot him a look back as Duo and Sally came to join them.

"Are we all clear?" Sally asked Heero as she came to stand next to him.

"Hm," Heero nodded before turning on his heel. He could feel Serena falling into step behind him. He was surprised that she hadn't tried to run when he left her and Trowa in his SUV, but part of him wasn't. She was following orders and other than breaking a mirror, she hadn't done anything else. As the five of them entered the building, they stopped in the lobby.

"Where to first?" Heero asked Sally.

"The gym," Sally said as she placed a hand on Serena's shoulder. "We're gonna start with some basic training exercises." Serena nodded her head.

Heero, Trowa, and Serena were the first to break away from the group. Serena followed behind Heero while Trowa fell into step next to her as they made their way towards the gym. Sally would be lying if she said she wasn't curious to see what Serena was capable of, though she had a good idea of what the results would be. While she had preferred it to be herself, Serena and either Heero or Trowa with them when they ran the tests.

She couldn't blame Duo though for wanting to come. And from what she could tell, Trowa probably wouldn't let her go without him. That was another thing Sally had been wondering about. He had been spending a lot of time with Serena. More than Heero did. She continued to watch from a few paces behind as Trowa lifted a hand, placing it on the small of Serena's back.

Which didn't go unnoticed by Duo as he moved closer to her.

"Wonder what that's about? Makes you think, huh?" Duo whispered to her.

Sally had to agree with Duo. Though it could be nothing more than Trowa acting how he normally would when escorting someone. He would do the same if it was Relena. Usually when he was stepping in for Heero to guard her. He would take it as seriously as Heero would, which was why if Heero was needed for something else, he would send Trowa in his place.

Sally shook herself. She knew she shouldn't read into any of it. While Trowa was friendly with Serena, it didn't necessarily mean anything. Even from the video footage of their time together, she wasn't able to gather anything other than he trusted her and she trusted him to an extent.

Serena was still a mystery, but based on what knowledge Sally had of her, she was very much like Heero but with a different personality. She wasn't an exact copy, but she was pretty damn close.

As they entered the gym Sally decided to start with the most basic test. While it was highly unnecessary, it would give her a starting point. Serena most likely had a high endurance level, but she still needed some idea of what and how far Serena's levels could go. She knew either this first test would give her some idea or it would completely fail. Even under a mountain of stress, Heero and the others could hold out for long periods before showing any kind of fatigue. Serena would no doubt be the same.

Sally had instructed Serena to stretch and warm up her muscles while she moved a computer along with what looked to be wires. Serena figured that Sally was going to hook her up to the computer so she could see the readings in real-time among some other things.

To her, it was no different than if she was back with J. Same tests, same procedures, same results. Once she felt she was ready Sally had her come meet her over by a treadmill.

After a few minutes, Sally had finished hooking her up with electrodes to monitor her heart rate, her breathing, and her brain activity. Sally had asked her to remove her shirt so the wires wouldn't get caught as she ran. Serena stood on the treadmill with her arms crossed over her chest. Clad only in a pair of leggings and a sports bra. She didn't care who was looking at her but she could feel one particular pair of eyes studying her.

Duo whistled when she removed her shirt. Earning him a couple of not-so-nice looks along with a threat from Heero. Heero had studied her for a moment before averting his eyes. But Trowa, his eyes had followed her every move. She caught glances of him out of the corner of her eye as Sally hooked up the electrodes. There was only one time when their eyes locked for a moment before he turned his head away from her. But as she stood waiting for further instructions she could still feel his eyes on her again.

Duo was busy talking to Heero and Trowa was standing just off to the side of her. His head may have been bowed but she knew he was looking at her from under his bangs.

Trowa tried not to look, not to stare at her, but he couldn't stop himself. He watched as she removed her shirt. Her whole body was toned. One might say to perfection if perfection truthfully existed. He had wondered if maybe that was J's goal with her.

Each muscle was sculpted just right. Enough to hint at the possible underlying strength but not enough to take away from her feminine features. Trowa could only see her back at the moment but as she pulled her hair up into a high ponytail, he saw the muscles in her back contact with the movement. Her biceps weren't as large as he thought they would be, given the knowledge he had of her. They were slightly larger than Relena's but if they were in a gym working out together, no one would know the difference.

He only knew this information from the few times Relena had wanted to use the gym when he was on duty. Heero had been working out with her over the years. It was mainly so she would be able to handle herself in a situation where force would become necessary.

He watched as Serena turned slightly, enough for him to get a profile view of her. Her curves themselves were placed perfectly. From her breast to the curve of her hips. Flawlessly defined in an hourglass shape. The leggings she was wearing did little to hide anything and his eyes had traveled down lower than just her hips.

Then he caught her eyes on him.

He turned his head away knowing he had been caught by her. She hadn't said anything to him, so he figured he could try and look at her again.

Her arms were crossed over her chest and she had her eyes closed. He watched the rise and fall of her chest as she breathed before moving his eyes down to her stomach. Her abs looked like the rest of her body. Defined enough without being overly defined. Compared to himself where he had worked hard to gain the muscle mass he had not only in his chest and arms. But also in his legs. Before joining Preventer full time he had still worked for the Circus with Catherine.

Trowa needed not only upper body strength but also a solid foundation in his core area and legs. He was still light on his feet and could still easily perform the same aerobatic maneuvers that he was known for. He had worked hard over the years to improve upon and maintain his body. Like the rest of them over the years, they had all grown into adulthood which resulted in each growing in height and strength.

He was still the tallest out of the five and largest where muscle mass was considered. Heero and Wufei came in a close second to him. Both were respectable in their size but based on genetics they were still slightly smaller. Quatre had even maintained his body. Though his job didn't require the necessity to stay physically strong, he still did odd jobs for Preventer when needed.

Duo was another story. While he did work out and was able to grow and strengthen himself, no one was able to figure out how he could maintain the body he had. Based on his eating habits, one would think he was an inactive person, let alone a Preventer. Though Trowa had to give him credit. Duo was still able to keep up with them, especially when they would train together. He would complain but he was able to still hold his own and realistically size-wise, he was slightly bigger than Heero and Wufei.

Trowa's thoughts were brought to a stop when Sally started to speak.

"Alright, Serena, you're all set. I'm going to have you start slowly getting a base reading then we'll pick up the pace."

Trowa lifted his head as Serena turned herself to face the front of the treadmill. Duo and Heero had stopped talking to move closer as Sally started up the machine.

After ten minutes of her lightly jogging, Sally increased the speed. Heero had moved to stand next to Sally watching the computer screen as it showed Serena's current stats. Trowa was curious to see himself but he wanted to wait till she was fully running. Duo had joined them as Sally continued to increase the speed of the treadmill.

"Damn. That's her base reading and that's her current reading?" Duo asked as he turned to look at Serena quickly before looking at Sally.

"Yes, it's not shocking but still interesting," Sally replied to him.

Trowa moved to see what they were looking at. Her base readings were the same as her current readings. The only thing that was slightly elevated was her heart rate. She was impressively controlling her breathing along with her brain activity. All were standard with their training and it seemed J had worked hard to make sure she was at the same level as they all were.

It took enormous amounts of concentration to maintain what she was currently doing. Though with one glance, it was easy to see she wasn't trying very hard. Her face was masked as she looked ahead.

Trowa watched as Heero moved to stand next to her. He said something which caused Serena's face to harden as she started pushing herself harder. Turning back in time, Trowa was able to catch the slight change that occurred in her readings. Her brain reading spiked for a moment along with her breathing and heart rate. He turned again as Heero told Sally to increase the speed. Serena's jaw was set and her legs worked harder to meet the demand of the machine.

"Why are you holding back?" Heero asked her.

She chose not to answer him and after he told Sally to speed things up more. She was starting to get annoyed with him. She knew that he was trying to trigger her into showing them something.

That was the point of all this.

It wasn't that she didn't want to, she could very easily do so. It was more of what her mind was thinking about. As she ran, she was trying to collect her thoughts. She was still angry from the events before them coming here and even though she had been running on the treadmill for over a half-hour, it didn't seem to help her any. Now with Heero standing in her peripheral view, she was starting to get agitated all over again.

"Whoa look at that!" Duo yelled. "Dude whatever you said did something!"

"Shut it, Maxwell," Serena growled as she pushed herself.

"That wasn't very nice," Duo pouted at her.

"That was the point," she shot back at him. To add to her aggression, Heero said the one thing that sent her over the edge.

"J trained you better than this."

Serena jumped off the treadmill, her chest heaving and her fists clenched at her side as she stared up at him.

"What the fuck is your problem?" Serena glared at him.

"You could've done better," Heero said as he crossed his arms over his chest. "You let outside influences affect your concentration."

"You're the one who had to come over here and start telling me what to do!" Her voice rose along with her anger.

"I expected more from you," Heero glared back at her. Serena was about to say something back to him when Sally stepped in.

"That's enough you two," Sally looked pointedly at both of them. "I think we've seen enough. The results are what I expected them to be. Serena, you have a high tolerance which we already knew, but it just solidifies that your endurance levels match those of the guys." Serena eyed Sally for a moment. She knew who Sally was referring to. "Next, we're going to test your strength."

Sally was starting to wonder if the test she was running was truly worth it. She was putting Serena through the standard tests they ran on recruits to find their strengths and weaknesses. It was becoming obvious that Serena lacked any real weaknesses. She had her doing everything from push-ups to even planking. All the results were showing that she was in excellent shape and matched the same results as the guys.

Sally was comparing files when she looked back up to Serena. She looked irritated still and it was most likely because Heero had been saying things to her the whole time. Serena, for her part, was doing a hell of a job trying to ignore him.

There were a few times when her mask had slipped. But overall she was staying calm. Deciding that the normal tests weren't going to show anything different, Sally played with the idea of allowing Serena to do something else.

"Serena," Sally as she came to stand next to her. "There's just one more test I'd like to run to test your strength. You have two options: weights or boxing?"

"Boxing," Serena said as her lips curled up.

Sally figured she'd go for the latter. Though she wasn't thrilled considering her shoulder wasn't fully healed along with her knuckle being torn up. But she also knew trying to stop her wasn't an option.

"Very well, but I want to tape up your hands and if your shoulder starts to feel strained you're going to stop. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yeah," Serena said as she kept her gaze locked on Heero. Sally sighed, maybe this wasn't a great idea after all.

A/N

Happy Friday!

So it seems someone's just pissing someone else off. Why not press some buttons? Also is someone catching feelings? I almost wanted to name this chapter that. But maybe I'll switch another chapter's name for it cause I just thought of it as I'm writing this. Oh, maybe I will... well that gives everything away but whatever, don't care. What I can say right now, is there's still more that happens in the next few chapters. They all lead up to something. Which will piss Heero off even more and I laugh every time I read this one particular part. I've had a lot of fun with some things. Enough rambling for now. I'm sure to come Monday I'll have more random stuff to say.

Have a great day and weekend!

-MM