Chapter Sixteen
Work Smarter, Not Harder

Serena had been ready, almost excited to do the final test. She could feel her heart pumping, fueling and preparing her body for what she was about to do. When Sally gave her the go-ahead, Serena swung at the punching bag, sending it flying away from her. When it came back, she took another swing, sending it away again. She repeated this action as thoughts started to race through her head. With every punch, kick, and knee to the bag, Serena lost herself more. She had heard some comments from behind her but she pay them much attention, one being one from Duo.

"Wow! She's got one hell of a left hook!" Duo whistled. "Shit, I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of one."

Unfortunately, everything came to a halt when Serena swung her leg up into the bag, knocking it off its chain.

Her breathing was labored as she stared down at the punching bag. She knew that she had gone roughly fifteen minutes before she knocked the bag down. She had lost herself with each throw of her arms and legs. Every thought of the past few years along with what she had learned this morning and Heero's taunting, drove her to throw herself into every move.

While Sally was only running standard tests, Serena had tried to look at everything as just a workout. It was easier for her to disassociate the two so she could concentrate. But maybe that was her downfall. Sally wasn't looking to improve her, yet she still found herself trying her hardest to show that she was perfect. But there was no need to improve her skills.

She was perfect. She had trained hard to meet the expectations that were set forth for her. She had gone as far as to even become better than those standards. To be stronger, faster, smarter.

Between her thoughts and anger, she had completely lost focus on what the end goal was. She wasn't even sure and as the minutes passed, she had completely forgotten what she was truly supposed to be doing.

She was working with her basic instincts to fight. Somewhere along the way, the lines blurred and she completely gave in to those instincts. It wasn't until she felt a hand on her shoulder that she reacted. She swung herself around as her fist came up. She stopped just short of Trowa's face as he looked at her. She had been so consumed in her thoughts, that she hadn't noticed him approaching her.

"Sorry," Serena muttered, quickly dropping her hand back to her side.

"Are you alright?" Trowa kept his face masked, but Serena swore she saw something akin to concern cross his face.

"Yeah, I was just lost in thought. Sorry, again," she said as she turned her head away from him.

"It's fine, no harm done," Trowa smiled softly when she glanced at him.

"No harm done? Dude, she just destroyed that bag and probably broke almost all the sensors on it," Duo said as he came to stand next to them. "Damn Rena, you're stronger than you look. Gotta give it to you though, I wouldn't want to be up against you in a fistfight."

"Rena?" Serena lifted her brow at him.

"Ignore him," Sally waved her hand as she approached. "Though you did break a few sensors, the results were impressive. Though I had no doubt they would be based on knowing your background."

"I'll pay for everything to be fixed," Serena said. Sally shook her head.

"No need to do. We're government-funded now. Replacing equipment is normal." Serena frowned at her. Sally smiled, placing a hand on her shoulder. "I appreciate your offer to replace it but it's not necessary."

Heero had stayed back watching. He wasn't happy with the fact that Serena had tried to hit Trowa but she caught herself in error. She had control over herself but whatever she had been thinking about had her off guard. He had a feeling it was most likely from earlier in the day and not to mention him trying to get her to work harder.

She had lived up to the standards that he knew J had placed on her, but she had also exceeded those expectations as well. From what he understood from their past conversations, it was true that J along with ROE improved upon the basic foundation of what he was when they were training Serena. Though from what he could tell she was lacking with her concentration. She was distracting herself.

"We should have her run through the obstacle course," Duo said, grinning at Serena.

"What's the point in that?" Serena asked.

"That's not a bad idea," Sally smiled at Serena. "It'll test your problem-solving skills. While I don't think we necessarily need to do it, it wouldn't hurt any. It's composed of regular endurance training along with strength as well. But there are a few hidden surprises," Sally winked at her. Serena lifted her brow but she slowly nodded her head.

"Good. I'd like for one of you to run the course with her," Sally turned to look at Duo and Trowa.

"I'll do it," Heero said, volunteering himself. He had been watching Trowa, knowing full well he'd offer to run the course with Serena. Something about their closeness bothered him.

"Oh! This will be good! Yuy vs...uh what's your last name, Rena?" Duo asked Serena.

"It's Lowell," Serena glared at Duo

"Yuy vs Lowell! Brother vs sister!" Duo cheered.

"We're not siblings!" Heero and Serena said in unison. Locking eyes with each other, Heero knew she had the same thought as he did.

"Ha! Goes to show that you are! It's gotta be some twin-telepathy or something. Though you're not twins…maybe Irish Twins? Whatever it works." Heero rolled his eyes at Duo, and by chance he caught Serena doing the same. "See! They even mimic each other's actions!"

"Okay, Duo's that's enough. Heero, why don't you change and we'll meet you there," Sally said. Heero nodded his head before heading to the locker room.

Once Sally had rewrapped her hand and Trowa had brought her some water and a towel. Serena was given an overview of the course as she dried the sweat off her face and neck. The course itself was designed to help train and improve the agents who would be working out in the field.

While in normal situations, such extremes as scaling walls by hand wasn't normal, Serena was impressed with the thought that was put into the design of the course. She had learned that the five ex-pilots had helped create it.

Une had gotten all of their input and Quatre's company had built it. The walls themselves were able to be moved to change the layout and increase the difficulty once training agents learned it and were able to bypass the traps.

What those traps were weren't being told to her.

Serena understood why but it did intrigue her. She had done similar training to what Sally was explaining to her. From where they were standing in the observation room, it looked like the floor was made up of multiple rooms. But as Sally explained that different pathways would lead to different sections along with different ways of how to get to those paths.

The goal was to reach two checkpoints. One in the center and one at the very far end of the room. Serena had been looking at everything. She was trying to map out a rough route to take but since more than half the course wasn't visible from where she stood, it made calculating everything harder.

"You won't be able to figure it out from here," a deep voice came from behind her.

"I can see that. Are you ready?" Serena asked, turning to face Heero. He nodded his head before he moved to speak with Sally.

Heero motioned for her to follow him. He led her down a short hallway before they entered a stairwell.

"Sally will be monitoring us and she'll start the clock once we enter. Whenever you're ready," Heero said as they reached the bottom landing. Serena brushed past him towards the door that led into the course itself.

"Seems you're still a fan of shorts and a tank top," she threw over her shoulder as she opened the door. A smirk on her face before she took off in a sprint.

Heero didn't have time to say anything as he was forced to start running. He had run the course several times before, but every time it was different.

He caught up with Serena who was taking random turns. Sally hadn't turned on the pop-out figures since they weren't running it with weapons, but she made sure that there were plenty of traps. After only a few minutes they had run into their first. It looked to be a dead-end.

Heero watched as Serena looked around while running her fingers over the wall. She turned her head and smirked at him as she started to pull at one of the walls, giving way to an opening.

"This is supposed to be a trap?" She asked as she moved it enough to get through.

"There's more, don't worry," he said as she squeezed herself through the small opening.

"Tell me they get harder, that was too easy," Serena yelled as she started to run again.

Not even two minutes later, they were running side by side before both of them fell through an opening in the floor. Both landed on their feet. Heero looked up at the dim lighting shining through the opening, then to Serena.

"A trick floor? Seriously? You couldn't think of something better?" Serena asked as she placed her hands on her hips. "This is child's play, Heero."

"What's she saying now?" Duo asked, turning his head. Trowa shrugged his shoulders. They had been sitting watching them on the monitors. Heero and Serena hadn't said a single word in English.

"Beats me. But she doesn't look happy though," Sally said.

"She may not think it's challenging enough," Trowa supplied. "If you think about it, we tend to get through the course rather easily. Why would it be any different for her?"

"You have a point there. Whoa, look at that!" Duo said, pointing to the screen. Serena was scaling the wall with her hands and feet on either side of herself, pulling herself over the edge once she reached the top.

"That didn't take her long. Though Heero doesn't look too happy now," Sally chuckled.

They watched as Heero did the same thing Serena had done. Trowa smirked to himself as he saw Serena run down a hallway before turning. The time it took Heero to get out of the hole in the floor gave Serena enough time to put some distance between them.

"Wonder what he's going to do now? Rena's almost at the first checkpoint," Duo said aloud.

"You know she doesn't like that you've given her a nickname, right?" Trowa asked him.

"And how would you know? She hasn't said anything yet," Duo turned his chair to face him. "Did she say something to you?"

"No, but it's easy to see that she doesn't like it," Trowa said, turning his attention back to the monitors.

"Regardless if she likes it or not, the name is staying," Duo said. Trowa caught him folding his arms over his chest out of the corner of his eye.

"If she hits you, don't come crying to me, Maxwell. Now pay attention. I think things are going to become more interesting," Sally said.

"Yeah, yeah. Why what happened?" Duo turned his chair around to see the screen. "Hey, wait, where did she go?" Trowa's smile widened as he saw the confused look on Duo's face.

A/N

Happy Monday! This was just a silly chapter that leads to the next one. Cause who hasn't been introduced to this story yet? It just so happens to play a role for chapter eighteen, because well... they needed to not be at HQ so I needed an excuse to get everyone out. What better than this? Lol. I shouldn't prewrite my notes, you'd think I'd learn by now. But I will continue to do so because it's helping to keep me on track.

Enough rambling, have a great Monday!
-MM