Training 4: Strength

Finally everyone agreed that the problem lay within the girl's muscles. She just didn't have much.

"What do you mean not much?" Wufei hollered from behind them, keeping a good distance between him and the girl. "You mean none! She's like a living skeleton!"

"Well! For your info, near skeletonial figures happens to be the fashion among the girls these days!" Jess shot back over her shoulders, feeling highly offended. "The guys in my world find it sexy!"

Wufei gave a loud snort that echoed down the passageway they were marching through.

"And in this world, you're about as sexy as a pile of bones get can. The only people I have seen as thin as you, are the beggars on the street and those without money to spend."

"Well, excuse me for being unsexy!"

"You're excused."

"Grrrh!" Jess grounded her teeth together. That boy really had a way of increasing the blood pressure.

"Hey, where you're going?" Duo stopped her just as she was about to stomp further down the passage. "We have reached."

Jess whipped her head around and found that the boys had gathered in front of a blank metal wall. Looking left and right, she could see there was no door on either side of them. Just a blank wall, identical to the walls on either side of the metal arches framing it.

As if sensing she had a question on the tip of her tongue, Heero raised a remote and pressed a red button on it. Jess gasped as the wall then slid to one side, revealing a secret room behind it.

However, this new room was pitch dark. Even peering hard into the room did no good. Jess couldn't make out anything more than a meter past the doorway. Thus, as the boys moved forward, Jess lurked behind; refusing to take a single step into the inky blackness of the room.

"Come on," Duo said, motioning with his head for her to move when he noticed she stayed where she was in the passageway.

Jess shook her head in reply.

"Why not?"

"That room's scary . . .," she answered, looking pretty frightened. Duo sighed and rubbed his neck.

"Hee-chan?" he called out to the Japanese boy. In response, the boy clapped his hands twice and bright light flooded the room.

This was so sudden that Jess had to close her eyes and wait for them to get accustomed to the light. But when she could finally open them, the sight left her almost breathless.

The room was like a gym, complete with dumbbells of various sizes and weights, exercise bicycles, weight pulleys, arm lifts, and many other kinds of muscle building machines. There was even a small court to play tennis or squash!

Jess marveled. Compared to her school, this gym was like the ultimate body building room. For every type of machine, there was at least two or three scattered around the room! If her principal were to see this, he would have fainted from sheer joy. In her world, each of the larger, more complicated contraptions was enough to add half a block to her existing school.

"So, what do you want me to start with?" she asked, taking a hesitant step into the room. Heero pointed at the dumbbells section.

"Arm building," he explained and walked over to lift up a bar. Then he started choosing the respective weights and placing them on either side of the bar to balance.

Meanwhile, Duo guided her to a bench and instructed her to lie down on it. "Heero will bring over the weights for you to lift." He explained as he gently helped her head to rest on the bench. On either side of the bench, there were two poles with open ends for the weights to rest on. Jess eyed them with worry.

Once satisfied that the weights were enough for her, Heero brought them over. Then with three fingers, placed the bar on the poles.

"Go ahead," Quatre encouraged, smiling sweetly. "If he can carry them with three fingers, shouldn't be a problem for you to carry with both hands." Jess eyed the weights warily on either side.

'Hm . . . One small one on each side . . . shouldn't be a problem,' she thought, deciding that perhaps Quatre was right. She then lifted her arms to grip the bar.

"Good," Heero muttered under his breath, his eyes suddenly very serious. "Lift."

With a good deal of effort, Jess straightened her arms and lifted the weights off their rests.

'Hey, not bad! I'm could get the hang of this!'

Seeing that she was ok, Heero nodded his head and instructed: "Now bring them to your chest level slowly."

For a moment, it seemed like she couldn't get her elbows to unlock. They just remained there, holding the weights straight up in the air. Then, with a tiny pop, they unlocked and down came the weights (and arms) at incredible speed!

"Eeeyah!" Quatre uttered, clasping two hands to his mouth in horror while Heero and Trowa leaped into action, catching hold of the bar before it landed on Jess's neck. Meanwhile, Duo and Wufei had both grabbed the weights off on either side of the bar; each clasping it tightly to themselves and looking down at Jess with faces white with shock.

"Jess? You ok?" Duo asked.

No response

It took another minute longer for them to ply Jess's hands loose from the bar she was gripping so hard. Her eyes were already blank, staring vacantly at the ceiling and her hands remained in their curled state, as if she was still gripping the bar.

Duo waved a hand in front of her eyes. No blink. She just continued to stare blankly ahead.

"Ok, remember that talk we had on starting light?" Duo asked, staring hard at Heero. Quatre joined him in the act.

"Hn. Bakas. Of course I remember," Heero retorted, folding his arms across his chest in a defensive way.

"And?" Trowa probed, taking the weight from Wufei's hand and examining it.

Heero shrugged his shoulder. "These are the lightest. 15 kg each."