Chapter Two: A Talk and Hard Training

Entering his dorm room, Wagner had finished his morning jog. The fact that he ran every morning surprised most people who knew him because Wagner didn't seem like a morning person. To them, he seemed like the type who slept through most of the day and refused to get up until about three o'clock in the afternoon.

It was something Wagner had grown used to. Since he started living with Guile, he had been woken up by him every morning at around five am to go jogging. "It helps you focus more throughout your day," Guile said to him back then. For a while, Wagner would groan and either he would try to go back to sleep or force himself to drag himself along because no matter what, Guile would not take no for an answer, unless he was really sick (which, funny enough, was rare).

But as the months went on, Wagner would start waking up without a problem. There were mornings when he truly didn't want to jog, but he would force himself to do it any ways.

It was because of these morning runs that Wagner's health has improved. Back then, he always felt tired, especially during school, but that all changed since now he founnd himself with tons of energy.

Since moving into the dorms, he and Guile had begun running at separate times since both of them have different schedules, but it gave Wagner a chance to think through everything whether it would be his day or even his life and what he's been through.

But this morning it was different. Since last night, he wanted to talk to Guile about how to be a better soldier. As he jogged, he thought about exactly what he should say to his trainer.

But he hasn't come up with anything.

'Perhaps it will come to me when I see him,' he thought.

Wagner looked at his black sports watch. It was six o'clock in the morning. Guile wouldn't be in his office until seven. He decided to take the time to grab a light breakfast. After getting dressed and putting hair gel in his short cropped hair to make it look nicer, he went to grabbed a fresh bagel from the cafeteria. The bagel already contained cream cheese on it, so he opened up the wrapper and began eating it. As he made his way out of the cafeteria, Jake had spotted him and slapped his back, nearly making him choke on his bagel.

"Hey there Wagner!" Jake said sounding like the cheerful person Wagner had always known. Wagner swore in his head that not one bad thing has ever happened to this kid in his life.

"Hey there," Wagner replied as he chewed on the bagel.

Jake grinned, showing off his perfect teeth. "Say Wagner, how about we do some weight training after lunch?"

"Sure," Wagner shrugged.

"Great. See you then, I have to get to class now." Then, Jake ran off. Wagner stood there for a few seconds before walking away.

At exactly seven on the dot, Wagner knocked on Guile's wooden beige office door.

"Come in," he heard a muffled voice say. Wagner opened the door and walked in. Guile was sitting at his desk, which matched the color of the door. The only thing on the desk was a file Guile was looking at, a computer, and a few photo frames containing pictures of his wife and daughter along with Wagner and Cammy.

Guile looked up to see Wagner by the door. "Hey Wagner, come in, sit down."

Wagner was nearly surprised by Guile's rarely-heard cheerful voice. Then, he walked forward, feeling the navy blue carpeting under his feet. Then, he sat down in the middle of one of the three chairs in front of Guile's desk.

Guile looked at Wagner. "Good morning, Wagner. Is there anything I can do for you?"

Guile knew that whenever Wagner came to his office around this time, it meant that Wagner wanted to talk to him about something, whether it was quick advice on the Air Force or something on a personal level, especially about his family.

Wagner nodded. "Yeah, it's just something stupid, really. I needed to ask you about... how should I put it… on how to become a Sergeant."

"What do you mean?" Guile asked with a bit of.

Wagner sighed. "Well, let's put it this way… I went out to dinner with Jake, Cammy, Liz, and Debbie last night because Jake got a promotion and he's now Sergeant. As I sat there at the table, I realized that I was the only one there who hasn't got a promotion in over a year."

"So what you're saying is that you want to become a better soldier so that you can be a Sergeant."

Wagner nodded.

Guile continued. "Wagner, you've always been good at what you do, but one way of becoming Sergeant is to have patience. Another thing one needs is determination. When one has determination, they're not willing to give up on anything. That's exactly what Jake did last week during his mission in Fiji and he earned his promotion for that."

Wagner let himself think about that for a second. Jake had managed to save three men from death that day. 'I guess all you have to do is be courageous and not be reckless,' Wagner thought.

He has been on missions before, but not as often. Wagner lately has been a bit reckless during missions.

One time, he went on a mission not too far off the coast of California. No one knew that the night before, Wagner had been drinking with a couple of friends from outside the base and he had woken up with a pretty bad hangover the next morning.

Wagner was lucky for two things… Jake offered to fly the plane that day, and he was the only one who noticed that he crashed, but unfortunately that was on the way back to the base after Wagner nearly shot some of his own men because of his impaired vision. Jake made Wagner promise that he would never drink the night before a mission again and as long as Wagner agreed, Jake would keep his mouth shut.

That was five months ago, and Jake still hasn't said a word.

"Wagner," Guile continued. "You're a good kid and you have a lot of courage, but sometimes you don't think things through before you act. I don't want to see your badge taken away because you've been reckless during your missions lately."

Wagner only nodded in reply.

That afternoon, Wagner met up with Jake in the weight room. Wagner wore a green tank top shirt, black sweatpants, and white sneakers. He also had on a pair of black fighting gloves.

Jake came out of the locker room with a white towel around his bare shoulders. He wore black shorts, blue and white Nike sneakers, and red fighting gloves.

Ever since Wagner met Jake, Jake got him into not only weightlifting, but also regular martial arts. Both were already trained in military martial arts, but Jake had learned karate when he was younger and has been taking the time to train Wagner. Although still slim, Wagner's body has developed muscles all thanks to all that training Jake has given him.

Jake lifted his arms up. "Want to go first?" he asked with a smirk.

Wagner smirked back and immediately threw a hook punch at him. Jake quickly blocked the move and delivered a fist to Wagner's stomach. Wagner ignored the pain as he threw more punches at him. Jake managed to block them before jumping in the air and delivered a kick to Wagner's chest.

Wagner rolled back a couple of times. Then, he jumped back up on his feet just as Jake was a couple of feet away from him. Jake started throwing his own punches at him. Wagner blocked them except for the last one, which landed on his jaw. Wagner stumbled back for a second before charging towards Jake again, throwing more punches at him and even adding a few kicks.

Jake managed to block them until Wagner's foot landed hard on his left eye. Jake stumbled on to the mattress and rolled out of the way. He was seeing stars, but he refused to let them be in the way. He shook his head quickly, got up, and ran back towards Wagner.

Wagner was prepared as Jake threw another punch at him. He blocked the move before landing his elbow on Jake's side. Then, he followed it up with a kick to his abdomen.

The wind was knocked out of Jake and he stumbled back.

"Rising kick!" Wagner cried out. He jumped up and brought his legs forward. His feet smacked Jake bringing him up in the air. Then, he performed another somersault, which pushed Jake back. As Wagner landed back on his feet, Jake landed hard on his side.

Jake sat up a little bit and put a hand over his left eye, his teeth clenched. Wagner saw this and walked over to him.

"Are you all right?" Wagner asked.

Jake managed to smirk and removed his hand from his eye. His eye had swollen up and there was a bruise already developing. "You ruined my nice face," he laughed good heartedly.

Wagner laughed as well. "It wasn't like it was all that pretty to begin with."

They both shared a quick chuckle before stopping. Wagner put out a hand. "Need help?"

Jake grabbed Wagner's hand and pulled himself up.

"Remember this," said Jake. "Never let even the worst pain get in your way. That's what happened to me just now. That kick in the eye you gave me was pretty painful."

"I bet you it wasn't that bad when Cammy kicked your where the sun doesn't shine last year," Wagner laughed.

"Yeah, yeah," Jake grumbled. "But other than that, you did well today."

"Same to you, buddy. You almost kicked my ass again."

"Yeah, but one can't always win. Damn Wagner, Debbie's going to kill you for ruining my face." Jake laughed.

"Well, I have to say that bruises on your face suite you better than the face you had a few minutes ago."

"Ha, ha," Jake replied. "Let's head to the weights."

Wagner agreed and the two headed to the weight lifting machines.