"Are you sure I'm allowed to be in here?" Cloud asked again.

"I asked specific permission," Zack informed him.

"But, I'm a Third. I just got my enhancements last month. I'm still literally in the 'breaking in' stage," Cloud pointed out. (At the time, he'd thought calling adjusting to your enhancements 'breaking it in' was ridiculous. Then he broke his first doorknob when he was half asleep just by turning too far, followed promptly by taking the whole door off its hinges trying to get it to open and yeah, he got it now.)

"Cloud, if you manage to accidentally break equipment that was designed for the big three to jump, shove, pull and climb on with full strength I will personally take you out to dinner on principle," Zack said. "It's fine. C'mon. Come play."

"Come play," he mimicked under his breath, slipping into the facility and blinking as the lights came on, illuminating the course. "…oh."

Zack grinned widely. "Welcome, Cloud Strife, SOLDIER Third Class today and First Class of tomorrow, to our secret SOLDIER playground."

Cloud shoved at him about as effectively as he could shove at Angeal.

"I keep telling them we could totally save water with a ball pit but no one's taking me seriously," Zack complained. "Anyway, I can totally run the course first, if you want?"

"It's basically an obstacle course on steroids, right? You just want to get from one end to another," Cloud pointed out, coming over to peer at the water. "…without getting wet."

"Yeah," Zack agreed. "But some of them are really tricky to figure out."

"Life doesn't come with an instruction manual," Cloud pointed out, going back to the starting platform. "Besides, I have an advantage."

"Oh yeah?" Zack smiled indulgently. "Do tell."

"I'm a mountain boy," Cloud pointed out.

"Alright. You do your thing, buddy. I'm rooting for you!" Zack said.

Cloud nodded and eyed the course with a little grin of anticipation.

He didn't have nearly the stride Sephiroth did nor even the force behind his jump that had enabled Genesis to leap nimbly from step to step. He got both feet on one at a time and springboarded between each steps. He spun on the rope, but still swung to safety and gave Zack a thumbs up. Zack made sure to cheer loudly.

He absolutely bolted across the spinning log, so light on his feet and so precisely through the center that it barely rotated let alone the frantic spinning that Zack's first try had elicited. "Holy shit."

Cloud smirked, eyeing the next bit.

The trampoline, and the hell crawl. (They'd said later that it was actually nicknamed 'the jumping spider' but Zack refused to call it that. As someone who came from a place where spiders came in sizes big and bigger, he did not need that image.)

A jump down, a bounce up, and he managed to make a pretty decent landing, lodging himself firmly between the two walls with maybe a slight slip of the hand that didn't actually affect his positioning. Cloud laughed in gleeful relief. "Alright, not… not terrible? How does Sephiroth do this?"

"Carefully." Zack laughed when Cloud snorted and inclined his head in a mute 'that's fair' that he knew better than to say.

Slowly, he began inching his way through with delicate little hops and careful hand placements. Once, he slipped a few inches and swore colorfully before carefully edging back up. But ultimately, despite needing time to figure it out and one slip up… he made it.

"Cloud that was amazing," Zack said. "You're on fire!"

"Yeah, maybe."

"No, seriously, I had an epic wipe there on my first try," Zack said. "You were awesome."

"…thanks, Zack." Cloud hopped down off the platform and approached the next obstacle, looking up. And up. And up a little more, at the wall that stretched at least a good four times his height. "…nope."

"Aw c'mon, Cloud," Zack protested, fighting back laughter at the look on his face. "Beat that wall!"

"Nope," Cloud repeated. "Nada. Not happening."

"Cloooooooud," Zack complained. "You have to try."

"I absolutely do not," Cloud said. "I am not Reno. I do not scale smooth vertical surfaces, let alone bendy smooth surfaces that are two stories high. Nope."

"…it's not that bad, is it?" Zack came over to look at it, frowning. "Really?"

"Let me get to Second Class enhancements and experience and I'll get back to you," Cloud said dryly. "But no. Not happening today. I know my limits, even the new ones."

"Fiiiiiiiine." Zack chuckled, slinging an arm around him. "You were great, though. Seriously. I'll see if I can get them to put in a training wall or two. Or hell, we can ask Reno for something similar."

"…he might literally knock someone unconscious to get a key card to access this place," Cloud warned.

"Naaah, Turks do their own stuff," Zack assured him. "But he knows all the best climbing spots. We'll work on it."

"Fine." Cloud leaned into him with a smile. "It was fun, though. I'd be happy to try the rest of it."

Zack considered it, then nodded. "Why the hell not? It's training. You don't quit everything just because you need work in one area. C'mon, we'll walk around it."

Next was the poles - the sliding poles, as Cloud quickly found out before Zack could even remember to warn him.

"Shit," he hissed, scrambling to get a better grip with arms and legs both when he was dropped a couple inches. He blinked when it stopped, peering down. "Huh."

"…you thought it was going to keep going?" Zack asked.

"I mean, you have something give way while you're climbing almost anywhere else and that is what happens," Cloud pointed out, carefully stretching to transition to the next pole. He grunted softly at the drop, but that time he was prepared.

"Gen wiped on that big one, the first time he was showing me how it was done," Zack said, pointing ahead.

"Good to know," Cloud muttered, narrowing his eyes at it. "Took it one-armed, I bet. In a hurry."

"Yeah," Zack admitted.

"Hn." When Cloud got there, he launched at the big pole and wrapped around it with arms and legs both. He did not slide off.

"WHOOOOOO!"

Cloud chuckled, staying put a moment before making a mad leap past the last, even larger pole and grabbing on to the platform. A risky move, but he pulled it off. He even waved as Zack cheered.

Then paused to stare up at a pull up bar with several more rungs above it. "…what is that?"

"Salmon ladder," Zack announced. "You have to jump the bar up the rungs, then grab on to that bar there to get to the next landing before the next obstacle.

"Who comes up with this stuff?" Cloud muttered. But he stepped up to grab the bar. Testing his grip, he began, hesitant at first, then with growing confidence. By the time he reached the top, he was very faintly flushed with the beginnings of exertion. He hadn't really gotten fully back to his exercise regiment yet, still learning his limits. Not that he was out of shape, far from, but the course as a whole wasn't anything he was remotely used to.

"Go Cloud!" Zack cheered. "Show that ladder who's boss!"

"Got it." Cloud huffed, reaching over to the bar and swinging gently to land on the next platform. "This is nuts. You know that right?"

"Yeah, but it's fun." Zack grinned.

"…it is fun," he admitted, chuckling. "Alright. Next is… uhm."

He eyed the series of hooks and large hoops a moment, then looked at Zack with the perfect wtf? expression.

"Thought you didn't want tips," Zack teased.

"Like that's stopped you." Still, Cloud didn't ask again. He grabbed the hoop, giving it a little tug on the hook, then swinging forward from it with a boost of momentum. He made the jerk at the end and landed with a jolt into the next hook. "Whoo!"

"Yeah, baby!" Zack clapped. "You got this."

"Arms did not like that," Cloud muttered, flexing his hands uncomfortably.

"Shake your arms out!" Zack advised.

"…how?"

"Like, let go of one -"

"Nope." Cloud snorted. "Nuh uh. Bad idea."

"…you kinda have to, to reach the next hoop, spiky," he pointed out.

Cloud eyed the hoop with extreme distaste. He couldn't just reach for it, like he bet Sephiroth could. He was going to have to jump.

He tried. He did, in fact, get onto it but his hands peeled right off on the jarring impact and down down down he went, splashing down into the water below.

He surfaced, sputtering, to Zack still cheering his effort. Cloud coughed and made his way clumsily out of the water. "Ugh, Zack."

"You did great, Cloud!" Zack insisted. "I'm totally taking you for ice cream."

"On the one hand, I feel very bribed," Cloud observed, letting him help him out and swatting him away when he went to attack his waterlogged spikes with a towel. "On the other hand…"

"Ice cream!" Zack said, grinning.

"Yeah," Cloud admitted, chuckling. "Ice cream."

"WHOOOOO!" Zack bounced. "Can't wait until we do this with the guys!"

Cloud froze. "What?"

"This was a test run, so you'd be ready!" Zack said cheerfully. "We're totally doing it with 'geal, Gen and Seph later."

"What?"

"It'll be epic!" Zack insisted.

"Zack no."

"Zack yes!"

"Zaaaaack -"

"ICE CREAM!"

"At least let me change," he complained, hurrying after him.

No wonder Angeal's nickname for him had made the rounds. He was an absolute puppy.