Zoey felt a little better now that Commander Shaw had given her a way to help her make ends meet. It sadly would not be the first time she needed to balance work and education; she'd been working a full-time job around her studies in High School since she was old enough to do so. It was a tough slog, but she was used to it by now.

She met up with Roxy outside the lecture theatre just as she'd promised. The first day was really more of an introduction than anything else; the real training would begin the following day, along with her new job.

The Riptide Gym was indeed a short way from Grid Battleforce headquarters; it was only a few minutes' walk, which was good since although they had extensive gym facilities on-site, it would give them somewhere they could go nearby just to get a little while out of the base. It was not at all what Zoey was expecting.

Zoey had been used to community gyms and the local Y for her workout needs up until now. They were built in some areas as a way of giving people something constructive to do with their spare time rather than letting them hang around on the streets. To say that they were Spartan in their facilities was an understatement. They had space, and they had equipment, though most of it was donated from other gyms that were replacing their old equipment and whatever they could afford from grants and charitable donations.

The gym where Zoey did most of her training when she was looking at a military career was formerly a factory that had bare breeze-block walls, wafer-thin mats that didn't cushion anything at all, and a bathroom that...well...she didn't really know what the bathroom looked like because the smell was more than enough to convince her to never go anywhere near it. It was all about blood, sweat and tears. The people who went there were looking desperately for a way to get out of their neighbourhood much like her. Some with ambitions of fighting professionally, others aiming for careers in the armed forces, but none of them wanting to be there and eagerly awaiting any opportunity to claw their way out.

Riptide could not have been more different. The place was huge! It was brightly lit and painted in a bright colour scheme that took a little getting used to. There was equipment all around the room, from cardio equipment and resistance machines right through to free-weights. The middle of the room was set up with mats that while still thin, by comparison to the ones Zoey had been used to looked like a mattress, where there were some people in the middle of a yoga class.

There were notices around, indicating times of various classes and lessons near the door. Around the side, just past a small partition a little over waist-height were booths where people were eating and drinking a variety of healthy snacks, and yes, even the occasional treat for those that had "earned" a few wasted calories. There were a couple of video games in one corner, but only one guy seemed to be playing them.

"It's really something isn't it?" Roxy asked her, putting a finger under Zoey's chin and closing her mouth. Zoey had never seen anything like this...well, nothing up close anyway. She just nodded wordlessly. "Come on, let's get you signed in."

Zoey was starting to regret coming here. The place looked incredible, but the only thing she could think was that anything with these kind of facilities would probably have a suitably heavy price tag. The gym she went to only asked people to drop a few coins into a jar to help with the electric bill. Roxy took her to the counter where the barman saw them coming and approached, throwing a towel around his neck and smiling.

"Hey, Roxy, how are you?"

"Oh, I'm good." Roxy replied, leaning on the bar. "I was just hoping you could sign up my girl Zoey here."

"Sure thing, I just need a few details." He said as he looked out some forms from underneath the bar. "Alright, name?"

"Zoey Reeves." Zoey started to say, starting to become a little restless. "Um, I'm not really sure about..."

"Oh, it'll just be another couple of minutes." He told her. "Do you have any medical conditions we need to worry about? Asthma? Heart conditions?"

"Not that I know of." Zoey told him. "I mean...my knee sometimes dislocates, but I was taught how to put it back in."

"Ouch!" He responded. "Alright, I just need you to fill out your emergency contact details and you can hit the changing rooms."

"I'm sorry, how much is the membership here?" She asked. He looked to Roxy and smiled.

"This really is her first time isn't it?" He asked. Roxy just shrugged. "OK, the fees here are pretty steep; they start at...five dollars a month."

"I'm sorry?" Zoey asked, almost stumbling as she heard this. She didn't know what she was expecting to hear, but it sure wasn't that. It was not too much more than what she had been paying at the community gym near her mom's apartment.

"I make it up from the snacks and drinks." He replied cheerfully. "You have to pay for the classes, but that's between you and the instructors, but other than that, all I ask is you put your towels in the bins provided and please, go hit the shower after your workout before you sit down...THAT MEANS YOU EDDIE! Yeah, I see you there! Showers, NOW!"

Another gym patron had been about to sit down after his workout, but he sheepishly got up and headed for the showers. Zoey looked back to the guy at the counter.

"Since you're a friend of my little sister, I think we'll say that your first month is on me." He replied with a wink. "My name's Jeff, if you want anything don't be afraid to ask."

"I won't!" Zoey said with a smile as he walked away to serve another customer. "Your brother works here?"

"My brother owns the place." Roxy corrected her. "Mom wanted him to take on the family business but Jeff really isn't feeling it, so he took his inheritance from our grandmother and opened this place. He doesn't turn huge profits, but he really doesn't give a shit. He just likes providing a service for the community. It drives mom up the wall, but since that was the point, Jeff loves it."

"So, the changing rooms are this way?" Zoey asked.

"Yup." Roxy answered. "Come on, let's go."

Zoey loved her new gym. The equipment was all new, well-maintained and there was enough of it to ensure that even in the unlikely event she didn't get onto a piece of equipment she wanted right away, she didn't have to wait too long before one was available. She kept her eye on the clock, keenly aware of her early start the next morning. She was to report to the laundry at 4AM, so she didn't really want to be out too late, but she was aware Roxy had invited her so she didn't want to run off too early.

She took a break after resting some weights, while Roxy came over to her, mopping herself down with a towel.

"Nice workout." Roxy complimented her.

"Thanks." Zoey said, catching her breath as she took a swig of water. "But you were tearing it up, you're like a machine, do you ever get tired?"

"It's been a while." Roxy chuckled. "I've always been the active type, always on the go. Ballet, gymnastics, yoga, karate, anything that requires energy. Mom hopes that I'll burn it all up eventually, but it's not happened yet so..." She just shrugged.

"Karate?" Zoey asked.

"Yeah, I take classes here." Roxy told her. "I take the kids' beginner classes."

"You're in a kid's karate class?" Zoey asked her.

"No, teaching silly!" Roxy responded, throwing her towel at Zoey. "I'm a black belt so I have to do a certain amount of training to progress any further. I like teaching the kids because the way I see it, they don't know too much yet to resist and they're eager to learn. Older kids have a habit of thinking they know it all but when they're young, they listen and they have fun with it."

"Sounds like a nice gig." Zoey responded. She did karate herself, but she wasn't quite a black belt yet. As with many of her other endeavours, it was difficult to focus enough time and effort on it when she had so many pots on the boil at one time just to keep things going. "Maybe you can give me some pointers?"

"You're a little old for my class." Roxy chuckled. "But...there's an intermediate class. One of the other black belts takes that class."

"What about the advanced class?" Zoey asked.

"Oh...uh...well, they only admit brown and black belts." Roxy told her. "Blaze doesn't really like to spend time with people he really has to teach too much..."

"Blaze?" Zoey asked, her tone betraying how she felt about this revelation. She'd kind of dismissed it at first, but the way Roxy had spoken about it earlier, it did sound like she knew Blaze. "He takes classes here?"

"Well, yeah, there's a lot of people who want to train under a world champion, myself included." Roxy told her. "I take my lessons in his class, but I have to take the beginners and another black belt takes the intermediate class."

"Well, I'm not quite a brown belt." Zoey stated. "So is this other guy any good?"

"Oh, he is." Roxy told her. "In fact, his class is just starting if you want..."

"Uh...maybe another time." Zoey said as she realised the time. She'd already put in a full workout, if she went and did a karate class too then she would likely be completely wiped out for her shift in the laundry.

"Well, he's pretty good." Roxy told her. "And there are certain other...attractive features about is class."

Zoey cast a look over to the class, where a big guy was starting to call his students to order. She could swear she'd seen him at Grid Battleforce. He called them to order pretty quickly and once they were lined up started to take them through their warm-up. She caught a glimpse of Roxy, who was watching on, chewing on the edge of a water bottle as she stared at him.

"Hey, Roxy, I'm pretty wiped." Zoey told her. "I'm going to hit the showers, then get a drink. Are you thirsty?"

"Oh yeah, totally." Roxy said as she watched the other instructor. Zoey just rolled her eyes.

"I was meaning do you want a drink?" Zoey asked. "You brought me here, I figure it's the least I can do."

"Huh?" She asked. "Oh, oh right, yeah, ask Jeff for my usual, he'll know what that means."

Zoey started to head towards the showers, before Roxy just smiled.

"You will be mine, Ravi." She commented as she started backing her way towards the changing rooms. "Oh yes, you will be mine."

The following morning, Zoey's alarm woke her up, at which she immediately turned it off. She didn't want to risk waking Roxy, not when she had been so good to her already. It didn't take her long to get washed up and dressed; she knew she'd probably have to do so again before she went for classes anyway.

She headed along the corridors, looking around for the way to the laundry. Although she'd read the map, she wasn't entirely sure of the base's layout just yet. She had managed to find her way to the basement, but after that she was lost. She rounded a corner, bumping into someone.

"Oh, Oh, I'm sorry!" Zoey rushed out, seeing the guy with the glasses from before. "We really have to stop meeting like this."

"It's alright; I was just...um..." Nate stammered as he shifted the items in his grip around a little so he didn't drop them. He was starting to shift back into the porridge brain mode he seemed to go into whenever Zoey was around him. "Uh...samples...DNA..."

"Oh, DNA samples is that what these are?" Zoey asked him. "Sounds interesting. You're...starting awfully early, do you stay on the base too?"

"Yes...yes, I do." Nate stammered out. "In my bedroom." He winced a little as he said this. Of course he stayed in his bedroom, where the hell else was he going to stay? Zoey smiled.

"So, you're starting early too?" She asked.

"Yeah, there are some things I really need to get done at certain times of day." Nate told her. "The work with the animals really doesn't work on a human timetable..."

"YOU EXPEREMENT ON ANIMALS?" She shrieked, sounding horrified. Nate could see the worried, almost disgusted look on her face. He threw his hands out defensively, dropping everything. Fortunately, the sample jars were not breakable.

"Oh, no, you misunderstand! Some of our work INVOLVES animals, but we don't harm them in any way!" Nate assured her. "We need animal DNA, but we don't...we don't actually extract it from them."

"And how does that work?" Zoey asked him, sounding unconvinced. She'd heard of DNA testing before, and knew it generally involved taking things like bone marrow, flesh, blood, all things that took at least some kind of invasive procedure to take. Nate hurriedly grabbed a device from his pocket.

"Oh, no, we have technology, far beyond what they do outside." Nate assured her. "DNA when it's broken down, really right down, is basically like a mathematical code. If we can break down the DNA through a scan right to its base components, we can make all the DNA we need artificially. Kind of like a...a...3D printer!"

"You can print animal DNA?" Zoey asked, not knowing whether to be unconvinced or impressed. She had no reason to know that Nate, one of the most advanced minds on the planet, even despite being unable to string two words together in front of her without sounding like a complete moron, had in fact developed this technology himself as a way to get all the DNA he would need without the need for dissection. Partly because he knew how much he'd need and didn't want to keep so many animals captive, and partly because he just found the thought of it far too icky.

"Yeah, I can show you some time!" Nate told her, before screwing his eyes shut. "Um...except that's classified and I shouldn't have told you what I already did."

"Don't worry, your secret's safe with me." Zoey assured him. "If you can help me find the laundry before I'm late for my shift."

"You work in the laundry?" He asked. "I thought you were on the Ranger program."

"I am, but I just...need to get a little extra to buy some of my course books." She told him.

"Oh...well, there's no shame in that." Nate said as he picked up his stuff. "Here, it's just this way."

He took her down the corridor, finding his way towards the laundry. He stopped by the door and smiled.

"So...have fun." He regretted saying that. Why did he say that?

"Yeah, big time fun." Zoey sighed. "I'll see you around Nate. Good luck with the...well...whatever that is."

As she went into the laundry, finding the on-duty officer, Nate furrowed his brows and struggled to get a pen, writing a note to himself on one of the papers he was carrying, before heading to the lab to carry on his work.

Meanwhile, elsewhere, Roxy had gotten up and had headed to the park for a morning run. The classes at Grid Battleforce would begin at 9, so she had time to take a little bit of a run before getting herself ready for the day ahead.

She was a little surprised that Zoey was already gone by the time she woke up, but it did give her the opportunity to work on another little project she was working on. There was a reason she chose the park to go for her run, and that reason was just about to come around any time now.

She'd had her eye on Ravi for a while now, at least a couple of months. He wasn't the most observant of people, he hadn't even noticed that she was in the same karate classes he was. He didn't notice her around Riptide, but in some ways, part of the appeal to her was trying to figure out the mystery that was Ravi. He was driven, he was focused but on what, exactly she didn't really know.

She had already managed to make the introduction at Grid Battleforce, and since it seemed like that was his main goal right now. It was for her too, she had signed up because she had heard about a Special Forces group that was being formed and could think of no keener test of her abilities, but the fact that Ravi was there too meant she could kill two birds with one stone. After all, why did she have to settle with just being a Ranger when she could be a Ranger and also catch the eye of one of the most gorgeous men she had ever laid eyes on?

She was waiting near the fountain that he seemed to use to measure his laps. She had seen him start his run there, and every time he passed it, he'd check his watch. She took a moment to prepare herself, knowing it wouldn't be too long before he was coming past again.

As she saw him approaching, she came out of her spot behind some bushes, sprinting to catch up to him, before slowing down to a more casual pace to make it look more like she had just happened across him. She smiled as she pulled alongside him.

"Hey there!" She called out, startling him. Ravi veered a little off-course as he turned to see her. "Sorry to interrupt, I thought that was you, small world huh?"

"Yeah, it is." He said. "Rosie isn't it?"

"Roxy." She corrected him. "This is a nice park for a run isn't it?"

"It's pretty good; the path is a good circuit." Ravi agreed.

"So, you come here often?" Roxy asked him.

"Whenever I..." He started to say, before being cut off as he tumbled head over heel. Roxy came to a halt and turned around to see that he had tripped over the edging stones of the path. She'd inadvertently caused him to veer off the path when she startled him. She brought her hands over her face as she came back to him, realising what she'd done.

"Oh...Oh, Ravi, are you...?"

"I'll be fine." He told her. "I should be...AHHHH!"

He tried to get to his feet, only to fall straight back to his butt, unable to put his weight on it. Great, just great! She'd been trying to get his attention and have a full conversation with him and instead she'd almost crippled the guy! She knelt down next to him as he started to check his ankle.

"Are you alright?" She asked. "Here, let me take a look."

Ravi reluctantly took his hands off his ankle, letting her take a look at it. She couldn't feel anything moving inside that shouldn't be, but it was most definitely swollen, and from the sounds he made as she touched it, it was very tender.

"I'm...I'm sorry." She stammered.

"Hey, don't worry about it; it's not your fault." Ravi assured her. "I should have been watching where I was going."

Roxy decided now wasn't the time to correct him that it was her fault. It seemed like he didn't realise their 'chance' meeting was entirely by design, up until the moment she almost caused him to break his ankle.

"It doesn't look like it's broken, it's probably just sprained." She said sympathetically. "Do you think you can walk on it?"

He tried once more to get up, but was instead straight back down.

"I don't think I'm going anywhere for a while." He told her.

"My car's not far from here, I can get you to GB and get you to a medic." She told him.

"It's OK; I can rest here until...oh, OK!" He said as she scooped him up in her arms. He put an arm around her neck for support. She lifted him up, carrying him effortlessly. He looked to her, the sun just catching her hair as she carried him to her car. "Wow...thanks."

"It's alright." She told him. "I'll...I'll get you back shortly."

"Roxy." He said, looking to her. She just looked to him. "Thanks."

She just smiled in response.

"You're welcome." She told him, deciding it was probably best not to tell him she was the reason he got hurt in the first place. It might not have been how she intended to get beyond the introduction, but by the time she'd taken him to a medic, Ravi had given her his phone number.