"I know you can do this. You better not drop it."
She did not believe she could do this, but when there was a bar of solid steel teetering over her chest, she had a bit more incentive. She pushed, expending her entire willpower until the edges of her vision started to go blurry. Finally, she was able to rack the bar.
"You're going to kill me," said Leaf. Her body was heaving up and down on the bench with each breath, and she could feel the sweat building up on her back.
Samus leaned on the bar over her head. "You were fine. Pushing right up to your limit is the best way to get stronger."
"I nearly dropped it!"
"No, you didn't. Either way, I would've been able to catch it."
At first, Leaf wanted to doubt that she could've caught it mid-fall, but then she remembered this was Samus she was talking to. She could probably throw the whole bar like a javelin.
"Alright, that's all I have for you today. Bowser should be almost here."
"Oh, great," Leaf moaned. She completely forgot there was another half of her training left with Bowser. Samus had drained her far beyond what Bowser usually did. Trying to focus on what Bowser was saying was going to be impossible.
"How…do you do this…every day…"
"Well, you're making an unfair comparison here. My DNA was specially reconstructed to make myself a fighter, and then I was trained as such."
"I know that," said Leaf, waving away the fact she was a biological masterpiece. "I meant…mentally…how do you train every day without ever getting tired?" She looked up at her and noticed she was staring off into a corner of the gym. Her eyes looked distant.
Samus snapped out of her trance and shrugged. "I never had much of a choice. It was my life then, and it's my life now. Working out is like breathing to me. I can't imagine myself not doing it."
Leaf rolled off the bench. Her legs nearly gave out from under her. Samus had put her through a brutal leg workout the day before. "I still don't think I'm built for this."
"From what Bowser tells me, you've got more fire in you than most of the people here."
"Oh great, so now other people know that I'm a loud-mouthed sore loser."
Samus laughed. "I don't think being overly competitive is something you'll find yourself alone in around here."
Leaf folded her arms with a pout. Saums rolled her eyes teasingly and marched over to the window to let some cool air in.
"What's up?" Leaf asked. Samus had stopped after opening the window and was looking across the training ground.
"Are those reporters with Bowser?" she asked.
Leaf poked around Samus to peek out the window. "Looks like it." Bowser was surrounded by five different people all in office clothing and holding phones and notepads.
"Stay here," said Samus. "I'm gonna ask him what's going on."
Samus marched out of the gym and over to Bowser. He looked calm. The reporters weren't trying to ask him anything. They looked like kids on a field trip with Bowser as their chaperone.
"What's this?" Samus asked.
"Hand's idea. He wanted to give some of the reporters access to the champions during training."
"And he picked you?"
"I'll act like I didn't hear that. On top of Mario, Cap, and Link, he picked Leaf."
Samus blinked. She looked back at the gym where Leaf's red face was still sticking out the window.
"What do you plan on doing?" she asked.
"Exactly what I planned to do today. Hand wants them to see training. They're going to see training."
Samus turned back around and glanced past Bowser. Kaitlin was standing in the back of the group of reporters. She didn't give any indication she had something to say. When she looked back at Bowser, he gave a tiny shake of his head.
"Alright," Samus said. She wasn't entirely convinced it was a good idea to let reporters swarm a newbie like this, but Hand's decisions were final. She left past the group and headed back to the complex.
"Let's get going, Leaf!" Bowser barked towards the gym. Leaf hopped from the window and ran out the front doors. She was hobbling slightly.
"Is she alright?" asked one of the reporters.
"Just some leg soreness from her workout with Samus."
"Don't you have drones that can heal these kinds of things instantly?"
"How do you expect to build muscle if you never stress it?"
The reporter conceded this point and started writing things down.
"Ready," said Leaf when she arrived, already winded.
"Okay, time for some more practical training."
"Against you?" she said. "I thought you didn't want me fighting you too often. I needed to practice against as many people as possible to test my weaknesses."
"Which is why I recruited someone for today. Someone who can push you, and someone that also is on Hand's little list of people he's letting the reporters talk to."
He turned over to the high ropes course.
"HEY! LINK! GET OVER HERE ALREADY!"
Link, who had been attempting one of the top-level obstacles, flinched from the sound of Bowser's booming voice and missed a ledge. His shoulder popped hard into a support beam before the drones caught him. Disgruntled, he hopped off.
"Whoa whoa whoa, what?" Leaf's eyes had gone wide at the mention of Link's name. "I can't-…you mean-…? I can't fight him!"
"It does seem a bit unfair," said one of the reporters.
"A bit? She was flattened by another newcomer in her first match. This is leading a lamb to the slaughter."
Kaitlin's eyes darted over to Adam. Not one for tact, are you? she thought scathingly. She had half a mind to tell him off, but Bowser turned around to face him.
"I trust you're not doubting my training methods. After all, that is what you came here to see, correct?" He said it just politely enough to carry a threatening tone. Adam backed off and apologized. Bowser was four times his size.
Link slogged over to the group, still rubbing his arm.
"Dislocated my shoulder on that fall," he mumbled.
"Suck it up. I need you to work with Leaf. We're practicing her mid-range combat and I need someone who can fight at a distance."
"Okay, okay. Yeah, you mentioned that…" said Link. Leaf stepped near the practice field and got her Pokémon ready.
Bowser grabbed Link before he left for the field himself and pulled him close to where none of the reporters could hear him. "Remember, we're doing this for Leaf's training. Beat up on her too much and I'll send Zelda to burn your unit to the ground tonight."
Link swatted Bowser's hand and threw his arms up. "Chill out. I'm not a jerk."
The reporters took up positions behind Bowser as the champions got ready to spar. Link tossed his sword and shield aside and got ready to use his tools to pepper Leaf with ranged attacks.
Five minutes later, Kaitlin had forgotten all about Adam. She was too busy observing Leaf desperately try and deflect Link's hoard of arrows, boomerangs, and bombs. Up close, the damage looked far more real and dangerous. Eventually, Bowser stepped between them.
"Stop, stop, stop!" he shouted, waving his hands. Link paused with a live bomb in his hand and chucked it away from everyone. It detonated over near Marth, who threw his hands up at Link, expecting an explanation.
"You're not closing him down as we practiced!" Bowser told Leaf. "If you let him beat up on your Pokémon like that at a distance, they'll be in no condition to fight when he comes in for the kill!"
"I'm trying-," Leaf tried to defend herself.
"You're trying, but you're not thinking!"
"That's hard to do when I've just come off of an hour of working till I pass out with Samus!"
"You need to be able to keep up your mental state regardless of what condition you're in! The last thing you need in a final game with the match on the line is to be having lapses of focus!"
Bowser heard some of the reporters mumbling to each other.
"A bit harsh to expect her…"
"She's so timid, I'm not sure…"
Leaf gave Bowser a huge eye-roll before returning to her spot. Link's were jumping between the two of them.
"I can drop another tool if it'll help-," he started.
"You don't do anything different unless I tell you!" Bowser snapped at him. Link shook his head.
The next fight went much differently. Leaf looked like she had just woken up from a nap and was issuing commands at nearly two times the speed. Kaitlin worried she was going to pass out from forgetting to breathe. Finally, she managed to get Squirtle to slide under Link's weaponry and deliver a hard knock to his gut that sent him tumbling backward.
"Ha!" Leaf shouted. She was bent over and pointing at Link with the other hand on her knee.
The reporters behind Bowser all laughed a little. Bowser glanced back at them. That was an interesting reaction.
Link flipped back onto his feet, rather unfazed by the shell that had just bowled through him. He picked back up his bow and boomerang and strolled back to face Leaf again. His eyes were glassed over.
"I said not to do anything differently unless I told you, didn't I?"
"What're you on about?" Link grunted.
"I don't remember telling you to let her hit you."
Link froze. There were a few "Oh ho"s from behind. He looked at Bowser incredulously.
"Are you seriously-?" and when he saw Bowser's smirk he sobered up. "Alright, I see how it is."
Link got back into his stance, looking much more alert. Leaf noticed his change in attitude and straightened up.
"Are you sure you want to be egging him on?" Adam asked.
For the third fight, Link maintained dominance the entire time, but he couldn't close down on Leaf's Pokémon enough to land a finishing strike. It wasn't for a lack of effort. He was diving, dodging, and sliding around the Pokémon as best as he possibly could. Without his shield, he had to rely exclusively on his agility to defend and close the gap. Time and time again he tried to create an opening at range and exploit it, but Leaf was too quick. With each failed attempt, Bowser continued to jab at him.
"Surely you're not telling me a member of the Big Eight can't break down a newbie's defense!"
"You-…shut it!…" Link shouted in between breaths.
But Bowser had every intention of piling on.
"And to think I was going to send Zelda to torch your place! I would've felt so bad, incurring her wrath on someone so helpless!"
"What is your deal-AGH!"
He had looked away at the wrong time, and Leaf had poked through a gap in his coverage. Link backtracked several steps as Squirtle assaulted him with one strike after another. Just when he thought he had retreated far enough to get some breathing room, a firey tail walloped him in the gut and sent him airborne.
All the reporters except Adam broke out into applause. Leaf thrust both her hands into the air and let out a yell, which made them cheer more.
"She's so firey! I never would have guessed!" one of them said. "Is there a reason we didn't see that on the field during your first fight? Was it just nerves?"
Leaf looked at Bowser for confirmation. He shrugged, indicating she could say whatever she wanted.
"Mostly nerves, yeah, but I was also trying to work with a lot of expectations with Red already being here before. After that match though, the only thing I could think about was how much I hate losing."
They began writing furiously. While Leaf entertained them, Bowser walked over to Link and patted his shoulder.
"Good job. I'll be sure to send them over to you after so you can repair what's left of your dignity."
"Yeah yeah…"
Kaitlin followed behind the crowd once Bowser shooed them away from Leaf saying she needed to get some rest now. Link said he was going to go back to the high ropes course to train if they wanted to ask him questions there.
On the way over, she tailed Adam, who had been avoiding her presence ever since they had arrived. It didn't take long for him to notice she was attaching herself to his shadow.
"What do you want?" he said.
"I'm just wondering if this special source of yours will make an appearance here," she said.
The smug tone wasn't missed by Adam. "Even if they did, why would I ever tell you? I'm still charging a high price."
"Really? Even when they leave out important information for your stories? I'm not too convinced of their worth anymore."
Adam gritted his teeth so hard that he looked like he was going to crack a tooth. Shortly after his article about the attendance at the last doubles matches had gotten around, Kaitlin had written and published an article mid-afternoon revealing the mechanical problems at the entrances. Getting witness accounts had been a piece of cake, given there were thousands to pick from. Adam had pushed his story out so soon that he never gave himself time to check any other reports. The statement by the company apologizing for the malfunction didn't come out until that evening.
"It doesn't matter why the attendance was low. Mechanical mishaps are just as bad as naturally low attendance, given they had to refund most of the tickets."
"I'd say it matters a whole lot if you're remotely interested in why the turnstiles broke."
"Shoddy maintenance. Lack of upkeep."
Kaitlin folded her arms. "From a facility that hasn't had a slip-up in about a decade?"
"It's not my job to care about why they can't keep their equipment running."
"What is your job then?"
Adam turned on her. Link was still clambering back up to where he originally had been before Bowser's shout knocked him off. The other reporters were now looking between them excitedly.
"I should be asking you that," he said. "Do you just go around covering for Hand? Is that why he lets you have so much access around here?"
Kaitlin laughed mirthlessly. "Oh, is that what you think?"
"It's what everyone thinks. You refuse to write anything negative about this place unless you're forced to. How many times did your boss hound you before you finally wrote about their financial problems?"
"Just because I bother to check my sources doesn't mean I'm avoiding the story. You might want to give it a try. I'm not seeing your 'half the roster cut by mid-autumn' claim coming to fruition any time soon."
Adam put up his arms and looked around. "It doesn't look like mid-autumn yet, does it?"
"Oh, please. If they were going to cut half the roster in a matter of weeks we'd be seeing the signs by now. If anything, their numbers have been improving since the story broke, or did you forget to check that as well?"
"Maybe if you stopped playing Hand's pet and bothered to get your hands a little dirty once in a while you'd be better informed."
Kaitlin's mouth opened a little, but nothing came out. Adam detached himself from her and moved to the other side of the reporters to observe Link. They were gaping as well. Kaitlin felt like she had just been slapped across the face. Her hand clenched around her notepad until the edges threatened to cut into her palm.
So that's how he saw it. She was just an annoying, naive little girl who didn't know what she was talking about. He didn't care that she found his work shoddy or incomplete, or even that she had gone and blown up his article. Her insistence on wanting to know why the turnstiles broke was completely beneath him.
Link only had to field a few questions during his training. The other reporters were still distracted by Kaitlin and Adam's feud, and Kaitlin herself was fuming too much. After he got too tired to continue talking and navigate obstacles at the same time, he sent them off to meet Captain Falcon.
This interaction was something Kaitlin had been looking forward to a little, and it helped distract her from her frustration. Link had pointed them in the direction of the recovery wall. Kaitlin remembered seeing Cap here pretty consistently since she began touring the grounds during training.
"Hello! Hand told me I'm to entertain you fine people today!"
One of the reporters giggled.
Seriously? thought Kaitlin.
"So, um, how much do you train a day?" they asked.
"Let's see," said Cap, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "When I don't have a match the next day, about six hours. Two hours of lifting. Two hours of cardio. Two hours of practical training. Sometimes I'll do more if I'm feeling particularly good."
"And how much partying do you do?"
Kaitlin had to employ all her self-control to not roll her eyes. Who was this reporter and why was this what she was so obsessed with?
"Now, don't believe what the others say. I'm a very responsible partier. I say if you're not working, you should be having fun. There's not much point in wasting time otherwise. We usually have a big one once a week and a few smaller ones throughout." This seemed to answer whatever the reporter was looking for.
Adam, as if his penchant for making others miserable couldn't be contained, had other plans. "What exactly are you doing here?"
"Oh, this?" he pointed at the huge recovery wall. "This is part of my practical training. I've been trying to reach twenty feet for some time now?"
"Twenty feet?" the other reporter cried.
Even Adam looked visibly interested, which Kaitlin previously thought would've required setting a bomb off in front of his face to achieve. "That's quite the distance. How have you been progressing?"
"I'm able to consistently get into the upper-eighteen foot range. It might be another six to nine months before I can make it. But hey, maybe I get it tomorrow!"
Kaitlin admired the optimism. Even though he knew he had a long road ahead of him, he still came in each day thinking he had a shot at obtaining his goal. That energy was infectious.
"And what is the goal of this?"
"Well, simply put, the further I can jump, the easier I can recover if I get knocked off the stage in a fight."
"And do you consider this a valuable investment of your time? With what has been going on regarding the company, are you concerned there is a chance something may happen before you can obtain your goal?"
Kaitlin had gotten accustomed to Adam's provocative questioning, but even this was pushing boundaries when it came to fishing for a response. Yet, Cap's radiant smile didn't so much as flinch.
"Maybe I should reword my previous answer," he replied. "Perhaps something happens. I don't believe it will, but let's say that it does. What does that mean for my goal? Well, nothing. Being able to jump higher has its uses in the competition, yes, but at its core, I'm just trying to become better as a person. Right now, I've determined that my next step in doing that is being able to jump twenty feet, and once I achieve that, I will look for something else to do. That goal isn't dependent upon anything else. The whole planet could move away and leave me alone here, and I'd still be at this wall every day, trying to touch twenty feet."
It was at this time that Kaitlin had to remind herself that, when it came to seniority, Cap was a hair's breadth underneath the Big Eight, outranking the likes of even Bowser and Zelda, and it showed. His response to Adam's question was so carefully executed it left them floored.
Adam didn't have any follow-ups. He wrote some notes down and looked around at the other reporters to see if they had anything else to ask like he was somehow in charge of the rest of them. Kaitlin still didn't meet his eyes.
"Can we see you try?" the one reporter asked.
"Hm? Try the jump? Sure!"
He took a few warmup hops and lined up in front of the wall. They waited with bated breath as he squatted a few times, preparing to leap. Eventually, he dropped almost to the ground and launched himself upwards with so much force it kicked up a small gust of wind from where he took off. They watched him shoot way over their heads up the length of the recovery wall.
His hand slapped firmly on the nineteen-foot marker. There were a few cheers from the other reporters, but they were quickly replaced with screams when he fell back down with a crunch.
"All good, all good," he said, waving off their concerns. "Ah, thank you," he said to the drone that had rushed to his side to repair any injuries. Kaitlin laughed. He was as indestructible as his optimism.
She dared one more glance at Adam during the commotion. He had remained emotionless. Cap's attempt appeared to have barely registered as interesting to him. He kept glancing around the grounds and checking his watch, probably wondering when they would be moving on to the next champion.
How lame, Kaitlin thought. If he was going to take point for Laurissa in covering the competition, he could at least bother to act excited by it. Even if she thought the other reporter to be a little fanciful, they were engaged and passionate about it. Well, she wasn't going to let him get in the way of enjoying her time here, and if her enjoyment came at his frustration, all the better.
Bowser popped down in front of Samus at a table for lunch. She knew any time he bothered to sit somewhere abnormal like this it was for something he had planned.
"Where's Leaf?" she asked before Bowser could open his mouth.
"Napping. What did you do to her? She looked like she was about to pass out."
Samus shrugged. "Nothing beyond her capabilities. Don't worry, I'm not gonna hurt her."
"You'd better not. I've put too much work into her so far for her to get broken now."
She sighed. "Did Kaitlin have anything to say? Or was she just there?"
"Just there. It's hardly a surprise she would've been among the included reporters."
"How'd Leaf fare with them?"
"Quite well. She even gave Link a few hard thumps, while he was handicapped, of course. Still, she is progressing very quickly. Hopefully, she'll be able to give Mario some knocks one day," he added smugly.
Samus didn't like how Bowser seemed to view Leaf as some kind of project. She wished people would just leave other people alone for once.
"Anyway, what I came here to say-."
"Oh, so there is a reason you decided to sit with me," she said sarcastically.
"-is we're adding a few more of the guys to our search party." During Samus's quip, Bowser forced out the rest of the sentence like he was trying to remove a splinter without her noticing.
Samus froze. Pieces began snapping together in her head at warp speed.
"We're not letting them in on everything, but they know who to look for and what to keep track of."
Bowser had tried to move on, but she had already locked in.
"You don't mean-?"
"Yes."
Between the feeling of being backstabbed and the incredulous realization of what he had just said, a whirlwind of fear had kicked up inside her.
"No," she said bluntly. "I'm not working with you on anything if you're going to include him."
"Calm down. You don't have to interact with him at all. We just need more eyes. I could care less whether you work together or not."
"How do you even know that…they are all going to cooperate? You're not picking from an overly trustworthy batch of personalities here."
"Regardless of how you feel about them," said Bowser, adding a very frosty edge to his use of that last word, "they probably have more of a reason than anyone else here to help keep the place running. That's more than enough to give me confidence they'll help out. Sorry, but you're being overruled, even if you are a Big Eight."
Samus didn't have the will to argue it further. Bowser acted as a self-proclaimed member of the Big Eight, and it wasn't like she was an influential member of the group who could easily thwart his authority. Mario was the de facto leader. Fox was the strategy specialist. DK was a seasoned executive of order. Next to all of them, she was just the super soldier who was lucky enough to be picked by Hand all those years ago.
"How long are you planning on training Leaf?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you have to cut her off eventually."
"I'll train her until she's as strong as the Big Eight if I feel like it."
Samus couldn't control her eye roll this time.
"So that's how you see her? Just a toy you've been refining? I hope you don't think she'll be taking on any Big Eight members soon."
Bowser put down his food. "You know, at least the other big shots try to care about the newbies. Even Fox has been trying to correct himself."
Samus shot him an irritated look. "Am I seriously getting this lecture from you of all people?"
"Is there a particular reason why you shouldn't?" he tossed back with cold agitation.
"You know why. You did things in the past that most people would consider…unsavory. Also, what's this about caring for newbies? You were all up in Mario's business before the Reveal Day trying to figure out what the roster list looked like. Hardly the actions of someone who cared about other's feelings."
"I was asking a question everyone else was too afraid to ask themselves."
"Oh please, I bet you had a bet just like Fox and Link did about who was going to get tossed."
Bowser paused, his mouth ajar. Samus didn't look at him as she resumed eating.
"Well, this explains a lot of your actions recently."
"How's that?"
"You just assume things about people, and then you try and rationalize everything you see them do around that assumption."
"I do not!"
"Really? Care to explain the logic that took you from me training Leaf to me using her as a tool for my own ends?"
"I-…you-…is it really that hard to believe?"
Bowser got up, clearly incensed, but level. "Here's a bit of training advice for you. Being nice doesn't require an incentive." He marched away and sat back at his usual table in the dining room, alone.
Kaitlin strolled along the side of the complex, occasionally peeking through a window, hoping to see a few of the champions within. Hand had asked that she stay outside the building for now, but nothing was stopping her from roaming around the perimeter now that she had gained the privilege of walking around the grounds as she pleased.
She kicked the corner of the building's concrete base in frustration. Adam had been particularly annoying today, but not just because he had equated her to something like a foolish schoolgirl. It was his absolute apathy of being in the presence of the champions who made up the competition that really bothered her. Why cover the competition if he wasn't remotely interested in it? She didn't like it at all. Coming here, a completely new planet, had been a big transition for her, but she had done it because it was her dream to work as a reporter covering the competition. To see someone brush it off as an inconvenience to partake in was just so-.
"Ugh!" she finished her thought with a grumble and kicked a random patch of grass. To her astonishment, the patch of grass grumbled back.
At least, that's what she had imagined until she shook her head and realized the grumbling had come from further away. Just around the corner, she heard the voice of what had to be Lucina.
"Look, I'm telling you, I can handle being the backline fighter! I played frontline last time only because we didn't do any preparation beforehand. I'm fully capable of shot-calling from the back. You know I'm a good tactician, and I can move in quickly."
Kaitlin inched closer to the corner of the building where her voice was coming from. She was about to round it when the person Lucina was talking to spoke up and she stopped in her tracks.
"I know you're capable, but you're paired with me."
Kaitlin was surprised to hear Fox sounding a little exasperated. He always appeared so cool and collected whenever she talked with him.
"What the heck is that supposed to mean? Do you think you're that much better?"
"No. I'm saying that your sword can reach farther than my punches and kicks. Between the two of us, you're far better equipped to be in the front."
"Does it matter when you're so quick that you can make up that distance easily?"
"Not against someone like Link, I can't, or Samus, and you've seen even Mario can beat me hand-to-hand some days."
"Why are you so insistent on this strategy? We haven't even tried it yet in a real fight."
"Because, to be honest, neither of us is well suited for playing backline-"
"I told you-." Lucina was growing more irritated by the second.
Kaitlin usually would try and poke out and ask a few questions at this moment, but her past attempts at doing that with both Fox and Zelda had been met with awkward responses mumbling about Hand's opinion. Instead, she popped open her notebook from earlier and quietly turned to a new page.
"It's not like our positions are going to be set in stone like some other teams," continued Fox after enduring a lengthy retort. "We're going to have to adapt constantly, and it'll take a little trust between us. Your best fighting is when you're on the ground or at least close to it. Our best strategy is going to be one where I support you."
"That sounds nice, but I still have no idea how you plan on executing it."
"I just need to better understand how you fight. That way, I can augment your fighting depending on the situation. You can control the flow of battle, and I'll help maintain it. Do you see? There isn't any one shot-caller here."
"Okay, yeah, sure. I'll believe it when I see it, I guess. You still haven't explained how we're going to practice this. A lot of what you just said sounds like some wishy-washy power of friendship garbage."
"We're going to fight Mario and DK on the training grounds."
"What?"
"Consider it an advantage of having a Big Eight member as your teammate. Those two are always willing to help anyone. Hurry up will you?"
"There's a difference between training and getting us killed! Hey! Would you wait!"
Their footsteps ran away in the direction of the training grounds and their voices faded with them. Kaitlin leaned against the wall and looked down at her notebook. The entire page was filled with little notes about the tone they spoke to each other with, how Lucina seemed to be doubting everything Fox said, Fox's barely functioning patience, and the entire strategy they were trying to cook up. It had certainly been a topic of discussion when they had bounced from completely dysfunctional teammates to a powerhouse duo from one match to another, and she had just gotten an exclusive peek inside what had caused that. Sure, they were far, far from being perfect teammates, but there was a clear and exciting plan moving forward, albeit begrudgingly, between them. Furthermore, why were they so testy with each other to begin with? She hardly knew of any drama that went on between the champions. Sure, there were the occasional storylines when known enemies from outside the competition collided with each other, but little bits of reality like this were all but nonexistent.
She pushed off the wall and made straight for the exit of the complex where she could walk right into the station to take the first line back to the office. There was work to be done.