A/N I want to credit reviewer BMS for a number of training exercises that he suggested. Some of which will be mentioned in the coming chapters.
American Ninja Warrior is an American tv show based on a Japanese tv show, both are and were extremely popular and I used to watch American Ninja Warrior myself. California has gyms officially connected to the American Ninja Warrior and features the type of obstacles used on the show. While in real life they were not open at the time the Buffy show was airing, this is a fictional story and obstacle courses have been around a lot longer then the show and are used by the military and various gyms.
Mithridatism is a real practice of building a tolerance to poisons, biologically complex poisons, including cyanide, but not heavy metals.
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"Okay you lot, pay attention!" Rory called the attention of the teenagers to himself and the large passenger van he was standing in front of. "I've been training you, Xander, Faith, Buffy and Jesse on how to use swords and in martial arts and hand to hand combat, all well and good, but last week brought home the fact that there are gaps in what I've been teaching you and you are woefully unprepared to deal with dangerous Wesen. We're going to therefore make some changes, we're going old school. Grimms in the past forced rapid adapting and they did it by taking someone to the brink of death repeatedly. Which unfortunately, caused psychological issues. It may even have contributed to the Endezeichen Grimms, untreated psychological conditions brought about by training to deal with dangerous Wesen may have caused resentment toward Wesen and then obsession and hate. We don't have an Endezeichen Grimm to psychoanalysis so we'll never actually know for sure. But that doesn't mean we can't force rapid adapting ourselves. Just more along the lines of the blindfold exercises."
"How are we going to do that?" Xander asked. "Is there a way to extend our vision range? I ask because apparently that dealer had a light at his shop that changed color to indicate Wesen or normal human. And Amy gave Jesse a temporary Magic upgrade to his eyes."
"Temporary being the key word there." Amy said. "Using Magic on a body long term can have consequences of its own and those Magic addicts are a good example of that, but if it can be done naturally, then it's simply the body adapting."
"I've been doing research into several different ways we can go about it." Rory told them. "But we're going to start with something useful in another way. Everyone in the van, we're going on a road trip." Xander, Faith, Jesse, Amy and Tika, who'd been invited along, climbed in.
"Amy lost the use of her Magic for a little while last week." Rory reminded them. "And that made us realize she had no other way of helping to fight. Limiting one's self to only one area of knowledge or expertize severally limits how you can contribute to any endeavor. Cross training in sports means every muscle group gets worked and you don't get giant arms and flabby legs. Amy refuses to stop helping, just like Jesse refuses, so that means she's going to learn to use swords and martial arts, but she's also going to go through the same new training exercises the rest of you are. The good thing about this is you can do it at your own pace and still benefit from it."
They pulled up in front of a large building and hopped out.
"Welcome to the American Ninja Warrior obstacle course. I've rented the entire building just for us, for the day and made a deal to come back every Saturday. Normally there'd also be employees here, but thanks to a generous contribution by Charles Chase, we have the entire building to ourselves. Tika, you get to come with every time as well. You don't have an urge to hunt, but you sometimes keep Joyce company when she hunts, but more importantly, this is also fun and families should have fun together." A car pulled up beside their van and Cordelia and Buffy, who'd been released from the hospital a couple of days before, got out. "Great timing, Cordelia, Buffy, ready to have some fun?"
"I'm willing to give it a try." Cordelia smiled as Xander slipped an arm around her waist. "Strip mining a Mall, in my opinion is also fun, could be considered an obstacle course when multiple sales are happening and satisfies my own hunting urge but Xander's butt looks great in shorts, so there's definite compensation for doing this instead."
"As if you aren't going to look great in workout clothes yourself." He pretended to leer at her. "Cheerleader tryout day was always one of my favorite days." She lightly slapped his chest and the laughing teenagers followed Rory into the building. Once in the main area they stopped and took a look around in awe.
"Wow, Uncle Rory." Xander was wide eyed with excitement. "This really does look fun!" Large, foam mats covered most of the floor and ran up the walls. The obstacles and challenges designed to test balance, strength and coordination included monkey swings, spider walls, tilting logs, floating bridges, and the famous Warped Wall, as well as a rope swing, barrel roll, pipe slider, log grip, bridge of blades, jump hang, and devil steps.
"Show me good progress and we'll add in doing them blindfolded and with ear plugs. Your ears play a big part in balance and you can't always rely on them in a fight. Learning to compensate for an impaired sense during a fight could save your life. Have fun, kids."
With a whoop they charged in, for a short while they could forget the horror of last week and just be kids again, while still managing to learn.