You know, there was something viscerally satisfying about pushing your body to it's physical limit. Even more so when you continue even further past that point.

"...64…65…66…!" I grunted with exertion, the muscles in my arms working overtime as I levered myself up and down on the concrete floor. Up above me, I could hear the light creaking of metal bars as Newter swung from one to the next, racing back and forth across the length of the room with astounding ease.

The room around me was filled with the stench of stale sweat, a smell I had unfortunately become somewhat used to in the past few days since Faultline had first introduced me to this place.

When I had first expressed my desire for a place to train both my powers and body, Faultline had seemed surprised and then slightly approving. According to her, most new capes only did the bare minimum in regards to training their powers when they first got them, usually leading to them inevitably getting their shit pushed in the first time they got into a fight with another, more experienced cape.

That was when most decided to actually train with their powers, if they didn't die or get conscripted during that first encounter of course. Tinkers were only slightly an exception to this, as their power required actual setup to be even slightly potent. They just got conscripted when they went out to look for materials instead.

She had originally planned on coming to me with a training regimen for me to follow and so was surprised yet pleased when I came to her instead. She commended me for my initiative, and showed me this place, an underground training facility, before letting me know that I was welcome to use it whenever I desired. I was all too eager to do so of course. I had powers now, of course I wanted to test them out.

And test them out I did.

Experimenting with my abilities had brought me to several revelations, mostly about my power's drawbacks. For one, switching materials without turning back to normal impacted my stamina much more than just turning back to normal and then transforming again. That explained what had happened when I first met Faultline, as I had switched materials multiple times at that point, leaving me exhausted when I turned back to normal.

In fact, nearly everything I did with my powers impacted my stamina in some way. Something I found out about the hard way yesterday.

See, while experimenting I found out I had limited shapeshifting abilities, nothing too insane, I was mostly able to change the shape and size of my limbs or my overall features. The amount of changes I could make also depended on the material I was made of, flexible materials were easier, rigid materials were harder, simple stuff.

Of course, after learning about my new ability, I went a little crazy.

I tried a bit of everything, I changed my limbs into long barbed whips, turned my hands into massive spiked maces, turned my arms into sharpened blades, I even tried making myself taller by increasing the length of my legs.

The changes didn't stick unfortunately, I was still stuck at an average five foot six, much to my chagrin.

Despite that little downside, I was over the moon, thinking about just how versatile my powers were. And all with the only drawback being that I got a little tired? I thought I had won the power lottery!

And then when I turned back to normal, I blacked out almost immediately, smashing my face on the concrete floor as my legs gave out beneath me in my exhaustion.

As I came to find out when I woke up to find my boss's concerned face looming above me, my powers, like all things, had a limit.

Faultline had made sure I was okay, before laying into me about being careful with my training. Chastising my recklessness and barring me from the gym for twenty four hours.

I wasn't happy about it of course, but I understood and took the punishment without complaint. She was just looking out for me after all.

"...71…72…73…!" I continued my push-ups, sweat beading my face and sticking my hair to my forehead as my arms screamed for me to stop. Above me, I could hear Newter stop in his own workout to watch me carefully, before resuming as he decided I wasn't pushing myself too hard.

Given that she was now my employer, Faultline felt that she was at least partially responsible for my well being, so she assigned Newter to watch over me while I got the hang of my powers. Something he was fine with as he typically frequented the facility anyway.

In fact, the entire crew apparently used the gym regularly. Faultline had acquired it years ago when she originally made the Palanquin her base of operations. The majority of the building was underground, a massive concrete gym several dozen meters below the surface. It held practically everything you would need to train a parahuman or regular person.

Squat racks, treadmills, dumbbells and barbells, punching bags, and other things you would see in a normal gym. That was just the regular stuff, there were several things in the gym that clearly catered to the parahumans that used it most often.

Monkey bars ran along the top of the room, spaced seemingly at random and clearly catering to Newter's more agility based fighting style if the way he was moving about on them was any indication. There was also a set of massive weights, more than likely several tons of steel, probably for Gregor.

There was a see through box in one corner of the room. In the middle was a soft looking chair who's cushions looked slightly worn, as if it had been sat in regularly for several hours at a time. It was most likely meant for Labyrinth if what Faultline had told me about her power was any indication.

And while I couldn't see anything clearly meant for the leader herself, given that she was a Striker, she probably just sparred with one of the others for practice. Something which I would also have to do until the materials she had ordered came in.

"...85…86…87…!"

I had asked for a large variety of materials to test my powers on. Tungsten, graphene, gallium, and quartz. Things that I thought would be the most interesting for my power to interact with and test out.

Tungsten for its strength, Graphene for its flexibility, Gallium due to its propensity to change between liquid and solid freely, and Quartz for its healing properties.

That last one was what I was most interested in.

Since my little explosive episode at Christine's house, I had been testing the healing properties of my power to their fullest extent, breaking my body in various ways to see what did and didn't heal. My experimentation, which my new boss was not happy to find out about, had yielded interesting results.

When transformed my powers healed me passively, the speed changing depending on what I was made of at the time of injury. If I was made of concrete for example, Cracks in my skin would seal in minutes, missing pieces would fill themselves in even slower, things like that. And although I hadn't tested my ability to regrow missing limbs, even I knew that was going too far, I had a theory.

From what I now knew, the damage I had done to myself at Christine's house should have taken around thirty five minutes or so to heal. Instead, after I had once again melded with the wall, it had healed immediately, repairing my arm and hand in seconds. Further experimentation led me to an interesting conclusion.

Apparently, if I immersed myself in a material, any damage I had sustained was healed immediately at the cost of the surrounding material and stamina proportional to the injury. The same went for if I was damaged while not transformed, as long as I immersed myself into something quick enough, the damage would be healed, bruises and scrapes disappearing as if they never existed.

Which leads me to what I was doing now.

"...97…98…99…100!" I fell back down to the floor, panting with exhaustion. Sweat soaked my t-shirt and I could tell I had torn several muscles in my arms and shoulders. That was ok though. I focused on my power, feeling my body change to match the cool concrete under me before I let myself sink in, melding with the floor.

I spent a moment down there before emerging once more, climbing out of the floor like a zombie and shutting off my power, feeling my body turn back to flesh and bone once more.

I sighed happily, only a little tired as I rolled my shoulders to get rid of any lingering stiffness. I looked over at the nearest wall, observing myself in the mirror that hung there. I brought my arms up and flexed, grinning as I observed the now visible muscles where there were none before. My grin widened as I lifted my shirt, revealing the now visible abs on my pale skin.

"That's totally not fair, you know." I heard from above me and I looked up to see Newter staring down at me as he hung from the bars above by his tail, "Tearing your muscles and healing them is cheating. You should have to put in work to build muscle like the rest of us." He complained.

I just stuck my tongue out at him, "You're just jealous you can't do it too."

He stuck his tongue out right back, "Well duh. Can you imagine how good I'd look if I could build muscle like you? I wouldn't be able to keep the ladies off me." He smirked, letting go of the bar and flipping himself upright as he landed solidly on the ground. He patted his shoulder to remove some invisible dust, "Not like they can keep their hands off me anyway." He gloated, motioning for me to follow him.

I snorted, "Sure casanova. Whatever you say." I followed him over to the small matted arena at the edge of the room, pulling off my t-shirt and leaving me in just a sports bra and sweatpants.

Normally I'd be more leery at wearing something so revealing around a boy my age but Newter wasn't that kind of guy and he'd been nothing but professional so far. I knew I had nothing to worry about.

His smirk widened, and he proved me wrong immediately, "You're just jealous I'm so popular with the ladies and you aren't." He grinned smugly as we reached the mats. "Green doesn't look good on you Valerie."

I scoffed, coming to a stop a few feet away from him as he turned to face me, "Please. Everything looks good on me. And I'm twice as popular with the ladies than you will ever be." I tilted my neck this way and that, popping it and rolling my shoulders again to limber up. I grinned as Newter crouched down on all fours on the other side of the ring.

"So Mr. Popular, same rules as usual?" I called over to him, leaning down to touch the hardened plastic under me and activating my power, feeling the increased strength in my limbs. It wasn't much, but this was just a spar and we didn't want to hurt each other.

He grinned, white teeth gleaming as he got ready himself, "Yep. Three direct hits or a submission pin. Winner buys lunch."

I nodded, bringing my fists up in a makeshift boxer's stance, "You count us down."

His tail swished in the air behind him as we stared at each other, "Three."

"Two." My legs tensed in preparation and his eyes narrowed.

"One."

We leapt at each other, meeting in the middle. Newter's arm immediately swung for my side and I darted out of the way, reaching out with my arms in an effort to grab him and pin him down with my enhanced strength, ending the spar quickly.

He anticipated my move and ducked, slipping under my reaching arms and darting into my guard. He struck out with his fist, nailing me in the ribs with the thud of skin meeting hard plastic.

I swung out with my right arm, forcing him to back off which he did with a smirk. He crouched down again on the other side of the arena, "That's one." He gloated playfully.

I narrowed my eyes lightly, bouncing on the balls of my feet as he raced toward me again. He was faster than me and much more agile owing to his lizard-like biology. If I wanted to actually get him, I'd need to get tricky.

As he got closer, I widened my stance and opened my arms, once again appearing like I was going to try to grab him around his middle. He smirked as he approached, believing I was trying the same trick once more.

He darted forward, moving from side to side so I wouldn't know which side of me he was targeting. I kept my arms spread as he approached, before quickly closing my guard as soon he got close enough and swinging out with a fist aimed at his ribs.

His eyes widened with surprise at the approaching attack and I grinned internally, "Got Ya!"

My own eyes widened, my fist passing through empty air as Newter bent himself backwards at the waist, forming a nearly ninety degree angle like some freaky contortionist. I caught sight of his smirking face a moment before I caught a foot to the jaw.

I staggered backwards, more shocked than hurt, and Newter laughed as he bent himself back upright, "Nice one! You almost had me there!"

I growled playfully as I worked my jaw, "The hell was that? You planning to join the circus or something?"

He grinned, "Or something. You didn't think a melee fighter like me wouldn't have his trick did you?" He tutted lightly, "C'mon Val. I've been fighting for years at this point. You're gonna have to do a lot better than that."

I smirked, darting down and placing a palm on the floor. I exerted my power and softened the mat under his feet, making him sink down into the floor with a yelp, he bright his hands down to soften his fall only for them to sink in as well. I hardened the floor immediately after he began struggling, leaving him trapped in the now solid plastic.

I rose back up, grinning softly as I began to walk over to him, "How's that for better?" I gloated as he struggled to free himself.

He glared up at me, "Since when could you do that!?"

I smirked, leaning over with a hand on his back as I inspected my fingernails, "Since just now." I stated simply, relishing in my victory.

He spent another second trying to free himself before stopping, seemingly giving up. I looked down at him with a smirk, "Do you submit?" I asked playfully.

He closed his eyes and scrunched his brow in thought, "Hmm. See I would. If not for one thing."

I raised an eyebrow curiously, "And what would that be?"

"Tail." He stated simply.

*Wham!

I suddenly found myself lying on my stomach, the back of my head throbbing lightly. I groaned as I realized what had just happened. While I had trapped his arms and legs in the mat, his tail was prehensile, meaning he could move it like a fifth limb, which he did when he slammed it into the back of my head.

I lifted my face from the floor as I heard Newter's laughter. "And that makes three. That's my win." He smirked at me from his position in the floor and I sighed in mock sadness.

"Yeah yeah. That's your win." I grumbled as I stood up, "I hate that damn tail of yours. I always forget to watch for it." I complained.

He just smirked again, looking distinctly smug for someone completely immobilized, "Yeah well, maybe you should grow one of your own. The ladies love it, you know?" He waggled his eyebrows and I let out a laugh.

"Sure they do Newter. Sure they do." I shook my head at his antics.

"As fun as being trapped in solid plastic is, my back is starting to hurt. Think you could let me up now. Pretty please?" He faux pouted, lips wobbling like a child about to cry.

I laughed as I placed my hand on the mat. "I guess so. Don't male me regret it Mr. Popular."

He grinned as I let him go from my power, levering himself up with that damn tail until he was standing upright. He walked over and clapped me on my shoulder, "Come on, let's go get cleaned up. The club should be popping right about now and I've got some people I wanna introduce you to. And I want my free lunch."

I shook my head in amusement as I went to retrieve my t-shirt, "You know we get free lunch right? We own the place. Or at least our boss does."

He just grinned mischievously, "Yeah but it tastes so much better if someone else pays for it. Now come on! I want some hot wings."

I just laughed, turning off my power as I followed him and feeling a light tiredness set in. A relaxing shower sounded nice right about now.


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