headbr

Hmph, I know, I know. Watch me.

And don't call me punk. You have to call me boss.

Sure, Boss. Show me!

(Ooooh, she's got skills... pretty slick movement, no wonder she's so sure of herself... definitely pretty up there. Almost done, here goes...)

Oh! You dropped three! You lose!

Alright, get over here and listen up. Also, don't ever climb on the bunker again.

Y—You cheated! That one didn't count!

What are you talking about? You're the one trying to cheat here! Sore loser!

I'm not a sore loser! I'm not!

I'm the boss, I can't be a sore loser!

She's not! She's not!

Hahahahaha! We can go again if you want!

One two three four five six seven... You grabbed seven. Progress, huh? But I got eight, so you lose again.

Alright, now it's time to shape up.

...Hmph.

Hm?

(What? I busted my ass coming up with this and she's not even gonna keep up her end of the deal?)

(Are all kids like this now?)

If you don't make good on your word, then your, uh... goons #1 and #2 won't respect you as a boss, right?

Fine. What do you want me to do?

Learn the names of the machines and how to use them, and if you want, you can try them out a bit.

Alright, fine. Let's go.

You got it, Boss!

(She looks beat. Is she depressed now? Yeah, okay, kids really are a pain in the ass!)

You, uh, you're actually pretty good at knucklebones. I've just been at it longer than you, that's all. I got more practice.

Shake your wrist on the last toss, and the stones turn out like this—makes a little forward-backward separation. Scatters less if you use the back of your hand to catch, lets you catch even more.

Give it a shot.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight...

Huh, it does.

Real handy, right? All cheered up now? Let's get going, then.

Learning time! Be good until Instructor Dur-nar gets back, and then I'll teach you the ultimate trick to knucklebones. You learn that, and you can beat anyone, anywhere.

Really?

Don't see why I'd lie to you.

Alright! You're the best, Miss!

She's the best! She's the best!

I'm not even teaching you, the hell are you chanting for? Listen up, class is in session!

(Hah. Now I'm getting some respect.)

Alright, here we go. Pay attention. This is a barbell, this rack over here's called a 'Smith machine.' You fix the barbell inside these rails here. Why do you think we do that?

So you can't take the barbell away?

Huh? No, the Smith machine restricts how the barbell slides, so it won't swing forwards or backwards while you train. That keeps your waist or knees from getting hurt.

This way, you can do squats... just hold it like this, then make sure your knees don't go over your feet, breathe out and crouch, breathe in and lift.

You can lie down here too, do presses, and buff up your arm strength. But you gotta watch out when you're training. Make your barbell too heavy and you can't lift it, and then if it crushes you, you're, uh. (Crosses throat and croaks)

So be careful as you can. Got it?

Got it! If we make the barbell too heavy, it's gonna snap us in half!

Huh? Uh...

I mean, yeah, it will if it's too heavy, so, real dangerous. Gotta watch out for that when you train.

Then this thing's a pull-up machine, horizontal and parallel bars. Back to the brace, both hands firm on the handles, then rest your arms on the beams, lift your body into the air, and do crunches like this. Works out your abs.

Uh... pretty hard to get injured on this. Anyone wanna try?

Yeah, I wanna try!

Little high for you. Lemme lift you up.

Hup!

I hold on here?

Yep, then elbows up, support your own body... You got it?

Yep!

Keep your upper body fixed, back and waist straight, put pressure into your abs. Okay, legs straight, then lift them up with just your abdominal strength, breathe in, out... good.

(Shaking heavily)

Oh, damn. You have Originium growing on your arms here. Don't chip it... does it hurt here?

Don't touch me!

Don't panic on the rack!

What are you gonna do if you hurt yourself?

You don't grow stones, right, Miss?

No... I don't. What's up?

Then you've gotta keep away from me.

C'mon, get down off the rack first.

Why do I have to keep away from you?

Because I'm sick, and people keep avoiding me, and hitting me with rocks. You're not growing stones, so why aren't you keeping away?

Forget that. There's a million people growing stones here, didn't Instructor Dur-nar tell you? Focus on your training!

When they hit you with rocks, did you fight back?

I did! Really hard!

Attagirl!

Uh... but fighting's bad, still, so don't get into dumb fights anymore.

Why?

Um... it's just bad. Listen, okay? No more random fighting from now on.

Okay.

Alright, that's enough training on this machine. Instructor Dur-nar's gonna teach you the standard stuff to do some other time, so lemme show you around the rest of the machines.

Miss, what's your name?

Huh? It's... Zima. My codename's, uh, Zima.

Codename?

Yeah, I'm called Zima now.

How about you?

I don't have a codename yet...

I'll tell you once I think of one!

Haha, sure.

Cool! Lessons over. You remember all that?

Obviously! I'm really smart!

We remember! We remember!

You can keep doing this course with Instructor Dur-nar, if you want. Not bad to learn how to train a little.

There's more than Instructor Dur-nar too. Other ops do some intro extracurriculars. You can go check them out, if you're into it.

Also, Rhodes Island has a bunch of other kids around your age. Go play with them, it's no sweat.

We're done. Just waiting for Instructor Dur-nar to come back now. Let me teach you that ultimate trick for knucklebones!

The ultimate trick!

Me too! Me too!

Sure, get over here, all of you. Watch this. But you gotta pay attention...

Heeey, I'm back! Got it all taken care of! No skin off my back!

Hi, Instructor.

Hi, Instructor.

Oh, Zima, thanks for your help. I'll take you out to dinner in a minute~... uh, where's Leto?

Hah. She bolted as soon as she heard anything about kids.

Hahaha, no dinner for her tonight then~ Talk to me, how did the classes go?

I taught them the names of all the machines and how to use them. They gave training a decent shot too. Great work all around.