Despite the banter, I was still led into the Pokémon Center again and taken to a room that looked like a mixture between a work-out room and a muscle rehabilitation center. There were a wide variety of physical training equipment, ranging from free weights to treadmills. A line of bench presses of assorted sizes lined the far wall, as well as other mechanical exercise machines I vaguely recognized but wouldn't be able to identify. I hadn't exactly been a gym rat in my previous life, after all.
The room wasn't totally unoccupied, and I noticed a dusty tan figure in the free weight area, rolling his arms in slow curls with a weight that seemed too large for the short, clawed fingers that held it. It was a Sandshrew, and I was fairly certain it was the same one I had battled with the day before. I was starting to spend more time picking up telltale signs of differences between different members of the same species, such as the particular shade of coloration, any subtle patterns, and variances in body shape... but really, I had been fortunate that I didn't need to remember that many individuals of the same species and differentiate them. If I had to actually tell all the Caterpie back on the pasture apart, for example... I wasn't sure I could do it!
Regardless, when I spotted the Sandshrew I raised my arms in a wave and received a stoic nod in return. After that, he directed his attention back to his workout, flexing one arm in a slow curl, and lowering the other in opposite rhythm. Not much of a talker, it seems. I didn't remember him saying anything in the battle yesterday, either, only the Rhyhorn. I didn't see the rock-rhino around, but if he wanted to exercise he'd probably have to do so outside anyway.
Audino meandered across the room to a standing machine with a circular bullseye target resting in the middle of a large box, with a display screen alongside it. She tapped a few buttons on the display, and then stepped aside. "All set-up. I assume you can figure out how this one works, smarty-pants." She stuck her tongue out at me, before diverting her attention toward the screen.
Was she still getting back at me for teasing her about the instructions outside? Ah well. Yeah, I was pretty certain I could figure out to hit the target, thanks. I bounded into position in front of the target, and considered it for a moment. It was supposed to be a strength testing machine, but was there a specific way I had to hit it? I could throw my whole body at it, but that might be cheating? I wanted to ask, but I didn't dare seek clarification now after being snarky last time. Audino wouldn't let me live it down.
I tensed my posture and threw myself at the machine in a full-body tackle, turning myself to the left to slam into it with my side. It wasn't exactly a shoulder barge, considering I wasn't even sure I had shoulders to begin with, but I wanted to do something other than slam face-first into the target. With a soft puff of impact, the slight cushioning of the striking surface met with my body and I rebounded back from it to land and peer up at the screen expectantly.
An old-style loading bar began to fill, alongside a spinning icon of a Pokéball. After a moment, it displayed letter score rather than an actual force of impact, and I frowned. C-? Not even average, but slightly below average? Lies! Slander! "That can't be right, let me do it again! There's no way I rank at a C-!" I huffed with a sullen expression.
Audino was covering her mouth with a hand, concealing her expression, but amusement was plain in her tone. "There's nothing wrong with being nearly average." She remarked, but stepped up to tap at the screen a few more times, then backed away. "All set, give it another go if you really want to. We'll keep your highest score."
I glared at the target, and tensed my body again, trying to leap higher into the air and use the downward arc to impact the target, trying to add more of my slight body weight into the impact. I landed with the base of my body in a 'kick' against the target. I landed poorly afterward, though, flopping onto my back on the floor and having to scramble up. When I did, the machine was already displaying a simple C this time. It was an improvement, I guess.
"Congratulations, you made it up to totally unremarkable rather than slightly sub-par!" Audino teased, and I scowled at her.
"Hey, if I'm scoring average on a strength test already, that's pretty good! I haven't even done any strength training in my normal form, so that means that I met the average with my own natural ability!"
Audino raised a brow as she glanced over at me. "I hate to break it to you, but I'm pretty sure there's no ditto that bothers to work out in their normal form. After all, your forms muscles aren't going to be dependent on your base strength. So that just means you really are middle-of-the-ground on your body's abilities. Don't let it get to you, the endurance test is a more reasonable baseline for battling potential for you. We just have to do all the tests as a formality."
"I suppose." I agreed without much enthusiasm. Even if it probably didn't matter in the long run, no one wanted to be called 'average'. But fine, it is what it is. If it really starts to bother me down the road, I can simply try and do some more exercise and training in my base form. It can't be a waste to have a healthy, trained body even outside of my transformations, after all! But I'll worry about that later. "So the last test?" I prompted, and Audino shook her head.
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"Nope, this is all I can do without nurse Joy present. I'll head off and see if she's free, and hand off the paperwork that I took notes on so far." Audino hefted the clipboard for emphasis, and made a sweeping gesture around the room. "Just wait here. You can do some working out if you want, just don't wear yourself out totally before the endurance testing." She turned and headed back to the door, leaving me alone with the exercising Sandshrew.
I bounded closer, and tried to strike up a conversation. "Good job in the battle yesterday! It would have been rough on me if you and the Rhyhorn hadn't been able to clean it up in that opening."
A wordless, vaguely affirmative-sounding grunt answered my remark, and the Sandshrew's eyes flickered slightly toward me, paying me the barest hint of attention as he worked out.
Well... that wasn't a lot to go on. I pressed on regardless, "Are you a professional battler then?"
An almost exact repetition of the same grunting noise followed again, this time with the faintest nod of the head. I swear, it was like I was trying to talk to a brick wall... but seeing as he was making an effort to give some sort of response rather than ignoring me outright, maybe he just wasn't a chatty fellow?
"I'm just being registered for a battling team today, got any advice?" I wasn't holding my breath, but to my surprise the Sandshrew stopped pumping his arms in slow curling motions, slowly lowering the weights down to the floor matting beneath us. His attention aimed my way, giving me a considering up and down stare, before turning away and moving toward the rack of weights.
It seemed like he was testing them, picking up a set, shaking his head, and moving down the line to the next set. He must have found one that was satisfactory, as he eventually weighed a set in his grasp, much smaller than the ones he had been initially using, and then walked back. He set them down in front of me with another grunting sound, this time managing to make it sound vaguely inquisitive. He nudged the weights forward toward me, staring at me expectantly.
"Your advice is that I need to exercise?"
He nodded his head, eyes squinting slightly in what seemed to be a pleased expression, and picked up his own weights again. Left arm curling upward, pausing, and lowering down slowly as his right arm lifted. He seemed to be doing the motions even slower than before, and I realized he was trying to instruct me, or at least let me see how he lifted weights.
I was slightly skeptical, considering I wasn't even sure I could gain muscle mass. Did my body 'reset' after every transformation, or would working out actually leave a lasting effect on me? Well, I suppose there was only one way to find out. I curled my nubby grasp around the center of one of the weights, and gasped out at the struggle I felt lifting it even using both arms. It was merely a five-pound little weight, but my arms wobbled like gelatin in an entirely new way as I tried to lift it.
"Arceus, that's not easy..." I complained, huffing and puffing as I struggled to hoist the weight that was meant to be curled in one arm using both of my own, feeling like I was deadlifting rather than doing curls. The Sandshrew grunted in agreement, seeming as if he obviously had expected me to have some difficulty with the weight. I couldn't exactly mimic his form, but I strained to match the pace, lifting and lowering the weight in rhythm with him.
I swear I felt like my arms were stretching and deforming slightly with each repetition. Was I really this weak? I hadn't really tried to lift anything in my natural body besides berries, after all. I don't want to be a noodle-armed wimp in my base form! I'm not asking to compete with a Machamp here, but I need to be able to accomplish basic tasks without relying on transforming!
Every time I tried to stop my pace, which was about once every few lifts, the Sandshrew would give a disappointed-sounding 'tsk' and I would struggle into another lift. It wasn't like I wanted to impress them! But the idea of someone I had battled alongside looking down on me for being weak bothered me quite a lot, actually. It was like I wanted to prove that it wasn't a fluke and I had done more than just be a punching bag to set up for the other Pokémon to clean up the day before.
I didn't notice the fact that every time I was successfully goaded into pressing on a little further, my silent and impromptu mentor figure would turn his head away from mine to conceal a small smirk, steadily and relentlessly maintaining his own pace.
Eventually I wasn't able to keep going despite the goading, and the weight dropped from my arms to thump down on the matting in front of me. I allowed both my arms to droop and took a few heavy, gasping draws of air. Whether or not exercise would be good for me in the long run, it certainly was a good way to wear myself out in the moment.
The Sandshrew set his weights down again and stared my way, raising one hand and making an odd, fumbling gesture with one clawed hand. I wasn't sure what he was trying to do, until he managed to get two claws horizontal while one aimed upward, and hefted it in my direction in a clumsy, unfamiliar thumbs-up motion. I grinned and did the same, a small raised bump of a 'thumb' on my nubby hand.
He grunted in approval, and reached down to take the weight off the floor from in front of me, placing it back on the rack he had retrieved it from, and then resumed his own workout. Now that he wasn't indulging me, his pace picked up, and he was pumping weights with the rhythm of a machine. No wonder those claws had done that much damage to that Galvantula, if he had insane muscle in his arms to slash out with.
I drooped there and half-watched him out of absent admiration, while the other half of me was focusing on catching my breath and trying to make my arms feel like they weren't made out of wet spaghetti noodles. I really hope that nurse Joy is occupied with something else for at least a few more minutes, because I wasn't feeling up to an endurance test right away after that.