"GOOOOOD MOOOOORNING, EVERYONE!" A boisterous voice booms through the room. I recognize the voice that roused me from my unneeded sleep.

I still like sleeping though, so I guess it's more of a want now, but that doesn't excuse the anger that I have toward Thomas. I might kill him for this.

"I say everyone, but you're the only one here, huh?" Thomas pulls up a chair next to my bed. "So you ended up back under my medical care. A poor choice really. Ending up unconscious is really bad for your health." Thomas's attempt at humor falls flat against my simmering anger.

"Huh. Tough crowd. Anyway, Aria, Sophia, and I have been working on a little something for you. That something being a sort-of training facility slash room here under the sea."

"Training time?"

"Yep, we'll be putting you through various exercises that we will definitely not come up with on the spot. It'll include some actual exercise, a few spars, and other things."

"Sounds great."

"Yep, I heard Sophia gave you permission to punch me in the face, so if you do that, well, I won't hold back."

"You were planning on holding back?"

"It wouldn't help you at all if I just beat the shit out of you constantly. Constructive criticism works wonders. Though you'll still have your ass handed to you by the four of us."

He stands up and leaves the room, but…

"Four?" I call out towards the door.

————————————————————————————————————

Once my body no longer feels like it was thrown off a cliff, and I receive an all clear from Thomas, he leads me through the halls of his underwater base.

Wait, I don't remember this hall.

"Umm, Thomas, was this hall always here?"

"No, I said that we built a new training area. So, as you can see, we built a new corridor and branching rooms."

"I thought you would just repurpose a room."

"We would've if it weren't for the fact that all of the rooms are in use. Alas, they are, and now we had to construct something new. Just hope it doesn't leak, or, well, we're 36,000 feet under the sea. You can probably guess what'll happen."

I can pick up his implied statement. I may be ignorant about the more abnormal aspects of life, but I still have basic knowledge of other…things. But yeah, I don't want to experience that much water pressure.

Would I be able to even acknowledge it before I'm crushed to death?

I'm quickly led to a wide open room. The size of the thing could be compared to about a high school gym. The gym is filled with various exercise equipment such as treadmills and weights. However, something that stands out above all of the equipment are the five doors surrounding the rectangular room. Two on the left, two on the right, and one grand one at the back of the room.

"We'll get you started with some basic routines. Maybe some stretching first, then a basic test to see where you're at. Though…I will need you to fill out your stats on the sheet." He hands me a clipboard and pen. I fill out the paper and hand it back to him.

"Hmm. Interesting," he muses to himself.

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"Hey, Thomas?"

"Hmm?" He gives a distracted answer.

"What are all those doors for?"

"Oh those? Those are challenges we're setting up for you. Sophia, Aria, and Nora are actually building their challenges right now actually. The one on the far left is mine. Going clockwise, we have Sophia's, a surprise, Nora's, and Aria's."

"Surprise?"

"Yeah. You don't think I'll just ruin the surprise, right? Nah, you'll have to pass our four challenges first."

"What's in the challenges?"

"Also a surprise. Now quit talking and let's get you changed so you can do some stretching."

I'm led over to a side room with a changing room and small shower. I find a light t-shirt, some shorts, and tennis shoes on a shelf that held towels. Weirdly, the shoes were an exact fit.

When I got back to the main room, Thomas was doing some stretches…in his waistcoat. The jacket of his suit disappeared, but he's still wearing his collared shirt and tie under his waistcoat. His thick pants and loafers really break the image of a workout, unless you want heat stroke.

"Umm, are you going to change?"

"What are you talking about? I already did."

I don't see anything different from his usual outfit other than the missing jacket, but I'll just let this go. It isn't all that important.

"Never mind. So, what first?"

"First, touch your toes."

He bends forward and is able to completely touch his toes. Meanwhile, I can barely make it.

We do a few other stretches, and, for some reason, jumping jacks before Thomas says we're done.

"Okay, well, not fully done. That was just the warmup. Come over here," he commands.

I follow him to a blocky machine with a big red target in the center. There are other dials and knobs all over the thing, but I really don't know what they do or how to describe the lack of rhyme nor reason to their sporadic placement.

"I want you to punch this target with all you have. It'll read the force of your punch and return it as PSI. I'll explain what this all means afterwards."

He crosses his arms expectantly while gesturing to the target and keeping a wide smile on his face. I shrug and line up a punch at the center of the target.

I strike with all I have, which causes my hand to hurt immensely. I think I bruised my knuckles, and maybe my nails dug into my palm.

"Hmm, 113.75 PSI. Above the average man's punch, and by quite a bit too."

"What do you mean?"

"Hmm, yes. You see a Power stat of 100 is about 60 PSI for the average man's punch. This could also be about 85 depending on the effort put in, but a professionally trained fighter could get anywhere from 194 to 336 in a punch. You're currently halfway between average and professional, strength-wise. Technique-wise, you have a long way to go."

Huh, did not know I was so strong. Wait, back before I got struck by a moon rock, my Power was at 131. So, doing the math, my PSI was about 85. I wonder if I could knock out a grown man with such a punch?

"Thomas, can you punch this? I'm kinda interested in seeing how far it'll go."

"Can't. The pressure gauge can only go so high. It would just max out."

That's new, and slightly worrying. Really puts into perspective how strong the elites are in this world. And I've been ignoring it. Well, I didn't have a choice. It just never effected me, until now.

Thomas brings me over to a treadmill. Or is this something else? It doesn't have the control panel that it usually would.

"Is this treadmill missing-"

"No. It isn't. This is meant to test both your agility and endurance. Thus, you will have to push the belt yourself."

"Can I have some water first?"

"No," Thomas gives a short reply before I'm teleported onto the belt.

"Here! I'll give you hand!" Thomas's shout is accompanied with a metal hand flying at the treadmill. Inside of the belt are the wheels that it lays on which the hand grasps tightly and begins to spin. The sudden motion forces me into a run. A run which if I suddenly stop will force me into the ground.

"You're doing great!" Thomas cheers me on from a nearby lounge chair in front of me. Wait, was that always there? And why is he wearing sunglasses and a very ugly Hawaiian shirt? I mean, you could see that shirt from space.

"I'm going to kill you!" My furious shout only elicits a chuckle from the relaxed doctor.

"Heh. You can try that later, but you'll ultimately fail!"

I give an angry grunt as I'm forced to speed up. I keep this up for almost 30 minutes when my legs give out and my face skids on the speedy belt. I am sent flying backwards into the air as my face is subjected to the cold pricks of air on my cheek.

I'm caught out of midair by Thomas as he catches me in a princess carry.

"Sorry 'bout that." He effortlessly lands on the ground with me in his…hand, singular. His other one gallops across the room towards us. It crawls up Thomas's leg and onto me.

It points at me and begins to glow a soft lime as the pain in my cheek begins to disappear.

Somehow, between my flight and catching me, Thomas has also managed to change back into his suit. Somehow.

"Feeling better?" I give a nod and he sets me down.

"About 10 miles per hour. Pretty good. And for 28 minutes too." He gives me a satisfied smile. I guess I did do pretty good.

"Now that we have a basis for your physical abilities, we, and by we I mean you, are going to work out. Hard."

His smile definitely isn't a friendly one.