“Okay everyone, today we will start to do therapy your muscles to regain your strength. For that we set up several different exercises for you all.” A nurse says.
Behind her are eight people, this was the crew, all of which had been given some simple clothes that were easy to move in. It was no longer that long medical dress but a pants and shirt.
Currently they were entering a new wing of the hospital which was meant for physical therapy.
As they pass a large door they find themselves inside a large gym where many doctors were helping recovering patients from accidents and had their movements impaired.
Noah and the others were looking around when near the back Ernest notices a spot that had old men with a prosthetic arm with slow movements.
“Never expected to see an old military man here.” He commented.
The others looked and saw the elder trying to use the arm.
“Those are some of the prosthetics that I saw father talking to some of the researchers about. They use a similar technology to what is used in the VR capsules to access the nerves in the arm and move it.” Sophia said.
“That is correct Miss Brim, experiments with robotic prosthetics comes from way back but even after so many years they haven’t advanced so far since it’s not easy to compact the technology from the capsules into a robotic arm.” The nurse said.
“Hasn’t anyone researched cybernetics in “The Nebula” yet?” Noland asked.
“The game has been released for only a month before that incident, even if we had the time it would take time to learn it, research the technology and medical knowledge known in the game then to reverse engineer it in reality.” The nurse explained and clapped her hand, “Now let's get you all moving.” a smile appears on her face.
She looked around and started calling a few male and female nurse to come attend to each of us.
“Now, for the time being we will do simple physical exercises and in a little while we will go to a different area to exercise things like motor controls and reflexes.” The nurse said
“Exactly what is the schedule?” Noland asked.
“It's split into 3 stages. Stage 1 is full body rehab, this is for you to go through all the equipment for a few repetitions until we can reach your strength limit without going overboard. For today it will be light exercise, weight lifting, a brisk jog and a few other. For stage 2 it will be around fine motor skills, this stage takes into account reflexes and movement speed. That said, the exercise will be ping pong, drawing, typing on the computer and at noon we will see how your control in using tableware is.” The nurse said.
“The last one, is it necessary?” Elisa asked confused.
“Miss, you are also a nurse so you should know, what you went through is currently restricting your controls, you can walk and move on your own already but the fine controls of your body haven’t been exercised yet and may even degrade if they don’t undergo rehabilitation. Also each of you seem to even move the body of the other when they are asleep so you need to learn to control only your own body and not theirs.” The nurse said to Elisa who nodded understanding.
“Finally, the final stage will be a second round of tests for fine control but this one will be more harder then the first and involves mental tasks. The exercises will be…” She flips messes with the tablet in her hand and looks, “Using chopsticks to grab and move things, playing video games with remote controllers, high intensity games that need coordination and speed and finally timed keyboard typing.” The nurse finished.
“Why are things so focused on videogames?” Alex asked.
“With the coming of Virtual reality video games became a large focus for people. As for the reason we use, remote controllers need high level of coordination to properly used and win in the quickest time. The one after that will most likely be something along the lines of G**tar H**o for the need for high speed controlling.” The nurse said.
“Well, we can worry about that later. My muscles have been itching for a while since I have been stagnate for so long.” Ernest said and began stretching.
“Awesome! I want to try and at least outdo you Ernest since I am sure I can’t surpass Noah. He was, after all, the first one to wake up.” Meghan said laughing and began her own stretching.
“Aahaha! Son, you sure got some competition. Good luck.” Noland laughed and walked into the Gym.
Noah just rolled his eyes and walked to the side.
Sophia walked over to him and with a shy expression asked, “Can you help me stretch, I’m not as sporty so I only ever did basic stretches.”
“Basic stretches are fine, their is no need for overexerting yourself at this moment, it's not like you trained to be a martial artist like my dad made me do for so long.” Noah said.
“Noah… how strong are you?” She asked what was on her mind.
Noah froze as he was in the middle of doing a butterfly stretch. He let his body lift and put his hands behind him and held his body upright and thought for a moment.
“If I put it on a roughly, I could probably participate in the olympics, not sure if I can get gold but at the very least I know I can get bronze.” Noah said with determination.
Sophia nodded as she sat down and copied Noah and he would tell her if she was doing it wrong.
As expected, staying in bed for over three weeks had greatly stiffened their bodies but after a full hour of warm ups, most of the things that had been annoying Noah, Ernest, Meghan and Noland, all of which are the expert close range fighters, had been pulled and their body’s now had relief in several spots that had been irritating them.
As for the normal people like Alex, Luna, Sophia and Elisa who were all normal people that didn’t do extensive exercise, felt their bodies were heavy instead due to the warm up be a bit hard for them but as the burning stopped their bodies felt a bit lighter.
Afterwards a therapist came to each one and they each went to a different station.
The room was like a commercial gym so the room was wide open and around 20x15 meters.
As such each one of them split up and went but something strange began happening. In Noah’s case he went to the treadmill and began walking but when he went to start jogging his legs actually seem to lose strength and he almost collapsed on the treadmill and only didn’t because he used his arms to hold on.
Noland who went to do bench weights had begun to lift up 10 kilos but as he tried he couldn’t form the strength. What was strange was that he had been able to help a nurse move a few things equalling this a few moments before coming.
Meghan went to do pushups while Ernest was doing pull ups across the room and neither could find the strength and it should be known that Ernest was doing one armed push ups the previous day.
After no more than ten minutes the group was sitting on the corner somewhat depressed when Wilson walked in with a somewhat displeased expression and behind him was the nurse that brought them here.
“I heard what was happening, you each split up and did separate exercises right?” He asked.
“That’s right, I can’t even build up strength let alone exercise.” Noland said cursing.
“You already know your mental capacities are most stable when near your ‘pair’ yet you split up.” Wilson said frowning.
“We aren’t even ten meters apart, how did we get affected so much?” Elisa asked.
Wilson sighed and rubbed his forehead. “When you were all unconscious, Noah was within 10 meters of Sophia and that was when he began sleepwalking to her room, when we moved all of you to a similar distance from your ‘pair’ all the men did a similar thing. Try to stay within 10 meters of the person you share a room with, if possible 5 meters is even better.” Wilson ordered and looked at the nurse who nodded.
“We had planned to do separate exercise but if it's that we can have each pair do the same exercise together.” She said and Wilson nodded.
“Good, do that, only find me if there is any real and serious problem from now on.” He said and she nodded.
Dr. Wilson left the gym soon after giving instructions and so the group split into their pairs and tried to do the exercises. As expected, in close proximity to the pair there was no obstructions in the mental function of the other and they could exert their proper force. The physical therapist even wanted to test out a theory and towards Noland who was bench pressing, he had Elisa stand behind the table in the place of the aide then one by one they began adding one kilo each side and he would do one repetition of five.
At ten kilos Noland could easily do it.
“Miss, please take slow steps away.” The physical therapist said.
Elisa took one slow step at a time. After reaching 4 meters Noland’s arms began to tremble. At 7 the weight began to push down and at 9 the others around him had to grab the weight.
“So between four meters of distance is the distance you two can handle away from each other and still exert at 15 kilos of force. Considering you are still recovering and your estimates suggest around 40% physical recovering… 100 kilo was previous easy bench press.” The therapist muttered. “Come back miss, stand behind him so we can see his maximum strength.”
From there they began adding more and more weight. After reaching 20 kilos they had him put the weight back on the stand to put a 10 kilo weight on each side then continued until 20 then 30 kilos.
After 20 minutes on both sides were 50 kilos each and Noland was sweating while doing a set of 30 repetitions in a smooth fashion. At the end he put the weights back and sat up.
“Ahahah! Seems i’m getting rusty, only 100 kilos, damn and here I competed with those broken fellows in the strongest competitions. If they saw me now I would become a laughing stalk.” Noland said laughing.
“If this is what you said was 40% physical recovery then your max weight before was around 200 kilos?” The therapist asked a bit startled.
“Need to fix your math a bit, 250 was my relaxed benchmark, if I forced it a bit I could reach 300 easy.” He said and flexed his right arm making his muscles bulge then stood up and began to shadow boxing. “Damn, losing my edge, after I recover I need to spend a few days to sharpen up.” He muttered and bent his neck causing it to crack rather loudly followed by his fists as he began a round of quick stretches beyond warm up making him look like some those anime martial artists that do stuff like that.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Miss Elisa, it’s your turn, it will be similar to Mr. Collins, we just need to gauge your maximum cargo capacity.” The therapist said.
“Alright.” She said and sat down. Those around them removed the weights leaving only five kilos on each side.
With Noland helping out, since there is no one fit for it better then this monster of a man with an upper strength limit of 250 kilos, she lifted it up rather easily and did five simple repetitions and put it back they added a kilo each side and kept going until it reached 20 kilos total, ten on both sides, before she was shaking and they stopped.
On Noah’s side he was doing pushups.
“124, 125, 126…”
Sophia next to him sat while rubbing her arms. She was placed on the mat right next to him not even half a meter away she was sitting while rubbing her arms.
“Jeez, showing off.” She complained.
“132, this is still halfway, 133, 134…” Noah said.
She pouted as he was unhesitantly surpassing common human strength but then again, after hearing 40% of Noland’s strength equalled 100 kilos, Noah would obviously be easily as broken as his father. Sophia’s own limit stopped at around 50 consecutive pushups.
She looked at the two who were doing pull ups. The men around the two were staring with a bit of sweat on their foreheads.
“324, 325, 326, Don’t even think of giving up yet!” Ernest shouted like a sargent as he pulled himself up while Meghan was keeping up with him but it was easy to tell she wasn’t as physically conditioned as him since her shirt was covered in sweat and was clinging to her body in a really enticing manner.
At 335 pull ups Meghan finally buckled and let go and fell on her butt and as she lay down on the mat that is below the pull up bars.
“Damn it burns!” She said through ragged breaths.
“Sir, please stop pushing so much, we are here only to see a base limit and not push you beyond.” The therapist in charge of those two said.
“Try… telling that… to an ex… military soldier.” He said and didn’t cease to pull himself up but each pullup getting slower then the last.
The therapist sighed and shook her head probably understanding what he meant. In short the military is a place that has pushed him beyond his limit so many times already why would he stop with that stubborn streak.
As soon as he hit 350 his body gave way and landed just like Meghan as he lay dare.
Through ragged breaths he took a water bottle and drank before splashing a bit of water on his face.
“That feels good…” He said and sighs.
The last pair was the most normal or maybe even below average was better. Luna was a model so exercise to maintain her form is normal but Alex is a genuine NEET so he had a rather pitiful performance while Luna had an average strength similar to Sophia.
After the physical therapy we went to a different room that had a large TV with a number of video games, computers and a table with boxes of puzzles and finally a ping pong table.
“Finally! Video games, it's been so boring recently!” Alex exclaimed and walked over.
Luna was behind him but she revealed a reluctant look.
“Come on, play one round with me.” Alex said and lifted up Street Fighters 7.
“Ah no, I have no hand eye coordination, I will only embarrass myself.” Luna said.
“It can’t be so bad, right?” Alex asked skeptical.
“Well… I’m 28 years old but I have flunked all my driver exams since I don’t have coordination.” She said and blushed violently as she recalled her past failures.
“Well we are only playing a game so no worries, come on!” Alex said and put the game in and gave a controller to her and looked like a little girl about to get a present.
Since there was no rush the others sat down and watched. When Luna asked how to use the controls Alex was patient with her and explained properly one at a time and when the fight started he examined the controls to explain which button did what.
Then what happened after startled everyone. In under 30 seconds Luna completely crushed Alex forming a 78 hit combo and activating some of the hardest combo’s in the game.
As the words “Perfect KO” appeared on the screen, everyone, including Luna herself, was utterly shocked.
“YOU LIAR!” Alex shouted and glared at her.
“I… how did I do all that?!” Luna asked.
We all looked a bit weirdly at her, the level of skill she just showed was on par with the top pro gamers, some combo moves she did in series even pro’s can barely activate.
“You… that thing about having no coordination was totally bull!” Alex said.
“I-it wasn’t! I don’t even have coordination to write well and during high school even had huge points deducted because I wasn’t able to write cursive and had to write in form and even then it was sloppy.” She said.
We looked at each other a bit confused and soon the therapist came over with some paper and pen. “Write your name here.” He asked.
Luna took it but looked at him, “Why?” She said but her hands moved skillfully for a moment and she put down the pen and when she looked what was written was her name but it was written in one of the best cursive writing she ever seen and even looked like a signature she could use for signing pictures from her modelling work.
“What…” She muttered.
“Let me ask something, Alex, how good is your coordination?” The therapist asked.
“In the gaming world I can name only two people that can outdo me.” Alex said and the therapist nodded.
“Then this is just a theory but is it possible that this… link, between you and her transferred some of your ability to her?” he said.
Everyone looked at him as if he said something crazy yet for some reason no one could really reject him.
“There isn’t a way to prove that really.” Ernest said.
“There is.” Noah said.
Everyone looked at him waiting for his suggestion. Finally he pointed at the distant ping pong table.
“Sophia and Elisa, play a few rounds of Ping Pong. Neither of you trained your reflexes or anything to an expert's degree but if what happened is true then it's possible similar mental aspects that we hold could have been transferred.” Noah said
“I never played ping pong before.” Sophia replied.
“Same for me, I’ve been studying most of my life so I never really stopped to play around except during my childhood.” Elisa said.
“Then now is a good time as any, come on.” Noah said and got up.
The others followed me and the two women just smiled wryly and got up before walking to the table where they picked up the small racket and Sophia grabbed the little ball.
“So how many rounds?” Sophia asked.
“Just one for now.” Noah said.
With a nod she looked down at the ball.
“How do we serve this?” She asked.
Noah smiled and explained the rules of ping pong to the two women who more or less understood.
With a nod Sophia tossed the ball up and hit it with a resounding “Thak!” the ball flew over the net onto the other side and jumped once and as it got over the side Elisa’s racket already reached it and sent it flying fast back to Sophia. It flew to the center and hopped back up and was returned by another hit and, surprisingly, with spin causing it to curve to the edge but still hit on the table but going out and Elisa almost dives and hits it up and back to Sophia’s side. She stood up quick and saw Sophia wind up and as the ping pong ball hit the table and rose up she hit it with intense spin and the ball flew and just barely touched the left side of the table and flew off.
To those watching it was as if two martial artists had decided to play ping pong. In truth Noah and Noland would probably be just like that but they would have a metal table and metal ball to make sure they never broke the ball or table. Still, the two girls who never trained looked like pro’s when compared to what they should be like.
When they finally stopped playing and realized what happened, everyone just stared at them as the two blushed.
“Guess the theory is a proven hypothesis now.” Noah said.
“Damnit! I trained over 20+ years and now someone simply stole my skills and made it theirs.” Noland complains but a smile was on his face and he laughed.
“Please split up and do the other games, I need to record this fact and pass it on to Dr. Wilson.” The therapist said.
For the rest of the day the girls, besides Meghan who already had lots of good reflexes and skills, marveled at their newly gained skills. Luna even had a look that said “i will finally break my curse of never driving a car.”
Afterwards exhausting filled the group and the all returned to their own rooms and fell asleep.
Even though the eight have recovered, they can still only remain awake for at most, if pushing themselves, to eight hours and through many of the recent nights they have been having nightmares caused by the synchronization of their dreams which merge them. No one knows about this fact but it happens still.
At the moment, it was only afternoon as the crew sleep. At this time a nurse walked into the room which Luna and Alex were sleeping in. Each was in their own medical Pod and they would move every few minutes showing something was happening in the dream.
The nurse walks over to Luna’s side and checks the readings the machine as picking up before walking but suddenly she tripped on a something and caught herself on the side of the Pod and as she got up she accidently put her weight on Luna’s hand and pressured it startling her.
As Luna slowly opens her eye a sudden force hits her conscious.
”Havic! Get yourself together! This fight is serious!” Alex’s voice resounds in her head as her gradually opening eyes was closed and her half awake conscious was suddenly pulled back into the dream.
As she opened her eyes she found herself in the co pilot seat of a spaceship during a massive battle.
“What happened? Why did you black out?” Alex asked beside her.
“Huh? Where? What is this?” She asked and looked around. “Just now, I felt something push my hand and saw the hospital before this happened? Wait is this a lucid dream?” She thought.
Looking to her side, Alex was sitting there, looking even more girly than normal. “What is going on with you? Focus so we can win this battle?” Alex said and turned as he began to control the ship.
”I heard someone in a lucid dream can somewhat control the dream… can I do it here as well?” She pondered and pressed the buttons in front of her showing a hologram screen. She then thought of what she wanted and the screen changed.
A wide mischievous grin appeared on her face as she began to imagine many things that rapidly filled the screen with items she wanted to use. Slowly that smile widened until it was ear to ear.
“What are you smiling for?” Alex asked and when he looked over he saw Luna was had completely changed. She had the look she had in Nebula but with human color skin, so two black horns and a tail had grown out. Not only that her previous jump suit she was wearing had changed into a super tight sexy leather suit you normally see on a succubus. It was thin, skimpy and crossed below her legs and only covered her nipples while letting her breasts almost slip out.
“What?” Alex asked confused but before he could react Luna bent forward and with a sexy succubus like movements she pressed one button then another.
At that moment from behind Alex many mechanical tentacle like things shot out and held onto his arms and legs.
“Whats going on!” He shouted.
“Nothing, just us commemorating our love for each other.” Luna said as she was flying above him with two bat like wings appearing from her lower back.
“But… the battle?” Alex said trying to fight it.
“What battle?” Luna asked.
“What do you mean? The battle we….” As Alex said that he looked around and found himself in a dark room held onto a chair by the mechanical tentacles. The room was lit by a few candles and looked like a dungeon.
“What happened to the…” He asked surprised.
“You should know, we came here because we were going to commemorate you becoming a beautiful girl.” Luna said and brushed against him letting her bountiful peaks press against him.
“I’m a man!” Alex shouted.
The next moment Luna grabbed onto his crotch.
“Really?” Luna asked and snuck her hand into his pants and began to play with him.
His body arched back as he let out a moan before his cloths vanished and he looked between his legs and found his dick fully erect.
Luna was a bit shocked by the rather large member considering Alex’s size but reining herself in appeared again and gave him a deep french kiss. After a moment she separated from him.
“I’ll let you feel the joys and pleasures of being a woman, though I can’t remove this I can share my pleasure with you.” Luna said.
“I’m a man and that won’t change!” He said.
At that moment something approached from below, it was a long metallic tentacle. It hovered near Luna’s womanhood and in an instant, one tentacle entered. He almost fainted from that when he felt a jolt coming from his crouch while there was nothing happening to him.
“You will see why being a woman is so good, I will show you all the fun you would never get to feel as a man.” Luna said.
At that time Alex paled and let out a scream. In reality, his body began to squirm a bit as he had a nightmare but the nurse could only look on. On the other hand Luna was smiling which meant only Alex was having a nightmare.
The nurse just sighed and left the room.
After some five minute the two let out a muffled moan together and they both fell silent while the only indication of what happened could be found between the legs were a strong smell was coming and it was wet in those location.
----------------------------------------
Luna in the dream
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/legendofminerva/images/e/ec/Succubus.png/revision/latest?cb=20140129235224