Training 6

Tora ran to him to make certain he was unharmed. She helped him up and looked closely at him. She lifted his shirt to see his back, looking for bruises, but there were none. She furrowed her brows in confusion but sighed in relief. "Are you ok?" she asked.

Darren shook his head as he stood up. "Yeah. I'm fine."

"My treadmill is not." Alesia remained near the treadmill, which was now in pieces with the belt unwound and the structure collapsed. "It looks like you were going faster than the 500 kilometers per hour, so it broke down." Alesia placed the tablet aside and walked to Darren.

"What does that mean?"

Alesia smirked and once again, that shine in her eyes was made itself known. "What does it mean? It means you are possibly the fastest human on the planet. At this speed, you can even run on water. If you can fly at the same speed you can run, that is almost two-thirds the speed of a commercial aircraft. To put that another way, you were moving at half the speed of sound." She held her fists up, almost as if she was trying to rein in her excitement. "This is one of the happiest moments of my life," she whispered as she looked up at Darren with her big, round eyes. She paused and placed her hand on her chin. "Hm, but since the treadmill broke down, we haven't seen your top speed. We'll have to use the Speed Lab."

"Speed Lab?"

Alesia smirked as she nodded. She looked like an evil mastermind with a devious plan brewing. "Uh-huh," she replied. "Eek!" Alesia cheered. She then composed herself before she picked up the tablet. "Before that, let's test your strength."

The others stood in awe since they never thought the genius of the century would be so childish. She was not what they expected.

When they thought of Alesia before meeting her, they thought of an aloof, egotistical nerd who was focused on nothing but her research. They expected an emotionless person like a machine but her personality was slightly eccentric. She was neither haughty nor boastful of her achievements and inventions. Even with all the knowledge in her head, she was still curious. She was sincere in her wish to help. Although not selflessly, she made her intentions clear. She was helping them because she was curious about Darren's powers and Tora's alien race.

They moved on with the training.

Once again, Matt and Tora lined up on either side of Darren, each of them on a raised platform with a barbell in front of them.

"Alright. Each of you will do a deadlift for control and tell me how you feel."

They followed Alesia's instructions and lifted the 50kg metal rod. With their shoulders and arms exposed, their muscles bulged when they raised the bar.

"It's heavy but I can take it. I do weightlifting regularly," Matt said. Matt has always been careful with his overall health, from the food he eats to his exercise routine. He tried to make it to the gym at least four times a week, he jogged regularly and stretched every morning and night. He could be said to be a health nut but that was a compliment to him. With his stressful job at NASA, exercising was quite meditative for him. With music in his ears, the times he worked out was a time to clear his mind of work or any other worries he had.

On the other hand, exercise was training for Tora. From her teenage years when she trained in martial arts to her time in the military, exercise was about training to survive. She needed to be stronger, better, and faster than anyone who would wish to do harm to her and her loved ones. She continued to train because she needed to keep her instincts and reflexes sharp. Her small frame held more strength than a bodybuilder due to her alien physiology. With her martial arts training, healthy eating habits, and meditation, her mind and body were balanced and in sync. Only a few people could match her.

Tora picked up the bar and raised it over her head, her muscles stretching and contracting beneath her skin. "I'm good, too."

"Darren?" Alesia looked up at him.

What the heck?

"This is as light as a feather."

Darren removed his right hand from the barbell, holding it with only his left hand. Darren was shocked that the barbell felt so light, but it did not feel like some extraordinary feat. He could do more.

They placed the weights down after a few repetitions before placing the weight down on the floor.

"Okay, let's put some weight on it." Mechanical sounds came from the platforms beneath Darren, Matt, and Tora. A pair of robotic arms came from the bottom of the platform, each holding a weight plate and placed it on the barbell.

"Go again," Alesia ordered.

Matt, Tora, and Darren lifted the weights and did a set of repetitions before placing the barbells down again. Just like with the treadmill, Tora and Matt continued to be Darren's comparisons until the weight became too heavy for them to lift. Just as before, Matt wiped-out before Tora followed. Darren, on the other hand, continued until the bar could no longer hold plates to test his strength.

Alesia looked at the information on her tablet. Once again, Darren's body temperature was average and his heart rate remained steady as if he was resting while Tora and Matt's temperatures and heart rates rose. As she thought, the 500 kilograms on the bar were not enough to test Darren's limits. "That's enough. Let's move on."

The platforms lowered, folding into the floor. Tora, Darren, and Matt followed Alesia to the Rhino. They were still in awe of the contraption. Maybe it should have been called 'the Elephant' as it was the elephant in the room. With red and black paint, the machine was a long bar stapled to the ceiling and the floor as the polestar of the Fitness Laboratory. A long chain with a weight on the end dropped into several weight plates, all weighing several hundred kilograms.

Alesia stood in front of the monitor of the Rhino before the screen lit up. "Matt, do you want to try it first?"

Matt walked up to the machine, pulling the line with the pendulum that marked 500kg. When he pulled the line with one hand, his face distorted and his brows furrowed. His muscles burned and sweat formed on his forehead. The weight barely moved before he placed his other hand on the line, and pulled again. His biceps bulged as he pulled, but the dangling weight at the end of the line only moved slightly. He walked backward, pulling the weight with both hands, taking three long steps before he had to release the weight. The pendulum clattered when it fell onto the other weights.

Matt shook his hand, that had turned red from the strenuous task of pulling the pendulum. He rolled his shoulders before he turned to Alesia and said, "Nope."

Tora also had trouble pulling the 500kg pendulum, but she pulled them higher than Matt had. Alesia thought it was most definitely due to her alien genetic. Tora was certainly stronger than the average human, but the most impressive feat was Darren.

With one hand, he pulled the pendulum to the top of the pole to the ceiling without needing to walk. Alesia controlled how much weight was added to the pendulum with the computer. With each new plate that Darren pulled, the more his biceps contracted. With one hand, he reached the bottom with all the plates on the pendulum. He pulled and all the weights were raised off the ground as Darren walked to gain distance to lift all the 1000 tonnes to the ceiling.

Alesia stood in front of him, looking at her tablet. The numbers told her that, for him, everything was normal. His temperature had risen by a few decimal points, his pulse elevated, and beads of sweat began to form between his brows. "How do you feel?"

"I feel like I can do more," Darren replied. He stood up straight, still holding the weights with one hand, fully extending his arms which pronounced his muscles even more.

"You probably can, but that is the heaviest weight machine in the world. The largest cargo plane weighs 560000 kilograms at a maximum, which is 560 tonnes. You're lifting almost twice that with only one hand." Alesia said. "You could possibly be the strongest person on earth."

Darren walked back slowly, lowering the weights slowly as to not drop them too hard. "That's great, but I am getting a little hungry." He placed the weight down as he passed his hand on his belly.

"I'm gonna eat before I shower and take a nap," Tora said. She looked at Alesia before asking, "Would you like to join us for lunch. We're having Chinese. It's the healthy authentic kind, not American-Chinese fast-food."

"Mmm, sounds good." She moaned. The men and the elderly followed behind the ladies out of the Fitness Lab. "What are we having?"

"Fishhead soup…" Tora replied, her voice fading down the hallway as the lights in the gym turned off.