Slave For A Week - Day Five

After his speech to Saraya about why he continued to go through with being her slave, Roberto felt confident that the final three days were going to be better, at least mood-wise. As a result, he slept very well. Physically, he showed no sign of worry, irritation, or otherwise.

But in his head, he was being proven wrong in the worst possible way: His nightmare was returning, with another possibility of torture being presented.

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Roberto's eyes wavered, trying to form a clear picture of his surroundings. He clenched his eyes, then reopened them. Looking around, he saw a perfectly magejstic refrigerator, several times the normal size of what it should be. That's what clued him in on what was happening.

She did this? Roberto thought, standing up to his full height of two inches, a leathery tail sprouting from his rear. I get her back into a good mood, and she does THIS to me?

"Good morning," a voice spoke to him.

"We hope you're ready for what's in store for you, slave."

Roberto rolled his eyes and turned to face Saraya. To his surprise, she stood before him as herself. "So there's no chase," he lamented sarcastically. "And I was just having so much fun doing that."

Saraya smacked her palm on the counter. Though little force was used, the proportion of Roberto's size to hers rendered a small tremor in the counter that sent him tumbling to his back. "Don't get smart with me."

"We've found a better way to toy with you." With only that as her warning, she snatched Roberto up in her left hand and brought him over to the stove. Though worried for a moment, Roberto silently thanked whatever higher power existed that she was only taking something off of the fryer, which he discovered was a cooked piece of fish.

"In you go," she said, lifting one end of the fish. She had sliced into the meat, creating a small containment. Needless to say, Roberto put two and two together.

"Whoa! You've got to be kidding!" He squirmed as Saraya lowered her hand towards the fish. "Please, stop! You're insane!"

"Tell me something I don't know," Saraya replied, tossing him into the strong-smelling meat and pulling down the strip she held, sealing him inside. Roberto, meanwhile, struggled as much as he could. He wasn't about to sit here and take something that could very well be his death.

"So this is how it ends?" he shouted, muffled by the fish. "I do something nice for you, and you're going to eat me?"

"No, I'm not," Saraya revealed.

Nobody is, actually."

"You're going to play a little hide-and-seek with Aero."

Roberto stopped struggling. "Okay....then what's the fish for?"

"To give him a scent to follow when he goes looking," Saraya explained.

"We'll let you out in about ten minutes."

"That should be long enough to make it linger."

With his fear of death axed, Roberto relaxed. He lay back inside the fish and waited. It wasn't so bad to be literally surrounded by a food source. As if sensing his opportunist mindset, Saraya gave him a further limiation. "And don't eat any of the fish."

Dangit! Roberto pouted in his mind. He resumed his rest, but it did not last too much longer. Once the ten minutes had passed, Saraya let out a loud whistle. "Aero!"

"We have a special treat for you!"

The bounding of Saraya's cat-son was silent to Roberto, as the fish proved to be a suitable barrier from the outside world. Voices were still audible, so he able to hear Aero cheering. "Yay! What is it, mommy?" It was at that moment that Roberto felt the fish shift a little bit. Looking up, he saw Saraya's fingers reach inside. He backed away, his hands and feet working furiously to move away. But alas, it wasn't worth the effort. Saraya's pointer finger and thumb clamped around his legs without any worry of losing their captive.

"I thought you said I wasn't food!" Roberto complained. Saraya moved her hand out of the fish with him clamped between her fingers.

"You're not," she assured. "Though I did lie about the game."

"You're a treat.."

"Think of it like a Gobstopper."

"When you lose your flavor, Aero will spit you out."

"Now, open wide!" she said to her cat. Roberto looked down to see Aero's maw waiting for him. He let out a loud scream as Saraya released her grip and sent him plummeting down into the awaiting mouth. He was not falling towards doom, but a bad place, none the less.

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"Morning, Robbie~"

Roberto's eyes flew open upon the loud greeting. He felt the surface below him, which was his hammock, and he was stretched out to his full height, feeling no extra leathery appendage sprouting out of him. Standing just over him was Vivvi, who had given him an awakening that he would consider rude in any other situation.

"Hey, Vivvi!" he greeted, standing up from the hammock and giving her a one-armed hug. "Thanks for the wake-up call!"

Though a bit surprised that he wasn't irritated, Vivvi wrapped her arms around  his waist as well. "No problem! You gotta get out there. Raya's got a surprise for you~"

"Joy," Roberto grunted. He released Vivvi and exited Saraya's tent. He headed off east and looked for a sign to show him where Saraya would be. It took several minutes and he was almost at the edge of the circus before he could hear her voice.

"You've almost got it, Aero."

"Keep practicing until you master it."

"Then keep practicing."

"We have to train almost all the time to keep our game up."

Passing the last tent, Roberto could see Saraya standing across from her cat-son, who had taken on his human form. In his hand was one of her kunai. Saraya was swinging an identical one in her hand, teaching Aero the proper form of combat with her weapons. Saraya took a quick notice of him, then went back to what she was doing. Aero, on the other hand, took a quick notice and then bounded straight at him.

"Hi, Machete-Man!" Roberto backed away a couple steps before Aero jumped at him, continuing the momentum Roberto had already created and pushing him to the ground. Roberto was caught up more so in the impact that he did not notice the sting in his arm.

"Hey, bud," Roberto greeted before spotting something out of the corner of his eye. Looking at his left shoulder, he could see the kunai that Aero held implanted into his arm. It was an accidental, shallow stab, so he brushed it off. "You probably shouldn't run with that thing."

"Oops~" He pulled the kunai out of Roberto's shoulder. Despite the mild injury he had sustained, the pure innocence rendered Roberto's resistance to smile pointless. But while a mild chuckle escaped from him, Saraya was beginning to full out laugh.

"That was perfect, Aero!" she said between laughs.

"Next time, get him in the leg!"

"See if Ria wants to play now."

"We have a game to play with Machete-Man."

Aero nodded in understanding. Shifting into his cat form, he scampered off to look for the aformentioned girl. Saraya, meanwhile, turned to face Roberto. "Good morning, slave."

"We hope you're well-rested."

"If you're not, it won't be a challenge for me."

"And it'll spell disaster for you."

Pushing any thoughts of his nightmare out of his mind, Roberto responded. "Have you finally decided to free me from this cruel world?" he asked hopefully.

Saraya rolled her eyes. "Geez, are you that big of a pansy?"

"I think he is."

"You know what? So do I."

"Just lay it on me," Roberto urged impatiently.

Saraya cracked her knuckles. "Alrighty, then."

"Prepare yourself for a shock."

"To be more accurate, a burn." Roberto narrowed his eyes in confusion as to what she meant, his unawareness deepening.as she reared her hand back. His mustache began to tingle violently. Heeding the warning, Roberto ducked just as Saraya thrust her arm forward. Above him, Roberto could feel a wave of passing heat. Sparing a look, he could see a ball of fire speeding in the other direction.

"What the-!?!" Roberto started quickly stepping back, away from Saraya. "How long have you been able to do that?!"

"Almost a month," Saraya answered.

"We're still getting the hang of it."

"But I need a moving target."

"So start running!" With a happy yell, she fired another fireball at Roberto, who sidestepped it and took off in the other direction.

Even though he knew he was outmatched, Roberto wasn't going to keel over and give in to receiving burns. He'd already had bad experiences with one woman in command of fire, an experience he wasn't very eager to repeat. On the bright side, he had the sense in his mustache that allowed him to dodge the incoming barrage of fireballs. On the not-so-bright side, they were running around in open space, where it didn't take long for Saraya to circle around him and find an open shot.

"Surprise!" she yelled. She slid in front of him, unleashed a ball of fire at his wounded shoulder.

"AGH!" Roberto clutched his shoulder in pain, dropping to his knee. He was seething for a few seconds as the burn took its toll. "Oh..." he mused. Though there was now a burn there, the cut that Aero had inflicted a few minutes ago was beginning to cauterize, sealing shut as a result of the affliction of heat. "Thanks," he said, gesturing to the cut.

"Aw, man!" Saraya whined playfully.

"Causing you pain actually healed you."

"Now I have to inflict even more pain!" She charged at him with a wide smirk on her face, but Roberto had already started to run after she had said 'inflict'. Saraya meanwhile, had already charged up a fireball and fired it toward's Roberto. He'd barely gotten a few fet away when the flame projectile crashed directly in between his feet, tripping up his stride and sending him tumbling to the ground.

"I'm gonna go with 'ow'," Roberto grumbled. He stood up, soon noticing that his shoes were alight with a small amount of tiny flames. Rather than taking the time to stomp them out, he continued running, allowing the natural beating of his shoes against the dirt to do the work for him. He ducked to the right and watched another ball of fire fly by him. But when he took off in the same direction, he noticed the fire faltering after only three more steps, dispersing completely with one more.

She isn't too experience with this, I see, Roberto realized. She can only get me at close range. He spun around and jumped to the side, taking off in the opposite direction. Saraya adapted to his moves quickly, and that's where the problem presented itself: getting him within range was not a chore for Saraya.

"And...fire!" Saraya caught up to Roberto, placing her hands on his shoulders and swinging upward, using her target as a mount to bring her to his front rather than his rear, she flung her arm in his direction, blasting a fireball directly into his chest. With such a blast from such a short distance, Roberto found himself flying back at least ten feet, upsetting dirt as he slid back.

"We're not done yet, Robbie!" Saraya cackled, preparing another fireball in each hand.

"I expect your body to be unrecognizable when we're done here!"

Roberto grumbled as he rose. His clothes were beginning to tatter from the roughhousing and flames; they also were becoming dusty from earth he had tumbled through. He couldn't afford to take pity on himself for even a moment, because Saraya resumed her relentless before he'd even started getting to his feet. He propelled himself back from the first shot with his hands and feet, allowing him a moment to get up and run away from the second shot.

The next turn of events brought disaster and utter humiliation. Roberto took one glance back to see Saraya beginning to aim at his feet. In response, he prematurely hopped into the air. Seeing his reaction, Saraya raised her arm and fired her fireball into the air. Roberto felt it collide with his back, pushing him further along in his jump. Not far behind, Saraya quickly concentrated and flung a second one at him. This one made contact with Roberto's legs and brought him a bit higher. Saraya had to rush to catch up with his zooming body before she  jumped up and aimed directly down at his back again.

The heat spreading across Roberto's already heated back intensified, as did the force that now propelled him directly at the ground. But as his face was mashed into the ground, instantly followed by the rest of his body, he couldn't feel his burns anymore, nor could he feel anything around him. The world soon blacked out to him as well.

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It was a fairly quick process for Roberto. The first thing that faded from him was the blackness, due to the fact that his eyelids were being raised in his awakening. The second thing that returned was the pain, less severe than before, but enough to make him grunt upon rising. The last thing returning to him was a decent thought process. His face had collided with the ground and the next thing he knew, he'd woken up here.

"Finally, you're awake." Roberto looked to the right to see Saraya sitting in a folding chair. "For a second there, I actually thought I killed you."

Mentally preparing himself proved a waste of time when Roberto turned his head down to examine his body. Lifting his arms delivered a slight sting, and he could see a few darken browned spots along them, barely able to tell which were dirt and which were burns. His legs were aching slightly, but not enough to irritate him. The worst affliction, however, was in his chest. A small layer of his skin was in the early stages of peeling and the spot stung very noticably.

"How long was I out?" Roberto asked.

"About an hour," Saraya replied.

"You took a pretty nasty hit to the face." Though it was subtle, Roberto could detect a hint of satisfaction in her voice.

"Anyways," she continued, "you're not in much of a fit state to be doing anything else for a little while."

"As a result, you get some time to rest." She stood up, placing a bottle of something Roberto recognized below his hammock. "Here."

"It's a burn ointment with extracts of-"

"Aloe vera," Roberto finished. "I know. I've had to use the stuff before."

Saraya nodded. "It'll help a little bit."

"But after it does its work, you better suck it up."

"I've still got a couple more days to shake out of you."

"And it would be wasteful not to take full advantage of that."

Saraya walked out of her tent a moment later, upon which Roberto lowered his arm to grab the ointment. He tilted the container downward and a small bit of the stuff started trickling over his chest. The painful sting of the contact was followed by a cool, soothing sensation as the compound began to do its work. Roberto relaxed a bit more, laying down to rest for a few hours.

That amount of time would allow his mind to wander onto countless thoughts, but he found himself only dwelling on one thing: his fighting abilities. He recalled the missions he had been involved in. Missions for PHANTOM had involved trivial things; night patrol and recruiting a new governor for Metro City. He had been on plenty of missions, but he was struck with realization that when placed against opponents such as Siegfried the Creatura, Mariah of the Allegiance, and Iza of the Sins, he had faltered very badly, some worse than others. Even in sparring sessions against Saraya and the bonus match against Hydrix in the Underground he was forced to take part in, his current skill level had effectively proven that he was not capable of facing opponents of that caliber, opponents that would easily and effortlessly annhilate him if it came to that.

When it all came down to it, Roberto knew he rested near the bottom of the food-chain as far as being any sort of threat. He wasn't completely at the bottom, of course. He'd killed Metro City's former governor and a doll-woman while on a mission in the Himani Islands. But only the latter of the two had really pushed his limits, and he had not taken the time to train or become stronger after that event.

He lurched upward as he was struck, almost violently, with an epiphany: this world was obviously a dangerous place, especially for somebody like him. It was obviously not going to get any better. If anything, it was going to get worse, and he there wasn't much choice but to get used to that or die. And the way to adapt was obvious: Roberto had to become a better fighter. He had to be able to fight the enemies that bore down upon him. But not just fight. He had to be able to win as well.

He remembered not only the comments he had received relentlessly from Saraya about his incompetence, but the advice Zeke had given him on day one of his slave service.

"Work on your skills and you two will be just fine."

And today was the first day he would start preparing.

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"Are my ears deceiving me?" Saraya said incredulously.

"Are we hearing your words correctly?"

"You have to be hallucinating or something."

"The Roberto we know wouldn't have the guts to go through with this."

Roberto glared at Saraya. "That Roberto is going to get me killed if I don't do this." Roberto crossed his arms, making a few of his burns visible to Saraya. "I'm not going to deny it; your comments about my skills have some truth to them."

"Of course they do," Saraya agreed proudly.

"That's enough," Roberto interjected quickly. With a sigh, he continued. "The overal point is that I need to get stronger, and those tests Anima enforces on circus members -you call it boot camp, I think- is as good a way as any for me to get started."

"You going through the boot camp?" Saraya scoffed. "That's a laugh."

"Those tests are very difficult."

"You think I don't realize that?" Roberto replied bitterly. "On the contrary, that's why I want to do them."

"Be reasonable, Roberto," Saraya warned.

"You think you can just walk in and do them?"

"I've got news for you: it isn't that simple."

"We grew up fending for ourselves."

"That built up my strength, and that's how I passed."

"And living on the streets is how our newest performer Zeke almost passed it."

"You grew up normally. You didn't have to learn basic survival skills. You don't-"

"I know!" Roberto bellowed, silencing her. "I don't care if this is going to be hard. I don't care if I fail pitifully the first few times, and I don't care if it takes a long time. I have to get stronger, and I'll do whatever it takes!"

He pretty much knew what was coming next. Saraya would reprimand him, remind him that he was her slave for the week, a servant at her beck and call. His purpose was only to serve her until his term was up, and she was going to spend the rest of the day putting him to work reminding him of that. Knowing this, he almost wondered why he'd even bothered asking her for help in the first place.

Saraya let Roberto's words sink in before nodding her head. "Okay."

"Oh c'mo-!" Roberto stopped himself when he heard her speak. "Come again?"

"Maybe I'm not speaking clearly," Saraya replied.

"We said 'okay'."

"That means 'yes'. We are going to help you."

Roberto raised an eyebrow. "You're serious?"

"You're denser than I thought for thinking I wouldn't be," Saraya shot back.

"You're practically dead weight to us on missions."

"And it would be impossible to hope we wouldn't be paired together again."

"We're supporting you one-hundred percent on anything that'll make you less of a failure."

Roberto sighed in relief. "So you can take me to Anima?"

Saraya nodded, motioning with her hand. "Follow me."

"She's usually in Replay's house."

Roberto had only been inside of the ringmaster's house a couple times before. It was a pretty decent place. He searched his memory briefly, remembering stairs leading to it rather than a ramp, but he shoved this aside when he saw the house again. It was a pretty cool sight to see every time he was allowed inside. The wood was of high quality, as he could see by the smoothed and polished state of the door. It was a humble house, not too large, but spacious enough to accomodate a bit more than the basics.

The hallway, however, was new to him. The third door on the right is what Saraya knocked on. "Anima?"

"We brought someone who needs a favor."

"Desperately."

Unsurprisingly, a groan came from the other side. "This better be good," she grumbled as the door slowly came open. Surprised by the lack of force behind it Roberto waited patiently as Anima wheeled her way out.

It was the 'wheeled' part that caught him by surprise. She was rolling herself out of the room sitting in a wheelchair, one that he recognized as being very similar to the kind he saw at hospitals, almost an exact replica. Sparing a quick glance at her legs, he could see that they were slightly deformed. Some of the mass was gone and they seemed to be a little crushed.

"What happ-" Roberto edged back at a warning from his mustache just barely before Anima swung a lead pipe at him. Despite his wariness, her blow managed to graze his knee. He could've sworn that he he fel this kneecap move when he was struck, holding it as he was in pain.

"I'm pretty freaking tired of that question by now!" Anima warned before looking to Saraya. "For Pete's sake, tell me this isn't about him."

"I wish I could," Saraya lamented. "But it's not all bad."

"He wants to go through your boot camp."

"His thick skull has finally absorbed the fact that he's pathetic."

"And that he needs to get stronger."

"So he requested your boot camp as a way to get himself started."

"We're sure that everybody can benefit if he's less incompetent."

Anima raised an eyebrow, then turned her gaze to Roberto. "You actually want to do this, kid?" When Roberto nodded in confirmation, she relaxed in her chair a little. "Then start by doing fifty push-ups right here." Obliging, Roberto dropped to the ground and began the exercise of lifting the upper half of his body from the ground using his arms. "Saraya, gather a couple of performers and set up exercises in the big tent."

With a brief nod, Saraya retraced her steps back to the front door. Roberto, meanwhile, continued his push-ups. He was nearing twenty-five and his muscles were starting to strain. His fatigue caused his body to feel heavier, making it more difficult to lift. Making sure he didn't falter, he raised the number to thirty. He held his position for a moment, taking a breath.

"No stopping!" Anima smacking his back with the lead pipe. Roberto felt his arms give way and his body crashed to the ground. As he resumed the position, he continued doing push-ups. "Five more as a penalty," she ordered. With a heavy sigh, Roberto continued. The brief moment allowed him to rest enough to get to forty-five without much trouble. The following ten presented a struggle, each being slightly more difficult than the next. He really wished he hadn't taken a break by the time he had reached the original goal of fifty, and yet he still had five more to go.

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It took a little while to track them down, but Saraya scouted out two circus member that would not only be willing to help her, but both having qualities that would make them a little more useful than normal. With that in mind, even she questioned the fact as to why she was holding onto their arms, dragging them along.

"You could just tell us what you need, Saraya," Zeke assured, grasping Saraya's hand and trying to lift her fingers from his arm.

"He's right, you know." Mathias had already managed to open Saraya's grip. "I don't think we'll flake."

Saraya didn't have much choice but to agree, so she released Zeke as well. "I know," she assured.

"Sometimes it's just more fun that way."

"Fair enough," Mathias allowed, continuing to follow alongside her. "So what do you need?"

"Roberto from Team PHANTOM is here," Saraya informed.

"Oh yeah," Zeke remembered. "Isn't he your-"

"Yes," Saraya cut him off quickly, sparing Roberto that small humiliation in light of another one he was sure to suffer soon . "He's in my debt for giving him this idea."

"He wants to go through Anima's boot camp."

"Why?" Mathias wondered verbally. "We're forced to do those exercises, and they're really tough. Shouldn't he know that?"

"He does," Saraya confirmed. "Of course, he has no idea just how hard they are."

"But we don't really care about that."

"Roberto is under the impression that he needs to develop his skills further."

"Something that anyone who's been on a mission with him can agree to."

"Any chance for him to become competent is a chance I'm willing to take."

Zeke pumped his fist lightly. "So he is taking my advice."

"Excuse me?" Saraya raised an eyebrow. "I've been calling him incompetent for ages."

"It's OUR advice he's taking, thank you very much."

"Maybe so," Zeke allowed. "But I said pretty much the same thing the other day...just a bit more encouraging."

Saraya crossed her arms. "Tearing people down is the method we prefer."

"It isn't broken yet and it won't be until he is no longer dead weight."

"I think you've made your case on Roberto," Mathias said, ending the discussion. "But where do we come in?"

By this point, the three performers had arrived at the entrace to the big tent. "You're going to help me set up the boot camp," Saraya informed.

"Roberto's doing fifty push-ups, so he'll be occupied for a bit."

"Awesome!" Mathias stretched his arms briefly. "Let's get to work."

Mathias took off in one direction while Zeke started heading in another. It was a short absence, and they soon returned. Zeke came back first, carrying a bundle of wooden posts and a metal hammer. Mathias trailed behind a little, carrying one of the small trampolines. Saraya decided that she should make herself useful as well and followed Mathias as he returned to get another item.

Zeke, meanwhile, starting striking the wooden posts into the ground with the hammer. He spread them out a little, both by horizontal position and distance, but they all remained relatively three hammer-lengths apart. He kept going until he had secured twelve posts in total. Finished, he returned to the storage area for circus equipment to help Saraya and Mathias bring in more stuff. By the end of the session, six exercises were set up.

Three gymnastics bars were set up, scaling from a short, easily reachable bar to one that would be very difficult to reach by simply jumping. The posts Zeke had hammered into the ground were next. Shortly after that were a set of four hoops with a trampoline ahead of each one. Ending the circle of tests was a trampoline set before a nine-foot platform.

Saraya clambered down from a pole, having set up a trapeze about twenty feet above a net that Zeke and Mathias had rigged up. "That should do it," she decided.

"Roberto won't get that far anyway."

"We'll see." The trio lifted their heads. They turned after hearing footsteps and soft squeaking. Looking to the opening flap of the tent, Roberto was striding forward, followed closely by Anima, who spun the wheels forcefully to keep up. Roberto nodded to her. "Give me the first exercise."

"Gladly," Anima replied. She was grumbling, but her annoyance would soon be attoned for. She pointed to the wooden posts. "I'll give you ten seconds to get across that without falling."

Roberto stepped before the posts while the others took a spot on the sidelines to watch his attempt. He looked at the posts, observing the task he was being asked to do. "How is this possible?" he asked. "The posts aren't very big."

"He did it." Anima gestured towards Zeke, who nodded in agreement. "Now stop whining and go!" She pulled a stopwatch from her pocket and hit the button to start it up. Having been given no warning, Roberto stepped up to the first post. He took a second to secure himself before he hopped to the second one. He wobbled for a bit before slipping to the ground. "Start over." With a groan, Roberto tried again. His second attempt, he slowed down, bringing himself to the fourth post, upon which the time ran out. "Again!"

"C'mon, Rob!" Zeke encouraged. "Use your lack of balance as momentum!"

Taking advice from a performer who'd done this before, Roberto took his spot before the posts again. When he heard the timer, he stepped up. He hopped to the second post, then the third, breaking into a small jog across the posts. He leaped off of the twelfth post before hearing the timer go off.

"Done," Anima announced, jerking her thumb to her left, where the bars were waiting for him. "Lift your body until the bar is at your waistline, then swing to the next bar. Drop after you're finished with all three. Start at the lowest."

Robert jogged over to the bars and hopped lightly to grab the first one. The hard part was lifting himself up. He had to lift his full one-hundred fifty pounds with his arms at a terrible angle for doing so. His struggles became groans as he tried, but he wasn't able to raise his body. With a sigh, he dropped from the bar.

"Get back up there!" Anima ordered.

"I'm working on it!" Roberto snapped back. He placed his finger to his mustache, stroking it in thought. The only experience he had was pull ups, but there was no way he'd be able to hold up his entire body at that angle, providing the fact that he could hold up his body at all.

He remembered Zeke talking about momentum, and he decided to try using that. He grabbed the bar and swung his legs back and forth. Soon, he was getting higher and higher. When he was at roughly a forty-five degree angle to the bar, he forced his body upward and made his arms go straight. Now they pointed downward, finally giving Roberto the necessary position to hold up his body. Satisfied after a few seconds, moved back and swung again.

Unfortunately, he was not gymnastically trained, and swinging to the next bar brought him into contact with it, slamming the air out of his lungs when he crashed into it with his chest. He hooked his arms over it, taking a few deep breaths before he used his lower muscles to heave his body up to the bar. Gripping the bar, he adjusted himself so that he was holding his waistline up to the bar. His arms were trembling from fatigue, but he tried not to let it show, instead letting himself down and swinging again. On the final, highest bar, he almost missed the mark, barely managing to grasp it with one hand. He brought up his other one up. This time, he related his experience to climbing up to the ledge of a building, and in a forceful motion was able to raise his body above the bar, this time to his thighs. Completely finished, he dropped below the bar, taking in as much air as he possibly could.

Saraya blinked rapidly as she watched this happening. "He's doing it," she realized. "He's having trouble."

"Not to mention he's almost out of breath after about ten minutes."

"But he's doing it!"

"Way to go, Rob!" Zeke cheered clapping. Mathias nodded in approval, also joining in on the applause.

"That's enough!" Anima barked. "Don't have a party unless he passes the test, which is still a decent ways away." She waved her arm to her far right, indicating the trampolines and hoops. "Jump through those and don't stop until you make it through the last one."

"Got it," Roberto replied, rasping heavily. He started walking over to the hoops, each step becoming more difficult. By the time he was a few feet away, he started to feel his legs tremble and his muscles flex. He was starting to lose his strength. But he couldn't stop now. He was doing better than he'd imagined.

With a loud yell, he used what adrenaline he had left to fuel his charge. He hopped onto the first trampoline, making it through the first hoop. He pushed himself forward, making sure that he would bounce next on the second trampoline. His energy was increased with that bounce and he had to pull back on extra motion in order to hit the third one. Before he knew it, it was the third hoop that was passing him. With another grunt, he launched himself from the bounce of the fourth trampoline through the final hoop. He landed on the ground, on his feet, with a very solid thud.

"AGH!" Roberto clutched his chest before collapsing to the ground. The others quickly rushed over to him, but he knew this would be it. As he fell into unconsciousness, he knew he had failed the boot camp, and failed it very badly.

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"Ten minutes?" Roberto repeated. "I crapped out on boot camp after ten minutes?"

Saraya nodded. "I honestly didn't expect that from you."

"We expected you to last only five."

"You looked like you were having a heart attack out there."

"Your body was being worked much more than it's used to."

"And as expected-"

"I didn't pass," Roberto finished. "I figured as much." He let out a sigh that Saraya interpreted as regret.

"Look," Saraya said to him. "You knew this would be difficult."

"But you did it anyways."

"As much as I don't want to admit this, you've got some guts."

"Yeah," Roberto agreed. "Just didn't imagine it would be that excruciatingly difficult." He winced a bit from his exhaustion. "Or painful."

"Don't even think about crapping out now!" Saraya demanded.

"You got our hopes up that you won't be useless anymore."

"And if you even think about-"

"Did I say 'I give up'?" Roberto questioned firmly. His firm tone cost him some energy and he flinched a bit from the pain. His voice was weakened a bit after that. "I said from the beginning it would be hard, and would take a while." He flexed his arms a little bit. "It hurts right now, which means I've got to keep working at it until it doesn't hurt as much. In the future, I'll take the boot camp again. And again. However many times it takes. Even if I can't come here, I'll start working out, exercising more. Whatever it takes."

Saraya blinked in surprise at the resolve she was suddenly seeing in a boy that didn't seem to have it in him before. "You're really serious about this, aren't you?"

Roberto peered down at his scar briefly before looking back into Saraya's eyes.. "There's only one other thing I've ever been more serious about in my entire life."

Saraya nodded in understanding, then smirked. "In that case, I'll be around to see all of your failures."

"And we'll laugh whenever you get hurt!" Cackling simply from the thought, Saraya got up and departed her tent, leaving Roberto to his rest.

"Thanks for the support!" Roberto called back sarcastically. Then he turned over in his hammock, awaiting the next day.