Night Two Hundred And Fifty Four
Oleander City...
Hospital...
"What!?" Captain Katrina asked from the other line of the phone.
Athena stood in the hospital room the phone up to her ear. "I said. How the actual hell do I get Hero to stay in bed." As she spoke she grabbed a long pole with a net in it and used it to catch the bandaged up Hero who attempted to jump out the fifteenth story window.
"I need to train!"
"GO TO BED!" She yelled at him.
Katrina let out a sigh from over the phone. "What the hell is he doing this time?" She asked.
Athena let out a sigh of her own getting Hero back in his bed. She spat up a glob of pink goo which washed over Hero and wrapped around him working almost like glue and keeping him stuck as he thrashed around wildly. "He keeps insisting that he needs to keep training." She hissed out.
"And... That's a bad thing?"
"Almost all of his muscles have been torn to shreds he still has major organ damage and oh yeah. ALL HIS BONES ARE CRACKED AND MOST OF HIS NERVES DON'T WORK ANYMORE! WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH SQUAD SIX!"
"Right, right, right... Sorry. It's just... That was kind of why I did all of this... To motivate him to train more. Hero always bounces back from a loss stronger than ever. Though this is the first time he's been so motivated. I imagine it has to do with seeing just how many recruits his age are stronger than him. Ken, Shelly, Kitsune, Ava, Max, Arthur, that Davi boy. All of them scale above him in the power department. I'd say that's one of the reasons he cares so much. Still... I didn't expect him to want to train even in his broken body..."
"He says it helps with 'pain' training whatever the hell that is." Athena sighed tapping her foot up and down. "Still... You still won't be able to show up for a few more days thanks to those damn games and Hero won't be any shape for a while still. I can't have him pushing his body like that."
"I get it."
"That's why I called you. I'd like permission from you to allow me to keep him sedated."
"You want me to let you keep him knocked out?"
"Yeah. At least until I think he's mostly ready to keep moving again. It was hard for me to get him trapped in his bed."
"How did you trap him?"
"I had to use my goo to do so."
"...I think I might have an idea."
"What's that?"
"Let's give him what he wants. A way to train."
Over with Hero he was gritting his teeth and thrashing around with the pink taffy like substance that covered his arms and stuck him to the bed. It began to glow however as he transformed his right arm easily breaking out of it and allowing him to jump onto the bed. "Alright! Let's see. I'll start with some endurance training. I'll throw myself off of this building until my skin stops being bruised. That should begin to allow me to start training my cells disabilities up. After that I'll need a way to start training my bodies insides up as well. A couple of gulps of acid should cover that though."
"You are actually insane." Athena sighed closing the phone. 'So is your Captain though...' She thought to herself as she folded her arms.
Hero eyed the woman up. "In my current state I likely can't really do much to a Captain. Even one designed for support... But I'll try if you keep stopping me. It's important that I get stronger no matter what."
"Relax." Athena said waving her hands out. "No need to go get all hostile and push your body to a breaking point. Katrina told me a bit about why you want to get stronger and the rest I pieced together from your fight with Ava. I don't know who this Hero Otoko is but he's someone you want to catch up to right."
"That's right." Hero nodded. "He's got a massive head start on me to so I can't keep sitting around her all day." Athena moved closer to him and held her hand out but Hero flinched back from her. "S... Sorry. Please don't touch me if you can help it... I'm still not over some things... My fight with Ava helped but... If we're not fighting I'd rather not come in contact with a girl."
Athena sighed once more and refolded her arms. "Right... Well luckily your Captain and I came up with a solution for your training."
"You did?"
"That's right." She gave a mild smirk. "You see. This room is filled with tiny particle sized versions of my ability which when you inhale them start to heal you. Sadly its slow as you took so much damage it will likely take weeks or even months to fix. It's one of the reasons I can't have you leaving the room and getting all messed up again. The air in this room is fixing you but I can only keep it held in a small room such as this."
"But I can't sit around for weeks or months." Hero said shaking his head. "I need to do some more training."
"I'm aware. And thats when your Captain got a good idea. I also have an idea."
"You do?"
"Yes." Athena brought her hand to her stomach. "Like you I'm a transformation type. My body produces that substance by transforming my stomach and throat into something that can make it and spit it out. Its able to do many things namely form over things and bind together and fuse to allow for healing. I can bind itself together as well by forcing the atoms that make it up to fuse and merge allowing it to become harder than steel. Your Captain came up with a solution. You want to train your body up without using that right arm up yours right. In that case lay back in bed and I'll cover you from the neck down with it and you have to try and break out of it without the use of your right arm."
"Oh I get it. Sort of like when I was younger... My Master, Master Aka put me and Kitsune in straight jackets and we had to bust out of it with our strength and weren't allow to use our powers."
"Exactly. Though this will be far heavier, and far harder to break..." Athena stated. "Also... My creation isn't perfect. At most it can only last for up to four hours. This leads into my second idea. You lay back in bed and I'll cover you up and for four hours you can try and break out of it without your powers. After four hours are up it will come undone on its own. Instead of doing physical training I want you to allow your body to heal as this method will still strain it a bit. Instead of doing physical training we'll do mental training. Meditation and spiritual based for four more hours. That will allow you to have better confidence in yourself, and have better use over Mantra."
"I get it..." Hero nodded. "So... You want me to spend four hours trying to break out of that sludge stuff then four more hours of mind training."
"Exactly. And you'll spend the rest of the sixteen hours resting and relaxing. So you'll be given eight hours of training. And sixteen hours of eating, resting, and healing. The physical training was your Captains idea. The mental stuff is mine as I figure you've never done anything like it before."
Hero let out a sigh falling back onto the bed. "Now that I think about it. No. I've never had meditation based training. Just pure brute force stuff before."
"Good. Then we'll begin-"
"Before that though... I want to know why do you care so much?" Hero asked.
"Is it wrong of a Doctor to care about the health of their Patient so much?" Athena asked.
"Hmm. I suppose not." Hero mused letting out a chuckle. "Alright Ms. Captain. I'm ready! I'll break out of that sludge in no time flat at all! I promise."
"Well. Even if you break past it, I can always enter my level two state. It gets heavier and thicker in that mode. It has the density and durability of a planet. I doubt you'd even be able to nudge it."
"G... Geez. You're a lot stronger than I thought."
Athena gave a smile as she brought her fingers to her lips and began to pull the sludge out and draped it over Hero's body. "I also want you to promise me something." She said as she finished placing it around him. It was almost like a pink flesh blanket.
"What's that." Hero asked. He tried to move but was unable to even nudge the sludge that was on him. "This might be a bit harder than I thought." He frowned.
"I don't want you doing any more of that physical training while under my care. Any kind of training that can push your body... I don't want it..."
Hero didn't say anything. He wasn't really listening to her. Rather he was focused on the task of trying to nudge the flesh blanket he had now found himself in. It might prove to be decent training after all...
***
Gladiolus City...
The Arena...
"That was a goods night sleep." Ken yawned walking up the ramp.
It was the next day after Hero's match. His had been the end of the first half thus putting on a mini break and allowing them to all head back to the hotel. It was weird without Hero. Daughter had been in a mini panic attack when her father had been hauled off. She wouldn't stop clinging to Shelly's leg. The girl had even slept in the same bed as Shelly a fact that totally definitely didn't make Ken jealous at all.
They had all taken the news of Hero having to be hauled away differently. Ken was up beat confident that Hero was fine. She seemed to be thinking the boy would be up and about doing something dumb like try to drink acid or throw himself off of a building to train. Kitsune was oddly silent and didn't seem to be in the mood of talking. Light would be crying but his body couldn't produce any more water as he used it all up. Shelly was focused on Daughter, who as said, wouldn't stop clinging to the pink haired pretty girl. Irene seemed worried. Emma and Lucy both kept asking them if they heard back from Hero which they hadn't and none of the high up Enforcers in Squad Six told them anything. A fact that annoyed them all.
It was as if Jackson, Dawson, Hannah, and Katrina, were avoiding them all.
It was now time for the day to start anew though and they were all heading back out to their typical boxes.
"Have you guys heard back from Hero yet?" Brave asked casually walking along side them.
"Nope." Ken said shrugging.
"Darn. Well if you do tell him I send my love." She said blowing a kiss.
"Man Hero's really popular..." Ken noted.
"Well... Last fight did end with him opening his shirt up and showing off those rocking abs so I can't really blame them." Shelly stated shrugging. "Daughters gonna be a real looker if she actually does have any of Hero's genes. He's gonna have to fight tooth and nail to keep the boys away from her."
"I hope Hero's okay..." Irene sighed.
"B... B... B... Bi... Big... Brother!" Light sobbed out.
"Let it out big guy... Let it out." Ken said patting the boy on the back.
"Perhaps I should have dropped out of the games and gone to help Hero." Shelly sighed.
"Will Father be okay?" Daughter asked meekly.
"Of course he will." Shelly smiled running her hand through Daughters hair and petting it.
Kitsune didn't say anything his arms crossed as he stared up at the planet arena which had been rebuilt after Hero had slashed it in half. He replayed that fight over and over again in his head. Then-
The stone wall next to Kitsune exploded as he slammed his fist into it. "It's totally bs..." He growled. "That heroic bastard went and jumped ahead of me with a new power, and a new form, and yet it didn't even f##king matter. Hell the match wasn't even close. He was on Deaths Door and Ava was more pissed at the fact he couldn't fight her any longer. If thats the state Hero ended up in then what the hell is even the point of this. I mean he had to have been stronger then Ken right. So why the hell are we even still here if our best man lost casually."
"Are you actually considering giving up?" Ken asked rolling her eyes and throwing her arms behind her head. "Geez. No wonder Hero calls Max his rival and not you."
"I'm just... Being reasonable... Hero lost to Ava... Ava is weaker than Davi. Davi has a power up form... Why the hell... Are we even debating on if we can win."
"That should be obvious." Ken sighed rolling her eyes. "Hero would keep going if he could. If it had been you he'd keep pushing forward. You want to quit be my guess. But Hero showed his limits. We haven't yet. If Hero did get stronger than me with that power then I'll just have to make a new form or power to surpass him. I mean he got the idea from you since you did just that. Your sword couldn't keep up with him so you powered up and changed how your powers work. Besides... Hero gave me a good idea... He can't use level 2 so he made something as close to it as possible... I can't use that Seraphin power so..."
"Kitsune... If you want to drop out you can." Shelly stated. "But me and Ken will be seeing it through to the end. Even if we don't win. I think it's still good to see how far we can get. It will help us improve later. Besides... I'm a bit annoyed and would like a crack at Ava for what she did."
"Welcome back to the next day and our next matches." Olf announced loudly. "Todays first match is a special one! Mizu Blue Of Squad Eleven will be facing off Shelly Kaen of Squad Six!"