'AHHHHH!'
'Push! Push! Think about shoving your elbows through!'
'Huhh...Huhhhhh...HUP!'
With shaking arms and silent tattoos, Bones finally moved the fifteen-kilo dumbbells aside up through his full range of motion in his set of bench press.
'Now, unload by lifting your knees up while dropping your dumbbell slow towards it!' Pethant instructed, and Bones crashed into the ground, his tattoos flashing once to still his body.
Looking over towards Pethant with a guilty smile and expecting him to say something, to Bone's surprise, Pethant simply shrugged and went to the next item on the checklist.
'I thought...you didn't want me to...to use my powers at all?' Bones asked quietly as he put the dumbbells on the ground and panted. He has never felt fatigued quite like this as his default has always been using his baseline enhancement powers for whatever movements he does in the gym.
'I wanted to teach you how to suppress it at the right times and isolate on the qualities you wanted to train.' Pethant said before noting down the weight on his notebook, 'eventually, I want you to be able to train independently. I will just be providing you with the training programs and stuff instead of holding your hands all the time.'
'I see.....that makes perfect sense.' Bones said before cracking a big smile, 'man, this is good stuff!'
Pethant didn't say a word and instead got way too embarrassed by the compliment. Swallowing hard and looking down at his notebook, he tried to brush it off as if nothing has happened, 'anyway.....your rest time is up.'
'YUP!'
The arrangement between the two was quick and swift after Bones demonstrated his far superior combat abilities and Pethant demonstrated his hypertrophy as well as his coaching skills. The two man will make a deal to train each other three times a week, and Bones even mentioned that he might refer Pethant on to the gym management later on, where he can then earn the big bucks.
Back at the fighting ring, as Bones was picking up Pethant, he mentioned how Pethant is heavily relying on the physical capabilities of his powers rather than the skill of melee combat to overcome his opponents. With more and more superhumans being at the heightened generation level and possessing a huge amount of raw power right off the bat, this strategy has only become less and less effective with time.
'I can teach you my own style of melee combat.' Bones said, 'it's not the most pretty or fancy, but it will save your lifetime and time again.'
'Who are you.....really?' Pethant asked before turning his voice into a low whisper, 'you are....far stronger than you looked.'
'My name is Bones Skinner....I....I am the RIGHT PINKY FINGER.' Bones said underneath his breath while looking all around, 'I...hate the attention it gets me, like when on the upper level how everyone is avoiding me as a result.'
'Ah. Makes sense.' Pethant said, nodding his head before pointing a finger, 'I am fairly sure it was your gym etiquette that keeps people away! But if you follow my lead, I can make you popular in no time!'
'I don't want that!' Bones said in a hurry as the two of them walked out of the fighting ring, 'I just....don't want people to hate me that's all.'
'That too!'
To Bones' surprise, the fact that he belongs to one of the TEN FINGERS did not deter Pethant at all. The TEN FINGERS form the two hands that grasped the lifeline and future of the entire superhuman world, and yet Pethant treats them as if they are just ordinary superhumans. Perhaps Bones has indeed met someone special.
Going back to the present, Pethant took Bones through only a few more full-body exercises before calling it a day. The intensity is just enough novel stimulation for Bones' body that he will feel it for sure the next day, and yet it is not even close to debilitating making him able to do whatever he wanted to do in life with some ease. Plus, Bones can always use his tattoos to get himself out of a pinch if he needed.
'Pethant...do you want to get a coffee?' Bones said, rubbing his quads that are twitching uncontrollably with his every step, 'I know a few good joints around.'
With a coffee protein shake in each hand, Pethant sat down across from the Right Pinky Finger.
'Can I say something?' Bones asked before sliding his business card which is stained with drops of coffee, 'you acted as if it is normal to see a member of the Ten Fingers around town when I said it...Why is that?'
'Are you in the detective mode?' Pethant asked, his big eyes staring into Bone's darkened eyes.
'No, just curious.'
'I...we have had encounters with two of the Ten Fingers before we got to S Prime.' Pethant said, taking a chunky slurp from the BERRY GAINS protein shake.
'Oh really?! Who were they?'
'It was...Freya and Imogen, I think.' Pethant said, 'we just came out of a mission and the superhuman association invited us to one of their resorts. That's where we met them.'
'Ah.' Bones nodded with an intrigued look, 'The Left Middle and Left Index...'
'You know them? Are the TEN FINGERS like a club or something?'
'It's more like an executive committee...' Bones said, 'I am not supposed to say any of this, but I don't give a shit. I am still new to it all, and my detective instincts tell me that they are not the cleanest people around.'
Knowing when to speak and when to listen, Pethant simply sat and slurped away at his second drink, BANANA GAINS.
'Anyway, I don't want to say too much.' Bones said, 'but just in case you need me to look into something for a discounted price, you can contact me through this.'
'You got it.' Pethant said, picking it up.
Over the next month or so, Pethant was not only recommended by Bones to become one of the trainers in the gym, the recommendation from one of the TEN FINGERS proved to be an incredibly powerful tool. Soon, Pethant's booking nearly full with a variety of customers from both special professions and general populations. Despite the fact that all that lives in S Prime are decently powerful superhumans, people still wanted to walk around with better physiques.
You cannot control what your superpowers are, but you can always control how you look and how you feel.
With the trends in customer goals and expectations, Pethant came to realize just how popular Freya's is. Her physique seemed to be the female ideal, which Pethant had to agree that her muscular lean look is certainly extremely attractive and empowering.
On the personal training front, they maintained the three sessions a week format, with Bones always instructing Pethant in his combat training and giving him his training exercises, movements and routines before Pethant takes him through in the gym.
Arguably, the repeated movement training is far more intense for Pethant than lifting was for Bones, though the differences it made in Pethant's movements are extremely noticeable.
He now moves extremely sharply, though he is still yet to perfectly manipulate all of the mass he carried with him. One thing that Bones continuously preaches it about utilizing every ounce of mass in your body in combat, slowly developing a style of combat that is suited for you. His entire system consists of general movement strategies, combinations, counters, combat tactics on the macro scale and combat strategies on the micro-scale. Each of these is such a wealth of knowledge that it wasn't long before Pethant started using recorders to tape down everything he has done and Bones has said in the sessions.
On the hypertrophy side, Bones has made clear progress, particularly in his back and chest area. His arms are slowly improving but not nearly at the rate. Soon, he is looking less like skins on bones and his clothes are being filled up slowly. Taking his own advice, Bones is also slowly adjusting his combat style thanks to his upgraded baseline performance factors. By continuing with his movement and combat practice while adding on Pethant's general physical training, he has started to notice a further increase in his speed and power.
'I don't think I have asked you this...' Pethant said as Bones re-racked a pair of 20 kilograms after a set of lunges, 'but why did you want to get bigger? Was it to fight better or get stronger?'
Looking around to make sure no one is near them, though nobody ever is, Bones replied quietly and quickly.
'It's for a girl.'
'NO WAY!' Pethant lets out a chuckle, 'that's how I started too!'
'Though she is a lot more impressive than I am.' Bones said, his darkened eyes turning soft and his expression dreamy, 'but.....I just wanted to be able to stand around the same level as her.'
'Who is she?' Pethant asked, 'if you don't mind.'
'It's a secret.' Bones winked at him, 'maybe I will let you know AFTER I have asked her out.'
'Hey, looks like we may want to build up your glutes now.' Pethant laughed to the embarrassment of Bones, 'to fill out the trousers, of course.'