A Little Light Exercise... Really?

"Great!... Another Mystery!," Aaron thought in exasperation as he returned to his room. Just recalling all of the strange occurrences that had plagued him throughout the day was exhausting but he still had many things to do before he slept.

Entering his room, Aaron scanned it for anyone other than Sydney and himself. They were alone. Aaron walked over to Sydney who breathed softly., "She's Still Out."

Confirming that Sydney was still ****, Aaron immediately headed toward the entrance of his own Private World. The wall rippled like water as Aaron passed through it instantly exiting his room and entering 'Knowhere,' His Home away from home.

Aaron took a deep breath and savored the purified air. It hadn't even been 24 hours since he had last set foot in Knowhere but it felt like forever and it was good to be in its embrace once again., "Ah This Is So Much Better Than That Stuffy Mansion."

"Welcome Home Father!.," Came Gog's cheery voice as soon as Aaron crossed The Dimensional Threshold into Knowhere.

"Thank You Gog.," Aaron answered back with a pleased grin.

The twisting space of Knowhere could take Aaron anywhere in an instant with just a thought but after the kind of day he had had it felt good just to walk along the shifting halls and corridors for a while before entering Knowhere's surgical bay. He still had to get rid of those nano-machines infecting his blood even though they were deactivated they could pose problems later on if he didn't get rid of them soon and besides he wanted to examine them more closely.

Aaron felt a twinge of pain in his arm., "Gregson May Be Old But He Is Still Strong.," Aaron thought, trying to massage the pain away then looked down at his sleeve and noticed a deep red stain that was still partially wet. Examining his sleeve and his hand, he realized it was blood... His blood. When Gregson had unexpectedly grabbed his arm, He had apparently squeezed with such **** that several blood vessels in Aaron's upper arm had burst and blood had been forcibly extruded through the pores of his skin and in the shape of Gregson's hand no less.

Aaron's arm felt heavy and he pinched the bridge of his nose., "Great One More Thing To Fix."

Aaron removed his shirt as well as the rest of his clothes, and had one of the many drones that assisted in tasks and maintained Knowhere's numerous facilities and equipment to take them away and make improvements based on his experiences from earlier. He had been too relaxed but that would change. Things had been going to plan for too long, He needed to be more proactive and to take more precautions. His skill had saved him but if not for a series of fortunate events it could have easily gone the other way. How was he going to protect his Mother and Sisters not to mention himself if he continued to act so carelessly.

With a sigh, Aaron laid down on the table, not even noticing the cold against his bare skin. Aaron stared up at the soft white light above the table and stated., "Begin."

Within seconds, several multi-purpose mechanical arms unfolded from numerous unseen compartments in the ceiling above and set about their assigned tasks as a sterile field materialized around the table with a soft hum, caused by the air molecules themselves vibrating. A viscous and completely transparent and semi-permeable bio-fluid quickly encased Aaron's body from the neck down. After Cleaning and Disinfecting his body, the nutrients within his skin were replenished... The hand-shaped bruise on his arm vanished within seconds. A number of the arms, equipped with a variety of medical tools and instruments set about probing and repairing what damage hadn't been fully repaired while a mechanical arm with what looked like a blood pressure gauge entered the field without breaking it, fastening around his forearm, the odd instrument began extracting the toxins still present in his blood from his previous overexertion while meticulously removing all of the foreign nano-machines and storing them for analysis.

While he laid there, Aaron was not idle as he instructed Gog to prepare various research materials and files, and used his link to manipulate the equipment of several floors of Knowhere simultaneously in addition to filing reports with Omen on what had happened while making it absolutely clear that he would confirm everything when he came into work tomorrow. Aaron was preforming hundreds of highly delicate and sensitive tasks simultaneously and close to a thousand smaller undertakings. Such multitasking was nothing to Aaron who had steadily increased the number of complex and minor tasks he could perform through the link over the years. Practice Really Does Make Perfect Kids!

If anyone were to see Aaron in his current state they would first be in awe of his impressive manhood and chiseled features but then they would be horrified. Currently, The skin and muscle of Aaron's arms and legs were exposed as his machines carefully repaired the damage caused by the stresses of the night. Normally, His nano-machines would be enough but the extent of the wounds he had incurred were much more extensive then the paltry injuries he usually suffered during a normal school day so extra care was required. As if that wasn't bad enough, He looked like a pincushion with large needles connected to wires and sensors crackling with electricity protruding from all over his torso.

Another robotic arm emerged from the ceiling above him and began cutting the bandages on his hand. Aaron was sure Gregson had noticed his injury but chose not to say anything. He was more concerned about his Mother. He had been careful not to let her see his hand because if she had seen it she would have caused a fuss, crying and demanding an explanation and Aaron had been through enough today and didn't need the hassle. Aaron was focused on the many tasks he was preforming through the link so he only barely noticed what was being done to him in a peripheral sense. His nerves were being deadened so he only felt vague sensations of temperature and pressure for the most part.

It took about an hour to sort out and repair the damage that the excitement earlier had caused but when it was done Aaron felt like a new Man. The mechanical arms retracted back into their hidden service bays and the various fields protecting and immobilizing Aaron dissolved and Aaron got up. His suit which had been cleaned, repaired and improved was neatly folded and waiting for him on a small instrument table nearby.

After getting dressed, Aaron stretched., "Much Better."

Aaron was about to head to one of the research labs that could be found all over Knowhere when he paused, a door leading to his personal workout space appearing a few feet away from where he was standing. Aaron stood there for several seconds just staring at the simple blue door.

"Maybe I can skip just tonight...," Aaron wondered aloud before a look of resolve settled onto his pale face., "... No, a weapon that has lost it's edge is useless."

Aaron was proud of all the progress he had made in building himself up and he had promised himself that once he was able that he would stick to a regular schedule of exercise and conditioning. While the exact format of his workout varied from day to day he was firm about keeping to a 8 hour morning and night routine.

As he stepped through the blue door, Aaron found himself in the enormous gym he had designed and built to cover whatever training and exercise or conditioning he might require.

Aaron changed into some more suitable workout attire and began as he always did with a warm-up consisting of 20 minutes of stretching then a variety of basic exercise routines like sit-ups, push-ups, pull-ups, and the like for two hours.

Next Aaron headed toward the weights.

"Increase The Weight By Another Two.," Aaron commanded Gog as he hefted the bar up, A second later the weight increased another 200 pounds bringing the total weight Aaron was currently lifting to 300 pounds and Aaron grunted briefly from the effort as he began a new set of reps. It might seem like alot but Aaron was still weaker than an Enhanced Human who hadn't developed their strength and it had taken him considerable time and effort to get to this point. When he first began working out... Even lifting 5 pounds was exhausting in his weakened condition but he steadily worked his way up to 10 then 20, 25, 50, 100, 150 and so on until he could now lift 300 pounds for a couple dozen reps and even more weight briefly with effort if he needed to.

With the light stuff out of the way, Aaron began to steadily ramp up his workout. He moved on to a 20 Kilometer (roughly 13 Miles) run followed by a 8 Kilometer (5 Mile) swim then another 20 Kilometer run only this time with resistance which made it feel more like 100 Kilometers (62.1 Miles) with only a 10 minute break in between.

Aaron was always amazed at his own constitution, The longer and harder he exercised the less effort it seemed to require and the less tired he got which sounds fantastic but early in his workouts he had discovered that despite what seemed like a blessing was actually quite dangerous if he overdid it because he felt great while exercising but the moment he stopped the exertion and strain caught up to him in an instant. The first time he had learned this was a painful experience which had left him unable to move for 3 hours as he lay on the floor in his gym sweating buckets, coughing up blood and unable to keep the contents of his stomach well, Inside his stomach. Luckily, Gog had dispatched some medical drones to intravenously replace all of the resources he had expended during his runner's high and to repair the damage he had inadvertently done to his muscles and even his bones.

"Let's Avoid That Outcome Shall We.," Aaron thought to himself, sitting down on a padded bench where he toweled off and took a sports drink from a tray being carried by a floating drone.

A few minutes later when he had recovered enough, Aaron went to the combat range where he trained with knives, swords, and guns everyday to keep his skills sharp. In fact, The shot he had preformed earlier in the night when he caused the bullet to move not in a straight line but in an unusual trajectory was one of the results of such diligent training. It was a technique called "Bullet Curvature" which was more popularly referred to as 'Bending Bullets.' It's first recorded use was more than 150 years ago but the technique had been refined to such a fine edge that it is considered impossible for anyone who has not been enhanced to even attempt it. That is because The Technique requires enormous physical and mental conditioning to even think about attempting it. To preform it successfully, One needs an unparalleled level of focus, an unprecedented level of control over one's Neuro-Muscular System, the highest level of reflexes current human biology allows, full cardio-respiratory control, and split second timing.

The technique is mainly taught to Military Personnel and some branches of Law-Enforcement but its usage is strictly forbidden except in the most dire of situations and the reason for that is that even the best Marksmen in The World have only a 50-50 shot at pulling it off. That means that it fails five out of ten times. Aaron on the other hand had trained his proficiently to such a high degree that his success rate had risen to 7 out of 10 and he could preform it with either hand or with both simultaneously, something that no one else in The World had yet achieved to his knowledge.

Aaron practiced with a variety of handguns which were not only ideal but currently the only medium through which Bullet Curvature could be successfully preformed. Aaron took on a shifting obstacle course of moving and stationary targets as well as an array of scenarios where Bullet Curvature would be difficult but still possible. Aaron preformed the technique successfully 9 out of 10 times which should have been cause to celebrate but upon repeating the course another three times he achieved no better than a consistent 7 out of 10.

"Aaaah!," Aaron yelled with irritation, slamming the empty gun down on the firing table on the shooting range., "It Doesn't Count If I Can't Repeat The Results Consistently and Reliably. Was It Just A Fluke?"

It would come in time, Aaron reminded himself. He chose not to dwell on his failure and instead moved on to some physical training. Normally after his firearms practice he moved on to swords and knives but he decided to skip that for tonight and instead went over to a sparse corner of his gym and removed his ring. It physically hurt to remove his cherished ring but given the next phase of his workout he decided it was best to take it off and he did... If very reluctantly.

"I Feel Like Some Music Gog... Play Some Bach.," Aaron told Gog through their link.

"Bach Again Father?," Gog sighed a second later in response., "How About Something With A Bit More Energy?," Gog asked hopefully.

Aaron considered for a moment. While he preferred the more Traditional Style of Classical Music, Aaron had been slowly expanding into other genres of music thanks to Gog's encouragement., "Hmm... Perhaps You're Right... What Did You Have In Mind?"