I Lifts Things Up and Put Them Down (Rod)

[Jason Prowler]

Arm day, time for some of those vanity workouts to get those arms nice and swole. Jason had become more and more addicted to the gym. He was practically a gym rat at this point going five consecutive days a week to train. Hammel was the only place he could even workout when it came to resistance training, the only gym that had weights specially designed for students with his ability. It wasn't that Jason was trying to get bigger, he was more fascinated by how much he could lift and always interested in what his limits were. Of course he didn’t mind the fact that his muscles were really beginning to protrude, spring was here after all which meant summer wasn’t too far behind.

He entered the gymnasium locker room sporting a black nike gym bag holding all his supplements and equipment. Jason sat down on one of the benches, opened his bag, and took out his preworkout. He carefully took a scoop of the blue powder and added it to his blender bottle full of water. The powder turned the water a bright blue as he shook it vigorously to mix it. Jason gulped it down in a few seconds in preparation for this workout. He then put his bag in a nearby locker and headed to the main gym floor.

Motivational music played from the speakers as he walked into the gym. There were a bunch of students present training in different sections. Male students dominated the resistance training areas grunting and pushing up heavyweight looking to see if any girls were watching. Female students dominated the cardio equipment preparing for summer trying to ignore the gawking male students obviously staring at them, your typical high school gym of course. Jason wasn’t concerned with such frivolous things here, for anytime he was here he was extremely serious in his training.

Jason headed straight for the specialized weights, he couldn't bother with what everyone else was lifting with, it all felt as light as a feather. He grabbed a barbell and placed a one ton plate on each side. His skin began to tingle as his preworkout kicked in. Grabbing the barbell with a medium grip he began to do bicep curls, 1, 2, 3, he counted in his head as he inhaled as he lifted and exhaled on the negative reps. 9, 10, 11, 12, it was good for a warmup. He dropped the barbell on the ground on his last rep with a loud bang. Woops he thought as he looked around to see if anyone noticed. He would have to be more delicate as to not disturb the other students who were training.

[Rodrigo Santos]

Rod was lost in his own little world. He was still upset at Sydney for not even talking to him and his face was still a mess because of his last fight with that shrimp man he'd fought last weekend. Anger was making his powers kick in, which only made him hurt more all over, which only made him angrier, which- you get the picture. That didn't help his training at all. Besides, his entire body hurt because of the fight, not that he was going to let that get in the way of his training. He kept doing his repeats in his mind, wincing as his fingers bleed from his nails. Work through the pain, that'd been his dad advice! Or so he liked to imagine because he never actually met his father other than pictures and short calls. But he imagined his dad saying that, or even Gabo his brother. So he worked through the pain, his hand closing around the weight and doing his repeats.

Today was unusual for Rod. Usually, he would be among the gawking guys, watching girls run and stare at jiggly parts during his stay, but today anger didn't let him focus on even girls. Okay, it did, but just on ONE particular girl, with her own particular jiggly parts that weren't particularly jiggly. He snorted at the thought. Why was he so set in such a flat girl, anyway? He liked curves and womanly shapes and- What was her deal anyway? Why start arguing about something if you weren't going to explain WHY you were angry? That was so- so- so irrational! WOMEN! GAH. He grunted, already panting in both anger and pain. It was all her fault! This nail thing, and the fight thing, and the whole- the whole everything thing was her fault!

Rod was so fixed in his thoughts that he missed the guy lifting an irrational amount of weight, so when the loud banging of the whatevers coming down happened, he jumped, losing grip of the weight in his hand and dropping it directly on his right toe.

"MOTHER*****!"

His loud swearing filled the gym as he winced and pulled his feet up on his left knee to see the damage done. He pulled the sneaker along with his sock and winced as he saw the nail turn purple. Someone was paying for this... He looked around to see who'd been the culprit. THERE. That gringo looking around. "You!" Yelled out Rod, pointing at him, trying to stand on one foot his way. The poor guy looked too hurt to be as intimidating as he wanted to look though, what with his bandaged nose, his black eye, his poorly bandaged, bleeding hands and jumping on one foot, but he still tried. He was so going to make this guy pay! ...er... eventually, maybe? When he wasn't in such a poor condition. Life was tough.

[Jason Prowler]

Jason’s loud bang of the weights was followed by another. He turned to see the cause of the commotion and he was faced with some real injured looking kid pointing in his direction screaming profanities like it was his second language. The uproar of foul language reverberated throughout the gym causing others to stop and stare.  Jason looked around the gym noticing the observers and again upon the yelling student.

The kid was a complete mess, it was as if he just went through a blanket party at boot camp. Jason looked at him with a confused expression, he wasn’t the one to the drop the weight on this guy and here he was playing the blame game. The guy hopped closer to Jason as if he was playing a game of hopscotch. Was he serious? He had more bandages on than a mummy, where was he going with this? 

There were plenty of more sets to be done and there was no time for altercations. Jason hoped to get this over with quickly with this student and go back to his training, he was already losing his pump and his pre workout made his face tingly. He acknowledged the kid with an upward nod, “You okay chief?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. 

[Rodrigo Santos]

Okay? Was he okay? Rod growled at the guy, jumping once again and leaning on a bench as he realised he couldn't move any further. Fuck this guy. Fuck his toe. Fuck everything! "Fuck it." He didn't need this crap. Not when he had a sweetheart waiting for him. Besides, he kind of didn't want Syd to be mad at him now that they were together and, judging from last time, she really didn't like it when he fought without any reason. Not that he didn't think the guy didn't deserve a punch on the face for making him drop the weight on his foot, but Rod figured it could wait until he got better.

"Fine." Said Rod in a tone that obviously showed he wasn't. He then sent the guy a glare and pointed at him. "Remind me to kick yer ass later!" Yeah, that would be enough. He licked the rough skin of his thumb as he pulled his injured foot up and rubbed the cold spit against his toe. Oh yeah, that was the stuff. Might had been gross, but at least it was a relief from the pain.

[Jason Prowler]

Jason nodded at the student's response of fine but then laughed at his remark about kicking his ass. “Maybe another time brother.” he was amused at this guys audacity, he knew soldiers with the exact same type of attitude. “But I suggest you rest up first, you’re looking kind of beat.” The guy needed to learn some gym etiquette, or any etiquette for that matter as Jason witnessed him treat his wound like a stray dog.

He noticed the weights left on the ground from when the kid dropped them. Jason decided to be polite and walked over to the weights to pick them up. He grabbed one dumbbell and then the other, flipped them up like a pancake, caught them with ease and proceeded to rack them in their proper location. Jason returned to where the guy was resting. “You know you wouldn’t have dropped the weight if you had a spot. You should find yourself a gym partner to make sure that doesn't happen.” he stated before turning to go back to his workout, after all he was in between sets.

He squeezed his lats to stretched them out before returning to his set. Jason placed an extra half ton plate on each side of the barbell before continuing. He curled the barbell carefully squeezing at the top and slowly controlling the weight on it way down reaching a rep range of eight before placing the barbell back on the ground. Jason turned over his shoulder to see the guy within his peripherals, “The names Jason. Jason Prowler.”

[Rodrigo Santos]

Rod waved a hand at the guy in a dismissive way. "Whatever. Give me a week and I can kick yer ass." He said with a half smirk. He knew he could take the guy. He just needed some- uff. He leaned forward, feeling his entire face hurt just because he'd smiled. He needed time to heal. Well, at least the pain came from a nice memory. He knew he'd been making out a tad too much with Syd, which was why his nose now was killing him. Worth it. Totally worth it.

"Ye should see the other guy." Added Rod, just to save face. The other guy had walked away as if nothing, but he wasn't about to admit that to another dude! Especially one he swore revenge over... some time later. What? He was hurt! He needed to get better if he wanted to keep... getting hurt. Maybe Syd had a point when she'd called him an idiot for fighting. Oh well. Maybe he should save the punches for boxing.

The guy recommended getting a 'gym partner' and Rod snorted. "That sounds so gay, man." He said, being the perpetual jerk he was, but the guy had a point. He sort of needed someone there, right? Particularly now. Well, he wasn't going to admit being wrong.

Rod blinked as the guy introduced himself. Why was he still talking to him? "Uh- Rod." He replied back, but then figured the guy had given his entire name. "Rodrigo Santos." The way he said his name gave away his origin too, actually roughing up the r's like it was said in Spanish. But then the boy noticed this random guy do something incredible. Come on! Someone like that couldn't lift so much, right?

"That's impressive, bato!" Said Rod with wide eyes. "That yer power?" It had to be. Figures. He shook his head in disbelief. Of course any other guy around had strength or velocity. All he had were stupid nails. That was such a girl power!

[Jason Prowler]

The guys arrogance continued and Jason snickered in amusement, this guy had quite the mouth on him. He turned around to face him. “You have quite the attitude kid, I can see why you're all jacked up.” This guy wouldn’t last a second in a fight with Jason, then again most people wouldn’t, not that he would fight anyone, Jason was passive by nature.

“See the other guy huh?” Jason eyed the kid up and down. “Well, I see you and it looks like a scrap you had to hobble away from. How’d it happen?” Can’t say you were in a fight and not explain the details. “Was it over a girl or something?”

“You know whats gay? Smashing your toe with a dumbbell because you didn’t have someone looking out for you.” Jason just shook his head at the guy. “Having a spot is the difference between doing an extra rep or not doing one, you either push yourself when you're in here or don’t bother showing up.” Jason felt strongly about the gym. “Not gunna make any gains that way man.” This guy was one french fry short of a happy meal. Jason didn’t know why he was bothering giving this kid advice, it was probably because he could tell he was younger. Who knows maybe he would listen.

Rodrigo Santos introduced himself to Jason, rolling his r’s with a Spanish accent. “Well its nice to meet you brother, and listen my bad about the toe sitch.” Then Rod did something unexpected and threw Jason a compliment. He looked at the barbell and then back at Rod. “Thanks, and yeah super strength. Believe it or not the most impressive thing is when I open a door and don't rip it off its hinges.” he said while stretching out his shoulders. “What’s yours?” he asked with curiosity. “It’s obviously not regeneration.”

[Rodrigo Santos]

"Hey, ya need attitude in life." Replied Rod with a smirk, not really minding that the guy was making fun of his face. Meh, Rod was used to pain and getting beaten up. It was part of fighting. Besides, getting hurt constantly helped him with boxing. He could stand a lot of pain without going down as it was, and this injuries were nothing if he thought of what he would be able to do in the future.

He kept making fun though and Rod tried his best to ignore it. How did it happen? He snorted as he'd asked if it'd been over a girl. Well... technically, "A shirt." He grumbled, as he figured the guy wouldn't think it big enough a deal to get in a fight. "Well... sorta a girl, but... yeah, not really. It was a shirt." He ran a hand through his hair as he tried to think about it. Well, he'd been mad about Sydney back then, so that'd been why he'd reacted like he had.

He groaned, rolling his eyes at the guy as he began scolding. "Yeah, thanks for the advice, papi." He said sarcastically, turning to the side to glare at him. "Who ya think ye are? My dad?" He stared at him for a moment and rolled his eyes again, returning to his previous position, "At least ya showed up." He added in a mumble. He leaned back on the bench, just laying there, shielding his eyes with his arms. He so didn't need this now. Everything hurt as it was already and he took deep breaths just to keep his powers from showing.

Super strength. Rod snorted. Figures. He really got the low strand when it came to powers, didn't he? Fuck this. Everything about his life was shit. Well, everything except... He smiled dumbly at the memory of the previous day. Yeah, he had one good thing. Wait, he'd asked about his powers. Good thing Rod had been too distracted to hear yet another joke about his messed up face or he'd have gotten angry and showed the guy.

"Chi- cael- chel- Uh..." What was the technical name again? Rod shrugged, "My nails grow." Wow, didn't that sound impressive?

[Jason Prowler]

“A shirt?” Jason asked quizzically. Rod needed to get his priorities straight, or at least learn to temper his action with wisdom. Jason realized that he’d been judging this guy way too hard, it was probably the pre workout, or the fact the all this was a big interruption in his training. “Well whatever the reason I’m sure it was justified as long as sorta a girl was involved, and you were fighting for her.” Respect for women went a long way in Jason’s mind.

“Look I’m not trying to be your dad or whatever, I’m just on edge because I took down a pre before I got in here and it gets me all jacked up.” he shook his head. “But if you need someone to train with let me know.” Jason felt bad for Rod, he didn’t need a workout partner but he thought it polite to offer.

“Doesn’t everyone's nails grow? Not really a unique thing.” he looked at Rod a little confused. It was time for another set and Jason went back to curling his barbell, this time facing Rod while doing so to continue their conversation. He was on the clock after all.