Issue 1 Downtime

Ben is up at the crack of dawn, getting breakfast and then heading to the workout room. After some light cardiovascular, he starts doing some circuit training.

Alex walked in a short while later in his workout outfit, with what looked like a very, very heavy gym bag over his shoulder that he was carrying with great difficulty. "Oh. Uh, hi. Didn't think anyone was going to be in here this early..."

"Sorry 'bout that," Ben says, "I get up pretty early. Habit and all."

"If you need privacy, I can take off though. Don't want to get in your way or anything."

There was something ridiculous about this. Probably the fact that he seemed completely and utterly sincere. When the two of them were the only ones in an enormous gym.

"Huh? Oh, no. I just... try to not do power stuff when people are around. Everyone thinks I'm going to get hurt or something."

Ben snorts, "That's weird. I mean, this is a school for mutants, right? People should be learning how to use their powers."

"I know, right? It's not like I've electrocuted anyone or blasted my room apart or anything crazy like that." Well, I did get stuck as a statue for a minute, but that didn't even hurt... "Hey, can you spot me?" he asked, getting the bench set up.

"Sure," Ben says, heading over to help Alex out, "I was just thinking I needed an exercise buddy anyway."

"Awesome," Alex said. "I'm trying to max right now, so there's going to need to be a lot of back and forth."

"Neato," Ben says.

It wouldn't take long for Alex to max... he'd already had a good idea of what he could manage to lift. "All right..." he said, panting as he leaned for his bag. "Now the fun really starts."

Ben looked about as bright and cheery as ever, being eager to help, "What's up? Nifty mutant tricks?"

"Yup, pretty much. I'm supposed to figure out how much stronger I am like this," he said as he grabbed some of the loose steel in the bag, turning to steel before lying back on the bench. "All right more weight!"

"Right-o!" Ben says enthusiastically, loading Alex up.

Alex started lifting, and by the time they had tripled the weight, he couldn't lift the bar back up. "Quick... Grab the... steel cable in my bag... just shove it into my leg or something," he grunted.

"Ummm...right-o," Ben says, heading to Alex's bag and proceeding to do just that.

For a minute, nothing happened, then the cable melded into his skin and started drawing into him, being sucked out of the bag inch by inch. Alex started bulking up, and doing it slowly like this, actually looked like natural body definition developing rather than the rippling patchy job that Christie had seen. "That's... oh yeah, that's better," Alex said, and slowly, he pushed the bar back up again. "Yeah, give me some more weight. This is awesome," he added, grinning.

"That's pretty neat," Ben says, loading up more weight, "What'd you do?"

"I'm... adding that steel... to my mass," he said as he lifted. "And... it's just like... if you had more muscle mass, I guess. I'd... been wondering about that. Hadn't had a chance to confirm it."

"I'd say it's pretty confirmed," Ben says, "Need more weight?"