Intensive Training 1: Samus Aran
By L. Horatius Catullus, MafiaKirby@Gmail.com
Samus Aran invites the Wii Fit Trainer to ‘Teach her a Lesson.’ The trainer complies, excessively


97, 98, 99... 100. Samus finished her pull-ups and smiled, dropping onto the
ground, throwing the towel over her shoulder, and turning to leave the gym.
Today had been a good day, all things considered. She'd worked up a good
sweat, had a nice full-body workout. It was honestly more of an off-day as far
as the gym went. She did a light workout, but not enough to make her
particularly weak or exhausted compared to a normal day. More something that
was, by her standards, almost a warm-up. She was a pretty fit woman, after
all. She was, after all, more than just 'In Shape' by most people's standards.
She was physically strong, had excellent cardio, firm muscles, looked
absolutely gorgeous, and to top everything off, could kick anyone's ass any
day of the week. There wasn't much room for being out of shape or lazy in her
line of work, after all. There were bounties to be caught, and asses to kick,
and she couldn't exactly afford to be gasping for air when she was doing it,
especially when there was so little air in space anyway.

So yeah, a bit of an off-day, but it still had a few hundred of her favorite
workouts, why not? Who says an 'Off Day' can't have fun in it? She didn't have
that much else to do for relaxation, anyway, she liked sparring, she liked
working out, she liked doing her job, and sometimes she liked going to
baseball games, but that was it. So that was what she did, and that was how
she liked it. With a smile on her face, she strode towards the door.

"Your workout was suboptimal."

Oh. Great. This girl. You know, some people got aggressive when they were in a
bad mood, but Samus was the other way around. She could be calm when things
were going rough, but when she was having a good day, there was nothing she
hated more than having to deal with some sort of self-absorbed hypercritical
idiot like the Wii Fit Trainer. She was a professional bounty hunter. She
didn't need criticism from a girl who spent her time teaching grandmas and fat
kids how to raise their arms above their heads. She tried to ignore the woman
and just kept walking towards the door.

"You didn't specifically target any muscle group, nor did you really challenge
yourself at all. You might as well have stayed home after that."

She shrugged, "But I didn't," she said, not interrupting her stride. She
gritted her teeth in annoyance as the perky white AI followed her at a rapid
pace.

"But you could have. There's no point in exercising if you don't push yourself
at all."

"Just kinda fun. Exercising and kicking ass, it's what I do. Now scram."

She couldn't have been more explicit about it, but that didn't seem to matter.
The woman followed her anyway, perky and smiley as ever.

"Come on, Samus, I know you can do it! You're in great shape, you can push
yourself a little. Come on, it'll be fun! I'll join you!"

Samus gritted her teeth, "That's the last thing I need."

The trainer stepped in front of her, her body barring the door, "Come on,
Samus, you know you can do better than that! Just a bit more, I promise.
Look!" She pulled out a little trophy with a golden star and Samus's name on
it, "I got you something. But only if you do another 50 pull-ups!"

This woman seemed to only have one mode. She was permanently set to positive.
Or, another way to put it, she was permanently set to 'Pissing Samus off.' She
was a fucking bounty hunter. She didn't need a goddamn participation trophy
from R.O.B's hot daughter.

"If you don't get out of my way, Trainer, I'll beat you so hard you'll have 2s
in your code."

Trainer didn't even blink, "If you want combat training, that is within my
programming parameters!" She stood up even straighter, and somehow her
perpetual smile grew even wider, as she raised her hands like a fighter, "I'm
programmed for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Kickboxing, Sambo, Karate, Submission
Wrestling, Tae-Kwan-Do, Judo, Capoeira, Boxing, Krav-Maga, Sumo, Jeet Kune Do,
W-"

"Stop. I don't need martial arts training from a-" She blinked, "Sumo?"

"Yes! Want to learn?"

Samus looked over the slender woman, "How can you..." She shook her head,
"Nevermind. Doesn't matter. Point is, there's nothing you can do that I can't.
Now get out of my way."

She stepped forward, pushing the trainer easily to the side, knocking her back
against the doorframe harder than perhaps was necessary, but she'd had it with
this perpetually perky punching bag.

The voice came from behind her in a small whine, "I just want to teach you a
lesson..."

She was sure she meant the phrase in the most literal way, but something in
Samus snapped at that comment.

"Teach. Me. A lesson?" She asked, her back to the other woman, "You want to
teach me a lesson? Do I look like I need help from a robotic babysitter?" She
sighed, "You know what, fine, teach me a lesson."

"Happily!" The trainer answered, "What lesson would you like to learn?"

Samus turned around and stepped up to her, their bodies inches from each
other. "What lesson do you have?"

"I'm programmed for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Kickboxing, Sambo, Ka-"

"All of them."

The trainer gave a comforting smile, "I'm afraid that's not advisable. It's
good to want to learn, but you should focus on one discipline at a time."

"I don't care. There's nothing you can do I can't anyway. So come on. Teach me
a lesson, if you're so good."

The trainer looked concerned for a moment, "Happily. But you should be aware
that that phrase could be interpreted as an act of aggression in certain
circumstances."

"I know."

The trainer's eyes furrowed a little, confused, "Are you asking me to fight
you?"

"I'm asking for a lesson. I wanna learn what you can do."

The trainer brightened up immediately, "You want to learn from me?"

"Yes." Samus stepped back, getting into a grappling position, "You get your
way. Come teach me what you can do."

The trainer looked like she had just opened a Christmas present to find the
keys to a new car on the collar of a friendly puppy sitting on every game
system ever made. "Happily! The lesson can commence when you are ready"

Samus stepped back into the hallway and looked the trainer over. Somehow this
stupid creature was actually willing to fight her. She would have been a bit
more annoyed by having to deal with her more, but whatever, she'd been wanting
to put the trainer in her place for some time now, and if this was how she got
to do it, then this was how she got to do it. The trainer followed up, hands
still raised in a fighting position that was a little unscientific, to say the
least. This girl was programmed to train martial arts? Clearly not by example,
if that was her stance.

Once they were both in the hall, no need to worry about blocking people's
exits from the gym, Samus made her move. Almost as soon as the trainer had put
her foot on the ground, Samus was ready and after her. She rushed the pale
woman, and in an instant dodged behind her. She brought her arms up and
wrapped them around the trainer's neck, quickly dragging her into a sleeper
hold. Applied properly, a sleeper hold could knock someone out in seconds, but
this wasn't exactly a normal girl. Besides, Samus wasn't interested in getting
a quick knockout and proving herself right, if the Trainer was going to make
her fight, she would make her regret it. She yanked her arms tighter on the
trainer's throat, crushing against her powerful and well-trained arms. She was
just going to cut off the woman's air (if she was capable of sparring, she no
doubt would need it for pure fairness purposes) and make her suffer.

To her surprise, the trainer didn't gag or struggle. She didn't even seem to
notice what was happening to her. Samus tried to squeeze tighter, just in case
the attack hadn't been enough, and while she could tell that this was a
well-applied choke, it was provoking practically no reaction at all from the
woman it was applied to. If anything, it was like she had grabbed onto a
marble statue, and was trying to choke out pure rock. Her muscles started to
ache from how she squeezed on the trainer's throat.

The not-quite-human woman didn't need to change the rest of her position for
her counter, she simply reached up and her fingers grabbed on Samus's blond
ponytail. Samus's eyes opened wide in surprise as she felt her opponent grip
her tight, and start to pull her forward. Her arms instantly fell from the
trainer's throat in shock, and that would turn out to be a drastic mistake, as
the trainer suddenly pulled forward and bent over. Samus was overbalanced and
yanked up by her hair. She had too much pride to scream, but she still gasped
in shock as the ground fell away from her feet, and she was sent flipping over
the trainer's back, and crashing down towards the ground. She felt like she'd
been thrown to the ground in a ship accident, propelled into the tile floor
outside the gym. She was surprised that the tile hadn't cracked, and she
honestly felt like something in her had.

She was still seeing stars when the trainer leaned over her and drove her foot
down against Samus's chest. Now she was SURE something had cracked inside her,
there was no way it hadn't, that blow would have hurt even with her armor on.
Somehow, the trainer had managed to stomp down on her with a strength that
seemed like it ought to be physically impossible.

Samus tried to push against the trainer's foot. The muscles of her arms bulged
as she did, but there was quite frankly nothing she could do about it. It was
like trying to move a rock with just one finger. She couldn't understand how
the trainer was capable of such a feat of strength. She pushed more, but for
all her effort, there wasn't even an ounce of weight lifted from her chest.

"G-get... Your foot... Off... Me..." Samus grunted. The trainer smiled
brightly back down at her.

"Come on, Samus. Weights aren't going to be lifted if you just ask politely.
You have to keep at it. I know if you work at it, you'll be able to lift me
off you someday, probably sooner than you'd guess!"

"G-get off me, you malfunctioning treadmill" the mercenary woman grunted up at
her.

The trainer's eyes narrowed, "Losing is frustrating, but there's no excuse for
name-calling even when you're behind. That's poor sportsmanship."

After a second (that with the agonizing weight on her chest felt like about an
hour) the trainer perked up once more, "Alright. Let's resume the session!"

She pulled her leg back, and Samus breathed a sigh of relief (at this point
any breath at all was a relief) and relaxed for only a moment. It was a moment
too long, as the trainer had been preparing for her next attack, and drove her
foot into Samus's side. She cried out as the kick hit her, completely lifting
her off the ground and sending her crashing towards the cinderblock wall.

Her whole body hurt as she lay on the ground after the kick. It was never
really possible to be sure what condition one's bones were in without an
x-ray, but from the bruise and the strange feel, as she pressed her hand to
her rib-cage, she was sure it couldn't be a good one. She struggled for
breath, needing a few moments to recover, and looking up at the trainer
standing several feet away from her. She rolled on her front, clutching at her
aching chest, her eyes on her opponent.

The Trainer responded by giving a few more claps, leaning over and speaking in
a high, sing-song voice like she was beckoning to a small child

"Come on, Samus, I know you can do it!"

Can do it? She'd show this woman "Can do it." She quickly set her feet and
charged forward, pounding against the ground and running with her shoulders
down and head up like a linebacker charging at a quarterback. Just before she
got to her, she set her right foot and leaped off it, sending not only her
shoulder but every ounce of her bodyweight crashing right into the trainer's
body.

It should have sent her opponent flying like a candlepin. Instead, an
overwhelming, burning agony coursed through Samus's body as she smashed her
shoulder against the trainer's midsection, and was met by simulated muscle
that was literally hard as a rock. She didn't need an x-ray to know the cause
of the sudden weakness in her arm. She'd literally dislocated her shoulder
just from the attempted tackle, and with an agonized groan, she sank to the
ground at the woman's feet, looking like a supplicant praying at a marble
statue of a god. She winced as she raised her right arm to her shoulder,
leaning against the trainer's body and doing her best to pop her arm back in
place.

"That was a great try!" The trainer encouraged her despite her suffering, "You
just need to work a little more on your power. I'm sending a strength-training
program to your suit's computer. You'll be able to knock me over in no time!"

Samus bit her lip to hide her gasps of pain as she worked to slip her arm back
in the socket. She didn't really think about the words of the trainer, she was
too busy dealing with her arm. Even she couldn't hide the hiss of pain she
gave as she managed to get at least some of the ball back in the socket. Jolts
of electric fire coursed through her arm.

"I've devised a strength and conditioning program and sent it to your suit's
AI. We'll keep you on schedule and get you in tip-top shape before you can say
'Brinstar!' But for now, back to the lesson!"

She'd got her shoulder back in place not a moment too soon, as she felt the
trainer grab the hair at the front of her scalp to start to pull her up. It
wasn't a trap, but Samus didn't become one of the best bounty hunters in the
universe by taking a relaxed and passive approach in combat. She had to take
advantage whenever it presented itself, and now was not the time to look a
gift horse in the... Well, arm.

She reached up, twisted her hips and bucked them up, and latched her fingers
onto the trainer's wrist. In one fluid motion, she had pulled her opponent
into a standing armbar, pulling back on the forearm and locking her thighs and
lower legs up around the shoulder. She used her entire body to pull back,
every inch of muscle and force she could muster went into hyperextending the
trainer's arm to render it useless and take control of the combat situation.

There was, unfortunately, one minor problem she had failed to take into
account, and that was the trainer's superhuman strength and durability. She
hadn't really thought she would need to, the woman felt like a marble statue,
but with Samus's entire body being put into the attack, even a marble statue
would shatter. The trainer, meanwhile, just looked down at her with the same
encouraging smile.

"Good job, Samus, but you need to work on your core muscles."

"Just... Break... You bitch..."

"Do you need a break?"

"I need YOU to break!"

She paused, as if confused, though her expression never changed. "I'm sorry,
Samus, but it is not within my parameters to render myself inoperable. But if
you don't want to rest, then we can continue the program."

As Samus had pulled her opponent into the hold, the other woman's wrist had
been dragged down to her throat. Now, she felt those long, piano-player's
fingers close in on her throat, wrapping almost entirely around her neck in a
single hold. She gagged as the trainer leaned in, pushing down on her throat
harder and closing her airway entirely. Not a puff of breath could come
through her throat.

Once she had done that, the trainer pulled up. The grip on her neck ensured
that Samus couldn't afford to just let go of the trainer's arm as she was
dragged up. The only defense she could think of was to pull harder, hoping
that at some point in the process she would be able to hyperextend the other
woman's arm and force her to release. It wasn't happening. No matter how hard
she tugged on it, it wouldn't move. She, meanwhile, was moved far more than
she wanted, until she found her head almost eight or nine feet off the ground.
She'd seen a counter like this before and knew all she could do was try to
prepare herself for the inevitable slam.

She couldn't have prepared for what came. She was propelled downward like
she'd been shot out of a railgun. She didn't even have time to think about how
loud the air was rushing past her ears before her back smashed into the tile
floor. She couldn't speak for her bones, particularly the shoulders and back
ribs that had taken the brunt of the blow, but she could feel dust on the back
of her head that told her that the tile floor, at the very least, had cracked.

The trainer's hand tightened around her throat even more. Her face was turning
purple, blood barely able to flow through her veins, as she helplessly grasped
at the other woman's arm. She felt her body lifted into the air by her throat
and wrapped her legs tighter around the trainer's shoulder. That wasn't about
trying to be in control, though, it was just about trying not to give the
trainer any more control of her than she already had. After the aggressive,
destructive force of the slam, Samus didn't even want to think about what
would happen if she were to give the other woman complete free reign over her
body.

Of course, she might as well have done that already, there just was nothing
she could do to stop the trainer from doing with her body whatever she wanted.
The gorgeous woman smashed her down again, just as hard, jarring every inch of
Samus's overpowered body. The only thing she could do was close her eyes, hold
on tight, and hope that her opponent would be done with the vicious beating
soon. Time and time again, she felt herself pulled from the ground, only to
slam into it. Whether from the force of the blows or the number, she lost
count of how many times she had crashed into the ground (the concrete dust and
chips around her told her that 'tile' was no longer an accurate description of
the floor beneath them.)

She was a proud woman, she wasn't going to cry from being beaten by this
robotic woman. She was determined not to show that level of weakness. It
wasn't easy, though, the way she was being smashed to the ground. Her will was
beginning to take as much of a beating as the rest of her body at the hands of
the trainer, and to make matters worse, the AI was slowly gripping her hand
tighter around Samus's throat. The mercenary's eyes were bulging from their
sockets as she fought for air, for control, for anything, and found every
effort denied by the mighty machine-woman.

Her ears were ringing, drool falling from her lips, and her face a deep purple
while the trainer throttled her. The repeated lifts and slams were now
replaced by a simple and crushing choke. Samus felt the strength beginning to
fade from her body, her grip on the trainer's wrist went from a crush to weak
tugs, too little more than resting her hands. Her vision was blurry, her eyes
watering as she struggled. Soon, she could no longer find a way to keep her
legs latched, and they fell to the ground with a thump. The impact of her
heels against the ground would have hurt, had her brain had enough power left
to focus on the agony. As it was, all it could focus on was the lack of
oxygen.

She was seeing stars and feeling numb, and it took longer than it should have
for her to realize what was happening when she felt first her head, then
shoulders and back, lifted from the ground. She was simply wondering if
perhaps her whole body had gone numb so she couldn't feel the ground, but she
got the answer when she was twisted and her back smashed against the concrete
blocks of the wall behind them. The rough exposed concrete scratched up her
back, as the trainer held her against the wall. Samus couldn't tell if it was
mercy or sadism when her opponent lessened her grip on her throat. She could
breathe, now, but with breath came the knowledge of just how battered her body
was.

Still, through her tear-blurred eyes (tears she tried to insist to herself
were ONLY a result of the strangulation) she could see the expression on the
trainer's face, and she was maintaining the placid, encouraging smile she had
had the whole fight.

"You're doing a good job fighting back, but your performance continues to be
far below what we both know you were hoping for. Despite my only rudimentary
and instruction-based martial arts, you are barely damaging even my simuskin.
Were I a real opponent in comparable shape, you would need to continue to
perform at this level for approximately 12 hours before I would be fatigued,
and it is unlikely you would be able to continue competing for that amount of
time. I can only give you 3 out of 10 so far, but I KNOW if you can keep
fighting, keep doing your best, you'll be able to get that up to 3.5, or even
a 4 by the end of the week!" She smiled, and released her neck entirely, "Now,
one last test of your evasive skills!" The trainer announced, drew her hand
back, and punched full-force forward.

One thing Samus could be quite sure of at that point was that if the Trainer's
fist connected, she would be down and out. The thing about, well, almost any
type of evasion tactic, be it a sway or a sidestep or some other dodge, was
that you had to be able to, well, stand straight at SOME point to do it. Samus
couldn't do that in this state, what the trainer had done to her had been far
too destructive to her body to accomplish such a complicated maneuver as
'Standing on her feet for three seconds.'

So she went with the only other option. If she was going to go to the ground
anyway, she would do it on her own terms. She let every muscle in her body go
lax, and collapsed. The only form of guidance she gave her fall was the effort
necessary to ensure she landed on her hands and knees rather than flat on her
face. The trainer looked down at her, hands on her hips.

"Now Samus, I know you can do better than th-AHHH!"

For once, she was able to do SOMETHING to take the woman by surprise. She
pushed off her back foot, got her arms around the trainer's midsection, and
twisted to throw her to the floor. It may not have been the most perfect
tactical maneuver she ever made, but even in her drastically weakened
condition, she was able to outwrestle the trainer if not outpower her.

She twisted and threw the trainer to the ground on her front, lifting with her
whole body and sending her down. It may not have been enough to stun, but it
was still enough to make sure the other woman felt the force, and to give
Samus an opening to get on top. The bounty hunter scrambled on her and wrapped
her arms around the trainer's throat. Before she had been able to fight the
sleeper long enough to drag her over her shoulder, but this time, she was on
the ground. She brought her forearm in around the neck, locked the choke under
the chin, and pulled tight.

And the trainer reached up and grabbed her left arm, starting to slowly pull
herself out of the hold. Samus could only stare in shock as she saw the other
woman managing to slowly pull her arm away from her throat. She tried to
tighten her grip, tense her muscles, stop her from escaping, but it wasn't
working. In a contest of skill, she might have been the superior, but in a
contest of muscle to muscle, the trainer was far greater. It was power that
was letting her fight Samus, it was power that was giving her a chance, and
ultimately it was power that was going to ensure that Samus's choke attempt
was going to come to nothing, the same way every other move she had tried had.

She gripped her own wrist in an attempt to hold back the trainer, but it was
no good. Every muscle in her body wouldn't stop the other woman from escaping
her hold. She was even biting on her own cheek and tasting blood to stop
herself from gritting her teeth so hard they started to chip, but even so, she
was having her hold peeled from the trainer's throat as easily as a child
being forced to stop play-wrestling with their parents.

Once the arm was pulled all the way to full extension, the trainer switched
her grip to one on Samus's wrist. With her free arm, Samus tried to pull in
and maintain the chokehold, but it didn't even seem to register to the trainer
what she was doing... She might as well have had her arm wrapped around a log
instead of a neck.

The trainer brought her legs forward, got to her knees, balanced on one arm,
and brought her feet under her. All along, Samus tried with all her might to
choke, to pull, to wrench, to do anything that would hurt her opponent or even
slow her down. Nothing worked. The trainer was on her feet and clutching onto
Samus's wrist. She looked back, their eyes meeting, a smile still on the
trainer's face.

"You should be reconsidering your tactics. It's unwise to repeat a move that
has already failed. It's likely to have a similar result. Demonstration.

Suddenly, the trainer jerked forward, using the leverage of Samus's arm to
send her tumbling over her back, head over heels, and slam her flat on her
back once more. An agonizing jolt ran through Samus's body on the impact, her
muscles twitching, her nerves sending wild shocks of pain through her. Some of
the jagged ground had dug into her spine as she landed flat on her back.

She was seeing stars and fireworks as she stared up at the ceiling, and the
woman towering over her. Through the bursts of painful light, though, she
could also see that the trainer had lifted her foot, preparing another painful
stomp that would crush her body. At this point, she wasn't entirely sure she
could handle the impact, it had been agony early. With the last bit of
strength she still had, she twisted herself to the side, rolling out of the
way of the stomp. It was a small victory, but a victory nonetheless...

Even if it only lasted a second. Before she could even think of the next move,
she felt the trainer's foot stomp down on her back, right where she had landed
on the jagged, shattered tile. It hurt too much to even scream, there didn't
seem to be any appropriate reaction, her entire mind went white.

It took all the force of will she could muster to even THINK about fighting
back, but she had too much pride to simply allow the trainer to torture her.
Her body was being crushed to the ground, she could barely breathe, she had no
idea how horrible the internal damage was, her face was red and cheeks stained
with tears. Then she felt the trainer reach down, and wrap her hair her long,
slender fingers.

She gave a hard yank. NOW Samus could scream. Or rather, someone could scream,
at this point, she wasn't entirely sure it was her, there was no volition
involved, and the frayed rasp of pure hot torture no longer resembled her
voice. The agony that she had felt mere seconds before now seemed like a
comforting massage, compared to what was happening now. It was just
hair-tugging, but her back was being bent, she could feel her vertebrae forced
to rub against each other. Its was cruelty beyond her comprehension, at this
point she could only hope she was living some sort of nightmare or twisted
hallucination, the very idea that the body COULD be brought to such levels of
unadulterated torment was horrific in and of itself.

She couldn't bring herself to try to raise a hand or kick out to fight back,
though whether that failure was a result of lost will or spinal injury was
beyond her ability to know for sure. Her mind raced and she struggled to think
of an option, but with how one-sided this 'training session' had been, how
badly she was being destroyed by her opponent, even imagining victory was
beyond her capacity. She had been overpowered physically, she had her body
destroyed, and now she was having her back tortured and her hair felt like it
was being ripped out.

There was only one thing she could do. She could no longer fight for victory,
but she could still fight for pride. Even if she had no chance of fighting
back, she could accomplish the bare minimum of not humiliating herself by
crying out a submission to having her hair tugged like a schoolgirl. She
didn't tense her muscles this time, she let them go limp. She let every muscle
she had conscious control of go limp completely, though the subconscious cones
- Like the spasms and twitches as her back tried to force itself back into
alignment - Were horrifically beyond her control. She closed her eyes, and
just tried to focus on not submitting. Whatever it took, she could say
anything, do anything, she just couldn't submit.

Her desire to preserve even that shred of dignity was brushed aside like
corrupted data files with one last tug on her hair. Despite her efforts to not
even think of moving a muscle, her arm moved more on instinct than desire, and
she pounded the floor with her bare hand so hard her wrist might well have
snapped (she couldn't tell, such a thing would be like a gentle caress to her
at this point) and she screamed.

"I SUBMIT! I SUBMIT! I GIVE IN! IT'S OVER! YOU WIN! YOU WIN! STOP IT'S OVER I
GIVE UP YOU WIN I LEARNED MY LESSON STOP PLEASE STOP!"

The words came out garbled by sobs and drool, which was likely why the trainer
continued to pull for a few seconds as she attempted to decipher the plea.
Finally, she released Samus's hair, letting her slump to the ground, broken
and weeping for her lost pride.

"Session complete!" the trainer said brightly as if she hadn't just spent the
last few minutes putting a victim through the most agonizing torture of her
life, "Your skill in combat is impressive, but you just don't have the
strength or flexibility to accomplish ALL of your combat goals. You are
clearly well aware of how you SHOULD be fighting, but you don't seem to be
able to put it into action. But don't worry! I'm sure that if you keep
focusing on training your body, you'll be in good enough shape to fight the
way you want in no time.

Samus groaned. At this point, the thought of even playing a fighting VIDEOGAME
sent shivers down her spine. She whimpered as the trainer rolled her on her
back, then lifted her up, to an almost sitting position, so she could look in
her eyes.

"I know you can do it Samus, you can be as strong as you want to be! You just
have to keep trying."

Samus moaned, she could barely form words, only senseless babble.

"No, please..." She whimpered, "No fight... Back... Spine... Head...
Torture..." She whimpered, her face completely drenched with tears now,
"Please, please, no more, no more, never again, it hurts, so much pain, so
much pain."

"Pain is GOOD!" The trainer smiled brightly, repeating something Samus had
told herself so many times but no longer believed, "Pain is weakness leaving
the body. You might hurt now, but next time, it'll hurt far less!"

"No... No next time, please, no more, never again, no fighting. I quit..." She
whimpered and sniffed, "I'm done, no fighting..."

"Oh, Samus," the trainer laughed, "It's okay to be tired. But don't give up! I
KNOW you're better than this. Don't worry. I've sent another training program
to your suit. You can do it, I'm sure of it. Here! I'll even give you a
trophy. But only silver. You have to EARN the gold. And I'm sure you will!
Just a little something to motivate you."

She reached behind her and placed the trophy on Samus's chest. It rolled off,
she couldn't bring herself to raise her arms to hold it and bounced under her
back. The Trainer frowned.

"Aww, you knocked it over! Don't worry!" She adjusted the little silver trophy
to sit on its base. "Okay, Samus, I'm going to go now. But don't worry, you're
GOING to be strong enough soon, you CAN get better. And don't worry. I'll be
with you every step of the way. I promise!"

She dropped Samus. The blonde woman fell helplessly, and then her world
exploded in pain once more as her back fell on the trophy. It bent over
unnaturally, and her head slammed into the ground. Samus fell limp as the
trainer walked away, passing out from the pain, shock, and the impact against
the ground.