Cleo woke up the next morning to pale sunlight streaming through her window. She blinked blearily up at the person who had disrupted her usual routine so rudely and found Jeff tying back the curtains. She groaned and rolled over.
"Rise and shine," Jeff said cheerfully and ducked by a rather well-aimed pillow. "Come on, professional athletes can't lay in bed all day."
Cleo rolled over to look at him, shading her eyes. "Aren't you supposed to have jetlag or something? What even is the time?"
"Six AM, on the dot," Jeff informed her, yanking the covers off her bed. She shot upright at the sudden cold and glared at him.
"I need to sleep for at least three more hours, are you insane?" It was a little hard to take a stick-thin girl shivering in bed seriously, especially as she glared at him from under the world's worst bedhead. She scowled even harder as he tried to stifle his laughter. "I can't even go back to sleep, now. You'd better have breakfast ready, or I am going to have Hale drive you off a cliff."
Jeff's smile twisted wryly. "Now, is that any way to talk to your personal trainer?" At her huff, he sat down on the bed beside her. "Look, Cleo. I know this isn't what you're used to, but to get you to international athlete standards in a matter of weeks, I'm going to need to push you harder than you've ever been pushed before. Don't worry, I won't go too hard on you just yet, but good training starts with a good routine."
He clapped his hands and stood up. "So, I would suggest you change into some more appropriate attire and meet me out the front of the house by 6:15, and no later. We'll do a warm-up, then have breakfast, and then the real training begins." With that, he walked out of the room and went to set up his equipment outside.
As he had expected, Cleo did turn up - at 6:30 with a look that could freeze hell. "What are we doing?"
"We'll start with a stretch to get the blood flowing, and then a few laps around the driveway. You're quite lucky, it's almost 200m exactly." Jeff explained as he set the Chronivac down on the stairs. He wouldn't do anything with it just yet, right now was for him to gain a baseline understanding of what he was working with.
And it wasn't much, if what came next was any indication. Jeff led Cleo through a few basic stretches, he noticed how completely inflexible she was. She couldn't come close to touching her toes, and when she tried stretching her arms over her head, she groaned in protest. Still, that wasn't anything as bad as what happened when they tried to run the first lap.
Jeff had agreed to run alongside her. Although, run was a strong term for it. It was more of a light jog, transitioning to walking around the 125m mark. Even then, Cleo managed to finish still breathing heavily. Jeff frowned. It was worse than he thought. He walked over to the Chronivac. "Alright, you grab a drink and have a break, we'll start the next lap in 5 minutes."
As Cleo collapsed on the side of the fountain, Jeff looked through the options. 10 years per second with the environmental factor at 100% would probably do the trick, and set the endpoint as manual, allowing him to stop her evolving at any time. He also turned on awareness, but also reality alteration, meaning everyone would notice the changes, yet not think they were strange or unusual. "Alright, Cleo, you ready for round two?"
Cleo groaned and muttered some curses under her breath, but did as she was told. "On your mark, get set, go!" He pressed to begin the transformation.
Cleo launched off the starting line like a drunken zombie, lurching and swaying as she attempted to get some semblance of a rhythm. Yet, with every step, she seemed to feel less tired, more like her body was meant to run. She began to pick up pace, transitioning to a jog for the rest of the first lap, then a full sprint for the second, and final lap. Jeff looked down at the time. "45 seconds," he called, finishing the transformation. "That's way better than your first time!"
"Thanks," Cleo replied, walking over to him with a drink bottle in hand. Jeff stared at her legs, no longer thin twigs but shapely and athletic. Nowhere near extreme, but certainly hinting at her strength. "You know, I feel like it just got easier as I went along. I don't even feel very tired anymore!"
Jeff winked at her. "That's just one of the many perks of being trained by me, I've been told I have a 'magic touch'. Don't worry, by the time I'm finished with you, you'll have the body of a god, and no one would ever be able to stand against you."
"I look forward to it," she purred, licking her lips. "Goddess would be a nice title to hold."
He punched her lightly, and she laughed. "Alright, alright. I'll deign to be humble."
"A big head isn't very aerodynamic, after all."
"Shut up!" She giggled and pushed him back. "Anyway, breakfast should be ready by now. Come on, I'm starving!"