L-Gym

Chapter 2 - Enter...Kara

Lena stood with her gym bag hanging off her shoulders and wrist and ankle bands in place. They were still powered down, and gravity was still behaving itself. She stared up at the silver L that was the gym's symbol and managed a smile. She may not have had a choice about going to a gym, but at least she'd gotten to choose the gym. This one was less than a mile from her lab, though there were several downtown, had a stellar reputation, but the name is what appealed to Lena. The L-Gym reminded her of her own family name, the House of El. If she were going to have to work out, if she were going to have to feel the effects of gravity, at least she could feel close to home.

Pushing open the door, Lena allowed her eyes to sweep across the gym. Patrons exercised on state of the art gym equipment. Several in-shape trainers either stood by and assisted people or moved through the area to check on patrons. She inhaled to find the area smelled clean, the scent of cleaner hitting her nose even with some sweat but the latter was fresh and not unpleasant. It was honest, and Lena Danvers was certainly no stranger to honestly earned sweat. To her left was a check-in desk, so the brunette headed that way.

"Hi, can I help you?" Said an upbeat girl working the front desk.

Lena smiled back. "Hi, I'm new, but I signed up online. I'm Lena Danvers. What do you need from me?"

"Driver's license?"

"Right, right. I..." Lena dug through the side pocket of her gym bag where she'd stuffed her wallet. "I have one of those, and it's...here." Victorious, she pulled out her wallet and withdrew her license. "This is me." She handed over the license to the other woman who continued to smile.

"Thanks." The woman scanned in her license, then typed something into the system. Handing back the license, she said, "Cute glasses, very geek chic."

"Uh, thanks." Lena smiled. "They let me see."

That was met with a giggle. Looking at her system again, the other girl said, "Yup, you're in here. Okay, so we have you scheduled with the new member elite package. Oh, lucky girl."

"Hmmm?"

Smiling, the girl nodded at Lena. "Okay, we just need to get your photo for your membership I.D. Go stand over there on the green sneakers, okay?"

Moving over to the green sneaker-outline as directed, Lena put her gym bag down. "Like this?"

"Perfect. Just smile. Oh, are you a glasses on or glasses off for pictures girl?"

"On, definitely glasses on."

She shrugged in responses. "They suit you. Say cheese."

Her brow furrowing, Lena said, "Actually, I'm ve—" There was a click and then a flash.

"All set. Let's just get you L-tracker."

"My what?"

Smiling as she typed into the system, the girl repeated, "Your L-tracker. It's our fitness tracker that syncs with our gym equipment. Have you downloaded the app on your phone yet?"

When the girl finally looked over at her, Lena shook her head.

With another smile, the girl said, "Download the app, and all of your workout data will load onto your phone. What band do you want?"

"Band?"

"Wrist, upper arm, leg?" She gestured over to Lena. "We can even do a chest one if you want. You can have more than one if—"

"Wrist," Lena said quickly. "Oh, I have..." She held up her wrist where she wore one of the devices that Alex had created. "Wil this be an issue?"

"It shouldn't be. Many folks wear a Fitbit or..." She squinted but lost sight of the device when Lena quickly lowered her arm. "Some other kind of fitness tracker. Our gym equipment does work with other devices that are made to track some kind of workouts, but trust me, using ours will provide nearly flawless results. You'll be able to see your heart rate, of course, but this will track all of your exercises on all of our machines. The time and length of each piece of your workout will be stored, and your progress will be charted. We'll provide you with suggestions on how to enhance your workouts and performance. This sort of data is the reason we're the number one gym on the west coast...and growing," she added with a smile.