After eating his fill and conversing with others within the X-Mansion, Tavor proceeded to head towards the gym in order to work off some of the monstrous amount of calories he had consumed.
He started with a series of stretches, limbering up his still-stiff joints before he found a treadmill.
Tavor started slow, at a brisk walking pace but after a few minutes, he turned up the speed and began running at four miles per hour.
However, even this speed seemed not to satisfy him, and he repeatedly pressed the button that increases the speed at increments of zero point two until the speed reached ten miles per hour.
Tavor's small legs pounded rapidly against the quickly rotating treads.
"I could go even faster if my legs were longer!" he muttered in frustration, but continued running until he developed a sheen of sweat over his body.
Feeling satisfied with his cardio workout, be proceeded to drink some water from a nearby fountain before walking over to a set of free weights, his eyes scanning over weights ranging from light 5 pound weights to weights that can only be considered monstrous in size that displayed one hundred tons.
Tavor gulped as he walked up and placed his hand on the massive weight.
"One day," he whispered before walking over to the weight labeled at two hundred pounds and grasped the handle with his tiny hand.
The two hundred pound weight rose from the rack that seemed to groan in response to the sudden loss of pressure.
Tavor lifted the weight and felt his muscles strain under the effort. The weight was not too heavy, allowing him to raise and lower it repeatedly until he could feel the burn in his little arms.
After doing a maximum of fifty reps he placed the weight back on its rack and turned, his head swiveling from left to right until his eyes focused on the bench press.
Tavor walked up to the bench press and began sliding weights on both sides until it reached a combined weight of five hundred pounds.
"Okay, let's do this!" He let out a large amount of breath before pulling in more air and repeating the exhale before lifting the bar.
The five-hundred-pound bar rose off the J-hooks with ease, and he lowered the bar over his little chest and opened his mouth to take in a large amount of air before lifting it once again with an exhale.
He racked the bar on the J-hooks and sat up before adding another two hundred pounds on both sides of the bar.
Then, laying on the cushioned leather pad, he began to once more lift the bar, bringing it down towards his chest.
He exhaled sharply as he lifted the now much heavier bar off his chest, a slight strain in his arms causing them to visibly shake.
"That's more like it!" He grins as the weight pressed down on him once more, his muscles swelling to their maximum.
He repeated this process until his twentieth rep, his muscles screaming in protest as he re-racked the bar.
HUFF...
HUFF...
"I think I'm going to like this place!" He lay on the bench press's padded seat for a while as he caught his breath, his muscles slowly recovering from a slight pain to mild numbness before inevitably returning to normal!
He continued working out for an hour and a half before leaving the gym with a sweat-soaked towel around his neck and heading to his room, which was designated to him by Jean.
The room was directly across from Jean's and right next to Scott's, allowing ease of access if he should need something.
After entering his room, Tavor proceeded to remove his soaked shirt, tossing it into a dirty clothes bin and walking into the bathroom before taking a shower.
The hot water showered over him, and within moments the room was filled with a fine mist.
Tavor sat under the hot shower, his mind empty of all but the amazing feeling of water splashing on his worn-out muscles.
The relaxing sensation of hot water started to make Tavor a little too relaxed, and he yawned, feeling the need to sleep soon.
With a yawn and a stretch, he stepped out of the shower and toweled himself off, his hair returning to its original spiky state after the water was mostly dried off.
Tavor walked groggily towards his bed and fell face-first into the pillow's soft embrace, the comfort near-instantly pulling him into unconsciousness.
As Tavor finally succumbed to sleep, he felt his mind pulled deeper into his subconscious, where a construct lay in wait, a massive thing seemingly made of multicolored hard light bricks that seemed to go on forever.
There was a door, or more accurately, a gate, that despite its massive size was utterly minuscule compared to the rest of the construct itself.
Tavor reached out with his hand and touched the multicolored bricks, watching in wonder as they began to glow softly yet intensely.
The brick felt soft to the touch yet as he pressed harder it seemed to harden as if reacting to stress.
"This is so cool! Is this the Hyperbolic Mind Space? It's bigger than I thought it would be!"
He looked around in an attempt to find where the construct ends and the rest of his subconscious begins but it seemed to go on forever in his limited perspective.
Tavor entered a horse stance and threw a powerful punch, his hips twisting to increase the power to the maximum.
POW!
His tiny fist smashed into the same brick he had gently touched moments before, feeling his fist sink an inch into the surface as the multicolored light intensified.
Tavor had a grin on his face but soon it morphed into confusion.
Before he could pull himself away from his confusion the hard light brick erupted in light and blasted Tavor backwards with enough force that if this was the real world, his feet would have carved trenches in the ground.
After Tavor regained his ability to move forward he once more approached the Hyperbolic Mind Space, this time towards the utterly massive gate.
As he reached a certain point, the door seemed to react to his presence and, the nearly imperceptible seam at the center widened revealing a seemingly endless white room that initially blinded Tavor but as he stepped inside, his eyes adjusted.
Tavor gaped in astonishment as the white room opened up into what appeared to be infinity.
"Is it truly endless? This is so cool!"
SLAAAAM!
The gates slammed shut behind him and as Tavor turned around to look at it a prompt appeared before his gaze.
[Welcome to your Hyperbolic Mind Space, train to your heart's desire, imagine an environment or a foe, and a facsimile of the environment or being will appear to face you. While you are here, one day is one hour on the outside!]
"Hmmm..." Tavor scratched his chin. "How about a hot desert and Mr. Scott?"
As he voiced this question, the white confines of the room abruptly began to transform into a seemingly endless expanse of sand.
This newly formed landscape featured rolling dunes that appeared to ripple and move with the slow, undulating rhythm of distant waves, and at a distance, perched atop one of the tallest dunes, stood Scott Summers, fully clad in his iconic X-Men regalia, including his signature visor.
The visor began to glow a deep crimson as the fake Scott began to power up an attack.
Tavor grinned as a blue-white light appeared in his eyes.
"This will be fun!"
FWOOOOOOM!
Scott unleashed a column of crimson energy that shot towards Tavor with deadly intent, the sand under it melting into a glass-like substance as the beam passed.
FWAAAASSSHHH!
Not willing to be outdone, Tavor unleashed the blue-white energy from his own eyes; the beam was smaller than Scott's, but the speed was incomparable.
BOOOOOSH!
The beams collided with such force that the sand beneath them was displaced; simultaneously, the impact caused the sand to be melted into a pool of molten, red-hot glass.
The blue-white beam pouring from Tavor's eyes intensified as he planted his feet deeper into the molten sand, tiny muscles throughout his body straining beneath the incredible effort.
Across the desert, Scott's ruby optic blast refused to yield.
The two beams remained locked together in a violent struggle, the point of impact churning like a miniature sun.
BOOOOOOOOOM!
The surrounding dunes collapsed beneath the pressure, rivers of molten glass spreading across the battlefield while hurricane-force winds whipped sand into towering spirals that stretched toward the cloudless sky.
"Grrrrr..."
Tavor grit his teeth so hard his jaw ached.
His vision blurred.
The muscles around his eyes burned as though someone had shoved heated needles into them.
The beam flickered.
"...Huff..."
His breathing became ragged.
"...Huff..."
His chest rose and fell violently.
"I... can't keep this up..."
The blue-white beam weakened for only the briefest instant.
That was all the opening Scott needed.
FWOOOOOOM!
The crimson optic blast surged forward, swallowing the remaining blue-white energy before racing directly toward Tavor.
His eyes widened.
"Nope!"
He immediately cut off his own eye beams.
The sudden disappearance of the opposing force caused Scott's blast to tear harmlessly overhead, carving a canyon through the dunes several hundred feet behind Tavor before finally disappearing over the horizon.
Tavor bent over with both hands on his knees, greedily sucking in air.
"So that's..." he panted.
"...not something I can spam..."
A grin slowly spread across his face despite the exhaustion.
"This is awesome!"
Without another second of hesitation, he kicked off the ground.
BOOM!
Sand exploded beneath his feet as the little Saiyan shot forward like a cannonball.
"If eye beams don't work..."
He lowered his stance.
"...I'll just punch him!"
Scott remained perfectly still.
His visor tracked Tavor's approach with unnerving precision.
FWASH!
A crimson beam sliced across the desert.
Tavor twisted sideways.
The blast missed his shoulder by mere inches before carving a glowing trench through the sand behind him.
"So fast!"
FWASH!
Another beam.
Tavor ducked underneath it, feeling the searing heat pass over his spiky hair.
FWASH!
A third.
He leaped over it.
FWASH!
A fourth came from above.
Tavor rolled beneath it, sand spraying around him as the blast detonated against a dune several yards away.
"I'm getting closer!"
Only half the distance remained.
Scott's visor glowed brighter.
Rather than firing directly at Tavor again, the facsimile angled his head slightly.
"Huh?"
FWOOOOM!
The optic blast slammed into the sand several yards to Tavor's right instead of aiming for him directly.
The intense force instantly vaporized the dune, sending an enormous wave of sand cascading toward him.
"What?!"
Before Tavor could adjust...
FWASH!
A second beam came from an entirely different angle, hidden behind the airborne wall of sand.
His instincts screamed.
Too late.
The crimson blast struck him squarely in the side.
BOOOOOOM!
Pain exploded through his ribs.
"GAAAAAH!"
His tiny body became a blur as he was launched across the desert like a skipping stone.
He tore through one dune...
Then another...
Before finally crashing into a towering mountain of sand.
KRAAAAAASH!
The impact was so violent that the entire dune erupted outward, billions of grains exploding into the air like a volcanic eruption.
A massive cloud of dust engulfed everything.
Silence settled over the battlefield.
Several moments later...
Cough!
A tiny hand emerged from the shifting sand.
Then another.
Tavor dragged himself free until he was sitting on top of the ruined dune, rubbing the side of his aching head.
Sand poured from his hair and clothes as he spat a mouthful onto the ground.
"Ptoo!"
"...That..."
He looked toward the distant figure of Scott, who still stood exactly where he'd started, visor glowing faintly.
"...was sneaky."
A slow grin spread across Tavor's face despite the throbbing pain and he took a step forward, eager to continue the fight, his Saiyan blood boiling in his excitement.