Hokey stared towards Felice silently for a moment. Though there were no signs of the process externally, internally his systems were processing and decoding his Italian. "Me ne frego." Hokey finally replied, likely with horrendous pronunciation.

Hokey wandered over by Shane and gave one of his unnatural grins. "Weak arms? Well, that's why you're in the gym, isn't it? Those muscles aren't gonna build themselves, now are they?" He said, his tone good natured.

Felice snickered at the dog as it attempted an answer. Oh, this was amusing. His attention was quickly taken by Vlad's instruction again, though. The boy clicked his tongue as he moved closer to the two spots, standing between them for a minute. Wall or rope first? Rope climbing wasn't exactly his favorite thing in the world, but he had to do it enough back in the troupe to know how it worked. The wall seemed easier in theory because he could balance and push himself up like he was more used to, but the thought of going up a wall rather than something he could swing freely from was less fun. Deepening his scowl, he moved to the wall first, stretching out before beginning his ascent. Catch, catch, pull, pull, edge here, drop here, better foothold there, here's a spot where I can swing... As long as he kept a rhythm, he could figure out how to go from one movement to another. Of course, sometimes his first plan wouldn't work and he would have to figure out something else, but that was usually fixed by dropping a few stones or making a jump in another direction. His worst enemy was the close proximity he had to maintain to the wall. He did better with more space around him, even if it was empty. One hand slipped when he was near the top and trying to reach the next hold, causing him to drop again. It hurt a bit to catch another rock on the way down, but it was better than hitting the floor. Just like with all his work, he had to think quickly to improvise his way out when things went wrong. Letting out another huff, he continued until he made it to the top, about twenty seconds faster then his best time. Hey, he just said better, not by how much, so that was all he wanted himself. Satisfied with his work, he worked his way down, a bit faster with gravity helping, and started for the ropes. This would be significantly easier, probably.

Roxy studied the first twovolunteers methods for accomplishing the task they had been given. James approach was very straight forward. She wondered if it was his ability or previous experience. Felice she was almost certain has some sort of experience with the wall Or something similar.

Staring up at the rope brought back a few memories. Some good, some not so good...either way, it didn't really mean much at the moment as he walked away... ...only to run right back after going a certain distance and leaping to catch the dangling cord. A rhythm had already established itself in his mind as he moved his hands, catching the rope between his feet as well as he swung around a bit. All he had to do was follow the pattern now. Wrapping one leg around the rope, he continued swaying until he had the rope swinging in a circle and started working his way up. As he kept going, he started feeling a bit more confident, and when he finally reached the top, he twined the rope around one leg and let go with his hands to hang upside down and smirk back at the people at the bottom. The other leg bent to hook around the first one and keep the rope better in place. Twelve seconds. Just twelve seconds faster than last time, if the beats in his head were correct.

Shane raised a brow at the robo dog as he chewed the last of his burger. "Easy for the robot that doesn't have to worry about building muscles to say." He said with a smirk before he brushed off his hands and stood up, walking around Hokey and scanning him over every detail he could. "Hmmm... thick armor platting, though not as heavy as on a tank." He said as he circled back in front of Hokey. He knocked his knuckles against the robot's chest lightly. "Interesting... what are you made of Fido? It has to be durable enough to take the heat from that lighter of yours, but not weigh you down to where you can't move smoothly." Shane said as he looked the robot over again, as if he was taking Hokey apart in his mind.

Hokey remained stationary, either welcoming or not particularly minding Shane's inspection. "Well, hey. I may not have muscles, but I was just trying to give some encouragement, is all." He issued the strange warbling sound that seemed to constitute a laugh for Hokey. "Uh, as for armoring... I am, in many ways, a testbed for oodles of new tricks Uncle Sam has up his sleeve. The armor is just one of them. Oh, it's a new composite, one that I'm fairly sure they haven't used on anything else yet. Which is to say it's..." He shifted back into a seated posture and scraped his top row of teeth along his chin, in a mock pensive gesture. He remained quiet for a moment, building the suspense. "Classified." Hokey gave a grin and returned to his feet. "Hell, I'm not a mechanical wolf of science to begin with, so even if I had the clearance to talk about such things, I doubt I could explain it well to satisfy a whiz kid like you." He chuckled again. "But hey, given how much you're able to decipher from just looking at me, I figure secrets won't remain secrets for long, yeah? No wonder why Patterson was pissed at you..." He trailed off and paused, then returned his attention to Shane. "Oh, Patterson's one of my technicians. One of the lead ones, actually. Keeps me running at peak efficiency and all. He's apparently rather jealous of your skills, kid."

Shane smirked. "Most old book worms usually do hate me. They don't like the idea of being out smarted by a teen prodigy." He said as he did another look over of Hokey. "Defiantly not a VI, they don't ask questions unless they are programmed to and I doubt the good doctor would want a VI that asks questions. So AI perhaps? Very advanced AI, your thoughts seem to be opinionated... very opinionated." He said with a close look at Hokey. "Unless there is more under your hood than I can see right now..."

Ariella stood there watching the others climb up the rock. She looked around and raised her hand that hopefully a professor would look at her so she could ask a question. She didn't feel like climbing up the rocks.

Ariella stood there watching the others climb up the rock. She looked around and raised her hand that hopefully a professor would look at her so she could ask a question. She didn't feel like climbing up the rocks.

"Thank you Felice. That will do." Vlad dismissed the boy. "See. Not that hard. In fact most of you have probably have probably done this in gym before you came here. Ariella would you like to go next?"

Felice stuck out his tongue for a moment and grabbed the rope in his hands, unhooking his legs so he spun around upside-down a few times before his leg was completely released from the rope. He felt his breath hitch slightly for that one moment as his body swung down and around freely until he could wrap his legs back around the rope below him. Safely secured again, he slid down to the bottom again and took his place away from the others on the ground.

Hokey gave one of his bestial grins. "The secret is inside." He said, though not in his own voice. It appeared to be a recording Charlie Sheen's voice. But from where? "If I had eyes to wink, I'd be winking at you here. Which is to say, also classified." He nodded. "But, hell. When it comes to the jealousy of my technicians, I don't blame 'em. If there was suddenly a new and improved Hokey that just appeared tomorrow, out of nowhere, I'd probably feel a bit down myself, yeah? One with... tank armor. Teeth that could bite through -anything-. Claws that could shred through--Heh, I digress. I've made my point. It'd be real rough, is all."

Shane chuckled. "We all can agree on that." He said as he stretched and looked over to the rope. He shook his head slightly. "Though another robo hound could come in handy in getting out of this."

Feeling bored with the proceedings, Felice eventually began stretching. It wouldn't be very good to end up sore later since he was certain that they would have a very long day ahead of them after this. As he stretched, he occasionally glanced at the others. Were some of them almost a bit too casual? He wondered how they had been suckered into this program. They did know what they were in for, didn't they?

Shane chuckled. "We all can agree on that." He said as he stretched and looked over to the rope. He shook his head slightly. "Though another robo hound could come in handy in getting out of this."

Hokey unhinged his jaw for a brief moment, then snapped it back up. "Getting out of this? Now, I've talked about the importance of exercise only a moment before, I'm fairly sure. The difference between a well trained and an untrained soldier is more or less the difference between and a live and dead one, you know."

"Not sure if you noticed but I am not the solider type Fido." Shane said as he walked over to the ropes. He pulled on one a few times to test out how sturdy it was.

Haru, on the other hand, took about a half second to analyze the ropes and rock wall and come up with the quickest way to the top.

"Haru. Why dont you do next?" Vlad asked.

Haru nodded, then walked up and, despite having a little trouble with the rope because of a lack of arm strength, he made it up the rock wall in about 3 seconds by grabbing the easiest to grab handholds.

Felice watched the other boy, taking note of his technique. That was an oddly fast climb... Almost as if he knew exactly where to go before starting... Either way, he decided it was of little concern to him. While it was definitely useful to be able to move so quickly, he wondered what he would do if Vlad ever decided that they would have to beat their previous times again...

Haru nodded, then walked up and, despite having a little trouble with the rope because of a lack of arm strength, he made it up the rock wall in about 3 seconds by grabbing the easiest to grab handholds.

"Thank you Haro. You have improved." Vlad commented. "Eris your up next."