"Buck up, Sam!" Tom objected as Alex began massaging his shoulders. "You can do it."

"Maybe you just need an incentive," Franziska suggested and Sam looked up at her questioningly, while Alex and Tom had a big grin on their faces.

"Exactly. If you finish before Pedro, you'll get a big kiss from Penny," Tom interjected and Penny, who had just put the headset in her ear, paused and looked up at him.

"I don't think it's up to you to decide something like this, Tom!" she interjected.

"Hey, desperate situations require desperate measures. Maybe it will help him," Tom immediately justified himself and all eyes turned to Sam, who looked down embarrassed. Was he in a wrong movie here? He certainly wouldn't admit in front of everyone here that he wanted nothing more than a kiss from Penny. But before he or any of the others could object, he was already called and Pedro pushed past Penny, grinning and muttering something to her. Sam couldn't understand what he had said, but he could see on her face that she didn't like it.

"What did he say?" he whispered to her as she accompanied him to the start.

"Nothing intelligent. You shouldn't think about it now, Sam." She placed the microphone in his collar and handed him his receiver, which he stuck in his ear. "Good luck, Sam." She punched him gently on the shoulder before he smiled painedly. "Defeat him. Only you can do it." To his surprise, Penny hugged him and even kissed him on the cheek, smiled at him again as she put his helmet on his head, and then stepped back to make room for him to prepare. He couldn't help the wide grin that graced his face as he strapped on his breathing apparatus and then got into position.

"I hope you can breathe easy after last night. You'll see it will be hard to breathe in a moment," Pedro muttered next to him and Sam gave him an evil sideways look.

"Look after yourself. You're about to eat my dust and if you don't leave Penny alone you'll have other things to swallow."

The signal sounded and Sam ran. Connecting and removing the two hoses was very easy for him and he saw from the corner of his eye that his opponent, who was running next to him in the lane, was only halfway there when he put down his nozzles. He wound the first two meters of the first hose on his knee before loosely winding the hose in his hands, throwing it into the box and starting the next one in the same way. He grinned even wider when he saw Pedro rolling the hose on the ground, looking like a dung beetle forming its ball. He threw the second tube into the box, continued running and grabbed the hammer, only needing 5 well-aimed blows and throwing it to the ground when he heard the bell ring, telling him he had moved the weight to the target. He grabbed the 20 kg weight and bent down a little to work his way through the tunnel, jumped out on the other side, put the weight down and grabbed the dummy in the rescue handle a few meters further on, then pulled it the specified distance in goose step. He never liked going backwards. Penny have had fewer problems.

When he reached the climbing wall, he took off his breathing apparatus and placed it in the designated place. He jumped nimbly up the wall, grabbed the rope as he jumped and pulled himself up the last meter that was missing, swung over it and jumped down the other side.

Slowly he felt the first tugging in his muscles, but it was still bearable when he grabbed the ladders to turn them on. He grabbed the weights and ran up the two floors. He put the weights down and pulled the hose package up the ropes. He had just got it up when he noticed that the man next to him was just starting to do it. So that loudmouth was still behind him. Good. He grabbed the weights to carry them back downstairs, placed them there and screwed the nozzle to the intended connection.

"No music for me?" he gasped into his microphone between clenched teeth on the way to the tower.

"I thought you didn't want to hear anything?" he heard Penny as he grabbed the breathing apparatus that one of the stewards had carried after him, tightened the straps in one fluid movement and saw that his opponent was already approaching. He took a deep breath. He still had 15 floors to go and his muscles slowly began to stand up in protest. He had underestimated all of this a bit. "You're doing great, Sam. You're almost there. Concentrate on your movements and breathing." He was already running up the third flight of stairs when Penny finished her lecture. She was right. It wasn't about running away from the other person. Just staying ahead would be enough. The title didn't matter. Pedro's stupid face when he finished ahead of him would give him enough joy.

He kept his eyes straight ahead, climbing step by step, stair after stair. He noticed that he was already losing speed after the fourth floor, but his opponent was still at least half a flight of stairs behind him, judging by the sound of his footsteps. Five...six...seven floors...his legs became heavy and it took effort for him to maintain a brisk pace. Was the other one getting closer to him? What should he do? What would he do if this wasn't a competition? What if there was someone up there who really needed his help? Would he have more energy in that case? What if it was Charlie or the twins who were in danger and needed his help up there? Waiting for him to climb the stairs and bring them down? Rely on him...when it was Penny who needed him?

He woke up from his thoughts when a clanging noise reached his ear and he quickly glanced back. Pedro had fallen on the stairs, but pulled himself back to his feet using the banister. Sam glanced up and was surprised to see that he only had two floors to go. Every muscle in his thighs burned and his legs were so heavy. His lungs felt like they were about to burst at any moment, his heart seemed to be racing so fast that he was afraid it was going to burst out of his chest at any moment. He had distracted himself so well for the last 6 floors to ignore his pain, he could do it again!

He entered the last staircase and noticed that he was only running at a slightly faster pace than walking speed. Every step became more and more torture.

"Pen!" He hoped that her voice would give him strength to get everything out of himself again.

"You're almost there. Defeat him, Tiger!" A grin appeared on his face, but the distraction was too short-lived and he became aware of his aching body again. "Sam, come on! He's catching up. I know you can do it...I don't know if it's anything worth, but I'll fulfill you every wish if you make it." Every wish? For that alone was it worth it, right?

"Remember the kiss, Sam!" he heard Tom now in his ear and he couldn't help but grin when he heard Penny muffled.

"Tom, you stay out of this. That's up to Sam to decide and it's only his and my business."

He looked up and to his surprise he saw the edge of the roof. One step, another, then the last and he breathed a sigh of relief when he had level ground beneath him. Now the last task. He tied the rope to his belt and leaned over the edge of the roof. A smile crept into the corners of his mouth as he saw his opponent come up the stairs and take a quick breather before Sam lowered himself down. This last task could only have been thought up by the devil himself. Every time he pushed himself against the wall again with his legs, strained and aching from climbing the stairs, and hit the wall again, a wave went through his body that he thought was the most excruciating thing he had ever had to experience, but he had not having the courage to use Penny's trick. 5 meters above the ground, his legs gave way and he hit the wall, but he immediately caught himself and pushed himself off again, once more - he was only three meters above the ground when his gaze briefly looked up panned. He noticed a movement from Pedro that was aimed in the direction of his rope.

"Sam! Get down! Now!" Penny must have seen something too and from the worry in her voice, it wasn't anything good. He pushed off again and let the rope slide through his hands faster to cover more distance. He was less than two meters away when he felt his rope give way. He heard the shocked exclamations from the crowd and instinctively turned. He landed on his feet and felt a pain that he couldn't clearly pinpoint, but was definitely worse than any of the others. He let himself fall and rolled to the side so that nothing would come into contact with the breathing tank or he would land on it and injure his back vertebrae.

It took him a second to get up on all fours. He saw the target. It was so close. Only a few more meters and yet he would prefer to stay right there and let himself fall and never have to get up again. He spotted Penny arguing with a security guard. Why didn't he hear her? Had she taken off the microphone? No. That wasn't it. The effort had made his blood boil so much that all he could hear was the rushing in his veins - and his racing heartbeat. She tried to push past the man, but he always held her back.

Sam took off his breathing tank and struggled to his feet. His opponent still hadn't reached the ground. So only seconds had passed.

He saw concern on Penny's face as she watched him now. Did she really care about him that much? Did she really want to go to him and the man wouldn't let her through? So if Penny couldn't come to him, he had to go to her.

He started walking and realized with the first step that he must have done something to his right leg in the fall. His leg wanted to buckle, but amazingly he caught himself. He gritted his teeth and limped forward, reached the nozzle that needed to be disconnected to stop time and he did so.

A fanfare sounded and cheers erupted as he sank to his knees. The next moment two men grabbed him under the arms and dragged him to the edge, where they set him down on a box.

"That wasn't a trained rescue move, boys!" Sam protested, half-jokingly, and one of the two patted him on the shoulder with a grin before Penny sank to her knees in front of him and took off his helmet.

"Breathe calmly, Sam." He felt her hand on his cheek for a moment and his heart threatened to jump out of his chest. Still, her gentle touch surprisingly calmed him.

Penny pulled Sam's right boot off and he hissed through his teeth before she began her examination. She had to be very careful because he didn't feel anything. He just wanted to sit there until he died - but he would never say that out loud. Just don't move anymore today.

What else had Penny said yesterday after she fought this competition? Whoever rests rusts? Well, that could still be fun. Penny was so much fitter than him. She had handled the competition better than him yesterday, even though it wasn't any easier for her. Sam probably wouldn't get out of bed for three days and they only had one day off before they had to take part in the team fight.

"You just seem to have twisted your ankle. It'll be fine. Once you've got some strength together, we'll go to the hotel and cool it down." She smiled encouragingly and he automatically did the same before she sat down next to him and rubbed his back. He closed his eyes and enjoyed it to the fullest, while his heartbeat didn't calm down too much, but his aching muscles gradually relaxed and his breathing slowed again. "That was fantastic, Sam."

"Except for the slip," he muttered tiredly. His adrenaline level dropped noticeably.

"We both know it wasn't your fault and Tom left as soon as your time stopped to show the video to the review board."

"What video?" he replied skeptically.

"If you let Tom do one of my run, then that's exactly what I let hom do of yours." She gave him a cheeky wink and despite everything, a smile lit up his face when Tom and Alex came over to each one of Sam's sides to put his arms around their shoulders and help him back to the hotel. 

To be continued...