Before people get all pissy about the Hapkido facts, trust me on them. The moves described can break bones/dislocate stuff. Please do not try them without proper training; you could seriously injure yourself or someone else. Also, I know what I'm talking about when I reference this stuff, maybe not the medical jargon, but the martial arts stuff I do. Please, I repeat, please do not attempt any of the moves described. Oh, BTW
White yellow orange orangeII purple purpleII green greenII blue blue II brown brownII red redII and red/black ( II means stripe)_
Bu-Kwanjanim=Master
Kwanjanim=Grandmaster
It started out simple; Peter had finally agreed to let Neal get Self-Defense lessons. They dealt with dangerous criminals and the con artist could barely fight his way out of a paper bag, as long as the bag wasn't handcuffs ,that was a different story. What had started out as a nice reward, albeit with a slightly over caffeinated Neal, and a book to read while supervising the self-defense class, had turned into a trip to the ER.
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Peter dropped a stack of papers on Neal's desk as he walked by, Neal opened the file and a smile lighted his face.
"Hapkido? I thought the world was better where I was lacking in that skill set?" it had become a bit of a joke around the office, Neal barely being able to fight. Neal resented it, how many times had he been kidnapped now?
"After the business with Keller I figured if I can trust you enough in a room with people who carry guns, I can trust you to at least be able to somewhat defend yourself" Peter had been more than surprised with Neal's shooting skills, add in the fact that he could pick pocket just about anyone, and the fact that he hadn't lifted a gun yet. Peter trusted him with this.
"Awesome, whens the first class?" Neal's smile only grew.
"7:00 tonight. How much coffee have you had? You're grinning like a maniac."
"I don't know. 4 or 5 cups, but I had one of those Monster things too, they're really good. Like better than… I don't know. But they're really really good." Peter laughed and shook his head.
"No more energy drinks Neal. I hope that wears off by the end of the day. Oh and we have to stop by June's before I take you there, It's outside your radius and you need work out cloths."
"Okies." Neal spun in the chair and started filling out the paper work needed for him to do classes at the school.
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Later the same day
"That Monster wear off yet Neal?" Peter asked as he got into his Taurus, Neal getting into the passenger seat.
"Yes, about 3 hours ago actually."
"Good, now just need to grab some cloths from June's and you can do class"
"Sweet, what kinda cloths am I going to need?" Neal sounded excited still, but in his normal overzealous way instead of in an over caffeinated way.
"Sweat pants and a t-shirt, something plain that you don't mind getting slightly dirty." Peter had taken these kind of classes when he was training for FBI, you would get scuff marks in the oddest places.
"Okay, be right back out." Neal got out of the car in front of June's and disappeared inside.
He immerged about 3 minutes later dressed in plain black sweats and a green t-shirt. He had on sneakers and the sweats bunched up at the ankles, almost totally concealing the tracker on his left ankle.
"Ready?"Peter pulled away from the sidewalk and Neal read over the papers.
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The class started out with warm-ups, the students who had been there for some time wore white V-neck uniforms and colored belts, ranging from white to red. Neal, a younger woman and a teenaged boy were the only ones that didn't have uniforms. The instructor, Bu-Kwanjanim, as Neal had subconsciously picked up, was an older African-American man, he wore a black belt with gold lettering stating his name and the school name on it in English and Korean.
"Alright everyone pair up, you three" he pointed to Neal the other two "Partner with a higher belt first, we'll alternate partners later." Neal partnered with a man of about 40 who introduced himself as Howard, he was a brown belt and seemed very keen in teaching the techniques right.
"At white belt, beginner's, you learn sword hand. When someone grabs your wrist-go ahead grab mine" Neal did so "You're going to place your thumb between they're thumb and forefinger, like this" He put his hand over Neal's placing his thumb in the designated spot "You're then going to rotate they're arm out until the palm faces upwards, then press with the side of your hand down behind the elbow, keeping the elbow locked and the shoulder at a 90 degree angle" He slowly demonstrated until Neal felt the twinge of someone pressing on a pressure point "When you feel it tap on your leg" Neal tapped and Howard let go. "Good, now you try on me" He grabbed Neal's right wrist with his left hand and Neal tried the technique.
"Good job, make sure you keep my shoulder at a 90 or I can twist out of it." He made 3 quick taps on his leg and Neal let go of his arm.
"Okay, everyone rotate." The instructor called loudly and everyone moved one person to the left, Neal was left facing a girl of about 17 or 18, who introduced herself as Ellie, she was a purple belt. It was her turn to practice her technique, and she was very nice about how she executed the move, bringing him forward until he was off balance and then positioning his arm under hers and pressing again on his elbow, but also his wrist. He tapped and she let go almost immediately. They continued with this for about 4 minutes. Neal learned that red/black was the highest belt in this class, and that white was the lowest, which he was technically. He also learned that the average height, buff looking man with the red/black belt tended to not go easy, and could really hurt you if you weren't careful. His name was Darren, and his daughter was the Brown Stripe with the tree logo on her pants.
They rotated again and this time he was with an older woman who was a yellow belt. He grabbed again since they had been told that the left, or far side of the room was to attack and the right side defend. They rotated until they were with they're original partners and then the instructor called Borrow, which, Neal learned, meant stop or return, depending on its reference. Neal had avoided being with Darren, seeing as he was two down from him and skipped in the rotations.
After they had bowed out, once to the flag, once to the Kwanjanim, or grandmaster, and once to the instructor, Neal walked over to Peter who sat in one of the waiting area chairs reading a book. Neal subconsciously rubbed a sore spot on his left wrist. Peter looked up at him, his eye's flashing to the two fingers Neal was using to massage his wrist.
"Sore spot?" Peter tabbed down the page and closed the book.
"Yeah, it's fine. So when the next class?" He dropped his hands and sat down next to Peter.
"Same time tomorrow if you like it that much, you need to talk to the instructor though, told me to tell you. I don't know what about." Neal stood back up and talked toward the office where a young girl sat at the desk, she looked to be about 15 or 16.
"Excuse me, I was told to come in after class?" Neal smiled his million watt smile and stood on the very inside of the door.
"Yes. Have a seat." She answered in a very professional tone, shifty papers around on a desk and reaching for a highlighter as Neal sat in one of the two chairs before the desk. "Okay, in your papers it says your job is a consultant for the FBI, I'm guessing mister stern face is your handler, Am I right?" Neal nodded still smiling.
"Good, I advise you to have him stay during your classes, not all of our students will take kindly to having a convicted criminal in class with them, especially in this sport. Now, usually I'd try to sugar coat this, but I think you can take it. People in this class may try to hurt you and make it look like an accident. No one saw your tracker today, but they will. And when they do you're gonna have to tell them why it's there. Now I can tell that you're not a violent guy, you wouldn't be showing that you left wrist is sore from Angle, and you wouldn't need these classes, nor would you handler allow them, if you were." She grabbed the highlighted and circled something on one of the papers. "This is a schedule of the classes here, the ones highlighted you can attend. At the end of the week if you still like this you can get a uniform, after you've been here for a while we can talk about you testing. Testing is every two months or so, the last one was a week ago, so you should be ready to test come next cycle if you stay that long." She handed Neal the schedule and he took it giving her a look like he didn't quite get her yet, and he read people well, he wouldn't be alive if he didn't.
"Just one question." She nodded " I thought I was going to be speaking with the instructor." She smiled, revealing purple and black braces.
"Knew that was coming. I am an instructor here, just in Taekwondo, not Hapkido. I'm also the secretary, so if you have any questions just ask me whenever I'm here. So almost every day. One more thing, stop trying so hard to flirt with Casey, she's…uh not your type if you get my point." Casey was the blond who reminded Neal of a cheerleader, she was about his age and he had flirted with her.
"Not on my dance card?" The young girl smiled again.
"That's a good way to say it."
"Credit to my boss, the stern face, his name's Peter by the way."
"I know, he signed you up. I spoke to him on the phone the other day."
"Ah, well nice meeting you, I had a great time in class today, I guess I'll see you tomorrow." Neal exited the office and Peter stood up, walking to the car he smiled a real smile, he liked that the office girl had given it to him strait, and the fact that Peter was actually letting him learn this.
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(The next Day)
"Time to go or you're going to be late." Peter walked past Neal's desk, he was doodling on a piece of discarded paper. They had closed to mortgage fraud cases today and Peter was happy about that fact.
"Okay" Neal stood up, grabbed his jacket and shrugging into it followed Peter from the building.
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Class was about half way through when the inevitable happened. Someone saw the tracker. Class was going great for Neal up until then, he had learned the same technique used on the wrist, the sword hand, could be used on the elbow and shoulder as well. It was right before he had to be partnered with Darren, who he had an idea was the person in particular that the girl the day before had been warning him about. Darren was already putting more than the required amount of force on Neal's shoulder when he had dropped to a knee, his outstretched left hand catching on his pant leg and exposing the tracker.
"What's that for?" Neal hesitated for a half-second before answering the question. Darren had released his arm and they were both now standing.
"I'm a forger, I work with the FBI, and they like to know I'm not robbing the Met whenever they want." Neal said with casual nonchalance as the man's eyes hardened.
"You're a criminal. A dirty, filthy criminal. I hope they send you to prison to rot." Neal looked shocked at the words, which were said in a muted whisper. The larger man then grabbed Neal's arm and roughly twisted it downwards, all while making it look smooth. Not drawing attention to the fact that Neal's face twisted in pain and he let out a small grunt at the force. Darren didn't release him though, and pulled harder. He forced Neal's arm behind him and with a short gasp Neal felt something in his shoulder pop. He instantly said 'let go' but the man continued to press on his injured arm. Neal's left hand came down hard and fast on his leg making a loud clapping noise. Darren released him at his tap out and Neal's left hand went instantly to his right shoulder grasping at it, trying to ease the pain radiating from it.
"What's wrong Neal? Forget to tap out soon enough?" Darren muttered and Neal barely heard it as he clenched his teeth.
"Why don't you take a seat and I'll have Rebecca grab you an ice pack. If it's dislocated you're going to need to go to the hospital." The instructor was the same as the day previous and called to Rebecca, who turned out to be the office girl.
"Not dislocated, would feel different." Neal ground out as he walked towards Peter who was just now realizing something was up. I mean come on, the guy was supposed to be paying attention not so enthralled with Angry birds that it took him this long to realize that Neal was no longer in class and was instead walking towards him gripping his right arm.
"What happened Neal? You okay?" Peter set his phone down and looked at Neal, his tight jaw, the way his fingers dug into the material of his blue shirt.
"Will be. Something popped, not dislocated though." Rebecca appeared with the ice pack, which Neal took gratefully and placed it on his injured shoulder with a groan.
"Let me take a look at it. Have to, it's procedure, in-class injuries have to be checked. You know lawsuit problems." Neal gave her a look, as did Peter.
"It'll be fine. I promise, and I actually don't think I can legally sue anyone for anything less than attempted murder, and that's still touchy."
"Still have to, pull down your sleeve so I can see it." Neal did so after Peter gave him the look that was usually accompanied by him saying his name all drawn out. She laid her finger gently over the slightly swollen, red area. Fingers barely touching the skin, she got to one spot and Neal let out a hiss just as she raised an eyebrow. "Want me to save you a lot of trouble and nagging and just fix this here and now, or would you rather wait and have it hurt a whole lot worse later."
"Fix it now. Less paperwork." Peter said in his 'I want to sound like I don't care, but this is really eating me up inside' voice.
"Agreed." Neal's reply lacked much emotion at all.
"Okay." Rebecca's fingers found the source and flicked her index finger down while pushing up with her middle finger and thumb Neal's face automatically relaxed. "You've injured this shoulder before haven't you?" Neal nodded, much to Peter's surprise. "I can tell by what happened. He had you in what I like to call a cop hold, with your arm behind your back, pinned up. What happened was this; when he pressed up the tendon in your shoulder shifted over a little, not enough to injure it, but enough to make it hurt like a mother. This usually only happens if a tendon has been stretched before for an extended period of time, like a dislocation that didn't get fixed soon enough, or a bad reset too one." She got up and started walking away, turning and said "If you still want to do this, I'll see you in a few days after the soreness wears off."
Peter turned to Neal who was holding ice pack in his hand and shook his head "I just don't get her." Peter nodded in agreement and they made their way to Peter's Taurus.