Chapter Fifty-Three: Training Sessions, Rooftop Meeting
"So what do you think we're going to learn today, exactly?" Gabriel asked Peter as they followed Olivia, Herbert, Sherry, Mohinder, Ando, and Matt down to the basement of the apartment building.
"How to fight." Peter shrugged. "What else?"
"Yeah, I know THAT, smartass! I was at the meeting too, you know." Gabriel sighed. "I wonder how tough it's going to be, that's all. We're going to train twice a day for twelve hours at a time. Each freakin' day for us is technically going to be forty eight hours long."
"Yeah, so?" Peter glanced at his brother-in-law.
"SO, this is going to be hard as hell, isn't it?" Gabriel shook his head. "We're going to wish we'd never even HEARD of Linderman, kung-fu, krav maga, swords, wars-"
"-War is hell, get over it." Peter rolled his eyes. "We've either got to learn how to fight back and win, or die. There's no other option."
"Running. That's an option."
"Stop being such a whiny-ass pussy, GOD!" Peter smirked. "And people call ME emo!"
They arrived at the basement and passed the laundry room to a large storage facility. Entering it, they looked around in awe. During the last few days, Hiro had been stopping time daily with Hana and Kaito, turning the large room into a dojo. The floors were padded, with a platform towards the back of the room. Hiro, Kaito and Hana stood on the platform, watching as everyone began to file into the room. Gabriel turned and stared at the walls, his mouth agape. Floor to ceiling mirrors were interspersed along the walls, with weapons hanging between the mirrors.
"Ah! I see my sparring partner!" Herbert smiled as he walked to Collette's side.
Olivia smiled and nodded at Angela as she and Gabriel lined up with the rest of the group. She felt a hand touch her shoulder and turned, grinning to see Nathan and Heidi. "How are you guys?" She hugged both of them tightly.
"Good." Nathan sighed. "Twelve hours in here while time stops everywhere else. I kind of wish I had that power."
"And what would you do with it?" Heidi asked, grinning.
Nathan turned to his wife, winking. "The question isn't what would I do with it, the question should be what would WE do with it?"
"I like the way this man thinks." Heidi laughed as she hugged her husband, kissing him on the cheek.
Olivia laughed softly as she turned, scanning the room to see who else had arrived for the training session. Niki Sanders and D.L. Hawkins spoke to Matt, laughing and joking together. Claude Raines stood near Noah and Sandra Bennet, talking quietly with them, Nikolai at his side. Olivia watched as Gabriel walked over to them, smiling at Nikolai. "Skipping school?"
Nikolai shook his head. "I've been taking correspondence courses to get my high school diploma, when I'm not helping Miss Nichols on the fourth floor tutor Tatiana."
Gabriel nodded. Deandra Nichols had been found by D.L. in Nebraska, a semi-retired schoolteacher who was gifted with a supersonic scream. He smiled as he remembered meeting her once, wondering how often she'd used THAT power to control a classroom full of loud teenagers. Like everyone else in the building, she'd become attached to little Tatiana, agreeing to tutor the girl in her apartment. As a bonus, she was fluent in Russian, thanks to a maternal grandmother who spoke the language. "Tell her I'll stop by this evening after training for her nightly hug."
Nikolai smiled. "I will tell her, Gabriel. She has missed you and Olivia terribly since you've been gone. She pestered Claude and myself all day yesterday wondering when you'd both be back."
"It was bloody annoying too." Claude turned, his eyes sparkling with laughter as he joked with Gabriel. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think she'd have rather had the two of you adopt her. Nikolai was right, all day yesterday, all we heard from the wee thing was 'Gay-breel and Oleevya' this and 'Gay-breel and Oleevya' that. Little mite was missing the two of you like crazy."
Gabriel grinned. "If I'd known that, I'd have convinced the wild woman over there to come home instead of sailing around the Caribbean."
"Bull shit." Olivia stepped forward. "Don't listen to him, he's lying through his teeth. It was his idea to go sailing. I just wanted to sit on a beach somewhere secluded and get a tan."
Claude grinned at Olivia. "Looks like you got one anyway. Got any tan lines, Luv?"
"None that you're gonna see." Olivia smirked as Kaito and Hiro stepped off of the platform and joined the group. Hana stood on the platform alone and clapped her hands together to get everyone's attention.
"I'd like to watch HER work on a lack of tan lines." Claude whispered to Gabriel.
"She is pretty hot." Gabriel nodded as Hana looked around the room. He caught Olivia grinning at him. "But you're hotter."
"Like I'm worried. She'd break your dick off before you had a chance to blink." Olivia giggled as everyone turned to watch Hana.
Hana stood on the platform with her hands on her hips, surveying the people in the room. "I need everyone to make sure they have enough room to move your arms and legs without hitting the people beside you, behind you or in front of you." She waited as everyone situated themselves around the room. "For the next four hours, you will be learning the fundamentals of krav maga. First of all, the history of krav maga. It was developed in the 1930's to protect the European Jewish community from the Nazi militias. After World War II, it was taught at the Israel Defense Forces School of Combat Fitness. It is a form of hand-to-hand combat intended to inflict the most pain possible on your opponent in the least amount of time. When attacked, you will learn to deal with the immediate threat, prevent your attacker from re-attacking you and then neutralize your attacker. You must remove your attacker's initiative as quickly as you can. The basic principles of krav maga are as follows: neutralize your threat, avoid injury to yourself, go from defending yourself to attacking the person attacking you as quickly as you can, use your natural reflexes, strike any vulnerable spot you can, and use anything lying nearby as a weapon." She surveyed the room again and smiled. "Claude, Dear? Would you care to come up here and allow me to demonstrate what to do when attacked?"
Claude's eyes widened as Noah began to laugh softly beside him. "Oh no, that's quite alright, Luv, I'm sure someone else is more than willing to be your first guinea pig." He looked around the room as everyone looked away quickly. "Guys? Anyone?" His shoulders sagged. "Shit." He muttered under his breath as he slowly made his way to the platform. "What do I do?" He said quietly.
"First, put on the padding behind you. Then, come at me with this." Hana held out a plastic knife as Claude quickly put body padding on. "And before this begins, I just want to say this now to everyone. NO POWERS! As you all well know, Mr. Linderman has an agent in his group that many of you know quite well. He is able to neutralize the powers of the people around him. You need to know how to defend yourself even when you think you are truly defenseless. Do not rely on your powers to get you out of this." She turned back to Claude. "Come at me."
Claude whimpered for a moment, then sighed. "Fine."
He begrudgingly came at Hana with the knife. Everyone's eyes widened as, within seconds, Claude was curled up on the floor, moaning in pain after being hit with a quick succession of moves, including a head-butt, groin kick and a roundhouse kick. Hana stood over him, then looked out at the group. "Who wants to learn how to do that?" She smiled as everyone's hands shot up.
"Bastards the lot of you." Claude moaned as he struggled to sit up. "Padding my ass. I think you just ruptured my spleen."
"Oh stop being such a baby!" Hana helped him up and watched as he pulled off the padding and limped off of the platform. "Okay! First off, we'll begin with stretching techniques, then I'll work on getting your heart rates up, then we'll learn a few quick, simple moves, and then we'll pair off and practice the moves on each other."
Janice looked up from her breakfast as Matt limped into the apartment. "You just left."
"In your time, yes. In my time, I've just spent the last twelve hours wishing someone would kill me." Matt slumped exhaustedly in a chair. "Four hours of Krav Maga, six hours of kung-fu, and two hours of weapons training."
Janice reached over, stroking her husband's face. "Just remember, you're learning to kick-ass for our son."
"The only thing that kept me from keeling over is that thought." Matt sighed. "You'll know what I mean after little Matthew arrives in June." He smiled. "That's okay, at least Hana didn't kick my ass like she did Claude's."
"That's good." Janice giggled. "Anyone else in worse shape than you?"
Matt grinned. "Oh yeah! Our neighbor got his ass handed to him by his sister-in-law. Heidi beat Gabriel to a pulp."
"You're kidding!"
Matt shook his head. "Dumbass thought that since Heidi was so much smaller and a newbie, he didn't need padding. Now he's going to be nursing an ice pack to his balls and head for the next twelve hours. After our initial training, Hana had us do one last run-through with what we learned. Heidi walloped Gabriel REALLY well!"
Olivia handed the ice packs to her husband as he lay on the couch, moaning in pain. She shook her head, sighing as he placed one over his right eye and the other between his legs. "You gonna be okay?" She watched him, concerned.
"No." Gabriel moaned. "I've figured something out."
"And what's that?" Olivia sat on the couch, placing Gabriel's head in her lap, stroking his cheek.
"Faith's obviously not going to be mine. You either cheat on me or we adopt her."
"Balls hurt that badly, huh?" Olivia smirked.
"Do you think you could go across the hall and beg Peter to come over here and heal me? Tell him it's a personal favor to you."
"Nope." Olivia shook her head. "Serves your ass right, not wearing padding. Next time you'll remember to wear it."
"Heidi's so tiny-"
"-She's about the same height as Hana and you saw what SHE did to Claude. That was WITH padding, too."
"If you ever want me to make love to you again, you'll beg Peter to heal me." Gabriel looked at Olivia through his good eye, the right one swollen shut.
"You'll make it fine without Peter. Besides, I don't think he'll come over here just to heal your twig and berries." Olivia sighed as she gently stood up, replacing her lap with a pillow under Gabriel's head.
"You're mean." Gabriel pouted.
"I can live with that." Olivia yawned. "I'm going to take a nap. I'm tired." She walked towards their bedroom as Gabriel groaned.
"I'd be able to sleep too, IF MY BALLS WEREN'T THROBBING IN PAIN!"
"LIVE AND LEARN, BABY! LIVE AND LEARN!" Olivia called out to him.
"I can't believe it's been twelve hours already." Gabriel limped down the hall in the basement towards the training room.
"Me neither." Olivia winced a little as she opened the door to the room.
Gabriel smirked. "I'm sorry, are you sore?"
"At least I don't have a face like a Canadian sunrise." Olivia glanced at her husband's face. "Let Mother, Nathan and the boys take a few whacks at you, and then my entire family will be able to say that they kicked your ass."
"You're not as damn cute as you think you arm." Gabriel muttered as he walked into the room.
Nathan turned and grinned as he saw them walk in. "Hey Gabriel! How's the wedding tackle doing?"
"Go fist yourself." Gabriel grunted as almost everyone in the room started laughing at him.
Claire frowned and turned to Nikolai. "What happened?" Nikolai leaned towards her and whispered in her ear. She glanced at Gabriel and started giggling. "WHY can't I be home-schooled? I can't believe I MISSED that!"
Gabriel stood quietly, ignoring the giggles as Olivia took his hand and winked at him. His eyes widened as Heidi walked to him, her expression sad. "I'm sorry again about this morning, really."
"I'm okay." Gabriel stared at the floor.
"No, you're not." Heidi sighed. "I mean, if your face looks that bad, I don't even want to think about-"
"-I'm fine, really." Gabriel shook his head. "I'd rather not talk about it."
"I examined him earlier." Olivia grinned. "He's bruised, a little swollen, but nothing that ice and time won't heal on its own." She glanced at her husband. "WITHOUT Peter's help!"
"Yeah, 'cause I'm not healing your package, Dude." Peter smirked.
Heidi cringed and closed her eyes. "Again, I'm so sorry about this morning. I'm really, really sorry. I've been jogging and working out a lot lately, I guess I just didn't know my own strength."
"Heidi, really. I'm fine." Gabriel looked around, realizing that Claire and Lyle had joined the group. "Where's Tatiana?"
Nikolai glanced at him. "Hana and Hiro will be training her separately from the adults with Molly, Micah, Simon and Monty on the weekends."
"I see." Gabriel nodded as Hana walked up to the platform. "Time for more punishment."
"The pain will go away after a while." Peter shrugged. "And then we'll be buff and ready to kick ass."
"Whatever." Gabriel sighed as Hana began to teach the next class.
As they walked out of the room, exhausted, Gabriel leaned on his wife. "At least my balls are still intact this time."
"I know." Olivia yawned. "This is going to be tough."
"It had better be worth it." Gabriel closed his eyes as they waited for the elevator. "I've never been this tired and this sore in my entire life, and that includes all of the times that bullies picked on my ass, combined."
"You were bullied?" Olivia frowned. "Poor Baby."
"I was the neighborhood punching bag." Gabriel yawned. "I was skinny, nerdy, wore glasses, and until I was fifteen, I was short as hell. The bullies loved me. I thought a wedgie was actually how you WORE underwear for a long time. God what I wouldn't give to run into them now."
"You'd TK their asses all over Queens." Olivia kissed his forehead. "And after we're finished training, you'll be able to do that with or without powers."
"That's a thought." Gabriel smiled sleepily.
"We're still going to check on Tatiana before we go to bed, right? We haven't seen her since we came home last night."
Gabriel lifted up his head, grinning. "I'd like that. No pain in the world will keep me from my favorite kid."
They waited for Claude and Nikolai and followed them to their apartment. As soon as they walked in and Tatiana saw them, she beamed and leaped down from Collette's lap, tackling Gabriel as she babbled excitedly. "I've missed you!" She squealed.
Gabriel winced in pain, smiling regardless of it as he lifted Tatiana up, hugging her tightly. "I've missed you too, Princess. How are the English lessons going?" He turned and waved to Collette as she left the apartment.
Tatiana concentrated for a moment. "I'm doing better. My English is doing well."
"I can see that!" Gabriel kissed her cheek and sat on the couch with her, listening as she babbled questions to him and Olivia in Russian as Nikolai translated. After an hour, Claude checked his watch and clapped his hands.
"I hate to break up the love-fest, but it's someone's bedtime." Claude looked down at Tatiana. "You've already had your bath?"
Tatiana listened and nodded. "I had a bath at seven."
"Good. Now it's time for you to hit the sack for the night, Poppet. I think Olivia and Gabriel are also tired as well. Lord knows I am."
Tatiana glanced at Nikolai as he translated, then nodded. "I suppose." She hugged Gabriel fiercely, kissing his cheek before doing the same to Olivia. "Good night."
"Goodnight, Honey. Sleep tight." Olivia smiled as Nikolai led the little girl out of the room then turned to Claude. "She's grown in the last few weeks."
"She's gained some weight back too, thank God. A well balanced bloody diet will do that, rot that jackass Viktor." Claude leaned against the wall, glancing at Olivia. "Noah and Peter told me what you said, about that Mama Alice? Do you really think she meant Tatiana? You think she could be in danger?"
Olivia shrugged. "The only thing Mama Alice said was 'Protect the Baby, the Baby's in danger.', but yeah, I think she may have been talking about Tatiana. With Linderman vowing to take the gloves off and the children not being imbued with extra powers, I think any of them could be easy targets, including her. Everyone here calls her 'The Baby', I really do think that she's the one Mama Alice was specifically referring to."
"Like she hasn't been through enough." Claude frowned. "I've taken to watching her more closely, if it makes you feel better. She still goes out and plays with the other kids, but Nikolai, Noah or I are always there to keep an eye out and we're always armed.
"Good." Olivia stood and helped Gabriel up from the couch. "See you in twelve hours for more torture."
Claude sighed. "That which does not kill us makes us stronger." He closed his eyes. "But I think this is going to end up killing us, to be honest. Twelve hours a day, twice a day. Bloody hell."
"Tell me about it." Gabriel leaned on his wife as they headed for the door. "Take care of her."
"That's my daily job and I'm proud of it." Claude winked as Olivia and Gabriel left the apartment.
In the elevator, Gabriel glanced at her. "You're serious about this Mama Alice bit, aren't you? You really DO believe her."
"Of course I do." Olivia nodded. "Have you talked to Peter yet about OUR part in her prophesies?"
"Not yet." Gabriel frowned. "I don't want to think about it."
"We need to. We both need to think about it and talk to Peter about it. He was mentioned too."
"How many times do I have to tell you? I'm not killing you."
"She said that I wouldn't give you a choice. Maybe I go evil during the fight. Maybe I join the dark side."
Gabriel snorted. "Darth Olivia. I don't see that happening. Me crossing to the dark side, yeah. You? Please. You're too hearts and flowers and kum-ba-ya to turn dark."
Olivia raised an eyebrow. "Would the bullies that kicked your ass every day ever think you'd grow up to be as bad-ass as you are?"
Gabriel smirked. "You have a point there, Darth. Fine, if we go into that battle and I think you've turned evil, I'll totally kill you, just to save you from yourself. You okay with that?"
Olivia nodded. "I'm fine with that."
Candice lay in her bed in the compound, staring at the clock beside her bed until late that night. After midnight, she climbed out and got dressed, checking the halls as she quickly made her way downstairs, changing her appearance as she rounded each corner. Disguised as one of the guards, she grabbed a heavy parka and hat and stepped out into the courtyard of the compound, nodding as she passed the other guards that patrolled the grounds. When she knew that she was hidden from the cameras, she found a clearing and looked up into the night sky, grinning softly. "Fly time." She whispered.
Mohinder groaned as his cell phone began to ring, then groaned louder with pain as he rolled over to answer it. "You have reached Mohinder Suresh's cell phone, he died about three hours ago, but if you leave a message after the bloody beep, he'll call you when he resurrects." He cracked.
"Mohinder, it's Candice."
Mohinder slowly sat up, wincing at his sore muscles. "Where are you?"
"The roof. I've got some information for you."
"I'm on the way." He closed his cell phone and climbed out of bed, biting his lip in pain. "I don't even want to know how badly I'm going to hurt this time tomorrow." He whispered as he grabbed a tee shirt, pulling it on over his bare chest. He glanced down at his boxer shorts and shrugged. "I don't seem to care if I'm caught in my underwear tonight." He mused as he limped out of the apartment and took the elevator to the roof.
Candice turned as he stepped onto the roof, raising an eyebrow at him. "Cute boxers. I don't know why, but I always pictured you as a tighty-whitey guy."
"I'm flattered that you pictured me at all." Mohinder looked around the roof, noticing chairs set up everywhere. "What is this?"
"Hell if I know, you live here, not me. Do some of the tenants come up here and party or something?"
"Apparently." Mohinder grabbed a chair and slumped in it, moaning with relief. "Oh God, I think I could stay here forever."
Candice frowned. "You okay? You seem a little beaten up."
"I feel a lot beaten up, actually." Mohinder closed his eyes. "We started training today. Twelve hours of krav maga, kung-fu and weapons training twice a day."
"Twenty four hours a day?" Candice smirked. "Okay, the math isn't fitting here."
"Hiro stops time for everyone else while we train. We walk in at eight a.m. and leave eight a.m. and ditto at eight p.m. Every muscle I have hurts. My hair bloody even hurts."
Candice pulled a sympathetic face as she walked behind him. "We're training over in Linderman's Compound too. I got my arm chopped off a few days ago for being too slow with my scimitar." She smiled as Mohinder turned and stared at her arms. "Oh, it grew back."
"Good Lord." Mohinder shook his head. "So, is everything going well for you there?"
"Depends on your definition of 'well'." Candice shrugged. "Linderman's acting like we're all one big happy family again, albeit a fucked-up dysfunctional one. I was ignored when I first got back, but since he's 'forgiven' me, I'm back in the fold."
"Okay." Mohinder started to not and winced, grabbing his neck. "Shit!"
"They really worked you over today, huh?" Candice stepped forward and began to rub his neck. "You need to be massaged daily, and you also need to continue exercising and stretching during all of it. After a while, the pain goes away."
Mohinder sighed happily as Candice's fingers worked into the knots in his neck and shoulders. "That sounds lovely." He whispered.
"There's more."
"Hmmm?" Mohinder straightened up a little. "In the compound? Continue, please."
"There were two children in the compound, their last name was Bunton. I told Peter about them. They were crying a lot and talking about how Gota killed their parents and took them, but a few weeks ago they went missing. I found out what happened to them."
"What happened?"
"They're dead." Mohinder glanced over his shoulder and noticed Candice was fighting tears. "He had them killed, but not just killed, he experimented on them first!"
"Experimented how?"
"You know how I told you that the people in his lab don't sedate anyone before administering the serum like you guys do here? He subjected the children to that damn serum, the regenerating one. The boy died, the girl lived but barely. Then, he had those bastards start shooting her and stabbing her in different parts of her body, to see how quickly she could regenerate. He also had them shoot her in the head finally, to see if anyone subjected to the serum could survive a gun shot to the head. She proved that you can't. Once your brain has been splattered, that's it, you're dead whether you've got that power or not. A bullet in the brain will kill you for good."
"That's horrible." Mohinder closed his eyes and leaned forward. "And he did this to CHILDREN?"
Candice stepped away, nodding. "Yeah. Children. I overheard some of the lab techs talking when I was disguised as a janitor. He said that the children were more expendable than the adults, because even if they could regenerate, they'd still be smaller, weaker and less likely to win in a battle."
"Bastard." Mohinder whispered.
"I can't believe I ever trusted him." Mohinder watched as Candice grabbed a chair and sat next to him, burying her face in her hands. "And I've helped him. I brought people to him. I helped him fake his death, I-" she burst into tears.
"It's okay." Mohinder turned and patted her back gently. "You didn't know, you couldn't have known what he was truly capable of."
"There are so many things I'm ashamed of, things I've done in my past, but they truly pale in comparison to the things I did in his name, while turning a blind eye to what he really was. I'm responsible for people's deaths, Mohinder!"
"I am too." Mohinder nodded as Candice lifted her head. "When I first met Gabriel Gray, he was pretending to be his latest victim, Zane Taylor. There was something off about him, I remember thinking that at the time, but I refused to believe it. I took him with me as I traveled around and looked for other people with powers, knowing deep down that he unsettled me. I was lonely. He was the first person I'd contacted in a while who really and truly seemed INTERESTED in powers and believed in my work. I didn't realize until after a woman was killed by him who he really was. Even after I figured it out and barely survived an attack by him, another man died because of me, a man whose address Gabriel obtained through me: Isaac Mendez."
"I remember him." Candice nodded. "I met him once, when I had to pose as his girlfriend Simone to throw off the police. He'd accidentally killed her during a fight with Peter."
"So you see, we've both done things that we're not proud of, things we should have known better than to do, and things that got others killed."
"I'm responsible for quite a few more deaths than you are." Candice smirked. "My best friend in high school was the first."
"What I'm saying Candice, is that we can't keep looking back. Stop looking at where and what you once were, look instead to the future, where you're going and who you want to be."
Candice nodded and smiled softly. "You should do the same."
"Who do you think I'll be one day?" Mohinder asked.
Candice winked. "Someone kick-ass and buff if you don't let the pain in your body now stop you." She shrugged. "Well, someone MORE buff. You're pretty hot already."
Mohinder laughed softly and looked away. "Thanks."
"You're welcome. Hey, I didn't hit on you in Rio just for the hell of it. I was SUPPOSED to be tracking Peter to replace Sherry. I took time out of my busy schedule just to grind against you for a few minutes."
Mohinder grinned as he continued to look away. "Thanks."
Candice giggled. "You're blushing."
"Oh, I am NOT!"
"You are TOO!" Candice laughed softly as she stood up. "It might be dark out here, but I can tell, you're blushing BIG TIME!" She grinned. "It's been a while since I made someone blush." She held out her hand and helped Mohinder stand up, both of them staring at the ground as she realized she'd pulled him inches away from her. "I probably need to fly back before anyone misses me."
"When will I see you again?" Mohinder whispered, stepping back as he realized how close he was to her.
Candice shrugged. "When I have more information." She looked up into his eyes. "Soon. I'm collecting what I can, as fast as I can." The sooner I get finished, the sooner I can get away from there, right?"
"Just be careful. Try not to make too many mistakes in your haste."
"I won't." Candice turned to leave, then quickly turned back, kissing Mohinder on the cheek. "Thanks for listening."
Mohinder blushed again. "Thanks for the massage."
"Anytime." Candice winked and waved to him as she turned and jumped up, flying away.
Mohinder watched her fly towards the north as he smiled softly to himself. "Well, that was worth getting out of bed for." He grinned to himself as he went back downstairs and climbed into his bed, sighing to himself as he dozed off.
