Miguel and Kaldur approached a plaza and the smaller boy excitedly gestured to one of the shops. "Trust me," Miguel began, "it's way better than it looks." The two entered the room and Miguel went ahead and into back room. While waiting, Kaldur looked around the little area. He imagined how it could blossom, but it just was not yet there. The sounds of Miguel and a man coming over brought his attention away from the dojo. He politely greeted a blond-haired man who looked intrigued. "Miguel says you've got some impressive fighting chops." Johnny told, "Is that true?" Miguel vigorously nodded his head as Kaldur shrugged. "Who taught you?" Johnny asked. "No one did." He replied. "Fighting is just something that I picked up." Johnny stared at him intensely, "Any problems with bullying? And that includes being one." Kaldur chuckled and shook his head. "I have neither been the target nor executor of that. I've only really just started being around those my age." Johnny nodded and suddenly lashed out with a punch. He was quickly blocked and tried a sweep kick. Kaldur jumped over the attack and Johnny smirked. "You've got potential. Good reflexes at least. I don't really see why you'd need to learn, but I'll accept your business. Gonna need the rent money." Miguel rolled his eyes at him. "He means, he'd like to train you." Kaldur glanced between them, "I'm not sure right now, but possibly. I will let you both know." Despite seeming disappointed, Miguel accepted it and the newcomer left him to be trained by Johnny.
The next day at work, Kaldur kept thinking about the dojo. "Perhaps I should receive formal training. It couldn't hurt." A computer virus client came in and Kaldur took care of it as Robby handled a client with a phone problem. Seeing the computer distracted Kaldur from his karate thoughts long enough to ask Robby a question once the people had left. "Will there be a lot of computers coming in today?" he inquired. Robby observed him, knowingly, "They should be in tomorrow." Kaldur was annoyed by his words, though heard a tone that did not reflect an obstinate attitude. More than anything, Robby almost sounded uncertain. Kaldur took the computer back as another customer entered. On the way to finish the delivery, he heard the client respond to Robby. "I'm just here to look around. Exploring, I guess. Haven't been in this part of town before." Kaldur tensed at the voice and felt sick when the man spoke again. "Kaldur'ahm? I didn't know you worked here." He turned and saw grinning client. Robby looked at them, "You two know each other?" The customer nodded, "Yeah, his dad and I are friends. He's going to have a ball once I tell him I saw you."
Kaldur's stomach lurched, though he kept his expression calm when he turned to Robby. "Can you cover me for a moment?" Robby gave him a quick nod and the other teenager exited the shop with the man. The client instantly laughed once they were outside. "Oh, man, Kal. He's going to love this. He's been looking for you." Kaldur steadied his breath, "Mr. Peters, I would greatly appreciate it if you did not relay this information to anyone." Peters shook his head, "No can do. He'd kill me if he ever found out I kept something like this from him." The boy frowned and Peters started to walk away. "This isn't against you. I'm just not risking it. He'll find out some way." He stopped walking and turned to see the teenager stressfully looking at the ground. Peters sighed, "Look, I won't tell him where exactly I found you. I'll just say I saw you in the area. I recommend preparing for his visit, though. It'll only be a matter of time, but you'll have a little bit to get ready." An expression of gratitude crossed Kaldur's face, but it was still overbalanced by concern. Peters left and Kaldur took a deep breath before returning to the store. Robby tried to seem uninterested, but still found himself feeling curious. "What was all that about?" he asked. Kaldur shrugged, nonchalantly, "Nothing much. Just a visit and information exchange." Robby did not ask again and instead spent the remainder of the day thinking about how tomorrow would be.
That evening, Johnny was having Miguel work on kicks. He spurred the boy on with a variety of comparisons between Miguel and less masculine things should he be unsuccessful with breaking the boards. After attacking one board for what felt like forever, the teenager was finally able to break through it. "That's what I'm talking about!" Johnny exclaimed, clapping him on the back and accidentally sending the tired boy stumbling forward. When they heard the door open, Johnny glanced up. "So, it's a yes?" Between pants, Miguel looked up to see that Kaldur had returned. A large smile came over his face as the visitor answered. "Yes, if you would not mind." Johnny's brow rose, "What changed your mind?" Kaldur's eye contact faltered for a moment, "I realized it would be smarter to prepare for any possible circumstances that might require more skills." The sensei nodded, "Good decision. You never know when some jerk is going to need to be taken down a few pegs." He went over to Miguel, "Diaz." he called out, "Show our visitor what you've learned."
The evening was a long one, though enjoyable. A small joy taken from it by Kaldur was that he had not been yelled at to be quiet unlike Miguel. Once they were finally done, Johnny called, "All right, ladies. I guess we should stop now so that you don't break or anything." The boys laughed and Johnny went into the back room. "I'm really glad you joined, Kaldur." Miguel stated. Kaldur grinned, "This was nice. Hopefully we can get M-Sensei Lawrence more students." "I'm not worried." Miguel beamed, "Don't get used to all this space. It'll be filled up soon." Kaldur agreed and went near the back to say goodbye to Johnny. "Thank you for the lesson, Sensei Lawrence. How much will it be?" Johnny thought about it and shrugged. "I'm still working out the numbers. Don't worry about it too much." Kaldur nodded, "All right. Have a good evening." "Hold up a second." The boy stopped and looked back. Johnny continued, "You did…not horribly tonight. Especially for it to have been your first class. You really haven't had lessons before?" Kaldur shook his head and Johnny tilted his. "If you say so. See ya tomorrow then." Kaldur said his goodbyes and returned home. Upon entering, he saw the lights were all out and peeked around a corner. There was an empty room on the other side and he sighed before going into his own.
When the weekend was over, school brought its own entertainment. There was a lot of talk about various things. Who had been the new guy dancing with Aisha? What happened to Kyler and his friends this time? To name a few. At the cafeteria, the other students spotted Kaldur and watched as he went by Aisha and smiled. "How was your weekend?" he asked. She grinned up at him, "Pretty good. What about you? Get into anything?" He nodded, "Yeah, my friend, Miguel, and I were at this new dojo. It was fun. You should come by sometime." Her eyes sparkled with intrigue, "I think I'll do that." Kaldur's audience observed him as he went to join his friends at their table. Before lunch ended, one of Kyler's minions walked past them and gave Miguel and Kaldur a dirty look. Kaldur stared him down and the other boy quietly returned to his seat. Demetri looked on, impressed. "And what was that?" Miguel lit up, "Remind me to tell you guys how Kaldur beat the trash out of Kyler and his goons last Friday." Eli's eyes widened, "Really?" Miguel nodded, enthusiastically, "We'll be headed to the dojo later tonight. You two should come." Demetri looked unsure, but Eli timidly agreed. "Okay, I'll come by." Demetri sucked his teeth, "You all are insane, but I suppose I can spare a few moments of my time to see what all the hype it about." Miguel smiled at his friends and spent the rest of the school day happily anticipating the evening.
After school was work before training. Kaldur was at the tech shop when the manager came over to he and Robby. "It's looking like a pretty light day today, so I'm going to let you two off early." He looked troubled, "We've started getting a few angry calls lately about computers not being fixed, so I'm hoping this will let our guys just focus. If things don't start looking up, there might have to be some cutbacks." He motioned for the two to go outside and Kaldur frowned at Robby. "Don't start." Robby said, feeling the glare. "What happened?" Kaldur questioned. "It's complicated." Robby told. Kaldur's tone turned icy, "I am not getting fired because you decided to steal some computers." Robby frowned, "I told you. I didn't steal them." "I doubt their owners would care for how you differentiate that. Who has them now?" His colleague became quiet, but Kaldur was unrelenting. "It seems like you aren't the one trying to keep the computers from returning here, so who has them?" Robby sighed, "Some friends of mine." Kaldur quietly scoffed, "Then it should be simple enough for us to retrieve the computers." "Us?" Robby inquired, shocked. "Yes," Kaldur gestured to the road, "lead the way."
Robby stopped once they reached a set of small apartments. He went into one and Kaldur followed. The place was congested at best and completely riddled with filth at worst. What caught Kaldur's attention were the computers thrown about the room. He looked at Robby who was greeting two slightly older guys. One looked at Kaldur and pointed. "Robby, why's he here?" Robby paused, "Trey, Cruz, this is Kaldur. Um, we work together." Cruz smiled, "Oh, want in, huh?" Kaldur just looked at him, "Actually, I was planning on returning these computers to the shop so that they can get repaired." Trey laughed at him, "A real new employee. You'll figure it out soon enough. You see, they give Robby their computers, we do whatever we want, and then they get it back when we feel like it." Kaldur's brows furrowed, "Well, that's unfortunate because we are going to need those back now actually. I'm sure you wouldn't want to risk Robby's job over this." Cruz shrugged, "I mean, he could always get a new one." Kaldur looked at Robby and shook his head. "I think it might just be easier to return these." The two looked at Robby, "Are you going to just let this guy take our stuff, Robby?" Robby looked uncertain and they glared at him.
"We've been having this go on for a while now, Rob. It's like a deal and you don't want to know what happens to people who break our deals." Trey went over to Robby with his fists balled and Kaldur blocked his way. "There doesn't need to be any violence" He began. Trey did not listen and threw a punch at him. Kaldur quickly grabbed the arm and kicked his legs out from under him. Cruz tried to attack too, but was shoved aside. Both he and Trey were too high to have much energy for any other attack, so they stayed down. Kaldur gathered the computers and left the room. Robby followed him out, looking both surprised and worried. "You've caused more harm than good. They'll blame me for today when they sober up." Kaldur's frown stayed on his face, "I don't mind helping you with that, but they were about to cost us our jobs." Robby's own frown softened, "You haven't said anything like 'You should have better friends' or anything." Kaldur smirked, "I didn't think it was necessary." "Fair enough." Robby followed alongside the other teenager, "What if they had been able to fight today? Were you ready for something like that? I've heard they've messed up some guys who went against them pretty badly." Kaldur replied calmly, "I was prepared. Possibly you should learn to fight too. Have you seen the new dojo? My friend is supposed to be making a website soon for it." Robby shook his head, "No, I'm not really into karate." Kaldur kept walking, "It could be useful. A few more of us are going this evening if you want to join." The other boy was silent for a moment before responding. "Maybe. After today, karate doesn't seem like the worst thing to learn."