Chapter 8
3 days later.
Wood Oak City.
"Again!" Max orders as he and Axel continue to spar in the ring, each practising the same sequence of punches and kicks followed by a suplex finisher. This time in the ring together could not be anymore different than a year ago when the two of them were fighting at Y Tower.
Leon attentively watches the two of them train by the side of the ring as Charlie sleeps on the ground next to him, unphased by the fighting. The boy carefully observes their every move, trying to copy what he can in his own way.
"Kid can you throw me that towel please". Axel catches his breath then wipes off the sweat dripping from his forehead and his chest.
"Again!" This time he is the one who orders, hitting together his fighting gloves.
Meanwhile, on the roof of the building Adam and Blaze train together, pitting kickboxing skills against Judo. They practise a sequence where Adam jump kicks forward towards her before Blaze grapples him. She then uses momentum to roll herself back down to the floor in order to throw him backwards. Whilst their session is technically difficult, it's far less productive than Max and Axel's downstairs.
"Come on Blaze! Your Judo is slacking, you can throw me much further than that!" Adam complains. "Make the throw cleaner this time!" He orders.
Blaze takes a deep breath before he repeats his first move, executing a jump kick forward high in the air towards her. The two of them roll back together on the ground but this time, Adam grabs onto her neck as he pins her down underneath him, preventing her from making the throw.
"What the fuck are you doing? That wasn't part of the exercise!" Blaze angrily shouts until he lets her go then stands to his feet.
She immediately kicks up off the ground.
"Always be prepared to improvise in any fighting situation" He advises. "The reason I was able to pin you down was because your technique wasn't clean or fast enough! I know you're capable of more than that. What's going on with you?" He frowns.
"Maybe I'm not in the mood to fight right now!" Blaze aggressively throws down her gloves onto the ground.
"Yeah well you don't have much of a choice! What are you gonna do when they come looking for Leon? You'll fail at the first hurdle at this rate!"
"Fuck you Adam!" She curses before strutting off in a mood, clearly done with the morning's training session.
"What's wrong with her?" Estel shrugs at Adam as Blaze brushes past her in the corridor. He shakes his head, deflated with his hands on his hips.
"Your turn now!" Axel says as he extends his hand for Leon to enter the ring. First they start with the soft pads in the air that the boy warms up to, high kicking and punching then they move on to other drills.
"Ok, so what if an adult grabs you like this? How are you gonna free yourself?" Axel asks, holding onto Leon from behind with one arm around his chest.
The boy then presses his thumb into the groove between Axel's index and middle knuckles.
"A bit higher, that's where the nerve is, see?"
"I got it!"
"Now press onto that point as hard as you can for 2 seconds…"
In doing so, Leon causes a sudden shockwave through Axel's hand which loosens his grip, giving the boy the chance to escape.
"Good! Now what can you do?"
"I can either use my fire to blind the enemy, or kick him where it hurts in the nuts!" he cheekily replies.
"Ok, then what?... What should you always do when your enemy is down Leon?"
"Then I have the chance to run until I find someone I trust, or hide when I get tired".
"You make sure you keep running, you don't stay back and fight."
"But you and mom always fight!" Leon argues.
"That's different, you're not strong or tall enough yet to grapple or suplex an adult. Tell me again, what should you do once your enemy is down?" Axel insists.
"I run away until I find someone to help or I hide until someone I know comes to finds me".
"Good." Axel scuffles his hair, approving of his answer this time.
Adam hastily approaches them once they are finished with Leon's training for the morning.
"Go upstairs with Estel, I'l be there in a minute" Axel says to the boy.
"What happened to you?" He asks Adam whilst unwrapping the material around his wrists.
"Do me a favour and have a word with your girl for me. Her attitude stinks and she's slacking!"
"You know what Blaze is like, she's stubborn and hates being told how to fight or what to do."
"You can say that again!" Adam complains.
"Since we left London, she hasn't been the same. Eating, sleeping… I know Blaze aint dealing with this well. Just go easy on her and give her some space for the time being. We're swapping training partners tomorrow anyway and I've called for extra help".
Adam rolls his eyes. "Oh no! Please don't tell me Kempo king Shiva is paying us a visit. He's the worst to train with, especially when he repeatedly refuses to use any of our weapons! 'I am the weapon...' what kind of bullshit is that?"
Axel laughs "that's typical Shiva, he's old school! Sounds like you're too tired to train against him!" He jokes.
"We'll see about that!" Adam confidently folds his arms with a smirk on his face, keen to live up to the challenge.
The group has rented out a newly built block containing 10 small apartments that were previously used as student dormitories just outside of the city. The place has been derelict for almost a year after the owners went bankrupt and couldn't afford to finish the rest of the work. It is in an ideal location, very close to Dr Zan's new state of the art lab and has plenty of space and land around it to train which is exactly what they've needed. Given that it was too dangerous to stay at their old place, living here until the battle is over was the next best case scenario.
Cherry folds her arms, amused as Dr Zan and Floyd work on setting up their equipment downstairs in an empty area of the complex that was supposed to build an underground car park for its residents.
"Jeez, your lab stuff takes up more space than my bedroom!" She remarks.
"Are you just gonna stand there and supervise or are you gonna help us?" Floyd becomes irritated with her whilst carrying another piece of heavy equipment.
"What side of the bed did you wake up on today eh?" She frowns.
"I'm sorry, I just got a lot to deal with right now. The Dr needs all this stuff wired up and serviced by tonight…. You know what he's like!"
The two of them glance over towards Zan who appears to be in his own world examining a petri dish under a microscope.
"You two! Take those boxes of headsets and wire them up to each of the monitors!" Zan dictates, shouting at them from across the room.
"Great, just the way I wanted to spend my afternoon!" Cherry rolls her eyes.
1 hour later and the two of them are still wiring up the equipment.
"Hey you two, here's the last box we need from the lab!" A familiar voice enters the room.
"Uncle Sammy!" Cherry's face suddenly lights up with happiness. She then runs forward with her arms wide open to hug him
"Hey girl!" He smiles "sup bro?" Sammy then nods at Floyd, keeping his cool whilst his niece squeezes him tight.
"You know the others get to train whilst we're stuck here putting this shit together!" Cherry complains.
"Don't worry! Wait until you see what this training entails! All from this equipment we're setting up and you're gonna love it!" Floyd grins, passing her one of the headsets.
"That's lit! Next level simulation, I like it!" Sammy replies as he picks up a second headset off the ground.
"With multiple simulators like this and the way we've wired them up, all of us will be able to train together at the same time" Floyd explains.
"You know what they say, half the fight is in the mind…" Sammy nods in agreement.
Cherry gulps down at her headset, feeling slightly unnerved by this and pessimistic at how it's going to work.
"Hey have you guys seen my dad?" She changes the subject.
"Yeah, he was training outside with Estel" Floyd answers.
"Thanks. I'll be back in 10 minutes". She quickly leaves the two young men to finish the rest of the work they started over an hour ago.
The outside grounds of the complex are quiet with one large concrete area supposedly there as a potential construction site for more apartment blocks in the future. Beyond it lies 8 acres of fields, all sectioned off with electric barbed wire around its perimeter. The location they're at is so quiet, not even planes pass this route into the city.
Cherry scans the open field ahead but there is no sign of anyone else. She glances back over her shoulder, then decides to wander around to check out what's ahead. The place is very beautiful and peaceful, surrounded by Oak trees and the ground is covered by the colours of fall with orange and golden leaves scattered across her path. This walk is actually what the teenager has needed all day - some alone time and some peace and quiet from everybody else. She stops to admire the birds in the trees, inhaling in the fresh cool air surrounding her senses. Growing up amongst the hustle and bustle of city life could not be further away from this as it gets!
Cherry even notices a small allotment in the distance which she decides to check out. It's full of vegetation including pumpkin, potatoes and even tomatoes growing. As she picks one off to try, she notices the allotment shed. There could be anything in there of use, even any shovels for the soil could be used as potential training weapons.
As soon as she opens the grey door, Cherry has the shock of her life from what she witnesses in front of her.
"Daddy?! Estel?!... Oh my…" Her jaw drops and the look on her face is one of trauma as soon as she realises what's going on. She immediately runs away as fast as possible, leaving the shed door open.
"Cherry?! ….What the fuck... !" Adam is just as shocked as she is, almost feeling the effects of a heart attack. He and Estel immediately get up off the floor, both naked after being caught in the act. It takes a moment for them to each find their clothes that are scattered around the place.
"I gotta talk to her…I hope she's ok..." Adam frantically gets dressed.
"Oh dear.." Estel sighs, face reddened full of embarrassment.