The young martial artists had finished their break and were about to resume practicing their katas when two strangers entered their dojo.
"One second guys," Rudy told his students before going to greet the newcomers.
"Hey," Jerry said to his friend Milton. "Check out the babes."
"They look like college girls," the thin boy replied.
"Gorgeous college girls," Jack added.
Kim cleared her throat loudly and Jack could sense the glare she was giving him even before he turned to face her.
"But nowhere near as gorgeous as you," he said as sweetly as he could.
"Yeah, and don't you forget it," she said with a smirk.
******'******
"Can I help you ladies?" Rudy asked the newcomers.
"Um...hi, I'm Harper," the red-haired female said. "And this is my friend Alex."
"Yes," the brunette added. "We're new in town...and...we're...looking for a martial arts school to join."
Rudy smiled. New students, and the additional income that came with them, were always welcome. "Well, you wont find a better choice than the Bobby Wasabi Martial Arts Academy. I'm teaching a class right now, but if you'd like to wait...or if that's no good, make an appointment to see me tomorrow. I'd be glad to make time for you."
"Actually," Alex replied. "We'd really like to get to know what kind of place this is. What kind of students you have. So if we had a chance to talk to you and your class, that would be great."
While it wasn't the kind of request he usually got from potential students, Rudy didn't see the harm in it. "Okay. Just so you know, these are my star students. You're not going to find a better group to talk to. Just give me a minute with them first."
******'******
The short sensei then went over to his students and explained the situation.
"And I told them you were my finest students," he said to the group.
"Aw, thanks Rudy," Jerry replied.
"So don't screw this up!" he whispered to them in a threatening tone.
The four teens rolled their eyes. They knew how stressed their teacher could get about attracting new students, so they didn't take offense. A moment later, they were trading introductions with Alex and Harper.
Conversation went pleasantly, and normally, enough until Rudy went to answer a phone call in his office. Once the sensei was gone, Harper decided to try some more in-depth questioning in attempt to find Molach.
"So...have any of you started to feel...evil recently?"
As the teens all gave her confused looks, Alex shook her head. "Very subtle, Harper," she whispered before addressing the teens.
"What she means," the young wizard began, "is...are you all...uh..." She paused and then threw up her hands. "I've got nothing."
As the martial artists started to give the young women even more confused looks, Harper tried to recover.
"Sorry if we sound a little off," she said. "We had a long trip here."
"Oh, from where?" Milton asked. "L.A.?"
"New York," Harper answered.
"Whoa, you said you were new in town," Jack replied. "But you just arrived in California today?"
"And the first thing you did was look for a martial arts school?" Kim added.
"Uh...yes," Alex said. "We take our martial arts seriously." She felt a little lame as she finished, but couldn't think of anything else to say.
Fortunately, with this group...it was the perfect response.
"Alright," Jack said with a smile. "It's great to meet people who take the art seriously."
"I hope you join our dojo," Kim said. "If you're in our class I won't be the only girl anymore."
At that moment, Rudy returned from his office.
"Okay guys, he announced. "We do need to get back to class. Alex, Harper...why don't you sit down and observe, and then we can talk more afterwards."
The young women took a seat as the lesson resumed.
"None of them seemed evil to me at all," Harper told Alex.
"That Jerry kid-" the wizard began, only to be cut off.
"Creepy...not evil," the redhead replied. "And to be fair, he probably wouldn't have seemed creepy if he hadn't tried hitting on us." She grinned. "You handled him great by the way."
Alex chuckled. "I could tell you liked it...sis."
"Hey, if the excuse was good enough for you, it's good enough for me," Harper countered.
Alex had put an end to Jerry's flirting attempts by telling him that she felt weird being hit on by anyone that had the same name as her father. When the young man had turned his attention to Harper, she'd quickly made the same claim.
Which was only fair...for while it may not have been true in a legal or biological sense, in every way that really mattered Harper was part of the Russo family. And neither Alex nor her parents would have looked kindly on any who suggested otherwise.
"Anyway," the young wizard said. "It's probably too soon for Molach to be showing any signs...whichever body he's in."
"So we'll have to stay here...and sign up for classes...and get a hotel room." Harper began to fret. "This is going to be expensive."
"You have your credit card, right?" Alex asked. "Just charge everything. I'll magic up some cash for you when my powers are back."
"I thought there was a rule against that," the redhead countered.
"Oh no...a rule," the brunette's tone dripped with sarcasm. "I never break those." She smiled at Harper and continued. "Seriously, the rule is that wizards can't use magic to get rich. Not that we can't conjure up money for emergencies. And since we're here in the first place because Justin requested my help, this is an official mission from the Wizard's Council. That means I'm entitled to whatever expenses we need." She looked thoughtful for a moment. "Hey, maybe I'll start doing more missions...I bet there's all sort of expenses I can take advantage of. Of course, I'll have to convince Justin..." She trailed off as her expression became pensive,
Harper had no trouble guessing Alex's thoughts, "I'm worried about him too. But you know how good a wizard he is...and he's so smart."
"I know. But if anything happened to him...or Juliet. They're in danger and I can't do a thing because I don't have my magic. I can't deal with this."
"Yes, you can."
"No...I can't see how anybody could deal with this."
Harper took hold of her best friend's hand and squeezed gently. "I've dealt with it for years."
Alex's eyes widened as the meaning of those words hit her.
"I've lost count of how many times you or Justin and Juliet were facing danger and all I could do was sit on the sidelines and pray you'd all be safe. You know I'd do anything I could to help...but I've got no magic or special powers."
"You don't need powers, Harper. You've helped me plenty of times. Just like you are right now.
******'*****
After the class was over, Alex and Harper went into Rudy's office and signed up for lessons. They asked to be placed in the same class as Jack, Kim, Jerry and Milton. Rudy tried to suggest some alternative lesson times, explaining that this particular class was quite advanced...but the girls insisted that this was the class they needed to attend, claiming that they had no other available free time.
When they offered to pay for a month's worth of lessons in advance, Rudy was more than happy to grant their request.
******'******
By the time Alex and Harper had left the dojo and gone off in search of a hotel, three of the four students had already showered and changed into their street clothes. Jack however was still in his gi and intended to stay and practice some more.
"Again, Jack?" Kim addressed him with more than a bit of disappointment in her eyes.
"I'm sorry, Kim...but I really need to." There were unusual traces of frustration and embarrassment in his expression. He lowered his voice to almost a whisper. "I'm still not getting it."
Kim gave her boyfriend a sympathetic look. She knew how much it hurt his pride to admit such a thing...even to her.
Jack loved the martial arts, and his mastery of it was uncanny. Every discipline he'd been taught, every technique he'd been shown...it all came so easily to him.
Until he'd tried shin-du.
It was an advanced and little known style...and one that Jack had actually been uninterested in the first time Rudy had offered to teach it to him. It was a defense oriented discipline...and Jack favored more aggressive styles.
But then he'd faced off against his sensei in a tournament, and learned just how potent shin-du truly was.
It wasn't that Jack had never lost before. True, it was an exceedingly rare occurrence, but even the very best weren't perfect. It was just that he'd never been beaten with such ease. Seemingly effortless ease. The one time he and Rudy had ever gone all out against one another, he'd been able to match his sensei perfectly...until Rudy had started using shin-du and Jack had become all put helpless against him.
That hadn't upset him though. Indeed he'd actually been happy with the outcome and grateful to know that he was being taught by such an amazingly skillful sensei.
The negative feelings came later...when Jack eagerly accepted Rudy's second offer of instruction in shin-du. For that was when he discovered, for the first time ever, a martial arts technique...
...that he wasn't any good at.
It didn't come naturally to him. It didn't come at all. So of course it became the style he wanted to learn more than any other. He needed to master it. How could he be a true martial artist if this one style remained beyond his ability?
All the extra practice he committed himself to was a testament to his discipline, but produced no positive results. Worse, it was taking up more and more of his time. Time that he could be spending with his friends. Time that he could be spending alone with Kim.
Fortunately, for him, Kim was both a fellow martial artist and an amazingly understanding girlfriend. A fact that was about to be highlighted at that very moment.
"Jack," the beautiful brown-eyed blonde said to him. "I was thinking about asking Rudy if he thinks I'm ready to attempt shin-du training. If I am, we could work on it together."
"You really want to try?"
"Well, I do want to learn." A tender smile came to her face. "And I want to spend more time with you."
"That would be great. You're the best."
"Yes, I am," she said as her smile turned from tender to mischievous. "And gorgeous. Even more gorgeous than college girls."
"Absolutely," he replied in a completely sincere tone. "No question about it at all."
To be continued...