Ash opened up his bottle to refill it at the stand on the side of the gym. It was early morning on the weekend and the majority of gym-goers had yet to come in. The sound of water sloshing around in the basin felt droning and he felt fatigued overall.
Drew's warning of him not to associate with May hadn't really put much of an effect on their relationship. Instead, she just moved her time to exercise for an early morning workout. His schedule was not flexible enough to keep her company during the afternoon and evening, thus they could spend time together on the other time of day before Ash had to report to work. Occasionally, he would get a call about a case, but the sufficient amount of downtime allowed the two of them to grow closer together. She had formally given him an invitation to the party in two days and he immediately accepted. He knew her father wasn't too keen on it, but he couldn't find the restraining forms and calling the government to reestablish them hadn't done him any good.
The kiss continued to linger on his mind and anyone that caught him daydreaming about it would ponder why he had such a silly grin on his face. He was in love. A battle hardened soldier was in love over a student. He had no idea how something like this seemed to define his life.
Today she was nowhere to be seen, so he had just spent the majority in his cardio before moving to the free workout area. He gave a nod to the group of personal trainers before moving off to begin his exercise. Her absence meant that he wasn't going to be able to teach and hone her self-defense moves, which they would spend roughly twenty minutes every visit.
It was all routine for him. A hundred jumping jacks, then sit ups, push ups, fifty pull ups, burpees and leg squats. Had he not had enough time for the gym, he would have gone swimming in his backyard of the ocean for a mile and a half.
To anyone who looked at how he worked out, it would seem akin to masochism, but in a Commando's eyes, it was merely a warm-up. However at such an early hour, there was hardly anyone else on the workout floor.
With it all done in thirty minutes, Ash moved to the weight machines. He started off with arm curls before triceps and then shoulder and back muscles. Nearly fifty reps on each machine set significantly higher than its average setting. In the middle of that, he headed to the outside to do tire flips. The monster weighed more than seven hundred pounds and the challenge of flipping it over ten times in a row in five minutes was one of the most difficult exercises he did, but it always did good in the end.
A motion caught his eye while on a shoulder machine and he looked up. His stomach decided to knot itself when he made eye contact with Drew Hayden.
It was quite evident that he did not visit the gym many times or he was not a regular. The group of personal trainers at the desk had murmured amongst themselves when they saw him. They were surprised to see that he had a membership card. He wore a black workout shirt and red shorts that looked as if it was what athletes wore a decade ago.
Somehow, the incident over learning how to kill somebody was fresh in Ash's mind and Drew's cockiness was a dead giveaway that he would not be able to walk out without a second one of his arrogant confrontations.
He was right.
Ash had just moved to the next machine, a muscle lateral pull when Drew had come up to stand next to him. His face was a mixture of anger and slyness.
"Hello Ash," Drew was oddly quite happy, betraying the former emotion on his face. Or so it seemed.
"Mr. Hayden." He did not pause in his repetitions. On the other hand, Drew was offset by how much weight that he was using and by looking at Ash, he had barely broken much of a sweat.
"You're not usually here this early." Drew smirked. Tensions of the other day were still present.
"You're not usually here at all." Ash shot back. Something about his expression, his appearance was just maddening. He felt a rush of satisfaction to put the guy's hand at the bottom of the weight machine and let the thing drop right on it. The result would be crushed bones and a bloodcurdling scream.
"Hey, you watch yourself Ash." He mocked, "Remember who ultimately gives you all your resources while on a field operation, especially with your gang of misfit cops. Normally you're quite a respectful guy, but since the last time we spoke you didn't even bother to include one respectful name in there."
More than anything, Ash wanted to just get up and ignore him. "So you're going to put the fact that you give me the toys to do my job? This is a gym, so unless you're here to get yourself into decent shape; get out of my face. I'd like to be left alone."
"You think it's okay to talk back to me? What do you have that I don't? Hold on, I know." Drew held his hand out to stave off a comeback, "I have a net worth of more than half a billion dollars and my boss is nearly three times that. How can you compete with that?"
Ash tapped his stomach, "I have a six pack and it's not one of beer. Four percent body fat I might add. Can you say the same?"
That shut Drew up for a moment as he looked down at his own figure. However, he came at a different angle this time.
"You know I have an idea on why you've suddenly decided to talk back to someone who obviously is in a higher class than you. You've been taking too much after May's mouthy girlfriend. Is it because you're still spending time with May? Even when I explicitly told you to stay away as well?"
"I don't like to talk," Ash felt his irritation grow, "When it comes to a conflict, I solve them with fists and guns, and then talk if necessary."
"That a threat?" Drew asked.
"No," Ash finally stopped on the machine, since this pointless bickering with the business prodigy was pretty much halting any of his efforts for a normal day at the gym. "A threat is more like; leave me alone unless you want to be lying on the floor in bruises with broken bones."
Without another word Ash left the machine.
Drew followed him.
"I don't recall saying I was done with you."
"Then finish up." Ash snapped, "But if you're going to continue on the path we were just on, don't cry because of the consequences."
"To hell with consequences," Drew spat. He leaned forward and extended his hand out. "You stay the hell away from my girlfriend-"
Without warning, Ash shifted his stance and parried the grab, shoving him backwards at the same time. Drew felt as if every tissue in his body was jarred and a wave of fear suddenly crept into the pit of his stomach at an alarming rate. As if Ash's looks weren't intimidating enough, he had hardly put any effort into the push and yet the action had visibly shaken the other man.
"I wouldn't touch me if I were you." He carried an icy tone that would've made a Sealeo shiver.
"Don't push me." Drew snapped back. "You think that just because you're a Commando, you're the ruler of the ring and nobody's ever going to beat you. But in the civilized world, we have a different set of rules and you might be a social reject who can beat up anyone challenging, but that doesn't make you any better."
Social reject? He was partially right. Ash had grown up in one of the toughest neighborhoods in the country and during school; he wasn't keen on interacting with many people. It was for good reason. By the time he was a high school freshman, most kids his age were either drug addicts, alcoholics, convicted felons, pregnant, in street gangs or all of the above. The matter was severe and yet the place was as close to being lawless as a live fire warzone. Police seldom went there and when they did, it wasn't for very long. Life was just rough, nobody else wanted to try and step in to make changes. Those that made the try didn't garner much support. That's why he wanted to join the Commandos, with enough pay, he and his mother could have moved into Viridian City, where it was much safer.
As he pondered these thoughts, the thing of Drew calling him a social reject made it sound like he was supposed to be an outcast, someone who would be neglected and forgotten once he outlived his usefulness. That was not the case at all. The Federation had enemies…lots of them and he, along with the Commandos and the rest of their military had to be on watch at every second of the day to ward off the threats and tell them that taking on the country was going to be anything but easy.
Seeing Ash's face turn into anger made Drew smile dangerously. He knew he had struck a nerve inside.
"Why you angry?" He taunted, flicking a strand of hair out of his face. "You know it's true right? Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of respect for you and the Commandos as a whole, but when you're here mingling with people that shouldn't give a shit about you as a person, not to mention trying to take my girlfriend from me pisses me off. You know what? YOU as a person piss me off."
"The feeling is mutual."
Drew reached up for Ash's shirt, "Good, so listen clearly. May is mine and you stay-"
Before he could comprehend what happened or even finish his sentence, Ash grabbed the hand and twisted it, earning a yelp of both surprise and pain from the smaller man. Bringing Drew in front, he swept out his legs to knock him to the floor. He landed face first and the soft part of his nose met the hard floor with enough force to cause pain to explode in his face, blood to trickled out of his nose and drip on the floor.
"No, you listen to me pretty boy." Ash gritted his teeth menacingly, "Since I first became a Commando, I am bound by protocol to take action if me or any of my allies are under a threat, regardless of who I report to. Right here, I can take you and slowly break every bone in your damn body without breaking a sweat, five times over. And you're right, maybe I don't have even a fraction of the money you do, but I'd like to see your half billion dollars get you out of this hold."
Drew, sensing that his ego was being challenged, tried to squirm free, but Ash kept a firm grip on his left arm. His right was underneath his body and unable to move unless he shifted his weight. The Commando kept his legs down too, preventing him from doing so and the more he struggled, the more it became futile. Ash had him pinned to the ground.
"Hey!" A couple of the personal trainers had heard the commotion and rounded the corner to see the confrontation. "Break it up! Save the fight for the ring!"
Ash released him, heavily panting and realizing that he just ASSAULTED a business executive, one that reported right to the father of May. The excuse of him having done provoking wouldn't really do him much good.
"Did you see that?" Drew scrambled to his feet and turned to the trainers, "He tried to kill me!" His entire body shook and he managed to point a finger straight at Ash. "You're a monster and I'll make sure that you never come within sighting distance of any normal person for the rest-"
The taller one spoke up, "Sir, I'm going to have to ask the both of you to leave. We cannot and will not tolerate this kind of behavior in our facility. Clear?"
Another trainer brought him a wad of paper towels and he scrunched one up to put over his nose. His rant had been silenced for now as he turned to leave.
"Just so you know, Ketchum, this isn't over." He gave a wicked grin under the blood stained rag, "You're not going to get away with assaulting me."
When he left, Ash remained still, trying to calm himself. He just acted out on his own instinct; identify and contain/annihilate the threat. Drew never worked out and couldn't even hurt someone in an online video game, but he could count as a threat. Not all of them had to be dangerous physically.
Dwelling on the fact that he had used his emotions to get manipulated made his blood boil. This was one thing he had a hard time getting a grip on.
"Sir," The taller of the two trainers stepped forward. From the looks on their faces, they knew what he was capable of and didn't want to be on the receiving end of his anger.
"It's nothing." He brushed past them. "I was just leaving."
"Hey," Tall trainer stopped him, "Was surprised that he had a membership for a year now. Hasn't been in here once."
"Sorry you had to see that," Ash replied, "And I'm sorry I had caused all this trouble."
"Hey, from my perspective, it looks like he had started the confrontation. You do get knee deep into it," He pressed a business card into Ash's hand, "You've got a witness to back you up."
Haven't posted since I've been quite busy last few days and it is likely to continue with longer spaces between additions. How about another chapter to make it up?
Thanks for reading and reviewing, you give my writing purpose.