Chapter 30

Cherry woke up the next morning, sore from head to toe. She could barely raise her arms up upon stepping out of bed. Glancing at her 4:30am alarm, she knew that this was the time to either get up and grin and bear the morning ahead, or she could give in and prove that she just wasn't cut out to be the fighter Cherry had hoped to be.

As her head rested gently on the pillow, a flashback of the other night at the concert entered Cherry's thoughts. She considered her two friends, and how much pain they must have been in following their burns and injuries at the concert. So whatever aches Cherry was feeling right now, it was nothing in comparison.

She dragged herself up, changed and washed before heading downstairs without a second thought. Axel was already waiting there for his student at the crack of dawn, hopeful that Cherry had persevered and had not taken the easy way out. Without question, she started her sprint around the block, then she reached for the same scale with new paint tins hooked to it.

The second day of her training was still a struggle, but at least it was one or two percent better than the previous day. Cherry now knew what was expected of her and where she wanted to be. She made it to Zan's lab 5 minutes faster than the previous day and was able to paint the other half of the wall within an hour. But it still wasn't enough.

As Cherry brushed the remaining first layer of paint, she started to notice old graffiti marks along this end of the wall. This was something typically that her uncle Sammy was involved in, but the artwork over the bricks didn't match his style. She could make out some of the words that had been chipped away such as 'Dreamer' and 'Bare Knuckle', but she had no idea what they meant or who they were drawn by.

"Better. A second layer of paint is needed tomorrow," Axel nodded.

"How many layers altogether?" Cherry pessimistically asked.

"Three."

"Right, okay" she quietly said before returning home. At this point, the teenager was too tired to argue or ask any more questions.

Each day, Cherry became stronger and faster at the task in hand. Then finally, by the 5th day, she had managed to paint the whole wall with its third layer in just under an hour. Cherry stood in front of it, victorious with her arms folded with pride. Proud that she had persisted and it was evident that she had already become stronger and physically fitter than when she started.

"Nice work, kid! I thought you were gonna give up at one point, but I'm glad you didn't" Axel gave her a pat on the shoulder.

"Thanks, I'll see you tomorrow then," Cherry quietly replied as she started to walk away with her head down.

"Where are you going?"

"Home, like I usually do at this time."

"No, not today. We have more training to do now, follow me."

Axel handed her a pair of fighting gloves as she followed him to a small park area just around the corner from the lab.

"Why arn't we training inside a gym or dojo?" She asked, confused as to why they were out here under the hot sun.

"Do you think that when you fight your enemies, it will be in a dojo?"

"Well, not exactly…" Cherry sighed.

"When you fight on the streets, you'll have to overcome other challenges beyond your enemy. That includes blinding sunlight, heat, rain, anything goes. Show me your punch." Axel instructed as raised his palms in the air.

At first, Cherry felt reluctant to hit him, so she hesitated.

"Go on, punch my palm right here…" he insisted.

She readied her fist then swung forward, only catching the left side of his hand with her knuckles.

"You punch like a boxer. It's good, but you can improve on it…"

"Well dad taught me how to…"

"Look. You need to think of every stage of the move you're doing. Not just the beginning or the end of it. If you want a powerful uppercut, hook, or cross, you have to control your energy from the start all the way through. But your energy doesn't come from your fist or your feet. It comes from here and here," he pointed to her head then her heart.

"But even a boxer's punch is good enough to do damage to someone, right?" She argued.

"But you can do so much more with just one punch." He started to ready his fists in front of one of the trees.

"You're not really going to strike that, are you?" She observed, slightly anxious.

What Cherry was about to witness however, was something extraordinary that she had never seen before. Axel's fist flew forward with so much speed and power, that it created a transparent vortex around his arm that lasted in under a second whilst his fist came crashing into the thick bark of the tree. The noise it made was loud and the broken bark crumbled with ease.

As Axel removed his fist, Cherry was fascinated by the damage his punch had caused. Not only were Axel's knuckles uninjured and clean, but he had driven a dent right through the centre of the trunk, leaving a deep crater in the middle of it. The remainder of the tree above started to collapse forward until it slumped over.

"Woahhh!" the teenager looked up at in awe.

"I'll tie it back later and it will grow again. See, one punch caused this whole tree to collapse because I hit it in the deepest part of its core. It's the same when it comes to your enemies. Wanna learn this?"

"Fuck yeah!" Cherry's eyes popped out in amazement.

And that was only the beginning. The weeks that followed felt like a tremendous learning curve for Cherry. Her eyes began opening to the world and nature that surrounded her. She was reaching above and beyond anything she thought she was ever capable of. Their sessions consisted of a mixture of conditioning to stay strong, various fighting techniques as well as meditation. Cherry could feel herself developing as a fighter both physically and mentally. Every day, she achieved something new and it was rewarding for Axel to witness as her teacher. He believed in his student, just like he believed in his friends. But there was one skeleton still remaining at the back of Cherry's mind.

As the two of them sat down outside on the grass amongst the trees, Cherry took the opportunity to ask Axel a question.

"Mind if I ask something?"

"Sure, go ahead…" he replied.

"How do you know when you're ready to fight?"

Axel briefly smiled before answering her question. He knew there would come a point when she would ask this. "Well, the truth is, we're never ready. That's just a myth. Even the greatest fighter in the world can't see what is around the corner or what their enemy is capable of at that moment. Never underestimate your enemy, even if they appear to be weak. The key is to control your own energy and adapt it against your opponent's."

"But what if I'm afraid?" She took a deep exhale with guilt in her eyes before continuing her sentence. "That night at the concert, I hid like a baby in one of the restrooms. I was too scared to help my friends or the others…"

"Then all you can do is try to use that fear of yours and turn that energy around to your advantage. If you try to block that fear out when you fight, it makes matters worse. Instead, acknowledge that your afraid, but remember why you're doing this. And once you push past that, you'll be able to use it and fight with it."

"Hmmmm, kinda makes sense."

"It will," he smiled. "Once you go through it and you go deep into your darkest fear, you'll understand what I mean. Remember, fear is what keeps you alive in the fight".

"I see. Is there anything you're afraid of?"

"Yeah there is," Axel nodded.

"I can't imagine what that could be! You're the best fighter I know and I'm so happy I'm getting to learn from you like my Uncle did. What could you possibly ever be afraid of?"

Axel took a short pause as he stared out into the distance.

"...Failure" he sighed.

"What, like losing the fight?"

"No. Failure ain't about pride or losing. It's about showing up, being true to yourself and sticking to your word. A long time ago, I let down somebody who was really important to me. And because of that, a lot of things happened and they got hurt. Then they changed because of me…."

"I'm sorry," Cherry frowned.

"The last thing I wanna do now is fight alongside you, your dad and the others then see any of you getting hurt because I let the team down. That's why I'm pushing you, so that you can stand on your own two feet and fight the bad guys whether me, your dad or uncle are here or not."

"I understand," Cherry nodded.

"Wait til your family see's everything you can do now! They'll properly take back the times they ever tried to stop you from fighting!"

"You think so?" Cherry grinned.

"I know so! Besides, it took a bit of work, but I've trained you well so far haven't I?" Axel smirked.

"You're alright!" Cherry proudly smiled as the two of them gave each other a friendly fist bump. She was happy with herself and whilst training under Axel was a challenge, it was one of the best opportunities for her as a fighter.

By the time they arrived home, Adam was already back earlier than usual from work. The two of them walked through the door hyped up and happy with the day's training session. They were still even talking about how impressively Cherry's version of Sammy's migraine move was coming along.

"Hey daddy!" The teenager's face brightly lit up when she saw her father home early.

"Hey," Adam smiled back. He could tell that for the first time in weeks, Cherry was happy and focussed once again. It was as if she had found a new lease of life. Her behaviour was better, her fitness had improved and even her old junk eating habits were gone.

"I'm gonna start on dinner once I've freshened up. Healthy chicken burgers with salad and rice for carbs!" Cherry enthusiastically said.

"Makes a nice change," Adam winked at her. "I'll help you!"

"No, no need! I know you've had a long day of work, I got this!" Cherry confidently replied before leaving to go upstairs.

"I don't know how you did it man, but you've turned my daughter into a Saint. Thanks!" Adam said to Axel as he sat down on the couch.

"You should see her flying knee attack. It's better than yours, I'm serious!"

"Oh that's hard to believe," Adam laughed.

"The girl can fight, you don't have to worry about her as much now. She's a good kid you know, you should be proud of her!"

"I am", Adam nodded, "I hate to admit it, but I owe you an apology. I was wrong about Cherry training to fight. And I think what you've done over the past few weeks has really helped her."

Axel shook his head. "It's nothing! I'd do it all again for her or Sammy. You guys are family to me, you know that!"

"I know,"

"And I admit I was wrong too. I am truly sorry about how I left ten years ago without any contact. Coming back here has also been a lesson for me," Axel admitted.

"Really? Like how?" Adam queried, surprised by the revelation.

"I can see how close you, Sammy and Cherry all are. You're a great father and you've raised both of them on your own. Anyone can see how much they look up to you."

"We've had our ups and downs, you know that…" Adam shrugged.

"Yeah but I guess, what I'm trying to say is that, I'm starting to regret not having a family of my own. It's been great passing on some of this knowledge to Cherry. She's the next generation after all".

"So you really regret not having kids then?" Adam raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah! Who knows what could have happened if I'd have stayed here…. Hey, are you ok?"

Axel frowned as he caught his friend blankly staring back at him.

Adam paused, lost for words as the memories of ten years ago suddenly came flooding back to him. "...yeah err, I just remembered there's something I gotta do for work. We've made progress on locating Diva's whereabouts…" he quickly changed the subject.

"That's good news. By the way, Floyd called. He wants us all at the lab tomorrow night, he said it's important."

"Okay, as soon as my shift is done I'll be there."

"Great!" Axel nodded.

Adam hastily rushed out of the house to get some air. He hated every second of keeping any secret from his friend, especially one that he knew would break him apart. But he knew it wasn't the right time to reveal the rest of the truth as to what happened.

Suddenly his cell phone started to ring. A number appeared that Adam recognised. "Amira? What's wrong?"

Blaze's sister was at the other end of the line.

"I got a problem! I don't know what to do!" She panicked, sounding breathless.

"Slow down, what's going on?" Adam calmly asked.

"I went to board my flight back to London at Wood Oak City Airport, but the police stopped me. They've taken me into a room, I'm allowed one phone call but…"

Her sentence abruptly came to a halt as Tim snatched the phone from her.

"Hunter…"

"Murphy?! What the fuck is going on?!" Adam angrily cursed.

"It's relatively simple. I believe this woman's sister, Miss Fielding, stole something that belongs to my boss. Relay this to Blaze - if she wants to find her sister alive, bring the original record to Oak City Docks at 11pm sharp, then she can turn herself in."

"Tim, Blaze doesn't have it, I….." Before he could finish his sentence, Adam could hear a loud scream in the background. Then the line went dead.

"Shit!" Adam started to panic as he tried to call back. But now, Amira's phone number was unreachable.

"Something wrong?" Axel asked as he stepped outside onto the porch.

"Tell Cherry to get ready. The three of us need to leave for the airport, now!" Adam replied with urgency.

Author's Notes

So finally, Cherry will be up fighting in the next chapter! Certain things inspired this chapter for me. I know what it's like to wake up aching and sore, but have to push past the struggle to carry on training, the tasks in hand for the day or even just getting up to start the day. But the perseverance is always worth it! So I wanted to reflect that in Cherry's journey and her own training.

I felt it was also important to bridge this chapter back with the earlier part of the story. Although Axel now knows that the Syndicate almost killed Blaze, he has no idea the whole truth in that she was pregnant and that Tim set her up that night. Having returned to WOC after so long, he is also starting to understand the sacrifices he had to make in order to become a better fighter and find true strength.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter!