Chapter 9

Our classes at the studio still resumed. Students and parents both were surprised to see me there. They all showed concern but I kept a good attitude about it as best as I could. They had questions but kept the questions they really wanted to ask for another time. Jace came a little after I did and like usual we both approached Leon about our assignments for our class. Leon didn’t mention anything about the offer or seem to appear we even had a conversation on the manner just yesterday. It was business as usual. He gave us our assignments, we did them and attended our class at the end. It went like this the entire week. I had to confirm with Jace if we actually did have a conversation with him or was it just something we both dreamed up. We kept at it, we continued to say nothing waiting for him to bring it up but as the days passed our faith slowly started to diminish. Maybe he had a change of heart, maybe he didn’t want to go through with the offer. At first I figured it was because we were never alone and he wanted to have the conversation when we were alone, but opportunities liked that arose and still nothing was brought up. It wasn’t until that Friday night after we closed up he finally said something.

Jace and I were cleaning up when Leon out of nowhere. “Have you had enough time to think about the proposition?” it was quiet, I looked at Jace who was waiting for me to say something. “Before you answer, I want to again apologize for what happened, since the robbery I have put you two in danger, I look back at that and the proper thing would have just to let it happen and not do anything to put you two in danger. If something would have happened to either of you I couldn’t have ever forgiven myself.”

I just continued to look at him as he tried to get the words out. Yes he did he put us in danger, but I was actually proud of myself for what I did and Leon acknowledge that. “I will say the way you two handled yourselves in both situations was surprising and impressive. Most people wouldn’t have reacted the way you did.”

 

“Well you taught us about those situations, its totally different when its for real,” I said.

Leon smiled, “Yes it is different when it’s a real scenario and in most cases when that does happen it can cause a mental block or trauma to the individual, you two have not experienced that.”

I couldn’t agree with him fully, I had my share of mental battles but the reason behind my decision surpassed any issues I had.

“What I proposed is an opportunity, I said it was a way to protect yourself but in all honesty it is more than that. It wont be easy and it wont be what you call fun. I can train and teach you, how to think faster, how to react faster, how to fight harder, what to look for, and that’s just the tip of things. It is going to take time, commitment and sacrifice.

“Something we’re very familiar with.” I replied

“Got that right” Jace followed

Leon nodded “Come with me,” and made his way to the storage closet in the back of the studio. He motioned for us to follow, I turned to look at Jace who just gave a shrug.

The storage room wasn’t anything special, it was small and carried an overabundance amount of equipment chalked full of dust. Leon moved some things out the way and grabbed a latch on the floor, one I have never seen in all my years at the school and I have cleaned this storage room a time or two. It was well hidden and never would have been noticed until he pulled and the floor panel came up.

“Didn’t know about that.” I said in awe.

 

Leon motioned us to go and I had no hesitation, curiosity got the best of me and I went first. I could not believe what I came down to, it was about twelve steps and at the bottom an open floor stood a little bigger than the square footage of the training floor above. The area was broken down into specific areas. In the middle was an open floor with various martial art training machines, some I recognized and others I had no idea what they were. In one corner were computers compiled together, I could see different images being displayed on each of the screens. In the back I saw a smaller room that stretched across the back that was enclosed. As I got closer I saw a shooting range with guns lined up across the wall. Another corner housed an assortment of handheld weapons organized by use, one handed, two handed, etc.

I looked around in amazement “What is all this?”

Jace was just as amazed, “How is all this here?”

“Good question and in time you will learn once you commit.” Leon answered

He really didn’t give us much of choice after showing basically what was his headquarters. I was committed, I knew why I was doing this and maybe I was young and being impulsive, but whatever, if I was going to protect and make a difference this was the starting point.

“We’re in” I said

Leon gave a little grin. “Good, now let’s get started, there are rules" He started. "First no killing. We are here to protect, not to kill. We will hurt people but only if necessary." No problem, not really a big deal. Just knocking people out was fine by me.

"Second, no guns."

"No guns?" Jace asked.

"No guns."

"What if we're in a situation and the other guys have guns?"

"Then you take them out with no guns."

Interesting concept.

"In a middle of a gun fight?"

"No guns."

"What about..."

"No guns."

After a few seconds of silence Jace shrugged "Okay, no guns."

Leon glanced over at me before continuing. "Third, no one can know what we do."

An obvious rule, but I understood why. We were potentially putting ourselves in danger dealing with who knows who. If this was to somehow get out it could prove dangerous for myself and anyone close to me. Leon didnt need to explain because last thing I wanted was someone to get hurt on my account. No, this was our secret to live with.

"Is that understood?"

"We both answered "yes sir."

"Good...now for the first lesson." A little excitement came over me. I was extremely nervous for what I was signing up for but the idea of being called a hero was pretty exciting.

"Attack me."

"Excuse me?" I questioned.

"I said attack me." Slower and clearer as if I didnt hear him. I heard it the first time but my mind was still processing it.

It still took a minute to register. Leon didnt move, he wasnt in his fighting stance or anything, he stood there calm as if he didn’t just tell us to attack him a few seconds ago. We both dropped to our fighting stances but I found myself hesitant. Why? It felt weird to attack Leon just to attack him. Did he mean for real or just like what we do in class?

"Today please."

I shot forward, Jace quickly behind. I threw a straight right punch at him. There wasnt any alertness in his expression as he continued to stand where he was. Next thing I know, I'm on the ground seeing spots in front of my eyes and in much pain. I manage to hit just air as he counter with I dont know how many shots of his own. The only clue I had was the pain coursing through my arm and right side of my body.

"Get up."

Jace was also on the ground too not looking any better than I was feeling. I was back up, slowly but I was up getting my arm together.

"Again."

I look over at Jace. We've fought long enough for him to understand my signal. We both went at him at the same time. Jace went high, I went low. Leon blocked both attacks and went at us. He threw a punch toward Jace, I was able to deflect. I held his arm but he shot me with a head butt right into mine. Jace came in but was swept right from the ground landing straight on his back. My head still felt dizzy but I attacked again. I came in with a combo of my own. Left punch, right kick, but then I was in the air crashing onto the ground again.
"again"
Again. Again. Again. Again.
"again"
Jace and I by my surprise were still picking ourselves up off the ground.
"again"
I actually lost count by this time.
"again"
It eventually did stop, my face was real acquainted with the ground but It had stopped. Leon experience in fighting was always somewhat of a mystery. Not to discredit him in any way because he was the best at what he did. He trained us to become who we are. His history though, when asked about his instructor he never really talked about it. He would just say someone gave him the opportunity to learn how to defend himself and he took it. I knew his instructor had to be someone good. The teacher is a reflection of the student. The student just showed us how great of a teacher he had.
"owwww"
"Up"

I was sluggish getting up but I was up and ready to go again.

"Why are you holding back?"

Holding back? My intent was to make contact but I failed miserably.

"You both lack the confidence you display during matches? Why is that? Is it because of me? Do you fear attacking me?" Leon paced around as he continued his speech. "There is a lesson in this. Can either one of you identify what that is?"

"Our instructor can still kick our butts?" Jace said trying to laugh but couldn’t because of the pain in his body but he still managed to somehow crack a joke.

"Fighting is different when it’s not in the ring" I said. 

Leon gave no indication whether I was right. He continued with his pacing. "In class we train for possible situations and try to reenact them, but the closest one will ever get to actual experience are tournaments, and even then there are rules and regulations that must be followed." He was now standing in front of us. "I fought alongside you two during the attack at the tournament. You exhibited the type of fighting that needs to be expected. How come it wasnt displayed here?"

"The situation in tournaments is different, they're opponents." I answered.

"I am an opponent. I see no difference."

He did get me with that answer. I thought about my answer before I blurted one out again. "In tournaments I have a drive, a motivation, not so much to be the best but be the best I can for the school. When I fought the acolytes both at the robbery and tournament...I don’t know...I felt as if I needed to."

"Explain."

"I guess in both cases I felt I needed to protect myself and those around me. You can say that was my motivation. I felt the need, my body and mind did the rest."

"That feeling you experience is what we need to tap into. To think without thinking. You two are capable of it and have demonstrated it often. Now...again."

Jace and I took deep breathes. I cleared my mind focusing on Leon and went after him again. 

After I don’t know how many times more Leon called break. He handed us towels and when I went to wipe my face from what I thought was sweat, it turned out to be a combination of sweat and blood. I hadn’t noticed earlier but Jace had a similar look.

Shortly after Leon motioned us to come over to his command center or the area with all the electronics and computers.

“This is a new process for me, I have never asked anyone to participate in this capacity. I hope you understand the responsibility I am asking you to partake.”

We both nodded.

 

“We will go about this as I see fit. It will be a slow evolving process and when I feel you two are ready then we will move forward.”

He turned to the screens and explained what he wanted us to do in the future. He wanted us to be his eyes and ears on the screens. I guess I understood, not exactly what you wanted to hear when you look forward to being a hero. Anyways we went over our responsibilities, we were going to keep him informed on all jobs and supply any information we could on days we were available. When we aren’t doing that, we were training. Simply put we were starting at the bottom as white belts all over again and learning by example.

He showed us his set up of computers and scanners. It was hooked up to each Fire and Police department in the Las Vegas area. Even now we could hear different codes and request from officers. I wanted to ask him how he picked which ones he went for but figured he would get into that later. He went over his computer and each program. I was remembering a lifetime ago he was a computer techie before he dedicated his life to martial arts. He explained each one but the one that caught my attention the most was one he named third eye.

Third eye was a program that broke down whoever you wanted to look in to. It pooled from databases from all over the internet and compiled it into one location. Sure search engines could do this but search engines didn’t give the opportunity to look into bank statements and any other important document that was supposedly kept guarded. It went into social profiles to how much someone owed on student loans. It was really impressive to say the least.

Leon asked if there was anyone in particular that we wanted to look into. Now I will never tell Emmalin I suggested her name because we just got over a fight and I was sure this was an invasion of her privacy, but her name was the first one that popped up out of my mouth. He typed in her name, Emmalin Lane, her birthdate, July tenth nineteen eighty six, and any other information that helped narrow the field and boom all her info came on the screens. Address, cell phone number, where she got her cell phone, how much she’s paying for it, too much if you ask me, records of calls, and that was only on one of the screens. He had four other monitors, each of them with different information about her life.

I came across her bank statements and saw something that hit me a little in the gut. Jane’s Dance Studio. I couldn’t help but to ask Leon to click on it. He didn’t say anything against it as the cursor moved. There it was, Emmalin was taking dance lessons for 5...9…13 weeks now. She’s been asking me if I would teach her but I always made some excuse and even though she could see right through it, I’m willing to bet she knew the real reason and still she went along. Not to say she wasn’t persistent, she constantly asked…now I felt worse about the situation, she’s taking lessons on her own and hasn’t told me.

“Thanks”

Leon nodded and continued on. The program was also designed to pull information about buildings and companies. It was neat when he pulled up the blue print of the school. Low and behold the basement where we at was on the plan.

He went over more stuff and I tried very hard to pay attention but my mind kept reverting back to Emmalin, thinking about the times she wanted to randomly get up and dance with me. What did I do, I played stupid.

“Gabriel, is something wrong?”

“No sir, sorry continue.”

He gave me a questioned look but continued on. We went over communications and how we would stay in contact with each other. Similar to what a dispatcher would use with drivers but it’s linked only between us and him. According to him these were easily brought at distributors.

The jobs he chose were specific. He had an understanding he couldn’t be everywhere at once therefore the options were set. He focused on jobs officers had trouble with. Gangs, attacks etc stuff like that but mainly the acolytes. His influence was based on his mother being attacked.  I thought about the reports from new stations and how each of having some similarities. Places that were robbed frequently from gangs or drug houses to name a few. The past couple of years the acolytes have made a strong presence in Las Vegas. They were a number of small gangs prior to the acolytes but it eventually grew to sizable one. It’s not unheard to hear about some of the kids at school involvement in them. It was there and many times unavoidable to hear about but I did what I could to ignore it.

After a while more he finally finished.  He looked at the time. “It’s late, you two should get home.”

I couldn’t agree more, after the tech lesson and beating we took, home was sounding real good. I hadn’t realized how long we been standing or how much pain I was in until I tried moving.  “Oh, tomorrow is going to be fun.” My shoulder popping as I said it.