Chapter 1 - The Unknowns Book 2

“My name is Gabriel Luis.”

“Hi Gabriel my name is Sabumnim Leon. Welcome to Velocity Martial Arts.”

I looked around as he led us through the studio, there was a lot of activity with different classes going on but on the main floor there were a bunch of students my age that looked like they were getting ready to begin their lesson.

“So how did you hear about us?”

“My dad found the school?” I explained my sister and I grew up doing martial arts since I was about six, Felicia was three. We moved around often so it was hard to stick with one school, but he retired from the military and decided to move to Las Vegas. With the opportunity of staying in one place we wanted to get back into it, therefore my dad looked and found this school.

“That’s good, I am the owner and I will be giving you your first introductory class.”

I was no stranger to the basics but he continued with his normal routine as if I was new to the idea of martial arts. He talked about mind, body, and spirit, the importance of how it all linked together to achieve full focus. We went through basic ready positions. He critiqued every detail of my stance even if it was off by a centimeter. This went on with every stance and position. I wasn’t use to paying attention to so much detail, in the few years I was in martial arts no one took the time to show the importance of each little detail and the impact it can make on the simplest of moves. His knowledge was impressive and it kept me engage past my excitement of being in this environment again.

“Drop back in a guarding stance.”

My arms came at my head as my right foot slid back behind me.

I gave no objection as he started to adjust my body. The stance he put me in was awkward at first. My body was more squared to the front versus facing to the right. My hands were more centered in a V shape pattern. He pushed me forward so I stood on the balls of my feet making me lean my weight in, and then slightly bending my knees for stability. Before he had a chance to say anything I was moving around finding it easier to shift to other positions.

Leon went to explain the fundamentals of the stance as he repeatedly had me falling into the stance. He went over each aspect in great detail. I was in a trance with every word that came out of his mouth. I wanted to know more with each movement he instructed me to do. Each step, each slide felt more natural. We repeated this process more until he was comfortable enough to move on.

“Now we are going to work on jab cross.”

It was the same formula as everything else we done so far. He broke it down nearly to a science, to the turn of the hips, extension of the arms, the importance of cover, while never leaving the comfort of the fighting stance.

Next was a front kick, no difference, he broke it down once again.

“Now how high do you believe you can kick?”

I didn’t know. It was awhile since I threw a proper kick. I didn’t say anything, I put my hand at about the height I felt I could.

“Okay, now kick my hand.” He said leveling out his hand at the same point I placed mine.

I dropped back in my fighting stance. I looked at my target, went over each detail he provided as my leg was chambering up. I shot out my kick and it hit his hand.

“Good form. That actually hurt my hand.” He said laughing as he shook his hand out. “Now, what I am going to do is raise my hand higher and I want you kick it again.”

He must have read my expression on my face because he started talking again. “Don’t worry, you can do this, Now kick my hand.”

I set myself up again, looking at his hand as it went up at least another half a foot. No way I was going to hit that. I released my kick and felt his hand.

“Oh wow”

Leon started laughing, “Most people only believe their limits are where they set them, its only when you to go above your limits you truly find what you are capable of.”

I thought about those words as I reimagined what just happened.

“Good job. I hope you enjoyed your lesson and I hope to see you again.”

 

9 years later…    

 

Breathe Gabriel…In front of me stood Leon and Jace, as we looked at each other. I kept my breathing low and shallow, the sweat on my face slowly dripping off my lashes, splashing on the ground. No one was moving and there was complete silence between the three of us. Around us the wind was howling as it carved its way through broken machines creating different tones of sounds causing random items to bang against each other. None of it mattered we continued to just look at each for what seemed like minutes, recovering what energy we had left against each other. I was tired and hurting all over but I shot past the thought focusing on the next attack.

Leon made a small movement with his foot, my eyes were fighting the urge to confirm what my peripheral saw. There was no need to. It was just a matter of seconds before we went at it again. I could almost hear a countdown ticking down inside my head. There it was, Jace made the first move toward Leon and I followed. I attacked both as they both came in with attacks of their own. Fist and arms met, pain surging through my arms with each strike, but I kept at it. I spun out of an attack while sweeping underneath a punch. I quickly popped back as a kick from Leon came across my chest. I shot back in toward Leon, he saw it coming quickly countering my punch. I used the momentum of his counter to throw another attack at Jace as he was attacking Leon.

This is how the training sessions have evolved over time. An open, everyone for themselves, rumble. Since the attack on the school six months ago Leon has upped our training in fear of a bigger retaliation. It hasn’t happened yet but we continued to train like it was. We constantly found ourselves in the warehouse going over drills, recreation of scenarios, and the fights against each other. Lots of things have changed over the past six months. Crime was still high but it has gone down since our involvement in our neighborhoods. The Acolytes were still around but haven’t done anything major since the attack. The reason for that is probably because of the newly designed task force dedicated to taking down the Acolytes. Sounds great and one would think this would help us but they didn’t only deal with Acolytes, they were also tasked with targeting anyone known as a vigilante. The Unknowns fell into that category therefore we had to watch ourselves as well. We haven’t had any run ins with them but we knew it was only a matter of time before we met them out in the field. To top it off my father was the assigned leader of the task force and is now in the process of hunting us down. I know I didn’t like the feeling of possibly defending myself against a police officer or even worst my father but we trained for those type scenarios, I just hope I didn’t have to use it any time soon.

I went in for a sweep at Jace the same time Leon went in with a wheel kick. Jace jumped though the kick narrowly dodging both attacks. I used my attack to transfer my momentum forward striking Leon with a three kick combo. He was momentarily dazed but he quickly recovered and came back at me but Jace stopped him and all three of us met in the center once again. Fist and feet were coming in from every direction. My body was ahead of my eyes and reacted before they saw what was coming. My breathing was hard, my adrenaline shot my heart rate up and was starting to get the best of me as the speed was picking up. I kept it at it, if I was feeling like this I knew they had to pretty close as well. A few moments later we all jumped back into our ready positions breathing heavier than before, as it echoed through our mask once again trying to recover.

Were we truly ready for another attack if it was to happen again? I wanted to say yes, in the six months our skills and abilities have increased exponentially, the summer proving to be the ideal time to put in more training than we had all year. Are we more ready than before, yes but despite our success there was still a lot of doubt in my head about everything. Were we lucky during the school attack? More than likely, but we were able to accomplish the mission and save everyone. Did we step into something that was far above us? I believe so and I think that’s what still scares me. The Acolytes have been quiet but in no way disappeared. We still went on patrols at night, even after Leon told us we wouldn’t be, it came with the nature of this life. We came across a variety of Acolytes, all low level by our account but they were still out there and working in full effect. Leon knew we couldn’t sit back on a computer screen, we were in the darkness of Acolytes and we needed to see the darkness to be the light. Question was, how dark is it really and how much does our light shine through?

My knuckles and shoulders popped as I readjusted myself in my stance. The others jerked in response but gathered themselves realizing it wasn’t attack. My heart rate was coming back down and I was controlling my breathing again. Leon started moving back through the machines, I knew what he was doing as we followed, our focus still on each other. He did this periodically, moving us to different areas, providing us with a different environment. We were on the main floor that possessed the most space but now we were coming up to a more confined area, huge dryers surrounded us making something of a small ring. We were a lot closer to each other than before making the anticipation of the next round even higher.

Jace threw a straight fist as it passed my ear. I slipped in hitting him in his face, at the same time Leon’s fist was inches from my face but I blocked it just in time. I focused my attack on Leon knowing Jace was going to need a few seconds to recover. I ran at Leon throwing a serious of kicks. He saw it coming kicking my leg from underneath me but I managed to catch myself before hitting the ground. I twisted my body as my legs were in the air throwing one more kick before landing. I shot forward but Leon darted out the way and I was meeting Jace. We both came in with our attacks our shins meeting on a number of occasions. He pressed down on my leg shooting up with a knee. I pressed my arms in front of me allowing them to take the blunt of the hit, before he had a chance to land I already was coming in with an uppercut. The opening was clear and I was heading straight for his jaw line. He saw it coming but had no time to react and took the full impact of the punch knocking him to ground. I didn’t get a chance to see if he was okay because Leon was back on top of me and I was back on the defensive.   

I pushed back trying to stay toe to toe. All I saw were blurs between us as our arms met in different variations of blocks and strikes. This went on for a couple of seconds each hit I was feeling more as it wore through my armor. He caught both of my arms pinning them together, I had less than a second to react dropping my weight kicking my legs out toward his, but he dropped me as he saw my counter. I popped back up ready for the next attack but my field of vision diminished being replaced by a huge white cloud of smoke. My other sense quickly heightened knowing I needed to rely heavily on them at the moment. This wasn’t the first time I dealt with smoke bombs. With the increase in police Leon felt it was best to become familiar with their tactics which included flash and smoke bombs, in turn became one of our best assets. This wasn’t the same standard issue smoke bombs used by police, this smoke was different, it was thicker blanking the surrounding area in a white sheet lingering much longer than a normal smoke bomb. No, this was a custom made smoke bomb.

I felt something move past me, great…he’s doing his ninja thing again. Focus, you know hes coming at you from on these directions. It was quiet and I watched for any change in smoke. There I heard just enough to react to the side as a fist almost str-uck me in the chest, and then disappeared again. I couldn’t just sit here in this one spot. I needed to move if I was going to have a chance. I stomped my right foot using it to dart to the left. I thought I saw something so I took a chance and attacked. I was right, something was there but it met me with an attack of its own. Leon was close enough to see but he was still faded enough with the smoke. I kept up with his attacks only for a few seconds before I was on the ground. The smoke was slowly dissipating and in the middle stood Leon. I popped back up dropping back in my stance.

“Stop. We’re finished for today.” Leon yelled.

 “A smoke bomb…really? And what kind was that?” I said taking my mask off in exhaustion.

Jace already had his off rubbing his jaw where I hit him.

“Dude you got me good. Sad thing is I got to see it all in slow motion right before it hit me.”

I helped Jace to his feet. “Yeah, you almost had me too.”

Leon was next to us slapping both of us on our shoulders. “You guys are getting better. I actually had to work that time.”

“With a smoke bomb…” I chimed in.

“What did you think? Did you notice the difference?”

“I did and I was on the ground.” Jace answered.

“It was much thicker. I couldn’t see anything unless it was in my face.” With regular smoke bombs we had the same issue but it would dissipate faster allowing us to see, this didn’t do that.

“Its a new prototype, it doesn’t allow for infrared or other devices to see through it. It will be nice to have for escapes or in cases we have to fight.” Leon said looking impressed with the results.

“It definitely surprised me.”

 “Good, that was the intent. Now before we end, line up and complete the course a few times then we will call it a day.” Leon finished.

Jace and I gave a small chuckle as I hit him in the arm. We made our way to the start line and waited for Leon to say go. 

 

 

Author's Note

Please let me know what you think of the over all story. I do know grammar can be improved and if there is something that sticks out please let me know. Any criticism good or bad is much appreciated. Thank you

Reviews

[Jacob Clifford]

Many of my statements from the prologue can be applied here. It seems to me that your text is very rushed. Slow down a little bit. Add in some smaller details and make them concise. I noticed a distinct lack of commas throughout the chapter. I would suggest taking a quick look at some basic grammar rules. The meaning was never impeded, but it did distract me from reading.

Again, I like the concept of this story, and I would like to see where this goes.