SIXTY

Luis began with an air flare, lowering himself to an elbow air flare then a diamond variant.

After doing the figure four air flare, he did the virgin flare, then an inside 90 to a shoulder spin and a dead man hop.

He landed with a safety roll then looked at his legs, doing muscle dips with the frame of his wheelchair, he slowly lowered himself to his legs, from the stronger one, to the convalescent.

He took a step, then fell, but tried again, and fell again.

He slowly began stretching them, then massaged his left and stronger leg, before slowly moving the one in the cast.

He took a deep breath, then stood up again, and took his first step in over seven months...

I did a switch kick and added a question mark kick to it in the order, then did a side kick to my left and turned to do a tornado kick to my rear.

Slowly plunging myself into the frigid polymorphous solution, I took an ice bath and breathed heavily as the cold gripped my skin.

I jumped out after thirteen seconds when I heard clapping and I knew that obstinate, obnoxious and yet perfectly confident clap...

"Luis?"

"I actually thought you'd die of hypothermia after your first five seconds, or maybe pneumonia, wait no, the common cold, may be common, but it's a killer."He said.

I restrained from asking the burning question; What method are you going to use to make my life miserable this time? and rather chose,"You're walking? How?"

"Weeks of leg training and rehabilitation, activating pain killing pressure points, that kind of thing, but anyway, I see you've..."

"Improved?"

"No."

"Aspired?"

"Not even close."

"Pushed my way through?"

"Slacked off."

"What?! I'm training harder than ever!"

"You may be, but you're losing your form, before, you were....eee, okay, because at least, back then you had technique, now, you just focus on power."

"Oh really Baby steps, so what do I do?"

"Learn from the old ways, brush your teeth, wash your clothes once in a while, you'll see wonders in a few days."

"Ha, ha, really funny."

"Oh I'm serious..."He said.

He then pinned my arm behind my back and whispered,"I want to see you get out of this."

I tried to turn and grip his neck but his hold was hard as steel.

He then twisted my wrist and threw me forward and said I should give my best attacks...

I did a bicycle kick at his chest but he blocked the attack then caught one of my feet and threw me to the mat and I landed with a safety roll, then abruptly stood up.

He jumped and did a round house but I ducked then he landed and threw a crane kick at me but I did a back handspring to dodge it.

He threw a punch at my face and I blocked it, only to get a massive hit in the gut, before an uppercut.

I stumbled backwards as he said,"If you leave your defense, you will get hit."

I wiped the saliva off my lips then raised my fists and said,"Let's see if the teacher practices what he preaches."

I ran at him and he blocked the check kick but I changed it into a curved kick with my other leg, then he threw my first and I did a Webster and lay on my back as he threw a hook kick.

I tried to attack his legs, but he did a high back flip then landed with a leg sweep, knocking me off balance again.

I did a kip up and dodged the stomp he made on the floor, but he caught me by the shoulders and gave me a suplex.

I did a backwards safety roll the moment I did to minimize the impact but it still hurt and left me open for when he check kicked me in the midsection, then did a tornado kick at my head, knocking me down.

His movements were as fast as lightning yet powerful as thunder, which also made sense since he had been trained in several different martial arts and military tactics for about two decades.

He stretched his arm and I took it, then he said,"Throw me a roundhouse."

After I demonstrated, he caught my leg, spun it and threw me to his back and said,"You're trying to mix Muai Thai with Karate, and that wouldn't work. Show me a cross."

I threw one of those too and he effortlessly slapped my fist away then said,"You telegraphed it, mixing Kickboxing and normal Boxing, Martial Arts don't work that way, it's like a recipe, if the correct ingredients are mixed in the correct proportions, at the correct times, you get the most tantalizing guacamole."

"Guac? Really?"

"Let me speak, guac is awesome but, if you don't follow the recipe and you make it up as you go along with no experience, no one monitoring you and high expectations, you get a recipe for disaster."

"But you said I didn't follow the recipe."

"Aaah Tommy, Thomas, Thompson..."

"Oooph!"

He punched me in the belly and told me to concentrate, then asked for a jab.

He caught it with his hand, but said it was a better one, then taught me how to mix the techniques of boxing and Kung Fu to get the best out of both worlds.

Punching the pads on his hands, I slipped below one he sent at my head and elbowed it from the back, then jumping over a rope and working on my footwork which I had paid much attention to in a while.

He did a front kick to a heavy bag and sent it flying much higher than I expected.

He told me the correct form and I tried a few times over, then got close.

Him even giving body shots to the bag while I was holding it hurt like he was giving me jabs to the entire left half of my face.

When it was my turn, I had good form, but low power, till he told me the magic words,"Hit it like you're hitting me."

"Yes sir."I grinned.

I collected all the power in my arm, waist and articulating foot into my fist, then thrusted it at the bag with a force that surprised even me, then the pain came.

I found myself crying like a baby when he literally pulled my joints back in place, and I knew he did that with utmost joy.

He said I'd need more training to get used to the impact even I faced from hooks like that one, so after massaging my wrist for a few seconds, since I could barely stand him pulling, talk about whacking, and putting on an ice pack, there was a ring on the doorbell.

I went to answer it and saw it was...

"Mack?"I asked.

He smiled slightly then said,"I just returned from my trip to China, I wanted to call beforehand but..."

"No, no, no, it's okay, come in."I said with unusual hospitality to the likes of him.

He walked into through the mansion into the gym and looked at Luis, who was casually drinking a diet cola and I had no idea how he got that.

Luis crushed the can then flung it at Mack at a frightening speed then Mack also threw the chopsticks he was holding at it, puncturing the can and countering its momentum.

I looked at the two as they engaged in small talk and frowned, then tapped Luis by the shoulder but he brushed me off.

I tried again but all of a sudden, I didn't exist.

So I raised my foot and was about to stomp it when he said,"If you don't want to end up bed ridden for twice the amount of time I was, get you f*cking foot away from mine, tripping n*gga."

I frowned at him as Mack held back a laugh, then immediately burst out before I yelled,"Could you guys help me with aim practice!"

"Well why didn't you say so? Tripping n*gga?!"Mack yelled.

My eyes half closed, I said,"That isn't funny."

"Alright, I'll teach you, but first, you have to get past a very important test to begin your journey as a sharpshooter."Mack said in some weird Sensei accent.

"And what's that?"

"Just get your f*cking foot away from mine, tripping n*gga!"

He began laughing as Luis then said,"Mack, we shouldn't mock him if he needs to learn something like this, we should see how good a human target he is."

I dropped my jaw as Luis smiled sweetly at me, pinched my cheek, then said,"Don't worry kiddo, I've got your back..."

Literally, after they had thrown every freaking thing a human being could possibly carry in the mansion at me, and hitting me with every toss, they got bored and said they'd teach me, sure it took a few bruises, and I swallowed a few coins and spit balls I was never going to see again, but in the end, who had the last laugh?

I did...after they had finished their thirty minute long joke regurgitation and laughter session.

***

Lucy looked at her three daughters, as they mooned over their little brother, then they ran to her as she smiled and Markella asked,"Where's Lucio?"

Lucy's heart sank, but then she remembered we weren't going to give up on them, so smiled again and said,"She's on a trip."

"Have she see Junia?"Thomasina asked.

"No Thomasina, she doesn't even know I was pregnant."

"Then tell her, pretty please?"

Lucy looked down, then kissed each of their foreheads and said she had to go.

Picking up a phone, she dialed a number then said,"Umm, Georgine I need to ask of you a favor..."