Rabid *HF* Chapter 1

By Gene

Gene paused in front of her desk, surprised.

"What?"

"How long will you be gone? When Grover calls you into his office, he's either bringing you there to yell at you for something or to send you somewhere. There was no yelling. So how long will you be gone?"

Gene began to smile. "He could have just been asking for a recipe or wondering what to get someone for a birthday present."

Alice shrugged. "Maybe the recipe. And maybe some other information, but he'd ask me about the present. Quit dodging. I've known him longer, and I know you. When will you be back, and why are you blushing?"

"Because you know me. Bibically."

Alice neither smiled nor frowned, but Gene knew she was somewhat amused, she just didn't want it to show. "Very clever, Beavis. Very mature. So glad you're our child's father."

Gene paused for a fraction of a second, making sure she was kidding. He was sure, but didn't ever want her to make a comment like that seriously.

"Hey, he's in junior high. Have to make sure I can seem hip and keep up with his jokes and interests."

"I don't think there was ever a question of that. You've never lost touch with your inner twelve-year old. So when are you leaving?"

"Later today or tomorrow. I want to teach class today, get a few things straight with the magazine, then I'm off. Might have time for a quick dinner, or a nice dinner late, then I'm gone. Chinese sound good?"

"Maybe. Lamb chops and new potatoes sounds better."

Gene's mouth began to water. "I won't have time for that. You plan to make it, or should I bribe Edward?"

"Let's see how my afternoon goes, and how late you're here. When will you be back? Any idea?"

Gene shrugged. "This isn't a bad one, so a few days, maybe a week. You know I can't tell you details, though."

"Nothing more than a general location. Beyond that, it's all at Grover's discretion. Do you know that he even arranges for your equipment himself now that we're together? He doesn't want me to worry or to be put at risk by piecing together your mission by the location and what you take with you."

"He's a smart man who cares. More than he lets on sometimes. He's not doing it to frustrate you."

"I know, but it works all the same."

She kissed him and touched his hand. "Okay, back to work. Don't forget your Court cel phone so you're not out of touch. I'll see you tonight. If you see something cute in Siberia, bring it back for me."

Gene smiled as he left. "That may be tougher than my actual mission, but I'll try. Love you."

***

The Training Room

"Class, we're going to do a review today, then add a new step to the Wong Kiew Kit Tiger/Crane form I've shown you. Then we'll break into groups and I'll work with each of you individually, okay? Before we begin, Master Gomurr will be teaching you Tuesday and MAster Pan will be coming to see you on Thursday. Friday, Joi Lin will be here to help you review. I should be back on Monday. If anyone has any questions, ask Mister Khalid, Grover or Master Gomurr, understood?"

The group of pre-teen boys and girls said, "Yes" in unison.

"Good. All right, let's do our stretching and warm-ups. Ready...mountain climbing stance."

The class all put their left leg forward and right leg back with their left leg bent at the knee, right leg straight. THey had their hands on their hips and looked straight ahead, barely blinking. Gene stepped out of the posture and walked up and down the rows of students, adjusting their posture.

"Good. Sink into that front leg. No weight in the back. Shoulders relaxed. Breathe. Any pain or discomfort you feel melts away. Take a look at your front foot. The knee should be above your big toe. Rear leg out about shoulder width. Ready...switch!  Good. Don't jump up when you switch, just elevate yourself enough for your feet to skim above the floor and trade positions."

He paused in front of a student, looking at his face.

"Kyle, what happened to your face? Where did the black eye come from?"

"Nowhere, Master Gene."

Gene felt himself flush as his temper flared, but he remained calm. "Nowhere? So you woke up with a black eye? From what, blinking too hard? Pillow is a bit too firm?"

Gene snapped his fingers. "Carrie, lead the class. Switch legs every two minutes. Do each leg two more times, then do horse stance with punches. Then massage the knee. Then third level of basics, without leg sweep or tornado kick. If you get through all of that, you and Steven run them through first level of tan tui, okay?"

A blonde girl with a braid running down her back stepped in front of the class. "No problem, Gene-shur."

"Thank you. Keep working on the Chinese, it's coming."

Gene took Kyle by the shoulder and they walked to the back corner of the room, where Gene could watch the class while talking to Kyle.

"Okay, Kyle. I'm not going to talk to you in front of the class. But you should tell me what happened. Were you in a fight?"

The boy was quiet.

"Was it an accident or a fight? Kyle, I'm trying to determine if I have to take further action on this. IF an adult hit you, I have to report this. If it was another kid, I want some details. What happened?"

Kyle remained quiet, but Gene noticed the boy's eyes flick toward the rest of the class for a brief second. Gene followed his gaze and saw Malachi quickly turn his head forward as he did his exercises in the back row.

"Did Malachi do this to you?"

Kyle still said nothing, but his body language spoke volumes.

"Malachi! Please come here!"

Malachi walked back and stood before them.

"Yes?"

Gene squatted between them and spoke in a low voice.
"Look. I still have nightmares about the way my teachers and parents handled things when I was in school. It was idiotic and unfair. I'm going to treat you two like the mature, responsible men I know you can be. I'm going to ask both of you what happened. I want to hear the full details. IF something is left out, the other will know. Someone may get in trouble, you may both get in trouble, but the real way to get in trouble is to lie to me or leave stuff out. Understood? Now... Kyle has a nasty black eye. How did it happen? No lying, just stand and deliver the truth and we'll get this done with. If there's something you're embarassed about, we'll deal with it among us.  Start talking."

Malachi stood unmoving in front of Kyle, his eyes never leaving the young man's face. He spoke quietly, but there was gravity in his voice.

"Kyle made fun of me. I got mad. I didn't want to show it. I tried to laugh it off, then tried to talk to him, but he didn't stop. I got angry and hated him for a second. I lost my temper and punched him in the eye. I felt bad about it, but..." MAlachi began to turn red, his hands clenched in tight fist. "He had no right to say what he did. Asshole!"

"Hey!" Gene said. "Cool it. It's over. Take a step back and count to ten. All right. Kyle, does that sound accurate to you?"

Kyle nodded, but would not look at Gene or Malachi.

"What kind of stuff did he say, Malachi?"

Kyle grew agitated. Fear came off of him in waves like cheap cologne. Gene thought the boy might pee his pants or flee the room, he looked so afraid.

"It's okay, Kyle. I just want to get to the bottom of this. Malachi?"

The boy's eyes grew dark as anger washed across his face.

"He made fun of you being my parents. Of me moving to New York. He said you and Alice aren't my real parents, you just pretend to be because you felt sorry for me. He said my real mom is a crack whore from Brooklyn who used to fuck donkeys in Mexican bars and my dad is her pimp. He said if you were really my parents you would have claimed me years ago when you knew I was here with the Hellfire Club. I told him to say he was sorry, but he kept it up, kept laughing at me. I tried to stay calm, tried to ignore it, but it made me so mad."

Gene's pulse thudded in his ears. His hands burned, they wanted to crush Kyle's throat so badly. He saw the child now as a piece of meat in a locker, waiting to be torn apart and cooked or discarded. The room began to go black and Gene remembered to flex his jaw to release tension. He was oblivious to the sounds in the room, focused only on Kyle. He stood and backed away from the boys.

"Malachi, go to my office, you're done for the day. Kyle...go to the Control Booth. Touch nothing. Sit in the chair there and don't move until I come get you. Go."

THe two boys did as they were told. Gene turned and walked to the front of the class, where Carrie led the group in the Massage the Knee exercise. Gene gestured to her and she walked over to him.

"Yes?"
"Carrie, keep going with the class. I'll be back in 20 minutes. Are you comfortable up here?"

"Yeah, am I doing okay?"

"Great. Everyone looks fine. Put Christian in the back row for tan tui. When the group reverses sides, have them follow his lead. Keep going, I'll be right back."

"Okay."

Gene left the room, clenching his right fist as tight as he could, thankful he had heard of the old theatre trick long ago. Olivier used to say, keep all your tension in one part of your body - a clenched fist, clenched toes, anything that won't show - and you'll be relaxed and able to work. The trick had served Gene well on many occasions, but failed him when his temper got too hot. IT was about to fail.

He left the room and walked across the hall to the locker room. He closed the door, turned, and slammed his fist as hard as he could into the bank of lockers behind him. He roared and did it again, then hit them with his left fist, then back with his right, hitting the lockers again and again, forming one large crater-like dent in the metal side.
Roaring again, he grabbed the entire bank of lockers and shoved, straining with his arms, back and legs until the lockers began to tip. Finally they dropped like a tree, crashing down on the wooden bench with an enormous crash. Gene then started kicking the side he had been hitting. When the side began to cave in, he stomped on the corner, caving the side of the locker in and buckling some of the doors out. Panting and soaked with sweat, he stomped one more time.

"Motherfucker," he gasped. "That little motherfucker."

"Problem?" a voice from behind him said. It was Casey Jones.

Gene turned and began to walk past him. "I'll tell you about it later. And I'll clean this up, too. Where's Gomurr?"

"In the library. You can page him if you need him."

"I will."

***
Malachi sat on the leather couch in his father's office, playing Gene's guitar. He had only had a handful of lessons, but already played better instinctively than Gene had after his first two years. He had no problem playing back most rock or pop songs, and had now taken an interest in learning flamenco style. Gene was very proud.

Gene walked in the room and closed the door.

"Malachi, put that down, we've got to talk."

The boy returned the guitar to its stand and sat forward on the couch while Gene sat on the edge of his desk.

"What the hell did you do to Kyle?"

"I punched him. I told you that."

"I know you punched him. But with what? How many times? He pulled up his shirt for me. HIs body is covered in bruises. He says they came from you. Is that true?"

Malachi nodded. "Yeah. I hit him once in the face, then kept punching and kicking him until he cried."

Gene stood, walked to the couch and sat down. "Until he cried or until you felt better?"

Malachi paused a minute. "Both. I felt better when he was crying."

Gene nodded, stood, and paced. "Okay. Tell me what you did wrong."

"I lost my temper."

"Yeah. And?"

"I didn't tell you the full truth right out."

"Okay. Look, what he did and said to you was horrible. He's going to pay for that, now. I'm not going to lie to you and tell you crap you know isn't true. He had a punch coming and you gave it to him. Good. But you went overboard. You're a powerful kid, Malachi. You know that. Even we don't know the full extent of your ability or why it kicks in when it does. So we've got to be careful.

"And I know how you feel. I'm adopted. I felt like a weird outcast or something most of my life. I didn't know anyone else who was adopted and felt different from every other kid I knew. I hated the questions I'd get asked when it came up. But even my situation was different from yours. Do you believe that stuff he told you?"

Malachi shrugged. "No."

"Are you sure?" Gene put a hand on his shoulder. "The tough part about stuff like that is, your brain can tell you it's stupid, but it sets in and hooks on to little doubts you have, and hangs in your heart with other stuff, bothering you."

Malachi nodded. "I don't know. It's weird, what's going on now. I'm glad to have you and mom. We're a real family now. But it's still weird. I saw her around here when I was growing up, how could she not know it was me? And how could you not know you had a kid? And now suddenly it's all okay and we can be a family? It's stupid."

"It's not stupid, but it is weird. There's no doubt about it. But the truth is, we love you, and there were circumstances that were keeping us apart. Those things have changed now, and they'll never separate us again, okay. You're my son. She's your mom. We love you and each other with all our hearts. That's not going to change. Anyone who wants to say different is going to have to answer to me, all right? Your mother, too. If they cross her, then they're really in trouble."

"Or me," Malachi said, smiling.

Gene kneaded the boy's shoulder and shook his head slightly. "Let's wait on that. Yeah, they'd better not mess with you either, no doubt about it. But let's keep you out of that picture for now, okay? Let's worry more about you being a kid. I know, maybe you're not thinking you're still a kid, but you're not that old yet, either. Old enough that you should be acting somewhat mature, but you're not ancient yet, either. Right now let's worry about school and making friends and doing the right thing with people, and we'll have some fun, all right?"

"All right." He looked at Gene. "So am I in trouble?"

"Well, let's see. Did you learn anything?"

"I learned I have to keep my temper better. And I have to tell you what happens when it happens without leaving things out."

"Yeah. THat sounds good. And that your mom and dad love you no matter how weird your life is or has been. Remember that. For the rest, here's what we're gonna do. Kyle's out of class today and tomorrow. Private lessons from Gomurr. Don't think that's a good thing. He'll be doing leg squats and pushups for a while, then going through all his routines high-speed each day until Gomurr thinks he has them right. When he gets back to class, you're going to work with him and be his partner Wednesday and Thursday. As soon as you see him, you're going to apologize and so will he. You'll see him this afternoon, by the way. You're having lunch together down in the main cafeteria. After lunch, you're heading out to meet with the gardening staff. You'll be mowing part of the grounds and trimming a hedge. They're short one person today, so you'll be helping. Shouldn't take too long."

Malachi rolled his eyes slightly, but said nothing.

"I hope you don't think that's too severe. Sure, what Kyle said made him a dick, so he was wrong. But you already took care of that, plus the Club dealt with him. But he's also got bruises up and down his body. That's what you have to answer for. So when you're mowing the grounds today, thinking how much it sucks, think about how much it sucks for Kyle to feel pain every time he ties his shoes or blinks. If this were a public school, you might be expelled right now, maybe arrested."

"I know. "

"Well then..."

"It's fair. Doesn't mean I'll like it,though."

"That's why it's punishment, buddy. Go talk to your mom, she wants to see you."

"Okay."

Malachi left the room. Gene checked his watch and headed back to the class. There would be just time enough to see how things went and teach them more of the Tiger form. Then he would have to train a bit himself and pack for the mission.

Siberia. Maybe Gene was being punished himself.

End Part One

Gene
Original and Longest-Running Editor
White Bastard/King's Pawn--HellFire Club
Knight of the Long-Necked Bottle
Forbidden by Law to Eat Onion Rings
Selectively Sterile
Wielder of Unbridled Contempt for Humanity