Get Ready

-Dominic's POV-

"Xavier, can I talk to you privately?" I growl at the said man while glancing at Nickolas. Xavier looked down at me and grinned like he was innocent before following me out of the door and around the corner.

"What's wrong?" He asked, clearly amused at my flustered state. I hold my forehead in annoyance. 

"Joining my gym classes, Xavier? What if he finds out who I am?" I hiss, and he chuckles in reply. 

"Imagine that." 

"It's not funny!" I whisper-yell which seems to flip a switch in his head because his smirk faltered and he stood up straight whilst closing some distance between us. Trying to intimidate me.

"Look," he began in a low voice, "we show no one mercy. That's that first rule to street fighting. You know this." He scoffed down at me before carrying on, "he crashed your brother's bike, on purpose, and you're just going to let him go?" He asks, and I lower my head. "Are you?!" He shouts loud enough for Nickolas to probably hear.

"No. I'm not," I say, lifting my head with determined and angry eyes. 

Xavier nods back at me, "good. You only have two bikes. Don't let him destroy your second one or else I'll kill him."

On the way back I ended up bumping Nickolas' chest when entering the room which made me swear under my breath, making me angrier than I was already.

"After school, be at this gym. Don't be late. Bring a water bottle, a towel, maybe a bandage." I say with a smirk at the end which makes his scoff at me. 

"Oh please, what could you do to me?"

I turn my head back around to Xavier he grinned devilishly before nodding in my direction. Giving me permission for this next move. I took a step back, curled my fist, and punched him straight onto his stomach. It was probably the hardest I could punch without adrenaline pumping me up, but it seemed to do well. He groaned, bending over and almost falling due to the impact. I was satisfied. "That's what you get for punching me for no fucking reason the other day," I say with confidence which makes him look at me shocked.

I took that moment to walk towards my things and start planning for my classes next session. 

Behind me, I hear Xavier talking to Nickolas. "Get used to it. She's going to be training you for the rest of this year and it'll be painful. She's strong. Trained under both me and MD." He warns knowingly that the use of my street fighter name would tempt him which makes me shake my head but with a smile.

"Is she here?" Nickolas asks in reply which makes me roll my eyes. 

"You think I'd bring you to the gym if she were here?" I say and feel his gaze on my back but at least that got him to shut up. 

After that, he left the building, returning the school which allowed me to prepare for tonight.

---

There were fifteen minutes until my gym class started and Nickolas had just arrived but what confused me was as to why he wasn't alone. Instead, the rest of his gang accompanied him, staring around the basement in awe while I leaned against a wall looking at them with disbelief.

"What are they doing here?" I ask as Nickolas approaches me with the rest of them tailing behind. 

"Well, if this place is advanced as everyone makes it seem then my gang needs some training." 

I frown and cross my arms across my chest. "We aren't a charity case. You can't expect to get anything here for free. Make the rest of them leave." I order but before he could reply Zack walked towards me until his mouth was next to my ear.

"Come on Demonic. What harm could it be to let us in this time? If you want, I could pay you back at my place after the workout. How does that sound?" He tries to offer but his smooth-talking goes right passed my ear. He then raised his hand towards my face before I decided I had had enough.

I grabbed his hand in a tight grip, twisting it behind his back harshly making him yell out in pain, and with his back to me, I kicked behind his knees which made him collapse as I let go of him. "Rule number one in my gym. You don't touch me unless it's for combat. And if it's for combat, it better hold the intent to kill."

That seemed to make them realize that I was serious as they left me alone after. I talked to some staff and arranged to let the guys stay which seemed highly convenient for them. When I turned back I was faced to face with Blake who held a small amused look on his face.

"I didn't know I was friends with a self-defence gym instructor." He says, and I smile out of spite. Self-defence hmm? How funny would it be if he knew that from the age of fourteen to seventeen I did Karate, Aikido, and MMA all for one year each aside from my street fighting under the instruction of Xavier who thought it was the best way for me to gain skills to kill quickly. This was more than self-defence. It was striking to murder.

"I don't talk about it often," I reply to him casually and he leans back a bit, impressed and amusement sitting on his face. 

"I can see that." He looked me over which reminded me that I wasn't as layered as I usually am. I can't let them get to know my body shape or else hiding who I am is going to be that much harder.

"Are you going to be comfortable wearing that during the workout?" I ask, directing it to his jeans and a casual t-shirt. He shakes his head 'no' in reply before taking off his shirt suddenly. I don't falter and keep my eyes up, but it did catch me off guard seeing him shirtless. He then goes to open a bag he had brought along, and I see the rest doing the same, so I walked out of the room momentarily and allowed them to change. When they were done I nodded at their more appropriate clothing before leading the way to where my classes were going to be held.

We walked up to the fourth floor which left a couple of the guys out of breath making me roll my eyes at them. They weren't going to survive, I thought but decided not to say anything about it.

I opened the door to see the rest of my trainees there already which made me grin. "Good to see you boys are here early!" I call which makes them all stand straight. I've disciplined them well. Nickolas' gang then stood within them in the spaces available and I introduced them while they did. "We have a few new people joining the classes for a year. They're not as experienced as you, probably weaker than you, but be nice." I say which earns me a few glares from the gang, but I wasn't wrong.

The guys that I train all have some kind of background that involves either martial arts, weightlifting, or some kind of combat, and under my wings, they have become the strongest group of 7 in the gym.

"Knowing you've all already stretched, let's begin with something easy. I want a ten-minute plank, anyone falls then you will all start again. Got it? Three, two, one…up!" I instruct and my trainees start right away in perfect form but when I look across at the gang I can't help but cringe.

I walk up to Blake and lower his hips into the right position, go up to Jason and tell him to move his elbows so they're under his shoulders, to Zack to make sure he's looking forward, go to Nickolas and tell him to lift his hips up. At least Jake looked like he had a good form, he did the best out of them in the face-offs too, so he must be the most trained in hand to hand combat.

The repositioning seemed to make it harder on the gang and by four minutes one fell which made me call out "restarting the time" and watched on, correcting anyone who needed correcting, making sure people were controlling their breathing. Putting extra weight on those I knew could handle it. After seven minutes someone else from the gang fell so I called out, "restarting the time," again and didn't fail to notice the glares which made me chuckle. "Come on! This is supposed to be easy!" I call out.

"If it's so easy, do it with us!" Zack said arms shaking so I shrugged. 

"Alright, also Zack the second rule: always follows my instruction without talking back, so you're going for another minute," I say while getting down in front of them and holding my plank. This time ten minutes passed, and I even held on until eleven minutes with Zack just to prove my point.