Chapter 5: Tom’s Gym, downtown New York City

It was 7:00 AM and the gym wasn’t going to open until 9:00 AM. But someone was already working out with the weights since dawn. He’d already done close to a hundred reps bench-pressing 200 lbs. and now he was just starting to cool off when the owner came out of the back room leading to the staircase.

The owner said, "Good morning, Alex. Looks like you’ve been up and about for sometime already."

Alex wiped the sweat off his face with a towel and smiled at his mentor and friend.

He said, "Good morning to you too, Tom. I couldn’t get enough sleep so I decided I could use a workout in the meantime. What’s for breakfast?"

Tom laughed, "You always were a heavy-duty workhorse. Do poached eggs and sizzling bacon sound good to you? Otherwise, we’ll just head up to McDonald’s for pancakes and hash browns."

Alex replied, "Sounds good to me. Let’s start cooking. By the way, how’s our little girl doing? I didn’t see her last night."

"She’s off to a friend’s house and she’ll be gone until the weekend’s over", Tom answered. "Don’t worry, she’ll be fine."

They went to the small kitchen and sat down to eat when the cooking was done.

Tom said between bites, "I see you’ve been training quite hard in the past few weeks for the Streetfighter tournament. How were the first few days of competition?"

"Not too much of a problem so far", Alex replied. "Once I got a hold of them then it was over. But I won’t be expecting anything that easy in the coming matches. I even got to watch and observe a few of the preliminary matches. Some of the combatants were pretty good and I thought that I’d have to be careful next time. One match in particular was quite interesting, however."

"Really? And what was that?", Tom asked.

"Some fight between someone named Remy and a Asian fighter wearing a red headband. The match itself was certainly worth watching although it lasted for only a short time", Alex said.

Tom asked, "And who won?"

Alex replied, "The one with the red headband did and to top that, he wasn’t even scratched. What makes it even astonishing is that when I watched Remy fight he was already quite impressive in utilizing his attacks. I know I’d have a hell of a time with him but this Asian guy was something else, he let Remy start the offensive while he merely dodged or countered every attack thrown at him. I guess Remy lost his patience when he could see that he wasn’t landing a single hit. Finally, he shouted "Light of Justice" and let loose a barrage of bladelike chi projectiles at his opponent. I thought that was it when he hit his target and created a lot of smoke. When the smoke cleared, Remy’s opponent was still standing without so much as a scratch. Seeing this enraged Remy so much and he rushed in one last time. I thought I’d seen everything then the Asian fighter parries the first five attacks and while Remy was about to launch another of his projectile attacks, he catches Remy’s arm and lands in a quick solid punch to the gut before following up with a quick combination of kicks and punches before finishing it off with a rising uppercut, shouting something like "Shoryuken". Remy was knocked high into the air and landed quite hard on the ground unconscious some distance away. That ended the match and I was astonished at the man’s precision and technique. I’d definitely watch out for this fighter."

Tom commented, "Seems to me he was observing first and looking for a weak spot before attacking. If he’s as good as I’ve heard you say he is then he’d certainly be someone to reckon with in a fight."

"I agree", Alex answered. "But enough of that for now. We’d better clean up so we can get the gym open and ready for the day."

"Speaking of cleaning up, it’s your turn to do the dishes and mopping the floors", Tom reminded.

"Okay, okay", Alex retorted not unkindly. "You’d think I’d hate to do the household chores."

"As a matter of fact, I do", Tom said and started laughing out loud.

He stopped laughing and had to duck quickly to avoid the dirty towel Alex threw flying towards his way.