Chapter 16: Thursday Changes the Game

It’s Thursday now. I can’t believe what’s happened this week, it’s like a bad dream. Maybe I’ll wake up in Seoul and go have breakfast with Mom and Dad ... no, stop it. I’ve just got to keep focused and everything will work out. Maybe...

At least I’m really enjoying school. That is, when I’m actually in class. I’m looking forward to when this craziness is all over. Ugh, a thought. If they’re gonna be running that damned Program in school from now on, it’s gonna be in my face all day long! Relief in classes. Nude kids and groping in halls. Nude girls in the boys’ locker room (actually that doesn’t sound so bad). Girls in the boys’ toilets (that does). How will this produce a calm educational atmosphere, when we’ll have horny teens, naked and clothed, running around all day long, trying to work off their rampant hormones? And even with my condition, I’m NOT immune from getting erections, you know? Even if I’m not nude myself and even being all strapped up, erections are still very painful. Maybe I won’t like school after all.

My morning routine continued with my stop to pick up Denise. She asked if we could stop at a convenience store on the way to school; she wanted to get some “personal feminine products” as she put it; she had run out and had forgotten to get them sooner. We pulled in to the parking lot and I decided to go in with her to get a snack for later. We walked in, smack dab into a guy who spun around, pointing a gun at us.

The world stopped. There was this guy holding a gun; he had just swivelled around to face us when we came through the door, and there was another guy about three meters away in front of the cash registers holding a gun in his right hand but pointed at the floor. I took all of that in about a millisecond and then my body began to move. I softly tapped Denise behind her knees and she just folded down onto the floor as I spun to the side of the guy in front of me. One of my hands chopped his gun forearm in a full shuto; I felt the bones snap and the gun dropped harmlessly as my other hand did a shuto to his neck on his opposite side, breaking his clavicle. He bent over, yowling. His partner turned at the noise and looked at me stunned, but I had already leaped toward his left side where he couldn’t quickly bring up the gun. I spun and nailed him with an outside chiko chagi (axe kick) to the side of his neck. He went down like a stone. He never knew what hit him. As I completed the chiko spin, I was facing the first guy who was now scrabbling over, trying to pick up the gun, so I hit him with a mirro chagi (push kick) to the jaw. Both down. Maybe six seconds had passed.

Then the reaction set in; I felt a little lightheaded, dizzy, but I needed to see if Denise was ok. She was but looked dazed. I jumped up, pulled off my belt, rolled guy two onto his face and secured his arms behind him and then asked the stunned girl behind the counter if she had rung the cops and if she had something to tie up the other guy. She looked around wildly but then I noticed a pack of tiewraps on a shelf. I used the largest sizes to secure both the gunmen’s arms and took my belt back.

Denise was on her feet now.

“Kevin! What the hell! What happened!”

“Sorry I had to drop you. You were in his line of fire if he pulled the trigger.” She gasped. “I took them out.”

The cashier stuttered, “You sure as hell did! I’ve never seen anything happen so quick!”

I took some towels and used them to pick up the guns, placing them on a shelf. The door opened and someone walked in.

“Please stay out for now, this is a crime scene, ok?” I said, pushing him out. To the clerk, “Please ring 911.”

“Oh! Yes!” She did, and I found that I could lock the door, so I did. I went over to the girl.

“Are you ok? Did they hurt you?”

“No, just scared. They came in and were in that aisle until the last customer went out. Then they walked up front, pulled guns, and just then you guys came in. I’ve never seen anyone move so fast!”

One of the thugs was coming around and starting to moan, trying to roll over. I pushed him back onto his face. “Stay where you are or else I’ll break something else, buddy.”

Then I heard a siren in the distance, but suddenly a police car pulled up in front and two cops jumped out with guns drawn. The people outside moved away from the door and I unlocked it. They came in slowly.

“Show me your hands,” one shouted nervously. I stood back, raising my arms, poking Denise as I raised them. She did too.

They came in and looked around. One cop went looking through the store while the other stood covering us and staring at the thugs on the floor.

“All clear, Jim,” the searcher said.

The other looked at me. “Ok, who can tell me what happened here?”

I indicated the clerk. “She saw everything from the beginning. I only came in at the end.”

The clerk gave a nervous laugh. “Yeah, right. You really ended them. Thanks for that, by the way. Whew. Let me gather my thoughts...”

She began to explain what happened when the door opened again and who should walk in but Detective Conners and his partner George. Conners looked at me and did a double-take.

“Kid, I thought you were going to stay out of trouble...”

One of the cops interrupted, “Conners, the kid did a number on these guys. Look at them and look at how they’re trussed up.”

I broke in, “I walked into an armed robbery. Their pistols are there in the towels. I used the towels to pick them up and put them in a safe place.”

Conners looked at the guns, then me, and then the clerk. “Ok, ma’am, can we start at the beginning again?”

The other thug was beginning to come around, the one I hit with the chiko kick. I didn’t think his neck was broken, but I warned the cops that it was possible.

“Hey, so you know. That guy was starting to point his pistol at me so I axe-kicked him. I had to do it quickly; I was going for his clavicle but may have gotten his neck too.”

The cop breathed, “Holy shit...”

Conners turned to me. “Well, I guess this shows me how you could have taken out Abover. Man. Two armed men taken out by a kid. Tell me, you give lessons? Ok, folks, I need statements. George? Meat wagon on the way?”

“Yeah. Three minutes.”

Everyone told their stories, gave their contact info, and the cops and detectives had a private chat with me before they wrapped things up. They told me that I probably wouldn’t be needed for the trial if the thugs pleaded not guilty, but I might need to give a deposition. Since Denise was on the floor during my brief activity and didn’t see much, any testimony from her wouldn’t be worth a lot. They thanked me profusely for the way I handled the pistols.

“Hell, son, you saved us a load of work just with your thoughtfulness about that. Here’s my card with the incident number on the back. You can use it as your school late pass; you’ll probably need it as your excuse. I think that this chain offers a reward for crimestoppers; you might pick up some change for your heroism this morning.”

Some press vans were now pulling in.

“I don’t need the money. The clerk could probably use it more than me. If they have a reward, it’ll go to her. Can we go? I want to get out of here before the press descends on us. Denise, let’s go quickly. Thanks, Detective Conners.”

We ran out and avoided the press crews, drove a few blocks to another convenience store (I went in first to make sure all was well), we made our purchases, and got out. Denise was still in a little shock but was beginning to recover.

“My God, Kevin. Don’t tell me you’re not some kind of hero figure now. I still don’t believe what I saw and I was there. You moved like a flash of lightning, jumping and spinning like a ballet dancer on steroids, and suddenly those two guys were down.”

“Actually that series of moves is a standard sparring sequence in taekwondo. The only difference is that I began with some karate moves, is all. My body was on autopilot. I saw the opening, I had the advantage, so I just went with it.”

“Whatever. You’re still my studly hero, but I don’t know if I can stand the excitement of being around you!”

Well, we missed home room again. And first period too. When we got to school, the second period was about to start. We explained what happened to Dr Fletcher, who was incredulous, but sent us off to class, shaking his head with disbelief.

“Kevin, I just don’t know about you ... get to class now and please, please, try to stay out of trouble? Please?”

On the way to class I told Denise about my urologist appointment and she told me that she had made an appointment with the new therapist. Excellent. I told her the website was now underway and we’d need to get our local gurus mobilized to start getting content and getting publicity going.

Everything was quiet until lunch. When Denise and I got to the Program table, I noticed that almost every eye in the lunchroom was looking at us and the hum of conversations was decidedly different. Then Andrew walked up.

“Kevin, you’re the newest celebrity in town, you know. Now you’re famous outside the school, too. You’re never gonna live the hero label down now.”