Julian and I left the viewing room afterward with the rest of the group. Just as we walked outside I noticed Arnold walking toward the elevators just like the rest of us. He looked good as new, if fatigued. Instantly he was flocked by a group of girls like moths to light. I normally wasn’t jealous but even I felt a twinge of envy. Since we had free time from now till we go to sleep, I decided to do something productive with my time.

“Julian wanna go work out at the gym?”

I glanced at him as we walked back to the elevators. He squinted in thought for a few seconds before answering.

“Sure, but… But I don’t usually work out so I’d probably just slow you down” He responded nervously.

During my high school years the guys I spent time with usually enjoyed training and exercising so this was surprising to me.

“It’s fine, you want to back to our dorms and change first?” We reached the elevators first and I hit the up button to the floor with the gym. While I waited with Julian I saw Mack and some large burly guys following him eyeing me. I stared back, my face an iron mask. I don’t back down to a challenge like that. After a few seconds of wordless staring, the ding of the elevator rung out.

Julian looked at himself before answering “It’s ok, I came with some good clothes that I could exercise with. He was wearing shorts and a tee just like me so I agreed.

While I waited with Julian I saw Mack and some large burly guys following him eyeing me. I stared back, my face an iron mask. I don’t back down to a challenge like that. After a few seconds of wordless staring, the ding of the elevator rung out. I broke it off and stepped inside.

“What were you staring at?” Julian asked as the elevator slowly rose.

“Just thought I saw something interesting, turns out it was nothing” I answered with a small smile. After a few more dings the door of the elevator slid open revealing a small room and several hallways all leading off to different directions.

“Uh- you know where to go right?” Julian asked, rotating in place looking at all the different hallways.

“Of course just follow me,” I said as I bit my tongue to hide the lie that tried to creep into my face. Then I picked a hallway at random and walked forward.

Twenty-five minutes later we arrived at the door of the gym.

“Told you I knew the way” I said.

“No, you just walked around for twenty minutes in circles until I asked someone the directions” Julain sighed irratably as he pushed the door open.

“You say tomato, I say tomato,” I said changing the pronunciation of the word tomato as I grinned at my own cleverness.

“Let’s just get started” he grumbled.

I stepped inside and marveled at what lay before me. The gyms at my school weren’t one-tenth of what was here. From what I could see the gym was split into two, it was bigger than the mess hall which was about the size of our school’s cafeteria. The bigger portion of the gym was filled with machines, some cardio equipment, a massive stack of dumbells and racks where you can either pull out the bench and squat/deadlift or push it in a bench press.

The other side was different, it only had barbells and dumbells (with the same racks as the other side) but with weights that I recognized as the dense kind from the earlier demonstrations with Arnold. People milled around doing different exercises as well.

“It’s…” I paused for dramatic effect. “It’s beautiful,” I said as I fake wiped a tear.

“Yeah yeah, don’t too excited there are people watching,” Julian said as walked in front of me closing the door behind us.

“What do you want to do first?” He questioned me.

“Lets bench, its pretty fun to do. Plus we can spot each other so we can go heavy.” I answered as I walked towards one of the empty racks. I quickly threw on a plate (forty-five lbs) and lay down on the bench. It felt good to be back at where I felt most at home, I gripped the barbells grueling feeling the rough surface against my calloused hands.

It was stressful here at the Greensdale facilities, the pain from whatever torture they cook up, and the irritability of being the only one needing long-term healing in the infirmary. But here is where I can release all of that negative energy, or that’s the idea.

I quickly did the eight reps and racked the bar, and stood up noticing a prickling on the back of my neck like someone was watching me. I quickly shook this feeling off and let Julian take his turn.

“I don’t know if I can lift this” Julian mumbled nervously as he tried to copy my body position when I went.

“If it’s too heavy we can go lower so you can hit more reps,” I said. I quickly took my position behind the bar ready to spot him, you know just in case. He pulled the bar out in front of him and went down, it looked hopeful at first on his way back up but the first warning sign was his arms shaking like he was being shocked. I hurriedly grabbed the bar before it his chest and heaved it back up onto the safeties.

I heard some snickering to my left than “Ha look at the fatty, he can’t even bench one plate”. More laughter. I turned to the laughter to see about ten yards away Mack and two large guys behind him high-fiving.

“I think I’m going to get some water” Julian stammered and sauntered off to the water fountain.

I clenched my jaw, I’ve seen this happen too many times at school to not know what was going on. Bullies are like a cancer, you have to squash it early, and hard so it doesn’t reform.

I started walking after Julian who just filled his little paper cone of water and was just about to take a sip when Mack got there. He walked up and “accidentally” hit Julian so all the water from the cup would spill onto himself.

“Watch it!” Mack said as he walked back to his friends who were now fist-bumping each other. Julian reddened as he tried to dry off his shirt by rubbing the wet areas. Mack and his goons were a few feet away from me as I turned to face them.

“Why don’t you apologize to Julian,” I asked, fake sincerity dripping from my voice.

“His fatass needs to cool down after struggling on that lift,” Mack said confidently while dumbass number one and number two slapped him on the back.

“Whats your problem anyways, I barely even know you,” I asked calmly as the anger started to claw up from inside me.

“Cause wimp, I knew your not gonna do nothing about it” He sneered at me as if fully knowing that he was right. But at that moment all the bottled up stress broke free. Instantly I lunged forward and in a split second I crossed the few feet and slugged Mark across the nose. I felt the satisfying and sickening crunch of the nose breaking as my fist connected.

He stumbled and fell backward as I grinned, glad to let loose on someone. “I dunno man you fell pretty hard there,” I taunted as I took a few steps back and got hold of my surroundings. There was a wall to my right and open space to my other sides. Good, fewer sides to hit me I could use that.

Just than dumbass number 1 and 2 shook the shock from themselves and both charged at me. It was easy to see they hadn’t had any real fighting experience, they probably spent their whole life using their size to their advantage. The bigger they are the bigger they fall. I quickly dodged the first punch that I could see from a thousand miles away and countered with a quick jab to the area right below where the ribs connected in the middle of the chest.

My boxing coach instructed me on how to win fights in time, but during real fights, I learned how to end them. I learned if you hit in just the right spot on the chest it could paralyze your opponent and leave them breathless for a few minutes.

Dumbass number 1cumpled hitting the ground wheezing while clutching his chest. I quickly dodged dumbass number 2 and moved behind him using his momentum against him. I hit the back of his knees where he stumbled forward close to where Julian used to be but now watched a little bit away.

There is a quote saying not to hit a man when he’s down. That it isn’t honorable, but I have to make them remember how it felt. I reared my leg down and hit the still wheezing guy on the ground in his jaw instantly knocking him down.I turned to face dumbass number 2 who even when he saw me take out his friend still came at me.

At least they’re consistent, dumbass number 2 moved at an angle pinning me to the wall. Again he ran at me while yelling, his body moved in slow motion as the adrenaline pushed my reaction speeds higher. Just like in boxing there are times to get hit for a hit, and to dodge.

With the wall at my back, I had an inspiration, I waited tensed up while the fist came in an arc directly towards my face. Right, when it was about to hit I pivoted to the right just in time to see dumbass number 2’s face change from triumph to horror as his fist collided with the concrete wall behind me at full force.

I heard the crunch of bones as the hand and wrist collapsed in on itself, dumbass number 2 howled a blood-curdling scream as I seized the moment and open-palmed him in the torso sending him sprawling to ground. He clutched his hand whimpering, any other would’ve felt bad, and I should of too. But all I felt was the satisfaction as again I raised my foot and stomped with all my might onto the decimated hand taking him out of the fight permanently.

After I turned to face the horrified Mack who stood a few feet away from me, blood poured from his nose down to his mouth staining his teeth red. But something seemed different, maybe it was the fear or the horror, or maybe it happened earlier today. Mack’s posture shifted, his body tensed as just like earlier today flames sprung from his fists spreading down his arms.

The flames were dark, and unlike earlier they were uncontrolled. They fluttered and grew hungrily around his fist and forearms as the heat radiating from it grew stronger. Mack sneered as he cocked his head to the side slightly, his eyes squinted in rage.

Holy shit.