Chapter 40 Pocket money for Vegas

They attacked each other in sync, coordinating their punches and kicks so that Alex was attacked from 4 sides, including Geni. 

They forced him to take his hands out of his pockets to block the attacks. April had the feeling that today they might finally get him, but then she hit nothing and he stood behind them and put his hand on each of their heads in turn. 

"That's not fair!" came from Mei, who turned to him. "You used something from Uncle Lee!"

Alex grinned. " His and what we're practicing here come from the same source, honey. "

Geni just stared at him, stunned. 

" You learned the forbidden techniques?" 

He tousled his hair. " They are forbidden because you can hurt yourself, Geni. 

" But Master Xin always said ..."

" Boy! You've finally learned gentleness!" an older Asian man limped in. One leg was a prosthesis, he looked to be around 90. He was wearing a tracksuit. Alex grinned. 

Geni bowed to him. 

"With age." 

Xin looked at April, Liz and Mei. 

" You fight very well matched. You can tell you're sisters. If Geni had gotten involved with you guys, you would have gotten A.J. in trouble. "

Mei came closer.

" Dad says this is the same origin as what I learned from my uncle in China?"

Xin looked at her. 

" From what I've seen of you, it's from the same family. Slight differences, your technique is more abrupt and impatient. " 

He looked at Geni, smiling. 

"I hope you found what you were looking for."

Geni nodded. "I did." 

" Good. A.J., then show me what your daughter is telling me."

Alex looked at him.

"Why me? She can do it."

Xin looked at him. 

" Because I've known you since you came in here as a little boy with Bruce Lee magazine. "

Alex grinned. 

"Okay, but I'll change first," he turned and walked into the locker room. 

Mei looked completely confused, rushed to her things, dialed a number on her cell phone and started babbling in Mandarin. Xin went to her and took the cell phone from her. 

"Cell phones are forbidden in my dojo," he grumbled. Mei turned white as a sheet.

"Hello, Mei? " came Lee's voice from the cell phone. Xin held it to his ear.

"I had to shut her up because she broke the rules. "

Lee laughed. 

"Mei is very impatient, I have to apologize. She started something about her father and fighting techniques.

" That's right, he should show me what his daughter showed me when she fought him."

"Mei has learned the basics and the first advanced level, but she's too impatient. I have to apologize to her."

"Who did you get the technique from?"

"From my master in the village where Mei's mother and I grew up. He always called it an unfinished technique and that's true. I needed something I could use against the infected and the untrained."

Xin looked at Alex, who came in wearing only a pair of training pants and stretched as he walked. He looked to Mei. 

"Put that thing on video mode so he can watch. " 

Mei silently obeyed and pressed buttons on the cell phone. 

Alex stood in the middle of the room and looked at Xin and the others and the cell phone. 

"Yo Lee!" 

Xin looked at him.

"Full motion now."

April was a little confused, looking to Liz who was also filming. 

She saw her father get into fighting stance and make countless fighting moves, punches, kicks, etc. Then what she had seen Mei do.

"Good, now for the advanced stuff," came from Xin. Alex obeyed. April sank into a trance as she watched her father do all this.

"And now the forbidden stuff." 

Alex grinned. 

Geni set up the combat dummy. 

April stared at the scene, stunned, feeling as if she was disappearing into motion. The dummies flew crashing against the walls. 

"Shit, we need to come up with a new plan," came from Liz.

Then came the forbidden techniques from Mei.

Xin nodded in satisfaction.

"Good, good, now let's link the two."

Alex wiped the sweat from his forehead with his hand and looked at him. 

" Huh, connect. " Alex looked at Xin. He thought about it for a moment. 

" Ah, what I used against Uther."

"And lost," Liz said quietly. Xin looked at her.

"What, that's right. Even Miss Grimm craps against him, and she's better than Tes. "

"A.J. How many times have you fought this Uther?"

Alex looked at Xin.

" Once a month since the formation of the North Block."

" How many times have you won?"

" Once, almost."

He looked at the ceiling.

" Yes, once almost."

Geni put the dummy back up. Alex took a deep breath. 

"Both of them? " He seemed to be thinking.

"Oh, what Uther did to me."

April's heart sank, she saw her father shred the dummy like a monster, disappear and reappear elsewhere.

Alex was breathing heavily, Xin looked pleased. 

"Yeah, it's the same family."

Alex came over. Liz had pocketed her cell phone again. 

Mei was frozen. Alex picked up the phone and pressed the normal talk button. 

"I hope you saw a great show, Lee."

He laughed. 

"Yeah. Can you send me a video? I want to pass it on so the technique gets better."

Alex looked at Liz. She pondered.

" Yes, you can do that, but I'll make my face unrecognizable. "

" Thanks, I'll come by in two weeks and pick it up."

" All right."

Lee hung up, Alex handed the phone back to Mei and tapped her forehead. So that she woke up from her stupor and looked at him. She was on the verge of tears. He stroked her head. Liz looked at April.

"I have a new plan, we're going to..." she looked at her father. Who looked at her. 

"You will?"

Liz grinned. " Our moms to be with ..." 

Alex looked at her.

" Good idea, tell them if they hit me with you six times, they can do whatever they want to me, every day. "

Liz had already pulled out her cell phone and was typing on it vigorously. 

She looked up.

"Mum asks if that includes you putting on civilized clothes."

"That too ..." 

He turned and headed for the exit.

" Now go have a smoke."

April looked after him and then at Liz and Mei. 

"Are you sure that's what they want? " 

Liz looked up. "Mine do."

Mei looked at her cell phone, which vibrated and announced a message.

"Mine too." 

April sighed. Her sweater purred and she went and pulled out her cell phone and held it to her ear.

"Hey, Mom."

" Explain to me why the other two are bothering me at work."

" Um ... We're at the dojo and Liz, Mei and I and Aunt Geni lost to Dad ..."

She heard a sigh.

"Sweetie, you have to understand that your dad is playing with you. If he wants to lose, he'll go to Uther. I mean what was your job?"

" To meet him..." 

"Okay, and what's his current condition?" 

" Meet him 6 times, then you can do whatever you want with him for 1 day. Aunt Gitte even asked if he would wear normal clothes."

"All for one day?"

" Um... no, each for one day..."

She heard the crunch of pencils breaking on the other side.

"Mom... I need to tell you something... I..."

"I know darling, your father already told me. It was my idea for you to be transferred to him."

" I..."

" Honey, you are and always will be my little angel. Look, the four of you have all had your experiences. Learn from it okay."

"All four of you... Sue too?"

"Yes. Earl confirmed to me that she got pregnant, it was a side effect of her drinking, drugging and sex orgies. Now she's got the bill for it. Tell your father to get ready, I won't hold back. I love you, darling." She hung up. 

April lowered the cell phone and looked at Liz and Mei. 

"She's coming with..."

"Do you think we should call Aunt Babsi...," Mei began. Liz's cell phone buzzed and she picked it up.

"Hey Aunt Babs... Yeah... yeah... right... okay..." Liz put the cell phone away.

"And what did she say?"

" She says it's a trap set by Dad so he can have relaxed sex. She's playing along."

Alex came back dressed. Looked at the three of them.

"Judging by the looks on your faces, your mothers have agreed."

"Aunt Babs is joining in," came from Mei.

Alex grinned. 

"Mom told you to get ready. She's already destroyed pens on the phone."

" Good. There's a plane coming in three hours to take us to Vegas, it's bringing John's stuff back too."

He looked at Xin.

"Master, how about a major overhaul and a new prosthetic?"

A round of applause rang out, April looked to the doorway where Uther stood, Tes and Mrs. Grimm beside him.

Alex looked at him in surprise.

"What are you doing here?" 

Uther came closer.

"Well, it's that time again and you're in top form."

He grinned.

Alex was still looking at him as if he was thinking about something.

" Alex, don't worry, you'll be fit enough for your mini-tournament and a bit of change for Vegas."

 Alex wanted to say something.

"I know your bank account Alex, so..."

Alex sighed, April had never seen her father capitulate like that before.

 Uther patted him on the shoulder.

"I'm going to change," he reached for the bag Alex was holding, walked to the edge and stripped off his clothes. 

"I can't do that," Susan began. 

Tes grabbed Liz and hugged her.

"You've finally put on a few pounds," came from her. 

Mrs. Grimm stood silently next to Tes and had pulled back her poncho hood. Susan stomped towards Uther, Mrs. Grimm stood in her way.

"What do you want, dwarf?" came from Susan. Mrs. Grimm looked at her.

"Susan, don't do that. She'll kill you."

" Ha! " She lashed out, Mrs. Grimm kicked her in the legs so hard she hit her face on the floor and looked down at her. 

" Weak. "

Geni attacked, Alex groaned. April looked from him to the fight. Mrs. Grimm used only her legs and kicked Geni hard in the side, making it crunch loudly and she slid to the ground and lay there whimpering in pain. 

Tes came up behind her and hit her on the back of the head.

"Apologize to those two."

" Why, they attacked, they can't help it if they're bad. "

Xin limped towards her.

" What do you mean bad? Gen..."

Mrs. Grimm looked at him.

" The muscle pack only open, whatever martial arts she does is bad and not for muscle mass. The other squishy moves, you can see everything where she's going. Is" Uther tousled her hair.

April saw her smile for the first time. 

"So Alex, are you ready? "

Alex nodded, shrugging her shoulders, Tes led the others away, Grimm had to pull Susan away while Tes took Geni. 

Alex attacked directly, straight with the fighting techniques he had shown, to April herself it looked like Uther was testing what Alex could do, as all that came from his side was dodging and blocking. Alex paused, taking a deep breath, Uther grinned.

"Nice game Alex, but it's taxing you too much.

"

Xin stood beside her, grumbling.

"Stop talking, fight already," came from Alex. 

Uther grinned.

" Good. And don't forget to leave things whole." 

Uther attacked, April saw no particular style, rather a mixture of many, she saw boxing, karate, taekwondo, unfamiliar stuff. She saw her father having problems. 

She saw Liz and Mei. Mei was filming. Liz seemed to be whispering something grimly into her cell phone. She looked at her father, who was leaning forward, breathing heavily. Uther stretched. 

"Come on Alex, unpack the dirty box."

Her father gasped, attacking, more aggressively this time, the punches and kicks hitting vital body parts. What shocked her most was that Uther dodged the attacks. Then she was behind him and performed a German suplex that sent her father crashing to the ground and knocked him out. Uther got up without haste.

"Ha, still weak against it," he slapped him on the cheek. His father became restless and sat up with a groan. 

"You don't train enough, Alex."

" Three times a week in the basement ... " came from him.

Uther leaned down towards him.

" I've noticed, so now make sure you get the bugs out of that shit."

April came closer, Uther looked to her and then to Alex.

"Twenty years ago I told you it was crap. At least the troops are learning CQC. "

" Ey..." came from Mei. 

" Yeah yeah yeah. Tradition blah blah, Mei" he pointed at Liz. April looked at him.

" Oh no can't Grim... she said..." 

Uther swayed.

"Then you two come here." 

Grim ran towards them, pulling Liz with him. 

Uther got into starting position. 

" You're still making pointless moves Alex. " 

April couldn't believe it, she saw him mimicking his father's moves. He made it look easy. 

" You two are copying me." 

Liz groaned, Grim grinned. The result was that they snorted like Alex.

He swung towards the doll and pulled her with him.

" Stop it Alex, you're not a teenager who needs to show off anymore. " 

Xin came limping.

" You! Who do they think they are?" 

Uther looked at him with a grin.

" I'm the one who's been spanking him for so many years, every year he gets better. "

He looked at Alex.

" I'll show you the moves where you're at your worst, watch closely."

Alex just nodded.

He showed several punches and kicks and also dodges.

"And it gets easier that way."

He repeated, reducing the movements and the idiot flew through the air and landed crashing on the ground.

"You make it look so easy..." came from Alex. 

Uther put the doll back on.

"Liz, copy the movements."

Liz looked at him doubtfully. 

Grimm hammered the doll on the floor with the movements. Looked at Liz. She grumbled. 

April didn't know what shocked her more, that Grimm set Liz off like that or that Liz could copy the movements. 

Mei came in outraged.

"How can Liz do that? "

Grimm grinned.

Liz looked at the doll."

" Disgusting! " She looked at Uther.

"How does he do that, walk through people?" 

Uther looked at her.

"He can do that too, yes? " 

She nodded. 

"Quick movements, your eye can't keep up and it looks like it's disappearing." 

He raised his hand and she saw it disappear and stay on her head.

" Through Quatch on your father, he then finally realized."

"Yeah, but then where did you get it?" 

Uther grinned. 

"Poker." 

Tes grabbed his face. April looked at her.

"He cheats at gambling in Las Vegas, like this. That's why he's not wanted in the casinos there, not even the illegal ones. You all know that. If you play against Uther, he'll take your pants off no matter what you try. But when it comes to money for new stuff, they crawl to him ... " She looked at him.

"That reminds me. Have you won like this in other games?"

Uther looked at her, grinning.

"Maybe."

Xin struck, Uther grabbed her hand in mid-flight looked at him.

"Oh look, someone still has fire," he tilted his head.

" Fight, you have my students ... "

" Good, good." 

He took a few steps back.

"Wishes?"

Xin looked at him.

"Of all the styles you use, you abuse them."

Uther smiled and spread his arms.

"Anything goes in battle, remember that. 90 percent of what is taught is sport. "

" How do you know A.J.'s moves?"

" After fighting with him for so many years. I memorized them and from Lee. "

He stretched so that it cracked.

" Nothing special. Come master, I hope you offer me more than the others."

Xin got into a fighting stance and attacked him with quick attacks. April was irritated that he could do that with the prosthesis. She had a feeling that Uther was having trouble at first, but it was the same game as with her father. Feeling out what the other person's technique was. 

For a moment he seemed distracted and Xin rammed the prosthetic against his head. Then a series of hard kicks and punches echoed. She saw him stagger and stagger a few steps, clutching at the spot and looking down at his bloody hand. 

"Big words!" came from Xin.

She expected horror on his face, as if his arrogance would break, but it scared her. Goosebumps formed on her skin.

His usually gentle eyes, which looked at her scrutinizingly, were fixed on Xin. All warmth had gone out of them; they radiated pure coldness. 

"Oh, just like in Paris..." came from Liz. 

He stormed forward. He brutally kicked the doll Xin threw in his way to pieces, as if it were made of cardboard. Tore up the floor where Xin could just barely dodge. All she saw was the face of a predator, hunting mercilessly. Aril looked at Liz.

"What do you mean, like in Paris?" Then she remembered Sue and Luke again. She had read the reports.

Uther seemed to lose the desire sped up, she saw Xin panic, just before he literally chopped his head off, Grimm and Tes rammed him sideways to the ground. Which wasn't very successful, as he shook them off like they weren't there.... 

Tes jumped up, ran to her things, seemed to be typing something into her cell phone. Grim jumped on her back and choked her.

"What the..." was all that came out of April's mouth. 

She saw Tes, annoyed, throw her cell phone in a pile and then cover Uther with fighting techniques, but to little effect. Even when her father intervened and lunged at him, as did Tes, he continued to walk towards Xin.

She looked at Liz, who seemed to be thinking, stood in his way, narrowed her eyes and spread her arms. 

"Liz, are you crazy?" came out of April, running towards her, as did Mei to pull her away. Uther stopped in front of her, looking at her. He raised his hand, Mei grabbed his arm, looked at April who nodded to her, she grabbed Liz. Horrified, she saw how Mei couldn't do it. Uther put his hand on Liz's head.

"You need to keep your eyes open when you face someone."

Liz opened one eye and grinned. 

They let go of him, only Grimm still holding on. He grabbed her and pulled her away, she looked at him grimly. 

"Go into the main house for me and get rid of the vermin for me."

She tilted her head.

"You don't have to hold back."

Grimm grinned, broke away and hurried out of the hall. 

Tes looked after her.

"I'll go after her so she doesn't do anything wrong." She hurried after him.

Uther sighed, went to his bag, put his things in it, took it and went to the others who were still standing around.

"Shouldn't you ..." 

Uther pulled a very worn leather wallet out of his pocket.

"I have time," he pulled out four bank cards. Pressed one each into Alex's, Liz Mei's and then April's hands.

"As promised, a little spending money for Vegas."

Liz looked at him askance.

"But I have money ..."

Uther looked at her.

"Last I knew, there were a lot of auctions looted from ruins this year. "

Liz looked at him, then at the map.

Uther patted Alex on the shoulder.

"When you get back to Hawaii, we'll talk about your finances and how you can stabilize them."

"I have a stable income."

" True, but the recent renovations to your house have eaten up a lot of money and your wives aren't contributing. "

He looked at Mei.

"Tell your mother that when Reactor 1 is finished, you'll have time to play."

Mei nodded. 

April looked at the map and then at Uther.

"Uh... why, no injury consequences?" came from her.

He looked at her, put the bag down took off his shirt, now she saw the bruises, strangulation marks and other injuries. Not to mention the many scars. 

"You'll forget the pain one day April. "

He looked at Xin.

"Martial arts, that's all your technique is. "

" You guys are insane ! " 

Uther, pulled his shirt back on.

" You're a coward, everything written on the walls here. Don't represent them. Since when? Since you lost your leg? Huh? I have so many crippled soldiers in the company who still want to fight even then. They? No will to keep fighting if the enemy doesn't fall the way you hope."

He pointed to the wound on his head.

" Your dojo is dead and that was before the outbreak "

" You know nothing! "

Uther reached for his pocket.

" See you Alex! "

He walked to the exit and was gone.

Mei typed on her cell phone.

"Woah Krass , she says, knock Dad flat because he lost to Uther," came from Mei.

Alex groaned. 

"Mei..." came from Liz.

"What, she's a fan girl of Uther's. She joined the Omega program, just like you, because she lost a bet with Tes. "

"I thought she was a Hydra..." 

Mei looked at April.

" Oh, she said it was Liz's mom's thing. Said was around the time the Hydras were trained, that's when she made Omega. "

"So that was right before your births."