David didn’t quite follow the logic as to how he was responsible for their failing their drug tests but guessed it didn’t matter at the moment.
“So, your bright idea was to break in and carry baseball bats as weapons?” David asked, shaking his head. “My roommate has probably called the cops. I suggest that you take off before they get here because once they do, I’m pressing charges.”
Mason moved first, cocking his bat back to take a swing at David. David’s training kicked in, and he jabbed the tip of the Bo staff into Mason’s gut to double him over. David moved to avoid Jorge’s attack and got his staff between him and Jorge’s swing. The impact jarred his hands enough to make them tingle. If that swing had connected with his ribs, he would’ve been down for the count.
Jorge stumbled a bit as he became overbalanced from his mighty swing. David whipped the Bo staff in an arc that hit Jorge in the upper right arm. Jorge cried out as he grabbed his arm and dropped the bat. David swung the Bo staff in the other direction but held back. He used the Bo staff to push Jorge towards the door.
Mason had seen what David had done to Jorge and dropped his bat, too.
“Out! Both of you, get out!” David commanded as he used his Bo staff to herd them from his room.
Jorge’s arm was limp at his side. David guessed he’d broken it. Jorge cautiously backed down the hall, with Mason backing up as well. David followed them to make sure they left the floor. By now, the other residents were peeking out their doors.
When they got to the common room, Mason got his courage back.
“Put down that stick and fight me like a man. Or are you the pussy Boy Scout I think you are?”
“You’re just chock-full of bad decisions tonight. I’ll kick your ass if you fight me one-on-one. Cut your losses and head out before the police get here because once they do, I’ll let them deal with you,” David said.
“I grew up on the streets and can handle myself. I bet you’ve only fought on some choreographed movie set,” Mason taunted. “Besides, you don’t want to look like the useless piece of shit you are in front of everyone, do you?”
David noticed that Veronica, Christian, and Peter had been sleeping in the common room because of David’s revenge prank of sealing off their rooms with drywall. The contractor would be by in the morning to replace their doors—provided they behaved.
He also saw there was a crowd of girls in their hall, watching the confrontation. He assumed the guys on his floor were behind him.
David couldn’t care less about what the people on his floor thought. He couldn’t even care less about Mason and Jorge, but he was sick of all the stupid games and drama. David figured that if he made an example of Mason, people would realize he was someone they shouldn’t mess with. Giving Mason what he wanted might solve more than one problem. The bonus was that Mason had started to piss him off. Labeling David a Boy Scout and working to mess up the team was bad enough. Breaking into his room to intimidate him had crossed the line.
David gave Mason a feral grin and tossed his Bo staff to Christian, who fumbled it and let it clatter to the floor.
Mason dropped into a boxing stance. David could box, so he matched Mason as he brought his hands up to protect himself.
Mason moved to David’s left. David intentionally simply pivoted in place as a novice would do. Mason snapped out a jab to measure the distance between them, just missing David’s nose. David was impressed with his quickness. Mason had some skills.
Mason threw two quick jabs to get David’s measure and shifted his feet to throw a powerful overhand right. David had anticipated this and suddenly moved to the left to avoid the punch intended to do some serious damage. He hadn’t danced back. His move to the left put him in position to do his own damage. He threw a hook into Mason’s body that would drop a buffalo. It was to the same spot that he’d hit with the Bo staff.
The crowd collectively winced and made an ‘eewww’ sound in sympathy as Mason’s eyes got big and he gasped for air. David hadn’t held back like he did when sparring, so he wasn’t surprised when Mason involuntarily went down to one knee. He momentarily worried a bit because that shot would have taken down most guys. Mason was obviously made of sterner stuff.
David danced back and let his opponent gather himself and get back up. He knew Cassidy would be all over his butt when she found out that he didn’t finish Mason off when he had the advantage. However, that wouldn’t have served his purpose of making it clear that he was not to be messed with.
Mason must have realized that if he boxed David, he was going to lose the fight because he rushed forward to turn this into a street fight. As Mason came forward to tackle him, David shifted to a martial arts stance and exploded forward.
When they came together, David grabbed Mason and used his momentum to toss him. Instead of letting him go to send Mason flying through the air, David hung onto him and redirected his energy down toward the floor. It was reminiscent of the fake wrestling body slams you see on TV. When done in real life, you landed on a solid floor, not a bouncy ring. David knew that the spectacular move had ended the fight and served his purposes.
There was a collective gasp from the onlookers because Mason’s body smacking into the floor sounded as bad as it looked. All the air had been driven from Mason’s lungs, and he gasped because he couldn’t catch his breath. David knew from personal experience that his body would eventually figure it out and begin breathing again. He also knew that getting slammed like that hurt like a mother when done on a practice mat. Mason was done being a tough guy.
As everyone stood in stunned silence, David turned on Veronica and her gang.
“I’m done playing. I don’t have the time for your stupid games, and I have better things to focus on. If the prank bullshit doesn’t stop, I’ll simply call the cops the next time you come into our room uninvited. I didn’t come to school for this kind of shit. Do we have a truce, or do I go nuclear on the lot of you and end it just as quick?” he asked.
Veronica nodded slowly, and a stunned Peter reached out his hand for a handshake. As David grasped his hand, he looked at Christian, who also nodded his assent. David glanced towards the girls’ side of the hall and spotted Lauren slinking back to her room.
The elevator doors opened, and the campus police stepped off the elevator to begin a whole different kind of pain for David.
David missed his Monday classes, having to deal first with the campus police and then LA’s finest. The real police got involved when it was discovered that Jorge and Mason had been naughty boys. They’d been caught on security cameras breaking into the coaches’ offices. The pair had done some real damage on their little rampage.
With that evidence already gathered, along with video footage from both David’s room and the common room, the two miscreants were facing some serious charges. David counted his lucky stars that his security team had the foresight to install the cameras because both Mason and Jorge had been injured. Jorge’s arm was broken, and Mason had some cracked ribs and a bruised tailbone.
David was happy when the police said it was apparent he’d been defending himself. The only questionable bit was the fight in the common room, but with the discovery of the property damage, that was currently being ignored.
He then had a lengthy telephone conversation with Frank Ingram, his PR guy. Frank started going ballistic until he heard David was not being charged with anything, based on the video evidence. That didn’t stop him from bellyaching about the police having the video evidence until David pointed out that the cloud had it as well. Frank finally calmed down. He said he’d get it downloaded and send someone to get the police reports. That would allow his people to quickly prepare a response package for the inevitable media calls.
Frank was still worried about it, but David knew he was in capable hands and that Frank would spin the story so he’d look like a hero. That was what David paid him for.