Rudy had came out of the dojo for lunch when he noticed the crowd of people standing around courtyard. "What's going on?" he asked Kim just as Jack skated by on his board.
"Jack's about to do a hippie jump over the chair, then a three-sixty flip into an ollie." She explained making Rudy more confused.
"That's not Ollie that's Phil and Asa. And they're gonna get killed."
Phil propped his torso up from the ground. "I got this, baby. First job in my country I was speed bump."
Asa was laying on her back with her hands resting behind her head acting as a pillow a foot away from Phil. "It's too boring to just watch so why not get in on the action."
Once the coast was clear, Jack jumped over the chair and over both human speed bumps. Unharmed, Asa lifted her head up to see Jack's three-sixty and ollie, hearing the crowd applaud him. He ran over to the speed bumps, offering a hand up to Asa and high fiving the others.
"Mind if I snag your axe and take it for a scrape?" Jack blinked at Rudy for his attempt at skater talk. "Skateboard - can I borrow your skateboard?"
The boy gave him a skeptic look. "You ever ridden one before, Rudy?"
"I'm a third degree black belt, I think I can handle a little rolling toy."
"Okay, knock yourself out." Jack said handing over his skateboard.
Rudy placed it down and immediately slipped after he took a step on the rolling plywood.
The crew cringed, Eddie saying, "I think he just knocked himself out."
"No I didn't." Rudy muttered from the ground.
Rudy had somehow managed to have made the board go flying in the air when he fell to then have it land on him. They cringed again at the impact. "Now he did." Jerry said, him and the others going to help their man child of a sensei.
*＊✿❀ ❀✿＊*
"Hey guys, I've got a very big surprise." Rudy announced the next day when his students came in lugging their bags behind them.
"Please tell me you're getting these smelly mats cleaned," Milton pleaded.
Jack agreed, dropping his bag. "Yeah, they're so moldy, every week we have to give them a shave."
"Yesterday, when I got home my grandfather got a whiff of me, cried and said I smelled like the war," Eddie said.
"I have to take two showers after practice just to get the stench off of me. I'm gonna be bald before I reach forty!" Asa exclaimed.
Rudy gave them all deadpanned looks for their so-called exaggeration. "I'm not talking about our mats, I'm talking about this." He gestured over to the hanging appliance by his office window.
Jerry gasped. "Woah! A wall sheet. It's beautiful."
"It's not a wall sheet." He unveiled his newly purchased TV causing them to gawk at it. "It's a brand new high def surround sound, LED flat screen TV!"
"What's with this mall and affording the expensive crap but not the maintenance basics?" Asa muttered taking a seat next to Jack who'd heard her and slightly nudged her shoulder.
"Aw man, it's four thirty, Ninja Space Monkeys is on." Eddie said taking the remote.
"It's not for watching Ninja Space Monkeys. Would you give me that." Rudy snatched the remote away. "This is a teaching tool so we can study our tournament videos. Milton, let's start with your match."
Milton rolled his eyes, sighing, "Here we go."
"It's okay, Milton. This is all about learning from our mistakes. Now watch carefully." When he turned on the TV a few of them watched in amusement. "Here you are meeting your opponent."
"That kid beat Milton? He's tiny," Eddie said amused.
"He wasn't that small, Eddie," the red head defended.
"Uh, yeah he was. The ref just helped him out of his stroller," Kim points out, the others laughing.
"I don't care how small my opponent was. He was very tough."
"She- she was very tough," Jack corrected
"You know what, I'm outta here." Milton announced getting up from his seat.
The others awed by how he wasn't catching onto their playfulness. "Come on dude, where're going?"
"Somewhere where I can get a little respect," he said walking out quite ticked off.
They'd gone back to watching Milton's video when a high pitched whistle rang out from the courtyard and Joan's voice shouting, "Stop thief!"
When they ran outside to assist they instead found the robber already on the ground and Milton falling on top of him. "Oh cheese and crackers. You got him! Milton got him everybody! That was the longest thirty feet in my life. Get him outta here! Take him away!"
"Milton what happened?" Rudy asked.
Phil cut in before the boy could answer for himself. "This little squirrel boy took down the Seaford Snatcher! Don't change, hero, don't ever change!"
"I-I was just trying to-"
"Do the right thing? Well you did, mister. And because of your bravery, I award you with this plastic badge." Joan stuck the plastic badge right above his heart. "Which makes you an honorary mall cop."
"Milton, this is awesome. I can't believe you did this." Despite it playing off as a compliment, Asa noticed the belittled tone Jack used when he said "you." She slapped him in the arm, staring up at him with a pointed look. He just gave her a confused look back.
An idea popped into Milton's head as he widely grinned. "Well I did. I certainly did!"
*＊✿❀ ❀✿＊*
Asa's never ridden a skateboard before, nor has she roller bladed or ice skated. Basically any sport that required more balance than necessary while remaining upright on her two feet wasn't her forte. Sure she does ride a mini scooter, but to her it gave a more stable mode of transportation.
After having heard of this, Jack offered to teach her how. She insisted it was fine and not for him to bother until he mentioned the amount of gas money she'd be saving.
"Gear up, Tiger and welcome to Jack's Skateboarding one-oh-one." Jack announced when he and Asa entered the Off the Rails skate park. They'd arrived early before meeting with Kim in order to have Asa get to at least know how to skate in a line.
She looked around the park, surveying the many pipes, rails and just the people alone. There weren't many that were starting out for the first time such as herself. And that made her already want to back out. "Is it too late to say I'm outta here?"
"Considering how you caught the bus with me instead of taking your mini scooter, yes." Jack caught onto the slight hesitant in her voice. He glanced at her with a comforting look. "Are you okay?"
Asa didn't want to meet his gaze. "I could still hitchhike back."
"Asa," Jack said placing a hand on her shoulder, "look, I'll be right here for every step on the way, okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, let's just do this already." She grumbled, taking the helmet out of his hand and securing it on her head.
Asa didn't have many fears. Spiders? Takes her shoe off and kills them. Heights? The view below was worth it. Thunder? Comforting.
That was what made Jack question as to why she was hesitant about skating. Asa's done an abundance of what would be considered embarrassing, but to her she knew what she was doing.
When it came to new skills, she'd rather perfect herself behind closed doors. Not in front of others where the embarrassment of screwing up was out in the open.
In this case, Asa would have practiced skating by herself and then showed off to her friends. But today, that wasn't an option.
Jack started off slow. First step was just getting on and off the board while holding onto her. Then he helped her with the idea of kicking the ground to gain speed. That didn't work out as well when she didn't want to let go of him. Even earned himself a punch in the arm when he jokingly let go. So instead he backtracked and let her skate around in a line with him guiding her.
Their time was interrupted when Kim ran in, mentally aweing at them. "Hey guys!" she greeted in her own gear.
Asa sighed in relief. "Oh thank Yato." She stepped off the board, unclasping the helmet and pads and shoving them into Jack. "Your turn, Skate Rat."
Jack readjusted his helmet and pads to fit, running over to the half pipe.
The girls stood on the other side of the ramp to watch. "Dropping in!" Jack hollered skating down the half pipe. He did this thing and jumped off to land near them.
"Woah that was awesome," Kim compliments.
"Thanks!" He turned around all to see his sensei in attempt of teenage attire, padding and a skateboard in hand. "Rudy, what're you doing here?"
"Uh came to thrash!" He said as if it weren't obvious.
"Last time you were on a board you ended up thrashing around in pain," Kim reminded him.
"Which was yesterday," Asa added.
"Well this time I'm gonna show this board who's boss. Let's skate this pipe half!"
Jack corrected, "Half pipe."
"Half pipe!" Rudy said confidently. "I'll rock any pipe you got, broseph."
"Broseph?"
Kim gave him a questioning look. "What's with the skateboarding all of a sudden? Why is it so important to you?"
"When you get to a certain age, Kim, you stop doing fun things like skateboarding and riding the mechanical pony outside of the supermarket." Rudy explained in a dreamy tone at the end.
Jack rolled his eyes. "Rudy, you're too old to skateboard. Just face it, you can't do this."
His face turned somber. "Maybe you're right. I don't even know why I came down here today. The torch of youth only burns for so long and today it's been snuffed."
That hit Kim right in the heart. "Rudy, wait, you're not leaving." She said firmly taking the board before he could leave.
"I'm not?"
"No. You're our sensei and you never quit on us. And we're not gonna quit on you. We're gonna help you do this."
"What are you doing?" Jack hissed.
"I'm not gonna let this man's torch go out," she states turning back to Rudy. "Okay, Rudy, the most important thing to do is-"
"I know, Kim! Just go for it!" Rudy shouted throwing himself down the half pipe, rolling all the way down.
The teens cringed at the impact, Jack clutching his own board tightly. "You forgot your board!" Asa called out, tossing his to his fallen figure. Rudy let out another grunt when the board landed on his stomach.
*＊✿❀ ❀✿＊*
The Warriors met up in the school corridor later that day, one person short. "Where's Milton? He missed home room," Eddie asked.
"Milton missed a class? That's a new one," Asa comments.
"I bet he's at home polishing his badge," Jerry sarcastically suggests.
"Come on, I think what he did at the mall yesterday was cool. Maybe it'll give him some self esteem." Jack defended.
Kim glanced up at the stairs, pointing out to them. "Uh, it gave him something."
Milton came down in a cop's uniform, with his own hat and bold epaulets. He perched his foot on a bench and began to shine it with a cloth.
The group approached him weirdly eyeing the overnight change in clothes. "Milton, whatcha wearing?"
"My uniform. It's part marching band, part starfleet, and all attitude." The sudden change in his tone gave him more weird looks from them.
"You know that plastic badge doesn't give you any real power, right?"
"Oh I've got power. And I'm not afraid to use it, sister." Jack stared at him already annoyed by the tone. Milton parted his way through Eddie and Jerry and over to a kid giving some nerd a wedgie. "'Scuse me. I'm gonna have to ask you to de-wedgify that boy."
"What?"
"I said step away from the nerd's underpants, mister!"
Realization dawned on the kid's face, turning to fear. "Wait, you're that kid who took down that robber at the mall." He immediately let go of the nerd's underpants setting him free to run. "I don't want any trouble."
"Good. Now move it, fella." The kid did just that, running away from the new "cop" in town. That reaction made Milton smile proudly to himself as he put on a pair of aviators and accidentally backed into an open locker.
*＊✿❀ ❀✿＊*
Seeing as to how there were more pipes and rails at the skate park to the point of there not being much room to practice the basics, the mall courtyard was their closest option. Jack was holding onto Asa's arms, walking along side her as she was getting used to balancing on the moving board.
Jack lead her to the courtyard and placed an arm around to keep her steady when they were spotted by Milton. "Uh, Jack, Asa, mall regulations forbids skateboarding in the courtyard."
"Uh-huh," they deadpanned.
"So I'm gonna have to ask you two to stop."
"Yeah, not gonna happen."
"Never hurts to ask." Milton shrugged, having known the two for quite some time, he didn't really bother.
"Later. Come on, Tiger." Jack held onto Asa again helping her out of the courtyard.
*＊✿❀ ❀✿＊*
After a few lessons in Jack's Skateboarding one-oh-two- most of it being taught by Kim- he marched into the dojo with the others behind him. Kim and Asa were left to aid a dying Rudy back. "Not bad for your first day. We were lucky we found your tooth."
Rudy painfully smiled taking the tooth. "You know it's funny, you never really think about your spleen until you see it." He hobbled over to sit down after being upright and in pain for most of the day.
"You just had to encourage him," Jack says.
"I'm trying to help him," Kim defends, "besides you were more busy with helping out Asa."
"I said nothing on the teaching Rudy bit, that was all you two; keep me outta this." She rose her hands up in surrender.
Milton came around the bend leading a guy in a fancy suit to where they sat. "Milton, what's going on?"
"I warned Rudy there was mold on the mats, he didn't take care of it so it was my duty to inform the health inspector." He said taking a stirring straw to chew on like a toothpick.
"N-No I have a health certificate right here that says everything is up to code." Rudy pointed over to the paper.
"That's your dog's vaccination record. Expired."
"There is nothing wrong with this dojo."
"You've got a raging case of mat mold. Until you take care of it I'm shutting you down," the health inspector said seriously.
"Way to go, Officer Milton. You did what the termites, rats, and roaches couldn't," Jack sarcastically congratulated.
"Okay, in my defense I brought in the rats to get rid of the termites and the roaches."
It was at that moment did a delivery guy come in holding an owl, its hooting alerting its arrival. "Aw, Rudy, the owl you ordered is here." Jack cooed at the bird.
"I'm still waiting on that Hogwarts letter of mine." Asa chirped, looking into the box's holes.
"Again, I brought in the owl to get rid of the rats so..." The man ignored Rudy's lame defense, sticking a red paper on the door that said "CLOSED" before leaving.
They gave Milton dirty looks as they followed him over to empty their lockers. Rudy shooed the delivery guy away since there was no use for the owl anymore and left to the parking lot to most likely cry in peace.
Eddie and Jerry ran in when they they saw the sign. "Closed?! What happened?"
"This beanpole ratted us out to the health inspector." Kim pointed to Milton.
"What! Dude, are you insane, you brought a health inspector down here? He didn't find my cheese making locker did he?" Milton furrowed his brows at the newfound information.
"You make cheese in your locker? That's disgusting!" Jack exclaimed.
That was apparently an offensive jab at Jerry. "Oh so you love my quesadillas but you don't like where they come from, huh?"
"Ever since you got that plastic badge you've been outta control." Kim plainly stated.
"Well when I see something wrong it's my job to do something about it."
"Why don't you do something about your breath. You could use a mint, sister!" Kim shot back in mockery. Milton let out a breath of air right in her face, causing her to grimace in disgust. Jack and Asa got a whiff, wafting their hands at the added carbon dioxide.
Rudy came in looking more calm than before telling them, "Hey I just met these guys in the parking lot. They gave me a great price to steam blast the mats; they even said they could do it tonight."
"Great! If we pass the inspection the dojo can reopen tomorrow," Jack cheered.
"That gives us tonight. Rudy, we have time to go back to the half pipe."
Jack sighed. "Seriously, Kim?"
"We are not giving up! Get in the car!"
Rudy rapidly shook his head. "N-n-no. I think Jack's right. It's a little dangerous and I finally stopped leaking."
"Go get in the car! Come on, you two." She pressed, shoving him out and beckoning the others to follow.
Asa slowed to a stop when they reached the car. "Actually as much as I'd like to help you guys with Rudy and everything, I think I'll stay behind for this one."
"Everything okay, Asa?" Jack asked in concern.
She gave them a reassuring nod. "Yeah, I think I just want to try and practice by myself."
"If you say so- Rudy!" Kim shouted when he tried to sneak away. "Car. Now!"
Asa smiled in amusement as he dragged his feet back. "Try not to kill our sensei."
*＊✿❀ ❀✿＊*
Asa waited until most of the mall had cleared up for her practice before dinner where people would either be going home or inside the eateries. She'd been doing okay with straight line skating, now she was wanting to work on going around objects.
The main courtyard was the perfect place seeing how the tables and chairs were not only an obstacle but also let her grip onto them for stability.
It wasn't even ten minutes in when a sharp whistle caused Asa to jump, loosing balance on her board. Her body rocked back and forth in attempt to keep upright which only made it worse as she fell forward. Asa winced at the tearing of her flesh, bringing her hands up to see the dirt and gravel intermixing with the blood that drained out of the exit wounds.
Pushing the pain aside, she hauled herself off the ground to see Milton still clad in his uniform and holding her board.
"Mind telling me why you practically jerked me off the board with that whistle," she asked agitated, lightly flicking the small rocks out of her hand.
"I told you and Jack that skateboarding was against mall regulations, now I'll have to confiscate this and put you into custody."
Asa laughed at the audacity of it all. "Milton, you seriously think that that badge of yours gives you the power to put someone in mall detention?"
"It gave me the power to shut down the dojo for Rudy neglecting to clean the mats."
"Anyone could have called the health inspector on us," she bluntly points out. "Now if you'll excuse me, officer, I'll be taking my leave now." When Asa went to grab her board, Milton retracted it away from her grasp.
"I was hoping I wouldn't have to enforce back up, but you leave me no choice." Milton let out a sharp whistle again which alerted Joan who had been standing nearby for her to bring Asa's hands behind her back.
Asa scoffed. "You have got to be kidding me."
"Take her away!"
With that Asa was forced to walk to the mall's security office and into the only cell they had in that small room. Joan shut the door and locked it, leaving to sit at her desk.
Asa took one last glance at Milton's retreating figure, calling out to him, "You know you won't have many friends left if you keep this act up!" She saw him pause for a second before continuing around the corner.
The brunette was already aware of how mall detention worked, just instead of sitting in a cell, she'd be the front row of Joan going through her high school yearbooks while she cries.
Even in a cell, she was still technically in the front row as she was the only one in the room besides Joan herself.
"Oh sophomore year, that one was a doozy," Joan reminisced, opening her yearbook. For each picture she recalled the haunting memories of her past.
Asa slid down the wall of her cell, pulling her legs up to her chest and resting her head on her knees.
She was in for a long night.
*＊✿❀ ❀✿＊*
It'd only been a couple of hours in mall detention and Asa was getting restless. The dull throb in her hands was still present even after been given a first aid kit to clean her scratches.
She drowned out Joan's talking, staring at her feet and making up scenarios when the call came in. "Requesting backup. I've got a robbery in progress at the Bobby Wasabi Dojo."
The radio call made Asa lift her head up and the rest of her body, coming closer to the cell door. "Holy Hannah! I've got a robbery to stop. Don't you go anywhere, Callahan." Joan said, running out of the office.
Asa threw her hands up in exasperation. "Really, Joan, now we're on last name basis? And where would I go?!"
Getting no reply, she groaned, throwing her head back until she'd remembered how she and Milton fit through the gate of Bobby's mansion. The cell bars weren't as wide as Bobby's, but just enough for her to maneuver her way through them.
Now having broken out of her cell, she grabbed her board that Officer Milton left behind Joan's desk and sprinted towards the dojo.
"Here they are officers! Take them away!" Joan panted. "I've got to get a scooter, the speed's killing me."
Our brunette convict ran in, dropping the board and resting her hands on her knees from the sprint she'd just completed. Surveying around the room and seeing Eddie and Jerry all tied up she said, "I go to jail for a few hours and this is what I miss?"
Jack gave her an incredulous look. "What'd you do this time?!"
"Officer Toothpick sent me to mall detention for skating in the courtyard."
"Why am I not surprised."
"You sir are getting a plastic citation for your bravery, a plastic metal of valor and beautiful plastic sash for your cour-" Milton cut off Joan's list that would only inflict more trouble than what the badge had already done to him.
"No, Joan, stop. I don't want any of this. I know I was acting like a jerk, it's just I was tired of being teased and I wanted a little respect from you guys."
"Dude, just because we busted on you doesn't mean we don't respect you," Jack told him.
"Milton, what you did was incredible," Rudy praised.
"Thanks, but I just want things to go back to the way they were." Milton looked down at his badge before taking it off. "Joan, please take this badge back." He slapped it into her open hand.
She looked about ready to cry and not from loosing an honorary mall cop. "Wow. That was the pin. She's gonna bleed. I need some backup. Officer has a boo boo." Joan cried into her radio, leaving to tend to her wound.
Phil spoke up with Tootsie's leash in hand. "Hey, tonight, we celebrate no robbery. Free falafel on me! Let's go!"
The Warriors cheered for not only free falafels but glad to have their nerdy friend back.
Side note: they'd forgotten about the tied up Eddie and Jerry for the rest of the night.
*＊✿❀ ❀✿＊*
It's quite fun to give Asa her own story arc in certain chapters. :D
Next chap will be up soon!
-H