Chapter 5: Chapter 5 - The library and training
Havok woke up the next day feeling refreshed and excited to go to the library today. Although both his arms still hurt, he was able to ignore the pain due to his excitement. He spent his time split between the recreational area and his room. His room is about 6 feet by 8 feet, the bed was positioned sideways against the back wall. The walls are concrete, a small window covered with metal bars was close to the ceiling above the bed. The bed was not that comfortable, but it was better than sleeping on the cold hard floor. There are no lights in the room, so the only time the room was lit up was when it was sunny, or the moon was really bright. Any other time the room was pretty dim. A large metal door slid open at the beginning and end of every day.
He left his room and made his way towards the cafeteria. All the doors to all the rooms are only closed when it is nighttime. That is how he was able to know that all of the rooms were the same. The only minor difference is where the room is positioned, some of the rooms did get more sunlight than others and the beds are moveable. He got his 'food', it was very generous to call what they served food. Slop or gruel would be more appropriate. It was a brownish gray colored substance that was served with a bowl and spoon. It was in between a solid and liquid. It was served warm, the colder it got the more solid it became. It was better to try and drink it in one go rather than try to eat it with a spoon once it cooled. Havok did not know what was in it, but it makes kids throw up every single day. The taste was not something that you could get accustomed to over time, it was bitter. However, the worst part was its texture, it was slimy. It slid down your throat in globs making anyone that swallowed it force themselves to not vomit.
Havok was still not used to it, and it was an achievement if he managed to not vomit. He would chug it from the bowl and try to finish it as fast as humanly possible. Today he finished it even faster than normal, so he could make his way to the library.
This was his first time here and he could barely contain his excitement. He was going to teach himself how to read and write. The only things he learned were from the staff and they were not the best people to learn from. Like all the other boys here, he picked up cursing rather easily. He was eager to learn about other things and about the outside world. Sometimes if he was lucky, he would be able to listen to the staff talk to each other about their lives outside of the complex. Now he had the chance to read about other topics, so he would give it his all when it came to learning to read and write.
However, teaching himself to read and write was a massive undertaking. He stayed there every day for as long as the staff would allow him to. This went on until he finally got his cast off four weeks later, once it was finally removed a staff member reminded him, he had four weeks until his next fight. Havok was glad because he wanted the extra time, so he went to the library and began to devise a training schedule for himself. He didn't want to lose any time in the library, so he needed to find ways to improve his fighting. While he still wasn't able to fully comprehend everything, he read he still knew enough words to get the gist of the books. The library had all kinds of books from all sorts of topics most of which he couldn't understand yet.
Knowing he needed to win fights for access to more books he decided to start with the medical books and any books about fighting he could find. Learning about the human body could only benefit him, seeing as the medical staff here didn't really care too much about their health other than the bare minimum. It would benefit him to know about it, rather than rely on them.
Knowing how the body worked, the names of bones, the organs, which bones were strongest, which were easier to break, how long certain injuries take to heal and how to take care of your body. None of the other kids seemed interested in books which means he would be able to study in peace, so this would provide him an enormous advantage.
In the books he saw depictions and read descriptions of exercises to strengthen his body and increase his stamina, running, push-ups, crunches, pull-ups, squats, lunges, planks, dips, burpees.
He was looking forward to trying anything to get stronger, although he actually preferred sleeping to working out. Working out benefited him the most right now, the weak don't get to rest unless they want to keep being weak. That was a firm belief of Havok, he knew he was one of the weak and he didn't like it. Sleep and relaxation could come when he had enough power and the freedom to rest.
He decided on which exercises he wanted to do and took it from there. He needed to build muscle, like most of the boys here, he had a slight frame. He started to make his training regiment, it starts off with 25 squats then 15 lunges alternating legs, he gets on the ground for the rest. 50 push-ups, 50 crunches and planking for 30 seconds.
"Hah…Hah…Hah… Damn I'm exhausted, this shit better work or once I get out of here, I'm going to kill whoever made me go through unnecessary work and pain." Havok said to himself. He was covered in sweat in front of his mattress with both hands on his knees gasping for air, having just finished the first set of his new workout regimen. He was exercising muscles that he never did before and there was considerable amount of pain. He also knew from reading the books that these exercises were not meant for kids, but he figured neither was getting your ass whooped in a fight. He prefers winning and being sore over being beaten and losing, so he chose to train.
His initial plan was to train for a few weeks and then he would adjust as he deemed necessary. If for example he wasn't getting the desired results or he noticed, he was lacking in a certain area and needed to find a new exercise.
Finally, after two weeks, he felt his muscles strengthen and his body became slightly toned. Even though he is still skinny he could still see his hard work paying off. He did this for the next week until his next fight came, all the while continuing to visit the library.
He knew just building muscle would only help but so much, thus he decided to add an exercise to increase his stamina. Running was an obvious choice, but that would mean he would probably have to deal with the other kids constantly pestering him. He decided running would be his last resort, so he searched through some books and the library to find a suitable exercise.
After reading numerous books he decided on boxing as it made the most sense, he would learn his limit for his endurance and he could try out new moves, try using proper technique instead of just relying on instinct and what he saw others do. Having made his decision Havok wasted no time and returned to his room. He sat his bed up against the wall and used that as a punching bag.
He started repeating the moves he read about, he got into his stance which the book called Orthodox since he was right-handed and he started with the most used punch, the jab. He threw a couple dozen right jabs, tweaking his stance. It took him a while, since before he fought on instinct alone with zero technique. About twenty minutes later once he got the hang of it, he decided to move to his left hand.
He switched to what the book called the 'Southpaw' stance, and he immediately felt the difference. It was awkward, he was fumbling around, and he lacked the power his right hand had. He made note of this and decided to find something with enough weight he could lift to strengthen his left arm. Eventually he got the hang of it thirty minutes later, he threw about double the jabs he did with his right hand.
He took twenty minutes to catch his breath and review what he learned and practiced. He came to realize he didn't have the power to knock out his opponent with a single punch, but he did have the speed advantage.
He gathered himself and moved onto the next punch, the cross. He went over the stance and slowly started throwing punches at his mattress. He felt that his punch was heavier than his jabs now that his lower body was involved in throwing his right cross. Havok kept throwing right crosses until he felt satisfied, then like with his jabs he switched to the Southpaw stance. His main reason for teaching himself to fight with his left hand along with the right is because of it's practically.
Injuries are common in fights, what happens when he injures his right hand or right arm? Fighting with his left would be necessary and it also would throw off his opponent if he switched his stance.
He spent an hour total on training his cross.
"Haah…Haah…Haah…Well shit, my arms are dead. I'll need to adjust my training. Absolutely no arm workouts on the same day I'm boxing!" An exhausted Havok said to himself, as he laid on the ground with his arms being sore like never before.
"I need to hit the showers once I catch my breath. I still need to work on the uppercut, hook and over. Sadly, that will have to wait until another day. I'll alternate days on boxing and building muscle. The days I don't box it's between jump rope or running to increase my stamina. I'd prefer the jump rope, but I don't have a jump rope…I guess I'll just have to improvise something into a jump rope. Running seems like a hassle, the time I'll have to waste on fighting or just being pestered by those assholes will be a waste of time. Well either way that can wait, time to shower and sleep. I have a fight coming up next week, winning is all that matters. I need time to study and learn more about everything I can." Havok said to himself as he got off the ground and put his mattress back in its original place.
He finally got to the showers since he was still hot from his workout, the cold water felt really good and helped him calm down. He just stood there under the shower head for a few minutes, clearing his mind.
Once he was done with the shower, he headed back to his room to finally go to sleep.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone