Laying in my bed I listen. The sound of my Ma getting ready for work. Her going downstairs and making her lunch then leaving. It’s amazing to know that with all this stuff happening she has still been working the whole time.

The sound of the front door shutting hits my ears. I hop up and run over to the window to watch her pull off and head to work. With every step, my muscle screamed at me out of soreness.

“She’s gone.”

I grab a backpack out from under my bed and take out the white t-shirt covered in blood and dirt. I struggle to get it on as my sore muscles try to fight back against me. I cover the shirt with a hoodie and pull out my phone.

“(We got everything set up. I don’t know why you keep wanting to do this shit so early but money is money.)”

I pull out my wallet double-checking that all the money was there. “Alright.” I head out the back-door weaving between houses until I get out of the neighborhood. It isn’t long before I reach Aaron’s house. I head down the side of the house and to the back. I can already hear the tired people starting to get amped up.

“So is he really the guy who stopped a school shooting?”

“Yeah, is he? I heard he beat a high school girl half to death.”

“Dumbass she was the one who was shooting up the school.”

“Still wasn’t she like a freshman. That’s pretty fucked up.”

I walk around the corner and take off my backpack ignoring the low life’s. A group of people stood talking and passing money around while a tough-looking guy was jumping around without a shirt on.

Seriously, why do they always have to take off their shirt? Not having a shirt on doesn’t make you any stronger or faster. A man approaches me holding a beer in one hand and rubbing his eyes with the other. He looks like he just woke up.

“How much are you betting this time?”

I hand him a wad of cash and he shifts his eyes between me and it. “You sure you want to do that? This guy isn’t someone you can just walk over. He’s pretty tough. He might even be the one to get you this time”

Honestly, how can someone like him try and act like he is a good person? “I’m not going to bet anymore, no matter how much you bait me.”

He smiles wide and all the tiredness seems to disappear from his face. “Alright, alright. Go ahead and get warmed up. Despite doing this so early he was quite eager to fight you so he got here early. He’s ready to go.”

“No, I walked here so I’m warmed up. Let’s get this over with.” It took me over an hour to get here so I need to hurry up and get this over with. It’s going to take me even longer to get back.

The Aaron spins around chugging the last of his beer and tosses it to the ground. “Alright, he says he’s ready! You better place your bets now.

The people gather around creating a small ring-like shape. I take off my hoodie and place it in my backpack. Hopefully, this guy will be good practice for me. I walk to the center where the shirtless guy is standing. The spiked hair, camo pants, and boots make him look even more ridiculous without a shirt on. But……

He’s got at least ten years on me, and he is big. Especially compared to my scrawny physique. He looks at me disappointedly, “Is this really him.” As he contemplates who I am, I rush in and bury my arm into his stomach.

“Shit.”

Looking up at him I see his head swivel back to facing me with a look on his face that said. ‘Did you just fuckin—’

I know I’m weak but for an attack when he was off guard to not do anything. Fuck. Leaning back I barely miss his right hook as it skimmed my shirt. Grab…. He just grabbed my shirt, shit. I was faster than him but he was faster than my shirt. Note to self, don’t wear loose clothes.

He looks at me smiling as he shoots his left hand straight at my face. Sorry bud, but I can’t let you hit my face. A bonus of baggy clothes is even when someone grabs them I still have a good amount of room to move. enough to just dodge to the right of his straight left. If he is as strong as he is tough then it’s pointless to try and break free of his grip on my shirt. So I slap him in the face with my right palm. Anyone could see the shock on his face from the attack. The attack seemed to do nothing but shock him with its lack of damage.

Perfect.

I hop landing both my feet on his right knee and pushing as hard as I can. His right knee buckles to the force of my body weight. As he falls he lets go of my shirt to catch himself causing me to fall as well. I roll back and get up to my feet before he can recover but I don’t go in. The last thing I want is to go to the ground with him. even if I was on top I wouldn’t be enough weight to hold him down. Plus I have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to that. Instead, I take off my shirt and toss it over the people in the direction of my backpack. Congratulations, you turned me into what I hate.

“Jesus!”

“What the fuck happened to him?”

“Aw shit, I didn’t know he was injured?”

“Yeah! I need to change my bet!”

Though my past injuries had mostly healed I had more than enough new ones to take their place. The crowd’s reaction was enough to tell me that.

Camo-pants is already up when I turn around to face him. This guy is way too strong to be used as my training partner. Guess I’ll just be getting money today.

He takes off running towards me yelling. Presumably, he isn’t too happy about me slapping him. I do the same. Now within his range, he throws a right again. I turn my perception on and go down and to the left of his arm, coming back up hitting his throat. I can see him starting to cough and reaching for his throat with his hand in slow motion. I squeeze tight gripping his throat using it as an anchor to pull against. I slam my open palm into his right ear hopefully rupturing his eardrum. I see his elbow start to move towards me. So I duck down missing his elbow. I swing my left arm as hard as I can while I stand up as fast as I can. My left arm slides up between his legs slamming into something rather soft.

Sorry about the nut shot but you’re just too strong. I would normally throw hands with you until I either get exhausted or start losing the fight then kick in my perception to win. This has been my new training regimen for the past few months. However, my hits do nothing to him and his punches look like they might kill me so I have to end this fast. Now standing, I put my foot behind me as he falls to the ground grabbing his nuts. As soon as his knees hit the ground I push off and start to kick him. Watching my foot I adjust the aim a little bit while it flies towards his chin.

BAM!

My heel connects with his chin causing his head to shoot to the side and he then falls to the ground. I ended up in a lunge position because I had put all my body weight in that kick to make sure it knocks him out. That and I don’t really know how to kick properly.

“Wa….What the fuck just happened!”

“This is bullshit, he was almost twice his size!”

I then walk over to my shirt pushing my way through the small crowd of people.

“That wasn’t even a minute. All his other fights were way longer and none of his past opponents were as strong as this guy.”

“Yeah, this must be rigged!”

Aaron jumps up at the accusation. “What did you just fucking say? None of my fights are rigged. Do you want to wait and ask him when he wakes up.” he points to camo pants.

“This is bull shit! Fuck you!”

I turn back because the ‘fuck you’ seemed a little close. Looking back I see a bottle heading for my face. My perception kick in automatically.

Dammit, not the face. If my Ma saw bruises on my face she would start asking questions. I grab the neck of the bottle with the bottom facing up. The teenage-looking guy who threw it was still in his throwing stance smiling. His face changes when he realizes I caught it.

Splash.

Apparently the glass bottle he threw at me was a beer bottle. I know this because I now had beer down my arm and on my shoes.

This mother fucker if my Ma smells this on me, “YOU SON OF A BITCH!” I threw the bottle back at him as hard as I could. I had figured out that with my perception on I can throw better because I can see exactly when to let go of the object. I no longer had to guess the release timing of a throw. This didn’t help with horizontal aiming but it helped extremely with vertical aiming considering how bad I was at throwing. I had thrown it at his chest so I didn’t miss but I had put a lot of force behind it. making my aim higher than planned. It smashed into his face bottom first. The bottle didn’t break but judging by the amount of blood coming out of his mouth some teeth did. Two more young guys ran to his aid. They started to go after me but stopped themselves. Probably thanks to my display earlier. I stop my perception.

“Oh shit.” People in the crowd looked shocked. They had most likely expected the bottle to hit me in the back of the head.

I feel a slap on my bearskin and instinctively my perception turns on while I whip around. Unless I actively kept my perception at bay it would turn on by itself in these situations. I learned this in my first few fights.

I see Aaron standing there, “Hey now, calm down I just wanted to make sure you weren’t about to start beating on my customers. Not counting that one of course.” He pointed at the bottle thrower.

“I wouldn’t just start beating on people for no reason.” I don’t think.

“Ha, you say that but don’t forget I’ve seen your other fights. I know how you can get carried away.”

I hate how he acts as if he knows me. I’ve only known him for a little over a year or so and he acts as if he’s my best friend.. Finding his little street fighting club was a blessing and a curse. He tosses me a small roll of paper towels and I use it to wipe away the beer.

“You were right, he was strong. Don’t match me up with anyone else like him for a while.”

“It sure as hell didn’t look like it. What do you just like beating up on weak people? I knew you were good but God damn I thought he would put on a good show. Then you had to go and end it fast.”

“I only did that because he was that strong. So if you want longer fights match me with people weaker than him at least.”

While we were talking I got cleaned up, and put on my shirt and backpack. We then walked to the street.

“Alright, you be safe now.”

He can’t be serious ‘you be safe now.’ as if, “My money, give it to me.”

“Huh, oh of course. Silly me!”

As Aaron handed the money to me the bottle thrower ran towards us followed by his two buddies. He had his hand over his mouth the whole time, even though it was obviously unable to stop the flow of blood. Evident by the large amount of blood on his neck and shirt. “You’re going to fucking regret that.”

Putting the money in it, I set my backpack on the ground. I then take my hoodie off and set it on top of it. Stepping away from it, I stand not in any particular stance but ready. Ready to let loose a little. I mostly do these street fights for the real combat experience that causes me to grow so much faster than just training on my own. With my ability, I’m able to adapt and pick things up rather fast, however, there is another reason I do these fights. To channel some of my anger and pent-up frustrations, because of this fact I was unable to keep the smile off my face while I was being handed a free ‘beat the shit out of somebody’ opportunity.

Unfortunately, the bottle thrower still had some sense left in him to stop himself from attacking me. Maybe it was my reaction that gave him some sense of how the situation would go? So sadly, they ran off.

Aaron smiles, “Ah, I wouldn’t worry about them. You could take them for sure, but I would head out of here pretty soon if I were you.”

Huh, was that a threat or a warning. “Why is that?”

Aaron looks away, “Oh, no reason. I just doubt you want to be seen in this part of the community. Plus right now you have quite a bit of money on you. Would you prefer if I keep it for you so you don’t have to worry about it?”

Ha, as if I’m stupid enough to let you keep my money. He probably wouldn’t steal it directly but he would lose it trying to make more money with it. “Yeah, no.”

“Do you not trust me? The person that is the reason why you have so much money. I’m hurt!”

I don’t think I will ever be able to understand him. He wakes up drinking beer, hosts fights in his backyard and isn’t afraid of fighting himself. He has to be close to my Ma’s age, yet he acts like this with me. Something has to be a façade.

Ignoring his little antics to try and get my money I quietly pick up my things and start walking home. One of the few good things about that fight is I didn’t use much energy or get injured. So my walking pace back home was much faster than normal. For that reason, I didn’t feel my phone vibrate at first, but I eventually realized it was and it caused me to stop dead in my tracks. Who would be messaging me? The only people I message are Ma and….. Fuck, why would Ma be messaging me? I pull my phone out expecting the worse.

“Nick?”

The message was sent by a classmate from school I would talk to every now and then, but never enough that we talked outside of school. “(Yo, this is nick. From school. I’m sure you remember me. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you what you did was awesome man! You saved us. I waited to message you because, well, to give you time but I can’t wait any longer. I just had to thank you for saving my life that day. I mean towards the end it got kind of messed up. how you fucked her up, but I can’t complain because you saved my life. I and some of the other students just wanted to thank you.)”

What the fuck, I thought they hated me and were all scared of me. I messaged ick to find out more. “(yeah, I guess you could say some of the people were pretty freaked out by what you did, mostly the girls, but a good portion of us are grateful. And most of the guys in the rest of the school think you’re badass. Come on man, you stopped someone with a gun. Oh, of course, I’m sorry for your loss though, but that’s why I thought you should know how grateful we are.)”

This doesn’t make any sense! Ma said they were all scared of me. Wait, she only said that because the agent guy told her. If I pair that with the fact that she hasn’t been acting scared of me since the hospital and hasn’t even mentioned the facility at all….. What is going on? Who is that agent guy and why would he lie to my Ma like that? Also, why would my Ma act so differently around him? All the more reason to not trust him. If I ever see him again I’ll have a lot of questions for him before he ever gets near my Ma again.

I wanted to avoid the topic of the facility with Ma at all costs just to make sure I didn’t give her any reason to send me to it, but now. I think I should bring it up to see her reaction, and how she feels about me. It’s always possible that she is just hiding the fact that she’s scared of me but I know my Ma. I’ll ask her about it tonight when she comes home from work. After coming to that conclusion is when I heard the tires of a vehicle scream due to an abrupt stop.

“Who the fuck—”