1 week passed, officially making it 1 month since Eli joined Primal.

Now, he was on his way to a whole new city. It was pretty convenient that Cutter and his friends lived so close to Ethan and Brook; not in the same city, but still in southern New Castor. Nothing like an hour or two in public transit couldn’t solve. He’d be on his own for this one, the others wanted to come along, but the binturong did insist on being more independent; as long as he didn’t get in trouble, he’d be fine.

Although, his sense of direction did leave a lot to be desired, but he was certain he could make it to Cutter’s house!

Sitting on the train, watching things go by, his backpack in his lap; it contained a bagged lunch made by Ethan, a notebook, some spare training gear, and two 10 pound dumbbells. The train was a good distance away from Palegreen City, left the city limits just a few minutes ago, rolling along the highway, this would be the furthest he had ever traveled, at least as far as he remembered.

The train smelled odd. Not really bad, but definitely odd. A mixture of other’s body odor, their colognes and perfumes, the food they were eating, the odd smell of gasoline coming off of a chubby crow that was sitting next to Eli. The woman sitting on his other side, an old doe, did smell nice though.

Internally, the old woman wondered what such a young looking man was doing traveling on his own. But, then again, these were different times. The world wasn’t at war any more. The younger generations were getting more and more independent.

More time passed, the train not stopping for anything. He enjoyed the catharsis of watching the world go by. He pictured a super fast man, hopping from building to building, running along the fences and rooftops, keeping up with the train.

How long had it been since he got on the train? Time seemed to really go by in the blink of an eye when he was lost in thought. Coming closer into view, was the sight of another city. It looked just about the same as Palegreen, although there were more tall buildings, ones that looked like they were made of glass, all shiny and pretty looking.

“Now approaching Jenny Station.” The man on the train’s intercom stated, “Now approaching Jenny Station.”

Eli smiled and got up from his seat, walking to the door as the train began to slow down, he finally made it to his location: The city of Mana. Ethan and Brook were going to be so proud of him when they learned he traveled so far on his own! Now in the city proper, Eli looked around. It was certainly much different than Palegreen. The buildings all stretched high above him; back in Palegreen, the buildings usually went to 10 floors at the most, and those were rare. Here he was looking at buildings with floors that went higher; how high did they go? He didn’t feel like counting that high, but it was high, he knew that much.

Walking away from the station, holding onto the straps of his backpack, he pulled out the piece of paper that showed the directions. Were these street names? He just had to follow them and turn when he had to turn. It was Cutter’s house that he was going to, he figured that the three men didn’t live together and Cutter was just the most convenient travel. He wondered what type of house he lived in. Was it going to be something like the humble but dingy apartment that Ethan and Brook lived in, or was it something more? As he walked down the sidewalk, passing by other civilians and a few stores, he thought about where he lived before he met his new friends. Everything before then, all felt like a blur, not that he cared. But when he thought long and hard about it, straining his tiny fight obsessed brain, he could envision what he believed to be his old room. The only words he could use to describe it were as followed: Cold and empty, but comfy. That was it.

“Hey! You there! What’re you doing?” Eli heard someone call to him, snapping him to attention. He looked over, seeing a trio of men, two of them sitting on the stoop of some building, one of them standing in front of Eli. The sitting ones got up and moved next to their companion. They were a variety of species; a rabbit, a red panda, and a rat, the only thing they shared in terms of appearance was the dark purple leather jacket they all wore. The rabbit, in the middle of the group, was assuming the role of the leader. Despite rabbits being one of the most non-threatening species, he carried himself with great pride and vigor. His left ear had a large chunk taken out of it from a fight long ago. “Saw you walking past, lost in thought there, kiddo. Don’t you know the rules of the street?”

“Nope, care to tell me?” Eli said cheerfully.

The three men paused, looking at each other, caught off guard by the answer. Was the kid messing with them or did he simply not realize he was being extorted. The rabbit sighed, snuffing his cigarette in his glove. “You’re new here, I can tell a tourist when I see one. We require a street tax.” The other two gang members laughed, letting their friend handle things.

“Street tax?” Eli said, still innocent.

“Yes, street tax.” he nodded, putting a hand to Eli’s shoulder. “We’re guardians of this area. Protecting people since the police don’t. Everyone has to pay it, even the people just coming to town… Y’know, if they don’t pay, they’ll be in danger; it wouldn’t be fair to the residents to just let the tourists hang around for free. So, anyways, how’s it sound, just 4500 Shells and you can stay here as long as you want.”

“Think I’m fine.” Eli said, smiling, as he wrapped his fingers around the rabbit’s wrist. “I can protect myself just fine.”

The rabbit grinned a bucktooth smile. This kid was quite the smartmouth, talking back to him of all people. Looks like he had to be more assertive with this one. The gang member tried to pull his hand away, but realized he couldn’t. He tugged harder, jerking his arm back, but he couldn’t. The boy was restraining him one handed. That was when he noticed the glint in Eli’s eyes. It is said that you can get a glimpse of someone’s soul in their eyes; something about learning everything you need to know about a person just by looking into them. Face to face with the boy, only he could see it, but what he saw in Eli’s eyes caused the rabbit’s grin faded away, turning to a fearful frown.

“Well?” Eli said, slowly loosening his grip. “Can I go?”

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The rabbit backed up, much to his friend’s surprise. The red panda and rat looked around, completely confused. The rabbit though, nodded. “Yeah, go ahead.”

“Bro, what are you doing?” The red panda whispered, “What happened?”

“Not this one, guys, leave this one alone.” The rabbit shook his head, walking off, leaving Eli completely alone.

“Don’t worry about it,” Eli said, walking past the trio, who stepped aside, letting him passed, all three of getting the strange feeling that they were just spared a world of hurt.

He kept walking down the street, keeping closer and closer to his destination. Mana was a pretty nice city, the more he looked at it, maybe he could ask the others to come live here for now on; now that there was an influx of cash, it was a possibility.

Again, lost in thought as he often did, it wasn’t be long before another obstacle stood in his path as he made his way through a small park that would be the last stop before Cutter’s house. The obstacle in question was another dark purple jacket wearing man; his species was that of a coatimundi, going by the weasel like appearance and pig-like snout. A cigarette hung loosely from his mouth as well as a few burnt out ones near his feet, his face locked in a slight sneer. He stood directly in front of a fountain in the park, causing everyone in the area to keep their distance from the fixture.

True, he wasn’t literally standing in Eli’s path, but he was something that Eli couldn’t simply ignore, the moment he caught his eye. Eli stopped in his tracks, locking eyes with the coati, the two of them staring each other down. Passerby kept their distance, getting the sense something crazy was about to happen.

“Heard about you,” the man said, in a raspy voice, “Friends saw boy that scared them. Boy going through town. That you?”

Words traveled fast it seemed. A quick cellphone call was all it took for Eli to make a name for himself. “You’re friends with those guys? I’m not falling for that street tax thing.” Eli was just about ready to move on, leave this guy behind, thugs like him weren’t worth his time.

“That’s not what this is about.” The coati grinned, “Black bintu… bin… Bearcat, 18-20 years old, naive fierce look in his eyes. Sounds familiar… Like I read it somewhere else. With Primal aren’t you?”

Just as he was ready to move on, now he had his attention! Eli’s eyes widened, smiling. He didn’t care if this was something he might not want to talk about so openly in public. “That’s me.” he nodded, getting closer to the coati. “Who wants to know?”

“Pocketknife.” He said pointing at himself, “Joined Primal same time you did. Read up on few the fighters, not all them. Don’t do that ana… Analytic shit. I just wanna beat up a buncha people. So, I hear one of them on my turf.” He took his cigarette out of his mouth, blowing a long stream of smoke from his huge nostrils; Eli briefly got distracted, thinking about whose nose was bigger, Pocketknife or Ethan’s. “So think to myself. Why set fight up? Why wait and shit? Opponent right here in front of me.”

“Well, make good point, you do.” Eli smiled, playfully attempting to mimic Pocketknife’s speech patterns, gently putting his backpack to the ground. “Ethan handles the whole set up thing, I think, Brook handles the talking with fighters thing, I think. But I’d love to skip straight to the fight.” Were you allowed to do that? Could you just fight whenever you wanted without permission from the higher ups? Guess he was about to find out. “You ready?”

Pocketknife grinned a toothy grin, his cigarette hanging from his mouth. Without warning, he spat the cigarette out, with such force that it was turned into a projectile, aimed at Eli’s eyes.

Holding his hands in front of him, blocking the smoke, it burned his palm where it landed. A painful but insignificant injury.

With his opponent distracted, Pocketknife dashed forward, a manic grin on his face, fists clenched. “Here I come!”

But, Eli wasn’t even going to let him land a blow. Stepping back slight, keeping himself at leg’s length from Pocketknife, Eli swung a powerful kick to the coati’s head.

The kick caused a resounding WHAM as it made impact. In the time it took for him to fall to the ground, the expression on Pocketknife’s face went from a wide grin to a bewildered, wall eyed expression. He fell to the ground, skidding from his own momentum.

Standing over him, Eli laughed, “So you’re all talk aren’t you?” He squatted down, looking down at him. “…Want to do a round two? Can you even get up?” It didn’t matter either way. Eli stood back up, knowing that his kick was enough to knock even experienced fighters out cold. He hoped he didn’t hit him too hard though.

But, while he began to leave, picking his backpack up, the next sound he heard was the sound of quick footsteps. Those were the last sounds he heard before he was roughly grabbed from behind. As it turned out, Pocketknife could indeed get back up. As a matter of fact, from his strong grip, Pocketknife wasn’t even hurt.

“Round two? Count me in.” Pocketknife laughed. His right arm in front of Eli’s neck, putting him in a headlock, his left hand placed on the back of Eli’s head, forcing his head down. A move that was said to be impossible to escape from, especially when done by someone as strong as Pocketknife. A strong choke, exasperated by your dwindling oxygen supply.

“What’s going on?!” A passerby shouted.

“Are those two men killing each other?” A woman shouted, walking with her boyfriend.

“Holy shit, a fight! Look at that jacket, he’s with the Illusory Gang!” A teenager with his friends cheered.

“Rear Naked Choke?!” Eli thought to himself, as he tugged on Pocketknife’s arm at his neck, trying to loosen his grip. Wouldn’t do any good, when his head was only being shoved further and further down. His efforts at least kept Pocketknife from squeezing him too hard, he just had to keep Pocketknife from getting the oxygen off from his brain.

“Come on, choke out!” Pocketknife laughed, blood running from his nose.

Pocketknife’s grip was strong, despite his skinny appearance, Eli had to break free now or the fight would be over. Pocketknife was taller than him, by a few inches, so the next step was going to be difficult, already he was starting to feel dizzy from his inability to breath. Eli gripped tightly into Pocketknife’s arm, digging his claws into the brown fur. Then, he flung his body forward, Pocketknife with him. He wasn’t tossing his opponent, that wasn’t an option with the way he was being held; no, instead, he was doing a front flip.

Eli could never do front flips successfully. They would always result in him landing on his back in a painful manner. For once, lack of flipping skills benefited him. Pocketknife still clinging to his back and the two of them spiraling back to the ground, Pocketknife took the impact of the landing, causing him to grunt in pain. His grip, loosened just enough from the shock that Eli broke free, getting his distance.

Finally, he could breath, a good few pained breathes. Eli was smiling nonetheless. This guy was better than Darnelle!

Pocketknife was smiling too, quickly getting off the ground. Now this was what it meant to be a Primal fighter! The coati wasn’t about to give Eli anymore time to breath, charging forward, fists clenched again, he looked to be going for the same move as before. But, as Eli got ready to kick him again, Pocketknife changed his stance. Moving his hands lower and his hands open, he looked like he was about to hug Eli at the waist. Which he did just that. Wrapping his arms around Eli’s waist, Pocketknife quickly followed up the “hug” with a throw, lifting Eli into the air and quickly tossing him down.

“Belly-to-Belly Suplex?!” Eli screamed in his head, shocked to see the move, mostly for how much it caught him off guard. In the single second it took to hit the ground, the following were Eli’s thoughts:

“Damn, that was really cool!” followed by “Oh wait, this is going to really hurt.”

Eli made impact with the concrete of the park plaza, rolling away, seething in pain despite how impressed he was.

Pocketknife just stood there, tongue hanging out, taunting Eli. “Round 3…? …Or is it Round 4?”

“I have 2 wins, you have 1. Best 2 out of 3 dictates that I’m the winner here.”

Looking around, a crowd had already gathered around the two, several people all watching. It was a wonder why the cops haven’t showed up yet. Neither of them cared really. They were no longer fighting. This was how a pair of guys like them played and bonded.