Tuck attacked as soon as the words left his mouth. His punch grazed Owen’s cheek and the next was right around the corner. He didn’t fight like a gang brawler or one of the guys at the warzone. He fought like a trained killer. He closed in fast. Gave Owen a hard hip toss. Concrete floor knocked the wind out of him. Tuck lightly punched Owen in the head while he gasped for air.

  Three moves and Owen was down. Pathetic. What was all that Hardknuckle training for? Not to get put on his ass in a second.

  “The fucking sucked,” Tuck said. “If this was real I’d have your gray matter spread across concrete.” He bounced on the balls of his feet. “Catch your breath and try again.”

  Owen barely stood when Tuck flew at him. He took a knee to his gut. Shoved Tuck away. Ducked a kick meant to take his head off. Tuck’s movements were tight. Smooth. Economical. He went low and snatched Owen’s legs out from under him. Again he lightly punched Owen in the head to demonstrate how vulnerable he was.

  Owen went for Tuck’s legs. Kissed concrete as Tuck shoved him down and took a knee to the ribs. Air fled his lungs again. Tuck had speed Owen could only dream of. He understood why Tuck told him about his past. He wanted to demonstrate what a lifetime of fighting experience looked like first hand.

  “Where’s the fighter?” Tuck asked Owen as he stood. “Let him out! Show me what Ben was talking about. He said you were ready to fight a dozen guys. There’s just one of me, Owen!” Tuck kicked him in the chest and Owen smacked the rusted railing. A strong breeze fluttered through his hair and he was aware of how far he could fall. “Get away from there!” Tuck grabbed him by the collar and flung him away from the railing. “We’ve got half an hour set aside for this training. Peacekeepers don’t come here. It’s just me and you.” Tuck cracked his knuckles. “I know you can fight, so fight me.”

  “This isn’t training!” Owen threw himself at Tuck, punches flying. Tuck tanked the hits as he surged forward and head butted Owen. He grabbed a handful of Owen’s hair and hit him in the gut with a kneestrike.

  He tossed Owen toward a wall and zipped in with a series of body shots. Each one drove air from his lungs. Tuck wouldn’t let him catch his breath. He moved Owen away from the wall and slipped behind him. His arm snaked across Owen’s throat and Tuck choked him until he almost passed out.

  “I said fight.” Tuck pushed him away. “Get those hands up.”

  “Give me a minute,” Owen huffed. He couldn’t think straight. His brain boiled. Tuck was going to kill him if he kept this up.

  “There aren’t any breaks on the battlefield.” Tuck punched Owen in the head. He caught a kick aimed at his chest and used it to fling Owen into a wall with a faded mural of slaughter ball champions past. Pain surged through his ribs as Tuck kicked him while he was down. “It’s easy to win against someone that doesn’t know how to fight. I’m not some low class gangster, Owen. Karate tricks won’t work on me. Be strategic. Make each hit count. You might not get another one.”

  Owen crawled away from Tuck, feeling like he did when he first met Sensei Dan. He didn’t know how to fight back then. All he could do was run away. Tuck was faster and stronger than him. Owen paused. What the fuck was he doing? He wasn’t the same man who lived with his head down hoping the city wouldn’t make him a victim. He shook off his fear and hopped to his feet.

  Owen took his stance and faced Tuck in the ruins of the stadium high above junkies with fried brains and their over abundant spawn. The noise boiling up from below covered the sound of their brawl.

  Tuck probed Owen’s defenses with a couple of quick jabs. He stayed light on his feet, kept his hands in front of his chest. Tuck’s eyes stayed focused on Owen’s torso and never moved. He snapped Owen in the thigh with a sharp kick and popped him in the cheek when his guard dropped.

  “Don’t fall for stupid shit like that,” Tuck said. “You eat the pain. Learn to love it. I knew a guy during the war who took three bullets to the gut and kept fighting for hours before his body gave up.”

  Tuck attacked like a wild animal. More tiger than man. His assault vicious as he kicked and clawed. Owen focused solely on defense. He redirected Tuck’s punches and avoided his powerful kicks. Sensei Dan’s training took hold and Owen’s body responded automatically. Block, duck, block, circle, parry, attack. He traded blows with Tuck, adrenaline dulling the pain in his body and face. The world around him melted away as the fight consumed him.

  Owen slipped a punch. He caught the rhythm in Tuck’s strikes. Saw a pattern. He dodged a kick and returned with a roundhouse of his Owen. His shoe grazed Tuck’s lip. Cut it open and blood dribbled down his chin.

  “That’s better,” Tuck said. He spit blood and reached into his pocket. Owen went blind as sand hit his face. “Adapt!” Tuck grabbed a handful of Owen’s hair as he struggled to get his eyes open. “Protect your head!” Owen blocked knees meant for his face as he wiped away sweat and sand. “There we go!” He caught one of Tuck’s legs and swept the other one. The both went down and Owen’s ground training with Coach Wilson came alive. He still couldn’t see but he knew where all of Tuck’s limbs were. He slithered into side control and made a play for Tuck’s arm.

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  “Need to do better than that,” Tuck said. He jammed his thumb in Owen’s ribs like a knife. Each stab sent a spike of agony across Owen’s side. He broke free of the grapple and wiped sweat and sand out of his eyes. Tuck jumped to his feet.

  “Don’t let him set the pace. Take the fight to him,” Sensei Dan said. He leaned against the railing, arms crossed. Owen wondered where he was the entire time. “You got this. Remember your training. Modified solo Crab Stance.”

  Owen got low. He scuttled away from Tuck’s attacks. Kept his hands up like the claws of the crab. A crab could move in any direction on eight legs. Owen mimicked the animal as he moved in and out of Tuck’s range. He leapt forward with an uppercut. Caught Tuck on the chin. Tuck fell back and Owen smiled. He won! He thought.

  Tuck kicked him in the side of the head as he fell. He even turned momentum from getting hit into an attack. He rolled to his feet and clapped.

  Owen shook his head. The kick dazed him, but it didn’t put him down. He’d feel it for days though. He stayed in the crab stance and watched Tuck.

  “Nice hit,” Tuck said. He rubbed his chin. “Would’ve put most guys down for the count. You look like an idiot squatting down like that.” He laughed. “If it works it works.”

  Owen nodded and attacked. Time drifted by as they bludgeoned each other. Tuck found every gap in Owen’s defense and punished him for it. For every hit Owen landed he took two. When they grappled Tuck took his limbs to the point of breaking before he released. Adrenaline dulled the pain and fueled Owen’s will.

  As the fight dragged on Owen found his rhythm. Hardknuckle strikes competed with Tuck’s Crimson Lotus kung fu. No breaks, no referee, no chance for surrender. They traded punches and kicks. Exchanged wounds and fought like animals in the secluded area of the slaughter ball stadium. Just one fight after another until their punches grew sluggish and they were gasping for breath. Beep, beep, beep. The alarm on Tuck’s scratchpad chimed and he released Owen from a chokehold.

  Tuck wiped blood off his mouth as he turned off his alarm. Owen slumped against a wall and took a deep breath. One of his eyes swelled shut and his knuckles ached worse than during Sensei Dan’s sand bucket training. His sweater was fucked with rips and blood and he could barely stand. Coach Wilson was going to be pissed when he saw him in the morning.

  “You did good,” Sensei Dan said. “You didn’t win once, but you stayed in the fight the whole hour.” Dan gave him a thumbs up. “Good work!”

  “Half an hour,” Owen said. “It was half an hour.” He spit blood.

  “No, Owen.” Tuck said. He wiped blood off his mouth. “It was a whole hour.”

  “What the fuck?” Owen limped toward Tuck as he swiped his scratchpad’s cracked screen.

  “Ed says the team is doing good,” Tuck said. “You okay?”

  “You said half an hour.”

  “Yeah, I lied.” Tuck scoffed. “Now you know how far you can go when the situation calls for it. Tomorrow is going to suck for both of us.” He patted Owen’s back. “You did good. You're pretty tough for a scratchpad repairman. Come on, Owen.”

  “I didn’t win once.” Owen said as Tuck headed for the stairs. How could he lose every single time? Even with all of his training he could tell Tuck was going easy on him. It wasn’t like fighting Mark at the gym. If Tuck wanted to he’d be the fighting league champion already. Owen didn’t know monsters like him existed. He wondered if Tuck could take Sensei Dan.

  “Maybe not,” Tuck said with a swollen smile. “But I’m sure you learned a few things from fighting me. You always learn something when you fight someone new and you learn a lot more from getting your ass kicked. Let’s go.”

  They separated after stopping at a twenty-four-seven emergency medical booth. Owen got a prescription from the mechanical doctor manning the booth. Painkillers. Strong. He took two and waited for the blissful release from his agony.

  He welcomed the solitude of his apartment. Iced his face and took a long shower as he replayed the fight with Tuck in his mind. How could he improve? What wouldn’t he do next time? Next time. He didn’t want there to be a next time.

  When Owen hit his bed he groaned in pleasure. There wasn’t a better place in the world to be than home in his own bed with no one punching him in the face.

  Beep. His scratchpad dinged and he had a message from Mandy. He hadn’t heard from her since they met at the transit station. What did she want? Owen sent her a message with his info but she never responded until now.

  “Want to grab dinner tomorrow?” Mandy asked.

  Owen wasn’t sure if he should. He was glad Mandy was alive, but what place did she have in his new life. She was part of the pre-Hardknuckle Owen’s life. She was the girl he followed around like a puppy. She protected him from the savages at the care facility and then she abandoned him. He always thought they'd have each other to lean on. But what did he have to offer her back then? Their friendship was all take and no give on his side. Besides all that, she was a peacekeeper. Did he really need to take the risk?

  “You should call her,” Sensei Dan said. He sat on the edge of Owen’s bed, weightless. “You were happy when you found out she was alive. Take some advice from this Hardknuckle ghost. If I could meet a friend from my old life I’d do it in a heartbeat. It’s rare for anyone to get a second chance.”

  “I think you’re right.” Owen smiled.

  What did Mandy being a peacekeeper have to do with anything? She didn’t know about Owen’s activities outside the law. He was just her old buddy from the care facility.

  “Tell me the time and place. I’ll be there,” Owen replied before he fell asleep.