"You're the guy from the hospital," I said while pointing at the tall, burly man leaning next to the door.
"Yeah, the name's Max, who are you?" he asked.
"Me? uh, my name's Jackson. Wait, you look a lot like Jax," I said.
"It's because we're twins," Jax replied. "We work together to hunt down Argus. I'm the brains and he's the brawn."
I turned around to face Jax, "Why didn't you tell me you had a brother?"
"Well, I didn't feel as if it was necessary," Jax replied.
"I also have another question. How does Argus just disappear into thin air," I asked.
"He can do that because he is an emitter," Max jumped in. "Emitters are people that exhibit superhuman characteristics. Argus can instantaneously teleport to any place in the universe."
"How do you know all of this," I asked while facing Max again.
"It's because I am also an emitter. I have superhuman strength," Max replied as he crushed the metal ball in his hand.
"All right so now that we have three people, it should be a lot easier to catch him," I said.
"Whoa kid don't get ahead of yourself. Did you not just hear me? Argus can teleport anywhere in the universe. You're just a kid that lost his family to a killer. You can't help us," Max replied.
"Actually," Jax butted in. "He could infiltrate the tournament. Think about it, he's 14, tall, and he's assertive. He fits the criteria for it."
"Yeah, but you're forgetting one thing. He can't fight for shit," Max replied.
"I know that, but if you teach him to fight, then he could maybe have a chance," Jax said.
"Wait guys what's going on right now. What is the tournament and why do I need to know how to fight."
Jax walked up to me and started explaining, "About a month ago we found out about an underground tournament that is taking place in 6 months. The tournament is only open to young people. A lot of the top gang leaders are going to be there to scout out potential recruits. That's why we think Argus might be there."
"Wait what do I have to do in the tournament," I asked.
"It is a fighting tournament, so you will have to win it to see Argus," Jax replied.
Max started walking up to me, "Kid it's pretty obvious that you don't know how to fight, so I'm gonna ask you this once. Do you want to get revenge for your family because the path to do that is going to be filled with hardships. Once you start walking down this road you can never stop. That's why I want to make sure that YOU want this, and not us forcing you into this."
I could tell Max was being serious, "I want to learn how to fight."
"Alright then, follow me," Max said as he turned around. I followed him to his car. Jax sat in the passenger seat and I sat in the back. Thirty minutes passed and not a single word was uttered from them. I leaned my head against the window and looked at the sky. Finally after driving for 3 hours we arrived at our destination. It was an abandoned warehouse?
"Yo what's this, don't you guys have, like, a super high tech base of operations," I asked.
Jax chuckled, "Jackson this isn't a movie, we actually pay taxes." Max cranked opened the door. 𝐒𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐞𝐞𝐞𝐜𝐡. The sound the rust-covered door made when it was opened was very loud, so loud I'm pretty sure people in china could have heard it.
Max walked inside and turned around to face me, "Alright get ready, you're about to have your first test."
"Sweet, what is it," I asked.
"First stand there," Max said as he pointed to the other side of the mat.
I ran up to the spot, "Cool what's next?"
"Try and punch me," Max said.
I was caught a bit off guard, "You want me to punch you?"
"Yes that's what I said isn't it," Max affirmed.
"Okay, but don't go crying home," I replied. Max smirked a little. I walked up to him slowly to surprise him with a sucker punch (he never said I couldn't play dirty), but suddenly I fell to the ground. It took me a minute to register what happened, but then I saw his hand open as though he flicked me. "𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘢 𝘧𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘬 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥, 𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘴." Then I saw his hand coming up for another hit. He flicked me again and I was sent flying across the room.
"C'mon kid, is that all you got," I said with a smirk. 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐦. He clapped to send a shock wave a wind gushing right at me. The force of the wind pushed my whole body against the wall. He walked up to me and crouched down to meet my eyes, "Give up kid, you can't beat me." I think he was trying to overwhelm me with his strength.
"NO," I tried to punch his face, but he slapped it to the side. My arm slammed the wall with great speed. 𝐂𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤. I could tell that my arm had broken, but I couldn't give up, not yet. I had to get revenge for my family and if it meant that I had to endure this torture, then so be it. I looked around to see where Jax was. He was behind a big glass screen, which I assumed was bullet proof. It was clear to me now, no one was going to help me, I had to accomplish the task by myself. I tried to use my good arm to attack him, but it was no use. He just slapped it away again.
"Alright kid stop trying to kill yourself. Both of your arms are broken, just give up," Max said.
"𝘔𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵, 𝘐 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘶𝘱. 𝘏𝘦'𝘴 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘦." As much as I wanted to push through and fight, I just couldn't. When I lost all hope, something strange happened. My body started to feel much lighter, as if a burden had been lifted off my body. My arms felt as though they had completely healed. I didn't quite understand what was happening, but I couldn't let this opportunity pass.
Max leaned into my ear and whispered, "You're finished." Now was the perfect chance to punch his face. Without wasting any time, I picked up my dominant arm and aimed straight for Max's head. I poured every ounce of my strength into one punch. 𝐁𝐀𝐌.
"𝘈𝘩𝘩, 𝘐 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘩𝘪𝘮," I thought, but then I saw what really happened: Max had blocked my punch with his arm.
"Wow kid that was pretty impress-," before Max could finish talking I slammed my left hand into his head. Max jumped backed to evade my attack. Every other thought that was in my head before, was gone now. I only had one goal: to land a punch on Max. I stood up and started charging at him without holding back. I ran up to him with my arm cocked beside my head. I got up to him and sent my arm straight for his abdomen. However, right when my punch was about connect, he slammed his fist down on my head. This hit was 100 times harder than the previous hits. My body crashed to the ground. 𝐂𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐊. The cement floor below the mat had cracked. As the smoke rose from the ground Max skipped backwards to have more visibility. I got up from the ground feeling better than ever.
"𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘭, 𝘐 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥'𝘷𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦, 𝘴𝘰 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘢𝘮 𝘐 𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦?" I didn't have time to ponder, right now I had to beat Max.
Max could see my standing silhouette through the dust. "Huh, my suspicions were right, you really are an emitter." I was too in the zone to hear him. I charged at him again. "Kid if you keep charging at me the same way, then you're gonna keep getting hurt." Except I wasn't charging with the intent to punch him. He slammed his hand down again, but this time I pivot my foot to dodge it. Then I kicked his leg with all my might. I knew that if I punched him again, then he would just block it. That's why I decided to trip him instead. He lost his balance and fell to the ground, "What the fu-" Without a moment to spare I jumped on top of him, wound up my arm, and got ready to finally punch his face. Before I could get to punching him, I just flopped to the side of him.
Jax came out from the glass shield, "What happened, did he die?"
Max checked my pulse, "No he's still breathing, he's just unconscious."
"Whew, that's a relief. I thought you went too hard on him." Jax said.
Max paused with a look of shock in his eyes, "Actually, I think he might have won if he didn't pass out." The room went silent while both of them stared at my unconscious body.