A bright light blinded them for a second, ear-piercing screams of people could be heard everywhere. They had entered an abandoned underground warehouse. Hundreds of people were there, cheering and passing around a huge pot filled with money. The pot ended up on the left side of the room, someone was sitting on a chair counting the money and writing down numbers. It looked like a separate little room, with bars in the front to talk to the visitors that came there and to take in anything needed. The walls were covered in moss, the concrete of the walls and floor had cracks in them, the two tried maneuvering in between all of the people. The ground was rumbling, small pieces of concrete fell from the ceiling. They walked over sand, small rocks, branches and mud. Pushing people away while looking for the hooded man, they looked down seeing spare dollars laying on the ground. Tyler, in the corner of his eye, saw someone wearing a dark colored hood and out of instinct pushed them as they stumbled forwards. The duo looked at the person and saw that it was somebody different. Tyrell let out a deep sigh as he stepped in front of Tyler.
"Sorry, my bad, we're rushing through to find someone-" He put his hands together in a praying manner, looking at what supposedly was a grown man the same height as him. The boy, wearing a face mask, thick green colored clothes like a hoodie and sweatpants looked at them. For just a moment, it seemed like the room went silent as the stranger looked them both in their eyes. Tyrells heart almost skipped a beat out of anxiety. The hood he was wearing covered most of his face, but he saw a piece of what could be a scar, on his right cheek going all the way down in a slithering motion behind the mask.
"It's okay. I understand." The stranger said, walking away and disappearing into the crowd with his hands tucked into his hoodie. Once again, the ground shook as the people happily cheered while looking down. Tyrell and Tyler took a few steps forward pushing someone out of the way to see what was happening, it was an exceptionally big hole in the ground, 40 feet deep down from the crowd standing behind the barrier and 100 feet wide. There were banners all around the arena-like hole, there were blood splatters all over the walls and stone floor.
"It's... almost like a colosseum." Tyrell looked up at Tyler again, his face made this worried expression he only got when violence was involved.
"Like a-a what?"
"A place the romans used to fight each other. Often to the death." Just as Tyrell finished his sentence, a loud bellow could be heard. They both looked down, a large ankole cattle bull laying on the ground and struggling to get up. A man wearing a grey tracksuit swiftly approached the bull, he looked torn up. Bruises could be seen all over him, he ran towards the bull and got on his knees to grab its neck trying to support it so it could get on its feet faster.
"Oh! Looks like bull-boy took a big hit! What will Primate do in response?! This one-on-one is getting interesting y'all." A commentator wearing a suit and bow tie was reacting to the fight on a highly built platform above the arena. He smiled, looking down at the match with the microphone in hand. A big-eyed, little brown monkey was sitting on his shoulder, it was a tarsier. Loud pounding sounds filled the zoo from the middle of the arena, a silverback gorilla twice the size of a normal human, was pounding its chest and exposing its teeth, excessively grunting. The other contestant wearing a V-neck and shorts walked past the gorilla waving to the people watching smiling.
"Bull-boy and primate? What kind of dumb nicknames are those?" Tyler said snickering and looking at Tyrell.
"I don't know, but I have a feeling they're not meant to be funny." His face was serious, filled with concern for their safety. The spectators cheered and clapped. Bull-boy angrily stomped his foot on the ground as the bull finally got on its legs and ready to charge, stamping its feet and shaking its head wildly. Primate stared him down and laughed.
"Ready for round two, are we? Well, I guess we could give them some more entertainment." Primate said as he carefully cracked his neck and got into a fighting position. Both arms in front of him, chin on his neck, knees lightly bent. Giving off a professional boxer's stance. Bull-boy started running towards Primate and his gorilla, the bull charged towards them as well at a faster pace. As they got closer, Bull-boy side stepped to the right, proceeding to jump up on his bull. Once in close enough range, the gorilla grabbed the bull by its gigantic horns, getting pushed back but still standing its ground. A large dust cloud would swoop up due to the impact, Bull-boy took advantage of this and jumped up through the dust cloud, putting his leg up and attempting to kick it back down onto his opponent's head. He brought his foot down, but was stopped, the contact of the attack dispersed the dust. Primate could be seen with one arm slightly above his forehead, having blocked the attack. His eyes would dart up to look at Bull-boy, he deeply breathed in and pulled back his arm, clenching his fist and throwing a punch towards Bull-boy's torso. In less than half of a second, it would travel through the warm air in the arena. As the punch landed, Bull-boy got pushed back by it as well landing badly on his foot stumbling backwards. Primate took his chance as he saw it immediately, dashing forwards and throwing multiple punches at him. As they connected, he got hit on his chin, chest and in his stomach. He fell down to his knees, Primate crouched down and turned his head.
"Had enough yet?" He asked waving his hand in front of his face. Bull-boy coughed and spat blood out of his mouth as he started breathing painfully. The gorilla, still holding the bull by the horns, threw it to the side and swung viciously towards its head as it fell down. The silverback repeatedly slammed its wide, heavy arms down on the bull as it threw up blood the next moment. Bull-boy looked up, slowly losing consciousness but still holding on.
"N-No-" Just as he answered, Primate kicked him in his neck, knocking him down to the ground as he lost consciousness. Tyrell yelped, seeing their bodies laying on the floor. A light red aura came out of Bull-boy's body as it traveled to his bull, covering it and slowly making it disappear into it. Primate put both his fists up, the crowd went wild once again, his gorilla pounded its chest again making deep sounding grumbles with its mouth. A bright yellow aura covered both of them, floating towards each other making the silverback vanish. A small screen on the railing was displaying information about the animals that were used in the fight.
"Alright y'all, that concludes today's fifth match. To the people who bet on the winner of this battle, your money is ready for you, hand in your zoo-ticket at the cage. Two men in reflective jackets and pants, wearing construction helmets rushed into the arena from the one of the two entrances beneath Tyrell and Tyler.
"That was...Absolutely horrible. Using your anima as a weapon to fight for money." Tyrell's eyes were wide open, he gulped back his tears as he felt horrible for what they were doing in this place. He held his hand on his heart, stepping back from the railing. Tyler saw how upset he got at the sight of the fight just now, stretching out his hand to comfort him. Before he was able to touch him, he saw the hooded figure from before slowly making his way through the crowd towards the other side of the room.
"Shit, there he is! I know now's not the best time, but we have to go." Tyler grabbed Tyrell's hand and ran with him through the horde of people. There was another wooden double door at the other end of the zoo, which the hooded figure took advantage of, kicking it open and looking back to see the two boys running after him. He proceeded to slam the doors shut. Tyler grabbed one of the doorknobs and quickly opened the door, but as they stepped out the hooded man had disappeared. Tyler, infuriated with the fact that they had lost sight of him, punched the wall next to them with his right fist. As he stood there, breathing heavily, blood drippled down his knuckles and hand. Tyrell shivered at the sight of his bloodied fist but still moved over to him.
"Tyler, let's go. We can talk about it another time. Right now, we just need to get your hand fixed. The WMC isn't far from here, maybe I can get my dad to bandage you up a bit." Tyler nodded his head, the two started walking away from the zoo towards the center of the city. As they kept walking on quietly, Tyler held his right arm close to his body and avoided eye contact with Tyrell. They passed Critter Park, The Mall and arrived at the hospital in less than an hour, the sun started to set. It was a big building with about 10 floors, it had multiple colors fazing into each other painted all over, bouncing what was left of the sunlight off of the building. The building was surrounded by flowers and medicinal herbs. As they entered the hospital, a nurse waved at them and stood up from her chair behind the counter.
"Hello! Welcome to the Wildlife Medical Center, my name is Gledis, how may I help you today?"
"Hey, you're new huh?"
"Indeed, I am! How'd you know?"
"There aren't enough bags under your eyes. Anyways we need a little help. My friend has a wound on his right hand." Tyrell said.
"Is your friend an anima user?"
"No, but we'd like to visit the anima department."
"Ah I see. Well, if he's not then he has to wait."
"My dad works there, I just wanted to see him really quickly. His name is Josiah Jonathan." Tyrell said, calmly leaning over the counter. Tyler looked around the room they were in, he saw two people sitting on the waiting room chairs covered in adhesive plasters and bandages. It was a mother and her son, they had bandages on multiple parts pf their body, but what stood out most were the little pieces of feather left over in their hair. Tyler narrowed his eyes, the feathers looked awfully familiar.
"Oh, you're mister J's son? He's in his office on the third floor. I'll tell him that I sent you two up right away."
"Thank you, ma'am. Let's go Ty." He grabbed him by his nape and walked to the elevator, they went in as Tyrell pressed the button.
"So, how long has it been since you visited your dad while he's at work?" Tyler asked smiling, trying to lighten up the mood.
"It's been a few years. There's a new secretary now, which means Bella got fed up with all the bullshit happening in this place, she probably let too much get to her. But it doesn't matter."
"Is it really that rough for the people that work here?" The elevator reached the third floor, the doors opened after Tyler's question. As they stepped out, 3 nurses and a doctor's assistant ran out of the hospital room with a heavily injured person laying on a stretcher, there was a large open wound on the side of her head, scratch marks on her torso and neck. The nurses were sweating with blood all over their gloves, facemasks and aprons. The assistant wiped the sweat away from his forehead, taking off his own gloves and throwing them away while stiffly trying to breathe. The patient, now shaking with blood coming out of her mouth, made loud gurgling noises, her eyes went up into her head as the only thing other could see now was the white color of her Sclera. Droplets of blood fell on the floor, Tyrell looked down and started paying attention as to how he was breathing.