Looking over I see a familiar-looking shirtless man with camo pants along with three other guys, not quite his size but bigger than me, getting out of a vehicle. They held improvised weapons. A pipe, two-by-four, and a beer bottle. Camo-pants started yelling as soon as he got out of the car, “You cheap ass mother fucker, you think you can do that to me and get away with it. I’m going to fuck you up and get my money.”

I blink and when my vision is cut off I speed up my thought process.

SHIT! What? Nobody has ever tried to jump me after a fight! What the fuck!! Is it because of the way I beat him? That was my first time fighting someone like that but it’s a street fight, anything goes.

He mentioned money, maybe if I offer him all of mine he will leave me alone? I doubt it, he doesn’t seem like the type of guy to do that. More like take the money, then fight me anyways. I’ve never fought this many people at once. I would run but I’m still in this shit area that I’m not familiar with and they probably know it far better than me. If I have to fight them then I need to get the pipe from that guy. With that, even with my smaller size, I should be able to inflict a good amount of damage to them.

Opening my eyes I turn my perception up to fifty percent so I don’t burn through my energy supply too fast. Camo-pants is in front while the other three are hanging back. They will probably jump in if I start winning or if I try to run. So I guess there is no point in fighting him since I’ll have to fight the others either way.

Reaching back I pull the money out of my backpack side pocket and toss it to camo pants. He instinctively catches the wad and gets hit in the face with the backpack that I threw, not long after the money.

With that second of disorientation, I rush past his left side heading for the guy with the pipe. He swings it not at my head but my neck. Unable to see it completely when it reaches my chin, I move my upper body back a couple of inches making sure I don’t get hit. The swing misses me and as it travels away from me I grab it with my right hand. Its momentum pulls me to the right of course and I let it take me. I throw a hook with my left hand, palm open so I don’t break my knuckles. Using the momentum of his swing to help power my blow, the heel of my palm connects with his chin twisting his neck.

I feel the pipe slip out of his grip but my blow didn’t knock him out as his legs didn’t collapse.

Shit, just like I thought. I don’t have the knockout power, that’s why I chose to kick camo-pants in the head to knock him out in our first fight.

Out of the corner of my right eye, I see the two-by-four headed my way. Leaning to the left and twisting my body I just miss it. Now facing the guy with the two-by-four I can see a beer bottle heading my way.

I whip my hand with the pipe smashing the bottle and sending shards of glass at two-by-four. Some of the glass comes my way so I ducked down dodging it. I hear it hit the road all around me.

I’ve got to watch out for the leftover glass, Shit, he’s gonna.

BAM! Camo-pants has me in a bear hug, tackling me to the ground. The worst part is my arm with the pipe was by my side after my swing so it is now pinned against me. With me being unable to hit him with the pipe I couldn’t do anything but brace for impact against the road. I lift my left arm out in front of me, away from my left side, so it doesn’t get pinned against the road.

Slamming onto the ground I felt small shards of glass dig into my left side.

Dammit is this fucking guy stupid? He is going to get glass in him too. Wait, GLASS!

I used my left arm which he hadn’t pinned to grab the biggest piece of the beer bottle I could find and dig it into the backside of his left shoulder. It cut my hand as I dug it in. He yelled at me in pain while I used the opportunity to break free from his grip using my pinned right arm to push off and away from him. I get almost fully upright before I feel something flat slam into my lower back throwing me forward to the ground once again.

As I hit the ground I force myself to tuck into a roll to see behind me.

Dammit, I thought I took care of the fucking guy.

Looking back I saw that two-by-four was on the ground with his hands over his eyes screaming. However, the one who threw the bottle had run over and grabbed the two-by-four, slamming it into my back. Despite the pain, I use the momentum of my roll to lift myself up to a standing position.

With the pipe still in my hand, I lunged forward dodging his second blow and countering with a pipe to his temple, dropping him. Before he hit the ground the original owner of the pipe grabbed me from my right side, lifting me up into the air as he ran until he slammed me into the side of the vehicle they came in. I felt the glass dig further in as I slammed into the vehicle causing pain to shoot through me.

“FUCK!”

My right arm with the pipe was still free, so I brought it straight down. It slammed into the side of his knee dropping him to both of his knees giving me the distance I needed to hit his head with the pipe. I brought it across in a backhand motion, digging it into his neck. Then pulling it back and slamming it into his ear. He finally let go of me to block his head, letting me slip free.

After taking a step forward I spin my whole body around to get as much force behind it and slam the pipe into the back of his head. He fell against the car and slid off it, to the side.

“You mother fucker!”

WHAP

WHAP

WHAP

I slammed the pipe into his head a couple more times before turning to camo-pants who was up on his feet but holding his shoulder with glass in it. I clenched my left hand into a fist, feeling the blood from where I had cut myself digging the glass into his shoulder. He also had small glass shards in his forearms from tackling me.

Turning off my perception before I passed out I limp toward him with the pipe in my hand. I had originally turned my perception up only to fifty percent but it had spiked when I got the glass buried in my side, due to the pain.

Shit

He charged at me but didn’t open his arms to grab me. I jumped back and swung the pipe at his temple. I missed it because I couldn’t correct it mid-swing like I could do when I had my perception on. It hit the back of his head with a solid crack but it didn’t drop him. He plowed through me, tossing me to the side a couple of feet while he jumped into the vehicle and drove off. I lay on the ground now unmoving due to the pain. The constant screaming of the guy with glass in his eyes pierced my ears.

Left side had glass. My back had a welt where the two-by-four struck. My knees and legs were bruised up from being tackled, twice. My head ached from slamming into the vehicle.

Rolling over I struggle to my feet and take a deep breath. The guy was still rolling around on the road, screaming.

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!”

I bring the pipe down on him, quieting him with a single strike. After kicking him a couple of times I stood above the unconscious man my heart pounds and my breathing races. Anger pulsated throughout my body.

“I’ll kill him!”

Gripping the pipe tightly I turn back to the direction I came from and begin walking. Gritting my teeth due to the pain caused by every step.

After walking for an unknown amount of time I arrived at the house and saw the vehicle. Which was pulled half in the yard and half in the road with the driver's door still wide open. Walking up to it, it wasn’t running but the keys were still in the ignition. I took the keys out of the ignition, putting them in my pocket. As I walked down the side of the house to the back where the fight was held earlier, I heard shouting.

“He is fucking crazy! I think he killed one of my guys and might have killed the rest of them by now!”

Aaron's voice shouted back, “What you just left them? No, I don’t give a fuck, that’s your problem! I’m not the one who jumped him and took his money. Just let it go and get the fuck off my property!”

“You can’t be serious! He fucking stabbed me! Now let me in and help me stitch this up.”

That’s when I rounded the corner, taking off into a full sprint straight for camo pants. He was still facing Aaron so I used the opportunity to jump and kick the glass shard deeper into his shoulder. Being hit with my full body weight while not expecting it, he was pushed to the side falling to the ground.

I pounded on him with the pipe. He covered his head but I wasn’t going to knock him out. No, I was going to make him suffer! The pipe made a dull thumping sound every time it hit his ribs, legs, and arms. I kept beating on him only able to see red.

Yelling he tossed the money to my feet, “You can have it! Take it! No, STOP!”

I kept hitting him. Not caring about the money.

Click.

The sound of a gun’s hammer locking back snapped me out of my fury. Looking over at the gun Aaron pointed at me I grimaced. “So you did send him!”

Aaron looked at me shaking his head, “You think I sent him to jump you? And you then came back to my place……with a pipe? Are you fucking stupid?”

“Don’t try and trick me! You’re protecting him right now!”

“Yeah, because I’m not going to let you kill someone, on my property! That would put me in a world of trouble. I’ll make you a deal, if you let him go I’ll patch you up so you can go back home to your mommy and daddy.”

Looking back to camo-pants laying on the ground I held the pipe ready to strike. “Mother fucker!” I lowered the pipe and reached down picking up my money, then walked into Aaron’s house. “I’m keeping the pipe.”, I said as I passed by Aaron. Letting him know just in case he planned to try anything.

Sitting down at his table I took off my shirt. Aaron said something to camo-pants and then shut the door locking it behind him before he could say something back. Aaron then went into a room. I sat there at the table holding my blood-soaked shirt, looking around his house. It was strange. Compared to the outside the inside of his house looked so clean it was almost sparkling.

Aaron came out of the room with a box. He then dropped it on the table and looked at me, “Alright. The money please.” He said this while putting his hand out.

“Money?”

“I said I would patch you up, I never said I would do it for free.”

Hmm, I guess it would have been more suspicious if he did it for free anyway. Besides, I really don’t have another option without my Ma finding out. Looking away from him I tossed a couple of bills on the table. He then grabbed them, put them in his pocket, and stood there.

You son of a bitch. I took a couple more bills and threw them on the table. He once again grabbed them, this time saying “Great! Now to clean up your mess.”

He opened the box pulling out a bottle of alcohol and tweezers. “Alright turn, first I need to get the glass out of your side. Oh and don’t be a pussy.”

“Why.”

He then pressed an alcohol-covered cloth against my side. It burned, but not as bad as I had expected.

“Hmph, you’re no fun. Didn’t even scream.” He then proceeded to dig out the glass with tweezers and a needle. “Were there really three of them. The guys who attacked you?”

There were four counting camo pants but three might already sound crazy enough. I don’t want him spreading any rumors about me doing something superhuman if it could be considered that.

“Yes but one just threw a bottle and ran.”

“What’s up with you and people throwing bottles? Either way, to think your scrawny little ass survived that and came back for more!” he began laughing almost uncontrollably. “Ha-ha, and—and, after all of that, you thought you could just waltz up to the guy responsible for sending three guys after you, with just a pipe. Honestly your lucky I didn’t have anything to do with it. I would have just shot you since you decided to hand yourself to me.”

I couldn't tell if he was being serious or not. So I just stared at him cautiously. After about thirty minutes he was done with my side and poured alcohol on my cut hand.

Looking at him I question his work with my gaze.

“Listen if you can do better have at it. Now that I’ve done you a favor do one for me.”

“Favor? I paid you.”

“That’s beside the point. Don’t go around telling people what happened. They might think I fix my fights and it would ruin my great reputation.”

“You call that a reputation?”

“I take pride in my work, thank you. I’ll even throw in this jacket.” He tossed a jacket over to me and I caught it.

Afterward, a whiff of horrible stench comes from it. I throw it to the ground, “Yeah, I’ll pass.” I walk out the front door putting my shirt back on, and the vehicle was gone.

Did he hotwire his own car? I begin to walk back down the road.

“If you go down that one it will take you to the same area.”

I look back and see Aaron pointing to a road a little left of the one I was going to head down. Like I would trust him that much. I’ll stick to what I know thank you. I continue walking the way I was going.

“Have fun running into the cops then.”

I snap my head back to Aaron, only to see his door shut. I look back at the roads. The cops might be at the spot where all the guys were left in the road. Camo-pants could have picked them up before that happened, but. Dammit. I reluctantly turn and walk down the road Aaron suggested.

Fucking asshole. I do my best to walk as fast as I can since I don’t know how long this road will be.

Weaving through the houses I make my way back to mine, slowly. Everything hurt and the pain slowed me considerably, but it didn’t hinder any of my movements completely, surprisingly. I rounded the last corner of a house and my back door was now in view.

“The fuck?”

I did take a long time to make it back to the house but not long enough that my Ma would be home. So why the fuck would the back door be open. Even if Ma did come home early she wouldn’t leave the door open like that.