The weather was perfect in the neighborhood. Calm as a chess game. An orange sun set in the distance. It was like this for 10,347 days in a row. Of course, peace didn’t make it to every corner of the suburb. A battle raged around the ancient chess table of Joker park.

Tenner, Jesse and Silent Hop were tied in a Stardestructor match to the death.

Tenner knew from the bottom of his heart the game would have ended a long time ago had he not wanted to spice things up -- he was devouring a sandwich and had dropped his cards on the table for Jesse and Silent Hop to see what he’d drawn.

He had a single thing on his mind: to win against Jesse with a two-round disadvantage. Well, after he threw away the sandwich bag and outmaneuvered Jesse’s powerful blitz, winning his second round, another thing popped up -- to make sure everyone, from the card freaks like him to the girls, would hear it.

Lastly, he started planning, in advance, how he would celebrate a 31-game winning streak.

While he was stuck in this place, Stardestructor and destroying everyone at it, and showing everyone how good he was, took the crown of the most important thing in life.

“Hop, deal us up.”

Jesse emptied the last Sugary Death drops into his mouth and crushed the can. Jewelry, stolen from the homes of old folk, jangled around his wrists and neck.

Silent Hop dropped all the cards into his black cowboy hat. He made a few strange growls, a squeak and started shuffling. Jesse stared at the cards, ready to point out anything suspicious.

When Tenner taught Jesse Stardestructor, he’d made sure the kid wouldn’t trust a card freak, no matter what. It was a shame, now. Inspecting every move Silent Hop made. Suspecting that innocent poor fool. The kid didn’t trust the wrong person.

Even after spending so long with Tenner, Jesse couldn’t begin to imagine the extent of his cheats and tricks.

Yes, Tenner would win this game even if it meant disagreeing with the rulebook… A little.

What can I say? Victory is victory and it doesn’t matter how you get it.

Silent Hop finished dealing. Jesse leaned in, focused on his cards. He turned down the pill-shaped radio on the corner of the table that was distracting him. And Tenner snapped. Something in his blood caught fire -- he slapped the kid’s hand away, cranking the music back to max.

The kid grabbed his flushed hand and turned to Tenner in terrified confusion.

Tenner growled, but inside, shame nagged at him. At that moment, Jesse looked like him and his own hand looked like father’s. And the thought of becoming anything like that scum made his skin crawl.

Drowning out those thoughts, Tenner focused on the heavy riffs and flowing bass.

Once he escaped from this place, the radio would play his voice and it would help others like these songs helped him. It was the final way to be certain he wouldn’t end up like his family -- doing the complete opposite they did.

Tenner inspected his cards. Jesse dropped his entire set on the table.

Destructor time? Well, it’s out of my hands and into luck’s.

Stardestructor had two modes: Fighter and Destructor. In the first, players got their set and battled. Only when two cards got into a fight, their unit was revealed. A deceitful fight to the death. The other type of round was as simple as it could possibly be: everyone around the table got their cards and placed them. Who had the best cards won. A filthy display of pure luck.

“Heads or tails?” Tenner flipped the coin -- his chance to change to Fighter.

“Heads.”

In defeat, Tenner and Hop placed their cards. Round four went to Jesse’s incredible draw. He needed one more to win the game. Tenner needed two for victory, but with a trick up his sleeve, one would be enough for him as well.

He collected the cards and shuffled them at astronomical speeds. He couldn’t lose this round. He’d bet his lunch money for the week. He’d bet his pride, fighting against his accomplice.

“What’s the holdup, Dealer Lee Roth?”

The cards between his hands did a set of tricks and started going to each of the players.

The round began in silence. Fighter.

Cards were placed and moved into formations and battles ravaged the board. Jesse won the round’s first two fights. Tenner turned on Hop and eliminated half of his deck. Jesse joined in and took down the rest. Tenner backstabbed Jesse, leaving one card in both their sets. Jesse revealed his blue jester and grabbed the die. Following, Tenner unveiled his black ten. The die gave the kid a six. He grinned and tossed it to Tenner, who rolled and stared at the result.

“You suck, but I can’t lie -- you do have some good luck.”

A twelve. Relief washed over Tenner. Hop was out of the game and responded with a cacophony of weird sounds. Guaranteed victory. He collected Fighter’s aftermath and tossed the deck to Jesse.

The kid finished dealing. Tenner checked the seven cards he’d drawn. Mediocre, again. Today, my luck is as good as a band on its twelfth album.

Tenner took a new card out of his pocket.

“What’s that?” Jesse pointed.

Tenner flipped the card so the decoration faced the kid. “Could I replace the queen I drew with this?”

While Jesse’s eyes widened, Hop stuttered a “damn.”

Naked women never fail to capture guys’ attention, Tenner thought, juggling an entire set out of the sleeve no one was looking at. And the first rule of cheating cards never fails`.

He replaced his cards and snuck the old ones into his faded sneakers.

“Where’d you get this?” Jesse asked.

“And how much it’d cost?” Hop added and amazed Jesse as much as the lady of luck had.

Tenner visited the neighborhood’s pawnshop like mad people visited the church. Every time, new records appeared there, as well as… investments, as he called them. This card in particular had cost a fortune and a half, but it would make him riches in a thousand different ways.

“I don’t remember. I just wanna know if I can use it,” he said.

A moment later, the kids returned from their lovestruck gazes. Jesse shook his head.

“There’s lots and lots of stuff you could be hiding in it,” he said. “What if you don’t even have a queen?”

Smart. With a trick, Tenner made the card disappear from his grip. Satisfied, Jesse placed all his cards at once. Out of instinct, Tenner’s hands reached for the coin. The tip of his fingers touched the coin and froze. “Dumbass has a chance of winning in Fighter and you have six aces and a nine, an almost perfect set,” dad would say and he’d be right. Let Destructor continue. Show him the power of the greatest.

Tenner put everything down and they both flipped their cards over.

“How’s it feel losing absolutely, absolutely everything?” Jesse said.

He had six aces. And a nine.

A string broke in Tenner’s heart. No, the whole damn thing tore in half. First, he tried counting the odds then he searched for a trace of a mischievous grin on Jesse’s face, or something that could’ve distracted him. There was nothing to be found -- the kid actually drew these.

Jesse tossed him the die to decide the game. Tenner swallowed the shock and did a ritual of luck, hoping the intense rolling of the few previous Fighters hadn’t shaved off an edge and that it would fairly give him the victory.

An eight.

Jesse rolled a ten.

***

Life left Tenner. His hands dropped to the chessboard, eyes closed and head throbbed. The light from the sun disappeared and the warm music from the radio faded. Only an avalanche of utter shit remained.

Some bad losses had whooped his backside in the past.

Back when he was a kid, spectating the games going on between bigger students of the neighborhood’s school, he learned the rules, caught the patterns and, most importantly, understood a key principle of Stardestructor -- to never bet everything on a round unless it was failsafe.

Now he had to throw that principle out of the window. Any math teacher would’ve told him he would win. And still…

“Admit it, deep down you suck.” Jesse counted the prize. “Should have never taught me your tricks. The amount of stuff I’ll buy with this could make even your grandma jealous.”

The horrors back home, if Tenner came back with no food and no money, distracted him from the pinnacle of smugness he sat in front of. In fact, nowhere in the neighborhood would be safe once the card freaks found out he’d lost his streak against Jesse.

I have to get the money… Get my streak back… I’d do anything…

The good memories of meeting Jessie, five years younger than him, smashing school windows and sounding fire alarms, kept Tenner from using dad’s signature solution.

Tenner took a deep breath, scheming of ways to save his ass. The time had come to pull an old classic. Another deep breath. He put his hand under the table.

“I can’t lose, but the principal can wake up in the morning and find out who destroyed his school.”

“That’s in the past,” Jesse said, “and in the present... this money’s mine.”

Tenner’s right hand ran up his short, but messy hair. “You know why I couldn’t lose.” His right crawled into his sneaker. “Aren’t these the cards you actually drew?”

Jesse’s expression twisted. “Wha-”

“No need to explain yourself. The whole neighborhood knows. You know. What happens to cheaters.” Father’s words flowed out of Tenner. He’d already started so there was no need to stop. And they felt pretty good, anyway. “Now, I get what I want or you get what no one does.” He stood up. He extended a hand. And he nodded.

Jesse stared in fear. A flash later, he was running out of the park, to the streets. Hiding the cards, Tenner climbed over the table. “Come on. Fifty of your steps is like one of mine!” He chased.

A wide avenue, going towards the high-rises on the horizon, slashed the suburb in half. The sight of the city filled Tenner with the same feelings as the music: electricity flowing from his ears to his heart. Before he noticed, the thought of making it there and seeing the world outside the boundaries of the neighborhood sent his body into overdrive.

Tenner caught up to Jesse. Then a sunbeam blinded him. Tenner closed his eyes and grabbed around the darkness, and… An electric thunder crashed. Blue waves appeared in the air ahead. He collapsed to the asphalt.

As Tenner writhed on the ground, the taste of dirt filled his mouth. He spat and wiped his lips with one hand while the other blocked his ears. He focused his scattered mind to fight the twitching in every muscle.

The feeling brought him back to past years, being the test dummy for the neighborhood’s bullies, getting thrown into the barrier. This invisible wall, wrapped around the neighborhood. It never opened. For no one. Every kid who explore knew there wasn’t a single passage through. It just stood there, keeping Tenner away from his hopes and locked with a town of villains who’d slaughter him if not for Stardestructor. And getting thrown at it fucking hurt.

Back when he was a kid, he couldn’t walk for a week after being thrown into the barrier. But after years of torture, Tenner thanked the bullies. The barrier changed his body. It spawned an ability to tap into any muscle, make it do anything he could imagine.

Jesse looked down at him.

“Listen... I won fair. Whenever you win, you keep the prize -- it’s my money now. No need to go psycho when you lose once in a while…”

Should’ve run when the eyes of a knife weren’t looking at you, in his thoughts, Tenner repeated a phrase he’d heard at home after a night of screams.

Then he focused. He connected to every muscle in his body, using a large part of his energy. Then he made them twitch, tremble, jirate, flop.

Bullets of fear riddled Jesse. Stifling a scream, the kid backed away.

Tenner, once again, felt his muscles. His calves, hamstrings and back flexed at once, sending him a meter into the air. Jesse screamed his lungs out. He dashed away. Tenner landed on his feet and started after the kid.

But the kid didn’t look where he was going: he tripped into a sewage grate.

Unable to handle a lifetime of burgers and Sugary Deaths, it shattered.

A scream echoed in the dungeon below.

***

Tenner knelt by the hole in the road, head throbbing, stomach turning. His move brought him to the verge of death, but the adrenaline after Jesse’s fall rejuvenated him enough to stare into the pit and make him mutter to himself,

“Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit…”

“What... scared of some sewer, loser?” Jesse’s voice echoed from below

Those words pushed the pain into the back of Tenner’s head. His face grew red -- he looked for faint details in the depths of the sewer.

Water can easily break the fall of an eleven-year-old, but it might break both my legs… Still, a better fate than losing my money and my streak… And it’s not even that deep.

Everything inside pushed him to jump, but deep-rooted evolutionary protection stopped him from taking another step. He’d done unreasonable things and because of that protection--common sense, really--he never went too far.

But too far was the only way forward, now.

His lungs used up the last of his breath. He bit his lip. His heartbeat resonated through his whole body. For the first time in forever, he begged, unfreeze me. Let me fall.

A strong wind blew across his face.

A deep stream of sewage submerged him.

A moment later, the shock unleashed its grip. He swam to the surface, catching a breath.

The sewer was spacious, its brick walls covered in green muck and faded maps. On the right walkway beside the stream, valves stood every dozen steps. Behind one hid Jesse.

“You’re not… scared… whatsoever…”

A different air befell the dungeon: the moment fear morphed into the energy fueling a run for one’s life. Tenner clambered out of the sewage. Careful not to slip, soaked blue jeans and flannel shirt slowing him down even more, he jogged after and beat on the walls. Tenner had no clue where this would end. Most likely, they’d run in circles until the very last drop of adrenaline left Jesse. Until the meat was ready.

A morbid grin formed on Tenner’s face. Atrocious? Yes, but it was what the kid deserved for-- Don’t think about it! he interrupted himself, speeding up. Can’t turn back anyway, so what’s the point! Without using his parents’ strategies, he wouldn’t live to see the day when his voice helped millions.

In the end, he was still in control, still had his thoughts, and that’s what mattered.

Deeper in the sewer, darkness washed everything. Only a dozen meters ahead, the kid was gone from Tenner’s sight. Then he screamed.

The neighborhood needs a drama theater. Tenner grunted, grabbing his ears. There’s gotta be a place for him to scream his lungs out-- With tears in his eyes, Jesse crashed into Tenner. Tenner’s hands dropped to the kid’s shoulders. Jesse pushed away and darted back to where they came from.

You’re not getting out of here without giving me my money back! Tenner stopped, facing the darkness. And you’re not getting out by yourself.

But that thing that scared you? It might just disappear.

A torch came into view.

***

Off the moldy walls, rumbles echoed and Tenner tensed. Once the flames of the torch were close, his fists rose.

“One more time: this is my domain,” a hobo spoke with a slur. His hands held a burning plank that illuminated his twisted beard, a dirty face and a black device--with a small blue light--on his eyebrow. “What are you doing in my domain?!”

“An evening run, some fraud and a swim,” Tenner responded. Look at yourself. If you had a mirror down here, you wouldn’t be screaming at me, he added in his head and continued. “I don’t know where I am nor who you are.”

“Words like that could get you killed by the wrath of a thousand beasts!” the man said. “For I am the greatest dungeon keeper the world has ever seen! Indeed, my keep might seem humble, but fate has it that I will save the world and destroy the evil queen!”

So, Jesse got scared by a mad hobo, Tenner thought, backing off. Yes, the hobo had a terrifying look, but behind it was just a hobo. Weak. Disoriented. Nothing to fear.

“We shall fight to the death,” the man proclaimed. “For you have caused a great disturbance.”

Tenner frowned. With a trick, a card appeared in his left. The homeless man’s madness turned to confusion for a moment. Then on his face landed the strongest slap Tenner could muster.

Either get first blood or be the first to run. Before Tenner could retract his hand, the hobo swung the burning plank.

Tenner bent backward, avoiding it by centimeters. He could smell the burning strands of his hair. Fighting this madman with a weapon wasn’t at all thought out, but a fight is a fight and those don’t start from too much thinking.

Tenner tried another slap. The hobo grabbed the hand and tried biting. Shocked at the genius strategy, he broke out of the hobo’s mouth. Bash his nose or back off? Why not both!

A beat later, the hobo, swaying, swinging, jumping over each valve in his path, approached.

He doesn’t look that stable. I need one shot.

The plank swung past Tenner’s left ear.

He grabbed it, punched the man in the jaw then hit his knees with the plank.

According to plan, the hobo fell, the back of his head landing on a metal stump.

Knocked out? The momentum throbbed in his veins. Gotta make sure! He thrust the plank into the man’s face. A second before impact, the hobo gasped and sprung forth. Two forces combined into something a bit stronger than a simple bop -- his face crashed through the plank. Blood splattered on the walls and floors. Pieces of brain and skull flew everywhere.

Tenner’s jaw dropped.

Then, he smeared blood from his hands. Streams of it flowed from the corpse into the sewage, dying it dark. Tenner crouched and got the plank out of the man’s head.

The unobstructed view twisted Tenner’s stomach. He stumbled away and puked his guts out.

How am I going to clean this up? How will I explain this?! Tenner wiped his mouth. The neighborhood didn’t have its own cops, only a people-enforced set of unspoken rules. If anyone found out, the looks in the streets, the murmurs in the school hallways would… set him apart, teach no one to-- awful. The consequences would be awful, and he forced himself to believe, killing was too.

Tenner handled the second glance way better. In fact, only the sight turned his guts upside down -- the smell of blood transported his mind to the knife room back home.

The apparatus on the homeless man’s eyebrow remained unscathed. Brow raised, Tenner tried grabbing it. The thing refused to come off. He put his second hand to work. The skin on what remained of the hobo’s face almost ripped off along with the device. The apparatus was a square shape with a flickering blue light. Perhaps when it turned on it morphed so it could be a mini radio or a flashlight, or some sort of TV.

Tenner wondered why a hobo would have such a thing. There was a way to figure it out. He put the device in front of his face and held it for a moment. It seemed to flicker faster. He took a deep breath and put it on.

The device bleeped.

Its light turned yellow.

The pain of a nuke went off inside Tenner’s face. It entered his veins, using them to reach every limb. His whole body burned at the same rhythm as his heart. Flashes of heat and cold came all while sweat covered his skin. At once, the sounds and the feelings stopped.

Tenner gasped for air and sat, his back to the wall, beside the hobo’s corpse. They both must’ve been feeling the same.

[Error: biometrics not recognized.]

A holographic screen appeared in his vision.

[Trying again… No system matches found.]

[Initializing a new account.]

W-what? Is this what they mean when they say shock and stress can really screw with your mind?

[Welcome to the CHEK system!]

[Name: Tenner

Username: ---

Class: ---

Money: 12C$

LVL: 1

LVL EXP: 14

BP: --

Intelligence: 4

Charisma: 3

Luck: 8 (+1)

Eyesight: 6

Reaction: 4

(-)Dexterity: 4

(-)Stealth: 3

(-)Strength: 2]

[Congratulations! Minor public bounty claimed: killed Devon Dungeon; Reward: +12C$ | (?)]

[Congratulations! LVL Up; Reward: +1 Luck; Classes]

[Congratulations! Gained perk: Fate Is My Weapon I]