“I can’t do anything with this,” the repair tech said. She popped her gum and pushed the broken headset across the metal counter. “CPU’s fucked, motherboard is snapped, and the data chip is broken. Thing looks like it was burned.” She chewed loudly and brushed a lock of pink hair behind her ear. “The battery is still good though. I’ll buy it for ten credits.”

  “You can’t do anything?” Owen swallowed. He glanced at a smirking Sensei Dan, who stood with his arms crossed. He promised to leave Owen alone while he searched for someone to repair the CTD and get Dan out of his head. In return Owen would give him four hours of uninterrupted training. “Do something, please. Even if it doesn’t look great, I don’t care. I need this running and I got the credits.” He wasn’t certain the CTD held the answer to his problem, but if it put Dan in his head it might be able to take him out.

  “Can’t do anything with it.” She popped her gum again and Owen flinched. “I fix tech, not make miracles. Get going, you’re holding up the line.” She waved Owen away and he left the One Stop Tech Repair Shop. Their ads said they could fix anything which wasn’t true at all because he still had a karate teacher stuck in his mind!

  “It’s for the best,” Sensei Dan said. “The CTD is useless after it’s used anyway.”

  “Why’d you let me spend all morning looking for a repair tech?”

  “You never would have believed me. I can guide you to the water, Owen, but only you can take a sip.” Sensei Dan stood with his hands on his hips with an expression on his face like he said something profound.

  “So this is garbage.” Owen’s stomach bubbled. “Who makes a one use tool?” A piece of shit. No wonder they didn’t survive the collapse.

  “The CTD is a means to an end. It is only meant to transfer the Hardknuckle Dojo training program into a disciple’s mind. Your brain effectively becomes the device after activation. It’s real cutting-edge stuff.” So cutting edge no one heard of it. Not one of the six repair shops Owen tried had ever heard of a CTD or had any understanding of how to repair its unorthodox architecture. “But enough about figuring out things that don’t matter. Toss that junk in the garbage and let’s get to some real training.” He threw a quick combo that ended with a jumping kick that passed through a bike courier’s head. “Where’s your place of reflection?”

  “My what?”

  “Your sanctuary. Your home away from home where you can be with your thoughts. A place of silent beauty unassailed by the unceasing corruption of the modern world.”

  “I don’t have one of those.”

  “Then do you know somewhere quiet that we can train without interruption?”

  “Quiet?” Owen said. “That doesn’t exist.” Life in City Seven came with an unending soundtrack of car horns, screaming, and advertisements. Owen forgot how loud the city was until Dan made him question it. “I know a place that’s secluded if it’s still there.”

  He hadn’t been there for years, but he had a feeling it was still hidden in plain sight. The old Gold Glow mall was one of the last malls built by investor Blake Gold. Gold founded several initiatives to revitalize the low city and stimulate economic growth for the city’s poorer citizens. Owen’s parents worked for the industrialist and met during the mall’s construction. It was funny to think he wouldn’t exist without the Gold Glow Mall.

  Luther always said that if anyone could’ve changed the city, it would’ve been Blake Gold. His wife’s murder-suicide brought Gold’s dream to a screeching halt. It was the only news for a week before the new slaughter ball season started.

  Vandalized statues of Blake Gold and his wife Tessa welcomed citizens to the low city’s finest shopping experience. Cheap food, cheap clothes, and community entertainment were all draws to the shopping center. Graffiti-stained cleaning robots rolled along linoleum floors sucking up garbage and stopping to mop up spilled liquids. Families enjoyed cheap treats in ice cream shops and a chubby kid threw a tantrum in a toy store while his mom begged him to stop.

  The gang that claimed this portion of the Gold Glow was known as the Red Demons. They wore matching red vests covered in patches and their skin was lined with howling demonic faces. Citizens gave them a wide berth, and Gold Glow security agents looked away when the Red Demons were near.

  “Some things don’t change,” Sensei Dan said. “This is your place of reflection?”

  “You wanted somewhere quiet.”

  “Did the definition of quiet change?” Sensei Dan looked around. “Because this isn’t quiet.” He grimaced at a trio of girls screaming in glee as they took a picture with a cardboard standee of Lucas Callahan and his race car.

  “It will be.” Owen made his way through the mall, taking in sights he hadn’t seen since he lived in the Care Facility. Back when he wasn’t so alone in the world. He saw a group of teenagers sitting at a round table drinking oversized cans of EXXXTRA ENERGY BLAST and laughing like they didn’t have a care in the world. The brand of drink was different a few years ago, but everything else was the same down to the chairs they were sitting on.

  “Those were the days,” Dan said. “What I’d give to be fifteen again. Mama July’s sweet ribs and Hardknuckle training all day long. It’s the perfect age to start training you know. You’re not too young to pay attention, and you’re not too old to need bad habits knocked out of you.”

  “This way,” Owen said. If Dan was going to torment him for a few hours it needed to be out of sight. The fine for disturbing the peace was steep and that was the least that could happen to him. Talking to himself and flailing at someone only he could see was a one way ticket to one of Dr. Morris’s Mental Rehabilitation Centers. He’d shuddered at the thought of being strapped to a gurney and having his mind numbed with pills and electro shock until he couldn’t remember who he was. Cured patients of the rehabilitation centers could be found in every corner of the low city muttering to themselves and screaming slurs at passerby.

  He went down a hall filled with shops selling knockoff clothing. The employees stared at their scratchpads, not paying attention to anything beyond the digital world within. He could’ve sprinted up the hall and they wouldn’t have noticed.

  Owen slipped into a service tunnel that saw little use, and then he squeezed between a set of thick pipes that concealed another hall. He activated the light on his scratchpad and walked down the hall flanked by bare concrete walls.

  Owen and his only real friend from the care facility, Mandy, found it during one of their excursions to the mall. They called it the mansion. They kept it between them, a place where they could be alone in a world where privacy was non-existent. And if Owen was right the mansion was still undiscovered after all this time.

  Empty halls greeted Owen as he rounded the corner. Building materials lay abandoned by workers after funding for the mall dried up. Old cans of paint lined bare walls. Still assembled scaffolding stood like the bones of some misshapen beast. Chains hung from the ceiling, waiting for light fixtures that never arrived.

  “It’s like a time capsule,” Sensei Dan said. “Neat!”

  “What’s that?”

  “A little case full of things from the past. Is this your sanctuary?”

  “Not exactly.” Owen took Dan to a nearly completed store and flipped a switch. The lights still worked. The ground was bare concrete and the walls made of exposed drywall and insulation. A stack of BELLY JOY INSTANT NOODLE boxes sat in one corner near a thick sleeping bag. A pair of empty buckets were tucked under a table made from a pair of saw horses and a piece of plywood. The remains of an old cupcake box sat on the makeshift table.

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  “Does someone live here?” Dan asked as he studied the room.

  “No.” Owen looked at a poster taped to a wall. It featured the banned rock group Ego Brainiac playing their instruments in the middle of a firestorm, their faces concealed by the reflective visors of their hazmat suits. The poster was a promotional item included with a purchase of their new album.” Owen felt a smile creep across his face. “The lead singer was arrested for releasing an antigovernmental song a few years back. All Ego Brainiac merchandise was destroyed and now you’ll get a year for even listening to one of their songs. I can’t believe she left it here.”

  “Who?” Dan asked as he walked the area.

  “Amanda.” That wasn’t right. “Mandy. We grew up in the care facility together.” He hadn’t talked about her in years, not that he had anyone to talk to. Just Luther, but he didn’t care about personal shit. “She was always getting into trouble there, so when we found this place she decided to run away. She lived here for a year until she turned eighteen.”

  “What happened to her?”

  “I don’t know. I showed up here on her birthday with cupcake and she was gone. She took most of her stuff. This is exactly how she left it.” Owen remembered how terrified he was of peacekeepers finding her once she turned eighteen. “That was a few years ago. I don’t know if she’s alive or dead. For all I know peacekeepers grabbed her for vagrancy and she’s in the cycle.” Another cog mangled by the ever turning machine of City Seven.

  “Sorry, Owen,” Dan said. “Hard times are rough. But hard times are the best time to get stronger. Hard times create strong men.” He nodded as he strutted around the room. “This isn’t the top of a mountain, but I like the energy. It’s raw! It’ll serve as a respectable dojo once we get everything set up.” He held his hands up and peered through them like a camera lens. “For now get this area cleared out and we can get started.”

  There wasn’t much to move and Owen wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible. Sensei Dan had him warm up with jumping jacks and arm circles, followed by plenty of stretching and a few minutes of jogging in place. Owen thought his heart might pop. He hadn’t moved so much since he played slaughter ball at the care facility.

  “Control your breathing,” Dan said. “Natural stance. Let your heart beat slow.”

  “Alright,” Owen gasped.

  “Yes, Sensei!” Dan shouted. “Rule number one, Owen. Forty pushups.” Dan did every exercise beside Owen. He could do fifteen pushups at a time, followed by agonizing crunches and another round of jogging. “Looking good, Owen! Feel that burn. Hardknuckle doesn’t give back what it takes and right now it’s taking your weakness.” Owen didn’t believe him. Since he put the CTD on he felt nothing but pain. “Good job on the warm up.” Dan gave him a thumbs up.

  “That was the warm up?” Owen shook with fear.

  “Of course. Now we get to the fun stuff. Follow my movements.” Dan took the natural stance and brought his arms close to his body, and then he threw a solid punch. “This is the Hardknuckle straight punch. It is the most basic strike in Hardknuckle karate. You will practice this one hundred times on each side.”

  “What do I punch?”

  “The air.” Dan smirked. “Begin!”

  Owen threw the punches. His form was sloppy and the punches slow. When he got it wrong Dan corrected him, running him through the motion again. He showed him how to rotate his fist at the crux of the punch, how to exhale sharply at the moment of contact. His shoulders burned and his lungs begged him to stop.

  “Enough,” Dan said when Owen reached one hundred passable punches with each fist. His shoulders were on fire and his arms hung like wet noodles. “Not excellent, but not completely terrible. That’s a good thing. This is the worst you’ll ever be. Remember this, my disciple. No man learned to fight in a day. The dojo is where legends are born.” Dan approached a wall and studied it for a moment. “Grab one of those pipes and come here. Carve what I tell you to carve.” Owen did so, his arms aching with each scrape.

  “These are the three principals of Hardknuckle karate,” Dan said when Owen was done. He pointed at the first word. “Courage! The ability to overcome fear in the face of mortal peril.” He pointed to the second word. “Justice! The righting of wrongs against the innocent.” He pointed at the third word. “Strength! The fortitude of your body and mind.” Sensei Dan stood with his hands on his hips. “A Hardknuckle practitioner takes these three tenets to heart. He has courage in difficult moments. He seeks justice for the wronged. And he has the strength to do so. Do you understand?”

  “I think so,” Owen said. Soldiers were courageous for protecting City Seven from her enemies. Peacekeepers dealt in justice. And the ones in power had strength. Those concepts didn’t belong to individuals, they belonged to the city and by extension the elite that ruled it.

  “Enough philosophy.” Dan lifted his arms and raised a knee until it touched his elbow. “Give me a hundred elbow to knee crunches.” Owen started the exercise, moving more uncoordinated than when he threw the punches. “Just as there are three tenets of Hardknuckle Style, there are three components to learning Hardknuckle karate. First are the fundamentals. These techniques are the base of Hardknuckle Style. Second is kata, which simply put, is using these techniques in a pattern. This will allow you to memorize and utilize these techniques. Third is kumite, training against an enemy.”

  “You want me to fight someone?” Owen stopped his knee raises for a second, but a sharp look from Dan got him moving again.

  “I don’t want you to fight anyone.” Sensei Dan looked serious. “The world would be a better place if no one wanted to fight anyone. But I live in a little place called reality. And in reality a man needs to fight.”

  “We have peacekeepers,” Owen said. He expected Dan to hit him. He simply laughed.

  “Peacekeepers.” Sensei Dan shook his head. “Peacekeepers, cops, deputies, law enforcement officers. At best well meaning servants of the court, at worst power hungry maniacs that use their station to abuse those they are sworn to protect. That’s who you want ensuring your personal protection?”

  “The peacekeepers keep order.”

  “Really?” Dan got close to Owen. “Then why are there gangs running the streets? Why are there terrorist groups recruiting unsuspecting people into their war? You were so scared of going to their prison that you’d do anything to pay that fine. Why did you get that fine?”

  “I crossed government approved ad space. Citizens aren’t allowed to stand there.”

  “They told you where to stand?” Sensei Dan scoffed. “They threatened to imprison you for standing somewhere? Does that sound like justice to you, Owen? There used to be a group of people that did that. They told their citizens where to stand, how to act, what they could talk about. Do you know how that ended? No? With millions of human beings slaughtered. That’s how it always ends.”

  “Callahan Industries keeps the citizens safe.” Owen said. It was the lesson drilled into him since he was a child. The peacekeepers were there for his safety. The Callahans cared about the city. The Callahans saved millions from the collapse. They managed the city because they were best suited for the task. Everyone had a part to play. If the cogs kept spinning the City Seven machine kept working.

  “You live in a coffin,” Dan said plainly. “You eat processed garbage with a smile. When you walk you look at the ground because you’re too afraid to make eye contact with anyone. You have a body, but they have your soul.” Sensei Dan shook his head. “They told you that they killed the dragon so you don’t realize this whole city is already in its jaws. Stand still and listen.” Owen stopped and breathed hard. “You’re not a machine, Owen. You’re not a cog. You’re a human being!” Dan stood right in front of him. “Get those hands up.”

  “What?” Owen wiped sweat off his forehead.

  “There comes a day in every man’s life where he has to fight for something. How terrible would it be if he didn’t know how to fight?” Dan tapped his chest. “Hit me.”

  “I can’t.” Violence against another citizen outside approved sporting venues carried the harshest fines. “It’s illegal. A peaceful citizen is a good citizen.” Peacekeeper Paul’s words reverberated in Owen’s mind.

  “You aren’t a peaceful citizen, Owen.” Sensei Dan scowled. “You’re a harmless person. And that’s how they want it. They being the masters you so dutifully serve. No one is here and they have you terrified of their rules.”

  “I can’t hurt someone!” Sensei Dan wasn’t getting it. Owen didn’t want to. He was a good citizen. He followed the law. He kept his head down. He survived.

  “Yes you can!” Dan smiled wide. “Remember when you threw those cords at me? You can fight back. You need to fight back. Hit me. Hit me or I’ll break your arms. Hit me, Owen!” Owen threw a feeble punch. His arm stopped at Dan’s chest and he felt resistance in his fist. “Again.” Owen threw another punch. “Do it again! Rotate your fist. Punch me like you’re trying to hit the wall behind me.”

  Owen alternated punches. With each hit he felt heat in his knuckles. Dan hardly moved. He wasn’t really punching a target. Owen’s muscles provided all the resistance. It was a simulation of punching someone, nothing more. But it felt good.

  “Hit me and tell me something you hate about this world! Speak up!”

  “I hate doing laundry!” He hated wasting his day off sitting in front of a washing machine, hypnotized by the way his clothes tumbled. “I hate all the ads!” They were so bright he had a hard time telling day and night apart. “I hate how alone I am!” He was in a city of millions of people and he couldn’t call a single one his friend. He didn’t even have an employer anymore. Beep. His scratchpad alerted him to a message. “And I hate how everything in this fucking city beeps!”

  “There we go!” Sensei Dan grabbed Owen by the shoulders and looked him in the eyes. “Do you feel that? Do you feel that anger bubbling up inside? That’s revulsion to the injustice you’ve been living with. You’re trapped in the dragon’s jaws right now, Owen. But don’t worry. I’m going to set you free. What are the three tenets of Hardknuckle Karate?

  “Courage,” Owen said. He took a deep breath. “Justice. And strength.”

  “Courage, justice, and strength,” Sensei Dan said with a smile. “This is Hardknuckle.”