“You ever been up here?” Tuck asked Owen as they climbed the last flight of stairs. Tuck wanted to meet him bright and early. It was Owen’s rest day from training and Amber had morning shoot at the studio so nobody would miss him. They stood in the ruins of the old slaughter ball stadium built by Omega Solutions before being absorbed by Callahan Industries. It was decommissioned ten years ago and its skeleton served as a shanty town to thousands of the city’s most destitute citizens. Dead ad screens lining walls served as mirrors as Owen followed Tuck through a tunnel. “I spent a couple years here after my time in the service was up. Do you know who lives here?”

  “No,” Owen said. “Is there a reason we’re here and not training with Ed?” While the rest of the team trained with Ed and Scott in close quarters defensive tactics, Tuck took Owen on a field trip. The ride to the border of the low and mid city was silent. Not even Sensei Dan popped up to give Owen advice. “Is this about the fight in the Scrap Yard?”

  “Some of the poorest people in the city live just out of reach of a better life. Rent here is cheaper than dirt. Look over there,” Tuck said. He stood on an old balcony that groaned when he leaned against the rail and pointed across the city. “You can just make out the new slaughter ball stadium. They wanted to see it from Callahan Tower and vice versa. Do you know why they haven’t ripped this place down?”

  “Why?” Owen hoped they wouldn't be long. He already had a long day training at the Warzone. The sun set on City Seven and ad light lit up the world.

  “Glad you asked.” Tuck faced Owen. “They want the mids and the high lifers to see what they are being protected from. Peacekeepers protect them from the undesirables and their jobs protect them from living in this shit. How many addicts did you see on our way up here?”

  “A ton.”

  “Kids?”

  “Triple that.” Rampant drug use and unprotected sex always produced too many kids. Half the kids in the Care Facility were like the dirty feral children Owen saw on his trek through the stadium.

  “This is a microcosm of the city at large. All the worst parts condensed into a single mega structure built to celebrate spectacle a long time ago.” Tuck grinned. “Did I ever tell you my real name?”

  “Once,” Owen said, though he couldn’t remember it.

  “Ryota Ozawa. Or Ozawa Ryota depending on where I am.” Tuck gestured for Owen to join him near the rusted railing. “We need to talk. We need to get on the same page.” The breeze blew toxic smog across the city. Towers stretched as far as the eye could see and traffic was backed up for miles. “Can I tell you a little bit about me?”

  “Is that a good idea?”

  “I think so.” Tuck lit cigarette and smoked while he talked. “I grew up in New Asia, but you knew that. What you don’t know is that my mom was a whore. You know what a whore is right?” Owen nodded. “See, she was Japanese. Pure blooded through and through. Ethnicity doesn’t matter much in the generalized areas of City Seven. Place is a real melting pot. It’s one of the city’s few redeeming qualities.” Tuck nodded. “But in some corners of the city culture is strong. The good and bad.” Tuck chuckled.

  “I don’t understand.”

  “I wouldn’t expect you to. New Asia isn’t like the rest of the city, you saw that. You had countless refugees from different cultures crammed into one spot and expected to get along after the collapse. Neighborhoods got cut up based on heritage. One street spoke Korean, the next street spoke Mandarin, and the street after that Japanese, and Tagalog, and Cantonese, and you get the picture. My mom was a Japanese whore and my daddy was Chinese. So out pops me, a child of two worlds that doesn’t belong to either.”

  “That sounds rough.”

  “Rough would’ve been nice. My mom wasn’t a nice woman. She didn’t even pretend. She named me after her dad, but I looked like mine. Now, I personally don’t think I look too different, but everyone else sure as hell did.” He took a drag off his cigarette. “So I grow up in a Japanese neighborhood and I get my ass kicked every day because of someone I never met. My mom hated looking at me. My grandma was nice, but she died when I was twelve so there’s little Ryota on his own again.” Tuck stared at the city, letting the moment wash over him. “I got real good at fighting. Started making some money bare knuckle. Moved out of the neighborhood and went somewhere where people looked more like me. But I still had this fucking name.”

  “Did they mess with you there?” Owen couldn’t imagine someone as strong as Tuck being anyone’s victim. But he guessed that strength had to come from somewhere.

  “Not if they were smart. I ended up working for the Crimson Lotus running drugs and whatever else they wanted.” He tapped the lotus tattoo on his arm. “One day Mama Chen wants me to make an important delivery. That was the first Mama Chen, not the one you fought.”

  “Was she as tough as her daughter?” Owen touched the scar on his shoulder from Mei Chen’s sword.

  “Tougher. That’s not important though. She gives me this fucking package and tells me to get it to her grandfather. He was the leader of the Crimson Lotus back then. This was during a gang war between us and the Black Dragon. So I fight my way across New Asia and get the package to Uncle Chen. I’m beat all to hell and he opens it in front of me.” Tuck burst out laughing. “It was a fucking snow globe like they have in the Callahan Tower gift shop. San Francisco!”

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “What’s San Francisco?” A neighborhood in New Asia maybe. Owen didn't know if he ever heard the name before.

  “Used to be a city before the collapse. Now it’s a ruin across the continent.” Tuck grinned. “Do you know what the United States is?” Owen shook his head. “They don’t teach it anymore. Where we’re standing used to be part of it. Florida. Miami Metropolitan area. Way before the collapse. Before the bombs started dropping and politics divided everyone so much they couldn’t stand to breathe the same air anymore.”

  “I’ve never really thought about what City Seven used to be.” Owen had an idea that City Seven was something else before the collapse. City Seven felt like it always just was. No beginning, no end.

  “It used to be miles of swamp and woods. Just a little peninsula in the south. Then the world went crazier than it already was and now we’re here. Not people anymore. Citizens. Most people live and die in this city without seeing the outside world. It wasn’t always like that.”

  “How do you know all this?” Owen didn’t learn any of it during compulsory education.

  “There’s all kinds of info on those scratchpads, Owen. They don’t have to hide how things used to be because most citizens are too apathetic to care. But it’s all there.” He shook his head. "There isn't much difference between us and people before the collapse. We're just as selfish and stupid as them. They couldn't figure it out so here were are."

  “There was a dream somewhere in there,” Tuck said. “That a man could build his own future for his family and prosper. An American dream.” Tuck pointed to the ever present mega structure of Callahan Tower. “And they took it from us long before they were the Callahans. There was always someone stepping on the neck of people like you and me. You like poetry?”

  “Not really.”

  “Me either. But I heard something once that stuck with me. Some girl said it on stage at a bar.” He exhaled smoke. “In the shadows of a city bright, play your part, wrong or right. The cogs keep spinning, the wheel always turns. In this city we never learn.” Tuck laughed so loud his voice echoed across the stadium. “I thought it was good. Where was I? Right, getting beat to shit over a snow globe.”

  “Doesn’t sound like it was worth getting beat up over.” Like Owen was one to talk. His knuckles were still sore from brawling with junkies and drug dealers in alleys. How many fights was he up to? Six? Not enough.

  “It was worth it and then some,” Tuck said. “Uncle Chen showed me his collection. He had hundreds of these fucking things arranged by country. He said the old world was dead and we were just picking at its bones. He loved the pre-collapse world. He had movies and posters and all kinds of collectible shit that made its way to Citsev.”

  “So,” Tuck said. He shows me around his house, asks about my life and when he hears my name he almost has a heart attack. He tells me that’s a terrible name for someone that looks like me. He used some other colorful words about my mom too which I couldn’t disagree with. He takes me over to this poster that’s got a guy with a machine gun and a big flag on it and says I need a new name. I’ll give you one guess what it was.”

  “Bryan Tucker,” Owen said. “You got your name from a movie poster?”

  “Bryan Tucker, a real American badass.” Tuck shook his fist at Owen and scowled. “I didn’t let anyone call me Ryota after that. Uncle Chen took me under his wing. Taught me a lot. He was the dad I never had.” Tuck smiled as if a fond memory suddenly found him. “I thought I knew how to fight. I didn’t know shit. He taught me Crimson Lotus Kung Fu. Real kung fu. We trained every day. When I was twenty-four he convinced me to join the City Seven military. The plan was for me to serve for a few years and teach the Crimson Lotus what I learned. Uncle Chen had an actual heart attack while I was in the service and I didn’t come back after his real son took over. You know the rest.”

  “So that’s it?”

  “There’s other details in-between all that, but yeah, that’s it. Do you know what happened to City Five?”

  “No.”

  “We did.” Most of the people in this stadium are City Five refugees. The rest of them are spread out across the city in skilled labor jobs. We bombed it to hell, gutted it, and took everything valuable including the people. City Seven is a monster that consumes everything in its path and it is hungry. I’ll bet we do the same to City Six in a decade.”

  “This what you wanted to tell me?” Owen shook his head. “We didn’t need to trek all the way out here for that.”

  “Partly.” Tuck took off his jacket and hung it on the railing. “Ben told me what happened at the Scrap Yard. I want your side of the story.”

  “We got into a fight.”

  “Ben said it was avoidable. That true?”

  “Maybe,” Owen said with a shrug.

  “Don’t you fucking shrug at me!” Tuck shouted. He got in Owen’s face and stared him down. Owen almost flinched. “This isn’t a game,” he growled. “You don’t put any of us in danger when you don’t need to. Get it?” He slapped Owen. Owen clenched his fists and considered fighting back. Shame rose inside of Owen. He was that asshole who existed before Hardknuckle again. Tuck shoved him. “There are no wild cards on this team.” Tuck cracked his neck. “You need to get that through your head!”

  “What was I supposed to do? Let them rob us?”

  “Yes!” Tuck’s voice echoed off the stadium walls. “Fuck the credits. We can get more. We can’t replace people. Do you want to get Vicky killed? What about Ben? Just because you have some moves doesn’t mean you’re invincible. No one is. Not you, not me, not the fucking Callahans!” He pointed at Callahan Tower as he shouted.

  So you need to get on the same page as the rest of us,” Tuck said. “No more hiding your talents, no more secrets.” He took a deep breath. “We are a team.” He set his scratchpad on a ledge. “This doesn’t work without all of us and we are getting close to our goal.” He took a breath. “You are an important part of this team. We trust you. We want to keep trusting you.”

  “I get it,” Owen said. He held his hands up. “I fucked up. That’s my bad.” He didn’t really believe he did anything wrong. But arguing with Tuck on the point wouldn’t get him anywhere. “It might help if I knew why we’re doing what we’re doing?”

  “You don’t need to know.” Tuck cracked his neck and started stretching. “I have the plan and with each mission we get closer to victory.” Tuck glanced at Callahan tower. “One way or another those City Seven kings will fall.” Tuck took a stance and raised his fists. “Get your hands up.”

  “What?”

  “The rest of the team is getting a refresher on hand to hand combat.” Tuck cocked his head. “I’m going to give you the advanced course. Get ready.”