This was a bad idea-

  He bounced on the balls of his feet, while shifting his weight from side to side.

  This would only make things worse-

  He spit the blood pooling from where his teeth cut up his cheek onto the man's shoes and pulled his right hand back.

  Maybe he should just curl up and take the beating like usual-

  He pushed off, pivoting off with his left foot and twisting his whole body into the punch. It connected on his jaw with a sick Crack. He expected something more to come from it, for the man to take it and return with a hit of his own.

  Maybe light him up with whatever Animate the man had.

  But… No retaliation came.

  Markus looked down, and the man was a crumpled heap on the ground. He was folded over himself like someone had just turned him off.

  He'd just- “really?” Markus nudged the man with his foot. He didn't stir any. All he'd done was throw a punch at him, and he was out like a light. “Really?” Markus nudged him again, a little harder this time. He twitched but still didn't rise.

  He felt his teeth grind against each other as he pulled his foot back. “Really!?” He kicked the down man In the chest. He started giving resistance now, he pulled his arms over his head and groaned. He considered kicking him again, and again, and agai-

  Markus dug his fingernails into his palms enough to bleed to pull himself back from what he was about to do. But the stinging from that cut and aching feeling in his right hand didn't stop the swell burning in his heart.

  He left the man where he was on the sidewalk without calling anyone, police or ambulance, cause he didn't feel like he needed to. The man had tried to mug him anyways, would serve him right to figure his own way to the hospital.

  The burning in his heart didn't stop or cool down while he walked, everything felt blurry. The feeling was strange, but he didn't dislike it. His ears rung, and at the same time everything sounded like his ears were stuffed with cotton. He'd only made one movement, and yet it felt like he had overexerted himself entirely.

  Like he'd… it felt like he'd put his entire body into it at max, when was- when was the last time he'd done something like that? Not ever that he could remember. Whenever he'd had something to do in a gym class he half assed it. Maybe he'd felt this when he was younger…

  But even then- nothing he could recall could compare to this. No feeling or emotion he ever felt was quite like how he was feeling right now. He wanted it to- No, no it HAD to Continue. He has to continue this exhilaration. This feeling of near euphoria.

  There had to be something or someone else to continue this out here at night. More people trying to find someone at the wrong place at the wrong time. Markus stepped off the sidewalk and onto the street. The thought crossed his mind that he'd just become one of those people he was looking for, someone out to make trouble at night.

  But he just as quickly figured that, he didn't really care. Besides, he wasn't one of the ones out there after innocent people, he was only out for people trying to make trouble with him first.

  And it didn't take long to find more trouble. Two kids walking the opposite direction of him on the sidewalk. They were about his age, hell they were probably even his classmates, he'd've known or not if he'd ever paid any attention to the people around him in school.

  But he'd probably rather not be on a first name basis with these two. The one on the left was shorter and a bit stockier than the one on the right. He had a dark beanie, either gray or black. And some shaggy dark hair peeking out by the ears.

  The taller of the two was a bit lanky, he had long, shiny blonde hair down his back, and some strands going around the front and framing his face, he looked kinda pretty.

  Actually the taller might've been a girl, it was too dark for Markus to make out the finer details of either person.

  But he could feel their eyes on him without seeing where they were looking. They leaned closer together when they passed him, he could hear them whispering words to each other, but not what the words were. But he knew what it was about without hearing them.

  They had the same plan that man from before did, and it was exhilarating! Markus felt hyper aware of the world around him the moment he realized that.

  Every fold of his shirt and how each wrapped around his body, the slightly rugged feeling fabric of his jeans rubbing against the hairs on his legs. The feeling of the barely existent wind softly pushing cold air over his cut hand. It was all so… amazing.

  Every sense felt so heightened, like the night suddenly got brighter and he could make out the texture of the road below his feet, the taste of blood on his tongue felt so much more intense, like he had stuffed his mouth with burning coins. And, the sounds themselves were so vivid, not only his own heartbeat so intense it sounded like it was raining. But each step of the six feet there sounded nearly booming. He still couldn't make out the words of the two, who were now behind him.

  Actually, they weren't talking? Why had they stopped? Markis tried to focus on listening to them while still walking, but the weird heightened feeling already had his body confused. He stopped still in his tracks, the steps from them that should've been getting further, they weren't. There was only one set of steps now, they were getting closer. He felt the corners of his lips pull toward his cheeks and his fists clenched so hard they were shaking.

  Then he felt it. The finger grazed the top of his shoulder, it was moving forward. Everything felt so slow, he could feel the first section of the finger graze over his shoulder, the curved line before the second bone of the finger touched his shirt.

  Not yet not yet not yet- wrang through his head a dozen times on the single moment from the first contact to when the palm touched down. And that was what he was waiting for. That touch that started the spur of movement, that single second that shaped the whole encounter.

  He felt the slight tug from the hand dug into his shoulder, not like they were trying to pull him back or turn him around. A dozen images popped up into his mind on what the person was doing, each got shaved off the moment they cropped up. Then it happened,

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  The image of them gripping Markus's right shoulder with their right hand, their torso twisted to the left, causing the slight tugging while pulling their left fist back, fully winding a punch. And it pissed him off. His knees bent down, half way crouching before jumping up and back, putting all his weight and momentum into his left shoulder. He shoved into the person and felt their throat smash against his shoulder, their hold on him let go.

  His teeth ground against each other as he spun and grabbed the still outstretched wrist, yanking it toward himself and down. He could see now that it was the boy in the beanie. The boy fell toward Markus, who slammed his knee up and smashed it against the underside of his jaw. He wasn't sure if it was the boy's own momentum or the snapping motion of raising his knee like that that did more damage to him. But whatever part of the hit did him in, did more than enough damage to keep him down.

  He looked flattened, sprawled out on his back on the road. Now that he laid there unconscious, He could make out some more of the details of his face. He had plump cheeks, he probably weighed 0about twice as much as Markus, despite looking like he was only a bit taller, he was definitely more broad. Hell, Markus was probably only two thirds as broad as him.

  His eyes were an odd shape, tilted up at the outside edges, they made a bit of a wide “V” shape when closed. His mouth too, it looked like it naturally tipped up at the edges, it also looked… stretched was probably the best word for it. His bottom lip looked unnaturally long, his skin was somewhat glossy, kinda wax-like.

  Markus crouched down to get a better look at his face, and got a nice look at a boot for his troubles. It cracked against his forehead and nearly flipped him over, it definitely knocked him on his back. Fuck that hurts, was the first thought to enter his now shaken up head. Everything was blurry now, probably from a mix of things. Most of which must've Been the tears. He was also shaking again, but this time it wasn't out of excitement or that hot feeling from before. No, now he was shaking with anger.

  Hitting your head always causes one of those two effects for some reason, either crying or rage, sometimes both. It was a strange feeling, not the good type of strange either, like that one he was chasing. No, now he just felt drained.

  He sat back up, now that awareness feeling he had was just gone, his ears rang like they were screaming at him. And All he felt was that throbbing in his forehead, and one of his eyes couldn't even fucking see! Well, he could see, but it was blurry and red, and it stung like hell! evidently that kick cut something open. It only made him angrier realizing that.

  Cuts always hurt more than bruises, bruises just stung, cuts felt like they burned. Especially on the head, and head cuts just seemed to spout blood, even shadow ones.

  Markus shakily stood up, his good eye was wide as it could be, watching the blonde as they inspected their friend. He had to dig his nails back into his palm to ground himself enough to keep still.

  He tried to call out to the blonde, but all that came out was a loud breath. His tongue was feeling like stone in his mouth, not wanting to listen to his brain's commands to form words. He opened his mouth to try to speak again, and tasted more blood, and the burning sting came back to his cheek. The cut from earlier seemed to have reopened.

  His good eye twitched, it took everything in his body not to go over there and stomp between the blonde's shoulders. He could, it'd be pretty easy. They were still distracted with the boy in the beanie. But he didn't want that. He didn't want to hit someone who had no idea he was coming, that's what they did. He didn't want to be like them. He didn't want to be like that blonde in front of him.

  He tried again to call out, all he succeeded in was sputtering a bit of blood out. His tongue was still too leaden to move properly. Instead, he determined to get their attention in a more physical and direct manner. He stomped over, they didn't hear his feet slamming as he approached. It didn't change his idea though.

  He realized when he approached that they were wearing tight clothes. They didn't quite wrap around them like the latex suits old heros wore, but it was tight enough to show that his earlier suspicions were correct. The mystery assailant was a woman. It still didn't change shit about what he was about to do.

  His hand reached down at the back of their neck, intent on grabbing the back of her collar and throwing her away from him. But the fraction of a second between then his fingers touched the back of the neck, and when his hand wrapped around the fabric, he felt soft, thin hairs stand and brush against his fingers.

  She apparently has insane reaction time, on top of kicking power to flip him over. She went from curled over the beanie boy, to a full rotation in under a second after being touched. Her shin smashed into his shoulder with enough force to push him stumbling back a few feet.

  By that point, a profile of her was unintentionally building in Markus's head. Quietly comparing her to a thousand other things in the forefront of his brain. Fast senses, strong legs, and standing hairs when startled, her hat also seemed a bit too full to only be hair. But the real kicker was her eyes, they were partially slitted, the pupils pulled to the top and bottom. And they were blown wider than he'd ever seen a normal person's to the point it looked like her iris itself was pitch black, and highly reflective.

  She was semi crouched down, low enough that her fingers were just barely touching the ground. Her nails looked long too, extending probably an inch past the tips of her thick fingers. She was the same height, maybe a little taller than him, but her hands were by far larger. His hands had to be only three quarters to two thirds the size of hers.

  Markus didn't even have time to put his hands up before she dove at him. Her steps were loud as hell. She barely touched the ground twice, and both sounded like a stomp. She closed the gap between them so fast he barely had time to flinch before her hand came up in an arc…

  And it burned! He couldn't feel how many of her nails left cuts on him, but he could feel the streams of blood flowing down from his cheek bone. She didn't even give him a chance to recover before she started attacking again either! She took the momentum from the first swing into another with her other hand. But Markus saw it coming, it was the same thing he would've done if he was in the same position as her.

  He raised both hands and caught her left wrist a moment before the claws would've carved into his skin! He caught her expression of fear, or maybe it was simple shock and surprise. Markus let go with his right, still holding her wrist with his left; He pulled back to slam a fist into her chin. If it'd worked so well already, why change anything about his methods?

  Well apparently; changing methods was a better idea than leading with the most common one. She slipped her head to the left of the hit, and caused him to miss entirely. Before slamming her knee right below his ribs on the right! And-

  HO- LY- Fuck! It felt like he got struck with damn lightning! Markus was inexperienced in fighting, this was his first true foray into the activity. So he wasn't privy to the information about the hit he just took. He knew it was something to do with his organs, though not what in particular was causing this.

  He didn't know it was his liver; or that blows to the liver came with an unconscionable amount of pain, or that his blood pressure and circulation were sent out of whack in the seconds after the hit. But what he did know now, was that hits under the right of the ribs fucking hurt.

  She yanked her waist away from him while he wretched, he wanted to scream but he was in nearly too much pain to breathe! She swung a strong kick at his head, but he collapsed to his knees before it had the chance to connect. He probably could've tackled her, she should've still been right in front of him anyways. But he didn't know, cause he couldn't see Right now!

  It wasn't a matter of tears in his eyes or blood. His vision was nearly entirely whited out. But still, something hooked at the corners of his brain, screaming and burning from a deeper part of him not to stay down. He rose again, shaking like a leaf, from anger and adrenaline and the fight to force himself up. Every sound muddled together into a dull mumbling and ringing between his ears. His vision was reduced to blurry shapes moving.

  His breathing still wasn't right, and his entire body felt like it was melting from the inside out. He tried to keep his hands up, covering his head. Occasionally swinging wildly at the shape that he assumed to be her whenever it got close. He didn't run, but he wasn't sure why. Sure she would've caught him if he tried, there was no doubt in his head that she was easily faster than him; but she wouldn't chase him.

  She had only touched him after he already knocked that boy out. And she hadn't tried to hit him again till he tried to start the fight agai-

  His vision seemed to clear all in one moment, as the heel of a boot inches from his face seemed to appear in high definition! Markus's senses were still feeling sluggish, but he still had it in him to slip his head to the right of her kick. His hands still seemed to respond as fast as normal, he grabbed her right ankle with both hands. He didn't even know what he would do, it just seemed like it'd be a good thing to have a hold of in a fight. He learned that it was a mistake moments later.

  Her entire body twisted to the left for a moment, making him think that she was simply trying to pull herself free; before she twisted the opposite direction with insane speed!

  She used her right leg, which was being held at the ankle, as a pivot. She delivered a kick using every ounce of rotation her muscular lower body could muster. No doubt her core had to also be quite strong as well to deliver it. She slammed her shin, just above the bend of the foot, into the side of Markus's head!

  He dropped like a stone. He woke back up already swinging, though only catching air it took a few seconds for him to register that he wasn't in a fight anymore the two were long gone. They left…

  They left him on the ground. He… he lost, Markus lost. That girl had soundly beaten him. Everything he had done, she either countered, dodged, or otherwise turned it back around on him… and it was great! The corners of his lips drew back to his cheeks, pulling his mouth into a painful, though excited grin.

  All but two of the attacks she threw screwed him up, even the one he took to the shoulder hurt like he got hit with a hammer. Even when he caught her wrist and had her partially immobilized, she was able to slip out of it and nearly paralyzed him with the hit below the ribs, he caught her leg and she brought it into another, stronger kick.

  It was fucking amazing! Every hit left its toll on Markus, and he couldn't help but to love the hurt that came with each of them. She wasn't like him, she knew how to do what he wanted to do. She knew how to fight! Instead of taking the lesson he should've from that beating, the lesson that he shouldn't be out here doing this, that night he dragged home with him the knowledge of someone stronger than him.

  And he wanted more, if just some nobody wandering the street at night was this strong, he wanted to see what lessons the truly strong had to offer.