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  Daniel closed his eyes, preparing himself for that final blow which would cause him to go dark and suddenly wake up to find himself lying on a bed in the infirmary – but it never came.

  He opened his eyes, and turned to see the referee with his hand on Jitters’ chest, directing him back into his corner as Jitters stared Daniel down with an evil look of contempt. Then the referee turned and gestured for Daniel to make his way over to his own corner.

  In the midst of being battered, Daniel hadn’t even heard the bell ring signaling the end of the first five-minute round, or the referee yelling to Jitters to stop the attack.

  As Daniel slowly walked back to his corner, his sense of his surroundings began coming back to him, and he became aware that the crowd was now on their feet, going wild at the sudden turn the fight had taken.

  He also became aware of the pain now coursing through his body after Jitters had broken his nose and left what was sure to be a deep bruise on his abdomen.

  He closed his eyes and concentrated on the center of the pain and the signals being sent from his nerve endings to his brain. He locked on, and told his synapse to interpret the signals merely as a mild sensation. The pain ceased, and the areas that had been experiencing the hurt now felt as though a hand were gently resting upon them.

  He opened his eyes to find Robby holding a water bottle up to his face. He opened his mouth wide as a stream of water shot out of the bottle and onto the back of his tongue.

  “Saved by the bell,” Daniel joked after swallowing his swig of water.

  “Yeah, well now it’s time for round two,” Robby replied, dabbing the blood off of Daniel’s nose with a white athletic towel.

  The towel was damp, soaked with disinfectant, but Daniel had prevented himself from being able to feel the cold sting that normally accompanied the experience. To him it may as well have been a plain, dry towel.

  Robby finished tending to Daniel’s wound and quickly turned around and jumped out of the ring. The referee yelled for Daniel and Jitters to make their way back to the middle of the ring, and Daniel turned to face the opponent who had been halted in the middle of laying the beat down on him only a minute earlier.

  Daniel sauntered his way to the center of the ring, suddenly feeling completely indifferent as to the outcome of the fight. Being in the ring with Jitters was now beginning to feel less like sport and more like a job. He felt no enthusiasm, and no sense of urgency. He no longer had any hopes of winning the fight.

  In Daniel’s mind, the end of the first round had proven that Jitters was the better fighter and would undoubtedly come away the victor, and whatever followed was merely a formality. It were as though switching off his ability to feel pain had turned off his ability to care, though there was no actual biological reason to believe that were true.

  It was also very possible that he was suffering from a concussion.

  The beginning of round two started much like round one had, with Jitters bobbing and weaving, coming toward Daniel as if primed to attack, then quickly backing off to reevaluate. Daniel no longer cared about the outcome of the fight, but he also had no desire to experience what had happened at the end of the first round all over again. He decided that his best move at this point was to take the offensive and go for the big knock-out blow. He had nothing to lose and everything to gain.

  He did his best to use quick feet and stay away from Jitters while he pumped himself up. He went back into his brain and expanded his lungs, absorbing every bit of oxygen possible into his bloodstream, and pumped his heart fiercely in order to circulate that oxygen through his body as quickly as possible without killing himself. He followed that up by sending drones of every hormone and chemical in his brain that Horchoff had taught him about and sent them to every muscle in his upper body.

  The hormones triggered a response almost instantly. The intensity had returned in full-force, and Daniel now felt the urge to destroy Jitters.

  All training and logic went out the window as Daniel began throwing obnoxiously broad punches in Jitters’ direction in an overdramatic fashion.

  Jitters saw every punch from a mile away, and dodged them all with ease, following each with a counter swing of his own, almost every one of his shots connecting.

  There seemed no rhyme or reason for Daniel’s attacks. Blinded by the absurd amount of chemicals seeping from his brain, he had lost all sense of logical thought and was acting merely on instinct. He never felt any of Jitters’ punches, nor did he care. He had one primal goal in mind – to dominate.

  And so went the final four minutes of the second round – Daniel would try to take Jitters out with one monster blow, and Jitters would easily dodge the slow moving haymakers, providing him the opportunity to land two-or three punches on practically any spot on Daniel’s body of his choosing.

  Jitters made no attempt to complicate the situation with any special moves, completely content to take what Daniel was giving him, and not wanting to give Daniel any chance to land a fluke blow.

  This time, Daniel heard the bell as it sounded and saw the referee jump in between the two men to signal them back to their corners.

  Daniel blinked his eyes and shook his head, realizing for the first time that he had completely lost himself to his hormones for the entire round.

  “What the hell was that?” Robby demanded as he met Daniel in his corner.

  “I was trying to finish it,” Daniel responded, expecting that should have been obvious.

  “By what, blowing him over?” Robby responded sarcastically. “That was the sloppiest, most ridiculous fucking thing I have ever seen in my life. That shit was a joke.”

  Daniel was taken aback, still out of sorts from his concussed and drugged out brain. He had never heard that tone out of Robby before.

  “The thing is over,” Daniel tried to reason. “It’s my only chance of winning.”

  “You got that part right, kid,” Mister Blank chimed in from outside the cage. “But you ain’t gonna make it happen like that.”

  “He’s right,” Robby stated, making eye contact with Daniel. “You have to wait for him to give you an opening. He’s too quick for you to be throwing them big, clumsy hooks up there like that. He’ll dodge ‘em every time. Remember those jabs you had going in the first round?”

  Daniel nodded.

  “That’s about the only thing you’ve had going for you all fight,” he concluded. “Are you okay?”

  Daniel looked down at Robby, trying to focus on him, but completely unable to think straight at the moment.

  “No,” he answered truthfully, shaking his head but unable to keep from smirking in the process. Laughing at the grim situation he was now facing seemed a much better option than the alternative.

  “Alright,” Robby said, putting both hands on Daniel’s face to try and get a good look into his eyes. He put a warm smile on his face to keep Daniel calm in the wake of a tragedy.

  “Protect yourself out there,” he said.

  Daniel nodded as he heard the ref call him out of his corner. Robby closed the cage door behind him and Daniel started toward the center of the ring.

  He stopped halfway out and turned back to his corner.

  “Hey Robby!” He shouted to his trainer.

  Robby tilted his head back slightly and lifted his eyebrows to show that he was listening.

  “This is the first fight I’ve ever been in!” Daniel shouted.

  He saw Robby look down and start laughing.

  “No shit!” He yelled back.

  And with that, the third round was on. Five more minutes and Daniel would be out of this hell. He would no longer be the seventh ranked agent in the complex, and maybe not even in the top twenty, but that seemed insignificant at this stage in the game. At this point he just wanted to get out with the least amount of embarrassment possible.

  He did the best he could to wash away the excess chemicals and hormones from his brain, and maintain focus on a steady flow of oxygenated blood and adrenaline to
his core arm muscles as he had in the first round. Only this time he needed to be ready to fend off any quick counters from Jitters.

  He looked at Jitters as he jumped all over the place like Daffy Duck, not a scratch on him except for the bruises on his arms from those three potent jabs Daniel had delivered toward the middle-end of the first round.

  After a minute of the two men dancing around each other, the crowd grew restless, and Jitters had finally had enough. His primary concern was securing the win, but there was a big part of him that wanted to end the thing before the final five minutes were up.

  He came in with some quick jabs, bouncing from side to side as he delivered them, both in an attempt to find an opening and also to make it difficult for Daniel to come back with a shot of his own.

  Daniel waited, searching for his opening, but never finding it. Time was quickly running out, and he needed to make something happen. He needed to make his last stand, something to allow him to walk out of the ring with some form of dignity and respect, but he had to make sure not to be as sloppy with his attack as he had been in the first round.

  He decided to take a risk. He lifted his arms higher, as if he were going to try and attack the five-foot-eight Jitters from above. Daniel left his body completely open, knowing it would entice Jitters into attacking.

  Though he sometimes seemed it, Jitters wasn’t stupid. He knew that Daniel was setting him up, and had to be careful not to fall into a trap which could cost him the fight. But the offer was too tempting, so he decided to come in for an attack from below, hoping Daniel was expecting something different and wouldn’t be fast enough to defend it.

  Jitters reached through Daniel’s arms and grabbed on to whatever he could, his left hand latching onto the back of Daniel’s head, and his right onto Daniel’s left arm. He then lunged forward with his right knee, intending to make contact with Daniel’s rib cage, setting up an onslaught much like the one he had started at the end of the first round.

  Daniel had not expected Jitters to attack with his knee, but he was able to adjust quickly. Elise had repeatedly attacked Daniel with her knee during his training. He wondered now if she had known it was a favorite move of Jitters.

  As Jitters’ knee flew toward his torso, Daniel quickly shifted to his right, grabbing onto Jitters’ leg and holding it tight against his side, leaving Jitters trapped.

  Daniel then brought his right fist around the left side of Jitters head, contracting the muscles in his arm as much as he possibly could as it traveled toward Jitters’ head.

  Jitters was able to bring his arm back in time to intercept Daniel’s right hook, but it was no match for the might of Daniel’s super-human strength as Daniel’s fist plowed right through the block and into Jitters’ left ear.

  The force of the blow knocked Jitters to the ground and Daniel fell on top of him. This was it. This was his chance to take back the fight and pull off the upset.

  Daniel reared back and got ready to smash his fist into Jitters’ head for one finishing blow as they lay on the mat. His neural pathways were wide open, his conscious mind synced up to the depths of his brain that no other human had access to. He sent the signals to the muscles in his arms, shoulders, and chest, telling them to contract beyond their natural state, and he threw his fist downward with the power of a silverback gorilla. The crowd stood and roared with a shockwave of intensity, for the first time believing that Daniel may actually prove his metal and win the battle.

  But Jitters was too fast.

  Before Daniel could land the punch Jitters managed to squirm free of his grasp. Daniel’s fist pounded into the mat, cracking one of the supports directly beneath the area of impact. If he had not been wearing gloves he would have certainly shattered his hand, and if Jitters face had still been in that spot, he may not have survived it.

  Stunned by the ferocity of his own punch, Daniel hesitated, giving Jitters time to climb up over him and onto his back, putting him into a choke hold.

  Daniel grabbed at Jitters arm as it wrapped around his neck and squeezed tight, unable to manage a firm grip.

  Instead he shifted his concentration to the muscles in his legs, increasing circulation to them and contracting them as necessary to give him the strength to stand up with Jitters draped on his back, his arm still tightly wrapped around Daniel’s throat.

  Daniel then turned his focus to his core, giving himself the strength to throw his upper body forward, flipping Jitters over top of him.

  The crowd showed their pleasure with the impressive maneuver that was more reminiscent of professional wrestling than of cage fighting.

  However the forward momentum caused Daniel to fall to his knees, and before he could progress with an attack, Jitters managed to bring himself to his feet. Even after landing flat on his back Jitters moved with impressive quickness.

  Both men rose to their feet and faced each other, and the crowd cheered, appreciative of the show the two men had given them in this third and final round.

  But Daniel knew that it was over. He had missed his one opportunity to finish the job and Jitters would not allow him another. The judges would certainly rule in Jitters’ favor after the way he had dominated the first two rounds.

  In fact, Jitters did not even offer up another chance for Daniel to strike, spending the last minute and a half simply prancing around the ring and waiting for time to expire. Daniel made one last effort when he heard the fifteen-second warning, throwing one more wild punch, but as he had so many times before, Jitters dodged it easily, not even bothering to come back with a counter-shot this time.

  Eventually the final bell went, and the two men dropped their arms to their sides in utter exhaustion. Those three rounds had served as the longest fifteen minutes in Daniel’s entire life. The two men walked toward each other and slapped palms together before heading off to their respective corners for a much needed replenishment of fluids and a damp towel.

  Robby was there to greet Daniel with a hug and a pat on the back.

  “You made me proud in that last round,” he told Daniel, helping him off with his gloves and handing him a water bottle and a damp towel.

  As Daniel gripped the towel he noticed its dampness, but as he pressed it to his face he felt only pressure. Then he remembered that he had blocked out the pain after the beat down in the first round. He went into his brain and allowed it to interpret the nerve-signals the way they were meant to be felt, and winched as the pain came back to him all at once.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” Daniel turned to see Richfield once again standing in the center of the ring with a microphone, gesturing for Daniel to come stand next to him. Jitters was already on the other side of Richfield.

  “The winner by unanimous decision, and new number seven ranked Agent at Elite Personal Security Force – Manny ‘Jitters’ Castelloooo!”

  And with that Richfield grabbed Jitters by the wrist and raised his arm into the air, signaling him as the victor. It was a surprise to no one.

  Daniel offered a polite round of applause with the rest of the agents, and with that, made his exit from the arena. Robby followed him back to the ready room, while Blank stayed behind to talk things over with Richfield.

  As Daniel walked toward the tunnel back to the ready room, he took a quick glance up at the rankings board. Jitters’ name was now in the number seven slot, the space next to the number eight now left blank. Daniel’s name was nowhere to be found.

  He put his battered head down as he entered the tunnel.

  Horchoff and Robby examined Daniel’s body as he sit on the medical exam table in the ready room.

  “Well you definitely have a fractured nose,” Horchoff told him, holding up a vanity mirror so he could see the damage firsthand.

  There was a nice gash across the bridge of his nose, though not too deep, and the entire surrounding area was a deep shade of purple.

  “And obviously a bruised rib,” the doctor said, pointing to the black and blue area where Jitters knee had made cont
act to his midsection. “As far as a concussion…”

  Horchoff shined a light into Daniel’s right eye, then his left, then held up a finger and told Daniel to follow it as he moved it back and forth across his line of vision.

  “I don’t know,” Horchoff confessed. “Maybe a minor one. I think your symptoms in the ring can probably be more attributed to a chemical reaction than concussionary symptoms.”

  Horchoff picked up his pad and began taking notes.

  “Which is good, because I’m not really sure what that might do to you,” he added, glancing up at Daniel out of the corner of his eye as if he had not intended to say that last bit out loud.

  The uncomfortable moment was cut short when Blank and Richfield suddenly burst into the room.

  “Well you managed to last three rounds, which is more than most people thought you’d be able to do,” Richfield commented, all business as usual.

  Blank stopped in the doorway and leaned up against it, apparently just there to listen.

  “And you managed to save a little face with the way you were able to come at him in the third round there,” Richfield added. “But you proved that the complaints Jitters came to me with Monday morning about you being ranked so high are valid. You have more raw ability than any human on God’s green Earth, but you can’t shoot, you have no field experience or skills, and you sure as hell can’t fight.”

  Dramatic pause. Daniel wasn’t concerned with the lecture, he just wanted to know what the damage was. Where was he going to be ranked after the loss?

  “I’m sorry Daniel but I have to move you down to thirty-ninth,” Richfield finally broke it to him.

  Daniel swallowed hard, nodded in solemn understanding, and dropped his head. It was a long fall from the top, but he couldn’t say that he didn’t understand why.