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"So they just started brawling?" Ravi said, walking next to Cutter, jogging down the street towards the park.

"Yup! Guess the two of them couldn't help themselves. But from the sound of it, the coati instigated the fight." Cutter said, looking down at his smaller friend. He had to jog slower than normal, Ravi couldn't keep up with him if he jogged at full speed. Wes wasn't with them, he was currently debuting a new fashion line.

Cutter dressed in a pair of jeans, plus a red and white shirt, that was tight on his muscular body. Ravi meanwhile dressed in black pants and a black jacket, combined with his black fur, he stuck out like a walking shadow.

"Twins... Guess in the end, it's up to the veterans to keep the newbies in line." Ravi shook his head. "What did I tell you about them being war time babies?"

"Oh hush, it isn't a big deal. Plus, this is also a chance to meet someone new. I barely got to talk with Eli." He narrowed his eyes, seeing the two people in question over there in the park where the fight started. "Oh hey, there they are now." He skidded to a stop, his hooves kicking up dust.

Pocketknife and Eli lied on their backs in the park, right in front of the fountain. Both of them tired, but not exhausted, both of them bruised and hurt but nothing too terrible. They lied side by side, satisfied with themselves.

"Hey you guys," Cutter waved in his typical cheerful fashion. "Heard around that you two were fighting? You know you should save that stuff for the arena, right, haha?"

"I'm curious who won," Ravi said, looking down, kneeling down next to the young boys; both of them looked equally like shit, bruising here, blood there, nothing that would require a Regenerator though. The vivid purple jacket on Pocketknife indicated he was part of the Illusory Gang. A small gang of street thugs and criminals around Mana, one Ravi almost had a run in with a few years ago when he was visiting. To think that a member of this no name street gang would be infamous to join Primal. But he wasn't going to question the upper echelon's choices, especially when they wrote his paychecks. "You know this guy, Cutter?" He said, looking up at the elk.

Cutter took a moment, but he gasped in surprise seeing him. "Oh hey, I thought this guy looked familiar! Yeah, I saw him on the local news before, but never knew his name!" He laughed, waving to the coati, whose eyes were close and was breathing lightly. "But now I do know his name, it's Pocketknife!" He still didn't know if that was an alias or his actual Gods given name.

"Are those horns of yours hollow? You really are an airhead sometimes." Ravi groaned, "You share a hometown with him, a hometown you sponsor, and yet you didn't recognize him when I showed you his bio the other day?" The jackal was completely exasperated.

"You didn't recognize him and you're the guy who has a ton of inside information." Cutter crossed his arms. "Plus I recognized the Opal girl when I looked over her profile!"

"I don't keep track of what is going on in everyone's hometown! Besides, Opal is a celebrity in Yisk! Of course you'd recognize her!"

Cutter only smiled, looking at Ravi, a coy expression on his face. Unable to put up much of an argument anymore, he could however completely catch Ravi off guard with "Heh, you're cute when you get annoyed, you know that?"

Ravi, indeed was caught off guard, only blushing in response, his fur standing on end. The compliment hit him harder than any punch, kick, or suplex. "Well..." He shook his head, as if to literally shake the embarrassment off of him, "Wh-whatever! Let's get to the point, alright?" He looked at the two young men, still napping. "How long are you two gonna be sleeping? Come on, Eli! Pocketknife, you stay behind and do whatever it is you do."

"Oh, we're going now?" Eli said, opening his eyes, and hoping up, looking for his backpack. He brushed himself off, getting the dirt off his clothes, as well as a few leaves. This was why he always stripped down to a pair of shorts when he fought, fighting was really really dirty. Pocketknife was also starting to sit up, Eli held his hand out, helping the man up. "Guess I did get a little distracted there, this city is so much fun."

"Who won?" Cutter asked, looking between the two. He had the patience to deal with idiots like these, being an idiot himself.

"Me, obviously," Pocketknife immediately said plainly, riffling through his pockets. Damn, he was out of smokes.

"No way," Eli jabbed him in the shoulder, harder than he should've. "I landed the most hits. Plus I drew first blood."

"I did more damage. Want to be thrown again?" Pocketknife said, punching Eli back, causing the boy to step away.

"Oh? Is that right? Want to go to Round 11?" Eli said, shoving Pocketknife, sending him a good few feet away from him. The two both had a large smile on their face.

Oh no, they were going to start hitting each other again. Ravi whistled to them, "Eh! Will you get your ass in gear? I get you boyfriends want to kick each other's asses, but why don't you save it for the audience?"

"I think they're pretty funny." Cutter laughed, crossing his arms, watching the two swing at each other. Being tired from their brawl earlier, their hits were sloppy, just holding each other and hitting each other with little impact. "But yeah, we need to get going, why don't you guys both come to my place? I don't mind if Pocketknife comes."

"Any reason for bringing him...?" Ravi groaned.

"Well, it's my house, I'm the boss there. Pocketknife is with Primal, so I feel he deserves to come with us. Plus, he's Eli friend, I'd hate to pull two friends apart from each other." He said, counting each reason on his fingers.

Well, it was hard to argue with that... Ravi sighed, immediately conceding. As long as Cutter understood the risks with inviting an actual gang member to their house, he wasn't going to argue any further. Maybe he was just being a bit cynical and cranky today, not liking being delayed like this. "Well. Alright then, guess that makes sense." He motioned to Eli and Pocketknife. He knew if this kept going they would start beating each other up again and they'd be here for even longer. "Come on, you two. Cutter's house is just a few blocks from here."

"I'll cook you guys something if you behave." Cutter said. That was something you could trust. Even the most bloodthirsty and rude of Primal fighters were made placid by his cooking.

It wasn't until the prospect of cooking was mentioned that the boys paused, looking at him, stopping their brawl before it escalated further. "Oh... Okay then." Eli said, letting go of Pocketknife, who in turn let go of him.

The four were off, going off to Cutter's house. Just as he said, it was surprisingly close, wouldn't be long before they made it there. The more they walked, it made Eli realize just how pretty Mana was. The buildings and the fixtures, everything looked so much more glamorous than Palegreen. Even the people here, other than the few gang members he had met, came off as much nicer; no offense to Ethan or Brook, but they didn't live in the best of locations. "So..." Eli said, looking to his new friend, "Why are you coming with us?" He really didn't need to, after all.

"Food," He admitted, "Also like you. They said I can come." He said, holding a fist out to Eli, offering a fist bump.

Eli nodded and bumped fists with him, the fist bump transitioned into a handshake.

Finally, they made it to Cutter's house, the place was something to behold. Even though it wasn't as spectacular as Eli had priming himself for. It was a large, three story house, with a lovely front yard. The neighborhood they walked into had the houses spaced out from each other, giving each house its own distinct space. Definitely the rich neighborhood. A single room in the house had to be the size of Ethan's entire home. That being said, he was expecting Cutter to have lived in a huge mansion with butlers, an enormous foyer, and a sweet as hell kitchen... But a three story house with its own front and backyard was pretty cool too.

"Yeah, I've been in Primal for quite sometime, since I was your age, Pocket." Cutter rubbed the back of his head, bashful, as they walked through the front yard past a few yard fixtures, including a miniature fountain. "I've become a bit popular in the health and fitness scene. Even got a book deal and a clothing line. Nothing like Wes, that's a guy who can absolutely dominate the business world, but I know my way around a deal." He took his keys out of his pocket and unlocked the door. The symbol on the door was a pair of antlers, similar to the ones Cutter had on his head. "But make yourself at home. As long as you don't break anything, you're always welcome to stop by."

"Cutter, I don't think either of them are listening." Ravi said, looking at Eli and Pocketknife, who were too busy looking at the scenery. Pocketknife lived in the same city, yet he had never even dreamed to enter the district of the rich and wealthy. Eli had his hands at his side, as if everything in the house was fragile and bound to break into pieces with so much as a touch.

That was, until Eli snapped to attention. "Wait, you mean you can have, like, toys and stuff themed after you?"

"I didn't really say that but yes, if you become famous enough, you can indeed have toy deals." Cutter said, walking into the living room, an open space with a wide couch and two armchairs, a wide screened television positioned on the wall. The walls were also decorated with a few posters, all featuring Cutter, mostly advertisements for sports drinks and sports gear. "But you have to get famous off of other things, like me getting into the sports and fitness scene, I'm super into track and field for instance. You can't really have the whole public knowing about your deals with Primal."

"Okay, okay." Eli nodded, taking a seat on one of the couch; it was soft and definitely not going to break with so much as a touch. "I'll let others figure it out."

"A lot of the time it's up to your handler. Other times it's entirely dependent on what you do outside of Primal." Ravi said, sitting on one of the sofas, putting the leg rest up. "Like another newbie to Primal, Opal, she's a huge celebrity in her home country."

"Sometimes you get famous from Primal and sometimes Primal chooses you because you are famous." Cutter said, remaining standing.

Eli nodded, rubbing his chin. He knew this was more complex than just fighting. He wasn't going to bother with the complicated bits though; he just hoped that Ethan had it in himself to handle it. "...And you guys have a handler or are you independent like Darnelle?"

"Ravi, Wes, and I are all under the same Handler. But she just organizes our fights and we talk with her before them. Not all Handlers and Fighters are as close as you are with the bat boy."

"Got it! Thanks." Eli nodded, putting his arms behind his head and lounging back. "Think I'm done with this topic. You guys wanted to meet me for something specific, right?"

"Straight to point, my goodness," Cutter nodded. "It was mostly Ravi that was curious about you; he said he wanted to do a little research, whatever that is. I just wanted to meet with new people and make new friends. I'm kind of a big softy like that." He looked to where Ravi was, but the jackal had gotten up and left. Looks like he was going to get something. "Could've at least said where he was going, I swear, that guy bothers me sometimes." Cutter said, sitting down where Ravi was. "While we wait for him, why don't we just chat. You too, Pocket." Cutter said, waving to Pocketknife, who had kept silent this whole time; the coati was too busy looking at the environment, taking in how nice the house looked.

But, despite him being the rudest person there and obligated to steal something if it wouldn't be missed, Pocketknife sat down in the one empty armchairs.

The three conversed a little bit. Pocketknife mostly keeping to himself, being a man of few words. Eli talking about his favorite things, fighting and his friends. Being the host, Cutter let him talk, just listening.

"There is Ethan, I like him, he's really nice to be around, but he's just super fragile and weak, not just in a physical sense. He's also friends with Brook, who is super fun, but she smells bad and drinks a lot, but I like her just as much." Eli stretched, "...But yeah, those are the two people I'm around most. But I like you two, both of you are cool."

Cutter nodded, looking at Eli with great amusement. "You really are a 'What You See is What You Get' type person, aren't you, Eli?"

"What do you mean?"

"He means just that." Pocketknife chimed in. "You're like me. Hide nothing from no one. You say, don't think."

"Exactly," Cutter said, "Guess that's why you two got along so easily. Just know that kind of trait is both a great strength and a great weakness."

"How so?"

"You both seem like the type of people to say what is on your mind and do everything with a straight forward attitude, what you see is what you get, as I said." He explained, "But sometimes, well, you'll want to hide things. You'll want to go against what your heart says. Just speaking from experience," he put his hand to his chest, "I'm the exact same way, so I'm not saying this is a bad thing, you hear?"

"What about the jackal?" Pocketknife said, referring to Ravi.

"What about him?" Cutter asked.

"What you see is what you get." He said, slowly repeating what he heard earlier. "What about the jackal? What do we get from him with what he says?"

While Pocketknife was a bit hard to understand, completely confusing Eli, Cutter understood what he was getting at. "Well... Truth be told, I don't know what he's thinking half of the time. He likes to hide secrets and I hate it when he gets in one of his moods. Don't know how to describe what those moods are, even."

Eli and Pocketknife went silent, listening to the elk talking about his friend.

"But, uh, well... I love the guy, what can I say!" He blushed. For such a tall and extremely muscular man, Cutter was acting like an embarrassed school boy, "Heh, I think he knows that, so I like teasing him about it."

"Cute," Eli nodded.

"When do we get food?" Pocketknife asked, other things on his mind.

"I'll cook you something in a few minutes, I think I want to wait to see what Ravi wants with Eli." Cutter sighed. He'd have to cook up a storm for these guys. It wouldn't be the first time he was going to cook for other Primal members, some of them were harder to please than others; even had a chance to cook for two of Primal's biggest champions, Rakkan and Tao, the latter of which has an appetite of an army and the palette of a gourmand.

Eli got ready to speak. But then, in his peripheral vision, he caught the shining glimpse of a sharp object, gleaming metallic and sharp. His instincts instantly told him: A knife! Quickly, Eli grabbed the assailant's hand, nearly collapsing on the other end of the sofa in shock. But, then, as the shock came down as quickly as it came up, he noticed the object wasn't a knife, but a syringe. The one holding it was Ravi, now returned. Still, a syringe was a scary thing to have pointed at you all of a sudden.

"Quick reaction time." Ravi said, as Eli let go of his wrist; he was lucky that Eli didn't hit him then and there. On his back he carried a boxy metallic device. "Sorry, that was on me for not telling you." He flicked the syringe, the syringe had a long tube at the other end of it, which trailed off and connected to the device on Ravi's back.

"What the hell, Ravi?" Cutter said, "Can you not ask nicely? At least warn him before stabbing him with something"

"Yeah! I ought to break your hand!" Pocketknife sneered, his eyes like daggers towards the jackal, who didn't have an ounce of remorse on his face.

"What's that thing for?" Eli said, casually, looking at the weird backpack. Looks like he instantly forgave the jackal for nearly jabbing him. He sat back up in his seat.

"It's name is pretty long and weird, so let's call it a cybernetics detector. It does exactly that, scans the body and detects cybernetics and biotics, even the most minute and tiny of them will be picked up. They have very simple ones at airports and security stations, but this one gives me a more detailed and specific reading... It's quite expensive but I was beyond excited when I bought..." Ravi said, hastily letting the device down on the coffee table, once he noticed no one else in the room cared about the specifics. One day he'd meet Primal fighters who actually gave a shit about the complex world of cybernetics and biotics development. "Attached to it is a device for extracting blood in small quanities. Just wanted to get a blood test from you."

"Why?"

"I'm not a scientist but I'm a naturally curious fellow. Well, more like you could say I'm not a scientist by career, but I have the heart of a scientist." He explained. "Your little act in the arena, your first fight, got me curious. Just wanted to run a few tests on you and get to know about you. It'll just take a few minutes and you won't have to do a thing." He pulled on one of the cords on the Detector. A long wire connected to a suction cup. "Just got to hook a few of these things to you, draw a little bit of blood, then you'll be off."

Everyone else was quiet.

"I'll compensate you with some payment. How's 10000 Shells sound?"

"I don't care about money." Eli shook his head, "But I'll do your thing. I've done a lot of tests like this... I think."

"I care about money." Pocketknife said.

"In that case, Pocketknife can have the money." Eli laughed, removing his shirt. Ravi nodded, and began to place the suction cups onto him. Cutter got up and stretched, going to the kitchen to cook something. It would likely take longer. Pocketknife followed after him, leaving the jackal and the binturong alone.

"You're familiar with this device?" Ravi asked, "Tell me, Eli, are you familiar with VAV Corp at all?"

"I don't know who they are."

"You used one of their Regenerators. You don't remember that?"

"Oh, them! Right, yeah, I saw their logo. But not really, I don't know about VAV."

"Curious..." He nodded, he said, pushing a few buttons on the side of the device. "I was just wondering that's all. VAV uses these things a lot, helps them with medical research. So do a lot of biotics groups. So I thought you'd be familiar with one of them."

"Nope. I just think it looks familiar. So did the Regenerators. Maybe I do recognize them but I don't remember. There is a lot of stuff that I don't remember." He said, scratching his head. The suction cups felt a bit tingly on his fur, like a small painless static shock. "Like I don't know a lot about the world."

"You're fine with this?" He asked, looking up from the Detector, "Not knowing a lot about the world, that is."

"Perfectly fine." He nodded, "I am what I am, that's it. I live life as I want. I don't know why so many people have an issue with that."

"Hm, yeah, I'm with you there. People can be so strange." Ravi said, trying to understand the boy. Cutter was better at this sort of thing, talking with people. "Just sit here for a few minutes, it'll be done in a moment."

"Cool!" Eli said, going through is backpack, and taking out a bottle of water, drinking it. He could have the sandwich on his way home, he really wanted to try Cutter's cooking. He let Ravi go about the test, not even caring why he was testing him.

The only thing he cared about right now was the delicious smell already coming from the kitchen.

But, all fun things must come to an end, and a visit is just a visit. Things would soon wrap up, as the day came to a close.

---

"Thanks you two for coming over!" Cutter waved the two away.

The dinner went off without a hitch. Eli and Pocketknife were both surprisingly good house guests; although they were both equally very messy eaters, leaving their table manners a lot to be desired. At least they didn't break anything. The dinner was some spaghetti and meat sauce, with some soda for a drink. Unfortunately no garlic bread, by the time the meal was cooking, it was realized they didn't have any.

"Thanks for having us! We got to do this again sometime!" Eli waved, "I'll invite Ethan and Brook next time."

"Thanks, I guess" Pocketknife said, picking his nose. "I won't invite my gang. But I come back sometime." He said, walking off before Eli did, hands in his pockets. The others will be so jealous, he got to eat dinner at one of the richer people's houses. Sure, that wasn't punk, but he got free food from someone wealthier than him and that was a win!

"Before you go Eli," Ravi said, taking a paper out of his back pocket, "Take this. I know you don't care about money, already gave Pocketknife the money he wanted. But this might interest you instead."

Eli took a look at it. It was a bunch of photos and bios. A lot of reading... Great, he didn't like reading.

"It's a few of the fighters. I know how much you like to hear about future opponents. So why not learn about a few of them and set up some fights, eh?"

"I'll remember to do that." Eli nodded, "Have fun you two!" He said, running off, "Wait up, Pocketknife!"

Watching the two run off, Cutter and Ravi went inside, going back into the living room to sit down for the day. Ravi didn't live here, but he planned to stay the night. "So, what'd you learn?" Cutter asked, going to the kitchen for a beer first. "You were so persistent on learning about that boy, what's up with that?"

"Hm..." Ravi sat with his fingers clasped together. "Yes and no. All my questions only turned into more questions."

"Stop that." Cutter came back with three cans of beer, two for him and one for Ravi. His tone was more annoyed than upset. "Just go and tell me, I don't like that mystery thing."

"Alright, here's the thing. I've heard a lot of talk about the other staff at Second Chance. They're is talk about a partnership with VAV. I don't know if it's true, but the idea of these two hooking up is crazy to me. Don't tell anyone I told you this, alright? It's just a rumor as far as I know."

"What's the big deal? Medical groups get in touch with biotics groups all the time. Why is this one different?" Cutter asked.

"Don't know, that's what's bothering me, everyone I've heard it from is treating it like its something ground breaking. But I think it has to do with another rumor I heard. That VAV has some huge project going on." He cracked open his beer, taking a nice long sip from it. He cringed at the bitter, hop taste. Clearing his throat, he continued. "The creation of artificial life."

"So, what you're saying is..."

"That Eli is the key to solving this rumor." He grinned, "You know what I found? Eli's blood, nor the rest of his body, had no enhancements whatsoever. He is 100 percent organic."

Sipping on his second can of beer, having chugged the first one while Ravi was talking, Cutter looked at him both confused and excited. "That's... Something. But what does any of it mean?"

"Again, I have no idea, but I'm excited to solve it. Big things are coming, us veterans got to get ready. My boss is the Games Master at this year's tournament. So 11 months from now, we just might be getting our answer."

---

Another slow but fun chapter! What could any of this mean?

Look forward to the next chapters, as we're going to be getting a rare treat: A 2 v 1