The Hearts of Men, Part 1

In it’s past Philadelphia has had it’s fare share of gangsters, drug lords and wanna be kingpins, but none of there names hold any weight or meaning when mentioning “ Alex smalls. The city’s current crime lord and most feared through out the streets. But before all that Alex was a kid fist who grew up in the streets of philly just like most of those who shared his life style, mother and father were both dope feens and died when he was at the age of six from drug over dose. Leaving a young Alex to live with some family members and attended school where he became great at math and reading, but their was also a side of Alex that loved the streets. At thirteen Alex started to hustle and it was on from there. Within time the family that took him in found out then placed him in foster care. From then on it was the streets and just trying to survive. And being moved from one shelter to the other didn’t make things easy, constantly being tested by the locals forced Alex to learn how to fight in the streets. After some years flew by he began to enjoy the fight, His name started to brake through the streets as a major tough guy at eighteen and was also the time he introduced himself to the underground street fighting scene. Alex always made money from drugs, but the money that cane in from street fighting was major, enough to get him off the streets. In his first fight all bets were against him and on a fighter calling himself The Butcher man”. It was tough for a novice Alex, his opponent was twice his size and had won a couple fights prior; this fight was something for Alex to sink his teeth into. And he did just that, from the start of the fight it was noticeable that the veteran was controlling the fight and blows was doing some damage. But Alex had more heart then many men; he was solid and heavy handed in both hands. Alex was quick with studying his opponent’s styles and being able to take damage, its how Alex took his first match; studying the man then taking him apart with devastating hits to his body before the guy folded. It brought him in a tone of money and a friend, The Butcher man. It was also the start of his strong hold on the fight scene. It also made him that much thirsty for more. Their were some heavy names that lost money that night, and after seeing the fight most wanted to take Alex in as there fighter, Throwing women money and the guarantee of power in the streets at him. But Alex knew all of this could be obtained on his own in time, and tuned his back to everything but the women. At the time any and everyone who was any body in the city attended the underground fights, besides the battles it was a place to connect with or destroy an apposing click. But for the most part it held the fights and that’s what Alex was there for, the fights and money. By his tenth fight Alex had gone undefeated and built his body up to be a tower of muscle. Even still not being very tall standing in at five eleven, Alex would still manage to come out as the little man in the fight. Having to go up against men with a hundred pound weight advantage in just about every fight, but it made no difference to Alex, beating his way through each of them. You see not just anyone can step into what they called the concrete circle and go bear knuckle for six rounds with the cities toughest, you haft to be more then just a tough guy. More then just a fighter, one must be a gladiator, a warrior willing to fight till the death. And that’s just what Alex became. By the age of twenty something he had been crowned street fighting’s most dangerous. Taking out the baddest fighters from the citys most powerful crime syndicates at the time, the Mobsters and the Latins in The Bad Lands. Back then not many gangs ruled the streets, and before Alex took over the city the Mobsters and Latin’s ruled supreme in Philadelphia. Fast forward five years and Alex is now champion and still undefeated, beating not just warriors from within the city but from outside as well. Now his lust for power has grown beyond the fight scene, now Alex wants the streets. And after a wile Alex grew tired of the fighting, the number of fighters available to give the champion a worthy battle was dwindling and the fight scene was starting to become to main stream for Alex. Creating a name for himself as the best brought a lot of media and to much exposure to the internet, people began recording the matches and posting them on the web for the world to see, not good for someone like Alex who tries to stay out of the spot light as much as possible. At this point fighting wasn’t about the money to him, it was for the love of the fight and it wasn’t any fight left in the circle. And abruptly Alex just step out of the fight scene without warning.

Ain't no Love in the city.

Her smile… It pop’s in and out my head. With a laugh that follows. It haunts me, it's like the world has played the biggest trick on me and everyone is in on it. It’s been months now since me and my girl broke up, and I torture myself each night by putting her house in my nightly routs. And allowing the thoughts of her starting a family with someone else cloud my missions, a storm had just passed through the city but there was still one in my chest. It was a muggy night out on the town as I watched over her from beneath the night time shadows, I want to tell her so bad bout what I do and hope she will come back, but I can’t. I can’t have her killing herself over my actions at night, so I took that thought and ran with it. There was a lot of chaos out on the town this night and I tried using it as a means of distraction from my own problems, but it didn’t work. Every car I chased down or street gang I had to battle meant nothin to me on this night, and I was cold an hard on whoever I had to step to. The more I wanted to return to her house the more I looked for trouble, most night I tried or would hope to run into shit. This night I was throwing myself into the shit, knocking on the doors to the city most ruthless gangs and bringing my pain to them. Along the way I came up on “The Hell Ryder’s” a local squad who set up shop in north philly and runs heavy through the streets. They had a spot just under the “El stop on Frankford ave. I had no reason to be stopping by other then my own need for a little chaos. I came crashing through the second floor window recklessly, without any care for what might had been on other side. But none of the men had expected someone poppin in and startin shit wit them. Shock and puzzlement grasped the room wile the “Haze was blazed and room smoked out. Eight heads popped up, two ran for the door leading to the downstairs and the others broke apart like exploding atoms heading for there weapon of choice or just trying to get out of dodge, the usual shit. I unhealed the smoke in the air deeply then zoned out. Two Disk Blades to the back of the head goes to those running for the door preventing them from escaping hells kitchen. The room was tight and I had just enough space to move around the remaining six foot soldiers like the smoke that filled the air. Shots were fired just as I killed the lights and took out the gun man at the same time. A little bit of light that came in from the street pole just outside gave the room just enough shine for me to see my hand sending another ones head into a wall, skull crusher. I was losing control and it felt good, I wasn’t thinking about her and I was taking out the trash at the same time. Final four wasn’t armed with much, a bat another had a knife and the last two just there mitts. Remember hearing footsteps and yelling coming from the outside crowd of what must was the remaining “Hell Ryder’s rushing to home base. I got back on the clock and took the others out one by one plus two with some fine leg work to their dome. By this time the outside crew had made there way inside and was callin out to their fallin soldiers wile checkin for them, no need to play this any way but how I’ve been for the night, reckless. Pull the “Bo Staff out just before busting through room door to finish what I had started with the rest of the crew. As I was heading into the door to knock it down, a strange vibrating sensation hit my leg, I knew it was the cell goin off and at four in the morning it had to be only one person or at least I was hoping it was. Much to my delight it was a text from her sayin she loves me, it through me off my square totally and saved the rest of the crew member from a months worth of pain that would have been placed on them. Left the eight bodies for the others to find, along wit the mystery as to who took out a couple of their foot soliders to keep them up and startled for the rest of the night. I had gotten the exit cue I was lookin for and was done playing for the night, be back tomorrow to finish off the loose ends I left.