Feng fell hard on the mat of the virtual dojo, brought down by a hulking behemoth with twin Ø tattoos on his biceps. The Behemoth followed Feng to the mat after his double-leg takedown, trapping Feng’s legs in the process. Feng rolled to his side and pushed, furiously attempting to escape by sliding his hips away from his opponent. A wasted effort. The Behemoth, still gripping Feng’s legs, slipped forward like a base runner sliding into home plate. A quick spin later and he straddled Feng, sinking in a choke. From here, it seemed like a formality. Feng tapped out a few seconds later to avoid the complete strangulation of his ’Versona.

They fought in the Clan:LESS training center, a mixed martial arts gym housed in an airplane hangar on the clan’s Floraverse compound. They trained alongside countless clanmates for the rematch with Bugz they planned to launch soon.

Feng and the Behemoth reset their starting positions on the mat and fist-bumped each other. This time, Feng anticipated his opponent’s charge and sprawled out over top of him. He pushed the Behemoth’s head down into the mat as the giant lunged forward. Feng spun and took the Behemoth’s back and locked in a choke of his own. The giant struggled against Feng’s grip.

“C’mon, just tap,” Feng whispered. “Tap or nap.”

The giant rolled once, twice, and three times, struggling to escape, but succeeded only in locking himself in the choke further. Finally, he tapped, and Feng quickly released his neck.

“Alright, good job, boys. Come circle up for a minute.” Alpha’s voice thundered across the training space. He sat down on the mat as the other Clan:LESS soldiers formed concentric circles around him, their ’Versonas sweaty from virtual training. “Let’s review this battle plan again. Last time, we made the mistake of launching all our forces at her at one time. We saw she can throw countless resources at us if we crowd in one spot. This time, we’ll space out our attack and make her fight on two fronts at once. She won’t manage to keep up with both.” Alpha spelled out the details of his new plan of attack, littering his speech with profanities and sexist language. That sort of talk always made Feng cringe but he never said anything about it in the hopes it would help him fit in.

After the strategy session ended, Feng sat at the edge of the mat relaxing with a couple of fellow clanmates.

“You guys ever move far from home?” Feng asked.

“Nah. What you mean?” the Behemoth grunted.

“I’m leaving China.”

“Really?” Feng’s friend Joe asked.

“Yeah,” Feng replied. “I’m on the plane right now. In-flight Wi-Fi is kind of bunk. That’s the only reason you got a round on me, Behemoth.”

“Yeah, right.” His training partner chuckled.

“Where you moving to?” Joe asked.

“Your mom’s.” The Behemoth giggled.