There were two factions within the Cornerian Army; those who were against everyone who came from outside Corneria, and those who were more sympathetic to outsiders. Everyone still pledged their allegiance to Corneria, it was just a matter of how far someone was willing to go to defend that allegiance, even if it meant defending some less than savoury characters and actions.

It appeared inside Wolf's rooming house, that partisanship appeared to be evenly split in half between those who considered themselves to be of "pure Cornerian blood," and the other half were those who were more sympathetic towards outsiders.

"It doesn't make any sense," Wolf often muttered to himself. "Why should it matter where your heritage comes from? Especially here, at the Academy, of all places?"

There were just some of the questions that Wolf couldn't wrap his head around. Perhaps it was the feeling of superiority that gave the "pure bloods" the confidence to beat their chests around the place that gave them purpose in life. It was the only explanation that made any sense.

Really, discrimination never made much sense; Wolf had experienced it from the moment he was born growing up in the slums, Leon did the same living in the Venom penal colony. Neither of them chose to grow up where they did.

It was at this point that Wolf could hear an argument break out in the lounge, and Wolf ran out from his room to figure out what was going on.

As Wolf approached the lounge, he could hear the heated voices of Algy and a gorilla, both shouting furiously at each other. Algy stood on top of one of the tables, eying the gorilla face to face as their tempers flared all across the rooming house. The gorilla, huge and bulky with pure white fur and a face that marked a man of high stature, saw Wolf run into the room and glared directly at him; Wolf knew better than to approach the gorilla directly.

"What the hell do you want?" the gorilla growled.

Wolf said nothing to the gorilla, instead walking towards Algy. "Come on," he said firmly. "There's nothing to be gained from arguing here."

"I'm only trying to stand up for you," Algy snarled in response. "They got no respect for folks outside their own kind."

The gorilla smirked at the comment, as Wolf could smell the gorilla's beer-stained breath. "That's a laugh! You should know better than to mess around with Corneria! Believe me, you won't get far trying to ruin us from the inside!"

Wolf's blood boiled at the statement, as he thought of the many ways he wanted to grab the gorilla by the throat and teach him a lesson. But he knew deep in his mind that it would earn him a one-way ticket to the detention center. So Wolf bit his lip down and started to walk with Algy as the lemur stepped down from the table.

"You don't need to shout at the guy," Wolf said sternly out of earshot. "I appreciate it, but I don't want to get in any trouble."

"Listen," Algy pointed at Wolf, "you gotta learn to stand up for yourself once in a while. Don't let those fools push you around!"

"And you got to learn when to pick and choose your battles," scoffed Wolf. "Besides, the last thing I want to do is get in trouble with Mr. 'Holier-Than-Thou' anytime soon."

Just as the two were about to leave the room, the gorilla angrily shouted towards them, pounding his fists against the wooden table. "Hey! You're not gonna walk away like a bunch of pussies, aren't you?"

"Who's calling who a pussy?" Wolf shouted back over his shoulder.

"You know damn well who I'm talking to! And you'd better not back out of a fight when you're in the cockpit, too!"

"Piss off," scowled Wolf. "I have better things to do than messing around with you."

"You're nothing but a lousy excuse for a Cornerian, you know that? You're a disgrace to the Cornerian Army. We'd be better off without your filthy, traitorous kind around here!"

Wolf's eyes widened in surprise and anger, and he slowly marched over to the gorilla, fixing his eyes onto him with a deadly glare. "Don't you think you ought to rephrase that?"

"My apologies," the gorilla said in an unserious tone. "I didn't mean to imply that you were a traitorous piece of filth. I meant to say that you should be put to jail as a traitor!"

Wolf was taken aback by the outburst, as his blood boiled with rage and betrayal. He felt his muscles tense up, and before he knew it, he threw a punch straight at the gorilla's face. The gorilla's friends nearby jumped into the melee that quickly broke out as a result, and soon enough the brawl could be heard from all over the rooming house.

The gorilla tried to fight back, but he was no match for Wolf's fury. The years of pent up anger soon reared its ugly head, as he unleashed a rage he didn't even think was possible. More of the gorilla's allies tries to intervene, but Wolf's rage was too much to handle. Eventually the whole rooming house tried to get involved in some way, the noise from the melee too much to ignore.

Leon ran into the lounge as he heard the melee break out, managing to get between Algy and another academy member, noticing Algy's eyes glare red with rage.

"What the hell is going on?" Leon shouted.

"Stop holding me back!" Algy shouted back, ignoring Leon's question.

The gorilla then focused his attention on Leon, throwing an uppercut directly across his face, incensing him as a result. He struck the gorilla in the midsection, and jumped into the brawl, defending himself whenever he could.

This didn't last long, though, as a few security guards ran into the lounge and wrestled down the students, managing to break the cycle of fury as their hearts raced. The rooming house was left in shambles, the furniture broken and scattered, the windows shattered into a thousand pieces.

Within an hour the higher ups found out what had happened at the rooming house, and Professor McCloud rushed in an angrier mood than the students were during the brawl.

"I want to know who started it! I'm waiting... Griffin, who started the fight?"

"I don't know, sir." replied Griffin staring blankly without making eye contact with McCloud.

"All right..." McCloud paced back and forth as the students were lined up, standing perfectly still. "O'Donnell, I know you. You started it, didn't you?"

"No sir," Wolf replied back swiftly.

"Then who did?"

"I don't know, sir."

"I don't know, sir... I want to know who threw the first punch!" McCloud bit his lips, wishing he could grab one of the students in anger. "All right, you're all confined to quarters until we figure out who started it."

Wolf, Algy and Leon returned back to their room, as Algy was rubbing his head with his hand, his whole body sore from the ordeal. "How long do you think you can get away with then not knowing what really happened in there?"

Wolf said nothing, as he was staring blankly at the wall, his mind still racing from the conflict.

Leon took a big chug from the bottle of beer he was grasping in his hand, letting out a deep sigh. "This is ridiculous. Somebody's gonna be kicked out for this. Probably me. I don't know how much longer we can keep living like this."

The three of them sat in silence for a few moments before Leon clenched his fist, his jaw tight with anger. He then stood up quickly and paced around the room, his mind racing as the events over the evening replayed in his mind.

"Listen," said Algy, sitting up on the bed. "No matter what, we'll find a way to manage through this. I have a plan if the Academy doesn't work out."

Leon stopped pacing around the room, raising one of his eyebrows. "Are you sure about that?"

"Of course I'm sure," Algy replied. "There's no sense going to the Academy to help us out. They don't care about us. They only care about their image and bottom line. If they kick us out for defending ourselves, so be it."

Wolf nodded in agreement, the events of the brawl still fresh in his mind. "What's your plan, then?" he said, taking another swig of beer.

Algy leaned in and lowered his voice. "I have contacts who can get us jobs in the underworld, smuggling medicine back and forth under the noses of both the pharmaceutical companies and the Cornerian Army. With any luck, they'll never figure out who's running this. We could even make some decent money and never have to worry about the Cornerian Army again."

Wolf's eyes lit up at the suggestion from Algy. Wolf knew about Algy's background living in a household built up from a pharmaceutical giant, but he wasn't one to argue that he knew people who would be able to help smuggle medicine at far cheaper rate than the companies were charging.

Leon, on the other hand, shook his head. "That's got to be the most insane idea I've ever heard! We're not criminals! We're supposed to be defenders of the galaxy!"

"And how's that working out for us?" Algy snapped back. "We're constantly getting shit on by the Army. We deserve better than that. Besides, I don't know about the rest of you, but I joined the Academy thinking I could actually change things in this galaxy - but the more I think about it, the more I realize that we're not gonna change anything by playing by the rules."

Wolf nodded in agreement, his head still pounding away from both the brawl and the discussion the three roommates were having. "Let's just see how this plays out," sighed Wolf. "I don't want to give up on the Academy so easily, as much as I agree with you. Hopefully they won't find out what exactly happened tonight."