The Dragonne and the Lioness

The big, bear-like man sat up on the pavement, holding his now-broken nose. The tall, slender, teen-age boy in front of him looked ready for the next round. Already, one of the bear’s two companions lay on the ground, barely moving.

The bear got back up on his feet and, head low, charged his adversary.

The boy pivoted back on his left foot, dodging his opponent and slamming the hard heel of his left hand into the side of the man’s head as he passed by. The big man ran a couple of wobbly steps, before collapsing to the pavement, unconscious.

The last man on the scene waited until the boy was done. Adopting a knife fighter’s stance, the man clicked his switchblade knife open. "Hold it right there."

The blond boy stepped forward and slapped the knife aside, immediately following up by firing two quick punches into his next opponent’s midsection. The boy then faded back a step, only to follow up with a potentially deadly forward left kick to the man’s face. The man flipped backwards, his feet off the ground, and slammed onto the moist pavement. The boy then looked around for the first two that he had put down.

One of them had gotten back up off the ground and was running across the parking lot, heading towards the street.

The boy dashed after him, his long legs quickly helping him catch up to his fleeing adversary. Instead of tackling the man, the boy grabbed hold of the man’s hair and stopped suddenly.

The running man’s head snapped back as his feet kept going. He crashed to the ground, landing as hard as his friends had earlier, knocking the wind out of him.

"No more! No more!" the man on the ground begged as the boy hefted him up by the shirtfront. "Who the hell are you, man?"

"Just somebody who hates seeing people get picked on." A left cross put the man out of commission. The tall boy then went back to where the forty-ish woman was trying to gather up the groceries that she had dropped when the men had tried to rob her. The young man knelt down and helped her.

"Thank you so much. Usually I don’t shop this late, but..."

"Neither do I, but my mom needed something. You okay, Ma’am?"

"I will be." In the dim lights of the parking lot, the woman could not make out the teenager’s face clearly, but she did notice that he was dressed all in blue. "Are you some kinda policeman or something?""

The young man shook his head in answer to the woman’s question. "’Let me walk you to your car and make sure you get going okay."

"My car’s right here." The lady unlocked the driver’s door and set the two bags of groceries on the passenger seat. "Thank you so much for your help."

"No problem. You have a good evening, Ma’am."

The lady waved at her rescuer as she drove off. The boy waved back, then entered the all-night grocery store.