Small Fist of Justice (3)

Phoebe was incredibly angry and sulky as she rested in her bedroom. She tried to alleviate these feelings by playing with her stuffed animals but when she looked at the fox and bird plushies she remembered her anger towards her guardians. 

She was strong now much stronger than when she first started training yet they didn't trust or believe in her, it was incredibly frustrating. Why couldn't they see that she was good enough, they kept treating her like a weak delicate child, but she was more than that. 

That's when an idea popped into her head, if she could prove that she was good enough then maybe her guardians could stop being so overprotective. Moving as quietly as she could Phoebe picked up the chair in her room and moved it in front of the window. Standing on the chair Phoebe popped the lock and quietly opened the window then proceeded to climb out the window. The next obstacle was dealt with easily as she pushed the fence gate with enough strength that the lock broke. 

Now free Phoebe started walking aimlessly around, she was searching for injustice but for the first two miles, there was no injustice to be found. The walk was very boring and at some point, Phoebe forgot her whole purpose as she got distracted by the nearby park. She was happily playing to her heart's content when she noticed a small girl walking out of the park following a highly suspicious man. Immediately upon seeing this Phoebe remembered her earlier mission, she jumped off the swing and ran after the pair. She easily closed the distance but stayed slightly behind out of sight of the pair. She needed to know if this man was truly a bad guy before acting, what if he just had an evil-looking face?

"Are you going to give me a big bag of candy? What type of candy do you have?" A small voice chirped. 

"Of course, I'll give you the entire bag of candy I did promise after all, and promises aren't meant to be broken. I have a big bag of Snickers—"

"I don't like Snickers! I like Twix!" The child interrupted the gruff-sounding man. 

"Um... I have another bag of Twix just for you we just have to go get them from out of my car first." 

"Ok!" 

Phoebe realized how bad the situation was right away. This child was being tricked by this awful adult and was likely going to be kidnapped. This was exactly the kind of situation that Phoebe was looking for, here she could prove herself. But just as she was about to rush forward and be the hero she was snatched by the cuff of her shirt and hoisted into the air. Phoebe tried to attack her unknown assailant but her arms and legs were too short to reach. 

"You're getting real sloppy if you somehow managed to miss this little eavesdropper. We have to be more careful after Cyrus got arrested, the police are closing in on us." A cruel sadistic voice said as he hauled Phoebe over to the large white van. 

Phoebe was struggling to land a solid blow on the kidnapper but she was struggling because of her size and lack of martial art skills. Thinking on her toes Phoebe grabbed the man's arm reaching her head forward to bite down hard. The man cursed as he dropped Phoebe, she landed awkwardly on her hands scratching them up quite a bit. Taking this moment Phoebe rushed forward to push the other man holding the girl separating the two. 

"We have to run!" Phoebe urged as she took the girl's hand in her own and dragged her behind her as she ran away. 

Unfortunately for Phoebe, they caught up to the pair as the young girl was slowing them down considerably. The kidnappers grabbed the younger girl's hair which managed to yank Phoebe back quite a bit. The kidnappers took this opportunity to attempt to once again wrangle the girls and drag them back to the van but both Phoebe and the girl were putting up a resistance. 

Phoebe confidently thought to herself that she was likely going to succeed as their scuffle was making quite a racket so the kidnappers would likely have to run away to not get caught. What she wasn't expecting was an old musty towel to wrap around her and the other girl's face. As she breathed in the substance on the towel she felt her consciousness waning. Not long after Phoebe had stopped struggling and the men easily slung the girls over their shoulders and into the van, driving away from the scene of the crime. 

....

Phoebe woke up slowly as she slowly blinked the sleep out of her eyes. As she looked around she noticed a couple of things. The first thing she noticed was that she was in some sort of old building, the crumbling architecture, and musty and moldy smell reminded her of the orphanage's old punishment room. The next thing she noticed was that she wasn't alone, she was surrounded by a large amount of children varying in age and gender. She assumed that some of them had been trapped here longer than others based on how dirty their clothes were and how all traces of hope vanished from their eyes, it was deeply unsettling and reminded her of things she rather not remember. The final thing she noticed was that her right had a long chain tied around it, she didn't see any chains on the other children so she assumed that the kidnappers did this to prevent her escape. 

"Um hi, my name is Phoebe. Does anyone know where we are and how to escape?" Phoebe asked lightly. 

Some of the kids looked back at her, these were the children that had been kidnapped most recently, but most of the kids ignored her. Phoebe was about to try again but she was interrupted by one of the kidnappers slamming a door open and entering the room. The atmosphere of the room dropped immediately Phoebe could practically taste the sorrow and anguish coming from the children as they were confronted by one of their kidnappers. One of the kids who was on the younger side likely four or five started bawling as the man slowly approached the group. 

"Shut your fucking trap or I'll give you something to cry over." The man cruelly yelled his spit wildly spraying on the kids near him. 

The child's crying didn't stop they got worse and louder which only aggravated the man. Phoebe noticed his body language shift and without thinking she ran forward and hugged the kid making sure to protect them as the man's hand landed fiercely on her cheek. Phoebe did her best to comfort the child as she glared at the man making him chuckle cruelly. 

"Ah yes, the little wannabe hero. I heard you caused a lot of problems for our boys. Some hero you are, not only did you fail to save someone but now you're trapped here too, and soon you'll join the rest of them once we sell you. You should learn to be smarter next time but there will never be a next time for you." The man taunted before giving Phoebe one more good slap. 

Phoebe felt the atmosphere around here suddenly heat up violently, the building shook violently as winds whipped wildly, and lightning crashed outside. Phoebe stared back mockingly at the kidnapper in front of her, she knew who had just arrived and she knew that this man was toast. 

Bursting through the heavy padlocked doors at the end of the large factory room was a pissed-off Aurelius. The kids looked back at him partially confused, fearful, and a little hopeful. Aurelius rushed forward to Phoebe so quickly and with so much force that the kidnapper harassing her was launched forward five feet and into the wall. The kidnapper collapsed to the floor with a groan only barely managing to shakily stand up again. Aurelius paid no mind to the human and instead poured all his attention onto Phoebe but when he saw her swollen cheeks, her scratched-up hands, and the chain around her right ankle, Aurelius felt a deep fiery anger boil in him. 

"Did they do this to you?" Aurelius questioned Phoebe gently. 

Phoebe's lack of a response gave Aurelius all the information he needed to know. He rose and walked slowly to the kidnapper. For a moment Phoebe wasn't sure what was going to happen as Aurelius just stared down at the kidnapper without making any movements. 

Ding!

[The Constellation, Ethereal Avian of Fiery Skies, is furious. He desires vengeance.]

Aurelius hoisted the confused and disoriented kidnapper off his feet and then began brutally and aggressively beating the kidnapper. The poor kidnapper was so outmatched that he couldn't even retaliate and could only take his beating. Hearing the noise four more kidnappers ran into the room but they too were attacked by Aurelius. After thoroughly brutalizing the kidnappers Aurelius threw them down in a pile on the floor. He easily broke the metal chain around Phoebe's ankle which earned him murmurs of amazement and shock from the children around him. He then separated Phoebe from the small human who was latched on to her like a leech and tightly hugged Phoebe allowing his swirling emotions to calm. 

"You are grounded for the rest of your life young lady." Aurelius finally said breaking the silence.