A Distant Memory

*3 years ago*

"Hey Mikey, what should we get for lunch?" Dragon asked as he sipped his juice box.

"Dunno," Mikey replied sipping his own juice box while looking to the sky. "What did your mum make you? Let's eat that," Mikey smiled as he stared with glee at the bag behind Dragon.

"There's nothing there, My mum didn't have time to pack my lunch today because she was late for work, so she asked my dad to do it. He placed money in it and left," Dragon answered as he sucked on his own drink some more.

Mikey's happy expression was no longer there as he turned away from Dragon and said, "It was probably for the best. Your dad's cooking sucks."

"So what should we get for lunch?" Mikey asked Dragon.

"That's what I was asking you!" Dragon yelled as he threw his juice away.

"Guys, guys!" A voice yelled from down the street and it was approaching them faster.

"Huh!?" They both said in unison.

"Guys! There you two are! Why do you have to be skipping school today of days!? There is a fight going on, we have to hurry! Mutt is dancing behind the school to keep them distracted."

"Huh!? Mutt is dancing again? But why doesn't he just beat them without us? That guy is strong," Dragon sighed in disapproval as he laid back.

"Come on Dragon," Mikey said as he kicked his sides, "Let's go. You know the way he is."

Dragon sighed and rolled his eyes as the three of them left.

****

Over behind the school, Mutt was break dancing in such a way that his shirt had been taken off and his golden chain was the only thing on the top half of his body.

His enemies were left confused and gawking. They could not understand what was going on in front of their eyes.

"Oi! Mutt! Did you need us!?" Mikey yelled from behind.

Hearing Mikey's voice, Mutt stopped dancing as he stood up properly and then punched one of the boys in front of him and broke his tooth.

"Now that reinforcements have arrived, I need no longer distract your eyes," Mutt yelled with conviction as he raised his fist into the air and placed the other one of his biceps.

The two boys who had been gawking and confused earlier had now regained their common sense again as they got ready to fight again.

The fight wasn't long at all, and in the next few seconds, they were both beaten and running for their lives.

"And don't come back!" Dragon yelled as he kicked an empty can at them, hitting one of their heads.

"Hey, Mutt!" Dragon yelled now refocusing his attention on him. "Why the heck do you keep dancing instead of fighting all the time!? You are as good a fighter as that ponytail guy! Well, maybe half as good, but still!"

Dragon then grabbed Mutt by his shirt collar and lifted him a foot off the ground.

"Hey, you can't blame me! You know I'm not too fond of fighting and would prefer to treat people rather than hit them, in the same way that not all tall people like to play basketball," Mutt complained as he shook his body side to side to say no.

"Besides, with you guys by my side, I don't feel like I can lose at all."

"Aw, how sweet. Cringe but sweet," Mikey said as he walked up to Mutt and made Dragon let him go. "You don't have to punish him that hard Dragon, he is doing what he can. Instead," Mikey said as he smirked-

Mikey then kicked the hair off of Mutt's head and grabbed it in the air. He then proceeded to run off.

"HeyyyY!!! MIKEY!!!" Mutt yelled in rage. "Give that back! You know I am sensitive about my bald spot!"

"If you are that sensitive, then get a mohawk to hide it better!" Mikey teased.

"Haa, look at those two, not a care in the world after just having beaten up a bunch of fools. Why were those guys even attacking us anyway?" Dragon asked himself.

"Hey Mutt, quick playing around and tell me why you were fighting those guys! They seemed to be older so I don't think it could be a new rival school trying to fight us off for cred."

Mutt then stopped attacking Mikey as he looked towards Dragon and said, "They were trying to flirt with some girls in our class, but I intervened and saved them."

"Huh? Really? But they look to be in high school. What are they doing trying to flirt with girls all the way at our school?" Dragon asked.

Mutt who was busy trying to overpower Mikey in a wrestle to get his wig back responded, "I don't know. They must be some losers who thought they could have a better chance at picking up younger girls."

"And the girls?" Dragon asked.

"I told them to leave while I faced the men. They managed to leave in time before I started dancing so it all worked out. I'll be sure to go and get their numbers down the line later ~ hehe" Mutt giggled.

Mikey then kicked Mutt in the face.

"Gross~" he said as he threw the wig down.

"Hey, I saved them as a hero. It's only right that I receive thanks, otherwise, I will turn into the villain!" Mutt declared.

"You? A villain? HAHA. You don't even like fighting! Hahaha!" Mikey just kept on laughing at Mutt who was on the floor.

Mutt stared at him with anger and tried to keep it that way, but there was just something about the stupid face Mikey was making that made even him start to laugh. "Alright, who am I kidding? That ain't like me at all," he said as he rolled his eyes.

Mikey then helped him to his feet.

"Uhm, guys! Aren't you worried at all!?" A voice said from the background. It was the same voice that spoke to them earlier and told them that there was trouble.

"Oi! Saffi, what's up?" Mikey asked.

"Those guys! What if they come back?" Saffi asked.

"Then we'll just beat them up again," Mikey answered.

"And what if you are not around?" Saffi asked.

"Then you call Dragon," Mikey answered.

"And what if Dragon isn't around? And you can't say Ponytail or Smiley because they are suspended," Saffi replied.

"Then Mutt will dance around for 3 hours until we get there, haha," Mikey laughed again.

"What if none of you guys are there!? What then? You guys have been getting into fights with all these people. At first, it was within our school, then outside our school, and then other schools, and now HIGH SCHOOLERS!? Mikey! What if these people who you keep beating up one day come again to attack us, and you're not there to defend us? Shouldn't we at least call the police or something?"

"We already tried doing that once before," Mikey reminded him as he spoke to him in a less amiable tone.

"You know that most grownups don't care about what kids have going on with their lives and only care about themselves. If they truly did care, then we wouldn't have orphans in this world!"

What Mikey said shook everyone as this was a topic that none of them wanted to bring up again.

"Just listen, Saffi," Mikey said as he placed a hand on his shoulder. "If something bad happens, just call for help like you always do. I will take care of it. Trust my words."

"Alright everyone, let's go!" Mikey said as he waved his hand for everyone to follow.

But Saffi just stood there as he asked himself deep down, 'How can I trust your words when I don't even listen to my own? I said I would get stronger, so why haven't I yet?' Saffi stood there feeling an immense pain in his chest. There was something he wanted to prove, if not for his friends then for himself.

He was sure that if he were to achieve these results, then his friends would understand why he did so.

Saffi went home immediately and started punching at a punching bag. He was watching video tutorials about how to fight and how to escape someone with a knife in their hands and tons of other self-defense videos.

He wanted to get stronger for himself. He had asked his friends to train him once in the past but they laughed it off and told him not to learn how to fight, saying that it was painful and brutal and that a kind and gentle person like him would only have more worries if he did end up fighting.

The reason why Saffi wanted to fight was because he was haunted by a memory of a coward.

He was haunted by the actions of his past.

About 4 years ago in a different city, Saffi, Mikey, and the rest of the crew had experienced something that no kid should ever have to experience at their age. They saw a bunch of orphans getting used and abused down in an alleyway by some local drug dealers.

The drug dealers would give the orphans new drugs that they received in order to see their effects and what they could do to someone, and this would make the kids become addicted. Then they would make the kids work to earn money in order to receive more.

After which they would use that money to buy more drugs and substances that they would sell to other nearby thugs and crooks.

Saffi and the group had seen this happening to an orphan on one fateful day and they had tried to go to a police officer to report this matter and get these criminals locked up, but the policeman they went to, who was also in charge of that area was corrupt and already working with the dealers to make an easy buck for himself.

At first, it was because his child was sick that he let it happen for so long but after receiving more and more money to keep quiet about it, his own greed had gotten the better of him and now he had long forgotten his cause for doing all of this in the first place.

Mikey was enraged! So many kids! So many orphans were being used as animals for a sick experiment and forced to become addicted without ever having a chance to live their own lives. Every new orphan that was added to the orphanage would be forced to go through the same process as the rest of them.

Saffi kept pleading on forums of different websites about the case, and though it took long, his prayers were finally heard, a new police officer would be coming to investigate the case and find out if these kids were truly going through what was being mentioned online.

The new officer had heard about this unusual activity from a female colleague of his with white hair who had told him that there was a certain forum that kept on getting taken down but would be reuploaded every now and then about some drug experimentation happening to little kids.

But what had caught her interest about it was the fact that it would always be taken down within 1 hour of it being posted, no matter the website that it was posted on. Luckily, she was able to screenshot it before it got taken down again, so she had a lead.

When word got out that a new officer was coming to check on the kids at the orphanage and test them for drugs, Saffi was more than happy about the news and told Mikey about it.

When Mikey heard this, he was overjoyed and wanted to have another look at the orphanage as he was glad that justice would be delivered. He gathered up the crew and together they all went towards a hill near the orphanage to have one final look at it all.

But when they got there...

The orphanage was on fire.

Mikey cried.

He asked his friends, "What's happening?"

None of them replied.

When Mikey looked down from the top of the hill he was on, he saw that there were two strange men and a police officer who were watching the orphanage burn, and they were throwing away a strange substance into the fire. To burn the evidence.

Mikey screamed knowing what was going on, but what really got to him were the screams of the kids, trapped inside the orphanage, and even a few screams of some older people inside.

Mikey had had enough, he and his crew went down the hill to go and fight the people who were there. As the fire was burning the wood and causing screams of pain from the children, Mikey let out his own scream as he punched the man he fought until he wouldn't move.

Mikey's fists were shaking after that happened, and he would never use them in a fight again unless he felt like someone's life was in danger.

The bodies of the culprits were found. 1 drug dealer, 1 policeman, and 1 dead man. The police officer was stripped of his position and arrested, but no one ever found out who had beaten these men up. So it was written off as an infight between them in the official report.

Ever since then, Mikey and his friends have always fought other people and did so to protect something if not each other.

Even after they all moved to a different city, this was still the case.

All except for one person. Saffi.

Even when his friends went down to fight, he just stood there and watched. Frozen.

He let his friends fight by themselves and was terrified to go and help them and that was why they never wanted him to learn how to fight. It was because they knew that he didn't have the guts to stomach what a thing like that would do to a person.

But now more than anything, Saffi wanted to get himself stronger, to never feel like that again.