“There you are you bastard. You have messed with the wrong people. Don’t you know who I am? I am a McGriff.” Came a shout.

 

“And I ….. am Ironman.” Saying so a boy snapped his fingers cackling with laughter.

 

In front of him was a posse of teen boys whose faces were as red as a tomato. They were fuming at the boy and looked ready to pounce any minute. They were however in sight of the gym teacher and so couldn’t do anything but heave.

 

“Why, are you hurt that the Head Master scolded you?” Asked the boy with a high pitch as if a child was speaking. “You should have thought about that before you tried to bully others, Evert.” Mocked the boy.

 

“I mean, it is one thing to bully others and another to film yourselves doing it. Are you an idiot or something? Why would you even create evidence of your wrongdoing.”

 

“You are dead meat you bastard. Do you think that anything will happen to me just because you complained to the Head Master? I am a McGriff you idiot, my father runs this school. The Head Master did nothing but give you up.” Gloated the bully.

 

“Oh my, what do I do, if I had known that I would have sent the video to the police as well.” Says the boy with mock concern.

 

“Oh! Now that I think about it, I have sent the video to them.” Said the boy with a cheeky grin.

 

“HARI! I will fucking kill you.” Yelled the bully and pounced on him forgetting that he was in the middle of class.

 

Hari then dodged and began to run away.

 

“Help, help.” He shouted as he ran away but one look at his expression and anyone could have seen that he was enjoying this. Behind him ran Evert and his posse of bullies.

 

The gang chasing him looked like they were athletes and were nimble on their feet and yet couldn’t catch up to Hari, who while he looked thin was very fast and seemed to weave through any obstacles in front of him. He jumped over any wall that was blocking him, manoeuvred around anyone that came in between with grace rivalling pro footballers, and parkoured his way into the school gym.

 

“Brother, save me they are trying to hurt me.” He shouted.

 

In front of him was a well-muscled teen that was bench-pressing weights. He was sweaty and ripped. As soon as he heard the shout he set the barbell in its place and got up sighing.

 

Hari ran up to him and hid behind his back. The teen gave the boy an irritated look as the posse of bullies arrived.

 

“What trouble did you cause now?” Asked the teen while wiping his sweat with a towel.

 

“What do you mean trouble brother? They are attacking me saying that they will kill me, so I ran here to ask you to help me.” Said Hari hanging his head as if he was wronged, at which the teen groaned.

 

Seeing the teen the bullies were a little frightened but the McGriff boy had an indignant look on his face. It was natural to be afraid of Vrika, after all, he was the reigning boxing champ of the Yorkshire Boxing Youth Championships. He was a machine when it came to fighting, he also learnt Karate, Judo, and Jiu Jitsu. He was the reason that no one dared to mess with Hari who was a constant troublemaker. His cold exterior did not help in decreasing his notoriety.

 

“Look Vrika I don’t have any problem with you, but that little shit of a brother of yours will have to pay for what he did, so hand him over.” He says with an entitled expression on his face like he was a king ordering a subject.

 

Hearing that the teen – Vrika just says coldly, “No.”

 

There was a moment of silence after which Evert just straight up jumps at the duo while his gang watches on stunned before joining him.

 

As soon as Evert reaches Vrika he punches out. His fist comes close to Vrika’s face and Evert expects a sick crunch when his fist connects with Vrika’s face, after all, he had experienced it many times when he hit those nerds. While he was afraid of Vrika, he was confident in being able to hit him when he had his guard down. After all, this was a street fight, not a sport and sportsmen usually don’t fare as well in street fights.

 

However, his expectations didn’t come to fruition. As soon as his fist reached his face he felt it connect with a slapping sound, but he felt as if his fist was engulfed. His hand was in the palms of Vrika who grabbed it.

 

The next second all he felt was a blur, it was as if he was in a train and the train was moving away as he watched the background from a window. When he came to be, he was on the ground with a throbbing jaw. Everything was still out of focus and blurry, making him blink a few times to regain proper sight. He wanted to get up but kept wobbling and falling down.

 

In the meantime when the gang saw what happened with Evert, they stood down for a bit before rushing towards Vrika and ganged upon him. The first guy tries punching Vrika only for him to duck and uppercut the guy next to him who falls down.

 

He is then tackled by a duo. Vrika gets dragged for a bit before he puts strength on his legs and stops the duo in their tracks.

 

Vrika then unleashed a flurry of elbow strikes on the guys holding him, one of whom lets go and stumbles away holding his back. Vrika then kicks the other guy in the chest with his knee knocking his breath out, who then promptly collapses.

 

The others then warily form a ring around Vrika and encircle him from all sides. They skirt around him, waiting for an opportunity to gang up on him, eyeing his every movement like a kingfisher does its prey, waiting patiently. Suddenly two of them charge and punch out in two different directions only for Vrika to dodge the attacks with ease, however as soon as he does so, another kicks him from behind, causing him to stumble and fall to one knee.

 

A fourth boy then deals a left hook to Vrika’s jaw, disorienting him for a moment. He balances himself by placing his fist on the ground, supporting himself on it while recollecting himself. The gang surrounding him meanwhile jeers, and celebrates taking down the champ.

 

“Not so tough now are you ‘Wrecka’?” Asks one of the boys smirking.

 

“Now just wait here as we deal with your brother.”

 

Hearing that statement, Vrika smirks as if he found that funny.

 

“What do you think that it is funny? Because I will make your brother…..” Before that declaration could be finished, however, one of the members of the gang fell in front of him with a thud flying in from his side. When he looked in the direction from where the guy was ‘thrown’, Hari was standing there with a smirk that could prove definitely that Vrika and he were brothers.

 

“Looks like you are becoming rusty brother, to think that these twats could even come this close to defeating you.” Hari teases Vrika.

 

“Lose, my ass. I just worked out, you git. My muscles are a bit stiff due to the exercise and adding on the fact that this cunt over here kicked me from the back.”

 

“Excuses, excuses.”

 

A lanky boy threw himself at Hari, followed by another that wore a beanie hoping to pile upon him. Hari just evaded them by stepping back and then quickly dispatches them with a roundhouse kick.

 

“You know it seems you guys don’t know this because of his antics, but that idiot brother of mine is only slightly less talented than me at fighting. If he were to have even a semblance of discipline, he would have been nearly as successful as I am.” Vrika says with suppressed pride dancing on his face as he got up and took in a defensive position.

 

“’ slightly less talented’ my ass. I am better than you ain’t I?” Hari retorts with a smile as he moves towards Vrika, punching the guy who came in between unconscious. When they came close enough, they stood back to back.

 

From that point, a dogfight ensues, with both kicking the boy in front of them with full force. They then put their guard up to block the subsequent attack on them and then punch the guys in their guts. They fight in synchronization that only twins like them can. Their moves seem identical but at the same time complement each other.

 

There was now just five left who were nervous, but knew they couldn’t back down. Two of them charge up to them.

 

Vrika shoulder throws the one charging at him, he then punches him in the face for good measure and the guy passes out.

 

Hari instead just steps aside and trips him over his leg. The guy just falls flat on his face, breaking his nose.

 

The last three just look on in fright, unsure what to do. The only reason that they were still there and did not run away was that they knew that doing so would displease Evert. They were too afraid of Evert’s background to go displease him, after all, they did see the consequences of displeasing Evert up close. He would bully the boy who did so along with his family. The family would somehow lose their livelihood and go bankrupt. They didn’t want that to happen to them.