The man didn't stand a chance for five reasons. First, he had no weapon on him. Second, I had a poker. Third, he was hurt. Fourth, I was not. Fifth, I was angry, and I fought better when I was angry.

I charged at him with my poker, blind to Ryan's wide-eyed stare. (He'd never seen me or Rosa fight in person. We made sure to never show him; he'd get all the wrong ideas for himself.)  He jumped back and loosened his grip on Ryan. I took the chance to reach out with my other hand and yank Ryan out of the way, then brought the poker down hard on the thief's raised arm. He grunted from the impact.

I didn't give him a chance to recover. In one swift motion, I let the weight of the poker drag it downwards before throwing myself to the side, practically throwing the poker to the right so that it came in contact with his shin. With a sickening, muted thud, the poker hit him on his leg, and he howled in pain. I skidded to a stop, kicking up dust, then took a big step before shoving him back to the ground with my foot. 

He lay there and didn't get back up again, groaning.

I gloated at him silently for a moment. When I turned back, my eyes immediately fixed unto Ryan, who was still gaping at the man rolling around in the dirt holding his shin. His eyes slid to mine, and I shrugged. "What? You were in trouble."

Ryan remained speechless, so I snorted. "You should see Rosa fight when she's angry." I frowned. "Actually, maybe you shouldn't. You'd be scarred for life."

His eyes bugged out and jaws unhinged even further, but Becca rushed over to me at that moment with the littler ones hot on her heels, giving Ryan no chance to respond. 

"Filian! That was so cool!" she gushed, eyes sparkling (not unlike Rosa's in fact, though without the literal sparkles in the air). "Where did you learn that?!"

I smiled and crouched down to their level, smoothing back Becca's unruly red hair. "Well, when you're trying to survive, you don't learn to fight; you just have to."

Hah, yeah right. I was totally lying. Rosa had dragged me to the neighborhood boys and nagged them until they let us join their sword fights and whatnot, claiming that her future needed it. 

"Why do I need it with you?" I'd complained as she pulled me to the mean-looking row boys.

"Because I'll learn from your mistakes. My theory is that if you double the mistakes, you double the learning speed. It's a perfect chance to churn out some statistics," she'd replied in her childish voice.

"I don't get it!"

Her response to that had been prompt. "I don't expect you to. You're seven."

"So are you!"

Well, she'd been right (somewhat... no comment on her "statistics"), and we had learned pretty quickly, her abnormal strength notwithstanding. Those very neighborhood boys had all grown up to be pretty respectable people now, and we still greeted each other when we saw them around town. And I'd gotten some good fighting practice, which was useful for working at a sketchy bar at nights.

But of course I wouldn't tell that to these kids. They'd get the wrong idea.

"Can we learn from you?" piped up Roly, tugging me when I spaced out for a brief second. "Can we, Filian?"

"Mmm, I'll think about it," I smiled. Teaching them self-defense wouldn't be so bad. Especially if thieves like these people kept coming along. I turned serious. "But for now, let's go find--"

A huge clash interrupted me, and we all turned to see my partner the government official wrestling the metal pole guy with his two daggers crossed in front of him.

I put the kids behind me and hefted my poker up and threw it. "Watch out!" I shouted as I let go of the poker, as our heads all followed the beautiful curve of the poker. Thanks again to Rosa.

Government official guy looked up at the last moment and jumped out of the way, and the metal pole guy (he really needed to learn to watch the sky when fighting!) barely got to notice the incoming poker as he stumbled forward. 

"Guac!" he yelled, which made no sense (but then again, does anyone shout things that make sense when their feet get hit by a poker??), as the poker sliced the right of his foot before burying itself into the ground.

Rosa would've been proud of how perfect that was. I winced. "That's gotta hurt."

Becca nodded, making a pained face herself. She shuddered. "I'm never going to go around barefoot. Ever," she said, which I thought was a pretty wise decision.

While pole guy was hopping around on one foot, Mr. Partner stepped forward and easily pulled the pole from the thief's hand, then used that pole to whack the head of the man. He fell to the ground, whimpering, and the winner of the fight was decided.

The siblings and I slow-clapped together for a moment as my newest partner turned around and faced us, his face still impassive.

"Who's that?" Roly asked me.

"That's what I'm asking," I whispered back. 

He seemed to be looking for something. I raised my voice. "All the thieves are down, you know."

My partner shook his head. "I'm looking for rope."

"Oh." Good idea. I turned to Ryan. "Is there rope inside?"

"No."

I considered this. "Are the curtains still up from last time?"

"You mean from last winter?"

"Yeah."

Ryan looked at Becca, who looked at him. "Um, probably. We haven't gone into Big Sister's room forever."

I nodded. "Could you get those for us? Just rip them right down. I can sew them for you later."

Ryan said yes, but Becca was the one who ran off, saying, "I'll get it!" at the top of her lungs.

I almost bolted after her myself. "Wait! Are there more thieves inside?"

"No, they all came out!" Becca called back. "There were only five--" she stopped with a shriek when the door opened in front of her and a sixth man came out, a huge, bulky guy with Mother Lily in front of him.

I would've planted my face in my hands if this wasn't a dire situation. Maybe we needed to reteach Becca how to count first.

And of course the guy had to be someone I knew. The government official, who'd been in the middle of rounding up the slumped thieves into a tight circle (away from any weapons, thank you), instantly unsheathed his two daggers and faced the new threat.

"Dutt," I said aloud with a grimace. "So you're out of jail, too."

I saw my partner glance at me warily in my peripheral vision, but my eyes were glued to the burly man I'd hoped I would never see again.

"You," growled Dutt.

"Me," I replied coolly, walking towards him with my hands in the air. I cracked a grin I didn't feel. "I'm assuming everyone else is out of jail, then, too. What, you all just reverted to thievery now? I guess the kidnapping business wasn't going too well for you?"

He barked a laugh and threw Mother Lily to the ground, who cried out and landed with a thud. I didn't even blink. "Where's your friend?" he jeered. "Leaving her entire family so she can get some money from her noble daddy?"

"Now, now, don't be so mad," I cooed. "You should be happy she isn't here, then your new lackeys won't see your butt getting kicked. Again."

His eyes narrowed as he brought out his weapon. I raised my eyebrows as my gaze dropped to his hands. He held a curved black knife, long and glinting dangerously. It reminded me of a scythe. I whistled in fake appreciation, though my heart was beating so loudly I was worried it would pop. "New toy," I said, keeping my voice steady. "Nice."

The burly man grinned, baring his teeth. "Nice, yes," he agreed. "Nice to cut you down with."

He lunged towards me. I was finally near the poker I'd thrown, still sticking out of the ground, so I yanked that out and raised it to meet his incoming swing. I put all my weight into it, gritting my teeth at the sheer force of his weapon. As big and burly as he was, he had crazy amounts of strength in his meaty arms. It would be impossible for me to beat him by power only. Even blocking one strike left me with cold sweat and shaking hands.

But he had no speed. And I knew someone who was speedier than anyone I'd seen.

I launched into the offensive and focused on quick, concentrated attacks that didn't take much power but would keep him occupied. "Hey you!" I yelled, as poker and scythe clashed, black metal on black metal. "Do something!"

And of course, by "you" I meant my new partner. He was faster than Rosa, which was saying something. And to prove my point, just when I was done shouting, he was next to me in a flash. After a few quick, well-placed cuts and whacks, Dutt stumbled backwards, and government official guy took over completely.

I breathed hard as I backed away, shaking my head and marveling to myself. Man, he was good. 

"Filian!" hissed Mother Lily, who had her hands tied behind her with a rope. She tilted her head to her hands, and I rushed over to her and began untying the knot.

"Mother Lily! Are you okay?"

"Yes, but that's not important." Once I freed her hands, she rubbed at her reddening wrists and took up one side of the rope. "Quick, get the other end."

I did, though I didn't really get what she wanted.

She rolled her eyes. "Go to the other side of the men and pull hard. We're making that man trip."

"Oh! Good idea." I crept across as quietly and inconspicuously as I could, though I didn't have to try hard-- Dutt was kept busy with just the government official guy, who was fast and powerful and kept driving Dutt back.

After finishing a pretty impressive set of blows, he stepped back, and my partner's eyes briefly crossed mine, flitted to the rope in my hand, then looked at me again. He gave me a single nod, almost imperceptible, and renewed his efforts.

"Whoa," I breathed, not really knowing that I was speaking out loud. "Did he just..." Did he just understand the entire plan in one look? Amazing.

Mother Lily motioned at me furiously. I snapped back to attention and nodded, then pulled the rope tight. As Dutt took more and more steps back, driven in by the government official's relentless attacks, Mother Lily and I moved forward, aiming for his ankle.

Not long after, government official dude jumped into the air, brought down his two daggers into a cross and struck down unto the raised scythe. Dutt lost balance almost immediately and began tilting backwards. He raised his foot in order to plant it behind him but got caught in our rope instead. With a cry, he tumbled to the ground, losing his grip on his scythe just long enough for me to dart forward and grab it by the curve.

The blade sliced into my hand a little when I pulled it out. I winced, but the flash of pain didn't last too long, and what mattered was that Dutt was on the ground weaponless, and our partner was standing with a foot on his chest and two daggers in his hands.

I tossed the scythe as far away as possible, then crouched down next to Dutt's face. When he glared at me, I smiled as sweetly as I could and said, "We win."

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A/N: Apparently it was the screen that gave out! Ahaha this chapter was brought to you by my school's library computer. Also, I don't know why I keep getting myself into action scenes like this when I hate writing them. Ah well, hope you enjoyed.