Adopted

2

The next day, Phoenix was busy, quietly preparing for the night ahead. She was planning to sneak out again to the streets where she vents all her bottled up emotions. The only person she trusted with this information, in the gigantic mansion she lives in, was Rosita, a Spanish maid. Rosita is the only person who knows about Phoenix's escapes to the "lower-class", as her parents would put it and is also the one who helps Phoenix get the resources she needs to hide her identity and gender. There may be hundreds of servants who work at her family's mansion but Rosita is the only one who actually serves Phoenix, not her actual employers. Any other servant would have reported Phoenix's activities to her parents without hesitation but Rosita was different. She was family to Phoenix, more than her adoptive parents would ever be.

Once Phoenix is out of the stuffy, suffocating mansion, she is out on the streets. The streets where she can enjoy greasy fast-food, not 5-star French cuisine on a gold plate. The streets where she can listen to proper conversations of what people really think, not hushed whispers of servants afraid of unemployment. The streets where she can be who she wants to be and not worry about the constant monitoring of the media. The streets that she still calls home, no matter how many years pass.

Although Phoenix had been on tv multiple times and her identity is quite famous, no one recognised her in the perfect disguise Rosita had helped make. Rosita had given Phoenix a pair of black cargo pants and a red hoodie to wear along with a wig that made her look like the average teenage boy. Dressing as a boy wasn't completely necessary but it added to keep Phoenix's identity hidden and helped Phoenix blend in with society. Plus, it was much easier to run away from unwanted attention in pants rather than a skirt.

Phoenix made her way to a small, urban convenience store where she began to read some comics and magazines that her parents said she wasn't allowed to read since they had deemed them, "below us". It was only a small rebellion against the parents she secretly detested but this was the only way she could fight back without being disowned. The comic Phoenix is reading is about to reach its climax when she notices a group of thugs surrounding two high school girls. She knows there is more of them than her but she can't just sit idly by. It was a bad habit of hers to act like a good Samaritan and one of the few qualities Rosita didn't like about Phoenix.

Phoenix leaves the store and pulls her black cap down to hide her face as best as it can. "Come on pretty girlies, don't you want to have some fun?", Phoenix hears one of the thugs tease as she walks closer, curling her hands into fists inside her hoodie's pocket. Rosita's warnings replay through her head, 'It breaks my heart to see you hurt like this and makeup can't cover it up forever. If you fight again, I won't help you sneak out anymore.' 

'I won't fight them unless they hurt the girls. Besides, if Rosita doesn't find out, she won't have to worry, right?', Phoenix devises in her head.

"Let us show you a good time", another says as he grips the wrist of the blonde-haired girl closest to him. The group all have perverted smiles as they eye their prey.

"Let go of me!", the blond-haired girl shouts as she jerks her arm away. As her wrist leaves his grip, her long nails accidentally scratch his eye. 

'A fight it is, then.', Phoenix says in her head.

"ARRGGHH! YOU-", the thug goes to strike the girl but before he can, Phoenix grabs hold of his wrist, stopping him midair.

Phoenix puts on the usual masculine voice she uses when she has to fight, and states coolly, "Now that's no way to treat a lady". Phoenix uses her grip on the man's wrist to throw him backwards. He trips over his own feet and lands directly on his tailbone with a crack.

"Who do you th-", one of the other five thugs questions as he attempts to throw a punch at Phoenix's jaw. She, of course, stops him far before he gets even close and once again pushes him back.

"B-boss, the cap, the attitude, it can't be anyone but him.", another man who looks quite a bit younger than the rest stutters towards the man Phoenix had just pushed down. 

'Ah, he must have heard the rumours about me.', Phoenix thinks to herself as she comprehends the change of situation, 'That makes things easier.'

"What? There's no way a stick like 'm is 'Wolf'!", the boss of the group states with a chuckle in his uneducated accent.

This pulls a nerve in Phoenix but she remains calm and collected as she replies with, "Try me, pig". The circle of thugs had widened and the high school girls had tried to make themselves scarce by pressing themselves into the shutter door of the shop behind them, as far as the metal would let them go. Phoenix stepped into the middle, standing between the thugs and the high schoolers. Now it really was a fight, and Phoenix was ready in the fighting stance she had honed and strengthened over the years. She had decided to step in and help the high school girls and knew the costs that came with that choice. Phoenix wasn't going down without a fight.