Life of a Street Fighter

Game Changer

* edited on 11/17/15

There was a crowd gathered discreetly around an alleyway that resided in one of the backstreets in New York City. Yells and hollers filled the air, goading the two people in the middle of the crowd to move faster and hit harder.

Scarlett Brooks, the teen with the stunning red hair, pulled back into a braid, and with vibrant green eyes, slid past her opponent, before spinning around and landing a kick on the man's back before he turned. The crowd shouted her name in excitement as they faced off.

She narrowed her eyes at her opponent, who was a tall wiry man. He was fast but didn't seem to have much strength behind his blows, landing only quick hits, before moving away again.

Scarlett let her eyes drift past the man's shoulder, searching the crowd, always on the lookout for police officers. They were usually the ones shouting with no real excitement or putting their hand on their ear, because of an earpiece. She had seen enough and had enough close calls with them to know what they looked like and what they did. As her eyes roamed the crowd, she caught a pair of rich, brown ones for a fleeting moment, but when she tried to find them again, they were lost in a sea of shouting faces.

Her attention returned to her opponent again, and she stood and let him rush at her before slipping quickly to the side and slamming her elbow down on his neck. He fell to the ground and Scarlett raised her hand in victory. The crowd cheered her name and soon money was passed from the crowd to her.

Once more, she thought she saw the brown eyes again, with a tangled mop of amber colored hair as he looked over his shoulder, but he was gone almost as soon as he'd appeared.

Suddenly, a loud whoop of sirens cut through the yelling, and the crowd scattered, Scarlett running amongst them. She narrowly avoided being caught by a police officer, as he reached out to grab her, she slammed her elbow into his ribs and darting across the street so she could mingle with the crowd of people, and act like she had nothing to do with street fighting.

There were ensuing shouts and Scarlett paused, wondering if she should help someone. Though normally she didn't feel like helping anyone, something made her stop and look back across the street. She turned and saw a tall boy struggling with two blue jackets. He has amber colored hair that glinted in the sun as he punched one of the blue jackets, but the other restrained his arms, and the one he'd punched pulled a gun out and pointed it at him. He glanced across the street and their eyes met for a split second, and Scarlett realized with a shock that it was the boy she'd seen glimpses of before.

Without a second thought, Scarlett ran across the street, ignoring the honks of cars and the screech of rubber tires against asphalt. She sprang at the police officer holding the gun, successfully knocking it out of his grasp, while the boy began to fight back against the other blue jacket, now that he was no longer held at gunpoint.

Scarlett swung her fist into the police man's face, knocking him down. She turned quickly, to see if the boy needed any help but he had already torn free of the officer's grasp and was in the process of knocking him down. As soon as the blue jacket was down, the two of them darted away and pounded down the street, away from the officers.

As the shouts and sirens faded into the general traffic sounds of New York City, Scarlett cursed when she realized that she hadn't even gotten paid fully because of the fucking officers. She scowled, shooting a glance at the tall teen who ran next to her and opened her mouth to ask him a question, when a crack in the sidewalk caught her toe and sent the ground rushing up to her face.

She closed her eyes, but didn't feel any impact so she cautiously opened them, and saw the ground only a few inches away from her face. Then she was pulled up quickly and dragged onto a side street. The boy let go of her and she quickly straightened, looking at him. "Thanks" she said.