The crowd couldn't believe their eyes when they saw that the four teenage girls had defeated the three boxers. It took a few seconds for people to react, and then they started yelling out praise and admiration.
"Damn it, that was amazing," said one man.
"Those four girls beat those huge men. I can't believe it," said his friend.
"What just happened? It was incredible," said another.
However, the four girls didn't listen to the praise. It didn't mean anything to them. They took a step toward the three terrified men. They believed that the three girls couldn't be ordinary humans. There was something exceptional about them.
The three men immediately raised their hands and cried out in horror, "Stop, please, we surrender."
The onlookers came forward one after another, yelling at the boxers. The crowd was so excited that everyone rushed at the men, shouting abuse at them.
"Hit him!" cried the crowd. "Kill them!"
The Moon girls were squeezed out of the circle by the crowd. After the fight, someone called out, "Okay, everyone, get out of the way. Don't kill these three losers."
The crowd slowly separated to reveal the three boxers. Each was lying on the ground, and they were cowering like homeless dogs. There were countless footprints on their clothes from where the crowd had kicked them.
The man who had covered Phillipa's mouth earlier now had a huge bump on his head.
The four girls went to them and said, "You have disrespected Mr. Alex. Now apologize to him immediately and beg for his forgiveness."
The crowd turned and looked at Alex. They had heard the girls chatting with him earlier, and knew that he was the Mr. Alex that they were referring to. The men in the crowd looked at him with respect, a little fear, and some envy.
These four girls were so incredibly powerful and beautiful and yet they looked up to this boy. They wondered who Alex was and what gave him power over the four girls.
The three boxers were lying on the ground shivering. They couldn't understand what the four girls were saying, so someone translated their words into Spanish for them.
When the three boxers heard the translation, they quickly got up from the ground, kneeled in front of Alex, and pleaded to him in Spanish.
"Mr. Alex, I'm sorry, we have offended you and your friends. Please forgive us," begged one.
"We're nothing compared to you. Please let us go," said another.
"Mr. Alex, we were wrong. Please forgive us," begged the third.
Alex already knew from Phillipa who the three boxers were and what they had said to her. He was very angry with them. However, they had already taken a beating and he was struggling to think of how else to teach them a lesson they wouldn't forget.
He looked at Phillipa and asked, "Phillipa, what do you think we should do with these men?"
She had already calmed down and she replied, "They've already been beaten very badly, so there's no need to hurt them anymore. But I don't want them to go around bothering anybody else. They need something else to do."
Everyone heard what she said and started brainstorming ideas. Finally, one person shouted out that the three boxers could learn to sing a song.
Enthusiastically, everyone pulled out their phones and started calling out the titles of songs that were currently topping the charts. A new single by Ariana Grande was the crowd favorite. The boxers claimed they had never heard it.
"Oh, don't worry, we'll play it for you over and over until you learn it,'" one person from the crowd shouted.
"Then you can sing it for us," agreed another.
"Yes, sing! Do something nice and stop bothering people," shouted another man.
Several people played the song on their phones and made the three men listen.
Afraid of being beaten up again, the men didn't dare to argue and stayed kneeling on the ground trying to learn the song. Finally, they started singing along.
Suddenly, someone called out from behind, "There's another fight over there."
Alex and Phillipa turned around and saw another commotion on the other side of the square. They walked over.
In the middle of a circle of people, a middle-aged American man was facing five foreign athletes, all of whom were well over six feet tall.
Alex listened to the comments of the onlookers around him and tried to work out what was going on. It seemed that five tall men were French basketball players, and they had been harassing some of the women from the American Olympic squad. Two spectators had discovered them and were trying to stop them.
Alex saw another middle-aged man standing in the crowd calmly watching what was happening.
The five French athletes looked at the middle-aged man angrily and muttered in their native language.
The middle-aged man appeared to have no fear of the five men. He stood in front of them, looked at them with a smile, and said scornfully, "You lowlifes. I'll make sure you regret how you've behaved today."
Although they couldn't understand what he was saying, the men knew that he was berating them and they became very angry. They surrounded him, gritted their teeth, and got ready to punch him. They were fit, strong athletes with fists like sandbags. Everyone watching was afraid that the middle-aged man would be beaten to death.
Suddenly, the man jumped several yards into the air and the men's fists only hit empty spaces. From the air, the man kicked one of them in the face, knocking him to the ground.
Impressed, Alex said, "Wow, his martial arts skills are amazing."
The middle-aged man rushed toward another of the men, startling him. He lifted his knee and kicked him in the chest. The basketball player felt a searing pain and fell to the ground.
The middle-aged man was using the most common karate moves but it seemed that the five athletes could not defend themselves. Within three minutes, he had kicked them all to the ground.
The onlookers cheered loudly and applauded what the man had done.
The middle-aged man smiled humbly and looked at the five men kneeling on the ground, begging him to stop.
The four American athletes who he'd rescued came forward to thank him, and the man just nodded, as if hadn't done anything particularly special.
The middle-aged man then walked over to the man who had been standing next to him and said scornfully, "These opponents were useless. I thought they would at least try to defend themselves."
His friend looked amused as he replied, "Remember, these people only play basketball, of course, they can't beat you at martial arts. But you must learn to control your temper. We came to D. C. to attend the wedding of Leona Marvel but you keep getting into fights."
The two men were well-known American martial arts experts, Damian North, and Rick Veasy.
Rick said scornfully, "If it wasn't for the fact that we might want to work for the Marvel family in the future, there's no way we would be wasting our time coming to D. C. Of course, we had to come because the Marvel family are one of the richest in the city. If we get work with them, the money will be well worth our trip."
Damian voiced his thoughts, "I reckon that the wedding will be setting them back at least twenty million. After all, they'll also have Eagle Security at the wedding. And you know who is on that security team, don't you? "
Rick snorted and replied, "Even if he wasn't with them, Eagle Security agents are still a hundred times better than ordinary bodyguards. Even if we don't accept his offer, the Marvel family will still have them so we can't afford to be too greedy. We should also be careful not to offend the Marvel family."
Damian shook his head with a wry smile and said, "I think we've taught these basketball players enough of a lesson for today. There's a famous bar on Lexington Road. Let's go there now and get a beer."
Rick gave each of the kneeling men a farewell punch in the face and he and Damian walked away. The men fell back down to the ground.
Celeste said, "Those two men had impressive martial arts skills. They were nearly as good as us. I want to challenge them to a fight to see if we can beat them."
Callisto patted her on the shoulder and said with a smile, "Of course, we would win. They are men but they are also middle-aged. We're much younger and more agile. I'm sure we can find more worthy opponents than them."
Selene and Luna nodded their agreement.
Celeste looked at Alex and said, "It doesn't matter how skillful or powerful they are, they would be no match for Mr. Alex. He could beat them with one hand."
Alex shook his head and said, "In your eyes, I'm the most powerful person in the world, yet in reality, the three of you could easily beat me up."
The four girls covered their mouths and giggled. They still believed that Alex was someone to look up to and that he must have superior martial arts skills.
Several minutes later, the police arrived, arrested the five men, and the crowd started to disperse.
That evening, Alex invited Phillipa and the four Moon girls to a barbecue.
**
The next night, Alex was in his room having just received a half-hour massage from the girls. He was about to go to bed when he received a call from Nelly. He was very happy to hear from her and answered the call.
She told him, "Alex, the sultan, and I cremated his wife's body this morning. He is going to travel home the day after tomorrow and before he leaves, he would like to meet with you. He is having a banquet tomorrow in the Continental Hotel for all the important families in D. C. He has invited you and you really must come."
That day at the cremation of the queen of Brunei, Nelly had cried for many hours and her voice had become hoarse. Alex could sense the pain in her heart, and he asked her, "Are you okay, Nelly?"
"I'm all right," she replied. But she couldn't help sobbing as she told him, "The queen was such a good friend and I just miss her so much. I desperately want to see her again and to hug her."
Alex was very worried about his friend and he tried to comfort her. "Nelly, I'm so sorry that your friend has gone. I know that your heart is breaking, but she wouldn't want you to feel this way. She would want you to carry on living your life. And remember that you're not alone. Didn't the sultan tell you that he would take care of you and protect you?"
Nelly stopped crying and asked softly, "Do you really think he'll protect me?"
Alex said seriously, "Yes, I do."