On their way home, the children made their way through the rundown streets of Southside. The morning sun had risen over New Breedom, yet hardly any blue could be seen from this part of the Fourth District. Years of pollution hung heavily over the neighborhood, staining the sky a murky brownish-orange while a thin haze lingered between rows of deteriorating buildings.
They passed through narrow alleys littered with trash and neighborhoods where rusted fences, boarded windows, and crumbling brick walls had become part of the scenery. Southside wasn't the kind of place where anyone wandered carelessly, but for William and the others, these streets were simply home.
Eventually, they left the crowded blocks behind and arrived at a small brick house standing alone upon a stretch of barren land. There wasn't anything particularly remarkable about it. The walls were weathered, the windows were small, and a rusted zinc roof sat unevenly across the top. Compared to the towering structures that defined the rest of New Breedom City, it looked almost forgotten by time.
Yet the moment the children stepped through the door, warmth greeted them.
"Morning, kids!!"
An older man welcomed them with an enthusiastic grin, proudly displaying the gap where one of his teeth used to be.
"Morning, Joe!"
The children immediately gathered around him with smiles and hugs, all except Tommy, who slipped past the reunion with his arms folded tightly across his chest. Apparently, losing their little battle at the junkyard was still weighing heavily on his pride.
Old Joe noticed immediately.
"What's wrong, Tommy? Don't wanna give old man Joe a hug?"
Joe wasn't related to any of them. None of the children living beneath his roof were. Each had been left without parents for one reason or another, and somewhere along the way, the old man had taken them in and made their burdens his own. They might not have shared his blood, but that had never stopped him from treating them as though they did.
Now he stood before Tommy with that same bright expression, spreading his arms wide and inviting the stubborn boy in.
Tommy only frowned harder.
"Hmph."
He tried walking straight past him.
"Oh, no you don't!"
Before Tommy could escape, Joe wrapped both arms around him from behind and hoisted him high into the air.
"Hey! Put me down!"
Joe spun around with the boy in his arms, laughing as Tommy kicked helplessly through the air and desperately tried to maintain his angry expression. It lasted only a few seconds before the corner of his mouth betrayed him.
Then came the laugh.
Scott and Lily immediately burst out laughing with him, and even William couldn't keep the smile from his face. Soon enough, Tommy's frustration had disappeared beneath the noise, his laughter joining the others as it filled the little brick house.
Outside, Southside remained as harsh and unforgiving as ever.
But inside that weathered home, for a little while, none of it seemed to matter.
…
Soon after, Joe left the house for work at New Breedom's News Station, where he worked both morning and evening shifts as a janitor, taking whatever hours he could get to provide for the four children under his care. It meant he was rarely home during the day, and whenever he wasn't around, that responsibility naturally fell upon the oldest among them.
William.
At only eight years old, he had already taken on the role of the man of the house. He hand-washed their dirty clothes, cooked whatever food they had available, cleaned the little home from top to bottom, and looked after the younger children until Joe returned. Whatever needed doing, William did it without complaint. And whenever there was time left over, he tried to teach the others the things he had somehow managed to learn himself.
That day, with everyone pitching in, the chores had been finished earlier than usual. So William decided they could spend the rest of the afternoon working on their reading.
The four children sat together on the floor, gathered around an old book as William helped Lily stumble her way through the first page. Nearly two hours had passed, and the poor girl was still struggling with the same few lines.
"Ughh!! This is too hard, Billy. I can't read it."
Lily slumped forward in frustration, looking as though the words themselves had personally offended her.
William couldn't help but smile.
"Don't worry, Lily. You'll get it eventually. You've already gotten a lot better, and this is pretty easy stuff. I think you're just stressing yourself out."
Tommy immediately clicked his tongue.
"Easy for you to say. You already read like a grown-up."
Beside them, little Scott had apparently surrendered altogether. He lay flat on his back with his arms and legs spread across the floor, staring hopelessly at the ceiling.
"He's right. You're good at everything, Billy. We'll never be like you."
William's smile faded slightly.
He looked from Scott to Lily, then toward Tommy, recognizing the same discouragement written across each of their faces. He hadn't meant to make them feel as though they were falling behind him. If anything, William wanted them to see themselves the way he saw them.
"C'mon, guys. If I can do it, then you definitely can too," he said, raising his voice just enough to pull their attention back toward him. "We're all different from each other. That's what makes each of us good at different things."
Their eyes slowly returned to him.
William smiled and pointed toward Scott first.
"Scott, you keep saying I'm good at everything, but you're way better with numbers than I am. Half the time, you figure them out before I do."
Scott slowly lifted his head from the floor.
William then looked toward Lily.
"And Lily, yeah, I'm usually the one cooking, but if you didn't help me, our food probably wouldn't taste half as good. You always know what it's missing."
A small smile began creeping across her face.
Finally, William turned toward Tommy.
"And you..." He paused for a moment. "You're the bravest person I know. It doesn't matter how scary something looks or how hard it might be, you always go straight at it without hesitating."
Tommy blinked, clearly not expecting that one.
William's smile softened.
"I kinda wish I could be more like that someday."
That was all it took.
The gloom that had settled over the room disappeared almost immediately, and Tommy's chest puffed out with enough pride to make up for all three of them.
"Yeah! With my incredible bravery, I'm gonna become a Fighter someday!" he declared, throwing a fist dramatically into the air. "Not just any Fighter either. I'm gonna be the greatest one who ever lived! Just like the White Knight, I'll protect everyone in Breedom—no, the whole galaxy!"
He thrust his fist even higher.
"As the strongest Archangel!!"
Scott immediately jumped to his feet and cheered while Lily burst into laughter, and even William found himself laughing along with them. The reading lesson eventually resumed, though it didn't stay a lesson for very long. Books gave way to games, games turned into stories, and before they knew it, the little house was once again filled with the laughter of four children who had learned how to make something joyful out of very little.
Outside, the brownish-orange sky gradually darkened over Southside as evening surrendered to night.
And inside that small brick house, William spent another day being everything his little family needed him to be.
…
A couple of hours passed, and by then the children had exhausted nearly all the energy they'd carried throughout the day. Now they were gathered together on the floor in front of their small television, watching their favorite show, The White Knight.
This was how most of their days ended. They would spend the night watching the White Knight defend his kingdom from whatever villain threatened it that week, then wake up early the following morning, run straight to the junkyard, and recreate everything they had watched the night before.
It wasn't an extraordinary life, nor was it one filled with luxuries or new adventures waiting around every corner. Most days were almost exactly the same.
William wouldn't have traded that for anything.
For children growing up in Southside, ordinary was something to be grateful for. Thanks to old Joe, they had everything they truly needed beneath that rusted roof. They had food to eat, somewhere warm to sleep, and little reason to wander through the dangerous streets outside. More importantly, they had each other.
So as William sat cross-legged before the television with Lily nestled against him and his two younger brothers close by, he felt completely at peace. Their little home wasn't much, but everything he cared about existed within those four walls.
There wasn't enough money or power in the world to make him give that up.
Unfortunately, just because a day began like every other didn't mean it was destined to end the same way.
Lily was the first to notice.
"Billy..."
She shifted against him and looked up with a worried expression.
"Why isn't Joe here yet? He's usually home by now."
William's attention slowly drifted away from the television.
The question immediately caught Tommy and Scott's attention as well. The News Station was fairly far from their home, but even after a long shift, Joe usually made it back within forty minutes to an hour.
Tonight, he was almost four hours late.
Scott's face began to pale.
"You think they might've...?"
He couldn't bring himself to finish.
"No."
Tommy immediately rose to his feet and placed a hand on his younger brother's shoulder.
"They didn't take him again. He already paid them off."
His voice sounded confident enough, but the fear behind it was impossible to completely hide. Tommy glanced toward William, silently asking him to say something—anything—that would keep the younger two from imagining the worst.
William understood immediately.
He gave Tommy a small nod and tightened his arm around Lily, forcing the concern away from his face.
"He's probably just working late. You know Joe. If they offered him a few more hours, he'd take them."
It was a reasonable explanation.
Even William desperately wanted to believe it himself.
Then someone struck the front door.
Before any of them could react, it burst inward.
Four figures stormed into the house wearing hazmat masks and carrying weapons, their heavy footsteps instantly swallowing the warmth that had filled the room only moments before.
William moved without thinking.
He grabbed Lily and Scott and pulled them beneath him, wrapping his body around the two younger children as they screamed. His other hand shot toward Tommy, desperately trying to drag him close as well.
He wasn't fast enough.
One of the masked men reached Tommy first.
"Tommy!"
William tried to rise, but another blow knocked him back down. Pain tore through his body as the men descended upon them, yet William refused to uncover Lily and Scott. Every strike meant for them landed against him instead. He clenched his teeth and fought against the darkness gathering at the edges of his vision, terrified that if he lost consciousness, there would be nothing left between his younger siblings and the men surrounding them.
Eventually, even his strength wasn't enough.
When the beating finally ended, all four children were dragged from the only home they had ever known and thrown inside a reinforced transport vehicle. The doors slammed shut behind them with a heavy metallic echo, sealing away the little brick house where, only minutes earlier, they had been laughing together in front of the television.
The engine roared to life.
Then the vehicle disappeared into the rotten streets of Southside.
William could do nothing but lie there beside his battered siblings as their home slipped farther and farther away.
The day had begun beneath the morning sun with four children laughing on their way home from the junkyard.
By nightfall, that ordinary little life had been ripped away from them.
And the nightmare had only just begun.