VLADJI and the Avatars: Family Matters

Chapter 1 - I Teach Muggers to Respect Their Elders

I'm Imira Fadjir.

Muscle girl. Super-strong chick. VLADJI.

You know the drill. I'm the fighter of weirdness – whether that be monsters, crooks, or the guy who thinks he's a cat. I fight for truth, justice, and traditional values. All that.

Socialists. You don't love the word. If you knew what was really in those lies that they spout, you wouldn't go for it. But they never mention it. Clever and shrewd of them, not saying their cause by name. That'd scare everyone off. But to heck with them and what they think. Ah, if only they'd mind their own business instead of nosing into decent people's.

I believe in not nosing into decent people's business.

Which is why what happened behind the Sam's Club was completely insane.

I was heading back to my house with a package of halal beef for my stepmom's restaurant. And no, I hadn't asked for the errand. Mom makes these stupid demands, makes me her errand girl, just because she couldn't make me help around the house or the restaurant like she would have wanted. (It did get her almost arrested, after all.)

Here's the thing: my stepmom ran the restaurant. In Muslim culture, the women are in charge of meals. It's one of the ways our religion sets apart females and males in society. The idea is that the man respects the woman's weaker strength or whatever, and the woman respects the man. Given my bleak prospects on marriage, I don't see much of a point.

This Sam's Club was a prime place for crime, so I was just walking fast, minding my own business, and trying not to think about the fact that it was late at night.

Then I heard the voice.

"Just leave me alone. Don't hurt me."

The voice sounded like it belonged to an old man.

"Just give me the money, ol' boy, and I won't hurt you," said another voice – much younger, definitely belonging to a mugger.

"I gave you everything!"

The crook then said something I can't repeat. Basically, he was going to pound the old man. It didn't look so good for him.

"Just finish out the errand, Imira," I scolded myself. "Don't be an idiot."

Which was when I heard some other voices in the alley. Three gangsters total. Yeah, that definitely didn't look good for the older guy.

I scanned the alley for anyone else. Then mentally slapped myself. Anyone who would be out here would be too smart to show up in this alley – certainly not at this ungodly hour. Most would already be in bed, unlike me – and parental demands were to blame on my account.

I then found it – a cooler bag like the kind you might find at Aldi, sitting on a fire escape. What it was doing in this alley, I didn't know, but I didn't question it. I grabbed the bag, sliding it through the banisters, set the package in the bag and snapped it shut, then set it down on the sidewalk.

That should do until I get back, I thought.

I glanced around the wall again. Outside, the thugs had lost patience with the older man.

"Let's just thrash him," I heard one of them say.

That's when I decided to announce my presence. I grabbed a dumpster and threw it in their direction.

Yeah, a dumpster. Not something an ordinary girl could've lifted. Luckily, I wasn't ordinary. I'd always possessed some serious strength, but I wasn't always in control of it. Only in recent months had I learned to harness it to the point where I wasn't injuring people unless it was on purpose.