Chapter 4 - A hard life

"Joe! Have you tidied your room?" A woman called from the lower floor of the orphanage.
"Yeah" Joe called back, he was actually lying on his bed reading a comic book, staring wishfully at the pictures.
"I know I saw them!" He told himself as the woman appeared outside his room.
"Oh, Joe I told you to clean this room hours ago" The woman sighed in an annoyed tone.
"so" Joe replied blankly, not even caring to look at her. The woman sighed again.
"Well, can you at least come down stairs for some lunch?" She said, defeated.
"Okay" Joe sighed reluctantly
The two people walked down one of the many hallways and to a staircase that stretched from the ground floor to the top, which was a good 3-4 floors taller. After the short journey down the stairs the woman walked to the kitchen whereas Joe sat down at the dining table. Joe noticed 3 kids about his age, give or take a few years, mulling around the dining room. The woman soon returned with a plate full of bags of crisps and another littered with a sloppily built tower of cookies. Joe took a cookie and bag of crisps and was about to leave when someone grabbed his arm.
"Where do you think your going?" The person said threateningly
"Upstairs, now if you don't mind..." Joe grabbed the persons hand and twisted it resulting in a small yelp from the arms owner. Joe turned around to expect either an angry reply or the person to go off crying. Instead the person stood still, holding his wrist.
"You've done it now shrimp!" He said as he launched a violent punch for Joe's head. The punch was avoided easily and from his now improved position Joe landed a punch of his own into the person's stomach.
"You little!" He said stunned. Joe could now see clearly who his attacker was and to no surprise it was Brett the school bully. He never lost fights, mainly because he fought people at least 2 years younger than him, but it still earned him a reputation among his 'friends'.
"what's the matter Brett, afraid you might lose your reputation?" Joe said slyly and readied for more violence.
"Ha, you don't deserve my efforts!" Brett spat back.
"Prove it! Or are you more of a coward than I thought?" Joe said and most of the room could feel Brett become red to the eyes.
"You wanna go little man?" He said viciously.
"You know, that is kinda what I just said. Are you deaf? Stupid? Or perhaps both?" Joe teased and Brett launched another blind attack which, for Joe was just too easy to block. "Is that all you got, puffing out your gut and a blind punch? Pretty amateur" This enraged him until you could almost see steam coming from his ears. He launched another punch and Joe stepped out of the way just in time causing Brett to punch the wall. The group now surrounded Joe and he noticed someone trying to attack him from behind. He leapt in the air and swung his foot round catching the attacker in the face with his kick.
"Cowardly move to attack from behind you know" He said to the downed opponent. All the others then attacked at once and after a flurry of kicks and punches the crowd collapsed to the floor. "Let's see 10 on 1. That's hardly fair, you might need a few more!" Joe said confidently to Brett.
"Who taught you to fight?" Brett spat angrily
"Comic books, Hiya AKITA!" Joe answered kicking Brett with the battle cry of one of the characters from the book.

Meanwhile at RRHQ

The master was standing on the balcony patiently waiting for the rovers to get to the briefing room. Surely enough, the rovers entered the room quietly chatting amongst themselves about recent happenings and such around headquarters. Colleen and Hunter were chatting casually about the last mission and it's success whereas Exile and Blitz were arguing (as usual) about the recent dog show in Belgium called the 'Bien du Chien'
"Butch should get the gold medal, he is the strongest!" Blitz argued.
"No, comrade Sasha the husky should win, she is the smartest!" Exile returned.
"Nice to see you again rovers" The master said cheerfully
"Mornin' Master!" Hunter replied just as cheerfully
"What's up then guv?" Colleen asked
"Well, as it seems not every one is so happy this morning" Master said more seriously
"As always" Hunter said blankly
"It seems it is destination London once again rovers" Master said trying to be cheerful. "A black van was seen escaping from a robbery of the National History Museum, They are believed to be heavily armed and dangerous"
"We better stop them before the cause some harm!" Hunter said seriously
"You must exercise caution rovers!" The master warned
"Tell me something I don't know!" Colleen replied
"Well, I sat on a tack when I was a pup and now I'm scared of them" Hunter said.
"What?" Colleen responded, confused
"That's something you don't know!" Hunter said cheerfully
Colleen was trying to remain as serious as possible but containing her laughter was proving difficult.
"Anyway, you should get going rovers, these men don't hang around" The master interrupted.
"Right! Let's hit the road rovers!" Hunter shouted the usual cry and they all howled loudly.