“Is it bad if I can’t tell if Zoey’s acting or not...?” Alexander asked Lindsay as they and the other members in the audience watched Donald Aldo be sent away on a gurney while shouting in pain.

“Not even her own family can tell...” Lindsay responded, looking over at the Winter’s family closer to the side of the ring.

The audience was chattering amongst themselves as the tournament was put on hold due to the unexpected outcome of the first match. It seems not even the people who put the tournament together expected something like this to happen because there were several important-looking people in the ring discussing with one another. Zoey was silently standing in the ring next to her coach who was yelling at Donald’s coach who was yelling at Zoey. Zach and Aiden supported Zoey along with coach from the woman and the people she brought. Taking another look at it, it seemed like a brawl was about to go down between two gyms in the ring.

“Zoey’s awesome!” Everett couldn’t control himself and jumped out of his seat.

He didn’t think his sister could actually win but she did it! With how often she was getting hit compared to that Donald guy, he didn’t know if she could beat him. Seeing someone’s leg break in real life was way different from how it looked in video games. Even now, Everett could still remember the wiggly shape of that guy’s broken leg after he tried kicking his sister’s leg.

“She isn’t going to get in trouble for this, is she, Bruce?” Alicia asked.

“She shouldn’t. Things like this happen from time to time in the ring. Usually, the one who causes the injury isn’t in trouble unless they disregarded the rules to do so. All Zoey did was position her leg, she didn’t break any rules in doing that. So, she should be fine.” Bruce comforted her.

“Yeah, Zoey did nothing wrong.” Everett nodded his head.

“I hope so...” Alicia still wasn’t used to all this fighting stuff and secretly wished that Zoey was interested in something a little safer like her brother.

“We’ll see in a few moments based on what the officials think.” Bruce rubbed her back.

On the other side of the cage, those from Zoey’s gym had their own thoughts about what just went down in the ring. From the sound of the crowd, they could tell that they were outnumbered. Very few people were on Zoey’s side from the beginning of the match. Now even less were probably on her side after an ending like that. But no matter what, they couldn’t let a member of their gym be insulted like this! They continued to cheer and support Zoey during this time even if they were looked at by enemies of everyone around them.

“Zoey won fair and square!” Tony chanted.

“Zoey won fair and square!” Steven chanted along with him.

“Zoey won fair and square...!” Dylan gathered his nerves and chanted with the two.

“She deserves to win. It isn’t her fault that her opponent got cocky.” Ben crossed his arms, displeased that there even needs to be a split decision about this in the first place.

“Hey shut up you stupid fucking kid! What do you know!?” A grown man with a large gut cursed at Ben.

“Yeah, shut up you Devil supporters! She broke an innocent kid’s leg and laughed about it!” Someone added.

“What did Donald do to deserve having his leg broken!? Now he may never fight again because of that evil little bitch!”

“What did you call her?!” Dylan rose up from his seat and pointed at the asshole insulting his mentor.

“A class-a fucking evil little bitch! That’s what!” He enunciated each word with venom spitting from his teeth.

It was at this point that Dylan leaped behind him and punched the guy across the face. He slumped backward in his seat and this enraged the other Donald supporters around them. Multiple Donald supporters used this opportunity to land a few hits on Dylan since he threw the first punch. Tony, Steven, Ben, and the others from the gym who came to support Zoey couldn’t just stand there and watch one of their own being ganged up on. So, even if they didn’t know Dylan or like him, they jumped in the brawl too.

With a small portion of the audience erupting in a fight, it soon began to spread to other parts of the crowd. With over 10,000 people in one building, it was very difficult for the YFTL to regain control over the situation. Especially with hundreds or maybe thousands of those fighting with each other. The announcers quickly told everyone to leave in a calm and orderly manner to remain safe. And as people do when there is a chaotic and dangerous situation unfolding around them, they fled in the complete opposite manner directed by the announcers.

“There’s that little devil bitch’s family!” Someone cried out.

“Get them for raising such a horrible little bitch!”

“I lost everything because of that girl! Do you know how much money I bet on Donald!?”

Unlike Zoey, her family was nowhere near as competent fighters as she was. Only Everett had some basic fighting skills thanks to his lessons from Zoey, but those were mostly useless against a group of people coming after them. It still didn’t stop him from trying. He was going to protect his mom and dad even if he had to get hit.

Everett got in the boxing stance that Zoey taught him. He held his fists close to his cheeks and arms tight against his torso as his feet lightened up. The first attacker was perhaps three heads taller than Everett and five times wider. As he approached the Winter’s Family, Bruce stepped in front of his son. What kind of man would he be if he let an elementary student try to face off against a grown man. Bruce wasn’t a fighter and knew very little about fighting but it wasn’t as if he knew nothing about it at all! All he had to do was throw a fist at the guy and keep doing it until his family was safe.

Luckily for the Winter’s Family, a contestant from the tournament stepped up to protect them just before Bruce was about to suffer a blow to the face. He grabbed the fist of the attacker and brought back his right hand before slinging it into the face of the man. With a deep laugh, he grinned at the other attackers as he stepped in front of the Winter’s Family.

“I’m the biggest fucking Zoey Winter’s fan here. If any of you upset bastards wants to throw hands, you can throw hands with me.” He cracked his knuckles so that everyone could hear them pop and snap.

“Who do you think you are?!”

“I lost so much money that if I don’t hurt those people for bringing that girl into this world, I will rip my own hair out!”

“He can’t take us on all at once!”

“Come on you fucking pathetic little bitches! James Johnson ain’t afraid of nothing!” James brought up his fists like a boxer.

His fist slugged into the face of the first person to come near him, instantly sending him to the ground. Before the others could react to how quickly that guy went down, James rushed in and gut-punched another. He fell to his knees as he felt bile rising to his throat. The others couldn’t help but take a step back in fear out of messing with the wrong Devil fan. But James didn’t let them escape uninjured. Everyone that tried coming close to the Winter’s Family suffered a devasting punch from the muscular beast known as James Johnson! He laughed maniacally during the beatdown, it was as if his fists sought complete destruction in the mayhem.

Once Donald Aldo’s fans realized that touching the Winter’s Family was impossible with this monster around, they quickly gave up and fled the area. Allowing James to safely escort the Winter’s Family to their car.

“Thank you so much for protecting us...” Alicia told him.

“If you ever need a favor from us, please tell us. I don’t know how I can thank you for protecting my family...” Bruce soon added.

“Haha. No problem Winters. Here’s my number. I’d love to get in contact with your daughter in the future. She’s the type of girl, I crave to be friends with.” He handed his card to Zoey’s father and gave a wink he thought was cool to Zoey’s little brother in the backseat.

The Winter’s Family soon drove off back to their home. Alicia believed that they should consider introducing Zoey to the young man at the very least. He did save them. Bruce didn’t have any disagreements. James was a scary-looking young man but he did have a good heart it seemed. Not just anyone would go against several adult men to protect someone. His heart had to be in the right place.

Back in the ring, it was already empty because of the riot that broke out. Zoey was escorted home by Coach, Zach, and Aiden. The final decision of the match was put on hold for a later date to be announced. On the ride back to her house, they told her not to worry and that her family was safe. The decision should be for her to win the match, the riot that happened had nothing to do with her and she should not feel responsible for it happening, and she could take it easy for the next few days. It wouldn’t be good for her to come back to the YFTL until the date of her next match is decided.

“We got to give the losers time to calm down. Your match that should be next Monday might be delayed.” Coach explained to her.

“Alright.” Zoey responded.

“It depends on how everything unfolds this week. Your match was the first one and there were supposed to be three other matches today besides yours. We don’t know when those other matches are going to take place which means we also don’t know who you could be facing up against next.” Zach said.

“The best thing for you to do is relax the best you can and just focus on other stuff for now.” Aiden suggested.

“I’ll contact your dad if anything comes up and remember. None of the bad stuff that happened today is your fault.” Coach repeated as he parked outside her house.

“Okay, Coach. I’m just relieved my family is safe. That’s all I was really worried about.” Zoey told him.

“Good... Good. Alright, see you some time next week Zoey.” Coach waved goodbye.

“Bye Zoey.” Aiden and Zach said as she got out of the car.

On walking to her door, she pulled out her phone and began searching through multiple news articles about the riot.