They were waiting for the monorail to arrive when a commotion started on the platform in front of them. A blue-collar man in crutches, with two young children by his side found himself encircled by a bunch of thugs. The pitch of the argument appeared to be quickly escalating, and the passers-by had cleared the area so as to keep a safe distance and not get involved.

"How dare you filthy refugee scum dirty our lands," one of the troublemakers sporting a mohawk spurted.

"Yeah, what business would a beggar like you have in our Central District?" another harasser, with a shaved head added oil to the fire, getting in their target's face.

"Please... not in front of my children...," the dark-skinned man implored.

"Children huh? You scum just keep breeding like cockroaches. I bet if you lost a kid or two you wouldn't even bat an eye. Should we test that idea?" he asked his comrades.

"Yeah, let's do it!" he heard back a wave of support. A two-meter-tall muscular ruffian in a wifebeater grabbed brusquely the tiny girl who looked like she'd still belonged in a kindergarten, leaving her younger brother in tears. The troublemaker lifted her up, and by getting on his toes, managed to hold her above the glass barrier that separated the platform and the gap with the train tracks, enjoying watching her squeal helplessly.

"Stop!" the foreigner implored, trying to pull the sadistic man back to the safety of the platform with every last bit of his strength, while letting one of his crutches fall to the ground.

"Get your filthy hands off me!" the assailant exclaimed, sending the disabled man tumbling down violently with a wave of his hand, leaving only one arm holding the little girl.

"Daddy!" the little boy cried, seeing his father contorting in pain.

"Oops... she is heavy, I can't hold her for much longer...," the scoundrel proclaimed with an evil grin, as the little girl's legs shook wildly in the air without finding purchase.

Altair was watching the events unfold like in slow motion. Everything outside the scene began fading away. There wasn't Ronel, or school or the world of magic to concern himself about anymore. There was just him and these poor people in desperate need of help.

Is nobody going to do anything? he gritted his teeth in frustration seeing the suffering unfold. How long will they be allowed to carry on?

In the mocking faces of the assailants, he recognized the same cocky look, full of confidence in their absolute superiority and impunity that he had seen countless times before in the hands of his own tormentors.

Where is security when you need them anyways? he wondered rhetorically, knowing from experience that in such a situation nobody would intervene until it was too late. After all, despite the official protections that the government implemented on paper to ensure basic rights, many Levantians still valued the life of such outsiders little more than they would that of street rats.

Altair's hands trembled in anger because of the unfairness of this system and the world they lived in where the strong trampled on the weak not out of need but for sheer amusement. He hated everything and everyone at the moment, even resenting Ronel who appeared to move so care-freely through life. Most of all however, he hated himself, for being powerless to stop them, and even more for being afraid to try in the first place. It was one thing to help Sattan against a bunch of peers his age that still had some semblance of rules to abide by, and another to confront a group of militant nationalists, ready to enact their self-righteous punishment on anybody they deemed standing in their way.

His inner turmoil reached a tipping point when the muscle-head's grip relaxed, with the little girl slipping through his fingers while desperately trying to slow her abrupt descent by clinging to the flat surface of the barrier separating the platform and the gap between the elevated train track. The wind was blowing strongly, and with them being on the rough equivalent of a third floor, the fall was all that more scary and potentially lethal. At this sight, the father who had previously been kept on his knees by a flurry of kicks to his stomach erupted in hysterics, trying to crawl towards the edge to rescue his offspring. It was easier said than done, as she was now trapped behind the barrier that would only open once the next monorail arrived.

"Shit man!" Even the assailant's comrades were in shock at this turn of events.

"You went too far."

"Yeah, even trash should be disposed into the trashcan."

"Anyways, we better peace out."

Their voices echoed as the thugs hurriedly made their way out from the platform.

"Somebody help, I beg you!" the injured man implored to no one in particular. He was clearly in no condition to even stand up and attempt saving his daughter who was now hanging helplessly by the edge of the platform, cut off from any hopes of escape by the thick glass fence bordering her fingers. Even if she somehow managed to pull herself up, she would not have any way of getting to the other side before it was too late.

At this very moment, a warning that the next wagon was due to arrive in thirty seconds sounded, finally breaking Altair out of his trance. He cracked the emergency gate release panel, hitting the button inside to disengage the gate. While the doors were opening, he stepped back to get a running start and leapt to the other platform headfirst like he was diving into the sea, careful to avoid touching the monorail track in the middle to not trigger its deadly voltage. It was a good four to five meters away, and he barely managed to hang by the same edge the poor girl was grasping on. Seeing that she was about to drop any second, he hung on by one hand, pulling the child in with the other, and holding her tightly under his arm.

The precipice they were pressed against started to rumble, revealing the approach of the train.

"It's going to be okay," he reassured the little one, seeing her terrified expression. "Just hold on to me for a bit longer, okay?"

The child nodded and dug into him like a baby koala onto its mother's back. With his second hand now freed, he brought it up to the platform's edge, and grinding his teeth, he started doing a pull up to bring them up. It was a gargantuan task, as the grip he had on the platform's edge was only partial and slippery, and he had to deal with the added weight on his rear as well.

"Alt!" he registered Ronel's panicking voice calling him. "Hurry!"

With a last all-or-nothing effort, he managed to lift them and roll on to the platform in the nick of time, straining his biceps in the process. The little girl crawled on the floor in her father's direction, who was crying cathartically as the worst had not come to pass. Her baby brother ran towards them, tripping constantly and getting up again and again to make sure she was okay as fast as possible. Altair led them both to the dark-skinned man by the hand, and helped him stand up, re-uniting the family in a heartfelt embrace.

"Thank you, young master," he uttered with a deep bow, his forehead almost touching the cold floor. "I don't know how this one can repay you, I am forever in your debt."

Altair shriveled at those words, his breath still heavy and his blood pumping with adrenaline. He had really done it – he had finally made a real difference.

"I am no young master," he answered, patting the kids on their head. "Please stand up, you don't owe me anything. Take care of yourself and them," he told the man with some bitterness in his voice. He could imagine just how many challenges these poor kids would have to face in the future, without having anybody to rely on.

Alt emptied his wallet and placed the remaining bills and coins he had left in the speechless man's hands. Amidst the father's vocal protests, he turned back and headed inside the carriage that just arrived, whose doors had opened facing both platforms. He didn't want to hang around for the aftermath of this incident as a sizeable number of witnesses had gathered towards the end of the scene, and with his background, the attention could do him more harm the good.

"Thank you, mister! You are so cool! I want to be like you when I grow up," the little boy exclaimed, looking at his parting figure with stars in his eyes.

Altair was touched to the bottom of his heart, and froze momentarily, not knowing how to react. He never imagined somebody would say such words to him. With a gentle smile, he turned his head to give a nod and winked conspiratorially at the boy, waving him off as the door closed.

As the train began to depart, he turned around to grab a train handle to hold on to, only to find Ronel who looked like she had seen not just a ghost but a full-scale monster invasion stomping towards him.

"You frigging idiot!" she exclaimed, slapping him to the surprise of the clueless passengers who had missed the preceding events. "You stupid, stupid idiot!" she continued, her frail hands shaking him back and forth by his shirt. "What if you became paralyzed... or died?"

Her worried tone grounded him; with only now the weight of the risk he took becoming fully apparent. But what other choice did he have? The last thing Alt wanted right now was to get into a philosophical discussion about whether living on while ignoring the pleas of a child facing imminent death was worse than dying himself while trying to do something about it. Instead, he just pulled her into a gentle hug and patted her on the back, her gentle fragrance invading his senses.

They stood quietly for a few moments in that embrace, with her sobbing being the only thing distracting Alt from his own loud heartbeat.

"I am sorry I worried you."

"Who said I was worried? I just didn't want to lose my precious bag holder! I had to carry all these by myself you know," she pouted, pointing at the large pile of bags behind them. Somehow, she had the presence of mind to drag them along, despite the drama that transpired, probably subconsciously.

Cheeky as always, Altair thought. He could see clearly through her façade now, so he just kept petting her long hair, until she finally pushed him away.

"Ewww! What sort of little brother clings to his big sister for that long?"

At least I am not in the friend zone anymore... now I am in the brother zone...