Hong Kong Warriors

Red Flower Restaurant

A man stepped in front of the restaurant, but walked past it. It was none of his business...

Until flame spouted towards him and he instinctively balled it up in front of him. He walked into the establishment, flame ball in hand, less than enthused.

"Uh, who's fire is this? I'd kindly like to return it."

He then analyzed exactly what was going on in the establishment, and needless to say, he was a bit... perplexed.

Edited by DefRevenge24601 on Jul 22nd 2018 at 10:09:04 AM

The creature stumbled about after Shen struck it, continuing to let out its fiery breath. Reclaiming its stance its arm, longer than a human arm and distinctly odd in nature, bent and moved through the air.

Gruesomely elongated nails at the end aiming for Shen's head.

It seemed due to Lugh's summoning Ying Wu's melodies were not having much if any effect.

Matsuki was flatly astounded, looking ready to rush after the fleeing thugs, but then caught flatfooted by the appearance of the Enku. He had no idea what this thing was, or how it came to be here.

He promptly drew his gun and fired a bullet into the thing's chest, but this didn't seem to do much.

He looked over at Wolfang, and promptly started to walk over to his veritable double. He knew based on what he saw the girl and the other guy could handle themselves pretty well. "...You...you're involved with that thing, aren't you?"

His voice was shaking, and his action was not as steady and fearless as he'd hoped it'd be.

Wolfang saw this and seemed to grin just a bit wider at the sheer discomfort his son was experiencing. "And what if I am, Matsuki?"

Matsuki's left hand clenched, and he looked his father as much in the eye as he could manage, "T-Then I'll...put you...under arrest..."

Wolfang put a hand on his chin, and demurred, "...Really? You'd have the gall? After all I did for you?"

"Did for me!? You drove mom insane! You turned our family into pariahs! What did you do but hurt people?" Matsuki was looking like his stoic shell was due to crumble more and more.

And Wolfang was loving it. Every second of it. "...Yep, seems like you're going down the same path as your mom. I had nothing to do with it - she was predisposed to that from birth...probably the same as you."

Matsuki wiped at his eyes and renewed his effort at glaring at Wolfang, "I am not insane!"

Edited by NickTheSwing on Jul 22nd 2018 at 7:26:15 AM

Ying Wu jumped out of her chair and whirled to the side, suddenly playing an old war song. Her great-grandfather picked up the chair she was just sitting on and blocked the thing's claws with it.

"Goddamn! Turn off that noise and lightshow, boy!" Ying Wu's great-grandfather turned to her. "Girl! Use what I taught you. This fellow's making it hard for me to be here." He clutched his ears and faded.

Ying Wu redoubled her efforts at playing the slow melody. Would the thing please just lie down and take a nap? Pretty please? You had a life. You can go back and be happy.

The notes hung sweetly in the air like drops of honey.

Wolfang looked over at the goings on as Matsuki tried to tell himself he wasn't insane - he knew it wasn't true, it was his fucking father, the ever unabashed liar, talking, but at the same time the fact his FATHER was saying this lent it more weight than it should've had.

He narrowed his eyes at the singing girl. "She's ruining my fun...how dare that little quivering quim try and settle everything down nice and tidy!"

For its part though the Enku just wouldn't be tired down and go back to the realm after death it came from, and promptly breathed fire again at Ying Wu.

"Your fun?" Matsuki looked back up, and stated, "You're...you're unforgivable. People suffering and almost getting hurt, and this is just your entertainment!?"

Wolfang simply smiled and nodded, "I see nothing I need to be ashamed of, and who says I need forgiveness especially from someone teetering on the brink of collapse?"

Matsuki once again quaked a bit - in both fury and doubt from Wolfang's words. Much like when he was a child, it seemed his father was the very best at finding what hurt him, and then applying it over and over.

Edited by NickTheSwing on Jul 22nd 2018 at 7:37:53 AM

When the arm came out, the man's attention immediately went to the Enku.

"Hot damn! I think I knew who so rudely threw fire at me and the customers here! So thanks, but no thanks; Here's your package back, ghoulie!"

He condensed the fireball and threw it with force, slightly curving it as to hit the arm currently gunning for Shen.

With his other arm, he redirected the fire currently headed for Ying Wu, making it go right back to sender... or not. Rather, he pointed it towards the other shady figure in the area: Wolfang.

Edited by DefRevenge24601 on Jul 22nd 2018 at 10:36:00 AM

Shen swiftly ducked away as Ying Wu blocked Enku's swing, his only thought processes being a panicked string of vulgar curses as the chair was gouged out by the sharp claws, Shen quickly standing back up again and giving the mangled chair (and Enku by extension) a hearty shove away from them. As it breathed fire again, he unfurled his aura, quickly stretching it out towards a nearby table and causing the spiritual tendrils to wrap around its surface before growing taught, lifting it up and placing it on its side in front of Wu and Shen in an effort to deflect the fire around it. A fine bit of cover against the arsonist– wait, two arsonists.

His day was just getting better and better.

Shen made a point to press his back up against the makeshift cover, taking the momentary respite to check his gun as he shot Wu a meaningful look that clearly stated “Get down, for god's sake!”

Edited by Enirboreh on Jul 22nd 2018 at 3:50:36 PM

Wolfang was just about to continue on with what he was saying when the American who came rushing in redirected the fiery breath of the Enku at him. Wolfang simply sat there and the fire diverted around him. The table was burned to a crisp, and Matsuki leaped backward to get out of the range of the blast.

"Well, that was rude. Rude, sir, rude - I was trying to discipline my son. Well, alright, if its a punishment you want, its a punishment you'll get. I figure I could use an idiotic American around down the line so this won't be fatal. {Excruciate.}"

He seemed to draw out every syllable of that word.

And then the impact of his Word came.

Literally every pain receptor on Bruce's body flared up at once, skin from head to toe forming welts and ugly sores as everywhere that COULD hurt all at once did.

Ying Wu got down behind the table.

"Hey! Cop boy! Don't listen to him!" she shouted to Matsuki.

Seeing as calming the thing wasn't working, well...

She started playing a rousing marching song with an ever-quickening tempo. Don't give up, the song seemed to say. We can still win the day!

God damn! She hoped the guy that collapsed was okay. She dragged him behind the table and continued playing.

Edited by JumpingFruit on Jul 22nd 2018 at 7:51:08 AM

The restaurant had now erupted into full chaos.

Not only had another gangster been killed right before Sijo's eyes, he had been turned into some kind of demon! This was the Blackest of Magics indeed- he had heard things were bad in Hong Kong, but not THIS bad!

Luckily, even more superhuman people showed up to help in the fight. Now he could concentrate on-

-but someone was already talking to the the sorcerer who had started this madness. Normally he'd just leave them alone, but this might be his only chance to take him down.

He grabbed a plate of of seafood and hurled it at his face. Hopefully that should keep him from speaking at the moment. He then followed it with a kick aimed at his stomach.

Meanwhile, the Enku was launched backward and—-the fire hitting it probably did the opposite of what Bruce hoped it would do. The fire seemed to be of the creature's nature, and so it got back up, the fire slowly going out on it.

And it promptly rushed at Shen - aiming to rip him to shreds with its claw.

"Shut the fuck up Matsuki." Fong buckled the hell down and whipped out his own pair of cuffs. The kid had lost his nerve, and with all the insanity going on around him, hell breaking loose, Fong realized, vaguely, that he was dissociating right now. He had a solution to this though, at least sort of. He strode past... all of the insanity around him, shot a steely glare at Wolfang, put away his pistol and badge, and lunged forwards with the cuffs to get the guy's arms behind him and restrained in the cuffs. "Failure to comply will result in further prosecution, sir."

Hong Kong-Guangdong border:

The PTU officers had already made the arrests on the mole and the person who made contact with him. British soldiers were seen maintaining the cordon. On the Guangdong side, armed officers from the People's Armed Police were watching what was happening from a distance, but did not intervene.

The SB officers secured the duffel bags found in the scene. They checked one of them and noted that it was full of cash (Combination of Hong Kong dollars and British pounds), some forged passports and a couple of Norinco Type 54 pistols with four loaded magazines.

According to their superior, this was an intelligence haul.

But for the other duffel bag...

Mark volunteered to check it since the others were busy interrogating the suspects and liaising with British troops.

Wonder what's in here?

When he opened it, he saw that there was a sword that had a yin yang symbol on the hilt.

"A peach sword?" Mark murmured. "What's a mole doing with this?"

However, with both Sijo and Fong rushing at Wolfang - one of whom throwing seafood at him and kicking him, the result sent the bored, sadistic immortal flying backward and into the wall near a window. Out of Fong's reach - with Lugh running over quickly.

The black haired noble helped his master up, who grumbled under his breath, "Sassafrassa...fine. You guys can have this little grimy hole in the mud! I didn't want it anyway!"

It did however give Wolfang significant pause he felt no killing intent from the guy who fucking kicked him OR the police officer.

He promptly swiped behind him and what looked like a black rip in the world opened up. Wolfang leaped through it, and Lugh calmly walked through it, the tear closing up shortly after...

...and this seemed to have a calming effect on the Preta, who just seemed to look around as if needing further influence from its master to keep going.

Edited by NickTheSwing on Jul 22nd 2018 at 8:04:16 AM

Ying Wu got up from behind the table, slowly, as if she was in a trance. She went and filled a teacup with Chun Mee and put it on the counter—it was the only flat surface not smashed or shattered.

"Your Chun Mee, sir," she called out to Shen.

Then she turned the "OPEN" sign on the door over to signal that the restaurant was now "CLOSED."

Ying Wu flipped over a bench and plopped down on it, staring at the wasteland of shattered glassware, broken tables, and splintered benches, making a vague shooing gesture in the Preta's direction.

She buried her face in her hands and began to cry.

Edited by JumpingFruit on Jul 22nd 2018 at 8:16:47 AM

Upon the Enku's charge, Shen shot a glance over to Wu, before shrugging and vaulting out of cover, gun clutched readily in his hand. Whatever he had planned was halted, however, once he spotted Wolfang leaving, causing the Enku to immediately become serene.

Slowing to a stop, Shen quirked an eyebrow, waving his hand in front of its gaze half-heartedly before muttering a “#$&% it” under his breath and shooting the Preta none-too-gracefully between the eyes, heaving a tired sigh in the process.

“All this work for a mug of green tea. Is this a new practice? Because it's certainly made me more thirsty,” he muttered to himself, before clearing his throat and raising his voice to be heard over the entire room “Everyone good? Limbs attached? Internal organs still internal?”

Evidently uncaring of the answer anyway, he graciously accepted the tea from Wu with a nod and the barest inkling of a smile, gulping the whole mug down in an instant and ignoring the scald it made in his throat in the progress. Flicking the safety onto his pistol, he holstered it, before noting the girls' distress and moving to sit next to her, albeit with obvious trepidation. He was obviously uncomfortable with the prospect of comforting someone by any means, but the girl had proven to be incredibly brave, he had to admit (plus she'd saved his ass), so he sort of felt obligated to do something.

“You... um... you alright?”

Somehow, he resisted the urge to slam his head against the wall. Of course she wasn't #$&%ing alright, her establishment had been wrecked and her family had just been attacked, plus she'd witnessed multiple deaths in the process. The more concerning thing would be if she was alright.

Edited by Enirboreh on Jul 22nd 2018 at 4:22:40 PM

"Ow, my ribs- Usually I'm more coordinated than that. Uuuuuuuuugh... Hey, whoever got me moving, thanks for that. I don't think I would have gotten to cover on my own-ow my everything."

Bruce manages to sit up, the pain turning into a widespread ache more than actual pain, and the blisters and other deformities subsiding for the most part.

"I don't know what that man did to me, but I want some words with him."

Hong Kong-Guangdong border:

Mark rifled through the second duffel bag saw some things that were wrapped in a lot of plastic. It was done in a way that he can't what it is at first glance.

"Anything you found?"

His superior was behind him when he stood up.

"Found some things here." Mark explained the situation and the things he found. "Not sure what it is since it's heavily wrapped in plastic."

The British man. "Understood. For now, we wrap things up here and debrief back at Caine House. Is that clear?"

"Understood, sir."

"And one more thing, the Commissioner has some news on us."

"Promotions?"

The man nodded.

"I see."

"An announcement will be made at the SB office tomorrow morning."

Sijo blinked. Just like that, it was over. The sorcerer and its companion had just warped away! The semi-human thing was still here, but it seemed calm. For the moment.

The restaurant was a mess, of course. Dead thugs, KO ones, knocked over tables and food, and the lingering remnants of black magic tainting the place.

Then he noticed the crying of a girl- the one who had been playing the pipa. The spirit's granddaughter apparently. Someone was already consoling her, however.

The two cops were discussing what to do now. He should do so as well.

He pulled out his phone and dialed a number. "Hello, Sijo here. We need a Spiritual Cleansing at the Red Flower restaurant. Possibly an exorcism as well."

It was then he noticed there was a Westerner in the place, still calmly eating... a bag of potato chips?

He might or might not be related to the others. But, it was his duty to find out so:

He approached him and asked, "Enjoying the show?"

Ying Wu buried her face into Shen's suit and bawled. Like seriously, had a good cry.

When Sijo showed signs of wanting to bother the Westerner-turned-other-Westerner, she looked up and said, "No, leave him alone, he was helping out in the fight earlier."

And then promptly resumed whining into Shen's shirt.

Shen hid a grimace as Wu practically latched onto him like a vice, but nonetheless at least attempt to console her somewhat by patting her on the back, albeit in a slightly awkward and unsure fashion. It would be quite a sight to see; this girl who was currently the living definition of heart-wrenching sadness being stiffly slapped in the spine by the most mortified looking person on the planet. As if aware of this, he fixed a glare onto everyone in the room that proclaimed with the same nuance and subtlety as a nuclear toaster 'if you make one comment I will gut you' before turning his attention to Sijo, trying to look as respectable as possible while still holding Wu in his arms.

“You're a spiritualist too? Thought you had a splash of colour about you. I am Xiao Shen. I will apologise perhaps a little too late for my entrance – I'm pretty sure I busted a few eardrums and that was indeed a nice ceiling that I shot straight into.”

Ying Wu, at last, stopped crying, sniffled a few times and wiped her face with a napkin.

"Thank you," she said at length. "I don't know what I would have done if you guys hadn't been here..."

She blew her nose in the napkin.

Matt finished his chips.

He looked up to find the place a mess. "Damn. I really should've stayed at the hotel room." he said. His voice was not his own.

He saw one of the girls who worked at the restaurant crying into some guy's jacket.

He saw quite few corpses.

He saw some cops.

He walked over to the girl. He figured it was probably partially his fault that the restaurant was so messed up, so he figured he might as well apologize.

Think was, he was horrible with people. Monumentally horrible with people. And being in a body he wasn't used to certainly didn't help. Especially considering whose body it was.

"Uhh.... hey." He said. "So, um, yeah... I'm, well... um... I'm sort of sorry for kinda maybe helping to mess this place up so... yeah, I, well, I wanted to apologize for it... yeah."

Well, that wasn't so hard. "And, well, I also... um, well, I wanted to ask if you're... well, if you're... uh... okay? I mean, obviously you're not, but, well, yeah... Oh! And... uh... would you like it if I, well, if I kinda helped fix up the place and stuff? Y'know, get it back together, that sorta thing."

He quickly shut his mouth. Damn. That was, well, it was horribly, horribly awkward on every level, and made him feel like a horny teenage boy trying to ask his crush out.

Ying Wu looked up and gaped. There was good in the world after all.

She sprung up and hugged the Westerner. It didn't matter that he looked like a fascist she'd read about in a textbook. He was a good guy!

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," she chanted in slightly accented English. "Please help. I'm a little shaken, that's all."

Ying Wu hiccuped and started helping her family clean up the place.

"He helped?" Sijo asked Ying. Honestly in the whirlwind of action going on around him, he could hardly have kept track of everything.

Then he noticed the girl was bawling on some guy, and almost snickered. But the other guy's expression quickly squashed that.

When Shen introduced himself, Sijo nodded. "I am affiliated with the mabeobsa [Korean sorcerers]" he explained. "You may call me... Sijo."

He also noticed the Westerner was holding an old book. It looked like a grimoire of some kind. "May I see that?" he asked politely.

Matt felt extremely awkward even after the pretty girl stopped hugging him.

At Sijo's request, it became even more awkward. If that was even possible. "Uh... sure, I guess... Just, well, um... be careful though. That is, if you can make sense of it. The think, well, yeah, it kinda... well, it... has... a... uh... well, ithasamindofitsown, okay? Yeah..."

He handed it to Sijo, then proceeded to help in cleaning up the restaurant.