Chapter 2

Chapter Song: Don't Worry, We'll Be Watching You - Gotye


"You actually slapped his face and he kept coming back for more?!" A 21-year old woman with dark red hair with a blue dye streak going down one side and a rather business casual outfit with a knee-high skirt said to Miranda, trying to hold back laughter.

"Oh yeah, he might as well could have said "Thank you ma'am, may I have another?" Miranda replied, a wide smile on her face as she collected printed papers from the printer. The woman standing-next to her nearly fell over, unable to contain her laughter.

"Oh man, I wish I was there to see it sis!" she said through her laughter.

"There to see what Miss Bows?" A low voice asked behind them, both women jumped as they looked back to see Herbert Franklin, their boss, he was a large man, most of his size was his his barrel chest with large arms, but lately, some of his size seemed to be coming from his stomach. He in his mid-50's, even though his head was starting to bald, his hair color kept a jet-black hue to it. Despite his imposing stature, he was actually a gentle sweetheart, which was probably why he had received many awards for his work with children and helping them to find homes.

Truth be told, Miranda Mejia and Alison Bows were indebted to him in a way. He donated his own money to build the Care Center for Orphaned Girls in Upper Manhattan, where both Miranda and Alison met and grew up into adults together. Alison had been working as an intern for the Manhattan Offices for Family and Children since she was 17 before she was finally given a job after she turned 18. She still kept in contact with Miranda after she had turned 18 and when Miranda approached her asking if she could help children like Alison did, Alison didn't say no. It took some convincing, but she eventually managed to get Herbert's approval and allowed Miranda to start from the bottom. Within a year, Miranda managed to raise productivity and the company's reputation with the community. She was a model employee; if the building allowed it, a whole row would comprise of Miranda's face for "Employee of the Month."

"What's this I hear about slapping people? That's not like you Miss Mejia." Herbert eventually said to break the silence.

"Er…" Alison awkwardly said, trying to give him an answer.

"W-Well s-sir…" Miranda eventually answered, faking a bout of nervousness, "I-I was invited t' celebrate one of my friend's birthdays, y-ya know, a-and they had a Wii…"

"What's a wii?" Herbert asked?

"I-It's a video game system sir." Alison answered for Miranda."

"Oh... continue." Herbert quickly responded. He sucked at video games, which was why he preferred to avoid discussing it in conversations.

"W-well…they asked m-me t' play Tennis an'…well…" Miranda looked to the side and gripped her arm to make herself look guilty, she deserved an Emmy for this kind of performance.

"You accidentally slapped him in the face?" Herbert finished her sentence as Miranda nodded, "and this is supposed to be funny to you both?"

"Well…it was funny to us because he kept leaning his face towards Miranda to wave the remote…" Alison finished. Herbert wasn't laughing.

"Your sense of humor is getting stranger to me every year, girls…" he looked to Miranda, "You have a phone call waiting for you in your office."

"Why? A-any business calls I get usually come through t' my cell phone…"

"Yes, but this caller called my office and asked for you directly. She's holding on your office phone."

"Oh…I-I'll answer it, sir…" Miranda responded, earning Herbert an approving nod.

"Good, please don't slap anymore people, even if it is an accident. We don't need another controversy, you've helped rebuild our reputation." Herbert said, giving a firm, yet soft pat on her shoulder before turning back to his office. Alison looked back at Miranda and snickered.

"'Please don't slap anymore people,' I thought he was about to go into another speech about the Office history." Miranda gave a gentle chuckle.

"Thankfully he didn't ask me t' make that speech." She joked, but there was truth to Herbert's words, Miranda was the one who gave the office a much needed kick and she was the biggest support that encouraged everyone to put their A-Game into their jobs. A few years before, the Offices took flak when one of their employers was arrested by the police with several children witnesses coming forth accusing him of being a pedophile. Their reputation was ruined until Miranda came along and helped them pick up the pieces. This was why she made sure that nobody could recognize her in the day time than they could at night time. By day, she dressed more conservatively, knee-high skirt, high heel shoes, her hair up with a pair of dorky yet stylish glasses. During the day, she was an actress at work. She passed herself off to her fellow employees that she was a rather shy woman, but connected better with mothers and children. If a male employee talked to her, she would act nervous and force a stutter and try to get by them quickly. She didn't talk much about her past, Alison knew about it since Miranda told her when they grew up together, even to the few people who knew about her nightly activities, she didn't tell them of her past.

It was too personal for them to know.

"You go take that phone call before Herb comes back and talks your ear off, sis." Alison said, giving a quick hug to Miranda before heading back to her office. Miranda collected her papers and made her way to the opposite direction of the office floor, passing by a few cubicles with people giving a friendly hello to Miranda, she responded with a soft hello back and made her way back to her office, before entering, two other employees blocked her office door.

" Annuda' fun night out on th' town, Miss Mejia?" the older red-head replied, Unlike most other employees working, he was the only guy here whose tie was looser around his neck and kept his sleeves rolled up. Because he stuck to the sidelines, he didn't have too worry about his appearance, which would explain his pouffy perm for a haircut.

"Marcus, is this really th' time?" Miranda said.

"We're jus' curious is z'all." the slightly younger yet brunette replied, she, like Marcus, had her sleeves rolled up, with an eyesore stockings and near-worn sneakers clashing with the collared shirt she wore. This was Candice Gates, she and her brother Marcus were office workers, meaning they never exactly went out in the field or talked to children, but sometimes, the big gears required smaller ones to run. They were both raised in Brooklyn, where they ran into Miranda during the night some time ago and they recognized her instantly when she began working at Family and Children. They were serious at their job, but were known to joke around gently with the other employees, especially Miranda, but only when out of earshot of others. Apart from Alison, they were the only ones in this building who knew of Miranda's night life identity.

"Sigh* I slapped a 14 year-old street punk with my katana blade n' spanked him till' he cried, is that what'chya wanted t' hear?" Miranda finally sighed, receiving chuckles from them.

"More'orless. How the boys been?" Marcus asked excitedly.

"Good, I have t' take this phone call. I'll tell ya'll 'bout it after I'm done." Miranda hastily said before closing the door behind her. She sighed. She didn't mind them, they were really good at giving excuses to Herbert to explain her absences from work when she had to respond to an emergency, but it was getting annoying that they would constantly ask about the boys down in the sewers.

Nevertheless, she put it aside as she placed her papers on the side of her desk near a toy dipping bird as she finally sat down, pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose and picked up the phone on her desk.

"Miranda Mejia of Manhattan's Offices for Family and Children, what can I do t' help darlin'?" she said into the receiver while sorting the papers already littered on her desk.

"From your accent, I would have said you came from down south, possibly Texas, but the rolling of your R's suggest European origin, am I right?" the voice on the phone said, Miranda found it a very odd thing to say to someone, but she let it go and kept sorting through papers.

"My father was from Texas, but a large section of my family has roots t' Slovakia, d'ya need family help or did ya call just to insult my accent?"

"No, I wanted to ask about your night life." the voice replied.

"And why should my personal life be of any importance to'ya?"

"Because I want to know if you don't have any plans to fight off any more hoodlums." Miranda dropped the paper in her hand as her eyes widened in shock. She quickly looked out the windows to see if anyone was spying on her.

"How- who are you?" Miranda whispered into the phone.

"Let's just say someone who has some interesting information to discuss with you." the voice responded to her. Miranda tried to keep her cool, but it was difficult considering someone was actually calling her on her company line, for all she knew, anyone could be listening in.

"An' why would I wanna talk with you?" she whispered back aggressively.

"I'm certain you remember your run-in with an escort services gal with a sword the night before to explain the pain in your side." the voice responded, Miranda gently placed her hand over the bandaged wound she received the night before hiding under her business jacket.

"Who th' hell are you?" Miranda growled into the phone.

"55 East 52nd Street. The rooftop, 11:30 tonight. I'll tell you all you need to know." The mystery caller said before hanging up. After a few seconds of hearing the dial tone, Miranda dropped the phone, took off her glasses and laid her hands on the temples of her head, breathing deeply from this. She thought her disguise in the real world was perfect, but someone had breached her security.


Charles stood out on the roof of his building, looking over the railing below at the streets below. There weren't too many cars this time of night and it nice and quiet. Charles ran his hand over his slick hair as the coat tails of his coat flew softly in the wind.

"If you were considering pushing me off the roof to silence me, I have a man 3 miles away who could kill you where you stand and you wouldn't even hear the shot coming." Charles said before he turned around to see Miranda, out of her work uniform and in her warrior's suit and jacket, warrior's face paint and all.

"I have'a right t' be concerned when social workers call me 'bout men calling them 'bout things I've done." Miranda said, trying to sound tougher than she did back in the office.

"You know, if you're trying to have an alter ego, you could at least make an effort to hide your Texan twang. It wouldn't take an expert to piece together the similar accents between two people…" Charles then reached into his pocket, Miranda placed a hand on the handle of her katana as Charles pulled out a fancy cigarette case and removed one from the case to place between his lips. He reached the case out to Miranda, "...or one person…cigarette?" Miranda was wary to take one, but it wasn't like she could turn down a smoke. She took her hand off her katana blade and took one of the cigarettes format eh case and placed in between her lips. Charles placed the case back in his pocket and pulled out a fancy Permanent match and ignited the metallic match and held it up to Miranda to light hers. She inhaled the tobacco, the flavor running down her throat. Charles then lit his own cigarette before putting the metal match back in it's case and returning it to his pocket. Miranda took the cigarette from her mouth and held it between her index and middle finger and blew smoke out her mouth as it floated up to the sky.

"So, you found me out…you gonna try n' blackmail me?" Miranda finally asked.

"If I intended to ruin your charitable company's reputation, I wouldn't have bothered to call you, I would already have the New York Post print this file my intel has collected on you-" Charles said as he pulled out a manilla folder from his coat and held it up, before he could say another word, Miranda tried to swipe the folder before Charles quickly pulled it back, "...which I am willing to give back to you if you'll listen to what I have to say…" he inhaled his cigarette, letting the smoke blow out his nostrils as he and Miranda stated each other off. Miranda could just kill him right here and take the folder, but she would have to deal with a possible assassin that she had no idea where he was. It's clear she had one option.

"Start singin' your song…" she said grudgingly.

"Good…step into my office, it's getting cold up here." Charles flicked his cigarette over the edge as he walked over to a door and opened it with a key card. "Ladies first." Miranda didn't budge, but she took flicked her cigarette over the edge.

"You first." Miranda said, her eyes still on the folder. Charles nodded at her caution as he entered in first as Miranda followed, closing the door behind her and began walking down a flight of stairs. Right now, she was in a closed location, this guy's assassin couldn't possibly see them now, she could still kill him-

"Still thinking about killing me to get this file? My man won't lay off until I give the word. Try to leave without my okay and you're dead." Charles said also like he just remembered it at the end of a sentence, damn, he thought ahead for this.

They continued to walk on until they reached a door he opened with his key card, entering into a large sterile office through a secret door in the wall. Miranda looked around at this office, bland light green walls, a large window overlook of the city skyline, a large desk as big as a pool table, several framed certificates and awards for business management was all that told Miranda about this man personally, but the office was so sterile, even a Dilbert strip wouldn't bring any joy in this room. Charles removed his coat and placed it on a coat rack, revealing a well-pressed dark suit underneath, before he turned and held the folder up to Miranda.

"There you are, as I promised to-" Charles began to say before Miranda swiped it out of his hand.

"Thank ya kindly, now I'll be takin' my leave." Miranda said cooly as she turned around and made her way to the doors leaving his office.

"You aren't even the least bit curious as to why I went through this effort to get your attention?" Charles called over to her in a nonchalant tone as he walked over to his desk, Miranda stopped in her tracks. "My intel put together that file exclusively; eclectic history to say the least." Miranda slowly opened the folder and found copies of her birth certificate, family pictures, even newspaper clippings when she had gone missing at the age of six. Her mouth opened slightly in surprise, it had everything. Japanese Police reports about her activities, even newspaper clippings of her victims, the plane ticket from Japan to New York when she was 15, the legal papers that registered her at the Care Center for Orphaned Girls, her job application form for when she worked at Bua and even her old small apartment registration. The folder even contained photographs of her fights and interactions with the Ninja Turtles as well as pictures of her working with children. This file had her entire life and somehow, this guy managed to get it all. She slowly turned around to look at him as he opened up a fake bookshelf to pull out a mini bar.

"Ho- wh- who are you?" she asked in sheer disbelief.

"My name is Charles Hughes, President and Founder of Color Hughes Advertising. I have the best intel a man of my position can get. That is how I have the file that tells me everything about who you are." Charles said, pouring himself a glass of bourbon before turning around to sit in his large chair. Miranda, without a moment of thinking, dropped the file and ran over to the other side of the room, she skillfully leapt onto the desk, dropped to one knee on the desk with her other foot on the edge of his desk, pulling her katana out of it's sheath and held the blade to his neck, fury burned in her eyes as Charles looked up at her, unshaken at her violent display.

"Give me one good reason I shouldn't collect yer fuckin' head right now…" Miranda growled, her teeth gritting as her hand gripped the handle of her katana blade tightly, ready to make his head roll. His expression didn't even change.

"Because we're currently standing over 100 pounds of explosives." Charles said in his usual nonchalance as Miranda noticed his other hand rested on the arm chair of his seat, a small covering had been lifted as his finger rested softly on a red button. "Even if you manage to cut my head off, the human body responds through muscle twitches, one such twitch will go to this finger over this button and send you sky high. Even if you tried to escape out the window, the blast would be enough to slam you into the next building and break your bones or you'd fall 40 stories to the pavement or perhaps staying in here and letting the explosive heat kill you would be preferable." Miranda stared at him in silence.

"Why would you willingly kill yerself to kill an assassin?" she said softly, but darkly.

"I built this company from the ground up. I would rather blow myself up than see anyone take it from me. So go ahead, I'm not afraid to die, are you?" Charles took a sip from his drink calmly as Miranda stared at this man. He was nuts, brilliant and well-organized, but nuts. She slowly retracted the blade from his neck as she slowly placed her katana back into it's sheath before she slowly climbed off his desk across from him. Once she did that, his hand eased off the red button before he closed the hidden flap it hid under.

"All right…I'll bite, why did ya go through all this trouble t' get my attention?" Miranda said. Charles reached into one of his desk drawers and pulled out another manilla folder as he slid it over to her on the desk. She caught it as she looked at the front over that showed a symbol of what looked like a yellow bird or butterfly, it was hard to tell.

"These are my newest clients…they call themselves, 'The Wutang Clan.'" Miranda looked back up at him.

"Wutang Clan?" she questioned.

"Yes, they come from the Far East of China, they want to come here to America to begin a new following of loyal soldiers for their cause." Charles replied, finishing his drink. "Thirsty?"

"Yeah…Scotch on th' rocks. Small one." Miranda said. She wasn't the drinking age, but she had drank before and didn't care about the drinking age, but she wasn't one to drink in excess. She opened up the file and found Chinese police reports of village massacres, in each picture, the same bird symbol was seen on a wall or on a body.

"The Chinese Police began to crack down on their activities, forcing them to flee here, where the Chinese jurisdiction won't reach them. They also acquired American passports, they're literally trying to start a clean slate over here…just to keep doing what they've been doing over there…" Charles said as he walked back to his desk, handing Miranda her drink as she downed the whole thing. "There were nearly 30 Clan Leaders back in China, nine escaped and are now living here and I am to advertise their presence to the city."

"Why didn't ya say no t' such dangerous men?" Miranda said looking at him,

"It's difficult to say no when you're in a video conference as a bunch of men break in and threaten to kill your staff facility on the other end." Charles replied as he took a sip of his drink.

"You don't care about yer own life an' yet it's th' lives of yer employees that ya actually care about?"

"Something like that." He reached over and pulled out several photos as she shuffled through them, and turned the around for Miranda to see, "these are my nine clients." He placed two photos on the table and pushed them over to her. The two pictures showed very muscular men, large in size with a regular human standing next to them for size comparison. "The one on the right goes under the alias 'Raekwon,' the other, 'Universal God.'"

"Well, too bad they're murderers, they'd make good models fer' a Mr. Universe competition." Miranda lightly joked. Big guys weren't anything she couldn't handle, big guys were always more brawn than brain anyhow. Charles selected two more pictures as he placed them in front of her, these two had light armor, both pictures showed the men holding their hands up in the picture, the one on the left, his head was shaven, on his left hand, the Chinese letter for Q was tattooed on. The man on the right, had hair, but a long scar going down his right eye. On his right hand, the Chinese letter for A was shown.

"Both names are unknown, the Chinese reports couldn't find a lot about these two, the closest my intel came to finding names were rough translations. On the left, 'Inspector Deck," on the right, 'The Method Man." They prefer to stay in the back, but they appear to be the judges for the actions of the Clan and how to punish it's members." Miranda looked up at Charles before looking back at the photos, they didn't look too tough, these guys were obviously the brains to counter the brawn.

"Next, the Killer Brothers." Charles pushed two more photos over to Miranda, these two were clearly twins, in stature and in face, the major difference was the one on the left, a facial tattoo resembled a Chinese skull and the other, red tattoos on his neck going down his body and his arms. Their clothing also differed, the skull-faced one wore a black garb, typical for ninjas, with a white sash wrapped around his waist, the other's was red, with pointed shoulders and a dip in the front to show off more tattoos that showed death. "These two are very dangerous according to the police reports intel collected. Last year alone, they managed to kill the same amount of people who died to build the Great Wall of China."

"Are th' tattoos meant t' compensate fer' somethin'?" Miranda tried to joke, but honestly, these photos combined with the many, many, many police reports and pictures of death from their hands was making it difficult to be light-hearted.

"Perhaps. The one with the skull face is alias 'Ghostface Killer,' his brother on the right, 'Master Killer,' a deadly brother team-up, if you plan to go up against them, I'd recommend back-up." Charles then pulled two more photos and pushed them out in front. "now we reach the top of the chain of command. From the police reports collected, these two have had numerous counts of sexual violence in China." Miranda looked them over, the one on the left wore a robber, but his face showed him winking to the camera, Miranda could see a long pointed beard as well as old Ming dynasty armor, the one of the right, was truly disgusting. The man was old, yet gave this disgusting "come hither" she'd seen many times when she had worked at Bua, but somehow, this guy made it look hideous. Not helping was the worn down brown teeth in his smile and unkempt hair. His clothing was nothing to brag about, perhaps it was so he could remove it easily- Miranda shuddered at the thought of this man getting intimate with anyone.

"I don't even know their names an' I already feel cold clammy hands on me…" Miranda said without thinking in disgust.

"Their history in China is more despicable. The one on the left is known by two names in his circle, 'The Genius' inside his Clan, to the Chinese police, his name seemed to be translated out to 'Master Gizza'." Miranda looked at Charles in disgust.

"That's not with'a J is it?"

"My translators insisted to me it was a G, but the way it sounds, yes, I would be disgusted as well. He's the spiritual leader of the Wutang Clan, which means he is the lead speech-maker to their followers, now this other, ahem* 'gentleman,' finding a name was very, very difficult. Police reports and newspapers continue to change the name, but his many rape victims who were interviewed after their encounter with him had only one name for him when they were asked who he was…'an Old Dirty Bastard'…last year alone, he alone was responsible for raping 257 women as well as molesting nearly 1,000 children, all girls." Charles couldn't finish his sentence, Miranda was thankful for that. Her hand clenched into a fist in disgust and rage for his monster, the name was appropriate; this man was an old dirty bastard.

She made a note to self: kill him first.

"Well, that just leaves the head of the Wutang Clan. I wish I could tell you more about him, but unlike all the others, he's almost a mystery. All my intel could find was a name." Charles laid the final photo out in front of Miranda, she saw a man in a robe, the hood covered most of his face, she could barely see any of his face, but out of the shadow of the hood, she saw a long grey and black beard. The robe seemed ceremonial and large as it covered his hands.

"So…this guy is th' leader then?" Miranda questioned. Charles nodded.

"I've spoken with this man myself over the phone, he claims to have been the creator of the Wutang Clan and he built it from the ground up with his half-brother, 'Master Gizza.' Intel said he goes by the alias 'Master Rizza.' He's the head of the Clan, the true decider of what the Clan will and won't do. By tomorrow, once their recorded message is shown across television screens all over New York is shown, they will make their move." Miranda picked up the picture and her hand and studied the picture of 'Master Rizza' closely before she looked back at Charles.

"What- what is their plan?"

"They're going to drive The Foot Clan out of New York and take their place. Once they've done that, the rest of the United States will fall afterwords." Charles said in his usual nonchalance. How this man could say any of this without seeming like he didn't care, was fucking amazing to Miranda.

"Then why did ya bring me here an' tell me all this?" Miranda asked defensively.

"Same reason I have explosives underneath my office or an assassin to keep an eye on me from a safe distance: I like to have a contingency plan." Charles replied, finishing his drink before setting it on the desk.