Volume 1
Chapter 7
Networking
Part 3
Beiji Xiong, as you probably already know, was the leader of the Axe Gang, or as they were known back then, the Xiong Triad. And while Junior may have become a bit of a slouch by the time of Yang Xiao Long's first visit to The Club, neither he, Da Hui, or Beiji were back then, when the Triad was at its' prime. Those three men were the main reason none of the other gangs felt confident enough to make a serious attempt to replace the Triad. Of course, what many of those stories will forget is that no self-respecting Aura trained individual is going to enter a fight against others like them without at least one more like them for back up, and even with Junior down and Da Hui out, Beiji still had two competent henchmen...
"Oh shit..."
While Beiji may have been large, intimidating, and possessing of more than enough strength and skill to back his reputation, he was, alone, more than manageable for the team currently assembled against him. Again, Lee would place his money on Cinder in a one on one fight (though he would admit that it might be a little to close for comfort), while Mercury and Emerald would probably be able to beat him if they worked together; they could possibly even do it without getting hurt themselves if Lee could effectively support them, preferably with an ambush. Lee himself, of course, while fundamentally sound at this point, still only had a little under half a year's experience in the art of combat, and thus would stand no chance in a protracted fight, except possibly as support for his teammates.
"I leave the premises for just a few hours to take care of some business, and this is what I return to? Empty of patrons, my sons assaulted, and the place looking like a tornado hit because of a Geisha and her two brats?!"
Lee winced a bit at the barely relevant insult, as well as the sheer volume of his roar; combined with his size, he could really see why his family chose "Bear" for their surname. But like he'd said earlier, Beiji wouldn't be much of a problem at all on his own, especially enraged as he was. What really had him worried were the two henchmen he'd brought with him.
The first, attired much like the two younger Xiongs, looked to be of similar height to Lee, Mercury, or Cinder, and wielded what appeared to be a rather wicked looking set of red claws on his wrists. Combined with his blue green eyes (as in, they seemed to be a single shade of a color in-between green and blue, unlike Cerulean's own partially green and partially blue eyes) and bowl-cut straight black hair, that would make him Markos Malachite. His partner, a few inches shorter and dressed in a female-cut version of the same outfit, didn't have any immediately apparent weapons, but that, combined with fact that she had entered with Beiji and Markos, most likely made her Mila Malachite, Markos' wife. Though he could not see them, Lee knew from the mission briefing that Mila's weapon of choice were her bladed white heels. Both were absolutely ferocious agility based fighters, and, when working with one of the Xiong's, quite excellent at keeping their targets locked down enough that the Xiong's massive strength could accurately be brought to bear; when combined with each other and Beiji, they were the metaphorical rock to the hard place.
"Beiji. So nice of you to finally join us." Cinder's tone was pleasantly torrid, and, though he could not see it from his position, he was certain her expression would match, though with a subtle crinkle to her eyes to indicate she was amused by the whole situation. Combined with the blood that was by now dripping from her glass blades, Lee felt justified in thinking that the phrase femme fatale was perfectly represented by one Cinder Fall. "I was just having a rather pleasant discussion with your boys before one of them decided to become a little frisky. Perhaps you ought to teach Junior to respect a lady's personal space?"
Off in their corner, Lee could not help but mutter: "Burn!" Cinder's two male henchmen subtly exchanged a fist bump.
On the other hand, Beiji Xiong did not seem to be amused by Cinder's technically correct statement, and his already enraged features seemed to flare even more aggressively.
"I'm going to make you pay for this, bitch!"
On the dance floor, Cinder's demeanor frosted over. "You'll try."
Up in the DJ's booth, a new vinyl was placed on the turn tables.
Cue OST: paste this into the Youtube search bar, then hit the first video: v=8Kp3F_V9w7Q
A tense stand off occurred as each side stared the other down... And then, with a wordless yell, Beiji Xiong rushed the dance floor and Cinder, followed by both Malachites.
"Sky! Get the DJ, I'll help Queen!"
"On it!"
Without any further prompt needed, the duo sprang to accomplish their assigned tasks; Mercury, to the dance floor to provide his boss some much needed support, and Lee up the stairs again to deal with DJ Deadbe4, who was once again spraying bullets at Cinder, as well as Mercury once he joined the fracas. Not that Deadbe4's SMG alone was much of a threat, but combine that with the surrounding mooks taking pot shots in between Beiji and the Malachite's close ranged attacks and there was just simply way too much Dakka being brought to bear; thus, Lee needed to lessen that.
While Lee ran up the stairs, he made sure to keep one eye on the brawl happening below, and was glad that he did; as soon as he caught sight of the first mook choosing to aim at him instead of Cinder or Mercury, bullet time kicked in once more. As he began to duck and weave past the first bullets, he idly wondered if he had just discovered his Semblance, seeing as this seemed just a little bit too calm to simply be an adrenaline rush taken up to eleven, and his eyes still moved at normal speed relative to his own perception... But, that was a question better answered when he didn't have bullets flying at him. Speaking of which, Deadbe4 probably realized he was coming now. If Deadbe4 was smart, he'd simply wait and spray him as he rushed through the door...
"Shtako..."
The way Lee saw it, he had two options. He could either rush through the door at full speed, and aim to take down Deadbe4 (who had indeed stopped firing by that point) before he could squeeze off enough rounds to actually puncture Lee's aura... Or he could perform some risky acrobatics in order to leap through the front window, but to do that he would have to expose himself to the mooks firing at him from below. Or... Did he? Lee's eyes traveled down to his left hand gauntlet, and as an idea formed, Lee decided that no, he would not have to expose himself.
Stopping just below the landing before the booth, Lee slid to a halt up against the bullet proof glass balustrade. In a bid to identify just how many of the mooks were focused on him instead of Cinder and Mercury, he cast his gaze through the clear barrier. Being in hyper-slow-motion most certainly helped with this; in the time it took for the mooks to focus fire and start putting cracks in the glass, Lee's eyes had managed to sweep the area several times, coming up with a total of about a dozen and a half mooks spread across four groups, with the smallest containing three (not including those near them firing at Cinder and Mercury instead) while the largest had ten. That latter, Lee decided, would make the best target for what he had in mind, especially since they also happened to be the closest group.
'Dust, Aura, don't fail me now!'
Holding his right hand in front of him, Lee focused, extending his Aura to where he knew a Water Dust crystal was woven into his glove. A quick probe was all he needed to ascertain that, yes, it was still there; that was the easy part. Thanks to a few months of training with Cinder, Lee could proficiently use all four basic types of raw Dust, so long as he was only focusing on a single source of it. Lee knew that, now that his aura had successfully made contact with the Dust, he could, using his Aura as a medium, form and propel basic bolts of an element, in this case Ice. He could, if he chose to, pop his upper body over the lip of the balustrade just long enough to aim and fire a literal spear of ice at one of the mooks, and at such a speed that they probably wouldn't be able to react in time to dodge it. It would have taken a little bit of concentration even just yesterday... But yesterday, Lee had yet to discover his Semblance. With everything occurring in hyper-slow-motion, but his Aura still capable of moving at the speed of his mind, it was child's play to maintain enough focus to manipulate the Dust. So with what once required all of his concentration, now relegated to being something he could do almost without thinking... How much more could he handle?
While still being sure to keep a figurative eye on where his Aura was drawing on the Water crystal, Lee next turned his focus towards the Fire crystal in his right glove, the same one he'd used to perform the Shoryuken on Da Hui earlier. A mental tendril was extended to the Fire crystal, while still holding on to the Water... And to Lee's immense relief, he managed to successfully link to it on the first try.
'Good, now I know I can do that. But can I combine them?'
Normally, raw Dust is mixed in it's powdered form, in sterile laboratories, and most certainly without the use of Aura. It is, after all, a volatile substance, capable of being activated by something as innocuous as a sneeze. If one wanted to combine the properties of two types of Dust, the proper and safe way was to buy a crystal or vial of the two types of dust combined; it was generally accepted that attempting to use two separate crystals at once was too difficult for anyone who wasn't at the very least an expert, due to the concentration required for each as well as the intricate process of drawing on the crystal's power and then using your own Aura to shape it into the form you want. But most people weren't capable of seeing the world in what amounted to ultra-slow-motion; combined with his lessons from Cinder, herself a master of Dust usage, Lee was successfully able to control the separate actions in order to combine the Fire and Water and create Steam, rising steadily from his right hand.
'It's show time!'
With a single fluid motion, Lee stood, used his left hand to guide the steam out of his upwards-facing right palm, drew his right back into a shot put or javelin throwing stance, then pushed his right hand forward, blasting a steady stream of steam all the way from his own position down to the dance floor, scalding several of the mooks closest to him. With a yell of exertion, Lee forced it to keep coming... And slowly pivoted, filling up the entire dance floor (and thus keeping the mooks from firing at Cinder and Mercury or else risk hitting Beiji and the Malachites) before turning his attention to the DJ's booth, which was subjected to the same treatment through the open front.
For the second time that night, the music was interrupted by a horrible noise, this time of electrical equipment being short-circuited due to the sudden permeation of hot water vapor.
"No, my vinyls!"
Lee felt bad for the guy, especially considering that he had been enjoying the track that was playing, but Deadbe4 had been shooting at his boss. Lee's course had been clear... And he hadn't reached the goal quite yet. While the mooks and, more importantly, Deadbe4 were distracted by the steam, Lee charged the rest of the way up the steps, pausing only to force his way through the relatively weak door with a few well placed punches; on the final one, delivered with the assistance of a little bit of Air Dust, the door was launched straight across the booth, knocking a panicked Deadbe4 out cold before crashing into the opposite door.
"Well, that was anti climactic."
But, Lee really shouldn't have expected any better; just because Deadbe4 had a slightly different costume and a machine gun didn't make him any better than the rest of the mooks down below. He supposed that was for the best; with Deadbe4 quickly out of the way, that just meant he now had more time to start working on the rest of the fodder. Emboldened by his success, Lee decided he was going to make his presence felt on the battlefield below. A quick look out the booth's window, where, despite being obscured by the steam, he could see flashes from Cinder's and Mercury's fight against Beiji Xiong and the two Malachites, followed by a quick calculation, and Lee was ready. Backing up to the very rear of the booth (but not before taking a quick peak at the title of the album Deadbe4 had been playing), Lee gave himself a running start before vaulting up onto the edge of the window... And then leaping out over the action going on below.
While he was airborne, Lee began to draw on the Earth crystal in his left glove, as well as the Air... But then thought better of the latter. Despite having proven he could do it now, mixing those two would simply create a sandstorm... And while he himself was still wearing his Axe Gang shades, so was most of the Axe Gang, while Cinder, Mercury, and Emerald were not. Besides, he did not want to deal with Cinder's wrath when it she realized just how much sand was in her hair... So as Lee approached the ground, he settled for using just Earth.
With a quick yell, Lee landed on a mook, pounding him into the ground. Rising from that, Lee's arms began to move, flinging bolts of Earth into a mook with every chop and extension until he was inside the circle with Cinder and Mercury. Lee's entrance brought a pause to the battle there. Or at least, it would have if Cinder's gang were the type to play fair. And while in Lee's case, he might have been, he was also perfectly willing to fight just as dirty as the situation called for. And in this case, Lee decided that the situation dictated that anything goes.
While Beiji had paused, preparing to say something, a chain-scythe had appeared from behind him and his bodyguards, snaring a visibly exhausted Mila Malachite around both ankles before being yanked back, pulling her feet out from under her and causing her to smack her head against the dance floor. A stunned Markos managed to turn just in time to see Emerald, previously unnoticed, drive the blade of her second kusari-gun-ma under Mila's ribs and directly through her heart, before a loud bang and a jerk of the rapidly dying body announced that Emerald had shot her for good measure.
"Mila!" Now thoroughly enraged, Markos prepared to launch himself at Emerald... Only to be shoulder tackled in the small of his back by Lee, sending them both crashing to the ground, the former face first with the latter managing to scramble so he was straddling his back. Lee, glad to have rid Markos of any ability to use his agility, began to repeatedly slam his lead weighted, titanium plated fists into the back of Markos's head, one after another, aiming to diminish his Aura as soon as possible and deliver a knockout blow.
Beiji, in a desperate bid to save Markos, raised both of his hammers to sweep Lee off... But was forced to drop one when an exploding arrow detonated against his hand and missed with the other thanks to a shotgun shell to the forearm altering the trajectory.
On the ground, Lee didn't fail to miss the sharp crack of bone as Markos' skull finally gave way, leaving Lee's fists soaked in blood, bits of bone, and grey matter.
Beiji... did not take the sudden deaths of his henchmen well. Himself already moderately exhausted, the first flickers of fear began to appear in his eyes as he backed off, allowing Cinder and Co. to regroup before him. None of the surviving mooks were brave enough to join him.
"Beiji, Beiji, Beiji... Did I not tell you that you would only try to make me pay for your son's own actions? I see stupidity must run in the family, because now, thanks to you, your two top henchmen are dead. Have you anything to say for yourself?"
Were the situation any less serious, Lee might have grinned at the condescending tone Cinder was using to address a man more than twice her size, and the fear he was clearly struggling to contain. But, despite the current lull, the fight was still on until the other side was either dead or incapacitated; Beiji Xiong did not seem to be the type to surrender.
"Mila... Markos... They had children, you monsters!"
Cinder couldn't have cared less. "At least one of them should have chosen a less dangerous career."
Beiji's visage began to be taken over by even more fear as the opposing quartet began to close in, weapons drawn; all he could do was shakily raise his own weapons before him.
"I am going to give you one chance, Beiji; you can either do as I say, and I will allow you and Junior to walk out of here alive, along with your surviving henchmen. Or you can hang on to your honor and refuse, and you will die horribly, along with anyone else who does not wish to surrender. Which will it be, Xiong?"
"You said me and Junior; what about Da Hui?"
Lee raised a brow, before turning his head ever so slightly to face his boss; that was actually a good question. When Lee and Merc had finished with him, he'd merely been unconscious...
"Dead before you even entered the building."
Apparently, Lee had one helluva right uppercut. Beiji managed to make that connection too, because his gaze, suddenly murderous, was now locked on Lee, who tensed himself for a fight. With Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury backing him, he was not worried about the possibility of losing... But he himself would be badly injured if he let his guard down even once. So Lee subtly began drawing on the last of his weapons' crystal types...
Just in time to slam an electrically charged palm into Beiji's sweat-drenched face.
To his left, Lee could hear Emerald's amused comment: "Oooh, wrong move."
"You should have taken the boss's offer." Lee... Did not like the thought of what he now had to do, thanks to Cinder's ultimatum, despite now having done so at least twice tonight. But he liked the thought of watching one of his comrades perform the deed against an already defeated opponent even less, so he stifled his revulsion and poured more aura into the attack, consuming both it and the Lightning crystals in his gloves at a faster rate in exchange for upping the voltage to a lethal dosage. It... was not pleasant to watch, especially not up close as he was, but after a solid minute of electrocution, the crystals were consumed, and Beiji Xiong was nothing more than a charred, twitching husk on the ground.
After that, none of the surviving Axe Gang gave us trouble; the mooks laid down their weapons and begged for their lives, while Junior, now the highest ranked member of the Gang, was forced to comply with Cinder's demands, which basically boiled down to free information gathering services in exchange for his life. He also was not allowed to disclose just who exactly had come in and wiped out most of the Axe Gang's upper echelon... But that was pretty much a given; the events of that day, despite not going quite how Cinder had planned, had installed a healthy amount of fear in Junior, who, even after watching the security footage, could not figure out how Mercury, Emerald, and myself had managed to infiltrate the club, or how we had managed to take him and his brother down so quickly. All in all, a successful mission. All that remained was to return to base, rendezvous with Neo, and go through a debrief...
Oh. My. Gawd. I wrote that and I can't believe that happened! I had planned on Lee killing at least Da Hui, but wow, I didn't expect for him to end up killing both Markos and Beiji as well. Not counting all the mooks Cinder and Mercury killed, that gives Lee the highest body count for that mission... Which will certainly be addressed next chapter.
As always, honest reviews are appreciated, no matter how severe they might end up being; after all, criticism allows an author to identify what the readers don't want, giving us something to keep in mind when we're actually writing our stories.
On a different, unrelated note, I've gotta say: Neon Katt and Flynt Coal are officially my favorite extra characters in the main show to date! Team FNKI! I can't even! XD
-CS
PS: I also just added a poll pertaining to the story to my profile. Please check it out and vote! I'll be leaving that open until the arc before Beacon :D
