Tekken 24
Disclaimer: Don't own "24" or "Tekken".
The following takes place between 6:00 am and 7:00 am.
Events occur in real time.
6:00:00- Hwoarang and Jin ran up the stairs of the empty subway station. The sun poured down the steps, right into their eyes. The warmth of the UV rays hit them, and it actually felt good to Hwoarang. The thought didn't go any further than that, as he was on the phone.
"Gavin, I need you to send a Hazmat team over here. We have one bot down." He said.
"How?" Le Carre asked.
"I shot it with a gun I got from the conductor."
".44?" Le Carre asked.
"No. .357, but I'm sure .44 would work too. I figured the CPU would have been installed in the chest, but I shot it once in the head and it went down." Hwoarang said.
"Sounds too easy." Le Carre said.
"Well, get down here and see it for yourself. Jin and I are headed to Roppongi. What have got for the school?" Hwoarang asked.
Hwoarang followed Jin to the car, waiting for Le Carre to respond. Jin hopped in the driver's side, while Hwoarang got in alongside him.
"Gavin?" Hwoarang asked.
"Yeah. Sorry about that, I just pulled up at the ATU. I have Adam tracking surveillance around the school, we'll be setting up a couple teams now that I'm here." Le Carre said.
"Ok. We'll call you as soon as we get something at Roppongi." Hwoarang said.
He hung up the phone. Taking a deep sigh, he closed his eyes and placed his head against the window of the door.
Jin had his window down, and the wind was blasting through the car. Aside from the cool air hitting his face, Hwoarang could smell something baking. He figured that they were close to a bakery, and the thought was warming. It had been a while since he took the time to remember the simple, enjoyable things that life had to offer. Jin glanced over at Hwoarang, who looked like he had finally just passed out. He couldn't help but worry about him, even if Hwoarang always wanted to get in a fight with him. He noticed the personality change yesterday, when they were in the courthouse after it was hit.
Hwoarang's personality was something you could easily describe. He was the type of person who only looked out for number one. If anybody got in the way of that, God help them. If he had a goal of any kind, there wouldn't be any way to stop him. If somebody did stop him, he wouldn't accept defeat. He would just try and possibly fail again.
The downside to that was that he never accepted failure, and doing so made him feel like he was God. His ego was so inflated that it had to burst eventually. Jin figured that must have been what happened. Whatever it was, he could tell it wasn't easy. He didn't want to ask about it at first. Jin knew what he went through with the devil gene, and he knew he wouldn't want people just coming out and asking how it felt. But damn it, there was just some burning desire to ask Hwoarang what happened.
"How you feeling?" Jin asked.
"How do you think I feel?" Hwoarang said.
Hwoarang had stayed in the same position, but replied as if he was fully awake.
"Look, I know you probably don't want people to constantly ask you about this, but..." Jin said.
"Then don't ask." Hwoarang interrupted.
"I'm just trying to help you. Something happened to you and it's been bugging me. You were the biggest asshole in the world a year ago, and now you're acting as if you really give a damn. What the hell happened to you?" Jin asked.
There was silence for a moment. Finally, Hwoarang opened his eyes and sat up. He yawned and tried to stretch, but the somewhat cramped confines of the car kept him from properly doing so.
"Julia wanted to know the exact same thing a couple hours ago." Hwoarang said.
Jin didn't say anything. Hwoarang took the silence in, feeling guilty for mentioning her.
"After the tournament, I went back to Korea. I found that everything that I left when I joined the army had disappeared. I couldn't find my father, not to mention my friends, and I went into hiding. Somehow, they found me. I don't know how, I covered my tracks. My guess is that they were tipped off. And what do I get besides being stabbed in the back? I get tortured. For ten months, Jin." Hwoarang said.
Jin looked at the road ahead of him in shock. He didn't know why the Korean army would do such a thing, especially to one of their own. But, his question of how Hwoarang's personality changed was answered.
Torture can bring changes to even the most radical individuals. Hwoarang's personality was considered extroverted, cocky, strong, and egotistical. One thing every soldier is told before they go into the field is that if they are caught and tortured, everyone will eventually break. It didn't matter how long you held on. Given time and the method used, everyone breaks.
There are only a handful of people in the world who can successfully withstand most torture. These people have had excessive training on it, and some people have such a deep psyche that they can just force their brain to go off into some self-created limbo. These people who can withstand torture are usually killed after the person submitting the torture realizes that they aren't getting anywhere.
Hwoarang was not one of these people. The subject was such a sore one for him. If he ever opened up to someone, he might admit that he broke. But now, no. He'd admit that he was tortured, yes. But that he actually begged them to stop? Never.
Hwoarang's memories were semi-fractured. There were a few lapses in his memory that he couldn't recall. It was a defensive mechanism of the brain. When a traumatic experience takes place, and the damage to the psyche is too powerful for it to handle, it will simply erase it. Like a repressed memory, the event is still buried in the part of the brain where long-term memory is kept, but in order to remember it, you would need serious psychological help.
To Hwoarang, the worst day of the torture was every day. He had the burrowing thought in his mind about why he was being treated like this. For three months, they hadn't told him. They just attacked him and tortured him until he passed out. Eventually they had told him the reason was because he was a disgrace to the country, and that he became an enemy when he attacked them back in the parking garage where he had his fight with Jin. The most troubling aspect of it was that they weren't torturing him for information; they were doing it because they wanted to make him suffer.
This was one of the worst weeks he could remember: He had already taken a serious beating from the "Giants" the day before. They were two twins that were a ballpark figure of around seven feet, and they were built like Arnold Schwarzenegger back in his "Pumping Iron" days. Their job was to constantly beat him every morning for about thirty minutes. After that, they would let him lie in his cell for about two more hours.
The hard part came every other day of the week at around one in the afternoon. The "Giants" would come in, drag him into another room within the small prison, tie his arms up to a chain hanging from the ceiling, strip him, then leave. That was all they were good for.
The next group to enter was an officer and about three other men in fatigues. At first, Hwoarang resisted and fought everything they tortured him with. But by about the fifth month, he was wearing thin.
They started him off by shocking him with an electric prod. That eventually moved to taking a scalpel and slowly cutting him in different places on his body, and when that was enough, they applied salt to the wounds. Then, they submitted him to what they described as "stretch therapy". They would tie up his arms and legs, and pull on him like a rope in a game of "Tug of War". After dislocating his shoulders and breaking his ankles, they brought him back to the electric prod.
When they started beating him again, he finally started to beg them to stop. They did, and they threw him back in his cell. From there, it wasn't physical anymore. It became psychological. They began starving him, and from time to time, they would also submit him to electroshock just for the hell of it. His mind and willpower had broken, and a new personality had begun to subconsciously form.
Three months later, he was taken out of the prison and he didn't know how to describe it. He wasn't rescued or anything like that, he was just simply dropped off at a hotel in downtown Seoul and taken from there. That was two months ago.
His mind raced back to the present when he saw the car coming up near the Roppongi building.
"We're here." Jin said.
Jin had parked the car about a block away on the street, and shut the car off. Hwoarang snatched the keys from Jin and began to get out the car.
"I'm sorry." Jin said.
Hwoarang ignored the comment and got out of the car.
6:10:33 - The doors to the medical center inside the ATU burst open. A gurney rolled into the center, a Combot lying on it. Rolling it in were three men, one of them Gavin Le Carre.
It was just after six in the morning and Gavin already knew it was going to be a busy day. Even after the events earlier that evening, the past few hours proved that he was going to be up for another twenty hours. He was willing to put money on it.
Gavin was the type of guy that everyone wished they could be when it came to the job. He was enthusiastic about it. He loved his job, and nothing about it made him frustrated. He could be staring down the barrel of a gun and still feel happy about what would have brought him to that point.
One year ago, he was named the head of the UN's Anti-Terrorist Unit. His service record with MI6 had proven that he was a man who didn't buckle under pressure and wasn't afraid to do anything, as long as it got the job done or was for the greater good. It was he who had found out about Hwoarang and decided to save him from the pressure of the Korean government.
The Koreans were a tough bunch. They had an odd sense of honor. Anyone who had turned their back on them could very well be considered an enemy. And in the end, who could blame them? They weren't exactly the most prosperous country in the world, and they were really just looking out for themselves.
When it came to Hwoarang, they had decided that he needed to be snapped into shape. They considered his personality and attitude reckless. He was a liability. So the torture was their way of making sure he would follow orders. If he didn't, he would surely have been killed. If matters had gone that way, nobody would have known that he was dead. They would have made sure of that.
Gavin had heard of him through some friends at MI6. Word had spread around the intelligence community that there was a soldier in Korea who was trying to defect and was captured before he could. It was a little far fetched from the truth. Hwoarang was just sick of being in the army, and he ended up attacking his superiors in Japan. It was only later when for some reason he went back to Korea that the army caught him. Gavin figured that it was his own damn fault, and one night, he got curious.
He was in Paris about five months ago, setting up a meeting with some VIP's from the UN. It was late, and he had been drinking. He was watching a thunderstorm live its course through a window in his hotel room. Somehow the story had come up in his thought process and he decided to act upon it. He made some calls, and eventually found out the truth. With some further investigation, he had tracked down the soldier's dossier.
Then, he was named the head of the UN's ATU. He accepted the position, but he still kept looking for Hwoarang. Once he had the first ATU branch set up, he began his search. It didn't take long to find him either. Within two weeks, he had contacted the Korean government and demanded his release. With some elbow grease, they agreed, only on one condition. They wanted to keep the situation under wraps. And that's what Gavin did.
He had Hwoarang relocated, and when the time came, he was going to give him a job. But then there was Wallace. Wallace needed someone in Tokyo, and Le Carre figured that Wallace would take care of the kid, not pull some stupid charade that would put him into the field. Hiring that man was a bad call. Gavin knew he would never make the same mistake again.
He was going to correct that with Hwoarang, and by tracking down Lee Chaolan and putting an end to this madness. Gavin hoped that this goddamned bot would help.
There was only one person in the building who could help describe these bots in good detail: Drake Matthews.
He was the only person who knew anything about robotics or the technology at hand. Right now, he was handcuffed to a chair inside one of the empty offices.
The bot was taken away by the two other agents, and Gavin walked into the office. There was another agent inside, acting as a guard in case Drake tried to escape.
Le Carre motioned for the agent to leave, and he waited till the man left before he said anything.
The two stared at each other for a moment, their eyes locked in a bitter struggle for social superiority. Le Carre eventually won, his gaze finally making Drake turn away.
"It's eating you alive, isn't it?" Le Carre asked.
Drake didn't respond, he continued to gaze around the room, purposely trying to not look at Gavin.
"It kills you to know that your father lied to you about his endgame." Le Carre said.
Gavin sat down in a chair that was next to him. His gaze never wavered away from Drake.
"And you know what I think? I think that you not only want revenge, but you'll do anything to make it happen." Le Carre said.
Drake continued to stare at the floor, and Gavin could tell he was trying to decide what to do. The man finally looked up at him; a mad, but defeated look was on his face.
"What do you want me to do?" Drake asked.
"There's something I need you to look at. In exchange, I'll tell you what your father's actually planning." Le Carre said.
Drake grinned. He could tell that Gavin was bullshitting.
"You need my help? You think I'm going to do that just because I'm mad at my father?" Drake said.
"I know you will. You want your father dead. And because your curiosity finally got the better of you." Le Carre said.
"What is it you need?" Drake asked.
"We have one of the Combots. We need you to tell us what it can do." Le Carre said. "And in exchange?" Drake asked.
"I'll tell you what your father is planning." Le Carre said.
"I want immunity as well." Drake said.
"You'll get it, but you will be relocated to a location that we decide." Le Carre said.
"Deal." Drake said.
Le Carre stood up and took a deep breath.
"You father has ten of these Combots. He's turned them into something that sounds like a bad sci-fi plot. Somehow, he's been able to put some type of skin on them, and now they look like human beings. They all happen to be fighters from the King of Iron Fist tournaments. One of them already chased Hwoarang. Lee plans on attacking a high school, as well as an apartment building. And the strange thing? He's made no demands. What do you think?" Le Carre asked.
"I do know one thing. He's holding one hell of a grudge against Hwoarang. And he'll be damned if anybody's going to stop him from rubbing it in that Korean bastard's face." Drake said.
6:17:44 – Jin never really looked at Hwoarang that much. The other man's ego was enough as it was. But as Jin walked with him towards the Roppongi building, he could notice that Hwoarang's build was smaller than it once was.
Before, Hwoarang was like everyone else when it came to training. He was fit, lean, and muscular. Now he was almost the exact opposite. It was obvious that he lost some weight. He had tried to train once about a month ago, but his ankles had begun to ache from when they broke months earlier.
His whole lifestyle had changed, and now it was slowly beginning to creep back into his life. The only difference was that Hwoarang himself had changed, and not necessarily for the better.
Jin almost missed the cocky side of the Korean. The fights with him were a major highlight for him at the last two tournaments. And the one thing Jin had to admit was the fact that Hwoarang had a right to be cocky. He was in fact very good, seeing as he lost to Hwoarang at the fourth tournament.
Up ahead, Jin could see the front doors of the building. The inside was still lit up; the timers for the morning were probably set to go off at a later time. Hwoarang was next to him and hadn't said a word since he got out of the car.
Hwoarang had gone to the trunk of the car and opened it. Inside there had been a shotgun and a couple Sig Sauer handguns. Hwoarang handed one to Jin without saying a word, and took the shotgun and the other pistol for himself.
The walk to the building was flooded with silence. Nobody spoke, but the looks from Jin were obvious. Hwoarang stared forward the whole time, focusing on what could go down inside. Jin, meanwhile, was staring at Hwoarang, studying him. There was something about him that intrigued Jin. It was the ability to go through a life-changing ordeal and still be able to quell the pain enough to get something done.
Now Hwoarang was crossing the driveway that was in front of the building, shotgun in hand. He grabbed the handle to the door.
6:24:00 – Lee Chaolan was exiting the security center inside the Roppongi Hills building when he saw the last person he expected to be walking through the front doors: Hwoarang Doo San.
He didn't have time to think about why he was here. The only thing he could do now is get out of the building and pray that the bots did their jobs. He had set the timers to go off in twenty minutes; he just hoped that that wasn't too much time.
Lee hugged a wall that was out of view from the front doors. He could hear Hwoarang barking an order, which Lee could tell by the sound level of his voice, that he was headed that way.
He looked at the floor and could see Hwoarang's shadow coming up on the corner. Lee started running away, his feet hitting the ground so softly that you wouldn't even hear it. Taking the first turn that he could, Lee prayed that an emergency exit was nearby. After being in the security center, Lee disabled the alarm systems. So if he opened one of the exit doors, he wouldn't have to worry about an alarm going off, which could cause everyone in the building to evacuate.
Lee continued to run down the hall, taking the twists and turns it provided him, as long as it kept him away from the lobby. He knew that an exit would be nearby; he just had to look for it. So far, there had been nothing but large windows and apartment doors.
But finally, at the end of one remote hallway was an exit door. Lee ran through it, the alarm not going off.
6:27:46 – Hwoarang stood inside the security center of the building. The same place that Lee was in not more than ten minutes prior. He looked at the body of the guard on the floor and then at the monitors. Jin came in behind him and tapped him on the shoulder.
"Hwoarang." Jin said.
"What." He said. "I just checked the computer. Whoever was using it forgot to log out." Jin said.
"How did find that out?" Hwoarang asked.
"There's a piece of paper stuck to the desk out there. It's telling each user to log out before leaving the terminal." Jin said.
"Any idea when it was last used?" Hwoarang said.
"Well, if it was this guy? He used it within the past ten minutes. I can smell cologne." Jin said.
Hwoarang bent down in front of the guy. He didn't want to have to do this, but he had to be sure. He put his face about an inch away from touching the guy's neck. Taking a whiff, he could tell the man wasn't wearing anything to make him smell good. Hwoarang stood up.
"This guy's not wearing any. What did it smell like?" he asked.
"Expensive. Musky. Arousing. Something you'd find on a guy who's trying to pick up chicks." Jin said.
"Damn. He was here. Lee must have seen us come in. We got to find those bots." Hwoarang said.
The wall behind Hwoarang was filled with black and white TV monitors. The room looked like the control room for a TV station. There had to be at least thirty monitors on the wall. Hwoarang looked deep in though, but Jin's attention was already on a monitor.
"I think I found one." Jin said.
Hwoarang turned around to look at the monitors. His eyes darted around. He obviously was not finding the one Jin was looking at. Jin finally pointed to it, and Hwoarang could see it right away. On the monitor was Forrest Law, strangling a man outside of his apartment. The man slumped to the ground, and Forrest entered the apartment.
"Jesus." Jin said.
Hwoarang looked at the tag on the monitor, reading it aloud.
"35th floor, southwest corridor." He said.
Looking at the monitor again, he could read the number on the door. It said 3519.
"There!" Jin exclaimed.
He had pointed to another monitor, this time it showed the basement. Hwoarang took a look at it, and sure enough, Jin was right. He sure had a good eye for this sort of thing.
On the screen, Marshall Law was walking down a dimly lit corridor. The monitor's tag said: "Basement – Water Pump Facility – North Side".
"Start looking for a map." Hwoarang said.
"Right here." Jin said.
Hwoarang turned around. Jin was back out at the computer, hastily typing at the keyboard. Hwoarang walked over to the screen. It showed the various programs that were already open and one of them was a mapping program. Lee hadn't closed them before he left. The map showed precisely where they would need to go in order to find Marshall.
"I knew you were good for something." Hwoarang said, patting Jin on the back.
"Hey!" Jin said, offended.
Hwoarang began walking away from the security center. He was heading towards the elevator.
"Where are you going?" Jin asked.
"I'm going to take care of Forrest; you take an elevator down to the basement and get Marshall. I'm sure you of all people can handle him." Hwoarang said.
"Bastard." Jin muttered under his breath.
"I heard that, asshole." Hwoarang said, getting in the elevator.
6:32:29 – Ling Xiaoyu was a girl that always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. This situation was just another one of them. But she was also a girl with plenty of secrets.
Four years ago, she was approached by the CIA to be an informant. Her father was American, her mother Japanese. She didn't have any reason to say no, so she said yes.
But then things got out of control. First they asked her to keep tabs on some random guy. She never found out anything about him, only that one day he disappeared and she was given a new assignment. It seemed that every time this happened, it became harder to track the new assignment. Then one day, shortly after the third tournament, she was told to do something completely different.
Her new assignment was Hwoarang Doo San. She knew he would be in Korea, and with her in Japan, it wasn't going to be easy. She moved to Korea within weeks, and soon after, found herself trying to get into Hwoarang's group.
It wasn't exactly easy. She wasn't even anything like him. She didn't like hard rock music, she didn't like to get randomly drunk and get into fights just for the hell of it. Hwoarang, at the time, was really a wild child from hell. He was uncontrollable. The only way to really make him listen was to beat him in a fight, and more times than not, that was easier said than done.
There was one thing about him that she would never easily admit: There was something about him that was strangely attractive. It wasn't anything physical. If it was something like that, it was probably something any woman would admit to like it was an addiction. He was well built, had boyish looks, and was quite the rebel. In other words: Hot. Maybe she was infatuated, or maybe just horny, she couldn't really tell anymore. After watching him for four months, it was kind of becoming a bit of an obsession.
But, she was supposed to keep tabs on him, and that's what she was doing. The CIA never told her what they wanted with him, and that was the only thing that worried her.
She eventually approached him, and he wasn't shocked, suspicious, or even curious. In fact, he welcomed her with open arms. And a lot of that was also because he was drunk off his ass at the time. That was the first mistake she made with him.
She became drunk as well, and she didn't realize how out of control she was until the next morning, when she woke up. Naked. Next to Hwoarang. Who was also naked. She still remembered the blood-curling scream she let out when she realized what happened.
The relationship after that had blossomed into a bit of a friendship, and most of the other guys looked at her as the person who brought Hwoarang back down to earth. She felt bad about it, seeing as he was only the job.
Then Hwoarang got drafted, and from there, the CIA pulled her off the case. Well, that was the official story. Unofficially, she was to stay with the gang, and follow them anywhere. She did, and their arrival in Japan allowed her to compete in the fourth tournament.
Well, last night was the big night. Her contact in the CIA informed her of her true mission, and how to take care of the objectives.
The only thing she never saw coming was Hwoarang's return. She had no clue what had happened to him after the fourth tournament.
It was the past days events that told her that she didn't want anything more to do with the CIA. Being kidnapped, tied up, and held hostage wasn't her idea of doing a job. She swore that the minute she got out, if she got out at all, she would turn in her resignation. Right now, she was gagged and handcuffed, sitting up against an old brick wall inside an old prison. By the looks of the place, the building was probably scheduled to be bulldozed.
She didn't know why she was here, but she figured it had something to do with Drake. That is, if Hwoarang actually got the bastard. For the past four hours, she had been sitting there in the cell.
She had seen some guy in a suit running about, constantly checking on her. He never said anything. So far, other than the guards, he was the only other person she had seen so far.
For the past hour, it had been quiet. But then an explosion came in front of her cell, the wall blasting forward. When the dust settled, she could see that the guards were down, and a familiar face stood in the now gaping hole in front of her cell: Kazuya Mishima.
6:36:44 – Hwoarang stepped off the elevator. The 35th floor was the first floor where the apartments actually started to get bigger the further you went up. Meaning, the rooms on the next floor were bigger than the ones on this floor. Hwoarang read the signs on the wall. There were twenty apartments on this floor, down from the normal thirty. Ten apartments were on one side, the other ten on the other side.
The apartment in question was 3519. It was on the south side of the floor, and Hwoarang didn't know what to expect once he was inside. He was always trained to expect the unexpected, but after everything that had happened today, how could you apply that phrase? Cyborgs, gunfights, car chases, double-crosses, viruses, and a fight that should have resulted in Hwoarang's death were not unexpected, they weren't even plausible!
How did Hwoarang survive his fight with Chen? That was one question he wanted the answer to. A week ago, he tried to practice some different moves in the hotel room he was placed in, but his ankle was still bugging him. Today, he delivered moves that should have hurt like hell delivering them. He couldn't explain it and now surely wasn't a time to dwell on it.
He pumped the shotgun in his hand as he approached the apartment. The thoughts in his head subsided, and his mind was starting to run on adrenaline again. He aimed the shotgun at the handle, and pulled the trigger. The shot cut through the wooden door, the latch blasted to smithereens. He pumped the shotgun, the empty shell ejecting, allowing for a fresh one to enter the barrel.
Hwoarang pushed the door open with the gun. The only noise that could be heard was that of other people opening their doors to see what the hell the noise was. He aimed the shotgun in front of him.
The doorway led into the living room. The far wall opposite the door was a huge glass window, which led down to the street below. Upon entering the room, he could see out of the corner of his eyes that there were rooms off to the left and the right. And then he turned right.
A foot came smacking into his face. The blow had fazed him and Hwoarang started staggering backwards, dropping the shotgun. The attacker then grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and threw him into a glass table five feet away.
Hwoarang went into the table shoulder first, his head banging into one of the legs of the table. The bad part about it was that it was made of metal. The leg cut him deeply enough to cause a good amount of bleeding, but it wasn't anything too serious. But the attack all together had made him woozy. He began to groan.
The attacker was of course, Forrest Law. The bot that had taken his identity had been waiting for someone to stop its progress. It was in the bot's programming to fight back. And now, it was slowly walking towards an unconscious Hwoarang, who was lying on his stomach in the middle of a broken table.
The bot didn't know if its victim was dead or not, and it had to be sure. It walked up next to him and picked up a big shard of glass. Hwoarang still wasn't moving.
It raised the shard, and that's when he made his move. Hwoarang suddenly pulled out his Sig Sauer and fired six shots into the bot's stomach. The bot faltered back, and Hwoarang re-aimed, this time for the head. He fired four more shots into the head. The slide of the gun locked back, the clip emptied. The bot fell back into a couch, smoke coming out of its mouth.
Hwoarang got up off the table, careful as to not cut himself on the broken glass. Blood had begun to slowly pour down the right side of his face and off his chin. With his free hand he applied pressure to the wound, which hurt like hell.
"Hwoarang!" Jin said.
Jin appeared in the doorway. Hwoarang was relieved. Not about seeing Jin, but about the fact that the other bot must have been taken care of.
"Jesus Christ. You need a doctor." Jin said.
"I'm fine. What about Marshall?" Hwoarang asked.
"I took care of it. I shot it in the head and it didn't move after that." Jin said.
"It didn't attack you?" Hwoarang asked.
"I don't think it even saw me." Jin said.
"You're lucky."
6:43:12 – Lee Chaolan was sitting in a car across the street from his next target: Jin's high school. The choice was a deliberate one. It was meant to piss him off. Kazama was just another thorn in his side and now he was going to make him mad. He had no reason, but the choice was looking promising.
He would have the Jin bot infiltrate the school, since Jin was once a student. The bot would hide somewhere in the building, probably somewhere near the air conditioner or a bathroom. If anyone noticed him, the bot would take them out. The timers had been set and Lee couldn't change them. He was being forced to change his timetable. He was hitting himself for giving the bots too much time. And in a situation like this, failure was no option for him.
His phone rang. Fear took him over as he looked at the caller ID and recognized the number. Afraid, he picked up the phone.
"Yes." He said.
"Is it done?" a man asked.
"I'm working on it. I'm watching the school, but the bots at Roppongi and at the house may have been compromised." Lee said.
There was silence.
"Do you know why I killed Nina?" the man said.
Lee didn't respond, but the cold, twisted tone of the other man's voice made Lee shiver.
"I killed her to remind you. She failed to take care of Doo San, so I took care of her. If you don't do as you're told. Well, you know what will happen." He said.
"Yes, sir." Lee said.
"I want the virus released by 11. The stadium hit must go flawlessly. If the school is all you can hit, then you are as worthless as Nina." He said.
The man hung up.
Lee put the phone down, and stared at the school across the street. He was worried.
6:47:20 – Hwoarang and Jin were walking out of the apartment building. Once again, Hwoarang's arms were full. He had a towel in one hand, holding it against the wound on his head. In the other hand was a cell phone, where he was talking to Adam.
"No. The virus wasn't released." He said. "I'll have a containment team sent over to collect the bots." Adam said.
"Yeah. Where's Le Carre?" Hwoarang asked.
"He's on his way to the school. I can patch him through if you want." Adam said.
"No. Listen, did he tell you about Len?" he asked.
"Yeah. I've got people working on trying to find his location now. So far, we haven't been able to find anything." Adam said.
The line beeped.
"Hold on, Adam." Hwoarang said.
Hwoarang looked at the display on his phone. He recognized the number. It was Len.
"Adam! It's Len on the other line, how much time do you need for a trace?" Hwoarang asked.
"If he's inside the city, it'll take one minute." Adam said.
"Ok. I'm patching him through." Hwoarang said.
"My side's muted." Adam said.
The line clicked.
"Hwoarang, you son of a bitch!" Len screamed into the line.
"What?" Hwoarang asked.
"You think you can just attack me like this when I have a hostage?" Len asked.
"Wait. What happened?" he asked.
"Don't play dumb with me you fuck! You found out where I was and you tried to get your girl back." Len said.
"Did you kill her?" Hwoarang asked.
"No. But if you try anything like that again, I'll make sure she gets it right between the eyes." Len said.
Hwoarang paused, thinking and stalling at the same time.
"What do you want me to do?" he asked.
"The same as before: I want Lee Chaolan dead. But this time, I'm going to make sure you do it. You have one hour to kill him. I will call you, and if he isn't dead then, Ling will be dead. Understand?" Len said.
Hwoarang paused again.
"Understand?!" Len screamed.
"Yes." Hwoarang said.
"Good." Len said.
Len hung up.
"He's off." Hwoarang said.
"I got it." Adam said.
"Where is that son of a bitch?" he asked.
"It's an old prison about ten minutes north. You in Le Carre's car?" Adam asked.
"Yeah." He said.
"I'm sending the directions to the GPS." Adam said.
"Great. I'll let you know when we get there." Hwoarang said.
6:51:57 – Le Carre was getting out of his car and walking towards the school. It was nearly seven in the morning and most of the students were already arriving. The big problem was going to be containing the students without causing a riot.
The first person he needed to talk to was the principal. Whoever it was, they would be the one person the students listen to.
The campus had nearly a hundred students on it, most of them talking with friends outside the main building. Le Carre and three other agents walked into the main building.
He had called ahead and as soon as they entered, the principal was waiting for them. She was in her mid-thirties and very attractive. He approached her and was planning on making this as quick and painless as possible.
"I'm Gavin Le Carre, head of the ATU. Ms.?" He said.
"Kaneshiro." She said.
"Ms. Kaneshiro. I don't want to alarm your students, but we need to move all of your students into the auditorium, and as soon as possible." He said.
"What is this about?" she asked.
Le Carre pulled her off to the side, away from the students that were entering the building.
"There is the possibility that one of your students is planning on releasing a virus into the population." He said.
She stared at him, bewildered.
6:54:46 – The car pulled up behind the prison, and Hwoarang quickly got out. He had his Sig Sauer in his hand, and he was ready to use it. Jin stayed in the car.
"Go." Hwoarang said.
"What?" Jin asked.
Hwoarang stuck his head into the window of the passenger's door.
"Go. Le Carre should be at the school now. He could use your help." Hwoarang said.
"But what about you?" Jin asked.
"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine." Hwoarang said.
"You sure?" Jin asked.
"Yes! Get out of here!" Hwoarang yelled.
Jin drove off, and Hwoarang walked towards the prison. The front door was padlocked. Hwoarang shot it off, and he opened the door. The front hall was musky, the dust lingering in the sunlight.
"Len!" he screamed.
Hwoarang could hear footsteps running down another hallway. He followed the noise down multiple hallways, and eventually came out in the area where the cells were. Off towards the end of the hall, he could see a gaping hole in the wall. And that's when he saw Len.
Len was standing in front of Ling, gun in hand. He flicked the safety off. Just as he pointed the gun to Ling's head, he felt the barrel of a gun touch his left temple.
"Drop the gun." Hwoarang said.
"You first." Len said.
Hwoarang didn't do anything. Len looked at him and smiled. He thought he was in control.
A shot rang off, and Len fell to the ground in front of Ling. Hwoarang had shot him in the head. He didn't care for him, and Ling in the end, as heartless as it sounded, was expendable.
Hwoarang set his gun on the ground and hugged Ling, who was tied and gagged.
"I'm here." He said.
He undid her handcuffs and released the gag. But she never returned the hug. In fact, she wasn't even doing anything. But she was alive, her eyes were open. Hwoarang stared at her, dumbfounded.
Ling then raised her arms and began to choke him. She pushed him up against the wall. He was beginning to lose breath; the thought of Ling killing him filled his mind. He finally got his feet up and pushed off her chest. She went flying to the floor.
Hwoarang quickly scrambled for his gun, which was lying on the floor. He got a handhold on it, and Ling tackled him to the ground. Hwoarang raised the gun and a shot rang out. He had shot her in the face.
Her body fell to the ground. He tried to sit up, shocked at what just happened.
6:59:57... 6:59:58... 6:59:59... 7:00:00...
Disclaimer: Don't own "24" or "Tekken".
The following takes place between 6:00 am and 7:00 am.
Events occur in real time.
6:00:00- Hwoarang and Jin ran up the stairs of the empty subway station. The sun poured down the steps, right into their eyes. The warmth of the UV rays hit them, and it actually felt good to Hwoarang. The thought didn't go any further than that, as he was on the phone.
"Gavin, I need you to send a Hazmat team over here. We have one bot down." He said.
"How?" Le Carre asked.
"I shot it with a gun I got from the conductor."
".44?" Le Carre asked.
"No. .357, but I'm sure .44 would work too. I figured the CPU would have been installed in the chest, but I shot it once in the head and it went down." Hwoarang said.
"Sounds too easy." Le Carre said.
"Well, get down here and see it for yourself. Jin and I are headed to Roppongi. What have got for the school?" Hwoarang asked.
Hwoarang followed Jin to the car, waiting for Le Carre to respond. Jin hopped in the driver's side, while Hwoarang got in alongside him.
"Gavin?" Hwoarang asked.
"Yeah. Sorry about that, I just pulled up at the ATU. I have Adam tracking surveillance around the school, we'll be setting up a couple teams now that I'm here." Le Carre said.
"Ok. We'll call you as soon as we get something at Roppongi." Hwoarang said.
He hung up the phone. Taking a deep sigh, he closed his eyes and placed his head against the window of the door.
Jin had his window down, and the wind was blasting through the car. Aside from the cool air hitting his face, Hwoarang could smell something baking. He figured that they were close to a bakery, and the thought was warming. It had been a while since he took the time to remember the simple, enjoyable things that life had to offer. Jin glanced over at Hwoarang, who looked like he had finally just passed out. He couldn't help but worry about him, even if Hwoarang always wanted to get in a fight with him. He noticed the personality change yesterday, when they were in the courthouse after it was hit.
Hwoarang's personality was something you could easily describe. He was the type of person who only looked out for number one. If anybody got in the way of that, God help them. If he had a goal of any kind, there wouldn't be any way to stop him. If somebody did stop him, he wouldn't accept defeat. He would just try and possibly fail again.
The downside to that was that he never accepted failure, and doing so made him feel like he was God. His ego was so inflated that it had to burst eventually. Jin figured that must have been what happened. Whatever it was, he could tell it wasn't easy. He didn't want to ask about it at first. Jin knew what he went through with the devil gene, and he knew he wouldn't want people just coming out and asking how it felt. But damn it, there was just some burning desire to ask Hwoarang what happened.
"How you feeling?" Jin asked.
"How do you think I feel?" Hwoarang said.
Hwoarang had stayed in the same position, but replied as if he was fully awake.
"Look, I know you probably don't want people to constantly ask you about this, but..." Jin said.
"Then don't ask." Hwoarang interrupted.
"I'm just trying to help you. Something happened to you and it's been bugging me. You were the biggest asshole in the world a year ago, and now you're acting as if you really give a damn. What the hell happened to you?" Jin asked.
There was silence for a moment. Finally, Hwoarang opened his eyes and sat up. He yawned and tried to stretch, but the somewhat cramped confines of the car kept him from properly doing so.
"Julia wanted to know the exact same thing a couple hours ago." Hwoarang said.
Jin didn't say anything. Hwoarang took the silence in, feeling guilty for mentioning her.
"After the tournament, I went back to Korea. I found that everything that I left when I joined the army had disappeared. I couldn't find my father, not to mention my friends, and I went into hiding. Somehow, they found me. I don't know how, I covered my tracks. My guess is that they were tipped off. And what do I get besides being stabbed in the back? I get tortured. For ten months, Jin." Hwoarang said.
Jin looked at the road ahead of him in shock. He didn't know why the Korean army would do such a thing, especially to one of their own. But, his question of how Hwoarang's personality changed was answered.
Torture can bring changes to even the most radical individuals. Hwoarang's personality was considered extroverted, cocky, strong, and egotistical. One thing every soldier is told before they go into the field is that if they are caught and tortured, everyone will eventually break. It didn't matter how long you held on. Given time and the method used, everyone breaks.
There are only a handful of people in the world who can successfully withstand most torture. These people have had excessive training on it, and some people have such a deep psyche that they can just force their brain to go off into some self-created limbo. These people who can withstand torture are usually killed after the person submitting the torture realizes that they aren't getting anywhere.
Hwoarang was not one of these people. The subject was such a sore one for him. If he ever opened up to someone, he might admit that he broke. But now, no. He'd admit that he was tortured, yes. But that he actually begged them to stop? Never.
Hwoarang's memories were semi-fractured. There were a few lapses in his memory that he couldn't recall. It was a defensive mechanism of the brain. When a traumatic experience takes place, and the damage to the psyche is too powerful for it to handle, it will simply erase it. Like a repressed memory, the event is still buried in the part of the brain where long-term memory is kept, but in order to remember it, you would need serious psychological help.
To Hwoarang, the worst day of the torture was every day. He had the burrowing thought in his mind about why he was being treated like this. For three months, they hadn't told him. They just attacked him and tortured him until he passed out. Eventually they had told him the reason was because he was a disgrace to the country, and that he became an enemy when he attacked them back in the parking garage where he had his fight with Jin. The most troubling aspect of it was that they weren't torturing him for information; they were doing it because they wanted to make him suffer.
This was one of the worst weeks he could remember: He had already taken a serious beating from the "Giants" the day before. They were two twins that were a ballpark figure of around seven feet, and they were built like Arnold Schwarzenegger back in his "Pumping Iron" days. Their job was to constantly beat him every morning for about thirty minutes. After that, they would let him lie in his cell for about two more hours.
The hard part came every other day of the week at around one in the afternoon. The "Giants" would come in, drag him into another room within the small prison, tie his arms up to a chain hanging from the ceiling, strip him, then leave. That was all they were good for.
The next group to enter was an officer and about three other men in fatigues. At first, Hwoarang resisted and fought everything they tortured him with. But by about the fifth month, he was wearing thin.
They started him off by shocking him with an electric prod. That eventually moved to taking a scalpel and slowly cutting him in different places on his body, and when that was enough, they applied salt to the wounds. Then, they submitted him to what they described as "stretch therapy". They would tie up his arms and legs, and pull on him like a rope in a game of "Tug of War". After dislocating his shoulders and breaking his ankles, they brought him back to the electric prod.
When they started beating him again, he finally started to beg them to stop. They did, and they threw him back in his cell. From there, it wasn't physical anymore. It became psychological. They began starving him, and from time to time, they would also submit him to electroshock just for the hell of it. His mind and willpower had broken, and a new personality had begun to subconsciously form.
Three months later, he was taken out of the prison and he didn't know how to describe it. He wasn't rescued or anything like that, he was just simply dropped off at a hotel in downtown Seoul and taken from there. That was two months ago.
His mind raced back to the present when he saw the car coming up near the Roppongi building.
"We're here." Jin said.
Jin had parked the car about a block away on the street, and shut the car off. Hwoarang snatched the keys from Jin and began to get out the car.
"I'm sorry." Jin said.
Hwoarang ignored the comment and got out of the car.
6:10:33 - The doors to the medical center inside the ATU burst open. A gurney rolled into the center, a Combot lying on it. Rolling it in were three men, one of them Gavin Le Carre.
It was just after six in the morning and Gavin already knew it was going to be a busy day. Even after the events earlier that evening, the past few hours proved that he was going to be up for another twenty hours. He was willing to put money on it.
Gavin was the type of guy that everyone wished they could be when it came to the job. He was enthusiastic about it. He loved his job, and nothing about it made him frustrated. He could be staring down the barrel of a gun and still feel happy about what would have brought him to that point.
One year ago, he was named the head of the UN's Anti-Terrorist Unit. His service record with MI6 had proven that he was a man who didn't buckle under pressure and wasn't afraid to do anything, as long as it got the job done or was for the greater good. It was he who had found out about Hwoarang and decided to save him from the pressure of the Korean government.
The Koreans were a tough bunch. They had an odd sense of honor. Anyone who had turned their back on them could very well be considered an enemy. And in the end, who could blame them? They weren't exactly the most prosperous country in the world, and they were really just looking out for themselves.
When it came to Hwoarang, they had decided that he needed to be snapped into shape. They considered his personality and attitude reckless. He was a liability. So the torture was their way of making sure he would follow orders. If he didn't, he would surely have been killed. If matters had gone that way, nobody would have known that he was dead. They would have made sure of that.
Gavin had heard of him through some friends at MI6. Word had spread around the intelligence community that there was a soldier in Korea who was trying to defect and was captured before he could. It was a little far fetched from the truth. Hwoarang was just sick of being in the army, and he ended up attacking his superiors in Japan. It was only later when for some reason he went back to Korea that the army caught him. Gavin figured that it was his own damn fault, and one night, he got curious.
He was in Paris about five months ago, setting up a meeting with some VIP's from the UN. It was late, and he had been drinking. He was watching a thunderstorm live its course through a window in his hotel room. Somehow the story had come up in his thought process and he decided to act upon it. He made some calls, and eventually found out the truth. With some further investigation, he had tracked down the soldier's dossier.
Then, he was named the head of the UN's ATU. He accepted the position, but he still kept looking for Hwoarang. Once he had the first ATU branch set up, he began his search. It didn't take long to find him either. Within two weeks, he had contacted the Korean government and demanded his release. With some elbow grease, they agreed, only on one condition. They wanted to keep the situation under wraps. And that's what Gavin did.
He had Hwoarang relocated, and when the time came, he was going to give him a job. But then there was Wallace. Wallace needed someone in Tokyo, and Le Carre figured that Wallace would take care of the kid, not pull some stupid charade that would put him into the field. Hiring that man was a bad call. Gavin knew he would never make the same mistake again.
He was going to correct that with Hwoarang, and by tracking down Lee Chaolan and putting an end to this madness. Gavin hoped that this goddamned bot would help.
There was only one person in the building who could help describe these bots in good detail: Drake Matthews.
He was the only person who knew anything about robotics or the technology at hand. Right now, he was handcuffed to a chair inside one of the empty offices.
The bot was taken away by the two other agents, and Gavin walked into the office. There was another agent inside, acting as a guard in case Drake tried to escape.
Le Carre motioned for the agent to leave, and he waited till the man left before he said anything.
The two stared at each other for a moment, their eyes locked in a bitter struggle for social superiority. Le Carre eventually won, his gaze finally making Drake turn away.
"It's eating you alive, isn't it?" Le Carre asked.
Drake didn't respond, he continued to gaze around the room, purposely trying to not look at Gavin.
"It kills you to know that your father lied to you about his endgame." Le Carre said.
Gavin sat down in a chair that was next to him. His gaze never wavered away from Drake.
"And you know what I think? I think that you not only want revenge, but you'll do anything to make it happen." Le Carre said.
Drake continued to stare at the floor, and Gavin could tell he was trying to decide what to do. The man finally looked up at him; a mad, but defeated look was on his face.
"What do you want me to do?" Drake asked.
"There's something I need you to look at. In exchange, I'll tell you what your father's actually planning." Le Carre said.
Drake grinned. He could tell that Gavin was bullshitting.
"You need my help? You think I'm going to do that just because I'm mad at my father?" Drake said.
"I know you will. You want your father dead. And because your curiosity finally got the better of you." Le Carre said.
"What is it you need?" Drake asked.
"We have one of the Combots. We need you to tell us what it can do." Le Carre said. "And in exchange?" Drake asked.
"I'll tell you what your father is planning." Le Carre said.
"I want immunity as well." Drake said.
"You'll get it, but you will be relocated to a location that we decide." Le Carre said.
"Deal." Drake said.
Le Carre stood up and took a deep breath.
"You father has ten of these Combots. He's turned them into something that sounds like a bad sci-fi plot. Somehow, he's been able to put some type of skin on them, and now they look like human beings. They all happen to be fighters from the King of Iron Fist tournaments. One of them already chased Hwoarang. Lee plans on attacking a high school, as well as an apartment building. And the strange thing? He's made no demands. What do you think?" Le Carre asked.
"I do know one thing. He's holding one hell of a grudge against Hwoarang. And he'll be damned if anybody's going to stop him from rubbing it in that Korean bastard's face." Drake said.
6:17:44 – Jin never really looked at Hwoarang that much. The other man's ego was enough as it was. But as Jin walked with him towards the Roppongi building, he could notice that Hwoarang's build was smaller than it once was.
Before, Hwoarang was like everyone else when it came to training. He was fit, lean, and muscular. Now he was almost the exact opposite. It was obvious that he lost some weight. He had tried to train once about a month ago, but his ankles had begun to ache from when they broke months earlier.
His whole lifestyle had changed, and now it was slowly beginning to creep back into his life. The only difference was that Hwoarang himself had changed, and not necessarily for the better.
Jin almost missed the cocky side of the Korean. The fights with him were a major highlight for him at the last two tournaments. And the one thing Jin had to admit was the fact that Hwoarang had a right to be cocky. He was in fact very good, seeing as he lost to Hwoarang at the fourth tournament.
Up ahead, Jin could see the front doors of the building. The inside was still lit up; the timers for the morning were probably set to go off at a later time. Hwoarang was next to him and hadn't said a word since he got out of the car.
Hwoarang had gone to the trunk of the car and opened it. Inside there had been a shotgun and a couple Sig Sauer handguns. Hwoarang handed one to Jin without saying a word, and took the shotgun and the other pistol for himself.
The walk to the building was flooded with silence. Nobody spoke, but the looks from Jin were obvious. Hwoarang stared forward the whole time, focusing on what could go down inside. Jin, meanwhile, was staring at Hwoarang, studying him. There was something about him that intrigued Jin. It was the ability to go through a life-changing ordeal and still be able to quell the pain enough to get something done.
Now Hwoarang was crossing the driveway that was in front of the building, shotgun in hand. He grabbed the handle to the door.
6:24:00 – Lee Chaolan was exiting the security center inside the Roppongi Hills building when he saw the last person he expected to be walking through the front doors: Hwoarang Doo San.
He didn't have time to think about why he was here. The only thing he could do now is get out of the building and pray that the bots did their jobs. He had set the timers to go off in twenty minutes; he just hoped that that wasn't too much time.
Lee hugged a wall that was out of view from the front doors. He could hear Hwoarang barking an order, which Lee could tell by the sound level of his voice, that he was headed that way.
He looked at the floor and could see Hwoarang's shadow coming up on the corner. Lee started running away, his feet hitting the ground so softly that you wouldn't even hear it. Taking the first turn that he could, Lee prayed that an emergency exit was nearby. After being in the security center, Lee disabled the alarm systems. So if he opened one of the exit doors, he wouldn't have to worry about an alarm going off, which could cause everyone in the building to evacuate.
Lee continued to run down the hall, taking the twists and turns it provided him, as long as it kept him away from the lobby. He knew that an exit would be nearby; he just had to look for it. So far, there had been nothing but large windows and apartment doors.
But finally, at the end of one remote hallway was an exit door. Lee ran through it, the alarm not going off.
6:27:46 – Hwoarang stood inside the security center of the building. The same place that Lee was in not more than ten minutes prior. He looked at the body of the guard on the floor and then at the monitors. Jin came in behind him and tapped him on the shoulder.
"Hwoarang." Jin said.
"What." He said. "I just checked the computer. Whoever was using it forgot to log out." Jin said.
"How did find that out?" Hwoarang asked.
"There's a piece of paper stuck to the desk out there. It's telling each user to log out before leaving the terminal." Jin said.
"Any idea when it was last used?" Hwoarang said.
"Well, if it was this guy? He used it within the past ten minutes. I can smell cologne." Jin said.
Hwoarang bent down in front of the guy. He didn't want to have to do this, but he had to be sure. He put his face about an inch away from touching the guy's neck. Taking a whiff, he could tell the man wasn't wearing anything to make him smell good. Hwoarang stood up.
"This guy's not wearing any. What did it smell like?" he asked.
"Expensive. Musky. Arousing. Something you'd find on a guy who's trying to pick up chicks." Jin said.
"Damn. He was here. Lee must have seen us come in. We got to find those bots." Hwoarang said.
The wall behind Hwoarang was filled with black and white TV monitors. The room looked like the control room for a TV station. There had to be at least thirty monitors on the wall. Hwoarang looked deep in though, but Jin's attention was already on a monitor.
"I think I found one." Jin said.
Hwoarang turned around to look at the monitors. His eyes darted around. He obviously was not finding the one Jin was looking at. Jin finally pointed to it, and Hwoarang could see it right away. On the monitor was Forrest Law, strangling a man outside of his apartment. The man slumped to the ground, and Forrest entered the apartment.
"Jesus." Jin said.
Hwoarang looked at the tag on the monitor, reading it aloud.
"35th floor, southwest corridor." He said.
Looking at the monitor again, he could read the number on the door. It said 3519.
"There!" Jin exclaimed.
He had pointed to another monitor, this time it showed the basement. Hwoarang took a look at it, and sure enough, Jin was right. He sure had a good eye for this sort of thing.
On the screen, Marshall Law was walking down a dimly lit corridor. The monitor's tag said: "Basement – Water Pump Facility – North Side".
"Start looking for a map." Hwoarang said.
"Right here." Jin said.
Hwoarang turned around. Jin was back out at the computer, hastily typing at the keyboard. Hwoarang walked over to the screen. It showed the various programs that were already open and one of them was a mapping program. Lee hadn't closed them before he left. The map showed precisely where they would need to go in order to find Marshall.
"I knew you were good for something." Hwoarang said, patting Jin on the back.
"Hey!" Jin said, offended.
Hwoarang began walking away from the security center. He was heading towards the elevator.
"Where are you going?" Jin asked.
"I'm going to take care of Forrest; you take an elevator down to the basement and get Marshall. I'm sure you of all people can handle him." Hwoarang said.
"Bastard." Jin muttered under his breath.
"I heard that, asshole." Hwoarang said, getting in the elevator.
6:32:29 – Ling Xiaoyu was a girl that always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. This situation was just another one of them. But she was also a girl with plenty of secrets.
Four years ago, she was approached by the CIA to be an informant. Her father was American, her mother Japanese. She didn't have any reason to say no, so she said yes.
But then things got out of control. First they asked her to keep tabs on some random guy. She never found out anything about him, only that one day he disappeared and she was given a new assignment. It seemed that every time this happened, it became harder to track the new assignment. Then one day, shortly after the third tournament, she was told to do something completely different.
Her new assignment was Hwoarang Doo San. She knew he would be in Korea, and with her in Japan, it wasn't going to be easy. She moved to Korea within weeks, and soon after, found herself trying to get into Hwoarang's group.
It wasn't exactly easy. She wasn't even anything like him. She didn't like hard rock music, she didn't like to get randomly drunk and get into fights just for the hell of it. Hwoarang, at the time, was really a wild child from hell. He was uncontrollable. The only way to really make him listen was to beat him in a fight, and more times than not, that was easier said than done.
There was one thing about him that she would never easily admit: There was something about him that was strangely attractive. It wasn't anything physical. If it was something like that, it was probably something any woman would admit to like it was an addiction. He was well built, had boyish looks, and was quite the rebel. In other words: Hot. Maybe she was infatuated, or maybe just horny, she couldn't really tell anymore. After watching him for four months, it was kind of becoming a bit of an obsession.
But, she was supposed to keep tabs on him, and that's what she was doing. The CIA never told her what they wanted with him, and that was the only thing that worried her.
She eventually approached him, and he wasn't shocked, suspicious, or even curious. In fact, he welcomed her with open arms. And a lot of that was also because he was drunk off his ass at the time. That was the first mistake she made with him.
She became drunk as well, and she didn't realize how out of control she was until the next morning, when she woke up. Naked. Next to Hwoarang. Who was also naked. She still remembered the blood-curling scream she let out when she realized what happened.
The relationship after that had blossomed into a bit of a friendship, and most of the other guys looked at her as the person who brought Hwoarang back down to earth. She felt bad about it, seeing as he was only the job.
Then Hwoarang got drafted, and from there, the CIA pulled her off the case. Well, that was the official story. Unofficially, she was to stay with the gang, and follow them anywhere. She did, and their arrival in Japan allowed her to compete in the fourth tournament.
Well, last night was the big night. Her contact in the CIA informed her of her true mission, and how to take care of the objectives.
The only thing she never saw coming was Hwoarang's return. She had no clue what had happened to him after the fourth tournament.
It was the past days events that told her that she didn't want anything more to do with the CIA. Being kidnapped, tied up, and held hostage wasn't her idea of doing a job. She swore that the minute she got out, if she got out at all, she would turn in her resignation. Right now, she was gagged and handcuffed, sitting up against an old brick wall inside an old prison. By the looks of the place, the building was probably scheduled to be bulldozed.
She didn't know why she was here, but she figured it had something to do with Drake. That is, if Hwoarang actually got the bastard. For the past four hours, she had been sitting there in the cell.
She had seen some guy in a suit running about, constantly checking on her. He never said anything. So far, other than the guards, he was the only other person she had seen so far.
For the past hour, it had been quiet. But then an explosion came in front of her cell, the wall blasting forward. When the dust settled, she could see that the guards were down, and a familiar face stood in the now gaping hole in front of her cell: Kazuya Mishima.
6:36:44 – Hwoarang stepped off the elevator. The 35th floor was the first floor where the apartments actually started to get bigger the further you went up. Meaning, the rooms on the next floor were bigger than the ones on this floor. Hwoarang read the signs on the wall. There were twenty apartments on this floor, down from the normal thirty. Ten apartments were on one side, the other ten on the other side.
The apartment in question was 3519. It was on the south side of the floor, and Hwoarang didn't know what to expect once he was inside. He was always trained to expect the unexpected, but after everything that had happened today, how could you apply that phrase? Cyborgs, gunfights, car chases, double-crosses, viruses, and a fight that should have resulted in Hwoarang's death were not unexpected, they weren't even plausible!
How did Hwoarang survive his fight with Chen? That was one question he wanted the answer to. A week ago, he tried to practice some different moves in the hotel room he was placed in, but his ankle was still bugging him. Today, he delivered moves that should have hurt like hell delivering them. He couldn't explain it and now surely wasn't a time to dwell on it.
He pumped the shotgun in his hand as he approached the apartment. The thoughts in his head subsided, and his mind was starting to run on adrenaline again. He aimed the shotgun at the handle, and pulled the trigger. The shot cut through the wooden door, the latch blasted to smithereens. He pumped the shotgun, the empty shell ejecting, allowing for a fresh one to enter the barrel.
Hwoarang pushed the door open with the gun. The only noise that could be heard was that of other people opening their doors to see what the hell the noise was. He aimed the shotgun in front of him.
The doorway led into the living room. The far wall opposite the door was a huge glass window, which led down to the street below. Upon entering the room, he could see out of the corner of his eyes that there were rooms off to the left and the right. And then he turned right.
A foot came smacking into his face. The blow had fazed him and Hwoarang started staggering backwards, dropping the shotgun. The attacker then grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and threw him into a glass table five feet away.
Hwoarang went into the table shoulder first, his head banging into one of the legs of the table. The bad part about it was that it was made of metal. The leg cut him deeply enough to cause a good amount of bleeding, but it wasn't anything too serious. But the attack all together had made him woozy. He began to groan.
The attacker was of course, Forrest Law. The bot that had taken his identity had been waiting for someone to stop its progress. It was in the bot's programming to fight back. And now, it was slowly walking towards an unconscious Hwoarang, who was lying on his stomach in the middle of a broken table.
The bot didn't know if its victim was dead or not, and it had to be sure. It walked up next to him and picked up a big shard of glass. Hwoarang still wasn't moving.
It raised the shard, and that's when he made his move. Hwoarang suddenly pulled out his Sig Sauer and fired six shots into the bot's stomach. The bot faltered back, and Hwoarang re-aimed, this time for the head. He fired four more shots into the head. The slide of the gun locked back, the clip emptied. The bot fell back into a couch, smoke coming out of its mouth.
Hwoarang got up off the table, careful as to not cut himself on the broken glass. Blood had begun to slowly pour down the right side of his face and off his chin. With his free hand he applied pressure to the wound, which hurt like hell.
"Hwoarang!" Jin said.
Jin appeared in the doorway. Hwoarang was relieved. Not about seeing Jin, but about the fact that the other bot must have been taken care of.
"Jesus Christ. You need a doctor." Jin said.
"I'm fine. What about Marshall?" Hwoarang asked.
"I took care of it. I shot it in the head and it didn't move after that." Jin said.
"It didn't attack you?" Hwoarang asked.
"I don't think it even saw me." Jin said.
"You're lucky."
6:43:12 – Lee Chaolan was sitting in a car across the street from his next target: Jin's high school. The choice was a deliberate one. It was meant to piss him off. Kazama was just another thorn in his side and now he was going to make him mad. He had no reason, but the choice was looking promising.
He would have the Jin bot infiltrate the school, since Jin was once a student. The bot would hide somewhere in the building, probably somewhere near the air conditioner or a bathroom. If anyone noticed him, the bot would take them out. The timers had been set and Lee couldn't change them. He was being forced to change his timetable. He was hitting himself for giving the bots too much time. And in a situation like this, failure was no option for him.
His phone rang. Fear took him over as he looked at the caller ID and recognized the number. Afraid, he picked up the phone.
"Yes." He said.
"Is it done?" a man asked.
"I'm working on it. I'm watching the school, but the bots at Roppongi and at the house may have been compromised." Lee said.
There was silence.
"Do you know why I killed Nina?" the man said.
Lee didn't respond, but the cold, twisted tone of the other man's voice made Lee shiver.
"I killed her to remind you. She failed to take care of Doo San, so I took care of her. If you don't do as you're told. Well, you know what will happen." He said.
"Yes, sir." Lee said.
"I want the virus released by 11. The stadium hit must go flawlessly. If the school is all you can hit, then you are as worthless as Nina." He said.
The man hung up.
Lee put the phone down, and stared at the school across the street. He was worried.
6:47:20 – Hwoarang and Jin were walking out of the apartment building. Once again, Hwoarang's arms were full. He had a towel in one hand, holding it against the wound on his head. In the other hand was a cell phone, where he was talking to Adam.
"No. The virus wasn't released." He said. "I'll have a containment team sent over to collect the bots." Adam said.
"Yeah. Where's Le Carre?" Hwoarang asked.
"He's on his way to the school. I can patch him through if you want." Adam said.
"No. Listen, did he tell you about Len?" he asked.
"Yeah. I've got people working on trying to find his location now. So far, we haven't been able to find anything." Adam said.
The line beeped.
"Hold on, Adam." Hwoarang said.
Hwoarang looked at the display on his phone. He recognized the number. It was Len.
"Adam! It's Len on the other line, how much time do you need for a trace?" Hwoarang asked.
"If he's inside the city, it'll take one minute." Adam said.
"Ok. I'm patching him through." Hwoarang said.
"My side's muted." Adam said.
The line clicked.
"Hwoarang, you son of a bitch!" Len screamed into the line.
"What?" Hwoarang asked.
"You think you can just attack me like this when I have a hostage?" Len asked.
"Wait. What happened?" he asked.
"Don't play dumb with me you fuck! You found out where I was and you tried to get your girl back." Len said.
"Did you kill her?" Hwoarang asked.
"No. But if you try anything like that again, I'll make sure she gets it right between the eyes." Len said.
Hwoarang paused, thinking and stalling at the same time.
"What do you want me to do?" he asked.
"The same as before: I want Lee Chaolan dead. But this time, I'm going to make sure you do it. You have one hour to kill him. I will call you, and if he isn't dead then, Ling will be dead. Understand?" Len said.
Hwoarang paused again.
"Understand?!" Len screamed.
"Yes." Hwoarang said.
"Good." Len said.
Len hung up.
"He's off." Hwoarang said.
"I got it." Adam said.
"Where is that son of a bitch?" he asked.
"It's an old prison about ten minutes north. You in Le Carre's car?" Adam asked.
"Yeah." He said.
"I'm sending the directions to the GPS." Adam said.
"Great. I'll let you know when we get there." Hwoarang said.
6:51:57 – Le Carre was getting out of his car and walking towards the school. It was nearly seven in the morning and most of the students were already arriving. The big problem was going to be containing the students without causing a riot.
The first person he needed to talk to was the principal. Whoever it was, they would be the one person the students listen to.
The campus had nearly a hundred students on it, most of them talking with friends outside the main building. Le Carre and three other agents walked into the main building.
He had called ahead and as soon as they entered, the principal was waiting for them. She was in her mid-thirties and very attractive. He approached her and was planning on making this as quick and painless as possible.
"I'm Gavin Le Carre, head of the ATU. Ms.?" He said.
"Kaneshiro." She said.
"Ms. Kaneshiro. I don't want to alarm your students, but we need to move all of your students into the auditorium, and as soon as possible." He said.
"What is this about?" she asked.
Le Carre pulled her off to the side, away from the students that were entering the building.
"There is the possibility that one of your students is planning on releasing a virus into the population." He said.
She stared at him, bewildered.
6:54:46 – The car pulled up behind the prison, and Hwoarang quickly got out. He had his Sig Sauer in his hand, and he was ready to use it. Jin stayed in the car.
"Go." Hwoarang said.
"What?" Jin asked.
Hwoarang stuck his head into the window of the passenger's door.
"Go. Le Carre should be at the school now. He could use your help." Hwoarang said.
"But what about you?" Jin asked.
"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine." Hwoarang said.
"You sure?" Jin asked.
"Yes! Get out of here!" Hwoarang yelled.
Jin drove off, and Hwoarang walked towards the prison. The front door was padlocked. Hwoarang shot it off, and he opened the door. The front hall was musky, the dust lingering in the sunlight.
"Len!" he screamed.
Hwoarang could hear footsteps running down another hallway. He followed the noise down multiple hallways, and eventually came out in the area where the cells were. Off towards the end of the hall, he could see a gaping hole in the wall. And that's when he saw Len.
Len was standing in front of Ling, gun in hand. He flicked the safety off. Just as he pointed the gun to Ling's head, he felt the barrel of a gun touch his left temple.
"Drop the gun." Hwoarang said.
"You first." Len said.
Hwoarang didn't do anything. Len looked at him and smiled. He thought he was in control.
A shot rang off, and Len fell to the ground in front of Ling. Hwoarang had shot him in the head. He didn't care for him, and Ling in the end, as heartless as it sounded, was expendable.
Hwoarang set his gun on the ground and hugged Ling, who was tied and gagged.
"I'm here." He said.
He undid her handcuffs and released the gag. But she never returned the hug. In fact, she wasn't even doing anything. But she was alive, her eyes were open. Hwoarang stared at her, dumbfounded.
Ling then raised her arms and began to choke him. She pushed him up against the wall. He was beginning to lose breath; the thought of Ling killing him filled his mind. He finally got his feet up and pushed off her chest. She went flying to the floor.
Hwoarang quickly scrambled for his gun, which was lying on the floor. He got a handhold on it, and Ling tackled him to the ground. Hwoarang raised the gun and a shot rang out. He had shot her in the face.
Her body fell to the ground. He tried to sit up, shocked at what just happened.
6:59:57... 6:59:58... 6:59:59... 7:00:00...