Two last chapters to "shuffle the cards" a little bit before this tournament starts. Until the in-universe clock ticks midnight, I will focus on finishing the first round and post-round stuff.
After an hour of unbearable bureaucracy, Rosa was accompanied to the phone boots of the police station, with Gordon keeping watch from a short distance. The mercenary already had an idea as to what someone from the military could possibly want, but she didn't exactly have a vast array of alternatives at the moment. Heavily sighing, Rosa composed the given number and after three rings, a stern voice picked up on the other side.
"I had a feeling this phone would ring soon." Heidern admitted.
"Skip the pleasantries. You better have a good reason to bail out me of all people."
"In fact we do, "Rosa". You see, after a long chat with the Los Angeles police, me and my team put two and two together and figured out what trouble you threw yourself in."
"What about it? Called to give me a medal?"
"Hilarious, but no. What happened today makes you the only person that got so near to the New Hizoku's operations. Everything you saw, even the smallest detail, is vital to us."
"And I imagine your connections will pull me out of this dump if I accept to become your information dove."
"I wouldn't put it so crassly, but that's the sum of it, yeah."
"Forgive the cliché question but...what happens if I refuse?"
"Well, we just so happened to find the location where your group of outcasts is hiding." Rosa's heart skipped a beat in terror. "They have a pretty impressive list of crimes themselves."
"Tch, why am I not surprised someone from the military would sink this low?"
"I certainly don't enjoy resorting to such methods, miss, but we're running out of alternatives just as much as you are. So tell me, what's it going to be?"
Rosa felt standing in a little circle surrounded by sharks where every direction would lead to getting devoured. In spite of this, no way in hell her family was getting dragged down along with her.
"Consider yourself lucky that I'm desperate or I would've hanged up on you the moment you mentioned them."
"...Very well. At least we've avoided the worst approach." Heidern muttered relieved. "By my estimations, one of my agents should've arrived there already to pick you up. If all goes right, everyone will come out clean out of this pile of garbage." Not sure on how to end the call after what amounted to a direct threat, Heidern hesitated a few seconds before finally ending the call.
Rosa could only stare blankly at the phone for how hopeless she felt. Becoming a goverment puppet with the lives of her loved ones dangling above her head...she could feel every inch of her skin crawl in self-disgust. To wake her up from her trance, a close "Hey!" coming from Gordon, who was watching the whole thing unfold, silently judging.
"You should've refused. Now you're just a useful tool to them, nothing more." Gordon bluntly said.
"Here's a better tip, leave Los Angeles while you still can. Some major shit is clearly going down and you will get caught in the middle."
"If i did that, I would bring dishonor to this badge. I'm seeing this through." The unwavering conviction on Gordon's face made clear enough that Rosa could say would change a thing. She still wanted to give some parting words...just in case she wasn't going to see him ever again.
"Say hi to Kimberly for me."
"...You bet."
After that implied goodbye, Rosa found the exit without too much difficulty. She was in for just a few hours and yet it felt like an eternity for some reason. To greet her there were three things; The beautiful L.A. half-moon, a taxi and two young women, with the red head breathing really heavily, like she came to the station in a hurry. The mercenary, looking directly at the unknown, could muster the only source of self-confidence her current tiredness could think of.
"(It's all for them, Rosa. It'll be worth it in the end...)"
The alarm rang out throughout the MIST Directive's building with all armed personeel converging to the location of one man...if he can still be called that. Ron was tearing through the highly trained soldiers like bowling pins, all of his deadly movements followed by that new light-blue glow in his eyes. A terrified soldier tried to empty a clip of his rifle at close-range, only for every single bullet to literally vaporize upon contact. Unfazed, Ron simply put his hand on the unfortunate soul's shoulder and in an instant, he was burning from the inside out, enveloped in flames until a pile of smoldering ashes remained, a scorching pain delivered by the former leader of the Hizoku with a casualness that was almost repulsive. With no one left in his way, the master assassin was about to escape through the broken window, but the sound of hurried footsteps made him stop, knowing full well it was his ex-partner in crime.
"Ron! Rend me back the Fragment immediately or I will-"
"I'm afraid asking nicely won't do you any good, Misty. You were never worthy of its power in the first place."
"You wretched snake! You think you can just waste months of work and chi-gathering, murder my men and walk out like nothing happened?"
"That is exactly what I'm doing. You would waste such a priceless resource for profit, like the uncreative sloth you are. The Dragon's Spirit expanded my vision to something much greater...Earth will reach a higher state of existence thanks to its new god."
After spreading his arms, Ron threw himself out and into the rooftops below, at a height that would normally kill any man. Misty wasn't fast enough to prevent him from escaping, leaving her with a massacred army and a ruined HQ.
"Master Ron? Master Ron!"
LOS ANGELES, A PURCHASED OFFICE CUBICLE-NEW HIZOKU'S HEADQUARTERS
Ron's mind was spacing out to the event that changed his outlook on many things forever, interrupted only by Luan's return. The New Hizoku was in a state of reorganization; Finally moving out from those fetid sewers into the space generously bought by Mr. Big, all the organization's members were doing their own thing. Chat and Sai still weren't back from scouting, Domino was playing Solitaire and Big was checking the dark web for any suspicious movements on a nearby computer.
With Crawley and Turner tip-toeing their way to the desk where Ron was sitting on, Luan took the initiative.
"Master Ron, it is my pleasure to inform you that the Chi-Converger was assembled and is now fully functional, as you can see." Luan said as she raised the creepy lantern-looking thing. "However, these two cretins have less pleasant news to share." She then proceeded to shove both of them to the floor, making them kneel in front of thier master.
"Christ, how did you fuck up this time? It's Jack's fault, isn't?" Big asked unsurprised.
Both of them were shitting themselves at the prospect of what punishment could Ron inflict on them. Feeling hopeless, John talked first, figuring there's not much of a way to weasel out of this.
"T-turns out, Master, that a mercenary followed us to the warehouse. We had to fight her off, but in the chaos we missed the time window of the Psycho Soldier's fight, soooooo...PLEASE, DON'T OPEN OUR CHEST CAVITIES WITH YOUR BARE HANDS, MASTER! I'm way too young to die for a little mistake like thi-"
"Little mistake?!" Luan interrupted him enraged, before planting her feet on his big, stupid head. "Now Misty and her cronies have one of the Fragments, you prattling dimwit! There is no excuse-"
"Calm down, Luan. There's no need for such violence." As her master's word is absolute, she complied immediately. "Quite frankly, I fail to see what the issue is."
At the sound of that, Crawley and Turner were overjoyed in the knowledge they weren't about to become a hudgepudge of bloody chunks on the floor. Despite how much Luan disagreed with these accomodating tendencies, she was in no place to argue.
"The old Ron would've thrown a hissy fit, but that man is gone. Besides, Misty wouldn't understand the true depths of the Dragon's Spirit even with an instruction manual." Ron argued. "We merely need to navigate around this minor hiccup and we'll be back on track...which makes me think of something. Domino, do you have any idea where Magaki is?"
"Out and about on his current mission, Master." Domino answered without looking away from her cards.
"Then you see?" Ron got closer and gently caressed Crawley's right cheek. "Any link of the chain can be easily reattached...in this case, the Psycho Soldiers are going to help us with that." A most cunning plan just formed in the assassin's mind. "Big, would you be so kind as to lend me your phone for a bit?"
NEXT TIME: In an unlikely alliance, Vanessa, Xiao Lon, Lin and Rosa will have to come up with a strategy to untangle the plans of the forces that want to use KOF to thier own vile ends.
