Long Beach, CA

Little Hong Kong- Tsai Chen Plaza

February 5, 1994 12:00 pm

About two miles south of Downtown Long Beach is the Chinatown District, considered to be third largest in the world after Yokohama and San Francisco's Chinatowns. There was something unique about this particular district. Founded in the 1960's, "Little Hong Kong" as it was called by the local residents was considered to be one of the best places to find the latest items from Asia. Beneath the skyline of Downtown Long Beach stood rows of buildings stood above the 10,000 residents that resided in this growing borough.

Some of them were residential areas that looked like they had been around a lot longer than the 1960's. While some of the other shops and restaurants which catered to the tourists looked like they were built within the last 10 to 15 years. This was obvious by the way the Tsai Chen Plaza somewhat resembled Yaohan Plaza in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo District.

The three story building stood out among the smaller buildings and warehouse that surrounded it. Inside it held a Super 99 supermarket, a bookstore, and a couple of smaller shops on the first floor. The second floor consisted of the Tsai Chen department store which was known for bringing the latest fashions from Hong Kong, Seoul, and Tokyo; while the stores that resided on the second floor catered to everything ranging from wedding clothing, karaoke, and a video arcade.

Or Wang's China Buffett, at first glance reminded you of a Chinese McDonald's. Yet these things did not matter since a lot of people just enjoyed the food and the Far Eastern feel of the place. Sometimes when the door opens you can smell the food they serve which is a mixture of Chinese, Mongolian, Japanese, and Korean delicacies.

Of course there were those that even looked for remedies that Western Medicine could not help, but that was not what Mishelle Reynosa was looking for while she stood quietly on the corner of the street and took a long look at the area around her. What fascinated her was how all of this made her think of a time that was so long ago. Long before there were any cars, planes or any other conveniences of modern technology.

The tall young Latina felt the wind blowing through her long raven black hair as she buttoned up her red and black jacket which had the words "Lakewood High Lancers" stenciled on the back. Within a moment she found herself thinking some more about the early settlers that came over to the United States from the Mainland, wondering what it was like for them, was their plight similar to those Yaquis' that were hunted down by the Mexican Government back during the turn of the century?

All these questions raced through her mind while she let it drift even further past the last century to the time when China still had Feudal Lords, but what got her attention more than the feudal lords that she was thinking about was the statue of Fa Mulan standing in front of her posed like she was defending plaza in front of them. Mishelle always loved learning about the women who stood out in the annals of history: Joan of Arc, Helen of Troy, Cleopatra, and Susan B. Anthony.

However, it was the story of Fa Mulan that she enjoyed the most. Of how this young woman disguised herself as a man to enter the Imperial Army because her father was ill. She read somewhere that she eventually married one of her comrades in arms. Mishelle sighed longingly hoping that she could have had a chance to do the things like Mulan had in her time. Of course there was joining the U.S. Military, but she could not think of doing that since she was the eldest of three children and was determined to be the first in her family get into college.

Mishelle put those thoughts aside and slowly moved her head towards her left watching some of the locals' hustle and bustle about their everyday routine. She took a deep breath just help clear the cobwebs from her mind and looked towards the right at a red Suzuki Samurai that sat in a nearby parking lot.

Near the front of the vehicle stood two young women talking amongst themselves; the first woman was tall and voluptuous but very rigid which was noticeable in the way she stood against the car. The second woman was a little shorter than the first one but where the former was rigid in the way she acted; the latter was very excitable by the animated way she continued talking about the subject she was discussing.

The first woman fumbled with long brown hair, at first putting it up into a ponytail and then continued to fumble with the right front which covered part of her face, while the left was totally bare and shown her round but gentle face and jade green eyes. The look on her face was mixed with boredom and anticipation while she listened on, wishing that the topic would be over with soon.

"Lola, you just don't know when to shut up do you?" The first woman, Angela Steele sighed having enough of the second woman's conversation for the moment.

The second woman, Lola Ricci answered back, "What did I say that was so wrong?"

"You're bad mouthing someone who isn't here to defend himself!" Angela snapped back thinking that the whole conversation was ridiculous in the first place.

Mishelle shook her head and started to walk over towards the two young women arguing amongst themselves. She loved hanging around Angela and Lola but there were times that she felt that the arguing was a little too much.

"Will you stop it!" Mishelle snapped moving between her two friends, "There are times where you both just drive me crazy!"

Lola shrank down a little bit and looked up towards Mishelle, "I'm sorry Mish."

'Mish' as Lola called her waved her hand at Lola and then turned her attention towards Angela, "And you, why do you even let her bait you into those arguments?"

Angela rolled her eyes for a moment and looked the other way and walked towards the passenger side of the Samurai. She did not really care about where this conversation was going and was going to let her silence to be the end of it. Before she opened the door she heard the sound of a motorcycle pulling up to the plaza, she looked back and saw a gold streak pass by. At first she wanted to move away from the car and find out who was driving the motorcycle but stopped herself from moving on her suspicion. She noticed that Mishelle and Lola looking at her quizzically because of the way she was acting; but relented and opened the door to the car and sat quietly looking out at the window.

Plaza parking level 4.

On the top of the parking complex Nancy Wong Fei Wu looked down at the group of women around the Suzuki Samurai. She stood there quietly not even caring about the weather or the small gusts of wind that blew through her white and violet DKNY windbreaker or the pink Cheongsam shirt that she wore underneath. Although she did feel relieved that she was wearing a pair of faded blue jeans instead of a full dress, which she felt would be out of place given that she was on an assignment.

Nancy noticed the way one of the women noticed the motorcycle that rushed into the parking lot and wondered why she would have done that. Her first reaction was that maybe the woman was a little startled by the vehicle but her gut told her that there was something more to it. She wished that she could have been close enough to hear what was being said but she continued to make some small observations in her mind so she could reference them later if she needed to.

"How long do we have to keep doing this, Tommy?" Nancy asked looking back at a blue and gold 1992 Kawasaki Ninja parked a few feet from her and noticed a young African American-Chinese man sitting down watching her move away from the parking lot wall towards him.

Tommy Xiao Li sat on top of the motorcycle calmly looking at Nancy underneath a pair of John Lennon glasses that rested on his semi hardened face that was slightly covered by his long wavy hair that flowed in the wind. His wardrobe however, was a lot different than his trendy counterpart. He wore a black Prussian student jacket which was a common item to wear among male Japanese students; underneath the jacket was his yellow jersey with blue along the collar and shoulders that he wore like some kind of badge of honor. What made his outfit look even more outlandish was the blue jeans and black Converse that he wore along with it.

"Well, we were told by Chin Mei that we were to observe them." Tommy (or Li as he was more known by) said as he fumbled with a blue and gold motorcycle helmet that rested near the handle bars of his motorcycle, "I don't like it either."

"You don't like it because one of them is someone you care about." Nancy answered seeing Li look the other way and continue to fumble with his helmet.

"There is that." Li whispered and looked back at Nancy, "But this is our job."

"Yeah, it is." Nancy nodded and patted Li on the shoulder, "Anyway, I saw the car heading north towards Downtown Long Beach, so let's get it over with."

Li picked up the helmet and placed it on top of his head before turning on the motorcycle and waited for Nancy to hop onto the back. He felt his bike shake slightly from her weight which followed by her putting on the spare helmet he kept for passengers and finally her wrapping her arms tightly against his waist and moving her body closer towards him.

"You know you like it when I do this." Nancy said over the small commlink that was attached to the helmet.

Li smiled underneath his helmet and said, "There will be time for that after we're done with this.

Nancy pouted a little bit and said, "You're just saying that because you know we are going after Angela. For the past couple of days it's been 'Angela this' and 'Angela that', Angela, Angela, Angela!"

"If I didn't know better, I think you were jealous." Li chuckled only to feel the hard slap of Nancy hitting the back of his helmet.

"Come on!" Nancy screamed trying to hide the fact, "They're leaving!"

Obeying the order that was given to him, Li launched his motorcycle from where he was parked and raced from the top level of the structure towards the next floor. He moved the bike past the speed bumps that littered each floor and continued down until he reached the street level and raced on towards Downtown Long Beach seeing the red Suzuki Samurai in the distance which carried their targets. Determined he raced through the rows of cars passing each of them with very little effort and managed to stop a couple of yards behind them, doing his best to keep his distance, wondering what was being said amongst the three young women.

Inside the Samurai.

Mishelle kept her eye on the road in front of her, wishing that the traffic would go a little faster instead of having to pass the time waiting. She took a look through the mirrors to make sure there wasn't anyone coming or being dangerous behind her. That was one thing she did not need while she was already dealing with two people who had already argued about something stupid a few minutes ago. Instead she turned on the radio to 102.7 KIIS FM and listened to Rick Dees continue with the weekly top forty talking about the song "All For Love" still keeping its place at number one.

Mish had nothing against Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart, or Sting. It was just that she was honestly tired of having to hear that song over and over again. She honestly prayed that another song would knock it out of the charts soon. Yet it was a lot better than listening to Lola trying to sing like TLC's Left Eye Lopez in the back seat. She held her hands against the steering wheel, wishing that she could turn around and stuff the walkman down her throat, but she still decided that she should be the cooler head in this situation. Instead, it was Angela that decided to slap her friend on the knee to let her know that she was being too loud.

"You're being too damn loud!" Angela screamed making Lola jump in her seat, making the seatbelt constrict her.

"Dammit!" Lola screamed but was immediately stopped herself as she saw her friend staring her down with a cold glance.

Angela slowly turned her body back around facing front, she took a look up at the light turning green; feeling the car accelerate back towards the city. She exhaled quietly feeling a little pleased at the fact that they were moving once more, and looked towards the driver's side window seeing the RMS Queen Mary in the distance, resting peacefully in its dock. It had been a long time since she had been on the ship, and she didn't really like to go by herself unless she was with a certain person. Sometimes at night they would go to the starboard side of the ship and look out at the city lights and watch the shine or notice the people enjoying themselves at the Pike.

Angela slowly turned away from the sight of the ship and looked towards the passenger side window watching the hustle and bustle of the cars and people along the streets of Downtown Long Beach, still thinking about the argument that she had with Lola. At first she forgot about the whole thing, but the sight of the Queen Mary brought it all back to the surface.

The original argument consisted of the fact that she liked a young man that used to go out of his way to protect people and got his butt kicked in the process. Unfortunately, he moved to Japan for a couple of years with his family, but they kept in touch with letters until a few months ago when she received one stating that his mother was killed.

At first, she thought he was going to be coming back to the States, but the letters started to get a little sporadic and a little heartbreaking when he mentioned how alone he felt out there when after his Mother died. She still worried about her friend and though she would not admit it directly that she really did care about him.

Mishelle noticed Angela's silence and decided that it was time she said something, "You two got into an argument because she mentioned him, right?"

Angela didn't turn around but she softly said, "Yes."

Mishelle still kept her eyes on the road as they began to approach the entrance to the 710 freeway and continued her conversation, "Why do you still worry about him? From what you told me, the two of you never really went out."

"He saved my life." Angela said turning back towards Mish.

"From what I remember about that, wasn't it because he was getting into trouble?" Mishelle asked.

Angela chuckled to herself, "Yeah, but if he wasn't there in the first place I wouldn't be here to enjoy your company."

Mishelle nodded and asked, "Have you heard from him?"

"Not since that last letter." Angela answered looking down for a moment, "It doesn't surprise me though, not after what he had just gone through out there."

"Losing his mother and his girlfriend to some psychopath, followed by an attack on his High School; some people would have gone nuts."

"Yeah." Angela said as she continued to look out the passenger side window, when she noticed something that got her attention. A few cars behind the Samurai, was a blue and gold Kawasaki Ninja and its driver was wearing a helmet similar to the color of the bike. Her eyes widened at the sight of the motorcycle since she knew one person who would ride something like that. Quietly under her breath she whispered the name 'Li' while she kept her eye on the vehicle following behind.