Problem Cloud
In which after doing the job and dinner, Checkerface was watching from afar, fully-aware that the Cloud and Storm was unwillingly late that the others had to go to the shop to get the late members...and help with the packaging.
To be fair, its not their fault they're late...but still, this is the first step as they have to work together until they bonded with Luce as planned.
Well, now's a good time as any to barge in.
'Hello fellows.' said Checkerface after he showed up by the dining room window.
'How'd you know we're here?!' Lal sputtered as Checkerface chuckled.
'I have my ways.' he said. 'I understand that there's extenuating circumstances, but I'm fine with letting it slide.' Checkerface then clapped his hands. 'Now then...you know each other by now save for our last member who's entirely anonymous...other than a fake name, running a shop and her extra services but other than that, nothing. Now that won't do.' he tut-tutted, shaking his head as he called She Mei out on it. 'Having a fake name is fine, but abilities must be known.'
'Er before that, there's a few things I'd like to say as well.' said Feng, for once, glad She Mei can't speak Italian. All she knew for Foreign Languages were English, Latin and Chinese, with him polishing the latter up better and taught her Japanese. 'She Mei can't thankfully speak Italian so we can freely talk as Mafioso. She's a civilian despite her customers and has no idea about our society and how it works. I cannot break Omerta around her but she doesn't discriminate anybody and everybody. She gets invites but turns them down preferring her current situation because as far as she knows of Mafia, its those Movie Stereotypes. She doesn't know Mafia and Flames go hand-in-hand and my old Chinese Medicine teacher merely taught her how to use flames as tools, and left out its significance to our society.'
'You've got to be joking.' Viper deadpanned as the others did a double-take of incredulity.
'Feng~!' She Mei whined. 'While I get that your society's a secret, don't talk about me like I'm not nearby!' she complained.
'Sorry She Mei but due to Secrecy laws, I have to.' Feng apologized. 'I really don't want to deal with the Lawkeepers who can appear any time any day they detect rule-breaking regarding secrecy.'
'Jeeeezzz...'
'I guess some things can't be helped unless she willingly becomes a part of our society.' said Lal. 'So what are your abilities, She Mei?'
'Well, I'm a Specialist.' said She Mei. 'I'm a Master of Chinese Medicine and my invention of Medicinal Cooking, Qigong and a doctor specializing in up to moderate cases and surgery but for critical cases I just do enough so they can go to a Hospital without having to be DOA. Feng also's teaching me how to drive using his family's throwaway cars action movie-style...' Feng sweatdropped.
'I have to because one day you'll thank me for teaching you to drive that way.' he said.
'There's your unusual youth as an issue.' Checkerface pointed out. 'You have a way to stay young and last I checked, you and Feng never went under the knife. It is due to that knowledge I chose to recruit you because you truly discovered an extraordinary way to stay young without the market's latest drugs and surgery techniques.' this perked Verde, Viper, Renato and Luce's interest. She Mei appears as if she's out of High School and a picture of a 'very glowing healthy teenager' and Feng was an 'about-to-be-adult' version when She Mei's a step away to thirty and Feng in his early thirties.
'Er I'm keeping that totally secret.' She Mei twitched. 'I trust Feng wholeheartedly, you guys have yet to earn that part!' she huffed defiantly. 'This is a discovery I can't divulge willy-nilly or society will go on a power trip while lining up in front of me and threaten me with a gun to monopolize my work for themselves despite I'm the inventor! No way!'
'Fufu, understandable. For now only Feng is privileged to be an immortal on Maintenance in regards to physical youth.'
'How?!' Viper yelped. 'You guys have access to immortal agelessness?!' he blurted incredulously.
'Not even I discovered a way how to prolong human life and I exhausted all means.' Verde looked deeply interested now.
'She's right though...there's billions of humans on Earth now.' said Lal. 'If Immortality became a common commodity, economy will crash through rapidly-running out on resources, severe deforestation for room for farms or cities on a vicious cycle and Global Warming will be worse as a result. We'll have to let nature take its course as some people die by age, illness, accidents, murder and natural disasters to whittle down numbers somehow. That, and there are those who cannot be allowed to have it, they who are better off six feet under.'
'I like you already!' She Mei approved of Lal when she said her piece. Lal seemed to like the fact that the younger girl approves of similar opinions.
Feng knew not even Checkerface knows how far She Mei was in her Immortal Research. She Mei had committed it to memory and burned all her notes and data about it. Due to how's its done indeed, its not just physical youth...they're literal immortals but of course, NOT invincible. They can still be killed.
'Due to the situation, she is understandably, the team doctor.' Checkerface told them. 'She will come with you on your missions but far enough to be in a safe place due to Secrecy so she is there when needed incase the rest of you gets compromised. Now, your first job is...'
After getting their first job and instructions...
She Mei called the places she does part-time for, and even called someone she calls 'Andy' before she hung up a Closed sign on her Shop with an additional note that read 'Hired on a Contracted Medical Job'...and with her much to sheer discomfort of anybody who wasn't her and Feng, were a ton of poisonous snakes!
'Why do you have so many snakes?!' Verde freaked as they steered clear of the snakes.
'Security incase some guys decided to try something!' She Mei smiled. 'I do have bad guys as customers you know~ on my word, they bite or spit at your eyes...and I need antivenom on hand too. But we'll be taking some of my snakes with us.'
'She can be an assassin this way too.' Feng smiled sweetly but a dangerous smile that held promise. 'But she'd rather just be a shopkeeper and doctor.'
'She Mei...your alias holds true indeed.' Renato said wryly. He has little idea of Chinese beyond basics but even he would know what the two words in her name meant. She's beautiful in a patrician way, and can control snakes! Her skin is of rosy porcelain like bisque all women he knew would kill to have, beautiful manicure with clear, pale-pink polish, wore lip gloss that enhanced the natural rosiness of her lips and her hair was so black and glossy. He had no idea if it was straight or wavy as she wears her hair in buns covered in crocades with silk ribbons. She was quite small too, a mere 5'5 to their over 6. In Verde's case, he's exactly 7.
She literally looks like a teenager fresh out of high school they were babysitting and a doll for her appearance. Her petite frame and outfit of choice does NOT help against the initial opinion. She wore red changshan with gold trimming that concealed her shape and black booty shorts just enough to cover her entire hips modestly, a pair of black spandex knee-high tights and cute chinese shoes. The only hint she was a woman, was her voice and sizes no teenager should have...and the fact she appears this way for years anybody who's dealt with her would know she's an adult unless an ignoramus meets her and mistakes her age...to which she'd happily troll them with.
When she and Feng packed up, they carried a lot of things, as She Mei was a doctor and her means of stealthy offense were snakes.
But since when did Feng move in with her? This was new knowledge.
xxx
In a cabin somewhere in most southern part of Italy...
'It's cleaned up just for us it seems...thank goodness for that, I don't want to clean.' Viper griped as they arrived to settle down.
'Its easier on us this way.' said Luce, being a pregnant woman in her second month.
'Its so out of the way, far from any town or city for any shopping.' She Mei complained. 'So shopping for groceries and necessities have to be really planned every week on sundays I'd like it if everyone does inventory on what they'd want so nobody's going to throw a hissy fit about it and it better be a week-long supply.'
'I'm just glad there's electricity and a complete computer set.' said Verde. 'I can't bring myself to be without a computer for long.'
'Let's settle down now, we all could use some rest.' said Feng. 'Its a really long car ride.' he said tiredly.
They agree on that matter.
'What's for dinner, I'm starving.' Renato complained. 'And we got a pregnant woman with us too.'
'I'm a healthy chef I can definitely take care of a growing baby!' She Mei chirped happily. 'I can also suppress craving moods so Luce can eat healthy things without throwing it up. I'm just glad Checkerface left us his number so we can have stuff we can't legally buy sent over.'
'We're paying for those though. Off our reward fees.' Viper stated in a clipped manner.
'Nothing in the world is free you know.'
'Of course.'
xxx
Dinner was very asian and cooked in a way that did NOT involve oil unless its natural oils of food. And judging by the blank glass bottles she used of seasonings, they were homemade, not grocery-bought due to how different the taste was from typical kitchen necessities. Considering she's a medicinal chef, its to be expected. She also pours in her Cloud Flames and Sun Flames in order as she cooks.
'Er, why are you using flames on your food?' Verde asked, eyes glinting in interest.
'Well, Clouds for multiplication and Sun for activation right? I multiply the amount of nutrition enough for a human's daily requirement intake, and then Sun flames made to activate the nutrition gained upon digestion for fast body absorption. It will also jumpstart digestive processes that nothing's wasted. Having dual elements are quite the boon in my job and I know every ingredient in the market and what vitamins and minerals they have. And we have a pregnant woman onboard at that...'
It was due to her way of cooking, that they all felt very 'alive'.
There's also dynamics in the house on their first week together.
Feng and She Mei are 'very close' together...but the situation was hilariously obvious to the others.
Luce thus insists everyone mingle and get to know each other because they really don't, and only the two shopkeepers knew each other to comfortable levels.
Apparently, they knew each other for a couple years now and after Feng mastered Medicinal Cooking, he rather moved in with her than move out on his own again...with a damn good reason. Too bad she's too thick and dense...clueless.
But dang, her food is to DIE for...and as Doctor, she sat them individually in the kitchens and asked for medical issues that needed addressing. In the end, its Luce and Verde who were the obvious issues. Luce's pregnant-stressed and eating for two, and Verde being a scientist, is highly stressed that he's having trouble sleeping lately.
The others are fighters who needed a lot of boost thus eats double a normal person's. Only She Mei would eat normally as while she knows how to defend herself, she's really not the type to fight. She was more like Verde who'd rather be in a laboratory. But sadly, the only laboratory there is made for medicine-making. Their client really thought hard about hiring them all.
Her beauty products stink like hell...but very effective. Even moreso if dosed with Cloud and Sun Flames that work instantly until one reaches the desired levels the others can indulge their vanity issues...to the point that the results one would normally get in weeks according to market, are obtained in days.
Just that, their bathing products have to really smell good.
While the ladies are understandable in wanting to look good, Reborn was particularly particular about his looks and his curly sideburns. He had asked her for hair removals, skincares and of course, her stuff to be young-looking without having to be 'immortally young'. Just stuff that shaves off the effects of aging. He was then asked what he does...thus had to take things to fix his body from damages caused by alcohol and smoking before he was given medicine that makes him look younger.
This was because he was a charming romancer, gender did NOT matter to him...the only one who does not know is the resident doctor. But even he has lines he would NOT cross.
Those who are married, those not interested back, and those claimed by someone...unless its worth it.
In their current living space, in that order were Luce, Lal and She Mei.
Crossing Feng is NOT WORTH IT. He didn't want to be erased from existence thank you.
Sure, Reborn can handle anybody who didn't Master their Flames yet but everyone in this house, is a Master who also happens to have the strongest flames of their elements in both power output and purity.
Luce the Shamaness could see the future thus her famiglia rose to heights and power by averting and countering many bad futures.
Viper's the strongest Sorcerer.
Verde's the Modern Day Da Vinci that created and discovered a lot of things...and a pioneer of Flame Technology.
Lal is the Perfect Soldier and the best instructor in COMSUBIN.
She Mei is the creator of Immortality(requires Maintenance), Medicinal Cooking and various beauty products but for some reason has YET to patent them or perhaps, she never will for reasonable reasons. She also invented the Flame Reattachment Surgery that ACTUALLY WORKS and didn't require time spent in hospital with much suffering involved. That means like any doctor, she mastered the Human Anatomy and how the human body works that she wrote her own book about Chinese Medicine with her own studies and findings. It had to be true or Feng would have called her out on it by now and they live together.
Feng is a Master of 108 Martial Arts, Chinese Medicine and Qigong. A once-a-century genius.
Renato himself, is the world's best Assassin, a Hitman. This would normally mean he mastered a lot of necessary skills in his job and knew old and new techniques to be the best killer on payroll.
Well, its just a matter of who's fastest in the end, Feng claimed one of Italy's best women to himself in terms of looks.
Renato always did like his conquests he worked hard on. A challenge.
She Mei was clearly a challenge. But also pitiful. Poor woman probably never got properly romanced by a man in her life despite her beauty she's utterly clueless with Feng's efforts but enjoys a lot of affection given to her and Feng showers her with lots of affection as she wants.
The signs, are glaringly obvious and tells a lot of tales.
'Its obvious isn't it?' Luce approached him from behind. 'She's a sad girl.'
'She's beautiful and a challenge but...there's no way I'd take advantage of such a situation.' said Reborn, pointing at the chinese-clad pair using his thumb. 'And Feng's clearly helping her and giving her what she wants at the same time. She's showing a great degree of trust in him. There's probably a story behind that.'
'Yes but it'll be a while before they open up about it...I mean, we hardly know each other which is why I insist we mingle together more often once we got used to each other's presences.'
xxx
It wasn't just them.
Lal being a soldier, noticed many things as well.
And soldiers tend to be wounded for obvious reasons and She Mei was no soldier, she's a civilian. But has glaring habits. Bad ones she cannot ignore.
Being an Officer and a High-Ranking one at that means she must be observant and bring out the best in subordinates. Officers who can't do even that have NO RIGHT to be called officers.
Affection starved.
Doesn't trust easily(constantly on guard around them).
Constant looking at the windows.
VERY alert and ready to fight not flight when she DOES look.
There are many types of Wounded Soldiers.
No Relief
Super Soldier
Self-Medicator
Numb Soldier
She Mei was the Numb Soldier Archetype.
She is wary, highly alert, doesn't trust easily and doesn't expect anything from anybody and mainly sticks to Feng who earned her trust somehow and she has the emotional maturity of a child and the way she speaks alone...that, was worrying.
She needs to talk to the others when She Mei is away. And talking in Italian would help.
As it is now, she's a liability unless she learns to trust. She'll make it clear but Feng has to be the messenger once everything is decided.
xxx
At Dinner...
'She Mei, got plans tonight?' Feng asked her.
'Well, I'll be brewing our medicine since there's no telling when Checkerface will chuck us out on a job where you guys will get hurt.' said She Mei as they washed the dishes together. 'Why ask?'
'Well, Lal gathered six of us for society business.' said Feng.
'Oh...'
'You seriously don't want an in in our society?'
'Well, if I was, I'd have to be spooked about what comes after if I broke your society's rules and even you, Mr. Calm and Patient wouldn't dare to...its best I find out on my own while still staying civilian. That way nobody pays, right?'
'The hard way huh...well, you'll be enduring us doing a group talk in Italian for some time until you make a decision.' said Feng. 'But are you OK with being left out?'
'I'm used to it.' said She Mei with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. 'Everyone always does that to me anyway.' Feng flinched horribly. His Sky was used to THAT?!
'I wish you aren't used to such an appalling thing like that.' said Feng, worried and disturbed.
'Its been that way since I was a kid...it was a prelude to something worse as I was being set up.' She Mei chuckled bitterly. 'In return...I utterly destroyed them. Death was too good for them. Too easy after all the things I put up with for seventeen years of my life since my parents were killed...my revenge is long-lasting damage. It helps that I have great influence though after that, I had to ensure Andy and Teddy are protected. They will target them for retaliation and they're all I have left until things happened between us.'
'I see...well, since you insist on staying civilian, you'll have to endure being left out in talks and then getting instructions...' said Feng nervously. 'But everything will be alright. I promised you...and I promised Andromeda as well.'
'...'
xxx
Outside the cabin, the porch...
'She Mei's out of the way?' Lal asked Feng, glancing at the chinese man.
'She said she'll be in the laboratory.' said Feng. 'She's fully-aware we'll be in mafia-mode.'
'Really, why won't she be an official mafioso anyway? I don't see anything wrong about it.' said Renato.
'She has typical civilian beliefs. Hence her customers are always Freelancers.' Feng quipped.
'Ah.'
'Let's begin...why have you gathered us all here, Lal?' Luce asked Lal curiously.
'We spent a good first week here and as a soldier and a high-ranking officer, its my duty to observe and take action for what's good for the Military.' said Lal. 'And She Mei...she has the upbringing of a traumatized, PTSD Soldier by how she carries herself.' she said. 'Feng, has she told you anything?'
'...only a little and she clearly hates to talk about it.' said Feng softly. 'She was set up from the moment her parents died as a baby...her upbringing ensured she would never have freedom or taste it, conditioned to the point of resignation, and her friends of all people supported those who betrayed her to control the power of her family name and money.' he explained as they perked up over the nasty details.
'She was involved among the mass killings in the UK wherein she was fighting on the front against those responsible in the shadows which is why we have no information about it whatsoever and she implied that those who truly loved her died yet the traitors somehow survived to betray her in the worst way possible for her.' he explained in a silent seeth. His face was neutral but his eyes tell another tale of boiling rage that thirsted for blood and justice Renato really knew he has no chance with She Mei. 'It took me a long while to earn her trust. At first I was simply her student...then her sole relative, her distant cousin visited with her godson. They would visit for a day once every two weeks after seven long years of hiding. Andromeda was privileged to She Mei's youth recipes you wouldn't believe she's a grandmother.' Feng chuckled.
'Andromeda would ask me questions...she was determining if I'm worthy of She Mei at that but not even she would tell me her real name.' said Feng. 'Due to an implied nasty childhood, She Mei entrusted her godson's upbringing to his grandmother in fear she would mess up and mess him up. As she put it and She Mei's painfully-aware of this...she said that how can you love a child when you yourself never knew love as a child?' that question sent the women and Renato wincing. Verde and Viper remained poker-faced. 'Her maternal relatives made her a conditioned mess that was a prelude to later betrayals. She Mei has ideals but as far as its concerned, she only knows it by word, not by experience. She was trusted by the boy's parents, clearly-implied to be killed by the way...She Mei can't trust herself like how Teddy's parents trusted her.'
'And when she was betrayed...She Mei's revenge was long-lasting. That was what she told me as death was too good for them as its not fair she suffered for years yet they have it easy?' he chuckled darkly. 'I have no idea what she did but it must be quite the revenge that she used her money and influence to ensure Andy and Teddy are safe because she knows they will be targeted upon retaliation, or to force actions from her and into a despicable unhappy marriage as what's rightfully hers, her inheritance and properties left to her by her parents will be taken from her. That was the last straw as both her freedom and family assets are threatened to be taken away. She's from an Old Money family in Britain and she was vulnerable as she never got the proper upbringing and trained in politics that left her easy prey. She was set up from the start. I can piece things together Andy reveals little by little and what She Mei lets slip.'
'A long-term plan by parasitic moochers, is it?' Viper clicked his tongue in distaste.
'I see...I had to ask because She Mei is a Numb Soldier-type...and given our situation, unless she finally starts trusting us as because we're required to work as a team, not on solo jobs, we need to mesh together as a well-oiled team and that's certainly not happening if she acts as if we'll stab her in the back when she's not looking. Her paranoia levels are incredible when you look at her body language.' Lal sighed. 'As of now, she trusts only Feng. She has to trust us too. A level of trust that when mobilized as a unit, we can easily back each other up without need for verbal cues and give things away to potential enemies.'
'Sure as our doctor she'd treat us but there will come a time when we'd need an extra sneak or extra offense. So I propose training her to work alongside us and know how we work and in turn, we know how she works...and due to conditioning, she might do what's stupid and we can't have that.'
'Lal, what's this Numb Archetype you're talking about?' Verde frowned.
'They have high tolerance to pain...physical, emotional, mental, psychological and sexual. They're accustomed to abuse and abandonment. And she was conditioned to be broken in preparation to usurp what's hers easily, too bad they didn't know she's a vengeful territorial Cloud.' came the damning explanation.
'She Mei's not sexually-abused. We checked.' Feng said quickly.
'Great, we have a basket case.' Viper sighed. 'This will be tough. We will be trying to predict, through simulation on what stupid things she might do on a job if required to fight with us. Feng, how offensive can she be?'
'She's built for speed, agility and flexibility, so I taught her acrobatics, martial arts that suited her natural talents and evasion skills. She had no idea how to fight with her fists before we started and relied on her snakes to fight back. She doesn't even own a gun...but when I taught her, she favored knife hands as opposed to a fist...and she got the horrifying idea of temporarily growing her nails and hardening them with her flames as an improvised blade...and shatter reinforced concrete with punches and kicks. And as she's a dangerous combination of Cloud and Sun...horrifying, not even I would anger her.' he chuckled.
'We'll see that in action.' Renato quipped. 'We train her in where she lacks, then test her through scenarios Viper will bring to life. Let's get planning.'
Luce smiled as she foresaw the results of the training.
'We can make it work.'