Yo, what is up! Sorry, this took a while to pump out I got distracted with Theatre stuff. Anyways imma keep it shore if you like it drop a review to lmk if it interesting and Fav to get notified of the next chapter drop!
Under the cloak of the starry night silhouettes of masked men could be seen running across the now vacant and eerily quiet harbour. After a few minutes go by the men gathered and filed into columns in front of a Chinese cargo liner. On closer inspection, they all had nearly identical uniforms that composed of urban camo slim-fit fatigues. At the front of each column men were in a similar dress in addition to varying colours of braided cords were attached to their left shoulders. On the side of each man there appeared to be what look to be a standard issue Glock 19 and what looks to be an abnormal sabre in its scabbard. Not too long after did the area was engulfed by a flash of green that appeared in front of the men. As the flash began to dissipate two figures appeared from the epicentre of the flash. Both the figures had on combat helmets with visors that covered the upper half of their face. One of them had a large stature clad in armor plates made from an unknown composite and what appeared to be plate carrier vest had a similar color scheme to the men behind them, while the other figure had a tall yet feminine physique adorned a slimmer fit uniform with a lighter plate carrier and lesser body plates.
As the remainder of the green light dispersed the men who were at the 'Parade Rest' position instantly snapped to attention before in sync rendered a salute to the two. After the larger man gave a nod they snapped back to 'parade rest'. His gaze went back the large ship.
After a few minutes go on by the girl beside shifted him after growing impatient.
"Excuse my insolence Commander, but what exactly are we waiting for?" She asked as she continued to stare at the ship.
The man made an audible scruff before he motioned his gaze towards the ship while doing so he cracked his neck that gave an audible sound that sent chills not only to her but to the men behind them as well.
"We are meeting our new employer; lieutenant Romero."
She gave a silent nod and retreated to her thoughts.
'I hope we can wrap this up quick, I just want to go to bed...school starts tomorrow-'
A slight nudge on her side drew her attention to the man beside her.
"I understand you have just transferred here from the academy but please try to set an example to the men and to the rest of the clan. It's the only way for them to respect you as my XO. It's our first time working with their organization and the 'fathers' are expecting you to bring results for the clan." he said as he continued to cross his arm.
She snapped to attention.
"I will not fail your sir!"
He gave another silent nod as he looked towards the ship's gangway.
"Took them Long enough. Keep your wits about, the lot of you!"
As the clan members stood attention a medium size group of men were already halfway down the gangway; after a few minutes go by as the men finally were able to set foot onto harbour and began to approach the Commander. As the group collapsed onto the two huntsclan leaders an elderly man with an Erie aura around him emerged from the posse. Upon closer inspection of his features, one could be shocked that he was fairly fit for someone of his age. His well-toned physique could be noticeably seen under his black and gold Tang suit. His height came up to her shoulder. The elderly man had a look of disgust as he examined the men in front of hi. until he noticed Romero directly in front. His once stern face soon got engulfed a face that looked nefarious and lecherous.
"Hehe, what have we here, hello my dear aren't you a sight of weary eyes! Come would you join this poor old man for an evening or two?" the man said as he continued to approach the girl.
She fell into a slight trance before she instinctively backed a short distance and reached for her side holster.
"Hypnosis? Are you a nix?" She unclipped her holster before suddenly the Commanders hand stopped her. Before she could ask she can see that the men all dress in black suits behind the old man had guns pointed at all of them.
"Very unwise young miss, suit yourself the missed opportunity. I guess you all are capable Enough, let us all come aboard we have matters to discuss," he said as he stepped back to the mass of men behind him and they boarded the ship leaving behind the bewildered huntsclan soldiers.
[John F. Kennedy International airport, Arrivals]
An elderly short Chinese man with a kernel beside was patiently beside the baggage carousel.
"Lao Shi, when is your daughter and her family coming I've been in this thing for 16 hours."
A voice came from the kernel.
"Shut up before someone notice that a Shar Pei can talk," he said as he continued to scan through the crowd.
"Daddy over here!" An Asian woman in early 40's waved over towards the old man. Beside her was a teenager in his late teens and girl in her early teens. Beside them was also a middlge age man who was also frantically waving towards him.
"Susan and Jonathan, and you two must be Jake and Haley. Jake, you've grown up to be a handsome young man." Laoshi walked over with a gleeful smile.
The teenage girl gave a slight pout.
"Of course my precious granddaughter has grown up to be a remarkable girl!"
"Really!? Do you want to hear a sonata that I've been working on?" She said as she gave her grandfather a tight hug.
Jonathan walked up Laoshi and shook his hand.
"Howdy sir, was the flight okay and how's Fu doing?" Jonathan peaked into kernel
"umm...bow wow woof...bark?" Fu attempted his impression.
Jonathan gave a concerned look.
"Must be congestion want us to take him to vet sometime this week?"
"Oh hel-"
"That won't be necessary he'll be fine once he gets settled in. Now come let us go home." Lao Shi hurried along pushing both Susan and Jonathan towards the tram terminal.
Haley and Jake both exchanged looks at each other before they went after the three adults.
"Hey, Jake this might sound crazy but was Fu talking and pretending to sound like a dog?"
"you're not alone I could have sworn I heard him say 'bow wow'. This is fishy G' and I'm trying to found out what."
[Secret hull conference room, on board the Lu Bui in New York harbour]
After leaving a few men guarding the perimeter of the ship the Commander and Lieutenant followed after the Triad Boss. After going through the maze of intermodal containers they reached a set of containers that had a pair of guards. They gave the Huntsclan members a look before opening the door to the container. The Triad Boss promptly entered the container with the pair behind him. Upon walking a deceptively long hall well the room abruptly expanded to the size of a conference room with multiple monsters surrounding the room. Each monitor served a different purpose, one could be heard of a local Chinese new channel while a few had a map of John F. Kennedy Airport and the rest seemed to be CC camera feeds of the harbour and ship itself. The Triad Boss walked to the centre conference table and motioned the two at the table.
Immediately he turned on a magic hologram on the table, that showed an aged Chinese man. Before saying a few expletives he cleared his throat before taking out a few manila folders and sliding them towards the commander.
"This is Lao Shi, the current guardian of the artifact we seek. He and his predecessor have been the sole guardians of this artifact since the era known as the Inquisition centuries ago."
The Lieutenant gave a concerned look towards the Commander who had a similar expression before he went briskly went through the contents of the folder in front of him.
"An artifact that has not been destroyed or seized by the Inquisitors? I'm looking through these files and you seem to be withholding what this artifact exactly is and or don't know what it even looks like. How do we know this whole contract isn't a wild goose chase?" The Commander said as he gave a stern look at the Triad Boss.
The Triad Boss gave a chuckle before standing up and walking towards a monitor that had an aged illustrated depiction of a spear with a discernible gemstone of some kind at the base.
The lieutenant and Commander gave a pause as blankly stared and gasped upon recognizing what the illustration was.
"That is a danger to mankind! That old man has it?!" Commander rosed from his seat as he slammed the table in frustration.
Immediately the two guards ran inside shouting in Chinese with their guns drawn at the commander. However one of them recalled there were two huntsclan and was actively scanning the room for the missing member.
The Triad Boss shook his head in disappointment.
("How embarrassing for you two to get knocked out by a girl.") In Cantonese.
But before the two could do anything else, they were swiftly knocked unconscious by a swift karate chop to their necks.
"You two should take a nap this meeting doesn't need any more unnecessary yelling." As Romero returned to her spot beside the Commander.
"What do you want with the Longinus?" she asked.
"I'm sure your...organization has been paid well enough for me to not tell you we intend to do with it." The Triad Boss raised his eyebrows as he turned away.
The Commander remained silent as she looked towards him.
"It seems we have to come to an understanding, we will be in contact. Now get off my ship."
[Long Household]
"Made it home at last!" Jake set down Fu's kernel as he ran up to his room.
Susan frowned in disappointment as she was about to scold her eldest son before she was stopped by her father.
"Dad-"
"I remember when I was his age, so full of energy and spunk! He did fine in bringing in Fu Dog, the old boy is getting too heavy for me to personally nowadays."
Fu gave a slight snarl as he grumbled.
"Jake dinner will be ready in an hour make sure you come down to help set the table!" Susan said as she disappeared into the kitchen.
"Oh, I wanna help mom!" Haley quickly followed behind her.
"I guess ill he-"
"NO!-" Susan and Haley belted from the top of their lungs.
"No need honey why don't you watch the football game dinner will be ready after the first half."
Jonathan stopped in his tracks as he slowly walked to the sofa in defeat.
Lao Shi seeing that this was his opportunity to talk to his daughter he walked into the kitchen.
Fu who had been quiet for a while inside his kennel when his stomachs began to growl.
"Uh oh... oh man I knew I shouldn't have eaten that dog food." he whimpered as he unlocked the kennel himself and ran upstairs to the bathroom.
[45 minutes later]
A flush could be heard as Fu walked out of the bathroom on his hind legs.
"Bing bottom boom! Woo, I'm never eating complimentary aeroplane treats again-"
Fu stopped mid tracks as he was greeted by an appalled Jake. Quickly he dropped on all fours and began to roll around on the floor in hopes to distract the kid.
"woof woof woof!" he continued to roll on his back.
{Come on kid, either fall for it or don't you making an f-}
"Yo Fu...Dog...you making a fool of yourself. Cats out of the bag... Dog." Jake said with shame in his voice.
Fu stopped midway as he got back on his hind legs.
"Oh man, the old man is going to kill me."
"That won't be necessary, on contrary, you made things much easier old friend." Lao Shi said as he walked towards the two.
"What's sup G' did you already know that Fu can talk?"
"Of course he knows, I'm his animal companion. We all talk. By the way, you might wanna give that a minute." Fu said as he sprayed the air freshener in the bathroom.
"Ugh gross...wait for an animal companion? There are more animals that can talk?" Jake said as he rubbed his temples in frustration.
"Each guardian is assigned a companion by the Magic Council." Lao Shi nodded in agreement.
Jake was left speechless as he began to head downstairs.
"Talking dogs, Guardians, and Magic Council? Next, you're going to tell me dragons are real?" Jake said as he folded his arms with an inquisitive tone.
"Of course not! At least not anymore." Fu said in an intellectual tone.
"Hah...wait for what?"
"They've long been extinct." Lao Shi added
"You mentioned your a Guardian, what exactly are you guarding and against what?" Jake continued on.
"I protect the magical community I'm assigned to and handle any external and internal conflicts. But within our family, we have an additional task that has been passed down from our ancestors." Lao shi replied.
"Dad have you called for Jake yet?" Susan called out from the kitchen.
Jake nearly jumped when he turned to his grandfather.
"Were on our way down mom!" he replied.
"Do my parents know anything about this?"
"Your mother has always known about the Magical community, in fact, she was meant to take up my mantle as the next guardian. Well until she met your father." Lao Shi continued on as they reached the bottom of the stairwell.
"So my father has no clue about all this?"
Lao shi gave a slight pause before shaking his head.
"If your the guardian than are you able to run away from your duties like this just to hang out with your family?"
Lao shi gave a chuckle.
"Young one, I am not so irresponsible to run away from my duties. My time as Hong Kong's Guardian has been far too long. I have already closed my ties in China and have long made sure my successor is firmly established."
"Oh, that's pretty nice of you G'. I mean grandpa." Jake said in amazement.
They reached into the kitchen and were greeted by the table already set.
"Sorry, Jake I already took care of setting up the table," Haley said with prep in her tone.
Jake looked around the kitchen before peeking back into the living room.
"Where's dad?"
"He forgot his laptop at work so he went back to get it. He asked to start eating. Coincidently it would give your grandfather enough time to talk to you." Susan said as she turned around and placed a hot pot centre on the table.
"Oh, hot pot my fav...wait...Haley?" Jake paused as he looked towards Haley who in return returned a confused look.
"Not needed I filled him in with the basic stuff for now." As Lao shi grabbed a bowl and few thin strips of ribeye and dipped them into the steaming pot.
"Oh, your talking about the magical creature stuff? Yeah, Jake, I was already suspicious when we were at the airport. In fact, it made a lot of sense when Grandfather and Mom explained it to me earlier." Haley chimed in as she followed after Lao Shi.
Susan and Fu joined the hotpot dinner leaving Jake the only one standing there agape. Before he brushed it off and started to join them as well after a few minutes go by with random dinner table talk.
"So when does his training start?" Susan chimed in as she gulped down few ribbons of the cooked meat.
"Huh?"
"After we find a quaint location for my store." Lao Shi replied as he fished out a shitake mushroom.
"What store?"
"I heard Chinatown is relatively close to the entrance to New York's Enclave," Fu added as he slurped the residue broth in his bowl.
"Enclave?"
"Your so lucky Jake, I wish I was in your shoes-But figuratively speaking, of course, you have athlete's foot. Yuck!" Haley groaned as she finished her meal.
"Really my dear? I'll have to ask the Council maybe they can arrange for a trainer for you and you can be Jake's substitute when needed." Lao Shi smoothed out his soul patch beard as he entertained the thought.
Jake became overwhelmed as he yelled out in anguish.
"Yo can someone fill me in on what yall talking about?"
"No need to put your jimmies in a twisted kid, Old pops here has been assigned to be your Official trainer to be New York's first Guardian!" Fu said as he scooped his 3rd bowl of rice.
That wraps up the first chapter! If you read my other story before you would know I love ending chapters cliffhangers. Why? Because I love the feeling of being a tease.
Sorry for any grammar mistakes I really do try my best and throwing it in grammerly is the best I can do. As for when the next chapter is going to drop? I can tell you it wont be for awhile so stay tunned! Drop a Fav and Rev ya boy RKJ is out!
