K'un Lun

The city is in the middle of a strange, cosmic void, hanging in the nothingness, a relic from another time, plucked out of ancient China and placed under a curse. K'un Lun's ruler, Lei Kung walks through the palace, followed by his advisors. The double doors ahead of him are opened and a monk rushes out to great him, bowing before telling him, "My lord, please come quickly." They enter the room, which contains a large golden globe built in slowly rotating sections. Each sections contains engravings of planets, stars, and other objects which resembles a star chart... if the stars were on another plane of existence. The room otherwise contains hundreds of charts, maps, and equasions littering the floors and shelves. The monk points to the globe, which slowly rotates, lining up small model cities engraved on the sides. Lei Kung says nothing as he studies them.

"It's time," the monk tells him, "The Seven Cities are aligning."

"We knew this day would come soon," Lei Kung explains, "The tournament will begin. The Immortal Weapons will be gathered."

"My king, if you will permit me to ask," one of his advisors begins, "Who will be the champion for K'un Lun?"

Lei Kung remains silent as he contemplates his answer.

New York

An airplane comes in for a landing at JFK International Airport. The man from Bangkok arrives in the terminal, still with a single bag over his shoulder. He checks the area for any signs of the Green Mist and continues on his way once he's satisfied. Later, he hails a cab silently. Once it stops, he gets in. "Where to?," the cab driver asks. "Nassau County," he tells him. "Where in Nassau?," the driver asks. "Just drive. I'll tell you when we're there," he says curtly and they drive away. Later, they are on the highway. The man sits quietly in the back, holding his bag carefully beside him and as he closes his eyes as if in deep meditation, a green flash passes by the cab's window. His eyes snap open and the driver shouts, "The hell was that?"

As if to answer that question, the Green Mist drops from above, landing on top of the cab. "Jesus!", the driver screams and jerks the wheel. "Pull over," the man in the back tells him, "He's only after me.". The driver swerves across the lanes, nearly hitting cars as they honk and stomp on their breaks. The cab squeals to a stop, throwing the Green Mist off the top where he turns into green fog and carefully lands on the side of the highway. The man in the back of the cab leaps out of the backseat and runs across the road with the Green Mist quickly following. He darts around, narrowly avoiding being hit by a car while his attacker turns into mist and flies right through a passing semi-truck. Tires squeal and a car slides toward the man as he darts into the farthest lane, stopping only inches away from him. He breathes a sigh of relief, only to have the car behind that one rear-end the first car, sending him rolling over its hood. He tumbles off to the side and rises in time to see the Green Mist dropping from above. He throws a punch, but its blocke and then blocks a kick in return. The Green Mist grabs him by the shirt and whips him around, briefly turning to fog to send him flying hard enough to rip his shirt open and send him into the side of the car. Green Mist tosses what's left of his shirt, then turns, noticing that all of the cars on the highway have now stopped with people getitng out to survey the crashed vehicles around them. A concerned expression crosses his face as he begins to notice the damage, then disappears. The man from Bangkok rises to his feet, his shirt now ripped open with the light revealing the Mark of Shou-Lao on his chest.

Danny's tattoo of the Mark of Shou-Lao is visible on his chest as he stands in the middle of his private dojo, wearing his K'un Lun garments with mask. He sits down with his legs crossed and a semi-circle of candles lit around him. He breathes in as he meditates and begins to remember the front gates of K'un Lun, his instruction of the martial arts, and the pumping heart of Shou-Lao in its shrine. Then comes the vision of Davos and his death via Iron Fist. He calmly breathes out and sees a quick flash of Lei Kung who whispers, "Daniel Rand-K'ai..." His eyes open and his concentration is broken as he sits in the darkness.

The next day, he has lunch at a cafe with Misty.

"I don't know how this meditation thing works," she tells him, "So I'm not sure what you mean by your chi being thrown off."

"Well, it's essentially my life force. Everyone has it but people like me -"

"Can use the Iron Fist attack."

"Well, as far as I know, I'm the only one with the Iron Fist. Chi energy can be used for different abilities, though, yeah."

"Anyway, keep going."

"So I'm meditating and I start thinking back to my days in K'un Lun and my battles with Davos. That wasn't too upsetting. That sort of thing happens but then I started getting weird visions of my old mentor Lei Kung. They weren't memories, though. I think he was trying to communicate with me all the way from K'un Lun."

"So what does this mean?"

"Not sure."

"So it could just be... I don't know, a hallucination or something."

"No, it was real. I just need to know what he wants to tell me. Find a way to reach him."

She sits back, "I really don't know what to say to all that."

"Me either, but I'm sure it's not going to make things any easier for me when I find out."

"What about the Iron Fist? You keep saying you're learning more about it and what it can do. Maybe this has something to do with that."

"Maybe. Who knows?"

"I'm sure you can figure it out. By the way, Colleen wants to spar tonight."

"Sure, that's fine. I have time."

"I'm not so excited about it. I had a long week."

"You don't have to come out."

"I do. If Colleen is practicing, I have to practice. I know I'll never be as good as you but I can at least try to get up to Colleen's level... someday anyway."

"It's not a competition."

"It is."

"It is?"

"Yeah."

"...Oh."

"You know I love you and I've been BFF with Colleen for a long time now, but sometimes I feel like I'm left out when you two get into all that kung-fu stuff. I mean, I can get by. I know how to fight, but the two of you take it to this whole other level. It's like you're a part of a different world and I want to be a part of that world."

"You know I love you too," he tells her as he holds her hand, "Who cares if you're not as good?"

She glares a bit, "Not the right thing to say."

"I didn't mean it like that."

"How did you mean it?"

"I... don't know."

She gets up and kisses him with a bittersweet smile, "I'll see you tonight."