Danny stands in his dojo, wearing his K'un Lun garment sans mask while facing Colleen and Misty who wear white uniforms with black belts. He takes a stance and they mimic him. "Remember to breathe," he tells them, "Try to sense your chi. Feel the rhythm of your body." The women close their eyes and concentrate as they breathe. "Your punch shouldn't just come from the strength of your arms but from your inner energy. Feel it flowing through you," he tells them before striking, "K'ai!". The ladies strike.
"So when do we check our Mediclorian count?," Misty asks.
"If you're going to make a Star Wars reference, at least make it the original trilogy," Danny mumbles, his eyes still closed.
"Can we get on with this?," Colleen asks tiredly.
"Sorry," Misty and Danny say in unison.
Before they can continue, however, the doorbell rings. "Great," Colleen grumbles as they relax their stances. "Expecting company?," Misty asks. "Not really," Danny places a shirt over his gi, hiding the dragon tattoo on his chest, "You guys can keep practicing. I'll see who it is." He walks back through his house and to the front door. When he opens it, he's greeted by the man from Bangkok who now has his jacket buttoned up over his torn shirt and his bag still slung over his shoulder.
"Can I help you?," Danny asks.
"You're Daniel Rand, right?"
"Yes?"
"I'm Orson Randall," he tells him and waits, as if expecting a response that never comes.
Danny gives him a blank stare.
"They never told you about me, did they?"
"Uh, no?"
"Figures... I have no easy way to tell you this,... so I'll just show you instead."
He opens his jacket, exposing the dragon tattoo on his chest. Danny's eyes widen but he quickly retains his composure, "I'm not sure what you want me to make of that."
"I know you recognize this symbol."
"Uh,… I think I saw some guy on the news with that same tattoo. Isn't he an Avenger or something?"
"Okay, let's try this another way," Orson rolls his eyes.
He clenches his fist and it suddenly ignites in chi energy. Danny stands in stunned silence as he gazes at the Iron Fist. Colleen and Misty soon join him at the front door and are likewise shocked when they see someone else using the technique. Orson opens his palm and the energy disappears in a shimmering cloud. "Now, do you think we can talk?," he asks.
A few moments later, Orson is sitting on Danny's couch with him sitting in the chair on the other side of the room. Colleen and Misty pace around behind them.
"As I said, my name is Orson Randall; I used to be an archeologist. Studied Oriental history. As you might have guessed, I've traveled to many places. Some of them were more remote than others."
"Like K'un Lun?," Danny asks.
Orson glances at Colleen and Misty, "Um,… Shouldn't we talk without them in the room?"
"Oh, don't worry. We know all about K'un Lun and all that dragon stuff," Misty tells him.
"You know they don't like it when you tell outsiders," Orson tells Danny, "I hope you haven't told anyone else."
"Um,… I'm kind of friends with Luke Cage," Danny says quietly, "I told him too."
Orson shakes his head, "Okay... So, I studied mythologies and legends of the East…"
As he speaks, he remembers his past. He sits at a desk, a much younger man, and pours over several books laid out around him. He continues the story...
"I had heard of a mythical city called K'un Lun. Some ancient scholars and a few explorers claimed to have seen the city appear and disappear throughout the centuries. It made me curious. There have been hundreds of legends about mystical cities but this particular one was a little more obscure, yet the few accounts I found were surprisingly consistent…"
He finds several matching photographs and drawings of the same mountain range. At least one drawing has a crudely drawn city seemingly disappearing in mist. Another is a grainy old, black and white photograph of what appears to be the city in the distance.
"… Even down to the same location."
The younger Orson comes across a star map in one of the books.
"That's when I found the writings of an old Chinese astrologer who claimed to predict when the city would appear and disappear. Supposedly, it would be once every ten years and the anniversary was coming up."
The young Orson treks across the frozen Chinese wilderness.
"I wanted to see what the stories were all about. I expected to uncover the legend."
Orson reaches the top of a mountain. He sees nothing at first but then the wind shifts.
"I ended up finding the reality."
K'un Lun appears through the mist and Orson stands in awe as it covers the mountain top.
"K'un Lun was real. Unfortunately, it was not too friendly."
Orson is brought into the throne room by guards and tossed onto the floor. The king rises to his feet and explains to his guards in Mandarin, "He's an outsider. He can't know about our city. Execute him." Orson sits up and responds in the same language, "Please, wait." This surprises everyone in the room and they fall silent.
"Luckily, my Mandarin was good enough that they were willing to hear what I had to say."
As Orson explains himself, a small boy peaks out from behind the king.
"The king had a son who was curious enough to convince his father to let me live. In exchange, I to teach the son about the modern outside world."
He sits with the young prince, teaching him the alphabet. He seems happy and writes the letters in his book.
"I was more or less a prisoner but it beat getting executed. The kid liked me, though, and he was a quick learner."
"So how did you get the Iron Fist?," Colleen asks.
Orson continues to explain. As a young man, he walks along the street and watches a group of K'un Lun warriors training and begins taking notes.
"I was interested in the martial arts. The problem was, I wasn't too popular with most of the city. Especially not the trainers."
One of the instructor turns and shouts at Orson, "Hey outsider, if you're gonna stare at us like an idiot, you might as well step into the ring," then motions to the sparring circle.
He shrugs, "Sure."
Soon, he faces a K'un Lun warrior in a dojo. The warrior takes a fighting stance while he takes a Western boxing stance.
"I started learning about their fighting abilities firsthand."
The instructor gives the order to fight and the warrior kicks Orson square in the chest and knocks him down.
"I got my ass kicked."
Over the years, he gets into more and more fights and each time, he ends up on the ground.
"… A lot."
He faces off against another warrior. The order is given to fight and Orson launches himself forward and kicks him to the ground.
"But I got better."
The king watches and nods in approval.
"The king respected the fact that an outsider was able to hold his own and I was given the unique chance to fight for the honor of the Iron Fist."
Orson and another fighter stand in the middle of the arena. They square off and begin to fight. Several minutes later, his opponent drops to the floor in an unconscious heap while a bloodied and bruised Orson drops to his knees above him, victorious but exhausted.
"I managed to win. My prize was the heart of Shaou-Lao."
Orson stands over the shrine holding the beating heart of the dragon, then places his hands into the shrine and screams as the tattoo is burned in his chest.
"My ten years were up at that point and it was time to go back to the world."
Orson walks toward the front gates of K'un Lun and takes one last look back. There, he sees the adult prince, his wife, and their baby.
"The prince came to see me off, along with his wife and their new baby boy."
In the present, Orson finishes his story, "The boy... would become the father of Lei Kung." Danny perks up, "Wait, what? If you knew Lei Kung's grandfather as a child, then that'd make you -."
"Really old," Orson tells him, "There's a lot you don't know about the Iron Fist. One of the perks is that aging slows down quite a bit," he brushes his slightly graying hair, "But not too much."
"When I came to the city, Lei Kung had been the king for some time," Danny tells him, "He told me that I was not the first Westerner to find the place. He knew English and so did his son, Davos."
"You have me to thank for that," Orson tells him.
"I'm surprised he never told me about you."
"It's a bit complicated. Chances are, everyone in K'un Lun probably believes I'm dead. When you have the Iron Fist, there's always someone out there trying to kill you, it seems."
"I've experienced that already."
"Get used to it."
"Have you been tracking Danny this whole time?," Misty asks.
"I've known there was another Iron Fist for a while but I didn't decide to come find him until recently."
"So why are you here?," Colleen asks.
"To let you know about the Tournament of the Immortal Weapons."
Before anyone can ask Orson to elaborate, several figures smash their way through the windows.