1963-08-21 - It's Chinatown
Summary: Some goons choose exactly the wrong noodle shop to try and extort for protection money.
Related: None
Theme Song: None
illyana akihiro katie danny dagger cloak 


Evening in Chinatown. It's New York City, sure, but venturing into this part of town is like traveling across the globe. Streetlights and lanterns, strings of light hung across narrow alleyways with close-set shops and the oft-unfamiliar sounds of a completely foreign language tossed between patrons and shopkeepers all lend to the air of being somewhere completely foreign.

It's a busy night. For most of the residents here, weekends aren't really a thing. But since most of the people they work for are home for Sunday dinner, it gives them a little more time to take care of business. Not everyone's business, though, is legitimate.

In the midst of the chatter and commerce, a small group of men in suits stands in front of a restaurant. The sign is in Mandarin, meaning the name is unintelligible to most who aren't local, but the locals know it's where the best noodles in town are. They've become quite the underground success, even among upper crust New Yorkers looking for something a little different. The problem is, all that success means the protection rate is about to go up.

*

If you're a Howlett, that means you have a nose for all things Eastern, and all things trouble. Akihiro seems to have more of a nose for trouble, but noodles too. So, he had already decided that today he wanted to come to Chinatown and try the noodles here, nose leading him since he doesn't understand Mandarin in the slightest. Tonight he's dressed in his jeans and leathers once again, though his hair isn't quite long enough to slick back just yet.

*

Thanks to a night in the college library with a book on Mandarin Katie knows just enough to properly thank a gentleman for the bag of parts she has just purchased. A selection of sewing machine parts from an out of production model only used in shady back street garment factories. She almost certainly isn't paying a great price for them, but she got what she wanted /and/ the owner has decided against beating her up. So in a way it's a double win!

*

Illyana seems largely unaware of the foreboding sense around the noodle joint. She moves along with a complete disregard for the proprieties of New York, projecting an authoritative bubble around her despite her slender stature and the sheet of haystack-yellow hair hanging to her lower back. Wearing a grey dress and a blue blouse, there's something a bit cruel in her eyes and to the twist of her lips that keeps even the street panhandlers from asking her for spare change. She pads along on blue slipper flats until she approaches the noodle joint. The men in front are in her way, so— she just walks right through their little group, without so much as an 'excuse me!'

*

Chinatown. So many threads in the city end up here if one follows them long enough, and certainly one will find all manner of thread-pullers if one simply waits long enough.

Two such thread-chasers are standing a slient vigil on the rooftop across from the noodle place, but food is not on their minds. The girl in white watches the street with a quiet intensity that seems at odds with her appearance at first glance. Next to her, swatched in darkness, is her partner in this vigil, and on him the silent regard seems much more natural. Either of the pair has become used to this sort of activity over the last two years, for they are CLOAK AND DAGGER, purveyors of street justice, and they've been drawn to this rooftop to ply their trade.

*

Truth be told, the men in suits outside the ramen shop were not actually the thread that had led Cloak and Dagger to this place. However, that is what has caught the attention of the more shadowy of the two figures, the glowing white eyes gazing out from under the drawn hood narrowing slightly in suspicion.

"Dagger. There." Cloak doesn't step closer to the edge of the roof — that requires legs. He simply drifts there, watching attentively as Illyana approaches the group.

*

Danny Rand could be at a swanky cocktail party right now. Marilyn Monroe's supposed to be in town, which means the bar would be full of men with their blood running away from their brains, which always makes for a good time. But as much fun as cocktail parties are, cracking heads is just a little bit more rewarding. Besides, she was really hungry for some of those noodles.

She'd already hopped down from the roof, ready to step out of the alley and head for the shop. She was even halfway to taking off her mask. And then there was the crowd of goons. Goons are always bad for business.

Speaking of the goons, they don't much care for Illyana's interruption. Exclaiming something in Mandarin, they move to block her way, one of them reaching for her arm and rattling out a comment. The words might not be clear, but the intent is: Shop's closed right now, go away.

Danny, for her part, lingers in the shadow of the alley for another moment, taking stock of the situation. One confused little blonde girl. Two very unusual figures on the rooftop. Several civilians. And eight goons blocking the way to her favorite noodle shop. Is nothing sacred?

*

Akihiro doesn't look happy. "Hey!" he shouts when he sees the goons lay hands on Illyana. He steps forward, "You speak English? Japanese?" Don't ever say he doesn't give these people a chance. Even a blind man could see that he means business, and isn't even a little worried about getting his hands dirty.

*

"Oh. Is that you Akihiro? Out trying to pick up girls again?" Katie asks curiously and with complete disregard for the situation. "You should probably focus more on your studies." She slings the bag of parts over her shoulder, then adjuts her outfit so her handbag is within easy reach. Mostly to herself she adds "This really is a smaller city than it seems."

*

Illyana's response to being grabbed is… violent. She rotates her arm in a swift circle, breaking his grip, and grabs the fellow's wrist with her bare hand. There's a cracking of bones as her fingers snap his wristbones like toothpicks, and the big gangster drops to his knees, screaming and trying to support his broken arm with his other hand.

*

"I see them," Dagger murmurs back to her partner, and then tilts her head as all hell breaks loose around Illyana. How… odd. "That's our cue," she notes. Can't have hell breaking out without a demon and an angel around, right? 'course not. Leaping off the roof is… doable but dangerous. Stepping backwards into Cloak's darkness to face the Predator within… that's much safer. Everything is subjective.

*

There is a pause as Cloak watches Illyana go at the man who grabbed her, and the spectre's lips twitch upwards into a smile. "You sure we're needed?" he asks lightly even as Dagger disappears into his cloak. With a chuckle that is not very nice, there is a swirl of darkness, and he — like his partner — vanishes.

When they reappear, it is on the edge of the group of thugs, and they are heralded by a very distinct sense of cold before a black smoke coalesces into Cloak's still-intangible form. He doesn't even act. Yet. "Gentlemen. It isn't nice to touch a lady without her permission."

*

Oh, okay. Little blonde girl isn't confused, she's just…noodle-motivated. Danny can get behind that. Before things devolve too far, she steps out from the alley herself, calling over to the goons. "It looks like your guys are just about outnumbered," she points out.

One goon goes down with Illyana's help, but in a split second, the other seven have all drawn guns, aimed at the would-be heroes in a rush of mixed English and Mandarin. Either they aren't very bright, or they have a very inflated sense of their capabilities. "This is none of your business," one insists in broken, heavily-accented English. "You go now, maybe we don't shoot you." At a wail from the downed gangster, he looks to Illyana. "Except this one. We shoot this one." And then he's already pointing his gun at Illyana's head, the hammer clicking back.

*

Akihiro reacts much like a wasp that was in a nest that got kicked, leaping and cracking his elbow down across the temple of the goon that aimed his gun at Illyana. "Guess you really want to play with Daken." the teen growls, popping his claws, clearly trying to draw the gun fire onto himself.

*

"Oh. Well this is not good," Katie states as everything kicks off into violence, her hand instinctively dipping into her bag. "Excuse me… would any of you gentlemen be able to clear something up for me? I was wondering. Does this smell like chloroform to you?" And at that she helpfully throws a glass perfume bottle at one of the goons, then heroically throws herself flat on the ground and starts scrambling for a hiding place. And what do you know, when the glass breaks it really does smell like chloroform!

*

Illyana gives the gun a baffled look. The one man's on the ground, screaming, and then there's a gun in her face. She seems to have no idea what the weapon is— or what it can do. But the fellow uses it like it's a trump card, and the way the other fellows arm themselves, Illyana just assumes 'game on'.

So she slashes her hand through the air with shocking speed and strength, slapping the gun aside and then bracing herself, breaks the fellow's elbow with a firm twist that digs into the ground and comes from her hips. She bulls into him and throws two violent, heavy punches into the side of his head, drubbing him to the ground, and whirls on the next gangster, hands outstretched and a feral grin on her face as she stalks her next target. They're only armed with saps, right?

*

One of the interesting things about the pocket dimension Cloak forms a gateway to is it allows one to play around with conservation of momentum in interesting ways. It can be a little awkward, but Dagger has had a lot of practice taking advantage of the strange properties of her partner's powers. So when she abrubtly makes her appearance from the folds of Cloak's… cloak… it's in the nature of being launched into the air over the aim of the thugs and clear of their gunfire. She springboards off the shoulders of the one immediately in front of Cloak for extra height, tucking into a ball until she reaches the apex of her arc, at which point she goes spread-eagled, arcs of light trailing her fingertips as she throws a fan of light-daggers at the thugs, targetting their hands to disrupt their hold on the weapons. it's difficult to lock-on to this many at once, but she usually manages to nail a few in these situations. "Didn't your parents ever tell you not to play with guns?"

*

As Dagger erupts into action, the glowing white eyes beneath Cloak's hood take very quick stock of their surroundings. Then, the shadows that make up his cloak seem to just… spread.

Confident that the people facing off against these armed men seem perfectly capable of defending themselves, Cloak is more concerned about the civilians and businesses nearby — and so he allows his presence to spread, forming what is essentially a ring around the fracas to keep it contained. He is prepared to simply absorb any stray gunfire into himself to keep it from striking anyone uninvolved in the melee.

"Mind the gas," is all that Cloak says aloud, his tone downright conversational, as if commenting on the weather.

*

Nobody ever told these men not to play with guns, that's for sure. The one who thought he was going to shoot Illyana finds himself in a very unpleasant situation. Between Illyana and Akihiro, he's very much down in very short order, clutching at his hands as he tries to figure out what just happened. Lucky for him and his downed companion, Katie's chloroform is going to put them out of their misery in short order.

But with two down, that still leaves six more thugs guarding the front of the shop, and every one of them opens fire, concentrated on Illyana and Akihiro.

Dagger's light-show catches two of them, sending their guns clattering to the ground, and Danny flips over the barrier of Cloak's mist to follow up on them with the heel of one hand and the heel of one foot. "Hey, pick on someone with your own armory," she says, turning toward the four armed goons emptying their clips.

*

One, two, three, four, five, bullets tear into Akihiro, causing the teen to hunch over, breathing heavily. About the time they empty their clips the bullets inside of him start to hit the ground as the wounds they left close up. "My turn."

The teen moves into action, and it becomes apparent he isn't in his right mind at all. The claws are retracted, and his punches are no longer pulled as he leaps onto one of the men that shot him. Each strike is to the unlucky man's facial region, and each hit with enough force to crush the hard bone underneath.

*

"Oh crap. I've been shot!" Katie yelps as something bounces off her shoulder. It takes a few moments before she realises it's a gun that Dagger had sent flying. "Dibs." Because if you call dibs it's not stealing. Her brave scramble for safety continues, but now she's got a stolen gun. Yay! Her power gets to work giving an understanding of the weapon. Ugh someone wasn't taking very good care of his equipment. "I will have to recommend my female friends do /not/ date Akihiro."

*

Illyana jerks in surprise as two bullets performate her torso. There's a bloom of red on her pretty dress, and she staggers and almost falls backwards, surprise and pain on her features.

"I… what?" she says, voice over-loud in the deafening resonance following the gunshots. She touches her stomach, staring at over-dark blood on her fingertips.

Confusion changes to fury as she realizes she's been wounded, and quite badly, and then fury becomes raw, black rage. Literally, as dark shadows suffuse her being, rippling ink seeping from her skin and floating into the air.

She opens her mouth and words come forth, but they're not human words, or a human voice. Her eyes turn black as pitch, iris and white alike, and purple shadows suggest the last of a tail, the grip of talons and the beginnings of reversed horns on her brow. That black tongue tears around the area like an explosive blast from a speaker, cracking concrete, breaking windows, and causing ears to bleed as the inhuman, eldritch chant starts to undo reality in a thirty-yard radius around the woman— and that's a side effect of attempting to forcibly translocate the thugs to Limbo, very, very painfully.

*

"Dagger." Her partner's call isn't all that loud, but it gets her attantion just the same, as she recovers from her landing and… um… all Limbo breaks loose where previously it had merely been some semblance of hell. She takes quick stock of the situation, decides Aki's raging is not the largest problem to deal with just now, and zeros in on the transforming Illy. Right, that would be the strange girl. Dagger really, really wishes she could say this is the weirdest thing she's ever seen. It really isn't. Superheroing for two years does weird things to one's perspective. She straightens, literally radiant as she lets the lifeforce she generates crank up to the point it sheds visible light, and flicks her wrist, a handful of incandescent Light Daggers appearing in her grip. "I think that's a little excessive, young lady," she declares, and swings her arm upward, flicking a dozen bright projectiles into Illyana, attempting to simply stun her out of the eldritch rage with bolts of raw life energy.

*

Those glowing white slits within Cloak's hood have gone very, very wide. Whatever that girl is trying to do is not good. He can feel it. The way that shadows have engulfed her and the sense of Wrong that has begun to radiate from Illyana are familiar, and Cloak does not like it, even before the physical effects begin wreaking merry havoc on their surroundings. Abruptly, the ring formed by his cloak vanishes — and so does he.

When Cloak reappears, it is in front of Illyana. He remains intangible but even so, he's gritting his teeth from the sheer force emanating from the girl. "Miss! Calm down!" he shouts, pitching his voice to try and be heard over the maelstrom even as his partner acts. Lord, is this what Dagger used to deal with? He owes her another apology. Or fifty.

*

Akihiro's fury is no small thing. The goon whose face he's pulping isn't getting back up any time soon. One down, three to go.

Three…to go. Literally. To go. Because as Illyana's spell starts to warp reality in the circle of Cloak's mist, the three remaining goons start to scream. It's blood-curdling the sound of someone whose entire existence, whose entire basis in reality is being unmoored, thread by thread. And they can feel it, like every single blood vessel in their body being plucked through the skin and pulled one by one into that Other Place.

It's hard to see at first, but if any of the heroes are looking closely enough, they can see the men start to disintegrate on this plane, disappearing cell by cell.

Eldritch horrors aren't really Danny's wheelhouse. Out of control martial artists, on the other hand, are more familiar territory. "Okay, easy there, tiger," she says, leaping into a spinning kick at Akihiro's jaw, swiftly followed by the heel of her hand. The guy just got shot and he's still moving. That's not promising. Luckily, Danny is no slouch when it comes to kung fu. She should be able to keep him busy, at least.

*

Illyana starts curling more shadow and fury into her hands, trying to create a warding shield, but it's too late— Cloak and Dagger do their think. Cloak distracts her with a shout and a flickering motion, and that gives Dagger's … daggers perfect opportunity to slam into her. She tries to dodge but the mystical missiles follow with unerring accuracy, breaking through her shields on the sixth, and then slam into Illyana like she'd stepped in front of a pitching machine on steroids. They batter her down and she falls backwards to hit the ground with a *crack* of her skull on concrete, knocked senseless by the daggers of light and the impact. Her wounds still seep black shadow, but that's probably preferable to blood, right? The men start to return to Earth, the banishment not quite having been completed— but it's a process of unendurable agony that takes entirely too long, and they scream until their voices are ruined by the pain and they can only slump to the ground, eyes wide in blinded horror.

*

Akihiro looks like he's about to say something, and then he takes a foot to his jaw, causing it to crack and hang at an odd angle. He reaches up to straighten it and his eyes settle onto Danny. "I don't know who you are, but whatever you're thinking, I'd rethink it." He appears back in control of his facilities for the moment, and not too ready to start another fight now that the shooting is over with.

*

"An M1911 pistol, probably lend lease from the war judging by the markings. Still in working condition although it could use cleaning. Most excellent!" Katie rambles to herself right before Illyana does something improbable and quite unpleasant to the fabric of reality. She sobs as part of her brain that can't switch off tries very hard to escape the strange sounds. And then no sooner had they started than they are gone. "Eugh, Suddenly I can relate to the works of Escher…. Are we all dead now? If so then afterlife has been /extremely/ overrated."

*

"Bad news, it's still New York," Dagger quips at Katie once reality re-asserts itself, and she hustles over to join her partner by Illyana. "I don't suppose anyone knows this girl? I can't do anything with gunshots. And I'm not entirely sure what this black stuff actually is other than 'not normal'." So she probably shouldn't try purging it.

*

By the time Illyana hits the ground, there is a fully corporeal Cloak kneeling down next to her, white eyes still wide as he quickly looks her over. His hands hover over the gunshot wounds, but he doesn't dare touch them. "We can't just leave her here," he tells Dagger. "But I don't know if the hospital is safe."

The screaming goons whose psyches have been shattered? Yeah, whatever. They deserved it. Cloak's more worried about the girl who had what was possibly just a Very Bad Reaction to being, you know… shot.

*

Danny gives Akihiro a long look, still in a ready stance, before she nods slowly. "I'm thinking if you've got yourself together, we're good," she replies, though she also gives him another look, checking for the injuries she knows were there. It's wary, but there's concern there too. Concern for him, even. Once she's reassured, she nods again, easing up to move toward Illyana and the others.

"I think today's lesson is don't play with guns," she notes to Katie in passing, crouching next to Illyana and holding a hand out over the girl. "That…is some fucked up chi," she concludes of the black mist, glancing up to Dagger. "That was good work. Quick thinking. Both of you," she adds, turning to include Cloak.

On the street, the goons are done. They're panting, whimpering…although all of them seem to be breathing, for the moment. Even if a few of them look to be leaking a lot of blood. And other things.

*

Katie stands up, dusts herself off. "Then perhaps we should all head home before the police arrive," The gun is slipped into her bag casually. She had called dibs after all. "It may be advisable for everyone to relocate from the chemicals. Unless they wish to experience respiratory and cardiac arrhythmias or failure. Neither of which I would recommend. Also if anyone knows the owner of the establishment they may wish to hide them to prevent reprisals." She shrugs. "As upon inspection these might be some sort of hired goons."

*

Dagger is quick to give Illyana a closer looking over, but there's a limit to what she can do. Familiar with gunshots, yes. A qualified medic… not so much. She should really consider changing that sometime. She frowns and looks across towards Cloak, frowning. "I guess we could get her to our nurse friend quietly, from there to the church…" she doesn't look convinced. "I don't think she should wake up in a hospital, anyway." Decisions.

*

"Yeah, we're good. As long as you don't dislocate my jaw again." Akihiro informs Danny with a slight nod. "I've got her." He motions towards Illyana, "We live in the same place. Why I wasn't too keen on seeing her get shot."

*

Cloak lifts his head to look at Danny and, for a moment, he seems to pause. With a nearly imperceptible narrowing of his eyes, he just nods.

When Akihiro speaks up, Cloak rises to his feet and takes a few steps back, giving the young man a curious look from under his hood. "Do you need transport?" he asks carefully. "I can carry you both, I think. And she's right," he notes, thumbing towards Katie. "We should not be here when the authorities arrive."

*

"Actually. Before I go…" Katie very very carefully picks her way over to the broken perfume bottle. Staying as far away from any of the crazy people as possible. Then spritzes the evidence with a second chemical. "Better remove the finger prints. Have a nice day everyone." She waves her finger at Akihiro sternly. "Please try not to murder anyone else." And then she's off. Briskly walking for just as long as it's polite. Then breaking into a run as soon as she turns a corner.

*

Danny moves back as Akihiro steps up to take care of the downed girl, though she's still giving the leaking wounds a very uncertain look. That is just not right. And hopefully not a sign of actual badness, because then she'd feel really bad about just letting these people wander off. Even Katie, whose counter-forensic measures get a quirk of her brow beneath the mask.

"Ooookay," she says, brushing her hands off. "I'm just gonna…" She looks back over her shoulder at the noodle shop, sighing wistfully. "Find something else for dinner."

*

Illyana remains unconscious, sprawled on the ground in a way that is both fetching /and/ heroic, and doesn't look stupid. Because heroic!

*

"I'll visit you later." Akihiro informs Danny, checking over the holes in his clothes where the bullets entered, all nine of them. "This was my favorite jacket." he sighs, scooping up Illyana carefully. "And if I was by myself, I'd decline. But I don't usually have to carry injured friends."

*

Dagger nods ask Akihiro replies, offering her hand. "You'll want to stay close. It isn't safe to be alone while we travel in the dark." Cryptic, and she starts glowing again, but it's a little late to change his mind, right? Anyway, there's a kind of comforting warmth about her when she's glowing like that and she seems sincere enough before leading Akihiro and his unconscious… housemate? into the darkness where cloak's body… isn't, strictly. Don't make it weird. (It's weird.)

*

Cloak lets Akihiro and Dagger worry about the logistics of carrying Illyana; he's busy. As they prepare, his body once against grows dark and indistinct, more of a silhouette than a physical thing.

As Cloak moves to envelop Dagger and the two strangers within his presence, he murmurs a low "Just tell me where to drop you off."

And then they're gone.

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