| Flying Fists in Chinatown |
| Summary: | A Triad assassination attempt in Chinatown (Gotham) goes awry. Geist makes a new acquaintance in Tantrum. |
| Date: | 2015-02-10 |
| Related: | None |
| NPCs: | None |
| Scene Runner: | NA |
| Social/Plot: | Social |
| Players: |
 .. .. |
-==[ West End and Chinatown — Gotham ]==------—-
The West Side is one of the larger residential areas of Gotham combined with many of the gothic skyscrapers intermingled to the east in the Diamond District. Most of the residents here are in the upper middle class to lower middle class economic brackets. Street people live all around and police patrol this area heavily. Crime isn't really an issue as much as domestic violence. The streets here are lined with cars and many times the air is filled with noises of car alarms. Just to the east, Robinson Park can be seen along with the reservoir of that area. To the west, one can see the Gotham River and Gotham commons beyond.
Rumor has it that Chinatown has turned into a pure tourist trap, and in places, that's true; some of the bustling streets offer nothing but high-priced stores or kitsch, and Canal Street, the area's northern border, houses perhaps the biggest of the area's outdoor markets. Even those streets, however, are still recovering from a two-year depression that stripped most of the tourists away. The rest of the area - where the tourists *don't* flock - is largely residential, and its businesses reflect its makeup. Traditional herbal-medicine suppliers, acupuncturists, and low-priced noodle shops and teahouses cater primarily to the locals. Signs and conversation are frequently not English; overheard music is rarely Western; and one of the major local shrines is the Wall of Democracy, covered with newspapers and posters describing the situation in China.
Night-time in Chinatown, and the district is lit up in a garish display of conflicting colours advertising the wares and services of a wide variety of stores, teahouses, nightclubs and pleasure houses. Pedestrians come and go either on foot, or via the local public transport - and most keep away from the alleys.
From one of the local massage parlours a wealthy businessman exits, stepping out into the street adjusting his jacket - and flanked by a posse of men and women. The businessman nods to his entourage and makes his way toward his car, unaware of a figure standing in the shadows of a nearby alley. The figure is almost invisible, and seemingly content to just watch for the moment. When the businessman - actually a broker for the Triads - nears his car, another vehicle abruptly swings into the street, windows down.
A machine gun pokes out of one of the windows…
Carrie Kelley had been sitting atop one of the low buildings nearby, eating a skewer of Tandoori chicken that she may have, possibly, just coincidentally swiped from the restaurant she's sitting atop. She's cleaned the meat pretty thoroughly, her hoodie pulled forward, a pair of gloves shielding her hands from the cold. She's staying at Dinah's these days, but she ain't anybody's pet and she still goes out and does her thing her own way.
When she sees the drive-by about to happen, though, she moves into action. Finally, a chance to whip some scumbag ass! She leaps down to the side of the building, grabbing a rain gutter and scraping down it like a makeshift firepole, her cleats tearing the tin in spots and actually dumping her on her butt at the bottom, "Ow, shit, motherfucker!"
The bodyguards surrounding the Triad broker notice the car within moments of its turning onto the street, and a cacophony of warning-cries and shouts fills the air as bullets start to fly.
Other pedestrians scream and/or flee, passing the young heroine as she lands on her rump - only a handful of yards from the figure in the alley. A diminutive - if portly - man barely stops before colliding with Kelley, spilling hot noodles down his front. He shrieks and drops the takeaway box at Kelley's feet before running away.
Outside the parlour, two of the six members in the broker's entourage drop to the ground, writhing in pain from bullet-wounds. The broker himself raises his briefcase protectively before him, flinching every time a bullet strikes the case, but without penetrating it.
Armoured briefcase…
As more bullets spray across the area, coming dangerously close to the young heroine on the sidewalk, the shadow in the alley lets out a faint gasp and dives toward her.
But the moment light from the streetlamps and the nearby cafe strikes him, he vanishes from sight.
Carrie Kelley is really just about to leap into action and save the day, in the most spectacular of ways, but then the fat guy's gotta interrupt her with his screaming. "HEY! Watch it, pal, I'm here to save your stupid noodle-ass ass, you fuckin' ass!" she yells after him.
She pulls out her nightstick, although she is a bit far away to do the actual whomping she clearly plans to do with it. Plus, OH SHIT THEY'RE SHOOTING AT HER. She starts to flinch back, then sees a shadow leaping at her and disappear, bullets spattering sidewalk fragments around her ankles, "What the fuck, a haunted drive-by, are you shitting me? Stop shooting and fight, you pencil-dicked assholes!'
"Language!" barks the invisible man as he stops - presumably in a crouch or on his knee, from the direction of his voice - beside Kelley. There is a faint whisper of metal on leather, and the sound of a pistol shoots back at the car.
The invisible man coughs. "Uh, yeah. Gimme a sec, kid — wait, is that a nightstick??" Of course by being invisible - and shooting a firearm - he is putting himself in danger of getting brained by the weapon in her hands.
The driver of the car does a hand-brake turn - a full 180 - and comes to an abrupt halt near the broker and his posse. The remaining guards pull out various melee weapons and swarm the vehicle as its occupants pour out into the street, similarly armed.
A stray bullet hits a light above Geist and Kelley, plunging a portion of the sidewalk into shadow… and Geist's cowled head, right shoulder, arm and pistol pop into view… and now there are Triad goons looking at both him and Kelley. With knives. Swords. And nightsticks of their own.
Welcome to the party.
Carrie Kelley nods, "Language? English, motherfucker, DO YOU SPEAK IT?" she says, trying not to show that she's at all freaked out by the weird shadow dude with the gun who just popped up out of nowhere. She turns around and sees the oncoming wave of kung fu hustle gang baddies. Nunchuks. Sai. Swords - man, that was a sweet swordOHSHITHERE HE COMES.
Where most eighteen year old girls would be running in terror, though (and, don't get her wrong, Carrie's fucking terrified), she's also mad. She's mad as shit. She's fighting mad. As reflected the way she dips her glove into the pocket of her hoodie, comes out with a handful of ground glass and flings it into the quickly-shredded eyes of her first attacker, "BANZAI, BITCHES! WELCOME TO THE TERRORDOME!' she cries, starting to swing wildly at kneecaps and groins with her nightstick.
Geist winces at the reference to his 'language' comment. "This is what I get from doing too many PG-rated TV spots. Shit." There. That felt good. He gapes at the girl as she runs into the fray (as opposed to 'in the opposite direction, screaming'), and shakes his head.
At least two of the goons from the car have remained back, toting semi-automatic machine guns. Geist aims at both of them and fires his sidearm. One gunman drops to the ground — bleeding from a shoulder-wound. The other ducks behind the car again.
Geist makes a run at the car - vanishing the moment light touches him.
A mad flock of Triad thugs rush toward the broker and his protectors, while three of them (Nunchuks, Sai, and Swords) attempt to surround Kelley. A soundtrack of curses and swear-words (all in Mandarin and Cantonese) accompanies the melee - punctuated by cries of pain as kneecaps snap at the strike of a nightstick.
Sai is the first to drop - his legs pressed together and face contorted in agony. He sinks to his knees, and wails again as broken kneecap meets pavement. Swords parries Kelley's attacks and makes a lunge for her torso.
The broker wrestles with another fighter - trying to keep his hands on the briefcase.
Carrie Kelley takes a slash along her ribcage, cutting through the fabric, but getting blunted by the…is that duct-tape? Yes, Carrie's made a makeshift bulletproof vest out of what appears to an old tire and duct-tape. It wouldn't actually stop bullets, but swords? CHECK!
She kicks Sai in the face with a cleated foot and drives her fist into the balls of sword, "Yeah, that chop suey shit ain't gonna fly here, son! I'm gonna rip your balls off and shove 'em down your throat!" she howls, totally lost in a violent, vile rage. The guy with the sai charges and she actually headbutts him with a large rack, breaking his nose even as her own skull rebounds violently, "OH SHIT THAT FUCKING HURT!"
In total contrast to the rather badass girl's colourful commentary, the shadowy 'ghost-man' is… well, shadowy and ghostly. And quiet. An invisible leap in the air - putting only his head into shadow, and thus revealing it as a somewhat disembodied… head - and he ends up behind the car. As the gunman swings around again he drops the machine gun and pulls out a pistol. He points it at Kelley (hoping for a clear shot)…
…when suddenly he appears to throw himself forward against the vehicle, the wind knocked out of him, then his head… /rattles/ as though it were a punching bag (funny, that). Finally, the man seems to drag himself upward, his back arched uncomfortably and his head lolling forward like a narcoleptic. He points his pistol AWAY from Carrie, and at the goon wrestling with the broker.
He fires.
A thug drops.
Kelley's impromptu headbutt sends a spray of blood up into the air, and the attacker topples backwards to the ground. Sai attempts to make use of the opportunity to stab at the girl, but his foot catches upon Nunchuks as the latter attempts to push himself to his feet in front of Kelley.
By the parlour, the broker makes a run for it - and trips face-first into the pavement as someone grabs his foot.
Sai finds himself screaming as Carrie jams her stun-gun into the side of his neck, "Burn, bitch!" she cries, cracking her knee up into that dude's chin and chipping his teeth. Nunchuk's chain wraps around her wrist and yanks her off her feet, knocking her onto her back, 'Son of a bitch! God damnit! Are you kidding me?!?" she says, lashing out with a cleat and catching poor sword in the face again, ripping the skin from his cheek.
"Hang on, Shadow Ghost Fucker, I'm comin' to help ya!" she says, spearing her shoulder into Nunchuck and carrying him into the ground, driving her elbows violently into his ribcage again and again, making him howl in pain even though he outweighs her by over a hundred pounds.
"W… T… F…" the words are only whispered by the 'Shadow Ghost Fucker' by the car as he watches the young girl mow through trained Triad thugs as if she were pulling weeds from a garden, swearing at said weeds, then tearing them apart and moving onto the next…
Girl's got skills.
And a mouth.
Geist smirks.
But the broker is clawing his way out of the swarm of guards and attackers - his ankle gripped by a hand. The hand is of course attached to an — wait a second.
The hand is not attached to anything.
A woman stands just in the doorway of the massage parlour, holding her arms up and grinning gleefully. A faint nimbus of greenish light surround her arms - one of which is missing a hand. In a moment, the second hand DETACHES from her other arm, and flies like a… flying fist?? through the air to latch itself around the broker's throat.
The only thing connecting each disembodied hand to the woman is a faint trail of the same greenish light.
Geist blinks at her and points, calling out: "The… witch!" (it has to be a witch, right? or some kind of metahuman? 'Witch-ever works). "Get the witch!" He gathers his legs underneath him and leaps over the car, vanishing from sight again.
Carrie Kelley finishes working the crap out of Nunchuks, until the guy's literally begging for mercy in Chinese, at least four of his ribs fractured. In truth, Carrie - Tantrum, as she's more properly called when she's in this mode - has virtually no formal training. She's just savage, brutal street ferocity. She hurts people well because she's really pissed off and she likes hurting people. That's why it takes her a moment to finish up with Chuck, because she's so rage-blinded she almost doesn't hear Geist.
But she does, finally, "Witch?!? Are you shittin' me? What the fuck, guns aren't enough, some magic motherfucker! Eat stick, bitch!" she yells, scooping up her nightstick and flinging it end over end at where she thinks the witch is.
Whether a witch, a mutant, or metahuman - or something not of this world - the woman with the detachable hands spots Kelley the same moment Geist calls out. /Hissing/ the woman makes an abrupt motion of one arm, and the hand that was grasping the broker's ankle detaches itself…
…and comes flying straight for Kelley, fingers splayed.
The nightstick brains the creepy handless woman mere moments before the hand reaches Kelley - which twitches mid-air and 'catches' the ass-kicking girl in the face (not unlike those 'facehuggers' from the movie 'Alien'). It barely grips, twitching away as its 'owner' topples to the ground, landing on the body of another guard.
Meanwhile, the hand that had been choking the broker appears to remove itself, then fly like a baseball through the air to land on the head of a man caught in the melee. The man instantly turns about and strikes the only person he thinks could have thrown a punch… which happens to someone on HIS side.
Geist drags the broker away from the brawl (which is down to just a couple of opponents now)… and somehow, suddenly: the broker also disappears.
Carrie Kelley yowls like a cat dumped into a bucket of water, 'WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK!" she cries. slapping the hand off her face and onto the ground. She puts her cleat to good use now and she starts to stomp at it like a tarantula, bringing her foot down over and over again in a frenzy, surrounded by the groaning, pained sounds of the yakuza she just dismantled.
"Crazy fucking bitchass psycho demon witch hand motherfuckin' claw my eyes out you Addams Family motherfucker I'm gonna Morticia your fuckin' ass!"
*Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!*
The sound of fingers breaking, and breaking, and breaking… The last two goons look around the bodies - a combination of dead, almost-dead, and 'wishing they were dead' - and firstly notice the fate of 'Madame Hand', lying unconscious on the body of a dead man. Then they realise the broker is nowhere to be found.
AND there's a very, very angry girl nearby - who just took out Madame Hand and several others… so they do the smart thing: they run. It only becomes apparent now just how quiet the rest of the street has been all this time - no cops, no interference, nothing. After the initial panic that cleared the area, people have simply stayed clear.
As the moments tick by, and thugs lie groaning on the ground, another sound can be heard approaching Kelley: footsteps - slow and quiet, accompanied by the occasional moan. As the footsteps draw nearer, there is a sharp 'slap!' and the moans stop. Geist (invisible) says to Kelley: "Don't freak out - I'm not a ghost, just… invisible. Mostly. And this guy needs to lay off the noodles!" He chuckles. "Appreciate the help, Miss…?"
Carrie Kelley doesn't quite get the point at first, not really getting satisfied until the hand is kind of pulp, the fingers broken in dozens of places from the way she's stomped at it over and over again. She's panting, sweating, her eyes wide, "DON'T YOU FUCKING TOUCH ME I'LL KILL YOU YOU FUCKING SON OF A BITCH!' she screams, finally just stopping and letting out an ear-splitting scream of rage.
The sirens finally break through to her, snapping her back into place, and she wipes a few droplets of blood off her glasses - yup, the little psycho is a four-eyes, mohawk or not, "Shit, 5-0," she mutters, then she hears Geist's words, "Ungh…T-Tantrum. Call me Tantrum. Thanks for the help, d00d. I owe ya, like, some mu shu or some shit," she says, turning and starting to sprint down the alley herself, jumping up and grabbing the bottom of a fire escape and starting to pull herself up with a grunt.
Sirens indeed.
Cops on the way - now that the Triads are done with their little blood-bath. Typical. Understandable. Sad. Geist (apparently carrying the broker, unfortunate fellows both of them) looks at what used to be a hand, and winces. Then he looks down the street.
He almost misses Tantrum's departure, and calls out to her from below the building. "Geist. The name's Geist — you know, like the TV sh…and she's gone." The broker groans again and the invisible man swears. "C'mon. Some people want to talk to you…" and he walks away, unseen. Unheard.
END TRANSMISSION
