A chance of magic - IC

[DJDeMiko]

As night draws closer John Bale makes his way towards the meeting that he overheard Xiang He talking about.

Xiang He, one of the lowest ranked Tian Xia, was wanted for questioning in two murder cases and an active warrant when he was identified as an arsonist who burned a shop in Chinatown down.

As John droves through china town he happened to come across an obscured parking spot that would give him a great view of the location of the meeting. He leans back and observes. The first thing he notices is that while the sign over the door reads (in bright neon letters) "Friendly Yummy Chinese" and appears to be a restaurant with a few tables in it, that it seems to be a front. While some people who enter sit down at the tables, a number seem to go in the door and disappear. From his position he thinks he can make out the edge of a staircase going upstairs and something tells him that his target may be up there.

[0SpinBoson]

John gets out of his car, trying to decide his best course of action. Following everyone in is the obvious one, but too dangerous in his opinion. He thinks, "Maybe wait until the meeting is over, and then follow this guy to -"

"Hey you! What the hell do you think you're doing?" he hears from behind him, in a strongly accented voice.

"Nothing man, I'm just getting my stuff out of my car. Going to get some chinese food, ya know?"

"For the last 15 minutes? Yeah right. On your knees!", the person behind him says. The click of a gun cocking is followed by a prod in John's back with something heavy.

"****, a gun," John thinks. "Well, maybe this isn't so bad. I bet he hasn't oiled it regularly." He focuses on the gun, and convinced a few minor (but crucial) parts that they really are more rusted than they should be, and that they should really let go now. He turns around,

"Really, I'm just here for the Chinese food," he says with a smile. Behind him is an asian man, clearly a member of one of the gangs, a bit caught of guard because this isn't the usual response. John continues "now leave me alone."

"Man, you're dumb as ****. Sucks for you!"

CLICK.

"What the -" His sentence is abruptly cut off as John backfists him on the side of the head.

"He'll be out for a while. Hope he isn't too badly hurt," John says, while rubbing his hand.

"All right, that was a nice display. Now come quietly and we won't do to you what you just did to that ****head," comes another voice. From the darkness of an alley come 10 asian men, wearing the colors of a different gang.

"****."

[DJDeMiko]

John looks around quickly while raising his hands.

"Hey guys I really just want some Chinese food," he says and looks out to the street and sees a car coming. I wonder what the chances are that the tire will have a blow out and crash i... he begins to think as a sharp pain hits him on the back of the head and everything goes black.



He comes to, his head pounding and through his disorientation realizes that he's hanging upside down and his hands are tied behind his back. He blinks his eyes a few time and tries to get a glimpse of the rope . . . you really should check on rope when you tie something up, so often older ropes can't handle the strain of a grown man he thinks . . . but sighs as nothing happens.

He looks around for something that might help him, but only sees boxes with Chinese characters on them. It's then that he notices the strong smell of food and his stomach rumbles. Damn it, he thinks, Now I really do what Chinese food.

[0SpinBoson]

"Okay, okay. Don't panic, we've been through this before. We'll need something bigger."

John thinks about what he has on his person. A rabbit's foot around his neck, a two-headed penny in his left pocket, a four-leaf clover in his shoe, whiskers of that poor black cat in his right pocket...

As he's taking a personal inventory he hears a heated argument through the door. As he's trying to make out what language it's in, he clearly hears a gunshot.

"****, this is bad... Oh well, I'll have to get another.

Focusing all his energy, he concentrates all his energy on his rabbit's foot. As he feels the light weight of it around his neck rapidly withering away to nothing, he thinks "how crazy is it that the NHPD raids the restaurant I'm a captive in...."

[DJDeMiko]

John's magic reaches out through the city and . . . .


Jonas is sitting at a partially burned table staring at a cell phone that he had been trying to modify. The small glyph he had put on the battery should have filled it with energy . . . . but it had only caused the battery to overheat and pour acid into the phone casing. He frowned for a moment wondering where the rune had gone wrong. In theory it . . . well he admitted to himself, [I]in theory it only Might have worked, maybe if I[i]

Suddenly his stomach rumbled and he felt the strangest desire for Chinese food . . . real Chinese food, none of that Americanized ****.

[DeafnotDumb]

Chinese food, Jonas thought. Not Chinese takeaway, filled with whatever junk you could think of, or the stuff that people just called Chinese food. He wanted some Chinese food that actually had some bloody resemblance to the stuff they cooked in China.

Pulling up a piece of paper, he scrawled a few notes on it about his latest experiment along with a picture of the rune and picked up his coat from the back of the chair he was sitting on, putting it on and grabbing his shotgun. The streets were still dangerous, after all, and there might be some people who’d want to have a word with him ‘personal, like’ about setting fire to their stash house and shooting them or their friends in their legs. He wouldn’t actually take the shotgun with him into the restaurant, of course. Instead, he’d set it a little to the side somewhere so he could call it to him in case he got attacked.

Hey, it’s only paranoia if they’re not out to get you.

Grabbing a map from the tableside, Jonas went out into the street. He'd only been here about two weeks, and getting lost in such a large city would be easy. Checking his pockets for lose change, Jonas went off to the nearest subway, consulting his map.

------------------------------------------------------

Jonas stared at the street. It wouldn't win any prizes, but at least Jonas saw the restaurant that he’d been looking for, complete with tasteless pink neon sign. But he'd heard the food was good, and authentic.

Jonas postioned his shotgun in the alleyway so that it would be (hopefully) able to fly straight in his hands without any interruptions when he called it, and lit himself a cigarette as he stood up. Taking a drag from the cigarette, Jonas set across the street, whistling a tune as he did so.

Phone experiment didn’t work. Probably ‘cause the rune I used didn’t absorb the heat and thus made the battery overheat, perhaps? Meyybe I should try a different type ‘o energy to use, but heat’s the easiest to charge. Gotta keep trying.

Leaving for a Chinese. Gonna be back. The food be good after last night.

[DJDeMiko]

As Jonas starts across the streets something causes him to look down a different alley and dart into the shadow of a tree.

He see's an asian teen wearing clear gang colors, hand a small packet to a white kid and take some money from him.

God damn, streets must be gettin bad if they doing drug deals right on the street! he thinks as he watches the asian teen go into the restaurant and up a flight of stairs.

That must be the gang's base of operations he thinks. What are the chances . . . . I best get my gun. A hero's work is never done.

Jonas retrieves his weapon and hides it in his coat. He makes his way to the door and quickly moves in and up the stairs, avoiding being seen by the staff. He quietly makes his ways up the stairs, the same runes in his boots that protect him from impact help to muffle the noise they make. He pulls his shot gun out and flips off the safety.

Slowly sliding his way up, he peeks over the top stairs. Down a long hall he sees a number of similarly dressed gang members standing around arguing with guns drawn and on the floor is what appears to be a dead or dying bloody asian man in a nice suit.

**** he thinks [I]They are already armed. I need a better spot to recon.[i] He moves quickly into the hall, hoping that the gang members will be distracted by their argument, and quietly opens a door. He slides in, never taking his eyes off the gang and then quietly closes the door.

He breathes a sigh of relief, turns and sees a white hanging upside down looking at him.

"Uhhh," John says to Jonas. "Can I get a hand here?"

[DeafnotDumb]

Jonas looked the captive figure up and down, and raised an eyebrow. "You be in the wrong neighborhood. Lucky I came along." Carefully setting his gun down, Jonas quickly searches his pockets and comes up with a knife. First he frees the man's hands before carefully cutting the bonds tying him to the ceiling, holding his free hand on him to slow and hopefully silent the man's fall. John places his freed hands on the floor as he drops and fell onto his knees.

Motioning the man to be quiet, Jonas quickly checked his gun was loaded and then got out a piece of chalk from his pockets and drew a rough circle just in front of the door, surrounding it with five strange markings and joining them up like the points of a star. Jonas took out his cigarette and considered it before shaking his head and stubbing it out on the ground.

Jonas pushed his hand into a pocket seemingly no different from any other and taking out a small plastic bag filled with dirt before depositing it in the center of his circle. Jonas then scooted over to John, speaking quietly. "Okay, the idea be that we get behind some cover and make noise to attract those guys outside into this room, bang slap onto that circle there. What I do gonna tire me out, but we should be able to escape. Fine with you?" Jonas gives John another look. "What it be that brought ya here, though?"

[0SpinBoson]

"Hmmm...some bad luck," John whispers. He looks Jonas up and down. "So you're a kind of... well, a mage with a shotgun? No offense, of course. Thanks for cutting me down. My name's John."

"Jonas. What be going on, man?"

John thinks about it for a second, and decides to trust this guy. "He's probably with CLINE," he thinks, "with the magic rune circle on the ground though. I wonder what it does."

"Well, I came here to bring this guy in to the NHPD. Things got a little out of hand though, I think. I got hit on the head, and then I end up hanging upside down. Not a good night if you ask me. You got a plan for dealing with these mooks out there?"

"Man, don't be making me repeat it. Noise, attract the guys."

"Alright, here goes...."

[DJDeMiko]

John raises his voice and calls out "Hey guys, let me out of here or I'm calling the cops on my cellular telephone!"

Luck, of course, was with him. Three of the gang members break off from the argument and John and Jonas can only slightly hear and head to check on their catch. They crowd around the door and one opens it.



*****
Jonas - I have no idea what you are planning, so have fun. 3 mooks at the door, another 11 are in a room down the hall arguing over a dead body that John will be able to identify as Xiang He. Most likely the noise of the 3 guys getting whatever happens to them or calling for help will attract the rest.

Remember, mooks are yours to do with as you please, be as heroic, unheroic or fail as you please.

[DeafnotDumb]

Jonas saw the men rush through the door, and acted quickly. It was hard for him to describe what he did next.

Jonas felt out for the energy required for his spell, gathered it and sort of pushed it into the circle, shaping it so it could fit, centering most of the energy onto the spot where he put the dirt. Sweating and panting from the exertion of forcing so much energy into the spot, Jonas focused his mind on the circle and uttered a single word. "Terra!"

Several things happened. The dirt in the middle of the circle shriveled up and blackened as if burnt, the runes flared briefly and the earth shook. Hard. Jonas had readied himself for this with a hand in the wall, but the gang members hadn't expected anything. Everyone else in the building fell from the effects of a potent and very localized earthquake.

The trick to magic was the conversation of energy. Gathering the energy needed for spells was tiring and the less you needed the better. Jonas hadn't caused the ground itself to move, but instead done the comparatively easier task of shaking the foundations of the building he was in.

Jonas shook his head. Hope I didn't put too much juice in there. Pulling John up, he motioned for him to go to the door and outside. "Go now! They be distracted!"

Jonas goes in the direction of the door, pauses, and faces the prone gangsters, and raises his shotgun. Three shots, one for each of their legs and they're each out of the battle. Then he turns and follows John out of the door.

[0SpinBoson]

"Wow," thinks John. "That's certainly something useful. I wonder if he could teach me how to do that..."

As John races ahead of Jonas, he sees the group of mooks getting back to their feet. There is a body on the floor that looks like the picture in his pocket. Thinking quickly, he focuses on his four leaf clover, and wonders about the effects of a localized earthquake on a poorly constructed building. "I'm pretty sure that ceiling looks unsafe," he thinks. As his four leaf clover crumbles to dust, the ceiling above the mooks crashes in on top of them.

"Come on Jonas," he calls back. "Let's get out of here before these guys get out of there."

"I be right behind ya," Jonas says, as he dashes after John, out into the cool night.

[DJDeMiko]

The two rush down the stairs and out of the building.

Jonas begins to run back to the ally but John calls him over to his car. Jonas saved his ass, least he could do was give the guy a ride out.

They both get into the car and John drives away, unnoticed as they hear sirens in the air.


ooc - you guys can do whatever you want. Just because I put you together doesn't mean you need to stay that way.

[DeafnotDumb]

Jonas gave John an edgewise look. "Handled yourself pretty well back there. You be in this kind of scrap before?" Jonas reached into his pocket, and then remembered that he'd broken his cell by experimenting with it. He turned to face John. "Ya got a burner with you?" Looking at the other man's confused look, Jonas remembered that they spoke a different slang here. "A phone, I mean. The people in that building may not be nice, but I'd rather phone an ambulance up for them than have them die."

John produces a mobile, and Jonas glanced at him. "Man, you be lucky they didn't take that off you. They incompetent or are you just lucky?"

John smiles. "You wouldn't guess how lucky."

Jonas nodded in return. "Ya have to tell me more after this." Returning his attention to the phone, Jonas dials 911 and speaks into the phone. "Illegal superhero here. Just nicked a guy's burner- sorry, phone to tell you that there' be a fight and a couple of criminals need urgent attention. They be suffering from shotgun wounds to the leg, lotsa blood loss. Haio street in Chinatown, number..." Jonas searches his memory. "twenty nine or twenty six. Giving back the phone now."

Jonas disconnected the phone and handed it back to John. "Hope that don't mean you be in trouble. Man, if I wanna avoid this I should join that Initiative. On one hand, there be red tape, but it be less dangerous for the criminals. Know anything about it?" Jonas gave John another edgeways gaze. "How'd you make that ceiling collapse? Something about your luck, I presume."

[0SpinBoson]

"The initiative aint bad... they just required some info, and I get to use their website to find work... well, this kinda work, you know? And yes, I'm lucky. Lucky enough for that ceiling to collapse, and that happens rather regularly."

John smiled. "I don't think I'll get into too much trouble with them though. Did you kill those guys?"

"Nah. Just their legs."

"Ouch. What were you doing here, out of curiosity?"

"Wanted some Chinese food. Some real, ya dig?"

"For sure. I know a good place, I'll take you. I don't think there'll be any of these guys around, but I can't promise anything."

"Hell, if there be some real Chinese in it, it be worth it."

[DJDeMiko]

The two head to another restaurant in a more reputable section of china town and get acquainted over some REAL Chinese food.



ooc - I am considering this part of the chapter closed. However if you want to buddy buddy chat that's fine. Figure out if your going to attempt to team up to fight crime, exchange numbers, go your separate ways, etc.

[DeafnotDumb]

Jonas hides his shotgun in John's car before they pull up in front of the Chinese Restaurant, and the pair go into the restaurant. Despite the fact that it is now the busiest time of day for the restaurant, there is one table free. Jonas gives John a sideways look and refrains from commenting on the small smirk on John's face.

A waiter takes Jonas's order of "Something with noodles that be real Chinese. I be leaving the details up to you." and something from John as well. If you paid attention to Jonas, you'd notice his restless hands that seemed to move without any signals from the brain. They picked up a toothpick, some spices and even took some soy sauce, placing it into a small plastic container. Each of the items disappeared into one of his many pockets.

Jonas lit a cigarette and proffered one to John, and spoke. "Meyybe I'll go to a internet cafe, have a look at the Initiative. But I presume there be a phone number? Place I'm staying got it's electricity cut off. They pay? Right now I just take money and other stuff off the drug dealers. Not their stash, but all their expensive stuff. Need a bit of money if I want a proper home, see?"

Jonas shook his head. "Anaway, enough 'bout me. Tell me more about yourself. Where you live, an’ how come you so lucky? " Jonas looked at the man across the table from him with interest. “What your number? Meyybe it be good if we keep in touch, meyybe help one another. Teamwork, see? Sound good?”

Jonas smiled as a waiter came with their orders. Finally. Actual Chinese food.

[0SpinBoson]

"That sounds great," says John, as he digs into his la mian. "I can sorta hold my own, but some of that magic you carry around would be damn helpful. And no, the Intiative doesn't pay. I didn't really think about it, I sorta keep myself afloat without them. I just do this because it's the right thing to do, you know?"

Jonas nods. "I understan' where ya comin from. Wit' that Captain gone, it be up to people like you and myself to keep tha streets clean."

"Right. But see, I'm not so good with the physical stuff, so the Initiative was a good way for me to get a heads up, to find things I can do. That way I can keep my butt out of the hospital. Plus, I didn't want them going after me because I'm a vigilante or something. You had any trouble with that?"

"No man. Places I go, they're not upset if one bad man take out another."

"Heh. Those are exactly the places I stay away from. But maybe it's time to get my hands a little dirtier."

John smiles as the waiter brings the check, which was missing an item or two. "Heh, go figure. I'll leave him that as tip, I guess. And don't worry about the bill, I got it. You seem like you're short some cash?"

"Watcha mean?"

"Well, most people don't take toothpicks and spices from Chinese places, I think."

[DeafnotDumb]

Jonas chuckles at John's assumption. "No, man. It be an reasonable thought, an' truth be told I be a little short of the green ones. But it ain't so bad I need to resort ta theft small as this. All the stuff I take, it be for my spells. Components, ya see, to draw energy from. I tried to do it on my lonesome once, knocked myself out. An' it was jus' lighting a candle. This stuff be required."

Jonas finishes off the last of his dish, something unknown to him but still very good, with a nice smoky taste. He pulls up a paper napkin and fishes a pencil out of one of his pockets and after some consideration writes a number down. "Here. This be my mobile number. I got a couple, stolen from thugs, an' right now I be experimenting with them with my magic. Jus' broke one, though."

John frowns and leans forwards. "What experiments? I wouldn't have thought magic and technology would mix, though."

Jonas grins, and brings out a few bills from his pocket, and counts out enought to pay for his part of the meal. "Nah, most technology be fine. 'Cept toasters, man. They break all the time around me. Anyway, the experiment I be doing is trying ta get a more efficient power source- If I can get the phones to be able to charge themselves up with heat, then that be much cheaper for everyone. Making some progress, but don't hand your mobile over for upgrading just yet. Feel me?"

Jonas hands over his pen and number to John, who writes down his phone number on a nearby napkin and gives it to Jonas. "It be good if you come along. Since I be out of the Initiative, it means I can't get the bastards in jail. I jus' hit them where it hurts, in the wallet. But ya could help there. An' get your hands dirty, too. Experience a bit o' life on the street."

"Heh. You manage to make it sound like an adventure."

The pair get up, John paying for his part of the meal and Jonas finishing his cigarette.

Outside of the restaurant, John turns to the ebony-skinned man. "Want a lift?

Jonas considers the offer, and nods his head. "If it ain't be too much, could ya drop me off at the subway? The one that be on the 32nd street- it be damn run down, easiest place ta sneak my shotgun by. I be fine from there. Ya can call me if ya think the offer be interesting."

John and Jonas get into the car, the latter checking that his shotgun is safely placed in the back.

Met a guy today- He be friendly, an' pretty damn luckly. Want to try and examine his power more- meyybe it uses the same kind of stuff my magic does? Anaway, we talked 'bout teaming up- he's with the Initaive, too. That be useful.

Gone back to experimenting with mobile phone. The Glyph worked better this time 'round: phone works, at least, but need to be more able to store power. Gonna try and sort out this problem before fixing my ammo.

[DJDeMiko]

************************************************** ****



End Chapter 1: A chance of Magic