Log:A Pickpocket in Chinatown, Scene 8

A Pickpocket in Chinatown 2010/11/13 	 Devil Dog Jennifer 8

Interlude

Jennifer briefs Devil Dog on the current state of Chinatown.

Chinatown: This district is home to Colonial Bay's large Chinese community; as much Chinese as English is seen on signs and perhaps more Mandarin is spoken. Most famous is Ming Street, curving round from Beach Street to Wharf Street, always full of tourists, especially at its northern and western end. This is practically a street market, with hawkers extolling their wares to passers-by, and signs and banners advertising everything from fresh duck to herbal supplies, restaurants and bakeries and other businesses. The Heavenly Dragon Palace and the Buddhist temple are among the more famous sights. But perhaps true Chinatown is south and west of Ming Street, where the tourists rarely go.

Devil Dog circles in the sky, arms folded over his chest and long coat whipping behind him. To normal eyes he would be hard to spot, but to certain meta eyes he would stick out like a sore thumb. One of the disadvantages of flying on flaming shadowy wings is that your pretty conspicuous at low altitude. His red eyes take in Chinatown below him, searching for crowds or other things that could give away a meta, for the moment he sees nothing.

Jennifer is standing by the entrance to the Golden Dragon tea house. It's noticeable that there's a bit of space around her despite the usually crowded streets and sidewalks.

Devil Dog notices a free spot in chinatown's crowds and wonders at it. Swooping lower to get a closer look he swings into a tight spiral pattern and starts to lose altitude rapidly, moving at 70+ MPH. As he gets closer to the ground more of the crowd will start to notice him and quite probably freak out, especially with Jennifer being in the area he is headed.

When Devil Dog is finally spotted there's an exodus from the area he is coming in to land at, shoppers moving hurriedly away and calling out warnings to those who haven't immediately noticed him. Jennifer glances up and waves to him, a gesture that seems to settle the crowd somewhat as it seems Jennifer is not expecting to fight Devil Dog. Even so the movement away continues.

Devil Dog turns his spiral into a straight on dive for the last fifty feet, flipping his feet around at the last minute and flapping his wings twice quickly before he can smash headlong into the ground. The motions are obviously practised ones because he lands lightly and moments after his flaming wings are pulled back into his back and vanish from existence. Devil Dog takes a moment to look around himself with his arms crossed and generally get a feel for the area before he turns his full attention on Jennifer and looks her over carefully. "Well damn." he says in a soft raspy voice, "And here I was worried I might have a hard time finding someone to talk with. You got a moment, Mam?"

Jennifer smiles, "Sure, I have a moment. And less of the Mam, my name's Jennifer, though most people make it just Jenn. And you're Devil Dog I take it. I was briefed on your presence in the city, and those flaming wings are a real giveaway."

Devil Dog laughs softly as he uncrosses his arms and steps closer to offer a hand to shake. His eyes crinkle at the corners in what is probably a smile hidden behind his bandana, "Best friend, biggest enemy, the wings. Glad I found you, any meta in the area would have worked probably, but I hear you know the situation a little better than most. I need some information.

Jennifer takes and shakes your hand. "Which situation do you mean? This is Colonial Bay. We usually have a half dozen situations bubbling over at any given time."

Devil Dog shakes Jennifer's hand firmly in return, the skin not covered by his glove hot to the touch, maybe 140 F. He searches her eyes with his own red ones, "Well. I need some information on the Chinatown gangs and what they do, connections to metas, the whole ordeal."

Jennifer nods, "Do you want the quick version or the long version?" she asks.

Devil Dog shoves his hands deep in his pockets, "Facts first, then more info after if I need it. I'll be looking in to this myself here soon enough anyway, then I'll compare notes." he takes on a slightly apologetic tone in his raspy voice as he adds, "I don't doubt your abilities, just like to double check."

Jennifer nods again, and points up the street towards a large office style building on the edge of the market area. "In there is Tim Lee. He's a businessman with Triad connections who wants to run Chinatown. To help him he's brought in about thirty metas from China. Somewhere else in this area, probably in a hideout down in the sewer system is Pride Tien Leung. He's the current Triad boss and once took over the entire city with Nicky Winters. He's got a couple of mercenary metas on his payroll and a lot of men with guns. He's also got connections with ACRO and has tried to import advanced weapons and power armor. Those are the two sides. And they're at war. However it's a quiet war at the moment, because I've made it clear that open warfare in the streets will make me very angry. And nobody wants to make me angry."

Devil Dog nods and cocks his head slightly as he thinks, letting his eyes wander over to the office building, "I guess he, the one in that building yonder, isn't openly doing business? You don't have enough on him to take him in, or figure the risk isn't worth the pay out?"

Jennifer sighs, "Look around you, Devil Dog. What do you see? People, doing shopping, running small businesses, living in the houses around here. Now imagine a war with a mercenary metas and couple of hundred heavily armed Triad gangsters on one side and thirty hardcore metas on the other. No matter which side wins the war this district will be a ruin. As bad as Harrisburg if we're lucky. That's assuming the war stays in Chinatown. If it spread out we could see wide scale destruction throughout the city. It's not by choice we haven't moved in on the villains here. Without some foolproof way to protect innocents the cost of taking one or both sides down is just too high."

Devil Dog shakes his head slightly, still observing the building, "Wasn't my plan at all. Was thinking more of a smash and dash. Get some fast metas, strong ones, whatever. Hit that building as hard as you can, grab the leader only, take off with him. Do the same with the other base if you like, then all the imported metas won't have a brain. That is just my first idea though, and it is the easiest one to write off."

Jennifer says, "Okay. Let me write that idea off for you. Tim Lee is not the smartest guy on his side. The metas he brought in aren't dumb grunts. They are smart and capable. It's a Chinese thing I think, but they seem to feel they owe him some loyalty for getting them out of China when the old government fell. If you took Tim Lee out of the picture you'd be handing command over to someone smarter who would feel obligated to spring Tim Lee out of Stronghold or wherever. Now we don't know where Pride is hiding. So we can't grab him. And if we don't get both, we just hand the district over to the one we didn't get."

Devil Dog nods his head once, as if he expected something like that to turn up, "They just don't make dumb grunts like they used to, do they?" he asks jokingly, turning his attention back to Jennifer. "Obviously you have the bases covered here, what is the plan you have to deal with it? I agree it isn't a good idea to fight them, but it also isn't a good idea to let this stew. One of them is bound to get a good idea soon, then all hell will break loose."

Jennifer says, "Okay, as far as Pride goes, there is a case of one man running the show. Especially as Mortua and Dominica, a couple of serious and nasty villainesses, took out his senior henchmen. If we could find where he is hiding and we had some way to stop Tim Lee rolling in should Pride go down, capturing Pride and throwing his butt in Stronghold will put a big crimp in the Triad's operations here. On the other side of the street, I've been talking to the new Imperial Chinese government and the US State Dept about arranging for permanent US citizenship for any of the metas with Tim Lee who will renounce him and walk away. If we can trim off the smart metas working for Tim Lee I figure we ought to be able, with a bit of luck and most of the heroes in the city, to deal with the rest."

Jennifer adds, "Oh, yeah. Those villainesses, they weren't on Tim Lee's payroll. ARCO are getting impatient. So they are trying to start the war rolling so they can sell lots of weapons and armor to Pride.

Devil Dog tips his face up toward the sun as he thinks that over, taking a moment. Once his moment is up he slips a hand from his pocket to remove his stocking cap and wad it in his fist, "hmmm..." he says, "I like your plan. I do have some trouble though. How do you know all the metas he brought over are friendly? You talk to them yet?"

Jennifer says, "We, that is me and some of the other heroes involved, have talked with about two thirds of the metas who came over here. You might be interested in checking up on their records. A group of heroes from the city, and I tagged along as well, went over to China to talk to the new government. We got copies of the records for the metas we knew about. I posted them on HeroNet, so if you have access to that you can check them over. Some actually are dumb grunts, and likely we'll have to get hard in their faces and knock them down. But I'm hoping we can get over half of them to take up the deal that's offered. Now, the flaw in the plan is we need to know where Pride is to deal with him, and nobody on the hero side does."

Devil Dog sighs and now stares down at the ground, "I really don't like underground systems." he mutters, "I'll have to give the place a look around...and I read the prophiles, some could be good heros to have on our side. Anything else I should know? If not, I might go look for a manhole." he makes a face under his bandana, the fabric twitching.

Jennifer says, "If you can find where Pride is hiding that would be a fantastic step forward. But be careful. Take another look around you. You hold the livelihoods, and maybe the lives, of these people in your hands. The wrong move, a hasty action, and it could be the trigger for an open war with horrific consequences. No pressure you understand."

Jennifer adds, "Oh, I'm going to be heading off dimension in a couple of days. Harlequin, or Lorelei, are probably the heroes to talk to if I'm not around."

Devil Dog glances back up at Jennifer and seems to smile behind his bandana now, "I'm good with pressure." he replies in that same raspy voice. "Point taken though. I'll wait to go underground till I have at least one person backing me, the buddy system and all that. Thanks for all the information. Keep me updated, I'll do the same for you."

Jennifer smiles and offers her hand to you for a second handshake, "It's been a pleasure. Thanks for being reasonable. I hate having to bounce heroes around on their heads to make a point. If I hear anything new I'll let you know, but as I mentioned I'm going to be off world for a while so it's more likely you'll be telling me what's up next time we meet."

Devil Dog puts his stocking cap back on his head before taking Jennifer's hand in a second handshake, his hand still hot as ever. "Take care." he replies simply, then steps back so she will be clear of the flaming wings that sprout from his back.

Jennifer nods and watches as Devil Dog heads up, up, and away.

Devil Dog launches himself into the sky without further conversation, folding his arms across his chest as he flaps to gain altitude and turns to vanish among some clouds.