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Post by piñata on May 2, 2007 8:08:21 GMT -5
Wang Chung easily ducked the cyborg's next blow -- coming up behind his opponent, he slammed an elbow into the larger man's kidneys. The cyborg staggered, but didn't go down. He followed up with a side kick that hit right on the bandage around his opponent's leg. Bones crunched, but the man remained standing.
The next thing Wang Chung knew, the cyborg had seized him by the throat, and was snapping his head forward. The headbutt confirmed what Wang Chung had already guessed -- there was more metal than anything else inside that head. He clapped his hands over the cyborg's ears, then launched a kick at his opponent's groin. He felt rather than heard his toes break as they encountered solid steel -- however, his first attack stunned the cyborg, causing him to lose his grip.
"You're actually not bad," the cyborg said. "This might be fun."
Wang Chung hoped it wouldn't be.
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Post by piñata on May 1, 2007 8:49:40 GMT -5
Frankie Knuckles wasn't about to let a little smoke stop him -- he smacked the side of his head, turning on an eye implant that activated infrared vision, and saw very clearly the retreating shapes of his enemies. He grinned his sharp-toothed grin again, then set off after them.
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Wang Chung followed the woman who had saved him outside, using the door instead of the window this time. He looked behind him to ensure that Fan and Gogol were following, and saw the thug with the sharp teeth and the bandaged leg -- surprisingly enough, not limping at all -- right behind him. Even Wang Chung's fast reflexes weren't fast enough to dodge the man's fist at this range. As the blow struck, a metallic clunk was clearly audible.
Wang Chung went flying backward through the air, slamming up against the side of one of the cars. He spit out blood -- and a broken tooth -- and got back up, preparing for battle.
"Not so confident now, are you?" asked the cyborg who had attacked him. The man advanced menacingly -- he made a motion as if he were cracking his knuckles, but the fingers didn't bend and there was no sound.
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Post by piñata on Apr 30, 2007 17:04:23 GMT -5
"Even if I knew, I would not tell you," Wang Chung said. There was a time for diplomacy -- it had passed back when Gogol had joined the group. Now, the body count would grow larger yet again -- such things were inevitable when one hunted The Crimson King. Wang Chung reflected on the significance of the word king... so far, he had encountered two very evil individuals who called themselves by that title. King Diamond was the third. It seemed that there was something inherently bad about the word, and for once he was glad his ancestral homeland was ruled by an Emperor.
"I have faced far worse than you, with less useful companions than these, and lived to tell about it," Wang Chung said. "You may rule this city, in name if nothing else, but you do not rule over me -- and you do not scare me, either."
In the thunderstruck silence that followed, Wang Chung took a deep breath and waited. Either they were going to shoot at him, or they were going to back down, or the next round of posturing would begin -- he just hoped that whatever happened, the roles of his companions would become clearer as a result.
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Post by piñata on Apr 30, 2007 8:55:43 GMT -5
Frankie Knuckles grunted as he got back up. He had taken several bullets, but that was nothing new. He checked for exit wounds -- he was lucky this time. All of the injuries except one -- the one on his leg -- had gone through and through. As for the leg... he would have to dig that one out himself.
About halfway through, the Bunny Lady interrupted him. "What the hell are you doing?" she asked.
"Taking this bullet out," he replied.
"Well, it's disgusting," she said. "Use your knife like a normal person."
Frankie muttered under his breath as he removed his fingers from his leg.
About five minutes later, he was all patched up and reunited with the other survivors. And he was going to kick some serious ass.
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Wang Chung looked out at the thugs. One of them grinned at him, revealing a mouthful of sharp metal teeth. He checked the locations of the others, and noticed that Symphonia was gone. Good, he thought. She might be able to distract them or something.
He noted that some of the thugs -- particularly the one with the sharp teeth, who had already bled through the bandage on his leg -- were wounded. "Your men need medical attention a lot more than they need another fight," he told the thugs' leader. "I'd rather not have to kill any more of them than I absolutely have to."
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Post by piñata on Apr 29, 2007 17:38:40 GMT -5
Wang Chung didn't trust that green smoke in front of the door -- he went in through a window instead, landing on the body of a man with a broken neck. Before realizing his target was already dead, he had brought his katanas down and decapitated the corpse. Disgusted at the rookie mistake -- after all, at his age he could hardly be a rookie at anything -- he looked around for more legitimate targets.
It appeared his companions were acquitting themselves quite well -- the lone hostile left in the room was a man who had been smart enough to circle around to the rear of the group, and was now crouching behind Phobia and aiming a rifle at her back. Wang Chung inserted a blade into the back of the man's neck, then grabbed him by the back of his shirt and gently eased his body to the floor without making a sound. "It's all clear in the back," he said as he came up alongside his friends. "Anyone see what's up ahead of us yet?"
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Post by piñata on Apr 19, 2007 10:47:30 GMT -5
Up ahead, Wang Chung saw Gogol's car stop. He slowed down -- as gently as possible, to spare Fan any further trauma -- while he answered her question. "The Crimson King is the ruler of another realm -- a parallel universe, some might call it -- known as The Darklands. He is the leader of all forces of darkness and evil in the universe -- although he serves no religious purpose in and of himself, many think of him as the devil."
He pulled the car to a stop. There were cars and motorcycles parked in this area already -- he recognized the limousine from which the bunny woman and her boss had emerged, and the motorcycles obviously belonged to the biker gang that was part of King Diamond's entourage. He groaned inwardly at the prospect of facing bikers -- those people were always itching for a fight, and usually forced Chung to give one to them. "Expect trouble," he said to Fan, nodding in the direction of the motorcycles.
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Post by piñata on Apr 18, 2007 8:22:10 GMT -5
"It was one of the Messengers of Fear -- a servant of The Crimson King," Wang Chung said. "An old acquaintance from another world. She is pure evil -- I can tell you what to look for, but I want to wait until the others are here so they know what they're up against too. For now, just try to keep your mind closed to... unauthorized entry."
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Post by piñata on Apr 17, 2007 11:20:59 GMT -5
Wang Chung wondered for a split second which car to follow, decided on Phobia's since it was closer, and stayed behind her. When she slammed on her brakes, he narrowly avoided rear-ending her, and had to stop his own car quite violently. "Sorry," he said with an apologetic look toward Fan... he knew the ride had been rougher than she had probably hoped. He saw Gogol's car fly past them, and pulled back into the regular formation behind Phobia.
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Post by piñata on Apr 16, 2007 9:01:28 GMT -5
"I hope she doesn't, too," Wang Chung told Fan. He didn't sound worried -- in fact, his face and voice had been expressionless for a lot of this adventure. "But if she does, we'll deal with them." He kept his eyes on the road -- if he looked over at Fan, he might miss the next turn, or worse, hit something.
He thought about the bunny lady -- probably human, although he wasn't confident enough to bet any of his gold on that. Good with the gun, and exceptionally skilled with those high-heeled shoes, but probably without any special powers to draw upon... Fan actually had advantages over her, though she didn't seem to know that. At any rate, the bunny lady was far from the scariest woman Wang Chung had ever met. Immediately on the heels of this thought came an unbidden mental image of the scariest woman he had ever met -- a radiant gothic beauty named Lacrymosa, a servant of The Crimson King, who wore a cloak of madness like a formal gown. He remembered how it had felt when she had touched him -- like his mind was splitting into pieces -- and shuddered. He had seen her cause perfectly sane people to take their clothes off and run down the street naked, babbling incoherent nonsense -- had seen her make men take chainsaws to the ones they loved, and women pour poisonous chemicals into their husbands' tea or drown their children in the bathtub. Yes, there were far worse things to worry about than King Diamond and his assorted henchbeings.
"I remember you, too," a voice whispered inside the car, seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere. Wang Chung swerved, fought the vehicle -- and himself -- back under control, and spared a glance in Fan's direction. "Did you hear that?" he asked.
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Post by piñata on Apr 13, 2007 18:48:21 GMT -5
Wang Chung looked at Fan. "I'm kind of her designated driver," he said. "So I guess you're following us... or, unless Phobia wants to drive in front, leading us -- since you know the city so well." He leaned in closer and whispered, "If you want to smoke, that's fine -- just don't do it in front of Fan, since she's apparently sensitive about it." Chung had learned to be considerate of other people's olfactory quirks -- he had smoked some pretty unusual things in his time, and burned incense almost every day. If he had a gold coin for every time he had been asked to stop smoking his pipe or put out his current stick of incense, he would have a much heavier pouch than he did now.
He walked over to the purple car and examined it, then nodded to Fan when he was satisfied that the vehicle had what it took, and hopped in the driver's seat. Pulling up next to Phobia's car, he asked, "Who should take the lead? Do you think you can handle it, or do you think Gogol might know the city better than you?"
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Post by piñata on Apr 12, 2007 9:42:50 GMT -5
Wang Chung nodded. "Yes, I can drive," he said. He didn't bother to mention that he wasn't very good at it -- he had only recently returned to this world, after a prolonged period of time in one that didn't have cars.
He looked at the scar on the interloper's face. "Let me guess -- I should see the other guy," he remarked. He reached inside his robes again, but this time he clutched a pouch of gold coins -- he wasn't above buying someone off in order to avoid violence that would undoubtedly attract unwanted attention to him.
"You mentioned a deal," he said to Outro's uninvited guest as he pulled out the pouch and turned it over, letting a shiny piece of gold drop into his hand before snapping it closed again. "How much does Outro owe you?" He wasn't absolutely certain he could cover the amount -- he had already dipped into this emergency stash once, and there couldn't have been more than a few thousand dollars' worth of gold left. In fact, he hoped that this man was more honorable than the last man he had bribed -- that one had jumped Chung from behind as soon as the transaction was completed, and was now lying in an alley with his neck bent at an angle it was never meant to take.
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Post by piñata on Apr 11, 2007 7:45:19 GMT -5
Wang Chung tried to keep from laughing as Outro's eyes widened. "Don't worry," he told the old man. "She's unusual, but she's a good person." He bowed slightly as he introduced himself, falling back on old Asian habits yet again. He wondered what sort of business the man outside had had here, and how angry he would be at being left out in the street. In any other city, it would have been left out in the cold, but it didn't seem to get very cold here... it was about 65 degrees now, and not quite spring yet. Of course, it was still no Margaritaville.
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Post by piñata on Apr 10, 2007 7:47:52 GMT -5
Wang Chung watched the newcomer carefully... he might consider Fan's removal of his cigarette an attack, and act accordingly. He didn't draw his sword -- Outro was coming to greet them now, and he didn't want his first introduction to the mysterious car salesman to happen with a weapon in his hand -- but he pulled a small shuriken from inside his robes and concealed it in his left hand, ignoring the pinching from the throwing star's sharp edges. He made up his mind that if the newcomer went for his gun, Chung would throw the star at his throat rather than his gun hand -- there was no point being chivalrous in this rathole.
However, he did see a possible way to defuse the situation. "Careful," he said to Fan, but loudly enough for the stranger to hear. "We don't want to make him angry."
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Post by piñata on Apr 9, 2007 17:47:28 GMT -5
Wang Chung looked in the direction Fan had seen the cop car, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. If they were being followed... he shook off the thought. It was better not to be distracted by such things now... he would need his wits about him when this Outro fellow finally presented himself.
He looked at Fan, recalling that she had just mentioned ghost stories. "What sort of ghost stories?" he asked her. She might have useful information... more often than not, in the circles he traveled in, such tales of terror were true.
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Post by piñata on Apr 9, 2007 10:55:18 GMT -5
(It's the name of the dog -- actually, he's called a billy bumbler -- in The Dark Tower books. If f-words don't offend you, I'd recommend you read them... they're excellent, despite a slow start in the 1st book and some pretty random genre-shifting.)
Wang Chung looked curiously at the red door -- it was the only part of any of the surrounding buildings that was colored red. He heard a lot of unusual sounds coming from the other side of the door, and wondered briefly if Outro was perhaps a machine rather than a man.
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