We have added a few things to the requirements to power and ability upgrades. Be sure and read the details in the most recent update when you request a new power / upgrade.
Well, its the weekend here at MHS. Wouldn't it be great if all schools started on a Friday for the first day of school. What a way to start off. You get a weekend right after your first day. Well, this is because we are done with the first day of class. How so you ask. As you only went to one class. yes, but I am sure that doing the same thing for each class would get boring. So the one class you experienced is basically how all the classes are going to be.
Teacher posts role. Day gets started, end of class happens, everyone goes to their next class, or home..
Well, ezboard still hasn't confirmed anything on a final date when everything is changed over to Yuku. And we are working on what to do next. We all want user friendliness after everything is changed away from Ezbaord, and we are trying everything we can to ensure that we have just that when we are at a new board hosting site.
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Administrator Updates
Itami14's Rants
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Merciah's Random Banter
Mwahahahaha I hath returned.....
I heard that a few things have slowed down whle others just got loopy. 0.o I'm going to have to look into this....
Oh, And I thought fall was over. Well, it is now. ^_^
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Random note away.......
TROUBLE MAKERS.......
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Hey everyone, The chat is not gone so dont worry I put a link in the Admin Annoucements and atop of the sidebar so be happy dont worry! ez message me if you want to say anything. Laterz, Tai
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The Wonderful World of CC!
Tis Tai-Erm I mean coolies just giving some change in my message. Btw I love tai teh hardest.=p lol. Need anything then just send my an ezmail or catch me in chat. ^_^
the flojo Flojo Murasame
Vengeful WarriorVega Tajiri Ninja With Issues
Posts: 577
(3/3/06 5:19 pm) Reply
Re: Hong Kong Throwdown! (closed)
"What are you smiling about?" a voice said for behind Clay. He spun around to see Ren Chen-yu right behind him.
"Your attacks are powerful," Chen-yu said, "but they lack speed and precision. Without that you will never become a truly great fighter.
"Shut up!" Clay replied, throwing a punch at Chen-yu, which was easily parried and countered with a backfist to Clay's head. Not a hard one, but just enough to hurt. Clay threw a kick, and Chen-yu blocked it and punched him in the stomache. Again, just enough for pain. Clay began to get annoyed. Not angry, but annoyed. It took a lot more than this to anger him.
"You may be fast, but your strikes are too weak, old-timer," Clay said, as he threw a high roundhouse kick to Chen-yu's head. He blocked it, and slammed a punch into Clay's chest, a powerful one this time, sending him flying. He flew backwards through two trees before thudding to a stop against the third. He got up slowly as the trees crashed to the ground between them.
"Who are you?" Clay asked, wondering how a mere human could be this strong.
"I am Ren Chen-yu of the Chen Kung Fu School. You cannot beat me. These students are my responsibility, and I will take them with me," Chen-yu said matter-of-factly, as if daring Clay to try to do something about it.
"You have won this day," Clay replied, "but you will die by my hands on another."
Clay ran off then, and Chen-yu let him go. It would teach Clay a lesson. Besides, if anyone had the right to kill him, it was Flojo and Ren, and they would be angry to learn that he had killed their quarry. He picked the two of them up and jogged back to the road, then running up the mountain. They would need the Master's attention, and he would have to report on his fight with Clay. Then, he'd get some sleep. It had been a long day.
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the flojo Flojo Murasame
Vengeful WarriorVega Tajiri Ninja With Issues
Posts: 578
(3/3/06 5:21 pm) Reply
Re: Hong Kong Throwdown! (closed)
Flojo woke up the next morning, feeling a little light-headed. It took a moment for him to realize that he was in his room at the school, Ren snoring away on his bed on the other side of the room. How had he gotten here? The last thing he remembered was coming home, then halfway up the trail, his memory stopped. Ren and grandfather must have found him and carried him home. He'd probably just gotten sick from the food he'd eaten.
Suddenly an image flashed in his mind, his friends' rotting bodies back at Manga High School. Then another, of Clay, when he was sitting at that long table in the woods. Then, an image of his dojo at home, of the people in there and their silent, accusing looks.
"I will kill them all. Your school will be destroyed.
The voice suddenly played back in Flojo's head. What were all these? Hallucinations he'd had because of being sick? He'd heard somewhere that food poisoning could cause really wierd dreams. Could that have been it? Or perhaps he had been at these places. The forest clearing was odd, but still possible, considering his last encounter with Clay. But he couldn't have gone to Manga High or his hometown last night. Right. They were just bad dreams.
Flojo got up silently, showering and dressing himself to get ready for training. Light was already shining inbetween the blinds; after checking the alarm clock he found that it was nearly noon. Why had grandfather let them sleep so long? He had been sick, but why was Ren still out of it? Grandfather should have sent someone to wake him long ago.
He opened his door to find Shirou, one of the school's students from overseas, guarding it. He turned as Flojo slid open the door.
"Good morning Flojo," he said, bowing respectfully, "I heard you and Ren had a rough night. Master Chen has instructed me to make sure you rest and no one disturbs you. Is there anything you need?"
"Morning, Shirou," Flojo said, bowing, but not as deeply as Shirou; he outranked him by far, "I just need to run to my grandfather's office to talk to him."
"No problem. Shall I come with you?" Shirou asked politely.
"No, you can go off to lunch," Flojo replied, sending Shirou off. Rough night? He was going to find out what it was he had missed.
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the flojo Flojo Murasame
Vengeful WarriorVega Tajiri Ninja With Issues
Posts: 581
(3/3/06 5:27 pm) Reply
Re: Hong Kong Throwdown! (closed)
Master Chen and Ren Chen-yu were sitting in his office, having lunch while discussing the performance of a student in this morning's training exercises. They'd been keeping a close eye on him for a while, and were considering promoting him to a higher rank. By all rights, he seemed to deserve it, but Chen-yu had his doubts about the young man. Ren had always been reluctant in giving students a promotion; he usually said that it the student was good enough to have earned two promotions, then and only then could he be certain the student deserved one.
There was a knock at the door, and Master Chen gave the word to come in. Flojo opened it and walked into the room. He looked somewhat confused, not surprising considering what he'd been through last night. They had yet to hear his story, and were willing to bet it wasn't all that exciting. They'd examined Flojo last night, and he'd had no injuries of any kind, besides a few cuts and scratches that came with normal training and being carried around in a forest. It seemed a straightforward drugging and kidnapping.
Flojo bowed to his grandfather and the assistant master, then made the appropriate morning greetings before beginning, "Grandfather, what exactly happened last night?"
"Have a seat, Flojo," his grandfather instructed, knowing this would shock Flojo, "do you have any memories of what happened last night?"
"Besides some strange fever dreams about a forest clearing all set for dinner with John Clay, and some troubling dreams about the dojo, nothing. Why?" Flojo said. He didn't want to tell anyone about his concerns for his school yet.
"I hate to tell you," Chen-yu said, "but the part about the clearing was no dream. John Clay drugged and kidnapped you last night."
"WHAT?" Flojo exclaimed, surprised at this turnout. How that hell had that happened? He remembered feeling sick at the festival and passing out after leaving. He hadn't eaten or drunk anything laced with drugs, though, had he? No, wait. The ramen. That was it.
"He took you to that strange clearing and tied you up. Luckily, Ren went out looking for you after midnight, worried that something had happened to you, and heard you scream," Master Chen continued, "he untied you and tried to sneak you away, but Clay interfered. Chen-yu interfered and saved you both after Ren was defeated."
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the flojo Flojo Murasame
Vengeful WarriorVega Tajiri Ninja With Issues
Posts: 582
(3/3/06 5:29 pm) Reply
Re: Hong Kong Throwdown! (closed)
Ren woke up, well-rested for once. He was surprised that he'd been allowed to sleep in with Flojo; he had only taken a hit to the face, easily cured by his grandfather's chi healing technique. He'd been sent to bed after explaining what he'd done, glad for the chance to rest. He got up, noticing that Flojo was already gone, showered and prepared for his day. When he came out of the bathroom, he found Flojo sitting on his bed, reading a Tai Chi instructional manual.
"Grandfather says we should take another day off," Flojo said without looking up. Ren was surprised by his tone; he felt great after a good night's rest. Flojo sounded ... worried. Ren replied that that was an excellent idea, and got down to start doing pushups. He couldn't train seriously today, but that was no reason to let it slide completely. After pumping out two hundred pushups and two hundred crunches, he noticed that Flojo had not turned a page in his book. In fact, his eyes hadn't moved at all across the page.
"Something bothering you?" Ren asked. It was probably the fact that Clay had drugged and kidnapped him so easily before. Things like that didn't sit well with Flojo. The actual answer surprised him.
"Manga High School," Flojo said.
"Don't tell me you're on this homesickness thing again," Ren replied, "we've already been through this. We'll go back there when we're strong enough, and wait for Clay to make his move. He knows we'll go there sooner or later to hunt him."
"No. Clay's target isn't me anymore. Well, not his primary target, anyway. I was just a target of opportunity," Flojo said, trying to find the words to say this, "Clay wants to destroy Manga High."
"What?" Ren replied, surprised.
"Last night, I heard snippets of something he was saying to me while I was drugged. I think so, anyway. He wants to destroy the school and kill everyone there," Flojo replied.
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the flojo Flojo Murasame
Vengeful WarriorVega Tajiri Ninja With Issues
Posts: 584
(3/3/06 5:35 pm) Reply
Re: Hong Kong Throwdown! (closed)
"Something about an experiment, and test specimens," Flojo said a few minutes later in his grandfather's office. Ren had decided that this was important information and practically dragged him here to explain.
"But why Manga High School?" Chen asked, "what's the purpose of it?"
"I don't know. I just know I'm certain this wasn't just a fever dream. I need to go back," Flojo replied.
"No, you won't," Chen said sternly, "I will simply call the school and speak with the principal. He will know what to do. If the staff there is half as strong as I've heard, they will handle Clay easily."
Chen picked up the telephone on his desk an ddialed a number. After speaking to an operator and waiting on hold for nearly ten minutes, he got an overseas number for Manga High School. He pressed the phones hook down to get a dial tone, and punched the number in, waiting for a connection. All he got was a message.
"Due to major storms, international phone lines have been damaged. They will be unavailable until further notice. We apologize for any inconvenience."
"Hmmm," Chen said, "it says the phone lines out of China were damaged by a storm. We'll have to wait to make that call."
"That's impossible," Chen-yu replied, "there aren't any storms even near China right now,." He was watching a weather broadcast in the corner of the office, detached from the conversation, but this message had piqued his interest, "besides, international phone lines are buried. There's no way a storm could do anything to them.
Chen glanced at his grandsons, then at Chen-yu. Something was wrong.
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the flojo Flojo Murasame
Vengeful WarriorVega Tajiri Ninja With Issues
Posts: 585
(3/3/06 5:37 pm) Reply
Re: Hong Kong Throwdown! (closed)
Chen was considering the possibilities of an event like this, his mind racing furiously. There was obviously a purpose behind this. He thought that perhaps Clay had done this somehow, but he needed more proof than just downed phone lines. After all, this could simply have been a combination of Flojo's feverish dreams and his homesickness for Manga High School. He lifted his phone and punched in a few numbers from memory.
"Fred Wong, Chinese counterespionage." the voice on the other end of the line said.
"Wong, this is Master Wailing Chen. I need some help form you," Chen said.
"How did you get this number?" came Wong's surprised voice on the other line, "this is supposed to be a secret line!"
"I need to know something. I think it may be related to the Clay case." Master Chen said, hoping Wong would work with him. Intelligence types could be very annoying when they wanted to, because you wanted information, and they had it, but didn't want to give it.
"What do you need?" Wong asked cautiously. He knew Master Chen, and trusted him to some degree, but he wouldn't put his career on the line for a favor.
"I need to know what time the international phone lines were cut off, and why," Chen answered, "it may be very important."
"I'll see what I can do. I'll call you back in a few minutes if I have anything." Wong replied, then said goodbye and hung up. Chen put the phone on its base and sat back in his chair, resting. The only thing to do now was wait.
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the flojo Flojo Murasame
Vengeful WarriorVega Tajiri Ninja With Issues
Posts: 586
(3/3/06 5:39 pm) Reply
Re: Hong Kong Throwdown! (closed)
Wong hung up the phone and sighed unceremoniously. He owed Chen a favor for getting him out of that predicament with Murasame, and another for healing his injuries after that ... guy ... had blasted him. He picked up another phone and gave some instructions. Five minutes later, someone came into his office with a few papers and handed them to him. His position wasn't very senior, but he had an excellent reputation as a case officer, and so got quick service from the records department.
He perused the papers for a moment, looking for the information he wanted. The phone lines had supposedly been knocked down by a storm, but a post-it note next to that item decolared it an obvious lie. It had happened at ... 1:07 AM this morning. Another note next to it said that all airports and harbors were closed only moments later, except for a few that were needed to keep the country running, and there were dates for the reactivation of both phone lines and airports, which, oddly, were reopening at different times, depending on location.
As he looked at the reports, something seemed odd about those dates. They seemed, at first glance, to follow no pattern, but something told him there was something more here. He took the list to a wall where there hung a large map of China, picking up a stack of post-its on the way. He began writing the names of airports and harbors and their reopening times, quickly noticing a pattern. The opening times were sooner at areas farther away from a mountain range in the middle of China. The closer areas took longer to open.
Wong called and obtained the dossiere on the Chen Kung Fu school, flipping through the pages for the address. Sure enough, it was located on top of one of those mountains. A note at the bottom of the dossiere noted that there were two known terrorists hiding there. Who?
He called for more information and got it: they were Florian Murasame and Ren Murasame. Wong picked up his phone to call Chen. This was not good.
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the flojo Flojo Murasame
Vengeful WarriorVega Tajiri Ninja With Issues
Posts: 587
(3/3/06 5:42 pm) Reply
Re: Hong Kong Throwdown! (closed)
Flojo was doing pushups in Master Chen's office. It wasn't that he needed the workout; it was more that he was worried. Although he didn't say anything, it was obvious to him that Ren was concerned as well, although not for the same reasons. Ren didn't seem to give a crap about Manga High School or the friends Flojo had made there; he was more concerned about Clay at the moment, not that Flojo could blame him.
A moment later the phone range, its loud trill grabbing everyone's attention. Master Chen lifted it and answered.
"Hello?"
"This is Wong. Chen, you've got some serious problems, and I could get in a lot of trouble telling you this. The government secretly shut down all the phone lines, and the airports and harbors. They're trying to get Flojo and some guy named Ren Murasame. Any relation?" Wong asked.
"Ren is Flojo's brother. In a way. Anyway, are you completely certain they're after Flojo and Ren?" Chen replied, hoping this was some kind of mistake.
"Yes. I have the reports right here in front of me. You need to get them out of the country, and do it really fast. Now listen carefully; write this down if you can. A British ship, called the Queen Mary IV, is leaving the Shang Yeng harbor in ten hours. They won't ask for names; I know because I've used them to travel around discreetly before. Have Flojo tell him I sent him. Then, the Queen Mary IV will travel to Hong Kong. All the airports there will open in four days; you can catch a flight to Japan. Don't bother trying for America; those flights are being closely watched. Until then, tell them to try to lie low in Hong Kong. When they get here, tell them to call me on this line; it's completely secure." Wong said quickly. He hoped they got it all; he didn't have much time left, and someone would soon wonder where these files were. If they were found in his office, which had nothing to do with this case, he'd be in big trouble.
"Thank you. Goodbye."
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the flojo Flojo Murasame
Vengeful WarriorVega Tajiri Ninja With Issues
Posts: 589
(3/4/06 11:33 am) Reply
Re: Hong Kong Throwdown! (closed)
Flojo and Ren rushed about their room, packing bags with everything they would need for the journey: clothing, cash, hygiene stuff; the usual. After fifteen minutes, they were packed and ready to go. A train was leaving from a nearby town, heading toward the harbor town of Shan Yeng. If they took it, they'd have a mere twenty minutes to find the boat and get on it once they arrived in the town.
Ren Chen-yu fired up the school's lone car, usually only used when Master Chen had to travel somewhere, and Chen briefed them on what they were to do, giving them the number of Fred Wong's private line, and a few other contacts of his own in Hong Kong; people he could trust to keep Flojo and Ren out of harm's way until the airports reopened. They would be staying with a Hikaru Musashi, a Japanese Tai Chi master in Hong Kong; Chen had already called ahead and made the necessary arrangements.
Then, it was time for the long boring ride to the train station. It was more or less uneventful, except for the fact that it gave Flojo his first taste of China's defunct rural traffic systems, where the only rule appeared to be "try to get where you're going while running over as many pedestrians and pissing off as many other drivers as you can", or so it seemed to Flojo. The cars drove in whatever lane they chose, and there were no rules of movement followed, as far as he could tell.
Ren, however, enjoyed the ride, as Chen-yu tended to be a very bad and impatient driver, and didn't care much for silly little "speed limits", not that Ren suspected there were any. He drove like a maniac, swerving from lane to lane, and Ren and Flojo both wondered why in God's name their grandfather would ride with this crazy man.
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the flojo Flojo Murasame
Vengeful WarriorVega Tajiri Ninja With Issues
Posts: 592
(3/4/06 11:43 am) Reply
Re: Hong Kong Throwdown! (closed)
The train ride wasn't particularly exciting. It wasn't a high-tech speed train or anything like that; it was typical Chinese transportation for this rural area. That meant that in addition to people, it was full of goats, chickens, and whatever else these people needed to transport. Flojo and Ren got more than a few funny looks; westerners never rode on these trains, and were very rare in these areas to begin with, anyway.
The greatest problem with the train, in Flojo's opinion, was the lack of a restroom of any kind. He got out at one stop and used the public restroom in the station, barely making it back in time. After that, he held it for the rest of the trip. Flojo drank a lot of water by habit; martial arts training required good hydration, especially at his level, but that was working against him now.
In Ren's opinion, the train only suffered from a lack of interesting things to do, and he was bored out of his wits before the first hour of the eight hour ride was over. He borrowed some of Flojo's kung fu manuals, but Ren didn't really like to read, and only thumbed through them quickly before resuming his complaints of boredom. Between having to use the restroom and listening to Ren whine, Flojo's trip was utter crap.
When they finally got off at the Shen Yeng station, Ren ran off to a small kiosk tobuy something to read that "didn't suck", as he put it. Flojo ran in the opposite direction in search of a men's room. After relieving themselves of the torture of the long ride, they met at the train station's main entrance, and quickly realized they had absolutely no clue where the harbor was. They asked for directions six times in different places before they got to where they were going. Then, they saw that this wasn't going to be as easy as they thought.
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the flojo Flojo Murasame
Vengeful WarriorVega Tajiri Ninja With Issues
Posts: 613
(3/6/06 5:55 pm) Reply
Re: Hong Kong Throwdown! (closed)
"Damnit, they're everywhere!" Ren said, as he returned to the cargo container they had agreed to meet behind after searching the area. There were guards here, Chinese military, and loads of them. They weren't sure of it, but Flojo and Ren were willing to bet that they had orders to check identification and find the two of them. They couldn't afford to get caught, but there was no way directly onto the ship without going past the guards. Flojo could teleport them aboard if they got close enough, but that didn't seem very likely; the guards were keeping everyone who hadn't passed an ID check far away from the ships.
Flojo and Ren had another fifteen minutes to get on that damn ship, and there seemed to be no way. It was then that Ren got an interesting idea. He leaned out over the side of the container, pulling a small bottle of scotch from his pocket and searched carefully. There were only two guards there. Ren walked out into their view with a stagger, as Flojo hissed at him to come back and chided him for being an idiot, when the two guards saw Ren staggering drunkenly about near the container, pretending to swig from the bottle at intervals.
The guards walked over to him. They couldn't afford to have a disturbance like this; they were MPs, and their mission was to keep the peace. Ren staggered behind the containers, and quickly whispered to Flojo what to do. Flojo understood his plan quickly, and the moment the guards came behind the container, Flojo grabbed one and Ren grabbed the other, knocking them unconscious. They quickly appropriated their weapons and uniforms, and tied the guards up. Someone would find them eventually. Now, their only other problem was how to get their bags on the ship without being noticed.
They picked the bags up and walked over to the ship nonchalantly, as if they had confiscated something. The other guards moved out of the way; Chinese MPs were said to be damned brutal in their work. They hid behind a stack of crates next to the ship's hull and Flojo gave Ren all the bags. Ren breathed deeply. This would be the hard part. He'd done this loads of times as a spirit, but when you had a body it hurt like hell. He walked forward and phased through the ship's thick hull, into what appeared to be a cargo hold. It was a very large cargo hold, and it took Ren a second to register that he was near the roof, and there was nothing under him. He quickly phased himself and the bags into the air, silently bearing the pain, which wasn't nearly as bad now, just a dull throb all over. He lowered himself with his ki and landed on the floor, setting the bags down. Now, Flojo just needed to get aboard.
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the flojo Flojo Murasame
Vengeful WarriorVega Tajiri Ninja With Issues
Posts: 614
(3/6/06 5:57 pm) Reply
Re: Hong Kong Throwdown! (closed)
Flojo teleported in a moment later, after he was certain that Ren was inside. Unfortunately, he didn't know the layout of the room, either. He fell instantly, trying to use his ki to slow him down, but to no avail. He just wasn't as good at this as Ren was. Oddly, he should have more than enough ki to fly; he would have to develop a technique for that later on; it might come in handy.
He braced himself, preparing to breakfall, when he landed on something a lot softer than the ground would be. He heard a muffled "oof!" under him and looked down to find himself crouching on top of Ren's back. He quickly stepped off, as Ren got up rubbing his back and grumbling to himself as Flojo got his bags. Ren and Flojo got out of the guard's uniform's and stashed them behind a large metal box; they might come in handy later, although it seemed unlikely.
They walked to the door of the cargo bay and opened it to go find the ship's skipper. The walked out into the corridor, walked down it and went up a ladder (OOC: actually stairs, but for some idiotic reason everything has a different name on a ship O_o), coming out on deck.
They immediately spotted three crew members, and went over to ask where the captain was. They were saved the trouble by the skipper himself, who stood on the deck behind, them, and ran up immediately, demanding to know who they were and why the hell they were on board his ship. They explained quickly that they needed to get to Hong Kong in a hurry, and had been looking for the captain below deck. The captain looked at them funny, and was about to tell them he didn't take passengers, when they mentioned Wong's name, and he became more friendly, although a bit standoffish.
The skipper, Captain John Ricks, agreed to take them, although he had a feeling he would regret it later. He was doing this more as a personal favor to Wong than anything else; the man had helped him out of a few tight spots with customs. He called a deckhand to show them to their cabins.
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the flojo Flojo Murasame
Vengeful WarriorVega Tajiri Ninja With Issues
Posts: 615
(3/6/06 5:58 pm) Reply
Re: Hong Kong Throwdown! (closed)
Four hours later, Flojo and Ren were standing on deck, watching the ocean pass by as they inched ever closer to Hong Kong. Ren was complaining about boredom again, but at least here they had room to do some training on deck, which helped some. They simply had to kill a few more days here before they would be in Hong Kong.
"Pretty damn big, isn't it?" Ren asked, looking out over the water.
"What? The boat?" Flojo asked.
"No. the ocean. Think about it. The water seems to go on forever, but this is really only a tiny speck of the world's seas in their entirety. It just makes you feel kind of ... small, kind of insignificant," Ren answered. Flojo was surprised, Ren was usually a pretty brash, hard person. He hadn't expected anything like that out of him.
"Yeah," Flojo replied, "and Clay could be anywhere out there." He was worried; their esape from mainland China had seemed a little too easy. As if it had been conveniently arranged when the airports and harbors were closed that this one route would remain open. "You think we can trust this Fred Wong guy? I mean, it seems kind of odd that we got away this easily, don't you think?"
"Good point," Ren said, "but if Wong'd wanted us all he'd had to do was tell the army where we were. Or he could have set up a trap at the harbor. I really doubt he'd wait this long to nab us. However, it does seem a little too convenient that the only way out of the country was this easy to access from where we were."
Something clicked in Flojo's mind. He wasn't sure what it was, but it was there, and he couldn't think of what it was. His subconscious mind, which has a far more powerful processing ability than his conscious, had seen the same things he'd seen, but had processed many pieces of information that his conscious mind had labeled unimportant and overlooked. It was trying to tell him something. It was trying to tell him to get off the ship as quickly as possible, if he wanted to live. Too bad he couldn't hear its message.
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the flojo Flojo Murasame
Vengeful WarriorVega Tajiri Ninja With Issues
Posts: 616
(3/6/06 6:00 pm) Reply
Re: Hong Kong Throwdown! (closed)
"Yes, doctor," Clay replied into his satellite phone with mock respect. He didn't like the thing; it was bulky, but there was no cell phone service in the middle of the ocean, so he had to make do. He was also aboard the Queen Mary IV, although he was unaware of Flojo and Ren's presence, as they were of his. Transporting the specimen had been a pain in the ass. It had been difficult to find someone who would take it to Hong Kong without talking, and even more so to have his contact leave this port and the one in Hong Kong open without garnering suspicion.
In any case, it was locked up in the cargo hold downstairs. This specimen wasn't intact, unfortunately, and was highly inferior to the original they'd found in Antarctica, but it was nevertheless valuable, and he couldn't trust some other ignorant idiot to bring it to Tokyo. One of the unfortunate parts of his plan was that he couldn't trust anyone else with a lot of the things that needed doing, and so had to do a lot of work himself.
"The specimen is in fine condition, although a number of body parts are missing," Clay said to Funakoshi, "according to carbon dating, it's at least three thousand years old. Not nearly as old as the original, but there are also some ... differences. Very small, but I'd say it's obvious the creature is somewhat more evolved than the one we already have. You'd have to look at it yourself to be sure. In any case, I'll have it in Tokyo in ten days. Goodbye."
Clay hung up and sighed to himself. He was tired of this silly little oriental man thinking he was in charge of this project. He couldn't do anything about it yet, though, he needed the man if he was going to see his plans carried out. He wondered offhand for a moment how he would kill Funakoshi. It would have to be something painful, but also slow, so the man could at least learn his lesson before he died...
In any case, it was as good a time as any to inspect the specimen. He hated boats; they were too damned slow, and he had to find some way to pass the time. Besides, there were a few ... aberrations ... on the creature's body that he wanted to inspect more closely for himself before allowing the professor to ruin the creature.
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the flojo Flojo Murasame
Vengeful WarriorVega Tajiri Ninja With Issues
Posts: 619
(3/6/06 6:12 pm) Reply
Re: Hong Kong Throwdown! (closed)
Flojo and Ren were already on their way down to Cargo Hold B, but for a different reason. They were going to retrieve the guard uniforms they had left there. If they were found by someone, there would be awkward questions, and after having been caught belowdeck without a plausible explanation, the captain would want some very good explanations. They had decided that the best way to take care of this was to simply dump the uniforms and weapons into the ocean.
They made their way into the cargo hold and opened the door. The room was very large, at least thirty feet high, with a high walkway, and a door on its second level. The walkway seemed to be for maintanence; there were pipes and small hatches along the wall the walkway ran along that seemed to have something in them. Probably electrical equipment, they thought. A ship had loads of that.
"Strange. There's only one thing in this room, and that's the big silver one there." Ren said. The observation struck Flojo as odd, and rather obvious, although he hadn't noticed it before. The large metallic box they'd hiddent he uniforms behind was the only thing that was in here. As they walked up to it, they heard a slight humming sound coming from the box. Flojo wrote it off as a reverbaration of the noise from the ship's engines. Boxes could do funny things to sounds, especially in a big, empty room like this.
Ren went behind the box as Flojo examined it. The thing was strange. It was approximately twenty feet high, a perfect cube, but something seemd wrong with it. It took Flojo a moment to place it: there weren't any seams, or cracks, or any kind of thing that looked like an opening. All there was was a label:
HELENA Specimen No. 2
Handle With Care
Whatever the hell that means, Flojo thought as Ren emerged from behind the box with the two uniforms and the guards' weapons. They turned to make their way from the cargo hold.
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the flojo Flojo Murasame
Vengeful WarriorVega Tajiri Ninja With Issues
Posts: 627
(3/8/06 1:29 pm) Reply
Re: Hong Kong Throwdown! (closed)
John Clay came to the cargo hold, totally heedless of the fact that his steps could be heard. Why should it matter? He'd paid to be on this ship, so the crew had no problems with, and the only other two people who he would actually have fought with were still in China, and their precious kung fu school was probably being sacked by the army at this moment. With all the "additions" to Flojo and Ren's files in the Chinese Intelligence departments, they'd be quietly tried, then executed on a slew of charges, ranging from espionage to rape to murder.
He opened the door to the hold, and walked in. Nobody was here, and that was good. The last time he'd come, there was a nosy deckhand in here, examining the specimen's freezer. One look from Clay had scared him out of his wits, then the captain had had a talk with the crew. No one was coming back in here until after this voyage, he'd been assured. He went up to the box and opened it.
There was no switch or button; he'd opened the lock using a wireless signal transmitter, very similar in both form and function to that within a car's wireless entry remote. The front of the box slid slowly up, revealing a low bank of instruments, and a large glass window, frosted over from the condensing water. Behind it was the frozen specimen, part of Clay's life's work. He first checked the panel, ensuring that the freezer was operating quickly, then began the process of defrosting the window, something that had to be done slowly, or it would break, and that wouldn't be good.
He waited patiently as the frost began to thin and dissipate, revealing the creature underneath, then smiled. He wouldn't want to fight this thing himself, not after what he'd seen the other HELENA specimen do, but it would do a lot of fighting for him, if not quite the way he had in mind at the moment.
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the flojo Flojo Murasame
Vengeful WarriorVega Tajiri Ninja With Issues
Posts: 635
(3/9/06 4:50 pm) Reply
Re: Hong Kong Throwdown! (closed)
The only reason Clay hadn't spotted Flojo and Ren was that his footsteps had indeed been noisy. Flojo and Ren had quickly hidden in a dark spot up on the walkway overhead, where it seemed the light bulb had burnt out. Ren's first instinct had been to hide behind the crate; Flojo would definitely have to teach him some ninjutsu if they were going to work together on bringing Clay down.
Before Clay entered, as they hid, Flojo realized that although he'd heard footsteps, he hadn't sensed a ki signature with them. This was bad, because Flojo knew you had to be pretty strong and skilled to hide your ki signature, and he only knew two people who could do it: his grandfather and John Clay. He worried for a moment, then remembered a snippet of cell phone conversation he had heard when he was drugged:
"I will have the specimen to you in ten days or so. It seems to be in okay condition. I'm bringing it up by boat; via Hong Kong..."
"It can't be..." Flojo whispered to himself. Ren looked up at him.
"Can't be what?" Ren asked, and Flojo shushed him to silence. They heard the creak of the hold's door opening, when who should come in but John Clay himself. Ren almost gasped in surprise, but managed to hold it in. Why the hell was clay here? Flojo didn't seem too surprised; did he know what was going on?
They watched as Clay somehow opened the box's front, which made a whirring noise as it lifted up. He then went over to some strange-looking controls and pressed some buttons, and the box began hissing. The frost cleared off the window, and Flojo and Ren were both completely shocked when they saw what it had hidden.
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the flojo Flojo Murasame
Vengeful WarriorVega Tajiri Ninja With Issues
Posts: 636
(3/9/06 4:52 pm) Reply
Re: Hong Kong Throwdown! (closed)
Behind the window stood, frozen in a block of clear ice, a truly grotesque creature. It stood nearly fourteen feet high, with pale reddish skin adn blue veins. The form was somewhat humanlike; it had what seemed to be a torso, with legs and arms attached, although the legs and arms had no joints and seemed more like tentacles.
What looked like five eyes welded together, all facing different directions, sat in the middle of the torso, and there was no head. Blue and green veins ran along the length of the body, clearly visible through its skin. All in all, the creature was as disgusting as anything ever seen. But Clay didn't care; looks weren't what mattered here. This HELENA specimen was nearly three thousand years old, a creature of true power.
He began examining it, noting details and mentally filing them away for more intense scrutiny after his primary examination. The creature was a bit taller, maybe six inches or so, and was of a slightly darker shade of red than the other. In addition, the other only had four eyes, if that was what they were, rather than the six that this creature seemed to have. Six clawlike toes on each foot, rather than the eight on the other specimen.
As he catalogued details, another part of him began making rapid calculations. He began comparing this creature to the one Funakoshi had in Germany, and found a number of discrepancies. In addition, it was missing some key body parts, such as the tail. Of course, that could easily have been evolved away; humans were an example of such a case.
He checked the information coming in from a small probe that had been drilled deep into the ice only a few days after the specimen's discovery. Apparently the creature was still generating significant amounts of bioelectric current, or "chi" as those primitive idiots who he ran across so often called it. In any case, it was still very much fine and alive, although if it had lasted three thousand years, it could last another ten days, right?
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the flojo Flojo Murasame
Vengeful WarriorVega Tajiri Ninja With Issues
Posts: 637
(3/9/06 4:55 pm) Reply
Re: Hong Kong Throwdown! (closed)
"What the fuck is that?!?" Ren whispered incredulously. He'd never seen anything even remotely like this freak of nature. What the hell was it? He looked at Flojo, as if for confirmation of what he was saying, and got it from the look on Flojo's face. This was just too weird to hold a facade of being calm.
"I dunno," Flojo replied, "maybe it doesn't have one. I mean, the thing doesn't even look like it comes from this universe, much less this planet. Maybe it's some kind of ... alien or something. I don't know."
Ren thought about this for a moment. The thing had what looked like eyes and veins, clearly marks of life that had evolved on Earth, but its structure was waaaaay to different from anything on this planet to believe that it was from here. Perhaps it was a genetic experiment of some kind? The box did say "specimen" on it.
"That thing's alive," Flojo said quietly. It had too much ki to be dead. He could tell by its ki that it was male, whatever the hell male meant for a weird thing like that.
"Are you sure?" Ren asked, raising an eyebrow at Flojo, "that thing doesn't even look like it's capable of life, much less actually alive. I mean, where's its mouth? How would it eat without one? Or what about sensory equipment? Eyes are round for a reason; it's part of what makes them work. That weird eye thing could never actually see anything."
Flojo shrugged and paid careful attention to what Clay was doing. He was muttering to himself, too low to hear, and pointing at various parts of the creature from time to time. What was he doing? Studying it, perhaps? Flojo didn't know. He just knew that whatever that thing was, it was dangerous, and it had to go.
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the flojo Flojo Murasame
Vengeful WarriorVega Tajiri Ninja With Issues
Posts: 638
(3/9/06 4:58 pm) Reply
Re: Hong Kong Throwdown! (closed)
2 Hours Later...
"Isn't this guy ever gonna leave?" Ren complained in a whisper. Clay had been there two hours, looking over the HELENA specimen - Flojo had decided that must be its name - and mumbling to himself. Unfortunately, they couldn't hear anything he was saying, and there was only one way out of the room: the door. Ren could simply phase out through the wall, or Flojo could teleport, but they were on the high walkway in the cargo room, and neither had any idea what was outside the wall right behind them. Ren couldn't phase for long; the pain was too much. Flojo, on the other hand, could simply have teleported them both out, but that would have required two teleportations; Flojo couldn't teleport all that far. He'd have to teleport down to the floor first, and that might make a noise, which Flojo definitely didn't want to risk.
Clay seemed to be very intent on the creature. He had been studying it nostop for over two hours now, and it didn't look like he was going to quit soon. Flojo had to take a leak again, and Clay wasn't exactly helping. Perhaps there was a way to distract him so that they could escape... but Flojo knew there wasn't. He and Ren had gone over every possible distraction, and each still had a large likelihood that Clay would notice them, and that wouldn't work at all.
There was no way they could fight Ren here; they would definitely lose. Chen-yu couldn't come to their rescue in a place like this either. So, the only thing to do was wait.
Suddenly, a loud warbling erupted from Clay's person, and he pulled out what looked like a really bulky cell phone. He began talking in low tones, too low for them to hear. Flojo would have given anything for a super-hearing power right then, like the one Merciah seemed to have, but he knew that wouldn't do any good. As Master Chen often said, wishes didn't put food on the table.
Clay hung up, visibly upset, and closed the lid of the HELENA specimen, once again without Flojo and Ren seeing how. He left the room, and the two waited until they couldn't hear his footsteps anymore before hopping down and leaving the room. They needed to speak with the captain.
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