Ch. 2 Getting Started

After Junior gets dressed into a clean suit he walks out of his room and goes towards the warehouse.

"Guess I might as well flip this place into Junior's Club sooner rather than later" He walks out onto a creaking walkway that overlooks the entire place. He can see men dressed in black suits and black ties moving various boxes below him.

"Now where the hell is Derek?" Junior asks as he scans the area. Then he spits a man on the ground floor supervising the others. "Ah, just the man I was looking for"

"Wait" Junior stops himself from jumping over the railing and taking the express way down. "Do I even have my aura unlocked? Fuck~"

After deciding not to find out the hard way Junior walks down the stairs and walks up to a man in a black suit with a black hat and white tie.

"Derek" Junior grabs the attention of the man.

Derek is a relatively tall man standing at around 6'5" tall. He is the only person wearing a white tie to make himself stand out more and it signifies his position. He has decently long black hair that has begun to transition into a more dark gray color. His beard is also neatly trimmed. His orange eyes stand out and are as lively as a man 20 years younger than his actual age.

Derek turns around and sees the new boss and is surprised to see him dressed and serious. "Hello Boss Xiao, what can I do for you?"

Junior puts his hands in his pockets as he shakes his head. "None of that boss crap. I don't want to be put on that high of a pedestal yet. What I want right now is to get right into business. You were my fathers second in command. You were hard working and loyal to my old man, I expect you to be just as loyal to me if not more" He says in a commanding tone.

Derek raises an eyebrow. "Of course, Junior. I owed your father a great deal and I shall serve you the same as the bare minimum. I am glad to hear that you have thought about this more than a week ago, it would make your father proud that you are taking this seriously" Derek bows his head slightly.

Junior looks around the warehouse. "Speaking of my father, I want to know anything and everything he knew. I wanna know our assets, our liabilities, our allies and enemies, what kind of networks the old man had in and out of Vale, and anything else"

Derek stands up and his orange eyes ignite with acknowledgment as he sees how his old boss's kid finally gets into the business. "Of course, I will be blunt with you. Your father kept many secrets from you in fear that you would fail the family and drag it down. But he always made sure to keep those secrets hidden and safely secured for the next head of this family. It will be my pleasure to catch you up to date"

"Good Derek. I would rather you be blunt than sugar coat everything. There is no room for weakness if we are to hold our position in Vale and raise that position higher" Junior states and looks down into Derek's eyes. "And I'll be making some changes sooner rather than later, but first take me to my office. My father hadn't given me the key nor let me step foot in there"

Derek nods his head. "As you wish. And here" He hands over a fancy gold key to his new boss. "This is the key to the office"

"Good, now come with me. Your knowledge will speed this process along immensely" Junior turns around and goes back up the stairs. He definitely wants to hurry up and bring some life into this place.

Derek follows behind Junior as they go up the stairs and down the hallway where Junior woke up. It continues on for quite a distance with many other different rooms along the way. And at the end there is a wooden door. And near the top there is a white square.

Junior sticks the key in. And as soon as he does so the white square lights up and scans his eyes which slightly irritates them. "What the hell was that Derek?"

*Chu-Chunk!* *Click!*

"That was the scan to make sure that only those authorized may enter. A simple key could let anyone in, but a retina scan makes it much harder to break in. Your father made sure to add you into the system. Currently you are the only one in the system. After your fathers death he was taken off the system to ensure that any grave robbers didn't get a chance" Derek informs Junior.

"Neat" Junior takes the key out and pushes the door open and only sees another door. "Can't be too safe I suppose"

"Indeed" Derek walks in after Junior and closes the door behind himself before turning back to face the new door. "Although, this is just to keep peeping-toms from catching a sneak peak at the real room"

With that said Derek walks past Junior and presses his hand against the door. And as soon as he does so the new walls and new door sink into the ground to reveal a larger room than his bedroom. It's practically a library with how many books there are. And not only books but safely secured dust and weapons inside. Along with various other expensive looking things.

*Whistle* Junior looks around the room. He sees that some of the books are very old and others seem to be newer. "Guess the old man had a reason to stay in here for hours on end"

"And you will likely do the same" Derek walks into the room and goes towards the desk in back-center of the room. "Your father hated seeing you waste your potential. He wished for you to eventually grow out of your bad habits, it's a shame he won't see that you already have grown out of some of them" He places his hand on the old desk.

"Yeah, well I plan on doing even greater things that he could imagine" Junior looks at the desk and sees a weapon. "What is that?" He motions with his chin.

Derek looks down at the desk and moves his hand over to the weapon on it. "This? It is your fathers weapon of choice, and he has stated that if you are to take over you will also use it. You may also make you own weapon, but this will be your primary weapon until you outgrow it"

With that said, Derek grabs the weapon with both hands and holds it out towards Junior. "While you don't have proper training yet, I'm sure we can change that real fast. This is Bazooka. It is a rocket launcher-club that fires homing missiles. Not the most creative name, but your father liked its simplicity"

Junior steps forward and grabs it in its club form. "Speaking of training, that will come after I learn everything about the family business. Did he keep a record of all the men under him? I wish to know who I will be working with"

"Working with?" Derek asks with interest. "Not working under you?"

"Yes" Junior walks behind the desk and sets Bazooka down before moving the chair back. "I want my men work with me and not for me. If I am to earn their trust I won't order them to do anything I myself would do. Unlike my old man I want a more hands-on approach. I won't be on the front line of things, but if I must I will get my hands dirty"

Derek watches as Junior sits down and begins opening the drawers of the desk. Today has just been full of surprises for him, and the good kind.

"Now get me whatever documents I need to get started. I would first like the current budget so I can have some projects started up while I learn the rest. And bring me 2 notebook so I can take notes. One is for me and the other is for you. You will write down whatever advice you have for me whether you speak it or think it" Junior brings out a variety of pens from a drawer.

"One moment please" Derek turns towards the library of books and grabs a stack and returns it to the desk. "I shall go grab the notebooks from the supply room"

With that said Derek leaves the room after the walls rise back up to keep the true room a secret.

Junior grabs the first book labeled 1 and opens it. "Hopefully I can hear him knock. The scroll still confuses me even with the new memories"

Around 5 minutes later Junior gets up and lets Derek back into the room.

"I've already read through the first bit of the first book. I didn't know how far back these went but I expect you to explain the important expenses my father made. Hopefully I can improve upon or learn something from them" Junior goes back to his seat.

"An easy task. I have worked with your father from the beginning since I was a young lad. I still remember most of the early days" Derek stands to Juniors right and places the thick notebooks down on the table.

"Let's begin" Junior clicks his pen and gets to business.

——————

It takes a week for Junior to learn everything about the budget. And that's all he did. Derek was forced to make him take breaks to sleep and eat.

And Derek split his time between leading the Xiong family and catching Junior up to date.

Junior's father had explicitly stated that Derek will handle the business until Junior proves himself competent enough.

And Derek's guess is that Junior will be running things exceptionally sooner than anticipated. The rate that Junior absorbed the knowledge was astounding. It makes him wonder if it's only because of the budget or if Junior will keep the pace up when it comes to the other things.

Junior closes the last book about the current budget of the Xiong Family. "It seems we have plenty of funds to play with Derek. So the first project I want is to remodel this place. We aren't exactly making us look good when we operate out of a warehouse, even if it is discreet"

"What did you have in mind Junior?" Derek has gotten used to calling the new boss Junior by this point.

"I'm thinking we convert the warehouse into a club. It'll generate revenue and spread our name in a slightly better way than all our previous under the table dealings" Junior closes his second almost full notebook and grabs a new one.

"That will be… quite costly sir" Derek warns. "Especially considering the framework of this entire building"

"I am aware. And in my free time I have also revised the floor plan of this place. I have made the changes I wish to make. And the reason I wish to start this project first is to make money sooner and faster. I also have another project that will happen simultaneously that has to deal with our men. But it can wait until I learn about them. Which brings me to the next part I want to learn about" Junior rubs the back of his neck to get the stiffness out. "I need to know who is on our payroll and what types of assets and liabilities we have"

Derek has no idea where Junior is getting this energy from, or the time for that matter. He was unaware that Junior even found the floor plan of this building. "I'll grab the necessary materials, and I'll take a look at your revised floor plan as well so we can get that started right away"

Junior responds with a simple nod as he opens a drawer and takes out 2 rolled up blueprints. One is the old and one is the new one. He thought about what to name the club a lot in his free time, which wasn't much. But he knows he doesn't want it to be Junior's Club, a bit too narcissistic for his tastes.

A name cam across his mind, the Black Bear Club. He liked it for a few reasons. Mainly because his name Hei Xiong translates to Black Bear. But so does his father's. So he decides not to name it the BBC.

He ended up just leaving it blank for now. It'll take months for it to get ready anyway so he has plenty of time to come up with a name between then and now anyway.

*Thump!*

Derek drops some more books onto the table. "These are the previous and current members and those associated with us. I will be back with the first portion of assets and liabilities"

Junior rolls his eyes at the sheer number of books. "But this is specifically what he has been wanting to read the most. Knowing the connections and networks will open up many more possibilities.

When he opens the first book he is shocked at how organized it is. There are even some blank pages left for each person just to add onto them.

Junior does wonder why his father hasn't made the jump to more advanced ways to keep records, but after remembering that his old man loved his secrets it isn't that surprising. A computer or scroll could be hacked after all.

——————

Junior has found out many interesting things. While there aren't any faces to put to the names, he does recognize a few of the names. Apparently his father had dealt with the Spider in the past and has made some not so friendly dealings with them. Basically the Spider isn't on friendly or not friendly terms. But Junior gives credit to his father in that he didn't lose to the Spider organization. There's also a list of Vale police officers and other officials in the books. This makes it easy to know what he can and can't get away with, along with Derek helping him get the gist of it.

Junior also found out that there was a certain family his father worked with to smuggle dust into Vale. It was the Jimmy Vanille, the previous City Mayor of Vale. Key word on previous, apparently the fool died when the dust he aquired from his deal with the Xiong family exploded in his face, literally. But there are other newer officials that he has contacts with, it will make getting certain permits much easier.

And the assets. Oh baby the assets. Junior's father might as well been a dragon considering the absolute hoard of various things he collected in his years. Not only weapons and dust, but Lien, gold, precious metals, lots of extra weapons, and other things. It really makes him wonder how the original Junior managed to 'screw up'.

It took about another 3 weeks to get through everything. He skipped on the lesser known members names and only wrote down the important ones. If anyone stuck out he would make a point to learn their names, but not before then.

The construction has started and it's a good thing the office is soundproof, otherwise that would have made it very difficult to focus.

Junior used some connections and favors in the construction side of things to get things started. Well, he had Derek get it started since he is technically but technically not the boss at the same time.

With his new knowledge he decides to just tackle the other information his father left him at random. He doesn't need to know anything else immediately so just jumping between subjects makes it easier to not get too burnt out while only focusing on one at a time.

And Derek's advice and insight has been extremely helpful. He truly did know almost anything that went on. Granted there are a few things that even he wasn't allowed to know. And Junior made sure to memorize those things since they would be important for various reasons.

So over the next 5 months Junior solely ends up reading and taking notes. He does end up doing some exercises and stretches to not let his body get too lazy, he did plan on starting the training part soon after all.