midnight meetings
Luke Cage and Danny Rand are in the garage of the Heroes For Hire headquarters. Danny is cleaning his latest acquisition, a hover-car, while Luke hedtes furniture. "Someone recorded our fight against Magilla Gorilla and Spider-Ninja and it went viral. Over a million views already. That's free publicity!" Danny exclaimed.
"Great--that's exactly what i want...more publicity!" Luke sighed. "I'm carrying all this heavy stuff by myself! Can't you start channeling some chi or something, so we can get the rest of this furniture moved in?"
"Can't we just enjoy the moment? People are giving us love! People love us -- you and me!" Danny said as hesar against the vehicle.
"What are you even doing with that thing?" Luke asked.
"Cleaning." Danny said.
"what is this thing?" Luke then asked.
"It's an old Fantasticar! Since The Fantastic Four is no more, Ben Grimm sold a bunch of stuff before he left for space and Peter Parker bought the Baxter building, and i was able to buy this off him. I've made a bunch if modifications, using instructions i found on the internet. We can call it the Power-Fist mobile!"
"Ok, i can think of 3 reasons why we shouldn't name this thing the Power-Fist…" Luke started.
"Power-Fist is a great name!" Danny argued.
"Maybe in K'un L'un, man, but this is downtown Harlem." Luke fired back.
"Fine, I'll just call it the Fist mobile and cut you out of the fun, how about that? No Power-Fist fun for you. Any other problems?" Danny pouted.
"Yeah, there's no seat belts in this thing. That's not safe." Luke pointed out.
"I never thought id bear the day i heard The Unbreakable Luke Cage complaining about safety."
"This thing even got airbags?" Luke asked.
-
Later that day Luke and Danny fly around in the Power-Fist mobile. Danny attempted some daring aerobatics, and Luke gripped the door. "What the Do-da-dippity are ya doing?!" Luke asked nervously.
"Testing this baby out!" Danny shouted excitedly.
He then threw it through a barrel roll that caused Luke Cage to fall from the vehicle and down through the sky. He then fell onto a villain who was buying a hotdog from a street vendor before crashing into the side of a building and partially crumbling the building. Danny quickly reversed and landed the vehicle nearby, "you ok?" he asked as he ran over to Luke.
"I told you that thing needed some seat belts, that was some fiddle-faddle." Luke said as he stood and brushed himself off.
The angry villain then attacks Luke Cage and Danny Rand but is easily defeated.
-
Having fallen asleep in the HFH office, the telephone woke her in the middle of the night. When she answered a voice with a slight british accent said quickly, "Listen carefully," he said. "The Silver Samurai will be meeting with the White Dragon tomorrow night in a warehouse near Pier 38 on the East River. If you want to stop them before it's too late, you need to be there!" before Misty could say anything, the caller hung up.
-
It was nearly midnight on the following night and the waterfront was practically deserted. The En Force Heroes For Hire (Misty Knight, Colleen Wing, Black Cat, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Moon Knight, Cloak & Dagger) can see Pier 38 in the distance. The dark water caused the moonlight to reflect like a silver ribbon off of the East River. Nearby was the warehouse the mysterious informant had mentioned. The rooftop radiated bright light from open skylights. The only other clue that something was happening was the two ugly henchmen who near the warehouse door, leaning against the wall. Sharing a smoking blunt and talking, the two men occasionally glanced up and down the street. Apparently they had not seen Black Cat who had hidden nearby and was eavesdropping on the 2 henchmen's loud conversation. The thugs were stoned, and doing more talking than guarding. "Yeah! You're right there, man! I would've never believed that samurai dude would be willing to pay a million dollars for a mummified old corpse." one of them said.
"Yeah, the Silver Samurai may be an asshole, but i wouldn't want to mess with him. Did you see what he did to the trap house? His katana is made of adamantium." the other stated, spacing off.
"yeah!! But, i heard those super dudes the 'Whores for Hire' where there too. I hope that samurai cuts them up with that shiny sword of his! If he don't the Dragonlords will!!"
"you know it, bro! Id like to see those super-punks show up tonight! Id cut em up real good!" the Thug said as he whipped his butterfly knife through the air in a trick.
"Fuck yeah!" yelled the first thug, as he withdrew a pair of nunchukas from his belt behind his jacket and began twirling them madly about.
"Whoah!" said his companion in a hushed tone as he pocketed his knife. "Put those away, man, we're supposed to act normal. Be cool!"
Black Cat then pounced on the 2 thugs and swiftly rendered them both unconscious. She then hid their limp bodies, and left PowerMan, Iron Fist, Misty Knight, and Colleen on the ground outside. Atop the roof, Moon Knight, Cloak & Dagger awaited Black Cat.
-
Looking into the warehouse from above, they saw that the building was formerly used to store floats and decorations for Chinatown Parades. The most notable decoration was a massive White Dragon that was made from wood and paper-mache that hung from the ceiling below the skylight by ropes. The ropes were close enough for Black Cat to reach out and touch with the edge of her knife.
Although their view was partially obscured by the gigantic decoration, they could still observe the meeting held by the 2 groups of villains. On one side of the warehouse stood the Silver Samurai and six ninja in dark green and gold tong outfits. Opposite him stood The White Dragon, and a posse of 12 of his most dangerous Dragonlords.
On the floor between the 2 groups sat a long wooden crate. A long sticker was plastered along the lid of the crate, but the only words that could be made out were: "China" and "Religious".
As the heroes watched, the Silver Samurai placed a large briefcase on the crate, and opened it to reveal a massive sum of money all in hundred-dollar bills.
-
The skylight and paper dragon were 30 feet above the meeting groups. Using her knife, Black Cat severed the ropes suspending the dragon, causing the decoration to fall down atop the gangs. At the same time, the heroes on the street kicked in the front doors of the warehouse and intruded!
At first the villains scrambled to escape from beneath the collapsed paper dragon, but once free they quickly assumed aggressive postures towards the approaching heroes. The rooftop heroes began rappelling down into the warehouse to join the fray. Then, the Silver Samurai and the Si Fan Ninja drew small orbs and threw them to the ground to detonate small smoke bombs. In the confusion, Silver Samurai broke from his fight with Colleen Wing to collect the briefcase and the stolen crate before teleporting away in a flash of light. The Samurai's Si Fan assassins tried to dash for the door and escape but were foiled by Powerman and Iron Fist.
Despite the silver samurai's betrayal, the Dragonlords continued to assist the ninja in their fight against the HFH. Losing the battle against Moon Knight, White Dragon begins breathing fire to the parade floats as a final act of desperation. As the white-hot intense flames spread about the warehouse, Wu Fong and 6 of the Tiger's Claw sprang into action in defense of the Heroes For Hire and extinguishing the flames.
Once captured, The White Dragon cursed the Heroes For Hire, "You fools!" he spat, "Don't you understand what's going down? The Silver Samurai's treachery means war! Until they have retribution against the samurai's boss, your streets will continue to erupt in bloody violence!"
"Who's they? Who's the Silver Samurai work for?" Moon Knight asked.
"I've already said too much! If i were too say more, they would kill me."
"Where's the stolen book?" Moon Knight asked.
"Huh?" The White Dragon peered at Moon Knight with incredulity. "You guys are nuts! I have no idea what you're talking about."
"What are you doing here?" Iron Fist asked Wu Fong.
"I received an anonymous phone call from someone who notified me of the Dragonlords activity here. I gathered all of the Tiger's Claw available and came as soon as possible. I knew something was awry when we saw the smoke billowing from the skylight." Wu Fong answered.
"What did the caller sound like?" Misty asked curiously, as she felt chills roll down her spine.
"He spoke in Chinese, but with a slight british accent. We used our technology to trace the call, only to discover it originated from a payphone in Chinatown." Wu Fong revealed.
"What was really in that crate?!" Cloak asked curiously.
"I had believed it was holding a collection of hollow clay statuettes filled with scores of Oxi and cocaine." Wu Fong admitted.
"It was holding a corpse." Black Cat shared from her previously eavesdropped conversation.
"But, what does the Silver Samurai and those ninja have to do with all of this?!" Colleen questioned.
"I am unsure." answered Wu Fong. "The Samurai has always had a long history of being a very successful and very highly paid mercenary. Now, it seems he has either started his own gang with a private following of Tong or is working for a much larger organization. I'm not sure which."
After answering the questions of theirs he could, Wu Fong praised the Heroes For Hire for capturing the White Dragon and ending his Dragonlords' reign of terror in Chinatown. He announced a grand celebration he would hold, with the Heroes For Hire as the guests of honor. "The festival will be in my own garden behind the shop tomorrow night. You will all come, won't you?" Wu Fong asked the heroes.