"This is Chris Meyers in Chinatown. The streets are again quiet, as we have been assured by the Revolution that the Wuxia has been captured. I have just spoken with several police officers who are taking the Wuxia away to be held at a secure facility until their transfer once again to the Harborview Variant Penitentiary."
    "Won't it be dangerous to hold them in the city for a while?" Holly asked from the studio.
    "They did say that it was not an optimum condition as far as they were concerned, they're actually going to be bringing them outside of Boston proper to an undisclosed location before their transfer. They did say that they would prefer having their own variant holding facility closer to, or specifically within Massachusetts to make it easier to transport these individuals, both to the facility for holding before trial and then of course during the entire trial procedure. In any case, I have been interviewing some of the locals here, I have Mr. Wen Ang here. So, Mr. Ang—" He turned to the man beside him.
    "That's Mr. Wen."
    "Sorry. Mr. Wen. Could you explain to us what's been happening here today?"
    "There has been very much violence here today," the interviewee began. "Starting this morning with the attack on the police headquarters, and then this afternoon when the Revolution started going on their rampage through the Chinatown area...."
    "You're saying that a lot of people were assaulted during the Revolution's attacks?"
    "Yes. There were many assaults, many attacks. In one case I have it on good authority that the Revolution tore down a building."
    "They broke down an entire building?"
    Ang shrugged. "The building is certainly no longer standing, and word on the street is that the Revolution are responsible for it. There are people who had been warned in advance that the building would be brought down."
    "They destroyed an entire building." Meyers seemed stuck on that point.
    "Well, that's the only one that they took out entirely. There have been many other businesses and private residences that have been essentially obliterated by the Revolution's actions during the course of the day."
    "As a citizen of Chinatown, do you find this troubling?" he asked earnestly.
    "Yes, very troubling."
    "And do you feel that the crime situation in the Chinatown area warranted this sort of action?"
    "I don't believe so; over the past few months we've actually seen a decrease in street crime and all criminal activity within Chinatown. Why the Revolution chose right now to go through such a serious crackdown, of in many cases apparently totally legitimate businesses strikes me more as almost terrorist activities than something the police should do."
    Chris nodded somberly. "And now back to you at the studio."
    Holly took over the explanation. "This is not the first time that the Revolution has taken actions such as these in face of dealing with criminal activities. The last time such action took place was during the alleged gang war that was going on between the alleged mafia leaders Don Vincent and Don Aliese. During the course of a six-hour period, assaults were made on nearly a dozen restaurants, hotels, and private homes, all of which were later revealed to be connected in some way with this criminal organization. However, there was quite a bit of noise in the press as this was going on."
    "Holly, I remember that you were particularly vocal about that at the time," Simon noted.
    "Well, it just comes back to some of the things that I was saying before, their tendency to simply overshoot in their zealousness the degree of authority that they should be given."
    "And how exactly did all of that end, do you remember?"
    "Eventually Mr. Aliese was brought into custody and then died in a car bomb explosion that seemed far more reminiscent of the activities in the Troubles in Ireland than they would be of downtown Boston."
    "Wasn't a member of the Revolution at that point part of the Irish Mafia?"
    "Former part of the Irish Mafia, she was very clear on that point."
    "Were any charges ever pressed on that attack?"
    "No, no one has ever discovered who was responsible for blowing up the vehicle Mr. Aliese was in."
    "And Mr. Vincent, how is he doing?"
    "After an assault by the Revolution, he was put in the hospital for several months and is now recuperating at his home with a broken spine, I believe. Of course his house was one of the locations that was attacked by the Wuxia in their rampage earlier today, so his condition is still unknown," she noted. "However we do have someone right there at his house, looking over the damage that was done there. So we're going to jump over to Pilar Soma. Ms. Soma, why don't you tell us what's going on?"
    "Ambulances and fire vehicles are as present here as they are anywhere else in the city right now," Pilar told the camera. "However, I've been unable to get a clear view of what's been going on inside due to the very high walls Mr. Vincent has erected around his home."
    "Do you have any idea of the casualty figures?" Holly inquired.
    "Judging from the number of ambulances that have been passing through here, we estimate around a dozen dead and twice that many hospitalized."
    "Any word on Mr. Vincent's condition?"
    "No, he has not been seen and no one's been speaking about it."
    "Has anyone else been seen there?"
    "There haven't been any signs of the Revolution—wait a minute, there's a grey cloud entering over the top of the complex, can you get the camera on that? Mr. Silver? Mr. Silver!"
    Scott landed, liquefied, and rang the buzzer at the outside wall, deeming it rude to just go on in when his prospective hosts were no doubt feeling a bit twitchy.
    "This another ambulance?" a voice asked over the intercom.
    "No, this is Scott Silver, can I come in, please?"
    Pause. "I don't see what it could hurt. Hang on, I'll open the gate."
    Ms. Soma and her crew moved in to get a shot through the opening gate. "The carnage here seems total. The phrase war zone has been used many times today, but again has to be applied. There's no sign of any bodies at this point, I think everything's been carted away, but the blood, the destruction, is that a mini-bus that's been thrown over the wall?! We have to back up before the gate closes—"
    "Why didn't she go inside?" Simon wondered to Holly while they were off the air.
    She gave him a look. "You don't do field work, do you?"
    Meanwhile, Scott went up to the front door, or where the front door would have been if hadn't been knocked off its hinges by Yeh Cha. The entire building was damp, as if it had recently been frozen and was melting slowly. He knocked on the door frame.
    "Yes, Mr. Silver. Hi." A man who was clearly a guard greeted him a trifle warily. "Can I help you?"
    "Yes. Is Don Vincent around?"
    "I'm afraid Mr. Vincent is incommunicado at the moment."
    "So would that be incommunicado as in not talking to people, incommunicado as in dead, or incommunicado as in had a terrible accident during the invasion?"
    "I'm afraid I'm not really at liberty to say, sir." The buzzer went off again; he pressed the intercom. "Yes, this another ambulance?"
    "No, we're here from the FBI," came the response.
    He glanced at Scott. "I have to ask you, can I legally tell them not to come in?"
    "I think the answer is yes, and if not you're just going to stall them for a couple hours. Then they'll be cranky."
    "So would it be worth it?"
    "I personally would say no."
    "You'd say no?"
    "I'd say no. They're going to get in anyway, it's just a matter of how much of what's left you want them to wreck in the process."
    He nodded glumly. "Can you hang on just a second? I have to talk to a superior. I'm under standing orders, if any of you come in, there's normally coffee and aperitifs and stuff over there, but...."
    "That's okay, thank you." The hospitality table had seen better days.
    The guard headed off at a trot to consult Mafia higher-ups while the FBI cooled their heels. Scott poked around a bit. The whole house showed the effects of Liang Hsiang's power, and there were a few people busy burning documents, which wasn't particularly his concern.
    "My superior told me I should let them in," the guard said upon his return, pressing the button. "Sorry about the delay, I'll open the gate." He looked at Scott. "Is there anything... where were you guys?!" he demanded suddenly. "I mean, I gotta ask!"
    "You might have noticed a few other things got blown up in town," Scott noted.
    "Chink bastards," he muttered.
    "Speaking of not necessarily needing our support or wanting it, about the Plovian liquid metal killing machine that you have...."
    His face froze. "I don't know anything about that."
    "Which is one of the reasons I would really like to talk to Don Vincent, because I think that the League of Nations might be coming for it, and you know, you're not in a real good spot to try and hold them off."
    A knock at the door frame announced the two FBI men, one short and heavy, one tall and thin.
    "Hi, I'm Agent Smith, this is Special Agent Kremetzki."
    "Gentlemen." The guard nodded. "You're familiar with Scott Silver of the Revolution?"
    "Ah." The portly man held out a hand.
    Scott shook it, and turned to gold.

    Phoenix Talon took a roundabout route to Rick's house, parked the car several blocks away, and snuck over to the back door. Everything looked fine. He knocked at one of the windows.
    Stu jumped. "Sensei's here!" He slid the window open to let him in.
    Dawn ran over and hugged him; Talon gave her a peck on the cheek. "Hi, hon."
    "You're okay?" she asked as if she didn't believe it.
    "Yeah, yeah."
    "We've been watching the news."
    "Been a hell of a day."
    "Things are not good," she nodded solemnly.
    "No. Toy Man saved our ass, then I melted him again."
    "Way to go, sensei!" The Blood Boards cheered and clapped.
    "Things kept going downhill from there, though. The big problem is the League of Nations is in town," he told them all. "We knew that, they're after some stuff. Exactly what, we don't know, but hon I'm worried that you might be part of 'stuff.'"
    "Sensei, you know we won't let 'em take her!"
    "Stu, we're not talking the Alley Cats. These guys are not only costumes, they're big costumes. Bigger'n us."
    "But Stan and I have been practicing! We can bend iron bars."
    "Here's your instructions," Talon said to the assembled group. "You stay here, you lie completely low. Don't let anybody in or out. Keep teams on patrol in the area, around the block, watch the sky...."
    Of them all, only Rick was nodding with a perfectly serious look. "The patrols, do you want us on our boards or not?"
    "Some guys on boards, some guys not. Some guys plain clothes. Anything happens, you RUN. Soon as you can, run. Run far, run fast."
    "Split up, stay together?"
    "Split up. Rick, Stu, Stan, you stay with Dawn."
    "Yes, sensei!"
    "We shouldn't attack them?" Stan asked, sounding disappointed.
    "No." He pulled Dawn into the kitchen for a private conversation while Rick assigned the rest of the gang to four-man teams. "Hon, if anything happens to them, keep running," he told her firmly.
    "What do you mean, keep running?"
    "Leave 'em. Leave 'em and you go. Mind Lazer can fuck with people's heads on levels that make Albert look like a nursery school kid, although Albert managed to stand up to him this afternoon, very impressive."
    "Always nice when nursery school kids stand up to the school bully," she replied absently.
    "Now, I don't know what he could do to you, but I don't want to find out the hard way."
    She nodded slowly. "So, we stay here. If anyone comes, we run, I stay with them...."
    "If anyone attacks. Yes. At first stay with Stu and Stan, but if the four of you get attacked, you keep going, as fast as damn possible. Go to...." He cast around for a safe place. "Go to Detroit."
    "The Warriors?"
    "Yeah. We don't have the forces that can cover everything that might get attacked. Scott went out to try to find that robot half...."
    "Silverblood?"
    "Yeah, and the other guys went to the museum to look at the Egyptian stuff. We don't know what they're after."
    "But you think they're after me?"
    "They might be, I don't know. You're a strong possibility. At this point we've got nothing to go on."
    "Okay." She seemed to be steeling herself.
    He gave her a kiss and slipped out the door, took a different route back to the car and drove to the nearest station, where he exchanged the car for a motorcycle and called Needle.

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