Arrival

[Mr. Zhu]

Crack!

The door swung open, and an array of light crept its way into the room, revealing the sins inside the dark space. The opium den was slow as of late, ever since Jacques had been discovered as a undercover cop and the Norca Clan fell to another leader, one who no one trusted nor believed over Jacques.

The new leader was a friend of Black's, apparently they used to be buddies way back when, and now that he is out of a job, Black had kindly situated him within the East City Mob, as the head coordinator of the Norca clan and its territories. However, everyone knew who was still the one pulling the strings of operation and held the real power. Zhu Zhi.

After the bust in East City, Black had been laying low and hasn't even shown his face. Only his utmost loyalist protection unit knew where he was and knew how to contact him, his only actions have been passed on through memorandums and word of mouth from Tank, who was now basically the symbol of Black's presence. Everything that Tank said was the order of Black.

Two hulking figures walked into the dimly-lit opium stand and walked past the receptionist and straight into Zhu Zhi's office. On any given day this would automatically be death sentence for any other junky, but these guys were sent from the order of Tank, and whatever the interim dragonhead said, trust that it had to be obeyed. The duo arrived at Zhu's office and burst through the door.

"Mr. Zhu," said one of the minions of Tank, "Mr. Black would like to have a word with you."

Zhu, having just smoked a damn lot of opium, looked up towards the voice. It came from two men, one African American, and the other probably of a Russian-descent. No matter though, they were just two unimportant minions sent by Tank. What was impressive, however, was the fact that even these lowly subordinates that take Tank's orders had a impressive amount of combat ability and power level. He could sense it.

"I thought Black was in hiding?" Zhu inquired as he raised a brow, taking his feet off of his desk. He had felt the rush from the drug, he couldn't quite focus just yet, but he knew to an extent what was going on, and whenever that Black summoned you, you know you were being called into duty. What type of duty though?

"It dusn't concern yu," the other one spoke with a thick accent, "yu juz come wid us!"

Zhu rose to his feet uneasily, and propped himself up with the aid of the desk. He almost fainted by the sudden change in stance, and the fact that he was drugged up was not a good state of mind to be in when Black called upon you for something. The dragonhead's authority was something that could not be questioned, otherwise the amount of people looking for your head would be enough to form a legion of armed militia.

"Okay, I'll come with you guys," the eunuch replied drowsily.

The Cat turned to his coat rack and grabbed his robe jacket and followed the two into the dark opium den. As he walked down the aisles of crack smokers, he couldn't help but wonder what Black had in store for him this time. He wasn't exactly pleased with the reward he got for bailing Black out last time at the warehouse, and he certainly wasn't willing to risk his life for the organization, not the least bit.


The blindfold came off as Zhu Zhi found himself seated onto a chair, in the custody of Black and his underlings. Black was dressed in his usual suit, still sharp as ever. He didn't change a single bit since the last time the eunuch saw him, still clean-shaven, bald and intimidating as all hell.

"Thanks for your time Zhu. I realize you're a busy man, and that I've appointed you to look over Norca, but now I have more important matters of my hand, and I might need your assistance," he began, "If you had been following on current events, there had been invasions on Mercy and Namek and I have been contacted from the dragonheads of these respective planets to send over help."

At that moment then and there, Zhu knew exactly what was going to happen to him. He did hear about the possible invasions, but he had never really paid attention. After all, none of it really concerned him as long as it didn't impact him in any way, shape, or form.

"Now, the only reason that I'm contemplating on sending help over is the probability of an Earth invasion after the collapse of Namek and Mercy, which means that if we don't send over help now, not only will our trade surplus and economic ties with the other mobs around the universe get frozen, we also might be at risk of being attacked." Black took a sip of his tea, and looked Zhu dead in the eye, "I'm appointing you twenty of my elites, and you're to take off immediately. Understood?"

Well, since the orders have come down, there was no point in denying his responsibilities. Besides, it could still be fun. Zhu Zhi was not a stranger to warfare, having lived in disastrous times of ancient China, and having gone to war at the mere age of twelve, he was simply a battle-hardened eunuch that worked for whoever paid better. Sure, there was a risk of getting killed in this operation, but if it was so, it was how it is and the proposition was interesting. The reward was sure going to be a big one.

Zhu was guided to a massive ship, this will mark the first time that he's ever been out of the planet. It was unfortunate that he wasn't exactly going on vacation or to shop until he drops, but an adventure was still a great form of payment. That, and he had received Black's personal army of twenty elites. He was interested to see how strong these elites actually were. After all, they were his own personal standing army, much like Russia and its KGB.

He boarded the ship, only to find that all twenty of his troopers were already situated inside and getting ready for war. The occasion was extremely rushed, and he was still very high on opium, so there wasn't going to be an introduction between him and his soldiers. He would have to think on his feet once he's landed them and sober up. With no communication, no equipment, no intel, this was definitely going to go well.