One Night in Bangkok [phoenix]

“I don’t believe what I’m hearing.” Blackcrown took a sip from his glass before continuing, “You come gallivanting into my place of business like a special needs chimpanzee and kick up a shit storm on MY casino floor. You follow this thieving snake to my private elevator. You then proceed to throw lewd vulgarities at my assistants, and on top of it all you insult a family heirloom, but I’m the villain here?” He shook his head at Andrew, “Had you caught me outside this state of grieving , I’d have you killed for less.” At that, Blackcrown motioned the Twins closer.  They came to either side of Andrew’s chair and awaited further instruction.  

“Now, there’s no need to be alarmed. As I’ve stated, I’m currently in a state of depression, and death brings me no joy…”

“An imperialist kingpin that thrives on the suffering of others doesn’t take joy in killing? Fuck me. What are you so sad about, anyway? Your hamster die or something.” Clayton finally spoke up, and surprisingly, the tension in his shoulders seemed to ease as he did, “Look, Kenny, you’ve put on enough of a spectacle for this sex tourist. I don’t know the kid, you don’t know the kid, so how about you just let him go chase down the waitress, and you and I can settle whatever you think it is we have to settle.”

The British ex-pat paused as if to consider the offer before politely declining, “Well, if you don’t know him, and I don’t know him, perhaps we should get to know him. If he is as interesting as my Oracle suggested, he might be of some use to the two of us once introductions are out of the way.”

“What do you mean us?”

“In a minute, Mr. Wray. Girls.” He snapped his fingers and each of the women placed a hand on Phoenix’s shoulders and closed their eyes, within seconds there was a bright flash above the area in which they stood, and a noise not quite of this earth emanated from the mouths of both of the twins. The sound was like hundreds of voices holding hundreds of conversations at once, and as the conversations continued, they grew louder and louder as energy running through the three bodies shook them all violently. The twins’ hands remained on Andrews shoulders as they shook.

Blackcrown shot a smug grin to Clayton, who gripped the edges of his chair, eyes widened and jaw dropped.

Finally, the noise died down and a glow came from behind the closed eyelids of the Twins.

They spoke in unison, “The boy’s name is Andrew. But in his home, America, he has another name, and a second face. That of the Phoenix”

The couple removed their hands from the Phoenix’s shoulders. Their eyes returned to normal.

“Is that so, Andrew? Do they also call you the Phoenix back home? I didn’t think I was on the radar of people like the Talons.” Blackcrown retained his smile.

“The what?” Clayton chimed in.

"You family heirloom is a sword? My apologies. You brits like tea right? I'm from Boston originally we love tea parties. You should join sometime." he said with a smirk, letting his glass fall to the floor and break in half.

The man was not pleased, but he was impressed with the young man's fast quips.

"What the fuck do you think you're doi-" The twins had their hands on Andrew and there was nothing he could do.
It became instantly clear they were using some power on him as this was nothing that could be explained. Once they revealed he was Phoenix his eyes widened and he looked over quickly to Clayton, and then right back to the douche.

"The Pho- what?" he asked tilting his head.

BlackCrown instantly followed up by mentioning Talons. He was caught. The man knew who he was and so did these women. Apparently Clayton didn't so that wasn't so bad.
"What are The Talons? That super hero group back in New York?
Oh right, their leader is that Phoenix guy. Further more, why am I sitting in your office like a student to a principal. It's not like anyone will believe you that I'm who you say I am." he made careful thought not to give an exact confession to avoid any bugs the man may have set.

He looked at the twin on the left. "I thought you'd be touching me in a different way tonight beautiful."
Trying to maintain the act or illusion that he was just some tail chasing rich boy.
Blackcrown just smirked at him, Andrew had a strong feeling things were going to get sticky soon.
The girl on the right went to punch him in the face, trying to perhaps shut him up. He put his arm up and blocked the punch with is elbow, while not ever taking his eyes off Black Crown.

"If I really am who you think I am. Would it be smart to corner me here?" he spoke, grabbing the girl's arm gently an moving it back off to the side.

He looked to Clayton.
"Make a move you son of a bitch." he thought looking at Mr.Wray. He was giving him the 'lets get the hell out stare'. However he wasn't sure Clayton would follow.
If in the next minute or so he didn't make a move, then Andrew would.

"Mr.Pettiglio, it would be wise to keep your mouth closed right about now you insufferable yank. You're not fooling me."

The twin that seemed to be the more aggressive picked up her gun and pointed it at the back of Andrew's head.
"Or my next heirloom will be your skull. I've had enough."

Andrew yawned, and looked to his left staring at the woman's rear end.
"Not bad. Not bad at all." he spoke ignoring the weapon trained upon him.

"Oh did you say something?" he asked looking at BlackCrown once more.
He was miffed.
He slammed his fist down on his desk and looked at Clayton.
"So did you bring this kid here as back up?"

“Did I bring him for what?” Clayton shook his head, “I didn’t bring him at all. You heard the kid; He’s some kind of sex tourist or something. You seem to know more about him than I do.” He stood up and stretched his arms above his head while giving his best fake yawn, “So if you’ll excuse me I think it’s time I hit the hay.”

Upon turning to leave Clayton found himself staring directly down the barrel of the gun held by one of the twins.

“You are not excused. So sit back down and hear me out. You haven’t even finished your drink.” The Brit snarled. Clayton tilted his head as if considering his next moves carefully, but ultimately shrugged his shoulders and sat back down.

“Lets cut to the chase, gentlemen, as every second might be more valuable than your fucking lives. Mr. Wray, it’s clear to me that the sole reason you came here of all places is the talisman. Here is where I truly and deeply regret to inform you’re much too late. It is no longer in my possession.”

“The talis..man? Right. The talisman. What talisman is that?”

“… You? You really don’t…” Blackcrown erupted into a cackle, “You useless fucking Yank. You mean to tell me you were just here for my money?” He reached into his breast pocket and tossed a wad of bills onto the desk between them, “Go ahead and take it. Buy yourself something nice, and get out of my sight.”

“Hold on, Kenny, old pal, let’s not jump to conclusions here. I didn’t know you meant THAT talisman. The valuable one, right? It would be weird for me to tell you about your own talisman, but why don’t you describe it for the kid here. Just to bring him up to speed.”

Clayton flashed his most sincere smile. Blackcrown cocked an eyebrow at the two.

“Yes. Well, it’s a valuable trinket, to those who know how to use it, just as even you two could be valuable to someone who knows how to make use of you. This particularly useful trinket has been stolen from me, and my own people have had no luck getting it back. Since you’ve been so lucky today, Mr. Wray, perhaps you’d be willing to make more money than you can possibly imagine in exchange for your particular combination of Luck, and skill.

"I don't know, I can imagine a lot."

"And you there, Phoenix, I hope you’re ready to do me a favor, in exchange for the favor I’m extending you by not selling your identity to TMZ.”

--

After about an hour of explanations and negotiations, the two were back out on the floor and ready to recover the talisman for their employer.

"Look, kid, just help me out here. Don't try any of that superhero shit, and we'll make you enough lunch money to last the whole school year. Now lets get out of here before my wife finds us again."

None of those dice did anything good. Every time they came up with some new combination, the monkey suited old woman thought of her twelve cats and came up with a new reason to take money from Elaine. Elaine just straight up jacked the dice. And her money.

"Mam, you can't just take the casinos money. That's called stealing."

"Oh really, hold on." Elaine dug through her gun bag, disguised as a handbag, and pulled out a cup. She grabbed a permanent marker and scribbled a word on it. "Let me just grab something out of this cup and then we can- oh wait. No! The cup is empty? Oh my god! But, that means-"

"Aren't you supposed to be helping someone..." The small dog sat on the chair next to Elaine, examining her current ill gotten returns. "Or doing anything remotely useful- oh my god, you wrote 'fuck' on the cup and are now mocking people with it!"

"That's right! Looks like I'm all out of fucks to give. If anyone has any fucks, well, keep em to yourself, cause I don't give a fuck today. Later Asian people." Sure people cared about Elaine stealing, and of course security would come to deal with it, but Elaine recently filed all of the fucks she gave under the wrong tax statement, so she would not even get accredited for the fucks she gave. Elaine gave no fucks.

"Tell them the joke where you ask their age and then say 'when I was your age, I was one year older!"

"That's the best joke ever. Why does no one say it all the time?" The duo continued to walk between slot machines, interrupting coked up party lounges, stepping through walls.  

"Because everyone is an idiot. It's due time a meteor hit this stupid planet and killed everyone."

"That's what I've been saying for years! You know I-" Some in the air turned sour and unexpected. Only a dog fart could be so sudden. "Wait, you're never helpful or complimentary to me. What do you want corgi?"

"I kind of want those guys you were talking to dead, so I'm distracting you."

"Well, why didn't you just say that? I don't even remember who they were."

"No one does. What a bunch of losers. I'm glad they're going to die."

"If you're happy, I'm happy."

"Well, then let's- wait a minute. You're never cordial or supportive to me. What are you up to cowgirl?"

"I'm Ocean's Twelving this place and need you as the wheel man."

"I'm skipping past me being a manifestation of your barely functioning brain and going straight to 'Why Ocean's Twelve'? Eleven is the one with the Casino. Twelve is the one where Julia Roberts plays Julia Roberts"

"It's the best part of the movie!"

"It is by far the worst part."

"No, it isn't."

"You know what. You're right. The part where people paid money to see it was the worse part."

"I already stole these dice; now all I gotta do, is hit the big score, and settle with the fat man."

"You have no idea what you're talking about, who you're talking to, and how those thoughts in your head are being generated."

"I'm knocking this casino over and Janitor Man is taking the fall, you're the ghost of a dog I had when I was little, and the brain is merely a receiver transposing a slice of the human collective unconscious onto a blank canvas so it can experience itself."

"One of those things is true."

Andrew couldn't take this prick anymore. He hit boiling point. Tiny bits of fire began to surround his body. Like fire flies.
"SHUT. THE. FUCK. UP."
HE slammed his fist down and smashed the man's table in half.
Valuables breaking for sure, and he heard the cracking of the man's computer.

"I don't know what you think you're going to get me to do but I assure you this much. I will not kill for you, or harm anyone innocent. I'm only doing anything at all so you keep my identity hidden. If you threaten my identity one more time, if you threaten the well being of MY family one more fucking time. It's not my life that will be of no value."

He grabbed the brit by the jacket and lifted him with one arm.
"Are we clear you freaking hack?"
Guns clicked behind Phoenix's head.
"And here I thought the hot twin would come home with me tonight. Shame."

He put he man down and listened to the demands and looked to Clayton. Halfway through negotiations he literally held a hand up to shut the Englishman up to ask "Is this fucker serious?"

By the time they walked back out to the floor, the brawl seemed to have stopped, and people were back to playing cards.
That woman from before was being chased by guards.

He listened to Clayton before pointing to the Asian woman.
"THAT wife of yours? I think she's busy lets get the hell outta here while she's busy."

The duo made their way outside. There was a ladder that reached the rooftop of the building.
"Up there."
Andrew squatted down, and leaped into the air, leaving a crater where he once stood.
As he landed atop the roof, he rolled forward.

Once Clayton made his way up the ladder Andrew sat on one of the generators.
"So what's the plan? And for the record cool it with that 'kid' crap. I'm smarter and more capable than you thought. So take it easy. This is clearly more your forte, but don't forget my 'superhero shit' has kept me alive from men much scarier than that action hero villain rip off."

“Yes. That wife of mine.” Clayton shook his head and followed Andrew out to the roof tops. He was almost certain Elaine saw them on their way out, but held on to hope that she was too busy with security to give chase. Hope never got anyone anything, but he remained hopeful that this time would be different.

Of course, Andrew was showy with his jump. He put on just as much of a show in the alley as he had in Blackcrown’s office. Clayton found the bit with the desk tacky enough, but the empty threats and attempts at intimidation were worse. Who the fuck did this kid think he was? From zero to aggro in less than a second and with no signs of slowing. He’d seen that attitude get people killed before, and if he had to bet, he figured it would be safe to say putting on a costume like some kind of vigilante rockstar didn’t exempt you from that, and it sure as hell didn’t protect the people around you from death either.

At the top of the ladder, the attitude continued. This Phoenix seemed to have a massive chip on his shoulder. Clayton decided it was time to help relieve that burden by knocking it right off.

“Scarier than that? You really believe that, huh?”
He raised his tone for the first time that night.
“You know, men like the one you just sat across from, men like that, they aren’t Doctor fucking Everyone. You don’t just slug it out with them in the middle of Times Square. The cops don’t come in and haul them away just for you to do it all again next week. Men like that are nothing someone like you is used to. Kenneth Blackcrown, for all the bullshit airs he puts on, all that pseudo-sophistication, he’s not like Elena Venus or whatever. He’s a murderer, and murderers like that, real murderers, they don’t give you the luxury of a monologue before they put a bullet in your mother’s skull. They don’t poison your best friend and dangle the antidote in front of you. They just mail you pieces at a time. They'll simply put a bomb under your car and you're dead as soon as you turn the key.

You wanna put on a mask and be some big damn hero? Fine. But do it someplace else, because that shit doesn’t fly here. You ‘heroes’ don’t know the first thing about evil. You think you can just put a stop to it one rat at a time. You know what really happens when you get rid of a rat like Blackcrown? A bigger, meaner rat moves in, and gets even fatter than the one before it. And believe me, pal, there’s always a meaner one waiting.

But, no, you don’t see it that way. You small minded motherfucker. You don’t even stop to think about what these little secret wars you wage do to people like the ones here, and why would you?

You and guys like the ones you fight back home? Two sides of the same coin. When I turn on the news, and I see the shit you get up to, you know what I see? Ego. Two egos clashing. Yeah, you put the bad guy away again. But who did you do it for? Who are you really helping?

The way you acted back there proves my whole point. This whole hero shtick is about you first, and it always will be. You couldn’t keep your mouth shut for two minutes. Pride’s a bitch, kid, and yours is gonna get someone close to you killed. Maybe not by our pal down there, but someone, someday.
And that’s why I’m calling you a kid.
It’s what you are.

And you know, my problem with that guy down there? Our problem with each other? It’s no different. It’s all ego, kid. it's all a dick measuring contest, but at least he and I aren’t pretending it’s some monumental struggle between good and evil. We know what we are, and we’re honest about it.

Just take your ball and go home. I’ll go get Elaine and we’ll Ocean’s 12 this bitch and you can sit in your tower -I know you guys have one- and pretend this never happened.”

Clayton turned to leave back down the ladder to the alley below.

Phoenix just sat with his mouth wide opened. He had never been verbally smacked down so hard. Every single word Clayton spoke was not only true, but backed with some hint of experience. Like someone may have gotten hurt because of him. Perhaps in his age he'd seen heroes fall because of their own hubris. Andrew Pettiglio wouldn't be another name on that list. This was a wake up call he would take and run with.

"WAIT." Andrew yelled to a man who's back was turned to him.
"Every thing you you said to me. You're right. I've only dealt with villains that want to take over the world. I've only dealt with anime wanna be's like Vexus. I can't..no I won't let anyone I care about get hurt. I don't want to do it one rat at a time! I fight for those who can't. Maybe you think it's for me but I'm doing it for people that are incapable. People like my sister. People like my mother. People like the children I save from people like that scum doctor everyone. People I save from that wretched bitch Elena Marie's grasp. So maybe I'm not as experienced with THESE kinds of scumbags.

But tell me this. You think in the New York assault us hero types weren't needed? Did you fuckin see those cops getting slaughtered? No. You were probably at some casino, drowning in some glass. Avoiding your wife. Well guess what pal? I'm capable of learning about these types. I'm capable of learning YOUR world. But you have to truly understand mine as well. I don't put on a mask and costume because it makes me feel good. I do it because it makes someone else wake up and feel safe in the morning.

I'll cut the ego. I really will. But I'll be fucked in the armpit by an eagle before I let you go and take this on alone. I'm not useless. I helped get us into this mess. I'm helping to get us out. The only way you're stopping me from doing that is by killing me."

Andrew was shaking. He just screamed at the man like he was gunna rip his head off. He was projecting himself. However Clayton would see he had gotten through to him. His voice now calming.

"So what's the plan? Where do we go from here? Also take the eagle comment from the record. I don't know where that came from."

Andrew had a point. Of course, Clayton could have argued that these 'super villains' only really started showing up after people like Phoenix and his pals started running around, and that what happened in New York both times was the logical culmination of escalting tensions between all these metahumans, but he was the type of person that could justify whatever he felt about something whether he was right or not was irrelevant. Anyway, anymore arguments would do nothing for them.

Andrew was also mostly right about where Clayton was during the trouble. He spent the bulk of that time living it up in Los Angeles, and the final days of it handcuffed to an old rival in Wyoming. But that's a tale for another time.

He looked to Phoenix and shook his head.

"Okay, Phoenix, was it? If we're going to do this, I just need you to do two things for me.. Number one:always remember that when I was your age, I was a year older, and second...

He reached into his jacket pocket and removed a crushed soft pack of Chinese cigarettes , put one between his lips, and asked, "Gimme a light, will ya?"

Once his cigarette was lit Clayton climbed the ladder down to the alley below. He felt a moment of guilt for leaving Elaine alone in blackcrown's den.

"Go on ahead. I'm gonna go check on Elaine. Meet me at the golden elephant apartments in an hour. I have a plan."

Andrew nodded. " Call me Andrew, I'm not in costume, and when I'm you're age I hope I'm one year younger. You look fuckin' awful." he said with a slight grin.

However this was time to get serious. Andrew didn't even want to mess with that whole Elaine situation. She seemed like a giant pain in the ass. He stared at the bottom of the man's smoke, and held one finger up, sighing. A small flame came to life above his digit. "Here." he lit a joint he had in his jacket pocket. "If we're gunna die I don't wanna go out all anxious."

After seeing if Clayton would take a puff, he nodded and said "Golden Elephant." almost to make sure he remembered it. Flicking the roach from the side of the building, he tossed his jacket, and pulled off his button up. Jeans and a black plain t-shirt covered his body. While black vans weren't the best choice for crime fighting, he wasn't exactly expecting to get into it right away.

He pressed the button on his dog tags.
"Gabriel. Care package drop of my costume. Use my connect to have it sent to my hotel room."

With agreement Andrew was off to the races getting to the location Clayton requested. Once he got there, he noticed the place was nothing special. Lots of locals. The smell of cigarettes and opium filled the air. He sat atop the rooftop overlooking the complex.

Then it hit him. Something he had been dealing with since the assault. The flash backs. Images of people being violently murdered, police doing their best but ending in a puddle of blood. It was awful. When he came through, he couldn't help go over every syllable the renegade had said to him.

"What would Tyuki think if she found out I was working for a criminal. What would anyone think? I'm supposed to be setting an example. I'm supposed to be a fucking super hero. Yet here I am, no other moves.."
That Blackcrown was a lot smarter than Phoenix gave him credit for. So was Clayton.

He overheard a few men say the word's "Farang no here."
"That's slang for white man, I remember that much."
"Then where the hell is he? Damien sent us to take him and that kid he was with out."

Now Andrew was no Sherlock, but he knew two plus two equaled four. "Us."
One of them men came out of the rooftop door. Holding a gun. Andrew dashed at him, and held his hand over the barrel.
The trigger pulled and it muffled the sound to near silence.
"Stop." Andrew spoke looking the man in the eyes.
The man wasn't going to as he wrestled for the firearm.
"Fine have it your way."
Andrew threw an elbow to his jaw that sent him dreaming. Snapping his fingers, the gun set ablaze and melted to a puddle of what was once metal.

He heard footsteps coming his way, and he turned with his fists up.
"Oh it's you. Uh, This guy decided to try and shoot me. From what I heard his pals aren't far behind and they want to shoot at us too. What's the call brother?" Andrew asked cracking his neck.

"His pal and I have already met." Clayton responded, out of breath. Carrying an unconscious stooge up a few flights of stairs will do that too you. "Caught the bastard raiding my fridge when I got here. I was starting to think they might've gotten to you already." He grabbed the man by his ankles and pulled him out of the stairwell and onto the roof itself.

"You're pretty strong. Pull your guy over to the ledge there. I've got a few questions, and I'm sure they've got a few answers."

Once both assailants were brought to the ledge, Clayton gave Phoenix some final instructions, "Ok, so this isn't going to be the most heroic thing you do today, but you've got a lot more muscle than most people, so I'm going to need you to grab them by their ankles and hang them over the edge here, and try not to drop them. The building would probably try to charge me for the clean up." The man he carried up the stairs was beginning to stir. "Pretend like you're that Black Knight guy or whatever. The one in Chicago. He probably does shit like this all the time."

Once Andrew had the men awake and dangling, Clayton began his interrogation.

"Look, let's cut to the chase here, fellas, I only need one of you alive for this, so I'd really appreciate it if the one of you with a stronger desire to live would take the initiative, speak up, and tell me who sent you."

The men kept their mouths shut. Total silence. But one, the man Phoenix sent to dream land was visibly shaken. Sweating more than the fridge raider. Maybe he had more to lose.

"You know, I don't think we need this one." Clayton leaned on Andrew's shoulder and pointed a finger gun at the man, squeezing one eye shut, "Ready... Aim... Fi-"

"OK OK! I'LL TALK! J-j-j-just put me down, man, and I'll tell you anything you want to know."

The fridge raider looked angered and betrayed by his partner, "You coward! Goddamn traitor!" He reached for the man's neck with both hands, "I'll take you down with me!"

"Easy, gentlemen, easy. Bring them back in, huh?"

"D-Damian. Damian Budsaba. The General, maybe, maybe you've heard of him? He doesn't want you coming after his talisman."

"Donnie, you fuck! When Damian finds out-" A long string of thai flowed from the mans mouth.

"Calm down, pal, and we never saw eachother, ok?" Clayton turned his attention back to the nervous man. "The General huh? Yeah, Blackcrown might've mentioned him. What's so fucking special about this talisman anyway ?"

"We don't know, honest. He doesn't tell guys like us anything like that."

Something about the man's fear made him seem honest. Clayton decided not to press.

"I wouldn't tell a rat like you anything either. Now thank my good friend here for holding you steady and beat it before we regret not making street pizza out of you."

A slight grin danced across the face of the young Andrew Pettiglio. Yet he wasn't sure if it was because Clayton showed up, or if it was because Clayton was carrying a criminal on his shoulder like common bum. "Jesus, and they say us Americans have no manners? Who just raids someone's fridge?"

Andrew had picked up the bullet casing, as his new found partner was speaking, and examined it a little. It was no bullet he had ever seen, and had weird markings. He put it in his pocket.

"You want me to what?" he laughed, grabbing each man by their legs and letting them hang over the building. They didn't dare scream, but it's not like Andrew would let them become and Acme pancake anyways. The neighborhood seemed to be getting quiet, and lots of movement was starting to sound like it was creeping its way towards the building they were on.
"Must be their friends."

As Clayton asked them questions, Andrew was more focused on the sounds of incoming friends of theirs. They probably didn't know much, and the renegade would get what they did know out. He caught a name though, Damien Budsaba. Not one that had passed through the ears of the phoenix before, but he was on foreign soil and that didn't surprise him. This whole situation was foreign to be honest. Sure back home Andrew knew who the villains were, but here there were no tell tale signs.

Andrew pulled the two men back over the side once Clayton finished his impromptu interrogation. The hero placed them on their backs atop the roof. One of the men went to scream out. Andrew quickly dropped a knee into his neck, he wasn't choking but he wasn't able to scream. "Shut. Up." Andrew spoke quiestly.

Looking up to Clayton, he punched the man below him right in the forehead, and he went back to sleep.
"They have friends coming. I heard lot's of movement. If I were to guess they should be here any."

The two doors and fire escape filled with about 15 men all holding machine guns.
"Second."
Andrew stood up off the man Andrew created a ring of fire around the building, no one else would be joining the party.
"I'm bulletproof, and I'm assuming you aren't" he whispered to Clayton.
"Let's back up to a corner and let them unload on me, and waste their ammo, It'll bounce off me. You just gotta make yourself as small as possible. I'm bigger than you to begin with so this plan might actually work." Andrew put his hands up and backed into a corner, hoping his buddy would be in toe.
"Gentleman! How are we on this fine night? I think there's been a mix up, these two men thought we were here to buy opium. While I enjoy the occasional high, I'm here for a different kind of business."

Andrew stomped the ground beneath his foot, and a few chucks went flying into the air, grabbing one, he hummed it with force into the shin of one of the armed men.
Once he fell, all guns trained on Phoenix.
"Ok. Fine. I deserve this one, just don't aim for my face? You'll have to deal with my wife if you destroy that..." he was lying but he was still puling their legs, shots began flying his way, bouncing off his chest, arms, and neck.
"Please don't die Clayton." he prayed.

"Jesus! Fuck, this is excessive!" Clayton shouted as he ducked behind his bulletproof friend only to find he would be sharing the limited real estate with Donnie the snitch, "Goddamn it!" He cursed through gritted teeth as he drew a pistol of his own, "Stay down, snitch."
Donnie did as instructed and clung himself to the ground, and in doing so revealed two men that had positioned themselves to the side to get a better shot at him. Their mistake. He put a bullet in each of them, which sent them backward into the ring of fire Phoenix constructed around the building. "Scold me for that after you get us out of this, kid." He muttered to Phoenix before popping out over his shoulder and putting lead into another of their attackers, and then another.
"Any ideas would be appreciated, man. If you can shoot lightning out of your ass or something now would be the time!" As he spoke he put down another assailant, whether his new ally was uncomfortable with it or not, Clayton wasn't bulletproof and the more lead he could pump into the mob, the less likely it was they would put any into him.

"Now isn't exactly the time for me to have a fuckin' moral lesson, is it?" He spoke as Clayton fired shots off knocking down about half the guards. "Shit, he's good with that thing, but killing still isn't right."

"I GOT IT!"

Andrew closed his eyes and blasted fire at the feet of all the mob enough to make the one remaining focus enough on their pants and shoes catching flame.
"And now..."
Andrew dashed at incredible speeds leaning a knee into one before rolling to his left and hitting two with clotheslines.
The next he gave a knee to the face to. "Ok seven left." A few dropped from lead holes thanks to his partner.
Andrew did his best to finish two more off and leave them snoozing. "One more." He raced towards him guessing a bullet wasn't far behind. He spread out and felt the shot bounce off his back. "Phew" he sighed. The Asian man tried to punch him and ended up breaking a few fingers. "I. Sorry man." Throwing a kick into the mans knee he heard it snap.
Andrew closed his fist and all fire in the area vanished.

He grabbed the broken legged man by the shirt and grinned.
"You. Come. With. Us."
Pulling Dog Tags off the guy he turned towards Clayton.
"Ever seen these before? They aren't military, they look more like a mafia. OR at the very least they aren't a known military."
He looked up and shrugged.
"I have dog tags too." he spoke pulling out his Talon ones.
"I did some pretty extensive research when creating them with the team."


"Anyways the marking seems to be focused heavy on this dragon. Not the traditional Asian one though. Look at it."
Andrew grinned.
"When is the last Asian Dragon you saw with arms?" Andrew asked looking at his bud.
"I don't assume you know English Mr.Low."
Andrew chuckled.
"Get it. Low. Cuz his legs broken....sorry."
"Anyways what's your take."