1646/Trouble with Triads

Trouble with Triads
Date of Scene:	13 May 2020
Location:	Chinatown
Synopsis:	A job goes poorly for Shen thanks to bad hired help. April witnesses a scuffle. Shen frees some victims to look good and then negotiates to have his face blurred for April's inevitable stream of his exploits. A promise is made to exchange further information in the future. No Phones Were Harmed In The Making Of This Scene.
Cast of Characters:	Shen Kuei, April O'Neil

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Shen Kuei has posed:
As a former member of the Ministry of State Security, Triads are something that Shen Kuei understands very well. He had worked with Triads, and he had worked extensively against Triads. He significantly preferred the latter and having gone freelance in recent history, he was positively delighted to erode their influence as a double win: Hurt Triads, Erode China's local influence.

A variety of Triad gangs operated in the vast metropolitan area. Gotham had its share, Shen would leave those for Shang-chi. NYC had its share, those would do just nicely. One of the low-rent store fronts in Chinatown, Fong's Imports, had been revealed as a front for a Triad gang known as the Five Points Triad which was evidently trying to operate out of Columbus Park.

Shen Kuei waits a couple of doors down from Fong's imports looking at his phone. He wears a white-button down, a pair of jeans (stretchy for mobility), and some comfortable loafers. In general, beyond being noticeably fit, he doesn't stick out too much, perfect cover. On his phone, he watches a video feed from a button camera. A little cash had funded him his own very street punk to go and harass the store keeper. Shen might have forgotten to mention the owner's affiliation.

The very expected happens, the shop keepers yells, "You are gonna die idiot. Don't you know this is Five Points Triad territory." It's loud enough to be heard through the open door. The punk, with a tattoo'd head of barb wire and a big bike chain, just laughs him off. That was until the men in suits appear from the back to escort him. A minor fight takes place. The punk, Axel, launches through the glass storefront window and lands with a thud on the sidewalk groaning. A pair follow him through the door, they yell in Cantonese, "You will pay for the window and so much more."

Shen winces, closes his phone, and then casually approaches the confrontation.

April O'Neil has posed:
As luck would have it, April was in this region and moving past Fong's Imports when she saw the person get thrown right out the window. Her bike comes to a skittering stop with the rubber tires skidding her to a halt and her booted feet dropping to the concrete to help slow her down.

The reporter's in her yellow leather jacket as spring time weather has entirely warmed the air in the evenings up to a level that makes it too hot for a jacket. But she also needs it to help avoid New York traffic when on-bike. Wearing a bike helmet too, April looks right to left as she now parks on the sidewalk and looks around to see if anything else is breaking out or if it's isolated just to Fong's!

She reaches for his leather jacket's side pocket though and fumbles for her phone. "This should be interesting." The reporter mutters as she steps off of her bike and leans it over against another store's wall while swiping with her fingers to pull up a video recording to start to catalog everything that's about to go down here in Triad country!

Shen Kuei has posed:
Axel receives an onslaught of kicks to the ribs and looks to be in poor health and equally poor spirits. Shen remains casual as the thug gets his licks, the paid goon got what he deserved. He's just about to side-step the pile of glass and slip through the door when Axel calls out, "I'm sorry! I was paid to do it! That guy set me up!"

Shen stops and then casually turns to see a finger pointing directly at him. The pair of suits follow the finger and frown deeply. Shen shakes his head and denies the accusation in Cantonese, "Never see this man before. I just wanted to buy some Pu'er tea." gesturing toward the door.

Axel receives another kick and groans in misery. Shen frowns, "I think he's learned his lesson."

The two suits then turn, each grabbing Shen by the upper arm. One of them offers, "Please come with us, honored customer. We would like to ask some questions... if you answer satisfactorily, we will gladly discount your tea."

Shen releases an audible sigh and then glares daggers at Axel. What comes next is a very fluid and grace demonstration of martial arts.

Shen drops his body weight which transfers through the griped hands of the Triads, causing them to learn forward and lose their center. Shen then plants a knee into the gut on the Triad on his left then uses the same raised leg to downward straight kick into the knee of the Triad of the right who immediately crumples with a scream.

The Triad on the right momentarily stunned by the blow to the gut has his hand peeled off of Shen's arm and effortlessly twisted into what seems like a most painful joint lock. Shen tsks, "Very sloppy. Maybe the Five Points Triad is not worth my time after all."

April O'Neil has posed:
Normally one might say 'it's not every day that you see a martial arts fight randomly break out on the streets' but for April O'Neil it's a lot more common than one might really believe. But still... the young Brooklyn-native Reporter/Internet Personality is never not in awe of it when it does happen.

She's right here in fact, watching this one break out, she's even close enough to hear the voices and what the men are saying to each other just before the display of trained skill from Shen starts to get laid-out for the Triad's men.

"Holy shit." April mutters in sight of it, keeping her phone aimed right at it--horizontally of course, because only amateurs film vertically! April starts to whisper (loudly) to the camera to try to explain what she's seeing, though she's not live streaming this, she does plan to upload it to her channel later.

"It looks like the man that they had by the arms is being taken in for questioning, but he's not having any of it, and by the looks of it... he can handle himself." She then glances to the street then to see if anyone else is coming as she tries to get a little closer to get a better shot.

"God, I hope they don't break out guns. No guns, no guns, please." She continues to mutter whilst filming and trying to creep closer while not being noticed!

Shen Kuei has posed:
Perhaps April accidentally summoned it with her plea for no firearms. The very classic 'chuh-chuh' of a pump shotgun echoes ominously from within Fong's imports. Because really, what storekeeper doesn't keep a shotgun under the counter in this town.

With surprising practiced ease, Shen pivots as he reaches for the back of the neck of the Triad he has grappled. With a quick jerk upwards, a human shield is erected just before the rapport of the shotgun bellows. Shot peppers the chest of the Triad, blazer and shirt peeling away to reveal kevlar.

Shen dives forward, his shoulder landing in the gut of Axel. The Chinese man's arm then wraps around one of Axel's legs as he completes the roll. The maneuver results in Shen standing, Axel over his shoulder. A moment later, he's running past April as a more heavy set older Chinese man emerges through the door to Fong's import, pumping his shotgun to eject a shell while he yells profanities in Cantonese.

April O'Neil has posed:
April is just about to peer around into Fong's when she hears the shotgun getting loaded with the pump noise, and just as she does the thing goes off which makes her whole body jump in surprise! "Geezus, that is looooud." April says with her nerves audibly rattle, as her voice is shakey now. "Always with the guns." She mutters toward her video recording she's still taking.

"He's not dead." April tells the camera, her future audience, "I can see his vest. He had a vest on." She isn't sure if the vest fully stopped the shotgun blast though, admittedly she's no expert on that stuff. "What the hell is going on here..." She groans that stated-question out while still recording.

The reporter is right there on the front of Fong's store now, other people in the neighborhood looking as well. She's leaned up against the wall next to the window that had been smashed-out by the man thrown through it. Her booted feet crunch softly on the scattered glass shards as she tries to get a better angle over the shards of glass still in the window's sill.

Shen Kuei has posed:
The shopkeeper waves April away from his store, "Go away. Go Away. None your business." He then raises the shotgun to his shoulder and aims at the fleeing Shen.

The most effective counter-measure for a fat man with a shotgun is a combination of distance and corners. Shen seems quite fast especially for a man with another somewhat larger man over his shoulder. He rounds the corner of a brick building into an alley before a chunk of wall is blasted in a spray of debris. The shopkeeper evidently alternated between shot and slugs in his trusted firearm.

Axel is slung off of Shen's shoulder and set on his feet against the wall. He groans, "My ribs are broken asshole! This is your fault."

Shen slaps him across the face and raises a finger. "Learn from this."

Shen then peeks his head around the corner to see if he's being pursued. Fortunately for him, the shopkeeper her turned back toward April gesturing with his shotgun. "I said go!"

April O'Neil has posed:
April is well aware that the shop keeper wants her to get out of here, but she doesn't seem to care. "You're firing a shotgun in the middle of the city!" She shouts through the open window. "I'm a reporter with Channel Six news and I'm not gonna go anywhere until I find out whats going on here!" Anyone within ear shot now knows that a nosy reporter is already on-site!

From April's vantage point, the shop keeper is probably the innocent one here caught up in a gang fight, so when she sees Shen peak his head out she points across the store and shouts to the shopkeeper again. "He's right there!"

Oh god, what has she done!

After shouting it, the reporter lifts up her phone to get the results of her just selling out the head of the man who'd started the fighting! She glances at her phone's display and sees that the police have already been alerted to this spot via an app that has a flashing police-incoming icon. "Be they're here in as little as 45 minutes." April grumbles, not being a big fan of Police response times!

Shen Kuei has posed:
Shen gawks and gives April of a look of shocked horror, he then ducks back into the alley as the shotgun rapports yet again, this time spraying shot against the brick wall. The shopkeeper then starts to book it down the sidewalk heading in the direction of Shen. He's not particularly fast but he moves well.

However, he may have made one tactical mistake.

April's vantage point is somewhat obscured. As the shopkeeper rounds the corner with the shotgun to his shoulder, the firearm abruptly lurches upwards and sends a slug into the sky. The weapon is then ripped from his hands and the butt of it catches him first on the nose and then is drawn across his temple. The older man then rag dolls to the concrete.

Shen then emerges from around the corner in a jog, holding the shotgun. During his return to the storefront, he nonchalantly breaks the firearm over a knee and casts the two parts over his shoulder. As he nears, April. He will raise a finger to her, his eyebrows raised, admonishing her with a "Very rude." as he slips into the store.

April O'Neil has posed:
After the shotgun blast echoes across the street, April winces and then starts to lean forward again to record. She only manages to catch bits and pieces of that exchange between the shopkeep and then sees Shen emerge victorious. She gawks at him as he dismantles the gun so easily and effortlessly, then narrows her blue-eyed gaze at him as he strides past her and around in to the store that he'd just beaten up everyone inside of.

"I hope you're not robbing the place!" April says back at him as she starts to follow right behind him. "If you are, you're gonna be in trouble." She admonishes him too. "Seriously, this is a Triad-affiliated store. They got some serious connections here, you're gonna be in it neck /deep/, Mister." The reporter says as she steps over debris and one of the men that Shen took down.

Now that she's IN the store, the reporter's holding her phone with both of her hands and just sweeping it around inside the place. "So what /are/ you doing here anyway?" She's already got her questions going, standing there with her bike helmet still on and her dark auburn hair blowing gently in the breezes flowing in through the smashed open window.

Shen Kuei has posed:
"Please. There's nothing worth stealing here. Half of this is low rent fake merchandise, the other half is knock-off brand wrappers around drugs.. And I do not do drugs." Shen offers in an almost haughty tone. "You know.. That phone is very inconvenient, I'd appreciate you putting it away."

He walks to the back of the store and down a small hallway with stained cheap linoleum floors. He turns to the side to face a door. Reaching down, he lift what looks like a chain with a padlock. Frowning, he'll drop the chain and take one step back. A very direct and very strong front kick knocks the hinges of the door lose. A follow up kick sends it to the floor. He then disappears from view as he steps inside.

A few moments later, a few women of dubious health emerge in various states of dress. They run quickly with terror in their eyes, each of them has a broken handcuff attached to a wrist.

April O'Neil has posed:
April continues to follow him, but she keeps some distance between them just in case he turns on her. She doesn't know him after all! "I can't." She replies as he tells her to ditch the phone. "I'm a Reporter. This is what I do." She says it in a tone that is almost like an apology, or condescending it's up to interpretation!

She continues to look around at some things after he describes the quality of the items here, as if she could tell if he was right about it or not, but when she hears him fussing near that door she looks over and up at him, she can tell he's about to kick it. "You're gonna hurt you're ank---" He kicks! "Ankle." April finishes her sentence, then sees that he in-fact did not hurt his ankle and did defeat that door.

"Who the hell are you?" She says then before he disappears through that doorway.

Admittedly, she's not sure about following him... self preservation is inside of April O'Neil, if in questionable quantity. "Okay, so I'm guessing he either comes back with drugs, or guns. Drugs or guns, definit---"

Girls come running out. "Oh, holy shit."

The reporter lifts her camera up to record them as they run past her toward the exit. "Are they okay?" She asks, looking back over to Shen when he returns.

Shen Kuei has posed:
Shen seems almost disappointed though definitely disgusted as he does indeed return. He rests his hands on his hips and eyes April in exasperation. "I would break the phone.. but I'm sure its uploading to cloud."

He shakes his head, "No. I don't think they are.. but they are better then before."

He gives the phone another brief look then looks over his shoulder. He heads back down the hallway and into what appears to be an office. His phone rings, and he places it against his ear. "I'm being recorded, so mind what you say.." He casts a gaze up toward April as he holds the phone with his shoulder while riffling through a file cabinet. He pulls a file and opens it. "They are a low-rent Tong, not even blue lanterns. Your information was incorrect." He hangs up.

April O'Neil has posed:
"It is." April says with another little 'sorry' style head tilt and tone to her voice. She then straightens her head and flashes a smile at him. "I'm on an insurance plan with them too now. So when this one inevitably does get smashed someday, I'll just go back in and they'll have another one waiting for me." She pauses then and glances back in the direction that the fleeing girls had gone. "It's kind of a thing for me..." She says while craning her neck.

The reporter turns back to the man who did all of this though when he speaks into his own device to talk to someone. "Who's that?" She whispers, loudly. "Is that your boss? 'Tong'?" She holds her phone aimed right at him, though she's standing across the store about 10 or 15 feet away.

"Is he mad at you?" She asks, still loud whispering, while shifting her weight from one black heeled boot to the other. "Did you do a good job here? Are you gonna get paid for this?" So many questions...

Shen Kuei has posed:
Shen slumps and then starts walking toward April. His American English accent is very good. He's only off on some of the codas. He gestures to her. "Well, if its insured. Give me the phone please."

As he approaches her, he'll shake his head. "Tong is a term for a criminal gang. Think of them of 'Triad-Light'.. more of a cheap knock-off." If she starts to run, he'll run after. Otherwise, he's going to start making a grab for her phone. Nothing particularly fancy or even fast, just reaching for the device.

"Speaking of pay, I don't think I have any incentive to answer your questions especially after you almost got me shot!"

April O'Neil has posed:
April instinctively acts protective of her phone as he starts to walk toward her and asks for it. She tries to ignore him for the time being. "Cheap knock offs had girls tied up in their basement?" She asks, trying to keep him focused on something else other than her phone, she still has it recording but she's holding it back over her shoulder, as if that changes anything.

"I didn't mean to 'almost get you shot' either." She tells him. "I thought you were /robbing/ the place, like one of the rival gangs come here to teach this man a lesson." She glances toward the door and sees the knocked out store clerk in the alley. "I mean, clearly you did that."

He snatches the phone from her, because well, he clearly has skills.

It makes April snap her head back to look at him. She puts her hands on her hips then. "Awww, come on. I like that one. It has stickers on it." She motions to her phone then. "At least take the case off before you destroy it. How about this! I'll turn it off and just ask you questions? You can help spread information out there so that more..." She motions toward the front of the store.

"So more girls don't fall in for these assholes. How about that?" She says, now tilting her head whilst eyeing him.

Shen Kuei has posed:
"Yes, Cheap.." Grab. "Knocks were sex trafficking. It's unfortunately not very hard with a thriving drug trade." He taps the screen to turn off the camera. He then points it at her. "I'll just hold onto it for now."

He then starts walking, not particularly fast, but it's clear that he intends to leave the store. "I had a plan for a distraction that unfortunately didn't work out. My original goal was to acquire some incriminating details and let the police do the work. Unfortunately, my associate kind of bungled that. So hard to find good help."

He shrugs in greater exasperation, his loafers crunching on window glass as he steps out into the sidewalk. "But at least the police are very slow. As for spreading information, I might be willing to exchange some information with you... If!" He raises a finger rather high which consequently shows off a very defined forearm and bicep beneath white fabric of his shirt, was he flexing? possibly. "My face and voice are distorted in the video you post."

He turns and starts walking backwards assuming she is following. "Is that a kind of deal we might strike? After all, if I'm going to be a source, I will need protection." He offers a wry smile. "And the stickers are cute on the phone, it'd be terrible if something happened to them." What kind of threat is that?

April O'Neil has posed:
"I kinda figured." April mutters about the sex trafficking, since she'd seen the barely clothed young women run right past her a few minutes ago. When she looks back at him, she glances at her phone in his hand as he holds at his side and doesn't smash it. That scores some points for her, plus she's kind've testing him in little ways to get elements of his character out of him, and that was one of them. It's just her style!

"Good luck getting Police assistance when it comes to Triad activities." April says as she is following right behind his right shoulder now, not as afraid of him as she had been before. "Most of the cops are too terrified to do anything to the Triad because they're worried about backlash at them, or their families. Why do you think they take their sweet ass time showing up here? They know what's going on here, probably more than you or I do..."

April stops when he stops and she stares at his finger when he points it at her, then glances at his humble-brag flex because she's a straight woman and that's a nice muscular arm. But she looks back up at his eyes swiftly, because she's professional too!

She smirks at him though, and crosses her arms over her stomach, her bike helmet still on, the chin strap undone though, swaying in front of her neck. "My Podcast is called 'Truth Seekers'." She starts. "I'm not sure how good my cred will hold up if I start withholding truths from people with face-blurs." But she exhales and shrugs her shoulders as she glances down the street. "Maybe though, I mean if I can label you a contact, then people will understand if I'm keeping your face hidden."

"Okay, fine!" She throws her hands up and then slaps them down against her thighs. "I'll blur your face. But, you gotta let me know more about this stuff, and put pressure on the authorities to do something about it."

Shen Kuei has posed:
He continues walking with her in tow, with the expressed intention of putting some distance between himself and the storefront. He nods in agreement regarding her assessment. "Fortunately, like many people, the police can be blackmailed into action.. or coerced through other means. Sometimes one needs to.." He says 'Fight Fire with Fire' in Cantonese then follows it up with English, evidently the phrase is fairly universal.

He offers a very pleased smile at April and then extends the phone back to her. "That is much more simple then cracking your phone. I do enjoy a nice win-win. How would you like to exchange information? Text, Phone call, email?"

He hums curiously as he waits for her answer though turns to walk straight, his hands slipping into the pockets of his stretchy jeans.

April O'Neil has posed:
"Tell me about it." April says with regard to the police. "It's just about the only way I get them to listen to me." She pauses then as she realizes what she just said. "Well, no, I don't mean I blackmail them, I mean I just... I just--" April shakes her head then. "Itdoesn'tmatter." She says very quickly before she looks down at his hand when he offers her phone back.

She accepts it and then gives him a slight tilt of her head and a more sincere smile. "Thanks." She adds before she puts her phone into her jacket pocket and doesn't reactivate it like he may have wondered if she would.

When her hand comes back out she has a business card, because those still have use in today's world. She offers it over to him. "It's got all my e-mails, it's got my websites, my phone numbers, even how to contact me at Channel Six." She glances back to the store then whilst still moving when he's moving, though her bike is back there so she can't go too much further.

"If you need a Reporter, or someone to get word out and public, just reach out to me. I got a big audience these days. Lots'a locals too, concerned about their neighborhoods."

She then offers him her hand. "I'm April. April O'Neil."

Shen Kuei has posed:
He accepts the business card and then gives April a very hard once over after reading it. One might find the intensity of the stare a little of comfortable, but he was biding time while he considered his options. Rubbing his chin with one hand while accepting her handshake with another, he sighs and replies, "Shen Kuei."

His name is shared because he is already having to trust the woman with his appearance. She, in her pocket, has plenty to incriminate him in all sorts of charges.

"I'm not sure if I am very lucky.. or very unlucky, Miss O'Neil. In my experience, pretty reporters are usually more trouble then they are worth.. and that was when I worked for a government instead of in the underworld." He squints his green eyes at her. "I will be in touch..."

He could think of a few different uses for a reporter. Sometimes a job just involved 'ruining someone' and that involved stealing secrets and then distributing them. April seems as good as any for the job. But.. "Let me be honest.. working with me may have.. unexpected hazards. You are prepared to gain the wrong kind of attention?"

April O'Neil has posed:
Throughout what he says, April keeps her eyes on him, a little squinty because the sun is on her face, but she listens and nods all the same. At the last bit of what he says she cracks a smile. "The 'wrong kind of attention' is pretty much the only kind of attention I've drawn my entire life. That's why you can trust me. I've been through some stuff, Mister Kuei." Her left hand pats the pocket that she put her phone away in.

"I'll blur your face. I'll just say that you were a friendly man who freed some women that were very clearly on their way to a place that no one should ever end up in. That's enough to show that what you did, may or may not have legality issues, but it was rooted in the best of intentions. Allegedly."

April adds that last word there with a grin, a playful expression, from a quirky reporter. "I better get back to my bike. I want to be around here for when the cops do finally show up too. So you should probably get out of here. Don't worry, you're not my first Street Vigilante either." She shows another grin, though this one is arguably a little more dorky in it's roots.

Shen Kuei has posed:
Shen raises an eyebrow at her as she explains her lifestyle, he nods at the promise. He then cracks a soft laugh and shakes his head, "Street Vigilante.. We will have to clear up that label at another time. Others that know me may not agree with you, but I appreciate you notice some of the nobility in my actions."

He turns and then continues to walk away, waving over a shoulder. "Expect an email shortly with contact information. If you have trouble with the Triads as a result of your story, do not hesitate to seek me out, please. I consider you a.." He looks over his shoulder at her, "Semi-innocent bystander. It would be sloppy work if you were harmed as a result of my actions. Until next time, Miss O'Neil." And with that he rounded a corner and was gone.