Chapter 17: The Immigrants
San Barlaam, California 2011
"What's that?"
Kenta brushed off some dried bok choy bits on his dirtied apron and looked up at the skinny white brat who asked the dumb question.
Said white kid was looking at a tray of spring rolls.
"You never had spring rolls, kid?"
The brat shrugged.
What does the shrug even mean?
"Kay, well, I am going to go back to work if you're not going to order anything."
He turned around to check on the miso soup cooking on a stove- and there was suddenly increased chatters and a squeal from behind.
Turning around, he found that the brat had been joined by two other brats. Some four-eyed black brat and a girl brat.
Four eyed brat asked Vanilla brat. "Yo, Olegg, why the hell you here."
"Dunno. Never seen a Chinese restaurant or anything like that here. I was curious."
"Not much of a restaurant." Girl brat said. "It's a stall in the middle of the street market."
Kenta stared at the three clueless brats and sighed. "It's
Panasian Cuisine. Also, are you br-kids going to buy anything or are you going to loiter in front of my stall?"
The former ABB warlord tried to be polite. It wouldn't do to insult potential customers after all.
Four eyed brat pointed at a tray of steaming tofu. "What's that? It's so smelly."
Kenta rolled his eyes. "That's stinky tofu."
"Ewww. Is it made of poop?" Vanilla brat asked.
Kenta stared at him. The brat fidgeted.
"Yes." Kenta said in a deadpan. "It's made of poop."
"COOL!" All three brats chorused.
"So are you buying then?" Kenta asked, hope in his voice.
"Nope." Vanilla brat said.
"I am not eating poop!" Four eyed brat said.
"Ew." Glasses girl deadpanned.
The temperature in the already hot stall skyrocketed- and suddenly dropped when Taylor Hebert's hand gripped his wrist.
"Boss. Calm down yo."
The three brats seemingly failed to notice that they almost became bloody smears on the ground and continued chatting excitedly about how the poop was fashioned into stinky tofu.
Annette smiled at the three kids. "How about some Japanese ice cream?"
"Is that made of poop too?"
Annette's eyebrows twitched. "No. It's ice-cream."
"Okay!"
Annette pointed at a nearby plastic table outside the stall and told the kids to sit down while she took their orders.
"What flavor do you guys want? We have Azuki, strawberry, milk, caramel, yakult-." She listed off some of the top choices.
"Um. What's Azuki?" Girl brat asked.
"It's red bean."
"What's-"
"Red bean it is then."
"What's yakult?" Four eyed brat asked.
"It's a type of yogurt. Probiotics."
"Is it made of germs?" He grimaced.
"Technically, yes." She said, winking at them.
"COOL!"
"Actually, how about all three flavours and you guys can share?"
"OKAY!"
And with that, the three brats were soundly tamed by Annette, PhD. extraordinaire and mother of considerable experience in child rearing.
"Almost ruined the restaurant Kenta." She glared at the sheepish looking man as he boiled some tofu in the fryer. "I mean, we put in a lot of effort to remain inconspicuous- don't ruin this!"
"Yeah yeah. I am not good at this kind of thing." Kenta admitted. "I mean hell, the jobs I've had weren't anywhere even close to the service sector."
"You're a pretty good cook though." Annette said. "I mean, goddamn, you make the best Inari sushis."
"Everyone can make Inari sushis. That is a quintessential Japanese skill."
"That's not true."
Kenta stared at her until she sighed.
"Okay, so you're a fairly average cook." She admitted.
"Yup. Thank god Kai can cook better than all of us, that crazy motherfucking machine."
"Amen." Annette agreed. The stinky tofu, the miso soup, the beef noodle soup that this stall was famous for- really, that was all Kai Lee.
If someone had told Annette years ago that Oni Lee was a master chef, she would laughed herself to death.
Kai Lee- the de facto head chef- poked his head out from the building behind the stall- which doubled as the kitchen and storage area.
"I washed all the bok choy we received this morning. They're in the fridge."
"Excellent." Kenta replied. "Why don't you get started on the beef noodle soup? You know there's going to be a huge demand for them in the evening rush."
"Hai, Kenta-sama."
"Don't call me that. Just call me boss."
"Okay. Boss." Somehow, Kai seemed to be more pleased with calling him that than the usual honorific.
Annette scooped the icecream that the kids requested and brought it over to their table. With gusto the kids dug in- after Annette reminded them to fork over some hard cash. Kenta imagined that she probably slipped a couple of threats of bodily harm into the request.
This was a hard city and stall eateries had to be cutthroat.
"Thank the Gods." Grace said as she stumbled by the stall in her string bikini. "It's a heat trap out there!"
"Grace! How's the advertising?"
Grace Ozawa lacking any key cooking skills or the patience to deal with customers had found herself tasked with "advertising."If advertising was walking around the Columbus street market in a scandalous string bikini with a large cardboard sign advertising Panasian Cuisine and their address and phone number.
"I think it went well. I can't tell if the people taking photographs was trying to capture the information on the board or get a good shot of my tits." She said as she grabbed a bottle of Pocari Sweat out of the drinks fridge and guzzled it down.
"That's the idea, Grace." Annette said.
"Ew! You're dressed like a skank!" Girl brat said, pointing at Grace.
Instantly the bottle of Procari Sweat was sent flying towards girl brat- but at the last moment Annette caught the bottle and brought it back to a furious Grace.
"Control yourself, Grace!"
"B-but, that brat-"
"That brat is a kid. Do you want to be sued?"
Grace grumbled hatefully, stood up and stalked away into the building. "I am going to take a cold shower. Too damn hot."
Kenta was grumbling again. "I use to turn out each girl for a dollar fifty cent. How the mighty have fallen."
"A dollar fifty cent, really Kenta? How did the poor dears make a living?" Annette said as she sat down at a nearby seat behind the stall.
"Actually that was my commission. They keep the rest of the money, which was anywhere between fifty to a couple hundred."
"You don't go by percentages?"
"Nah. Fixed price."
"You big softy." Annette cooed. "If only people knew that Big L was a big softie."
"Careful there, Ann, wouldn't want any nearby Thinkers to figure out my identity."
They sat in companionable silence until Annette's phone dinged loudly, alerting her to a new email message.
"Hmmm." She checked her phone and then grinned. "Looks like Faultline agreed to meet us for a total exchange of information. Three days from now."
"You think she got a lead?"
"I am pretty sure she has information I don't know, from what little of it she had shown me."
"Three days….in costume?"
"Yeah. I'll forward the location to you."
"I'll have Lee scout it out later."
+++
Faultine nodded her head. "Thanks for the information exchange, we appreciate it."
A domino masked Annette shook her head. "No,
thank you for flying out all this way to meet me. I had hit a dead end eons ago in my search for Cauldron. Your information had given me hope."
There was a pause as Faultine handed Newter the folder of information Annette had given them. She looked over at the teenage girl and his masked bodyguard, wearing the iconic dragon mask. His presence was a total surprise.
"If I may ask…why is Lung guarding a teenage girl?"
"Maybe you should mind your own business, Faultine." The former leader of the ABB growled.
"I see. And why is a teenage girl so interested in Cauldron anyway?"
Annette paused and then seemed to have come to a decision. "I guess I can tell you the truth. You see, this isn't my body. This body belonged to my daughter."
"What." Newter deadpanned in confusion.
Faultline blinked her eyes. "Okay. Go on."
"Right, well, let's just say, she was experiencing some severe bullying problems and wanted desperately to gain powers…"
"So she went and bought powers." Faultine surmised for her. "So how did you end up in her body?"
"This might be hard to believe, but Parahumans don't have souls." Annette explained.
"What." Faultline deadpanned.
"That's what I said." Lung chimed in. "But she's quite adamant about it."
Annette glared at Lung and then turned back to Faultine.
"Parahumans don't have souls. My daughter lost her soul- that's how I was able to possess her body."
"And you were…what, also a parahuman?"
"No, I was a ghost."
"What."
Annette slammed her hand on the table. "You know what, you don't have to believe me about the whole soul thing- but you believe me when I tell you that I am going take back my daughter's soul if it's the last thing I do."
She stood up, shoving her chair back in the process and began to walk away.
"Come on, Lung. Let's go. We got girls to turn out for a dollar fifty cent."
Lung chuckled. "Damn straight."
+++
The black suited Mafioso stood around several black limousines, waiting patiently for the other party to arrive. Don Andre glanced at his wrist watch and growled. It was completely dark and only the headlights of the cars provided any illumination.
"They're late."
"Give them a chance, boss." A nearby made man said.
"They could be setting up a trap, Leonard." Andre said.
"That's why we have snipers in all the nearby buildings under construction." Leonard replied confidently, looking up at the half finished apartment buildings that overlooked the vast parking lot.
A black Nissan with removed license pulled up to the parking lot and a Yellow Power ranger exited the driver's seat before darting to back and opening the door for Green Ranger to exit.
Don Andre shared a look with Leonard and hissed.
"Isn't the power rangers a hero thing?"
"I…I am not sure."
Green Ranger approached them- his bulky frame filling up his skin tight suit menacingly.
"Don Andre?" Green Ranger growled.
"Y-yeah? You the…the Godfather? Ballsy name if you asked me. Also, not funny." Don Andre said.
The only reason they were even giving the other party the time of the day was because the letter asking for a meeting from a mysterious "Godfather" was duct taped to his pillow while his head was resting on it a week ago. Don Andre figured that anyone who could infiltrate his bedroom and not kill him was someone he couldn't afford not to meet face to face. Just in case.
Green Ranger paused and turned to look back at Yellow Ranger.
"Godfather? Seriously?"
"It was appropriate." Yellow Ranger defended.
"I am never letting you write letters of introduction ever again." Green Ranger deadpanned before turning back to Don Andre. "Just call me the Green Ranger. It's easier this way."
"Right. So, why'd you want to meet? You said something about a new product?"
Green Ranger gestured and Yellow Ranger approached with a briefcase. He unlatched the case and opened it.
Don Andre's eyes widened.
"This is…"
"Vintage Japanese porn DVDs. From a…personal collection." Green Ranger said.
"Wow."
"Yes."
Leonard leaned over Andre's shoulders and looked down. "They stopped making this series a decade ago! It wasn't ever even uploaded fully to the internet. And is this..is this uncensored?"
"All uncensored, unedited Studio copies. The only copies even." Green Ranger confirmed. His voice sounding smug. "Before it was ever released, Japan fell to the C.U.I and porn became heavily restricted."
"Holy shit." A lower ranked mafioso standing further in the back said.
"How much?" Andre asked. He could imagine what original studio copies can do- it can be copied into more discs and then sold on the black market. The originals could be auctioned off for shit tons of money to private collectors.
"Not for sale." Green Ranger said and Yellow Ranger slammed the case shut.
Andre's eyes became cold. "What."
"You've been bullying the Asian community in San Barlaam for a long long time." Green Ranger continued. "That stops today."
Leonard laughed. "So that's what that's about. I thought it was weird you guys dressed up like the Super Sentai."
"Listen here bud, we're Italians. And Sicilians- lesser race they may be, but they're good enough." Andre began to rant. "The Asians are nothing. The Negroes are nothing. White people are nothing. You're all nothings. Nobodies! And nobody fucks with the Families."
"Also we have snipers in all the surrounding buildings." Leonard said, gesturing at the buildings around them. "Get down on your knees and beg. We might kill you quickly."
"Nah." Green Ranger said before he and Yellow Ranger was splattered with dozens of sniper rounds that blew bloody chunks over their bodies.
Yellow Ranger was suddenly standing next to Andre, a knife tip to his Adam's apple. Andre stopped breathing as his eyes stared at the knife in terror. His men all pointed their handguns at Yellow Ranger while Leonard took a step away, his own gun out as he eyed someone standing further back in the crowd.
Green Ranger stood back up, bloody holes in his costume and didn't seem worst for wear.
"You ruined my costume."
Leonard whistled and a Mafioso from the back burst into motion, transforming into a black armoured beast as it charged at Green Ranger.
Green Ranger grabbed the horn of the charging parahuman and his hands burst into flames, superheating the metal horns until it turned white and started to melt.
The Mafia cape screamed in pain and tried to pull away, but Green Ranger reached his arm underneath its head and pulled, tearing off the head of the beast quickly. Throwing the head of the beast at Andre's feet, Green Ranger chuckled.
"Let's make another deal, we let you live, but you wire ten million to an overseas account. Right now."
"No deal-" Leonard began.
Yellow Ranger moved the tip of the knife slowly into the Adam's apple of the nervous Italian he held hostage.
"Okay!" Andre yelled out in a faux shout- too afraid to move his Adam's apple, his eyes still staring nervously at the knife at his throat and the small trickle of blood he could imagine was pooling underneath the knife tip. "We'll take the deal. Just…uh, don't be rash."
"Excellent."
+++
Kenta threw the briefcase of mostly fake JAV DVDS into the backseat of the car and ordered Lee to drive them home.
He picked up his mobile phone and called Red Ranger, aka, Annette. "Done. Hook, line and sinker. We researched our targets well. Make sure they're all dead tomorrow."
"In the time it took me to shower. Good job guys." Annette said.
Annette promised that Danny would take care of it. For a brief moment, Kenta was jealous that she trusted her former husband that much.
I could kill anyone for you, Annette
Then it passed. It wouldn't do for Lung to be jealous of a mere corpse after all.
It was good to be doing proper business again. However unlike back in Brockton Bay, they had to keep a low profile as "Lung" was still a heavily wanted figure.
He couldn't be running around fighting people in full dragon-mode anymore, so they made do with heists, frauds, pimping and panasian cuisines.
San Barlaam wasn't anywhere near as corrupt as Brockton Bay. In some ways, that made it very boring. There wasn't any truly powerful parahuman ganglords- just the mafia and some small crime rings with the occasional parahuman muscle. Little to no Protectorate presence.
It was perfect.
"I am a big fish in a little pond." And he had to keep himself in check otherwise he might eat everything and then starve himself to death.
Or so that was the analogy that Annette used, she was always poetic like that.
Annette….
It was hard to believe that she was Annette all along. He still remembered when he woke up and Taylor Hebert was staring down at him.
And the things she said. It was insane.
He didn't believe her. But he believed that she was Annette. And whatever made Annette happy…well, he will move Heaven and Earth for her.
So she believes this Cauldron group stole her daughter's soul?
So be it. Cauldron was going to burn.
Nobody fucks with a Chinatown Hustler.
[NSFW lyrics]
