Prologue: The Nine Dragons

1:23 am, June 14, 2483. East Tower, 67th floor

The East Tower is one of the stranger skyscrapers in New Kowloon, which is saying something. Only the very top levels and bottom levels of this tower are actually populated, while the middle levels remained ghost towns, abandoned. A strange sight in the most densely populated city on earth. But maybe that was for the best.

“So, Tori, back when New Kowloon was first founded, East Tower was one of the nicest places that you could live in here. But once the Silk Road Traders set up shop at the top, they let the gangs in too. I guess they thought the violence would keep most people out of their business… and they were probably right.”

The faint sound of gunfire from either two floors above or two floors below rattled through the walls of the once-apartment the young boy and the cyborg were hiding in. They were Outcasts: those who didn’t belong to any of the factions in this city, making a living while not trying to get on anyone else’s bad side. Specifically, these two were what one could consider mercenaries: willing to take a job from anyone for the right price.

“And they’re not concerned about, y’know, the whole structure toppling down?” Tori said.

The Silk Road Traders… how to describe them? They were the parasitic middlemen of the city, claiming to be negotiators and diplomats, doing deals between the other factions, all while taking a cut of the profits. Tori knew that it was their business, but the Traders never sit right with her…

“Pffft, believe me, Tori. I know the Silk Road Traders. They’ve definitely laced their whole compound in magic so it floats. East Tower falling is the least of their worries.”

“That’s… comforting.”

“Hey, don’t be like that, we’re not going to stick around long anyways. We’re going to get the drugs, and get out. Afterwards, we can even go for boba if you want.”

“Thanks, Declan- I mean, boss.” Tori said (she’d never get used to calling the kid that), getting up with a sigh, “Shall we begin then?”

“We better. I’ve worked with this guy before, and he’s very pedantic about timing.”

“Alright.” Tori ran her hand through her hair, and kicked open the door, “Let’s roll.”

The hallway was empty, proving Tori’s hearing implants didn’t need to get recalibrated.

“Who’re we going after again?” she looked back at Declan, as he adjusted his bowtie casually (of all times…)

“The Nine Dragons, one of the biggest gangs here. They staged a break-in at one of N-Corp’s labs three days ago and took off with some experimental drugs.”

“So we’re working for N-Corp? I thought ‘no working for factions’ was one of your rules.”

“Hah, most of N-Corp doesn’t even know the theft happened. They have quite the unique system going on: in order to power faster innovation, they highly encourage competition within the departments. So infighting, sabotage, espionage, it all happens there. And the pharmacists don’t exactly want it leaking that one of their new products is missing. So, they come to us. Heck, it could even be sabotage from the other departments. They can’t risk bringing it up.”

“Right… “

“Anyway, the Nine Dragons have their compound on Floor 99. They wanted 9, but it’s highly contested territory. Floor 67 is the closest I can get us to it without risking ending up in someone’s territory.”

By now, the two had reached the door at the end of the hallway, and were now standing in front of the stairwell, where the sounds of fighting were even louder.

Tori nodded, changing her arm to machine gun mode, as a message flashed across her vision.

100 ammo

Was that enough? They had to go up thirty floors or more… and what if they got caught in the crossfire?

She snapped her arm back to normal.

“Declan… Boss, are you sure that there’s no easier way up? Surely.”

The boy paused for a second before he gave a reply.

“I had a feeling you were going to ask that question sooner or later.” he said with a sigh, “Wouldn’t expect anything less from you, Tori. Well, there is a way, but it’s going to need a bit of magic.”

Tori’s eye twitched, as it always did when it turned out that Declan’s ‘Plan A’ involved him doing less work and she more.

“Yeah? Out with it.”

“Part of East Tower’s garbage chute from when it was still an apartment complex remains operational. The segment is from 70 to 98. Some gang used it to ferry supplies, but then they lost one of the floors, so they abandoned it. If we can get in, I should be able to shoot us up to the other opening… yay.”‘

“Should’ve opened with that, boss.” Tori grumbled, as she dragged the kid into the stairwell and up the spiralling stairs, ignoring his yelps of protest. But it wasn’t long before they had to stop, on the landing in front of Floor 69 as actually reaching 70 was an impossibility. A pile of crates, furniture, steel bars and other junk blocked the way. A hastily made barricade from who knows how many years ago.

“Looks like we’re going to have to try our luck with the other stairwell…” she muttered as the constant shout and thunder of gunfire reached a crescendo.

“If we live.” Declan grumbled, looking mighty unpleased about the whole dragging thing.

“Of course we’re going to live.” Tori snorted, “You have me, don’t you? “

She hovered her left hand over the doorknob as her right arm took on gun form again.

“Just stay behind me and look pretty. You can’t get hurt here, ya understand?”

Declan nodded.

“Good.”

She creaked open the door, and was promptly greeted by a round of bullets.

Fuck…

Declan had hoped that he would be able to get out of this without having to use any magic, but, as usual, Tori was wise to him.

Man, he was going against all of that doctor’s orders…

But he barely had time to rub the arm Tori had dragged him by when she thrust the door open and set them both charging into an active gang fight.

“Down.” she immediately ordered, as she sent off a spray of return gunfire. Declan dropped behind a crate, where he promptly tried to rake in as much information as he could.

“Who the hell is that?” someone yelled, “is she one of us?”

“No, that’s an Outcast!… what are they doing here?”

The first one who spoke began a reply, but after they barely got a sound out, a few more bangs made them fall silent.

“Hey Boss, next time you visit that doctor lady, ask if she has any rifle add-ons. This one’s really inefficient.” Tori said casually, extending a hand to lift Declan up.

“I think we have bigger fish to fry than making a new appointment with that quack.” Declan grumbled, but the sound of approaching footsteps did tell him that yeah, machine gun fire drew too much attention.

“But I will figure something out in time. Now, we need to go!”

Declan’s eyes laid on a pretty good hiding spot, at least for the moment, and better yet, it wasn’t too far away. He grabbed Tori’s arm and focused on that spot. One… two…

“There they are!”

Well, there goes that plan.

A part of Tori cursed Declan’s magic for being so damn slow, and the other part of her was already analysing every part of the scene before her. There were three of four thugs currently coming towards them. They had guns, but none of them seemed to be ready to fire. Good.

She shifted her arm into sword form with a click, and lunged forward with a slash at their legs, causing the thugs to fall with a yell.

“Quick, try to kick their weapons away,” Tori turned to Declan, only to see him shoving the guns into a small portal he created, grinning all the way.

“… or do that, I guess.”

But Tori couldn’t stop to question her boss’ actions for too long, as she turned back to the task at hand. It wouldn’t be long before more people would come, drawn by the commotion, which meant they needed to make as much headway as possible.

“Let’s go.” she said, giving a kick to one of the men who seemed to reaching for a knife.

“Good work there, Tori. Now, we just need to get to that metal grate over there. I’m sure you can see it if you zoom in.” Declan gestured from where running beside her.

With a whir of her bionics, Tori could indeed see the place that he was talking about. The grate was pretty much just a section of chicken wire plastered over the trash chute to discourage its use. It wouldn’t be hard to rip it off and access the vent. Wouldn’t be hard at all… hopefully.

But as the duo dashed through the bullet-riddled corridor, Tori couldn’t help but feel like something was definitely wrong. It was quiet, way too quiet.

“Hold on. I can’t hear anything anymore… I think everyone left! That’s… good?”

But beside her, Declan looked worried.

“No, that’s terrible. Have you never played a video game in your life? If all the little enemies disappear, that means—“

A crackling, buzzing sound broke through the relative silence of the corridor, and Tori just about managed to pull Declan out of the way as a ball of pink fire whizzed past them.

“—the big guns are here.”

Sure enough, a woman with pink fire crackling around her fists was making her way towards the duo. Intricate black tattoos snaked up both of her arms, and she a sleeveless black dress with a large white dragon printed on it. And her eyes had this glassy, crazed look to them common to the addicts of New Kowloon. In short, very intimidating.

“So, you’re the Outcasts who have been causing so much trouble, hm? I expected more, honestly.” She cooed, rushing towards them.

“Oh can it, you old hag. No one wants to hear your villain monologue” Declan stuck his tongue out, grabbing onto Tori’s human arm as a force lurched them away to a spot out of range of the woman’s charge.

“Should be okay for now,” Declan whispered as the woman let out a confused yell as her targets’ disappearance.

“How are we going to deal with her?” Tori hissed back.

“Hold on… hmmm, I think I’ve seen her before…” Declan mused, “Oh yeah, she’s the lady that actually changed her name to Sorceress. Talk about on the nose. Surprised she hasn’t died yet, but she’s not the worst The Nine Dragons have to offer, so there will be a bit of combat involved…”

“Boss, are you telling me that I have to fight a magic user?” Tori looked at Declan, getting really unnerved at his casual attitude.

“Well, no time like the present. You needed to learn soon enough anyway. Fighting lowly grunts isn’t going to progress your skills.”

“Why can’t you do something? Magic works best against magic, isn’t that what you always say?”

“Tori, my powers revolve around evasion. There’s only so much dodging you can do in the face of a mage with combat abilities, do you know that? It’s important to me that you know that.”

“Save the lecture for later, we need to stay alive!” Tori said, panicked, as Sorceress noticed the sound of their voices and began heading towards their new location. They blasted a few warning shots in the gang member’s direction, which seemed to slow her progress a big, then scooped up Declan in one arm, carrying him like a sack of rice.

Whoever this client was better be paying them a lot of money.

“PUT ME DOWNNNNNN!” Declan yelled in protest. “Why do missions always seem to end up with you carrying me at some point?”

“Number one, you’re small and light enough for me to do that. Number two, it’s the best way to keep you secure.” Tori replied intermittently through shots directed at Sorceress. They didn’t seem to stop the gang member though, as Declan noted the pink sparks flying through the air continue to increase. But even so, as much as he hated to admit, being carried like this did make his condition pretty safe. Not to mention, being strung up in this spot meant that he could analyse the scene better from this vantage point.

Unfortunately, Sorceress had placed herself between the duo and the chute up to the 99th floor. It seemed impossible to get to it without having to go through her first.

“… whatever!” he finally said, “ I just need you to listen to me right now. This could mean the difference between us getting out unscathed or us having to go shill out the RMB for aloe gel.”

“Listening.”

“Like everyone else in the lower ranks of The Nine Dragons, Sorceress over there has roughly room temperature IQ, sure she’s probably a little smarter than those thugs you saw earlier, and she has her magic going for her, but that’s about it. That means that we can trick her and get away!”

Tori nodded.

“Any ideas?”

“A few, a few, but I’m not sure which one is more effective” Declan said, mindful of the growing heat in the space. It seemed like Sorceress was one of those ‘build-up’ mages whose powers grew in strength the more they were used, so great. They needed to act quickly, though, as more and more of the pink flames flittered past them, Declan realised something.

“Hey, Tori, stop! I’ve got the plan! But it’s going to be a bit risky for you and for me: I want you to switch your hand to a sword and charge at her.”

“What?” Tori said, throwing him a sharp side eye, but skidded to a stop all the same.

“Don’t look at me like I’m sending you on a dang suicide mission! I’ve done the math: she can only fire a shot every 3 seconds: that is the limits of her magic. With your reflexes, you should be able to get to her in less. Just rush her as soon as she sends off another one. You just need to throw her off, I dunno, kick her off balance or something: I’ll take care of the rest myself.”

With a click, the long blade was once again attached to Tori’s arm.

“Got it, Boss.” she said, as she let the final pink fireball narrowly miss her before lunging forward.

Tori had figured out a long while ago that when it came to areas of combat, it was much better to just listen to Declan’s instructions. After all, he had never failed her before. He may be a bit lazy, but he was also probably the smartest kid she knew. So finding the best way to do things with the least amount of effort was his speciality.

And sure enough, just as he had said, when Tori came rushing toward Sorceress, pure panic flittered across her eyes. Her next spell wouldn’t be ready for a second at least.

“Hey,” Tori grinned. Stabbing or slicing Sorceress would probably not be able to knock her out, and she would be able to formulate a counterattack in no time.

So, they instead kicked into her stomach with full force, sending the fire mage stumbling backwards, clutching her abdomen. A hand then grabbed Tori from behind.

“Tag,” Declan said, smirk audible in his voice, as the two teleported in front of the metal grate that feebly blocked the stairwell. They had made it.

“Do you want me to tear this thing down, or-“

“Duck.” Declan simply said, pushing Tori’s head and shoulders towards the ground, right as a particularly large fireball tore through the air and bore a huge hole right through the chicken wire covering.

Like she said, the kid was smart.

“Thanks man, ‘ppreciate it!” Declan grinned at Sorceress before securing his sights on the open door of the landing above, “We’ll be seeing you later, then.”

And before the gang member could even call them a string of expletives or throw another fireball, the two were already gone.

1:42 am, June 14, 2483. East Tower, 98th floor

“Hmmm….” Declan mused out loud as he walked around, looking up at the ceiling.

The 98th floor was pretty much abandoned when the two managed to shoot up the trash chute. But that wasn’t because it didn’t belong to anyone.

The blood-soaked ground around Declan rippled as he hopped over dead bodies and stepped on hundreds of cartridges bore witness to the bloody fight that had ended only minutes prior to their arrival as he continued trying to map the structure of The Nine Dragons’ compound on the floor above. Tori just sat by on the least bloody crate she could find and watched. Stuff like this was pretty much normal in New Kowloon.

“Hey, you done?” she asked, getting a bit antsy now. Just because she saw bodies every single day, didn’t mean she wanted to sit among them for any longer than she had to.

“Yes, yes, I think I got it.” Declan said, standing beneath one slightly loose ceiling panel. Up through here should be their storeroom. Come, I’ll boost you up.”

Reluctantly, Tori walked closer and let Declan teleport her up enough so she could climb into the hole. And with one solid push, she poked her head into the storeroom of The Nine Dragons. Weapons, narcotics packages and what looked like human organs in jars lay neatly on shelves, though, the thing that really caught her interest was a box labelled ‘New Arrivals’. Should be that one, surely. She hoisted herself up and walked towards the box. It was actually quite full, and Tori had to shift through a few weapons, a bag of credit cards apparently stolen off some Silk Road Trader kids, and finally, a box bearing the familiar blue, sharp logo of N-Corp. Yes, got it!

But as she reached for it, there came the unmistakeable sound of someone unlocking a deadbolt. Uh oh. Declan seemed to have heard the sound as well, and soon yelled up the hole:

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING???? GO! JUST GRAB THE DRUGS AND GO!”

Tori didn’t need to be told twice.

A girl, probably no older than fourteen, cracked open the door to the storeroom with a hum.

“Hmmm, they wanted 800k RMB for that gun, righ-“ she stopped in her tracks as her eyes laid on the misplaced floor tile, and the bloody marks leading to the ‘New Arrivals’ box. Within seconds, her eyes hardened.

“Oi, Yoko!” she called out behind her, “Get the security team in. Someone’s getting fired.”

And as she walked back out again, she stepped on a piece of paper bearing her own face:

Wanted: Jennifer Yi
Age: 14
Crimes: Head of The Nine Dragons Gang.

2:55 am, June 14, 2483. The Workshop

“So, when does the guy get here?” Tori said, already halfway through her boba.

“He’s the most punctual guy I know, so he’ll probably get here on the dot.” Declan said, glancing at the clock, “So that will be in five minutes.”

“Right…” Tori took another sip of her drink. “What’s the deal with ‘The Nine Dragons’ anyway? They’re…”

“Scarily organised?” Declan offered and Tori nodded.

“Well, funnily enough, when they started out, the whole group was considered one of us, a group of Outcasts. They were people who wanted control of New Kowloon to fall back into the hands of its residents, not crime lords from overseas. Crime they were okay with, but foreigners? No way. It’s weird, I know. They used to only accept people born in New Kowloon into their ranks. That all changed since the current boss’ family took over…” Declan paused for a moment, “60 years ago now? I dunno. Dad was always fuzzy on the details too. But either way, they began to accept everyone, and that was how they became a full-blown faction.”

“I don’t see how that has anything to do with my question…”

“I’ll get to it, I’ll get to it,” Declan waved his hand dismissively, “The addition of foreigners also resulted a strict hierarchy in the gang, with the original members at the top, foreigners stuck doing grunt work, and new local hires somewhere in the middle. That makes up the majority of the reason for their cohesiveness. Though, i my opinion, this foundation is still pretty shaky, do they want to start a race war or something? But that brings me to the other aspect: the Divisions. Tori, do you know the reason they’re called The Nine Dragons?”

“No.”

“Well, there used to be a legend that nine dragon brothers presided over to protect the original city of Kowloon, better known as Hong Kong now. Some people here believe that when magic was outlawed, the dragons left, and instead decided to rule over New Kowloon. That is why there are nine main towers here. Each one is an offering to a different dragon. Honestly, I don’t believe a word of it. Why would nine powerful entities come to this dump? But I digress. The gang, I guess, wants to become like the dragons, to gain enough power to rule over and ‘protect’ New Kowloon. There’s a fat chance of that happening for them, but who am I to speak. Anyway, from the very beginning, they have crafted Divisions in their gang, nine in total, with each supposedly representing one of the dragon brothers. Each Division is in charge of one part of the operations, which you can tell from the coloured stitching of the dragon on their uniforms. I don’t pay attention to all of them, but white is guards, and gold is the inner circle, I think.”

“Okay, I think I get it now,” Tori nodded, “They’re like their own society…”

“That’s one way to describe it.”

Ding!

The bell above the front door sounded, and the duo turned to face the man who just walked in.

He was neatly groomed in a well-fitted black shirt and trousers with a dark blue vest and a golden lapel pin. Clearly someone from the upper levels. He glanced down at the watch on his wrist.

“Ah, twenty seconds late. Apologies for that, Mr. Chan, there was a blockage on my usual route.”

“Twenty seconds is nothing, man. Come, we’ve got the goods.” Declan said, presenting the package to the man. He gave it a once over before nodding.

“It is satisfactory. Here is the payment you requested.” He handed over an N-corp branded envelope, “Pleasure to work with you again.”

“No problem, Dreas,” Declan grinned, as the tall man left.

“How much did he give us?” Tori peered over his shoulder.

“One, two, three, four… fifty thousand RMB.”

“Fifty thousand for that?! That’s highway robbery.”

“Didn’t you hear the guy? I have a deal with him. If we get it back, which we did, he would send us a supply of it for free once it reaches the market, which we can sell for profit.” Declan smiled, rubbing his hands together.

“I still think he’s scamming you."