Chapter 88: Woo Woo Woo Woo Woo Woo Woo!

Chapter 88: Woo Woo Woo Woo Woo Woo Woo!

While the nearby patrol officer kept his eyes locked tightly onto me, a second paramedic stepped up to check over my physical injuries from the firefight. I pointed over my shoulder toward the two deep, purple compression marks blooming across the skin of my back, right under the heavy padding of my bulletproof vest. Looking at the warped material, I decided right then and there that I was discarding this unit too.

I had intentionally left my main smartphone behind with Mei in the vehicle, which was the exact reason I had given her those rapid tactical instructions to contact my legal team. The smartwatch on my wrist and the burner device in my pocket were completely drenched in dark, sticky blood from the floor.

After a heavy ice pack was securely taped over my back bruising, Detective Steve Woo marched back into the shattered storefront, gesturing sharply toward the two uniform officers flanking his sides. "Arrest Rick Lee for murder and excessive force. The witnesses saw him kill unarmed and helpless men. Take him to the precinct and put him in holding."

I only smiled as the uniform crew stepped in, methodically stripping me of my remaining tactical gear and empty weapons while flatly reciting my constitutional rights. They pulled my arms behind my back, the cold steel of the handcuffs snapping tightly around my wrists. Steve Woo watched my completely calm expression, his jaw tightening in sheer annoyance that I wasn't panicking on such a happy occasion for his career. "Don't have anything to say for yourself?"

Kim had been watching the entire exchange from the edge of the display counters, and she instantly pointed an accusing finger straight at Woo's chest, scolding him fiercely in her sharp, aristocratic Old-English accent. "He saved us all and you're arresting him? Wow, just wow, wait till I talk to my lawyers. The Smith Family has international influence on corrupt officials, just wait."

Technically speaking, Kim possessed absolutely no official noble standing inside the Eurasian continent. However, back in the UK of America, her family completely owned the legendary Smith & Wesson firearms manufacturing company, meaning she wasn't exaggerating a single bit about her family's massive international influence, assuming the upper branch actually bothered to help her out at all.

She spun back around toward me, her eyes watery as she called out, "Rick don't worry, I will get you my lawyers so just wait."

The two uniform officers grabbed me firmly by my elbows, starting to steer me toward the shattered glass exit, but I just offered a reassuring smile back at the short woman. "Thanks Teacher Smith, but I have a lawyer, plus I am a Tang, so please just go home shower and rest well, bye."

Kim let out a quiet sob, completely devastated as she watched the authorities escort me away from the scene. From her perspective, I had actively eliminated a violent threat where no hostages died and not a single criminal managed to escape, leaving her completely baffled as to why this Detective Woo was gunning so incredibly hard for my head. Then, the underlying puzzle pieces suddenly clicked together in her mind, her eyes widening in pure realization. "Number 1, Steve Woo, holy shit?! Really..."

Meanwhile, the second the processing team finished logging Ashley's statement, confirming she wouldn't face charges for executing the Fox mask gunman in self-defense, the quiet blonde girl immediately stepped into a secluded corridor. She pulled her phone out of her pocket, dialing a high-priority line from her secure contacts list. "It is me. I was in an incident and am on my way to the hospital to follow James... Yes... The incident at the mall is what I am involved with... Rick was arrested for saving us."

I was roughly escorted down to a heavily armored prisoner wagon waiting in the rear alleyway, forced straight into the secure holding cage in the back.

One uniform officer climbed in to sit on the bench directly opposite me, while Steve Woo pulled open the front passenger door, settling himself right behind the wire mesh partition. The second uniform officer slid behind the heavy steering wheel, turning the key and letting the engine roar to life as he pulled out into the street.

"Rick Lee, I can't believe you are such a foolish man for openly assassinating criminals that had not hurt anyone," Steve sneered from the front seat, turning his head slightly to glare through the security grate. "I definitely think you will be serving serious time now. Oh and boys turn off your body cameras just in case our conversation is recorded."

I offered a relaxed smile at the sheer, unadulterated stupidity of their setup, leaning my shoulders back against the metal wall as I delivered one small, critical fact. "Just for the record, I am going by Rick Tang right now and not as Rick Lee, that's all."

Steve let out a mocking laugh, shaking his head as he looked over at his two uniform buddies in the front cab. "What a record," he chuckled darkly, his voice dripping with malice. "This is what we officers call a 'rough-ride', and everything that happens in here is completely off the record. Oh, Paul, introduce yourself to Mr Tang back there since we are giving names."

The uniform officer sitting across from me in the cage cracked his knuckles, a heavy grin breaking across his face as he stared into my eyes. "Hello Mr who the fuck cares, my name is Paul Song."

I slowly shook my head, my expression locking into a completely flat glare as I let my hardwired system instincts surface. "On the record, if you assault me, I will kill you Mr Song in self defense."

The exact second my eyes went completely emotionless, Paul Song froze, the brutal image of the shredded Hippo mask back at the jewelry store flashing vividly through his mind. He looked down at his own knuckles, suddenly realizing his buddy's grand plan wasn't such a brilliant idea after all.

The Song clan did technically serve the main Tang lineage, and he smartly turned his head toward the front seat to speak to Steve. "Steve, I changed my mind. Scaring him a bit is fine, but beating him is not good for my Song clan. There is no way Anthony Tang will let me go."

Steve's brow furrowed in anger, his knuckles gripping the dashboard as he snapped, "Frank, do you have a problem doing it?"

The driver, a uniform officer named Frank, kept his eyes locked on the dark road ahead as he questioned the logic. "My background is nothing, but if you have me do this, don't you forfeit your game if it's known?"

Steve shook his head violently, his voice growing increasingly desperate as he revealed his hand. "Just hit his head hard enough to put him into a coma and no one would know. We can then hit a pole and make it look like he hit his head on the wall. So my game cheat won't be known. If I don't take him out now, I think he might beat me and I will lose everything. Fuck, my wife Cat Woo, said she will divorce me for cheating her about my skill if I lost."

Paul let out a weary shrug, leaning back against his seat as he bargained with the frantic detective. "If you want me to risk my job for a concussion and coma, it will cost you twice as much man. My job is important. I have two bitchy wives and one is pregnant."

Steve scanned the approaching intersection, pointing his finger toward a brightly lit Kung-Fu Chicken franchise along the avenue. "We can switch you guys by saying we are offering food to the prisoner."

The heavy paddy-wagon pulled into the parking lot, coming to a complete stop right outside the local Kung-Fu Chicken for a late-night food pickup.

These guys were genuinely taking their sweet time to bring me to the precinct, fully focused on staging their crime.

Woo and Frank opened their doors, stepping out of the vehicle and walking inside the restaurant to procure a bucket of Kung-Fu Chicken and three large drinks. I just sat back in the cage, a calm smile resting on my lips as I looked over at the third uniform officer, my fingers casually tracing the small white-rabbit pin I had cleaned off and hidden in my pocket back at the mall.

Paul caught the expression on my face through the dark glass, a sudden wave of deep anxiety hitting his gut as he shifted uncomfortably. "I know you're wondering why I am smiling, right?" I asked him smoothly.

The officer just offered a silent, tense nod.

"Because you three are absolute idiots," I told him, my voice completely relaxed. "You don't even realize that you're all already busted. Every single thing you choose to do from this moment forward is just extra bad for your future. Woo is absolute trash, and I have already beaten him to death with his own skull. He just doesn't know it yet."

Paul's brow furrowed in utter confusion, his brain completely stalling out over my riddled words as he argued, "But you can't beat someone to death with their own skull?!"

"That's the exact same thing Woo said!" I fired back.

It was a classic joke from my previous Earth life that I was referencing. Sure, my scrambled memory probably delivered the punchline entirely wrong, but whatever. Not all of my past-life data tracks perfectly.

A moment later, the rear doors of the paddy-wagon swung wide open, and Frank climbed back into the holding space, gesturing toward Paul. "I ate my meal inside, so let's switch and here is your Kung-Fu Chicken."

The two corrupt officers swapped places seamlessly, Paul sliding straight into the driver's seat to begin eating his food while Frank settled onto the bench opposite me. I tilted my head, looking directly at the fresh muscle. "Hi there Frank, I am Rick Tang, and if you assault me, I will use self defense and might kill you by accident, Mkay!"

All three men heard the warning through the partition, and they instantly let out a massive burst of mocking laughter, completely dismissing the statement. After about a minute of continuous laughing, Frank's expression twisted into the grin of a total madman. He tightened his fists, slowly rising from the bench to lunge across the narrow holding space.

"I did warn you!" I muttered.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Chink-click-thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

I had already used my hardwired Thief capability to seamlessly pick the security handcuffs behind my back ages ago. The exact split second his weight shifted, I unleashed a blinding, high-velocity sequence of rapid Kung-Fu strikes that his unrefined amateur defenses couldn't even attempt to block.

Partway through the absolute onslaught, Frank desperately reached down to draw his service weapon from its holster, but my Grandmaster martial training was too fast. I intercepted his forearm, snatching the firearm clean out of his grip, violently taking the mechanisms apart in a fraction of a second, and tossing the two separate metal sections onto the floorboards while finishing my execution beating.

I struck every single primary sensory organ across his head in perfect, rapid succession. I delivered a pair of devastating ear-slaps to shatter his equilibrium, followed by hard knuckle-jabs directly to his eyes, a shattered nose, and a broken set of front teeth that instantly filled his throat with heavy crimson.

A series of precise throat-jabs followed, and judging by the look on his face, it didn't make him feel very good either. Nobody on earth likes suddenly struggling to breathe.

The second his body went entirely limp, I applied the special Rick Lee Handcuffing Special to lock him down.

I violently wrenched his right arm all the way over his shoulder and down behind his back until his palm was pressed flat against his spine. Next, I yanked his left arm tightly around his lower waist, pulling it up toward the center of his shoulder blades to meet his dislocated right hand. I grabbed his own standard issue steel restraints, happily clicking the cuffs around his wrists to lock the limbs together in an impossible knot. Even Houdini would have struggled to break out of this layout.

If your actual name happened to be Frank, I was honestly sorry, but I had just officially transformed the guy into a human pretzel.

Woo and Paul spun around in their seats, and the exact second they witnessed what I had done to poor Frank in under ten seconds, they literally spit out their food and drinks in pure horror. They sat frozen in the front cab, completely powerless to assist their fallen, potentially dying police buddy in the back cage.

Yeah, this definitely wasn't a standard rough ride anymore; it had rapidly mutated into a holy-fuck-how-do-we-spin-this disaster.

Steve Woo's face turned entirely pale, his eyes wide as he gripped Paul's uniform shoulder. "Fuck! If we don't kill him now, we are screwed!"

"It is all you Steve," Paul stammered back in absolute terror, refusing to even look toward the cage door. "I am not going back there, fuck no. You go kill him, I will watch."

"Here guys, pepper goes great with KFC meals, haha," I called out from the darkness of the holding space, my voice completely emotionless. "Ouch, that fucking stings!"

I decided to take one minor hit for the team. I reached across the floor, yanking the high-concentration pepper-spray canister straight off the belt of the crying lump of meat moaning at my feet. Without a fraction of hesitation, I jammed the nozzle forward, unleashing a massive, continuous cloud of chemical spray straight through the gaps of the heavy metal partition.

Naturally, a small trace of the mist drifted backward into my own eyes, causing a sharp burn, but I had completely nailed the two assholes in the front seat.

"AHHH! My fucking eyes!"

"I am going to shoot you, you motherfucker, your dead Rick!"

Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo!

Just as the two ass-hats violently kicked open their respective front doors to stumble out of the paddy-wagon, fully intending to circle around to the back cage and shoot me dead, a massive convoy of about ten police cruisers and a tactical helicopter descended upon our location. The vehicles drifted across the asphalt, completely boxing the transport vehicle in a tight perimeter circle.

Officer Mary and her precinct Sergeant scrambled out of the lead cruiser, immediately drawing their service weapons and locking their sights directly onto the two corrupt officers. The surrounding backup units followed suit in a flawless tactical spread, drawing their guns and completely confusing the fuck out of a blinded Steve Woo and a panicking Paul Song.

Across the avenue, watching the entire perimeter layout develop from her vantage point, Mei's calm voice suddenly cracked through my earpiece transmission.

[ Master Lee, this maid will stop the broadcast now the police have come. Feng, Tang, and your lawyer are almost here as well. ]

"Great job Mei, fuck my eyes hurt, sniff-sniff!" I muttered quietly back into the microphone, blinking rapidly against the lingering burning sensation under my eyelids. "Hopefully they can get me out soon, sigh."

Glancing down at the floor of the cage, I noticed Frank was breathing perfectly fine now, his human pretzel shape anchored against the bench. Deciding he hadn't quite learned his lesson, I leaned forward and sprayed him directly in the face one more time, mostly just for fun.

[ Steve Woo and Paul Song, put your guns on the ground, get on your knees, and put your hands behind your heads or we will open fire on you! ]

The Sergeant's booming voice echoed across the parking lot through his megaphone. The man was visibly embarrassed that this entire sequence had been actively broadcasted live over an open line to a dozen of the most high-profile individuals in the city, creating an absolute administrative headache for his department. Standing right next to him, an incredibly pissed-off Officer Mary kept her weapon perfectly aligned with the center of Steve Woo's forehead.

With their vision still completely blurry from the chemical mist, the two rogue cops recognized their superior's voice alongside the deafening wail of the sirens, quickly following the instructions and dropping their hardware. As the uniform team moved in to secure the cuffs, a fleet of high-end luxury vehicles arrived at the scene.

Mary rushed past the perimeter line, throwing the heavy rear doors of the wagon wide open to help me step down.

The first vehicle to come to a halt produced a middle-aged man with sharp, salt-and-pepper hair, who was none other than Nick Soto, my elite defense lawyer.

Right behind him, Anthony Tang stepped out of his sleek sports car, his expression looking completely unhappy as he signaled one of his Master-level bodyguards to flank his side.

The very last individuals to show up were Tony and Tina Feng, their faces equally dark as they scanned the gory, pepper-sprayed layout of the transport wagon.

All three powerful men immediately converged on the Sergeant in a tight circle while the lovely Officer Mary carefully guided me out of the holding space.

The entire assembly watched as I climbed down from the bumper, Mary instantly wrapping her arms around my torso in a tight, protective hug. My eyes were completely bloodshot and streaming with heavy tears, an appearance that would make anyone assume I was experiencing a massive emotional breakdown if they didn't already know about the self-inflicted chemical exposure.

Tina stood near the front bumper of her father's car, her posture visibly relaxing the exact second she saw me standing on my own two feet, a soft smile touching her lips at my disheveled look.

Mary took a deep breath, the heavy scent of fresh blood and lingering teargas hitting her nose as she finally released her grip on my shoulders, realizing I hadn't exactly had a stellar evening. "Rick dear, are you really alright? Sorry we could not get to you sooner."

I slowly shook my head, offering her a reassuring look as I adjusted my jacket. "Nothing a long bath and whisky won't fix later, sigh. I hate worrying all of you."

The two of us walked directly toward the huddle of top brass, and I raised a hand to wave at the group before addressing them. "Sorry everyone, but when I knew Woo was coming for me, I asked my maid to call all of you and put my microphone on to broadcast live. Thanks for coming to get me."

Nick Soto didn't waste a single second, immediately stepping into the Sergeant's personal space with a fierce glare. "I need to know if my client is under arrest or has ANY charges filed against him. Finally, if Steve Woo remains a Police Officer after this, I shall on behalf of my client sew the pants off Star City Police Department."

The Sergeant's lips twitched nervously under the lawyer's fierce glare, his hand rubbing the back of his neck as he answered. "Steve Woo as of now is suspended for investigation, so until it is done, I can't officially claim that he is off, but off the record, he is not going to be working in Star City that's for damn sure. Assuming he is not in jail."

Soto nodded sharply, looking thoroughly pleased to lock down that specific confirmation on the record. Before the conversation could shift, Tony Feng stepped forward, looking directly at the officer. "May I please say just a few words to Mr Woo before he goes off, I came here for this purpose?"

The Sergeant gestured toward one of his available patrolmen on the line. "Go with Head Feng and let him say a few words in the cracked window to Steve Woo."

The two men immediately walked off toward the secure cruiser where Woo was being held. Tina used the opportunity to slip away from the group, coming right to my side to inspect my posture. "Sorry, didn't mean to worry you, but I guess Mei put it through the Harem-Chat feature?" I asked her quietly.

"Yes, my Father got a call but all of us got the full thing in the Harem-Chat so we did not worry too much," Tina replied smoothly, though her eyes remained glued to my bruised shoulder.

I knew for a fact she was totally lying. If she hadn't been worried sick, she wouldn't have rushed halfway across Star City to a parking lot in the middle of the night, but I smartly chose not to point that out. The atmosphere grew a bit awkward as she hovered close, her fingers twitching as if she wanted nothing more than to throw her arms around my neck for a hug, but the presence of the surrounding officers forced her to maintain proper societal boundaries.

Anthony finished shaking hands with the Sergeant and my lawyer, stepping over to join us with a firm pat on my back. "Nephew, sorry I could not do much, but I will take care of him, that Song, and I also told Nick I would fill his retainer when it was getting low, he is really good and fearless for a defense lawyer."

"No, you coming to help really makes me happy, uncle," I answered genuinely, appreciating the sheer weight of the Tang family backing.

"Alright, I know your day has been long, so I will go back first, but don't forget the Engagement Party next Saturday," Anthony reminded me, checking his watch before turning toward his vehicle. "We will hold it at the Hilton International, and call if you need anything for your home, by Rick. Oh, and I hope you got your invitation Miss Feng. You are school friends with both, so it is right for you to show."

Tina let out a low, melodic giggle, bowing her head slightly toward the elder noble. "I will most definitely show Head Tang, Ufufu."

Over by the transport grid, the uniform officer opened the heavy front passenger door of the secure police cruiser, stepping back as he addressed the billionaire patriarch. "You can safely sit here and speak to Woo."

Tony Feng slid into the front seat, intentionally keeping his eyes locked straight ahead on the dark windshield rather than turning around to look at the incredibly sorry, tear-soaked face of Steve Woo sitting behind the cage.

"Five years ago, I met you up north and thought, this guy would be a good son-in-law," Tony spoke, his voice entirely flat and devoid of emotion. "Well my daughter finally beat me in a bet and found a man so much better that only the fates could bless my family with. Rick Lee-Tang will be the young man I call son, and not a piece of shit like you."

Steve Woo gripped the metal mesh divider, his voice cracking through his swollen throat as he scrambled for a defense. "But Head Feng, I did not do anything to Rick so I broke no rules!"

"Really, who made the game and who can end the game?" Tony countered, his tone dropping into a freezing chill that filled the entire interior of the car. "If I find you guilty, then you're guilty. So as of this moment, I revoke your Number 1 position and give it to the man that deserves it, my new son. Well they don't know I know, but I know he is already my son-in-law, ha-ha. Oh and one last thing Steve Woo..."

Steve Woo swallowed hard, a heavy lump of pure terror forming in his throat as Tony slowly turned his head to lock his eyes directly onto his stare.

"The moment you step out of Police Custody or Prison, I and Feng will end your life," Tony stated with absolute, terrifying certainty. "This is the ending for rule-breakers. Goodbye Steven Woo."

Without waiting for a reply, Tony pulled the handle and stepped out into the night air, slamming the heavy car door shut with a violent echo that struck straight into the fading heart of Steven Woo.