2.11.2 – The junkyard tiger
2.1 - Edited by: Rellawing, AlliterativeArts - 1/25/2021
Aurora arrived in the general indicated area and took in the sprawling junkyard. Her eyes were most drawn over towards the ‘small’ refinery nearby finding that it was actually quite huge. A number of small temporary office trailers were set up in the area. Re-scanning everything more carefully, she didn’t see the minivan anywhere in the open. The only people to be seen out and about were the workers in the junkyard.
The hero decided that it’d be a good idea to start by finding this “Chan” person. Looking around for what looked like the main office, she spotted it after some scrutiny and steered towards it to land quietly beside it in the shade to change her look. Through thinking about how she might make it happen, she discovered how to hide her wings; the idea came from when she thought about her costume. Everything she’d made so far had accounted for the wings because of instinct. From there, she tested by creating a dress, making it a deep red shade and made sure to close the back entirely across her shoulders. It was as though the information was being supplied to her or that her intuition was very much on the mark.
Her excitement deepened and she was eager to jump into action, but her silvery hair was very much a problem. Even though she wasn’t widely known yet, the uncommon color would make her stand out in a way that wouldn’t work for the undercover work she planned. Puzzling over what color to go with, she decided to match the dress and then tweaked the dress’ color to better coordinate. This ‘Ronnie Chan’ was probably a man, so she decided it wouldn’t hurt to make sure her bosoms were displayed to effect without being overly suggestive.
With the Operation: Disguise completed, Aurora confidently walked around the corner towards the front door and entered with an accompanying jingle of a bell installed on the door’s frame. There were three people working at desks inside. They looked up at the sudden clatter before greasy smiles spread across each of their faces, seeing only a beautiful woman and no threat.
After a few beats of silence, one of the three men who was sitting at a desk that had strong Chinese features stood and smoothly addressed her, “It’s unusual to have someone so well-dressed visit my office.” He slicked his hair while speaking, “You looking for parts of some kind... or you need some other… hmmm… work done?” He chuckled.
Leona didn’t know if he meant anything by that so ignored it with a smile. “You’re the proprietor? Ronnie Chan?” Her smile didn’t falter.
“Yeah, that me. How may I help?” He smirked.
The other two men moved to either side in a flanking maneuver, their eyes watching Leona mostly with disdain, but a fraction of concern showed at her direct address of their boss.
Apparently they had a healthy dose of suspicion even where a lovely lady was concerned.
Despite their attempt to intimidate her, Aurora continued to smile sweetly as she looked right back at the guys with a total lack of concern.
“Excellent!” Aurora winked. “I’d like to talk to you about an individual called ‘Blue Max’. Would you happen to be the leader of those goons who perform these so-called blimp robberies? It’s not just that though. I’d also like to talk with you about a certain power suit that’s said to be hidden somewhere in the area. I’ve never seen one outside the movies. Those things are straight out of scifi. I’d love to see it.”
Ronnie’s face turned sour and harshly spoke in Chinese. Leona had no idea at all what he’d actually said, but his expression screamed ‘rub her out.’
(Translation for anyone who is not a little girl superhero in masquerade: 「What are you idiots waiting for? Eject this rude girl!」)
“You leave, rude girl,” Ronnie said, punching his fist into his other hand. Yeah, a translation wasn’t necessary, he was talking in pretty universal terms.
“Rude girl? I think I’m simply being very frank and upfront.” She bounced and snickered. “So are you the leader, Blue Max? Or are you a lackey? Hmm, though you might have a point, maybe I could be even MORE upfront.” Aurora smirked and let her disguise fade. To add to the effect, she let her wings erupt from her back and let them spread wide for effect. Light flashed and the men backed off with shrill cries.
“I’m here for information, Chan. If you aren’t the leader… assuming you’re not Blue Max, I’m sure you have something I could use. If you want me to prove how tough I am, just go ahead and let your boys here attack me.” She grinned mockingly. “Either way, none of you are leaving this room until I get some answers.”
Chan rubbed his eyes and glared. “Ha, some little girl with flash bulbs wants to intimidate Ronnie Chan?” he said and gestured to his men to attack. “Get her, I said!”
Aurora instantly sheathed her body in her shield as the man who approached first punched at her face. The technique seemed deadly and he had brass knuckles on to boot. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn’t have been able to counter a martial-artist’s attack, except… she didn’t need to.
He wailed on her field. “Ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-haaaaa-hrrrrmph.” He cried as he pounded at Aurora’s barrier. Yawning, Aurora smiled at the other man. In response he charged and tried to grapple her. In response, she changed her shield to the capsule variety and the man went flying as though he’d bounced off something.
Well, he did.
He hit a filing cabinet and put a big dent in it, causing papers to fly out in every direction.
The other man pulled his pistol and aimed at her. Aurora nodded, having expected it to escalate. The capsule variety would stop bullets flat, not reflect them. She very much preferred that someone didn’t get hit by a stray bullet or ricochet. He fired a few times on the superhero and watched the projectiles flatten and fall to the floor, clicking on the wood.
Finally getting the idea that she was unassailable, Ronnie put up a hand. “Wait. All right, you’ve proven that you’re a real superhero. What makes you think I know anything about this ‘Blue Max’ person?” It looked like he decided to stop playing the ‘Chinese-English accent’ card.
Aurora smiled amiably. “A little bird told me this place is an ideal base for their crew, or is something close to it anyway. A certain distinctive van was junked here and the exo suit in question runs on a very particular type of fuel which just so happens to be attainable at the nearby refinery. Even if you’re not Blue Max himself, your connections with the Triads are well known. So, I figured you might know something, or might be implicated. It’s convenient, really. What do you think? Do you know anything that would get me out of your hair?” She shook her head to punctuate the words, tossing her lovely tresses.
“Well…” Ronnie shrugged. “I don’t know anything about any ‘Triads’ or any other weird shapes. Though, you might be talking about some old legend about descendants of Shou-Lin fighting against the oppressive Manchu regime.” His expression was still dark as he tried to stall for time.
”Maybe if you can give me some more details on this ‘Blue Max’, I might know someone who knows him.” He grinned and waved to the seat before his desk. The remaining goon who was unharmed put his gun away with a sour expression.
Leona tilted her head in assent and sat graciously. She told him about the type of fuel being produced next door and how it was refined, or at least as much about it that she’d been able to commit to memory. She stuck to simple details that he’d know something about perhaps and that, from her viewpoint, weren’t particularly risky to share. From there, she described the getaway minivan’s coloration and its license plate number.
“Ah… you see, I’m afraid as a simple junkyard owner, I don’t know much about such scientific nonsense, but your story about a minivan, that rings true. I had a rude gentleman looking to buy it the other day. I even offered him a fair deal, but he was terribly insistent and I believe he might’ve stolen it from my lot.” He chuckled and nodded to agree with his own story.
“If I were to help you find this individual, I assume he will be brought to justice. Is this correct?”
Aurora nodded. “Without a doubt.” She flashed him a grin. “He’s pulled some pretty major shinanigens. I imagine the sentence will be fairly steep.”
“Then let me look at my information,” he said, watching Aurora while carelessly flipping through a Rolodex. A very outdated way to keep tabs on client information, but it was effective, if not dramatic, nonetheless.
“Ah… here it is,” he said as he pulled out a card. “I believe my employees may have spotted that van a few yards over, near that refinery. It’s a utility shed shared by the landowners. Naturally I have a key, do you need one?” He opened his desk drawer and produced the key.
“And should you find this gentleman, please advise him that one does not make demands of the Junk Tiger.”
Aurora grinned, accepting the key. “I’ll be sure to tell him that.” She nodded. “Thanks for the information.”
She exited the building and cannoned off into the sky immediately and turned towards the refinery next. She didn’t want to get TOO close to it yet though. If there was a chance that she could steal away the exo-armor without any fireworks, that would certainly be a great deal less trouble than fighting it.