Dragon in NY

[seiryu]

The trail of his shoelaces as he dragged his feet across the floor was all that Tai could focus on as he walked through the streets of Brooklyn. He'd slept in Central Park yesterday and woken up at 3AM fighting off some guys, which meant he was a little cranky for the lack of sleep. He focused as intently as he could on his feet to avoid the dull ache in his stomach, he needed to eat soon or he'd probably starve. But conversely he didn't want to break his honour by stealing food, just how could he make money?

With one last step he fell onto the floor outside a convenience store, his legs curled up under him as he groaned at the pain in his stomach. Why was he so hungry? He'd eaten only three days ago, had he really been that active? Glancing up, he saw a group of people inside talking to the store owner. The store owner looked to be of Indian descent, and judging by the tremble of his moustache he was being threatened by the group. They were all wearing red uniforms and seemed to be shouting at the shop owner. A gang shake-down, well, he may as well get involved. Getting himself to his feet he staggered into the shop and saw the terrified gleam in the shop keepers eye.

"The hell you want man?" One of the gang members screeched
"To eat" Tai mumbled, honestly answering the question.
"I got something you can eat, right here?" A gang member pulled a knife and lunged. Tai looked at the shop keeper as he grabbed the knife-wielders wrist and flicked the weapon away, paying little attention to the gang
"Sir, I know this is quite a low thing to do and I apologise, but I'm really hungry. If I get rid of these gang members can I have some food? I mean, a snickers will do, I just need some calories"
"You think you can take us, Foo'!?" There was a swift kick for Tai's answer that stunned the victim so badly he wobbled for around 4 seconds before falling.
"Is that OK?"

Chewing on the snickers (and feeling guilty that he'd been given around 6 and a loaf of bread) he walked his way through New York before finally hopping onto the top of a phonebooth to take a look around. There were supposed to be a few strong fighters in New York, maybe they could have something to teach him. He flicked his pony-tail idly as he looked out across the street. A man in martial arts uniform sitting on a phone-booth, probably looked weird...

Hopping down from the phone booth in a strangely elegant cartwheel motion, he landed besides some guys in big leather jackets listening to a loud jambox blairing out a tune that made the concrete around it quake. Guitars were shredding, faces were most probably melting, and a few of the guys were slamming their heads back and forth in a motion that worried Tai a lot more than it probably should. But, hey, they mostly had long hair too so maybe they could be kindred spirits
"Why is your music box screaming?" he asked politely but was unheard before shouting it again
"WHY IS YOUR MUSIC BOX SCREAMING? IS IT IN PAIN?". Tai had somehow missed the era of metal music in his travels...

[seiryu]

Well, it was always a nice surprise when people didn't immediately try and murder him for asking questions. Tai's sport bag now contained a CD of music from a band called Baby Annihilator which he fully intended to listen to if he ever had the opportunity.The nice men with leather jackets and studs were all too happy to explain to him what metal music was and it was fully possible Tai was going to listen to it. Of course, he didn't own a CD player but he would like to hear it.

He was carrying on his wandering around New York, eventually meandering past the various stores and corner shops and ending up back in Central Park. He wasn't sure how he'd managed it since he was heading to Brooklyn and ended up at the far side of the park. It was just one of those things, he wasn't very good at navigating western cities. Walking through the park, he paused for a moment as he saw some people wandering through the park. He scratched his head awkwardly as he looked at them.

All 8 of them wore identical black hooded tops and exceptionally loose baggy green trousers with a blend of black and brown patches that made them look like the ground. Tai hadn't encountered much camoflague in his life so had no idea that's what it was. Not wishing to look suspicious, he quickly ran up a tree and swung his body up onto a branch with a fluid pulling motion. Walking along the branch steadily, he glanced down at the 8 men in hoods again.

They all dressed alike and in the middle of them was a girl. She had blonde hair, fairly nice hazel eyes and a miniscule mole on the left side of her chin. Although, she was about a hundred feet away so he wasn't sure of the last part. Mainly because she had a gag in her mouth and was wearing a nice black dress with a rope like accessory. He frowned, why on earth would a woman in such a nice dress walk around with guys like that? They kept looking over their shoulders too.

...

...

Oh wait, what's that word.
Kidnapping?
He was probably watching a kidnapping.
On that thought, He should probably get involved, or else he'd feel worried all evening.

Using the branches natural springing motion, he leapt into the air and rolled across the grass directly into the path of the men with hoods and got to his feet. The 8 of them jumped in surprise at the guy in blue appearing and seemed to be taking aback, striking martial arts stances between them to try and keep themselves safe. Tai blinked at this turn of events
"Huh, Wing Chun and Jeet Kune Do? Weird..." Tai adopted his own stance and heard the distant pitch of police sirens echoing out. Looked like something important was happening... well, he better keep an eye on these guys.

Neeeeeever thought they could be related.

[freeman]

Truly, the Freeman leaves no path unexplored...

Great thinkers, factual and fictitious, often performed certain habits or hobbies to help them think. For example, when Sherlock Holmes needed to think, he'd often play away on his violin. For Dr. Gordon Freeman, walking sufficed, for now, when it came to getting the creative juices to pumping.

There were other reasons for going walking, of course. It was starting to warm up, a welcome relief from the bitter cold that had otherwise plagued New York City. Even dedicated bookworms wouldn't pass up a chance to bask in the warming weather. Indeed, only the proverbial mad scientist would stick to their studies over going outside. The climate controlled Black Mesa complex remained a temperate 72 degrees. As such, Gordon was having trouble getting used to natural weather, even though it'd been months since he'd left the Black Mesa compound.

Ah, how he missed the compound. There was no bad weather inside the compound. Just a temperate climate. And there was no crime either, or at least none that Gordon had encountered thus far. On the other hand, crime was far more rampant in the outside world. And Gordon looked like such a tempting and easy target for a mugger. He was athletic, sure, but his glasses, crew cut hair style and pale skin made him seem meek and cowardly. Indeed, his attire didn't help much either. He wore brown slacks, black loafers, a light yellow dress shirt and a red tie; the latter two being mostly hidden by his extra long, black wool coat, which was buttoned up.

He walked through Central Park, his pace casual and his hands stuffed in his coat pockets. His thoughts lingered on advanced M-theory and the possibility of other dimensions and higher existences, when something in front of him caught his attention. It looked like a fight was about to break out between eight....no, seven individuals and another man, a stranger, who assumed a fighting stance in front of them. Gordon was about just over forty feet behind the seven men and their female hostage. Since the loner was facing his direction, he may've noticed the good doctor.

And what he would see was the doctor breaking his pace and coming to a complete stop. He paused in disbelief at what he saw, then reacted. Hands that were clad in skin-tight, black gloves reached forward from his coat pockets. Undoing the front of his coat, he reached in and pulled forth a revolver style handgun. A magnum.

Yes, Dr. Freeman was well aware that a nerdy looking individual such as himself probably looked like an easy target. Therefore, he purchased a gun to protect himself with and a concealed weapons permit in order to carry his gun around with him. But with this firepower came responsibility. He didn't know who to help out, other than the female hostage. But who had taken her hostage? The seven men with her or the loner in front of them? And besides that, there were more beneficial ways to help than charging in with a loaded gun.

His magnum gripped in his right hand, Gordon reached into his trench coat again with his free hand, fishing out a cell phone. He was just about to call 911 when he became aware of the squad cars approaching. He hesitated, since there'd be no need to call the police if they were already arriving. Still, he watched from a distance and kept his gun and phone at the ready, just in case.

[seiryu]

Tai's thought process was both fast and, sadly, naive.

"Oh good, someone's arrived and he saw the situation. He'll most likely raise a ruckus, bring the cops and I can leave the authorities to deal with these kidnappers and I won't be arrested for assault. He's a man wearing a big black coat, so he looks a little less obtrusive than me and my blue gii so he could probably call the police and no-one would notice"

"Oh no, he's drawn a gun, he's probably going to shoot at us but he might hit the hostage. Even if he doesn't, he might kill the kidnappers. Not that they don't deserve to be whupped most heavily, but they don't deserve to be killed. I assume. Either way, not my place to decide. OR his. Hmmm. This is going to be tricky"

Tai didn't have much more time to think as the leader of the gang members lashed out with a front kick. Blocking with his fore-arm, he twisted his body and kicked his opponent in the stomach. He held back a little but it still forced the gang members to all go tumbling into each other. And, to Tai's distress, almost falling into the kidnapped girl.
"Sorry!" He shouted to the girl, looking awkward at his poor judgement. He hopped up and down on the balls of his feet, waiting for a sign of the gang getting up again.

One of them rose to his feet and dived at him again, Tai thought he was the same one he'd just kicked but he didn't know for sure. He swung out with a roundhouse kick, travelling at almost 40 miles an hour, which Tai ducked relatively easy and with a mutter under his breath said
"Fire mode"
before leaping into the air, placing hands at either side of the enemy's head and unleashing a knee to the attackers fore-head. The impact shook the hood free and exposed a shaved head with strangely purple coloured eyes. Tai blinked at the surprising appearance of the guy
"Man, what a freak... are they all like that?" Tai said to himself, not even thinking of his own superhuman abilities. Dropping his bag to the floor, he fished out a piece of paper and scribbled a note on it before throwing it towards the man in the black coat. Somehow, the paper stuck in the first tree it hit. The paper airplane had words written in it which said
"Please don't shoot anyone, guns are scary.
I'll lead them away and you can rescue the girl."

Nodding hopefully that the message would be recieved, Tai raised his fists and shouted louder than he probably should have
"Come on, you.... you baddies!!" Tai wasn't great at the insult thing...

[freeman]

A person's judgment can change, depending on the circumstances. For Gordon Freeman, he originally decided not to call the cops. However, he watched the events unfold in front of him and what he saw made him double back on his earlier decision to not call the police. What he saw seemed to be an inept young man trying to save a young woman who'd been taken hostage. And the airplane? Gordon himself was a tad inept sometimes. He didn't know what was on the paper airplane. He couldn't have known, nor would he find out, since it went flying into the nearest tree. Not knowing that it had a message for him, Gordon didn't bother to retrieve it.

And the fact that the young man made a paper airplane and then threw it in that situation only made Dr. Freeman all the more on edge. And then there was the fact the gang members seemed to be tripping each over one another. The good doctor quickly realized this was not the time for a citizen's arrest. Quickly, he placed his gun back inside his coat and dialed 911. The dialing itself didn't take long at all. Indeed, despite the simple three digits, Dr. Freeman had the emergency and death hotline on his speed dial. One can never be too careful, after all.

Fortunately, the cops were already on the way, as the sirens earlier had indicated. Eight officers rushed out, their handguns drawn, a couple of them yelling "Freeze!" Just as the cops had commanded, Gordon froze, his cell phone in hand with the 911 operating on the other end going "Hello? Hello?"

[seiryu]

((OOC: Its gonna get funnier before it gets better))

Tai was confident the bookish looking gentleman would read the paper airplane, after all, why else would he have thrown it? To try and attack him? Ha ha... oh wait, did it look like that? Was the nice nerdy man going to call the police and ensure this went badly? Whatever happened with those sirens he was hearing? Tai didn't pay much more attention to this as he was besieged by more attacks.

A right cross flew over his head as he struck one of them in the solar plexus, following up by hurling them at one of his allies in a move he liked to call 'The Human Shuriken'. The attacks were strong but only at around peak martial arts level. Tai appreciated how strong they were, and exceptionally well trained, even as he systematically took them down with a mixture of blows. He may not be particularly clever, or observant or even capable of reading fundamentals in human society, but he was very good at fighting. As he axe-kicked one hoodie wearing kidnapped into a bush, he wondered whether he should attempt that new move he'd thought up last week.

It's unfortunate that he became so engrossed in these thoughts as he barely noticed the armed police appearing and shouting at them. In fact, he was just about to unleash a move at the exact same time as the voice came
"Freeze!"
*Crack!*
*Whump*
"Uh-oh" He'd already committed to the jumping kick so the NYPD got a very nice view of a young man in martial arts gear's shoe colliding with the face of a bald guy in a black hooded top. Said bald man then immediately hit the pavement leaving three of his allies standing. Tai glanced at the few remaining gang members and considered how this may look
"I'm very, very sorry, I was trying to rescue this kidnapped girl, I wasn't attempting to commit grievous bodily harm, please don't arrest me."
Tai wasn't exactly scared of guns, as he was very aware what being shot felt like. He didn't like it. Ergo, guns are scary (see: Paper Airplane)

He noticed the nice nerdy looking gentleman on his phone, not saying anything. Had he... was he calling the police? Tai's face looked crestfallen and hurt, he'd been sold out? But he thought they were friends! Well, of the 30 seconds and 0% of conversation he'd had he liked the guy just fine. But now he was probably going to be arrested, along with this creepy purple eyed dudes. Unless... he had to try
"Mr nice guy with glasses! You can do it! Tell them I'm innocent, speak on my behalf!"

((OOC: Yeah, that last part had to be done I feel o.o))

[freeman]

To be able to earn an accredited Ph.D in the sciences, especially in theoretical physics, one must eat, sleep and breathe science. Even now, Gordon couldn't help but think of science. They, Gordon and everyone else, were three dimensional beings. They lived in the third dimension, but yet they were moving uncontrollably in the fourth dimension: time.

Gordon pondered for a moment, how a fourth dimensional being would view him, a mere third dimensional being. Since all third dimensional beings exist partly in the fourth dimension of time, a fourth dimensional being would see Dr. Freeman as a snake. At one end of the snake, there would be Gordon as an infant, or maybe even being conceived. At the other end of the snake would be Gordon on his death bed, or perhaps even in his grave.

But somewhere on this fourth dimensional snake of Gordon Freeman, there would be this particular moment, this particular part in time, the fourth dimension. And Gordon pondered how a higher being might look upon this segment of his fourth dimensional snake, the segment which was him, here and now, standing dumbfounded, holding a cell phone.

"Hello? Hellooooo?"

Blinking, the somewhat absent minded, for the moment, genius closed his cell phone and put it away. Perhaps absent minded wasn't accurate though. Indeed, geniuses pondered greater thoughts, such as higher dimensions, all the time. It was the only way they could get their fantastic, theoretical work done. That, and academics was a sanctuary for geniuses, Dr. Freeman included. It took his mind off the comfortableness of the moment.

Speaking of comfortableness, the would-be hero singled him out, saying, "Mr nice guy with glasses! You can do it! Tell them I'm innocent, speak on my behalf!"

Of course, Gordon knew the awkward man was innocent and had only good intentions. He was about to say something when the women who was being held hostage cut him off.

"It's true officer! He was only trying to help!"

So that got the heroic stranger off the hook, but what about Gordon? An officer approached him, demanding to know who he was. Freeman made a one moment please gesture with his index finger, before reaching inside his pants pocket to produce his wallet. The cop thought for moment that the good doctor was reaching for a weapon and almost took action. Luckily, no such incident occurred.

Taking out his license and Black Mesa employee badge, he showed it to the officer, prompting a "You don't talk much, do you?" response. Dr. Freeman blinked slowly, a more somber look on his face that the nervous one moments before, and shook his head.

[seiryu]

Tai breathed a great sigh of relief as the girl spoke up for him and dropped his arms once more. He fiddled with his pony-tail to make sure the braid was still strong as he marched over to the bag he'd thrown to the ground and quickly stored two highly illegal throwing knives he'd grabbed just in case things had gone wrong before hoisting the bag onto his back. The police seemed to have taken the remaining gangsters into custody with relatively little difficulty, leaving Tai in the odd situation of having a girl he'd saved standing close by and he was very worried she may offer him some kind of reward.

Despite his excessive poverty (and the fact he was one of the few people who earned the title excessive when discussing his poor monetary standing) he didn't like accepting rewards for things when he hadn't been offeredit beforehand. After seeing someone do something brave, some people were all the more inclined to pay money (and some completely welched, but he didn't mind that as much) and it felt like he was taking advantage, cos once he worked out that happened it meant any good deed he did was done with the knowledge he may well get a reward out of it which was kinda evil when he thought about it. So he tended to ignore the generous offers and run away. Hence, he didn't really want to speak with the nice rich lady.

Instead, he approached the man who still thought of 'Nice guy with slightly nerdy style'. He leaned across and glanced over the policeman's shoulder so he could read the ID at the same time with a quick scan, he frowned for a few seconds as he tried to think what some of the words on the Black Mesa ID meant. Still, at least he knew the guy's name which was flushing his face with blunt admiration. The cop was right he really didn't speak much, but Tai was overwhelmed with admiration at the title he'd read on the card.
"You're a scientist!?" Tai gushed "Ohmigod, that's so AWESOME! Science is way cool, I mean I don't really understand it, but still! Hey, you know how when you drop something like an apple it falls to the ground? Why IS[ that?" Tai's beaming face seemed to be oblivious to... well, to so much. The man who could explain how to jump so high you grabbed the top of a tree had absolutely no idea of one of the most fundamental forces in the universe. It's possible that, in this one instance, correlation does denote causation.

He was also forgetting one of his most fundamental rules, don't forget about your enemies. He was paying absolutely no heed to the remaining gang members or, for that matter, the police.

[freeman]

(Suffering a case of writer's block, so I apologize if this isn't up to par)

Was Gordon Freeman a fight? Perhaps. But even if he were, he too was neglecting the same thing that the young man was neglecting. But there was no need for further concern about that. The police seemed to have it under control. The hoodlums puts up their hands and surrendered.

They weren't out of the woods yet though. Several very curious, very determined police officers surrounded the two of them. Gordon wasn't in any trouble himself. Indeed, all it took was flashing his Black Mesa badge to gain the cops' respect. An admirable scientist could not have been involved with petty thugs, after all. Or could they?

Regardless, before Dr. Freeman had a chance to put away his badge, the young hero from earlier burst his way back into the scene. For all the admiring glances, and perhaps envy, Gordon got from the cops, this fellow eclipsed them all. And then he did the most absurd thing. He asked about the force of gravity, although he didn't even refer to it by name.

An academic at heart, Gordon took in a deep breath, while putting away his license and Black Mesa badge, and prepared to explain gravity to the young man. He was going to tell him how gravity was the result of large bodies bending the four dimensional fabric of the universe, spacetime. He was going to also explain of how the force of gravity itself was made up of the tiniest of tiny particles called strings. More specifically, that gravity was made up of closed ended strings call gravitons.

He stuck up his index finger on his right hand, having the most elementary my dear boy looks on his face, and opened his mouth to start his long winded explanation on one of the four forces of nature. Before he could get a word out though, a police officer cut him off.

"Dr. Freeman, we understand you must be a busy man, but we're going to need you to come down to the police station for questioning," said the officer, before turning around to face the giddy and eccentric young man, "That means you too. You were a witness, after all."

Gordon closed his mouth, still having it open from his attempt at giving an explanation of gravity, and nodded. Not offering any objection, he allowed one of the police officers to escort him to a squad car, from which he would be driven to the police station for further questioning.

[Exit Gordon]

[seiryu]

Tai managed to supress his dissapointment at not learning, due to the fact he now had a far more serious problem to contend with. The niceman with glasses who was now immortalised in Tai's memory as Gordon the Sciencey, was being lead away by the police for questioning. Which Tai thought would be an interesting procedure since Dr Freeman didn't seem very fond of vocalising, but who was he to judge? But they also wanted to take Tai in for questioning which would be less good for him.

His knowledge of the NYPD's legal process was fairly well versed and he was also aware that they frowned upon vigilate justice. As he had assaulted at least 20 different bad people on his walk today, he was pretty sure they would want to take him to court. Where it would become increasingly obvious he had no passport, what's more, that he had a few things on his person that were slightly, only a little bit, incredibly illegal secured on his person. Not to mention his various other crimes, while done with good cause and safely, were still illegal. He glanced at the policemen around him and thought very long and hard about the appropriate response to their request. Eventually he decided on the most simple, and to his mind, least likely to cause a problem, option.

"Sumimasen, Eigo wakarani" he said with a blank smile and strolled briskly away for a few feet before devoling into a sprint. Diving through the bushes and over benches he finally dived over a parked car and rolled under it in the same motion. The baffled stares of bystanders went over his head as he hid under the chevrolet with a satisfied smile on his face. Until he remembered the previous few minutes
"Oh wait, I spoke English that whole time... ah well, what's the worst that could happen" He shrugged to himself and lay flat, using his bag for a pillow.

((OOC: Think thats the end of the thread))