10464/Party in the PRC

Party in the PRC
Date of Scene:	17 December 2019
Location:	Storage Facility, Shannxi Province, China
Synopsis:	The chase is on, and a confrontation ensues at a forgotten storage building.
Cast of Characters:	Indiana Jones, Tombstone, Silk

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Indiana Jones has posed:
Driving through mainland China is a contrast of styles. There are the big urban centers, which are almost painfully modern, like they're trying too hard to be New York.
But get far enough away from the big cities, and it is a little like traveling back in time. Wide swatches of farmland, most run by the PRC. It is a little odd to see Chinese soldiers chatting amiably with farmers wearing honest-to-God coolie headwear.

But then the roads stop at guard stations, with unsmiling guards who scrutinize the paperwork, and then make subtle references to "donations" to the local duty officer department...

Tombstone has posed:
Zhao and Andrew had been driving down the country roads for aboue 3 hours. Ever since getting a rather loud wake-up call from one of Tombstone's triad associates, Zhao and Andrew were forced to rush out of the hotel and get on the trail of Dr. Jones. They haven't found an sign of the Doctor and they were getting impatient.

After three hours of driving, they found themselves in a village near the site they were directed to. The two men climbed out of their SUV and looked around. This was a typical small rual village. But, if the sight was nearby, Jones must've been here. Deciding to question the locals, Zhao heads toward a elderly villager and grabs his shoulder roughly to get his attention. He then says in Manadrin to him as he pulls out the picture of Dr.Jones," You, have you seen this man?"

Indiana Jones has posed:
The villager nodded quickly. "Short time ago...!"

Thirty minutes before, Dr. Jones had been mildly stymied when he had reached out to the village elder. The site had not been hard to find, but the elder had told him that the State Administration of Cultural Heritage had excavated the site, and had sent the relics unearthed to a storage facility nearby. That was a year ago, and the facility had remained undisturbed, nearly abandoned except for a token guard...and the guards had opted for going home to sleep for the night.
It made sense. Anything that was remotely valuable, like gold, jewels, etc., had been "appropriated" by the state.

Twenty minutes after the meeting with the elder, the Land Rover stopped outside the large concrete building, and Indy and Cindy had gotten out. The lack of security was a welcome change, but it was still locked, with a steel door and the only other openings being a few windows a few floors up, and maybe the roof. A remote maybe.
Indy took a deep breath, and said, "I'm going to try and get this door open, Cindy. Can you keep an eye out?"

Silk has posed:
Cindy is frowning, as she watches Indy fiddling with the door. "You....you don't suppose someone's fallen onto our trail already, do you?" Her brow is furrowed as she looks around them. "Cause somethin' is trippin' my senses, and it's within a hundred miles of here, for sure." She looks back to Indy, and nods. "You open that door...and I'll keep watch."

Without further explanation, Cindy quite simply crawls up the wall to the roof. A couple of minutes later, the door opens from the inside. Cindy gives a grand, sweeping bow and a welcoming gesture. "Please....join me, won't you?"

Tombstone has posed:
After a bit more questioning from the old man, Zhao learned that Jones and his companion were heading to a government storage facility to retrieve whatever the government stored inside there. Zhao and Andrew, after remebering the carnage the two caused in the warehouse back in NYC, decided to make a phone call. Twenty minutes later, Zhao and Andrew were leading a convoy of three suvs full of Triad gangsters sent by their contact up the hill towards the Warehouse.

Indiana Jones has posed:
Indy says, "Hard to tell...we do know Tombstone might have come after us. Immortality makes people do stupid things. If something else comes up, we may have to make a quick exit, or barricade ourselves in there..."
He trails off as he looks around. Cindy's not around any more. Maybe she saw or heard...

The door suddenly opens, and for one frantic moment, he thinks a guard is there after all and his hand goes to his holster. But then he sees...CINDY? How the Hell...?
Indy blinks, looks around, then slips inside, closing the door as he puts his lockpick set away. "Thank God you're not a criminal..." he says with a note of surprise, sounding impressed. "Okay...let's find the room where they are keeping the stuff recovered from Jingjiazhuang. Stay close...and let me know if something bangs your radar again."

The room is easy to find, but it is rather large. Storage boxes line the walls, all marked with symbols about where they were found at the site. A couple are marked with a red "X," and Indy sighs at these. "Those are ones slated for destruction. China doesn't want to complicate the narrative. Let's check those first."

Silk has posed:
But Cindy is shaking her head quickly. "There's no time. Whatever it is, it's almost here, Indy." She is stripping off her gloves and the oversized hoodie that she was wearing over the black bodysuit. She doesn't need anything to impede her movement, at this point. "Whatever the threat is, it's coming frommmm....that way. And it got bigger. Brace yourself, Handsome. We may be in for a fight."

Tombstone has posed:
The convey eventually reaches the warehouse. Zhao turned to Andrew and said," I bet they are in there right now. Let's just go in and kill them." Andrew suddenly grips Zhao's shoulder very tight. Andrew's eyes are rolled back into his skull as he mumbles something. He then turns and says to Zhao," The Loa tell me that the element of surprise is necessary for this to work." Zhao grins upon hearing this and yells a order in Mandarin out the window of his SUV. A moment later, one of the SUV's rams through the door of the warehouse, opening it up for the rest of the gangsters.

Indiana Jones has posed:
Indy grimaced. "Damn. Well, no sense revealing you're from out of town. Speak only Chinese. If you have to identify yourself call yourself...Zhizhu Xia, Lady Spider. Say you're one of the ones that tested Tang Sanzang. Maybe you'll knock the superstitious ones off-center." He opens one of the boxes. "Can you delay them in any way? Whatever you can..."

Then there is a horrendous crash, and the entire building shudders.
"Shit." He pulls out his revolver, checks it, then flips it closed. "Should trust that intuition of yours more often. I'll defend here. Don't get shot."

Silk has posed:
Cindy pulls on a black mask that covers all but her eyes, then blows Indy a kiss. "I'll go confront them. Get what you can. Get to the roof, if it starts getting too close. I'll get you away from there, if need be."

And in a flash, Cindy is down the stairs, leaving them covered in the stickiest web she can muster. She appears from seemingly nowhere before the vehicle that crashed through the door. But for the moment, she remains silent, staring intently. Clad now all in black, her gaze is as intense as her appearance.

Tombstone has posed:
The car, which seemingly has a little life left in it back up from the big hole it just made. 12 pairs of footsteps are heard appraoching the wall. The first two men to come into sight are a odd couple. The first one is a young Asian-American with spiked-geled hair wearing a red and gold suit and blue sunglasses. The second was a middle-aged African-American man with short black hair, a white suit, and disturbingly, a hooked hand. This was, of course, Zhao and Andrew. Andrew takes one look at lets out a raspy, almost sinister laugh as 10 men with guns streamed in. Zhao glares at you intently and says," Where is Dr.Jones! Tombstone has unfinished business with him!"

Indiana Jones has posed:
Indy cannot hear them. He is too busy. He would love to think that Cindy/Lady Spider can handle them all, but it takes just one bullet.
He had to work fast.
He looked in the box, grimacing. Nothing but kitchen utensils, earthenware.
He opens another one, a long one reminiscent of the banker's box he kept his tax stuff in, and sees what looks like a long staf of hard wood. He hefts it, then puts it aside, and keeps looking.
Tablets, with nothing of note...etched glass, some scene at a lake...
He is still putting it aside when he stops short. He lifts the circular pane of glass, then at the characters on the left side of the tranquil scene.

MU'S HOME NEAR WATER OLING

It's a pretty picture...except the characters are not Chinese. They are old Japanese. He remembers something, vaguely, but realizes he has no time. Best to take it. He shoves the glass pane into his pouch, then grabs the staff. It's time to go...he only hopes he has everything.

Silk has posed:
"Was /that/ his name?" Cindy laughs. "I dispatched him fifteen minutes ago. On foot, headed north. What he sought was not here. HIS princess was in another castle." There is a smile in her voice as she speaks in fluent Chinese. "I gave him two choices, and he chose the path of least resistance. Pity...It seemed like he would be a challenge. But since what he sought was there, he was not inclined to engage me." She gives a half-hearted shrug.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Zhizhu Xia. The Lady Spider. I was a tester of Tang Sanzang. Perhaps you and your friends wish to be next?"

Tombstone has posed:
Zhao glares at Silk and is about to say something in Chinese but is suddenly stopped by Andrew grunting and moaning. He turms and sees Andrew convulsing and twitching, his eyes rolled into the back of his head and his mouth seemingly frothing. Once he is done, Andrew smiles and says in a raspy voice," The Loa says she is lying. Jones is still here." Zhao then glares and says in Mandarin," Stop lying and tell and tell me the truth. Or i will have the men kill you."

Indiana Jones has posed:
Indy gets to the roof. He opens his mouth...and then stops.
He can't call for Cindy. That might blow her cover. And he can't call for Lady Spider, because that would alert the others.

Then, a few seconds later, Cindy heard the sharp rapping of hard wood against cement. The staccato sound of the sequence known as "Shave and a haircut, two bits."
Coming from the roof.

Silk has posed:
"Oh, come on. That was REALLY good!" Cindy continues in Chinese. "You guys just aren't any fun." Then comes the rapping, and Cindy remembers the stickiest-web-ever covering the stairs. Without preamble, she begins the acrobatics, flipping backward toward the stairs, and she dashes up from there. She can only hope the web can slow or hold them till she gets to the roof, but she throws up a webbed net on every flight of stairs, just in case, as she sprints up the stairs to the roof.

Tombstone has posed:
Zhao lets out a curse and yells out a order in Mandarin. Immediatey the Triads start charging up the stairs after them, only for three of them to get stuck on the webbed-up staircase. Zhao lets out a curse of anger as he, Andrew, and the unstuck Triads slowly made their way up the flights of stirs, trying not to get stuck. Though, it would take them awhile to get up to the top floor.

Indiana Jones has posed:
Indy looks over the edge of the roof. He can see the totaled Chinese SUV, but he can also see their Land Rover, which looks fairly unmarked.
It's been awhile since he dropped four floors in any circumstance, and the last one had been resulted in a sprung knee.
And...everyone seemed to be in the building now.
He looked to Cindy as she appeared. "We're gonna have to jump. I think it won't be too bad if we land on the grass near the Land Rover..."

Silk has posed:
"There's no time to argue," Cindy replies, and she reaches out for Indy's staff. "I need your hands free. Abandon your instincts, climb on, and just hang onto me on the count of three, okay? One--" And Cindy grabs Indy under one arm and jumps out toward the unharmed SUV, absorbing the shock of the landing with her knees. "Superhero landing! Now let's get outta here."

Tombstone has posed:
By the time Zhao and Andrew and their goons reached the roof, Cindy already jumped off, Zhao let out a swear as the Triads on the roof started to fire at the two fleeing figures.

Indiana Jones has posed:
Indy has enough time to realize he had been picked up as though he were a child, and then they were off the roof. He OOFs loudly as they hit the ground, but he is not idle on landing. He yanks open the door, tossing the staff into the back and yelling into the empty compartment, "Cindy! STAY DOWN!" as he leaps into the driver's seat. He turns the key, and the engine roars to life.
A moment later, the Land Rover is rolling with a few more bullet holes it arrived with...

Silk has posed:
"Ow, shit!" Cindy dives into the SUV with Indy. There is a slash in the shoulder of her suit. But if not for her senses, she'd have neither zigged nor zagged, and she'd have had an entry wound, not a slash. She slams the door. "THAT was close. Those guys have NO sense of adventure," she laments, rifling through the glove compartment. "Two out of ten stars."

Tombstone has posed:
Zhao lets out a series of swears as he watches the two get away, Tombstone was not gonna be happy if he found out. As Zhao walked back down the stairs, he finally noticed the rest of the boxes. Deciding to gather some possible loot to sell, Zhao and Andrew ordered the Triads to search the boxes. Eventually, they cleared out the frist box and were in the process of cleaning out the second one. As they cleared it, Zhao grabbed a slip of paper he found inside and read it. As he read it, he started to grin. He knew where Jones was going next.