7422/The Turn Card: Queen of Diamonds

The Turn Card: Queen of Diamonds
Date of Scene:	06 May 2019
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Summary needed
Cast of Characters:	China White, Green Arrow, Kid

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China White has posed:
China White had recently suffered a financial setback in one of her investments in Malaysia; a hotel had bottomed out on a stock of hard liquor, the divine stuff having performed poorly in its advertised capacity to entertain Australian tourists of the highest classes. The hotel had lost revenues, and she had an exceptional amount of Tennesse whiskey, shipped all the way from American distilleries, to dispose of.

Naturally, she had dealt with the culprits, with the harshest terms of disposal she could achieve in good sense. The sensuality of the act had left her as empty as the minor hole in her chequebook, and she found herself grinding her teeth that very night, tossing in silken white sheets beneath her palatial island estate's bedroom, the Pacific moon outside staring down like a gentle father that would love her only if she touched a man with a bloody caress.

As Chien Na Wei woke up that morning, she had elected to look through her carefully and compulsively organized list of vacation activities, before smiling softly as she selected a friend she had been meaning to visit.

In the Starfire Casino's high roller's lounge, she had politely requested, through an emissary, the signatory dealers on the arms deal in Starling City that Green Arrow had been investigating. The China White Triad had extended this invitation to them, to discuss an investment, with the promised backing of her Tong's investors overseas, the potentially interested parties to be named in the particular meeting, out of wire of snoops and potential government spies.

A cool black table was before the ivory clad princess executive, sitting in a plush brown-orange chair with her right leg crossed, a stereotypical fan held in her hand to please these foolish Canadian hicks. She had a glass cigarette in her left hand, marijuana with a tinge of high quality opium in the very tip, smoking as she stared down before the table of representatives the arms dealers had sent to the meeting.

Behind her, four men, all of them in black business suits, Chinese and muscular, each with a creme-white tie.

Green Arrow has posed:
With the dockyard shipment destroyed a few weeks back, leads had dried up. The computers on the ship had been wiped, and the perps had left on motorized lifeboats from the opposite end of the ship while Green Arrow, Arsenal and Kid were busy with the PMC thugs. They had won the battle, but had a serious setback in the war... with their only consolation prize being getting pictures of the faces of those leaving using electronic binoculars and lucky angles.

Now, public security camera facial recognition had pegged those involved in the dockyard deal as meeting in the Starfire Casino. He didn't have access to the security network in the Casino proper though... so Green Arrow needed to do a bit of prep work before he went in.

He had managed to stealth his way into the security room for the Casino using blind spots, with the occasional security guard dealt with silently and pulled into this room or another and locked inside. Now, he was running facial recognition in the security hub off a wrist mounted tablet computer. Green Arrow was not a hacker by any means... but he did have access to informants with a few well selected bribes out of the Queen Consolidated coffers. Now it was just a matter of confirming their location.

"In position. How's it going on your end?" Green Arrow asked of Kid as he worked. He had brought in 'Malcolm' once more for this. Both as backup, and to continue his evaluation.

Kid has posed:
Malcolms typical illusion thankfully had him blend in rather well in the Starfire Casino. He was a bit peeved that his meal...erm vict...ahem foes had gotten away. But thats life. He been spending the better part of the last few weeks training as it stood anyways, so all good.

Malcolm himself had re-rigged his comm-piece to work with signlanguage. Which he kept the use of secret via his illusions.. As such a synthetic voice soon replies to Green Arrow "Slow, but fine. Whoever running this gig though is big. The servers are nervouse, especially those comming and going from the upper floors of the lounge." he hadn't yet pinpointed where exactly they were comming from, but may perhaps give Arrow a clue as to which cams to look at first.

He kept rather casual as he kept studying the minds of those around, and signaling what he could. "And...they got more than normal secuirty here too. Let me see if I can get a proper reading" he reaches out to feel the mines of the people who felt the most nervouse, to see if they had any surface level memories he can relay to Arrow, such as kinds of guns being carried if they saw any, tattoos they may have seen on China White guards, or the people she is meeting with.

China White has posed:
China White's mind herself is somewhat obscured, thanks to the mixture of marijuana and opium she's on, inside a trance-state despite the submissive leg and hand positioning, the mount on the left hand of her narcotic removing potentially imprinting psychological addictive behavior from an already biochemically addictive pair of substances. She's positioned herself this way to appear as if she's being led by the other individuals at the tables, while devoting a minimum of focus to their discussion with her. She is an exceptionally sharp individual, however, her mind giving the image of a monstrous predator with delusions of sexual domination of every victim of her empire, particularly the heroin addicts. Despite her high opinion of herself as a lady of power and sophistication, she appears to be a fascist leader in the vein of the Third Reich, merely with a bit of theater as diminishing herself with a secret insult, that being the traditional maiden's fan.

The four Triads, meanwhile, are her advisors, doing the real listening and consideration, each one with a deliberate role in the discussions as mnemonic reporters for later business. A finance shell expert, a logistics expert, a personnel evaluation expert, and the most important, a forensics profiling savante knowledgeable about social interconnections, monitoring the entire group.

"So, gentleman, shall we begin?" China White asks, with a slim smile. "I represent an interest in Mumbai, affiliated with the illustrious Konkani organization there, that wishes to supply you with financial backing in the form of petrodollars from the transition of oil between Russian oilfields and the Indian Ocean, taxed from companies in Afghanistan my benefactor owns shares in. Their reasons are as simple as wishing to see the outcome of your measures, for sporting purposes. My own stake at brokering this deal into position, is personal, but may amuse you, as acquainting myself with the legendary Green Arrow."

Her thick eyelashes lower. "I do admire a man with who shrouds his crown in shade."

Green Arrow has posed:
Once he knew where to focus, it was easy to tag them. It did introduce a new wrinkle though. Brown eyes squint just slightly behind the white lenses of his domino mask, and Green Arrow zooms the camera in on China White to confirm his suspicions.

Yep... that was her all right. It's been years... a little more than a decade, even, but he remembers.

"This just got a lot more complicated. There's a power junction in the basement, I need you to shut down the building and hit the fire alarm to get people to evacuate. The situation just changed immensely." Green Arrow frowns as he disconnects from the security hub, sets the cameras on loops, and moves next to the security hub door. "Whenever you're ready."

Kid has posed:
Malcolm responds back "Complicated eh? Well, I can beleive it. There some lady in there whose almost as monsterous and predatory as me. But only almost" wait...was he ready to challenge that lady? Somethings just do not change. None the less, it was simple enough request from Green Arrow none the less. "Oh and careful, they got a forensive profiler and social megamind on hand. I do not recommond using your usual tactics if your wanting to keep yourself secret"

And with that, Kid does what he does best. Cause a bit of Mayhem...in a relatively safe manner. Relative being the keyword here. He seems to virtually dissappear and make his way a fire alarm....and pulls it. But this pulling of the alarm is followed by the sound of explosions, a wave of rising heat, and the flickering flames of fire. A fire alarm without a fire was bound to seen as a false alarm Kid thought. So he decided to make his own illusionary fire, with all the works...well most. He can't actually burn people.

China White has posed:
As alarms go off and there are explosions, the arms dealers rushing to their feet and the Triad monitors looking between each other, China White raises her fan to hide a soft, benevolent smile.

"It appears that tonight's entertainment has arrived."

There's a snap as she closes her fan and uncrosses her legs, flowing to her feet atop her soft white sneakers, her one concession to Western vanity. The fan is allowed to shift about across her palm and beneath her thumb, before she slides it into a slip on her hip for later use, held in exact position by the jaunty angle she employs. She sets the glass cigarette down on the table, smoke pluming from it.

She speaks in Chinese to her entourage as the arms dealer envoys scatter out of the lounge and towards the casino floor below.

One of them, the logistics expert, reaches into his jacket for a pearl-handled knife, before the four of them draw pistols, each one an expensive semi-automatic pistol with pearl inlay along either side of the grip.

China White grins, bending her knees and then jumping onto the table, flicking her knife into a fore and down position, up and down, to keep herself focused while she awaits the incoming interference.

Green Arrow has posed:
"Sounds about right." Is all Green Arrow vaguely states as he waits for it...

When the alarm hits, he's already in the hallway, pulling a couple smoke arrows from his quiver and setting them off as he goes to give the illusion of an actual fire.

He doesn't know about the illusionary fire... but they at least add to the effect.

He tosses the arrows into the main floor, then nooks and fires a grapnel arrow into the rafters on the roof. Locking the end onto his belt, Green Arrow pulls himself up and into the darkness above, balancing along a beam as he heads for the high roller section.

"Head up to the High Roller area and give me as big a distraction as you can. I need to make a private chat with someone and I'd prefer no interference." Green Arrow requests over the commlink as he works on getting eyes on China White.

Kid has posed:
"Got it" is Malcolms short response. With people already scattering to leave the building, Kid headed in the opposite direction. He quickly began to ascend the stairs up to the High Roller Lounge. But as for distraction? That may be a bit harder.

Especially as he sees that the envoy of dealers making for...well him, as they wanted to reach the Casino floor. Seems it was time for a head to head battle as he blocks their path, ready to take them on.

Well not really, he wasn't about to stand infront of a bunch of gun-toting trigger happy low life scum. He just has an illusion do that as he tries to carefully get around them.

China White has posed:
China White strolls across the table, from one end to the middle, her hips cocking to one direction with every other step, fighting dagger in her hand at her side as she toys with it. A saccharine smirk curves to the left of her mouth, the visible side of her face not hidden by her peroxide white hair. The Triads meanwhile, stay behind her at the end of the table, pistols ready, in case Green Arrow has assistance.

The arms dealers fleeing in Kid's direction haven't drawn weapons, but the envoys crash around him, not threatening him and more concerned with escaping. In the chaos of the panicking casino and the security guards organizing an evacuation in as orderly a manner as possible, they seek to blend in and make an easy escape.

Green Arrow has posed:
Once he's just above the room where China is, Green Arrow jumps off the beam and lands silently on the roof... before taking the grapnel arrow from before, angling it just parallel to a window, and launching it so he can use it for a 'bungie jump'.

Within moments, he's hooked into it once again and flips himself upside down as he walks down the wall... and just at the edge of the window.

Net arrows are fired in rapid succession through the window as Green Arrow seeks to take her bodyguards out of the situation for a minute or two, glass breaking from the kinetic force.

Kid has posed:
Evidently there wasn't much to distract if they were all yellow-belly cowards. But this also worked in Malcolm favor. He keeps an eye out to see if any secruity would try and check in on the lounge, those would be his primary targets since Arrow wanted some alone time. But he does give the warning "Your going to have armed men along with Ms.Trigger in there"

And part two of why this is helpful for him is that Kid...tries to snatch up one of the envoy folks. To bring them into an illusion that would make them dissappear with Kid. Hopefully if the man doesn't react fast enough, he can drain him and gain additional infomation...and if not. Welp time to fight!

China White has posed:
China White's visible eye lids a heavy frost-white lash, as she smiles with pleasure.

"The Green Arrow," she murmurs melodically, watching as Arrow jumps into the meeting parlor. "It is quite the pleasure for me, to finally see what a fine shaft of wood I have crafted."

There's a rapid jolt forward and she plants onto her left hand, white boots flipping up, before she lands on the floor at the edge of the the table in a knee-up crouch, knife down and ready, before she slowly rises.

Musical laughter, then the question, "Do you remember me?"

Green Arrow has posed:
"I know of you." Green Arrow offers in reply, vaguely. His compound bow remains in idle position, with an arrow nooked as he stands and turns to China, "What are you doing here? I thought you were busy with the pacific and US wester coast. Getting greedy enough to bring your business to my city?"

China White has posed:
China White tips her chin upwards at the accusation of green. "Greed?"

Her chin lowers as she walks towards Green Arrow in a Baguazhang circle, her flow and shift setting Green Arrow's back against the corner of the portal that he bungee jumped in through.

"Perhaps for the carnal mind, Green Arrow. I have found myself in need of..." Her teeth show on the side of her grinning face, a line forming in her puckering cheek. "Release?"

Her hand swings around as she spins about, her flashing peroxide white hair covering the flip of her hand up as she throws her fighting dagger, before she rights herself and returns to a posture facing Green Arrow, from the side, her posture narrowly facing Oliver Queen, across her bosom, her left arm down and in a fist, her right arm on her hip.

The dagger, meanwhile, goes twisting through the air in a diagonal tense, aimed to catch him backwards against the corner of the doorway as a pressed probe.

Green Arrow has posed:
The arrow is immediately brought up and sent directly against that dagger, sending it off course into the wall to his right as he perfectly angles the hit.

"You like euphemisms, do you?" Green Arrow quips, "how about this one: I need another player like I need an ulcer."

Another arrow is constructed in his mechanical quiver, and nooked, "Too many sycophants, looking for a real man?"

China White has posed:
"You call me a British whore?" comes a low grind from the woman's throat.

"A real man never comes, if one is a real woman. A real man, meanwhile, always finds a real woman as a student, not a bride."

China White takes two steps forward and then a third, bending on her knee, before she leaps up and forward in a deep, bounding lunge upwards, above the bow-line. She grabs the rafter's diagonal line with a hand and swings at an extreme angle, sending her legs flying at Green Arrow with a brutal flying front kick as her bright white leg is sent swinging up at Green Arrow's chin from barely below, silent and graceful, before a heavy fall on the ground on her remaining foot.

Green Arrow has posed:
"I call you greedy." Green Arrow shoots back, "because you have control of illegal trade from China to the US west... and yet you're coming here to expand, where you know I'd be willing to expel you from my city."

As she rushes forward, Green Arrow transitions his bow into a staff, dodging to the left out of the way of the attempted assault into a roll, before he catches the legs in both hands, redirecting it away from his chin as she adjusts.

"Whether you're a whore or not is really up to your clients, I think." Green Arrow quips back.

China White has posed:
Chien Na Wei's bounding front kick is avoided and caught in such a way that she pivots around with a violent spin and is caught falling to the ground, her leg twisted and clenched between Green Arrow's hands.

Her white hair flushed across her face and her mouth grimaced, but then grinning widely, looks up at Queen from the ground, her hands splayed across the ground, showing her white, pointed fingernails.

"Perhaps you do not understand your predicament, Green Arrow, but you find it unimportant."

"I strongly concur, however that does not change our dance, does it not?"

She flashes her hand across the range between them as she spins to pull in the direction of Green Arrow's grasp, a flash of viscous white aerosol flashing cross the distance between them, broken from a glass capsule procured from a band beneath her left sleeve.

Green Arrow has posed:
Dealing with aerosol agents is nothing new for Green Arrow... but it never gets any easier.

When the poison is tossed directly into his face, there's a loud "ARGH!" from Green Arrow... which the voice mask distorts pretty heavily so it sounds almost underwater.

Luckily for Green Arrow, drawing and nooking arrows is basically instinct now, and immediately he's dodging out of the way again, this time towards the window, as he makes a break for it. Having a good picture of the room in his mind, he's making a mad dash for the window blindly even as his staff transitions back into a compound bow at the same time a flash arrow is constructed.

By the time he dives right through the window, he's turning in place so that he can fire the flash arrow right into the window frame. He's already basically blind, so staring directly into the flash isn't going to do much more damage to him...

But China can't say the same thing.

By the time the arrow goes off, Green Arrow has landed on his back in the smoke on the ground floor, the air knocked out of his lungs by the impact.

It's gonna be a moment for him to recover.

China White has posed:
China White and her trio of Triads are blinded, grunting. China White stumbles to her feet, at first gracelessly, but then swooping up with a toss of her head and a draw of her right arm across her face and then pulling her hair proper with her fingers.

The three Triads gather around her, after their vision is restored.

"The Green Arrow does not disappoint. Although his will to fight needs work." She looks at one of her minions, a broad smile on her face. "Perhaps I can inspire his blood to draw mine?"

She turns about, sashaying out with the one-hip cock every other step. Her men follow.

"Blood mixing blood is always the finest lover's bond."