"Dragon Menacing"
by:
Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD
The Benevolent one strode inside his pleasure palace with a handful of his most trusted guards and was instantly displeased by the presence of someone else occupying his favorite couch. The man was well dressed in a tailor made suit of blue and black , his skin was light brown and he had closely cropped hair that hinted of silver on one side.His long legs were stretched on the expensive Italian couch. He found that odd more odd than the presence of someone in the same room that he was. The man smiled when he noticed him.
"Ah. I was wondering when you would arrive." The man spoke almost in a low growl both enticing and menacing at the same time as if he was being patient for awhile.
"Before I have my guards shoot you , tell me who you are.Or they can beat that information out of you and then shoot you. Your choice."The Benevolent One took out a hand rolled Cuban cigar from out of his coat pocket which one of his guards instantly lit. He took a long satisfied drag and savored the flavor."So what will it be stranger?"
The stranger audibly sighed and stood on his long legs. Fixed his sleeves and looked directly at the dictator who at this distance only seemed to reach his armpits in height. Then the stranger smiled.
"What do you think is so funny? Are you not afraid to die?"
"I was just remembering that your grand father and father threatened me with the same thing when I met them for the first time too. Is this some sort of family script?"
"You knew them?" The Benevolent one asked he found this man oddly interesting. "You look like you are my age.So how can you know the old men?"
"Believe me when I say that I am far older than anyone in this room. I am V. My full name would be difficult for you to pronounce so simply call me V."
"Ok V. Now that that is out of the way. All I need to know is why the hell you are here?" The guards aimed their guns at the unarmed V with a slight signal from the man.
"What power do you want me to demonstrate?"
"I am sorry. You said you wanted to demonstrate your power to me? Me? The Benevolent one? Shoot him."
The guards opened fire.Releasing whole clips at the man who stood there calmly and with an open palm facing toward them stopped the bullets in mid air.
"Just like Neo!" The benevolent one exclaimed and he coughed when he choked on his cigar smoke. The bullets dropped to the marbled floor.
"Where do you think they derive their inspiration from? Now. Since you do not have the same sense as those elders of yours let me show you something." With a wave of his hand , people started appearing by the dozens around the dictator until he was completely surrounded by men in lab coats , Hazmat suits and security officers.
"Who are these people?" The guards formed a protective wall around their leader and radioed for back up.
"Wait for it." V said and he closed his hand into a tight fist. The ground shook and there was the sound of the crowds collective screams at the sudden quake.
The dictator ran to his balcony and saw smoke rising from a few miles south of his pleasure palace.
"The Wongdang Complex!" The little man lost his temper and flew into a rage knowing that billions worth of plutonium and nuclear research had just gone up in flames in his most advanced research complex. "You!"
V tilted his head. He ran toward the screaming man and lifted him to the air as he flew upward.
The dictator screamed and flailed his arms but V had an iron grip on his coat.
"Now do you know who I am?"
"You are V. What do you want from me?"
"Good. I am glad that you are willing to listen now."
The wind howled as V went higher and higher. With a slight lean of his head V pointed South of where they were.
"I live there now. So I would appreciate it if you just use your words towards your southern neighbors from now on. If I even see a stray soldier over the demilitarized zone or even any hints of covert weapons amassing on the border I just might come back here and who knows , my arms might get tired and drop you from a much higher height than this. Now nod if you understand."
The small man nodded.
"Now there you see? It wasn't so hard. I would let you be for now. Set your eyes towards something else maybe do something about this famine that has been ravaging your people. Far be it from me to meddle though. I just want us to have an understanding."
"You have my word."
"We both know your words mean nothing. Make sure that they remain so." V growled in the other mans ear.
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CIA headquarters , somewhere North of Seoul.
"Colonel you need to see this sir."
"What is it?"
"The North Koreans have detonated something huge sir. Something underground."
"Have someone confirm it with the global sats."
"Right away. There is something else sir."
"What?"
"Those troop movements we observed the previous month."
"What about them?"
"They seem to be moving toward the border to China."
"That doesn't make any sense."
"That seems to be their movements sir."
The Colonel scratched his head and looked bewildered at his specialist.One moment you have something bad about to happen and then that bad bubble just burst without any explanation. It can't be that simple.
"Global sat picked up one more thing sir." The specialist brought something on his screen and it appeared to be two men floating in the air. One seemed to be desperately holding on to the other while one had an amused look on his face.
"If this is some computer photoshop trick , I really don't appreciate it Lt."
"This is the high res image we picked up as the global sat passed through going to the Wongdang complex."
The Colonel recognized the bald man smiling toward the passing satellite and it dawned on him , he knew who it was that was in the picture.He had done this with previous Nor Kor leaders.
Almost decades apart. The Colonel was a young man when they first saw him.
"That asshole has done it again."
"I am sorry sir." The Lt. asked not sure of what his superior officer was alluding to.
"That asshole in the photo is a being called V. He appears once in a couple of decades and does this. Look at him. He smiled directly at the global sat pass. He knew exactly where he was looking at. And that poor sap he is carrying. That is the Benevolent One. I am sure when it comes to menacing something V just made one hell of an impression."
"What are your orders sir?"
"Send this to the Pentagon. Let the higher ups decide what they want to do with Nor Kor and V but if you ask me that man is a hero. Expect a lot of tough talk from the Benevolent One starting tomorrow but that is all it is going to be. Stand down from red alert and compile a report."
"Aye Sir."
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Teleporting from North Korea was easy only he felt guilty that he had to use his powers this way but if he wanted to be on time before she arrived he just had to do it. The house was still empty and he longed to have her fill it with her voice and her laughter. In all his centuries of being alone he did not mind the silence but now silence meant that she was not around and he felt alone.
V ran his hand toward through his head making the hair on it grow and the silver streak on it to fade to black. He had taken off his clothes and lowered himself into the warm waters of the jacuzzi , the heat relaxed him and he began to doze off only to be awakened by a kiss on his cheek.
"Did you wait for me long?" YuuA said as she began undressing and joined V in the warm waters.She felt happy that she could do that in the privacy of this house they shared. "Today's practice was hard! Binmi tripped on herself and Linnie got mad at Bee for being overbearing."
"Is Binmi ok though? I know how those two fight. They would be much better after they have rested. Or in Bee's case after a lot of Jinyo's cooking."
YuuA laughed and her eyes crinkled into small spots which showed her amusement. Bee was her best friend and she knew that more than anyone but even if V was just around them for a short while he seemed to have gotten everyone else personalities. As expected with someone with pattern detection skills.
"Hyosin and Seunsee accompanied Binmi to Moon Rae Hospital. Dr. Moon Rae seems to be very fond of Binmi. Did you know that they went out to see a movie the other week?"
"She always wanted to have a kid and I guess Binmi reminds her of that. I guess Binmi also loves the motherly attention. You want me to call her so I can follow up if everything is ok?"
V said as he began to stand from the water. YuuA held him down with one hand.
"Maybe later. You know me. I want you all to myself when I am here." She gripped his muscular arms and smiled but this one had a hint of what she was after.
"No arguments from me there.Are you hungry?You want to have some dinner?"
"I want you for dinner."
V closed the gap between them and when their lips locked all time seemed to stop.
