Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu #6 - Seeking the Target - the conclusion!

Shang-Chi wondered if this was how Bruce Banner felt when he was the Hulk.

The four Hand ninjas had charged him with full intent to kill him, even though he wore Iron Man's armor. He had found it in a Bain Electronics lab while trying to escape their Hong Kong headquarters before he could be killed, or worse, captured and kept in a medical coma for his blood and the elixir vitae than ran through it. Tony Stark, communicating with Shang-Chi through a cybernetic link between his armor's helmet and his laptop computer, had instructed Shang-Chi on how to put on the armor. Shang-Chi was surprised at how much of the armor assembled itself. He'd completed it just in time for Sunset Bain's hired guards, the Beetle and Bullseye, to come into the lab with four Hand ninjas. Shang-Chi had unintentionally blasted the Beetle through a wall when he shifted into a combat stance at their arrival. The gauntlets on his hands shot hot beams of power into the Beetle's chest and she had yet to emerge from the hole in the wall.

The ninjas attacked after he put on the helmet. Their swords, nunchaku, and spears all broke on the armor like twigs. Shang-Chi swung a backfist at one of the ninjas, but it felt like swinging a tree trunk. The ninja easily ducked the blow and kicked hard to the back of Shang-Chi's right knee. The blow didn't hurt him, but the strange feel of the armor had Shang-Chi off balance and he went down to one knee.

Another ninja seized his left arm and tried to yank the gauntlet off his hand. The third smashed an office chair across his chest. The fourth was behind him and trying to tear off his helmet. The first drew a dagger from his belt, stepped in front of him, and aimed for the left eye slit in the helmet.

"Shang-Chi!" Tony Stark yelled through the helmet and from the safety of his luxurious hotel room. "Open your left hand and flex your wrist!"

He did, and the ninja trying to remove his gauntlet was blasted across the room in a burst of white light. He hit the wall and dissolved into a pile of black ashes. The ninja in front of him thrust with his dagger, but Shang-Chi caught his wrist. He twisted the man's arm for a wrist lock throw, but unintenionally tore the man's arm from the shoulder. The ninja dropped to the ground in agony as the third, yelling with rage, kicked Shang-Chi in the face and shattered his leg in the process. Shang-Chi reached up to grab the ninja behind him and through him across the room and at Bullseye, who calmly side-stepped and let the man plow through two computer work stations.

Shang-Chi stood up and looked at his armored hands. He couldn't believe the power the armor gave him. He thought of the thrill Bruce Banner must feel, even if only for a few seconds, upon changing to the Hulk, or how Tony Stark must feel when wearing it. He was glad such men walked noble paths.

His self-reflection was interruped by the Beetle flying across the room and driving her knee into his face.

Shang-Chi tumbled and slid across the lab and through a men's room door, knocking it off the hinges. His vision was blurred from being bounced around in the armor, which was a little bit big on him even though it had adapted itself to fit his body. He got up to one knee and looked back to see the Beetle punch him across the face. The sound of her armored hand clanging with his helmet was as bad as the impact. Shang-Chi knew the blow would've cleaved his head from his body if he hadn't been wearing the Iron Man armor. Even still, it felt like he'd taken a punch from a heavyweight boxer. The punch knocked him to his hands and knees and opened his right side for a sharp snap kick that launched him into the wall of hand dryers.

"Where's all that Jackie Chan bull$#!+ now?" The Beetle asked as she blasted Shang-Chi in the chest with a surge of armor-generated lightning.

Shang-Chi cried out in pain as his muscles tightened and the armor's sensors went haywire and screamed in his ears. The Beetle ripped a sink from the wall and shattered it across his face. She picked him up by the throat and held him against the wall. She raised her left fist and her gauntlet clicked and whirred as a bright, humming blow torch popped out of the bottom of her wrist and into her hand.

"I'll cut you out of that tin can,." she said. "I just wish Stark was here to see this."

"I am," Tony said through the helmet.

The Beetle paused before bringing the blow torch to Shang-Chi's throat. It was enough time for Tony to say, "Right shoulder counter-measure one."

A small port opened atop Shang-Chi's right shoulder and fired a small star-shaped object into the Beetle's chest. She and Shang-Chi looked at it in curiosity until it exploded and sent them both through opposite walls.

Shang-Chi sat up and realized he was a large break room and had destroyed the refrigerator with his impact. He stood on wobbly legs and braced himself on a table.

"How do you fight in this, Tony?" Shang-Chi asked.

"Think of it like a nice-fitting Armani," Tony said.

"I have never worn such a thing."

"How about sparring gear? Boxing gloves and things like that. Think of it like that."

The analogy made sense. He'd worn such things when sparring with friends like Iron Fist and Captain America. He knew his kicking and trapping hands would be limited by the armor, but his long arm techniques and small footwork patterns would not.

He heard the buzz of the Beetle's wings as he turned. She flew into the room and he picked up the table and swung it like a staff to knock her out of the air. He ran across the room as she stood and rammed her with his shoulder. The impact sent her into a soda machine, but she pulled herself from it with surprising speed. She swung a backfist at Shang-Chi, who blocked the blow and then drove a hammerfist to her kidney. She buckled as Shang-Chi drove another Hung Gar style hammer blow into her face.

The Beetle's head bounced off the kitchenette counter, and she stumbled at him with a wicked blade that had sprung from the side of her right gauntlet. Shang-Chi dodged the thrust and punched her in the back of the head. She swung a follow-up backhand slice slow enough for a beginner student to block. He stopped it with one hand and struck her in the kidney again with a palm strike. The gauntlet shot her with a point-blank blast of energy at the same time. Shang-Chi heard the breath leave her. He wrenched her elbow and held her arm locked straight so he could pull her into a knee strike before she could catch a breath. He stomped her right foot and felt her instep break, even through their armored boots. He drove a Wing Chun spade palm to her face and fired another point-blank repulsor blast to her jaw. She went limp and collapsed to the floor.

"Did you kill her?" Tony Stark asked through the helmet.

"I hope not," Shang-Chi said.

"Put your hand on her chest."

Shang-Chi kneeled and tried to feel her heartbeat or rising chest through her armor. He heard more beeps and whirrs in the helmet and saw a dazzling display of words and graphics in front of his eyes. He didn't know what to make of any of it.

"She's alive," Tony said. "Just out cold. Broken foot, bruised kidney, cracked rib, minor elbow tendon tear, dislodged tooth."

Shang-Chi heard clapping behind him. He turned to see Bullseye leaning against the cracked kitchenette counter. He finished applauding and went back to munching on food he'd salvaged from the broken refigerator.

Shang-Chi stood. "Will you come peacefully?"

"Why should I do that?" Bullseye asked.

"I was asked to bring you back to SHIELD."

Bullseye shook his head as he began peeling an orange. "No. You were asked to bring back this."

He reached into his shirt and pulled out a vial of blood on a leather cord around his neck.

"How do I know that is your blood?"

"I'm sure Stark's armor can test it, Shang-Chi." He stuffed the vial back into his shirt. "All you have to do is take it from me."

"Tony, how do I take off the armor?" Shang-Chi whispered inside the helmet.

"Are you nuts?" Tony asked.

"There is less chance of the vial breaking if I defeat him without it."

"You can shoot him with a high frequency sound wave to paralyze him. It's easy. Just - "

"You do not use a cannon to kill a mosquito. I am taking off the helmet now."

"Wait, wait, wait," Tony said. "SHIELD agents are coming, Shang-Chi. There's no reason to fight him."

"How long until they are here?"

"ETA is two minutes. They'll land on the roof and - "

Shang-Chi removed the helmet. He worked backwards through the instructions Tony had given him for assembling it. The armor did most of the work and even folded itself into a pile on the floor.

Shang-Chi rolled his shoulders and loosened his neck. "We have two minutes," he said, and then the orange hit him in the face. He stumbled back and wiped his face in time to see the fork, can of Coca-Cola, and open bottle of siracha sauce flying at him.

He dodged the fork, which flew so close to his face that he could see that it only had three tines. He punched the Coke can out of the air, but the siracha bottle struck him in the neck and splashed hot pepper sauce onto the right side of his face. His right eye slammed shut and he coughed from the sauce in his mouth and nose.

Bullseye sidekicked him in the ribs and sent Shang-Chi across a table. Shang-Chi used a chair to get to his feet as Bullseye threw two plates at him. The plates shattered on the tabletop and peppered Shang-Chi with ceramic shards. Shang-Chi felt the pieces bite into his chest and arms and then the impact of Bullseye's foot across his face as the assassin vaulted the table and hit him with another sidekick.

Bullseye landed, spun, and backfisted Shang-Chi across the face. He followed up with a diagonal hook to the ribs and then threw Shang-Chi over the table and back into the open area of the room. He picked up a piece of broken plate and flicked it into Shang-Chi's shoulder blade before he could stand.

Shang-Chi looked back with his good eye and saw Bullseye reaching for the fork stuck in the wall behind him. He could've grabbed it while he had him on the other side of the table, so why wait until now to reach for the weapon? Shang-Chi then realized Bullseye wanted him at a farther range to best utilize his near-supernatural aim and throwing ability. He needed to bridge the gap and make Bullseye play a different game.

He ran for the table and dove under it just before Bullseye threw the fork. He dropkicked Bullseye's legs and sent him crashing hard onto the table. Shang-Chi stood, grabbed Bullseye by the back of his shirt, and slammed him into the wall. The assassin swung a wide, sloppy right hook that Shang-Chi could see coming even with only one open eye. He slapped Bullseye's bicep to stop the blow and then grabbed the back of his head to keep him close while he unloaed a blast of straight punches to Bulleye's face. Bullseye managed to swat away the arm holding his head before his cheek bone was crushed, but Shang-Chi slid his hand down Bullseye's arm, grabbed his right index finger, and jerked it into a painful fingerlock. Bullseye buckled enough for Shang-Chi to knee him in the face, finishing the job on his cheekbone. Shang-Chi popped Bullseye's finger out of socket and then slammed the man's head sideways into the wall.

He took the vial from Bullseye's unconscious body as Natasha "the Black Widow" Romanov burst into the room with a gun in each hand and four heavily armed SHIELD agents behind her.

"Oh my God!" She said as she ran up to him. "He's been shot! Get a medic in here right now!"

Shang-Chi smiled as he wiped siracha sauce from his face and stuck his finger in Natasha's mouth. She was repulsed, then puzzled, then surprised, and then coughing.

"Hot sauce," Shang-Chi said. "Good on eggs. Someone should look after him." He pointed at Bullseye.

"Who's that?" Natasha asked.

Shang-Chi gave her the vial. "A product of this."

"Bullseye?" Natasha turned to the SHIELD agents. "Take him into custody."

"He has committed no crime, Natasha."

"He's a psychopath."

"He has come around once more on the wheel of life. He should be given an opportunity to wash away his bad karma."

"He's involved in the deaths of the people at the facility where the Hand stole his blood."

"No, he was not. He was not even alive."

Natasha stood open-mouthed for a moment before she chuckled. "I guess you're right, but we are taking him in for questioning about Sunset Bain. She's long gone and ran a program before she left that destroyed any electronic evidence we might have found."

"And the Beetle?"

"Stark's trying to track her through heat signatures from her armor...or something." She holstered her guns as the SHIELD agents carried Bullseye and the Iron Man armor from the room. "This has been one crazy mess. I think I'm going back to the hotel for a massage."

"I know a better place," Shang-Chi said.

*****

The blood turned out to be Bullseye's, so Tony Stark bought the fishing village of Yang-Tin four new fishing boats complete with the latest fishing gear and sonar fish finders. He also brought in engineers to help with the irrigation systems from the renewed river he'd helped unleashed during his first meeting with Shang-Chi in the village. He didn't show up in the armor. A lot of press members were there and he wanted the unveiling of the boats and irrigation system to be more about the village than Iron Man. He wanted to give Shang-Chi a gift, but had no idea what the martial arts master would want or need, so he decided to invite him to dinner on his rented yacht to watch the fireworks show he'd arranged for that night.

Tony walked up to Shang-Chi's simple one-bedroom house and was about to knock when he heard a scream from inside, and then another, and then a woman yell, "No! Stop! Stop!"

Tony pulled a sonic pulse gun from his sports coat pocket and rammed the front door open with his shoulder. He then stood slack-jawed in the doorway.

Shang-Chi, without a stitch of clothes on him, was nuzzling the back of the Black Widow's neck and playfully tickling her. She was as nude as him and laughing and swatting at his hands and telling him to stop before she fell off Shang-Chi's massage table. They saw Tony in the doorway and stopped just before Shang-Chi's hand drifted south of Natasha's hips. Natasha yelped and then yanked a silk sheet over her oiled body. Shang-Chi, who never understood why anyone found any nude body shocking, blushed for a moment, but didn't bother to get dressed.

"Hello, Tony," he said.

Tony Stark put away the sonic pulse gun. "I'm not leaving here until you teach me that behind-the-ear thing."

END

I love how you managed to bring the story full circle, at least for me, by bringing the Hulk back up. You certainly captured the Kung Fu secret agent genre of so many fun movies, which I assume was intentional.

Extremely invigorating read. It really brings back the spirit of the old kung fu comics. I haven't read anything this good since they did the old Iron fist comics.