Park near G-Corporation

[White Tiger]

It was a beautiful day and Julia went to the park nearby G-Corporation to eat her lunch. She loved the place since there were many trees and squirrels and birds... The peaceful and lovely nature among the urban area... From among the tree tops, she could clearly see the top of G-Corporation and the blue sky.


So, as always, Julia came here to eat but she was also here for something else since she was waiting for someone, a friend she had met in a previous tournament, Zakk Lei, the son of Lei Wulong, who was also working for Interpol like his father. She was really taking risks with her job since she was supplying both Lee Chaolan and Zakk Lei (or Lei Zakk) with informations about G-Corporation... But she had to do it, she couldn't let the corruption, Kazuya was doing, going on. Beside, she knew she had the protection of those friends if anything went wrong... and she had her fists... 

Yet she didn't dare tell her mother about any of this since she feared Michelle would get really worried and probably come here to bring her back home... So she was always telling Michelle that everything was fine, everyone was kind, etc... 

Now waiting for her friend, Julia had chosen a quite discreet spot to eat and not get noticed by too many co workers, even if most were eating at the cafeteria. But mostly to not get noticed by the G-Corp security guards either...

[Lei Wulong]

Zakk arrived at the designated spot, bringing his own lunch, fish and chips, as he takes a seat next to Julia.  After his failure to capture his cousin, he decided to go meet with Julia for some lunch.  It was a tough day.  And he wanted to speak to his friend.

Ever since that incident at ICPO, Zakk has been cracking down on Kazuya and G-Corporation.  He found out through the grapevine that Kazuya was planning on taking out his father.  Simply because Lei had been sneaking and nosing his way around G-Corporation's true intentions and motives.

"It's actually a nice day outside, don't you agree?"

[White Tiger]

"Hi, Zakk. Indeed it couldn't get better..."

She suddenly smelled the odor coming from Zakk's lunch.

"Your lunch smells good! Hum... Fish and chips... I only have a sandwich..."

She then added: 

"So, how are you doing? And your family?"

[Lei Wulong]

Zakk smiled. 'Want some?". He asked, politely sharing his food.

Then when Julia asked about his family, all he could say is, "Doing well, as per usual. Well, Pops is on stress leave due to the attack on ICPO. We lost a handful of good men that day...". Zakk sighed, but he knew Julia probably didn't want to hear that. "But he's hanging in there."

[White Tiger]

Seeing how Zakk offered her some of his lunch, Julia smiled and said:

"No, thank you. Your lunch smells better but my sandwich is still tasty."

Julia was listening to Zakk when a giant ray came from the sky and fell on the G-Corporation tower. The giant building exploded and for the first seconds, Julia didn't think it was real but the horrible thundering sound and shaking of the earth as the tower was crumbling made it clearly real. Now under complete shock, Julia began to think about her co-workers still inside the building, many were her friends... Tears formed in her eyes as she began to cry and panic. 

"Oh God! What is that?!"

Still under the shock, she got up and walked some steps toward the corporation before she began to run toward it in panic. She was fighting against her boss Kazuya, but the corporation itself was not completely evil, they were making so many advancement in technology... And mostly, so many were her friends... 

---

Meanwhile Paul, Steve and Xianlong were walking toward the G-Corporation when the tower exploded. Paul stopped and gazed at it in horror, muttering: 

"What the f***..."

[Lei Wulong]

Instinctively, Zakk threw his jacket over Julia to protect her from the dust that came from the rubble.  Just as the building collapsed, Zakk could only think of all the poor people who were inside the building.  It had to have been Heihachi.  Zakk knew he was still alive.  Once things got cleared, he saw Julia run toward the building.

"Julia, wait up!"  Zakk shouted.  "I'm coming with you!"

---

Xianlong and Steve both watched the destruction of the building.  Xianlong couldn't help but look on in confusion.

"Yóu bu xiǔ..." by the Gods... She muttered in her native tongue.

"Bollucks." That was all Steve said.  "Perhaps Heihachi was alive after all..."

[White Tiger]

"Julia, wait up! I'm coming with you!"


Blinded by the dust and her tears and deafened by sadness and worries for her co-workers, Julia couldn’t really hear what Zakk was yelling to her. Despite not wanting to see all the carnage and death done with that horrible collapse, she had to run toward the place and see if anyone had survived… So she kept running, never slowing down, not feeling the tiredness that came after a while. Yet after a while, the breathing became unbearable so she took her own jacket and put it over her face before she continued running as far as she could before the dust was too tight to see through. There Julia fell on her knees and began to cry and sob, completely covered by the white dust.

---

Paul heard what his friends said. He didn’t understand Xianlong at all but what Steve said, made sense… Kazuya was probably in that tower, Heihachi hated him… But why pretend to be dead to fire on his son? Paul couldn’t really make sense of this but right now it wasn’t really important. He didn’t know what he could do, he was no medical worker yet he had to go see if anyone could be saved or needed help. Maybe he could take away some rubble to save someone or take some wounded person to safety… So covering his mouth and nose with his jacket, he began to run toward the place.

[Lei Wulong]

Zakk ran and continued to follow Julia. He tried following her the best he could but the dust made traveling difficult. After wandering around a bit, Zakk finally caught up with Julia, standing and watching as she cried. It was a sad day indeed. Very sad.

Not sure what to do, Zakk decided to try and comfort Julia by crouching and placing his hand on her shoulder.

"Listen to me, Julia, we need to carry on. I am sure that there are some survivors..." He wasn't really good at this. "And we're going to find them. And we will bring the Mishima family to justice!"

For one of Hong-Kong's greatest detectives, Zakk wasn't the greatest at cheering people up. He didn't know what to do, but he didn't want Julia to be so sad.

---

Xianlong watched as Paul ran towards the rubble. Steve saw what Paul was doing and did the same, using his strength to help the victims.

Xianlong stood there confused as she then watched as several emergency vehicles arrived on scene.

[White Tiger]

Spirits, give me strength…

Normally when Julia felt sad, she liked to call on Mother Earth to help her. Somehow the serene nature always calmed her and made her feel better. But right now, there was no nature around. Julia knew there was supposed to be trees around here, but with the dust everywhere, she just couldn’t see them… The only thing helping was Zakk, standing beside her. So needing much encouragement to only remain sane, she grabbed his shirt and held on to him while crying.


"Listen to me, Julia, we need to carry on. I am sure that there are some survivors..."


Yes… Survivors… She had to be strong to help them… Zakk was right… But she just didn’t know if she could be strong enough to do it…


"And we're going to find them. And we will bring the Mishima family to justice!"


Bring the Mishima family to justice… Yes… Calming down a little, Julia silently nodded. But right now, she wasn’t angry at all the Mishima family members. Somehow Kazuya was also a victim now… He did a lot of horrible things but he wasn’t the one who shot on the tower and killed hundreds, if not more, of people… Heihachi Mishima did it… The same Heihachi Mishima who killed her grandfather, who captured her mother… Kazuya Mishima had captured her grandmother but still his crimes, toward her at least, were under those of Heihachi Mishima… And Heihachi Mishima was the one who started it all… Yes, that Heihachi Mishima will pay…


But looking toward where the tower should stand and now seeing only dust all around, Julia thought once more about what Zakk first told her… The survivors… Yes, they had to help… But she wished so much that horrible catastrophe didn’t happen… After holding on to Zakk for some time, she let go of him to slowly get up and nodded again at Zakk.


“Yes… We have to help… Thank you…”

---

Meanwhile Paul was trying to help people as much as he could under that blinding and stifling dust. That catastrophe somehow took the tournament out of his mind but didn’t really lighten his mood… So many horrible things happening now…

[Lei Wulong]

Zakk remained calm and waited for Julia to stop crying.  He wondered if his words helped Julia, but seeing the feedback he got from her, it worked.  Zakk had to wipe his eyes as the dust was everywhere.  Once it settled, perhaps they could go look for people trapped under there.

"You're welcome..." Zakk said, allowing Julia to stand up.

"There's a basement there, right?  Is it possible that some people survived the basement?" Zakk asked Julia.

---

Steve fought through the dust, trying to assist in helping the people, as well as the firemen who were all trying to clear the rubble for survivors.  It's likely for people to survive getting crushed under a boulder.

[White Tiger]

“Yes, a basement… It could make sense… If, they had time to reach it… I’ll try to remember where some entrances to the basement could be so we can look…” said Julia to Zakk as she took off her glasses from her face. They were completely dusty with wet parts because of her tears. She quickly wiped her face with her jacket and then tried to wash her glasses to put them back. The result was not too great but at least she could see what she would normally be able to see since there may be less dust in the air but still too much for a really clear view and still too much to breathes well. She then told Zakk:  

“I’ll have to call my mom soon. If she saw that on TV, she’ll die worrying…Luckily she is not too often in front of the TV so I have time to look for survivors before I call her… or she’ll probably call me…”


But as she began to walk with Zakk toward the tower once more, she wondered who, among her friends, were now missing. Some may have been away for lunch like her but most must have stayed inside… And she really didn’t know who she had lost but many people were gone now… She silently made a prayer for all those who died in that attack.

---

Paul was cleaning the rubbles near Steve and was kind of disheartened. He found no survivor… It was indeed to expect but somehow he would have wished that some people would have got out alive from this… even if it was kind of unlikely… And the dust was making it hard to breathe… Paul told himself he was resistant against chemical substances or whatever, since with the amount of hair spray he put in his hair over the years, he was now immune to any breathing problems by inhaling anything and was now some ecological hazard himself. Marshall always told him to put less hair spray but Paul never felt some inconvenient coming from it so he kept doing it. But it seemed he was not immune to dust particules… He turned to Steve and asked him:


“Are you okay? Where is Xianglong?”

[Lei Wulong]

“Yes, a basement… It could make sense… If, they had time to reach it… I’ll try to remember where some entrances to the basement could be so we can look…”

Zakk nodded.  "Yeah.  Anything to get out of this dust."

“I’ll have to call my mom soon. If she saw that on TV, she’ll die worrying…Luckily she is not too often in front of the TV so I have time to look for survivors before I call her… or she’ll probably call me…”

"Yeah.  What time is it over there in the States, anyway?  She could be sleeping."  Zakk knows what it is like to have a worried mother, especially when there's a huge shootout.   He continued toward the building, starting to almost regret his decision not to wear sunglasses today.

---

Steve couldn't find any survivors either, as the smoke and dust was making it hard to breathe, but he persisted anyway, using the sleeve of his shirt as ventilation.  When Paul asked Xianlong's whereabouts Steve only shrugged.

"Well, she isn't really strong like we are, so it's very likely she's still back there, waiting on us... or... maybe she's talking to the news reporter."

And correct was Steve as Xianlong was being interviewed on TV.  

"I was going to go see Mr. Mishima and schedule an appointment, but then suddenly, the building collapsed and exploded!  Some laser beam from outer space!"  She points to the sky.

[White Tiger]

"Yeah. What time is it over there in the States, anyway? She could be sleeping."


“Oh. Indeed.” said Julia. With all those worries, she didn’t think about that… Somehow it was all for the better, she would call her mother later. For now, she kept going through the rubbles until she pointed some place.


“There. If I’m not mistaking, under that pile, there may be some entrance. It’s kind of hard to really be certain with all the destruction but I think that part is the wall beside the stairs and the basement entrance was there”

Julia went to the pile of rubble she showed and began to take the debris away.

---

Meanwhile Paul noticed two people not far. A man and a woman. They were probably trying to take some rubble away so said to Steve: 

“Hey, Steve, let’s go help them, they seem to have some big things to move…”

[Lei Wulong]

Zakk followed Julia and assisted her in the removal of the pile of rubble.  It was heavy, but with the assistance of Julia, it made it easier, but it was still really heavy.  Zakk was glad he was strong and could bench press a lot of weight, otherwise this would be near impossible.

"So.. heavy..." he grunted.

---

When Paul pointed out two people, Steve looked in that direction.  He didn't recognize the silhouette, but it seems like they weren't the only ones trying to find survivors.

“Hey, Steve, let’s go help them, they seem to have some big things to move…”


"Yeah.  Let's do that.  Perhaps they could use an extra set of hands."

[White Tiger]

Julia was glad that Zakk was helping her but looking at all that had to be tossed away was kind of depressing and doing so was mostly exhausting. She thought about the people maybe stuck in the basement to give her some strength and to continue. But now she and Zakk had to lift some very heavy metal part. They were trying to lift it when two men came to help them. Looking at them, Julia suddenly recognized them; they were two very well known contestants in the many Iron Fist tournaments: Steve Fox and Paul Phoenix. Despite wondering why they were here, she told them:

"Thank you, guys..."

"You're welcome," said Paul as he kept lifting the heavy metal part.