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[b]Liberty Island,
Racing Against Time[/b]

Before Danny knew it they were on a nighttime speed boat headed to the Statue of Liberty, which if it weren't being piloted by some very military-looking guys in ski masks would have struck Danny as illegal as hell all by itself. Asking about them had just made Orson grin again and mention that Shang Chi had friends in high places. The traditional masked garb of the Iron Fist gave little protection against the spray of the harbor as it mixed with the cool night air, but it was hardly equal to the icy mountains of K'un-L'un and putting it on for the first time since the Kryptonian invasion gave him more comfort than warm clothes and a windbreaker ever could.

There were shouted instructions over the sound of the engine and the whipping of the wind from the lead ski mask, but before Danny knew it he and Orson were disembarking on the island alone, rushing toward the entrance at the base on foot. It all seemed easy enough up until they were just in sight of the initial entrance, when three figures stepped into view to block the only easy access point. As they moved closer, Danny couldn't help but notice that one of them moved with almost the same easy grace and constant readiness as Shang Chi, a man with East Asian features and an odd tattoo partly visible under his shirt of a snarling black cat. The man beside the tattooed one wore more weapons than he did clothes and a black mask that concealed his features other than a bright red ponytail in the back. What he lacked in grace and control he made up for in swagger and steel. He had a sword sheathed behind each shoulder, a glaive in his hands and so many daggers sheathed all along his waistline and on straps across his barbarian action-figure-like chest that Danny wondered how he didn't clang and jangle as he moved. Even his boots and the bracers on his wrists looked metal lined. But trailing behind the other two was the man that drew Danny's attention the most, without any need for an armory's worth of ancient weaponry, an outlandish outfit or a mysterious chest marking.

In fact he was wearing a black suit and tie of the sort that Danny's admittedly shallow knowledge of upper class society told him said 'I already own everything here, you just don't know it yet' without also screaming 'tasteless' and shoes that were the exact level of uncomfortable to announce he was too rich to ever be a pedestrian. On the other hand they were accented by what Joy Meachum would call 'an unforgivable fashion sin' in the form of sunglasses at night. His fashion sense at a Kung Fu duel was hardly the only thing that alarmed Danny.   No, what was far more important was the way he stood there radiating pure power. It pressed Danny down, seared against Danny's skin and shimmered in the air between them like heat off of a bonfire. It was a presence like he'd only felt once before but he recognized it instantly: Shou-Lao the Undying.

This was a dragon in human skin.

As if to prove the point he smiled, briefly revealing teeth more at home in a shark's mouth and the flickering purple of a forked tongue before an illusion shifted it back into a businessman's cold-blooded grin. 

Danny fell into a wary fighting stance, but Orson's stepped out in front of him and moved to bar him from engaging the three. He nodded to the dragon.

[color=mediumseagreen]"So Chiantang, ya brought The Cat and Zaran the Weaponmaster. Shang's told me they're good."[/color]

The Cat spoke up next, a genial if predatory flash of teeth accompanying his words "You know us, but we don't know you. The two of you both wear the symbol of the Immortal Iron Fist, but it's been nearly seventy years since the Last Iron Fist died. So what does that make you two?" Zaran chimed in, "If I'm about to add a couple of K'un-L'un Immortals to my kill count, I'd at least like a name or title to throw out when I'm listing my feats for the ladies."

This, at least, Danny understood. His honor as a warrior of K'un-L'un demanded he list off his title and deeds before they fought in order to show proper respect for each other's prowess as fighters. The dragon spoke up before  Danny could get a chance to respond though.

"They're no one of consequence. Just an old man clinging to the ghosts of the past and a boy who's barely earned the mark he wears."

[color=seagreen]"Y'know if you're hesitant about my reputation you could always ask the last dragon I faced! [b]Oh, wait[/b]..."[/color]

The dragon's forked tongue slithered out again past his illusory smile and despite his boast Danny suppressed the urge to shiver at the memories of Shou-Lao that sight evoked. "The boy has spirit, Randall. When the Anomaly Fragment restores me, I believe my first act will be to make you watch as I devour him."

Danny readied another retort as much to steel himself as mock the monster, but all of them were cut short as a sixth voice echoed out into the night around them.

"Foolish serpent. None of you will leave here with the fragment or your lives, for it belongs to my Master."

The darker shadows around the already gathered fighters slowly pooled into humanoid form and solidified until they became a shape that had haunted Danny's dreams at night, driven him to train for ten long years, been the fixture of his endless fantasies of revenge since he was six years old. It was the ghost ninja that fought his father, multiple copies of the specter already rising up to surround them, all speaking as one.

"Iron Fists, Dragon, Warriors...it matters not who you are, all will serve my Master or die."

Danny's body practically moved on its' own, every second of training, of mourning, of plotting revenge distilled down into one lunging punch. His fist obliterated that masked face effortlessly, hands barely feeling a thing as they passed through and the phantasmal body collapsed. It was cathartic, almost therapeutic to finally have a target for all the pain in his life, to fight back against the things that had terrorized him for what seemed like his entire life.

Unfortunately it was about as effective as throwing a pebble into a river and two more images of the Ghost Ninja rose up to take the defeated one's place. The layered laughter from their legion of identical throats grated on his mind and for a long instant he wanted nothing more than to silence them, to fight against them no matter how many came at him like his father had.

[color=mediumseagreen]"Kid I'll take care of this! don't let Chiantang get the fragment!"[/color]

Orson's words snapped Danny back into awareness of the situation in time to see the dragon fleeing inside at high speed, using the distraction of the ninja and the interposed bodies of the two mercenaries men to get ahead. Years of training in the Light Body Technique and the endless possibilities of [i]qi[/i] meant it was effortless for Danny to leap up and over both of the mercenaries and the Ghost Ninja and land at the entrance to the monument and only a fraction of a second passed between that and him taking off in hot pursuit of the suit-wearing serpent.

Uncomfortable shoes or no, Chiantang seemed to have no problem keeping ahead of Danny despite his best efforts being considerably faster than even the best athletes at full sprint. It was all Danny could do to keep the dragon in his sights, ignoring the entrances, the museum and most annoyingly the endless number of stairs they rushed over for what seemed like ages as they raced to the top, the journey punctuated by what sounded like occasional explosions from the battle outside. At last they reached the topmost point of the statue's interior, but there was no time for Danny to catch his breath or admire the view as Chiantang darted over to an alcove that was home to a narrow, rickety latter. It was forty feet straight up to the hatch but he made the inhuman vertical leap with style as he punched it open like it was made of wet tissue paper. Even with a body that moved like it was lighter than air Danny couldn't replicate the feat. He had to leap and pull himself up into further leaps off of the rungs before he sailed into the night air and touched down on the small platform that was the Statue of Liberty's Torch. It was a small, circular walkway ringed by small floodlights highlighting the golden, electronic glow of the torch that made Chiantang in his black suit and shades seem even darker and more harshly outlined, darker even than the night sky above them. The platform was open to the frigid night air buckled and swayed slightly in the wind and Danny had to struggle to maintain his balance before training took over and helped him start making automatic adjustments and he was able to focus on the task at hand. 

It had taken a ridiculous foot chase, but he had finally caught the dragon and-

Crap, he'd finally caught the dragon.

Chiantang gave him a [b]very[/b] toothy grin.

"Excellent work boy! Now tell me, what exactly was your plan after following me up here alone?"

Danny shot back as cocky a smile as he could manage without giving away his fear.

[color=seagreen]"Well I'm the Iron Fist so I kinda figured I'd slay you y'know, with my bare hands and all. It's kind of in the job description."[/color]

Chiantang spread his arms wide, stance relaxed, mocking. "By all means, try." 

Danny focused as hard as he could on his opponent. Forget the swaying of the platform, the howling high altitude winds, the searing pressure of a dragon's qi, the fear: there was nothing but himself and his enemy. As everything else faded away, he struck. He was an arrow loosed from the bowstring, momentum and energy and sharp piercing death personified, the driving thrust of a spearhand strike ready to claim another dragon's heart.

Chiantang brushed the deathblow aside with all the concern of a man clearing cobwebs, his speed a wondrous terror even to Danny's qi-enhanced reflexes. Danny stepped in, cut upwards with his elbow, saw surprise register on the dragon's face the instant before it snapped upward from the impact. The sunglasses flew free of Chiantang and seemed to drift lazily down in the wind to Danny's slowed sense of time though he was already moving into his next attack. It didn't matter. Chiantang was so much faster than he'd thought possible that a hand was wrapped around his throat and lifting him into the air before he could react. As the world rushed back into normal time Danny noticed just why he wore those sunglasses. Even in human form Chiantang had the slit-eyed pupils of a snake, irises that smoldered golden in black, white-less sockets. The grimace he gave the teenage Iron Fist made crocodiles look downright lovable and the dark blood that dripped from his mouth only made things more like a monster movie as Danny struggled to breathe.

"[b]Seventy years[/b]. Seventy years since one of you arrogant apes has been able to strike me, to make me bleed. I believe you now, boy. I believe you're an Iron Fist, because no other human can vex me, can inspire me to hatred like your kind. Even after your K'un-L'un sorcery bound me in this wretched prison of flesh and cast me out into this world of stinking monkeys, even after I was forced to claw and crawl and kill my way to the top of the dung pile just to be worshiped as a dragon should, even after countless centuries you [b]still[/b] drive me to madness! You who stole a dragon's fire! Well no more! Now it will be an Iron Fist's qi that powers the spell to restore me, just as soon as I burn you to a soot stain and a memory!"

He threw Danny hard onto the platform and his head slammed against the base of Liberty's flame. He saw stars for an instant before he pulled himself together only to see Chiantang looming over him, mouth gaping inhumanly wide as roiling smoke and fire surged forth in a pretty good imitation of a portal to hell. Danny scrambled backward in desperation, certain that his second time facing a dragon was about to end much more fatally than the first. But his fingers brushed something, something he could feel even hidden in a hollow of the metal base of the torch's flame, a thrumming, pulsing energy like a beating heart. It called to his own heart, behind the dragon brand on his chest and before he knew what he was doing he reached out with his own qi, calling in return and then-

Then he was a fragment of the Heart of the World, he was the Heart of the Dragon. The first thing he noticed was that he was [i]filled[/i] with a burning, brilliant energy and an awareness of just how extraordinary that felt. He had been a smoldering coal deprived of oxygen, now suddenly he was kindled into a true flame, awakened to a higher state of being. Danny could have marveled at it all for days or weeks, but there was a presence there with him, dragging him back to the here and now where he was in danger. He saw it all with perfect clarity. Chiantang's fire would burn him to ash, he would retrieve the Anomaly Stone Fragment from his sooty remains, a dragon would rampage through New York City.

[color=lightseagreen][i]It doesn't have to be that way.[/i][/color] That presence again, this time guiding his qi as well as his thoughts. It was so elegant, so simple. They were the Heart of the Dragon, they had nothing to fear from a dragon's fire. 

The flames struck Danny and internally the part of him that was still him flinched, expecting an agonizing, burning death. But the only thing that burned away was the top half of his outfit as the flames were sucked into the dragon mark on his chest, as Chiantang's fire became [b]his[/b] fire, his power. He rose calmly to his feet as the black suited dragon stood stupefied, mouth still distended in reptilian shock.

[color=gold][b]"I am the Thirty-Sixth Iron Fist, Immortal Weapon of K'un-L'un. I gave up paradise and eternal life for this power and as long as I draw breath, I'm going to use it to fight, to hold back the storm when no one else can."[/b][/color]

Danny had no idea exactly what the words meant, but he knew he had to say them and he knew what came next. He poured all of his energy, from the fragment, from Chiantang's fire, from the Qi of Shou-Lao and from everything that made him Daniel Thomas Rand-Kai right into his fist. He kept going until it began to smolder, to glow, until it became like unto a thing of iron.

[color=gold][b]You want an Iron Fist's qi? Here it is."[/b][/color]

For just an instant and for the first time in its history, Liberty's Torch blazed with a very real, blindingly bright golden fire. Danny was pretty sure someone who looked at just the right time might see a peculiar, human-shaped skipping stone get thrown out across the water.

[color=seagreen]"And...that...is how I slay dragons."[/color]

He passed out for the second time in twenty-four hours. But this time he slipped unconscious with a smile on his face.
[hr]

It all wrapped up pretty neatly after that as far as Danny could tell. The mercenaries gave up the fight and fled after their boss, in Orson's words 'got thrown clear across to Battery Park' and the Ghost Ninja withdrew as suddenly as he'd arrived as soon as he'd sensed the fragment's energy unleashed. By the time he'd woken up they were already being evacuated by boat thanks to Shang Chi's 'friends' while Orson discussed just how they planned to contain the fragment's energy. Danny didn't remember much of it, just bits and pieces while he tried to pull himself together.

Really, the next time he was able to think clearly and take things in he was already changed and in front of the door into the building he lived in with Joy Meachum. He looked over at Orson and grimaced.

[color=seagreen]"She's going to kill me, you know."[/color]

Orson laughed and shrugged his shoulders, stepping back from the doorway as if to distance himself emotionally too.

[color=mediumseagreen]"Family's one area you've got me beat at, kid. You're gonna have to fight this battle alone. But hey, you just channeled the spirit of an ancient warrior and punched a dragon off the Statue of Liberty. You can handle a dame, right? Besides I've gotta get going, make sure the fragment's secure with Shang's people, get looking for the next fragment, tie up loose ends that sorta thing. But hey I'll be around. Heaven's Will is Wide an' all."[/color]

The distinctly K'un-L'unan phrase coming out of Orson's mouth made Danny's mouth quirk into a smile. He almost hated to admit it, but the insane day he'd spent with the old man had made him feel more alive than any other time since he'd left K'un-L'un. Not just because he was finally on a path to finding out more about his father's killers but because well...it all just felt right.

[color=seagreen]"Hey old man, you sure you don't want to stay, we could-[/color]

Orson was gone, because of course he was gone. Danny sighed and marched through the doors, bracing himself to face the other part of his life.

[hr]

He had expected shouting, threats of military boarding schools or maybe even giving him up to be the state's problem. Tears and an embrace were the last thing he was prepared for, to the point that he had to suppress an initial reaction to treat it as an attack and act accordingly.

[color=seagreen]"Aren't you mad?"[/color]

"Are you kidding? You little idiot, I'm furious! But I'm also just glad you're alive. You walked out of school and just...vanished for a whole day! I thought you were kidnapped, or that you got caught in the crossfire of some crazy super-powered feud between masked maniacs! For God's sake Danny you didn't even call! Just half an hour longer and I would've had police and private security turning the city upside down looking for you! I mean, do you even realize you're covered in bruises?"

Danny wasn't sure what to say, how to justify himself. The truth would only worry her more at least in his mind,  worse yet he might never find his father's killers and bring them to justice behind the army of private guards and restrictions he would likely end up with if she knew the truth 'for his own protection'. At the same time, he didn't want to lie to her and not just because he was a terrible liar.

[color=seagreen]"I got into some pretty big fights...so I went to Chinatown. After all the years in Asia it felt...familiar compared to the rest of New York. I hate that school and the people in it and I just...I really needed to get away, do something different. I'm sorry, I really should've tried to call you but I got so caught up, in everything around me and...kind of in my own head."[/color]

She let go of him then, sighing and drying her eyes while sitting down in a chair facing a rather spectacularly panoramic window. The penthouse was large, filled with little souvenirs from all sorts of trips Joy's father Harold and Danny's father Wendell had picked up on business trips through Asia: a pair of little replica clay soldiers guarding the door, a white ceramic elephant in one corner whose howdah doubled as an umbrella holder, even a crossed pair of dao swords Danny was fairly sure his father had kept maintained just in case were just a few. All precious and beautiful, but all also little reminders of the memories neither of them could let go. 

"There's going to be consequences for this Danny. Serious ones, because there have to be serious consequences starting tomorrow. Tonight though, I'm just glad you're safe. I've lost so much...we both have...if I lost you all over again..."

This was the closest they'd come to talking about what happened all those years ago in the Himalayas, when both of them had lost their parents in the mountains, though Joy was much older and in college at the time. Since he'd come back and  she'd been named his guardian she had tried to be something half-way between a mother and an older sister to him. She was probably one of the closest things to family he had left considering she and her father had both known him since he was in diapers.

[color=seagreen]"You're right, we've both lost a lot. I...should be more careful about that."[/color]

She stared out at the city and Danny's own eyes couldn't help following her, out towards the skyscraper with both of their legacies in big, burning lights on the top: RAND Inc. Looking at it was happy and painful all at once and it made him wonder if the sight made her feel the same.

"Maybe a little of it's my fault too. I've been so busy trying to deal with it in my own way that I've been inconsiderate to you too. We've got to start sticking together. It's what they would've wanted."

What they would've wanted...

He kept staring out at their parents' monument, turning over everything that had happened today. He'd finally made some progress in the hunt for answers surrounding his father's death, met new allies and enemies and discovered an entire hidden world to explore. With luck he'd even fixed his relationship with Joy.

It wasn't perfect, a lot of might not even be good...

But it was a start.