Freaks Flashforward, Chapter 9

SOME OF THE CHARACTERS AND SETTINGS ARE THE PROPERTY OF MARVEL, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Henry and I were eating at the Chinese restaurant called King Chow. I used to remember when I used to sit here with my family. At that time, Henry wasn't here. Yeah, he stayed with his British mother back in London. I had no idea that my father would marry a British lady in the first place. I guess family secrets weren't too bad. But Mom would agree about Dad divorcing my step-mother. She wouldn't tell me though.

Henry: Mmmmm. Nice! I love these noodles.

Qwan: Yeah, it's one of the best. I used to eat here, you know.

Henry: Yeah bro, you told me about this place.

Qwan: Yeah.

Henry: Is something wrong?

Qwan: I don't know, Henry. Something tells me that we're not alone here.

Henry: What do you mean?

I was right all along. Melissa is showing me the past. I just saw her sitting by the window. It seems that no one can see her. But it didn't make any sense. How come I'm not with her and seeing all these visions? It's as if I got trapped inside my own body. Strange things can happen in the carnival these days. I tried to talk with her but she keeps on disappearing. I wonder if she's alright though. Because I can't seem to forget about her deadly sickness. 

Henry: What's wrong, bro? What are you looking at?

Qwan: Oh, it's nothing. I thought I just saw someone sitting there by the window.

Henry: Well...I don't see anyone there.

Qwan: Yeah, you're right. I must be dreaming or something.

Henry: Aren't you going to eat up your noodles?

Qwan: I'm not hungry. You can eat it if you want.

Henry: Are you sure? You haven't eaten for two days.

Qwan: I can handle my hunger, Henry. Just eat up and we'll go.

SLURP! 

Henry: Qwan...I have been thinking. How can we escape from this place? I mean there's no way we can get out of the country.

Qwan: There's always a way, Henry. Don't worry about it.

Henry: I hope you're right. 

SLURP!

While I was staring at the same window, a man came right through the entrance of the restaurant. He was bald and had some kind of strange black tattoos on his body and across his eyes. I'm sure I have seen him somewhere before. Yeah, it's the Vanisher. 

Vanisher: Hi, I need a couple of chicken noodles, please.

Chinese owner: Ok. Coming right up.

Qwan: Henry, there's something not right here.

SLURP!

Henry: What do you mean?

Qwan: It's him. I think I know that guy.

Henry: Which guy? Whom are you talking about?

Qwan (whisper): It's the Vanisher. He's a teleporter for goodness sake. I think he came here to get us.

Henry (whisper): You're serious?

Qwan: Yeah

Henry: Crap!

Qwan (whisper): We have to get out of here. Fast!

Vanisher: Ummm. Excuse me. On a second thought, I don't want the chicken noodles.

We began to run from the restaurant as fast as we could. But the Vanisher just poofed right in front of us. Man, these teleporters are very fast. 

Vanisher: Come with me, boys.

The Vanisher touched both of our shoulders and we disappeared together. In seconds, we found ourselves in one of the Triad hideouts where Jung Pow is staring at us. I guess he's not the only one who's in charge of his own dirty business.

Shung: Well, you kids bought me a lot of trouble these days.

Qwan: Why can't you just leave us alone?

Henry: Qwan, we better do something quick.

Shung: Not so fast. You think you can escape from me? I don't think so. Sniff! Sniff! Mmmm. You must have eaten a lot of Chinese food. Let me guess, you have eaten noodles at the King Chow restaurant. Pretty good. Eh?

Qwan: Heh! You smelled it right.

Shung: You got some nerve, Qwan. You got myself into a big mess. I'll see to it that you and your step-brother will die in my hands.

Qwan: Why don't you try us?

Shung: Why you little....

CLICK!

Xian: That won't be necessary, Shung. Don't shoot them.

Qwan: Xian? What are you doing here?

Xian: You had no idea. Do you? You should learn by now that I have taken over our grandfather's criminal empire.

Qwan: You b**tard.

Xian: Watch your language, Qwan. I'm sure our young step-brother doesn't like to hear bad languages.

Henry: Xian, don't do this.

Xian: Shut up! You're useless, Henry. I bet you would have taken over the empire yourself but you're not even worthy of it.

Henry: I would care less. 

Qwan: Listen to him, Xian. You may be the oldest but you're just some dirt bag who wants to make some trash cans out of our grandfather.

Xian: Is that so? HA! HA! HA! HA!

Qwan: You think it's funny? Why are you doing this?

Xian: I wanted power, Qwan. Our grandfather said to join with his organization but you wouldn't want to do it.

Qwan: It's because I don't like the dirty work that's going around here.

Xian: Heh! You never change, Qwan. I can tell by the looks of you.

Qwan: Our parents were killed for goodness sake. Is this what they have wanted? You tell me, Xian.

Xian: The only thing I could say is this. That you and your brother are weaklings.

Qwan: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.....

Shung: Ahhh! My ears!

Vanisher: Ahhh!

POOOF!

Qwan: AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! What?

Xian: HA! HA! HA! You are a young fool. You don't know the true nature of my power.

Qwan: What's going on here? My power didn't affect you?

Xian: You see, Qwan. My ability is to absorb sound waves and amplify them into different variety of sounds. I can also nullify any kind of soundwaves. In your case, you can only produce sound waves from the tip of your tongue.
  
Henry: No way!

Xian: It's true, Henry. However, your sound ability is useless. You can only record and mimic sounds. 

Qwan: I'll get you for this.

Xian: Can you hear it?

Qwan: Hear what?

WWRRRRREEEEE!.....WRRRRRRRRREEEEEEE!

CRASH! SMASH! CRASH!

Now I realized what was happening. Xian just used a different soundwave against us. It's as if the soundwave came from somewhere else. But he didn't even opened his mouth. What the heck? Even the crates were smashed into bits. Man, talk about a sound attack.

Xian: You see...I can create these sounds without opening my mouth. I guess you could say that I'm not much of a singer.

Henry: Qwan, we have to beat him.

Shung: I'll...kill you for this, Qwan. Ahh!

Xian: Save your breath later, Shung. I can deal with them.

POOOF!

Xian: Where have you been?

Vanisher: I was at the top of the roof.

Xian: I see. Didn't like the sound?

Vanisher: You could say that. On the other hand....

CLICK!

Shung: What? What is the meaning of this, Telford?

Vanisher: Sorry guys. It seems your payment is mine.

Shung: What?

Qwan: Huh? What the heck?

Henry: Don't worry, bro. I got my plan all figured it out.

Qwan: What are you saying? Did you do something?

Henry (whisper): Actually, I mimicked our grandfather's voice saying that his suitcase was worth of 500 million dollars. In exchange of saving us, the Vanisher can have the money he wants.

Qwan (whisper): Good thinking, Henry. I never knew you could do something like that. You should have told me though.

Henry (whisper): Well, it's all part of my secret plan. I told the Vanisher to meet us at the restaurant.

Qwan (whisper): Heh! You're a real pretender. But what about the money?

Henry (whisper): Xian already gave the suitcase to Shung. But I made sure that the Vanisher goes along with the plan. Now the Vanisher wants his money back.

Qwan (thought): You really fooled the Vanisher. Geez! That was unexpecting. When did you get to be so deceptive?

Henry (whisper): I had a lesson from an "invisible" friend of mine.

Qwan (whisper): Invisible?

Henry (whisper): I'll tell about him later. Let's concentrate on my plan now.

Shung: What's going on here, Telford?

Vanisher: Let's just say that I had a secret arrangement.

Shung: You double-crossed us. Why you...

POOOF!

Shung: Hey, my suitcase!

POOOF!

Henry: What do you think, Xian? Surprised?

Xian: Very impressive, Henry. You even managed to fool him.

Vanisher: What is he talking about?

Henry: Never mind that. Just get us out of here.

Vanisher: Hmmm. Ok.

The Vanisher touched both our shoulders again and we vanished right in front of Xian and Shung.

Shung: You fool! How could you even let them go?

Xian: Don't worry about it. I'll deal with them later.

Shung: That stupid idiot took my money. 

Xian: It's my grandfather's money, you fool. When will you ever learn?

After traveling through a strange Darkforce dimension, we found ourselves teleported to the United States. This is the place where the Vanisher took us. Man, talk about luck. The Vanisher poofed again and left us behind. Hopefully, the Vanisher doesn't come back for us again. Henry fooled the Vanisher thinking that he had the real money. That sniffing Shung couldn't even tell the difference because Henry just put that magician's potion to cover the smell. How did Henry know about it? Let's just say that Henry loves magic. Yeah, tell me about it. He always go through stuff at the shop without even asking. Actually, he took it while we fought the magician until Dr. Strange came along to save us. No wonder, Henry wanted to come to that shop. I had no idea he was able to do these things without even telling me. Geez!

Henry: Yes, we did it.

Qwan: Yeah, it's all thanks to you. You're the man.

Henry: Oh come on. You could have something like I did, right.

Qwan: Yeah. Whatever...

Henry: Bro?

I felt sort of a dizziness all of a sudden. I collapsed on the floor and I heard Henry was trying to wake me up. As I woke up, I found myself back in the jungle.

Nicole: Qwan, are you ok?

Qwan: Yeah, I'm fine. Oh man. How long was I out?

Nicole: About six minutes.

Six minutes? That's impossible. I had a view of my own past for only six minutes? It took quite a longer than that. Anyways, I'm still back on my feet.

The Virtual Man appeared and said the battle was over. However, there was a problem that occured back at the carnival. I didn't even like the sound of it. The Virtual Man said that someone had killed the rest of the carnival folks including my new friends, Chin Lu and the Ink Lady. I was shocked to hear their deaths. I didn't know what to say. As the virtual environment disappeared, I saw many dead bodies of the carnival folks lying around on the ground. It was horrible the way that they got killed. As Nicole was watching them, she told me something. Something, I should have known before I even met her. She explained...everything to me.

To be continued in Freaks Flashforward, Chapter 10.

Bump.