"That's the signal!" You called up to Katy who was focused on not crashing the bus. Katy spun the bus into a hard turn and Shaun kicked himself off the man, launching himself to the front half as the back half fell off. "Oh my god!" you shouted, helping Shaun to his feet as he landed in front of you. You looked forward and your face dropped as you took in the scene ahead.

"Hold on, everybody!" Katy called back a warning as the waterfront grew closer with every second.

"Oh, God." Shaun commented while holding onto a bar. He sat you in a seat and jumped around as the bus flipped up, driving onto cars and leaning onto a garbage truck beside you. People screamed and Shaun pulled in a woman who was about to fall out of the window.

"Oh, my God!" Katy screamed out as she crushed the parked cars on the side of the road. Both vehicles came to a slow and you let out a sigh, resting your head back briefly. "Sorry. Heh." Katy waved to the other driver with a laugh. "We make a good team." She claimed.

Shaun looked around, stunned at what had happened and what was going to happen. You carefully moved around the half bus to help people gain their composure after the event and help them get off of the danger of the bus.

Shaun reached up to his neck, feeling that his pendent had successfully been taken.

~~~

Shaun stormed into his place, you on his heels with Katy right behind you.

"Shaun. Hey. You need to tell me what the hell's going on. What are you doing? Where are you going?" You shouted at him with frustration and confusion at why he was acting so strange today.

"Macau." He stated, packing his bag quickly by stuffing his clothes into it in a rush.

"Macau?" Katy questioned back from behind you, not sure why he would be going there.

"Those guys are going after my sister next, and I have to get to her first."

"You have a sister?" Katy asked next while you thought over every word.

"Look, I know this is confusing. I'll explain it when I get back, I promise." He told you both, still rushing to pack.

"No, no. Hell no, Shaun. This is bullshit! I have been by your side for half your life. I get there are things you never wanted to talk about, and I never wanted to push. But a guy with a freaking machete for an arm just chopped our bus in half, Shaun! Who the hell are you?" You snapped at him, pushing at his chest harshly in your outburst. He looked at you with guilt as he stumbled back and blinked in a moment of shock at how you snapped at him.

"My sister sent me this a few months ago. I think it's the address of where she's staying." He handed you the postcard that had been sitting on his bedside table with a dragon printed onto the front. "Those guys back there were sent by my dad."

"What?"

"If they hurt her... I'm sorry, but I have to go." Shaun told you sadly, cutting off any bad thoughts.

"Fine. I'm coming with you" you stated with determination.

"What? No, y/n, you can't just—" he started to protest, but you had already stormed out.

"You heard her, you can explain on the plane" Katy agreed, following you outside. She walked over to where you had been pacing, running a hand through your hair with shaky breaths. "Are you alright?" She asked gently, knowing deep down how much this must have hurt you.

"I don't know" you sighed.

~~~

"After my mom died... my dad started my training." Shaun started to explain to you as you sat beside him on the plane. "From sunup to sundown, I was taught every possible way to kill a man. By the time I was 14, I could barely remember what life was like before she died. That's how old I was when he sent me on my first assignment. I was willing to do anything he wanted. If he asked me to burn the world down, I would've asked him—"

"Beef or vegetarian? We're all out of the chicken, so I can only offer you beef or vegetarian?" The flight atendent cut in rudely with a cheery smile.

"Um... Vegetarian would be great." Katy told her as you sat with a stern face and crossed arms, eyes glaring forward.

"Yeah, same." Shaun agreed. "Y/n?" He looked to you with some worry in his eyes at your expression never changing since you sat in your seat.

"I'll have the same" you told the woman, not bothering to look at her.

"Okay."

"Thank you." Shaun told her as she typed on her iPad to put in the order.

"Oh, we're out of the vegetarian too. Now we only have beef." She corrected, still obnoxiously cheery.

"Beef. 'Cause that's all you have, right?" Katy told her, confused at how the woman still asked even though there was only one option.

"Okay, you'll have the beef." She looked to Katy, confirming her order before turning to you and shaun.

"Yes."

"And..." she looked to you both.

"And the beef." Katy told her again, for you two.

"Three beefs." The woman nodded along before walking off again.

"Did you go through with it?" You asked suddenly, blankly staring forward. He glanced at you before looking down at the floor of the plane, disappointed in himself for his answer.

"I knew that I couldn't go back to him, so I just... ran. I know this is a lot to dump on you." Shaun said.

"I'm sorry about your mom." You told him truthfully, finally looking up at your friend.

"I should also probably mention that my name's not technically Shaun." He told you, wincing back while waiting for your reaction.

"What? What is it?" You asked back wondering how he could keep his name from you too.

"It's Shang-Chi." He said.

"Shaun-Chi." Katy spoke.

"No. Shang-Chi."

"Shaun-Chi."

"Shang."

"Shaun."

"Shang."

"Shan." the pair went back and forth across you as you smiled slightly at their silliness.

"S-H-A-N-G. Shang." He corrected her.

"Shang?"

"Yeah."

"You changed your name from Shang to Shaun?" You asked in amazement at how stupid his idea was.

"Yeah, I don't... Yeah."

"I wonder how your father found you." You joked back for the first time in what felt like a long time, but in reality was only a few hours.

"Okay, I was 15 years old. All right?" He claimed, trying to defend himself from your teasing.

"What is your name change logic? You're going into hiding."

"Okay."

"And your name is Michael, you go on and change it to Mishael." Katy joined in on making fun of him.

"That's not what happened." Shaun told her.

"It's like, 'Hi, my name's Gina. I'm gonna go into hiding. My new name's Gyna.'" Katy continued with her joke.

"Can't hear you. I'm sorry." Shang mouthed to her after putting on his headphones.

"Yeah, okay. Oh, yeah, you can hear me." Katy claimed sarcastically. Katy turned to the screen in front of her, watching a movie while you decided to catch up on some rest. Your eye closed and your head fell onto Shang's shoulder, startling him at first. Shang looked down at you with gentle eyes before hearing the click of a phone.

"Stop that!" Shang snapped in a whisper at Katy, moving slightly to argue with her.

"Never" she tells him with a proud smirk at the moment she had captured between the two of you. You raised your head sleepily, rubbing your eyes as you looked at the duo fighting over you.

"Sorry" you mumbled with a raspy voice.

"Did you get enough rest?" Shang looked to you directly as he asked his question.

"Yeah, I'm good" you nodded, waking yourself up a bit more. He sent you a smile as Katy sent him a raised eyebrow with her smirk.

~~~

"Are you sure this is the right place?" You looked at the building wearily as it was under construction.

"Yeah" he nodded along, leading you and inside.

"Sign here to get in." A man in the elevator told Shang in mandarin, passing over a device with a digital pen. Shang signed it easily, not reading what he had signed.

"I'm looking for my sister, Xu Xialing. Have you heard of her?" Shang asked back in mandarin. The man simply looked out of the window, pretending to not hear him. "This is the address she gave me." He continued to explain to the man. "Okay." Shang nodded when the man didn't reply.

"Seems like a nice fella." Katy claimed with a small smile.

"And this elevator is definitely up to code. There's absolutely no chance of it just falling off the side of the building..." you spoke sarcastically, stopping as it shook roughly, coming to a stop at your level. You stumbled, bumping into Shang's chest as he caught you. He looked to see if you were okay and you nodded before standing properly again and facing the door that opened to reveal a large crowd and a man waiting.

"Bus Boy!" The man cheered at seeing Shang.

"Uh..." Shang looked to you with confusion.

"Two million views in three days, bro!" He spoke mandarin, showing the video from the bus fight.

"Damn, dude." Katy commented while watching the video as if she wasn't there.

"Oh, no." Shang sighed.

"And you're the driver!" The man continued in mandarin, looking to Katy with excitement.

"Oh, my Chinese sucks." She claimed sheepishly that she couldn't understand him.

"Oh, all good. I speak A-B-C." He switched to English simply.

"Oh, great." Katy agreed.

"I'm Jon Jon." He placed an arm over your shoulder and Katy's as Shang followed beside you protectively.

"Jon Jon." Katy nodded, repeating the name.

"Welcome to the Golden Daggers Club." He presented the building ahead, crowds filling the darkly lit building. "Okay, let's get you ready to fight." He patted Shang on the shoulder.

"Wait. What?" Shaun shook his head in confusion.

"We're a multi-platform global operation. Every fight livestreamed on the dark web. Thousands of viewers placing bets as we speak. This is gonna take your brand to a whole new level." He explained to you all calmly.

"Think there's been some sort of confusion." Shang started as you moved out from under Jon Jon's arm and stood with your friend.

"Usually, you gotta fight your way to centre ring, but a viral star like you? Front of line, baby."

"I'm not here to fight anybody. Okay? I'm looking for my sister, Xu Xialing." He explained his situation to Jon Jon. You flinched from beside Shang as a man was thrown into the glass wall beside you.

"Never heard of her. We just lost a fighter at the last minute, so you get the next slot." Jon Jon started walking with you all again before stopping at another glass box. You watched another small fight as a woman threw a knife at a man stabbing his shoulder with it. "Nice one, Helen." Jon Jon cheered to her.

"Is he gonna be fighting in one of these?" You asked with worry for your friend.

"Oh, no, no, no. These are like low-level fights." Jon Jon directed you to look at the large cage ahead, crowds cheering around it. "You're gonna be fighting up there." You watched as a large creature like the Hulk fought against a wizard. The Hulk lookalike jumped at the man, swinging to punch him when a portal opened and he ended up punching himself and knocking himself out.

"Wong! Wong! Wong! Wong! Wong! Wong!" The crowd cheered at his victory.

"Go, Wong! I always bet on Asian." Jon Jon tells you.

"Oh, my God." You gasped, knowing Shang would get hurt doing this.

"Yeah, look, I'm not going up there, okay? I'm just trying to..." Shang tried to convince him again to let him go.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. It's too late to back out now. You already committed, bro."

"What?"

"You signed the contract, remember?" Jon Jon said and you sighed in realization that Shang didn't read what he signed. "Your name's on the roster. The bets are piling in."

"Really? What's our cut?" Katy asked with interest.

"Oh, it's huge." Jon Jon told her simply.

"It doesn't matter." You snapped at her, pulling her back to the situation you were dealing with.

"It matters." Katy told you.

"Dude, I saw you fight five assassins and a giant Romanian with a razor for an arm on a moving bus. This is just one guy. Just do it. Then we all get paid, and then I'll help you find whoever you're looking for." Jon Jon promised.

"Come on. You got this." Katy tells him, encouraging Shang to fight.

"You got this." Jon Jon agreed.

"Don't be nervous." Katy tells him.

"Don't die" you tell him simply, trying not to show your deep worry for him.

"Thank you." Shang told you sarcastically with a smile.

"Yeah." You said.

"Yeah." He nodded looking back to the fighting ring as Abomination was being dragged out.

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Question of the day: how would you react if your friend told you they were a superhero?