Chapter 79

The Pao Pao Cafe was part nightclub, part restaurant, and part bar with a heavy Caribbean meets East Asia sort of theme. The big stage was flanked by statues of Lung Dragons but was set up in a sort of circular fashion similar to a Brazilian Capoeira Roda. That was apparently exactly what it was too, because the owner and operator, Richard Meyer, was a former Capoeira Champion and often hosted Capoeira exhibitions to the amazement of various onlookers. Mind you, we hadn't come here during peak hours, far from it. Aside from a random Blonde Guy in a trucker hat and red sleeveless jacket who had an extremely well-trained and large-sized Chi signature, we were the only people in the Pao Pao Cafe at the moment.

Mind you, the food was really good, I had curry chicken over chickpeas and rice and the Bartender was all right with serving me Penn Pavel Ales without even bothering to check for ID. Mind you, I did have an ID that would check out thanks to Amanda even if they did check, but they seemed to take my word for it. I didn't know whether that was 'cause they just didn't check by habit or because I'd shown up with Chin Gentsai's crowd. This was a known hangout frequented by competitors of the King of Fighters Tournament Circuit, after all. Those of us who cultivate their Chi often tend to buck the drinking age laws by simple force of habit. The laws weren't exactly written with people with special abilities in mind, after all.

It was as I bellied up to the Bar for another beer that Athena confronted me. The Bartender had just poured me my new beer as the last bit of some poppy shit with a half-assed reggae beat. I lit up a Red Apple Cigarette and took a deep drag, breathing out a cloud of smoke through my nose before turning to the bartender.

"Hey, can you change the music to something more real and less plastic?" I questioned.

"Sure. It's dead in here anyways." Shrugged the bartender before turning to fiddle with the stereo. I took another drag off my cigarette and exhaled as I heard Athena's voice cut in from behind me.

"Not to your taste?" She queried.

"Not in the least. Old Man Chin said you're some kind of idol, so you've gotta know how manufactured that pop shit is." I responded.

"People like manufactured. It's comforting." Pointed out Athena.

"That's not what music's supposed to be. Music is supposed to be raw emotion conjured into form through skill and dedication. Not something some producer whipped up in a factory to satisfy some sort of corporate balance sheet." I refuted.

"I suppose you're one of those guys who idolize acts like Hangman's Joke, then?" Asked Athena.

"They're all right, but they were trying too hard to be Nirvana or the Smashing Pumpkins and never really found their own sound before Draven was murdered." I shrugged. As I mentioned that, the stereo finally switched over to playing something real as the bluesy sounds of Fever Dog by Stillwater echoed through the bar. I took a drag off my cigarette and exhaled before nodding.

"See, that's more like it." I grinned.

"Huh. Most guys our age aren't into this stuff." Mused Athena.

"I'm not most guys. There's no school quite like the old school, after all. I'd have thought being one of Old Man Chin's students would have taught you that." I offered before taking a swig from my beer.

Once I put the glass down, I stubbed out my cigarette in the ashtray provided and looked over at Athena. I could tell she was dying to ask questions but didn't know the right way to go about it. It was probably about my Patrons, given how she was the Champion of the Goddess who she shared a name with. That sort of thing tended to be pretty personal for most folks, after all. After a long moment, I sighed and decided that I was gonna have to be the one to bite the bullet and make the first move here. Unless I cut the Gordian Knot here, it was clear she wasn't going to make any moves to ask questions of her own accord.

"You've got the look of someone who has a couple of questions they want to ask but don't know how. Just spit it out, we're going to be on the same team, after all. You should get to know what I'm about." I remarked.

"Really, you don't mind?" Questioned Athena.

"I can't promise I'll answer every question. We've all got our own demons, after all. I'll answer what I can, though." I nodded.

"Right. So, I'm guessing by now that you know that we're alike in a pretty big way, right?" Queried Athena.

"I do. That's a neat trick with the name. How do you keep folks from putting two and two together?" I asked.

"Psychic powers help." Deadpanned Athena.

"Apparently." I huffed amused.

"Anyway, I wanted to ask, I've never come across anyone with a triple situation like your before. Most people's patrons get too jealous. How did that happen?" Questioned Athena.

"A very specific circumstance where my patrons all agreed that their enemies were the same and working in concert. You've met others like us before?" I queried.

"One or two." Admitted Athena.

"Such as?" I pressed.

"If you can believe it? Johnny Cage." Answered Athena.

"The Action Star? No way, surely not?" I blinked.

"It's true. He's got the favor of Tyche. How do you think a stinker like Ninja Mime wound up turning a profit overseas? He's the current Champion of the Goddess of Good Luck." Grinned Athena.

"You know, I never thought about it like that before." I mused.

"Yeah, I met him at an industry event. He'd signed a deal with our agency for promotion in the Pacific Rim Region. Apparently, though, his current project is pretty heavily reliant on special effects. There's been talk that even if it does well, his credibility as a legitimate martial artist might be shot." Informed Athena.

"That's not great. I know he's legitimate, I've seen his early stuff." I frowned.

"Oh, he's got some pretty well-trained Chi Reserves, so he's definitely legitimate. On the bright side, he'll still have a career, even if he gets more detractors. It could be worse, he could be Bob Harris, stuck doing Suntory Whiskey ads for the money after getting pushed out of Hollywood." Smirked Athena.

"So, not that this isn't fascinating, but we ought to move on to other questions." I pointed out.

"Right, I guess I should ask what you can do. Aside from what Chin Sifu told us about your Chi and Psionic Abilities he mentioned magic?" Asked Athena.

"Yes. I'm a sorcerer and am currently capable of casting seventh-circle spells. That includes spells that can burn through a modern Main Battle Tank in one go, reverse gravity in a seventy-meter radius, and teleport anywhere on the planet without error, among other things." I answered.

"Does that include exorcisms?" Questioned Athena.

"Banishment is a spell I know. I dunno if it'd work on the Yamata-no-Orochi, though. Everything I've heard about that thing says it's a Creature of Gaia and thus native to Earth." I responded.

"What's the difference?" Queried Athena.

"Banishment only works on things not native to the realm you cast it in. Demons, Eldritch Horrors, Elementals, Djinn, and so on." I explained.

"Ah. I think I see now." Sighed Athena.

"Plus, it's got a very limited range. I need to be within twenty meters of the target to actually hit with it." I continued.

"Fair, I suppose we'll call that Plan B, then." Huffed Athena.

"Try Plan C, Plan A is to not have that thing manifest at all, to begin with." I insisted.

"Right. I guess we'll have to keep an eye out for anything that might look like it's going to break the seal. I just wish I knew more about what exactly that looked like." Groused Athena.

"We'll figure it out. In the meantime, we should head back to the table. Your boyfriend's been shooting me dirty looks for a couple of minutes now when he thinks I can't see, and Chin Sifu's not exactly the sort of person you want to leave unsupervised in a Bar for too long if you catch my drift." I remarked.

"Boyfriend? Do you mean Kensou? He's not my boyfriend. I'm not into him like that. He's just a good friend." Protested Athena.

"Yeah? Does he know that? I ask because those weren't the sort of looks you get shot by good friends." I intoned.

"I mean, I knew he had a crush, but talking about it is so awkward. Like, how do you tell someone like that you see them as a brother and not like, you know?" Sighed Athena.

"I don't know. I've never had to do that before. I do know from observation of a similar group dynamic from the outside that it'll cause issues sooner or later, though. Whatever you're going to say, you should say it before the Tournament starts." I advised.

"Great. One more thing to deal with." Grumbled Athena.

And with that, she made her way out of the bar and back over toward the table that Chin Gentsai and Sie Kensou were seated at. For my part, however, I wasn't heading back there just yet. I still had half a beer to finish before I did, after all. As I took another sip of my Penn Pavels Ale, the blonde Guy in the Trucker Hat and sleeveless jacket looked over at me and snorted. I could see the amusement dancing in his eyes at the relationship drama the group I'd landed in seemed to be having. He tossed a mocking, two-fingered, salute my way with a shit-eating grin on his face. Better you than me seemed to be what he was going for there.

For my part, I had to wonder just how the Hell I kept winding up in groups with enough pre-existing baggage to qualify as a daytime soap opera. Were my Patrons really that amused by sticking me into all this teenage drama? Of course, being who I was and what I was, it wasn't exactly like I had the best frame of reference for such things. My experience was effectively limited to the Sunnydale Group, though as far as I was concerned, that was practically a doctoral qualification for teenage drama management. Maybe that's what my Patrons found amusing enough to keep plopping me in these situations? I wasn't sure. Draining the rest of my beer, I slapped a couple of bills down on the bartop and headed back toward the table to face the inevitable music.

Lucky me. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, so here we have a bit of a heart-to-heart between Ulysses and Athena. Ulysses' tastes in music have been refined into a more coherent philosophy, so that's neat. Unfortunately, Sie Kensou canonically has an unrequited crush on Athena, who canonically sees him as more of a brother than a potential romantic partner, but hasn't broken that to him yet at this point in the series. More teenage drama for Ulysses is in store.

Other nineties stuff this chapter includes references to Penn Pavel's Ale from Malcolm in the Middle, Eric Draven and Hangman's Joke from the Crow, and Stillwater and Fever Dog from Almost Famous, which is a bit of a cheat since that came out in two thousand but took place in the seventies. Johnny Cage is from Mortal Kombat, while Red Apple Cigarettes are from a bunch of Quentin Tarantino movies, Bob Harris is from Lost in Translation, and finally, all the magic stuff with circles and namedropped spells are from Second Edition Dungeons and Dragons.

At any rate, the next chapter will involve group training with Athena and Kensou.

Stay tuned. . .