8. Eagle vs Dragon

The John F. Kennedy International Airport located in New York City caters to more than 19 million passengers a year. Its service areas provide its guests with conveniences while waiting for their scheduled flight. The passenger terminals are located in circular arrangement in the middle of the airport. Below grounds, machines work round the clock to provide support to the massive structure. In its bowels, three men stood frozen. Their gaze directed upon a small glow on their right amidst the concrete pillars, pipes, and metal structures.

The sound of something whipping through the air broke their silence. From the direction where the sound came from are two large curved swords spinning in the air like boomerangs. An ax thrown by a white American wearing a dark pin striped suit stopped one of the swords. The other one was diagonally parried by another American, an African-American, and spun towards the wall only to vanish in thin air much like the ax and the first sword.

The white American known as Nigel crossed his hands in front of him and drew two axes from thin air. His comrade, Lucas took a step to stand beside him holding his saber ready.

"Who the hell are you," demanded Nigel. "Show yourself!"

The soft steps of Kung Fu shoes can be heard as a man in black traditional Kung Fu uniform emerges from the dark holding two Chinese swords.

"I am Quan Tie," he introduced, "and I claim Mr. Junco."

"Like hell you are," said Lucas, advancing on the Chinese.

Quan stopped with his right foot leading his left, feet on 90 degree angles and shoulder width apart. His right hand holding the dao in front of him as his left hand held the other dao upright behind him, his left fist level and pressed against his lower back.

Lucas swung his right hand, palms up, horizontally to strike Quan in the chest.

Quan bent back while twisting his body to his right to avoid the strike while maintaining his stance. With fluidity, he raised the sword in his right then thrust at Lucas, his trailing left leg pushing his body forward while he bent his leading right leg.

Lucas' recovers the strike and parried the thrust with his saber while side stepping to his left. Once he had pushed the sword some distance away from him, he reversed his hand movement to strike Quan in the neck.

Quan bent his head to his left while Lucas' saber whizzed through barely grazing his ear. He then moved his trailing left foot wide diagonally to his left assuming a crouching position while reversing the blade of his sword to face his black opponent and swing it toward his opponent's abdominal area.

Nigel saw and opening and stepped forward, his right hand raised to slam his ax on the Chinaman's neck.

Quan recovered from his strike and pulled his body with his left foot while sliding his right along the floor just in time for the ax to pass inches from his heard. He continued his movement sliding his right foot behind his left foot as Nigel turned to swing his ax-wielding left hand horizontally to the Chinese.

The Chinese bent his body on his waist to avoid the ax while twisting his right hand by the wrist to move his sword blade from his right hand side toward his left, the face of the blade resting on his left shoulder, cutting edge pointed leftward. He then swung his right hand toward Nigel who jumped back away from him toward his right.

As Nigel moved, Lucas came into view. His hand no longer holding a saber but held in front of him, his fingers extended and apart. His other hand is held in the same way as if holding a battering ram pushed against him. Light flowed from both his arms towards his hands.

"Shockwave," yelled Lucas and pushed his hands forward as a ripple of air escaped from them and hurtled toward the Chinese.

Caught off-guard, Quan only had time to cross his arms in front of him and braced for impact. The impact threw him off toward the pipes and machinery behind him. The Chinese crashed through them, his head banging on a pipe running horizontally.

The two Americans paused and observed. Waiting for something to happen. Then they heard footsteps scurrying up the steps.

Nigel and Lucas both looked at the direction of the noise saw their target, JJ Junco clambering up the stairs.

"Stop him," Nigel shouted toward Lucas who as nearer to the escaping Filipino.

Lucas took a step forward with his left foot, held his hands together, fingers curled close, his left hand palms down while his right hand was held palms up. Both hands were held together, his left index finger and thumb next to his right pinkie. He then pulled his right hand toward his back while pushing his left hand a few inches forward. Light crawled from his arms as a rod of light formed between the separating hands. A spear with metal edge and iron rod materialized from the rod of light. As his right hand reached its farthest point backward, Lucas released the hold of his left hand on the spear, slid his left foot about four inches forward and heaved the spear toward the fleeing JJ.

Just then, a sai flew through the air, catching the spear between its main center prong and its tsuba -- one of the two unsharpened shorter prongs. The force the sai was thrown was so great that the spear was pushed away from its trajectory. Both weapons vanished in thin air.

"As you Americans say," a voice from the dark said. "It is not over until the fat lady sings," Quan continued as he emerged from the dark patting dirt from his clothes.

"The hell with the fat lady," Nigel sighed as he rushed toward the Chinese. Behind him, Lucas produced another saber and started after Nigel.