Sometimes life is a comedy in errors. Sometimes life is the roll of dice and it all lands in your favor. People play it off to fate; but maybe, just maybe, they should play it off to karma. You get out what you put in and in his long life Wu Long had put in very little that would warrant a continued good payoff. He had used his long life, inherited riches, and general all around slimy nature to build a very nice crime empire. His favorite means of bankrolling being drug trafficking (profitable in any century, one man's opium is another man's crack), prostitution and black market slavery (hasn't gone out of style yet) and selling one country's secrets to another (another stellar all time best seller). He had acquired over the eons many enemies but they had all met with unfortunate circumstances and for the most part he considered them annoying pest to be squished under foot for entertainment purposes. There was one, however, that he hadn't been able to squish, Viper. He couldn't squish him because he couldn't lay his scaly hands on him. The covert operative had a knack for killing his men, thwarting his plans, and leaving the scene with only the scent of his herbal cigarettes hanging in the air.

The operative was currently hanging out in a tree not to far from Wu Longs' bedroom window lip reading the conversation he was having with his valet. Viper wasn't a very large man weighing in at about 125 pounds and standing only 5"3 in his bare feet. With his grey eyes hidden behind dark lenses he didn't look like a threat and he had a tendency not to leave any witnesses to his exploits to say otherwise. He watched through night lenses and felt a sense of shock at seeing his favorite blond cousin being pulled up on Wu Long's computer, especially in context to the conversation he was reading. Alan knew Wu Long was more or less than human depending on your point of view. He had been briefed on him years ago before taking on the assignment. You just got used to strange and unusual things in his line of work. Now it seems his cousin Leon was involved with the demi-god Wu Long felt belonged to him. Alan shook his head in the dark. It was turning out to be a small, small world after all. He watched Wu Long rant and rave about the whole situation, how dare he this and how dare he that and I'll kill him. Alan smiled at that. Leon was a lot harder to kill then appearances let on. Of course Wu Long chasing after his cousin would give him ample reason to drop a bullet in his scaly head and an even broader smile crossed his face at such a lovely thought.

Alan watched the Valet leave and focused back on Wu Long. The half dragon paced the length of his room muttering to himself. Alan knew most of the story already. Wu Long had been gearing up to claim the kami for quite sometime and unbeknownst to him Alan had been privy too much of his conversations and musings. Tonight though he was in an utter outrage over the interference of the kami's other family members (he was going to kill, skin, and disembowel them) and Leon having been intimate with him (Alan had to admit he was impressed with the usage of the "f" word). He kept on and on about knowing his name and even the kami didn't know his given name so there was no way he could stop him. It took awhile for Alan to piece it all together but when he did a sly grin crossed his face. Leon, ole boy, its time I pay you a visit Alan thought to himself. Wu Long knew the kami's name all right and now, Alan snickered to himself, so do I.

No one noticed the small compact body glide from tree to tree and cross over to an adjoining estate. Viper excelled at what he did as did his cousin Leon. He often thought about his beloved cousin and how his sense of justice would not allow him to follow in his footsteps. Leon had been offered on numerous occasions to join Viper but had declined not wanting to deal justice in the dark preferring to see the criminal stand trial in the bright light of day. They had fought about it; beat each other to a pulp as a matter of fact; but in the end had both respected the others wishes. Viper/Alan owed his cousin, in his mind at least, for being there for him when his immediate family had turned on him because of his sexual orientation. His grey eyes darkened briefly at the shattered glass of his memories. Leon, his parents, and their joint grand parents had had to save him from a life of abuse and cruelty. It was a debt he'd never thought to be able to repay until now and thanked the karma that had brought him the opportunity to give something back to Leon. He blew a warm fragrant puff of smoke in the air from his cigarette packed with herbs instead of tobacco. If Leon wanted the kami, then Leon would have the kami and that, as far as he was concerned, was that. His motorcycle tore off into the night towards the city headed for Leon's apartment.