Pebble and the guardsmen were down.
Zhao Yao peered into the pet carriers that they had brought. In them were six unconscious supercats. Red Packet was among them. He decided that the best thing to do for now was to hide them all in the extradimensional belly.
When he stepped foot into the belly, his own supercats started calling for him desperately. They had been watching the warehouse keenly through the dimension doorway.
"Zhao Yao, Zhao Yao! Lightning has been taken away!" Matcha exclaimed.
"I know. Don"t worry, I got this," he replied coolly.
He studied the collar that sat on the base of Red Packet"s neck. He used the deflective field to give it a gentle squeeze, shattering it into pieces.
Next, he turned his attention to the rest of the sleeping supercats.
A red glow illuminated his eyes, "Time to compel them to take back whatever powers they"ve loaned to the Mao Gang."
Once that was taken care of, he headed for the doorway by the warehouse, phone in hand. There was no signal in that bas.e.m.e.nt store, but his other doorway opened into Faceless"s mansion, which kept him connected to his cellular network.
He considered what he was about to do next and felt that it was only right to give Ye Mei a heads-up first. He tapped on her contact, sending her a request for a video call.
Ye Mei accepted it within the first few rings. She sounded groggy and not at all pleased.
"h.e.l.lo? What"s going on? What"re you calling me up for?"
Zhao Yao adjusted his phone such that the camera was trained squarely on the scene outside the dimension doorway.
"This," he started, "Is where the Mao Gang is holding an auction -,"
His sentence was cut short by a loud gasp from Mei Ye.
"G.o.ddammit!" she hissed, "How did you end up there? What the h.e.l.l do you think you"re doing? If they found out that you somehow snuck in, you could be in a lot of trouble."
She had been disoriented just seconds before, but she was now fully awake and nursing a terrible headache. This idiot was a real pain.
"Didn"t I tell you to wait? The Mao Gang will find your cat for you. Why"d you go behind my back and pull this stunt?" she demanded, exasperation seeping from every pore.
Zhao Yao could not help but roll his eyes.
Bright lights began to pour from the doorway, completely obstructing Ye Mei"s view of the warehouse. When the lights were gone, she had a perfect view of the auction hall.
"The Mao Gang has gone rogue. This isn"t just any auction. Look around. These are apostles from dissentient factions all around the world. I"m pretty sure the authorities would never sanction something like this."
Ye Mei was quick to defend the people that she trusted, "What the heck are you talking about? The Mao Gang would never do that. This must be some kind of misunderstanding…"
Her words, which had tumbled out of her mouth so quickly and confidently, began to slow as she watched the video stream. She could only recognize five or six of the apostles in the auction hall, but that was enough to prove that Zhao Yao was telling the truth.
"Storm Organization...Ivory…Talon...even Star Cats. And Faceless!"
There was a sharp intake of air when she spotted her ally on the screen. When she spoke next, it was through gritted teeth, "Where are you? Hang in there. I"ll send backup right away."
"I don"t need backup," Zhao Yao replied, "I"m only calling you to give you a heads-up. I"m going to destroy the Mao Gang. Just help me clean up the mess when I"m done. Oh, one more thing. You can head to Faceless"s mansion in the meantime. I"ve left some of his cronies unconscious there. I"ll text you the address."
"Hey! What are you talking about? What are you thinking of doing? h.e.l.lo? h.e.l.lo?!"
Zhao Yao hung up. He switched off his phone as well for good measure. Then, he moved the doorway back to its original position by the warehouse.
Thanks to the diversion caused by Lightning, the auction was delayed and was only just about to begin. A group of employees was about to take the first supercat up the hall.
Zhao Yao let loose a wave of Five Senses Deprivation, instantly knocking out most of the supercats left in the bas.e.m.e.nt. A handful of them remaining standing. He had no idea how, but he needed to hurry them into the belly.
"Ares, Sphynx Cat," he called out, "Bring all of them in."
The two cats tore through the room like a couple of tigers, tossing cat after cat through the dimension doorway. Those who remained unconscious did not stand a chance against them. They were swiftly cuffed and flung in as well.
Zhao Yao nodded with satisfaction as the bas.e.m.e.nt began to empty. With the supercats safely out of the way, he could focus entirely on taking down the gang.
He had not thought about what he should do with the cats. It was impossible for him to take in so many of them, but he could not just set them loose right now. The result would be catastrophic.
He would come up with something once this was over.
"I"ll just ask the cats where they want to go," he decided for now.
While Zhao Yao robbed the auction of its cats, a covert operation was being put together in Ürümqi.
Ye Mei had changed out of her pajamas and was storming out of her house, screaming into her phone, "That man is insane! Just insane! Does he think he is an Avenger?"
She was on the phone with Old Wei, one of her supervisors. He was not as angry as she was, but he was obviously irked as well.
"Alright Ye Mei, calm down," he said, "Has he sent you the address?"
"I"ve just forwarded it to you. We must send a team there immediately. When that idiot gets caught, Faceless might get spooked and run. It"ll be an utter embarra.s.sment if he slips from our fingers."
The entire situation was nothing short of catastrophic. The department had placed their trust entirely in the Mao Gang and Faceless had played them for a fool. It was a ma.s.sive mistake. The only way to rectify it was to apprehend him.
"Okay, I"ve got the address," Old Wei paused for a moment, "Huh. It"s outside the autonomous region. I"ll send men over, but don"t get your hopes up. We don"t have jurisdiction there, so I can"t send the military, just some apostle officers. We might not be able to seize Faceless…"
Ye Mei did not say anything, but worry clouded her face. Both her and Old Wei felt that Daniel Wu had as good as signed his own death warrant.
On its own, the Mao Gang was powerful. They were, however, not alone. Apostles from the biggest factions were at the auction too. They made up an invincible force that necessitated a small army to tackle.
They had an army, but they could not send it to such a sensitive area. Even with the officer apostles as backup, there was no way they could defeat them all. The best they could do now was to evade everyone else and just bring Faceless back to headquarters.
Ye Mei had a very bad feeling that not many of them will return in one piece.
"G.o.d! Why can"t that sc.u.mbag just wait to strike when we"re back on home ground?" she spat into the phone, "I"m on my way too. Wait for me."
With that, she started rocketing towards the city, her legs moving as quickly as the pedals of a speedboat.