I do not own the rights to the other image in this story.
This is the fourth episode of the nine-part series, Wu-Tang vs. AI. This is purely fan fiction, so of course, the events, actions and dialogue in this story are completely fictional. Catch up on Episode I here, Episode II here and Episode III here.
In the third episode, the Wu-Tang Clan’s attempts to strengthen the defenses of its fortress was thwarted by its enemy’s explosive technology. Elsewhere, GZA and Cappadonna attempted to keep up appearances with a show at Chicago’s Concord Music Hall, but their performance was interrupted by a violent artificial intelligence attack in which Cappadonna was nabbed by an android. Back at the fortress, U-God and Masta Killa were also taken, with a note promising more abductions to come.
Now, GZA is on his way to join Raekwon, Ghostface Killah and YDB on their journey in China’s Rainforest of Xishuangbanna to seek wisdom from the All-Seeing Eye. Meanwhile, RZA must deal with the legal blowback from AI’s assault on the Concord, while Method Man and Inspectah Deck seek battle alliances with Wu-Tang Killa Bees. And Masta Killa, Cappadonna and U-God are contending with the confusion of captivity….
Masta Killa was disoriented. From the moment the Wu-Tang Clan had learned that the Golden Record had been stolen, he thought the culprits must have been running a supremely coordinated effort to pull off something elaborate and dastardly. But since he’d been blindfolded, gagged and tied up at his hands and ankles, he felt as though he was going in circles.
He didn’t know where U-God was or if there were other captives, though sometimes he thought he heard the muffled screams of Cappadonna on the other side of what must have been a very thick wall.
The stone steps felt cold on his feet as he was led up and down to eat and go to the bathroom a few times per day. He strained his ears in an attempt to hear something – anything – that would give away what was going on beyond the darkness. But aside from intelligible whispers and frequent clangs of metal, he couldn’t make anything out.
He’d resigned himself to behaving robotically while waiting for any sliver of a chance to break free or fight back. During one of the trips to the bathroom, he had such a moment. He was being led by a sleek hand up the steps when all of a sudden he had to sneeze. He stopped and sneezed into the gag, which caused the hand gripping his arm to push him forward as he heard the sound of someone tripping on the steps.
As Killa fell, the side of his head banged painfully against the edge of one of the steps. He collided with such a force that the air-tight gag was jostled from his mouth, and as his head bounced off the step, his blindfold slipped ever so slightly.
As blood trickled out of the right side of his head, he saw something with his right eye that terrified him to his very soul. He knew he was screaming, but he couldn’t hear anything above the ringing in his ears.
The city always looked marvelous from up there.
RZA sat on the roof of an apartment building of his youth in Staten Island, and pondered the fate of the group. The Wu-Tang Clan had weathered so much throughout the decades: The HOT 97 ban, internal quarrels and external beefs, federal investigations, and Ason’s death. But now, with three members captive and four others traversing dangerous territory, could they really survive? Could this be the trial that brought down the Wu-Tang Clan?
RZA’s worries evaporated into the view. He could see Brooklyn from where he was sitting, and he thought of his cousin and smiled. The corners of his mouth felt heavy, and he realized he hadn’t smiled about anything in days. Dirty would be absolutely fearless in this situation. Hell, he’d probably try to win over the androids with doobies and dance moves. If that didn’t work, he’d try to find enough dynamite to blow up half a country.
RZA shook his head and chuckled to himself. He only had a handful of regrets in his life, mostly due to how thoughtful and calculated he was in his moves. But sometimes, just sometimes, he wished he had a dash of his cousin’s reckless, courageous zeal.
“Enjoying the view?”
RZA turned around to see FBI Agent McGinley, dressed in a Target suit, standing smugly before him with his hands in his pockets.
RZA’s expression went blank.
“How’d you get up here?” he asked.
“Fire escape,” McGinley said. “Not nearly as easy as Raekwon makes it sound.”
For you, maybe, RZA thought, but he kept his face expressionless as he stood up.
“I take it by your lack of surprise that you know why I’m here,” McGinley said.
“Do I have the right to remain silent?” RZA asked coolly.
“You can always stay silent, Robert,” McGinley said. “But it behooves you to speak up.”
RZA just stared. The FBI had been on the Wu-Tang so many times for so many bogus reasons over the years, so working with them was not on his to-do list.
“Heard you and your boys livened up your show a bit,” McGinley said. “Fans getting tired of throwing their ‘W’s’ up?”
He punctuated his question with a smirk and a quiet, “Suuuuuuu.”
“Say what you came to say,” RZA said.
“Again,” McGinley said. “It’s not me who needs to say anything. One dead, seven injured at a Wu–Tang show with the ceiling blasted open by who-knows-what kind of firepower? That’s bold even for you guys.”
“Autopsy on that body come back?” RZA asked. “I haven’t seen anything about it in the papers.”
“You’re still reading the papers, Robert?” McGinley asked. “And here I thought Bobby Digital was all about progression.”
“I like the crosswords,” RZA said. “But you didn’t answer my question.”
“I think you already know,” McGinley said.
“Then you know that wasn’t a real body,” RZA said. “So you know it wasn’t us who caused those people to get hurt, or the ceiling of the Concord to get messed up.”
McGinley gave a small, amused smile and opened his palms.
“Sure,” he said. “But I wonder; what would make someone send deadly androids after you? And why should the American public be the collateral damage of your chaos?”
“Again, you’re pointing fingers in the wrong direction,” RZA said.
“Then where should I point them?”
RZA stared steely eyed and pursed his lips ever so slightly.
McGinley’s eyes flashed wide.
“You really don’t know?” he said, grinning toothily. “Carruthers is gonna love this. He always said you’d come up empty one day. What happened, the fellas at Langley stonewall you?”
RZA raised his eyebrows. McGinley’s face darkened.
“So they don’t–”
RZA shook his head. McGinley let out a long, low whistle.
“Murderous androids don’t just fall out of the sky,” McGinley said. “You must have some sort of lead.”
“And if I do?” Robert said.
“Your cousin’s on the run,” McGinley said. “I’m sure you saw the headline. ‘Nationwide manhunt for Wu-Tang rappers GZA and Cappadonna.’ So far, the manhunt is three guys playing Tetris on their phones in a corner office. I told the boss I’d talk to you about it before we ramped things up. You know, since we go back a ways.”
“You’ve got nothing on either of them,” RZA said flatly. “How ‘bout you spend that time trying to figure out who’s behind this? You know, instead of wasting millions of taxpayer dollars on a baseless investigation into us that goes nowhere- again.”
“C’mon, Robert,” McGinley said, taking a few steps toward RZA. “You know as well as I do that those taxpayers know what they need to know. And what they don’t need to know is anything about androids attacking public events and getting the conspiracy nuts all riled up. But somebody’s gotta take the fall for Concord.”
“You mean like James Earl Ray took the fall for J. Edgar Hoover?” RZA said.
McGinley’s eyes narrowed as he let out a single chuckle.
“Hoover never did go down for that, did he?” he said.
RZA stared back calmly.
“You have five days,” McGinley said, and he walked over to the edge of the roof and disappeared down the fire escape from whence he came.
“This bed stinks.”
Method Man and Inspectah Deck sat on cots in a dim basement in Harlem, with nothing but the sound of a leaky pipe dripping water into a bucket to keep them company. Deck wrinkled his nose in disgust.
“Yeah, well, shorty was always the earthy type,” Meth grinned. “But hey, you always said you wanted to go to the mattresses.”
Deck laughed. Meth’s unfailing sense of humor was the fuel they needed in such dire times. They were holed up in the house of a woman whom Meth had dated years before his fame. She didn’t like him, but she loved him, and for some strange reason that made her one of the few people who Meth could trust outside their circle. He guessed it was because she was always honest with him. She simply didn’t know how to be anything but real.
But she was gone for the day, and the Deck and Meth were hard at work. Deck had a piece of paper in his hand with the names of all confirmed battle allies written on it.
“So let’s see, we got Power coming with the armor, Divine with the bankroll for heavy firepower, and Redman with the food and water.”
“He get the HoHos?” Meth asked.
“How am I supposed to know that?” Deck said indignantly.
“I’m just saying, make sure you tell him to refrigerate them,” Meth insisted. “They ain’t the same from the cupboard.”
“All right, I got you,” Deck said.
Meth looked at him expectantly.
“What?” Deck asked.
“Write it down,” he said.
Deck snorted, but scribbled a reminder about refrigerated HoHos onto the paper.
“Do you think GZA will get to Rae and them in the rainforest in time?” Deck asked.
“I don’t know,” Meth said. “I hope he doesn’t get caught, either.”
They sat in silence for a few moments.
“Yo, Meth,” Deck said. “What do you think happened to all them after they got captured?”
Meth looked at Deck with unsteady eyes, refusing to let his mind go to the worst-case scenario. Deck, regretting the question, refocused them.
“OK, so for Killa Bees…,” he started. “We got 1st Black Republic, 2nd Generation Wu, 71Raw, A.I.G., American Cream Team, Ancient Coins, Armor of God, Babylon Warchild, Tha Beggas, Black Brigade, Black Lotus, Black Market Militia, Black Rose Kartel, Black Techs, Black W.A.S.P., Brooklyn Zoo, C.C.F. Division, Crooks of Da Round Table, Da Monstar Mob, Deadly Venoms, Gravediggaz, Gunslingas, Harlem 6, Homicidal Committee, Iron Empire, Lin Brotherz, Maccabeez, North Star, The Odd Couple, Orphanage, Premium Plus, Ruthless Bastards, Sahara, Shadow Government, Shaolin Soldiers, The Shield Enforcers, Team Napalm, Thug Vatican, Two 4 War, West Coast Killa Beez, Wisemen, Yellow Jacketz and Zu Ninjaz.”
Meth smiled.
“I like that there,” he said. “Helluva job, man.”
Deck put the paper down and triumphantly dapped up his brother. But then Meth thought of something that wiped the smile off his face.
“What?” Deck asked.
“What if Divine can’t get what we need?” Meth posed. “You know, with inflation and all.”
“OK, first of all, it’s price gouging,” Deck said. “Second, inflation on military firepower? Where do you think he’s getting it, Wal-Mart?”
“Either way,” Meth said. “This stuff doesn’t come cheap. And with all we’ve had to spend already….”
“I know,” Deck said.
Meth rested his chin on his folded hands and looked down, deep in thought.
“I mean…there’s always…,” he mused.
“What?” Deck asked.
Meth looked up. Comprehension dawned on Deck’s face.
“Oh, no,” Deck said. “No way he’d go for that.”
Meth shrugged.
“I could ask him.”
Four hours later, Meth found himself sitting across from his old nemesis at a deli in Queens. Though these weren’t usual circumstances, the man sitting across from him usually didn’t do things this way. And only because Meth had impressed his urgency onto the man – and went to the meeting alone – did the man even consider a sit-down.
Meth knew the headlines about Cappadonna and GZA couldn’t have hurt, either. Curtis Jackson was always the curious type.
Meth munched on a BLT. Across from him, 50 Cent sat with one arm stretched out on top of the booth seat as he calmly sipped ice water.
“You hungry?” Meth asked.
“The fight starts in an hour,” 50 said coolly. “My grandfather’s waiting.”
Meth swallowed the last of his bite.
“OK, then,” he said. “I’ll get right to it. You’ve seen the news, heard what happened at Concord.”
50 gave a small nod, refusing to drop his stoic demeanor.
“It’s not what it looks like,” Meth said.
“Figured that,” 50 said. “But what’s that got to do with me?”
Meth leaned in.
“Look, man, we got history,” he said.
“We do,” 50 said.
“Not the good kind,” Meth said. “But right now nobody on my side is worried about “How to Rob,” or anything that came after it. We got took for real.”
50 arched an eyebrow.
“Your vault?” he inquired.
“Nah,” Meth said. “Something more valuable.”
By the look on 50’s face, Meth knew he understood it was about music. Finally, 50 broke his stony exterior.
“That’s not cool,” he said quietly, and he took his arm off the booth.
“Whoever did that, was behind the android attack at Concord,” Meth said.
“Androids?” 50 asked.
Meth looked at him with a seriousness he usually only reserved for his Wu brothers and blood family. 50 raised his eyebrows.
“The powers that be,” 50 said.
“No, actually,” Meth said, and 50’s eyebrows raised even higher. “They’re stumped, too.”
“Then who?” 50 asked.
“We don’t know yet,” Meth said.
50 waved him off, regaining his chill.
“So lemme get this right,” he said. “You want me to help you against someone, and you don’t even know who it is?”
“We don’t know who,” Meth said. “But we do know what. And if they started with music, where do you think they’ll go next, huh?”
50 considered this for a moment.
“You got a new TV deal with HBO, right?” Meth asked. “$200 mil?”
50 looked at Meth. Meth leaned in further and looked 50 dead in the eye.
“Fif’, man,” he said. “They want to replace us.”
After a long moment, 50 let out a heavy sigh.
“So what can I do?” he asked.
Meth took a sip of his own glass of water.
“You still got those Algerian contacts?”
The Rainforest of Xishuangbanna was stiflingly humid. After two days, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah and YDB thought they were no closer to the All-Seeing Eye than they’d been when they entered the forest. Worse still, they began to suspect they were going in circles.
“Man, it’s so hot!” Ghost said. “We should stop and rest for a minute.”
“We have to keep going,” Rae said resolutely.
YDB nodded in agreement with Rae. Ghost shook his head and heaved a sigh.
“All I want right now,” he said. “Is some ziti with meatballs. But I’d settle for a cabin to sleep in.”
“Hey, Winnie-the-Pooh,” Rae said. “This ain’t Hundred Acre Wood. We’re in the middle of the rainforest”
“I’m just sayin’,” Ghost said. “A nice cabin, a moth-eaten sofa to cool my bare buttcheeks would be beautiful right now.”
“Man, stop trying to be like Cappadonna!” Rae said.
No sooner had Rae utter Cappadonna’s name than a treetop exploded in flames. But this time, the trio was prepared. They held their steel-penetrating swords at the ready as androids landed around them. But these robots were bigger, faster and stronger than the ones that had met them outside the rainforest. And they had swords of their own; with one slice, an android shattered Ghost’s sword into thousands of particles.
Rae wasted no time. He dropped his sword, pulled three sticks of dynamite from his backpack and lit them. He dropped the dynamite.
“Run.”
Rae, Ghost and YDB sprinted between the trees as the blast behind them exploded the androids into oblivion. But just as they were blown to smithereens, more and more androids kept shooting down from the sky. They stampeded towards the trio from all directions.
With nowhere to escape a blast, Rae dropped the backpack and abandoned the dynamite. Ghost bull-rushed the androids, plowing two of them into a tree. Meanwhile, YDB leapt in the air and let off a flurry of Mortal Kombat-style air kicks, knocking robots to the ground. Rae, donning gold knuckles, was walloping any inch of metal he could get his hands on.
But there were too many. As Ghost wrestled with an android, Rae found himself pulled to the ground. YDB turned just in time to see him being swarmed, and sprinted toward him. YDB once more leapt into the air, this time pulling off punch-kick combos on the androids.
Mere feet away, Rae struggled with all his might, breaking free with his left arm and knocking an android back with his feet. But three more androids grabbed him and dragged him along the ground. YDB landed and dove toward Rae, clutching his ankles in a valiant attempt to pull him back.
But the androids were too strong, yanking Rae with such force that he was lifted off the ground. His head banged into a tree trunk and he was knocked unconscious as his ankles slipped from YDB’s grasp. YDB watched helplessly as the androids gripping Rae shot up toward the sky and disappeared above the treetops.
No sooner had YDB scrambled to his feet than an android socked him in the face, his head thudding to the earth and blurring his vision. Ghost, who had finally dispatched of the wrestling android, was sprinting toward YDB to save him.
The android stood over YDB, its sword held high, poised to plunge the tip of its weapon into YDB’s heart. But a deafening roar caught the android off guard, and a second later an Asian black bear charged into the android and slammed it to the earth.
Suddenly, the area was swarming with Asian black bears. With a jolt of excitement, Ghost remembered Phil’s words.
The Asian black bear is your friend.
Ghost reached a hand down and pulled YDB up, and then they joined the fray, fighting side by side with the bears as they ripped the androids limb from limb. Ghost thought he saw a third person swinging their fists amidst the chaos, but he couldn’t be sure.
One thing was certain: Never had there been such bear-driven pandemonium, and the androids began to let out actual screams as they faced the agonizing wrath of the fearless, furry warriors. When it was all over, the scene was C-3PO’s worst nightmare, with smoking pieces of androids strewn all over the forest floor.
One of the bears turned to Ghost, jerked her head up, and let out a friendly, high-pitched roar that would have made Chewbacca proud. Then, she and her cohorts rumbled off into the darkness, leaving Ghost and YDB to catch their breaths amidst a smoky haze.
As the smoke cleared, there stood the third figure: GZA, panting, with a tear in his sleeve and blood oozing from a nasty wound, but with a triumphant grin on his face.
“How-” Ghost started.
“-Did you find us?” YDB finished.
GZA held up a finger as if to scold them.
“A true warrior, like hot tea, shows his strength in hot water,” GZA said.
Ghost looked at him.
“You broke into Phil’s house and he had a map lying around, didn’t he?”
GZA looked down.
“Maybe,” he muttered.
Ghost grinned and stepped toward his friend with his arms wide open. GZA leaned into his embrace, and the two laughed as they patted each other on their backs. When they let go, GZA turned to YDB and put his hands on his shoulders.
“You fought bravely,” he said, but YDB hung his head.
“I let Rae go,” he said. “I had his ankles, but they were too strong. I couldn’t-”
He stopped as his voice broke. He turned away, too ashamed to let his uncles see the hot tears streaming down his face. Ghost pulled him back to face them with a gentle smile, and GZA shook his head.
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts,” GZA said.
He looked sideways at Ghost.
“That one’s legit,” GZA said.
GZA brought Ghost and YDB up to speed about everything that had happened back home, while Ghost and YDB filled GZA in on what had happened to Phil. Though the mood was grim, the desperation of the situation only strengthened their resolve. They walked for another hour or so in what they hoped was the right direction, thinking the darker the rainforest became, the closer they were.
“You know,” GZA said at one point during their walk. “There’s one thing I don’t get. If the androids are trying to capture all of us, why was the one going to kill YDB? And why did the other one chuck a grenade at y’all outside the forest? Doesn’t make sense, right?”
Ghost shook his head knowingly.
“Unless,” he said. “They’re developing their own agendas.”
They shuddered from a chill that had nothing to do with the dropping temperatures of the night air.
YDB was honored that Ghost and GZA trusted him to keep watch that night as they slept. Ghost snored louder than a mama bear’s roar, but YDB’s confidence was restored by their faith in him. The moonlight shone just brightly enough through the trees that he could see several yards ahead of him as he sat against a tree trunk. A few times, he heard rustling, but nothing ever materialized.
He was just thinking they might as well continue on when it appeared.
A clouded leopard, eyes wide as it walked toward him in the moonlight.
YDB scrambled to his feet.
“Ghost!” he shouted. “GZA!”
Immediately, the two sprang from slumber into action. But they were stopped at the sight of the leopard, which had a peculiar, calming presence to it.
It stopped just feet away from YDB and stared at him for a long moment. YDB stared back, and could have sworn he’d seen those eyes before….
The leopard jerked his head behind him, turned around and walked in the opposite direction. The trio looked at one another, silently agreeing to cautiously follow him.
They walked for what could have been hours as they made their way deeper into the dark rainforest. But at the same time, it felt like time had ceased to exist. They heard no sounds and saw no creatures, as if there was some sort of invisible, moving wall protecting them on all sides.
Finally, the clouded leopard stopped at a small evergreen bush and pawed at it seven times. A moment later, the ground beneath the bush opened, and a glow from below illuminated a hole that led to some sort of under-earth slide to a destination unknown.
The leopard turned and looked at each one of them expectantly. Then, it slunk into the shadows and vanished noiselessly. One by one, they understood.
This was it. The Dwelling of the All-Seeing Eye.