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GatorJH leaps from his desk with a fire blazing in his eyes that seemingly casts the entire room in a red-orange glow. His hands firmly grip an axe that measures as tall as each of Gator’s six feet, with a double-bladed half-moon crescent head that serves no practical purpose but ornament and execution.
As Gator eyes down his prey, Hoopy and OngBonga leap to either side of the seated daven, restraining his hands behind his back and his head against the desk. Bigred is there.
Wufwugy leans back in his chair taking in the scene. With a smirk, “And with that, this council has condemned daven, the last of the Dragon’s men, to die.”
The axe arcs high above Gator’s head and with a deep whistle slices through the air, flesh, cartilage, and bone.
The Old Dragon coughs and wheezes and he scrambles to escape. Hoopy and OngBonga once again leap to the side of the prey and grapple him by each arm. Bigred is still there.
“No!” He screams, “I can help you! I am an asset to you!”
“His fear is so palpable I can almost taste it on the air.” Wufwugy grins. “What should we do with him?”
Hoopy and OngBonga look to GatorJH, each expecting the same response.
Gator pries the axe from the table in one violent tug and struts toward the Old Dragon. As the axehead pulls back through the air, rehearsing its deadly stroke, Bigred grabs the shaft with both hands.
“Out of the way, Gator boy, I’ll take it from here. What is a Gator anyway? Nothing but a Croc that never leaves the swamp. That’s stupid. Get a job!”
The struggle that follows gives the Old Dragon the moment’s opportunity to break free of the lax grip of Hoopy and OngBonga and fall backwards. As he hits the ground, he slaps his hand against a tile and the floor opens to reveal a hole. As almost instinct, he rolls into the gap and disappears.
“Watch your step.” Wufwugy muses.
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After the death of The Old Dragon, the assets managed by the board experienced a period of recession and instability as the Four Dragons engaged in a new battle for authority over the choicest sectors of their holdings and supremacy of the board.
GatorJH, appointed to the board from his position as the chief executive officer of the Vatican Bank, claimed full authority over all of the financial arms of the Board. Using this vast wealth he formed the first international bank of Hong Kong which immediately leveraged Hong Kong authorities to act as the central bank for the special administrative region to the People’s Republic of China. To further solidify the position, the bank immediately became the chief international financial tool of the Saudi Ruling Family; extending them credit to finance huge investments in the American energy market, to purchase and expand Saudi military strength, and to cover entitlement expenses to the Saudi people.
Wufwugy, appointed to the board from his position as chief technologies officer of an Israeli private weapon systems firm, seized onto any venture within the Board’s holdings which interfaced with the physical world. He sought to integrate technologies into as many projects as he could bring under his authority. Farmlands in India saw construction of farm towers of with rotating plants of genetically modified crops. Fisheries across the Pacific islands were closed down and their assets diverted to construction of fully sustaining fish farms. Electricity producers across Latin America lobbied for and acquired huge construction investments for new electrical grids.
OngBonga, appointed to the board from his position as CEO of a commodities trading firm Glencore, took hold of all aspects of trade before the Board. His position quickly evolved into insurance and speculation on the commodities trade. Within a short period, the Board was insuring 80% of all commodity shipments the world wide. And when the world’s trade of chocolate was made scarce on the back of four major shipments sinking mysteriously within a two week period, it was OngBonga who was well positioned with an enormous investment in chocolate prices.
Bigred was there. He wrote haikus.
Hoopy, appointed to the board from his position as sex trade mogul in Amsterdam, grew his own wing of the Board by seizing up assets in various shipping companies; re-purposing them for the sex and slave trades. In a world with no shortage of people who see the grass as being much greener just over there, Hoopy was ready to take full advantage. Whether he was supplying slave soldiers for war chiefs in the tribal world or young girls to Arizona to fill pimp’s rosters and populate the many street corners of Pheonix, Hoopy was able to fill the need.
In the years that followed, the Board and its holdings experienced degradation on the back of both political instabilities and political stabilities across the world. Governments and businesses sought to expose or destroy the Board on innumerate fronts, while revolutions and human rights movements aimed to unseat the Board on innumerate other fronts. There was even a growing fanatical religious group following the word of a living deity which seemed to the Four Dragons completely focused on destroying the assets of the Board. The holdings of the Board themselves began to buck the authority of their mysterious overseers; refusing to follow instruction from shadowy figures that never show up and glad hand the small folk. The mounting external pressures and growing internal tensions forced the Board to expand from the Four Dragons to two dozen in number. Though, even these steps did not alleviate the stressors that plagued Board. Though, Bigred’s dramatic and theatrical haiku readings did help some.
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Originally Posted by wufwugy
