March 1932: Black Blood of the Earth

Doc Caliban sends his people to bring Egg Shen, a Chinese fleeing the Japanese Imperium, to the Continental's offices. In Chinatown, Egg is snatched by Chinese with super-strength, who throw him around like a baseball and jump between buildings with the greatest of ease.

Claire almost rescues Egg Shen, but hits the pavement a little too hard and loses him. Brutes attack Claire, George and Melody, but Melody sets one on fire and Claire teleports another halfway into a concrete wall.

Francis' car chases the kidnappers, eventually crashing into the kidnappers' van in a dead-end alley in Chinatown. Many Chinese gangsters are waiting for them, displaying Brute powers and martial arts skills in abundance.

Dex lands and takes one out, then gets in a karate duel with a Brute. The Brute tears Francis' machine guns out of his armored car and swats Dex with them, but Dex is able to hit him with a capacitor bomb, then another, then ANOTHER, and the Brute finally goes down.

Many karate guys jump around and kick the car into scrap, but somehow Francis stays alive until his buddies get there. Melody hits a Brute with flames, but he's tough enough to survive it. He isn't tough enough to survive being knocked backward by the flames into a fireworks factory, though. Boom!

George and Melody hit one of the Brutes at the same moment, overcoming his toughness. Everyone is down but the good guys ....

Then a bystander flexes hard enough to shred his shirt, revealing smooth, oddly shiny skin over massive muscles. Thunder crashes, green lightning flares, and his eyes glow green.

Then this man waits for someone to take him on. George tries hitting him with lightning, but this guy looks offended and takes control of the storm.

"He's a Brute ... and a Weatherman ... and wait, he just Traveled," says Francis, taking notes.

The guy yells something in Chinese, but Egg Shen replies, "The storm is not yours alone, Thunder! It serves the positive furies of the universe!" and he throws a sapphire into the air. It brings down a really big lightning bolt, which does not bother Thunder one bit. He shouts, a wave of sound knocking Egg Shen into an alley, followed closely by Ham.

Claire thinks she recognizes the oddly smooth sheen of Thunder's skin. It looks like skin that's less than one hour old: brand-new skin, smooth as a baby's cheek. She remembers that one other person with skin like that can't survive being Traveled, so she takes a deep breath and Travels with Thunder to Alcatraz.

Thunder's molecules come apart in a cloud of green mist and one hellacious boom.

Later, Egg Shen explains that the gangsters were Lords of Death, the junior members of a very old Chinese gang, the Wing Kong Society. Thunder is one of the Three Storms, three spirits who can be commanded by a master of Taoist alchemy and sorcery. The others are Rain and Lightning.

Thunder will be able to be re-summoned into a new body on the new moon, two weeks from now. Until then, only two more Storms survive ... plus the Brutes of the Wing Kong, who have started drinking the Black Blood of the Earth to gain their powers. And whoever summoned the Three Storms, who must be a mightier and more learned wizard than Doc Caliban himself ...

Sources:
Everyone in this episode is from Big Trouble in Little China.