He spoke to me between bites of linguine with pesto sauce. Li Cheng was stocky, but took care to eat daintily, at each turn using a napkin to wipe the corners of his fleshy face. He wore a white silk suit that was perfectly tailored to his bulky frame.

"Mr. Wayne, it is such a pleasure to finally meet you. Your name precedes you, with your continued support of education and the fine arts."

I groaned a little under the weight of Li Cheng's flattery, but I decided to play along. "Well, thank you, Li Cheng. It's nice to know someone appreciates my efforts." I took a sip of wine, which I savored.

"Yes..I know I certainly do." Cheng took another bite of linguine. "I love Italian cuisine, don't you? I could sing about the wonders of this pesto sauce."

I restrained myself from looking at my watch, but I had to go out on patrol tonight and wanted to get out of the restaurant soon. "Can we get to the point, Li Cheng? Why did you ask me to dinner?"

Li Cheng cleared his throat. I knew I had offended him slightly by getting to the point so soon, but I had a feeling that I knew what he was going to ask me for.

"Well, Mr. Wayne, as you know, I have been active in Gotham's Chinese-American community for almost 30 years, in business, in politics, and in other ways. Now, I want to reward those who have made me so successful." He crossed his hands and looked me directly in the eye. "Mr. Wayne, I would like to build a Chinese-American museum on the border of Chinatown and the Southwestern part of Gotham. This museum would show all who came the rich history of my people, from our origins in China to our success here in America."

Li Cheng had a pretty good idea. There was no such museum in existence in the Gotham borough, and it would help bring some understanding between Chinatown and the rest of Gotham. But I wanted to find out more specifics.

"How would this museum be different from the Asian American Arts Center, or The Asia Society's museum?"

Li Cheng's brow furrowed. "Very good question, Mr. Wayne. Our museum would..."

At that moment, four figures burst into the outdoor section of the restaurant. The leader was dressed in a black shirt with red silk slacks, and had a red bandana-mask that covered all but his black, fierce-eyes and raven hair. His cohorts wore black hoods, with normal street clothes completing their outfits.

He spoke in a snarling voice. "Li Cheng, we are here to bring you a message from Dr. Tzin-Tzin." Instantly he leapt across the table and knocked Li Cheng down to the ground. He stood on Li Cheng's neck as the large man struggled and tried to swear at his assailant. He then scooped up Li Cheng into the air by lifting his head up with his foot, and punched him six times in quick succession. Li Cheng lay on the restaurant floor, gasping.

I would have gotten up to fight, but everyone in the restaurant was watching. There would be lots of questions to answer if they found out that millionaire Bruce Wayne was able to tangle with kung fu experts. The other attackers kept an eye on me, ready to jump me if I came to Li Cheng's defense. I had to stay in my seat.

The head attacker spoke to Li Cheng once more. "This is how those who do not work with Tzin-Tzin are treated. You had the chance to join my master, and you declined. Now he will take over your operations by force. In an amazing move, he focused his chi, then directed it in one sudden blow to Li Cheng's spine. I could hear vertebrae breaking.

Silently, the kung fu master nodded to his cohorts, who gathered around them. One of them tossed a smoke bomb, and the air was filled with the coughing of the stunned restaurant patrons. From the next table, I could hear a toddler sobbing with fear.

I got up and ran to Li Cheng's side. Hopefully a hospital would be able to help him.

I generally left Chinatown alone in my patrols. I didn't have a lot of knowledge of the lives of the people who lived there, even though I had an avid interest in all Asian cultures, especially in the martial arts. I probably couldn't begin to figure out who was committing what crimes, or how the community was handling them, and they probably wouldn't have appreciated my interference.

But the sobbing of that child and the limp, unmoving form of Li Cheng on the floor of an expensive restaurant in South Gotham told me that the war between these factions was spilling out into parts of Gotham that were the Batman's responsibility to protect.

I knew I would get no answers from the police, nor from Li Cheng. When I called the hospital later, I found out later that two of his vertebrae had been shattered, and he had not yet regained consciousness. Obviously, I wasn't going to get any information out of him.

There was another way to find out, though.

"This was hand-delivered, sir. The messenger said it was very important." He placed the letter in my hand.

"I don't have time to read it now, Alfred. I've got a pressing case to crack!"

"Certainly, sir."

I headed into my study and turned the three statues that controlled the lock on the passageway down to the Batcave.

I asked Oracle if he had ever heard anything about any secret business dealings of Li Cheng, either in Gotham or in other places.

While I was waiting, I looked at the letter. It was from someone at the Sunnyland Nursing Home, about 10 miles outside of New York City. I didn't have any relatives in that home, and the letter didn't seem like part of a pledge drive, so I opened it. I began to read the scrawly handwriting in the letter when my e-mail notification beeped.

I had just received an encrypted e-mail from Oracle with the information I needed. I found out that Li Cheng had been suspected of running gambling, prostitution, and extortion rings in Gotham for some time, but no police investigation had come up with enough hard evidence to convict him. And this guy was asking me for money to help build his museum.

After asking Oracle a few more questions, I found out the names of some of Li Cheng's suspected underworld businesses. The kung fu attacker had said that Tzin-Tzin was going to take over Li Cheng's operations by force. I was going to be there to catch them doing it.

The entrance of the Luck Flower was guarded by three well-dressed, tough-looking men in dark sunglasses. I quietly climbed up the fire escape of the derelict building next door, which allowed me to peer down into the main gambling hall through the skylight.

It was a richly decorated place, with soft red walls and repeated Oriental designs bordering the walls. A number of well-dressed middle-aged men stood around a roulette wheel, placing their bets down. A pretty waterfall poured water into a small pond full of koi that lent an almost peaceful quality to the illegal activities going on down there. If I was lucky, Tzin-Tzin's men would strike here tonight.

And they did. I saw the same four attackers who attacked Li Cheng burst into the main gambling hall. I figured that the flurry of fighting would distract them from watching the roof, so I carefully jumped on to the roof of the Lucky Flower, and peered down through the skylight. The closer view revealed a battle going on below.

Five guards had rushed into the hall, brandishing Uzis. The black-hooded tough guys leapt at them, knocking the weapons from their hands. Bullets from more guards flew as Tzin-Tzin's crew dodged and attacked Li Cheng's henchmen. The gamblers and the others visiting the gambling hall poured out of any available exit, their winnings falling out of their pockets behind them. The screams of women intermingled with the groans of dying guards.

The shooting had suddenly stopped. The leader and two of the henchmen stood triumphantly in the center of the gambling hall. One of the henchmen had been shot during the fighting, and lay with his head in the koi pond. His blood mixed slowly with the gurgling pond water, turning it red.

Only the elderly but fierce casino manager stood against them oppose them. He shakingly brandished an ancient pistol as they chuckled at his weakness.

It was time for me to attack.

I smashed down through the glass of the skylight, my flowing cape slowing my descent to the gambling hall floor.

The kung fu master snarled at me. "Get out of here, gweilo. This isn't your fight."

I stood my ground in front of him. "Well, I think it is. Your attacks stop here and now." My defiance of the attackers gave the casino owner a chance to run for help.

The leader stared at me with harsh black eyes. "Then you will die for your interference!" he shouted.

One henchman rush-attacked me from the left, but I rolled with his attack, and flung him into the wall. The other one did a somersault and then a flying kick, but I ducked his attack and he flew off to land on the floor. I rushed him, temporarily paralyzing him with a kick to the spinal column.

The kung fu master had been sizing me up during my battle with his two henchmen.

"You're good..for a gweilo. Those two were amateurs compared to me. Let me show you what real kung fu looks like."

We sized each other up, both of us using the time to look for weaknesses in the other and to gather up energy. My opponent doffed his shirt, brushing his mask aside as he did so. Out of respect for this martial artist, I took off my cape and threw it to the side. Both of us readied for the battle.

He charged at me like a fencer, thrusting with four fierce kicks. I blocked his repeated strikes, but he managed to push me toward one of the walls. I fought back with the kung fu I had managed to learn in my studies in Tibet.

I swung at him hard with four swinging punches. He blocked three of them, but the third got through and hit him above the eye. He backed off, drawing his energy back in.

Then, in a move I had only seen in movies and once during my studies, he forcefully gathered in all of his available chi energy, focusing it toward his chest. If he hit me with that, I was a goner.

So I cheated. I pulled a small Bat-taser out of my utility belt and sent a shock through him that would have knocked a horse over. He looked at me in disbelief, amazed at my dishonor, while he fell to the floor, quivering. As Shang-Chi fell, he seemed as he had been released from some kind of spell. His body became relaxed, as if someone possessing him had lost control.

I waited to let the electricity seep out of his body, then prodded him with a wooden table leg that had been blasted off during the battle. I wanted to ask this guy some questions, but I knew that Li Cheng's forces, or at least the police, would soon be here to check out the ruckus. It was time to get out of here.

I put my cape back on, then grabbed the kung fu fighter and slung him over my shoulder. I adjusted the weight setting on my Bat-ascension gun for two adult males, and fired it. The gun hooked onto the roof and we zoomed up, just as some of Li Cheng's enforcers entered the gambling hall. Once on the rooftop, I spoke into the Bat-radio hidden in my gauntlet.

"Two for the sky in five, rotors."

The Batcopter soon roared out of the sky on autopilot, and then hovered close enough to the rooftop to allow me to load my captive in. We flew away from the Luck Flower Restaurant, over the rooftops of Chinatown, into the skies over Gotham.

"No! Get away! Get away! I won't serve you!"

"What are you talking about?" I yelled from the pilot's chair. The young man struck out, trying to break from the bonds of the restraint chair.

"Calm down," I said, putting the Batcopter into hover mode once we were over an abandoned railyard. No one would hear us, especially with the rotors in quiet mode. "Let's see if you can answer a few questions for me. I walked over to where he was sitting.

"First of all, who are you? Why are you going around attacking people for Tzin-Tzin?"

His brow furrowed defiantly. "My name is Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu, and I serve no one! Not my father, not Tzin-Tzin, no one!"

"Well you were serving him pretty well a couple of nights ago, attacking Li Cheng like that."

My captive did not appreciate my attempt at humor. "I don't know what you're talking about," he retorted. "The last thing I remember, I was visiting a man named Tzin-Tzin. He had put the word out on the streets of Chinatown that he needed workers for his business. I had just arrived in America, after having traveled eastward through the Middle East and Europe, doing odd jobs here and there, when I stopped at Tzin-Tzin's shop."

"What do you think Tzin-Tzin did to you?"

"The last thing I remember was him holding up these two orbs that drew my eyes to them...and then nothing."

Any other time I would have dismissed this sudden amnesia as a ploy to get me to let him go, but this man seemed so intensely earnest that I actually believed him.

"So, it looks like you've been forced against your will to fight for Dr. Tzin-Tzin. You've done a lot of damage in the last few days."

Shang-Chi frowned, then looked at me with piercing black eyes. "I suppose you have no reason to use me as Tzin-Tzin has, so I will trust in what you say."

"You want to go and get Tzin-Tzin?" I asked, pressing the button that turned off the chair's energy bonds.

Shang-Chi relaxed, and hunched over, stretching his muscles. "Yes. He will pay for using me like this. And I know just how to stop him."

I had attached a Bat-Mite to Shang-Chi's black belt to monitor him while he was inside the antique shop.

I snuck in through the back entrance, all the while keeping tabs on Shang-Chi's progress over a tiny video monitor I had hidden in the top of my right gauntlet.

"Master?" Shang-Chi called out.

The shadows in the antique shop seemed to collect themselves into the form of Dr. Tzin-Tzin. He was a tall, middle-aged Chinese man, who wore granny-style sunglasses and a stylish suit. Clearly he didn't fit the usual stereotype of the Yellow Peril-era Chinese villain.

"Shang-Chi," he replied in a sonorous, hypnotic voice. "Come here, my faithful servant." Tzin-Tzin's bulky guards let Shang-Chi go by, not knowing the Master of Kung Fu's true mission.

Shang-Chi came forward as Tzin-Tzin led him to a throne-like chair at the top of four steps. As Tzin-Tzin sat down, he gave Shang-Chi a quizzical look.

"You succeeded against the forces of Li Cheng at the Luck Flower, but then you disappeared. Why?"

"I was captured by the gweilo police, but while they weren't looking, I escaped their grasp."

Tzin-Tzin was perturbed by the thought of the police knowing about his activities. "You didn't...tell them anything, Shang-Chi?" He idly rolled a pair of crystal globes in his palms.

"I left before they had a chance to ask me any questions," Shang-Chi responded.

"Good, good," said Tzin-Tzin, smiling with satisfaction. "There is still much for you to do, my son, but before I give you your new orders, let us reinforce our...understanding."

With that, Tzin-Tzin pulled the two crystal orbs that flashed hypnotic circles of light.

I had used Shang-Chi's distractive discussion with Tzin-Tzin to sneak near the entrance of Tzin-Tzin's throne room. Even from my hiding place, I could feel the warmth of the light from the orbs, and I could feel the pull of Tzin-Tzin's hypnotic voice. If I didn't act now, we'd both be under his control.

Silently, I had knocked out the guards along the way, nerve-pinching one, and gas-darting another. I reached Tzin-Tzin's throne room and saw what he was doing to Shang-Chi. From the camera feed from the tiny Bat-Mite on Shang-Chi's belt, I could see that Shang-Chi was really in trouble.

I threw my Batarang directly at one of the crystal orbs in Tzin-Tzin's hands. It shattered, and cut his left hand. He cursed, and gripped his hand in pain.

Shang-Chi broke from Tzin-Tzin's nascent spell and sweep-kicked him onto his throne platform. I jumped into the action and leapt into the throne room. He then focused his chi, as he had when I was fighting him.

"I am no slouch at kung fu, child!" Tzin-Tzin boasted. "My chi is ten times more powerful than yours." He made a sound like a jungle cat preparing to strike its prey.

"You will pay dearly for manipulating me, Tzin-Tzin!" Shang-Chi's chi energy was building with each second.

Both combatants focused their power until they both let go simultaneously, with two murderous blows to the chest.

One was left standing, with his garments tattered and his skin bruised from the fight.

"Shang-Chi! Are you all right?" I ran over to his side.

Although the Master of Kung Fu was still standing, he was quite weak. "Tzin-Tzin may be old, but he's still good at projecting his chi. I need to rest." He leaned on my shoulder.

"We did it, Shang-Chi. You're free now. If you need any help clearing yourself of the guilt for those attacks, let me know."

"I'm probably going to stick around here for a while," he responded. "If another crimelord rises to take Tzin-Tzin's place, I'll be ready for him."

"Make sure to contact me if you need help."

"How will I do that?"

I handed him a tiny remote control. "Push this button here, and a large light I have hidden in the city will point in your direction and show a signal with which I can track you. Only a few people have this signal, so don't let it fall into the wrong hands."

And now, Shang-Chi would be able to begin his life in his newly adopted country.