Hong Kong

"I'd try to avoid any unlawful activity. And I think you'll find it hard to use electronic devices for a while." "Cool, but we're still in Hong Kong." "Yep." "I live in Austin, Texas."

- Phil Coulson and Miles Lydon

Hong Kong is one of the two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China, the other being Macau.

Battle of Hong Kong
Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes was assigned on several missions to battle different cells from the Ten Rings terrorist group, realizing after battling groups of heavily armed terrorists in Afghanistan, India and Sudan, that a common benefactor was supplying terrorists to fulfill his own agenda.

Rhodes he obtained a lead about a plan to carry outa bioterror attack in Asia, and Rhodes intended to capture the responsibles of such an important operation, as they would probably have more knowledge about the organization than the rest of the operatives.

As War Machine, Rhodes raided the intended target of the attack in Hong Kong, but found once again that the Ten Rings were one step ahead of him. His superiors informed Rhodes that they tracked the Ten Rings cell to a biotech research facility, but they had taken hostages and used them as human shields to escape from the police and military forces.

War Machine managed to disable the terrorists and let the hostages run, and resisted their attacks, retaliating without killing them, as War Machine aimed his shoots at the the terrorists' body armor, an used his repulsor to incinerate the virus they intended to release in Hong Kong.

When he finished off the terrorists, Rhodes received a call from Tony Stark, asking for his assistance in dealing with a situation in New York City, but Rhodes informed him that, being in Asia, it would take him at least an hour to arrive.

Meanwhile, Rhodes deduced that given the terrorists didn't even have the usual weapons he previously fought, and the equipment of this cell couldn't even slow him down, the whole situation must have been a trap. At the same moment, the presumed hostages attacked him with heavy weaponry, intending to kill and destroy him.

War Machine resisted the attacks, but a Battle Tank designed by Hammer Industries and under control of the Ten Rings attacked him, and its weaponry was a serious menace for him. Rhodes realized the Ten Rings had been planning to use it for a while, considering that Justin Hammer was taken into custody after the situation with Ivan Vanko.

Rhodes' superiors ordered him not to attack the tank, as it was commissioned and the contract was cancelled due to a dangerous design flaw, a miniature nuclear reactor power core that, if breached, could have the same effect as detonating a dirty bomb. For that reason, Rhodes was ordered to contain it and disable its weapons, but without damaging it.

War Machine analyzed the weapons of the tank, deducing that the cannon was easily avoidable, and he could resist the shoots of the gatling guns. The tank prepared a Sidewinder "Ex-Wife" Missile and attack War Machine with it. Rhodes, confident the missile wouldn't work like the one added to his previous armor, received a devastating hit of the missile.

War Machine's systems rebooted in time to avoid being crushed by the tank, and Rhodes tried to gain some time destroying the soil under the tank to bury it. However, the tank was able to crawl back to the surface and attack War Machine in coordination with the other terrorists.

Rhodes requested back up again, but the situation in New York City made it difficult. Rhodes was attacked with another Sidewinder "Ex-Wife" Missile, and although this time he could destroy it before being hit, the shockwave threw him into one of the nearby buildings.

To gain the upper hand in the battle, War Machine smashed the ground below the terrorists, and managed to disable them using a miniaturized Stark Sonic Cannon. Rhodes received another direct hit of the cannon, but let the tank pass over him, to reach the only place where he was out its weapons' reach.

Rhodes lifted the tank, and intended to transport it to a nearby battleship, but the activation of the tank's self-destruction forced him to devise a quick solution to stop its nuclear core from contaminating Hong Kong, and threw it to the bottom of the sea.

Rhodes' superiors deduced from the analysis of the remains of the tank and the scarce intel gathered from the captured terrorists that the intention of the Ten Rings was to lure War Machine and obtain his armor, as they obtained technology from over a dozen legit companies through the black market, including Stark Industries.

As the remains of the Battle Tank rested at the bottom of the sea and the radiation levels were as good as could be expected, War Machine abandoned Hong Kong in order to lend a hand with the "Battle of New York".

Kidnapping of Chan Ho Yin
In 2013, street magician Chan Ho Yin was performing one of his shows in the streets of Hong Kong. Having few economic rewards for his tricks, Chan decided to use his real pyrokinetic powers to impress the audience, scaring two teenagers, but satisfying one of his spectators, Raina.

Raina approached Chan, asking about his fire tricks, but he told her that a magician should never reveal his secrets. Raina flirted with him, using one of his quotes in the show to impress him, and Chan invited him to his house.

Chan spoke about how he idolized magicians like for many years, until realizing that what they did was not real magic, and Raina convinced him of showing his powers, with Chan producing a small flame in the palm of his hand, something he had been able to do for some years.

Raina wondered why Chan didn't show his gift to the world, something Chan had wondered himself, but there were people that didn't want his gift to be revealed, although he thought he obtained his powers for a reason.

Flirting with Chan for the last time, Raina asked him to close his eyes, and two men in fireproof suits appeared and managed to knocked him out.

Index Case Agents
S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Kwan Chen, Index case agent of Chan Ho Yin, tried to make his regular contact with Chan but he was unable to locate him. As Chan had violated his Index agreement before, Kwan investigated further, and realized this time he had been kidnapped by professionals, as evidenced by a scrap of fireproof tissue.

Kwan informed fellow agent Phil Coulson and his team of the situation to enlist their help, and informed them of the details of the kidnapping and the reason why the perpetrators knew about Chan's powers, one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s data streams had been hacked by the Rising Tide.

Birth of Scorch
Raina greeted Chan Ho Yin and apologized for taking him by force. At first, Chan thought Raina was part of S.H.I.E.L.D. and lectured her about not needing to read the power protocols for a simple street performance. However, Raina revealed that she didn't work for S.H.I.E.L.D., but for another organization that intended to help him increase and control his gift.

Raina tried to convince Chan telling him he would obtain the fame that he craved, even suggesting to take a more powerful codename, Scorch, paralellizing his potential fame with that of Captain America. Chan, whose goal was just to be recognized for his power, agreed with Raina's proposal and accompanied her to a laboratory in Hong Kong.

Centipede Project
Chan Ho Yin was taken to a laboratory in Hong Kong, in order to test his powers, being injected with the Centipede Serum to test the effects in an individual with powers of his own after being able to grant powers to average test subjects.

The serum increased Chan's natural powers without suffering the side effects derived from Extremis, and Chan thanked Raina for the opportunity to use his powers that S.H.I.E.L.D. denied him, not knowing her real intentions yet.

Raina and Debbie, one of the Centipede Project's researchers, discussed the effects the serum had on Chan, discovering tha the platelets in his blood prevented him from being burnt with his own powers, and were able to neutralize the combustion of the Extremis element of the serum, so Debbie ordered to extract all his platelets.

Chan woke up tied to a machine, having been drained of his fire-resistant platelets, and thanked for participating in the Centipede Project. As Chan tried to attack Debbie, he suffered burnings in his hands, realizing that he was not resistant to fire anymore. Chan asked Raina why she did that, as she said he had a gift, but she replied that now he was sharing it.

Rescue Mission
S.H.I.E.L.D. discovered the location of the Centipede Project laboratory in Hong Kong tracing the accounts used to pay Miles Lydon, and Phil Coulson coordinated Kwan Chen's men to rescue Chan Ho Yin.

Coulson ordered two teams to secure the lower floors, while he accessed the top floor with Kwan and Melinda May through the roof. May tracked Chan's heat signature and accessed the laboratory, where they found a tied and heavily burnt Chan. Kwan liberated Chan, but Chan killed him tired of being controlled by S.H.I.E.L.D., and injected himself another dose of the Centipede Serum to increase his powers.

Coulson and May tried to reason with Chan, but he had enough of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s protocols to hide his gift, and continued to attack them. Coulson tried to render him unconscious using the Night-Night Gun, but he shielded himself with fire

Debbie received a call from her superiors, and informed them that though S.H.I.E.L.D. had infiltrated the building, the situation was under control. Raina asked Debbie why she didn't tell them all the truth about S.H.I.E.L.D. and Chan's current status.

Grant Ward and Skye infiltrated the building so Skye could hack the security system and open the doors that were automatically closed, something she did almost immediately, extracting some files from the building's mainframe in the process. As the doors were opened and Chan had escaped, Coulson ordered Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons to uncuff Miles Lydon, so that he could remotely control the building's computers.

Chan confronted Debbie and Raina, but Raina managed to escape closing the door of the elevator and leaving Debbie behind. Debbie tried to convince Chan that she could fix him and give him more power, but Chan angrily attacked her and burnt her alive.

Coulson confronted Chan for the last time, distracting him while May injected him with a large dose of the Centipede Serum to make him explode. Lydon remotely controlled the ventilation systems to direct the blast to the roof.

Following the mission, Miles Lydon was left behind in Hong Kong, with the money he obtained for hacking S.H.I.E.L.D. being donated to Kwan Chen's family, and being outfitted with a Tracking Bracelet that wouldn't allow him to access electronic devices.