Jackie Chan Adventures: The Demon Heroes
Chapter 1
The large, red-hot sun beat down on the back of Jackie's neck as he climbed up the rocky mountain terrain with his large archaeology kit and bag strapped onto his back. He had been walking for around three hours, and Jackie was exhausted. He couldn't wait to get back to San Francisco, where there were two-dollar bottles of water and actual bathrooms. But that was the price you paid for being paid in archaeology.
Jackie's foot caught on a rock, sending him skidding down the mountain rocks a few feet. He lost his balance and fell back onto some large flat stones, his archaeology kit flying off his back and scattering themselves everywhere. Jackie sat there for a second, upset with himself, then finally got up and started to gather his supplies.
"Eight, nine— I'm missing something," said Jackie after he had relocated everything—or what he thought was everything. He got back onto his knees and kept searching.
Eventually, something flashed from far away and caught his eye. It was his last tool, a few feet up ahead. Jackie stood and walked over to it, picking it up. Or at least he tried to pick it up. Somehow it had managed to get itself wedged in between two larger stones shaped as disks, only an inch thick, trapping itself into the mountainside.
Jackie tugged harder, and finally his archaeology utensil freed itself. But in doing so, the rocks it was wedged between shifted and overlapped on another.
Jackie furrowed his eyebrows. Where rocks supposed to glow like that?
Obviously not. The last time he had seen magic of any kind was when he helped banish Drago and Shendu back into the demon world. Why was it appearing to him now after his pleasant hundred week break?
Jackie cautiously placed his bag and archaeology kit beside him, and picked up each stone with one hand. There were now inscriptions written on each.
Jackie quickly placed them against the rocky terrain once again and started to read them, translating them from his vast language inventory he held in his brain and a book he just happened to have in his bag. He started with the first one.
Against the sun and moon we'll heel,
And our treasure-chest shall be revealed.
What could that mean? Jackie wondered. He went on with the second stone.
But just be warned that once we're loose,
You do not decide on who we'll choose.
That was starting to sound ominous. Jackie checked the area over again to see if he had missed something, but the area was clear of any more magical stones.
Against the sun and moon we'll heel…
Jackie held up the two stones to the sun. No temple revealed itself.
It's got to be more complicated than that, Jackie told himself. It always is.
He thought on a little more. There are two major figures in the sky—the moon and the sun, which are described in this prophecy, or whatever this is. If the sun is there in the sky, then the moon has to be…
Jackie held one stone up against the sun, and moved the second one where the moon should be on the other side of the world.
Nothing happened.
Jackie furrowed his eyebrows. So… the stones weren't magic after all. They were just rocks that had caught the glare of the sun and had writings written onto them by monks. He was going to a temple, after all. They must have rolled down the mountainside or something. Jackie placed them in his bag and continued his long climb up the mountain.
When he finally reached the top, he sat down on the stone floor inside the temple and took a long drink from his water bottle. The place was magnificent—too bad he couldn't take the whole building with him. As he rummaged to put away his cold beverage, the two stones he had collected clattered onto the ground. One fell on his foot.
Jackie winced, instinct kicking in and thrusting the rocks away. The two stones skidded across the rock floor pattern and came to a stop on top of a large picture of the sun and the moon.
Jackie looked up from his injured foot in time to see the stones glowing again. But it wasn't just a reflection of the light anymore—they were actually glowing. Jackie took a few steps back as the stones sank into the rock floor and the earth started to shake. The archaeologist shielded his eyes with his arms and looked away from the brilliant white light emitting from the center of the temple floor.
When he thought it was safe to look, he lowered his arms and stared at awe at the building. Even after the earthquake, nothing seemed disturbed the slightest amount.
Magic, Jackie thought with a groan. When will I be able to escape it?
In the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the sun and moon pattern. The stones no longer were there—instead sat a magnificent golden cage. The borders were encrusted with jewels and silver; the purest of the stone Jackie had ever seen. Ancient runes surrounded the box, most of which to Jackie's eyes were gibberish. He tentatively walked over to it and reached out his hand, afraid and curious to touch it at the same time.
He didn't need to. Almost automatically, the chest flew open and seven orbs flew out, throwing Jackie backwards against the temple wall. He managed to catch sight of the red, green and blue ones fly immediately out of the temple and out into the distance at top speed, spinning around each other joyfully.
Another one—the white one—seemed to think about where to go for a moment, eventually shooting off after the previous trio. The yellow and black orbs shot out and off in opposite directions, leaving the last one—brown—with Jackie.
The archaeologist looked up at the sphere of pure energy hovering above him. The orb stayed afloat above him, waiting patiently for something.
Jackie raised his right arm to his eyes to shield them from the emitting bright light coming from the box behind the orb. The brown energy took this as an invitation and clasped itself onto Jackie's right arm, the momentum driving Jackie against the temple wall and upright, even a few inches off the ground.
The archaeologist tried to shove off the brown thing before it stuck, but it was too late. The brown orb had turned into a…
"Gauntlet?" Jackie asked out loud, looking at it. Whatever the brown orb had turned into on his hand was definitely not something you could find at Walmart. It was composed of two parts; a brown metal band about a centimeter thick that went around his wrist but wasn't heavy at all. On it was written Èmó de, and its Chinese symbols written above it.
Demonic, Jackie translated to himself.恶魔的恶魔的
The second part was a fingerless glove attached to the metal bracelet. It was, of course, brown, and super flexible. Jackie tried to rip the mesh off, but it was attached to the metal band firmly. And the metal band was of course, strapped seemingly permanently to his wrist. He'd need some extreme blow-torch action to remove it.
Or some magic.
Jackie glanced back at the chest. It had stopped glowing, but still laid wide open. He peered inside to find an odd looking scroll inside. It was yellow, rolled up against itself, and completely blank.
Jackie closed the lid and tucked the chest under his arm. He gathered up his supplies and stuffed them uncaringly into his bag and archaeology kit.
Sorry, Uncle, he thought as he bounded down the temple steps and back into the open. Your normal temple artifacts will just have to wait.
(LINE Break)
"And it was, like, so cool," finished Jimmy as he and Jade walked down the school hallway with all their books and locker things stowed away in their bags and in their arms. They stopped at the front door and looked back at the inside of the school. Jade sighed. These would be her last moments here, before heading off to high school. She got to spend one more summer with her uncle Jackie, and then it was off to China for her.
Jimmy, reading her thoughts, said, "Don't worry. You could come and visit anytime. And, besides, you've still got one more summer here. That's something—right?"
"Hurrah," said Jade sombrely. She sighed and shouldered her bag, turning her back to the middle school.
They started to walk back to Uncle's antique shop, when someone called out, "Hey!"
The two teens whirled around to find a Mexican boy running after them, his own things in his bulking backpack and in his arms. Paco caught up to them, and the trio continued to walk back to the shop.
"So, Spanish," said Jade. "How was your life in the USA?"
Paco shrugged. He had been an exchange student for grade eight, and after the summer was over, he had to return to his home country as well.
"Man, I miss you guys already," said Jimmy as they walked.
"'Cause we're awesome like that," said Jade, pulling out a pack of gum from her cut-jeans pocket and fumbling to pop it in her mouth with one hand, seeing as she needed the other arm to hold all the school supplies that didn't fit in her bag. She offered a piece to her friends. Jimmy took one, but Paco declined the kind offer.
"Oh, come on," said Jade, still holding it out in front of him. "It's not spicy, but it still tastes good."
Paco reluctantly took a piece and ate it. A few months back, they had been in the cafeteria, and Paco asked if there were any spicy sauces for his grilled-cheese sandwich. Jade and Jimmy still bugged him about that.
"Guess your home county goes along with you anywhere you go," Jade had said between mouthfuls of Chinese noodles.
They finally reached the Uncle's shop and headed inside.
"Welcome to Uncle's Rare Finds," called out a deep voice as they entered. "May I help you?"
"Hey, T," said Jade casually as she tossed her school bag and other locker items onto the floor near the door. Paco and Jimmy did the same. "Where's Jackie?"
"His flight was slightly delayed, so he'll be here in about fifteen minutes, if traffic permits," replied Tohru.
"Fifteen minutes tooo long!" another well-known voice yelled from another room. Uncle entered the main shop with three books stacked in his arms. "Uncle needs antiques now! Oh, Jade. I did not see you there." Uncle placed the books on the counter and grabbed three brooms. "Now you can dust shop!" he said, shoving one into each of the teenager's hands. They looked at each other skeptically, but started to sweep nonetheless.
About twenty minutes later, they were nearly done, and Jackie walked in with his suitcase lugging behind him and a weird cage under his arm. "Hello!" he greeted everyone cheerfully.
"Jackie!" exclaimed Jade, dropping her broom and running toward him. "Thank God, Uncle was about to make us unclog the toilets and dust all the antiques and—"
"That's very nice, Jade," said Jackie automatically, walking right past his niece. He went up to Uncle and said, "Uncle, I need your help—"
"Where are antiques you promised Uncle?" Uncle asked him.
Jackie set down the cage and rubbed the back of his neck like he always does before jumping into an apology. "Well… I, uh—"
Uncle two-fingered slapped him.
"You do not bring Uncle antiques!" he scolded. "Uncle need antiques for shop! How do you expect Uncle to pay for food and books and— AIIEE-YAAAAHH!" Uncle clutched the top of his head while pointing at the cage.
Jade stopped protesting to Jackie.
Paco and Jimmy stopped sweeping.
Tohru stopped re-placing an old antique with another.
Because everyone who knows Uncle knows that that uttered cry is always no good.
"In ancient times, before the eight demon sorcerers were imprisoned, eight immortals fought them to hold them back and protect the innocent," started Uncle once they had calmed him down. They were all seated in the library, having closed the shop for the day. "And the demons were all defeated."
"Yeah, we know this already," interrupted Jade. "I was there, and so was Jackie, Tohru, you—"
"LET UNCLE FIN-NIIISH!" yelled Uncle, and Jade immediately stopped speaking. In the same relaxed tone he had used before, he continued with his story.
"But after the demons were gone, it was discovered that they had also survived," said Uncle. The others looked around at each other quizzically, wondering how that could have happened, but deciding to remain quiet in case Uncle answered the question in his story. And sure enough, he did.
"Each of the eight immortals had earned an imprint of the demon that they had defeated, granting them the demon powers. Years later, they gave up this Good Demon Chi and cast them away intoobjects such as the ones that were used to banish the demons,and were hid throughout the world, the objects always moving around by themselves, then finding permanent hiding places during the beginning of modern times."
"Which is now, right?" interrupted Jade again, but this time Uncle didn't bother with telling her to shut up.
"These objects waited for the chest to open to reveal themselves, which Jackie has just kindly done for us. There are eight artifacts in all, each one containing a Good Demon Chi, hidden all over the world." Uncle stopped. "But I know nothing of Jackie's gauntlet," he admitted sadly, "or what it does."
Jackie suddenly straightened up, an idea just having hit him. "What about the scroll?" he asked.
"Scroll?" asked Jimmy in the same confused tone everyone else had in their heads.
Jackie rummaged inside the chest and opened it, reaching inside and pulling out a yellow scroll. He placed it on top of the desk.
"It's blank," he explained. "But maybe if Uncle cast some sort of spell on it, or maybe if we rubbed a certain potion on it—"
Uncle calmly took the scroll and stretched it across the table. Where it was once empty were now Chinese characters, extending the length of the scroll. Jackie was at loss for words.
"But it was—!"
Uncle held up his left index finger to shut Jackie up. He read a little bit to himself, then started to read out loud to the rest of the group.
"The seven orbs are special Chi Gauntlets that allow the user to safely use the chi without being overcome by its influence," read Uncle.
"Cool!" exclaimed Jade, interrupting for the third time. "So, Jackie can, like, absorb all the demon chi thingies and not be turned into an evil psychopath?"
"Were you not paying attention?" Jimmy asked her.
Uncle continued to read. "The Gauntlets will choose whomever they wish to wear them, whether they are good, or bad."
He stopped, letting it sink in.
"Not cool anymore," Jade corrected herself. "Not cool."
"Yes," repeated Jackie, grabbing his head with his Gauntlet-worn hand. "Not. Cool."