Finally after more than a year off, I'm getting back to this. I feel bad for neglecting this. I mean, I haven't done much writing in ages. I blame Voltron, super obsessed with that right now XD And maybe somewhere deep down I was worried this arc wouldn't be as good as previous ones. But, I felt that way about arc 4 and y'all seemed to like that one, so what the hey, I might as well just dive on in.

To new readers, this is the fifth installment of an ongoing story so you will likely be confused. I recommend starting from arc 1 if you want to be able to follow along.

General disclaimer: I do not own Jackie Chan Adventures, only my characters and so on.

Deep in the desert, a tiny olive lizard skittered across rocks and sand towards a small man-made, makeshift facility brightly lit with floodlights. It seemed an odd place for people to set up a facility, since this was the middle of nowhere and the nearest town was miles away. The entire area was surrounded by electrified gates littered with warning signs for trespassers to keep out and armed guards patrolled the grounds. The lizard harmlessly slipped by the patrolling guards, who barely even noticed the presence of the quick and tiny creature. As it reached one of the doors leading inside, they suddenly opened and two armed guards emerged, aiming their rifles out into the night before focusing on the lizard in front of them.

One of the guards sighed in a huff as he lowered his rifle, "It's just a lizard, tons of them out here in the middle of the desert."

"Still, it tripped off the motion sensors," the second guard said, lowering his rifle as well. "Security thought it might be a drone."

"Well, it's clearly not. Come on, it's hot as hell out here and we can't be wasting our time every time a lizard crawls across the sensors. I need a drink." The first guard slipped his fingers into the side of his helmet, scratching at the side of his temple without taking the entire helmet off. He was tired, exhausted and bored guarding this facility from, well, nothing!

"Who fucking cares? We get paid by the hour!" the second guard exclaimed.

Both guards turned their backs on the lizard and began to walk back inside the facility. However, the moment they turned, the lizard suddenly morphed into a tall, green humanoid dragon with dark red eyes. He roughly grabbed both guards by their heads with each of his scaly hands and hit them together, instantly knocking the pair out.

"Not how I would have done it, but effective," a voice commented from the dragon's earpiece.

"Yeah, because if you would have done it, you'd have just used your handy shadow powers to slip right by everyone. Not all of us have convenient stealthy powers, you know," the dragon remarked, pressing his index and middle finger into the earpiece.

"'Let me take the lead on this one, Linos! I haven't been on a mission in ages!'" the voice exclaimed in a mocking tone. "That's you, that's what you sound like, Drago."

"I don't sound anything like that!" he shouted, before quickly remembering to keep his voice down.

"I don't sound anything like that!" Linos remarked in a voice that perfectly mimicked Drago's.

Drago grumbled under his breath as he heard his friend copy his own voice. "...Show off."

"Better get a move on. I've got eyes on a pair of guards about to turn the corner in forty seconds."

"On it, heading inside." Drago quickly turned invisible and stepped into the facility as the doors leading to the desert night shut behind him. "So, what are we here for again?"

"Didn't you read the mission dossier?" Linos scoffed in disbelief.

"I skimmed it," Drago muttered quietly.

"Skimmed it?"

"Mala's usually the one who reads the dossiers. It's so boring and complicated! She sums it up nicely for me: tells me where to go, who to hit, what to grab."

"Well, it's obvious who calls the shots in your relationship," Linos remarked.

"Hey, you want an intelligence agent, you talk to Mala or Tim. I'm a field agent; I just go where they tell me to go and do what they tell me to do."

Linos chuckled, "You really are a Xiao Gou, aren't you?"

Drago rolled his eyes, not having heard his birth name in so long and choosing to ignore his friend's joking implication by changing the subject."So have you thought of where you're gonna take her?"

"I was thinking of taking her to that Italian place on 5th."

"Oh don't go there, they totally skimp on meatballs, they charge extra for the bread and their butter is always solid as a rock. Last time we went there, I had to use my powers to melt it so I could actually spread some on the bread," Drago remarked, smiling at the recollection. Out of all his friends, he enjoyed using his powers the most for leisurely and, as some of them put it, "trivial" things. He didn't see the point though. If he had powers, why shouldn't he use them for whatever he could use them for? Being a half-demon was his advantage and he wasn't going to hold back for anything.

"Ok, how about the sushi place up on Imperial Street?" Linos suggested next.

"Who does that kind of thing in a sushi restaurant?"

"Fine, Mr. Expert, where do you think I should do it?"

"Just do it at the same place I did it," Drago said casually.

"I can't do that!" Linos exclaimed loudly.

"Why not?"

"Drago, I am not going to ask Mavis to marry me in the same restaurant where you asked Mala!"

"What difference does it make?"

"How is it that I know more about human girls than you? Girls don't typically like sharing such an important experience like that. Besides, if I just take her to the same place you took Mala, I'll just be tagging on to what you've done. It's uncreative and tacky!" Linos explained.

"Well, excuse me for trying to be helpful! And what does it matter where you do it? You know Mavis doesn't care for fancy restaurants. She likes the simple things."

"Because everything has to be perfect when I ask her! I don't want this to be like every other date we've gone on. I want this to be different… special."

Drago rolled his eyes; this wasn't going anywhere and Linos was clearly looking for some insight that Drago couldn't provide. "Ugh, well I've said my two cents. You want romantic advice, ask Mala or Arran."

"Fine, fine. Make a right at the end of that hallway. It should take you to the center of the facility." Drago turned right at the end of the hall on Linos' call.

"And what exactly am I going to find when I get there?"

"We're here to investigate some bizarre energy readings the satellites picked up. 'Otherworldly' is how the analysts described it. So you know what that probably means: a rogue demon up to no good."

"Or it's probably just a rift," Drago commented.

"Rift?" Linos asked.

"Yeah, fluctuations of energy in the barrier that separates this world from the Netherworld sometimes cause little tears between the fabric of space. They don't stay open for long and they can show up at random. That's usually how some lesser demons and spirits are able to slip through in this world. How do you not know this, you grew up in the Netherworld!"

"Well, I never saw a rift, ok? After I almost got myself killed by Dong Xin, mom kept a close watch on me and never let me out of her sight. How do you know so much about them if you grew up here?" Linos remarked.

"My old man used to go on about them all the time. After he got banished in the first place, he'd spend all his time trying to find one of these rifts. They're usually too small for a big Sorcerer Class to slip through, but if they can stabilize the rift with their magic, they can make the rift bigger and keep it open longer. The problem with that is the longer you force a rift to stay open, the more energy builds up. Eventually the tear will just forcibly snap closed and all that energy will shoot out on both ends. It's only a theory, but I'd rather not run the risk of finding out for sure, you know?"

"If that's the case, how have we not been invaded by an army of demons yet this entire time?"

"The magic in the barrier is constantly moving like a river. Rifts will appear out of nowhere and disappear within a few seconds. A demon has to be incredibly lucky to find one. Some will show up and go completely unnoticed," Drago explained.

"…Which brings one question to mind: If this is a rift, how has it been open this whole time? It would have naturally closed on its own hours ago right?" asked Linos.

"Unless a demon on the other side is stabilizing it." Drago hoped he would be wrong. If a demon was stabilizing the rift from the Netherworld, it usually wasn't good news, but, this desert seemed awfully demon-free with the exception of himself and Linos. Drago neared the center of the complex, where he saw a large machine apparatus built around the fluctuating bright red and green tear. The energy was moving and cascading around wildly, like the tear was trying to close on its own, but these machines were forcing it to stay open. And from the looks of it, the crackling energy surging out from the tear, the build up of energy that this machine was preventing from being naturally released, the ignorant humans didn't understand that this thing was about to blow if they kept it open any longer.

"What've you got?" Linos asked over the comm.

"Looks like they've built some kind of device to stabilize the rift, keep it open longer than normal."

"And that's the otherworldly energy the techs picked up. Let's shut it down and get out of here before any demons start showing up."

"On it," Drago answered. He dashed out from his cover and, with his Demon Weapon gauntlets, shot out three solid flame blades that sliced through the device. The portal fluctuated uncontrollably and wildly. Drago smirked as the rift began to slowly close, but his eyes widened in alarm as a tiny demonic hand reached out from the rift. A tiny imp demon poked its head out from the rift, but Drago quickly punched the imp in the face and back through the rift. He grabbed the ends of the rift and forced the portal to shut. "All right, it's shut," he reported.

"Good, let's get out of here. You've got bogeys coming in from behind you," Linos replied.

"All right, I'll meet you at the rendezvous." With that, Drago instantly transformed into a small bird and took off before reinforcements could close in on him. Up in the sky, the small green bird was joined by a large brown bat demon. Red eyes met and with the snap of the bat demon's fingers, a swirling black vortex opened in the sky just ahead of them and closed as the pair disappeared into it.

"Please?"

"No."

"Oh come on!"

"Mavis, I told you a thousand times already: no!" Mala spoke sternly into her cellphone as she walked down the street with a tray of coffee cups in her other hand.

"Oh, what's the harm? He'll never even notice you were there!"

"Mavis, I am not going to read Lin's mind to see if he's planning on proposing to you!"

"Ugh, what's the point of having all these extra psychic powers if you don't even use them!" Mala heard Mavis sigh heavily on the other end of the line.

"Mavis, I'm not going to have this discussion with you again," Mala sighed.

"Fine."

Mala could almost hear Mavis pouting through the line. She absentmindedly rolled her eyes and smiled before continuing the conversation. "So how long are you suspended from active duty?"

"Black says about two weeks. No missions for me, just boring old desk duty." Mala heard a slam coming from Mavis' end, which she interpreted as Mavis plopping onto her desk in defeat.

"Well, that's what happens when you cause thousands of dollars in property damage," Mala remarked.

"Hey, I got the job done though, didn't I? Ugh, Mala, before the boredom kills me, I want you to."

"You'll be fine. Tim's been on desk duty since we started and he's fine," she reasoned.

"Yeah, because Tim's an indoor cat. His frail and fragile little heart can't take too much excitement. But me? I'm the energetic outdoor dog that needs constant stimulation!"

"You know, I would be insulted by that… if it wasn't true," Mala heard Tim remark. When they first started, while everyone else had been cleared as field agents, Tim was more than happy to take a desk job. It was enough excitement for one lifetime, he had said. So, paperwork and safety behind a desk was all the comfort he could want. And with all the life-threatening, near end of the world situations they had their hands in, they couldn't blame Tim for wanting to take it easy. Occasionally, he would also provide remote assistance from Section 16. It was Section 13 that they were originally recruited into, but Black had been given clearance to establish a new section to focus solely on "otherworldly" and mystical threats.

"Well, you can use this time to catch up on all those reports you haven't finished. You've gone on so many missions and you've never once finished a report for it," Mala chastised.

"Oh, oh yeah I'm super hard at work on these reports…" Mavis said as she mashed a few buttons on her keyboard.

"Ok, now I know you're just pressing random buttons on the keyboard, Mavis!"

"What, you read my mind?" Mavis asked.

"No." Mavis yelped in surprise and turned around in her chair to face Mala.

"You really have to stop doing that!" Mavis cried.

"Or, you need to work on your awareness," Mala remarked. She took one of the coffee cups out of the tray and handed it to Mavis. Mavis gladly took the cup and inhaled deeply, smiling and sighing in satisfaction at the chocolate smell. "Oh, and one bear claw," Mala added, taking a small paper bag with the pastry inside and setting it on Mavis' desk.

"One of those for me? I could use a pick-me-up," Liam said as he and Drago came over to the pair. Mala held out the tray for him and he rotated the cups around until he saw one with his name written on it in black marker. Drago came up next to her and wrapped one arm around Mala's waist before planting a firm kiss on her lips, which she passionately returned.

When they parted, Mala asked, "So how was the mission?"

"Piece of cake," Drago scoffed.

"Except for the fact that 'agent in command' here didn't read the dossier," Liam remarked.

"Hey, we still made out okay! Closed the rift and everything!" the fire demon beamed proudly.

"Those rifts have been coming up more and more lately, more so than usual," said Remy as he joined the conversation. "Even Ren's got her hands full shutting a few of them."

"My brother still with her?" Drago asked, to which Remy nodded. "I suppose he's found his calling. Good for him," Drago smiled.

"Still, it's odd for so many rifts to be sprouting up like this. We've been lucky so far that nothing big has come through one," Remy continued.

"Yet," Tim cautioned. "It's only a matter of time before a rift shows up next to a Demon Sorcerer, and I'm betting there are a few Sorcerers in the Netherworld who would be eager for revenge against us."

"Yeah well, they'll be in for a serious butt-whooping!" Mavis exclaimed, punching her fist into her other palm.

"Agents." The six turned to see Captain Black approaching them, wearing his signature red turtleneck and black trenchcoat.

"Captain Black," they greeted in unison with a respectful salute.

"Excellent work with the rift you two, especially you Drago. You've come a long way from being in one of our containment cells," Black remarked with a smile and low chuckle. "I'll admit that I was reluctant with bringing you on, but Ms. Callahan made the terms very clear and my superiors wanted me to do whatever I had to to recruit you all." When he finished, Black extended his hand out to Drago. "You've done good, kid."

Drago smiled and firmly shook Black's hand. There was a time long ago where Drago would have taken advantage of this closeness to Black to kill the human, but Drago was different now. "Thanks."

Black pulled his hand back and continued speaking. "Well, I have news regarding the future of this Section."

"Good or bad?" Mala asked.

"I'll let you decide that," Black answered.

"That means it's bad," Mavis remarked.

"Well, my superiors are very pleased with how much Section 16 has accomplished. So I'm being promoted!"

"That's great!" Tim exclaimed.

"Wait for it…" Mavis muttered quietly, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"But, that means I'll no longer be head of Section 16," he said sadly, almost disappointed that he would be leaving.

"There it is," Mavis remarked with a click of her tongue.

"You mean you're leaving?" Mala asked, her eyebrows furrowing.

"I'm afraid so. I'll be leaving to establish and oversee a Section 17 while someone new will be sent to run Section 16 in my place."

"Who are they sending?" asked Tim.

"They wouldn't say, but I know whoever it is, they're supposed to be coming in today," he replied, checking the watch on his wrist.

"And as usual, your powers of perception fail you, Augustus." Captain Black quickly spun around in time to come face to face with a woman with long, curled orange hair tied in a loose low ponytail while thick strands covered half of her face, obscuring one of her eyes while the other - golden in color - looked down at all of them in stern judgement. Her gaze was unsettling to say the least, as if she was somehow instantly learning everything little thing about them in the few seconds they was looking at them.

"Cassie… You're the one they sent to replace me? Now I see why they wouldn't tell me about it," Black remarked.

"Cassandra," the woman corrected with a stern look. "And of course they sent me to replace you. Who do you think has been cleaning up after all the messes you've caused like that one in San Francisco several years ago? Do you have any idea how much work goes into the damage control alone? Putting back together everything your agents break?"

"For your information, I was promoted. That's why I'm leaving."

Cassandra scoffed. "Oh please, they promoted you because you're good at starting things up, never maintaining them, doing the hard work that no one else wants to do. That's why they've brought me in." As Cassandra finished, her gaze drifted to the Strikers standing behind him. "Employing children, Augustus? Really? Has your judgement waned with age?"

"Cassie, let's not do this here. If you have a problem with me, then deal with it with me. Don't take it out on my agents!"

"They're my agents now, as of today, so I will treat them how I see fit and I will thoroughly see to it that they are qualified to be working as government agents. This isn't some fantasy camp where children get to play make-believe and be superheroes and secret agents. There are real consequences and I will not have this section be compromised or shut down because children were allowed to run about as they please. And I sincerely hope you haven't compromised our security by employing these demons," she spat.

Drago growled under his breath and took a step forward, only to be stopped by Mala. "Drago, don't," she cautioned him.

"Drago?" Cassandra's eye peaked in interest. "Ah yes, the famous son of Shen Du, am I correct? According to the reports, the San Francisco incident was your doing and ended with you getting sucked back into the Netherworld, which begs the question of how you are here now."

"Yeah, well a lot's changed since then," Drago replied, matching Cassandra's glare with one of his own.

"Evidently." She turned away from them and craned her head to gaze at the facility. "As of this moment, I am in charge of Section 16. You will address me as Captain Fox. These two are my associates, agents Alison Blackwood and Robin Fletcher," she said, introducing the dark haired woman clad in black and silver hair man behind her. "They answer only to me and act on my orders. If they tell you to do something, you do it. Make no mistake: today is the beginning of a new era for Section 16." Fox took a step forward, but flinched back as An, in her German Shepard guise, emerged from behind Liam. Her dark eyes were narrowed and her lips curled back, revealing her razor sharp fangs as she let out a low and menacing growl aimed directly at Fox. "What is that?" she spat.

Liam bent down and gently pat An's back to calm the beast. While she ceased her growling and sat next to her master, An did not break her fixed gaze from Fox. "Sorry, she's just not used to strangers."

"Just keep that mutt away from me! I hate dogs," she muttered in annoyance before turning to Black. "Make sure your office is cleared out by the end of today, Augustus. I'd like to be moved in as soon as possible."

Black let out an obvious sigh of frustration. "I'll get right on it."

"Good," she smiled triumphantly before her expression softened and she uttered her next words quietly. "How's Holly?"

"She's doing fine. You'd know that if you actually called her once in awhile. She's your daughter too. Would it kill you to pick up a phone once in awhile?"

"I'm a busy woman," Cassandra replied nonchalantly.

"Evidently," Black shot back, mimicking her earlier remark. Before she turned to leave, he gently placed his hand on her shoulder to stop her. "They're good kids, Cassie. Just give them a chance."

Cassandra wordlessly turned away and marched off, followed closely by Alison and Robin. Once she was out of sight, Mavis spoke, "I do not like her."

"She's my ex-wife," Black said.

"I still don't like her," Mavis reaffirmed.

"I don't blame you. Cassie's always been… difficult to deal with. She's ambitious and dedicated to her goals, but she's stubborn and thinks she's always right."

"How exactly did you two end up married?" Remy asked.

"We weren't together for very long and frankly we weren't very happy when we were together. When we split up, she let me take Holly, our daughter. She didn't even put up a fight for custody, like she didn't care. I think that's part of the reason Holly won't talk to her either. Children can be more perceptive than we give them credit for and, well, Holly could figure out that her mother didn't seem to care about her. I've tried reaching out to her, but she always just pushes me away. She won't let anyone get close. Let's just say, I took the hint. Cassie's tough and critical, but she's efficient. She cares about getting the job done right, and you could say that the job is the only thing she cares about," he lamented sadly. "Don't let her get you down, especially you three," he said specifically to Liam, Mala and Drago.

"Why us?" Liam asked.

"Cassie's not particularly fond of demons or magic," he said, with hesitation at first.

"Then why did she agree to run the one section dedicated entirely to mystical threats and magic?" Mavis asked.

"I don't think I'll ever understand what goes on in Cassie's head. Even when we were married, I couldn't tell what she was thinking. I won't lie to you; serving under Cassie, I mean Captain Fox, will not be easy. She will be harsh, critical and take every opportunity to belittle you and make you feel like a failure. Even if you're done nothing wrong or your assignment was a success, she'll find something to focus on and turn it against you. Don't let her beat you down. She's already formed an opinion in her head about you, that you're just kids playing spy games; prove her wrong. It was a real pleasure working with you all these past few years. You've all come a long way and I know you've all got bright futures ahead of you." He paused for a moment before giving them a firm salute, which they all returned.

"Thank you, sir," Liam said firmly.

After Black gave the rest of the entire section his goodbye speech and walked out of the facility, Mavis quickly remarked, "Well, this is gonna suck. You guys wanna bail?"

"Do your paperwork, Mavis," Tim scoffed, rolling his eyes as he returned to his desk.

Mavis rolled her eyes as well and reached for her bear claw, only for Mala to snatch the bag away. "Hey! My bear claw!"

"You can have it when you're done your reports!" Mala called as she walked away with the pastry hostage.

So like with the last ones, I'm kinda making this up as I go along. Probably not the best way to go about writing a story, but hey, it's worked for me. The major events are already plotted out, but if anyone has ideas they'd like to share, please feel free :)

Next chapter: Life at Section 16 gets harder with Captain Fox in charge.