Cause and Effect 1
By Crystalquirt
After a really disgusting altercation with Zoey at school, Sue is sick. Sid and Tobey go missing, Nana is who knows where and its up to Sue to save them, no matter what the risks are to her.
This story was requested by Wolfiestar. However, she didn't request that I use Zoey and her pals, probably cause she knows I'm not fond OCs, [as a rule- XD]
But, because i think she will like it, I chose to put Zoey, Jenna, May, Ashley and Riley, from Wolfiestar's story Chinatown Witches in the story, and got permission from Star. I hope I do them justice. They are support characters, only there to make an impossible situation even worse.
I hope you enjoy this story, Star :D
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Zoey and her Band of Cretins
Sue was sick. Really, really sick and really hating every minute of it. She had some kind of 'creeping crud' attacking her body, that she caught at school from some girl named Zoey, and it had happened in the most disgusting way possible.
This whole mess started two days before Sue got sick. She was at school in her math class. Zoey, with her crew of misfits; Jenna, May, Ashley and Riley, showed up in class. They were not supposed to be in Sue's math class and they definitely were not Sue's friends, so they apparently showed up, just to do what they do best. Stir up trouble by picking on Sue and her classmates for no reason.
At least at first, they happened to be bothering other kids besides Sue for a change, but their actions soon involved Sue, whether she liked it or not.
The teacher, Mr. Benson, hadn't arrived yet, or he would have kicked them out for sure. About half the class was watching their antics, a few were even smiling. The others were involved in their own conversations. Sue was one of the students watching the girls closely, because she knew the kind of trouble they could cause and she wasn't smiling.
Zoey and Jenna had paired up to bother Richard, and he never bothered anyone. Jenna held him by his shirt from behind to make him stay in his seat, while Zoey went through his books and papers, tearing every other page of his notes in half. Three pages had already been torn up before Sue started across the classroom to help.
Even though Sue really disliked having anything to do with that bunch of girls, she wanted to help Richard, and knew she was the only one in class that would stand up to Zoey. She braced herself and stomped over to them, growling angrily, "Hey! Knock it off!"
Zoey put Richard's papers down to turn and face Sue, with an evil smile on her lips. Jenna let Richard go and he hurriedly gathered his stuff to leave. No one bothered him anymore; now their attention was on Sue watching her calmly help him put his books in his bag.
Richard was holding some of his papers in his hand while he gathered more and Zoey slapped his hand. The papers separated and fluttered to the floor around his desk. Sue bent down to grab them for him, glaring at Zoey. "Whoops, what a klutz, dropping his papers everywhere – you got somethin' to say, Yi?"
The question was not worth answering. Sue calmly helped Richard pick most of his papers up, before he just gave up and ran. He was scared of being beat up, but Richard was afraid Sue would be hurt too. He had been there another time when Sue ran into these girls. Sue drove them off, even five to one, but got a black eye doing it.
Sue was a little afraid too, but not afraid of being hurt. She was afraid she would have to break her promise to Nana about fighting at school. She had enough of these morons picking on her classmates and if she had to break her promise about fighting, she was ready to break it, and take whatever punishment Nana gave her.
Sue thought about Nana's punishment the whole time she helped Richard, but once he was out of the classroom, she directed all of her attention to the bullies. "Zoey! What are you tearing his papers up for? For that matter, what are you even doing here?"
"Because I can."
Sue rolled her eyes, "How ignorant you are. You can go jump off a bridge too. Why don't you?"
"Shut up Sue," Obviously Zoey had a cold. "Your the ignorant one – messing with me!" She coughed and blew her nose in her bare hand, also obviously had not been taught manners of any kind.
She sneezed again, and a big bugger ran down her upper lip. Sue made a face, "Gross Zoey, you're nose is running – even your nose is so put off by your behavior, that its trying to get away from you."
"Oooooo – Good one, Yi. Since when did you get so brave? Ahchooo!"
"Its not a matter of being brave. I can't stand seeing you hurt others. You just aren't worth my time."
"Shut Up YI! How about instead of hurting others, we hurt you?"
Sue didn't shut up, "Just get out of here Zoey. . . In fact, go home why don't you - you're sick - why are you even at school today?"
"So I can share my cold with you, Yi."
"Wha . . ." Zoey grabbed Sue in a bear-hug before she could react and planted her snotty lips right on Sue's! Sue kept her mouth shut tight until she could turn her head to scream, "Oh GROSS! Get off me!"
Sue pushed her away and grabbed the first thing, someone's jacket, to wipe her face off with. After giving no warning at all, Jenna punched Sue in the ribs from behind.
Sue didn't even cry out, but turned to face Jenna, so angry she thought steam might be coming out of her ears. "That punch wasn't even as hard as my brother hits me when we're playing. Leave our class, all of you!"
"Make us!" Jenna yelled. Several other students scrambled from their desks and ran. The bravest stayed and cheered for Sue. Sue got ready to defend herself just in time. Jenna took a few steps back threw a chair at her, afraid to go close enough to try to hit her again now that she was ready. Sue easily blocked the chair with her forearm and it landed harmlessly on the floor in the corner.
Just then, the teacher burst into the room. With Richard and three other very scared students behind him, hiding, but trying to see what had happened. Mr. Benson thought Sue was the one who threw the chair.
"You six girls! The principals office! Wait in the hall - I will escort you. Mrs. Evans is coming to sit with the rest of the class while you take the quiz."
Sue started to go back to her desk, but stopped, "Wait – SIX? Me too? I was trying to stop them!"
"You too Yi – you were part of this. Lets go!"
Zoey grinned a big 'shit-eating' grin at Sue. Richard finally found his brave voice and tried to help, "But Mr. Benson! Sue was trying to help me. She stopped those girls from tearing up my notes for class!"
"Really, well - we can sort everything out in the principals' office."
Sue sighed and resigned to go without further argument, but as she followed them into the hall, she hesitated. Checking first to make sure no one was looking at her, she leaned against the wall for a second holding her side. Jenna's punch wasn't completely in-effective, but there was no way Sue would show her how much it hurt.
Zoey and Jenna went first across the school yard, followed by the others, Mr. Benson, and Sue brought up the rear, grumbling all the way to the principal's office. She had only tried to help Richard, and now was being punished for it. Still, if she had to do it all over again, she would have. Sue glared angrily at the backs of the little gang's heads all the way to administration and realized that it looked like Ashley hadn't washed her hair in who-knows-how long.
After an hour of questions and having to defend her actions, she was finally allowed to leave the principal's office and fortunately, didn't get detention. But Zoey and Jenna did, get detention and their parents were called right then. Both immature girls threatened Sue when she went to the door to leave, after she had been excused.
Sue left quietly, choosing not to respond to their taunts, but their threats got them one more day of detention, which made them even madder.
Sue checked the time. Math class was over and she missed half of the next class. "Now I'm gonna have to make Mr. Benson's quiz up. Stupid Zoey." Sue got through the rest of her classes uneventfully. She didn't see Zoey or any of her gang again until the end of the day.
Unfortunately, when the final bell rang Zoey and the others found Sue alone at her bike taking the chain off. Sid and Tobey hadn't shown up yet.
Sue saw the girls coming, but sighed, otherwise ignoring them. She didn't want them to think for one minute that they would be able to chase her away or keep her from doing what she needed to do, just because they were around.
"Hey Yi! You got us detention!" Zoey accused.
"I didn't 'get you' nothin'. Your actions alone caused you to get in trouble. You weren't even supposed to be in that class. You deserve whatever you got for picking on Richard and the others."
"We'll go wherever we want – and pick on whoever we want. We're gonna make you pay for what you did to us."
"I did nothing to you, but a nickle should make us more than even - I'd pay that much to see you get suspended for a month next time! Do you listen at all in science class? Its all about cause and effect, your stupidity caused the effect of you getting in trouble. It had nothing to do with me. Period."
Zoey lost her temper and threw a punch at Sue, who blocked, just as Jenna tried to hit her from behind. Feeling the attack coming from behind her back, Sue ducked and Jenna hit Zoey in the mouth. Both girls turned back, cursing. Joined by May, Ashley and Riley, they circled around Sue again.
"Whats going on here?" Sid yelled as he and Tobey ran up to the trouble. All the girls saw the boys coming and ran. Even Zoey didn't want to tangle with Sid, especially. But Zoey trying not to look like a chicken yelled back, "We're still gonna get you Yi!"
Tobey asked softly, "Are you okay Sue?"
"Sure - I'm fine, but they seemed to be hitting each other – it was weird."
Sid noticed the bruise on Sue's forearm, and reached out to hold her hand so he could see it better, but didn't mention it. Instead he poked fun at the gang. "Not so weird for them to hit each other. They're all like cave-people; not coping well in modern society."
"Haha Sid," Tobey smiled, "Why are they bothering you again anyway, Sue?"
"They're trying to blame me for some trouble they got into today. Don't worry, I can handle it."
"I'm sure you can, Sue," Tobey grinned at her. "I wouldn't want to mess with you."
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Zoey's weird kissing fight had been on a Wednesday. Now on Friday morning, Sue was really sick. Much sicker than Zoey had been apparently, and Nana said she couldn't go to school at all with a fever of 101.8 degrees. Sue was already up and dressed when Nana came in and put a thermometer under her tongue. "But Nana, there's a test in history today."
"You can't go - it looks like you can't even focus your eyes on me, how would you take a test?"
"But Nana . . ."
"No Sue, Sid will bring you're assignments home and you'll have all weekend to recover and do you're homework. You can take a make up test next week."
"Aw, but that's two make-up tests in one week and its not even my fault! That Zoey and her friends at school! This is their fault."
"How could it be there fault you're missing class because you're sick Sue."
"Because on Wednesday - I was attacked! Zoey was sick and just to be annoying she grabbed me and kissed me! It was the most annoying, disgusting – disturbing thing ever! I'da rather been punched in the eye."
"One girl kissing another girl is a strange way to start a fight."
"She planned it, saying she wanted to give me her cold."
"Gives a new meaning to the term 'kissing disease', doesn't it? But I don't think that's what you have, you probably have a flu bug, so you have to take good care of yourself, but you should recover on your own."
Nana sat a jar of foul-smelling 'something' on Sue's nightstand and fluffed her pillow.
"Thanks Nana." Sue gave up trying to convince Nana to let her go to school and sat on her bed, eying the brew suspiciously. "What is it Nana?"
"Something to make you feel better, sip on it slowly until you get near the bottom, and then drink the rest quickly, and don't chew – just swallow."
"I'll try." Sue was pretty sure she saw something tiny, with one eyeball and a tail, move just under the surface of the liquid. When Nana left, Sue cringed. She put her pajamas back on and laid down facing away from the jar, hoping that whatever it was, wouldn't crawl out of the jar and get in bed with her.
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Sid had tennis practice after school so Tobey got back to Wu's Garden first, and had Sue's assignments with him. He went upstairs and after putting his stuff in his room, knocked on Sue's door. A voice that didn't even sound like Sue's said, "Come in."
Tobey made a face. "Oh Sue, you sound and look terrible."
"Thanks, and you look weird as e'ber." Sues nose was so plugged up she was having trouble speaking clearly.
"Ha-ha . . . And look at the mess you're making – you're even worse than me!"
"Leeb me alone - I don'b-beel good."
"No kidding, but do you have to just throw used tissue everywhere?"
"Go away, its 'by 'moom, I can be bessy, if'b I wanna."
"No, I'm not going away, but I, um -yeah- who am I to talk about being messy, right Sue? . . . I brought you you're books and assignments for the weekend."
"Fine, leave them and go away."
"Nana said she would be at the library late tonight, and Sid's at tennis practice. Do you want me t' do anything for ya?"
"No, nothing . . . why's Nana at d' library?"
"She says Kong Li is planning something, you know how she gets these feelings?"
"Yeah, and she's oben right. Go on Tob, do your hobwork or something. I'll go down and get something da eat later."
"Great idea Sue! I'll cook for you. Mr. Wu is in his room listening to that weight-loss hypnosis tape and Barney has had no customers. He's watching wrestling on TV in the dining room, so I'll have the whole kitchen to cook you're dinner in."
"Doe . . . 'obey, really, dads not 'ecessary. I'm bot hu'gry."
"Its okay, it'll take me a while to cook something. The peppers have to boil and it can be really hard to peel lychees – and if the pinto beans don't cook for an hour, they'll be tough.
"'obey, pindo's 'ave to coob for hours, and you have to wash them burst."
"No problem. I know what I'm doing. I'll just microwave them first."
"But they'll bop! - er, i bean pob."
"Cool – like 'pop-beans' instead of popcorn – they will be great with teriyaki sauce!" Tobey ran out before she could stop him.
Tired of trying to talk, Sue thought, ew, oh well if this cold can kill me, maybe I'll die before I have to eat what he cooks. I hope Nana gets home soon, and I hope she's wrong about Kong Li this time. I guess rather than fight him, I can sneeze on him and make him sick too." Sue rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.
Two hours later, Sue woke up and realized she did get a nap, but she was awakened by Tobey knocking on her door. "Com-b-in." Sue said as loud as she could. Tobey came in apologizing. "Sorry Sue, what I made for you can't even be cut into bites with Barney's meat cleaver, all you can do is lick it, and even that tastes weird."
"I told you – you can't book. If I was counting on you to feeb me, I'd starve."
"Hey - I can cook some stuff!"
"But when you do, you'rb the only one who likes it." Sue blew her nose three times in a row so maybe she could breathe for a few minutes, and it helped, she could even speak a little clearer, but Tobey was arguing, "You are mean Sue, I've gotten a lot better." Tobey looked down, and turned like he would leave, but really wanted to tell her something else, and remembered, so he didn't go. Instead he said softly, "Sid is very late from tennis practice, I'm gonna go find him."
"He isn't home yet? Are you sure?"
"I'm sure and his GPS signal shows him three blocks away, and not moving, so maybe he had a flat tire or something and he's having trouble changing it, I'll go see if I can help him. Will you be okay alone for a while? I can tell Barney to check on you."
"No I'm fine, I might just go to back to sleep, but call me when you find Sid."
"I'm sure he's fine, I'm mostly going so Barney doesn't try to put me to work – when he's not working anyway."
"Still, call me."
"Okay Sue and since diner didn't work out so great, do you want Sid and I to bring you pizza or something?"
"Not pizza, you shouldn't eat cheesy stuff when you're sick. Maybe when you get back, ask Sid to make me some egg drop soup. That sounds good with crackers, but not now, I'm so sleepy."
"Okay Sue, you're phone is on your nightstand."
". . . and Tobey . . . thanks for trying to cook for me, I'm sorry I yelled at you - I know you can cook some stuff alright."
"No problem, I know you're just grumpy cause you're sick, but you're still a better patient than I am when I'm sick."
"That's true, when you're sick, you turn into 'evil Tobey'." Sue said, smiling, but wiping her nose so you couldn't tell under the tissue. Tobey grinned at Sue and left, the smile on his face left quickly too when Sue couldn't see him anymore. He was a little worried about Sid, but didn't want her to worry.
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Tobey still rode playfully, jumping curbs and taking a detour behind the grocery store to jump the loading dock. Even though he was worried about Sid, he didn't know any other way to ride his bike. If nothing serious was wrong, and it was just a flat tire or something, he thought with any luck at all, Sid would have fixed his tire, or taken care of whatever problem he was having by the time he got there and they could just goof off for a while at the arcade on the way back.
The dark alley seemed even colder than the street as Tobey slowed down to enter. He got chills as he rounded the corner toward where Sid's GPS signal said he was. His way blocked by trash, Tobey hit his brakes and kicked his rear tire out to slide to a stop sideways, gravel making 'pinging' sounds when it ricocheted off the metal dumpster near by.
"Hey Sid! Where're ya?" He laid his bike on the ground to climb over a stack of pallets and broken shipping crates. He looked at Sid's GPS signal again and it still showed him to be right there. "Sid? Why don't you answer me?" He frowned and looked up. The sight before his eyes made him gasp in surprise and he quickly lowered into his snake defensive posture.
"Kong Li!"
"Yes my son. I'm glad you decided to join our party, Sid, all by himself is pretty boring, but there's still one missing. Where's Sue?"
"First - where's Sid?" Tobey demanded, having no intention of telling him where Sue was.
Rather than say anything, Kong Li simply stepped aside and gestured farther back, into the dark alley. In the shadows, Tobey could just make something that wasn't a normal part of the alley.
"Gei Kow No." Kong Li whispered, and a flame appeared over his palm, but he was only intending to shed a little light on the situation. Tobey jumped anyway, thinking that Kong Li made the flame to attack him with, but Kong Li pointed again, his flame lighting up the area, and the mustard yellow shirt that Sid was wearing.
"Sid!" Tobey cried, and ran forward without thinking. Sid was tied by his wrists, hanging uncomfortably from a fire escape; his toes just inches from the ground, but still dangling uncomfortably. Tobey ran right over and stood in front of Sid, trying to see if he was hurt.
"So predictable Tobey," Kong Li laughed, "running straight into my trap with no hesitation at all. Thank you for doing just what I hoped you would."
Tobey ignored Kong Li and lifted Sid's chin to get a little light on his face. Sid groaned, muffled by a film of something green, covering his mouth and chin. He was trying to tell Tobey to run, but Tobey could barely hear him, and thought he was groaning from being so uncomfortable or maybe he was even hurt seriously!
"Kong Li! You didn't have to hurt him! I'll make you pay for this!"
Instead of attacking Kong Li right then, Tobey wanted to save Sid first, so he reached up to try to get his wrists loose, just as the trap under his feet was sprung.
A dark patch of ground in front of and under Sid, that Tobey was standing on turned out to be a shape shifter, disguised as 'ground'. Shifty imitated a trap door by splitting open right under Tobey's feet to let him fall down into a deep hole. On the way down, Tobey fell through a net that was more, a thin, green 'membrane' than a net. It wrapped around him like shrink-wrap around a doll; tightly and pinning his arms to his sides, his legs together all the way to his toes and even covering his face, all which really freaked him out! Tobey tried to scream, realizing he was confined and helpless, and still falling. No sound came from him either since he couldn't breathe through the membrane. He landed hard on the ground with the shape shifter bouncing next to him, his trap-door form now resembled a large beach ball.
Above, Sid was still hanging by his wrists, with his legs dangling over the open hole. Seeing Tobey fall, he tried harder to scream through the gag and started kicking. Kong Li walked over and punched him in the gut to make him hold still.
"I suppose all the guests we will have at this party have arrived, so let the festivities begin!" Using a flourish like an actor on stage, Kong Li cut the rope with a knife to let Sid fall down the hole too. He landed hard on his side, his hands still tied in front of his body. Kong Li looked down over the edge, smiling and yelled at Shifty, "Don't forget to pull the kai-goo recipe from over my son's mouth, we don't want him to suffocate for real . . . yet."
The shifter-ball stopped bouncing and took his humanoid form so he would have a hand with fingers to tear the kai-goo from Tobey's mouth and nose. Tobey coughed and gasped for air. With his eyes still covered, he couldn't see Sid or anything else and frightened, started screaming again. Shifty pulled the gag off of Sid's mouth too, even though Kong Li had not ordered it.
"Sid! Sid!" Tobey cried.
"I'm right here. I think were in bad trouble. I'm so glad Sue isn't with you."
"Yeah, she and Nana will figure out what happened to us and save us . . . won't they?"
"I hope so."
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Sue woke up sneezing and got her hand stuck in the empty Kleenex box. "Oh no! This is so disgusting!" Feeling as awful as she was, she decided to only go as far as the bathroom to find something to wipe her nose with. A roll of toilet paper was closest, so that's what she used. Her nose was so sore from all the blowing, the toilet paper would probably make it feel worse, but at that point she didn't care, she didn't think she could feel worse.
Going by the clock in the hallway, she noticed that nine-thirty had already come and gone. "Wow the boys are late, I guess I fell asleep." A quick glance in Nana's room, she realized, "Nana's not back yet either, but the library closed at nine." Sue grumbled all the way back to her room, thinking about how everyone had left her alone for so long.
"Wow, its good I'm not seriously ill since everyone left me to fend for myself. Well, Barney and Mr. Wu are probably here somewhere, but um - yeah, still alone." She looked at her phone to see if any of them had tried to call her to tell her they'd be late, and saw there were no missed calls. She also saw that Sid's GPS signal had not moved from where it was when Tobey left hours ago.
Oh man, what's going on with them? After she got back in bed under the covers, she tried to call them. She was having chills even though her skin felt hot and it was hard even to see her phone. "Come on guys, one of you answer!" Sue tried twice, but there was no answer either time, so she called Nana.
"Have you seen Sid or Tobey?"
"No, I told them to stay home with you, to make sure you have whatever you need. Don't tell me they aren't there. . . "
"They aren't, but I don't really need anything – I'm just getting worried about them. Tobey went to find Sid hours ago, and Sid's GPS signal is still in the same place."
"Okay Sue, I see the signal. I will go find out what their doing on my way back. I hope they didn't run into Kong Li. From what I've learned doing some research, Kong Li may be after a rare fungi, a kind of mold that only grows on lead-based paints, after three days of steady rain and we've had some perfect weather for it. He might be out causing trouble trying to get it."
"Oh no, Nana, call me if you need me."
"I won't need you Sue, stay there and take care of yourself. I will call if we are delayed much longer."
"Okay Nana, if you're sure."
"I'm sure sweetheart. Don't you dare come out in this cold rain."
Sue tried to lay back down, but couldn't hold still for worrying, besides her nose being so stopped up she couldn't breath except through her mouth.
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Back in the tunnel underground, Kong Li carried Tobey to where he had a few items gathered for his plan. The shape-shifter dragged Sid by his bound wrists, rather than pick him up dirt got down his pants making everything even more uncomfortable.
Fortunately, where he was taking them wasn't too far. Iron bars like in an old west Sheriff's office separated a recess in the wall from the corridor. The bars disappeared when they got close and Kong Li threw Tobey in, the shifter pulled Sid in and gave him a kick in the leg on his way out, barely making it back out before the bars appeared again.
Hoping that Kong Li would be finished bothering them for a while, Sid started pulling more of the weird membrane off of Tobey, starting with his head, because he knew that was really bothering him. While he worked, slowed down a little with his wrists tied tightly together, Kong Li started spewing his plans instead of leaving them alone. Fortunately he didn't try to stop Sid from releasing Tobey.
"Boys, even before I have you help me get the magic cookbook, we are going on a treasure hunt."
"Really?" Sid shot back. "What makes you think we would help you do anything?"
"Because if you don't do what I tell you, you'll both be very sorry - Tobey, you are a good climber, right boy?"
"I do many things well - no thanks to you . . . Dad." Tobey could see and hear better now with his head uncovered. Sid was working on getting his arms free.
Kong Li smiled, but evilly not ruffled at all by Tobey's comment. "Fine then, you will both climb around on the outside walls of the tallest buildings in Chinatown to find what I need. I have already made a list of the oldest, painted buildings where we are likely to find even a little lead-based paint."
"Lead-based paint?" Sid glared angrily. "Are you kidding?"
Tobey added, "Only you would think lead-based paint is a treasure, Kong Loser."
"No-no; not the paint, but what will be growing on the old paint after three consecutive days of rain is priceless, and as long as it keeps raining for a little while longer, it should be growing and we will only have a couple of hours to harvest!"
"Why us? Just get your shape-shifter to do it."
"My shape-shifter is not good at this sort of work, lets face it, he's not very bright."
Shifty grunted at Kong Li's remark and Kong Li glared at him as he continued, "No, I captured you two especially for this job. You will take turns climbing down the outside of the buildings to look for what I am after, while the other keeps me company on the roof."
"We might push you off the building, but we won't help you!"
"Don't be sure, I know that threatening your lives wont work. Mei Hua has brainwashed you to think that foolishly giving up your lives is brave, but I know something that's sure to work, since you are all such a close fake-family now and will do anything for each other."
"Our family is not fake!" Tobey screamed angrily, "Nana loves us and cares for us just like we were her children from birth." Tobey involuntarily kicked and Sid had to let go of the green membrane on his legs. He stopped trying to get Tobey's legs free, figuring he could finish, and started chewing on the cord that bound his wrists. "Nana cares about the three of us more than anything!"
"No Tobey – how easily you're fooled. Mei Hua 'uses' you, she uses you to protect herself from me. She's just a foolish, frightened old woman. One day, you will realized what you've been missing and join me, she will be too old to protect herself at all and Sid and Sue will be easily defeated. Then I will have Mei Hua Wu sitting in my dungeon."
"Forget it Kong Li, you're aging poorly – Nana will out-live and out-fight you by decades!"
"I already have you and Sid, I could take Sue and Mei Hua out right now if I had time."
"Sue can protect herself, and you'll never even get close to Nana, you've tried before and she beats you every time."
"Yes, and if not for my son helping her, that wouldn't keep happening. He is more skilled than any of the rest of you. But now, you will help me whether you want to or not."
"So how do you think you will convince us to do anything you say before our Nana finds us and kicks your ass - again?"
"She won't be able to find us here, and after we leave here, it will be too late to stop me and save you two, so let go any hope you have of your Nana coming to rescue you. You will find and collect the mold I need."
"Mold? Why would you even want mold anyway? Don't you have enough growing between you're toes?"
"Ha-ha, good one Tob." the shape-shifter made a long thick tentacle to whip Tobey across the back with for that comment, but Sid blocked it, taking the strike on his forearm. He gritted his teeth a little and glared at Kong Li and the shifter.
Tobey never even knew the shifter had tried to hit him. Kong Li gave the shifter a look that meant, 'back off' and continued. " I will use the mold to make a gaseous, infectious cloud that will spread over Chinatown, spreading disease and getting rid of this city's weak, non-magical residents so I can replace them with strong demons and an army of slightly more intelligent shape-shifters."
As he spoke, Kong Li magically passed through the bars of the cell toward the boys, causing them to back up, but not because they were scared, they backed up only to make more room so they could kick him with more force.
Kong Li knew from past experience that they were going to try and fight him. "I know what you're thinking - don't try it. Even if you 'take me down' you can't get out of this cell without my magical help."
"Its okay. Just knowing that you're 'down' will make us both feel a lot better." Sid glanced at Tobey and they ran at Kong Li. He threw a vial at them, and the liquid that came from it, instantly increased in volume by hundreds of times, smacking Tobey in the chest like a giant green lugey. Tobey fell backwards and the lugey stuck him to the floor of the cell, trapped like a turtle on his back.
Sid avoided most of the green lugey-like potion, but still got his arm stuck to his side and the surprise made him hesitate. Kong Li grabbed Sid's free arm by the wrist and twisted until Sid went to his knees.
"Ow! Lemme go!"
"It didn't take much to take you down Sid. I thought you were strong."
"I'm plenty strong, you cheat! What is this stuff? Aaaannn!"
"That 'stuff' is not your main problem Sid." Kong Li held his hand out toward him, and sitting on his palm, was a slug-shaped lump of black goo – that wiggled! It went from short and fat to long and thin as it moved around, but it stayed on Kong Li's palm.
"What is that?" Sid cried, gritted his teeth with fear and discomfort. Kong Li still had him restrained, pressing on one of the most-sensitive pressure points on the human hand.
"Just a little something for you, that will ensure that Tobey cooperates. In turn, Tobey will get something to make sure you cooperate. You'll see - in this plastic bag, there are a pair of leeches. They've been swimming in a special, magic potion of my own creation that has turned them into 'magic leeches'. Now they are 'connected' with each other, not physically - but emotionally - if it can be said that leeches have emotions. Mwahahaha! . . . Either way, they are evolved enough that they can feel pain and my magic will allow both to feel what is happening even just to one of them, pain or pleasure."
"What does a leech have to do with anything? I'm not scared of little creatures no matter how slimy-what do i care if one 'feels' what the other feels?"
"You'll be scared of these leeches before this is over. Leeches are bad enough on their own, but these are carnivorous and very ferocious when angered or hurt and they don't die easily. Because i can pinch the one in my pocket, or hurt it in numerous ways - i can also control the one that will be inside you! - I can make it tear you apart from the inside! Mwahahaha."
"No way. I don't believe you - and there's no way you can get me to eat that thing!"
"You won't have a choice - if it has to, it will drill it's way through your skin to get away from what I will be doing to it's mate."
"Ew, No!" Sid struggled, trying to free his arm.
"No! Leave Sid alone," Tobey interrupted.
"Yes! When irritated, the leech will start eating your guts and keep chewing until it calms down. There's really no way to know how long it will take for it to calm down and if it stays irritated too long, it will be a very slow and painful way to die. If Tobey doesn't do what I say, I will smash the leech in my pocket and you will suffer, so hope Tobey likes you enough to spare you."
The leech bounced from Kong Li's hand to Sid, crawled up his shirt, oozed up his neck and jaw, sticking for a moment to his cheek. Sid yelled and struggled, his eyes huge as he tried to see what it was doing on his cheek. Kong Li held him still by twisting his arm higher up his back; and pinning him against the cell bars so he couldn't get away. Kong Li sounded at first like he was trying to comfort Sid when he spoke, "Don't worry Sid, it'll be really unpleasant as the leech goes in and builds its nest out of your guts, but after that - you won't even know its there unless Tobey screws up."
"How could you! Its not fair to make Sid suffer for what I might or might not do."
"Fair? Who said life is fair? If you don't do what I say, the effect it will have on Sid will be really bad."
[[[[[[[[*s*t*a*r*]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]
Tobey continued . . .