Hey there! :) Here's the second chapter of my Public Enemies/Jackie Chan Adventures crossover story An Unusual Abduction. Here are the reviews I got so far for this story, as well as my responses:

Harry2: (Now this story has POTENTIAL! I can see Jade, trying to blend in to save her life, BECOMING a member of the gang! She would get used to the attention, the money, the clothing, things her Unlce and family would never let her get. I'm looking forward to seeing if she does decide to take a trip down the dark side.) Thanks for the nice feedback. That means a lot to me, too. :)

org13fan: (interesting, I hope you write more. This has a lot of potential.) Thanks. :) Glad you like it so far, too.

Previously...

It was then that she heard John's voice say, "Come on, let's go" and then felt herself being taken out of the bank, down the steps and into a big, black car. There, after John had settled himself next to Nelson's left side, Jade felt Nelson put her not-so-gently on his lap (as she was still in the bag).

"Don't worry, doll," she heard him whisper to her through the bag as the car started up and began moving along the highway. "You're heading towards a new life."

It was at that moment that Jade knew her life as she knew it would change forever.

You look so beautiful today
When you're sitting there it's hard for me to look away
So I try to find the words that I could say
I know distance doesn't matter but you feel so far away
And I can't lie
Every time I leave my heart turns gray
And I wanna come back home to see your face tonight
‛Cause I just can't take it

Another day without you with me
Is like a blade that cuts right through me
But I can wait
I can wait forever
When you call my heart stops beating
When you're gone it won't stop bleeding
But I can wait
I can wait forever
~Simple Plan, I Can Wait Forever

To Jade, it seemed that hours had passed — though it was actually minutes, even though she wasn't sure how many — before the car stopped. Apparently, they were in the woods as she couldn't hear any other sounds other than the chirping of the birds, the howling of the wind in the trees and the whispers coming from the other gang members around her. She could hear them through the sack. Maybe they were talking about her; she wasn't sure, though.

Then she felt the sack she was in being picked up by someone — probably John, no doubt — and carried in his arms.

"Don't even think about it, Jimmy," she heard him hiss at Baby Face Nelson. She could see the glare John was shooting at him in her mind, since she couldn't do so physically. "She is a hostage, yes, but unlike most men that are out there in the world and who would take advantage of Jade if they had the opportunity, I prefer to treat her with respect. Got it, Jimmy?"

There was a fire of some kind in John's eyes, as Nelson knew the look John was giving him way too well. Apparently, Nelson seemed to agree with what John had said, because Jade then heard him say in reply, with a touch of fear in his voice, "Yes, John. I get it. I really do."

John then smiled, pleased that his intervention had stopped Nelson from not only making a mistake that couldn't be taken back, but also taking Jade's life away from her at the same time. "Good," he said. "Now, I will watch over her, and make sure that no harm comes to her.

"Nobody touches her, either. And that goes for all of you," he added while locking eyes with every one of his gang. Besides Nelson, there was Homer Van Meter, Harry ‛Pete' Pierpoint, ‛Red' Hamilton and Charles Makley.

Now Jade knew all their names. But it was John Dillinger who she wanted to get know a lot about and whose name had caught her attention — and that had been long before her abduction, too.

For one thing, she had heard a lot of stories about him. And those stories were usually found in the newspapers, too. However, she also knew that so much of the news about John were lies, actually. She had done her research, after all — and she had actually thought that research was boring once. Well, when it came to finding out about criminals and outlaws like John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson, she didn't treat research as both unexciting and something that was to be avoided like the plague. Not anymore.

One day there had been a story in the news that said John would go after and kidnap young girls if they happened to be rich and/or were the daughters of bankers by using his charm and good looks and luring them to him with promises of a life that was said to be not only quite exciting and new, but also a whole lot better than the one he saw them to be currently stuck in and/or bored with. Then, it was said that John would subject them to all kinds of tortures and rapes before finally killing them and burying their bodies in the woods.

However, the public knew that all that stuff was just made up by the press and was all exaggerated. Even John himself had once expressed his dislike of not only kidnapping, but also murder. He was a gentleman, after all, and he also believed that real gentlemen never did those kinds of things with girls or women. Instead they would usually treat a lady very nicely, and would sometimes leave a decision up to her.

And neither Jade or anybody else believed a single word of those so-called news stories about him being a killer either. She knew the truth about John Dillinger. After all, she had talked to a customer who had been at a bank John had robbed once. The customer had said that John was very courteous and chivalrous with the women — especially in small things too.

It was also said that once, upon seeing a small pile of money on a counter and a farmer standing next to the counter with his hands up in the air, expecting to get robbed, John asked if the money belonged to the farmer. When the worried farmer replied that the money did indeed belong to him, John told him, "You can put it away. I'm not here for your money. I'm here for the bank's money".

Whenever he was with a female hostage and John noticed that she would begin shivering, he would take off his coat and drape it over her shoulders, saying, "Here, honey. You wouldn't want to catch your death of cold while I'm around, my dear". She felt grateful for that, of course.

Jade immediately pulled herself out of her thoughts when she felt herself being set on the ground. Then John bent to her level and pulled the top of the sack free from her so Jade could stick her head out.

"You OK there, doll?" he asked, his dark chocolate eyes filled with concern as they looked at Jade, who stepped out of the sack while dusting off her clothes, feeling grateful for the fresh air that she finally had a chance to breathe into her lungs. It had been quite dark in that sack — almost as though she had been blinded by darkness for a time until someone showed up and banished the darkness away.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine, Mr. Dillinger," she said. Then she looked up at him and smiled. Her amber eyes, he noticed, seemed to sparkle and gleam, like the stars in the sky when nighttime fell.

He smiled. "Please, call me John, or Johnny if you want. In my opinion, hearing people call me ‛Mr. Dillinger' sounds so silly and formal. Like I'm older than my age when I know I'm not, of course."

Jade blushed. Gosh darn it, that trademark smirk of his! she thought. No wonder he can turn on the charm with girls, too. She then tried to swallow, even though her mouth felt dry as the proverbial bone, and finally managed to succeed.

John then reached up and gently ran one of his hands through her chin-length black hair. He had taken a fancy to her already, even though it was Baby Face Nelson who had spotted her first and taken her with him. It was then that John made up his mind to have a stern talk with Nelson about the right kind of hostage situation and how to pull it off without a hitch, as well as having to resort to the tactic of using the sack in order to abduct girls — namely, girls that were Jade's age, to be precise. For now, though, he was content to just run his fingers through Jade's raven locks. He developed a liking to its suppleness, its texture and its silkiness. Another thing he liked about her was her eyes. Oh, the golden-brown color of those eyes, set in the pretty face that belonged to her.

"I don't know why you were in that bank when the boys and I stepped inside in order to rob it, but I'm awful glad you were," John said.

Jade smiled a little at the sound of those words. It sounded like John thought it was a piece of good luck that she happened to be there. Maybe it was, or maybe it wasn't. She decided to find out which later. "Uh, thanks, Johnny," she replied.

"You're welcome," he replied. A moment of silence soon passed before John tried something else.

"So tell me," he said, "why, may I ask, were you hiding under the table when my boys and I walked into the bank?"

Jade sighed. Well, better to be honest right now and get it all out in the open, plain and simple...

"Well, you see, Johnny," she began, "I sensed that something big — although I didn't know what — was about to happen. Then, when I saw you, Jimmy and those other guys walking up the steps to the bank's doors, I quickly got under the table, not wanting to be seen." She paused for a bit, while John let the words sink in. "But I had a sinking feeling that I would've been spotted anyway," she added.

Quiet for a moment, John looked at the ground, having pulled his hand away from her hair, before he looked back at her. "Really?" he queried.

Jade nodded. "Yes. Before all this had happened — before I was kidnapped by you guys, that is — I thought that all I had to worry about was taking in as much of the sights of the city of Chicago before finding a good place to sleep for the night." She paused for a moment before adding, "And without having to worry about being molested during the night, especially if it was an older man at that."

John shook his head and smiled. "Don't worry, doll," he said while looking her in the eyes. "I will make it so that anybody who tries to get at you will have to come through either myself, Jimmy Nelson, Charles Makley, Harry ‛Pete' Pierpoint or Homer Van Meter."

Jade blinked. "Are you saying," she replied, "that you want to be my bodyguards or something?"

John nodded. "Of course," he said before giving her a wink. "And I do not ever hurt girls at all, especially a pretty one such as yourself. I'm too much of a gentleman to do something like slap a girl around, after all." He put an arm around her shoulders, like the cool teacher or the older brother she'd always wanted, but never got.

"Besides," he added after a moment, "I became the gentleman I am today because I wanted to be seen as such."

Jade thought this over. "OK, now I have a confession to make," she finally said. "There are some things I don't know about you."

John smirked to himself. Now was definitely a good time to tell her.

He looked her in the eyes as he spoke, being very careful to keep his language clean (as he was a gentleman, and never swore in front of women or children). "I was raised on a farm in Mooresville, Indiana. My mama died when I was three. My daddy beat the stuffing out of me ‛cause he didn't know no better way to raise me."

Surprised, Jade blinked a little. She certainly was not hoping he would answer her so quickly the way he did. For one thing, he sure knew how to get to the point in something that happened to be very important.

Satisfied with the look on her face, John added, "I like baseball, movies, good clothes, fast cars, the occasional soda pop, and you." He winked at her. "What else do you need to know?"

A puzzled frown replaced the look of shock that had been there before on Jade's face. Finally, she looked up at him and said, "That's a serious confession to tell a girl you just met — especially one such as myself, that is."

John reached down and took her hand in his before bringing it to his lips, turning it over and placing a kiss on the back of it, causing a strawberry-colored blush to stain her cheeks.

"Don't worry, Jade," he grinned. "I will make sure to have a stern talk with Jimmy about what he did to you using that bag." As he spoke, he looked down at the bag now around Jade's feet. He motioned for her to step back a few feet from the bag; when she complied, he then reached down, picked up the bag and folded it neatly before putting it into his suit pocket.

"Now, Jade, do you trust me?" John said while gently taking Jade by the hand as they headed back to where the gang was waiting.

Jade shook her head. "To be honest? I don't think so."

Smiling again, John gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "Well, my little sweetheart, have you heard about what I do to people I abduct?"

Jade shook her head a second time. "No, I haven't."

John was unable to voice his amazement at that honest statement of Jade's. Exactly how naive did they see her as, anyway? Just because she was a kid — twelve years old at that — she was supposed to be foolish and not know about the dangers in the world? Well, I'll give them what-for when it comes to Jade, I will. His smile now back in place, he looked down at Jade.

"Well, what I normally do is take them to a forest such as this one and tie them to a tree. They're easy to find, and I never hurt them either," John explained.

Her answer to that surprised him a little. "So, tie me up, then. Just let me go."

John shook his head. "I don't think so, my dear. You see, I only set people at liberty when I want to. But, as for you, my little drifter, I think I'll keep you for a bit."

Well, that's the end of this chapter. I hope you'll like the next one as much as I do writing it.

I also dedicate this story to my friend Harry2, also known as Harry on Twisting the Hellmouth, since we both like crossovers between fandoms such as Public Enemies and Jackie Chan Adventures. Plus, writing a crossover between those two fandoms allows for a lot of creative leeway for a writer like me. :)

Anyway, nice feedback is very much appreciated, of course. :)