The door to Captain Black's office burst open violently. On reflex, he spun away from the cabinet he was retrieving files from, slid across the office on his desk chair, and reached for his handgun. Luckily he saw who it was before he got any farther. Jackie slumped against his desk, gasping for breath and holding his ribs, he must've been running hard, "Jackie, what is it?"
Jackie Chan looked up, "Jade didn't...show up at Dragon Scouts...went looking for her, and found..." he stammered in between gasps. Unable to explain and breath at the same time, he tossed a crumpled cloth shape onto Black's desk. A Dragon Scout's cap.
Captain Black turned it over in his hands. Jade's name was written in Sharpie on a tag inside, and there was a dark stain that anyone with any experience would instantly recognize as dried blood. He reached over and pressed the intercom button on his desk phone, "Kepler, Jade Chan is missing. I want the coordinates from the GPS on her cell phone, pronto."
There was a short pause before the response, "Right-o, boss. Just let me power down my entangled quantum-"
"Just get it done!" Interrupted Black. He looked back at Jackie, "I'm sure we'll find her. Do you have any more information? Have you notified the police yet?"
Jackie shook his head, "Not a thing. I called the police though; they were searching the alley when I left, nothing found yet. Uncle and Tohru are trying to make some sort of locator spell, but they didn't seem to optimistic...something about duck eggs not being in season..."
Black put a hand on his friend's shoulder, "How about you go get something to eat while I get this mess straightened out? I'll call you if there's any news of her."
As Jackie stumbled towards the door, a dazed look in his eyes, he paused and turned, "What if we can't find her, what if she's dead?"
"Listen, Jackie, if she was murdered, someone would have found her body by now, or if it was taken whoever did it wouldn't have left her cap behind. She's been kidnapped, and whoever did it wants us to know it. I suspect one of the criminals you have helped us thwart in the past few years is behind it. We just need some information to go after them, and then we'll find her, I promise."
"So you think she's alright?"
"Trust me, Jackie, Jade's resourceful, and I bet whoever's responsible is really regretting it about now. So, you go eat and let me handle the investigation..."
Her head throbbed. Jade reached a hand back and massaged the back of her skull. She could feel a lump the size of a baseball, and something slightly sticky matting her hair. Her back ached, and she was lying on what felt like stone; really cold stone. Everything was dark, and she realized she still had her eyes squeezed shut. She opened them, and after a few moments she made out a low ceiling of pale gray stone. Jade sat up, and peered at her hand; the stickiness was blood, but judging from the color it was pretty much dried. Yuck.
She glanced around, to see where she was. Her backpack lay in a corner; good. The room was all unbroken gray stone, carved with intricate patterns of loops and swirls, except on one side which was open except for some sort of metal grate and opened onto what looked like a corridor. It took a few moments for her dazed brain to work out what it was. A jail cell; not good. She sat up in a more comfortable position against the wall. Jade could vaguely recall the alley where she had blacked out, or been knocked out, as seemed more likely now. Who had done it? Where was she now?
Footsteps sounded in the corridor outside the cell. Jade flopped onto her back in what she hoped was a good approximation of her previous pose, but watched the entrance to her cell with one half-open eye. A dark orange-skinned being carrying a huge hammer walked by, peered in, and continued on. Jade barely maintained her sleeping facade. A Dark Chi Warrior...that could only mean Daolong Wong! But he was gone; lost in time with the Déjà Vu stone!
Unfortunately, it seemed the dark sorcerer had somehow manage to make his way back. Jade wondered what he was planning to do, and why he wanted with her. She didn't plan on staying around long enough to find out though. As soon as the footsteps had faded, she crawled over to her backpack. One advantage to being kidnapped by crazy old sorcerers practically from the Stone Age; her cell phone was still inside, and it looked undamaged. She powered it on and held it up. The first bar on the signal meter flickered, vanished, and then reappeared. She smiled; time to call for backup.
Jackie Chan stirred his coffee aimlessly, gazing into its brown, murky depths. An untouched sandwich lay on a plate next to his elbow. He looked up at the clock; surely someone must have found something by now...
He started up as Captain Black entered, carrying a folder. His friend sat down opposite Jackie, but one look at his face told Jackie there wasn't going to be much good news. "Is s-she...?"
Captain Black opened the folder, "She's most likely still alive, but there are some anomalies I think you should know," he removed a sheet and peered at it, "Her phone is still transmitting, but we were unable to pinpoint the location. The signal is too weak, or so I'm told. Kepler said that's not quite right and had some theories, but he started talking about electromagnetic shielding and how it would affect the signal and lost me there...then he started going on about transdimensional boundary surfaces...I was totally lost...but the important thing is, he says it can still receive calls!"
Jackie pulled out his cell phone, "Why didn't you say something sooner!?"
Captain Black put a hand out and stopped him, "Wait a moment, we don't want to call her. She needs to call us."
"Huh?"
"Think of it this way, if Jade has her phone, she'll call as soon as she gets a chance. If she doesn't have it she won't be able to answer anyway. If she has it and we call, whoever kidnapped her might realize she has it, and take it away. So the only thing to do is wait, and try to follow up on the other leads."
That grabbed Jackie's attention, "Other leads?"
Black chose another sheet, "I pulled a string or two and got the investigator reporting directly to me, and had some specialists come in. There are some really strange things about the tracks. The tracks indicate that someone hit her from behind and she didn't see it coming at all, but there's absolutely NO trace of whatever hit her. No tracks, not any disturbed gravel other than what Jade did. There's not any trace of her hitting the ground either, for that matter."
"So something appears from nowhere, hits Jade in the head hard enough to bleed, knocks her hat off, and they both vanish into thin air?"
"Something like that."
"That's crazy!"
"Not entirely. It's possible someone could have nabbed her from above if they were agile enough. Swing or climb down on a rope as she passes, hits her, and hoists her back up."
Jackie tried to imagine how one would do such a stunt, and couldn't quite picture it. He frowned, "It'd take a very skilled person to do it."
Captain Black leaned forward, "This brings me to my other lead. There's only three people I know of that could pull that off who aren't accounted for. The so-called Strikemaster Ice and his cronies."
"Huh? I thought they were in prison! High-security!"
"They were, at least until this morning. Some guards removed them and left with them in a prisoner transport. They had all the proper authorization and clearances, so no one questioned them. Later, they came back, without Ice or his friends."
"What is this?! Some sort of conspiracy?"
"Perhaps. The odd thing is, the guards deny the event even took place, and every single one of them passed a lie-detector test. I'm having a couple flown here for your uncle to look at...all things considered with Ice's history, we can't rule out magic being involved here."
"So there may be an evil sorcerer, who knows enough to free Ice's crew, probably to serve as minions, and who wants Jade for unknown purposes? Why do I get the feeling there's some sort of artifact hunt looming..."
Captain Black scratched his head, "I sincerely hope not...we've had a ridiculous number of magic items turning up the past few years...there HAS to be some end to it."
Jackie stood up, and started to pace around the table, frustrated, "What are we going to do? Just sit here?! Jade could be in grave danger! Probably is, knowing her..."
"I've done what I can to locate her, and information may come at any instant. What we do is be ready when it does."
"I hope that's soon!"
Uncle was so intent, poring over an old volume of chi wizardry, that he almost didn't hear the phone ringing. He looked up, startled by the noise, and glanced back at the book, irritated. His entire train of thought, gone; and he had little time for such nonsense. With a sigh, he picked up the receiver, "Uncle's Rare Finds, how may I help you?"
"Hi, Uncle! What's up? Is Jackie there?"
Uncle almost dropped the phone in shock, "JAADE! Where have you beeeen?! You frighten everyone to death with worry!"
Her reply was rather terse, "Well, duh, you should be worried, considering I'm being held in a dungeon by DARK CHI WARRIORS!"
"One more th-dark chi?...Aiyah!" Uncle turned and stretched into the study as far as the phone's cord would allow. "TOHRU! Get Jackieee!"
"What is it Sensei?" Uncle's massive apprentice glanced up from another text; former apprentice, actually.
"Jade on phone. Wants to talk to him," The old man put the phone back to his ear, "Explain, Jade. What's going on?"
"I was going to Dragon Scouts, and got ambushed, knocked out, and woke up here."
"Where is "here"?"
"Uhh...I have no idea. GPS isn't working, I can barely get a signal at all."
"Nevermind. What about Dark Chi warriors?"
"I saw one; Daolong Wong, or someone like him must be involved."
Tohru ducked back in, "Jackie says he'll be here in ten minutes."
Uncle related this bit of information to Jade, who paused for a moment before replying, "When he gets here, tell him his cell phone's turned off, and he's got about a million voice messages from me."
