Life On Fire... Breath: Part 3
"Uncle Jackie…" Jade gasped, anxiously looking out across the ocean. Somewhere beyond the sea, her Uncle was in dire straits - and she couldn't do a single thing to help him. She looked to Xu-Lin, who was desperately trying to keep herself under control. "Do you know what kind of danger it is?" Xu-Lin opened her mouth to say something, but Jade cut her off. "Oh, it doesn't matter. There's nothing I can do about it. I should've gone with him. Why didn't I go?"
She began pacing back and forth, becoming more and more animated. Xu-Lin was sympathetic, and hoped she looked it though she was distracted by her own problem. Thanks to the new terms of her curse, the compulsion to change and go after Jackie herself was overpowering, and getting stronger. It wouldn't be long before she lost herself at this rate.
She let out a groan, and Jade's suddenly started paying attention to what was going on in front of her. Her eyes widened as she realized what might happen.
"Oh no… Xu-Lin, if you change because of Uncle Jackie, you won't be able to just jump track to Jimmy and Paco, will you?" she said carefully. Xu-Lin shrugged – she honestly had no idea, but if the Guardian was as singleminded with its new purpose as it was with its old one…
Jade took her silence as a bad sign. "You're gonna head right for him!" She gasped. "Aw, man. This is bad. He's in Europe! Can you swim when you're all monstery? And what happens if the danger passes while you're halfway across the Atlantic Ocean?"
Xu-Lin grimaced. She had been trying not to think about any of that.
Noticing her distress, Jade calmed down a little. "Can't you fight it?"
Now why did I not think of that? Xu-Lin thought, though she knew that was unfair. Jade was just trying to help. "I… do not know!" she groaned, straining. "I felt it before with Jimmy and Paco, like… I could sense the danger they were in… but this is so much more! I cannot…" She trailed off, very aware that she had never once been able to stop the curse before. She wasn't even sure if she had ever truly held it at bay. There was no reason to think that she could stop it now.
Jade groaned. The last thing this situation needed was the addition of a seven foot tall monster charging headfirst into the ocean. And the implication that Jackie was in the middle of something even worse wasn't helping her nerves any. "Just stay calm and remember, Uncle Jackie can take care of himself!" Jade said, as much to herself as to Xu-Lin.
It seemed to help, at least. With that in mind, Xu-Lin took a deep breath and forced herself to become less tense – and slowly, the curse's power waned. After a few seconds, she was almost able to relax. The moment thankfully seemed to be over.
She and Jade shared a relieved smile. Jade even got enough time to blurt out a fate-tempting "that was close!" before Xu-Lin's eyes sudden shot straight open.
"Uh oh…" she gasped, just before a pair of horns sprouted out of her forehead. Dropping her guard had clearly been the wrong idea.
"Crud!" Jade said, while Xu-Lin tried doubly hard to restrain herself. "I really hope Uncle Jackie can take care of himself..."
A Few Minutes Earlier, At the Pile Of Ruin That Was Once Damgaard's Lair
If a random person were to pass the old Damgaard estate, they would see a slowly smoldering wreck where a once proud home had stood – the victim of a brushfire, perhaps. Tragic, but the building was old and abandoned. Such a thing was inevitable.
With a little bit of investigation someone might find evidence of foul play among the splinters, and a brush fire would become arson. But no one could ever figure out the real scope of what happened there just from what was left behind on top. And without any evidence, a case might end up dropped before long.
However, far below the surface there was a different story. And it was almost a miracle the heroes stuck down there were still alive to tell it.
"We made it. I almost can't believe it." Jackie gasped. He was leaning against a wall in the dim light of his phone, singed but not seriously hurt.
It had been a daring escape: Jackie came to his senses only a few moments before the ceiling caved in on them - he and Viper managed to grab El Toro and dive for the false floor just as the building came down. Then, through the skill born from years of adventuring, the two were able to each grab one side of the ladder and – El Toro still on their backs – slide down to the bottom without injury.
It was one of the closest saves any of them could remember, and it was just sheer luck that the roof had fallen on top of the pit rather than into it.
Viper found it a little incredible too, but she was too much of a realist to put too much stake in it. "Start believing it after we get out of here. We're still stuck in a giant hole underneath a burning building. We'll choke before long."
"You're right." Jackie sighed. "The smoke won't drift down here, but I doubt we'll be getting any more air."
Viper grunted in response. "How's El Toro," she said – glancing in their general direction.
"'El Toro' is fine," came the voice of the man himself from a corner, weak from being knocked out – though with more injured pride than body. "Despite his poor judgment. Sorry about that, amigos." He rose to his feet, a bit glad none of the others could see him wince.
"No, don't sweat it," Viper sighed. "This is more my fault than any of yours,"
"Don't talk like that, Viper."
"Why not, Jackie?" She suddenly snapped. "If it hadn't been for what I did, that psycho wouldn't have done any of this! He might not even be a psycho at all." She leaned back against the stone with an audible clunk. "I guess you can never get away from your past. Maybe I do deserve a little justice…"
"That's crazy. You're crazy. That hasn't been you in years! We all know that. He's the one who won't leave the past behind."
"And in doing so," El Toro added, "he hurts innocent people. If he truly wanted justice, it would never have gone this far. He blames you for his problems, and uses his vengeance as an excuse!"
"Exactly. Nobody knows better than us what you used to be like, and we trust you."
Despite her crummy mood, Viper couldn't help but take their words to heart. "No offense Jackie," she said playfully, "but you're about as gullible as a goldfish."
"Hey!"
"Just kidding, handsome," she smirked, trusting that Jackie was sharing her smile in the dark. A second later, she was back to business. "So then, enough feeling sorry for ourselves. How do we get out of here? The air is getting thin."
The others shuddered. Jackie hadn't wanted to say anything, but he limited air supply was weighing on his nerves as well. If they wasted any more time down here it was possible they would never be coming back out.
"I don't know..." He sighed, turning to the strongman of the group. "El Toro, are you feeling back up to strength?"
"I'm afraid not, amigo." El Toro groaned. "I am not sure I could lift that wreckage even if I were. And if Damgaard is still up there…"
El Toro trailed off. Jackie decided not to dwell on that bad news. Vocalizing problems always seemed to work out for them in the past… "Then our only hope is..." Suddenly, his eyes lit up. "Viper! I know you don't like using them, but do you have any more of those explosives on hand?"
"Perhaps one that will not bring the roof down on our heads a second time?" El Toro quipped.
A smile slowly grew on Viper's face. "I don't, but Philip Crane might!" She reached into her suit, looking for something she may have discarded there. "I confiscated a few of his more dangerous gadgets, back when I actually thought I'd be able to turn him in." After a few moments, she pulled out a small vial with a thick liquid inside. "It's pitch black so it could just be his nasty hair gel, but I think this is the stuff he uses to blow safes. Amateur…"
"Then let's get to work."
The heat was almost unbearable and getting worse - they didn't have much time to act before the burning would make scaling the ladder impossible, let alone safely spreading the gel over the wreckage lodged above them. They had to scale the ladder in record time, ignoring the uncomfortable way it was heating up, and latching onto each other for balance as Viper reached out and carefully traced a decent amount of gel onto the debris clogging the hatch.
Sure enough, within moments of finishing the job a stray spark burned into the gel and the whole area went up with a loud bang. Unfortunately, this caused all of the debris above them to come falling down the pit like an avalanche - just as El Toro predicted. By huddling under El Toro and flattening themselves against the ladder they managed to avoid most of the falling debris without incident, but it was still a shower of rubble, rocks and lightly burning wood. It wasn't exactly the most pleasant shower in the world.
By the time they climbed out the hole they had been entirely covered in soot and dust. They were each sporting an array of new scrapes and singes, could barely stand up straight and were definitely in need of some downtime. On the upside, after that getting over the rest of the smoldering remains seemed almost easy.
They regrouped away from the house, over by the road. Their fiery foe had long since assumed they were dead and left, which meant they had a much needed moment to rest.
"Can I be amazed now?" Jackie said, fighting the urge to collapse on the pavement. "Or should I wait until we deal with Damgaard?"
"Funny," Viper replied. She was also stubbornly staying on her feet, despite wanting to fall out for days after that experienc. "But it's a good question anyway. What can we do about him?"
"I'm not sure. His lantern is clearly the Chi Artifact from this shrine, so it's bestowed some kind of power on him. But how to stop it? This is only our second one."
"So a dead end." Viper concluded "Still, from what you told me I didn't think 'turn everything in the area to ash' was typical for these things."
Jackie flipped trough his phone, trying to find a picture of the shrine that wasn't blurry or dark. "They react differently depending on who activates them," he explained. "The fire must be linked to his… er…"
"Demencia?" El Toro said from the curb. Unlike the others, he wasn't too proud to take a rest.
"I was going to say disposition," he said flatly, not quite paying attention as he reread the text. "'Stronger as you are,' the writing says. That has to be a clue."
"We'll need to talk to Uncle as soon as possible," El Toro said frankly, nodding at Jackie. Viper mirrored him. "But no matter what, we'll need to think of a way to fight that fire before we think of turning it off."
Jackie finally had a signal again and was already calling the number. "I'll talk to Uncle," he sighed. He was not looking forward to that conversation. "But I have an idea about that. I say if he's angry enough to burn his own house down, we can get him mad enough to beat himself. I know from experience." He paused, thinking back to one of his earliest adventures. "It should work. We just have to trap him."
"That's the easy part." Viper said brightly. She stood up straight for effect, but winced as her bruises revolted against the sudden movement. "We give him what he wants! It's time to go on the offensive, boys! Forget Uncle for now-"
Jackie froze just as he was about to press the Call button.
"Why?"
"Cause we should be calling up Captain Black. We need a fast favor!"
Back In San Francisco
As it turned out, Jackie, Viper and El Toro not only blew the roof off of the building just in time to save themselves, but also in time to help Jade and Xu-Lin. The moments before their escape matched up perfectly with Xu-Lin's curse reaching the breaking point: any longer, and the danger they were in would have caused her to change no matter how confident the two girls were that the adults could handle themselves.
"Come on, Xu-Lin! You can do it!" Jade shouted, sounding a lot like a cheerleader- though the same time, she was crossing her fingers where her friend couldn't see and (like any nervous teenager) and running through worst case scenarios nonstop in her head. "Please, please let this not get any worse!" she whispered to herself, hoping not to freak her friend out more. "Uncle Jackie's gonna kill me… once he gets out of whatever mess he's in… he's not gonna die… he couldn't…"
"I… am…. trying!" Xu-Lin replied, but she wasn't doing well. The horns popping out were like a universal sign that the floodgates were open. It was a miracle she was holding on at all.
"I'm sorry!" she shouted, as she felt herself starting to slip…
And then all of a sudden (over in Denmark, Jackie and company had just climbed out of the pit), it was as if all that weight suddenly disappeared. She stumbled in surprise, momentarily unsure what to think, and idly patted the top of her head. The horns were gone.
"Hey, it stopped!" Jade said brightly. Then she froze, horrorstruck. "Wait, that doesn't mean…"
Xu-Lin closed her eyes and concentrated, trying to get a sense for what state her friends were in – an idea she knew she would need to explore in private. It was a strange feeling to tap into, like being able to feel shades of events that were happening nowhere near her. But then, she had been able to perfectly sense intruders during her stay at the Lotus Temple. This must be the same ability, only altered in the same way as her curse. "It was like being on a roller coaster for a time there… but I can definitely sense that your Uncle is safe." she said, with a weary grin.
Jade let out a big sigh of relief.
"Well, safer… a little…" Xu-Lin added, trailing off. "Safe" for the Chan family was a little too relative for her blood. Until Uncle discovered a way to remove her curse, her life was clearly going to get a lot more tense. "He is in less trouble than Jimmy and Paco are, at any rate."
"Yeah? And what about them?"
Xu-Lin focused again and there it was again. She just knew. In fact, she could almost see their annoyed faces. "They are struggling but… I'm sure they can handle it until we get back." She said with a giggle.
Jade looked at Xu-Lin as though she were a walking fireworks show. "This is so cool! It's like you've got spider senses or something!" She said excitedly, bobbing up and down as though those same powers hadn't nearly caused a disaster less than a minute before. Xu-Lin fought the rare urge to roll her eyes.
"Well," Jade continued, oblivious to Xu-Lin's reaction. "Let's not leave them waiting too long, then!"
And with that she ran off as if the whole incident never happened. Momentarily left behind, Xu-Lin sighed, shrugged and quickly followed after. Anyone else would be floored by what just happened, but Jade… was Jade. Situations like this never did seem to bother her enough...
Meanwhile, Waiting…
Back at the garden, Paco and Jimmy were up to their ears in mutant plants - and sinking fast. While Jimmy tried to slice through as many vines as he could with his severing spell, Paco literally had his arms full trying to guide each one into firing range. Unfortunately this more than once ended with him being thrown around like a rodeo clown by unruly tentacles, and it was starting to get a bit tiring.
"There has to be an easier way to do this" He said shakily, as he attempted to maneuver a particularly unruly stem into a full-nelson – which is difficult when one's opponent has no arms and legs.
"There's tons." Jimmy said. "Just none I actually know how to do."
"But we… aaah!" Whatever Paco was about to say was suddenly put on hold, for just as he got a grip on it the stem suddenly thrashed wildly - taking him with it.
Jimmy casually ducked as Paco went sailing over his head and deftly cut the vine before it could wriggle away. Once he was sure, he turned to his winded friend with a sympathetic look. "All we have to do is keep them from getting into the neighborhood for a few minute. It doesn't have to be easy. We'll be done either way once Jade gets back."
"Maybe," Paco said, dusting himself off. He had risen to his feet, apparently no worse for the wear. "But this is so tedious."
"It's working, isn't it?" Jimmy gestured to the vine that he had just "trimmed," which was sinking into the ground as though dead. One could see a small sprout where it fell if they were looking hard enough, but it was tiny and only growing slowly. Thanks to all of their hard work, while there were quite a few giant plants still sprouting out of the ground they were too busy thrashing around and fighting off the two to do any damage to the surrounding area.
But this didn't seem to be enough for Paco. "I suppose, but…" he frowned and kicked a rock at his feet into a nearby vine. It lurched wildly at the hit and swept towards the two, who quickly jumped back to avoid getting hit.
They needn't have bothered. The plant was too far away to hit them – instead, it got tangled in its own growth and flopped harmlessly into the ground.
This, for reasons Jimmy really didn't want to know, suddenly made Paco grin like a madman. "A-ha! That's it!"
Jimmy groaned and grabbed his forehead. He had heard that excited tone too many times before, albeit not usually from Paco… "Oh, no…"
Paco either ignored or had simply stopped paying attention to him. "I had the right idea before," he mused, pacing back and forth, "but I thought too small! Instead of grabbing one, what we need is to grab all of them at once!"
"How?" Jimmy said, casually zapping the branch from before as it tried for a second attack. "You can barely hold onto one of them, and I'm not exactly the heavy lifting type."
"We don't have to hold them if we have them do it themselves!" Jimmy opened his mouth to respond, but Paco was off before he could ask what the heck he meant. "Just follow my lead!"
To Jimmy's surprise he then ran straight through the middle of the garden, attracting the attention of every single mutant plant in the place. Soon he was dodging limbs and ducking vines left and right as the whole lot of them chased him around the yard.
Jimmy didn't know whether to be awed, impressed or simply annoyed as he watched this. It looked more like chaos than a plan. "Hey! How can I follow your lead if you don't…" he shouted frantically, before Paco pulled a fancy move off the far wall – making his pursuers all crash into each other - and he suddenly realized what his friend was really up to. "Oh…"
On a closer look Paco wasn't being chased by the plants, he was leading them. His dodges were actual careful motions to get the mass of vines and branches into place. Every near miss was part of the trick, weaving the mutants over and under each other, threading them around each other bit by bit.
"You know, this feels like something Jade would come up with…" Jimmy said as Paco passed close to him, thorny branches right on his heels.
Paco turned around, flashing a smile that even looked almost exactly like Jade's – if it weren't so sheepish. "Hey, sometimes you have to be cautious, sometimes you have to be bold!" He paused. "But don't tell Jade I said that! Just get ready to shoot…"
He made one last leap through the loops. The vines blindly followed through, and with a *SNAP* they were pulled tight like one giant knot.
"…now!"
Jimmy fired. Just like Paco predicted, it only took one shot to sever all the stems at once. Just like before, they withered and shuddered as they sunk into the ground and shrunk into their roots.
They could already see small sprouts regrowing where the giant plants had fallen. Without a more permanent solution they would probably all grow back sooner than later, but this would at least keep things quiet for a little while.
With an excited whoop, Paco leapt over the mess and practically ran back over to Jimmy. "Que chido! Now that is gardening."
"It is around here, anyway." Jimmy said dryly as he checked himself and Paco over. "I'm think I'll chalk this up as one of our weirdest adventures."
"Hardly." Paco smirked. "Some random garden becomes an army of mutant plants? Not even in the top five."
"You would know, I guess," Jimmy replied, figuring that was fair. He couldn't think of anything odder than this, but then he didn't have near as much experience as the others, excepting maybe Xu-Lin. "So what do we do now?"
"I say you sit there looking stupid!"
The gruff voice came from behind, surprising them for a moment before Jimmy realized how familiar it was - unfortunately. He almost didn't want to turn around, knowing he'd just find Ernie and Butch looming there, looking brutish as always and probably laughing at their momentary flinch.
"What do you two idiots want?"
Ernie ignored him. "If it ain't the freak and the twig." He said, eyeing them both. "You punks like our handiwork?"
Paco rolled his eyes and turned away from them, looking at the ruined garden. "No worse than I usually expect from cowards."
Maybe it was the insult, or the indifference in Paco's voice, but a vein pulsed in Ernie's head. He grabbed Paco's shoulder and roughly turned him around, grinning but clearly not happy. "You better watch your mouth, you little mouse!"
A surprisingly ugly look crossed Paco's face, which struck Jimmy as odd given how Jade called him some variation of "mouse boy" at least a dozen times a day. He jerked away from the burly brute, shouting. "Don't touch me, naco! I've taken on things a lot more important than you before!"
The two stared each other down, both looking murderous. For a moment, Jimmy thought Paco might actually fall for Ernie's bait and start a brawl in the street - which, whether or not he would win, was not a good idea. He prepared to step in, but before anything could happen they were interrupted again by Butch - who had wandered over to the garden while Ernie was trying to intimidate them.
"Holy…" He shouted, snapping Ernie and Paco's attention away from their staredown. Instantly, Paco's apparent fury vanished (maybe was faking it after all. Jimmy never knew with him…), replaced with confusion. "What the heck did you guys do? It looks even worse than when we left it!" Butch gestured to the garden, or at least what was left of it.
It did look like a mess, and that was putting it lightly. There was dead and severed plant matter everywhere, and the ground was all dug up and cracked where the mutants had sprouted and attacked. Calling it a warzone might have been more appropriate. At least they had stopped the plants from breaking into the surrounding buildings, but still: it was like a wrecking crew had wandered through there and went on an amateur horticulture spree.
Grinning with delight, Ernie pushed past Paco to get a better look. "Ha! So much for green thumbs!" He laughed. "At least we were trying to break this place."
A sly grin grew on Paco's face, a total contrast to his previous reaction. "Oh, I wouldn't go in there if I were you." He said in a sing-song voice. "Could be dangerous."
Jimmy gaped at him – it wasn't the worst thing he could have said, but it was up there. With a challenge like that, there was no way Butch and Ernie wouldn't go poking around! Weren't they trying to keep people – if those two could be called "people" - out of harm's way?
But Paco just nudged him and pointed to one of the mutant sprouts. It was starting to grow – not quite large enough to be dangerous yet, but enough to get rid of a pair of wannabe tough guys.
Jimmy and Paco shared a glance, silently making a plan – or in Jimmy's case, silently being convinced to go along with the plan. Paco was still trying to get Jimmy to crack when Ernie went ahead and made things moot by being an idiot.
"Ha!" he shouted. "You think I'm a wimp like you?"
And with that the two thugs walked straight into the lion's den. Jimmy winced, almost unable to watch. Almost. Paco just crossed his arms and waited for the show.
They weren't disappointed, although the two expected the sprout to merely grow a vine and take a couple ineffective swipes. It came as a surprise for everybody when the ground exploded under their feet, as a collection of plant matter the general size and shape of a wolf burrowed to the surface. Butch and Ernie let out so many curses at once that neither Jimmy nor Paco could make out any of it. Especially a second later when the thing started chasing them.
For their part, the boys didn't know what to make of it.
"Whoa! That is new," Paco said, stunned.
"Yeah…" Jimmy said, also stunned.
Half a minute passed as the two watched Butch and Ernie run around in circles around the garden. The plant mutant nipped at their ankles every few seconds, causing them to shriek like frightened kittens and leap a foot into the air.
Perhaps overloaded due to sheer absurdity, Jimmy and Paco had yet to spring to action. Or move at all. They didn't even laugh. It was like looking at a train wreck.
"Y'know, I thought they would've just run out of the garden by now." Jimmy murmured, as Butch and Ernie actually turned away from the exit and ran to the opposite end of the lot. If he had actually taken them seriously before, it would've been impossible to do so now.
"Me too," Paco echoed. And they went right back to watching.
Another few seconds passed.
The plant-dog monster was still right on their heels, though by now it wasn't clear how or even if it was planning on hurting them – as bizarre as the whole situation looked, the vines that made up its limps didn't seem that strong. In fact, it lost some mass just by swinging them.
If the two weren't too busy running around like chickens with their heads cut off they might have noticed, but in any case they didn't seem to be in any actual danger.
Still…
"We really should help them."
"Yeah…"
Yet another few seconds passed, as they continued to do nothing.
"Should we… you know… do something?"
"Yeah…"
And so on…
"In a minute, though…"
"Yeah, that sounds about right…"
Twenty minutes later, Jade and Xu-Lin returned with armfuls of bottles from Uncle's cabinets to find Jade and Paco sitting on the curb across the street from the garden watching as what could only be described as a vine monster the size of a Great Dane chase Butch and Ernie around like a cat stalking a mouse. Surprisingly, the vines were still not outright harming them in any way – they were just fast enough to avoid getting caught, but not fast enough to avoid the occasional nip.
Paco and Jimmy glanced up and grinned as they approached. They looked more like they were watching their favorite tv show than an actual, real life monster attack.
"What took you so long?" Paco asked casually, as if they had only gone out for a bite to eat.
Jade paused. "We got… interrupted." She glanced at Xu-Lin, who blushed slightly. "But we're here now, so you can stop your bellyaching." Paco stuck out his tongue at her. She ignored him. "What's going on?"
"The two nitwits finally came back to gloat," Jimmy said, gesturing to the chaos going on in the garden. "Then this happened."
"So we decided to take a siesta." Paco said. He yawned for effect and leaned back, watching as Ernie made a break for the gate only to be cut off at the last second. "Trimming insane plants is hard work, you know."
"So you guys are just sitting there watching them get terrorized?" Jade said, looking shocked, to which Xu-Lin nodded her agreement. Paco and Jimmy shrugged, but they suddenly looked uncomfortable. They hadn't expected Jade to react poorly…
… and for good reason, because suddenly she was grinning. "Sweet! Where can I sit?" She laughed, plopping down next to Paco.
Xu-Lin put a hand to her face. "You are all hopeless."
"Ah, it's fine." Jimmy said reasonably, almost as if he weren't enjoying this. "It's not like we're really letting them get hurt. That thing is harmless – trust me, we've seen it in action. It's like a baby cat chasing a toy. It can't do any real damage, it's just grabby. And we've stopped any more complicated monsters that popped up – discreetly, of course. We'll get them out of there once things get really hairy, for now we're just trying to see how long it'll take for them to realize they can just leave."
"But the garden is evolving, yes?" Xu-Lin pointed out. "So there could be a giant plant monster stewing beneath the surface waiting to strike right this very second!" She paused for dramatic effect, as the others glanced around nervously. She smiled, but only to herself. "I came across spells like that in the Lotus Temple. They could be quite nasty if left unchecked…"
That got them. Everyone groaned and got back to their feet. "Party pooper. You enjoy doing that, don't you?" Jade groaned. Xu-Lin grinned and looked away - the picture of innocence. "Whatever." Jade continued. "We got the spell ingredients. Whenever you're ready."
"Good. This is powerful magic, but the Gem isn't active right now so all we have to do is get rid of the effects. It'd be like if you brought a statue to life with dark magic."
"I've done that before." Jade said. "A bunch of times, actually. Though that was with a talisman."
Paco chuckled under his breath. "Once, a statue nearly flew her into the sun. It was actually kind of funny, looking back on it." Jade stuck out her tongue at him. He ignored her.
"Uh… yeah." Jimmy said, bemused. "Not surprised, somehow. Anyway, here its like the plants are supercharged with life force. That's why they're growing out of control and rampaging everywhere. I just have to make that extra chi filter off."
"But first let's take out the trash, huh?" Jade said, grinning. With her own words as a cue, she quickly shot off to where the two would-be bullies were still being pursued by the pet-sized monster - or at this point, where the plant-dog had finally backed them into a corner.
They were pressed up as far against the wall as they could, still freaking out too much to do anything else besides whimper and squeak, when Jade catapulted onto the scene and flew into the mutant with a flying kick.
Being a fragile little thing, it snapped in half the moment it was hit and fell to the ground in a pile of broken vines.
Butch and Ernie stared at Jade, then at the pile of plant mutant on the ground, and then back at Jade. Their mouths were moving, but no sound came out.
"Well, what are you guys waiting for?!" Jade shouted. "Run!"
And they did. Faster than she could say "laughingstock," the two supposed tough guys bolted for the gate and ran down the street, screaming their heads off.
"Ha!" She grinned. "Idiots."
In a moment she was joined by the others. Without a word (though Jade thought she saw a matching smirk on his face) Jimmy immediately passed out a mixture of ingredients for the others to sprinkle around the garden – making sure to get every inch, and to put double on the spots where the vine monsters and mutants sprouted from. Once that was done he directed the others back out onto the street where they would we out of the effect radius, and pulled his training blowfish out to tap into the latent chi in the area.
For a second, he felt overwhelmed. It was way more chi than he was capable of controlling, that was for sure. But thankfully his job wasn't to control it, just to disperse it. It wasn't supposed to be there, so it wasn't that hard to say a basic incantation and gently push it out of the flora and into the air. Ironically, it would probably hang around the area and help the plants grow healthier – though hopefully in a more mundane and helpful way that didn't involve deadly monsters.
Slowly, the garden began to grow in reverse. Sprouts ungrew, and vines withered back into their stems. The whole place rumbled as the larger plants returned to being small sprouts. Soon, it was all falling into a happy balance between "totally ruined" and "overgrown and dangerous." The remains of the mutant plants decomposed into the Earth, while the flowers and herbs the residents of the neighborhood planted sprouted again, like nothing had ever happened.
It was just like how they left it the day before – with a smile, Jimmy wondered if Butch and Ernie would try to spread the story around only to find the lot as if they had never even been there. He could just imagine their faces…
"So… that's it?" Paco asked.
It was a good question. Things looked normal, but with their adventures that didn't always mean anything. They all looked around, waiting for something to happen. But… "Yeah, I guess it is," Jimmy shrugged.
"Weird. It's never that easy." Paco said. "I half expected to fight a giant plant monster or something..."
"Not everything has to lead up to some grand climax, you know!" Jade snapped. Paco frowned at her. "Less work for us, anyway."
"Okay, okay! I was just saying…"
Xu-Lin chuckled. "I'm just glad we dealt with it before it got out of hand," she said pointedly, trying to cut off another argument. "Can we think twice before messing with unknown magic from now on?"
Jade blushed, but kept her head held high. "We'll just be more careful next, is all."
"Riiiiight," Paco drawled, and he pretended to duck for cover at the look on her face. But even Jade had to laugh as they all walked together back to Uncle's shop, leaving the garden behind again.
"I guess that's it then," Jimmy said with one last look back. "But I can't help thinking we forgot something…"
Meanwhile, In Denmark
When it came to places to have a clandestine and possibly nefarious meeting, a trendy casual dining restaurant downtown in broad daylight isn't the first that came to mind. But that's where Damgaard found himself the afternoon after his grand triumph, sipping root beer through a straw and talking to a disembodied voice through a computer screen.
Every few tables had a television. Damgaard's was set to the local news, which he eyed every so often as they spoke. A step ahead of the media was a step ahead of the authorities, he always said, especially when dealing with such illusive people.
This wasn't the first time the owner of the voice had called a meeting to such a place, but as he had triumphed this would likely be their last. And since he had far more reasons to be nervous these days, this suited Damgaard fine –besides, he found that this cloak and dagger stuff was quite boring.
"Can my employer consider our deal concluded, then?" Said the voice. It was thick with class and pretentiousness, but the man on the other end seemed genuinely interested in the fight. He had remained silent and listened through every detail, even the obvious exaggerations.
"Don't worry." Damgaard smirked. "I remember the terms, and you delivered perfectly. To think, when you asked for the rights to dig on my land, and I never thought you would actually find something. Let alone something that would help me."
"Quite." The voice said dryly. "So now that you're done with it, when can we expect it delivered?"
"Very soon. Perhaps after a quick stop at my family's estate…" Damgaard smirked.
"That was not part of the deal, Damgaard!"
Damgaard smirked and waved his hand dismissively, not caring about whether his contact could actually see it. "I'm kdding. Stop worrying. I have no intention of-"
Suddenly, Damgaard stopped. His eyes were drawn to the television screen, which had moved from weather and traffic onto a current events story. It was an arts piece, featuring frumpy old men and women in suits talking about the city's cultural sect – which would usually be of no interest to him, if not for who was on the screen with them…
"… the Odense Historical Society would once again like to thank our esteemed guests," said the oldest and frumpiest person there, apparently the curator of some museum, "let us welcome noted art-collector… er… 'Viper' … and her associate Jackie Chan, whose tireless dedication to our craft and surprising donation should prove to…"
Viper and Jackie sat there, smiling and courteous and no worse for the wear. Behind them Damgaard could even see El Toro, hanging back to watch the interview.
He roared with rage, drawing the attention of everyone in the restaurant. "They're still alive? How!?"
"Damgaard…" The voice warned, but the man was beyond listening. He furiously shushed the patrons and around him, so he could hear exactly what was being said.
"… the collection, the life's work of a Danish artist who has long gone unsung. The masterpieces of sailor Moritz Damgaard – which has been generously donated with the permission of his family by Miss Viper – represents a crucial time in our country's cultural history. And starting with a private showing tonight, they will find a new home in the Højhus Gallery where thousands can enjoy…"
Rage boiled up inside him. With another roar he picked up his chair and flung it at the television screen. People were screaming and running out of his way, but he didn't care. "My grandfather's legacy! How dare that thief parade it around like-"
"Don't let them bait you, you fool!" The voice shouted, but Damgaard was no longer listening.
"I will need to hold onto our prize a short while longer," he said furiously, over his contact's objections. "Damgaard out!"
With that final word, he slammed the laptop closed and glared furiously the broken television screen. In the corner of his eyes, he could see the staff moving carefully. They had obviously called security, maybe even the police. But that was of no matter to him. He didn't plan to be here five minutes from now anyway.
He had other places to be. Like an art gallery. Tonight…
"She will suffer for this. They will all suffer for this."
That Night...
Jackie nervously paced back and forth inside the Højhus Gallery's security office. Every once in a while he would stop to glance at the clock, just often enough that time never seemed to go by, then groan and right back to pacing - each time earning him another chuckle from El Toro, who was standing just behind him and waiting far more calmly.
He didn't see what was so funny. Despite the reluctant life of adventure he's led, Jackie had never had the nerves for subterfuge and showdowns (or at least that's what he always told people – why didn't they ever listen?). A wait for a fight was far worse than the fighting itself as far as he was concerned, and that part was already pretty bad.
A trap like this was practically nervewracking. He felt as though he would have a heart attack at any moment.
"What time is it?" He said for the tenth time in five minutes. Behind him, El Toro chuckled.
Jackie could hear Viper sigh on the radio, from her designated spot in the gallery itself. "Calm down, Jackie. Aren't you the one who's always preaching patience?"
"I'm still not sure this will fool him. It looks everyone moved out in there!"
This was true. In preparation for tonight, all of the exhibitions and pieces usually showcased by the gallery had been carefully relocated by Section 13 agents. Some of the pieces were replaced by replicas, but most were not – leaving the gallery with an eerie "half empty" appearance. It struck Jackie as difficult to believe, but El Toro rightly pointed out that with what was about to come the lack of clutter could only come in handy – as long as it didn't make the trap too obvious, that is.
"Trust me," Viper said. "He's obsessed with revenge. He can't ''not'' fall for it."
"I don't doubt that. But-"
Jackie froze as a hand grabbed his shoulder. He left a foot in the air, screaming. "WAAAAH!" He frantically spun around, ready to fight, and instead found the gallery curator Mr. Solfanger at his shoulder looking alarmed at his outburst. "Don't do that!" He shouted.
Now both El Toro and Viper were laughing at him. Perfect.
"My apologies, Mr. Chan." The curator said uneasily. "I merely wanted to voice some… concerns. I thank you for your donation, of course, but I'm still not sure about this arrangement. Emptying the whole exhibition, and using our gallery for something of this magnitude..."
"We are sorry for the hassle, Mr. Solfanger," Jackie said after a second to compose himself. His mood made a complete flip, now calm and determined. Placating curators was his element, after all. "We wouldn't ask this is if wasn't the only way we know of to draw this criminal out before he hurts anyone else."
El Toro stepped up to them, adding his two cents as gently as he could. "We promise that no harm will come to you or your gallery…"
Jackie gave him a skeptical look. Viper could be heard scoffing over the radio. And then, right on cue, the sound of an explosion shook the building.
"My word!" Solfanger squeaked.
El Toro grimaced. "… that is to say," he mumbled. "Section 13 will compensate you for any damages." Solfanger gulped and made to shrink into a corner, but El Toro stopped him. "But for now, you must get to safety. Leave now, while you can."
Solfanger didn't need to be told twice. He bolted from the security office and onto the fire escape, where a Section 13 agent was waiting to escort him.
Jackie was already on the radio. "Did you hear that, Viper?"
"You're kidding, right?"
Jackie smiled, despite his nerves feeling like they were going to explode. Maybe Jade was right about sarcasm being refreshing. "He'll be there any second. We'll wait for the signal. Just don't dawdle…"
"No chance of that," she whispered. She was being quiet, trying not to be heard. There could be only one reason for that. Jackie and El Toro glanced at each other. Battle stations.
"It's showtime…"
Viper prided herself on nerves of steel. She had faced down thugs, ninjas, and demons and monsters, and had never once lost her cool no matter how terrifying things were. She wasn't about to start now, but she had to admit being stuck in a room with a pyrokinetic madman was a heck of a test.
Damgaard was standing in the doorway, glaring quietly and casting an impressively sinister shadow. The lantern hung from his hand, glowing ominously in the dark. Even Viper had to admit, it was a pretty good entrance. Even she had barely detected him entering. If it hadn't been for all the other insane things she'd faced over the years, she might've been intimidated.
"You dare," he growled. His tone was threatening, but still surprisingly calm – not at all like the unstable rage she had come to expect from him so far. Maybe he was just so furious that it came around full circle.
Either way, Viper still wasn't intimidated. She rolled her eyes. "Don't be so dramatic. Like you didn't already hate my guts anyway."
His look was blank. "Where is my grandfather's collection?" He hissed, ignoring her last statement.
"What does it matter to you? You got what you wanted – your heirlooms are back with no muss and they're about to bring your family a lot of recognition." Viper smiled at the growing frown on Damgaard's face. "If I were you, I'd be thanking me."
Damgaard's fists tightened involuntarily. "That honor was supposed to be mine. You were supposed to be dead!"
"Hate to break it to you, but you're not the first to try that one."
The scowl on Damgaard's face deepened. "Where. Are. My Grandfather's. Paintings?" He spat out, punctuating each word with a step towards his intended victim. Viper looked around the room with what she hoped looked like nervousness. There may have been only one exit, leaving only her still stuck in a closed room with an explosive nutcase, but she had the upper hand in this fight. She knew that, but Damgaard didn't. She only had to keep him talking for now, to make sure he didn't realize this until it was too late.
"Not here, obviously."
"Where have you taken them? Why the subterfuge, thief? Force of habit?
"Gee, I wonder," she sneered, knowing it would rile him. "Why advertise exactly what would make a nut like you come running?"
"A trap?"
"Duh."
"YOU DARE!" He repeated. Viper's sneer turned into a mocking laugh.
"To be fair," she said. "Not just me."
On cue, Jackie and El Toro leapt out from a hidden security hatch in the wall. Damgaard leapt back and avoided taking a nasty kick or a slam, but the advantage was still theirs – and none of them were about to lose it.
Soon, fire was flying everywhere. With the benefit of having surprise on their side this time Viper, Jackie and El Toro were able to avoid a repeat of their last fight by outmaneuvering Damgaard from the beginning, before he could wear them down. They ducked and dashed around the room, trying to catch him off balance as he flung shot after shot at them. Every time he nearly hit one of them, another would be there to distract him – making pinning any one of them down nearly impossible.
They were making him to lose ground: there were only so many times he could dodge attacks from three martial artists that he couldn't even hit. He was rapidly losing control of the fight before it was even beginning - instead of flinging fire in every direction he was forced to use it defensively, and he was even less capable of that. Bursts of unstable flame began firing off in random directions, nearly doing more damage to their user than to his enemies.
She wouldn't admit it, but the bit of scoundrel still left in Viper was happy to see a desperate look in his eye for once.
"Get away from me!" He shouted. He had nearly dropped the lantern trying to block a kick from Jackie, and was now holding it tighter the ever. He shuffled away to get some space, but was getting backed against the wall. Soon, he had nowhere to run. "I said get away! This isn't fair! You can't do this to me!"
"Give up!" El Toro said. He stopped attacking for a moment and held up a pair of thick handcuffs. "You are losing control. You cannot safely use that power of yours, let alone defeat us!"
Jackie nodded in agreement, but Viper caught a mad glint in Damgaard's eye and got a bad feeling that El Toro might have said exactly the wrong thing.
"Oh?" He muttered, so quietly that they could barely hear him. "What about unsafely?"
Viper was the only one who saw the spark. She had only a second to jump back before everything exploded.
She was barely aware of being thrown across the room. Her head was swimming so much she didn't even notice sitting up. But she did see Damgaard staggering to his feet, looking almost as bad as she felt.
Jackie and El Toro were still on the ground – thankfully only stunned, but once again too dazed to react quickly enough. Smart enough to know an opening when he saw it, Damgaard swiped his hand across the floor to create a circle of flame spun around them just as they came to - leaving them barely able to move without getting some nasty burns. If she hadn't been so thrown by the explosion (or if she didn't hate his guts), Viper might've once again been impressed at his newfound finesse.
"I'm starting to get quite good at this," he whispered smugly. "Perhaps I won't honor my deal after all. With all the great things I can do with this power, this is a destiny I should keep to myself! But first…"
He pulled his hand back and paused, slowly forming a ball of flame in his hand as he weighted over the pros and cons of finishing Jackie and El Toro off. He was wincing and hurt, but he could still easily kill them if he wished. Viper could not let him get the chance.
She threw off her stunned senses as best she could and lunged across the room. "Great things like killing innocent people over old grudges?" She shouted, snaring his attention before he could finish his attack. She nearly missed him in her stunned state but managed to grab his hand before he could move it, bathing the both of them in the lantern's light. "Please, you're a wannabe."
Damgaard tried to pull his hands free, but Viper's hold was too strong. "You'll be eating those words soon enough, you filthy thief." He snarled. "The blood of your friends is on your hands. Had it not been for you, they would not be here to feel the punishment you deserve!"
He meant to wound, but Viper was finally having no more of it. Her sneer dropped, leaving only a determined look. "I'm getting a little tired of you putting me down." She said, sterner than she'd ever been. Maybe it was the whole "heroic adrenaline" thing, but her head was clearing. Or maybe she was just tired of fooling around with this. "Maybe it is because of me that you hit a bad patch. Maybe my vices made things worse for a lot of people back then. But I own up to that. I've spent every day since I went straight trying to make myself a better person, while you spent your time stewing in a broken down shack blaming anyone but yourself for your problems." She smiled at the look forming on Damgaard's face. "I may be a thief, but all that means now is that I've got perspective. I am who I am because of who I was, and I'm proud of that. What do you have to be proud of?"
"I'll be proud when you're a burnt cinder on the wall!" He suddenly threw his hand forward, sending Viper off balance – and giving himself a perfect opening. It felt like slow motion – Jackie and El Toro shouted, Damgaard was grinning, Viper winced as he threw a fireball directly at her.
And then, somehow, she was halfway across the room. Again. Except this time, she didn't feel like she'd been hit by a truck. In fact, it almost felt like she jumped there herself. But it was less than a second, that was impossible…
Damgaard blinked. "What the…" he stammered, whipping his head around as though scanning the room for her. Behind him, Jackie and El Toro were doing the same thing. "Where did you go, coward?"
Is he blind? Viper thought to herself. Damgaard looked right at her several times, yet failed to react. I'm right here!
In fact, no one seemed to see her. She even waved at them (looking back on it she figured that wasn't too smart, but it was a baffling experience). No response.
It was odd, but she wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth no matter how strange it was. She dashed over to take advantage of Damgaard's confusion… and almost confused herself instead. She was on him in half the time she planned, which should have sent her off balance. But by amazing instinct, she instead expertly spun and kicked him to the ground.
"You should get your eyes checked!" She shouted. Damgaard roared and leaped to his feet, but she was gone again. In fact, that unknown instinct had carried her all the way to the ceiling. More precisely, she was hanging onto it as though her hands were made of tape. She knew she was doing it, but she could barely believe it. She didn't know why or how, but as along as it was helping her win...
She swung down and kicked him again, and then disappeared into the far corner before he could retaliate. And retaliate he did: he kicked up a storm, threw flames in every direction, shouted every obscenity in the book, but Damgaard still couldn't find her - and she had no idea why.
"What's going on?" She said to herself, too quiet for Damgaard to hear. For a second she thought the both of them had gone punch drunk, except Jackie was gaping and El Toro was squinting as if he couldn't believe his eyes. They were all seeing it – or not seeing it in some cases. It was real, but they were just all in the dark.
Or maybe not. Jackie's eyes quickly lit up as he worked it over. She sidled over to him without alerting Damgaard, just in time to hear him gasp: "Strong as you are…" And all of a sudden, she finally got it.
It was the lantern. She had been under its light, just like Damgaard, and it have given her powers as well - but different in this case. That's what the inscription meant – it makes whoever feels its light more powerful. But not by bestowing some new power, by adding to what they already are.
For someone like Damgaard, full of misplaced anger and wild hatred, it was corrupted. It bestowed him with power as wild and destructive as his state of mind, allowing him to wreak havoc with the literal flames of his anger.
But Viper had long since made peace with who she was. She was a thief, and a darn good one – in both senses of the word. She had done bad things in the past, yes, but she never lost sight of her skills. A lesser professional might have put those abilities to rest after reforming, ashamed of what they had done, but she could outwit and out-stealth the best of them and was no less determined to those skills now that she was putting them towards helping people. If anything, she was an even better snake in the grass now than she ever was before.
So when the lantern's light covered her, it made those natural skills supernatural. She wasn't just slipping into the shadows, she was disappearing. She was scaling the walls, striking without being noticed even when people were looking right at her. Her natural instincts, speed, and agility – all of them were supercharged.
With the way she was going, the room was her playground. And Damgaard didn't stand a chance.
She laughed. A new bravado swept over her. It was like finding the Snake Talisman for the first time, a second time. "What's the matter? Can't hit what you can't see?"
The sound seemed to clue him in, and Damgaard's eyes shot to her. He shouted by way of response and flung another fireball at her, but she was already long gone. She smacked him from behind, he turned to hit her but she was already hitting him from the front. He couldn't keep up.
"I… that doesn't matter! If I can't pin you down myself, then I'll just blow all of you to kingdom come!" He screamed. Jack. He raised the lantern to give himself one final boost in power…
… only to find that it was gone.
"W-what? Where…"
"Over here, sparkplug."
To him, it looked as though Viper had suddenly appeared beside him, clear as day. She nonchalantly twirled the lantern in her hands. In her hands its light was changing, becoming less fiery and harsh and more calm and beautiful. She smirked at his stunned face with another laugh, making it clear who had control of the situation now – but it was no surprise at all when he failed to take the hint. He was far too consumed with revenge to realize that he had already lost.
Instead he engulfed his arm in flame, intending to use everything he had left in one shot. "Revealing yourself was your final mistake!" He shouted, full of bravado. "I still have enough power to finish you off!"
He cocked back his hands to form a final, massive fireball. The intensity of the flames began to fill the room with a sweltering heat, but Viper remained totally unconcerned. She simply stood there, smirking.
"Not a fast learner, huh?" She quipped, nonchalantly inspecting her fingernails. "By the way," she said, with a gesture to the far corner of the room. "While you were doing all that posturing I took the liberty of tagging our sparring partners back in."
Damgaad paused mid-powerup. His last mistake. He turned around just in time to see his fire trap fade under the lantern's new light. "You wha-"
With a mighty WHAM, Damgaard was flung aside by a titanic charge from El Toro. His fists burnt out harmlessly as he tumbled head over heels, before slamming into a wall with a mighty THUD. Cursing, he pulled himself to his feet - but only just in time to meet a flying kick from Jackie.
A panicked dive turned the kick into a very near miss, but it was still too late to save himself. He was off balance, lacking in momentum and low on power – while Viper was just getting the gist of her new powers.
He barely noticed a thing until Viper was already leaping away. He raised his hands to throw a punch, only to discover that they were now chained together – somehow, El Toro's handcuffs had gotten shackled to his wrists (El Toro looked just as surprised as he was).
Damgaard opened his mouth, presumably to shout another threat, but he was cut off by a mighty WHOOSH! It was like getting attacked by the wind – before he knew what was happening he was being judo flipped to the ground. He looked up and Viper was gone again, but now his feet were bound to match.
He barked like an angry dog and attempted to summon his flames, but in his rage he had used too much of what little lantern power he had left. What's more, with no more magic to recharge with, once the power left so did any reserves he had left. His body was giving up on him too. All those last few embers did was heat up his restraints and earn him a burned wrist.
It was time to end it. Using her own lantern-given powers, Viper popped up out of the shadows in front of him. With no more strength left all Damgaard could muster was a shout of something nasty and vile, but before he could even do that Viper finished him off with a single strike to the head. He crumpled to the floor, finally knocked out.
Viper could barely believe it was so easy. She stared at the lantern, still held fast in her hand. That astonished feeling was starting to come back. And she wasn't the only one.
"Asambroso!" El Toro shouted as he ran over, carelessly stepping over Damgaard's unconscious form. He gripped Viper in a bone-crushing hug. "By what magic did you do all of that?"
Viper laughed, though first she needed a second to recover – El Toro's hugs were no joke. "With this thing. Crazy, huh?" Viper said, gingerly holding the lantern up so they could all see. It had stopped glowing – by all accounts, it seemed harmless now.
Jackie nodded. "It makes sense… I think. We will have to have Uncle take a look at it, but it looks like it strengthens abilities."
"Turning them into superabilities." El Toro finished, awestruck. "Muy asambroso…"
All the gushing made Viper grin. Now that she wasn't fighting for her life, she could think about just how unbelievable this all was. It was fading now and nearly gone, but the feeling of that power – she had never experienced anything like it (and that was saying something). "Sometimes I really love magic. We have got to keep this thing around."
Jackie turned pale. "I don't think so. I shudder to think what Jade would do with it…"
"Come on, she's not that irresponsible. She wouldn't use a dangerous, untested magical artifact just because… it's cool…" Viper paused. "… okay, yeah. Maybe we should hold off on bringing it back."
"No…" Jackie sighed. "We have no choice. Only Section 13 can hold this sort of thing. Although we have been keeping the Gem at Uncle's…"
He and El Toro shared a glance. And then a matching grimace.
"Did you also just feel the urge to get back as fast as possible?"
"Took the words right out of my mouth, El Toro…"
Back in San Fransisco
"I CAN'T BELIEVE WE FORGOT!"
The four teenagers stood in front of Uncle's Rare Finds – or that is, Jade, Paco and Xu-Lin were standing. Jimmy had to be held up by Jade and Paco, as he had nearly fainted upon seeing the state the shop was in.
The entire building was engulfed in mutant plants. Vines twisted out the door and into the upstairs window like giant worms. Thorns were bursting through the walls – the solid "made to survive an Earthquake" San Francisco brick walls. Roots were snaking out the entrance and into the sidewalk, tearing through the asphalt. Not to mention the gigantic bouquet of flowers bursting through the roof.
It was like the whole store had been transformed into some kind of warped floral arrangement. For once, Jade was left speechless as she tried to process just how much trouble she was in.
"I cannot believe we forgot about that first flower," Xu-Lin squeaked. She was rubbing her eyes as if she couldn't trust them to tell the truth.
Paco, meanwhile, seemed struck with a bemused calm. "It is oddly beautiful… in it's own way," He quipped, tilting his head like a guest in an art gallery.
Jimmy's reaction was far less collection. "They're going to kill us. They're going to kill us. They're going to kill us…" He mumbled to himself. He had been repeating that non-stopped since they first arrived.
But Jade had finally found her voice. "No one is going to kill anyone!" She shouted triumphantly, only to flinch as the others glared hard at her. "A-as long as none of you kill me, that is…" She laughed weakly.
None of them seemed to find this funny, which struck her as very unfair. Didn't they just get done taking care of this exact problem?
"Oh, come on!" She continued. "This is nothing. All we have to do is use jimmy's spell to get rid of this jungle, and then clean up the shop before they get back! Simple."
It did sound simple enough. Jimmy slowly eased himself back onto his feet and checked his spell components. "I guess we could make that work…" he said nervously.
Jade took that as practically a rally cry. "Duh!" She said, grinning. "I mean, seriously. Jackie and El Toro are with Viper halfway across the planet. Even if they left right now, we'd have more than enough time to deal with this before they got here!"
"Yeah." "I guess you're right." The others murmured together, sighing in relief.
"You're darn right I'm right. So chill out. There's nothing at all to be worried abou-"
That's when they heard the familiar "AAAIIIIIIIYAAAAAAH!", directly behind them.
Jade froze. Her stomach leaped into her throat, and a short glance told her that the others had the same reaction. "Except, of course, for Uncle and Tohru coming home early…" she stammered. She didn't dare look, lest Uncle turn his wrath on her specifically.
Jimmy really did fall to the floor this time. The other two teens just groaned and buried their faces in their hands as the sounds of Tohru's disappointed sighs and Uncle's endless, furious rants filled the air.
"I stand corrected," Jade muttered sheepishly, just low enough that her friends could hear her. She hung her head, knowing that things were about to get very bad around here. "They might kill us, just a little bit…"
Author's Note: For a story involving several characters I don't plan on using again, I got a lot of rewrites out of this one.
Introducing the second of the Chi Artifacts. It's only been, what three or four years since the first one? We'll be seeing the next one a lot sooner, honest. Future episodes also promise to be shorter, I hope.
Anyway, the Lantern: as Jackie and Viper figure out during the story, it's ability is to buff the skills and abilities of whoever its light hits. Viper became a super thief: able to hide in plain sight, climb walls with amazing agility, and (though we don't see her doing it because Damgaard's not that bright anyway) her ability to plan complicated tactics and calculate three steps ahead of danger is enhanced. Someone like Jackie or Jade would probably become something out of a fighting game.
While it's not spelled out, it's associated personality traits is self-assurance and confidence. When corrupted, it gives destructive powers that feed on negative emotions.
As a final note, we in the creative department ask that you not notice how Xu-Lin's transformation, which is technically only supposed to take a few seconds once it starts, may have been stalled to a few minutes in the beginning for drama's sake.
Next time, in "Fear the Mirror:" the search for the next Chi Artifact leads our heroes to a supposedly cursed nature reserve, where they risk their very sanities – or at least, their abilities to not get hopelessly lost. But they're not the only ones looking for it – that would be too easy. No, instead they get to meet up with some old friends, who may be just as lost as they are…