Jade was never so happy to see anyone as she was when Viper finally pulled into the parking lot. After being kidnapped, imprisoned, and nearly killed, it was good to see a familiar face. Hsi Wu didn't count, being a demon and with what happened last time and all that. She had deliberately chosen a seat by the door to keep an eye on the street, and had her book put back before Viper even parked.
She tapped Hsi Wu on the shoulder, who was deeply engrossed in her history textbook, "Hey, batty-boy, our ride's here, let's go."
He glared at her, "Batty-boy? I have a name, you know."
"Yeah, but I can call you whatever I want! Consider it payback for last time."
Hsi Wu sighed, and put the book down. Jade packed it away, and headed for the door. Viper met them just outside. She bent down to give Jade a hug, "Jade! Thank goodness you're alright! Jackie said you'd been kidnapped!"
"I was, remember Daolong Wong?"
Viper frowned, "That crazy old man, who-" she paused and looked around to make sure no one was in earshot, "who was trying to kill Santa or something?"
"Yeah, that's him. His goons nabbed me after school."
"Why would he do that?"
"Beats me. World domination, unleashing an apocalypses, covering the world in darkness...the usual stuff."
The ex-thief frowned, "Well he's definitely got his work cut out for him... Jackie told me he ought to be out here early in the morning, so you can stay with me for the night," she looked over at Hsi Wu, "Who's this?"
"This is Hs-Seymour. He was in the place where Daolong Wong was holding me, and helped me escape. He's a long way from home too...do you think he could come with us?"
"Err...I guess...where're you from, Seymour?"
"Uh, San Fransisco?"
"You too? How exactly did you wind up...wherever it was with Jade?"
Jade cut in, "Long story...I'd rather wait until Jackie gets here so I don't have to tell it twice."
"Ok then..." Viper, unlocked her car and slid behind the wheel. Hsi Wu took advantage of the distraction to pull Jade close and whisper in her ear.
"You didn't tell me we were going with her!"
"Huh? Wait, you know Viper?" Jade combed her memories for how that was possible, then the image of a cage, and a certain Sky demon in a bubble-bath came to mind. She grinned, "Ooh...you are going to be in sooo much trouble if she figures out who you are."
"Never mind that; how much does she remember?"
"About everything, I think. Say, how come you remember that rather brief revival of the demon empire?"
"A testament to your sloppy editing of the Book. Of course, I prefer to keep all my memories...but still."
"Are you two coming?" Viper inquired.
The pair hastily climbed into the back seat, and buckled up. After a long, rather awkward car ride, they finally reached the apartment where Viper was currently living.
She unlocked the door, and held it open for Jade and "Seymour" who was carrying a pizza they had picked up on the way. He carried it over to the kitchenette area, while Jade examined a table strewn with the innards of at least one computer, and several security cameras in various states of disassembly. Viper locked the door, then looked around the room.
"I'm afraid you're going to have to sleep on the sofa, Seymour, as I've only got one bedroom."
He shrugged, "I'm too tired to be picky..."
Jade yawned, "We haven't slept in a long while...I'm gonna eat, then hit the sack..."
Red rays of light filtering in through the blinds and shining in her face woke Jade up early next morning. She blinked, yawned, and tried to focus on the nearby alarm clock. Seven o'clock; perfect time to get up. Jade crawled out of bed, dressed quietly, and slipped quietly out of the room. From the bathroom came the sounds of Viper already up and taking a shower. She decided she would surprise Viper and have breakfast ready when she finished.
Crossing the living room, she glanced over and chuckled at the sight of Hsi Wu, still asleep on the sofa, wrapped in his wings as much as his blankets, I'm surprised he's not hanging from the ceiling, or something, she thought.
A moment later, the importance of what she'd seen hit her, and she spun around. Wings! He was supposed to be in his human form! Viper wasn't supposed to know who he was yet! She ran over to him, clapped a hand over his mouth, and shook him awake, "Hey! Wake up!"
The sky demon's eyes opened; red slits in an otherwise human face. His clawed hand seized her wrist. She jumped, and tried to back away but his grip was too strong. Suddenly, his eyes focused on his hand, which jolted him fully awake.
He released her, and Jade rubbed at her bruised hand, "Ow! That hurt!"
Hsi Wu sat up and glanced worriedly around as he shifted back to his human form, "Er...sorry...reflex...no one saw my wings, right?"
"If Viper did, I think she'd be freaking out right now."
"Oh..."
They stood awkwardly for a moment, then Jade went back to the kitchen. She looked back over her shoulder, "Want to help?"
Hsi Wu sighed, and then walked over, "What're we doing?"
"Making food," Jade put a frying pan on the stove, turned the gas on, and dug a carton of eggs out of the refrigerator, "Take three or four of these, crack them open, and dump the gooey stuff inside into this pan. Try to keep from getting any shell fragments in."
Hsi picked the eggs up, frowning, "I do know what these are; you don't need to act like I'm an idiot!"
He sounded so offended Jade almost felt guilty, "Sorry," she said, "I just didn't imagine demons making omlettes."
"What's an omlette?"
"Oh never mind."
"Well, I never ate these myself...usually preferred real meat, but I had to buy them by the score to feed my slaves."
"You had slaves?"
"Of course, we ruled the world didn't we? I never had as many as Po Kong or Shendu; just enough to staff my citadel. I mostly traded magic to my brethren and carried messages, so I didn't need huge labor for farming and such."
That last bit sparked Jade's curiosity, "What sort of magic?"
Hsi Wu grinned, holding up an egg, "What is the sky? Space. My art is the manipulation of it..." he moved his hand over it, and it was gone, "It takes a lot of magic to do anything noticeable, but the applications are...interesting..."
"So where'd the egg vanish to?"
"Err..."
Jade frowned, and he hurriedly waved his hand again to bring it back, "I can't really explain it, I just sort of...put it elsewhere...but not really anywhere in particular, like my castle."
"Making things vanish would be mondo-coolio, but my uncles are very...opinionated on me learning magic," Jade cracked the egg into the pan, and looked at Hsi Wu curiously, "Could you teach me that?"
The sky demon frowned, "Hmmm...I'm not sure if it can be taught...it was bestowed on me...but maybe...if you had an affinity for Sky...I'll have to think on it."
Just then a door opened behind them, and Viper entered, "Good morning you two-oh, breakfast already? That's a great help!"
She joined in, and the trio continue to work until an odd beeping caught Jade's attention, "What's that?"
Viper was already moving to an open laptop, "Building security, something's wrong!"
Jade peered over her shoulder; the computer showed feeds from several cameras. As she watched, Viper replayed the last few seconds; everything was quiet then the front entrance exploded! Three figures burst in, staff, hammer, and blade-wheel held high.
"Those are Daolong Wong's thugs!"
Hsi Wu grimaced, "How did they find us?!"
"Doesn't matter! Move!" the superthief-turned-hero shoved Jade and Hsi towards the window, "Out and down the fire escape! I've got some stuff to grab!"
She dashed towards her bedroom, but suddenly the door shattered into a thousand shards that lanced throughout the room. Viper fell stunned, while Jade dragged Hsi to the floor behind an armchair. A dark Chi warrior stepped through the wreckage, raising his hammer to kill someone.
Jade seized the frying pan by the handle, "Hey! Pumpkin-head!"
He turned just in time to get a faceful of hot eggs. Enraged, he charged at her, as two more came in through the door. Meanwhile, Viper scrambled up and into her bedroom. The other two warriors followed her.
Hsi Wu tried to drag Jade away, but she stood her ground; if they ran he'd be on them before they reached the window. She had to get him to commit to a swing first. Raising the dripping pan like a club, she made as if to parry the next strike.
Pumpkin-head, as she mentally referred to him, raised his hammer, and brought it down in a mighty two-handed crushing stroke...but Jade was gone. Dodging sideways, she made a beeline for the escape with Hsi Wu, hot on her heels.
BOOM!
A wave of heat and sound picked her up and hurled her against the sofa. Hsi landed on top of her, smashing his knees into her back rather painfully. He rolled off, and she stood up unsteadily. The apartment was in flames, gushing from the remains of the gas stove, which had taken the full force of Pumpkin-head's blow. Of the warrior himself there was no sign, except for a rapidly dissipating cloud of blue smoke.
One of the other warriors dashed back out, "What the-?!" His eyes lit on her, and he charged. This time, Jade figured running was a good idea. Grabbing Hsi by the hand, she staggered to the window, holding her arm over her face to ward off the smoke. Luckily, the window was easy to push open, and they scrambled out. Jade dashed towards the emergency staircase, but the Sky demon slipped his arms under hers and, with a flare of his wings, leapt off the fire escape entirely.
Taken more or less by surprise, Jade caught his arms in a death-grip, and nearly screamed for good measure. Hsi carried her up and back to land on the roof of the building. They made it before the Dark Chi warrior got out the window, and he dashed downward hot on their trail, or so he thought. He reached the bottom, and peered around, then headed down the alley, checking behind garbage bins and anywhere else they were hiding.
A minute later, the window opened again, and Viper crawled out, carrying a briefcase and coughing from the smoke that billowed out behind her. Hsi managed to glide down with Jade when she wasn't looking, and met her at the base of the escape. Viper looked enormously relieved to see them, "Thank goodness you're both okay! I had my hands full with those...things, and couldn't get out...but where'd they all go?"
Jade pointed where the warrior had gone, "One blew himself up and another went that way. You take care of the third?"
Viper winked, "Threw him around the room for a bit. Could've finished sooner if not for that razor wheel he had. Good thinking with the eggs by the way; I couldn't have gotten back up otherwise. Are these the ones who kidnapped you and Seymour?"
"Seymour" nodded, "Yes, they're Daolong Wong's minions, and we should leave before they come back!"
Jade looked up at the smoking building; she could hear sirens in the distance, so firefighters would be here soon, "Sorry about your apartment..." She hadn't meant to lead the enemy there to wreck and burn it.
Viper patted her head and steered the pair in the opposite direction the warrior had taken, "I got my important papers, and what matters is no one died, or even got hurt, " she paused and frowned, "But I think I'll take an unplanned vacation until we settle this "Daolong Wong"," her eyes burned with a fury Jade had only seen a few times before, "He just messed with the wrong lady; it's personal now."
Jade suddenly felt much better; with Viper's help, Jackie would make short work of Daolong Wong-not that he needed help, but having even part of the J-Team together made everything that much more awesome!
"Your uncles' plane ought to get here soon, so I think we'll head to the airport, and pick up something to eat on the way," decided Viper.
As she got her car for them, Hsi Wu whispered to Jade, "Have you figured out how to explain me to everyone?"
She shook her head, "I'm hoping they won't recognize you right away, and I can break it to them bit by bit."
"What if they do?"
"Then I'll just have to wing it."
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