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By Trackula and Co-written by Eduard Kassel

C09 – The New Hunt: Part 2

Wong sat silently in the center of the room, a picture of meditation. Were it not for the sensation of his spirit probing her own, Jade would have thought he was unaware of her presence from his sedate position.

'Weird, he looks LESS like a monster when he actually IS one,' Jade observed curiously, looking down at the ancient man-turned-Oni. His skin had become an unnatural blue she was very familiar with, his facial tattoo a much lighter sky-blue standing out from the rest. That aside, with his eyes closed and mouth shut, he was hardly much different from before.

Rather than his stereotypical wizard robes, he wore a more elaborate version of the ninja blacks worn by all the Ninja-khan. It made him look even more small and crooked than usual to wear something form fitting. Jade could hardly believe the living fossil could look anymore decrepit than he already was, but life was obsessed with surprising her, it seemed. Though it could also have had something to do with the fact that in her new body, Jade towered over the wrinkled Dark Wizard.

"Well, aren't you a magnificent specimen," Daolon stated evenly, breaking the silence first. His eyes slid open slowly, a solid red and pink looking up at the Young Queen and then down again as he assessed her. He rose to his feet and did so again, closer this time with greater scrutiny. His aged brow raised in a look of surprise.

'Wait… he totally doesn't recognize me, does he!' she realized with a start. 'I mean, of course he wouldn't, I was a human pre-teen when he last saw me. But that still adds a whole new layer of squick to this chore.'

Jade blinked, not expecting Wong to begin the conversation in such an eccentric fashion. He continued, ignoring or being oblivious to her surprise. "Such a wonderful shape, as if sculpted by the Dark Gods themselves. So, my Lady, why has one so otherworldly chosen to meet Daolon Wong?"

Blinking, Jade considered Wong's words, 'It doesn't seem like he's hitting on me… but why is he being so… respectful? I mean, not that I don't deserve it but it's still kinda weirding me out. Ah, what the hell. May as well play along.'

"I am a Queen, not a Lady, Wizard," Jade stated, nose in the air, trying to sound nice and snooty. She tried to ignore the little shiver of joy putting on a show like this gave her.

'I'm an adult, dammit!' she chastised herself, 'AND a real queen, so this shouldn't feel like playing pretend!'

"Of course," Wong nodded, "Forgive the slight, Your Majesty."

Jade put on her best arrogant frown, and placed her hands on her hips. "I… er… We? WE will decide whether or not you will be forgiven this insult, Wizard! Now look upon my… uh… OUR um… partner."

She held up the mirror fragment to face Daolon Wong, the demonic visage of her employer appearing across its surface, looking calmly down at the new Oni. The old Wizard was clearly taken aback, stepping away reflexively with a slight twitch in his bad eye.

"She's my junior partner, actually. Greetings, Daolon Wong," Tarakudo grinned from his reflection. "Seems our paths have crossed once again."

"Lord Tarakudo," Wong muttered, a frown playing across his tight wrinkled lips. "I suspected my transformation was related to you in some way. Though I never expected you would approach me directly."

His eyes narrowed slightly, "Considering you left me to fester away in that prison when I re-awoke you in favor of those three simpletons…"

"Ancient history," the sealed evil dismissed, flippantly, "I had plans, and at the time they had no place set for a powerless old man. I'm sure on a purely pragmatic level you can understand that."

Mismatched eyes narrowed and there was an apparent moment of dark consideration behind them. Whatever conclusion he came to, Wong kept it to himself and simply gestured towards the two of them. "So to what do I owe the honor of your visit, My Lord? My Queen?"

"An offer of recruitment," Tarakudo stated casually. "Due to… errors, I have new openings within the upper echelon of my forces."

The Dark Wizard looked up at Jade once again, "And what part does Her Majesty play in this?"

Jade wasn't about to let Tarakudo speak for her and interrupted her red-faced employer before he got the chance, "We are his SENIOR General of the Gumo Tribe. Which totally, er… definitely makes us his second-in command."

There was a deep sigh from the mirror shard.

"Gumo Tribe?" Wong frowned, stroking his long thin beard in thought. "There is no Gumo Tribe among the Nine."

"It is a… new development," the Oni King explained. He cast an annoyed look up at his vassal, who in turn coyly bat her six eyelashes at him.

"Indeed, We were once merely an EXCEPTIONAL human before Lord Tarakudo recruited us. We endured years of suffering in pursuit of our awesome power," Jade stated arrogantly, getting an ongoing enjoyment out of her whole Dark Queen act. 'Aw yeah, just call me Maleficent 'cause I'm totally evil, hot and in charge!'

Wong smirked and nodded, blue fingers trailing his beard between the knuckles, "I approve of your dedication. It is so rare to see those who choose the Path of Darkness make the necessary sacrifices in these accursed modern times."

Jade couldn't help but preen at that comment, it seemed like the first time in a long time that her accomplishments were given what she felt was their proper value. Not to mention the slightly perverse pleasure that Wong was unknowingly complimenting the instrument of SEVERAL of his humiliating failures.

"ANYWAYS," Tarakudo stressed, annoyed and embarrassed at the display of his young charge. "We were discussing employment opportunities?"

"So, if I am to understand your meaning," Wong muttered turning a scrutinizing gaze towards the mirror, "You wish for me to take up position as one of your Nine Generals. Subordinate to you, and Her Majesty?"

"Yes, however, the Queen isn't-" Tarakudo started, about to correct the error. However Jade interrupted before he could get the chance.

"That is correct, Wizard! We are the highest of Generals," Jade smirked, pointing an index finger towards herself. "It's us, 'cause we're the best!"

"If I may, My Lord," Daolon Wong frowned, eyes narrowed as he regarded the boastful spider, "Assuming I DO take you up on your offer… The Queen is young and while I am newer to this power I have long experience with the dark forces. So at the very least, shouldn't I be equal with this untested prodigy in the war between light and darkness?"

'Oh no you don't, you oversized mole-rat' Jade glared down at the stunted old Oni. 'I did not get this far only to be pushed aside by someone so old rigor mortis has set in!'

"Seriously, there's a big misconception here-" Tarakudo tried to interrupt. But Jade's better judgment was severely impaired by the shot at her pride, and she stepped forward, towering over the Wizard.

"Oh, one of your experiences must have quite the list of achievements under his belt. Regale us with some of your… accomplishments, Wizard," Jade stated, covering up the mirror shard with her pedipalps, Tarakudo's voice coming through desperate and muffled.

Wong quirked an eyebrow in confusion at the Queen's demand, but he was not one to dismiss an opportunity to brag. A sharp-toothed yellow grin spread, and he cleared his throat. "Well, some time ago, I slew the insufferable Light Chi wizard, Chi Master Fong, in single combat. Perhaps one of my most satisfying accomplishments."

"That right?" Jade muttered, looking unimpressed down at her claws as though checking her manicure. "Word has it that you have a rather consistent loss record with Fong's student. Seems Fong got the last laugh there."

Daolon Wong's eyes flared at the disrespect from the Oni-Spider, and his teeth ground together loud enough for Jade to hear. "A slight that will be corrected before the moon rises, I can assure you."

'We'll see about THAT, Wrinkles,' Jade frowned, crossing her arms. She felt fresh venom clench into her mouth at the thought. "What else do you have to impress us, Wong? The Shadowkhan have very exacting standards in our forces."

"Apparently," Wong glared, his twitch returning. This upstart thought she had the right to judge one of his power? He would humble her with his mighty achievements, show her how little her own actions weighed in comparison.

"I enslaved three powerful demon familiars to my will! Deadly efficient beings capable of felling the greatest living warriors," the Dark Wizard boasted, holding up three fingers to further illustrate his point.

"Who couldn't beat a mere mortal archeologist, and were sealed away in the Urn of Wei Cheing, where they're STILL imprisoned," Jade smirked, her full black lips parting slightly to bear her fangs. "At least so says the evil grapevine."

"You are… very informed," Wong hissed, fists clenched at his sides. Jade wondered how he could manage that with such long ragged nails. Apparently Dark Wizards had no time for nail clippers.

"I resurrected the last great demon dragon, Shendu!" Wong snapped, raising both hands. "A feat of magic beyond any living man on this planet! I alone possessed the skills for such a powerful spell!"

"That IS impressive," Jade smirked, spreading a thick layer of condescension on top of her praise. "Although, correct me since accounts differ. Didn't that Dragon then betray you and lead you to being depowered and locked up that very night?"

"That is jaundiced interpretation of the facts." The dark wizard snapped, his face beginning to darken to a ripe purple. The Queen idly wondered if she could actually anger him into his head exploding. "I once took control of the Three Wise Monkeys and unleashed a plague of Dark Chi upon the masses!"

"Yeah, and I never did find out how you managed to uncurse YOURSELF that day," Jade scoffed, still rather bitter about having been cursed deaf. "Considering last I saw you were wandering off, blind, deaf and dumb."

'You talk a big game, Wong,' Jade smirked, 'But I already memorized the scoreboard.'

"That is enough, Woman!" Wong finally snapped, pointing an accusing finger towards the young Queen, his eyes alight in harsh scrutiny. "Your knowledge of these events is NOT mere hearsay! Who are you to know such…"

Jade blinked and flared up her etheric defenses when she felt the old man's spirit probe her own. But arrogance had her distracted and thus she was too slow on the draw. Wong stumbled back, eyes wide in shock and rage as he regarded the Spider Queen.

"That essence, that cursed annoying spirit! I cannot believe such a disgusting truth! YOU are that old fool's miserable wench of a niece!?" Wong ranted, fists clenched in rage as he stared up at Jade. "YOU are a SHADOWKHAN GENERAL?!"

Letting go of the front of the mirror shard and taking a reflexive step back from the irate old enchanter, Jade opened her mouth to respond, but no words came through.

"Congratulations, General Jade," Tarakudo stated flatly. "Your diplomatic skills and instincts continue to impress me."

"You made this pathetic CHILD into a Champion of DARKNESS!?" Wong shouted at the reflection in a twisted mix of anger and horror, gesturing up to his old enemy.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time," Tarakudo explained flatly.

"Wow, THANKS for the vote of confidence, Boss," Jade snapped at the mirror fragment clutched into her pedipalps' claws. She turned her attention back to the wizard and crossed her upper arms, taking on a more natural expression of annoyance than her queenly persona.

"Congratulations, Pink-Eye, you figured it out. Yeah, I'm that little girl who WHUPPED your BUTT so many times it got BORING. I'm also the one who went through eight solid years of more grueling crap than your dry walnut of a brain can imagine, and I am the QUEEN of the Gumo Tribe because I EARNED it."

She leaned in close so their glares were mere inches apart. "So yeah. Second to Big Red equals ME. Deal with it."

"Do not presume to question my imagination, whelp," Wong hissed, the shadows around him beginning to stretch and swell out like a thick blanket of blackness. "I refuse to believe a talentless worm could reach such a state on skill alone. Clearly the Oni King treated you with kid gloves due to his sealed state."

"ENOUGH!" Tarakudo's deep metallic voice roared, silencing the two immediately. Sealed or not, the weight of his presence could not be denied. "You two have a history, and I can appreciate that."

He looked between the two of them, his yellow eyes narrowed pointedly, "But that is still no reason we cannot come to a compromise. Of my nine Tribes, each had some vendetta or lasting grudge against the others, but I made it work."

"I cannot help but question your judgment, Shadowkhan Lord," Daolon Wong scoffed. But the darkness around him began to recede slowly back towards his natural shadow. "This child is an enemy of the darkness and an incompetent impulsive fool like her family. That you would grant her such prestige makes my stomach churn!"

Jade's teeth bared into a snarl, fangs extended, but Tarakudo spoke up loudly and pointedly towards the prospective general, "I had my reasons for choosing her as my instrument, and her character aside, she has proven herself more than capable of embracing these powers in the face of trials that would break lesser men. I assure you, she shall be as much of an asset to our side as she ever was to her misguided family."

'Do you really believe that, Boss?' Jade frowned, turning her gaze at the mirror, her expression somewhat troubled. 'Or are you just saying all that to save face?'

"I will trust no woman who shares blood with that despicable overconfident worm," the old man scoffed, turning away from the two. "Twisted form notwithstanding."

"Twisted?" Jade asked, her voice rising in pitch as she stared down at the old man. "You were loving how I looked five minutes ago, or are you too senile to remember that far back?"

"We're discussing matters far more important than some grudge!" Tarakudo tried to reason. Though restrained to a small sliver of looking glass, he found, made it very difficult to control the room.

"You risk yourself with your words, Child," Wong growled out, but took a hasty step backwards when Jade suddenly stomped her right front foot hard enough to crush the cement around her claws.

"Child, girl, woman, I am getting sick of the labels! Do you even know my NAME after all this time?!"

"You think yourself important enough for me to know you by name, insect?" Wong smirked, looking over behind her at her abdomen. She blinked, and then reflexively twisted her body so he was facing her front, and had no route to her abdomen. "You overestimate your worth. Surely Tarakudo keeps you at his side because of what you offer, not due to any value of your own."

"What is THAT supposed to mean?" Jade asked, her fists making a scraping sound as the plates of her fingers ground together into a fists.

"Wong, I warn you," Tarakudo spoke up quickly, "If you go where I think you are, I will not be responsible for Jade's actions."

"I am saying, YOUR HIGHNESS," Wong grinned, his lips pulling into a grotesque smirk, "That your worth is as an over glorified broodmare. Nothing mor-"

The Dark Wizard's words were halted by his sudden flight through the far wall. Jade's right leg trembled in front of her, her claws clenched into a tight fist. Her green flames rose around her like a bonfire scorching through the ceiling as her red eyes lit the darkness.

"Could have seen THAT coming from a mile away," Tarakudo deadpanned.

Wong was seeing stars as he stumbled drunkly to his feet, his legs stumbling beneath him like jelly. After a moment, he managed to shake off his daze, and shot Jade a poisonous glare. The shadows became alive with dozens of Shinobi rising around him, there red eyes alight with vicious intent.

The Dark Wizard wiped blood from his lips and hissed at Jade, his words slurred, "You overestimate yourself, wench. That will cost you more than you can spare! Perhaps I will present your skull to your accursed uncle before I rip his free!"

Jade just glared in contempt and lowered her foot back down to the floor, her flames lowering in intensity until they were at their normal regal flaring, "Not interested. You're not worth feeding the curb. I think I'll let Uncle do the honors."

"You think I will let you slight me in this manner and walk away?!" Wong raged, several of his Khan drawing their shurikens.

"You want to beat Uncle, right? Even if you DID beat me, and you WOULDN'T, you wouldn't be in any state to take on the old man," the Queen smirked as she saw Wong digest her words.

"Not that you'd have a chance even in your prime. You never did get the memo. Uncle is better than you, super doom-powers or not. He's just smarter and more resourceful and more patient than you could ever HOPE to be. So you're gonna go out and lose, just like you always do. Because that is the ultimate fate of perpetual hopeless tools like you," Jade dug in, stepping forward with every point and enjoying the sight of Wong stepping back in response.

"So get a move on, Fly. You have a web to fall in," Jade finished with a flippant wave of her left hand. "Oh, and it's Arachnid, not INSECT."

By the end, the cowed sorcerer was fuming, a vein visibly popping along his forehead, and his sharp teeth further irritating the flesh split from Jade's punch. From the sound of his harsh heavy breathing, the Queen idly wondered if he was really going to try to attack her on the spot, rather than save his strength for Uncle.

To her surprise and slight disappointment, Wong turned around. Though she could tell the motion pained him greatly. Looking over his shoulder, his hissed out, "After I've skinned your family to decorate my halls, I am coming for you, Wench."

Jade just grinned her wide trademark grin and waved, enjoying watching the awful old jerk stomp over to the nearest shadow and vanish. Once he was out of side, her expression fell and her shoulders slumped. All of her bravado dissipating away, even her flames sputtering out to a mere flicker.

"You're mad, right?" Jade muttered towards her silent employer, averting her eyes from the mirror. "I screwed up again, first the mask, then recruiting that venom-fodder."

There was a deep sigh from the mirror and a moment of pause before Tarakudo's distorted voice spoke out. His tone was level yet commanding in its calmness. "Jade. Look at me."

Hesitantly, the young queen turned all six eyes towards the demonic face in the mirror. His owl-like yellow eyes met hers, and she found she couldn't read his expression. She swallowed down another mouthful of venom, expecting a thorough dressing down in the immediate future.

"Yes. I'm mad," Tarakudo began, ignoring Jade wince slightly, "But at the both of us. As difficult as it seems for you to remember half the time, I'm the one in charge. You are still a rookie to this role, whether you like it or not. I'm clearly not preparing you for these situations properly or taking your… impulsiveness into account."

Jade sucked her fangs angrily, as she stepped up the wall to use up some of her nervous energy rather than lose her temper again. Softly she asked, "Are you saying I'm too incompetent to take responsibility for my own actions?"

Tarakudo looked at her in silence, the hesitance with his response making Jade's claws scrape at the wall nervously. Finally, and succinctly, the Oni King stated, "Yes."

Feeling her insides turn to ice at Tarakudo's harsh statement, Jade almost missed her employer continue on, "I was too distracted to notice this before, but you've never actually had the chance to grow and mature in ways necessary to a human girl."

"Not grow?" Jade blinked, and then turned back to the mirror, eyes knit in growing anger, "Not GROW? Do you have ANY idea what I went through to get this far?!"

"I'm NOT saying you haven't endured trials, you have," Tarakudo responded calmly, defusing her anger somewhat.

"But simply put, you went from an awkward loner pre-teen to being whisked away and raised for eight years in a hermitage by two people VASTLY your elders. Both of whom had other priorities than seeing you develop into a normal young woman."

Jade blinked, letting his assessment sink slowly into her mind, never having considered whatever impact her time in The Emptiness may have had on her as a person. The thought that there might be something wrong with her mentally made her feel somewhat nauseous. Was she really that twisted on a fundamental level?

If Tarakudo sensed her troubled reaction to his words, he didn't show it. Instead he pressed on calmly perhaps to not enrage the young Queen, "Whatever social skills you may have had prior to your training have clearly atrophied. Perhaps crippling you socially for the rest of your life if we're being realistic. I had not fully appreciated this until now. After all, most people don't become demons until they reach adulthood, or otherwise grow into it within a Tribe."

"You are a readymade warrior, Child. Likely even a great one. But you have a very long way to go before becoming a leader. So it seems I must take an active role in your education to see if you can't at least be passable in the role," he explained, seeming neither smug nor chastising despite how damning she found his assessment.

"YOU are the one who had the big evil plan, BOSS," Jade bitterly pointed out, finally looking away from the mirror. "If I'm such a screw up, doesn't that make it on you?"

"Yes, I'll admit that. I didn't have much experience dealing with girls your age, let alone raising or leading them," The Oni King nodded, but then quickly added, "However, your predisposition towards running headfirst into world-ending danger wasn't exactly a shining example of sanity to begin with. And need I remind you that you also agreed to every step along the way?"

"So what now then?" Jade asked softly, blinking when she noticed her nervous shuffling had moved her all the way to the center of the ceiling.

"I haven't given up on you yet, Jade, if that's what you're thinking," The Lord of the Shadowkhan explained, looking tired and frustrated. "However, I made a rather huge investment in you, and I expect some returns sooner rather than later. You'd best start keeping that in mind."

"…Yes, Boss," Jade finally stated, forcing herself to not snap out at him, or deny his words outright. If he was telling the honest truth, than her denying it would only prove his point, and do her no great service.

'If there's something wrong with me, best to just deal with it head on. Not that I'm saying he's right, but it's worth thinking about… I didn't exactly have a model childhood.'

"Well, you were right about Wong perhaps not being General material. He's too stuck in his ways from pride and age, and with you as you are and me in this state, I can't force him to shape up as I normally would," he admitted after some thought.

"That shouldn't be a problem," Jade waved off. "Once Uncle and the others rip his Essence out, we can just snatch it at the last minute and put it into someone we can control. Maybe one of the Enforcers, or something."

"Perhaps, they would likely have their guard down after defeating the Wizard," Tarakudo pondered aloud. "However that only works IF they actually beat him."

"What, you thought I was bluffing?" Jade asked, some smugness coming back into her voice.

XXX

Uncle sniffed, the penetrating smell of rust and foul oil and grease surrounding him on all sides. Broken down cars and other heaps of steel refuse piled high as far as the eye could see. The old man was well acquainted with this desolate scrapyard. It was here they'd first encountered Jade's older self, and Shendu's arrogant spoiled excuse for spawn had taken this place as his headquarters for the duration of their conflict.

He didn't know if anyone even owned this decaying stretch of land, or if it were abandoned. Either way, it mattered not. This area suited Uncle's purpose just fine; Wong's hubris had apparently swelled if he was allowing his hated enemy to choose their battlefield. The thought gave Uncle some degree of reassurance.

Chi Master Fong had been a gentle and honorable man, soft spoken and humble in all things. Wong's slaying of Fong was no great feat, as he claimed. Fong did not have a warrior's spirit, hadn't a mind for dirty tricks or bloodlust. No doubt Daolon Wong took advantage of the old master's serene nature when he took his life.

Uncle's pale brown eyes narrowed at the sun slowly setting in the infinite distance. He was not like Master Fong. If it was a fight Wong craved, Uncle would give him everything the mad wizard desired and so much more.

The Dark Wizard had chosen a poor time to risk Uncle's ire. The old man was already stressed worrying for the hellish fate that his sweet young niece had fallen to. More than anything, his thoughts turned towards poor Jade, twisted and infested by darkness for years by her account. Even should he fall, though, he had faith Tohru would not fall short of his expectations.

As for Jackie, Uncle thought than frowned, he had forgotten to smack his thoughtless nephew before leaving on this duel. The young man had forgotten to buy a new milk carton! They were not quite out but it had expired the day before. Did he want his poor elder to risk getting the runs!? Though, Tohru should have reminded him. Two smacks then.

Uncle felt the unwelcome presence rippling through his old bones long before he saw its source. A chill went through the air along with it, a standard reaction of the atmosphere in response to an influx of negative energy. Shadows stretched and widened, darkening into black pools.

From the pool above Uncle, covering an old bent tanker truck, a pair of dark Shinobi slowly rose. They eyed Uncle coldly with their thin red eyes, then turned towards one another, and lowered to one knee, their covered heads bowed. From between them, their master came. The darkness rippled around his ancient and twisted form like oil, until Wong stood tall before his entourage.

Uncle raised his right eyebrow, unimpressed and annoyed at the theatrics. Men as old as Wong should act their age, not posture like children. He crossed his arms and turned up his nose, glaring at Wong's new twisted body.

"This is the arena where you wish to take your last breath, Wizard?" Wong asked with a smirk, his two-colored eyes scanning the field. "I approve. Rubbish among rubbish, you have finally acknowledged your place."

"If Uncle belongs in scrapyard, Wong belongs in sideshooow!" Uncle pointed out, looking over his rival's transformation with his lips curled. "Thought Wong was unsightly before, but now? Has seen prettier faces flattened on the roadside!"

"Do you like it?" Wong smirked, stroking his beard between two gnarled fingers, "It's incomplete as of yet. Seems my natural magical aura is rather obstructing aspects of my transformation. But those should smooth out in time."

"Unlike your niece, who seems to have been utterly washed away by the tide of darkness that claimed her," Wong added, barely suppressing a chuckle. "Such is the way of those of weak constitution and feeble mind when given the gift of power. Though still wiser than her elders, given what side of the wall she has chosen to stand on."

Uncle said nothing, merely narrowed his eyes and slowly lowered his arms to his sides, fingers outstretched and tense. Wong took this as having struck a nerve and pressed on with sadistic glee.

"Was quite a surprise to see the little whore upon my escape. They do grow up so fast, don't they? So delightfully freakish now, and reduced to the Oni Lord's bedwarmer, bloated with his young," His shark-like grin threatened to split his blue skull in half. "At the very least, I approve of one of your bloodline understanding her worth-"

Uncle yawned into his right hand and stretched, his joints popping, "Wong means to talk Uncle to early grave like gossiping hen? Apparently fighting with words like schoolyard child is safer than getting piece of Uncle? They let just anyone become Dark Wizard these days."

Wong's mirth died on his face, as the thin wrinkled lips pulled down slowly into a rather inhuman sneer. Rather than respond, the old man soundlessly plummeted into the shadows at his feet. The maneuver smooth and fluid.

Just as quickly as he vanished, a twisted blue claw rose from the shadows at Uncle's back, the fingers crackling with living darkness. With an electric snap, the shadowy bolts leapt from the fingers and shredded their way through open air towards Uncle's exposed back, sure to dig their way through his torso like a spear.

Though that plan was interrupted when the black light splashed harmlessly against a bright barrior of soft green light arcing around the old man. His blowfish was held surely in one hand, and his lizard in the other. With a spell on his lips, Uncle whipped around and delivered two blasts of light chi towards the darkness the attack had originated from.

That extended blue hand retreated back quickly, just before the spells impacted and erased the shadow. An angry hiss echoed without a source around Uncle, and his brown eyes shifted over the scenery never stopping on one place.

"Treacherous Light Chi whelp," the echoing voice admonished bitterly over the mounds of scrap. "You think you are my match? This is simply sport before I move on to the rest of your accursed brood."

Uncle ignored the barb, a spell at the ready on his lips. A drop of sweat slowly made its way down his temple. His barrier was already spent from that blast alone, the sheer force of it nearly having broken the old man's concentration. Clearly Wong's arrogance wasn't mere posturing, the power of the Oni he absorbed was quite a terror to behold.

Readying himself for the next attack, Uncle began to consider that perhaps he would not be able to buy quite as much time as he'd planned. But worrying about such matters was pointless at this stage, merely doing the best these old bones could manage. Win or lose, he resolved that Daolon Wong would remember this duel to his dying day.

XXX

"Aaaand they're off!" Tarakudo smugly stated, his voice coming from around Jade's non-existent collarbone. She'd gotten tired to carrying her boss around everywhere, so she sliced a shard of mirror into a neat oval and used her silk to create something of a gaudy necklace.

It kept the young Queen's hands free to hold all the various accoutrements needed for viewing this duel of old mystics unfolding before their eight eyes. By which, of course, she meant the bowl of popcorn held in her pedipalps and the soda in her left hand.

From between her armored breasts, Tarakudo couldn't see his vassal's expression. But from her amused chuckles and gasps, he could plainly tell she was enjoying herself and pointed out as much.

"Tch, duh!" Jade grinned, scarfing down another mouthful of popcorn. It was a lengthier process than she remembered, squirting venom into her mouth and waiting until the kernels had been reduced to soup before swallowing them down. However she hadn't had the crunchy buttery goodness in forever and was willing to make the necessary adjustments.

"Of course I'm excited to see Uncle beat the blue out of that sexist old mummy. Hear what he called me?!" she scoffed bitterly, and shuddered, "As if I'd EVER do THAT with YOU."

"You're too kind," Tarakudo stated flatly as they looked out onto the battle unfolding before them. Jade's prediction was surprisingly on the mark. The old Chan was a wiley and ruthless opponent, unpredictable and giving no ground to his demonic foe. The Oni Lord hissed in displeasure at Wong's display. He was a crotchety old fool too set in his ways, past the point of adaptability. What was the point of such a long life if it only led you to stagnation?

"Back in the Emptiness, the best show I could ask for was watching horny Kitsune in heat biting at eachother over some flirty female. And after the fifth time, that got super old and kinda creepy," she muttered, downing a swig of grape soda. "THIS has explosions, way better. Forgot how spry the Old Man is."

Jade would have cheered loudly if it weren't for the matter of her and Big Red trying to avoid detection, and her not wanting to distract her Great Uncle into getting his head shaved off. Unfortunately, she was beginning to notice something of a lag in the Light Chi Wizard's moments, stains of sweat forming in his shirt. Whereas Wong wasn't slowing down in the least, his endurance fueled by unholy power.

"Don't be distracted," Tarakudo spoke up, sensing her apprehension via the battle before them. "We aren't here to take bets or watch a show. Whoever wins, we MUST take the Essence of the Thousand Shadows from that Wizard."

"I'm not distracted!" Jade snapped, rolling her eyes. She blinked and looked at how the claws of her feet were nervously tapping against the scrap beneath them, and mentally forced them to stop; glad Tarakudo couldn't see her flush.

"Uncle's gonna win, and then we're gonna swoop in and grab that Essence before they know which way is up. Gonna wrap that creep Wong up like a present for good measure, too. Maybe add a little bow for-" she blinked, and then looked down between her breasts at her boss' leering red face.

"Wait, Thousand what?"

"Tribe of the Thousand Shadows," The King of the Shadowkhan explained drying. "That's the name of the tribe formed of Shinobi warriors."

"They have NAMES?" Jade boggled, completely taken offguard by the concept. She missed several deadly maneuvers among the combatants in her shock. "All nine?! I thought they were just called Ninjakhan!"

"You honestly think I would call ANY of my forces… ninjakhan?" Tarakudo scoffed, disgusted by the very idea. "All the Tribes have regal titles under my command, not childish descriptors."

"Tribe of the Thousand Shadows," Jade muttered tasting the name on her lips and ignoring her boss' harsh rebuttal. "Sounds kinda… flowery. Wow, Eyebrows, you try to act like a big mean ugly Oni Boss, but deep inside you're kinda prissy, arentcha."

"I'll have you know," Tarakudo scoffed, "That those of my pedigree were expected to not only excel martially, but also in the arts. There is nothing 'prissy' about it."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, Barbie," Jade snickered, wolfing down another handful of popcorn. Her mind was abuzz with new possibilities.

'If the other mooks get big fancy names, like hell am I gonna be the odd girl out!'

Tarakudo merely gave a deep sigh and thought not for the first time how very much he missed his generals.

XXX

A fist the size of a ham slammed into the table with a deep growl of frustration. Tohru looked bitterly over the notes spread out before him on every available surface, the young Chi Wizard's eyes never settling as they frantically looked for any available pattern. While his brief flash of inspiration had gotten him further than he'd dared hope thanks to his friends' help, he feared now it had reached its limit.

He'd been SO close; everything had come together in a moment of divine inspiration. But once he'd reached the finish point he'd found the overall spell cripplingly lacking. With what he'd managed to put together, he was reasonably certain he could briefly upset the still-bonding Shadowkhan Essence into flaring outwards, becoming visibly external.

But that alone would not be nearly enough, it would still be anchored to his host and he could think of no way to draw out and contain the agitated magicks. At first he'd been certain the Chi-O-Matic, which had proven itself so useful during the Dark Chi hunt, would have been more than sufficient. But that was before crafting the actual spell itself and facing the harsh truths of the task.

The Demon Chi was little more than cuttings from the wicked tree of the Demon Sorcerers. The Shadowkan Essence was no mere cutting, it would be like trying to cut down a century old oak with a katana; trying to catch a lake in a teacup! Yōkai Chi Essence in general was a temperamental force compared to that of the Demon Sorcerers. It would be repelled by anything anchored to a modern device flowing with electric current.

Only something old and of natural material would serve to house the Shadowkhan Essence. Something of a comparable nature to a Tsukumogami would be perfect. It was one reason the Object Spirits could never form in anything modern, electricity mingled with Japanese Chi always led to a messy backfire for reasons still unknown to modern mystics. The Chi-O-Matic was fundamentally useless to them in this situation.

Tohru wiped sweat from his eyes and knit his brow, forcing his brain to think to the point of having a headache. What could possibly draw out the essence that WASN'T electrically powered? This was the major hurdle he could not seem to jump, and the fact that he was SO close to the answer was driving him to a frustrated rage.

All he could do was sit here regurgitating and redigesting the same notes and facts over and over again uselessly. All the while his Sensei was fighting for his life with a psychopathic little imp who already had one Light Chi Wizard notch in his staff if not more. The longer he wasted time, the more likely Wong would come out the bloody victor.

As much faith as Tohru had in his teacher, his cynical side sadistically pointed out that Wong was nearly Uncle's match without the power of an Oni General coursing through his veins. With it, he shuddered to even consider. Now the old man was alone with that monster all thanks to his pathetic student's ineptitude.

Perhaps worst of all, was knowing that normally in this situation, Jade would have been right over his shoulder. Calming and encouraging him to move on and sharing new ideas. Her flexible mind stimulating Tohru's own imagination, leading them both to victory. But now, in this dark hour, she was nowhere to be found. In fact she was at the very epicenter of the crisis, twisted and mutated by the darkest of magic. Not here helping her friend, and possibly never doing so again.

The ex-Enforcer pushed the thought aside forcefully, blocking them out with all his mental power. He knew giving into such notions would only drag this sinking ship down even faster.

Tohru reached for the pen, and began flipping through his notebook, beyond the point of noticing the curious and anxious stares of his friends behind him. All of them silent for fear of breaking the large man's concentration. He grabbed his pen to underline a particular section of formula in case he needed to start from scratch, but frowned when no line of ink came forth.

He swiped the pen time under the section with more and more force, his anger beginning to rise towards the defiant instrument. He was past the point of considering or caring that it'd likely run dry. With a roar, the pen snapped between his sausage fingers, startling his comrades with the sudden noise.

The destruction of the pen wasn't nearly enough to sate the giant's anger, and with that he grabbed the desk firmly with both hands. Heedless of the precious notes and instruments on top, he easily lifted and threw the massive oak desk against the far wall. It was a testament to the furniture that it didn't shatter on impact, but the whole building shook along with it.

He was about to finish off the defiant wooden enemy, when a firm yet soft hand gripped his wrist. The sensation halted the massive man's advance, and he turned towards the source of the obstruction with a snarl. A snarl which died away when he saw Viper's dark eyes looking up into his own. Her expression one of concern, yet also backed by steel.

"Settle down, big guy," her smooth sultry voice explained softly, rubbing her thumb lightly over his hand as she spoke. "Deep breaths."

Tohru stared down uncomprehendingly at the ex-thief, his waning anger muddying his perception of events. However he had enough control to take the recommended breaths and steadily watched the red leak from his vision. Viper's presence was a healing salve on the young wizard's frayed spirit.

The large man slumped back into his seat, slipping from Viper's hand, tired and ashamed of losing his temper. He avoided Viper's eye contact as she stepped up to him, not needing to crouch to still be at Tohru's eye-level even while he was sitting.

Her voice was soothing and confident when she finally spoke up, coaxing her friend's attention. "I won't pretend to know much about this mystic hooey. If it doesn't involve breaking and entering, or preparing frozen food, I'm no expert. But…"

"I think you're too focused," she stated knowingly, a dusky blush on her face being uncomfortable regarding this degree of intimacy with anyone. "You're so set on the problem and solving it ASAP it's all you're seeing right now, you're working with blinders on. You need to calm down, take a step back."

"How… how do I do that? Calm down at a time like this?" Tohru grumbled softly, struggling to even comprehend calming down in a situation like this. It seemed a task comparable to the one he was already failing miserably at.

"Well, speaking from experience," Viper smiled slightly, stepping back and gesturing to the mess Tohru's rampage had left in its wake. "Cleaning this up is a start. I'll give you a hand, there. I'm hopeless at this magical go-for business."

"…Thank you, Viper," Tohru muttered, relieved he has such a reliable group supporting him, and fighting off any negative thoughts that may impede that with another deep breath. He stood and carefully began re-arranging the furniture, relieved the desk was salvageable.

Viper delicately began gathering up the papers scattered about with her nimble fingers, then cast a chastising look at Jackie, and Paco staring blankly from the doorway. They quickly turned, moving about with the tasks Tohru had given them previously.

El Toro, thankfully, needed no encouragement from the woman to mind his business. The Hispanic warrior felt idle, standing about with no task to distract himself, and knowing better than to gape at Senor Tohru in his moment of weakness. A courtesy between men which he'd certainly prefer returned were their situation reversed.

Looking about without a plan, the Luchador's eyes fell on one of the old antiques unstuck from the wall by Tohru's impassioned actions. The familiar shape of the object saw it picked up and held lightly in his thickly calloused hands. Holding it gave El Toro a nostalgic sense of familiarity.

"I have not seen one of these for many years," he said in a casual tone, but just loud enough to get the attention of the others. In his grip was an old set of hand-held bellows, smelling of worn leather and polished dark wood, scratched and weathered with considerable age.

"Not since when I last saw my Abuelo, very long ago," he muttered, running his hands over the old wood. The smalltalk doing its part in distracting his friends from their concerns, Paco especially. "He owned a pair, very much like this one. I can still remember the sound of him working it."

"I'm not sure how Uncle ended up with such a thing," Jackie wondered, stacking several old tomes. "Not the sort of item Uncle usually moves. That looks Danish, not Chinese."

"Old man never could resist a bargain," Viper smirked, righting a few chairs.

Tohru looked up for the first time from where he was salvaging the wreckage of the room, to turn and look at whatever Senor Fuerte was going on about. Turning, his beady eyes fell on the old bellows and the air seemed to get sucked out of the room.

He did not recall walking across the room, but next thing he knew he was holding the bellows, slowly working them listening to the air moving.

"Go," Tohru said clearly, without looking up at his confused companions.

"Sorry?" El Toro asked, casting a questioning glance at the others in the room to ascertain if they had any clue what had suddenly affected the Japanese man's mood, so.

With frustration, Tohru looked up from the bellows which had seemingly captivated him and shot a glare towards his friends. This time his voice was notably louder and more commanding, "Go help Sensei! I know what I need to do. Viper, you stay and help me with this."

There was a brief pause as the J-Team exchanged worried glances at each other, settling on the archeologist. Jackie was about to speak up and question Tohru's decision and sudden change of heart as politely as he could. But the large ex-thug gave him no chance.

Tohru slammed one large foot down shaking the room and earning himself the group's undivided attention. With it he gave the deep demanding shout, "Why are you still here?!"

They needed no further encouragement to follow the young wizard's instructions. With a hurried order towards Paco to stay with Viper and Tohru, El Toro and Jackie quickly ran out the door. The scrap yard wasn't far but every moment counted.

Besides, who knew what Tohru in that state would do if they wasted another second?

XXX

Two forces regarded one another warily. No attempt was made to communicate; they maintained an eternal bitter silence. A silence unbroken since they'd scribed the Book of Ages itself. Even then, their union had been simply a means to an end, and they continued to clash immediately at its conclusion as they had since before the nascence of the current reality.

IT watched the recent actions of its counterpart, radiating with dark challenge. This ancient game had rules, rules as numerous and complex as the stars lining the heavens. The tears in causality caused by OTHER's pawn had resulted in a penalty. Such a rare occurrence afforded IT several actions of free reign within set boundaries without threat of interference. OTHER's side had caused the damage, so it was forced to accept the penalty and did so in silence.

However that grace period was at its end. OTHER was making its next moves now, checking any direct further interference from IT. The two would fight now as fiercely as ever before, refusing to give ground to the other.

However, IT had the head start, and was not going to give that up without a fight.

XXX

"COME OUT, CRAVEN!" The raspy inhuman words echoed across the field of rust and debris. "WE ALL MUST DIE, SOMETIME!"

Uncle ignored the goading without effort; childish name-calling was beneath his notice. He leaned against the steering wheel of the half-buried pickup truck he sought sanctuary in. A moment to hide and let the ache ease out of his crusty old bones. It took all his strength to keep from breathing as hard as he felt he needed, fearing the noise would alert Wong to his location even in such a well-concealed hiding place.

The old man's shirt was soaked through with sweat, his hair matted by the exertion. His left arm hung limp at his side, a circular burn as wide as an orange blackened the flesh of his forearm where he'd guarded a fatal strike. It had been aiming for his heart, so only sacrificing his arm, he saw as a worthwhile trade. Though unfortunately he'd lost his beloved lizard catalyst somewhere in the confusion, now all he had was the blowfish.

Uncle ran a trembling hand through his gray spikes, his thoughts racing. Analyzing the battle that had come, trying to see any sort of flaw in Wong's tactics, a weakness or tell he could take advantage of. He gave a wheezing sigh, his muscles screaming and his arm lying numb at his side.

Wong was no more skilled now than he'd ever been; Uncle knew the dark Wizard's tricks as well as ever. Unfortunately that didn't seem to matter now; the psychopathic mystic was another beast entirely than he'd been before. Uncle's blows landed true, but Wong weathered them like a charging bull.

The Dark Wizard's fortitude was as demonic as his new appearance, making this a battle of attrition. All Uncle could do was fall back on his dirty tricks and command of the terrain. He couldn't overwhelm Wong with a single massive spell, so his only recourse was to slowly wear the old monster down, and play on his growing impatience and frustration.

While Uncle doubted he had the stamina for such a young man's tactic, he'd pressed on. Pecking away at the Shadowkhan's monstrous defense, sending him flying into a clumsy rage. Wong's emotions did him no favor, leaving wide openings in his defense Uncle wily took advantages of.

Unfortunately, Uncle in his exhaustion made the embarrassingly naïve mistake of overestimating his enemy's sense of pride. Wong had claimed he wanted to make this battle personal, that he didn't need assistance from his dark familiars. Apparently impatience wore that claim away like a sand castle in the high tide.

In an instant the battle was turned back Uncle's way as a veritable legion of the thrice-damned Shinobi rose to their master's aid. Uncle was wise enough not to even attempt direct conflict with both Wong and his mindless army, and quickly retreated.

He cursed himself where he hid; it was beneath a man of his experience to not expect his enemy's treachery. Though he doubted there was any alternative to his strategy that could have turned the tide of the battle. Victory had always been a pipe dream; this was just about buying time. Considering that objective alone, he could consider this a success.

Success or not, however, Uncle would have preferred NOT to have his last stand in a place smelling of used motor oil and crumpled barbeques. That thought alone was enough to fuel the old man's second wind, and carefully ease himself out of the pickup. He'd have plenty of time to rest when he was rotting in the earth, until then he had a boot that was looking for a nice warm place up evil's rear.

Carefully and quietly, he eased himself out the truck's broken window onto a sure footing of dented oven sheets and a carburetor. Truly he had chosen the most scenic possible location for what very well may prove to be his final battle. He would have smirked at the thought, were he not so tense, his blowfish at the ready.

"Ahh, the rat crawls from its hole, right into the jaws of the waiting cat," a satisfied hiss of a voice smirked, reverberating with dark power. "Did you think yourself safe? I can SMELL the stagnant reek of your blood and HEAR it trickle weakly through your decaying veins."

Uncle took a deep breath and slowly turned, facing three Shadowkhan with their blades drawn. Each razor's edge was positioned mere centimeters away from his throat, heart and the base of his right eye. The harsh words came from their lord and master reclining casually on a broken lawn chair resting on a pile of scrap above them.

"You underestimated me, Wizard. And more severely, you underestimated the power providence bestowed upon me," he leered and leaned forward, his hands steepled in front of him. It was clear to Uncle's old brown eyes that the Dark Wizard felt assured in his own triumph, the battle already over in his mind.

"Wong likes to brag like child with new toy," Uncle shrugged, knowing the Shinobi poised before him would run him through three times over if his right arm so much as twitched. So be it, he decided. He gave it his best, taking some satisfaction in knowing Wong was forced to turn towards his Shadowkhan to achieve this victory, rather than his own insufficient talent.

"So desperate for victory you would brag about ganging up on mortal old man," Uncle smirked. "You are a disgrace to even the scum Dark Wizards who preceded you!"

Wong tensed, his solid eyes narrowing and his grin beginning to twist into a grimace. However he seemed to visibly check himself, then smirk. He leaned back into his seat and stroked his thin beard with a look positively oozing satisfaction.

"Tossing insults is all you seem to have left in your arsenal, Wizard," the Dark Wizard Oni practically purred. The middle Shadowkhan pressed his blade forward, slowly easing the edge of its cursed kodachi along the side of Uncle's throat. The old mystic kept completely still, refusing to let his body so much as twitch as a line of red wept into his shirt.

"Are you not even going to attack? Suicidally throw your pathetic excuse for a life away so you can die with some feeble delusion that it was by your own terms?" Wong asked, quirking the eyebrow over his left eye.

"You are clearly prepared to meet your ancestors, content to die at the hands of your better. But…" he leaned forward, his two-colored eyes alight with malicious ecstasy. "You are mistaken. There is no pleasant afterlife waiting for you, I'm afraid…"

Uncle was about to respond, but felt the blade against his throat tense, and bit his tongue. Let Wong bark all he wanted, he would not give the awful demon an ounce of satisfaction if he could help it.

"I have great plans for that juicy self-righteous soul of yours, such sights to show you…" Wong licked his lips, raising one hand in order to physically give the final order to strike.

The Dark Wizard could practically feel the warm thrum of his enemy's spirit clenched in his fist, squealing for mercy. Perhaps he'd place it in a locket so he could feel its cries at his leisure. An accessory both suitably evil and quite stylish.

Wong locked eyes with his rival one last time, committing the final defiant expression to memory. The memory of that sight he foresaw as a great comfort to come. "Die full of regrets, ignorant whelp."

He brought his hand down.

Uncle registered the whistling in the air just before something struck two of the Shadowkhan poised to strike. They disappeared in puffs of smoke, leaving only the one threatening his neck to imitate its General in wide eyed surprise. That moment was all the wily wizard needed, a jab to drive the sword aside and chi blast to the ninja chest, freed him.

Before the last smoke even dissipated he fired at the flat footed Wong, only just sitting up from his lawn chair in shock. The blast struck unchallenged sending the dark wizard tumbling back down the pile out of sight chair and all.

"Care to tag us, Senor?" A Mexican accented voice called.

Uncle forced down a smirk, and hid his relief with a scowl. He had standards to maintain, after all. Turning to the interlopers, he saw Jackie and El Toro poised on one of the piles, the large Mexican having stripped his suit for the wrestling leotard beneath. Jackie was poised with a hubcap clasped in his tight grip matching the one he'd sent spinning into the Old Man's soulless executioners.

"What do young fools think you're doing?!" Uncle called out at them, "Ruined Uncle's heroic death! Now when will he get another chance for big sendoff?!"

Jackie sighed in relief; if Uncle was ranting like that than they were just in time. The archeologist suspected that kneejerk browbeating was actually his uncle's personal method of assuring the two he was alright. He tried to ignore the ragged state of the elder, or the blood staining his collar dark.

Instead his attention was on the several shadows creeping off the ground, and taking familiar dark forms. Wong stood behind them, his face positively fuming with rage and his eyes burning like hot coals. "How DARE you interrupt this duel, worms! This was to be between me and your decrepit leader, uninterrupted! You would have had that much time to live before I came to claim your miserable souls! Must you rush to your deaths so pointlessly?!"

Jackie's eyes narrowed and he braced himself, preparing to utilize his improvised discuss without hesitation. "It's like you said, Wong. This is between you and Uncle. El Toro and I are just keeping things fair."

"Indeed, think of us as referees for this match, Senor," El Toro added, leaning in. It was somewhat beneath him to strike an old man, even one twisted and unholy. But he was more than happy to purge his dark soldiers from the Earth. Keeping this bout nice and honorable was definitely something within the aging wrestler's purview.

"What is wrong, Wong?" Uncle chimed in, lifting his glowing blowfish threateningly with his good hand. "Scared to have piece of Uncle to youself?"

"You miserable cur…" Wong hissed, black miasma beginning to form out of the space surrounding his crooked fists. Energy spat and crackled between his fingers and he leaned forward, fangs bared as though he wished to sink them into Uncle's bleeding throat.

"Very well then, I shall graciously acquiesce to your last wish and face you on your own pitiful level! Come!" he roared, vanishing into the darkness around him, before seamlessly diving from the shadows at Uncle's right, glowing claws on a trajectory with the old man's throat.

Jackie's eyes followed the violent attack, a distraction that nearly cost him his head as a kodachi's blade caught the light. The brief flicker in the corner of his vision was all the warning he was given before lifting his hubcap as a makeshift shield and parrying the fatal strike.

He pressed forward before the Ninjakhan could recover its footing, twisting the edge of the hubcap around and driving it into the Shadow's throat. It burst into smoke satisfactorily upon contact. Not for the first time was the archeologist thankful the Ninja had such a low threshold for damage.

The young man quickly shot a glance towards where he'd last seen his uncle under assault from the Oni Wizard before being so rudely interrupted. Thankfully it seemed Uncle had somehow dodged or countered the strike, because now Wong was ducking back into another dark hole, nearly being lanced by a green trail of light.

Jackie smirked and jumped towards a Khan sneaking towards El Toro's exposed back while the luchador combated two of the living shadows at once. Both his thick arms had the two Shadowkhan trapped in a compressing headlock at either of his sides. Their red eyes bulged as he continued to apply pressure; it was only a matter of time before the two "poofed" under his might.

But Jackie had no time to watch and enjoy the show; El Toro seemed entirely unaware of the shinobi creeping towards his blind spot. As such the archeologist found himself forced to pick up the slack, throwing the hubcap to the ground and jumping on so that his forward momentum sent the cap sliding down the refuse pile like a sled, Jackie barely managing to keep balance during the dangerous maneuver.

He reached the Khan just as it nearly drove its blade through El Toro's heart, jumping up and kicking it square in the head. The hubcap sans passenger continued on its journey as the would-be assassin vanished out of existence in a puff of black smoke.

El Toro heard the noise and reacted with alarm, twisting about and throwing both captured Shadowkhan dead center into Jackie's chest, sending the smaller Chinese man flying along with his enemies. Both Khan poofed upon impact, but Jackie unfortunately stayed around to crash into an upside-down junked station wagon hard enough to leave a dent.

El Toro winced and rubbed the back of his masked skull sheepishly, "Sorry!"

Jackie groaned, leaning forward and looking back at the sizable dent marring the car door behind him. He let out a groan, and stood back up, his back making a loud series of pops. "Urgh… Nice throw…"

"Gracias, Amigo. Though it seems Senor Wong is not yet ready to throw in the towel," El Toro pointed out, watching as several new lines of Shadowkhan rose before them, weapons already drawn.

Rolling his eyes, Jackie reached back and yanked both windshield wipers out from beneath the station wagon, twirling them experimentally in his hands to get a feel for their weight. Satisfied, he leaned in, improvised weapons bared. "Long bad day."

Uncle, meanwhile, was gleefully on the offensive. Wong's shadow-shifting trick had become predictable, always exiting the shadow to Uncle's blind spot. Now he merely aimed a spell towards those shadows ahead of time, catching Wong with increasing accuracy. It was like a magical game of wack-a-mole, which had always been a game Uncle found cathartic.

He dodged to the right, avoiding a blast of sickly purple chi scoring the steel wreckage at his back. Wong was firing blind now, his anger at his shadow-based tactics failing so consistently wearing down his already fragile mental state. He'd abandoned tactics entirely jumping at Uncle with his claws crackling with dark spells and growling like a rabid animal.

Uncle ducked under one such swipe, shoving forward under the outstretched claw and checking Wong hard in the sternum with his shoulder. Not even giving the Dark wizard time to fall back, Uncle brought the blowfish up and pressed it against Wong's side. Light green energy crackled and burst at pointblank range.

Wong screamed as the light drove into him, launching him up in the path of the blast and then down hard onto the jagged uneven hill of metal upon which they fought. He twitched as bolts of green energy from the direct strike continued to crackle and climb down his limbs branching out from the smoldering burn trailing smoke from his side.

Uncle didn't give the downed Oni time to gather his faculties. He stepped up to the prone and twisted body, and stomped down on either wrist, taking some satisfaction in the way the old monster cried out as Uncle ground in his heels, pressing Wong's wrists into the scrap beneath. The blowfish was positioned above his sneering and wheezing face, thrumming with mystic threat.

"So, how did Wong enjoy piece of Uncle he wanted soooo bad?" Uncle asked curiously, his brow raised and a small smirk on his wrinkled lips. He felt Wong's arms tense beneath his rubber soles, but his strength was a dying ember after such a decisive blow.

The Oni wizard coughed and turned his two-toned eyes up, their gaze fuzzy and unfocussed, but still communicating a wealth of vitriol. His voice was a thicker rasping croak than usual, "C-Curse you… craven fool of a wizard…"

"Craven? You take young boy hostage, kill innocent people, and twist duel so you have advantage and STILL fail, and UNCLE is craven?" Uncle asked; an edge on his voice as he leaned in to look down at his fallen enemy.

"Wong is greater Craven than anyone Uncle has ever met in long life," Uncle stated quietly, leaning in close. "Dark beings act as is their nature, criminals are motivated by greed, but you… you failed at being man so become beast. Was too weak to bear burden of humanity, so cast it aside and embrace cold and darkness, running into black corner like a scared child. Uncle does not respect you enough to hate you, Dark Wizard. Uncle pities you."

"P-pities!?" Daolon Wong sputtered, his eyes bugging, black veins visible in the corners. His voice rose, a darkness filling beneath his own adding a grim and demonic timbre as his rage grew exponentially. "YOU pity ME?! MEEEE!?"

Uncle didn't even have time to step back before he was sent flying with a sudden monstrous strength focused into his fallen foe's arms. He landed hard, crying out from the pain of the sharp edges where he fell hard on. He looked up weakly from where he lay, vaguely aware he wasn't sure where his blowfish had landed. His right hand now ominously empty.

"I will eat your soul, Wizard," Wong spoke, his voice soft but a strange distorted screaming underscored his words. He was already on his feet, black miasma of liquid darkness swelling and writhing from him, scraping at the air like clawed branches.

"Your everything will be consumed by me, your memories… your strength, they will all become mine for all eternity as you endure unending perdition within by stomach," Wong continued, handfuls of the darkness coalescing around his trembling claws as he floated closer to where Uncle lay helpless.

"Now," Wong whispered, pulling his hand back. Oily black fluid trickled around the crooked fingers with a will seemingly independent of its master. "This despicable chapter of my life is put behind m-"

Uncle suspected the final word was supposed to be "me", but Wong's triumphant monologue was cute to an unforeseen halt when a black length of pipe struck down on his skull from behind. The ancient monster's eyes bulged from their sockets for a brief instant, before he fell forward landing on the scrap face first and unmoving.

Behind where he'd stood, Paco glared down at the evil old man hatefully, looking more than ready to deliver another wallop with his pipe if Wong so much as twitched. He poked the down foe with the tip once experimentally, then smirked up at Uncle with satisfaction.

"I am not just 'young boy', Senor. I am a Luchador!"

XXX

Jade snickered into her fist, trying to keep her voice from carrying over to the tired combatants bellow. Tears streaked from all six eyes from the effort to keep it down. She hardly noticed the Shadowkhan dissipate with their master no longer conscious to guide them.

"PACO! He was taken out by freaking PACO!" she continued to exclaim, muffling her mouth as her shoulders trembled, all four of them. "Oh man, I couldn't have thought of a better climax for that clown's terrible act if I tried."

"Are we having fun?" Jade's necklace drawled out bitterly, having suffered her commentary and excited exclamations the entire bout.

"Tch, duh!" Jade grinned, recomposing herself and reaching for another handful of popcorn, only for her claws to scrape the bottom of the bowl unobstructed. She pouted slightly at that, but shrugged it off a moment later.

"Did you see Jackie with the windshield wipers? He did that the first day I came to the States! Hehe, man did that make me feel nostalgic. Even El Toro's dopey 'sorry!' was enough to make my day." The Queen snickered again to herself, and shook her head in disbelief. "Man, I feel like a kid again watching that all play out. Not as fun sitting in the bleachers though."

She reached back and stroked her abdomen with a grin, "See that, Sweeties? Just like in all those stories I tell you, right?"

Jade heard an annoyed snort from her neckline, and poked her necklace coyly, "What's wrong, Frowny? Didn't enjoy the show?"

"I can't believe that little brat was able to take out a Shadowkhan General with a simple lead pipe to the back of the skull. Being a General used to MEAN something," he griped to his vassal, pointedly including her in that assessment, but if she noticed she ignored it.

"Oh don't be like that, Eyebrows, it's WONG. Remove his magic and I could'a taken that creep back when I was human. Oni General or no, he's a half rotted bag of bones on a good day," she waved off with a pedipalp. "Besides, I think you're underestimating the might of a lead pipe to the head."

"Just remember who's side your own, Your Majesty," Tarakudo warned, as he observed the downed sorcerer beneath them being bound with thick chains by the luchador and archeologist. "Do you think I didn't notice you taking aim at the Dark Wizard when he had the old man on the ropes?"

Jade's mouth gaped at the accusation, and she opened and closed it trying to summon up words to her defense. But finally gave up and shrugged, "Yeah. I was gonna lend a claw, whatever. Like hell was I gonna let that crusty old bastard off Uncle."

"Uncle, your enemy," Tarakudo pressed on, frustration becoming clear. "OUR enemy. This is war, Jade. War has casualties and you need to understand that if you intend to have a snowball's chance in Hell of coming out of this on top."

"I've heard it all before, Boss," Jade whined, shrugging off the sentiment outright. "But me letting them die isn't up for discussion. We'll be a lot more productive if you just make a note of that and move on. Besides, gotta jump down there soon and… wait…"

She squinted her eyes, routing chi to the six orbs to enhance her vision. Her focus zoomed in on the large man and shapley young woman running into the scrapyard towards the victors. Jade tongued her fangs curiously with some apprehension as she watched events unfold.

"Tohru and wow, Viper. She looks better than I remember," she mused quietly. It having been so long since she'd seen a real and natural pretty face the sight was actually rather alien to her now.

"…But what is that thing he's carrying?"

XXX

"Is everyone alright?" Tohru asked, breathing hard as he held the precious wrapped bundle to his chest. He looked around at the several exhausted faces greeting him. Jackie and El Toro had the usual scuffs and scratches from a fight, but it was clear they were fine. They all nodded with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

Jackie gave a half-hearted thumbs-up and drawled, "You missed all the fun."

"Glad to see you're all in one piece. More or less," Viper smirked, looking Jackie over. He blushed and looked up towards the sky, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

"But where is Sensei?" Tohru frowned, but turned to the source of a shrill voice clearing its throat.

Uncle was sitting, leaning tiredly against a severed car door, his left arm hanging limp at his side. But he was steadily breathing, and neither the luchador nor the archeologist seemed hurried or concerned.

"Uncle is reigning wizard champioooon!" the old man muttered out, his eyes closed tiredly but his need to press on his accomplishment was stronger still. "Did Tohru think his teacher was not up to snuff?"

Tohru just gave a long sigh of relief, feeling a great deal of weight slump off his exhausted shoulders. Then turned curiously to the sound of rattling chains, only to see little Paco testing and tugging on the bindings wrapped up and down the unconscious demonic form of Daolon Wong like a blue mummy.

"Paco?" Tohru frowned, eyeing the young Mexican critically. "Weren't you told to not leave the shop?"

"Yes, Paco," El Toro added, crossing his arms and looking down at his young student currently digging the tip of his shoe into the ground sheepishly. "I do recall you being told not to follow us."

"Um…" Paco muttered, trying to think of a suitable excuse, "¿Yo no hablo inglés?"

Viper couldn't help but laugh at that, having the shame to cover her mouth. "Sorry, it's just… without Jade here, it's nice to still have a kid not listen when we say to stay put."

Viper winced when she noticed Tohru and Jackie frown at that, and was about to deliver a swift apology followed by a reassurance. However they were distracted by a sudden throaty groan and a rattle of chains.

"Uuhhh… " Wong groaned out, slowly lifting his pink and red gaze to the group before him. His eyes were blurred but his Oni body was recovering with preternatural speed from having just been brained.

"Rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty," Viper muttered, crossing her arms and glaring down at the humanoid abomination bound before the group. She still recalled clearly the scared look in Paco's eyes when this old monster had him by the throat.

"Urgh, silence, miserable harlot," Wong groaned, closing his eyes to try to force his building headache away. "When dealing with your betters, one speaks only when first addressed."

Viper blinked then looked over at Paco, "Wow, nice arm, kid. You knocked him dumber than he already was."

Paco grinned smugly, enjoying being complimented by a beautiful woman quite a lot, "Gracias Señorita Viper."

"Wong should stop struggling like rat in trap and accept defeat with SOME dignity!" Uncle scoffed, opening one tired eye long enough to shoot his rival a scornful look. "You couldn't handle twooooo pieces of Uncle!"

Wong glared hatefully at the old man, trying to communicate his raw hate into a physical force and will the old fool's skull into bursting like an overripe tomato. Unfortunately he had never been able to manage that trick and was still too weak to summon his forces. The Dark Wizard Oni hissed bitterly, "Defeated though I may be, you are too weak to truly triumph against me, Wizard."

"What is that supposed to mean, Wong?" Jacke glared stepping up to the downed old man, expecting anything from someone so experienced with a lifetime of evil.

"You know no prison can hold me once I obtain my strength, and you have no means of removing my power before it takes hold permanently," Wong boasted venomously through his grit fangs.

"So your only hope is to strike me down now while I am weak. But you do not have the fortitude for something truly pragmatic. Only the wizard could strike down a helpless foe, but none of you pathetic lot will allow that, will you. Ha!" he looked Jackie in the eye and challenged boldly. "So, what are you, boy? A man or a coward?"

"An archeologist," Jackie stated firmly, looking back at where Tohru glared down at Wong. "Tohru? Why not show Daolon Wong what you've been working so hard on."

"Glad to," Tohru grumbled, setting down the bundle and rifling through its contents. First he pulled out a vial of transparent yellow fluid. He regarded Wong's questioning gaze with a smirk, and then uncorked the bottle, upending its contents all over the hissing and sputtering mad mystic.

"Argh, arrogant bloated peasant! What is this!?" Wong roared.

"Give it a moment," Tohru stated smugly, crossing his arms.

Wong was about to shout another enraged enquiry but held his tongue when he felt a tingling run up and down his form, as though his whole body had gone numb. He felt an instability rippling through his spirit and pass through the surface of his skin. A blackish-purple miasma rose off his body to his stunned disbelief. "No, this cannot be happening!"

"This?" Tohru asked casually, unimpressed by the crooked imp's disbelief. "This was the easy part. It's the next part that was tricky."

The ex-criminal reached down and drew forth what Jackie, El Toro and Paco quickly realized had been the antique bellows from before. Though several Kanji had been scrolled on the surface and a glass bottle was fixed over the vent.

"Ooooooh," Uncle nodded, looking up at Tohru with a wry smile, easily having discovered the purpose of the device with mild scrutiny. "Student is veeeery clever to have made such thing on his own."

"Thank you, Sensei," Tohru nodded, not taking his focus off where Wong now struggled more and more against his steel bindings.

"No, I won't let you! I was granted this power! You cannot take it away from its master!"

"You talk too much," Tohru stated flatly, putting the nozzle of the bellows right up against the cloud and working the bellows gripped between his huge hands. A Japanese chant on his lips as the characters along the bellows glowed the same color as the potion from earlier.

Immediately the miasma Tohru had excited began pulling into the bellows bit by bit, a visible strain on the huge Wizard as he pulled the smoke away from Wong. The Dark Wizard screamed and thrashed as he felt his beloved dark gift yank from him bit by bit into the enchanted antique.

Sweat formed on Tohru's brow as he gave one final shuddering pull and yanked back. A horrible shrieking ripping scream reverberated through the air, causing all the J-Team save Tohru to reflexively cover their ears. Though thankfully the cry was brief.

Looking up, Jackie saw something purplish black just like the miasma flicker and float in the bottle attached to the vent. It looked like a little ephemeral shuriken of black light swimming around blindly in the bottle as though trying to escape.

Curiously, Jackie looked back at where Wong was now dead silent, and winced slightly. Wong was laying on his side, bent over himself fetal, strangely reminding Jackie of an empty cicada shell. He was clearly human again, the demonic taint of the Shadowkhan apparently ripped from him along with the unholy aura. Though even by Wong's twisted standards he seemed unnaturally pale and emaciated, seemingly aged at least ten years.

His eyes were wide and rolled into the back of his head, and his face was frozen in a grimace of rage, shock and pain. It was clear he was breathing, though barely, no longer conscious from the exorcism.

"So, that looks pleasant," Viper winced, turning away from the pathetic and eerie sight.

Uncle stood on weak knees and walked up to his ex-student, patting him on the shoulder, "You have done veeeery well, Tohru."

XXX

Jade spat out her soda and crushed the mostly empty super-size cup in her hand.

"What the heck?! He changed back?" Jade nearly shrieked. Dropping her crushed cup she reached back protectively to her abdomen. The thick fur and armored plating beneath her hand gave her some degree of relief from the shock but not much.

"Oh what's the matter now?" Tarakudo demanded, upset at being distracted from the proceedings. This was valuable intelligence gathering.

"What's the matter? WHAT'S THE MATTER!? They have a way to reverse Oni transformations, that's what's the matter!" Jade yelled grabbing the mirror pendant so she could look the Oni King in the eye.

"What would happen to my babies if that was used on me, huh?!" she demanded, her eyes flashing bright red as she stared down her employer.

Tarakudo sighed and rolled his eyes, "Oh, is THAT all you're worried about? I've long since given up trying to reason with pregnant women."

"Answer. The. Question." Jade punctuated each word, her flames beginning to kick up along with her precious young voicing distress at her sudden mood shift.

"You had eight years of intensive magical training," Tarakudo stressed, not impressed by his general's anger and fear. "If you were thinking clearly you could answer your own question but… fine. You're immune to that trick. Anyone fully bonded to their Shadowkhan essence would be."

The Lord of Shadowkhan smirked and he looked the Queen up and down, "And you're as bonded as it gets. They'd have as much luck fixing you as turning me human, which is to say, none."

Jade visibly relaxed at Tarakudo's words, her shoulders slumping. She reached over and gave her abdomen an affectionate rub again, mentally calming her eggs with her relief. "Okay, yeah. Sorry, got a little carried away, I admit."

"But don't say 'fixing'," she muttered, releasing her pendant so it settled back between her breasts. "I'm not broken. Well, not in that way, anyways…"

Looking down at her old ex-comrades, Jade hesitated slightly. A sense of apprehension built within her as she considered her next maneuver. Unfortunately her observational employer caught onto her hesitancy.

"Are you having second thoughts, Your Majesty?" Tarakudo pointedly asked, his tone sounding rather frustrated. "Going to get caught up in old sympathies and fail miserably again?"

Gritting her teeth, Jade bitterly forced out an angry breath through her fangs. "You just shut up, Old Man. I'm about to get us a Ninjakhan Essence my family was nice enough to giftwrap, and you griping is only going to distract me."

Bracing herself, she looked down from her scrap pile, judging the path of her descent. In doing so she pointedly ignored Tarakudo's prodding taunt to prove her words. She would, of course, but not for him. There were a thousand lives tucked safely within her she was way more interested in impressing.

'Watch closely, Sweeties. This time Mommy's gonna really strut her stuff.'

XXX

"I call it the Kurayami Sutorippu-fū Bellows," Tohru explained to El Toro's inquiry, as the Luchador looked over the brand new device curiously. He cautiously kept his distance away from the Shadowkhan Essence banging against the walls of the jar, though was confident Tohru's construction would keep the evil vapor at bay.

"Bit wordy, don't you think?" Viper criticized with a coy smile, "Maybe just the 'KSF Bellows'? Don't want to stumble over the name when things get hairy…"

The ex-thief blinked and looked up at what seemed to be a… snowflake? Or rather some sort of silk doily lazily floated down to the center of the group. When it came closer, Viper realized what it resembled most, a small overly complex spider web.

Before it gently settled to the ground, the elaborate web-like pattern crackled with purple lightning dancing and intersecting along its strands.

Viper's instincts took over even before her mind could comprehend the threat, and she threw herself backwards just as the silk snowflake burst. With a wide loud roar, an explosive wave of air pressure struck all the unaware heroes sending them flying off their feet. The wind was knocked out of them and their ears rang from the concussive force and ear-popping noise.

The world spun and screamed but Viper's brief moment of evasion earned her seconds of recovery faster than the others. Jackie, Tohru, El Toro, Paco and Uncle were still sprawled out, crawling and staring blindly as their eyes were full of stars. Unfortunately this clarity allowed Viper the faculties to perceive the great dark and twisted shadow that landed before her.

Despite its bulk, the ground didn't shake like it should from something of such weight. But as the blur in her eyes cleared, Viper saw just how spindly the being in front of her was, blue and slender and a mass of thin angular limbs. Looking up the creature, she saw the "head" was actually an entire feminine torso, the arms crossed and six red jewels blazing as they looked about the downed J-Team. A curtain of green flame formed a cape from the creature's shoulders and trailed into the air, though Viper could feel no heat even from this distance.

The six lights focused down on Viper for a moment and seemed to linger. As her vision cleared, the ex-thief realized that the eyes of the woman-beast were lingering on her. Her quick wit finally managed to connect the shape with the photos and footage she'd seen earlier that day, and of the cute young girl this monster had replaced.

It looked about to say something but stopped itself and turned, going to pick the bellows out from El Toro's limp arms. A spindly blue-clawed limb reached down and picked up the modified antique, or at least tried to. A crackle of green light shot up her arm and smoldered against the fur adorning the limb.

The creature, Jade, was apparently undeterred and forced her limb's digits around the bellows, before yanking the captured Essence free with a low annoyed growl. She then released the enchanted device so it fell back towards the dirt and scrap with a low thump.

Viper knew, deep inside, she should have run forward and snatched the Essence from this spider's arms. But try as she might, she couldn't send strength into her limbs as she looked up at the awful and alien form of what had been Jade Chan. The girl who looked up at her like an adoring little sister, supported her decision to give up thievery, never lost faith in her turning to the side of heroes.

Now she was this THING, coveting that demonic jar she held in her clawed grasp. What could have turned that sweet spirited girl into such a monster? She'd seen people transformed into all manner of inhuman things in her time, but never to such a twisted extent.

"J-Jade…" Viper tried to call out, but her voice was too soft and the spider towering over her apparently couldn't hear it. It took a moment of gathering her strength to force herself to openly call out to this being with that young girl's name. But finally, through Herculean effort, Viper managed to shout Jade's name loud and clear, halting the Spider's movements as it, or rather she, began retreating without another word.

To both her relief and horror, the arachnid woman came to a grinding halt, all eight legs jerking still at the sound of the name. Viper's disorientation was nearly cleared completely now, so she could pick out every little detail of the upsettingly familiar face as it turned her way.

That was definitely little Jade grown up, the face, the expression even lacking eyebrows and having extra eyes, the shape of the hair spikes, the pouty lips, all indicative of Jade Chan nearly ten years aged. The transformed girl frowned over at Viper and seemed to debate something within her, before looking away.

"Sorry, love to chat but I'm on the clock. Boss is riding my abdomen as is. I'll make time later, kay? It's great to see you, Viper. Seriously," Jade muttered in that distorted and metallic voice all Shadowkhan seemed to possess. She turned her "waist" back around and began marching away, picking up speed as she went.

Jade continued on, but looked up suddenly and quickly backed up with a start as an old oven topping one of the scrap piles tumbled down and smashed into where she'd just been standing. The Spider Queen turned piercing eyes up the mound accusingly just in time to see Paco crash into her from above.

With an annoyed growl, Jade grabbed the young man by the collar and yanked him off from where he grabbed on tightly. Viper feared Jade would throw the Luchador-in-training into some scrap pile, but was surprised and relieved when Jade lightly tossed him aside, rather than dash his small body along the scrap as Shendu would have done.

"I really do not have time to play around with you, Fanboy," Jade scoffed, looking down at the now much smaller boy staring defiantly back at her. She was rather impressed he recovered from her flash-web so quickly, but knew she wasn't gonna do something as ironic as underestimating a kid.

'Though Paco was never nearly as good as I was at this game,' she smugly assured herself, fighting off the weird sense of disorientation that came with seeing a boy that was originally her peer now just look like some bratty kid.

'Talk about leaving the past behind. Wait, where is… OH THAT LITTLE BRAT!' she glared in a rage, watching Paco turn and stumble off, Shadowkhan Essence firmly in his grasp.

"Uh, no, sorry," Jade drawled, aiming and firing her webbing towards the boy's fleeing back. The sticky line landed home along the seat of Paco's pants, causing him to stumble, but he continued on, his precious cargo held tight in his grip.

Jade simply grabbed the line by her right leg's claw and yanked back with a single smooth motion. Paco was sent airborn with a yelp and fell towards Jade's very annoyed clutches. Midair, he managed to twist around and throw the jar past Jade, forcing her to turn her head back to view the Essence's arcing decent with an angry inhuman growl.

To her surprise and growing frustration, the Essence landed firmly in her Uncle's waiting grasp. All the members of the team seemed to be on their feet already, capitalizing on the precious time Paco bought them. She reflexively caught the little nuisance regardless of his interference, rather than let him crash down.

The huge spider turned a glare she imagined many villains had turned her way in the distant past towards the young man, who smiled smugly back at her. Well, smugly at first, her monstrous appearance wore away at his bravado quickly, and he swallowed nervously.

"B-bad form surprising us like that, Ya- erm… Señorita Yade," Paco weakly boasted, correcting himself mid-taunt. As weird as it was, his friend was a grown woman now, even if she was also a horrible creature of nightmares. His parents had drilled his honorifics into him quite thoroughly.

He winced when her eyes narrowed and she leaned in close. All six radiant ruby orbs focused in on him, and long gleaming fangs popped down over her lower lip. "Paco, I am currently a giant spider demon who has mastered an ancient form of sorcery and can bench-press a pickup truck. You've already gotten on my bad side, kiddo. Do you REALLY want to get my name wrong too?"

Paco was smart enough to know the danger of a woman scorned, even when that woman had been a girl his age until recently. Swallowing his nervousness, he weakly and very carefully pronounced, "J-Jade?"

"Very good," she nodded with a happy little smile, retracting her fangs. She then casually threw the boy towards his mentor. El Toro caught Paco carefully with a surprised gasp and was sent landing on his backside from the impact.

Jade then turned towards where Jackie held the Essence, flanked by Tohru and Uncle, both their catalysts pointed her way. She could see hesitation in her large friend's eyes, while Uncle's aim was firm and true. The Queen frowned, crossing her arms and staring down pointedly at her family.

"Guys, just give me the Essence and let's call it a day? You're tired, I'm annoyed, let's just call it quits," she reasoned, pointing down at the jar clasped in Jackie's hands. She wasn't naïve, though. When they refused, and they would since they always did, she was prepared to spring forward and overwhelm the three in an instant.

"Jade," Jackie pleaded, and she fought the urge to roll her eyes. Not that he could tell with her pupils covered over. "I'm sorry about what happened at the vault but-GAH!"

He cried out as his niece ignored his transparent pleading and launched herself forward; four arms outstretched all aiming towards the jar. The momentum eight powerful legs moving in tandem afforded Jade was a terrifying thing to behold, and she was upon them in an instant.

Uncle's and Tohru's spell-bolts struck and scattered across her torso and shoulders. If she was harmed at all by the strikes she didn't show it and was upon Jackie a half-second later. He ducked and twisted away from her four snatching hands, jumping over the lower set and tumbling to the side.

Jackie was reluctant in the best of situations to raise a hand towards his niece, and this was far from that. The martial arts were devised in order to defeat upright four-limbed opponents. Anything outside of that required a great deal of on-the-fly improvisation. While Jackie was exceptional in this regard, even having defeated Hak-Foo when he'd sported a second set of arms, Jade currently had what appeared to be TWELVE limbs to her name. Judging from her strikes, she'd had plenty of practice in how to use them.

"Bad day, bad day, bad day!" Jackie mumbled in a stressed mantra under his breath as he put all his effort into keeping himself from not being boxed in between his monster niece and the many scrap hills surrounding them. He could see out of the corner of his eye spells continue to spark against Jade's surface, which she disregarded outright.

"Tohru, spells not working," Uncle admonished, as he continued blasting, "You are Japanese expert! What works on giant spider!?"

"I'm NOT an expert, Sensei," Tohru repeated in frustration, continuing to cast green bolts from his tentacle.

"And the spells ARE working," the large man corrected, eyeing the burned patches of fur as the she-spider continued ignoring them to relentlessly pursue Jackie. "It more like… she can't feel them."

Jade's eyes narrowed in concentration as she followed Jackie's erratic movements. Her Uncle was annoyingly perceptive, as always. He'd somehow realized or observed that while her charge was like an oncoming freight train, it was a rather different story when it came to sharp turns. His constant circling was damaging putting a damper on her already bad mood.

'Wait for it… wait for it…' Jade thought carefully to herself as she continued her Uncle's pursuit, pointedly ignoring the efforts of the mystics behind her. 'NOW!'

Jackie had been become used to avoiding the reach of her pedipalps and arms, especially once he'd realized her flame bracelets were giving off no heat. Not currently anyways. But he was caught off guard when her front left leg darted forward and much further than her arms could reach, and grabbed her uncle by the wrist.

Jackie was completely taken off guard when the leg's claws grabbing him lifted him well off the ground far from her body. The limb was much too long fully extended for Jackie's free limbs to reach Jade's body, and he knew without experimenting that he had no hope of breaking her monstrous grip.

"Here, Senor!" came a voice to Jade's back. She hissed, suddenly alarmed that her backside was completely exposed, specifically her eggsack. Reflexively, she twisted herself around and backed up, Jackie momentarily forgotten. Her highest priority being keeping her eggs protected as her maternal instincts took firm grasp of the reigns.

Unfortunately her uncle used that time to shift the jar to his free hand, and toss the captured essence in El Toro's direction.

'Jade you moron! You had it!' she chastised herself in a rage as she once again found herself on the losing end of this irritating game of hot potato. She looked back at her uncle, her expression a weird mix of a snarl and a pout. She then casually tossed him aside, no longer having a reason to carry the smaller man around.

"This was going so well too," she muttered under her breath as her eyes tracked where El Toro clutched her prize. Viper was beside him, something grasped in her hands and a concerned look on her face as the normally unflappable woman looked back at Jade with her eyebrows knit.

'I was hoping you'd at least take this better than the boys,' Jade thought to her old hero, remorsefully. 'One girl to another. But I guess none of you is gonna give me the homecoming I deserve.'

Her eyes narrowed, 'No use fretting about that now, I guess. I can cry about it over a big snack once I have that Essence.'

Jade rushed towards El Toro, hardly noticing when Viper reluctantly tossed the object in her hands straight into her face. It struck the Queen between the eyes, spreading juice all over her face and smelling strongly. She skidded to a halt, and reflexively caught the object in her right hand when it fell from her face.

'An onion?' she frowned curiously, an annoying burning sting building in her eyes and face. 'Why would… oh, right…'

The she-spider looked down at Viper staring up at her as if waiting for her to run around screaming, and tossed the onion to the side. Idly she reached up and wiped some orange foamy discharge from the corner of her eye where it was building, and flicked it disgusted off her claw.

"Points for resourcefulness, Viper. But if there's one thing eight years in Hell taught me, it's how to withstand pain," Jade snarked. She looked over at Tohru and Uncle pointedly, "So how about you quit it with the annoying bee stings and give me the Essence? You're tired and I'm still fresh as a daisy."

"You can't hurt me," she went on to add, rotating her torso one hundred and eighty degrees around, her arms crossed. "And I don't want to hurt you guys either. Being totally honest here, Buttercup AND Dragon Scouts honor. So just give. Me. The Essence."

A blast struck her square in the shoulder, pushing her back slightly. She stared at the smoldered fur beneath smoking right by her face in disbelief for a moment before shooting an accusing eye over at Uncle. The old man simply returned a stony stare back her way, blowfish still aimed at her center of mass.

"Jade," Jackie stated softly at Uncle's side, casting the wizard a chastising look which was summarily ignored. "Just stop this. We cannot give you the Essence, but we can try and… fix this I…"

He trailed off when he noticed the steely and resolute crimson gaze returned his way

"Okay, message loud and clear," Jade stated flatly. "Hard way it is."

El Toro yelped as suddenly the spider woman's full attention was on the Luchador bearing down on him with tremendous speed.

Tohru grit his teeth as he watched the chase recommence and aimed his tentacle carefully. His eyes narrowed as he lined his shot up, hoping his assumption was right. The large Mexican warrior wasn't nearly as fast or maneuverable as Jackie, he would be in Jade's clutches very soon.

"I'm sorry, Jade," he muttered softly. Then he cast the spell, which rocketed towards the Onigumo on a trail of crackling green. Rather than targeting the center of her mass, as had been done to death to no effect, the bolt struck cleanly against one of her knees.

The young Wizard's theory proved true; while Jade was able to casually shrug off pain and injury, light chi still caused her harm. Hitting the joint on one of her legs as she charged caused the limb to momentarily lock up, catching and tangling with the others. With a girlish yelp, Jade was sent tripping over herself and crashing into El Toro, sending the scrappy Mexican flying forward as she scraped along the rough ground, slamming head-first into the scrap wall ahead of her.

The J-Team winced at the impact in unison, insane tolerance to pain or not, that looked like it hurt. El Toro weakly stumbled to his feet, having been thankfully knocked clear by the crashing spider. But he still felt a skull-sized bruise forming along his stomach where Jade's bony head had impacted. He shot Tohru a glare equal parts grateful and annoyed.

"Sorry!" Tohru called, wincing at the wreckage. He'd only meant to slow the Shadowkhan Spider down. Not… THAT.

"Senor Tohru!" Paco asked quickly, as Jade's large form shuddered and slowly righted itself. "This is that potion you made, si?"

Tohru looked down at the yellow vial the young wrestler had fished out of his bag. He nodded automatically, but was taken aback when that sent the boy running towards the she spider slowly collecting herself. "Paco, wait! It's not going to work! Don't go near her!"

"I'll get him," Viper assured as she took off in Paco's direction, hoping to close the gap from his head start and snatch the boy before he did anything he wouldn't live to regret.

The ex-thief's powerful legs and longer stride closed the distance to Paco quickly, and her fingertips finally brushed the shoulder of his shirt. She grabbed, pulling him back with a surprised cry, twisting her body between him and the now dangerously close mutated girl.

In his surprise, the potion slipped from Paco's fingers. His eyes followed as it tumbled through the air, spinning lazily in circles as it slowly cut a path through the air towards where Jade recovered.

Jade bitterly punched the ground, ignorant to the developments behind her and banishing a multitude of powerful aches through her body, especially her head. This was all falling apart.

'What in the world am I doing so wrong to be failing so utterly?! I used to be good at this stuff!' she growled from deep within, punching the ground once again for good measure.

'They're delusional if they think I'm done here,' she assured herself. 'Just turn around and show them the Spider who conquered ever miserable peon in the Emptiness. You can do this J-'

The Queen felt something strike and shatter against her abdomen, and something warm and wet soak into the fur. Quickly in alarm she turned around and looked down at the stain. It was that potion they'd cooked up to strip Wong. She cast an annoyed glare towards Jackie and looked back at the fluid marring her beautiful backside.

'Did they really think this stuff would work on-' then the world exploded. Waves of fear and pain and shock rippled through her with her abdomen as the epicenter. Screaming and crying overwhelmed her thoughts, became her thoughts, until it was all she could do. Cover her eyes and scream in fear and pain washing her away back into the dark.

Jade Chan couldn't be hurt by that concoction; it would have been water off a duck's back if it had struck her any other place. Her eggs though, her kits, were not nearly so durable. Even through the mighty shell safeguarding them, they could feel the potion's Chi reaching and disturbing their own, filling their undeveloped minds with fear and alarm which they broadcasted loudly and clearly to their mother.

Their mother was on her side, covering her ears and eyes, twitching and shrieking as the feelings of her young took hold. All the J-Team stared in shock, and horror as the unflappable spider demon was reduced to a screaming child writhing on the ground. Poor Paco looked over the results of his plan and felt sick.

"JADE!" Jackie called out, their earlier combat completely forgotten. Enemy, spider demon, none of that mattered to him at the sight of his niece writhing around in sudden agony upon contact with the potion. Tohru had said it wouldn't work but it clearly had SOME sort of extreme effect upon Jade. Especially if her ominous claim of unnatural pain tolerance was the truth, and he hoped it wasn't.

He could see Viper, El Toro, and Tohru join behind him as he ran towards where Jade shrieked oblivious to those approaching, her face hidden in both sets of hands as she curled inwards onto herself, the outside world apparently forgotten.

Just as Jackie got within five feet of where Jade laid the ground beneath her suddenly darkened black as tar. His momentum from running nearly cost the archeologist his life when a long blue claw scythed through the air, splitting across his shirt. A line of fire was left in its wake, and he barely skidded to a halt and fell backwards to avoid another potentially fatal swing from the Spider-like Shadowkhan rushing out of the darkness beneath its General.

The feminine shadow didn't pursue Jackie when he retreated several steps, not daring to move away from where it and several of its sisters rose to protect their master. They stared fiercely at the group, ready to spring with lethal intent, acting wholly unlike they had back at Section 13. Those had clearly been ordered to use non-lethal means, now though they radiated an aura of vicious finality to any who would cross their hastily erected borders.

Seemingly of their own accord, then several more raised and surrounded Jade closely, each hefting her in their six arms. They were careful and delicate with her, seemingly acting completely independent of instructions.

Jackie could only watch as they slowly and carefully eased their hysterical leader into the darkness. The perimeter guard didn't take their eyes off the stunned heroes until Jade was completely out of sight. Only then did they retreat as well, joining their master.

"D-did we win?" El Toro asked, disturbed by the retreating sight. What little of his face was visible was notably ashen.

"Yes," Uncle answered stepping up, his eyes turned down towards where the remnant of his grandniece escaped into the void. "But victory never felt more like defeat."

XXX

"Preparations are complete," Black told Uncle softly, his voice only loud enough for Jackie to overhear. Uncle nodded and handed over the jar of hard fought Shadowkhan Essence to the Captain, his expression tight and pensive. He'd held that expression ever since the horrifying conclusion of the battle, Jade's screaming still ringing in their ears.

Worst yet was when they remembered Wong, having forgotten the mad mystic in all the commotion. To their utter shock and dismay, all they found was a pile of empty chains. The old man had apparently recovered his faculties faster than even Uncle anticipated, and somehow wriggled free. They'd apparently all underestimated the Dark Wizard's fortitude and tenacity, and for that he was now free out in the world once again, likely to darken their door at any moment.

Black's people were searching for him now, scouring San Francisco as best they could. But nobody expected they would find Wong, Jackie doubted even Black did. He'd taken the escape worse than any of them, the thought of Wong going unpunished for the rampage he had caused during his initial escape. It was the cherry upon the awful sundae of this terrible affair.

"Preparations for what?" Jackie asked under his breath, appreciating the secrecy displayed between the two, and hoping to distract himself from his own thoughts.

Uncle and Black exchanged a look, as if judging the release of this information, but eventually Uncle shrugged and Black took that as an affirmative. "We're taking the Essence to a hidden location, an auxiliary vault. It's a smaller backup system we've hardly utilized until now, but Jade doesn't know about it."

"Where is-" Jackie began but winced when Uncle smacked him with an annoyed hiss.

"Nephew has brains of tapiocaaaa!" Uncle admonished, "Location is seeeeecret!"

"Uncle's idea," Black nodded, looking down at the swirling Essence moving around trapped in the jar. The glass was unnaturally cold in his hands, a thin layer of rime forming along the insides. "He and I both agree that Jade is going to get in the vault, one way or the other. It'd be foolish to cross our fingers and hope for the best at this point."

"So," he finished, placing the freezing jar in his suitcase and locking it, "Our best bet in keeping these out of enemy hands is making their location unknown. Jade can't crack the vault if she can't find it. So as of now, its location is on a strictly need-to-know basis. The fewer people who are in the know, the better."

Jackie thought about that for a moment, his arms crossed as he considered the matter, then nodded satisfied at the thought. "Sounds like a plan to me, Captain Black. Thinking of Jade as the enemy though…"

"If niece wasn't before, she is now," Uncle muttered gravely, rubbing his bandaged forearm as he remembered her anguished cries near the end.

"I read the report," Black muttered, "do either of you know why the Chi potion sent her into such a fit?"

"Uncle has theory," the old man muttered, walking over to the table and carefully easing his tired old bones into the nearest chair, the younger men waiting patiently for their elder to continue. "Potion would noooormally NOT work on Jade. But… call it devil's luck if you like, but spell splashed over Jade's abdomen."

Black and Jackie exchanged questioning looks when Uncle paused his account there, before looking back at the old man. "And?"

"Uncle would smack you both if he did not need to check encyclopediaaaa!" the old man warned, waving an accusing finger at them both, like a loaded gun. "Spiders keep eggs in back parts, Jade is part spider now. Paco inadvertently attacked her spawn!"

Jackie felt nauseous at the thought, both at being reminded of his niece being full of demonic young, but more at the implication that they essentially kicked a pregnant woman in the stomach. Even Black, as pragmatic as the bald career agent could be, looked slightly disturbed, pulling at his collar.

"Jade is probably going to consider that a shot below the belt," Black muttered warily, knowing he wouldn't be able to blame her if she did.

"She was pulling all her punches during that last fight," Jackie sighed, rubbing his eyes tiredly. A powerful weight settling along his shoulders and neck. "But after this… next time she probably won't hold back. We've given her no reason to…"

A silence descended on the three as the full scope of their actions ran through their thoughts like a storm. Black gripped the case tightly as he imagined the rage the young demonic mother may turn on them during the next battle. "We're gonna need something a lot stronger than the bog-standard Chi zaps we've been using up until now, considering how Jade was able to tank them. We got lucky this time."

The captain turned and began walking off, to place the captured cargo hidden away. But turned back when he heard a humorless laugh from his friend.

"That wasn't luck," Jackie scoffed, running his fingers through his hair with a groan. "Our other adventures, they were lucky. I doubt there's a word for what this was, in English OR Chinese."

XXX

Jade came to consciousness slowly, a steady throbbing soreness pulsing from her center being the first thing to meet her waking mind. She groaned weakly, her voice croaking out through her dry lungs, the discomfort of it all nearly driving her back to sleep. Her memories of before her nap were vague and blurry, calling forth a kneejerk feeling of unease. But she could feel a web beneath her, so it wasn't too bad.

'Hmm, not a proper sleeping web,' she noticed, feeling out that the silk beneath her was a simple bare frame, and not the soft cloudlike cushiony silk she made her bedding from. 'That's weird, has Sensei...'

Lifting her head from the web she groaned as unwelcome memory flooded back. With it the origin of the dull throbbing from her center rose to the forefront of her mind like bubbles in a cauldron. Recalling the why of her aching abdomen Jade gave a scared yelp, and rotated quick enough to strain her waist joint. But that pain was completely ignored as she hugged the precious body part close in her arms. Her eyes still shut; she nervously felt out and listened to the precious Vessel nestled within.

Jade feared her senses would be met with cold silence, and abyssal lifelessness. Thankfully, she was greeted with the beloved melody of her young thrumming within, their warmth radiating across her spirit like a lullaby. Despite the discomfort of bending like this she held on in sheer relief. Her babies were still scared and somewhat sore, but nothing had been lost.

Well no, she supposed something had indeed been lost. Her eyes reopening as slits. Slowly and somewhat reluctantly, she released her abdomen and twisted back around, her waist joints voicing their aches at her in protest but she disregarded it, not even bothering to focus her Chi in the afflicted area to speed up recovery.

The pain was a reminder of her monumental failure on every account. Again. Three missions against the J-Team, HER J-Team, and three utter failures. Worst of all, this time her own laughable efforts had put her kits in jeopardy. That thought more than any other turned her thoughts pitch black.

The Queen blinked in surprise when for the first time she noticed several dark shapes surrounding her on all sides. They were her Gumokhan, lying about around her, their eyes focused all around, sharply. Seemingly guarding her completely of their own nonexistent volition. The dark ladies looked over at their awakened master blankly, none of them saying a word or expressing any sort of emotion from their exposed six red eyes.

Even still, Jade felt a sense of comfort from them. A strange sort of simple and absolute dedication. She'd come to see them as mere marionettes on strings, and yet they had taken it upon themselves to apparently save her, which meant they saved her young, and brought her here. In fact, a brief feel for the web beneath her made it very apparent that this had been hastily erected by her Shadowkhan for her benefit.

The design work was utilitarian, somewhat uncomfortable, and blunt. But she appreciated the efforts more than she expected. The she-spider looked them all over and nodded weakly, unsure of what to do or say to beings anchored to her will. Or were they? She certainly didn't order them to go above and beyond their call of duty.

'Or maybe…,' she wondered with a thoughtful frown, 'maybe I just needed to WANT to be safe for the sake of my babies and me, and that was enough to make them kick into action. I really know so little about you girls, I didn't even feel confidant using you in that last fight… Shows what I know.'

It was enough to make Jade hesitate to recall her soldiers back to their component darkness. Their presence was a strange sort of comfort. 'Like a bunch of creepy spider girl security blankets.'

"Awake I see," an unwelcome voice spoke out clearly from her mirror necklace. "Took a while. I was actually starting to worry."

"Urgh, how long have I been asleep?" she grumbled, wiping her eyes and making a conscious effort to not rise to his bait.

"You would know that if you put in the effort yourself, but fine. It's been twelve hours since you were brought back. Your little Honor Guard there hasn't budged an inch the whole time you were taking a nap," he snarked. She could practically see his leering smirk even without looking down at the pendant.

Jade chose not to respond to that, and stiffly crawled out of the web, the concrete floor feeling chilly beneath her claws when she settled down to the surface. Annoyed at the cold floor, she quickly scurried over to her proper bedding, hardly noticing her Khan literally shadowing her every move, a perfect perimeter of safety.

The Queen settled into her comfortable bedding with a content sigh, the soft weave was infused with a healing enchantment that promoted enhanced recovery. She could feel the spells reach through her, massage away her aches and calm down her still upset kits. She gave a deep breath in relief and stretched on her bed, hoping this small act of decadent comfort could help dispel the blackness staining her thoughts.

"All snug as a literal bug in a rug?" the Oni King asked with sarcastic concern, interrupting his Vassal's attempt to unwind. She hissed and turned away sullenly, laying her head down on her folded arms.

"I know what I did wrong," she muttered softly, eyes tightly shut. "If you're going to just give me one long string of 'I-Told-You-So's, I'm throwing this necklace in the nearest garbage disposal. Just so we're clear."

With a deep and impatient sigh, Tarakudo spoke in a low calm tone, "Jade, turn me around so we're facing eachother. Debriefing exists for a reason, you know. Also, your failures are my failures, so I'm not quite so eager to rub them in as you seem to think."

Jade sucked her fangs and counted to ten, but reluctantly reached down and pulled up the carved piece of mirror so she was face to face with her demonic employer. He wasn't grinning at least, which was good. It kept her from reflexively flinging the mirror shard across the room.

"Well, you have something you want to say?" Jade challenged, eyes narrowed and expecting an argument.

"More like I have something I want YOU to say; tell me why you think you failed," Tarakudo stated calmly, his voice lacking the usual arrogant bravado he normally used and made Jade's fur stand on end.

"You were watching, weren't you?" she muttered, looking away towards her claws as an excuse to break eye contact. "You know what happened."

"That's not the point of the question, My Dear," Tarakudo patiently stated. Then paused, waiting for her to answer his previous enquiry.

Fangs weren't particularly built for gritting, but Jade certainly tried as her frustration threatened to boil over. Though the old monster clearly wasn't intending to drop this until she finally gave him what he wanted.

'Let's just get this over with,' she decided bitterly, turning her six solid red eyes back towards him.

"I went in thinking they… that they were as reluctant to hurt me as I was to hurt them. Also underestimated that little pest, Paco. How is THAT for irony?" she grumbled when Tarakudo's expression shows a distinct lack of amusement.

"I just… wasn't able to summon up any of that monster-slaying ruthlessness I was so good at back in the Emptiness. I know I could have killed them, used my really nasty spells, or just roast them with raw Chi, pump 'em with venom, slice 'em to ribbons, crush their bones, drain them dry. I could do all that, and didn't. You don't need to bring that up."

Jade took a deep breath through her nose to calm herself down and added, "But I didn't. Because I dunno if you can even understand this but I DON'T want to hurt them. And I REALLY don't want to kill them. I thought they felt the same…"

"Why didn't you summon your Shadowkhan?" Tarakudo asked, surprisingly changing topics entirely.

"Why?" Jade blinked. It wasn't as though she hadn't thought of it at the time, several times really. But she always held back, always for the same reason. "It took me eight years to be able to master what I have. Eight. Hell, not even master, I'm still looking over those scrolls."

With a wave, Jade gestured to the shadows around her, "But you drop these gals on me and expect me to master guiding them that very night! I DON'T like relying on stuff I don't understand! Doing that is how I ended up an invertebrate in the first place!"

The Queen expected a mocking insult or comment at the admittance, and was surprised when one wasn't forthcoming. Instead, Tarakudo nodded and added calmly, "To be perfectly honest, that's a better reason than I expected. Your foolhardiness had consequences, and while I perhaps think you benefited from that level of unpredictability, I understand why you're somewhat gun-shy about it now. We can work on that. Now is as good a time as any to drill some sense of martial strategy into that skull of yours."

"Don't do me any favors," she sighed, tugging at one of her hair spikes with her free left hand.

"I never do anyone any favors," Tarakudo said, his tone sharp and foreboding. "Now that aside, knowing what you do now; how will you meet your old friends and family in the field of battle from here on?"

There was a moment of silence as the two Oni regarded one another eye-to-eye. Finally, Jade spoke, her voice clear and calm, but with an air of grim severity. "You told me everyone out there was my enemy, my babies' enemies. I suppose I didn't want to believe you at the time. At least as far as my loved ones were concerned…"

"And now?"

"Now?" Jade asked, reaching back and placing her left hand firmly over her abdomen protectively. "One of them, and I'll find out who, put my eggs in harm's way. I felt their fear like it was my own. I'll never forget that feeling. Playing nice threatened the ones I love."

Reaching forward, Jade released a torrent of green inferno. The flames caught and utterly incinerated several old camera stands, leaving naught but white ash in their wake. "I'm done playing nice. Now I'm playing to win."

"Heh," Tarakudo smirked wickedly, all his tusks gleaming as he saw his protégé's resolve. "I like the sound of that, Your Majesty. Very much. So, what do you want to do about it? I doubt I'll have time to fully train you in the use of your Shadowkhan before the next Essence finds a suitable host."

"I think this has been a two-person show for a bit too long," Jade mused leaning back on her web, and thoughtful smile on her face, fangs bared and gleaming. "I'm a Queen, right? Better round up some subjects."

C09 – END

Author's Notes: This is a longer one than I intended but there was no good way to split it, so I hope you all enjoy the extra-meaty chapter! Same grammar warning applies as usual, of course.

So that's one Essence down, for now anyways. Definitely more to come in a big way.

Please enjoy!