I bet you thought that the climax of the story would have occurred last (real) chapter, didn't you (oh, you didn't? I must have bought the low-quality wool by mistake XD). Don't worry; I'm terrible at endings, so I will most likely forego it for as long as possible…take that as you will.

Short recap: Claw sees a potential recruit in Jade Chan and sends a team to fetch her. Jade was walking along when she was kidnapped and turned into a (seemingly) emotionless assassin by M.A.D., who she now works for under the alias Jade Nishimori. Penny, a natural genius with computers, has been attempting to take down M.A.D. for years along with her cyborg/robotic "uncle" Inspector Gadget. Following a lead on a M.A.D. heist, Gadget meets up with Jackie (Jade's uncle) and goes with him so they can pool their resources. When they get to Uncle's (that's his name, but he's also Jackie's uncle…damn, there are a lot of uncles in here) antique shop, they find out that the object M.A.D. was attempting to steal was a powerful energy source. Penny shows up and informs them that there is a heist planned the following evening. Adjourning to section 13, the group goes to China to accost the M.A.D. agents (though captain black has to stay behind to deal with the CSI). Jade goes in with her team to steal a large jade egg, but is seen by Jackie. They fight; Jade manages to subdue him (after he hesitates from a twinge of recognition) and runs off, managing to escape with the use of a risky maneuver.

Huh. Not a lot actually happened, did it? Ah well, nothing I can do about it now. I have a rather erratic update schedule, but I will try to get this chapter out sooner rather than later...it's less than a month, does that count?

Note: This- ["text"] format will be used for the act of someone reading a book. (Spoiler: someone reads a book this chapter. So does someone else).

How boss is the new search system? Now I can exclude genres (goodbye, romance). XD I got nothing against it, but everything in moderation, ya know?

Chapter 12

Regroup (aka Vantage Point)

The following takes place between 12:00 am, and 1:00 am…

Paperwork, was there anything less exciting? Actually, Jackie usually liked paperwork—it helped him to order his thoughts and calm down after a hectic mission—but today he just couldn't seem to get into it. There was something about her, the agent that had attacked him…she was so familiar, so similar to Jade. Even her attacks were reminiscent of his former niece, boundless energy directed by an intelligent mind with an intuitive grasp of combat. A sad smile appeared on his face as he remembered her audacious feats: kicking a grown man clear across a room, fighting with Valmont for a statue, even helping him face down the demon sorcerer Shendu. He had always tried to keep her safe, but it was a sad twist of fate that she had survived all of the magical craziness, just to end up another victim to the common criminal.

Jackie preferred to think of her in the past tense—even if she was alive, he shuddered to think what would have happened to her. He used to always think the best of people, give them the benefit of the doubt. He knew what kind of people lurked in the shadows: the lowest scum of the earth, those with no moral scruples, who sneered at things like age constriction or consent. Therefore, he had hoped for the best…that it had been quick and painless.

Miles away, a Jade who was decidedly not dead was making her way towards a M.A.D.-owned airstrip. It was a bit out of the way, but it had security—and more importantly, privacy. After making her rather flashy escape, she had made her way back to the safe house to collect the jade and clean up any sign of her presence. Though the cleanup was usually left to the grunts, because they were the lowest on the proverbial food chain, Jade had realized that the grunts were also the most likely to squeal, being that they were the lowest on the proverbial food chain. So she spent half an hour collecting her files (burning the rest), and finished off by wiping down the tables and door handles. Satisfied that the room would show no trace of her under inspection, she packed up the jade, stuffed it into a backpack, and left, not bothering to check out.

Getting on an old Kawasaki that had been left for her, she contemplated the result of the mission. There were a few hitches in the execution; but overall, most people would have labeled the mission a success. Jade was not most people. That man had seen her face, and he was still alive. She had taken painstaking care not to get caught on video during her entire career. She had left no witnesses, no one who could identify her…even within the organization itself, few people knew who she was (though there were rumors, of course).Frankly speaking, this was the first time she had been exposed; soon her face would be plastered up in airports, bus stations, and post offices. The sketch would be sent to Interpol, and anywhere she went, there would be people searching for her—which was why she had to skip the actual airport and take a damn cargo plane to the states.

If only she had killed that man…but no, there wasn't time…there was another agent coming, and more on the way…she hadn't hesitated, she had a legitimate reason to stop her attack…

…

…although, she had felt something. Something about him seemed familiar—the way he talked, the way he fought…

Jade dismissed the thought quickly. There had been that weird headache from the EMP blast, she had jumped into that directional blast, and then there were the effects of the adrenaline crash—she was sure she would be fine after a short nap.

Captain Black was not having a good day, but he had resigned himself to the fact that his choice of career was the epitome of Murphy's Law*. He had to supervise the CSI (there were some things that Black felt were too dangerous to show, such as the mask of Tarakudo), keep up with all the various operations being run, and give approval for orders (which consisted of "sign here…and here…and here"), all while making sure the China Op went smoothly (he hadn't received an update for a while—he was getting a bit worried). He was just finishing some ridiculous bureaucratic bullshitting when his com beeped, alerting him of the call right before it came in.**

"Black here, what's your status?"

"This is Broyles. There's been a…incident on site. The target*** set off an EMP device and managed to escape. Jackie's coming over to debrief, and we'll have a more comprehensive report in as soon as possible."

Black frowned, concern etched in his features. "Any casualties?"

"Johnson got roughed up pretty good, and Rodriguez…" Broyles sighed, "The medics said they'll do what they can, but it's not looking good."

It was Black's turn to exhale. "Anything else?"

"Actually, there's something. Jackie got a look at the agent's face. We may have a lead."

"Keep me posted." Black's mouth drew into a hard line. No one messed with his men. No one. There would be hell to pay when he finally caught the crazy lunatic, but until then, he had work to do.

Dr. Claw didn't manage to keep a multi-national criminal organization off the grid with luck—there were safeguards in place, backup plans for every venture. Hence, when their plan went awry, the three accomplices had known exactly what to do. Newby stayed for cleanup, keeping tabs on the authorities by implementing a cover so that he could report back on the damage. Jade cleaned out base-ops and hitched a cargo plane to the states with the item in tow.

Compared to those two, Frankie thought he got off easy. While Jade and Newby were incommunicado, Frankie took the first commercial flight to Japan, disembarked, and made his way to the nearest safe house. Once there, he popped open a Guinness and dialed the number for the M.A.D. information network. After confirming his identity three times in a row, and listening to crappy hold music for a few minutes, Gorin finally picked up the phone.**** "What is it?"

"This is Frankie calling in the jade heist. There were complications—the authorities must have been waiting for us; I noticed cameras and sensors on a separate network, and barely a minute after I broke in, an agent came after us. He only saw Jade, but he accosted her on the basis of suspected terrorism, which means they knew we were coming, or at least that someone was."

Gorin sat up, tension visible in his features, "Where's the jade now?" If the heist failed because he had inadequate information…

"On a cargo plane heading back to the states. She got a bit banged up, but I'm sure she'll be fine after a bit of rest."

"Wha…" was the safe-cracker actually messing with him right now? His voice unconsciously lowered half an octave, "Fran-kie!"

The other man chuckled. "Don't fret it, Gorin; Jade's got it, since she has to keep a low profile anyways."

Gorin gave a mental sigh of relief, though he was still a bit irritated. He hated Frankie's carefree attitude, but his skills were unparalleled, so the chief of intelligence just had to deal with it. "The update is appreciated, Agent Herbert. I shall inform Dr. Claw of the good news." He terminated the link before Frankie could respond.

A jaunty grin appeared on the felon's face. "'Agent Herbert'? Looks like I pissed him off good this time." So what if the guy was the top information relay in the largest criminal organization on earth…he needed to lighten up a bit.

Penny sat, bored, as Jackie wrote up his report on her computer. At least she didn't have Broyles' job—trying to explain this to the Chinese authorities was going to be tough. Agents hurt, the jade stolen, and thousands of dollars in property damage (courtesy of the EMP). She wanted to be searching for more information, but she didn't have enough to work on. If only she knew what they were trying to accomplish, then she could find a way to stop them, but…

Her thoughts were disrupted as Brain ran in the door, a panicked look on his face.

"Brain? What's the matter?" Half a second later, a sudden realization struck her, "Where's Uncle Gadget?"

Brain crouched, simulating hiding, then stood up suddenly and waved his hand in the air, shouting a few unintelligible words that sounded uncannily like Gadget. Continuing with what looked to be an intense game of charades, he ran his fingers across his palm, and then threw out his hand as if to stop someone from leaving. He imitated Gadget again and jumped in place before shading his eyes with his hand, as if looking at something flying through the air. He mimicked running, and a short while later, exhaustion. He turned to Penny and shrugged helplessly.

"…so, Uncle Gadget saw something and ran off, outrunning Brain by using his some ridiculous jumping gadget." She broke down Brain's meaning quickly, years of working together making their odd mix of non-verbal and verbal communication second nature to her. "Did you see which way he went?"

Brain put a hand underneath his chin, thinking about it. He turned a few degrees to the left, orienting himself, then pointed towards a section on the wall on Penny's right. She tuned her own internal compass, "Northeast, huh? I wonder what's over there?" She hurried over to Jackie, intending to ask for the use of her computer so that she could find her wayward Uncle, when an entirely different Uncle burst into the room. All eyes turned to look as the door banged loudly against the wall, and there stood Uncle, a deadly serious look on his face.

["Our own flags should be substituted for those of the enemy, and the chariots mingled and used in conjunction with ours. The captured soldiers should be kindly treated and kept. This is called, using the conquered foe to augment one's own strength."] A buzz on his intercom caused Dr. Claw to look up from his reading. "Gorin here to see you, sir."

Claw put a bookmark into his copy of The Art of War and dropped it on his desk before calling Gorin in. The intelligence officer walked directly to his desk, a green folder in his hand. "Sir. I have the preliminary report on the jade extraction mission."

"Proceed."

"Agent Nishimori's team arrived at the location without incident, but the authorities had a trap set up. Fortunately, the jade was retrieved, and none of our agents was captured. However, Nishimori was seen and was forced to take extreme measures to escape. Herbert informed me that she is on her way with the jade now—she took emergency route Beta—while Newby stayed behind to gather more information." Gorin steeled himself for what he knew would come next.

Claw's voice was low, dripping with menace, "If I am understanding this correctly, you mean to say that this plan, which was only revealed to my most trusted agents, was somehow made known to the Chinese government? Do we have a leak in our information network, Gorin?"

The man gulped nervously, "I checked everything with everyone, sir, but I didn't uncover anything definite. If someone got our information, they would have to be either really good, or…"

"…we have a mole. If we do have a leak, find it and plug it. If it's from our side…" the shadows around Claw's face seemed to darken, "I'll have to make an example of them."

Gorin gave a short nod and left quickly; behind him, the features of Mad Cat were twisted in apoplectic rage.

Uncle had left the bustle of the operations room for the small room study down the hall. It was windowless, stuffy, and dim—just the way he liked it. He had been busy translating texts when the lights went out suddenly, plunging the room into total darkness. Tsking and shaking his head, he pulled out a few candles from his bag and, uttering a few ancient words, lit them. Satisfied with the change in atmosphere, he went back to his books, but was barely 15 minutes in before he started having trouble with a certain section. "Hmmm…Mineral of expedition? No, not quite right. The rock of beneficial health? It's still off...Stone of unlimited potential?" "Aiyaaaah! What is Uncle missing?"

He was interrupted from his abstraction by a knock on the door, followed by a Section 13 agent. "The girl said you might need this." He said, handing Uncle a printout. "This is what the M.A.D. agent stole."

Uncle grabbed the paper out of his hands. On the top was a picture of a large piece of jade. Underneath it ran a description: ["Lot 19382B. This massive jadeite gemstone was found at the northernmost tip of the Henan province in 1978, and was given to the Palace Museum after touring the country for two years. Zheng Zhenxiang*5, the archaeologist who discovered it, has led a distinguished career as the first female archeologist in China. After discovering Fu Hao's tomb in 1976 (who was coincidentally the first female general in Chinese history), she went on to discover thousands of lost artifacts before officially retiring a few years ago. She has kept busy, however, and is still regarded as one of the topmost archaeologists in China. In an interview last year, we asked her about the circumstances that led to this…"] Uncle had read enough. He sat, deep in thought, as he pondered at the jadeite's importance. "What would they want with a gemsto-" His eyes widened as it suddenly hit him. Of course, the correct translation was "Gem of Power". He smiled, happy for a brief moment, before he grasped the translation's true meaning. "Oh, no; it shouldn't be possible…it can't be." A grim look appeared on his face, and he marched over to the planning room, the guard in front of the door giving him a nod which he barely even noticed. Slamming the door open, he waited until everyone's attention was on him.

His somber voice pervaded the sudden silence. "I know what he's is planning."

[End Chapter 12]

Dun dun DUUUUUUUUNNNNN!

Yeah, I just did that. Also, I hate typing the word "archaeologist".

Hey, I think I'm changing things up a bit, b/c if you noticed, I'm writing out expressions and etc. next to what would normally be unaccompanied dialogue. Tell me if you think it's okay, or perhaps a little too much? The flow is everything, and to feel the flow you must have midi-chlorians…I mean experience. Yeah…experience.

Next time, on A M.A.D. Heir: Actually, I got two ideas. Either we have an entire chapter with The Professor, or I make more stuff blow up (and perhaps throw in a bit of that plot stuff I've been hearing so much about).

To be honest, I have no conception of what that machine is going to do. I know that it will involve Jade, and that it will consume a massive amount of power and quite likely be incredibly destructive, but I don't have the mechanics sorted out yet. Anybody have a crazy idea? B/c I would like to hear it. Seriously. I'm practically begging here. I'll even give you fan-service. Come on, you know you want to...

Addendum:

*: Murphy's Law—anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

**: The Section 13 com links are encrypted to the extent where even Penny would have a hard type listening in on them. The reasons for this are threefold. 1) It is a secure black ops division of the government. 2) The material discussed is extremely classified (for obvious reasons). 3) Captain Black is paranoid (though to be fair, he does have cause to be).

***: The on-site team doesn't have all their facts together yet. Broyles just managed to get a call in after receiving a site-rep from Jackie (he has a radio, remember?) and getting his spare com-set to work (commanding officers carry an extra com that is proofed with magic—courtesy of Uncle—as magical incidents are not uncommon).

****: Yeah, I know you've probably forgotten. It's been a while. He's the intelligence guy from the second chapter, remember? (It's ok if you don't). See the Timeline(ish) chapter for more info if you feel like it. Never say I'm not an accommodating writer :P

*5: Everything in this little section is true, except for the part about the giant piece of jadeite and the random interview (though she has been interviewed before). She really was the first female Chinese archaeologist (and one of the first Chinese archaeologists, period); she really did find Fu Hao's tomb, who really is the first documented female Chinese general, and she really did retire (officially, anyways).