Chapter 14: Touch the Sky

Less than five minutes later, the Stout that had belonged to Xiao Fung was shoot along the country road at night, headlights providing illumination.

"Jade, is there anything in there about what Xiao Fung wants?" Jackie asked at the steering wheel directly next to Jade, who up to now had been quickly reading through the journal's pages – handwritten mostly in Cantonese except for the illustrated pentagrams and symbol.

"There's a bunch of spells in here I don't even recognise," said the woman, sitting between Jackie and Uncle in the cabin while Sam and Dean's backs were outside the pickup's rear window. "And none of them say anything about chi." Her eyebrows rose as she added, "One more thing – half the spells are Wind Demon-themed."

"Does the journal describe what Xiao Fung wants?" Uncle asked on Jade's other side, leaning forward, holding the sandwich-filled rucksack by his chest.

"Nothing in here I've seen," she murmured, flipping through the pages faster. "Hang on…" She stopped at one page. After a second, she said, "Check this out." Holding up the opened journal for Uncle to see the illustration on one page of a box with a symbol on it.

The pickup couldn't pull over soon enough for Jade, opposite the fence that had the company billboard with an idyllic bright-coloured wind farm illustration, the site now near-black with the night. Sam was at the driver's window in a few seconds, looking in at the Chan Clan.

"You find anything in that journal?"

"I think it's a pretty safe bet that Xiao Fung will be coming back here," Jade replied.

"Right, well you-" Dean had begun speaking at the opposite window when Uncle next to him sharply shrieked, making Jade wince as she scrunched her eyes.

"AI YA!" The old man delivered a two-fingered slap which immediately made Dean cry out and slightly stagger back, head flying to his forehead.

"You risk making Uncle's ancient heart stop!" Uncle shrieked furiously, patting a hand on his left breast for emphasis. Dean growled irritably. Jade wasn't sure what would've happened, if Sam hadn't seen the pair of headlights approaching from Orient and called everyone's attention.

"Hey, guys."

Jade and Jackie turned their heads, as did Dean thankfully. They saw the headlights swerve off of them as the beige-coloured Ford Mustang pulled into and stopped at the closed site gate on the fencing. As the hunters and Chan Clan observed, the familiar stout figure that got out the driver's door and advanced to the gates didn't even seem to look around to check his surroundings before he kicked the padlock-sealed chain-link in.

"Do we have a plan?" Jade murmured, quite uncertain and not liking the idea of charging in guns blazing a second time.

Xiao Fung strode purposefully to the silo-shaped white structure that rose from the earth, the oval-shaped door waiting for him. The Wind Demon's broad-mouthed human face was quite neutral, as he wasn't in all that delighted a mood – after he'd reached this new earthly realm, he'd thought the nemeses of him and his brethren would be a universe away for good to never pester him again. At least, he'd thought that until the Thunder Demon magic shockwave had occurred a couple days ago, so powerful he'd felt it tickle his skin four times as it circled the planet, before it had decayed to the point of being unremarkable. And then his little tussle in town had just happened. That, and Xiao Fung had been fond of the transport he'd left behind, to the point he wondered if he should've stood his ground and fought the humans off. Regardless, Xiao Fung was very glad he'd memorised the important spellwork he'd noted down in his journal. If Jackie Chan and his uncle and niece had somehow followed him and his brethren into this reality, and if he was next on their demonic hit-list instead of another demon-sorcerer, he would initiate the first phase of his conquest a little early.

PCHOW!

Dark-brown eyes widening, Xiao Fung shifted his torso and shoulders quickly, bright-green chi-bolt shooting past. But he wasn't quick enough, the bright-green energy catching on his nearest hand's fingertips, making the human demon cry out as good-chi magic immediately poisoned him – he slumped to his knees on the ground, clutching his bright-green hand preciously, before glaring in the direction the blast had come from. The Wind Demon saw the pointed, bright-glowing snail's shell, light and wisps of chi-magic like that which had zapped the Wind Demon now glowing off of it – the human Jade Chan was the one holding it gun-like as she glared coolly at the demon-sorcerer, the lamp-holding chi-wizard held in Jackie Chan's arms next to her as he chanted.

"Yu mo gui gwai fai di zao… yu mo gui gwai fai di zao…"

The lamp's spout crackled bright-green, making Xiao Fung narrow his eyes and will his muscles harder to move. Slowly, but fortunately not too slowly, the good-chi light and wisps on his large hand faded. Standing up, Xiao Fung didn't tilt his head as he immediately started sucking air in.

"Ai ya!" the chi-wizard screamed over the howling air-suction which made the Chans' air blow towards the Wind Demon, the two other Chans shifting their legs as they tried to back-pedal and dig their feet in the ground against the vacuum. Glow fading, the bronze lamp flew from the old man's hand. Xiao Fung cut off his suction to halt the lamp a foot from his red-eyed, swollen-throated face with one hand. Jackie Chan audibly gasped. The swollen-throated human demon smirked-

PCHOW!

"Argh!" Xiao Fung cried out as a new chi-bolt hit him from the side, body slumping with weakened muscles once more. The two strangers stood nearby, the shorter-haired and slightly-closer one lowering his chi-weapon.

"Get the lamp!" Jade Chan exclaimed urgently, before sprinting forward. Xiao Fung opened his dark-brown eyes, glowering menacingly. Coming upon him, the woman attempted a roundhouse kick with a yell – muscles driven to move by sheer will, Xiao Fung's free hand caught the boot that tried to knock the lamp from his grasp, and he yanked the leg forward. Jade Chan's body flew towards the glowing demon – who threw a headbutt at her face which made impact with a crack, making the woman fall backwards in the opposite direction. The long-haired chi-less mortal fired his handgun three times, putting three bullet-holes through Xiao Fung's grey shirt and humanised flesh, though it only served to irritate him further. Jackie Chan, who was just putting his uncle down standing, sprinted forward with a yell. The nemesis of all demonkind leapt, sole aimed at Xiao Fung's face in a flying kick. When the blow made impact, the crippled human demon was thrown clean backwards. His back slammed hard into the wind turbine's cylindrical white wall, making him cry out before he slumped on his backside to the ground, the good-chi on him fading. Barely able to keep his eyes open thanks to the chi-spell, Xiao Fung saw Jackie Chan swipe the dull-bronze lamp off the ground.

"Hoh!" Arms spread and leg vertically raised like he feared the crippled demon would pounce, Chan leapt backwards to land on his hands, then sprung in another leap further back, rejoining the chi-wizard's side. Gritting his teeth, Xiao Fung summoned all the strength he could to his lungs and windpipe immediately. He scrunched his eyes momentarily, then exhaled a gust of wind full-force, swollen throat deflating. Jackie Chan and his uncle both cried out as they were thrown backwards off their feet. Xiao Fung immediately turned his red-eyed head, redirecting the wind. It caught the two stranger just in time to make the shorter-haired one miss his target when his chi-weapon fired, sending them both flying. The longer-haired stranger flew and landed on his back. The other one's head hit the side of a pickup that had remained parked, making him grunt loudly before he hit the earth. Smiling with his broad mouth, Xiao Fung slowly began picking himself up – which was a laborious process, every movement paining his weakened muscles thanks to the chi-spell's after-effects. On the ground, Jade Chan opened her eyes, face smeared with fresh blood from her nose, glowering as she raised her head before aiming her snail-shell and firing. The chi-bolt missed Xiao Fung as he staggered along the wind-turbine's wall to the door, quickly jamming the staff keys he possessed into the keyhole. He quickly had the door open and was staggering into the wind turbine. The Chan woman, who'd by now gotten into a sitting position, fired her chi-weapon again, but by then the Wind Demon was closing the door behind himself, leaving the chi-bolt to hit and dissipate on that.

With a flick of a switch, the fluorescent lights banished the darkness on the cylindrical ground floor, metal boxes with triangular yellow warning-signs present on every square metre of the cylindrical walls around Xiao Fung. The human demon groaned slightly as he staggered over to the cube-shaped chrome elevator box on his left, sliding its outside and then its inside doors open.

"Dean!" Jade was aware of Sam tending to his groaning brother by the pickup a distance away, but ignored them when she was sure they were alright. Getting to her feet, she swiped the blood from her face on the back of her wrist, glaring and gritting her teeth at where Xiao Fung had gone while Jackie sprinted forward behind her, bronze lamp in one arm. She was right behind him as they ran to the door.

Throwing it open, fluorescent white light and the whirring of machines greeted Jade's senses as she and Jackie looked in through the doorway – they quickly spotted the overhead source of the whirring. A box-like chrome elevator without a shaft was ascending up the wind turbine's shaft on a cable.

"Ladder," Jade pointed and said to her uncle flatly, one second after she'd spotted their way up. Jackie nodded at her, face firm, before running to the circular ground floor's opposite side and rapidly ascending the vertical metal ladder – Jade ran forward and starting scaling it right behind him. The floor grew rapidly further away from the Chans' rears and feet as they ascended the cylindrical tube one-behind-the-other, the elevator-box moving onward a significant distance ahead of them. After several seconds climbing, Jade heard the clang of the door on the ground floor, heard Sam's voice shout up to her and Jackie.

"Guys?!"

Set on her goal and not really seeing any need to reply, Jade kept going just behind her uncle, head craned and hard honey-brown eyes fixed towards the tower's top. She figured – correctly – that Sam or Dean must've guessed where Xiao Fung was, as a chi-bolt fired near-vertically up to blast and dissipate on the elevator's underside. No reaction, though she would've seen Xiao Fung inside the box scowling if not for the box's opaque surfaces. Not two seconds later, Jade heard the extra sound of clattering on the rungs, as Dean started climbing from the ladder bottom, Sam following behind him. Jade and Jackie didn't have to climb much further before, when Jackie was less than four metres from a circular metal ceiling that had a slot for ladder-users to pass through, Xiao Fung emerged from the elevator on the circular plate's opposite side – he instantly ran to the slot. Jade could've heard the hiss as Xiao Fung inhaled and inflated his throat, before he unleashed a howling downward gust through the ladder-slot. Jade heard Jackie grunt above her as he held onto the ladder against the wind, the female Chan doing the same. The wind-breath was blowing ferociously at both Chans' hair – prompting Jackie to move the lamp from his hand to between his teeth – and it threatened to make Jade's skin on her face ripple. She immediately pressed her body tighter to the ladder's rungs, bending one arm to hold a ring near her face, sure she would've lost her grip if she hadn't readjusted herself that way.

Sam and Dean apparently weren't expecting the wind-blast – the moment it hit them a few seconds after the Chans, Jade heard Dean's grunt, and then the clang and twin grunts as the hunters hit the ground-floor one-atop-the-other. Not a second behind them, Uncle Jackie yelled as he lost his grip. Jade gasped, heart threatening to leap into her mouth, as her uncle fell in a diagonal straight-line under the wind, passing her – before she saw him spring with his boots' soles against the inside of the cylindrical wall into a diagonal trajectory back towards the ladder, grabbing on maybe ten feet below Jade's boots. Lamp filling the space between his teeth, Jade's uncle's head was vertically craned and his eyes meeting hers as he lifted one hand in a thumbs-up. Turning her head back towards the gale-force wind, which forced her eyes shut, Jade tensed and braced her muscles before she raised her shell-holding arm and made it fire. The wind almost-instantly cut as Xiao Fung moved his head to avoid the blast.

Xiao Fung practically spun from the ladder-slot to the second ladder which went upwards, climbing it to the ceiling-grate twelve feet up and pushing it open. While Jade Chan was no doubt still climbing with little delay, Xiao Fung emerged into the wind turbine's nacelle, going straight to the gearbox which occupied four-fifths of the close-roofed, fluorescent-lighted capsule's cylindrical space. Removing the small glass vial he'd kept safe in his jeans' pocket, Xiao Fung began chanting the incantations from memory.

"Summone decuplo procellae spumante sub manu mea." On a small, square panel of the giant machine, a sigil of white light faded into being – a triangle divided by a horizonal line, with three orbs surrounding it triangularly, each containing two opposing curving lines. "Sub manu mea." Xiao Fung threw the red powder from the vial at the glowing sigil, then blew a mortal-like amount of air into the powder-cloud. A magic shockwave exploding vertically outward from the sigil – not the kind of magic the Wind Demon knew from his own universe, being as chi-free as Lucifer's magic though it was still just as different. In the bleached light of the cramped nacelle, Xiao Fung smirked widely.

Uncle was pacing – currently cold and alone in the the night, though fussing about that could wait – to shake off the cramp his leg had started getting since his nephew and niece had gone into the almost magic-thin windmill. Patienty waiting until Jackie either returned with a canned demon or acted foolishly because he did not listen to Uncle, the skinny old man cast when faint white light suddenly came from in the sky, casting shadows on his face as he looked up.

"Ai ya!" he said, staring as obviously-magic white light shone on the windmill's three unmoving blades. After a pause, the light faded. Then the windmill's blades started spinning, quickly gaining speed so they were shooting by anticlockwise in a blur. Uncle's beady eyes above his glasses rolled and rolled faster and faster, the old man feeling like his eyeballs might soon fall from their sockets as he struggled and began to fail to keep up with the speeding blades.

Jade heard loud mechanical whirring and humming that hadn't been filling the turbine before suddenly start up, as she emerged arms,-shoulder-and-head first through the ladder's slot and hoisted herself the rest of the way in. Spotting the next passageway, she diagonally pointed her chi-shell like a gun, ready to blast the first speck of Xiao Fung she saw as she approached the ladder. She didn't see a target just yet, and immediately started climbing the ladder, as quietly as she could.

Jade's forehead and honey-brown eyes poked above the opened grille into the nacelle where the machinery was whirring discomfortingly-loudly. She immediately halted from ascending further, spotting Xiao Fung – back and the side of his arm angularly facing towards her, a quarter of his wide-mouthed grin visible on the squat human demon's face – while bright-white light shone over all the machinery. Not the kind of white light that could be electronically-produced. Gritting her teeth, Jade dipped her head back onto the lower-level, seeing Jackie ascend through the ladder's slot, grunting slightly, lamp returned to one of the hands whose arms he practically threw over the slot's edge onto the metal floor. Jade signalled with an index finger to her lips for silence, then pointed upwards with the same finger. Registering, Jackie shot her a smirk in acknowledgement. Grateful, she looked back up towards the grille, chi-shell in hand.

She all but launched up into the nacelle, aimed her shell and fired without a sound. And the chibolt somehow just missed, blasting and dissipating on the low-and-close cylindrical roof while the human demon reeled and grunted in surprise. Turning his face on her, Jade's insides crawled uneasily as he restored his wide-mouth smirk and made a purr of a hum.

"Jade Chan, isn't it?" Xiao Fung murmured, taking a step forward. Jade raised her shell again, ready to blast the moment his eyes turned red or he started inhaling. Instead, Xiao Fung launched himself at her with a yell. Eyes widening in surprise, Jade spung her leg out in a roundhouse kick just in time. Xiao Fung deflected her leg with an inside-block, and Jade immediately followed up her attack with a palm-strike aimed at Xiao Fung's face which he again deflected. She attempted a couple more palm-strikes which Xiao Fung blocked, or neutralised when they met with a palm-strike of his own, before he instead suddenly halted her arm by grabbing her wrist – Jade cried out, the Wind Demon yanking her off her feet towards him too fast for her to counteract. She saw Xiao Fung's waiting human hand next to his scowling face – raised in a palm strike – before the palm struck straight towards her. Jade grunted as she was thrown backwards – stars exploded across her vision when the back of her head hit curved metal framing in the ceiling mid-flight, and she fell flat on her chest to the floor.

"Yu-mo-gui-gwai-fai-di-zao, yu-mo-gui-gwai-fai-di-zao…"

Xiao Fung turned his neckless head at the sound, dark-brown eyes widening and grin instantly falling. Jackie Chan's head and upper-torso were above the nacelle entrance, holding the chi-magic lamp two-handed as he chanted.

"…yu-mo-gui-gwai-fai-di-zao…"

Human face hard, Xiao Fung sprung forward. Chan yelled, brown eyes widening, and tried to duck back down through the entrance. Xiao Fung fell onto his belly on the metal floor as he reached the grate, arm reaching through it. His large hand immediately grabbed the human's shirt at the shoulder. Head craned, Chan grinned and chuckled nervously, raising a hand in a wave.

"Hello again," he said, the seeming attempt to appease oddly reminding Xiao Fung of Shendu – admittedly, the Wind Demon had always hated his Fire Demon brother less than most of his siblings. Not a second after Chan had spoken, Xiao Fung hauled him up into the nacelle, screaming in surprise and protest. The human Wind Demon threw the mortal against the gearbox, its white glow briefly fading. The lamp, its glow fading, slid across the metal flooring.

"So good to see you again…" Xiao Fung purred darkly, with the same tone with which he addressed a lesser being he was interested in eating. On the floor nearby, Jade Chan moaned as she raised her head weakly, eyes bleary as she put a hand to her head.

"Tohru, have you been giving Uncle extra garlic again…?" she mumbled weakly, though Xiao Fung didn't really listen. Xiao Fung simply took a couple steps backwards in the small nacelle from the Chans, unblinking dark-brown eyes never leaving them. Jackie Chan's eyes widened in slight surprise, having obviously not been expecting the nonviolent display.

"Since you have found me, a demonstration appears in order," the human demon purred – for indeed, he'd be quite happy to eliminate the nemesis of demon-sorcerers and his lackeys once and for all – before pushing his fist with his elbow bent, into the lower-button of the button station on the wall, baring his teeth in a wide grin. The electric-lighted capsule-dome enclosing the three figures immediately split in two, opening up like a blooming lotus flower to expose the night's blackness behind and around them – the turbine's rotor blades cycled past behind Xiao Fung's back in blurs of motion, producing a sharp whoosh once every single second, rotating in the wrong direction to what was normal. "Behold, the first armaments in the new Wind Kingdom Conquest!" Xiao Fung shouted triumphantly, grin gone with his dark seriousness as his dark-brown eyes held the Chans' – he'd raised one human hand with all fingers but the littlest clenched in a fist. Then he sharply curled the little finger, bringing it into line with the others. Had anyone with wings like Hsi Wu or a modern flying vehicle been flying among the turbines' heights, they would've seen bright-white light shine on the anticlockwise-spinning rotor-fan. It rapidly gained speed, passing the maximum safe speed by quite a distance, until it soon became a circular razor of white light from which emanated an eternal droning rumble, like something between a machine and rumbling earthquake. Then the fan gave off a flash that practically lit up the night for half-a-mile around it, a boom like a thunderclap ushering forth, promptly followed by the sudden explosion of a typhoon-like howl. A few seconds later, what few pedestrians were out on the widest streets of Orient were being blown apart by roaring winds, which sent stray paper tumbling and flying – said pedestrians being a couple policemen, and an elderly lady on the opposite sidewalk, who fast-trotted screaming in the wind's opposite direction as her hat was blown ahead – which car alarms went off one-by-one nearby and distantly. The cops' police car was flashing its lights as it dragged in the winds on unmoving tyres along the tarmac.

The shining fan's suction, though completely paling in comparison to the force of the fan's outward wind, pulled at Jade and Jackie's hair, the very first thing the female Chan did being to gasp in horror at the sight ahead. Memories of Tchang Zu's lightning-strikes on Bozeman were flashing inside her brain, a second before Orient's lights ahead of the translucent shining rotor began going out one small cluster at a time. Her honey-brown eyes shifted back to the Wind Demon – then in an automatic reflex, she re-raised and fired her chi-shell. Xiao Fung twisted his human body so the green chi-bolt missed – they weren't exactly in open space, but with the nacelle's roof opened they weren't as confined as they were. Jackie's yell carried out into the night, a second before he pounced upon the human demon in a flying kick, seemingly intending to knock him into the opened nacelle-dome or out into the night – Xiao Fung swerved his torso and grabbed Jackie's kicking leg two-handed when it were passing by his balding head, shoving Jade's uncle on.

"Jackie!" Jade screamed, eyes going wide as she saw exactly where he was headed. A hand shot to and grabbed a curved white metallic piece's edge just in time. Jackie was grunting furiously, brown eyes wide as the suction made his long hair billow away from his square-jawed face to behind him. His boots looked from a distance away like they must've been inches, a few feet at the most from the magic-amplified rotor. Jade saw what was coming when Xiao Fung suddenly blew his gale-force breath. Jackie's hand slipped almost-immediately – a fraction-of-a-second before Jade's arm shot out and grabbed his wrist before it could fly more than two feet ahead. The woman was half-amazed she'd caught her uncle that fast, but didn't stop to marvel, grunting as she tried to both pull him back, and keep her feet planted in the gearbox's crevices near the nacelle front, Xiao Fung's howling wind blowing all around them. Jade instantly noticed when the human demon sharply increased his wind-breath's force, seeming determined to push them into the rotors to be shredded to ribbons. But Jade, gritting her teeth while her hair billowed, half-turned her head into the wind and outstretched her free arm to fire her chi-shell. She saw Xiao Fung's red eyes widen, windy mouth closing just before he leapt back, green blast dissipating on the metal floor a split-second later. Jade's eyes remained on the Wind Demon while Jackie got his footing atop the gearbox, before promptly scanning the floor. She spotted the lamp – barely six feet away from where she was standing, the dark-bronze thing lying on its side on the floor. Jade sprung – in practically the same second that her feet had hit the nacelle's floor, her hands scooped up the lamp and she pointed it.

"Demon wind-power is a pipe-dream, Xiao Fung!" she exclaimed, aware of the shining ultra-fast rotor behind her head, pulling at her neck-length hair. "You're shutting it down now!" Jade might've been surprised at the force with which she spoke and the rapid fury coming over her, if not for the circumstances forcing her mind to immediately focus on the current problem. Xiao Fung's wide-mouthed face had an apathetic smirk.

"Nolite venti," he murmured, raising a giant fist and re-raising his pinkie – the gearbox filling most of the nacelle just next to him immediately shone again. In a couple seconds, the shining-white rotor in the night facing Orient, had slowed to the speed of a non-cursed turbine. "Surrender now, and I shall spare the humans that live nearby," Xiao Fung said, purring voice and dark-brown eyes intent as he took a couple small steps forward. Jade might've immediately pointed the lamp and fired, but after Xiao Fung's display, she held back – instead, her eyes briefly flit from him to the giant gearbox half-a-foot beside her, wondering if she could disable the spell.

Jackie replied for her, pointing a finger as he sternly exclaimed, "You aren't going anywhere!"

"Going once, Chan!" Xiao Fung shouted severely but grinned widely at the two, eyes flashing red again seemingly with intent. "Live as my first slaves or die to mark the eve of war!"

"YEARGH!" Jade's eyes widened as Jackie leapt into battle from on the gearbox beside her, prompting her to raise the lamp and her chi-shell in either hand. Xiao Fung blocked Jackie's flying kick with a humanly-large forearm, then swung his other arm's fist for Jackie's face, the man ducked to avoid it. With a cry, Jackie swept his leg out in a partial low spinning kick which brought the human demon's legs out from under him – partial, in that he had to pull his in before his boot could smash into the nacelle's wall by his side. Jade immediately began chanting.

"Yumoguigwaifaidizao, yumoguigwaifaidizao…"

Chanting, Jade heard and felt the wind-suction as Xiao Fung, on his back, breathed in, a second before the human demon performed a kip-up which forced Jackie to stagger back towards Jade.

"…yumoguigwaifaidizao…"

Her line of fire blocked, Jade pounced sideways so she was half-sitting atop the gearbox, lamp crackling in one hand while she fired her chi-shell with the other. The blast hit Xiao Fung square in the chest – the human demon flew backwards against the black night-sky, trajectory halted when his back met with the vertical aerial-shaft at the nacelle's exterior rear. Red eyes opening, Xiao Fung unleashed his wind.

BWOOM!

Wind exploded against Jade and Jackie's faces like they were standing in front of a jet turbine, almost-immediately throwing them backwards.

BLAM!

"Urgh!" Xiao Fung cried out from the headshot, wind-breath instantly cutting though it had already made its blow. Hurtling angularly from the gearbox, Jade reached out a hand – her fingers grabbed the edge of the nacelle's opened splitting-roof compartment against the night sky in time to stop her flying out into the open night. Jackie, flying towards the spinning rotor blades, by some feat only he could achieve managed to spring his boots' soles back off one of the cutting blades in a millisecond and reverse his trajectory, landing in a crouch back on the nacelle floor. Dangling against the night sky, Jade could barely see Dean and then Sam quickly rushing through the entrance-grille into the nacelle, Dean's chi-opossum in one hand as his eyes and both arms pointing towards the nacelle's rear. Raised arms holding the opossum and a handgun, Dean fired a chi-shot – which made the bloody-foreheaded Wind Demon grunt loudly. Both hands holding onto the nacelle corner, Jade's honey-brown eyes widened.

"The lamp!" She craned her head to look downwards. Despite the distance, her eyes and ears still managed to pick out the dark lamp smashing against the gravel with a loud clatter at the wind turbine's foot, the force of its impact making the object bounce off the ground with a distant crash, arcing four feet in the air. Not far away on the distant ground, Uncle stood alone with his head craned and either hand by his mouth, yelling up at Jade.

"Jade! Hang in there!"

"Duh!" Jade shouted loudly to be heard, voice carrying in the night air, before she began hauling herself upwards to get a better grip on the opened roof.

"Hey." Practically vaulting over the gearbox, Sam was at Jade's side of the nacelle in a couple seconds, helping her get one foreleg hooked on the roof-compartment's side.

"Summone!" Xiao Fung yelled, outside the turbine's observatory-roof, before Dean could fire a shot that should've interrupted the incantation. A sharp whir made Dean and Jackie turn their heads, the giant machinery a foot beside them seemingly responding to the incantation, making Jackie slightly gasp. Dean saw a sigil of white light briefly flash on a small square panel of the machinery. A rhythmic buzz began filling the air as the spinning rotor-blades shone white and began speeding up. Turning his cold face back to Xiao Fung, Dean fired his chi-opossum again. The shot missed as the neckless demon-sorcerer suddenly moved from his position by the aerial shaft, rushing sideways. Dean immediately rushed forwards, while behind him Jackie was leaping onto and off of the machinery to sidestep around Dean to their destination. Too late – they saw Xiao Fung's back as he jumped and fell from sight, leaving black sky in the split-second before Jackie jumped forward. Finishing the rest of the run forward, Dean looked down, one second before the distant thump of the Wind Demon crashing to earth resonated up to him. Dean briefly wondered if demon-sorcerers could die from a skyscraper-height fall – him and his dad had once killed a wendigo that way. Aware of the whirring witchy machinery, Dean didn't stay long to find out, turning back into the turbine with Jackie following.

"We need to stop this thing, or a lot of people are gonna get hurt!" Jade shouted urgently to Dean from on the opposite side of the machinery.

"Let me." Jackie promptly took Dean's chi-opossum without further asking, aimed and fired a green energy-bolt. It dissipated on the whirring machine, the glowing sigil reappearing in response though otherwise nothing happened. Jackie gaped in surprise.

"I-It didn't work?!" After a brief pause, he closed his eyes and lightly slapped a hand to the side of his head as if remembering something stupid. "Not a Chinese spell…" Not two seconds later, Jackie turned his head with a gasp as the whirring noise picked up, looking at where the turbine's rotor-fan was rapidly spinning ever-faster. Dean wasn't listening – he did the first best thing that was worth trying first. He quickly fired his handgun at the machinery, multiple times. The second and third gunshots each produced a shower of white sparks – making Jackie next to Dean recoil slightly – then a final white shower exploded violently out of the machinery's top, intense white light flashing over Dean's rugged features and Sam's features opposite him. The machinery's whir almost-immediately began to drop as smoke-wisps rose in front of Dean and Jackie's faces. Dean took a look in the rotors' direction to confirm the activity was dying down, before he – and Jackie, Sam and Jade on either side of the machinery – promptly moved towards the back of the nacelle. The explosion of sound from Xiao Fung unleashing his wind breath carried up to them – the wind made Uncle, standing on the ground, raise a skinny arm in front of his face while his white shirt's hem and his messy hair shook in the wind. Dean saw Xiao Fung flying backwards under his own wind-breath – feet just above the ground – to perfectly land in front of another wind turbine's door, the stout figure almost-immediately unlocking and throwing open the door to enter. It didn't take a genius to guess what would be coming up next.

"Son of a bitch!" Dean growled, yelling and furiously slamming his hands down at the last word. How the frig were they supposed to get all the way over there?!

"Wait a second," Sam quickly cut Dean's explosion off, pointing at the wind turbine's top. "Dean, you can shoot that from here!" When Dean looked a little longer at the other turbine's nacelle – facing ninety-degrees from them – he saw it was missing roof-doors though all three rotor-fans were attached.

"Yeah? And what about the next turbine he blows himself away to?!"

"You got any better ideas right now?!" Jade exclaimed urgently by Sam, gesturing out with an arm. Dean didn't say anything else. Almost immediately, she turned and said to Jackie, "One more thing – I dropped the lamp!"

"Jade!" Dean found the timing of Uncle's voice creepy. It was as if the skinny old Chinese man – now rising from a crouch at the wind turbine's base to wave the lamp, head craned up – had heard what they'd just said. "Uncle cannot run after the demon all night! You need this!"

"I will get down there and deal with Xiao Fung on the ground!" Jackie announced quickly, before turning and sprinting without another word.

"Right behind you!" Jade was vaulting over the machinery and on Jackie's heels.

"I'm going with them – I've got an idea," Sam said quickly, face-to-face with Dean, before running to follow Jackie and Jade from the turbine. Dean didn't both questioning his brother, hazel eyes flitting from where the others were going back to the turbine ahead – shooting it now was an option, but he wanted to try shooting down the Cobblepot-like sonovabitch first.

When Jackie and then Jade reached the wind turbine's main ladder, they slid down one-above-the-other like its vertical slide-rails like firemen out of a children's cartoon – making Sam, upon reaching the ceiling slot above them, stare in surprise before he took the elevator down. It must've been thirty seconds before Jackie and Jade burst first out of the turbine's door to join Uncle and take back the lamp. Sam was bursting out a few seconds behind the two, sprinting straight past Uncle, who's head turned to track after the tall hunter. Sam didn't see Uncle turning his head left and right before heading in the direction Jackie and Jade had gone in.

Xiao Fung didn't see the Chans' friend spying him across a vast distance as the human demon emerged into the roofless nacelle, putting himself in front of the gearbox.

"Summone decuplo procellae-"

Xiao Fung didn't interrupt his chanting at the distant bang of a gun, but the shower of explosion a little on his left did, making the wide-mouthed demon scowl furiously – one second before a second shot hit the back of his humanised head, drawing a small burst of blood. Xiao Fung's balance was instantly lost as he staggered from the blow, though the bullet had been unable to pierce his human-shaped skull. He didn't see he was navigating his legs to the nacelle's roofless, knee-height edge until his legs caught, and he tumbled with a cry.

Xiao Fung fell for some time – during which Jackie and Jade Chan, running forward in the wind farm, stopped to watch the last few seconds of his descent before he crashed to earth with a noise. The human demon remained on his chest on the gravelly ground, limbs bent around him, for a few seconds, completely dazed. Then, awareness of his current whereabouts returning to the Wind Demon's mind, he slowly began rising on his hands and legs in front of the two mortals, grunting all the way as he got his humanised body back to its feet. Xiao Fung lightly dusted off his grey shirt with either hand as he looked down at it, before raising his head to fix the Chans with a calm-mouthed if particularly-displeased glare. Both humans acted immediately, Jackie Chan pointing and chanting while Jade Chan raised and fired her chi-weapon.

"Yu-mo-gui-gwai-fai-di-zao,-yu-mo-gui-gwai-fai-di-zao…"

Xiao Fung leapt to avoid the green blast which dissipated on the turbine wall, touching down gracefully a metre away on all fours, similar to how his true form had stood. The human demon charged forwards, teeth grit inside his wide mouth's parted lips.

"…yu-mo-gui-gwai-fai-di-zao…"

Jade Chan fired a couple more green chi-blasts at Xiao Fung's feet as he sprinted diagonally to her, before the human demon exhaled a small gale at her. The woman raised an arm to shield her face and scrunched her eyes, slowly sliding backwards no doubt as she fought to keep her heels planted in the ground.

"…yu-mo-gui-gwai-" Chan's eyes bulged as Xiao Fung came upon him, the human demon swinging a punch which Chan dodged, then immediately following with a roundhouse kick which Chan barely deflected with an outside-block in time. Holding the still-glowing lamp back as he positioned his torso slightly-sideways to his opponent, Chan attempted a palm-strike at the Wind Demon's face, which Xiao Fung inside-locked in time. Leaping three feet backwards with the same grace as before – though he this time landed on two feet – Xiao Fung immediately began sucking in air with the distance he'd just put between himself and his opponents, then blew out with a noise. The cyclone-like wind collided with Jade Chan, who'd been raising her glowing chi-shell, first, blasting her straight backwards. The Wind Demon saw her chi-weapon flying and clatter along the wind-blown ground. Still blowing, Xiao Fung started turning his red-eyed head, aiming to blast Jackie Chan the same way – the human gasped, and sprinted horizontally in the opposite direction from the circling gust. Chan ran in a near-semicircle like that before he stood and suddenly leapt in the air, yelling as he aimed his boot at the Wind Demon in a flying kick. Xiao Fung's red eyes widened, unable to shift his wind's aim-

THWACK!

"Argh!" Xiao Fung staggered backwards from Chan, who landed in a combative stance. Once he'd staggered far enough, hand on his face, Xiao Fung wiped away the warm blood that had leaked from his tiny human nose, glaring up at Chan.

Sam ran back towards the fight fast, leather-bound journal in hand and opened. He didn't slow as he saw Uncle fire a chi-blast from his petrified lizard at Xiao Fung's back, knocking the Wind Demon a few feet forward with a grunt, nearly falling on his hands and knees – nor when Xiao Fung almost-immediately blew his hurricane-like wind-breath in a circle to knock or force the Chan Clan back, up until the point a gunshot carried and a bullet pierced Xiao Fung's sloping shoulder from above. Quickly getting to his feet, the demon-sorcerer leapt backwards and blew, and was propelled backwards like a Looney Tune shot from a catapult.

"If he's jinxed all of these turbines, we can't let him activate another one!" Jade turned her head from the direction she and Jackie were both glaring in to look at Jackie's head, voice and face urgent, before the two promptly sprinted off. Sam, behind the two Chans' backs before they ran after the Wind Demon, didn't move to stop them but shouted down the old man further back instead.

"Hey, Uncle!" Sam slowed sharply into a very-brief jog as he approached the skinny Chinese man, standing a foot or two above him. "Can you read the stuff in here?!"

Uncle raised his hands, palms facing skyward, as he shrieked furiously, "Why would Uncle-!"

"I'm looking for a counter-spell, just trust me!" Sam cut in urgently, not wanting to waste any time – indeed, with the briefest glance further into the dark wind farm, Sam saw Xiao Fung disappear into another wind turbine while Jackie and Jade sprinted fast after him. Uncle spent only one second afterwards looking at Sam's face before he shifted closer to Sam's side, looking at the open pages with intrigue while adjusting his small spectacles.

Jackie Chan and his niece ascended the new wind turbine just like in the first, the elevator-box which Xiao Fung was taking for its better speed rising ahead of the two. When the elevator reached the top, Xiao Fung all but forcefully shoved its outside-door to open faster as he pushed out, going straight to the ladder-top slot in the floor. His eyes were red as he blew typhoon-like wind down it, as he'd done in the first turbine. It made Jackie Chan, who was above the woman, halt as the wind beat his face viciously enough to make it ripple. In the several seconds the Wind Demon spent delaying the Chans' pursuit, he had no idea of the chi-wizard and chi-less human outside examining his journal's writings, exchanging questions and answers about what it said.

Xiao Fung threw the entrance-grille in the nacelle's floor open with a harsh clatter, lifting his body through quickly. In the same moment Jackie Chan was ten rungs from his ladder's top, Xiao Fung tore a metal box-cupboard free from the nacelle's cylindrical-dome, two-handed, and he threw it with a violent sound atop the closed grille. The human demon immediately turned to the giant gearbox a foot in front of him.

"Summone decuplo procellae spumante sub manu mea…" The sigil made of light appeared on a small square panel, identically to on the other turbine's. Then bright-white light shone on the entire machine like it were becoming a misshapen sun, silhouetting Xiao Fung's squat human form, before with an invisible but audible flash of magic, the glow faded again. Xiao Fung gaped, wide-eyed and not grinning at all at the malfunctioned spell. What…?!

One after another, for more than a hundred-and-fifty degrees around, nearly half-a-dozen complete wind turbines' tops and fans flashed with bright light as Sam turned his head, Uncle chanting next to him.

"In finem procellae spumante… In finem procellae spumante… In finem procellae spumante…" After a while of hearing the old man chant, Sam decided to intervene.

"Uh, Unc?" the tall hunter gently cut the skinny Chinese man's repetition off, Uncle raising a bushy brow as he turned his head towards Sam slightly. "In my world, you usually only need to say the magic words once." Uncle said nothing more, simply turning his head to look back up at the wind turbines.

Xiao Fung heard the metallic clatter as the box blocking the entrance-grille lifted half-an-inch with the force applied. The human demon was in a very sour mood, glowering at the weighted-down gateway where his human nemeses were trying to get through to him. But unlike some of his siblings, Xiao Fung had never been one overly ready to seek out an unnecessary confrontation, and he doubted he wanted to know what the new magic lamp of the Chans' would do. So he immediately turned in the confined nacelle, and slammed his fist into the button control.

The long-haired stranger on the ground – and the shorter-haired one running from the first wind turbine – would've seen the turbine's nacelle opening itself up. Xiao Fung caught a glimpse of the first stranger and the old chi-wizard as he stood and crouched atop the opened nacelle's ledge. Then he jumped off. A sound of hurricane-like wind bursting broke the night's quiet, and the wind blew slightly at the long-haired stranger and chi-wizard's hair, making one of them squint their eyes. The tall human craned his head, before Xiao Fung landed thirty-five feet behind the humans' backs in a crouch, just behind a parked vehicle. His dark-brown eyes were fixed on the two mortals ahead as he unbent his legs and stood. Xiao Fung quickly spotted the opened journal the chi-wizard held, confirming his worst fears and making him scowl. Seeing the shorter-haired man further back slow his run and aim a chi-weapon, Xiao Fung acted immediately. He smashed the glass window of the rusted parked Hummer he'd landed by – belonging to one of the human staff who often got a wagon-lift with one of the others – reaching in to undo the locking pin and pull the door open, hurriedly sliding in. The headlights came on as Xiao Fung started the car's engine, and the tires screeched as he quickly swerved it and rode it, fast, out of the wind farm's gates.

Dean lowered his chi-opossum, frustrated hazel eyes on the fleeing vehicle, and immediately ran forward. Sam was lowering his opened journal and watching the Wind Demon's escape while Dean ran forward behind Sam and Uncle's backs.

"Dammit!" the older hunter growled just before stopping behind them, making Sam turn his head. The brothers locked eyes. "What now, we just stand here?"

"Dean, he's heading towards town, and we've already got cops tailing our car!" Sam responded quickly and pointedly – he'd barely finished the sentence before a skinny arm shot a two-fingered slap at his forehead, making him grunt and recoil. Dean was very surprised as his gaze shifted onto the other figure.

"You interrupt Uncle in the middle of sentence," the skinny Chinese man chided the slightly bent-over hunter, making a derisive swishing-gesture with his slapping two fingers. "Respect your elders!" Dean just arched his eyebrows, admittedly bemused that for once I wasn't him getting forehead-slapped. As if Dean's bemusement had signalled some kind of sixth sense in the old man… "One more thing-" His attention was now on Dean. "-you shoot too slowly!" Uncle leaned his goatish face into Dean's personal space, leaning his stiff-backed body forward, breath that carried his yell stinking of garlic and mung-beans. "One more thing-" Dean could've winced at the way the old man emphasised those three words repeatedly – the old man raised a bent leg and began holding it two-handed. "-Uncle's knees are getting big cramp from standing!"

"Easy, Unc." Jade came upon the old man's side to gently soothe him, surprising Dean at how he hadn't sensed her coming at all – Dean heard Jackie running forward behind him a couple seconds later. "Let's get old yeller someplace he can get some comfortable shut-eye." She immediately began gently leading Uncle away – Jackie started following in their stead, then Sam and Dean joined them.

"Ai ya!" Uncle sighed like he dreaded such a comfortable someplace – he'd learned in the last several demon-sorcerer hunts that it was usually a motel, and not a four-star one at that. As they walked, Jade turned her head back to the two hunters, and Dean was surprised at the weirdly-warm look she was giving them out of one eye.

"Thanks for showing up when you did. And, uh-" Her honey-brown eyes shifted slightly-awkwardly for a split-second. "-Jackie and me shouldn't have left you guys in a heap. We nearly got creamed for it."

"Yeah, well, teamwork and all," Dean said offhandedly, while Jackie raised his eyebrows at the two hunters in interest.

"How did you reverse the Wind Demon's spells?" the Chinese martial artist asked.

"He had an in-case-of-emergency in here," Sam replied, opposite Dean from Jackie, raising the journal one-handed to show its sigil-decorated cover as he spoke. "He wasn't using Chinese spells 'cos he was using spells from this world."

"So, what, demon-sorcerers are getting their hands on Necronomicons?" Dean questioned – Sam's slightly-furrowed eyebrows told Dean how unsure his brother was of that, a second before the sound of a distant siren approaching made the three men raise their heads, the hunters' hazel eyes as alert as deer's.

"How 'bout we discuss that ten miles out of town?" Sam said quickly.

"Yeah," Dean deadpanned, a second before the two men ran sideways past Jackie, leaving the Chinese man to turn his head after them in puzzlement. "Jade!" Dean's voice shouted at the woman and Uncle's backs, making them turn their heads from their trajectory towards the wind farm's gate.

Jackie's face became horrified. "But that belongs to someone!" he cried in horror as Dean was reaching an arm through the open-a-crack window of the dark-blue Skylark sedan, pulling the locking pin and letting him and Sam open the side-doors. Jackie's voice made Sam practically freeze and immediately look back at him, Dean following.

"Er…" the taller hunter started, in that voice he used when he'd been caught red-handed digging up a grave or something.

"How are we gonna explain you to the cops?" Dean exclaimed quickly, gesturing with an arm. Dean saw a shift in Jackie's face like he either couldn't decide or had taken the point. "They'll return our other car to the guy we leased it from, we can ditch this one-" He gestured without taking his eyes off Jackie at the Skylark. "-at the county-line and rent another." Jackie gaped indecisively. Jade took another look with Uncle in the approaching sirens' direction.

"Works for me!" the young woman said to Jackie, before promptly dragging Uncle by a skinny arm towards the car, Sam and Dean already getting in.

"Ai ya! Uncle is not Olympic athlete!"