Digital Demons II - Epilogue
by Nopporn Wongrassamee
Summary: Crossover between Digimon Tamers, Jackie Chan
Adventures, and Gatekeepers.
Disclaimer: These characters are not mine. I'm just too lazy to
look up who they belong to.
"Gate OPEN!" Jeri intoned.
Nothing happened.
"How do they do that?" Jeri muttered to herself.
"Yeah, how?" her puppet echoed.
Watching the world's newest Gatekeeper trying to summon her
Gate, Ruriko remembered a day long ago when her then
husband-to-be had similar trouble. Shun had been pretty new
then too.
The survivors of today's battle in Golden Gate Park had returned
to Section 13 in the remaining AEGISmobile. While enroute,
Ruriko and her granddaughter had explained to Jeri what she
had done at the Park. Rika's friends in turn had told how they
had arrived here.
"You were right, Yamaki," she sighed to the younger man who was
also watching Jeri. Ruriko found Yamaki's habit of always
wearing his sunglasses unsettling. They reminded her too much
of the Invaders. On the other hand, Yamaki hadn't changed into
an Invader so she reasonably concluded that he wasn't one.
"About what ma'am?" Yamaki asked, not taking his eyes off Jeri.
He was flicking his lighter open and close, apparently unaware he
was doing it.
"You can call me Ruriko," Ruriko told him absently. "I was talking
about your theory. Tamers really are Gatekeepers in one form or
another."
"Oh, that," Yamaki acknowledged.
"And Jeri's apparently not the first," Ruriko sighed. "There's this
Alice the kids talked about. It's a shame a Tamer has to lose their
partner to fully unlock their Gate abilities."
"Yes, it's a pity," Yamaki agreed. "I wonder what this Alice is doing
now?"
***
In the spaces between worlds, Alice brooded. She lay flat on her
back and stared up - at least insofar as "up" was defined by some corner of her mind - at the realworld. It was close, a polychromatic
sphere that loomed near enough to touch if she was inclined to.
She wasn't.
Alice heard the rustling of cloth as someone sat down next to her,
just out of her field of vision. She turned her heard to see a girl
she didn't know wearing a white kimono. The stranger was
indeed seated nearby, a book in her lap.
"I suppose you want to cheer me up, too?" Alice said irritably. She
didn't care who this was or how she got here. She cared that her
desire to retreat from the world didn't seem to include retreat
from everyone else.
The other girl didn't reply. She didn't even look at Alice. The girl
just opened her book and began reading out loud.
"It was the best of times. It was the worst of times..."
***
"Gate OPEN!" Jeri tried again. This time the Gate appeared. "Yes!"
she exclaimed, excited by success. The Gate vanished. "No," Jeri
said, frustrated.
"Darn," her puppet added.
"He's alive. He's gotta be alive," Takato was saying to the other
two Tamers. Someone in Section 13 had pulled an old picnic
table out of a store room and set it up in an out of the way corner
of the main bay. "It's like on TV and in the comics. There's no
body so..."
"Give it up, Gogglehead," Rika interupted. She sounded tired.
"But, we came to rescue him..." Takato began desperately.
"Ryo's dead, Takato," Rika told him sadly. "Learn to live with it."
"I gotta agree with Rika, Takato," Henry added. "You saw what
happened to MassPoKongMon. Much as I hate to admit it, we
blew it. Big time."
"But, I just thought he might be alive somewhere," Takato said
quietly, sagging as the enormity of what his friends were saying
hit him. "Y'know, like blown into another dimension or
something."
"Not likely," Rika snorted skeptically. "What are the odds of that?"
***
"Hey! Wake up, sleepyhead!"
Ryo's eyes cracked open. A dark blob silhouetted by bright light
filled his sight. As his vision cleared, the blob resolved into a
head. A face became visible.
"Uh, Ken?" Ryo mumbled groggily, identifying the other person.
"Yeah, that's me," Ken confirmed as he helped Ryo to his feet.
"Y'know, I know we're the big bad Digidestined and all, but taking
a nap in the open in the Digital World strikes me as really, really
stupid idea."
"Um, yeah," Ryo said, looking around. He spotted Monodramon
snoozing nearby. Wormon was waking him up. For some reason,
they had been sleeping among piles of smelly green goo. The goo
was slowly dissolving into data as he watched.
"You okay, Ryo?" Ken asked, concerned. "You seem a bit out of it."
"I'm fine, Ken. Really," Ryo reassured him, "Man, that was some
dream I had. It was kinda wierd. There were these cards you used
to give your Digimon extra powers. And a girl..."
"A girl, huh?" Ken laughted. "Somehow, I'm not surprised. Lemme
tell you about weird dreams. I sometimes dream that I'm driving
one of those giant mecha you see on TV. My opponent is just a
guy with a wooden sword and a band-aid across his nose."
"What happened?" Ryo asked, curious.
"He cut my mecha up and beat the snot outta me."
***
"Gate OPEN!"
"Hey, guys."
The Tamers looked up. Jade stood nearby, shoebox in hand.
"I'm not intruding, am I?" Jade asked hesitantly.
"Nah, have a seat," Henry replied, patting an empty spce next to
him. "The more the merrier."
"Renamon," Guilmon began, turning to the yellow Digimon.
"Why is...?"
"I don't know, Guilmon," Renamon said with exagerated patience.
"Um, I suppose I should thank you for helping my Grandma," Rika
told Jade grudgingly as the latter sat down.
"Don't mention it," Jade replied.
"Don't worry, I won't," Rika agreed readily.
"Gate OPEN!"
"Takato, I think we need to go to the bathroom," Henry suggested,
suddenly getting up.
"We do?' Takato asked, puzzled.
"Yeah, we..."
"Guys, you don't have to leave," Rika said, annoyed. "I'm not going
to start a fight with Jade. She'd kick my butt." Rika turned back to
Jade as Henry retook his seat. "You wanted something?"
"Oh, I wanted to give you this," Jade told her, putting the shoe
box on the table and pushing it to Rika. "They're my modify
cards."
"What?" Rika exclaimed, startled. She opened the box and looked
inside. "There's alot in here. Why are you giving me these?"
"Well, it seemed to me that you needed them more than I did,"
Jade explained. She looked at Rika hopefully and extended her
hand. "Peace?"
Rika regarded the offered hand dubiously. "Okay," Rika agreed
finally, taking Jades hand and shaking it. "Peace."
"Gaaaate OPEN!"
"Um, did I miss something?" Takato asked, confused.
"Nothing too important," Rika replied, rummaging in the shoebox.
"Just an outbreak of world peace." She pause and frowned. Rika
pulled a set of goggles out of the box and looked at Jade.
"Oh! I forgot about those," Jade said, embarrased. "They just
weren't me. I thought they made me look dorky."
"They look dorky on anyone," Rika snorted in agreement.
"Present company excluded?" Takato asked.
"No," Rika teased.
***
"GATE Open!"
"I have a file you might be interested in, ma'am," Yamaki told
Ruriko.
"I would?" Ruriko asked.
"Yes, you would," Yamaki said, handing her a manilla folder. "It
concerns Jeri's natural mother. Seems she married late in life."
"Didn't she die when Jeri was little?" Ruriko inquired, taking the
folder without looking at the contents.
"She did. In fact, you happened to've known her a long time ago."
Yamaki spotted Jade with the Tamers. He turned to go. "If you'll
excuse me..."
Left by herself, Ruriko opened the folder and examined the
contents.
"Reiko?"
***
"Gate open!"
"Hey, Jeri," Henry called. "Why don't you take a break and... GAH!"
Henry nearly fell out of his seat when a translucent orange lion no
bigger than a house cat appeared on the table right in front of
him. It padded over to Takato and began nuzzling him.
"Whoa..." Jade breathed, impressed. She had missed Jeri's
previous summonings during the battle.
"Um, Jeri?" Takato squeaked as Jeri rejoined them. An open Gate
followed, hovering by the puppet.
"Cool, I finally got it," Jeri said triumphantly as she sat next to
Takato. She wrapped her free arm around Takato's. "Isn't it
great?"
"Oh yeah," Takato agreed nervously. He'd seen one of these
things burn a Cyberdramon clone. "Great."
"Is it Leomon?" Henry asked, looking at the lion closely.
"No, it's not," Jeri answered, losing a bit of her cheer. "It's a
puppet."
"A puppet?" Takato echoed.
"Yeah," Jeri said, nodding her head. "It's wierd, I see everything
it sees. Same for hearing and feeling. But not smell or taste. And
I can control its every move."
"You're not having any trouble processing two different sets of
senses and controlling two bodies at the same time?" Jade asked
thoughtfully.
"No," Jeri replied slowly. The Gate vanished and the little lion
evaporated harmlessly. "Should I?"
"I don't know. It's just that..." Jade paused when she noticed that
someone else had joined them. She looked up at the newcomer.
"Mr. Yamaki?"
"Hello, kids, I won't be long," Yamaki greeted. "Jade, I take it the
Talismans are safe and sound?"
"Oh, they're fine," Jade answered. "They're back in the Vault all
snug and comfy."
"I hope you didn't get in too much trouble with your uncles?"
Yamaki asked.
"Nah, they just grounded me. Again," Jade said blithely. At the
looks from the others, Jade just shrugged. "Don't worry about it.
It's just the principle of the thing."
"'Young lady needs to respect her elders!'" Rika quoted in a
passable imitation of Uncle's voice.
"Exactly!" Jade said. The two girls shared a laugh.
"Well, I'll leave you kids to enjoy yourselves," Yamaki told them,
smiling.
"Boy, that guy really creeps me out," Jade commented after
Yamaki left.
"Gee, you think he's creepy now?" Takato asked. "You should've
been there when I first met him. It was the middle of the night
and Guilmon and I had just..."
***
"Hello?" Ruriko greeted. "You're Uncle right?"
"Yes, I am Uncle," the older man replied as he walked up to her.
"How is young lady feeling?"
"I'm fine, thank you," Ruriko replied. "And I'm really not that
young anymore..."
"Yes, you are," Uncle interupted in his usual blunt style. "Young
lady's healing magic keep her in perfect health. Healthier in fact
than some athletes half your age. Ruriko might fool self, but not
Uncle!"
Ruriko just stared back in amazement. She had known that she
didn't suffer from the usual aches and pains someone her age
should have, but this...
"One more thing!" Uncle added. "I was not asking about the body.
I was asking about the soul. How are you up here?" He tapped
Ruriko's forehead. "Jade not scramble anything did she?"
"Um, no, she didn't," Ruriko answered. "In fact, she helped me
through some of the rough spots while I was reliving my life. I
hope she's not in too much trouble."
"Not more than usual," Uncle sighed. "Jade has many bad habits.
Thinks she is comic book superhero, especially with Talismans.
Uncle try to disabuse her of such silly notions..."
"But reality seems to disagree?" Ruriko suggested.
Uncle sighed again, but nodded reluctantly.
***
"So there I was, all alone in the demon dimension crawling
around on Po Kong's back," Jade was saying. "And she felt me,
too. She was twisting and turning, trying to get at her 'itch'. But
she couldn't reach, so the others sent Hsi Wu to scratch. I knew
that if they discovered I was there..." She paused dramtically.
"What did you do?" Jeri asked breathlessly, caught up in Jade's
story.
Before Jade could reply, alarm klaxons began blaring across
Section 13. Reacting fast, Jade got up and ran towards the
control pit. An instant later, so did the Tamers and their Digimon,
curious as to what was going on.
As Jade approached the control pit, the alarms shut off. She saw
Captain Black and headed towards him.
"Miles, talk to me," Black ordered.
"Sir, the alarms in the Vault have been set off," Miles replied
crisply.
"The Vault?" Black frowned thoughtfully. "Jade?"
"Can't be, sir," Miles answered. "She doesn't set off the alarms."
"Hey!" Jade exclaimed, simultaneously insulted and flattered. "I'm
right here!"
Spotting Jade, Black cursed. "All Security Teams, this is Captain
Black," he spoke into his headset. "This is not a drill! And the
intruder is not, I repeat NOT Jade!" He listened as someone on
the other end replied. "Damn! Too late."
***
"It was Invaders," a security guard gasped as Ruriko healed him.
"Just a squad of them. The black ones held us off while the red
one was in the Vault."
"What did they take?" Black asked.
"They took Talismans," Uncle proclaimed as he and a dejected
Jade exited the Vault. "All Talismans are gone. No other artifacts
were even touched." Over the years, Section 13's Vault had
become general storage space for all manner of magical artifacts
the Chans had recovered over the years. The Talismans had
merely been the first.
"Captain Black?" Yamaki inquired, finally arriving. "What's going
on?"
"We've just had a break in, Mr. Yamaki," Black told him. "By
Invaders no less! Where have you been?"
"Restroom," Yamaki coughed embarrased. "Why didn't the
monitors pick up the Invader signals?"
"How'd you know they didn't?" Jade asked suspiciously.
"How did I know to come here?" Yamaki retorted indignantly. "I
went to the control pit first."
"I don't know the how the Invaders circumvented our security,"
Black said, turning away to head back to the control pit, "but I
intend to find out."
"If you'll excuse me, I have some calls to make," Yamaki said to
the people remaining. As he headed away he reached into his
coat for his cell phone. On the inside of his coat, Yamaki caught a
glimpse of the Talismans hidden there. He made a mental note to
hide them better.
by Nopporn Wongrassamee
Summary: Crossover between Digimon Tamers, Jackie Chan
Adventures, and Gatekeepers.
Disclaimer: These characters are not mine. I'm just too lazy to
look up who they belong to.
"Gate OPEN!" Jeri intoned.
Nothing happened.
"How do they do that?" Jeri muttered to herself.
"Yeah, how?" her puppet echoed.
Watching the world's newest Gatekeeper trying to summon her
Gate, Ruriko remembered a day long ago when her then
husband-to-be had similar trouble. Shun had been pretty new
then too.
The survivors of today's battle in Golden Gate Park had returned
to Section 13 in the remaining AEGISmobile. While enroute,
Ruriko and her granddaughter had explained to Jeri what she
had done at the Park. Rika's friends in turn had told how they
had arrived here.
"You were right, Yamaki," she sighed to the younger man who was
also watching Jeri. Ruriko found Yamaki's habit of always
wearing his sunglasses unsettling. They reminded her too much
of the Invaders. On the other hand, Yamaki hadn't changed into
an Invader so she reasonably concluded that he wasn't one.
"About what ma'am?" Yamaki asked, not taking his eyes off Jeri.
He was flicking his lighter open and close, apparently unaware he
was doing it.
"You can call me Ruriko," Ruriko told him absently. "I was talking
about your theory. Tamers really are Gatekeepers in one form or
another."
"Oh, that," Yamaki acknowledged.
"And Jeri's apparently not the first," Ruriko sighed. "There's this
Alice the kids talked about. It's a shame a Tamer has to lose their
partner to fully unlock their Gate abilities."
"Yes, it's a pity," Yamaki agreed. "I wonder what this Alice is doing
now?"
***
In the spaces between worlds, Alice brooded. She lay flat on her
back and stared up - at least insofar as "up" was defined by some corner of her mind - at the realworld. It was close, a polychromatic
sphere that loomed near enough to touch if she was inclined to.
She wasn't.
Alice heard the rustling of cloth as someone sat down next to her,
just out of her field of vision. She turned her heard to see a girl
she didn't know wearing a white kimono. The stranger was
indeed seated nearby, a book in her lap.
"I suppose you want to cheer me up, too?" Alice said irritably. She
didn't care who this was or how she got here. She cared that her
desire to retreat from the world didn't seem to include retreat
from everyone else.
The other girl didn't reply. She didn't even look at Alice. The girl
just opened her book and began reading out loud.
"It was the best of times. It was the worst of times..."
***
"Gate OPEN!" Jeri tried again. This time the Gate appeared. "Yes!"
she exclaimed, excited by success. The Gate vanished. "No," Jeri
said, frustrated.
"Darn," her puppet added.
"He's alive. He's gotta be alive," Takato was saying to the other
two Tamers. Someone in Section 13 had pulled an old picnic
table out of a store room and set it up in an out of the way corner
of the main bay. "It's like on TV and in the comics. There's no
body so..."
"Give it up, Gogglehead," Rika interupted. She sounded tired.
"But, we came to rescue him..." Takato began desperately.
"Ryo's dead, Takato," Rika told him sadly. "Learn to live with it."
"I gotta agree with Rika, Takato," Henry added. "You saw what
happened to MassPoKongMon. Much as I hate to admit it, we
blew it. Big time."
"But, I just thought he might be alive somewhere," Takato said
quietly, sagging as the enormity of what his friends were saying
hit him. "Y'know, like blown into another dimension or
something."
"Not likely," Rika snorted skeptically. "What are the odds of that?"
***
"Hey! Wake up, sleepyhead!"
Ryo's eyes cracked open. A dark blob silhouetted by bright light
filled his sight. As his vision cleared, the blob resolved into a
head. A face became visible.
"Uh, Ken?" Ryo mumbled groggily, identifying the other person.
"Yeah, that's me," Ken confirmed as he helped Ryo to his feet.
"Y'know, I know we're the big bad Digidestined and all, but taking
a nap in the open in the Digital World strikes me as really, really
stupid idea."
"Um, yeah," Ryo said, looking around. He spotted Monodramon
snoozing nearby. Wormon was waking him up. For some reason,
they had been sleeping among piles of smelly green goo. The goo
was slowly dissolving into data as he watched.
"You okay, Ryo?" Ken asked, concerned. "You seem a bit out of it."
"I'm fine, Ken. Really," Ryo reassured him, "Man, that was some
dream I had. It was kinda wierd. There were these cards you used
to give your Digimon extra powers. And a girl..."
"A girl, huh?" Ken laughted. "Somehow, I'm not surprised. Lemme
tell you about weird dreams. I sometimes dream that I'm driving
one of those giant mecha you see on TV. My opponent is just a
guy with a wooden sword and a band-aid across his nose."
"What happened?" Ryo asked, curious.
"He cut my mecha up and beat the snot outta me."
***
"Gate OPEN!"
"Hey, guys."
The Tamers looked up. Jade stood nearby, shoebox in hand.
"I'm not intruding, am I?" Jade asked hesitantly.
"Nah, have a seat," Henry replied, patting an empty spce next to
him. "The more the merrier."
"Renamon," Guilmon began, turning to the yellow Digimon.
"Why is...?"
"I don't know, Guilmon," Renamon said with exagerated patience.
"Um, I suppose I should thank you for helping my Grandma," Rika
told Jade grudgingly as the latter sat down.
"Don't mention it," Jade replied.
"Don't worry, I won't," Rika agreed readily.
"Gate OPEN!"
"Takato, I think we need to go to the bathroom," Henry suggested,
suddenly getting up.
"We do?' Takato asked, puzzled.
"Yeah, we..."
"Guys, you don't have to leave," Rika said, annoyed. "I'm not going
to start a fight with Jade. She'd kick my butt." Rika turned back to
Jade as Henry retook his seat. "You wanted something?"
"Oh, I wanted to give you this," Jade told her, putting the shoe
box on the table and pushing it to Rika. "They're my modify
cards."
"What?" Rika exclaimed, startled. She opened the box and looked
inside. "There's alot in here. Why are you giving me these?"
"Well, it seemed to me that you needed them more than I did,"
Jade explained. She looked at Rika hopefully and extended her
hand. "Peace?"
Rika regarded the offered hand dubiously. "Okay," Rika agreed
finally, taking Jades hand and shaking it. "Peace."
"Gaaaate OPEN!"
"Um, did I miss something?" Takato asked, confused.
"Nothing too important," Rika replied, rummaging in the shoebox.
"Just an outbreak of world peace." She pause and frowned. Rika
pulled a set of goggles out of the box and looked at Jade.
"Oh! I forgot about those," Jade said, embarrased. "They just
weren't me. I thought they made me look dorky."
"They look dorky on anyone," Rika snorted in agreement.
"Present company excluded?" Takato asked.
"No," Rika teased.
***
"GATE Open!"
"I have a file you might be interested in, ma'am," Yamaki told
Ruriko.
"I would?" Ruriko asked.
"Yes, you would," Yamaki said, handing her a manilla folder. "It
concerns Jeri's natural mother. Seems she married late in life."
"Didn't she die when Jeri was little?" Ruriko inquired, taking the
folder without looking at the contents.
"She did. In fact, you happened to've known her a long time ago."
Yamaki spotted Jade with the Tamers. He turned to go. "If you'll
excuse me..."
Left by herself, Ruriko opened the folder and examined the
contents.
"Reiko?"
***
"Gate open!"
"Hey, Jeri," Henry called. "Why don't you take a break and... GAH!"
Henry nearly fell out of his seat when a translucent orange lion no
bigger than a house cat appeared on the table right in front of
him. It padded over to Takato and began nuzzling him.
"Whoa..." Jade breathed, impressed. She had missed Jeri's
previous summonings during the battle.
"Um, Jeri?" Takato squeaked as Jeri rejoined them. An open Gate
followed, hovering by the puppet.
"Cool, I finally got it," Jeri said triumphantly as she sat next to
Takato. She wrapped her free arm around Takato's. "Isn't it
great?"
"Oh yeah," Takato agreed nervously. He'd seen one of these
things burn a Cyberdramon clone. "Great."
"Is it Leomon?" Henry asked, looking at the lion closely.
"No, it's not," Jeri answered, losing a bit of her cheer. "It's a
puppet."
"A puppet?" Takato echoed.
"Yeah," Jeri said, nodding her head. "It's wierd, I see everything
it sees. Same for hearing and feeling. But not smell or taste. And
I can control its every move."
"You're not having any trouble processing two different sets of
senses and controlling two bodies at the same time?" Jade asked
thoughtfully.
"No," Jeri replied slowly. The Gate vanished and the little lion
evaporated harmlessly. "Should I?"
"I don't know. It's just that..." Jade paused when she noticed that
someone else had joined them. She looked up at the newcomer.
"Mr. Yamaki?"
"Hello, kids, I won't be long," Yamaki greeted. "Jade, I take it the
Talismans are safe and sound?"
"Oh, they're fine," Jade answered. "They're back in the Vault all
snug and comfy."
"I hope you didn't get in too much trouble with your uncles?"
Yamaki asked.
"Nah, they just grounded me. Again," Jade said blithely. At the
looks from the others, Jade just shrugged. "Don't worry about it.
It's just the principle of the thing."
"'Young lady needs to respect her elders!'" Rika quoted in a
passable imitation of Uncle's voice.
"Exactly!" Jade said. The two girls shared a laugh.
"Well, I'll leave you kids to enjoy yourselves," Yamaki told them,
smiling.
"Boy, that guy really creeps me out," Jade commented after
Yamaki left.
"Gee, you think he's creepy now?" Takato asked. "You should've
been there when I first met him. It was the middle of the night
and Guilmon and I had just..."
***
"Hello?" Ruriko greeted. "You're Uncle right?"
"Yes, I am Uncle," the older man replied as he walked up to her.
"How is young lady feeling?"
"I'm fine, thank you," Ruriko replied. "And I'm really not that
young anymore..."
"Yes, you are," Uncle interupted in his usual blunt style. "Young
lady's healing magic keep her in perfect health. Healthier in fact
than some athletes half your age. Ruriko might fool self, but not
Uncle!"
Ruriko just stared back in amazement. She had known that she
didn't suffer from the usual aches and pains someone her age
should have, but this...
"One more thing!" Uncle added. "I was not asking about the body.
I was asking about the soul. How are you up here?" He tapped
Ruriko's forehead. "Jade not scramble anything did she?"
"Um, no, she didn't," Ruriko answered. "In fact, she helped me
through some of the rough spots while I was reliving my life. I
hope she's not in too much trouble."
"Not more than usual," Uncle sighed. "Jade has many bad habits.
Thinks she is comic book superhero, especially with Talismans.
Uncle try to disabuse her of such silly notions..."
"But reality seems to disagree?" Ruriko suggested.
Uncle sighed again, but nodded reluctantly.
***
"So there I was, all alone in the demon dimension crawling
around on Po Kong's back," Jade was saying. "And she felt me,
too. She was twisting and turning, trying to get at her 'itch'. But
she couldn't reach, so the others sent Hsi Wu to scratch. I knew
that if they discovered I was there..." She paused dramtically.
"What did you do?" Jeri asked breathlessly, caught up in Jade's
story.
Before Jade could reply, alarm klaxons began blaring across
Section 13. Reacting fast, Jade got up and ran towards the
control pit. An instant later, so did the Tamers and their Digimon,
curious as to what was going on.
As Jade approached the control pit, the alarms shut off. She saw
Captain Black and headed towards him.
"Miles, talk to me," Black ordered.
"Sir, the alarms in the Vault have been set off," Miles replied
crisply.
"The Vault?" Black frowned thoughtfully. "Jade?"
"Can't be, sir," Miles answered. "She doesn't set off the alarms."
"Hey!" Jade exclaimed, simultaneously insulted and flattered. "I'm
right here!"
Spotting Jade, Black cursed. "All Security Teams, this is Captain
Black," he spoke into his headset. "This is not a drill! And the
intruder is not, I repeat NOT Jade!" He listened as someone on
the other end replied. "Damn! Too late."
***
"It was Invaders," a security guard gasped as Ruriko healed him.
"Just a squad of them. The black ones held us off while the red
one was in the Vault."
"What did they take?" Black asked.
"They took Talismans," Uncle proclaimed as he and a dejected
Jade exited the Vault. "All Talismans are gone. No other artifacts
were even touched." Over the years, Section 13's Vault had
become general storage space for all manner of magical artifacts
the Chans had recovered over the years. The Talismans had
merely been the first.
"Captain Black?" Yamaki inquired, finally arriving. "What's going
on?"
"We've just had a break in, Mr. Yamaki," Black told him. "By
Invaders no less! Where have you been?"
"Restroom," Yamaki coughed embarrased. "Why didn't the
monitors pick up the Invader signals?"
"How'd you know they didn't?" Jade asked suspiciously.
"How did I know to come here?" Yamaki retorted indignantly. "I
went to the control pit first."
"I don't know the how the Invaders circumvented our security,"
Black said, turning away to head back to the control pit, "but I
intend to find out."
"If you'll excuse me, I have some calls to make," Yamaki said to
the people remaining. As he headed away he reached into his
coat for his cell phone. On the inside of his coat, Yamaki caught a
glimpse of the Talismans hidden there. He made a mental note to
hide them better.