I don't own Jackie Chan Adventures and no money is being made with this story.

NI TANG

Chapter 16

Bai Tsa had turned out to be even betterat tricking humans than Hsi Wu. When you added quick tongue and dirty imagination to her beautiful body only few men were able to say her 'no', even if the water demon was not using any kind of magic.

She enjoyed this newera greatly and if opening the portalshadn't beenthat urgent, she would have taken back the over-boring years in the Netherworld. Jade didn't know what the demon actually meant with that, but she had some imagination too. And she also believed Bai's fun activities were not meant for someone her age.

They had arrived Hong Kong just a moment ago and had not even managed to leave the airport yet. There were lots of people and different languages could be heard everywhere. All this added into different colours and atmosphere was usually enough to make Jade excited, but this time she had something more important in her mind.

Home.

Despite the fact she loved San Francisco she would never stop calling Hong Kong her real home. Besides, her parents lived there. The girl had not seen them in a while and would have given anything to be with them right now, but she knew it wasn't possible.

The demons would never allow it and Jade was not even going to ask. She didn't want to make her parents involved in this, she wanted to be the one who suffered, not them.

Hsi Wu looked around and frowned. He was in his familiar child form again, it fit him better and in the middle of a crowd like this he could keep an eye on humans without them even noticing.

The sky demon didn't like what he saw; China had changed greatly since he had last seen it. Everything was now somehow... impolite. He didn't see statues or temples dedicated to demons, and even though therewere still lots of unique culture he was not happy.

It didn't feel like returning home. Like he had been gone for a long while just to notice that his house had been burnt and strangers had built a new one on the ruins. Everything was so different from what he was used to and it made him feel rare pain inside him. It didn't matter if the rest of the world was different, but he had wanted to see the old China.

Bai Tsaplayed withher blue hair and her eyes sparkled. All thisfreshness made her almost glow, she so wanted to experience some of this time, its flavours and smells! But no, just a glance to Hsi Wu and the slave made her return to Earth, she had responsibilities to take care of.

She could always get away by giving this mission to Hsi Wu, but then she would be responsible if the sky demon failed. The water demon was not the oldest one and knew that she, Hsi and Ni would be on Tchang Zu's killing list if they didn't make it. And it was the same with the rest of them, Shendu too once they freed him.

The map of the Pan Ku box was rather easy and she had been able to read it even though the world had changed so much. She was not the smartest, wisest or most hard working of the demons, but she knew something useful too.

She glanced at Jade who walked beside Hsi Wu looking annoyed. Bai knew what a threat it was to have her with them, but she had to respect Ni Tang's property even if he was just a young demon. Then again, if the situation really demanded it she would not hesitate to kill the girl immediately.

It would be very difficult to keep Shendu from ripping her apart. Hsi had told her she was a Chan and had been there to banish Shendu in the Netherworld. Bai knew how bloodthirsty his younger brother was and was afraid he would kill their slave. Well, that would not be a loss, they could always get a new one, but it was a rude thing to do to kill someone else's slave. If Shendu did that he and Ni would be forced to fight and it was clear who would win. And that would break Hsi Wu, so they'd lose two brothers in such a short amount of time.

Bai Tsa nodded to herself in determination. So she just had to make sure her idiot brother behaved.


Unlike they thought, they didn't arrive without anyone noticing it. They had been watched since they stepped out of the plane and the eyes following them had not lost them even for a moment.

Liao Su followed the three looking like he was interested in nothing else but a poster on the wall. He heard onlya part of their quiet conversation, but that was enough to make him frown.

Demons.

He would not have been able to come up with this conclusion if he had not been told who these guests really were. Now when he looked at them he didn't find anything what could be called suspicious and was glad his master had foreseen this.

Master Qian descended from the same men who had betrayed Shendu and his family thought they had to make sure he never returned. It was a noble destination and they had lots of followers even if no one believed in demons anymore.

Some time ago Master Qian had got very sick and they had been afraid they might lose him, but he had somehow survived. When he awoke he had immediately told them that someone had used an old and powerful spell against the fire demon and won.

That came as a huge surprise to them, they had thought Shendu was still imprisoned in the old statue form. But something had happened without them knowing it and it had raised some actions within the guild. If they didn't know anything about something as important as that, what was the point of this thing? How could they ever find out what had happened?

But then they had got a guest. At first they had not believed in what he had told them, how was it possible that someone not one of them could know something like that? But the man's tale was almost the same with Master Qian's one and they had been forced to believe.

And then the Master had had a new vision, much stronger than the previous one. When he awoke he had not been able to speak in hours but had just sat and thought over what he had seen. And then he finally told them what it was.

According to him Shendu was going to break free with the help of his two already free siblings. This was what they had been expecting and practisingfor for decades, something so many men had waited but what had never happened.

Their mysterious guest had told them he wanted to help them in the fight. He was not a member of their guild, but said he had his own reasons.

The man's name was Hak Foo and Liao Su slit his eyes when thinking about him. Yes, the man was a strong warrior, but he could only despise him.

Hak Foo had served Shendu when the demon had tried to open the portals and that was something Liao Su would never be able to forgive. It didn't matter that nothing had happened, just trying had been enough. He couldn't understand why Master Qian let the man live and believed his stories, it was totally unheard of!

No one knew why the man had come to them when all he could expect what death and they didn't ask him. Master Qian was the only one with the right to ask questions and he had done nothingwith it. It made Liao Su even more nervous, this all was so frustrating and useless!

He waited for a while before left to follow the demons and the girl with them. She was probably a slave and innocent, but he could do nothing for her. If the girl died in their fight against Shendu it was not a loss or their problem.

The three walked on the streets of Hong Kong looking like they knew where they were going. For a while Liao Su was afraid they were already going to open the portal, but he let out a sigh of relief when they stepped in a hotel and the female demon whispered something in the clerk's ear making him blush.

It seemed they were going to play a sure game and get a place to stay before freeing the fire demon. It was fine with Liao Su, now he and his companions had time to prepare getting rid of Shendu forever.


It was night, but the city of Hong Kong was everything but quiet. People were wandering around on the streets and it was impossible not to hear the noise they made. Some thought this would be nervous and didn't want to go out, but to Bai Tsa and Hsi Wu it was excellent.

When it was night and dark everybody had something better to do than to keep an eye on them and their doings, they could get to Shendu's portal with no difficulties at all.

Bai Tsa had done some research and found out that something had been built on their brother's portal. Jade had called it the Moose World but it didn't say anything to either of the demons. The girl had showed her dislike, who didn't know the famous funfair?

Well, whatever the place was they would open the portal this night. Jade had suggested that they waited for a while and made sure everything was okay, she saw it was her responsibility to slow this down as much as possible.

Bai Tsa and Hsi Wu had of course not agreed, they both knew what the girl tried to achieve. Jade had sighed and frowned, she had guessed this but it had been worth of a try.

The Moose World was widely known funfair and normally it would have been open at this time of night full of tourist and locals who wanted to have some fun. But after they had had a technical problem in the roller coaster and a little boy had died the park had been closed for the repairs.

Thatsuited the two demons well, now they were sure there was no one on the way to foul up their plans. Jade on the other hand cursed the fate and her luck, wasn't anything good going to happen? If she just wereable to tell her uncles where she was and what was going on...

Bai Tsa placed her hand on her hip and tilted her head in thought. The Moose World stood in front of them looking dark and dead, there was no one in sight. The street lights created long shadows which made everything look even more frightening and Jade couldn't understand how she had once thought the funfair was a cheerful and happy place.

"Well, let's go in. I'm sure our brother is brimming with excitement when he sees us," the water demon said and glanced at the gate. It was closed and of course locked, but that wasn't a problem. "Come on, girl," she told and Jade stepped reluctantly next to the demon. This was bad, it was different to free someone like Bai Tsa, who seemed to be a pretty nice demon, but Shendu was something way different.

Jade had seen how heartless and cruel the fire demon was and she wasn't sure he would be happytosee her. The girl had made his plans crash down more than once and she sure didn't want to see him again. She wasn't sure about Shendu, he would be angryat first but then delighted when he got Jade in his claws.

She had not followed Bai for very long when the Pan Ku box suddenly rose from her hands and hit the symbol which had appeared really soon, as if the demon on the other side was in a great hurry. Bai Tsa and Hsi Wu glanced at each other in victory, theyweren't even forced to go in!

A huge green portal opened some distance away and from the chaotic red world stepped a poison green, wingless dragon whose red eyes glowed in the dark. Shendu drew a deep breath and looked around himself pleased.

"I am free!" he announced when the portal closed behind him and they didn't see the Netherworld anymore. Bai Tsa snorted in amusement.

"I and Hsi have not been in this world for centuries when you returned after being away for few weeks. And still neither of us screamed our lungs out like you," she said and Shendu frowned. He was going to snap something to his sister when he suddenly noticed Jade.

"Chan's niece!" he hissedin surpriseand Jade backed quickly away holding the Pan Ku box in her hands.

"Heh, nice to meet you... again," she muttered and waved at the huge demon, who smiled down on her slyly.

"The pleasure is all mine," Shendu hissed and took a threatening step towards Jade. "All this time I've longed to meet your uncle and come up with many ways of torturing him. Now I can have some extra fun with you before he arrives," he continued and would have moved closer if Bai Tsa hadn't stopped him.

"Don't touch her Shendu! She carries the box and we can not get anywhere without her!" the water demon said harshly and Shendu turned to face his sister.

"She's not irreplaceable, we can always have a new slave. Sparing her is a mistake! You don't know what she can do, she will run away or ruin our plans by some other way!" he snapped.

Bai Tsa shook her head. Everything had been going along fine before Shendu had been freed. She had never liked the young brother, she was always having an argument with him. And neither one of them ever wanted to give up.

"You don't understand, we can not let her live! I learned something when I fought with his uncle, you can not play with them! If we don't destroy her now she will destroy us when we least expect it," Shendu tried to explain, but Bai had made her mind. The fire demon might be right, but she would rather die than let him know it.

"I'm older than you Shendu, and I have the right to decide this. And my decision is that no one is allowed to touch her. Besides, she does not belong to us, she is Ni Tang's slave," Bai Tsa said and Shendu's red eyes flashed dangerously, but he was not allowed to say anything when someone rushed from the shadows and collided with him.

He shouted first in surprise and then in pain when the figure stabbed a long knife in his chest. After doing that the dark figure jumped away before anyone could understand what was going on.

The knife was sharp and had sunk deep in the dragon's flesh, but the wound was not dangerous. Shendu pulled it away and threw on the ground not bothering to try to stop the bleeding. He didn't even feel the pain anymore, now he was really angry.

"Who dares to attack me?"he hissed so poisonously that even Bai Tsa had to back away. This was unbelievable, the attacker had clearly known what he was facing or he would not have got away this easily. Or easily and easily, Bai knew from experience that Shendu would not rest before his claws were covered in the attacker's blood. And suddenly they were surrounded by a group of men dressed in black. They had arrived so soundlessly that you could have thought they had emerged from the shadows. It reminded the four of Shendu's shadowkhan warriors, but it was clear these men were not on their side.

One of them stepped forward and bowed. He was dressed just like his companions and it was almost impossible to see his features. The only thing the three demons were sure ofwas that his eyes were dark brown, almost black.

"Fire demon Shendu, I am Liao Su and bring a message from my Master Qian. He has been informed of your return and gathered the whole Jio Te Fa behind him in order to fight you. We don't care about your siblings, our only destination is your final destruction and we don't care about our own losses. The hit you received was just the first one, demon!" he said and suddenly he and his companions were on the move again trying to hit the fire demon.

But this time Shendu was ready and didn't let them surprise him again. He dodged nimbly and slashed with his claws making one of the attacker fall down holding his chest. Shendu didn't just dodge but immediately fought back rushing to his next victim, slashing and mauling.

One of the attackers whimpered when Shendu's claws opened his stomach and he fell on his knees trying to stop himself from bleeding to death. His companions didn't even bother to glance at him, they had grownup believing Shendu's death was the only thing that mattered.

Jade backed away from the fight and noticed that Bai Tsa and Hsi Wu were totally caught up with it. Neither one of them would notice anything if she left for a while... She pressed the Pan Ku box tightly in her arms and crept away for a while before breaking in the run and disappearing in the shadows without anyone noticing.

She smiled to herself and felt like she could laugh forever. She had got away and taken the Pan Ku box with her! Hah! Now when the demons were busy she would get herself out of here and find a phone to call Jackie.

Jade knew she would not be able to hide forever, she knew the demons too well already. But she was not going to give up without a fight and informing her uncles about this.

She met some people but none of them paid her any special attention, to them she was just another Chinese person not worth of noticing. It fit Jade fine, the fewer people remembered seeing her, the better.

The girl almost run past the phone booth, it stood in the corner of a huge building and the street light next to it was broken making the booth drown in shadows. Jade noticed it on the last moment and thanked her luck, who knew, this might even work!

Taking a quick glance around herself Jade rushed in the booth trying to find a coin from her pockets. She was sure she had one, she had to!

"Aha!" she exclaimed in victory and drew out an old a bit rusty coin. She put the Pan Ku box down next to herself and put the coin in tapping the numbers as fast as she could. She knew Hong Kong and San Francisco were on different time zones, but didn't bother to count how big the difference really was.

"Yes?" Jackie's familiar voice said and Jade had to smile. Now everything didn't seem so useless anymore and she even dared to believe things would be okay.

"Jackie? It's me, Jade - " Jade started but couldn't say anymore when her uncle interrupted her.

"Jade? Thank God you are okay! But where? And what ab - " Jackie shouted but now it was Jade's turn to be rude.

"Listen Jackie, this is really important! I'm in Hong Kong and everything is okay, just having three demons dancing around me. Hsi Wu, Bai Tsa and Shendu are all free and you and Uncle have to hurry to Japan! The next portal is there and it's our chance to banish all of the demons ba - " Jade hurried but was again interrupted by someone. It seemed she would not be allowed to finish anything she said during this conversation.

But this time the interrupter was not her uncle, but a very angry looking demon covered in fresh blood. Jade drew a deep breath and dropped the phone backing as far away as the booth let her. Shendu!

The fire demon grinnedin amusementand cut the line by ripping the phone apart.

"I knew you would try something like this," he hissed and Jade nodded nervously. Shendu stretched his clawed hand and grabbed her harshly from her collar.

"And I knew it would be a mistake to let you live. Let Bai Tsa say anything she wants to, I won't let you ruin this plan and take my kingdom from me again!" the fire demon said slitting his red eyes and Jade tried to kick him to free herself from his grip. Shendu didn't care about it, he had just received some worse hits and some of the blood on his scales was his own. "Good bye, Jade Chan, he said cheerfully and raised his free hand to slash Jade's stomach open. The girl let out a shriek and closed her eyes to avoid seeing the approaching death. That's why she didn't see the grey winged form who collided with Shendu slashing the dragon's scaled skin with his claws.

"Don't touch my slave!" Hsi Wu shouted angrily and jumped away from his brother spreading his wings to look more threatening. Shendu let go of Jade in surprise and the girl fell down clumsily running then behind the suddenly appeared sky demon. She felt that at the moment Hsi Wu was the only one who could protect her.

"Your slave? Bai Tsa told me she belongs to Ni Tang!" Shendu said angrily and glared daggers at his brother. Hsi Wu slit his eyes.

"She is, but my responsibility is to take care of her and make sure you won't hurt something that doesn't belong to you," he said.

"Then why did you call her your own? No matter what rights Ni gave you, you don't own her," the fire demon said slyly. He shrugged. "You've made a great mistake Hsi Wu, you've attacked an older brother and claimed someone else's property. I'd like to know what Tchang Zu has to say in this," he said, pleased with himself.

"Probably the same than when he hears that you rebelled against an older sister's will and tried to kill the girl," Bai Tsa commented arriving in her human form. Her two brothers glanced at her and Shendu flinched nervously. But he was not going to let Bai enjoy this, he had his pride.

Bai Tsa watched the two for a while and sighed.

"Little brothers. Always drooling over each other's toys. I have to wonder their taste too, the slave is not that attractive. Besides, she's too young to be any real fun," she said shaking her head and making Hsi Wu, Shendu and Jade frown. The attitude of the water demon was slowly starting to annoy them all.

"Hide yourselves somehow, I don't want to have any humans here looking at you," Bai remarked pointing at the two brothers. Then she turned to look at the night sky. Five portals still remained and then the work would be done. And from now on it would be easy, Shendu knew the location of the rest of the portals and now they could decide who they wanted to free.


Jackie didn't bother to get any luggage. Immediately after Jade's phone call had beenstrangely cut he had known something was wrong. He had to get to Hong Kong!

He knew that Jade had told him to go to Japan, but he didn't want to do that. At first he had to visit China to make sure nothing was wrong. Who knew if Jade had been killed just a moment ago... The archaeologist shook his head angrily, he could not think like that.

"And where are you going?" Uncle asked stepping there and holding a cup of tea in his hand. Jackie glanced at the old man and stopped.

"Hong Kong. Jade is there and if I understood it right so is Shendu and two other demons," he said and Uncle's expression brightened.

"Good!" he exclaimed pleased and Jackie stared at him for a while.

"Three demons have been freed! What good is that?" he asked not believing his ears. Had the hard work finally made the old man lose his mind?

"A friend of mine lives near Hong Kong, we called him Qian. He knows very much about the demons, find him and ask him to tell everything he knows about our mysterious new demon," Uncle said like he had no worry in the world and sipped his tea. Jackie nodded and tried to remember the name. He had so much stuff to think about right now!

"I'll be back soon and bring Jade with me," he promised and rushed out of the door.

To be continued...