A/N: The Luchadore's finally back with the new chapter in this story. I know how the story's going to end at last so don't expect this fanfic to be like those other fics that NEVER get an ending because people abandoned them. TLEL isn't going to give up on any of his fics, even if they get zero reviews! My take on "Demon Heart" will come back too as a result, and I'll get some one-chapter Hsi/Jades going on before I try another Hsi/Jade series, if it comes to that. I only had this month for vacation (took summer semester, bleh!) so I better do what I could with it! Alright, onto the fic!
Say Uncle
Chapter 8: Ai-Yah, Las Vegas!
"Uncle! Unc-!" Jackie woke up, realizing that he was at a sandy plain, the lone occupant beside him was a mammoth sign with the glorious letters spelling "Las Vegas 20 miles". Funny how a lot of great resorts were surrounded by terrible living spaces. No wonder Jackie hadn't found a residence in Las Vegas like he could've with his doctorate salary; nobody around was there to talk to. He hated loneliness, always he did.
"I'm lost. Oh no. Section 13? Captain Black? Tohru? Jade? Oh, what am I thinking, I told Jade to stay at the shop. Uncle's shop. No. Where could Uncle be?!" He stared at the horizon; there loomed bustling city lights and streets, the multi-colored neon lights dotting the ink black background. "Las Vegas? I'm sure no magical talismans live there anymore. I hope Daolan Wong's portal didn't spread us all over the world." He walked in the direction of the road, the ugly dirt and concrete slab road, when he heard the whirs of a motorcycle behind him. That got him a light bulb burning. "Taxi-I mean, I need a ride!"
Raising a thumb came up at the most convenient time, even if Jackie was not one to condone hitchhiking. He always said it was against the rules, in fact he was the only one in his family. Being without Uncle for a long while made him remember the old man's treatise on hitchhiking; Fah! You call calling someone to pick you up illegal. Tell you what is illegal; if the man ignored you like you were nobody! And when the driver didn't ignore you? Don't be silly, Jackie. Wise person doesn't go hitchhiking; he should take the long road by himself if he has two feet to walk on! But emergency called for Jackie to hasten his matters. The motorcyclist thankfully slowed down.
The motorcyclist removed her helmet, exposing purple eyes to complement her swaying brown hair. "My, we keep bumping together in the loneliest of places, Mr. Chan."
Jackie's jaw dropped, in disbelief of coincidence. "Wha-Portia Martindale.... But how-"
She inclined one elbow over the steering handles, fingers playfully dabbling over her cheek. Her smile, neither cheerful nor sad, kept her character as concealed as the night. "Odd thing actually," she added. "I was expecting to give you a call around here. You've saved us plenty of time for our next move."
"And that is?"
"Why, taking a nice resort to Las Vegas. I don't suppose the desert around here is much good for archaeology. The only problem I must have in this city is with the food. Nothing really exquisite actually. I'm better off with what California has to offer. Anyways, jump in. You probably need the ride."
"Oh, thank you," Jackie walked up to the motorcycle, though uneasily, since he realized there wasn't much space for him to sit on, even if Portia had scooted herself up for him. She cocked her head down, so as to tell him this was space enough.
"Uh, do you have a helmet?" Jackie asked, his lips shivering in both the midnight cold and his embarrassment at playing it safe, namely before a woman.
"Sorry, Mr. Chan, but being how you Americans call a loner, I didn't come prepared to rescue you. You'll probably have to hold on tight as well."
Jackie turned his head to the sides, seeing nothing but dirty old rocks. Dirty old Las Vegas rocks. He spoke to her back. "Hold on to what?"
She spoke in near-dramatic concern. "Jackie, haven't you ever held on to someone of the opposite gender?"
"Only my mom," he said matter-of-factly. He felt he was being insulted by showing no feelings toward females, but his testimony would be the judge of that!
Portia turned away from Jackie to adjust her rearview mirrors, though her shaking head seemed to stifle some laughter. Even when the shaking stopped, it took a few seconds for her to speak again, as if awakening composure. She sighed, but not despairingly. It was to block any last humorous thoughts. She placed a hand on the waist end of her white bellbottoms, a sight that was more of a directive but come across to Jackie's mind as perversely intimidating. "Hold onto my hips." Jackie was very unprepared for that very last word.
"But Portia-" he began, defending against a blush. Holding onto a woman's....
"It's better for you, Jackie. You know how fast a motorcycle can be. I don't suppose you're stuntman enough to cling onto the road all the way to Vegas, right?"
Jackie groaned and held on. Anything to get to Uncle before Daolan Wong would go away was fine by him. He did as was told; he was the more vulnerable person in this matter. Without looking (he wanted to pay more attention to the scenery), he grabbed his arms, forming a human belt around Portia. His haste was evident by both the litheness and forcefulness emanating from those knuckles of his.
"Ooh, perhaps that was too hard a squeeze, Chan," Portia gasped a breath as she spoke, neatly adjusting Jackie's hands like they were a belt she could fit on her own volition.
"Oh, I'm sorry."
"Don't be, Jackie. I did break your heart a while ago." That would be the last he would see of her smile until they would stop the motorcycle. Portia's feet started the accelerator and the cycle drove away, leaving a community of dust following her and Jackie. Jackie hated the roar; it reminded him of a tiger he met back in the city of Sin he was heading to, or of a giant lion who tried chasing him up a tree, but couldn't.
Because of the grating roars of the cycle, Jackie spoke louder than his normal tone. He was one to talk alot. It made him feel less lonely. "Portia, that was very nice of you to give me a ride to Las Vegas...."
She replied, with equally loud resonance. "Your welcome. By the by, how DID you wind up in the middle of nowhere? Not enough taxi fare in your pocket? Scoff, I could relate to that. That's how a lot of boyfriends literally parted with me."
More information than he wanted to know. Why did he just think that? "Actually, what happened was um...classified information."
"Classified? That came as a bit of a shock. I never knew you could be elitist with your language."
"I have friends," was all Jackie could reply, since he didn't want to delve into this subject for long. "But I didn't come here for a vacation."
"Sigh, that much is clear to me. So what would it be, Mr. Chan? A convention with archaeologists? A carnival as spontaneous as Mardi Gras? A family reunion?"
"The last one. I will give you that much."
"Is that all I'm entitled to knowing? Aren't we friends, Jackie?"
"Getting close to that." He then sounded a bit more excited. "To be honest, I always wanted to make more friends. There's an ancient proverb in Asia that says the greatest way to confront an enemy is to make him a friend."
"Or her."
Jackie smiled behind her back. "Or her...
"I remember reading that from Sun-Tzu, save for the 'her' part. I'm sure you will be getting another friend, perhaps the sooner you get your family reunion settled."
Jackie frowned, looking up to the sky to think. Plenty of stars up there; city lights constantly blinded Jackie from those. Sometimes barren landscapes weren't so bad after all. "Settled is a very interesting word to say, for this occasion."
"Does it fit?"
"Much to my regret."
"You're not very comfortable about it. I can tell by the way you're shaking." She held a finger behind herself, waving at Jackie's emerging mouth. "And please, don't say it's the motorcycle doing that to you...Discomfort is something I always detect in people. That's how I first met you, remember?" She ended the sentence with such an air of confidence.
Jackie could recall that moment. In the midst of an archaeologists' convention, pawing at hors de oeuvres, ignoring the toothache and then admitting its presence with a mess all over the floor. Then having his first sights of her from the waist down....Yes, he could recall aplenty. Changing the subject was the best solution to that.
"How much longer do we get to Las Vegas.? I want to be there as fast as I can, for my reunion."
"I'll drop you off. Where's your motel, or hotel, at?"
"Uh, hotel?"
She turned her helmeted face towards him for three seconds. A black helmet hid everything save her purple eyes. Then again, her expressions were never very readable. "You had to have reserved a room, to sleep over and settle down. Unless you're hoping to walk over the entire city every step of the way."
"Room?" One arm still around Portia, Jackie fumbled his trusty right pocket. Behold...empty! "Huh?" He grasped for the last pocket. His eyes bulged, turning white like marshmallows. "Bwah! My wallet's gone! How did it-? Gasp! The portal!"
"What was that last part?" Portia asked aloud.
"Uh, the bus port!" Jackie lied. "I left my wallet in the bus port in San Francisco while I was-Bwah! I left my cell phone too! How am I supposed to call my friends at Section 13, I mean, my family having as much bad luck as number 13?"
Portia was clearly baffled and amused by Jackie's hasty choice of words. She knew much of the truth without her asking him, but she realized one thing with Jackie's discomfort; he often forgot what not to say and when to not say it. Ah well, nothing should hurt by prodding at this hilarity. "Don't fret, Mr. Chan. When exactly is your reunion to take place?"
"I-I don't know. I was hoping they would call me and...."
"Without your cell phone, you're kind of stranded in Las Vegas. Sounds a lot like a movie premise."
"Sigh. I wished this was a movie, with lights, cameras, and action..."
Portia laughed, and stopped another laugh, putting the brakes on it hardly. "So, yet again I'm Ms. Well-prepared and you're Mr. Toothache...."
Jackie stared at her. He didn't like jokes about the past. The past didn't have much jokes. Or at least the jokes were never the important ones.
"We'll see what we can do about it, Chan. Hope you're used to listening to Elvis, because Las Vegas is right in front of us.."
And indeed it was, a Viva Las Vegas song popping out of a rusty bullhorn atop a lamp.
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There was a hotel, about 4 floors high, but high enough for planes to fly overhead and vibrate the roof every 30 minutes or so. From the roof, such landmarks as the Hard Rock Cafe and the roller-coaster tower Stratosphere stood like colorful game pieces in a huge Monopoly board. But the planes were the most lively things as far as he could feel. They gave Jackie the creeps, since he looked up at the sky and was scared of planes coming down on him, even as a kid. Uncle would try to calm Jackie down by remarking that the planes were like toys up in the sky. There was no need to fear them. Besides, do you know what is MUCH more scarier than a plane above your head? Being in one! You have no idea how scared Uncle was when he first came to San Francisco! The stewardesses gave me food bad for digestion! My willies broke a record yet to be broken! But Jackie wasn't always one to accept the Uncle-speak. Riding on planes was more reassuring, he believed. It meant you were on a mission and you wanted to waste no time. And being under the sky, under the plane, you often felt the mission needed even less time to expend, only you couldn't go as fast as hoped.
Jackie took the phone and began worrying. He didn't want Portia to be charged extra for a call she wasn't going to make. No wallet on him meant he couldn't pay for the call. No call meant no one to help save Uncle.
"Martindale, I need to make a call," he shouted. This time he was on no motorcycle. The woman was cleansing herself on in the shower room, the splatters of water making the room more disquieting than the airplanes could. Portia clearly wasn't a very quiet person.
"Put it in my tab!" she replied loudly. Not so quiet.
"Is it okay?" Always he felt like making sure. Being sure meant being not guilty.
"Yes, if you need it."
"I'll pay for it later, thank you!" he shouted once more. Now that that icky business got swept off, it was time to get the real cleanup crew... His fingers hit the number to his area code, but then....Uh, oh, he didn't know how to call Section 13. Most of the time, the agency came to him, so he took their phone numbers for granted. There was only one more place he could think of calling....
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Jade was sighing, sitting next to the cash register while holding up a book entitled "Demons and the Myths Surrounding Them." She missed the adventures of demons invading the earth. They made for credible classroom excuses when the demons pursued her.
RING! RING!
Jade held up the phone. "Jade's Delivery Service for Total Boredom," she murmured listlessly on the phone.
"Jade?"
She sprung up on the familiar voice of her uncle. She whirled on the stool she sat on. "Jackie, oh, I'm so glad to hear from you again. So, where'll I be posted in your mission?"
"Jade," Jackie spoke in that lecturing tone she disliked.
"Aw, Jack-ie! It's no fun in here. I'm having summer vacation, the fall quarter is coming soon and I get no free time with you or Uncle?"
"Jade, I'm finding Uncle as we speak."
"But that could be a vacation too! Remember when you gave him that spicy burrito, he ran off for some water, and it took us from Baja California to Acapulco to find him?" While speaking this, she did what Jackie never could witness; she waved her hands all over the empty shop space, as if retracing a map. She'd make a great geographer, one day.
"Jade, we are not talking about a burrito. Uncle's been captured by Daolan Wong. This is not the same."
"Gasp! Mr. Anti-Uncle's behind all this!? Wait'll I show him!"
"No, it's not safe for you. I need you to contact Section 13 about my whereabouts. I got separated from them and I'm in Las Vegas. I have a feeling Daolan Wong wants Kirishima to do something terrible in the city."
Jade's shoulders had slumped on the first sentence, but had found their springiness by the last. "Can do! Hey, where's T-Man and Captain Black?"
"Black's not too far away. He's in Las Vegas too, by now, unless he got lost again..." Jackie thought of scenarios of Black being lost in casinos, then lost in gambling, then lost in debt....Or maybe Black lost his wallet too. He continued. "Tohru's probably coming back to Section 13 by now."
"You're right! Mama Tohru called Section 13 and went there an hour ago. She's never come back since."
"She never told you about Tohru?"
"Tohru's the most precious person in her life. Would she really tell me he came back and not you?"
There was a hard sigh. "I wished she did. How long am I calling, I hope Portia won't be mad for talking this long."
Jade's voice became so loud that Jackie could raise the receiver a foot from his face and still get her gist. "Wait a minute! Did you just say Portia, that purple-eyed two-timer with the fake rack?"
"Jade, I have no idea what you're talking about, but that is rude language. She doesn't make fake racks two times, whatever that is supposed to mean. She is helping me in Las Vegas. She doesn't know exactly what my mission is."
"Are you sure, Jackie? She came by to visit the shop, you know."
"Huh?"
"She was looking for you, and Mama Tohru blabbered about you finding Uncle. Portia disappeared after that. Gasp! Don't you see, Jackie? She KNOWS you're trying to find Uncle! She's a hindrance to you, Jackie, and you don't even know it!"
It took Jackie a while to swallow all those word, but he smiled and his smile spoke words, if only Jade could see him. He hoped Jade wasn't going to become that Mel Gibson character in that theory movie. That wouldn't pay much money "Oh, Jade, that is crazy. You're crazy." .
"Crazy, huh?", said Jade, a mischievous tone suggesting a similar glint in her eye. "Well, listen to crazy Jade saying that she's off to join the rest of the Section 13 boys to save you and Uncle from Daolan Wong and the Portia woman!"
"What?! Jade, don't-"
"See you, Jackie!" Click! She thrust both her elbows close to her. "Yi-Es! Jade is so gonna rock! Time to head over to Las Vegas and give those bad guys a poker face!" Jade ran off the shop, turning off the lights and putting in a "Store Closed" sign on the front window.
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Jackie muttered as he stared down (and hard) at the stuff he still managed to keep in his pockets, the stuff that the portal hadn't lifted from his advantages. It was a decrepit lot to save his Uncle. Three wrapped sticks of gum, a crumpled up tissue that once carried the talismans used and left behind in Daolan Wong's castle...None of this could drive the pest Daolan Wong away, much less wake Uncle from the cursing slumber of Kirishima. Jackie's only hope at this time was to trap his evil uncle, keep him from escaping Las Vegas so the others can come in with the "prop-ah ingredients", as Uncle kept calling remedies. Jackie kept stubborn to his thoughts; Uncle being here was a theory, but if Daolan Wong and his odd minions were to have business, very few places could be as multifaceted as Las Vegas. Only...what was the connection between wealthy Las Vegas and magic-hungry Daolan Wong?
There sat one final pocket object on the table; it was Kepler's little cloaking device, a System Ghost, the doctor labeled. The device could make him invisible, the right tool to scout Las Vegas without anyone seeing him. It was a chance worth taking.
To Be Continued....
Coming up next: an update on Kirishima!