Chapter 9~ Hope, Honor, & Glory
The J-Team arrived the next day at the Asakusa Gaming Company. The sun was shining brightly now, a contrast to the dull colors of the night before. Everyone's eyes drooped from lack of sleep, with the exception of Viper, who was apparently used to it. The bright sun was irritating to Jackie, who really just wanted to go back to bed. They hadn't arrived back at the hotel until 7:30, and although he had been tired, when he closed his eyes he couldn't sleep.
Probably the caffeine and the drastic time change combined with his apprehensions, but he had a feeling of foreboding that he shrugged off as ridiculous. After all, how much lower than his expectations could the meeting with Jade's other half get? He yawned, noticing a grin on Viper's face as she watched him out of the corner of her eye.
Jackie stopped yawning and checked his watch, then remembered it was still set to San Francisco time. He adjusted the knob on top and then read it again, a slight glare shining off the durable face. 11:47. They had walked here from the hotel at about 11, and arrived shortly before 11:30. Although the game wasn't due to have finished the final tests until noon, already a large crowd had been growing around the building, mostly children Jade's age and older. Jackie hadn't expected anyone else to be there, seeing as the game wouldn't be released until later. But according to Jade, with the special edition versions, they allow a demo game for the first 50 kids to show up at the Headquarters.
Apparently Jackie's watch was off, because a company representative in a crisp business suit opened the door. Children began to flock inside while their parents handed over the appropriate amount of yen. The representative looked at Jade and Paco, his eyes glancing over the older members of the J- Team with a quick smile.
"Konnichiwa. Agatte kudasai!"
He must have caught the confused look on Jade and Paco's faces, because he laughed and spoke in only slightly accented English to them. "Good afternoon! Please come in," he beckoned to them warmly, and rather tentatively they began to step inside. Jackie made to follow, but he was waved way. "We accept American dollars if you wish, the price is about $15 dollars per child, or 1,300 yen." Jackie frowned at the poor exchange rate, but quickly counted the J-Team.
"Um. . .do you accept credit cards? I only have $50 with me. . ."
The man shook his head, smiling again congenially as people behind Jackie began to get upset. "Only $30. Must be under 16 for the demo."
"But I'd like to go in with my niece and-" Jackie said desperately, knowing the adults of the J-Team would be needed in case of robbery.
"Sorry, under 16 only," interrupted the man, ushering Jade and Paco inside and shooing Jackie away. Jackie sighed and faced the team as the two children disappeared.
"We have to get in there. Jade and Paco couldn't handle Jade by themselves." He didn't bother thinking about how strange that sentence sounded. "Viper, breaking and entering is your specialty-" Viper opened her mouth to protest that she had gone legit, but Jackie waved her complaint aside. "Everyone else, stay outside. Watch for Jade. If she shows up, come find us. . .somehow."
~*~
"Ow!" whispered Viper angrily.
"Sorry," muttered Jackie, removing his foot from hers. She glared at him, rubbing the toes poking out from her sandals. He grasped the wall of the building, thinking that it wasn't his fault he had lost his balance jumping up from the ledge, and she had stomped all over his fingers when he gave her a boost up. But he didn't say anything, because Viper was currently peering down the skylight of one of the Asakusa Company's skylights.
"Finally. This one's deserted," she grinned, then opened her purse, pulling some tools out and removing the glace panel with them. She glanced over at Jackie, who was watching quizzically. "Can't hurt to be prepared," she whispered, as if reading his mind. The two of them silently dropped into the empty office and crept out the door into a dark hallway. They could hear children's voices from somewhere below, so they climbed down the stairs into the lit part of the building, now looking warily around. All the noise seemed to be coming from one room, behind a white door. There was no window looking into the room, so Jackie was unsure how to tell if either of his nieces was in there.
"C'mon," Viper whispered, and they slowly walked out of the stairwell to get nearer to the door, even though it was unclear how that would solve their problems. Suddenly, the door swung open, leaving Jackie and Viper exposed to the occupants of the room within.
There were many children inside, all sitting at a monitor and rapidly punching buttons on a game consol. Jade and Paco were sitting next to each other. And behind them, Uncle, Tohru, and El Torro.
"Hello, Jackie!" Uncle waved.
Jackie stared at them. "How did you get in?"
El Torro shrugged. "Apparently they only minded adults while they were still setting the children with the game. They opened the doors to us a few minutes after you left."
"Oh," was the only thing Jackie could say. He glanced at Viper, who looked equally displeased. "So, um, no sign of Jade?"
"Nope," said Paco, staring mesmerized at the screen. Jackie glanced over, and saw that Paco was doing fairly well, assuming he was the man hurling fireballs. If he was one of the people trapped in cages, then not so good. Judging from the look at Paco's face, he was trapped in a cage.
Or, he was the red haired man who was conjuring water but somehow losing. That didn't make a lot of sense to Jackie, seeing as water should beat fire. But the writing below the animated figures showed that the fire man was "Pyralis-Fire & Metal Master" whereas the water man was "Moar- All Elements Adept." Maybe that had something to do with it.
Jackie glanced over at Jade, who was playing the same game, but at a different point. She was playing a red haired woman who wasn't actually fighting anyone, but instead talking to two people in robes. Jade noticed him watching, and looked back.
"I'm playing Queen Rosalin, she's my favorite. Rowan, too, but you can't play him. I also like playing Queen Fen, but not as much. I don't like the fighting parts in the game, like when Pyralis kidnaps you and stuff. Only when you do stuff like talk with the envoys or with Rowan. And when Sienna died, that was so sad! But the special edition is really great! It has a new country called Kasimir, and new people you can play, too. But I don't like the emperor very much. He seems mean. Maybe he'll get nicer," she said all in one breath. "Want a turn?"
"No, I'll just-"
The entire building's foundations seemed to shake as a tremendous golden light blasted into the room from the wall to the outside. Jade fell off her chair, as did many others, and the screens all around went blank.
The blinding light passed, but the wall that had separated the room from outside had been reduced to a heap of rubble, and the light of the sun, was nearly as blinding. In the midst of the rubble was a very small figure, holding a talisman in her hand, looking rather ridiculous dressed in all leather and with sunglasses too big for her small face.
"Jackie," said Uncle calmly, "Jade is here."
Jade looked at them, then deftly removed the sunglasses and looked again. This time, she appeared to notice them- apparently the sunglasses had been too shaded to see indoors.
"What are you doing here?" she remarked, in such a tone that, if he didn't know better, Jackie would've sworn she was all of Jade. She wasn't grinning, but she didn't look upset at seeing them either, only curious.
Jackie grinned at her. "Your other half knew you'd come."
Jade raised an eyebrow. "My other- gah!" she suddenly noticed Jade lying on the floor, grinning and waving. "You mean the tiger. . .ha! No wonder I've been feeling so good, without her along!" She laughed again, and her other half pouted, standing up and smoothing the wrinkles out of her white sundress. "You haven't been acting very good, Jade. We have to rejoin now."
Jade blinked. "Hell no."
Jackie sighed, having anticipated how hard this was going to be. "Jade, you might as well give up. We'll find you again. Uncle has a map, and as soon as we saw you were going to Asia, Jade- the other Jade- knew you would come here. She knows your intentions."
Jade suddenly burst out laughing, and grasped the remnants of the wall for support. "You guys actually thought I'd come all the way to Asia for some dumb video game? No way! I mean, sure, I stopped off here when I had the time, but I have more important things to deal with."
Jackie raised his eyebrow. "Such as. . ." He wasn't sure he wanted to know.
"Such as picking up a couple things off the Recommended Reading List," Jade grinned, waving a parchment torn out of one of Uncle's books. "Actually, that's why I'm glad you're here. I can read the spells, but I've got no clue as to what they're supposed to do. I thought you guys could help translate. They're Chinese characters, but they don't really mean anything."
Jackie grinned slyly. "How about I help translate. . .after you two rejoin?"
Jade's brows furrowed, and she lost her grin. "How 'bout you help translate. . .and I don't turn you all into Dragon Blast?"
"That could work too," admitted Jackie, trying to think of a plan. "Um, what did you want translated?"
Jade gave him a suspicious eye, remembering a similar incident where he had tricked her. She took out a large tan bag that looked like it must weigh a ton- but Jade had no problem carrying it. She pulled out a small, dusty blue book with strange inscriptions on the front. Uncle turned pale. Jade flipped to a random page.
"No, don't read-" shouted Uncle, but Jade ignored him. "See, it says here 'Guanfang Daimen'. . .I have no idea what that means, and look! It doesn't do anything!"
"Aaiiyaa!" Uncle shouted, then ran up and snatched the book out of Jade's hands. She was too surprised to react, even when he began shaking and glaring at her like evil incarnate, which she technically was.
"What?" snapped Jade angrily. "It didn't work! Absolutely nothing happened! I think someone's getting senile."
"Uncle is not senile! You have just released a great evil!"
"I what?" asked Jade, in a tone to convey her annoyance and belief that Uncle had lost his mind.
"She what?!" shouted Jackie, deciding to reinsert himself into the conversation. "What evil did she release?"
"She has released the eight demon siblings," Uncle whispered in a conspirational tone.
Jackie's jaw dropped. "She. . .opened. . .holy shit."
Author's Note~ Do you know how much I hate computers? Last year, this huge virus ate my entire system and I had to start over with a new hard drive. So every little computer glitch plays to my virus paranoia. Example? Today I open Microsoft Word, and it's gone all screwy. Basically, I couldn't open most documents, and when I could, there was no text, just little grey lines. Damn, that freaked me out. Especially since I hadn't backed up several fanfiction things (including this story) and my important biology and speech papers O_o. Praying hard, I put in a floppy and backed up the damaged copies, hoping they'd work on a normal computer instead of spreading an evil Microsoft Word virus. But it turned out unnecessary, because when I restarted all was well. *whew* Except that it messed with my settings, meaning that Satan's messenger, the Microsoft Office Assistant, is no longer hidden. Smiley paperclips. How scary is that?
I apologize for the inside jokes of this chapter! (Hope Honor & Glory is a really awesome RPG I play at, so only my fellow geeks LG and Spooji know who the hell these people are. Rosalin & Rowan belong to me, Fen to Kumo who doesn't read this story, Moar to Spooji, Pyralis to Rosecat who also doesn't read, and the whole damned site belongs to the very cool Michelle Adranth. Who also doesn't read. Nevertheless, consider HHG disclaimed.)
One last rant- why are they showing reruns? Where are my new Shadowkahn episodes? I get home from a long morning of PSATs, and the least that could be done for me is a nice new Jackie Chan. But nooooo. . .
Wow! This Author's Note is short! *cough relatively cough*
This chapter sponsored by Elliott, the adorable little rodent that is sitting in my lap as I type. ^_^.
Bye! *waves*
P.S. Before anyone brings it up, I am aware the portals cannot be re-opened and have prepared a counter-argument in the next chapter because I want them to be open and I am the omnipotent author.
The J-Team arrived the next day at the Asakusa Gaming Company. The sun was shining brightly now, a contrast to the dull colors of the night before. Everyone's eyes drooped from lack of sleep, with the exception of Viper, who was apparently used to it. The bright sun was irritating to Jackie, who really just wanted to go back to bed. They hadn't arrived back at the hotel until 7:30, and although he had been tired, when he closed his eyes he couldn't sleep.
Probably the caffeine and the drastic time change combined with his apprehensions, but he had a feeling of foreboding that he shrugged off as ridiculous. After all, how much lower than his expectations could the meeting with Jade's other half get? He yawned, noticing a grin on Viper's face as she watched him out of the corner of her eye.
Jackie stopped yawning and checked his watch, then remembered it was still set to San Francisco time. He adjusted the knob on top and then read it again, a slight glare shining off the durable face. 11:47. They had walked here from the hotel at about 11, and arrived shortly before 11:30. Although the game wasn't due to have finished the final tests until noon, already a large crowd had been growing around the building, mostly children Jade's age and older. Jackie hadn't expected anyone else to be there, seeing as the game wouldn't be released until later. But according to Jade, with the special edition versions, they allow a demo game for the first 50 kids to show up at the Headquarters.
Apparently Jackie's watch was off, because a company representative in a crisp business suit opened the door. Children began to flock inside while their parents handed over the appropriate amount of yen. The representative looked at Jade and Paco, his eyes glancing over the older members of the J- Team with a quick smile.
"Konnichiwa. Agatte kudasai!"
He must have caught the confused look on Jade and Paco's faces, because he laughed and spoke in only slightly accented English to them. "Good afternoon! Please come in," he beckoned to them warmly, and rather tentatively they began to step inside. Jackie made to follow, but he was waved way. "We accept American dollars if you wish, the price is about $15 dollars per child, or 1,300 yen." Jackie frowned at the poor exchange rate, but quickly counted the J-Team.
"Um. . .do you accept credit cards? I only have $50 with me. . ."
The man shook his head, smiling again congenially as people behind Jackie began to get upset. "Only $30. Must be under 16 for the demo."
"But I'd like to go in with my niece and-" Jackie said desperately, knowing the adults of the J-Team would be needed in case of robbery.
"Sorry, under 16 only," interrupted the man, ushering Jade and Paco inside and shooing Jackie away. Jackie sighed and faced the team as the two children disappeared.
"We have to get in there. Jade and Paco couldn't handle Jade by themselves." He didn't bother thinking about how strange that sentence sounded. "Viper, breaking and entering is your specialty-" Viper opened her mouth to protest that she had gone legit, but Jackie waved her complaint aside. "Everyone else, stay outside. Watch for Jade. If she shows up, come find us. . .somehow."
~*~
"Ow!" whispered Viper angrily.
"Sorry," muttered Jackie, removing his foot from hers. She glared at him, rubbing the toes poking out from her sandals. He grasped the wall of the building, thinking that it wasn't his fault he had lost his balance jumping up from the ledge, and she had stomped all over his fingers when he gave her a boost up. But he didn't say anything, because Viper was currently peering down the skylight of one of the Asakusa Company's skylights.
"Finally. This one's deserted," she grinned, then opened her purse, pulling some tools out and removing the glace panel with them. She glanced over at Jackie, who was watching quizzically. "Can't hurt to be prepared," she whispered, as if reading his mind. The two of them silently dropped into the empty office and crept out the door into a dark hallway. They could hear children's voices from somewhere below, so they climbed down the stairs into the lit part of the building, now looking warily around. All the noise seemed to be coming from one room, behind a white door. There was no window looking into the room, so Jackie was unsure how to tell if either of his nieces was in there.
"C'mon," Viper whispered, and they slowly walked out of the stairwell to get nearer to the door, even though it was unclear how that would solve their problems. Suddenly, the door swung open, leaving Jackie and Viper exposed to the occupants of the room within.
There were many children inside, all sitting at a monitor and rapidly punching buttons on a game consol. Jade and Paco were sitting next to each other. And behind them, Uncle, Tohru, and El Torro.
"Hello, Jackie!" Uncle waved.
Jackie stared at them. "How did you get in?"
El Torro shrugged. "Apparently they only minded adults while they were still setting the children with the game. They opened the doors to us a few minutes after you left."
"Oh," was the only thing Jackie could say. He glanced at Viper, who looked equally displeased. "So, um, no sign of Jade?"
"Nope," said Paco, staring mesmerized at the screen. Jackie glanced over, and saw that Paco was doing fairly well, assuming he was the man hurling fireballs. If he was one of the people trapped in cages, then not so good. Judging from the look at Paco's face, he was trapped in a cage.
Or, he was the red haired man who was conjuring water but somehow losing. That didn't make a lot of sense to Jackie, seeing as water should beat fire. But the writing below the animated figures showed that the fire man was "Pyralis-Fire & Metal Master" whereas the water man was "Moar- All Elements Adept." Maybe that had something to do with it.
Jackie glanced over at Jade, who was playing the same game, but at a different point. She was playing a red haired woman who wasn't actually fighting anyone, but instead talking to two people in robes. Jade noticed him watching, and looked back.
"I'm playing Queen Rosalin, she's my favorite. Rowan, too, but you can't play him. I also like playing Queen Fen, but not as much. I don't like the fighting parts in the game, like when Pyralis kidnaps you and stuff. Only when you do stuff like talk with the envoys or with Rowan. And when Sienna died, that was so sad! But the special edition is really great! It has a new country called Kasimir, and new people you can play, too. But I don't like the emperor very much. He seems mean. Maybe he'll get nicer," she said all in one breath. "Want a turn?"
"No, I'll just-"
The entire building's foundations seemed to shake as a tremendous golden light blasted into the room from the wall to the outside. Jade fell off her chair, as did many others, and the screens all around went blank.
The blinding light passed, but the wall that had separated the room from outside had been reduced to a heap of rubble, and the light of the sun, was nearly as blinding. In the midst of the rubble was a very small figure, holding a talisman in her hand, looking rather ridiculous dressed in all leather and with sunglasses too big for her small face.
"Jackie," said Uncle calmly, "Jade is here."
Jade looked at them, then deftly removed the sunglasses and looked again. This time, she appeared to notice them- apparently the sunglasses had been too shaded to see indoors.
"What are you doing here?" she remarked, in such a tone that, if he didn't know better, Jackie would've sworn she was all of Jade. She wasn't grinning, but she didn't look upset at seeing them either, only curious.
Jackie grinned at her. "Your other half knew you'd come."
Jade raised an eyebrow. "My other- gah!" she suddenly noticed Jade lying on the floor, grinning and waving. "You mean the tiger. . .ha! No wonder I've been feeling so good, without her along!" She laughed again, and her other half pouted, standing up and smoothing the wrinkles out of her white sundress. "You haven't been acting very good, Jade. We have to rejoin now."
Jade blinked. "Hell no."
Jackie sighed, having anticipated how hard this was going to be. "Jade, you might as well give up. We'll find you again. Uncle has a map, and as soon as we saw you were going to Asia, Jade- the other Jade- knew you would come here. She knows your intentions."
Jade suddenly burst out laughing, and grasped the remnants of the wall for support. "You guys actually thought I'd come all the way to Asia for some dumb video game? No way! I mean, sure, I stopped off here when I had the time, but I have more important things to deal with."
Jackie raised his eyebrow. "Such as. . ." He wasn't sure he wanted to know.
"Such as picking up a couple things off the Recommended Reading List," Jade grinned, waving a parchment torn out of one of Uncle's books. "Actually, that's why I'm glad you're here. I can read the spells, but I've got no clue as to what they're supposed to do. I thought you guys could help translate. They're Chinese characters, but they don't really mean anything."
Jackie grinned slyly. "How about I help translate. . .after you two rejoin?"
Jade's brows furrowed, and she lost her grin. "How 'bout you help translate. . .and I don't turn you all into Dragon Blast?"
"That could work too," admitted Jackie, trying to think of a plan. "Um, what did you want translated?"
Jade gave him a suspicious eye, remembering a similar incident where he had tricked her. She took out a large tan bag that looked like it must weigh a ton- but Jade had no problem carrying it. She pulled out a small, dusty blue book with strange inscriptions on the front. Uncle turned pale. Jade flipped to a random page.
"No, don't read-" shouted Uncle, but Jade ignored him. "See, it says here 'Guanfang Daimen'. . .I have no idea what that means, and look! It doesn't do anything!"
"Aaiiyaa!" Uncle shouted, then ran up and snatched the book out of Jade's hands. She was too surprised to react, even when he began shaking and glaring at her like evil incarnate, which she technically was.
"What?" snapped Jade angrily. "It didn't work! Absolutely nothing happened! I think someone's getting senile."
"Uncle is not senile! You have just released a great evil!"
"I what?" asked Jade, in a tone to convey her annoyance and belief that Uncle had lost his mind.
"She what?!" shouted Jackie, deciding to reinsert himself into the conversation. "What evil did she release?"
"She has released the eight demon siblings," Uncle whispered in a conspirational tone.
Jackie's jaw dropped. "She. . .opened. . .holy shit."
Author's Note~ Do you know how much I hate computers? Last year, this huge virus ate my entire system and I had to start over with a new hard drive. So every little computer glitch plays to my virus paranoia. Example? Today I open Microsoft Word, and it's gone all screwy. Basically, I couldn't open most documents, and when I could, there was no text, just little grey lines. Damn, that freaked me out. Especially since I hadn't backed up several fanfiction things (including this story) and my important biology and speech papers O_o. Praying hard, I put in a floppy and backed up the damaged copies, hoping they'd work on a normal computer instead of spreading an evil Microsoft Word virus. But it turned out unnecessary, because when I restarted all was well. *whew* Except that it messed with my settings, meaning that Satan's messenger, the Microsoft Office Assistant, is no longer hidden. Smiley paperclips. How scary is that?
I apologize for the inside jokes of this chapter! (Hope Honor & Glory is a really awesome RPG I play at, so only my fellow geeks LG and Spooji know who the hell these people are. Rosalin & Rowan belong to me, Fen to Kumo who doesn't read this story, Moar to Spooji, Pyralis to Rosecat who also doesn't read, and the whole damned site belongs to the very cool Michelle Adranth. Who also doesn't read. Nevertheless, consider HHG disclaimed.)
One last rant- why are they showing reruns? Where are my new Shadowkahn episodes? I get home from a long morning of PSATs, and the least that could be done for me is a nice new Jackie Chan. But nooooo. . .
Wow! This Author's Note is short! *cough relatively cough*
This chapter sponsored by Elliott, the adorable little rodent that is sitting in my lap as I type. ^_^.
Bye! *waves*
P.S. Before anyone brings it up, I am aware the portals cannot be re-opened and have prepared a counter-argument in the next chapter because I want them to be open and I am the omnipotent author.