CHAPTER 22

Moving Faster

Oogieous' large frame loomed over living Jack, like a hippo preparing to pounce on it's helpless pray; that would probably be a piece of fruit or something.

Crap. Thought living Jack. I never imagined Tim getting me into this much trouble. Hell, I never thought he would ever get me into any kind of trouble at all, him being the stick-in-the-mud that he is.

Living Jack's eyes bounced back and forth between Oogieous' violent stare and his fatal knife.

I've got to distract him. I got to slip through his fat fingers. Ohhh, I need a distraction really badly!

Living Jack saw Lock, Shock, and Barrel scampering around with weapons scaring the living daylights out of as many people as possible.

Perfect

"That's a whole new low for you, Oogieous!" living Jack suddenly cried out.

Oogieous stopped, confused, "Huh?"

"Those poor children. You kidnapped them from their homes to perform your bidding. Am I right? Those poor little angels!"

Lock, Shock, and Barrel stopped tormenting the crowd to join Oogieous in a blank stare at living Jack. After three seconds of silent blinking, the four of them broke out in hysterical laughter.

Oogieous was barely able to speak, "Poor children…kidnapped…ANGELS!" His laughter came out even harder.

Just as I planned.

Living Jack leapt high into the air, thrusting out his leg, and twisting his torso to make his body spin. Living Jack's spinning-high-kick to Oogieous' head made him chock on his laughter as it turned to moans of pain. Living Jack did the same kick again, this time sending Oogieous spilling onto the floor. With a cruel smile and a wink at Oogieous, Living Jack did front flips over the large man's body and into the center of the room.

"Whoa!" Sydney's eyes popped wide. Her breath was taken by this astonishing scene of random ninja-ness, "How did you learn awesome stuff like that, in a crap town like this!"

"From what I can remember, the year before, my cousin-in-law had come through town for a few months and showed me some moves. I believe his name was…Jackie…Chan?"

"COOLNESS! You're related to the famous Chinese action star, Jackie Chan!"

"What? The Jackie Chan I knew was French.-"

"Shut up. Look what's going on," Sydney pointed to living Jack. He was standing in the center of the room with one hand holding the top of Shock's head, the other holding her under her chin.

"Ooigeous!" living Jack called to him, "Get your ugly carcass out of my town right now! Or," living Jack made a slight twisting motion with his arms and Shock's head, "I'll snap the little witch's neck! You have 'til the count of five to be out of those doors if you want to save her."

Shock looked at Oogieous with big puppy dog eyes, but when she realized whom she was pleading her life to, she desperately began scratching at living Jack's arms.

Oogieous slowly pulled his bulk up, spat blood on the floor, and wiped the droplets of it from his mouth, all while chuckling in his throat, "Snap the little witch's neck? By all means, do! That'll be one less problem I'd have to worry about."

The surprise of this to living Jack caused him to loosen his grip on Shock a little, "You sick bastard."

"Oh please, kid. If you knew these monsters you'd being seeing things my way."

"But…but they're children!"

"Which makes it all the more easier for them to commit a crime. You don't even know how I picked up these little pain-in-the-necks."

"Well that would probably be because I don't ca-."

"While I was escaping the asylum, I was stopped by these little devils in the children's ward. The really loony kids thrive there. As I was running, I fell into one of their contraptions made from bed poles and forks. That thing hurt like a bitch! It was intended for no one in particular, but I just so happened to have gotten caught in it. The little runts figured I was on the run and being successful in escaping. So they wouldn't let me go unless I took them with me. Time was growing short, and so was my patience. I agreed to take them in, and haven't been able to get rid of them since," living Jack processed all this while still holding Shock's head, "You want to snap her neck? Go ahead, let her rip."

Living Jack thought a few seconds more. He let go of Shock.

"I wont kill her. I hadn't planned on it. But I wont let you kill me," living Jack got into a fighter's stance, "Not without a fight!"

Oogieous smirked, "I thought this might happen," he put his hand in the air and snapped, "Plan B, boys."