Unfortunately I'm very slow. The demons would be freed only in chapter
11... Because of that, I edited all the chapters starting from this one so
that they will become longer. I hope you don't mind...^^" Oh my, now I have
to edit my original version too, or else I'd be even more confused when
updating...
Well, I hope you like this chapter. Thank you for the reviews!^^ Oh, by the way, both Jack and Julia are almost seven years old.
*****
Chapter 6: Shendu is freed
After inserting the last talisman, Julia stepped back. Shendu's body began to shine and he took his true form. Julia had to close her eyes, since they were still used to the darkness, and she couldn't see what he looked like very well.
"Finally, I am free again! Now I can take my revenge on Jackie Chan and that cursed chi-wizard."
"If you leave in that form, they'll soon go after you.", Julia remarked and Shendu thought for a while. She was right. Of course everybody would notice that he wasn't in the vault anymore sooner or later, but if he was disguised he could get away and think of a plan without being disturbed by mortals.
Julia heard a noise as if something was creaking, shrinking. Suddenly, she couldn't see his red glowing eyes anymore. She looked at her right side and with the light behind her, she could see that Shendu had taken a human form. He walked to the bars and opened a larger passage from the one opened by Julia. When he approached of the center light, Julia could see pretty well what he looked like in his human form.
He looked like a young man who didn't seem to be more than thirty years old. He had golden hair and Julia couldn't see the color of his eyes, since she was behind him. When Julia began to follow him, he turned invisible. She stopped and just stared at the vault's entrance. She really wanted to go with him, but it was obvious that he wanted to stay alone.
She heard steps of somebody running and she looked for some place to hide. But before that she saw that it was Jade who was coming. She sighed in relieve.
"Ok, I'm back.", Jade said smiling and panting.
"Finally. You took a long time.", Julia snapped. Jade looked at where the talismans were supposed to be.
"Julia, where are the talismans?", she asked a bit worried and Julia flinched.
"Uh, remember when you said that always take the talismans to have fun outside? So, I wanted to do the same thing. They are here in my backpack.", she lied and hoped that Jade didn't want to make sure that it was true.
"Alright then. Let's get out of here before somebody sees us. They'll soon notice that the security camera is turned off and understand that I've invaded the vault again."
Julia sighed in relieve and nodded. Luckily the vault was dark and Jade hadn't seen the destroyed bars.
~/~/~
"Are you still going to sleep at my home tonight?", Julia asked while they walked in the pavement.
"Sure. But first let's have some fun with the talismans. Don't you want to know how the talismans work?", Jade propose and Julia flinched again.
"Uhn... You know what? I'm very tired now. I think we should go sleep.", she said simulating a yawn. Jade shrugged.
"Ok. We can play with them tomorrow."
"Yeah...", Julia murmured lowering her head.
"Where's your home?", Jade asked glancing at her surroundings.
"It's not far.", Julia answered and made a serious face.
"Listen, Jade. I promised that I wouldn't tell where is the Section 13, then you also have to promise that you won't tell anyone where I live.", she demanded.
"No problem.", Jade answered doing a positive sign.
They crossed three streets and then arrived in an apparently normal building that probably had fifteen floors.
"Only the members of the Dark Hand live here. And there's also a 'business area'.", Julia remarked. Jade felt a bit uneasy by knowing that so much criminal people were living there, but she promised not to tell anyone.
"Are you sure that nobody will recognize me?", Jade asked in worry.
"Yes, I am. They traveled with my father or went to some bar. Anyway, they won't disturb us."
"Where did your father go?"
"It's none of your business.", Julia snapped.
The two girls went up to the 14th floor and entered in an apartment in the end of the corridor. Jade observed it carefully. It was big and there were several valuable objects. There were also many photos of a blond woman. Her hair reached her shoulders and her eyes were green. Jade picked one of the photos.
"Who's she?", Jade asked.
"My mother.", Julia answered while trying to hide her backpack so that Jade couldn't try to find the talismans during the night. Luckily Jade was very busy looking at the photo.
"Would you like something to eat?", Julia offered.
"No, thanks. Let's sleep already.", Jade said still observing the photos. They were countless, and in the room there was a shelf with several dictionaries and books. Jade took one of the books and read some pages.
"What are all these books?", she asked curiously.
"Almost all of them are books of Chinese legends and tales. I just looove the Chinese culture. In fact, my favorite animal is the Chinese dragon. And the other books are Chinese and German dictionaries."
"I understand why you want to learn Chinese, but German?", Jade said returning the book.
"Oh, didn't you know? My mother was a German spy."
"Wow, cool! I bet she looked like Viper."
"Viper?"
"Jack's mom.", Jade said and noticed that Julia shook her head as if she was trying to move away some uncomfortable thought.
"What?"
"Nothing. Let's go to my room.", she said angry and left clenching her fists. Jade raised a brow.
"Did I say something wrong?"
Jade followed Julia and entered in her room. Julia was holding an alarm clock.
"I'm going to set the alarm clock for six in the morning. I know it is kind of early, but my father will be back at seven.", Julia explained and Jade nodded.
Some hours later, none of the two girls had managed to sleep yet. Julia seemed quite uneasy and that made Jade worry.
"Julia, is everything alright?"
"Actually not, I have to tell you something.", Julia answered after a long while. She seated and sighed. Jade frowned both confused and curious.
"It's about the talismans.", she said glancing at Jade.
~/~/~
The telephone rang five times. Jackie was very tired after so much research and didn't bother to get up.
"Jackieeeee! Answer the telephone now! Uncle cannot sleep with all this noise!", Uncle shouted from his room. Jackie stood up and sighed. There was no point in discuss with Uncle. He noticed that the only way to sleep in peace again was answering the phone. He went downstairs and walked slowly to the phone.
"Hello.... Oh, Captain Black.....", he murmured half-sleeping.
"WHAT?! Impossible! Are you sure?", he asked aloud. It seemed that the shock had wakened him up completely. Jack went downstairs rubbing his eyes.
"What happened, dad?"
"I'll be there.", he said hanging up.
"What's going on?", Jack asked again without really worrying. Jackie shook his head.
"It couldn't be worse.", he said wearing a coat. Jack stared curiously at him. Jackie sighed heavily trying to calm down and turned to face his son.
"Wake Uncle up. We have an emergency."
~/~/~
"YOU WHAAAAAAAT?!", Jade yelled not believing.
"But... But why did you do that, Julia?"
"There's no point in explaining. You'd never understand.", Julia said calmly. Jade was in panic, her hands in her head.
"You don't know how he is dangerous!"
"Shendu? He didn't seem so dangerous...", Julia said thoughtfully.
"Shendu? Oh yeah, he's dangerous too. But I was talking about Jackie! What will he say when find out? Oh, I don't want even think...", she said closing her eyes with her hands.
"Relax. He doesn't have to know that it was your fault."
"Are you telling me that it was actually my fault?!"
"It was your fault. You took a crime lord's daughter to a vault of Section 13. That was irresponsible, I would say...", Julia said sarcastically. Jade felt like throttling her.
"Calm down. They know that you wouldn't free Shendu, so they'll think that it was another person's fault.", she continued. Jade thought for a short while. Of course, it was impossible that somebody suspected that she could have done that. She was safe! Jade sighed in relieve.
"Of course you would be much more convincing if you were there in Section 13 right now sleeping with Captain Black's children, as you said you'd be. Probably they have already noticed that you aren't there and are wondering where you are..."
Jade's face turned pale. Now she had to think of a very good excuse. She left running as fast as she could, leaving Julia alone in her room.
~/~/~
"I don't get how he could have escaped...", Jackie murmured.
"Hmph, it was obvious that he wouldn't stay there for a long time. This day would arrive sooner or later.", Uncle said crossing his arms. He, Jackie, Captain Black and Vinicius were heading to the talismans vault.
"This is very strange. The security was maximum, there was no way to enter.", Black said in frustration. Vinicius snorted.
"It wasn't that maximum. Jade invades it all the time."
"But Jade already knows quite well the vault's security.", Jackie said.
"Here we are.", Black said opening the vault's door.
"We don't know who had been here because the person who did it had turned off the security camera.", Black explained. Jackie glanced at him in surprise.
"Then it wasn't Jade. She doesn't know how to do that.", he said.
"Not just the camera. The door's lock and the alarm in the ground too. And then that person bended the bars that were imprisoning Shendu and they escaped."
"Maybe the person who did it had used some sort of magic.", Jackie guessed.
"A wizard? Yeah, it is possible.", Black agreed.
"No, it seems that the only magic used here was the power of the talismans. I need to make a magic sensor first, but almost certainly the invader is a normal human.", Uncle said as he observed the whole vault. Jackie and Black glanced at each other.
"It must be somebody very skilled. Our security equipment is unique. Only some of our most loyal agents know how to deal with it., Black said in deep thought.
"What if it was a spy?", Jackie asked.
"Well..."
"Aiyahhh! Who has freed Shendu is not important! What we have to do now is to find Shendu.", Uncle interrupted.
"You mean that now we are dealing with real demons? Cool!", Vinicius said and Black frowned at him.
"He really looks a lot like Jade.", he commented and Jackie nodded and then remembered of something.
"Speaking of her, where's Jade?"
Everyone's glance turned to Vinicius, who didn't know what to say.
"She told me that would be sleeping here with you.", Jackie remembered.
"Are you sure? I haven't seen her in a good while.", Black said.
"So, she...", Black continued after a while. Jackie sighed.
"Do you think she had something to do with this? But that's impossible."
"Jackie!", Jade's voice was heard behind them. Everybody turned to face her.
"Jade, where were you?", Jackie wanted to know.
"I was having a good time at Blue Sea.", she said smiling. Jackie frowned at her.
"What? I'm eighteen years old, remember?", she defended and Jackie shook his head.
"Then you don't know what happened here, do you?"
"Actually, I do. Alice told me when I came back."
"Oh. Ok. So, what do you think?", Jackie asked.
"Well, I have no idea of what the person who did it was thinking about?", she said honestly. And it was very true. She couldn't understand Julia.
~/~/~
The sun was beginning to rise. He stood in front of the shop's door and when tried to open it, quickly had to remove his hand from the doorknob as he felt a kind of shock. He hissed angry.
"Good morning.", a very familiar voice was heard behind him.
"Don't you know how to read? It is written right here 'closed'. Duh!", Jade said pointing to a sign in the door.
He didn't answer.
"Sorry, we are very busy right now. But you can come back within three hours.", Jackie said politely. The strange smirked.
"I see. Well, I'll come here later then.", he said calmly and walked away.
"He's so strange.", Jade commented.
"Jade!"
"Come on. We cannot stay here wasting time.", Uncle said.
"But what can we do now?", Jackie asked.
"We have only to wait. We don't know where Shendu is and I still have to prepare a magic sensor so that we can know if Shendu's ally is a human."
"Shendu? He's here?", a voice was heard.
"Tohru? You're back!", Jade ran to hug him.
"Jade! How good to see you again!"
"Tohru, you arrived in a good time. You'll stay here watching the shop while I go with Jackie to Section 13. Jade can tell you the details later.", Uncle said entering in the shop.
"But Uncle, I wanna investigate with you.", Jade complained.
"Jade, it's better if you stay here. It's safer. Uncle still didn't remove that chi-spell that impedes the demon of entering in the shop unless they're invited.", Jackie explained.
"That one used to keep Hsi Wu away? I had already forgotten that.", she said and entered in the shop after Jackie and Tohru.
And in the shop's roof, Shendu was watching them. He smirked, now he already knew how he could come in. But his method would be faster than Hsi Wu's.
~/~/~
Tohru was coming back from the market. He guessed that Jade had taken advantage of his absence to go to Section 13. But he was sure that she could take care of herself and wasn't in danger.
When he approached of the shop, he saw a young man in front of the door. He had left Jade watching the shop and now it was obvious that she actually had gone away. If Uncle knew that the shop had been empty for a long while, he would be really at him.
"Can I help you?", he asked.
"Yes. I am looking for a book."
"Sure. Please, come in.", Tohru said opening the door. The man smiled and entered in the shop. Tohru went right after him.
"Wait just a minute while I take this to the kitchen.", Tohru said turning his back to him and heading to the kitchen. The man's eyes glowed red and he pressed Tohru's shoulder with his fingers and the Japanese man fell unconscious. The fire demon hurried to the library and began to leaf through some books until finding three that were about very old spells.
Shendu ran away from the shop and smiled pleased with himself. He preferred to try to take the world and get rid of Jackie Chan all alone, but that would be very difficult and he needed help. His first option was to free his siblings, but before that he had to find out how he would do it - if he could do it. These three books were about portals and several ways to open them. After so many unsuccessful plans, this one had to work!
Well, I hope you like this chapter. Thank you for the reviews!^^ Oh, by the way, both Jack and Julia are almost seven years old.
*****
Chapter 6: Shendu is freed
After inserting the last talisman, Julia stepped back. Shendu's body began to shine and he took his true form. Julia had to close her eyes, since they were still used to the darkness, and she couldn't see what he looked like very well.
"Finally, I am free again! Now I can take my revenge on Jackie Chan and that cursed chi-wizard."
"If you leave in that form, they'll soon go after you.", Julia remarked and Shendu thought for a while. She was right. Of course everybody would notice that he wasn't in the vault anymore sooner or later, but if he was disguised he could get away and think of a plan without being disturbed by mortals.
Julia heard a noise as if something was creaking, shrinking. Suddenly, she couldn't see his red glowing eyes anymore. She looked at her right side and with the light behind her, she could see that Shendu had taken a human form. He walked to the bars and opened a larger passage from the one opened by Julia. When he approached of the center light, Julia could see pretty well what he looked like in his human form.
He looked like a young man who didn't seem to be more than thirty years old. He had golden hair and Julia couldn't see the color of his eyes, since she was behind him. When Julia began to follow him, he turned invisible. She stopped and just stared at the vault's entrance. She really wanted to go with him, but it was obvious that he wanted to stay alone.
She heard steps of somebody running and she looked for some place to hide. But before that she saw that it was Jade who was coming. She sighed in relieve.
"Ok, I'm back.", Jade said smiling and panting.
"Finally. You took a long time.", Julia snapped. Jade looked at where the talismans were supposed to be.
"Julia, where are the talismans?", she asked a bit worried and Julia flinched.
"Uh, remember when you said that always take the talismans to have fun outside? So, I wanted to do the same thing. They are here in my backpack.", she lied and hoped that Jade didn't want to make sure that it was true.
"Alright then. Let's get out of here before somebody sees us. They'll soon notice that the security camera is turned off and understand that I've invaded the vault again."
Julia sighed in relieve and nodded. Luckily the vault was dark and Jade hadn't seen the destroyed bars.
~/~/~
"Are you still going to sleep at my home tonight?", Julia asked while they walked in the pavement.
"Sure. But first let's have some fun with the talismans. Don't you want to know how the talismans work?", Jade propose and Julia flinched again.
"Uhn... You know what? I'm very tired now. I think we should go sleep.", she said simulating a yawn. Jade shrugged.
"Ok. We can play with them tomorrow."
"Yeah...", Julia murmured lowering her head.
"Where's your home?", Jade asked glancing at her surroundings.
"It's not far.", Julia answered and made a serious face.
"Listen, Jade. I promised that I wouldn't tell where is the Section 13, then you also have to promise that you won't tell anyone where I live.", she demanded.
"No problem.", Jade answered doing a positive sign.
They crossed three streets and then arrived in an apparently normal building that probably had fifteen floors.
"Only the members of the Dark Hand live here. And there's also a 'business area'.", Julia remarked. Jade felt a bit uneasy by knowing that so much criminal people were living there, but she promised not to tell anyone.
"Are you sure that nobody will recognize me?", Jade asked in worry.
"Yes, I am. They traveled with my father or went to some bar. Anyway, they won't disturb us."
"Where did your father go?"
"It's none of your business.", Julia snapped.
The two girls went up to the 14th floor and entered in an apartment in the end of the corridor. Jade observed it carefully. It was big and there were several valuable objects. There were also many photos of a blond woman. Her hair reached her shoulders and her eyes were green. Jade picked one of the photos.
"Who's she?", Jade asked.
"My mother.", Julia answered while trying to hide her backpack so that Jade couldn't try to find the talismans during the night. Luckily Jade was very busy looking at the photo.
"Would you like something to eat?", Julia offered.
"No, thanks. Let's sleep already.", Jade said still observing the photos. They were countless, and in the room there was a shelf with several dictionaries and books. Jade took one of the books and read some pages.
"What are all these books?", she asked curiously.
"Almost all of them are books of Chinese legends and tales. I just looove the Chinese culture. In fact, my favorite animal is the Chinese dragon. And the other books are Chinese and German dictionaries."
"I understand why you want to learn Chinese, but German?", Jade said returning the book.
"Oh, didn't you know? My mother was a German spy."
"Wow, cool! I bet she looked like Viper."
"Viper?"
"Jack's mom.", Jade said and noticed that Julia shook her head as if she was trying to move away some uncomfortable thought.
"What?"
"Nothing. Let's go to my room.", she said angry and left clenching her fists. Jade raised a brow.
"Did I say something wrong?"
Jade followed Julia and entered in her room. Julia was holding an alarm clock.
"I'm going to set the alarm clock for six in the morning. I know it is kind of early, but my father will be back at seven.", Julia explained and Jade nodded.
Some hours later, none of the two girls had managed to sleep yet. Julia seemed quite uneasy and that made Jade worry.
"Julia, is everything alright?"
"Actually not, I have to tell you something.", Julia answered after a long while. She seated and sighed. Jade frowned both confused and curious.
"It's about the talismans.", she said glancing at Jade.
~/~/~
The telephone rang five times. Jackie was very tired after so much research and didn't bother to get up.
"Jackieeeee! Answer the telephone now! Uncle cannot sleep with all this noise!", Uncle shouted from his room. Jackie stood up and sighed. There was no point in discuss with Uncle. He noticed that the only way to sleep in peace again was answering the phone. He went downstairs and walked slowly to the phone.
"Hello.... Oh, Captain Black.....", he murmured half-sleeping.
"WHAT?! Impossible! Are you sure?", he asked aloud. It seemed that the shock had wakened him up completely. Jack went downstairs rubbing his eyes.
"What happened, dad?"
"I'll be there.", he said hanging up.
"What's going on?", Jack asked again without really worrying. Jackie shook his head.
"It couldn't be worse.", he said wearing a coat. Jack stared curiously at him. Jackie sighed heavily trying to calm down and turned to face his son.
"Wake Uncle up. We have an emergency."
~/~/~
"YOU WHAAAAAAAT?!", Jade yelled not believing.
"But... But why did you do that, Julia?"
"There's no point in explaining. You'd never understand.", Julia said calmly. Jade was in panic, her hands in her head.
"You don't know how he is dangerous!"
"Shendu? He didn't seem so dangerous...", Julia said thoughtfully.
"Shendu? Oh yeah, he's dangerous too. But I was talking about Jackie! What will he say when find out? Oh, I don't want even think...", she said closing her eyes with her hands.
"Relax. He doesn't have to know that it was your fault."
"Are you telling me that it was actually my fault?!"
"It was your fault. You took a crime lord's daughter to a vault of Section 13. That was irresponsible, I would say...", Julia said sarcastically. Jade felt like throttling her.
"Calm down. They know that you wouldn't free Shendu, so they'll think that it was another person's fault.", she continued. Jade thought for a short while. Of course, it was impossible that somebody suspected that she could have done that. She was safe! Jade sighed in relieve.
"Of course you would be much more convincing if you were there in Section 13 right now sleeping with Captain Black's children, as you said you'd be. Probably they have already noticed that you aren't there and are wondering where you are..."
Jade's face turned pale. Now she had to think of a very good excuse. She left running as fast as she could, leaving Julia alone in her room.
~/~/~
"I don't get how he could have escaped...", Jackie murmured.
"Hmph, it was obvious that he wouldn't stay there for a long time. This day would arrive sooner or later.", Uncle said crossing his arms. He, Jackie, Captain Black and Vinicius were heading to the talismans vault.
"This is very strange. The security was maximum, there was no way to enter.", Black said in frustration. Vinicius snorted.
"It wasn't that maximum. Jade invades it all the time."
"But Jade already knows quite well the vault's security.", Jackie said.
"Here we are.", Black said opening the vault's door.
"We don't know who had been here because the person who did it had turned off the security camera.", Black explained. Jackie glanced at him in surprise.
"Then it wasn't Jade. She doesn't know how to do that.", he said.
"Not just the camera. The door's lock and the alarm in the ground too. And then that person bended the bars that were imprisoning Shendu and they escaped."
"Maybe the person who did it had used some sort of magic.", Jackie guessed.
"A wizard? Yeah, it is possible.", Black agreed.
"No, it seems that the only magic used here was the power of the talismans. I need to make a magic sensor first, but almost certainly the invader is a normal human.", Uncle said as he observed the whole vault. Jackie and Black glanced at each other.
"It must be somebody very skilled. Our security equipment is unique. Only some of our most loyal agents know how to deal with it., Black said in deep thought.
"What if it was a spy?", Jackie asked.
"Well..."
"Aiyahhh! Who has freed Shendu is not important! What we have to do now is to find Shendu.", Uncle interrupted.
"You mean that now we are dealing with real demons? Cool!", Vinicius said and Black frowned at him.
"He really looks a lot like Jade.", he commented and Jackie nodded and then remembered of something.
"Speaking of her, where's Jade?"
Everyone's glance turned to Vinicius, who didn't know what to say.
"She told me that would be sleeping here with you.", Jackie remembered.
"Are you sure? I haven't seen her in a good while.", Black said.
"So, she...", Black continued after a while. Jackie sighed.
"Do you think she had something to do with this? But that's impossible."
"Jackie!", Jade's voice was heard behind them. Everybody turned to face her.
"Jade, where were you?", Jackie wanted to know.
"I was having a good time at Blue Sea.", she said smiling. Jackie frowned at her.
"What? I'm eighteen years old, remember?", she defended and Jackie shook his head.
"Then you don't know what happened here, do you?"
"Actually, I do. Alice told me when I came back."
"Oh. Ok. So, what do you think?", Jackie asked.
"Well, I have no idea of what the person who did it was thinking about?", she said honestly. And it was very true. She couldn't understand Julia.
~/~/~
The sun was beginning to rise. He stood in front of the shop's door and when tried to open it, quickly had to remove his hand from the doorknob as he felt a kind of shock. He hissed angry.
"Good morning.", a very familiar voice was heard behind him.
"Don't you know how to read? It is written right here 'closed'. Duh!", Jade said pointing to a sign in the door.
He didn't answer.
"Sorry, we are very busy right now. But you can come back within three hours.", Jackie said politely. The strange smirked.
"I see. Well, I'll come here later then.", he said calmly and walked away.
"He's so strange.", Jade commented.
"Jade!"
"Come on. We cannot stay here wasting time.", Uncle said.
"But what can we do now?", Jackie asked.
"We have only to wait. We don't know where Shendu is and I still have to prepare a magic sensor so that we can know if Shendu's ally is a human."
"Shendu? He's here?", a voice was heard.
"Tohru? You're back!", Jade ran to hug him.
"Jade! How good to see you again!"
"Tohru, you arrived in a good time. You'll stay here watching the shop while I go with Jackie to Section 13. Jade can tell you the details later.", Uncle said entering in the shop.
"But Uncle, I wanna investigate with you.", Jade complained.
"Jade, it's better if you stay here. It's safer. Uncle still didn't remove that chi-spell that impedes the demon of entering in the shop unless they're invited.", Jackie explained.
"That one used to keep Hsi Wu away? I had already forgotten that.", she said and entered in the shop after Jackie and Tohru.
And in the shop's roof, Shendu was watching them. He smirked, now he already knew how he could come in. But his method would be faster than Hsi Wu's.
~/~/~
Tohru was coming back from the market. He guessed that Jade had taken advantage of his absence to go to Section 13. But he was sure that she could take care of herself and wasn't in danger.
When he approached of the shop, he saw a young man in front of the door. He had left Jade watching the shop and now it was obvious that she actually had gone away. If Uncle knew that the shop had been empty for a long while, he would be really at him.
"Can I help you?", he asked.
"Yes. I am looking for a book."
"Sure. Please, come in.", Tohru said opening the door. The man smiled and entered in the shop. Tohru went right after him.
"Wait just a minute while I take this to the kitchen.", Tohru said turning his back to him and heading to the kitchen. The man's eyes glowed red and he pressed Tohru's shoulder with his fingers and the Japanese man fell unconscious. The fire demon hurried to the library and began to leaf through some books until finding three that were about very old spells.
Shendu ran away from the shop and smiled pleased with himself. He preferred to try to take the world and get rid of Jackie Chan all alone, but that would be very difficult and he needed help. His first option was to free his siblings, but before that he had to find out how he would do it - if he could do it. These three books were about portals and several ways to open them. After so many unsuccessful plans, this one had to work!