Thank you for all the reviews!^^
I finally changed my pen name! (Did everybody notice that? :P) You know that Gemini people like to change things often, and guess what? I'm Gemini! For example, I change my wallpaper everyday. Now, I got a kind enough of all my nicks (pen names, whatever), and probably I'll change it again someday! Muahahaha!
Oh, I want to remind you that this fic's title is NOT a parody of a TV series called "What I Like About You"!!! When I was thinking of a title, I didn't know that there was that series. Grrrr, and on top of that, those JCA writers came up with that Shendu's son 3 days after I created his son! It's not fair! They almost ruined this fic's plot! ó.ò
*a-hem* I also forgot to mention that Julia's mother's name is Sara Scarlet. Well, she's German, but I didn't know any German name or surname (for women), so I had stay with this anyway... Let's just say that her father wasn't German, he was from some another country (I think England would suit fine for him). You can have more details about Julia's mother in "Sky Shine"! ;)
*****
Chapter 7: Julia is kidnapped
Uncle, Jackie and Jade were going back to the shop. Uncle had spent the whole day at Section 13 looking for magic traces and had detected only the power of the ox and the snake talismans.
"So... that human used the power of the ox talisman to bend the bars and the snake talisman to get out of Section 13 without being noticed.", Jackie murmured thoughtfully.
"Probably Shendu was the one who used the power of the invisibility, since nobody saw a big golden dragon around. But I don't understand how his ally has escaped. The sensor indicates that only one being used the snake talisman, which means that the human left independently.", Uncle continued.
"The Section 13 has an emergency exit that only who works there knows about it. Maybe it was really a spy, after all.", Jade said.
"But why would this spy do that?", Uncle asked.
"Maybe someone of the Dark Hand...? No, that's impossible. Captain Black said that they disappeared two years ago. And even if they were still here, they'd never help Shendu again.", Jackie said in confusion. Jade was confused too. Jackie was right, they'd never help the fire demon. Julia helped him, though. She should be that last person who would do that. Her own father had been deceived and possessed by Shendu. There was no reason for her to free him. Or there was? Jade remembered that Julia had argued with her father. Revenge? No, Julia wasn't like that. She should have another reason.
They arrived at the shop and Uncle frowned.
"Aiyahhh! How many times do I have to say that you must to close the door?! Tohru!", he shouted but quickly stopped as he saw Tohru laying in the ground.
"Tohru!", Jade yelled running and knelling down to see if he was alive. Jackie did the same thing.
"He's just unconscious.", Jackie announced a bit relieved, although he was even more confused.
"What happened? Knocking Tohru out is not something easy to get...", Jade said.
"There's nothing wrong in the shop. Everything is in its place.", Uncle remarked glancing around himself.
"We have to wait him to wake up.", Jackie said.
~/~/~
"I found it!", Shendu announced to himself. He was seated in a bench in a square, and had spent the last three hours just looking for something useful in the books.
'According to this book, there's a way to open all the portals.', he thought.
"But it's a very difficult spell. I need some ingredients, a pendant called Meng Hsie and... the Pan Ku box?!", he said in surprise. Shendu hadn't thought that he would need it again, and the worse: he couldn't touch it! He would need a human to carry it, but the most important now was to find the Pan Ku box. Where had he seen it for the last time...?
Hak Foo! Almost certainly it was with him. Shendu knew where he lived seven years ago, but nowadays he should be living in another place. Shendu sighed. It was going to be very difficult to find him now. He raised his glance and saw a person who looked familiar. It was Valmont's daughter. She should be going home. He followed her hoping that he could find out where Hak Foo lived.
Shendu didn't have to wait for a long time. As soon as they arrived at the Dark Hand HQ, he saw Hak Foo, who was about to enter in the building. He and the girl greeted each other and she entered while he stayed there trying to do a phone call.
"Damn cell phone! Work already!", Hak Foo muttered angry. He saw a young man who approached of him.
"What do you want?", he asked sharply.
"Where is the Pan Ku box?", Shendu asked with his true voice and red glowing eyes. Hak Foo immediately recognized him and stepped back, taking a fight position. Shendu just stepped closer offensively.
"I'm going to ask only one more time. Where is the Pan Ku box?", Shendu asked slowly.
"I don't have it. I gave it to Valmont seven years ago.", Hak answered after a while. Shendu looked at the higher floor of the building. Certainly he would find Valmont or his daughter there. He left with no more words and Hak Foo wished more than never that his cell phone was working properly. He ran to the elevator. He knew that Julia was in danger.
Shendu used the power of the rooster talisman and floated to the fifteenth floor of the Dark Hand HQ. He opened one of the windows and saw that it was just a vacant office. Then he thought that they should be living in an apartment below this one. He went down one more floor and opened another window.
Now he saw a living room. Apparently there was no one here as well, but when Shendu was about to go down one more floor, he heard steps. Valmont's daughter came in the room, and immediately noticed his presence.
"No way! Shendu?", she said in surprise. The fire demon entered in silence, facing the girl. Surprisingly, she looked very happy.
"How good that you came here. I really wanted to see you again.", she said walking to him, smiling. Shendu didn't understand what she meant with that, and actually he didn't even want to know.
"Listen to me, child. You are going to help me to free my siblings. I know that you have the Pan Ku box, and because I cannot touch it, you are going to be my slave from now on.", he said coldly and Julia's first reaction was just stare at him in surprise. Then she grinned eagerly.
"Cool! Let's go then"", she replied.
"And don't try to resis- What?", he asked in confusion.
"I said that I like the idea. That means more time with you and less time with my father. I'm going to look for that Pan Ku box. I think I know what it is.", she said turning and rushed to a room. She came back some minutes later with the Pan Ku box. Shendu smirked pleased.
"Now, hold it carefully. Don't drop it, understand?", he ordered and leaned on the other side of the window, ready to leave. He grabbed the girl and jumped to another building as he took his true form.
Hak Foo entered in the room, but it was too late. He could just see the girl being taken away by the dragon.
~/~/~
"Ow, dude. Let's stop for a while. I need some drinks to relax.", Finn said rubbing his temples with his hands.
"I have only one thing to say, never again I want to travel like that. By what I could see...", Chow said looking at his watch, "we should be in the Guiness Book. Altogether, we traveled for 60 hours in all type of vehicles, walked 200 kilometers and had 15 minutes of resting per day.", he said sounding very tired.
"I just hope that Valmont never again come up with something like that.", Ratso said looking for a place to park. They stopped in front of a pub.
Finn and Chow leaned on the car. Chow looked slightly upward and noticed a figure going over the buildings. It was big, but was very agile and didn't look too heavy.
"What's that?", he asked pointing to one of the buildings. Finn e Ratso looked at that direction and saw a strange creature.
"I don't know...", Finn answered frowning.
"It is approaching of the pub.", Ratso said.
Because the pub had only one floor, they could see clearly what the creature was and who it was carrying. The three stared openmouthed.
"Wow.", was the only thing that Ratso could say.
"Did you see what I saw?", Chow asked as they watched the demon going away.
"Well, if you saw Shendu in the flesh jumping along the buildings of San Francisco with Julia and the Pan Ku box... then yes, we saw what you saw.", Finn said still very surprised.
"We gotta tell Valmont.", Ratso said entering in the car. Chow and Finn followed his example.
"Might not be a good idea. He already has too much problems. Are we going to say that his daughter was just kidnapped and the Pan Ku box stolen by Shendu and he probably wants to free his siblings again? That would just harm us all! You know what I'm talking about, don't you? Do you remember the last time?", Finn reminded.
"You're going to leave Julia with Shendu?", Chow asked not believing. Everyone was thoughtful for a while.
"What if we...", Ratso started but didn't finish the sentence. The other two men looked at him guessing what he was going to say.
"Never mind..."
"Ratso, you weren't going to suggest that we should rescue Julia, were you?", Finn asked.
"Well, actually, I was..."
"Ah, dude... We can't do that. If at least we knew how to fight or had a great fighter at our side..."
At this moment, they noticed Hak Foo running to them.
"Shendu's back and he kidnapped Julia.", he announced to the three enforcers.
"You forgot to mention about the stolen Pan Ku box.", Finn said sarcastically.
"You saw him too?"
"Yeah, we were here deciding what to do now."
"Let's go after them.", Hak Foo decided entering in the car and everybody nodded. Ratso quickly ran to the direction where the demon was going.
~/~/~
"Tohru, are you ok?", Jade asked when he opened his eyes.
"What happened here?", Jackie wanted to know.
"Who knocked you out?", Jack asked.
"Quiet, let him breathe first.", Uncle shouted.
"I'm fine.", Tohru answered a bit confused.
"What happened?", Jackie asked again.
"I don't remember very well, but I think that young man knocked me out.", Tohru said rubbing his head.
"What young man.", Uncle asked in suspicion.
"He was blond, had green eyes, he was almost as tall as Jackie...", he said slowly.
"Was he a human?", Jade asked.
"I don't know. I think yes."
"Maybe he's the person who has freed Shendu!", Jade said turning to face Jackie.
"It looks to me that this man is very alike to that one who was in front of the shop at dawn.", Jackie remarked in deep thought.
"That's true...", Jade agreed.
"But what did he want to do here?", Uncle asked.
"He told me that was looking for a book...", Tohru said. Uncle thought for a while.
"He could be lying, but I think we should take a look at the library.
~/~/~
Valmont had just arrived at the Dark Hand HQ. He sighed. Certainly Julia was still mad at him. Valmont hoped that she was still sleeping, so he also could rest after that stressing trip.
He was surprised when seeing that the door of his apartment was open, and when he came in he saw that one of the windows was also open. That was strange, Julia didn't like open windows. Besides, there was no one here. After reviewing the whole apartment and not finding anything, he began to worry. What did it mean?
He went up to the fifteenth floor. He had ordered that his henchmen should be waiting for him is his office. However, nobody was there and one of the windows was open too. Now he was sure that something was very wrong.
~/~/~
"I think they went that way.", Finn said pointing to the left.
"No, I'm sure that they went that way.", Chow said pointing to the right.
"I order you to go ahead.", Hak Foo said pointing forward. Ratso just stayed there, his hands leaned on the steering wheel. Suddenly, he turned to face the other enforcers.
"Are you sure that they didn't disappear over there?", he asked pointing to behind them.
"Ratso! How many times do we have to say it? That should have been some kind of optics illusion or something like that. How could they suddenly have disappeared?", Finn asked annoyed and Chow remembered something.
"He's Shendu. If he was in his true form, he might..."
"... have the talismans.", Finn completed after a short while.
"And if he has the talismans...", Ratso started again.
"...maybe he had used the talisman with the power of invisibility.", Hak Foo finished and they changed glances.
"That's it. Let's go back.", Finn finally said giving up and the other enforcers could just nod.
I finally changed my pen name! (Did everybody notice that? :P) You know that Gemini people like to change things often, and guess what? I'm Gemini! For example, I change my wallpaper everyday. Now, I got a kind enough of all my nicks (pen names, whatever), and probably I'll change it again someday! Muahahaha!
Oh, I want to remind you that this fic's title is NOT a parody of a TV series called "What I Like About You"!!! When I was thinking of a title, I didn't know that there was that series. Grrrr, and on top of that, those JCA writers came up with that Shendu's son 3 days after I created his son! It's not fair! They almost ruined this fic's plot! ó.ò
*a-hem* I also forgot to mention that Julia's mother's name is Sara Scarlet. Well, she's German, but I didn't know any German name or surname (for women), so I had stay with this anyway... Let's just say that her father wasn't German, he was from some another country (I think England would suit fine for him). You can have more details about Julia's mother in "Sky Shine"! ;)
*****
Chapter 7: Julia is kidnapped
Uncle, Jackie and Jade were going back to the shop. Uncle had spent the whole day at Section 13 looking for magic traces and had detected only the power of the ox and the snake talismans.
"So... that human used the power of the ox talisman to bend the bars and the snake talisman to get out of Section 13 without being noticed.", Jackie murmured thoughtfully.
"Probably Shendu was the one who used the power of the invisibility, since nobody saw a big golden dragon around. But I don't understand how his ally has escaped. The sensor indicates that only one being used the snake talisman, which means that the human left independently.", Uncle continued.
"The Section 13 has an emergency exit that only who works there knows about it. Maybe it was really a spy, after all.", Jade said.
"But why would this spy do that?", Uncle asked.
"Maybe someone of the Dark Hand...? No, that's impossible. Captain Black said that they disappeared two years ago. And even if they were still here, they'd never help Shendu again.", Jackie said in confusion. Jade was confused too. Jackie was right, they'd never help the fire demon. Julia helped him, though. She should be that last person who would do that. Her own father had been deceived and possessed by Shendu. There was no reason for her to free him. Or there was? Jade remembered that Julia had argued with her father. Revenge? No, Julia wasn't like that. She should have another reason.
They arrived at the shop and Uncle frowned.
"Aiyahhh! How many times do I have to say that you must to close the door?! Tohru!", he shouted but quickly stopped as he saw Tohru laying in the ground.
"Tohru!", Jade yelled running and knelling down to see if he was alive. Jackie did the same thing.
"He's just unconscious.", Jackie announced a bit relieved, although he was even more confused.
"What happened? Knocking Tohru out is not something easy to get...", Jade said.
"There's nothing wrong in the shop. Everything is in its place.", Uncle remarked glancing around himself.
"We have to wait him to wake up.", Jackie said.
~/~/~
"I found it!", Shendu announced to himself. He was seated in a bench in a square, and had spent the last three hours just looking for something useful in the books.
'According to this book, there's a way to open all the portals.', he thought.
"But it's a very difficult spell. I need some ingredients, a pendant called Meng Hsie and... the Pan Ku box?!", he said in surprise. Shendu hadn't thought that he would need it again, and the worse: he couldn't touch it! He would need a human to carry it, but the most important now was to find the Pan Ku box. Where had he seen it for the last time...?
Hak Foo! Almost certainly it was with him. Shendu knew where he lived seven years ago, but nowadays he should be living in another place. Shendu sighed. It was going to be very difficult to find him now. He raised his glance and saw a person who looked familiar. It was Valmont's daughter. She should be going home. He followed her hoping that he could find out where Hak Foo lived.
Shendu didn't have to wait for a long time. As soon as they arrived at the Dark Hand HQ, he saw Hak Foo, who was about to enter in the building. He and the girl greeted each other and she entered while he stayed there trying to do a phone call.
"Damn cell phone! Work already!", Hak Foo muttered angry. He saw a young man who approached of him.
"What do you want?", he asked sharply.
"Where is the Pan Ku box?", Shendu asked with his true voice and red glowing eyes. Hak Foo immediately recognized him and stepped back, taking a fight position. Shendu just stepped closer offensively.
"I'm going to ask only one more time. Where is the Pan Ku box?", Shendu asked slowly.
"I don't have it. I gave it to Valmont seven years ago.", Hak answered after a while. Shendu looked at the higher floor of the building. Certainly he would find Valmont or his daughter there. He left with no more words and Hak Foo wished more than never that his cell phone was working properly. He ran to the elevator. He knew that Julia was in danger.
Shendu used the power of the rooster talisman and floated to the fifteenth floor of the Dark Hand HQ. He opened one of the windows and saw that it was just a vacant office. Then he thought that they should be living in an apartment below this one. He went down one more floor and opened another window.
Now he saw a living room. Apparently there was no one here as well, but when Shendu was about to go down one more floor, he heard steps. Valmont's daughter came in the room, and immediately noticed his presence.
"No way! Shendu?", she said in surprise. The fire demon entered in silence, facing the girl. Surprisingly, she looked very happy.
"How good that you came here. I really wanted to see you again.", she said walking to him, smiling. Shendu didn't understand what she meant with that, and actually he didn't even want to know.
"Listen to me, child. You are going to help me to free my siblings. I know that you have the Pan Ku box, and because I cannot touch it, you are going to be my slave from now on.", he said coldly and Julia's first reaction was just stare at him in surprise. Then she grinned eagerly.
"Cool! Let's go then"", she replied.
"And don't try to resis- What?", he asked in confusion.
"I said that I like the idea. That means more time with you and less time with my father. I'm going to look for that Pan Ku box. I think I know what it is.", she said turning and rushed to a room. She came back some minutes later with the Pan Ku box. Shendu smirked pleased.
"Now, hold it carefully. Don't drop it, understand?", he ordered and leaned on the other side of the window, ready to leave. He grabbed the girl and jumped to another building as he took his true form.
Hak Foo entered in the room, but it was too late. He could just see the girl being taken away by the dragon.
~/~/~
"Ow, dude. Let's stop for a while. I need some drinks to relax.", Finn said rubbing his temples with his hands.
"I have only one thing to say, never again I want to travel like that. By what I could see...", Chow said looking at his watch, "we should be in the Guiness Book. Altogether, we traveled for 60 hours in all type of vehicles, walked 200 kilometers and had 15 minutes of resting per day.", he said sounding very tired.
"I just hope that Valmont never again come up with something like that.", Ratso said looking for a place to park. They stopped in front of a pub.
Finn and Chow leaned on the car. Chow looked slightly upward and noticed a figure going over the buildings. It was big, but was very agile and didn't look too heavy.
"What's that?", he asked pointing to one of the buildings. Finn e Ratso looked at that direction and saw a strange creature.
"I don't know...", Finn answered frowning.
"It is approaching of the pub.", Ratso said.
Because the pub had only one floor, they could see clearly what the creature was and who it was carrying. The three stared openmouthed.
"Wow.", was the only thing that Ratso could say.
"Did you see what I saw?", Chow asked as they watched the demon going away.
"Well, if you saw Shendu in the flesh jumping along the buildings of San Francisco with Julia and the Pan Ku box... then yes, we saw what you saw.", Finn said still very surprised.
"We gotta tell Valmont.", Ratso said entering in the car. Chow and Finn followed his example.
"Might not be a good idea. He already has too much problems. Are we going to say that his daughter was just kidnapped and the Pan Ku box stolen by Shendu and he probably wants to free his siblings again? That would just harm us all! You know what I'm talking about, don't you? Do you remember the last time?", Finn reminded.
"You're going to leave Julia with Shendu?", Chow asked not believing. Everyone was thoughtful for a while.
"What if we...", Ratso started but didn't finish the sentence. The other two men looked at him guessing what he was going to say.
"Never mind..."
"Ratso, you weren't going to suggest that we should rescue Julia, were you?", Finn asked.
"Well, actually, I was..."
"Ah, dude... We can't do that. If at least we knew how to fight or had a great fighter at our side..."
At this moment, they noticed Hak Foo running to them.
"Shendu's back and he kidnapped Julia.", he announced to the three enforcers.
"You forgot to mention about the stolen Pan Ku box.", Finn said sarcastically.
"You saw him too?"
"Yeah, we were here deciding what to do now."
"Let's go after them.", Hak Foo decided entering in the car and everybody nodded. Ratso quickly ran to the direction where the demon was going.
~/~/~
"Tohru, are you ok?", Jade asked when he opened his eyes.
"What happened here?", Jackie wanted to know.
"Who knocked you out?", Jack asked.
"Quiet, let him breathe first.", Uncle shouted.
"I'm fine.", Tohru answered a bit confused.
"What happened?", Jackie asked again.
"I don't remember very well, but I think that young man knocked me out.", Tohru said rubbing his head.
"What young man.", Uncle asked in suspicion.
"He was blond, had green eyes, he was almost as tall as Jackie...", he said slowly.
"Was he a human?", Jade asked.
"I don't know. I think yes."
"Maybe he's the person who has freed Shendu!", Jade said turning to face Jackie.
"It looks to me that this man is very alike to that one who was in front of the shop at dawn.", Jackie remarked in deep thought.
"That's true...", Jade agreed.
"But what did he want to do here?", Uncle asked.
"He told me that was looking for a book...", Tohru said. Uncle thought for a while.
"He could be lying, but I think we should take a look at the library.
~/~/~
Valmont had just arrived at the Dark Hand HQ. He sighed. Certainly Julia was still mad at him. Valmont hoped that she was still sleeping, so he also could rest after that stressing trip.
He was surprised when seeing that the door of his apartment was open, and when he came in he saw that one of the windows was also open. That was strange, Julia didn't like open windows. Besides, there was no one here. After reviewing the whole apartment and not finding anything, he began to worry. What did it mean?
He went up to the fifteenth floor. He had ordered that his henchmen should be waiting for him is his office. However, nobody was there and one of the windows was open too. Now he was sure that something was very wrong.
~/~/~
"I think they went that way.", Finn said pointing to the left.
"No, I'm sure that they went that way.", Chow said pointing to the right.
"I order you to go ahead.", Hak Foo said pointing forward. Ratso just stayed there, his hands leaned on the steering wheel. Suddenly, he turned to face the other enforcers.
"Are you sure that they didn't disappear over there?", he asked pointing to behind them.
"Ratso! How many times do we have to say it? That should have been some kind of optics illusion or something like that. How could they suddenly have disappeared?", Finn asked annoyed and Chow remembered something.
"He's Shendu. If he was in his true form, he might..."
"... have the talismans.", Finn completed after a short while.
"And if he has the talismans...", Ratso started again.
"...maybe he had used the talisman with the power of invisibility.", Hak Foo finished and they changed glances.
"That's it. Let's go back.", Finn finally said giving up and the other enforcers could just nod.