Hey, everybody. Back with another chapter.
Let's get to it.
Chapter 9- Ta Lo
In the back of the Escalade, Oliver, Natasha, and Yelena are just sitting pretty quietly. Katy had driven them to the forest that supposedly guards the entrance to Ta Lo, where Morris had apparently insisted they stop. They're now just waiting for Morris to give them a signal that it's time to start heading into the forest.
In the meantime, Trevor has been trying to entertain them with the story of how he got into acting and discovered his passion for it. However, the three of them are feeling very bored.
Natasha finally turns to Oliver. "How did you manage to find the Ten Rings? Even SHIELD couldn't do that, no matter how hard they tried," she asks her husband.
"We called in a little help from Taskmaster," Oliver responds.
Natasha's eyes widen a bit. "Taskmaster? As in the guy that tried to kill us just a few weeks ago?"
"Yeah. We thought, since he offers his services to the highest bidder, that he might have had contact with the Ten Rings, and we could get him to tell us for payment. Turns out I was right. The Mandarin had hired him before, and in the process he'd been to their HQ. He was a bit hesitant to tell us, as apparently the Mandarin is one of the few people that actually makes him nervous. But he told us in the end."
"Whoever thought one day we'd be turning to Taskmaster for help," Natasha mutters.
Right then, in the middle seat, Shang-chi interrupts Trevor and asks, "Umm, this is really cool and all, but how long do we have to sit here?"
"Morris is very clear. The way through is all about timing," Trevor replies.
"Okay, but how long are we talking? Like, hours? Days?" Shang-chi presses for a more clear answer.
"Friends, I am but a transitory vessel for the infinite wisdom of a creature far more advanced than we'll ever truly understand. What he sees, what he feels, of this vast, unknown universe is beyond anything our simple brains can…" Trevor is suddenly cut off as Morris lets out a few squawks. "Oh. You can go," he abruptly tells Katy.
"What?" Katy asks at the suddenness.
"Go. You can go. He says go," Trevor urges.
Katy glances back at everyone in the back seats, then slowly steps on the gas and starts driving into the forest, down a path in between bamboo trees. Everyone inside is cautiously looking outside. The trees are creaking in an ominous way, and the forest itself looks intimidating.
Morris trills, and Trevor immediately says, "You should speed up."
"What, why?" Katy asks, although she does start to speed up a bit.
Right then, a crackling draws everyone else's attention. Looking behind them, they see the path behind starting to close up, coming closer and closer to them. Shang-chi whips head around back to the front and says urgently, "Katy, go, go, go!"
Katy focuses on driving and floors it, accelerating quickly as the forest seems to start pursuing them down the path.
"Morris says 'Hard right on three'," Trevor informs them.
"What?" Katy asks.
"Two…three!" Trevor counts. Katy whips the steering wheel to the right, right as a path opens in that direction.
In the backseat, Oliver, Natasha, and yelena are holding on for dear life. "This is terrifying," Yelena mutters.
Katy holds the Escalade steady. Then, Trevor suddenly says, "Left now." Katy turns hard left, right as the pathway opens up in that direction.
"It's all about staying in the pocket," Trevor says.
"What pocket?" Katy demands he be more specific.
"We're in it now," Trevor responds vaguely.
"And what happens if we don't?" Oliver demands loudly.
"The forest eats us," Trevor responds.
"Eats us? What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Natasha demands, a bit agitated.
Trevor shrugs and says simply, "He says it eats us. Go left." Katy again whips the steering wheel to the left, just managing to make the turn.
At this point, everyone is clutching anything around them they can for dear life, the amount of stress they're feeling climbing by the second.
Shang-chi and Xialing look behind the car to keep an eye on the forest closing up behind them. "Watch your back!" Shang-chi cautions.
"Stay in the pocket," Trevor says simply.
"How close is it?" Katy asks urgently.
"Five meters!" Xialing shouts back, clearly under stress.
"Stay in the pocket," Trevor says again.
"What is that in feet?" Katy demands, not knowing metric conversions.
"Really frickin close!" Shang-chi responds agitatedly.
"Stay in the pocket," Trevor says again.
"Will you stop just saying 'stay in the pocket'?" Katy yells at Trevor.
Katy holds her course through the trees for about ten more seconds before Trevor says, "One last right and then straight on to the end."
Katy pulls the car in a hard right turn as the path opens up to the right. As they pull into the path, they can see a clearing at the end.
Katy holds the gas pedal down and speeds down the path. However, all around them, the forest is showing signs of trying to close up around them. Trevor, a bit nervous now, says, "You might wanna hurry up."
"What do you think I'm doing?" Katy demands in annoyance.
All around them, the bamboo trees are starting to close in. "We're not gonna make it," Xialing says in a bit of despair.
Katy holds the gas pedal down as hard as she can as the trees continue to close in. One of the rear view mirrors hits a bamboo tree and breaks off. Right as they're reaching the end, the bamboo closes up over the end of the path. However, Katy holds the car on course, and crashes right through the bamboo, emerging into the clearing and landing in a small pond.
Everyone sits there in shock for a moment, still a bit overwhelmed by what they just experienced. Then, Morris trills a bit, and Trevor says, "Morris says 'Great job, everyone'." Everyone just looks at Trevor like he's crazy.
"Now, all we have to do is go through that waterfall and we're pretty much there," Trevor says.
Everyone is quiet for a moment. Then, Katy, recovering her wits, drives slowly towards the waterfall. As they drive through the waterfall, the water cascading over the car seems to change, halting in mid air in large drops. Then, they sem to find themselves in a black void, with water frozen in time all around them. As they watch, the water seems to lengthen out, looking much like the hyperspace effect from Star Wars. Then, only a few seconds later, they merge out of portal of water into another cave.
As the car exits the cave, the group suddenly finds themselves in a lush paradise. Beautiful vegetation is growing all around them, including some plants they don't really recognize. As they are looking around, several orange-red birds fly past the car, trailing embers behind them.
"Bloody hell. I think those birds are on fire," Trevor says. He then listens to Morris is Morris trills a bit, then relays what he just heard, "Morris says it's normal. They're old mates of his."
"Whoa. Phoenixes are real," Oliver says in a bit of awe.
As Katy continues driving along a wide path, they notice more and more wildlife around them. They see, on both sides of the path, a number of white foxes. But, these foxes are bigger than wolves, and they each have nine tails. A baby one with just three tails draws Yelena's attention, which smiles a bit dreamily at the cuteness of it.
Then, they pass another group of creatures, and realize it's the same kind of creature as Morris. As they are all paying attention to these creatures, Katy sees something out of the corner of her eye, and brakes just in time to avoid running into another creature. Everyone looks out the window at the creature, which almost looks like a horse of some kind, but with green scales, what looks like a handlebar mustache, and antlers like a deer.
"That's a weird looking horse. What's it looking at me for?" Trevor wonders aloud. The creature looks at them for a moment longer then turns and keeps walking, more of its kind following it.
"Incredible. All the creatures of Chinese mythology…they exist. Wow, if the world knew about this…they'd go nuts," Natasha mutters in awe.
Katy starts driving again, following a path through a small, completely stationary bamboo forest. It only takes them a minute to reach the either side of the forest. As they emerge from the forest, they find themselves entering a village. Crop fields and training fields extend on either side of them, with a number of people in traditional Chinese garb. Not only that, but among is a Chinese lion from myth.
However, their attention is quickly drawn to the villagers directly in front of the car, all assembled in battle formation and holding weapons. Katy slows to a stop a respectable distance from them. As she parks, Shang-chi and Xialing get out, with Katy starting to follow.
As Shang-chi and Xialing approach the villagers slowly, Shang-chi says, speaking in Mandarin, "Hello. I am Xu Shang Chi. This is my sister, Xu Xialing. We're Ying Li's children." He pauses, getting no reaction from the villagers, before gesturing to Katy as she walks up behind them, and saying, "This is my friend, Katy."
The old man in the front finally speaks up, but says, "Get in your car and go home!"
"Please. You don't understand," Shang-chi tries to reason with them, taking a few steps forward. In response, the villagers snap their weapons and shields up, ready to fight them.
Everyone is quiet and unmoving for a few moments before a woman's voice calls out from behind the line. Then, a somewhat older woman walks out from the midst of the villagers. She says something to the old man and the villagers, who lower their weapons, then walks towards Shang-chi and Xialing. As she approaches them, she smiles and says warmly, "Shang-chi. Xialing. I am your auntie, Ying Nan." She then embraces Xialing, saying, "I've waited so long to meet you." She pulls away from Xialing, then walks to Shang-chi. She looks at him for a moment before saying, "You look like your mother." She then embraces him too.
After a few moments, she lets him go and turns to Katy. Katy smiles a bit awkwardly and says, in English, "Hi, I'm Katy."
"Welcome to Ta Lo, Katy," Ying Nan replies in fluent English, embracing Katy as well, who accepts it awkwardly.
At that point, Trevor opens the front door, letting Morris out, while climbing out himself. As Morris runs up, Nan smiles and says happily, "Well, look who has found his way home!"
Holding his hands up, Trevor says loudly, "I'm not a threat. I'm just an entertainer. Morris can vouch for me."
Deciding the ice has been broken and its safe to come out, Oliver, Natasha, and Yelena clamber out of the back seat and out of the car. Oliver comes up behind Shang-chi, Natasha and yelena following. Looking at Nan, Oliver says in fluent Mandarin, "Hello. My name is Oliver Queen. This is my wife, Natasha, and her sister, Yelena."
Nan smiles at the three of them. "Welcome to Ta Lo, Oliver Queen. We are pleased to have the three of you here," she responds in Mandarin before saying in English, "It is a pleasure to have Avengers with us."
"You know about the Avengers?" Oliver asks curiously.
"We are not completely cut off from your world," Nan says cryptically with a smile.
Oliver smiles a bit. Then, Shang-chi speaks up and says, "We don't have much time. Our father is coming."
Nan's face becomes serious. After a moment, she nods, then says, "Follow me."
Nan leads the group, minus Trevor, through the buildings of the village down to the shore of the lake behind the village. "Our people have been here for over four thousand years, preparing for something we hope will never happen. We are the keepers of the Dark Gate, sworn to protect our world and yours from the evil that's locked behind it."
Everyone looks across the lake to the cliff on the other side. In the face of the cliff is an indentation, which is filled by something glowing a dark red.
"Our dad is coming here to open that gate. He thinks you're holding our mom there," Shang Chi says.
"And why would he think that?" Nan asks.
"Because she told him. He says he can hear her asking for help," Xialing responds.
Nan is quiet for a moment, thinking. Then, she asks pointedly, "Is he wearing the rings?"
"He hasn't taken them off since she died. What do they have to do with all of this?" Shang-chi asks.
Nan is again quiet for a moment, then motions for them to follow her. She leads them to a building that as a large mural carved in the wood on one wall. As they approach the mural, Nan begins to explain, "The realm of Ta Lo stretches far beyond the shores of our small village. We have cities that surpass any in your world. Rich with culture and history. Thousands of years ago, our people lived in peace and prosperity. Until the attack of the Dweller-in-darkness. He came with his army, devouring every soul in their path, and with each kill, they grew stronger. After decimating our largest cities, they were headed to your world to do the same. The leaders of Ta Lo sent their strongest warriors here to stop them from reaching the portal to your world, but our ancestors were no match for them. Until, the Great Protector joined the fight and turned the tide. Together, they pushed the Dweller and his army into the Dark Gate and locked it behind them. Our people have guarded that gate ever since, empowered by the magic of the great protector and the gift that she gave us."
"What gift was that?" Oliver asks.
Nan smiles and again beckons them to follow her. She leads them to a hut where weapons are clearly being stored and forged. As they enter, they see all the weapons are coated in the same red material. As they watch, a man uses a staff coated in the material to cut a log in two.
"Dragon scales," Nan answers Oliver's question, "Makes very good armor and weapons."
Oliver, Natasha, and Yelena exchange a glance, all of them hardly believing that they actually are in a world where dragons exist.
Nan now finally addresses the heart of the issue. "Your father isn't the first one to come here to open the Dark gate. Many have tried and failed over the centuries, and they all had one thing in common. They were lured here by the voice of something on the other side. A voice that promised them their greatest desires."
"So you think that soul eaters are talking to our dad?" Shang-chi asks.
"They know the Ten Rings have the power to break them free," Nan responds.
As the group is thinking, behind them, an older lady accidentally drops a number of arrows. Katy steps over to help, only to have the lady load all the arrows into her arms and asking Katy to follow her. Katy turns back to the group and says, "Um, looks like I'm gonna go deliver some dragon arrows. Make myself useful." She follows the lady out of the armory.
"Come. Let's go see your mother," Nan says.
Oliver, Natasha, and Yelena don't follow, thinking this is a moment Shang-chi and Xialing should just have with their aunt. The three of them step out of the armory, then all form a small huddle.
"So…this has been a very crazy day, and I think it's safe to say we're probably all shocked by everything we've seen and learned," Oliver says.
"You think?" Yelena asks sarcastically.
"The people of Ta Lo are letting us be here. That's a huge privilege we can't undervalue. And the Mandarin is coming, one way or another. The people are going to need all the help they can get to stop him. If he succeeds, who knows what kind of devastation this Dweller in Darkness could cause to this world or to ours. We can't leave our friends here, and they're not going to leave until this has all been resolved. So, I think we need to stay and help them defend the Dark Gate from the Ten Rings," Natasha says.
Oliver nods, then looks at Yelena. "Yelena, what do you think?" he asks.
"Sounds like fun to me," Yelena says with a smile.
"Then it's decided. We'll stay in Ta Lo and help them stop the Ten Rings," Oliver declares.
And, i'll end the chapter there. Hope you liked it.
Next chapter is going to be all of the training and leadup to the fight with the Ten Rings. It'll also feature a moment that foreshadows a major story later on in this series.
Until next chapter, please leave a review, and stay tuned!