Chapter 2
"That's… not what was supposed to happen," Drago remarked slowly.
Hsi Wu's eyes shifted from his scrying portal, to look at his nephew with tepid interest. Neither of them had spoken at all after settling to watch their mortal enemies indulge in their festivities. Hsi Wu had nearly been able to forget that the ungrateful spawn of his most worthless sibling was even present. Alas that it had not lasted.
"Oh? And what was supposed to happen?" Hsi Wu asked, mildly curious. He was aware that Drago was technically from the future, but the importance of that fact seemed to have dwindled in importance at a steep rate. The boy never spoke of his time, and no one had really bothered to ask him.
"Jade was supposed to have her happy party, and Captain Black was going to give a brochure to Virginia Hall Academy to her. She's supposed to attend school there for the next four years, until she goes to college," Drago answered with a frown.
"And you know this how?" Hsi Wu asked lazily, his tail uncurling to twitch behind him.
"She… Jade told me stories about learning there. The Jade from my time," Drago said hesitantly, only willing to give a vague answer.
"Exactly," Hsi Wu said, leaning forward and catching his chin in his hand and his elbow on his knee. "The Jade from your time did that, this one is different." This was the reason none of the sorcerers had really bothered the young dragon with questions. The future that Drago came from, would never be their future, not with Drago's interference in the timeline. There would be similarities of course, but the two futures were bound to be catastrophically different.
"But how?" Drago wondered, "How did I cause the Monkey King to be released again?" He honestly couldn't see the connection. He'd heard tales about the mischievous monkey, and he'd seen the puppet first hand in his own timeline only once. This one though? He'd never crossed paths with it.
Hsi Wu snorted in amusement, "Is it not obvious nephew? The Chi Wizard's paranoia is to blame, and you are to blame for the paranoia. The puppet was in the shop as the Wizard wished to head off the next evil from arising. He wished to do that, because you harassed the Chans trying to collect our Chi," His Wu said, referring to his siblings and himself. "In your timeline either the next evil had already arisen, or been defeated, either way, your presence here created the perfect timing for a the confluence of events necessary to release the Monkey King."
Ignoring Hsi Wu's condescending tone, Drago considered for a moment, and then asked, "I wonder where he's going?"
Uncle's Rare Finds
Tohru's cell phone was pinched between his ear and his shoulder, as he rearranged the insides of the fridge to store food that had been prepared for the party. The party which Tohru had been tasked with cancelling, as he'd managed to miss the entire fight between the J Team and the Monkey King due to his focus on cooking said food.
"That's right, yes," Tohru paused listening to voice on the other end, "Yes I'm very sorry, but I'll pass on your best wishes to Jade." Tohru stacked another pile of food containers in the fridge, the rubber lid of the top container rubbing enough against the ceiling of the fridge that Tohru had to give it a shove. He stood up, closing the fridge firmly, and caught the cellphone in his hands, ending the second to last call he would have to make. He wasn't looking forward to the last one.
With a sigh Tohru chose the number he wanted to call, and waited for the rings to go through. His lips twitched with a smile however, when a woman's voice answered the call.
"Hey Big Boy! I'm almost there, traffic's just being slow," the woman said, her voice distorted by the microphone built into her car for hands free calling. Tohru could vaguely hear the traffic she mentioned through the phone.
"Maya I have some bad news-" Tohru began, only to be cut off.
"Don't you even dare tell me you changed your mind. We talked about this, at length" Maya gently scolded.
"I'm sorry, but the party was cancelled, there was a last minute emergency. I'm very sorry," Tohru apologized, with real regret in his voice. He slowly moved around the kitchen, cleaning up as he talked.
"Oh no, are you okay? Is the store okay? What happened?" Maya asked with concern.
"I cannot discuss any details right now, but I can tell you no one was harmed," Tohru paused a moment and considered his words, "No one was seriously harmed at least. I will explain later, okay?," Tohru said, sharing more of the truth then he had with anyone but Section 13 Agents, who he'd had to notify about the cancelled party as well.
"Okay Tohru," Maya sighed on the other end of the phone, and Tohru immediately felt twice as guilty as he had a moment before.
"I promise to let you meet everyone soon Maya. I'm very sorry," Tohru apologized.
"Isn't that what you said last time? No- I'm sorry, it's okay. I just really want to meet your friends Tohru," Maya immediately apologized for her sarcasm, seemingly as unhappy with the cancelled party as Tohru was to be cancelling it.
"I want them to meet you too," Tohru said a small smile breaking through his disappointment.
"Tohru?" Maya asked hesitantly after a second's pause.
"Yes Maya?" Tohru answered, meeting her hesitance with his own.
"What am I going to do with 3 extra-large pizzas?"
Beijing, China
Jackie Chan felt comically out of place. Wearing his normal blue shirt and khaki slacks, he looked it, packed in the darkened van, sitting with the Chinese special agents who had picked up him, Captain Black, Viper and El Toro from the airport. Black had immediately called upon all his resources at Section 13 to find the escaped Monkey King, and after several agonizing hours of waiting, an agent reviewing airport security feeds had been lucky. The Monkey King had snuck aboard a commercial plane headed straight for Beijing. This destination had spurred Uncle to furious research, trying to anticipate what the Monkey King could possibly want there. Black had immediately chartered a direct flight, on a military passenger jet, hoping to catch up.
The flight from Los Angeles to Beijing was still nothing to sneeze at though, military jet or not. Black had made contact with Chinese Intelligence, who'd been, surprisingly, easily convinced of the danger of the Monkey King. The J-Team had been greeted by two special agents on the tarmac, and immediately whisked away to a black van with darkened windows, that proved to have two more agents inside. An identical van seemed to be following them, as they were directed by the agent sitting in the front passenger seat, Agent Wen. Wen appeared to be in charge, as she was briefing Black and the J-Team on what Chinese intelligence knew so far.
"So far the target has eluded all security forces. We've only been able to trace where he's been by finding surveillance footage or evidence of breaking and entering. We're heading to the heart of Beijing, the Forbidden City. The target broke into a closed section of the city, doing a great deal of damage to priceless historic relics, but nothing was removed," Wen paused for a moment, checking her phone, its backlight illuminating her face. She was young, but not very, and pretty enough, but her lack of make-up and short cropped hair indicated that attractiveness was hardly on her list of priorities.
"The trail ends there, we're bringing you to the site in hopes you can determine where he's gone next. I hope I don't have to explain how important the Forbidden City is to China, and that we must take care to cause no further harm to the crime scene," Wen said, giving El Toro a hard look. The luchador dwarfed all the Chinese agents, in height and girth, and had attracted stares at the airport, despite the efforts of subterfuge.
"We will make every effort to preserve the artifacts Agent Wen, you have my word," Jackie promised, speaking up for the first time since getting off the plane.
"And mine," Black echoed. "It's my hope that we can resolve this as quickly as possible, and get out of your hair Agent Wen." Black gave his most charming smile in an effort to sooth the serious Chinese agent, and it did manage to make her lips twitch, though she didn't quite smile.
"We can only hope Captain," Wen remarked. She turned around in her seat to look out the windshield. She gave some directions to the driver in Mandarin, and the van slowed and turned off the highway.
"What did she say?" Viper asked Jackie softly, leaning towards Jackie, and chin turned to him, while she kept her eyes on the road ahead. Jackie's cheeks turned pink as Viper's hair brushed his shoulder.
Uncle's Rare Finds
Jade sighed, stretching her back without rising from her chair. She'd been bent over a heavy text for hours, trying to figure out what the year of the monkey might mean to the Monkey King. Uncle had instructed the enforcers to clean-up the store before he'd brought out the texts he'd been studying in private about the Monkey King. Everyone had been assigned a text, even Jade had received a more modern one written about legends and myths focusing on the year of the monkey. She almost regretted not ditching the store and hopping the jet to Beijing with her J-Team. But a quick glance at Paco the puppet boy, who'd been entrusted to her by El Toro, was enough to assuage her wanderlust, for now at least.
"Yo Sensei? I get that there's bad mojo goin on right now, but the ingredients in this book for ancient potions are starting to look tasty, and that includes the mold grown under a bat's wing. Can we order a pizza or something?" Finn complained from his corner of the store, which had quickly grown a new book fort around the Irish man. To his credit he seemed to be trying to follow a trail of thought across a few tombs, but despite that excuse, he never seemed to put away any of the books he pulled off a shelf.
"Ancient potions? I thought we were researching monkey puppets?" Ratso asked from the table he was sharing with Chow again, who's stomach grumbled in agreement with Finn's request. The childish confusion in Ratso's voice was contradicted by the careful stack of notes he was making in small precise handwriting.
"I found a spell that turns people to trees, which talked about a potion for turning other things into wood," Finn said shaking his shoulders.
"Pizza? This is not time for Pizza!" Uncle cried out from his own desk. The twitch in his hand suggested if Finn had been closer he would had received the customary correctional thwack Uncle was always generous to give out. "You want to stop Monkey King? Yes? Then we do research!" Unfortunately Uncle's shriek was punctuated with the unmistakable growl of Tohru's own stomach, which Jade managed to hear across the store. Tohru smiled sheepishly and put his own book aside, marking his place with a plain paper bookmark.
"Perhaps I shall warm some leftovers Sensei," Tohru offered and headed towards the kitchen.
"Can you make some coffee too T?" Jade called after him, a yawn cracking her voice.
"No coffee for you, too young," Uncle answered her, not even looking up from his book this time.
"Awww," Jade whined her disappointment. She had hoped that Uncle might let up for once, since he'd been willing to let her help with the research. She'd honestly felt really grown-up to be trusted with her own part in the efforts, but that had been about 10 hours ago. She was mostly tired now. She flipped the page, picking up on the legend she'd been reading about a lord from ancient Korea who'd loved monkeys so much he'd had fantastic festivals for them. Despite the exciting descriptions of colourful pageantry and exotic collections of monkeys, Jade still felt herself nodding off. She blinked away the heaviness from her eyelids, intent on focusing. Research was almost as important as butt-whoop in taking down the bad guys, if not even slightly as exciting, so Jade was doing her best to stay focused. However at 14 years and half a day's age, Jade wasn't quite up to the all-nighter her Uncle had organized.
The shop quieted down with the promise of food, the rhythmic page turning and paper shuffling a restful lullaby to Jade's ears. When the words on the page began to blur she pulled the book close for a moment to inhale deeply, the scent of paper filling her nose, she closed her eyes to gather strength and brace herself for the next page.
When Jade opened her eyes, the book fell limply from her fingers, dropping to the ground with a bang that echoed through the newly dark and quiet shop. Jade was alone, and the books that had littered the shop had all been pushed away into the corners and shadowed edges of the store. In the centre of the store was a single candle on the table which Ratso and Chow had used. Its dim light lent itself to long and dark shadows that urged Jade to move closer to the light.
"Guys? Hello? Where did everyone go…" Jade called quietly in the dark room as she slowly walked towards the candle. Her voice trailed off, when the darkness of the room seemed to swallow the sound. She could not recall the storefront ever being this dark before. The shadows were strange and unfamiliar, though she had spent years among the books and artefacts. When a chill ran up her spine, Jade spun with a cry.
There was nothing there, and the darkness behind her only seemed darker for her previous focus on the light of the candle. Cautiously Jade backed up towards the table, the hairs on her arms standing on end. Something was in the dark, she knew it.
She almost cried out again when she bumped into the table. More cautiously this time, watching the room, she turned to face the candle. It was… as typical of candle as Jade could ever remember seeing, though she couldn't recall ever actually seeing the candle before. A bead of wax gathered at the top and ran down the side. Jade watched it drip, and frowned. A patch of black she'd taken for shadow under the candle, caught the wax and it ran through dips and valleys that suggested cloth. Unthinkingly Jade reached for the candle and the cloth, meaning to pull the black cloth from under the melting candle.
The blackness sprang to Jade's hand, upsetting the candle which rolled to the floor. Jade cried out in surprise this time, as the black shadow that was definitely not cloth, clung to her hand. It was warm and seemed to move against her hand. Panicked Jade shook her hand wildly, flinging the shadow to the floor.
The shadow grew and stretched on the ground, distorted by the flickering of the candle that had fallen to the ground. Jade took a step away from the shadow, then another when she recognized the undulating of the shadow. Breathlessly she named the growing shadow, "Shadowkhan." It rose out of the shadows, kneeling, like a coiled snake ready to strike. Its red eyes bore into Jade's eyes, as another shadowkhan rose from the shadows, then another and another. They poured in from the shadows before Jade.
They stared at Jade, their number more than Jade could even attempt to face by herself. Her heart was pounding in her throat, and Jade tried to swallow it, and quiet her pulse. But that seemed to be the signal the shadowkhan had been awaiting, because as one, the group lunged towards Jade.
Eyes wide with shock, Jade dropped to the ground with a gasp and rolled under the table. The nearest shadowkhan had leapt on the table to get to her, and momentarily lost her. From the other side of the table Jade took off like a shot. When three shurikan blossomed in the wall in front of her Jade frantically changed direction from the kitchen and headed to the stairs, momentarily throwing off her pursuing shadows. Barreling up the stairs she managed to reach the top just as more shadowkhan melted into the upstairs hallway through the shadows. Jade ran to the first door, reaching it before the shadowkhan had fully emerged. Jade violently pulled open the door, and spun herself around it to pull it shut behind her as she darted into the room.
Breathing heavily Jade leaned her back against the door and looked around the room for more shadowkhan. It was the storage room where she'd changed for the party. Filled with crates and dusty artefacts, it was just as it had been earlier. It was lit, though the light didn't come from the cheap light hanging from the ceiling. For a moment Jade looked for the light that the old dirty mirror reflected, before realizing the light was coming from the mirror. How odd she thought.
Jade's breathing quieted, and her fear of the shadowkhan faded from her mind as she approached the mirror with quiet curiousity. She found her own reflection in the mirror, just as she had always been. A young Chinese girl, yet she was older now than she had ever been before. Her bangs curled only slightly against her face, while the rest of her hair remained almost pin straight, despite her dash upstairs. A slight frown creased her face when Jade saw that she wasn't wearing her outfit from the party, but her usual orange hoodie and jeans. Without much thought Jade reached out to touch the mirror, a gesture of confusion, she was trying to understand thoughts that seemed to drift across her mind.
The instant she touched the mirror every hair on her body stood on end and her flesh rippled as a wave of heat seemed to rush through her, from her hand to her toes and the ends of her hair. Jade tried to wrench away her from the mirror, only to be stopped when her reflection's fingers dipped through the mirror and interlaced with Jade's own fingers.
She was held fast as her reflection began to pull her into the mirror. The reflection's skin first turned pale before taking on a blue hue, and red light bled into the reflection's eyes. The reflection had changed to become Jade as she had been when she had foolishly taken Tarakudo's mark. The reflection had become Queen Jade of the Shadowkhan.
The Shadowkhan's hand was warm against her own, but the mirror was ice cold. Jade felt like she was being pulled into heavy snow. She pulled back against the shadowkhan's reflection, but the Queen's slow efforts to pull Jade through were unaffected by the effort. Jade tried to brace herself against the mirror's frame, but was already elbow deep in the mirror. Jade could see the Queen's mouth moving, speaking to Jade, but couldn't hear anything. When Jade continued to resist, the Queen frowned, and solemnly continued to draw Jade into the mirror.
When Jade's ear was pressed against the mirror, and the side of her body had begun to feel the mirrors' cold, Jade desperately tried to kick at the mirror, to grasp with her free hand for anything she could reach. And when Jade opened her mouth to scream for help, she was jerked through the mirror all at once.
The mirror shattered as Jade fell through, the Shadow Queen was nowhere to be seen, and neither was the floor she'd been standing on a moment before. Jade plummeted, falling in a dark empty void. Only the shards from the shattered mirror had followed her, and were falling above her, buffeted by the air, twirling and dancing as they fell. The shards clinked and rattled against each other, again shining with their own light. They moved with a will of their own and formed a pattern above Jade, a circle with a shape inside.
"A tree?" Jade asked breathlessly as she fell. Then as she began to fall even faster, wind howling in her ears, violently snapping at her clothes and yanking at her hair, the shards' glow grew brighter and brighter. The intense light forced Jade to close her eyes and she struggled to turn away from the light as she plummeted to some unknown source of gravity. When she turned away from the light she cried out in shocked fear as the wooden floor of the shop rushed up to greet her.
Jade awoke with a start, jerking herself off the floor of the shop where she'd fallen asleep and had been using her book for a pillow. She gasped silently as she pushed herself up from the floor. The wood was reassuringly solid under her hands and knees. Jade caught her breathe while she tried to hold on to the gossamer threads of her dream, but as she held onto one part the rest seemed to fade. She was being chased in the dark, and then something grabbed her… maybe?
Jade's recollection was burst by a gentle clatter of a tea cup and a plate with some warmed stir-fry, being set down on the floor next to her. Jade plopped herself on her backside and found Hak Fu had brought her a small meal. A glance around the store showed that little had changed, so she couldn't have been asleep long, only enough time for Finn to have grabbed one more book.
"Thanks Hak Fu," Jade said bashfully, hoping she hadn't snored.
With a snort Hak Fu waved away her thanks and turned away to return to his own studies. Jade found the Black Tiger often displayed annoyance whenever performing mundane or helpful tasks, but that was often to disguise that he did them without being asked. Jade knew that Hak Fu was a big old softie, he couldn't fool her. Jade took up her tea with a smile as she reflected on the nature of secretly nice former bad guys, her dream all but evaporating from her mind.
Beijing, China
The Forbidden City
Jackie, Viper, El Toro and Captain Black had been quietly escorted into the Forbidden City, past the parts open to the city as the Palace Museum. Jackie hadn't been here for years, and secretly was disappointed he would likely not be getting the chance to tour the museum on this visit. There were however, more pressing matters.
Two uniformed men were guarding a small building that was well away from the areas the tourists congregated. In fact it looked like it may have served as a storage shed, and when Agent Wen led the small group agents into the building, past the saluting guards, Jackie saw that the storage shed seemed to house artefacts that hadn't been on display for a great deal of time.
"Surveillance shows the fugitive ransacking several other similar sized buildings before entering this one. There is no evidence of him leaving the building, but as you can plainly see he is no longer here," Agent Wen addressed the J-Team and her agents before turning specifically to Captain Black. "Captain Black do you believe your team will be able to pick up the trail?" she asked.
"Let my team take a look around," Captain Black said as he waved Jackie towards the mess of the building.
Jackie nodded as he walked in deeper to the building. Shelves lined the walls, and a computer sat on top of a desk of pushed together wooden crates. Jackie assumed the broken ceramics littering the floor had once occupied the shelves, and that the computer's monitor hadn't always had that hole through it. The Monkey King had certainly been here.
As Viper began to pick through the more intact artefacts on the floor, El Toro walked past Jackie to the far wall of the shed where less destruction seemed to have taken place, and Captain Black was asking Agent Wen if there had been any effort to recover the computer's data. Jackie picked up a small carving off the shelf, a grinning ceramic monkey that had been spared from the Monkey King's rampage.
From what he could see the artefacts that had been stored in the shed weren't particularly rare, nor did they share many characteristics beyond being old and Chinese. Placing the monkey back on the shelf, Jackie slowly looked around the room, trying to think of what the Monkey King could have been looking for in here, or how he had gotten out without being seen. The half of the shed nearest to the door had been tossed, but further in there seemed to be less wanton destruction.
"Do you think he was looking for something?" Viper asked Jackie from the floor, as she sorted through the debris.
"The Monkey King never tried to do anything like this last time he escaped," Jackie sighed. "Last time he wanted revenge on Jade and I for imprisoning him the first time he escaped." Darkly Jackie wondered if this was the beginning of another quest for a number of objects scattered across the world. Perhaps there were eleven more puppets like the Monkey King? Jackie dreaded the thought.
"Amigos! Please come see," El Toro called out.
"Did you find something El Toro?" Jackie asked, reaching El Toro first.
"There is a something on the wall, where the shelf had been broken," El Toro said pointing to the wall.
Stepping around his large friend, and a small pile of debris, Jackie looked where the wrestler pointed. Though most of this wall was intact this section of the shelf had indeed been destroyed, more thoroughly than the shelving closer to the door. The artefacts had been smashed on the floor, and the shelf torn down on top of them. The Monkey King had exposed stone wall that had been worn smoother with time, but the carvings themselves looked fresh, as if they'd been made only yesterday.
Jackie frowned, not recognizing the carving, and more importantly at the fact that no museum would cover up a carving like this with shelves, especially one so well preserved.
"Jackie?" Captain Black asked, coming to stand beside the archeologist.
"I need to call Uncle. Does anyone have a phone?" Jackie asked over his shoulder, still studying the wall.
Agent Wen opened a Velcro pouch on her belt, pulling out a small heavy duty satellite phone and handed it to Captain Black, with the question, "Who is Uncle?"
"Magic Consultant," Captain Black said with all seriousness, and not reacting at all to Agent Wen's raised eyebrows as he handed the phone to Jackie.
Jackie took the phone without noticing the exchange, his fingers automatically dialing the shop's number, which hadn't changed since Jackie's own childhood. Holding the receiver to his ear, he reached out with his other hand to trace the carving, only to pull his hand back when he received a shock of static electricity. He only had two rings of the phone to wonder on static electricity from stone when there was an answer.
"Uncle's Rare Finds is closed for renovations," Chow's blunt voice answered the phone.
"It's Jackie, put Uncle on please."
"Sure, hold on. Any sign of his royal monkeyness?" Chow asked.
"Plenty of sign of him," Jackie sighed, "But no actual Monkey King present."
Chow grunted in response, and Jackie could hear the phone being handed off.
"Hello?" Uncle answered, distraction clear in his voice.
"Uncle it's Jackie. I've found a strange symbol…"
Uncle's Rare Finds
"Ai Yaaaaaa!" Uncle's scream reverberated through the shop startling everyone. Fin's jump set off an avalanche of his mountain of books, burying him underneath, Chow choked on his sip of coffee and Ratso broke the pencil he was writing with in half. Hak Fu leapt several feet in the air, landing neatly in the middle of the room with his arms raised for a fight. Tohru dropped his book on the table in front of him, upsetting his bowl of rice into his lap.
Jade had been hunched over her book, sitting with her back to a wall, and jumped when Uncle yelled, smacking the back of her head against the wall. She rubbed the back of her head, putting the book of Chinese Monkeys aside, while she watched Uncle throw the shop phone aside, managing to hit Ratso.
"Ow my nose!"
Utterly panicked Uncle failed to notice the phone's trajectory as he raced to the nearest bookshelf. He began pulling down book after book, opening them only long enough to scan a few pages before dropping them carelessly at his feet. He was speaking to himself rapidly in Mandarin, too quietly for Jade to understand fully, but enough to know Uncle should not be using that type of language.
Jade casually picked up the phone from where it had fallen, while Chow tried to cajole Ratso into showing him how badly the nose was hurt. Tohru had left the mess of rice to try and calm down Uncle, only to get a book thrown at him. Hak Fu finding no imminent assailant was attempting to pull Fin out from beneath his tomb of tomes.
"Uncle Jackie?" Jade asked cautiously, guessing at who had likely called.
"Jade? What happened to Uncle?" Her uncle's voice came through the phone, recognizable, but with enough static to prove the phone connection wasn't entirely stable.
"Uh, he's flipping out. What did you say to him?" Jade asked, her eyes still following Uncle, who had thrown another book at Tohru. She had never seen Uncle so worked up before.
"We found a strange carving Jade. I'm in a storage shed in the Forbidden City, it's the last place the Monkey King was seen. I think he was looking for this," Jackie said.
"What kind of symbol?" Jade asked incredulously, surely that was no reason for Uncle to be losing it.
"It's strange, a tree in a circle," Jackie said and as he described the carving Jade was overcome by a profound sense of déjà vu. "It has three branches and three roots, each cross the circle, with the trunk in the middle. It looks like it was only carved into the stone recently, but that's impossible."
"Says the man who chased a walking, talking, man-monkey to the other side of the world," Jade responded sarcastically. A tree in a circle, three branches and three roots, why did that sound so familiar? Jade's brain itched as her eyes drifted across the bookshelves.
"Don't be smart Jade," Jackie admonished her.
"I'll remember you said that when I take my next math test," Jade answered. She had drifted towards the book she had set down a moment ago, but no that wasn't it. She felt like she needed to check the bookcase that was closest to where she had been sitting. Hadn't there been a book with a tree?
"That's not what I meant Jade," Jackie sighed into the phone. There in the bottom corner, Jade spotted it, a thin book with a very small tree in a circle on the binding. Jade pulled it out with only one finger, it was such a flimsy volume, it seemed insignificant. On the cover however, the symbol had been etched in much larger relief and with greater detail.
"Hey Jackie, do each of the branches have different types of leaves?" Jade asked.
"Uh yes, how did you know that Jade?" Jackie asked quizzically.
"Are the roots all twisted and knotted too?" Jade asked, tracing her thumb over the cover.
"Jade how are you doing this? How do you always do this?" Jackie asked with exasperation.
"One of Uncle's books has the same symbol on it Jackie," Jade flicked open the book to a random page, "Okay that's not English, Mandarin, Cantonese or Japanese," she exclaimed at the strange writing in the book.
"It's a Quechon record, of an Omuranon translation, of a Noric legend," Uncle said as he snatched the book and phone out of Jade's hands.
"Hey, I was reading that!" Jade complained, despite the fact she was not in fact reading that.
Ignoring Jade, Uncle asked Jackie "Did you touch the tree Jackie?" his panicked rampage from a moment ago had evaporated, leaving behind the wise chi wizard.
"Err, yes Uncle," Jackie answered.
"Did it react to your touch?"
"Well I was shocked by a little static electricity. Does that mean something?"
Uncle began flipping carefully through the little book, slowly meandering towards the table he'd been sitting at with Tohru. Focused on carefully reading the book, he stepped on the rice that had been spilled, either not noticing or not caring. He hummed to himself deep in thought as he sat down while examining a specific page.
Beijing, China
The Forbidden City
Jackie carefully explained to Uncle where they had found the carving etched into a wall. Jackie's nervousness grew in proportion to his uncle's questions becoming increasingly taciturn. He had a feeling that his earlier dread about this being the precipice of a much larger adventure was becoming more premonition than paranoia. Especially when Uncle's questions failed to reassure him.
"The symbol is where the Monkey King disappeared?" Uncle asked.
"There isn't any other sign of him Uncle," Jackie answered.
There was a pause and the faint sound of rustled paper. Then Uncle's next question came, "Is the thief woman there?"
Caught off guard by a question so out of line from the others, Jackie could only answer, "Uh Yes, Viper is here."
Jackie listened carefully to Uncle, unconsciously nodding along with his monosyllabic acknowledgments of Uncle's instructions. When he ended the call, he momentarily allowed his whole being to sag. With a deep breathe he managed to collect himself, and turned from the wall with a pleasant smile.
"Thank you for the phone," Jackie said, handing it back to Agent Wen.
"Did you learn anything Jackie?" Captain Black asked, his faith in Jackie tinging his question with the confidence that Jackie had done exactly that.
Nodding seriously, Jackie answered, "I have something I can try. With Viper's help."
"My help?" Viper asked, immediately suspicious. Her eyes narrowed as she looked at Jackie, but when he placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and guided her closer towards him, she failed to object.
Jackie bashfully lead Viper the few steps closer to the carving and asked everyone else to stand back, "Just in case," he said cheerfully.
"Just in case what Jackie?" Viper asked, suspicion only growing. It wasn't as if she was going to take off at this point, she was certainly in too deep, and all mercenary tendencies aside, she did want to help restore capture the Monkey King and save Paco. Yet she didn't like being kept in the dark, at all.
Jackie forced a light chuckle, as if Viper's question had been in jest. "Now Uncle explained to me very carefully that we need to touch the tree together," and as if Viper had instantly reached out to the wall, which she did not, he added hurriedly, "But we have to do so in a very specific way."
"This better not turn me into anything slimy Jackie," Viper said. She shifted her weight, unsettled by Jackie brushing aside her question.
Jackie shook his head, and extended his hand towards the carving, though not yet touching it. "Uncle says that it will open a door if we both touch it at the same time."
"A door which is probably where the Monkey probably scampered off to," Viper said with understanding. She took a step closer to Jackie.
"I will place my palm flat against the top of the tree, with my fingers spread across the branches. At the same time you must do the same, upside down, with the heel of your palm touching mine and your fingers spread over the roots of the tree," Jackie explained. He flexed his hand, spreading his fingers, demonstrating his instructions.
With a quiet nod Viper placed her arm underneath Jackie's stepping into him so she could carefully line her hand up with his. Her movement didn't just invade Jackie's personal space, it brought her back gently flush with his chest. Viper found she rather liked Jackie's warmth, but found a small smirk for the shock she knew she would have found on the straight laced archeologist's face.
"Ready?" Jackie asked.
"Let's do it," Viper answered with renewed confidence. Touching as they were, there wasn't any need for a count down. When Jackie moved hesitantly, Viper moved with him.
Their palms touched the tree together, this time with no shock. For a moment nothing seemed to happen, than the wall began to vibrate and shortly tremble under their hands. The movement spread through the shack, alerting the small group watching. Captain Black made to pull back Jackie and Viper, only to need to jump back himself when the floor between them fell from beneath his feet.
The stone floor shifted methodically, the bricks grating against each other as they pulled away from the mouth of a narrow staircase that spiralled downwards. Dust billowed into the room as the floor resettled, setting off a round of coughing among the Chinese agents and the "American" envoy. The stairs seemed, like the carving, to be freshly laid stone, pristine and unworn. There was however no railing to protect against a fall into the narrow dark pit at the centre of the spiraling stairs.
Viper was the first to peer down into the unlit descent after the dust cleared. "Open Sesame," she remarked dryly.
"I think we found the Monkey King's bolt hole Agent Wen," Captain Black said. He shadowed Jackie as the archeologist knelt at the top of the staircase, testing the first stair with his hands. Finding it sound, Jackie tentatively shifted so he could rest one foot lightly on the step. When it failed to crumble away, activate any kind of trap or explode, he chanced a second foot.
Agent Wen was busily shouting orders in Mandarin. Two of her agents swiftly left the building, while the other three busily checked their gear. She briskly walked to the edge of the stairs, pulling out a small glow stick from one of her many pockets. She cracked it and dropped it down the dark center of the stairs. Despite its small size it glowed rather impressively, and the group watched it fall for a few minutes before the darkness swallowed it. A few minutes after, they heard it thwack against the unseen ground.
"Seems like a long way down," Viper said, as she casually lowered herself down onto the stairs ahead of Jackie, ignoring his caution.
"We should begin our descent, the Monkey King cannot be far ahead now," El Toro said grimly. He began a march down the stairs, which were narrow enough to force Jackie to keep pace ahead of him or be knocked down.
"Wait El Toro we do not know what's down there or if these stairs are safe!" Jackie protested, as he fruitlessly tried to slow down the larger man.
"The creature which cursed Paco is down there, I will endure the risk. Alone if I must," El Toro replied. In a move born of his long years of wrestling, he gracefully managed to pull Jackie behind him while stepping around him. This flustered Jackie for a moment before Captain Black clapped him on the back, having followed the two down. He himself was closely followed by Agent Wen and her three remaining agents.
"Now I'm sure that's not what Jackie meant El Toro," Captain Black offered cheerfully, guiding Jackie to keep moving down the tight staircase. Jackie spluttered for a moment, but his protests died with a look at the back of the masked wrestler's head. He knew if it was Jade trapped in puppet form, he wouldn't let potentially crumbling ruins slow him down. With a sigh Jackie crouched and grabbed the edge of the stairs hopping down in front of Viper.
"I will lead us down," Jackie said. Viper looked at him with amusement, but let him take the lead.
The matter settled the group began its descent down the dark staircase. Their voices carried up the stairs for awhile, then turned to echoes and eventually faded from the storage room. For a moment all was still in the ravaged room. The dust fell still on the broken shards of the ancient artefacts and the door stood shut. And when silence had finally become comfortably settled in the room, it was interrupted by a shuddering, shaking crate.
A few muffled curses were uttered from within the box before one of its sides blew off in spectacular violence. The Monkey King pulled himself out of his hiding place, managing to trip over his own feet and land gracelessly on his chin. When he righted himself he gave the now empty crate a vengeful kick, because despite its success at concealing him, it had been a tight fit.
He grumbled to himself as he walked down the steps which Jackie and Viper had so helpfully revealed for him. Not like he had a female partner to help him open the door, now was it?
