Shell Game

In Uncle's Rare Finds, Shasta was busy working on a locator spell to find the next talisman when the shop phone started ringing which it had been doing as of late ever since the Arkeyan Governors started working in shifts at Uncle's Rare Finds much to Uncle's delight as they had been selling many of Uncle's rare antiques for good amounts of money as of late and they even managed to close some deals to locate new artifacts for Uncle to sell which made the Chi Wizard quite happy to have them around. Shasta picked up the Phone and gave the standard greeting.

"Uncle's Rare finds this is Shasta, leader of the Volcanic Arkeyans speaking how can I help you?" Shasta said.

"Shasta thank god you picked up," Aqua said on the other end of the phone, "We've got good news and bad news, the good news is that Jade saw a talisman on television and she, Jackie, Tohru and I are already at the Talisman's location but the bad news is that since she saw it on television so did the Dark Hand which means we're probably gonna run into a fight."

"Which talisman did Jade see? I'm looking through the zodiac even as we speak Aqua to make sure we didn't miss any talismans."

"It was a rabbit and the talisman itself is lodged into the shell of a tortoise."

Shasta was looking through the books just as Uncle showed up holding a rare vase that Terrador had located and recovered for him last week.

"Did Uncle miss something because Uncle heard Volcanic Arkeyan Sorceress say something about a new talisman," Uncle said.

"Long story short Uncle a new talisman has been found, Aqua has Jackie, Jade and Tohru helping her retrieve it before the forces of Darkness do," Shasta said explaining the situation.

At the tortoise exhibit, Tohru was doing his best to gently remove the talisman from the tortoise's shell until he decided to use the simple approach and use his teeth to get it out.

"Here is the Talisman miss Aqua," Tohru said presenting the Talisman, "My apologies for having to use my teeth."

"Don't worry about it Tohru," Aqua said accepting the Talisman, "Let's just get this talisman out of here and into Section 13's vault."

"Do we have to leave so soon?" Jade whined, "Can we at least test out the Talisman's power?"

"Jade we cannot risk testing the talisman even with Aqua present," Jackie said, "It could fall into the hands of the Dark Hand and they're probably on their way here. If you saw the talisman on TV then there's a good chance they saw it on TV as well."

"Jackie is correct," Tohru spoke, "Finn watches a lot of television so he probably told Valmont by now which means they'll be coming and in full force."

"What are the odds that bad guys watch TV?" Jade asked and as if on cue a wall exploded and from it emerged Malefor, Finn, Ratso, and a swarm of Shadowkhan.

"Alright hand over the talisman and nobody gets hurt," Finn said as Malefor was ready to battle.

"We can take them," Jade said only to be held back by Aqua, "Aw but Aqua…"

"No buts Jade, you are not ready to take on something like this," Aqua said before handing her the Rabbit Talisman, "Take the Talisman and run Jade."

Jade nodded as she took the Talisman figuring that she could find a way around what Aqua just said and it didn't go unnoticed by Malefor as he sent some Shadowkhan to go after her.

Meanwhile Jackie and Tohru were fending off the Dark Hand and they were having an easy time doing it. Finn tried to aim a punch at Jackie but the archeologist caught it using the screwdriver motion and then flipped Finn into the water. Ratso tried to go after Tohru but the sumo simply used his strength to block the attack before blocking a sneak attack from another Dark Hand thug.

Meanwhile Jade was running from the Shadowkhan upon Aqua's orders. She had managed to avoid the Shadowkhan but ended up face to face with Malefor.

"End of the line," Malefor sneered as Shadowkhan ninjas appeared and surrounded Jade, "Hand over the talisman or I'll rip it from you by force and I'm dead serious."

"You'll have to catch me first," Jade said.

Right on cue Jade used the Rabbit Talisman to run around in a circle to confuse the Shadowkhan before bolting for Section 13 with the Rabbit Talisman.

"Jade to Shasta," Jade said calling Shasta on her phone, "I have the Rabbit Talisman."

"Good now get back to Uncle's shop where it will remain out of reach from the forces of Darkness," Shasta replied to Jade. "I'll take us to Section 13 from there."

"But I can help Shasta," Jade retorted.

"If you get captured you'll be no help to anybody," Shasta replied to which Jade gave a groan before complying with Shasta's orders.

Meanwhile Tohru Jackie and Aqua were surrounded by Shadowkhan but Aqua casted a simple teleportation spell to get them out of there and to the safety of Section 13 since they knew that Shasta managed to persuade Jade to take the Talisman to Uncle's Rare Finds.

In Section 13 after the battle Techno was already putting the Rabbit Talisman into the safety of the Vault.

"You know I like having the Arkeyan Governors about," Jackie said, "When they have the Talisman they know when to teleport out from the fight."

"I know but I would still like to see them kick some butt," Jade sighed.

"Jade it's like Jackie said," Shasta spoke, "The greatest victory is the battle not fought."

"What Shasta the fire Governess means is that since you had the Talisman and managed to return to Uncle's shop there was no need for us to battle the Dark Hand when we can simply teleport to Section 13," Aqua translated.

"However the time to do battle with the ultimate evil will come Jade," Techno said, "And when it does we will need everything we have to stop it."