Jack felt himself spin around, knew his back was exposed to Wuya and she'd be rushing in to take advantage of that before he could even think about spinning around again
Jack leapt through the portal left by the Golden Tiger Claws, the Tongue of Saiping around his neck and Little Chase tucked under one arm.
"Daddy?!" the child whimpered, wriggling fitfully.
"Shush, shush now, Chase," Jack murmured a lot more calmly than he felt. "You have to be a brave boy now."
'So I can give you up forever,' some nasty internal voice added. It stung; it hurt like hell, but the world needed Chase Young. A balance needed to be maintained between Good and Evil and Chase was that balance. Jack would have to return him to his rightful form.
Jungle cat warriors began to appear from the shadows as Jack loped up the stairs towards Chase's throne room. The albino youth dug out the Tongue of Saiping.
"Warrior cats!" he called. "This boy is Chase Young; stuck in a child's form! I need the Eagle scope and the Fountain of Hui!"
Tigers and lions prowled forward cautiously, eyeing the pair.
"What proof do we have of this?" One large tiger growled in Classical Chinese.
Jack put Chase down and handed the boy the Golden Tiger Claws.
"Look at the pretty kitty, Chase," he prompted, turning the boy to face the ferocious animal.
The tiger prowled forward, sighting in on the small child.
There was a silken sound as Jack drew his sword.
"Not that I don't trust you, Hobbes," he muttered. "But the second he feels teeth, you feel steel."
The tiger snarled, lifting its head to glare at Jack.
"You would be pulled down before you reached the door."
"Not before I made you into a rug."
A black panther ignored the dialogue between tiger and man and padded forward to look deep into Chase's wide eyes. The Sheba lifted her head and sniffed at the shrunken warlord. The boy balanced the Golden Tiger Claws in one hand and reached out hesitantly to pat the black leopard's nose.
"Nice kitty," he whispered.
"It is Master," she declared. "Bring the Shen Gong Wu!"
Jack picked up Chase and balanced him on his hip, the sword still held in his opposite hand. As much as he trusted the warrior cats, some paternal instinct screeched at the sight of his little boy wandering around the man-eaters looking all bite-sized and tasty.
"Is Wuya here? She's tried to stop me before," he asked, scanning the balconies and doorways that lined the main hall.
"Has she?" the tiger growled. "She will not do so again. She rests upstairs from being wounded. Someone she's been battling has been defeating her soundly lately."
Jack couldn't help the small smile that curved his lip.
"Yeah . . . that'd be ME."
Given the facial characteristics of big cats, the disbelieving looks Jack received really shouldn't have been possible.
"Don't give me that look," Jack growled as the group began to move to another part of the palace, closer to Chase's dining room. "I've been protecting Chase. I've HAD to improve."
Rumbling, amused chuffs echoed through the room.
"Hairballs," Jack snarled.
As they emerged into the new room, Jack could see the Fountain of Hui and the Eagle Scope set up in the middle of the floor. There was no hint of any place to store any other Shen Gong Wu and Jack reflected that for a guy who supposedly had no use for the things, Chase was pretty compulsive about hiding them.
"Must be the dragon instinct to hoard treasure," he muttered to himself.
"Wuya stirs!" A leopard called down.
The cats expected Jack to panic at that, but he simply took a deep breath and tightened his grip on his sword.
"Let's do this quick, then. I'm deactivating the Tongue of Saiping; I don't want it to interfere with this."
The albino youth quickly matched deed to word and slipped the Tongue from around his neck, again placing it in Little Chase's hands.
"Ready to grow up and be a big boy, Chase?" He inquired.
Little Chase stared up at his father with huge golden eyes. After a moment, he managed to nod. Whatever his daddy asked of him, Little Chase would do. He didn't want to disappoint his father.
Jack smiled.
"Here we go; Fountain of Hui! Eagle Scope!"
The two Shen Gong Wu began to glow before a shower of endless images poured from the Fountain of Hui, surrounding Jack and Chase. For a moment, they were random, endless, a river of facts pouring before their eyes.
"How do we return Chase Young to normal?" Jack called.
The stream of images and sound coalesced into one that hovered before him.
Jack blinked.
"You have got to be fucking kidding me."
Wuya moved down the stairs, moving stiffly against the pain in her belly. Something was going on downstairs; she could hear voices and movement. The warrior cats should have repelled any intruders without issue; she certainly hadn't heard a battle.
A lion crossed her path, holding the Eagle Scope in his mouth. It twitched its tail when it saw her and slunk off into the shadows.
The witch frowned. Why were the cats moving Chase's Shen Gong Wu around? They never did anything like that unless it was under Chase Young's direct orders. Green eyes widened slowly at the sound of human movement down below. Wuya ignored the pain lancing through her body and flew down the stairs.
Little Chase sat at a big dinner table, in a big chair with pretty pink upholstery. He wasn't big enough to reach the table, so his daddy had found him an eight hundred year old lacquer ware box to sit on. The boy looked over at his daddy, who was digging through a nearby pantry and saying a lot of bad words.
"Gotta be fuckin' kidding me . . . . .Lao Mang Lone . . . this whole time it's been dragon soup . . ." Jack growled.
"Daddy?" Chase called.
"Lunch is coming right up, buddy!" Jack called cheerfully.
"The kitties have gone," Chase reported.
"The cats left? Wuya must be moving around." Jack came out of the pantry holding a large porcelain bowl filled to the brim with steaming green soup. "I don't know where you keep the little dragon tail garnish, so you'll have to eat it plain."
Jack set the bowl in front of Chase.
"Bon apetit!"
For a moment, Little Chase stared down at the bowl in front of him. Then those golden eyes slid slowly back to Jack.
The albino reflected that, evil witch and killer cats aside, the hardest part of this might be convincing a toddler to eat something that looked and smelled like someone had boiled the contents of a mud puddle.
"I know. I know, Chase. But you need to eat it. Think of it like medicine; it's going to be yucky, but you'll feel much better afterwards."
A truly bratastic whine started up from Chase's throat and he twisted away from the bowl.
"I don't WANNA eat this!" He wailed. "It looks like throw up!"
"I know, but –"
"It smells like throw up!"
"Chase – "
"I'm not eating throw up!" The Heylin dragon lord turned toddler turned in his seat and tried to bury his head between the seat cushions. Given that he was still sitting on the box, he ended up with his tuckus sticking almost straight up.
Jack rubbed a hand over his face. If this weren't a matter of life and death, Chase's little tantrum would be adorable.
"Chase . . ."
"NO!"
"If you eat it, it will break the spell and you'll be able to remember your Mommy."
Chase pulled his head out from behind the box and stared hard at Jack.
A sharp roar caught the albino's attention.
"Shit! Wuya . . . eat your soup, Chase!"
The albino youth sprang to his feet and loped out of the dining room.
Jack emerged at the top of the stairs leading up to the dining room. Wuya was at the foot of the stairs, her arms crossed across her stomach. Her wound had to be causing her pain; strangely, Jack found he didn't care in the slightest.
"Jack! What are you doing here?!" she gasped. Her green eyes were wide and even a tiny bit fearful.
"Just fixing something," Jack answered casually.
"Chase?!" Now the fear was obvious in her eyes.
"Yep. Don't!" He snapped as she started up the stairs. "You're just going to sit there while the spell works." Jack drew his sword just so she knew he meant business.
To his amazement and wicked glee, Wuya actually stopped when he said to.
For a moment.
Then a snarl twisted her features.
"Impudent brat! Do you have any idea what Chase will do to me when he returns to normal?" She shrieked.
Jack smirked.
"Yeah, I do," he breathed. "That's kind of the point."
Wuya gave a screech and rushed forward.
Jack gave a shout and did the same.
For what seemed like a long while, they danced; Jack slashing and thrusting awkwardly, but with force, Wuya kicking and punching in pained, short jabs. Despite his inexperience, Jack held his own until Wuya caught one of his sleeves, yanked him off balance and exposed his back.
Jack felt himself spin around, knew his back was exposed to Wuya and she'd be rushing in to take advantage of that before he could even think about spinning around again. Here she came, he could feel it. Without even really thinking about it, Jack took the dress sword and thrust it back under one of his arms.
And this time he remembered to keep the blade flat.
The witch made a . . . strange sound as she was impaled by the blade. Not quite a moan, not quite a shout, just a strangled vocalization of numb horror as the sword pierced her heart. The action should have brought her up short, but the witch's forward momentum brought her up to smack into Jack's back; all thoughts of kicking or striking him gone.
Jack continued to stare straight ahead as he felt the woman collapse against his back. He should have slung her off and finished the job before she could stab him or anything else detrimental to his health.
That's what Chase would have done.
Jack didn't do that. He froze; shivering slightly as he felt hot blood start to run down one leg and splatter to the stone floor. Wuya clung to him, making the smallest, most pathetic whimpers of sound imaginable. The sword felt heavy; so very heavy. Jack realized it was because the blade bore all of Wuya's weight; if he let go, she'd hit the floor.
"J – j – ack . . ." Wuya whimpered.
Jack shivered hard, still keeping his eyes forward.
"Jack . . . ." The witch coughed wetly and Jack felt hot blood spray across his shoulder and neck.
Not wanting at all to look at her, the albino man forced his head to turn to look into Wuya's green eyes.
"What do you want?" He asked hoarsely.
Against all expectation, Wuya smiled slightly.
"Why – why do I always fall for the men who end up killing me?" She asked.
Jack blinked in confusion, but before he could say anything, Wuya stretched up and kissed his cheek, leaving a lip print in her own blood. Jack shuddered hard and stepped forward, letting Wuya slide off of his sword and collapse in a bloody pile on the floor. The albino man stared down at her for a long moment, his eyes going ice-cold.
"Lady, you are seriously fucked up," he announced.
Wuya managed to force one last grin.
"Th – that's the same thing . . . . D – Dashi said . . ." she rasped.
Before Jack could express further disgust, the witch suddenly relaxed, shutting off in a subtle, yet somehow very obvious way.
Wuya was dead.
Spicer stood over the body of his fallen teacher-cum-rival for a moment, torn between saying a few words and collecting a trophy to present to Chase. In the end, he decided against either and staggered up the stairs to Chase's dining room, trying very hard not to notice the warlord's warrior cats closing in on the corpse with single-minded determination.
"Chase?" Jack called as he pushed aside one of the many curtains lining the room. "Chase? Did it work? Are you back to normal?"
At first glance, the room appeared empty. The single chair at Chase Young's table was unoccupied, though it still held a bowl and spoon. A bowl that had been turned over and the majority of Lao Mang Lone spilled across the table and floor.
Jack sagged.
"Chase! You didn't take your medicine?!" The albino crouched slightly to peer under the table. "You won't get better if you don't take it, you know!"
"I took enough," a smooth voice announced.
Jack straightened and whirled.
Standing in the shadows by the door was a boy wrapped in a torn curtain. It was definitely Chase; those golden eyes and pointed ears were better than a fingerprint. However . . . .
"You're still a kid," Jack observed.
Those finely arched brows drew down in a slight frown.
"I'm a youth, Spicer. Just as you are," Chase announced in a voice that still cracked in the middle of the sentence.
"You're, like, ten," Jack corrected as Chase stalked past him and pulled another can of Lao Mang Lone from a hidden shelf. "But, I guess it doesn't matter; you've got more dragon soup and Wuya's dead. You can drink more and get back to normal."
Chase paused as he set the can on the table.
"Dead?" Those youthful features arranged themselves in an expression of surprise. "You killed Wuya?"
Too tired to argue that he was perfectly capable of finishing off an enemy, Jack simply held up his bloodstained sword.
"And . . . the kiss mark?" Chase asked, walking towards Jack slowly.
Spicer blinked, letting his fingers brush against his cheek, having forgotten that Wuya must have left a bloody kiss print on him.
"Ah. That. Um, apparently being killed really turned her on," he admitted, still a bit grossed out by the whole situation.
Chase prowled up to stare levelly at Spicer. Jack looked . . . . well, rather magnificent still flushed from battle, spattered with his enemy's blood, and bearing a brand of arousal in blood from the woman he had just killed. It was very . . . stirring.
And Jack was still so tall . . .
"My champion," Chase observed, a certain warmth coming into his voice. "You deserve to be rewarded for such selfless acts of violence in my honor."
"Oh yeah?" Jack said, perking up slightly.
"Yes," Chase confirmed. The still shrunken warlord reached up and hooked his arms around Jack's neck and arched his body against the albino man's. "It's what every warrior still hot from battle truly wants."
For a moment, Jack thought he could hear the sound of a record skipping from deep in his own brain.
"Uh . . . . ." He said eloquently.
"And you need not worry; if I were truly a child, I would not be having the feelings I have now," Chase purred, trailing a finger along Jack's jaw.
Jack snapped out of his dumbfounded state.
"So you're twelve instead of ten?! That's comforting!" He snapped.
"Quiet, Spicer. I will return to my adult form at leisure; it's simply . . . . fun to see you as the 'big, strong champion' to this weaker form," Chase continued as if Jack hadn't spoken. "Let's enjoy ourselves."
The shrunken dragon lord leaned up, pulling himself upwards even as he pulled Jack down, his lips searching for his albino warrior's mouth.
Jack's hands hit Chase's shoulders hard, knocking the boy away from him.
"No! Chase, you're still a child to me! I can't get it on with a grade school kid! I can't even get it up! Finish your soup and then we'll talk!" Jack cried.
Chase caught himself against the table, staring at Jack in shock.
"You refuse me?" He hissed. "You refuse me?!"
"I'm not having sex with a child, Chase!" Jack yelled. "If you were in your grown up 'holy-shit-you're-hot-sex-on-toast-with-a-side-order-of-UNF!' body, then there'd be no talking. Unless the words "oh yeah" and "oh baby" and "harder" and "more" counted! But not until you get back to that!"
Chase glared at Jack for a long, long moment.
Without a word, he pulled open the can of Lao Mang Lone and poured the soup directly into the mostly empty bowl. A spell cast on the can long ago made the soup steaming hot as it poured out. Jack relaxed, letting the tip of his sword rest on the ground and not caring if it dribbled blood on Chase's fine carpet.
Chase took the now hot bowl of soup and lifted it to his lips, drinking quickly. Within a few minutes he had drained the bowl. The air around him shimmered and Chase began to grow. Shoulders broadened as muscles grew thicker and more defined. Childish traits disappeared as Chase Young grew into an adult before Jack's very eyes.
Then, the transformation was finished and Chase Young, Heylin dragon lord stood before Jack Spicer, naked except for a torn curtain wrapped around his waist.
Chase gave Jack a warm look and started to prowl towards the pale youth.
"Now that's what I'm talkin' about!" Jack growled.
Chase gave the tech wizard his patented 'smug, sexy smirk' and leaned forward. Quick as a wink, one large hand was latched around Jack's throat and squeezing.
"You insect. You worm. You refused me. You are ten times the fool with your silly modern morals! Any warrior worth my time would have known what to do with a beautiful young boy! How much of a fool are you, Spicer?!" The dragon lord snarled.
Jack didn't answer. He was too busy contemplating the sensations of asphyxiating while having his Adam's apple crushed simultaneously.
"Not only did you refuse me, you were rude enough to strike me in the process of doing so!"
A second hand joined the first around Jack's throat. The teenager's red eyes rolled upwards, near disappearing under his upper lids.
"The foolishness of being a youth again must have addled my thoughts, for there is no other reason I can imagine wanting to couple with the likes of you!" Chase roared.
There were no thoughts left in Jack's head; only pain and the desire to breathe again. And deep, deep down, the urge to fight back. Some instinctive urge tightened Jack's grip on his sword and brought it up sharply in a weak, awkward slash.
Chase ducked back, releasing his hold on Jack's neck. He avoided the strike with ease, watching dispassionately as Spicer collapsed to the floor gasping and coughing. Something caught the warlord's eye; a few strands of inky-black, shading to green where the light hit it just right, caught on the clots of blood still marring the blade of Jack's sword.
Chase's gold eyes grew wide.
"You CUT my HAIR?!"
Jack managed to lift his head, still gurgling weakly.
"INSECT!!" Chase roared, striding forward and kicking Jack squarely in the stomach.
The force of the blow lifted the albino youth and hurled him out of the door of the dining room, flinging him down the stairs. Jack landed in a heap at the bottom of the stairs and let out a howl of agony at the gash his sword cut in one of his legs. Then he howled again as he realized he had landed on Wuya.
"Master?!" RJ 13 ran towards him, a squad of JackBots zooming along behind him. Jack's robot minion knelt beside his creator, lifting the wounded youth.
"Get out!" Chase roared, standing at the top of the stairs. "Get out and never darken my doorstep again, you pathetic worm!"
"Master, what's going on? I thought you and Master Chase –" RJ 13 began.
"Just get me out of here," Jack hissed. "And that order to protect Chase with your life? Cancel it!"
RoboJack Unit 13 blinked in confusion, but put Jack's arm around his neck and helped his wounded master to stand. They limped out of the palace, a squad of Jackbots forming a wall between them and the warrior cats that dogged their steps to the entrance.