Note: Uh, just to throw out there for anyone who may get angry: I don't have anything against Katnappe or Wuya. Oh, wait, that's a lie. They were mean to Jack. : )
---
Omi and Jack both rushed out to grab the Wu, both expressing a determination that was pretty overkill for the routine showdown. Well, it wasn't really a routine now. Jack had broken it when he went off for a month. But he was back now. The monks had only enough time to grin before the Wu was spotted. They were happy to get their source of entertainment back, the pricks. Jack would show them. Well, perhaps it'd be more correct to say Edel would.
Anyway, Jack and Omi were diving for the Wu and… yes, here's where the fun part comes in. Chase's eyes widened ever so slightly at the realization. He had thought it was just a monkey in the tree, but he was wrong. As Jack and Omi touched the brown orb (some sort of sister Wu to the Orb of Tornami) a pale hand reached down from the tree branches and touched it as well. Upside down, sleek, long gray hair spilled out as a precursor to the girl in black.
Edel smiled darkly, still upside down as she spoke. "I challenge you to a Shen Yi Bu Dare."
"Who are you?" Omi shouted, an odd smile coming onto his face without him even knowing.
Jack relaxed his body and grinned triumphantly. "We wager my Monkey Staff and the Shroud of Shadows. I'll sit this out." He added the last bit with more relief than anyone would ever be able to tell.
"You're Omi, right?" She cooed from the tree as her eyes looked over the stout yellow lad and then turned to the other monks. "In person, you lot seem weaker."
"Hey!" Kimiko shouted, growing livid. Frankly, though, no one cared about her. Her friends were all watching intently as the strange girl jumped out from the tree, still keeping a sharp, black nail on the orb. The short cut, tight leather dress-jacket left quite the impression on the male monks.
Jack was beaming. (He picked out the clothes for her.)
Chase came closer with Wuya following as per usual. Wuya was an awful lot like a leech in respects to how she acted with other people, but Chase had yet to be bothered enough by it to kill her. "Spicer, this is your creation?"
Before Jack could respond—and with his bright expression it was noticeable he wanted to—Edel snarled. She snarled loudly and very much on purpose. "What reason do you have for being here when it isn't an important Wu?"
Kimiko easily matched Edel's snarl—it must be a girl thing by the looks of it. "How would you know which of the Wu are more powerful?"
Edel inclined her head to Jack, not at all offended by the Japanese girl's snarl. Jack just shrugged. "I sneak into your Temple all the time. You think I'd be too stupid not to take some pictures of what's on that scroll thing?" He was slightly offended, and slightly smug as having to confess that.
Chase watched the banter, hiding his interest with his usual smirk.
Omi waved his arms and jumped over to the unfamiliar girl. "But! Why do you know what Jack knows?"
Edel grinned, not minding the boy's behavior. "He told me since I'm his precious daughter."
That floored everyone but Chase.
Jack's smile broadened and quickly turned to a leer as he moved to pat Edel on the head. "Yep. Took me some time to make her, but it was worth it!" The monks' jaws could not drop even farther. Then Jack remembered something. "Oh, Edel, don't snarl at Chase. He might kill you. Or me." He nodded casually as he spoke.
It was common sense to Jack, but Chase was actually insulted that Jack would have thought that of him. He couldn't say anything about it, though. He didn't have the right to argue that he wouldn't. Appearances must be maintained and all that.
Edel tilted her head to the side in a curious manner. "But I hate him. Expressing disdain is enjoyable." This, too, was common sense to Edel. It was just innate in her to act candidly and as puckishly as she could. Two guesses as to why.
Jack groaned (much like how Chase wanted to at his words). "Don't hate him, then. He'll kill you."
"If anyone tries to do such to you, I shall personally skin them and have the Jackbots wear their organs as hats." She smiled at the funny visual and the disgusted sounds of the monks.
He rubbed his forehead, and then gave a soft glare to the girl. "You're the strongest female Heylin, but not the strongest Heylin."
"What?" Wuya shouted in an enraged manner. Jack loved to brag, even when he didn't have anything to brag about, so it was to be expected Jack would say something of that nature about his little Edel. "What lies are you babbling about now, Jack?"
Edel huffed and folded her arms. "When I have the time, I'll stop by and prove it by beating those unhealthy presumptions out of you." She turned over to Omi before the old witch could respond. "We've all gotten sidetracked. Shall we continue with the showdown?"
"Ah, yes! You are right!" The orphan monk pointed to her exuberantly. She just smiled. He reminded of a dog—a puppy to be precise. "I shall wager the Orb of Tornami and the Tangle Web Comb."
"Great, it's a race to the Wu, then." She picked up the orb and held it up. In unison they shouted: "Gong Yi Tenpai!"
As soon as the tall rock bridge rose up in the air, the path they were on narrowed so that there was no chance of them being able to run side-by-side. Edel had no intention of racing, though. The second Omi moved to take a step forward; she brought her leg down on his neck. It wasn't hard enough to damage his spine, but enough to have his head crash painfully hard into the ground.
He was out like a light.
The monks shouted angrily as she leisurely walked over to the Wu, won, and then back to Jack when the area returned to normal.
---
"Hello!" Edel shouted she slipped into Chase Young's throne room. Once Jack had told her what the Tiger's Claw did, she was quick to use it. Two Jackbots flanked her as she took a few steps further in. "Hello!" She shouted once more.
Large, irate cats jumped out to circle the intruder, but… most stopped in confusion, the others continued to growl, albeit more lightly and unsure than before. She smelled similar to Chase, but also like Jack. It was no surprise they weren't sure how to respond to her presence.
She waved a hand dismissively at them. "I've come to pay visit to the old witch." A panther darted off to bring the witch as the others remained as they were. There wouldn't be any problems if it was just Wuya the girl wanted, that's how the panther saw it, at least.
Wuya walked into the throne room just a few minutes later, the panther not far away. "You!" She said accusingly.
"Me. Edel. Yes." She nodded. "I'm here to beat you up." When Wuya glared, she decided to elaborate. "I really don't about your little delusions of grandeur, but I do need to beat you up for all the things you've done to Jack."
Wuya was scowling, but then a thought came to her. "You know… You do seem to be a rather impressive villain, much better than Jack. You could do much better with…"
Edel sighed and closed some of the distance between them. "Don't bother. Jack is mine. I don't plan to leave him, or let him go. The whole reason I'm here is to fight for his honor, after all."
"Why?" She demanded.
"As I said, he's mine." Edel grinned in response to Wuya's terrible glare.
After a moment of rather amusing tension between the two, Wuya threw her arms up in exasperation. "You're as possessive as Chase!"
"Well, duh." Edel scoffed. Honestly, the woman was pretty stupid for being so old. With age does not come wisdom, apparently.
Folding her arms, the tan red head stared hard at Edel. "How is that supposed to make sense?"
"Well…" Edel drawled. "I've got the DNA of the smartest villain… So to make things even better, I also happen to have the DNA of the strongest villain." She shrugged with a small smile.
"You…" Wuya was frozen in place.
"M'kay, I'm going to go steal from the monks now. They need some loving too, I think." She waved her hands happily at the shocked witch. "Oh!" Edel ran over and punched Wuya in the nose. As the witch's body fell back, she giggled as if innocent. "I almost forgot!"
Wuya shrieked and placed her hands over the bleeding mess that was her face.
"Bye!" She used the Tiger Claws to open a rift and spanned her fingers once for the two robots to follow.
---
Chase watched quietly as the showdown concluded. Clay had lost to Katnappe—but what was worth mentioning was the lack of Jack and Edel. He had missed the opportunity to ask Jack what he had been lying about, so the boy should have shown up to this showdown so he could find out. Unfortunately, and its not clear to whom it was unfortunate, Jack did not show up.
The monks were flying off on the annoying Dojo as Katnappe started running off. Chase was about to teleport away when he suddenly caught scent of Edel. She came towards Katnappe, flanked by two large Jackbots.
"Auntie Ashley. Nice to meet you. I see you beat me to getting the Wu from the monks…"
The Catwoman reject glared quite, forgive the pun, cattily. "Me-ow. Who're you supposed to be? Jack's test tube baby?"
Edel's smirk matched one often seen by Chase. "Precisely. Now give me the Wu and I'll let your cats live."
Katnappe laughed. "No way! Meow!"
Edel shrugged at the foolish girl's choice.
Chase could not understand how something from Jack's own blood could be so devilish. A cat (or kitten, if you will) lunged for Edel, but she swiftly grabbed the arm of one of the robots and pressed a hidden button. A large saw blade came out from the hand and Edel easily used it to decapitate the cat.
Katnappe screamed and the other robot fired a laser though the remaining kittens.
"Do I need to reiterate or did you want to join them?"
In utter disbelief that she was related to Jack, Chase watched on as Katnappe dropped the Wu and ran off crying. That, surely, was a breed of cruelty that he reigned over. There was no way this evil creature could be from the impish Jack. Jack was a villain, but not a cutthroat killer like Chase and this girl were. There was just absolutely no wa…
Oh.
His gaze narrowed as he watched Edel pick up the cat head and ram her head through the nat's neck. She giggled, exactly like Jack, and began parroting Katnappe's meowing as she moved the head like a hand puppet.
That was something Jack would do. The boy was always fine around blood that wasn't his and such an unnecessary and foolish antic was screaming of Jack.
He teleported closer, his hands clasped behind his back so as not to give the impression he wanted a fight. "Very nice."
She looked to him, grinning madly despite having not noticed him before. "Of course it is. I'm awesome like that."
Ah, Jack's ego. Chase decided he liked the girl a little better. Initially he hadn't liked her simply because she was so expressive about her own hate for him. Why she hated him alluded him, but he honestly didn't care about her reasons. It probably had something to with the way he treated Jack. Even he was often disgusted by his own actions. The boy was just too adorable whenever Chase saw him. But, that's all Jack was to Chase. An adorable boy who was bound to get hurt one of these days if he didn't shape up. "And why are you awesome, Young Spicer."
"Just Edel. Not Spicer." She chided. Edel then lifted up the cat's head towards him and covered her mouth with her free hand. As she spoke, the head moved to act as if it were the one speaking. "I'm awesome because Jack's awesome and… You think highly of yourself, yes? Jack loves to go on and on about you're awesome too, and you act like you know it."
This was very amusing to Chase. "You say you hate me, but admit to me being awesome?"
"Jack says you're awesome, so you are. And…" She seemed hesitant to continue. "And he gave good reasons as to why you're awesome."
"What were those reasons?" Genuinely, he was itching to know what words Jack used to describe him when Chase was not in the cute boy's presence.
"His reason is, in short, because I'm awesome."
He frowned, glaring calmly at her now. "You speak in riddles."
"No." She shook the cat's head. "It's quite simple. I'll leave you to think about it." She dropped the cat head and started walking back to the Jackbots. "You can stop by around six for dinner and ask Jack yourself, but, if you hurt Jack, I'll make marionettes out of your lions."
"No petty threats against me?" He asked condescendingly.
Edel laughed. "Jack would cry if you got hurt. Why would I want to make him cry? I love him. You should never make your loved ones cry… outside of bed." She added the last part coyly. She left using the Tiger's Claw after the Jackbots had gathered up the forgotten Wu.