Here it is, the last chapter of this story, and the last of the introductory series…unless the next story counts as an introductory story…I don't know, it's for you to decide.
I checked, and I still don't own Jackie Chan Adventures.
"Give me back the girl and no one gets hurt." The man with the gun says, looking like he was perfectly fine with shooting all of them if it came to that. Monk steps protectively in front of Fare and says "No one, except for her. I know what sort of plans a person like you would have for her."
The man shrugs and says "A guys gotta make a living somehow. Now move aside, or I will shoot."
"Go ahead, it won't do any good." Monk says, looking completely confident that they wouldn't be harmed at all. The man scowls and cocks the gun, and a second later, shoots it. With lightning quick instincts Monk steps right in the bullet's path and holds his palm out so the bullet would his right in the middle, and, amazingly enough, the bullet bounced off his palm and landed harmlessly on the ground.
"Jump, now!" Monk exclaims to Fare, Jade and Charlie. Fare immediately obeys and jumps off the edge of the boat, landing in the ocean below. Jade moves to follow, but stops when she notices that Charlie didn't look like he was going to jump off the boat anytime soon.
"Charlie, we've got to go, now." Jade says. Charlie takes one look out to the ocean and shakes his head. There was no way he was going to jump into the ocean willingly, that would be suicide.
"I don't care how you guy's get out of here, just move." Monk yells to the two dawdling kids. Jade rolls her eyes, grabs Charlie's arm and starts running to another part of the ship, dragging him after her. They weren't so sure about leaving Monk with that guy, but they figured that he could take care of himself. He could catch a bullet for goodness sakes.
Jade and Charlie run throughout the whole ship, with Jade leading the way and going to the most random places, finally stopping back in the storage room, where they had started. They had just gone in one big circle. Convinced that they were relatively safe in there, Jade turns angrily to Charlie.
"What was that all about back there?" she asks. "What, were you just trying to be brave or something? Because even I know that staying on a boat with a guy with a gun isn't brave, it's stupid."
"I wasn't being brave." Charlie says, irritated. Then, looking at the ground, he says "It was actually the opposite of that. I wouldn't jump into the sea because I'm afraid of it."
Jade stares at Charlie for a minute before saying "You're afraid of the ocean?" Charlie nods and says "Have been for years, my parent's went missing at sea, and since then I'm been afraid to go anywhere near it."
"So, you're afraid that you're going to drown?" Jade asks. Charlie shakes his head and says "That's only part of it. Another is that whenever I'm near the ocean I think about what happened, and just thinking about it makes me worry, so worried that I sort of panic."
Realization dawned on Jade, "You mean you panic, like how Seymour did?" Charlie nods and says "It's because I'm not sure what happened to my parents, I don't know if they're dead or alive or what. Just that they're missing."
"That must be terrible." Jade says. However, before either of them could say or do anything else they hear another gun shot, very nearby, and see a bullet hit a place about a foot away from where they were. The kids look up and see the guy.
"You two just hold still, it will make things a lot easier on all of us." The guy says.
"Tch, as if." Jade says, quickly grabbing Charlie's arm the two of them start running through the storage room, with the guy only a little behind them. Jade once again starts leading Charlie through the maze of the ship, but it quickly became clear to both of them that she had no clue where she was going.
"This isn't working." Charlie says, breathing deeply from all the running.
"Do you have any better ideas?" Jade asks, frustrated.
Thinking for a second, Charlie says, "yes." And he becomes the one to lead them through the ship. Jade wasn't entirely sure how, but after a few minutes they'd gotten back to the deck, all without doubling back or seeing any sign of the guy.
"Okay, we're out of the maze." Charlie says, "So what now?"
Jade could hear the guy yelling angrily from not so far away. Jade looks at Charlie and says "We have to jump." Charlie looks very doubtful and worried, but before he could protest Jade grabs both his hands in hers and says "You have to trust me Charlie." Charlie blinks, and nods. Jade nods back and the two of them run to the edge of the ship and jump off together, still holding hands.
Charlie had braced himself for hitting the water, but when he did his something it most definitely not a liquid. Opening his eyes Charlie see's that he and Jade had landed on a Sea Lion.
"How did that happen?" Jade asks.
"You can thank Fare here for that." Monk says, Charlie and Jade only then notice that Monk and Fare were in the water with them, each of them on their own Sea Lion. "See, Fare's power is associated with animals, she's sort of their princess, they do whatever she asks them to. They love her."
"That is so cool." Jade says, "And riding a Sea Lion is totally awesome." Charlie shakes his head, wondering how Jade could possibly find this cool or awesome when two seconds ago they almost died.
After a fairly short ride on the Sea Lion's they got back to the dock. Jade and Charlie jump on the dock and Frank immediately runs over to them, looking very worried.
"Are you two alright? What happened out there?" Frank asks. Charlie and Jade look at each other, finally Jade says "I guess you're back to being yourself again, right?"
Frank nods and says "Yeah, I got back in control a few minutes ago when we saw you guys in the water. I knew that something drastic must have happened for Charlie to go anywhere near the water."
"Nothing much happened." Jade says, "Except there was this guy with a gun and he was trying to shoot us."
"A gun?" Frank asks, "Oh how civilized of him."
Jade suddenly notices how late it had gotten and she knows that Jackie would be worried if she didn't get home soon.
"Right, I've got to go now." Jade says, "I'll see you guys tomorrow."
"Yeah, later Jade." Frank says. When it was just Charlie and Frank, Frank says "Are you really okay? I know you don't like being in the water."
"I'm find, actually." Charlie says, "I wasn't exactly in the water, more like on it the whole time. But yeah, I was a little freaked out."
"So what got you not freaked out?" Frank asks. Charlie looks in the direction that Jade and just left in and says "Well, usually Jade is just so fearless and careless all the time, but when she found out that I was scared, I was expecting her to just laugh in my face, but she was completely understanding."
"That may have been one thing, but I know of another way that Jade got you to not be freaked." Frank says, when Charlie looks at him curiously Frank continues:
"Maybe you didn't notice, but you two were holding hands the entire time, right up till she left. I'm sure that that helped." Charlie blushed slightly and nods to himself, thinking that maybe Frank was right, and remembering how good it had felt.
And there you go, awesome friendship moments between Jade and Charlie. I'm not sure what the next story will be called, but I will get it going soon, just keep an eye out for it. I promise it will be fun…probably.