Disclaimer: As you know, I don't own Jackie Chan Adventures

Apologies for the relatively long wait.

Chapter 5

The vicious looking creatures leered down at them from the other side of the chamber, growling threateningly. The two cautiously took a few steps back, pressing into the wall.

"W-what did you say these things were?" Jade gulped. Paco looked even more terrified, and barely got out the words.

"C-c-cadejo. P-powerful creatures said to roam the Mexican plains, but I thought they were just s-stories!"

Jade laughed nervously, "After running into gods, vampires, and the chupacabra, I'm no sure anything's just a story anymore." Paco gave her a "not the time for jokes" look and continued on.

"They are powerful creatures that can meet travelers either for virtue… or for evil…" he stammered.

"So which are these? Please tell me these are the sweet and cuddly good-guy kind!"

"I-I do not think so, Yade…" The creatures inched forward on their feet like goat's and wolflike sneers, their eyes glittering like burning coals among a pile of ashes. The ones closest to them began to lick their lips hungrily.

None of this sat well with Jade at all. "Okay," Jade said, "first thing's first, we gotta get outta here now! Any ideas?"

"This does not look good…" Paco momentarily snapped out of his fear to study the situation, "there is the way we entered is all the way over there, and we'll never make it through all of them. That just leaves…" The two teens both snapped their heads up, realizing the same thing at the same time. "THE DOOR!" they shouted in unison, then clapped their hands over their mouths. Nervously, they looked over to the mass of monsters, but luckily none of them took their outburst as a cue to fly into a rage.

"But the door is opened by that pulley!" Paco whispered excitedly, "it would take a while to open it, and I do not think we have that kind of time."

Jade closed her eyes as she did some very quick thinking, "we have to, it's the only way outta here." The cadejo continued to watch them eerily, as if waiting for them to make a move. "Both of us pulling the lever would make it go faster, but then we'd be sitting ducks…"

"Fear not Yade!" Paco proclaimed, a lot more bravely than he felt, "If I must, I shall hold off this horde of monsters while you open the exit!"

"Please," Jade said indignantly, "I could take care of these things no problem, but you could move that door a lot faster than I could with that wrestler strength you're always bragging about." Paco looked unsure. "What, you think I can't handle it?" Her eyes flashed deviously.

"Well, I am not saying that, exactly," Paco said as stuffily as he could with his knees shaking as they were, "it's just that-"

"Well, in faces you forgot, I've got a few lessons in the art of butt-whoop under my belt too, mouseboy," Jade cut him off, "I'm sure I could handle this just as well as you could."

"But…"

"Go ahead," she said more softly, "I'll be fine, but we're not getting any safer here, if you haven't noticed!" Paco sighed, nodded, and without a word he bolted off to the crank. At the exact same instant, the cadejo pounced.

Within moments three or four of them were on the two teens at once. "Get to the door!" Jade yelled to Paco, jumping to kick the closest beast off to the side of the chamber. As she landed (and the cadejo rolled into the wall) she quickly scanned the room for anything – just her luck, there was nothing she could use as an improvised weapon, like her Uncle was often so good with. Meanwhile, the cadejo she had knocked away had been replaced, and the demonic dogs were now advancing on her a lot closer than she liked.

"N-now now…" she said sheepishly, "down doggies. Sorry I don't have a steak or anything on me…" One of them growled menacingly. Jade gulped. "Looks like you've got something better in mind…" Almost grinning at their cue, the four beasts lunged.

Thinking quickly, Jade spun out of the way as the first dog flew past her head and struck it in the midsection with her elbow, sending it reeling. Keeping her footing, she slipped her foot out of the reach of another one and stomped it on the tail. As it ran around in circles yelping, Jade got an idea: she ducked and weaved as the last two cadejo tried to jump and bite her waiting for an opening. When one jumped past she grabbed it by the tail and stood her ground. It was much, much stronger than she expected from their size, but after a lot of skidding around she managed to keep her hold long enough for it to try another tactic, which was just what she wanted. When it turned in place to go for her arms, she pulled it at just the right moment, sending it barreling off balance into its partner. They collided, and the second cadejo immediately started angrily scrapping with its clumsy cohort, leaving her safe for the moment.

"Oh yeah!" she cheered, "I'm Jade Chan, monster hunter!" She took advantage of the very brief reprieve to steal a glance at Paco, who was turning the crack very slowly. "Hey, could you hurry it up over there?" she called, "this isn't as easy as it looks!"

"This…is… very heavy…" Paco grunted, "Why don't you- YADE!" He pointed behind her, where the beasts that had recovered and a few of their friends were making another attack

Jade reentered the fray with a whirl of jumps and kicks and strikes, but she she fought off the demons noticed something strange: most of the pack still stood where they were before they struck: on the other end of the chamber, just sitting and watching. There were only about four of them attacking at any given moment – when she knocked one of them away it would be replaced by another, but they weren't attacking en masse. Even the ones she had just hit would wait for another to drop out before going back in. There wasn't a lot of time to think about it, though: even if they were being merciful for some reason, four of them was more than enough to be very dangerous.

This time, they weren't being lenient enough to give her a break. As soon as one fell back, another one took its place. "I have to do something to get them off of me," she thought, "maybe… well, it's worth a shot." She readied herself by jumping back from the whirling twister of fangs and hooves, and when the cadejo turned to jump her at once she countered with a mighty spinning kick, knocking them all away.

"Phew…" she sighed, at least that meant a moment or two to gather her thoughts, or so she thought. Leaping through the air silently, one of them lunged at her head just outside of her vision. A second too late, she heard it snarl and turned

"EL PACO FUERTE!"

A shout rang through the room as the boy in question flew in from nowhere and drop kicked the monster out of sight. Jade sighed in relief and smiled gratefully at him. "Cutting it a little close, huh?" she said wearily.

He shrugged and held out his hand. "Tag." Jade slapped his hand with a grin and ran for the lever, while Paco turned to the monsters in front of him.

"Get ready creatures of the underworld, cause now you face m-OOF!"

While Paco rolled on the ground to avoid a vicious attack, Jade desperately tried to crank open the door. "Whoa! Paco wasn't kidding, this is heavy!" Jade groaned. The crank barely moved, even when she put all her weight behind it.

She looked over at Paco and winced. He wasn't having such a good time as she had – she was trained in karate and was a little more at ease moving and striking all at once, while he was used to wrestling strikes and grapples. There were no ropes or anything for him to use either, so while she was good at dodging and weaving and getting in lucky hits against them, Paco couldn't reliably toss around the cadejo around: grappling them with their agility and teeth would be more painful than helpful – he was resorting to running around leading them along and getting in the odd kick. And even her fighting wasn't too effective, she was still inexperienced, and even an expert like Jackie couldn't fight off so many wolflike monsters for long. If they kept this up, they would be done for.

But what was there to do? They had to keep fighting – the only other option was… well… the only possibility they had for getting out now. But it was also probably suicide. Still… "Paco!" Jade shouted, "get over here!"

"Oh no, it was just getting good," Paco quipped, nearly leaping the whole distance back to the crank, "what is it? Be quick, please." He nervously eyed the cadejo, who were spreading out and inching forward slowly.

"We're never going to get anywhere like this," Jade explained, "we're going to have to both try to get this door open as fast as possible."

Paco's eyes bulged out of his head, "Are you crazy? Never mind, stupid question. If we both just stand here we will be sitting ducks!"

"We won't be any better off it we keep at it the way we are!" Jade shot back, "or do you think we can keep getting lucky playing tag with those fangs?"

Paco turned back to the snarling faces surrounding them and thought for a second, "it seems we are doomed either way…"

"At least this way we have a shot."

"Good point, Jade," looking anxious, he stood alongside her and they grabbed the crank together. The cadejo all seized up – it was as if the chamber were a theatre and the dogs were shocked and gasping audience. For a moment, everything froze: the only sound was the rustling of the vine leaves on the other end of the chamber. The two teens eyed each other nervously.

Then suddenly the cadejo rushed. All of them.

"Quickly!" Paco shouted.

With a great heave they both pulled as hard as they could, and miraculously the door began to rise… but nowhere near fast enough. The cadejo were rushing together in a great tide of black death, and gaining fast.

"Go go go!" Jade was leaning back as far as she could, trying to put as much weight on the lever as possible.

The sea of gnashing teeth was halfway to them – now that they were all on the attack it was all too obvious how many of them there were. The ones closest to them waited patiently for their friends to catch up, grinning like rat traps.

"Come on, come on." If only the door could slide faster!

The cadejo were only a quarter of the room away and gaining fast. Only seconds remained, but they couldn't give up now. They wouldn't give up now.

"We're almost there…"

They could almost feel the monsters' breath, only feet away.

"…LOOK!" Paco pointed to the door, which, while not open all the way, was open just enough for them to crawl or slide through. They leapt off the crank and made to run to freedom-

And then the cadejo were on them. Suddenly the only thing they could see was burnt, sulfuric fur, and the only thing they could hear were hooves and howls. They screamed, readying themselves for whatever terrible end was about to befall them… but oddly enough, they weren't being bitten. They weren't even being scratched. Instead, they were being shunted aside. With a great push they were tossed out of the rampaging pack and off to the side of the chamber, slamming into the floor with a thud.

Dazily looking up, they noticed each other at the same time, "Paco/Yade!" they shouted out at the same time, "you're alright." They gave each other a quick hug and confusedly looked back to the stampeding cadejo.

"What the heck are they doing?" Jade thought out loud, "I thought we were dog food for sure."

"I am not complaining," Paco said edgily, "but it looks like they wanted the door as much as we did!"

He was right, now that it was open, the cadejo were rushing the door in droves, dozens leaving per second. There was no way to get anywhere near it - there were so many of them filtering through – and in their determination the beasts had apparently completely forgotten about their two former targets.

"It's odd…" Jade put her hand to her chin and mused, "where do they have to go anyway?"

"Well, I guess that door leads to the rest of the temple."

"But there isn't much else in here, right? Just that freaky glowy thing and… oh no…" The two gasped and stared at each other in shock, each realizing the same thing at the same time.

"UNCLE JACKIE!" "EL TORO!"

- Meanwhile -

The secret exit to the booby-trapped, rope filled hallway led to seemingly nowhere. Or, to be precise, it led to a lot of tedious, identical looking corridors which, themselves, led to more identical looking corridors which, naturally, led seemingly nowhere. It didn't even feel like they were going deeper into the temple, just that their position was getting shuffled around as they went up stairs, down stairs, left and right. Typical, really.

"Oh, what I wouldn't give for a GPS," Jackie joked as they walked through the threshold of yet another dimly lit hall.

"Have heart, mi amigo," El Toro said wearily, "at least there are no deadly traps to worry about here." They both froze, looking around in a panic as if those very words might have brought down the mother lode of traps right down on their heads. To their immense relief, nothing stirred.

Jackie sighed, "don't do that!"

"Sorry."

"Ugh!" Jackie groaned. He looked around at their latest hallway and tried to gauge where they were, "it's like we are going around in circles! Where is this leading us?"

"Perhaps to some greater danger," El Toro mused.

"Or perhaps this is the trap, leading us back and forth without going anywhere," Jackie returned.

"Should we turn back?"

Jackie thought for a moment. "No," he finally said, "the only thing we do know is that what's behind us is dangerous." He looked around wearily. "These halls must lead somewhere we can't find. The only real option we have if we want to get this done is to keep looking."

"Si," El Toro agreed, "You are right. And maybe we can-"

"Look!" Jackie cut him off, pointing at a spot on the wall some ways ahead of them, which seemed off model to the rest. He ran over to investigate. "There are edges on this part of the wall, and you can see something on the other side! This is a false wall. It must be the way out!"

"Wonderful!" El Toro shouted, hurrying to join Jackie by the secret passage.

"It looks like we'll need to find some secret switch, or push it aside or something…" Jackie said, not moving his eyes from his inspection of the odd door.

"Well, we might as well try pushing it, my friend," El Toro suggested, stretching his muscles to get ready.

Jackie nodded. "On the count of three," together they pressed up again the wall, preparing to shove it with all their collective might. "One…"

"Two…"

"Three…"

"Go!"

Moving together at once, the two heroes used all their strength to try to move the stone door. At the same, the door independently slid to the side, sending the two, with all their momentum, flying past the threshold and onto the ground on the other side in a heap.

"Ow…" Jackie groaned. He looked up from the ground and immediately scooted back: the two had landed inches away from a cliff of some sort. "Wow… big fall," El Toro moved back as well.

"How coincidental that the door would just open for us." El Toro thought out loud, "I wonder…"

Jackie was not listening, he was more concerned with trying to figure out what kind of place they had found themselves in. It was an absolutely enormous room – looking like some sort of hugely wide, infinitely deep well. There were stairs ringing around the walls, but they only extended so far down – he could not see the bottom, and wasn't entirely sure there even was one. The entire room was as wide as two, maybe three football fields were long, maybe even more, and in the middle, there was a tall but thin platform floating suspended by various bridges a long distance above them, and on top of that… "Look!" With another gasp, he gestured for El Toro to follow his gaze. There, resting on the platform, was the source of the glow they had been following all night. They had found the gem.

"Quickly!" Jackie shouted, heading towards the nearest stair – they had entered on one of the many criss-crossing, oddly suspended platforms and bridges all around the room. He walked determinedly, focusing only on his destination and not noticing that the small part of the platform they landed on was paved, while most of the others were not, or that when his foot touched the rest of the path it was not as stable as his previous location was. El Toro, however, did.

"Careful!" he yelled, yanking his friend out of the air just before the floor fell out from under his feet. Neither of them spoke for a moment, staring nervously at the gap in the bridge. "It seems as though the whole area here is unstable," El Toro said after a few seconds.

"But… this is crazy! How are we supposed to get up there?"

"Run very fast?"

"That… should be a last resort," Jackie said shakily. Actually, it was looking more and more like that was their only option. "First, we ought to-"

BRUMM

Whatever he was about to suggest was cut off by a very loud rumbling. Floored, the two heroes looked around the room for the source – or, as it turned out, sources: in several places around the chamber, secret passages like the one they had just come through were opening up… and the sounds of snarls and scrapes could be heard coming closer and closer from inside them.

Always a bad sign.

"Oh… this cannot be good," Jackie breathed slowly, waiting for whatever was about to enter the equation to do so on bated breath. He was not left waiting for long. With the sound of bloodcurdling snarl a large, wolflike monster of a kind he had never seen before strode from one of the doorways, with hooves like a goat but teeth like daggers. He heart El Toro gasp in recognition, but Jackie remained silently horrified as more monsters started to appear from doorways all over the chamber. They stared down at the two adventurers, murderous intent in their eyes, and with fearful speed they pounced – sprinting around the walls, across the bridges and over the stairs, more and more spilling out of the several entrances like a terrible flood, all affixed on their two targets.

Mostly thinking about how typical this was, Jackie turned to his companion, oddly casual for someone so terrified.

"So… run fast?"

"Very fast, mi amigo."

Author's Note: Writer's Apathy, the annoying cousin of Writer's Block, kind of hit me hard these past few weeks. Took me forever to just get myself working on this. This chapter and the one that will come after is were meant to be one big finale, but I figured I've spend enough time not uploading for me to spend more time making this twice as long... sorry again.

Also, for some annoying reason one of the horizontal lines refuses to show themselves... man those things are finicky.