AN: Sorry for the wait. I recently became an immortal on a MUD called redemption (www dot redemptionmud dot com), got an iPod touch (and downloaded a gajillion games for it), and various other things that have taken up my time. I've had this chapter ready to go for almost 2 weeks now and just never got around to makeing the changes and uploading it. I profusely apologize and I hope the next chapter will come about in a more timely fashion. If anyone worries that this is gettign too crossovery, this is in fact the major chapter having to do with the Jackie Chan Adventures cartoon and most of the charactes (except jade) will disappear completely after the next chapter. Likewise, Alex O'Conell will have a similarly crossovery chapter at some undetermined point in the future where his purpose for being in the story will be revealed. and for anyone thinking of quick resolutions to problems, the horse will be last. I think i've done more than enough exposition on the future, so enjoy the present chapter...

Chapter 13: Stand off

The waiter returned with the food. A plate with an omelet and diced exotic fruits was placed before Fujitaka. Sakura's plate had freshly made waffles with strawberries and whipped cream. Sakura was amazed. It was what she usually took for breakfast back at the mansion.

"How did you know?" Sakura asked. The waiter grinned as she took a bite. "It even tastes the same."

"It is the family recipe," he told her.

"You're related to the chef?"

"Businesses owned by the Li clan tend to employ only other Li's," the waiter explained, "And only a fool does not pay attention to the main family's affairs in the areas where it concerns them."

Sakura nodded in understanding and smiled cheerfully. "Thank you. It is delicious."

A powerful magical aura flared and disappeared. She glanced around, but knew that it had been too far away to see. She tried to think of an excuse to leave. Her phone rang.

"Syaoran!" she answered, identifying him by the ringtone.

"Something was stolen. We don't know what." He sounded distressed.

"One minute," Sakura told him, turning to her father, "I need to go, I'll pay on the way out."

Sakura grabbed her things as her father rushed to try and swallow a mouthful of food.

"Sakura," her father called after her as she raced towards the door. It was too late.

"Just send me the bill or, whatever,." Sakura yelled at the waiter as she ran through the door and put the cell phone back to her ear.

The waiter chuckled. The main house never had to pay, and Syaoran would have his head if he actually sent them a bill. He walked over to the table. Sakura had only taken one bite of her breakfast.

"I was wondering," Fujitaka said to him before he could take the plate, "If you could answer some questions for me."

There were no other customers, and there probably wouldn't be any others for a few hours. The waiter sat down and popped one of the strawberries from Sakura's plate into his mouth. "I will do my best to answer your questions," he said after swallowing.

Syaoran listened as Sakura told him what was going on.

"I felt something really strong," she told Syaoran, "Then Jade's aura vanished."

"She's one of the students working with your father..." Syaoran stated pensively.

"Yes. Her aura," Sakura huffed as she ran, "It came from somewhere in the park."

"I'm coming-"

"No. You rest." Sakura cut him off. She was not going to take any chances with him.

"You don't understand, the item was probably stolen by Jade."

"You find out more about what happened in Beijing, and I'll check this out," Sakura told him firmly.

"I'm sending help," Syaoran insisted and then hung up before she could argue. The phone was only on the hook for a split second before he dialed a three digit code. "Send a team to the park; Sakura may be in danger."

When Sakura arrived at the park, she could just barely sense Jade and followed the disturbingly weak aura to a clearing in the woods. Jade lay near the far side of the clearing. She wasn't moving. Sakura rushed to her side and knelt down. Jade's breathing was so shallow that it was almost undetectable. Before she even got a chance to touch Jade, Sakura heard the unmistakable click of a gun that was dangerously close to the back of her head.

"Put your hands behind your head!" a bald man yelled in English. He wore a black trench coat and dark sunglasses, and his body showed the signs of military training.

Sakura didn't quite catch the words that he had said, but had a good idea of what he wanted her to do. She raised her hands above her in the gesture for surrender. Other men in in black military style outfits were making their way into the clearing and forming a perimeter. These men didn't have magic, but they were highly trained. She was sure that if she tried to summon her wand now, she would be shot before she could cast a spell. She called out in her head for Kero and Yue. She wasn't sure, but she thought that they might be able to sense her distress.

The men talked in rapid English while the man in the trench coat barked out orders. Sakura guessed by their appearance and accents that they were American. A middle-aged Chinese man in a blue sweater raced over to Jade. He looked familiar, but Sakura couldn't place where she had seen him before.

At the periphery of her senses, a group of suppressed auras spread out and began to encircle the clearing. Sakura wondered whether she should warn the gunmen that people were coming. The men were taking care of Jade, so she guessed that they weren't the attackers, which meant that the people surrounding them might be the attackers, or they might be the help that Syaoran said that he was going to send. It was too late to worry now. The man in the trench coat stopped giving orders and stiffened. All eyes turned to him. That was their mistake. A second later, they all dropped their weapons and were expertly restrained by sword wielding Li's.

Sakura relaxed. "Key with the powers of my star, reveal you true form to me. Under the contract, Sakura commands you. Release!" She was no longer defenseless. She turned to check on Jade and saw that her eyes were wide open.

"Let them go," She commanded. She know that they were not the ones who attacked Jade. She was only half surprised when the Li fighters did as she told them. They did not allow them to retrieve their guns though and Sakura saw no reason to allow them to.

Sakura sat down next to Jade and the man in the blue sweater. "How is she?" Sakura asked.

"She-" The man began, but Jade's voice interrupted him weakly.

"I'm fine, it's just my energy. It's like my magic is gone." Her eyes stared up unfocused as if she were too tired to do any more than force them to remain open.

"Who did this to you?" Sakura asked. She placed a hand on Jade's head and forced her own magical energy into Jade. Her body would not be able to use it, but it would make her feel a bit better.

"A man wearing white. He had a cross around his neck and a glowing red earring. He just said something and then it was gone. It was all gone." Jade answered in English for the benefit of her associates who would not have understood Chinese.

"He took it?" the bald man asked, both surprised and angry.

"And my powers. All of them."

"He got the talismans! That's why we keep them in the vault!" The man yelled. Jade smirked weakly and Sakura guessed that this was not the first time she had been given a tongue lashing for this particular offense.

"No… Only it. The talismans are…" She reached into her pocket. When her hand came back out, it gripped a handful of stone dust."

"I'm going to call Syaoran," Sakura said. Everyone was alright, so she did not know what she should do next in this situation. Even if she did, the Li's needed to be warned. If Jade really was strong enough to steal from the Emperor's treasury and get away with it, then whoever beat her must be a real threat.

The phone rang once after Sakura dialed the number. "Sakura! Is everything alright?"

"No one is seriously injured. There were some armed Americans, but they were disarmed by the help you sent. I don't know what to do now."

"Were there any of the Emperor's men nearby?"

"No, Jade says she was attacked by a..."

Sakura stopped as she tried to remember how Jade had described her attacker.

"It was a white guy," Jade said for her. She had regained enough energy to talk normally, "Probably European. His clothes were all white. Around his neck was a silver crucifix, and in his ear was a red gem that emitted a magical aura. He had magic that I've never... Well it was similar to the druids at Stonehenge, at least it had the same feeling to it."

"Western magic." Syaorans voice sounded tinny while Sakura held the cell phone out so he could hear Jade. "Do you remember the incantations?"

Sakura glanced around and noticed that the army men were looking rather uncomfortable, their leader looked especially irked that Jade was telling them everything so freely.

"They sounded like Bible verses," Jade finally answered.

"One final question." Syaoran said, "And this is the most important one for you. What did you steal from the Emperor?"

"Nothing," Jade said much too quickly. Moments later, each of the army men were on the ground with a sword to the base of their skulls.

"Wait!" Sakura protested.

"Don't worry, they always talk before anyone dies," the leader of the Li team said as he applied pressure to the American leader's neck, "But that does not mean we're not willing to do what's necessary." He sent a glare towards Jade.

Before things could escalate further, there was a loud crashing in the trees. It sounded like some humongous beast was on a rampage. The earth trembled, making leaves and twigs fall down upon their heads. Bursting forth through the brush, Sakura saw the shining outline of a bull. If she didn't know that she had already captured them all, she would have thought that it was a Clow Card. It charged straight towards them.

People dove out of the way as the crazed creature rushed towards Sakura. The Li team leader released his hostage and tackled Sakura out of the way. Her phone was jarred from her hand.

It ran straight into a large tree, shattering the trunk like it was made of glass.

"The Ox!" the man in the blue sweater exclaimed, "Why is it not inside a talisman, or a noble cow?"

"I don't know." Jade said, "Call uncle, he'll know what to-"

"Power card, discard your former strength and take on the power of my star and give me your strength!" Sakura rushed at the attacking bull, and it responded in kind.

"No, get out of the way!" Jade shouted frantically, "It has super strength!" She closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable crunch of shattering bones.

There was only a loud thud and a strained grunt as the clattering of the bull's hooves came to a stop. Jade opened her eyes and say that Sakura had taken the bull by the horns and stopped it in its tracks. There were almost perfectly matched, but Sakura's feet were slowly sliding backwards. If only she still had the- but that was what was placing them in their current predicament. Jade checked her pockets for anything that might be of use, but anything with even the slightest of magical properties had been reduced to dust, just like the talismans.

Jade sat up and raised her hand towards the bull. "Yu… Mo… Gui… Gwaai… Fie… Di… Jao…" She strained as she tried to get the chi to flow. She couldn't even manage a weak chi blast in her current condition. If only she had something to enhance her chi control. She glanced around, but knew that there was no chance that any animal was nearby.

She pounded the grass with her fist. Uncle wasn't here to help her this time, but maybe that didn't matter. Jade recoiled when her hand was scratched by something in the grass. It was the dried spine of her puffer fish. It must have broken off and fallen out of her pocket at some time during her fight. It was just a dirty, trampled and broken piece of the whole, but it should prove useful. "Yo mo gui gwaai fie di jao!" A small globe of chi made it half way to where Sakura was fighting with the Ox.

Sakura stumbled, and barely rolled out of the way in time. The Ox bore down upon Jade and she thought for sure that she was about to be trampled to death under its mighty hooves. It stopped. Jade could feel its hot breath against her face as it struggled to move towards her. Sakura, panting with exertion, had grabbed desperately onto its tail.

"Yo mo gui gwaai fie di jao!" At point blank range, the blast did not even phase the Ox. She needed help. She grabbed her cellphone from her pocket and flipped it open. The bottom dangled limply from the top. During all the action, the hinge had been damaged. Sakura's phone lay a few feet away, right next to the Ox's hooves. It stamped angrily and pawed the ground. Jade shakily pulled herself onto her knees and crawled towards the threatening creature.

A gunshot rang out and a bullet pierced the Ox's glowing skin, only to pass right through and embed itself into a tree. It was just a spirit, incorporeal. Which idiot had fired a gun? Captain Black. He had never quite grasped Uncle's first rule: magic must defeat magic. Sakura's grip slipped for a moment as she turned to look as well.

It was almost touching Jade now. Its muzzle hovered almost against her nose. It snorted and she was almost bowled over. She had to do it now. She tried to dive towards the phone, but a powerful jerk on the back of her collar dragged her away.

"What do you think you are doing? You are going to get yourself killed!" It was Uncle Jackie.

"I need a phone to call Uncle," she replied defiantly; her look turned sheepish as Captain Black produced his own phone from a pocket on the inside of his trench coat.

"Next time, just ask." He handed her the phone and then rubbed his forehead as if trying to relieve a headache.

"I'm calling Uncle," she replied as she keyed in the number and hit the send button.

"This is Uncle's Antiques," Uncle's voice answered, then became muffled, "Toru, customer on phone! One more thing, antiques need dusting."

"Uncle!" Jade shouted into the phone to get his attention.

"Is this Jade?" Uncle asked.

"Yes, I-"

"Toru dust later, Jade is needing help to fight forces of darkness!" He shouted away from the receiver, "What evil do you fight now?"

"Talismans were destroyed, Ox spirit rampaging. My chi is completely drained. Only have broken puffer."

"Spirit needs a vessel. A spirit can not live without something to contain it. One more thing, if it is not captured and contained, spirit will become even more dangerous. One more thing, If not stopped, spirit will get stronger and stronger until it explodes."

A crash. Sakura was pinned against a tree. She and the bull were surrounded by Li's. Each raised their sword towards the bull and slashed upwards. "Force strike!" They chanted in unison. Their combined attack lifted the bull's feet from the ground just long enough for Sakura to push it away with all her might, sending it barreling across the clearing.

"I need a spell now! We can't hold it off much longer!"

"Uncle must first do research. We must seal it as soon as possible."

"Research how to seal it later! I need a spell now!"

"Seal it?" Sakura asked, "I have an idea, but we need to stop it first."

"Aim at the spirit." Uncle instructed Jade.

Jade lifted the broken fish and aimed it at the Ox as Uncle began chanting. A steady beam of chi lanced out and struck the Ox in the chest. It didn't stop, but it slowed down as it pushed against the force of the chi spell.

Sakura stood directly in the Ox's path with her wand raised. "I've never done this before. I hope it works."

She gathered her magic into the tip of the wand and chanted. "Mighty Ox spirit, discard your former freedom and bind yourself under my contract. Form yourself as a card and draw from the power of my star so that I may gain your strength!" She struck the ox on the head as hard as she could and felt the power being sucked out of her. She thought for a moment that it would take every ounce of magic she had until it had drained her life away, but then it stopped. She could barely hold herself upright and swayed. One of the Li agents rushed forward and steadied her. Sakura's hands trembled. The Ox still stood before her. It wasn't moving, but she was now defenseless.

The Ox's skin began to bubble outwards, and then the spirit exploded into uncountable fragments. A magical wind vortex drew in all the scattered particles and they merged together, slowly forming into the shape of a card. When it had finished, the wind died down, and the card floated gently into Sakura's hand. The card had the picture of a bucking bull on it and was named The Strength.

"Take us home." Sakura yawned.