Red Crown: This story is back by popular demand. I am about to try something incredibly dangerous: writing and editing two stories at once. Your reviews would greatly help my efforts here.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN:"Wrong Door"

In the sky's over Northeast China…

"You better not be keeping us up for nothing," said the green puff. Buttercup began rubbing her eyes as they flew several feet off the ground. China was on the other side of the world from America so when it was midnight in Townsville the sun was high in the sky in China.

This was the farthest the girls had ever been away from home aside from the space missions that NASA had asked them to do.

In order to help them blend in the Power Puff Girls each bought a set of clothes made by Chinese brands. The clothes were rather dull-looking and avoided drawing any attention to them. Blossom was the only one with a black backpack, which held the jade dragon and Stanford's research. Blossom thought that her's and Bubbles' hair would also stick out in a Chinese crowd so she purchased two Russian ushanka hats that were made of furr. The hats were considered fashionable in China. Buttercup merely had to clean her hair and make it as smooth as possible. To the average Chinese person they looked like teenagers who weren't poor, but weren't rich either.

"Girls, this is the spot," said Blossom as she led her sisters down to the Forbidden City of China.

Blossom and her sisters landed on top of one of the many towers and could only see more ancient Chinese-style buildings for miles. To a person from the western hemisphere of the planet the Forbidden city looked like a castle of extravagant Chinese architecture that extended for miles.

"This city is amazing, Blossom!" said Bubbles as her sense of adventure began to swell.

"It looks just like the one at the end of Disney's Mulan, only it goes on forever." stated Buttercup in disbelief as she let her eyes scan the vast city.

Blossom immediately went into textbook-quotation mode. "It's the same city, BC. The Forbidden City is the place from where almost every Chinese Emperor ruled the states of ancient China. It now serves as a prideful example of Chinese history and an excellent tourist attraction."

Buttercup seemed confused. "I thought you said we were going to find the piece of the key in ancient ruins."

Blossom continued, "The Forbidden City was built by the emperors of the Ming Dynasty. There are rumors in history that they built it on top of the previous kingdoms that they had conquered to prove their dominance once and for all. If Henry Stanford's findings are true, then there are the remains of the city underneath the palace. Stanford also claimed that the key was broken up into four parts. We know that the boys have three. The last piece of the key should be down there. However, the key can't be used if it's not complete."

"Then once we get that piece," Buttercup said with a smirk, "It's only a matter of playing keep away from the boys."

"Exactly."

Bubbles turned towards her leader. "Bloss, you must be so excited! Isn't archeology what you have wanted to do your whole life?"

The red headed puff gave her sister a smile, but her eyes seemed a little sad, "Yes, Bubbles, but not like this. The thing is we are here without visas which is why we need to avoid the Chinese authorities."

"Why do we need to stay away from the police?"

"Bubbles, do you even know what a visa is?" Buttercup asked.

The blond shook her head.

"It's legal permission to be in a foreign country."

"Oh... Wait! Then we're breaking the law?"

"Yep," Buttercup replied with a smug look. "Fun isn't it?"

The blue puff shot a worried look towards her pink-eyed leader. "But, Blossom, the Professor's going to be mad at us!"

"Listen, Bubbles, ordinarily I would apply for a visa, but it will take about forty-five days for it to arrive. If the boys find out that the last piece is here, then they won't play by the rules. They will come and take it in a matter of hours and they will be one more step closer to completing whatever evil scheme they have dreamed up in their minds. What's even worse is that for all we know they could have come here and taken it already. There is no time to do this by the book. On top of that, we're theoretically stealing another nation's history by breaking into their ancient ruins. We'd never get permission for that even if we tried. I've considered this from every possible legal angle and there is just no way around it in the time frame that we have. This is the only way to stop the boys from winning."

While Bubbles looked horrified Buttercup immediately pumped her fist in the air. "Finally a mission with some spunk!"

"Buttercup, this should not be taken lightly."

"Whatever, Leader Girl. Where do we start?"

Blossom reached into her backpack and pulled out a small map that Stanford had made of where he thought that the entrance to the underground ruins would be. She had also printed a map of the Forbidden City online and held it next to his map to see if she could find a way around it. "It looks like it's this way," the red headed leader said before floating down the back of the building and into an alley so that no one else would see her using her powers. Her sisters followed and they walked through a crowd of tourists to the back of the main palace building. "My pen pal should meet up with us soon."

"You have a pen pal?" asked Buttercup.

"Yes, she's a famous Chinese archeologist and knows about our situation."

"But won't she get into trouble for helping us?"

"Nope, she doesn't know we don't have visas so she has plausible deniability."

"Plausible what?" asked Bubbles.

"If she doesn't know about it she doesn't need to lie about it since she is innocent," explained Buttercup.

Blossom put the map away and began scanning around in the people traffic with her eyes. "See if you can find her, she's wearing a red jacket with four yellow stars like the Chinese Flag."

Buttercup and Bubbles began to look around as well and eventually saw the jacket being worn by a young and very skinny woman around the age of 25 who was also searching through the crowd. The woman had dark long hair, round frameless glasses, white sneakers, American-style jeans, and a black tee shirt with several Chinese symbols in white written into it. Once she caught their eyes a smile lit her face and she raced over to their location. Blossom turned around just in time to see her and she yelled out something in Chinese with a smile. The woman replied back in Chinese and in no time at all she and Blossom were engaged in a conversation that the neither the blue or green puff could understand at all.

When it was dragging on for too long Buttercup began to get frustrated and tapped Blossom's shoulder. "So does your friend speak English?"

"A little," replied Blossom.

"Bad English," stated her friend with a thick accent. "My name is Xiao Lei (pronounced "Shao Lay"). Pleased to meet you."

"I'm Bubbles."

"Buttercup."

Xiao then reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a map of her own. "Blossom already told me everything in emails she sent me. So I come prepared. I know exactly where take you."

Buttercup and Bubbles both felt left out of the loop until Blossom spoke up. "Xiao happens to be one of China's best archeologists. I sent her the findings I got from Henry Stanford's safe in Townsville and she determined the exact spot in the Forbidden City that the last piece of the key would be. When we find the piece of the key, which is supposedly in an underground tunnel, it will produce a great archeological find that Xiao will take all the credit for so we are left completely out of the public eye and no one will know that we have been here. If the boys see us on the morning news they will get suspicious and begin to take action. We want them as clueless as possible."

"Follow me," Xiao said and led them down a street. She took a few curves before stopping at the back of the main tower in the city. "There should be a trap door right here," she said and began to sweep the area with her hands. Suddenly she felt a piece of the stone shift. There was hidden block of stone in the wall that could be moved inward. Xiao had moved it in, but she stopped half way.

"Perfect!" Blossom shouted ecstatically. "Let's push it in all that way and then we'll-"

"No, wait," Xiao said, "Ancient Chinese traps very complicated. They usually put two doors to a secret passage. One is right door and other is rigged door for people who they want to fool into walking to a violent death."

Xiao scanned further with her hand and found another soft stone that was able to be shifted inward. "Only one can be right one."

"How do know which one it is?" asked Bubbles.

"I read that our ancient ancestors left a verbal riddle in the past that if solved correctly led to correct door, but all the people who knew the riddle died off so our best bet is to guess," replied the Chinese archeologist. She pushed in the first stone. The floor beneath them collapsed. Xiao and the Power Puff Girls found themselves falling at an amazing rate of speed into a black abyss as a large stone shifted over the entrance and sealed them in.

Red Crown: Yes, I know this chapter was short, but I'm warming up to keep going. You all probably hate me right now so I will need to ask for your forgiveness in taking so long. I have a lot of work so updating will be slow. However, if you review I would be inspired to write faster. I also understand some of you were saying that there is not enough "Red Passion" in my story. I agree and I will make up for that in either the next chapter or the one after. Thank you for input.