Episode 2 The Gardens

Part 1

Jackie sighed and stretched in his chair. They were currently flying down and across America to reach the Mexico City Airport, the landing place Paco had recommended, in one of Section 13's private jets. They had explained that this was for 'magical reasons', and Captain Black needed to hear no more.

Their guide was currently swinging his legs under his plane seat, peering out the window silently. While they flew, Jackie and Uncle started debating on where in Mexico City, the area the scroll had shown, the Good Demon Chi could be.

"A garden," said Jackie simply. "Or a flower shop, like when we found the demon chi a few years ago."

"But HOW MANY flower shops are in MEX-I-CO!?" Uncle demanded.

"I know somewhere it could be," Paco spoke for the first time. "My parents always took me there when I was little, saying that that place held many secrets and marvels. I always wondered what that meant."

"And where is the place?" asked Jackie.

Paco looked down at his hands in his lap. "I…uh, forgot."

"You forgot," Jackie repeated.

The Mexican quickly redeemed himself. "But I'm sure that the place was really close to Mexico City. Maybe if we just take the route Peñón-Texcoco—"

Uncle sneezed.

"Bless you," said Jackie.

"I did not sneeze," said Uncle.

Both turned toward the back of the jet, waiting.

"You can come out now, Jade," said Jackie wearily.

Slowly, the back door inched open. Jade poked her head out, and seeing that she was discovered, she threw the door open wide.

"Well, I'm sorry," she told Jackie. "Sorry that these two bozos don't know a thing about camouflage!" She crossed her arms and marched to the empty seat beside Paco.

Jimmy and Tohru emerged from the back room. "Sorry, Jade," Jimmy apologized. It was obvious that he had been the one to sneeze.

"Tohru?" asked Jackie.

"Uh, Jade said that you had changed your mind at the last second and told her she could go," Tohru apologized sheepishly.

"Tohru," sighed Jackie. "When will you learn? And you." He turned to Jimmy. "Where do your parents think you are?"

"Uh…" Jimmy rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Educational archaeological field trip with my best friend's uncle?"

Jackie face-palmed.

"But I've just got one question," said Jade, leaning her elbows onto her knees and placing her head in her hands. "What happens if someone without a Gauntlet gets the chi? Will they, like, turn all evil? Or because this is good chi, will they turn into the super-good-guy version of themselves?"

"When a human being absorbed this good chi without a Gauntlet, their very own chi is at risk," started Uncle. Somehow, the lights dimmed and a flashlight appeared under his face, marking the shadows of his old, wrinkly face. "A person needs their ying and yang to be balanced, but with this new chi, it becomes unbalanced, and the good chi begins to corrupt via the person by their wants, dreams, desires, needs, fears and hatred, whether it be good or bad, to the point that these thoughts take over the person completely, and the being is turned into a slave of the chi itself!"

All went quiet for a second.

"Okay," said Jade simply.

(LINE BREAK)

When they finally reached the airport, Jade was practically flying down the steps into the sunlight.

"AIR!" she yelled, spinning in circles. "Man, I forgot how tiring those long flights could be."

Her two friends walked off after her, lugging their bags behind them. "El Mexico," said Paco. "My homeland. I haven't been here for a while."

"No, duh," said Jade from below.

Uncle and Tohru were next, Tohru nearly squashing the portable stairway on his way down. Jackie came last, carrying all of Uncle's and Tohru's magic kits and potions in his arms.

"Uh, a little help?" he asked hopefully.

Everyone ignored him.

An airport employee led them inside, where they went through customs and exited. There, they found someone they hadn't been expecting.

"El Toro?" asked Paco as if he could not believe it.

"I heard you were coming into town," he told them. He was wearing his usual suit and, of course, his signature mask. "But, uh, if I may ask, what is that on Paco's arm?" He pointed to his Gauntlet.

Jackie sighed. "It's a long story," he told the wrestler.

(LINE BREAK)

"So, where are we going to go now?" asked Jade impatiently.

"We are trying to figure that out now," Jackie told her. They were all seated in the back of El Toro's van, Jackie, Uncle and Tohru peering at a map. El Toro was driving, and Jimmy and Paco were entertaining themselves with some handheld gaming devices. Jade wished she had thought of that. "Paco, you said this garden was near New Mexico?" Jackie asked him.

Paco nodded without looking up from his game.

"I do not recall any gardens at the moment," said El Toro from the front. "But that does not mean there aren't any." Jackie had already given him the 4-1-1 on the new magicy-thingy that was going on.

"Ha!" yelled Jimmy all of a sudden.

"What?" Jackie asked.

"Jimmy just killed me," said Paco. He held up his game to show a YOU LOSE sign imprinted on the screen. All of a sudden, a voice coming from Jimmy's device blared, "PACO HAS JUST CALLED A REMATCH. DO YOU ACCEPT?"

"It is so on," Jimmy told him, and the two boys were once again lost in their virtual-gaming world.

To drone out the grunts and groans and horribly catchy fighting jingles coming from the devices, El Toro turned on the radio. A few Spanish songs played, when a female radio announcer started speaking in rapid Spanish.

"Noticias de última hora!

"Los jardines Texcotzingo han florecido en que los jardineros que trabajan allí sienten es en une eternidad. No existe nombre para este milagro repentino."

El Toro straightened up in his seat, and Paco's gaming fingers faltered for a second.

"Los jardineros dicen que uno momento, no avía nada, como los jardines estaban por un tiempo largo, y después avían miles de flores por todos lados. No ay explicación para esto."

The news's lady's voice died out to be replaced by another song.

"Mierdas," swore Paco.

"Paco, language," corrected El Toro, but he himself felt suddenly overwhelmed with all this new information. Paco died in his game again.

"What was that?" asked Jade.

"I think"—Paco swallowed—"we just found our garden."

(LINE BREAK)

Omnis approached Section 13 with a tad amount of glee. Not enough to be noticed if you were to pass by him, but glee nonetheless. This was the kind of fun he had been waiting for for a long time. Back in the old days, say about six hundred years ago when Omnis was a young, fit boy, he'd knock out good guys just to entertain himself. Nowadays it was more complicated, and he got to do it less.

Anyway.

The chi warlock stopped at the phone booth. He sensed the special police force was nearby… Perhaps even underneath…

Yes, it was definitely below him. Perhaps twenty meters underneath the ground. Not much farther down, seeing as California was so close to sea level. Omnis could tell that when it was being built, leaks were a major problem.

He almost grinned, having an idea.

Omnis straightened up. He blinked once and the six security cameras trained on him blinked once and died out.

Then the chi warlock closed his eyes and concentrated. Drago wanted a distraction? He thought.

So be it.